A/N: For those keeping score at home, no, there will not be all 7 trumpets. I don't know my Revelations or my Left Behind and I thought there were only 4 trumpets. Anyway, read on.

Chapter 25: End Times

Apocalypse stood waiting in the middle of the once-burning intersection, arms folded across his huge chest, red eyes boring into her from twenty yards away. There was no sign of the other X-Men, nor the Horsemen. She walked alone, navigating through broken chunks of roadway and burned-out husks of cars. Faintly she heard Kurt teleporting through the alleys, looking for the others to mount their final assault. Apocalypse didn't seem to have heard, but suddenly –

A bamf echoed down a nearby alley, and Apocalypse fired a bolt of blue light from his finger into the alley. Expecting the attack, the Phoenix threw up Sabere's hand and the bolt exploded brilliantly against Sabere's shield.

The shock of being thwarted gave Cyclops just enough time to fire full-strength at Apocalypse through a nearby window. The blast caught him right in the shoulder, but Apocalypse only howled in fury and, with a wave of an arm, sent a shock wave into the building that knocked the entire first floor wall in. Hurry, Kurt…

Apocalypse grimaced at the wide smoking burn on his shoulder and strode slowly towards Sabere, hand raised, a blue glow surrounding it. He slashed his hand through the air, and a wide knife of blue energy shrieked through the air towards her – something that would have easily killed her in their first battle. Instead she raised both hands in front of her and deflected the blast around her, hearing them slice through cars and buildings behind her. The huge flat skyscraper completely collapsed across the road behind her, raising blue and gray dust. Sabere stood calmly, trying to control her terrified breathing and shaking hands. The vision…the memories were getting stronger…

The huge, machine-like man sneered. "So this is the same child whose mind I so easily scoured all those months ago."

"I am not a child, and I am not the woman you remember," Sabere answered clearly, stepping boldly out from the wreckage and finally letting the Phoenix's wings rage around her arms. "I am the Phoenix!"

But before she could strike, Kurt 'ported in behind Apocalypse, carrying Kitty. The girl clenched a jagged shred of metal in her fist, and she phased her hand through Apocalypse's torso – leaving the metal behind. Apocalypse bellowed, and for a moment all three were consumed in a flash of blue – but when it faded, Apocalypse was standing over their prone figures.

A familiar face and a new one, she remembered grimly from the vision. Now Tabitha…

Sure enough, Tabitha leaped out of hiding with a cry and launched a barrage of her marble-sized explosives at his feet. He took an unwilling step back from their power, but before he could be caught off-guard again, the cars she was hiding behind compacted and she was trapped between them.

Over the towers flew Magneto, arms outstretched, hurling shredded bits of car and wiring at the gathering X-Men like shrapnel. Sabere spotted Mystique for the first time, wielding a sword in each hand, slashing and dancing around Colossus and Psylocke.

And there, silhouetted by the rising sun near the top of the Chrysler Building, was Angel. She couldn't see what he was carrying but she knew from the vision – he had the sun in his favor and he would swoop in and stab Apocalypse with the massive length of sharp wire, like a spear –

But not now – this is it, the moment, the end –

"Jean!" she screamed, heart and mind, as she watched Magneto turn on Angel, exactly like she knew he would –

The end –

The X-Men broke ranks, hearing her message, some wondering if they should bother and others desperately hoping that they'd live to go home and mend their wounds –

Sabere found herself surrounded as Apocalypse and the street around him vanished in a blinding shockwave, and Sabere felt the Phoenix merge her shields with Jean's and Psylocke's and she could only wait those few milliseconds, not breathing, wondering hope against hope if it would be enough –

The explosion hit her, kicked her back, knocked the wind out of her and battered her mind, her shields, losing her will in a raging rush of blue pain but it passed –

"God in heaven." Someone whispered faintly from the smoking concrete, but Sabere didn't even have the strength to think about a response.

I'm alive… And then there was peaceful blackness.

-----

She didn't know how many hours it was later, but somehow they all managed to stagger back to Central Park and into the jet. When Sabere opened her eyes again, she was sprawled across her seat in the jet, every cell in her body aching and her synapses begging for relief.

I'm alive.

It was only the sheer amazement at that statement that gave her the strength to haul herself to the elevator, up the stairs to her room, where she collapsed in her torn and dirty uniform on her bed and didn't wake up until the next day.

-----

A language Kurt didn't recognize was yammering from the TV. He rolled over and gazed blearily in the direction of the sound, and squinted at the outline of the woman sitting on his bed.

"Wie viel Uhr ist es?" he asked groggily.

"I'll assume you asked what time it is, and according to the clock, it's almost three in the afternoon, tomorrow."

Kurt thought about this for a while but it hurt too much. "Was?"

"We fought Apocalypse yesterday and we've all been mostly unconscious since then. It's three in the afternoon tomorrow, according to the last thing we remember. Oh, and try not to move – Jean says your burns aren't looking so good and whatever Apocalypse did to your head at the last minute is pretty nasty."

"Liebchen?" he asked finally.

"I hope you remember how to speak English," Sabere replied. "I'm serious – try not to move. There's no way to explain how we survived, and none of us is in especially good shape."

He finally noticed her voice was shaking and stretched out a hand. "Sorry. What's on the news?"

Sabere scooted closer and took his hand in both of hers. "All the news stations are pretty much wiped out around here. This is some random Middle Eastern channel – I think they're saying it's the end of the world but there's some good footage." She paused and took a trembling breath. "The city was completely flattened. No one even wants to try to get close and look for survivors – even the White House doesn't know what to do about it."

"Up to us, then," Kurt whispered.

Sabere nodded and squeezed his hand. He tried to focus and found himself wondering why she was shaking.

"Sabere, are you okay?"

"No," she murmured. "We should have died. I don't know why we didn't. I don't know what's in store."

She smiled half-heartedly and left, turning the TV off behind her.

As he slowly drifted back to sleep he realized he should have asked about the Phoenix, but then the blackness overcame him again and he slept.