Date: Sun, 25 May 2008 16:22:31 -0700 (PDT)
From: Mark <rahvin747@yahoo.com>
Subject: Fire and Ice - chapter 15

Disclaimer : The X-men are the property of Marvel and this is a work of
fiction.

So it's been many months since I update my story, and I'm sorry if it
irritated some of you. I've been getting e-mails all year to carry on with
the story but unfortunately I've been very busy at work and enjoying my
personal life, and have only found time recently to continue. This is the
final chapter of their story, and I hope you enjoy the outcome.

*********************************************************************

Kevin sat up with a gasp, and wiped away the bead of sweat that was running
down his forehead. He was panting as if he'd run a great distance and
finally had some time to get some much-needed air. After spending a moment
on the situation, he sighed and realized that this was the same scenario
that had plagued him for the past week.

Slowly he looked around, and all he could see were the poorly outlined
shapes of the surrounding forest in the utter darkness. The darkness seemed
to smother him, and all he could hear were the creepy sounds of distant
insects making their usual sounds.  The sound of a forest could relax some
people, but here alone, he found it to be terrifying and
constricting. Slowly he looked up and saw the stars of the endless night
greet him with their ever-present twinkle. They were company, and their
silent innocence comforted him in his most desperate moments. He turned to
his right and leaned on his elbow, and surveyed the far distant city with
its lights and buzz. At times he thought he could hear the frivolity of the
people in the city, but he now knew it was what he wished he'd heard, to
dilute his emptiness. The air stirred slightly and brushed against him. It
was warm but it provided him with no comfort. A small insect landed on his
cheek and he casually brushed it away, only to run his hand down the week
old beard he'd grown. His face was rough and untended, but he wasn't too
concerned about that. Here he sat on this eerie glade, ungroomed and dirty
in his week old clothes, and he did nothing. He had the power to change all
of this in an instant.

"The power," he muttered, and grimaced with anger. It was his gift that had
caused him all this strife in his life. Since realizing his abilities his
life had gone from bad to worse. If not for the one good thing that had
come out of that school, he would say that being a mutant was a curse from
the devil himself. A gay mutant. A fucking gay mutant. He shook his head
slowly as he found himself often doing these days. It was self-pity, but
considering no one had ever taken the time to empathize with his situation,
he thought that a healthy does of selfish care would do him good. If he
could just imbue people with his ability for a few weeks they would see
what it was truly all about. It seemed to be the ultimate trophy for humans
and even mutants: unlimited power. It was shit. Total shit.

That was the one serious curse about finding yourself in a forest trying to
strangle you with darkness – it made you focus on your memories, your
past, and your future. He couldn't even remember how many times he'd gone
over the past few weeks and years in his mind, how he'd overanalyzed every
scenario to see how he could have improved the outcome or altered a
disaster. He looked at his right arm and his hand flexed
involuntarily. Perhaps it was a good thing that he'd been alone in this
place during this period of his life. He'd been an emotional catastrophe
since arriving here.  He remembered his bursts of anger where he'd lashed
out at the forest and ruined it with his tempest powers. He remembered his
screams of rage where he tried to unload an endless reserve of anger and
frustration into the surrounding trees, and echoes that could have shaken
the ground had they possessed any secret power in them. He remembered lying
in a ball on his side, his face in the dirt and leaves in his hair weeping
for Bobby, and for the lives he'd taken. He remembered his nose running as
he sobbed and pleaded forgiveness for the loss of his friends, Magneto and
his allies, and John. John... poor John. He felt his heart surge with
unresolved grief but he quickly pushed it all away before he could sink
into yet another spiral about his fallen friend. His depression about John
was the worst of all. Sometimes it felt like his chest was being pulled
inwards it hurt so deeply. No, he had to stop thinking about it, and
aggressively forced the memories into the back of his head. An owl hooted
in a nearby tree and he looked in its direction, only to be greeted by the
night.

"Bobby," he murmured out of nowhere, and the word stung his lips and sent a
shiver along him. He saw the hair on his arms standing on end. He still
couldn't believe how badly he'd treated the man. He didn't deserve
Bobby. The guy was amazing and had treated him with the love any man could
wish for. He thought back on how he'd treated Bobby with such contempt and
removed his independence in the past, how he'd deserted him at the hands of
the X-men despite his pleas for a rescue, and worst of all, how Bobby had
drowned because he'd chosen another fucked up path instead of the path of
loyalty. Bobby was dead. A tear ran down his cheek and he felt his eye
start to burn. He rubbed it angrily. His eyes were red and dry, and
moisture burned them like a bitch. He thought he must be out of tears by
now, but Bobby could release a torrent of them with little effort. He
really couldn't see the point of a life without Bobby. He flexed his arm
once again and looked to his forearm, at the nasty red scar that lay across
it. Hours after arriving here, after falling into a cavern of such
emotional barrenness he couldn't believe it was survivable, he'd decided to
end it all.  It took an angry flick of his powers and his arm was sliced
open as if a scalpel had torn into it with savage aggression. He remembered
the burning pain that normally would have brought him to his knees, but at
the time it felt like the only feeling he could experience in the endless
numbness of his heart. He remembered watching the warm blood run down his
arm, remembered smiling at it as if it was warm syrup bathing his hand in
affection. Only in those last moments, when dark spots started appearing
before his eyes, when he really knew that the end was coming and his
bounding heartbeat was the only witness to his end, did he decide to save
himself. He remembered ripping off his shirt and tying the wound closed,
and then lying on his back gasping for the next day and a half trying to
survive the deadly lack of blood he'd put himself into. His powers could
have rectified everything, but he refused to touch them unless he was in a
mood of the direst hatred, and for the purpose of hiding himself from
Xavier. His seclusion was essential because he certainly could not trust
himself in the presence of others. His own thoughts moved him close to
madness, so it stood to reason that other people and their fumbling with
the situation would provoke a far more unstable reaction in him.

He wondered again how long he could go on like this. He couldn't live in
the forest forever, and he didn't know what he doing there anyway.

"Hiding," he muttered. It was the cold hard truth. He knew he had to get
out of this rut but he honestly couldn't think of a way to begin, or to
what purpose he would set his life. Going back to the mansion was out of
the question. He'd had too many showdowns there and was humiliated beyond
the course of reprieve. Going to live among humans was also out of the
question. He hated many of them and reacted very badly to their bigotry,
and the new laws on powerful mutants put him at risk. People had a way of
discovering things and he'd find himself in a duel with this Bane thing, or
some massive army before he knew it, and he was sick of conflict. He was so
damn tired of conflict. He sighed again.

And yet, something was amiss. His dreams were circular and repetitive. They
involved the scene of Bobby drowning, and the scene where Marie found him
floating dead and cold in the black waters of the lake. It was a sick
nightmare obviously based on his sick interpretation of what the scene
would have looked like had he been there.  But he couldn't shake off the
feeling that something was perverted about his dreams.  He swore he could
sometimes hear voices rising about the dreams... commentary.  Was he going
mad? Hearing voices was not unusual for him if he let his telepathic
abilities wander, but these were different. His powers provided him with
intuitive abilities and something told him to be wary of his dreams. They
made sleep a nightmare, if one could put it that way. With seven days of
bad sleep mixed with bouts of depression and desperation, he was starting
to lose the plot. He was so damn hungry, but he found himself eating wild
fruits and other things he picked up in the foliage, some of which made him
vomit for hours and realize the value of knowing your
environment. Mushrooms were a definite no he'd decided, especially those
fucked up things with the green spots on them. Those yellow fruits on that
far off tree tasted like shit but they managed to fill the hole and didn't
make him sick.

"Focus, idiot," he said to himself angrily. His dreams. His intuition had
never failed him before and he thought about exploring the idea. He had to
start somewhere, and sitting here alone in the middle of the night was as
good a time as any. Either he should start now, or decide to become a
hermit and live here forever, like some reclusive wizard who ate people who
trespass on his land. He half smiled to himself but felt the skin at the
corner of his mouth crack from dryness and also from the unfamiliarity of
the act of smiling.

He sat up straight and crossed his legs. With an irritated utterance his
scratched his cheek again. The worst thing about a damn beard was about how
it itched. It wasn't even a beard, just neglected stubble. But it
itched. He focused his thoughts after a few minutes of procrastination and
reached out to his powers that felt foreign. They felt strange to him, and
they greeted one another like two ancient enemies would do if they crossed
paths many years in the future, still wondering whether their quarrel
existed. He flexed his arms and he felt his powers flex, and a corrupt
smile crossed his face. It was like climbing out of bed after a long
illness and feeling the exhilaration of walking for the first time in days.

"Now to get to work," he muttered and he stretched out in the unseen world,
the spectral world. If there was anything sinister happening to him it lay
there. Physical attacks were easy to detect and fend off, and at least you
know what you were fighting, but spiritual attacks were like being caught
in a maze. He found himself wondering if he'd become paranoid to the point
of inventing plots by others to snare him. His powers ebbed and he was on
the verge of releasing them when he decided to investigate the
possibility. He had nothing better to do, and if anything did come of it,
it would have grave consequences. He found himself thinking about Bobby
again which surprised him. He thought about Bobby often, but at the same
time, it wasn't all he thought about and this memory seemed to leap into
his mind without a trigger.  Bobby. Suddenly he saw Bobby drowning in the
lake, floating in the cold water with a thin trail of blood rising from
where he'd hit his head. Kevin felt his heart sink, and his breathing
staggered with grief.

"Wait," he said suddenly, and his eyes widened slightly. He was never
there, and there was no fucking way he wanted to think about that scene in
detail. If anything, he wanted it out of his mind. Your lack of tact will
end us... he suddenly heard. It sounded like a voice full of anger berating
a foolish student. He didn't know what to make of it. He decided to
challenge the scenario.

"Bobby, I know you're... alive," he whispered, and he tried to visualize
it. He visualized those glacially sexy eyes staring into his, with that
warm smile covering his cheeky face. Suddenly the dream seemed to be on him
like an avalanche. He could feel the weight of it on his shoulders. He had
rapid images of Bobby lying in a casket, his skin cold and rubbery, of
Marie screaming hysterically at the site of a dead friend, at the funeral
where everyone hugged and wept openly.

"No," he said sadly, and the grief felt overwhelming. His powers shook and
he felt them regressing. He couldn't sustain them for long in this
state. Yes, you're regaining your control over him... he heard. His head
shot up and a snarl covered his face.

"Big mistake, motherfucker," Kevin said furiously. He was finally convinced
of the presence of the voice that rode on top of his dreams. He lashed out
with his hand as if he was grasping at a person who was running past
him. An ethereal spirit was suddenly present in his grip, struggling and
choking. It was gold and luminous, but merely a projection of someone. His
anger turned white hot at what he saw.

"David," he snarled, and the ghost was fighting hysterically to get air, to
free its self.  His right hand formed a fist and energy filled it until it
was saturated with spectral force. He punched the ghost in the face as he
would a man standing before him, and it flew back screaming in agony. He
heard other screams in the distance as if he'd injured more than one
person. David's spirit crashed into a tree and splintered as if it had been
a glass statue hurled from the roof. Everything seemed quiet again and he
felt his eyes adjusting to the darkness of the forest. It felt as if it was
all over but he knew it was not. As if ripping down a piece of material
which was obstructing his vision, he swiped his hand aggressively in front
of his face and saw his false reality tear to shreds under the harsh tide
of his power. The world seemed to be a painting, and it was as if a
blowtorch had been placed behind it. It seemed to bubble and run down the
canvas, and burn and spark, and then suddenly rip. At first he thought he
hadn't changed much, but suddenly it seemed that the forest was lighter,
and not as dark as he'd suspected. He really could hear the bustle of the
distant city, and suddenly a moon graced the sky among the stars.

"You're a dead man," he thought as his mind reverted back to David and his
sick illusion. If the boy had survived his assault, he would need to spend
the rest of his life in hiding if he wanted to see the sun rise
again. David had made small changes that were so subtle they hinted at
brilliance, but they were clearly designed to lead him down a path of
despair. But to what end? Surely he didn't hate him enough after that one
small encounter to try and kill him. Magneto had been homicidal after a
single incident but it took decades of malice to shape a person into that
type of psychopath.  Maybe he hated him for being gay, but how could he
have found out? His relationship with Bobby... Bobby. The thought seemed
strained, and it burned as it ran along his brain. Suddenly he felt
confused as if he'd just woken up and didn't know where he was. Bobby. It
resolved in a flash and his eyes opened in shock.

"Holy shit," he said with a gasp. Bobby was alive! The whole illusion had
been centered on the deception of his death. He leaped to his feet and a
powerful wind circled around him and blew through his hair, but his eyes
were determined, and he stood on that hill like a great king about to
invade lesser land. He realized that he'd seriously harmed his real life
boyfriend, and it grated and made him furious all over again. He could fix
this. He could fix anything! One moment he was there, and the next he was
gone. He had one target in mind.

*********************************************************************

Bobby lay on his bed staring at the wall, but he'd being lying curled up in
a ball for hours yet again. It had been seven days since Kevin had gone mad
and left and he still couldn't figure out why. Since then he'd been
completely messed up. He couldn't eat, sleep or do anything. He was still
wearing the same clothes that he'd been wearing when Kevin had leapt out of
bed screaming in terror. Bobby looked at his wrist and the plaster cast
that covered it. He'd broken it after Kevin had catapulted him out of the
window. Most other people would have died from the fall but his quick
reflexes allowed him to create an icy cushion to soften his fall. The
problem with ice is that it wasn't the cushion type of element and that had
been cause of his broken wrist. Better than a broken neck he'd reasoned,
but without Kevin in his life, it didn't make much difference. He scratched
his cheek and snorted with irritation. The worst thing about not shaving
for a week was that a beard became itchy.

It was surprising that the night could go so slowly. It was the middle of
the night again, and the time on the digital clock beside his bed moved
with unbelievable slowness. One minute was a lifetime in the world of
insomnia. He didn't know why he wished for daylight, because he lay on his
bed for most of the day, only to maybe eat a carrot or a spoonful of the
soup that Marie brought him on a daily basis. He couldn't stomach food –
and after a single spoon of anything he usually felt like throwing up and
sometimes did. He wasn't sure how long he could go on like this. He was
convinced that the sole reason for his allowed solitude was that Xavier was
monitoring him permanently with his unseen vision. He had no doubt that at
the first sign of anything untoward he would find Wolverine in his room
within minutes and carrying him against his will to that fucking medical
room again only to be force fed by a tube, or mind-crushed by Xavier. That
was partially why he'd tried to control his behaviour, but it hadn't been
easy. He wanted to weep with grief for his missed boyfriend but he had to
hold everything back until the earliest hours of the morning when he was
sure that Xavier had to be asleep and not glaring at him with the unseen
eye. His eyes still burned with tonight's tears. It was crazy. Bobby only
remembered crying a handful of times during his adult life, but strife with
Kevin could soften him into butter with very little effort and leave him
emotionally ruined for prolonged periods of time. He tried to work out what
had caused Kevin to flip out this time, but his mind had run over the
scenario a hundred times. He was convinced that Kevin thought he was dead
and that had caused all the shit. The fact that he was alive and trying to
prove it only helped getting him thrown out of the window. He looked at his
fractured wrist again and let it fall dully and land on the bed. It was
heavy and irritating to wear. The worst thing about Kevin was that he'd
think this latest act made him once again beyond redemption. He was stupid
that way. Bobby found himself smiling to himself and imagining how he'd
smile at Kevin if he was lying beside him.  Suddenly his smile
vanished. Was Kevin thinking about him? Was Kevin even alive?  His heart
thudded in his chest and his ears rang at the unspoken statements, but he
pushed them away before they could get the better of him. He sighed and
felt the threat of sleep approach. He would slip into some half-trance for
less than an hour and start the same routine later. He yawned despite
himself and scratched his face again.

Suddenly he froze as he heard the soft sound of movement in his room. He
wanted to look but he was terrified about who was behind him. He was now
fully alert, and his hearing strained to listen for the smallest sound. He
didn't even consider defending himself. He was physically exhausted, and in
his messed up state, the thought didn't occur to him anyway. He felt a
weight descend onto the bed behind him and his breath caught in
terror. There was some shuffling and Bobby frowned as confusion started to
compete with fear. A body pressed up against him and an arm reached over
and embraced him tightly. Bobby wanted to recoil at the touch, but only a
small moment later he made sense of the situation. He took hold of the hand
gently, still without turning around, and looked at it in the darkness. He
knew the outline of that hand well, and he recognized the silhouette of
that defined arm as well as the tight pressure it was putting on his
chest. He kissed the hand gently, and he felt warm breath exhale onto the
back of his neck.

"I knew you'd come," he said softly, and he gripped the hand tightly and
kissed it again.

"I could never leave you," he heard Kevin reply behind him with a warm
whisper, and felt the embrace tighten around him. His heart was raging.

"I love you," was all he could say.

"I love you too," Kevin replied, and the simplicity of the statement was
its strength.

They lay there for a few minutes enjoying the feeling of the heat exchange
between their two bodies. The pressure of Kevin's body against his was a
unique feeling, and the feeling of his strong embrace drove him crazy with
withdrawal. Bobby frequently kissed Kevin's hand just to enjoy the scent of
him again. Finally he took the opportunity to turn and face Kevin in the
darkness, but his plaster cast got in the way and he cursed softly. He
wanted to hide the thing from Kevin before he went into one of his guilty
rages. He found himself facing Kevin, and he could only see the outline of
him. He ran his hand along Kevin's cheek.

"I like it," he said with a smile.

"You hate it," Kevin replied and Bobby could sense a wry smile in the
darkness.

"Yeah, but it's all animal-like and manly, which is hot," he replied. Kevin
just laughed and lay on his back, but didn't let go on Bobby's hand, which
he was still gripping almost painfully.

Bobby leaned forward and kissed him deeply. It was dirty and really gross,
but loving and surprisingly tender.

"I hate it," Kevin said after a small pause.

"I'll shave it off," Bobby said with a small laugh, and Kevin smiled. Bobby
continued to stroke Kevin's chest and abs under his shirt, and remembered
how much he loved that feeling. "I missed this," he said.

"Me too," Kevin said. Their dialogue was ridiculously simple, but something
about it was filled with communication, and he loved that. Kevin rolled
over after a few minutes and stroked his face.

"There's a lot to explain," he said to Bobby. "But first, let's go catch a
shower. You stink."

Bobby laughed and kissed Kevin quickly on the lips. "Look who's talking."

Thirty minutes later Bobby was leaning against Kevin's chest with the hot
water rushing over them. The intense warmth of the water, coupled with the
powerful flow and copious amounts of steam in the bathroom did a lot to add
to ethereal nature of the situation.

"It's good to see you naked again," Kevin said with a small laugh, and
Bobby smiled to himself.

"I enjoyed seeing you too," he replied. In truth it had been nice. The
sight of Kevin's body was something he found he needed every day to
maintain his sanity. A week's depravation had irritated him and made him
crazy for the opportunity to look upon that sexy physique again.

"Much better," Kevin replied as he ran his hand along Bobby's now smooth
cheek, and Bobby found himself reciprocating with Kevin, who'd also
discarded his werewolf look. It was nice to see Kevin all neat and tidy
again, but the feral appearance definitely had appeal and would have to be
repeated in the near future.

"So now you understand?" Kevin continued. There was a touch of anxiety in
his voice. He's rambled on for ages in the shower about what had happened
to cause all the drama in the first place. Bobby had said nothing, mainly
because he was genuinely interested in what had taken place, and also
because he couldn't get a word in even if he'd wanted to. Kevin was frantic
to explain himself. In fact, all Kevin could do was explain himself. Bobby
took it upon himself to undress them, and wash them both down, and groom
them. He'd done everything, with Kevin barely noticing anything and
definitely not pausing for a second's breath.

"Yeah," Bobby said, and Kevin's eyes relaxed slightly. "Kevin, you can be a
really weird sometimes."

Kevin frowned as if wondering what to make of the situation, but Bobby
didn't give him a chance to continue. "Minutes after you'd left and I'd
made my way up here again, I knew you weren't acting like yourself. I knew
that there was an explanation.  You really surprise me when you act like
this."

Kevin sighed exhaustedly and leaned back against the shower wall, his eyes
closed.  "Sorry," he said. "It's just that I'm feeling really shit about
throwing you out the window. I thought... well, you know what I thought."

"Yeah," Bobby said. A wave of violent grief had come over Kevin when he'd
noticed Bobby's broken wrist, and although he'd done his best to hide the
injured limb, he couldn't very well hide it, especially in a shower. Kevin
had grabbed his wrist, and he could remember seeing the pain in his eyes
for causing the injury, but moments later the cast had disappeared and he'd
found his wrist as good as new. Kevin had once doubted that he could
perform such a feat, but with the right motivation it seemed he really was
capable of anything. It still felt kind of strange not wearing a plaster
cast, and flexing his wrist still made him want to wince with anticipated
pain that never came.

The two of them stood there leaning against one another in silence while
the sound of the water removed any awkwardness. In truth, Bobby would have
enjoyed the scene under any other circumstances, but he was severely
preoccupied with thoughts of Xavier knowingly spying on them, or other
X-men ready to break the door down and set all hell loose again. None of it
came, and he didn't know whether it was Xavier's doing, or Kevin's. After a
while he decided to try and enjoy the feeling of his head against Kevin's
strong chest. With his thoughts on Kevin, he started to become hard and he
thrust mildly and felt his dick run up between Kevin's abs. It felt good,
really good.

"Woah boy," Kevin said with a chuckle, but his eyes were still closed. He
put his arms around Bobby and pulled him into a crushing embrace and kissed
the top of his head. Kevin didn't feel like sex, or he was too wasted for
it. Bobby smiled to himself and hugged Kevin back but let his rejected
erection rage on against Kevin, begging for attention. After a while they
got out of the shower and dried off, and then got fitted into some of
Bobby's nicer clothes. It was out of the question for Kevin to sneak back
into his room, and it was pretty hot to see him dressed in some of his
clothes.

"You look as good as me," Bobby said with a cheeky smile.

"No body looks as good as you," Kevin said, while fastening the last button
on his shirt. He found himself blushing at the compliment.

"So what are we going to do?" Bobby said.

"Well I was thinking about that," Kevin said matter-of-factly. "I think we
should exit from the balcony and go for a walk. We'll reach some sort of
resolution that way."

Bobby found himself tilting his head with incredulity. "A walk?" he said
skeptically.  Kevin was suggesting the most peaceful action while a whole
house of people wanted to jump him as soon as they became aware of him.

"I know it sounds stupid, Bobby," Kevin said with little amusement. "My
instincts tell me we need to walk around."

Bobby no longer doubted. There was something vague and fantastic about
Kevin's powers that led him to do weird things that turned out for the
best. They walked out to the balcony.

"Ready?" Kevin said, and Bobby braced himself.

He felt himself lift up gently as if some giant was softly picking him up
and putting him down on the ground, and when his feet settled on the ground
below with Kevin next to him, he almost felt disappointed.

"What?" Kevin said.

"Usually it's, well... more," he said sulkily. Kevin slapped the back of
his head and he looked at him angrily but soon broke out into a smile when
he saw that ravaging smirk across Kevin's face. He was so damn
good-looking.

They walked off towards the lake and the forest not expecting what to
find. Bobby looked back at his window, half expecting Xavier to be standing
there looming frighteningly. His window was empty, and his curtain blew in
the wind. The mansion was quiet in the cool morning air, and the moonlight
illuminated the ground as the two of them walked hand-in-hand. As they
descended the first set of steps leading to the pond, Kevin suddenly froze.

"Let's go here," he said determinately and he pulled Bobby by the hand in
the opposite direction. It was all very strange.

"Sure," Bobby said warily, as if his opinion mattered.

Kevin led them up and down several paths and terraces until he stopped
short, and looked at the ground. Bobby squinted and saw that they were in
the grove that marked the burial sites for mutants who had died and had
been part of the school.

"What are we doing here?" Bobby said, suddenly feeling uncomfortable.

Kevin merely looked at the ground ahead of him with a vacant-eyed glare in
his eyes.  He was looking at Jean Grey's headstone. The quietness became
absolute and Bobby decided he didn't like this scenario at all.

"Let's go, Kevin... we can walk somewhere else." He added some force to his
voice.  He wanted to get out of this eerie place, and had better things to
do than hang out in a cemetery. He walked off and pulled Kevin's hand, but
Kevin stood his ground and kept his sights on the headstone. Bobby opened
his mouth to protest again, when Kevin beat him to it.

"Very well, we'll hear you out," he said suddenly. Bobby frowned and a
blinding white light emanated from the headstone and covered him. He felt
like he would burn or catch fire, but then realized he was confusing agony
for fear. He opened his eyes slowly, and squinted as his eyes adjusted to
the bright light.

He was in a place filled with a warm golden light. It looked like an
ancient Greek temple filled with pillars, marble floors and clouds rolling
over the surfaces beautifully. Kevin stood beside him, and his grip was
strong. He seemed unaffected by the new situation, as if he expected
it. His eyes focused on Bobby and he smiled as he realized that Bobby was
okay. Kevin looked forward again, and Bobby gasped.

There were five columns of what looked like steam facing them in the
distance, and a strange colour radiated in all of them. One was red, the
other green and then blue, silver and yellow. Kevin started walking towards
them and Bobby followed. They were no longer holding hands but Bobby was
more concerned with this surreal situation. They stopped a few meters from
the oddities and Bobby looked at them.  The colours in them intensified
until they resembled oily paint rushing over a rough surface. The figures
started forming into five people, three women and two men.  Bobby looked at
them, and their varied faces. One was an old looking man dressed in yellow,
the other a small rotund Asian man dressed in silvery robes. A beautiful
young girl dressed in a blue dress stood next to dark man wearing only a
green loincloth. Bobby looked at the last character that sat in the center
and he gasped.

"Jean!" he said in shock, and she looked at him impassively, but her eyes
showed recognition. Kevin was disturbingly still next to him, but he seemed
to know more about the situation that he did.

"Why do you want to speak to us?" Kevin said abruptly, and Bobby looked at
the ground, well aware of the rudeness.

"Because you are special," Jean said. Her voice was the same but it echoed
as if she spoke from a vast distance and her sound echoed through a hundred
halls. The other apparitions merely watched them. Bobby looked at the
ground if he caught any of them looking at him.

"I know that," Kevin said simply.

"Not in the way you think," the old man in yellow said with a thick accent.

"All of us share one common gift," the beautiful young woman said in an
accent he'd never heard of before.

"We are all mutants of seemingly endless potential," the dark man said, and
his eyes seemed fierce and warrior-like.

"Please explain," Kevin said, and he voiced his question much more
eloquently than Bobby could have during this confusion. Bobby looked to his
side, and found himself admiring Kevin, who looked like a leader of a great
nation during the throes of negotiations.

"Mutants have been present for millennia," Jean Grey said. "Every now and
again, rare individuals are born who seem to have limitless abilities. We
are five out of the six with such gifts who have existed."

"But the gift cannot be controlled," the Asian man in silver said.

"Yes it can. I've controlled it..." Kevin started.

"No... No... No... No..." every one of the five said, and the echoes
repeated the answer a hundred times. Frustration and what was perhaps
despair started to form on Kevin's face.

"You think you can," Jean said looking deep into Kevin's eyes, "but you
know deep in your heart that the control is temporary, and lost at the
worst moments. All of us died under the mantle of these powers at some
stage, and some of us had worse, and others greater discipline than you
with this unimaginable force."

Kevin watched them blankly, but his eyes willed answers, and so did
Bobby's.

"The truth is that the power is limited, but too massive for one human to
carry," Jean continued.

"If you could see the vastness of your abilities, Kevin, you would see that
they are finite, but still a thousand times greater than any other living
mutant," the beautiful woman said.

"Unfortunately," the old man said, but Jean continued...

"... you cannot see what we can see, for the universe is laid bare to us in
our afterlife.  We see you holding up a massive volume, a great ocean on
your shoulders, but you are not aware of the tides escaping to the sides."

"Then how do I control it? I'm surely the first man to communicate with
other mutants like myself who once lived. What is the secret to controlling
it all?" Kevin seemed desperate for an answer and Bobby was mesmerized by
the topic.

"You cannot," the wise old man said with deadly finality.

"No mind can hold such a great mass. It is not within our potential," the
Asian man said.

Kevin shook his head angrily. "So what must I do? Just accept that one day
these powers will get the better of me and then join you guys?"

"No," the dark man said. "You have also done what no other has done... you
have found us. And our wisdom may spare you our fate."

"How?" Bobby said, and they all looked at him. He became quite passionate
when Kevin's fate became a topic of conversation.

"It is our belief that the power in the gift is part of a balance in mutant
kind which is meant to govern all mutant powers. It is a tool, a machine, a
judge... call it what you will," the young woman said.

"But for that to happen, it must become controllable and finite according
to human perception," Jean said. "The secret is that the power must be..."

"Yes?" they both said when she hesitated.

"Split," the old man said.

The silence stretched for several seconds. "How? Why?" Kevin said.

"It is the reason Bobby exists," Jean said. "He is as rare as you, Kevin."

Bobby turned to see Kevin looking at him with a questioning glance, and he
wondered what was going on in his head.

"Bullshit," Bobby said. This was all too much.

"It is true," the Asian man said placidly.

"Massive power mutants are like a giant mechanism with a missing cog," Jean
said.  "If the small, seemingly insignificant cog is put into place, the
machine becomes what it is meant to be, and the power becomes meaningful
and not monstrous."

"How do you know I'm what you say I am?" Bobby said angrily.

"Because we can see everything in the universe, but we may not commune with
others unless they seek us out. The Great One..."

"Great One?" Kevin said.

"You are a Great One," the Asian man said, "and you always seek out the
Lesser One, being Bobby."

"Well that's some fucked up terminology you've got going there, buddy, and
I don't want to hear it again," Kevin said with deadly serious eyes. Bobby
wanted to laugh but he didn't dare.

"Do not take offense, Kevin," the beautiful woman said, but it was clear
that they had offended. Bobby didn't care about being the Lesser anything,
but Kevin was funny that way... in many ways, actually.

"The mutant with boundless power almost never falls in love unless they
meet the key to their destiny, as you did. Do you accept that? You never
felt true love until recently?"

"It's true," Kevin said after a short pause. He didn't look at Bobby but
his cheeks flushed with embarrassment. It made Bobby's heart go out to him.

"This is the only way to save yourself, Kevin," Jean said. "You must will
your abilities to Bobby, and the universe will split them between you two
equally. When that happens, you will become the Ultimates. This means that
both of you will be far greater than any other man alive, but unlike us,
your powers will be fully controlled, and complementary. He will strengthen
your deficiencies and the reverse will also be true."

"I see," Kevin said while rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "I don't
understand why the universe didn't just make two strong mutants, instead of
inventing this lock and key shit."

Bobby smiled despite himself. Kevin was so tactless.

"The fault lies in our limited genetic code. The gaps in power are too
narrowly spaced to accommodate a smooth transition, and as such, the leap
from great to boundless energy is small, and cannot be performed subtly,"
the old man said.

"So where are your keys?" Bobby said, and when all of the spirits
simultaneously looked to the ground in anguish, he was overcome with
embarrassment and guilt. The tough warrior-like man in the loincloth was
the first to recover.

"They died by our hands before the change could be initiated," he said.

Bobby thought of Cyclops and the murder seemed even more tragic. Phoenix
was moments away from becoming a stable mutant and it had gone all so
wrong. Xavier had tried, but even he didn't know that nothing could help
Jean to control that power.  Jean was doomed from the beginning. His eyes
shot up and he looked to Kevin, who had the same thought in mind. They ran
towards one another and into an embrace.  Bobby looked to Kevin who kissed
him softly on the lips and held his head in position. It felt the same as
every other time, tender and aggressive, but the world started to shake. He
could feel vibrations running through the ground around him until he
thought his feet were moving along the smooth marble surface. The spirits
were shouting incoherently and the air was a hurricane dampening out any
chance he had of understanding them. He kept his eyes closed and found
after a few moments that a huge force was starting to rush into him. It
felt like he was standing in the path of a massive oceanic wave that had
rushed over him and was trying to tear at him, rip at his soul. He was
frightened, there was no question, but he let the event run its course, no
matter how it ended. His mind burst into a thousand brilliant colours, as
if blue fireballs had seared his brain, and then red and finally gold. It
felt painful but he resisted the urge to cry out. The world raged around
him and he was afraid to open his eyes and stare at the destruction they'd
wrought. He started to feel dizzy and consciousness started to slip from
him as his mind continued to accept the blinding assault, while at the same
time the force smashing into his body seemed to rage as powerfully as
ever. Instantly it was over and he felt himself floating in nothingness.
He could hear, but there was no sound. He could see but his eyes did not
want to open. There was no pain, there was nothing. After a few minutes or
hours he started to hear a distant sound that slowly grew louder. His ears
strained to make some sense of the situation.

"Bobby," he heard in the distance, and his ears pricked up at the sound of
a familiar concept.

"Bobby," it repeated more loudly, and he breathed in. His eyes felt heavy
but he could feel his shoulder shaking, or being shaken. His eyes fluttered
and he slowly opened them but groaned as harsh daylight pained his
adjusting sight.

"Wake up, Bobby," he heard Kevin say in a voice laced with vexation and
anxiety.  This time he did open his eyes and he saw Kevin staring at him
hopefully, with a newly relieved look on his face.

"Did I scare you?" Bobby asked with a smile. His body felt exhausted but he
tried to make it move despite its protests.

"Yes," Kevin said, sitting back on the grass with a sight. "You were out
for nearly half an hour since we returned."

"Where are we?" he asked, and answered his own question when he saw the
headstone behind Kevin. Jean's headstone. He remembered everything. It
seemed they'd been chatting in that place in the sky all night. Turning to
his other side, he leaped up with a cry.

"Holy shit! Kevin!" he said while jumping up.

"I know," Kevin said while slowly getting up. He stood next to him and put
his hand on his should affectionately.

"Did we do that?" he asked worriedly. Half of the mansion had been
devastated and lay in a smoldering ruin. There was no fire, but there had
been. The grounds around them also showed evidence of hostility.

"No," Kevin said.

"How do you know?" Bobby said worriedly.

"Look at your watch," Kevin said simply. He looked down and was astounded
at what he saw.

"But that means we were gone for..."

"Three weeks," Kevin completed. "Time must have moved differently there. In
that time, something else happened. I sense human weapons here, and mutant
powers too.  It's obvious who won."

"Do you think they're dead?" he said.

"I don't know," Kevin said softly. "We need to find out, but first let's
sort ourselves out. Have you seen your hands?"

Bobby stared at the mansion for a moment longer. It was incomprehensible to
see his new home in ruins, but he was relieved that he had not been
responsible. For the first time he knew how Kevin felt when he'd woken up
only to find everyone and everything around him killed or destroyed. He
looked down to his hands and frowned.  His hands were laced with deep
furrows that glowed with a flowing blue light running within the
canyons. It was as if rivers had been cut into his hands that stretched
from his fingertips all the way up his arms to just below his elbows. He
took off his shirt frantically to see if this thing was anywhere else on
him, but it looked like only his arms were affected. He looked to Kevin for
reassurance, and the anxiety on his face disappeared and was replaced with
confusion when he saw that Kevin was laughing to himself.

"You're funny when you're confused," Kevin said with a ravishing smile.

"Fuck you," he said childishly. "What is this?"

Kevin looked to Bobby's shoulder and he found himself doing the same. A
large water droplet, or something that looked like water was bouncing along
his skin and down his arm. When it reached the river of energy it jumped in
and joined the flow to nowhere. His arms glowed and he saw that these
droplets were present on both sides of his body and were continuously
merging with him. Sometimes they bounced up his leg, and at other times
they appeared from nowhere and close to his arm before traversing the
distance and taking the final leap.

"Kevin?" he said, with the confusion back on his face.

"I think it's hot," Kevin said with warmth, but it didn't answer
anything. His face must have given it away. Kevin shook his head and walked
up to Bobby and hugged him hard, before standing back. He lifted his own
hands and Bobby gasped. Kevin's hands looked the same as his, except they
were a blinding orange red running down his arms, and where animated water
droplets merged with his arms, Kevin's were small flames. Bobby found
himself chuckle involuntarily, and Kevin smiled again.

"Cool," Bobby said while admiring Kevin's sexier than normal arms.

"Very," Kevin said. "Do you know how good I feel, Bobby?"

Bobby looked into his eyes and really saw him for the first time. His eyes
were less strained than he'd seen in weeks. He looked genuinely happy!

"Tell me, Kev," he said with a beaming smile.

"My powers are controlled!" Kevin said, but Bobby thought that he wanted to
scream it as loud as he could. Kevin held his temples and laughed and Bobby
laughed with him, but also watched as fire escaped Kevin's hands and fell a
few inches before vanishing.

"Oh Bobby, if only you knew how in control I feel. I can see the extent of
my abilities for the first time. There is no wildness, no gray void of
endless death and malice. It's just a field of fire which listens to me."
Kevin's eyes actually watered with gratitude.  Bobby's found himself
feeling sorry for Kevin and the load he must have carried prior to this.

"So it worked then?" Bobby said.

"Oh it worked," Kevin said. "We both have equal powers which we both can
control."

"I feel the same," Bobby said. His arms looked different but could still
sense all the surrounding water and ice.

"You need to think about it," Kevin said.

Bobby looked at his hands and felt into his core. There were oceans at his
command, vast rapids that were waiting for the slightest sign that he
wanted something, and they would do it for him. He stretched out his hand,
but he didn't know why, and the whole mansion creaked and lifted slowly
into the air. His mouth dropped in surprise, but there the huge structure
hung, high in the air with small pieces of debris hanging from the
underside and sometimes falling to the ground. Worst of all he didn't feel
a sense of strain. He knew he could do much more but he was overwhelmed at
this seemingly nonchalant act.

"Impressive," Kevin said with a wry grin. Bobby looked at his own arms and
the rivers seemed to be running faster with a great many more droplets
fusing with him.  Perhaps a greater act forced his arms to respond in some
way, but he would need to investigate it over time.

"That was amazing," Bobby said, as the house settled with a groaning thud.

"Try and make fire," Kevin said while rubbing his chin.

Bobby thought it would be easy compared to his last act, but when he put
his mind to it he realized he couldn't, and most importantly, he didn't
want to.

"I can't," he said. "I don't know why, but I just know..."

Kevin raised his softly. "Don't worry, Bobby, I know what you mean. I
thought about making ice earlier, but I couldn't, and I also felt an
aversion to it, like it disgusted me almost."

Bobby nodded slowly. "We're complementary," he said and Kevin pointed at
him as if he'd summed it up perfectly.

"We both have telekinesis and probably some other abilities to share, but
I'm sure many of our abilities are unique. Between us we have the full
itinerary. We can work together, I know it," Kevin said. "If we need
to. The knowledge somehow seems to be in the back of my brain but my
instincts tell me that the way to do these things becomes clear when the
opportunity rises. Which is how you could move the house there."

Bobby nodded. It all made sense. "Are you sure we don't have equal powers
which need to be used in different ways? I just need to figure out how to
make a fireball, you know."

Kevin was already shaking his head. "No, I'm pretty sure that it was meant
to be this way, and I think when they said 'split' they really meant it."

Bobby grabbed Kevin into headlock and rubbed his head. "Well I'm glad I got
to share it with you," he said wryly.

Kevin freed himself and looked flustered. "Once we've saved the world, I'm
going to make you pay for that," he said angrily.

"You better," Bobby said, and they both smiled. "So let's talk about saving
the world." It didn't sound stupid when he'd first heard it, and he
realized that his instincts were beyond human, that he could piece together
instinctual knowledge based on nothing at all. It was a weird feeling, like
walking into an examination having not studied a thing and yet as soon as
you saw the questions the answers just seemed to be there.

Kevin walked a step towards the ruined house. "I can see the scene of what
happened here. The army came while we were gone and they took all of the
high level mutants.  Xavier and some others went peacefully but it got out
of hand. It became a mess, but the army won anyway, but after that I don't
really know what happened."

"They took them to a mutant facility about a hundred miles from here. They
are still there," Bobby completed. He could see it vividly in his mind.

"I can only see the past. You stole my clairvoyance," Kevin said with
darkly angry eyes. "You bitch."

Bobby laughed. "As I said, I really want to shout my apologies later today,
my boy."

"Damn right you will," Kevin said, and he was broody and seething, but
Bobby found it intensely attractive.

"Let's go free them," he said.

"Bobby, before we go, I just want you to realize that people, you know, die
in battle.  You're going to have to kill people. They won't just release
them if we arrive." Kevin seemed worried for him.

"I know," Bobby said. "But it won't be too tough for me, Kev. I've seen
some of the things that are going on there, and I'm pretty angry about it."

A frown coursed over Kevin's face but it settled quickly. "I'm just saying
that sometimes regret comes back later. Much later."

Bobby put his arm around him and squeezed him. "You've always done what you
thought was right at the time, Kevin. You shouldn't look back so much and
analyze yourself. If you hadn't done those things, there is no evidence it
would have turned out better."

"I guess," Kevin said sadly.

"Let's go sort this out," Bobby said, with the hope that he could crack
this rapidly darkening mood. A round disc appeared below his feet, as black
as night and made of some tough substance. He lifted off the ground. Kevin
watched him and formed his own disc to stand on. With a single wink and a
weak smile, Kevin let Bobby know he was ready, and the two of them flew off
high into the sky, rapidly gaining altitude and speed until they were
soaring with immense velocity towards their destination.  Bobby's arms
glowed dangerously, and fire trailed off of Kevin's arms like a comet's
tail. A look of determination was fixed on their faces as they headed off
northwest towards their friends.

*********************************************************************

Xavier sighed as he looked out the window of his small cell. He supposed he
should feel lucky that he had a window, considering most of his students
were surrounded on all sides by concrete, but he felt very little gratitude
in a place like this. How could it have all gone so wrong? The daylight
looked inviting, but his hopes remained low, possibly during one of the
worst times of his life.

He could accept the destruction of his school. The mansion was made of
bricks and those could be rebuilt. He had enough money to foresee any
disaster. Some things could not be replaced
though. Peter... Colossus... dead. He'd asked all his students to remain
calm when the army had arrived at his front door, having driven right over
the front gates, and churned up most of the decorated path which led up to
his house. That had been the first sign that peace was not in the army's
agenda that day two weeks previously. The army had demanded the acquisition
of all high-level mutants, which incorporated only a small percentage of
the people who resided there. Everything appeared to be going smoothly, if
one could forgive the rough treatment by the soldiers and the ominous Bane
looming in the background, until he'd been questioned about Bobby
Drake. Their most fervent efforts to convince the soldiers that Bobby had
disappeared over a week previously did not placate them, and they'd started
to viciously interrogate him and some of his senior friends, while at the
same time they began to literally tear down the place as if Bobby was
hiding in one of the walls. He could remember the screams of the younger
children as all their possessions were thrown around and broken in the
search for Iceman. When a soldier had backhanded a tearful Marie who was
desperately trying to convince a random colonel that she didn't know where
Bobby was, Peter had cracked. It was a scene in slow motion as those metal
plates started to form all over his body, leading to his indestructible
metallic form. They all watched as Peter smashed that colonel off into the
far distance, only to slump down the wall with deformed and broken bones,
as dead as could be. Peter's rage had extended to several surrounding
soldiers all of whom were critically injured or killed before the Bane had
stepped forward. Xavier could recall the immense psychic energy flowing
from it, causing Peter to hold his head in agony at whatever images were
being projected to him. The metal plates had slipped away to reveal his
powerful, but less than invulnerable, normal human form. The Bane had then
nonchalantly stepped up to the tormented man, grasped his head in its
powerful hands and broken his neck effortlessly. He wanted to scream at the
sight, and the sound, but moments later he'd felt an intense pain as a
soldier had placed some sort of stun device to his neck. Darkness had come
instantly and he'd awoken in this hellish place, but the searing itch of
the burn wound on his neck was a reminder than he'd not been a player in
some dream. It had been real. It was still real.

He'd heard the cries of the mutants in adjacent cells as their
interrogations continued, and the frantic squeals as experiments were
performed on them deeper within the structure. He had to rely on human
senses to piece together this place. Something in his cell neutralized his
powers and kept him feeling like a shadow of a shadow, and a true prisoner
of these people. He knew that the majority of his terrified children had
escaped with the help of Logan, who'd amazingly had managed to stealthily
herd them to the underground car park instead of getting caught up in a
mass slaughter.  Men like Logan and Peter were powerful allies against the
forces of evil, but they would fall like babies if confronted by a war of
the mind, which the Bane somehow managed to do.

Xavier sighed again, as he stared at the rejected food that lay at the foot
of the door.  He couldn't eat, nor would he eat such disgusting slop that
was supposed to be nourishing. His dignity was one thing that he would die
with, even if it was the one thing they were after. He would have given up
hope long ago if not for the small glimmer of hope in the back of his
mind. Kevin.

There was something brewing in the world that surrounded Kevin, or Kronos
as he sometimes called him. He was certain that Bobby's disappearance had
something to do with Kevin. He'd gone to bed that night clearly after being
aware of Bobby's presence and relative good health, only to find him gone
in the morning. It was impossible for Bobby to have left the mansion
without him knowing, even in his deepest sleep, unless a much greater power
had challenged his senses, which was what he expected. There had also been
nothing sinister in his disappearance. Storm had been full of what a
horrendous kidnapping it had been, but he'd merely kept quiet and brushed
off her irrational thoughts on the subject. She'd failed to notice no signs
of violence in the room, and plenty of other signs. These include two
indentations on Bobby's bed, two pairs of dirty shirts and boxers on the
floor next to his cupboard, and a recently used shower in the early hours
of the morning. No, Bobby had left with Kevin after he'd come back for
him. There was something good about the scenario and his one small glimmer
of hope for him and his friends' survival.

Xavier heard a cry in the distance, and grimaced at what unimaginable
atrocity was now being performed followed by another cry. It was a busy
night, even for this place of terror. The ground shook slightly, and in an
instant he was on his feet. He tried to jump up to look out the window but
it was several feet above his grasp. The ground shook again heavily and he
stumbled, his heart beating heavily with fear. If only he could use his
powers to see what was happening! There was shouting outside, and sirens
were booming. Men ran past his door urgently and he took an involuntary
step back, suddenly afraid that they were there to haul him away, or
perhaps to kill him.  Their footsteps faded and he breathed a sigh of
relief. A small bubble of hope in his mind was shouting that the moment of
liberation was here, but he was too scared to let it grow larger than a
pinprick. His fate was balancing tenuously on a cliff edge. He heard
shouting, and then screams of desperation and agony, and the ground shook
periodically. The lack of clarity on the situation made him furious with
frustration.  The bars of the window above his head started to bend
outwards and he wondered whether his deceased friend Magnus had found some
way to resurrect himself and come here. It was an absurd thought but it was
the first one that filled his head.

The bars broke away along with the entire wall, and he shielded his
face. Lowering his hands, he saw a man floating towards him, with arms that
seemed to contain veins of radiant blue running down them. His mouth
dropped in shock.

"Bobby?" he said, aghast.

"Professor," the boy replied formally. He seemed to be floating on a
pitch-black disc of some sort, but the look in his eyes radiated death.

"How?" he asked like a fool.

"It's a long story. We've come here to rescue you and the other students."
There was something mature about his demeanour that he'd never seen
before. Bobby made a small swipe of his hand, and the prison door melted
into the wall as if it was butter.  Sparks leaped off the wall and
instantly he became aware of the presence of his powers. With a breath of
relief he reached out and sensed the mayhem of the base, and the utter
destruction. The other mutants had been rounded up in a nearby area and
seemed to be uninjured.

"Let's go," he said simply and a glowing cable formed from the tip of
Bobby's index finger and wrapped around him like a piece of spaghetti.

It lifted him gently and his breath caught as the two of them flew out the
window, the ground at least fifty feet below them. They flew for a
remarkably short time, and he found it difficult to see anything. There
were vast clouds of thick black smoke everywhere, and infernos that fed
them. The screams of men still filled the air but he couldn't pin point
anyone. Aftershocks still rattled the ground, along with sounds of gunfire,
and even heavier weaponry. Landing in a large courtyard, he found himself
swamped by his students and a rather bedraggled looking Storm who
undoubtedly had pain in her eyes. Anger flared up in his mind at what had
possibly been done to her, and he suppressed it with reservations. A quick
appraisal of the situation showed a lot of frightened mutants who had all
undergone different types of trauma. Many of them still looked scared,
while others were clearly angry and were carrying fire or ice in their
hands, or whatever else their greater powers provided for them.

"I thought it was the end of us," Storm said with a whimper.

"I admit I fell into that trap too, but we underestimated the value of
loyalty and friendship. I always hoped one of our friends would come for
us, but I was astounded to see that it was Bobby. I was certain that it
would be..."

"Kevin?" Storm said. "He did come, Professor. He and Bobby took out this
whole base single handedly. I don't know what's happened to Bobby, but it
looks like the most remarkable and positive change."

Xavier swung around and looked in awe into the far distance only to see
that Bobby had joined another man floating high in the sky. Xavier took
Storm's word for it that it was Kevin, and his build suggested that it was
him, apart from the fire running off his arms in droves. His powers did
manifest strangely though, so he didn't pay it too much attention, but what
had happened to Bobby? The two young men floated above them, each on a dark
disc, at least two hundred feet above the ground looking into the far
distance. They seemed to be talking but when he tried to get a closer look
with the aid of his powers he found himself sealed off with greater resolve
than he'd ever encountered in his life. The mental barriers around Bobby
and Kevin were of unsurpassable strength, and he had to admire the
handiwork even if he couldn't understand how it had come about. To his left
he saw a tank approaching them, and before he could cry out in horror, the
tank had opened fire. The colossal shell that would have destroyed several
of them bounced off a barrier that seemed to surround all of them.

Storm shook her head wryly. "We've been under this barrier since they
arrived. The whole garrison here has thrown everything they've got at us. I
think they were instructed to kill us should anything happen. But nothing
gets through."

Kevin turned slowly towards the tank and it exploded violently but no
debris seemed to follow. It merely disappeared.

"That happens each time too," Storm said maliciously. "I would have thought
they would have learned by now." There was great anger in her eyes, and a
clear lust for revenge against humans.

Xavier was about to mention something when Kevin and Bobby descended from
the sky and seemed to cross the barrier effortlessly. Kevin's abilities
really were incredible.

"Kevin..." Xavier began urgently, but he forestalled him.

"Hello Professor. I'm sorry we took so long to arrive here but we were
delayed for a few weeks. I'll explain everything as soon as I can, but we
need to assault the core of this atrocity." The look in Kevin's eyes was
malevolent.

"de Mille?"

"Indeed," Kevin said, and Bobby grimaced angrily. "They will pay for the
mutants they harmed. There were nine mutants here who even Bobby couldn't
save, and he shall be accountable for them too. It won't be easy,
though. He has a hold on the President, and thus on the military."

Bobby? What did Bobby have to do with saving mutants? "I have so many
questions," Xavier said, and it had been very long since he'd admitted such
a thing.

"I know," Kevin said. "All in good time. I need to get you to safety
first. I'll send you all back to the mansion where Wolverine should be
waiting. You must do all you can to protect these people. The time for
diplomacy is over, Charles."

He nodded sadly, and had become well aware of the boundaries of
negotiations. "Will you challenge de Mille alone?"

"Bobby and I will," he said.

He frowned with surprise. "Kevin, I know you love Bobby but really, this
isn't the time to drag him off to war. He can't handle..."

Kevin laughed, but there was nothing mean in his tone. "You don't
understand yet, Professor Xavier. You wouldn't believe what he can do," he
said, and Bobby's mouth curved into a half smile. The Professor thought
that something very odd was going on when Bobby stepped up to him and
tapped his forehead once with his index finger. A flood of information
invaded his mind, and he found that he had answers to all his questions.

"I see now," Xavier said with a smile. "It's... it's... wonderful!"

"That's what I thought too," he said, and he ruffled Bobby's hair
playfully. The moment seemed perfect until he caught the sound of another
futile artillery shell striking their protective barrier. Kevin's smile
vanished instantly. It was remarkable how different he could look at
times. He could be the most fun-loving and harmless man, but at times he
seemed to be death and destruction personified, and terror walked before
him like a herald.

Kevin and Bobby started to float on their black discs into the distance,
and in the direction of the last shots fired. He opened his mouth to at
least offer his thanks, but waves of nothingness washed over him, and after
blinking several times he found that he was on a large plain of green grass
next to the lake, with his ruined mansion in the distance. The mutants
around him talked furiously with amazement and many hugged one another, now
convinced of their safety.

"Thank you, guys," Storm said next to him, and she seemed to be talking to
herself.

"And good luck to you both," he said.

*********************************************************************

Kevin looked to Bobby as they tore through the air at a massive speed. The
discs they had conjured had served them well. Bobby winked to him, and he
smiled weakly.  They had left the ruined base behind and were on their way
to the city for their encounter with de Mille and David. Bobby had said
that the meeting was inevitable and he'd taken his word for it.

Kevin sensed the fighter planes approaching from the east and he
scowled. The army had spared nothing to try and neutralize them, but they'd
come woefully short. He didn't think that anything in the world's arsenal
could harm either of them, but that didn't mean they would become
complacent or that the army would stop trying. A single bullet could still
kill either of them, but the trick was not providing it with the
opportunity. A shiver ran through him at the thought of Bobby being shot,
but he shook his head angrily.

"What is it?" Bobby said. They were traversing the sky at insane speeds but
the barriers they'd placed around themselves afforded them a serene
internal environment while they moved.

"Thoughts of doom again," he replied honestly. Bobby could read him like a
book so there was no point in lying.

"Silly man," Bobby said, and he smiled.

Kevin looked at him with admiration, but before he could say more an
incredible explosion lit up his vision to his left, instantly wiping the
smile off Bobby's sexy face.  He turned slowly to see the remains of a
missile strike against their barriers. He could sense six F22's heading
from different directions in groups of two on their course to intercept
them. This had been the first strike, and moments later a second missile
struck next to Bobby causing him to growl with anger. He could see the
first group approaching from the left and he raised his left hand, which
emitted three sonic waves of devastating magnitude. The first jet exploded
as it collided with the wave, and although the second one used his superior
skill to evade it, the second pulse duly collected him. Kevin spared a
moment to think on the pilots, but in a battle to the death, what choice
did he have but to defend himself? Bobby was carrying two lightning bolts
in each hand, and they resembled spears pulsing with blinding white
light. He stretched back and threw the one as if he was thrusting a
javelin. Kevin succumbed to his awe for a moment, as he watched this really
good-looking guy stretch back and hurl this deadly bolt into the
distance. A distant explosion told him of Bobby's success, as if he'd ever
doubted it. Bobby quickly took care of the next jet only moments before
four huge missile strikes struck the shield right in front of them.
Desperation at the loss of their peers had forced the last two fighters to
act precipitously. He grasped Bobby's forearm and Bobby grasped his back,
and a purple vortex formed between them that grew in size before suddenly
collapsing and sending out a pulse of blinding white light. They watched
impassively as the two planes fell from the sky on a crash course below
them. Small parachutes appeared hundreds of feet below them and for some
reason he felt relieved. He caught Bobby smiling too.

"EMP," he said.

"Yeah," Bobby replied. "I don't have that ability."

"Neither do I," he said, "but it's as I thought. We can do many things
apart, but even more together."

Bobby nodded twice. "Did you notice the purple tinge to that thing?"

"Yeah. You think our two energies combine to form a new hybrid?"

Bobby laughed. "I wouldn't have put it so eloquently, but yes, exactly."

"I already owe you payback, so don't make it worse on yourself by teasing
me further." He enjoyed his continuous banter with his boyfriend.

"Your payback is less of a punishment than you think. You actually incite
bad behaviour from me," he said with a laugh to himself, and Kevin chuckled
despite his mock anger.

They flew for another half an hour before approaching the vast city. The
tall skyscrapers came into view. The city looked peaceful in the
mid-morning, and the sun was mild on their faces.

"Here," they heard a sharp whisper say to the left, and he and Bobby both
descended to the top of a great building where two individuals waited. They
approached cautiously, wondering what trap awaited them. The Bane waited
ominously next to de Mille, who had an infuriating smirk on his face. Kevin
thought back on Magneto and his crazy metallic invention, and already he
was trying to think of a way to defeat this thing, which he was sure would
be the outcome.

"Gentlemen," de Mille said. "We knew you'd come for us after your little
stint at the base. Dozens of our soldiers are dead. You've just handed me
public approval for my mutant laws on a silver platter."

"The tyranny against mutants is over, de Mille," he said.

The Senator laughed richly, and his expensive suit and dark eyes created an
unmistakable sense of condescension. "Nothing is over until I say it is,"
de Mille said, suddenly very seriously.

"You cannot match either of us, and you know it," he said factually.

"Us? Who is this other boy, David? I was only aware of one level 5 on the
planet.  Unless you... lied to me."

The Bane shimmered in the air and suddenly David was standing before them,
a presence as dark as ever. Kevin clenched his fist at the thought of the
nightmare David had put him in. The twisted asshole, he would pay!

"I didn't lie, de Mille," he said gravely, but he was looking at both of
them curiously.  "Kronos reads differently. He is less powerful than
before, but greater than ever... I can't explain it. The other one is the
same. He's no longer the piece of shit he was before."

Kevin's mouth snarled at the insult but Bobby snickered.

"What's funny Iceman?" David said, with venom dripping from his words.

"Uh, you are. Kevin, this guy likes you," Bobby said with a wide smile.

He gasped despite himself, and David's mouth dropped in horror. "It's
not... it's not..." he said, for the first time at a loss for words.

"Yeah, it's true, shithead," Bobby said smugly.

"So, two exceedingly diverse and powerful mutants," de Mille said with a
truly curious look in his eyes. "Imagine what I could cultivate from you."

David was staring at the ground and his breathing was laboured, and filled
with humiliation. Kevin was still taken back with the whole thing. He'd
heard about lust being disguised with loathing but until you actually found
yourself in it, you couldn't believe what a surprise it was! Shaking his
head slightly, he turned to Bobby and smiled.

"Enough," he said to de Mille. "There will be no cultivating, de Mille. You
are finished today, no matter how this ends. As for you David, I'm with
Bobby and really, there's no comparison. So fuck off."

Silence stretched for a few seconds, and while the four of them squared
off, the quiet breeze and sound of the traffic below them kept them
company. David broke the silence with a cry of rage that seemed to bore
into his soul. He thought that the man was on the verge of tears but anger
made his face ugly and demented. De Mille snarled too, and his hatred for
them was plain. Instantly the Bane was back and before he could react, it
had taken a swipe for them and hit both him and Bobby with a mighty smash
sending them flying off the building with a grunt of pain. Kevin stopped
his rapid fall to the ground below and started to ascend again, well aware
of Bobby approaching him to the side.

"You okay?" he said to Bobby seriously, and he nodded despite the small cut
above his left eye.

A beam of searing power shot from Bobby's hand and leveled the top floor of
the skyscraper on which the two sick villains stood hurling them both off
into the distance. Kevin saw the Bane catch de Mille and shelter him as
they fell to the ground below that ended with a groundbreaking
roar. Hopefully it was over. The two of them flew over the site and saw the
crater below where the Bane and de Mille had crashed onto the street below,
pulverizing a taxi and sending the surrounding populace into
mayhem. Dismayed, he saw the Bane struggling to stand, with a seemingly
unaffected de Mille climbing out of its protective embrace.

"You'll have to fucking do better than that!" de Mille roared from the
ground below, and for a wonder, they could hear him.

"He's a mutant," Kevin said, as Bobby seemed to frown. "I sensed him on top
of the building."

"Figures," Bobby said simply.

De Mille went up to the Bane that had now recovered and placed his hands on
it. It started to grow in size. De Mille was screaming, either from rage or
glee or exertion, it was impossible to say. The Bane grew and grew until it
towered above the skyscrapers around it. Kevin and Bobby looked at one
another worriedly. Instantly they flew towards it from different
directions, well aware that a single blow from those colossal hands would
crush either of them. He prayed for Bobby's safety, and with a cry of anger
he stopped directly in front of the Bane. It's gargantuan steel fist
descended on him and he could see the malevolent eyes behind the visor
wishing for his death. He repelled the fist as it struck him, as if it had
struck a wall, and he swung his own seemingly puny fist that smashed into
the Bane's chest toppling it over onto the street below. He cringed at the
damage and injuries below, but when fighting in a city, how could one avoid
it? The Bane was on its feet instantly, and the ground shook beneath the
several thousand-ton monster with its unnatural agility.

"If I cannot destroy you," David said with a machine like deep drone from
within the Bane, "then I shall destroy the city, and remind you forever
that you wrought its demise."

With a wide swing the monster struck at a massive skyscraper that would
have had broken down to powder under it's power, sending hundreds to their
deaths. But as the fist descended, Kevin caught the glow of a small blue
light that caused it to stop short.  Bobby stood on the roof of the
building and the hammer stroke could not overwhelm him. He was on one knee
with his hands facing the monster, but the wildly angry Bane could not
smite him. Kevin's eyes widened as he noticed the ground beneath Bobby's
feet start to crack. Bobby could withstand the assault, but the building
could not, and it would soon crumble anyway.

"Kevin!" Bobby cried out. He had to do something!

The Bane continued to hammer down on Bobby and the whole building shook,
with huge panes of glass falling on the streets below as the windows in the
building ruptured. It would take one or perhaps two more strikes to take
down the building with all those inside doomed to die. It lifted its hand
to complete the final stroke, when suddenly it stopped as if surprised. A
massive golden sword stuck out of its chest. Kevin stood behind him, now as
colossal as he had become, an avatar sent to destroy this wretched
thing. He pulled the sword free and David gasped while clutching the mortal
wound in his chest. The Bane turned and the helmet over his head
disappeared. David's eyes were already glazing over. Kevin had known where
to strike.

"I ... I ... only wanted you," David said desperately while leaning one
hand on Kevin's shoulder. His breathing was ragged and wheezing.

"I'm sorry David, but you went about it the wrong way," he said, and he
could offer no sympathy and hoped his eyes were as cold as his heart was. A
single tear streaked down David's face, and then he collapsed, suddenly as
small as a normal man, but dead. Falling to the earth below, Kevin caught
the small body in his giant hand and placed it on the roof of the tormented
skyscraper next to Bobby. Moments later he was his normal size, and
standing next to Bobby.

"Will this thing hold?" he said hugging Bobby, and he was referring to the
skyscraper.

"Yeah, it's still good," he said. Bobby looked at David's corpse and his
gaze was unreadable. Kevin wondered what he was thinking but he didn't want
to ask him.  "Should we go sort out de Mille?"

"He's dead too," Kevin said. "He was linked to David through his
powers. When I killed David, De Mille died from shock. They'll think he had
a heart attack."

"It's better than what he deserved," Bobby said angrily.

"What matters is that it's over," he said, and he kissed Bobby deeply. It
was a great kiss, but it was ruined by the ignorant screams of the city
around him, unaware that their plight was over thanks to them.

"I just want to have a normal life with you," Bobby said, and he couldn't
say what Bobby was feeling, but there was an equal chance it was
frustration, anger or sadness.

"I've been yearning for that since the first day I discovered my powers,
and now that I'm with you, I want it more than ever," he replied.

"Let's go back," Bobby said, and it was clear what he meant. The hugged and
the world turned white and they left the rooftop in an instant.

********************************************************************

It had been seven days since they had been saved from the de Mille
atrocities as the President had started to refer to them publicly. Xavier
walked along the grass towards the lake. It seemed that the spell that had
been placed on the President's mind had shattered as soon as David and de
Mille had died, as he expected. The real shock was finding out that one of
his own students had worn the terror known as the Bane. David had always
been a dark individual but he was embarrassed to admit that he'd
underestimated the boy's powers, even if he was reliant on de Mille's
amplifying abilities to reach near-invulnerability. The shock of the past
few weeks still rang true to many mutants and they were still trying to
recover from their losses, among them Peter and Steven. Peter had died a
hero, and Steven could not withstand the prison's rough interrogation into
his ability to control air in all its different forms. A pang of sadness
struck his heart but he coughed and tried to swallow it.

He approached the lake. This was why he'd walked the considerable distance
from the mansion for the second time in the past week. Walk into the lake,
he'd been told, and he thought it was the craziest thing he'd ever heard
(and he'd heard many things in his time). He approached the water and this
time he didn't hesitate. Just before his shoe touched the water it parted
as if it was revolted by the sight of his shoe. He started to descend into
the lakebed that had become dry sand beneath his feet. The walls of water
started to rise beside him and eventually became daunting as he reached the
center of the lake. He concentrated on the white light before him. It was a
circular white light, a door of rippling luminosity. As he started to step
through he heard the sound of the water collapsing behind him, which forced
him to hasten involuntarily.

He found himself in the same exquisite place as last time. It was a huge
hall made seemingly of pure gold, with beautiful silk hangings, colourful
tapestries and carpets, as well as intricate sculptures, as well as
elements of modern technology in the distances he'd never investigated. He
approached the end of the hall and above the high plinth sat two great
gilded thrones, this time only seating one man. He approached Bobby, who
wore dark blue clothing with a modern yet noble cut. His face was more
mature than he remembered but welcoming. Blue droplets still swam down his
forearms and glowed mysteriously.

"Welcome Professor," he said kindly with a light smile.

"Bobby," he said warmly. "Alone today?"

"He's never alone," he heard to the left, and he saw Kevin walking into the
hall wearing bright red clothes of same cut. His chest was covered in sweat
and his hair was untidy. He buttoned up the last four buttons with his
fire-covered hands to cover his exposed body and sat down next to a widely
grinning Bobby, but his breathing was heavy.

"Kevin," he said with a respectful nod, and Kevin nodded back then wiped
the sweat from his brow. What had he been up to?

"How can we help you, Professor?" Bobby said. He sometimes possessed the
tact that Kevin lacked. That was their story though, to balance the
deficiencies the other one lacked. It was a remarkable story but
undeniable.

"The world wants to know when Kronos..."

"I told you I am not Kronos," Kevin said angrily, and the fires seemed to
respond to his anger and rose higher on his arms for a few moments.

"And I'm not Iceman," Bobby said seriously.

"Forgive me," Xavier said, having truly forgotten. "But it will take some
time before you are known as the Guardians."

"Then let's begin somewhere," Kevin said. He seemed irritated as if he'd
been interrupted. Perhaps he hadn't come at the right time.

"Well to be honest, I personally am afraid that we'll lose you two to this
place, wherever it is." It was not easy admitting his emotional
vulnerability.

Bobby smiled but Kevin remained serious. "It's okay Professor. This place
is outside the known universe and only we can access it and grant access to
it. But we see everything," he said warmly.

"Everything," Kevin said, and the flames jumped again.

"Then my friends, I am happy. Be sure to visit us frequently. We miss you."

"We will," Bobby said kindly, and Kevin merely looked at him.

He turned on his heel and the light appeared to take him home to the lake.

"Professor," Kevin said from behind him, and he turned. Kevin was
standing. "We are always watching. Always."

"I'm counting on it," he replied with a smile. Kevin's face was stony, but
his top button popped open and he turned in shock to Bobby who was grinning
evilly. He shook his head wryly and stepped through the portal. He was too
old for some things, but although there were some things he didn't feel
like seeing, he couldn't wait to see his two favourite students again.

*********************************************************************

The End

Thanks for those who read the whole story and I hope you liked it. I'm
planning to write a spin off about these two called the Guardians, if I get
some positive feedback.  All comments can be sent to rahvin747@yahoo.com