Prologue
"You know, we never did confirm what exactly our scanners read from this place," Magik said as she descended along the access ramp of the X-Jet, her blond hair whipping in the wind of the current environment.
"That's because we couldn't," Storm explained. "There was no way of telling. But Doctor Hank suspected it was some sort of distortion in reality. It's why we brought you."
Jean paused to examine the area. The badlands were large. This they confirmed even on the map before coming here. There was nothing but rock stretching out for miles. Rock, the cool air, the collective croak of a thousand insects piercing through the still night. It was hard to imagine that a place this serene had exuded the energy she felt earlier, a wave that sent her telepathic senses into overdrive. A wave whose cause even Cerebro could not identify. Doctor Hank McCoy had to merely guess.
"Jean, can you locate it?" Storm asked.
Jean responded with a firm nod which displayed way more confidence than she really had at the moment. Sure, she could locate it. She knew she could. She just wasn't willing to. That energy, whatever its source was, it was as chaotic as it was powerful and both attributes were cranked up to a solid eight out of ten. Jean knew that the energy was still here, despite the quiet of their surroundings. The serenity only existed because it was not lashing out. Yet.
She could feel it stirring under the cover of calm like an uncomfortable feverish child squirming under their blanket.
"If you don't want to, I'd be happy to help," Storm offered. Yes, Storm could do it. She could sense flux in the elements of the cosmos. But for some reason, Jean would feel irresponsible if she just let Storm do that. After all, if there was a battle at hand, Storm would do more of the fighting.
"It's fine, Ororo," Jean answered. "I can do it." Jean shut her eyes and reached out with her mind, her psyche brushing the heated disorder of what she knew was their target. Of course, it flared up and tried to push back but Jean was no stranger to such. She responded in kind, dispelling its attempt at rejecting her. There it was. She knew where it was and how to get there. But that wasn't all she wanted.
She wanted to know what it was. Curiosity got the best of her and she delved deeper into it. She felt her mind slip through something akin to a crevasse. It was wide and it was gaping. Unlike most crevasses her telepathy introduced her to, this didn't contain the usuals-suppressed emotions, concealed feelings, buried memories, subdued persona. None of that. Instead, Jean found herself staring down at a forest which was partly on fire, with people who could only have been teenagers running around looking...
... determined???
Not only looking, though. She could sense that they were being dogged. She wanted to look deeper, to see more, but Magik's voice pulled her back to reality.
"Found it yet?" Jean opened her eyes and the burning forest vanished, replaced by her two teammates staring at her, clearly expectant.
"Yes, and Hank was right. It is a reality distortion, a large tear in the fabric of spacetime," Jean answered. "Just follow me." She began leading the way across the badlands but as they walked across the rocky terrain, Jean couldn't help but wonder. Why was the fire consuming that forest blue???
Of course as an X-Man, blue fire was at the bottom of the list of weird things she'd seen (it was literally nothing special even to regular humans). Still, she felt very disturbed. Why were teenagers trapped inside the burning forest and why didn't radiate utter horror and attempt fleeing? Why did they look like they were...
... fighting or something.
Apocalypse watched from a distance. A very far distance, atop a highly elevated rock. He wasn't the only one who'd sensed the anomaly. Nor was he the only one interested in it. Three powerful X-Men were at the scene but what he wanted, he was determined to get.
He sensed it even before Jean did and knew more about it than she did. He knew what the rift was and what he wanted with it. He was Apocalypse; he knew what he wanted with everything. If he got too reckless, Jean would detect him instantly. He had to tag along but carefully. And while he was at it, he knew another person who was tagging along.
Although she couldn't care less about the rift which had now entranced Apocalypse. She was there for a personal grudge, a bone she had to pick, a score she had to settle.
"Oh, Cassandra Nova," Apocalypse chuckled under his breath. "Ever ambitious." But he knew it was borderline stupidity. Cassandra was nowhere nearly as powerful as Jean Grey. And in a place like this where there were no innocent lives at stake, Jean wouldn't go easy on her. Cassandra would suffer defeat in a moment.
"I'm offended by your thoughts, En Sabah Nur," her cold voice said from behind. He didn't even flinch. He was not surprised, not in the slightest. He'd know she was there and he'd known she was reading his thoughts. He just didn't care.
"You're hardly my problem," he snarled. "Stay out of my way."
"And you, remain out of mine."
Jean, Magik and Storm got to the point of interest in minutes. It was a sort of plain. A strangely flat region in an otherwise rocky and jagged terrain. And it was strangely silent.
"Can you feel it?" Jean asked.
"We always could," Storm pointed out. "Magik is not knew to breaching reality's fabric and I can sense the conditions of the cosmos. We just have to get it to show itself."
Come out!!! Jean commanded. The psychic message echoed across the plain and faded into a mental silence. At first, there was no reply.
Then the air maybe a hundred metres away split open without warning. There was no thunderous sound, nor a bright flash of light. But there was the strangest thing. As though reality itself had been caught on an invisible hook and torn apart by an unseen hand. A jagged wound stretched from several metres in the air down to the earth, its edges like shattered glass suspended in air.
Beyond the tear was not darkness.
It was absence.
No stars. No color. No distance. Only a vast and impossible void that seemed to reject existence itself. The air around the rift shimmered with violent distortions, light curving unnaturally around it.
The rift widened. Every second it remained open, reality was torn open a little more. The horizon rippled like disturbed water.
"We have to close it before it spreads too far," Storm called. "Illyana, with me!"
"Hold on," Jean whispered in a sharp voice. Her teammates stopped and stared at her, a bit confused at the incentive.
"Jean, what is the problem?" Storm asked.
"Yeah, what gives?" Magik added.
"We aren't alone," Jean said, her eyes narrowed, her mind pulsing. "We were followed."
"By whom?" Storm demanded, her eyes assuming a stony white glow that hardened her features so she resembled an antiquated carving. The wind picked up around them, and lightning crackled around her, fists balled. Her full, white-blonde hair whipped about in the mini-whirlwind around her. She looked like a goddess.
Magik's preparation was far less dramatic but not less impactful. Her jacket over blue jeans faded to be replaced by her signature combat getup.
Black leather clung to her like a second skin, for movement not comfort. Her boots reached nearly to her knees, her fitted gauntlets enclosed her forearms. A crimson sash hung at her waist, its ends swaying lazily despite the still air, adding the only splash of warmth to an otherwise monochrome silhouette. But it was the armor that demanded attention.
Silvery steel encased her left shoulder in a jagged pauldron, its edges sculpted into wicked points. Matching armor wrapped down her left arm in overlapping plates, with a feel about them as though they had been forged by demons rather than blacksmiths. It was not just worn, it seemed fused to her, alive with an ancient magic that shimmered beneath the metal.
Across her back, rested a massive sword, taller than many men. Its broad blade bore strange runes that glowed faintly with light.
Her blonde hair framed a face that was almost angelic in its beauty, a striking contrast to the cold certainty in her blue eyes. In her gaze, was the calm confidence of someone who had survived hell often enough that she no longer feared it.
"Cassandra and Apocalypse," Jean informed them.
"Storm, close the rift," Magik said. "I'll face Apocalypse and join you when I get the chance."
"Illyana, are you sure? You know we brought you here because we thought there'd be a tear in spacetime," Storm negotiated.
"Don't worry. I'm sure you can handle it until I join you." They both turned to face Jean but the telepath already knew what she was to do. She shut her eyes and projected her mind.
Cassandra!!!
Of course Cassandra Nova answered, meeting Jean on the astral plane. They both floated in an empty, white space, completely still, perhaps sizing each other up. Then they began.
Outside, in the real world, Storm was facing down the rift.
"Reality, remember your true shape," she chanted, her voice echoing across the badlands and into the night sky. "Reality once broken, now be whole once more;
By thunder's will, be sealed forevermore."
The rift strained to stay open but didn't collapse altogether. However, it'd stopped growing. Several feet away, Magik was engaged in serious combat with Apocalypse, her sword drawn. She slashed wildly yet with calculation. She wasn't striking randomly. She was just being precise and rational about her attacks. But she was also so fast that a random observer would have assumed she was on a frenzy.
Despite her speed and skill, Apocalypse was cloaked in Celestial technology. He simply adapted his form to counter all her attacks. His arms elongated into glistening blades to parry her strikes, into dense barriers to deflect her charges and his body extra parts for an added advantage in the battle. Magik was strong but was she going to defeat a being normally faced by all the X-Men working together? Doubtful. She could only do her best.
En Sabah Nur was fast for someone so large and carrying so much armour on him. Although, that armour was technology from the Celestials. It was bound to do the impossible.
Eventually, she was powering Nur backwards, actually overwhelming him with swift and deadly attacks so he had to step back. So he had to be the one retreating. But that position of apparent advantage actually cost her the battle. Just as she made a big swing to take off the upper part of his body, he shrank. Yes. He shrank instantly. Shrank until he was under the path which her blade swiped through. In that split second of stun, in which he forced her attack to miss, he returned to his original size, coming up with an uppercut. Illyana saw stars before she hit the ground, and stay there.
Apocalypse rushed over to the rift, firing an energy projectile at Storm which sent her careening through the air and onto the rocky ground. The rift roared wide open once again and Apocalypse quickly lifted his arms, the Celestial armour glowing. The glow brightened, a loud hum filling the open space. The glow brightened and then a continuous, unbroken beam of blood red energy escaped Apocalypse's chest and hit the rift squarely.
The whole of the badlands seemed to quake from the impact and that shook Magik awake. Storm managed to force herself to her feet as did Magik. But just as the two lifted their arms to do something meaningful, a low, unnatural laugh escaped Nur's throat.
"It's done." Then the rift erupted in brilliant blue light, engulfing all of them, including Jean and Cassandra, far off as they were. And when the light had passed, the rift was gone, as were the brawling mutants.
