I will remember you,
Will you remember me?
Don’t let your life
Pass you by
Weep not for
The memories….
Will You Remember Me? by Sarah McLachlin
All ready, Excalibur had met resistance on all sorts of levels. Kitty Pryde was gone, some of them didn’t really completely fight off the Acolytes without any personal harm, but now Excalibur faced the greatest challenge of the night. Exodus.
Pete reacted instinctively. Complete unaware of his girlfriend’s recent disappearance, he was quick to throw as many hot knives as he could at the man standing in front of him.
Exodus laughed them off and they fell to the ground, doing no harm.
Wolfsbane, tired of losing and wanting revenge, jumped on him, only to be thrown yards away with a squeal and a yelp. She was unconscious before she hit the tree, and Douglock ran to her to investigate. Exodus again laughed.
"Let’s see if you find this so funny, asshole!" Illyana shouted. New to this sort of adventure, but no less harmful because of that deficiency, she threw any sort of energy spell she could think of at him immediately. Before he knew it, he was thrown about in a tornado of fire, and being blasted with light and energy all around him.
Illyana, with much strain, managed to keep this up for awhile, but not for long. Exodus only watched her get more weak, until he was ready to retaliate. He knew Illyana was a threat, perhaps a definite one, and did not want any threats left dangling around to kill him later. He threw a psionic bolt in her direction big enough to kill Galactus, but, unused to these sort of actions and unsuspecting of danger, Illyana did not notice it.
Illyana’s return had been a candle that had lit up Peter Rasputin’s life. She had become the light in his dark and tortured soul, even if she wasn’t the little sister he knew. Despite the fact they hardly even knew each other, and that he hardly ever spoke to her, Peter longed for her and loved her.
For a long time, Peter had felt empty inside. Others suspected him of penting up his anger too much, or that maybe one day he would release it all dangerously. Illyana saved him from that, so it was only natural for him to act they way he did.
Peter ran in front Illyana, shoving her aside, and being hit by the blast, nearly immovable in his metal form.
In what seemed like tortuous slow motion, Peter collapsed. Silently, quickly, and surely. He fell to the ground, and Illyana, shouting, turned around and saw him. Her biggest chance for a familiar and friendly anchor in this new world was just knocked off the playing board.
It has been theorized before that time enslaves man, but perhaps that is not the case. Perhaps man slaves time, or at least attempts to. For there have been moments that have passed by so quickly that they will never be measured by computers or minds. And there have been moments that couldn’t possibly have lived up to their namesake, that lasted far beyond any limits we put on time. So, let it be theorized that maybe man is trying to enslave time, and in doing so has taken upon an impossible task, for time will do as it pleases.
The moment Piotr Rasputin died, time stopped.
Illyana cried over his body and shed enough tears to start her own river, possible named after the man who just sacrificed his life for hers.
Meggan noticed the pretty way the leaves were falling off the trees, and then realized that someone’s whole world had suddenly crumbled.
Douglock and Rahne didn’t even notice the event since Rahne was being tended to.
Kitty Pryde, miles away, will always wonder why she knew something was happening at that moment in time, and will always remember how she suddenly burst into tears, alone in a foreign land.
Pete Wisdom had seen people die. He had killed plenty of them himself. He had seen sacrifice, but would never forget this one. The man he had even hated for a while died, quickly and suddenly, without any healing words or suprising revelations. Pete Wisdom would never forget Piotr Rasputin for the rest of his life.
For Piotr Rasputin, it was the last moment of his life, and he used it up to its fullest. He wondered if the people he loved would be taken care of. He wondered what his other friends were doing at this moment in time. He wondered why he didn’t do all the things he wanted to.
And then he remembered.
Piotr Rasputin realized he had finally done the thing he could never do before.
Piotr Rasputin died, but he saved his sister. His eyes slowly shut and a faint grin spread across his face, and with nothing more than a gentle and inaudible murmur, he died.
And the leaves kept falling, and the tears kept coming, and the hate never stopped growing. But somewhere someone’s life had been indeterminably changed, and in the end result, that was all that mattered.
But this was still to be a night of sacrifices.
Exodus barely noticed the mist surrounding him. Meggan saw with a lock of shock and realization upon her face what was happening, and screamed. "No, AMANDA! Don’t you do it, too!"
And with that, Amanda Voght, one of the people who had admitted to never wanting to be an X-Man, to not wanting to have to sacrifice her life, to running from her problems, used her mutant powers more powerfully then she’d ever done before. Straining to break through all of Exodus’ barriers, and concentrating on the destination, she teleported Exodus to the sun, but to do so, brought herself with him.
The mist slowly disappeared, and all that was left in their little world were leaves, sobs, and tears.
To Be Continued
You know the drill. Please send anything you want to PhaserBob@Aol.com