Disclaimer: I do not own the X-Men. Ilehana Xavier belongs to Corrinth and is used with permission. Blaze, Shockwave and Iona belong to Lamby and should not be used without my permission.
A/N: Chunk of the Apocalypse legend I've used in this chapter is adapted from Corrinth's masterpiece 'Guardians of Destiny', with thanks.
Scene 03"Morning…" Shockwave yawned as she drifted into the expansive Xavier library like tumbleweed. Vertigo, Iona and Wolfsbane, scattered around the room amongst heaps of books and floor-to-ceiling bookcases, chairs and reading lamps, just looked at her.
"What time do you call this?" Vertigo put on her best impression of her mother. "The rest of us have been working for half an hour…"
"Chill, Ver." Shockwave waved a hand to deflect her friend's reproach. "I'm here now aren't I?" As if to prove it, Sam stood stock-still in the doorway and just watched her friends work for a good sixty seconds. Only when Vertigo looked like she was going to explode in fury at her friend did Sam drift over to a bookcase and proceed to pull practically everything off with no mind as to whether they were in alphabetical order or not.
"You do know that's the staff section?" Wolfsbane pointed out, "You're not supposed to…"
"The Professor never specified which bits needed categorising." Sam pointed out. "And given our staff members, do you think any one of these books had a chance of being in the right order?"
"Probably not." Wolfsbane laughed, "I mean…"
"Eek!" Wolfsbane's words were cut short by a sudden scream from the other side of the room. Little Iona was hastily backing away from a gap in the books she was working on, a look of abject horror on her face.
"What is it?" Vertigo went to her friend's side, but Wolfsbane and Shockwave only smother giggles and went back to what they were doing.
"Sp…sp…spider." Iona stuttered. "Get rid of it Ver, I can't stand them."
"She can turn people inside out by touching them, but she can't stand spiders?" Wolfsbane commented over Sam's blurted laughter. A laughter that tripled in volume when suddenly Wolfsbane shot three foot in the air, hands scrabbling at her own back. Vertigo innocently turned her back on the brunette, winking at Iona. The poor spider dropped from Wolfsbane's neck and sprinted under a bookcase.
"Why you…" Wolfsbane snarled at the white haired girl, but her protestations were overridden by Sam's next question.
"Where do you think 'Chronicles of Apocalypse' goes? Under C for Chronicles or A for Apocalypse?"
"It goes under the author, Sam." Iona pointed out, recovering herself after the spider incident.
"It hasn't got one." Sam answered, flicking through the pages briefly with forefinger and thumb. "It hasn't even got much writing, just all these weird symbols. And the paper's pretty odd too…"
"Vellum," Wolfsbane leaned over her friend's shoulder to see, "Thin leather made of calf's skin. And it's written in blood. This is a black book, Sam…"
"How the hell do you know its written in blood?" Shockwave asked without looking up, voice subdued and eyes captivated.
"I'm a werewolf." Wolfsbane pointed out. "I know lots of things I shouldn't."
"Cool." Sam was unbothered by her friend's admission. "What's a black book about then, sacrificing goats and babies?"
"I don't want to know." Vertigo walked over and took the book out of Sam's hands, slamming it shut. "You're giving me the creeps guys. And this book even smells funny…"
"Its just a book Vertigo." Wolfsbane told the other girl practically.
"No its not," Sam argued, "It's the coolest book ever! Let me see it Vertigo!"
"I didn't even know you could read." Vertigo spat her insult, but handed the book over anyway. She couldn't explain why, but she was just glad not to be touching it anymore. Sam turned her back on her friends and spread the book on a small table.
"C'mon Wolfie, prove you know this stuff! What are all these squiggles for?" Wolfsbane obeyed Shockwave's request, going to her friend's side and helping her translate it. Vertigo sighed and turned to Iona for company.
"You're being very quiet, Iona? What's up, you find another spider?"
"No, no." Iona dusted off her hands. "Just old books don't hold much with me. Gimme a comic and I'm your friend for life, but books just make me think of homework."
"I thought we were friends forever anyway?" Vertigo smiled, and Iona returned it. Of the other three, it was Vertigo Iona liked best, and she hoped it worked the same way back again. Certainly Sam and Wolfsbane were much more up for getting into trouble than the other two. As it was now, with Sam asking for Wolfsbane's final translation impatiently.
"As the legends tell, it began in darkness, before the universe and even time itself existed. In the shadows of a realm that had yet to come into existence, He was created. The Apocalypse; a nameless and shapeless being, battling to alter the destiny of a world or the universe as a whole. And then the Earth was born, a lifeless planet cooling in its infancy. In time, the race of humans was born upon that rock. With humanity came the potential for true chaos. The Apocalypse was sent by His masters to bring Earth into that chaos. Continuing His ceaseless work, neither ageing nor tiring, He knew that his sole existence was a premonition of the anarchy that now came to pass…"
"He's a mutant…" Vertigo observed softly, "Just like us."
"I wonder if he ever really existed?" Iona asked, equally awed by the power conveyed in Wolfsbane's recital.
"Why don't we read more and find out?" Shockwave asked impatiently, reaching for the book once more.
"Because it's not our book, and because we have to be in religious studies in two minutes." Iona replied, not wanting to preach.
"And we can't possibly be late for Nightcrawler's class, can we?" Sam replied sarcastically. "He's a saint, he'll forgive us!"
"Oh just put it away Wolfsbane." Vertigo decreed, but Sam was the leader of this gang and she knew it.
"No, pass it here. I could use a little light reading." The other three just looked at her incredulously. "What? It's a library remember? Here so you can borrow books?"
"But the pupil section is…" Iona pointed at the shelves around her, in awe that Sam would dare break the rules about the staff books.
"Boring!" Sam decreed. "You should try some of Jean Grey's left over steamy romance novels instead. Any of the ones with her name scrawled inside. Sorry to break your heart, Iona, but if she had to read those to get her kicks, Cyclops is not much of a boyfriend."
"You've borrowed the staff's books before? Sam, you could get in so much trouble…" Vertigo cautioned as Sam picked up the Chronicles of Apocalypse and wrapped it in her fleecy jumper.
"Who off? Bit hard for Jean to complain from beyond the grave. C'mon, I thought you lot wanted to get to class?"
