Excalibur

PRELUDE TO PERPETUITY

By David Wheatley

“88 to 91 FM, Radio 2 from the BBC.” The alarm flared to life and Pete Wisdom opened a bleary eye, titled his head and looked over at the clock, and noted that it was 8 in the morning. The second thing he realised, after noting what an ungodly time it was to be up and about on a Saturday morning (according to the news reader, but she could have been lying to him), was that his head was pounding in a way it hadn’t done in years.

He knew he could handle his drink better than most and it wasn’t too often he was hung-over, but this morning he was. It could only mean one thing – he’d really gone overboard with the spirits last night. The newsreader kept talking and Pete’s head felt like it would burst so he fired a hot knife at the power cord, severing it as the knife faded away to nothing. In doing that his head hurt even more, and he winced. And then buried his head under his pillow and tried to go back to sleep.

Except he could feel the blood in his head tangoing to the sound of some music he couldn’t hear over the thooming of his internal organs. There was no way he was going to get any sleep now and he wondered what the hell had happened to get him in this kind of state.

Then it dawned on him.

It was Saturday. It was the christening. Yesterday had been the funeral.

Meggan Braddock was dead.

“Kurt,” said Pete as the X-Man appeared at the Arrival Gate at Heathrow’s Terminal Three. The former leader of Excalibur was in a fairly nondescript disguise thanks to the image inducer he carried with him.

“Guten tag, Herr Wisdom,” said Nightcrawler and the two friends shook hands. “It’s not been that long since Logan’s wedding. Such a shame we have to meet under these circumstances.”

“Yeah,” said Pete. “I know what you mean. How are you feeling though? I know you and Meggan used to be close.”

“I am surviving. There have been developments back home since I last saw you. The Legacy Virus has been cured which is good news.”

“Yeah, saw it on the news,” said Pete. “That was one hell of a break for you guys. One less thing to worry about.”

“Replaced by something new,” said Kurt, sadly. “Remember the twins of Scott and Jean?” Pete nodded. “One died.”

“Now that I didn’t hear,” said Pete. “How?”

“A result of the battle with Apocalypse. Professor Xavier used his powers to make us think the child was alive, with his powers enhanced by the Legacy Virus it was easy enough.”

“And when it was cured and his powers went to normal, he couldn’t maintain the hold. Jesus.” Pete sighed. Now that was one hell of a thing to happen, something that was a little unexpected to say the least. “Guess that puts a strain on things back home?”

“You have no idea, mein freund,” said Kurt. “Plus, I don’t really think of it as home anymore. This is home for me.”

“You’re coming back?” asked Pete, thinking it might make it easier on Brian, who could step down and look after Jane. Being a husband and a hero was different to being a father and a hero, especially now he was a single parent, from what he could tell.

“I don’t know,” said Kurt. “I’m thinking about it.”

Then he smiled. “But we shall talk of that later.” Then he looked at his watch. “What’s keeping her?”

“You know Pryde,” said Pete, a touch of apprehension in his voice. “Couldn’t be on time if she tried.”

“I heard that,” she said as she appeared at the far end of the gate, and Pete shook his head.

It figured that would happen. They’d buried the hatchet some time before Excalibur reformed, but the events on Otherworld had put him back a notch. What Sat-Yr-Nine had done to that alternate version of Kitty had brought the feelings back to the fore. He’d pushed them away, denied them since they’d sorted things out, and though they’d resurfaced from time to time, it was just brief moments. But after the adventure on Otherworld, he couldn’t hide them anymore and he’d thrown himself in to other distractions, such as hunting for his family. That excuse had been fine, until he’d been forced to head back to the Manor to stop Sabretooth.

Somehow he’d managed to avoid her at the wedding, but she’d taken it the wrong way. There hadn’t been much Pete could do to sort it out with the way his head was in, but after all that had happened and all that he had seen, he felt he had it under control again, if not to the level he had done before. However he’d wanted to do this, to prove he could and to see if she had forgiven and forgotten and now here they were.

“Hello, Kitty,” said Pete as she came closer to them.

“Peter,” she said and he gave her a peck on the cheek. “How’ve you been?”

“So so,” he said.

“Okay,” she answered and the conversation entered an uncomfortable silence. They’d made their peace with each other yes, but it was still a strained air about them, which Pete tried to avoid if possible. He’d hoped that this would be different but it had been in vain. What they’d lost he doubted they’d be able to get back again.

“Well,” said Nightcrawler, coming to the rescue. “I’ve got my bag, Kitty has her’s, let’s go to the manor and you, Herr Wisdom, can explain exactly what happened since we last met.”

Elisabeth Braddock wandered around the grounds of the Manor, trying to find the missing reality gem, one of the fabled Infinity Gems that had caused such a problem for them such a short time ago. It had been a few weeks now since that had happened, and they had been looking for the Gem ever since the battle with Hyperstorm when it had gone missing. Brian was distraught at losing his only way of speaking with Meggan now that she was gone, her spirit bonding with the Gem. He had so been looking forward to seeing her again, to at least having some mutual contact with her but now it was lost. They had turned the grounds upside down trying to find it but to no avail. The flowerbeds were now newly planted, the grounds turned back to normal and she was looking over the place.

This was her home, though it hadn’t always felt like it, and there were so many memories here, and not all of them happy ones. It seemed at times as if this place were cursed in some way, that by some cruel chance of fate it seized upon the lives of its inhabitants and wreaked havoc. Plus at this time of year, she always felt a little low. She hoped that somehow with the christening of baby Jane that it would be a new start for them all.

The media circus for this afternoon would hopefully be limited, but since the team had announced their identities to the world, lots of details had started to appear, some of which were more reputable than others. In her opinion the reporters were only a few steps away from finding out about the X-Men’s true identities. Still, Excalibur had a very high popularity rating at the moment. There was even talk of Brian running for political office, something that he hadn’t taken any notice of. His loss of Meggan had hit him very hard, and she could see him look him at the wine rack every now and then and she prayed to God that he wouldn’t start drinking again. She had a final look around.

The gem was missing. They’d lost it.

“Bugger,” she said and went back to the house. They had a funeral to prepare for.

Kylun was sitting by the graveside of Sat’een, his lover from Ee’rath. Not too far from here were the graves of Brian and Betsy’s parents and soon a stone would join them for Meggan, as there was no body to be buried.

It was such a shame, thought Kylun, that this mansion was so associated with death. Brian’s parent’s, Courtney Ross, Alysdane Stuart, Dai Thomas, Meggan, Khaos, the list seemed to keep growing and growing. The whole hero thing was slowly becoming not worth the cost to their hearts and souls.

“Penny for them?” asked Martinique, quietly entering the wooded grove.

“I was just thinking,” said Kylun. “I was just thinking that perhaps this is no longer worth it. Since I came back to the Manor there have been two deaths. While I was away there were several more, and they lost Rachel. It’s not through carelessness, it’s not some accident, it’s the whole job itself. We give and we give and we give. When do we get something back in return?”

“We don’t,” said Martinique. “Plain and simple. How many people have to die, to suffer, to be wounded before people wise up and think – hey this selflessness stuff just doesn’t work. Things don’t get any better. For every villain that dies, another takes his place, for every foe we beat another rises up and starts.”

“That’s a cynical view,” said Kylun.

“No, it’s realistic,” replied Martinique. “Statistically, we’re doing better than we should. We go up against things that would by rights kill anyone else and we walk away. How believable is that, in all honesty? How many times have people to go up against the likes of Magneto or Apocalypse or Doctor Doom before the law of averages come up against them and they die? It can’t carry on like this, because we ride our luck way too often. We should forget about the heroic side of things, and concentrate on making the world a better place for mutants. Leave the heroics to the professionals.”

“What about the evil mutants, then, what about those people like your father?”

“There are professionals for that. The Avengers, the Fantastic Four, Alpha Flight, even SHIELD, the list goes on. They are the sanctioned people, they have the backing and support of the public. How big a deal is made of the mutants in the Avengers, or Alpha Flight? How big a deal is made of Franklin Richards? The X-Men are tarred with the same brush, because they work outside the system.”

“The system doesn’t work,” said Kylun. “We know that. Operation Zero Tolerance.”

“Bull,” said Marti. “The system works fine. People saw it was wrong and it was shut down. Yes, it took them a while to get there, but they did get there.”

“We can’t wait forever for people to do the right thing.”

“You’re right we can’t, but there is nobody guiding them to do the right thing. That’s my point. Magnus goes too far, Xavier, not far enough.”

“I…” but before Kylun could answer there was an implosion in the atmosphere some distance away. Instantly his hands reached for his swords, but they weren’t there and he cursed. “You with me?”

“Oh yeah,” said Martinique. “Defending yourself in your own home is different from going out and starting a fight.”

She cast an illusion, making them both invisible to everyone but each other and they made their way towards where the sound had come from. Lying on the floor was the body of a young woman, laying face down in the grass. Kylun saw her first.

“It can’t be,” he said, as he bent over her, turning her face up. “It is. Marti, go get the others. Now.”

“Who is it?” asked Mastermind, and then she saw the body and she took in a deep breath. The colours were different to those she knew, but the hair, the resemblance to her mother, and more importantly the she could see the lines on her face, thin black stripes that had faded with time. Then Kylun confirmed her identity.

“It’s Rachel.”

“I don’t get anything from her,” said Psylocke softly, her voice tinged with resignation, as she psychically checked Rachel Summers mind. “There’s the Phoenix Force within her, no question about that, but it seems to be protecting her. As if she’s wounded, or something.”

“Medical scans check out fine,” said Kurt, as the other members of the team stood around watching, Kitty holding Rachel’s hand, glad that her best friend was back again.

“It makes no sense,” said Brian. “When she traded places with me in the time stream, there was no way back for her without displacing someone else. I don’t understand how or why she’s back.”

“Does it matter?” asked Kitty. “She’s back, and that’s all that counts. Scott and Jean will be stoked.”

“Yeah, but won’t it be weird to have baby Rachel and grown up Rachel in the same place at the same time?” said Pete. The others just turned to look at him. “Well, it is.”

“Pete’s concern’s aside,” said Kurt, “this will have to wait. There is still the funeral to attend to.”

“Yes,” said Brian. “You’re right. Tangerine will come down and keep an eye on Rachel.”

“How is she doing?” asked Kurt, thinking back to the young girl that he had known and how badly she had been injured.

“She’s coping with life in the wheelchair,” said Betsy. “She knows that there’s no real cure for her. People with damaged spines are very hard to heal and the psionic brace the specialist wanted to try didn’t work out because she didn’t have the power to make it work. They keep trying, but she doesn’t like to go out in public in her chair, and we’re respecting her wishes.”

“It’s such a shame,” said Kurt. “Such a damned shame.”

He put his hand on Brian’s shoulder. “You okay?”

“No,” said Brian. “I just need time. Hopefully the healing can start today.”

Kurt nodded and everyone started to make their way out of the medical bay, Kitty electing to stay and keep an eye on Rachel until Tangerine came down. As Pete started to leave, he noticed Psylocke staring at Rachel. She’d been very down since Rachel had been found, and Pete could see that something was wrong.

“You okay?” he asked her.

“Fine,” she said, softly. “Just fine.”

Then she turned and left. Pete sighed and looked over to Kitty who was talking to Rachel.

‘Say something you stupid pillock,’ he thought but he didn’t and left to get ready.

The funeral was a sombre affair, with eulogies and speeches given praising the life of Meggan Braddock from Brian, from Kurt, from Alistaire Stuart, and from Josie Scott, Meggan’s oldest friend. There were also messages read out from Colossus, who was unable to leave his duties in Russia with the Winter Guard and from the rest of the Scott family, who were also unable to attend. There was a substantial media presence outside, but they did not intrude on the actual service, and there were pieces on the news and in the papers for later on.

The ceremony was beautifully done and there were plenty of tears and sniffles. There were several of them that realised that this was the third funeral in a year and the rest of the dead were honoured with Meggan as well. The service ended and the select gathering went back to Braddock Manor for the planting of the headstone and the dedication of the ground to her memory. It seemed the best way of honouring her by giving something so elemental her name. The Meggan Braddock Memorial Gardens would be somewhere restful, and it would be here that Jane would be christened tomorrow afternoon.

Then came the reception. They had decided against a wake because of travel difficulties for Kurt and Kitty, so they were having a celebration of Meggan’s life now instead. It was a pleasant enough affair, under the circumstances and there was much talking and the sharing of memories of the past. The original Excalibur and the new, gathered together, without anyone else to disturb them.

No X-Men, no strange happenings, just a group of friends together again. As the afternoon became evening and the evening became dusk, Pete found he needed a cigarette. He’d been holding off for a while but it was no use and he had to have one before he started killing people and he made his way out to the grounds and lit up. As he tasted the burning tobacco, he went for a short walk to stretch his legs. He wasn’t really in to socialising except down the pub but he was making the effort.

He was going to miss Meggan, he realised and he shook his head thinking of how much he’d changed since Black Air had dumped him on Excalibur’s lap. He wasn’t the same person anymore, and neither were they. His pondering was interrupted as he passed by a window and heard Kitty talking with Alistaire.

“Be honest with him,” said Alistaire. “You have to tell Pete how things are now.”

“Oh, yeah,” she said. “If you’d told me that when we first met, I’d have been devastated.”

“Hey, I was hung up on Rachel, remember? Though I do remember seeing you naked.”

Pete’s cigarette almost fell from his mouth.

“Stop that,” said Kitty, her tone all embarrassed. “You shouldn’t think of things like that.”

“I don’t. Well, not often anyway.”

“Alistaire…!”

“Kidding, Kitty. Kidding. Look, Pete’s a grown up. He worked for WHO before and he knows the score better than anyone.”

“I care for him, Alistaire. When we broke up he took it hard, but the last time we saw each other, it was as if we were strangers.”

‘That’s not true,’ thought Pete, but he couldn’t do anything but listen.

“It hurt, Alistaire. I thought we were friends and he hurt me, and I’m still angry with him, but I don’t want to hurt him, by saying we should just… forget the past. We’re two people who see each other from time to time. That’s it. No more, no less. I can’t be friends with him, not now. There’s too much been said and done.”

“So tell him, be honest. That’s what hurt him most last time, that he didn’t think you were honest with him. You said you loved him.”

“I did, but it just stopped being love. It took me some space to figure it out.”

Pete spat the cigarette to the floor. Suddenly he wasn’t in the mood for one. She didn’t want to know him, fine, but he didn’t have to like it.

It was time to get drunk.

Pete opened one eye, his head still pounding though not as much. Now he knew why he’d gotten that slammed and he still felt like doing it again. Then there was a sigh, coming from next to him. His other eye opened, and he lifted his head, the pillow falling off his head and to the floor as he looked at the woman next to him.

“Oh, shit,” he murmured. “Please don’t be who I think you are. Please be Kitty wearing a purple wig.”

It wasn’t and he looked under the covers to discover that she was naked.

“Oh, shit,” he moaned.

He’d slept with Betsy, and then he smiled because that wasn’t the worst thing in the word that could have happened. That said, Kitty would probably never speak to him again and Brian was more than likely going to beat the crap out of him.

“Oh, shit,” he said for a third time, with quiet dignity and a sense of pride that he’d gotten together with Elisabeth Braddock. So, they’d both been drunk. Or at least he thought so, but that wasn’t the point. It was the fact they were here.

“Elis’beth,” he whispered in her ear, as he brushed away the loose strands of hair from the side of her face. She stirred a touch but did not wake up.

“Elisabeth.”

Still nothing. He looked down at her face, her eyes flickering slightly underneath her closed eyelids.

“Okay,” he said and decided to let her sleep while he grabbed a shower and freshened up. His head still pounded, but he figured a couple of aspirins would take care of that. He needed to be at his best for some of the conversations that he was going to have today.

Out in the gardens, Nightcrawler was having a sword fight with Kylun. He had leant Kurt one of his two mystic swords, and thought they knew they wouldn’t be able to hurt each other, they were giving it their best shots. Kurt was a natural swashbuckler, modelling himself on the likes of Errol Flynn, while Kylun was a warrior, trained by the best to be the best, and they were both very evenly matched.

The sword’s clanged as they connected with each other as the two of them battled up and down the main lawn, enjoying the company of each other for neither of them had much of a chance to practice with an experienced opponent. None of the X-Men used swords and Kylun had to be content with practising against drones. This was something they both needed to do, not just for practice but for relaxation.

“So are you staying with us?” asked Kylun, as he ducked a vicious swipe from Kurt and countered it with his own blade.

“I do not know,” Nightcrawler answered as he pulled back the blade so it didn’t pull him over and bring the match to a premature end. He was hoping to last at least another ten minutes and take it to half an hour. “I would like to, but the X-Men are having troubles of their own.”

“Don’t they always?” replied Kylun and shoved Kurt as he pulled back. Kurt then threw the sword in the air, as he leapt back, righting in time to catch the blade. “Very nice.”

“Thank you,” said Kurt. “And yes, they always do. What about yourself, I hear you are having problems with recent events.”

“Marti,” said Kylun, with a frown.

“The young woman certainly knows her own mind,” smiled Kurt, pressing the attack once more. “We had a very intriguing conversation last night, and I suspect she would make an interesting impression on Herr Professor.”

“No doubt,” said Kylun. “Why tell you though?”

“You do not trust her?”

“As much as I can, but I do not trust her intentions. She was press ganged in to the team.”

“I suspect that saving the world a few times has altered her perceptions. She was actually quite concerned about you.”

“Really?” answered Kylun, hesitating a moment. “An intriguing young woman, as you say.”

“Yes,” said Kurt and took the opportunity to disarm Kylun, the sword flying slicing through his hand and knocking the sword to the floor. The enchantments on the sword prevented Kylun from being injured in all ways other than his pride, and even that was momentary.

“Winner and reigning champion,” he said, acknowledging the victor.

“The distraction was fatal,” apologised Nightcrawler. “It was not the place to mention it.”

“Perhaps,” said Kylun, picking up the blade. “But it is nice to know all the same.”

“You didn’t answer my question though,” said Kurt, returning the second sword.

“Because I do not know,” said Kylun. “I am tired of all this death, Kurt. I am tired of the high cost of victory.”

“Let me tell you about a man I once knew,” said Kurt as they walked back to the house. “His name was John Proudstar…”

“How is she?” asked Brian as he walked in to the medical bay. Kitty was there, with Rachel.

“The same,” said Kitty. “I remember the last time she was like this.”

“Just after the battle with Necrom, I remember.”

“What could have happened,” asked Kitty. “You were in the time stream, why didn’t you see this happening?”

She realised what she had just said. “Oh, Brian, I’m sorry, I wasn’t thinking.”

“I have been,” said Brian. “How could Meggan die and I not know about it? I’ve seen events and happenings that make little sense to me, most of them in visions of dreams and things, but they’ve stopped happening of late. I’ve been pondering this for a while, and last night I think I figured it out.”

“Really?” said Kitty.

“Yes, you see Rachel went in to the future and founded the Askani to combat Apocalypse. However the X-Men defeated Apocalypse now. It’s incredible that Cable still exists in this timeline, but that may be because his powers also include a temporal displacement. Who knows? The point is that the future’s no longer set. The Askani may not exist anymore, because the future has changed. Maybe Rachel is back because there is no place for her to go anymore.”

“Rachel has always had a destiny. She told me about when you faced Galactus.”

“Yes, Rachel almost died and the stars started to go out. It was strange.”

“So what’s wrong with her?”

“I don’t know,” said Brian. “Her body is fine, it’s her mind that isn’t working.”

“Something about that,” said Kitty, thinking about what Brian had said. “I’ll keep an eye on her while you have the christening.”

“You’re not going to be there?”

“Jewish, remember? Jesus Christ doesn’t figure too prominently for me.”

“Oh, yeah,” said Brian. “Sorry.”

“No worries,” said Kitty and she kissed Brian on the cheek. “I should visit more often.”

“Yes,” said Brian, as he turned towards the door. “You should.”

Then he smiled and left, leaving Kitty and Rachel alone.

Martinique was outside, making the preparations for the christening. She was keeping herself to herself, thinking about how things were. This was an important day for her, because she remembered when she had been confirmed in to the Christian faith. She had believed for such a long time, and to a certain extent she still did, but not to the extent that she had been brought up as by her adopted mother. With her father constantly out doing what he thought best, she had been left in the care of an aunt, whom she had loved and had loved her back. When she had been killed in a terrorist explosion, Martinique found her faith wavering and her father did not help to bolster it and when he finally died of the Legacy Virus, a hollow and broken man her faith had been broken completely and she had turned away from religion, from a God she could not believe allowed this kind of thing to happen.

She had done questionable things, believing that there was no such thing as divine retribution, until she met Arcade. He had tricked her, used her to commit such foul acts of atrocity and frame the X-Man Wolverine for them. She had been wrong and the truth when it was revealed wounded her deeply. There was a God and He was just and He had punished her the best way He could find.

When she had finally renounced what she had done, to make up for her crimes she found herself crossing the beliefs of her childhood with the beliefs of her adult life. She believed there was a God, and that the system worked, but you had to make the system work, that you had to get things going and show willing. This made today important to her, because she had seen the higher powers of the universe at work, and there was no doubt that there was another force at work that made things work out, but there was always going to be a cost and that was why she believed that others should do it. There were people out there who felt a compulsion to use their powers, where as there were some who weren’t given a choice.

In all fairness, she was doing this because she was seconded to the team. She was her because her only other alternative was prison. There wasn’t much of a choice in that matter and she had done some good deeds here. In the end hopefully that would balance the books.

“Marti,” called Brian as he came in to the room. “Have you seen Betsy this morning?”

“Not yet,” she said. “But she was having quite a session last night so she might be sleeping it off.”

“Damn,” said Brian, knowing that she had been down of late and he wondered if she were okay. Since Meggan had died there was a certain joie de vivre missing from the house, as if the infectiousness of her bubbly nature had been lost along with her life.

“You could ask Pete,” she suggested. “The two of them were talking deep and drinking long.”

“Oh, brilliant,” said Brian, knowing how much liquor Pete could put away and if Betsy had done the same, then she’d be sleeping all day. “I’d better go and wake the pair of them.”

In Pete’s bedroom, Elisabeth began to wake as a crack of sunlight came through the curtains on to her face, and she gingerly opened an eye.

“Oh, God,” she said as her head began to throb.

She had drank way too much last night and then it started to come back to her, because one of her many abilities as a telepath was a near perfect memory. She remembered talking deeply with Pete about the loss of people and how it was the anniversary of the death of Kwannon, the young woman with whom she had traded bodies. She also was down because of Meggan, and she had nobody to turn to over here. She couldn’t exactly call Warren as he was involved with someone else now, and the loneliness of it all was getting to her. Pete too, was feeling low and he told her of what he had heard Kitty and Alistaire saying. Both of them drank as they talked and the evening got more and more comfortable as they poured their hearts out to each other and gotten closer and closer and…

“Oh, my God,” she exclaimed. They’d made love. “Oh… God.”

She was at a loss for words and then Pete came in.

“Oh God,” he said, seeing her awake, knowing she was filled with the same shock he was feeling. “Elisabeth, I…”

{Don’t talk to me,} she sent telepathically. {Not yet. I need to think this through.}

Then there was a knock at the door and both of their heads shot around to the old oak door.

“Pete?” came Brian’s voice.

“Oh, shit,” he said, then turned to her. “Hide.”

“Don’t let him in,” she said.

“Yeah,” he said, then he answered Brian. “Yeah?”

“Get up you, lazy sot. Drinking until all hours and getting bad habits into my sister.”

Pete was tempted to say that wasn’t the only thing he’d gotten in to her, but refrained from it.

“Sorry about that,” he replied. “She was just feeling a little lonely.”

“Yeah, well she must have the constitution of an ox because she’s not in her room at the moment. I’ll see you downstairs.”

“Okay,” answered Pete and he heard Brian’s footsteps go clumping away. He turned around to see Betsy disappearing in to the shadows and he closed his eyes in regret, because it had been a good night and he hate to think he’d just lost another friend. He sighed and lit up a cigarette.

“Damn.”

Elsewhere, a man watched and waited, thinking of the moves to make next. He had to choose carefully in his selections. Five men and women who would have the power of the universe in their hands, if not the ability to utilise it at that extent. Then he felt something stirred within him. A sensation that filled him with dread.

“Someone is using the gem,” he said, knowing which gem it was seeing as he held the other five. “But for themselves.”

He frowned at this, for the power unchecked would cause untold damage. He had to go England. He had to find Brian Braddock.

Outside, Kitty could hear the sounds of the christening and she looked down at Rachel, and she couldn’t resist stealing a look outside.

“I wish you could see this,” she said and she heard a noise behind her.

“Rachel?” she asked, turning but it wasn’t Rachel and the figure stood behind her.

“What the?” gasped Kitty but it was too late and her world turned upside down and she couldn’t even cry out as the outer layer of her body was literally turned inside out by her attacker. Excalibur would pay for what had been done to her.

“Jane Meggan Braddock,” said the vicar, scooping up water from the font in front of him and pouring it over the baby’s head, “I baptise you in the name of the Father, the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”

Kurt smiled, as did Brian. Martinique smiled inwardly as the baptism drew to a close. There was a fair bit of attention from the media, whom Brian had invited as a courtesy but to also stop an invasion of paparazzi. What the cameras didn’t pick up on was the tension between Pete and Betsy, the later of whom was simply ignoring the former. Pete really wanted a cigarette it wasn’t the done thing to smoke at a christening.

“You okay?” whispered Kylun, noting his friend was a little more sullen than normal.

“Yeah,” said Pete. “Everything’s just grand.”

Then there was something at the back of his mind, and he looked up and around. He couldn’t see anything, but he knew something was wrong.

{Betsy,} he sent out, knowing that she’d have a better chance of picking him up than Marti.

{I asked you to leave me alone,} came back the answer.

{I would but we’ve got trouble. Let the others know that…} he was broken off in mid thought as gravity altered, sending everyone in to different positions, some pulled to the floor, some cast in to the air.

“What in blazes?” said Brian as he tried to move but the forces holding him down were too powerful for him to fight without the amplifier suit.

“The forgotten member of the team,” said a voice and Besty gasped.

“Tangerine?” she said as she saw the young woman walk towards them. “How is this possible?”

“Easy when reality is mine to command,” she said, revealing the small orange Infinity Gem in her hand.

“But why?” asked Kurt. “What has happened, child?”

“Nothing,” she said. “Exactly that. I was a cripple and because of my disability I was tossed aside without any consideration. You cut me out of your lives, you shipped me off to specialists, you didn’t want a crippled young girl with untrained powers working with you.”

“It’s not like that,” said Brian. “We were trying to help.”

“By leaving me alone? Real good plan. Well guess what, by the time I’m done, you’ll want to be left alone because there won’t be anyone who’ll want to be with deformed freaks like yourselves, like Kitty Pryde.”

“What have you done to her?” demanded Pete, hovering in the air.

“Shown her what’s inside of her,” chuckled Tangerine. “And that’s just for starters.”

She pointed at Kylun. “You’re next, beast boy.”

Reality began to restructure Kylun, altering him in to a beast, removing his powers of speech and altering him so he walked on all fours yet kept his human face. Tangerine chuckled as Kylun whimpered and growled in a tongue something less than English, his mutant powers useless.

“Leave him alone!” demanded Martinique, trying her powers of illusion on Tangerine, but while she held the gem of reality, there was nothing Mastermind could do to affect her.

“The next one is a volunteer,” sneered Tangerine. “I hear how much you respect your daddy. Let’s make you in to him.”

Martinique, clutched at her sides as pain wracked her body, as bones began to stretch, muscles began to expand and organs alter, as she became a strange combination of herself and her father, with his face at the back of her head, and becoming hermaphroditic in gender.

“You said there were two sides to him, and now there is.”

“Bitch!” cried Pete and fired of his hot knives but they turned as soon as they came close to her and hit the floor, pushing Pete up in to the sky, and then he realised he couldn’t turn them off and he was moving higher and higher in to the air.

“NO!” cried Psylocke, her anger and embarrassment at the night before melting away to a sudden fear of losing him and she and entered Tangerine’s mind in the hope of getting him back down to earth before he escaped the Earth’s orbit, only to find the gem was reinforcing the girl’s psychic powers, that she had altered reality so that her brain was using its full potential.

“You looked after me,” said Tangerine, with a gentle tenderness in her voice. “Therefore you will live forever as an oak tree.”

Betsy felt her powers suddenly cut out and that she growing and at the same time becoming stiffer and she found it difficult to move. Her hair began to grow, and turn green and become bushier and bushier and very soon she felt nothing else.

“BESTY!” cried Brian. “Restore her now!”

“Or what, Captain? You’ll come over here and beat me up?”

“No,” replied Brian as Kurt teleported over to her location, gravity not affecting his powers to teleport. “He will.”

Except Nightcrawler stayed gone, trapped in the dimension he travelled through when he teleported out.

“A worthy try,” said Tangerine. “However this is getting tiresome.”

“Then deal with me!” came a cry and above them floated Adam Warlock, the soul gem resting on his forehead, and the other four gems of time, power, space and mind resting on his eagle headed staff.

“Who are you?” demanded Tangerine.

“Your better,” said Warlock, sternly, holding onto her with the mind gem, and preventing her from seeing inside his mind, while the power gem backed up his very presence, giving him a much more commanding demeanour than he normally possessed. “I hold the remaining Infinity Gems, defy me at your peril!”

“Reality is mine to command! I shall do as I please!”

“Sorry, kiddo,” came a voice from behind her. “I agree with Warlock.”

Tangerine turned and standing there in all her fiery glory was Phoenix. The distraction was all Warlock needed to command the soul gem to pull Tangerine in to soul world, and as she was linked to the reality gem she brought Meggan with her.

Tangerine tried to call upon the reality gem’s power but she found she was unable to do so.

“No!” she cried. “I need the power! I need to be noticed! Give it back!”

“Tangerine,” said Meggan and the young woman turned to see her. “This is not the way. You don’t have to do this, it doesn’t have to be this way.”

“It does, it does, it does!” cried Tangerine. Meggan sighed. The problem was simple enough – Tangerine was a typical teenager, who needed attention and had a desire to rebel against the system that held her back.

“Tangerine,” she said. “What you are doing is wrong, you are hurting the people who care about you most. You won’t be a hero, you’ll be a villain, worse than Black Air or the monsters that wounded you.”

“No…” whispered Tangerine and Meggan could sense Warlock’s hand in this, touching Tangerine’s soul and introducing a state of calm to her being.

“Yes,” said Meggan, taking hold of the young girl and holding her close to her. “Don’t become something evil, don’t hurt my friends and family. Remember that we are friends.”

“I don’t know,” said Tangerine, “I…” then she closed her eyes and then she felt Meggan slipping away from her. “Come back!” she called. “Don’t leave me again…”

Back in the real world, Phoenix grabbed hold of Pete Wisdom and brought him back to Earth while psionically turning off his powers.

“Thanks,” he said.

“You’re welcome,” replied Rachel, as she swept the reality gem from Tangerine’s hands and in to he waiting hand of Brian. “All yours, Brian,” she said and Captain Britain smiled, thinking how nice it was to see her in action again.

“Meggan, help me,” he implored and started to reverse the alterations to reality that had been made. The team were returned to normal and Kurt freed from his prison.

“What is going on?” he asked, then he saw Rachel standing there. “LIEBCHEN!” he cried and teleported over to her, placing his arms around her.

“Hey!” she chuckled as the stench of brimstone filled the air. “Good to see you too, fuzzy-elf!”

“Mein Gott, Rachel, we thought we’d never see you again.”

“I know,” she said. “I know, and I can’t stay for long either. I can’t stay here and remain conscious. It takes the Phoenix Force to keep my body here, but my mind won’t stay here. I don’t belong here anymore, Kurt.”

“It is over,” announced Warlock suddenly. “The threat is past.”

“What happened to her?” asked Kylun; who was very relieved he could speak again.

“The damage to her body poisoned her soul with the evil that spawned it,” said Adam. “There was a darkness within her, that I have expunged. She should be fine from this moment on.”

“Damn her,” said Peter, meaning Sat-Yr-Nine.

“Even beyond the grave she strikes at us again and again.”

“Adam,” said Brian, his voice quiet. “Meggan has a suggestion. Make her the guardian of the gem.”

“What?” asked Martinique. “You can’t be serious.”

“Yes, he can,” said Psylocke. “Brian, are you sure about this?”

“Yes,” he answered. “It will enable her to walk, to run, to live. She was right when she said we haven’t helped her. Now we will.”

“I believe,” said Adam, “that is a wise decision. Meggan will be able to tutor her in the ways of reality and act as a parent for her. I know the cost to you, my friend, and I do not wish to cause you any more pain.”

“Adam,” said Brian, “the power is not for me. To hold the gem would be selfish of me, and that’s not what Meggan would want.”

“Rachel!” cried Kitty as she appeared. “Oh, I’ve missed you.”

“You woke me up, Kitty,” Rachel answered, hugging her friend. “Your… injury acted like an anchor for me and brought me back, but as I told Kurt, I can’t stay. I’d do too much damage if I stayed.”

“Wait!” said Adam. “I cannot repay Brian for his generosity, but I can repay you. The gem of time will allow you to remain in this time period.” The gem lifted from the staff and over to Rachel’s hands. “To bear the gem as a member of the Infinity Watch will balance out the powers, but if you lose it, you will lose the ability to remain in this time line.”

“I understand,” she said, her fist clenching around the gem. “Looks like I’m staying after all, guys.”

“Welcome back, Rachel,” said Brian and the four remaining members of the original team gathered for the first time in several years. The media smiled, thinking what kind of story this one would make, as the new team gathered about the old and the two generations of Excalibur came together. Pete stole a glance at Elisabeth seeing how she’d reacted when he’d been hurled to his death earlier and quietly asked her a question. She smiled simply back at him and he knew they were friends again, and he idly wondered what the future held for the two of them, or for them all.

“So,” he said as he lit up a cigarette. “What happens now?”

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