Age of Darkness | Pietro Maximoff

Chapter Thirty: The Day When The Ancient Songs Died

Music is "Sigma Medley" by Epic Soul Factory.

Picture is Prison 42 in the Negative Zone.

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"That was the day the ancient songs
of blood and war
spilled from a hole in the sky.

And there was a long moment
as we listened and fell silent
in our grief,
and then one by one,

we
stood
tall

and came together and began to sing
of life and love
and all that is good and true.

And I will never forget that day
when the ancient songs died
because there was no one
in the world to sing them."

- Brian Andreas

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Recommendation from the author: "Please Stay[Wanda Maximoff]" by Xoxo_Sadie21.

Recommendation from the audience: None this week.

Send in your recommendation of your book to possibly be featured in next week's chapter!

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CHAPTER THIRTY

Bucky escorts me towards the portal, and I press my earpiece to contact Clarke, trying my hardest to block out Tony. "Clarke? Clarke, come in."

"Clarke here, and ready to rumble. Do I have the go?"

"Yes. Overheat is a go. Do your thing and hurry over to the portal. We don't have much time at all. Make sure you're not here when Wanda and Stephen leave."

"Aye, aye, Glorious. Clarke, over and out."

When Bucky and I arrive at the portal where Stephen and Wanda are barely holding themselves upright, I quickly jump in to help, offering my cosmic powers to hold the breech between worlds open until the last few inmates can make it through. The rest of the team surrounds us, making certain that Tony's following can't penetrate the firm boundary they've made.

"We need to start getting the team through!" I shout, letting Wanda lean against my back as she struggles to keep her eyes opened. "They aren't going to last much longer."

Bucky nods, swinging the shield at our enemies. "Have the X-Men go first. Then the recruits, and Next Gen. Mutants after them. We all go last."

"I can hold the portal open for about ten seconds once on the other side," Stephen says.

"Good. Alright, X-Men, start going through!"

One by one, the handful of X-Men make their way through. Bobby stops by me, asking, "Where's Clarke? Why isn't he here? Why hasn't he gone Overheat yet?"

I shake my head, wondering the exact same thing. "I don't know. Something must've gone wrong. I'll go look for him myself."

Bobby nods, still uncertain, but goes through the portal as told.

Pressing my com, I ask, "Clarke, where are you? What's taking so long?"

All I hear over the com is muffled explosions and static, with a few, indistinguishable words making it through. "Glor-... I... trapped... come...!" Then the com cuts short, a large explosion being seen from the top of the prison.

I turn to Stephen after the X-Men have gone through and the new recruits and Next. Gen Mutants are starting to make their way after them. "Don't you have a spell for power absorbtion?"