Disclaimer: Skids, Rusty, Colossus, Exodus, the Acolytes, Magneto,
and all related characters belong to Marvel Comics. You know the drill,
they do not belong to me! Takes place around Uncanny X-MEN #315
References events from X-Force#24-25 (Fatal Attractions) <indicates thoughts>
The title inspiration comes from the song by Heart from their album “Brigade.”
{“I pray for the love that’s fallen from grace, the tears left behind won’t wash from my face,
I’m left with all these feelings, but nothing fills the space of the love that once was, that’s fallen
from grace}
“Fallen From Grace” by Karen
Avalon, present day
Dusk lit the forward array of windows in a luminescent mother-of-pearl glow. Sally Blevins soaked up
the view afforded her; the endless stars like diamonds scattered upon a black velvet blanket.
From her vantage point, she could see the blue white marble of Earth as it spun in its orbit around the Sun..
As a child Sally had been fascinated by accounts of astronauts journeys from the Earth to the Moon.
Like most kids with dreams, Sally had often imagined herself an astronaut.
She'd planned on attending Space Camp, graduating, flying missions, making discoveries,
Eventually she'd become one of the first volunteers to colonize a space station.
"Now here I am. Only not in the way I'd always pictured it," Sally muttered. "How beautiful the planet looks from up here," Sally thought wistfully.
She watched the planet of her birth slowly rotate on its axis where it showed the oblong
shape of Asia's night side. Sally gazed in rapt fascination as the Red Sea split in half right before her eyes.
An effect, triggered by the planet's lifeblood spurting up through the crust. At that moment, she was very close
to launching herself through the window and experiencing the ultimate in free fall, just so she
wouldn't feel trapped on the floating junk heap called Avalon.Winds coursed diagonally across the surface like the breathing of gods.
Sally suddenly
whirled around and strode across her room, to pick up a photo resting on
her end table. She wished
that Rusty Collins had been there with her so she could share her
thoughts with him. However,
ever since they'd arrived on Avalon, he'd been avoiding her.
Not wishing to intrude on his privacy,
she'd allowed him his space.
"Rusty, when did
everything go wrong?" Sally addressed a presence that should have been
there but
wasn't.
“When my
mutant powers manifested, any other dreams I might have had somehow
became
entangled in a larger one.
On larger than me... "Never thought I find myself saying,
I’m a mutant fighting for peaceful
coexistence between man and mutant.
“I was code named
Skids, my mutant power to create a friction less force field. I was
terrified,
until I met Rusty. When I joined
a community of other lost souls, the Morlocks, it was as if we'd
found each other's soul mates.
Through everything, loss and love, we were there for each other."
<We'd coasted through the various x-teams, eventually to end up in a tailspin of obscurity.>
"I can barely remember a time when we hadn't thought of the one without the other."
Sally turned away from the
window and flopped down upon her bed.
She closed her eyes and recalled
the circumstances that had led up to her arrival on Avalon.
"It wasn't all
that long ago. So why does it feel like it's been a lifetime?" Sally
griped,
feeling a little
resentful for allowing herself to indulge in this sort of second-guessing.
*******
“Then Stryfe came along, and that was the beginning of the end. Rusty
and I were
brainwashed, conscripted into into
the Mutant Liberation Front.
Much later, we're enroute
from a maximum security prison to Xavier’s for treatment.
"Like that was
going to happen! Instead, those bigots from the Friends of Humanity
decided to
take matters
into their own hands. X-Force, our friends, rescued us, even though
they knew
we were still
under Stryfe’s influence. I hope he’s dead, the monster,” Sally growled,
angry enough
to chew up nails and spit them out. Having vented her rage somewhat, she
felt
a little
better.
“We’re brought
back to X-Force’s base in the Arizona desert, and the next thing I know,
Sam,
Ric, Tab, Bobby, Rusty and I are spirited by Exodus, on Magneto's orders,
to this floating
hunk
of junk called Avalon.”
<Were we somehow
jinxed? Did fate deal us a lousy hand? Somehow I fell between the cracks,
and I never lasted
very long with any team. And I'm still falling.>
“NO! the Neophyte protested,
forced into a kneeling position on the floor, covered up to his
upper arms
in a gold metal armbands that temporarily nullified his powers.
He’d heard
to Voight’s opening statement about trust, and betrayal and faith, then
watched as
Milan graphically
played out the scenes of his past that would bar his access to Avalon and
determine his
fate.
Sally watched the trial play out, witnessed Voight and Rasputin verbally
fenced
with each other,
<Loyalty? I wish I knew what it meant. But if I sided with him, they’d
turn on me.>
“No,
child,. Then perhaps, you would share with us, in your own words.
What
could possess a person to turn one’s back on our fellowship?” Amelia Voight
asked,
for all the world like a kindly relative soothing an agitated child, placing
her
hand on his shoulder.
“When I first arrived, I felt with all my heart that Magneto was a saviour
for us all.
Then Moria Mactaggert arrived, and I witnessed firsthand the hyprocisy
of the Acolytes.
On one hand, you profess to support Magnus’ goal of allowing mutants to
live in peace,
but you feel the only way to do that is by treating humans with the same
hate they
have for us! In the face of your inhumanity, to the woman, I realized
there must
be another way. An alternative to the pain, suffering, and deadly confrontation
between our two people!" The Neophyte exclaimed.
They’d taken his name away for the trial.
“This other way, did it have a name? Colossus asked, knowing in his heart
what the only
possible answer could be. Sally found herself whispering the name Xaiver
herself, and
mentally kicked herself. <What am I doing?>
“Yes, Charles Xavier!" the boy cried.
******
Sally watched as the other Acolytes argued among themselves. She
shuddered
involuntarily as hot-tempered Usicione’s psionic exoskeleton enveloped
the boy.
Sally figured the Neophyte would have been finished right then and there,
had
not Colossus' innate need to protect kicked in. and finally watched as
Voight teleported
the boy to safety. Exodus, sitting in judgement throughout the proceedings
as an unattached
observer, finally rose from his seat on the platform to consider the judgement.
<Almost a stupid throne. Thinks he’s the herald of Magneto, just because
he’s in charge
around here, while the big man is comatose, and can't call the shots around
here>" Sally
irritably grumbled..
****
Exodus returned, having gone to confer with Magneto to decide the Neophyte's
sentence.
Energy sparked to life from his hands, prepared to end the Neophyte's life.
“No! The boy's only crime was the strength of his convictions! Something
Magneto as
I knew him, would have respected and honoured. For he was a man whose
entire
family was slaughtered by an army of soldiers -men "following orders” ;
those same men sent millions of their fellow human beings into a holocaust
raging
with the heat of stupidity and ignorance!" Colossus cried.
Amelia countered that, but Sally honestly felt that she was hearing Colossus'
words
with her heart not her ears.
“I came here to Avalon because I believed we were going to be better than
that.
It is the very same reason this boy came to you, to us. Is he to punished
for refusing to sit
back and follow orders? Is he to be condemned for thinking differently?
To stand back and watch as another living being was beaten and tortured?
If so, then we
should all follow, because eventually that is where we will all end up,
anyone who
disagrees..." Colossus trailed off.
"No, Exodus, if Magneto's life has taught us anything at all, it was how
not to follow
orders of others, but to follow the dictates of his own heart," Colossus
finished.
The room is silent, save for the echo of Colossus’ words, but Exodus notes
the faces of the
Acolytes and the impression those words have made. And, as ever, he adapts
to survive.
“As I was about to say, Piotor Nicklovech, I would have taken his life
without a shred of
remorse, but Magneto is by far a more compassionate soul, that is why he
instructed me to banish this wretch to the place of fools, known as Earth.
Be gone, Neophyte, knowing you are forever banned from the heaven that
is Avalon.
As for the rest of you, Peace be with you.”
Exodus pivoted on his heels and departed the council chamber.
Sally left with the others, watching their faces. She found herself
with little to say
in the aftermath of the trial. She wondered when Colossus had become such
a
convincing public speaker. The Russian farm boy she'd met during her tenure
with
New Mutants, could never have pulled off as eloquent a defence as she'd
just witnessed.
"Did he mean it? Did Exodus hear and decide to be lenient? Did the Acolytes
hear?"
___
Elsewhere
“Sally, may I come in?” Peter Rasputin asked, as the door chime singled his presence.
“The door lock signature isn’t activated,” Sally snapped, biting back tears.
“I’ll take what I can get.” Peter replied, as he entered the room and the
metallic door
slid with a soft hissing sound.
“What do you want? It’s not like you’ve gone out of your way to associate
with me or
acknowledge my presence,” Sally said, keeping her back turned to him.
“I’d like to talk
to you, tovarish, if I may call you that?”Peter said as he placed his hand
on her
shoulder and
gently turned her around so that she faced him.
“You talk, that doesn't mean I’ll listen,” Sally griped, fists clenched at her sides.
“What did Exodus
call this place, ‘a safe haven away from the asylum the world below
had become”?
Yeah right!” Sally whispered, watching her breath condense on the
cold metal
windows.
No matter how much they tried, science had not yet solved the problem of
recyclable source
of oxygen. It had been necessary to keep the station's temperature
at
about 55 degrees. Sally shivered, and not from the cold.
"Why do you stay?
Because of loyalty to Magneto?" Peter asked.
“Good question. Why do I stay? You knew about the brainwashing Stryfe
did to Rusty and me? as Peter nodded, seemingly to sum up a world of meanings
in
that single gesture.
"Magneto freed us. So, if ,where my loyalties seem a little blurred,
chock it up to that, “ Sally replied.
"Why do you stay?" Sally fired back at him.
"Magneto's way was so simple. So direct. Do as you're told.
Don't ask questions, don't argue. Just do as you're told. Balm to
my soul, the day my
beloved sister, Illyana, died. When Magneto came, to offer us all
Haven."
"You accepted. Was it Illyana's death, feeling betrayed by Xaiver, the
only
reasons? Later, you choose to cement the decision to stay here, when Magneto's
mind
was taken by Xavier.
"Yes, I accepted Magneto's offer, of my own free will.
His way seemed the brighter path. Charles hadfailed me, failed Illyana.
His way promised strength unity, I was wrong, I see that now.
And don't think for a moment that it was easy.
While the way is good, the people he had chosen, the Acolytes,
have twisted for their own power plays, their own ego."
"What did you come here to talk about?" Sally asked in spite of herself.
"You may found this odd, but I came to talk about you.," Peter gasped.
"ME? I'm nobody." Sally shrugged.
"You are hardly a nobody, tovarish. In addition to clearing the air between
us,
I wish also to offer something of an apology. I've been so self-absorbed
in angsting over
my sister's death, second-guessing my decision to remain on Avalon."
"Don't sweat it, Rasputin. It's not like you and I ever had any history
together,
other than Ilyanna...." Sally trailed off.
"I know that. It's that since your arrival on Avalon. you've been very
quiet and withdrawn.
I'd like to hear your thoughts on the trial that just took place."
"Not exactly the 'haven' they advertised is it? Sally smiled, a vague thinning
of her
mouth. "If its any sort of reassurance, you did a bang up job in
there of
defending the Neophyte's case. Too bad it was wasted on those creeps,
Exodus
has them believing anything he tells them."
"I wouldn't go that far, at least they listened." Peter replied, sharing
her
ironic smile.
"I guess they did at they that." Sally said.
"May I ask an personal question?" Peter let his head droop, so instead
of looking into
her eyes and he'd been doing since the beginning of the conversation, he
stared at the floor.
"Is there friction between you and Rusty?" he asked suddenly.
"We're experiencing a little relationship snag, what's it to you?" Sally said.
"I'd like to help," Peter whispered.
"Thanks for the offer, Rasputin. But you're not exactly an expert in romance."
Rusty and I have basically known each other all our lives. This isn't
anything
we can't handle in that arena."
"I guess you're right about that, considering my own track record." Peter
grinned,
breaking the tense atmosphere that had grown up between them.
"So where does that leave you, us?" Sally asked.
"I wish I could give you a clear cut response,, but perhaps we can figure
it out, Sally...
They stared at each other in silence after that. Perhaps they answers
had yet to be
found, or perhaps there just weren't any answers to be found.
