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: Again, references to the Guardians from Corrinth's work Guardians of Destiny.

Scene 13

The chuntering sound of a bike approaching at some speed called a halt to the arguments and opinions being thrown about the school's entranceway by pupils and X-Men alike. Shadowcat hugged a banister, raised her troubled eyes as the front door creaked open, watched as a slow silence fell on the other mutants. Blaze and Gambit entered at a sprint, but stopped abruptly as they saw the unusual gathering in front of them. Pierced by so many pairs of eyes, neither X-Man felt entirely comfortable.

"What's going on?" Blaze asked, singling Bobby out, demanding an explanation from her friend.

"What isn't?" Bobby answered, before rising to Blaze's challenge and taking charge. "Show's over guys, c'mon, bedtime."

"Shadowcat?" Gambit asked as Kitty walked down a couple of flights of steps against the tide of grumbling teenage mutants.

"We had a power cut." Kitty stated matter-of-factly. "Logan went out to check the circuit breakers, and Wolfsbane attacked him."

"What? Why?" Blaze taught Wolfsbane, she wouldn't have dreamt the girl capable of such a horror. "Are they both okay?"

"They're fine. She fell and banged her head apparently. Cyclops and Jubilee are talkin' to her friends now, but they're totally freaked. Ilehana's tryin' to get through to Wolfsbane, but who knows how long that's gonna take…"

Blaze and Gambit exchanged worried glances; both appreciating that they'd missed a crisis. But that didn't change the reason why they had rushed home; they still had their own information to report.

"Is the Professor about?" Blaze asked, just as Bobby spoke up. "Aren't you guys back kinda early?"

"Ran into an ole friend." Gambit explained with a scowl.

"Sheesh, Gambit, how many old friends do you have that cause you problems?" Bobby teased, but his eyes were serious.

"One of the Horsemen." Blaze filled in for Iceman, not noticing the vague confusion that passed over the only recently returned Shadowcat's face. Absently, Laura rubbed her throat where Apocalypse's messenger had grabbed her. "We really need to talk to Xavier…"

"I'm right here Blaze." Xavier had been telepathically aware of the return of his X-Men. "Bobby, Kitty, please could you help Ororo and Kurt settle the children? I think with all the frayed nerves tonight they will need all the help they can muster."

"No problem Professor." Bobby answered, as Shadowcat nodded and both disappeared upstairs.

"Well then, it seems it never rains but it pours." Xavier sighed, a sentiment echoed by Blaze and Gambit. Sensing their unease and flagging energies, Xavier smiled at them both warmly. "I think that if perhaps Apocalypse's message can wait five minutes, a cup of tea might be in order. Would you both care to join me?"

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"When did you become so conniving?" Samantha demanded in an over-the-top whisper, as the dorm door closed behind the leaving Jubilee and Cyclops. A X-Man briefing had been called over something, and it could not have come at a better time for the three friends as they fought to keep up the story that Wolfsbane had simply fallen. Iona glowered at Shockwave, and refused to answer the older girl as Vertigo went to once again bring out the Apocalypse Chronicles.

"Does it matter Sam?" Vertigo asked, her unease somehow more bearable as she hugged to tome to her chest. "We fooled those idiots, they don't have a clue. And with Wolfsbane giving blood-sacrifice to the book, Apocalypse's power is brought one step closer to being re-kindled in full."

"Ver, what are you on about?" Sam frowned, confused by her friend's strange words. Vertigo didn't answer, her violet eyes unseeing and her breathing shallow as though she was on the edge of some sort of trance. The air throbbed. "Iona…" Shockwave turned to her small sidekick, but again she saw no recognition in the Boston girl's face. "What is wrong with you both?"

"Can't you feel it?" Iona whispered, rocking backwards and forwards as she sat on the edge of the bed, hands outstretched, pleading for the book to come to her. "Can't you feel the power, the pull? I know you've heard it Sam, I know you've heard his voice. The chaos, the wonder… He offers us everything, we are the only ones he can turn to, because we came to him voluntarily."

"He's been trapped, for eons and eons, trapped and alone and unable to fulfil his nature. But now, times change… He is out, but his powers are not strong enough yet to break the temple seal… He is free but he is not whole." Vertigo stroked the cover of the book tenderly, as through she stroked the hair of a child she held. "He needs us, Sam. He wants us to go to him."

"Apocalypse?" Sam breathed in wonder, and as soon as she said his name, it was as though she could hear him too. A chaotic insistence, promising glory, power, riches, for her and only for her. But she must not tell the others. He had them fooled; he was telling them this was an offer for all four of them. But he only had a place for her at his right hand. He did not want the others; just Shockwave, she was the most powerful. But they should travel to him together; bring him the book, for that was what mattered the most. The book in which ancient monks had scrawled down the secrets of his most elementary power, sealed that power from him so that he could be imprisoned. The book that once it was in his control would allow him to be whole once more…

Shockwave shuddered, her hands clutching her eyes as she both felt and saw everything he was telling her. She wondered in some small part of her, hiding from the deluge, if it was possible for him to put any more information into her head at once. It was as though the whole chaos of creation was at her fingertips. Was that what he was offering her, knowledge and power and control beyond anything Charles Xavier had ever been able to grasp?

But all thoughts passed, and suddenly like waking from a dream Samantha Hawley's head snapped up. The vacant look to her eyes hid only the flood of knowledge in her pounding skull. She knew what she, what they had to do. And then Apocalypse would rise once more. With no heroes, no mystical Guardians to fight and defeat him, to lock him away and steal his powers for a book, he would rule the world. And Shockwave would stand at his right side as he looked down on the chaos his rule would bring…