'Vae victis' - Livy, History

('Woe to the vanquished' - David)

He awoke from what seemed to be a deep sleep.

"You will not believe the dream I just had, sweet thing," he said his eyes, half open. "I dreamt I was killed again, but came back as a ball of energy and had to give myself form as a glowing being of energy. Thank God it was just a dream," he said opening his eyes and glancing down, seeing his arms, his legs.

(as seen in X-Men 2099 #35 - David)

Suddenly he was wide awake, as his dream was dream no longer. "SHOCK!" cried Timothy Fitzgerald, as he realised he was a being of green electrical energy, with mass and form so that he could touch, feel and hold. "It wasn't a dream," he whispered. "Luna," he turned to see his lady love and found his movement somehow obstructed and a familiar face in front of him.

"So you're awake now, meat," said the figure in front of him. The voice was like the roar of a sky-cycle, the stench of motor oil came from the mouth as it opened to form the words and the grey motion of steel assured Tim that it was not La Lunatica in front of him.

"Junkpile!" he said, barely able to believe his eyes... or what passed for his eyes. This new form was going to take some getting used to and he wished he had a mirror. The visor that Junkpile wore in front of his eyes was opaque and gave no reflection at all.

"We've not seen you since the Theatre of Pain."

(in the classic X-Men 2099 #25 - David)

"You mean when that bitch you're seeing psionically raped me? You didn't exactly spend much time looking for me."

"You're alive," came a third voice. "And the X-Men had more urgent concerns." Tim turned to see where the voice was coming from, and though he could only move very slightly he managed to catch a glimpse of the third member of the group. It was a guise he had only seen once before, but he remembered the face well.

(in the X-Men 2099: Oasis one-shot - David)

"Bloodhawk."

"Well met, Fitzgerald," said Bloodhawk, "you have been sorely missed in the Savage Land. Unlike our compatriot." Bloodhawk still held a grievance from his last meeting with Junkpile, where Bloodhawk's wing had been badly wounded.

(waaaaay back in X-Men 2099 #3 - David)

"The Savage Land," said Tim as he began to remember what had happened. "I remember! The waters had covered Halo City just as we'd defeated Vulcann and freed Joaquim from his influence. We were sailing in that direction under your guidance," he nodded as much as he could in Bloodhawk's direction, "when the storms came."

The waters had lashed high, threatening the lives of all onboard the vessel taking the survivors of the flood to the relative safety of the Savage Land. Tim had flown up - he had the ability to fly by lowering the weight of his energy form - and absorbed the power of the clouds before returning to the boat. There had been an energy build up, as the storms were not natural ones and he had to flee from the area to discharge the energy. The Savage Land was before them and he had landed there and released the power.

"I remember nothing after that," he said.

"We thought you were dead," explained Bloodhawk. "We saw the flash of green light from the shores of the Savage Land, and then we saw nothing else. Shakti could no longer sense your presence and we could find no trace of you on land, except a scorch mark. There was nothing left, and we thought the discharge had drained all that you had become, leaving nothing. You were dead and we mourned your loss once more."

(Tim 'died' twice before in X-Men 2099 #26 and #34 - David)

"I was teleported," he said, in a distant voice. "I was captured. I... don't remember his face. Those eyes, the power being drained from me."

"I watched him do it," said Junkpile. "I watched him restrain you in those psionic bands, encasing you, stopping you from moving. I heard you cry out in pain whilst he drained the life-force from you. You seem to be eternal, meat, and all I could think of was that I was glad it was no longer me."

"He was doing the same to you?" asked Tim.

"Oh yeah," said Junkpile. "After I recovered, I found the Theatre shut down, Brimstone Love gone, and the place deserted. I'd been abandoned by Doom, by the X-Men, and by the Theatre. They didn't even bother to kill me, so I started walking. Then I found this thing in the desert. It seemed to be a tomb of some kind, and tombs generally equal treasure, which means money which means I can start again. The Lawless did that kind of thing all the time and nothing had happened so I figured what was the harm? Serves me right for thinking that..."

He paused before continuing, "I entered the tomb only to find what seemed to be some kind of cryogenic system with computers and stuff. It looked out of place in the middle of the desert wastes and I found the letter X sealed on it. X-Men, I thought, or one of the groups at least. I opened it. During the Sentinel Dawn they'd made a lot of these hidey-holes for protection, or so I'd heard Xi'an say at Nuevo Sol. I opened it and inside was a red skinned freak. He opened his eyes and hit me with a minor psionic blast, which my psi-dampner deflected. He smiled and called me a challenge and unleashed what he had at me, and a lot stronger than the first. He kicked my tail, and watched as my body began to rebuild itself."

(the first base of the X-Men, first seen way back in X-Men 2099 #1 - David)

(as revealed in X-Men 2099 #2 - David)

"He saw that I could possibly live forever and began to drain my energies that enabled me to rebuild myself. Then he left me to recover, and returned stronger than ever. He wanted to know more about the X-Men, and psionically took all that I knew. Then he left and came back with you Fitzgerald. You've been his meal ticket ever since."

"So where are we?" asked Skullfire.

"The Savage Land," said Bloodhawk. "At least, a citadel just outside of it, where Antarctica and the Savage Land meet. I found it when I was checking the damage to the planet after the collapse of the cosmic barrier."

(in the 2099: Manifest Destiny one-shot - David)

"The what?" asked Tim and Junkpile.

"Later," said Bloodhawk. "I was about to call it in to Xavier City," shooting a look at the others before they asked where, "when I was hit with a psionic blast."

"From the red skinned freak?" asked Tim.

"Yes," came a voice as their host entered the room. "It was my psionic blast that felled the winged one, just as I drain the power from you. I keep Junkpile alive so I can learn more of this Xi'an Chi Xan. I'd have thought that the accursed X-Men would be long forgotten by now."

"And who the shock are you?" asked Tim, straining to free himself, wanting a crack at their captor. Junkpile shook his head, knowing that it was useless.

"You ask that every time you awaken... I must be more careful when draining you. My real name is Bennet du Paris, but you can call me Exodus!"

"The X-Men are no more," said the green-haired Morphine Somers.

Before him stood Luna, Henri, Krys and Eddie. Behind him were the remaining members of the Xavier City Council.

"Come again?" asked Eddie, wondering what the man was up to now. There wasn't a person in the room who trusted Morphine Somers.

"The ideal that the X-Men represent, humans and mutants working together is no longer viable," explained Xi'an. "How can you promote a dream when there are no humans amongst the group. The dream of Charles Xavier is fulfilled within the city, by what it represents and the council. The X-Men and the reputation that goes with it can only do us harm."

"The man has a point," said Henri Huang to his friends. "So it's over? The group spilts up and we all head off in to the sunset?"

"No," said Victor Ten Eagles, "what we need to do is re-evaluate what the ideal means."

"Avengers. Defenders. Champions." said Morphine. "The Fantastic Four aside, there are no super teams anymore. All have fallen by the wayside. Except the X-Men. From Cable to Bishop, everyone knew that the X-Men would always be there. They just didn't say in what form. The X-Men are the new avengers of injustice, the latest defenders of the dream, and the next champions of peace."

"Is he on stims or am I?" asked Luna.

"Morphine has provided us with an alternative to letting the team die," said Shakti. "The rep of the X-Men will no longer be with what we and they did, but what we do now."

"What do you mean?" asked Krys, who was, as usual, remaining the calmest member of the group thus far.

"I have spoken with Miguel," said Xi'an, "and he recognises the fact that the X-Men need a new role. When I put this to him, he was most enthusiastic. We will have legitimacy, like we had in Halo City, but on a global scale."

(Miguel O'Hara, Spider-Man 2099, leader of the world as of the 2099: Manifest Destiny one-shot - David)

"Travelling the Earth, sorting out the problems that others won't dirty their hand on?" asked Luna, with a snarl.

"That they don't have time to deal with," said Victor.

"Face it boys and girls," said Morphine. "It's this way, or no way."

The discussion was at an end, but the debate was far from over.

After the X-Men had left the offices of the High Council, they had broken up to mull over it in their own way. The first place Eddie went was to see Rosa.

"What happened?" she asked and Eddie explained the plan, what it meant. "My word!" she said.

"Or something similar," replied Eddie. "I don't know... I don't know if I want to do this anymore. It's not the same. It's all changed. Tina and Tim are dead, Bloodhawk is missing, Junkpile - well he betrayed us, so nobody really misses him. Shakti's a cripple, and we're no longer feared and hated... mostly. These aren't the X-Men I knew. I doubt if anyone knows them anymore..."

"Then maybe the Council are right," said Rosa. "Times have changed, the planet has changed. We have to change with it."

"I know," said Eddie. "Look at me. Look at Joaquim. We've both changed. I'm just not sure I fit in the X-Men anymore."

"It's an all new, all different X-Men," said Rosa, putting her arm around her lover. "There's no place for the old Edward Van Beethoven, but you've been gone a while. You're a different Edward Van Beethoven. You're different, they're different. So you have something in common. And besides, isn't it because of all people working with their differences, no matter what they are, that the X-Men were formed in the first place?"

Eddie nodded, "It's the reason I'm staying... but I still have my doubts."

"I know," said Rosa. "My only doubt about this is how much I'll miss you when you're gone!"

Eddie felt her hand on his shoulder and gave it a gentle tap.

"Thanks," she smiled.

"What?" asked Eddie.

"I think you broke my finger!"

"WHAT?" asked Eddie, all concerned that he couldn't control his own strength.

"Just kidding!" said Rosa with a smile. "See? Some doubts are groundless." She smiled and Eddie laughed. Rosa knew exactly how to make him feel better. For better or worse, he was back in the X-Men.

Krystaline sat outside in the warm sun of the Savage Land on a crystal seat of her own making. They had yet to experience a Savage Land winter, and if it was the same as the rest of the Antarctic, it would be very dark, if not cold. Then where would the priorities of the X-Men lie?

She couldn't answer that, and she wondered if the Council could either. It was a tempting prospect though. Imagine the good they could do, across the world. The abilities displayed by mutants marked them out as gods, why not act as benevolent ones. There were always going to be crooks out there...

Such as Morphine...

This had been his idea. The question she was asking herself and Luna had been asking out loud was why. To be honest, she seemed more on edge than usual, though Krys chalked it down to her grieving over Tim. The X-Men had become his, a destiny he'd never even thought about. A destiny created by Luna when she freed his mind of the limitations he placed upon himself. What would he think now?

(back in X-Men 2099 #4, Luna used her psionic vampirism on him, giving him control of his power - David)

"Hey!" said a familiar voice, and Krys turned to see Victor Ten Eagles. Her heart jumped at seeing him. After they'd last spoken, she'd wanted to talk to him throughout the meeting but he had avoided eye contact with her. Now, here he was.

(last issue - David)

"Hey," she said, making a seat for him with her powers. Victor sat down, noticing that there was a definite gap between them, and he wondered if it was a sign, and if so of what?

"So, what did you think?" He needed to talk with her, to tell her what was going on in his mind, but he couldn't say it out loud, so he started with a subject that concerned them both.

"I think there's something going on that we don't know about," she concluded. "What's Morphine's angle on this?"

"I don't know," said Victor. "He talked with sincerity, and did his best to keep the idea of the X-Men alive."

"I don't get it," said Krys. "The clues are there, but I'm not seeing it."

"Me neither. I hate being a step behind a toe rag like him!"

"Without the X-Men around he could start something going."

"I considered that, but with Xi'an and myself watching him I don't see that being a problem."

"Unless he gets rid of you..." said Krys.

"Unlikely."

"But be careful, please?" Victor looked at her as she said that, trying to discern whether it was friendly concern or something more. He couldn't tell. Then she stood up.

"You're leaving?" he asked, feeling a pang of disappointment.

"I have a workout with Luna," she said. "We meet around this time of day and have a girl to girl session. There's a lot more to her than most suspect."

Victor nodded. "Listen," he started, thinking that he just ought to ask her out for a meal or something. "I'll be careful around Morphine, and you be careful out there. I don't want to see your name on the memorial."

Krys nodded and left the area. Once she was out of sight, Victor punched the seat she had been sitting on with his bionic arm. It was frustration at his inability to deal with this.

'How the hell had this happened?' he mused. He got up himself and went for a walk, hoping to clear his head.

Morphine smiled as he watched the scene, the chat, all of it. He lit a cigarette and smiled.

"Gotcha, Vic!" he said, put his hands in his pockets, and walked back to the chambers, whistling an old tune from several centuries ago.

Shakti Haddad stopped her hoverchair by the statue of Charles Francis Xavier and read through the names. She looked at the man who stood before her, highlighted against a darkening sky as night slowly drew in. She didn't feel the cold of the night, as she didn't really feel anything anymore... except sorrow for her situation.

She wondered how Xavier had coped with his disability throughout the years. It was well documented that he was a cripple, and that for a brief period of time he had regained use of his legs. Then he had lost them again, however his powers remained. She wondered how much he wanted to walk again, given the amazing abilities he possessed. Probably as much as she would have given her soul to be able to feel the cool breeze of night against her skin, to be able to walk feeling the grass between her toes, to sense the warmth of sunlight on somewhere other than her face... even to be able to make love. But even in that respect she had nobody. She felt alone.

"Shakti Haddad?" asked a voice, and if she could have jumped she would have done. With her powers gone, she was helpless. Her fingers moved slightly, which was all they could do, but enough to move the chair, thanks to Reed Richards and Victor Ten Eagles. She saw the man in front of her.

"You?!"

The fedora hat he wore, the long brown overcoat, the white of his long white hair, the solid red eye and the creases in his time worn face gave him away. It was the man known only as Dust.

(they met in the 2099: Genesis one-shot - David)

"Damn, girl," he said, the old voice cracked with age and alcohol and other pressures. "What happened?"

"I..." Her voice began to falter as a tear ran down her cheek. Shakti told him the story, weeping for herself a bit, and Dust used a piece of cloth to dry her eyes. Then she looked at him.

"Why are you here?"

"Penance." said Dust, as he brushed the names on the statue with his finger. "Forgiveness. Redemption."

"From them?"

"From all who wear the X," said Dust. "I lied to you about the Messiah... I knew what was going on all along... I worked for Doom... There a place we can talk?"

"There's a little place around the corner. Meet me there tomorrow," she said. "I'm not in the mood right now."

"I understand," said Dust. "Tomorrow it is."

Shakti smiled at him, though it was not the smile of someone happy, more of someone who was relieved. She ordered the chair to take her home, and Dust watched her move away.

Another person cursed by fate. He wondered if the X was not a symbol but a target as he went to find a bar.

Meanstreak gave his report to Garokk, outside the cave which Garokk had claimed as his own. Garokk waited outside, listening to the report of his disciple and smiled.

"You mutant fools are easier to manipulate than I had ever thought was possible! I don't have to do anything, for you will ruin yourselves, however that will not be as satisfying as what I have planned."

The current Sorcerer Supreme smiled, "Everything is working according to plan, and with the X-Men absent from the Savage Land, things will progress much quicker. Leave me, I have much to do."

Meanstreak nodded, "As you command, my master," and in a blur he was gone.

Garokk smiled as he looked at the cave. The Savage Land wasn't what it was, he reflected, knowing that this small part was all that was left.

Near his cave were mountains, and behind that were the flows of Antarctica. The volcano that kept this place warm had lost much of it's influence thanks to the Phalanx Invasion, and the floods. That flood water was now returning to ice, and the mountains were the only borders the Savage Land knew apart from the ocean that had turned it in to an island. Those waters fed what was once known as the Lost Lake, though that name was lost to time.

(throughout the short-lived 2099: World Of Tomorrow series - Eric)

(as seen in the final issues of X-Men 2099, X-Nation 2099, Spider-Man 2099, & Fantastic Four 2099 - Eric)

However, it was this cave that had significance, for it was in the exact spot that had been home to the self styled Lord of the Savage Land - Ka-Zar, and his wife Shanna, the She-Devil. It was a fitting revenge that Garokk now lived on that spot, and he had not been able to resist the temptations of his new power. He went inside the cave where two figures awaited his commands.

These figures were mockeries of what once had been, for they were the animated corpses of Ka-Zar and Shanna, and they served Garokk's every whim. They wore scraps of clothing, and were more skeletal than anything else, though shreds of skin still remained on these decaying forms. They knew nothing of their old lives, except that Garokk was their lord and master. Two Wong's to his Stephen Strange. They brought him food whilst he walked over to the back of the cave.

"The end of the X-Men is drawing near," he said, to his slaves, though they could not understand. "Behold, the first object I shall use to destroy them!"

He gestured and lights flared, forcing the undead beings to fall back. The object in front of them sparkled and Garokk laughed, as he passed his hand over the smoothness of the object, feeling his way across the contours of it. It was similar to the zombies that served him he thought, except no skin or tissue of any kind remained on its' skeletal design, and it gleamed as the light hit it. Anyone who saw it would recognise it straight away, especially from the claws that extended from the hands.

"The first of my Reavers," chuckled Garokk. The adamantium skeleton that once belonged to the X-Man known as Wolverine faded to black as Garokk killed the light, his laughter hanging in the air.

EPILOGUE

The man watched the holo from the comfort of his home. The figure in front of him was Morphine Somers, the man who had betrayed him, who had almost killed him.

Now there would be a reckoning...

Somers would be removed from the picture, publicly and mercilessly. He knew just the man to use, and he opened the door to reveal just that man.

"Sorry to keep you waiting, Mr Jaeger," he said to the man outside. "Here's your assignment."

He handed him a file which the man quickly skimmed through. "You'll be in Xavier City by dawn, Alexi."

Alexi Jaeger, the man called Glitterspike, closed the file and smiled, "And Morphine Somers will be dead by sunset!"

In X-Men 2099 #3: Let's get ready to rumble! It's the X-Men versus Glitterspike for the life of Morphine Somers! Plus: Garokk gathers another artifact for his Reavers!