Project Apocalypse
Summary: Alex return reveals new threats and more questions. Sorry for the delay! Feedback is welcomed.
Jean lay awake in the middle of the night. The boathouse was quiet and still. She rested her head on Scott's chest, which rose up and down in rhythmic motion. His strong arms around her, she felt completely safe but still unease. She wished it could just stay like this forever and hugged Scott just a little tighter. She wondered how long this peace would last.
With everything that has happened, she wondered how he was able to sleep so soundly, among other things. Alex slept on the couch outside, but that didn't stop Scott from being "intimate" that evening. "We just have to be really quiet." He whispered in her ear when they went to bed. And with Scott, that was a very difficult thing to do.
Determined to find out what happened to Scott and himself, Alex actively pursued Scott's killers. The X-Men tried to but their resources were tied up saving the world from one crisis after the other. Alex remained vigilant.
He followed a lead in Washington DC, where the name Nathaniel Essex appeared in a lease. When he arrived, he noticed people moving medical equipment out of the basement. With the level of security present, he knew this was the lead he was waiting for. He snuck into an office through the basement window. There was a bunch of papers. He wasn't a doctor or a scientist but he knew it had to do with mutants and genetics. He heard someone coming and took a bunch of papers and made his escape back to his hotel room. Alex couldn't really make heads or tails with most of the scientific papers. There was also another folder, titled Project Apocalypse. When he looked through the folder, it didn't made even less sense. But at the moment, he had bigger problems.
He heard someone breaking in the back window and a glowing object on the ground. It was a bomb, which exploded and nearly killed him. Alex barely got out of there with his life, escaping to the nearby sewers but he lost the papers he had retrieved. Since then he was on the run. He headed north to Baltimore where he once was again followed. But this time he knew it was another mutant after him. He saw a lone figure in a trench coat, unable to see his face except for dark red eyes that almost seemed to glow. The assassin reached into his pocket and took out what appeared to be a piece of paper, then his hand emitted some sort of light, which charged the piece of paper and the assassin sent it hurtling to Alex window.
A fight ensued with the assassin hurtling mini-bombs at Alex. With Alex' mutant powers, he destroyed it before it detonated near him. Alex managed to hit the assassin directly with his own powers and he heard him fall a couple of stories to the ground. Alex didn't take any chances and ran out of there as fast as he could. He made it to Chicago with no problems and that was when he read Jean's e-mail.
Jean wondered about the safety of everyone if this assassin came to the mansion. The security has been upgraded due to Stryker's attack. Scott was quick to point out that the only reason that security was so easily breached was due to the fact that no one was in the mansion, say for Logan when the attack occurred.
Jean closed her eyes again and took a deep breathe. Her hand rested on Scott's stomach, which sparkled in the moon's glow thanks to her "engagement ring." With all the excitement of the evening, Scott nearly forgot to give it to her. She looked at the diamond, nothing spectacularly big but still something big enough to catch ones eye. It made her thing of this M'kran crystal and Project Apocalypse that Alex spoke about. Alex account of it was sketchy, but they called on Hank to try to get more information on it. Jean wondered what an old Egyptian myth had to do with anything, if it had something to do with anything at all.
---
Jean could tell that Scott was happy to see Alex once again. Their reunion was what one would expect, hugs and smiles and a lot of "How are you doing?" Jean was so happy for Scott, he had a family. The next day Scott and Alex were walking around the lake, catching up.
"I can't believe I'm here.. with you of all people. First I thought you were dead after the plane crash, but then you were supposedly killed after saving my life.. but all this time it turned out you're alive."
"Yeah, I lost count over how many times I rose up from the dead." Scott said with a sense of sarcasm in his voice. They both laughed.
"I'm just.. I don't know.. it's still hard to believe that you're actually here."
"You're telling me. One of the things I've taken from all this is that the missing persons offices of the United States and Canada need more interaction."
"Seriously, it could've saved both of us a lot of grief."
"Well.. you're right about that.. but I'm looking forward to better days.. hopefully."
"I'm glad you and Dr. Grey have worked it out. I knew she was a mess when we all thought you were dead… Congratulations again on the engagement."
Scott smiled to himself. "Thank you.. I think Jean is glad to know that I'll at least have one guest that's strictly from the groom's side."
"Yeah, that's if we can survive mutant assassinations and a world that hates us."
"And Jean says I have a dry sense of humor." They both looked at each other and laughed once again.
--
"How's Scott doing?" Hank asked over the phone.
"Good… well you know how Scott is.. he's keeping a cool exterior but I know inside he's thrilled. Him and Alex are hanging out by the Lake now. Those two need to catch up anyway." Jean responded.
"That's good. I hope this relative peace can last.. it looks like Alex' Egypt story might have some meat after all."
"What do you mean?"
"After some digging around in the archeology database, I found something. The story goes that 5000 years ago in Ancient Egypt, a baby with a weird pigmentation was born. Due to his appearance, he was shunned from his tribe but was raised by a tribe of warriors. He grew up to be a fierce warrior, respected and feared. He caught the attention of the Pharaoh and worked in the royal army. There, he met the high priestess of the Order of the Phoenix. They have no account of her name, only by her title as head priestess, Shi'ar. The Order of the Phoenix itself was sort of religious sub-sect of those who worshipped Ra, god of the sun."
"Isn't the Phoenix some sort of fiery bird?"
"Yes, it is. The bird was made out of fire, who would die and be reborn from its own ashes… just another cycle of life and death, or day and night, very popular topic among ancient religions."
"Oh okay.. keep going."
"The high priestess was a beautiful and powerful woman. She was often sought after from the Egyptian elite due to her prophetic abilities. She was also in charge of taking care of something called the M'kraan crystal. A crystal, which was indestructible and possessed magical abilities, supposedly it is the 'egg' of the Phoenix bird… but anyways, a romance developed between En Sabur Nur and the high priestess. The high priestess was torn between duty to the order and En Sabur Nur."
"Of course.. didn't I see this in The Mummy..sorry for the interruptions.. please continue."
"She took a vow of celibacy and apparently En Sabur Nur really did love her because from all accounts she kept her vow."
"Impressive." Jean thought to herself. She wondered if Scott could ever take such a vow.
"She choose duty to her order." Hank continued. "And moved to another temple far away. En Sabur Nur was heartbroken, but most of all angry. He blamed the Pharaoh for the high priestess leaving. Fueled by anger, En Sabur Nur led a revolt and was almost successful. The high priestess heard about this and headed back to see En Sabur Nur. She realized that he had changed and only wanted power and control of Egypt. En Sabur Nur claimed himself a god, in complete defiance of traditional ancient Egpyt, where the Pharaoh is believed to be a god. The story goes that she poisoned his drink and he collapsed. But it wasn't strong enough and En Sabur Nur was getting up and that she used the M'kraan crystal to bash him over the head. Tainted with blood, the crystal was now red in color. Heartbroken over what she had done, the high priestess simply died on the spot, but some believe she drank the poison."
"Very Romeo and Julie-ish."
"Indeed. Looking more into En Sabur Nur, I have come to believe that he could have very well been one of the first recorded mutants."
"Really? How do you figure?"
"You and I know that the mutant X-Gene was a process of evolution. A few thousand years in the evolutionary scale is not much. This gives rise to looking back into history and seeing if some of these mythological creatures were in fact mutants… you have Ororo who can control the weather, versus Zeus, who commands lightening."
"You're right, I never thought of it that way."
"It was so simple yet it explains a lot about the ancient world. It's all very fascinating. We can have this discussion forever, but looking into En Sabur Nur and how fierce of a figher he was, I've come to believe that he was a mutant who possessed extra ordinary strength and physical ability, which could explain why the poison he was given didn't kill him right away. When he was killed, it was during the height of fighting. The fighting was widespread and devastating that one text puts it as an "Apocalypse" on the land. But with their leader gone, the rebellion failed and the Pharaoh severely punished those who followed En Sabur Nur… which would explain why we haven't heard of him. But a small sect of devoted followers kept his memory alive and called themselves the Clan of Akkaba, the name of the town he was supposedly born. The clan was responsible for burying En Sabur Nur and who stole the M'kraan crystal from the Order of the Phoenix. They believed their former leader to be truly divine and that his spirit was locked away inside the crystal."
"What happened to the clan and the crystal? And the Clan?" Jean asked.
"I don't know. I've sent my findings to a friend of mine in the Smithsonian. With the crystal gone though, the Order of the Phoenix eventually died out, leaving us only with the mythological bird we know today."
"I'm just wondering how this all fits in together."
"From what we learned about this supposed 'Nathaniel Essex' is that he is interested in mutant research. Perhaps this story was part of his research, to see how mutants have evolved over time."
"That makes more sense.. It was just a shame Alex couldn't remember what was in the medical papers. The professor and I tried using our telepathy but we couldn't get anything… but we have to focus on figuring out who this assassin is. If he does come here, he can be our key to figuring out this whole mystery."
Note: Sorry for the long long delay. I realized that my original idea for this story would take too long and be very complicated, so it took me sometime to flush things out and make it a little more narrower. Writer's block took over and every time I started writing, I would just come up with a different story. But I do plan on finishing this story, so feedback is always appreciated.