A/N: Sorry for the delay in uploading this installment. Writers block gets me at the worst times. Just so you know, this chapter may be a little weird or 'unbelievable' which is why I qualify it as sci-fi. Overall I'm thrilled with the emotion and power I put in Rogue and things kinda pretty much go along the lines of what I was originally intending for this scene back when I started the series, but as always things didn't go exactly as planned.
Thanks to Elizabeth Braddock-Grey for the title suggestion for this chapter. I was drawing a total blank.
Now let's have you see the results and don't be bashful about reviewing as you see fit. Constructive critisms would be appreciated so I know whether or not to try a story along these lines again. :-)
As always, THANK YOU to all readers and reviewers thus far and in future.
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Standoff
Rogue shrank back against the Eye of Ages in horror as Apocalypse began approaching her with his hands outstretched to touch.
A very familiar growl of rage echoed through the chamber and broke through the fear she felt.
Logan!
Her head snapped around until her green eyes locked on the furious figure standing at the top of the staircase with a team of X-Men preparing to charge down into the room.
The ancient mutant approaching her stopped in his tracks and turned to follow her gaze when a smile touched her trembling lips.
Apocalypse's dark eyes narrowed as Kurt teleported the Professor down into the chamber while the remaining team members calmly walked down the staircase.
In something akin to shock, Marie pushed herself to stand upright on her feet as she watched Evan, Gambit, Jean, Kitty, Logan, Mystique, Pietro, Scott, Wanda and many unknown people come to a stop at the foot of the stairs and brace themselves for attack.
"We just want the girl, bub, let her go and we might not hurt ya," Logan snarled with his hands clenched into fists at his sides.
With an arched brow, En Sabah Nuhr turned to look at Rogue before again facing the waiting X-Men.
He then threw back his head and laughed at the Wolverine's words.
His laughter echoed eerily around the room, causing the team to tense and prepared to launch their offensive.
Logan unleashed his claws and crouched to leap toward Apocalypse. Evan began focusing on the direction he wanted his spikes to fly. Scott's hand moved to his visor to turn it to it's most deadly setting and his hand remained poised over the controls to begin firing. Wanda's hands began glowing with their blue energy and her lip curled upward in a snarl as she gazed angrily at the mutant that had killed her father. Jean and the Professor both focused on En Sabah Nuhr with their hands going to their foreheads in concentration. Gambit was closely watching the ancient mutant's reactions while shuffling a deck of cards in his hands. An unknown man with dark hair that had a streak of white in the front levitated up off the floor as his left eye began glowing yellow. Next to him an unknown purple haired woman calmly used her right hand to draw a sword from its sheath on her back as her left hand began glowing purple. Mystique morphed into Sabertooth and let loose a furious roar before crouching like Logan to leap at the mutant.
That roar stopped Apocalypse's laughter and also gave the team their cue to begin.
Wanda thrust her glowing hands toward the ancient mutant, sending a hex bolt forward to envelop him and limit his powers while Evan's spikes shot out at the mutant and Scott fired his optic blasts.
With a sweeping motion around the room, En Sabah Nuhr sent them all flying backward.
They all somersaulted head over feet away from the mutant.
The Professor was flung from his wheelchair. Gambit, Kurt, an unknown dark skinned woman, a little girl, and a sickly looking female were all slammed into stone walls and appeared to be knocked out cold. Mystique, Scott, Wanda, the man with the glowing eye and the woman fist all flipped to land on their feet while most everyone else landed hard on their backs and skidded along the floor a few inches.
Another wave of his hand sent those on their feet crashing into the walls.
Confident they would be unable to interfere now, Apocalypse turned his attention back to Rogue who gulped at the resolute expression on his tattooed face.
~*~*~
~~ Do not attack again! ~~
Head all around the room whipped in Charles' direction as he practically screamed the telepathic command to the team members while attempting to get himself back in his wheelchair.
~~ We have to, bub, he's going to - ~~
~~ I know what he's going to do, Logan, and I tried to warn you before we entered. Now we must wait for him to weaken then allow me to do what must be done. ~~
~*~*~
"Don't do this," Marie pleaded as Apocalypse again began approaching her.
"You've made your choice and left me with no other option," the man said coldly as she found herself pinned between the Eye of Ages and En Sabah Nuhr's hovering body. "We would have made a powerful team."
Those words were immediately followed by him placing his bare hands on her cheeks.
For a moment, there was no reaction from her skin except for the nervous trembling that went through her entire body at what she feared was to come.
Then she felt herself being lifted off the ground to levitate upward seconds before he seemed to flip the switch and send his lifeforce pouring into her.
Her eyes opened wide and locked on Apocalypse's dark stare as her lips parted on a scream she was too immobilized to release.
Images, emotions and raw incredible power from him were flooding her system and she didn't know if she could take it.
It was too intense.
She couldn't move, couldn't breathe, couldn't think or feel on her own.
Everything about her now was him.
He was taking her over and she could do nothing but stare at him through horrified eyes that were beginning to shed silent tears of defeat.
She was going to die before he even put her in the device.
~*~*~
Betsy, Nate and Scott were struggling to obey the Professor's order to hold a furious Wolverine back from attacking Apocalypse.
~~ Calm yourself, luv, this is not helping anything! ~~
Betsy tried to ignore the scene playing out behind her and settle the man down so he didn't do anything rash that would endanger them all.
~~ He's killing her! ~~
Logan tore free of their physical holds and made to leap toward the pair hovering about three feet above the floor.
Left without any option, Nate yanked the mutant back with his telekinesis and pinned him to the wall.
~~ Trust the Professor, dammit. None of us will let her die! ~~
Seeing that the X-Man had Wolverine under as much control as anyone could, Charles focused all his attention back on trying to contact Rogue.
Her mind was a furious mess of swirling memories and emotions and her presence in the chaos was fading rapidly under the influx of Apocalypse's powers.
Finally his searching mind found her personality clinging with all its might to some part of her subconscious.
~~ Rogue, can you hear me? ~~
Instantly he recoiled in the wheelchair Jean had returned him to as his only response was tortured screams roaring from her mind into his.
Fighting to block out that sound he strained further to try and reach the girl.
~~ Rogue! I know you can hear me. Focus on my voice! ~~
Sobs intermingled with the screams in his head as he continued repeating that order over and over again until he began to lose faith that she was hearing him.
Then finally a timid ~~ Professor? ~~ echoes from her mind to his.
Frantically, he searches her subconscious until he finds an image of Rogue. When he does, it is of a weak and fearful girl curled in the fetal position sobbing like the lost child she was in the current chaos of her mind.
~~ Yes, Rogue, it is me. ~~
Having no time to waste, he sends her feelings of safety and protection through their mental link then focuses on giving her the strength to do what he knew she must.
~~ Listen to me, Rogue, and listen carefully. You can beat this. You can beat Apocalypse. He is giving you his power. TAKE it. Do not allow it to be forced upon you. Take it into you and use it as your own. ~~
~*~*~
~~ Take it. ~~
The words kept swirling through Marie's mind and somehow they gave her the strength to fight her way to the through the madness she had felt herself drowning in.
Her eyes which had drifted shut snapped open to focus once more on Apocalypse.
He seemed surprised, but unconcerned by her return to reality until she began glaring at him.
Before he had time to react, her bare hands smacked against his bare chest and the ancient mutant jerked as she began pulling more of his powers from him than he had intended to give.
Now he was the one immobilized in their deadly embrace and as she continued to angrily drain his lifeforce from him, his muscled body began to shrivel up as it had when he was locked in the Eye of Ages.
~*~*~
"NOW!"
Charles' shout echoed loudly in the room and all the mutants reacted to it.
While Jean and Nate focused their telekinesis on getting Rogue away from Apocalypse Betsy and the Professor began firing their psychic blasts at the weakened mutant.
Logan leapt forward to catch Rogue as she was finally peeled away from En Sabah Nuhr. He along with all the others fell to his knees clutching his head before reaching her though, as Mesmero finally attempted to breach the mental shields they all had.
Rogue's body hit the floor hard after the three foot drop from where it had been hovering, but she quickly sprang to her feet and turned on the X-Men.
~~ Find Mesmero! ~~
Shaking off the effects of the attempted mind control, the team got back to their feet and tried to obey Charles' telepathic command, only to be flung back by Rogue.
~~ Find Mesmero and take him out. She's under his control! ~~
Wanda braced herself back against the wall and shot her hex bolts forward to envelop the X-Girl and temporarily freeze her, but Rogue with Apocalypse's powers was too strong to be help long.
After only a few seconds, the hex was broken and the Scarlet Witch was sent reeling to the left by a wave of Rogue's hand.
The delay was enough for a recovered Stall to see the cloaked figure of Mesmero lurking in the shadows and she tugged on Kurt's tail to get him to teleport her over to the mindbender.
Mesmero quickly zapped the Nightcrawler with his staff when the blue X-Man appeared in front of him, but the mutant paid little attention to Stall who removed a glove and placed her bare hand on his leg.
Apocalypse, who was far from finished yet, thrust out a hand but was too late to stop the child from paralyzing his slave and freeing Rogue from Mesmero's hold.
Instantly, the ancient mutant turned to throw Rogue back against the wall, but she only tumbled back a few feet before snarling angrily and shoving both hands toward En Sabah Nuhr to slam him into the ceiling. Rocks all around the room shook and shifted ominously at the impact, but she paid them no mind and she jumped to her feet and waved her hands to send Apocalypse crashing through the floor of the chamber.
The team stood watching as the ancient warrior quickly rose back up through the hole he'd made to angrily face their fellow X-Men.
Rogue didn't show an ounce of fear as the mutant's hovering body made it's way toward her, in fact, she began morphing into his exact image and levitated herself up to face him eye to eye.
Both furious at this whole turn of events the now equally powerful mutants threw out their hands and each tried to send the other one flying into some part of the pyramid, but neither of them moved an inch under the force of the other's concussive blasts.
Getting back on the tentative game plan they'd had going in to this, Jean and Nate levitated to hover on either side of the actual Apocalypse while Betsy and Charles moved closer to the mutant.
As one the four telepaths gathered all their strength and focused their psychic energies on destroying the man's mind.
Shouting with anger as the mental blasts began working, Apocalypse's powers weakened to allow Rogue to thrust him back against a wall.
Scott's optic blasts and Wanda's hex bolts worked with the telepaths to keep the mutant pinned there while Caliban and Plague rushed forward to try using their mutations to weaken Apocalypse's body.
All at once Jean, Nate, Scott and Wanda cease their actions and with a wave of Rogue's hand the ancient mutant tumbles hard to the floor where the Morlocks quickly place their hands upon him. Caliban infecting him with a psychoactive virus that would hopefully degrade Apocalypse's physical and mental conditions, Plague infecting him with the most vile and deadly diseases known to mankind amplified by his mutant power into even deadlier viruses.
Apocalypse recovered enough to fling both mutants away from him after they'd barely had a chance to touch him and the telepaths quickly went to work again trying to take him out with psychic blasts.
"Get him into the Eye," Rogue suddenly shouted as she watched them work.
Without hesitation the two telekinetics strained to lift the mutant and move his struggling form over to the Eye of Ages.
Concentrated blasts from Betsy and Charles kept Apocalypse from breaking free but they were both wearing out from the extreme energy needed to accomplish it.
Jean cried out and dropped to her knees on the ground and Nate tiredly lowered himself to the ground when the two finally had En Sabah Nuhr placed in the device.
The ancient mutant immediately lunged upward to try freeing himself but a flick of Rogue's wrist laid him flat out in the machine, which she quickly lowered herself to the ground to close.
"Evan, lock it down."
She stepped back from the Eye and watched as Spyke instinctively responded to her command by letting a series of spikes fly and pierce the surface of the machine just enough to hopefully keep it from opening too easily in the future.
"Scott, blast the roof."
"Rogue - " Logan and the Professor began.
"Now Cyclops!"
Not knowing what else to do with this Rogue, Scott put his hand to his visor and obeyed.
~*~*~
Gasping in horror the team outside the pyramid stepped quickly back from the monument as the top was suddenly blown off.
Various exclamations of shock sounded from the stunned mutants who stood helplessly watching the debris crash down to the ground.
The Seftons ceased their chanting and leapt to their feet to back away as the others tensed a little fearfully in preparation for battle.
Beside Amara, Lance's body had gone stiff and the ground around them began to shake as he prepared to carry out Logan's orders.
"No, Lance, we don't know that they've lost yet!" she grabbed his arm and shook him to stop the small earthquake.
Just as the ground grew still something shot out of the top of the pyramid.
They all watched the item curiously as it flew through the sky toward the stars only to again react with shock when the glowing form of Apocalypse soon rose to hover above the monument.
With a sound of rage tearing through his body, Lance assumed those inside to have been defeated and his eyes rolled back in his head as he called upon all his powers then slammed his foot forcefully into the ground.
Amara was still too stunned by the appearance of the ancient mutant to react to the way the earth was rapidly quaking upon as the tremors from Avalanche's actions raced toward the base of the pyramid.