xp_logs | The Enemy Within: Conclusion

x-juggernaut.livejournal.com posting in

Having traveled to the very spot in Vietnam where it all began forty years ago, Cain fulfills his end of the bargain as Marie-Ange, Sam, and Wanda bear witness. However, Cyttorak is a bit more fluid with the conditions of their arrangement. Things both expected and unexpected happen, and no one will be the same.

The jungles of Vietnam, on a Saturday

The jungle was thick, with the lush greenery that covered up the horrors of napalm and chemical defoliant. It was easy to tell who had seen the destruction firsthand, the permanent red rash of Agent Orange marked them as witnesses to the horrors of years ago.

Standing in the courtyard of the bombed-out temple, Cain thought about that. In the past day of navigating the jet in small hops from open field to open field, asking locals about the place they were looking for, Cain noticed the difference in reactions from the villagers, despite speaking their language. The younger ones were pleased to see Americans, and didn't recognize the significance of the US Marine Corps eagle-globe-and-anchor tattoo on Cain's shoulder. Those around Cain's age, however, stayed under their shaded porches, casting silent glares of accusation.

But eventually they had arrived. Cain stood among the cracked stones, absently studying the bomb craters that had been overgrown by vegetation. Before him, Cyttorak was standing and observing a cracked statue of a dome-headed giant, an empty receptacle in the chest where a crimson ruby once sat.

Taking a deep drink from her water, Wanda glanced around the clearing--if they could really call it that. The jungle, free from man's intervention, had crept back in. She'd kept quiet for most of the trip, despite jokingly moaning to Angie at one point about missing the start of the World Cup, because the tension had been building.

"Now what?" she asked, wincing when her voice carried. The jungle, it seemed, certainly didn't suit her.

The jungle heat definitely did not suit Marie-Ange. She had stripped down to just her uniform pants and a tight black tank top and was -still- miserably hot, sticky and sweaty. "Now we wait, yes?" She'd packed cards, as always, and the outline of the deck could be seen in the side cargo pockets of her pants. "And try not to catch malaria."

Sam, for his part, merely stood quietly, his arms folded across his chest. He kept an eagle eye on the entire scene, keeping himself between the pair of men and the pair of women. If something went wrong, he'd have to finally see if invulnerability would stand up in the face of someone who could not be stopped.

"Now we restore things," Cyttorak rasped, taking a deep breath. He walked over, standing next to Cain and rolling up his sleeves. "If Cain wishes to fulfill his end of the deal, of course."

"I'm ready," Cain growled, hands on his hips clenched into fists. "How about we get this over with?"

Every passing second meant that the tension crept up a notch until Wanda didn't think it could go up any further. Still, this was Cain's decision to make, despite her discomfort. They could try to act if something happened but she hoped that it didn't. "Alright," she said softly, stepping back a pace to watch.

Cyttorak chuckled, moving over in front of Cain. "Have you ever told them why you found yourself here?" he asked, tapping his fingers together. "Your men died, yes. Eight soldiers, all so young, so brave. Not unlike your friends here, were they? So courageous to risk their lives - and all so very fragile and mortal. This is what passes for tragedy, I suppose, where humanity is concerned. Being the one who lived."

That was it for Cain. He stepped forward, gripping a double handful of Cyttorak's shirt, hauling him up into the air. "That's nothing to do with this!" he bellowed. "You want what's yours, take it! Take it away and get the hell out of my life!"

The elder god simply smiled, cocking his head down at Cain. "You had but to say it," he singsonged before drawing his arms back and plunging both hands into Cain's chest up to the elbows.

The screams from the both of them echoed off the stone walls, overlapping in a discordant cacaphony. Stone began to shake and crumble, small rocks exploding into sand and dust.

Marie-Ange covered her mouth and nose with one hand as the dust rose, and brought with it livng debris from the jungle floor. Tiny insects who had made their homes under the fallen leaves fled from the shaking ground. "Get down!" She yelled, hoping to be heard above the screaming.

Grabbing Marie-Ange by the back of her tanktop, he lunged toward Wanda, bodychecking both women to the ground. "Stay still!" he yelled as one of them squirmed, he wasn't sure which. He kept his eye on the pair of men that were the focus of the chaos in the clearing. "Tarot," he went on, "if those bugs head for us, get them away with an image of some kind." His instructions were almost inaudible over the basso rumble and grind of stone against stone.

Laying still as she could Wanda cracked open her powers a bit...and it was a mistake. Red lines, redder than they had been in some time, crackled through her mind, everywhere destruction and danger lay screaming at her. And for a second as she glanced over towards Cain and Cyttorak, or at least where they had been...

She choked out a scream as she flinched away, powers shutting off and mind forgetting immediately what the lines had looked like. Too much, far too much.

Cain struggled, the burning in his chest spreading through his limbs, flowing through him into Cyttorak as if they shared the same heart, the same lungs-

-the same anger.

Like a pair of odd afterimages, it was hard to tell where Cain ended and the anger of Cyttorak given form began, crimson fire and crackling power cascading around them. A faint image could be seen standing where the two of them were, silhouetting the pair against a slowly darkening outline - a dome-headed giant in jet black armor.

"Let go, and the pain stops," Cyttorak hissed. "It all stops, Cain. I cannot be stopped, but you can. Simply will it to stop, let go, release the power, the anger, the fury - release it and surrender to me..."

"Take what... yours..." Cain growled between his teeth, every nerve ending in his body glowing with power. This close, he could sense Cyttorak's power growing, as well as the overbearing feeling of malicious destructive intent. Focused on the three X-Men taking cover from the storm.

"No!" Cain barked, struggling to try and regain control. "You said... leave. They're no... no harm. You gave... word..."

Cyttorak's laughter echoed across the courtyard as he shifted his power, the overlapping images of his decrepit body and Cain's massive form blending into one. "My word is that of a god, little insect. I will leave this world as I promised. Leave it a burned cinder, as is my right to inflict my wrath on the prison I have long suffered. Release my power, and you will know no more."

The ghostly armor began to coalesce around the merged form, solidifying into black iron bracers, overlapping armor plated climbing up his legs and torso, and a domed black helmet over his head, obscuring all but fleeting glimpses of a mouth twisted in a grimace and eyes glowing a baleful red.

"This world is destroyed," Cyttorak boomed, "It begins now."

With the first step, a sound like a volcano erupting, he burst into a run for where the three X-Men were taking cover.

If Sam hadn't known better, he would have thought that -he- was the precognitive on the mission. He'd had a nagging feeling that Cyttorak's word was not to be trusted, and that the being (Sam still stopped short of using the word "god" to describe such a being, even after reading the reports from when half the mansion had been abducted to Asgard) would say or do anything to maneuver Cain Marko to the point where he could have his power returned. It was a suspicion he'd rather have not had confirmed, but that was all beside the point now.

Despite the order to not move, Marie-Ange had pulled her knees to her chest, and gotten her cards out of the pocket of her pants. Reading the notches pressed into the sides of the cards, she'd had every thought of pulling The Angel, to use it's wings to keep the stinging and biting bugs away from them.

She didn't have time. Cyttorak's terrible announcement came, and with it - Marie-Ange's cards crumbled in her hands and floated between her fingers to the ground below.

She grasped at them, trying to hold into the cardboard to keep it from falling apart, and her fingers caught a large fragment of one card. The Tower, flaming stone keep burning and collapsing atop a hill. And then it too fell to dust, only to reveal that it had stuck to another large piece, nearly a whole card - the blue sky and bright gold disk of the Wheel of Fortune.

Grabbing Marie-Ange's extended hand, Sam tucked it into her chest and threw himself over her and Wanda. Gritting his teeth, he brought his blast field into existence, but in a way he'd never tried before. Always before, his blast field had stayed close to his skin, or in all but one of the few cases where he'd carried another person, enclosed them, without much more in the way of effort. He hadn't tried to enclose Cain Marko the time he'd carried the larger man, but it hadn't mattered due to Cain's invulnerability.

But now he tensed his body and stretched his field, attempting to throw it over all three of them simultaneously, like an irregular dome of chemokinetic energy. In that agonizing split second, Sam Guthrie prayed. It wasn't a prayer of spoken words, there wasn't nearly enough time for that. It was merely a desperate mental plea to God that several things would happen. One, that he would be able to achieve what he was intending to do. Two, that he would achieve it before the charging Cyttorak reached the three of them. Three, that when unstoppability met invulnerability, that Cyttorak's charge would throw the trio halfway to the ocean, rather than punching through Sam's blast field. And four, that somehow Cyttorak's desire to destroy the entire world would be averted.

Footsteps like a one-man stampede closed in on the three. One black-armored fist cocked back, beginning to fall like a thunderbolt from the skies, bringing the oblivion of utter devastation in its wake.

Before it fell, however, Cain Marko's voice rang out clearly from under the helmet, cutting through the din.

"Illyana, NOW!"

Half a world away, a young blonde girl gazed into a scrying pool, whispering quietly as she waved a hand, opening a portal from Here to There as easily as walking across a room. If anyone had been around to hear, the words "I hope you know what you're doing," might have been heard.

The portal that ripped through the fabric of reality directly atop the armored giant appeared instantly, closing just as quickly - leaving Sam, Marie-Ange, and Wanda alone in the slowly-settling dust.

***

Thursday afternoon, the mansion

The morning's revelations had been like a weight off of Cain's
shoulders. The growing feeling in his chest, that gnawing burning
sensation though - that hadn't lifted at all. The presence of Cyttorak
was more mental than physical at the moment. Cain couldn't tell where
the old bastard was, but by this point, the other side of the planet
couldn't be far enough.

Which was appropriate, he supposed, finding himself outside this door.
In any other situation, this would be embarassing, he thought. Here he
was, well on the far side of sixty, asking help from a kid who was
probably younger than some of the stuff in the back of the fridge.

At the moment, however, Cain didn't figure he had a lot of time for
embarassment, so he knocked firmly on the door.

The door opened after a short series of thumps, the sound of a stereo being
rapidly unplugged, and what might have been a dragon being shoved into the
closet. Illyana peered up at Cain suspiciously; in the background, a wide
array of class notes covered most of the room's surface areas. "Hi," she
said ungraciously, and paused, as though enumerating the reasons why he
might come to see her. "I didn't break anything."

With a snicker, Cain shook his head, then covered his mouth as a deep
bass cough echoed from his chest. "Ain't anything like that. It's
just..." He glanced in the room, then out towards the hall. "I need a
bit of a favor," he said in a hushed voice.

Her eyebrows arched in surprise, and she opened the door wider, stepping
aside (and discreetly kicking a pile of paper under Kitty's bed) to let him
in - Kitty was out, giving her some space to sort out what she'd need to
pass summer school English. "I'm guessing the secret isn't that you're
surprising Mr Summers with some thoughtful landscaping." Illyana brightened
visibly. "Need something exorcised?"

"In a manner of speaking," Cain said, stepping inside and crouching
down to Illyana's eye level, not quite meeting her gaze. Despite being
a handful of decades his junior, something about the girl creeped him
out. He cleared his throat awkwardly.

"When you make those portal things, you got a way to see where they
go, yeah? How do you do that?" he asked.

An exorcism in a manner of speaking didn't sound like a good exorcism.
"Well, either they go to Limbo, or they go out of it. Getting in is pretty
easy - getting out, depends on where I'm going. Usually I just - well, I
scry for the location from Limbo. To make sure I don't pop up anywhere I
don't mean to." There was a vague undertone of defiance to her voice, and
her eyes flicked cautiously to Cain's, so used to judging reaction that it
barely registered to her that she was.

Cain nodded. Exactly what he hoped. "When it comes to the weird shit,
you kinda got more of a feel for it than anyone else here. I've seen
that Limbo place - hell, I held one of those portals open long enough
to get folks out of there. What I'm asking is - could you scry a
person, and if something were to happen, to yank them somewhere?
Somewhere they couldn't do any harm - I'm talking like the complete
ass-end of Limbo out in the middle of nothing. That something you can
do?"

"You want to send someone to Limbo?" Illyana asked slowly, crossing her arms
over her stomach. "I could do it, sure, it's not hard or anything, but
Limbo's, well, it's difficult. So you'd have to be sure that whoever was
going there could take it - or isn't supposed to." Now she did look at him,
full on, trying to figure out if he'd thought this through. "Most people,"
she added, putting a slight emphasis on the second word, "don't survive long
in there."

"That ain't my concern," Cain said coldly. "And for something this
bad, that's the only place I can think of if something goes wrong." He
took a deep breath, looking out the window. "I'm gonna need you to
watch me, and if something goes wrong, you chuck me as far away as you
can in there."

She sighed. Well, that sounded like he was worried about more than property
damage. Almost against her better judgment, she said, "All right. I'll do
it. Do I get to know what things going wrong will actually entail, or will
it be fairly obvious from the context?"

Cain chuckled lightly and arched an eyebrow. "Only playing chicken
with an alleged elder god of destruction who could probably cause more
damage than this world's ever seen. Whole lot's going to depend on me
not flinching. I'd rather have a backup plan, and that's you."

"Oh, an elder god." This was more Illyana's territory; indeed, her tone
shifted, sounding a little less dubious than before. "That makes
substantially more sense. All right. So I watch, and if things go wrong,
then I haul you - or both of you - into Limbo and let you - what? Duke it
out? If it -is- an elder god of destruction, let me relay to you how very
unlikely it is that you actually end up winning in this scenario."

"I ain't expecting to," Cain said flatly, face suddenly serious. "Like
I told you all this morning, I'm sixty-six years old. That's a lot
more time than a lot of people get. And if it comes down to me
failing? If I can't stop this? Then I want you to make sure I... he's
somewhere that's gonna hold him. I want to know if you can do that."

-Could- she do it? There was a good question. Demons she could hold (except
that one time) but now she knew Limbo almost better than her own body, right
down to the atomic level and back up again. She thought down the lines and
nodes of power - and the weak spots. "I can do it," she said, finally, her
mental map complete. "But - don't you want to ask the X-Brigade to step in?
I mean, this is what they do." Not very well, in her opinion, but
nonetheless - "I mean, I can do it, but are you sure that's the only backup
plan you want?" Yet she saw how absolutely serious he was. And he -was- old
- older than she thought she'd ever grow to be. She clarified, "What I mean
is, this is the plan you want, because believe me, it doesn't sound like
you're getting a chance to regroup if things go wrong."

"They're good people," Cain admitted. "And it's... I gotta admit,
every time I put on that uniform, I'm honored to stand by 'em. But
they got this whole mentality, this 'leave no man behind' creed. They
ain't got the coldness to do this if they gotta." He fixed Illyana
with a steely gaze. "You do. I seen that place you open up into, and I
gotta say, that's the closest I ever seen to hell. That's what it's
gotta take inside. You got it. They don't."

"Flattering," Illyana said drily, "but I see your point. And believe me, I'm
the last person who wants an elder god of anything, up to and including
fuzzy bunnies, taking anything out on this dimension." She looked down,
smoothing out her jeans, and when she looked back up she was totally calm.
"So I'll do it, if it needs to be done. And I'm guessing letting anyone in
on the plan would ruin the surprise of your semi-premature death."

"Don't bury me before I kick off," Cain said with a smile, "And
something tells me you ain't got much trouble keeping secrets. Whole
lot I figure folks don't know about you yet. Which is why I know I can
trust you."

Without another word, Cain extended his hand to Illyana, nodding once.

She took his hand firmly. "Well," she said after a moment, obviously
searching for words, "I hope you don't die."

***

No time. Nowhere..

Standing on the front porch, Cain looked down through the rain dripping from his hair, seeing for the first time his brother sitting in the wheelchair looking up at him with a mixture of wonder and happiness. The prodigal had come home.

Sitting around the large dining table, Cain laughed as Alison told the story of how Jamie had managed to prank Doug with the image inducer that had driven the master of languages nearly insane. People in his house, smiling and laughing with stories of their own. Stories he was slowly becoming a part of.

Moira's eyes squinting in mixed pain and joy, her hand clenching Cain's invulnerable one as one last push was made. Her eyes were wet as they all looked down at Madelyn holding the newborn Rachel in the air, all listening to the baby's first breaths of air. A new life had come into the world, and he'd had the chance to see it.

The slab of concrete moved atop him as Cain lifted, grey-suited children crawling out from under him, walking dazed into the Youra sun where only minutes before they were nearly crushed by the collapsing building. He'd made the choice, and saved a dozen young lives.

Resting on the dock behind the boathouse, Cain watched the moon rise, reflecting in the still waters. Behind him was the mansion, windows alight with activity. Before him was quiet stillness, the peace he'd come looking for. He'd finally found it, he realized. This was home.

"That speech. It was goodbye, wasn't it?" David had asked. Cain had no answer then, but he only wished he could have given the young man the words he deserved.

Goodbye.

***

Limbo

Cain felt the hot air rush past him as he fell backwards through the portal, into a place where the sensation of movement was replaced by an odd sense of stasis, despite islands of rock floating up past him. After what seemed like an eternity, feeling returned as he crashed into a mass of stone, leaving a crater the size of a football stadium.

Stretching his arms out to the side, he felt the presence of Cyttorak disengage, pulling away painfully. Crimson light flared and wound around him, burning like meteors as it plunged in and out of his skin. In a cascade of scarlet fire, Cain forced his will forward and pushed, locking his hands around another pair of hands encased in black metal bracers.

Looking up, he saw the now-familiar grin of Cyttorak behind a domed black helmet, immensely massive before him. "Nice try," the Elder God spoke, "but you of all people know parlor tricks will only prolong your world's destruction. I am the Destroyer. I cannot be stopped."

Forced to his knees, Cain felt the intense pain as his bones began to crack under Cyttorak's grip, that crimson fire flowing under his skin, through his blood. He gritted his teeth - the fight was only a formality now. Illyana had done her part, sending them to the ass-end of Limbo. Far enough away from his home that everything Cain loved could remain safe.

He'd done it right.

Cyttorak laughed in triumph, grinding Cain's wrists, sinking him into the rock up to his knees. "Your resistance is pathetic. My power was wasted on you, you imbecile. You held the very epitome of destruction in your hands, and to what end? To be some sort of champion? To squander your stolen gifts by pretending to be their equal?"

Rearing a fist back, Cyttorak hammered Cain in the side of the face, splintering bone as nearby floating mountains shattered into dust. "You held the power of a god, and you consorted with insects!"

The pain nearly drove Cain into unconsciousness, yet he struggled, pulling one leg free of the rock. Before him, the massive form of Cyttorak laughed, chest heaving under the obsidian-black armor. "Beg me. Beg your God for mercy, plead with me to stop, implore me to relent - you know it is futile. You are mine, and your world will be a cinder..."

Massive hands enclosed Cain's head, and the crimson fire bled into his eyes and ears, the crackling thunder almost drowned out by Cain Marko's screams. It could have been seconds or centuries in this place where time had no meaning, and Cain realized this fight could not be won - defeat was inevitable, unless...

"Let these be the last words your pathetic mortal form hears," Cyttorak taunted, mouth twisted in a rictus grin behind his helmet as he prepared to deal a fatal blow to his fallen foe, "I CANNOT BE STOPPED!"

As the Elder God's fist fell, Cain looked up through bleeding eyes, and simply spoke one word.

"Stop."

And at the moment, the universe did just that.

Cain stood up, injuries forgotten as he drew himself up to his full height, staring down the frozen god. "Welcome to Limbo, you stupid piece of shit. Let me give you a bit of a primer - while back, a six year old girl got sent here and managed to bend this place to her will. Took ten years, but out there, it was ten minutes. That means time ain't exactly what you expect in this place."

He paused, looking at his knuckles before unleashing a jab into Cyttorak's chest, knocking the massive deity back into a rock outcropping that collapsed around him. Roaring, Cyttorak rose from the rubble, charging forward - but remaining the same distance from Cain the entire time, unable to move closer.

Marko smiled, looking around. "Laws of physics ain't the same here, asshole. Here, it's about willpower. And while you got the whole 'god' thing on your side, remember who kept you tamped down in the back of his head all those years." With that, Cain moved forward in an eyeblink, hammering Cyttorak with another fist to the skull, cracking the helmet.

"This... is impossible!" Cyttorak sputtered, arms flailing. "The power is mine! MINE! I am the Destroyer, you mortal bag of flesh! I am CYTTORAK! MY WILL SHALL NOT BE DENIED!" He pushed outwards with his voice, blasting Cain across the emptiness of Limbo until he smashed into another floating island.

Cain began to stand, but Cyttorak was atop him, raining punches and stomps down like an avalanche. "I will unmake you, atom by atom. I will rend the very bonds of your being asunder - and then you will watch as the same fate is visited upon that world of yours. I promised you it would burn."

Cyttorak cocked his head, half of the broken helmet floating off into emptiness. Reaching out, he seized the air, twisting the fabric of Limbo in his grasp, rifts and rends of light forming. "I can return there as I wish, your ploy was inspired, but futile," he scolded, "But you are, after all, only human. What hope did you really have? I cannot be-"

His taunt was cut off as Cain shot one foot upwards, catching his opponent directly in the crotch. "Only human?" Cain grabbed Cyttorak around the throat, squeezing with all his strength? "ONLY HUMAN?" he bellowed again, red-faced with impudent rage. "Have you been stuck in a fucking rock for the past thousand years?"

Headbutting Cyttorak and shattering the remnants of the helmet, Cain held the wiggling Elder God at arm's length, feeling the crimson fire flow through his veins, burning from the inside. "Only human?" he repeated with a smirk as he cocked his fist back, feeling himself filled with every iota of rage and anger he'd ever felt in his life.

"I'm the Juggernaut, bitch."

Cyttorak screamed one final time as Cain Marko struck - and Limbo exploded.

***

Vietnam. Now.

Sam's eyes remained closed and his body curled tensely over the two women underneath him for several long seconds after Cain's voice rang through the roar of destruction in the clearing, the roar of his blast field, and the roar of blood pounding in his ears. When nothing happened for those seconds, he rolled off, his blast field sputtering out. His forehead was even more drenched with sweat from exertion than it had been during the hike through the jungle. Gasping for breath, he murmured under his breath. "Thank you, Father. Thank you, Jesus." And then, when he'd had time to notice, he struggled to a knee and scanned the clearing. There was no sign of Cain Marko or Cyttorak anywhere. Sobering, Sam added a prayer for Cain Marko to his thanksgiving.

As if in an answer to Sam's whispered prayer, a rush of wind swept through the courtyard, a single point of light appearing as the world seemed to distort. Out of nowhere, one massive hand ripped through the air as if tearing through paper, splitting a glowing rift in reality.

Stepping through, one black-clad foot stomped against the cracked stone. The world seemed to ripple for a moment, then the portal closed.

Before them, casting a long shadow over where Sam knelt next to Marie-Ange and Wanda, stood the same giant from before, obsidian armor encasing his body, domed helmet obscuring his face, with traces of crimson fire licking over his chest before burning out.

With an almost graceful slowness, the giant raised both hands to the helmet and lifted.

The armor-clad behemoth wasn't charging, and that was a good thing. Sam wasn't sure he could make his blast field do what he'd done twice in a row. Struggling to his knees, Sam cast a quick glance at Marie-Ange and Wanda, noting with alarm that Wanda seemed to have been knocked unconscious. His attention snapped back to the figure before the trio, however, and he prepared himself for any move the man made.

Cannonball was far better equipped than she was to deal with anything like this, if this was not what Marie-Ange hoped and prayed it was. But she could do something, even if it was as simple as checking Wanda's pulse and breathing and making sure she had no serious injuries.

The black helmet lifted, then was lowered to the ground. From beneath it, a dust-covered face was revealed beneath a shock of red hair, teeth bared in a smile.

"What the hell you guys sitting around for?" Cain Marko asked lightly. "You act like it's the end of the world or something."

Grinning, Sam levered himself to his feet and clapped the larger man on the shoulder. "If it hadn't been for whatever sneaky thing y'all obviously planned, Ah think it mighta been," he noted. "Ah take it Armageddon's been postponed?" he managed to joke feebly, exhaustion plain on his face.

"Thank Illyana when we get home," Cain joked, brushing at the armor as it flaked off into ash, baring his chest to the jungle sun. "Wanda going to be okay?"

"I think so.." Marie-Ange answered quietly, still taken aback by Cain's reappearance. "She has some scrapes, but from falling. I think she fainted.."

"That's good," Sam replied, finally allowing his attention to focus on whatever had happened to Wanda. Crouching next to Marie-Ange, he noticed that Wanda was breathing normally, and aside from the scrapes Marie-Ange had mentioned, she looked uninjured. "Ya did good, thinkin' ta check on her," he praised Marie-Ange. Standing up, he looked back at Cain. "What say we get her back ta the 'bird, an' then ya can tell us just exactly what in the sam hill happened." He grinned again and shook his head.

Cain nodded, then looked over Sam's head and froze. "We might have a problem."

Turning, everyone paused when they saw the figure of Cyttorak standing unsteadily on the road leaving the temple. Raising one shaky hand, his flesh seemed to dissolve in the wind, flowing away to reveal the flaming skeleton pointing a finger.

Instinctively, Cain stepped between Cyttorak and the X-Men. However, behind Cyttorak a number of other forms faded into view, one with a hand clamped firmly on the back of the neck of the defeated god.

A cloaked figure stepped forward, drawing back a hood to reveal a lined, wise looking face. "You have defeated him," the stranger said. Cain just blinked, not moving from his defensive stance. The stranger lifted an empty hand, small motes of blue light encircling him.

"Do you wish to take his place?" he asked softly, looking down at Cyttorak's defeated form.

Sam merely raised an eyebrow. This, much like the decision to give Cyttorak back the power he'd had, was Cain's choice to make. So he simply stood silently at the big man's shoulder, lending support by his presence, and the unspoken knowledge that Sam would respect whatever decision Cain made.

Cain looked back at the other three, then at the group of unreal-looking figures. "You're asking me if I want to be a god?" he asked incredulously. The stranger held his hands out in a gesture of welcome. Taking a step, Cain stopped and shook his head.

"No."

He stepped back next to Sam and Marie-Ange. "If you want this power, then fine. But this is where I belong. This is my home. And I'll fight for it if I gotta, and after the ass-kicking I just gave that guy-" he pointed at the flaming bones of Cyttorak, cowed before his peers. "If you want a go, I'm ready."

The stranger smiled, shaking his head. "The power is yours. No longer will you be tied to Cyttorak, or any of our kind. Your world was never meant to bear such power, we thought. Through your actions, and those of your comrades... we find ourselves mistaken. The power is yours until you choose to pass it on."

Cain blinked, looking at Sam and then back to the assemblage. "Wait... you're saying I'm a god?"

Laughter came from their ranks as they started to fade from view. "You are Cain Marko," the last voice said. "Be who you are."

As the figures faded, Marie-Ange stood, and bowed her head, offering a quiet prayer of thanks to... whomever was listening, be it her God, or the saints, or Odin, or the mysterious figures. Someone would hear, she knew. As she opened her eyes, she saw the corner of one last card peeking out from under her boot.

After she picked it up, and brushed the dust and dead bugs from it's face, and saw the tree, and the man, upsidedown but smiling, she smiled, and then tucked the card inside one of her pockets. She could show Cain later, if he wished to know.

A sudden gasp announced Wanda's sudden awakening and she sat up fast, grabbing her head. "Ow," she grated, blinking the dirt out of her eyes. "I should not have looked, that was a dumb move on my part." Turning her head she stared at Cain.

"What did I miss?"

Cain chuckled, helping Wanda to her feet and leading her to the plane, with Sam and Marie-Ange close behind. "End of the world stuff. Nothing major. Hey, if I beat a god in a cage match, does this mean I have to buy drinks...?"