He could feel the glory of times past in the centre of his mind and it was if he were actually there.

He sat astride his horse, a giant of a beast as they flashed through the open countryside, his sword at his side and his badge of office around his neck. He was one of the Chosen, the elite Knights, answerable only to Arthur himself. The people adored him, his enemies feared him, and he was almost a force of nature in himself.

The world was a darker, more dangerous place than people realised. The mythology of dragons, wizards and black knights were not too far from the truth. Such creatures existed, except they were demons. Their unearthly powers gave credence to the myths and the Chosen were Arthur's defence against the forces of darkness that attacked the world, hoping to make it their own.

Arthur himself was the wielder of the enchanted blade Excalibur, forged by Merlin from otherworldly metals and infused with the powers of the Lady of the Lake. The sword was not his by right but by choice. The sword had chosen him, selecting one man at a time when the country was at war with itself as the demon hordes turned tribes against each other, killing Kings and usurping their position.

If it were not for the strength of Arthur's spirit they would all have surely perished at each other's hands, leaving the world clear to be taken by the demonic hordes and their leader, the demon Queen Khan. His horse reared suddenly, breaking him from his reveries as Khan stood before him and he knew they had met once before. He held his horse firm as he looked her in the eye, and he knew he was no match for her.

He was many things, but he was not Arthur.

"I have tasted your blood," she spoke, "I have feasted on your soul. I know what you are, puny ape-creature. You have no power, you have no warrior soul. You are less than nothing to me." He felt her grip him in a mystical hold and begin to squeeze him and she shook off her hideous form to reveal another more familiar figure..

"Courtney?" he asked as he felt his body being crushed by her power, blood pouring from his eyes, nose, ears and mouth as it was forced out of him.

"Lover," she rasped and he felt his body squelch in to a pulp.

Brian awoke to find himself alone on the moors, the sun beating down on his face, yet a cold breeze blew across him and he shivered not only at the cold but at the vision he had just experienced.

The dream had been so real, almost as real as the reality he had experienced those precious few hours ago. He placed his hands on his neck, feeling the scar tissue there where the demon had bitten in to him and drained his blood. He could also feel the slight indents of her fingers on his temples as she had drained his soul. She had killed him, ruthlessly and without remorse and he had been powerless before her. Yet he was alive.

He had been killed by power beyond his comprehension and he had been restored by powers beyond his comprehension. Merlin and Roma, he could see their faces, their words and he looked at his side. A sword lay in the grass, and he slowly picked it up. Instinctively, he held it aloft and it was as if he had held it all his life. This sword had power within it, he could feel it and he made a gesture of sheathing the blade, only to find an invisible scabbard at his side. It accepted the sword gladly and then it was if it were not there at all. For a moment he had thought it lost and summoned it, reaching to it with his very soul and there it was, invisible but he knew it would be there when he needed it.

Then he felt the slight weight around his neck and he could see the pendant hanging there. The Heart of the Lady they had called it, before Merlin had plunged the sword through the pendant and in to Brian's heart. He remembered that vividly and looked for some king of mark, but there was not even a bruise. He touched the pendant and he felt himself being clothed in what felt looked like armour but felt like silk as the mystical powers were called upon.

He could feel his body growing in height and stature, his own natural musculature being enhanced, his very body becoming harder, powerful, the mystical forces binding themselves to him, making him more than he had been, but he knew he this was as he had always been. What was it that had Merlin had called him?

Britain. He was Britain. It didn't sound quite right, but that was the title he had been given and that was the name he would use. He wasn't fond of hiding his identity, though he doubted anyone would recognise him, and he wondered if the suit could do with a cape or if there were any modifications he could make to it. At some point he decided to see what made these things tick, though he would have to be careful. With all the mutants and such that were appearing of late, metahumans were often met with distrust and fear, so perhaps a codename was the best thing after all.

However, he now knew there were more things to fear in the world other than evil mutants and now he had a score to settle.

"Let's see exactly what I can do," he said and let the instincts that he seemed to have obtained with this transformation take over. To his great delight, he found that, somehow, he could fly.

Khan smiled as she addressed her people. The ceremony was complete and now she added the missing aspect, she would easily do the work that was laid out. The Denouement was coming, but with the British Government poised to destroy her life's work, she needed to act. What she had in mind was one of the most audacious atrocities in British history, up there with the Gunpowder Plot of 1605 and the terrorist bombing of Brighton in 1984.

Her people were ready and waiting for her signal. Mutant radicals would be blamed and the world would be set alight by the racial intolerance and sheer prejudicial nature of humanity. Black against white, Jew against Turk, mutant against flatscan, it was all the same. All it needed was someone to light the match and humanity would start one of these foolish race wars. This time it would be their undoing.

Across the crowded hallway she addressed her people - demons, half-breed demons and possessed humans - all gathered together for the commands of their leader and their Queen. At her biding they would see this world burn and break, ensuring that the Denouement would occur and that reality would become nothing more than a plaything of the Nether Dimension.

"My children," she finally spoke. "My children, this will be a day long remembered in history. The human race thinks that the only problems are those that their logical minds can deal with. We are the stuff of their nightmares, plaguing humanity for generations, but now our time is at hand.

"This slaughter will not only be a sacrifice to the elder gods, but will strike a blow deep in the heart of their current ambitions. In their ignorant foolishness they have unwittingly laid foundations to thwart our progression, and this will cost them their lives, their souls, their very beings. This is more than a retaliatory strike against their minor political wrangling, but a first shot in their third world war."

The cheers went up from the floor and the demon army began to take their human forms. Khan herself shifted in to her guise of Courtney Ross. Using her position within the government she would make a speech about the evils of crime, turn in on the very politicians themselves and then the slaughter would begin. Every last man, woman and child in the place would be brutally savaged, their carcasses fed upon and their souls transformed in to demonic entities that would bolstering her army.

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland would be stripped of its leaders, it's commanders, leaving only the armed forces in charge. They were men of action not planning, their strategic thinking in terms of combat not government. The so-called European Union would step in to take control, but the British were a xenophobic race at heart that despised the attempts of foreigners telling them what to do. The anger in their hearts at the unwarranted deaths of their political figures would turn them against Europe and the fires of righteous indignation would blaze.

Soon the carnage would start and it would be the beginning of the end for the rule of the ape.

From Otherworld, Merlin and Roma watched the meeting and saw the plans that were being made by the demon horde and they knew how close to the abyss everything stood and that this would accelerate the Denouement before they were ready for it.

"Father, will Britain be able to stand against them and their power?" asked Roma.

"What do the scrolls say?" enquired Merlin, not once taking his gaze off Khan. It had been many, many years since they had done battle and she had fled where he could not follow. Since then he had been able to send champions from Otherworld to lead the front line in the defence of the universe, but this was the first time he had chosen a man from Earth to be the defender, even with the truth of who he was.

His thoughts flashed quickly to Roma, and from her silence Merlin knew she was reading the scrolls for an answer, for there should be an indication in the prophecies, now that they had chosen a new champion. However the length of her deliberations intrigued him.

"They do not say," she answered after a little while longer. "It is as if the future is in doubt as to what will occur and not even the elder gods can say." At that Merlin smiled. The bending of the rules on both sides of the war had silenced even the fates and now seemingly all creation held its breath.

"Yes," he said, calmly. "I believe he will."

Brian could feel the power within him as he flew, as if the magics were rewriting the pathways in his brain, allowing him to do these wondrous things. He knew that he could do these things, but he didn't know what they were yet. It would be a wild ride finding out though, he decided.

There were also more flashes of the previous night coming back to him and he remembered what he had seen, that the demon that had killed him had been Courtney Ross. He couldn't believe it, that his girlfriend was not a human, that she had kept this secret from him for so very long. The more he thought about it, the more preposterous it seemed to him, and he knew he had to find the place where they had been taken.

He covered the countryside at incredible speeds, but it was like looking for a needle in a haystack so he landed and thought about what he needed to do, and wondered if one of his new tricks would help him. He thought about if for a moment and his hand instinctively went to Excalibur and he pulled it from the sheath and it became visible in the open air.

This sword held the answer he needed; he could feel it and he held it aloft, the hilt in both hands. There was a crackling of energy and the sword seemed to be pulling him in a specific direction, as if drawn to something. Brian put the sword back. He had a direction from the sword and he hoped the demonic forces at work in the world had drawn it. He just though about taking flight and he did so, there was no jump or anything like that to propel him, he just did it and he shook his head in amazement.

He quickly headed in the direction he had been given.

"Miss Ross!" exclaimed one of the police officers investigating the events of the pervious night. The police who'd been on guard were dead, there were signs of a break in and Miss Ross and Mr Braddock were missing. So far, they'd managed to keep it out of the press, but they knew it would come out sooner or later. Seeing her turn up on her doorstep was unexpected.

"Help me," said Courtney weakly as she stumbled in to the officer's arms, just as Alex Knox came out.

"Good God," he said. "Get her in here." He came out to give the officer a hand and they brought her inside. After the doctors had checked her out, the officer started to ask some questions.

"I'm sorry to do this," the officer said, "but I must ask you what happened."

"I don't know," she stammered, and Alex took her hand.

"Cor," he said, "we have to find out what happened. Where's Brian?"

"Oh, God, Alex, they killed him. I saw the Vixen order him shot in front of me."

Then she told the story of what had happened, how she and Brian had been having a quiet night in, when there had been gas pumped in to the room. When she had come round, she and Brian were in the same room, with Vixen and her henchmen standing before her, going on about how she would break her and that no little bitch would ruin a life's work. Vixen had demanded that the measures be dropped; citing pressure from the EU and Courtney had refused to compromise her principles.

"Good for you, girl," said Alex softly.

"She asked me if that was my final answer, as if I were a contestant on the Millionaire show and I said yes so she ordered her men to shoot Brian. As he bled to death, she told me that if I conceded she'd get Brian medical help. I wanted to and I almost gave in, but Brian died faster than she'd expected him to and I vowed never to help. She stormed off; saying there would be other ways and left me alone. I could smell Brian's blood next to me in the darkness."

"How did you get free?" asked the officer, writing all of this down in his notebook.

"I..." said Courtney, her lip quivering. "One of the guards... I let him... Oh, God..."

"You had sex with him," said the officer.

"Do you have to be so blunt, man?" asked Alex.

"No, Alex," said Courtney. "There is no nice way of saying it. Yes, I did. As he did so, I got hold of his gun and fired, and then I pushed him off of me. I started running and I got here. I was so scared." The tears began to run down her face.

"Exactly how far did you run?" asked the officer, concerned at the irregularities with the story.

"That's enough," said Alex to him. "Leave it, man. Surely this can wait until later."

"I think you're right, sir," said the officer. "Ma'am." Then he left.

"Cor, I'm so sorry," said Alex after a moment or two of silence. "We'll get the bastards. I promise."

"I know," she sniffed. Then she looked at him. "Alex, I have to get changed. I have to get to Westminster."

"What?" said Alex, disbelieving what she had just said.

"I have to make a statement to the house, I have to show Vixen that she can't influence the democratic process with intimidation and murder. I'll make her pay."

"I don't think it's such a good idea to go back so soon," said Alex, but Courtney was already on her feet, undoing the buttons on her blouse.

"I have to," she said, turning towards him, her upper body exposed to him, her breasts peeking out from over the top of her bra. Alex could feel his mouth going dry and he couldn't answer her. So she left, raking off her bra as she did so.

"Yup, this is a really bad idea," muttered Alex. Courtney wasn't exactly conservative, but that had would have been over the top for... well he couldn't think of a word, just her cleavage. "Oh, fucking grow up," he chided himself and went to call for a car.

Brian arrived at a secluded bunker, deep within the moors. It was an old, disused American military bunker from its design and he knew a few things about these, how deep underground they went. He landed close to it and he could see that the doors hadn't been used in some time, or at least that was how it appeared. The lock was an antiquated combination thing, with ten punch buttons that needed to be pressed in the right order for the lock to open and allow him access.

He didn't have that kind of time and he cracked his knuckles and punched at the thing, His blow brought a substantial section of the concrete down around him and he smiled.

"Not too shabby, Britain," he said to himself and stepped forward. The place seemed virtually empty as he made his was down to the lower levels. He didn't want to alert any foes, but he needed to know if there was anyone down here.

"Hello?" he called. "Anyone in here?"

"Help me," came a faint voice and Brian only just heard it.

"Hello!" he called again. "Where are you?"

"Over here," the voice called.

"Keep speaking, I'll follow the sound of your voice," he said and he made his way to the sounds, eventually coming across a doorway. "Stand clear," he said as he pulled the door from its hinges and casually tossed it aside. He couldn't see in the half-light of the cell and he spoke again, more softly this time. "Hello?"

"Brian?" came the voice and Brian caught a glimpse of movement in the shadows.

"Courtney," he said, stepping back in fear.

"Brian?" she spoke again, crawling across the floor in to the light. "Help me." He saw her, her skin all floppy with no support to her body at all. Her eyes were not as sharp as they had been and he could see her breathing was shallow. He knew this wasn't the person who'd attacked him, killed him. Someone, something had used the both of them.

"Cor," he said, removing the headpiece of his uniform. "It's me."

"She separated me from my skeleton," she said, as Brian cradled her head in his arms. "She stole it from me, said she needed it for herself. Brian, help me." Brian looked at her and wondered what the hell he could do for her. All this strength, this power that he possessed was useless.

"I'll get it back," he said. "I swear, but I need to know where she went."

"She said something about rectifying a deed undone of years past and that she needed me to enter the gates."

"Gates?" thought Brian. "Oh, hell." The most important gates that Courtney had access to were the symbols of the Houses of Parliament. That had to be her goal and he was probably the only person with a chance of stopping her. "I'll be back, love, I swear." He put the helmet on again and this time flew straight up, crashing through the tons of stone and headed for London, praying that he'd be in time.

"Alex," said W, who'd come across to the House for a meeting of the heads of section for Intelligence. He was just waiting for a ride back to the MI6 offices and he knew Alex from some work they'd done on an OSCAR/XL joint operation one time.

"W," said Alex, who was waiting for a car to take him back to OSCAR. "You heard anything on the streets about Brian Braddock?"

"Other than the fact he an' 'is lady got whacked last night? Nah, though I've heard the police reports on her unexpected return."

"Damn, I was hoping there was something," said Alex. "It's so damned pointless."

"Everyone knew the risks when this policy was announced. This wasn't unexpected because everything was announced too early. Bloody electioneering."

"W, you know if it hadn't been done like this..."

"Yeah, yeah, there wouldn't have been enough time to get it through the houses and make it a law. Still doesn't make it right."

"Well, if you hear anything..."

"I'll give you a call. What's happening n there anyway?" asked W as he gestured toward the House of Commons.

"James Jaspers is making all the points you just did, plus more and for reasons a lot less practical. Courtney's going to make a counter speech."

"As I said," replied W shaking his head, "bloody electioneering."

"Mr Knox, you're car is ready," said one of the clerks and Alex thanked him.

"Later, man," he said and he and W shook hands. W nodded and watched as Alex left the building. All of a sudden he felt like a cigarette and went to stand outside.

Then there was a large explosion in the House of Commons.

Next issue: Britain makes his first public appearance, but will it be enough to save the British Political system and, more importantly, Courtney Ross?