Chapter 106: The Fate of All Paradise
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Madelyne Pryor stood at the edge of the celebration, one hand pressed against her temple as she watched Ben and Emma Frost move together on the dance floor. The White Queen's black dress caught the light with every turn, creating a stark contrast against Ben's white suit.
They moved with surprising grace, Ben's earlier protests about not dancing apparently forgotten.
A small smile tugged at Madelyne's lips despite the persistent throb behind her eyes. After what she, Ben, and Jessica had shared just nights ago, jealousy seemed almost quaint. The intimacy they'd discovered went beyond simple possession or competition.
Still, watching Emma press herself against him with calculated precision stirred something in her chest. Not jealousy exactly, but perhaps protectiveness. Emma Frost played games with everyone, and her Ben, for all his power, could be surprisingly naive about certain dangers.
The music swelled around her, that hopeful anthem that seemed to mock the visions burning behind her eyelids. She'd been the one to suggest it to the orchestra conductor, having heard it in Jessica's playlist a few days ago. Now her recorded voice carried across the plaza, weaving through the melody as mutants and humans alike swayed to the rhythm.
"Beautiful voice," Jean Grey materialized beside her, elegant in deep blue that complemented her natural red hair. "Though I don't remember teaching you that song."
Madelyne kept her eyes on the dancing couple. "Some things are mine alone."
Jean followed her gaze, watching as Emma whispered something in Ben's ear that made him laugh. "What do you think about that?"
"About what?" Madelyne asked, though she knew exactly what Jean meant.
"I know you care for him." Jean's voice carried no judgment, just gentle observation. "And Emma's intentions are about as subtle as a nuclear explosion. She wants him, probably for his power more than anything else."
Madelyne considered the words, watching Ben spin Emma with unexpected skill. The crowd had given them space, creating a small circle where the most dangerous telepath in the room danced with the boy who could become most anything.
"Emma wants everyone," Madelyne said finally. "It's her nature to collect powerful people like chess pieces. But Ben's not as easily captured as she thinks."
"You sound confident about that."
"I am." The memory of his hands on her skin, the way he'd looked at her not as Jean's shadow but as herself, gave weight to her words. "Ben sees people for who they are, not what they can do for him. It's his greatest strength and biggest weakness."
Jean made a thoughtful sound. "You've changed since leaving the mansion. You seem more..."
"Real?" Madelyne supplied with a bitter laugh. "Less like your defective copy?"
"Come on, I was going to say confident." Jean's hand briefly touched her shoulder, and Madelyne felt the genuine warmth there. "And you were never my copy. Sinister might have built you from my template, but everything you've become is yours."
Before Madelyne could respond, Storm's voice called out from across the plaza. "Jean, Charles needs you. Something about the Wakandan delegation."
Jean squeezed Madelyne's shoulder once more before departing, leaving her alone again at the party's edge. The irony wasn't lost on her. Even in a crowd of thousands, she stood apart. Neither X-Man nor Brotherhood; a mutant sure, but an artificially created one. She was just Madelyne Pryor, the woman who shouldn't exist.
"You look like you could use a drink." Gwen appeared at her elbow, pressing a glass of something sparkling into her hand. "Or maybe three."
"Just thinking," Madelyne replied, accepting the drink gratefully. She actually liked Gwen a lot, and perhaps there was more to it than both of them being redheads.
"Dangerous hobby at parties." Gwen's green eyes sparkled with mischief. "Have you tried the food? There's this thing that looks like crystallized starlight but tastes like chocolate. I may have eaten twelve."
Despite her mood, Madelyne found herself smiling. "Crystallized starlight?"
"Mutant chef with matter manipulation powers. Turns out you can do amazing things when you rearrange molecules for flavor instead of fighting." Gwen grabbed her hand, tugging her toward one of the floating tables. "Come on, you need to try this before Jubilee and Kitty eat them all."
They spent several minutes sampling increasingly bizarre delicacies, Gwen providing running commentary that ranged from hilarious to mildly disturbing.
It was nice, Madelyne realized. Normal. Or as normal as anything could be when you were eating food that technically shouldn't exist at a party for a nation that challenged the world order.
"I need some air," Madelyne said eventually, the press of so many minds making her headache worse despite the mental shields she maintained.
"Want company?" Gwen offered, but Madelyne shook her head.
"Just need a moment."
She made her way through the crowd, politely deflecting attempts at conversation. Near the main doors, Sebastian Shaw intercepted her path, his bulk blocking her exit with practiced casualness.
"Ms. Pryor," his voice rumbled like distant thunder. "Leaving so soon? The night's barely begun."
"Just stepping out for a moment, Mr. Shaw." She kept her voice neutral, though every instinct screamed danger. Shaw radiated the kind of power that came not from mutation but from absolute certainty in his own superiority.
"I've been hoping to speak with you." He moved closer, close enough that she could smell his expensive cologne mixed with something darker. "A woman of your particular gifts shouldn't be wasting time with children playing hero. The Hellfire Club could offer you so much more."
The Phoenix seed stirred in response to his proximity, recognizing a predator. Children playing hero? He means Ben? Hot and pure anger surged within her.
"I'm quite happy with my current arrangements," she said.
"Happiness is temporary. Power is eternal." His hand reached toward her arm, and she saw the calculation in his eyes. The belief that every woman had a price, that enough pressure would crack any resistance.
"If you'll excuse me," she said, sidestepping him with fluid grace. "The air inside has become rather stifling."
His laugh followed her out, dark and knowing. "Think about my offer, Ms. Pryor. Opportunities like this don't come often."
She wanted to smack his face, but she held herself back.
****
The night air hit her like a blessing, cool and clean after the press of bodies inside. Genosha spread before her in all its impossible glory, a city that shouldn't exist functioning perfectly.
Bioluminescent gardens traced patterns through the streets while floating structures hummed with gentle energy. In the distance, she could hear celebration, millions of voices raised in joy as fireworks painted the sky in colors that had no names.
The music from inside drifted out, that hopeful anthem continuing its loop. Happy nation, living in a happy nation. Below, mutant children played in the streets, their laughter carrying on the wind. A couple flew past, hand in hand, the woman's wings carrying them both while the man created small fireworks that spelled out words of love.
This was what they, the mutantkind, had built. This impossible dream had been made real. And despite Ben's warnings, despite the visions that plagued her sleep, nothing had happened. The ceremony had been beautiful. The world had watched Genosha open its doors without violence, without catastrophe.
Maybe he'd been wrong. Maybe the future could be changed simply by existing in it.
"Taking a breather?"
She turned to find Ben approaching, his white suit slightly rumpled from dancing, his tie loosened. The moonlight caught his dark brown hair, making him look older than his years.
"How was your dance with the White Queen?" she asked, unable to keep the teasing note from her voice.
He laughed, running a hand through his hair. "Exhausting. Emma doesn't do anything halfway. She's definitely trying to get her hooks in me."
"And?"
"Uhh, I don't know. Maybe it's kind of working," he admitted with a sheepish grin. "She's not that bad. She definitely wants me for my power, but it's not like she's hiding that fact. She's not trying to make me fall in love with her. She's brilliant, dangerous, and knows exactly which buttons to push. It's like playing chess with someone who can see five moves ahead and looks incredible while destroying you."
Madelyne raised an eyebrow. "Should Jessica be worried?"
"Jessica would probably find it hilarious. She'd place bets on who wins." He moved to stand beside her, looking out at the celebrating city. "Haven't seen you at the party much."
"I was there," she laughed softly. "Standing at the edges, watching everyone else pretend the world isn't holding its breath."
"How are you feeling?" He turned to face her fully, genuine concern in his eyes. "The headaches?"
"Better now, actually," she said, the truth. "I started feeling better right after I walked out. The fresh air helps with..." She trailed off as warmth spread across her upper lip. Her hand came away red. Blood trickled down her nose.
"Maddie?" Ben stepped closer, alarm replacing casual concern.
Before she could respond, someone burst through the doors behind them, not from the party but from the street entrance. A man in military gear, scarred and weathered, his eyes wild with urgency.
"Stop the music!" he shouted, voice raw with desperation. "Stop the music now!"
They both turned, and Madelyne frowned. She knew that face, had seen it in Jean's memories. Cable. The time-traveler who appeared at moments of crisis, always too late to prevent disaster but never stopping his attempts to change the past. Whose actual name nobody knew.
"Cable?" she asked, but he'd nearly frozen in time. His attention had already fixed on Ben, more specifically on the Omnitrix glowing softly on his wrist.
In one fluid motion, Cable drew a massive futuristic gun, pointing it directly at Ben's head. "You. You bastard!"
Madelyne moved without thinking, stepping between them, her hands already glowing with telekinetic energy. "What the hell are you doing?!"
"Get out of the way," Cable's voice was ice, his eyes never leaving Ben. "You don't understand what he is. What he becomes!"
"I become?" Ben's voice was steady, but Madelyne could hear the tension. His hand hovered near the Omnitrix, ready to transform at the first sign of violence.
"You… The destroyer. The ender of worlds." Cable's finger tightened on the trigger. "In my time, you're the greatest villain Earth has ever known. The one who broke reality itself."
The accusation hung in the air like poison. Behind them, the music continued its cheerful loop, mocking the tension with its optimism.
Cable's expression shifted, frustration replacing hatred. "But none of this matters if we don't stop the music. You'll die here anyway. Everyone will."
Ben's attention shifted to the side, his face going pale. "Oh shit."
A crackling sound filled the air as space itself seemed to tear. Charmcaster tumbled through a portal that looked nothing like Doctor Strange's clean circles. This was raw, desperate magic, edges sparking with barely controlled power. She was drenched in sweat, her usually perfect appearance disheveled, eyes wide with terror.
"I'm sorry," she gasped, hands on her knees. "Sorry for the delay. The wards, they were hiding them, I couldn't..."
"What's going on?" Ben demanded, but she shook her head frantically.
"No time to explain! Just go! Get everyone and..."
"That no man's fit to rule the world alone,
A man will die, but not his ideas…"
"TURN OFF THE MUSIC!" Cable roared simultaneously.
Around this time. In a world Madelyne didn't know about. She ceased to exist. The coming explosion was fated to engulf and kill her. Her short, miserable life was supposed to end.
This time around, that fate had a Ben Tennyson standing against it.
"No need." Understanding dawned on Ben's face like sunrise after the longest night. His hand was already on the Omnitrix. "I got this."
The device flared green, brighter than Madelyne had ever seen it. The transformation was instant, Ben's form blurring into something built for speed. XLR8.
And in that moment of transformation, the green light, the world ended.
Light erupted across Genosha. Not from one source but dozens, hundreds. Beams of coherent energy are designed for one purpose. Complete annihilation.
The closest one was already hitting nearby buildings, the explosion racing toward them like a wall of destruction. But the largest, most powerful beam was aimed directly at their gathering, at the heart of Genosha's celebration.
****
Time crawled like honey for Ben Tennyson.
His XLR8 form perceived the world in microseconds, each heartbeat an eternity. Even the beam of destruction approaching them seemed to move at a leisurely pace, though he knew it was traveling at significant fractions of light speed.
Sentinels. The word burned in his mind as he processed what he was seeing. But how? From where? The sky had been clear moments ago. No aircraft, no orbital platforms visible. Had they been cloaked? Hidden in some pocket dimension? Teleported at the last second?
Questions for later. Now, he had work to do.
The explosion from the nearby strike was already expanding, sending debris toward the party at velocities that would shred normal humans. One beam, the largest, would hit the palace in 2.7 seconds of real-time. An eternity for XLR8.
His heart hammered impossibly fast, even for his accelerated form. The strain was already building. He wasn't the Flash with access to the Speed Force. He was just an alien with biological limits, no matter how extreme they seemed.
First priority was Madelyne and Charmcaster. Cable could take care of himself, the time-traveler had survived worse. Ben grabbed both women, their forms feeling like statues in his grip, and accelerated. The world blurred past as he carried them five blocks away, setting them down in what he hoped was a safe zone.
Back. Gwen and Grandpa Max next. His muscles were already burning, metabolism consuming energy at an impossible rate. He grabbed a handful of food from a floating table as he passed, shoving it in his mouth without tasting. The calories burned instantly, buying him a few more seconds of peak performance.
Gwen was mid-conversation with Jubilee, her mouth open in laughter that would never complete. Grandpa Max stood near Xavier, one hand somehow already moving to activate his suit. They'd live.
One by one, he grabbed everyone. Emma Frost, her diamond form just beginning to manifest as her mind processed the danger. Shaw, his absorption powers starting to activate but far too slow. Magneto, whose head had turned toward the beams, his magnetic senses screaming warnings his body couldn't act on fast enough.
Storm's eyes were beginning to glow white. She'd noticed. So had several others. But noticing and acting were separated by chasms of time at this speed.
He saved them all. Every dignitary, every mutant, every human who'd come to celebrate or condemn. His legs felt like they were on fire, his lungs desperate for oxygen despite his accelerated breathing. He grabbed more food, a drink, anything to keep his system from completely shutting down.
The children were the hardest. Their small forms were so fragile at these speeds. He had to be careful not to snap their necks with the acceleration. One girl with butterfly wings. A boy whose skin was living jewel. Dozens of others, each one a life that wouldn't end today if he could help it.
Everyone from the party had been brought out. Even Cable, at the last. Now, Ben looked around. Who else could he save? Where else could he run to? But even as he thought, he could see the other beams hitting across the island. Buildings vaporizing. Streets turning to glass. And the people...
There were millions on Genosha. He was fast, but not that fast. Not omnipresent. He could save thousands, but hundreds of thousands would still...
His transformation gave out.
Ben Tennyson collapsed to his knees in human form, chest heaving, sweat pouring down his face. Around him, the world snapped back to normal speed as explosions bloomed across Genosha like deadly flowers.
The saved stood in shocked confusion, their minds struggling to process the sudden displacement. They'd been at a party. Now they stood in an emergency shelter three blocks away while their city burned.
"HUMANS!" Magneto's roar shook the ground itself, metal responding to his rage by trembling throughout the structure. "HUMANS HUMANS HUMANS! They dare? They DARE?!"
But even his rage was drowned out by something worse.
The telepaths began screaming. Not in pain but in anguish as they felt it. Hundreds of thousands of minds crying out in terror and then going silent. The emotional weight of genocide crashed into them like a physical blow.
Emma Frost, even in diamond form, fell to her knees. Jean Grey pressed her hands to her temples, tears streaming down her face. Even Xavier, for all his experience, looked like he'd aged a decade in seconds.
Madelyne stood frozen, her face pale as the Phoenix seed responded to the mass death with hungry interest. So much life force released at once. So much potential fuel for rebirth or revenge.
Ben remained on his knees, fists clenched so tight his nails drew blood from his palms. He'd known. He'd warned them. He'd prepared.
And it hadn't been enough.
He'd saved thousands, yes. The leadership of Genosha survived. The X-Men lived. The dignitaries who'd witnessed this atrocity could tell the world what happened here.
But Genosha itself...
The paradise was burning. The dream was dying. And all his speed, all his transformations, all his foreknowledge hadn't been enough to stop it.
The beautiful ceremony had become exactly what he'd feared. A funeral for hope itself.
Above them, the night sky flickered with unnatural light as more beams began to charge. The Sentinels weren't done. The genocide had only just begun.
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