Date: Sat, 22 Aug 2009 08:43:15 +0000 From: Adam McDonald <ender2155@gmail.com> Subject: Phoenix Reborn part 14 All disclaimers and warnings from my last stories are in effect. The world ends, time slows and stops, all that is, ceases to be. The next 5 seconds of my life stretch through infinity yet flash by so fast, it's as if they don't really exist. My team members rush in, the attendees of the wedding stand, turn, and face us. The groom and priest throw off their garb, and I'm in the middle of a war zone. TRAP!!! Energy and psychic pulses whiz past my head, and I notice friends and foes struck down around me. The building we are in crumbles, yet I only have eyes for one person ... this woman, named Pryor, standing motionless amid the chaos, whose eyes are locked squarely into mine. The world really IS going to hell around us, but we stand, together and unscathed, as the war rages. "We knew you would come," she mentally projects. "How?" I ask, somewhat lamely. "We know how Magneto works, and how he manipulates those who trust him. And you DO trust him, don't you?" It comes across as more of a statement of fact than a question. "He helped me discover and control my powers!" I angrily send back, "PROFESSOR X only wanted to control ME! He didn't care about me, only what I could do! So, who manipulates who?" Pryor smiled, wanly, "Ryan, Magneto will do whatever he can to make sure he can control you. Xavier was trying to help because he KNOWS what is going on inside you, and the damage it has caused, and only wants to make sure you are not hurt by the Phoenix, as its previous host was." "The PHOENIX!" I scoff, "A supernatural entity that you SAY has done damage! Erik said that the REAL reason Jean went insane and died is because Xavier didn't teach her how to control the latent powers inside her, but REPRESSED them! You blame your sorrow on a false deity that doesn't exist! I embrace my powers as a man who understands how reality really works!" "A man ... a MAN?!" Pryor angrily responded, "You assume because you are MALE you are less likely to succumb!? The Phoenix knows no sex, color or creed! It is Creation, and you stand there, a mortal, and say that because you are a MAN, you are immune to its siren call?! When did you first discover your powers? Tell me, please?!" Anger flushes to my face, and I feel a power rise within me, "THAT is none of your business! Who are you to lecture me about power, when your X-Men, only look to take power out of the hands of mutants and give it to humans who only want to destroy us!" "How typical to avoid the issue at hand ... much as Magneto does!" she angrily replies, "WHEN did your 'latent' mutant powers arise, and forget what Magneto would have you think? How can you believe that it took place as the EXACT same time as Jean and your partner died and it was only coincedence? Coincidence does not exist; the universe desires harmony and abhors a vacuum. When Jean died, the Phoenix felt a vacuum, and found you as a recepticle since you were awaiting and praying for help. You KNOW this, yet Magneto has blinded you!" "NOO!!!!!" I yell, "That's not true!" "YES!!!" you can feel it in your soul! I know Magneto has not corrupted that yet! Listen to me!" she pleads. "ENOUGH!" I yell, and as I do, the world falls silent ... the earth stands still, and the scenes of carnage around me stops as the only people interacting are me and Madelyne. She smiles softly and says, "That's more like it. At least now we can talk without the drama." "This is only temporary," I warn, "Well ... to be honest, it just kind of happened, so speak your peace before whatever I did comes undone." Pryor nods and responds, "Ryan, you are an amazing individual who has survived some horrible and incredible trials. The Phoenix, somehow, found you, and bonded, and has been lying in dormant for years. But, this you know as Xavier has made this point to you. You, and all of us, are in danger so long as the Phoenix runs free within you. Xavier was not trying to control or limit you, he was only trying to HELP you." "Yeah!" I scoff, "That's just what Erik told me he was doing, but ERIK was right! Xavier wanted to limit me! Look what I can do now!" I say as I wave my hand, and the whole building shudders before slowly lifting a few feet off the ground, "If I had these powers years ago, Tim would never have been shot and died," I continue as tears well up in my eyes, "It's MY fault he died! If I had only done something different, had used these latent powers a moment before, he would be alive!" As I say that, I collapse to the ground, as the stress of using my powers too much overwhelms me, and the building we are in crashes with me, creating even more rubble than was caused by the battle around us. I feel a cool hand on my cheek, pushing it upwards, and as my head turns, I look up to see Pryor's face above mine ... the shimmer in her eyes matching my own. "Ryan, there is something you should know," she begins ... The room shudders and quakes, and suddenly, my mental hold over the universe goes limp, and the battle around us rages once again. Pryor is struck by a bolt to the head and crumbles beside me. No, please no! I scream in my head, as I caress her red hair as she lies in my lap. NOOOOOOOO The world goes white; everyone disappears but me. I stand, wipe my eyes and squint into the brightest light I have ever seen that surrounds and engulfs me. "Ryan?" I hear someone whisper behind me. I turn and see a young man standing there with a crooked smile on his face and a tear in his eye. "It's me," he says, "Tim." "T ... Tim?" I croak. "Yeah," he replies, as the tears fall down his beautiful face, "I've been waiting for you." "Am I dead?" I ask, hesitantly. "Not at all," he replies with his lopsided grin I know so well, "You've only just begun to live." Crying so much with happiness I can barely move, I somehow stumble over and give him a hug, "OH MY GOD!!! TIM!!! I've missed you so much!" "I know," he replies, "And I've been waiting to find you again. I love you so much!" And with that, he kisses me, and we melt into each other's arms. <you are in danger, ths is not what you believe it to be> I ignore the voice in my head, and kiss Tim back all the harder. The Phoenix, or my powers be damned! My true love is in my arms! ______________________________________________________________________________- "It is done then?" asks Magneto. Liz sits there, with her back turned and replies, as tears spill down her face, "Yes, it is done. He is lost in my fantasy." "Good," Magneto says, "A few more hours now, and victory is in my grasp!" "Have you no heart?!" Liz manages to gasp through her concentration, "Don't you know what you're doing to this poor boy?" Magneto grimaces before turning and walking away, "Yes, I DO know, and it pains me more than you can understand. But the sacrifice of one man is worth the goal I wish to achieve. Don't think I take this lightly." Magneto stops for a moment, and falls against a wall, as if for support. "I do this for a future for mutantkind, no matter how much I hate myself for it. The greater good must be accomplished should it cost me, and Ryan, our lives. And I believe it will," That's it for the new story. As always, hit me up with feedback at ender2155@gmail.com