"Stand down Holocaust!" Exodus yelled as he hovered over the dead body of his first Exile Colossus. Yellow psionic energy flew out in every direction from the leader of the Exile's body. He was one of the most powerful mutants on Earth only second to the likes of Xavier, Shadow King, and Magneto.

In the days when he first was released from the hibernation chamber that he was locked in by Apocalypse so long ago he stole the child of Quicksilver and enwrapped the island of Genosha in a powerful telekinetic field. All the while he was kicking the hell out of the X-Men and the Avengers. His folly came in overextending his powers though. Nonetheless that one event made him a respected and feared man amongst the ranks of the mutant world.

He could easily understand why the X-Men were cautious when he came them with an offer of peace. Of course Colossus was the only one to accept his offer to join him in what he hoped to be a solution for peace. Now that one person was dead, but he would not let his other Exiles fall. They were the reality-hopping mutant known as X-Man who came from a grim world where Apocalypse ruled with a mighty fist and the Indian beauty known as Moonstar.

Finally he had the Mistress of Magnetism, Polaris, amongst his ranks. The team was small, but that's how he preferred it. Their combined power made them an extremely powerful combo to say the least. Obviously they were not powerful enough to stop the son of Apocalypse, Holocaust, from killing Colossus.

The death of Piotr angered young Summers the most because Holocaust was from his reality and it was the young man's fault the brute Holocaust was in this reality in the first place. X-Man felt a great deal of responsibility for the Exile's death. Polaris and Moonstar were doing their best to soothe the young man's boiling anger, but their attempts were in vain. They could no longer hold him back.

"NO MORE THREATS EXODUS! ONLY ACTION!!" X-Man screamed as he blasted himself telekinetically at Holocaust and the 50 mutants at his back. The gleaming gold psionic energy irradiating from the man's body was so bright you could no longer see his blue and yellow costume. All that was left was his head and hair, but his eyes seemed to blend in with the golden brilliance. Exodus saw Holocaust's reaction to what Nathaniel was doing and it shocked him. This was the first time he could recall the butcher ever showing any type of fear.

The leader of the Exiles didn't get to see that reaction for very long as X-Man slammed into Holocaust. Polaris and Moonstar were knocked to the ground from the shockwaves caused by the collision. The green-haired Polaris had been knocked to the floor unconscious since a tiny piece of rock hit her in the head, but at the speeds that piece of rock was traveling it would have been enough to rip through a telephone post.

Luckily, the rock only scraped Lorna. Moonstar had been blown back almost five yards from where she had been. She amazed to look up and see that Exodus had not even flinched. He looked like an angel up there with his white cape billowing wildly and long, almost 3 feet long, black hair seemingly blending in with the cape. His eyes were totally intent on seeing what remained of X-Man and Holocaust.

Dani could only hope her newfound teammate had survived. She didn't think she could handle another death. Moonstar could only imagine the reaction of the X-Men once they learned of Colossus's death. If X-Man didn't kill Holocaust the X-Men surely would. The thought of what Kitty's reaction would be bought tears to Dani's eyes. Her love for Peter was deeper than any she had ever seen even the love shared between Jean and Cyclops.

Not that she had anything against the two it was just that she felt the two had just got comfortable to each other while Kitty and Colossus still had love for each other after all the ups and downs the world threw at them. This wasn't one down either of them would be able to recover from. Moonstar feared for the future now more than ever. The rift between the Exiles and the X-Teams would only deepen. Colossus was the only true drawbridge between the Exiles and the other teams. Exodus was disliked for obvious reasons and X-Man chose to separate himself from the family of Xavier. Polaris had become obsessed with the finding of Havok for a while and she has pretty much cut off all her ties with her former friends embracing Exodus's plan fully.

Moonstar herself had lost one of her few links in Cannonball since he so strongly disagreed with her joining the Exiles. It wasn't like she was doing anything sitting around the mansion and he didn't go ballistic when Siryn joined X-Force. Probably because she always had that assertive attitude about her. Whatever it was Dani refused to be sitting around the X-Mansion waiting for some crisis to occur. That wasn't her style, but at this moment and time she kind of wished it were.

The smoke began to settle revealing slowly a bruised, tattered, and unconscious X-Man along with a seriously injured Holocaust. The animal's transparent armor had been cracked severely and a huge chunk of it was missing on his right shoulder. The hole was spewing out orange smoke. Slowly Holocaust began to rise from the ground all his little lackeys in awe of his power and endurance.

Exodus held his head low at the sight before him. He could feel X-Man was still alive with his telepathy, but he had hoped that the young mutant would have finished off his opponent for good. Bennet had no such luck though so he could see he would have to take the fight to Holocaust. The Frenchman had felt that this day would come eventually, but he had hoped the stakes wouldn't be so high. He would have to defeat Holocaust for if not Moonstar and Polaris would surely fall against him and he would be responsible for the deaths of three more mutants.

His mission was simple as it had been when he was a part of the Crusades. Exodus would either succeed in his task or he would fail. There were no other options except for one though it would require him to do something he had promised long ago he never would do. As a former knight he had been trained not to do this one thing at all costs because to die was far better than it. Bennet du Paris would have to retreat. Fight or retreat?

One way had a chance of guaranteeing life would be preserved and in the other there was no doubt lives would be safeguarded. In the latter though was dishonor and despite the X-Men's misconceptions about him honor was something he held dearly to his heart. Exodus stopped in mid-thought. He had felt another very powerful presence appear out of nowhere.

"Bye big guy!" Cable yelled as he telekinetically blasted Holocaust high into the air though Exodus knew it wouldn't be enough to send the heir to Apocalypse into orbit. So he added his telekinesis to Cable's propelling Holocaust into the blackness of space where he destined to orbit the planet as an ice sculpture. Exodus settled to the ground slowly staring at the body of Colossus the entire time. He said nothing to Cable and Cable said anything to him.

No thank you or even a facial gesture of appreciation. There was no need for it because they were both soldiers though one came from the distant past and the other from the distant future. They both knew each had simply done their duty as soldiers.

"Cable how on Earth did you get here?" a bloodied Moonstar asked as she lifted up the unconscious body of Polaris in her arms. Cable had been the last person she expected to come in though she had secretly hoping he would. He was a father to her in a very special, but different way. Xavier was the kind of Dad who taught you all the good in life while still acknowledging the bad.

Cable was the kind who threw the reality of the world right in your face 24/7, but he let you know that you could combat this reality if you had the strength and determination. Xavier was a moral support, but Cable made her feel safe and stronger just by him being around. When he was leading X-Force everybody had this sudden newfound toughness. It was because Cable irradiated strength and others drew from it. Maybe Roberto and the others found that strength in Magneto. Perhaps they saw in Magneto what they all saw in Cable.

True the two were very different men, but they both had suffered enough tragedies to make even the Devil cry.

Dayspring didn't have time to answer Moonstar's question as he was quickly thrown into battle with Holocaust's soldiers. One of the mutants was spitting a large amount of acid from his mouth, which Cable was telekinetically redirecting to burn his teammates. Suddenly all of the mutants fell to the ground fast asleep.

"Obviously you must have automatically assumed they had psi-shielding. I just put them all to sleep with a simple command," Exodus said blankly as he telekinetically snapped the necks of all 50 mutants. The simultaneous sound of all the necks breaking was enough to cause some protestation from Moonstar, but she was quickly halted by a simple headshake from Cable. Nathan had always been one to understand when death was necessary and this was one case.

If Exodus didn't let out his anger somehow it was bound to fester and he didn't want another Genosha incident on his hands.

"So who's going to…"

"You will Cable. I suggest you take the body as well. My Exiles will be heading back to base to recuperate. All of Apocalypse's forces will have to answer for this offense. If you want to help then fine and if not stay out of my way. Anyone else that wishes to help may do so, but let's make one thing clear. I'm in charge here," Exodus said making clear what his intentions were as his compatriots and himself teleported away.

Egypt

"So what comes next Apocalypse? Your son is now dead and Exodus still lives. It seems your plan didn't go exactly as planned."

Apocalypse laughed at the boldness of his new ally and said, "Perhaps so, but this proves one thing. Holocaust was weak! Since you seem to have changed your stance on hating mutants I'm going to put you to the test. Your Dark Riders will be the next offensive against Exodus."

Bastion smiled, "Excellent Apocalypse."

"You have confidence in your men I suppose then," Apocalypse mused.

Bastion's eye cocked at Apocalypse's comment and said, "Men? My friend I've chosen all women for my Dark Riders."

"Pray tell who then?" Apocalypse asked curiously. He wasn't sure exactly what angle Bastion was trying to pull, but he had plenty of contingency plans in place if the robots turned into a man were plotting against him. Perhaps though Bastion knew exactly what he was doing and only wished to keep the master of survival on his toes.

"My first choice was the lovely Domino and then she made me think of the operative who I had to deal with so harshly. I had an extremely hard time catching Gryphon and now I truly understand why she hates Domino after all of her ranting while she was being transformed. Then I went after easier targets who didn't have an army of X-Men marching around them and weren't that skilled in hand-to-hand combat. So that led me to kidnapping Skids, Karma, and the lovely Cecilia Reyes. I believe those five women will serve you well so where's your end of the bargain at?" Bastion asked wanting to see if Apocalypse was even planning on fulfilling his part of the plan.

"The Sentinel/mutant hybrids you want are well on their way. I already have my first test subject in mind," Apocalypse grinned.

"Who would that be?" Bastion inquired.

"Colossus."

Author Notes

Hi! I'm Troy Bengal and I'm pretty much the new guy at M2K and to fanfic in general. I've been trying to come up with some story ideas for a while. Well, I began to talk with regular Exiles writer, Brent Lambert, and he was gracious enough to pass off this idea to me. Basically this story ends in a cliffhanger that could leave it open for sequels and I do have a few in mind. If you have any complaints, suggestions, comments, and what not then e-mail me at jangofett2004@hotmail.com

I hope this is the start of a good relationship between M2K and me. I like a lot of the site and from the fanfic I've read it has a good deal of quality. So anyway I'm signing off and you know where to hit me up.

-Troy Bengal