It was very hot, and stuffy, and Kurt jolted up, his yellow eyes wide as he realized where he was. It was the flaming, unholy dimension he passed through when he teleported, the dimension filled with the red demon-dinosaurs that had attacked him and Logan, and even followed him into the real world. And worse, he was surrounded by the snarling, tooth-filled visages of such creatures now. Completely surrounded.
Kurt sprang to his feet into a fighting stance, though he was more likely to teleport far, far away from here as quickly as possible, when he noticed something odd. They weren't attacking.
Instead the creatures were only regarding Kurt curiously, like dogs would something they didn't recognize.
"Do not fear, Kurt," said a harsh voice from behind him. Kurt whirled around, and gasped. "They would not hurt one of their own."
"Muzzer?" he asked, watching as Mystique leapt gracefully from one rock on cropping to another, landing gracefully before Kurt. She'd changed a lot since he'd last seen her. She wore a black version of her originally white uniform, studded with gold skulls along her belt and one in the middle of her forehead. But that wasn't all. Her teeth were longer and sharpened, pressing against her lower lip in a frightening grin, and at her temples two short blue horns poked out. She truly looked evil now.
"Ah, my son... finally come to join me. How sweet," she remarked coldly. Kurt frowned, making his way cautiously towards her, still ready to 'port in case the demons attacked.
"Vhat is going on? Vhat is dis place?" he asked. Mystique's reply was a short, joyless laugh.
"You haven't figured it out by now, my son?" she asked wickedly, baring her sharpened teeth. Nightcrawler gulped and took a step, not at all sure he'd like the answer.
"You're home."
"Home?"
"This is Hell, my son... the home of all demon-spawn," replied Mystique haughtily, but Kurt felt his gut tie itself in a knot.
"I'm not a demon... I'm human. I just look strange, is... ahhhh!!" he cried out, groaning, clutching his head as he sunk to his knees. Mystique had made no gesture, but neither did she rush to aid him as Nightcrawler's skull was split with pain, it was if it was tearing itself apart. Worse, his fingers and toes felt the same, as did his back. His body was engulfed in agony, as he screamed for release.
Growling, Kurt's head sprouted two terrible horns, one on each temple, no longer than Mystique's. In horror, he watches as his hands and feet sprouted terrible, deadly claws, and from his back sprouted great navy blue and black bat wings. Demon wings. Kurt screamed, in pain, in fear, in denial. He wasn't a demon, he wasn't an animal! He was human!
Only here, he wasn't.
"Nooooooo!!!"
Mystique stood by quietly as Kurt sank to his knees, slamming his fist into the ground, his cheeks stained with tears as he fought against the reality of his newfound existence.
"It's a lie..."
"It is the truth, Kurt... now come with me, the latest guest into Hell deserves our attention," she stated, her back shifting, sprouting her own set of demonic wings, as she took off into the air. Having little choice, Kurt spread his own hated wings and followed after her.
They flew overhead the damned abode in silence, Kurt mastering fairly quickly his new appendages, flapping his wings every so often, but mostly allowing the current to carry him. Below them, writhed a thousand and more damned souls, caught in the pits of fire and surrounded on all sides by demons content to tear them to shreds. Not quite the Hell he'd envisioned from his teaching, but it was as appropriate a label for this place as any.
"Ah... there she is now," pointed Mystique, into a small cluster of the red demons prominent in the realm. She landed alongside them, and they parted aside at her approach, revealing the new prisoner's identity to Kurt.
Tattered jeans, torn red t-shirt, bracelets covered her form. Dark chocolate skin, beautiful doe brown eyes, and a sweet, heartbroken expression.
"Amanda..."
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Ororo ran down the streets, down the back alleys, into the darkness of the night, the moonlight shining down on her as she ran. Behind her, the darkness surged after her, seeking her, and she ran faster. Panting heavily, she dared a glance back, to see the dark, robed figure who'd been after her. His features were concealed in the shadows of his cowl, but Ororo knew damn well who it was. And she could not allow herself to be captured by him. Not again.
She ran down a back alley, stumbling, and falling full on her face. Grimly she noticed her elbow was bleeding from a cut where she'd stumbled, but she paid it no heed. She stumbled back to her feet, preparing to run again.
Only there was no where to run to.
The area around her had shifted during her fall, and she found herself now in an ancient egyptian tomb, much like she'd seen in her youth while living in Egypt. The walls covered in ancient heiroglyphics, chiselled and drawn into the stone. The small room itself held the giant stone sarcophagus, and she stared at it fearfully. She had seen enough horror movies to know what could and likely would happen next.
Whatever she'd been prepared for, it wasn't enough.
The great, loud, shifting of stone caused her to glance behind her, as the tomb started to seal shut, and she ran for the exit, only to watch in horror as the great, foot thick stone door slammed into place. A loud crash of finality was heard, and dust filled the air as the room went dark, all light lost.
"Nooo!! Let me out!!" she screamed, slamming her fists against the door. Unsurprisingly, it didn't even crack. Howling, she stepped back, filling her fingertips with lightning and shot it at the stone barricade that separated her from the outside.
"Let me out!!" she howled, blasting it again, and again, and again, panting for breath as the air became thin. Belatedly she stopped, out of energy for the moment as she fell to her knees, gasping for breath, her eyes crackling violet-white with unspent lightning.
Suddenly a slow, eerie creaking of stone against stone caught her attention. Ororo, slowly, fearfully, turned back to face the sarcophagus, which was sliding open. She shivered, already seeing any number of horrible things emerging from it. Any number of things that would attack and destroy her.
To her surprise, it was empty, and she breathed a sigh of relief.
But then she noticed some of the hieroglyphics above it, and her breath caught in her throat as she saw that they were not written in ancient egyptian. It was plain, ordinary english. One word, one ominous word that spelled her doom.
'Ororo'
A pair of thin white cloths shot from the sarcophagus, wrapping around Ororo's wrists as she screamed, struggling, trying to get away. More, similar, bandages slashed out, wrapping around her waist, her ankles, even as she struggled. Suddenly her legs were yanked together at the ankle and she was enwrapped in the bandages. She tripped and fell forward, her nails digging into the ground in a vain attempt to hold herself in place as she was slowly, steadily, dragged back. She tried to scream but they wrapped over her mouth, leaving only her eyes uncovered as she was suddenly yanked back into the sarcophagus. Her muffled screams filled the air as she struggled against the bandages as they tightened around her, and she watched in horror as the stone lid of the sarcophagus slowly slid shut, entrapping her within.
She continued to scream, but against the bandages, through the stone lid, past the stone barrier of the tomb, and further out into the vast egyptian desert, no one heard her. She was buried alive.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dark, cold, empty.
A graveyard, filled with old stone slabs that bore the name of those interred in the cold earth. Here and there a marble statue breached the desolate landscape, the visions of angels watching over the deceased, a comforting sight in the darkness. It did little to warm her, however.
Rogue walked along the path between stones, shivering in the cold, mist filled air. It seeped between the graves and along her booted feet, making her shiver. It felt like the claws of death were firmly wrapped around her spine. Her green see-through blouse wasn't doing much to warm her either, or the black halter beneath it. And certainly not the short black skirt wrapped around her legs.
The auburn-haired girl glanced around, seeing nothing. Just endless rows of gravestones, interlaced by the rising mists, and every so often a marble angel or a stone mausoleum marred the otherwise uniform landscape. The silent night air suddenly was split by a low, eerie moaning, and Rogue glanced about, searching for its source, though she could not find it in the thickening fog. Her green eyes narrowed, but the white mist obscured everything.
Suddenly a hand shot out of the ground, grabbing her foot, and she yanked her leg away instinctively, even as she looked down. The hand was gray, decayed, and filthy, the nails long and wickedly sharp. Rogue stumbled backwards, as the hand rose, bringing with it a arm, a shoulder, and finally a head as a decaying corpse rose from the ground in front of her, the dirt of the grave still clinging to it.
Worse, it was a corpse she knew.
This particular corpse, though it was hard to identify by its simple black and tattered garb, was female. With a brown, very distinct ponytail and dead, cold white eyes. It was the corpse of Katherine Pryde.
Rogue turned, horrified, as the zombie rose and stumbled after her, but another such corpse rose up in front of her, this time a male, just slightly taller than she was. Brown hair and the distinct ruby red sunglasses identified him, though the lenses were now cracked and damaged.
"Scott..." she murmured fearfully. He seemed to hear her, for his head lifted and he advanced on her, much as the zombie Shadowcat had done. Rogue backed up fearfully, glancing back and forth at the advanced zombies, and started to run left when another appeared in her vision, and a second behind it. Frizzy, burnt red hair and the cold green gaze from the first. Jean. And the second was easy to identify by its blue fur. Kurt.
Rogue turned around ran from the gathering circle of her former friends, now dead, who swarmed around her. More zombies appeared, all people she knew, though some she did not now call friends. Magneto, the Juggernaut, Sabertooth, Fred and Toad all arose from the earth, all dead, all decayed, and moaning as they sought vengeance against the one who had killed them.
Rogue.
"You killed us..." they moaned, swarming her, forcing her back up against one of the marble angels, as she desperately tried to keep distance between herself and them. More zombies arose, humans she'd absorbed. Punks from that carjacking ring, thieves from Bloodmoon Bayou, even Cody, all dead, all seeking her.
But they stopped in a tight circle around her, and for a moment she watched them fearfully as they seemed to be waiting for something. Suddenly a cracking, shattering sound came, and she glanced upwards at the statue. To her surprise, it wasn't an angel, now that she could see it up close. It was... Mystique. Cracking, breaking apart, her expression one of horror as she shattered in stone fragments again, as Rogue watched in horror.
The fragments hit the ground, but to Rogue's further surprise the dead, lifeless stone shifted, turning into serpents. Great king cobras of gold and black that slithered up around her, sliding along her legs and up her waist as the zombies pressed forward, intent to tear her limb from limb.
"Help!!" she screamed.
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In the real world, more beds were laid out in the infirmary. And more patients were being added by the hour.
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Author's Notes:
Next time, plans are enacted to rescue the X-Men from their horrible nightmares. But can anyone truly save them? I rather liked doing these last three, since they give me so much material to work with.
Kinomi: Yes yes, working on as we speak.
Lupine Draconis: Well there you have it, my idea of what the X-Men's worst nightmares would be. How did I do?
Todd fan: Not as spooky as your legend of Plunky. I mean, that's scary.
Banshee: Oh I will, but I'm a Rurouni, not a captain. Rurouni is my title. But thanks anyway.
Mannielf18: Oh hush you. Do you know how hard it is to convey horror through writing?
SapphireMind: Well, there you are. What do you think?
Rogue14: Scary enough for ya? No? Me neither... more to come.