Once A Hero
X-Men/Star Wars*, AU, Cyclops, he was in the middle of a war and he didn't even know how he got there!
*Abby Ebon fails as this is X-Men/Star Trek.
Somewhere along the way, things went wrong. Lilandra had, in an effort of peace between the Shi'ar Empire and X-Men had asked Scott and Jean Grey to accompany them in uncovering the nature of an anomaly. The scientist in Jean hadn't been able to say no, let alone risk the possibility of adding insult to injury, so Scott had gone along with her. Now, Jean was no where he could find her (and Scott had always, always felt her presence within his mind though she never took when he had offered to share of his mind with her freely) the Shi'ar weren't answering any communication he tried, and Scott had the sinking feeling he was very, very lost.
And then things went insane. Scott was there as, out of thunder and lightning, something that looked both foreign and familiar peered out of a storm in space. Then ships come from nothing in a blink of light, over and over, and there were names on those ships, Scott read them, saw with his own eyes that they were from Earth, because he recognized the letters and designs and though it was impossible it was somehow happening. Scott couldn't breathe around the possibilities, around the awe and amazement he felt, and then it went to hell.
That fragile and alien ship plowed into the other vessels with beams of red light like teeth and claws, ripping into what had looked solid and reassuring as if they were paper, and Scott learned one important lesson that day, as he listened to those ships – filled with people – as they fought and screamed and begged, that the appearance of what was alien was deceiving. He'd never trust them again as he had been willing to.
Scott shook and cried, seeing those ships and people murdered, and then there was another ship – and he thought he was going to see it all over again (again and again and when would it ever stop?) – but, no, the alien ship did nothing, but Scott picked up the communication because something's never changed and the Shi'ar were good scientists and damn good explorers for a reason.
So, Scott learned that murderers name – "Nero", he was looking for a Vulcan named Spock, and had found him (but not him, this one was too young?) on the ship called Enterprise. And maybe that was enough for now, because Scott was determined that he would die before he let Nero get what he wanted. Scott saw the alien ship launch something into the planet's atmosphere, dangling there – and when it started up he saw it for what it was under all that alien disguise (because he never wanted to be so fooled again), and maybe in space no one should be able to hear you scream, but Scott had lived and loved a telepath, and when a world cried out, Scott heard it and it broke his heart to hear.
So he risked it, and, yes, maybe he was acting the part of a hero, but it was the right thing to do, taking his ship – barely a dot in the eye compared to what Nero and the Enterprise were, and he hung there beside where the disk became the drilling of a beam, and he took off the glasses that gave him the name of Cyclops and it was enough – more then enough – to save a planet, and those people below, they somehow knew (or so he felt) that they recognized him, what he had done – it was enough. It didn't end this war that wasn't his, but it was a start in the right direction. He closed his eyes and put the glasses on, and it was too late to reconsider when he saw his hand dissolving with white lights, Scott thought he was dying, but he was alive and breathing and people were looking at him, with curiosity, with awe, and yes (he wasn't imagining things) – some of them had pointed ears, and beneath the calm in them was something terrifying, because they were the voices of the world he had saved, and they felt things too deeply for him to name. It was war, he felt and heard, but it was love too – for him, and it was a thin line between the two.