I humbly apologize for the long hiatus, which was partially caused by three factors.
1: My Mojo gland broke down.
2: Computer virus ate my work twice.
3: Started watching FLCL on Adult Swim. If you haven't seen it be warned, it's messed up, and has a tendency to make you dumber than a box of hammers.
I also went through and changed several things after watching "Dark Horizons" 1 and 2. There were several things I was planning on doing that were extremely close to what happened in the season finally, so close they might have been considered plagiarism. I could have left them in, but I felt this story has left its diary format beginnings completely, and it has enough gumption to stand on its own.
Well, classes have started now, and I can already tell they are going to take more time than I expected. So there may be gaps between posts. But I'm not going to let this story fizzle out. PLEASE REVIEW WITH ANY IMPUT, MUSINGS, RAVES, OR RANTS THAT YOU SEE FIT.
Special thanks to Rogue Star, without whose help this would have never gotten posted.
~Morning After
The morning sun still hid well below the horizon. And the silence that usually filled Mr. McCoy's office at this hour remained, despite the three people who occupied the small room.
Xavier looked over at Rogue, her white bangs trailing over her eyes as she stared blankly into the wall. Even when she was in pain she wore the same expression that she always did. He had liked the changes the past few months had brought to his pupil, but now the sullen mask of repulsion had returned to Rogue's features. Every instructor at the Xavier Institute held a soft spot for her, as did most of the students. In truth Remy, a former enemy no less, had done more for Rogue than the X-Men could. Charles could only blame himself. While he had not forced the children to shun Rogue, he had warned them to be careful around her, and her powers. Of course the children took this literally, instinctively putting distance between themselves and the girl with the poison skin.
How repulsed he was when he heard that term, 'poison skin'. It made Rogue sound like a danger, an outcast, something to be feared. It made her sound different, even among mutants. Perhaps what hurt his heart the worse was, Rogue had created the title herself.
Logan, Rogue and the Professor's heads jerked up when the frosted glass door to the mansion's infirmary opened, and Jean and Dr. McCoy stepped into the makeshift waiting room.
"I have done all that I can do here." Hank's tired expression showed. "Apparently he wasn't wearing a helmet and…"
Rogue stood up and interrupted. "What is he doing here; he needs to be in a hospital, a real one!"
"Calm down Stripes." Logan spoke up while still leaning against the adjacent wall, and Rogue glared at him. "It ain't Hank's fault, I found him." Logan cast a glance at her, which caused her to calm down, at least momentarily. "Think about it, what would have happened if I took him to one? What would have happened when they checked his eyes? You got a chance, someone that don't care, or someone who does, someone who would leave him laying there until he bled to death."
No one wanted to admit it, but Logan's scenario struck something deep within them. Not because of the lack of humanity, but the truth behind it.
"I am currently trying to locate an old colleague in the city to come up here." Xavier spoke kindly and warmly to Rogue, gently placing a hand on her covered shoulder. "But with the late hour it will be a while before I can."
"Come on." Jean put an arm around Rogue and walked with her to the door. "It's best to let Dr. McCoy work; we can't do anything except get in his way."
Rogue complied, as she and Jean walked to the elevator.
"Keep me posted Hank." Xavier looked back from watching Rogue and Jean. "In the meantime all we can do is wait until morning."
McCoy took of his glasses and laid them on his desk. "I can assure you I will not leave Mr. LeBeau's side."
The Professor nodded, and wheeled out of the room.
Logan followed Beast back into the infirmary, where Remy occupied the sterile bedding. "Talk to me straight Hank, what's he looking at?" He asked, standing at the bed's end.
Dr. McCoy rubbed his face, trying in vain to massage away the tension. "My primary concern is swelling in his brain, and their is nothing we can do about it here. We are just going to have to wait it out and see what happens." Remy actually didn't look too bad. A scrape or cut here or there, couple broken bones, but the injuries you can't see are often the most serious.
"What will it do to him if he survives?" Logan asked, still watching his former enemy's soldier resting helplessly.
Hank attempted a shrug, but failed halfway through due to his lack of sleep. "I don't know Logan. I feel like I'm blind here, I don't even know how bad it is, or if he even hit his head. If his brain is in fact swelling then it could very well have serious damage. I hate to use the term 'vegetable' but…"
"What about the other stuff?" Logan interrupted, saving Hank from continuing.
"I assume you mean his physical condition?" Hank asked, grateful that Logan did not wish for him to continue his previous rant. "All survivable, a couple of cracked ribs, numerous cuts and bruises. His left arm was dislocated but I was able to re-set it cleanly."
Logan cast a brief inquisitive glance. "That right leg looked pretty bad."
"It is. His right knee is a mess. It's pretty much completely crushed, and I hate to see the damage done to the ligaments and muscle tissue." Hank took the time to check the area they were discussing. "I'm keeping it iced to reduce the swelling and draining the blood every so often. I called a former college in Michigan, he is ready to fly in if need be."
"Don't give up of that one, he'll surprise you." Logan crossed his arms across his chest.
"I would never give up Logan." McCoy's voice rose. "But my first concern is the specialist Xavier is trying to contact. I had much rather see him limping on a cane for the rest of his life than lying in a casket with a perfect leg." Hank let out a sigh. "I'm sorry for snapping at you like that, I know you didn't mean it in that way."
"Don't mention it."
"You found him Logan; I should be asking you what you think." Hank offered, hoping his fellow faculty member would offer some good news.
Logan looked back to the unconscious youth. "The boy's tough, I'll give him that. He was conscious when I found him."
Hank's expression instantly brightened. "He was conscious, for how long?"
"Until I was able to get him in the van. I guess it took me about five minutes to climb back up to the road with him."
"Well, I have to say that's a good sign, him being conscious that is." Hank mused as he scribbled on the chart hanging at the foot of Remy's bed. "Was he talking?"
"Yeah, seemed pretty coherent although it was obvious he was in shock." Logan closed his eyes, and Hank could have sworn a small smile formed for the briefest of moments across the Wolverine's face. "Asked me to give him a break about the fight he had with Rogue, said it would be more fun for me when he could fight back."
Beast smiled. "Always Remy."
"Yeah." Logan pushed off the wall, stretching his arms over his head and slowly gaiting towards the door.
"Going to bed?" Hank asked as he shut the chart.
"No." He cast a glance at the clock hanging on the wall. "Sun'l be up in a couple of hours. Think I'll go to the Danger Room, blow off some steam."
"Don't blow off too much." McCoy waved his finger sternly. "Don't want two patients under my care." Logan just gave a curt grunt in reply as he continued towards the sliding glass doors. "Logan?"
"Yeah?"
Hank cocked his head back over to his patient. "He's growing on you isn't he?"
Another inaudible grunt accompanied Logan out the door.
~~~:*:~~~
Omen watched as a cloaked man walked down the hall. The man was familiar, although they had never been introduced, or stopped to take the time to introduce themselves. The man had walked this hall perhaps as many times as Omen himself had done, meeting his superior in private. The man looked up at him as he passed, showing the intricate tattooed pattern on his face.
Omen ignored him; he had news for his superior today. Reaching the large redwood doors of the office he tapped a gloved knuckle against them, listening as they echoed into the expansive room.
"Come in."
Omen entered, and crossed the carpeted floor of the office to the desk that separated him from his superior. "Sir, we have managed to identify the silver haired mutant."
"Let's see it." Essex shuffled some of the papers on his desk to the side and looked up expectantly at Omen.
"Pietro Maximoff." Omen handed over one of the folders in his hand. "Son of Erik 'Magnus' Lenshire, the mutant known as Magneto."
Essex continued to skim through the file. The rising sun filtering in through the windows that overlooked Central Park.
"There is more." Omen continued into his superior's silence. "We have discovered that Magneto has formed a temporary alliance with a Professor Charles Xavier, the founder of The Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters in Bayville New York."
"And?" Essex looked over the top of the file.
"Upon searching the members of the school we found this." Omen handed him the other file.
Nathaniel Essex smiled as he read the file. "Call off any searches you have for the missing artifact."
"Sir?"
Essex looked up at his young charge. "I am in need of your services Omen."
~~~:*:~~~
"Jean?" Cyclops called in the direction of the kitchen door as he entered the main hall of the Xavier Institute. "Have you seen the…"
Scott froze, much like a wild dear freezes in the path of the puzzling oncoming headlights of a SUV. He took off his glasses, rubbed his closed eyes, put the ruby lenses back on, and tried looking again. Nope, he wasn't seeing triple.
"Oh." Kurt waved from the doorway. "Hi Scott."
"I would normally rush forward and demand to know where you have been but I have a whole new set of questions now." Scott deadpanned, looking at the two guests Kurt had come in with.
The blue guests with pointed ears, fir, and tails poking out from under their cloaks.
"Scott, I would like you to meet Cyrus and Sage."
"Uh… Hi?" Scott greeted, staring at the three elves in the doorway.
The smaller figure, who Kurt had gestured to as Sage, was about Kurt's size; only instead of a 'he' he was a 'she'. She stood next to Kurt, looking around at the Mansion's interior, paying little attention to the two X Men's conversation.
The larger figure, Cyrus, was somewhere between Piotr and Remy's size. He didn't scan his surroundings like the other one, but just looked into Scott's eyes. His presence was imposing, much like somebody would imagine a 6ft demon with a pointy tail to be. He was muscular, with several scars on his arms and one going across his left cheek. His eyes were the scariest part of him though, they looked at you with determination, but one quickly learned that the yellow seemed to burn with something.
"You might want to go geet ze Professor." Kurt offered, nervously scratching the back of his head.
Before Scott could form an "Uh huh." The Professor saved him the trouble.
*Kurt, could you show your guests to my office. I will be there in a moment.*
~~~
"Another world?" Logan asked, rising from leaning off the wall of the Professor's study, suddenly interested in the two visitors.
"Yes." Sage paused looking over to Cyrus for his silent approval to continue. "A world that has been destroyed by Apocalypse."
"Got any proof?" Logan gruffly shot back.
"We are blue with pointed tails." Cyrus dryly remarked casting an unflattering look first to Wolverine, and then to the silver haired man who remained behind the Professor. "But from what Kurt has told us, that is not considered as abnormal as it used to be here."
Xavier spoke up. "I believe them Logan."
Logan huffed. "They could be just ordinary Mutants."
"True." The Professor mused, looking at his companion. "But the odds of three individuals sharing the exact same mutation are astronomical." Xavier turned his attention back to his guests. "Please continue, our knowledge of Apocalypse is very limited I'm afraid."
"As is ours." Sage offered. "He arrived on our planet 100 years ago. Many viewed him as our savior, wars stopped, local religions were neglected to worship him. Actually, for the first ten or so years of his rule he brought the planet together."
"But it was just a ploy, a farce designed to give him an iron foothold in our world before he reviled his true self." Cyrus spoke, closing his eyes as he recited the painful memories. "He enslaved the masses, used his power and minions to destroy the planet."
"Why?" Charles put a hand to his chin. "Why would he destroy the planet if he already ruled it?"
"Because it is what he does." Sage continued. "Does anyone truly understand the mind of a madman? He destroys planets, takes everything they have to offer and moves on."
"Which is why we are here." Cyrus spoke up.
"He is currently trying to leave our world and come here. We are here to kill him before he is able to regain all of his strength that he has in our world." Sage looked over at her partner. "We were about to track him down when we sensed Kurt, we were hoping some other members of our planet had arrived here as well."
"Kurt has no clan." Cyrus dismissed. "He is not from our planet."
"Clan?" Logan raised an eyebrow.
Sage rolled up the sleeve of her cloak, showing a branded symbol on her arm. "Every child is branded with their clan's crest when they are bourn." She let the fabric recover her slender arm. "Apparently this 'mutation' your planet is going through just got lucky, besides, from what I understand his powers are much weaker than our own."
"It was foolish of us to think another of our people had made it here." Cyrus remarked. "We will have to stop Apocalypse ourselves."
Xavier managed to put on a friendly smile in the air of the recent developments. "I offer my greatest thanks, and my X Men will assist you in anything…"
"I care nothing for you or your people, and I do not want your help." Cyrus interrupted coldly. "I only want to kill the man who destroyed my home."
"I see." The Professor sighed.
"We have already wasted too much time here Sage." Cyrus stood from the couch, his tattered cloak falling back around his features. "Let's go."
*Cyrus doesn't mean what he says.* The startled Xavier looked over at the young Sage, who just looked back into his eyes as she rose. *He grew up when we still had some idea of what our world was like before Apocalypse took over.* She projected once again, before drawing the cowl of her own cloak around her head and stepping to her partner's side.
BAMF
Logan stepped into the puff of brimstone tainted smoke. "Charles?"
"Let them go Logan." Xavier dismissed, as if there was anything Logan could have done to track the two teleports. "I am sure we will cross paths with them again."
"We should be on guard." Erik spoke for the first time since their visitors had entered the room, finally stepping out of the shadows behind Xavier's desk. "With those two here, things can only be escalating, whether we are any closer to finding the final key or not."
"You didn't seem too surprised at what they had to say." Logan asked as he crossed his arms across his chest and glared at the master of magnetism.
Erik cast a cold blue eye upon Logan. "Very little surprises me these days Wolverine."
~~~:*:~~~
Rogue slipped in through the infirmary door. He was in the same bed that she had occupied only a few months before. It was dark, the only light coming from the small desk lamp that Dr. McCoy kept on at the far end of the room. The quiet made her the most nervous; it was always quiet in here. But she took comfort in the steady beeps coming from the monitor by his bead.
She pulled one of the chairs, stopping as it scraped loudly against the floor. She laughed to herself, what was she afraid of, waking him up? Continuing to drag the chair she placed it facing the head of his bed but she didn't sit; just stood looking down at him.
He was scraped up, had a black eye, and there was a large patch of pink tinted gauze on his left forearm that she hated to imagine what hid. What bothered her was his expression. It looked so sad, it just wasn't Remy. Remy always wore a grin, his eyes were always supposed to be smiling even if his lips were not.
"Hey." She finally called, formally announcing her presence with her wavering voice. "You look like crap." She chuckled absently and finally took her seat, resting her arms on the bed's railing and lowering her chin to them.
"Remy, I'm sorry. I was scared; I didn't mean those things I told you. I've never meant them. It's just…" She paused, hoping that he would pick this moment to miraculously awake. It didn't matter what he said, or if he said anything at all, she just wanted to see his eyes, to know that he would be back to normal. But the silence only thickened in the room, save for the occasional 'beep'.
"What if I can't control my powers? What if this is what it going to be like for the rest of my life? I love you too much to see you wasting your life with me."
She watched him intently, and her gaze went from his face to his slowly rising chest that swelled the sterile white sheets of the bed. She took comfort to the motion, listening as the movement accompanied the heart monitor. She knew he was alive.
"This is the part where you are supposed to tell me that 'It don't matter, Remy just want to be wit you.'" She said the last part in the best impression of her voice she could mutter.
Letting down the rail of the bed she scooted her chair as close as she could. Leaning over she laid her head on his sheet covered chest, and closed her eyes. Drifting off to sleep feeling his warmth and listening to the slow steady beat of his heart.
Had Rogue stayed awake only a few moments longer, she would have felt an arm move, and a thumb gently caress her back.
~~~:*:~~~
"Do you understand?" Essex looked back at his young assistant from the office window.
"Yes sir."
Essex smiled, expecting such an answer. "I will signal you when everything is in place. It will take me several days to get everything set up, a week or two at the most." He looked back out over the city lights beaming in the night. "We are cutting this too close, way too close. But I do not believe it necessary to wait another hundred years."
"I will not fail you sir."
"I have faith in you Omen." The same metallic tone grazed the surface of Essex's normally baritone voice. "You should go."
Omen nodded and left the office.
Well, there you go. I should be back to answering reviews on the next update.
PS: Still can't picture Sage? I just see her as the Blue Fuzzy Elf form of Kitty, but whatever works for you…
