Hey,
    This is in response to one of Essys challenges... the one about the
crossover. I'm warning you all that it might not make sense to those of you
with no knowledge of the X-Men or those with just a casual knowledge. I
didn't plan on alientating most of this list of chicks that I love, but this
sort of wrote itself. I'm in the process of losing someone that I love very
much.. and this seemed appropriate catharsis to me. Bear with me? This didn't
get enough editing either... I apologize for this fic. Arg.

Disclaimer: Marvel/Henson owns everything.

Legacy 1/1 by Dee
***
Salem Center
Westchester, New York

    With a yawn, the little girl brushed a stray lock of golden hair from her
eyes and looked toward the ceiling. The room was cold, she noted with a
shiver; every surface was made of plates of shiny metal that made it as
impersonal as it was sterile. A cough racked her thin body, her every
movement noted by the somber man beyond the one glass wall of her sick room.
Seeing him there beyond the glass made her feel smaller and more alone, his
tired statement and that of his redheaded assistant turned her tummy to
butterflies.
    Poitr had told her that they would take care of her, she was not only his
little sister but also part of their family. She missed Poitr; he'd been gone
for a long time, this time to Texas. She missed the way he'd kneel down
beside the sick bed to talk to her, or how he'd draw silly doodles to make
her laugh. Katya came sometimes, too, with books to read and photos to look
at. Since Poitr had been away Katya had come often, and if she hadn't been
able to another girl with pretty slanted eyes and funny English came to play.
    Seeing that no one was coming she pulled the blanked up around her
shoulders, and clutched her little blue doll to her chest. Suppressing a
slight cough, kissed it on the nose, then closed her eyes against the aching
pain that pulsed all over.
***
    Brushing the back of his fingers across the sleeping girls cheek, he
suppressed a smile as she pulled her little blue doll even closer to her.
Illyana looked so small encased in the huge bed, it's tiny mattress enclosed
in the schools alien technology. Looking at her sleep you'd never think that
she'd seen more in her short life than most beings did in two score more
years. You'd never think that she'd seen darker things that existed on the
Earth, or had been corrupted by the sorcery that had kept her alive in those
dark places.
    "If only it were in my power, little one...." His voice was only a
whisper, but the girls face flickered in her sleep at it's sound. Glancing
backward, he watched as the woman beyond the glass left the room and the sad
man placed his head in his hands. Turning back toward the sleeping child he
placed a kiss on her brow. "Everything that has happened, it couldn't have
been stopped.. like you couldn't have been stopped. You were too powerful."
    "Illyana, you were not meant to see everything you'd seen." Narrowing his
gray eyes in thought, he looked beyond her. "Little Illyana Rasputin was born
to be a heroine, to master the dimensions of this world. You were born to be
superior."
    Nearly choking on the last word, he brought his gaze back down to
Illyana. "You won't remember me, but I'll never forget you. You're the only
child from earth who I'd seen as real. Belasco that horrid warlord... he
didn't know what sort of treasure he held when he pulled you into our
dimension. I should have claimed you, little one. I could have made you my
Queen, kept you from this fate. You mortals and your destinies."
    "You made a stunning heroine, grown up and more powerful than when you'd
left earth. I watched you; even then..." Cupping her cheek in his palm, he
knit his brow as coughs shot tremors through her frail chest and knocked her
doll away from her. "You felt alone, an outsider amongst the outsiders that
were your teammates. Yet this school was the best place for you to be... with
Peter and Kitty."
    "They love you, little one, as I love you. Peter would hold the whole
world on his shoulders if he thought that it would make you smile, he could
you know... Kitty is back in this place after years to see to your comfort,
you know she's your friend but it goes far beyond letters and visits to
Russia. No, it's more. Do you remember Magik? Do you remember being an X-Men
in that hidden mind of yours, or was it all lost when your sorcery destroyed
you? Do you remember Shadowcat at all? Do you remember a jaded warlock with a
ruined kingdom who would have given you your dreams? I would have given you
anything you'd asked for."
    Blue eyes flickered open and met gray eyes and without making a sound
Illyana smiled. Picking up the furry blue doll with the red tipped tail,
Jareth placed it in in her arms with a sad smile of his own. "Don't worry
little one, Jubilee and Katya will be here soon."
    Rising from the sickbed he stopped as a small hand tugged at his sleeve
and big blue eyes looked up at him. "<Sbaisibo> Thank you."
    Jareth nodded, giving the child a haunted smile and a placed a small kiss
on her forehead. "Thank you Illyana..." Then he was gone, and the little girl
was alone again.
***
    It was good to feel the grass beneath his feet with every step that took
him further away from Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. The sun was warm
against his pale face, and the slight breeze caressed his blonde tresses, but
inside he was unmoved. He'd been able to smell the death in the air of the
sick room, he'd seen the shadows in the childs eyes. The virus had
progressed, the virus that destroyed the very core of what made her special.
The destruction of mutants, it had finished with her mutated cells and moved
on to her organs. She wouldn't see another day...
    "They call it the Legacy virus, but it destroyed all your chances for the
remembrance of a heroine that you deserved. I'll remember you Illyana..."
***

end

"I don't know why I shouldn't have been surprised by everything that went
down... It's not like we didn't see it coming a mile away. But it's
different when it finally happens. No matter what you do to psych yourself
up.. no matter how much you say to yourself 'I can handle this', ya' really
can't. It's like, making all yer stomach muscles tight 'cause you're
expecting a punch to the gut.. and at the last second life decides to kick
you in the teeth instead.' -Jubilee 'Uncanny X-Men' #303

Dee