UNIVERSE 621
Rachel telekinetically yanked her out of the Beyonder's way, and she nervously reached into the Beyonder's mind. Their two minds connected and became one, she sensed his curiosity and desire to seek more information.
Both Rachel and the Beyonder became consumed in a burning light, which was broken by Cannonball who blasted them all towards the mansion. Beyonder left from there, while Rachel was still adjusting all over the information she gained just by peeking inside Beyonder's mind.
Sharky was observing everything from, he was waiting for the time, when Beyonder did any wrong thing so he will take action on him. But he hopes, Beyonder learns from the mistake and doesn't do anything wrong.
Sharky was also waiting for the Living Tribunal information about the Beyonder. The Living Tribunal had found the Beyonder power is linked to Molecule Man, but he was searching for complete information on how to kill him.
Meanwhile, at the X-Men side, while the Professor was again trying to find the Beyonder.
"X-Men, I am going to kill the Beyonder," Rachel shouted in anger, she was angry at the Beyonder for giving trouble to the X-Men by turning Illyana in the Darkchilde.
"Rachel, are you mad?" Kitty asked her.
"I've given this a lot of thought, he's a threat to everything that exists. He has to be stopped. and I figure Phoenix is the one to do it! WISH ME LUCK, X-MEN! Goodbye," Rachel replied and before anyone said anything to her, she vanished from there.
"Your momma was Phoenix, Rachel! What you are- is crazy!" Rogue said, but Rachel vanished from there.
"So what the heck do we do about it!" Magneto asked.
"Wish the youngster luck, like she asked," Wolverine replied.
"Yeah! That creep's done nothing but harm since he first appeared. He's past due for a taste of his own medicine!" Cannonball also agreed.
"My only regret is that I won't be there with her…" Wolverine said, while his claws comes out from his hands, he smirked, "...for the kill."
"Sheathe your claws, Wolverine! Regardless of our feelings, my friends… We must find Rachel, and stop this mad quest, before it is too late," Storm said.
"Why bother, Storm? We've all experienced the Beyonder's power. do you really believe… Our young Phoenix can hurt him, in any way?" Nightcrawler points out.
"Perhaps not, Nightcrawler, but she might make him angry," Storm explained, while Xavier focused his search on Rachel instead of Beyonder.
Meanwhile, Beyonder was busy growing flowers and grass at Alcatraz while thinking about how he will become a human. But suddenly, Rachel in the Phoenix form comes and burns all the Island including the Beyonder. But as the result she desires, nothing happened to Beyonder, not even the single grass was burnt.
Beyonder turned back and noticed towards Rachel, "We've met before this newborn star and I, yet for all her power, this fragile blossom is no less fascinating."
"Nothing happened?" Rachel said in a shocked voice, "I flared like a supernova and hit this island with all the power I possess and outside of this patch of fused Earth… Did absolutely no damage."
"I would not allow it. I know why you are here, Phoenix, and what you think of me. But you are mistaken, I mean no harm to you," Beyonder replied.
"I don't believe you. You're history, buster!" Rachel said and she again fired from full attack on the Beyonder, erasing him.
"Does that outburst make you feel any better?" Beyonder asked, again nothing happened to him and he was standing alive.
"I won't quit, monster! I'll keep trying, I'll keep on coming…" Rachel shouted at him. She is understandably shocked at this but decides to not give up and unleashes even more power against him but to no avail.
The Beyonder is amused by her and her existence so he takes her to a trip down memory lane as he transports her to her own time and has her witness the deaths of those close to her. Even Katherine Pryde of her time who perished after helping to transport her to this timeline.
"The past, but not my past, not the history I remember. Different timeline! one where Rachel Summers can't ever be born!" Rachel shouted in pain
"You have seen everyone you care for slaughtered. In a sense, you are the sole survivor of your world, of your race. Now you have two choices, save them or kill me," Beyonder said to her.
"How? And why?" Rachel asked, because this timeline X-Men were still fine and how can she slay the Beyonder.
"My reasons are my own. I here will grant you sufficient power to do so. Furthermore, I shall not even attempt to defend myself from any attack," Beyonder said, to prove his point that he enhances her powers.
She has neither words, nor even conceptions… To describe this transcendent moment, as she became a being of pure raw power. No more human now than the stars burning in the sky. And she wonders if this is how her mother felt.. When she became Phoenix?
But at the same time Blackbird appeared there, and also many Sentinels were revived by Beyonder, who is going to attack on the X-Men.
"A Sentinel! Omega series hunter-killers, but that's crazy! They weren't even designed till the turn of the century! In my time before my eyes these were the butchers who massacred the X-Men," Rachel said, as she was now in confusion, what to do, kill the Beyonder or save her teammates.
All her friends are then scattered across the city and sentinels from her time set upon them. If Rachel destroys Beyonder , her friends will die and if she saves them he will surely escape. Going against her instincts she saves her friends/surrogate family.
But after destroying all the Sentinels, her power was spent and she again confronted the Beyonder.
"I hope you're satisfied! It'll take the X-Men days to repair the damage done by this lousy fight," She shouted at him.
"The X-Men are alive and well, Phoenix, thanks to you. Rachel, you saved them!" Beyonder complimented her.
"I saved nothing!" Rachel shouted, she is furious and this time instead of attacking she slaps his face, "You gave me the power, you set up the situation, you created the threat."
He claims that this situation was to give her direction in her life so she could let go of her pain and rage and accept a new lease on life.
"I was little better than a toy, a puppet prancing about for your amusement! You may mean the best, but all you've done, all I think, you'll ever do is harm," Rachel warned him, that his intentions may be good but he treats people as disposable pawns only fit to do his bidding as he places them in dangerous situations he himself has caused.
She flew away from there, while the Beyonder is left to consider all that has happened.
Beyonder tried to help the New Mutants, as part of his attempt to help others find peace, he visited the New Mutants. First he found Illyana. She attacked him with her Soul Sword, but it had no effect on him just like the previous time, and he took it from her.
Much earlier, he had created the Darkchilde aspect of herself; now he decided to take all the evil out of her, and leave only purity.
He then sent her to convert the other New Mutants to his cause of purity and peace. She converted Sam Guthrie before he realized what she was doing, but the others rejected his gift.
Demons from Limbo attacked. The others were finally able to convince Magik that the Beyonder's gift wasn't right, that it took away their individuality and free thought.
Unfortunately the only way to reject the Beyonder's purity and to save Kitty Pryde, who was in the demon's clutches, was to re-accept her Darkchilde essence once more. She did, and the New Mutants were freed of the Beyonder's attempt at forced enlightenment, once again the Beyonder failed in his role of helping others find their own path.
Meanwhile, the Living Tribunal brings Sharky to the Beyonder Realm through the pinhole. Which Owen Reece created when he became the Molecule Man, to find any chance to kill the Beyonder once and for all.
"So, from here Beyonder was living, before he gets in the Marvel Multiverse," Sharky asked.
"Yes, but this all I have found is not found, but I have found a big secret about Beyonder," The Living Tribunal replied.
"What big secret?" Sharky again asked.
"The secret is that before the pinhole was created, there was not any presence of Beyonder in this Beyonder Realm. Since the Beyonder had no memories before the pinhole, we found out the Molecule Man was in a sense responsible for the existence of the Beyonder," The Living Tribunal explained the origin of Beyonder.
"How?" Sharky asked, he was also curious how the Beyonder came into existence.
"When I didn't find the details about the Beyonder, I went to ask the One-Above-All. And from there I found, it all starts from the Celestials," The Living Tribunal said.
"Celestials? What is the Celestials' role in between this?" Sharky asked, he was now even more confused.
"It all started when Celestials were in the starting phase of creating lives. They created a cosmic being known as Cal-Horra before they created even one single planet. They have created the Beyonder Realm, where they send the Cal-Horra to see over it. Then Cal-Horra created the Beyonders species," The Living Tribunal gives the information.
"What? There is only the single Beyonder is the problem, now even the, there is the whole race of Beyonders?" Sharky asked, he was now literally shocked. He didn't know, of the single Beyonder gives so much trouble, then the many Beyonders will destroy the whole Multiverse.
"Yes, there are whole Beyonders species. But they were not the strongest Beyonder. Cal-Horra imbued the Beyonders with a tiny fraction of power. He watched with interest as Beyonders grew jealous and then resentful, and he watched as they plotted against him!"
"When they attacked, he allowed it. curious to see what would happen. But this turned out to be a mistake. Realizing too late the genuine threat they posed, Cal-Horra could do little as they stole the rest of his power."
"Unable to kill Cal-Horra, because Cal-Horra cannot be killed. The Beyonders imprisoned him on a moon Beyonder Realm. They even erased his whole history, from then on, Cal-Horra was known as 'The Lost One', unknown to any other beings."
"Then the Beyonders become the incredibly powerful beings after stealing the Cal-Horra powers. From the Beyonder Realm, they live and watch our universe. In many ways their motives are like a mix of the Watchers and the Celestials, over the eons of existence, they have observed and manipulated the evolution of life and intelligence in our dimension."
"They often hire aliens from our universe to do their work for them. For instance, they hired the Nuwali to conduct experiments in evolution in the Savage Land. Later they created Cosmic Cubes. Each Cosmic Cube is a receptacle for energy that comes from their dimension."
"The Cubes are immensely powerful and can fulfill the wishes of their owners. These Cubes eventually develop and gain an intelligence and desires of their own. The Shaper developed from a Cube made by Skrull scientists. Kubik developed from a Cube made by A.I.M. scientists on Earth."
"And the Beyonders also created a Cube, which will help them control the molecules of the Universe. But at the same time, the accident happened with Owen Reece and it opened the portal to the Beyonder Realm. And the Cosmic Cubes which was going on the process of creating a new being was blasted, and some parts of Cubes energy goes back to Owen Reece from which he became Molecule Man."
"The rest of the energy formed a being which was now troubling us known as Beyonder. Therefore, the Beyonder and Molecule Man both got their powers from the same energy; the Beyonder got the majority of it, and the Molecule Man got a smaller portion. The Beyonder's whole philosophical interest in the ways of desire came from a Cosmic Cube's innate desire to fulfill its owner's desires," The Living Tribunal gives the detailed information of the Beyonder origin.
"So after hearing all of these. I didn't find a way to kill the Beyonder. Even if I reverse the time, when Owen Reece was a normal human. The Cosmic Cube will still be formed and the Beyonder will come into existence. And if I want to completely end this, then I need to move the time back millions of years, when even the Cosmic Cubes was not created but even it's not completely guaranteed," Sharky said after gathering all the information.
"Yes, we will only be able to banish him back to his own Universe, nothing more we can do this. Because even after death, even if we split his cosmic particles in different Universes. The cosmic particles again gathered together and the Beyonders will again rebirth," The Living Tribunal answered.
"What if we take all of his energy?" Sharky questioned, he thought maybe these options will work.
"I have no idea about this, but even this from my opinion all the energy will be still returned back to Beyonder. Or even if it goes to some person, the person will become the Beyonder. Or we still can't risk giving the powers to someone, you have already seen a simple trail of Protege," The Living Tribunal replied.
"Ok, then we can only send him back to Beyonder Realm, or cut all the connection to Marvel Multiverse, I hope this will work. But the best way is he learns to restrain himself, or not do anything mishap," Sharky said, The Living Tribunal nodded and both of them went back to keep eyes on the Beyonder.
Meanwhile, the Beyonder was now feeling frustrated while working on some device. He was frustrated because neither Rachel understood his advice nor did Illyana accept his powers.
Moreover the beings of this Universe will continuously harass him. He didn't do anything wrong with the X-Men, but just because he damaged the balance of some rubbish philosophy, they came to fight him.
It was okay, if they were strong, but they were pitiful beings, who don't have more powers. And even if he resolved someone's problem they were still sad.
Now he wants to know why these humans have complicated issues, he wants to see how the humans feel by becoming himself the human. So he was working on gadgets, which will reborn him as a human. But first he needs to do some testing.
He was traveling for his search for a specimen, but suddenly he attacked by the X-Men.
"Get him X-Men," Rogue said. While Colossus, Wolverine, Shadowcat, Magneto and Rachel have surrounded him.
"Heads up! He's deflecting my power beam back at you!" Magneto advised the other X-Men.
"Well, Magneto, it happens that you guys caught me in a mellow, thoughtful moment! I'm not in the mood for this. So I'm disabling Rogue and Wolverine gently as using your power, not mine!" Beyonder replied, Colossus caught Beyonder from behind, Shadowcat also came to capture him.
"Shadowcat! Don't touch the Beyonder," Magneto warned, but it was late, using Magneto powers, he had already thrown Magneto and Wolverine. Using Shadowcat powers he sends both Shadowcat and Colossus into Phantom form.
"Your existence will be expunged tomorrow! Why rush it?" Beyonder asked, looking towards the Mutant.
"You'll murder no one! I have the power of the Phoenix, and that is enough to slay you!" Rachel shouted and used the same power, which Beyonder had given her a few days ago. She tried to hit the Beyonder. But Beyonder easily caught her and slammed her down.
"Rachel, Rachel Rachel! Perhaps, at one point, I'd deliberately left myself wide open, you might have been able to destroy me… But, the truth is you never really had a chance! I was just playing with you," Beyonder said, revealing that if he even left himself open, Rachel would never be able to kill him.
"You're sophisticated enough to realize that! So why did this kamikaze run?" He asked while puzzled, if they lost every time, why did they return back.
"You knew... This place... This city…As under our protection… So we will always fight with you to protect it," Rachel replied.
"Then try it," Beyonder replied as he teleported himself from there.
The Beyonder then went to talk to the Hulk he thought the Bruce Banner was upset by the Hulk inside him, so Beyonder with his powers separated Bruce Banner one side, while Hulk.
After Hulk was separated, "Now, everything is good," He asked Hulk. But Hulk didn't listen to him and started fighting him.
"You are nothing but raging power personified! An infinity of powers, with no finite element inside! It's...ugly! Worse...it reminds me of someone," Beyonder said and again he clearly realized once more his plan failed and he left from there.
But after he left from there, Sharky appeared and reverse the effects joining Bruce and Hulk together once again, it calmed down the Hulk, he reverted back into Bruce Banner. After it Sharky again followed the Beyonder.
Beyonder next visited Peter Parker, of whom he said, "I like you better than anyone I've met!" He looked for more advice about life from Peter.
Peter did his best to explain the way the finite length of time we have on earth affects the way we act, and the Beyonder eventually left, saying that he may have talked him out of obliterating existence.
He is now caught in the complicated emotions of humans, and each time he makes his decision to become human, so he will understand why the humans were complicated.
But just as he comes out, he is ambushed by the New Mutants. "There he is!" Bobby pointed out as he attacked with his Ice.
"Now what? The New Mutants?" Beyonder asked, looking at them, "Let me guess! Phoenix telepathically sensed me here and mobilized you. The X-men's brat squad, to try and delay me till she can get here, but she'd fail to stop me again!" He easily beat them down.
He left them with a warning, "Get lost, rugrats! I've got some thinking to do! Try to follow me and I'll turn you all into little mutant potatoes!"
"What'll we do Cannonball?" Wave asked him. "We need to follow him," Cannonball replied as they followed him back.
Which irritated the Beyonder and now he was planning to kill them, Dani Moonstar saw death visions above all her comrades.
"It's an illusion. This is not the truth, what I feared. This is madness a LIE, I WON'T BELIEVE IT," Dani shouted while holding her head.
But she understands, this is still going to happen. She ran away, and had another vision, this time of her grandfather, who recounted the conflict between the Cheyenne and the white settlers, and how the Cheyenne tried to face extermination with honor. But still she returned back at same position.
"Flight will not save you, Warlock. You have now pissed me off Mutants, it's time to show you my anger, or you will still come and bother me," Beyonder replied.
"I've got a bad feeling about this," Cannonball said, now he realized they need to return back, not follow him.
"It's late to return back now, I've already warned you, yet you refused me," Beyonder shouted at them.
"He's mad, in both senses of the word," Illyana said.
"You're cool as an ice chief. ain't you afraid? Scared stiff," Sam asked Dani.
"Yes, I am, but I won't let the Beyonder see that," Dani replied.
"I was your chosen messenger. Spare my friends… I beg you. If anyone must pay the price of following you, let it be me alone!" Magik offered herself up as a sacrifice in exchange for the lives of the others.
Beyonder disintegrated her with no regard for the deal. The other attacked, with no affect. He killed Karma by reflecting her power back at her.
"Butcher! Murderer! Let Magma's flames consign you to the cruelest pits of tartarus, forever!" Magma shouted with her full fury.
"I am time and space personified, finite and yet infinite. The whole Galaxies have I crushed. And stars created. Your flames are less than nothing," Beyonder said, as he stands up in their flames, but nothing happened to him.
" How about me, Creed, and my best sunday punch!" Cannonball shouted as he attacked with his full force.
Warlock attacked with their full fury, Warlock's being especially powerful, and the Beyonder lay on the ground. However, he was just teasing out the battle to make them feel all the worse. He stood up and closed Magma and Cannonball in a crevasse.
He disintegrated Warlock, Cypher, and Wolfsbane. Moonstar was the only one left. She flew towards the Beyonder on her flying horse and touched him on the chest, counting a coup in the tradition of the Cheyenne warriors from whom she was descended, before he killed her as well. He then erased all memory of them from the universe.
Back in San Francisco, Rachel was only more determined to kill the Beyonder, and she still retained the power he had given her. She has caught Carol Danvers, and absorbed her powers and life force inside her, even Carol Danvers becoming the part of Rachel, making her more stronger than before.
"She has become a part of me, but I had no choice. The Beyonder is so strong, and I need to be stronger to beat him," Rachel said, as she returned back to Xavier's Mansion.
She noticed Kitty was sitting outside of the Mansion, "Hey, Kitty, you're up late! You takin' your Shadowcat identity to heart, girl? Kitty, are you okay?" Rachel asked, when Kitty didn't reply to her, Kitty lowered down her clothes, and showed her one hand was transformed into metal.
"What's the devil?" Rachel asked her.
"It's the Eldritch armor that appears whenever my best friend, Illyana Rasputin, uses her magic. It's bonded to my skin as if it's a living part of me just like it was with hers. And this sword her Soulsword. The sum and substance of her arcane might," Kitty showed the Soulsword.
"What is all this Kitty, what are you talking about?" Rachel asked her, she was confused.
"Don't you recognize it? Or remember her?! My roommate, Rachel. Our teammate's Colossus' little sister?" Kitty asked her.
"What're you talking about, Cat? You have no roommate… And Colossus sure doesn't have a sister. How can you remember somebody who doesn't exist?" Rachel asked.
"What about the New Mutants?" Kitty asked back.
"Who're they? Cut this out, girl! It's too late and I am too tired- for your games!" Rachel replied.
"He did it! He killed them, Rachel! They were kids, some of them hardly more than babies and he erased them. As casually and completely as we might wipe words off a blackboard," Rachel said in shocked tone, as she stood up, her half of body covered with Eldritch armor.
"Who?" Rachel asked her.
"The Beyonder! He slaughtered them! But for some reason, maybe because Illyana and I have some sort of bond between our souls, I remember it."
"A few weeks back he stripped her of her magic and made her his disciple. That's when I discovered our link, because her sword and armor suddenly came to me. And then you send to fight the Beyonder, and he erased them."
"I'm the only person who knows she and the New Mutants ever existed. But no one believes me! Don't any of you understand? They were just the warm-up! The X-Men are the main event! Sooner or later, he'll do to us what he did to them. We won't even be able to stop him," Kitty replied as she started crying.
"You're wrong Kitty?" Rachel said, although she didn't remember New Mutants, she clearly remembered the Beyonder.
"What chance have we against a creature like that? We're only human," Kitty denied.
"You're human Kitty, Phoenix isn't. The Beyonder gave me a portion of his might, enough for me to kill him. But doing so would have meant your death. I chose to save you, only he never took the power back. It's still within me and I mean to use it," Rachel replied.
"You're gonna tackle him one-on-one. That's suiside Rachel. What will you do to stop him from reabsorbing that energy, the moment you show your face?" Kitty asked Rachel.
"Nothing, if I confront him directly. But i've a better idea. What happens if the Universe he inhabits ceases to exist?" Rachel asked
"You can do that, destroy everything?" Rogue asked, she has also come there.
"With a little help from my friends. There's nothing to lose, Kitty and Rogue. From his actions, he's planning to destroy us anyway, isn't that what you believe? At least we can ensure that whomever comes after us won't have his madness to threaten them."
"But I can't do it completely on my own, I need your strength, your life force, your spirits.. To sustain me. My mother, the original Phoenix, sacrificed her life force for the Universe. Can we do any less?" Rachel revealed her plan.