Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or X-Men Evolution. So sue me. No wait…don't.

The X-Evolution - The Rise of Dusk

Chapter 4: Dusk

The atmosphere of the Institute's living room was tense, to say the very least.

Magneto seamed calm enough, sitting in a straight-backed leather armchair with Mystique at his side, both holding cool, intensely calculated smiles on their lips. Across from them sat the X-Men, all wearing varying expressions of stern anxiety. Kouji had taken his normal place in the windowsill, with Takuya next to him and Bobby on the floor, leaning against the wall. Professor Xavier sat dead center of the group, his blue eyes locked on Magneto unbrokenly.

"What is going on here, Eric?" The Professor asked again, keeping his voice at an even keel.

"As I said, Charles." Magneto took a long sip of a small cup of tea Jean had prepared, on the Professor's orders. "Those mutants who attacked you last night were not under my command, but under that of another."

"Who?" Xavier bristled slightly with the collective frustrated and angry emotions of all the others. "And what do they want with Yin?"

Magneto looked at him expressionlessly over the tea cup. A slightly cold smile adorned his lips as he leaned back with a light sigh. "Tell me, Charles, do you recall hearing of a mutant in the generation just after our own, one who chose to call himself by the name 'Dusk'?"

"Yes, I do recall hearing something." The Professor frowned softly. "But he was defeated, was he not, by the time you and I met all those years ago. He was killed."

"Indeed." Magneto chuckled softly, his smirk reading that he was hiding something.

Kurt's ears twitched slightly in confusion. "Dusk?"

"Who's that, Professor?" Scott crossed his arms over his chest. "You never told us about that."

Professor X sighed softly, his blue eyes holding a very calm, strange expression. "Dusk was a very powerful mutant, one who was only a few years younger than Magneto or myself." He said softly, as though struggling to remember. "His mutant ability gave him the power to create Dark Matter, and to control it…"

Jean blinked, confused. "Dark matter?"

"It's really more of a theory." Beast pushed his glasses up his furry blue nose. "Supposedly, microscopic particles of unidentifiable or 'dark' matter exist in the gaps between all real matter, especially in space. The particles pass through everything, but nothing can get through them. Not even light."

"Indeed." Professor X sighed, closing his eyes slightly. "Dusk could those particles to create entirely new objects, new forms of matter all together. He could have been a great boon to scientific advancement. But I'm afraid that he was…misguided."

"'Misguided' indeed." Magneto finished his cup, setting it on the table. "Dusk sought to make the world the way he longed for it to be."

Ororo frowned softly, her attractive, dark face curved into a slight frown. "A mutant extremist?"

Logan sniffed. "Sounds like you, Magneto."

Magneto and Mystique both glared at him. "I should hope not." The silver-haired mutant's tongue was laced with a harsh edge. "Dusk was driven not for his love of mutants, nor by his distrust for humans. He was driven only by his hatred for the light."

That got everyone's attention. Kouji, especially, suddenly sat up straighter. "What'd he have against light?" Demanded Yang, feeling slightly affronted.

"Yeah, I mean what kinda freak acts like that?" Takuya flipped open the lighter, then closed it again.

The Professor cleared his throat, pulling attention to himself again. "As an after-result of his powers, Dusk was extremely photosensitive, and the condition grew worse as he aged. Eventually, he had to resort to a nocturnal lifestyle in order to avoid the immense pain."

Magneto nodded, a strange smile on his face as he turned to Kouji. "I understand your brother is rather sensitive to the light as well, am I correct?"

"Uh…yeah." Kouji glared at the man, bristling all over. "Kouichi's been touchy about too much light since we were kids. If there's even a bit, he can't get to sleep. So what?"

Magneto just nodded, as though his questions had been answered with that one phrase.

Rouge sighed, blowing up her bleached-white bangs. "Keep goin', Professor. What'd the freak try to do about it?"

Xavier sighed, looking somewhat disturbed. "…Dusk had accumulated a decent amount of followers by the time anyone realized he was a threat. There is an entire sub-class of mutants who are photosensitive or in other ways hurt by the presence of light. Dusk had rallied many of those mutants together behind him, and constructed a plan that would have satisfied them all…but only them."

"What do you mean?" Jean asked, running her hands through her long red hair nervously.

"By combining his powers with that of an enhancement machine similar to Cerebro…" Magneto paused, almost dramatically. "Dusk planned to cover the sky in Dark Matter and block out the sun itself."

"That's crazy!" Bobby exclaimed.

"There's no way anybody could have survived that!" Kitty shrieked, covering her mouth in shock. "Everybody would starve!"

"Not everyone." The Professor sighed. "Dusk had accumulated some sort of underground power source, one that could support plants and animals as well as powering any sort of machine. He planned on extending that to the few people he considered worthy, and leaving everyone else to fend for themselves."

Ororo put a hand to her lips. "Awful."

The Professor nodded. "Which is precisely why a group of mutants from inside his division banned together to get rid of him, just before his plan could be put into place."

"We were not among them, of course." Magneto added as a side. "But we did come to know them, in later years. They were the ones who told us of a fantastic struggle between their fraction and the ones still loyal to Dusk. It ended, eventually, with his ultimate defeat…"

"And his murder." The Professor scowled.

"It was, as I remember, a necessary accident." Magneto sniffed. "One of the mutants who reached him had no choice. It was either allow him to go through with his plot, or remove his soul from his body. The choice, as I would assume, was obvious."

"That is beside the point, Eric." The Professor's tone became serious and almost harsh. "You've yet to tell us what this has to do with the attack last night, or with…"

"With your dear student's disappearance?" Magneto smirked. "Yes, what on earth could a long-dead mutant mastermind have to do with your sweet little shadow-puppet? Yin, wasn't it?"

Kouji growled low in his throat, tensing all over. Logan shot the boy a 'don't do anything stupid' look, though he seamed more than ready to take Magneto down himself.

The silver-haired mutant just chuckled softly, as did Mystique beside him. "You certainly are entertaining sometimes." The silver-haired man laughed softly. "And to think, after all this you haven't even realized the connection yet."

"What connection?" Scott hissed venomously.

Magneto smiled coolly at him. "As I said, Dusk's soul was removed from his body and thought to be lost. However, he had a mutant on his side who had similar psychic abilities to the one who had removed his soul. That mutant, along certain others who still remembered Dusk's old mission, managed to keep his soul safe until he could return to the world of the living."

"But that's not possible." Professor X shook his head. "The only way I can think of for a spirit to return after something like that is to…to…"

A dawning expression suddenly spread over his face. Magneto smirked and finished for him: "To implant the spirit into the blankness of an undeveloped mind. Eventually, the development will fuse the new addition into the original core."

Ororo took a deep breath. "It can't be."

"It can." Mystique grinned icily.

"And it is." Magneto folded his hands. "The mutants waited until they could find a young mutant child whose mind was just young enough for the implant to work. What's more, they waited until they could find one who one of their own could predict would develop the same powers as their master."

"If that's what you're implying, you're sadly mistaken." Xavier muttered. "Kouichi's abilities have nothing to do with Dark Matter…"

"…Yet." Magneto said matter-of-factly. "But you see, my dear Charles, Dusk's abilities began at a very simply stage: controlling the minute particles of the shadows to move the darkness to his bidding. You of all people should know how powers can develop once one knows his potential."

The room's tension had raised to an almost unbearable level. Kouji's arms was shaking slightly, his fists in a tight grip, his teeth set harshly in fury. The others were glaring at the intruders just a fiercely, a broiled sort of anger and confusion melded into convection around them.

The Professor forced his mind to remain calm. "What are you suggesting we do to stop this, Eric?"

Magneto reached into his cape, removing a small diskette which he pushed across the coffee table to Hank. "I have here the exact coordinates of Dusk's former headquarters, where we are assuming he and his followers have returned. I suggest a combined effort against these opponents, for the good of mutants and humans all."

"Something sounds suspicious…" Bobby muttered.

"What about Kouichi?" Kouji pressed sharply, his eyes narrowing.

Magneto turned to the Professor simply with an unreadable expression on his face. "You know as well as I do, Charles, there is only one way to get rid of a personality once it has been ingrained."

"There isn't a way." Professor X frowned. "You can only contain it."

"Oh, but containing it won't be enough." Magneto laughed softly. "He'd only escape once again. With the soul-carrier who retrieved Dusk's spirit all those years ago long dead, getting rid of Dusk now would end the problem forever, wouldn't it?"

"But you can't do that Eric." Charles hissed softly. "Not without…"

"Not without killing the host." Magneto said coolly, and the group burst into angered shouts.

"You can't do that!" Takuya shouted, jumping to his feet.

"No way!" Kitty shrieked.

"Are vou crazy?"

Kouji leapt up, his entire body tense as he glared at Magneto harshly. He looked about to charge him, but held back as Logan brought one barely-steadied hand down on his shoulder.

The Professor raised his hands, excluding just a little bit of mental prowess to calm the room into silence. "That is not an option." He turned to face Magneto once again. "There must be another way to solve this, Eric. And we will find it."

"Do what you will, Charles." Magneto stood, his long cape sweeping dramatically behind him. "I, however, will prevent Dusk's return by whatever regrettable means necessary. Good day, Charles."

He and Mystique left, leaving behind a very confused group of X-Men.

( - ) ( - ) ( - )

His head spun in pain, small lights dancing in front of his eyes. He closed them a bit tighter, then cracked them open hesitantly, expecting searing light…but found nothing. His vision cracked into a dark room, with only the minutest bit of light illuminating the shadows around him.

"Hey, the kid's wakin' up, yeah." A heavy, stupid-sounding voice announced from a huge shadow to his right.

Another voice chimed in, even less educated and rougher on the ears. "The boy-master is awake, Mercurious. Boy-master awake!"

"Now, Grumble, Arbor, do behave yourselves." Came an all-too recognizable Shakespearian accent. "After all, this child is none other than our great Master reborn."

Kouichi snapped his eyes wide open, gazing around him fearfully. He was surrounded by shadowed figures, just barely illuminated. The mutants who had attacked the mansion, he was sure, including the green-robed mirror-wielder and the girl who'd gone up against Storm. They were all rather close to him, making his first reaction to pull back, but found that impossible, as he couldn't move.

He was sitting in what appeared to be a large, black throne, in the middle of a room that was almost completely dark, except for an inexplicable blue light that radiated from far below the pedestal on which they were gathered. His arms were bolted down to the armrests, chained there to keep him from moving. His now-familiar X-Men uniform was missing, replaced by a classy outfit that seamed ready for an opera, a tuxedo shirt, pants, boots, gloves, and a cape, all in pure black.

His head snapped back up as the green-robed mutant approached him, bowing low. "Good evening, My Lord." His silky British tongue had an edge of excitement to it. "I trust thy sleep has been a good one."

Kouichi took in a sharp breath, his throat dry and rather painful to speak against. "Wh-Who are you?"

"Oh, pooh." The little blue girl with her heavy western accent blinked at him curiously. "It seams he's still stuck somewhere. Good thing Grumble-bums thought to tie 'im down, eh?"

"When animal tries run away, you tie it down. Same with people. We beat process." From the sound of the hunched-over little brown man, he was neither used to English nor properly educated in whatever langue he'd learned in the first place.

Another worried noise came from a much smaller shadow, a young boy from what Kouichi could tell. "But…But I thought he was supposed to be awake by now!"

"Maybe we got the wrong one…" Whispered a female voice, and Kouichi recognized it as the girl from the mansion, the blonde wind-user.

"No." Whispered a soft voice. A new figured stepped forward, into the faint light so that Kouichi could see her. She was a small woman, even tinier than Aquani, rather mousy-looking with a slightly stretched face, wide purplish-blue eyes and dusty brown hair. "This is the one. I'd recognize his distinct mental pattern anywhere."

Mercurious turned to the woman sharply. "Then what, prey tell, is the problem, Taper?"

The woman tut-tutted at him, leaning forward until she was almost nose-to-nose with the boy. Kouichi pulled his head back as best he could, wincing from being in such close facility with a stranger, but she kept her unblinking eyes locked on him.

"It seams…the Xavier man as erected a barrier." She whispered softly, her gray-gloved hands hovering inches from the boy's forehead. "Some sort of…field…It's keep our Master locked within this boy's mind."

"So what now?" Asked the little boy, blinking up at them.

"Patience, Yuki." Mercurious muttered to him, though his eyes were narrowed as well. "Tell me, Taper. Is there a way to rectify this situation."

"Indeed." The woman slowly reached up to pull the glove off her right hand. "But it will take time, and patience. Is that understood?"

There was a slight murmur of accent from the group. Taper turned back to the boy, her now-bared fingers stretching out for his face.

Kouichi pulled back, struggling against the cuffs on his hands. If there was one thing he'd learned after three month at the Institute, it was that some mutants had their covers for a reason. There were several of them who, like Rouge, honestly didn't mean to hurt anyone, but making skin-to-skin contact with a mutant like her was the last thing you wanted to do.

"No…No, please." He muttered, pressing against the edge of the chair as the fingers grew closer. "Stay away!"

"Now now." Aquani giggled, ushering Arbor, Grumble and Yuki out the door. "No reason to fight, sugar."

Mercurious swept a rather confused Zephyr out after them, pausing to glance back at the woman and her captive. "We shall leave thee to thy work, Taper." He said royally, drawing his mirrored shield up in a kind of salute. "And we shall wait with baited breath for the return of Our Lord to his rightful place."

The door closed behind him sharply, mere seconds before the uncovered fingers touched bare flesh and the screaming began.

TBC…

A mutant extremist is one who believes mutants to be a superior race, vaguely similar to the sentiments of the Death Eaters in Harry Potter…NO! No, bad muse! No crossover! Not another one!

Everything Hank said about Dark Matter is true, except for maybe the line about nothing passing through it. I don't know about that, but they've never actually found any, so I'm taking some creative liberties.

The mutant 'sub-classes' are something I came up with. So far, my list includes Physical Mutants (those who only have to touch someone for their abilities to work, like Rouge), Visible Mutations (such as Kurt and Hank's blue-furred variety), Ocular Mutants (Scott) and Nocturnal Mutants, who are loosely based on the Nightbreeds of Static Shock. (Hey, different publisher)

Because I have no other time to mention it, 'Taper's full name is 'Dream Taper'. Basically, she has immense psychic powers that originally manifested in dreams, and now render themselves nearly as strong as Professor X's. Her name also comes from 'Tapir' like 'Tapirmon', which is who she'd based on. Weird, eh?