After a few moments of tense silence broken by Derek's heaving sobs, Sabertooth, not surprisingly, started to lose his temper.
"Come on! Make your choice!" He snarled, his fingers twitching.
Derek cried out mournfully into the grass, "It's all too much! First I lose my friends in a tragic gasoline fight and now I am forced into choosing how to use my awesome powers!"
"Derek, you're going to have to act – we don't have time." Scott snapped, hand poised on his shades.
"Grh! Forget this!" Sabertooth snarled. "There's no way he could be as powerful as everyone says. And even if he is, if he's dead at least Xavier can't use him!"
In a flash, his muscles rippled and he leapt. Arms outstretched, he prepared to sink his claws into Derek's throat. Derek fell back in alarm as Scott fired a blast from his eyes. He missed and splintered a nearby aspen, and although Jean didn't quite succeed in halting the solid villain, she managed to deflect him into a large marble statue of an angel. The statue crumbled and Derek numbly regained his footing, scrambling to get away from this strange and fantastical battle. Having lived in the insular world of supermodels, he had no idea that mutants even existed - much less the awareness of the existing tension between mutants and humans.
Scott fired off a few more blasts hoping to catch Sabertooth unaware, but only succeeding in shattering the expensive tombstones that local families had paid a small fortune for in order to remember their dearly departed loved ones. Sabertooth roared in outrage,
"It's going to take a lot more than that to end this!" and charged Scott, knocking him forcefully to the ground.
Turning the young man forcefully onto his belly, he held Scott's face and ground it into the grass. Scott had never fancied the smell of lawn clippings and found this new development unappealing.
"JEAN!" He yelled, mostly muffled by a mouthful of turf.
Jean, having used up her usefulness for the episode, decided that it would be a great idea to levitate a large chunk of the statue into Sabertooth. Aware of this, Sabertooth bodily threw Scott at his beloved. They met with a resounding crack and the two fell over, stunned. Derek, only slightly behind the dazed pair, stared at the rapid battle in wide-eyed horror. What was happening?
"Say good night, pretty boy!" Sabertooth tossed out a painful one-liner.
He charged in for the finishing blow.
"Wait!" Derek dove in between the two in a surge of desperate courage.
Even if he died, he wanted to do what he could to save these two people who had risked their lives to protect him. At this revelation, a strange feeling of power welled up within him and he felt himself stand tall. He turned to face Sabertooth full on, a stunned yet beautiful look on his face. He pursed his lips and struck a pose in his tight, pleather pants which perfectly matched his autumn palette flight jacket with faux fur collar. Sabertooth slowed down to a light jog, confused and slightly stupefied by what was happening. As the heels of Derek's shiny black loafers clicked together, a strange light emitted from his face in a powerful ray that seemed to engulf everything around him. Scott and Jean, struggling to regain their senses behind Derek, were spared the full brunt of this strange emission. Sabertooth was struck full on by the pure gaze of this lean young man and the wave of light was so dazzling that he wished to shield his eyes, but couldn't because he would miss the sight of that beautiful face!
"Dear God, it's magnificent!" He breathed.
Gradually, the light faded and Derek was left standing in his stupid model pose with a desperate yet exquisite expression, breathing heavily from the exertion. Jean and Scott managed to prop themselves up into a sitting position, quite confused. Finally leaping to her feet ahead of Scott, Jean prepared for Sabertooth's next onslaught. But it never came.
Sabertooth had stopped completely, the force and reason for his actions lost now in the face of the true beauty he had just witnessed. His body sagged, still immobilized by sheer wonder.
"Why?" He rasped in a tired, defeated voice, "Why didn't Magneto tell me that such wonder and beauty existed in this world? Why did he show me only the darkest of the dark when there was such light?"
His eyes stared ahead as though he were looking through time. He wore the expression of one who had comprehended the incomprehensible.
"Um…" Scott began, but was interrupted again.
"RARGH!" Sabertooth screamed in agony.
Jean, uncertain, again readied herself for an attack.
"Why didn't anyone tell me I was so ugly?" Sabertooth cried. "That my spandex costume was so hideous and that I was wearing my hair in a mullet?" He grabbed his head, his world now reeling with his new found enlightenment.
"There's nothing wrong with spandex." Scott muttered under his breath.
"Why would Magneto pick such a look for me? He said that it looked great! That it unified the team! I see now that it was a LIE! A hideous lie meant to lead me away from the truth and into his treacherous grasp." Sabertooth continued to howl as though he were undergoing vivisection. Or being neutered without anesthesia.
"There, there." Derek offered in a kind yet stupid way.
"NO!" Sabertooth batted away Derek's comforting hand and turned away from that creature of such grace. "How can I face the world – how can I face YOU – after I know what majesty can truly exist? Why am I even here?" He roared, muscles straining and fingers flexing. "I DON'T WANT TO LIVE AS A MONSTER IN SUCH A WORLD AS THIS!" He screamed, practically hysterical.
Before anyone could stop him, he plunged his chest onto the splintered ends of the tree trunk whilst taking a cyanide pill. The large, sharp splinters punctured his heart and he died instantly somehow.
The remaining three stared at his remains in silent, numb horror. Jean turned away and Derek looked at his hands, fearing the carnage that he had just caused.
"The Professor was right." Scott felt sick. "What a frightening, horrible power."
Derek fell over in a swoon, losing consciousness.