The characters in this story are the property of Marvel Comics. All My Dreams Like Dust Part II Exodus screamed as energy lanced into him from the strange attacker. He had thought that the attacker was a sign from the heavens that his path was just. A new warrior to add to his army that he would use to help build a new world. He wasn't designed for command -- he had always realized that. Leading the Acolytes was painful. No matter what he did it alwaus seemed to be wrong even though he only sought to keep the dream of his master alive. He wondered on many difficult nights how Magneto had managed to tolerate the bickering and infighting. They should have pulled together rather than tearing each other apart. The trial of Neophyte had shown him just how much distance had grown between the different factions of Acolytes. Couldn't thay see that division was weak and that onl;y the strong survived? He channeled power back at the mocking sketetal creature that sought his life. The battle was vastly more complicated than it appeared to those observing it. Exodus had the ability to channel any power he could imagine. This creature had the ability to adapt to anything. It was constant struggle as they shifted around while energy crackled around them from the force of their struggle. Exodus was losing this fight but he was going down hard. Pushed to the limit he was unable to protect his followers as this monster devoured them. How could he have been so blind? The creature wasn't a sign so much as a test. The beast had been losed among them and they were proving unequal to the task of defeating it. To make matters worse, two blasphemers had entered the station and desecrated the holy ground of his masters living grave. Exodus shifted the energy matrix again. The creature mocked him -- blathering on about Lehnsherr and having found his lair. Exodus was uncertain what he was raving about but he wished that he would stop -- forever. He wished that he had the power to makr this cackling monstrousity cease it's prattle. So he almost died of shock when the creature was blasted with a lightning bolt so intense it almost blinded him. - - - - - - - - - - - The man watched in amazement as the skeletal creature turned towards him -- still alive after a blast of energy that should have vaporized it. He didn't know who the creature was but he had sensed it killing one of his followers through his enhanced electromagnetic sense and he remembered the name Lehnsherr and so he know it was here for him. He was at a loss as to who would actually know that name. He had used it a long time ago to sneak himself in Israel after the war. Armed with a false name and a tatoo, nobody questioned him or tried to connect him with the worker who had killed a crowd in the Ukraine. Could it be an enemy for that long lost era? Had Hydra finally decided to come after him? If so they would pay in blood! "So, Lehnsherr, you have decided to face me rathering than cowering behind your X-Men?" the creature mocked. The man wondered what he was taliking about. It had been a long time since he had led the X-Men and he would rather forget that particular fiasco. Oh course, as he scanned the electron-mangetic signitures in the room, there were two X-Men here. Had there been an alliance between the X-Men and the Acolytes? "Enough. I don't care who you are or why you are here. You will learn the price of facing the Master of Magnetism," the man said through a thraot unused to speech. It sounded pretentious and pompous even to his ears but he had long since stopped worrying about such things. People expected it and if you acted the way that they expected then they were less likely to see the hidden blow coming from around the corner. The creature laughed and then, using a power that filled Magneto with horror, tried to eat him. He could feel the structure of his body under assault and he would have been lost if he hadn't always been partially an energy being due to his powers. Zaladane had nearly torn him apart and he still remembered how to return the energy to solidtity. "NO!" With a scream Exodus launched himself at the creature and his powers tore into it's structure. He was rewarded with a cry of pain as his powers sliced into it. The creature could adapt to attacks but only to a limited number at a time. Strike with with something different than Magneto's power at the moment and it was much less defended. "Damn you, Bennet, you will roast in hell for daring to hurt the chosen heir of Apocalypse!" The creature turned with it's eyes filled with rage and was blindsided by an optic blast. Cyclops had chosen a side at last. Undefended agaisnt the energy, it did an absolutely obsene amount of damage. The man used his incredible power to mold the iron in the structure into a coffin around the creature. Power met power but he was finaly coming up to full strength and the enrgy coursing through him was much greater than the creature could handle. It might adapt to direct attacks but passive ones were fiar game. It struggled but he merely thickened the casing and then sent it hurtling through the walls of the station and out into the void. The room filled with a howling wind as explosive decompression began and then with a sudden silence as the hole was closed. The man realized that everyone was staring at him -- some in awe, some in horror. "The station has been fundementally compromised by your battling. I need to attend to it if it is to remain a viable structure." The man turned and left. He was so weary of these conflicts and nothing in the world could have made him willing to face the venom of Cyclops or the adoring puppy-dog worship of Exodus. - - - - - - - - - - - With a dawning sense of horror, Scott realized what he had done. The creature had been a abomination -- that much was clear. But his intervention had enabled Magneto and Exodus to survive the battle. Now he had to deal with the consequences of beign trapped on a crippled space station with a group of madmen. *Don't worry, lover, we'll work it out. We always do.* Jean's comforting voice filled his head. She was the woman that he loved and he marvelled at how he had ever lived without her. *I know,* he replied *but this is going to take some fancy footwork even for us.* "Listen, Exodus, we didn't ask to be brought here . . . " Scott began as the long haired mutant stared at the doorway that Magneto had used to exit. He stopped abruptly as Exodus' head swung around and he stared into the intensity of the young progidy's mad eyes. "SILENCE! You profane this hallowed halls with your very words. You, who have witnessed the miracle of the masters return to save us all from the darkness. Be quiet and savor these last, pain free moments before you pay the price of your violation." Exodus was raving, Scott realized. He had been rattled badly by the battle and now byt the return of Magneto. It wasn't a miracle that he saved them -- a well placed optic blast against a foe who hadn't adapted yet against that power was all that had kept both of them from being killed!! *Jean, can you get through to the professor? We have to warn them that Magneto is loose. If that madman is given free reign . . . * *I've been trying, Scott, but there is some sort of interference that is preventing my telepathy from reaching that far. It would be a stretch for me under the best of circumstances -- and these are far from the best of circumstances.* Scott reached back and grabbed his wife's hand. She was correct. These were far from the best circumstances. - - - - - - - - - - - Charles Xavier stared up at the stars and reached out with his power -- trying to pierce the veil of static that separated him from his students, his children. Amelia Voght stood behind him only she stared down into the anguished form of the man she had once loved. "You have been at this for over an hour, Charles. Maybe there isn't anything to see up there? I told you that the creature was stronger than anything I could have imagined. By now they may well be dead." "No, you're wrong. I have to keep trying. Somehow I have to find out." Amelia could tell that he was fighting off tears. Guilt coursed through her. It hadn't been her intention to send them there -- not consciously. But maybe there was a part of her that had wanted to hurt Charles the way he hurt her and strike back at those who had taken him away from her. Revenge for losing her second home. No, she couldn't let herself beleive that she was capable of that it. It was an accident. It had to be! She started as voice came out of the darkness. "Bishop has a modified Blackbird ready. We'll do a near orbit flight and see what we can find. If the Acolytes or some glowing skull creature have hurt Jeanie they're gonna pay." *SNICKT* "Pay in blood." Amelia shivered. The feral berserker had been one of the few who could hurt Magneto and he scared her. Somehow she could feel the potential for violence oozing off of him. "Go, Logan, and find them. Find them for me." Amelia felt sorrow at the pain in Charles' voice. There were issues here tied into love and betrayal and it was affecting them all badly. She watched Wolverine fade into the shadows and could help but feel a shudder of horror at what waited for them up in space. ______________________________________________________ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ eGroup home: http://www.eGroups.com/list/magneto Free Web-based e-mail groups by eGroups.com