Chapter 12: Demons and Madness V
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Baxter Tower vibrated with a tense silence, charged with the gravity of what had just happened. Limbo had collapsed, Madelyne Pryor had been defeated, and with it, the threat of her dark reign had disappeared. Aleis, exhausted, could not help but feel a mixture of relief and unease. Although they had won the battle, a persistent feeling of incompleteness remained in the air. Something was wrong. Something was pending.
Hours after returning to Earth, while the young mutant was still recovering, the same feeling of unease hit him again with a force that made him get up immediately. As if an invisible, dark energy called him from some corner of the city, an urgency took hold of him. He felt a connection, a kind of psychic pull, that guided him, like a beacon in the fog, towards an uncertain destination.
Without warning Susan or Reed, who were still mired in their own exhaustion, Aleis left the Tower and headed out into the city, following the trail of that energy, something familiar, something he couldn't ignore. The streets of New York were eerily empty, the city lights flickering in the darkness as if they shared the same tension that was invading him.
The young mutant walked silently, his senses heightened, following that trail like a hunter follows the scent of his prey. The shadows of the buildings around him lengthened as he walked, the neon lights flickered irregularly, and the wind blew with an eerie calm.
Finally, he stopped when he reached a narrow, dark alley, hidden between two abandoned buildings. A stifling heat emanated from the place, accompanied by a faint smell of sulfur. Aleis knew that what he would find there would not be natural. The air was impregnated with a familiar and disturbing energy.
He approached slowly, his albino eyes adjusting easily to the dimness of the alley, and then he saw it. Amidst the shadows, enveloped in flames that burned unusually, a figure writhed on the ground. The flames did not burn like ordinary fire, but danced over the woman's skin, enveloping her in a cloak of heat and power, harming her not. It was a sight both terrifying and fascinating.
Madelyne Pryor.
But this was not the Madelyne he had faced in Limbo. This version of her was completely naked, her pale skin glistening under the flames as if she were being purified by them. Her long red hair fell in disarray over her shoulders, and her eyes, which had once shone with the cruelty of dark power, were now empty, filled with confusion and loss.
Aleis held his breath, perplexed. The woman lying before him was not the queen of Limbo, but a reborn version, newly born from the fire. There was no malice in her eyes this time, only disorientation, as if she didn't know who she was or what had happened.
"Madelyne…?" Aleis murmured, her words filled with disbelief.
She raised her head slowly at the sound of her name, but her expression was one of utter bewilderment. The memories of her time in Limbo, her ambitions, her power… all gone. Her green eyes met Aleis's, but there was no recognition in them. It was as if the woman who had been the Queen of Limbo had never existed.
"Who… am I…?" she whispered, her voice breaking, as the flames around her diminished, revealing her vulnerability, her fragility. It was as if she had been reborn, a figure void of her own past, lost in the chaos of her resurrection.
The albino mutant felt confusion wash over him. How could she be here, alive and without memories, after being destroyed in Limbo? The flames, though diminishing, did not disappear entirely, as if they were part of her essence, a fire that symbolized her rebirth and her connection to the chaos from which she had emerged. The shadows in the alley seemed to dance to the rhythm of those flames, creating a surreal and oppressive atmosphere.
"You shouldn't be here…" Aleis said, approaching cautiously, her mind working at full speed to understand what she was seeing. "We… destroyed you. Limbo collapsed with you."
Madelyne, still on the ground, looked at her own hands, as if seeing them for the first time. The flames danced on her fingers, but they didn't seem to scare her. Her skin showed no signs of burns, and her expression was more confused than afraid. Slowly, she stood up, her naked body enveloped in an ethereal aura of heat, but without the coldness that usually accompanied her presence.
"I… don't know who I am…" she repeated, her voice clearer, but empty of the arrogance that had characterized her before. "I… don't remember."
Aleis found herself in a moral quandary. This was not the Madelyne Pryor she had sworn to destroy, the corrupted sorceress who had caused so much pain. This was a version stripped of her power, of her memory, a woman lost in her own rebirth. She could feel the tension in the air, the unstable energy still pulsing in her surroundings, as if Limbo had left a permanent mark on her soul.
"Don't come closer…" she said, though her tone was not threatening, but warning. Aleis didn't know what to expect from this new Madelyne. It could be a trap, a trick of Limbo, or perhaps something far more dangerous.
She took a step toward him, her empty gaze pleading.
"Help me…" she begged, her voice shaking with a vulnerability she had never shown before. The flames surrounding her began to dwindle further, but they did not disappear entirely. They were tied to her, as if they were an intrinsic part of her reborn self.
Aleis hesitated. Could he really trust what he saw? He knew the nature of Limbo and Madelyne was deceptive, but he couldn't ignore the reality of what was before him. This Madelyne, whoever she was now, was helpless, lost, and not the threat she had been before.
"It's okay…" he finally said, advancing toward her cautiously, his hands outstretched in a sign of peace. "I'm not going to hurt you."
Madelyne looked into his eyes, her tears reflecting the flames still surrounding her, and Aleis felt something had changed. Something deep, something beyond what he understood. This was no simple resurrection. This was a rebirth filled with mysteries.
Was Madelyne Pryor truly free of her past, or did the shadows of Limbo still haunt her?
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to be continued