Evolution: Through the Looking Glass
Chapter 8: The Looking Glass
Welcome to the first of the final Chapters of this particular series. It is time for an end to be brought to this story. Just for ya'lls information, I'm working on a co-project with Dark Jaded Rose called "Gypsies" keep an eye out for it on her list.
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It was an early Saturday morning when the X-men, with their new addition to the team, suited up for morning training. They all plodded toward the Danger Room with exhausted looks on their faces. However, Brian was doing everything he could to pull the second skin uniform loose. He stood next to Scott on the elevator full of the male students. He leaned in close to Scott and whispered, "Is this supposed to be so tight?"
"Think about it this way, the girls have to wear the exact same tight clothes that we do." Scott smiled a pervish, male smile as Brian got his point but another question popped into his head.
"What happens if we, um, get a little excited when we see the girls?" wondered Brian.
"Ve all pad ours so it doesn't show. Did you put the extra padding we gave you in it?" inquired Kurt as he only received blushed silence from Brian "HAHA, this should be interesting!!" Kurt laughed out loud as they reached the Danger Room floor.
"How was I suppose to know what …It …was…for" Brian paused his words as he saw the very object of his desires walk out onto the danger room floor and look him straight in the eyes, at least for a few seconds. He watched as Rogue's eyes panned down his chest coming to rest at a spot lower than his belly button. Suddenly, Rogue rushed Brian with a worried look on her face. She damn near tackled him in a tight embrace and whispered into his ear.
"You really should use the padding to keep Mr. Happy at bay." She purred into his ear, which wasn't helping. Brian closed his eyes and thought cold thoughts.
"Martha Stewart, granny from the hillbillies…" He muttered out loud and he soon had his 'situation' under control. The rest of the training session went off without a hitch aside from everyone being nearly worked to death by Wolverine's over protective sternness. It ended when Dr. McCoy decided that everyone was due for a chemical bath (basically just an excuse for him to let them recover in the Jacuzzi). About lunchtime, Brian decided that he needed to return to his old apartment to gather some last things and he would be officially living at the Xavier institute. He had decided to go alone to his former apartment because of lightness of his load. Little did he know a certain shape shifter was silently following his every move.
Brian walked up the stairs to his apartment and pulled his keys; as soon as he got the door open there came a tap at his shoulder. Startled, he snapped around seeing the face of none other than Risty, Rogue's best friend. She pushed him inside the apartment and coyly locked the door behind her. "Oh, hey Risty you startled me." He stammered as knew something was wrong with the girl. Risty did not respond with anything intelligible. However, she did respond with, what could only be described as a growl as she tackled him onto the hard wood floor and began tearing at his clothes.
Brian was startled as he tried to push the small girl off of him without hurting her, but to no avail. By this time she had managed to open the button down shirt he had been wearing, allowing access to his bare chest, which she was ravenously attacking with her lips. Brian's mind was boggling, what the hell was going on? He snapped back to reality when he felt Risty's hand wander underneath his underwear. That was it! He had been gentle long enough. Brian reached under Risty and grabbed her by the waist. He lifted her off him with little effort and gently tossed her to the side. He quickly jumped to his feet and glared at his attacker. "What the hell is your problem?" Risty cursed at him.
"Risty, why did you do that?" he asked
"Oh, come on, luv, you can't say you didn't like it!"
"I'm a guy! Of course I liked it. That doesn't make it right; you know I'm with Rogue!" Brian protested as he began to rub his forehead.
"Good answer, luv." She responded with a smile until she noticed Brian hunch over in pain rubbing his forehead.
"Say, are you alright?" She wondered
"It's just a little headache." He gasped
"It doesn't look like 'a little headache'." Risty mocked but drew back as she saw Brian's nose begin to bleed and him almost collapse. "That's it we're getting you to the professor!" She said as she made him lean on her and walked him out to the car professor had lent him while she jumped into the drivers seat.
Meanwhile, Rogue and Scott where lounging around the living room enjoying a lazy Saturday when Scott decided to speak up. "Rogue, back when the Sentinels attacked…" He paused, as he made sure that he had her attention "What was that light?"
"Ah'm not really sure, all Ah know is that it felt like I was apart of the world and everything in it for a split second. I could feel the pulse of … whatever it was." She explained when something hit her as if a load of bricks where dropped on her head. "There's something wrong with Brian!" She gasped
"What?" wondered Scott until he heard the frantic honking of a horn driving into the driveway. Both he and Rogue rushed out into the driveway to see a frantic Risty desperately trying to pull Brian's almost dead weight out of the car.
"Risty, what happened?" gasped Rogue as she and Scott took Brian's weight on their own shoulders.
"I don't know his nose just started bleeding and he nearly collapsed!" Risty explained as Kitty and Logan soon met them.
"Kitty, run in and get Dr. McCoy!" ordered Scott as Kitty quickly followed orders. Logan replaced Rogue in carrying Brian inside and they soon had him at the medical ward of the institute. After a few hours of tireless effort on the part of Dr. McCoy and his assistant Jean, Dr. McCoy walked out of the room with a perplexed look on his face. Everyone stood expectantly and Rogue pushed her way to the front. However, Beast stopped her before she could open her mouth.
"He's alright, for now." He stated solemnly
"What's wrong with him Dr. McCoy?"
"It seems that the nano machines programming has been corrupted. They're slowly eating away at his brain. I've managed to halt the progress by setting off a short wave EMP next to him every five seconds. However I'm afraid that if we don't find whoever made these things that he will definitely die." Dr. McCoy explained to a devastated Rogue who leaned on Risty for support.
"How long?" she asked
"Four days, tops. However, the damage the damage will become irreversible in two." Explained Henry.
"Can I see him?" she asked
"Yes, go ahead."
Rogue walked to the door and slowly pushed open the spring loaded metal doors. The first thing that she noticed was the extreme number of machines hooked up to him. Jean finished adjusting the EMP and smiled a consoling smile and silently walked out of the room. Rogue apprehensively approached the bed that Brian was in and sat down next to him where she stayed.
Hiding in the shadows of the institute's spire was a very worried feminine figure, sitting with her knee in her chest. She had regretted her actions on freeing Bolivar Trask and giving the Sentinel technology to 'Him'. Fenrir had managed to do something that she could not; he had escaped their 'master'. What had she done? She let her jealousy of the one called Rogue put the only one she had ever loved into a near death situation. She swallowed her pride and decided that she would be the only one who could rectify this situation. She would bring her master, Nathaniel Essex, to The Xavier Institute. With that very thought she disappeared in a flash of the crystal around her neck.
Around midday the next day, a strange presence walked into the medical room and gently woke her up. It was Logan, checking on the sleeping girl, it seemed that she had been praying all-night and fallen asleep in the process. He set some lunch down in front of her. "How you holden up, Stripes?" wondered Logan as he set the tray down.
"Ah'm fine Logan." Replied Rogue as she stared at the food but she couldn't make herself eat.
"You don't look fine, if you don't eat something…"
"I'm what, Logan? Gonna be too weak to stand at his funeral?" She began to tear up. However she jumped in and buried her head in Logan's chest. She could no longer hold the tears back and sobbed into Logan's chest. "D…do you know what it's like to watch someone you love die and know that there is nothing you can do about it?" She sobbed
"Rogue you brought him back once, have you tried to…"
"YES, yes but I don't know how I did it in the first place" she interrupted still crying her eyes out. Logan wrapped his arms around her in the only way he knew to console her. After a few minutes Scott came rushing in with a startled look on his face. "Uh guys, there's someone at the front gate." Said Scott
"Can it wait?" whispered Logan in a fraternal tone.
"He's asking for Rogue, he says he knows Brian."
Rogue perked up and pushed herself away from Logan. "Where?" They all ran out to the front gate where Rogue saw the exact same man that had come to her before the sentinel attack, This time he had a young girl that was her same age with him. "Just who are you?"
"My name is Nathaniel Essex and this is my daughter, Cerberus."
"Why are you here old man?" snapped Scott
"Take me to the boy, time is of the essence." Requested the elderly man, who was met with slight resistance from Scott and Logan. However, at this time Rogue was getting desperate; so without the consent of anyone else opened the gate a lead old man Essex to the infirmary. Nathaniel Essex and Cerberus stood over the comatose Brian and examined his condition but then turned to expectant Rogue.
"Fenrir… Brian is dieing because of the machines in his head, I can remove them without hurting him. But first, I have to ask you a question, Rogue." Explained Mr. Essex
"Anything, just take those damn machines out of him!"
"How much do you love Brian?" He asked with a wicked smile. Rogue was not sure how to answer that question and a quickly filled over everything that had happened between them; the answer had become clear. "As much as he loves me." She responded with a deep gaze at her fallen soul mate.
"Then I will make you a deal, his life for yours." Retorted Mr. Essex as everyone in the room growled and prepared for battle. "Do you understand, Rogue? You will be mine to do with whatever I please."
Rogue pondered the meaning of this sentence and it scared her, but the idea of losing Brian scared her more. "Fine, just do it!" She responded. Mr. Essex smiled a sinister smile and turned to the boy on the medical bed. He spoke a different language that no one had ever heard before; before long a metallic sludge slid out of Brian's ears and quickly disintegrated on the bed. By this time, Dr. McCoy had been monitoring the situation closely and sighed as he noticed the healing factor taking affect and motioned to the rest that he was healing. Rogue sighed a brief sight of relief until she pulled out of her dream world by a cold hand placed on her shoulder.
"Remember your agreement, Rogue?" smiled Mr. Essex.
"No more!!" Screamed the girl known as Cerberus "I won't let you drag anyone else into that hell hole!!" A thick root, presumably from an Oak outside, rose up and smashed the elderly man across the room. "First you tortured Fenrir, but he escaped. Next you tortured me into submission; now you want to want to torture and pervert someone else? NO MORE!!!" She screamed again "It ends now!!!" another three roots began to pummel the man until there was a crater in the marble floor and a cloud of dust. Suddenly a large black hand grabbed the roots and tore each one apart. When the dust settled a muscular demon of a man stood, his eyes glowing with the heat of intensity. He was a tall pale man that seemed to be in black scales.
"Cerberus, Cerberus, do you really think I'd let you have the power to defeat me?" he questioned as he lifted his hand and everyone was frozen in place. He lowered his hand and his eyes began to glow even brighter as Cerberus screamed in pain and blood began to trickle down her chin from her mouth. She stopped screaming when an unexpected red beam tore half of Mr. Essex into oblivion. He gasped in pain, cursed silently, and in the blink of an eye was gone along with Rogue. Dr. McCoy quickly rushed to Cerberus's side and put his hand under her shirt, all of her ribs had been broken and were pushing against her lungs. She reached down into her shirt a pulled out a small strange looking crystal.
"Give this to Brian; tell him to use the gateway to save Rogue from our fate… please." With that she fainted while Logan and Scott rushed to her side.
"Is she…?" wondered Scott
"No," Dr. McCoy checked her pulse "My guess would be exhaustion from trying to breathe," He answered "Lets get her into a bed, and on some machines."
A couple hours later Brian had fully recovered from the damage inflicted by the renegade machines in his head. He sat up in the bed to find a room full of his now fellow mutants. He looked around the room and saw a couple of disturbing elements. His sister Cerberus was in the next bed over while Rogue was nowhere to be found. He caught the glare of the mutant known as Cyclops but Logan was the first to speak up. "You better start talking, Tex." He growled
"Who is Nathaniel Essex, and what do you have to do with him?" snarled Scott. Brian's grew wide; Nathaniel Essex had been there? His glance shot around the room violently and he shot up from his place in bed.
"Where is Rogue!?!" He worried
"We where hoping you would know," explained Professor Xavier "You see he came here and made a deal with Rogue for your life. When you were healed he crippled Cerberus and kidnapped Rogue." Brian's emotions overcame him and he rushed Professor Xavier only to be held back by Scott and Logan.
"AND YOU JUST LET HER GO!?!" Brian screamed
"We didn't have much of a choice." Said Logan
"Tell us what is going on." Said Jean as Brian sat back down on the bed and took a deep breath.
"When I was six years old, I met a man named Nathaniel Essex. I was an orphan and he adopted me. For a while he acted as if my father but about the time I became eight the experiments started and it was that time I met his other experiment," He gazed at Cerberus.
"Vhat did he do to you?" asked Kurt as Brian's eyes began to tear up
"So many things. Recently he had become interested in certain mutants involved with the men. He uses his dimensional gateway, that he calls 'The Looking Glass', to travel and experiment on dimensions." Brian articulated
"Oh that reminds me," said Mr. McCoy as he held out a small crystal "Cerberus wanted me give this to you, she said something about a gateway…" Brian snatched it out of Beast's hand and got up.
"I'm going after Rogue!" Brian held up the jewel as it began to glow.
"Not alone you're not!" Crowed Scott.
"This thing only has enough power for three people and a one way trip." Said Brian.
"Then I'm going too," Chimed Logan grumpily "I'll be damned if I let something happen to stripes." Growled Logan.
With that the three mutants suited up and activated the emerald shaped jewel and disappeared. As they appeared on the dark baron wasteland the Jewel disintegrated in Brian's hand. The thunder cracked in the distance and sky began to poor with the somber tears of the pain that this planet felt. "Where are we?" inquired Scott as he pulled his leather jacket tight.
"The original dimension, Midgard" answered Brian
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For all you Lord of the Rings fans I put a plug in the end of this chapter. In Norse mythology Midgard is what Earth was called and means "The place between heaven and hell" also known as Middle earth. YAY, maybe ya'll just learn something new. (Sounds like bad grammar)
Dark Jaded Rose: Please don't bite me, I don't taste good! (O_O)zzzZZZ Sorry for the long update time.
Xmenevolutionfan4life: Please don't hurt me but I think that the next chapter will be the last.