Well, here we are again everyone! These characters all belong to Marvel. Please read and review and tell me what you think! Your feedback gives me life!
Thank you,
Maria
Chapter XXVI: Defeat
Rachel seemed barely alive as her father carried her from the battlefield. He gazed down at his eldest child. One side of her face was bleeding badly and what skin showed thru her tattered uniform was almost blackened. She was tough and, with Hank's medical care (for it seemed there was no physical wound he couldn't heal, so long as there was still a soul attached to the body), these injuries would heal to scars as well – just like the livid markings on her face.
Still, Cyclops felt that spark of fear in his chest. It was that ball of anxiety that formed inside his soul when he first held her, when she was a small infant who refused to cry when she was taken from her mother's body. Even as a newborn baby, Rachel insisted on communicating telepathically.
Rachel had made him a very young father at twenty. That life almost felt like it belonged to another man and his memories were somehow transplanted into his mind. Cyclops had certainly witnessed stranger things. It was that small but intense glimmer of emotion that reminded Scott Summers that this young woman was indeed a part of himself.
The remaining shell-shocked X-Men stood around a surprisingly (or surprisingly to anyone besides someone like Scott who had known his old friend for so long) calm-looking Beast. Scott gently surrendered his daughter to Hank McCoy's capable arms.
"Can you fix her?" Scott said.
His voice seemed as even as usual, but he knew Hank keenly sensed the strain and raw emotion in his comrade. Rachel and Scott had worked hard on their relationship over the years, especially since her twins, his grandchildren, were born. They were on far better terms now than perhaps they had ever been, but Cyclops also knew Rachel would always view the furry blue Beast as her father-figure. Scott didn't miss the trembling hand that wasn't caused by age that Hank ran thru his surrogate daughter's blood-matted red hair.
"Possible. Probable," Beast responded, but his blue eyes were worried in his broad fuzzy face. "Physically, at any rate. It is strange, Mister Summers …" he mused. When Scott quirked an eyebrow at his old colleague, Henry explained: "It seems I am carrying one of these Summers girls every other day since Rachel was born."
Toad murmured praise to the Alvers brothers as they staggered after Cyclops, their eyes wide with shock; not even the usually hotheaded Hecktor could think of anything to say. The twins only nodded at Toad. Scott doubted they even heard the man's words. Toad was a great deal more hardened to this lifestyle than the other much-younger X-Men, but even he seemed very unnerved by Rachel's state. Merle was her usual silent self; her forked tongue flitted out, telling her everything she needed to know. Stefan and Oliza dashed forward, Stefan on all fours as he usually did when he was in a hurry, from their rescue detail to teleport the others at the School away to the sub-levels.
"Eleanor and Martin?" Scott grunted to Oliza.
Safe … along with all the others, was all the woman could manage to sign as her copper-coin eyes took in the sight of Rachel. She and her little brother had managed to get all the occupants remaining at the School to the safety of the sub-levels.
Rachel weaved in and out of consciousness as Oliza gently touched her arm to 'port her away to Hank's auxiliary med lab in the sub-levels. Rachel watched her dad's face and then Uncle Hank's swim in and then out of her blurry view. Jeanie … She lost Jeanie. Goddamn.
Phoenix was comatose by the time Hank laid her down gently on the exam table. "Skin-cell-renewal technology will take care of the extreme burns," Beast murmured as he bustled about. Scott couldn't remember a time when Beast wasn't bustling and busy with some project, some research, saving someone's life. "I am considering implementing facial reconstruction as well – if my patient requires such desperate measures." Most of this tech, which couldn't have even been dreamed of when they were young men, was Hank's own creation. Some belonged to the late Reed Richards, Franklin's father. Some was Shi'ar. "Let us hope not," Hank added grimly. "The girl has traumatic injuries as it is and even with this tech, and under my care if I do say so myself, she will spend a considerable amount of time in recovery."
Scott, understanding, leaned wearily against a spare stainless-steel operating table. He pushed his hands thru his greying hair. Sleep seemed a luxury to the leader of the X-Men; one he most often couldn't afford.
"You might as well strap her down to that table then," Cyclops sighed.
"Yes," Beast chuckled dryly. "Our Rachel won't be happy bedridden, especially considering the recent behavior of her progeny, though we might not have to worry about enforcing bed-rest on our girl. Her body is here, but I do not doubt her consciousness is with her little Jeanie."
"On the Astral Plane," Scott murmured, studying his daughter's ravaged face. It was so strange, he barely remembered her without her disfiguring tattoos which marked her long time in servitude. Still, she was a stunningly beautiful woman with the pallid skin and wide expressive eyes of her mother.
Scott knew his daughter communicated with Jean Grey, his beloved late wife, on the Astral Plane. He almost resented her for it when he thought of the thousands of things he wanted to tell his first love. Rachel had shared a rapport with her mother since her conception and Jean's death had not severed her bond with her girl. Rach never mentioned these encounters she shared with Jean, at least never to Scott. There were times he wondered if this was some twisted revenge Rachel had devised to punish him for his past treatment of her.
Emma rushed in the med bay, her blue eyes wide and terrified. Scott felt that familiar pang that told him Rachel's stepmother and Jean Grey's rival was closer to his daughter than him. She took in Rachel's appearance, murmuring incomprehensibly, a habit she'd developed over the years when she was extremely stressed. Scott usually teased her about it, but he knew now would not be wise.
Emma gently approached her stepdaughter, resting a hand tenderly on her forearm. In that moment, genetic differences disregarded, it was hard to tell she wasn't the woman's mother.
"She's on the Astral Plane?" she demanded of Hank.
"Yes, I believe so," he replied.
"Good …"
Scott knew his wife's intentions an instant before she said it. And he knew she had the upper hand here. Hank did as well; as he pushed past Cyclops, he gave his old friend a look that clearly stated Scott Summers would be getting no help from him. Not that it would make any difference …
Scott met Emma's steely gaze. "You said you couldn't stop me, Scott. You said only Rachel could stop me by force," she said fiercely. "And there is no time to find wherever the hell Kitty Pryde is. We have to save Jonathan now!"
Cyclops bowed his head. He'd lost this one. It seemed his life was a succession of losses. He went to Emma. "I know. Just …" The White Queen gazed at her lover. She was ready to rush off into the face of danger – stand alongside her stepdaughter to save Jonathan. However, she paused to caress her husband's cheek. She couldn't read his thoughts, but she didn't really have to. She knew he was thinking of the many, many people he had loved and lost. First his parents, then his brother, then Jean, then Rachel. He couldn't lose her; he couldn't lose his smallest daughters.
Beast, murmuring as if to himself, quoth: "Tis better to have loved and lost …"
"Hank, no Shakespeare, not now!" Emma hissed at her colleague who just showed his fangs in a grin.
"That is Tennyson, my dear lady."
Ignoring Beast, she turned softly to Scott. "I know, lover. I will."
"The X-Men will try to reach Nocturne in Genosha," he replied, kissing her on the forehead. He rested his hand ever so briefly on her belly. Time was of the essence now, but he wanted to hold onto her forever. The same way he wanted to hold onto everything important to him.
###
Emma opened up her eyes.
"Welcome to the Astral Plane," an all-too-familiar voice stated. Oh, that's a voice Emma could have lived her entire life without hearing again.
Jean Grey, not a day over twenty-two, was helping Emma to her feet. Now, that was something else she could have lived without. "Emma," the famous (or infamous, in some cases) redhead said with a nod.
"Jeanie, you haven't aged a day," Emma said in ultra-saccharine tones. "Though I suppose that's hard to do when you're technically a corpse."
Jean grinned that good-natured smile that drove Emma up a wall. "I haven't seen you here in quite a while, Emma." The Astral Plane was a psychic server, a place telepaths could share knowledge and wisdom. For Dr. Grey, insight was to be shared freely with others. For the White Queen, it was to be parleyed out for retribution.
"How exactly would you know? Time has no meaning here," Emma replied, biting off every word.
"Well, yes, not here," Jean said, eyeing her old rival up and down. That was the thing about Jean Grey; how she could say so much, do so much, cut so deep, with so little ammunition. Emma knew she was tallying every wrinkle, every white hair, every blemish on the White Queen's immaculate mortal form. "I believe you have come here to save your grandchildren."
"Technically, they are your grandchildren," Emma said, frowning.
"Everything is about technicalities with you when it comes to your age, eh, Grandma?" Jean said with a smirk.
"Go to hell, Jean Grey."
"Already here."
The two women were on their feet running even as they spoke. Emma noticed with more than a bit of satisfaction that she matched Jean step for step in speed.
"We could get there faster telekinetically," Jean called out.
"I'm not telekinetic, Dr. Grey," Emma replied, highly annoyed. Yes, it was not enough Jean Grey being all that she was - she had to be Gifted with one of the rarest abilities.
"I know, but your daughter is."
Emma spun on Jean. Yes, time was of the essence, but she hadn't abstained from contact with her least-favorite-person in this or any dimension for this.
"You have a very annoying habit of predicting the future -" Emma began, her temper rising.
"It isn't me. It's this place," Jean responded, her large green eyes sparkling with glee. "Though I have some interesting predictions about those ..." she said, indicating Emma's abdomen with a sly smile.
Emma glowered at her. Jean pointed at the sky. Eyes narrowed in fury, Emma squinted above. A huge fluffy cloud floating overhead took the form of the White Queen. Fat, Emma, it seemed to say. You're going to be SO fat.
Emma fought the urge to decapitate her rival; she wanted so badly to severe her neck with her razor-edged glare. But, unfortunately, Jean Grey was already dead.
"Congratulations, by the way," Jean continued on. Her expression seemed serious, but Emma didn't miss the twinkle in her eye. "Again. I didn't get a chance to congratulate you when your first two were born. I was wondering what took you so long; then Rachel explained. That girl is as protective as her father. As paranoid too. Now I know where Megan gets it."
Not from you ... were the words that hung between them. Emma bit her lip. She knew working with her old rival was part of the deal of coming to the Astral Plane, but Jean was beginning to tread into dangerous territory now discussing her daughters.
"Of course, I'd expect such a careful child from you and Scott," Jean added with a smile. "Always weighing the risks she takes against an outcome. With a bit of confidence, what couldn't she do? She would make a brilliant student."
"She. Isn't. Yours," Emma growled.
"Unfortunately. Ruby is your only child to give this place a shot. She's doing very well here. I guess you've seen the fruit of her labor?
"Ruby is here?!" Of course, she'd suspected it, though it was a ridiculous hunch. Ruby wasn't Jean's descendant and she wasn't even telepathic. How on Earth could she even access the Astral Plane? When Ruby started sneaking off, Emma had nursed false hopes that her 14-year-old was off partying or having premarital sex or doing drugs - Emma felt a horrible parent for even thinking it, but any behavior would have been preferable to this.
How else could she not psychically track her little girl unless something far more intriguing than generic teenage hijinks was afoot?
Somehow, however, Emma had sensed Ruby's true intentions, her true actions ... her true nature. Indeed, perhaps Ruby was not the rambunctious, wayward, but always kind-hearted offspring her Mamma had always known. Perhaps she could be different. Perhaps she could be more.
"Yes," Jean replied, still wearing that infuriatingly benign smile on her gorgeously ageless face. "I've been mentoring her here for a while now, you know."
You know ... Emma's eyes widened and her nostrils dilated as she was almost blinded by pure fury.
Yes, all of what Ruby had done, her deceit, her disobedience, had hurt Emma with an almost physical pain, but the fact that Ruby had turned elsewhere than her own mother, the White Queen, for mentoring, comfort and advice - and to this woman, Emma's oldest enemy, no less - is what tormented Emma the most.
They were dashing shoulder-to-shoulder along a forested path upon which Emma could just glimpse a purple mountain rearing its way up above the trees. Suddenly, Emma stopped, throwing out her arm to halt the redhead. Of course, Jean floated up on a telekinetic burst, but seemed to glance down quizzically at the White Queen.
"Tell me something, Dr. Grey," she demanded. "Before I put my life and the lives of my unborn children at risk and possibly kill us all - why are you doing this?"
Emma's face was contorted in inner turmoil. She could spit snark all day at her old enemy, but being beholden to Jean Grey for anything, let alone the protection and teaching of her little girl, was pure hell on Earth. It didn't just damage Emma's fierce pride, it seemed to physically wound her.
"You hate me. I took Scott Summers - the love of your life - away from you!"
"Death took me away from Scott," Jean replied cooly, her expression like stone.
"Then why? If not for revenge - why?" Emma hissed.
Jean gazed long and hard into Emma's blue eyes. She had felt it on her before, long ago, when Emma was young and untried ... long before their rivalry began, when she might have called this beautiful woman with the red hair and the fiery temper an ally ... or even a good friend. Back to a time when she was simply a scared teenager named Emmie, not the resplendent and formidable White Queen. Back to a time when Emma herself had been Dr. Grey's apprentice.
"Because Megan and Ruby belong to Scott. And Rachel in some ways. And I love them," Jean replied simply. "But mostly because they are just kids - kids with enormous almost incomprehensible powers - and they need my help. Because they are young and scared ... just like you were once, Emmie."
Jean Grey turned away, continuing to fly, powered on by her telekinesis. Emma was furious. That was it; those were the words that would have ended Jean's life by the White Queen's hand if she wasn't already dead, Emma's afterthought told her like a taunt. That was Dr. Grey for you – exasperatingly impossible, in life and in death.
The White Queen caught up to her on the forested slope of what appeared to be a mountainous volcano. Emma was reminded again, with a prickle of self-consciousness that she was a bit of an exception among telepaths, having so little experience with the Astral Plane. She did know the landscape here wasn't static. It could change at any time, warping and weaving its appearance according to which psychics accessed the dimensional server. Emma could only imagine what was causing this, as the ground seemed to grumble beneath her feet.
She turned to Dr. Grey for answers, which might have hurt whatever pride she had left had they been under different circumstances and Emma wasn't alive. Yes, that thought gave a small glow of comforting superiority to the White Queen. Jean Grey could not live on in the "Real World." She couldn't watch her children grow up or grow old or bear more children. No, that was the lot of the living. All the things Jean Grey could do, she couldn't do that , Emma thought with smug satisfaction.
She knew her thoughts were apparent here, open and obvious to everyone, Jean included. That was just as well, Emma mused. She wanted Jean Grey to know these things.
The coniferous tree trunks seemed to wobble around them as the mountain's base gave a heave, like a huge hand running under the blanket of the forest floor.
Jean's emerald-green eyes met Emma's sapphire gaze. No room for rivalry here, Dr. Grey's expression said. There is a job to do. It was like staring into her step-granddaughter Jeanie's obstinate eyes, except Jeanie's were blue. Emma knew personal rivalries were out here; Jean would not rise up to meet any challenge the White Queen threw her way. There were far more important things at stake here.
"My grandson," Jean explained verbally to Emma. " Our grandson."
She gestured towards the mountain's summit. Emma spotted a figure there she thought she'd never see again and whose appearance made her heart both leap with joy and plummet with fear. Jonathan! He was too high up to know for certain, but as Emma squinted up at the ledge he was perched on she thought she saw the tall handsome boy wielding his telekinetic spear in defense.
The mountain seemed to suddenly cave in, its rocks rearranging themselves into a shape that appeared like a … face, a monstrously huge face with glaring pale eyes.
"Ah – a …" Emma stammered, her blue eyes wide.
"Apocalypse," Jean stated grimly.
It was a face Emma had fervently hoped never to see again, in here or any other world. A name she had never hoped to hear ever again. Now the creature's gigantic teeth, as big as stalactites, hovered over her beloved step-grandson, as if to eat him whole.
"Save him!" a voice cried above them. Rachel Summers sailed above them at the heart of a fiery bird wingtip-to-wingtip with another albeit smaller Phoenix – Jeanie Richards hovering at it center. Mother and daughter were hell-bent on saving the boy they loved.
Emma had last seen her stepdaughter with half her face blown off, but here in the Astral Plane Rach was whole again and fighting side-by-side with her wayward daughter. Like Emma and Jean's quarrel, rivalries, mutinies, insubordination and infighting were forgotten here. They all shared a common goal – save Jon, stop Apocalypse.
Wings made of fire erupted from within Jean Grey; a raptor surrounded her in a halo of light. The original Phoenix soared up to join her daughter and granddaughter in the sky above, forming a fiery trio. As anxious as Jeanie was to save her brother, the young girl glanced shyly at her maternal grandmother for the first time. She knew she had betrayed her mom Rachel terribly and felt she had brought shame to her family, but she still felt the innocent inquisitiveness of the very young.
Rach only nodded cooly at her troublesome child. Though she would have forgiven her beloved girl for anything (including her awful treachery and disobedience towards her mother) Rachel was still furiously angry at her teenage daughter. Like any good Summers, she was allowing her current focus on her goal - saving her son - to distract her from the awkward confrontation she must make with her girl.
But Dr. Grey smirked as she looked Jeanie's way, her big soulful green eyes sparkling with a mischief that would have made a Richards proud.
"Mom, Dream Jeanie. Dream Jeanie, Mom," Rachel muttered, her voice icy.
"Dream ... hmm ..." Jean mused humorously. "I guess your father had something to say about that, sweetheart."
"Actually, no, Cyclops had nothing to say about it. Besides, it was exactly none of his business anyway," Rachel stated with a dead-serious expression, staring resolutely ahead and refusing to meet her mother's amused gaze.
Jeanie giggled. Despite herself and these awful circumstances, she liked this woman who was her grandmother.
Emma watched the trio of fire-birds take wing and made to pursue them on foot up the mountainside. Yes, she primarily fought using her mind and, yes, she was pregnant and perhaps not as ... young as some other warriors, but she was no less fit for battle as far as she was concerned.
Communicating with Jon telepathically at this point wasn't an option. He was literally almost in the belly of the beast, so he was most likely infected by Apocalypse's taint. Emma needed to make a physical link with Jonathan thru touch, look him in the eyes, do something concrete because as a telepath she knew intimately the mind and body's eternal connection. Jon might be too far gone to respond to psychic contact alone, but the touch, sight or even scent of his step-grandmother whom he idolized, might bring him 'round.
It was a start, thought Emma. Then she was shoved from behind, forcing her firmly but without injury to the ground. Attuned to the warrior's life, she went limp to try and throw off her attacker when her opponent sensed her resignation and, assuming victory, slackened their hold.
Simultaneously, she searched for a mental signature and was stunned at what - or who - she discovered was holding her down and stopping her from rushing into battle. She was being held to the leaf-strewn forest floor in an invisible grip - telekinetically.
"Ruby," she croaked. Yes, her daughter's confidence was receding as the girl's telekinesis slackened enough to allow Emma to turn her head and face her daughter.
Emma gasped so hard her lungs hurt. Seeing her daughter in this place and witnessing how powerful her telekinesis already had developed might not have been enough to make the seasoned White Queen stop and stare in shock at her child.
Ruby, however, wasn't wearing her visor. For the very first time, her mother looked into the girl's eyes. They were jade-green in color and lovely.
Blue ... Ruby's thoughts screamed at Emma as her daughter looked on at her mother as dumbfounded as Emma was - but at something entirely different. At something Emma and most people would have considered mundane or boring. So this is blue. Mamma's eyes are blue like the sky. Like Rach's. Like Jeanie's. Blue ... Damn, it's so beautiful.
Emma shook her head, stammering a bit as shock sloughed off of her in waves. "R-Ruby ..." God, Emma had seen so much in her lifetime; her daughter's beautiful green eyes were not what she expected to ever behold, however. Ruby had come out of the womb with the overwhelming need to contain her destructive optic beams.
Suddenly, an angry voice exclaimed: "Ruby Grace Summers! I am going to be beat your ass!"
Ruby was utterly stunned. Her Mamma was kneeling right in front of her. Why was her voice calling her from behind?
Oh shit ...
Her sister Meg was storming furiously towards her. Her eyes were blazing and blue. Ruby would have thought them lovely as well if they weren't smoldering with rage.
For some reason, Olivier and Ray were straggling along behind Meg.
"What are they doing here?!" Emma and Ruby demanded together. This time Ruby's outraged voice sounded exactly like her mother's.
"Umm, secondary mutation?" Oli said meekly.
"Uh, for the record, I did not want to come here and I was brought here against my will," Ray explained.
Ruby rolled her eyes.
"Hey, cool, Ruby has two eyes now," Ray said.
"I've always had two eyes," Ruby said, rolling them again.
"They're green ..." Oli said. His mouth was sagging open as he gawked at pretty Ruby. Yes, he'd always known Meggie was hot, but damn ... her sister.
"Ouch!" he yelped. Meg had stepped on his foot - hard.
"Ray, what the hell do you and Oli think you're going to do here?" Ruby demanded.
The tall girl cracked her knuckles as she surveyed the mountain towering over them. "I could start by punching thru that mountain! It ... kinda looks like a face."
Meg rolled her eyes. Oli glanced between Megan and Ruby Summers as if he were reaching a tough decision. "Yaww! Stoppit Meg!" She'd stomped down hard on his foot again.
"It is a face ..." Megan explained to Ray, pinching the bridge of her nose just like Emma did occasionally - far more often now than in the past. "That's Apocalypse. The mortal foe of the X-Men?" Only Ray LeBeau could make Meg Summers sound so wearily exasperated in the face of imminent doom.
"Heh, yeah ..." Ray said with a chuckle and a wicked glint in her eyes. In that moment, she looked like a slightly younger version of her mother Rogue.
"All of you go home!" Emma snarled at the children.
"No!" Ruby snapped, stamping her foot down hard. The other kids drew back instinctively. Her mother was fierce, but Ruby didn't waver; the Astral Plane was her turf. Not Emma's. "I'm not, Mamma! I don't really know how, but you aren't in charge here. You have no effect over this place. You can't control me here. You can't control my thoughts. You can't tell me what to do! I decide what to do here -"
Ruby leveled her sister with a fearsome green glare that actually made Megan squirm and look away. "And you can't either, sis."
Ruby gathered her strength to telekinetically fly into the air when Emma called out: "Darling, wait ..." There was something so regretful in her mother's voice that made her daughter pause. Her skin was as hard as quartz crystal, but deep down, Ruby Summers had a heart softer than mush. She turned back to see the White Queen, her blue eyes brimming with sorrow. "I-I'm just ... I'm sorry, Ruby."
Ruby's eyes widened. She couldn't remember her mother apologizing for anything to anyone - especially Ruby. "You needed help. You needed mentoring. Advice and ... I stifled you. I wasn't supportive. I was so scared." Emma bowed her beautiful blond head, hair fanning out around her like a curtain, pride crumbling around her like brittle walls. "I was so insecure because I couldn't help you; I couldn't solve all your problems and ... I was afraid."
Oli, Ray and Meg were staring so hard at Emma and Ruby their eyes looked like they might pop out. Cruuunch! Ray slowly munched on a potato crisp.
"I was so afraid you would turn to someone else for help. I wasn't thinking about you; I was thinking about myself. I was selfish," Emma said.
Ruby regarded her mother with wide green eyes. Then she narrowed them viciously at Emma. "You're still selfish!" she snarled. "You're putting my baby sisters in danger just being here! You won't listen to me or Rachel or even Dad; you're just too damn proud!"
She screamed the last words at the White Queen. They echoed eerily in the woods around them. Emma just stared into her child's eyes. Usurped by Rachel as the most powerful telepath, Meg's frenetic psychic abilities eclipsing her own ... Emma hadn't expected Ruby to be a threat to her superiority. But with Ruby's manipulation over the Astral Plane - where Emma had no sway over her child - as well as her swiftly developing telekinesis, Emma could no longer control her daughter ... not here.
Perhaps not anywhere.
"Go home, Mom," Ruby growled. Emma noticed her child no longer used the moniker "Mamma" to address her. "I'm going to kick some ass now."
The girl telekinetically lifted herself into the air to join the Phoenix Force trio winging their way up toward Apocalypse Mountain. As Emma gazed forlornly after her no-longer-little girl, Meg trudged meekly up to stand beside her mom.
"A-Are we going to j-just let her go?" the blond girl peeped.
The White Queen cut her icy blue eyes at her eldest child. "What do you think?"
###
The jagged rocks that formed Apocalypse's cave mouth had already swallowed one of Jonathan Richards' arms as the boy seemed to grapple for freedom against the behemoth. Jeanie was the first to reach him.
Resist him, brother! she shrieked telepathically to Jon and the fire-bird surrounding her in a halo of heat and light screamed encouragement to the boy in a battle-cry. We're here to help you!
Jon glanced at his twin with both of his beautiful blue eyes. The one usually covered to contain his optic beam was visible to Jeanie. He gave his beloved sister a smile of sheer relief with a healthy dose of wonderment.
The Phoenix! his amazed thoughts echoed thru Jeanie's head. She grinned happily at her brother, so relieved and overjoyed to see him she could have kissed his face. As she glanced at their mother, she saw the same joy radiating from her - Rachel Summers' heart leaped with pure ecstatic happiness. No matter what she had been thru alongside her family; God, it was all worth it to catch a glimpse of precious son. The sight of him was like a drop of water to a woman dying of thirst.
Phoenix Force combine! Jean's psychic order shouted thru Rachel's and Jeanie's brains simultaneously. Jeanie felt her life force merge liquidly into those of her mother and grandmother.
Phoenix ... all three fiery raptors of three generations merged to form one gigantic bird. In that moment, the three Grey women were no longer individual beings, but pure cosmic energy in the form a massive avian.
The colossal Phoenix, almost as big as the mountain-sized Apocalypse, roared with fury and breathed psionic fire, hotter and more destructive than any fire made by nature or man, at the gigantic mutant. Apocalypse bellowed, but refused to loosen his grip on Jonathan. The boy cringed, but the Phoenix-fire seemed to have no affect on him.
Suddenly, the monster's head was punched cleanly off as a figure with short spiky hair and a streak of white - Ray - came sailing thru the rubble she had made with her well-aimed assault. The girl recovered, hovering, admiring her handiwork. Most people were always telling her to settle down and not make a mess; this was an amazing release!
Apocalypse, however, simply regenerated another head, boulders piling on top of one another as he reformed into his mountainous shape. He roared at his adversaries, swiping at Ray as she flitted around him like a nervous bird.
Boulders the size of houses levitated around the behemoth. The huge stones forming his arms and shoulders began to come apart as Apocalypse was ripped limb for limb, literally, by Ruby Summers' telekinetic fury. The girl floated up to hover face-to-face with the monstrosity, her green unobstructed eyes blazing. She held a very pissed-off Olivier LeBeau in her arms.
"Leggo my best mate!" the boy ordered. He threw off his shades and gazed straight into the Devil's eyes. Oli's snake-eyes burned into the giant's enormous pale gaze. "Do as I say ... let 'im go."
Apocalypse, one of the strongest beings to ever exist, wavered for a moment, entranced by the boy's piercing red-on-black eyes. They were deep pools of magma ringed by cooled black lava.
The gigantic hand, with fingers the length and breadth of redwood trees, began to loosen its grip on Jonathan as Olivier stared down the conquerer of conquerers.
Suddenly, Jon slipped and went plummeting into space. Jeanie's consciousness, sensing her sibling in peril, instinctively disengaged from the Phoenix collective to dive after her brother.
Jeanieeee! Wait! Rachel cried out after her girl as she and her mother, Jean Grey, became two beings again.
Rach, put everything into attacking Apocalypse! Jean order her daughter.
Rachel gazed agonizingly after her daughter's swiftly vanishing figure as she dove after her twin, but she knew her mom was right. Together, mother and daughter merged again to form a massive fire-bird and spray cosmic fire at their greatest foe.
Everybody, together! Rachel commanded everyone telepathically.
The combined Phoenix Force alongside Ruby's telekinesis and Ray's super-strength attacked Apocalypse as one.
Titan met titanesses as the warriors clashed with the X-Men's oldest enemy. Even with their combined forces, they were matched almost exactly in strength by Apocalypse. Then two titanic psionic bursts rippled over the landscape like a hurricane.
Ruby lifted her head to see her mom and Megan standing shoulder-to-shoulder down in the valley below, sending out wave after wave of pure psionic power to attack their foe. As cross as she was at her mother and sis, Ruby felt a burst of pride for the White Queen and Meggie Summers ... and that she, Ruby Summers, was their girl and sister respectively.
Apocalypse actually seemed to stagger; the world around them wobbled.
It's working! Rachel crowed psychically to her warriors. He's finally weakening!
Then Jeanie reappeared in a halo of shimmering light, levitating and holding hands with her twin brother. Jonathan lifted his free hand and looked Apocalypse dead in the eye.
The monstrous mountain that was Apocalypse began to shrink. Boulders that formed his back, shoulders and torso crumbled or disintegrated. Stones that made his face turned to dust and nothingness. Soon En Sabah Nur was a mere pebble in the palm of Jonathan Richards' hand.
Before his family's wondering eyes, the boy crushed the pebble to dust in his hand.
Jonathan looked up at his family and spoke his very first words to them: "He was weak ..."
A/N: Oh, snap! Please review!