A DEMON'S DREAM

                              By Davide Briganti

DISCLAIMER: All the X-Men depicted in this story are copyright of the
Marvel guys, and are used without their permission. No profits are made by 
posting this story, which is written only for entertainment purposes.
Sid "Renegade" Mayer is a copyright of me, so if you wanna use it, please ask
me first.

                                    * * *

Sid Mayer, better known to his friends as "Renegade", was standing amidst a
large circle made of grey stones. A green, ugly looking mist was crawling at
his feet, occasionally blown away by a gust of wind as cold as steel. A 
strange, violet moon was casting its light on the featureless plain, creating 
shadowy forms that silently danced in the ghostly vapors.

"Hey!", Sid yelled, "Who the hell brought me in this place? Show yourself,
creep!".

Fists clenched, he waited for an answer, but only the mocking echoes of his
own words broke the silence that was hovering over the place.
Suddenly, a figure appeared from out of nowhere, silently walking near the
young man: it was a short, aged Chinese man dressed in the traditional outfit
of Kung Fu practitioners. Sid turned to face him, and his eyes widened in sur
prise and shock.

"Master Xheng! What are you doin'in here? Where IS 'here'?"

The old man sighed deeply, and his mouth turned into a quiet, contemplative
smile who seemed to mean all.....or nothing. "Here. Do. Ah, my son.....I see
you didn't change, after all these years.", he whispered in a voice filled
with sorrow.

Sid's expression quickly darkened. "Cut the Zen, Master. We need to know how
to get out of this.....well, wherever we are!"

Xheng's smile broadened. "But I know where I am. You are the lost one, my son:
you see, after all it is I who found peace and stability."

"I said CUT THE PHILOSOPHY!! I'm only asking WHERE AM I!!!"

The Kung Fu Master shrugged. "Where do you _think_ you are?"

Sid grunted, and stepped forward ot get out of the circle. "Bah! Frankly, I
haven't time to listen to your rantings, you old geezer. I must get back 
home."

"Home? Son, home is within your heart. If you seek home, you must first find
your own heart.....and 'frankly', I doubt that you will ever find it. You lost
yourself, and the means to retrieve that prized treasure are beyond your capa
bilities. May the gods have mercy on you."

The young fighter turned back: rage filled his heart, and instinctively he con
verted it into energy as he roared: "What do you know about words like 'heart'
and 'home'? You have no home nor heart! Your exalted 'state of inner peace' is 
nothing more than oblivion itself! I may have made a lot of mistakes in my 
life, but I was alive, and I still am.....and 'til death I will be!"

But no one was standing in the stones circle, and the only answer to his fiery
words was the howl of the wind and a fading laughter.

"Merciful Mother of Trees and Hills, what's this nonsense?", he mumbled, and
quickly scanned the horizon looking for any sign of life....of any type.

A cloud of dust coming from far away caught his attention, together with the
familiar sound of a rather old speed-metal song. Sid waited, preparing himself
for a fight.

Soon, he was able to distinguish shapes from the dust: a small group of people,
riding on old bikes and sidecars, and carrying rudimental weapons.
As they reached Sid, they stopped with a screech and dismounted, looking at him
and smiling cruelly.

"Well well, guess who's here?", one said with a slimy voice, "the Victim of
the Day! C'mon, pal.....do us a favor and don't try anything stupid. We won't
hurt you.....much.". Laughter filled the air.

Sid grinned, and thumbed his nose: before anyone could react, the supposed lea
der of the gang was face-down in the mist with a broken jaw.

In a murderous frenzy, all the remaining members dashed forward, swinging aim
lessly their weapons with unseen ferocity, but they were no match for him:
after a few seconds, they were all unconscious. Sid picked up the leader, grab
bing his neck, and raised a fist: the man opened his eyes and smiled. "C'mon,
you mutant-lover! Go for it...kill me! That's what you want, no? Avenge your
lost love!"

"Rex?!", Sid gasped as he saw the man he was choking turn into the blond-haired,
muscular man who was trying to kill both Ororo and him some months ago.

A chorus of voices begun to repeat: "Kill him! Kill him! Kill him!" as the
music turned louder and louder. His blood begun to run faster in his veins, as
those words slowly awakened the beast inside him. The raised fist clenched
itself even more.

"You wish", he replied, but his voice was shaking slightly....and he knew 
what it meant. Again, the dark, roaring fiend inside his mind was trying to
break the door behind which it was confined, to make him wreak havoc upon guil
ty and innocent alike. 

"Strike him. Hurt him. Make him pay. Give him what he deserves. You didn't
finish the work.", a soft, almost seductive voice murmured from behind the
curtains of his subconscious. Sid tried not to listen, concentrating on other
things: the beauty of a flower field in the midsummer, quiet mountain rivers,
the evenings spent with his beloved Ororo. But it didn't work.
It didn't work at all.

"You can't force yourself for much longer", the voice continued, "show your
true nature, child of the dark, vessel of chaos, for I am he who knows you,
despite your recent claiming about 'true love' and 'peace'. Come with me,
lost soul. Travel to the center of the spiral, to the bottom of the dark pit.
Is there that you're home. Come with me."

"No.". A female voice, calm and crystalline, resounded from out of nowhere.
"Sid, listen to me. Killing him will not avenge the wrongs he has done to you
or to me, but it will make you a murderer just like him."

At the remembrance of these words, Sid dropped the man on the floor, looking
at the sky with a desperate glance. "Ororo? Where are you? Where am I?! Will 
all this madness stop?", he yelled opening his arms wide. All the people begun
laughing uproariously, and three of them raised their arms, holding a large
plastic bag and moved it towards Sid: with a thump, they dropped it at his 
feet. Rex, standing up and massaging his neck, patted him on the shoulder.

"C'mon, lad, open your Christmas gift!"

With trembling hands, the young fighter ripped open the bag: inside it was the
dead body of a young, beautiful African woman with cloud-white hair. For three
unending seconds, time stopped, and the only sound Sid heard was the incredibly
slow and cavernous sound of his heartbeats. Then, something inside his head
unleashed a terrible cry, filled with both anger and desperate loneliness,
and all the world turned a bloody, red realm of agony screams and battlecries.

When he came back to his senses, he was standing in a large, grass-covered
plain not too far from a hill. Only a few sunrays were penetrating the dense
curtains of clouds that hovered far above, and a cold wind was sweeping all
over the scene. Sid shook his head violently, to wipe away the last remnants
of the blind, homicidal fury that caught him, and fell on his knees as tears
dropped on the floor.

"What have you done, Sid? What did you become?", Storm's voice faintly called
out from high above, carried by the wind, "How can you pretend to deserve my
love.....or the love of any woman....if you keep acting like this?"

Sid raised his head, still crying like a child. "Forgive me. It wasn't my
fault.....I tried to control myself, but...but when I saw you....I...please,
forgive me. I tried with all my strength...."

His lover's voice was filled with compassion and deep sorrow as she replied:
"Too late for asking forgiveness, my beloved. You have lost me, and now I 
shall wander....forever....in nothingness....."

"No....Please, don't leave me....I love you....please....", he almost cried.

But there was no response, save the last echoes of Ororo's words quickly fading
away.


Sid woke up, his heart pounding faster than a battery in a speed-metal concert
and his mind still in a state of total confusion, unable to distinguish dream
from reality. Eyes still closed, he first relied on the other senses to give
him signals about his surroundings: and the first information was the warm
feeling of a slim arm lying on his chest in a rather possessive posture.
Quickly he reached the surface of reality, fully emerging from sleep's embrace, 
and finally realized where he was: he opened his eyes and slightly turned his
head to see Ororo peacefully sleeping in his arms, head resting on his shoul
der and a faint but infinitely sweet smile on her lips.

The young man sighed deeply, as his furious heartbeats begun returning to nor
malcy, and gently stroke her chin, holding her more close. Her smile widened
a bit, and the pressure of her arm around his chest grew.

"It was only a nightmare, Bonebag. Calm down....it's all right.", he thinked
while looking out of the window of Storm's attic: the full moon's rays were
darting across the glass, showing the shadows of the trees surrounding the
mansion. All around him inspired a sense of peace and quiet joy....but he
sensed that something was out of place. The images of the nightmare were still
haunting him, thrusting in his heart like an ice dagger; as gently as he could,
he slipped away from his lover's embrace and out of bed, silently grabbing 
his clothes. As he opened the door, he gave one last glance to his still slee
ping girlfriend, whispering: "Sorry, hon. I need a few minutes of solitude and
a breath of fresh air. See you later.".


Wolverine raised his head to face the figure that appeared near the tree, and
grinned, dropping the piece of wood he was patiently carving.

"Hey", he asked, "what are ya doin' here?"

"What do _you_ think I'm doin', dwarf?", he replied, "I'm wandering around,
don't you see?"

"Thanks fer the reminding, loser. I see it by myself what ya're doin'. The
question is: ain't ya supposed to sleep.....or whatever.....with your dear
girlfriend?"

Sit sat down near the base of the tree, and looked right into Logan's eyes.

"I had a nightmare.", he said in a plain tone, "A terrible one.".

"Surprising. I admit I didn't think you were the type of man that's scared
by nightmares."

Sid sighed. "Not _this_ type of nightmare. You know, it showed me how deep a
man can descend into darkness and bestiality. For the first time in many, many
years, I felt completely defenseless. It was truly sad."

Wolverine sat at the young man's side, and lighted a cigar, thoughtfully puf
fing out smoke for a few seconds before answering: "I know how ya feel, lad.
Very well. I, too, had this type of problems."

"Yeah? And how you handled the matter?"

"I had the help of many true friends. They teached me a lot of things, inclu
ding to trust people, for if you don't trust people you come closer to the
beast that dwells inside every heart. Listen, guy, maybe I'm not your child
hood friend but, as far as I know, I think you're a good man...after all.
I'm sure that you'll find more than one person here willing to help you with
your problem.....but remember: it is you that must be the first to try to chan
ge yourself in better. If you don't want to improve yourself, all our efforts
will be in vain."

"Believe me, there's nothing I want more than get rid of that part of myself,
but I fear I'm hopeless. I have lived like a war machine for too many years
to change now."

Wolverine smiled. "If you were _that_ hopeless, good ol' Windrider wouldn't
hand you the key to her heart so easily as she did. Believe me, I know her al 
most as myself, and I've come to fully trust her judgement. Now, get back to 
sleep. Tomorrow 'll be hard day: you still have to train in controlling that
fancy power of yers!"

Sid stood up. "I suppose you're right. Well, see you tomorrow, dwarf."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever."

The young man turned his head, facing again the clawed mutant. "Logan?"

He raised his head. "Yeah?"

"Uh...thank you. It was good to have someone to talk with."

"I'm not used to be a counselor, nor I wish to be. I've only told you my opi
nions and recalled past events. Nothin' more. The true job 's up to you. Now, 
stop pestering me, will ya?"

Sid smiled and shook his head. "'Kay, 'kay, I'm leaving."

As the young man re-entered Ororo's bedchamber, he found her still asleep.
As silently as he did leave before, he removed his clothes and got to bed,
holding her in his arms again. 
Finally at peace with himself, he closed his eyes, and sleep soon fell upon 
him.

A cheerful voice came out of the darkness, bringing him into reality again:
"Honey, it's morning, wake up! You will be late at your training session!"

Sid opened his eyes. Brilliant rays of light were coming in from outside, and
Storm was sitting on the bed, gently shoving him. As she saw him awakening,
she leaned over and kissed him. 

"Good mornin', ma'am. Did you sleep well?", he asked in a parody of a gentle
man's tone.

She promptly catched the joke. "Acceptably, thank you.", she responded in her
best "Noblewoman" voice, and both laughed.

The mutant woman's expression turned serious. "Want to know a thing? I had a
strange nightmare, this night. Wonder what significance might have."

Sid shook his head and stood up, pacing through the room and towards the windows. 
As he opened them, he turned to face Ororo. "Never mind, Love.", he replied, 
"As strange or terrifying they may be, they're only nightmares."

                                ** THE END **