A/N: THIS WILL BE THE LAST CHAPTER UNTIL I GET BACK. SORRY. I WOULD POST
UP ANOTHER ONE BUT I DONT HAVE TIME TOMORROW AND I SERIOUSLY DON'T THINK MY
BRAIN CAN WORK THAT FAST AND THINK UP A WHOLE CHAPTER. I WASN'T GOING TO
WRITE THIS CHAPTER TODAY BUT WHATEVER. I MANAGED. HOPE ITS OKAY. ENJOY.
________________________________________________________________________ Sakhmet: The name of this goddess means the powerful one. She was the daughter of the sun-god, Re, and the wife of Ptah. She is shown with the head of a lioness and the body of a woman, suggesting her great force and power, and her sometimes dangerous nature. She could both bring plagues and protect people from them. In the Age of the Pyramids, Sakhmet was sometimes shown embracing the king, breathing divine life into his nostrils. -A lioness goddess, worshiped in Memphis as the wife of Ptah; created by Re from the fire of his eyes as a creature of vengeance to punish mortals for their sins; later, was transformed into a peaceful goddess of pleasure and happiness ________________________________________________________________________
~*~
"In Sakhmet's name a goddess will rise, made from the blood of the warrior king, Apocalypse." Destiny announced as she stared at Mystique with her blank eyes.
Mystique listened to Destiny with undivided attention, her face twisted in a glower. "What does it mean?" She asked warily.
"Apocalypse has risen and he will take his toll on the world and by his side, the Powerful One will stand." Destiny continued making no more sense than she did before.
"Is this supposed to help me?" Mystique demanded and Destiny sighed.
"It is to warn you. There will be a great battle and the courage and strength of all humans and mutants will be tested." Destiny explained quietly, her face evident of her concern. She had seen many things and many of them were of calamity and darkness but this one terrified her. There was something strangely familiar about the vision but she couldn't quite put her finger on it.
"What does this have to do with me? I could care less what happens to all of us now." Mystique said impatiently as she shifted her weight from one leg to the other.
"You should care. The world could end Mystique." Destiny replied cryptically.
"Where have I heard that before?" Mystique said sarcastically. Truth be told, she was tired of Destiny's prophecies. The world was about to end a long time ago-when Magneto recruited all the best mutants for his evil plans, when she released Wanda from the asylum, when Rogue's powers escalated but no, the world did not end and all they lost was her daughter's life.
"Beware, Mystique for this creature has the blood of Apocalypse and it is in her nature to destroy." Destiny declared somberly. She had seen the power, felt the rage of the creature called Sakhmet and she was truly afraid.
Mystique nodded, sighing as she pondered on what to do next. "Another war." She said, her voice filled with exasperation. "How many do we have to go through before this is all over?" She whispered as she walked out, not waiting for an answer.
************************************************************************
Pietro flipped the channel for the fifth time as he kicked an empty soda can off the table. His eyes stung from losing so much sleep but like usual, he chose to be stubborn and stayed awake. Exhaustion was much better than sleeping because when he slept, he had nightmares.
He groaned with frustration when there was nothing to watch. It was all news. Half of Egypt was destroyed; almost all of France too, said the blonde newscaster on TV.
Pietro scoffed. "Who cares if the world is ending, again?" He said to the empty room. He settled on a channel, threw the remote on the table a stood up towards the window. He was in the middle of god knows where Kansas. He'd been moving from town to town for a month now, going nowhere in particular and not caring where it led him.
Hell, why should he care if the world was ending? That people were dying? He had no purpose now but to be some shadow, passing by in town. He lost everything. Rogue, the one person he loved, his sister who he could presumably call crazy since she was still out there, hunting their father; and the Brotherhood who used to be his family until they all broke apart and scattered.
He hated being alone or lonely to be exact but what could he do about it? It was not like he had a choice. He would have stayed with the Brotherhood but watching them and knowing and feeling their sadness was unbearable and it drove him even crazier. A
And he didn't want to be crazy.
Pietro turned back to the television, intending to turn it off but something caught his attention, a small clip that a news chopper caught of the attack in France. There were six people, mutants to be exact but what made him look harder was the creature standing by next to Apocalypse. She wore a mask of a lioness over her face but it was the streak of white hair that made him shiver.
He gasped as his eyes filled with tears, as he fought the urge not to cry.
Christ, he was hallucinating again. It wasn't possible. He had to have seen it wrong but the camera continued to focus and zoom on all the mutants and he saw that despite his horror, he was right.
Without thinking twice, he grabbed his bag and money and headed back to Bayville.
************************************************************************
"We don't stand a chance against them!" Evan hissed as he winced from his broken arm. They had just come back Italy where Apocalypse and his Horsemen had moved on and continued to destroy. "Especially against that thing." He added as he recalled the image of the lion faced Horseman who proved more powerful than they imagined.
"The woman with the lion mask." Xavier stated. "I tried getting a reading of her but nothing." He said darkly. There was something strange about the woman, something he should be fearful of.
"Nothing?" Jean echoed in surprise. She did not like the tone that the professor was using. It was as if he was losing confidence in his abilities and himself.
"There is a great barrier that protects her mind." Xavier declared. "She's very strong."
"Apocalypse called her Sakhmet." Scott growled angrily as the events of their earlier battle replayed in his mind. Sakhmet had single handedly destroyed a whole city, almost costing them their lives as well.
"Ah. The Egyptian Goddess of both destruction and life." Xavier announced.
"Could the guy get any weirder?" Kurt whispered making fun of the name.
"Don't take this lightly, Kurt." Xavier hissed. "Sakhmet was one of the most powerful Goddesses. If Apocalypse gave her that name, then she must have proven herself worthy."
"He called her his daughter." Jean added. "What does that mean?"
"She could really be his daughter or he just gave her that name because he saw her as the best candidate to follow his lineage." Xavier said. "I don't know but Apocalypse and Sakhmet are our priorities. We destroy them and we have a great chance of stopping all of them."
"But how?" Kurt asked.
Xavier sat quietly as if he had not heard the question. He was lost in thought. Like the rest of his students, he didn't know how to stop Apocalypse.
"Magnus and the Acolytes will aid us." He looked up as he spoke.
"And if we still fail?" Kitty asked skeptically. She did not like the idea of the Acolytes helping them again. Things always tend to end badly with the two groups together.
"We don't fail, Kitty. We never did. Not with....Rogue, not ever." Jean said rather proudly. She wasn't about to let Kitty's doubts take all of them down.
"That's right. We are the X-men. One of the most powerful group of mutants. We will live through this." Scott spoke up, standing next to Jean.
Everyone nodded in agreement. Some of them were incredulous but no one spoke up again.
"Professor?" Kitty asked quietly as she brought to mind the girl whose hair looked exactly like her former dead friend'.
"Yes, Kitty?"
"Was it just me or did the woman in the mask look familiar?" She asked; her voice hesitant. Everyone in the room was watching her and Xavier curiously. Jean was now glaring at her for having the audacity to ask such a question.
Xavier shook his head. "It was just you." He said and he dismissed all of them.
************************************************************************
Lance watched in utter astonishment as his friends walked back into the Brotherhood house. Within a week, Mystique, Wanda and Pietro had waltzed back into their lives.
"So, the end of the world brings us all back together again." Todd said as he watched all of them.
"Yeah." Wanda grumbled as she readjusted her gloves and pretended to be busy. Pietro had tracked her and pried her away from her mission which was to search and destroy Magneto. She could almost kill him for interfering but there was something off about Pietro. It worried her.
"So, what's the plan?" Lance asked.
"There is no plan. We destroy our enemies, fight to the death. End of story." Mystique declared offhandedly.
"That doesn't sound too effective." Wanda said as she watched the other woman with caution. They were all walking on eggshells. It has been that way since Rogue died.
"Well, things change. I don't know how to stop Apocalypse. We can stop his Horsemen but Apocalypse is immortal. We could always put him in another dimension but then again we don't have the machine to do that." She said shrugging her shoulders. She didn't really care about it. It peeved her why suddenly the burden of saving the world was placed on her shoulders. She didn't ask for this. It certainly was not part of her plan or her job. Her purpose was to infiltrate government agencies like the FBI, CIA not save the world. She was a terrorist, for crying out loud.
Mystique didn't want to be here, didn't want to be in the place where Rogue lived until the bitter end, didn't want to see the unhappy faces of the people who were her friends, didn't want to remember. But there was a war to fight and duty called as much as she hated it.
There was no rest for the wicked or the damned, in their case.
"The X-men has it in the mansion. Remember when those T-rex thingies attacked Bayville High? Well, that's how they got here, yo." Todd said.
Mystique nodded. "Good thinking, Toad. Now, we need one of you to go in there and steal it."
"I'll do it. I'm the fastest and their censors can barely detect me. When it does, I'm usually out of the mansion by then." He said.
"Be careful." Lance said.
"Like I ever listen to you." He smirked fondly and ran towards the X mansion.
Lance smiled back and then turned to the rest of his team mates. "So, we stand a chance after all." He said and they all shrugged apprehensively.
"Maybe we do." Mystique said as she looked out the door where Pietro had ran off too. She hoped Lance was right.
~*~
************************************************************************
A.N: I WAS GOING TO NAME ROGUE CHAOS LIKE EMPEROR'S SISTER SUGGESTED. THAT WAS MY PLAN BUT I THOUGHT OF APOCALYPSE'S HISTORY AND I FOUND THAT IF HE NAMED HER AFTER AN EGYPTIAN GODDESS, IT WOULD MAKE MORE SENSE. IN MY OPINION, IT JUST SUITS THE SCENARIO BETTER PLUS I LIKE THE GODDESS' POWER AND ROLE.
ANYWAY, TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK. REVIEWS PLEASE.
OH, AND BEFORE I FORGET, MERRY CHRISTMAS. ILL SEE ALL OF YOU IN THE NEW YEAR.
THANX.
________________________________________________________________________ Sakhmet: The name of this goddess means the powerful one. She was the daughter of the sun-god, Re, and the wife of Ptah. She is shown with the head of a lioness and the body of a woman, suggesting her great force and power, and her sometimes dangerous nature. She could both bring plagues and protect people from them. In the Age of the Pyramids, Sakhmet was sometimes shown embracing the king, breathing divine life into his nostrils. -A lioness goddess, worshiped in Memphis as the wife of Ptah; created by Re from the fire of his eyes as a creature of vengeance to punish mortals for their sins; later, was transformed into a peaceful goddess of pleasure and happiness ________________________________________________________________________
~*~
"In Sakhmet's name a goddess will rise, made from the blood of the warrior king, Apocalypse." Destiny announced as she stared at Mystique with her blank eyes.
Mystique listened to Destiny with undivided attention, her face twisted in a glower. "What does it mean?" She asked warily.
"Apocalypse has risen and he will take his toll on the world and by his side, the Powerful One will stand." Destiny continued making no more sense than she did before.
"Is this supposed to help me?" Mystique demanded and Destiny sighed.
"It is to warn you. There will be a great battle and the courage and strength of all humans and mutants will be tested." Destiny explained quietly, her face evident of her concern. She had seen many things and many of them were of calamity and darkness but this one terrified her. There was something strangely familiar about the vision but she couldn't quite put her finger on it.
"What does this have to do with me? I could care less what happens to all of us now." Mystique said impatiently as she shifted her weight from one leg to the other.
"You should care. The world could end Mystique." Destiny replied cryptically.
"Where have I heard that before?" Mystique said sarcastically. Truth be told, she was tired of Destiny's prophecies. The world was about to end a long time ago-when Magneto recruited all the best mutants for his evil plans, when she released Wanda from the asylum, when Rogue's powers escalated but no, the world did not end and all they lost was her daughter's life.
"Beware, Mystique for this creature has the blood of Apocalypse and it is in her nature to destroy." Destiny declared somberly. She had seen the power, felt the rage of the creature called Sakhmet and she was truly afraid.
Mystique nodded, sighing as she pondered on what to do next. "Another war." She said, her voice filled with exasperation. "How many do we have to go through before this is all over?" She whispered as she walked out, not waiting for an answer.
************************************************************************
Pietro flipped the channel for the fifth time as he kicked an empty soda can off the table. His eyes stung from losing so much sleep but like usual, he chose to be stubborn and stayed awake. Exhaustion was much better than sleeping because when he slept, he had nightmares.
He groaned with frustration when there was nothing to watch. It was all news. Half of Egypt was destroyed; almost all of France too, said the blonde newscaster on TV.
Pietro scoffed. "Who cares if the world is ending, again?" He said to the empty room. He settled on a channel, threw the remote on the table a stood up towards the window. He was in the middle of god knows where Kansas. He'd been moving from town to town for a month now, going nowhere in particular and not caring where it led him.
Hell, why should he care if the world was ending? That people were dying? He had no purpose now but to be some shadow, passing by in town. He lost everything. Rogue, the one person he loved, his sister who he could presumably call crazy since she was still out there, hunting their father; and the Brotherhood who used to be his family until they all broke apart and scattered.
He hated being alone or lonely to be exact but what could he do about it? It was not like he had a choice. He would have stayed with the Brotherhood but watching them and knowing and feeling their sadness was unbearable and it drove him even crazier. A
And he didn't want to be crazy.
Pietro turned back to the television, intending to turn it off but something caught his attention, a small clip that a news chopper caught of the attack in France. There were six people, mutants to be exact but what made him look harder was the creature standing by next to Apocalypse. She wore a mask of a lioness over her face but it was the streak of white hair that made him shiver.
He gasped as his eyes filled with tears, as he fought the urge not to cry.
Christ, he was hallucinating again. It wasn't possible. He had to have seen it wrong but the camera continued to focus and zoom on all the mutants and he saw that despite his horror, he was right.
Without thinking twice, he grabbed his bag and money and headed back to Bayville.
************************************************************************
"We don't stand a chance against them!" Evan hissed as he winced from his broken arm. They had just come back Italy where Apocalypse and his Horsemen had moved on and continued to destroy. "Especially against that thing." He added as he recalled the image of the lion faced Horseman who proved more powerful than they imagined.
"The woman with the lion mask." Xavier stated. "I tried getting a reading of her but nothing." He said darkly. There was something strange about the woman, something he should be fearful of.
"Nothing?" Jean echoed in surprise. She did not like the tone that the professor was using. It was as if he was losing confidence in his abilities and himself.
"There is a great barrier that protects her mind." Xavier declared. "She's very strong."
"Apocalypse called her Sakhmet." Scott growled angrily as the events of their earlier battle replayed in his mind. Sakhmet had single handedly destroyed a whole city, almost costing them their lives as well.
"Ah. The Egyptian Goddess of both destruction and life." Xavier announced.
"Could the guy get any weirder?" Kurt whispered making fun of the name.
"Don't take this lightly, Kurt." Xavier hissed. "Sakhmet was one of the most powerful Goddesses. If Apocalypse gave her that name, then she must have proven herself worthy."
"He called her his daughter." Jean added. "What does that mean?"
"She could really be his daughter or he just gave her that name because he saw her as the best candidate to follow his lineage." Xavier said. "I don't know but Apocalypse and Sakhmet are our priorities. We destroy them and we have a great chance of stopping all of them."
"But how?" Kurt asked.
Xavier sat quietly as if he had not heard the question. He was lost in thought. Like the rest of his students, he didn't know how to stop Apocalypse.
"Magnus and the Acolytes will aid us." He looked up as he spoke.
"And if we still fail?" Kitty asked skeptically. She did not like the idea of the Acolytes helping them again. Things always tend to end badly with the two groups together.
"We don't fail, Kitty. We never did. Not with....Rogue, not ever." Jean said rather proudly. She wasn't about to let Kitty's doubts take all of them down.
"That's right. We are the X-men. One of the most powerful group of mutants. We will live through this." Scott spoke up, standing next to Jean.
Everyone nodded in agreement. Some of them were incredulous but no one spoke up again.
"Professor?" Kitty asked quietly as she brought to mind the girl whose hair looked exactly like her former dead friend'.
"Yes, Kitty?"
"Was it just me or did the woman in the mask look familiar?" She asked; her voice hesitant. Everyone in the room was watching her and Xavier curiously. Jean was now glaring at her for having the audacity to ask such a question.
Xavier shook his head. "It was just you." He said and he dismissed all of them.
************************************************************************
Lance watched in utter astonishment as his friends walked back into the Brotherhood house. Within a week, Mystique, Wanda and Pietro had waltzed back into their lives.
"So, the end of the world brings us all back together again." Todd said as he watched all of them.
"Yeah." Wanda grumbled as she readjusted her gloves and pretended to be busy. Pietro had tracked her and pried her away from her mission which was to search and destroy Magneto. She could almost kill him for interfering but there was something off about Pietro. It worried her.
"So, what's the plan?" Lance asked.
"There is no plan. We destroy our enemies, fight to the death. End of story." Mystique declared offhandedly.
"That doesn't sound too effective." Wanda said as she watched the other woman with caution. They were all walking on eggshells. It has been that way since Rogue died.
"Well, things change. I don't know how to stop Apocalypse. We can stop his Horsemen but Apocalypse is immortal. We could always put him in another dimension but then again we don't have the machine to do that." She said shrugging her shoulders. She didn't really care about it. It peeved her why suddenly the burden of saving the world was placed on her shoulders. She didn't ask for this. It certainly was not part of her plan or her job. Her purpose was to infiltrate government agencies like the FBI, CIA not save the world. She was a terrorist, for crying out loud.
Mystique didn't want to be here, didn't want to be in the place where Rogue lived until the bitter end, didn't want to see the unhappy faces of the people who were her friends, didn't want to remember. But there was a war to fight and duty called as much as she hated it.
There was no rest for the wicked or the damned, in their case.
"The X-men has it in the mansion. Remember when those T-rex thingies attacked Bayville High? Well, that's how they got here, yo." Todd said.
Mystique nodded. "Good thinking, Toad. Now, we need one of you to go in there and steal it."
"I'll do it. I'm the fastest and their censors can barely detect me. When it does, I'm usually out of the mansion by then." He said.
"Be careful." Lance said.
"Like I ever listen to you." He smirked fondly and ran towards the X mansion.
Lance smiled back and then turned to the rest of his team mates. "So, we stand a chance after all." He said and they all shrugged apprehensively.
"Maybe we do." Mystique said as she looked out the door where Pietro had ran off too. She hoped Lance was right.
~*~
************************************************************************
A.N: I WAS GOING TO NAME ROGUE CHAOS LIKE EMPEROR'S SISTER SUGGESTED. THAT WAS MY PLAN BUT I THOUGHT OF APOCALYPSE'S HISTORY AND I FOUND THAT IF HE NAMED HER AFTER AN EGYPTIAN GODDESS, IT WOULD MAKE MORE SENSE. IN MY OPINION, IT JUST SUITS THE SCENARIO BETTER PLUS I LIKE THE GODDESS' POWER AND ROLE.
ANYWAY, TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK. REVIEWS PLEASE.
OH, AND BEFORE I FORGET, MERRY CHRISTMAS. ILL SEE ALL OF YOU IN THE NEW YEAR.
THANX.
