A/N: And just like that...here it is! This arc is based, obviously, on the events of Messiah Complex; and is named "Just Like You Imagined". It was written with the song of the same name by Nine Inch Nails in mind. TGFNiN!! and TGIF!! -enjoy


Chapter 12: just like you imagined


"LAURA!" Julian threw himself headlong at the falling girl and caught her just in time, his heart beating so hard he thought it
would crawl out of his chest. This fight, this terrible fight. Things were getting worse and worse, tensions running high at the
mansion over the last few months. Two months since he'd moved in with her, two months of seeing her every morning and
holding her every night, and slowly—stupid of him really to be so slow—realizing that he wanted this for his entire life,
whatever remained of it.

"I am alright," Laura said, her face reconstructing itself before his eyes. "Maintain your position, Julian. Do not falter because
I appear hurt. The team is more important." Julian squeezed her tight then turned away, just in time to catch the next attack
heading in his direction—rail guns, razor guns. His shield deflected them all; he caught knife-fragments in midair, then hurtled
them back to their originators at mach speed. "DIE!" he yelled, thinking of Laurie. Of Laura, who'd been hurt so
many times by people like this.

They were fighting purifiers. Dozens, possibly hundreds of them. They just kept on coming. They were faceless, limitless;
he didn't know how much longer he could keep going. He was exhausted.

That stupid list. The cumulative point of all the trouble. He'd been standing around, watching the other kids asking who would be
the next to die, and out of the blue, Nori had grabbed him. Kissed him. He choked on his own tongue and pushed her away,
exclaiming "GET OFF! What the HELL, Nori?! What are you—"

He'd looked to the side, panicked. "Laura…" She closed her eyes, turned and run; he'd run after her, as fast as he could,
as he always did. "She grabbed me! You saw it! It wasn't my fault! Laura!"

Laura whirled around, tears streaming down her face.

"What if you DIE?!" she exclaimed, and he suddenly realized she was upset for a whole entirely different reason.

"Laura…shh…I won't…" he took her in his arms and they stood for ages, trying to find comfort. Laura was visibly shaking.

"Maybe death would be better," she said in a small voice. "Horizontal incision to the radial artery, small pebbles to hold the flesh open."

"Don't talk like that, beautiful," he murmured, running his hand up and down her back. "We'll be okay. I won't let anything
happen to you, or me. We'll live…we'll always be together." He kissed her hair. "Promise."

"You shouldn't be in here, Nori," David said.

"Hey, I can come back later if you two need some time," Julian said, raising his hands as he entered the planning room.
He'd been involved in a conflict between Nori and David a few nights before, following the unwelcome kiss; he didn't
want to risk a scene again. He hated scenes. It reminded him of when his parents fought savagely and bitterly, and
he'd had to take his little brother out of the room and cover his ears. Kids shouldn't hear things like that.

"We don't need any time," David said coldly.

"Shut up, both of you, and just look," Nori said in her angry, stormy way.

A news report—CNN—was stretched across the screen. Familiar figures were destroying people, landscapes.

"Son of a—" Julian gasped.

"The purifiers," David said flatly.

"That's why Cyclops told us to stay out of it. The purifiers were involved in Alaska. They may have the baby."

The baby. The last, the first mutant child to be born since M-day. The only hope for mutant kind. They'd said never again—mutants
were to be extinct—then this miracle baby was born, and the war had begun. Julian had overheard it called the Messiah war. He'd
never seen a darker time amongst the X-men. Already, many had fallen, and the headmaster of the school had strictly ordered
them not to become involved. Nothing made him want action more.

"If Cyclops didn't tell us, he had a good reason. Don't do anything stupid," David said, the voice of caution.

"'Don't do anything stupid'?! Are you kidding, David?!" Nori was livid. "You were there, you know what they did!"

"David is right, Nori."

"Oh crap," Julian said, looking at the door. Professor Xavier was standing there, watching them, watching them fight like small children
amongst themselves. To him they were small children—to be protected. Julian's mouth went dry.

"Cyclops is right, as well…to a point." The Professor looked sober. "He kept that information from you to protect you. But there are more
ways to solve a problem than charging headfirst into violence." He paused. "I know a thing or two about training mutants…I'd like to talk
to the three of you about taking a different approach." If only they had listened. "I believe that together, we can—"

"Shut up. Just SHUT UP!" Nori screamed at the Professor.

"Nori!" David reprimanded. The Professor scowled.

"No! Where was he when we were getting killed?" Nori demanded. "Well? Where were you when we were getting blown up in buses,
or shot in the head, or getting our hearts ripped out?! Where were you when those purifier bastards came to kill what was left of us
in your freaking mansion?!" She almost hit the Professor in her rage, then turned away. "There's nothing you can teach us, 'Prof'…
we already know how to die."

The Professor watched her go. "…It's been a rough year, Professor." David said. Julian turned and followed Nori out of the planning room,
his heart torn. He knew the Professor meant well—it wasn't his fault people were evil.

Still.

"I'm going after them. I thought Cyclops and I had an understanding, after everything we've been through. After everything we've done."
Nori ground the fingertips of her gauntlets together. "The X-men want to go after the Marauders? Fine. But the Purifiers, that's personal."
She paused. "They killed forty-five of our friends." She stared at the reactions around the room, almost unseeing.

Julian looked at Laura, sitting on the chair close to his. He wanted to touch her hand, he wanted to hold her on his lap. It was torture,
having her so close, yet so far. He was addicted to her. He didn't know if this was a good or bad thing.

"They didn't kill X-men, or freaking X-factor…they killed students. They killed our friends, and we're the ones who took them down. Not the X-men."
Nori glared at her troops, like a general. "So I don't care what Cyclops says. I'm going after them. If they've got this baby, they're going to kill it.
And if they don't have it…I'm still taking them out. Permanently." Nori paused for breath. "So who's in?"

"I'm in. These people killed Brian," Julian said, angry. Finally, revenge for his friend. Wounds that had begun to heal had opened upon seeing the
Purifiers on the TV screen. Laura gave an almost imperceptible nod.

"I'm in, too." Cessily looked down at the rug.

"This is wrong, Noriko. To rescue the child, yes…but that's not what you want. You want blood." Sooraya, the voice of reason. "And we have
seen far too much blood of late." She was scared, terrified.

"Try and stop me." Santo, the literal rock. "But if we rescue the baby, I'm not holding it. Babies creep me out." Also the team's comedic relief.

"I'll go, but just for the baby." The weird lizard kid—Anole. "We should talk to the cuckoos. See if they've picked up any information from the
X-men, maybe a location. The ONE might have records on the purifiers, too."

"And I can teleport us there. But, um, I don't have to kill anyone." Pixie. "I don't have to , do I?"

"Don't do this, Nori." David was calm, focused. He knew Nori wouldn't listen. He was already making alternate plans. "What about you, Josh?
Are you in or out?" Nori asked, ignoring her ex boyfriend.

"These people killed Laurie. If I go with you, I'll kill every single one of them. And I don't want to do that." Elixir, in the shadows. "So no, I'm
not going. But if you need healing, you know where to find me."

"Hey…" a vaguely familiar girl was leaning on the corner wall. "Do you guys have room for one more?

"Tomorrow at dawn," Julian whispered to Laura as they lay beside each other in the bed, sweat glistening on their skin. "Seems pretty final.
Theatrical, if you ask me." Laura looked up at him from where her head rested on his shoulder.

"I did not ask you," she said, always perfectly literal.

"I know you didn't. It's a saying." He rubbed her shoulder. "I've been thinking…Laura…if we make it out of this with both our weird heads
intact…I want to be with you, forever. I don't care about anyone else."

"Forever is a long time." Laura's gaze did not waver.

"Yeah, it is," Julian said. "I guess it'll be even longer for you, huh? Well, I want to spend my forever with you. You ever heard of war brides?"

"Young adults engaging in marital bonds before times of battle or deportment. Yes. The topic was raised in Megan's history class.
A notable phenomena during the times immediately preceding World Wars I and II."

"Will you be my war bride?" Julian whispered, almost afraid of the answer.

"…" Laura's eyes snapped open, and she rolled over to her elbows. "Julian…"

"I know, I know, it wouldn't be safe," he said, looking at the ceiling while still rubbing her shoulder, his thumb drawing circles on
her skin. "Damn. I should've killed everyone in that freakin' place when I had the chance."

Laura smiled slightly, and he drew a breath. She made his heart ache, sometimes more than the death of his friends did. He imagined
what it would be like if he had let her die, if he had never demanded that Ms. Frost open his mind, drop his mental shields, when
Laura was dying in his arms.

"I thought…we could have an X-man do it." Laura continued to watch him. "No records. False ID. Nightcrawler. Mr. Wagner…he's a priest.
He's the closest thing to God this mansion's got in it. It'd be legal. So…Laura?"

"…"

"No?"

"I need time, Julian. To think…" Laura paused. "I would not make…a good wife, to you…or anyone. I…I do not know if I can even
have children. Clones are often incapable of reproducing."

"We'll adopt," Julian said. "Jesus Christ, that doesn't matter to me. I don't want a kid now, anyway. This is a terrible time. Who would
want to bring more people into this mess?" He nuzzled her neck. "Think about it."

"I will let you know."

Laura raised the window, her hair whipping around her. It was a windy night. Something had woken her—a painful, keening sound.
She'd walked in a dream state to the window and raised it to see a strange mutant she hadn't seen much of; a fellow student at
the school, She was standing at the edge of the roof.

"Do not jump," Laura said. "Are you asleep?"

The girl turned her head towards her. A blindfold was tied around her head.

"Excuse me, are we ever really awake? I am sorry for your loss. It would have been beautiful otherwise. It all fades away, and he does not know.
Too late. The final gift; not as gone as you think? It devours from within, the judgment fire is coming. Difficult times are upon us and we need a
god to watch us. No one answers prayers now. But no one is ever really ready, are they?"

Laura stopped. This was the school's precognitive student. Fear trickled down her spine, every hair stood on end.

"Is Julian going to die?" she demanded.

"We are all going to die, someday," Blindfold said. "I am sorry. But worry not, the end comes before the beginning,
and, excuse me, no one is ever really dead."

"Laura?" Nori crawled along the cement.

"I can smell guns. I can smell the anti-telepathy implants." She paused. "They are here." Laura scooted along the wall,
almost blending in, in the darkness.

"Finally! This is like the eighth church we've checked," Santo grumbled. Beside him, Cessily made a face.

"No kidding," Julian said, looking ahead. "That sentinel pilot narrowing it down to D.C. wasn't that helpful." They'd been hunting churches for
the last day and a half, Laura listening for the words "baby" or "infant". The Stepford Cuckoos were on watch as well, at Cerebro.

"Anole…once we get in, I want you to find out what you can about the baby. We'll run interference." Julian had discovered that Anole's powers
were somewhat like the ability of a chameleon to camouflage. "Laura, what do you see?"

Laura scrambled to the edge of the wall and carefully peered over. "Seven purifiers on the outside perimeter, all armed with anti-mutant
weaponry." She turned to the group. "Two guards on the upper level, no weapons. The side entrance is the one we want...it's the
most heavily guarded."

"Wow," Armor said.

"You ain't seen nothing yet, Armor-All." Santo's tone was serious.

"URK!" The Purifier arched, seizing up as Julian crushed his vertebra with a telekinetic bolt to the spine. Beside him, Cessily was suffocating
the other guard, filling his mouth with mercury. He fell to the ground, presumably dead, and the group moved down the cobblestone staircase.
Nori's electrified hands lit up the night and cast an eerie glow about her face.

"They…they don't have the baby. They don't have the baby!" Anole tried to whisper into the X-communicator, but someone muffled him
from behind and jerked him backwards.

"Don't even try to—" Anole said angrily, ramming his enlarged first into his attacker's stomach, then he recognized who it was. Vaguely.

"Rictor?! Um, sorry. Aren't you with X-Factor?"

"You have the get out of here," Rictor said, his face serious.

"What are you talking about?" Anole asked, incredulous. "The baby, it's not here…but we can still shut down the Purifiers."

"We? Oh, god…the new X-men. You don't get it, kid…" Rictor looked panicked.

"We've got a much bigger problem than the Purifiers."

"Fry, you bastard!" Nori shouted, unloading a full charge on her victim. His screams echoed through the chamber, terrifying. The air smelled of burnt flesh.

Laura gagged.

"Surge! Ease up!" Julian was angry. Nori lost her head so easily. "Back off, Hellion!" Nori growled, looking out of control. "No, don't do this!
You don't want to be like—" Julian was rudely interrupted by gunfire. He raised a shield at the same time as he pushed Nori out of the
way. "Watch out!" he shouted.

He recognized the man leading the attack, and swung his fist so hard into the man's face that several bricks broke on the wall behind
him upon impact. "You! You were at the mansion…" It was the man whose face Sooraya had flayed.

"Yes. I've been there many times. Mr. Keller. On my first visit I sent that bus load of your friends to hell, and on the next, I put a bullet in Ms. Collin's head."

The man had the nerve to smile at something.

"And today, we will send the rest of you back to Satan."

Laura looked, too late.

Julian looked down weakly, at the finger-things sticking through his chest and abdomen. They were metal—adamantium, he thought.
There was so much blood, but it was hard to tell, against the red of his suit. There was a finger-claw thing sticking out of the area that
Laura had kissed just this morning—there was another were that scar his little brother had given him when he was eight and James was
five, with a tree branch in a fight over the last cupcake—there was three bursting through normal flesh, no less valuable to him.

"Come to me, children. Come to Deathstrike." Sounds were fading in and out, and Julian blinked, trying to bring the group into focus.
Actually he didn't care about the group so much, he just cared about Laura. He hadn't really thought he would die today. Not now.
He wasn't finished…God, there really was a white room…he reached out and touched Laura's hand, the only one to advance with
a pale face. She caught his body tenderly as it slid off Deathstrike's talons.

"Pixie, teleport us. NOW." Laura was so direct and commanding, calmly holding Julian's body, that Pixie obeyed, all of them popping
out of existence and re-popping into the lab like facility as though nothing had happened.

"OHMIGOD! I can't believe it! Julian can't be dead!" Cessily sobbed.

"He isn't. Help me." Laura hefted his body onto the stretcher. "Pixie, get Elixir."

"I can only teleport once an hour!" The girl burst into tears.

"That will not be soon enough," Laura said thoughtfully. She walked over to the cabinet and tore it open, despite its padlock. Inside
were tubes, needles. "Here. I will require help." Cessily stepped forward. "You will help me transfuse Julian with two point seven liters
of my blood. My healing factor will keep him alive until you can bring Elixir back."

They wheeled Julian into the next room.

"Won't that kill you too?"

"No." Laura hefted herself onto the table beside the stretcher, and began her work. She inserted a needle into her vein, then attached a
tube and the other needle-tipped end she inserted into Julian's arm. "I will need your assistance to hold my arm upright. I may fall
unconscious. You must not allow me to fall flat; the elevation is crucial to this process. Julian must not die."

"Julian must not die," Cessily repeated, sounding hollow. "Oh, Laura, I'm sorry. So, so sorry. It'll be okay, it has to be."

"Do not be, Cessily," Laura said, paling slightly as the blood began to leak from her arm. "It was not your fault."

"I—I don't know what I'd do if it was—"

"Santo?" Laura asked quietly.

"H-how did you know? No one knows, he barely knows—I just told him last night—he's such a dumb jerk and yet—"

"Your scent changes when he is near," Laura mumbled.

The tube was solid red now. Julian opened his eyes blearily. "Laura?" he asked weakly. "Be quiet. Do not move. Your spinal cord, three vertebrae,
thousands of blood vessels and nerve endings have been crushed, countless other organs including your spleen have been shredded,
and both of your lungs punctured.They may collapse at a moment's notice."

"I love you…"

"I love you, too," she said quietly. "That has been 2.8 liters. Withdraw the tube, it is enough, and I will need the rest." She did not flinch as the needle
was slipped from her flesh; she bent over and kissed Julian firmly on his mouth. "Julian's blood is full of micro-sentinels from Deathstrike's claws.
They are like venom, and will only cease activity when the homing robot—Deathstrike—is terminated." She paused, watching Julian cough up blood.
"I will be back." She turned and left, leaving Cessily to watch her charge restlessly.