Disclaimer: I do not own the X-Men. Ilehana Xavier belongs to Corrinth and is used with permission. Blaze, Shockwave, Gaia, Mercury and Iona belong to Lamby and should not be used without my permission.
Scene 20The helicopter seemed to be flying straight into the pyramid as the X-Men joined battle with countless minions of Apocalypse. Then, at the last possible moment, its course veered away again, four small figures leaping from the still airborne vehicle, to land on a plateau three-quarters of the way up the temple. Out of control, the helicopter skimmed over the treetops, disappearing into the forest and slamming to the ground with a force that made the earth shake. Smoke and noise filled the air, a scar cut into the jungle by the crash.
Whether it was the noise or something else entirely that snapped Blaze back into herself, it was impossible to tell. She gasped, pain like magma fury across her right-hand side where Gambit's attack seemed to have bruised if not broken her ribs. Pain she had to put to one side as Gambit again raised his staff, swinging it elaborately to come down just where her skull had been before she'd desperately rolled away. Fortunately she was not alone; one of the other X-Men must have taken out Pestilence, as a large golden and spotted big cat, gleaming with good health, sprung over Blaze to knock Gambit to the ground. Vixen pinned the Cajun effectively, forepaws on his shoulders, rear ones on his thighs, stopping him from even slightly wriggling with all of her jaguar's weight. Growling low, Ilehana kept her friend at bay with teeth bared.
"Who is it?" Cyclops shouted as his trigger finger mowed down more and more of Apocalypse's minions. "Up on the temple?"
#You're not going to like this. # Ilehana announced in everyone's head at once. #Shockwave, Vertigo, Wolfsbane and Iona. They're in Apocalypse's control. #
"What? Why? How?" With each question, Logan sliced up somebody else, before using a tent as a makeshift net with Iceman to trap and freeze four charging marines.
"Like these people are? How is that possible?" Kitty cried out, phasing through an attacker as Jubilee came to her rescue and toasted the guy from behind.
#No, it's different. Voluntary. They…# Ilehana recoiled in disgust as her telepathy broke through in the girls' minds to find out what they were really up to. #They are going to kill themselves, a suicide pact, to break the seal on the temple and return Apocalypse to power! #
"Not if the amazing Nightcrawler can help it!" Kurt cried out, eyes flicking to the plateau, where already the four girls, oblivious to the battle below them, were flicking through the book. By Apocalypse's side, Death had taken off, soaring towards the altar platform with a ceremonial dagger in hand. Skimming over the girls, he dropped it for Samantha to catch, just as Kurt poof!ed onto the plateau. Wolfsbane, snarling, charged him, using the strongest parts of human and of wolf to knock him onto his back foot and claw his face. Her fingernails, hard and black like a wolf's claws, seared through the blue mutant's flesh, making him bleed.
Back on the ground, Storm found herself facing off with her old friend Gaia. The Mexican woman showed no sign of recognising Ororo as she made the pavement buckle and rear up under Storm's feet. The gaping crack that opened just behind Storm was big enough to swallow the claustrophobic woman whole, her boots skidding as she tried to avoid falling over the brink. Too late, Cyclops saw what was about to happen and dived to grab his friend's hand. Their fingers brushed, but Storm fell anyway, screaming.
Out of nowhere, a white streak dived after Ororo, into the dark of her worse fear, even as Gaia tried to close the ground up again. Strong arms caught the woman, pulling her to safety, and like a frightened child Storm flung her arms around her rescuer's neck. Cyclops stunned Xavier's foreign operative with a blast of laser light, turning back to the crack in the ground as Archangel pulled clear, white feathered wings beating hard, Storm safe in his arms.
"Wolfsbane!" Nightcrawler did not want to hurt his pupil if he could avoid it, but with the way Shockwave was holding the blade, hilt offered ceremoniously to Iona, he didn't have time to mess around. "Ich bins!" But she wouldn't take his word that it was him; and as she readied herself to pounce again, Kurt had no choice but to fight back. "Forgive me!" He cried, and as she pounced he bamfed behind her, pushing her over, before teleporting again to grab the knife from Iona's hand as she put it to her own throat.
A brief tug of war ensued, as Apocalypse's laughed echoed around the temple complex. But as Vertigo aimed her power at the blue elf, he won the fight with Iona and tossed the knife over the edge of the plateau. It landed a few levels down, lodged between two worn stones, out of reach. Nightcrawler clutched his head as Vertigo attacked him, stepping backwards. But Shockwave was behind him, holding the book. Apocalypse yelled as loud as Shockwave did as she tumbled from the platform, book spilling from her grasp.
Archangel took off, leaving Storm with Cyclops, wings beating frantically he somehow raced through the air to make his second well-timed catch of the day as he grabbed Shockwave. But Shockwave did not particularly want to be saved, and as Archangel weaved gracefully in and out of a volley of weapons fire and throw mutant attacks, she was struggling against him. Death again flung himself upwards, wings beating the air as he caught the falling tome. He placed it in his master's hands, as Shockwave got her fingers to Archangel's wing.
Warren's scream was horrific as the teenager fractured his delicate wing-bones, sending feathers flying. Unable to stop himself, wing cringing back into his body, Warren began to fall, and the weapons fire cut him to ribbons. Sam wrenched herself free to land in a heap on the pavement; her own discomfort easily ignored as Archangel fell to the ground and was still. Without even a word to explain his presence in Mexico, and having saved two lives during the battle without needing to be asked, Warren Worthington the third was dead.
Apocalypse laughed, the book that was part of and more than the sum of his power back in his hands. Frantically, Cyclops turned his laser vision on Apocalypse, but the larger man used the chronicles named after him as a shield, knowing full well that no mutant attack could harm the book. Indeed as the tome absorbed Cyclops' power, Apocalypse seemed to swell with it, his troops redouble their own attacks however wounded or tired they were. Gambit struggled to get a finger to Ilehana's belly, but the jaguar was having none of it. A sharp cuff to his head and he fell back again, limp.
"Scott, it's not working!" Iceman pointed out as Cyclops again blasted the Lord of Chaos. "The book's just absorbing your power!"
"So don't blast the book!" Jubilee pointed out, aiming her attack at Apocalypse's face. The force of the light that she hit him with cut his laughter short, and Shadowcat seized her chance. Charging up to them, Kitty took a breath and leapt through War and Death as they closed to make a protective circle around their master. Phasing through Apocalypse himself made the brunette shudder, but then she had the book and was making her escape.
"I'll take that!" Shadowcat called out, dropping, rolling and phasing through Famine with the book cradled in her arms. "Logan, heads up!"
"The book cannot be destroyed by your petty mutant powers!" Apocalypse challenged, though it was more like a truculent child refusing to back down no matter how unsure he was of his ground, than an all-powerful being that had total control of the situation. Had they got Apocalypse worried?
"Nothin' mutated about these!" Logan announced, flashing his claws through the air as he leapt towards the book. Death charged forward to attack the Wolverine, but Ilehana was ready for him, using the unconscious Gambit as a springboard the jaguar knocked the Horseman out of the air. Logan's claws sliced through the book in mid-air. Wolverine landed solidly besides Ilehana, and all that was left of the book fell like confetti around them…
"NO!" It was Apocalypse's turn to scream this time as all confusion ripped through the Xitakulkan temple complex. Attacking minions suddenly stopped mid-charge, whilst others seemed infected by Apocalypse's fury, the Horsemen included. Gaia turned and looked at the woman she had only recently tried to kill and smiled, confused. Mercury's charge cut Gaia's greeting for her friend short, but a bolt of crisp lightning from the air goddess struck down the metal manipulating thief.
"Thanks Storm." Gaia offered thoughtfully, "Looks like I've missed something…"
"I'll explain everything," Ororo promised, going to check that, as she thought, Mercury was no longer breathing. Kneeling besides the empty body, Storm closed Eloise's steely eyes for the final time. "But I don't think you're going to like it…"
