It was his greatest victory. The warring Kings had fallen before his armies and order had been restored. It was the dawn of the glory that was Camelot. He surveyed the fields of Camlann and smiled, here, at the site of his greatest battle Arthur would build Camelot. This was before all that came ahead.

Life was good.

Exodus stood over the battered remains of his first and oldest foe. His heart was still choked with horror at the awful price power had cost him. Apocalypse had fallen and the Knights Templar were victorious. Before him he could see only an endless succession of crusades, an endless series of battles until all who stood against the right path fell before him.

Life was good.

I landed softly on top of the ship. Tendrils shot forth from my much smaller form as I sought to connect to the onboard computers. I had spent most of my life fighting against this sort of madness and I was not going to cease doing so now. I had watched too many people I had admired fight and fall to this sort of evil. In an offhand way I wondered if Cable would remember me and if we would still be friends. Probably not, it is the way of the carbonites to move on after a loss quickly. Only a machine remembers forever.

"Peter?" I said. I heard the most awful voice issue forth from his mouth.

"Dear little scaredy-cat. Do you know the boy truly cares for you, I can sense his pain and his longing for you. How much better for me when I make him kill you." I hear laughter.

This little problem won't be difficult to solve. I'll just phase past him and disable the computers. Then I'll see about restraining him somehow until I can get the professor to look at him. Imagine my surprise when I don't phase.

"Poor little Kitty can't phase? I wonder if my telepathic interference has anything to do with that? Run little kitten but you can't hide. The boy won't get tired and I won't let him stop." I hear more of the same hideous laughter.

I think I'm in trouble.

I see Century and Nightcrawler fall in a hail of psionic energy as the bugger clutches his side. I see him dripping blood. I hammer at Frenzy with a fury I had forgotten I had. She staggers back under the force of my blows and falls. I don't even bother to check and see how badly she is hurt. I fly at Exodus with all the force at my command. I have got to end this now or more people will be hurt or killed. Some of them are my friends, my team-mates.

I see the boy grab Unuscione and begin to transform the arm of her uniform into some sort of metal. She struggles but is unable to break free. Her exoskeleton drops me and grabs him, but I am on her too quickly. I grab her throat. "Let him go, you bitch!" I cry. She stares at me, hatred and resentment glower in her eyes but she does as I say. A quick blow to the back of her head ensures she will be causing no more trouble.

I turn, the Klienstock brothers have to be subdued and quickly. From the corner of my eyes I can see Captain Britain pummelling Exodus. Good, he deserves it. Then the whole room goes black.

The room is shattered by my energy blast. I see them all go down before the fury I have unleashed upon them. Poor deluded fools can't they see that it is hopeless to stand against me, I wonder what Magneto ever saw in these cattle. I followed him with zeal and enthusiasm because he rescued me from my long entombment and because I thought his cause was similar to mine. To rule the weak minded, to establish a dynasty to guide the destiny of mankind. But he was weak and a darker power taught me that all such dreams are dust. I should have learned such from Essex so long ago.

Then beyond all chance, Captain Britain staggers to his feet. He won't be enough to stop me. I once almost destroyed Genosha with an energy globe, I will do the same to Muir Island. Then shall the skies above my homeland blaze with my fire.

It was a cold afternoon when Arthur realised that he was not the brother of Kay after all but the son of a king. He had drawn forth the sword from the stone by pure accident, but it had proclaimed him King of England.

But it was Merlin who taught him of what must be done and set his feet on the long, bloody trail of glory to give birth to a dream.

The Lady of the Lake had given him Excalibur, to bear in her name against the horror that was sweeping over all of Europe. He pledged his life to her and his troth, swearing he would be true to his goals forever.

But the dark sorcerer, fellow student of the Ancient

One's master, had come to him and whispered of a greater power. One that would give him the strength to combat this dreadful evil, for the greater good of all humanity.

So he coaxed the Lady, the one he loved most in all the world, and fed her to a demon in return for power. He waited outside the door as she screamed her dying cries and listened to the awful sounds of eating that followed. Then he entered and claimed his reward. A dark heritage bereft of glory.

I could see the awful look on Peter's face and hear the pleading in his voice as he begged me to stop him - to kill him. The sick sadist that was the Shadow King didn't even spare me that. I was ragged and hurt, only my training at the hands of Wolverine had given me the ability to survive this so long. I was leading him in a deliberate pattern. The Shadow King was so obsessed with what was going on that he never realised where we were until it was too late.

I dodged a blow that would pulverise steel and hit the controls that opened the hatch on the observation deck. Then I turned and kicked with all my might.

If he hadn't been distracted it wouldn't have worked but I caught him off balance. He slipped and began to fall. That much momentum and he wouldn't be able to stop. He would survive the fall and we could get him later when this mess was handled.

I watched in shock and horror as he transformed back into human flash and heard the cold, mocking laughter of the Shadow King. I leapt for Peter and nearly grabbed his hand but a force field intercepted me at the last moment.

All I could do was stare into his shocked face as he fell into the open air far below. My shock and horror nearly finished me as Skids came at me with a knife of some sort. She was the one who had prevented me from saving Peter. With uncharacteristic brutality, I disarmed her by breaking her arm. The sleazy tramp was still using her force field to block me from Peter and so she deserved all the pain I could inflict. The slight, shallow slash she had given me was no cause for concern.

One way or the other this ended now.

I gestured to Wanda to keep silent. We were so near to the prize and I would not tolerate the interference of incompetents with my goal in sight. Exodus blazed with mystic power - power that rightfully belonged to Doom! I could see some foolish hero getting himself battered trying to stop Exodus from leaving. Let him take the beating, but Doom would gain the prize.

I have died once and was beaten nearly to death on another occasion, and I fear death like I fear nothing else. But this is one of those times that the death of one man is meaningless. If this madman gets loose millions might die, and what I am compared to that. So I keep fighting even though I know the inevitable conclusion and I can see my death coming closer with every bolt of power and every blow from his arm. I'm not a hero (and I have succembed to weakness too many times), but I try to do what's right so hard it hurts. God rest my soul but it's the best I can ever seem to do. I feel a hot tear slide down my cheek and I wish to heaven I had a chance to tell Meggan how much I love her - that she is all the light in a life soon to end.

Arthur cursed the cruel fates. Guinevere was the person he loved most and Lancelot was his best friend. But there they were, lying together in the fresh spring grass entwined together. He raised Excalibur above his head and thought to bring it down and murder them both. But he couldn't. Instead he stabbed the blade into the ground between them and left it. He turned his back on his dream and left.

He'd see that blade only once again, at the very end, when all else had fallen apart and he had lost a war against his best friend.

Paris Bennet let himself into his house, which of course doubled as his lab and study. He was looking forward to his chess match with Essex tonight, in all the long years Essex was the only player who could consistently beat him. He listened for his children's shouts, marrying at long last had been part of his acceptance that the long watch was over and that England was the ultimate expression of his dream. The white man's burden was hard.

It was his dream to establish a world in which the best and the brightest stood far above mankind and guided its destiny. People were simply not capable of making their own decisions, or at least not yet. He frowned at the thought of Essex's recent discussions of Social Darwinism. The man never seemed to realise that mankind was a seed to nurtured and grown. Hacking at it to increase evolutionary pressure was just simply wrong. In a moment of honesty he realised that he had diverged greatly from his dream long ago. He stepped into the parlour. Where was everyone?

The he saw them, butchered and torn apart. His papers looted and his works destroyed. They were all there except Cynthia and Essex - he had encouraged their love and now this betrayal. All that remained was an archaic blade and a message written in blood.

Exodus called his dream forth one last time, summoned his followers and went into battle with Excalibur at the end.

Take-over of the target vessel was nearly complete. All he needed was a bank of internal defences to be removed and this would be his new host form. Once again he would be the mighty Celestial Warship that had housed X-Factor so long ago, or nearly yesterday. Cable would have been proud. He wished that he could talk to Cable again. For so long they had fought together for the sake of a dream. One last group of security computers blocked his ability to take full control of the ship. All he needed was the help of one person aboard the ship.

Wanda is easily overawed and manipulated, how could they have let her lead one section of the Avengers! I tell myself she is a weak and helpless cow who doesn't deserve the little assistance I give her. Why then can't I stop thinking about her lush figure, her charming smile and the brilliant mind housed within all of this.

I focus on the central problem. As Wanda downs the fool fighting Exodus with a Hex Bolt I step forth and begin to drain the power from him. It is a mighty source of mystic energy gained at an awful price, it would corrupt the weak of will but I am Doom and I am beyond such things.

I start in surprise when the ship speaks to me. I am angry and ignore it as I head towards my goal but slowly it begins to make sense. What the heck, knocking out the security computers can't hurt.

Arthur lay dying on the bloody soil, his dream in ashes and his kingdom gone. His best friend is watching him with sorrow in eyes. Excalibur is gone, he sent it with Belvidere to return to the Lady of the Lake. "I fear old friend that my time is at an end. Promise... promise you will take care of Gwen?"

"My honour on it," the tall grey man says.

Arthur Pendragon was taken in state to the Isle of Avalon by three Queens, including his long estranged sister. He lies there, perhaps one day to wake when a dream of hope is dreamed.

Exodus lay, battered and bloody at the hands of Apocalypse. He wondered what hideous price Essex had paid for his allegiance to Apocalypse - he would never know now. He had disintegrated Hawkwood and beheaded Cynthia. The cry from Essex was all he needed to know that he had truly loved her. He had impaled Essex with Excalibur and seen the surprise in his eyes that he could still be hurt. The wound was almost certainly mortal. But his followers were dead and his oldest foe had triumphed. He glared at the mocking face and the glowing eyes. Excalibur had been torn from his grasp when he impaled Essex and was lost to him. His mystic powers had been drained in fierce battle with a foe older than time. He had lost his fight.

Now, at the end of it all, he could see how he had let it all go wrong. How he had been tainted by the very magic that he had claimed, so many dark centuries ago. Somewhere, out in the wide world, a dark magician was laughing at how cheaply the soul of one so noble had been bought. He had betrayed everything and let himself grow weak. Weak enough that Apocalypse could triumph. And yet, Apocalypse had never been so strong, not when he had fought him before. He saw the dark figure raise his mighty fist to end it for him. Any man would have died, then and there.

But Exodus was no longer human and he used his powers, those he was born with, to flee to the castle in which it had all began. There he lies, perhaps to wake once again at the biding of a dream of blood and conquest.

The man with the scarred face stand before me in a loincloth. His female companion is clad identically. Savages seeking to deny me my due - I taught a nation how to deal with them once long ago. I strike at him and he absorbs my power. We lock in a struggle of wills, but I paid the price for the power and it knows me. Slowly, the stranger begins to lose.

But the brown haired woman next to him (younger than she should be, I sense the mark of Apocalypse on her, did she too pay Essex's price?), joins in heedless of the risk to herself. What does she see in that scarred monster.

I watch, helpless, too tightly locked in combat as the room transforms itself at the hand of some outside agency and the young mutant with the power to phase returns. Shadowcat- I remember her deception of the Acolytes with the hatred and contempt it deserves.

"Well Ship," she says. "Can you do anything about this?"

"One moment... Internal security engaged."

Energy webs grab me and restrain me. I am too weak to fight against it. We are taken down instantly, and hard. I try to call my power forth but it is still trapped in a battle of wills. I am helpless.

Strange little robots appear to tend to the fallen as I rage against my bonds, it can't end this way. It can't. I was born for glory and it is being taken from me. I scream a howl of rage but the ship has already compensated. I have fallen, it is the story of my life.

"... so wi' the intervention o' the advanced medical equipment o' the ship, casualties were minimised from the enhanced radiation weapons. We hae twa hundred cases that are terminal, but on the whole ah think we can hope an' pray that there'll be no dead as a result o' this attack." Moira lectured. "Now whit was that damn fool stunt ye pulled, don't ye hae onythin' better t' do than get yerselves injured?"

"Give Herr Kaptain a break, Moira," Nightcrawler interjected. "It was a good plan and it did work, although we had a little help."

Spiderwoman just smiles. "This young man here saved my life, I forget to give you your heroes reward," she says in a sultry voice. She gives Alchemy a deep probing kiss and watches him as for one of the first times in his life he is speechless. The room bursts into laughter. Too bad, she thinks that he isn't five years older. Alchemy stares at her dumbfounded - unable to think of anything but the taste of her lips.

"An' aw these prisoners, whit are we goin' t' do wi' them?" Moira mutters, cutting through the mirth.

"It is a mutant detention centre..." Brian begins.

Moira shoots him a withering look. "Dr. Doom isnae quite whit ah had in mind when ah created this centre an' Wanda is technically an Avenger!"

"Offer him a deal," Kurt suggests. "If Herr Doktor helps with the Legacy virus he gets a full pardon when a cure is found..."

Moira looks thoughtful. "As for you young lady, the dragon is bad enough but Ship is almost 2000 feet long. Exactly were ye expectin' t' store it?"

"Ship is my friend, Moira, and he saved all our lives!" Kitty spins and leaves.

'What is up wi' that girl?" Moira demands, exasperated. "On second thoughts, dinna answer that. Okay, Brian, ye led the team so ye get t' explain the ship..." Brian unsuccessfully tries to struggle out of the hospital bed.

Kitty looked out over the still waters of the Atlantic Ocean. Once Peter Rasputin had meant the world to her and seeing him killed that way... well it was simply wrong. "Any sign of him, Ship?" "Still scanning Mistress Kate. However, you should know about a disturbance at the south pole..."

Shadowcat let a flower fly from her hands to settle upon the cold waters of the North Atlantic in memory of a friend. Then she turned to get the others. Or maybe she should just have ship teleport them aboard.

Excalibur was there once again, in spirit if not form, a banner of hope for mankind. And perhaps, just perhaps, somewhere an old king smiled.