Explosive Combination
Chapter 12 : Sacrifices
Xavier sat helpless, the all to familiar feeling of the Matrix surrounding his core, restraining and inhibiting any attempt at resistance or escape. He watched in horror as the Skrull took his form, and with it, the vast power that came with his special mutation. Charles Xavier, founder of the X-men and Imperial consort to the Empress of the Shi'ar Empire possessed perhaps the most powerful mind upon the planet Earth, an unfathomed stronghold of psychic potential. He at a young age had learned the responsibility of such a gift, and dedicated his life to using his power to bring humanity and mutants together. Now he sat and watched as the Skrull stole all that power, with only perverse intentions in the beings twisted mind.
"Don't you see the irony in it all Charles? That your mind shall be the very undoing of the X-men's aid all those years ago? That it shall be you who shall deal the deathblow to your beloved Lilandra? Oh I do love the very thought of it, for it all would not be possible if it were not for that wonderful quirk of genetics that created you." Deathbird hissed as she looked to the imprisoned man before her.
Turning, she watched as the Skrull doppelganger of Charles Xavier took his place in the duplicated Cerebro unit at the heart of the monstrous machinery surrounding the M,Kraan Crystal. As the machine powered up, energy arched about the crystal as pure and raw psonic energy rippled from the enhanced mind. Time opened up before the being, and as he delved into the past to find the first mind on the long list of those whom were to be disposed of, a look of shock fell over his face at what he saw. Time had been changed, and a wave rippled across the known continuum, atop the crest two beings stared back at him from across the divide.
Warning lights began to flash as sirens let out their wails of protest. Attendants and scientists took to their stations, finding out what the alarm was of, and as they analyzed the readouts, their faces took on the same dread that befell the Skrull before them.
"A wave of corrections is passing along the continuum, adjusting time and space due to a change in the time space." The lead scientist announced above the buzz of activity.
"A wave of correction? But we have not even begun the process? Will the shields be ready?" Another scientist inquired as her fingers danced across a console, preparing the displacement shielding that was to save them from the alterations to the time stream.
"I haven't a clue I'm afraid. The magnitude of the change is marginal, yet something is very strange about it. A time space abnormality is present in every time stream that the computer calculates." The scientist explained while his eyes were glued to a console.
Suddenly a shock hit the shielding, shaking the entire ship. The space occupied by the ship having changed, yet the shielding preventing the change from happening. Molecules out of place in the current time stream created feedback in the shielding as the time stream adjusted accordingly. Finally as the alarms ceased and the shaking subsided, the crew looked to one another in silence.
"Report!" Deathbird shrieked as she advanced upon the lead scientist.
"I beg forgiveness my Empress, but I must wait for the computer to calculate the changes while too drawing information from the Shi'ar databanks outside the field." The scientist said in a sub-servant tone as he avoided eye contact with the possible Empress.
Deathbird stood over him, looking to the console in the alien tongue, reading slowly. Nothing appeared to have changed as far as the records had displayed, yet the computer calculated a difference from the records. The abnormalities in the time stream were still there, yet they were outside normal time and space.
"Explain this." Deathbird said in a flat voice as she pointed to the abnormalities in the time space continuum.
"It is as if two beings not present in the last timeline are now present. I have not any explanation for this aside from perhaps a quantum paradox or perhaps interference from future events. Time travel works both ways Empress." The scientist remarked as he looked to the abnormality.
Meanwhile throughout this, the Skrull still held the same look of fear in his stolen eyes as his mind passed through the time stream, staring into the fate of past events with the eyes of others. He knew the two beings were growing closer, and held no good intentions for them. With every failed attempt to lock upon their minds his fear grew.
"Empress!" The Skrull cried out in the stolen voice of Charles Xavier.
Deathbird spun around to the doppelganger with a look of vexation. Her eyes grew wide at the site before her as the M,Kraan crystal took on an aura.
"Empress! The records do not show these two, but with the borrowed memories of your past self I do know that they were present when the X-men defeated you the last time. Not the time we know of as the events had changed with the success of a parallel time streams mission by our parallel selves." The Skrull explained.
"Which two?" Deathbird asked as the aura grew to blinding levels, causing all to retreat from the crystal.
Suddenly the sound like glass shards falling upon a stone floor echoed through the cargo bay holding the crystal, and as the aura faded two figures could be seen, neither looking impressed with what they beheld.
"Miss us?" Remy asked as he threw a barrage of charged cards at the machinery, once again disabling it.
The scream of the Skrull doppelganger could be heard as the Cerebro unit pushed his stolen powers to their limits. Psonic energy arched about him as his mind was released unto the astral plane.
"You!" Deathbird screeched as she launched at Remy, talons ready to draw blood.
Remy had his Bo staff drawn within a heartbeat, throwing the Shi'ar warrior at the crystal. The guards drew about them, but with a gesture Jubilee had the Matrix imprisoning Xavier destroyed with a blast of her plasmoids. As Charles fell to the floor, he was free once more, as were the powers of his mind.
~ Cease your attacks this instance! ~ Charles commanded as the guards stopped where they stood.
"Fools! Attack!" Deathbird cried out as she stumbled to her feet, talons readied once more.
The guards stood their ground, their minds imprisoned as Xavier once was. Remy and Jubilee drew about Deathbird. Remy gave a twirl of his Bo staff in response to the snarl on Deathbird's face, while Jubilee readied as her hands glowered with energy.
"They will not obey you anymore Deathbird, surrender." Charles said as he drew near as he dragged himself across the floor.
"Never! Never again shall I surrender! I am the rightful heir of the Shi'ar Empire!" Deathbird screamed as she launched herself at Xavier, plowing past Remy and Jubilee.
Just as she was on top of him, ready to deal a fatal blow to the founder of the X-men, the ship lurched and the combatants were thrown clear. The lights fell to red hues as sirens whined. Voices over the intercom told of the Imperial Flagship bearing down on them with an armada of Imperial ships of the various races of the Empire. The forces of Deathbird and those of Lilandra stood face to face in all their combined might, ion cannons charged and torpedo banks readied.
"This is the Empress of the Shi'ar Empire, Lilandra Neramani. By Imperial decree, I order your surrender." The voice of Lilandra beckoned from the hijacked comlink of the ships.
"Helmsman, fire at will!" Deathbird screeched as she picked up Xavier by his throat, holding off her aggressors with a well-placed talon to his throat.
Weapons fire echoed through the vastness of the ship as either armada opened fire upon one another. But within that room, within that space of a heartbeat, time and all else in the universe centered upon the threat of a single man's life, held in the grip of a psychotic noble of a Empire not their own. Remy and Jubilee looked to one another, hesitant as to what to do.
"Surrender now Youngling and you hairless ape and I shall spare the life of the consort of my sister." Deathbird said as she pressed a talon into Xavier's throat, drawing a faint drop of blood.
Anger grew in Jubilee's eyes as she watched a man who had spent his life for the benefits of everyday mutants, mutants like she was when she was nothing more than a scared child on the streets of Beverly Hills. He represented the first good thing she had seen in humanity, unselfish love for his people and the hope that some day humans and mutants could coexist. The words that Remy had spoken that time ago came back to her, those years in the future, yet only seeming like days in the past. The words Remy told her back at the wall came back. Time to think of someone other than herself.
With a feral scream she launched herself at Deathbird with all the acrobatic grace she could muster, sending Xavier free and landing a blow square in the temple, sending the Shi'ar warrior stumbling back. But as Xavier fell, Deathbird lashed out at her attacker, tearing up Jubilee's chest as a splatter of blood was sent against the wall. Jubilee fell limply to the ground, spasms of shock setting in from the force of the blood. Silence fell over the room as Deathbird took her ground once more, but it was a silence broken by an inhuman scream as Remy attacked Deathbird.
Blows charged with kinetic energy lashed out at Deathbird with the fury of a demon, flicking in and out of the visible range of movement as Deathbird was thrown back by fists and small explosions where the fists charged pieces of her body armor. A glow overtook the two combatants as Deathbird's armor shimmered with an aura of released kinetic energy. Vainly she struggled against the assault, but she was outmatched. A final heart wrenching scream ripped through the cargo bay as Remy threw a fist against her chest, releasing the kinetic energy as Deathbird's armor erupted. Falling limply to the ground, the Shi'ar warrior knew her day of defeat.
~ Helmsman, your Empress is defeated. Cease your armada's attack upon the Imperial forces now! ~ Xavier commanded as he cradled the limp form of Jubilee in his arms, vainly trying to stop the flow of blood from her wounds.
As Remy fell to his knees, he looked about, as he grew aware of his surroundings once more. A moment of rage incarnate had taken over him with the sight of Jubilee's blood splattering against the wall. Within a heartbeat he was to her side, clutching her to his chest, as her weak breath broke free of her battered form. As the sound of weapons fire ceased, and the shields dropped, the trio vanished in the energy signature of a Shi'ar transport. As they reappeared upon the Shi'ar Flagship, medical aids of the utmost skilled in the Galaxy stood waiting, Lilandra having picked up upon the distress in the minds of those upon the Flagship of Deathbird's rebel forces.
"Quickly! Let me see the youngling! We must tend to those wounds now lest she die!" A doctor cried out in shock of the sight before her.
Remy relieved his precious burden to the doctor, blood staining his body armor in her stead. Staring as one would their own flesh and blood dying, he sat where he was with a lost look in his eyes, every prayer he knew being silently said as his lips passed a whisper to the fates above that she live, that he would give anything that she might live. So lost to the moment that he didn't even notice as a strand of rosary found its way into his grip, his hands running along the beads of a crystal known only to one crystal in the universe as he passed along prayers to the fates. So lost that he didn't notice the addition of a new doctor to the bedside who took charge of the operation that would save Jubilee's life.
Meanwhile Jahf smiled fondly as he watched, knowing that whatever it was Remy gave to the crystal, it must have been worth it. Rarely did the crystal do such a favor, but then again this one seemed to find the ace in the hole when the chips were down, a gambit much like his namesake. The doctor who took charge was not of this universe, though he was one of the most skilled in any universe. Taking a puff of his cigar, he turned away from the view and took to savoring a good scotch on the rocks as he awaited the next visitor to his burden and joy, his guardianship of the most important meeting place in any Universe.
Remy awoke to a gentle whisper in his ear, stirring his mind from the darkness it clung to. As he opened his eyes to the darkened medical bay, he found himself staring into a set of green eyes filled with admiration and concern. Slowly he pulled the face from the haze of his mind, and the name that it belonged to.
"Morning Rogue. How is de P'tite?" Remy asked as his voice cracked with thirst.
"She'll be fine. The Shi'ar know a thing or two about medicine, let me tell ya now sugah. Now, they also know a thing or two about breakfast, lets get ya something ta eat now, eh?" Rogue whispered as she looked to Remy.
Slowly Remy stumbled out of the bed he did not recall climbing into, dusting off his jacket and looking at the horrid reminder of the events the night prior. Rogue, after noticing the stained armor, took Remy to get a shower and a change of clothes first. After the shower and change of clothing, he joined her in her trek to breakfast, finding the other X-men sitting in a private dinning hall with a reinforced wall of windows giving a view of the Shi'ar Throne-world in all its glory.
Settling for toast and a coffee, Remy took to the window where Ororo stood admiring the view. The pair stood enjoying the silence of the moment. Then with a glance to her eyes, Remy knew something was upon her mind.
"Somet'ing bothering you Chere?" Remy asked as he set his coffee down on the railing of the wall.
Ororo took in a calming breath as she faced Remy, drawing in strength against the shock of the revelation that had been delivered to the X-men the night prior with the return of their mentor.
"I remember you 'Ace'." Ororo whispered in a voice half amused, yet half in disbelief.
Remy gave a grim nod as he looked to her, waiting for the other foot to fall in this stride of this Titan of revelations.
"You and her, you did all this for us and we barely even knew you." Ororo whispered, struggling to maintain the composure she was known for.
Remy gave a nod, not knowing what to say to her at this moment in which she had found that that they had met for what to her had been years ago, yet for him had been the passage of days. Having risked all to travel about time and set the timeline upon its proper path, and now having finally returned to save the very founder and mentor of the X-men, only to have his better half nearly fall to the hands of a psychotic.
"Why?" Ororo asked, still in disbelief as the pieces of the puzzle set in place, two rogues that they X-men had merely met like passing mists in the night, having risked all for something they knew nothing about.
"Seemed de right t'ing ta do Chere." Remy whispered as he took her hands, steadying them.
"She saved Logan." Ororo whispered.
Remy merely gave a nod to her, finding it all that need be said. Taking in a calming breath, Ororo gave him a nod in return before she left, seeking out the side of her beloved Logan. Alone again, Remy found his gaze lost to the world before him, a pang in his chest as he longed to be home once more in his own place, Jubilee at his side and not in a hospital bed nearly torn to shreds. Not so lost to the moment this time, he cast a curious glance down to the rosary beads he found in his hands, working over them in the way he would in prayer.
As he drew the beads close, he recognized the material with a thieves eye, and he almost swore he could see Jahf smirking back at him across the void.