X Men Rejection

X-Men Rejection: Consume

DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN ANY OF THE CHARACTERS IN THIS STORY. THEY BELONG TO MARVEL. AND ALSO, IF YOU ARE TOO YOUNG TO READ THIS, OR IF THIS TYPE OF THING IS ILLEGAL WHERE YOU ARE, AND/OR IF SEX AND LOVE BETWEEN GUYS OFFENDS YOU: PLEASE LEAVE. THIS IS A WORK OF FICTION AND SHOULD BE TREATED AS SUCH. IT DOES NOT IMPLY ANYTHING ABOUT THE CHARACTER'S MENTIONED SEXUALITY.

Author's note: I know its been years since my last upload. I'll admit I'd completely given up on this story and on writing in general. But recently I remembered Jesse and how much I really love him as a character and I felt it necessary to sit down and finish his story. If you are one of the readers who's read this story and waited years for this, thank you so much for your patience and your kind words. You are the reason I'm sitting here writing this ending. And if you've stumbled upon this story after its completion, well thank you for reading. Thank you so much for reading. I hope this ending brings you the satisfaction it has brought me.

Enjoy,

It's incredible how often we lose track of our direction. There is so much to process on a day to day basis that it's actually quite simple to forget who we used to be, where we started, where we wanted to go. I came to this place a displaced kid with too much power and no capability of controlling it. But I learned. God, I learned so much here. I learned what being accepted means. I learned how much a friend can help. I learned what it means to be cared about. I learned what it means to love here. That's what this place gave me. That's what this place is. Love.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Like I said, it's easy to lose track of where you're headed. Especially when one of the world's most feared villains comes crashing into your home with fixated eyes on you.

Doctor Doom. We'd been trying to stop him and whatever plans he has for months now. He'd gone to great lengths to exact his plans; all of which seemed to point to me. All of it an intricate distraction, a trap to ensnare me. He'd aligned himself with a demon, forced one of the world's greatest military leaders to help him, kidnapped and subdued great heroes (and a reformed villain), and for what? Was I really worth all the trouble?

Even if I was, I didn't want to be. I was sick of being a prize. I meant what I'd said before, about leaving all of this behind. Everyone seemed to be sure I was worth all the trouble I seemed to attract, but I don't. No one is worth people dying over. I'd defeated Mephista without any casualties. I can defeat Doom too. Because if the last year has proven anything it is that I can do the impossible. And so I forced myself out of my unconsciousness, wiped the blood from my mouth, and stood up.

Doom had remained near the window he'd crashed in through, his eyes fixated on my friends standing at Scott's door. I grabbed a sheet, threw it over Scott's exposed body, and lunged at Doom.

Everything felt slowed down. I felt heavy, but I pushed all of my self onto him and found that HE was heavy. Really heavy; and for half a second I thought he wouldn't budge at my weight, but he did. I could see the ship he'd come on floating just outside Scott's window. I heard the rest of the window crash and shatter and as we started to fall I saw him trying to reach for the ship's edge. I grabbed his arm quickly and held on to him, bracing myself for the impact of when we hit the ground.

When we finally did, his body sounded like a boulder would've. The sound was heavy and hollow. He didn't move but I knew he hadn't passed out. A low laugh huffed from his mouth hole.  

"I really hope you didn't think a tumble would be enough to incapacitate me," he laughed. He still hadn't moved, and neither had I. I wasn't sure what to do next. "If I'm being honest, I wasn't sure what would happen," I replied calmly. He wasn't trying to fight me. I stood up off him slowly. He sat up, "Do you ever?" he asked pulling himself up off the ground. "Not really, but I always hope for the best," I replied. My friends should be on their way down here by now; if they weren't already waiting for the right moment to attack. "I suppose you have a lot of questions," he went on, straightening himself out, positioning himself to attack. His ship pulled forward and away from the mansion and I wondered if Doom had planned for this too. I ignored it and returned the laugh, "Is this the part where you monologue and tell me all about your plans?"

He laughed too. "How about a little game? Twenty questions?" He sounded so calm, so cool and collected. We were talking as if we were sharing a meal at the diner down the street and around the corner. Worse, we were talking as if we were friends. I played along. "I'm game, you first," I straightened out too and prepared myself to attack. Kissing Scott earlier had given me some type of energy. I could feel it there at the tip of my fingers where all the powers I borrowed dwelled. They were new, unfamiliar. I hoped for the best.

"Alright," he lunged forward fast and I saw an energy blast emit from his body toward me. I lunged right out of the way. That was new. I looked up at him, still standing where he was a second ago. "First question," he began "is it true you can make psychic connections with anyone?" I stood up and blasted whatever energy I had at him, "Yes!"

I saw a red flash and looked to see where he had landed. Instead, I saw him walk toward me out of the smoke the red flash had created when it had hit him. It hadn't affected him at all. That wasn't going to be easy. "Very interesting. Your question." he said, still calm. I started to panic. I couldn't feel my friends around. He wasn't hurt by my attack. I felt weak from having been possessed and then puking my stomach out. I wasn't ready for this fight. He seemed to know that. "What do you want with me?"

He laughed again. Still calm. "Big question first. Ballsy." He blasted me with the same energy he'd emitted before, except this time I wasn't fast enough and was sent up into the air and away from the mansion. I hit the ground hard and looked around for him. I couldn't see him. "I want what's in your blood," he was behind me. How? He moved fast. I turned to face him, shuffling to get up as quickly as I could. "You want my powers," I concluded out loud. "That's right," he replied, and shot another energy blast, this time sending me toward the back of the mansion. I was shot up a lot higher than before, and in the few seconds I was airborne I figured I would land in the fountain. I cringed at the thought of being impaled on the sculpture at the center of it and braced for impact.

I landed in the ice cold water, but heard no splash. Wiping the water from my eyes and forcing myself to stand up, I barely had time to process the fact that the water was frozen. Not in ice, but simply still. Formed in the splash my impact caused but not moving. It was frozen in time. Doom had stopped time. That's why my friends weren't here. He'd gotten new powers, strong powers.

All this, and he still wanted mine.

I saw him a split second before he hit me. He came from above this time, landing on me painfully. "How'd you defeat Blackheart and Mephista?" he growled. He wasn't calm anymore. He grabbed my face and pushed my head down into the water. I tried to push him off, to pull myself out from under him. But he was too strong, too heavy. I'd been on the run for months. I had been to hell and back. I was exhausted of running, of fighting. And for a moment I thought of the simplicity of giving up. Of letting him drown me. Of letting him take my blood. All of it. Of letting him end me.

It's what my body wanted. But my mind went further. It put two and two together. If I let him win, he'd have all these new powers AND mine. He'd be unstoppable. Storm, Rogue, Jean. Piotr, Remy, Bishop. Bobby and Logan. They wouldn't stand a chance against him if he won tonight. That thought, of them defeated, dead at Doom's feet, sparked inside me something I'd never felt before.

All this time I had rejected the idea of joining their team. Of being an X-Man alongside them. I felt undeserving of the title, of the status. I still do. But tonight I AM an X-Man. Tonight I AM a soldier. Tonight I don't fight for myself, tonight I fight for them. Tonight I fight for what they fight for. Tonight I fight for the world beyond my own. For peace. For good.

I'd trained for this. I had it in me to defeat him. Tonight I rejected defeat.

I grabbed his hand, forcing my fingers between his palm and my face and pushed up with all my might. With his hand an inch off my face, I pulled my head up out of the water and gasped in as much air as I could. I opened my eyes and felt the water sting my eyes. My left hand was still pushing his right hand. His left hand was holding my torso down. I dropped my head back down under the water, threw my right onto his torso and focused Scott's energy throughout my fingers. I waited a second for the energy to concentrate itself. This attack had to be faster and more precise that the last. I knew it wouldn't hurt him, but I hoped it would get him off me. I screamed and let it out.

All at once his weight lifted off me. I got up quickly, lunged forward out of the fountain, and ran toward the dark figure I could barely make out through my soaked eyes. I threw myself on top of him before he had a chance to get up. I pushed my hand down onto his hard face as hard as I could, "Let me show you!" I growled. I inhaled and instead of pulling energy from him, I saw a blinding white flash and the world around me disappeared.

Where there was grass, there was now carpeted floor. Where there was a forest in front of me, there was now a wall covered in calculations. Where there was a fountain with time-frozen water and a mansion beyond it, there was now an open door that went out onto a florescent lit hallway. On the doorway, on his way out, was a guy I'd never seen before. Looking right at me. I wasn't on the ground on top of Doom anymore. In fact, Doom wasn't here.

The guy at the door looked concerned, maybe even a little angry. "What you're doing here, Victor. Its too much. You're willing to risk too much for this. People have gotten hurt trying to help you accomplish this. Stop now, before someone gets killed," he pleaded. I scoffed. Not by choice. "You've always been a coward, Reed," I sneered. It wasn't my voice. I hardly recognized it. It sounded so human. I wasn't me, I was Victor Von Doom. And this was a memory.

This was new.

Reed shook his head in disappointment and slammed the door on his way out. Out of the darkness that enveloped the tiny space the Doom I recognized hurled toward me and punched me in the face. Another blinding flash and we were back by the mansion. Except this time I was on the ground with a broken nose. I could hear him getting up. I hurried up too.

"Impressive," he heaved. He seemed out of breath. Good. Also good: I could feel a new energy at the tip of my fingers. This energy too was new and unfamiliar. "Your question."

I quickly merged Scott's energy with Doom's and released a blast toward him. This fusion worked better. He went flying into the forest, a loud crack every other second as he crashed through the trees. I ran toward him, finding him lying face down on the ground after a few seconds. "What makes you think you're worthy of so much power?" I yelled as he slowly pulled himself onto all fours. He crawled toward a fallen tree, one he'd probably taken down just seconds ago, and sat against it to face me. His next movements were so fast compared to his previous ones that I didn't see that log coming toward me until it was too late to move.

This blow hurt. Being hit with a tree hurt. If I didn't die tonight I would spend the rest of my life avoiding fights near trees. The pain was so loud I didn't feel it when I landed. I thought I was still flying through the forest when I started to gain back my senses. As always it was my hearing that focused first. I could hear him running toward me. I had to get up. But I couldn't feel my body. I couldn't even open my eyes. Hell I didn't even know if they were closed. I remembered in this moment about how our bodies go into adrenaline mode when we've been hurt badly. I think I read it somewhere. The adrenaline keeps us from feeling too much of the pain we're under and induces our natural fight or flight response.

I was hit by a tree and was sent crashing into a forest. Something, if not somethings, was definitely broken. I was powerful, but I was still human. My body had gone into adrenaline mode. I wanted to fight, but I couldn't move. I wanted to flee, but I couldn't move.  

Out of the darkness, a starry sky and the outline of the forest started to form. My eyesight was starting to come back. My eyes were still trying to focus when Doom's footsteps began to slow and I could hear him just feet away from me. "I am Victor Von Doom and I do not answer to the likes of you," he seethed. I could almost see the spit shooting from his mouth as he said that sentence.

Typical. A guy starts a game he has no intention of finishing. I tried to talk but coughed instead. I could barely breathe. Still, I swallowed some spit and said as loud as I could, "So much for twenty questions."

He laughed again, the calm had returned to his voice. His mood swings were giving me whiplash. Or maybe it was the tree thing. It was definitely the tree thing.

He kneeled down beside me and put his face close to mine. "You know, in another life, I feel perhaps you and I could've been friends."

I swallowed some more spit and heaved "Let's give it a try," before I used what little strength I had to fling my hand up to his face again. The last thing I felt before I saw the blinding light again was a sharp pain in my arm as it held itself up to hold my hand to his face.

We weren't in the small room we were in last time. This time his memory showed something bigger. Something more modern. Something that looked a great deal more expensive than that small dark room. I didn't recognize it.

All the walls were white and were lined with buttons, switches, and screens. There were no windows but I could feel in the pit of my stomach that we were flying. All at once the sound turned on and I could hear a loud alarm and voices through a com line.

"Victor! You have to open the hatch again! Ben is still out there!" It was Reed again. Another voice came through, "Victor, you bastard! We'll all die out here!" If I was correct, that was Jonathan Storm! The Human Torch. This was the memory of when they all got their powers! Holy shit!

"Victor, please! Don't do this!" Sue Storm. The Invisible Woman.

I looked around and noticed there WERE windows into this room. But they were covered  by what looked like thick, metallic seals. He'd sealed himself in here and left the rest of them out there. Exposed to whatever was coming. To whatever it was that changed their lives forever.

God, he was willing to let them die to save his own hide. They knew him, probably trusted him. And he just ignored their pleas.

Karma's a bitch.

"And so am I." This time he was behind me. He pulled me around to face him in one swift movement and with another threw a punch that knocked me out of his memories.

I was back in the forest and I was coughing so hard it hurt all my broken bones. This was it. I fought as hard as I could. I gave it my best shot, as any of the others would have. I'd die happy knowing that. I'd die swinging, fighting for what was right. It seemed like a good way to go. As my eyes began to focus again, I could make out his silhouette in the dark. He was lifting his arm up, and in his hand was a dagger, maybe even a branch. His outfit didn't really look like it had room for a dagger holder. He had just started to throw his hand down to kill me when I black blur pounced on him and pushed him off me.

I still couldn't move, so I couldn't turn to see what was happening. But I could hear it. And it was a sweet sound. Doom yelled, practically shrieked in pain. I heard metal bending, breaking and knew his body was being broken. Like he had broken mine. I could hear the growling that came from whatever was attacking Doom and I started to panic as I began to realize that time was still stopped. I'd have hoped my savior to be Sabretooth or even Logan. Hell even just a wild wolf or a bear. But time was stopped.

I began to hear the breeze in the trees as Doom's screams began to dull. He was dying and his hold on time had waned. The trees soon became the only sound in the night. Doom was dead, and as my savior walked over and stood over me, my assumptions were confirmed.

Blackheart. What else but a demon could warp through space and time to save me?

My heart sank. I was ready for death at the hands of Doom. And now with Blackheart over me, I desired it. Death had to be easier than going through what he put me through again.  Not again. I'd defeated his sister using only my mind. I didn't need my body to defeat him too.

"My beloved," he began, kneeling beside me the way Doom had not minutes ago, "now with my father and Doom out of the way we can be together. You and I, together will create something unlike anything any world has seen before. It is destined. You and I are fated to be one."

He looked down at me with a look in his eyes I'd only seen in people in love. It was the way my parents used to look at each other. It was the way Logan looked at me. Despite everything, Blackheart did love me. In his own twisted way.

He reached down and touched my face and in doing so he revealed to me his perspective.

It wasn't unlike Doom's memories. Except Blackheart's memories weren't as clear. It was like looking through water. Dark, dirty water.

And it moved fast.

The first thing to come up in his memories was the image of an old woman. Bound, and on her knees. She was in Mephisto's Realm. "Spare me," she pleaded. "Spare me and I will show you a future, son of Mephisto."

"You dare attempt to gain insight on my father, dare to think yourself worthy of such a task, and dare to think you'd live through it?" It was Blackheart speaking. "You are as foolish as you are old."

"The longing in your chest," she cried, "I can point you in the right direction!" I could feel him tense up at her words.

"What do you know of this, Volla?" Addressing her by name. She'd one this battle.

"The wheels of fate have pulled you into their plans, demon," she began, getting up off her knees. "A being has come into existence that has the power to defy all the laws the universe has placed. He will defy time, he will defy space, and in time he will defy even death. It is in him that lies the answer to your deepest desires. In him you will find the power to defeat your father, your sister, and in doing so gain his throne and crown."

She spoke slowly, surely. Her name, it rang a bell. I'd heard it somewhere before.

Volla! She was the prophetess who'd forseen the end of the world! Or something along those lines.

Blackheart huffed and the memory shifted away and another one took its place. This time it was an elderly man. Long beard, whited eyes. This wasn't in Mephisto's Realm. We were in a small room, lit only by a crystal ball in the center of the room. A warlock, no doubt.

"How may I be of service, my prince?" he asked. He was old. Ancient. His voice was barely audible, but Blackheart wasn't trying to kill him, so he must be important. "The being Volla spoke about. I need to find her," Blackheart spoke. The old man chuckled softly. Blackheart growled and the man silenced himself. "My apologies, son of Mephisto. The being you seek is not a woman. Or even a girl. The being you seek is a human boy, who will rise to become a powerful man."

"So be it," Blackheart growled, "he must be mine. He will be mine. Make it so and I will never forget the great service you've provided."

Despite his blindness, you could see the old man's eyes begin to twinkle. He rummaged through the book on his table, and through old manuscripts that lined the shelves in his walls. After a moment he pulled from the shelf a small sack, tied at the top with a flimsy string he pulled off. He handed the sack to Blackheart.

Blackheart looked down to the sack in his hand and pulled from it a small vile, the contents of which was a dark, powdery dust.

"He is still just an infant," the warlock began to explain, "He won't understand desire for you until he matures. But once he ingests this, he won't truly be happy with anyone but you, my lord."

The memory shifted out and another one replaced it. He stood over an infant in a hospital room full of babies. This was the pediatric wing of a hospital no doubt. And that infant was me. The hands that reached down to pick me up were human, slim, female. He'd possessed one of the nurses. She fed me a bottle, the dust no doubt mixed into the milk.

The memory shifted yet again, this time I could see myself, my parents, Professor Xavier, and Ororo in my living room. Blackheart was looking into my living room from the outside.

"You being recruited by the old man interfered with my plans for you, beloved." His voice was in my head, not a part of the memory. "I had planned to introduce myself to you that very day. But the X-Men have a pesky habit of ruining the plans of a demon."

The memory shifted again and I could see Logan pinning me to my room door. That was so long ago. "You fell in love with him. You fell in love with your friend, the Iceman, too. But I had ensured you to be mine."

The memory shifted to that morning in the bathroom I coughed out blood the first time. Then shifted again to the second time. And the third.

Me coughing blood. It was my body rejecting Logan. It was my body rejecting anyone who wasn't Blackheart. It was that powder he'd gotten from that warlock.

The memories faded away and he started to come back into focus.

"Now you see beloved. You cannot be with anyone else but me. You are mine, and I am yours." His voiced seemed sleepy, dreamy. Coming from a demon, it was off putting. "We are fated to be together," he repeated.

He continued to stare at me. And he kept on staring. Not moving, not speaking, just staring. And then I noticed the breeze was no longer blowing through the trees. Time had stopped yet again.

Behind Blackheart the figure of a woman stood. Volla. "The memories you've been shown are all true. He heard my prophecy and killed me anyway. But I am Volla, speaker for the gods. He could not kill me if he so desired. The memories true, yes. But my prophecy false. You two are no more destined to be together than I am destined for death. The warlock he consulted was me in disguise, the powder a mere insurance that he'd believe me" she cackled, "Foolish demon full of childish ambitions. You, child, are powerful. And what I spoke of you is true. You have the power to destroy him. Consume him, child. Consume him and be free." Her last word echoed and as it died out the breeze returned, and Blackheart leaned down to kiss me.

I returned the kiss and turned over in my head everything I had just witnessed. It was all bullshit. Useless bullshit I've had to go through because an immortal prophetess was insulted. Because Blackheart wanted daddy's throne. Because Doom didn't know when enough was enough. I was nothing more than a pawn to them. A pawn in their wicked schemes. No more and never again.

Volla said to consume him. That was my power. To absorb energies and manipulate them.

Blackheart wasn't energy. I couldn't absorb him the way I did my friends' energies. But he was a demon. His power was in absorbing other people. And so in that kiss I absorbed his abilities, his strength.

I inhaled and drank in his power. By the time he felt himself being weakened it was too late. He pulled himself form my kiss, looked at me through angered eyes, and whispered, "Beloved?"

"Let's see how you like it, beloved."

I used his powers to consume him the way he had consumed me back in his realm. His essence flowed in through my mouth at first, and as he lost his form the rest of him sank into my skin. My body felt tight against my skin. I felt like I would burst. And as I heard the calls of my friends in the distance, I drifted off into the darkness. Into my well-deserved sleep.