Disclaimer: X-Men is a trademark of Marvel Comics. I do not claim to own any of the characters or settings used below. However, the original characters Jerry, Andrew and Sheila Tyson, and Matthew Tyson a.k.a. "Geist" belong to me.

A/N: I do believe a recap is in order. So basically Matthew has arrived at the mansion, Kitty left Pete, John is back to normal, and Xavier is alive again. Something big is going to happen, but even cerebro can't help Xavier see what will happen next.

Chapter 11: The Ghosts of War

Over the next few weeks, life returned to normal around the mansion, or at least as normal as a school for mutants could be. Pyro was welcomed back to the X-Men and was given a uniform with red accents. At Matthew's request, another team danger room session was set up, this time the situation dealing with a massive number of close proximity combatants. The team performed well; eliminating every enemy with minimal injuries on their side. Matthew was officially named part of the team, as well as Remy, Dani, Alex, Sam, and Jerry. Jerry, unfortunately, had to leave before he was named an X-Man, but Xavier let him know via telepathy. Matthew occasionally had another dream, but they always held no new information. Still they made Matthew uneasy, because eventually the other psychics began having the same dreams. Aside from Matthew's dreams though, things seemed to be going normal for everyone. One day though, just after the fall semester started, everything changed.

"Hey John, wait up!"

John turned around and laughed. He flicked his Zippo open as he replied, "Matt, if you don't hurry up, you're never going to make it to class on time."

"I overslept. I have to remember to set my alarm at night."

"You need to stop having those damn dreams so you can get some sleep at night."

Matthew just laughed and took stride with John. They were headed to psychology, taught by Professor Lensherr. The children hardly thought of him as Magneto anymore; he had proved himself to be civil fifty times over by now. Matthew noticed when he was angry with his class though, that his desk would wobble. Matthew thought it was coincidence at first, but after the first three times he figured maybe the cure didn't work quite as well on the more powerful mutants. When he and John arrived, the door was closed and locked.

"Shit, I told you we were going to be late!" John whispered to Matthew.

"That's never been a problem for me, has it? Come on, I will get us in there."

Matthew waited until Professor Lensherr had his back turned, then grabbed John and phased them both through the door, turning them both invisible in the process. Just as they were about to sit down, Professor Lensherr stopped writing and said, "Well hello Mr. Tyson and Mr. Allerdyce, so nice of you to join us."

Matthew returned both of them back to normal and they sat down at the table in the back. Bobby leaned over to them and whispered, "I still haven't figured out how he does that."

"Me either," replied Matthew.

"Tyson, since you are so content on disrupting my class, do you mind answering the question on the board?"

"That's alright, you keep going. You're on a roll."

The class snickered, and a scowl came over Professor Lensherr's face. "See me after class Tyson; we are going to have a little chat with Charles about your disruption."

An Asian girl Matthew knew as Jubilee turned around to the three of them and whispered, "I thought that was funny," then she added, turning to John, "Hi. I'm Jubilee. You're the kid who went insane right?"

John looked at Jubilee strangely, then thinking she must have meant when he went all "human torch" on the cops, he replied, "Yeah that's me."

Matthew let out a silent sigh. Jubilee turned around and Matthew glanced at John. He had a grin on his face that Matthew had never seen before. There was something in his eyes; something behind the usual fire that burned there. Matthew just figured events would reveal themselves to him and turned to face the board, where Professor Lensherr was continuing with his lecture on the instability of mutants caused by society. After class, Matthew hung back so he and Professor Lensherr could speak with Xavier when the others were gone. He and Matthew walked down the hall with the Professor to Xavier's office. As they were walking, he saw John and Jubilee walking in the other direction, smiling and talking. He grinned at this just before they reached Xavier's office. Professor Lensherr opened the door and Matthew went in, then Lensherr shut the door behind him.

"What can I do for you Erik?"

"I was hoping that you would have a talk with Matthew. He was continually being disruptive in my class today."

"Is this true Matthew?"

"Technically yes, but I had a reason for the first disruption."

Xavier nodded. "Please explain yourself then."

"I've been losing sleep over those dreams, you know the ones, and I overslept this morning. I tried to get into the room without Professor Lensherr knowing, but he caught me and made a scene. I retorted and there was my disruption. I'm sorry."

"You should know better than to talk back to your instructors Matt. They deserve the same respect you give me."

Matthew hung his head a little. "Yes, sir."

"Well, if that is taken care of, there is something I would like to discuss with you, Erik. You're dismissed Matthew. Hurry along to your next class. Hank will be expecting you, and will understand you being late."

"Yes sir," replied Matthew, phasing through the door. Once on the other side, he pressed his necklace in, allowing it to expand back into the mask. He phased through the solid wall and stayed inside the wall, listening to Professor Lensherr and Xavier talk.

"What is wrong, Charles?"

"You know how I have been keeping Warren on surveillance of Giza?"

"Yes, he has been there for several weeks now. Is there some new information that we need to know of?"

"Not directly from him, no, but something has happened. Warren is missing. I have been trying to contact him and have gotten nothing, and he has even disappeared from cerebro's scanners."

"How could this have happened?"

"I don't know. My guess is that Nathaniel found some way to capture Warren and is holding him prisoner."

"This isn't good. What are we going to do?"

"What can we do? We have no information on how to get into where Nathaniel is hiding. The X-Men aren't ready for this kind of operation. Except for Logan and storm, they're all just kids."

Erik lowered his head. "I can't believe this is happening."

"If he truly was captured, odds are that Nathaniel will contact us to bargain for Warren's life. Until then, we wait."

Erik, who had never been a patient one, crossed his arms over his chest. "We should still do something, Charles."

Xavier sighed. "Inform the students that training schedules will be doubled. We will be ready for whatever will happen."

Erik nodded and left the room. Xavier looked at the point in the blank wall where Matthew was and said, "It isn't nice to eavesdrop, Matthew."

Matthew, baffled by the Professor's power, phased through the wall and retracted his mask. "I'm sorry Professor, but I just had to know what was going on."

Xavier smiled. "Well now you know. We have a dire situation on our hands and I am trying my best to not involve the students. You are the only person who has any sort of connection to this thing, though I am not sure why. If you experience anything out of the ordinary, you report directly to me. Do you understand?"

"Yes, sir. I think maybe I should tell you about the dream I had last night then. Normally my dreams are about Sinister and the dark figure, but last night it was different. I saw a dove, flying above a river of sand, but a huge dark hand snatched it right out of the sky and drove it into the dirt. When the dove got up, it was no longer a dove, but a raven. There was something ominous about this bird. It looked right at me and somehow smiled. I felt compelled to stroke the bird, and when I did, I noticed that the huge dark hand was mine. The river of sand turned to glass as if by some amazing heat source and I saw my reflection. I looked like…well you should just see for yourself."

The Professor stood up and placed a hand on Matthew's forehead. He stood there for a minute while he sifted through Matthew's dream, then pulled his hand from him as though he had been shot. He uttered just one word, "Apocalypse."

"What's 'Apocalypse?'" asked Matthew.

"It's not a what; it's a 'who.' He is supposed to be a myth, the first mutant ever."

"How is he still alive?"

"I will deal with that in a moment. For now though, I need everyone in here immediately."

Xavier sent out a mental message to the X-Men to meet him in the office and within minutes they were all there.

"What is the problem, Professor?" asked Ororo.

"We have a problem—Angel has been captured by Apocalypse."

Hank gasped. Apparently he was the only other person in the room besides the Professor who had heard of this guy.

"Who is Apocalypse?" asked Logan with a sneer.

"Whoever he is, he has Angel. We need to find him," replied Kitty with a little more enthusiasm than Matthew liked.

"Apocalypse was the first mutant ever, according to legend," said Hank. "He was born in Egypt in the time of the pharaohs."

Matthew asked once again, "How is he still alive?"

Hank walked over to the huge bookshelf lining the wall and pulled out a book entitled Egyptian History. He flipped through the pages until he came upon the one he wanted. "Here it is, En Sabah Nur, better known as Apocalypse. He lived under the rule of Rama-Tut, the pharaoh at the time. He was a sorcerer for the pharaoh, and was deemed to be an 'eternal' because of his ability to come back to life, even after death. He was able to control his body on a molecular level, able to shape-shift or change sizes as well. Early on, he was taught to be strong, and had engrained in his head the 'only the strong survive.' Using this philosophy he killed the pharaoh and everyone else he deemed to be unworthy and declared himself a god. After that though, information just stops on him. It's like he just vanished. It is because of this that Egyptologists consider him a myth."

"So this guy was the first mutant?" asked Logan.

"Yes Logan, it would seem so," replied Xavier.

"And he can't die, right?" asked Pete nervously.

"Right you are tin man," said Logan.

"How are we supposed to defeat him to get Warren back?" asked Bobby.

"I don't know, Bobby, but we need to be ready for anything. Everyone needs to suit up and report to the danger room. We will train today until we cannot anymore."

They nodded and dispersed. The Professor cancelled classes for the rest of the day—causing a ripple of cheers throughout the student body. Thank god none of them knew the reasons behind it.

-------------

Several minutes later, the X-Men waited patiently outside of the danger room as the simulation was set up. Matthew glanced around and noticed that there were no more training uniforms around him, and that the X-Men now looked like a force to be reckoned with. Storm took role out in the hall, listing off their codenames instead of their last names.

"Wolverine," she said, looking in Logan's direction.

She repeated the process with everyone else, including Iceman, Colossus, Shadowcat, Pyro, Geist, Cannonball, Moonstar, Beast, Havok and Gambit. Most of them were dressed in the standard uniform, with the exception of a few of them who made some modifications to their uniforms. Pyro had his igniter from his time spent with Magneto, though he thought Kitty designed it. Matthew had his mask on, and Gambit had his trench coat on over a more lightweight version of the uniform. The doors slid slowly open and there was an open landscape of desert dunes and a setting sun. it was beautiful, except that as the doors closed, Matthew could have sworn he heard the sound of automatic weapons fire.

"Begin the exercise," said Xavier's voice from the observation blister at the top of the room.

----------------

Meanwhile, in Egypt, anyone happening to pass by the pyramids at Giza would hear nothing. Deep below the surface, however, it was a whole different story. There was the general sound of machinery whirring, engines revving as they were tested, and the massive pounding of footsteps from drill maneuvers. Through a door at the bottom of the chamber, the dark figure known as Apocalypse walked down the hallway where Sinister was running his genetic experiments. He paused in front of a growth tube where the failed beginnings of a clone floated in the liquid inside. Just a brain and a pair of eyes, the clone blinked at him. Apocalypse heard footsteps behind him and the Sinister was there.

"How may I be of assistance?"

"What of the spy we captured?"

"He has adapted to the genetic splicing even better than hoped," Sinister replied.

Apocalypse turned to face Sinister. "Show him to me."

They continued down the hall to the end where a lone, solid metal chamber sat. Sinister kit a few keys on a computer terminal in the wall, then took his place at Apocalypse's side. The doors slowly opened, the fog of compressed air seeping out through the opening in the front.

"Angel…come forth and meet your master."

The doors completely opened and as the fog cleared, there were a pair of silver wings wrapped around the body of Angel. The wings opened and the man that owned them stared out at Apocalypse and Sinister. That man, however, was not Warren Worthington the third. His formerly tan skin was now a pale blue, his hair was gone, and the usual spark in his eyes was replaced by a flame that had never been there before.

"The name 'Angel' no longer applies."

Apocalypse did not seem surprised by this remark. "What would you have us call you?"

The man that was once Warren stepped out of the chamber and spread his now metallic wings, showing off his incredible wingspan. "I am Archangel, a horseman of Apocalypse, and I am yours to command."

Sinister turned around and walked to a surgical table, talking as he walked. "Your speed and strength have been augmented, but what of your soul?" he picked a scalpel up off of a surgical table and threw it with amazing accuracy at Archangel's face. Archangel snatched the surgical knife out of the air inches from his face and responded to Sinister.

"My soul is filled with hatred, rage, and death," he said, crumpling the scalpel in his hand with no trace of a cut, "for the X-Men."

The knife fell to the floor in a small ball. Apocalypse chuckled lightly at this. "I have a job for you Archangel, horseman of Death. The time has come to gather the other three horsemen."

"Yes, my master," Archangel replied.

After putting a small transmitter and radio in his ear, Archangel spread his wings and took flight. He was to the top of the chamber before the hatch opened, and once it was, he sped off into the clear blue sky.

A/N: Some of you may have noticed that that last scene probably sounded a little familiar. I used the cinematic for the birth of Archangel from X-Men Legends II. It seemed to work quite well. For those of you who haven't seen it, search for my youtube profile, "R4Z0RsEDGE" and click on the birth of Archangel. There is another movie I plan to use on there for the story, but u shouldn't watch it unless you want to ruin it. I should be updating soon. I'm on a freakin roll.