X-Men 3: Additional Aftermath

He shivered, recalling his ordeal in the park. He had sat at a chessboard trying to move the pieces with his power. His power that was gone. He had tried to ignore the fact that this was so, but in the end he had had to face it. He was nothing now, again. No, worse, he was less than nothing. This time, he had no secret weapon, no shadowy threat to turn against his tormentors. This time he truly was alone.

No, you're not, Erik Lensherr reminded himself. You are not alone. There are still people you can inspire. That power of yours had nothing to do with being a mutant. You can use it here, if you can get them to forgive you. And you have to. You have no other home. The world thinks you died in the final act of the war you started. And even if they knew you were alive, would anyone want to take you in after what you've done?

"I hope they will," Erik whispered. Like Rogue, he had long put aside his other name. He was now Erik Lensherr again, friend to Charles Xavier. He prayed Xavier's other friends would realize this, and remember the man he used to be before he made all his mistakes. He knew they had never really known him as that man, only as the monster, but still he had to try. He had to become somebody again, whatever it took. To get back at least something of what he'd always wanted- a family. He had had one, long ago, and it had been taken away. Ever since then he had found many substitutes, but none had ever satisfied him. So he had abandoned them all, or led them to their dooms- all over some stupid dream he could never have realized anyway. Only now, without his youth, without his powers, were Erik's eyes open to that fact.

He had to get it all back. Not everything, that was impossible. But some things. Some things at least. It would be hard, but Erik knew he could do it. He had to. The X-Men were his enemies, but they would have to accept him. They would need a new visionary, someone who had known their old one well enough to remember his teachings and someone who was now humbled enough to let them keep the control he should have given them in the first place. They would also need him for what was coming.

Erik shivered, remembering it. The second event that had happened to him in the park, almost immediately after he finally reached out and moved a pawn with his hand instead of his mind. "How does it feel?" a voice had asked at that very moment. He had turned to see the woman who had once been his most ardent follower standing behind him.

"Mystique," he had said, for a moment looking surprised, then hopeful. Then she had shattered all his hopes.

"No," she had smiled, changing from her human form back into her more familiar blue one before his very eyes. "Famine. My name is Famine now."

Smiling, she had sat down across from him and told him of her new master. A truly great visionary, she had said, one greater even than the man she used to worship. A being who would never forsake her as Magneto had. A being who knew humanity, mutantkind, and evolution far better than Magento ever had- it had observed them far longer. A being who had undertaken much greater preparations to become the master of the world than Magneto could ever have dreamt- it had had the time. A being who was a mutant even stronger in power than the Phoenix, and worse, it had complete control of everything it could do.

The being had servants also- and soon it would have far more servants. A leader among them would be the woman Erik had once known as Mystique, who now called herself Famine. Another servant of the being, someone Famine had referred to as both Pestilence and Sinister, had created something that many mutants longed for now. A way to get their powers back. A cure for the cure. Famine had offered it to Erik, and also offered him a high place among her new master's followers, but he had turned her down. He no longer wanted to become Death, the Destroyer of Worlds.

Besides, he knew even if he did, it would be an empty title. His former acolyte's new master was someone far stronger than he, someone he had long tried to emulate, someone who to him and most mutants was only a legend- until now. Erik now knew the being was not a legend, and he had to alert others to the being's existence. First on the list was the only group of people Erik knew who could possibly stop the being. They had stopped him, after all.

But could they stop this one? Erik wondered. Deep inside he doubted it as he felt his insides shake at the mere thought of the being's name.

"Apocalypse."

***