This story is in two parts.

The two opposing forces stood far apart, banners from both sides fluttered in the wind. It was the sundown of a dream; a dream of England united and the rule of law. The Roman Peace, the Pax Romana, had departed and the land had been ravaged by hordes from across the sea- the savage Angles and Saxons. The Britons had been united under the Banner of the Dragon for 3 generations. First, under bloodthirsty Uther and then under indecisive Arthur. Now charismatic and brave Mordred dared challenge his father's rule. After all, the kingdom had been brought to the edge of ruin by his mad quest for vengeance against Lancelot. Arthur's last great lieutenant, Gawaine, had died in single combat with the man who had once been Arthur's greatest friend- Lancelot. Arthur's army was larger but it knew the sting of defeat and felt the ebbing of time running against them.

It seemed at the moment that peace might prevail instead, as the two armies faced each other at last. Arthur strode forth, carrying his sixty-odd years well, but he was yesterday's news. Mordred would be king in all but name after this. It seemed that Arthur's oldest son, the bastard child of incest, would be king after all.

And then an adder struck; biting a soldier in the ankle. He screamed in pain as he felt the venom coursing through his veins. Maddened by his own impending death and seeking vengeance on the cold reptile, the soldier drew his blade. It does not matter which army he belonged to, merely that both sides saw steel flash, and peace dissolved into the screaming clash of swords.

One last time Excalibur flashed in the morning sun and a king fell... and a dream died.

Paris Bennet tore into the masonic temple. His eyes blazing with fire and righteous fury in his veins. He stared at the dark form of his enemy and the three who served him. "I beat you once," he howled - a cry born of desperation more than anything else. The few followers who still held to his name and his cause formed a tight knot behind him.

"That was six hundred years ago, Bennet," the dark figure reminded him. "I am greater now and I will be greater still." His acolytes turned. Bennet could see them aat last. God, how he had been blind. But then crying to God was an option no longer open to him - it had not been for hundreds of years. He glared; Nathaniel Essex, Cynthia Bennet, and Jonathan Hawkwood; how had he failed to suspect them of this treachery. He stared his last living descendant in the eyes. He was crushed at her betrayal. She had become his last living descendantthis morning when she had betrayed all for this demon of the pit. As he had done so long ago. Why did he fail to suspect that the child of his body might be capable of the same treachery he had indulged in himself. As his followers fell in a orgy of blood and fury, he drew the blade the lady had given him so long ago.

One last time Excalibur flashed in the depths and the darkness as a demon fell and a dream died.

They stood before the Air Marshall as he explained the situation and demonstrated how few options Air Command had to deal with the impending threat from the Acolytes of Magneto. So few, in such a desperate hour, against a foe who would not be stopped easily. Brian Braddock could not help but remember a similar story during England's darkest days. That come to be known as their finest hour. Perhaps, just perhaps, it was time to show that England was not weaker since but that there were still heroes willing to pay any price to keep her safe. The small band of men and women who would be heroes were Captain Britain, Meggan, Shadowcat, Nightcrawler and Alchemy. Across from them were Century and Spider- woman, two lone members of the once proud Avengers. The military types talked and they half listened as a juggernaut approached Britain. It had struck without warning and two towns had died in atomic fire. Not a quick death - they had used Neutron bombs. Meggan was especially affected by the scenes of horror on the monitor. Mere hundreds had been killed, but thousands wanted to die - just to stop the pain. That more had not followed already was a sign that this was an act of terror as much as an execution.

"I don't think we can learn anything more by talking about this. It is obvious that Magneto has gone completely insane and talking about it won't stop a shipload of his followers from destroying Great Britain," the Captain declared. "Century, can you teleport us aboard?"

"As you wish Captain." They filed towards him, grim and humourless as doom approached their fair land. One in particular wondered if an acolyte by the name of Peter Rasputin was on this ship and what she would say to him.

One last time Excalibur flashed into the void as a man who would be a god fell and a dream stood on the edge of extinction.

Prosh extended his sensors forth. The planet was scarred by two series of nuclear detonations. The one in the south polar region was by far the larger and more damaging. Nearly 100 megatons, it had literally pulverised a mountain when it went off. Closer examination showed the trace residue of anti-matter - not a true nuclear warhead at all. The other two were both on a large island in the northern hemisphere. They were in the half kiloton range, having hit small population centres. The dead were negligible now (mere hundreds), but the death toll would be in the tens of thousands eventually. The Earth simply didn't have the technology to treat this type of damage. If the ship that had launched them kept coming it was likely to lead to more such point- less deaths, and that Prosh would not abide.

Prosh was once the Ship of X-Factor. In an alternate future it had gone on to become the sentient Professor of Greymalkin. Now it hovered over the world it had been sent to watch so long ago. Then it began to slowly descend. As Prosh it would slowly but surely kill the man named Cable. It was time to take a new form and begin once again.

The wars that ravaged Britain were slowly coming to a close. Uther Pendragon had died and the land was without a king. Raiders ravaged the shores and German invaders took British land for their own. The Britons were disorganised and easy prey for the ferocious raiders. But a King had come and soon he would unify all of the isles beneath the dragon banner.

Arthur Pendragon had come at last.

Paris Bennet watched the dead being carried from the makeshift hospitals. Plague ravaged the land and men cried that the apocalypse had come. How right they were.

He strode through the grimy streets of London. They were filled with the stench of death and the wailing of mourners. He had at last learned that this was no accident of nature, the coming of this plague had been engineered to reshape the face of the civilised world by a man whose soul was black as the pit.

He had been given the option to serve this force of nature but had declined. He had been born a sorcerer, with powers that lesser men only dreamt of, and his blood was noble. He would stand against this creature, this being of metal and fire, even if it took his soul. Little did he realise the price of victory would truly be this high.

Exodus had arrived.

Exodus watched the monitors with a smile of gloating satisfaction. Distract the English and make them think the battle was about destroying their cities when the true target lay to the north. As if they could do anything about this anyway. The ship was far beyond the means of the Royal Air Force to defeat and he was able to shield it with his own awesome powers. The fools were doomed. He was almost able to forget the reason he chose those two towns to be incinerated - the dark tragedy that had occurred so long ago.

He ran through the minds of his crew, the acolytes of Magneto. For a second he remembered acolytes of a different sort from long ago but he brushed the thought away. There was no relation. Unuscione was the only acolyte on the bridge. She was tightly focused on piloting the ship. Above he could sense Colossus guarding the weapons centre. The boy had claimed to be a man of peace, what a farce. He had killed as easily as any of them. Frenzy and Kleinstock stood outside the bridge doors, peering in at odd moments as the ship headed towards it's target. Skids was above on the observation deck. This was going to be too easy.

Then, with a flash there were seven figures on the bridge. Excalibur had finally arrived.

The first thing I did was to phase up through the ceiling while Exodus stood there speechless. I hated to leave my friends behind but all of the acolytes were there (except for Peter and Skids who really weren't anything of the kind, don'tcha know). I needed to disable the weapons systems of the ship as quickly as possible. Sometimes it comes in handy being a ninja-computer genius-mutant phaser. This was one of those times.

Exodus was just sitting there with a silly look on his face so I figured I'd better help him out. I mean what else are fuzzy elf teleporters for? Of course he might debate my notion of help, but you sure can't please everybody, can you? I must admit, if the look on his face when we appeared was priceless, you should have seen the look he gave me after I knocked him out of that fancy chair. Of course that's when things really heated up.

I felt it throbbing through me. Pure elemental evil and not just one type. One was the feeling of something hanging over everything - gloating at our pain. The second came from the dark haired man in the fancy clothes, a deep and ancient evil. I wanted so badly to run and hide and go far away. I grabbed Brian to protect him and he shoved me away. I fell sobbing to the floor. If you had felt what I felt you would have done the same.

I wasn't really sure why they had brought me along. I stepped towards the person at the controls, they could hardly work if they were distracted. She turned and I saw a beautiful face framed by soft brown hair. But there was a terrible coldness in the eyes that spoke of deep hatred and bigotry. I should have done something at once but I was reminded of others and paused momentarily.

But then an invisible cocoon wrapped itself around me and began to squeeze harder and harder. I heard something about it being a shame to kill someone this young. I felt fear. It couldn't end like this could it?

We ported onto the Bridge exactly as I had planned. That's when everything began to fall apart. Kitty, or should I be saying Kate now, did fine. She did as she was told. The rest just fell apart on me. Meggan collapsed on me sobbing and shifting shapes in an uncontrolled fashion, blocking my ability to get at Exodus. The rest can pretty much be blamed on this.

I shoved her aside. I would deal with this later when we had more time and flung myself against Exodus. I was almost in time to save Nightcrawler.

I saw the tall woman charge into the room. She would be no match for my blade, I figured. Until her first blow broke it into two pieces. I dodged her next punch and tripped her. Tough as she might be, she had little skill to match to her strength. The two men simply shot me.

Everything erupted into confusion. The sweet young man, Alchemy they called him (and boy would I like to take a look at his lab) was assaulted by the witch in the control chair. Bloody cow, let's see if she does as well against an Avenger as she does against an innocent young man. I formed a Psionic web to protect Century from the jerks firing into the bridge and went after the woman with a vengeance. Unuscione, the daughter of Unus the Untouchable, was about to find out the hard way to never mess with the Avengers and their friends.

I could see the ship clearly with my visual sensors. The scan revealed a number of entities classed as friendly and a number classed as ambiguous. I closed in on the ship. Perhaps I could find a way to swing the balance.

He claimed he had come from France. Not from Brittany like so many others but from the North. He was a lean, grey man with a serious face and a sober demeanour. He stood across the bridge, sword drawn, daring anybody to match him in arms.

Arthur had already watched his best knights being taken apart by this man, his speed was unbelievable and his slim form belied an incredible strength. Arthur drew Excalibur and set forth across the bridge.

The man's name was Lancelot.

He was the best student Paris Bennet had ever had by far. In over 600 years he had never seen a man with this sort of aptitude for the natural sciences. A true genius if there ever was one. His warm laughter and disarming manner set everyone at ease, and if at times there was a disturbing intensity to his eyes everybody dismissed it. He was brilliant and popular and his future was bright.

Bennet had finally given up his ancient crusade. His opponent had fallen and there would be no others after him to continue his mad quest. If the notions of that new fellow Darwin bore a superficial resemblance to the views he had fought so long ago, it was clear on inspection that they were nothing of the kind. Whatever the various debating societies claimed. Bennet had at last begun a family and the awful price he had once paid had faded from his mind. His sword was but an unusual feature over the mantelpiece. How naive he had been. Nothing was ever free and everything had to be paid for.

The man's name was Nathaniel Essex.

I was almost at Exodus when I saw the pattern of Bamfs end as Nightcrawler took a desperately needed rest from pummelling his foe. I grabbed the bloody bastard by the neck and held him up. "Surrender Exodus! End this before more people get hurt."

"Foolish Captain," I heard him say. "You should have struck without mercy for against the glory of Exodus there are no second chances." A wall of fire blasted forth from his eyes and knocked me across the deck. I watched him grab Nightcrawler in some sort of psionic web. If only I had been a bit faster he wouldn't be so tired from multiple teleports. "No!" I cried. And then Frenzy was there attacking me.

Unuscione was tough, there was absolutely no doubt about that. She used her psionic exoskeleton as if it were an extension of herself. Unfortunately for her, it seemed the poor dear could only face one target at a time. Unfortunately for me, she seemed more than capable of crushing the life out of me. I saw the brave young man reach down and turn the controls off somehow. Courageous to stand instead of running for his life.

Then he crossed the border towards foolhardy and went after Unuscione by himself.

The web blocking the door gave me a brief chance to recover from the energy blast. Frenzy seemed to have found some other target elsewhere and that was fine as far as I was concerned. Then I saw Nightcrawler being slowly crushed. He was trying to teleport so desperately and failing so miserably. I teleported over to Exodus and swung my axe with all my might. It bit deeply and crimson blood spewed from the deep wound. But the blood seemed wrong and then I realised something, the blood was burning like acid.

My past was a mystery. I had no memory of where I came from or who I was before I came to earth. But in that moment I was seized with a deep certainty, a hideous foreboding. I had fought this man before and was only alive due to some horrible price. Or some treacherous betrayal!

I hoped everyone was doing well back at the bridge. I hated leaving them like that but it was all part of this nifty plan we put together. You see, a SHIELD Battle carrier routes all of its weapons systems through the CIC (Combat Information centre don'tcha know). All I had to do was phase through the computers and this ship would be nothing more than a flying hulk. Simple and easy. What could possibly go wrong?

I reached the CIC and phased through the door. Fantastic. Then I saw Peter standing at the controls - his eyes boring into mine. My head began to itch as a telepathic probe penetrated my defences, something had gone hideously wrong.

-- cont in part 2 --