AMENDS IN THE ABYSS: THE INFERNAL ATONEMENT OF SCOTT SUMMERS
CIRCLE EIGHT, FRAUD: SUASIVE AVOWALS AND THEN SEVERANCE
When Scott was able to lift his head again, he looked around and almost wanted to arch his face back down again to the floor.
Despite the darkness obscuring the contours of the chamber's effects, Cyke knew exactly where he was, and that he wished it were anywhere but here.
Knowing he had to confront whatever the challenge was here in order to progress, the man found it within himself to hoist his head up once more; then the rest of his body from the prone position he was in. Upon reaching his feet, Scott could swear he heard Nathan Christopher again, though like last time it was not in words but in semblances of said verbal effects.
[GOO, GOO, GOO…]
Christopher…
For a moment, the man thought the gooing was going on only in his mind. Taking a second to assess it, he then realized that the sound was issuing from what must have been the far wall of the room. Scott gathered up all of his courage and ventured to what he knew even in the dark was the recreational room of the orphanage of his youth, so long ago in Nebraska.
As he reached that other end, he caught sight of the child inside the glass casement—the same baby he beheld just now in the Faux Frisco, a situation similar to the endeavors of Scott and Jean when they tried to take the infants from the hands of monsters just before the Infernal affair with said demons on Earth many decades back. And
[GOO, GOO, GOO…]
Just as then, it was just as Scott was trying to liberate little Chris from his placid prison that
[KASHOCCCK]
trouble had traipsed upon the scene, dim, grim lights shining upon the area as Scott acknowledged the one he would have to have it out with here.
"SINISTER."
"Who else?"
The mockery of a man came off like a virtual vampire, both in terms of his pallid epidermis as well as his parasitic modus operandi. Leeching off the lives of others, gleaning the genetic greatness that superior specimens had to offer…this was the Victorian evil's stock in trade. Sinister and Scott shared a stare that endured as long as a look between lovers…though the mood was slightly more morose than same.
Of a sudden, Sinister once more, to break the staring silence:
"I'll tell you who else…"
And then upon a wave of his mind, the woman for whom Scott had been fighting all this time had materialized at last.
"Madelyne…!"
She was garbed out in full Goblin gear at the moment—not the Madelyne whom Scott had hoped he would encounter down here. Upon sight of her husband, and apparently upon being addressed as such, the lady's brow furrowed, and the frown that ensued from her face wreaked a fissure in Scott's heart that he fully believed in that instant would never heal.
"Aww," taunted the most malevolent Mister attending, "it seems you came all this way…for nothing. My daughter certainly doesn't look interested in dating you, I'm afraid."
Cyke's heart continued to pump, beat hard against breaking in half as he watched his wife pout, her eyes blazing in fury, her lips curiously tightly shut. He recalled her being so vocal during that Infernal time on Earth. Was she really all there right now?
Sinister sniffed, then went on before the staggering hero. "It's a shame in any case that you expended so much energy to come all the way down here, after all…for nothing but a FAKE."
Scott's eyes narrowed in rage as he looked to Sinister, then to Madelyne. Surely she wouldn't stand for any of this, not for a second. But looking upon her formerly-fury-filtered countenance, which now settled into eerie impassivity, the hero found that he could not read anything at all from her.
"That's right…isn't it, Scott," Sinister continued. "All this time…in life and now in afterlife…all this energy you put forth…just for a shadow of the real thing. Just a copy."
"She's not a fucking copy."
"Ohh, I beg to differ…and I can scientifically prove it, of course." The evil across from the Clops held up a small vial.
"This, as needs no introduction or explanation, is one of the first reproduced cell samples of Jean Grey that I managed to manufacture. It was a…product, like this…that became your Madelyne."
"My M…Madelyne's not something...someone mass-produced, Sinister," spat Scott, the man itching so badly to reach for his glasses…and finding that for whatever reason, he could not. "She's one of a kind."
"Well, she's certainly based off of someone who's one of a kind…let's say she's one of potential millions I could make from that one. Yes…Madelyne's one in a million…of exact makeovers of Jean Grey. You basically were set up with Commission One of Five Hundred Sixty Seven…
"...or maybe it wasn't even Commission One…"
"God damn it…" Scott was desperate. Going back and forth with Sinister wouldn't get him anywhere, but apparently without his blasts once more—as something emanating from Sinister blocked him from accessing them—he couldn't go anywhere else with this conflict.
Perhaps through the lady herself, then. "Maddy…please…" Scott began to approach the love of his life, reaching now in the same plain clothes that he wore in the last Circle for the precious pamphlet she'd prepared for him. "Remember the times we had. Remember Reinde…"
[FSSSAAASSSSSHHH]
And then Scott's sentences were shut off of a sudden by a concussive blast from his lady's fingers—a blast that blew him to the other side of the room. The booklet which was once in the man's hands fluttered slowly to the ground, falling just beneath Nathan Christopher's baby bubble.
"She doesn't want to speak with you, Scott," said the woman's "father." "She's kind of upset with you. And who could blame her, after all.
"I mean, out and out leaving her, for the lady off of whom she was based…not really loving her in the first place anyway…"
"I ALWAYS LOVED HER!" Scott screamed as he did all he could to get himself back up from his love's laser blast. "IT WAS A REAL, PURE LOVE, APART FROM THE ONE I HAD WITH J…"
"Oh, yes, of course…the one you had with Jean. Who could ever forget that? You certainly didn't…seeking in Madelyne a substitute for it…pursuing her for the sole purpose of supplanting the Phoenix who always kept that hearth heated in your heart.
"But your first wife…she was nothing in the way of that, was she? She came nowhere near supplying that spark for which you strove to find again in life. I mean, let's face it: no other girl you saw, before my little pet Pryor here, or thereafter—not Colleen Wing, not Lee Forrester, not Emma Fucking Frost—none of them could provide the pleasure that Jean herself could ever give you.
"Moreover…not even an iteration of Jean could do it either. Isn't that the whole reason that you abandoned Madelyne? The impulse that you knew—you knew that the VERY SECOND Jean could possibly appear again, you would go running back to her, heedless as to all that you…erected with my creation?"
Scott worked in the last several seconds not at mounting verbal reprisals at Sinister, but simply crawling his way back to the conversation in the first place. The blast that his baby gave him (the baby other than Nathan Christopher, that is)—it really knocked him for a loop. When Scott finally gained back the physical ground he had a few minutes ago, he looked upon his lady once more…
…and noted that tears were now streaming down her cheeks, drops dripping down from possessed eyes without irises or pupils.
"Aww again…you've gone and made her cry, Scott! How many times are you going to do this to women in your life? How many instances of evisceration regarding their hopes and dreams, and the plans that they prepared in being with you? Why can you not ever be satisfied with what you have been given in this world? I…"
"All I want is another chance with my wife, Sinister." Cyke was more than livid by now. "What do you want of me? Are you expecting that I kowtow, and declare you my lord and savior? Because I'm not. You might have made her for me…but I owe you nothing, and I owe her absolutely everything."
"You owe all in your life…to the dregs drawn from the dame you adored in your youth...?"
"SHE'S INFINITELY MORE THAN…AND NOT THAT AT ALL!"
"All Madelyne is, Scott, is basically a snippet of some cells from Jean. I probably could have drawn her out of some of your first girlfriend's dandruff, for God's sake…or her scat, for that…"
"Don't you DARE talk about my Madelyne that way!"
Unable to take it anymore, Scott rushed at Sinister, only to be blasted back once again, this time by the man himself.
"I used Jean, and I used you as well…way back when, right here in Omaha. From you I drew Remy…and from your lady I drew Madelyne."
It was true; at least according to the Endstopped narrative of the Governor of Claremontana, Gambit was garnered from cell samples of both Scott and Sinister. Makes sense, at least from Cyke's end, what with the tall brunet and carmine eyes and what have you. But anyway.
Sinister now stood from his wires-slithering seat, the man firing more concussive beams as he closed in on the Clops. "And as I don't need your body anymore, Scott…I suppose we can just dump it now. It doesn't belong here, or anywhere in existence. You can enjoy not continuing on anywhere, in any plane of…"
"MADELYNE'S NOT JUST SOME…IMPOSTOR!" Scott shouted, not caring as to himself anymore. He came down for her, and for Christopher…never for himself. If, down in these depths, he had to sacrifice himself for all time, so that he could restore honor to his immediate family of spouse and child…then he didn't care as to where his spirit, his soul would reside from here on out.
"All she is…all she ever was, Scott…was my toy. At the Mansion you had Charles…here in the Orphanage I had Chucky. I mean, you should have seen the way she grit her teeth at N'Astirh, when she first came here…the two of them were really anything but 'friends to the end'…and at that point, Madelyne certainly wasn't a 'Good Guy,' either.
"And now look at her." He thrust an arm out to the side, beckoning Scott to look upon his lady. "She's gone full Goblin Queen on you. In a way, it's all kind of moot, because it doesn't seem you're your Madelyne's…well, MY Madelyne, really…is in there anymore anyway. I mean, that Reindeer Falls thing sent to you? The scrapple and home fries? Maybe remnants of that Madelyne you once knew.
"But even just now, with the Goblin Shawl she lent out, to give you a safe landing here from the previous Circle…she was just keeping you as intact as she could, for both our sakes. So that we could have at least a tiny bit of a victual left from what the Marauders made of you…for both my daughter and I to finish you off. So here we are now."
Sinister took a step, then another closer as he unleashed another blast on the now-optically-impotent Cyclops. "You can die now…or should I say, your soul can dissipate now, Summers…with the knowledge of what finally became of your lady. And I shouldn't even have to explain what I'm going to do with your kid either."
Scott ignored it all, focused again on his wife. "MADELYNE!" he shrieked, as he took blast after blast from Sinister. "ONCE YOU CAME INTO IT YOU WERE ALWAYS THE MIRACLE…THE LOVE OF MY LIFE!"
One concussive bolt shocked Scott across the shins. "FOR THE LOVE IN MY LIFE, JEAN WAS JUST THE TRAILER FOR THE MOVIE THAT WAS YOU!" Madelyne remained impassive as Sinister took another step toward Scott.
Another shot agonized into the man's arms. "FOR MY HEART, JEAN WAS JUST THE WARMUP FOR THE WORKOUT THAT WAS YOU! (And I don't mean that in some weird, Freudian sense…)" The woman standing by crinkled her brow as Sinister stopped before the other man.
Yet another blast shucked into the man's chest. "FOR MY SOUL, JEAN WAS THE HERALD FOR THE FULL-ON…GALACTUS THAT WAS YOU! PLEASE…!
"MADELYNE!"
The lady closed her eyes solidly as Sinister began to hunker down over Cyclops…
[FSSSAAASSSSSHHH]
…then was struck full-force in the back by a concussive blast.
"YOU WILL REMOVE YOURSELF FROM HERE."
Sinister ended up falling over Scott, rather than smothering him, as the Goblin Queen stepped down from her laboratory pedestal next to Sinister's seat.
As the evil's head reared: "How could y…"
[FSSSAAASSSSSHHH]
"YOU DON'T KNOW ME…'FATHER.'"
The chief evil of the Orphanage threw himself over onto his side, then gathered himself up once more just to
[FSSSAAASSSSSHHH]
receive another blast from Madelyne as the lady fired away, fighting for herself and for Scott. As she reached the midpoint of distance between her man and the monster who made her, Madelyne closed a fist, entrapping Sinister in a small bubble of energy.
She then slowly turned her beauteous features towards the hero. "He won't hold there forever, Scott," the woman said to Cyke as she stood over him, then reached down and grabbed him in a tight embrace. Scott gave himself fully to the hug, feeling his strength returning too just as the block over his optic abilities was waning. Madelyne kept one eye on Sinister, ready for the villain to heave out of her bubbly bonds at any second. To the end, she gently pressed both hands on Scott's chest, easing him away. "We both have to act, now!"
"You've got it, my lady."
And then, just as Sinister struck out from the bubble, both Madelyne with her concussive blasts, as well as Scott with his optic blasts, bore fully into the enemy and eradicated him from the area in short order.
Madelyne continued to stare at the ashen stain on the ground that was once her maker as Scott stared at the side of her beautiful face. He couldn't believe he finally reached her.
"Oh, God…Maddy…"
A long, thick pause.
"No. Madelyne is not here." The words came from a mouth positioned perfectly in a face still turned aside from Scott's.
"What?"
She then turned her flawless features fully upon Scott. "The one who has assisted you this entire time…it has been none other than…your Goblin Majesty."
Scott blinked a couple of times as he and his lady held each other in one another's arms. "I don't…I don't get what you're…"
"I am the one who opposed you…who fought you during the Infernal time…back with the demons. I am the one who detested you, and who once wished to destroy you."
At this Scott thought to break the embrace instantly, and begin to defend himself. Before he could begin to do anything, his lady closed the gap between the two with another tight hug, chest to chest.
"I wanted you to be nothing but ashes—as Sinister is now—for what you did in Alaska.
"Now, however, I see how you have fought…how you have striven…to make things right. To atone for what you have done. And for that…"
She held him even more tightly. "Even the Goblin Queen appreciates you for that, Scott Summers. Even if your affirmations of love are somewhat corny, with invoking 'Galactus' and such."
Then she released himself from him, going over to Nathan Christopher to retrieve the Reindeer Falls pamphlet from beneath the baby's miniature chamber.
Within these seconds, Scott relaxed a bit…though the warmth of his first wife stiffened him in an intimate way something fierce. It was still all so strange, though. "I don't understand…the brochure, the scrapple and…"
The booklet trembled a bit in the Queen's hands as she explained. Giving it back to Scott as she spoke: "I created the brochure, and the valentine therein, from the memories you and my…more affable self had at Reindeer Falls. And no one—not even my more pleasanter person—can make scrapple and home fries like the Goblin Queen can."
All Scott could do with this is look upon his lady and blink some more, in utter disbelief.
"And for the record...I am sorry now, as I realize I regret and I am sorry for doing it back in the day also...accept my apologies for blasting away at you. I had to get the drop on my 'father' as much as possible, that's all.
"At any rate..." and here the magnificent Majesty closed the distance between herself and the Clops, "You would never think that the Queen of the Infernal Affair would ever say this…but…as my more innocent counterpart, the plainer Madelyne Pryor, still exists alternatingly within me, and loves you…so too do I, the Goblin Queen, now love you, for all that you have done…for all of me."
Though it was really a technicality here, in that Scott did not really venture all this way for the freakin' Goblin Queen's sake, the realization that even the darkest moment of Madelyne could love him now was enough to make his heart liquefy right then and there. "…And I love you, Mad…I mean, Majesty…"
The two looked upon one another, red bifocals into a pair of seemingly sightless eyes without pupils or irises; each then reached in for what was about to be between Cyclops and the Goblin Queen the most unlikely of all kisses ever when
[WHHHOOOOOSSSHHHRRRAAACCCKKK]
beneath their feet the ground cracked open, taking them both down even further into its innards.
"ONE…MORRRE…TESSSSSSTTT…" was all Scott could hear from his lady's lips as he fell further and further down into the depths.
TO BE CONCLUDED