Disclaimer : The X-men are property of Marvel and this is a work of fiction.
Kevin ran as fast as he could towards John. He knew what was unfolding, he knew that the balance of fate sat on a razor's edge. It seemed as if he was in a dream as ran down the wide street towards John, surrounded by huge mounds of scrap metal on both sides. This was the harbour scrap yard, and the smell of filth and diesel rose up into his nose and made him want to cough. Yet he couldn't falter, he had to reach John before...
To John's right he saw a woman suddenly appear with shocking speed. Callisto. She had a cruel look in her eyes as if she was ready for anything. John was wrapped in chains, with his arms tied behind his back. His breathing was laboured as if he was in pain and had been hurt prior to this. His eyes flickered weakly as he struggled to maintain consciousness. Kevin felt himself getting closer, but at the same time he was dangerously far away from his target. He was so caught up in the emotion of the moment that he hadn't even thought of using his powers to intervene somehow. A man appeared beside the pole which secured John, dressed all in white. Magneto. Kevin snarled and picked up his pace, running flat out towards them. Suddenly Magneto flickered and turned into the beautiful Mystique, causing Kevin to miss a step and remember not to take everything here at face value. It was a trap, he'd remembered Bobby warning him. He suddenly became aware of Bobby trying to keep up with him, but he was a faster athlete and the distance between them was widening. He felt a pang of guilt but knew that he wouldn't slow down. He couldn't. He had to get to John. He was close enough to see the anguished eyes of John's face, his mouth moving slowly as if he tried to mutter something. Callisto shot past John with lightning speed and punched his mouth, and silenced him again. Kevin growled like a wild lion who couldn't wait to rip his prey to shreds.
The ground shook slightly, once then twice and then with regularity. Kevin slowed despite himself, and looked around, suddenly wary of his situation. To the right of one of the huge scrap metal piles, he saw a flicker appear which reflected the sun's rays. He focussed his eyes around the glare, and saw a large metallic shape walking towards John. It was a man in a large silvery-blue suit of armour. He thought it was a man, but he couldn't see any evidence thereof. The man stopped short of John and turned to Kevin. Bobby suddenly appeared next to him, panting and out of breath.
"What is it?" Bobby said with broken speech.
"I don't know," Kevin said simply, without looking in Bobby's direction.
"Kronos," the man said, and Kevin immediately knew that it was Magneto. He could hear the man's voice through the metallic resonance which the suit provided. "I knew you'd come. You're brazen and foolish enough."
"I knew it was a trap from the outset," Kevin said angrily. "I'm not afraid of you Magneto, or your thugs. Now let John go, or suffer the consequences."
A piece of scrap metal rose from the scrap metal pile closest to Magneto. It was the axle of a car. It contorted and straightened and formed a spear, sharp and deadly. Kevin readied himself to deflect an attack, and he could feel his face change slightly.
"I invited you here for one reason, Kronos," Magneto said with ominous murmuring. "To witness the inevitable price for betrayal."
And in that moment, something happened which froze Kevin's breath. It happened so quickly, he thought he hadn't seen it, but at the same time it seemed that time had come to a standstill and that he could watch the entire scenario play out before his eyes. He remembered hearing Bobby gasp beside him, and he looked at John and saw his sad pleading eyes resting on him. The spear flew through the air at a colossal speed, and Kevin's eyes widened and his heart seemed to stop when he realised it wasn't aimed for him. And in that moment, that dreadful moment, he looked to John and saw the spear plunged into the centre of his chest. John gave a quick yet surprisingly soft cry, and his head slumped to rest on his chest. In that moment, it seemed that all existence had grinded to a halt. There was no sound, no movement, nothing except the thin trickle of blood which escaped around the thick spear thrust into John's heart. The silence stretched for a longer moment, and Kevin felt himself exhale, having held his breath without knowing it.
"Nooooo!" Kevin screamed, and he screamed and screamed as if he would never stop. His held his head in his hands as if he couldn't comprehend the magnitude of the disaster which he'd just seen. He couldn't accept the loss of his friend, the death of someone whom he'd sworn to protect. He continued screaming until his voice started to boom. His voice rose up like thunder, until his scream shook the ground sending scrap metal, whole cars and huge pieces of junk flying through the air. Cracks appeared on the ground around him, and the water of the seas rippled with the immense strength of his voice. The sky darkened. The glass windows of the ships around them shattered and the shards rained down to the ground, and he could hear the hysterical shouts of dock workers as they fled the area in fear. He glanced to his side and saw Bobby on his knees with his hands over his ears. He picked him up by the arm, and Bobby seemed to flinch when he saw his eyes, though he couldn't be certain what had scared him. He looked into Bobby's eyes for a single moment and ran his hand down his cheek. Energy surrounded Bobby, and as he opened his mouth to say something with urgency, he was pulled off with a cry into the distance. He needed to get Bobby to a safe distance. He couldn't afford him getting hurt here, not like John. Thinking of John made his heart pain until he wanted to sink to his knees, but he had a job to do and he would do it no matter what the cost. He'd teleported Bobby a mile away, and he'd probably be angry, but he didn't care.
Slowly he turned to Magneto, and the look on his face would have turned a person to stone. Magneto stood there idly in his metal suit, his face invisible and the armour revealing very little about the man inside. Mystique watched him coldly, but Callisto appeared wary and ready to flee.
"I'm going to destroy you all," Kevin said, and a wave of fire a hundred feet high rushed from him towards them, ready to burn them to ash. Magneto stood his ground, but the other two dashed to a nearby pile of metal to hide. The fires rolled over Magneto without harming him apparently, and the scrap metal of the courtyard glowed red with heat. Kevin rose the ground above himself until he was standing on a small hill. The ground started to shake as he thought about his friend, about how this man had deprived him of a true friend who'd finally found a reason to survive. His rage was so powerful he thought he would ignite, and when he looked he saw flames travelling along his skin, his shirt burned partially off his body and hanging in threads over him. He growled with hatred, he wanted to cause Magneto such pain as would never be forgotten in this world. His powers had never been so strong. He could feel black fire erupting from his eyes, he could feel the air around him crackling with the magnitude of his strength. Magneto started walking towards him slowly. Callisto suddenly appeared in front of the hill he had created, and she had a knife in her hand which she was about to throw at him. The knife shattered into nothing, and she looked at her hand in amazement, and then at him in fear. Kevin smiled, because he would enjoy seeing each of these evil people die. Callisto had only a moment to scream before he pulled her apart into nothing, before she was broken down into her basic molecules and never to be seen again.
"One down," he shouted to Magneto, but Magneto didn't reply, just kept on walking towards him. No doubt, he cared very little for his minions so long as they served him.
Kevin had only an instant's warning but he raised his hand to stop an icy blast from freezing him. He looked towards his left to see Iceman standing in the distance trying to freeze him. Mystique. She knew no boundaries, and her cruelty was her amusement. He pulled her towards him, and she fell to the ground and clawed at it to stop herself, yet still she slid. It pained Kevin to see her masquerading as a weeping Bobby, but it also made him half-mad with hatred and a lust to kill her.
"Erik," she screamed with Bobby's voice. "Help me!" But Magneto ignored her.
Kevin pulled her up the hill until he gripped her throat, gripped Bobby's throat. She struggled in his grip as he held her a foot above the ground, his teeth bared with malice.
"I only did what I was ordered to do," she gasped with choked breath.
Kevin ignored her desperate pleas. "I am too powerful for your pathetic displays, bitch," he said cruelly, and the skin on her body cracked off like plaster. She cried out as the illusion was pulled away and she was left in her normal state, with dark blue skin and venomous yellow eyes.
"You may kill me," she hissed, "but you'll never leave this harbour alive!"
Kevin looked at her impassively, and tossed her aside. She rolled down the hill and staggered to her feet. As she was about to run into the distance, flames burst from her and she screamed in agony. For the first time Magneto appeared to hesitate as he watched his number one servant combust and fall to ash. Kevin didn't even spare her a glance. What Magneto had done to John had finished him, had ruined his soul. His compassion was zero.
"And now... for you," Kevin said. And a wave of energy propagated from Kevin which disintegrated everything in its path. Magneto staggered under the weight of the force but he continued his stride. "Adamantium," Kevin whispered, and he could hear Magneto laugh from inside the suit. He could destroy Adamantium, but it would take so much energy he would risk destroying the harbour and maybe the city of Cairo too.
Magneto began his assault. The scrap in the mounds started to fly towards him with devastating speed, each piece lethal if it made contact with him, and made twice as lethal by the fire he'd used to superheat it. Magneto had been wise to choose a whole area full of metal to do his dirty work. Kevin didn't move, but he picked off each piece and broke them down to nothing. There were hundreds of deadly projectiles, thousands, but he managed to find each one with his mind. He tore the earth open under Magneto hoping to swallow him whole into the bowels of the earth, but Magneto dived away and flew a foot above the ground levitated by all the metal around him. The assaults didn't stop, the metal became larger and larger, whole side parts of the dockside ships started flying towards him, the huge cargo crane flew in his direction, thousands of tons of metal all threatening to crush him to oblivion. Kevin tore them to pieces with his mind, and smashed the crane back at Magneto as hard as he could. Magneto fell to one knee as he stopped the crane a foot from killing him, and then threw it off into the distance. Kevin had to end this. He wanted to see Magneto die. He pulled a piece of metal towards himself, no larger than a square foot and broke it down into its constituent atoms. They circled into a vortex, and he propagated the nuclear reaction inside. He looked into the sun-bright core with malice, and knew that he and he alone controlled the awesome power he's unleashed. He raised his eyes and glared at Magneto, and released a portion of the energy. The force was unbelievable and vaporized the nearby metals and concrete. Magneto cried out as the white-hot heat and shock wave hit him and sent him flying fifty feet. Kevin made sure to protect John, and not to harm his body, yet he wasn't finished there. He sent more powerful waves after Magneto, which increased in power until the dockside water was boiling and the trawlers anchored to the pier started to sink as the rivets burst out from their plating. The final blow left Magneto on his back and gasping. Adamantium could not be destroyed, not easily at least, but it was a metal and if heated it would hold the heat as well as steel would. He floated over to Magneto who was groaning in pain, no doubt burned alive inside his suit.
"You fool. You actually thought you could defeat me," Kevin said. "And killing my friend has reduced my mercy to nothing. You will die in pain. You'll beg for death Magneto."
The man didn't reply, he merely flailed in pain. Kevin froze the area around him to near absolute zero until the air become a mist which froze and precipitated. The suit gave off a gush of steam and then screamed as it contracted and crushed Magneto. The man cried out at the pain and the stifling cold air which he was breathing in, the lethal subzero mixture.
"I sentence you to death for a life time of murder, Magneto," Kevin said, and the area burst into flame again. The fire was so hot that the remaining scrap metal flowed as it liquefied. The concrete he was standing on smoked and crackled. Magneto cried out hysterically.
"Please..." Magneto said, but Kevin went on, and suddenly the fires disappeared in an instant, as well as all the air as he made the area into a vacuum. Magneto thrashed about, suffocating.
"For a lifetime of causing other's pain just because you couldn't master your own," Kevin continued. His voice was so hard, so terrible. He was glad that Bobby wasn't here to see him like this. The air returned and Magneto gasped, but only for a moment before Kevin froze the area again, causing Magneto's agonizing cries to fill the silent docks.
"And finally," Kevin said, and the ground started to shake. "I sentence you to death because you took away something which I might never get back again. A real friend."
He felt like crying, but his anger walled him up, and his eyes bled hatred from Magneto, who was sobbing in pain. Kevin raised his left hand and a square appeared in the air, no larger than a pea. It shuddered once but then started pulling everything into it. A singularity, the most powerful force known, and he could control it. The harbour crane flew towards him and was crushed and pulled into the small aperture. Magneto tried to grasp the ground, but he was broken. Kevin could see him trying to lift objects with his powers, but the smallest metallic pieces only flickered as he held his hands out to them. Magneto suddenly flew towards the aperture and sat stuck on it. He grunted in pain as he slammed into it, inches from Kevin's face. Kevin pulled the helmet off his head, and looked at Magneto's charred and ruined face, with small icicles on his eyebrows and cheeks.
"I beg you..." Magneto said.
"You are finished," Kevin interrupted, and Magneto cried out as he and the adamantium were deformed and splintered and pulled through the small hole, crushed and obliterated in what lay beyond. The hole disappeared, and Kevin sighed.
He stood there motionless for a moment, and then looked around at the devastation.
"Everywhere I go, I ruin everything. Xavier was right about me," he said sadly.
He walked over to John and the chains which held him up fell to pieces. The spear disappeared. John slid down the pole and sat. Kevin gasped when he realised that John was still breathing. He opened his eyes.
"I can fix this," Kevin said desperately falling to his knees beside John.
John put his hand on Kevin's. "No you can't, my friend," he said with a small smile as he closed his eyes.
"I can! My powers allow me to do anything! Anything!"
John made the smallest shake of his head. "Not this, Kevin," he said. "You know why I'm so happy, Kevin?" John said.
Kevin's eyes fell. "No," he said, with his voice on the edge of breaking. "Because I get to say I had a real friend in my life," he said. He smiled one last time, and his eyes closed. His head slipped back and he appeared to fall asleep against the pole.
"No," Kevin muttered. "John," he muttered a little harder. "John, wake up please! It's going to be alright!"
He leaned forward and rested his head against John's and hugged him tightly and started to sob. He hugged John so hard, he would have hurt him, if he'd been... alive. He wept softly, and cradled John in his arms, and the minutes felt like hours as he held John's lifeless body which would never again laugh, or make him laugh. After a while he felt his tears dry, and he sat in the same place holding John and watching the sun rise. His whole world seemed cold, and there was nothing which the sun could do to warm it up.
He felt a hand on his shoulder, and turned to see Bobby standing there with sweat running down his face panting. He looked concerned more than angry, even though he'd been forced to run back all the way from where Kevin had sent him.
"Are you okay, Kev?" Iceman said with open concern on his face.
"I'm fine," he replied.
"You sure?"
"I said I'm fine!" Kevin shouted, then turned his head away from Bobby to hide his emotions. He heard Bobby sigh behind him, but he didn't care. He felt empty, hollow, pointless.
Wolverine and Storm flew as quickly as they could to the location which Kevin had given them. He didn't doubt the validity of Kevin's claim, he'd seen the truth in his eyes. It had been a real relief to finally absolve himself of his crimes. At last Kevin knew that it wasn't he who had stabbed him in the hand with his claws.
"We should be there any moment now," Storm said quietly. She seemed to be seething silently.
"You got a problem?" he said to her directly. Diplomacy had never been his strong suit.
"No, apart from the fact that you endanger everyone and never listen to the Professor. It's always about Logan. Logan, Logan, Logan!" She really was angry. He turned his head and smiled slightly. It was nice to see the woman show a little fire every now and again.
"Storm, we're not machines. We do what we know to be right," he said calmly.
"The Professor knows what is right better than we do, Logan," she said with a little more moderation in her tone.
"The Professor is also human. He has flaws like all of us. Sometimes you've got to go with what you believe when you encounter it."
"And what did you encounter?" she said sarcastically, but he didn't react.
"I saw a scared kid who didn't want to harm anyone, who only wanted to be left alone with someone he loves. But Xavier, Magneto, they all want a piece of him. It'll end badly."
The clouds parted as they descended to their destination.
"Holy shit," Wolverine said as his mouth dropped open. He looked over to Storm whose eyes were wide open and mortified. The entire harbour was in ruins, at least one square mile of the place totally levelled. It looked at if a nuclear bomb had gone off somewhere. The water around the harbour steamed and seemed to still be boiling hot. Dead fish littered the surface of the water, and the acrid smell filtered even this high into the clouds. He could see at least two dozen large ships busy sinking, and who knew how many had already sunk? Some of them seethed as if they had been superheated, others appeared melted in places, others as if they'd been torn to pieces.
"The result of our weakness, Logan," Storm said, and she looked at if she wanted to cry.
"Kevin would never do this unprovoked. I know he wouldn't," he said, but he sounded as if he was trying to convince himself.
"Does it matter? Do you really think all the people who work here got out safely?" She turned away from him, and he thought she might be crying, but he couldn't deny the logic of her statement. Logan scanned the area, but it was misty and heated. He saw two figures moving about slowly in the distance.
"Land there," he said sharply, and she obeyed him.
The jet had barely landed before Logan ran down the ramp of the Blackbird. The place smelled charred, and it was so hot, he immediately felt himself start to sweat. He saw Kevin and Bobby in the distance slowly walking towards him. Bobby looked at Logan and seemed anguished, but Kevin looked at the ground and didn't appear to notice him, although the chances of that were slim to none. He focussed on Kevin who didn't appear to be injured, but he had the same deranged look on his face which Jean used to get when she used her powers, and he felt wary. Something dragged behind them about three feet off the ground, and he gasped when he realised it was a body. Looking closer, he saw that it was Pyro - his eyes were closed but his skin was as pale as death. Had Kevin done this to him? He wouldn't, would he? Surely not!
"Kevin..." Wolverine started as they approached.
"I'm fine," Kevin said. "Let's go." Bobby glanced at him for less than a moment before shaking his head slightly.
He decided not to ask any questions. Everyone here seemed to be on edge. They took off as quickly as they could, and in the distance he could see the approaching army, who'd come in full force to attack whoever had destroyed their harbour. A huge explosion shook the aircraft, but it was merely the shockwave of yet another ship which had finally combusted in the harbour. The Professor would not like this at all.
"Are you two okay?" he asked again as they ascended sharply into the atmosphere.
"Yeah," Bobby said, but Kevin merely stared out of the window.
"Kevin?" he repeated, but once again there was no reaction, except for a darkening of his eyes. This whole situation was explosive and he didn't know why. He had a thousand questions, but he was genuinely afraid to ask them. Fuck it.
"What in the bloody hell just went on down there?" he asked. Let them do their worst. Bobby looked down. Another long silence paused.
"John was killed," Kevin said suddenly, and the bypassing clouds could be seen reflecting in his icy eyes. "But I killed Magneto and his criminal thugs." He slammed his fist down on the armrest, and a pitiless smile spread across his face. His face darkened until his eyes were almost black. He looked at Logan, and that smile of his made him want to take a step back. He felt afraid, something he was not accustomed to. "I made Magneto feel pain like no other man ever felt. I loved watching him die. I tried to prolong it, but my lust to kill him got the better of me." The smile left his face. He looked to be angry with himself! Kevin's looked at John's body which was resting at his feet, and he brushed away a lock of hair hanging down over John's face. Kevin looked at John sadly and moments later his face normalised and he looked out the window silently again, once again appearing to stare into nothing. Bobby stared at Kevin worriedly, and Logan looked to Storm who had open fear on her face, which she masked by paying careful attention to flying the plane. He suddenly felt like apologising to her and telling her he'd been completely wrong, but he decided against it. He'd never feared a mutant before, but Kevin was starting to make him feel anxious. Magneto dead? That was probably a good thing for the world, but not even he deserved what Logan could only guess Kevin had done to him. He shivered involuntarily, and was suddenly glad he wasn't Mystique or Callisto.
"What's going on?" Storm said worriedly.
"What?
"The plane's flying its self," she said. He looked and saw certain levers and knobs turning and flicking. Their course was changing.
"I need to bury my friend," Kevin said suddenly.
Wolverine shared a glance with Storm, but they decided to say nothing, and sit for the ride.
Bobby continued to look at Kevin who carefully avoided his glare. He merely stared out the window, and his breathing was heavy as if he was exhausted or so furious he wanted to burn the world. They flew for two hours, and despite Kevin's indifference, the whole plane was flown perfectly and landed serenely in Ireland. As soon as they'd stopped, Kevin stood and walked down the ramp, with Pyro's body floating ominously behind him. Bobby rushed out and walked beside him silently. Wolverine and Storm walked down the ramp but their unspoken words told them not to go further. They were in the middle of a green plain. It was exquisite. The hills seemed soft and the moisture in the air was refreshing and pure. The rolling mountains chased off into the distance, each covered in bright green velvety grass.
Kevin said nothing, and merely walked for a short distance before stopping. A big pile of sand dug its self out of the green hillside and John floated delicately into the crevice. The sand covered him almost instantly, and even the grass grew again. Kevin's eyes were blue sapphires. There was no emotion in them, or none that he could detect anyway. He wanted to hold his hand but he was scared to. A border formed around the grave, and turned into polished black marble, or a similar stone. A flame formed in the middle of the grave and it burned so brightly, he felt like he wanted to shield his eyes. It was a pure white light but there was no heat.
"This flame will burn forever," Kevin said without warning. His voice sounded hollow. "Even if this continent sinks, if this whole fucking planet is destroyed, this flame will shine in the darkness. Nothing will ever extinguish this part of John. I made sure of it."
A tear escaped from Bobby's eyes as he started thinking about his fallen friend, rather than his tormented boyfriend. John had been a good guy who had only known hardship and now he was forever gone. He lunged for Kevin and pulled him into a tight hug and started to whimper into his shoulder. He could feel Kevin resist at first, but he finally stopped. He never warmed up though. His muscles were tight and cold, and his embrace was callus and forced. He could hear his breathing - it was strained as if he was holding back a whole mountain with his bare hands.
"You can cry, Kevin," Bobby said, and he wished deep down in his heart that he would. This wasn't Kevin. The guy he knew was soft inside, a person who would feel pain at the injury of another, and who would be completely broken by the death of his friend. Maybe he was broken. Maybe he was so completely scarred that he didn't even know where he was emotionally. There was no reply, but he could sense Kevin deliberately trying to hold himself back even though he didn't want to.
"We're done here," Kevin said and walked towards the blackbird.
Bobby had no choice but to follow. He saw Wolverine walk up to Kevin.
"Kevin, we invite you guys to stay at the school again. We care. Nothing bad will happen. You have my word," Wolverine said.
Bobby thought it was a stupid thing to ask for, but to his surprise, Kevin nodded twice and walked into the plane. "I forbid the mention of the name Magneto," was all Kevin said, before he sat in his chair, once again sinking into his own world. Bobby needed to fix this, but hours later when they landed at the school, he didn't know where to begin.
End of chapter 9
Thanks for all the comments I receive, guys. Sorry for the morbid chapter, but yeah, there is a plot here. You can send any thoughts to me at rahvin747@yahoo.com