Chapter 9: Non-Resolutions

Disclaimer: It all belongs to Marvel, except for my original characters, of course. But if Marvel wants to use them, they can. Feel free to post this, or any other Glaivester fic, anywhere, but please notify me so I can brag about it.

A/N Hauptmann Deutschland was originally an original character, although he will take the name of a character (Captain Axis) that already exists in the Marvel Universe in this chapter. I think I may wind up basing his XME version loosely on the comics character, as was done with Amanda Sefton and Arcade.

Merith Essex, aka Ms. Dexter, put her hand over her head. Her advanced genetic structure helped her to avoid morning sickness, but not migraines.

"Slayer has been captured, Father."

"Yes, I see that." Mr. Sinister looked at his female clone. "We will get her back. But I do have several clonal embryos of her. In case we cannot find her again, we will need to begin growing her clone." He looked away, then back at his "daughter," and asked "do we have any suitable mothers?"

"I will find one from one of the orphanages we donate to."

"Whoever she is, make certain that she has a sexual experience with some boy first. We don't want a virgin birth, or anything else that can arouse suspicion. She needs to think the baby is hers."

"Of course."

"Speaking of which, how is the little Juggernaut junior?"

"Hungry, apparently. I require three times as much nourishment as normal."

"So your pregnancy is?"

"Progressing as expected."

"I have been thinking. Maybe we should make a female clone of Apocalypse. She would be a suitable queen for me, and our child could be the most powerful superbeing of all time. The strongest mutant and the strongest non-mutant's genes in one package."

"And me?"

"You would be the Princess. The Princess of Heaven on Earth. The only problem is that Heaven cannot exist until the current order is destroyed. On that, En Sabah Nur agree. That's why he chose the name Apocalypse."

"Pardon?"

"Apocalypse is the Greek word for 'Revelation.' As I understand it, in the book of Revelation, the world must undergo plagues and be destroyed before the new world can be revealed. Pure myth, of course [A/N not my opinion, I am a Christian myself. My version of Sinister, however, is a deist, who believes in some sort of God, but not in any sort of personal God who intervenes in life]. However, the idea was correct, and so En Sabah Nur has chosen a literary reference as his new name."

"And you?"

"I was married once, and my wife died in childbirth, and my son immediately afterward. She died in horror after hearing of my plans for a super-evolved world. I wanted to hasten the perfection that I saw evolution as bringing, and I did experiments that were - unpopular with the unwashed masses. The last words she spoke were 'Your motives are sinister, Nathan. Stop before it is too late.' So I did what modern-day homosexuals did with the word 'queer.' I appropriated it and turned it into a positive statement of my vision."

"And does my name have any significance?"

"Merith? A character from a movie I like. Krull."

"My other name."

"Sinister means 'left' in Latin. It took on negative connotations because the left was considered bad and the right, good. I called you Ms. Dexter more or less as a pun on my own name."

"I see. Ah. Here's a good candidate to use to grow another Slayer."

"Excellent."

Apocalypse stood before the Eye. He had been improved. He now looked almost robotic, as opposed to the Pharoah-like appearance he had upon his release. The tubes connecting his wrists to his belt helped to connect him to the technology with which he had wrapped himself. It would not be long before all of the pyramids would be turned on, and he could activate the mutagenic properties of the Eye to full power. Everyone with a X-gene, maybe 1-2% of the population [A/N, not 50%, as the TV show implied], would get it activated by the Eye and would become mutants. The rest would die, be mutated in horrible ways. A few might survive, those with other special genes. Unfortunately, they would not be enhanced the way that the Nasty Boys had been. But the ensuing wars would make certain that the technology for enhancing mutations would be developed and used. And only the strong would survive.

The Red Skull got out of his helicopter and entered the castle in a remote location in the Alps. He had managed to teleport back at his base by having his consciousness swapped with Nightcrawler's for a few seconds, courtesy of Exchange.

Hauptmann Deutschland had been renamed "Captain Axis" after the Red Skull realized that Germany was no longer worthy of being admired. He would have to reengineer the country back to its glorious past first. Until then, his prized creation would need to be named in honor of the past, not the present.

A man with a red hood greeted the Red Skull at the door.

"Guten tag, Helmut."

Baron Zemo nodded. "Guten Tag, Herr Schmidt."

Kurt had an inhibitor collar on. A new device produced by the Skull, similar to the necklace created by Forge for Wanda. He was led by Upload into the castle.

"I can make the bio-weapons you desire, Herr Schmidt."

"Excellent."

"And I have another weapon idea for you."

"What?"

"A telepathic weapon capable of destroying continents. I can base it on technology known to young Herr Wagner's friends. Cerebro."

"What do you mean?"

"We make a copy of Cerebro, and with a powerful enough telepath, we can kill anyone or any group of people on the plant that we choose, up to two million in an hour [A/N Cerebro is a lot less powerful than in the movie]."

"What telepath is that strong?"

"George Tarleton. Agent of the terrorist organization AIM."

"I seem to remember the name. AIM is part of HYDRA, is it not?"

"Yes. But his name isn't the memorable thing. Remember his face. It is about 90% of his body."

"Excuse me?"

"He is the Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing. MODOK. And he will used for exactly that purpose."

"Intriguing."

"But that will come later. First, to get the rest of the information from Dr. Chamberlain. And then to incorporate it into my viruses."

Dr. Malloy was running. A blonde woman in white and a cloaked demon were following him.

Suddenly the blonde woman jumped in front of him. "Do you like sensory overload?" she asked. A bright yellow dagger appeared in her hand and she threw it into him. He collapsed, paralyzed but conscious.

"Tyrone?" she spoke to the cloaked demon.

"Yes, Tandy?"

"Shall we kill this parasite."

"Yes, let's."

"Who are you?" shuddered Dr. Malloy.

The blonde looked at him in disgust. "Do you remember when Silvermane tried to create a new drug to replace heroin? All of his test subjects died."

"All but two, they escaped," winced the doctor.

The darker of the two beings replied. "They are we. Tandy Bowen and Tyrone Johnson. She is now Dagger. I am Cloak. And you also try to make new drugs to hurt people. So you will die."

J. Jonah Jameson and Peter Parker were at the Bugle, comparing notes. "Excellent, Peter my lad," exclaimed Jameson. "This is what real heroism is about. Maybe you ought to try this more often, and be a real hero, rather than simply taking photos of hot-dogging vigilantes who think they are heroic. We have their pictures and their names, and we'll blow this lemonade stand to the ground! This reminds me of the old days, taking on the Mafia."

Parker steeled himself for a long, long reverie that the owner of the Bugle was about to go into. Although he had always been resentful of Jameson, he was beginning to see the man in a new light. Sure the man was prejudiced against Spider-Man and could be a grade-A jerk. But he cared about people and wanted to make the world a better place. Her wasn't just about amassing money and power, despite his constant attempts to exploit stories for readership. In fact, sometimes it seemed as if Mr. Jameson wanted the money primarily to fund things he believed in. In any case, he was more complex than Parker had given him credit for. Perhaps rather than trying to convert him to Spider-Man's side, Parker needed to look at Jameson in a different light, and to see the positive things that were there already.

Graydon Creed was surfing the internet. He couldn't help the feeling that he had seen Charles Overton before. He was looking through newspaper clippings, on-line magazines, anything. He was looking through the Daily Bugle's on-line edition.

"Hello, what is this?" He looked at a picture of the staff. "Strange, if you took away the moustache, made the nose a little smaller... oh no. Oh no."

He picked up the phone and called the leader of his chapter. "Hello, Mr. McBain [A/N original character]. We have a problem."

Xian Chung walked up to the pyramid. He was a rather non-descript Asian man, of average height, weight, and build, neither skinny nor fat. He wore a business suit, as he always did, being a very formal person. Having been blessed with near-perfect eyesight, he wore no glasses. He pulled a long staff from his shirt sleeve, a staff much, much longer than the sleeve itself.

"So I need to tap in this pattern here." He did so, and a door opened.

"Let us see what is inside."

Back at the X-Mansion, dinner was over. Talia was wondering why her Daddy was away, and all Wanda could do was tell her that he'd be back soon.

Mystique had talked to Professor X, and admitted her connection to Apocalypse. It had taken three hours, but he had manager to sever the link.

Late that night, Xavier let out a mental call.

"Raven, Cain, Kris [A/N Slab]. Come here."

"What do you want?" asked Mystique.

"I think we are in over our heads. We need help. I didn't want us to have to become a paramilitary unit, but we may have to, temporarily. Logan left a number."

"Mystique smiled. So Magneto was right. A war is brewing."

"Maybe. But not between us and wild types. A war against bigots and tyrants of all stripes. But we need help."

"So?"

"So it is time that we contact SHIELD."

FINIS