Chapter 6: The Brotherhood

Sky walked away from Fathom and towards Himmel's quarters. He saw her pass his room and stepped out.

"Alright?" he asked.

"Fine," she nodded.

"Shouting?" he questioned.

Sky rolled her eyes. "Fathom thought she sensed something. She was caught in a nightmare and was sleep walking. I think we should get rid of her."

Himmel thought about this, but his eyes were expressionless. Finally, he nodded and turned back into his room. Sky walked on. Down, down, down she went until the air became stagnant and thick, filled with the smells of ages past. And she went further, beyond the tunnels that humans had dug for their filthy trains, to magnificent tunnels she had dug herself, with the help of many others.

The walls were of sleek metal brought up from the very core of the earth, spotless. In the middle of the greater tunnel, one of the few remaining Sensor Shields in the world stood, protected by a metal wall, shielding them from any sensor mutant of even the greatest capabilities. It had taken a hell of a time procuring it—she was told. Her father had told her the story and how many mutants had had to die so that they could get it.

"Code is dead!"

A mutant came running towards her, furious and frightened. She grabbed Sky's shoulders and her eyes were running over with tears. "Where have you been Sky?! Where have you been? They killed Code! Tymah and some freakish Animalis mutant! That bitch!"

Sky tried to shrug out of her grip. "I couldn't just leave Himmel! He would have suspected something! Magneta please! Let go!"

As if waking from a dream, Magneta looked with surprise at her own fingers digging into Sky's shoulders and drew back immediately. Magneta, as one might suspect, had been named after the great Magneto. Her father, like Sky's father, had been a member of the Brotherhood as had their fathers before them. Magneta and Sky had grown up together, fought side by side, and when the time had come, they, too, had been made official members of the Brotherhood, whose sole purpose for generations had been to protect the frozen body of Magneto. Unlike Magneta, though, Sky had also risen in the Elemental ranks, becoming a commander. Magneta fought when the occasion called for it, but she was not a part of the regular army.

"I'm sorry about Code, Maggie," Sky said consolingly.

The other woman ran her fingers wildly through her already wild hair. "Oh God! What will I do without him?" she cried. "Sky! I can't survive this!"

"You can and you will!" Sky said. "I did."

Magneta looked desperately towards Sky. "How? How? How could you have?!"

Sky stood up straighter and shrugged. "I don't know," she said, "I just did. I think, though, that you can at least have your revenge. And that might help."

Magneta trembled. "You found her? You found Tymah! Where is she?!"

"Be calm!" Sky shouted back. "Get everyone together and I will tell you what I know. We must move quickly."

"You'll let me come with you?! Please!"

"If you calm yourself! You will not make a muddle of this to take petty revenge, Magneta. Magneto is with her and he must not be harmed! You understand?"

Magneta brushed the tears away with the back of her hand. "Yes Commander," she answered. And they went to the main chamber.

"What do think's going on up there?"

Tymah shrugged, leaning against the banister, listening to the rain. "It's none of our business," she replied.

Daytripper looked up the stairs. "Still…I'd love to be a fly on the wall in that room."

"A what?" Tymah asked.

"A…fly on the wall…" he repeated.

"What are you talking about? Why would you want to be a bug, Tripper?"

Daytripper smiled. Of course, she wouldn't know. "It's an old human expression," he explained, "it means I wish I were small enough to be in there, be unnoticed, and listen to everything they're saying…like a fly on the wall."

"A human expression?" Tymah said. "Why do you know human expressions?"

Tripper shrugged. "I just heard it some place, is all." He smiled again and laughed to himself.

"What?" Tymah asked.

"Nothing," he said, laughing still.

"What!" Tymah insisted, suppressing a smile.

"Ah, it's nothing! Just…you called me Tripper. I thought it was funny, that's all."

Tymah blushed discreetly. "Well, it just slipped out. It's easier than saying Daytripper," she responded defensively.

"Sure, Tym, I get it."

"Tym? Is that my name now? Tymah is easier to say than Daytripper."

"Yes it is," he grinned, "what does it mean, anyway, Tymah?"

"It's a Russian word. It literally means mist."

"Are you Russian?"

"No," she said, "but my mother didn't want to give me a plain name. Every weather worker is named Sky, or Misty, or Storm or something. So, she found that word out somewhere—I don't remember where—and liked it. And there you go."

"It's nice," he said.

"It's alright," Tymah answered.

It was quiet for awhile. All Daytripper could hear was the quiet, distinct rumble of Magneto's voice through the floor boards. Nothing distinct, just the sound.

He was concentrating hard on it, trying to discern actual words, when the boy with the water-ball came running in. "Hey! Another weather worker made the rain stop! Make it rain again!"

Tripper looked out the grimy window. He had not noticed that the rain had stopped. Tymah looked over at the boy. "Maybe someone else doesn't want it to rain. I'm not going to have a fight in the middle of the street just because you want it to rain!"

The boy made a great ball of water in his hands and look devilishly at her.

"Don't you dare!" Tymah shouted.

"Make it rain!"

"Oh, just do it Tym," Tripper said. "It can't hurt."

"Oh!" she sighed. "Fine!" The rain started and stopped again, almost immediately.

"Hey!" the boy cried, aiming the water ball at her.

Frustrated, Tymah walked to the door and opened it. She looked out, tensed and came back in again. "Oh no…" she whispered.

The water ball splashed over her back. She spun around. "You little bastard!" she cried. "I could kill you with one bolt of lightning, do you know that?! Now get out of here! There's going to be a fight and you don't want any part of it!"

Her anger and the blue electricity that had started sparkling on her fingertips frightened the boy and he ran out of the apartment through another door.

"What's going on?" Daytripper asked.

"Sky is here! We've got to go!"

Tymah and Daytripper had left the room. And the nameless woman, who seemed to be Pyro's caretaker, or his wife possibly, went into another room. Alone, the two men just stared at one another, until Pyro grew too weak to stand. He went to his chair and sat down. "It's amazing, isn't it?" he commented raspily.

"What is?" Magneto asked.

"I'm older than you now. Did you even realize that?"

He shook his head. "It doesn't seem possible."

Pyro's face grew grave. "No. It doesn't."

They were quiet for some time. Magneto did not know whether he should sit or stand or just leave altogether. His reasons for coming here in the first place were fast eluding him. He was not sure of anything at all.

"Pyro," he said at last, "what's happened to me? To the world? What's happened?"

"Don't call me that," he shuddered. "It's just John now. Everybody has a cool mutant name these days, and cool mutant powers." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a lighter. It took him several strokes with his bony fingers, but he lit it at last and stared hungrily at it. "This used to be mine," he mused. "I could feel it in me. I still do sometimes. But nothing can ever give me back the power I once had over it."

"You've lost your powers?"

Pyro nodded. "I'm too old now. Too frail. I can't control it anymore. It's like having a stroke and not being able to control an arm. Or breaking your back and not being able to walk." He looked thoughtful. "No…it's more like losing all your limbs and still being able to feel them. There's a word for that, isn't there?" He looked up.

Magneto was glad to be in the shadows. He could not hold back the tears, but thankfully, Pyro could not see them. "Phantom pain…" he said.

"Phantom pain…yeah. It's like that." He closed the lighter and put it away. "You asked me something?"

"I asked you if you knew what's happened to me? I don't remember anything. Just a battle… and then, this."

Pyro grinned. "That battle you remember…they call that the Great Battle, around here. You died and it pushed us all forward, forward to avenge you. It was brutal! We killed every human we could find. We killed ourselves and them because they killed you. It was brilliant. Bloody. And then…it was over." His cloudy eye clouded with memory. "We had a huge funeral for you. Incredible. Millions of mutants…everywhere! We burned your body on the biggest pyre the world had ever seen. And I lit it!" He stretched out his hand and lit the pyre all over again in his mind. "And I…I cried for you!" he nodded shakily. "I wept and watched you burn. We stayed up all night, every one of us, until the fire burnt out. And then Angel took your ashes in an urn and flew as high as he could and poured them down over the earth. I remember!" he declared emphatically. "I remember it all!"

Magneto said nothing; he just shook his head and listened.

"I remember it," Pyro repeated, "but it's wrong! Because you're here. You didn't die. But I was there…I watched you die…the life just spilled out of your eyes. And I screamed 'Magneto is dead!' and then I watched as the most incredible bloodbath flooded over the earth…I do remember it!" He shook his head, frustrated and confused. "I do…" he whispered.

Magneto swallowed, trying to get his mind around it all. "What happened then? How did all this begin?"

"Oh, it didn't take long," he said sourly, "not long at all. Who should lead us? How should we decide? It was thought that another class four should command us…someone within the primary Brotherhood. Mystique, or even I was contemplated. For awhile the Brotherhood ruled like a council. But people grew frustrated. Everyone wanted absolute power. Everyone thought that their powers were superior. Then, classes started fighting classes—we tried to stop it, but then, they began to fight back. I guess," he said softly, "we just got so used to fighting…we couldn't stop."

"Is anyone else left?"

"If I remember correctly…I'm not sure of anything now…but Sabretooth and Toad were forced to go to the Animalis side. They might be dead. Toad should be, at least. Or very old. Or maybe he's in a stasis pod too," he added sarcastically. "Mystique was killed trying to take command of us all. The X-Men disintegrated. They had to choose a side. Most of them went over and tried to defend the remaining humans. They succeeded to a degree. There are still some humans left. Actually," Pyro said with a tone of amusement in his voice, "Wolverine has been defending a nearby human colony, just over the border in Canada. The Elementals tried to eradicate it at first, but he just wouldn't give up, so they eventually left it alone."

"The Wolverine is alive?"

"Last I heard."

"Is it far, this colony?"

"You've got a teleporter with you." Suddenly, Pyro began to cough. It was just like clearing his throat at first, and then it was horrible. He coughed and sputtered and shook and writhed for breath. The woman came in again and she had some kind of an inhaler in her hand, which she put in his mouth and squeezed. It took some minutes, but he gradually calmed. The woman held him until he had done so.

Magneto stared at him and all he saw was that angry young man with fire in his eyes, now reduced to a sick, old man who could barely see. "John…" he whispered. "You're dying."

"Yes…yes, I'm…dying…" he heaved. "And I don't want you to watch."

"What is it?"

The woman answered. "Cancer. Lungs."

"Hyster…ical, isn't it?" Pyro tried to smile. "I was so sure….I'd…die in battle…and never even…know it. But now…now, I can feel death…breath by breath…"

"Can't I help you…there are healers!" Magneto pleaded.

"No…"

Again the woman spoke. "We have nothing to give them. It's probably too late now, anyway."

"Can I give them anything?"

"No…" Pyro said. He grasped the arms of his chair and took a ragged, struggling breath and his knuckles whitened. Finally he looked up at Magneto. "I've told you…everything I know…now…just figure it all out…maybe this is all just…an awful dream…one of those…alternate…universes."

"I hope so," Magneto said.

"Get out of here!" the woman said suddenly.

"I'm sorry," said Magneto, alarmed at her sudden exclamation.

"No…" she said quietly, "they're here. And they're looking for you. Elemental soldiers! Get out of here!"

Pyro grabbed Magneto's wrist. "I don't think you'll see me again."

Magneto took his hand. "Don't say that. Stay alive. At least, until I can tell you what's happened."

"I'm hoping that when I'm dead, I'll be able to figure it out myself. She's been reading the Bible to me," he indicated the woman, who still held him, "if this isn't the Apocalypse…I'd hate to see the real thing."

"Go! Go!" the woman insisted. "Please! They'll destroy the building."

Pyro held on tighter. "Magneto."

"Yes?"

"It is you…isn't it?"

Magneto nodded tearfully. "Yes."

Pyro let go. "Good bye Eric."

"Good bye Pyro."

Daytripper heard a door open and saw Magneto on the stairs. He looked pale and in shock. Tymah yelled to him.

"We have to go! Now!"

The front door opened and a tall mutant with long, blonde hair entered it, with another mutant who was shorter and older-looking. Despite their height differences, they had similar look to them, a way of standing and moving; they might have been sisters.

"Tymah," the tall one said, "stay where you are."

Tymah stood firm. "Sky...let me explain."

"There's nothing to explain," Sky answered, "you're a traitor."

"No!" Tymah cried.

The shorter woman stepped past Sky and shouted, "You filthy bitch! You and your filthy Animalis friend killed my husband!"

Sky put her arm out to prevent the shorter woman from going any further, but the woman looked mad, stricken with the greatest grief. Her face was pulled taut and her eyes were glassy and red. She let Sky's arm hold her where she was, but Daytripper was convinced that if she had wanted to, she could have broken that arm, come forward and strangled Tymah to death.

Sky drew a Cure weapon from behind her and aimed it at Tymah, looked briefly towards Daytripper, but neither of the two women seemed to have noticed Magneto. "Don't make this difficult Tymah," Sky said slowly. "You're coming with me, one way or the other."

Suddenly, a great metal ball came crashing through the window. It caught both women in the gut, sending them backwards. The shorter woman, who appeared to be a metal worker, took control of the ball and turned it into a kind of spear. She flung it at Tymah, but the spear flew in the opposite direction, barely missing the shorter woman. She searched around for who had re-directed the spear, and finally her eyes landed on Magneto, who held it in his hand.

Tymah and Sky fought out through the opening that the metal ball had made. They tried to hit each other with lighting bolts and great quantities of air, but neither was a match for the other—their powers were equal. Daytripper teleported to Tymah with the intent to grab her and put her some place out of the way and then get Magneto—but he never got the chance. As soon as he landed near Tymah, the shorter woman, who had somehow gotten hold of the Cure weapon, fired it at him and hit him in the neck.

Magneto watched as Daytripper fell, writhing with the all-too-familiar effects of the Cure. The boy knew nothing now, but his own pain and anguish. Tymah fought hard with the other weather-worker, but it was like fighting her reflection. Magneto directed his attention to the woman with the Cure weapon. He directed the spear towards her hand and the weapon was knocked out of it. She turned towards him.

"Magneto!" she cried. "I don't want to fight you. Please!"

"Don't fight then!" he replied. He went to retrieve the Cure weapon, but she beat him to it and pointed it at him.

"Please," she begged. "I'm a member of the Brotherhood! If I hurt you…let me explain!"

"The Brotherhood?" he asked.

Tymah flew backward into the wall of the building and close to Magneto's feet as a lighting bolt from Sky struck a puddle she had been standing in. She shook for a moment with electricity, but redirected the current towards Sky, who was unprepared for it.

"Yes! The Brotherhood! We exist still…and only to serve you!"

"Serve me!" he repeated. "Am I to consider being kept in a freezer for fifty years a service to me!"

"If you would only let us explain!"

"I've heard enough!"

He called up his powers and created a magnetic field in his hand and pushed it towards the woman with a vengeance. It stuck her in the stomach and she fell to the ground. She took the field into herself and redirected it to Magneto, but he had already enveloped himself in another shield. Her efforts resulted in the magnetic force bouncing back to her, rendering her seemingly unconscious.

Sky and Tymah were locked in an electrical battle. Each one directed electricity at the other; the bolts had collided. If one of them stopped generating their bolt, she would be struck by the other's. Magneto turned his attention to Tymah, with the intent of creating a shield around her to help her against the other mutant. Too late. The woman whom he had thought to be knocked out rose and fired at Tymah. She immediately stopped generating the electrical bolt, was struck with Sky's bolt and hit the side of the building, writhing and seizing.

Now, the two women faced Magneto. "Come with us sir," they said.

"If I don't?"

"We will make you," said the taller mutant. The shorter one looked skeptically at her. "For your own benefit, sir."

He shook his head. "You disgust me," he said from within his shield. "I am Magneto. You would force me?"

"We would…you do not understand what has happened since you walked the earth," said the taller one. "We must explain it to you."

"I understand very well what you and mutants like you have achieved with your ruthlessness. I have no interest in learning more from you." And with that, he generated an incredible magnetic pulse, which pushed the women away from him and held them down as he rose swiftly from the ground and into the air. Even as he flew from them, he held them to the ground as long as his powers would allow. Finally, he was too far away and he lost his grasp upon them. He descended in his shield-bubble to the ground below. There was nothing he could do for Tymah and Daytripper. He would make it to the human colony on foot.