What was the eeriest thing about the 3 and a half hour ride to D. C?

The fact that no one else chased them.

It couldn't have been a bigger tacit statement that the enemy must have gotten what they wanted.

Emma concluded that they weren't worried about being able to catch her.... They knew they were coming.... What was there left to do but walk right into their trap?

But...they couldn't go anywhere else.

"Are we even sure Apocalypse will be there?" Logan said. "If he's figured we're comin', why not run?"

"He will not run," Shine said, gripping her water in her hands too tightly. "He has always waited for you all to show up in the past so he can gloat. Why would he change it now? He must have no fear of losing."

"And I kind of agree with him," Ryan said. "This was a terrible idea. How can we stop him? We couldn't even fight off those goons."

"To be fair, Ryan, we were trying to get away, not destroy them," Shine said. "Killing these people does not sit well with me. Even if it didn't matter in the end, we don't know that for sure.... If this becomes Reality after all, this is what we have to work with if we survive that process. We can't begin by disregarding their lives."

"I still don't get that part," Trinity said. "How can people themselves not be real yet?"

"Aren't we all at one point not souls yet?" Shine said. "We enter this world from outside it. God gives us that life. But we all come from outside of time--that's why we sometimes feel we have escaped its bounds for brief stretches. Why in similar ways our souls are ageless when we enter the timeline of a world might be up for debate, but at some point we will."

"Isn't it the whole 'I might not exist' thing?" Jubilee said.

"Ah, well, that's a theory, but I've never actually seen it proven that it works," Shine said. "Someone's personality might change with time alterations, though not essentially, but because of events shaping them...but how exactly can one be made to not exist? I'm inclined to think the order and arrangement of things just juggles around."

"That's not that comforting," Kitty said. "I don't know how we're supposed to stop this guy. We're just kids, and you guys aren't exactly a whole army. We're handing ourselves over here."

"Sometimes you have to do that to win," Shine said. "Surrender. It's a well known Bible tactic, at least. Jesus said 'not to resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn the other cheek. If they take your coat, give your shirt also. If they compel you to walk one mile, walk two.' This is the way to show we are children of God. Now, that doesn't mean never to oppose Evil. The Bible is quite clear that we must do that. But when it comes at the price of sacrificing your own interest, don't resist. Consider this our extra mile. They made us come this far, but they can't make us go farther willingly--only we can do that. In the end, I believe Love is stronger than Fear and Hatred and Pride and all the things that govern this world."

Wally took her hand and squeezed it.

"Love." Kitty was skeptical as usual. "That's not going to stop Apocalypse."

"What else ever has?" Shine asked. "Surely you don't imagine brute force and revenge will do it? He always sees that coming. Humans are pitiful ants to him, who fear him and his power. He must have been human once, but he traded that for power a long time ago."

"How do we know he was human?" Logan said. "Never saw any sign of it."

"Only a human being would do what he does," Shine said. "I'm used to the devil's tactics. He's merciless and incurably selfish, but there's a removal of reality from them. Apocalypse likes to rub it in people's faces a little too much that he's corrupted them and done them a service. Sure, the devil lies about it, but when you're at his mercy, he has no illusions about helping you. Apocalypse still is mad enough to imagine he's doing the world a service. That's the mark of a human failing. Even in our most fallen delusions, we tend to carry the signs of having been made to be a force for Good. We lie about it, but we know what we were here for. It's really the smallest, shrunk up people who forget that, not the arrogant ones. But, they're more dangerous. It's always worse to think you're doing something good when you're doing the worst evils."

She shook her head.

"Makes you wonder how we always know we're doing the right thing." Morph was in a dark mood since Mystique had been taken, and it showed. "Maybe we just making it worse, huh?"

Emma made some sound like she could relate to that.

"We follow the Bible because we don't know the right thing always," Shine said, simply. "I can't say how others think they figure it out. One must remember that victory in Christ is not always the way we think of victory. God cares more that our souls live than our bodies, which will die anyway. He can still use even that to bring about His purpose. I hope all of you are at peace with Him.... I would never do this if I wasn't."

Some of them looked away uncomfortably.

"I still haven't seen any sign of Him helping us," Scott said. "Where is He in this whole country? Do you think anyone thinks there's a benevolent God out there?"

"I never saw sign that people were more inclined to think so when things were good," Shine said. "People blame God for evil, even though they ignore him when things are good. God sends evil times to remind us that we need Him...and you know most of us usually think we don't need Him when we have no trouble. We miss how selfish and small we really are when we're happy. Suffering is what makes us able to become like God, able to think of others even when we have nothing from them. Who here has ever felt like they lost it all but still had to do the right thing?"

The kids didn't answer.

Logan shrugged and nodded.

Storm shook her head.

Morph raised a hand.

Emma did also, slowly.

Colossus shook his head.

Kurt nodded also.

Wally did too.

Shine put her hand up.

"The rest of us will get our chance," she said, not a hint of superiority in her tone towards them. "But for those of us who already have had it, and will probably have it again, that is when we're the most like God. Lewis wrote that. The enemy knows it. Even one like Apocalypse will bow to that kind of glory, in the end, because he will never be able to understand it. It's beyond him. Wait and see. He may despise it at first, but in the end, it will be the end of him. Sinister too, and so will they all fall who put themselves up against God and try to take His place as masters of people's fates. Fate is not something humans can master, and they will have to learn that sooner or later."

She looked at the kids. "So don't feel sorry for yourselves. There's no higher honor than being asked to do something like this. God bestows it on His specially chosen people. It may fall to all of them at some point. Think of it as you made the ultimate grade. You can never be a failure again. No matter how powerless you think you are, that doesn't matter to God, and it does not matter to me."

"Or me," Wally agreed.

Shine was still Shine...they all thought. And Wally was still Wally.

Nothing was ever going to make these two not have their own take on things and for it to surprise to everyone else.

But for once, Logan at least kind of understood it. In some ways, it echoed how he'd heard some talk about being in war. It was a privilege to give your life for your country when it was out of love and loyalty for it and the people in it.

Trinity, tough as nails Trinity, they all were starting to think, was nodding.

"You know, I think that's right," she said, her NY accent getting softened by seriousness. "I think we put too much on winning, you know? You don't always win. But you have to do your best to, and maybe that makes it possible for someone else to win next time."

"And you do it out of love," Shine said, "not fear.... Nunca para nada. Love is never for nothing. Even when it seems thrown away. Think of all the people who are missing--we love them, they love us. That has to work for something. Don't fear what these people will do to us. They ought to be afraid of what will happen to them, not the other way around."

Logan laughed dryly. "All this and you're still goin'. Should have been a war general, Likstar."

Shine shook her head. "I don't think I'm that brave, Logan. I'm talking to myself here."

"So?" Logan said.

"An indomitable spirit is a rare find," Storm said. "And one I think we'd be lost without. The two of you are really something special. I think I see why Morph's friend thought you were critical to this mission. On our own, we'd be fighting, but we'd be desperately trying whatever we could, with no thought to how it would work out in the long run. We always fought out of fear before. Mostly. I'm ashamed to admit it, but I do not think Love motivated me most of the time. And I would fall back into that, easily enough, if I was allowed to. Listening to you, it makes me think that it's possible to rise above these kinds of circumstances and achieve something higher than survival."

"Yeah, I wish I had that before," Morph said. "So much could have been different."

"Morph, what about that Talis? Are you gonna try to get it back?" Kitty asked him.

"Oh...yeah," Morph said.

"Wait!" Shine's eyes suddenly flashed. "Morph, hold on...I just thought of something.... Maybe it was a burst of inspiration, but...you know how I can't find the others who are missing because of the Merging's effects? It's too blurry."

"Yeah, I mean, there has to be a reason you can't see them," Morph said.

"But I passed some grace onto that Talis," Shine said. "I could find my sword anywhere.... It's just possible, I could go to that also.... I mean...I could see it."

Her eyes were full on glowing for a moment.

"I do see it," she said.

"What does that mean?" Jubilee asked.

"It means," Logan said, "that there's a chance we can track those bozos after all...find where they're hidin' everyone."

"It's still a ways away." Shine was looking through the walls of the bus. "And it's not as clear as usual, but I can see some kind of path...into deep darkness...but it's like the candle in the window sill... Raven, you little genius... I wonder if she thought of that."

"Oh, ten to one she didn't," Emma said. "That woman always does things right by accident."

"That's still pretty cool," Kitty said.

"So we can't get it back," Morph said.

"We could, but this could be the best chance to find the others," Shine said. "I might even be able to portal to that thing, but it would take a huge amount of energy, so I'm not sure I should try."

"I'm good with just sneaking in," Wally said. "I think we'll want to know more about the Capital city anyway, if we have to bust out of there. But at least we won't just be wandering around now. As long as you can stay with it."

Shine's eyes went back to normal. "And that's why you rely on Love," she said, as if this was all part of her point. "Clears your head. Now, if I was panicking, I'd never have had time to let that thought in."

"So we don't panic," Jubilee said. "We just have to hurry.... Oh...guys, is that it?"

It was still nighttime, but against the starry sky, they were seeing a dark shape now, in the distance.

It reminded Shine of old pictures of what people thought the city of Babylon might have looked like, though those were probably just speculation...but this was foreboding. Though it was nighttime and dark anyway, you got the idea it was made of black stones and dark metal.

"Well...I guess we're in for it now," Morph muttered, putting on an army helmet.

Shine started to murmur something, a song:

"I wanna fall inside your ghost
And fill up every hole inside my mind
And I want everyone to know
That I am half a soul divided (Sometimes we will die and sometimes we will fly away
Either way you're by my side until my dying days
And if I'm not there and I'm far away
I said, don't be afraid
I said, don't be afraid
We're going home)

I wanna strip myself of breath

A breathless beast of death I've made for you
A mortal writing piece of song
Will help me carry on
But these you heard
So the hearse ran out of gas
A passenger paused and grabbed a map
And the driver inside it contrived a new route to save the past
And checked his watch and grabbed a cab
A beautifully plain taxi cab
A cab, had it cleared out back
And two men started to unpack, Driving once again
But now this time there were three men
And then I heard one of them say
I know the night will turn to gray
I know the stars will start to fade
When all the darkness fades away
We had to steal him from his fate
So he could see another day. Then I cracked open my box

Someone must have picked the lock
A little light revealed the spot
Where my fingernails had fought
Then I pushed it open more,
Pushing up against the door
Then I sat up off the floor
And found the breath I was searching for. Then there were three men up front
All I saw were backs of heads
And then I asked them, 'Am I alive and well or am I dreaming dead?'
And then one turned around to say,
'We're driving toward the morning sun
Where all your blood is washed away
And all you did will be undone.'"

https://youtu.be/9utiRIrxL9w

["Taxi Cab" -- 21 Pilots]

A lot of people don't know this, but 21 Pilates is actually Christian. This song is about needing a new life. The Taxi Cab is a metaphor for death to sin, and I think the 3 men are supposed to be the Holy Trinity. But it also fit this situation, I thought.]

* * *

Mystique was taken into a room that looked like one of those old dungeons in movies about the Dark Ages. The effects of the portal weren't as bad as she thought.

It wasn't a Tear, obviously.

Instead of seeing another dimension, she just saw a lot of people in the armored garb of the minions walking around. Some were monitoring machines.

Havoc, Pyro, and Nitro lost no time in dragging her through this room, and hardly any of the people even looked up.

Mystique still had the Talis item. She'd hoped it would vanish by now.... What was she supposed to do with it?

Foolishly, Pyro really wasn't doing that much to restrain her. It was like he assumed Morph wouldn't try to get away after knowing about them having his friends.

Mystique had no plan however, up until she spied someone she didn't expect by one of the machines.

It was Forge...the little one.

He looked up as they walked by and did a double take.

"Morph? How did you...? Uh oh..." he said.

"Don't talk to the other prisoners," someone who must have been an overseer said.

Forge looked nervously at him, then shot Mystique-as-Morph a questioning look.

Mystique wished she could use telepathy at the moment, but she had no way to explain--or demand what he was doing here.

But, thinking fast, she soon surmised that it could only be because those X-men had been taken.... Maybe they were here to be used as leverage. Forge obviously just had a useful power to these people...and wasn't that much of a threat to them.

Which meant he might just have an edge.

After hearing Emma's remarks about him, Mystique didn't have a huge amount of faith in the guy's reliability in a crisis, but...she literally had no other choice.

She'd have to work fast.

She waited til the three stooges (that is, the 3 mutant hunters) were taking her down a hall towards some stairs, no doubt to find Apocalypse, when she suddenly grabbed Pyro's arm and yanked him over her head into Nitro, and they both hit the ground.

With their enhancements, that didn't do much to hurt them.

Havoc turned around. Mystique kicked him right in the face, sending him back. And breaking his scanner as a bonus.

Then she pulled out her concealed gun, which no one had thought to check her for since she could make it just look like a part of her clothes, and shot all of them.

The stun effect on them was going to be only a few seconds at best, but she could use it.

She raced back to the other room, turning into Havoc.

"Stop, thief!" she yelled.

Every worker in the room froze, and the overseers even looked uneasy.

"Thief where?" one yelled.

"There." Mystique pointed to the far wall, where a hapless worker was minding their own business.

They screamed and tried to bolt.

The overseers flew after them, pulling out what looked like some technologically advanced kinds of whips.

Mystique felt somewhat bad for the person she'd probably just consigned to an unwarranted flogging, but in the end it was a small price to pay if they somehow got out of this.

While all eyes were thus distracted, she shifted to look like one of the workers and snuck up to Forge, who was watching and wincing.

"Hey, stop gaping." She yanked his arm.

"Hey, I didn't do anything!" Forge said.

Mystique shifted just her face enough for him to see who it was.

"What the--?" Forge almost cried, but she covered his mouth with her hand.

"Shut up, you little idiot," she hissed. "I have seconds before they figure this out. I can't blow cover yet. Take this."

She handed him the Talis. "Have to keep it out of their hands as long as possible. With any luck, it'll just disappear soon. Don't let anyone see that you have it."

"What is this?" Forge said.

"Something to do with time travel," Mystique said. "It's Morph's, don't lose it. I'll try to stall as long as I can. Might not be long. The others are on their way. You've seen more of this place? You better find them and help them when they get here.... The other X-men are here?"

"I think they are somewhere, but I got taken away from them days ago," Forge said.

"Days? But...we saw you earlier today..." Mystique puzzled.

"Yeah...but I think the time jump works weirdly," Forge said. "It's been days. Only I knew that, though. I didn't even remember it that well till now... But...this place is insane. How do you expect me to get out?"

"I don't know. Do I have to do everything?" Mystique said. "You're supposed to be good with machines, right? This area is full of them. Grow a spine already. The world is going to end, you fool."

She heard the others coming.

"I have to keep faking them out. Hopefully they'll focus on us and not track the others around so much." She stood up. "Get it done. And get the others out of here if you can."

"Problem," Forge hissed. "One of us they separated. Name's Domino. They said she didn't have a useful mutation. She was like some...they had a name for it...Weakling, I think? Do you know what that means?"

"That means she's like the humans," Mystique said. "What was her mutation?"

"Good luck," Forge said.

"That's ironic," Mystique said. "And yes...that would be considered basically useless in this regime. Who cares about luck when you have all the power in the world? The humans are enslaved, some are bred because they can have mutant kids. If they don't just kill her, that's where they'll send someone like that. She any good in a fight?"

"Yeah, she's good with weapons," Forge said.

"Maybe she's not been moved yet," Mystique said. "I probably won't find her, but you could try. One of these pieces of trash has to be a monitor, right?"

She turned back to Morph and pretended to be shooting at some of the overseers.

Well, she didn't really pretend. She might as well take a few more down.

Some of the other prisoners were shocked but did nothing to stop it.

Havoc, Pyro, and Nitro came in and used some kind of rope lasso thing to snag her.

Which also electrified her.

Mystique somehow held form despite that.

"That was really stupid," Havoc said. "I figured you'd try to escape sooner or later. Now we do this the hard way. Come on." He dragged her out of the room.

Forge was left to wonder what he was going to do...

But if he was going to keep that Talis out of the hands of Apocalypse, he was going to have to get out of here, the easiest place to find him in.

One thing, the Overseers didn't restrain any of their mutations. Prisoners got into fights with each other on a regular basis, and, instead of stopping it, the guards just placed bets on who'd win. Sometimes they got in and whipped them themselves.

But power was everything here--no one cared if you abused it, as long as it didn't get in the way of their tasks.

Because of that, Forge could use his mutation, but he was hopelessly outnumbered and hadn't even tried to do so.

But Mystique had kind of just given him a slight advantage--a few Overseers were stunned and the others were distracted.

Sure, they all had trackers implanted in their arms to keep them from escaping, but with a few maneuvers of a tool, Forge had his out.

He slowly stepped through some of the machines while no one was looking.

There was a computer along the back wall where the prisoners were accounted for by an automatronic robot. Forge pulled its wire controls out and then used it to hack the computer with a fair amount of ease.... None would say Apocalypse's regime was really that technologically savvy. They put more work into making super-powered freaks than into security. People had no where to run anyway.

He started searching the database for the other X-men.

He found out that most of them were in a cell block that was not shown in any of the floor plans of the fortress he thought he was in. He hadn't actually seen the outside of it...

Rogue had been removed though. Probably she had a useful power also. All the others were being held captive with no scheduled plans for removal.

He then looked for Domino.

Turned out she hadn't left the prison yet. She was on a list of about 10 mutants who were all labeled unfit for the mutant labor corps and were going to be sent to join the human ones. Who had that only too clichéd name of Serfs. The only reason Domino was not gone already was, according to her file, she'd been questioned first.

Forge had a better chance of finding her than Rogue, from the looks of it. Rogue was in a much more heavily guarded facility in this city. One that seemed to be for "re-educating."

Forge could figure out that had to be because she was more powerful...like the people who'd attacked them... They wanted to make sure she was under their control...

Rogue under evil control sounded like one of the worst nightmares as X-men.

[Wait till he meets the Rogue from 616. Then he'll really be terrified.]

The Serfs, on the other hand, were in what just looked like a loading dock like one that would be used for cattle. They couldn't really fight, not with the bullies of overpowering, enhanced guards that worked here, so they weren't worried about them getting away.

Forge wondered if he had any chance of getting any of them to join him if he told them that help might be on the way.

A long shot, but maybe those other X-men could pull this off.... They did do amazing things, right?

The loading dock wasn't that far from this room...if he could get out unnoticed.

Well...maybe if he made a few alterations to the schedule...

Forge was just finishing doing this and then putting the automatic robot back to its former setting, when one of the overseers finally found him.

"Ey, what are you doing?" They reached for their whip.

"Just looking for the bathroom." Forge held up his hands.

"Why? You think you can just take a break when you want one if we're having a little trouble?" the overseer jeered at him. "What's you're name anyway...Forge?"

They pulled out their handheld scanner.

"Eh...you're scheduled for removal anyway," they said. "Lucky for you, or I'd have tanned what's left of your scrawny hide."

He kicked Forge over.

Forge pushed himself up.

"What you gonna do about it?" the overseer jeered.

Forge swallowed. "Nothing," he said.

"That's right nothing, Worm," the overseer said. "Hey, you, Hoplite,"

One of the others came over.

"Take this worm to the boiler room. He's got a new assignment."

Hoplite, whose mutation was unclear, nodded and grabbed Forge by his collar and yanked him out of the room.

"So, uh...why do none of you use restraints?" Forge asked nervously.

Hoplite just glared at him.

"Just seems like a smarter thing to do?" he said.

"You want to know why?" Hoplite said, not very nicely. "Take a look here."

He shoved Forge to one of the small windows in the hall that looked out on the yard outside.

Forge saw turrets with machine guns on them and bored-looking mutant guards.

{Editor's note: I prefer to read Hoplite's voice in the tone of Scrooge McDuck.}

"Every so often one of you maggots tries to escape," Hoplite said. "The boss lets them get as far as the yard and then blows them to smithereens. A real object lesson for the new blood. Those little tracker things we put in your arm work like homing beacons to the weapons around here. Can't miss. We don't really care if you scrap around with each other, keeps everyone on their toes, as long as you don't get off this property. But there's no real escape. You want to fight me?"

"No," Forge said.

"Then shut up." Hoplite continued to pull him along.

Forge really had to wonder if this was the best idea...

But he'd taken out the tracker, and none of them had noticed (his clothes hid it okay)...so was there a chance at getting out?

Most mutants couldn't make their own tool out of their body. He was surprised he'd been allowed to work on the machine at all.... Were they just that arrogant, they didn't think anyone could escape even if they had a power like that?

Like the Death Star in Star Wars.

[By the way: "A hoplite (from ta hopla meaning tool or equipment) was the most common type of heavily armed foot-soldier in ancient Greece from the 7th to 4th centuries BCE, and most ordinary citizens of Greek city-states with sufficient means were expected to equip and make themselves available for the role when necessary."--Wikipedia]