Author's Notes
Hey everybody, I haven't written this fic in a long time, I just don't have the time now. Me and my girlfriend are having a baby in January and I have had to stop writing this. I've thought about it and I'm going to be summing up everything I had planned for the story so I can at least get that much finished. Maybe I'll get the chance to write the whole thing one day. Thanks to those that reviewed and those that have read the story, hope you like the ending.
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The battle between the Brotherhood (Mystique, Sabertooth, Toad, Avalanche, Post, Blob, and Mimic) and the Riders of the Storm (Genocide, has strong psionic abilities, Armageddon, able to alter his x gene to change the way his mutant powers manifest, Redemption, power dampening abilities, and Judgment, absorbs solar energy to increase physical abilities and fire as blasts of plasma energy) leaves almost all of the Brotherhood dead.
Judgment rips Post's cybernetic enhancements from his body and then burns a hole through his chest. Redemption dampens the Blob's physical strength, but leaving his weight the same. His bones can't take the strain and begin to break. He suffocates in his own fat. Armageddon becomes intangible and gets close enough to Avalanche to burn him alive, using fire manipulation powers like Pyro. Genocide destroys Mimics mind forces him to attack Sabertooth. Sabertooth slices his throat. Toad is caught in a cross-fire between Judgment and Armageddon when Redemption dampens his leaping abilities.
Only Mystique, who uses her powers a little bit more like Morph from AOA creating her hands into a whip and blades and stuff like that, and Sabertooth survive. X-Men (Cyclops, Storm, and Siryn) show up and help the two to escape.
All return back to the mansion and learn of Angel and Wolverine leaving with Sinister. The X-Men then inform Xavier and he thinks the war will start soon. Magneto rallies his army, hundreds of mutants have gathered and joined. Xavier and Magneto begin to decide their course of action and both agree that they need more help. The X-Men at the mansion as well as X-Squadron all return to Magneto's base in Genosha. Exodus arrives in Genosha and says he will lead them to Apocalypse. A plan is soon agreed upon where Xavier, Jean, and X-Man will destroy Apocalypse's mind while Magneto and Cyclops lead every else against the Riders of the Storm and The Horsemen.
A few days later, they arrive at the steps of Apocalypse's temple and the war begins. Magneto's army is met by Apocalypse's hordes, led by The Riders of the Storm. The fight is massive and brutal. Juggernaut rips Redemption in half, who can't dampen Cain's mystic abilities. Magneto crushes Armageddon's heart with his magnetic powers, giving him a heart attack. Genocide's mind is fried when he attacks Jean and she manifests the Phoenix and forces him to feel the pain of the five billion inhabits that died the moment the Phoenix consumed their sun. Judgment fights both Cyclops and Havok, being able to absorb both of their powers when Cannonball smashes into him from behind. Before Judgment can react, X-Man attacks him with his psionic abilities. With his body helpless Proudstar snaps Judgment's neck and stands over his lifeless body.
The X-Men are shocked by the X-Squadron's ruthlessness, but Sam tells them that this is war. This is what Cable had trained them to do and it's what they would do. Before anyone realizes what's going on, the Horsemen arrive. Magneto and Polaris quickly ascend to the sky, ending in a stalemate, Magneto's experience being his only advantage against Polaris's full powers. Rogue shows that she has been given complete control of her powers and begins to slaughter Magneto's army, beginning with Exodus. Caliban rushes towards Xavier and is stopped by Juggernaut. Cain hits him once and Caliban 'hulks up' turning into a monstrous version of himself. The two then begin trading blows. Angel descends from the sky in front of Iceman and as Bobby tries talking to him, Warren grabs his face and Bobby screams in pain.
No advantage is gained by either side, as the bodies begin to pile up. Forge gets his neck snapped by Rogue, who tells him this is for never helping me like Sinister, sugah. Nightcrawler and Mystique try to help Juggernaut defeat Caliban, who has already killed Proudstar. Storm, Cyclops and Havok try to help Magneto, but Alex punches his brother and instead tries to protect Lorna. Storm causes a lightning storm that increases both Polaris' and Magneto's powers. Xavier sits and watches in horror as Iceman is evaporated into vapor in front of him, a smile on Warren's face. Xavier has had enough.
Before Xavier can do anything, Wolverine grabs his forehead and punches a claw through the back of his neck. He looks down and tells Charles that he'd understand soon enough. Jean screams and allows the Phoenix to take total control of her and literally burns Wolverine's brain with her psionic flames. Wolverine's eyes explode from the heat and he falls lifeless to the ground. At that moment, Sinister and Gambit appear at the gates of the temple and says now is the time.
Polaris smirks and begins to quickly absorb the entire essence of Magneto's powers. After several minutes, Magneto's body falls to the earth. Caliban rips off Cain's helmet and uses his fear casting psionic plague to drop the Juggernaut to his knees. Caliban swats Mystique away and rips the gem of Cytorrak from Cain's chest. Rogue flies directly towards Bishop, who has been in the front lines trying to save lives, and uses her mutant ability to absorb the powers of others upon him. The nature of Bishop's power causes an enormous energy feedback and a huge explosion, killing Bishop in the process and permanently imprinting Bishop's powers and personality onto Rogue.
Sinister looks at Gambit and tells him to accomplish his goal. Gambit rushes towards Cyclops and Havok, who are still fighting each other. Gambit comes up behind Cyclops and uses his mutant ability to charge Scott's body with kinetic energy. Being brothers Cyclops absorbs all of the energy and freezes in shock. Remy uses his latent power of psionic hypnosis to convince Scott to fire his optic blast at Alex. Scott does so, and with the increased power of Remy that he absorbed, the blast hits Havok in the chest, which is quickly absorbed by Alex's body. Alex then fires a shot of plasma energy at Gambit, trying to free Cyclops, but Gambit's body absorbs his brother's powers. At the instant the three are connected by the powers, they each cry out in pain and an enormous beam blast into the sky.
The beam rockets through the sky entering the further reaches of space. Inside her secluded hideout, Deathbird witnesses the beam and states that the signal has come. She informs Lilandra that Charles is dead and that the Earth will soon be destroyed. Lilandra sends the Imperial Guard to stop Apocalypse.
Beast surveys the damage done so far. Phoenix rages out of control above the sky. Storm engages in a hopeless battle with Polaris. Iceman is gone. Xavier's body lies next to Wolverine's. Cyclops, Havok, and Gambit all lie motionless near the temple steps. Cain has reverted back to his human form. Nightcrawler is trying desperately to stay away from Caliban, who is still fighting Mystique and now Sabertooth. Magneto, Forge, Bishop, Siryn, Domino, Thunderbird… all dead.
If Beast possessed any psionic abilities, he would've been able to see what has been transpiring on the psychic plane. Xavier's mind, after his body died, has lived on in the psychic plane, much like the Shadow King before him. He has been searching for two minds since his death. He has found one and now searches for the second. His search is finished. Magneto's mind has not yet left his body, but Charles convinces Magnus to let go and then absorbs his essence into him. Onslaught lives again.
An enormous explosion causes everyone to look towards Xavier's body, as Onslaught rises. All the mutants stop and stare in awe as Onslaught glows with energy. He turns towards Phoenix and says now as Phoenix absorbs the combined powers of Onslaught.
It is at this moment that Apocalypse steps from the temple. Angel flies and then lands next to him. He tells Apocalypse all that has transpired, but then is quickly attacked by X-Man. Apocalypse and X-Man begin to battle and X-Man is quickly defeated. Before absorbing his psionic abilities, Apocalypse explains how time is like a river with many tributaries. Being able to travel the time stream, Apocalypse has also been able to travel dimensions. He had X-Man created just like he had Cable created. He says 'your life has been worthless' and quickly absorbs his essence.
The Imperial Guard arrive and join the fight against Apocalypse. Gladiator finds Beast and tells him of an even greater danger. The only reason Lilandra sent the Imperial Guard was to warn what may be left of the Earth that the Celestials are coming! Gladiator then rushes towards Apocalypse and is soon defeated.
Apocalypse tells everyone to stop fighting. He explains that the Celestials will be there within minutes and that there only hope lies within him. Apocalypse explains how he advanced Angel to be able to increase a person's mutant abilities to their full potential, which is what he did to Iceman. Bobby has become an elemental force, a part of the very atmosphere. Polaris absorbed Magneto's powers for two reasons- to kill his body and to increase her power to be able control Earth's entire electro-magnetic field. Xavier and Magneto needed to die to for Onslaught permanently. Jean needed to become the Phoenix. Both would be combined to create the most powerful entity outside of the Celestials themselves.
Rogue was combined with Bishop to allow her to absorb or take any power she could possibly need. She had been imprinted with almost all of Sinister's genetic samples, giving her the powers of nearly all the mutants on the planet. The Summers brothers were used to create the templates to make Apocalypse the body that could contain his powers. When all three were combined their powers would signal the Celestials. Apocalypse knew this from his time spent into the Celestial ship and has called them here to save the Earth from their wraith. The Earth's mutant population is now at it's most powerful, with several mutants being almost cosmic forces. The Celestials would see this and deem the planet fit and allow them to survive. Without Apocalypse's war, their was a chance that the Celestials would have destroyed the planet.
The gathered mutants are stunned. Warren looks at Beast, his long time friend, and says that no one would have believed the truth coming from Apocalypse, but it needed to be done. Beast says that he understands, but the loss of life was so great. Apocalypse answers that the strong have survived the worst.
The Celestials arrive and are met by the gathered mutants. They have actually registered on the Celestials senses, something that hasn't been done before. Apocalypse tells the Celestials that he has gathered the mutants to protect the Earth and they would fight the Celestials if need be. The Celestials scan the mutants and are actually shocked. Rogue scans as the entire mutant population, Phoenix/Onslaught is a cosmic threat, Apocalypse has Celestial technology, and they can sense the very air having sentience.
The Celestials begin to turn, the Earth apparently having been saved. As they leave Apocalypse attacks. The mutants not knowing what to do, follow Apocalypse's lead. The combined might of the mutants against one of Celestials proves to be enough, as one Celestial falls. One of the other Celestials grabs Apocalypse. The mutants are stunned. The Celestial holding Apocalypse pours the power from the fallen Celestial into Apocalypse. A blinding light causes the gathered mutants to look away, when they are able to look, they see two of the Celestials gone and a new third standing in their place. One who looks like Apocalypse.
As the Celestials are leaving, Apocalypse explains in the minds of the gathered mutants that they have been fools for believing him. Since finding the Celestial ship, Apocalypse has planned on becoming one of them. Everything he has ever done has been in sync with his goals. Sinister asks how he is to be rewarded and Apocalypse tells him 'I give you your family.' and disperses his atoms through the atmosphere. Apocalypse tells the mutants that if they ever meet again they will not survive. He turns to join the rest of the Celestial and leaves all the mutants with the thought, 'I am forever. I am the master of time itself. I am Apocalypse.'
Author's Notes
Ok, that felt pretty good getting all out. I've had it in my head for awhile. Hopefully, if you were reading the story this will at least be better than me just letting it dangle there. Thanks to everyone who reviewed and those that read and didn't. Till the next one.