As promised here is the chapter. This one is all about the past, so don't
expect the story to develop too much. Plus, it's through the eyes of two
secondary characters, who play quite an important role in the past anyway.
*~*
Reminiscing
Sammael sat in his chambers. His mind went over what he needed to do. His most pressing concern was to deal with the last remnants of the Renegade Externals. There were only a few of them left. Asmodeus, the one who had managed to get them all together. Sammael had always disliked him. He had been Shaman's protégé. Sammael had hated Shaman. Shaman was the one who had banded together the resistance against Apocalypse from the beginning. With Apocalypse's superior power it had been futile. Asmodeus had been part of the same club that many mutants belonged to. The Hellfire club. Sammael remembered it well. He had himself been part of that club, along with his half brother. Halfbane was one External that Sammael had been pleased had fallen before the battle between the Hellfire Club and Apocalypse. His power had matched Sammael's and it might have turned the tide of the battle. It had only been in the aftermath of that battle that Xavier had appeared. In the end of the battle, only Asmodeus, Behamen, Galaire, Gilgamesh and Astaroth had remained. Behamen had been the empath. A dangerous External, only Candra had been truly able to overcome the power of the empath, due to her ability of dampening mutant powers. Apart from Apocalypse. Sammael had himself fallen prey to it, and if not for Candra he would have been lost. Somehow she had also achieved the ability to fly and usage of some psi-energies, the latter probably due to her being a telepath of sorts. It was fairly common amongst Externals to have multiple mutations. He himself had multiple mutations. Galaire was also fairly dangerous. She had amazingly honed control over water, apart from her invulnerability. She had destroyed a whole garrison of soldiers and mutants, nearly two thousand of them, single handedly. Astaroth had been one of Sammael's closest friends, if that word could be applied to any of Sammael's acquaintances. He had unfortunately chosen the wrong side in the battle. Sammael wanted to have the pleasure of killing him himself. Gilgamesh had always worried Sammael. In an area of complete darkness or shadow, he could move from one point to another almost instantaneously. He had complete command of the shadows. He was very long lived. Sammael had first heard of him one thousand years ago, and he had lived for quite a while before that. He could be nearly as old as he himself was. Perhaps older, but that was unlikely.
He could remember well the day he had first entered the Hellfire Club just over fifteen years ago.
He had walked into the newly established club arrogantly. The receptionist had given him an appointment with Sebastian Hiram Shaw. Shaw had been young then, in his late twenties and already possessed enough arrogance for ten men. He was not an External, but was a powerful mutant nonetheless. Attacking him was futile as it only increased his strength. He could convert kinetic energy into energy for himself. A dangerous mutant to be sure. He was the Black King of the Hellfire Club, one of the four most powerful members of the organization. Shaw knew who he was, and he had been pleased to have him as a member of the Club. He had refused any titles. It was there that he had met many of his External Brethren. Sammael had met Sinister there, the White King, and Selene the Black Queen. Both were External's, as well as Exodus the Black Knight, and Astaroth, the Black Rook. Candra had formed her own allegiances at the time, with the Thieves Guild, becoming their Benefactress, though she frequented the Club. Archanfel and Asmodeus had been the two White Bishops. Gilgamesh had been the Black Bishop. Behamen and Galaire had been the Black Bishop and the White Knight, respectively. Shaman had avoided contact with the Hellfire Club, although he knew many of the members. The other Knights had been normal mutants. However both the White Rooks had been Externals, Saul and Necodemus. The Hellfire Club had turned out to be an External stronghold.
It had been that fool Shaw's plan to go up against Apocalypse. One of the members, some mutant whose name Sammael couldn't recall had found a map that led to Apocalypse's pyramid chamber. Previously only Sinister had known the location. Shaw had come up with the fool notion of killing the Immortal Warlord, so as to ensure that only the Hellfire Club had dominance over earth. Sinister had immediately protested against the plan. He had told them that it would be madness, and that Apocalypse had powers that could not be matched yet. The other fools had scoffed at him. Sammael had remained quiet on the matter. However Halfbane had earlier begun making plans with Shaman, before his death, and Shaman had managed to convince the rest of the club to fight against Apocalypse. They had mounted an attack, however Sammael had previously learned the futility of fighting Apocalypse. He had told Apocalypse of the impending assault. Apocalypse had once again shocked Sammael when he revealed that he knew of the attack from before. He had already summoned Sinister to him, before Sammael had gone to him. Sinister had brought along Exodus, or rather Exodus had followed him Sammael found out later. Archanfel had also come later, once they were gone. It was later he learned that Candra had been the one who had first told him of the impending assault, and even then he had known about it. Apparently his spies had done their work. Apocalypse had wanted details from each of them though, and he had been pleased. He had told them that he would now have to hurry along matters, but he would have soon dealt with the Hellfire Club anyway. Even back then Apocalypse had not told them who the other's that helped him were. Therefore Sammael had not known that Sinister, Exodus, Archanfel and Candra also helped Apocalypse.
The next day Sammael went to the Hellfire Club and took out the bioorganic signature monitors, killing the security teams in charge. Apocalypse had struck then. He had simply walked into the club and taken apart it's security. He had single-handedly killed the other Black Rook the mutant Crule, and the two White Rooks Saul and Necodemus. Selene had also fallen to him. Exodus had taken care of the young White Queen Emma Frost, and Sinister had taken down the White Knight Harry Leland, who it turned out survived to join Apocalypse. Sammael had fought with Archanfel against Asmodeus, Astaroth and Behamen. Sammael had nearly lost to the other three, especially when Galaire joined in. Sammael had just barely managed to escape. The Hellfire Club had not fallen in the first attack, and Sammael, Sinister, Exodus and Archanfel had been sent running. Candra had laughed at them then. Apocalypse had not been pleased. He had returned to Egypt in the middle of the battle to kill Shaman who had used Apocalypse's being gone as a sign to attack his pyramid. The only thing that Sammael knew about what had happened was that Apocalypse had been very annoyed after his fight with Shaman.
He had wanted the Hellfire Club destroyed. He had then brought in the reinforcements.
Apocalypse's son Nemesis, Mikhail Rasputin and two horsemen, Abyss and Pestilence. And the Reavers. Sammael to this day did not know what had become of them, or how Apocalypse had got them in the first place. As far as he knew they still protected the Sea Wall. Pierce and his cohorts had made short work of all of the Hellfire Clubs forces, leaving only the mutants and External's of the Inner Council standing. The battle had waged across the whole of New York, shattering buildings to a pulp, killing hundreds of thousands. The United States Army had reacted, but even it was no match for the Reavers, and the rest of Apocalypse's forces. Even though the Reavers had in the end been left with only half of their original force, the U.S army had been completely and utterly crushed. Apocalypse had then done something which Sammael still found amazing. He had grown to a huge size, over fifty feet tall. The Hellfire Club had frozen with terror, and then Apocalypse casually picked up another building and smashed it down onto the Club.
Once the dust had cleared Apocalypse was his normal size, and the Hellfire Club lay broken before him. The rubble had shifted and Selene, Black Queen of the Club had pushed her way out, only to be confronted by them. Apocalypse had toyed with her, letting her use her powers against him, finally killing her using only his strength and his fists, no bursts of energy and no changing shape. Selene had launched all of her attacks onto him, using all her arcane powers to try and kill the Immortal Warlord. Nothing had worked and in the end, Selene had lain on the ruins of the Club, her life force ebbing away, until nothing had remained of the External but a broken husk. The only casualty on Apocalypse's side had been his two horsemen, Abyss and Pestilence. Both had been killed. Nemesis had been hurt grievously, and only Sinister had managed to contain his life force in an armored shell, using Apocalypse's vast resources of Celestial and alien technology. Nemesis had changed his name to Holocaust after that. Holocaust, Mikhail and what was left of the Reavers had launched an attack on other continents, while Apocalypse and the External's who had joined him had systematically taken over The America's along with his two horsemen, Death and Sarek. The human's had resisted, but finally Apocalypse had driven them into northern Asia and what was left of Europe. Australia and Japan had been reduced to nothing but barren waste, while France had been wiped off the map. Only a small portion of the top of the Eiffel Tower could be seen sticking out of the sea that had taken France's place. It was then that Xavier and his X-men had shown themselves. After many battles one of their bases had been found. Apocalypse had destroyed the whole mountain on which the X-men had had their headquarters and training centre. The last remnants of the Hellfire Club had gone to them, and they attacked full force in retaliation. The Citadel, which rose over New York's shattered skyline, had fallen to the X-men and Human High Council. Apocalypse had been on the moon recovering from his injuries, leaving the insane Death to rule in his stead. Death had used Terrigen mists on all the humans he could find, converting them to what had been called the Inhumans. Sinister had not liked that, and had tried to stop Death. However Death's actions led to his undoing as the human High Council had become incensed and attacked them along with the X-men. Death had died in the attack, along with Sarek, the other horseman. Apocalypse had been more enraged than Sammael had ever seen him. He had called back Mikhail and Holocaust, and had assaulted the X-men, reducing their numbers by more than half. Xavier had not expected such an assault and he had retreated. The X-men had dispersed, and Apocalypse had then set his attention on the human remnant, and the High Council of humans. He had taken Sammael, Mikhail and Holocaust with him to Europe where he had fought against the High Councils forces. Sinister, Candra, Exodus and Archanfel had remained to find and destroy all allies of the X- men. Sinister and Candra had concentrated on the allies, while Exodus and Archanfel searched for the X-men. Sinister and Candra had destroyed all the Guilds of New Orleans, as well as S.H.I.E.L.D. Exodus and Archanfel had faced the X-men again with the Mutant Elite, and had defeated them. However Archanfel had battled Magneto and lost. Since then Archanfel had become obsessed with killing the mutant.
The High Council of Human's had employed the Meta human Avenger's led by Captain America and Carol Danvers. Sammael had personally dispatched one of the most powerful, the Norse 'god' Thor. One of the members of the X-men, and an Avenger, Beast had been taken by Apocalypse to use as a Horseman. The Avengers had fallen one by one, until only Carol Danvers remained, and she had run away. However the battle had given the High Council time to escape. They had disappeared, leaving no clue as to where they might have gone. Apocalypse had been angry at that. He had left Holocaust and Mikhail with the Reavers to search them out and had returned with Sammael to the America's where he started work on the building of The Tower to replace the Citadel. The Tower had been constructed in what had been Louisiana. Then Apocalypse had begun what he called the Culling. Any human found was sent to either death camps or to Sinister and Beast to be converted into soldiers for Apocalypse. All mutants had been sent to Sinister and Beast to be neurally programmed to serve Apocalypse. At about this time Beast had rebelled and Apocalypse had put him down. A year later another Beast appeared, a dark version of the original, who obeyed only Apocalypse. Even Sinister had found him sadistic in his methods. Around that time Sinister and Archanfel also procured their 'children'. Cecilia Reyes had been employed at around this time as well.
Then the Sentinels had appeared. They had been programmed to attack any and all mutants. The Sentinels had proven to be extremely efficient and Apocalypse had had to once again take a personal hand. The sentinels attacking The Tower had been destroyed by Apocalypse who had grown to a size to match theirs. Holocaust and Mikhail had been instructed to find the origin of the sentinels and destroy it. A month later Mikhail and Holocaust reported success. Muir Isle, off the northern coast of Scotland had been where the mutant hunters were coming from. Holocaust and Mikhail had reduced it to ashes. The creator of the wretched things had been killed with the island, however his widow Moira Mctaggert had escaped. As of yet, nothing had been found of her. Holocaust and Mikhail had returned to Sea Wall, with orders to hunt down and kill any remaining human High council members.
Apocalypse had then largely left them Externals to fight against the X-men. It had only been until Cyclops had become the high Prelate that any headway had been made. The mutant was a brilliant strategist, hunting down the X- men like dogs, and destroying their second headquarters. Sinister's protégé had done so well that Apocalypse himself had deigned to meet him. In fact Apocalypse had been so impressed he had literally promised Cyclops a position in the highest order, equal to that of the Externals and Holocaust and Mikhail. Sammael had then truly begun paying attention to the mutant. In the short space of a few months after the destruction of their headquarters, Cyclops had managed to hunt down and kill Xavier. That had guaranteed his promotion, and Apocalypse had been set to promote him to an equal to the Externals. It was then that the X-men had broken in and rescued Psylocke. The promotion had been delayed, but then Cyclops had turned, and everything had gone to hell. In the events that followed Archanfel had died, The Tower had been partially broken and another Prelate had turned. Furthermore the renegade Externals had come out from wherever they had been hiding.
Now with the advent of the Horsemen, Apocalypse had again begun taking a personal hand in events. Sammael also knew that when it was all over only one or two of them, the External's, would still be alive. Sammael intended to make sure he was one of those that lived.
x----------------- ------------x
Apocalypse stood in front of the monitor bank in his private chambers. He had just relayed a message to Exodus, informing his External that he would be gone for a few hours. His orders were clear. Exodus was to maintain security, and in the event of a crisis or one of his horsemen calling in, Exodus was to immediately inform him. Apocalypse had left events on the other side of the world idle long enough. He grimaced slightly. Holocaust and Rasputin had barely reported to him what they had found for nearly a year. That meant that they were being insubordinate, and he could not afford to let anyone show that he was weak in any area, otherwise all of his subordinates would be at his throat in a flash. He knew of Sinister's plans to create the perfect weapon, of Candra's desire to be amused, of Exodus's plans to take his place through subterfuge, and slow telepathic control, and of course Sammael's desire to be the last remaining immortal mutant. Sammael wanted to be rid of any and all things that were a threat to him. The mutant had no concept of the importance of competition and personal gain through pain. Apocalypse had also felt the glimmerings of the rise of an unexpected opponent. Certain events had his mark on them. Shaman, now his servant had informed him. Shaman had the one who knew Halfbane best. Apocalypse would be glad to see them go head to head. The victor of that battle would be his horseman.
Apocalypse touched the ring like indentation on his belt. Immediately he felt his body tremble and his senses vanish, as each molecule was displaced to a different place. When he regained control of himself a moment later he stood in a different place. This was the largest Sea Wall of twelve such constructs, positioned around the America's in order to guard his main boundaries. This was also the controlling Sea Wall, it was furthest away from all the others, positioned near the southwestern tip of Africa. Apocalypse stepped out of the stall. He had apparently teleported into a bathroom. Upon stepping out he saw a guard looking at him in terror. The guard shrank back against the wall and his jaw dropped open and he began to tremble in fright. As much as it flattered his ego that the mere presence of him could elicit such a response, Apocalypse was not pleased. His guards would have to be stronger than that, a hardier group. * To cull the strong from the weak, that is my duty. * Apocalypse thought grimly as he smashed the guards head into the wall. Apocalypse stepped out of the bathroom and began walking down the halls, heedless now of the stares he was receiving, and as the guards began to bow and scrape, he thought to himself, * The guards have become too slack, too weak. I shall have to replace them all if they cannot be made stronger. *
Apocalypse headed straight for the control room, the place where all the Sea Walls were controlled. He knew at least one of his two deputies in the place would be there. If not someone of position would be there. Suddenly he ran into a team of guards and mutants standing guard around the area leading to the elevator. They had arranged themselves to ambush him. Apocalypse smiled, so they were not as useless as he thought. In fact with the speed and efficiency they had come here showed that they had devised a method of alarm unknown to any outsider.
"Stand down guards or whatever else you are. I am Apocalypse." He had walked forward into the middle of where the ambush would have taken place. A few guards materialized out of thin air; apparently they had managed to acquire invisibility equipment. Interesting. Apocalypse stepped forward to the elevator. The guards all dispersed. Through the bioorganic sensors that he had equipped himself with Apocalypse sensed that telepathy was taking place. He determined it's source and extending his hand grabbed one of the male guards walking away. He pulled the guard towards him and spoke to him, slowly employing greater pressure on the guard's neck.
"You will never use any mutant power in front of me without my being told of it."
The guard nodded weakly and Apocalypse let him go, the guard gasping for breath where he lay. Apocalypse entered the elevator. * I should have killed that guard for his actions. Now whoever is in the control room knows exactly when I am coming. *
The elevator door opened and Apocalypse went forward and through another set of doors, a set that would never open for any one other than him, without requiring a thorough scan. Upon entering he stopped, mildly surprised. He had expected at least one of them to be here, instead he found himself staring at two occupants who he did not know.
One of them stood by the command consoles, looking at him. It was a woman, dressed in all black, with purple armor. She wore high purple colored boots, and had purple gauntlets on her arms. The armor had blade like protrusions on her elbows and knees, much like his horseman War, and a purple headpiece framed her face. Massive metallic-purple colored wings were attached to her back and gauntlets. Her skin was tanned golden-bronze, and long ebony hair fell to her waist. Her eyes were slitted at the corners, glowing white, and a black tattoo crossed over one eye. She immediately bowed upon seeing him. The other inhabitant was a man dressed in blood red, with darker red armor. He wore a glossy metallic-red mask over his face, with two small eye slits being the only tarnish on the smooth surface apart from two red horns sweeping from behind. Long brown hair tied in a ponytail hung down his back. As Apocalypse entered he also bowed down. They both knew who he was, which was hardly surprising, but they both also seemed to be of some authority, as they were inside the control room in the first place.
"Who are you?" Apocalypse was not used to being surprised in places that he controlled.
The woman answered, "We are two of four Prelates Great Lord, I am the arch- prelate Deathbird, and the other is Prelate Erik 'the red'."
Apocalypse was slightly taken aback. He had never given permission to Rasputin or Holocaust to have Prelates. The Mutant Elite Force was something that Sinister had come up with in the early days of fighting the X-men and Human High Council. How was it possible that there were others here? Especially others he had never been told of? Apocalypse saved his questions for his two absent lieutenants. He would deal with those two when they returned. For now this 'Arch-Prelate' would do.
x----------------- ------------x
Emma Frost sat in her room. Ever since the attack on the Tower she had become depressed. Her meeting with Exodus had opened up old wounds which she had thought healed. She had never gotten over the deaths of so many of her friends. They had all been fools, she knew that now. All those years ago, they had not even comprehended the power that Apocalypse had wielded. Even when young her life had been shadowed by tragedy. Her youngest sister had died at an early age, and when her powers had manifested themselves when she was 14, her parents had thought she was going insane. She had been taken to a heavily guarded asylum, where she had been subjugated to the worst sort of imprisonment. She had rebelled against her being put in an asylum and the doctors and the guards had kept her in a straightjacket. Once she knew it was useless to resist she had stopped fighting, and the straightjacket had been removed after a week of it being put on her. Then had come the humiliations. The guards had ridiculed her, and she could hear their thoughts as nearly all of them thought lewd thoughts about her. Then they had started acting on those thoughts. Emma had been helpless, and she had not understood what was happening to her. It was after she had accidentally killed a guard that she understood that she could project her thoughts onto others. She had developed this skill to control a guard, with whom she escaped the asylum. Upon leaving the asylum she had killed the guard and set off into the world. She had been the daughter of a billionaire family and she barely knew how to survive. She used her mental powers to get by, duping cashiers in supermarkets and clothing stores into believing she had paid for the items she took. She had soon begun to attend parties of high-class people in New York, using her mental powers to make people believe she was an old friend, or someone they knew. It was there that she had met Harry Leland, a man whose thoughts revealed him to have powers. She wondered if there were others like her who had powers.
She had used Leland to gain access to The Hellfire Club, where she had helped Sebastian Shaw, a friend of Leland's to take over the Club from it's owner. She had forced Ned to shoot the other council members of the Club. Then as Ned had pleaded with her and Shaw, she had made him shoot himself. She and Shaw had arisen as the Clubs new rulers, the Black King and the White Queen. Later on the club had grown, with Sinister coming in as the White King, and Selene coming in as the Black Queen. Little did they know that Sinister had been planted by Apocalypse to spy. However Emma knew Sinister well, he was no body's pawn. No Sinister had been working for his own betterment for a long time, and there was no reason to think he still did not do so. The Hellfire Club had grown under the Inner Circle's care. The coming of the External's had bothered Emma and Shaw, the Club seemed to have been systematically taken over by the immortal mutants. There were only a few normal lived mutants in the Inner Circle, and Emma and Shaw had been concerned. However all had changed when Shaw had grown increasingly obsessed with killing Apocalypse. Emma had been one of the few people to try to dissuade him, but Shaw had been insistent. Emma had been just eighteen at the time. However it seemed that Apocalypse had found out about their plans, and had instead attacked them first.
During that time Emma had gotten close to one of their earlier members, Bennet Du Paris, also one of the Inner Circle, who held the title of the Black Knight. She had fallen for him fairly hard. He had been, to her, the perfect man. It had taken her a long time before she let anyone get close to her; she had kept all men, including Shaw, at a distance. Bennet Du Paris had broken through her barriers. He had been an External; she had known that, a man who had been born before the Crusades, being one of the knights who took part. He could have charmed the birds out of the trees. He had courted Emma, and she had begun to believe in happiness with a man. Until Apocalypse had struck. She and Exodus had planned to escape right in the beginning, when Apocalypse had first struck. Instead it had turned out that Exodus was working alongside Apocalypse. He had struck swiftly, and it was with all her strength that she had managed to push off his assault. She had been shocked and heartbroken when he told her he was using her to further his own ambition in taking out the rest of the Hellfire Club. She was to have been his accomplice, his pawn. He had begun to attack her again and Emma had known that she could not hope to defeat him on her own. She had used one of her mental tricks on him. She had allowed him to strike her with an energy blast, one that just glanced off her, yet still sent her sprawling and she nearly blacked out. As she fell she managed to create the impression that she had been hit badly and was dying. Using her mental powers she had managed to make him think she was dead. He had left and she had, after making sure he wasn't returning, escaped. When Apocalypse had finally struck in earnest, attacking the Hellfire Club for real, she had remained in the background and when Apocalypse had grown in size she had quickly run off, making her escape through sewer tunnels. Unlike Selene and Shaw she knew that it was better to live to fight another day. She had joined the human refugees exiting from northeast America. She had managed to make it to London where the Human High Council had based itself. She had told them all she could to help, everything she knew about Apocalypse's External's, and about Apocalypse himself. That had not really amounted to much, but the High Council had been pleased. Emma had then put herself through rigorous training and began to train other mutants to fight against Apocalypse. When a second Muir Isle had been established to be the training centre she had gone there with the remaining X-men, who had just been defeated in a battle. The X-men had established Muir Isle as their third headquarters, after the Xavier institute in Maine and Wundagore Mountain in the Slavic region. Moira Trask and Emma had run the Muir Isle 2 facility, Magneto had been in charge of Wundagore Mountain and Xavier had headed the group from his institute. Apocalypse had somehow found out about Wundagore Mountain and he had arrived there with his forces, literally smashing the base into rubble. Emma had been at the base that day and had witnessed first hand the terrible power of Apocalypse and his forces. Magneto and the X-men that survived had escaped; it would have been futile to even attempt to fight them. Apocalypse had gone to the moon to recover, and left his horseman Death in charge.
He had begun to perform experiments on humans turning them into raving, cannibalistic killers. Emma had seen first hand some of the Inhumans and had been shocked and disgusted. The human High council had become angry at this and had built up another army very fast. Some of her old comrades from the Hellfire Club had appeared then; they had managed to rally up a big enough army to attack Apocalypse's Citadel. It had seemed suicidal to Emma at the time, but it had worked and The Citadel had fallen to the X-men and the Human High Council's forces which comprised of old f-series jets like the F-16's and F-15's as well as massive robots, the precursors to the Sentinels. Apocalypse had been taken unawares it seemed. He had retaliated in horrible fashion.
His son Nemesis, now known as Holocaust, and Mikhail Rasputin had been called back from Eurasia, where they hunted the Human High Council with The Reavers. Apocalypse had increased his watch on all of them, the X-men, the Human High Council, and the efforts to find and destroy the different bases, London, Xavier's institute and the two Muir Isle's had been increased tenfold. They had continued their training and efforts to harass Apocalypse all they could. A couple of years later Cyclops had become the High Prelate, and in a matter of months he had found and taken out the Institute. That had been one of the most devastating blow the X-men had faced. Cyclops had chased them like rabbits, hunting them until he could crush them. Emma and Magneto had mounted a rescue operation and had managed to save them in the newly designed All terrain Jet, or Hybrid. Bolivar Trask, the creator of the Sentinels, and Moira's old husband had designed them just before his death. Emma had met most of the current team then, and had witnessed the break up of Gambit and Rogue firsthand. She had always liked the Cajun and had felt sorry for him. With Xavier at the Island now Emma had learnt a lot about telepathy, along with his other student Jean Grey. In many ways Emma had been stronger than Xavier, but as an overall Xavier was a much stronger and skilled telepath. With a telepath for a teacher instead of the human Moira, Emma had flourished, honing her powers to be most effective in a protracted battle. After nearly a month of idleness on the island, the X-men took off for what had been America. They had taken a new X-jet, for minimal detection by the Sea Wall. For a year they had caused damage to Apocalypse's death camps, quickly destroying each and freeing all the prisoners, before heading out to find and liberate another. Cyclops had noticed however, and had known how Xavier thought apparently, because for the last three death camps hit, Prelates and the Mutant Units had been waiting. Weapon X had lost his arm then to Cyclops. During that time, Gambit had come to the Island twice, each time with more members for his team, Roulette and others wanting to join the X-men. Emma had gotten to know the Cajun then, and had begun to warm to him. He had flirted with her incessantly. Emma owed a lot to him. He had helped her get past Exodus. She knew however that they could be no more than just friends, albeit with a romantic past. Roulette had headed for America as well; in the X-jet that Xavier had gifted them. The jet was one of four crafts that could get past the Sea Wall. After Cyclops had gotten wind of Xavier though, he had not let go, and had followed the X-men into what was left of Mexico.
There Xavier had staged his last stand, and had fallen to Cyclops with the Mutant Elite Force. Emma had been as stunned as the rest of the mutant community at Muir Isle. Emma had slowly begun to think of Xavier as immortal, even though he was paralyzed below the waist and quite old. To find out that he was dead was the most distressing thing that had happened to her. However Magneto had taken over with great efficiency. He was an excellent leader. Emma was happy for him and Rogue. Their child would bring some happiness in their bitter and tension filled lives.
Wanda had completely changed in her attitude towards Rogue, and though Emma and Rogue would probably never get along, Emma had also tried to be friendlier towards her.
Emma smiled as she thought of Remy. He had been perplexed at the sight of Wanda beginning to like Rogue, and even more at a loss as to why Emma had refused his attentions. Compounded on that had been the fact that he had tried to flirt with three women simultaneously, one whose lover had just left, another whose two loves were dead, both in the last year, and the last who loved him as a brother, but had gotten exasperated with his attitude towards Rogue, who nearly everyone except he knew was having a baby. Emma wanted to find him. She needed a good laugh, and Remy was very able to provide that.
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So. Here it is. The history of this Age of Apocalypse. Well. it's not directly A/U to the original AoA. but hey, it is an age of Apocalypse, and uses much of its idea's to stay afloat. the Prelates etc. Anyway. Next chapter has a lot of story development, and the introduction of what was a key character in the original AoA.
*~*
Reminiscing
Sammael sat in his chambers. His mind went over what he needed to do. His most pressing concern was to deal with the last remnants of the Renegade Externals. There were only a few of them left. Asmodeus, the one who had managed to get them all together. Sammael had always disliked him. He had been Shaman's protégé. Sammael had hated Shaman. Shaman was the one who had banded together the resistance against Apocalypse from the beginning. With Apocalypse's superior power it had been futile. Asmodeus had been part of the same club that many mutants belonged to. The Hellfire club. Sammael remembered it well. He had himself been part of that club, along with his half brother. Halfbane was one External that Sammael had been pleased had fallen before the battle between the Hellfire Club and Apocalypse. His power had matched Sammael's and it might have turned the tide of the battle. It had only been in the aftermath of that battle that Xavier had appeared. In the end of the battle, only Asmodeus, Behamen, Galaire, Gilgamesh and Astaroth had remained. Behamen had been the empath. A dangerous External, only Candra had been truly able to overcome the power of the empath, due to her ability of dampening mutant powers. Apart from Apocalypse. Sammael had himself fallen prey to it, and if not for Candra he would have been lost. Somehow she had also achieved the ability to fly and usage of some psi-energies, the latter probably due to her being a telepath of sorts. It was fairly common amongst Externals to have multiple mutations. He himself had multiple mutations. Galaire was also fairly dangerous. She had amazingly honed control over water, apart from her invulnerability. She had destroyed a whole garrison of soldiers and mutants, nearly two thousand of them, single handedly. Astaroth had been one of Sammael's closest friends, if that word could be applied to any of Sammael's acquaintances. He had unfortunately chosen the wrong side in the battle. Sammael wanted to have the pleasure of killing him himself. Gilgamesh had always worried Sammael. In an area of complete darkness or shadow, he could move from one point to another almost instantaneously. He had complete command of the shadows. He was very long lived. Sammael had first heard of him one thousand years ago, and he had lived for quite a while before that. He could be nearly as old as he himself was. Perhaps older, but that was unlikely.
He could remember well the day he had first entered the Hellfire Club just over fifteen years ago.
He had walked into the newly established club arrogantly. The receptionist had given him an appointment with Sebastian Hiram Shaw. Shaw had been young then, in his late twenties and already possessed enough arrogance for ten men. He was not an External, but was a powerful mutant nonetheless. Attacking him was futile as it only increased his strength. He could convert kinetic energy into energy for himself. A dangerous mutant to be sure. He was the Black King of the Hellfire Club, one of the four most powerful members of the organization. Shaw knew who he was, and he had been pleased to have him as a member of the Club. He had refused any titles. It was there that he had met many of his External Brethren. Sammael had met Sinister there, the White King, and Selene the Black Queen. Both were External's, as well as Exodus the Black Knight, and Astaroth, the Black Rook. Candra had formed her own allegiances at the time, with the Thieves Guild, becoming their Benefactress, though she frequented the Club. Archanfel and Asmodeus had been the two White Bishops. Gilgamesh had been the Black Bishop. Behamen and Galaire had been the Black Bishop and the White Knight, respectively. Shaman had avoided contact with the Hellfire Club, although he knew many of the members. The other Knights had been normal mutants. However both the White Rooks had been Externals, Saul and Necodemus. The Hellfire Club had turned out to be an External stronghold.
It had been that fool Shaw's plan to go up against Apocalypse. One of the members, some mutant whose name Sammael couldn't recall had found a map that led to Apocalypse's pyramid chamber. Previously only Sinister had known the location. Shaw had come up with the fool notion of killing the Immortal Warlord, so as to ensure that only the Hellfire Club had dominance over earth. Sinister had immediately protested against the plan. He had told them that it would be madness, and that Apocalypse had powers that could not be matched yet. The other fools had scoffed at him. Sammael had remained quiet on the matter. However Halfbane had earlier begun making plans with Shaman, before his death, and Shaman had managed to convince the rest of the club to fight against Apocalypse. They had mounted an attack, however Sammael had previously learned the futility of fighting Apocalypse. He had told Apocalypse of the impending assault. Apocalypse had once again shocked Sammael when he revealed that he knew of the attack from before. He had already summoned Sinister to him, before Sammael had gone to him. Sinister had brought along Exodus, or rather Exodus had followed him Sammael found out later. Archanfel had also come later, once they were gone. It was later he learned that Candra had been the one who had first told him of the impending assault, and even then he had known about it. Apparently his spies had done their work. Apocalypse had wanted details from each of them though, and he had been pleased. He had told them that he would now have to hurry along matters, but he would have soon dealt with the Hellfire Club anyway. Even back then Apocalypse had not told them who the other's that helped him were. Therefore Sammael had not known that Sinister, Exodus, Archanfel and Candra also helped Apocalypse.
The next day Sammael went to the Hellfire Club and took out the bioorganic signature monitors, killing the security teams in charge. Apocalypse had struck then. He had simply walked into the club and taken apart it's security. He had single-handedly killed the other Black Rook the mutant Crule, and the two White Rooks Saul and Necodemus. Selene had also fallen to him. Exodus had taken care of the young White Queen Emma Frost, and Sinister had taken down the White Knight Harry Leland, who it turned out survived to join Apocalypse. Sammael had fought with Archanfel against Asmodeus, Astaroth and Behamen. Sammael had nearly lost to the other three, especially when Galaire joined in. Sammael had just barely managed to escape. The Hellfire Club had not fallen in the first attack, and Sammael, Sinister, Exodus and Archanfel had been sent running. Candra had laughed at them then. Apocalypse had not been pleased. He had returned to Egypt in the middle of the battle to kill Shaman who had used Apocalypse's being gone as a sign to attack his pyramid. The only thing that Sammael knew about what had happened was that Apocalypse had been very annoyed after his fight with Shaman.
He had wanted the Hellfire Club destroyed. He had then brought in the reinforcements.
Apocalypse's son Nemesis, Mikhail Rasputin and two horsemen, Abyss and Pestilence. And the Reavers. Sammael to this day did not know what had become of them, or how Apocalypse had got them in the first place. As far as he knew they still protected the Sea Wall. Pierce and his cohorts had made short work of all of the Hellfire Clubs forces, leaving only the mutants and External's of the Inner Council standing. The battle had waged across the whole of New York, shattering buildings to a pulp, killing hundreds of thousands. The United States Army had reacted, but even it was no match for the Reavers, and the rest of Apocalypse's forces. Even though the Reavers had in the end been left with only half of their original force, the U.S army had been completely and utterly crushed. Apocalypse had then done something which Sammael still found amazing. He had grown to a huge size, over fifty feet tall. The Hellfire Club had frozen with terror, and then Apocalypse casually picked up another building and smashed it down onto the Club.
Once the dust had cleared Apocalypse was his normal size, and the Hellfire Club lay broken before him. The rubble had shifted and Selene, Black Queen of the Club had pushed her way out, only to be confronted by them. Apocalypse had toyed with her, letting her use her powers against him, finally killing her using only his strength and his fists, no bursts of energy and no changing shape. Selene had launched all of her attacks onto him, using all her arcane powers to try and kill the Immortal Warlord. Nothing had worked and in the end, Selene had lain on the ruins of the Club, her life force ebbing away, until nothing had remained of the External but a broken husk. The only casualty on Apocalypse's side had been his two horsemen, Abyss and Pestilence. Both had been killed. Nemesis had been hurt grievously, and only Sinister had managed to contain his life force in an armored shell, using Apocalypse's vast resources of Celestial and alien technology. Nemesis had changed his name to Holocaust after that. Holocaust, Mikhail and what was left of the Reavers had launched an attack on other continents, while Apocalypse and the External's who had joined him had systematically taken over The America's along with his two horsemen, Death and Sarek. The human's had resisted, but finally Apocalypse had driven them into northern Asia and what was left of Europe. Australia and Japan had been reduced to nothing but barren waste, while France had been wiped off the map. Only a small portion of the top of the Eiffel Tower could be seen sticking out of the sea that had taken France's place. It was then that Xavier and his X-men had shown themselves. After many battles one of their bases had been found. Apocalypse had destroyed the whole mountain on which the X-men had had their headquarters and training centre. The last remnants of the Hellfire Club had gone to them, and they attacked full force in retaliation. The Citadel, which rose over New York's shattered skyline, had fallen to the X-men and Human High Council. Apocalypse had been on the moon recovering from his injuries, leaving the insane Death to rule in his stead. Death had used Terrigen mists on all the humans he could find, converting them to what had been called the Inhumans. Sinister had not liked that, and had tried to stop Death. However Death's actions led to his undoing as the human High Council had become incensed and attacked them along with the X-men. Death had died in the attack, along with Sarek, the other horseman. Apocalypse had been more enraged than Sammael had ever seen him. He had called back Mikhail and Holocaust, and had assaulted the X-men, reducing their numbers by more than half. Xavier had not expected such an assault and he had retreated. The X-men had dispersed, and Apocalypse had then set his attention on the human remnant, and the High Council of humans. He had taken Sammael, Mikhail and Holocaust with him to Europe where he had fought against the High Councils forces. Sinister, Candra, Exodus and Archanfel had remained to find and destroy all allies of the X- men. Sinister and Candra had concentrated on the allies, while Exodus and Archanfel searched for the X-men. Sinister and Candra had destroyed all the Guilds of New Orleans, as well as S.H.I.E.L.D. Exodus and Archanfel had faced the X-men again with the Mutant Elite, and had defeated them. However Archanfel had battled Magneto and lost. Since then Archanfel had become obsessed with killing the mutant.
The High Council of Human's had employed the Meta human Avenger's led by Captain America and Carol Danvers. Sammael had personally dispatched one of the most powerful, the Norse 'god' Thor. One of the members of the X-men, and an Avenger, Beast had been taken by Apocalypse to use as a Horseman. The Avengers had fallen one by one, until only Carol Danvers remained, and she had run away. However the battle had given the High Council time to escape. They had disappeared, leaving no clue as to where they might have gone. Apocalypse had been angry at that. He had left Holocaust and Mikhail with the Reavers to search them out and had returned with Sammael to the America's where he started work on the building of The Tower to replace the Citadel. The Tower had been constructed in what had been Louisiana. Then Apocalypse had begun what he called the Culling. Any human found was sent to either death camps or to Sinister and Beast to be converted into soldiers for Apocalypse. All mutants had been sent to Sinister and Beast to be neurally programmed to serve Apocalypse. At about this time Beast had rebelled and Apocalypse had put him down. A year later another Beast appeared, a dark version of the original, who obeyed only Apocalypse. Even Sinister had found him sadistic in his methods. Around that time Sinister and Archanfel also procured their 'children'. Cecilia Reyes had been employed at around this time as well.
Then the Sentinels had appeared. They had been programmed to attack any and all mutants. The Sentinels had proven to be extremely efficient and Apocalypse had had to once again take a personal hand. The sentinels attacking The Tower had been destroyed by Apocalypse who had grown to a size to match theirs. Holocaust and Mikhail had been instructed to find the origin of the sentinels and destroy it. A month later Mikhail and Holocaust reported success. Muir Isle, off the northern coast of Scotland had been where the mutant hunters were coming from. Holocaust and Mikhail had reduced it to ashes. The creator of the wretched things had been killed with the island, however his widow Moira Mctaggert had escaped. As of yet, nothing had been found of her. Holocaust and Mikhail had returned to Sea Wall, with orders to hunt down and kill any remaining human High council members.
Apocalypse had then largely left them Externals to fight against the X-men. It had only been until Cyclops had become the high Prelate that any headway had been made. The mutant was a brilliant strategist, hunting down the X- men like dogs, and destroying their second headquarters. Sinister's protégé had done so well that Apocalypse himself had deigned to meet him. In fact Apocalypse had been so impressed he had literally promised Cyclops a position in the highest order, equal to that of the Externals and Holocaust and Mikhail. Sammael had then truly begun paying attention to the mutant. In the short space of a few months after the destruction of their headquarters, Cyclops had managed to hunt down and kill Xavier. That had guaranteed his promotion, and Apocalypse had been set to promote him to an equal to the Externals. It was then that the X-men had broken in and rescued Psylocke. The promotion had been delayed, but then Cyclops had turned, and everything had gone to hell. In the events that followed Archanfel had died, The Tower had been partially broken and another Prelate had turned. Furthermore the renegade Externals had come out from wherever they had been hiding.
Now with the advent of the Horsemen, Apocalypse had again begun taking a personal hand in events. Sammael also knew that when it was all over only one or two of them, the External's, would still be alive. Sammael intended to make sure he was one of those that lived.
x----------------- ------------x
Apocalypse stood in front of the monitor bank in his private chambers. He had just relayed a message to Exodus, informing his External that he would be gone for a few hours. His orders were clear. Exodus was to maintain security, and in the event of a crisis or one of his horsemen calling in, Exodus was to immediately inform him. Apocalypse had left events on the other side of the world idle long enough. He grimaced slightly. Holocaust and Rasputin had barely reported to him what they had found for nearly a year. That meant that they were being insubordinate, and he could not afford to let anyone show that he was weak in any area, otherwise all of his subordinates would be at his throat in a flash. He knew of Sinister's plans to create the perfect weapon, of Candra's desire to be amused, of Exodus's plans to take his place through subterfuge, and slow telepathic control, and of course Sammael's desire to be the last remaining immortal mutant. Sammael wanted to be rid of any and all things that were a threat to him. The mutant had no concept of the importance of competition and personal gain through pain. Apocalypse had also felt the glimmerings of the rise of an unexpected opponent. Certain events had his mark on them. Shaman, now his servant had informed him. Shaman had the one who knew Halfbane best. Apocalypse would be glad to see them go head to head. The victor of that battle would be his horseman.
Apocalypse touched the ring like indentation on his belt. Immediately he felt his body tremble and his senses vanish, as each molecule was displaced to a different place. When he regained control of himself a moment later he stood in a different place. This was the largest Sea Wall of twelve such constructs, positioned around the America's in order to guard his main boundaries. This was also the controlling Sea Wall, it was furthest away from all the others, positioned near the southwestern tip of Africa. Apocalypse stepped out of the stall. He had apparently teleported into a bathroom. Upon stepping out he saw a guard looking at him in terror. The guard shrank back against the wall and his jaw dropped open and he began to tremble in fright. As much as it flattered his ego that the mere presence of him could elicit such a response, Apocalypse was not pleased. His guards would have to be stronger than that, a hardier group. * To cull the strong from the weak, that is my duty. * Apocalypse thought grimly as he smashed the guards head into the wall. Apocalypse stepped out of the bathroom and began walking down the halls, heedless now of the stares he was receiving, and as the guards began to bow and scrape, he thought to himself, * The guards have become too slack, too weak. I shall have to replace them all if they cannot be made stronger. *
Apocalypse headed straight for the control room, the place where all the Sea Walls were controlled. He knew at least one of his two deputies in the place would be there. If not someone of position would be there. Suddenly he ran into a team of guards and mutants standing guard around the area leading to the elevator. They had arranged themselves to ambush him. Apocalypse smiled, so they were not as useless as he thought. In fact with the speed and efficiency they had come here showed that they had devised a method of alarm unknown to any outsider.
"Stand down guards or whatever else you are. I am Apocalypse." He had walked forward into the middle of where the ambush would have taken place. A few guards materialized out of thin air; apparently they had managed to acquire invisibility equipment. Interesting. Apocalypse stepped forward to the elevator. The guards all dispersed. Through the bioorganic sensors that he had equipped himself with Apocalypse sensed that telepathy was taking place. He determined it's source and extending his hand grabbed one of the male guards walking away. He pulled the guard towards him and spoke to him, slowly employing greater pressure on the guard's neck.
"You will never use any mutant power in front of me without my being told of it."
The guard nodded weakly and Apocalypse let him go, the guard gasping for breath where he lay. Apocalypse entered the elevator. * I should have killed that guard for his actions. Now whoever is in the control room knows exactly when I am coming. *
The elevator door opened and Apocalypse went forward and through another set of doors, a set that would never open for any one other than him, without requiring a thorough scan. Upon entering he stopped, mildly surprised. He had expected at least one of them to be here, instead he found himself staring at two occupants who he did not know.
One of them stood by the command consoles, looking at him. It was a woman, dressed in all black, with purple armor. She wore high purple colored boots, and had purple gauntlets on her arms. The armor had blade like protrusions on her elbows and knees, much like his horseman War, and a purple headpiece framed her face. Massive metallic-purple colored wings were attached to her back and gauntlets. Her skin was tanned golden-bronze, and long ebony hair fell to her waist. Her eyes were slitted at the corners, glowing white, and a black tattoo crossed over one eye. She immediately bowed upon seeing him. The other inhabitant was a man dressed in blood red, with darker red armor. He wore a glossy metallic-red mask over his face, with two small eye slits being the only tarnish on the smooth surface apart from two red horns sweeping from behind. Long brown hair tied in a ponytail hung down his back. As Apocalypse entered he also bowed down. They both knew who he was, which was hardly surprising, but they both also seemed to be of some authority, as they were inside the control room in the first place.
"Who are you?" Apocalypse was not used to being surprised in places that he controlled.
The woman answered, "We are two of four Prelates Great Lord, I am the arch- prelate Deathbird, and the other is Prelate Erik 'the red'."
Apocalypse was slightly taken aback. He had never given permission to Rasputin or Holocaust to have Prelates. The Mutant Elite Force was something that Sinister had come up with in the early days of fighting the X-men and Human High Council. How was it possible that there were others here? Especially others he had never been told of? Apocalypse saved his questions for his two absent lieutenants. He would deal with those two when they returned. For now this 'Arch-Prelate' would do.
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Emma Frost sat in her room. Ever since the attack on the Tower she had become depressed. Her meeting with Exodus had opened up old wounds which she had thought healed. She had never gotten over the deaths of so many of her friends. They had all been fools, she knew that now. All those years ago, they had not even comprehended the power that Apocalypse had wielded. Even when young her life had been shadowed by tragedy. Her youngest sister had died at an early age, and when her powers had manifested themselves when she was 14, her parents had thought she was going insane. She had been taken to a heavily guarded asylum, where she had been subjugated to the worst sort of imprisonment. She had rebelled against her being put in an asylum and the doctors and the guards had kept her in a straightjacket. Once she knew it was useless to resist she had stopped fighting, and the straightjacket had been removed after a week of it being put on her. Then had come the humiliations. The guards had ridiculed her, and she could hear their thoughts as nearly all of them thought lewd thoughts about her. Then they had started acting on those thoughts. Emma had been helpless, and she had not understood what was happening to her. It was after she had accidentally killed a guard that she understood that she could project her thoughts onto others. She had developed this skill to control a guard, with whom she escaped the asylum. Upon leaving the asylum she had killed the guard and set off into the world. She had been the daughter of a billionaire family and she barely knew how to survive. She used her mental powers to get by, duping cashiers in supermarkets and clothing stores into believing she had paid for the items she took. She had soon begun to attend parties of high-class people in New York, using her mental powers to make people believe she was an old friend, or someone they knew. It was there that she had met Harry Leland, a man whose thoughts revealed him to have powers. She wondered if there were others like her who had powers.
She had used Leland to gain access to The Hellfire Club, where she had helped Sebastian Shaw, a friend of Leland's to take over the Club from it's owner. She had forced Ned to shoot the other council members of the Club. Then as Ned had pleaded with her and Shaw, she had made him shoot himself. She and Shaw had arisen as the Clubs new rulers, the Black King and the White Queen. Later on the club had grown, with Sinister coming in as the White King, and Selene coming in as the Black Queen. Little did they know that Sinister had been planted by Apocalypse to spy. However Emma knew Sinister well, he was no body's pawn. No Sinister had been working for his own betterment for a long time, and there was no reason to think he still did not do so. The Hellfire Club had grown under the Inner Circle's care. The coming of the External's had bothered Emma and Shaw, the Club seemed to have been systematically taken over by the immortal mutants. There were only a few normal lived mutants in the Inner Circle, and Emma and Shaw had been concerned. However all had changed when Shaw had grown increasingly obsessed with killing Apocalypse. Emma had been one of the few people to try to dissuade him, but Shaw had been insistent. Emma had been just eighteen at the time. However it seemed that Apocalypse had found out about their plans, and had instead attacked them first.
During that time Emma had gotten close to one of their earlier members, Bennet Du Paris, also one of the Inner Circle, who held the title of the Black Knight. She had fallen for him fairly hard. He had been, to her, the perfect man. It had taken her a long time before she let anyone get close to her; she had kept all men, including Shaw, at a distance. Bennet Du Paris had broken through her barriers. He had been an External; she had known that, a man who had been born before the Crusades, being one of the knights who took part. He could have charmed the birds out of the trees. He had courted Emma, and she had begun to believe in happiness with a man. Until Apocalypse had struck. She and Exodus had planned to escape right in the beginning, when Apocalypse had first struck. Instead it had turned out that Exodus was working alongside Apocalypse. He had struck swiftly, and it was with all her strength that she had managed to push off his assault. She had been shocked and heartbroken when he told her he was using her to further his own ambition in taking out the rest of the Hellfire Club. She was to have been his accomplice, his pawn. He had begun to attack her again and Emma had known that she could not hope to defeat him on her own. She had used one of her mental tricks on him. She had allowed him to strike her with an energy blast, one that just glanced off her, yet still sent her sprawling and she nearly blacked out. As she fell she managed to create the impression that she had been hit badly and was dying. Using her mental powers she had managed to make him think she was dead. He had left and she had, after making sure he wasn't returning, escaped. When Apocalypse had finally struck in earnest, attacking the Hellfire Club for real, she had remained in the background and when Apocalypse had grown in size she had quickly run off, making her escape through sewer tunnels. Unlike Selene and Shaw she knew that it was better to live to fight another day. She had joined the human refugees exiting from northeast America. She had managed to make it to London where the Human High Council had based itself. She had told them all she could to help, everything she knew about Apocalypse's External's, and about Apocalypse himself. That had not really amounted to much, but the High Council had been pleased. Emma had then put herself through rigorous training and began to train other mutants to fight against Apocalypse. When a second Muir Isle had been established to be the training centre she had gone there with the remaining X-men, who had just been defeated in a battle. The X-men had established Muir Isle as their third headquarters, after the Xavier institute in Maine and Wundagore Mountain in the Slavic region. Moira Trask and Emma had run the Muir Isle 2 facility, Magneto had been in charge of Wundagore Mountain and Xavier had headed the group from his institute. Apocalypse had somehow found out about Wundagore Mountain and he had arrived there with his forces, literally smashing the base into rubble. Emma had been at the base that day and had witnessed first hand the terrible power of Apocalypse and his forces. Magneto and the X-men that survived had escaped; it would have been futile to even attempt to fight them. Apocalypse had gone to the moon to recover, and left his horseman Death in charge.
He had begun to perform experiments on humans turning them into raving, cannibalistic killers. Emma had seen first hand some of the Inhumans and had been shocked and disgusted. The human High council had become angry at this and had built up another army very fast. Some of her old comrades from the Hellfire Club had appeared then; they had managed to rally up a big enough army to attack Apocalypse's Citadel. It had seemed suicidal to Emma at the time, but it had worked and The Citadel had fallen to the X-men and the Human High Council's forces which comprised of old f-series jets like the F-16's and F-15's as well as massive robots, the precursors to the Sentinels. Apocalypse had been taken unawares it seemed. He had retaliated in horrible fashion.
His son Nemesis, now known as Holocaust, and Mikhail Rasputin had been called back from Eurasia, where they hunted the Human High Council with The Reavers. Apocalypse had increased his watch on all of them, the X-men, the Human High Council, and the efforts to find and destroy the different bases, London, Xavier's institute and the two Muir Isle's had been increased tenfold. They had continued their training and efforts to harass Apocalypse all they could. A couple of years later Cyclops had become the High Prelate, and in a matter of months he had found and taken out the Institute. That had been one of the most devastating blow the X-men had faced. Cyclops had chased them like rabbits, hunting them until he could crush them. Emma and Magneto had mounted a rescue operation and had managed to save them in the newly designed All terrain Jet, or Hybrid. Bolivar Trask, the creator of the Sentinels, and Moira's old husband had designed them just before his death. Emma had met most of the current team then, and had witnessed the break up of Gambit and Rogue firsthand. She had always liked the Cajun and had felt sorry for him. With Xavier at the Island now Emma had learnt a lot about telepathy, along with his other student Jean Grey. In many ways Emma had been stronger than Xavier, but as an overall Xavier was a much stronger and skilled telepath. With a telepath for a teacher instead of the human Moira, Emma had flourished, honing her powers to be most effective in a protracted battle. After nearly a month of idleness on the island, the X-men took off for what had been America. They had taken a new X-jet, for minimal detection by the Sea Wall. For a year they had caused damage to Apocalypse's death camps, quickly destroying each and freeing all the prisoners, before heading out to find and liberate another. Cyclops had noticed however, and had known how Xavier thought apparently, because for the last three death camps hit, Prelates and the Mutant Units had been waiting. Weapon X had lost his arm then to Cyclops. During that time, Gambit had come to the Island twice, each time with more members for his team, Roulette and others wanting to join the X-men. Emma had gotten to know the Cajun then, and had begun to warm to him. He had flirted with her incessantly. Emma owed a lot to him. He had helped her get past Exodus. She knew however that they could be no more than just friends, albeit with a romantic past. Roulette had headed for America as well; in the X-jet that Xavier had gifted them. The jet was one of four crafts that could get past the Sea Wall. After Cyclops had gotten wind of Xavier though, he had not let go, and had followed the X-men into what was left of Mexico.
There Xavier had staged his last stand, and had fallen to Cyclops with the Mutant Elite Force. Emma had been as stunned as the rest of the mutant community at Muir Isle. Emma had slowly begun to think of Xavier as immortal, even though he was paralyzed below the waist and quite old. To find out that he was dead was the most distressing thing that had happened to her. However Magneto had taken over with great efficiency. He was an excellent leader. Emma was happy for him and Rogue. Their child would bring some happiness in their bitter and tension filled lives.
Wanda had completely changed in her attitude towards Rogue, and though Emma and Rogue would probably never get along, Emma had also tried to be friendlier towards her.
Emma smiled as she thought of Remy. He had been perplexed at the sight of Wanda beginning to like Rogue, and even more at a loss as to why Emma had refused his attentions. Compounded on that had been the fact that he had tried to flirt with three women simultaneously, one whose lover had just left, another whose two loves were dead, both in the last year, and the last who loved him as a brother, but had gotten exasperated with his attitude towards Rogue, who nearly everyone except he knew was having a baby. Emma wanted to find him. She needed a good laugh, and Remy was very able to provide that.
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So. Here it is. The history of this Age of Apocalypse. Well. it's not directly A/U to the original AoA. but hey, it is an age of Apocalypse, and uses much of its idea's to stay afloat. the Prelates etc. Anyway. Next chapter has a lot of story development, and the introduction of what was a key character in the original AoA.