Disclaimer: I own nothing, nada, zip. Blaze has and always will own me.
A/N: This is it. Not just the last episode of my third season of X-Men Evolution fics, but the FINAL episode ever. I've had great fun writing them, but all good things must come to an end… However the end is in a good few chapters time and there is more fun to be had along the way. Enjoy!
PS: I don't intend to do a massive 'previously' section to cover the stories running up to this one. Instead I'll try and explain the key bits as I go along, but if you want to know more then do read my last story, 3pt5 CCTV High. So, without further ado…
Scene 01
A new moon cast Bayville in a cloak of shadows. Somewhere a clock struck midnight. Its chimes sang out deep and ominous. Between the rows of neat tombstones, under a canopy of trees, the two parties met. This kind of deal felt better in the darkness. This sordid pact between two powerful men would shape the future of Bayville. The future, as they say, was not bright. But it would make good television.
Alessandro Jacobi was a fake. His name was fake. His accent, English more polished than the Queen, was fake. His business was fake. He ran every newspaper, radio station and TV channel in town through his company Pizzazz! Entertainment. It was a self-perpetuating scam that had made Jacobi a very rich man. With fingers in the pies of organised crime, local government, even Bayville High School, Jacobi was running Bayville into the ground.
Pizzazz! Entertainment news crews were covering every second and the ratings were rising at about the same rate as crime. The more popular Jacobi's TV channels got the more money he made. The more money he made the more he could feed back into organised crime and so the cycle repeated. Eventually when Bayville was completely destroyed Jacobi would move on. He'd done it before. Unless someone could link him to the problem directly he would do it again.
Magneto did not trust Jacobi, which was wise. However, he had reason to believe that Jacobi's interests were not so different to his own. A war between mutants and humans would suit both men. Or so Magneto had been told when he agreed to this meeting. The fixer, one Remy LeBeau, had been Magneto's henchman before joining the X-Men for the sake of a pretty girl or two. Magneto had been grudgingly impressed with how long Gambit had managed to tow Xavier's line. Eventually though the lure of his old life had proved too strong. Now Gambit worked for Jacobi and the first thing he had done was arrange a meeting between his old and new employers.
Magneto had brought his children, Wanda and Pietro, along with Sabretooth. Pyro had already defected to Jacobi and Colossus had returned to Russia. Jacobi brought Gambit, fellow Cajun and Gambit's ex Bella Donna, and the new Bayville High principal Paradox. The lanky black man had the ability to turn any mutant's power against them in the most unexpected fashion. Recently he had teleported Kurt to another dimension where the X-Men did not exist. Jacobi himself was human, despite surrounding himself with powerful mutants. Magneto could not fault his taste.
"Do we have an agreement?" Jacobi asked, offering a hand to Magneto. The Master of Magnetism looked at the palm suspiciously. Then, carefully, he took the hand and shook it once. Jacobi smiled. A chill ran up Wanda's spine.
In the middle distance a figure lay in the undergrowth. Night vision goggles allowed the spy to witness the handshake. Though the spy could not hear the words, she was too far away for that, she understood that gesture. Biting her lip the spy knew that the balance of power in Bayville had just shifted further into Jacobi's favour. She lay there, waiting, watching through the green-tinted goggles until both parties had left the graveyard. Then she sneaked back the way she had come.
Only the X-Men had a hope of preventing total disaster in Bayville, but the X-Men had already suffered Jacobi's wrath. Bayville's police had arrested Professor Xavier, his daughter Ilehana, her lover Wolverine, Storm, Beast, Nightcrawler, Boom Boom, Magma… the list went on and on. Where they had been taken no one knew. Only a handful remained. Scott and Jean were away at university and forbidden to return for their own safety. The rest, including Kitty and Rogue, Berserker and Iceman, were sheltering in the sewers with the Morlocks.
The spy was their nominal leader. She was about five-foot three-inches high, slender and pretty with long red curls and big brown eyes. She looked like butter wouldn't melt in her mouth. Nothing could be further than the truth. This was Blaze, the English mutant who plotted to give Jacobi exactly what he wanted. She would give him a war. And she intended to win.
Roll titles…...