{{It was a bit hard to translate,}} said Prosh. {{I assume that the true translation was the "Son of Apocalypse" and not "Apocalypse."}}

"We've gotta find Scott and Jean!" exclaimed Cable. "If any of the Twelve are harmed, including Apocalypse's son, then all is lost."

Blink and Archangel turned to see a woman dressed in a crimson costume with curly, auburn hair. She is Wanda Maximoff, the Scarlet Witch. Ever since she was transported here, she felt as something of an outsider. She never had much assosciation with the X-Men, not nearly as much as her brother, Quicksilver. She was, first and foremost, an Avenger.

"No..." said Blink. "It wasn't Ro--Famine who attacked us."

"I don't think I've ever seen you so serious, Bobby," said Lorna with a grin. "I guess that means it really is the end."

"No time for jokes," said Cable. "Prosh, bodyslide by ten, Jerusalem-bound."

Death leaned over on Nate's chest and ran her fingers down it. She ran then back up, then drove her claws into it. A cry of pain emitted from the mouth of Nate Grey, the X-Man. An odd form of energy surrounded the two figures, and then shot forth to the darkened skies.

Jean and Scott Summers watched in horror as the skies opened up, and a portal leading to a world of crimson slowly began to open.

On the streets of Jerusalem, people of all faith and cultures began running for their lives. Some bowed down on their knees, praying for their salvation from their deity. Many others pointed to the pyramid and watched. Some were fearful, some were hopeful. All had the same idea in their minds, though.

The end was near.

A bright light appeared beneath the pyramid. Ten mutants were standing there, and the one who stood at the forefront, a man in military clothing with white hair and a glowing eye, gave off an appearence of confidence and power.

A elderly man with a long, gray beard on the street saw this man and pointed at him.

<"The Savior! The Savior has come! Come to rid the world of sin!">*

( *Translated from the Arabic—Dino )

"Do you know what that man said?" asked Storm. "Or why he was pointing at you?"

Nathan appeared to be a bit offset by the elderly man's words, but he snapped back and faced Storm.

"Yeah, I know what he said," replied Cable. "But don't worry about it. Just the ramblings of an old man."

He looked up at the pyramid and saw the energy that came from the peak. His eyes drifted back over to a young woman with lavender skin and red hair.

"Blink, get us up there."

Clarice Ferguson's eyes began to crackle and glow as a large portal appeared beneath them. She lifted her arms and the portal slowly rose up.

As it rose, another portal rose at the peak of the pyramid. As these mutants vanished from the streets, they appeared above the peak. The portal vanished, and they all stood there, none of them were prepared for the scene before them. Nate Grey's body seemed to age considerably as the energy continued to emit from the altar.

Cable removed the knife hilt from his belt and it extended into his full-length Psimitar. He aimed it at the altar and fired. The blast of psionic energy forced Death off of the X-Man and off of the pyramid. She tumbled down to the streets below. The energy which surrounded X-Man was now gone, but his appearence was still decrepid.

The other nine mutants ran to the slab that Cyclops and Phoenix were chained to. Polaris used her powers to remove the shackles from their hands, and both of them looked at Alex Summers in shock.

"Later," said Alex. "Right now we've got..."

A brilliant white light surrounded the eleven mutants (twelve if you counted the one inside Jean's stomach). This was the first time the Twelve had all been gathered in one place.

"Destroy them, my Horsemen!" growled Apocalypse.

Cable looked at his age-old foe with determination and hatred. Then, he noticed the Crystal hovering above the flames and began to decipher exactly what was happening. He instantly established a psi-net with himself and the Twelve.

"Apocalypse is using the M'Kraan Crystal to reshape reality!"

In the center of a large crater lay the being called Death by her "creator," Apocalypse. She stood from the blast crater and glanced upward at the portal. It had not opened completely, but it was now wide enough for demons to begin piling forth from it.

She grinned at the accomplishment and used her telekinesis to carry her back to the top of the pyramid.

It has been a long time since Scott and Alex Summers have fought side by side. Now, they unleash their combined powers of optic and plasma blasts on the Horseman known as War, and these brothers enjoy what may be their last battle together.

War, however, is not willing to simply lie back and take a beating. He swings his massive sword before his body at an incredible speed so that it provides a shield against the powers of the Summers brothers.

A psionic assault comes at him from behind, however, in the form of the Phoenix. Jean Grey-Summers was surrounded by the avatar of a fiery bird, and as she moved, the talons of the bird slashed into the Horseman. The attack caused War pain, yet he retaliated by lifting his blade and removing one of the talons from the psionic avatar. Jean cried out in pain at this display of power, and her mind felt like it was on fire as War drove his sword into her head.

Cyclops rushed to his wife's side, yet War spun on his heel and suddenly, a crossbow was in his hand. An arrow flew forth from it and implanted itself in Cyclops's head. He fell to the ground, paralyzed from the psionic attack.

"GET THE HELL AWAY FROM THEM!!" shouted Havok as his body became supercharged with energy. He extended his hands, and an incredible amount of spiral-shaped energy emitted from his body.

War encased himself in a psionic shield, and the blast barely affected him. He pulled his sword back, and slashed forward. As the sword sliced through the air, waves of energy rippled forth from it. Havok was not quick enough to dodge, and fell victim to War's attack.

Blink fought one of the hardest battles of her young life this day. It was a battle fought against her friend and teammate, Rogue. Or, as she was now called, Famine. As hard as she fought, Clarice had no intention of hurting Rogue. She simply avoided a majority of Famine's blows by creating portals in front of her that acted as shields. As Famine's fists traveled through the portals, they reappeared behind her and struck her own body. Famine grew tired of this, and took more of an offense. She faked against Blink with her right arm, and with her left hand, she gripped onto Blink's face. The effect was instantaneous as Blink felt the energy drain from her body.

Magnetic energy surged around Famine, and she looked to see Polaris unleash a magnetic strike against her. Famine brought up her own magnetic shield. As Rogue, she once absorbed the powers of Magneto. Now, with her absorption powers fully under control, she has the ability to access any power she absorbed at will. Polaris attempted to put up a strong front, but she wasn't prepared to contend with Famine's own magnetic abilities. Famine dropped the magnetic shield and accessed the powers of her former teammate, Bishop. She absorbed the magnetic energy from Polaris and redirected it right back at her.

Ice columns shot forth from the ground and surrounded Famine. The temperature began to lower drastically. Standing a few feet from her, with his legs merged with the ice that covered the ground, and his forearms encased in ice was Bobby Drake. He looked at her through the blue sunglasses he wore and there was anger in his eyes. He hated seeing one of his close friends in such a state, but he had to do something.

Famine's body temperature began to drastically lower as Iceman began to freeze the moisture in her body.

"Don't make me do this, Rogue," he said. She offered no resopnse, just tried to fly towards him. Instead, she found that her feet were frozen to the ground. Iceman continued to freeze her body, incasing her in a block of ice. Once she was fully covered, he sighed, and began to return the temperature of the immediate area back to normal.

Then, an odd thing happened. The block of ice began to glow brightly. Suddenly, it exploded. Famine held a shard of ice in her hand and lightly tossed it into the air. As she tossed it, it began to glow with energy. When it landed in her hand again, she hurled it towards Bobby. He quickly whipped up an ice shield to protect himself, but fell once she charged into him, propelled by a kinetic blast field.

Famine thought the battle won, until she felt pain as talons tore through her psyche. She turned and saw the Archangel standing behind her.

"Come on," he said. "Let's see how you fare against a former Horseman."

As Cannonball rocketed towards Pestilence, a great sadness filled him. Warlock was a friend of his, and now they were at each other's throats. He was reminded of his former friends, of Bobby and Tabitha and Rictor who were part of Magneto's Fallen Angels.

He wasn't about to lose another friend to his enemies. He tried to shout above the sound of his blast field, to try and appeal to his friend that he prayed was still within the body of this engine of disease and destruction.

His cries fell on deaf ears, for Pestilence refused to acknowledge him. Instead, the techno-organic creature attempted to break Cannonball's blast field to infect him with the Transmode Virus. The effort was futile, and Pestilence instead attempted to reverse Cannonball's momentum, and send him flying in the opposite direction.

The Scarlet Witch blasted Pestilence with her hex bolts, while Franklin Richards hid behind her. It was her job to protect the son of Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Woman, and she would not fail in her task.

Cable attempted to take out Pestilence with psionic blasts from his Psimitar, yet it seemed that all his efforts were for naught.

Nathan wouldn't have another chance to break Pestilence, for a golden blade flew through the air and became lodged between his ribs. He cried out in pain as Death rushed forward towards him. He backhanded her with his metallic fist, and glanced over at the form of En Sabah Nur, who stood before the flames with the M'Kraan Crystal glowing brightly.

"APOCALYPSE!" he exclaimed.

Apocalypse looked up at Cable and he pulled his arm back. When he brought it forward, his arm extended and broke the distance between him and Cable, and his fist grew to massive proportions and slammed into Nathan's face.

Cable recovered just as Death leapt upon him. She clawed at him, and he attempted to defend himself as best as possible. He retracted his Psimitar and placed the hilt of it right up against her. He extended it, and the Psimitar shot through her chest and exited her back. She fell down, motionless on the ground. He did a quick mental scan but found that she was still alive. Apocalypse's genetic tampering made her far more than human.

He looked over at the altar. His "brother," Nate Grey, slowly started pulling himself closer towards Cable. He looked up at Nathan and his lips were moving. However, no sound came forth. Then, his body fell limp.

Cable looked around and watched as the rest of the Twelve were taken down by the Horsemen. This hadn't worked out as he had planned. Cable would have to take out Apocalypse here and now, with or without the Twelve.

Cable rushed forward and brought his Psimitar up. He slashed Apocalypse with it and let loose with a battle cry. Apocalypse stood back up, and continued to watch the Crystal. Cable still rushed forward, but Apocalypse there to counter his every move. Although he was moving as fast as he could, Apocalypse was able to counter each and every one of his attacks as if he were moving in slow-motion. Apocalypse slammed his fist against Cable's throat, and it forced the Askani'Son to pull back and gasp for breath.

Apocalypse turned back towards the Crystal and concentrated. Slowly, it began to open up, and the flamed turned to bright crimson. Nathan watched as a sea of crystal washed over him, followed by darkness.

The last voice he heard was Apocalypse's:

"Five thousand years and no one saw it coming."

Apocalypse's laughter echoed in Cable's mind before everything went black.