A/N ~ If I weren't so exhausted, I'd be embarrassed at how late this chapter is. Especially in the face of my promise to have this fic finished by the end of March. However, my brain has spontaneously imploded thanks to the amount of academia I've been combating lately, so you'll have to speak with the puddle of grey-matter goo for an apology.
Oh, and to those people I promised pictures, I apologise for not sending them. I've been grappling with my new website and was hoping to send the link your way so you could check out everything at once, but HTML is fighting me more than I expected, so I'll send them the old-fashioned way in the interim.
Hootild ~ Canadian? I'm no expert on the accent, being several thousand miles away, but it strikes me as a nicer brogue than Brummy.
Ambrosia ~ Are you going to tell the indestructible midget he can't call his claws Mr. Pointy? You're a braver person than I am if you do. Lady Deathstrike! And not the movie version, either. They ruined her. I refer to her as Yuriko, because she's not really Lady Deathstrike. She's just some Mary-Sue they gave her name to. Wanda did pop up in the old cartoon when she and Quicksilver found out Magneto was their pappy. That was the episode with the cow-lady you mentioned, I think.
Rurouni Tyriel ~ The idea of Rogue wearing Magneto's helmet was just too good to pass up.
Nemati ~ Jayce and Ulysses! I have a potential Jayce fic in the works, but it all depends on my university schedule. I have to read Little Dorrit, Hard Times, Pickwick Papers *and* Great Expectations before July. Fun, fun, fun..
The Phantom ~ Interesting connective reasoning. Pietro loves you? *Brings out wedding bells* Pyro hasn't been mentioned, so what happened to him is up to your imagination. Shelob. She didn't impress me as much as thought she would. Animation - v.g, but as for Shelob herself as a movie entity... well Harryhausen did it better.
Nessie6 ~ I keep meaning to check out Seven Sunnngdale's stuff, but every time I do something calls me away or I get side-tracked. See above for Pyro info.
Gerri ~ I'd hoped the idea of ran as cleansing would be subliminal, but it's good to see that you picked it up And thank you for the comment on Ariel. The little guy had been ignored for so long, he deserved some attention.
Ice Princess ~ Thank you for the kind words. I'm sure the fic isn't as good as all that, but the compliments were appreciated anyway. ^_^
Tenshiamanda ~ Five days in the rain? Forget your umbrella, perchance?
DemonRogue13 ~ Thank you. I'm glad you liked it
Yuki ~ Snow?! Where the heck are you? Actually *peers out of window* I'll take your snow and raise you a thunderstorm. With lightning and all the trimmings. Drip, drip, drop little April shower? My arse!
Ezrajade ~ You're welcome. Sorry this one isn't quite so long.
Archer ~ See the top for my comments on the non-appearance of those pictures. Thunder Cats! Cheetara kicked ass, and Panthro wasn't too bad, either. Liono had boofy hair, though. Mullet alert!
A Random Saint ~ Thank you for making *my* day with that review. ^_^ Happy Scribbler.
Cheesy Monkey ~ You have an Ariel plushie? I want one!
Yma ~ Not long to go? You could say that...
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Thirty-eigth Fragment ~ Breathe
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The Goddess opened her eyes. She sniffed, and then she frowned. "It came?"
"Yes, Goddess," said Maive. "The rain came in the night."
"But I didn't bring it... Why did it rain?"
"Seer had a vision," Maive began, smiling fit to burst. "He saw a two-tiered monolith with people inside, and a boy calling the water in the clouds. He said one thing else, Goddess. He said, 'they are coming'."
Ororo frowned, not able to remember her hazy mutterings of the previous night. She recalled Seer visiting her, but not what he said, other than it had made her rest somehow easier.
She tried to prop herself up in bed, but found her arms shaking too much, and so had to be helped. "Is that good news or bad news?" she asked those gathered around her, not really expecting an answer.
And then there was a commotion outside, and a sound reached Ororo's ears. A sound she'd heard only once before, when the maker came to visit Charles at the mansion, long before the virus. Nevertheless, it was something she could never forget, just as she could not forget the face and the name that went with it.
"No," she whispered, fearful of what this portended. "He's dead... It can't be him. Not here..."
But it was. The all-too-familiar sound of Magneto's power being used.
"GODDESS! GODDESS!" Another attendant bustled into the room, eyes and hair wild. "There's a... it's a... a flying *bus*!"
Attendants crowded, shuffled her painfully into her wheelchair and brought it out into the rain-filtered early morning sunlight to see. Ororo winced, flopping about uselessly, but made no move to stop them. If Magneto had indeed survived, then his presence here could mean nothing good. She remembered his thunderous face when he shouted at Charles in the mansion drawing room, and recalled how he'd nearly put a fist right through the desk as they argued. Magneto would not come here to her lands without good reason, and his good reasons were no doubt vastly different to her own.
She looked up, squinting, and was amazed at the sight of a double-decker bus descending as if from the heavens, despite the heavy thrum of power surrounding it to tell her otherwise.
The wheel-less thing settled outside in the street, and she suddenly she realised that... yes, there were *people* on board it. Faces - lots and lots of faces, all peering out like rabbit kittens on their first journey from the burrow.
And then she recognised the blue figure perched on its roof.
But it couldn't be. He was dead. He'd died long ago in Bayville, when the last of the X-Men were attacked. She'd felt it deep in her gut that he was gone. She'd mourned for him, just as she'd mourned for the others that perished that day.
But it *was* him; right down to the tufted blue fur and wide, fangy grin.
"Kurt?"
"Don't shoot! We're friends!" The thing that looked so much like her old student leaped off the roof and bounded up to her on all fours. "It's all right, Ororo. Please. We have some people who can help."
Fearing a hallucination, Ororo reached for his hand, making sure he was real. His too-thick fingers were warm beneath her touch. He curled them up to gently squeeze her own.
And the first of her happy tears tracked down her cheek.
Another ghost from the past loomed into her field of vision. Bristly and unkempt, there was no mistaking him, and Ororo felt her breath hitch in her gullet. "Logan?"
"It's me, 'Ro," he said, smiling that gruff smile of his and ascending the steps to her like a knight returning to his queen. "Whatever the physicians been tellin' ya, I'm gonna see ya *do* it, right?"
She couldn't believe it, and in her joyous confusion she said the mantra she'd been speaking for so long, like it was an incantation to break this spell and reveal the truth. "My... microclimate."
Logan nodded, like he already knew. "Little Water Wizard's got that down. You want it to rain? He'll call the water. 'Ro... I've seen him move enough water to divert a *river*. He can take over rainin' for ya."
And then Kurt again, looking down at the fingers latticed through his. "Leiber Gott... do you even remember *how* to eat?"
Ororo had to laugh through her tears. It *was* them, just as she remembered, if a little older. "Typical Kurt..." she choked, so happy she could barely breathe. "Always food first..."
"The only thing that's changed is food for whom. Lieber Gott," he said again, inspecting her knuckles.
But... but Magneto was there, too. That wasn't right...
"I come in peace," he said, not at all like she remembered him. Where was the roaring voice, the livid face and the clenched fists? The Master of Metal looked careworn and fatigued beyond anything she'd ever known, but there was something in his eyes that reminded her of Charles' kind gaze. He looked almost... Bright Lady help her, but he looked almost gentle. "And *you* need help." Then he left.
_How odd..._
"War's well over," said Logan, as if in explanation. "And pointless to boot. Who needs to kill these days?"
There was a scaly little girl peeking around Logan's knee. "She lookin' awful sickly for a Goddess," she said, peering up at Ororo through pale eyes. Next to her, a little boy with soft golden scales added his assent.
Again, the screeching noise of Magneto's power rang out, though now Ororo couldn't see what was going on.
"What's he *doing*?"
"Maybe he's summoning Asteroid M," said one of the clustering crowd. He had a very gaudy red-blue-and-black costume on, and crouched not unlike Kurt did. "We have a healer."
Logan left the steps, reached over, and picked the young man up by his shirtfront. "And ya didn't *tell* us?"
"You didn't ask..." the kid gulped and shrugged. "She's an augmented mutant. About sevenish, maybe as old as nine - I can't tell. Healing takes a lot out of her, though."
Logan winced. He sighed and put him down. "A'right. Fine."
Ororo sighed blissfully, wondering if her time had finally come and she'd gone to her own personal Heaven.
Lots of people, mostly mutants, were clustering around her, touching her carefully. She didn't recognise even half of them, but that didn't make her joy any less. More had survived, more had lived than she'd ever imagined...
And, at long last, a returning missionary. One of the first to follow her when she fell to Earth.
"*Alvin*," Ororo smiled. She opened her arms for him.
"Goddess," he whispered, and knelt by her side. "I... I lost your plants."
"But you bought me so much in return," she said, tilting his chin back up. "Care to introduce us?"
"Goddess." Alvin looked up at her with shining eyes. "I found them. The students - from the school you spoke of. I journeyed far and saw many things - not least of all in the place you called Bayville."
"It still stands?" A brief flash of hope in her eyes, and she turned to the assembled crowd of mutants. "Are all of you from Bayville?"
"Uh, no ma'am." The gaudy one shook his head, peering out at her through one torn eyehole. "Some of us are from a place Magneto built, called Asteroid M. It's a... a haven for folk like us. People who're different and in need of sanctuary."
A girl stepped up to his side. Curious daubs of light sparkled around her as words formed in the air, shimmering and bright.
We were sick, some with the virus, frozen in stasis chambers, but he brought us back to life... kinda.
Then the girl smiled, and it was as if the whole village lit up.
"The rest of us are from Mutie Town," said a scruffy youth with matted black hair and skin wreathed in what appeared to be green slime.
"I have heard of the place. Des Moines previously, as I recall." Ororo smiled at them as they clustered together, a little awed to be confronted with a Goddess of flesh and blood.
Kurt loosed her hand to bound down the steps. He guided out a figure wrapped in a blanket; one who moved slowly and jerkily, like there was something wrong with his legs. Ororo caught a flash of silver hair and recognised Quicksilver even as a familiar blue figure smoothed up beside him and took his arm in an almost motherly gesture.
"Mystique."
"Just Raven now. I had done with the whole codename thing a long time ago." Raven did her best to smile at her old adversary, and Ororo noticed the new wrinkles around her eyes that had less to do with age and more to do with worry. She hadn't even tried to shift them away, which meant they were probably more to do with her son than anything else. Especially judging by how she fussed around Kurt like an overprotective hen. Mystique never would have allowed herself such signs of weakness, but Raven obviously could.
Things had certainly changed in the time she'd been gone from the big house on the cliff.
There were a few faces missing amongst the throng, and Kurt seemed to know what she was doing as she searched for each of them and shook her head, whispering their names.
"Scott, Jean... Charles. I remember that day all too clearly. There's no need to tell me what happened to them, Kurt. But what of the Brotherhood? Where is Toad?"
Kurt at once looked guilt-ridden and scuffed his foot. "He... didn't make it. A mob." He left the rest unsaid, and Ororo made the customary sign for safe passage to the afterlife before her eye fell on Rogue and Kitty.
The girls introduced themselves, and Ororo recalled seeing the former in and around Bayville for a short time. She was wearing Magneto's helmet, which looked slightly ridiculous, but given the miracle that was going on around them it was a small thing.
Rogue filled in the blanks for the rest, and the Goddess nodded gravely at the news of the lab and what went on there, including the newly discovered augmentation of her powers.
"I'd heard of such places, but I hoped they didn't really exist... I'm sorry."
"What for? Nuthin' you coulda done 'bout it. All in the past, lady. All in the past."
Then she asked the question Kurt was hoping and praying she wouldn't, and when he saw the blind hope in her weak eyes his heart nearly broke.
"Where is Evan? Is he with you?" She looked around, but her smile faded when they all averted their eyes. A lump formed in her throat, and she whispered hoarsely, "He's dead, isn't he?"
Kurt ascended the steps to clasp her withered hand, and his eyes mirrored her own tears like for like. "I'm so sorry, Ororo, I really am. I... I... he was my friend. He deserved to make this trip more than me - more than any of us."
"The cross of bone," she murmured to herself, and then looked directly into his sorrowful golden eyes, repeating the prophecy Seer had given over a year ago like it suddenly made a lot more sense. "Living death walks in fog, falls by friends unloved, his enemy stands by him. He was... alone when he died. But not alone in death." Her gaze travelled down the stairs to where Pietro hunched into his blanket. "You... were with him?"
Pietro swallowed hard. "Y-yes, ma'am. I was the one who buried him. I was the one who buried all of Bayville. Gotta keep busy, y'know?" He tried a small laugh, but it gurgled away in his throat.
"Come here."
Slowly, limping profusely, Pietro ascended and Kurt moved aside for him. Ororo reached out and grabbed at his pale hand, nearly toppling him, but Maive held him steady. He shot her a thankful smile, which she returned shyly.
"Thank you," Ororo said.
Pietro blinked. "Huh? Why thank me? I only did what he woulda done for me."
"I know, and that's why I thank you." Ororo sighed, and closed her eyes for a second. "Evan was... very precious to me. It's good to know that someone else cared for him, even after his spirit had passed over. It means more than you know." She tried to squeeze his hand, but her grip was weak, and she fell away with a ragged cough at the effort.
A shadow abruptly passed over the gathering, and as one they looked up at the huge, almost bat-like shape above them. A few cowered away as it swooped down, alighting on the vertical side of the building with an expression akin to amazed delight. The ridged brow and pale eyes cowed several, as a steady gaze raked them over.
"You're all here, just like I Saw. I... I never thought you'd actually *arrive*. So many... My dream. A crowd of people gathered in happiness, commune in shared sorrow. My prophecies come to life..."
Kurt blinked up at the creature that looked like it would be more at home on the side of a church than on the ground amongst them. He exchanged a look with Alvin, and then looked back. "You're the one? The one who wrote all those prophecies Alvin told us about?"
"You've heard them?" The mutant - for it could only be a mutant - smiled joyously and bounced against the stonework. "Did they come true? Was I right? You're blue and furry, that would make you the demon, right? Love is the food of angels, a demon rises, with five hands he shall hold the world."
"Uh, I've been called that, yes. And you are?"
"Me? Oh, I'm just Seer. I have no other name. Happy with the one I've got. And that's Windswift next to you, isn't it? Windswift messenger man purifies world, his hands are full of blue gold. I remember Seeing you. You saved the water, didn't you?"
Pietro blinked and looked dubiously at Ariel. "You... could say that, I suppose."
Seer pointed at each of the original party, repeating their prophecies without need for text or prompting. Though he'd never met them before, he knew which could be attributed to whom instantly, and the other gathered mutants and humans looked on in naked awe as each was verified.
"Girl of fire and ice walks narrow path, seeks self in chaos, touches hearts with fear. You fought a battle in your mind, didn't you? Still fighting... but don't despair. Help is at hand."
Rogue blinked through the gap in the helmet and held tightly onto Robyn's little hand. Kitty just gaped as he spoke to her.
"Ghost woman brings life to world, a new hope is born. Good choice of name, by the way. Lady Mobius calls the triangle, seeks point in new dimension. You have your children back, and thus the triangle is complete, Mystique. Sorry, Raven. Two dance eternally, steward of six walks road of holes. No more potholes here, Logan. Where's the Lord of Iron I foresaw?"
The gaudy kid blinked at him curiously. "Iron? You mean Magneto? He has a prophecy thingie as well?"
"Man who drove world apart, reunites in uneasy peace." Seer cast about at the assembled masses. "No need to ask about that one if you're all here, I suppose." He looked around, and frowned sadly. "I'd hoped I was wrong about Lady Luck."
Pietro stiffened. "What did you say?"
"Lady Luck meets Brother Time, precious moment ends in sorrow," Seer recited, and bowed his head. "I'm sorry for your loss, Windswift."
"Yeah." Pietro swallowed again. "So am I."
Another shadow fell, smaller this time. Magneto descended amongst his motley followers, nodding a second greeting at Ororo. In front of him floated a newly constructed wheelchair, much stronger than the one she was sat in, and the result of his powers from the past few minutes.
"A gift," he said simply. "And perhaps, an apology for waylaying your students from reaching you sooner."
"Erik..."
He raised a hand. "Please, I only go by Magneto now. Raven may have given up her life as Mystique, but so long as Asteroid M is in the sky I shall remain the Master of Metal." He gestured to the three Acolytes. "And now I've fulfilled my promise to bring your students and their party to you, I bid this place and all its inhabitants farewell."
"Wait!" Kurt once again bounded down the steps and grasped his gauntleted hand. "Don't go, please. There's a place for you and your people here. Ja, Ororo?" He turned to look over his shoulder, and she nodded weakly, like her head was too heavy for her neck to support.
Magneto gave a small, thin smile. He prised Kurt's hand loose with an incongruous gentleness. "Nightcrawler - Kurt, I have my place and you have yours. We both have people who depend on us, and mine are not here. Yours are." He stepped away from the elf and raised his hands. "Spider-Man, Dazzler, Wolfsbane, come. We're leaving."
"Just when we were starting to be pals, too." Peter rolled his eyes theatrically at Kurt and patted his shoulder. "Ain't that always the way?"
"You could stay..."
But Peter shook his head. "Earth just isn't the same place I remember. Maybe I'll come back sometime - visit you guys, yeah?"
Kurt nodded sadly, not altogether confident in the promise. "Jawohl. Maybe."
Peter stepped back and gave a half-hearted salute.
Magneto gestured to Logan for permission to strip the defunct buss that had served them so well. The older mutant gave it, and the painted hide peeled off to wrap around the four figures in a smooth sphere.
As it closed, Magneto caught Kurt's eye and threw a few words at him. "I'll bring them back, boy. I promise."
Then it raised intro the sky and faded from view faster than anyone could possibly hope to imagine.
Kurt raised his hand in a silent farewell to friends he might have made, given time. Then he turned his attention back to the crowd he was still confronted with. Faces old and new stared back at him, expectant, and he bit his lip at the dishevelled one he'd hoped to see for so long.
Ororo looked surprised as Kurt expended energy enough to make his nose bleed and 'ported clean into her arms, hugging her tight like he'd never let go.
"Gott, Ororo. I've missed you so much," he whispered fiercely. "So very, very much."
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The rough metal sphere hovered in the air, before descending to the earth below. It had travelled not a few feet from the ground for several miles, a hole evident in its hide for several different eyes to peer through and gauge their location. Yet, finally they were here.
The makeshift craft denuded its cargo, allowing them to step free into the shadow of the Lucas-esque vessel that had initially brought them to this world.
The people of Mutie Town looked up as it raised into the sky, for all the world a piece of science fiction history brought to life. A few of them watched as it faded away, amongst them a certain crotchety leader and his right hand clairvoyant.
The soft lapping of water and lily pads was almost musical on the dusty air, as the ship descended to Earth one last time. The engines droned, sending up clouds of dust and ash as a small hatch opened in the craft's underbelly. Two figures floated out, encapsulated in a sphere of magnetic energy.
They touched broken asphalt and moved down the slope to where a lonely figure lay in the shallows, wreathed in algae and the strange aura of death. Her lips were still curved in that strange, enigmatic smile, though her final message had been torn apart by breeze and driftwood. However, now they understood that faint curvature a little better, and it was with forgiveness for her ultimate acts that they bent down and drew her from the place she'd intended to be that of her eternal rest.
Peter found a new use for his webbing, draining his internal reserves to enfold her. He voiced no discomfort, and made his own way back to shore while his unasked-for leader floated silently ahead.
The man held the body of his child close, as though he could bring her back to life by sheer force of will.
And perhaps he could.
Peter startled at the words, and for a moment he wasn't sure if they were directed at him. He looked up and saw Magneto lingering at the edge of the ruined bridge, face turned heavenwards like he was making a promise to God Himself. If he believed in such things, of course. His voice was hoarse, breathy, and clinging to it was an air of determination. Of promise.
"I *will* bring them back."
And despite himself, despite everything he'd seen and everything he knew to be working against that promise, Peter found himself nodding.
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End.
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But wait! It ain't over yet...
Oh, and to those people I promised pictures, I apologise for not sending them. I've been grappling with my new website and was hoping to send the link your way so you could check out everything at once, but HTML is fighting me more than I expected, so I'll send them the old-fashioned way in the interim.
Hootild ~ Canadian? I'm no expert on the accent, being several thousand miles away, but it strikes me as a nicer brogue than Brummy.
Ambrosia ~ Are you going to tell the indestructible midget he can't call his claws Mr. Pointy? You're a braver person than I am if you do. Lady Deathstrike! And not the movie version, either. They ruined her. I refer to her as Yuriko, because she's not really Lady Deathstrike. She's just some Mary-Sue they gave her name to. Wanda did pop up in the old cartoon when she and Quicksilver found out Magneto was their pappy. That was the episode with the cow-lady you mentioned, I think.
Rurouni Tyriel ~ The idea of Rogue wearing Magneto's helmet was just too good to pass up.
Nemati ~ Jayce and Ulysses! I have a potential Jayce fic in the works, but it all depends on my university schedule. I have to read Little Dorrit, Hard Times, Pickwick Papers *and* Great Expectations before July. Fun, fun, fun..
The Phantom ~ Interesting connective reasoning. Pietro loves you? *Brings out wedding bells* Pyro hasn't been mentioned, so what happened to him is up to your imagination. Shelob. She didn't impress me as much as thought she would. Animation - v.g, but as for Shelob herself as a movie entity... well Harryhausen did it better.
Nessie6 ~ I keep meaning to check out Seven Sunnngdale's stuff, but every time I do something calls me away or I get side-tracked. See above for Pyro info.
Gerri ~ I'd hoped the idea of ran as cleansing would be subliminal, but it's good to see that you picked it up And thank you for the comment on Ariel. The little guy had been ignored for so long, he deserved some attention.
Ice Princess ~ Thank you for the kind words. I'm sure the fic isn't as good as all that, but the compliments were appreciated anyway. ^_^
Tenshiamanda ~ Five days in the rain? Forget your umbrella, perchance?
DemonRogue13 ~ Thank you. I'm glad you liked it
Yuki ~ Snow?! Where the heck are you? Actually *peers out of window* I'll take your snow and raise you a thunderstorm. With lightning and all the trimmings. Drip, drip, drop little April shower? My arse!
Ezrajade ~ You're welcome. Sorry this one isn't quite so long.
Archer ~ See the top for my comments on the non-appearance of those pictures. Thunder Cats! Cheetara kicked ass, and Panthro wasn't too bad, either. Liono had boofy hair, though. Mullet alert!
A Random Saint ~ Thank you for making *my* day with that review. ^_^ Happy Scribbler.
Cheesy Monkey ~ You have an Ariel plushie? I want one!
Yma ~ Not long to go? You could say that...
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Thirty-eigth Fragment ~ Breathe
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The Goddess opened her eyes. She sniffed, and then she frowned. "It came?"
"Yes, Goddess," said Maive. "The rain came in the night."
"But I didn't bring it... Why did it rain?"
"Seer had a vision," Maive began, smiling fit to burst. "He saw a two-tiered monolith with people inside, and a boy calling the water in the clouds. He said one thing else, Goddess. He said, 'they are coming'."
Ororo frowned, not able to remember her hazy mutterings of the previous night. She recalled Seer visiting her, but not what he said, other than it had made her rest somehow easier.
She tried to prop herself up in bed, but found her arms shaking too much, and so had to be helped. "Is that good news or bad news?" she asked those gathered around her, not really expecting an answer.
And then there was a commotion outside, and a sound reached Ororo's ears. A sound she'd heard only once before, when the maker came to visit Charles at the mansion, long before the virus. Nevertheless, it was something she could never forget, just as she could not forget the face and the name that went with it.
"No," she whispered, fearful of what this portended. "He's dead... It can't be him. Not here..."
But it was. The all-too-familiar sound of Magneto's power being used.
"GODDESS! GODDESS!" Another attendant bustled into the room, eyes and hair wild. "There's a... it's a... a flying *bus*!"
Attendants crowded, shuffled her painfully into her wheelchair and brought it out into the rain-filtered early morning sunlight to see. Ororo winced, flopping about uselessly, but made no move to stop them. If Magneto had indeed survived, then his presence here could mean nothing good. She remembered his thunderous face when he shouted at Charles in the mansion drawing room, and recalled how he'd nearly put a fist right through the desk as they argued. Magneto would not come here to her lands without good reason, and his good reasons were no doubt vastly different to her own.
She looked up, squinting, and was amazed at the sight of a double-decker bus descending as if from the heavens, despite the heavy thrum of power surrounding it to tell her otherwise.
The wheel-less thing settled outside in the street, and she suddenly she realised that... yes, there were *people* on board it. Faces - lots and lots of faces, all peering out like rabbit kittens on their first journey from the burrow.
And then she recognised the blue figure perched on its roof.
But it couldn't be. He was dead. He'd died long ago in Bayville, when the last of the X-Men were attacked. She'd felt it deep in her gut that he was gone. She'd mourned for him, just as she'd mourned for the others that perished that day.
But it *was* him; right down to the tufted blue fur and wide, fangy grin.
"Kurt?"
"Don't shoot! We're friends!" The thing that looked so much like her old student leaped off the roof and bounded up to her on all fours. "It's all right, Ororo. Please. We have some people who can help."
Fearing a hallucination, Ororo reached for his hand, making sure he was real. His too-thick fingers were warm beneath her touch. He curled them up to gently squeeze her own.
And the first of her happy tears tracked down her cheek.
Another ghost from the past loomed into her field of vision. Bristly and unkempt, there was no mistaking him, and Ororo felt her breath hitch in her gullet. "Logan?"
"It's me, 'Ro," he said, smiling that gruff smile of his and ascending the steps to her like a knight returning to his queen. "Whatever the physicians been tellin' ya, I'm gonna see ya *do* it, right?"
She couldn't believe it, and in her joyous confusion she said the mantra she'd been speaking for so long, like it was an incantation to break this spell and reveal the truth. "My... microclimate."
Logan nodded, like he already knew. "Little Water Wizard's got that down. You want it to rain? He'll call the water. 'Ro... I've seen him move enough water to divert a *river*. He can take over rainin' for ya."
And then Kurt again, looking down at the fingers latticed through his. "Leiber Gott... do you even remember *how* to eat?"
Ororo had to laugh through her tears. It *was* them, just as she remembered, if a little older. "Typical Kurt..." she choked, so happy she could barely breathe. "Always food first..."
"The only thing that's changed is food for whom. Lieber Gott," he said again, inspecting her knuckles.
But... but Magneto was there, too. That wasn't right...
"I come in peace," he said, not at all like she remembered him. Where was the roaring voice, the livid face and the clenched fists? The Master of Metal looked careworn and fatigued beyond anything she'd ever known, but there was something in his eyes that reminded her of Charles' kind gaze. He looked almost... Bright Lady help her, but he looked almost gentle. "And *you* need help." Then he left.
_How odd..._
"War's well over," said Logan, as if in explanation. "And pointless to boot. Who needs to kill these days?"
There was a scaly little girl peeking around Logan's knee. "She lookin' awful sickly for a Goddess," she said, peering up at Ororo through pale eyes. Next to her, a little boy with soft golden scales added his assent.
Again, the screeching noise of Magneto's power rang out, though now Ororo couldn't see what was going on.
"What's he *doing*?"
"Maybe he's summoning Asteroid M," said one of the clustering crowd. He had a very gaudy red-blue-and-black costume on, and crouched not unlike Kurt did. "We have a healer."
Logan left the steps, reached over, and picked the young man up by his shirtfront. "And ya didn't *tell* us?"
"You didn't ask..." the kid gulped and shrugged. "She's an augmented mutant. About sevenish, maybe as old as nine - I can't tell. Healing takes a lot out of her, though."
Logan winced. He sighed and put him down. "A'right. Fine."
Ororo sighed blissfully, wondering if her time had finally come and she'd gone to her own personal Heaven.
Lots of people, mostly mutants, were clustering around her, touching her carefully. She didn't recognise even half of them, but that didn't make her joy any less. More had survived, more had lived than she'd ever imagined...
And, at long last, a returning missionary. One of the first to follow her when she fell to Earth.
"*Alvin*," Ororo smiled. She opened her arms for him.
"Goddess," he whispered, and knelt by her side. "I... I lost your plants."
"But you bought me so much in return," she said, tilting his chin back up. "Care to introduce us?"
"Goddess." Alvin looked up at her with shining eyes. "I found them. The students - from the school you spoke of. I journeyed far and saw many things - not least of all in the place you called Bayville."
"It still stands?" A brief flash of hope in her eyes, and she turned to the assembled crowd of mutants. "Are all of you from Bayville?"
"Uh, no ma'am." The gaudy one shook his head, peering out at her through one torn eyehole. "Some of us are from a place Magneto built, called Asteroid M. It's a... a haven for folk like us. People who're different and in need of sanctuary."
A girl stepped up to his side. Curious daubs of light sparkled around her as words formed in the air, shimmering and bright.
We were sick, some with the virus, frozen in stasis chambers, but he brought us back to life... kinda.
Then the girl smiled, and it was as if the whole village lit up.
"The rest of us are from Mutie Town," said a scruffy youth with matted black hair and skin wreathed in what appeared to be green slime.
"I have heard of the place. Des Moines previously, as I recall." Ororo smiled at them as they clustered together, a little awed to be confronted with a Goddess of flesh and blood.
Kurt loosed her hand to bound down the steps. He guided out a figure wrapped in a blanket; one who moved slowly and jerkily, like there was something wrong with his legs. Ororo caught a flash of silver hair and recognised Quicksilver even as a familiar blue figure smoothed up beside him and took his arm in an almost motherly gesture.
"Mystique."
"Just Raven now. I had done with the whole codename thing a long time ago." Raven did her best to smile at her old adversary, and Ororo noticed the new wrinkles around her eyes that had less to do with age and more to do with worry. She hadn't even tried to shift them away, which meant they were probably more to do with her son than anything else. Especially judging by how she fussed around Kurt like an overprotective hen. Mystique never would have allowed herself such signs of weakness, but Raven obviously could.
Things had certainly changed in the time she'd been gone from the big house on the cliff.
There were a few faces missing amongst the throng, and Kurt seemed to know what she was doing as she searched for each of them and shook her head, whispering their names.
"Scott, Jean... Charles. I remember that day all too clearly. There's no need to tell me what happened to them, Kurt. But what of the Brotherhood? Where is Toad?"
Kurt at once looked guilt-ridden and scuffed his foot. "He... didn't make it. A mob." He left the rest unsaid, and Ororo made the customary sign for safe passage to the afterlife before her eye fell on Rogue and Kitty.
The girls introduced themselves, and Ororo recalled seeing the former in and around Bayville for a short time. She was wearing Magneto's helmet, which looked slightly ridiculous, but given the miracle that was going on around them it was a small thing.
Rogue filled in the blanks for the rest, and the Goddess nodded gravely at the news of the lab and what went on there, including the newly discovered augmentation of her powers.
"I'd heard of such places, but I hoped they didn't really exist... I'm sorry."
"What for? Nuthin' you coulda done 'bout it. All in the past, lady. All in the past."
Then she asked the question Kurt was hoping and praying she wouldn't, and when he saw the blind hope in her weak eyes his heart nearly broke.
"Where is Evan? Is he with you?" She looked around, but her smile faded when they all averted their eyes. A lump formed in her throat, and she whispered hoarsely, "He's dead, isn't he?"
Kurt ascended the steps to clasp her withered hand, and his eyes mirrored her own tears like for like. "I'm so sorry, Ororo, I really am. I... I... he was my friend. He deserved to make this trip more than me - more than any of us."
"The cross of bone," she murmured to herself, and then looked directly into his sorrowful golden eyes, repeating the prophecy Seer had given over a year ago like it suddenly made a lot more sense. "Living death walks in fog, falls by friends unloved, his enemy stands by him. He was... alone when he died. But not alone in death." Her gaze travelled down the stairs to where Pietro hunched into his blanket. "You... were with him?"
Pietro swallowed hard. "Y-yes, ma'am. I was the one who buried him. I was the one who buried all of Bayville. Gotta keep busy, y'know?" He tried a small laugh, but it gurgled away in his throat.
"Come here."
Slowly, limping profusely, Pietro ascended and Kurt moved aside for him. Ororo reached out and grabbed at his pale hand, nearly toppling him, but Maive held him steady. He shot her a thankful smile, which she returned shyly.
"Thank you," Ororo said.
Pietro blinked. "Huh? Why thank me? I only did what he woulda done for me."
"I know, and that's why I thank you." Ororo sighed, and closed her eyes for a second. "Evan was... very precious to me. It's good to know that someone else cared for him, even after his spirit had passed over. It means more than you know." She tried to squeeze his hand, but her grip was weak, and she fell away with a ragged cough at the effort.
A shadow abruptly passed over the gathering, and as one they looked up at the huge, almost bat-like shape above them. A few cowered away as it swooped down, alighting on the vertical side of the building with an expression akin to amazed delight. The ridged brow and pale eyes cowed several, as a steady gaze raked them over.
"You're all here, just like I Saw. I... I never thought you'd actually *arrive*. So many... My dream. A crowd of people gathered in happiness, commune in shared sorrow. My prophecies come to life..."
Kurt blinked up at the creature that looked like it would be more at home on the side of a church than on the ground amongst them. He exchanged a look with Alvin, and then looked back. "You're the one? The one who wrote all those prophecies Alvin told us about?"
"You've heard them?" The mutant - for it could only be a mutant - smiled joyously and bounced against the stonework. "Did they come true? Was I right? You're blue and furry, that would make you the demon, right? Love is the food of angels, a demon rises, with five hands he shall hold the world."
"Uh, I've been called that, yes. And you are?"
"Me? Oh, I'm just Seer. I have no other name. Happy with the one I've got. And that's Windswift next to you, isn't it? Windswift messenger man purifies world, his hands are full of blue gold. I remember Seeing you. You saved the water, didn't you?"
Pietro blinked and looked dubiously at Ariel. "You... could say that, I suppose."
Seer pointed at each of the original party, repeating their prophecies without need for text or prompting. Though he'd never met them before, he knew which could be attributed to whom instantly, and the other gathered mutants and humans looked on in naked awe as each was verified.
"Girl of fire and ice walks narrow path, seeks self in chaos, touches hearts with fear. You fought a battle in your mind, didn't you? Still fighting... but don't despair. Help is at hand."
Rogue blinked through the gap in the helmet and held tightly onto Robyn's little hand. Kitty just gaped as he spoke to her.
"Ghost woman brings life to world, a new hope is born. Good choice of name, by the way. Lady Mobius calls the triangle, seeks point in new dimension. You have your children back, and thus the triangle is complete, Mystique. Sorry, Raven. Two dance eternally, steward of six walks road of holes. No more potholes here, Logan. Where's the Lord of Iron I foresaw?"
The gaudy kid blinked at him curiously. "Iron? You mean Magneto? He has a prophecy thingie as well?"
"Man who drove world apart, reunites in uneasy peace." Seer cast about at the assembled masses. "No need to ask about that one if you're all here, I suppose." He looked around, and frowned sadly. "I'd hoped I was wrong about Lady Luck."
Pietro stiffened. "What did you say?"
"Lady Luck meets Brother Time, precious moment ends in sorrow," Seer recited, and bowed his head. "I'm sorry for your loss, Windswift."
"Yeah." Pietro swallowed again. "So am I."
Another shadow fell, smaller this time. Magneto descended amongst his motley followers, nodding a second greeting at Ororo. In front of him floated a newly constructed wheelchair, much stronger than the one she was sat in, and the result of his powers from the past few minutes.
"A gift," he said simply. "And perhaps, an apology for waylaying your students from reaching you sooner."
"Erik..."
He raised a hand. "Please, I only go by Magneto now. Raven may have given up her life as Mystique, but so long as Asteroid M is in the sky I shall remain the Master of Metal." He gestured to the three Acolytes. "And now I've fulfilled my promise to bring your students and their party to you, I bid this place and all its inhabitants farewell."
"Wait!" Kurt once again bounded down the steps and grasped his gauntleted hand. "Don't go, please. There's a place for you and your people here. Ja, Ororo?" He turned to look over his shoulder, and she nodded weakly, like her head was too heavy for her neck to support.
Magneto gave a small, thin smile. He prised Kurt's hand loose with an incongruous gentleness. "Nightcrawler - Kurt, I have my place and you have yours. We both have people who depend on us, and mine are not here. Yours are." He stepped away from the elf and raised his hands. "Spider-Man, Dazzler, Wolfsbane, come. We're leaving."
"Just when we were starting to be pals, too." Peter rolled his eyes theatrically at Kurt and patted his shoulder. "Ain't that always the way?"
"You could stay..."
But Peter shook his head. "Earth just isn't the same place I remember. Maybe I'll come back sometime - visit you guys, yeah?"
Kurt nodded sadly, not altogether confident in the promise. "Jawohl. Maybe."
Peter stepped back and gave a half-hearted salute.
Magneto gestured to Logan for permission to strip the defunct buss that had served them so well. The older mutant gave it, and the painted hide peeled off to wrap around the four figures in a smooth sphere.
As it closed, Magneto caught Kurt's eye and threw a few words at him. "I'll bring them back, boy. I promise."
Then it raised intro the sky and faded from view faster than anyone could possibly hope to imagine.
Kurt raised his hand in a silent farewell to friends he might have made, given time. Then he turned his attention back to the crowd he was still confronted with. Faces old and new stared back at him, expectant, and he bit his lip at the dishevelled one he'd hoped to see for so long.
Ororo looked surprised as Kurt expended energy enough to make his nose bleed and 'ported clean into her arms, hugging her tight like he'd never let go.
"Gott, Ororo. I've missed you so much," he whispered fiercely. "So very, very much."
*******************
The rough metal sphere hovered in the air, before descending to the earth below. It had travelled not a few feet from the ground for several miles, a hole evident in its hide for several different eyes to peer through and gauge their location. Yet, finally they were here.
The makeshift craft denuded its cargo, allowing them to step free into the shadow of the Lucas-esque vessel that had initially brought them to this world.
The people of Mutie Town looked up as it raised into the sky, for all the world a piece of science fiction history brought to life. A few of them watched as it faded away, amongst them a certain crotchety leader and his right hand clairvoyant.
The soft lapping of water and lily pads was almost musical on the dusty air, as the ship descended to Earth one last time. The engines droned, sending up clouds of dust and ash as a small hatch opened in the craft's underbelly. Two figures floated out, encapsulated in a sphere of magnetic energy.
They touched broken asphalt and moved down the slope to where a lonely figure lay in the shallows, wreathed in algae and the strange aura of death. Her lips were still curved in that strange, enigmatic smile, though her final message had been torn apart by breeze and driftwood. However, now they understood that faint curvature a little better, and it was with forgiveness for her ultimate acts that they bent down and drew her from the place she'd intended to be that of her eternal rest.
Peter found a new use for his webbing, draining his internal reserves to enfold her. He voiced no discomfort, and made his own way back to shore while his unasked-for leader floated silently ahead.
The man held the body of his child close, as though he could bring her back to life by sheer force of will.
And perhaps he could.
Peter startled at the words, and for a moment he wasn't sure if they were directed at him. He looked up and saw Magneto lingering at the edge of the ruined bridge, face turned heavenwards like he was making a promise to God Himself. If he believed in such things, of course. His voice was hoarse, breathy, and clinging to it was an air of determination. Of promise.
"I *will* bring them back."
And despite himself, despite everything he'd seen and everything he knew to be working against that promise, Peter found himself nodding.
*******************
End.
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But wait! It ain't over yet...