X-Men IV: Dark Dawn
X-Men IV: Dark Dawn
Chapter one: How a resurrection really feels
Disclaimer: I do not own X-Men or any other related material. It belongs to Marvel and Fox. I do not make any money on this.
As I am not from an English speaking country, there will probably be some grammar and spelling errors, but you are always welcome to correct me.
In all of the chapters there is a little Easter egg telling you what one of my other fandoms is. Can you figure out which one it is? I won't reveal it until the last chapter.
A/N: August 14. 2007 I Just Reloaded All Of The Chapters With Some Minor Changes!
A/N: May 10. 2008 I'm sorry it is taking me so long to update. I have been very busy with school, but I promise you guys that a new chapter will be up soon.
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA - 1986
It was prom night, the theme was Rhapsody in Blue, Peter Gabriel's "In Your Eyes" was playing. Several boys were in the bathroom; bow ties undone - unclipped in most cases. Smoking, drinking from whatever inventive container was used to smuggle in booze. Some of the guys were rolling joints while others made a sad effort to wave smoke away.
A freckled kid was standing in front of a mirror; clearly holding himself up from the effect of God knows what. He was talking to his friend in the he stall behind him. "Man, what's the matter with you?"
His friend was on the toilet with his head in his hands. He seemed to be in some pain. His name was Scott Summers. "Dude. Lighten up. She's just a girl. You just gotta-"
"No, my eyes... my eyes are killing me." Scott said.
The freckled kid offered him a small plastic bottle. "You want some Visine, man?"
"My... eyes..."
The freckled kid looked and saw that Scott's eyes were watering so badly that tears were literally streaming through his fingers. He went back to the mirror to look at his own.
"...they're burning..." Scott continued.
The freckled kid turned back to him. "Dude, how much did you smoke?"
"I didn't smoke anything."
Scott looked up, taking his hands away, revealing for an instant that his eyes were merely bright red embers in his head. Featureless but for the color.
Freckles took a step back.
In the gym a blinding red flash of light showed through the frosted glass in the double door and cut through into the dark of the gym. All who saw it were stunned. Frozen. A lingering moment of confusion, then the doors to the Boys Room burst open and the occupants scattered into the gym.
Freckles was still in the bathroom with Scott. He looked at Scott who was now crying meekly in the stall, covering his eyes again -- afraid to open them. The door of the stall across from him swung closed to reveal a hole, punched through the stall door framing Scott's face perfectly. The hole continued through the wall, into the girl's bathroom next door. In the corner several girls huddled together, they were afraid.
"I want to see your eyes"
"No!"
"Don't worry; I can hold it back now. You can't hurt me"
Jean…
"Trust me"
ALKALI LAKE, CANADA – The not too distant future
"JEAN!"
Scott Summers woke up in a bed, in a place he'd never seen before. White tile walls, tile floor, and instruments similar to those of a hospital. A man stood at the end of the bed.
"Good morning Mr. Summers" the man said. He was tall, pale, but with black hair, and piercing brown eyes. They almost seemed red. His thin lips wore a sinister smile.
"Where am I?" Scott asked, his hand going to his glasses on instinct, but they weren't there. His eyes were wide open with nothing to hold back his fatal optic power beams, but nothing happened. He thought back to Alkali Lake and his fiancée, whom he thought he'd lost forever, when she presumably died at the very same lake.
"There's no need to get hostile—" the man began, but Scott cut him off.
"Where's Jean?"
The man started to laugh. A dark sadistic laugh of simple amusement. "My dear Scott. Jean is dead"
Suddenly Scott realized that he must have been dreaming his meeting with a resurrected Jean at Alkali Lake. But how did he end up here?
"Who are you?" Scott asked, silently contemplating whether his body was well enough for an escape. Then decided that it wasn't; he could hardly feel his legs. His upper body was in great pain.
"I am Dr. Nathaniel Essex." Essex said and bowed gracefully.
"What the hell am I doing here?"
"After your little meeting with your girlfriend --or should I say 'ex-girlfriend'-- your entire body was shredded into pieces. I've been watching you for some years, and when I realized you had died, my plans were ruined. So I simply created you again."
Scott's brain was working slow, sedated by drugs.
"I died…?"
"Yes"
"And you resurrected me?"
"Yes"
"And I did meet Jean?"
"Yes"
"And she died the same way I did?"
"No. Logan killed her"
"WHAT?!" Scott's old instincts were telling him to be angry and shocked, but the pieces were slowly beginning to come together. Jean had been different, more powerful than ever before. Scott knew Jean, and knew she would never be able to handle it. Obviously, she didn't handle it.
"How exactly did I die?" Scott asked, though he already knew the answer. It was all coming back to him now. The incredible pain he'd felt when he'd kissed Jean. He'd seen her eyes grow dark and hateful. The pain had continued to grow, all over his body, until it had stopped, and he had woken up here.
"I can see you're beginning to understand it now" Essex said, smiling.
"But what happened to Jean?"
"Not so many questions. We've got plenty of time. Now you need to rest some more, before we begin your physical rehabilitation."
X
Ororo Monroe, headmaster of Xavier's school for gifted youngsters, stood at the graves of her three best friends; Charles Xavier, Jean Grey and Scott Summers. It was early morning, and hardly anyone else at the school was up yet. Ororo liked getting up early. The stillness of the ending night, just before the morning began. That was her favorite time of the day.
Since she had fully entered her role as the school's headmaster, it wasn't often she had quiet moments like this. She didn't enjoy it though. It seemed to her that she missed her friends more and more every day. The more she thought about their tragic deaths, the bigger the lump in her throat grew. Finally her pride caved in and she fell to her knees sobbing.
She didn't usually show feelings like this. Mostly she suppressed them, kept them in control. She had to; both because of her responsibilities as headmaster, and because of her mutant ability to control and manipulate the weather, which was now not being controlled, thus forming a series of dark clouds above the school area.
One of her remaining friends, Hank McCoy, noticed this. Although his work at the UN was time-consuming, he tried to stay at the school for as much time as he could. He knew Ororo needed the support. He had never been an early riser. If he even slept at all, it was often afternoon, before he got up. Lately he knew he needed the sleep when he was not at the UN, but he also tried to set a lot of time aside for his dear friend. This morning he had just come up from the basement after a long night of research and experiments, when he heard the familiar deep rumble of thunderclouds. He went out to the back garden-come-graveyard, where he found Ororo on her knees.
He sat down beside her and put his large furry arms around her. Although at most times Ororo was authoritative and firm, right now she seemed more like a fragile, frightened child.
They sat together for a while until Ororo gathered herself and the clouds slowly cleared.
"Shouldn't you be in bed?" Ororo asked her friend, trying to form a smile.
"Yes, but there are more important things in life than sleeping." He answered "Now what's got your thunder in a bundle?"
Ororo chuckled and said: "I miss them. It has taken a while for me to realize that they're not coming back."
"I know. I miss them too."
X
On Muir Island off the coast of Scotland, Moira McTaggart was doing her morning rounds. She reached the patient without a mind. His body functions worked as normal, but there was no brain activity.
"Good morning" she said, even though she knew he couldn't hear her, or rather his ears heard her, but the brain couldn't process the sound, nor understand her words.
Moira started checking his stats, when a familiar voice suddenly said: "Hello, Moira"
Moira didn't believe her eyes. The voice that had talked to her had come from the patient. She was in disbelief, joy, and utter bafflement and shock all at the same time. Her voice was shaking as were the rest of her body, when she said: "Charles?"
X
"Cover me, Jubes!" Bobby Drake yelled. His ability to manipulate water and air into ice was only weakening him in the tropic climate created by the Danger Room. Jubilee ran to his side and fired her colorful fireworks at a big flying lizard. The lizard was blinded and Warren Worthington attacked it from above; knocking it out.
"Nice work, Angel" Jubilee said and blew a bubble with her gum.
"Thanks" he said and grabbed her as another giant lizard was charging. Peter Rasputin attacked it from the side before it reached Bobby. In his metal form, he was invincible.
"This is getting a little too Jurassic Park for me" Jubilee said to Warren as he slowly placed her on the ground again. "Logan, can we stop now?"
The man only known as Logan or Wolverine was very busy cutting up other lizards as he answered: "No! We stop when the class is over!"
Jubilee mimicked Logan's expression as she attacked some tiny lizards that had surrounded Kitty Pryde. Kitty phased through the rest and ran over to help Bobby. A tyrannosaurus rex had set its eyes on him. Jubilee, Colossus, Angel and Wolverine followed, and together they brought the big animal down.
"Now the class is over!" Logan said "End danger room session 3.9"
The tropic rainforest disappeared and was replaced by a large round room.
"Simulation complete" the computer said.
X
Marie, formerly called Rogue, was watching them from the control room. She had used the cure to become normal. She had wanted to become free of her curse. And she didn't regret it, but sometimes she felt outcast among the outcasts. Ororo had let her stay at the mutant school, and for that she was truly grateful. Before her powers manifested, she'd had so many dreams and goals to fulfill. Then they all fell apart. Now that she could have gotten her old life back, she was scared. The school was her safe place, and she loved living here.
Her boyfriend Bobby was fighting in the danger room and that was more than anything the reason she was watching. Since she had taken the cure, their relationship had gotten much better, and she was starting to think long terms with him. It scared her just as much as it made her happy.
The X-Men came up to the control room with the elevator. Bobby immediately walked over to Marie and kissed her softly on the cheek.
"Can I be the first to say that this session sucked?!" Jubilee exclaimed as she sat down on one of the chairs. She had taken over Marie's place on the team "There is no realism in dinosaurs!"
"And there is in 'Buffy'?" Bobby said.
Jubilee was just about to flip him the bird, but noticed their teacher Logan staring hard at her. Then she flipped him anyway. The others burst out laughing, and there was a small hint of a smile on Logan's face, but then got serious again.
"Alright, quiet!" he said, and the laughter quickly stopped. "The important thing isn't if it's realistic or not. The important thing is whether you guys can handle it or not. In this weird world we live in we don't know what might happen tomorrow. Ten years ago, we didn't think it realistic that two planes might crash into World Trade Center and kill thousands of people. Ten months ago, we didn't think it realistic that Magneto would move the Golden Gate Bridge to Alcatraz Island and attack the lab with hundreds of mutants and Jean resurrected" The others' eyes became sad and an awkward silence was approaching. Marie knew it was time to lighten the mood.
"Ten days ago we didn't think it realistic that Jubilee could talk for seven straight hours on the telephone!"
X
Raven Darkholme was sitting in a small apartment in the Bronx. Since she had lost her powers, she'd had to rebuild her whole life, and she was not happy about that. She wanted revenge over the man she had given her life to. She was a human now, because she had loved him so much that she'd sacrificed herself to save him. She spent most of her money on trying to find him, so she could kill him. Her goal was simple and she liked that.
She got up and went to the bathroom. She stared at the old broken mirror. She hated what she saw now. That was the reason it was broken. Some days ago she had lost her temper and smashed her fist into it. Now what she saw was distorted. She stared at the mirror for a long time, feeling angry tears welling up inside her, until her eyes became yellow.
X
Scott woke up in the same bed as before, feeling better and stronger. This time a young man was standing at his side with a plate of food. He had long auburn hair and red on black eyes.
"Good morning" he said.
"How long have I slept?" Scott asked.
"About two days" the man said and placed the plate on the bed. Scott looked at it for a while. "Don' worry, we're not trying to poison you. De food is good"
Scott examined the eggs and bacon and in the end he decided to trust the man. He started to eat.
The man smiled joyfully and said: "De name is Remy LeBeau, mon ami. Pleasure to meet you"
"Scott Summers" Scott said and took another bite. He was starving.
"Remy's sorry about de whole t'ing with y'wife an' all." Remy said and looked at Scott with sympathy.
"What are you doing here?" Scott asked to avoid the other subject.
"I'm deliverin' y'food and talkin'" Remy said.
"I mean in this place… wherever we are"
"Oh, well it's a long story…" Remy began and looked sad "Let's jus say Remy has to be here"
"Okay, so where exactly are we?"
"We're in Canada, at Alkali Lake" Remy said and was smiling again. Scott sat up straight and glared at Remy "Monsieur Sinister be using Stryker's ole base"
"But the base was flooded" Scott said
"Not any more. One of my 'colleagues' make de water go away and we build a new dam. Sinister said we need to be close t'where you died."
Scott was very confused about the whole situation. He tried to contact Xavier by thought but got no reply.
"Sinister is he…?" Scott asked
"Yes, he be de creepy ugly man who you talked to when you first woke up. His name is Essex, but we all calling him Sinister because he's creepy, and I t'ink he likes it."
"Fear is a strong weapon" Scott muttered to himself, louder he asked: "Essex is not one of the good guys is he?"
"Non, definitely not!" Remy said and shivered.
"Are you from the south?" Scott asked referring to his accent.
"Oui, I'm from New Orleans" Remy said proudly. "Where' you from?"
"Well uh, we moved a lot; army brat. My dad was a pilot" Scott said.
"Dat school in New York. Wat's it like? Is it nice?"
"Yes" Scott said longingly "It was a really nice place."
"Dat where you met your wife?"
"Yes. Thank you for the meal." Scott said and gave Remy the plate. He didn't want to talk anymore.
"Pardon if I hit a soft spot. Remy understands you be upset, but Remy's jus trying to be friendly. People here aren't very nice. I'll come back later" Remy said a little disheartened and left.
X
As Remy closed the door to Scott's room, he heard low voices down the hall. He recognized one of them as Essex' but didn't know the other. He was too curious to let this information go, so as the master thief he was, he silently sneaked closer to the door. The door was locked, but Remy easily picked the lock. He knew that whoever was in there they wouldn't hear him nor see him, because the door was hidden behind a wall. He set down the plate, walked in slowly and carefully leaned on the wall that hid him.
"How soon will the effects show?" Essex or Sinister asked the other person.
A deep metallic voice answered: "It will come gradually as I break down the psyche."
"When are you planning to do it?" Sinister asked
"As soon as you're done with your 'rehabilitation'. The body needs to be fully healed before I can take it."
"Are you sure you need to do this?"
Remy had never before heard his master's voice be so inferior.
"Yes!" the other's voice was firm and slightly angry "Unless you want to lose your own precious little plan. Do you want that?"
"No, my master." Whoever the other man was, he had to be really powerful to make Sinister crawl like that, Remy thought.
"Don't forget that I gave you all of this, and I can easily take it all away. Make you a weak little human again…"
"No, my master. I haven't forgotten, and I don't want to be a human again."
"Good. Then keep our deal and hurry up!" Remy recognized a finished conversation, and hurried out of the room, still quiet as a mouse. He locked the door again and hurried to his own room.
It wasn't much and he shared it with four other of Sinister's henchmen, but a least there was something resembling a bed and that was more than he had had before he met Sinister.
He plumped down on the bed and thought about the conversation. He realized that they had been talking about Scott and knew that whatever they planned to do to him, wasn't good. Even though Remy was what was considered a 'bad guy', it was never good to have extremely powerful evil beings walking around. He had to do something.
His thoughts were interrupted by the mutant called Harpoon.
"What are you doing here?" his ruff voice asked in an annoyed tone.
"Dis is my room, no?" Remy asked innocently. Hoping acting dumb could save him from a beating.
"You're supposed to be in the kitchen!" Harpoon said.
"Naturellement! I better hurry" Remy said and got up.
"Forget it, red eyes, Sinister wants to see you"
That didn't sound good. Remy hoped it was just the usual stuff, and not something involving his evil plans with Scott. He walked to the door, but was stopped by the tall, muscular man.
"Sinister told me to ask you to hurry" he said and punched Remy in the stomach.
"I got it" Remy gasped and hurried out.
On the way to Sinister's control room where he usually met his master he noticed the plate still on the floor in front of the room where he had overheard the earlier conversation. He smelled a very poisonous rat and picked up the plate. It started glowing red and he threw it across the hall as it exploded. That was his mutant power. Now that he had destroyed the evidence, he went on to the control room. The double door opened as he approached.
"You wanted to see me?"
X
"How did the Danger Room session go this morning?" Ororo asked the new team leader Logan, in Xavier's old office.
"I think it went alright. Can I ask why we have to do it at 7 o'clock in the morning?" Logan was sitting in one of the chairs in front of Xavier's old desk, which Ororo now used.
Ororo smiled and answered: "Firstly: the kids have to go to school at 8. Secondly: you have to teach at school. And thirdly: it's good for the discipline."
"Yeah, some discipline." Logan muttered to himself, thinking about Jubilee.
"Logan, if you don't want to be the team leader I can easily-"
"You just stay behind that desk. I can handle it, alright?"
"Alright" Ororo said, holding up her hands in surrender, "You can leave"
The first scene was taken, and altered a little, from one of the original X-Men movie scripts.
The chapter title "How a Resurrection Really Feels" is by The Hold Steady off the record, Separation Sunday.
So what did you think? REVIEW!!
It's my first serious fanfic, so be nice. Creative critique is always welcome.