Chapter 13: Apocalypse Emerges

Paris lay quiet under low nighttime clouds. Cars maneuvered through the streets, citizens left and entered buildings, all with unusual silence. The flight from the mansion had been quiet and uneventful – the students were not thrilled about being left alone, and the younger X-Men were naturally terrified (though they hid it well), but everyone had a grim sense of purpose that made them sit calmly through the flight. Sabere felt a little better – whatever Jean had done last night had given her the best sleep she'd had in weeks – but didn't feel at all up to battle. They'd sent a message to SHIELD and gotten no response, which didn't surprise anyone. They were in this alone. Kitty's leg jiggled nervously, and Kurt constantly toyed with his rosary beads. Storm and Scott guided the jet over the city, not bothering to conceal their presence, and partly hoping to scare citizens away.

"Charles, there are too many people here," Storm murmured from the controls. "Children will be asleep, and no one knows it's coming…" The jet set down silently in an eastern neighborhood. The few Parisians who were walking outdoors at this hour stared in horror for a few moments, then ran the other way.

"It shouldn't be too difficult…" Xavier put a hand to his temple and closed his eyes. After a minute or so he looked back up. "Most of the citizens of Paris are now convinced that they are under nuclear attack and should leave the city as quickly and calmly as possible. The military is on its way in."

"Is that a good idea?" Scott asked.

"Are you going to turn down the assistance?"

"But if they're killed…" Sabere thought it was very unlike Xavier to bring in humans to die for a war that wasn't theirs, but she supposed it was just a test. Besides, if the human military did manage to help them, they'd certainly come in handy later…

"We're doing what needs to be done," Logan agreed.

As he spoke, several cars pulled out from driveways and side alleys and pealed away for the main roads. Xavier smiled a little. "Let's get situated, then, shall we?"

Xavier remained behind in the jet, prepared to take off either to save himself or pick up the others. Cyclops and Storm led two teams down the slowly emptying streets, one group drifting north, the other heading south. Sabere tried not to notice when Nightcrawler followed the other group. By the time she gathered the courage to look back over her shoulder at him, he had disappeared against the night sky.

Over the din of departing motorists and chattering families, she could hear the distant rumble of tanks and helicopters. Two Black Hawks thundered past overhead.

"Earpieces, everybody," Scott reminded them as they watched the city empty. "We're not leaving anyone behind, and I'm guessing we're going to be pretty spread-out."

Cars streaked past them, heading out of the city, and a few civilians ran in and out of doors, calling quietly to family to hurry and move. Xavier's plan was working, but only a small percentage had actually left. Plus, they were on the outskirts – most of the interior would not be able to get out for a while. In the next block over, Sabere caught a glimpse of a lone tank trundling towards the center of the city.

"You know, France has never won a war," Beast said unhelpfully.

Block after block fell behind them with no sign of Apocalypse or the Horsemen. Sabere looked up at the brownish sky, down streets, into open courtyards – nothing. A few tanks and helicopters passed them, but there were no visible soldiers. The city's inhabitants were still vacating, but no one gave the X-Men a second glance. Xavier's doing, Sabere guessed, since the appearance of black-leather-clad strangers, two of them blue, would not ease a frantic city's tension.

"Who the hell invades at night, anyway…" Rogue muttered, apparently trying to comfort herself. Beast started to answer, but the southern sky lit up –

A blue sun rose in the south, spreading brighter and brighter across the city, then flashed and disappeared. The five stood uneasily, waiting for a sign –

Logan held up a hand. "Hear that?"

The others waited. Soon they could hear it too – a low rumbling, vibrating out across the street from the middle of the city. It grew louder –

A shaft of blue light exploded upwards from the center of Paris with all the force of a volcano. The X-Men were thrown to the ground as the city streets shook and cracked. The evacuating civilians screamed. The light shone glaring up into the night sky, an immovable beacon. Screams radiated around it. Beast took off running on all fours, and without a word the other X-Men followed behind, dodging civilians. Fires and smoke swirled around the blue beacon – the Horsemen were already at work. Cannon fire echoed through the streets, with the fainter rattle of machine guns in concert.

They passed the last building and found chaos. The beacon stood horrifyingly immovable in the middle of the street. Eight tanks were already clustered around the perimeter, firing with no effect on the three figures standing around the beacon. One was clearly Magneto, but he didn't even move as shells and bullets clustered into a dome over him and his two companions. Nightcrawler was already among them, oblivious to the danger, teleporting in and out, slashing and kicking, but a blast of fire threw him into the shadows of the street. Sabere didn't wait for a plan – she flung herself into the air, lifting a car with her, and flung it at Pyro. It would have been a direct hit, but of course Magneto caught it and threw it back. Sabere's shield blocked the car, but she couldn't hold herself, and slammed backwards into an apartment. Stunned, she slumped to the ground. She looked up just in time to see Colossus brace himself in front of her – and Pyro's fire slammed against him.

But he was totally unharmed – the fire licked around him for a few moments, then vanished. Colossus stood proudly, arms out, metallic skin glowing red-hot. "Go," he said calmly, and Sabere took off running for cover, dodging around buildings and across unfamiliar streets still full of panicked citizens. Too many people…Sabere was torn between wanting to attack Apocalypse, their goal, and making sure they had clear ground to do that…

Magneto took the opportunity to deal with the military. He raised one hand, and all eight tanks compressed on themselves into square-foot blocks of metal. Sabere couldn't contain a gasp of horror, but before he could turn to the helicopters, Beast and Iceman were on him. Sabere got to her feet and scooped up one of the blocks telekinetically, straining more than usual because of its density.

Cyclops appeared alongside her, shouted something about Mystique, and fired at a whirling figure down the block. She almost gasped – it was Mystique, but something had happened to her – she was taller, lither, her skin totally black, and she moved with speed and grace that exceeded even Nightcrawler. She dodged Cyclops's blasts with stunning ease, and she was almost upon them by the time Sabere hurled the cube and caught her directly in the shoulder. Her shoulder snapped backwards, but she didn't even cry as she fell back, her spine broken too – she fell, rolled back to her feet, bones cracking back into place, and launched herself at them.

move!

Black arms reformed themselves into sharp spikes, and Sabere telekinetically shoved Cyclops to the side while she ducked. Mystique flew over her head, but one arm dipped just enough to dig a fiery line across her back. She screamed despite herself, and the sound threw the battle into absolute madness.

She stuggled to her feet to call for backup, but before she could touch her earpiece a painful screech blasted through it – the screech of twisting metal, amplified and pumped into her ear – Magneto was messing with the circuits –

She flung the device into the street, her ear ringing. Luckily, Mystique had moved on, and Sabere dropped behind a crashed car to find an escape.

There was never time to even think about a strategy. The Horsemen were ruthless, and even though the odds should have favored the X-Men, their three enemies had powers the X-Men could not begin to match. Plus, they were spreading out, separating them. Sabere, already exhausted, tagged along after Magneto, trying to stay out of sight, waiting to catch him off his guard. She caught up with them in the intersection right next to Apocalypse's light – Cyclops, Jean, and Beast challenged him in an open intersection. A line of soldiers with machine guns was promptly and effortlessly slaughtered by Magneto – except for one. The lone soldier stood up, eyes surprisingly bold. To Sabere's surprise, he waved a hand and flung a barrage of sharp metal debris at Magneto. Magneto halted the attack with only a smirk, but the soldier did not back down. The X-Men and the two combatants just stood for a moment, everyone waiting for something. Suddenly blue bars of light shot up out of the ground, wrapped around the mutant soldier, and with a brilliant flash, he vanished.

She thought wildly at Jean, trying to figure out what was going on.

/It's happening all over the city,/ she heard in response. /I think Apocalypse is taking prisoners./

Sabere shuddered. It would make sense for Apocalypse to capture mutants rather than annihilate them all – but it certainly raised the stakes for the X-men. She climbed through the broken window of an apartment building and ran up the stairs to the top floor, where she had an excellent view of the combat below. The beacon shone straight up past her window, infinitely up into the sky. Cold panic hovered in her mind, but she pushed it aside and peered cautiously out the window, taking stock of the room's contents and trying to make a plan. Why was everything metal? Maybe she could distract him somehow –

"Good evening."

An amazingly handsome and completely naked man was standing next to the couch. She stared at him, her mind blank. Prisoners? Battle? That didn't matter He was gorgeous, and just standing there, waiting for her…what a relief…someone to help her…

The man stepped forward and embraced her, and Sabere nearly laughed with relief, caught in a blissful fog that washed away all her fears. It was all over, she was safe! He would protect her…

Then something that was not an arm wrapped around her waist…something cold and metallic…

The mind-numbing illusion vanished and Sabere stared up into the red eyes. The grey skin stretched in a huge, maniacal smile as he stepped back, a metallic tentacle extending from his hand, wrapped tightly around her waist.

She reached for her knife as the tentacle twitched and flung her out the window.

The grinning gray face disappeared as she flew past the beacon, over the street and smashed into the concrete facing of the building across the street. She felt ribs crack – possibly the concrete – and found herself dazed and falling six stories to the street.

Wham. She landed on her shoulder and nearly passed out as it dislocated. She lay stunned on her back. Rubble rained down around her as the street shook with more tremors. Panic seized her and she hastily focused for her injuries, gathering the strength she needed to heal – Apocalypse was out on the street, he was coming back – she couldn't move – everything hurt –

There – four cracked ribs, a fractured pelvis, and her shoulder. Healing energy lit up the fractures as she hastily knitted bone back together. The beacons flashed brighter than the sun and the sounds of battle increased – Apocalypse had come. She rolled over, gasping in pain – her shoulder – she forgot her shoulder.

BOOM – a car landed directly in front of her, and the explosion of fuel and concrete knocked her back into the building as new pain shot through her shoulder. Sabere moved it tentatively – the blast had knocked it back into place. She ran towards the beacon as the building collapsed behind her.

The X-Men had rallied together, and to her relief Mystique seemed to be gone. A figure lay crumpled to the side, but she had no time to see who it was – Magneto had finally decided to take advantage of Wolverine and Colossus. Wolverine screamed in frustration as his claws swung out of control toward Beast; Colossus took a shot from Cyclops that barely deflected him when Magneto flung him at Rogue. Taking advantage of the blinding light of the hated beacon, Sabere scooped up a shard of glass and sprinted unseen towards Magneto. Two steps away from him she gathered all her powers and thrust the shard into the back of his neck, ignoring the deep cut into her own hand – Magneto roared in pain and dropped his tools. Suddenly something sliced up across her thigh, cutting deep – her own knife danced away from her as she collapsed. Magneto stood over her, silhouetted against the beacon, waiting to deliver the killing stroke.

Then, suddenly, she was alone. She sat up and saw the other X-Men, equally bewildered, with no sign of the Horsemen.

Apocalypse strode alone out of the beacon.

He was instantly barraged by any and all attacks the X-Men could muster. He stood immovable, grinning, as projectiles and lightning and blasts of energy stopped inches away. The red eyes turned to her.

Thank you.

He had stolen her shields! She lunged to her feet, electrified with fury, but before she could take a step and chunk of rubble lifted from the ground and caught her in the chest. She landed hard several feet down the street – and regained awareness just in time to roll away from a barrage of lightning that spit out of the sky at her.

"Storm!"

"I'm not doing it! He's mimicking - !" Her cry was cut short as a massive explosion shook the city again. Sabere clambered to her feet, watching – lightning pitted the streets with gaping holes, pipes burst, and gas line explosions rose throughout Paris. She saw Storm rise into the air, surrounded by swirling dust and light, and called lightning down on Apocalypse. Of course, it never reached him – this time, he stretched out a massive blue hand and caught it. It gathered it into a ball that glowed as intensely as his beacon, flashing erratically over his demonic face, growing and growing… That's a bomb, she realized grimly, and Jean had the same idea.

/Cover!/ Sabere shook her head – there would be no way to escape from this – but before she could even think about hiding, Apocalypse threw his lightning down the street –

The already crumbling building next to her had taken enough, and as she fell under the shock wave as the entire structure collapsed –

She used the last of her strength to curl into a ball and shield herself as tons of limestone and wood thundered down upon her.

-----

Sabere was still buried when she woke. She fought panic – they just haven't found you – they're coming – they're not dead they're not dead –

But still she worried, even as she tried to push chunks of concrete away. Either the rest of the team was still fighting, or something had happened and no one would come for her. She lay still for a moment and listened. The city – or what was left of it – was horribly quiet around her. No sounds of conflict, no screams of pain, no more collapsing buildings. They're gone – we've lost –

"Here – she's under here." Jean's voice penetrated the rubble around her.

"Sabere? Can you hear me?" Scott shouted. Sabere was exhausted, but managed to shout up in reply.

"Don't move. I'm going to blast away some of the rubble."

Great. She curled up as well as she could and covered her head with her hands. It wouldn't do any good against Scott's beams, but she was far too tired to build any kind of shield.

The air around her shone red and hot as Scott's beams fired over the surface. More dust rose as chunks of stone rocketed off of her. The beacon was gone, and the remnants of the city were black and shrouded in brown dust. She could barely see the outlines of Scott and Jean through the mess. The rest of the rocks lifted off of her on their own– Jean was moving them out of the way. Scott jogged forward and crouched near her.

"Don't move yet. Jean's going to check for broken bones."

Sabere was already sitting up. Even though her shields had failed once she passed out, the debris that had fallen on her had settled so little of it was actually touching her. Her shoulder and the scratches across her thigh and back were still throbbing, and breathing hurt her half-healed ribs, but she wasn't going to take the time to heal them now. "What happened?"

"Apocalypse just…left. Xavier says he didn't do anything, but…he's gone. Magneto and the others never came back."

"Bobby's dead." Jean hugged herself. "Rogue was captured and Bobby…"

Sabere hung her head. She couldn't say anything – she couldn't even feel anything yet. Now, there was only dead, hollow emptiness.

"We need to get back to the jet," Scott said quietly. "Almost everyone is badly injured. They need to get back to the mansion."

Sabere nodded and got to her feet, putting all her weight on her left leg and leaning on Jean. Together they made their way back to the jet.

To say the city was ruined was possibly the greatest understatement of all time. Sabere couldn't see any building that hadn't been blasted to pieces or lay as rubble in the cracked and jostled streets. Gas fires raging every few blocks were the only lights left in a nightmarish land of darkness and red dust. The ghostly skeletons of dead buildings loomed on the cracked sidewalks. Cars lay strew like toys, some smashed in, others still burning. A few massive holes gaped in the roads, some filled with muddy water from broken fire lines, others with telephone poles folded across them, many with the twisted, smoking remains of cars and buses tilting into them, lit with ghastly flickering fires.

"Shouldn't we try to…clean up?" Sabere asked hesitantly.

"If you can think of a way…feel free." She couldn't.

As if the shattered buildings and hellish darkness weren't enough, she could see that everywhere, on every corner and by every building, lay bodies. Sabere tried not to look at them, but there were so many…why hadn't they left like they were told to? She focused on the black ground in front of her feet and didn't look up until they stopped at the jet.

The remnant of the X-Men stood solemnly outside. Storm and Kitty were gone, probably already inside. Rogue and Bobby were missing, as expected. Logan stood with Beast next to Xavier, supporting Colossus between them. Sabere froze when she realized Kurt was gone.

/Go find him./ Xavier stared impassively at her. Sabere nodded and limped away into the darkness. No one called after her.

She came to the first intersection, the bent signs with foreign words lying tarnished in the street, and looked around. The jet was already obscured by the brown dust. She stepped over an antenna from some tower and squinted down the street, trying to ignore the destruction she could see in the light of a nearby fire.

"Kurt!" Her voice sounded pathetic and shallow in the vast, dead, dusty depths of the city. "Kurt!"

No answer. She hobbled forward. The silence around her made her want to scream some more; the black dustiness choked her. So many had lived here – and it was all gone…

She nearly tripped over him when she found him kneeling in the middle of the street three blocks down. He was crouched over the body of a boy, no more than ten, fallen next to his mother, and she could see his shadowed lips moving in prayer as she knelt next to him. His crucifix was wrapped among his fingers. She didn't move. The pain of the past few days was gone, pushed away in the face of this battle – they were surrounded by a dead, burning, black city, something they couldn't and hadn't saved. All she wanted was to leave this city of death and return to the mansion.

"They should not have died." Kurt spoke so softly she barely heard him. "He did not deserve this. He was killed in a war that did not involve him, that he barely knew about." His eyes were still closed. He was another shadow in the gloom around them, a shadow whose tear matted the ash and dust into mud. A shadow she loved…

Sabere didn't know what to say. "I'm sorry," she finally murmured. On impulse she reached out and took his hand, pressing it gently before getting to her feet, tears in her own eyes now. "You don't need to forgive me," she whispered. "I know better than to think you would. And I won't make excuses. I just had…" Her voice failed as tears choked off her confession. So this is the end… "I had to apologize. I'm so sorry…"

She turned and started to walk back to the jet, tears rolling down her cheeks and aching in her throat. Only her footsteps broke the silence, now made so much heavier by those final words.

"Sabere."

Kurt was standing a few steps behind her. "'As I have forgiven you, so should you forgive others.'" He shook his head. "But I do not forgive you because my Lord commands it. I would have forgiven you – now more than ever."

Sabere was afraid to move, to speak. She still wasn't quite sure she had heard him correctly. Kurt smiled a little and came forward, embracing her. Relief finally swept over her and tears spilled over her cheeks.

"I'm sorry," she whispered again. "I'm so sorry…I missed you…"

His drew back enough to see her face, and wiped away still-flowing tears. "What will we do?" she whispered. "I thought I'd never get the chance to apologize and now this – there's nothing left – "

"Shh." He pulled her close again. "Please – we are here and we survived…"

She nodded and stood there in silence, one spark of joy fluttering in the dead city. Xavier's voice spoke in both of their minds.

/As happy as I am that the two of you have reconciled…/

/Right./ She drew away reluctantly, meeting his eyes with ease for the first time in far too long. "We should get back to the jet."

"One more thing – " To her surprise and great joy, he kissed her gently, comforting and loving. She gave in to it for a moment, receiving his comfort and returning her thanks. For that blissful moment they were back at the mansion during some lazy summer, alone by the lake and falling in love again. Then the moment was gone and they were walking though the dark lifeless ruins, alone and never feeling more isolated.