p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="f78d720cd30a3943383dae73e0227cde"em style="box-sizing: border-box;"u style="box-sizing: border-box;"-Years ago, the Facility-/u/em/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="c0ac9f224ebc4ea301ff17718127bb7b"em style="box-sizing: border-box;""Number 25's powers are developing wonderfully." Julie said with a proud smirk as she stood behind bullet-proof glass. Watching the young girl inside the room fight against armed men. They were taking turns, shooting at the girl. It was training for Marigold to practice her reaction time with her shields. "Yes, it's gotten much better since we have separated it from the other test subjects. No more distractions for it." The doctor standing beside Julie said as he took notes on his computer of Marigold's progress. Julie frowned, remembering how sad Marigold had been when she had been forced to leave the other test subjects, including her friend X-23. How sad the girl had been when she heard that number 24 had killed himself inside his cell. If only she knew everything...if only she knew the truth. "Are we sure that was the best course of action? Wasn't isolation part of the reason number 24 killed himself?" Julie asked turning to the doctor. The room was silent, the only sound in the air was Marigold grunting in pain when a bullet grazed her arm. "There is no way to know for sure." The doctor finally said, "but make sure you don't forget. That thing inside the room...is not a child. Number 25 is a weapon. So we must treat them as such. If we treat it like a human, it will act like a human...if you treat if like a weapon, well-" The doctor said, before gesturing to the glass. Julie looked through it to see Marigold get shot in the shoulder. She cried out and fell to her knees. The shooting didn't stop, and the girl didn't stop putting her shields up either. Julie blinked, shocked as the girl kept deflecting bullets, even as blood started running down her arm. "Treat it like a weapon, and it's one of the most powerful weapons you will ever use." The doctor said with a smile. "The first Winter Solider was a failure, this one will not be." The doctor said with a grin. Julie watched as the experiment continued. She felt something in her heart, it took a few moments for her to place it...but she came up with the word that described the pain in her chest perfectly. 'guilt.'br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /em/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="11e0c1d9ae338911c33ef390917393ff"u style="box-sizing: border-box;"-Present time-/u/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="0d2967c842482ba057d59047cc326910"u style="box-sizing: border-box;"-Xavier Institute, Marigold's Pov-/u/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="cf3c42fbb719f5d057ebec26061ef6f9"It was night time, and everybody was supposed to be asleep in the Institute. As it turned out, someone was roaming around the corridors. This person entered the professor's room, and moments later; a slight groan in pain could be heard coming from his room. Next, the figure goes to Jean's room. She isn't aware there was somebody entering her room and another moan is heard from her room. Kitty gets awoken by another moan, coming from Scott's room. She jumps out of her bed, but as she goes towards her door, somebody opens it. She hides behind the door, and phases through the wall to avoid whoever is coming into her room late at night. She never realizes it's Rogue who enters the room. As she runs over to Scott's room to wake him, she notices he's out cold, and not just sleeping. "Like, what is happening?!" Before she can get help, she falls down to the ground, knocked out. Rogue had followed her, and had absorbed her powers./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="e9726d38a5717a91d63c0ee5f80f78e9"Marigold was tucked away in the library while this was happening, her nightmares keeping her from getting much sleep since her return from being under Magneto's control. She had a book in her hands, but she isn't reading it. Marigold's nightmares are much more haunting then they had been before the Winter Soldier had been woken up in her mind. Most of the time Marigold is able to keep number 25 pushed down, and the Professor has been helping her. But she constantly feels the programming in her mind, fighting for control. And it's exhausting, the girl feels like she can't fall asleep, or she might wake up as 25. Marigold gets pulled from her thoughts when she hears walking behind her. She turns to see Rouge walking up to her. "Oh, hey. What are you doing he-" Marigold's words are cut off as Rogue reaches her hand out to try and touch Marigold's cheek. The girl forms a shield quickly around Rogue's hand and jumps up from the chair she had been sitting in. "Rogue?" Marigold asks, standing in front of the girl in a fighting stance. She looked at the teen in front of her. Rogue's face is blank, Marigold frowns. "What's going on-ah!" Marigold's question ends in a startled scream from the girl as Rogue used Jean's telepathic powers to lift the girl into the air. Marigold starts kicking the air, trying to find a way out of Rogue's hold. "Why are you using Jean's powers?! What is going on Rogue!" Marigold cries out as Rogue reaches her hands out towards Marigold again. Marigold puts a shield around herself for protection, but that proves useless as Rogue uses Kitty's powers to phase through the shield. "Awh, dang it." Marigold says as Rogue reaches her cheek with her hand. Marigold cries out in pain, before falling to the ground. Knocked out./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="26e0e43d59f916d37825f050597d9e23"u style="box-sizing: border-box;"-Logan's Pov, The Next Morning-/u/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="a8e8a2dd8bc1bf947a68f0dc894c765c""Kurt! Wake up! Everyone overslept!" Kitty shouted, with a toothbrush in her mouth as she phased through the wall into Kurt's room (even though the door was open right beside her). Logan watched with a smirk as Kurt groaned. "Ohh, five more miv'ites. I have a killer headav'e" Kurt said slowly sitting up in his bed. "Yea, I woke up with a headache too. It is allergy season though." Kitty said as she left Kurt's room to let him get ready in peace. "Have you seen the baby bird anywhere?" Logan asked Kitty as she ran by. "Nope, I checked her room but it's empty. I think she's the only student who didn't oversleep this morning!" Kitty said as she phased through another wall. Logan huffed and continued walking down the hallway, opting to use his nose to see if he could sniff out where Marigold was hiding. His nose lead him to the library and he found Marigold curled up in one of the chairs, a book in her lap as she slept. Logan sighed and kneeled onto the ground to where he was face to face with the girl and gently shook her shoulder. At first she didn't respond, sleeping on. That worried Logan since the girl was such a light sleeper. But as he continued to shake her shoulder Marigold moaned and slowly opened her eyes. "Logan?" She asked, rubbing her eyes as she sat up. "What time is it?" She asked looking out the window to see the sun was in the sky. "It's 8:15am. Most of the students are getting breakfast. Did you have another nightmare last night?" He asked. Marigold nodded. "I did, then I came here to distract myself with a book..." Marigold trailed off, looking confused as she looked at the book in her lap. "You must have fallen asleep here. Come on, let's go get breakfast before the high school students eat everything." Logan said standing up. Marigold moaned as she stood up, swaying as she stood to her feet. Logan put a steady hand on her shoulder and gave her a concerned look. "Sorry, I have a headache." Marigold said rubbing her eyes. Logan nodded in understanding, "Yea, I think Kitty said something about it being allergy season." He said as the two walked out of the library and made their way to the kitchen. In the kitchen the other students are preparing breakfast. Rogue enters the room, and groans as she leans against the door frame. "You gonna eat anything?" Logan asked, walking in with Marigold. "Nah, I'm not hungry." Rogue said, rubbing her forehead as she leaves the kitchen. "She looked tired." Marigold whispered as she and Logan took seats at the table. "Yea, well we are all tired. I'm so glad today is the last day of school!" Amara said walking over. "Me too, I can't wait to never go back to school." Scott said as he quickly ate his breakfast. "At least you guys don't have to go to summer school." Marigold said with a frown. Because the girl had missed so much school while number 25 had been using her body, Marigold had to play catch up with her school work so that she could go up a grade with her friends, and not fall behind. Fortunately the middle school principal had been very understanding of Marigolds situation and just thought that Xavier had been keeping her at Xavier for her safety. Marigold, and the other teachers at Xavier Institute were willing to let the principle think that if it meant Marigold could take classes during the summer and not be held back a grade due to missing too much school. "Are you excited about meeting White Wolf today?" Jean asked Marigold as the woman sat down at the table beside her, a bowl of cereal in her hands. "I guess...I'm nervous. I just don't know what to expect." Marigold admitted as she ate her own breakfast. White Wolf, formerly known as the first Winter Soldier, aka. Bucky Barns was scheduled to come visit the institute today. Specifically, to visit Marigold. The Professor and the other teachers were hoping that Bucky might have a way to help the young girl with everything she had been dealing with for the past few months. "I've heard he can be pretty intimidating, but I wouldn't sweat it too much." Rahne said as she sat on the other side of Marigold, the Scottish girl leaned over to whisper in Marigold's ear. "If you can make a softy out of Logan, you can make a softy out of anyone." Marigold blushed as Rahne giggled, turning back to her own food. "Hurry up everyone! We need to go now or we will be late for our last day!" Scott called as he walked out of the kitchen. All the high school students started running around faster, stuffing food into their faces as they ran off to school. Marigold couldn't help but think back to when she first started attending Xavier institute, before she had been allowed to go to school, watching everyone go off and live their normal lives. While she was stuck inside the mansion. "Come on Marigold." the girl was pulled from her spiraling thoughts as Beast entered the kitchen. "Let's get ourselves ready for our guest." Marigold agreed, taking her dishes and cleaning up after herself, before following Beast out of the kitchen./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="61247ae82593c903ad9c47b29d6b5191"u style="box-sizing: border-box;"-Professor's Pov-/u/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="12ad49c3a3845974136f34927d08b186""Thank you for coming Bucky." I said as the White Wolf himself walked through the front doors of the mansion. "I only wish I could have been here sooner. I was on a S.H.I.E.L.D mission that went on about three more months than it was supposed too, but you know how it is." I nodded, "I'm only grateful that you have agreed to come at all. I can't imagine this will bring up any pleasant memories for you." Bucky only shook his head as the two of us walked down the hallways of the Institute. "When I first heard of what was going on, I was surprised that...that I wasn't surprised. It's very on brand for HYDRA to try and re-create the winter soldier...but a kid, man that hit different." He said, not making eye contact with me, but instead looking around the building as we made our way to my office where everyone was waiting. "Yes, but I'm hopeful that this meeting will help, you can share how you were able to wipe the programing from your mind, and how you dealt with the ramifications of what HYDRA made you do...I'm hoping that seeing your success, will give Marigold hope for the future."/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="78be2ade97a0a4b84449a3dedde67200"u style="box-sizing: border-box;"-Marigold Pov-/u/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="685cb85097075676218628afed6d678d"I was sitting in the Professor's office with Beast, Ororo, and Logan. I pulled my glasses from my nose, wiping them against my shirt to clean them, again. It was a nervous tick I had developed. Ororo was sitting beside me on the couch, her hand rested on my shoulder as the door opened. The Professor rolled in, and behind him was Bucky. I felt a shiver run up my spine so strongly that I stood up, facing the man whose eyes slowly looked around the room before landing on me. "You must be Marigold." He said, his voice soft, softer than I imagined it would be. He smiled, but it was forced, making his face look funny. "You must be the White Wolf." I said stepping forward. "You can call me Bucky..." He looked lost for words as I walked up to him. I had been rehearsing what I was going to say to him in my mind, but now that he was here, the words were stuck in my mouth. I felt a hand gently rest on my back and I turned to see the Professor, giving me an encouraging grin. I took a deep breath and turned to Bucky again. "I wanted to tell you that...that I don't blame you for any misfortune in my life. Just because you were able to escape HYDRA, doesn't mean that you were the reason I was...created to become the next Winter Soldier...I-uh," I nervously stumbled over my words as Bucky kneeled in front of me, our eyes level with each other. Everything suddenly felt so much more...intimate. "I know that I've felt like I've needed to ask for forgiveness, for things that Number 25 did...I don't want you to feel like you have to do that for me...I understand, maybe more than anyone else could. That this," I said gesturing to myself, "isn't your fault." It was silent. No one said anything in the room, the other adults besides Bucky shocked with how direct Marigold had been, the shy girl coming out of her shell for the tortured man. Bucky looked just as shocked, but for different reasons. The man slowly pulled me into a hug, his vibranium and flesh arm wrapping around me. I felt the cold metal wrap around me, but it didn't bring me fear. I let it happen, resting my head on Bucky's shoulder. He understood, finally, someone who understood. "Thank you," Bucky said, his voice soft, as if trying to fight of tears. "Just...thank you."br style="box-sizing: border-box;" / /p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="66f3e8c9c70a2f9215c69cf770829f47"The grownups and Marigold spent the next few hours talking about a large variety of things. Marigold retold a lot of her experiences in the Facility, (making Logan growl with anger on many occasions) Bucky talking about things that seemed different with Marigold's experiences compared to he's, how Bucky dealt with the nightmares and guilt of it all, (giving Marigold some tips on how to fall back asleep after a nightmare) and Bucky told everyone about how he had found permanent healing from the programing in his mind in Wakanda. At some point during the conversation Beast had moved Marigold into his lap, and Marigold had taken to brushing her fingers through the fur on his arm. As the adults started talking about the more technical (and boring) parts of Bucky's recovery Marigold tuned out. Her mind tired from all the emotional vulnerability she had been practicing, and her body tired from the poor nights of sleep she had been experiencing since her return from being under Magneto's control. Beast noticed that Marigold's hand had stopped brushing through his fur and he looked down to see the girl had fallen asleep in his arms, her head resting against his furry chest. His heart swelled, and he smiled as Ororo noticed the youngest had fallen asleep. "You have that effect on her," She whispered, leaning over to brush some of the hair out of her face. "It's the fur." I whispered, watching as Marigold found rest. "I would guess that this will be the first peaceful rest Marigold has had in a long time." The Professor said turning to Bucky, who was looking at the girl with an unreadable face. "Thanks to you." Bucky shook his head. "She's a great girl, she doesn't deserve any of this." Bucky said with a frown. "She doesn't, but we're here now. And we are going to do everything we can to help her." Logan said standing by the window, watching as storm clouds were starting to form in the sky. "You really think the doctors at Wakanda can help her, like they helped you?" Logan asked, sounding unsure. "I know they can. A young girl there named Shuri...she is a genius. If anyone can do it, it's her." Bucky said, sure of himself, his eyes not leaving Marigold as she slept on blissfully. "Well the other students will be returning from school soon, and you can stay if you like. But don't feel like you have to." The Professor said turning to Bucky. "No offense to your students, but I think I should head out. Steve is expecting me at his place tonight." Bucky said standing up. "I hate for you to leave without saying goodbye to Marigold, but I'm sure you will meet again...and she hasn't been sleeping well with her nightmares. Anytime she is able to fall asleep, we let her sleep." Ororo said standing up and shaking Bucky's flesh hand. "Tell her I'll come by again when I have a chance, and I'll have my people in Wakanda contact you all. I'm sure they wouldn't mind one of you coming with her while she goes through treatments." Logan nodded, knowing that The professor would be looking into Wakanda more, and that if they did decide to send Marigold there, one of the teachers would be going with her. The teachers left Beast with Marigold, the blue man not willing to move in risk of disturbing Marigold's slumber. Bucky nodded in understanding, and left after saying his goodbyes to the Xavier teachers. "Looks like a storm is coming." The Professor said looking up at the grey sky as Bucky drove away on his motorcycle. "Seems so." Ororo said with a smirk, "I'll make sure that Bucky is able to avoid the worst of the storm on his way to his friend...it's the least we can do."/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="1e1311dee89b0be906ae12e88ed3756f"u style="box-sizing: border-box;"-Later that Night-/u/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="3030b3d878a2a53c5252072357e44060"Later in the evening, it started to rain, and as Ororo looked outside, she assured Jean it wouldn't rain on her Graduation. Jean's told Ororo that she was grateful for that. Xavier enters the room with Marigold riding the back of his wheelchair. She hops off the wheelchair and walks over to Scott who is sitting in front of the fire with Beast. The girl sits beside him and Scott smiled, putting his arm over the girls shoulder and pulling her into his side. The atmosphere is peaceful as The Professor brings up the subject on Jean's choices for the future. Jean confirms she's been accepted into several universities, and that's she's thinking of going into medicine or genetics. It seems a good choice to Xavier. "What do you want to do after school Scott?" Marigold asks the boy. "I'm not sure yet. I'm still thinking about things." He says with a bit of a frown. Marigold doesn't push it, and instead pulls out a book that the two have been reading together and Scott smiles, taking it from her hands and flipping through the pages till they get to where they had left off. Scott started reading out loud, and Marigold smiles as she listens. After her talk with Bucky, it was like a weight was lifted off of her shoulder. He had been healed of his conditioning with HYDRA, and it gave her hope that she could too./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="8dccd82ddf9b5a467387c787ade58ac6"u style="box-sizing: border-box;"-The Next Day, Graduation/Bayville high-/u/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="406e6eada1c18ba7c1aa2e20e054bca1"It's the next day and Graduation's about to begin. Jean and Scott are in their graduation robes, talking about the nice weather when Jean's family arrives. Scott tells Jean he'll see her at the ceremony. Marigold is sitting in the stands with the other Xavier students beside Ororo and Kitty. She looked around nervously, noting that none of her friends from middle school were present, she couldn't tell if she was happy or upset about the fact. She was eager to see her friends again, but she wasn't sure what they would all think now that they knew she was a mutant. But the thoughts leave her mind when the ceremony begins, Principle Kelly starts a speech. Present among the crowd is Pietro: he's watching Rogue. As Kelly's speech begins to go bad em style="box-sizing: border-box;"(read: anti-mutant rant)/em, he stops. He's just seen Magneto, the Acolytes and the Brotherhood entering the grounds. "Like, what are they doing here?!" Kitty asks in anger. All of them are in their fighting uniforms, only drawing more attention to them as they walk out onto the football field. People begin to panic, Kelly tries to calm them down, "Everyone please try to exit the field as quickly and safely as possible!" but nobody's listening anymore. Rogue flees but Pietro stops her and brings her to Magneto. He holds her in place by surrounding her with iron chairs. Mesmero's there too, looking on from under the stands. Marigold and the other Xavier students run out onto the football field to protect everyone as they flee to safety. The Professor asks for an explanation, Magneto answers Rogue's attacked them under Mesmero's control. When The Professor asks him to prove it, Magneto says his security cameras recorded everything. Then, Rogue flies into the air and hurls the chairs against the mutants. Most chairs miss or get warded off, but Kitty and Kurt get knocked down. Marigold is able to block any chairs from hitting her with her shields, and protects her fellow students from getting hit with some as well. Rogue flies off. Kelly was narrowly missed by one of the chairs, and now he flies into a frantic anti-mutant rant. The professor's the first one to react: he orders Logan to follow Rogue. Magneto orders Sabertooth and Gambit to help him. Logan refuses, but Charles says there's too much at stake. Both Wolverine and Sabertooth growl at each other. Moments later, the three are off on their motorcycles after Rogue. "What are we going to do Professor?" Marigold asks. "We are going to find Rogue, and get to the bottom of this." He said, turning to Magneto, "If we are going to be working together, I need proof that you will not try bring out number 25 from inside Marigold's mind again." He said. Magneto frowned. "Fine, too much is at stake right now for me to try and get my soldier back...here." Magneto said, pulling out a leather notebook from under his cape, handing it over to the Professor. Marigold recognized it when she saw the HYDRA symbol on the front and frowned. "I have her commands memorized, but consider this a peace offering of sorts." Magneto offered. "This works for now, let's get back to the Institute and figure out what exactly is going on." The Professor said, pocketing the leather notebook./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="01d0662f34af130623e24849e7278e28"u style="box-sizing: border-box;"-The Xavier Institute-/u/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="c430ce7ee0a0ff4562804c2eaa6d8f0a"Charles and Magneto are walking through the corridors under the institute. Charles tells Magneto the odds: they'll have to find Rogue and stop her from getting the third key or, Magneto knows the alternative: finding the portal and defending it. He tells Charles that the only way to succeed is to form a team with their most experienced members. Charles tells Magneto he'll have to use a mental block to stop Mesmero from taking over anybody. As they arrive in the , says he hasn't found anything on in em style="box-sizing: border-box;"Ancient Egypt/em. Magneto tells him to search under Apocalypse's real name: EN Sabah Nur. Meanwhile, in the upper floors the Institute, Beast found files about Apocalypse. And as it seems he was at Giseh, some 5000 years ago, they assume his tomb's there. But they don't know exactly where. Magneto tells them Mesmero's the one who knows the answer, and Charles suggests he'll be able to read Mesmero's mind. Moments later, Charles thinks he's got it. Somewhat later, we see them in Cerebro. Charles tells them he'll use Cerebro to interpret the images from Mesmero's mind. Having attempted that, Charles thinks he knows where to find the Tomb of Apocalypse. The Professor puts on Cerebro's helmet and uses the machine to find the tomb, moments later he gasps, pulling the helmet off of his head. "I've...I think I've found it." Magneto nods, "Alright, let's get everyone together and go now. We don't have much time to waste." Everyone agrees and the Professor telepathically called, Kitty, Jean, Scott, Storm, Kurt, Bobby, and Marigold to get in their X-men uniforms and to meet at the X-jet. They were going to Egypt./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="bcc880f8277cca0ea92357990d6b51c5"u style="box-sizing: border-box;"-Great Sphinx Tomb-/u/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="18ff00515996656678a310601b8289a1"The X-jet touches down next to the Great Sphinx. Moments later, the team assembles. Beast prepares with an oxygen mask and a lamp, while Charles briefs Kitty: she's looking for an underground room. Kitty then phases halfway into the ground. She kind of dives into the ground and ends up in an underground room. She takes a fright from what she sees there (all kinds of statues), then radios she's there. Beast asks her to look for a lever. She finds and activates it. In front of the Sphinx, a large hole opens up in the ground, in which a stairway forms. While the team descends the stairs, Kitty takes off her mask and waits for them. When they arrive in the room, Magneto orders to light the torches, which he does. While everybody looks around, Kurt approaches Kitty and tells her he finds the place interesting. Kitty snaps back that he wasn't down there alone. She walks away, and as she leaves Kurt, who's obviously surprised by Kitty's reaction, one of the statues behind him begins to stir. Kurt only notices that when small pebbles begin to fall to the ground. He screams, and the others notice that all the statues around them are beginning to move. Then, behind them, the door starts to close. The team realizes they've walked straight into a trap. The torches die down as the door closes and the team is trapped in darkness. "Dang it, we walked right into a trap!" Marigold says as Pyro re-lights the torches that were put out, showing the group that the statues around them were moving to attack. The battle begins. Cyclopes dodges one of the statues' attacks and begins blasting it, but it doesn't yield a result. The statue strikes again, bringing down a column, which narrowly misses Cyclops. It almost crushes Kitty, but Marigold saves her by covering the girl with one of her shields. The next moment, the floor gives way and Kit, Colossus, Kurt, and Marigold fall down through a hole, losing the group. Another part of the floor descends with Scott, Pietro and Pyro, also separating them. Meanwhile Beast takes on another statue attacking them, but it almost hits him. He clings onto a column, which is brought down moments later. He jumps clear, but Charles' wheelchair is knocked over by debris, Charles lands on the floor. It gives way but Magneto manages to save him by lifting Charles's wheelchair into the air. As Jean rescues Bobby from a collapse, they're confronted by another statue. Storm blasts it, but her blasts get warded off and it lunges out at Storm, missing her but taking down yet another column. Bobby and Jean flee down a stair, but a piece of a column threatens to crush them. Jean takes it away but gets knocked out by some debris. The statue pursues them while a door closes, trapping them with the statue. The fighting finally stops, but with the whole group separated from each other and lost in the ruins./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="e1de4044ae2a24f795680473bb639920"u style="box-sizing: border-box;"-Marigold's Pov-/u/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="4200f3d0b8e7c2be3703ae9a7c149e90"The floor falls apart under us, I feel myself falling through. I look around quickly and see Kitty and Kurt falling beside me. I put a shield around all three of us as we fall, the ground below us quickly approaching. I hear someone shout and I look up to see Colossus falling beside us, and I manage to get a protective shield around him right before we all hit the ground. The bang was so loud my ears were ringing as I dissolve the shields around us. "Like, good catch." Kitty says as she and Kurt slowly stand up. "Are you alright?" I ask Colossus as I run over to him. He nods as he stands up on his own and looks around. "Where are we?" He asks. "If I had to t'vake a gue'vs I v'ould say we are under the tomb." Kurt said looking around. "How do we get out of here? Everyone needs our help above us!" I said, hearing the sounds of fighting continue over our heads. Colossus tries to smash through a wall when suddenly Kitty phases through it. He manages to stop himself in time before he accidentally hits her. Kitty urges him to take it easy; Colossus asks her if she found anything but Kitty says she found nothing. Kurt ports in Marigold and Colossus. and He brings Kitty's communicator with him, which was smashed except the flashlight attached to it. "Well that wont do us any good." Marigold said looking at it. Kitty takes it out and together they go looking for the others./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="8d8512e4a9e5645d751a9fe39e80f868"-u style="box-sizing: border-box;"Upper level of the Tomb-/u/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="b1da8abfe1bc281c4612c78983ddb044""Shadowcat do you read?...anybody?" Beast asks into the communicator. "I can't reach anyone, we need to go find them!" Be said turning to Charles and Magneto. Magneto says they've got more important things to do. Charles agrees, saying they've been trained for it, but he'll give them a telepathic message where to find them. Magneto sees some Hieroglyphics on the wall , and asks Beast if he can read them. Beast responds he can recognize certain signs, and pointing to a spider-shaped one he tells he certainly recognizes Apocalypse's sign. He continues the wall tells about a Pharaoh named that came from the stars with advanced technology, which he used to take control of the also tells about a gray skinned mutant child that was left to die in the desert but was saved by a tribe of thieves. Its leader saw the child's powers and adopted it, giving him the name ''En Sabah Nur, 'The First One'. He developed into an undefeatable warrior. The Pharaoh saw the warrior as a menace to the throne, so he ordered his death. The Pharaoh's army wiped out the tribe, but En Sabah Nur survived, vowed revenge and took the name of continues to translate the Hieroglyphics: they tell him Apocalypse drove away the Pharaoh and found his power source. It was a vessel called 'The Eye of the Ages'. He learnt its secret and wanted to use it to reshape the world after his image. Charles suddenly realizes Apocalypse's objective is to change all humans into mutants. Beast tells Apocalypse entered the vessel, but it drained him from his powers and left him helpless. Apocalypse was betrayed by his servants and locked into the vessel. It was hidden near the highest summits behind three portals, so he could never return. Magneto realizes they're not in Apocalypse's tomb. Charles adds it means they don't even know now where it is./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="5f0165ecf12a14e48a182a69bf4059cd"u style="box-sizing: border-box;"-Lower level of the Tomb-/u/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="64f1135067f842bd8f9b2a90ebdccbf4"Meanwhile, down below the tomb, Kitty's phases through a wall, while Kurt ports himself in. They startled each other, Kitty asks Kurt to look for the Professor above them but he replies he wouldn't leave her alone with 'steel face' (referring to Colossus) since he doesn't trust him. Kitty tells him Colossus is not so bad; he's kind of a 'softie'. "I mean, if Marigold can trust him after he spent time with her and Magneto, why can't we?" Kitty asked. Next moment, Colossus smashes through the wall. He and Marigold both walked through the wall, Marigold looking like she was trying to not laugh at the poor guy. Colossus tells them he was concerned, and Kitty gives Kurt a 'you see?' kind of look. Next moment, Scott and the group blasting through the wall. "Oh, there you guys are!" Marigold said as she and the others ran over to the group. Scott, Jean, Storm, Bobby, Pyro, and Pietro were all accounted for. Another loud bang filled the air and a bunch of statues storm through the wall ready to attack. As Bobby, Scott and Pyro begin to fight them, the others flee. Bobby and Scott retreat while Pietro tug along Pyro, saving him just in time from a blow from one of the robots. "We gotta get back to the Professor! Everyone follow me!" Storm shouted, the group following her and fleeing from the statues./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="aa5703f036d4f2c34d5b4617c139d2f8"u style="box-sizing: border-box;"-Upper level of the Tomb-/u/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="95c1461cb1a3a8a54b3c8bc052b3fed9"Charles, Magneto Beast reach a closed door and are intrigued by it. Magneto breaks it open and sees the vessel. When they approach it, a cryptic code on the vessel lights up and the vessel itself opens up. The three men aboard the craft. Beast recognizes it as the base of the Eye, while Magneto asks where the Eye is. Charles discovers a cerebral interface. He puts it on. Suddenly, Beast receives a 's Wolverine, he tells him they've followed Rogue to Tibet, and that she's there with Mesmero and Mystique. Magneto suddenly understands the reference to the mountains and that Apocalypse must be there./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="5b8b48f89860a2f9663084880cf963e2"u style="box-sizing: border-box;"-Lower level of the tomb-/u/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="50e3f51657f42bb466fd3941c7c249a2"In the lower part of the tomb, the fight's still on: Kitty and Colossus destroy one of the statues in a team effort. The other robot, however, strikes back. But before it can hit Kitty or Colossus Marigold puts a shield around them, and hops on top of another shield. Flying over the statue. Kitty and Colossus watch in amazement as Marigold forms a shield inside the statue, and she expands the shield inside until the whole statue blows up from the inside out. "Man, I'm glad your on our side again." Kitty said as the others in the group keep running. "Look, the statues...they're robots!" Marigold said pointing to the statue that she had destroyed, the insides of the statue were wires and metal. "That doesn't make any since!" Bobby said, sounding confused. "We can focus on details later! Everyone hurry!" Storm commands. The group encounter a closed portal, however, Cyclops blasts a hole through it. They've landed in the hall with the vessel where Beast, Magneto, and Charles are. The robot breaks through the wall, but Magneto slams it into a wall with a magnetic blast. Storm, Cyclops and Pyro take on the robot. Inside the vessel, Charles is still trying to work out how it works. He finds out what it does, and finally how to work it. Storm, Cyclops, Pyro and Magneto combine their powers and manage to blast off one of the robot's leg. Beast urges everybody to board the vessel. As they are doing that, Cyclops also manages to blast off one of the robot's arms."Everyone! Get in the vessel now!" Beast calls as the Professor works on controlling the vessel. The team starts to run into the vessel. Scott's the last one to board the vessel, as he's fighting off the statues with his lasers. Marigold runs over to him, grabbing his arm. "Marigold! You need to go now!" Scott shouts, shooting lasers at the on-coming statues. "Not without you!" Marigold says, wrapping both of them inside one of her shields. She fly's the shield over to the vessel, and once Scott and Marigold are in, Charles closes it. The damaged robot reaches the vessel, but as he tries to crush it, it suddenly disappears. Seconds later, the vessel re-appears in the cave where Apocalypse is. As Wolverine sees Apocalypse glide through the air, he overcomes his amazement and pops out his claws. However, as he tries to jump Apocalypse, some sort of pulse shock throws him back. As the group descends the vessel. Apocalypse comes 'floating' out. While everybody prepares themselves to fight, Apocalypse wipes them all away with another pulse. Only Marigold is left standing as she was able to block the pulse wave by putting up a quick shield around her. Apocalypse stops and stares at the girl. Marigold looks around at everyone else who was knocked away by the man. They had all gotten hit hard, either knocked out completely or dazed. Apocolypse aims another pulse wave at Marigold and the girl, she puts another shield around herself but the pulse was so strong that it sent Marigold flying through the air. She cried out as her shield hit the cave wall. Her shield created a hole in the wall. "There is no way I can take him on my own." She thought to herself as she watched Apocalypse floats towards the vessel, and as he reaches it, Charles and Magneto came round. Magneto tries to stop Apocalypse but gets thrown back by yet another pulse. The vessel disappears. Magneto turns to Charles saying, "We... failed." Charles says, "Yes, our greatest battle is just beginning."/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e" /p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="c0ac9f224ebc4ea301ff17718127bb7b"em style="box-sizing: border-box;""Number 25's powers are developing wonderfully." Julie said with a proud smirk as she stood behind bullet-proof glass. Watching the young girl inside the room fight against armed men. They were taking turns, shooting at the girl. It was training for Marigold to practice her reaction time with her shields. "Yes, it's gotten much better since we have separated it from the other test subjects. No more distractions for it." The doctor standing beside Julie said as he took notes on his computer of Marigold's progress. Julie frowned, remembering how sad Marigold had been when she had been forced to leave the other test subjects, including her friend X-23. How sad the girl had been when she heard that number 24 had killed himself inside his cell. If only she knew everything...if only she knew the truth. "Are we sure that was the best course of action? Wasn't isolation part of the reason number 24 killed himself?" Julie asked turning to the doctor. The room was silent, the only sound in the air was Marigold grunting in pain when a bullet grazed her arm. "There is no way to know for sure." The doctor finally said, "but make sure you don't forget. That thing inside the room...is not a child. Number 25 is a weapon. So we must treat them as such. If we treat it like a human, it will act like a human...if you treat if like a weapon, well-" The doctor said, before gesturing to the glass. Julie looked through it to see Marigold get shot in the shoulder. She cried out and fell to her knees. The shooting didn't stop, and the girl didn't stop putting her shields up either. Julie blinked, shocked as the girl kept deflecting bullets, even as blood started running down her arm. "Treat it like a weapon, and it's one of the most powerful weapons you will ever use." The doctor said with a smile. "The first Winter Solider was a failure, this one will not be." The doctor said with a grin. Julie watched as the experiment continued. She felt something in her heart, it took a few moments for her to place it...but she came up with the word that described the pain in her chest perfectly. 'guilt.'br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /em/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="11e0c1d9ae338911c33ef390917393ff"u style="box-sizing: border-box;"-Present time-/u/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="0d2967c842482ba057d59047cc326910"u style="box-sizing: border-box;"-Xavier Institute, Marigold's Pov-/u/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="cf3c42fbb719f5d057ebec26061ef6f9"It was night time, and everybody was supposed to be asleep in the Institute. As it turned out, someone was roaming around the corridors. This person entered the professor's room, and moments later; a slight groan in pain could be heard coming from his room. Next, the figure goes to Jean's room. She isn't aware there was somebody entering her room and another moan is heard from her room. Kitty gets awoken by another moan, coming from Scott's room. She jumps out of her bed, but as she goes towards her door, somebody opens it. She hides behind the door, and phases through the wall to avoid whoever is coming into her room late at night. She never realizes it's Rogue who enters the room. As she runs over to Scott's room to wake him, she notices he's out cold, and not just sleeping. "Like, what is happening?!" Before she can get help, she falls down to the ground, knocked out. Rogue had followed her, and had absorbed her powers./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="e9726d38a5717a91d63c0ee5f80f78e9"Marigold was tucked away in the library while this was happening, her nightmares keeping her from getting much sleep since her return from being under Magneto's control. She had a book in her hands, but she isn't reading it. Marigold's nightmares are much more haunting then they had been before the Winter Soldier had been woken up in her mind. Most of the time Marigold is able to keep number 25 pushed down, and the Professor has been helping her. But she constantly feels the programming in her mind, fighting for control. And it's exhausting, the girl feels like she can't fall asleep, or she might wake up as 25. Marigold gets pulled from her thoughts when she hears walking behind her. She turns to see Rouge walking up to her. "Oh, hey. What are you doing he-" Marigold's words are cut off as Rogue reaches her hand out to try and touch Marigold's cheek. The girl forms a shield quickly around Rogue's hand and jumps up from the chair she had been sitting in. "Rogue?" Marigold asks, standing in front of the girl in a fighting stance. She looked at the teen in front of her. Rogue's face is blank, Marigold frowns. "What's going on-ah!" Marigold's question ends in a startled scream from the girl as Rogue used Jean's telepathic powers to lift the girl into the air. Marigold starts kicking the air, trying to find a way out of Rogue's hold. "Why are you using Jean's powers?! What is going on Rogue!" Marigold cries out as Rogue reaches her hands out towards Marigold again. Marigold puts a shield around herself for protection, but that proves useless as Rogue uses Kitty's powers to phase through the shield. "Awh, dang it." Marigold says as Rogue reaches her cheek with her hand. Marigold cries out in pain, before falling to the ground. Knocked out./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="26e0e43d59f916d37825f050597d9e23"u style="box-sizing: border-box;"-Logan's Pov, The Next Morning-/u/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="a8e8a2dd8bc1bf947a68f0dc894c765c""Kurt! Wake up! Everyone overslept!" Kitty shouted, with a toothbrush in her mouth as she phased through the wall into Kurt's room (even though the door was open right beside her). Logan watched with a smirk as Kurt groaned. "Ohh, five more miv'ites. I have a killer headav'e" Kurt said slowly sitting up in his bed. "Yea, I woke up with a headache too. It is allergy season though." Kitty said as she left Kurt's room to let him get ready in peace. "Have you seen the baby bird anywhere?" Logan asked Kitty as she ran by. "Nope, I checked her room but it's empty. I think she's the only student who didn't oversleep this morning!" Kitty said as she phased through another wall. Logan huffed and continued walking down the hallway, opting to use his nose to see if he could sniff out where Marigold was hiding. His nose lead him to the library and he found Marigold curled up in one of the chairs, a book in her lap as she slept. Logan sighed and kneeled onto the ground to where he was face to face with the girl and gently shook her shoulder. At first she didn't respond, sleeping on. That worried Logan since the girl was such a light sleeper. But as he continued to shake her shoulder Marigold moaned and slowly opened her eyes. "Logan?" She asked, rubbing her eyes as she sat up. "What time is it?" She asked looking out the window to see the sun was in the sky. "It's 8:15am. Most of the students are getting breakfast. Did you have another nightmare last night?" He asked. Marigold nodded. "I did, then I came here to distract myself with a book..." Marigold trailed off, looking confused as she looked at the book in her lap. "You must have fallen asleep here. Come on, let's go get breakfast before the high school students eat everything." Logan said standing up. Marigold moaned as she stood up, swaying as she stood to her feet. Logan put a steady hand on her shoulder and gave her a concerned look. "Sorry, I have a headache." Marigold said rubbing her eyes. Logan nodded in understanding, "Yea, I think Kitty said something about it being allergy season." He said as the two walked out of the library and made their way to the kitchen. In the kitchen the other students are preparing breakfast. Rogue enters the room, and groans as she leans against the door frame. "You gonna eat anything?" Logan asked, walking in with Marigold. "Nah, I'm not hungry." Rogue said, rubbing her forehead as she leaves the kitchen. "She looked tired." Marigold whispered as she and Logan took seats at the table. "Yea, well we are all tired. I'm so glad today is the last day of school!" Amara said walking over. "Me too, I can't wait to never go back to school." Scott said as he quickly ate his breakfast. "At least you guys don't have to go to summer school." Marigold said with a frown. Because the girl had missed so much school while number 25 had been using her body, Marigold had to play catch up with her school work so that she could go up a grade with her friends, and not fall behind. Fortunately the middle school principal had been very understanding of Marigolds situation and just thought that Xavier had been keeping her at Xavier for her safety. Marigold, and the other teachers at Xavier Institute were willing to let the principle think that if it meant Marigold could take classes during the summer and not be held back a grade due to missing too much school. "Are you excited about meeting White Wolf today?" Jean asked Marigold as the woman sat down at the table beside her, a bowl of cereal in her hands. "I guess...I'm nervous. I just don't know what to expect." Marigold admitted as she ate her own breakfast. White Wolf, formerly known as the first Winter Soldier, aka. Bucky Barns was scheduled to come visit the institute today. Specifically, to visit Marigold. The Professor and the other teachers were hoping that Bucky might have a way to help the young girl with everything she had been dealing with for the past few months. "I've heard he can be pretty intimidating, but I wouldn't sweat it too much." Rahne said as she sat on the other side of Marigold, the Scottish girl leaned over to whisper in Marigold's ear. "If you can make a softy out of Logan, you can make a softy out of anyone." Marigold blushed as Rahne giggled, turning back to her own food. "Hurry up everyone! We need to go now or we will be late for our last day!" Scott called as he walked out of the kitchen. All the high school students started running around faster, stuffing food into their faces as they ran off to school. Marigold couldn't help but think back to when she first started attending Xavier institute, before she had been allowed to go to school, watching everyone go off and live their normal lives. While she was stuck inside the mansion. "Come on Marigold." the girl was pulled from her spiraling thoughts as Beast entered the kitchen. "Let's get ourselves ready for our guest." Marigold agreed, taking her dishes and cleaning up after herself, before following Beast out of the kitchen./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="61247ae82593c903ad9c47b29d6b5191"u style="box-sizing: border-box;"-Professor's Pov-/u/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="12ad49c3a3845974136f34927d08b186""Thank you for coming Bucky." I said as the White Wolf himself walked through the front doors of the mansion. "I only wish I could have been here sooner. I was on a S.H.I.E.L.D mission that went on about three more months than it was supposed too, but you know how it is." I nodded, "I'm only grateful that you have agreed to come at all. I can't imagine this will bring up any pleasant memories for you." Bucky only shook his head as the two of us walked down the hallways of the Institute. "When I first heard of what was going on, I was surprised that...that I wasn't surprised. It's very on brand for HYDRA to try and re-create the winter soldier...but a kid, man that hit different." He said, not making eye contact with me, but instead looking around the building as we made our way to my office where everyone was waiting. "Yes, but I'm hopeful that this meeting will help, you can share how you were able to wipe the programing from your mind, and how you dealt with the ramifications of what HYDRA made you do...I'm hoping that seeing your success, will give Marigold hope for the future."/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="78be2ade97a0a4b84449a3dedde67200"u style="box-sizing: border-box;"-Marigold Pov-/u/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="685cb85097075676218628afed6d678d"I was sitting in the Professor's office with Beast, Ororo, and Logan. I pulled my glasses from my nose, wiping them against my shirt to clean them, again. It was a nervous tick I had developed. Ororo was sitting beside me on the couch, her hand rested on my shoulder as the door opened. The Professor rolled in, and behind him was Bucky. I felt a shiver run up my spine so strongly that I stood up, facing the man whose eyes slowly looked around the room before landing on me. "You must be Marigold." He said, his voice soft, softer than I imagined it would be. He smiled, but it was forced, making his face look funny. "You must be the White Wolf." I said stepping forward. "You can call me Bucky..." He looked lost for words as I walked up to him. I had been rehearsing what I was going to say to him in my mind, but now that he was here, the words were stuck in my mouth. I felt a hand gently rest on my back and I turned to see the Professor, giving me an encouraging grin. I took a deep breath and turned to Bucky again. "I wanted to tell you that...that I don't blame you for any misfortune in my life. Just because you were able to escape HYDRA, doesn't mean that you were the reason I was...created to become the next Winter Soldier...I-uh," I nervously stumbled over my words as Bucky kneeled in front of me, our eyes level with each other. Everything suddenly felt so much more...intimate. "I know that I've felt like I've needed to ask for forgiveness, for things that Number 25 did...I don't want you to feel like you have to do that for me...I understand, maybe more than anyone else could. That this," I said gesturing to myself, "isn't your fault." It was silent. No one said anything in the room, the other adults besides Bucky shocked with how direct Marigold had been, the shy girl coming out of her shell for the tortured man. Bucky looked just as shocked, but for different reasons. The man slowly pulled me into a hug, his vibranium and flesh arm wrapping around me. I felt the cold metal wrap around me, but it didn't bring me fear. I let it happen, resting my head on Bucky's shoulder. He understood, finally, someone who understood. "Thank you," Bucky said, his voice soft, as if trying to fight of tears. "Just...thank you."br style="box-sizing: border-box;" / /p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="66f3e8c9c70a2f9215c69cf770829f47"The grownups and Marigold spent the next few hours talking about a large variety of things. Marigold retold a lot of her experiences in the Facility, (making Logan growl with anger on many occasions) Bucky talking about things that seemed different with Marigold's experiences compared to he's, how Bucky dealt with the nightmares and guilt of it all, (giving Marigold some tips on how to fall back asleep after a nightmare) and Bucky told everyone about how he had found permanent healing from the programing in his mind in Wakanda. At some point during the conversation Beast had moved Marigold into his lap, and Marigold had taken to brushing her fingers through the fur on his arm. As the adults started talking about the more technical (and boring) parts of Bucky's recovery Marigold tuned out. Her mind tired from all the emotional vulnerability she had been practicing, and her body tired from the poor nights of sleep she had been experiencing since her return from being under Magneto's control. Beast noticed that Marigold's hand had stopped brushing through his fur and he looked down to see the girl had fallen asleep in his arms, her head resting against his furry chest. His heart swelled, and he smiled as Ororo noticed the youngest had fallen asleep. "You have that effect on her," She whispered, leaning over to brush some of the hair out of her face. "It's the fur." I whispered, watching as Marigold found rest. "I would guess that this will be the first peaceful rest Marigold has had in a long time." The Professor said turning to Bucky, who was looking at the girl with an unreadable face. "Thanks to you." Bucky shook his head. "She's a great girl, she doesn't deserve any of this." Bucky said with a frown. "She doesn't, but we're here now. And we are going to do everything we can to help her." Logan said standing by the window, watching as storm clouds were starting to form in the sky. "You really think the doctors at Wakanda can help her, like they helped you?" Logan asked, sounding unsure. "I know they can. A young girl there named Shuri...she is a genius. If anyone can do it, it's her." Bucky said, sure of himself, his eyes not leaving Marigold as she slept on blissfully. "Well the other students will be returning from school soon, and you can stay if you like. But don't feel like you have to." The Professor said turning to Bucky. "No offense to your students, but I think I should head out. Steve is expecting me at his place tonight." Bucky said standing up. "I hate for you to leave without saying goodbye to Marigold, but I'm sure you will meet again...and she hasn't been sleeping well with her nightmares. Anytime she is able to fall asleep, we let her sleep." Ororo said standing up and shaking Bucky's flesh hand. "Tell her I'll come by again when I have a chance, and I'll have my people in Wakanda contact you all. I'm sure they wouldn't mind one of you coming with her while she goes through treatments." Logan nodded, knowing that The professor would be looking into Wakanda more, and that if they did decide to send Marigold there, one of the teachers would be going with her. The teachers left Beast with Marigold, the blue man not willing to move in risk of disturbing Marigold's slumber. Bucky nodded in understanding, and left after saying his goodbyes to the Xavier teachers. "Looks like a storm is coming." The Professor said looking up at the grey sky as Bucky drove away on his motorcycle. "Seems so." Ororo said with a smirk, "I'll make sure that Bucky is able to avoid the worst of the storm on his way to his friend...it's the least we can do."/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="1e1311dee89b0be906ae12e88ed3756f"u style="box-sizing: border-box;"-Later that Night-/u/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="3030b3d878a2a53c5252072357e44060"Later in the evening, it started to rain, and as Ororo looked outside, she assured Jean it wouldn't rain on her Graduation. Jean's told Ororo that she was grateful for that. Xavier enters the room with Marigold riding the back of his wheelchair. She hops off the wheelchair and walks over to Scott who is sitting in front of the fire with Beast. The girl sits beside him and Scott smiled, putting his arm over the girls shoulder and pulling her into his side. The atmosphere is peaceful as The Professor brings up the subject on Jean's choices for the future. Jean confirms she's been accepted into several universities, and that's she's thinking of going into medicine or genetics. It seems a good choice to Xavier. "What do you want to do after school Scott?" Marigold asks the boy. "I'm not sure yet. I'm still thinking about things." He says with a bit of a frown. Marigold doesn't push it, and instead pulls out a book that the two have been reading together and Scott smiles, taking it from her hands and flipping through the pages till they get to where they had left off. Scott started reading out loud, and Marigold smiles as she listens. After her talk with Bucky, it was like a weight was lifted off of her shoulder. He had been healed of his conditioning with HYDRA, and it gave her hope that she could too./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="8dccd82ddf9b5a467387c787ade58ac6"u style="box-sizing: border-box;"-The Next Day, Graduation/Bayville high-/u/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="406e6eada1c18ba7c1aa2e20e054bca1"It's the next day and Graduation's about to begin. Jean and Scott are in their graduation robes, talking about the nice weather when Jean's family arrives. Scott tells Jean he'll see her at the ceremony. Marigold is sitting in the stands with the other Xavier students beside Ororo and Kitty. She looked around nervously, noting that none of her friends from middle school were present, she couldn't tell if she was happy or upset about the fact. She was eager to see her friends again, but she wasn't sure what they would all think now that they knew she was a mutant. But the thoughts leave her mind when the ceremony begins, Principle Kelly starts a speech. Present among the crowd is Pietro: he's watching Rogue. As Kelly's speech begins to go bad em style="box-sizing: border-box;"(read: anti-mutant rant)/em, he stops. He's just seen Magneto, the Acolytes and the Brotherhood entering the grounds. "Like, what are they doing here?!" Kitty asks in anger. All of them are in their fighting uniforms, only drawing more attention to them as they walk out onto the football field. People begin to panic, Kelly tries to calm them down, "Everyone please try to exit the field as quickly and safely as possible!" but nobody's listening anymore. Rogue flees but Pietro stops her and brings her to Magneto. He holds her in place by surrounding her with iron chairs. Mesmero's there too, looking on from under the stands. Marigold and the other Xavier students run out onto the football field to protect everyone as they flee to safety. The Professor asks for an explanation, Magneto answers Rogue's attacked them under Mesmero's control. When The Professor asks him to prove it, Magneto says his security cameras recorded everything. Then, Rogue flies into the air and hurls the chairs against the mutants. Most chairs miss or get warded off, but Kitty and Kurt get knocked down. Marigold is able to block any chairs from hitting her with her shields, and protects her fellow students from getting hit with some as well. Rogue flies off. Kelly was narrowly missed by one of the chairs, and now he flies into a frantic anti-mutant rant. The professor's the first one to react: he orders Logan to follow Rogue. Magneto orders Sabertooth and Gambit to help him. Logan refuses, but Charles says there's too much at stake. Both Wolverine and Sabertooth growl at each other. Moments later, the three are off on their motorcycles after Rogue. "What are we going to do Professor?" Marigold asks. "We are going to find Rogue, and get to the bottom of this." He said, turning to Magneto, "If we are going to be working together, I need proof that you will not try bring out number 25 from inside Marigold's mind again." He said. Magneto frowned. "Fine, too much is at stake right now for me to try and get my soldier back...here." Magneto said, pulling out a leather notebook from under his cape, handing it over to the Professor. Marigold recognized it when she saw the HYDRA symbol on the front and frowned. "I have her commands memorized, but consider this a peace offering of sorts." Magneto offered. "This works for now, let's get back to the Institute and figure out what exactly is going on." The Professor said, pocketing the leather notebook./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="01d0662f34af130623e24849e7278e28"u style="box-sizing: border-box;"-The Xavier Institute-/u/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="c430ce7ee0a0ff4562804c2eaa6d8f0a"Charles and Magneto are walking through the corridors under the institute. Charles tells Magneto the odds: they'll have to find Rogue and stop her from getting the third key or, Magneto knows the alternative: finding the portal and defending it. He tells Charles that the only way to succeed is to form a team with their most experienced members. Charles tells Magneto he'll have to use a mental block to stop Mesmero from taking over anybody. As they arrive in the , says he hasn't found anything on in em style="box-sizing: border-box;"Ancient Egypt/em. Magneto tells him to search under Apocalypse's real name: EN Sabah Nur. Meanwhile, in the upper floors the Institute, Beast found files about Apocalypse. And as it seems he was at Giseh, some 5000 years ago, they assume his tomb's there. But they don't know exactly where. Magneto tells them Mesmero's the one who knows the answer, and Charles suggests he'll be able to read Mesmero's mind. Moments later, Charles thinks he's got it. Somewhat later, we see them in Cerebro. Charles tells them he'll use Cerebro to interpret the images from Mesmero's mind. Having attempted that, Charles thinks he knows where to find the Tomb of Apocalypse. The Professor puts on Cerebro's helmet and uses the machine to find the tomb, moments later he gasps, pulling the helmet off of his head. "I've...I think I've found it." Magneto nods, "Alright, let's get everyone together and go now. We don't have much time to waste." Everyone agrees and the Professor telepathically called, Kitty, Jean, Scott, Storm, Kurt, Bobby, and Marigold to get in their X-men uniforms and to meet at the X-jet. They were going to Egypt./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="bcc880f8277cca0ea92357990d6b51c5"u style="box-sizing: border-box;"-Great Sphinx Tomb-/u/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="18ff00515996656678a310601b8289a1"The X-jet touches down next to the Great Sphinx. Moments later, the team assembles. Beast prepares with an oxygen mask and a lamp, while Charles briefs Kitty: she's looking for an underground room. Kitty then phases halfway into the ground. She kind of dives into the ground and ends up in an underground room. She takes a fright from what she sees there (all kinds of statues), then radios she's there. Beast asks her to look for a lever. She finds and activates it. In front of the Sphinx, a large hole opens up in the ground, in which a stairway forms. While the team descends the stairs, Kitty takes off her mask and waits for them. When they arrive in the room, Magneto orders to light the torches, which he does. While everybody looks around, Kurt approaches Kitty and tells her he finds the place interesting. Kitty snaps back that he wasn't down there alone. She walks away, and as she leaves Kurt, who's obviously surprised by Kitty's reaction, one of the statues behind him begins to stir. Kurt only notices that when small pebbles begin to fall to the ground. He screams, and the others notice that all the statues around them are beginning to move. Then, behind them, the door starts to close. The team realizes they've walked straight into a trap. The torches die down as the door closes and the team is trapped in darkness. "Dang it, we walked right into a trap!" Marigold says as Pyro re-lights the torches that were put out, showing the group that the statues around them were moving to attack. The battle begins. Cyclopes dodges one of the statues' attacks and begins blasting it, but it doesn't yield a result. The statue strikes again, bringing down a column, which narrowly misses Cyclops. It almost crushes Kitty, but Marigold saves her by covering the girl with one of her shields. The next moment, the floor gives way and Kit, Colossus, Kurt, and Marigold fall down through a hole, losing the group. Another part of the floor descends with Scott, Pietro and Pyro, also separating them. Meanwhile Beast takes on another statue attacking them, but it almost hits him. He clings onto a column, which is brought down moments later. He jumps clear, but Charles' wheelchair is knocked over by debris, Charles lands on the floor. It gives way but Magneto manages to save him by lifting Charles's wheelchair into the air. As Jean rescues Bobby from a collapse, they're confronted by another statue. Storm blasts it, but her blasts get warded off and it lunges out at Storm, missing her but taking down yet another column. Bobby and Jean flee down a stair, but a piece of a column threatens to crush them. Jean takes it away but gets knocked out by some debris. The statue pursues them while a door closes, trapping them with the statue. The fighting finally stops, but with the whole group separated from each other and lost in the ruins./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="e1de4044ae2a24f795680473bb639920"u style="box-sizing: border-box;"-Marigold's Pov-/u/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="4200f3d0b8e7c2be3703ae9a7c149e90"The floor falls apart under us, I feel myself falling through. I look around quickly and see Kitty and Kurt falling beside me. I put a shield around all three of us as we fall, the ground below us quickly approaching. I hear someone shout and I look up to see Colossus falling beside us, and I manage to get a protective shield around him right before we all hit the ground. The bang was so loud my ears were ringing as I dissolve the shields around us. "Like, good catch." Kitty says as she and Kurt slowly stand up. "Are you alright?" I ask Colossus as I run over to him. He nods as he stands up on his own and looks around. "Where are we?" He asks. "If I had to t'vake a gue'vs I v'ould say we are under the tomb." Kurt said looking around. "How do we get out of here? Everyone needs our help above us!" I said, hearing the sounds of fighting continue over our heads. Colossus tries to smash through a wall when suddenly Kitty phases through it. He manages to stop himself in time before he accidentally hits her. Kitty urges him to take it easy; Colossus asks her if she found anything but Kitty says she found nothing. Kurt ports in Marigold and Colossus. and He brings Kitty's communicator with him, which was smashed except the flashlight attached to it. "Well that wont do us any good." Marigold said looking at it. Kitty takes it out and together they go looking for the others./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="8d8512e4a9e5645d751a9fe39e80f868"-u style="box-sizing: border-box;"Upper level of the Tomb-/u/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="b1da8abfe1bc281c4612c78983ddb044""Shadowcat do you read?...anybody?" Beast asks into the communicator. "I can't reach anyone, we need to go find them!" Be said turning to Charles and Magneto. Magneto says they've got more important things to do. Charles agrees, saying they've been trained for it, but he'll give them a telepathic message where to find them. Magneto sees some Hieroglyphics on the wall , and asks Beast if he can read them. Beast responds he can recognize certain signs, and pointing to a spider-shaped one he tells he certainly recognizes Apocalypse's sign. He continues the wall tells about a Pharaoh named that came from the stars with advanced technology, which he used to take control of the also tells about a gray skinned mutant child that was left to die in the desert but was saved by a tribe of thieves. Its leader saw the child's powers and adopted it, giving him the name ''En Sabah Nur, 'The First One'. He developed into an undefeatable warrior. The Pharaoh saw the warrior as a menace to the throne, so he ordered his death. The Pharaoh's army wiped out the tribe, but En Sabah Nur survived, vowed revenge and took the name of continues to translate the Hieroglyphics: they tell him Apocalypse drove away the Pharaoh and found his power source. It was a vessel called 'The Eye of the Ages'. He learnt its secret and wanted to use it to reshape the world after his image. Charles suddenly realizes Apocalypse's objective is to change all humans into mutants. Beast tells Apocalypse entered the vessel, but it drained him from his powers and left him helpless. Apocalypse was betrayed by his servants and locked into the vessel. It was hidden near the highest summits behind three portals, so he could never return. Magneto realizes they're not in Apocalypse's tomb. Charles adds it means they don't even know now where it is./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="5f0165ecf12a14e48a182a69bf4059cd"u style="box-sizing: border-box;"-Lower level of the Tomb-/u/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="64f1135067f842bd8f9b2a90ebdccbf4"Meanwhile, down below the tomb, Kitty's phases through a wall, while Kurt ports himself in. They startled each other, Kitty asks Kurt to look for the Professor above them but he replies he wouldn't leave her alone with 'steel face' (referring to Colossus) since he doesn't trust him. Kitty tells him Colossus is not so bad; he's kind of a 'softie'. "I mean, if Marigold can trust him after he spent time with her and Magneto, why can't we?" Kitty asked. Next moment, Colossus smashes through the wall. He and Marigold both walked through the wall, Marigold looking like she was trying to not laugh at the poor guy. Colossus tells them he was concerned, and Kitty gives Kurt a 'you see?' kind of look. Next moment, Scott and the group blasting through the wall. "Oh, there you guys are!" Marigold said as she and the others ran over to the group. Scott, Jean, Storm, Bobby, Pyro, and Pietro were all accounted for. Another loud bang filled the air and a bunch of statues storm through the wall ready to attack. As Bobby, Scott and Pyro begin to fight them, the others flee. Bobby and Scott retreat while Pietro tug along Pyro, saving him just in time from a blow from one of the robots. "We gotta get back to the Professor! Everyone follow me!" Storm shouted, the group following her and fleeing from the statues./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="aa5703f036d4f2c34d5b4617c139d2f8"u style="box-sizing: border-box;"-Upper level of the Tomb-/u/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="95c1461cb1a3a8a54b3c8bc052b3fed9"Charles, Magneto Beast reach a closed door and are intrigued by it. Magneto breaks it open and sees the vessel. When they approach it, a cryptic code on the vessel lights up and the vessel itself opens up. The three men aboard the craft. Beast recognizes it as the base of the Eye, while Magneto asks where the Eye is. Charles discovers a cerebral interface. He puts it on. Suddenly, Beast receives a 's Wolverine, he tells him they've followed Rogue to Tibet, and that she's there with Mesmero and Mystique. Magneto suddenly understands the reference to the mountains and that Apocalypse must be there./p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="5b8b48f89860a2f9663084880cf963e2"u style="box-sizing: border-box;"-Lower level of the tomb-/u/p
p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; font-size: 18px; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; padding: 0px;" data-p-id="50e3f51657f42bb466fd3941c7c249a2"In the lower part of the tomb, the fight's still on: Kitty and Colossus destroy one of the statues in a team effort. The other robot, however, strikes back. But before it can hit Kitty or Colossus Marigold puts a shield around them, and hops on top of another shield. Flying over the statue. Kitty and Colossus watch in amazement as Marigold forms a shield inside the statue, and she expands the shield inside until the whole statue blows up from the inside out. "Man, I'm glad your on our side again." Kitty said as the others in the group keep running. "Look, the statues...they're robots!" Marigold said pointing to the statue that she had destroyed, the insides of the statue were wires and metal. "That doesn't make any since!" Bobby said, sounding confused. "We can focus on details later! Everyone hurry!" Storm commands. The group encounter a closed portal, however, Cyclops blasts a hole through it. They've landed in the hall with the vessel where Beast, Magneto, and Charles are. The robot breaks through the wall, but Magneto slams it into a wall with a magnetic blast. Storm, Cyclops and Pyro take on the robot. Inside the vessel, Charles is still trying to work out how it works. He finds out what it does, and finally how to work it. Storm, Cyclops, Pyro and Magneto combine their powers and manage to blast off one of the robot's leg. Beast urges everybody to board the vessel. As they are doing that, Cyclops also manages to blast off one of the robot's arms."Everyone! Get in the vessel now!" Beast calls as the Professor works on controlling the vessel. The team starts to run into the vessel. Scott's the last one to board the vessel, as he's fighting off the statues with his lasers. Marigold runs over to him, grabbing his arm. "Marigold! You need to go now!" Scott shouts, shooting lasers at the on-coming statues. "Not without you!" Marigold says, wrapping both of them inside one of her shields. She fly's the shield over to the vessel, and once Scott and Marigold are in, Charles closes it. The damaged robot reaches the vessel, but as he tries to crush it, it suddenly disappears. Seconds later, the vessel re-appears in the cave where Apocalypse is. As Wolverine sees Apocalypse glide through the air, he overcomes his amazement and pops out his claws. However, as he tries to jump Apocalypse, some sort of pulse shock throws him back. As the group descends the vessel. Apocalypse comes 'floating' out. While everybody prepares themselves to fight, Apocalypse wipes them all away with another pulse. Only Marigold is left standing as she was able to block the pulse wave by putting up a quick shield around her. Apocalypse stops and stares at the girl. Marigold looks around at everyone else who was knocked away by the man. They had all gotten hit hard, either knocked out completely or dazed. Apocolypse aims another pulse wave at Marigold and the girl, she puts another shield around herself but the pulse was so strong that it sent Marigold flying through the air. She cried out as her shield hit the cave wall. Her shield created a hole in the wall. "There is no way I can take him on my own." She thought to herself as she watched Apocalypse floats towards the vessel, and as he reaches it, Charles and Magneto came round. Magneto tries to stop Apocalypse but gets thrown back by yet another pulse. The vessel disappears. Magneto turns to Charles saying, "We... failed." Charles says, "Yes, our greatest battle is just beginning."/p
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