(translation/originally posted in 2011)

A/N: Begins in the episode Dark Horizon; however, with a different outcome.

xXxXx

He had returned to life.

After so much effort and fighting, his returning could not be prevented. His aim one: to obtain absolute power.

However, hope had not vanished, for a small group will do everything in their reach to detain his plans.

They will die fighting if that is what it takes.

Former enemies – X-Men, Brotherhood and Acolytes –, now they fight side by side against a common foe.

Unfortunately, victory did not seem to be by their side. They watched it slip through their fingers as an invisible force threw them all aside as if they were fragile pawns on a chessboard.

Impotently, they watched the ascension of the greatest adversary any of them had ever confronted. The bitter taste of humiliation blending into the fear of an uncertain and tenebrous future.

In that moment, they knew they had been defeated in their first battle against their newest and most powerful enemy.

The war was yet to come, though.

Wolverine was the first one to rise to his feet. He rushed to Xavier. "She's gone, Chuck. She's disappeared" he spat the words out in anguish and impatience.

"Calm down, Logan!" Xavier said as he tried to disguise his own agitation with calm and measured words. "Who's disappeared?"

"Rogue" Wolverine whispered, seeming to have suddenly lost all his strength.

Wolverine's gaze was of pure despair as he ran towards Rogue. His legs seemed not to obey his will, like in a damn nightmare, they moved in slow motion. He yelled his protégée's name at the top of his lungs and watched Apocalypse rise from his millenarian tomb and float over the girl's fainted body.

Apocalypse came at him and everything else happened too fast. Wolverine did not have time to think; taking action was all that mattered. Guided by impulses and instincts, he lashed out atApocalypse for what seemed to be an unbalanced fight.

Gambit, who had been watching the scene unfold, saw from afar a disoriented Rogue open her eyes. She struggled to raise her head up and try to figure out where she was. It was all she could do, for Apocalypse had drained her empty.

Gambit rushed to Rogue's side and laid her head in his arm. "Hey, can you hear me? Chère?"

Rogue did not answer, though. Gambit's words were nothing more than an echo resonating painfully inside her head. She tried hard to open her eyes once again, but it was all in vain. She was nearly unconscious again.

Wolverine bitterly realized he would not be able to get to Rogue if he kept on trying to stop Apocalypse from escaping. When he saw Gambit with her in his arms, Logan had no choice but trust the young Acolyte.

"Take'er outta here!" he cried.

However, there was no place to go.

Rogue was finally able to open her eyes. She saw Logan fall under his foe's blow. She tried to call him but could not find her voice. Her hand stretched some feet away from him as if somehow she could touch him.

Even though he was then lying on the ground, Logan smiled at Rogue when he realized that she had come around to her senses. Ignoring the disorientated look on her face, his smile guaranteed that everything would be okay.

Apocalypse was about to cast a likely last blowagainst Wolverine when he felt something burn in his back. He turned his sadistic face around and smiled disdainfully as he saw Gambit holding cards between his fingers, with Rogue still leaning on his other arm. Gambit was about to throw more explosives, which would likely only make Apocalypse madder, or as he had intended, distract the villain while Wolverine recovered and buy time while they waited for backup.

The distraction was enough for Wolverine to rise to his feet once again; however, Apocalypse took a different turn, one that none of the mutants could have predicted.

He did not attack Wolverine; instead, he cast his cold gray hand at the two youngsters on the other side of the cave. Even though Wolverine could anticipate what was about to happen, he was not fast enough to stop the blow.

All Gambit could do was shield Rogue's body with his own and, with eyes strongly closed, wait for the inevitable. In a fraction of a second, Gambit felt the strike.

Down, deep down, he heard Wolverine scream something unintelligible; his voice slowly dying down. Logan watched desperately as the two young mutants evaporated into thin air in front of his very eyes.

xXxXx

To be continued…

A/N: This is a brief beginning to a long story.

It's a translation and I could use some help. I'm looking for help, so if anyone interested in reviewing the chapters, please let me know.