Chapter Nine: Final Duel
For a few minutes the two of us stood and faced one another, looking into each other's eyes, like gunfighters facing off in a Western, both waiting for some obscure cue to begin the battle. Then, as if we had both been prompted by some invisible signal, the two of us sprang into action. Constantine started stronger, determined to finish me off as quickly as possible, moving to close the distance between us. At long range we were fairly well matched, but at short range his mutated strength would give him a clear advantage. I backed away, keeping a safe distance between the two of us, waiting for an opportunity to use my telekinesis. I didn't want to waste my power, and there was no point in using it just for the sake of it. Constantine could heal any injuries I inflicted on him…I wasn't exactly sure how I was going to defeat him. I had to think of something. There had to be some way.
The crowd around us had somehow sensed that this was the final confrontation between two ultimates, and most of them had begun to flee, trying to get to a safe distance away from us. Fliss was struggling with the unconscious form of Chris, trying to get him to safety. I pushed out my senses towards Chris – his injuries were not fatal; there was no immediate need for me to heal him. I continued to step backwards from Constantine, waiting for some plan to occur to me, some way of destroying him. He kicked aside an empty parked car that blocked his way, sending it spinning over and over to one side, narrowly avoiding crushing a group of fleeing humans.
He raised one hand, using his power to increase the gravity around me, my movements becoming slower and more sluggish, as he drew closer and closer. I tried to move out of his path, but my body felt like it weighed a hundred tons, and I couldn't move any more than a few inches. Constantine launched a devastating sideways kick to my mid-section, sending me sprawling on to my back. I could feel bones broken and internal organs damaged, and I called on my healing power. My body restored, I quickly rolled over to avoid another attack from Constantine. Getting to my feet, I hurriedly looked around for something I might be able to use against him. My eyes lit upon a large delivery lorry, a few vehicles back from the school bus. Abandoned, its driver had presumably joined one of the groups of escaping humans.
Constantine was trying to target me with his power again, but I was already a step ahead of him, using a telekinetic blast to throw him into the side of the lorry. He gave a yell, of surprise more than pain, as he hit the vehicle full on, and collapsed on to the ground, momentarily stunned. I concentrated my power and pulled over the lorry, bringing it down on top of Constantine, crushing him.
I knew he wasn't dead. I could still sense his presence. For a moment all was still, then the lorry began to move. Slowly, gradually, it rose from the concrete surface as Constantine pushed it away from him. When he had raised it high enough, he pushed it to one side, and pulled himself out. He was injured – his body had received damage – but before I could do anything else, he began to heal himself. His body restored within seconds, Constantine narrowed his eyes at me, and prepared for his next attack. Altering the gravity around the wrecked lorry, he raised it from the ground and created a gravity field to send it rocketing through the air towards me. I didn't have enough time to react and use my power to push it away – there was only one way to avoid it. Using my telekinesis, I pushed away from the ground, and lifted myself into the air, just as the lorry sped through the air underneath me. It smashed against the front of a shop, pieces of mangled metal and broken glass flying through the air, and I lowered myself to the ground.
Constantine was running at me once more, trying to catch me off balance with a swift attack. I dodged aside as he leapt through the air towards me, and hit him with a spinning kick, knocking him into the ruined shop-front. He landed on his back, broken glass and twisted pieces of metal biting into his skin. He struggled for a moment, then his healing power mended his wounds, and he got into a sitting position. Grabbing one of the pieces of metal debris – a pole about ten feet long, jagged at one end where it had been torn loose – he held it in front of him like a spear, and stood in a defensive position, trying to think of his next move.
His delay was just the opportunity I needed. I looked around for another vehicle, and decided simply to use the first car I saw. It was empty – all of the vehicles had been parked and abandoned during the hostage situation – and I launched it through the air towards Constantine. He was slow to react – his gravity control did not appear to work well on fast-moving objects – and the car hit him full on, knocking him back on to the floor, the metal pole still gripped firmly in his left hand. I heard a cheer going up from the crowd, and I saw they were now standing at a safe distance, watching the encounter. The hostage schoolchildren had been freed from the bus, and many were standing with parents, relief and gratitude pouring out of each of them, all willing me to destroy the man who had used them as living shields.
He had no shields now, and no more allies. Nightshade and Ocelot were dead, and Constantine had to rely solely on himself and his own abilities. It was him or me, simply a matter of which of us defeated the other. This was without doubt the hardest battle either of us had ever fought, with the fate of the world as a prize. Constantine was fighting to take control of the world's population, and I was fighting to keep him from doing so. A world ruled by Constantine was not something I even wanted to try and imagine.
The realisation that the crowd was on my side had riled him, and spurred him on to greater effort. Pushing the car aside, he jumped to his feet, still clutching his makeshift spear. Angrily raising his free hand, he began to increase the gravity around me, and I felt the unpleasant sensation of my body weight increasing beyond a level at which I could move. I struggled to lift my arms to counter with my telekinesis, but I didn't have the strength to lift the ton-weight limbs that were hanging by my sides. I tried to enter my berserk state, but my adrenaline level wasn't high enough. I continued to battle against the increasing gravity, but I knew it was a pointless battle. I could hardly move a single muscle. Constantine flexed his arm and clenched his fist, increasing his power, the gravity around me getting stronger and stronger. His power pushing me down towards the ground, coupled with the Earth's natural gravitational force, began to have a compacting effect on my body. I felt as if I was compressed, squashed, tightened, my lungs and heart being crushed by my rib-cage. My own body was destroying itself…my body had no defence against this…
My mind. My only way to attack now was with my mind. Pushing out with my telepathy towards Constantine, I entered his mind. It was the first time I had fully projected my consciousness into his thoughts, and I was glad. It wasn't a pleasant place to be. From our brief acquaintance, I already knew he wasn't a particularly kind-hearted individual, but some of the things I read in his mind were disgusting beyond belief: things he had done; things he wished he could have done; things he was planning to do; all the terrible, sadistic punishments he intended to inflict on Chloe, Chris and Felicity once I was dead. Once I was out of the way, their lives would be in his hands, and he meant to make those lives one long, savage odyssey of suffering. There was just one problem with that plan…
I wasn't dead yet. He thought he had me beaten, but I had one last trick up my sleeve. I was going to try something I had never managed to do before, something the Professor had been trying to teach me, something that he had assured me would come when my power had grown and when I needed it the most. That time was now.
I was going to control Constantine's mind. It was the only way. I didn't have to do it for long, just long enough to get him to nullify the gravity field he had created around me. I moved around in his mind for what seemed like hours, but was really only seconds, until I found the decision-making part of his cerebrum. This was something I had never been able to do before: I had to implant a decision in his brain. Doing this wasn't difficult enough; the difficulty lay in doing it subtly enough that he didn't know I had done it. Done carefully enough, he would believe the decision was his own, and would obey it without question. It required a level of concentration that would normally take meditation to achieve. I didn't have that much time. I had only seconds to act. To someone like the Professor it would have been easy. To someone with my relative inexperience, it should have been impossible.
Only it wasn't. Somehow I knew, before I even tried it, that it was going to work. It was the only way I could stop Constantine from killing me. My death, his victory, him ruling over the world, was inconceivable. I concentrated with all my being on the simple thought: stop, and, after offering up a quick prayer, pushed it into his brain.
He stopped. The gravity field disappeared, and I collapsed to the ground, gasping for air, desperately using my healing power to restore my crushed body. Constantine was standing, shaking his head in confusion, unable to remember why he had just stopped his power when he had been seconds away from killing me. I knew I could not rely on it working a second time. I had to keep on the move to prevent him from doing that again; if I stood still for too long he could create a gravity field around me, and it would be too late to escape. I stepped back, putting distance between us, and used my telekinesis to lift the car again, preparing to bash it against his head once more. This time he was ready, and used his gravitational powers to repel the car away from him, sending it crashing into another couple of stationary vehicles off to my left.
I was on the move, backing away again, as he moved forwards, always remaining the same distance apart. I took a quick glance around. Was there somewhere I could hide? I had two advantages over Constantine in that respect: I could look through solid objects, and I was psychic. If I could find a place to hide, I could pinpoint him with my X-ray eyesight and use my telekinesis with impunity. There had to be somewhere I could disappear. I ducked behind a delivery van, trying to stay out of his view. Whether or not he knew about my X-ray eyesight was questionable; there was no way he could have seen me using it, but he might have known about it from my father's research. Keeping parked vehicles between myself and Constantine, I looked around once more, determined to find somewhere to conceal myself.
Fairly certain that he couldn't see me, I ducked into a side street, and through the first door I came into. It led into a restaurant: empty, with half-eaten meals left abandoned on tables. Hungry as I was, I couldn't stop to partake of anything. Looking through the wall, I focused on the street outside, and my eyes lit on Constantine. Still clutching his 'spear', he was prowling around the parked vehicles, checking each one carefully, convinced I had to be hiding behind one of them. I raised both hands and took a telepathic hold of two cars, waiting until Constantine was standing directly between them. He took a cautious step forward, then another – two more would be enough – as he checked to see if I were crouching behind either of the vehicles. He stopped, glanced over his shoulder to make sure I wasn't sneaking around behind him, then stepped forward.
I brought the two vehicles together with a sickening metallic crunch, catching Constantine between them, crushing him to the floor. Any other man – or mutant – would have been crippled or killed by such an attack, but Constantine merely staggered to his feet, feeling no pain, and seemingly unhurt. He was furious now, frustrated by the fact that I could attack him while he couldn't even see me, and he angrily swung the jagged metal bar through the air, creating a huge dent in the side of one of the cars I had just thrown at him. Time to rid him of that particular weapon, I thought. I didn't fancy facing it in a close combat situation. Using my telekinesis to pull the metal pole from his grasp, I flung it down the street away from him. For a second, Constantine watched it go, then he returned to angrily scanning the street, looking for me.
Eventually he worked out where I was. Either he knew about my mutated eyesight, or he made a lucky guess, but whichever it was, he came storming down the side street and into the restaurant where I was hiding. I was ready for him. I used my power to lift a carving knife from beside a steak lunch on one of the tables, and sent it arcing through the air towards him. It was moving too fast for him to dodge, and he made no attempt to avoid it, instead raising his arm to shield himself, the knife slashing deep into his wrist. He pulled it out and threw it aside, activating his healing power. I had already begun moving towards the door while he was distracted; I didn't want to be cornered by him. He tried to create a gravity field around me to slow me down, but I was moving too fast.
Keeping my distance from him, I backed out into the street, waiting for another opportunity to attack. He was trying to get as close as possible to me, having decided that I was too dangerous at long range, determined to fight me at point-blank range. I had to keep him as far away from me as possible, as that was the only way I could see myself achieving a victory. I still wasn't sure how I was going to kill Constantine…so far my attacks had damaged him a lot, but nothing that he couldn't easily heal. I had to find some way to cause him an injury that he couldn't heal…but how? How could I stop him from using his power?
I had the same power, and I knew from my own experience that it was a mutation of the heart. That was where the power originated when I called upon it, spreading throughout my bloodstream from its point of origin, restoring my entire body. Constantine's power had to be the same…so if I could find some way to damage his heart…would that stop him from healing himself? If so, it meant I had the same weakness myself. It seemed like the easiest way to kill him; the other method would have been to destroy his brain. I decided to go for the heart.
He was still advancing on me, changing the gravity around himself so he could run faster, and was slowly closing the distance between us. His dark eyes narrowed with murderous intent, and he flexed his powerful arms in preparation for his next attack. Still backing away, I felt myself stopped by something solid, and turned to see that I had run out of room, and was trapped against a building. I stopped, as if I had given up trying to run, and Constantine charged, going for the kill. I pushed away from the ground, lifting myself up over him, and his momentum carried him straight into the shop-front, the glass window shattering as he ploughed through into the building interior. As it happened, I realised one advantage I had over him: the ability to think clearly and calmly, even in the middle of a death duel such as this. Constantine was fighting mad, driven almost insane by Nightshade's death, and wasn't thinking at all, just going for the simplest way to kill me. Hopefully this would be the key to destroying him.
I dropped to the ground and went after him, knowing he would have been cut and gashed by the glass, determined to press my next attack home before he could use his healing power. Inside the shop, he was struggling to his feet, blood pouring from wounds and cuts in his face, arms and chest. I launched myself towards him, a two-footed kick connecting with the base of his spine, knocking him forward on to his hands and knees. The pain would have been excruciating if he hadn't been immune to it, and it was this that saved him. Oblivious to the damage his body had suffered, he staggered upright once more, and came for me again, intent on only one thing: destroying me utterly. I ducked underneath his clumsy punch, and kicked him solidly in the ribs. I had to concentrate my attacks on his heart, while giving him no time to heal his wounds.
Constantine tried to create a gravity field around me, but I was constantly on the move: ducking, dodging, light on my feet, never staying in one place long enough for him to attack me. I feinted with my left, then punched him in the throat with my right fist. He choked for breath, stumbled, and lost his footing, both hands clutching at his windpipe. I closed in. This was it. I had almost won. I knew it. He tried to get to his feet. He couldn't. I moved in for the kill.
My overconfidence was my undoing. I had forgotten that Constantine was like no enemy I had ever faced before, and I realised my mistake a split second too late as he rose, and reached up to grab me around the neck with his impossibly strong muscles. He squeezed, constricting my throat, cutting off my breathing, lifting me clear off the ground. I scrabbled desperately at his hand with both of mine, but it was pointless. His strength was far in excess of mine, and I was never going to loosen his hold that way. My vision was beginning to blur, black spots appearing before my eyes, as I began to lose consciousness. I tried to go berserk, but in my weakened state it wasn't possible.
An idea occurred to me, an idea borne out of madness and desperation, something I had never tried before, something that had to work…if it didn't I was dead. Since our bodies were touching, I was able to create a telepathic link between myself and Constantine. I pushed out to him with my feelings, exactly the same way I did with Chloe, although this time my objective was somewhat different. Constantine gasped as it had happened, as my mind pushed into his, and he began to experience everything I was feeling, seeing and thinking. The pain he was inflicting on me was now being shared between us, and he jerked in shock, his hand releasing my throat. I fell to the floor, gasping for breath, struggling weakly to get away from him. The telepathic link had been broken as he released me, and he wasn't impressed. Grabbing my grounded form with both hands, he flung me out of the building, back out into the street. I hadn't fully regained consciousness, and I was vaguely aware of flying through the air, then pain registered as I collided with something very solid.
I shook my head to clear it, and tried to get to my feet to face his next attack. I was too weak and too slow, and Constantine had already lifted me once more, throwing me against the brick wall of the next building along. I felt bones snapping as I slid to the floor, the pain overwhelming me, my mind struggling to keep everything together. Heal…I had to heal…before I could do anything, he had taken hold of me once more, and was battering my body against the wall, as if he wanted to smash me like a china doll. Gripping me powerfully in one hand, Constantine drew back his fist, and delivered a devastating punch to my chest. I screamed as my ribs shattered and punctured my heart, and I knew it was over now. He had done what I hadn't been able to, had ravaged my heart, and as I tried to call on my healing power, I realised with a sickening feeling that it wasn't working. I was dying. Only another mutant with healing power could save me now; Constantine wasn't likely to do so, and Wolverine was nowhere near. My heartbeat was dropping erratically, and I knew I had mere minutes left. Just enough time to ensure that I took Constantine with me.
Unfortunately, it wasn't going to be that easy. My body was still racked by agonising pain, and I could hardly move a muscle. Constantine had dropped me like a wet rag on to the pavement, and I glanced over in dread to try and see what he was going to do next. He was using his power to pull towards him the jagged metal pole he had used as a weapon earlier. It soared through the air to him, and he grabbed it in one fist, raising it over me in preparation to drive it down into my face.
"You fool," he snarled in hatred. "Did you really think you could defeat a god alone?"
I tried to speak, but only blood would come up, bubbling between my lips, as I felt my vision dimming, my last view of Constantine swimming about unsteadily.
"He's not alone!" another voice screamed.
Chloe.
I twisted, tried to see her, but couldn't.
"He's not alone," she repeated. "And you're not a god!"
Constantine had obviously turned his attention to her, as he lowered the metal spear to his side, and gave a mocking laugh, "I don't think you're in a position to dictate anything to me."
Chloe! Run, I telepathed in desperation, you can't face him. Get away from here, find the Professor. I'm finished.
"I'll never leave you," I heard her reply.
"Very touching," Constantine jeered. "But ultimately meaningless. You're mine now. When Oculus is dead – which won't be long now – I'm going to make you into my little slave. You will exist for no other purpose than to please me, and whenever I torture you – which will be often – you will thank me for it. I will take as much pleasure as I wish out of you, and then, when I tire of it, I will discard you. You're not worth anything, after all."
It was this last comment that finally ignited the anger that had been brewing inside me. The suggestion that Chloe – my love, my whole life, my reason for existing – was worth nothing, was the final spark that set off the eruption within me. Fury, rage of a level I had never felt before, supernova-ed in my blood, and I entered a berserk state of such intensity that I nearly ripped myself apart.
"You…die…" I spat, forcing words through my blood-covered lips, as I raised both of my broken arms to use my telekinesis.
Gripping Constantine's body with my mind, I threw him against the brick wall, causing minimal damage to his body, but that wasn't what I had intended. Using my left hand to keep him entirely still, I moved my right hand to focus my power on the jagged metal pole that had been jarred from his grasp. I raised it into the air, turned it to point directly at his chest, then drove it into him with every last drop of berserk anger in my soul. Constantine gasped, feeling no pain, as the spear plunged into his chest, broke through his ribs, splattered into his heart, and drove straight through him into the wall. I relaxed my power. Impaled to the wall, he threw up blood, pulled weakly at the pole in his chest, tried to heal himself, and threw once last hate-filled look in my direction.
Then Constantine Matthews, aka Invincibilus, died. He had failed to live up to either of his names, being neither constant nor invincible. This thought struck me as strangely amusing, and I gave a choking laugh as I began to go delirious through loss of blood. My adrenaline rush dissipated, my body weakening once more, and I slumped to the floor, unable to move any more. My last fight was over. I had saved the world from Constantine. It had taken my own life to do it, but that was of little importance really. Perhaps nobody would know the importance of what I had done, but that didn't really matter either. Chloe would know, and that was what I really cared about.
Chloe. The baby. I felt an intense sorrow as I realised I would never see my daughter's birth, would never cradle her in my arms, would never hear her first word, would never watch her grow up, would never be able to teach her to use her powers to help others, as I had. Perhaps it was just as well. Perhaps Rosiçkys didn't make very good fathers. At least I knew that my child could live in safety in a world that wasn't ruled by Constantine. I knew Chloe could teach her about good and evil, and how to use her powers properly, far better than I could. Thus I knew at least one piece of good would come out of my sacrifice.
Chloe was kneeling over me, her face swimming in and out of my vision, and I tried to smile. She was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. Dying with Chloe's face in front of me was not so bad. She was in tears, horrified by the extent of my injuries, taking me in her arms, and she was saying something. For a moment I struggled to make it out, then I knew it was.
"Heal! Heal yourself!" she said desperately. "What's the matter; why don't you heal?"
I can't.
Tears burst from her eyes, and she sobbed, "I can't lose you! Neil, you can't die! Neil?"
Chloe.
I could no longer see her.
"Neil!"
Chloe…I love you…
"NEIL!!"
Then I fell into darkness.
I opened my eyes. My body was encased in a wonderful warm feeling. The most beautiful face imaginable was in front of me, smiling at me. I was dead. This must be heaven. This face looking at me had to be an angel. Her hand reached out to caress my face, and I felt a smile crossing my lips. I was in heaven. Was this the reward for the sacrifice I had made?
The angel smiled in return, and she came closer, her lips meeting mine in a perfect kiss. She was so beautiful, I could hardly believe she was real. She looked something like Chloe, in fact. Actually, she looked a lot like Chloe. Then, as I thought about it some more, I realised she looked exactly like Chloe. My logical mind kicked in, and came to one conclusion: she was Chloe. Which meant…I wasn't dead. But I knew I was dead. Maybe all angels looked like Chloe. Maybe they appeared as the most beautiful thing I could imagine.
"Is this heaven?" I heard myself asking.
"Only when you're here," she replied, and leaned close to give me another kiss.
I was slightly puzzled by that response. It was something the real Chloe would say, but she wasn't here. She was still alive. And I wasn't. But if this was heaven, why was this angel kissing me?
Without warning, my telepathic senses returned to me, and I could sense the angel's mind. Then I knew I wasn't dead.
"Chloe," I whispered, pulling her towards me, kissing her lovingly.
I wasn't in heaven, but she was still an angel to me. The real Chloe. When we drew apart, I felt a small smile appearing on my lips, and I said, "I don't understand. I'm dead."
"You're not dead," she smiled.
"But…how? I…I don't understand. My heart was damaged; I couldn't heal."
"You're not the only one with a healing power."
"Yeah, but Constantine's…"
Chloe took my hand, and gently placed it against her abdomen, "I didn't mean him."
It was then that I remembered. The baby. My daughter could heal. She had inherited the power from me, and had used it once before. I had completely forgotten. When Chloe had knelt by me, and desperately taken hold of my body, our unborn daughter had sensed my injuries, and had instinctively used her power.
I wasn't dead.
I felt like simultaneously laughing and crying out of pure joy. I pulled Chloe down on to the road beside me, and kissed her fully, allowing my relief, joy and love to flow into her. The warm, heavenly-cloud feeling that was still over me…I knew what that had to be: the aftermath of my daughter's healing. I had never experienced it like this when healing myself…it was an incredible feeling. It was like pure undiluted love. No wonder Felicity had fallen in love with me after I had used it on her.
The feeling began to fade as the curative started to dissipate in my blood, and I returned to the real world. Chloe helped me to my feet, and as I stood, I heard a great cheer going up from the crowd. They'd seen me defeat Constantine, and they too had thought I was dead. I raised a hand and gave them a sort of wave, too caught up in my joy and elation to give a more elaborate response, and the volume of the cheering grew. Cameras began flashing as Chloe put her arms around me, and I could see some of the hostage children, now safely in the arms of their parents, clapping and cheering their rescuer.
Felicity was with us now, and Chris, the latter limping along unaided, refusing to be helped despite his injuries. A huge grin lit up his face, and the two of us embraced like brothers, my healing power passing into his body and mending the injuries he had sustained. Then Fliss put an arm around him and Chloe took my hand, and the four of us were together, together and still alive. Despite everything Constantine had thrown at us, love and true friendship had conquered in the end. I knew I would never love anybody as much I loved these three people now.
Well, except my children. I could feel my daughter's presence, and I thanked her for what she had done. She responded with happy feelings as she sensed my message, and I reciprocated, sending her all the love I had. The tiny mind was overjoyed, and spontaneously pushed out her feelings to all four of us. Fliss gave a delighted gasp as she felt it; Chris stared at Chloe in shock; Chloe simply squeezed my hand as the two of us drew together for another kiss.
Whatever the future might hold, I knew we could now face it with hope and joy instead of fear. Constantine was gone, and with my father's work destroyed, no artificially created mutant could ever rise to take his place. The future was our own, whatever we chose to make it. The world was my own, mine to serve and mine to protect, to always use my power to save life instead of endangering it, to eradicate any evil that tried to extinguish good. I knew now that good could and would conquer evil, as I had conquered Constantine, and as long as those who were good fought hard enough, those who were evil could never win. I held the world in the palm of my hand; I was its guardian. One day Another would come, who would eradicate all evil forever, but until then I would do the best I could to prepare for Him. I smiled as the tiny mind stirred once more inside Chloe, the mind I had brought into the world, the little miracle whose birth was only nine short months away: my daughter, my heir, the heir to everything that was mine. Heir to the world.
The End
