The great stone room had been cleared and Raymond Evans stood alone before the great stone sarcophagus.

Quiet contemplation had never been his style before, but now, looking at his own demise in the making, he found the time to wonder.

What would you have done with your life? He shook his head. They found you with a man. They said you protected him as he fell. Did he matter to you once?

Raymond smiled. No fair making him your sacrifice you know. That job is all mine. He chuckled to himself.

We thought for so long that it would be The Wolverine. We had planned to grow in strength and numbers until we could rival the X-Men and seize him.

But fate has given us another path. He laid his right hand on the great stone lid of the reprogramming unit. Fate has given us you.

He pulled his hand back quickly.

You were born for this. It's in your blood quite literally. Even though you're probably not aware. We don't believe that Xavier ever told Logan. So it seems that there's no way that you could know…

He smiled and looked around the room. But as you can see we have great resources. We've checked and double checked the results, and you… Lucy Logan… Are the descendant of a living God.

You, Lucy Logan are The Heir to the throne of Apocalypse!

Madness radiated from his eyes and he shook in awe and wonder at his proximity to her.

And you shall complete his great works. Only you can finish what he started. You must wash this world clean in the blood of the weak and use that savage flood to irrigate the brutal garden of a mutant rain forest.

You shall save us Lucy.

You will wash away the unbelievers and deliver us from decadance and weakness.

"Survival of the fittest!" He called out loud, raising his angry fist in victory as his voice echoed around the room.

"Survival of the fittest my brother." Purred the form in the shadows.

"Fe." The man said, calling her by name.

She purred excitedly. "Ooo… Say my name again."

He smirked slightly. "Maybe... If you behave."

She look several leisurely steps around the room, still clinging to the shadows. "Is it really her? The true heir?"

He nodded. "Yes. I believe so. The genetics do not lie. Her surrogate, The Wolverine, was in fact the natural descendant of Apocalypse and an Egyptian slave girl from several thousand years ago. His genetic structure still has much in common with his ancestor. He's aggressive, dangerous… He heals himself naturally as Apocalypse could influence his own structure with concentration and effort. That's how Apocalypse could utilize other peoples abilities. He altered himself to encompass their skills."

"But this… Heir … you've found us… She's just a fighter? None of his… magnificence?" Fe Purred.

"Not yet." He admitted. "Her memories are being altered as we speak. When the process is complete she'll be saturated in a mutagenic suspension and bombarded with the DNA we collected and cloned after Apocalypse was defeated. She should then begin to activate all the dormant DNA in her cells to coincide with the original samples."

"And our great lord will be reborn." She smiled seductively from behind a pillar and then swung quickly around to the other side to look quizzically at him. "As a woman." She laughed a bit. "It makes sense. Who better to give birth to a new world than a woman?"

"Yes." He agreed. "I can see how that appeals to you."

She smiled. "Egyptians worshipped cats." She told him. "Care to discover why?" She let her tail swish seductively in front of her, caressing her chin as it went.

"Why now?" He asked. "We've known each other for a long time Fe."

She pouted playfully. "But you'll be leaving soon. And I don't want to have missed anything."

He smiled slightly. "I'll come and find you… When I'm done here."

"See… that you do." She smiled slyly and shot him a playful glance before quickly exiting the room in a burst of quick motioned jumps.

Hmmm… He thought. Maybe I'm a cat person after all.

And then he turned back to the ornately carved stone chamber. But you're not a person. Not anymore. Form this day forward… You're the Goddess of the Apocalypse.

Let the world tremble.

And then let it burn.

Then he spun on his heel and walked slowly yet confidently out of the room.

Forge sat, beside himself, in the corner of the hotel suite.

I wonder what she wanted me to see in town. He thought. I wonder if she'd have ever said the words.

She knows I love her, right? I've said it enough, haven't I? And what about all the things we planned to do together?

She's supposed to be my little girlfriend. When I'm forty five people are supposed to be looking at me funny because she'll still look sixteen. We were going to laugh about it and rub it in. Remember?

But there was no one else there to remember. So he had to do it on his own.

Kitty met Kurt's eyes in the next room. "I want to be involved." Kitty told him. "I want to be a part of the rescue mission to get Lucy back. I owe her that for saving me when Betsy attacked."

Kurt nodded. "We all feel it. I owe her as well as Logan. I can't let this go. But at the same time, I don't know where to begin either."

"Photos." Forge called out from the next room as he felt his way towards the doorway. "We need to get the satellite photos of the area when it happened. We know the time and quadrant. Use your government contacts to get them here ASAP."

"Right." Kurt looked to Alistaire who dialed out on his phone.

"I'm on it." Alistiare said softly.

"Rachael… While we're waiting… Can I talk to you in here?" Forge asked from the doorway, standing in a rather unsure position.

"Sure." She said softly, crossing the room and gently taking him by the hand to lead him back to his chair. "But you should rest." She told him. "Rest and heal."

"I will." He said, lowering himself to the chair. "I want you to lay down on the bed and close your eyes. We're going to do a guided meditation to help you remember how to defeat the Zealots of your world."

"Okay." She sat down uncomfortably and laid back hesitantly.

Forge leaned back in the chair with his hands folded over his midsection.

"Now, close your eyes." He told her. "Close your eyes and think of home. I want you to think of a real memory, something that happened and we'll focus on that."

Home… The word swam through her mind and images began to swirl around the perifery of her vision.

"Now, imagine that we're both standing there." He told her.

And suddenly with a jolt, they were both standing on the astral plane in a variant of the lighthouse common room.

"Wow." Forge looked around and blinked. "This I can see just fine."

She looked shocked. "But how?"

"You've a very powerful mind." He told her. "And you're eager to make headway. It's a progressive combination." He looked around the room. "What is this memory?"

Just then the door to the stairs burst open and two guards threw a woman roughly on to the floor. Her hands were tied behind her back and she had a rough black hood over her face.

"Oh, come on!" She screamed at them. "I know where I am! Scott! What are you doing?"

"The Advisor will be with you shortly." One of the guards sneered. "Traitor."

Rachael swallowed and went to help the woman up.

"It won't work." Forge told her. "They can't see or hear us. It's a memory."

Rachael stopped. "How do I stop, or switch to another memory?"

Forge looked at her. "Who is that in the hood?" he asked. "Her voice was almost familiar."

She swallowed. "That's my mother. Jean. I heard she was back. I thought she had come back to my father and me. She had been gone so long. I had forced myself through the vents to look since I wasn't allowed out of my room except to train and study…"

She gestured to the grate behind them.

Forge peeked in to the slats and could see the young Rachael peering down.

"But... that's not what happened, now is it?"

"No." Rachael began to breathe heavy. "It's not. Can we leave?"

"Why did you pick this place?" Forge pressed her. "What drew you here?"

Rachael met his eyes. "He kills her." She said softly. "During the interrogation. She had run off a year earlier and broken…" She paused. "All contact with him. She even tried to steal me away but was caught and had to flee. I remember that too, but not as well."

"He killed her?" He blinked. "Right in front of you?"

She nodded. "It's what made me create the resistance movement within the occupied territories."

"I see." Forge looked towards the door. "I hear footsteps." He said.

"Yes." She agreed, dropping her head. "He's coming."