X-Writers is a non-profit fan-fiction group producing stories involving characters belonging to Marvel Entertainments Group. We do not have their permission to use these characters. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Wolverine #99 -Adamantium Bound (6 of 7) "Tidings of War" Writer: JAC Delaney Editor in Chief: Marysia Prologue Wolverine screamed, a cry born of pure and unadulterated agony as the bonding process began its final stage. The metal in his blood was causing his mind to wander and hallucinate, heavy metal poisoning in the most literal sense. He could see the tall figure with the glowing eyes, already recovered from his mysterious wounds, pacing across the chamber and muttering. Visions floated through his head, he remembered a Japanese noblewoman he loved and a wild Ronin with whom he ran... and a pretty red head who would always hold a special place in his heart. When he left the service of Canada so long ago who would have believed that he would have found a home and a family. Who would have believed that the feral berserker would find honour and a cause? He extended his claws and saw adamantium honed to a razor keen edge. He struggled in his restraints, this was being done so differently from before. One way of the other he would be out of this blasted, stinking cage, and then he would get some blood on his claws! Main Rogue stirred on the soft jungle floor. The first thing she saw was the tall cloaked figure of the Master of Magnetism, his red cloak billowing in the cool jungle breeze. As she watched she saw Jean Grey approaching him, her whole body radiating a sense of danger and elation in a confusing mixture. No longer was she the unassuming wife of Cyclops. She had let the wild side she had so long suppressed run free. Rogue suppressed a shudder as she couldn't help comparing them to a couple of predators, as if they were lean and hungry wolves on the hunt. She heard their voices drifting into her earshot on the soft evening breeze, "...so as far as I can tell Thor is beyond help. As for the rest, Natasha is hurt badly and Stark is useless without his armour. Captain America would only get in the way of what has to be done." "I concur. What about Rogue?" "She has passed out somewhere, she wasn't seriously hurt and yet she collapsed like a house of cards. She will only get in the way, we do not need her Magnus!" "Still, she fought valiantly and she was apparently poisoned earlier..." "Be realistic. Even if she were in top notch shape she would be a liability tonight." "I disagree. She is a lot tougher than you think Jean. In any case, I suspect she will do what she wishes in this. I am tired of waiting. I say we go in after dark." "It seems the best plan. He is calling his people together. We can take care of the whole sick mess at once." "Tell me Jean, when you became an X-Man did it ever once occur to you the price you would pay for it?" "No. But it doesn't keep me from going on. What is this talk, going soft old man?" "Just wondering... wondering if maybe there wasn't a better way... if I had tried hard enough maybe, just maybe, I could have made a difference. Won a victory that wasn't purchased in blood and hatred. I kill and kill and the hatred only gets stronger. Maybe I am just tired of death and dying. I tried to build a refuge in the sky, a place where my people would be safe but my oldest friend led those who are dear to me in an attempt to murder me. Perhaps the failure was mine, if I had begun this way they might trusted me more... seen my vision for what it was... what it still is!" "Thoughts like that will get you killed. What are you going to do, try to reason with HIM? With the lord of shadows himself! Stop deluding yourself, Magnus. Tonight we are going to have to be at our absolute best and even then I fear for our chances. Thoughts like this will only make you hesitate, be merciful when you should strike" "Is this really Jean Grey talking?" "I haven't lost my sense of compassion or my dream, unlike you! I just realise what we are up against, even Charles struck without mercy when he faced the Shadow King. We are going to have to do the same if any of us are to survive." "You aren't expecting to come back are you." "No, are you?" "It is as good an ending as any." Rogue watched them; perched on the hilltop like a pair of eagles. Eyes not human but blazing pools of energy and power; two people each like a force of nature. Magnus' helmet gleamed and Jeans' hair was painted scarlet by the setting sun. They stood there for a long while, talking; two elemental forces, proud as Lucifer, and as unstoppable as the wind. She would remember them this way later on, when both were just shadows fading away from this life, she would remember this as the pinnacle of their powers and the moment when both stood forth as true heroes. She would remember and she would weep for what was lost. The dark figure of Apocalypse led the young man into the laboratory where Wolverine, Doom and Wanda were bound. The young man glanced around with a feverish eagerness. You could sense the gloating triumph in his voice. He saw Doom and broke into a broad grin. His handsome gypsy face was nearly a precise duplicate of a young Victor von Doom. "Hello Father." "You are no son of mine!" "On the contrary! It has now been conclusively proven that I am your child. You might like to know that this has enabled me to stage a mild coup in the day or so in which you have been gone. Latvaria is MINE! Just compensation for all that you did to me and my mother." The boy's words spun a web of charisma, seductive beyond the level to which the best con-man, the most fervent dictator, could go. Doom merely glared. "So who is this pretty wench Apocalypse?" he said with a grin on his face, letting his hand wander across Wandas' bare skin. "What did she do to deserve the sentence of being confined into a room with my egomanic father and a furry little berserker" "Get your hands off me!" Wanda spat. Doom continued to glare. Wolverine growled. Apocalypse backhanded Flynn sending him tumbling into a bank of equipment. "The girl needed to be stripped of age and power so that a Legacy could come to full fruition. As for the Berserker, he is ten times the man you will ever be!" Flynn cowered for a moment, expecting another blow. Doom's eyes radiated contempt. "I have prepared your father's armour for your use. Learn it well and become strong. Rule Latvaria well and ensure that you have culled the weak from the flock, for the day is coming when expendables will be sorely needed. Go! Take your rightful place as a ruler and bother me no more!" Without further encouragement Flynn fled from the room. The old man leaned on his staff, his grizzled face surveying all that was in front of him. A couple of large wolves roamed nearby and a couple of ravens croaked a greeting to the dying sun. Beside him was a young Cheyenne woman, her black hair jutting from underneath a feathered helm. The old man watched the two figures in front of him, one a cripple in a makeshift stretcher, the other a blonde woman with a truly disgusting gut wound and crippled limbs bound by braces. The girl was groaning with the effort of moving the man across the rugged terrain. "Xavier!" the helmed woman whispered. "That is all in your past Valkyrie! When you bonded a horse that made you one of mine forever. I am jealous and never willingly part with my own. You should have realised this before when you were cast forth from my heaven. Let him pass." "He will die unless we help him. I am almost certain of it!" "And what concern of ours is it. He will die in battle, gloriously as he attempts to fend off the predators that are trailing him. Neither he nor the girl can fight them off." "Predators?" "My wolves spotted them a while ago." "We have to help them!" The blonde girl stared in sudden surprise hearing the outburst. Dani could see red lines tattooed on her face. "I send my Valkyries back to strengthen my realm, not to weaken it. Know your place girl. I am the betrayer of warriors, the grim gallows god, the black hearted thief who comes in the night, lord of war, terrible wolf god and raven lord. Dare you stand against me?" "Then why are you going to save your son? I am Danielle Moonstar of the Cheyenne and we bow to nobody, grim god. I have sworn my allegiance to you but I will not stand aside and watch my friends perish," she looked again, "even if one of them isn't really a friend." The tall man with the broad brimmed hat and ragged cloak laughed. One of his eyes was gone and only a void remained where once had been an orb. "Very well daughter of the Cheyenne. If you breed half as true as Brunhilda did many fine warriors will stand in my halls for the coming of the end. Save them if you can dear child, for if you win then maybe you will bring glory to my name. If you fail I will have the souls of warriors this night." As Dani leapt towards the professor, nocking an arrow to her bow, the old god laughed , a sharp mocking laugh. As blood began to spray he watched with a frightening intensity and when it was over he walked away muttering to himself about stubborn Valkyries and the doom he awaited at the hands of Fenris. Apocalypse surveyed the results of his work on Wolverine, the bonding had been much faster this time and the cognitive damage nearly negligible. He would show Sinister who had chosen better, whose son was more fit. He thought about Flynn, the boy was a cretin, no doubt about that. All of the bad attributes of his father and none of the redeeming ones that had made Doom so great. But he was a mutant with an impressive power to be sure and Victor von Doom had once been much the same. Either he would grow into his power and become one of the strong or it would destroy him. Either would be a victory. Wanda was a problem of sorts, he had regressed her in age from her early thirties to her late twenties, but each and every treatment had been punishingly difficult. She should have a teenager by now, just the right age to be moulded into a herald of his. Time to undo all of that weakness she had allowed into her character. But some- thing was blocking him, something was giving her the strength to resist. Her mystic abilities would be useless without an anchor and who would be serving as this? And her memories, absolutely no progress was being made there. He had operated on her for hours, her shrieks of agony flooding his laboratory, and still had no results. Perhaps feeding her to that abortion from a damned and doomed reality would be for the best. That Holocaust thought he could take his place amused him. The clumsy attempt of sabotage on his tomb was even funnier. They bred them weak minded in that alternate reality. Speaking of that, he was certain now that the edge over Sinister he had been seeking for so long was at hand. Holocausts' memories had spoken of a reality where experimentation on mutants had gone much further than in this one. And now it appeared one of the scientists from that reality might be loose in this one. He smiled. Essex would pay for his betrayal so long ago, so many years but still remembered, and vengeance, well it was a dish best served cold; and this would be stone cold. He laughed and his laughter echoed throughout his base. His second tomb; where nobody would ever have expected it. Soon we will meet Lord of the Fatal Attraction, once more cross swords in the astral plane. You are but the merest novice, a child playing at a man's game. You beat me on your home ground, but what will happen when you try to fight me in MY realm. Do you think little Jeanie will help you in the least, she is more than half mine already and a part of her longs to be what she was. As for Rogue, do you think that she will have any chance against me, she fell so easily last time. What makes you think this will be any different. Xavier is gone, either dead or he has left this god-forsaken land, as soon will I. I have done all that I have wanted to and my new host is ready, poor little man, his sense of morality kept him from being great when he could have been... but then, with me in charge, he will dare anything. And maybe, just maybe, the stupidest of the Externals will give what I have wished for so long. You are all alone Magneto, and when we meet again you will be all alone. Twice before you have denied me but the third time's the charmer. I will face you and then, at long last, I shall destroy you. In the end you will die as you have always lived, alone and without friends. The tall, ragged figure walked into the makeshift camp, to the immense surprise of Jean who had not seen a trace of him in his approach. She whirled, calling up power that even he had not thought to see again. He smiled to himself, knowing her inevitable fate when she used it at last to its full potential. He stared at the figure who rose up to stand next to her. Being consumed by a crippling virus the Master of Magnetism would soon die helpless in a hospital bed; unless he died in battle. "Who are you and what do you want?" Magneto demanded, steel coiled around the cloaked figure, iron ripped from the virgin earth. "I have come for my son," the figure replied. "It's not possible..." Jean began. "Father..." groaned a weak Thor. The ragged figure stepped forth as the iron melted away. He picked up the torn figure of his favourite son and stared at him. "Stay," Magneto cried, "with your help we could almost certainly overcome the Shadow King..." "I know." Then the stranger vanished taking Thor with him. In the sky above a raven crowed. A sound of approaching destiny, as dark and baleful as the old god who had just left. Apocalypse released Wolverine's limp form from his restraints. The feral Canadian suddenly leapt forth from the contraption that had been holding him. His eyes glowed with a berserkers fury. "I know who you are, bub an' you stopped me from savin' a lady that I care about. I figure after I carve ya into little pieces you an' I will be about even on that score." "Magnificent. Fight me. Show me how strong you are." Apocalypse was pleased. The fight was not gone from his son and it was no accident that he was placed into the same room as the other two captives. He had taken the edge from Wanda that could have cured her father of his lethal illness and he had found a replacement for Doom who was not as... limited in his genetic potential. "Sorry bub but I've learned ta fight smart, not stupid!" He dodged past outstretched arms, dove and rolled, and ended up right next to Wanda and Doom. Claws popped and restraints were severed. Apocalypse grabbed Logan from behind and threw him against a wall, hard. His cold eyes shone with admiration. This was what he had hoped against hope would happened. Let them show him if they were worthy to escape. Doom unleashed a bolt of mystical energy, a spell he had been generating since his captivity began. It hit Apocalypse like a sledgehammer and sent him flying back- wards. He tried to rise but slipped. Wanda smirked. Then Logan was on top of him, adamantium claws tearing into his composite body. Apocalypse suddenly grew deadly wings and slashed into Wolverine but they weren't strong enough to slice through adamantium bones. "Wait Doom," Wanda cried seeing the dictator trying to take a discrete exit. "We can't just leave him here." He looked at her and took several additional strides to pick up a weapon of some sort. "We aren't leaving him, Doom pays his debts!" Dr. Doom turned and fired, the energy bolt cutting deeply into Apocalypse. "Come on you fool. We must leave NOW. This is the last chance. When he recovers from the bolt I hit him with we are all dead!" "Then go. Me, I got business here." Wolverine placed his fists at the base of Apocalypse's head. "Say goodnight bub!" SNICKT. Six claws bored in Apocalypse's skull. Only one more tomb, he thought, as death overtook him and his spirit was cut lose into the void. Never have I been on such a slender margin. Never have I come so close to defeat. But I rise more powerful from the grave and I will have need of such power. Holocaust, you, my bastard son from another reality, will now be tested as to your fitness. Will you be able to take my place by force and do what has been asked of you? Or will you fall before me when I rise once again? As for my true son, my only true son, you did what my other son could not. You rose forth and slew the previous generation and proved your fitness to succeed us. Colonel Vashkin was feeling especially good today. It wasn't often that things worked out this way but today was a good day. The completely unworkable command arrangement on the first wave had lead to disaster and now he stood to gain all the credit for bailing the UN out of this mess. He lit a cigar and hummed softly to himself. Even better were the three captives SHIELD had just taken, mutants all of them. One way or the other they would solve a major problem he had. He walked down the corridor saluting the odd sentry. He entered a relatively comfortable set of chambers that contained an annoyed man trying to break through the psionic baffles. Let him try, not even he could do it. The other two were already in holding cells, known terrorists, if Xavier was reluctant then a couple of spontaneous executions of known criminals (one MLF, one Acolyte) might inspire him. "Hello Professor Xavier. We have a great deal to talk about..." The trio of refugees reached the teleportation centre in a rush. Doom scanned the controls feverishly. Holocaust would be here momentarily and he didn't have the means to deal with him. Not here and not now. They had had every lucky break you could imagine. A hex witch could be a valuable ally. Still he cursed the fates that Apocalypse had planned for this. Almost as if he had expected to fall to Wolverine. "Set the controls for the Savage Land," Wolverine growled. "I've got some friends who need serious bailing out down there!" "Very well." Wolverine vanished in a blaze of light. Doom stepped onto the platform and was surprised when Wanda stepped off her circle and unto his. Her nearly naked body was flat against his. "I know you aren't going to the Savage Land, whatever the power source you are seeking it has moved quite far away from there. You were there for me when Apocalypse tried to take everything from me: my mind, my powers, my soul. Where ever you are going I will help you." They vanished in a flash of light as Holocaust broke down the door with a single blow of his mighty fist. He stared about the room in rage. Then he saw the co- ordinates on the teleporter. Slowly rage left him and he began to laugh. One way or another, one of his enemies was going to fall today. . Perfect! Let them fight and the strongest would survive! I am the only one truly fit to succeed you father. That bastard Logan will fall and you will see that you have only one true son. I have captured your plans and I know what you plot with Sinister, but it will be Holocaust who destroys the X-Men and not Apocalypse. I didn't know you had a second tomb but I have ensured that you will never use this one. Sugarman too shall not evade me for long. And then, then I will at last have McCoy in my grasp. All who would stand against me shall die. "You are utterly mad Vashkin! What makes you think that I would ever agree to anything of the sort!" "I am a pragmatic man and I come from a pragmatic country. Russia breeds us that way. You are an idealist but the world has had enough of idealists. Of people who seek to change the world. People like yourself. Help me and I will ensure that you survive to pursue your foolish dream. Cross me and I will begin the executions now. Remember, I had the crew draw up three firing squads." "What do you hope to gain?" "Power, my dear professor, power. The Shadow King is the greatest menace I know of, but in the long run he might be less dangerous than I had dreamed. We are at the dawn of a brave new world when the power of technology is overshadowed by the dawn of Homo Superior. You and your kind are a resource, to be used and exploited like any other. Nuclear Weapons are out- dated when Havok can do the same amount of damage in a much more controlled manner." "So what do you have against Magneto? If we can free him from the Shadow King's control then he isn't a threat..." "Do you really believe that Xavier? Grow up. He is an idealist and one who has never given up. When he started he did it all wrong and thus could be discounted. But he has grown wise and he was always too smart for his own good. He is too strong willed to be controlled and too impassioned to see the realities of the situation. In short, unlike you, he cannot be easily corrupted. What's wrong Xavier? Didn't you try to murder him yourself already?" "I just don't want to kill Jean as well. She has always stood by my side, believed in my dream..." "So you don't mind murder? Just a little selective. I knew you had it in you dear professor, I knew it. I can accommodate this easily..." Epilogue Magneto looked out into the vast unknown. His cloak fluttered in the wind like a banner of war. The sun had finally set and this was the time that they had chosen to go forth and do battle with the Shadow King. He thought back on his life; the horror and the tragedy and felt a sense of satisfaction. For, whatever else could be said, the path of his life ran true. Here, at the end of his life, it was scant comfort. But it was something. All he had to do was steel himself for one last fight, one last encounter with the Shadow King. Then it would all be over and he could rest at last. The disease slowly killing him would leave him with no other choice. He turned to Jean. "So, is she coming with us?" "Yes." He was taken aback for a second when, without any sort of warning a grim Rogue came flying through the surrounding foliage and landed in front of him. She stared at her companions and wondered just why she had agreed to this. If they had waited there was a good chance several of the others could help or that they could locate Professor Xavier... "I have been scanning for him for several minutes now. His mental signature is missing as if..." "Get your slimy paws outta mah mind Phoenix. What is up w'th you anyway, ya seem really different an' ya are acting like... like..." "Like what Rogue, like what?" Phoenix stared at Rogue, a glowing intensity in her eyes. "We don't have time for this!" Magneto stormed. "If you cannot be civil to each other don't be, but the enemy is out there not among us. We have to work together..." As he says it he knows it is a lie. The Shadow King will take what is worst in each of us and turn it against ourselves, he realised. For a moment he is paralysed by the dim memory of the small camp of Auschwitz and the sick feeling of horror that it still holds for him. He wonders, will it be enough to beat him back? Will we ever truly destroy him, ever defeat him? Or are we already all doomed? Can evil ever truly die or does it remain forever in the heart of man? Rogue thinks for a moment. "Ah'm not so sure th't the enemy is out there Magnus, not at all..." Then she joins the others in their desperate flight towards an uncertain future. ----------------------------------------------------------- Be here for X-Men #50 'No Price too High" as Magneto and Jean Grey stand against the horror of the Shadow King, and the return of the Phoenix! Then return for Wolverine 100 as the Madripoor Knights reunite in a last, desperate bid to defeat the Shadow King. X-men vs. Magneto. -- *Marysia* | The Original Holy | "Just love me, fear Keeper of the | Virgin of the | me, do as I say and I Labyrinth Flame | Church of Xbooks | will be your slave." ---------------------------------------------------------- Editor in Chief of x-writers at majordomo@minuteman com Back issues and info at http://minuteman.com/x-writers