“Giving up so soon?” she asked. “Come on, Christopher. Please try again. I know it makes you feel ill, and that sucks, but I don’t want to sit out here forever. I’m getting awfully sick of this park.”
But Christopher gave no indication that he’d heard a word. He walked over to where Graydon stood staring at the Box. Christopher wordlessly snatched the artifact out of the politician’s hands and began pressing the glowing sigils on the outside in swift sequence.
“What the hell?” Graydon barked.
Christopher didn’t even seem to hear him. Now Eva realized that he wasn’t his usual self. The healer stared off into the distance, his eyes unfocused as his hands moved with automatic precision. His face was slack, his normally animated expression empty of thought or emotion. She snapped her fingers in front of his eyes. Nothing. Not even a blink.
“What’s wrong with him?” Graydon asked.
“Whatever it is, I don’t like it,” Sabretooth growled.
He elbowed Eva out of the way without much grace, reaching for the Box. Before he could take it, it rose out of Christopher’s hands of its own accord, glowing with an eerie green light. It began to spin, slowly at first, but quickly picking up enough speed that they all backed away, fearful of coming into contact with it. It would make a dangerous projectile at such high speeds. Christopher seemed to shake out of whatever trance he’d been in, and he looked at the Box with the same shock they all felt.
“What’s happening?” he asked.
“You should know,” said Sabretooth. “You’re the one who did it.”
“Huh?” Christopher looked honestly puzzled.
“I don’t think he realized what he was doing, did you, Christopher?” asked Eva.
“Last thing I remember, I was trying to take down the force field.” Christopher backed up until he bumped up against the invisible barrier, still watching the wildly spinning artifact. “Guess I don’t have to ask whether it’s still there.”
“Yeah, well…” Sabretooth didn’t sound convinced. He stepped in front of Graydon as if to protect him from whatever might happen next. “You doing OK?”
“No negative effects here,” Graydon reported. Then, after a moment, he added with diffident awkwardness, “Thank you for asking.”
“Sure.” Sabretooth cleared his throat. “No problem.”
The top of the Box opened. In all their examinations of it, no one had noticed hinges or seams. It had seemed for all intents and purposes to be one solid cube. But it opened nonetheless, spilling out more of that cold, eldritch light. The spinning slowed, leaving the Box hanging in midair as if held by some unseen hand. Then a familiar holographic figure rose from its depths, tall and resplendent in black and red armor, segmented like some giant bug. Flames rose from his head and outlined his eyes and mouth, which curled in a satisfied smile.
Dormammu.
Eva would have been happy never to see the Lord of Darkness again. After all of the students had been imprisoned in his awful realm, she’d had nightmares about him, even though they hadn’t been his prisoner long. They’d stood against him and won, but only because of Illyana. Without her, Dormammu would have enslaved them for eternity in that land of flames and horror, and none of their pitiful mutant abilities would have done them any good. Seeing him again made her want to curl up into a ball and cry as the memories flooded her. She began to tremble, but she couldn’t run and hide no matter how much she wanted to. The force field left her nowhere to go.
Christopher seemed to share her fear. He bit his lower lip hard as he tried to maintain control, and for one tense moment, he swayed as if he might keel over entirely. But then he steadied, gripping her hand tightly in his. The grasp hurt her fingers, but somehow the pain helped. She focused on it instead of the fear. This time would be different. If Dormammu wanted to pick a fight, he’d be on their ground this time, and even though they didn’t have Illyana on their side, they had Sabretooth. Besides, she and Christopher had grown since then. They might still be new, but they’d learned so much in only a short time. Their newfound confidence would make a difference. It had to.
She stood up a little straighter and released Christopher’s hand, nodding to reassure him that she was OK. They would get out of this one way or another. She had to believe that.
Dormammu surveyed them like a king looking over his subjects from atop the floating Box. He may have been only a few inches tall and slightly see-through, but he managed to look imposing nonetheless. When he spoke, his voice boomed, its timbre and volume at odds with his small stature.
“I am Dormammu,” he announced. “The Dread One, Lord of Chaos, Master of the Box of Planes. Identify yourselves.”
“Sorry,” said Sabretooth. “I don’t take orders from action figures. Are you the reason we can’t leave? Because if so, I’ve got a bone to pick with you.”
“Identify yourselves,” Dormammu repeated.
“I don’t think it’s smart to argue with him, Sabretooth,” Eva said nervously. “He’s dangerous.”
But Sabretooth didn’t even pretend to listen to her. He wanted a fight more than anything else. His fists clenched and his lips curled away from his teeth as he glared at the hologram. She’d known it would come to this. To her surprise, she liked Sabretooth. He was like a grumpy uncle who said swear words in front of the kids and took them for rides on his motorcycle but was never allowed to watch them alone because of that one time no one ever spoke about. He just wasn’t trustworthy, and now a sinking feeling in her stomach told her that things were about to go very badly indeed.
“I don’t like your tone,” he said. “If you’re not going to let us out of here, I’m just gonna have to make you.”
Before Eva could stop him, he leaped toward the Box, swiping at the hologram that hung in the air over it. A loud cracking sound filled the air, and lightning lanced from the Box, striking Sabretooth. He howled in pain. The smell of ozone and burnt flesh assaulted Eva’s senses. Sabretooth grabbed at the Box again, and another flash of light threw him onto the ground. He scrambled to his feet, his hands blackened, his face twisted with fury, and prepared to throw himself at the Box for a third time, mad with rage and pain.
“Hold him!” Eva shouted, leaping toward him.
She tried. Really she did, but she weighed about as much as one of his arms, and even then, she wasn’t sure which was heavier. She grabbed on, and he flung her off effortlessly. Her shoulder slammed into the force field, exploding with pain. Christopher tried too, but he was shaken off with similar ease. Sabretooth started toward the Box and Dormammu’s hologram once again. His eyes glowed with murderous rage, all signs of rational thought gone. He’d held on as long as he could, but finally, he’d snapped. They had all heard what he was capable of, and although Eva now realized that this didn’t mean he couldn’t be funny or kind, it only took one look at him now to realize that at least some of those stories were most likely true. He was a violent killer, and no amount of witty banter would change it.
Graydon stepped in front of him. He was just a human. He had no superhuman powers or abilities to protect him from the raging mutant that loomed over him, eager for violence. Somehow, he didn’t even look afraid. His eyes were clear and his expression calm as he stared up at the wild-eyed figure before him.
“You’ll have to go through me,” he said. “Is that a sacrifice you’re willing to make, Victor? Mother was willing to throw me aside. In fact, I think she was eager to strike the blow that killed me. I didn’t know she was my murderer at the time, but…” His expression creased for a moment with some vaguely remembered pain. “Someone told me. I don’t remember who, but one of the times they brought me back, someone made sure I knew that my own mother killed me. So if you do it now, it won’t be that bad. I’m used to being offed by my parents.”
“Get out of the way!” Sabretooth roared in his face, making as if to strike him aside.
But something held him back. For some inexplicable reason, he didn’t move. The mercenary had done a million horrible things in his life, and if he was given the chance, Eva knew he’d do a million more. To her intense astonishment, she realized that maybe Sabretooth had finally found his limit. He couldn’t hurt Graydon. He’d reached the one line he wouldn’t cross. Emotions buffeted her – pride at Sabretooth’s growth, horror at Graydon’s past, and a sinking dread of what would come next.
“Do it,” Graydon urged, his face suddenly alight with a horrible eagerness. “You never wanted me. Send me back to Hell where I belong. Do it!”
Sabretooth’s eyes cleared, and he looked suddenly disgusted. He shoved Graydon away from him, without too much violence, a master of his emotions once again.
“No,” he said roughly. Then he whirled away, retreating as far as the force field would allow.
As soon as Sabretooth retreated, the fervent expression faded from Graydon’s face. Eva couldn’t believe how quickly it changed. Had he been acting all along? Now he watched Sabretooth with an unreadable expression. If they’d been alone, she would have offered sympathy. Now she understood his desperation to get away: Graydon was Sabretooth’s son. It was obvious now. Under less chaotic circumstances, she probably would have figured it out already.
“Interesting,” Dormammu said, unmoved by this raw display of emotion. “But let us resume the negotiation. I recognize two of you. You are both associates of Illyana Rasputin.”
His glowing orange eyes roved over Eva and Christopher, seeming to miss nothing. Eva swallowed hard but refused to shrink under that awful gaze. Dormammu’s flaming eyes brought back uncomfortable memories of despair from those moments when she thought she’d be stuck in the barren nothingness of Limbo forever, at the mercy of a sorcerer who seemed to delight in misery. It would be easy to give up now, knowing what they faced. Dormammu had the strength of Illyana Rasputin, and he was cunning and cruel. But instead of bowing before him, she lifted her chin in a gesture of blatant defiance against both him and the fear he made her feel.
“Yeah,” she said. “I’m Tempus.”
Somehow, using the name strengthened her anew. It reminded her that she was more than just Eva Bell now. Yes, she was still the young woman who played a wicked game of softball and liked punk music, but she could also deploy time bubbles with such precision that she could make a pair of Sentinels shoot each other by accident. She had changed so much since she’d joined the New Xavier School. Heck, she’d changed noticeably in the past few hours alone.
“I’m Triage,” said Christopher, following her lead.
“I have been watching you, and you have impressed me,” said Dormammu. “What of the other two? The master manipulator and the trained killer. I have yet to meet them.”
They weren’t bad descriptions, sadly enough. Graydon shook his head silently as if refusing the introduction, but Eva didn’t think this was a hill worth dying on. What harm could a name do? They would come to conflict soon enough, but in the meantime, they needed to know more about him and what he intended.
“This is Graydon, and that’s Sabretooth,” she said, indicating each one in turn.
Graydon frowned a little but said nothing.
“I have a proposition. I have determined that you would make potent allies, and I am in need of support for my plans. You will serve as the keepers of the Box of Planes and do my bidding,” said Dormammu.
Sabretooth opened his mouth to answer, but Eva leaped in before he could say a word. With his hotheaded nature, she couldn’t guarantee that he wouldn’t mouth off, and Dormammu didn’t seem like the type of guy to let that slide. She had to keep him talking.
“What plans?” she asked hastily.
“You will do as I say and ask no questions,” he ordered. “You have seen my power. Do not anger me.”
“I can’t help if I don’t know what you’re trying to accomplish,” she replied, ad-libbing it. “I want to be useful. The X-Men don’t let me do anything fun.”
The fiery eyes surveyed her for a moment with what seemed like amusement. Then Dormammu nodded. “You speak sense, Tempus. My plans are simple, and there is no harm in your knowing them. The Box gives me access to multiple planes of existence. I need you to open the doors for me. Then you will be rewarded.”
“That sounds like a crap deal to me,” said Sabretooth. “You got no reason to keep your end of the bargain.”
He didn’t move to rejoin them, but he glared at Dormammu’s hologram from his spot at the back of the force field, as far from the rest of them as he could possibly get.
“Do not dismiss my offer out of hand,” said Dormammu. “Not before you understand its advantages. The Box sustains Graydon’s life. This is why you sought out the artifact, is it not?”
“Yeah, well, I don’t need you for that, do I?” snapped Sabretooth.
“Oh, but you do,” Dormammu responded smoothly. “I could send a surge of power through the Box so great that his weak physical form could not contain it. He would disintegrate into so much dust. Or I could break his mind, flooding it with horrors until he was nothing but a drooling husk trapped in this body. Would you care for him then? Do you have the patience to change his diapers and spoon food into his lips, or would you leave your son to die?”
Sabretooth’s expression went completely white.
“Oh yes. I heard. Graydon is your son. I am told that men will go to extraordinary lengths to protect their family. You will deal with me, or I will unleash Hell upon him,” said Dormammu.
Sabretooth turned bleak eyes on his son. His lip quivered, baring one of his fangs as he struggled against his surging emotions. But with effort, he mastered himself. His expression firmed. Then his back bent as he knelt before Dormammu. Graydon’s eyes welled with tears as he watched his unbendable father prostrate himself for his safety.
Eva couldn’t stand it. The sight of Sabretooth on his knees offended her on a level she couldn’t exactly explain. Maybe he could use a little humility, but prostrating himself in front of Dormammu? After the fiasco in Limbo, she knew what Dormammu was capable of. All he cared about was freeing himself from the restraints Magik had placed on him and grabbing power over as many planes as he could. He wouldn’t keep his end of the bargain. He’d kill Graydon just for the fun of it, no matter what they agreed on. Their only hope of saving Graydon was to defeat Dormammu and claim the Box for themselves. If she froze him, maybe they could figure something out.
She did it before she could think twice. Dormammu and the Box froze in space, held tight by a small, glistening bubble. For a moment, no one moved. Then Christopher grinned.
“Nice call, Eva,” he said.
“Nice call?” Sabretooth demanded, launching toward her. He grabbed her by the shoulders and shook, none too gently. Her teeth rattled together. “You’ve killed him!”
“Hey! Stop it!” said Christopher, trying to pull him off.
Sabretooth whirled on him. “She just doomed Graydon. Dormammu isn’t just going to let this go. I’ve seen guys like him before. You don’t know–”
“Yeah, actually we do, because we’ve fought him before,” Eva snapped. “You can’t trust him, Sabretooth. He’s willing to do anything for power; we saw that ourselves. He was lying to you. He’ll get what he wants and then kill Graydon just because he can, and then he’ll go on a killing spree here on Earth. We can’t let that happen. The only way to protect him is to take the Box for ourselves.”
“Yeah,” Christopher agreed. “We can keep the Box in a bubble. Eva, you’ll have to watch it like a hawk, because if Dormammu gets out, he’ll be ticked. We’ll work on breaking through this force field.”
Sabretooth seemed to consider it for a moment. His eyes flicked to Graydon, who had watched the entire argument that would decide his fate without a word. The politician seemed resigned, and Sabretooth took one l
ook at him and instantly made up his mind.
“No.”
Sabretooth struck Eva upside the head once, hard. She didn’t even see it coming before pain exploded through her skull. Everything went dark.
Chapter 28
Christopher couldn’t believe what happened next. They’d been talking about the plan when Eva captured Dormammu in one of her bubbles, taking him by surprise in what he’d thought was a brilliant move. They could have escaped and protected Graydon. Worked together. Been a team.
But then Sabretooth knocked her out cold. She dropped like a box of bricks, and for one horrible moment, Christopher thought she was dead. Blood trickled from one of her ears, and she didn’t appear to be moving. But then her chest trembled ever so slightly as she breathed. She was alive. The realization made him go limp with relief. He could heal whatever damage Sabretooth had caused, and she would be OK. No thanks to Sabretooth.
He whirled around and shoved the giant mutant as hard as he could. It was like trying to push a rock.
“How could you, man?” he demanded. “She didn’t do anything to you!”
“She could have gotten Graydon killed,” Sabretooth snarled. “He’s mine. My flesh and blood. I don’t expect you to understand that.”
“But…” Despair filled Christopher. “You’re the one who doesn’t understand! I feel like that about you, and about her, and about Graydon. I thought we were a team.”
At least he had the grace to look ashamed. “I’m sorry, kid. But I didn’t kill her. I knew you could patch her up, and I won’t hurt either of you again so long as you don’t interfere. Got it?”
Christopher couldn’t even meet his eyes, but he nodded.
“I’ll take her over there, so we’re out of your way,” he said, bitterness soaking into every word.
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