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  X-Writers is a not-for-profit fan fiction group intent on 
  furthering the stories and characters of the X-Men by Marvel 
  Comics. All characters and likenesses thereof are copyright 
  and trademark Marvel Comics Group, Inc and are used for 
  hobby purposes only.
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                           X-Writers Presents:
                      X-Man #15 Part V of the Focus
                        "The Ultimate Sacrifice"
                          Written By Andy Banks
                         Edited by Marysia

"What the hell am I doing?" Nate thinks to himself, "I'm about to go up
there and hopefully beat up the only person who didn't want me to beat up
other people. Like that makes any sense at all. Then again, my whole life
doesn't make any sense. This is the only life I've ever known, too. 
Sigh...Forge? If you're listening wherever you are, I just want you to
know that I'm trying my best to make you proud. Everything you've ever
taught me about controlling myself and controlling my power is being
shoved in my face and there really isn't a whole lot that I can do about
it now. I'm sorry if I'm letting you down but just to let you know, I
haven't forgotten what you've taught me and I never will. I'm about to
fight a battle that might even be bigger than the one I fought with
Apocalypse and Holocaust. Forge...I could really use your wisdom right
now." 

                     - - -

"You dolt...you blundering idiot. If I could, I would suck out your life
essence just to spite you. It was your moronic bravado that brought down
my greatest victory. You...insufferable simpleton," Selene shouts. 

The two of them stand in what was once a lavish apartment with amenities
that the rich lust after. Now, the two of them stand in the remnants of a
demolished war zone. Not more than 10 minutes have passed since their
allegiance was severed by their experiment gone awry. Madelyne could have
been Belasco's greatest ally. One powerful enough to vanquish S'ym and
regain Limbo for his own. Likewise, she could have been a powerful
accessory for Selene as well. Drawing upon the Phoenix Force, Selene could
have drank her life essences for years to come. 

"It was your zealousness in making her more powerful which caused this
mess, impudent witch" Belasco retorts. 

"It was your ignorance towards that which you cannot fathom, demon. You
had no idea what you were getting into, did you Belasco? You were like a
child sitting behind the controls of a hydrogen bomb; not knowing which
buttons to press or which levers to pull. You sat there lavishing at the
power at your fingertips. Your lust for power truly has rotted any brain
you might have once had. I will no longer be a part of your folly. You
haven't heard the last of me Belasco, the Black Queen is not without her
resources...and you will pay for the damage you caused to my estate!"
Selene barks. 

With a cloud of thick black smoke, Selene is gone and Belasco quickly
curses her name before swirling his cape and making his exit. 

                     - - -

Atop the burning building a woman stands alone staring up into the smoky
sky. She would probably notice the raging fires and the bursting pipes
around her if she even cared. Except that she does not. All that matters
to her at the moment is the power she has found and the knowledge that
accompanies it. The Phoenix Force unfolds the myriad mysteries of the
complex past and the delicate future in her mind. 

"Madelyne" calls a voice from behind her.

"Nate...you've come back. Good for you" Madelyne says, not even turning to
face him. 

There is a strong silence broken only by the sounds of fire lapping at the
sides of the building and the distant sounds of sirens. Madelyne continues
to stare into space as if waiting for a cosmic event. She breaks the
silence. 

"The fires will soon consume the whole building. You know Nate, the
Phoenix died in fire and rose youthfully from it? Fire gives way to life."
Madelyne says with her back still turned towards Nate. 

"And destruction. Just look what you've done to this section of the city.
A few days ago I thought you would never be capable of causing all this
destruction," Nate says. He pauses for a moment and continues, "You know
Maddie, you were the only person that I trusted since I came to this
world? I thought I had found another friend like I had a few years ago,
but I guess I was wrong. I guess you just ended up like everyone else...
stabbing me in the back. You really let me down and I'm hurt by that." 

"So you've come seeking retribution then? I must now do penance for your
feeling of inadequacy?" Madelyne asks. 

"I've come here to find you, but all I've found so far is some monster,"
Nate replies, "What happened to the Maddie I knew?" 

"Nate...if you live in the past then you are not living in the present,
and you will go nowhere in the future." Madelyne responds. 

"And where are you living Madelyne? Remember the time we sat in front of
the fire in that Swiss cabin and tried to get you to remember your past?
You said that you had no recollection of how you got there or where you
came from. So I tried to psi-tap you and a really nasty creature
materialized itself. What was that? Wasn't it a demon from your past?"
Nate poses. 

"Demon...hmmm...funny that you should choose that word" Madelyne says as
she spins around, "Yes it was Nate. A demon from the past which I made. I
have so many demons and now finally, I have the means to exact my
vengeance on those who let me down in the past. Let me tell you a little
about my past now that I know exactly what happened to me. I was
genetically cloned by Sinister, cheaply discarded by Cyclops, used by
Havok, and left for dead by Jean Grey. You see Nate, if your entire family
treats me so cheaply I have no reason to believe that you would be any
different. If you want to talk about letting someone down, my life was
full of humiliation and I was spurned by those I loved and trusted. That
is why the only way to deal with such insolence is with rancour. That is
not living in the past, that is living for a better future. One that I can
see in my head and is as real as today. I cannot change the past but I can
mold the future in my hands, and that future leaves no room for demons." 

"You can't deal with the fact that your future is hopeless! Sounds to me
like you're trying to fill the big round hole in your life with a square
peg," Nate says mockingly. 

"Don't test me Nate" Maddie says angrily as fire spews from her eyes, "I
will kill you." 

"Maddie. You've turned out to be the biggest let down of all. You had a
chance at starting a decent life from scratch but you threw it away
because people let you down," Nate says. 

"As have you," Maddie responds quickly.

"You're right...but now I realize how pathetic that is. Just a few moments
ago, I was wishing Forge was here with me right now, but you don't see me
with a shovel at his grave. Maddie, listen to me. You know that you can't
go on like this. If you destroy me and everyone that you hate, where will
that get you? Believe me, you'll just trade one devil for another. Demons
will always be there." Nate pleads. 

"I will have power and satisfaction to keep me company" Maddie responds.

The two stand in silence for a moment, looking into each others eyes and
piercing each others souls. Two lonely people with no tangible past now
threaten each others future. 

"When I was younger," Nate says, "Forge told me that I shouldn't put too
much trust in my powers because someday I might not have them. I didn't
understand what he meant by that back then, but now I know exactly. He was
afraid for me...afraid that someday I would revel in the power and rise up
and sacrifice every value that he passed on to me. He said that because it
would make me a better person, and it did. If you can't see the wisdom in
that, then go ahead and use your power to destroy. Use the power to hurt
and kill...start with me. I'll sacrifice myself for your selfish future.
Go ahead and discard any feelings you have for any living being and kill
the people you love and the people who love you!" 

Maddie stands in stunned silence for a moment. Nate can feel the psionic
turmoil that spins inside her head and knows that he has finally struck a
raw nerve. She is still adjusting to her new state of mind. Only hours
ago, she wished for nothing more than a few more hours of sleep, now she
seeks to test her new found powers through vindication. 

Nate slowly starts to walk towards Madelyne.

"Maddie. Someone told me that if you continue to use the Phoenix Force,
the world will again fall under the hand of Apocalypse and there will be
no one to challenge him. Can you look forward to such a future? Can't you
anticipate what that would be like? I had never seen a green pasture or a
blue sky until I came to this world. Now you threaten to bring this...
paradise... down to the hell I once lived in. Maddie... listen to me... you
don't know what that was like..." Nate's voice softens, "so let me show
you." 

Nate dips his head as he concentrates on his past. His right eye glows
with telekinetic energy as he reaches out with his mind and touches
Madelyne's. 

Madelyne glances around. Where she is expecting to see the Parisian
tenements, she sees a wasteland. Bitter cold wind blows back her hair. She
sees rubble strewn about and bodies as far as the eyes can see. She is
surrounded by death and the stench permeates around her. She does not see
a single living thing wherever she looks. Trees burnt to hot cinders, dark
smoke hovers over the ground and the sun is a pale glimmer in the black
clouds. She walks...not knowing where she is going or why she is there.
Lifeless bodies gaze at her is if they were pleading for mercy. Woeful
cries ride the wind in this desolate wasteland. 

As she walks forth, she hears the sobbing of a young woman. Madelyne turns
and walks silently towards her. As she approaches, she finds the woman
halfway naked, bleeding, and covered with filth. She has been clutching a
young boy for hours, hoping that she will soon awaken from this
nightmare, and that her son will be alive and whole. She hopes, but she
knows that her child is dead and the few years that they had together were
far too short. As Madelyne approaches the young lady turns toward her,
still weeping. Her face is sooty and dry. She can manage no more tears.
Desperately, she pleads "Oh god...my son is...dead. I'm...in...hell!" She
wails painfully before her chest explodes, and the young girl slumps over
lifelessly. Madelyne looks up and sees the Infinite soldier blowing off
the barrel of his gun and then carelessly walking away. 

Madelyne screams, not of rage or terror, but of despair. She cups her
hands over her face so that she will not have to watch as people are
gunned down left and right for no apparent reason save the fact that they
live. With the scream, she is suddenly ripped back into reality. 

"Do you understand now Maddie?" Nate asks, "That is where I'm from and I'm
not going to let that happen again. Is that the future you want to carve?
Is that the legacy you want to leave to your children?" 

Madelyne blinks rapidly, trying to regain her composure.

"There is so much about the past and the future that you don't know, Nate.
Several years ago Apocalypse tried to kill my son. In 2000 years, my only
son will depend on the Phoenix for nurturing and he will save the world
from Apocalypse. My...son." Maddie says. Her voice lowers as she repeats
the phrase, "my son." 

She drops to her knees and the psionic fires that once engulfed her start
to diminish. In her head, Madelyne tries to examine possible futures where
she may retain the Phoenix Force and Apocalypse will not rule. She scans
desperately but every road she travels leads to his profane ascension. 

"I remember...years ago... all that I ever wanted to do was to hold my
baby and comfort him. To me he wasn't a genetic weapon or the most
powerful mutant ever, he was just my baby. Whenever he cried, I rushed to
him and held him and rocked him back and forth until he knew that his
mother was there to protect him. But then, I changed and I tried to kill
him because I was promised power if I did. I tried to sacrifice my only
son... my... baby Nathan. Oh God, so many times I've been so close to
causing the world that you just showed me Nate. So many times..." Maddie
says trailing off. 

Nate approaches Madelyne and leans down on one knee. He rubs his hand on
her back and whispers "You can prevent that Maddie, but you have to let
the Phoenix go." 

"Nate...you are more like my son than you know. Your mother would be very
proud of you," Madelyne says as she looks up at him. A tear streams down
her cheek. 

The psionic fire of the Phoenix then lights up the morning sky and Nate is
pushed backwards. The rush of wind topples him and the roar of the fires
is like being right next to a speeding freight train. The fire rises in a
tall spire stretching hundreds of feet in the air. Clouds evaporate around
the fiery pillar as though it was punching a hole into the sky. The
Parisians gasp and scream cries of mercy to God. 

When the Phoenix Force descended on Madelyne, it was nearly a sense
shattering experience. When it leaves her it is even more traumatic. With
a loud cry like a trumpeting eagle, the fiery Phoenix Force spins off into
the sky, leaving nothing behind but complete silence. 

Nate runs quickly and holds her in his arms. She mutters, "I did it... I...
expelled it... for... my son... for... the future." 

Madelyne manages a slight smile, closes her eyes and then collapses. She
has reconciled with the demons from her past and future, and she may
finally rest peacefully. 

Nate holds her close and hugs her, burying his face into her shoulder. He
sits with her in his arms and realizes that he has never known the embrace
of his mother, but he knows the importance of what a motherly embrace is.
It gives you the sense that there is always someone who will care for you
and look out for you. Someone to chase away the evil and keep you warm.
Someone who will love you unconditionally. He wonders about her son who
shares his name and thinks "how lucky that child was." 


******* Epilogue ********

"Oh my stars and garters!" Henry says aloud. As he steps from his ship, he
is given a rude welcome home. He looks around in complete horror to find
his entire domain ransacked. Broken medical equipment covers the floor and
glass from shattered monitors leave no trace of the concrete floor. He
slaps his furry hand to his forehead and looks around in utter dismay. His
life and his life's work has been compromised. Every computer that he
built, every clone bank, every device is shattered. All save one small
monitor. He rushes over to it because he sees it flash. A blinking line of
type reads "Welcome Home Stupid." 

"So that is the way it is," Henry says aloud, "the best laid plans of
Beasts and Men. So now I have no Nate, no Maddie, no dead Sinister...and
now no data. It is all his fault." 

Henry raises his fists towards the sky and shakes them violently while
screaming, "You will pay Sinister! YOU WILL PAY!" 

The echoes of his voice linger through the underground tunnels of New York
before trailing off. 

                    - - -

On an abandoned ship in the Baltimore Harbour, a withered figure sits at a
computer terminal diligently scanning its display. He taps his fingers
rhythmically back and forth on the table in front of him. He is an 
impatient little man with motives that only he can understand.

"I wonder if McCoy's found my little note yet? He's probably crying and
screaming right now," Blaquesmith thinks to himself. He nibbles on his
knuckles as he scans the data he stole from Henry's lab, "I only wish I
could see the look on his hairy face. Huh...well now...aside from this
whole other universe bit, it looks like he's got a lot of DNA patterns in
here. Hhmm....even our young Nate Grey. It is frightening the amount of
information that the other McCoy knows. Very, very frightening." 

He spins in his chair and rubs his eyes. "What a day," he says aloud, "I
find a timelost counterpart of The Chosen One and the lair of the elusive
Grey Beast. Askani'son's true mother almost upsets the distribution of the
Phoenix Force and Nate Grey saves the day. Almost too much to think about."

                                  - - -

The island of Mahe is one of the smallest and most beautiful places on 
Earth. Beau Vallon Beach is known throughout the world for its white sand 
and crystal clear water. People come from around the globe just sit on 
it's warm sand and bask in the sunshine. Today, the huge beach is 
speckled with tourists. There isn't a cloud in the sky and it is 
only slight humid on the shores. Both visitors and natives seize the 
opportunity to relax in front of the warm ocean water. A perfect place 
for two very different young men on beach blankets to unwind in solitude.

"Do you think she will be okay?" Adam asks.

"She'll be fine. I psi-scanned her and she was fine, just traumatized by
the whole ordeal. Completely overwhelmed actually, but she should make a
recovery soon. I could tell that the memories from the Phoenix were
already fading. I tried to scan her to figure out what she knew about
where I came from, but came up with zilch. I told the doctors that she had
just witnessed the horrible scene in Paris and that she was already
mentally unstable. They told me that mental trauma sometimes makes a
person go comatose and that she could be comatose for a few weeks or a
few years. She's just hiding inside her psyche and she'll recover soon
enough, I hope," Nate responds. 

The two sit and watch as a group of scuba divers fall backwards off of
their boat and splash into the Indian Ocean. 

"Will you go back to the hospital in Melun to see her again?" Adam asks.

"Why are you asking so many questions?" Nate pokes.

"I am curious and you have not mentioned it since then. It is therapeutic
to talk about it," Adam responds as he dons a pair of sunglasses. 

"I don't know. Paris was practically destroyed when I left it. If I ever
show my face in France again I'll be stoned to death. But after what went
on, I don't know if things would ever be the same with Maddie. There will
always be that feeling of... mistrust." Nate replies as lowers his
sunglasses to the tip of his nose, "Here's how I really feel, Adam. Two
weeks ago, I almost died several times because of this whole ordeal, the
only thing I want to think about now is this beach and that hot babe
sitting over there." 

Adam chuckles and curiously asks, "You are so close to piecing together
your life and your existence but you choose to relax instead?" 

"Adam, this is the first time...well...the first time EVER that I've just
sat back and enjoyed doing nothing. I'm not going to blow this chance.
This place is like Heaven. I never knew such places existed. But yeah, sure
I'll find out what the hell happened back there. I'll find that
Blaquesmith guy and figure out why he knows so much and I'll find the
Beast and give him what he's got coming for playin' me like a fool. I
might even go find Sinister and find out why Maddie included his name when
he said 'your entire family'. But right now? I'm gonna sit here and
relax... it's therapeutic!" 

The two chuckle for a moment as Adam rubs tanning oil into his skin.

"Where are we anyways? What'd you say this place is called?" Nate asks.

"An island called the Seychelles. One of the few places left on this
planet that is not plagued by industrialization," Adam responds, "although
dangerously close to Genosha." 

"Sure whatever. Well, I wanted to say thanks for everything you did in
Paris. You know, watching my back when I thought I was going to have to
fight Maddie. I really appreciate you sticking around too." Nate says as
his head turns to watch a young lady stroll by. 

"For some reason which I can't comprehend, I've always been drawn to this
planet. Now I am here and have no idea why. Much the same as I expect you
feel," Adam says. 

"Pretty much. Except I have no idea how I got here," Nate replies.

"Then we should stick together and explore this strange world together.
Hopefully finding pieces to our past." Adam says as he lays back on his
beach towel and pulls his baseball cap over his eyes. 

"Deal." Nate says as he leans back onto his blanket. He closes his eyes
and basks in the warm sun. Never before has he seen a sky so clear or
birds chirping lazily. Never has he felt this free. After years of being
chased after, years of being used, and years of fighting, Nate finally
feels free. 

"Tell me something Nate. It sounds like you've been through a great
deal lately. This past month has been like a bad dream for you, hasn't it?"

Adams asks. 

Nate smiles. He thinks back to what seems like only months ago as he
remembers Toad and Sauron performing A Midsummer Night's Dream for 
captive audiences. He remembers how beautiful the play was every time he
watched it, and how his favourite lines stuck in his head. Finally, he 
has a chance to repeat them aloud:

"If we shadows have offended,
Think but this, and all is mended,
That you have but slumber'd here
While these visions did appear."

-- The End --
 ____________________________________________________________
|      Andy Banks      |      Minuteman Press of Tysons      |
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