celtcath74: Yeah I figure I could take a break from that stuff every now and then.

TheUnknown325: Unfortunately I don't get anymore Spider-Man book were I live so I have no clue what's going on now, that's why there's a shift in focus. I do have plans for Kaine later on but I'm still stuck with nothing for Venom.

Lady Suneidesis: Ah, thanks for clearing that up. I rarely write any sexual content and mostly it's implied, I don't write sex scenes so don't worry about it and I don't do homosexual jokes or any minority jokes either. I can only think of two chapters that had sexual content and it wasn't much, there's a LOT worse out there, and keep in mind this is a PG-13 title.

Bumpkin: Glad you liked the prank he pulled, as for Peter unlike most heroes he's Peter Parker first and Spider-Man second. He's the kind of guy that would help out power or no powers. If you want to know more about Guardian look him up in the 'Exiles' story in the X-Men section.

Vegabond: I'm glad you think so, although to be fair I don't think there are many spider-man/x-men fics.

The Uncanny R-Man: Yeah Peter does have a little prankster in him. I mean he used to do it to the Human torch the entire time. Actually I haven't read that issue just heard about it and the synopsis of it. As for Guardian you'll see in this chapter.

Thanks to: c-wolf, Karakin, Proponent of EVO

THE NEW TEACHER

CHAPTER 32: LAYING THE GROUND WORK TWO YEAR AGO

Above the streets of New York a battle had been raging. Peter Parker once again in his Spider-Man suit was facing one of his oldest and deadliest enemies, it was also the fact that he had thought he was long dead. Norman Osborn had returned from the grave to kill him for the dead of Harry Osborn, Norman' his son. Once again back in the Green Goblin suit, Norman was going to make him suffer.

At one point in the battle Peter saw the glider come at him ready to impale him in the chest, but he was saved at the last moment. Ben Reilly the man cloned from Peter from five years ago, who once went by the name the Scarlet Spider and had taken over for him as Spider-Man takes the blow. Peter watched in horror as a man he considered his brother takes the killing blow meant for him.

Peter knelt down next to his body and pulled off the mask, revealing a face that he'd had seen in the mirror everyday only with blond hair. Ben smiled up at him knowing the wound was fatal. "Take care of that family of yours Peter...and tell little May of her Uncle Ben." He said weakly before his body started to degenerate in organic matter, a side effect of the cloning since after one of the clones dies their bodies literally fall apart on a genetic level.

Peter was heart broken. Little did he know that his and MJ's child wouldn't live past this night and he would never get to tell her about his own Uncle Ben, or her own Uncle, Ben Reilly. Peter looked up into the night sky at the Goblin, and lunched himself back into battle filled with a need to stop that madman.

But as Peter left Ben's remains on the ruins of the building out of the shadows stepped out a figure in black. He was the Guardian and he had been waiting for this moment, he walked over to the remains and extended his hand. A blue glow formed and an orb of pure energy formed and then shot out at the remains. What was left of the body and the uniform glowed and then suddenly it disappeared as the orb reformed.

Actually the orb had gathered all the material and was holding it. Before Guardian took the orb he gave a sad look to the area where Peter had gone off to fight knowing what would happen and the loss he would have to face. He wished he could fix that too...but he knew he had to think of the larger picture, but still a single tear fell from his face knowing the loss of his child would be hard. It was a pain he was familiar with.

With the orb he left back into the shadows.

ONE YEAR AGO

This was one of the saddest things Hank McCoy had to do in his time as an X-Man. He was in the morgue of the mansion looking at the body of his longtime friend Piotr also known as Colossus. Piotr had just sacrificed his life that day to cure the Legacy virus, he had taken the 'cure' knowing that it would kill him in the process.

But after his own sister had died from it, he figured that he didn't want anyone else have to go through the pain of losing family. Hank sighed and pulled the white sheet over his head. Hank pushed the slab into the wall unit until they could figure out what to do with the body. With his head and shoulders hanging down and with a heavy heart he walked off to the exit of the room and shut the light off and then closed the door behind him.

After a few minutes a glowing ball formed and lit the area in a light blue light. It was Guardian again and with a few gestures of his hand the small door opened and the steel slab rolled out. He walked over to the corpse and took off the sheet. He placed a hand on the body and in a flash of light they were both gone. Then after a few seconds the flash was back and so where the two individuals. Only now his solemn face had a grin on it. 'Just as easy to get his body as it was hers.' He thought. But then again he was very skilled in a lot of areas and he had sneaked into a LOT harder places to get into then this.

The body on the slab looked like Colossus but was in fact a carbon copy of the body. Since everyone thought he was dead they wouldn't check the body and he knew Hank might have found a way to find that this 'body' wasn't real. But thankfully since he had died in a public way they all believed he was dead, which he was. "Hopefully not for long if this works out." He muttered to himself and made a mental note to stop talking to him self. He put everything back to the way it was and he was gone before anyone noticed.

SAME YEAR

She wasn't sure where she was only the agony of her existence. Her name was in life had been Elisabeth "Betsy" Braddock but she had also been known as Psylock, that is when she was alive, she knew she had died but she still had to help her friends, she had been given the chance to contact a friend of hers in a dream state, but they had warned her of the dangers, she didn't listen and now she wished she had.

She knew she had no body but in this existence she did feel pain, and suffering and she whished it to end. She was in a dank world with swirling dark pools of smoke yet it looked like water too. She was sure she was in hell or something, when she had gone to her friend something had taken her soul. It wasn't until later she knew who it was...Shadow King. She had trapped him in a psychic plane of existence but as a spirit he had his chance at revenge.

She didn't know how long he had kept her in this place but it seemed like an eternity, if she wasn't dead already she wished for it she had even begged for it but he didn't want to let her go, he wanted her to suffer for eternity. He left her alone at times to think, and just to think since she didn't need to sleep or eat or anything but think.

She had so many regrets in her life one of them was how she had lost Warren, she knew she had been a fool, yes she was attracted to Thunderbird and she thought she was falling in love with him...but looking back on it, it was just a relationship to fill the void that Warren had left, he had been away all the time and she rarely had seen him. "I should have tried harder." She said to herself. "I should have tried to make it work."

"So are you ready for more?" came the deep booming voice of the incorporeal being that was the Shadow King, he was all shadows except for two red glowing eyes where the head was supposed to be. Betsy cringed and tried to back away, she knew it was pointless but she still tried.

Then a bright light suddenly broke the darkness. "YOU WILL STOP!" Came a powerful voice. Both turned to see a glowing light surround a man in black with a huge broadsword on his back. "She is coming with me Amahl Farouk!" He commanded to Shadow King.

"Who do you think you are?" Shadow King asked coldly angry that his punishment was interrupted.

"I am light in the darkness, I am hope, I am justice, and I am that which evil fears. I am the physical manifestation of all that you fear, I am order, I am chaos , I am the forger and destroyer of destinies, I am the whirlwind. I am all this and so much more."

"Fool...you will suffer alone side this woman who has imprisoned me here FOREVER!" He lunged his form at the man engulfing him in his dark essence. Betsy felt sorrow for the man, she knew what it was like to be surround by that darkness, then to her and Shadow King's surprise there was an explosion of light and Shadow King withdrew screaming in pain.

"You...are the fool if you think you could fight me and win."

"What are you?" Screamed Shadow King, in all his years he never felt a power like that he didn't think something like he felt was even possible to exist.

"I am Guardian." He simply stated. "And you shall be sent to the Abyss where you belong monster!" He reached behind himself and took out the sword and the blade glowed and eerie light. Shadow King was truly afraid for he could feel the power coming of the blade in waves.

Without another word in a blur of motion Guardian had plunged his sword into the center mass of the Shadow King, he howled in pain as light started to rip though his form from the inside. "With no body you have no where to hide, and now without your essence YOU WILL BE NOTHING!" Guardian shouted over Shadow King's roar of pain as he was engulfed in light.

Betsy was blinded by it and when he looked again Shadow King was gone and the mysterious man only called Guardian was left. She watched in awe as he re-sheathed his blade with expert skill behind his back. He turned and slowly walked to her.

She started to back away from reflex but he slowed his pace. "Don't worry, I'm not here to hurt you." His voice was now soft and non-threatening. He gently took one of her hands and pulled her to her feet.

"Thank you." She said to him, she felt like crying, she was free now she knew it and she owed it all to him. Then a blinding light wasn't far off, she knew this light, she had seen it at her death. She moved to it but Guardian gently stopped her.

"Wait, please grant me a few minutes of your time." She looked to him then back at the tunnel of light and then back to him with an urgent look on her face. "It will still be there...please."

She thought about it, she wanted to go back to where it was beautiful and peaceful all the time, but she owed him this at least. "Alright, go on."

He smiled at her and let go of her hand. "I know you left some things unfinished in your world...what if I gave you the chance to go back?" Betsy was shocked by his words. She wanted to say that she was dead but then again, it wasn't the first time an X-Man had returned from the grave. In fact she had already come back once before. "There is a darkness coming to the world and I could use your help...and your friends and loved ones would need you too."

She thought about all of those she had left behind, her brother, her sister in-law, the fact she never got a chance to see her niece being born...Warren. She looked back to the light and Guardian seemed to read her mind. "You'll see it again, remember if your alive then when you die again it will still be there for you."

"What the hell...might as well try and break Jean's record luv." Betsy said making a joke of how many times Jean had died and come back. Guardian smiled and took her hands and disappeared in light.

A FEW MONTHS AGO

The X-men were having a funeral service for Angelo Espinosa also called Skin. He had died from wounds inflicted by being crucified outside the mansion along with other including his girlfriend Jubilee who while being supported by Paige was crying her heart out seeing the casket being carried to the fresh grave. In the tradition everyone was in black even Emma was wearing a more modest black clothing and even though she didn't show it her heart was breaking.

'Another student dead...where did I go wrong...why does everyone I train have to die so young?' She asked herself as she looked on with the others. Then as everything was in motion it all slowed down until nothing moved, not the people, not the leaves of the trees not even the wind. All was stopped except one form.

Guardian.

He was slowly walking to the coffin as the world around him was frozen. Well it wasn't actually frozen he may have a lot of power but even he had his limits, he was actually phased a few seconds ahead in time.

He made his way there but stopped at the sight of Jubilee. It broke his heart to see someone so young to go through so much pain and heart break.

He walked over to her and gently wiped away one of her tears. "Take care child...everything will get better in time." He knew she wouldn't hear the words but that didn't matter, he felt he should say something to her. He moved back to work, after the trouble to find and get Psylock's spirit back this was going to be easy. Like with Colossus he switched the bodies without anyone the wiser and even though only a second had passed for the mourners no one noticed anything.

PRESENT

In a lab filled with machinery and technology that would make Reed Richards drool stood by one wall several tubes. The tubes were filled with a green liquid, the glass had strange glyphs on them that glowed and in four of these tubes were the forms of Ben Reilly, Betsy Braddock, Piotr Rasputin and Angelo Espinosa. All were floating in the tanks, their skin no longer the unhealthy pale color of death but actually seemed to be like they were when they were alive.

Even Ben's body was re-formed back into its original state. Guardian looked at the restored and unfortunately unclothed forms. He had to take whatever clothing off for the tanks to work properly but since he had spent a few 'life times' as a doctor with several degrees it was purely professional.

In front and center of the tanks Guarding worked at a control panel with a holographic interface. He checked the vitals and the conditions of his guests. He was still amazed he was able to fix Ben, he wasn't sure if even he could bring him back, but it wasn't easy. He had to use all the advance knowledge he had and with several of his skills in sorcery that he had learned as well. It hadn't been easy compared to the others, it had taken a full year but it was done.

The double doors at his back opened up and a young woman in a red long skirt that went down to her ankles and a matching blouse walked in. She was carrying a computer pad in her arm, her long waist length hair was tide into a braid and she looked around at everything with her green eyes. "Is this one of the things you work on?" She asked. She had only started to help out Guardian not long ago after his Exiles had freed her from the control of Hydra. (1)

"Yes it is April, you see the Exiles are good for certain jobs but this needed the kind of finesse that only I could do." He said not taking his eyes off the controls. "They're almost ready, I'm just glad I got some pull with a few guys 'upstairs' to get their souls back.

"Excuse me?" April asked him.

He turned from his work to face her. "You see I do have the ability to heal and even repair their bodies, and normally when a body is 'fixed' the soul snaps back into it unless the ones in charge think that they have served their time. Well you see even if these beings are in charge of cosmic events, they still need help on this plane of existence cause they can't do anything directly."

He shrugged as he went on. "And well I do a little favor for them now and then and they let me take souls that should have been finished and give them another shot at life. I mean I've done it a few times, and you wouldn't believe me how many times I've had to bring back the same guy. Take Deadpool for instance I had to resurrect that guy as a favor a few times already. I mean I'm getting sick and tired of bringing that guy back from death." (2)

"Sounds kind of difficult at times." She said in sympathy.

He sighed. "You have no idea." A beeping sound came from the controls. He smiled at it. "Well looks like Mr. Reilly is waking up. This should be interesting for him." He looked as his tank started to drain away the fluids and then opened up.

Guardian came over to him and put a large blanket over his wet form. Ben coughed up fluid and looked around. His body felt week and he didn't understand what was going on. The last thing he remembered was dying. He looked up at Guardian then. "Am I dead?"

He smiled down at him. "Not anymore. Come on, we've got a lot of things to talk about and you need to get dressed and I think you deserve something to eat too." Ben wasn't sure what was going on, but if he wasn't dead then he guessed it wasn't too bad.

NEXT UP CHAPTER 33: BROTHERS REUNITED

1) See Exiles chapter 13 for details.

2) See Deadpool comic Funeral for a Freak for details.