AMENDS IN THE ABYSS: THE INFERNAL ATONEMENT OF SCOTT SUMMERS
CIRCLE NINE, TREACHERY: STEADFASTNESS IN THE SHADOW OF SUBTERFUGE
The sensation Scott felt more than anything, here at the bottom of Hell, was not the heat that anyone vaguely familiar with impressions of the Underworld, or anyone else unfamiliar with Dante's own Inferno, would regularly expect.
No, instead what was felt was the extreme coldness of it all. Indeed, Cyke realized once he opened his eyes (through his visor, of course—the one he wore while, just as here right now, he was bearing the blue-and-white X suit he most famously wore during his X-Factor days), he was surrounded almost exclusively by snow and ice. It looked as if the "cutting loose" that Iceman had perpetrated, courtesy of Loki's interferences in the Eighties, had been interfered further by some mélange of anabolics and Cialis.
Just as Scott was fully gaining his bearings in this region, suddenly:
[WAAAAAHHH, WAAAAAHHH, HUHHH…]
[WAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH]
Nathan Christopher!
Somehow, he must have been extricated from his miniscule glass prison from the previous Circle, and hauled down here. Scott knew that he had to get over to him, and now.
As with the previous two trials, then, it would appear that Cyclops was once again without the succor of Cable as his own personal Virgil. Well, that was alright; all that really mattered, at this juncture, was that Scott find the baby, find his wife, and get out of this place as soon as possib…
[WAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH]
The baby was screaming in Scott's mind, just as much as he was in the brain of Jean during that Eighties Infernal event. The man knew as he carefully fast-treaded among snowy tracks, and ambled along icy patches here and there, that he would have to get to the child soon, or he (the baby, or really even either or both of them) would die from overexposure.
[WAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH]
"WAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!"
It was just as Scott rounded another gelid bend that he beheld the babe for whom he had been barreling these past several minutes. He almost fell over himself just from the sight of the child, the babe in only diaper and swaddled in precocious sky blue blanket…lying on an icy segment of ground just ahead. Scott gathered himself up as soon as he was able, then made a careful break for the baby…
[WHHHSSSSSSHHHHHCCCHHHMMMPPP]
…just as another, quite offputting presence loomed in from out of seemingly nowhere and landed between the man and his issue.
"ORROSH CHAOR KLI!"
What stood before Cyclops now, blocking him from access to his son, was the most formidable, most frightening demon he had ever beheld. The sight of it made his psyche hearken back once again to those days of almost literal Hell on Earth, in which he and his original teammates had to do all they could from having babies sacrificed by the enemy—which included his first and most beloved wife Madelyne—and having legions of unholy creatures occupy the planet.
"ORROSH CHAOR KLI! ORROSH CHAOR KLI!""
And now it would appear that one such demon was standing in Scott's way. What the entity was saying was incomprehensible. Cyke stared at the creature for a long moment, out of instinct raised his hand to his visor…
…then lowered it.
"ORROSH CHAOR KLI!"
Scott kept staring, measuring that which stood in front of him.
Of a sudden:
[WHHHEEEEEESSSSSHHHHHOOOOOO]
Lowering to the icy ground, on the most secure floe of ice possible, was the metallic monolith which helped defined the Me-Generation legend that was with Original Five X-Factor:
The X-Factor Ship—later to be known as Prosh, for whatever reason…but in those early days, known only and simply as Ship.
And exiting Ship several seconds later…the other Original Four.
"SCOTT!"
They all came charging forth. Warren led, with his skin of teal and his wings of steel. Then there was Hank, his usual, most prominent furry self—nothing feline or leonine about him. Bobby came third, he appearing unclothed in ice form save for a sterling metal belt around his waist, to control to some extent the aforementioned cutting loose he would incidentally perpetrate way back when.
And last, and for so long foremost in Scott's mind, heart, and soul for so long…there was Jean. Looking as beautiful and as powerful as ever, in her red and yellow, ketchuppy and mustardy X-Factor costume, to match Scott's own sky and snow blue and white. Just looking upon that costume again made him feel a longing, a lust even—not unlike that which he might have suffered in the Second Circle—the man thinking of how long ago, he would look at her in that costume, and imagined sometimes covering the lady in the aforesaid red and yellow condiments, then licking them off of her. She picked up some of those thoughts too, on occasion…and they might have even lived out that vagary, had the Ship not been so relatively cramped, and their time in the Original Factor not been so brief and intermittent with so many crossovers.
Scott looked long upon Jean, upon all three of his best friends in his entire life…the instant lingering for what seemed like forever.
Then:
"WAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH! WAAAAAHHHHHH! WAAAAA…AAAAAGGGHHH!"
Cyke's cranium crooked around, back to the baby again…and that creature which covered the distance between him and the child.
"Scott," blurted Warren with urgency as he flew to his leader's side. Thank God we found you. We all knew you were in trouble…needed our help. Come on; we've got to get Nathan Christopher and get you guys back on board. Jean's been worried sick about the both of you." The Archangel started his flightpath around the demon nearby so that he could get to the baby.
[ZZZAAARRRKKKKK]
Then was stopped, taken greatly aback by the red that blocked his airways. "Excuse me?"
"Warren," said Cyke, taking a step toward the other hero, who was hanging in midair, "Leave this one to me. I've got it. Really."
"But…but we're all a team here!"
"Just…I'll get this one. Please."
"Scott, you don't know what you're saying!"
Nearby, the demon, cowed and rendered silent by all the strange happenings all around, held crooked limbs close, confused and uncertain.
"Listen to me, Warren…" and then the Archangel, heeding, came close to hear. "What are you doing? THINK for a second…"
"No, Scott; you listen up! You're the one who needs to stop and think; your own son!" Warren pointed emphatically out into the ice, in the direction where little Chris was squalling endlessly.
"No; think. What kept you the most from calling me…to join the team, at first? I know you didn't make the call kneejerkedly…you had to think about it. What kept you? What took you so long?"
Cold winds kicked up, agitating the creature and the child close by, as the skin-scalped seraphim hovered in silence, looked to the Lady of the Condiment Costume.
"You know damn well what it was. Who it was. Who it was for.
"If I stay here—where I belong, mind you—what the fuck is really in your way?
"As long as she'll have you…it is her call, of course…"
Warren kept hovering, thinking. A moment later, he finally spoke again. "Alright. It's your funeral." As he flew away, Scott noticed that his wings reverted to their natural, feathery selves, his flesh normalizing and his hair blonding back in, the man becoming the original Angel he once was. He kept on looking, marveling at the wonderful sight when
"ORROSH CHAOR KLI!"
his attention was brought back to front and center. The creature in front of him resumed waving arms frantically before him. Menacing him, seemingly.
But not attacking him.
And he knew exactly why.
"Scott…" started the bombastic blue Beast, along with Iceman as the two were next up to the plate for posturing and reasoning with the leader, "it behooves me to implore you to cease and desist from this behavior, promptly. I cannot begin to fathom why…"
"What my overspoken ally is trying to say, Cyke…is what in Hell are you thinking, here? What's gotten into you?"
Cyclops looked at the two men immediately before him, and on the other side of the creature and the baby. "What…in Hell…literally, that I'm doing, Bobby, is the one thing that I've never been more certain about in my life.
"I'm setting things right, and I'm staying here."
"Staying…here?!" Iceman was as incredulous as Bruce Banner's other self was incredible. "Maybe I could effing stay here, given the climate conditions…but even my ass would freeze off eventually! You're completely bonkers!"
"Robert's right, Scott…for once." After suffering ice daggers from his compatriot, both metaphorical and literal, the Beast, once again, "I'm afraid you have completely abandoned all sense of reason. I've never seen you act so…irrational before."
This must be the premillennial Beast, thought Scott musingly to himself at this. No way in Hell it could be the Beast as envisioned by the overrated Governor of Wheedington…or the one of any time thereafter.
"Hank…Bobby…I will say this one…more…time.
"Leave this…the hell…in Hell…to me. Please."
And then Bobby and the Beast backed off. Parenthetically, Iceman seemingly shed his belt, as Hank did his fur, as the way back to the Ship…but Scott was too fixated on the creature to notice this time.
As he was too fixated to notice even Jean, approaching him steadily. Her words were lost over the din of the other one, the other major presence close by.
"ORROSH CHAOR KLI!"
Scott turned fully to face the creature. Thought about Bobby's words, reverberating within him once more.
What's gotten into you?
It prompted the man to feel around his chest area for something…something he had been holding, something sentimental; critical.
"ORROSH CHAOR KLI! ORROSH CHAOR KLI!"
It was there; right over the pectoral in which his heart was pounding. Grabbing at his X-Factor costume, attempting with all he had to rend it at the chest, he thought about something he said, to someone very special, just before he died…at the time of The End, according to Claremontana:
I'd recognize you anywhere.
And this was certainly no exception. At last the costume gave, and the man reached into the small crease created, reached in, fished out that most important paper booklet.
Showed it to the creature. Which then fell down in a frenzy, flailing arms all around.
"AAARRRGGGHHHAAA DEERRRAAASSSH DOSSSHHHUUU!"
Then Scott too dropped to his knees, crawled carefully towards the creature. Spoke softly.
"I'm yours."
Reached over as the creature slowed, settled. Reached out—as it did in turn—and gathered himself as close as he could.
"Scott…
"…
"…Scott?!"
It was only now that the man could hear Jean, over the intense beating of his heart, over the rushing of thoughts in his mind. "Scott, what are you doing? What…what is this? I don't understand…"
But Scott was too absorbed in the creature he was holding. Holding himself ever closer, he now understood exactly what was being said, as the entity was speaking much less loudly into his ear:
"Orrosh…
"Orrosh…chaor kli…
"(Don't…)
"(Don't…leave me…)"
He looked firmly at the one he held in his arms, made sure that the creature's eyes met his.
"I'm not leaving you," he said, firmly into the creature's ear. "You hear me?
"I'm not leaving you…not this time."
Jean could only stand by and watch, in that moment, as Scott did something no one present would have ever have seen coming…
He held the creature as close as he could, and, finding the face, engaged in a long and impassioned kiss.
"Scott..." The first irresistible redhead in Cyke's life, again, could only be close by, witness this, and do nothing more. To say that Jean was disappointed at this juncture was an understatement; she had so wished to have back in her life the man who was so important to her. But this was not to be, now.
Comprehending, as much as anyone other than Scott really could at this juncture, Jean could only close her eyes, nod slowly, and begin to walk off towards the Ship. Again, she went through changes as well as she retreated, going back to her original green and yellow X-Factor duds as she pulled off…but Scott was too busy in his oral embrace to notice.
Too busy watching what he held in his arms…who he held in his arms as the creature transmogrified into a woman with red hair and tattered blue effects…
…then moments later, into the same woman, but swaddled in yellowish-white clothing, she looking now like an inductee into the other extreme of the afterworld.
And then, as Scott completed the kiss, he held his first wife back a foot, looked deep into her stunning green eyes as she held his gaze:
"I'm never…ever betraying you…I'm never leaving you again…Madelyne."
The tears welled from both their eyes as the lady smiled, held the man hard against her, kissed him softly, slowly on both cheeks of his hardened face. Even Nathan Christopher stopped crying in this moment of wonder and peace.
As they held one another at a foot's length again, looked deeply and lovingly into each other's eyes…
[BRRRAAASSSHHHOOOOOMMMMMMMMMM]
the X-Factor Ship rumbled to life, began its launch and ascent into the air. At that same instant, the place all around began to crumble.
"SCOTTY, COME ON!" shouted Madelyne as she ran over and picked up the baby. She hustled back over and gave the child over to the man. "We have to get out of here…
"…and I know just how we're gonna do it."
"Maddy…?" Cyke looked all around; it seemed hopeless, as if all he had done, to fight for his family, was for naught as ice floes began to break off and dissipate into an abyss of eternal icy dark. "How? What're we gonna do?!"
"Something that I've always been better at than you, Scott," Madelyne shouted into her husband's ear. "We're flying the Hell out of here.
"Or the here out of Hell. Or…whatever, the eff with it!"
"But HOW?!"
Madelyne swayed back and forth a second, as if something were on her back. The reality of it had been that something actually was.
"They're back…I can feel them, Scott! They've come back to me!"
She then leaned in close, to whisper loudly in his ear over the din.
"I grew something back…that I lost in a dream."
And then Madelyne held the man as close to herself as she could as the WINGS of which she was speaking had sprouted from the top of her back, flowing out and unfolding, flexing for a couple of seconds…
"HOLD ON TIGHT TO NATHAN CHRISTOPHER!"
…then in the ensuing instant, Madelyne lifted off the icy ground with her entire family in tow, she holding Scott as he held the baby close between them. The two ascended, ascended, past all the preceding Circles, up and up and up past Purgatory, until they all reached Paradise.
And it was in this way that Scott Summers, Madelyne Pryor, and Nathan Christopher reunited and became a family in the hereafter once more.
EPILOGUES
ACTUAL ENDING: CLOSED RELATIONSHIP (VERSION ONE)
When the three of them reached the heavens, they found a happy little cloud unoccupied, and Madelyne softly, gently deposited Scott and Nathan Christopher upon it while she soared a second more, then lowered herself down to join them.
She was met instantly with the strongest, warmest, most revitalizing embrace by Scott. The baby was safely a few feet away, and nothing up here would endanger any of them.
They held each other, kissed one another for hours on end, just like that time in Reindeer Falls. Chris was just chilling on the cloud, completely serene and not hungry at all, as it was Heaven, and as such there was no utter need to be sated per se.
Madelyne and Scott, though, found that they could never reach satiation with one another. "I knew it was you from the second you came down," Scott said, in reference to the last Circle, he turning the Reindeer Falls literature over and over in his hand.
"What's tha…oh, it's for Reindeer Falls!"
Scott looked at his lady quizzically a second, then realized it.
She and the Queen really weren't the same person, were they.
"Where did you get this, Scott?"
"It's from someone…very close to you, Maddy. Someone who cares, about the both of us…and about little Chris, too."
Madelyne was a bit mystified, but she didn't care; all that mattered was that her family was returned to her.
"Ohh…Scott," she said, as she held her man close. "I'm just…I'm just so happy we're all together again. I…I have to say…though I was very frustrated, and very angry all these years…
"I…I missed you."
"Madelyne…you have no idea…no idea at all…how much I have missed you, too. I have to tell you...please hear me out a second."
She did, holding his look with a serene gaze of her own.
Scott: "Over all these years…I have had relationships, yes. With a number of people. But they were never…never anything like we had.
"The time I had with one, Emma…I felt free…but it was corrupt. I felt…incomplete, and not as fulfilled as I should have been, in body or soul, with her.
"Then with the other…it was…it was Jean, Maddy…with her, it felt pure…but I felt on a leash. As I did with Xavier himself, when I was on that team.
"Do you know what the time was that I missed you the most? It is hard for me to tell you this, but…with Jean I was in Alaska, also. Trying to make a home for ourselves. Trying to settle down, as I could have, and so should have with you.
"But she was all Phoenix this and powers that…all about the Dream, the missions, what have you. I have to admit…she was, in the Nineties, exactly the way I was in the Eighties. I always wanted to adventure, when I should have just been with you. …I guess I really got my just deserts, then.
"It was only with you, Maddy…that it felt pure, and free also. Not 'free, but corrupt'; not 'pure, but on a leash'… with you, and you alone...it was always supremely pure and free."
Tears sprang from Madelyne's eyes, then from Scott's in turn as the two embraced, in terms of arms and then in terms of lips.
"And I swear to you this, now: Madelyne…" and the man here fell to his knees, his face close to her feet, "I swear I will not only be here for you…but I will serve you, I will be your servant here, now and forever here, in this time we will share for eternity. I swear it."
"Scott," said the lady, as she placed a gentle hand on the man's shoulders as the latter prostrated before her, "I don't want you to serve me.
"I just want you…to love me."
He stood stock, and held her close. "Of course. I love you, Madelyne. Now and for all time."
"And I love you, Scott."
They held one another, embraced and kissed infinitely more as Nathan Christopher smiled and waved feet away.
"Hey, he's lonely, Scott…maybe we should make him some little pals to play with."
"I'm all with you on it, my lady."
The two retired to their cloudy bed, both falling asleep in exhaustion after making love for the first time in virtually forever, for the first of infinite times in actual forever here, Madelyne nestling and settling into Scott's arms, she atop him as she slept soundly.
Hours later, it became night, as at least in this Heaven there was day and night.
Scott found as he awoke that he lay on one side of the bed…and that the hand stroking his back, he noted as he turned over…
…was positioned at the end of a long, dark blue sleeve.
"Maddy?"
"No, Scott Summers."
It was her. The other her.
The Goblin Queen.
"Mm…I don't…"
She placed a hand forward, and the man flinched. "There is nothing to fear, Scott Summers," the Queen said, she fixing her eyes without irises or pupils upon his own features. "I am your Goblin Majesty, indeed…but I am once and again the Majesty who means you no ill.
"It particularly impressed me that you offered to serve Madelyne for all time.
"Would you do the same…for me?"
Without hesitation, or any fear, Scott: "Yes. I would do the same."
"Good."
She snapped her fingers, and of a sudden the two were on the frightening wasteland that became of Manhattan during the Infernal event.
"…?! I don't…I don't understand…"
"Again, Scott…there's nothing to fear. Do you remember this place?
"This was the place where Cyclops of X-Factor and the Goblin Queen first met. It was a very dark and ugly moment between the two." The Queen walked ahead of Scott as she spoke. "The Queen, filled with fury, blasted away at Cyclops, several times. In time, she met her own terrible end, by her own hand.
"What happened here was something I have always rued, Scott Summers. And I atoned for it, in the afterlife…Madelyne and I alike did, at Mephisto's bidding. Your Queen, she had to atone for hurting people with blasts, by herself being blasted, several times. She had to atone especially for…kind of…sort of…mur…der…ing Sooraya."
This actually happened, as the Goblin Queen took out Dust with a blast to grab her niqab as a disguise during The End.
"Probably what was worst was that the Queen, your Majesty…she had to become a demon herself, in the end…for what she did in converting the Grey parents into demons, during the Infernal time.
"But it was you who brought me back. It was you who broke the spell, and brought back humanity to me and Madelyne. For this, the Goblin Queen thanks you."
Then Scott: "But it will be I who will be indebted to you, Mad…er, Your Majesty. I will serve you, here and for all time. I pledge, I promise this to you."
The woman opposite Scott smiled. She snapped her fingers again. Of a sudden, Scott found himself in an embrace with the Queen, he atop the lady on a small pedestal in Central Park converted most distortedly during the Infernal event.
"Take me, right here, Scott Summers," she said, wrapping her arms around the man, pressing her semi-clothed body against his.
"Although first...you must join me as a subject in my Goblin Kingdom."
"I will, my lady. I will join you as your Goblin Slave."
"No."
"Yes. I insist."
"Absolutely not," the lady returned, with her irisless, pupilless eyes. "I will not allow it. The Goblin Queen has no use for a Goblin Slave. Her Majesty wants you to be her Goblin King."
Scott shook his head. "No. I will not; my wish is to serve you. Besides…David Bowie's already the Goblin King. Remember? We saw it, in Labyrinth, when we rented it on Betamax, back in the day…"
Then Scott remembered he wasn't talking to Madelyne here.
"The Goblin Queen knows not of this…Bait-a-Max.
"She only knows that she must have her King."
Scott ignored this, as aroused as he was by his lady in any form, and set himself to kissing her thighs, her stomach, the bottoms of her partially exposed breasts.
"You kiss like a ravenous creature, Scott," the Queen said, allowing herself to relax and revel in the man's maneuvers. "Like a…rebel in my Goblin Court." It then occurred to her.
And to Scott at the same time. "I've got it," he said between kisses, making his way up to his lady's face. "I will be your rebel, my lady…with a title that sounds like a cross between 'King' and 'Slave,' sort of…"
"Of course," said the Queen. "You will henceforth, and for all time, be…the Queen's very own Goblin Knave."
"Yes," said Scott, himself feeling his eyes change as he too would now and evermore lose his pupils and irises, in this transformation as did Madelyne when she became the Queen. Scott was still otherwise bodily the same, but his clothes became as sexily tattered as those of his lady, the two embracing, kissing, and making love to no end in this afterlife. By each morning, the two would always regain the fullness of their innocence and their eyes.
"The Goblin Knave's romantic overtures…are very pleasing…to Her Majesty…" the Queen would say, in a paroxysm of pleasure, time and again as Scott would mostly say nothing, but continue setting to work on pleasuring his Majesty.
"I'm so sorry, Maddy...Majesty...Madelyne. I'm so sorry about everything..." he would say, begging for the pall of guilt to be lifted from him. Night after night he would say this, not at all by her demand but voluntarily on his own. Each time, when his face would pass hers in the ensuing instants of their lovemaking, she would kiss him heartfully, drowning his sorrow with her grace.
"I forgive you, Scott...as both Madelyne Pryor and as the Goblin Queen. Just...hold me...stay with me."
"Always...always, my Queen."
And then she would reply with a warm smile as he would recite this oath every night-a vow which he would definitively keep this time, now and for all time, during all evenings in this afterlife, Scott staying true to his word by pleasing his Majesty in every way imaginable, just as he would for Madelyne during the day, the man kissing and licking every square centimeter of his mistress's deliciously magnificent body as she shuddered with the laziest sort of gratification, as she softly, slowly coursed her hands along his supplicating shoulders in appreciation; then, to complete this quotidian foreplay of forgiveness from Queen To Knave, Her Majesty pulling her man up to her face to engage him in the most smothering of kisses, and for the intimate areas of their forms to parley with one another in the warmest, most peaceful, most rhythmic kind of liaising. Then Scott, having achieved the most absolving of atonements from his lady, nestling and settling into his Queen's arms as he rested atop her to sleep soundly.
And so it would continue, for the two of them, by day it being Scott and Madelyne, or perhaps Cyclops and Anodyne on occasion, either way kissing and embracing and making love in the clouds; by night it was the Goblin Queen and her Goblin Knave, making love on that pedestal in Manhattan, in that place where the two once opposed each other, but now all the more sweetly and gratifyingly came together again and again and again. And through all of this, Christopher was cared for, loved, part of the family as well.
The most moving ballad between the two lovers, though-which made both Scott and Madelyne cry tears of happiness, and make readers and even this author croak tons of hurling, was one which came out in 1983-the year this man and woman first met-and which was written by Sergio Mendes, whose initials respectively matched that of the members of this couple (although the two did not engage in any "S" and "M" otherwise-the closest thing being the abovementioned Central Park romps):
Scott/Cyclops (holding Madelyne/Anodyne as they slow dance on the Cloud in Heaven):
I was as wrong as I could be
To let myself run away from thee
I'll regret that move for as long as I'm afterliving
But now that I've come to see the light
All I wanna do is make things right
So just say the word, and tell me I'm forgiven (here, Madelyne/Anodyne nods tenderly, and some readers lose their lunch)
You and me, we're gonna be better than we were before,
I loved you then but now I intend, to open up, and love you even mohohohohohore,
This time you can be suuuuuure...
I'm never gonna let you go,
I'm gonna hold you in my arms forever,
Gonna go and make up for all the times, I hurt you sohohohohoho,
Gonnnnnna, hold your body close to mine,
From this day on we're gonna be together,
Oh I swear this time, I'm never gonna let you gooooooooooo.
Madelyne/Queen (holding Scott/Knave as they slow dance atop the pedestal in Inferno Central Park):
Looking back now it seems so clear,
I had it all when you were here,
Oh and thennnnnn you left,
And I zapped you in the-assssss,
But if there's some feeling left in you, (Madelyne/Queen grabs Scott/Knave's ass here to connote "feeling left in you...and that zapped ass of yours")
Some flicker of love that still shines through,
Let's talk it out, let's talk about second chance-ass (Had to rhyme with line above; you can take the word/phrase as "chances" or "chance, Ass")
Eleven out of ten readers decide upon reading the above line to go with the latter option
Wait and see, it's gonna be, sweeter than it was befohohohore,
I gave some then but now I intend, to dedicate myself to giving more,
This time you can be suuuuuure...
I'm never gonna let you go,
I'm gonna hold you in my arms forever,
Gonna go and make up for all the times, I hurt you sohohohohoho,
Gonnnnnna, hold your body close to mine,
From this day on we're gonna be together,
Oh I swear this time, I'm never gonna let you gooooooooooo.
[AIRNN-NAIRR-NAIRR, NAIRR-NAIRR-NAIRR...] (Eardrum-obliterating Eighties guitar solo that makes readers lose their dinners and even this author have his last week's meals repeat on him)
Madelyne/Anodyne (to Scott/Cyclops in the clouds):
Ohhhhh, so if you'll just say you want me too, IIIII'm... (Scott/Cyclops nods eagerly, and all readers as well as this author die of diabetic schmaltz shock)
Never gonna let you go,
I'm gonna hold you in my arms forever,
Gonna go and make up for all the times, I hurt you sohohohohoho,
Gonnnnnna, hold your body close to mine,
From this day on we're gonna be together,
Oh I swear this time, I'm never gonna let you gooooooooooo.
Cyclops/Knave (to Madelyne/Queen in the park):
NMMH MMH MMH MMH MMH MMH MMH! (Madelyne/Queen is too busy kissing Scott/Knave to keep him from taking the song most awfully up the octave)
MMH MHH MHH MHH MHH MHH MHH MHH...
And so the two, in both their forms of night and day, kissed and held each other and sang into each other's eyes, to the edification of their love and the liquefaction of the ears and spleens and other vital segments of the constitutions of readers here and this author as well.
THE END
ACTUAL ENDING: CLOSED RELATIONSHIP (VERSION TWO)
Everything from the first version happened more or less the same way here as well...it was just that Mads was a bit different, here, in this reality.
As Scott slept from the first day of lovemaking to Madelyne, the two of them in their bed in the clouds, a hand upon his shoulder once again in the night.
Again he turned to see the soft, delicate hand attached to the end of a darkened, navy blue sleeve.
"Mad...?"
"Who else, chum?"
And then the lady snapped her fingers.
The two were now surrounded not by the blackened flagstones of New York proper, but rather the quaint, quiet graveyard of a college in upstate New York.
Scott turned and turned where he stood, then understood. "This is..."
Madelyne spread her tattered sapphire cloak about her. "Yep, Scotty...it's the resting place for your first-but not best-lady love."
Cyke didn't need to see a sign nearby to know that this was Bard College-the educational institution whose cemetery held the supposed remains of the Great Grey One (although in reality it really had, at most, the ashes of the Galactic Doppelganger featured in Gluttony).
The man felt a shiver rush through. When his lady placed a hand upon his shoulder, he turned, trembling.
"Madelyne...I..."
He was afraid of so many things right now. That the woman before him would blast him to atoms. That she would transform him, as she did Jean's parents, right in this very place, just as the Infernal affair was heating up.
"I..."
"Shhhhh, my little Goblin Peasant," the Queen chided softly as she placed a hand to her husband's lips. "No need to be afraid. I'm not going to hurt you."
Scott looked down and noticed that, as was the case in this ending's first version, he was wearing his blue and white X-Factor uniform, but in arousing tatters similar to those that Her Majesty wore.
Both Cyke and Mads were also in possession of their pupils right now, as well, and here they would continue to be; no filmy whitenesses in place of eyes.
"When I was last here, Scott...I was accompanied by a demon, but haunted by a vision of the happiest day of my life. That happiness ended...but a new one has now come to take its place. The two of us must christen this new happiness, however.
"I want us, Scott...to take our vows here again. I want the sacred oaths we recite to be real, and not just an illusion among the gravestones, as I saw here before. I am confident too now that, given that you literally went through Hell for me, for my sake, that you will keep those vows now."
The Goblin Peasant dropped to his knees, grasped her hand, kissed it, felt the warmth of her rosy thigh against his cheek.
"Yes, Majesty. Anything. Anything for my Queen."
She spread her other, gentle hand along the top of his head as he continued to kiss her first hand, her thigh in a starved need for redemption.
A minute later, Madelyne tapped his shoulder and motioned. Scott then rose to his feet and faced her fully, looked into her glimmering green eyes as she looked into his beautiful brown eyes in turn (so that here, Scott in general was neither cursed by optic energies nor demoniac cataracts).
Madelyne thrust forward and snuffed Scott's breath with the most heartful of kisses. As she did so, the man felt his lady's body crush against his, felt her arms grasping tighter than ever, felt her tears against his cheek.
When the two stood a foot apart again a moment later, they both found that tears were flowing from their eyes. The Peasant took his Queen's hands.
"I , Scott Summers, hereby renew my oath to you, Madelyne Pryor, to promise to be true to you in good times and in bad..."
And as he spoke, his lady looked upon him lovingly, she who, here, was both Madelyne and Goblin Queen all at once, in contrast with the ending's first version. Simply enough, during the day here, Scott was Cyclops and Madelyne was her Bronze Age, Sometimes-Anodyne self; at night, Scott was the Goblin Peasant who adored and served Madelyne, who was his Modern Age Goblin Queen here, but a pleasant and beneficent one who forgave and made love to the man, returned it to him as he unerringly provided it to her.
THE END
ALTERNATE ENDING: OPEN RELATIONSHIP
In this instance, which somewhat flies in the face of this entire adventure, Scott and Madelyne are still together…most of the time.
What happens here, in this Heaven, is that each person gets five spouses. One spouse is devoted much, much more time than the others, and becomes what this author will call, for lack of a better term, the Super Mario Brothers Two Contributor Spouse (or SMBTCS). It's like in SMB Two when there's the one character who is used more than the others, and becomes the "Contributor"…nevermind. Anyways, the advantages the SMBTCS gets over the other spouses is that he or she spends the most time by far with the other spouse (who in turn is his or her own SMBTCS of his or her own grouping of five); also, there may be some other small perks, like each SMBTCS getting a special large-size drink at the local eatery in Heaven in honor of their being with one another, instead of with the other spouses.
Here's how it breaks down for Scott: 66% of the time, basically from like what would be Monday to Friday in Heaven, is spent with Madelyne/Goblin Queen. 16% of the time is spent with Jean Grey. 9% of the time is spent with Emma Frost (for their children's sake, as well as each other a bit). 6% of the time is spent with the Alien Clone Phoenix (for Rachel's sake, as well as each other a bit). 3% of the time is spent with Lee Forrester.
For Madelyne, 66% of the time is spent with Scott/Goblin Knave. 16% of the time is spent with Alex Summers, which is a bit weird considering they are brothers, but what the hell. 9% of the time is spent with John Greycrow, or Scalphunter. 6% of the time is spent with Cameron Hodge (for these last two, please read this author's Maddy Sues story and you will get it). 3% is spent with "Ridge" (this is very obscure, so this author will tell you: See UXM170, as she mentions him; this author just retconned that and stuff).
Scott and Madelyne loved each other so much, in this reality as well, that even though they saw others on the weekends—with Scott having Jean Grey, and Madelyne with John Greycrow, and Scott having Phoenix, while Madelyne had Alex—Scott and Madelyne really lived, or afterlived as it were, for the weekdays here.
As for the others, this author does not have all the percentages worked out, but here are some possible groupings:
Jean Grey: Warren Worthington (SMBTCS), Hank McCoy, Bobby Drake (what the hell), Scott Summers, …Ted Roberts (obscure guy from early in X-Men mythos…also to troll Wolverine fans, 'cause he ain't coming anywhere near Jean here…it's Heaven after all).
Warren Worthington: Jean Grey (SMBTCS), Candy Southern, Elisabeth Braddock, Kwannon, Charlotte Jones.
Hank McCoy: Abigail Brand (SMBTCS), Vera Cantor, Trish Trilby, Jean Grey, Synthia Naip (see X-Factor: Prisoner of Love one-shot)
Bobby Drake: Himself (SMBTCS), Opal Tanaka, Infectia, Lorna Dane, Zelda Kurtzberg (See like fifty years ago...literally)
Emma Frost: Sebastian Shaw (SMBTCS), Scott Summers, Namor, Tony Stark, Ian Kendell (See Emma Frost Limited Series)
Alexander Summers: Lorna Dane (SMBTCS), Madelyne Pryor, Leila O'Toole (Look Up "Plasma"), Annie Ghazikhanian, Rahne Sinclair (this last because at least at one point Rahne was crazy about Alex, and it turned out here that he felt for her a bit as well)
Alright, alright, Wolverine: Multiple choice for SMBTCS, reader's choice, between either Mariko Yashida, Kayla Silverfox, or Rose O'Hara (You see? He can have a redhead SMBTCS after all. Everybody relax). Otherwise, Yukio, and…Neena Thurman/Domino, this author doesn't know.
And on and on.
The overly appropriate theme song to this arrangement (and Ending) was a ballad whose title was similar to the aboveperformed "Never Gonna Let You Go," although this one was far more heartfelt and stirring. Its video was as well-known as its melody, if not moreso; in fact, the video representation of this song was regarded as being so essential to the operation of online interaction that its recital oftentimes even preempted transmissions of other messages which were certainly less important.
What went on in the video was unmistakably familiar-its opening seconds branded upon the brains of everyone from the current generation, and onward into eternity. It started with the most dapper pair of loafers, tapping out the rhythm, followed by the shoes' wearer-here, portrayed by none other than Scott Summers, he splaying his body out into some semblance of a dance which was altogether too awesome to comprehend. One shot following featured the man's hair up close, which here was dyed and configured into a pseudo-pompadour on the rise, in time with the rhythm. When the man jerked his hands to the left and to the right in some sort of sexily epileptic cadence, surely all viewers female and male alike reached a climax of intimate pique in turn.
Then followed the dancers, portrayed for one by Emma Frost in a pleasant cream sundress, she in Mister Summers's shades as well, and spinning around and around; the other was Lee Forrester, not sharing the same amount of screen time as the former, but bound up in a skintight black leotard and shaking some bombastic booty for the second and a half she was onscreen.
Quiddle (who thankfully remained quiet here) and Barack Obama played dueling, dancing bartenders as the Everlasting ScottRoll commenced its lyrical lays:
We're no strangers to lerrrrr-ave...
(at least that's how that last word of the first line sounds, to this author)
You know the rules, and so, do I, do I, do I...
In any case, everyone was happy in the end, and they visited each other as friends otherwise, and there was never any fighting or discord at all…
…though Scott found that he did have to work hard at times to efface the presence of plums, signifying one of his life's greatest unfulfilled lust-based temptations, that dropped around the edge of his cloud on occasion.
THE END
AFTERWORD
I hope you all enjoyed reading all the chapters of this story. Scott has always been my favorite X-Male, and Madelyne has always been my favorite X-Female (meaning, female character in the X-Men stories), and this story was meant to bring them back together after so long. Their union in the Eighties was a beautiful thing, and to me it was a tragedy that Marvel split them apart. I know that the endings here (the two versions of the Actual Ending) are really schmaltzy, but I just wanted these two to belong to one another, and for them to heal fully from the hurt that happened all those years. Version One's Madelyne (which was also the Madelyne from Circle Eight, and I suppose Nine also) is also the Simonson X-Factor Inferno Goblin Queen, which was a bit more insane than sexy, if I may say so (especially with the whited eyes in X-Factor #37 at least). The Madelyne from Version Two's Ending is more like the Claremont X-Men Inferno Goblin Queen, who had her pupils/irises always and was more sexy than insane, again if I may say so. I couldn't decide here, on revision, which Queen I liked more, so I decided to do both here. All in all, I hope that everyone enjoyed reading this story as much as I enjoyed writing it; really it was fun and I would look forward to doing another story with Scott and Madelyne, my favorite OTP, in the near future as well.