transemacabre | Dead Guys: Road to hell...

Marvelfic, PG.

The body lay in a shallow pit, curled in the fetal position, in death as it was in birth. Little more than some bones held together by shreds of clothes. Nate Grey hovered uncertainly over the pit, keeping one eye on the corpse and one eye on his companion, Genis-Vell.

"Her name was Michelle," Genis said. His voice was as hollow as her bones. "She was fifteen years old. Her parents still pray every night that she will come home." He kicked some of the dirt back over the grave.

Nate took a deep breath. "She's been dead a long time."

"Yeah. I tried to bring her back but all I got was a zombie. I guess I'll just call the police and tell them where she is. Give her parents that much closure, at least."

"A zombie?" Nate wasn't sure he wanted to know more.

"I can't resurrect the dead." A storm raged in Genis' eyes. "You were right. I was never a god after all."

Nate landed beside him, the grass cool on his feet. "When you... when you remade the universe, some stuff changed. Things aren't right in my head. I don't know what's wrong, but something's not right. Last night I dreamed about a beautiful redheaded woman, but I don't remember if her name was Theresa ... or Melissa..." His words trailed off and he fell silent.

Genis laughed. It was not a happy laugh. "I don't know how much of me is you, and how much of you is me. Not anymore. There are things I remember, but I don't trust my memory. Being cooked up in a laboratory, on another world... was it the Eternal's lab on Titan, or Sinister's lab in the Age of Apocalypse? Is my sister Phyla or Rachel? Or neither? Did I create you or the other way around?" He jabbed a thumb in the general direction of east. "A few miles that way, lives a boy named Timothy Whittington. He's thirteen years old, just a couple of years younger than Michelle here. He prays every night for help because he's a homosexual and he's afraid someone will find out. I heard his thoughts and I had to do something about it."

"What did you do?" Nate asked.

"I changed him."

"Genis, that's wrong!" Nate shouted. "You can't go around, meddlin' in people's lives like that. You can't go 'changing' people or 'fixing' people, or whatever it is you think you're doing."

"You changed all those mutant kids," Genis pointed out.

"That's different. They..."

"...wanted to change?" Genis finished for him, and Nate turned away from his gaze. "It's no different. And if this makes Timothy's life any easier, I don't see why what I did was so wrong."

"It's just," Nate fumbled for the right words, "some stuff you gotta leave up to them to fix it for themselves. It's not easy being gay, or a mutant, or whatever. That doesn't mean we should all jump in a machine to change us."

"You know, Nate," Genis said, suddenly thoughtful, suddenly a million lightyears away. "I think I know why I brought you back. I needed someone as a moral compass."

"You coulda picked better. Anyway, are you gonna change that boy back?"

"After you change all those ex-mutants back." Genis smirked at the look on Nate's face. "Oh come on. I've seen what you use your powers for, don't get all high and mighty on me. You wipe people's memories and steal food all the time."

"Only to protect us and feed us," Nate said, but Genis' words gnawed at him. Did he really have a moral leg to stand on? He wondered if Forge would think he was doing the right thing, using his powers this way. If he really was Genis' 'moral compass', he didn't feel like he was doing a very good job. Absentmindedly, he fiddled with a strand of his hair. It was longer now, down to his shoulders.

"What I said, the other day," Genis said a little hesitantly. "When I was having my freak-out, I said I wanted to destroy you, to wipe you from existence. I... I'm sorry. I didn't mean it. I was so scared. So angry. I wanted to hurt someone."

"S'okay," said Nate, even though it really wasn't. They sat together and watched the sun set, and then Genis flew to a pay phone to call the police and report Michelle's corpse.