Elsewhere, deep within the enemy's conquered lands Colonel Yuri Vassilyavitch Semyanov entered Zaladane's citadel as a hero. At least he felt like one. Particularly since the Master of Magnetism was being dragged by two of Zaladane's minions. It didn't hurt too much to agree with Zaladane's messenger; Whiteout, when the mutate came to him so many nights ago. The messenger spoke the truth. The only way to win, the only way to survive the future, was for Semyanov to ally with Zaladane, and protect his homeland.
Let the world come under Zaladane's rule; she had agreed to his terms, and he had proven a valuable ally. Had he not brought her Magneto? They had agreed to their terms of autonomy and blood price. And now, they were poised to gain everything.
"Why do you insist on keeping him alive?" he demanded as the guards tossed the man onto one white circle and Zaladane mounted the next.
"Watch, Colonel," the woman promised. "And see. Bear witness to a new dawn!"
"Shanna, Nereel," Brainchild cooed and the women left their post after dropping Magneto to return to Brainchild's side. "Come, the view will be far better from here."
"As my love commands," the women echoed one another hollowly. They returned to his side, their faces as blank as the ground beneath them. They settled by Brainchild's legs and watched impassively as the mutate began the power-up sequence for the machine. Nereel's hand absently caressed the mutate's leg while Shanna stared at the scene of Zaladane and Magneto before her as if completely disinterested.
The machine began and energy haloed the unconscious Magneto. He floated half in the air onto his back, and woke up enough only to scream. He began to howl as he felt a connection between him and Zaladane; a settling of harmonics, polarities. A shifting, the homeostasis between them veering into an unstable; unequal balance. He felt himself lessening, a drain of his very self pouring out from him and into the woman, who began to match him in pitch but for a very different reason.
Zaladane was in her glory. This was an orgiastic delight. She felt more alive than ever; more aware than ever. She felt the entirety of the Savage Land, as if gathered between her hands . She could foster it. She could crush it. She wanted more. She wanted it all; needed it all.
"More, Brainchild; give me all of him!" she howled as the beam brightened its intensity. Magneto's cries rose, hers matched. And yet; Brainchild's face turned from one of amazement to fear.
"Mistress; there is no change in him! You have not reduced his capacity!" he babbled, trying to get her to see; there weren't words for this. He has no limit; what Brainchild has done to him would have wiped out a small company of soldiers' life force. Yet the man seemed unchanged in vitality.
Zaladane was feeling at the peak of her power; beyond it really. She could not sustain taking more from Magneto. Not yet. "S-Stop, Brainchild. Enough!"
The machine's powering down sequence activated, and Magneto fell to the ground in an ungainly heap. During the power transfer his armor had finally peeled away; it lay in fans of oxidized dust around the platform. Magneto twitched twice before subsiding, smoke rising from his fallen form. Zaladane was a pile of trembling naked flesh as well, but as Shanna was forced to dress the purported victor, she managed to find her voice once more.
"That was magnificent." Zaladane shuddered as the soft robe was draped over her shoulders.
"Is that…so…" Magneto managed to breathe out. If he was supposedly still alive, he barely felt it. "Then why the note of fear in your voice, Zaladane? Could it be that ambition has yet again outreached your grasp? The power and glory you so desperately…" he paused, coughed and spat out a glob of bloodied spittle. He was so near his limit. "So pathetically crave turns out to be more than you can handle?"
"Vot der'mo," Semyanov swore as he flipped the safety off and leveled the weapon at Magneto's head. "That look, Zaladane, it's too dangerous. End this now; kill him!" He aimed and fired directly at Magneto's forehead. The bullet angled into the ground, boring a hole through the floor. Zaladane made an annoyed noise; she hated having to preserve Magneto's life. She was resolved. Zaladane was going to need to get creative and keep the Russian preoccupied until she could finish taking everything from Magneto.
"Calm yourself, Yuri." she draped herself half across the colonel. She felt ready to explode. She needed to preoccupy herself as well. "It is no more than an old wolf's last gesture of defiance. I can meet his measure." she nipped at his earlobe. "Come. I shall take yours." She drew him from the area. "Brainchild; I leave Magneto to the tender mercies of you and your pets. Leave him alive enough for me to take him in totality…later."
Brainchild turned to Magneto as the doors closed. The women advanced as he did, picking up anything heavy to hand.
The screams had led them through the citadel. As much as the woman had built an enormous palace, she hadn't filled it with much staff. Having used Magneto's image inducer - one of Magneto's many requests the night before - to fool the sentries outside, they took advantage of Rogue's returning strength to sweep the main entry of their contingent. After that, it had been a mad dash up a winding flight of stairs.
They saw Magneto; barely dressed, being beaten by two women. Ka-Zar made a choking sound in the back of his throat; seeing his wife with such a distant face, he knew that she wasn't herself. He had to find some way to break whatever control she was under.
Rogue tried not to shout; she saw Magneto. Abused, mistreated, and it all at the hands of his allies. She blinked angry tears back. This wasn't going to stand.
"Lay me cover fire, fellas." Rogue said, and as soon as they did, in a rapid clatter she immediately dove into the room, and went for Brainchild.
"Mistress!" Brainchild squealed. "Intruders!"
Shanna and Nereel sprang into action, and immediately the men met them. Grappling hand to hand, the men did their best to talk to the women, to drag them from the haze of whatever spell they were under. They feared harming the women, and due to that, the women would more than likely overcome them.
They had to move fast.
Zaladane thought so as well because within seconds she returned to the room. Still robed, she threw the doors open wide with her powers. Rogue snarled as she ripped herself from Brainchild who screeched in relief. She tore towards Zaladane in a full out run, one fist pulled back, intent on smashing her smug face into the wall an-
"Woumph!" Rogue hit the ceiling with bone shattering force. Her head bounced against the ceiling, and she saw stars, nebulas even. Her chestplate fractured on impact, some of the steel shining under the kevlar, started to constrict around her chest.
"Your attempts to stop me are too late - I've got enough power to destroy everything! You will bow to your new queen!"
"Wanna…bet?" Rogue managed to say as she jerked her elbow back repeatedly, causing the ceiling to buckle even further as Zaladane tried to grind her into it. The rocks, some head-sized, some larger, fell to the ground. Zaladane's attention began to fracture; she had to hold too much together! She had the power, certainly, but she did not have the ability.
"There is too much stone!" she cried, panicking in the moment.
Semyanov tackled the woman with a shout in Russian. Where she stood was littered with debris that rained down, some more than large enough to have done the woman damage. The two sprawled to the floor, and Rogue whooped from on high as she streaked through the room under her own power.
They're back! "Now looka' that," she said as she lifted Magneto up from where he had lain forgotten, reorienting himself. "You didn't mess anything up; it just took longer than expected." she said as she grinned at him, feeling like herself, truly herself, for the first time in weeks.
"I couldn't be more pleased, particularly under the circumstances." Magneto said as she deposited him near a large arching doorway that led to a narrowing tunnel outside. The structure should more than likely protect him if anything else were to fall, like, say, the building.
"Zaladane's calling in reinforcements!" Ka-Zar shouted as Zabu set to running Brainchild from the fortress, hot on his heels. Both men began to fire towards the oncoming horde, as they scanned for Zaladane and Semyanov.
"On 'em, Ka-Zar. Get Magneto out of here, now!" She said as she dove forward, knocking the soldiers about in the hallway, effectively creating a bottleneck. She slammed another fist against the wall intent on collapsing the hallway.
"Do not concern yourselves." Magneto exhaled, gathering himself to stand. "I can manage."
"Bull!" Rogue scoffed as Lupus came for her again. It was so satisfying to punch him hard enough to make him careen into two others. "You're more dead than alive, so jus' this once, let someone else take care o'ya!"
Quite true. She means well, but the prime, paramount lesson of my life is that I can depend upon no one but myself. In the confusion, Magneto was forgotten. He managed to pull himself back to machinery, behind the scramble of battle. He had to be quick. If Magneto did this right, he could use the excess energies at the pole to channel through him, support him where his own energies had been sapped from him by this avaricious fiend. He could do this. He had to be careful.
Half of his attention was on his goal, the other half, the battle. Therefore he was able to see the moment Rogue was blindsided by Zaladane.
Zaladane sent cables twining in a thick rope towards the X-Man. She was holding back the current of electricity they held, until she had them wrapped around the other woman's torso. She let the electrons flow.
The volts charged through Rogue's body, the sound like a snapping of reality's very fabric. She didn't get the chance to scream, she was thrown from where she was in mid air, slamming against the far wall.
Rogue lay on the other side of the room, feeling a bit stunned, to say the least. Zaladane did hesitate; she struck again. "I have had it with nasty little flies in my home!"
Another series of cables hooked around Rogue's neck and slung her into a pillar. The entire thing was weakened by Zaladane in the last second, and as it fell, it corrected itself to smash atop Rogue who lay in a dazed pile. Can't…move…move, please move…Move! She thought frantically as the pillar came closer and closer. Her bruised body wasn't responding.
She felt her left arm extend reflexively towards the sky as the pillar fell and contracted around her. Her last image was a sliver of bright light before the three tons of metal blocked out everything.
A matter of seconds would have made the difference. I should have been faster. I should have been better. My loved ones always pay. "Murderess!" Establishing the linkage between the machinery and Zaladane's towers, he did not need a person to stand upon a lit platform for him to tap into their own personal magnetic field. Once again, there was a balance established between them, and the scales tilted between them, this time in opposite of its original intention.
Zaladane was a mutant, but not the one who should own these powers; their nature within her was artificial in origin, sparking a new thought, a new theory. He ignored it, he had more important duties to attend to. It was child's play to return what was taken from him and leave her with less than nothing. He tossed Zaladane aside with the strength returned to him; clearing the path between him and Rogue.
Magneto's mind was aflame with a fury he embraced to hide a fear of finding yet another loved one's lifeless body. Using his flesh and powers he rips at the rubble cursing himself, twice over because even knowing this outcome, he would have done it without thinking twice.
Why do my loved ones always pay? Colonel Semyanov is leveling his weapon. I felt him draw, I felt him trying to approach; desperate to repeat Zaladane's tactic and kill me. If he is willing to draw his weapon, I shall respond in kind.
A wrist-thick cable snapped through the air and jammed into Semyanov's body, piercing his chest cavity. The Russian gasped out half of a word before vomiting blood down his front.
"I'm sorry you lost your son, Colonel." Magneto said as he turned and rose to his full height. "It is more than I ever heard for the slaughter of those I loved."
Semyanov spat at Magneto. It fell short; a last, futile gesture. "And that absolves you of any crime?"
"I never said it did." Magneto clenched his fist, letting the electrons flow in a dark mirror of what transpired a moment ago. "For who we are, what we have done, we are both condemned, my comrade." The words were bitter ash in his mouth.
He turned his attention to Zaladane. She was child's play to lift up, to manipulate. "You will pay for the lives you took, the misery you inflicted." Zaladane screamed as Magneto hurt her, the only way a mutant could hurt a mutant, particularly when their powers were once so similar. He knew everything about her, he knew everything about himself. And he could see how much smaller she was. How much less she was. A flickering candle before a bonfire. How could she have thought to contain what he was? Her scream wasn't enough. It would never be enough.
"Magneto's that's enough! We've won, it's over!" Fury barked as he tugged the hand out from the piled wreckage that suddenly punched through. Another hand appeared, peeling the metal back as if it were paper. Fury hoisted the woman half out, whose clothing was wrecked beyond salvaging, but otherwise whole. Something inside him felt soothed…
But something greater demanded blood.
"So long as this creature exists, the threat remains. Your precious victory means nothing, Commander."
"Magnus, please-" Rogue managed to gasp out, taking a half step forward.
"She's beaten, Mister. She gets her day in court." Fury said firmly.
"No. There can only be one master of magnetism." Magneto extended one outstretched hand, intent on closing it.
"Is this the kind of man you choose to be, Magneto?" Rogue demanded, coughing haggardly. Fury kept his grip on Rogue as they both helped her climb from the rubble. "Ah thought you'd learned that our means matter jus' as much as the ends. You twist one, an' you taint the other! Where's the nobility, where's the honor, in slayin' a defenseless foe? You've got her in your grasp, she can't do anythin' anymore. Please, you don't need to do this." she begged as Fury spoke up.
"We're supposed to be square these days, mister. Don't force me to break that. Don't force me to bring you in."
"Commander Fury," Magneto said, sparing him a moment's look from a furrowed brow. He was intent on his course of action. They had to understand the threat. And if they didn't, he would still do what was required of him. "You are more than welcome to try. And suffer the consequences."
"Magneto, I'm begging you; we were all on one side a second ago. Doesn't that mean anything?" Rogue felt completely at a loss. What could she say to help him see that he could choose something better? "Hate got us into this, from Semyanov to Zaladane to all th'rest! The blood an' rage an' hate, they can't sustain you. It leads to this an' it only destroys! Is that what you want?!"
So noble. So earnest. His remorse twisted his stomach. Not for him, but for her. She shouldn't be so dimmed by these events. "And for those efforts, Rogue what have I accomplished? The New Mutants were left to my care, and they suffered it. They died for it. Because I tried to pattern myself after Charles Xavier." His gaze returned to Zaladane, who stood there sneering at him, her head tilted back by his efforts. But even if he hadn't he was certain she would have held it there anyway. Defiantley disdainful to the very end.
"I am not Charles Xavier. I will never be Charles Xavier. I was a fool to try, as was he, for believing I could succeed. I will do what must be done."
"No!" Rogue cried as she dashed forward, or tried to. Magneto had hold of whatever metal she possessed, and he used all of it to keep her in place. Fury let go of the frozen mutant and tried to fire his weaponry, but failed. Magneto had jammed it in the interim. Rogue tried to hold back the tears; but failed. "Please!"
Magneto's hand closed, and Zaladane died screaming the entire time. It was over in a moment, but the echo of that scream seemed to live on after her heart stopped beating. Magneto had attracted massive amounts of metal towards Zaladane and entombed her in an obelisk; a new pillar in the center of the very tower, piercing it through as its new central support column. On it, a 20 foot tall letter was inscribed on each side: M.
Rogue slumped to the ground, no longer supported by Magneto. Her head sagged; how could he have chosen this? Her hands twisted into fists, reflexively spasming in their impotency. What could she do? What should she do? She tasted blood in her mouth, blood and sour dread.
"My people are in danger, more so now than ever before. From within; amongst mutants, and without from the humans of the world, and their governments." Magneto called more metal, dressed himself in his red and purple, the material manipulating to his touch, creating a second, impenetrable skin.
To him, it was the color of the honored blood he had to spill to protect his people. To Rogue, through tear-filled eyes, it was more the color of rusted armor, an old defense to the same problem. He turned to look back at the trio and Zabu from the depths of his helmet. "A kinder, gentler Magneto cannot save them. And I will save them. Make no mistake."
The entire fortress rumbled. There could be a moment longer before he had to depart. He felt restored by Zaladane's death, though he knew it was more of a clean conscience. He had resolved this problem, and saved his people from this threat, even if it was at great cost to himself. He reluctantly released his connection to the planet's magnetosphere. He would not want to endanger what he had just saved, after all. His own powers, if not physical strength, would be more than enough to take him from here.
"This citadel will not long outlive its mistress, Rogue." he said, addressing the only person in the room he cared to recognize, to respect. "I suggest you depart with all precipitate haste."
"Thanks for the tip," Fury muttered, and looked around the room. As much as he'd love to arrest the man, he had no viable materials to do so. It galled, but the best thing to do was focus on what could be done in the moment. "Let's get everyone out of here. How'll we do it?"
Rogue shook her head once to start herself on the task at hand and stood up. "Same way she brought 'em in." she said and grabbed Worm's bound body with one hand. With the other she slammed its bare palmed on his face, grimacing around the glove she had yanked off with her teeth. He had a filthy mind, and used his power to serve those whims.
It was the most orderly evacuation the Savage Land may ever witness. Though all ran, none fell, the injured were carried carefully, and all possible life preserved. It was merely a small miracle, but a matter of course for any member in the super-hero community. And the only ones who would know about these events were those who experienced it. As Shanna and Ka-Zar were reunited, and Zabu finally relaxing, now that his people were together under his supervision once more, reunions began to abound as the denizens of the Savage Land were released from the mutate's hold.
Indeed, the only people who seemed to not express any relief were Fury and Rogue. They seemed pensive and quiet, and for good reason. Shanna knew how to comfort a person, but when she attempted to get within arm's range Rogue shuffled away, shaking her head, with a small, sad smile on her face that made her lips twist as if she were sick. Shanna sighed, but sat down to exist in the moment with her friend. That was a hard road there, Rogue's. She didn't envy the younger woman in the slightest.
Rogue looked out over the Savage Land knowing that she and Fury's time was drawing to a close here. As the dust literally settled from the enormous building's half collapse, she stared upward to where the sun slowly began to kiss the rim of the mountains that encircled the lands. She felt hollowed out for all her returned vitality and strength. Uncertain, adrift, and alone, she wasn't exactly certain what to do, or where to go.
She held back the tears this time. It was getting easier to do, actually. Perhaps that was a sign that she was maturing, able to handle the burden. Maybe this was a good thing, after all. This had happened to her often enough she ought to be used to it. The realization helped her to maintain control. From here, they were all going their separate ways now. "Thanks, Shanna," Rogue said, meaning it, as she stood and walked away to see who she could help next.
I wanted to look back, to assure myself that Rogue survived, that she made it out and into the jungle. I will trust that she would though. I know she would. She survived death twice just to be dropped here. She survived Zaladane's wrath. She can survive a building.
I want to look back, but I deny it, as I deny the part of me that will always yearn to accept. But my choice is made, my destiny set. From this fateful crossroads, we go our separate ways.
Magneto told himself the pain he felt was from the battle and the subsequent torture his body and soul endured. That the tightening in his chest was the weight of expectations settling on him. That and nothing else. He told himself that, repeatedly. Try as he might, he didn't believe himself.