Chapter 93: Fighting the Apocalypse
1st September 2005, Valley of Kings
(Jean Grey POV)
Magneto’s mind was unprotected and Jean delved towards his mind and similarly to what she did to Angel, she destroyed the bindings on his mind. As she did so, the master of magnetism overwhelmed her and successfully summoned his helmet to him and put it on. He groaned as he held his head, “Thank you, girl. You have freed me,” he said to her.
Jean sighed in relief, she had successfully broke Apocalypse’s control over Magneto.
That’s all of them gone. They just needed to take out the last guy and get the Professor.
Logan limped towards Magneto, “Do you remember what happened when you were under Apocalypse’s mind control.”
Magneto responded, “It’s a little fuzzy,” then his eyes widened, “we need to stop him.”
Mystique looked worried at his frantic tone, “What is he planning?”
“It’s about the pyramid, that’s his goal. There’s a temple underneath with some sort of mythical artifact. I’m not sure of the specifics but Apocalypse seems to think that he would easily win if got inside. The pyramid is just the key to enter the temple. We have to destroy it.”
Storm interjected, “What about the Professor.”
“He was in some sort of telepathic battle against Apocalypse. I don’t know what happened but from the looks of it he was losing. Apocalypse is planning to use him as a weapon, a psychic enforcer with a permanent access to Cerebro. He would root out any thoughts of rebellion in Apocalypse’s rule. A couple of hours ago he did something to anger Apocalypse. They went together in the pyramid, I’m not sure what happened to him after that.”
“He’s still alive,” Jean spoke up, “I sensed his mind inside the pyramid. We just have to go get him.”
“Trust me, young one,” Mageto answered, “there are things far worse than death.”
Jean felt a shiver run up her spine at the master of magnetism’s answer. The certainty in his tone as he said that was a testament that he, in fact, experienced things worse than death. Could he be talking about being under Apocalypse’s control.
Suddenly, a loud gong sound happened and Jean knew that something had happened. She turned towards the sound. It came from the Pyramid. It was fully built and it looked inhumanly perfect. Anything being built in the world has imperfections; it’s a testament of the humanity of its builders. But the pyramid in front of the redhead was so perfect that it could have been in a geometry book. Considering Apocalypse’s molecular manipulation, Jean had no qualms believing that the fist mutant had built this structure without a single molecule out of place.
The top of the pyramid then started to have some sort of orange glow. The glow took the shape for ancient Egyptian symbols that Jean didn’t understand. The glow was slowly moving down towards the base of the pyramid, revealing more symbols on the surface of the pyramid.
“The pyramid is built. We only have minutes before it’s charged up. We need to get destroy it now.”
He raised his hands, and Jean thought he looked constipated. She snorted in amusement; he’s a lot less terrifying when he’s on their side.
“I can’t take control over the metal. There’s something blocking me, protecting the pyramid.”
Logan sighed, “Alright, we’ll do it the hard way. Cyclops, send your strongest attack at the pyramid.”
“Yes, Logan,” Scott confirmed on the comms.
Suddenly, a huge red beam of concussive force appeared and hit the pyramid. The impact was so violent that the entire view of the giant structure was veiled by dust and sand.
When the view was cleared, the pyramid stood there intact as if nothing happened. How is that possible? The metal Apocalypse used was also wielded by Magneto during their fight and she had destroyed it without any problem.
“It is futile to oppose me, my children,” a voice spoke to them. They stiffened in surprise to find Apocalypse standing in front of the pyramid. “The pyramid is indestructible. I was taught a few tricks, long ago, by the mages of old. I was their king after all, and they served me. Willingly or not.”
Jean had no idea what the man was talking about. Mages? Did magicians exist or something?
Magneto asked, “Mages?”
“Ah, yes. They were wiped out centuries ago. They were feared for their powers, like our kind is. They were hunted down and killed by the powerless. Now, there is nothing left of them besides stories and fairy tales. If we do nothing, our kind will suffer the same fate. I am only trying to ensure our survival.”
Jean was shaken from what was just said and from the looks of her teammates, she wasn’t the only one. The man in front of her was a monster, an abomination, but she could still sense the truth in his words. The had been other superpowered people but they were hunted down and killed. But that was centuries ago, people fought with swords and bows, they were practically savages. Things should be different now. The redhead tried to reassure herself but she still felt like she was lying to herself.
The master of magnetism retorted back, “I agree with what you just said but I know that this isn’t your goal, is it? Your goal is to enslave everyone, even us mutants. You would take away our freedom, our free will. You are a monster, Apocalypse, not a savior.”
The father of mutants sneered at Magneto, “It is not your place to question me, betrayer.”
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Magneto looked at him incredulously, “You forced me into servitude and you’re asking me why I am not loyal to you?”
Magneto then floated in the air, “You’re about to understand how much of a mistake this was.”
He then raised his hand and the tons of iron sand from his fight with Jean was rising like another giant wave. It concentrated into a giant beam and was propelled at blinding speed towards Apocalypse. The father of mutants didn’t seem bothered by the attack and some sort of force field materialized in front of him, protecting him from the attack. It was so powerful that there wasn’t single crack in the shield when the attack was over.
Logan started to give out orders, “Nightcrawler, go inside the pyramid and get to the professor. The rest of us will deal with Apocalypse. We have to beat him before the pyramid is charged up.”
With that said, they all readied themselves to fight the so called father of mutants.
Jean looked at the titanic fight between Magneto and Apocalypse. It was at a clear stalemate, both of them were protected by their respective force fields and kept throwing projectiles at each other. Then suddenly, Apocalypse was enveloped with some sort of purple spear and disappeared. He had teleported somehow. Magneto looked around trying to find his opponent and after a few seconds, Jean saw him smirk in triumph at the possibility of Apocalypse running away from him.
Then suddenly, another purple sphere appeared out of nowhere, right next to a floating Magneto, Apocalypse stabbed him in the gut with a glass sword. Jean had no idea where he got the sword from, he probably just used his molecular manipulation to create it.
“I will deal with your betrayal later.” Apocalypse’s words were probably whispered to Magneto but Jean and the rest of her team could hear it very clearly. Jean didn’t want to imagine what punishment the abomination had in mind for Magneto.
“Dad!” Pietro exclaimed. Before anyone could stop him, he ran towards his father and got him away from Apocalypse. When he returned, he looked at Apocalypse with hatred in his eyes, “You’re going to pay for that.”
He then started to run at superspeed, punching and kicking Apocalypse and to Jean’s surprise, it was working. Pietro then punched him once more, sending him flying into a rock. Jean never noticed how powerful Pietro was, considering that he was often easily defeated because of his arrogance.
Pietro came in with the finishing punch, only to find his feet enveloped with hardened sand. Apocalypse had caught him, “Foolish child!” He kicked his legs, causing them to break. Quicksilver was pretty much neutralized without the use of his legs. He raised his hand with his sword, ready to stab to silver haired teen. Only to be attacked by Beast. Dr. McCoy must have healed from his injuries.
Apocalypse dodged the attack but it gave her time to break the sand using her telekinesis and summon Pietro out of danger. Jean cursed inwardly, with Kurt gone to get the Professor and Pietro injured there was no one to get them out of danger. Magneto is also out of the commission. There chances are getting even lower. The only chance they had was if she and the Professor fought him telepathically. Jean was already sore from the previous fights and didn’t like her chances against someone who beat Magneto in less than a minute.
While she got Pietro out of the way, Beast was then supported by Wolverine and Mystique on the ground with Storm and Angel helping them from the air.
Beast leapt at their opponent who side stepped the attack and blocked another surprise attack from Mystique who was trying to kick him. He then dodged the metallic spikes from Angel and threw Mystique at him, hitting him in mid air. Fuck, that guy is strong.
Angel was able to right himself in the air and caught Mystique and put her on the ground. However, Storm wasn’t done and threw a bolt of lighting at Apocalypse. He shielded using the force field and redirected it towards Logan who dodged it.
Logan leapt into the air, slashing his claws at Apocalypse. The father of mutants put up his forcefield to block both this attack and another lightning bolt from Storm. The shield blocked the lightning but Logan’s claws were able to pierced it and slashed him through the chest. The Adamantium got through the force field somehow.
At that moment, the entire battlefield was silent. Even Apocalypse was gaping at his bleeding chest. The wound closed down almost immediately. Great, he has a healing factor like Logan’s.
Their opponents’ eyes hardened and suddenly, and wave of sand erupted, throwing everyone around. Apocalypse directed the sand towards Logan with tremendous speed. When it stopped, Logan has dozens of cuts around his body and was bleeding profusely. Apocalypse then leapt into the air, punched him, sending him flying into the air. Jean was sure that Logan was out of the fight now.
The first mutant then ran at tremendous speed towards Beast kicking him towards a rock who started to envelop him as if it was a liquid. He was then attacked by Mystique who shared a similar fate.
He then raised his hands, creating a giant hand made of sand that grabbed the flying Angel and pulled him into the ground and imprisoned him in sand.
Jean cursed, in a few seconds, they lost their front line team except for her. All that was left of their team was Scott, Blob, Avalanche and her. That’s it. This team could barely handle Logan, let alone someone like Apocalypse. The redhead wasn’t above saying that she froze in fear as Apocalypse looked at her, an angry expression on his face. Damn, did Logan’s hit piss him off that much.
Of course, the rest of her teammates came in charging at him. Blob was first and tried to punch Apocalypse. The punch landed but the aged mutant didn’t move. Apocalypse responded with a punch of his own, sending him flying towards Lance, knocking them both out.
Jean readied herself to fight him, resigning herself into a similar fate as her teammates. Scott then ran in front of her, “Don’t worry, I got this Jean.” He really was an idiot, wasn’t he? There’s something deeply wrong with that boy.
He then threw a concussive blast at Apocalypse who just used his force field to protect himself and kept moving forwards. Scott kept the concussive beam going, screaming as he probably powering it up with everything he had. However, Apocalypse kept walking forwards unbothered by the assault on his shield.
When he was almost a foot in front of Scott, he just punched him, sending him flying away, knocking him out.
All that was left was Jean and Apocalypse.
Her opponent leapt in the air, preparing to punch her and she created a telekinetic shield to protect herself. The impact caused an entire shockwave in the sand. However, neither of them had moved. Surprisingly, the shield held. Apocalypse was surprised as well, considering the slight widening of his eyes. Jean took that as a distraction and banished him away from her with all her might. The man was only sent back for a dozen yards and was still standing.
Jean was too tired now; she had never exerted herself that much in her life. Nothing prepared her for this. She prepared herself to fight Apocalypse. She knew that it would be in vain but she will go down fighting.
However, a giant beam of light, going into the sky from the top of the pyramid. Apocalypse froze, “Finally, it is time.”
He just used the sand to transport himself towards the pyramid.
They had failed the pyramid was charged.
“Jean,” the redhead heard from the comms, “I got the Professor out, he’s asking for you. He says that he has a plan.”
Jean immediately responded, “Take me there.”
This was her chance for getting her answers. Even if she dies, she wants to know the truth.
Jean felt Kurt’s teleporting her to a small cave where the Professor was lying down, “Jean,” he spoke to her, “I have a way to fight Apocalypse, a last resort if you will.”
“What do you mean, Professor, we lost.”
“He still hasn’t gotten the artifact yet. Until he does, we still have a chance.”
Jean gave him an incredulous look, “Everyone is down. We have no chance.”
“There’s still us, my dear.”
“You want to fight him telepathically?”
He smiled sadly, “Something like that.”
Before she could register, Jean felt an attack on her mind. She didn’t know what it was doing. Was this the Professor?
The last things she hears was the Professor’s sad tone, “I’m sorry Jean, but this is the only way.”
After that, her world was enveloped with flames.