Based on characters and situations created and/or owned by Marvel Comics, Sunbow Entertainment, Kids WB and John Proft. Special thanks to Red Witch for the use of her character, Spyder.
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Chapter 29:
The Final Stand of Jack Carson
Jack moaned as he struggled to stand up, he could bairly even sit up, his ears ringing. His vision blurred as he tried to take in his suroundings. He couched, tasting blood, and checked his body for injurys. His his vision slowly cleared as he looked around. He was suprised to find that he was injury free, however he couldn't find his breath when he saw that he couldn't say the same for the mansion. There was nothing left but splintered bits of wood and some small piles of brick that were once walls.
He took afew more minutes before he was able to stand, and started to wander the wrechage.
"Rogue!" He called out, desperate to find someone, anyone still alive. "Kurt!" no answer. "Kitty, Ray, Bobby!" Jack's heard was sinking with every calling. "Ollie!" he yelled out, panick in his voice. He stopped, looking around at the fast desert of destruction. Just then there was a coughing. In a flash jack was running about the wrecage, racing over to the ruble and dug out whatever was moving under the pile of debre. "Hang on, im coming." Jack yelled as he feverishly dug threw the remains of the mansion. Jack found the guy he only knew as colossus, coughing out a small puff of smoke.
"Oh, Da, Thank you my friend, jack." Colossus groaned as he climbed out of the mass.
"No promblem," Jack said with a gasp, sighing sadly, wishing he could have found ollie, "Piotr, right?" Jack asked as he slumped into a sitting position at eye level with the massive man.
"Da, you are unharmed?" Piotr asked. Jack nodded.
"You?"
"I am undamaged. Have you seen anyone else?" Jack shook his head.
"I hate to ask but, it would be easyer to serch if you... you know... armored up?" Jack said nervously, feeling bad for asking anyone to perform their mutant ability.
"Da, we must cover as much ground as possible." Piotr said in agreemend, and in the blink of an eye, his skin was replaced with metal. He shun in the sunlight as he went to work tearing threw the ruble. Jack was working at a different spot, when he came to a half crumbling wall. Jack raced up to it, and found no one behind it. Jack sighed, slumping weakly. He absently wandered the landscape with his eyes. It was looking very very bad. He was happy that he atleast he hadn't found any bodys. Piotr raced up, out of breath.
"Any progress?" he asked. Jack shook his head as he looked up along the wall. "Where could dey all be?" he asked. As jack looked up, he gulped, somehow the sight making his blood freeze.
"I think we have a clue..." He said as he gestured to the wall. Piotr looked up and his jaw dropped, a message was splattered on the wall in a thick dark colored liquid. Jack pressed his finger to the liquid, rubbed it between his fingers and took a sniff. He bit his lip, trying hard to not panic. "Blood." He said as he looked back up at the lettering. Piotr read the message out loud.
"Your friends are at the final resting place of Eric wagner and Nathanial Carson." Piotr said in confusion."Who are these people?" he asked, then he thought for a moment. "Wagner, that is Kurt's last name is it not?" He asked.
"Yeah," Jack said nervously, "and carson is my last name... this is getting scary." Jack said. "Atleast we know they're alive." he said, scratching the back of his head, unsure what to think.
"It gets worse." A voice said behind them. they both turned, and instantly shifted into fighting positions, as Mystique walked up from out of the forest. She just scoffed. "I'm not here to fight you fools, i'm here because my son and adopted daughter are in danger," She said as she glanced up at the message on the wall, "For aparently something I was involved with." She said, running her hand against the wall. Jack gave her a stern look.
"Thats him, isn't it?" he asked, "He was the one who your fighting humanity for?" Mystique gave jack an angrey glare, but then looked down.
"We have to find them." She said evenly.
"And soon." another voice said. They three of them looked up to see magneto hovering down, a young girl in the sphere of energy beside him. Piotr's eyes lit up as they landed and the girl raced up to him.
"Illiana!" He hollared as she lept into his arms.
"Big brother." She called back as they held eachother tightly. Jack bit his lip, all this did was make him worry about spyder, and x, and everyone so much more.
"I am afraid time is short, We must leave at once, shield is on their way to investigate, we can not be here when that happans." Magneto stated evenly.
"And what do we do then?" Piotr asked.
"We find where the others are, and we free them." Magneto replied.
"No." Mystique stated angrily. They all looked over to her, lost in confusion. "Only jack and i can go, I am sure bringing anyone else will put the others in danger."
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twenty minutes later, Jack and Mystique Stood at the entryway to an age ravaged cemetary, hidden behind an old church just outside the bayvile city limits. Mystique said nothing as she walked in, but Jack was hestant, like he didn't belong there for some reason.
"You going to tell me what happaned, where it all began?" Jack asked as he followed timidly, wandering the rows of decaying tombstones.
"It was a long long time ago, but i suppose if anyone alive is still aloud to hear this story, it's you." She said evenly, walking slowly down the main walkway, knowing exactly where she was going. "I wasn't always angry like this, there was a time in my life... when i was happy, when everything was right in the world," She reached into her pocket as she spoke, and pulled out a small, heart shaped pendant, it was made of gold, but you couldn't tell by looking at it. It showed its age in the chips, scuffs and sploches of rust, "I was married then, to a man... well... i suppose a man like you," She clicked open the pendant as she spoke, an old, black and white photo of a man from another time hidden in it, causing a single tear to fall from the blue woman's cheek. She cleared her throat as she wiftly closed it and jammed it back into her pocket, "Then your ancestor, the great noble, man of god, Nathanial Carson changed everything." Her words became harsh and bitter as she spoke them.
"He burst into our home. He knew i was differant. In those times people didn't know of mutants, but they knew i could change, and assumed i was a witch, him and his damn collections of deciples, with their pitchforkes and torches, a linch mob waiting for someone to kill, THE BLASTED FOOLS!" She screamed out, kicking the side of the old church, causing a section of the withered, wooden wall to crumble.
"Man hasn't changed much since then i suppose." Jack said weakly, wishing he could have changed things.
"Yes... man hasn't changed... But I changed that day. They tried to kill me that day, a shot gun pointed at my head." She said as she reached a lonley tombstone at the far corner, and fell to her knees, her words coming out wavering. "He defended me to the end... and he paid for it with his life..." She said, bushing off the dust that had collected over the letters, eched in stone. JAck slowly walked up behind her, reading it aloud.
" Eric, Kurt Wagner, born 1875, died 1894..." Jack bit his lip, he knew Mystique was old but over 100 years, he held his shock to himself and continued reading, "Though his heart strayed with the devil, may he find light with the lord." Jack said, his tone emotionless. Mystique said nothing, wiping the tears from her eyes as she stood up and faced jack, after a moment she was alittle confused.
"Did you find your ancestor's grave?" Jack shook his head.
"I didn't look, he dosn't sound like a man i could ever want to know." Mystique's eyes widened in a moment of suprise, but the thought was driven from her head as the ground under them shifted, and rumbled as if the land was alive. After a moment they saw the main pathway slpit open. and the rumbling stopped. Jack and Mystique looked at eachother, then jack edged his way over to the hole, and looked down.
"It's a stairway... look's like we're not done walking." He said as he slowly stepped down the suprizingly smooth, metalic stairwell, Mystique close behind.
"So... he died, and you deside to kill every member of his family ever since?" Jack asked.
"Almost, I lost track of your great grandfather somewhere around the begining of world war 2, and then there was you..." Jack stopped for a moment, turned and gave er a stair that could kill.
"My mother, my sister? you kill them too?" He asked, his teeth grinding together in a rage no one had ever seen in jack. If Mystique was intimidated, she was doing an incredible job of hiding it.
"No, they died the way you were told, i never found your personal roots until a wekk before... that day." Jack's shoulders slouched, he let out a breath he didnt know he was holding in, said nothing, and continued down the staircase. "How are you doing this?" She asked as they walked.
"Doing what?"
"Your calmly walking into god knows what with the one person you should hate more than anyone, yet your fine?" Jack continued walking.
"Oh don't get me wrong, i dont hate someone easily but i hate you more than the devil himself, but i learned long ago that what you want to do isnt always the right thing to do... If i let my hatred for you take me over, i would be no better than you." She didn't know why, but those words stung. The two walked down the stairs in silence after that, so far the light from the surface wasn't visible any more. But after afew feel of feeling along the walls, the staircase was being lit by torches that hung against the sides of the walls. They walked for another five minutes when they came to a massive set of double doors.
"What do you think this is all about?" Mystique asked.
"I dont know and i dont care, im here to get my friends back, thats all." HE said, and with that, pressed his hands against the door, and pushed hard. The door fought him, but in the end gave in, alowing Jack to push it open, and step threw, mystique not far behind. They looked around, trying to find anything, but there was nothing but darkness all around them. Then suddenly the door behind them swung shut, and they were blinded in darkness.
"Who would have thought, the two of you standing side by side." A high pitched, sarcastic vocie echoed from everywhere.
"Who are you, where are my friends?" Jack demanded.
"Ohh they're safe, to be honest i dont care what happans to them, you two however, i hate more than anything, and have chosen this moment to destroy you both." The voice said.
"Yeah well..." Mystique started, and suddenly stopped. Jack turned to her direction, but could see nothing. All he could do was hear the sound of something falling onto the metalic floor.
"Mystique?" Jack called out. A small light suddenly shined down, like a spotlight, just enough to wrap around jack and the spot where mystique stood a moment ago, now, the only thing there was a massive red ruby, about the size of a fist, settling on the floor as if someone had dropped it. Jack walked over, picked the ruby up and examined it. His eyes went wide, and he nearly droped it, when he saw Mystique, frozen, her hands pressed up against an unseen wall, imprisoned withing the small gem.
"But you, Jack Carson, i hate more than her." The voice said.
"Why? what have i done to you?"
"Ohh hit isnt what youve done, its what you didnt do." Then a row of spotlights clicked on beside the one he stood in, one after the other in a long row that streched down into what he now realized was a massive open chamber, like an empty air plane hanger, leading to a tall staircase, with a monsterous throne at the top. A man stood at the top, and gestured for jack to follow the lights. JAck looked down at the jewal again, and slipped it into his pocket, before walking the path of lights.
"You let her live." The man said. As jack walked closer, he could see the man wore a bright green tunic, and purple gloves and boots, his face seemed to be metalic, but it wasnt a mask, it was his face.
"I don't understand. Jack said as he looked up at the man, standing at the foot of the staircase. The man looked down at him, like god watching his children.
"That woman you hold in your pocket took everything from me and you... and you forgave her." Jack was lost, and the statement shocked him.
"What do you care."
"I care as much as you should, i am your decendant, i am the ruler of the future, i am KANG THE CONQUEROR!" The man bellowed, as if he had hollared out something jack cared about. "This woman killed every family member we had and you let her live, for that you are worse than her, and i wanted to make you suffer." Jack had heard enough.
"Where are my friends?" Kang's angry, rage filled face softened, into a slight chuckle.
"Oh, they're hanging around." He said as he waved his hand. Suddenly, the room lit up in a moment of blinding light. JAck let his eyes ajust just in time to see kang flip a small switch at the side of his throne. Jack then heard something, like the spinning of a fishing reel, and looked up, to see a massive shandaleere falling at him. Jack fel to his knees, waiting for it to crush him. But it didnt. Jack looked up to see it hanging an inch over where his head was a moment before, and heard kang laugh as if it were all a silly game to him.
" They have become my most prized treasure. a shandaleer of frozen friends, look closly my ansestor," Jack did just that as kang spoke, and his heart sank. Every crystal that hung from it was identical to the one in his pocket, but each one was different, within one he could see kurt, another he saw logan, still another there was forge, rogue, spyder, jean, the professor, X. All frozen in time, all wearing a look of horror as they blindly stared back at jack, "all of your friends, frozen in my crystal prison." He said with another wild laugh.
"All that power, all those filthy mutant freaks, right where they should be, trapped forever!" as he spoke, one by one his friends swayed around him as the shandaleer turned like a slow roulette wheel, brightly displaying every friend he had. Then jack heard kang snap his fingers, and it rose again, out of sight.
"How dare you... HOW DARE YOU!" JAck shreiked, angreier than ever.
"SILENCE!" Kang demanded. the room hung in silence for a moment before he slowly began his decent down the staircase.
"You yourself are an oddity my friend, you see, reality is like a river, that splits into many channels and slivers. some there is little more than the color of a hat, others, frogs acended to the level of intellegance that man enjoys in this one. but in every humanoid reality i have visited, of all the countless worlds upon worlds that we share with the multiverse, every other universe held a man like no other, destiny turning him to a man of strength and power, constantly known as spider-man." Jack looked up to kang, confused.
"You getting to the point?" He asked evenly, his hands balled into fists.
"The point, old man, is that this reality, this one little speck of existance, that man dose not exist, never has, never will... instead, this miserible microbe of a galazy was treated to a pitiful nothing of a man, named JAck Carson," He said as he reached the halfwaypoint of the staircase, "So fell me, why, what makes you so special that the makers of the multiverse see it fit to put a welp of a child in the place of one of the greatest heros to ever live?" Somehow this made jack's skin crawl.
"Just lucky i guess. you want me, you got me, do what you want, let my friends go." Kang stood at the midway point of the stairs, rubbing his chin.
"And the mutant in your pocket?" He asked.
"Her two, she goes with them or no deal." Kang's eyes went red, literally red as he bared his teeth in anger.
"WRONG ANSWER, YOU ALL WILL DIE, and you will be the first." Kang squealed in hatred as he raced down the stairs, his palm pressing against jack's chest, and the small bit of connection sent jack sailing down the the other end of the room. Kang laughed as he continued down the stairs.
"Youve wanted to be a hero all your life, havent you boy, and on occasion youve been alowed to play make believe, but that time is over, you are without your weapons, without your armor, and without your friends, tell me. what did you hope to accoplish here? did you truly think you could best one who is master of time and space?" Jack wiped the blood that trickled from his jaw.
"That was the plan, yeah." HE said evenly as he started walking back towards kang, his hands so tightly balled into fists his knuckles were white. After a moment of walking, jack started running, colliding with kang in a fierce tackle, but jack froze, as if he had tackled a brick wall. He looked up to see a smiling kang.
"Your a fool boy, you have no weapons, no power, and no way to even defend yourself, you will die a weak little nothing." Kang said as jack reached into his pocket, serching for something, anything that could help. Jack's eyes widened when he felt some of the pellets ment for the armor forge had made. He took a deep breath, hoping they were pelets that would help.
"Someone once told me that some people are born into greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them." Jack said with a confidant grin. "so kang, wheres your greatness?" And with that, jack threw the some 20 pellets at kang. He screamed out, terrified, some pellets were the freezing kind, forcing him to freeze in place, others were the electric type, sending a painful, massive jolt threw his body. Jack didn't take the time to enjoy his small victory. Instead he lept to his feet and raced up the staircase, up to the throne, gasping, feeling an ache where his old injureys from the fight with Apocalypsehad re broken. He pushed on, ignoring the pain, ignoring the screams of rage as he heard kang break free of the prison the pellets and made for him. Kang turned, the red returning to his eyes as he ran after jack.
Jack at this time had made it up the stairs to the throne, and watched kang aproch, and waited, his hand hovering over the arm of the chair, waiting... waiting... kang was feet from the staircase, and jack slambed his hand down on the one button that stood on the arm. Kang froze, his eyes wide in horror, already knowing what had happaned. He looked up, to see the shandaleer of crystals hurtling towards him.
"NOOOOOOOO!" JAck heard kang scream, before the massive carasell of crystal crashed to the floor, filling the massive room with dust. Jack coughed as the dust started to settle, and looked over the room from the towering staircase. His eyes teared up in joy, seeing among the mass of shattered glass and twisted metal, every one of his friends, begining to shake their heads clear and begin to find their way to their feet. Jack ran down the steps, so happy to see everyone, that he acctually tripped on his own two feet, and tumbled down the last few steps. He found himself tumbling down the stairs, feeling his ankle twist, about to collide with the ground, when he felt his body stop in mid air. He winced in pain, but looked up to see jean, her hands in the air, and a soft smile as she guded jack softly to the ground, where X raced to his side, helping him to stand on his one good leg.
"I thought I had lost you..." Jack said, smiling, tears streaming as he looked deep into x's eyes.
"Can't get rid of me that easily." She said with her own small smile. JAck looked up, seeing beast walking over, Xavier in his arms.
"I can not tell you how pround i am of you, my boy." Xavier said with a smile. Jack's eyes widened.
"Wait, you were all awake?" Xavier nodded. Jack couldn't help but blush. Just then the room began to tremble, and the celing started to crumble from above.
"Kang had been controling all his technology with his mind, now that he is gone the room can not sustain itself, everyone, to the exit, at once!" Xavier ordered. and the massive collection of students and staff galloped for the towering staircase. Jack and X were the bringing up the rear, JAck felt releife when he saw jean and storm leading the way up the stairs, helping the younger students as they went. Then there was a trumendous rumbling, and the ground beneath Jack and X gave way, and they both fell. At the last moment, jack caught a jaged rock, groaning out as he felt the stone dig into his hand, his other hand tightly gripping X's.
"Hold on x!" He called out over the rumbling, his heart racing, as he felt the sweat on their hands making their fingers loose their grip, and in an instant, jack felt the world slow down, as his fingers lost their hold, and X started to fall.
Suddenly, jack was somewhere else, somwehre bright, a massive endless room of white. He felt like he had been here before, but coudln't place it.
"You remember this place, dont you?" X said, causing jack to turn quickly, to see her there, staning tall, her cloths a bright white tank top and matching pants as she slowly stepped towards him. As she did the room of white changed, into a lush green forest.
"Yeah... this.. this place is..."
" This place is our minds, connected." She finnished for him as she walked up to him, her hand gently caressing his cheek. Jack took the hand, holding it tightly in both of his. "What's happaning?" Jack asked.
"I am falling jack, there's no way out... " X said weakly, jack's grip on her hand tightened.
"I... i wont leave you." She smiled, her free hand wrapping around his waist.
"Yes you will, you have to... someone has to look after olivia..." X said sandly. Jack felt tears rolling down his cheeks. X only smiled, and wiped them away. "Do not be sad, i am not..."
"But you'll die..."
"But you taught me hot to live, that makes it all worth it." She said, kissing him softly. He couldnt do anything more than kiss back. She eventually pulled back, her hands resting on his chest. " A part fo me will always be with you, but i want you to go on living, my time is at an end... but yours has just begun." Jack felt his words waver as he spoke.
"I... i'll never forget you..." He said in tears.
"I know, i wont let you." She said, lightly bonking him on the forehead, before kissing his hand, and stepping away. Jack watched her walk off towards a blinding light.
"X...," He said, causing her to turn, "I love you."
"I love you too jack, But remeber, my name is navi." Suddenly, jack was back in the casum, one hand struggling to keep hold of the jaged rock above him, his eyes full of tears as X fell into the darkness. Anyone else would be horrified, would be screaming in terror. But X showed a content smile... and then, she was engulfed in the darkness.
Jack didn't notice Kurt teleport beside him, and teleport them both back to the staircase, he didn't notice as kurt and rogue carried him up the stairs and back out to the cemetary. All jack could do was watch as the rock and debre tumbled all around them, the darkness falling like a blanket over them, and how the woman he loved, more than anything on earth, was gone forever. He would never again see her smile or touch her hand, never hear her speak, never watch her growl in anger over small silly things.
All jack could do was stand there, among his friends, and watch as the entrance into hell had enveloped itself.
"Jack..." A voice said. Jack absently looked up, as if in a daze, to hear logan speaking, a soft tone he never thought logan could make. "You alright kid?" JAck looked back at the mass of disturbed rubble, then back at logan, then back out at the graveyard. His eyes caught sight of the tombstone of Eric Wagner, and reminded him of the stone in his pocket. He pulled it out, and looked at it for a moment. Then, threw it at the ground hard, causing it to shatter in a billion peices. And suddenly, Mystique stood there before them.
"W... what happaned?" She asked. JAck said nothing, gently pushing away those who held him up, and limped away, his patch unclear, hisbody brused and battered, and his heart as broken as the crystal he shattered to free his greatest enemy.
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a month had gone by and the world had reletivly gone back to normal, Xavier and Magneto had greeted eachother as old friends, and Magneto, under the name Magnus, and pleged to aid Xavier in his dream to bring humans and mutants together, feeling it might be time to "give peice a chance". With magneto's aid, The rebuilding of the mansion was far ahead of schedual. The students were able to move back in withing the first week, but none of that felt important to jack. He had spent most of his time, sitting out on the back lawn, looking out at the clouds as they slowly coased by, his mind no where near where it pobably should be. Xavier, Magneto and Logan collected at a side window, watching Jack as they spoke to one another.
"Is there any change?" Magneto asked.
"No, he dose nothing but stair out at the sky." Xavier said sadly.
"Chuck, his grades are slipping, this keeps up he'll get kicked out of school." Logan added. Xavier nodded sadly.
"Have you talked to him?" Xavier asked.
"Not yet... I honestly cant think of what to say, i mean... what do you say to a kid that went threw what he did?" Logan replied.
"Even for a mutant, that boy has done things that most could not imagin." Magneto said, somehow in awe of what this child, this human had acomplished.
"That may all be in vein if we can not rebuild his broken mind." Xavier said as he turned and went off into the mansion. "Logan, you have to talk to him, it can wait no longer, as difficult as it is i have other matters that must be addressed." Xavier said as he and magneto headed back for xaviers office, Leaving logan alone to stair out at the kid, looking out at the sky.
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Xavier later was busy at work attemtping to put the schools issues back together, after being gone so long things had begun to pile up and he was swamped in paperwork and explinations needing to be made. Just then there was a knock on the door. Xavier smiled, knowing who it was before he spoke.
"Come in." He said, as Scott and jean stepped into the office. "Well, my star students, you'll be going to college soon, how dose it feel to be off to live a normal life?" He asked optamisticly.
"Honestly professor, im not sure how i feel about it. I know it's got to be done, we have to find a normal life, but... I honestly dont know how to leave the X-men." Xavier nodded.
" I see, have you desided who you want to replace you as team leader?" Xavier asked. Scott sighed.
"There are alot of acceptable canadets, its just hard to deside."
"I see, well it has to be done, time waits for no one." Scott nodded in understanding.
"Honestly professor, thats not really why we came in here." Jean said, her hand gently holding scotts arm. Scott looked up at jean, then back at the professor.
"Well... um... Sir... Jean and i... we're getting married." Xavier's eyes went wide.
"Arnt you two alittle young for that?" Scott lifted his hands up in defence.
"Not right away sir, not til after college at the very least. It's just, we were hoping.. when it comes, that we could have the wedding here." Jean began to blush lightly.
"And professor... if you would be interested in giving away the bride." She added. Xavier smiled.
"When the time comes, it will do my heart proud to see my two first students starting their new lives together." Xavier said with a wide smile. "What is the other thing you wished to ask?" Scott looked up at Jean, she gave him a re assuring nod.
"It's about Jack sir, I... well I think it's time we did something about him."
End of Chapter
Next Chapter: Full Circle
okay folks, its finnaly here, the next chapter will be the last for "The Human X-Factor" it took me a long time to get this far, ive never put so much into a story before... but you guys were the reason i did it. Ive never been more motivated with anything in my life as i was with this story, and i have you all to thank, if you dont comment on this chapter, please comment on the next, cause i have to know if i have any shot of being good at this... and do you want a sequal, do you want something completely new? tell me, i am begging to hear from you. But most of all i want to thank everyone for making the human x-factor my biggest acomplishment ever!
