LEGACIES & DIAMONDS

Part III: A Mother’s Eyes

By James Jordan

If I could understand this world, I’m guessing I wouldn’t be here.

Is it this world that drives us all mad, or is it human nature? Are there any reasons for agony, pain, and destruction? If there are, what is life’s ultimate plan? What does it want with us?

My name is Alison Blaire, but as a member of the X-Men I’m Dazzler. A few hours ago I was left in charge of the team’s Chicago mansion. A young man, Christopher Bradley, and three children, one being my own daughter, were put into my care. My teammates, Cecilia Reyes and Henry McCoy, were downstairs in the lab working on the cure for a virus called Legacy. This Legacy Virus has plagued mutants for months and years, and claimed many lives. Those two X-Men are dedicated to ending that suffering. Earlier, their research was interrupted when the mansion was broken into, and they were kidnapped. In the process, my child, the Summers twins, and Chris were also taken. Why I wasn’t captured as well is unknown.

My other teammates, Jean Grey and Scott Summers, were out for a night on the town dining at one of the finest restaurants in Chicago. While there, we presume there was a struggle and they were taken by a group of new Marauders formed by Mr. Sinister. His plans for them are only known to us because of a woman named Chyna.

Two other persons apart of the X-Men, Danielle Moonstar and Warren Worthington III, found themselves in New York City for a good time. I had the unfortunate duty of calling them away from their happiness to help me find the rest of our team. Alex Summers, by coincidence, appears to have found his way back home from an alternate universe.

I look to Moonstar at the Cerebro as she blinks, claiming, “They’re somewhere in Nevada!”

“Did you get exact coordinates?” Archangel asks with a concerned look on his face.

“That’s the thing,” Moonstar begins, spinning her chair around to face Archangel, “there must be a power dampener of some sort in his lair. It’s hard to lock onto their exact positions, it’s scrambled their genetic code. Hidden it, if you will.”

“Is there any way, we can get around that?” Havok asks from a distance. “I mean he’s always wanted us to find him. It’s part of his game.”

“Maybe he’s changed the rules?” I question from my seat, taking a sip from my coffee mug.

Archangel crosses his arms, and cocks an eyebrow. “What do you mean, exactly?”

I look to all of my teammates, turning my head to make eye contact with each. My hands are wrapped around my mug, and I speak softly. “I mean, maybe his plan is coming to an end. Maybe his plan doesn’t involve us. It just requires Jean and Scott. We’ve always known his plans have included them in some way or another. He doesn’t want our interference this time.”

Dani squints and shakes her head. “Then, why Cecilia and Henry?”

Everyone shrugs, resulting in utter silence. However, Moonstar breaks the silence, “We still don’t know how to get to them.”

Chyna looks to us all, and walks from the shadows in which she’s resided for the past few minutes into the light for the X-Men to see. “I know where they are.”

He lies in discomfort, unaware of his fate, of what is to happen next. Will he die? Will his body shut down, and deny him of life? Or will the cure work, and unburden him of the Legacy Virus that has plagued him for the past few years? It’s a fifty-fifty chance, and that’s what scares him the most.

Listening to the air venting into his small room, he waits for sometone to enter through the door. And then it happens.

“Good evening, Mister Bradley. I’m hoping your stay hasn’t been too uncomfortable.”

Chris looks to Nathaniel Essex and snarls at him, “I didn’t want to be here.”

Smiling, Sinister moves in closer to Chris, staring into his eyes. “Oh, but you did.” Sinister begins to walk to a table, prepared to cure Chris of the Legacy Virus. He picks up a needle, staring into it as if it’s not there, and continues, “While you were sleeping. You talk in your sleep quite often, I can tell.”

“I never…”

“Don’t deny it, Chris. You spoke in your sleep. You spoke of your dreams, wishes, and hopes. You don’t want to die. I can tell that. Most importantly you want this cure to work. So please, be cooperative. Let me help you.”

“You don’t want to help me! You’re using me for your own good!”

Sinister walks to Chris, and grabs a tourniquet. He ties it around Chris’s upper arm, directly above his elbow. “That may be true, but you’ll be pleased with the results. I trust Doctors Reyes and McCoy didn’t screw this up.” With those words, Sinister lifts the needle and moves in on Chris’ arm.

“No! Don’t touch me with that thing! Please, someone help me! Help me!” Chris shouts in a last effort to escape Sinister.

“Please, Mister Bradley.” Sinister sticks the needle in Chris’ arm and grins. “You should be honored.”

“Have you been able to contact them, Ororo?” Bobby Drake asks in frustration.

The beautiful woman, once thought to be a goddess, shakes her head sadly. Ororo lifts her eyes from the floor. “I’ve tried contacting them every way I could.”

“Did you leave a message on their machine?” Bobby questions, still partly in frustration, but now with more worry in his voice. “If they can’t be here f-for…” Bobby stutters, unable to come to grips with what he is about to say. “They were his students!”

“I know, Bobby.”

“I can’t believe this,” Bobby says.

Ororo walks to her friend, and lifts his chin to see his eyes. “Bobby, you must understand they have different priorities now. They’ve been hurt by Charles.”

“So they can’t check up on their mentor?” Ororo is silent through Bobby’s statement. “We haven’t heard from them in months. It’s ridiculous. They should know his status, at least care what’s happening-what’s happening to him.”

“Bobby, please…” Ororo is interrupted.

“No, Ororo, I can’t take this anymore!” Bobby begins to pace the room frantically. “God damn it! It’s like they don’t even care anymore!”

“Bobby, you and I both know it isn’t like that.” She moves to him and suggests, “You’re just overheated, sit down, have a glass of water.”

“No, no, no, I can’t sit down!” Ororo is taken aback by Bobby’s reaction. Bobby takes notice and looks at her apologetically, “I’m sorry… you’re right, you’re right, I’m just overheated. It’s just…” Bobby walks to the window at the opposite side of the room and takes a deep breath. He places his hands against the window pane, placing all of his weight against them. Calmly he says, “Either way, Ororo, tonight Charles Francis Xavier is going to die.”

We’re on our way to a laboratory in the middle of Nevada, under the instruction of Chyna. Archangel and Moonstar, both guiding the Blackbird, don’t know if she’s going to lead us into oblivion or not but they have no choice but to listen to this mysterious woman.

I don’t know if it’s the fact that she used to work for the man that has kidnapped my daughter and tortured the X-Men for years that unnerves me, or the fact that we know next to nothing about her. Her name, her age, her intentions, hell, even her sexual orientation. I think it’s the mother in me that doesn’t trust her, and if it is, so be it. But she may also be the only way I’ll ever find the girl that gave me those instincts.

“Hey,” says a strong, yet soft, masculine voice. I turn my head to place a face with the voice, and see Havok grinning at me.

I fake a smile and reply, “Hey.”

“How are you?” he asks.

“I’m all right,” I say, trying to get my head cleared.

“You look a little dazed.” He pauses and shakes his hands, apologizing, “Oh, no, not in a bad way… your head just seems to be in another place. You know what, that came out wrong too…”

“No, no. My thoughts are somewhere else.” And truthfully, at the moment I’m not sure I’m even in the Blackbird. I’ve floated to another dimension just thinking of my daughter. I’ve been brought back by Alex Summers.

“You wanna talk about it, Alison?”

I look at him and shake my head, I hear everything he just finished saying and know how I will answer his question. Yet, somehow, it’s still awkward to look at a man who’s been in another dimension and thinks that I’m out of it. “No, no. That’s all right, Alex.” I sigh, and close my eyes for a moment, “Just thinking. Nothing else.”

I can’t see him, but I can imagine his caring eyes looking at me. The caring eyes then turn into a caring voice. “I know you’re thinking of your daughter. You may not believe it, but I have some experience in the matter.”

Opening my eyes, I view exactly what I pictured in my head. I want to crumble in his arms, and just wallow in self pity. But I’m stronger then that. “Yeah. How can I not think of my daughter in a time like this? A madman could be murdering Becca this moment, and I can do nothing about it.”

“Your daughter will be fine, we’ll get to her. I promise.”

He smiles, and I smile back, letting my long, strawberry blonde hair fall over my eyes. Comforting words from another make me feel safe, but I know that the feeling will subside. Still smiling, I try to take advantage of the comfort. “So, you say that you have experience in the matter… how so?”

Havok’s eyes shift to the floor, and I can tell something is wrong. Maybe I shouldn’t have brought up the subject. I hope he’s all right.

“I’d rather not talk about it. It’s a part of my life that I’m trying to leave behind. I’m not even sure if it was my life.” He looks as if he’s going to stop breathing, yet his chest keeps moving up and down. I’m not sure what he means, but I probably shouldn’t force anything out of him that he doesn’t want to share.

“I’m sorry if…”

“I just don’t want to talk about now.”

I move closer to him and put my arm on his shoulder, to let him know I’m there for him. But as my hand touches his shoulder he stands and walks to the front of the Blackbird. “So, when are we going to be there?” he asks Archangel.

“Almost there,” I overhear Archangel reply.

Well, so much for making friends.

He sits against the dungeon wall, and with a sigh places his head against it. “I can’t stay here while he harms them. I just can’t.” Scott Summers, better known as Cyclops, stands and places his hands on his hips as he begins to pace. “I-I just can’t!”

“I know you’re thinking of escaping, but Scott, please, just sit down and calm down,” pleads the blue-furred man called Beast, or Henry McCoy.

Scott moves up to Henry, and even through his visor, his stare can be felt, “Don’t tell me to be calm, what would you do if it were your children?”

At this comment, Henry backs down and moves toward his girlfriend, Cecilia Reyes. “How do you propose we escape anyway, huh, Scott? How?” Cecilia questions.

“I don’t know. We’re mutants, we have powers. We should be able to do something.”

Scott’s pacing ensues, even after his wife walks to him and places an arm on his back. “Honey, you need to stop this. You’re not helping any of us, or our children, by acting like this.”

Scott stops and looks at his wife. Her caring eyes expose her love for him, even though at the moment she’d like to just snap in half and let the pain consume her. She holds herself together for the man she swore to love until the day she died. He looks deep into her eyes, and realizes his wrongs. How can one woman make him go from being a compulsive maniac to a rational person?

“I’m sorry, Jean. I’m just getting myself worked up.” Scott’s face saddens as he takes a seat up against the dungeon wall. With a softer tone he speaks the truth, “There’s no way we’re going to get out of here.”

Jean sits beside her husband, and hugs him. “I know. I want them back just as much as you do. But with our powers out, it’s just not possible.”

“When we get out of here,” Scott begins, “I’ll show no mercy to that man.”

“We’re here!” Archangel shouts to everyone in the back of the Blackbird. I stand, undoing my buckle and move towards the two piloting the plane.

“So we’ll be landing?” I ask, attempting to look out the window to see where the hell we actually are.

Moonstar turns from her chair to face me and replies, “We’ll be landing in about two minutes. So hold your horses.”

My horses aren’t stopping for anything. I’m ready to get inside that building, and tear it apart. Or maybe I’m not? My feelings and thoughts are so confused at this point, I’m unsure of what I’ll do. I feel jaded enough to burn, yet I know what that will do to me. I can’t give in to my feelings of hatred. What I know now, doesn’t matter.

“We’ve landed.”

What does matter is that this battle – no, this war – is coming to an end tonight. Whether it be my hand, or another’s.

NEXT ISSUE: The end is upon us! Two more issues of Legacies & Diamonds, and next issue holds a surprising revelation that could only happen to the X-Men.

Author’s Notes

Heya, everybody!

Well, there ya go. My second installment of XMU, and the third of Legacy & Diamonds. I hope you all liked it, cuz that’s why I’m writing, to entertain you fine folks, my fans (if there are any out there, lol).

This issue was a little shorter than I would have liked it to be, but this was more of an in-between issue. Just to get you all into the mood for the big battle next issue. I’m also hoping you all liked the narrative by Dazzler/Alison Blaire. I was having trouble as to how I’d open this issue up, and I thought it would be neat to tackle this issue from the first person perspective. Dazzler seemed to have a lot more going on in this issue then the others, hence why I chose her. I also liked the perspective of her being a mother, and having conflicted feelings about what was going to happen next – what she was going to do next.

The Havok/Dazzler scene, I wanted to get across that Dazzler does indeed miss her child. But more importantly I wanted to recognize Havok’s life in the Mutant X universe, in which he had son. A son that he lost. He knows exactly what Dazzler’s going through, and wants to help her. But he, himself, hasn’t gotten over the loss of his son. So how can he help someone through pain, if he can’t help himself? He can’t even tell the ones he cares for about the world he came from, and about all the people he loved and lost there. As he said in issue three, he thought he belonged where he was. He’s in our universe now, and he’s an outcast. Lots o’ layers here, folks 🙂

Yeah, well, that’s about it. If I have any fans, or anybody reading this and hates what I’m doing, please send me feedback. I’d really like to hear from you to see how I’m doing. Like all writers say, good or bad – I can take it. I just want some mail!

Hope ya’ll enjoy. Next two issues are going to be remembered…

I think.

Adios (Spanish is so cool),
Jim