Chapter 12: Beginning's End

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You spent your whole life,

Preparing for this one moment in time.

For your own sacrifice,

You carry the hope for all Mankind.

You run with eternal grace

Your courage is matched by your pride,

With every beat of your heart

Your destiny cannot be denied

Capture the dream

Give it all for the team

The call of the glory

The thrill of the game

This is the moment the whole world can see

Go for the goal

With total control

Feeding the fire burning deep in your soul

One vision

One goal

To capture the dream

The moment has come

The eyes of the world are waiting to see

This is your time to claim your place in history

Standing tall with your face to the wind

You've waited all of your life

Finding your strength from within

Making your hopes come alive

Capture the dream

Give it all for the team

The call of the glory

The thrill of the game

This is the moment the whole world can see

Go for the goal

With total control

Feeding the fire burning deep in your soul

One vision

One goal

And with the power you hold, capture the dream

Reaching up straight to the top

Your vision will never be lost

With every mountain you climb

Winning no matter the cost

Capture the dream

Give it all for the team

The call of the glory

The thrill of the game

This is the moment the whole world can see

Go for the goal

With total control

Feeding the fire burning deep in your soul

One vision

One goal

To capture the dream

With the power you hold, capture the dream

-Capture the Dream By Stan Bush

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With a thunderous roar, the X-Jet tore through the sky at near Mach 7, rushing the moving, floating fortress. "Ok, here's the plan," Cyclops growled irritably, "We go in, save Mage and Ginny Weasley, kick Apocalypse's ass, then kick Mage's ass for doing something as stupid as running off on his own, which, by the way, I blame entirely on you, Logan," Cyclops added, ignoring the snort Wolverine gave him for it.

"Then we blow that hunk of rock out of the air and go home."

"Nice plan, Scott," Phoenix added, rolling her eyes.

"What's that?" Wolverine asked, sniffing the air.

"What's what, Logan?" Storm asked, confused.

"Hold on," Wolverine said, holding up a finger. He got up from his seat and walked back to a locker, placed one hand on the handle and drew his claws on the other, "One, Two, THREE!" He growled, jerking the door open to two audible yelps.

Wolverine sheathed his claws and glared down at Ron and Hermione, who both seemed to have crammed themselves inside. "Um … hi, Logan," Hermione said with an embarrassed giggle.

Wolverine just stared for a moment before turning toward the cockpit, "BEAST! GET BACK HERE! YOUR NIECE, YOUR PROBLEM!" Without another look, he stomped back to the cockpit.

Beast came storming back with a distinct look of displeasure on his face. "Martha Hermione Granger! You know better!" He cried, causing an 'eep' from Hermione and a snicker from Ron.

"Martha?" Ron chuckled.

"If Harry hears one word of this …" Hermione warned, "I will turn you into a mouse and give you to Crookshanks …"

"What are you doing here?" Beast scolded.

"We came to help Harry," Hermione answered as if it was the simplest thing in the world.

"Harry and Ginny are in trouble," Ron shrugged, "Who are we to miss the party?"

"You two will not set foot outside the X-Jet when we land, is that clear?" Jean said firmly to the two teens from her seat.

"But …" Hermione started.

"No buts," Jean silenced her, "We'll bring him and Ginny back safe, so you two just wait here and let us do what we do best, ok?"

Hermione stood there for a moment before throwing herself down into a spare seat and buckled herself in, sulking.

"Bloody hell," Ron gawked, taking the seat across from her, "If I knew it was that easy …"

"Shut it, Ron," Hermione glared.

--

"Ok, guys," Cyclops said from the pilot's seat, "Hang on; this looks like a rough landing coming."

"Oh goodie …" Logan said, gripping his restraints as the X-Jets shot toward the side of the floating temple.

"Storm, anything you can do to give us a doorway…" Cyclops asked, not easing up on the throttle.

A moment later, innumerable bolts of lightning struck a single area directly ahead of the jet, blowing a large hole in the side. The X-Jet almost made it through. The left wing caught on the side of the hole, forcing the jet to crash along the floor of the airborne temple.

"Bloody hell," Ron complained, "What kind of landing was that?"

"The kind you can walk away from," Cyclops said disgustedly.

"Well, this is marvelous," Beast sighed, "The main hard drive and flight systems are scrambled…"

"Ok, Beast, you stay here and get the jet airworthy," Cyclops ordered, "The rest of us will go after Mage and the girl."

The group nodded and exited the crippled jet, "Tell Harry he promised!" Hermione called after them. Cyclops gave her a thumbs-up and continued onward with the others, leaving the two teens and Beast alone.

--

"Ginny," Harry said, shaking the girl, "Ginny, wake up."

"H-Harry?" Ginny said, coming around, "What happened?"

"Doesn't matter," Harry responded, looking around at the large cage they were sealed in, "What matters is we find a way out of here …"

"You put yourself in danger for me again?" Ginny said, looking at him sheepishly, "I'm sorry…"

"Don't worry about it," Harry said, standing up and then holding his palm toward the bars. He narrowed his eyes and an invisible force bent them enough for Harry and Ginny to get through.

"Wow …" Ginny gawked, "You're a Mutant too …"

"Too?" Harry asked, staring in confusion, "You're a Mutant, Ginny?"

"What?" Ginny blushed, "No, heavens, no. Just my … err… I know another Mutant at Hogwarts…"

"Oh… right… who?" Harry asked, leading her through the hole in the bars.

"Promise not to tell or be upset …" Ginny pleaded, earning a nod from Harry. "Ok, he's my boyfriend. It's …"

"And where do you think you're going, X-Man?" Apocalypse said in an even tone, making the two teens jump in fright.

--

"Need any help, Uncle Hank?" Hermione asked, looking over Beast's shoulder as he worked on the damaged avionics system.

"No, thank you, Hermione," Beast said with a smile, "I've got it under control."

"Uncle Hank …" Hermione said a sense of fear in her voice.

"Yes, Her- MMF!" He grunted as Mystique blindsided him in the back of the head, knocking him out.

"Hello, Hermy," Mystique greeted with a evil smile, "And Ronny Boy," she then morphed into Hermione, "How have you been, Love?" she said in Hermione's voice and then changed back, chuckling as Ron began to gag and wheeze.

"I was hoping we'd meet again," Hermione said, stepping casually toward her.

"Is that a fact, little girl?" Mystique mocked as the two young women circled each other, glaring. She then stuck her chin toward Hermione, "Go ahead; I'll give you a free slap."

"Ok," Hermione smiled, reared back and slugged her right between the eyes.

Mystique fell right on her ass.

"You little whore!" She gasped, pulling herself to a sitting position, "I said slap!"

"Whore, am I? I'm not the one who slept with half the guys and girls at Hogwarts!" Hermione hissed, "Then again, I am not much of a lady myself, considering …" she said as she kicked Mystique in the face, "I kick little sluts when they're down."

"Why you little …" Mystique growled before roaring in rage and tackling Hermione in a hair pulling, face-scratching, punching, kicking catfight.

Ron stood by, watching them, and was about to jump in and help, but a quick death glare from Hermione stopped him dead in his tracks. Not that he minded Hermione having a cat fight with a naked, scaled yet attractive woman. He could think of one word to describe it, "Wicked…"

--

"Where do you think you two are going?" Apocalypse asked again, walking toward the fearful Harry and Ginny. "If you're in that much of a hurry to die," He said, stepping toward them, hand outstretched "So be it."

"Back off, bub!" Wolverine growled, slashing at the towering pale-skinned mutant.

"Wolverine!" Harry cried as he looked and spotted the other X-Men on their way.

"You two alright?" He asked, still glaring at Apocalypse.

"We're fine, Wolverine," Harry said as the other X-Men gathered around them.

"Good," said Cyclops, "Nightcrawler, take Ginny back to the Jet and wait for us there. Hopefully, we won't be long."

Kurt immediately touched Ginny's shoulder and the two vanished in a cloud of black sulfur.

"Ok X-Men," Cyclops said, preparing an optic blast, "Take him."

--

The fight was almost one sided, but no matter how many times Apocalypse knocked the X-Men down, they continued to get back up. "Stupefy!" Harry called as he cast the Stunning Spell at the demon's back, but it just ricocheted off.

Colossus, in his metallic form, gave Apocalypse a massive uppercut, which did make the monster back step, only for him to come back and send the Russian X-Man flying backwards into the wall, sliding down back down, the metallic sheen retracting, reverting him to his human form.

Cyclops hit him with a fully powered optic blast, capable of tearing a clean hole through a mountain. While it staggered him for a moment, he recovered almost instantly. Wolverine dove at him with his clawed fist, only to be caught at the wrist, slung around Apocalypse's head like a lasso, and then thrown at Jubilee, Morph, and Storm like a ragged, old doll.

Harry, using his Telekinesis to increase his strength and agility, began his attack and dazed the behemoth with a barrage of enhanced martial arts attacks, which were successful until Apocalypse grabbed him by the face, picked him up, and slammed him down to the hard ground.

Harry managed to get by Phoenix and Cyclops, "Jean, any chance of doing that fire thing you do?" Harry asked hopefully.

"I'm sorry," said Jean sadly, "I don't even know how I do it …"

"Ok…" Said Harry with a thoughtful expression on his face. "Let's see, he's impervious to magic, so even if I did get off a Petrifying Hex or even the Avada Kedavra, it wouldn't work, and I can't draw his power, but maybe … I have an idea!"

--

Nightcrawler and Ginny materialized, barely missing the two bodies trying to sling each other into the side of the downed jet. "What the…" Ginny and Nightcrawler said in unison as they watched Hermione brutally pound Mystique's skull into the metal plated side of the X-Jet.

"This. Is. For. Making. Harry. Think. I. Don't. Like. Him." Hermione said with a clang for every word. She finally let go of the blue-scaled woman, who stood there for a moment, dazed before falling backwards, out cold. "That's what you get for hurting the Granger name," She said with a hard nod.

"Um … what I miss?" Nightcrawler asked, looking down at the KO'ed shapeshifter.

"Go, Hermione!" Ginny cheered the exhausted teen.

"Thank Logan and Uncle Hank," Hermione said, pushing a strand of hair from her face, "They've been giving me lessons in self-defense."

"Self-defense?" Ron gawked, "You damn near killed her, Hermione!"

"Where's Harry?" Hermione asked Nightcrawler, ignoring Ron, "Is he ok? He isn't hurt, is he?"

"He's with the others fighting Apocalypse," Nightcrawler answered, "Now, I'm headed back to help. We'll be back in just a few, just get Beast to wake up, so we can get the X-Jet back in the air."

"Wait! I'm coming-" she started, but Nightcrawler had already 'ported, "With you …" she sighed, turning her attention to her uncle.

--

"So what's your idea?" Cyclops asked as Harry eyed the area.

"I can't tell you, because you'll stop me." Harry responded with a smirk worthy of Wolverine, "When I give the word, distract him."

Cyclops looked at Jean, who gave him a nod, showing trust in her adopted son, "Ok, tell us when."

"Alright, first, Dad, Mum, thank you," He said, blinking back tears, "Thank you for wanting me to be your son. If this doesn't work, I just want you two to know I love you both, and I couldn't imagine my real parents being any better than you two have been."

Jean, despite the dangerous situation, pulled him in a hug, "Be careful, Harry," She whispered before kissing his cheek.

Harry gave feeble ok and then nodded at Cyclops, "Let's get this guy."

Cyclops gave a nod, and the entire team, except Harry, attacked, while Harry snuck around behind. "You're going down!" Harry growled, jumping on his back and placing an ungloved hand on the back of the monster's neck.

"You fool," Apocalypse mocked, "You've tried that already! Your desperation is laughable!"

"I haven't tried this," Harry said as he began to reverse his parasitic powers and forced all of his energy to flow into Apocalypse's own energy, his still living soul.

"How will this bring you a victory, foolish boy?" Apocalypse asked, enjoying the added energy.

"If I can't curse you …" Harry said, removing his wand with his free hand. "I'll curse us," He said, turning the wand to point at his own chest, "See you in hell! Avada Kedavra!"

Harry's eyes went wide as the jade beam shot into his chest with the same feeling as a knife being shoved into him. His whole body burned, and the burning seemed to follow the flow of his energy, out of his arm and into the demonic mutant. Apocalypse screamed for hardly a second, and then they both fell to the ground with two separate, sickening thuds.

The room went deathly quiet, all eyes on the fallen combatants. Then finally the silence was broken by the one who had loved the young wizard/mutant since the moment she laid eyes on him and would probably continue until her dying day.

"HARRY!" Kitty cried, dashing to him to pull him in her arms, "Don't you dare do this, you … promised Hermione, remember? I am not going to tell her you died and broke your promise so wake up, you jerk!" she then heard him grunt a little, "You're alive? YOU'RE ALIVE! HE'S ALIVE! HURRY! HE'S ALIVE!" She called out to the others, completely losing all propriety and anything else approaching civility.

"Sweet Jesus!" He groaned, "Mother of God, that hurt!" he complained, holding his chest. "NEVER let me do that again!" He then looked over at Apocalypse's body, "Did I get him?"

"Yeah, ya did good, kid. Are you ok?" Wolverine asked, "Here, Runt, take a bit to help." He offered, handing him an ungloved hand, "You don't hurt as much as some people," He said with a wink to Rogue.

Harry took his hand and just enough to get some healing factor, but this time, he got something strange as well: an image, a memory, flashed in front of his eyes; the memory was of a person standing in front of a woman. It was fuzzy, and gone almost as fast as it came, but he could make out red hair and green eyes, "Truth is … I love you, Lily Evans…" he heard.

Harry's eyes went wide and he turned to Wolverine, who was now looking over Apocalypse's body. 'No, it couldn't be …' he thought, looking at his lap, 'Could it?'

Harry started to ask for him, but the temple gave a violent shake. "Uh oh…" Cyclops gulped as a large piece of rock fell from the ceiling, "I think that's our cue to skidoo," He said, looking down at Harry, "Can you walk, son?"

Yeah, let's go," Harry nodded as the group made a dash for the X-Jet.

--

"Harry!" Hermione yelled, jumping into his arms, "I was so worried!" She whimpered, trying to keep herself from crying.

"I'm alright, Mione," Harry reassured, "But we need to get out," he said as the shaking began to worsen.

The group got in the jet and began to buckle up, Hermione's hand immediately going to Harry's.

"Ok, let's get this bird in the air," Cyclops as he pressed a few switches, bringing the engines to life, which died just as fast as they'd activated, "or not … Beast?"

"It's not my fault!" Beast cried, beating on his control panel.

"The power converter is shot," Beast growled, "We need an outside power source, and it's going to have to be big to get us out of here before we go down the hard way."

Hermione looked at Harry, terror evident in her eyes. Harry wordlessly pulled her in his arms and held her tight, "We'll get out of this, Hermione, just hang on …"

"Outside power source …" Jean whispered, then looked up when all went quiet. "What?"

"Remember what I told you, Jean?" a girl said, standing between her and the frozen X-Men. She looked to be around Hermione's age with long red hair, green eyes, and in Gryffindor robes, "What?" Jean asked, her mouth growing dry.

"You can save them," The girl said, walking over to Harry who was holding Hermione tight, "But it will cost you a great deal. Are you willing to die for them, for your family?"

"I …" Jean started nervously.

"If you are willing to die for him and those you love," the girl said, stroking Harry's frozen cheek, "I will help you save them. Do you love them enough to give your life for them?" She said, turning back to Jean, flames now licking her hair and robes.

"Yes," Jean said with no hesitation, "Yes, I do,"

"You are a brave person, Jean," She smiled before being engulfed in flames, which suddenly took the form of a giant phoenix. The force gave a strong call before diving into Jean's chest. Jean closed her eyes and when she opened them, the world had unfrozen, but her burning red eyes held all the knowledge of what she needed to do.

--

"I'm sorry, Scott," Beast sighed and then jumped, "What the … we've got power!"

"What? We're taking off!" Cyclops gasped as the jet began to rise into the air. "WHAT? JEAN'S OUTSIDE!" He panicked. He grabbed the control stick, but found it under another's power.

"I know what I'm doing, Scott," Jean's voice echoed in their minds, "This is my choice, all of you over me."

"Jean, no …" Cyclops gulped, beginning to tremble.

"Hermione," Jean's voice said, "It's up to you to watch over our boys. Take good care of them for me."

"Jean …" Hermione whimpered, freely crying.

"All of you watch over each other," she said, "and I'll be watching you too. I love you all." The voice was quiet for a moment, "And Harry, I'll give your mother your love," she said as the jet sped out of the chamber. "MUM!" Harry cried, diving toward the side window, "No, not again! Please not again!" He cried, not even noticing that Hermione had pulled him to her.

"JEAN!" Scott cried as the temple crumbled and dropped to the ground in an explosive crash. "No …" he cried before realizing he was needed to take control of the jet.

Storm wiped her eyes and beckoned Scott to leave the pilot's seat, taking control and bringing the jet down to where the students and teachers had gathered. The battle has been won, but at a tragic price, one that none would soon forget.

To Be Continued …

C. Cowboy: As they say, all good things must come to an end. And Children of the Atom is nearing its end. Thanks everyone who reviewed and I'd like to thank Xavien for helping me out by beta reading it for me. But one thing to remember, 'Children' is ending, but this is only the beginning.

Until next time, True Believers!

Next Chapter: Epilogue