Mutation

Disclaimer

I do not own the rights to any of the characters in this story, and make no claims to the artistic visions of the marvel universe. I know nothing of the sexuality of any of the creators, actors, or characters involved in the Marvel universe. Similarly, this story contains graphic descriptions of gay male sex. If you don't like that, then you should probably avert your eyes.

This story takes place in an alternate X-Men universe from the one in which the 3rd movie took place. Certain events occurred after X2 which changed the timeline. Jean, Scott and Professor X are all still alive. The specifics of the timeline changes may be made apparent as the story progresses.

Chapter 16 -- "The Fall of the House of Magneto"

"Something wicked this way comes" -- Witch #2, Macbeth: William Shakespeare

Storm paced impatiently around the room while everyone else sat. The leaders of the Alliance had gathered to discuss the rapidly deteriorating war. They sat in the hexagonal War Room aboard the U.S.S. Basilisk, flagship of Admiral Nealson's Pacific Fleet. Around them were displayed many projections, maps of the U.S, scout reports, graphs, and satellite pictures. Storm was on frayed nerves, having been forced to take over as leader of the X-Men with the capture of Cyclops.

Since the Battle of New York and the disappearances of both Alex and Scott, everything had gone downhill. The entire east coast was lost to the Brotherhood, and there were rumors that attacks were starting to occur in Canada and Mexico. Rumors were all they could go on, since conventional communications were still down. The Brotherhood armies seemed to swell daily, with new recruits from Mexico and Canada and (unknown to the Alliance) fresh batches of human-turned-mutants. A sizable portion of the Navy under the command of ally Admiral Nealson was decimated during the Battle of New York, first in The Phoenix's arrival, where she tore apart ships with her mind, and then in the sudden tidal wave. They were running short on resources, and the Brotherhood was only gaining more.

"Scout reports are showing signs that the Brotherhood is preparing to invade three major cities; Chicago, Dallas, and Cleveland" reported Hank McCoy. "We are too spread out; we don't have the ability to defend all three cities."

"I agree" said Storm. "They have more resources than we do, and the U.S. military has all but destroyed itself trying to stop them. They even tried to nuke New York after it fell, but they couldn't even succeed at that." Her frustration was beginning to seep into her tone of voice.

"We need to hit them back" growled a voice from the corner. All attention shifted to Wolverine. "And we need to hit them hard."

"But where?" asked Admiral Nealson. "We don't know much about their infrastructure."

"We know from interrogations that Magneto has based his operations on an uncharted island somewhere in the northern Atlantic Ocean" stated Emma Frost. "It would be logical to assume that he has a sizeable amount of his most precious resources, equipment, and personnel kept there, it is likely that it is the center of their infrastructure."

"Hitting this target would clearly undermine the Brotherhood war effort" replied Peter Parker. "However we don't have the location of this island, and we don't have nearly the resources needed to find it."

"I could have ships search the northern Atlantic in a grid search pattern, and attempt to locate it that way" offered Admiral Nealson.

"We do not have the ships available to do this and protect our remaining interests on the Atlantic coast at the same time" stated Professor Xavier.

"That is correct sir; however my ships have not been highly effective in defending against these particular foes. I would wager that this is a more productive use of my men's lives."

"You would use fewer ships if I use my satellites to coordinate the search" offered Dr. Reed Richards, Mr. Fantastic. "I don't have enough to do it with just the satellites, but together it would only take a couple of months to search the entire area."

"We don't have months, the war will be lost by then" said Emma, flatly. "We need an immediate target, one that will hurt them and slow their advance. Maybe even one that will make them think we are stronger than we really are."

"Boston" said Wolverine. "It was the first place they attacked, and it is their strongest base of power besides the island. If we hit them there, and hard, maybe we can hurt them."

Alex winced in pain at the piercingly bright light that blinded him when he opened his eyes. He waited a few moments for his eyes to adjust before peaking through again. The light was still painfully bright, but he could see, not that there was much to see. Before him was a seemingly endless stretch of dry, barren dessert. The sky was clear, cloudless and blue, and high above was the brilliant hot sun, casting down scalding heat upon the wasteland. There was nothing to see but sand and sky.

As he woke up he suddenly began to feel the intense aches and pains running through his body. He looked down to see that his skin was badly burned from the sun, he had no idea how long he had been in it. He looked was tied to a random metal pole, wearing only tattered black briefs. His skin was badly sunburned and exceedingly dry. His lips were so chapped they felt as though they were bleeding, and his throat burned when he breathed. His eyelids felt like sandpaper when he blinked, his corneas were red from the irritation.

Alex tried to pull free of the ropes, but was tied much too tight, and his body was weak from fatigue. How long was it since he had eaten? Having failed to move so much as an inch, he called on his powers instead. With a sudden, sickening realization he realized that there were almost no water molecules for him to use. The air, the sand, the ropes and the pole were all nearly devoid of water molecules. Even his body was so dry that he could not extract his own water to use to free himself, or it would kill him. He was trapped, powerless. This fact did not instill terror or panic in him at all, which was somewhat of a surprise. His heart was still filled with a dull numb ache, and seemed to still be devoid of most normal human emotions.

"Good, you're finally awake" said a voice from behind him. He could not turn around, but the voice's owner soon walked around in front of him. He recognized the mutant, medium height, spiky blonde hair and blue-gray eyes; this was Electrode. But why was he here? And where had he come from?

"Where am I?" Alex asked, the words burning in his throat as he spoke them.

"This is our version of the Danger Room" Electrode answered, as he paced back and forth in front of Alex. "This is all a simulation, but it is so real, down to the molecules, that I think you will find that even you cannot see past it. This simulation is of 5000 miles of desert in all directions, and a sun that never sets. You will never find enough water to use to escape." Electrode smiled a sick, evil smile. There was a dark happiness, a sick pleasure behind his eyes at seeing Alex in his predicament. Then he punched him in the face.

Alex's head snapped to the side from the unexpected hit, the world swam around him in his dehydrated brain. He spat out the blood that spilled into his mouth, and was surprised to see the crimson stain in the sand. Red blood? He hadn't bled real red blood in a year, and it seemed as alien to him as green blood would have seemed to anyone else. He was so severely dehydrated that his body had been forced to revert to real flesh and blood. He registered this fact with irritation, but still was not afraid. He had been mortal before.

"What do you want?" Alex asked, sounding irritated and disinterested.

"Well the bosses want information from you. They would prefer that you willingly give it to them, to come over to our side, and therefore I am obligated to ask you if you will cooperate." Electrode sounded irritated to have to ask the question. He idly cracked his fingers as golden tendrils of lightning traveling between them.

"No, I won't help you. The Phoenix tricked my Caleb into hating me, turned him into a monster, and just when I got him back, she killed him" Alex responded, his voice thick with a cold hatred. "I will never help you." Electrode smiled.

"Good. Because what I want is for you to suffer a long and painful death." With no further ado, Electrode gestured his right hand toward Alex, and from his fingers came small bolts of golden lightning. The electrical discharges struck Alex in the chest and lit all of his nerves on fire, sending excruciating pain shooting to his brain. He tried not to scream, did not want to give Electrode the satisfaction, but he could not help it.

"Why?" Alex asked once the attack ceased. He asked not because he really cared what this man felt or thought, but because he hoped to use the information to his advantage.

"Because you are not the only one who lost someone you cared about" Electrode answered before sending another bolt coursing through Alex. "Remember Holy? The man you tortured and nearly killed? The one whose insides you burned with lightning? The one left horribly scarred both inside and out?" Electrode sent a bolt into Alex to punctuate each question. "He was mine. He was my.....my everything."

"I didn't kill Holy" Alex pointed out, his voice even coarser than before due to pain.

"No, you didn't. I hear that was a man named Ghost. I will have my vengeance on him eventually but you are the one I owe far more pain to. Holy suffered horribly at your hand, and told me himself that you made him wish for death. All because you can't control your temper. No, Ghost I will kill quickly and without too much fuss, but you will die very very slowly." Electrode leaned in close to Alex, so close that their noses nearly touched. The two sets of blue eyes bored into each other, once filled with fiery anger, the other a cold, calculating hatred. As Alex looked into Electrode's eyes, he could see tiny tendrils of electrical energy pass within them.

Electrode placed his hand on Alex's bare chest and sent electricity through his body, the highest voltage yet. This attack did not stop after a few seconds like the others, but seemed to go on forever. Alex tried not to scream again, but succeeded only in biting harshly into his lip and drawing blood before screaming loud enough to make his lungs hurt. Alex could distinctly smell the odor of burning flesh right before the world returned to blackness.

"God damn it" said Dr. Halden, shaking his head in frustration. He had been trying for days to re-activate his powers, the one which had allowed him to see the patterns of life energy within Caleb's body. He stood hunched over the block of ice, which had yet to even begin to melt.

"You're pushing yourself too hard" said Elixir, who stood nearby. "You can't master your powers overnight. It takes most people years, even their whole lives to do that."

"I know that. But they keep appearing at random, allowing me, us, to heal almost everyone who comes in in record time, but I can't use them when I want to. I need to be able to map out his condition. I could see it so clearly at first, could see where his life energy was still inside him, how his nerve cells had not degraded at all. We can bring him back, with you healing him and me guiding you. I know we can."

Elixir put his hand on Dr. Halden's shoulder and said "I think we have time. If Dr. McCoy's analysis of this ice is correct, this ice won melt on its own for a thousand years, and Caleb's body won't decay until then. We have time."

"We have time before he decays yes, but we don't have time before this war is over. He was on their side, a general in the Brotherhood army, he can help us. If what Psionic said is true, Caleb reverted to his old self again before he was killed, he would join with us, he would help."

"You mean as long as he stayed human."

Dr. Halden looked up at this, confused. "What do you mean?"

"Well you and Dr. McCoy said that your brain scans of Caleb showed that his secondary mutation caused a growth in his brain which caused unnatural and uncontrollable hatred and anger. Those parts are gone now, but there is a high likelihood that the Cure will not last, and if those parts re-grow, he will be completely unpredictable and untrustworthy."

"That is a good point, I hadn't considered it." Dr. Halden put rubbed his red eyes with his hands, the weariness beginning to catch up to him. "Any ideas?"

"Well," said Elixir, "I could probably remove the X-genes from his DNA the same way I added them to yours."

"Yes, that might work, but could his body put up with the strain? Especially after such a traumatic experience like death and resurrection?"

Elixir smiled, his golden eyes twinkling and metallic-gold skin shining. "Aren't you getting ahead of yourself? We still have a lot of work to do before we can even consider bringing him back, IF that is even possible."

"It is possible, I saw it."

"Well then, we need more practice. Come on, let's go see Professor X, he has more experience than anyone in training mutants in their powers."

Will stood on the deck of the Helicarrier Alpha, the flagship and headquarters of S.H.E.I.L.D. The craft was half the mass of a Navy aircraft carrier, and was equipped with enough helicopter-like blades and jets to hover high in the air and fly from place to place. It was rectangular in shape and had two side-by-side landing strips from which to launch assault craft, which could be raised into place by large elevators at the back of the carrier. The craft lacked the typical tower atop an aircraft carrier, but had a large number or operations decks, living quarters, and training stations below the landing pad. The command center was located below the front portion of the flight deck, three floors covered with yellow tinted windows to shield from the bright sun.

The top secret government security force S.H.E.I.L.D. was small, the only part of the government which studied and utilized superhuman abilities. They were a powerful tool of the United States, and now they were on the side of the Alliance.

Will looked down over the side of the railing, but saw only the tops of the clouds. He imagined that he could see straight down to the eastern coast of Boston, was even tempted to command the clouds to part in order to see it, but he was not so foolish.

"The calm before the storm" Will heard from behind him. He turned and saw Ororo striding toward him, her silver cape shining in the un-obscured sunlight. Her white hair was almost blindingly bright.

"It's hard to wait like this. This war has been going on for months, but I'm still terrible at waiting on the edge of a fight." Will grinned sheepishly, for once actually showing how young he was.

Storm smiled. "You'll get used to it. In fact, you have been performing remarkably since the start of all of this, we are all very glad that you joined the team." Will blushed at the compliment, his seafoam green eyes shining bright.

"Thank you. I'm glad to be a part of the team, and even more glad to be welcome in it." Shifting gears, Will asked "have you been able to determine strategic targets yet?" The Alpha supported a huge sensor array, and strategic experts were pouring over the data. They had been over Boston for two days now, undetected and preparing for an attack. The hull was lined with materials which deflected RADAR and telepathic detection, so they should be safe as long as nobody happened to see them floating above the city. Hence staying behind the clouds.

"A few, but only about half of the main city has been thoroughly scanned, and we haven't even touched the outlying towns" answered Storm.

"Well we know that there if nothing else, this city is important because it was the first one the Brotherhood occupied. They feel strongest here, and any strike here will shake them."

Any further conversation was cut off by a blaring alarm which split the air.

"Incoming unidentified contacts, all hands man your battle stations" blared the voice of an unknown S.H.E.I.L.D. crewman. Will and Storm met eyes briefly and ran toward the nearest entrance to the main Helicarrier superstructure. They did not want to be caught on the flight deck if the helicarrier needed to maneuver.

"What's going on?" Storm asked when they reached the command deck. Technicians ran back and forth responding to the emergency. Nick Fury, commander of S.H.E.I.L.D. stood in the center barking orders.

"We're under attack, three fighters with Brotherhood markings" answered Colonel Fury. "We're scrambling alert fighters now."

The on-alert fighters were launched, and the attackers quickly dispatched, but not before one of the fighters got a missile through the Alpha's defenses. The missile struck the helicarrier in the port side, blowing out one of the main hover-jet clusters. The floor became uneven under Will's feet as the craft listed to the side and began to lose altitude.

"Are we going down?" asked Will, who barely managed to keep the alarm from his voice. Despite the fact that Will had no rank whatsoever, his power compelled a technician to answer him.

"No sir, but we have lost considerable control. And the explosion has ruined all chance of remaining stealth."

"We need to either run or attack now" declared Fury.

Wolverine, who had entered just after Will and Storm, spoke for everyone. "Let's hit em now."

Alex's screams died as Electrode cut off the flow of electricity into his body. He glared at Electrode with a cold malice in his eyes as his body continued to twitch from residual charge.

The torture had been going on for over a week. Every day Electrode came in, demanding the answers to questions that he did not really want Alex to answer. When Alex refused, the torture began. Infrequently, Electrode would pause to ask more questions. Alex became less and less interested in resisting for the sake of the Alliance and more interested in refusing only to prove that he was stronger than Electrode. That fact was becoming less and less true by the hour.

Alex had not eaten or drank in the entire time he had been a captive. A normal human would have died, but Alex's body had so much more water in it than normal that he had managed to survive thus far, but he was coming to his limits. His skin was horribly burned, both by sun and lightning. He bled freely from a dozen or more wounds, his lips were ragged and dry. His eyes were painfully red, and he could scarcely speak through his raw throat. His heart was beating irregularly in his chest; all the electrical discharges had interrupted the normal pacemaker signal. He was dying, slowly, but certainly. He could not keep this up.

Electrode stalked in front of Alex, watched as the man struggled to breathe. There was a sick glee rising inside him, a joy that left a sour taste in his mouth. He felt tainted by it, but could not resist it. It made him feel strong and just, even though he felt less and less of his soul as he pushed further.

"I will ask you one more time" said Electrode, who watched absently as golden lightning traveled between his fingertips. "Where is the Alliance secondary base? Where did the leadership go after the fall of New York?"

Alex would have laughed if he were capable of it. "You captured me DURING the fall of New York, how would I know?" Lightning flashed past his ear, the heat singeing him but not actually causing any harm.

"I know that. And we both know that there must have been a contingency plan. No group would put all their eggs in one basket. If the Xavier Mansion and the Baxter Building fell, where would you have gone to find your friends?"

Alex hadn't thought about his friends in days. He had stopped thinking about much of anything that wasn't the throbbing ache of physical and emotional pain. He looked back on his memories and was strangely uncomforted by them. He did not feel joy to think of them, or sadness for missing them. He did not feel surprised to be lacking these feelings, nor shame for not holding them dearer. He registered all of this with a cold disinterest. He simply didn't care about anything anymore.

"Well, it is obvious you don't want to help yourself" said Electrode, seeing that Alex was no longer even paying attention to him. He looked over the miserable form of the fallen mutant, and knew that Alex would not survive much more. Electrode found that he enjoyed this moment significantly less than he had hoped. "It's time for you to die."

Electrode placed his hand directly on Alex's forehead, the edges crackled with power. The lightning coursed directly from Electrode's hand and into Alex's brain, setting every nerve ending alight. Alex's eyes opened wide as the searing white fire exploded in his mind, sending his thoughts every which way.

All he could think about was the fact that he was going to die, and that he really didn't care.

The helicarrier Alpha burst through the cloud layer above Boston, trailing fire and smoke. The heavy artillery cannons and bright red cutting lasers lashed out in all directions, sowing a rain of chaos on the occupied city. The gunners aimed at every strategically significant target they had detected, blowing apart defensive weapons, supply depots, communications systems, and anything which seemed important. Fighter jets and assault helicopters struggled to take off from the carrier to meet the incoming Brotherhood defenders. Explosions ripped apart the air as a storm began to coalesce out of nothing. Lightning strikes added to the chaos as Storm directed the tempest. Two figures in metal armor flew away from the helicarrier, Iron Man and War Machine. The pair paved their own path of destruction through the city. Unseen to the various combatants, a small transport launched off of the Alpha, bringing a small team away from the fighting and toward

a small cluster of unassuming yet heavily defended tall buildings.

Echo piloted the craft with amazing skill, his own personal radar detecting all obstacles. Storm sat beside him, her eyes white and mind adrift in the storm she was unleashing. Will and Wolverine sat behind them and in the last row of seats were Johnny Storm and his sister Susan Storm, the Invisible Woman.

"This isn't exactly how I expected this attack to go" said Johnny. "I kind of expected, I don't know, a PLAN."

"We have a plan" answered Will.

"Charging into a Brotherhood base with unknown defenses and only speculated strategic value hardly counts as a plan" said Susan.

"I like it" said Wolverine, a metal-on-metal grinding ringing as he extended his claws.

The transport approached the base, and they watched as defensive weapons turned towards them, prepared the blast them from the sky. Lightning ripped apart most of the weapons, though some were twisted beyond use by Will's command. The transport flew at high speed into the compound, the displaced air creating a wind which blew defenders and vehicles around, sowing confusion and ruin. They landed atop the largest and most heavily defended building, and quickly escaped sight within it.

The group quickly entered the building through the outer doors, but was slowed down by an inner set of thick steel security doors. These were soon reduced to bubbling liquid by Johnny. As soon as the doors were down, a barrage of energy blasts, flames, and projectiles sailed through to strike down the heroes, but all were stopped suddenly when a shimmering blue force field appeared before them. Susan Storm held out her arms, struggling to hold back the tide with her powers. Will held out his hand and shouted BACK!! His seafoam green eyes flashed with power and an invisible force shoved back the three defenders. As soon as the attacks stopped, the force field dropped and Wolverine jumped through. Very quickly, there was no more fighting.

The group of six stalked through the hallways, not wasting the time to sneak around but simply eliminating any obstacles they encountered. When they came across the command center, Storm shorted out every electronic device with a blast of electricity, which rendered the room useless and its occupants unconscious.

As they traveled lower, Echo began to hear, and therefore `see' a large open room many floors below, deep below street level. As they traveled down, they found security was thicker the closer they got to that chamber.

As they ran down a wide corridor toward the security door which seemed to lead to the large chamber's large security doors, two automated defense guns descended from the ceiling. They spun to target the group, but were obliterated by fire and lightning from Johnny and Storm. Chambers in the sides of the hallway on either side of the group opened, disgorging Brotherhood troops. Wolverine immediately sliced into the nearest one, severing an arm and then a head. Echo used a sonic boom to smash several back into their hidden compartments, slamming them so hard into the metal walls that they fell unconscious. Storm summoned a wind to blow them away, fearing to use lightning in the crowded metal hallway. Three mutants stood against her wind, staggering back but still standing. One threw globs of what looked like liquid mercury at Storm.

Not wanting to know what the metal would do, Will shouted "STOP!!" The globs froze in mid air. He then commanded "BACK!!" and the globs flew backward along their original course, and splashed all over the mutant who launched them. The mutant screamed in pain as the silvery liquid burned into the skin of his face and chest. The second and third mutants attacked together, a stream of violet energy coming from one, razor sharp leaves from the other. Johnny burst forth with a stream of fire, consuming the leaves and setting the leaf-thrower on fire. Susan took the brunt of the energy blast on a force field, while Echo knocked the attacker away with a sonic boom.

The six mutants/mutated humans strode forward through the cleared hallway toward the large metal security doors. Johnny began to exhibit an aura of fire, but Will stopped him.

"We may need those doors intact." He strode forward and commanded the doors to "OPEN!!" With a loud grinding noise, the doors opened to either side despite their powerful locking mechanisms. The group stepped through the doors before Will commanded them to "CLOSE!!"

Before them was something they never expected to see. It was a medical ward, with rows upon rows of beds on either side, holding hundreds of patients. One large wall held many rows of IV bags filled with a strange amber fluid, and every single patient was hooked up to one of these IVs. Most of the patients appeared normal, though several had very obvious mutations. Most seemed healthy but a decent number looked sickly. More than a few beds were empty. Various medical personnel looked up in alarm at the intruders, the six strange people wearing either black leather or shiny blue body suits.

"What is this place?" Wolverine demanded, his nostrils flaring. He had quite an aversion to places that looked like they might be doing mutant experiments.

One of the medical technicians ran for an alarm on the wall, but a command from Will stopped him, and a small flash of lightning from Storm shorted out the alarm system.

"Who is in charge here?" demanded Will, his eyes glowing with a commanding power. A middle aged woman in a white lab coat stepped forward, her gait strange due to the fact that she was obeying his command against her will. "What is this place" he asked her, reiterating Wolverine's question and putting his power behind it.

"We...we're administering a serum" she answered, fighting every word that left her mouth. "An experimental medication."

"This isn't medication is it?" asked Will, his eyes looking straight into hers. She could not look away; the pressure on her mind was far too compelling.

"No. It's....it's a retro...a retrovirus. Created by......by the Phoenix. She made it, and now we synthesize it here."

"A virus? Why would she infect all these people? Especially mutants?"

"None of these people used to be mutants" the doctor answered, her words coming faster now as she lost the will to resist. "A retrovirus inserts genes into existing DNA. This one adds the X-gene to humans, turning them into mutants. Most of them anyway."

"Most?" asked Storm. "What about the rest?"

"10% don't survive the change" the doctor answered, and her face flushed and she glanced away as her guilt overwhelmed her. "Please, most of us aren't doing this of our own free will. They captured us, threatened our..." her words trailed off as she lapsed into unconsciousness, he pressure against her mind becoming too great to handle. Johnny caught her on her way to the ground, and laid her on an empty bed.

"Well I guess we know where the Phoenix has been getting her huge army" said Echo. "She's turning humans into mutants."

"That seems so unlike her" said Storm. "She has nothing but contempt for humanity; she thinks they should serve mutantkind."

"Well in a way they are" said Susan. "She's using them as cannon fodder in the war to conquer humanity. She probably looks at is a way to make humans kill each other while advancing her own cause." He others nodded in agreement.

"Did you kill her?" demanded another doctor, a mid forties man in a white coat. He nodded toward the unconscious doctor on the bed.

"No" answered Will, "she is just sleeping for awhile. She fought me a lot, and it wore her out." It had tired him too, though he would never admit it.

"Well look, she was telling the truth. This place is a new factory for the Superior Retrovirus, the secret weapon of the Brotherhood. And very few of us are here of our own free will."

"Well, you're all free to leave now" said Susan. Several of the medical personnel dropped what hey were doing and made for the doors immediately.

"No so fast" said Wolverine. The doctors and nurses froze, unsure whether or not to disobey the wild looking man. They opted not to take their chances. "First you need to show us where this factory is."

One of the male nurses stepped forward, his desire to hurt the Brotherhood stronger than his fear of Wolverine and his long steel claws. He showed them the hidden way down to the lowest floor in the building, the huge warehouse-like room where the retrovirus was synthesized in large quantities. The scope was massive; the factory produced thousands of doses of retrovirus every day. At Will's command, the crew working the factory floor fled.

"This factory must be destroyed" said Storm. Johnny's body erupted into flames and he took to the air. The Human Torch circled the enormous room, and the air grew intensely hot. The Invisible Woman extended her hands, and a transparent blue force field flowed up from the ground, encapsulating the entire factory floor, and Johnny circling above. The flames built until they filled the entire space beneath the force field. The temperature built until it was capable of liquefying every material in the factory. When the field was released, a wave of intense heat hit the group, causing them all to sweat immediately. The flames died down as hey consumed all available fuel, and all the team could see was a congealing mess of melted components. Nothing in that factory would ever be useful again.

As the electricity coursed through Alex's head, his brain could barely form a thought. His synapses were firing wildly, creating strange and impossible combinations. Nightmarish pictures and inconceivable colors formed in his eyes as his mind attempted to make sense of the chaotically firing within it. The flesh on his forehead blackened and burned, but that pain was insignificant. Eventually the pain and chaos melded into a background of white noise. His entire world had vanished and all he had was the white created by the pain and delirium. He now found that he could accept that pain was a part of life, and that pain was in all things, that it was necessary. He saw at this moment that the world was full of pain, and he accepted this. He saw how people shied away from pain, when they really needed to accept it, embrace it, and let it make them stronger. Through pain, through accepting pain, a person could do the things that were necessary.

Do terrible things to ensure a great future. To change everything, tear apart the corrupt status quo and build up a new world. To take all the pain upon themselves to do what is needed. Sacrifice for the greater good.

The greater good would not be served if he died.

Alex reached out and clung to the only water molecules he could find outside his own body. With his mind he pulled those molecules into himself, seeking to restore his own strength and power. He made a sacrifice, committing one small evil to prevent a larger one. And he would accept the pain of it forever.

Electrode gasped in pain, and could scarcely comprehend what was happening. The only available water molecules that Alex could use were those within Electrode's body. Electrode staggered back, wincing in pain and struggling to breathe. Alex opened his eyes and watched as Electrode's skin began to dry out and turn gray. He appeared to age at a stupendous rate as his skin grew gray and gaunt and his hair shriveled. His blue eyes were open wide, and they lost their color. Tiny, barely visible clusters of water molecules flowed through the air out of Electrode's body and coalesced between the two men. With one final gasp, Electrode's body lost cohesion, and fell away, settling to the ground in a pile of dust and clothing.

Alex looked down at the remains of the man whose life he had extinguished without lifting a finger. He expected to feel remorse, to feel guilty about the sacrifice he had made. He did not. The sacrifice had to be made, and he believed that with absolute certainty.

Alex drove the ball of water in front of him, the remains of Electrode's life essence, launched it across the desert. Electrode had said that the simulated desert extended 5000 miles in all directions. It was time to test that. Alex did not have the energy to throw his water senses that far out, but he could drive this orb, made solid with his will, that entire distance. He pushed forward harder and harder, putting his entire mind behind the water, rippling the air and casting sand aside with the wind it generated. The orb struck the invisible wall of the simulated prison, and tore through the photonic illusion. The orb struck the wall so hard that it blasted through the projection technology, and caused a large section of the simulation to collapse. The water orb splashed against the wall and shorted out the power to the entire room, and the entire desert vanished suddenly, revealing a circular room merely 20 feet in diameter. It was cruder

looking than the Danger Room in the Xavier Mansion, but clearly functioned just as well.

The very moment the simulation ended Alex could feel the water in the air again, was no longer cut off from the precious molecules. It was an indescribable sensation to feel them again; it was water to a dying man, a cool wind to a man on fire. He drew them into himself, making the air intensely dry. As the water entered his body, his organs were we re-hydrated and his skin began to be restored. His face and chest remained somewhat blackened, but he no longer had any open wounds. His lips remained chapped and his throat hoarse, but it was tolerable now.

He strode toward the large rectangular steel door, which flew off its hinges and into the hallway before him. The thick metal rang loudly as it smashed into the hallway wall, denting it severely. As Alex strode into the hallway, he heard shouts coming from the left. He turned to see a pair of mutants, a male and female, running toward him. They froze when they saw the damage, and looked at him, knowing full well who he was and what he could do.

Before either of them could do anything, attack, defend, flee, Alex reached out and summoned their water molecules to him as he had with Electrode. Both mutants gasped in inconceivable shock and pain as their life was pulled from them molecule by molecule. Within seconds they were each reduced to a pile of dry dust and clothing littering the floor.

Alex pulled their water into himself, revitalizing his entire body, restoring himself to full vitality. His organs healed, his skin resealed and his blood flowed as water again. He looked down, happy to see that his perfect body had been restored. But he was still wearing only a pair of briefs. That was hardly acceptable. He helped himself to the fallen mutants' clothing, and strode down the hallway wearing black pants and a black shirt. He stalked down the hallway, attempting to make sense of the strange complex. He threw his water senses in all directions to find out which way to go, and that was when he felt a familiar pattern, one he had not felt in a long time.

Ghost felt himself pinned against his seat as the X-Jet hurtled through the air at top speed. With Peter Parker at the helm, the jet tore through the skies of Boston, his enhanced reflexes and comfort with high speeds combining into a spectacular feat of flying. The skies above the city had become a massive battleground, with the S.H.E.I.L.D. fighter squadrons attacking with everything they had to sow as much chaos and ruin as possible. The coastline was being bombarded by long rang artillery from 3 of the ships of Admiral Nealson's Atlantic fleet, and the helicarrier Alpha was unloading its full armament against the Brotherhood forces. Whole buildings were falling to the ground in flames, making Ghost glad that the city had been mostly abandoned by its former citizens.

"That way" said Psionic, pointing toward a cluster of buildings where he sensed his friends. Ghost could see fires coming from several places on top of the buildings, indicating where defenses had been destroyed. He also saw the ruins of the transport that the team had landed atop the largest building, which had clearly been destroyed after they entered. Peter flew the jet toward the building, seeking to pick up their stranded friends.

"Wait" said Psionic, his eyes closed, seeking the precise location of his friends. "They aren't up here. They went....down. Land on the street."

Peter didn't argue, and piloted the jet toward street level. As they settled to the ground, the front doors to the building burst open, and the team of six spilled out, and a great gust of flame pursued them.

"What was that?" asked Barrier, sitting in the fourth seat of the X-Jet cockpit.

"Lower the ramp" said Psionic, who suddenly felt a presence he had hoped not to meet in person again. "And transmit to the Alpha, tell them to get out of here. Everyone, the ships too."

"Why, what happened?" asked Ghost. Psionic turned to him, fear in his emerald eyes.

"The Phoenix. She's here."

No one spoke, but they all knew what was at stake. Peter lowered the ramp, still hoping to save the others. He kept the engines ready, planning to blast away he second he could.

Barrier ran down the open ramp and waved the others forward. All six ran toward the jet, though Johnny stayed in the back of the group, keeping the fires between himself and the Phoenix. The fire did no harm to The Human Torch, whose body bathed in the flames and held them back.

Then she appeared. The Phoenix strode through the inferno, completely unharmed by it. Her red hair blew about her face, and her eyes were dark with malice and power. With a gesture of both hands, she blasted the group with a telekinetic pulse, knocking them all to their knees, and rocking the entire X-Jet. The Phoenix advanced on them, fire coming from her hands like a flamethrower. The Human Torch stood his ground, attempting to harness the flames and protect the others. The fire increased in temperature rapidly, and turned bright white with heat. The pavement between the two melted into a bubbling mass of tar. Johnny groaned in pain as the fires reached the temperature of the sun, becoming hot enough to actually harm him. His hands began to blister and his short brown hair started to singe. A bolt of white lightning streaked from Storm's hands and through the flames over Johnny's shoulder, and slammed hard into the Phoenix's telekinetic

shield, which she managed to raise in time. The attack was insufficient to harm the Phoenix, but it did distract her and interrupted her flame attack.

Wolverine leaped at the Phoenix, his claws extended and his teeth bared. With a dismissive wave she sent him flying backwards to smash his head into the metal side of the X-Jet, leaving a significant dent in the aircraft. Next she fired twin bolts of crimson lightning from her hands. Susan and Barrier together put up a doubly powerful shield to block the attack. The bolts slammed into the shield, driving the two protectors back. The shield held, but the strain on their powers was intense. Storm wanted to strike back with her own lightning, but she was within the shield, and could not have gotten through.

Echo went to his knees and placed his hands on the pavement. He opened his mouth and let out a deep drone of sound. The sonic vibrations traveled into the pavement, and he sent them straight forward toward the building they had just exited. Now that all of the captive scientists and patients were freed, the building was free to be used as a distraction. The vibrations became more and more intense, and the windows on the bottom few floors of the building shattered. The structural supports began to shake and twist, walls began to crack apart. Very suddenly and violently, the tall building collapsed, its 20 floors falling straight down to the earth. A blast of wind, dust and debris came from behind the Phoenix, engulfing her completely. The lightning ceased. Barrier and the Invisible Woman held their shield up to protect them all from the blast.

"Run!" Storm commanded. "Everyone in the jet NOW!" The entire group turned to run into the jet. Wolverine was still out cold, and Will stopped to try to pick him up, forgetting that the man's skeleton was coated in an incredibly solid and heavy metal. As he and Johnny struggled to drag the supremely heavy man up the ramp, the Phoenix emerged from the dust cloud. Her eyes were black with power and her face was covered in hideous black veins. Red lightning crackled around her body, between her fingers and within the strands of her crimson hair. The audacity these mere mortals had to try and stop her, she would teach them who they were dealing with.

Ghost looked on from the side, his spirit form having walked out of the Jet. He watched the form of the Phoenix walk out of the dust cloud, her form shining in brilliant white against the gray background. He could see his friends and teammates' white forms, varying from the bright and solid forms of Will and Storm to the fainter more ghostly form of the unconscious Wolverine. But none compared to the brilliance of the Phoenix's spirit. Her form was brighter and more solid than any he had ever seen, white fire seemed to cascade off of her as she radiated power. Hers was the most powerful spirit he had ever seen. Ghost watched her stalk toward Will and Johnny as they struggled to pull Wolverine up the ramp. They would never make it. Ghost could see the white fire-like wisps collecting in the Phoenix's hands as she gathered her power.

Ghost didn't stop to think. There was only one thing he could do, and he had to try it. He rushed toward the Phoenix, his spirit propelled forward to confront her, knowing that he was no match for that bright and powerful being. But then, when he was only feet away from the Phoenix, she turned and looked directly at him. Impossible, he thought. Almost nobody could sense him in spirit form, and certainly nobody had ever been able to SEE him. The whips of white fire wrapped suddenly around his supposedly incorporeal throat. His mouth opened in shock, and he locked eyes with the blazing white suns that were the Phoenix's eyes.

Rogue looked up at the horrible sound of grinding metal. She sat by the window in her cell, but spun around to face the door, just in time to see it rip off its hinges and be pulled backward into the hallway, along with a decent amount of the walls. Her jaw hung slack with surprise when in through the hole in the wall strode a friend she hadn't seen in nearly a year. But her joy was short-lived when she got a good look at Alex.

He stood before her wearing all black, and his skin was deathly pale. His eyes were pale like silver and his hair was black and frozen. Wisps of cold came off of his chilled skin, and his clothes were frosted over and brittle looking. Rogue looked into his cold eyes and saw none of the warmth she remembered. His face was expressionless, as though he felt nothing at all.

"Alex?" she said, slowly rising to her feet. She saw his eyes travel down to the large bright red hand-shaped burn scar which now mutilated her neck and the bottom of her face, care of Demon. If he felt any sympathy for the agony she must have felt when she received that wound, he did not express it.

"Rogue" he said, his cold voice painful to hear. "Come. It's time to leave." He turned and walked down the hallway, continuing on. Changed or not, he was still freeing her. She ran after him.

"What happened to you?" she asked, hoping to understand.

"My destiny" he said, not very helpfully.

"Can you elaborate?"

"You wouldn't understand. You can't understand." As they walked down the passages of the prison section of the Brotherhood island, another pair of guards appeared around the corner, seeking the escaped prisoners. They vanished in moments as Alex drained the water out of their bodies. Rogue stood stunned, barely able to believe what she had just seen, staring down at the dust that was all that remained of the two mutants. When had Alex learned to do that? And when had he become the kind of person who WOULD do that? She flashed back to a memory of when they and their friends had been sitting under the trees on the grounds of the mansion. Alex had been sitting in the grass and managed to get a brightly colored butterfly to land in his hand. He had looked at the small insect with wonder and joy, getting lost in the beauty of that single life. He had released the bug gently, and laughed as it flew around his head, somehow knowing that he

would not harm it. He was too gentle.

She looked at his face, which was completely devoid of guilt or shame, or even resignation, something that would show her a hint of the man she knew. Instead his face was totally blank, but as he absorbed the water from the two dead mutants into himself, his pupils widened and his face had a brief flash of euphoria. It was like a drug to him, she thought. It made him stronger, and he reveled in it.

"Why did you do that?" she asked, struggling unsuccessfully to keep the horror from her voice.

"They would have done the same to us" he responded, not even bothering to look at her as he continued walking.

"They didn't even have a chance. You just snuffed out their lives like blowing out a candle. It isn't fair."

"No, it isn't fair. I am stronger than they, and so it was not fair. Life is not fair; it is cruel and full of pain and horrible things. It is time things changed, but I can't change things if those two mutants slow me down. Sacrifices need to be made, for the greater good."

"Since when do you get to decide what's for the greater good?"

"Since I became the most powerful person on this earth, and the only one capable of saving it" he said simply, as though it was blatantly obvious. Rogue felt her stomach lurch and twist, and stifled any further comment. She had no idea what to say, or how to reach him. Not only had he killed people he didn't have to, but he enjoyed it in some smug superior way. Rogue didn't know what had happened to her friend, but she did know that he wasn't the sweet and kind man she had held so dear. He was a monster.

Connected as he was to Ghost's mind via Psionic's battle meld, Will could actually see a faint outline of Ghost's spirit form in his mind's eye. He saw the faint form silhouetted against the still lingering dust cloud from the fallen building, and saw him streak toward the Phoenix, gliding faster than running. He also saw the Phoenix turn and glare directly at Ghost's spirit form, a feat which was supposed to be impossible. Ghost stopped where he was, his ghostly hands rose to his throat. The Phoenix glared powerfully at him, and Ghosts form seemed to be blown in a powerful wind, his cohesion being lost, his very spirit and will being broken apart. Will could feel the shock and terror Ghost felt through their bond. Will had no time, had to step in. Ghost was a friend, and Will was fiercely loyal to his friends. He shouted to Psionic to teleport the unconscious body of Wolverine into the jet and turned to face the Phoenix.

There she stood, the most powerful being he had ever come up against. Will would never have thought to challenge her, but could not live with himself if he did anything else. The red hair seemed to float of its own accord, red static charges flashing between the strands. Her hands were wreathed in orange flames, and her face and chest were covered in thin black veins. She turned to her right to face Ghost and strode toward him, her black eyes looked into his. The full force of her mind prepared to break his spirit, to erase him from the world, to leave his body an unharmed but empty shell.

Will took a deep breath, gathered his strength, and his eyes lit up with power as he bellowed "STOP!!"

The Phoenix's stride broke, and she came to a halt. She turned to Will with her face full of incredulity. She opened her mouth to speak about how idiotic he was to use his pathetic powers against her. But she stopped, and grasped at her chest, a horrible crushing sensation knocking the wind out of her, making her struggle to breathe. Will's power had been aimed not at the Phoenix herself but at her heart, which had stopped in her chest. The Phoenix swayed in place, her face growing white as the blood drained from it. Her eyes locked with Will's, and were filled with a malice and hatred such as he had never seen before. The skin around her eyes began to turn black, the color creeping outward like blight. She spoke in the same commanding tone of voice as Will had, echoing his power and shouted "DIE!!"

Will didn't have even a moment to realize what had happened. His entire body blew apart into dust, was shattered into individual atoms. In an instant, everything that was Will was gone, faster than he could even feel the pain of being ripped apart.

Ghost snapped back into his body in a moment, barely able to breathe, unwilling to accept what had just happened. Johnny was the only one left outside of the jet, and he came hurtling up the ramp as Peter Parker hit the throttle. The X-Jet flew away from the destroyed Brotherhood lab building, trailing smoke and fire. The Phoenix stood on the ground stunned, still recovering from having her heart stopped. But the moment Will had died, his power over her had ceased, and she was in no danger. The jet lurched as a bolt of crimson lightning deflected off the hull, a ringing sound filling the cabin.

"Wait, we have to go back..." Ghost said, barely able to speak.

Psionic spun his chair toward him and grasped his hand. Tears streamed down both of their faces, both had felt the finality of Will's end in their minds and hearts. "He died to save us. We have to go. We have to go or we will have wasted his sacrifice." Ghost nodded, knowing in his mind that what Psionic said was true. But in his heart he still felt like he was leaving his friend behind.

With a seemingly effortless gesture, Alex caused the steel door to another cell to tear out of the wall and smash into the wall opposite. Rogue deftly avoided the hunk of metal as it settled to the floor. She glanced in to see Cyclops within the cell. He sat on the floor, his eyes covered by an altered version of his visor which locked behind his head, preventing him from releasing his optic blasts. His hands were bolted behind his back and to the wall, preventing him from removing the visor entirely. He had been stripped of his black leather X-Men uniform, and was clad only in a pair of light blue pants reminiscent of medical scrubs. His bare chest and arms were covered in horrible green and purple bruises, obviously a result of his `questioning'. His chest heaved up and down with heavy breathing from the shock. His head turned to see his two teammates, and if they had been able to see his eyes, they would have seen them filled with

surprise.

"Alex? Marie?"

"We're here to free you Scott" said Rogue, running over to him. She checked the chains and found no way to free him from them. She quickly pulled off her left glove and touched her hand to Scott's bare shoulder. His skin was warm to the touch, the muscle underneath large and solid. She felt her nerve endings come alive as she absorbed some of Scott's life energy, and along with it, his power. She released him quickly, only taking a tiny amount of the energy. Her eyes filled with a crackling red energy, and with a flash she broke the chains with a smaller version of Cyclops's optic blast. She helped him rise to his feet, and steadied him as he swayed. The aftereffects of Rogue's power were unpleasant, even in small doses.

"Where do we go now?" asked Rogue, her eyes still shining red with contained power.

"Now we leave" answered Alex. He gestured his hand toward Scott's tiny window, and the metal walls shredded apart. The outer wall and ceiling were ripped away, exposing the three X-Men to the slanted orange light of the setting sun. He gestured upward with both hands, and rose into the air. At the same time, thin bubbles of water formed around Rogue and Cyclops, and they rose into the air alongside him. As they drifted higher into the air, they saw that they had just left a large building built into the side of a small mountain on a forest-covered island. They had a panoramic view of Superior Island, the central base of the Brotherhood war effort. The island was miles long and was dotted with buildings of many shapes and sizes, ringed with docks containing countless landing craft for the invasions of cities, and bristling with defenses of many kinds. There were satellite dishes, antennas, and numerous other strange contraptions on top of

most of the buildings. An entire engine of war was located here.

"Wait" said Rogue, "before we leave, we have to destroy the cloning tanks." Alex turned and looked at her strangely.

"Cloning tanks?"

"Yes, Magneto and the Phoenix are having some mutants cloned; it's how they have so many soldiers. It's also how the Phoenix got her own body back." Rogue said this last point with a hard tone of voice, as difficult memories of being trapped within her own mind came back to her.

"How do you know that?" asked Cyclops, who floated alongside her in his water bubble.

"I learned a lot of things this past year. They didn't tell me much, but I learned what was in between the lines. They never thought I would escape to tell anyone anyway."

"Don't worry" Alex said simply, though he declined to elaborate.

Shockingly loud alarms began to erupt from all over the island. Defensive weapons swung to point at the flying mutants. Bright red lasers and heavy artillery shells hurtled towards the three X-Men, only to pass within a sphere of air so bitterly cold that the lasers dispersed and the artillery shells lost momentum and fell to the ground.

Hydrogue's silver eyes shined bright with power, and the weapons emplacements grew bitterly cold and began to frost over. As the metal cooled beyond tolerance, they cracked and shattered, leaving the weapons broken and useless. He raised his arms high and the waters of the ocean rose with them, a ring of water rising around the island. The wall of water grew taller and taller and the water at the coastline vanished, exposing the edges of the landmass. The boats and docks fell away as the water vanished, and plummeted down the newly created cliffside. The water wall spread backward away from the island as it grew, and soon the ocean floor was exposed to the air for the first time in millennia. The island rose up from the ocean floor like a lonely mountain, its entire structure exposed. The wall of water grew far higher than the height of the island, blocking out the very sun.

Aircraft began to lift off from the island as a frantic evacuation began. To cover them, jets and armed helicopters flew at Hydrogue, weapons blazing. The missiles' rocket propulsion died out in the cold, and they fell useless out of the sky. The bullets froze and slowed and shattered into nothing on the shimmering protective sphere of water which surrounded him. Hydrogue summoned a frost bolt in each hand, each with a core of water molecules cooled to absolute zero. Hydrogue found that this was far easier and faster to do now that he had accepted his destiny as the changer of the world. The air became unnaturally cold, with frost crystals forming from the water vapor. It was inhospitably cold, but Rogue and Cyclops were protected within their bubbles. The shimmering blue spheres of pure cold energy leapt from his hands. One frost bolt hit a fighter jet, immediately snuffing out the jet engines, and causing the metal to become brittle and

shatter. The pilot died instantly, the water in her body freezing solid and bursting her cells open, tearing apart her organs, bones and tissues. The other bolt hit a helicopter, freezing its spinning blades so fast they stopped dead, dropping the craft out of the air. A flurry of frost bolts and lightning bolts later, and whole squadrons had been taken out of the sky. Rogue could scarcely believe the cool ruthlessness with which he took them all out. He showed no restraint, no hesitancy, and no mercy.

Rogue and Cyclops' bubbles began to float away from the island, high up in the air where they could see everything but do nothing. They watched as Magneto himself rose from the island, flying by manipulating his own electromagnetic field. The older man hovered slightly higher than Alex, taking the high ground. He was framed against the setting sun glowing oddly through the wall of water, his cape billowing behind him.

"Well my dear boy, it looks as though I was right" said Magneto. "You were far too much trouble to keep alive. I should have killed you while you lay unconscious."

"Yes, you should have" said Hydrogue, white cold mist coming from his mouth as he spoke. "But it is for the better that your superior didn't listen." The emphasis he put on the word superior made Magneto's jaw clench with irritation. "Now, I have to put and end to you."

Magneto didn't bother to reply, but instead raised the shattered hulks of three of the downed fighter jets and sent them at Hydrogue from all different directions. Hydrogue did nothing to stop them, but locked eyes with Magneto with the three piles of twisted metal slammed into his protective sphere. The metal screamed as it twisted and warped, wrapping around but failing to penetrate the sphere. Hydrogue used the water in the air to shred the metal apart, sending it away in thousands of pieces. But Magneto gathered the metal back up, and created a whirling maelstrom of razor sharp metal shards. The thousands of sharp bits of metal proved too many to keep away, the shear number finding weak spots in Hysdrogue's protection. A chunk of shrapnel bit into his leg, another two into his arm and a large one smashed between his ribs. Though he was pierced by the sharpened metal, hey failed to sink in the way they would soft flesh, because his usual

watery body was now completely comprised of ice. The metal pieces stabbed into his skin began to glow faintly blue as they cooled rapidly, eventually losing the energy to maintain molecular bonds, and they fell away like dust. The damage they had caused vanished in seconds as the ice reformed.

Hydrogue responded with a pair of frost bolts aimed at Magneto, but they never reached their target. Magneto pulled another ruined aircraft in the way, which was utterly destroyed by the cold energy. Hydrogue followed the frost bolts with lightning from his left hand. The lightning streaked toward Magneto, but then suddenly bent around him as he manipulated his electromagnetic field. The white lightning bolt curved around the hazy orb that was Magneto's field, and then traveled straight back toward Hydrogue. Nearly taken by surprise, Hydrogue just barely got up his right hand to deflect the bolt, sending it streaking down into the side of a building far below. Hydrogue's eyes flashed with cold anger, annoyed at Magneto for getting in the way, and for being more difficult than he had a right to be. In an instant, the older man's boots froze solid, and he cried out in pain as his blood began to freeze. Hydrogue focused his concentration and

the ice began to climb up Magneto's legs, destroying tissues in the most painful way as it went. Magneto cried out, but still used Hydrogue's distraction against him. A large plate of metal, twisted and broken and sharp from it's destruction by lightning, rose into the air behind Hydrogue. As the ice reached his knees, Magneto twisted the metal plate into a jagged spike and drove it forward with all of his mind's strength. Hydrogue grunted in pain as the shard ripped through his back, cracking through the ice and bursting out through his chest. His frozen shirt shattered and fell away, revealing the tip of the shard coming out a great rent in his icy chest. Cracks spread out from the wound, weakening the solidity of Hydrogue's body. But Hydrogue still looked up, holding Magneto's gaze without falter. There was no pain in his eyes.

Magneto suddenly felt his frozen feet being yanked with intense force, pulling him down out of the air. Magneto barely felt his feet hit the flat roof of the highest building on the island. He landed solidly, his feet numb and useless. The ice around his legs rapidly spread up to his hips and down onto the rooftop, sealing him in place. Magneto cast his mind out for metal he could summon to his aid, but his thinking was slowed by his plummeting body temperature. He began to shake and turn blue.

Hydrogue descended in front of Magneto, the large spear of twisted metal still thrust through his chest. The cracks were continuing to spread through him, and went all the faster as Magneto twisted the spear with his power. Water molecules began to collect to one side of Hydrogue, growing, shaping, and freezing into another body, identical to the original in every way. Hyrogue's eyes met Magneto's, and the older man watched the life leave them and the damaged body fall away into ice crystals. He looked over to the newly formed body of pure ice, and saw the eyes open and fill with life. Hydrogue had made a new, undamaged body, and was back to full power in seconds. The new body remained as ice; the only sign of flesh was in his silver eyes.

"You are overmatched old man" said Hydrogue. "And it is time that you realize why you have failed. I have a task to do, a destiny. I am the only one who can save this world from itself, because I am the only one with the power to do it. I am the only one who can do what must be done." The ice trapping Magneto had reached his head, and froze his entire body in place. The ice prevented any movement except his eyes.

Magneto was forced to watch while Hydrogue rose into the air, his ice body reflecting light brilliantly. He flew into the air with surprising speed, rising higher and higher, higher into the sky than he had ever flown before. He flew high enough to see the color begin to drain from the sky, and then higher. He felt the air thin, and reached the upper atmosphere. When Hydrogue passed the border of space, he stopped. He held position there, gazing down on the glittering blue brilliance that was the earth. It should be beautiful, he thought to himself, but he found himself strangely unmoved. It was full of chaos, selfishness and pain. It was flawed, and needed to be saved.

Hydrogue let himself fall backward and began a rapid descent back down through the atmosphere. As he fell, he collected the water molecules he passed on his way down, and slowly began to amass layers upon layers of ice around his body. A growing sphere of ultra-solid ice hurtled down through the air with Hydrogue at the center. As the sphere grew larger, its friction increased in the thickening atmosphere. Hydrogue held the ice molecules tight in his mind, refusing to allow them to melt and burn as they would naturally. The heat increased staggeringly, but still the comet remained frozen. He fell faster and faster in the grip of the earth's gravity, and soon he could see Superior Island with his naked eyes. The island stood out like a mountain from the ocean floor now that the water had been pulled away.

Rogue watched the ice comet falling from the sky, first as a tiny glittering point of light in the upper atmosphere, but soon it became a distinct object free falling, but with a deadly purpose. It was unnaturally not burning, but seemed to be glowing and crackling with energy. She watched the comet, knowing her friend was within it, creating it, controlling it, and she knew now what he would do. She knew it somehow; saw in his eyes what he was capable of. Hot tears flowed freely down her face. It was like grieving for a friend who was dead, but horribly worse, because it was as though a horrible being had taken residence in his body to do great evil, destroying everything he once was. She wept for the friend she had known.

Hydrogue hurtled through the air, traveling downward faster than a jet. His mind fought against nature, preventing the intense friction from doing what it did best, burn. When he felt he was just low enough, when the island filled his eagle-eye view, he released the ice, allowed it to do as it would.

In less than a second, the ice meteor burst into flames. From Rogue's vantage point it was as though a second sun had come into being, the burst of light in the sky blinding to all those around and lighting up the dusk like high noon. The immense ball of burning ice hurtled down like an agent of Armageddon, the air around it rippling and burning, the atmosphere filling with black smoke.

Magneto could only look up at the fate that was coming for him. His every effort to break free of his icy entrapments had failed; the ice was too dense, stronger than any metal he had available. He looked up at the brilliant firestorm, and the image burned itself onto his retinas. It was the last thing he ever saw.

It was a defining moment. Heroes do not kill, not unless they have to. For a hero to kill without necessity, he would need to be driven by a great force of anger or vengeance. For a hero to kill without mercy, guilt, shame or regret, he would need to be lost. For a hero to commit mass murder in the name of the greater good, he would need to have completely fallen from grace. The ice meteor slammed into the exposed island, the heat incinerating everything on it in a second. It exploded with the force of several atomic bombs, ripping through the buildings, trees, and rock. The light split the sky, a piercing ray shining upward like a beacon of God. The explosion passed down through the rock, shattering the stone and destroying the entire island down the mountainous base, all the way down to the ocean floor. The very bedrock on the bottom of the ocean split and tore. The ocean floor was scorched and incinerated, and the flames brought light to

depths that had not seen it in millennia. The walls of water which surrounded the island surged upward and closed in over the top of the explosion like a dome and contained it. They closed over the top, trapping several vehicles still desperately trying to evacuate the island. The great rounded mountain of water glowed from within with a white light, the shockwave of the explosion pushing out with intense force, bulging out the sides. But the water held, and when the pressure of the explosion finally abated, the light grew dim and faded, and the water mountain fell into the sea. The ocean was eerily still and calm, the water unnaturally still, resembling a landscape of glass.

The water bubbles containing Rogue and Cyclops settled onto the water and released, but they did not fall in. They remained standing on the glass-like water for a few seconds, and then a portion of it froze beneath them and formed a small iceberg raft. They sat together on the ice, Cyclops holding Rogue close. Her face was still wet with tears, but she was no longer crying. She had a hard look on her face, had swallowed the grief and become numb to it. She had watched the slaughter of hundreds, possibly thousands, and needed to be strong. She would not fall apart. Her jaw set tight as she watched a shape rise from the water and take the shape of Hydrogue.

"Why did you do that?" she asked.

"That island was a source of chaos, a catalyst for a world on the brink of destruction. It had to be removed if I am ever to bring this world to order."

"Alex, this isn't you, you aren't a man who could do this. The Alex I know would want people to come together and fight for what's right, not force his view of a perfect world on them."

The water man smiled, but it was a smile empty of any joy. It was a smile one gives a child who tries to understand something that is totally beyond them.

"Alex doesn't live here anymore." The water shape fell back into the ocean without even a ripple, and then they were alone on the desolate landscape.

They waited for hours, drifting on their unmelting, surprisingly not cold iceberg. They fell asleep, together for warmth. They woke in the night, and saw a mass of lights coming toward them. The ships of Admiral Nealson's search fleet had come, drawn to this place by the blinding light of the meteor strike. Cyclops unleashed a brilliant red optic blast into the air, signaling the ships to their location.

Dr. Halden looked up into Elixir's golden eyes, seeking reassurance and confidence. They stood on either side of the bed which held the block of ice containing Caleb's body, and Psionic stood at the foot of the bed. Dr. Hank McCoy stood to the side ready with a variety of machines, medications, and other medical interventions at the ready. Johnny Storm stood at the head of the bed, rubbing his hands together in preparation. Psionic's eyes glowed green as he established a meld between the two doctors and the healer, allowing them to share in each other's minds.

Dr. Halden's eyes glowed violet, and he sought to see what he had seen the day he first found his power. Slowly he found the threads of life in Caleb's body, could see where they were torn and interrupted at the neck. He could see within his body to the shattered spine, and could also see the perfectly preserved brain cells. No decay had occurred in the weeks since Caleb had died thanks to the ice, and the death had been so swift that the life energy had not yet left the cells.

Through the meld Elixir and Dr. McCoy were able to see what Dr. Halden could see, and the procedure could begin. The combined knowledge of the two doctors was behind Elixir as he began. With Dr. Halden's altered vision, he could repair damage he would normally never have known was there. The shards of spinal bone fused together like new, torn tissues resealed. Slowly, carefully, the complex network of nerve fibers was rewoven. It was an arduous task, ensuring that the countless fibers were all reattached properly, especially since they crisscrossed and interwove astoundingly. Gradually, the nerve connections between Caleb's body and head were restored as though there had never been any damage. Blood flow was next, restoring the many tiny veins and arteries and capillaries which had been destroyed in Caleb's sudden and violent death. This task was equally arduous, but the three were up to it. In about and hour, Caleb's body was restored

to perfect health, though still trapped in ice and technically dead.

"Ok, its time to thaw him out" said Dr. Halden, looking up. He nodded to Johnny, who stepped up to the bed. He placed his hands on either side of the block of ice, and they burst into flames. At first nothing changed, Johnny set his jaw and the flames grew brighter and hotter, and the temperature in the room climbed drastically. Dr. Halden, still seeing through his altered vision, could see within Johnny, and saw his inner energy surging to his skin to burst forth as brilliant flames. Johnny's eyes glowed orange and he was wreathed in flame, and slowly the ice melted. It was slow at first, the ice was so intensely cold, but eventually the majority was melted. Johnny withdrew and extinguished the fires. Together, the 5 mutants broke away the thin remaining layer of ice from Caleb's skin. Dr. McCoy stepped up to the bed to take center stage.

"Let's bring this man back to life gentlemen" he said. They hooked up a variety of vital signs monitors, IV's, and prepared a defibrillator. Once the ice had melted, the clock had started. They had to move fast, or decay would set in. They had only minutes. They set heat packs under Caleb's sides, between his legs and in his armpits, bringing his core body temperature back up to normal. Once he reached a high enough body temperature, the resurrection began. They charged the defibrillator, injected the drugs, and shocked Caleb's heart. Nothing. Again. Nothing. Again. Nothing. They tried for minutes, administering CPR in between. Anxiety built and built, and the clock ticked. Very soon, they would pass the point of no return. If too much time passed, Caleb's brain tissue would begin to degrade. Even Elixir's regenerative powers would not be able to restore proper function, the brain was simply too complex, there were too

many unknowns. But one last time, they injected, they charged, they shocked. And this time, the heart monitor beeped. They all looked up, and saw a heart rhythm. It was erratic, but it was there. They continued to work, administering support where needed. The doctors stayed for hours before they were convinced that Caleb's heart would not stop again at any moment.

Psionic sat by his friend's bed after the others lef, too anxious to rest. He sat by the side of the man he knew so well, and yet barely recognized. Caleb's red skin was gone, replaced by an olive complexion. His missing tail was as blatant to Psionic as a severed arm. He stared at the face of the man he had grieved for, and didn't know how to feel. He had lost Caleb, had cried for him, grieved for him, and moved him to that place in his heart where lost loved ones stayed forever. Today he had lost Will too, and was beginning that process all over again. Two of his closest friends, dead in a matter of weeks. Both suddenly, and both violently. And both he had been connected to at the moment of their death, had felt them leave the world forever. And now one of them was alive again. His heart was pulled in every direction, unsure of what to do. `How should I process this?' he asked himself.

Psionic was brought out of his reverie by shifting on the bed. He stood up and pushed the button to signal the doctors, and looked down at his friend, who was finally showing signs of life. Caleb's face contorted with half remembered pain, and then slowly his eyes opened. Psionic had always wondered what color Caleb's eyes had been before he mutated. They were a light honey-brown, soft and sensitive and full of emotion. They were beautiful to him.

"Welcome back" he said, as the tears fell silently down his face.

A full week had passed since the attack on Boston and the utter destruction of Superior Island. The Phoenix sat in her new carved obsidian throne in the uppermost room of the captured and repaired Baxter Building. She could look out on the New York City nightscape, the jewel of her new empire, in every direction through floor to ceiling windows. Around her in the large room were scattered ridiculously attractive male servants, all human, and several similarly attractive mutant guards. Not that she needed the protection of anyone else, but one must keep up appearances. She was still angry about the setbacks she had suffered at the hands of the X-Men, but she would come out the stronger. Already her empire was solidifying, her power base growing again. And she loved the freedom of no longer having the irritating Magneto pretending to be her equal. She had been caged for most of her life, and finally she was completely free and unhindered.

Suddenly, far more abruptly than it ever should have happened, the Phoenix felt an incredible power appear nearby. Normally she could sense everyone around her for miles, whether she wanted to or not, and could sense powers if they were mutants. How this one had appeared without her sensing it coming, she did not understand. But she knew exactly who it was. And looking out the window towards the bay and the Atlantic Ocean, the Phoenix could see where it was coming from.

The water was roiling in chaos as numerous air bubbles surfaced from the depths and the currents were disrupted. It resembled a pot of boiling water, though this water was anything but hot. Bursting out from beneath the surface rose a glittering tower made of pure blue-white ice. More and more battlements, towers, spires and gates rose from the water until a large castle made completely of ice floated on the air. The castle reflected the sun brilliantly in the silvery moonlight as water flowed down off of it. It had an outer wall surrounding it in roughly circular shape, with a large rounded gate in the front of it and an extended bridge that stopped in midair. The base of the castle resembled a chunk of rock or earth, but was in fact a glacier. The main body of the castle was a smooth building which started wide at the base and grew narrower in shelves, like a rounded ziggurat, until it came to a head in a tall tower with a needle-like point.

There were six bridges flowing smoothly from the outer wall to the inner construct, like spokes on a wheel. Defensive towers lined the outer wall at the center of the spaces between the wheel spokes. The overall shape appeared organically grown rather than constructed, with a smooth flow from one piece to the next. It was haunting and beautiful at the same time. The Ice Fortress rose through the air and headed straight toward the Baxter Building under some unseen power.

As the fortress came closer and more distinct, moving shapes could be seen along its battlements and in its towers, like guards. But the Phoenix could sense only one life within the castle, and it was no mere guard. As the Fortress neared the Baxter building, it came to a halt, and the bridge from the gate began to grow, ice crystals forming from the air and soon joined the floating fortress to the topmost floor of the Baxter Building. The window that the bridge pressed up to cooled too rapidly and shattered, opening an entrance to the Phoenix's throne room.

The Phoenix's black throne rotated to face this newly made entrance, anticipation all over her face. Her red hair began to float and crackle as her power flowed through her, driven by her excitement. Down the ramp from the fortress strode a man who barely resembled Alexander Wental. His skin was nearly translucent it was so pale; his eyes shone silver in the artificial light of the throne room. His chest was bare, and was wet with glacier water. His hair stood frozen in a mass of black spikes, and his lips were blue. He strode forward and stepped into the throne room through the shattered window, a bodyguard on either side of him.

On his right stood a Water Elemental, a humanoid shape of pure clear blue water, though where legs should have been it merely stood on a mass of water like a self contained puddle. There was no neck to speak of, and its head seemed to sit directly on its shoulders. It had no distinct face, no mouth and only a vague indication of eyes. On Alex's left stood an Ice Elemental, also humanoid in shape, with massive glittering arms and shoulders, tapering down in a teardrop-shaped body to a snake-like tail, which it used to hold itself up and move. It had eyes of solid ice which gazed around the room with a cold malice which mimicked its master's. These elementals, physical manifestations of Alex's powers and extensions of his mind and will, were everywhere in the fortress, its guards and workers and its very lifeblood.

Alex strode on toward the Phoenix's throne, and she rose to meet him.

"I knew you would come" she said, excited and fiery. He walked straight up to her, his very proximity plummeting the temperature, and grasped her by the throat. His fingers ended in diamond-like claws of ice, which sank just slightly into her skin. The frigid cold of his hand caused cells to begin dying. The Phoenix's guards leapt forward to protect her, but the elementals dispatched them quickly, as the mutants' powers barely affected them.

"You know nothing" Alex replied, his voice cold and harsh and echoing. White cold vapor came from his mouth when he spoke. "You are a source of chaos, a source of misery and pain. You must be removed if I am to change this world, to save this world."

The Phoenix's eyes widened, both from pain and surprise. She had known he would come to her, and she had known that she could turn him, but never expected it to be so easy.

"What do you think I am doing?" she asked him, the image of incredulity. "This world is disgusting, and it needs order. The human race is devoid of cohesion and order, and that is what I have been fighting for all these months, you must know this. Join me."

"No, you do not fight for the greater good. You fight for your own selfish wants. You want to rule this world, not save it." He said it with such conviction, such logical and emotionless certainty.

"No, you have it all wrong" she lied. "I only seek to rule to world BECAUSE humanity has failed so astoundingly. Do you think I truly want to lord over everyone?" Her eyes filled with a convincing expression of grief. "I do it because I must, to save them all. They cannot keep order or peace, so it must be imposed upon them. They need someone to take the reigns of power they had misused to badly. And who better than me to facilitate this peace, to bring about order?"

"Me" he responded simply. She had him.

"No. Both of us. We two gods-on-earth, the most powerful beings in the planet, can do together what neither can do alone. Let fire and ice join to burn away to corruption and solidify the ground of society. Join me, and side by side we will change everything."

Alex's cold silver eyes looked deep into the Phoenix's blazing red ones. He stared blankly at her for nearly a minute; she could almost see the cogs working in his mind. He did not say a word, but did release her throat and stepped back. Then, she extended her hand toward him, and after looking at it for a moment, he grasped it. His hand felt the searing heat of hers, and she the bone-chilling cold of his. The worshiping onlookers wondered at the sight of these two gods joining, and could barely remembered to draw breath.

"Welcome to the winning side Hydrogue" she said, excitement filling her eyes.

"I will never be known by that name again" he answered, his nose crinkling slightly with disgust. The Phoenix smiled, amused and curious.

"Who are you then?" He looked at her, looked deep into her eyes, and for a moment the calculating coldness, the supreme superiority of his presence unnerved her to see.

"I am IceHeart."

///////////////////////////////

Holy crap that was long! I have to apologize to you guys for taking so long, but I never thought this would be so long of a chapter to tell. But I hope the results are worth it for you, I am truly excited by them. As always, I am open to questions, comments, and suggestions, ever criticism if you feel I deserve it. My email is phoenixfire543@yahoo.com please feel free anytime, I love to hear from you guys. Until next time.

-Matt