The Game of Empires - REVIEW THIS STORY

Written by Valerie Jones
Last updated: 02/13/2010 03:54:13 PM

Chapter 30

In his dreams, Remi returned to the battle at Dallas.

Sentinels towered over the battlefield, casting massive shadows across the chaos swarming around their feet. Their footsteps made the ground shake. Tiny figures in power armor-soldiers from Dallas-swarmed around the Sentinels’ knees, the flash of their laser fire like a million tiny flashbulbs as they concentrated fire on the Mechs that accompanied the Sentinels. Screams and explosions filled the air.

Remi clung to his shields, fortifying them with everything he had. Jono, the Shadow King’s relay, pummeled his defenses, searching for any sign of weakness. In the sky above Remi, Cody hovered in a shimmering gravitational bubble as he created a local gravity well at the center of the nearest Sentinel, crushing it. Further away, on the far side of the battlefield, he could feel Renee’s horror as she moved along the back of the conflict, healing the wounded.

He searched vainly for Rachel for a moment before realizing that the north tower lay in rubble. Horrible, sinking dread filled him, weighing him down. If the tower had already collapsed, then Rachel was unconscious somewhere in the pile of debris.

He knew what was coming. Bright lightning streaked across the sky as the Shadow Queen turned her full wrath on Cody. The lighting struck his gravitational field full on, making it glow and sending Cody reeling.

No, not again, he thought in horror. He watched as Cody’s field collapsed. The other boy fell out of the sky, recovering only a few hundred feet above the ground. His gravity field winked back into existence and his fall turned into an erratic downward glide. Remi lost sight of him as he disappeared behind the massive forms of the Sentinels.

Trapped in his dream, he couldn’t stop himself from replaying the events of that day. He touched Renee’s mind and sent her to find Cody. But a voice inside his mind screamed a desperate warning that no one else could hear. Rachel! Somebody help Rachel!

It seemed like only a moment before he saw the Shadow Queen rise into the sky, Rachel hanging limp in her grasp. Cody rocketed skyward, slamming into the Storm and sending them both tumbling across the sky.

Remi wanted to look away, but his eyes and mind remained locked on the distant forms. Nausea twisted his stomach as the Shadow Queen recovered. She cut her winds and fell, white hair streaming above her head as she pulled Rachel close against her. A second later she released Rachel, who tumbled toward the ground like a ragdoll.

Rogue came in low, crossing the space separating her from Rachel’s falling body in a green blur. Cody swooped down to join them. Remi wanted to curl up in a fetal ball and wrap his arms around his head. Please, not again, he begged whatever force had brought him back to this place and time.

The image, relayed from Cody, of Rachel with her throat gaping open like an obscene mouth, coated in scarlet, slammed into him. Horror followed. He heard Cody’s howl as he realized Rachel was dead, and felt his own rage blossom. It overwhelmed reason, overwhelmed sanity, and drowned out his many memories of a kind and gentle woman named Ororo.

He launched a portal next to the Shadow Queen. Its buzz saw growl filled the air, drowning out the sounds of the battle raging on the plain beneath. The Shadow Queen darted away, but she couldn’t outrun the black disc when he turned it loose. The disc exploded across the sky, slicing neatly through her distant form and the pieces rained down out of the sky.

Remi woke with a strangled shout. He threw himself out of bed, not certain where or when he was. Cards flared to life in his hand, their lurid glow throwing the sparse contents of the room into sharp relief.

For the love of Mother Askani, put up some shields! Cable’s voice roared inside his head.

Remi reflexively slapped his shields into place. A moment later, he recognized his bedroom at the mansion and sank back onto the bed with a groan, dousing his cards. I’m sorry, he told Cable. I didn’t mean to wake you.

Cable’s mind flared bright with irritation. You woke up the entire house projecting like that.

Remi winced. His mouth tasted like ashes and his chest ached with grief-for Rachel and Cody, and even Renee though he held some hope she might still be alive-his family, his friends, all lost to him now.

He felt Jean’s mental touch at the edge of his awareness. Are you all right? she asked, her tone soft.

What do you think? he retorted.

Jean recoiled. Sorry, stupid question, she said and he immediately felt like a heel for snapping at her.

A sound from the doorway made him look up. Jean stood there dressed in a short negligee, her arms crossed protectively over her chest. Scott stood behind her in shorts and a t-shirt, his hair sleep-tousled.

He gripped Jean’s shoulders with both hands. "What was that?"

A shuffle of noise and motion in the hall announced the arrival of several X-Men followed by the more distant hum of his father’s approaching hoverchair. Cable scowled at Remi around the door jamb, his massive gun pointed casually at the floor. People peered into the room, their expressions a mix of horror, confusion and concern. He didn’t see Ororo or Rogue among them, though.

Slowly, Remi straightened. "We fought the Shadow King at Dallas," he answered after a moment. His gaze slid from Scott to Jean, the taste of ash intensifying. "Rachel died there."

Jean nodded jerkily. Scott pressed a kiss into her hair and then looked around. "All right, everyone, back to bed." He glanced at Remi. "There’s nothing to see."

People began to disperse with nods and lingering backward gazes. Scott and Jean stayed where they were, as did Cable.

Remi looked away. He ran both hands through his hair in a vain attempt to gather his composure. He’d only been Rem’aillon for a little over twenty-four hours and in some ways it still felt unfamiliar, like the memories didn’t quite fit inside his skull the way they once had.

A few moments later his father came into the room. Remi didn’t look up. The sound of the hoverchair died away, leaving a heavy silence in its wake.

Remi sighed. "I’m sorry I woke everyone up." And put them through a piece of my personal hell, he added silently, but didn’t project the thought. Two days ago he would have sworn that nothing could be worse than watching the Morlocks die.

His father shifted his weight. "It’s been a long time since you last exercised your telepathic skills, Remi. You can’t expect to have perfect control overnight."

The words hung awkwardly between them. They hadn’t talked much yet.

Remi stared at the floor. "It doesn’t seem like she’s been dead for thirteen years," he finally said. The ache in his chest intensified. "It feels like it just happened."

"That’s to be expected, I suppose," Charles answered. Remi looked up at him and he shrugged, his expression sad. "You never had time to properly grieve-not for any of them."

"What was she like?" Jean asked suddenly. When Remi looked up at her, she hunched her shoulders, looking flustered.

Cable opened his mouth to say something, but at a sharp look from Scott closed it again.

Sighing, Remi picked up the deck of cards that lay on his side table. He shuffled them, reassured by the familiar feel of the slick cardboard between his fingers. "She looked so much like you." He met Jean’s eyes.

Jean nodded, a tiny smile lighting her features. Scott squeezed her shoulders, watching Remi over the top of her head. His expression was never easy to read through the red goggles, but Remi could feel the hunger that edged his thoughts-the need to know more about this child that had died before they’d ever had a chance to meet her.

Gingerly, Remi let himself think about Rachel. "She was fearless," he said after a minute. "And once she set her mind on something... Creator protect anyone who tried to stop her."

Scott chuckled lightly. "That sounds like someone I know." He glanced down at his wife.

Remi cocked his head as he shifted his attention to the other man. "Maybe so, but she got her bossy streak from you, Scott."

"Hey!" The indignant protest won laughter from both Jean and Charles.

The sound lifted something inside Remi. Memories of his childhood filled his mind, times they’d spent on Earth; precious days when he’d been allowed to become just another boy rather than the prince of an interstellar empire. He let the images trickle outward, spilling gently into the minds around him. Rachel with her red hair in pigtails and her bare feet grubby from playing outside, laughing as she raced him to the end of the dock. He remembered the warmth of the wood and the sound of their feet pounding hollowly on the boards, and the way Rachel would always shout something nonsensical at the top of her lungs as she leapt into the water.

He shook his head, smiling. "Rachel and I got into so much trouble together." They’d gotten yelled at by her father for it pretty regularly, too. "And we usually ended up dragging Cody and Renee into it for good measure."

He sobered abruptly. He couldn’t think about the twins without his thoughts going to their mother. He could no longer separate his memories of his friends from the knowledge that they were his own children, and that line of thought twisted his heart into such painful knots that he could barely breathe. At the moment, Rogue refused to even be in the same room with him, which hurt even though he kept telling himself it shouldn’t.

"Oath." Cable glanced over at Scott and Jean, his expression indecipherable. "That’s ugly."

Remi realized he’d left his shields cracked open-more than enough for the telepath to read his thoughts. Strangely, it didn’t bother him to have shared something so intimate with the older man. Of all the beings in the universe, Nathan Dayspring Summers ought to understand.

Cable snorted at that, but then acknowledged the point with a short nod. "The Professor’s right," he told Remi after a moment. "You’re going to need some practice to get your psi skills back into shape." His tone was professional rather than personal.

"Are you volunteering, Nathan?" Charles asked him.

Cable frowned but then nodded. "I suppose I am." He looked over at Remi. "I’m going to want to see some more of what the Shadow King was able to do in that other timeline, as well. The better we understand his capabilities, the better our chances of defeating him."

To that, Remi could only nod.

Remi blinked against the disorientation as the effect of the teleport faded. Beside him, his father rubbed his eyes then looked up with a brief smile. They stood to one side of the Shi’ar battlecruiser’s bridge. Crew members went about their duties, the hushed bustle achingly familiar to Remi.

A tall, angular Shi’ar stood directly in front of the pair, his feathered crest stiff and regal. Remi read the command insignias on his uniform by habit and drew himself up. "Permission to board, Captain?" he asked formally. It had been more than thirteen years since he’d last spoken his native language, but it came back to him in a rush and brought with it a deluge of memories.

The captain bowed, his motion precise. "Permission granted, Your Highness." Both his face and voice were devoid of expression. He nodded to Remi’s father. "Imperial Consort."

Only then did Remi let his gaze go past the officer to the woman who stood two steps behind him, her expression keen and her mind projecting a mix of nervousness and wonder. The captain stepped adroitly out of the way as Remi’s feet carried him toward his mother. He stopped in front of her and for a moment they simply stared at each other.

Finally, Remi couldn’t stand it any longer. He caught her face in his hands and kissed her on either cheek, the most intimate of familial greetings. For the moment it didn’t matter that this wasn’t the woman who had raised him. He was home.

"Aman, I’ve missed you."

She made a small, inarticulate sound and pulled him into a hug. Remi hugged her back, burying his face against her shoulder. She was smaller than he remembered, but the strength of her arms and the bright texture of her mind remained the same.

Noise on the bridge dimmed as the crew took in the unprecedented sight. After a few moments his mother released him and stepped back, once again the Majestrix. Remi copied her. Blatant displays of affection were not generally accepted among their people. Out of the corner of his eye he could see his father smiling as he watched them.

Lilandra looked between Remi and Charles before focusing her attention on her consort. "When we spoke earlier you said you had need of the cruiser’s scanning systems?" she asked him with only the faintest quiver in her voice.

His father nodded. "Yes. Since Cerebro was destroyed, we do not have the means to make a planet-wide search for the Shadow King."

"That is the creature that crashed my ship?" Anger lit her features.

Charles nodded again.

Lilandra stepped back, gesturing toward the busy bridge. "Then by all mean. We will do everything in our power to help."

Remi followed his father across the bridge to the scanning station. He would be doing most of the configuration work, both because of his familiarity with the Shadow King and his knowledge of Shi’ar technology.

Charles moved off to one side as Remi settled in the single chair fronting the station. It seemed bizarre that he had been sitting in this very spot only a couple of weeks earlier, helping Lilandra search for Charles with no clue as to the truth. He pulled up the standard search interface, vaguely amused by how antiquated the software seemed in comparison to his memories, and set about defining the search parameters.

He felt as much as heard his mother approach. She stopped behind his chair and gripped the back with both hands. He could see her ghostly reflection in the screens in front of him and something inside his heart tightened in response.

"Rem’aillon."

Remi paused and looked up at her. "Yes, Aman?"

She gave him a smile though her dark eyes remained serious. "We must discuss preparations for our return to Chandilar." She paused. "We have both been away from home too long."

Remi froze as the import of her words sank in. His stomach twirled giddily at the thought of going back to Chandilar-of seeing his home again. Beside him, his father’s expression clouded.

"Word of your existence will most likely arrive before us," she continued. "It will be a bitter pill for some of the Noble Houses to swallow, and I do not want to give my political enemies time to use the information against me before I am there to counter it."

Remi bit his lip. He understood the political ramifications, at least in what was, to him, a historical context. The question of his acceptance had been settled before his birth because the Noble Houses had been forced to contend with Gambit’s existence. But the danger of a revolt among the Shi’ar aristocracy paled next to the threat of the Shadow King.

He shook his head. "I’m sorry, Aman. I can’t leave Earth. Not until the Shadow King has been destroyed."

Her eyebrows arched sharply. "You would put the fate of this planet above the stability of the Imperium?" she demanded, traces of anger in her voice. Several of the bridge crew sent covert glances their way.

"Of course not," Remi answered. He hit the final few keystrokes to launch both of the searches he’d defined, then rose from his seat and turned to face the Majestrix. "The Shadow King poses a significant threat to the Imperium. He has to be stopped now, while he’s still relatively weak."

Her expression didn’t change. "The X-Men have dealt with this creature before and defeated him."

"He was weaker then." Remi met her gaze, hoping to impress on her the gravity of the situation. She hadn’t seen what he had. "Now he has access to two Omega-level mutant powers, and he appears to be searching for his first relay."

Beneath his words, Remi spun out a series of images-scenes from his memories-to help her understand why he believed the Shadow King could someday topple the Shi’ar Empire itself if he wasn’t stopped.

"The Shadow King feeds on fear, hatred and misery," he explained, "and every mind he holds in his thrall makes him stronger."

Remi closed his eyes as the memories swamped him. "In that other timeline, he had already subjugated the Earth. What little resistance remained would have ended with the destruction of the Dresden and the death of President Xavier." For a moment he let his mother feel the full brunt of the Shadow King’s vile mind touch.

Her breath caught and he opened his eyes. She stared at him, face pale and her black eyes wide.

He nodded. "But once he held all of the Earth, where do you think he would go next?"

The Majestrix pressed her lips together in a thin line, her horror replaced by stern composure. "To another inhabited world."

"And then another and another." Remi shifted his weight, leaning one hip against the edge of the scanning station.

She tipped her head to the side in a distinctly bird-like gesture. "Could he still draw power from the subjugated peoples of Earth at such a distance?"

Remi shrugged. "I can reach from Chandilar to Earth so there’s no reason to assume he couldn’t span interstellar distances as well."

Lilandra didn’t get a chance to respond as the console behind Remi began to chime. His stomach knotted as he turned to look at the locator beacon flashing on the screen. It pointed to a section of northern Africa. Remi’s parents crowded around him.

"Is that the Shadow King?" his father asked.

Remi read through the displayed information, his heart filling with too many emotions to name.

He shook his head. "No, it’s Renee."

Renee didn’t realize she had collapsed until she woke with the sun beating painfully down on her face. Groaning, she spat out the grit that had gotten into her parched mouth and tried to roll over. Her tongue felt thick and swollen and her throat ached fiercely. She succeeded in rolling onto her stomach after a couple of attempts, which at least got the sun off of her face and allowed her to open her eyes. She stared at the cracked, dust-colored ground as she struggled to her hands and knees. Her head swam.

A distant rumble filled the air. Terror gave Renee a fresh burst of energy. She pushed herself up until she was kneeling and tried to look around. The harsh glare of the sun seared her sensitive eyes, filling her vision with multicolored spots and making her eyes water. She couldn’t see anything but the distant outline of rugged hills against a whitewashed sky.

The rumble grew louder. Renee climbed unsteadily to her feet. Swaying, she took a couple of steps away from the noise. Pain shot from the soles of her feet into her calves and she nearly fell. She glanced over her shoulder.

One of the spots dancing in her vision resolved itself into the approaching form of Apocalypse’s skimmer. There was no place to run, as much as Renee wanted to, so she turned, drawing herself up as the skimmer came to a rest in a roiling cloud of dust kicked up by its hover system. She could see Apocalypse standing in the middle of the craft with Angel a few steps behind him.

Bitterly, Renee forced herself to keep her feet as Apocalypse leapt down and walked toward her. She should have known her freedom was only an illusion. She wondered if Apocalypse had been tracking her, waiting until she was too weak to go on before swooping in to pick her up.

Angel launched himself into the air, his wings dark against the colorless sky. He gained some altitude and began a broad circle around Renee’s position. She followed him for a moment with her gaze, shading her eyes against the sun, and then returned her attention to Apocalypse. She was weaponless and badly dehydrated. If Angel decided to attack, she would have no defense.

Swaying, she waited as he walked up to her. The hot desert wind caught his long hair, whipping it out behind him and making his loose shirt flap like a sail. He carried a canteen in one large hand and it took all of Renee’s willpower not to dive for the water she knew was inside.

He stopped in front of her. "You are stubborn, Healer."

Renee tore her gaze away from the canteen and forced herself to meet Apocalypse’s eyes. "You said I was no longer a prisoner." Her voice came out in a hoarse whisper. She wanted to scream, but she refused to give into the hysteria climbing up the back of her throat.

His brow dipped, the expression full of disapproval. "This desert is hundreds of miles wide. It was foolish to try to cross it on foot."

Renee didn’t answer. The knowledge that she was once again his captive settled on her like a heavy weight and she sank slowly to the ground. She didn’t have the energy left to cry.

Apocalypse knelt in front of her and unscrewed the top of the canteen he carried. Her head jerked up at the sound, her thirst redoubling. He caught her chin in one hand and tipped the canteen into her mouth. Cool, sweet water poured across tongue. She swallowed greedily.

Eventually he took the canteen away. Renee raised one hand to wipe her mouth, noting the dirt that caked her skin and darkened her nails and she wondered how long it would take Shala to scrub the dirt away once they got back to the complex. The thought brought a bitter snort of laughter.

Apocalypse offered his hand to help her to her feet and the solicitous gesture sent a bolt of pure terror through her. Apocalypse was never kind. She didn’t want to find out how he would react if she spurned his help, though, so she laid her hand in his and let him lift her to her feet.

To her immense relief he let go of her quickly, but she could still feel the imprint of his hand on her waist long after he had withdrawn. He turned and walked toward the skimmer, obviously expecting her to follow.

Renee had taken no more than three steps in his wake when the air in front of them began to shimmer. Apocalypse halted abruptly as the shimmer coalesced into a large group of X-Men arrayed in a battle-ready formation.

Renee stared. I’m hallucinating, she thought after a moment. She didn’t dare believe they were real. The X-Men in this time didn’t know who she was or that she existed.

She looked them over anyway, her heart clenching into a tighter and tighter knot as she registered each familiar face. Cyclops stood at the front of the group with Phoenix on one side of him and Wolverine the other. Storm hovered a short distance behind them, her form partly hidden by a swirl of dust picked up by the winds that held her aloft. And to Storm’s right... Renee’s thoughts screeched to a halt at the sight of her mother, distinct in her old green and yellow uniform and with her striped hair trailing in the wind like a flag.

"Mom?" She took a tentative step in the X-Men’s direction.

Apocalypse shifted his weight as if he might move to stop her. His reaction confused Renee until she realized what it meant-he could see the X-Men, too.

Her breath caught. They weren’t a hallucination. They were real. Her family had come for her.

"Mom!" The shriek was torn from her raw throat. She took off at a run toward the X-Men.

Rogue swooped down out of the sky, landing a few yards in front of Cyclops just as Renee reached her. Renee launched herself into her mother’s arms, not bothering to check her speed. She knew her mother’s strength. It was like plowing into a steel wall but Renee didn’t care. The familiar arms wrapped around her after a moment and Renee clung to her mother. Dry sobs wracked her, making her chest ache with every breath.

"Easy there, sugah. Ya safe now," Rogue murmured, her voice the one Renee heard in her dreams.

She felt her mother stiffen as someone stepped up behind them. The figure cast a cool shadow across Renee. She looked up, and for just a moment she thought she was staring into her father’s face. Her heart leapt. But then she felt Remi’s mind touch like a gentle embrace. Sniffling, she let go of her mother just enough to reach over and hug him with one arm. He returned the hug.

"Is it over?" she asked into his shoulder.

His grip on her tightened painfully and her heart stuttered a beat. She pulled back far enough to look into his face. He was older than she expected. The boy she remembered had been replaced by a man with lines of hard experience around his eyes and a day’s worth of stubble staining his jaw. Dread filled her as she took in the shadowed regret in his eyes.

Her gaze went over his shoulder to where Storm hovered. She looked back at him. "But... you saved Storm. The Shadow King died. Why isn’t it over?"

The pain in his eyes intensified. "The X-Men defeated the Shadow King at Muir Island like they were supposed to, but he didn’t die," Remi explained softly.

Renee felt like she’d been punched in the stomach. "Yes he did. I felt him." She glared at Remi, wanting desperately to yell at him to take the words back. The Shadow King couldn’t possibly still be alive.

"I hate to interrupt the reunion, folks-" Cyclops said with a glance in their direction, "but we’ve still got Apocalypse to deal with."

Renee turned to look. Apocalypse hadn’t moved. "He’s been sick," she told Cyclops. "I don’t think he’ll try anything against so many X-Men." Though, to be honest, she really didn’t have any idea what the true extent of his powers were.

Cyclops gave her an odd look, as if wondering how she knew Apocalypse had been sick. He didn’t ask, though. "All right. Let’s just teleport out then. We’re not looking for trouble." He shifted his attention to Remi. "Gambit, let’s-" He stopped short.

Renee stared at Cyclops in surprise. Her mother, however, turned on the X-Men’s field leader with a dangerous glare.

"Don’t ya dare call him that." The angry stare shifted to Remi for a moment before returning to Cyclops.

Cyclops looked nonplussed but the expression cleared quickly. He shrugged. "Give me a different code name to use and I will. Until then, we’ll have to make do with what we’ve got."

He returned his attention to Remi. "Tell the battlecruiser to beam us back up."

Remi nodded.

Renee looked between him and Rogue, uncertain what she should be seeing. "Why did he call you Gambit?" she asked after a moment, though she already knew the answer. That was the reason he’d gone further back in time-the reason he’d abandoned her to the Shadow King. The reality, however, was something she wasn’t sure she was ready to deal with.

With a sidelong glance at Rogue that made Renee distinctly uncomfortable, he shrugged. "Until a couple of days ago, that’s who I was."

Before Renee could think of something else to say, a shout of alarm went up from several of the X-Men.

"Look out!"

Renee spun to see Apocalypse raise his hands. A white nimbus of power surrounded them as he prepared to fire the energy bolt she’d seen him use before. She ducked behind her mother.

Above them, gray-white clouds boiled up out of the empty sky as Storm rose on a strong gust of wind. Cyclops put a hand to his visor, preparing to fire, and Wolverine extended his claws with a growl. A shimmering telekinetic field winked into existence around the X-Men. As Renee watched, the other X-Men readied themselves to fight.

"The Healer is beholden to me, X-Men," Apocalypse said, his voice booming unnaturally across the empty desert. "You may not take her."

"Just watch us, bub," Wolverine answered. The bravado made Renee smile. It had been a long time since she’d had anyone to stand up for her, protect her.

A shriek like the cry of a giant hawk echoed through the air. Heads turned upward as Angel banked sharply overhead and then dropped neatly into the empty space between Apocalypse and the X-Men. He faced the X-Men and spread his wings to their full extent, blocking their line of fire. Behind him, Apocalypse’s expression darkened with anger but he lowered his hands.

"Warren?" Cyclops asked in dismay. He started to lower his hand from his visor, but thought better of it and returned to his original position.

"What happened to him?" Rogue asked. She glanced over her shoulder at Renee.

Renee could only shrug. "He is Apocalypse’s creature now."

Warren looked them over, his expression neutral until he reached Remi. His eyes narrowed. "You will pay for what you did to me, traitor," he spat.

Remi stepped forward. He pulled a short cylinder out of the pocket of the long coat he wore over his armor and telescoped the bo staff to full length. Renee stared. Remi didn’t use a staff-that was her father’s weapon.

"Anytime you want to try, Wings," Remi said, his tone openly challenging.

"Gambit!" Cyclops’ authoritative bark cut through the thickening tension. "Stand down."

Remi obediently lowered his staff, though his wary stance didn’t change.

"Another time, then," Warren said. He watched Remi for a moment, his expression openly disdainful, then turned away.

"Let them have their abomination back, Father," Warren said as he walked toward Apocalypse. "She was becoming too much of a distraction anyway." He glanced over his shoulder toward Renee before returning his attention to Apocalypse. "We have more important things to do than fight the X-Men over one insignificant mutant."

Phoenix shook her head slowly. "I’m sensing a lot of jealousy from Angel. It’s really black and ugly."

Angel’s argument apparently swayed Apocalypse, however. The glow of power around Apocalypse’s hands faded to nothing.

"Let’s get while the gettin’s good, Cyke," Wolverine said and Cyclops nodded.

He turned to Remi. "Now would be a good time for that teleport, please."

A moment later the air began to sparkle as the Shi’ar teleportation field surrounded them. The last thing Renee saw before the teleport whirled them away was Apocalypse standing there with a strangely uncertain expression on his face. But for that moment, at least, she didn’t care. She was going home.