GENETIC ECLIPSE

Part V: The Cold Embrace

By Ryan Krupienski

Author’s Note: This story is continued from X-Men #11.

The Worthington Estate, Chicago, Illinois.

A lone figure sat in her massive bedroom, wrapping her sorrows in a warm blanket. She’s troubled by recent events, primarily the fact that one of the X-Men’s greatest threats has accosted a teammate, and there was little the X-Men could do to affect the outcome.

Her name was Jean Grey. Almost twenty years ago, the emergence of her telepathic abilities allowed her to ‘share’ in the death of her best friend Annie. She felt every emotion, every fear, every regret within those last few seconds. The trauma of the experience is what brought her to the attention of Charles Xavier. Without Xavier’s intervention, she may not have recovered from the event.

It was several years later when Jean joined the X-Men, her telepathy suppressed by Xavier but now in possession of the ability to move objects with a thought – telekinesis. Taking the name Marvel Girl, she was introduced to her teammates that day. Cyclops – the slim boy born to lead, Angel – the winged playboy, Iceman – the playful prankster, and Beast – the babbling intellectual. They were five against a world of endless threats.

Everything was so different back then. The state of the world was so much less trifling. Anti-mutant hysteria was nearly non-existent, lost in a sense of wonder and awe. In fact, after Magneto’s initial defeat at Cape Citadel, the X-Men were regarded as heroes by the general public. In the here and now, the situation is vastly different. Anti-mutant factions run rampant throughout the world, ranging from the Sentinel program to the Friends Of Humanity to the recent exploits of Operation Zero Tolerance. There have been many – too many – people willing to give their all to end the imagined mutant threat.

Throughout her many tenures with the X-Men, Jean has faced some of the most dangerous dangerous villains imaginable; one of those beings is the Darwinist Apocalypse, a man whose eternal mission of culling the weak from the strong only served to define the depths of his evil. Throughout his centuries of existence, he has affected countless lives, including Jean’s would-be son, Nathan Christopher Summers. At a young age, the boy who would become Cable was sent two thousand years into the future to combat a deadly virus, a decision made with great heartache by his father.

Cable survived the evils of Apocalypse, at least physically. Mentally and emotionally, he’s a changed man, quite different from the care-free child he had been so long before. But at this moment, Jean’s thoughts lay with Kitty Pryde, whom she hopes will be just as lucky. Just hours earlier, Apocalypse and his Dark Riders spirited her away following an all-too-short battle.

The X-Men had given their all to prevent Apocalypse from taking Kitty, but it had not been enough. By the time the Dark Riders had joined the battle, Jean had depleted her powers. And despite the words of her teammates, Jean still believed that there was more she could have done.

Now, forced to rest and regain her strength, for her sake and that of her unborn children, Jean could not help but wonder what was coming next. What did Apocalypse plan as his next move? Would he attack the other team of X-Men as he had attacked them? Who were the Twelve, and what purpose did they serve in Apocalypse’s plans?

So many questions, and so little time to answer them.

“Do you suppose that she’s all right in there?” Scott Summers inquired, shattering the silence that had blanketed the room. His thoughts were preoccupied with his wife, and her delicate condition.

Never to be left outside of a conversation, Beast was the first to reply. “All conjecture would point to the positive, fearless leader. However, one must bear in mind that mood swings are not entirely uncommon during a pregnancy. The chemical imbalances that result from the harboring of a gestated fetus, nevermind multiple, are beyond prediction.”

“That’s true, Hank,” Scott replied, pacing back and forth across the tiled floor of the War Room. “But could the pregnancy also explain her recent shift in power level? Or the return to the Phoenix costume?”

“No possibility can be negated, Scott. It is not uncommon for a pregnant woman to surround herself with those trifling trinkets which offer some degree of comfort. As for the increase in her telekinetic and telepathic abilities, I can only hazard a guess that increased hormonal level is producing a proportional increase in her psionic reserves. However, my current concerns lie not in her alterations of emotion and pattern, but of her continuing participation on the battle front. At this stage in her pregnancy, an error in judgement could compromise the survival rate of the unborn children.”

Scott did not reply, knowing that this was a topic he had already considered at length. It was a matter of weighing the circumstances. He couldn’t sideline Jean without hurting her feelings, but he also couldn’t jeopardize the health of his children, and of Jean herself. If he allowed her to rejoin the battle, could it lead to the re-emergence of the Phoenix Force within Jean? It was a harrowing decision, but one that needed to be made before plans were finalized concerning their retaliation against Apocalypse.

His reverie was broken by the sudden eruption from Angel. “Are we going to sit here all day and wait for Apocalypse to pick us off one-by-one? Or are we going to be the team you promised we’d be, Scott? A team that would be proactive in its protection of mutants and humans alike? What’s it gonna be?”

“Warren, please calm yourself,” Beast interjected, pushing his spectacles up the bridge of his nose slightly. “While our methodology is indeed proactive, it must not be foolhardy. Apocalypse is a foe with innumerable resources and allies with great power. We must not underestimate his preparations.”

“Really, Hank? We’ve been sitting on our asses, while Apocalypse is making off with our teammates, chasing them down in ambush and springing his traps with a huge amount of firepower. We aren’t going to be any more prepared than we are right now.”

Elsewhere on the Worthington Estate…

Beneath the cover of moonlight, the shadows began to ripple, distorting the cascade of light which falls from Jean Grey’s window to the ground below. Slowly, a pale figure emerged from the void that followed, led through the darkness by a sly grin. Above him, a strong sense of life called out to him, luring him onward like a shark to blood. He followed the sense, wildly antipating the carnage to come.

But he was not alone, for he was only the deliverer. His arrival was the clarion call for his companion, and the young woman followed him silently, keeping her approach shrouded in secrecy. Her footsteps fell in with his, and as always, Death was close behind Pestilence.

Cecilia Reyes was sitting outside Jean’s door, cradled within the doorframe as she knocked on the door for the third time in five minutes. “C’mon, Jean. Let me in. It’s not good for you to spend all this time by yourself.”

“Any luck?” Dazzler asked, wandering over from her own quarters where she had just laid her newborn daughter to rest for the night.

“Not a peep. Girlfriend’s been in there all day. Says she’s not coming out until Kitty’s safe and sound.”

Alison was just about to speak, to share her assorted viewpoints on Jean’s distress, but she would not be given the chance. Instead, their conversation was interrupted by the sound of shattering glass from beyond Jean’s door, and both women bolted through to find that the nightmare had not yet passed.

Cyclops was thrown off-guard as a female form slammed into his ribs, throwing him to the floor. He had truly not expected another attack this soon, and he was shaken by how he had underestimated Apocalypse’s troops. Opening the quartz slide on his visor slightly, a concussive wave of energy caught the girl in the shoulder and threw her away from him, but she recovered her footing easily.

Hank looked up as Scott engaged his optic blast, and a degree of hollowness filled the pit of his stomach. He recognized their opponent, and to some degree, felt responsible for her current position. He cried out to her, “Threnody, halt this madness!”

“The misery known as Threnody is no more. Now, there is only Death, fashioned in my master’s image,” she replied, cold and resigned. “Feel it now as I drain the years from your lives. Those who are not worthy shalled be removed from this world by the hand of Death!”

Upon hearing her final words, a blast of energy erupted from her hands, nearly clipping Beast as he leaped to the ceiling and clung quickly to a fiberoptics conduit. He felt a twinge of guilt as he reversed his momentum and altered his angle of descent, arching his legs forward until they collided with Threnody’s chest. As impact was made, he flipped backwards, landing in a crouch with his left hand forward for balance. “You’re a strong girl, Threnody, you can shake this off. Don’t do something that you’ll later regret!”

The girl rolled backwards, colliding with a bank of computer screens. Immediately leaping to her feet, she prepared another volley of energy blasts, but she was taken off her feet by a blur and a rush of air.

“C’mon Beast, it isn’t going to happen. You’ve seen it before,” Archangel says, tucking his wingspan in and cursing the confined area. “It’s nearly imposs…”

Warren’s words were interrupted as Threnody recovered from the surprise attack. With a blinding speed, she twisted in Archangel’s grip and released an energy blast into his face. A scream of pain erupted from Archangel and he released his grip on the girl, bringing his hands to his face, and taking a safe place at the other side of the room.

As the girl landed on her feet, she smiled slyly and asked, “Now, who shall be the first to meet their fate by my hand?”

He was fluid in his emotion, every bit the silent bringer of death. As he crashed through the window, he immediately spotted his quarry, the woman known as Phoenix. She had responded instinctively, pushing back across the bed, putting distance between herself and Omega Red. But distance was not a factor that concerned him as he lashed out a carbonadium coil at the woman.

The cracking of wood and sudden implosion of the door had not distracted the battle, but as Arkady’s coil closed in on Jean, a searing blast of laser light struck the coil, diverting it from its target. As Arkady’s eyes shot to his right, he saw the remaining X-Women taking their battle stances, a confident Dazzler still exhibiting a twinkle of light at the end of her fingertip.

“I don’t know who this joker is, but he better be ready to rumble.” Her partner was slightly less showy. Frustrated by the recent turn of events and by the endangerment of her patient, Cecilia leapt into the fray, ramming her shoulder in Arkady’s midsection.

The momentum carried them both out onto the balcony of Jean’s bedroom, where Omega Red wrapped his coils around Cecilia and tossed her off of him. Her force field absorbed a good deal of the impact, but still the pain translated across it.

“I am Pestilence… I am the contagion that culls the weak from the strong!” Omega Red replied, stalking past Cecilia to rejoin the battle. He was a man on mission, and no woman was going to interrupt that. Entering, he flailed his coils about, searching out his target.

It is an awesome sight to behold, and nothing could have prepared Dazzler or Jean for this, despite how extensive the files on Omega Red were. The sheer destruction and chaos he wreaked upon the room was jaw-dropping. But then his eyes closed upon Jean, and he shot his coils back across the room, blinding Dazzler with their speed.

Jean cringed, and time seemed to stand still as the blow rushed toward her. She wished that there was something she could do to stop this madman, but her powers had been burnt out in the battle with Apocalypse and his Dark Riders. Needless to say, she wasn’t prepared when Arkady’s coils just froze in mid-air.

“I think it were high time that you were taught to not hit a lady. And I’m just the guy to make sure the lesson sticks!” a voice interrupted.

All eyes turned toward the balcony, where Cable had Cecilia cradled in his arms. Using the telekinetic energy in which he had enveloped Arkady, he tossed the Russian mutant into the stone banister of the balcony, robbing him of his consciousness. “Now, can someone tell me where to find Kitty?”

“You’re too late, Nathan,” Jean replied, climbing to her feet and clutching her stomach. “Apocalypse has already taken Kitty. He mentioned something about The Twelve just before they departed.”

Nathan was noticeably disturbed, his thoughts astray as he lays Cecilia upon the bed. How could Apocalypse have acted this quickly? He had only just begun to gather The Twelve, and already his plans were falling apart. And now, the X-Men were under attack, presumedly by the new Horsemen.

Distraction could be a bad thing, and Cable cursed himself as a carbonadium coil snaked around his neck, placing a stranglehold on his oxygen supply. He had underestimated how quickly Omega Red would recover from the impact, and now, he couldn’t even gather enough oxygen to concentrate. But just as soon as panic set in, his body fell limply to the ground, and the coil released its death grip.

The assault was led by Jean. Despite her current lack of power, Phoenix had thrown herself at Pestilence, using her body weight to try and pull the coil away. Akrady smiled as they rolled away from Cable, his original quarry back within his sights.

“Foolish woman, you have doomed yourself today. En Sabah Nur has deemed you expendible in the coming conflict. And it is by the hand of Pestilence that you shall meet your end!” Arkady said, releasing his pheromone into the air surrounding Jean.

Jean buckled and coughed as a pain like no other filled her stomache. Tears flooded to her eyes as she fought against blacking out. Seeing Phoenix downed, Cable released a torrent of telekinetic energy, ejecting Omega Red from the premises. His thoughts immediately turned back to Jean and her unborn children.

In another part of the estate, a figure moved quietly through the darkness. He was unconcerned with the battles being waged around him, for his was another mission entirely, a mission of stealth and subterfuge. Nor was he worried about being caught in his actions, as every attempt had been made to secure his anonymity. The cameras were blind to his presence. Security alarms were easily bypassed and re-engaged before claxons were sounded.

With a buzz of electrical activity, the doors slid open at his command. He closed the portal behind him, wishing to remain undisturbed in his pursuit of knowledge. This information was vital to the fruition of Apocalypse’s ultimate plan, and Post did not intend to disappoint his new master.

Within seconds, the transaction was completed, and a teleport engaged. As the lights faded out, Dr. McCoy’s lab appeared untouched.

Threnody was handling herself well against the three X-Men, weakening them as time passed and expending that energy back against them. Archangel had become more of a liability than an asset, unable to maneuver effectively within these close quarters. Beast had continually evaded the energy blasts, but he was quickly tiring. Of the three, Cyclops proved the most resilient. Now, the X-Men were at the verge of defeat, nearly ready to accept Death’s cold embrace.

A blast of energy rocked Death off of her feet, ripping her balance from beneath her. Cyclops wasted no time in following up the attack with a concussive blast to the floor in front of Threnody, spewing shrapnel into the air around the Horseman. The girl howled in pain as a shard of tile tore through her cheek.

The X-Men offered no quarter as Beast bounded across the room, and tossed Threnody toward his comrades, where she was met with a round-house kick from Cecilia. Dazzler followed suit by exploding a series of fireworks around the Horseman’s eyes, attempting to blind the woman. Threnody stumbled back, blindly walking into another assault when Warren batted her to the side with his left wingspan.

“You struggle in vein, X-Men! You cannot defeat Apocalypse, nor can you hope to survive the days to come,” she said, wiping the blood from her cheek. “Death has already left her mark amongst you.”

No sooner had her words concluded than the room was filled with a cascade of light, and Threnody was gone, leaving the X-Men to ponder her words. A sinking feeling filled Scott’s stomache as he surveyed the room, and realized in horror that Jean was not present.

{Jean? Jean, tell me you’re okay!} Scott cried out over their psi-link. He was desperate for good news, praying against the odds.

{It’s not that easy, Scott,} a voice replied over the psi-link, a voice belonging to his son, Cable. {I’m afraid… Jean’s dying.}

And the room fell silent.

Read X-Men #12, Apocalypse #9, Shadowcat #7, Cable #9, Genetic Eclipse: Gambit #1, Wolverine #14, & X-Men #13 for parts 6-12 of Genetic Eclipse!

NEXT ISSUE: Genetic Eclipse Part 13! The countdown to the final battle with Apocalypse begins, as the X-Men arrive in Egypt alongside a most unexpected ally to face the dreaded Four Horsemen Of Apocalypse! But even if the mighty mutants reign victorious, will they be able to defeat the Fifth Horseman?! It’s the penultimate chapter to the story that will change the X-Men forever more!