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Chapter Text

The world flashes.

Scott Summers is standing in his office, his eyes closed.

Ever since Xavier left, he's been put in charge of the school. And it hasn't been easy, far from it. Taking care of super-powered children is a hard task -- one he's dealt with a single time, in the distant future -- and one that tends to get harder as time goes on. Taking care of so many mutant children is a harrowing experience. He's not sure how he can sleep, worried about Sentinels, or Ord, the Shadow King, Magneto, a brand new group of maniacs wishing to annihilate not just him, but kids who can barely defend themselves, from existence.

Scott Summers is standing in his office, his eyes closed. He grips his visor so hard his hands start shaking. He was just a teen when all of this began.

"NOOOOOOO!!! SOMEBODY, PLEASE!!!!"

He puts the visor back on. They're all teens too.

The hallways are packed. Everyone seems to be crying. Some of the students lie on the floor. He knows what this is, and he also knows a leader can't falter. The students can't see him like this. He puts on a straight face as he runs to the main room. Kitty is trying to calm the students down, but fails. Emma is dangerously close to hyperventilating as she realizes what's happening. Peter is speechless. Kurt bamfs into the room. Hank looks at them from the upper floor balcony.

"'No more mutants.' She said, 'no more mutants!'"

The X-Men look at each other. Henry rubs his blue fur. Katherine phases her hand through the ground. Emma turns her arm into diamond. Kurt wags his tail. Piotr turns his body into steel. Scott adjusts his visor. There's someone missing.

"Logan!" Scott shouts.

Kurt stands up. "Ze adamantium! I'll look for him!"

As he bamfs away, Emma rushes to the lower floor. Scott and Henry follow her. Two of the original members, who've been here from the very beginning. He still remembers the day he truly became Beast, the day he left to join the Avengers, the times he returned to his original team when they needed him more than anyone. Warren distanced himself, but he came back, too. Bobby was always up for heroics. Jean-- Jean isn't here anymore.

Cerebra flares up. He sees the globe, reactionless as only a few blue dots emerge over it. He knows what this is. He can't bring himself to come close to Emma, to tell her they'll get through this. She knows as well as he does that those are meaningless words, especially coming from him. He follows her back upstairs, knowing Xavier wasn't one of those little dots, and neither was Wanda. If she was paying attention, she'd also notice that specific room had one dot missing from it.

He feels immense relief as Logan stands with the rest of the team, but his jaw soon drops when Bobby walks out, covered in water. He's no longer Iceman. "Oh, Bobby... Not you too."

Kitty grasps her own hair. "What are we gonna do? Do we-- do we know where she is?"

Logan's claws jump out from his hands. "Genosha. Our old pal's gotta know."

"Leave Magneto alone", Scott commands. "If Cerebra couldn't find Wanda, he can't, either. We have to... protect our students."

Emma shakes her head. "You mean, send them back home."

The next hours are nothing short of depressing. Every student that's confirmed depowered and whose parents have reached out pack their things. David Alleyne is the only depowered student left, at Scott's personal request. All the kids are going home in the next few weeks. They're evacuating them, putting them in two school buses, and they're driving them to their homes, no matter how far away. Some of them will go back home knowing that their parents' love is, above all else, conditional. Others will go back knowing that the friends they've made -- the sense of connection created in those halls -- won't ever come back to them.

The Xavier Institute for Higher Learning has less than thirty mutant students. The X-Men's backup members are still trying to sort things out. Everyone's nervous when Scott calls a team meeting.

"Today has been... one of the hardest days this school has ever lived through. And I'm afraid it's not over yet."

He closes his eyes and takes his visor off. Emma has an idea of what this is. Henry and Logan, too, have figured it out. Kurt, Katherine and Piotr know what he'll say next, but wish they could pretend not to hear it.

Scott Summers is standing in his office, his eyes closed. He grips his visor so hard his hands start shaking. He was just a teen when all of this began. If he'd known this would be happening, would he have come back to the X-Men?

"This is the second time the X-Men have a depowered mutant commanding the team." He opens his eyes, which now sport red irises, a side effect of prolonged exposure to the ruby quartz. "And I'm as lost as all of you right now." Tears form around his eyes, but they don't flow down.

After a few moments of silence, Logan is the first to say something. "Well, 'Ro was the leader and she did just fine, Slim." A classic Wolverine response. Comforting in its own way. It gives Scott courage. Half of this team followed her into the Australian Outback, and he knows they would follow him to the North Pole if need be.

Emma opens her mouth after him. "And only you could be the leader. None of us have super-hero leadership experience."

He sighs. "I still have to tell the other members... I have to... I have to call Ororo, I need to check on Madrox..."

"We'll be there with you!" Kitty exclaims, trying to lighten the mood. Kurt follows her lead: "Ja! We'll get through this!"

"...Thank you, everyone." Scott smiles. He knew they would support him, but it's good to hear them say it out loud. He needs them to know he still matters.

The sweet moment is cut short by agitated knocking on the door. Scott looks at the visor, still in his hand. Should he let the rest of the staff see him like this?

There's no point in hiding it, he thinks, and gently places his old gear on his desk. "Come in."

Karma barges into the room, out of breath. "Scott, please! Dani's things are gone, and I can't find h--" Her frantic cry for help is replaced by shock. "Where... where are your glasses?"

He smirks. "I don't need them anymore, but this school still needs Dani. Emma -- can you find her?"

Scott finds Danielle Moonstar sitting on the floor of an older section of the attic. This school has been destroyed time and time again, but this piece of it still holds some memories. As he approaches, she sighs.

"This is where Professor Xavier hid our... graduation costumes. We all had matching uniforms back then, and when we found these, we were just so happy. All of us, we put these on and walked around in secret, acting like the big superheroes... at the end of that night, we put them back in this chest. We didn't deserve them then."

She turns to him, and just like his own mere minutes ago, her eyes are full of tears, yet they don't flow down. "And I'll never be worthy of them now. Oh..."

He sits right next to her, lightly smiling. "Mutant teams and depowered leaders, huh?"

"Mutant teams and depowered leaders. I don't think I can do this any more. Can you?"

"Between you and me? I don't know. But everyone wants me to be the leader. It's the one thing I've known my whole life."

"It's a part of you, huh." She looks out the window.

"It isn't to you?"

"I... I like leading. I enjoy being a leader. Inspiring our team and charging on ahead, fighting for the good causes. It's just that it gets... overwhelming. The Professor convinced me to leave my grandfather and join a team of kids like me. Now they're... not here."

"You're not sure about the world and your place in it."

She smiles. "I'm not sure about anything."

Scott slowly stands up, instinctively moving his hand to adjust his visor. It's not there anymore, and he sighs. "I'm not sure about the world either, but I can tell you right now, your place is here, Danielle. We need you now more than ever. Please."

"I..." A single tear flows down her cheek. "I'll... think about it. No promises."

"That's good enough for me."

The Office of National Emergency reforms as the president attempts to shift national focus away from his actions overseas. Though initially planning to deploy Sentinels around the Xavier Institute, the O.N.E. chooses to aid the X-Men on a purely financial basis and leaves them alone. Mutants affected by M-Day enter the school grounds as refugees, and housing is built for all of them in a joint effort by Forge, Polaris, Marvel Girl and Iceman -- who hadn't lost his powers after all. Scott manages to reach Cable and calls for a family reunion between the Summers family. It's time to break the news.

"How have you been, Nathan?"

"Could be worse. Rachel?"

"Could be worse."

Scott turns his back to them. "I've got bad news, and no, it can't be fixed. Henry's already tried."

Nathan raises an eyebrow. "What do you mean? Rachel?"

Rachel already knows what this is about, and her brother realizes she does. Still, she lets her father be the one to tell him.

"I'm afraid I'm no longer mutant," he says, taking off his red glasses. "I just stand behind my desk now."

His son pauses for a moment. "This wasn't supposed to happen."

"Nate, I know this isn't good, but--"

"Sorry, I'm not talking to you. I'll figure something out. Bodyslide--"

And just like that, Cable vanishes, leaving Marvel Girl and Cyclops confused.

"Sorry, dad. Maybe he has--"

Before Rachel can finish saying "something urgent to take care of", her brother reappears, accompanied by Deadpool. She quickly encases the merc with a mouth in a telekinetic bubble.

"Thanks, Ray."

"No problem, Nate."

Nathan hands a metallic lance over to his father. "This should keep you safe."

He cautiously holds it in his hands. It's surprisingly light. "Your psimitar?"

It looks even more polished than the one his son used to carry back in the day, somehow. Its cylindrical shaft seamlessly gives way to the spearhead, which is a very thin strip of metal, nothing more than a millimeter. It looks too fragile to be used for anything, but when he tries bending the tip, it doesn't budge. It's as tall as Cable, which makes it bigger than him. He feels compelled to swing it around, though being in his office makes him pass up on the opportunity.

Cable clarifies: "A modified version. Keyed to your DNA, and it has some new features. Had to get rid of the old tools, though."

Rachel raises an eyebrow. "New features?"

"Force field generation, for one."

"And how would I activate that?" Scott says, admiring the weapon. "I don't exactly put the 'psi' in 'psimitar', do I."

"You're not psychic, but it is. You can help him with it, Rachel. His DNA is yours as well."

Scott walks over to his son, tightly embracing him. Rachel notices the opportunity and joins in on the hug.

"Thank you, son. Truly."

"Dad, if you need anything..."

"I'll call you. I promise."

"And if you need anything, call us too, Nate."

Cable wasn't kidding about the psimitar being psychic. As soon as Rachel attempted to use her chronoskimming on it, she was able to access a manual of sorts. The psimitar is powered by psychic energy, and while it can be recharged by any telepath or telekinetic, only those with the Summers DNA can issue mental commands to it, which allow the spear to generate force fields, fire small telekinetic orbs, and remotely control it from up to five kilometers. Once fully charged, it takes about a year of constant, everyday use to run out of energy, at which point it'll work like any other spear.

Rachel also discovered it has a "diary" feature, in a way. It dynamically logs the wielder's thoughts, both conscious and subconscious, though only the person whose thoughts are being recorded can access them. He enjoys being able to talk to it. To share his life with something that can't judge him, talk back to him, question his decisions. He's surprised he hasn't thought of keeping a diary or journal before. And in the coming days, he'd really need something to vent his frustrations to.

//LOG C1065B1 ⊗ GREY'S END

Haven't the Shi'ar taken enough?

They're all dead. John, Elaine -- after all these years, we don't even know where Sara is. And Jean... she'd be devastated. Rachel reminds me of her so much. Both of them have been through so much, and they've learned that empathy is their biggest weapon. But after this? There's no going back.

After what happened, she'll be praying for an opportunity to approach Shi'ar space and kill the Death Commandos. If she still had the Phoenix, she would've killed them on that day. I don't even want to think about what Jean might do.

Might've done. What Jean might've done. Sorry.

But if it's what Rachel wants, I won't stop her.

//LOG C1065B3 ⊗ CHILDHOOD'S END

I don't know what's happening to Emma.

Never mind. I know what's happening to her, I just don't know why she can't talk to me about things.

Making all the remaining students fight for a place in her new team? We need to protect these children, not thrust them into action. They absolutely need to be trained, of course, they're the last members of mutantkind. And I would have agreed with her. Does she think I would have said "no"?

I learned from the students that she was the one who suggested Danielle should leave the school. "She'd be an easy target" and all that. I asked her if she thought I should leave as well. She worries too much. Not that this isn't a worrying situation to be in, but she's trying to do everything all at once, and it will break her if she continues. Which is why I'll be training the new team of X-Men from now on.

It's a good team: X-23, Rockslide, Hellion, Mercury, Dust, Elixir and Surge as the leader. She was reluctant to have Laura on the team and tried to remove her from the board, so I stepped in. I know why she keeps tormenting her, trying to make her leave. Emma wants to drive her away from combat, from constant clashes that tend to become more dangerous as time goes by. But I put her on the team anyway. Right now, we can't afford to neglect such a strong combatant like X-23.

>> UPDATE

The information got out somehow. They're all dead. We tried to evacuate all those kids and we got them killed instead.

Being with Emma is still so strange. Jean would support my plan to evacuate them through the Morlock tunnels, would take on part of the blame herself by saying she allowed me to continue. She would reassure me endlessly. Take every opportunity to tell me this isn't my fault. Look me in the eyes and say that we'll make those responsible pay.

But right now, as I pace restlessly in our bedroom, Emma just lays there, in diamond form, immobile. She knows as well as I do that this is our fault. We came up with this stupid plan, and we won't talk about it. One more cross to bear. I can't imagine what's going through her head, can't accept how she always finds herself in this situation. Her Hellions were murdered for sport by a maniac from a different universe. She was buried in rubble in Genosha surrounded by all of her students and sixteen million other people. And now this.

It just feels so... cruel, even more so because I can't do anything. I'm powerless now, I know I'm powerless because I open my eyes and the world isn't made of different shades of red. But having it thrown in my face like this is brutal. I can't even imagine what the children are thinking. Forty-seven of their friends are dead. Because we got them killed.

..."I can't do anything", huh? Would it be better if I still had my optic blasts? Would I feel as useless as I do now? I need to stop making excuses and be ready for what happens next. I need to train. The kids need to train, too. Because this is just the beginning.

From inside the Danger Room control center, Emma gives her orders.

"This is a simple exercise. All you have to do is knock Cyclops down."

//LOG C1065B4 ⊗ CRUSADE

I'm gripping my psimitar like my life depends on it. I have high hopes for this team, but not as they are now.

"Rockslide! Mercury!" Surge commands. He charges towards him. She extends her body around him to prevent an aerial escape. The leader herself runs behind Rockslide.

Good formation.

"Good formation," he says, "but you don't know what I can do."

Aiming the spear upwards, a telekinetic blast staggers Mercury, causing her to reduce her body to its normal size. Activating the force field between his feet and the ground launches him up, from where he can safely avoid Rockslide's charge. Surge is ready to catch him in mid-air, but encasing himself in the field and quickly trapping her inside it means she's out for now.

"What's your next orders, leader?" Scott questions as Santo slams into the metal wall.

Noriko groans as she uses her electricity in an attempt to destabilize the field. "X-23! Dust!"

Sooraya traps him in the middle of a sand cyclone, intentionally leaving certain spots open so that Laura can jump through them.

They have good strategies, but their execution is nowhere near good enough.

"You can't fight against my power set", he says, shooting another TK blast as Laura pounces on him. Sooraya closes in herself as her teammate goes down, but just like with Noriko, he encases himself in a field and quickly traps her instead. "Two are out. Is this all you can do?"

Elixir lunges at him with a steel beam in hand, but he swings the shaft across the ground to trip him up and TK blasts the beam away. Rockslide charges once again and he delivers a fully-powered blast to his body, disintegrating him. "You have planned moves, but no coordination beyond that."

He feels the force field imprisoning Surge oscillate. She's close to breaking through it. "Hellion, we can do this!"

Julian scoffs. "Yeah, you're doing a real bang-up job, 'captain'."

"Julian-- look, you may not like it, but we're in this together. Now follow my lead!"

Hellion is a problematic component. He's bitter about not being the leader, when in reality, he doesn't have leadership skills. He came this far because his team was strong: there's a reason Emma put four of the Hellions Squad members on this team, besides favoritism. Surge is more of a leader than him, but not by much. The real leader of this team, he doesn't have a place here yet.

"The Hellions don't need you, Ashida. Mercury! Dust!"

Wait, Dust is--

Scott glances at the force field caging Sooraya. It's empty. The grains from Rockslide's body quickly rise and close down on him. He puts up a field to keep her away and plan his next move.

That's smart. She made her grains as fine as possible in order to escape, and then added Rockslide's mass to herself. Even when he's down, he's still collaborating with the team. I don't know if it was intentional, but this team has a lot of natural synergy.

Mercury's body soon wraps around him, obscuring his vision. "Hi, mister Summers," she says, trying to compress his barrier and shatter it. "Hi, Cecily," he replies. "Sorry, sir, nothing personal. JULIAN! NOW!"

At her signal, Hellion rips Cyclops' barrier off the ground. Mercury lets it fly through her like a giant bullet as Dust now tries to destroy his field while falling to the ground. It's not enough, and a telekinetic slash disrupts her formation and knocks her out. As his field finally breaks, Surge manages to break free.

I'm in the air and I don't have enough time to maneuver. Hellion could coordinate a plethora of attacks with Surge to knock me down, but he wants the glory of doing it on his own. I'll give him the opportunity.

Scott aims another fully-powered blast near Surge, knocking her over before she can react. Mercury tries to envelop him in the air, but he slashes her hands, taking her out as well. Hellion is the last one standing. The psimitar suddenly flies from the headmaster's hands, thrown to the side via telekinesis.

"You're going down."

Julian thinks he can be the leader, and he won't accept that he's thoroughly unfit for the role until he himself realizes it.

He lands on his feet as Hellion powers up. Julian could do a hundred different things with his telekinesis: lift him off the ground, throw him, blast him off balance, wrap him around a barrier so his teammates can take advantage. Instead, as he prepares to launch the headmaster through the wall, the spear's shaft smacks him on the back of his head, knocking him out.

Emma walks into the room, disgruntled. "This exercise is over. You are all dead. Thank you, Scott."

"No problem," he affirms as the psimitar slowly floats back into his hands. "I don't want to lose any more students."

Someone tries to sneak up behind him. Instinctively, he elbows them in the face before blasting them away. Elixir, with that same steel beam in hand.

Trying to get back up as tears stream down his face, he screams. "Then why didn't you save them?! I saved your team's life! Why couldn't you save theirs?!"

"None of us could save them, Josh. You don't think that's all I keep thinking about? Evacuating the students was my idea."

»Our idea, dear.« Emma, telepathically. Sharing the burden.

"We have to do this so you don't end up like them. I won't let any more of you die."

Emma looks at him, curling up on the floor, sobbing uncontrollably. "I should take you off the team for even attempting such a thing, Elixir... but we need you all to be ready for whatever  comes next."

Xavier sent us on our first mission against Magneto, the same one who stripped Logan of his adamantium, because he knew Magneto could not ever murder a child. That is the only reason why we ever beat him. We were children and he wasn't a psychopathic killer. There's no way in Hell I'm sending them against whoever these bastards are. What guarantee do I have that they won't be killed?

"Rest up. And be ready. We'll do another training exercise tomorrow."

Stryker. I should have known.

They came too well-prepared this time. Logan got hit first, by a vibranium bullet through the window -- sniper rifle. Sam was badly hurt when his blast field was temporarily disabled. One of his mercenaries had a vibranium knife that cut right through Emma's diamond form. A lot of the students got hurt, too. But they'll come through. They have to.

I was perplexed by what Elixir did, though. He apparently overheard that the Purifiers' highest-priority target was Wallflower, and killed Stryker with his touch. He's in the med bay still, in a catatonic state with his skin turned pitch-black. Laurie's been at his side for hours. I think these kids just got one hell of a wake-up call.

This won't happen again. Some of the Purifiers escaped, but I'm positive Logan will be glad to hunt them down.

It's well past midnight when Carol Danvers enters the school. As the students flock to the windows to catch a glimpse of the Avenger, he runs to his bedroom, searching for his casual glasses. He can't let the other superheroes see him like this, not yet.

"Carol!" The two heroes hug.

"Scott! It's good to see you again. I was worried you might have left for Storm's wedding already."

He'd almost forgotten about the wedding. Too many things happening all at once. "Not yet. We probably won't leave for Wakanda until the day of. It's been... well, you know..."

Carol drops the smile. "Scott... I wish... I... We should talk in private."

Inside their office, Carol sighs, slowly sharing the information she has. Local police were called to a church, and they called in the Avengers. Strange technology, dead bodies. An energy trail. He already knows this is about the Purifiers, and with his head already bursting with information, he only passively listens.

"And one of the bodies... oh, I'm so sorry, Scott... I'm so sorry... the body belonged to Joshua Guthrie."

Joshua is dead? No. No, surely he wouldn't--

"They shot him in the head. I-- I'm, so, so sorry."

Another dead kid. Another body in the pile. Another cross to bear.

»I'll take care of this, darling,« he hears inside his head. Emma walks into the room. He stays quiet.

"Still chasing that fantasy life of yours, Carol darling? Tell us... are you the world's greatest super hero yet? Have you done any day-time talk shows lately?"

"Emma..." Carol whimpers.

"I've already read your mind, you know. The second you arrived at the school. Has Carol told you why she's really here? Because it isn't to tell us about Jay." Frost walks around the room, restless. She is absolutely pissed.

He raises an eyebrow. "Carol?"

"I didn't want you to receive this information from the military, but I... also wanted to talk to you about the Registration Act."

More information being shoved in his head.

More information being shoved in my head.

The headmistress scoffs. "It would appear the 'no' I gave Tony Stark didn't convince Ms. Marvel. Because of course, she and the X-Men are so very close.

Danvers turns to Summers. "Scott... I know that mutants have been persecuted--"

He finally stands up. "I don't want to hear it, Carol. I'm glad you came here to break the news to us, but we do not support the Superhuman Registration Act, and I'm baffled that you considered attempting to recruit us."

»Let me take care of her, dear.«

He sighs internally. »Do it.«

And take care of her is exactly what she does. Emma bombards Carol with scenes of the last few days. The bus wreck. The funeral. She forces Carol to watch the Guthrie household. She puts her in the same body bag Joshua is being carried in right now. Emma screams in her mind. "Where were you? ... Where were you? ... Where were you?"

"That is what happens when people know where to find mutants, Ms. Danvers. So unless you want to grab a shovel and help us dig Jay Guthrie's grave, we have no more business to discuss."

Ms. Marvel is clearly taken aback. "This... this isn't what I intended. I just wanted to ask... I just wanted to help."

"Thank you, but you're a little late."

She looks at Cyclops. "Scott--"

He doesn't look back. "You know the way out."

Carol is absolutely pissed as well, no doubt about it, but the situation she's placed herself in doesn't allow her to say anything about it. And so, she leaves without raising objections.

Emma sighs. She could fall to her knees and cry right now, but Scott gets out of his seat to embrace her. "It's okay. We'll get through this."

"I know we'll get through it," she says, tears welling up inside of her, "but I don't enjoy this journey one bit."

She wipes her tears in his uniform, then makes sure she still looks impeccable. "If I'm forced to hear another little speech about this SRA, I might launch myself through a wall."

"Ororo's wedding is in two days. Please don't launch yourself through anything here or in Wakanda."

After making every single student at the Xavier Institute promise not to leave school grounds (except if a meteor was about to hit the campus), the X-Men depart to Wakanda aboard the Blackbird. Scott isn't sure if this is a good idea, having lost one more student so recently, but he hopes that nothing out of the ordinary will happen.

As they leave the plane, a familiar figure stands near them.

"Scott."

His eyes widen. "Professor? You're..."

Professor Xavier is standing, right in front of them.

The new headmaster takes off his glasses. "Professor... I..."

Xavier gasps as he sees no optic blasts fly away. "Scott?"

Emma "Don't worry, Charles dear. He's fine."

//LOG C1065B6 ⊗ ROYAL WEDDING

I am anything but fine.

I'm still mad at him for everything involving Danger, but he's basically a father to me. We would love to have him back at the school. But every time I think about talking to him, I feel like I'm going to scream.

It's okay. It's fine. I'm fine. Just breathe. I got this.

"How have you been, sir?" He smiles, as naturally as he possibly can. "How can you..." He vaguely gestures towards the Professor's legs. The rest of the team soon exits the jet, as perplexed as their leader.

"I... believe it was the Scarlet Witch's doing. But..."

Kitty gasps. "Not you too, Professor..."

He somberly smiles. "It came at a price."

Almost instinctively, the entire team surrounds the Professor with a hug. Logan keeps his distance but smiles at the scene. As they break formation, Xavier looks at his sucessor. "Ororo wants to see you, Scott, and you too, Kitty. But I think it's best if you go first."

"Roger that."

Wakanda is a beautiful country. Mutantkind would be lucky to have a place like this in the world. Even with dwindling numbers... a place for all of them to call home. I think that's my dream. The Professor's right -- we need humanity's acceptance, now more than ever -- but I just keep thinking about it, sometimes. Is this really the path we should be taking? Integration over preservation?

I know it's important that we ally ourselves with as many people as possible, but sooner or later, we're going to need Ororo's help, and I'm worried she won't come to our aid.

Ororo leans against the balcony, her silk robe and long hair swaying with the breeze of the jungle that stretches out as far as the eye can see. She turns to him. "Scott."

The two hug. "It's so good to see you, Ororo."

They talk for a while -- about everything that's happened since M-Day. He tries not to bombard her with bad news, but there's not many good news to share. He mentions Rogue and her own team of X-Men, Cable's psimitar and how Logan's dealing with having all of his memories back.

It's her wedding day. She doesn't need to hear about Stryker.

She takes a sip from a glass of water. "And are the students well?"

His lip quivers. His voice cracks: "With time, they will be."

>> LOG C1065B6 ⊗ SUBCONSCIOUS MODE
>>
>>
>> change the subject drop the topic don't ask for details i don't want you to see how i'm failing these kids over and over god i sound like emma right now god we both keep failing them please don't ask don't don't i don't want to talk about it please ignore the discomfort in my voice just let this go i'm begging you let it go please

She notices how on edge he is, how he's still wearing his ruby quartz glasses when they serve no purpose. There's a lot she still wants to ask him: "How are the students in my squad doing?" "What did you do to the depowered students?" "Why won't you involve yourself in the ongoing Civil War?" But, as a leader herself, she knows this isn't the time or place to ask any of those questions, especially because Scott is in a deplorable state. And yet he will still lead. That's what a leader does.

"I'm glad to have seen you, Scott. I can't promise to be at your disposal at all times... but the X-Men are my family. And I will forever be loyal to all of you."

After another hug, he turns to leave, rejoining the party. Kitty runs to meet with the bride, and he watches the wedding with the rest of his team. Xavier stands with them. He misses his presence, they all do. But right now, they'll have to do this on their own.

The wedding goes on, the celebration continues, and for once, he lets himself breathe in deeply, and leave his worries behind.

As the team boards the Blackbird, ready to leave Wakanda, Emma's eyes widen. "Scott."

"Is something wrong?"

"I... the New X-Men are missing."

Chapter Text

The Blackbird soars above the water.

"Have you found them, Emma?"

Scott Summers expected the trip from Wakanda back to Westchester to not require this level of urgency. Seven students, completely gone.

"The Cuckoos are trying to track them with Cerebra. I knew it was a bad idea to leave."

"Emma."

Her eyes jump out.

"Oh, dear God."

"Did the girls find them?"

"The children are with Forge, Scott."

Relief washes over him. Forge is an X-Man. They're fine.

"They're defending him from Nimrod."

Tension seeps back in. Without saying a word, he alters the jet's destination to Dallas, Texas.

Emma looks at him, inconsolable, but he doesn't stop following the aerial path. "Because we didn't trust them... they're all going to die."

They're still 72 minutes away from Eagle Plaza. Over an hour. Nimrod could easily slaughter all of them and make his way back to the Institute before they finished crossing the Atlantic. In fact, what's stopping Nimrod from attacking them while they're still in the air? Part of Scott wants to be patched through to the Cuckoos and hear them describe every single thing that's happening in Dallas. Another part of him wants complete silence, so that he won't need to know how his students are being torn to pieces. A third part of him -- one he refuses to acknowledge -- is debating whether or not he should wear his ruby quartz glasses to their funeral.

After what feels like hours, Emma hears someone calling her name.

»MISS FROST!! Please, help me... Laura's dying! I can't fly fast enough...«

"Julian." She whispers. Part of her thinks this is some sort of test, that this simply isn't real. »Julian... there's nothing you can do. I'm sorry.«

"Emma. I've been around psychics my whole life. I felt your mind move."

Far away, Julian still begs for her help. »DON'T TELL ME THAT! Please, you have to do something!«

"Emma. Emma, what are you telling Hellion?" He tries to snap her back to the current location. It's not working.

She pauses for a moment. Julian is still screaming. She could make sure the students are safe from Weapon X's attempts to use X-23 against them by letting her die. But to risk traumatizing her favorite student like this? To so cruelly stand by as a child who has endlessly been exploited for her entire life dies?

Like Summers, Frost has three parts to her. Unlike him, she acknowledges all of them. It's what allowed her to be here, with the X-Men. »I'm opening up the part of your mind that controls your power. This may hurt.«

She feels a fraction of his pain, and then he's gone. His mind is impossible to track as he bolts across the country.

"They managed to send Nimrod back in time... but not destroy him. Julian is trying to reach the Institute to save Laura. We'll have to stop by Eagle Plaza to pick the rest of the students."

Relief washes over him again. They're not all dead. The hope inside of him grows. They're all gonna be fine.

After the crashing of a Blackbird and the ensuing damage to downtown Dallas, the federal government is absolutely furious. The X-Men had previously refused the O.N.E.'s assistance after the M-Day fallout, but now the O.N.E. wants to keep a close eye on their activities, alongside having every student registered under the Superhuman Registration Act. While Emma Frost manages to convince the government to back off using Sentinels, she can't do the same for registration.

Of course, Cyclops is registered as a powered mutant. Being outed as depowered would paint a target on the Institute's back, and that's something they absolutely don't need. Who does end up being outed as depowered, however, is Prodigy.

The same Prodigy being called to his office right now. Noriko slightly opens the door ahead of him, peeking inside. As she notices Scott's gaze, she slowly walks inside and takes a seat, being joined by her boyfriend. Of course, hearing about the things Emma had to listen through in D.C., both of them expect the worst.

"Look, I'll just say it outright. You're not in trouble."

David's jaw drops. "No?"

"Well... not totally. I called you in here to apologize."

Noriko's jaw drops as well. "Wait... stop. Is there any way we can record this or something? Maybe get it in writing?"

The headmaster finally takes his seat as well. "Don't push it, Nori. The O.N.E. is furious with you. What happened in Dallas made national news, and it's made everyone's job here harder." He sighs. "But you were right. I should've been honest with you from the beginning -- we suspected that Nimrod had returned based on what Emma saw of Stryker's gauntlet, and, of course, the message Jay left for us."

Still shocked by what she's hearing, Noriko stays silent as David inquires: "And you left anyway even though you had a suspicion?"

"When you came to me, I already had Cable tracking it. Angel and Husk were searching for it, Storm had Wakandan agents looking into it... the mansion was defended. I made sure to communicate this through the most secure methods we have. I had to prevent myself from thinking about it, in case my mind was being read." He sighs again. It's almost a sigh of relief, after everything that's happened. "The reason I didn't tell you was that if you thought it was out there, you'd go after it. And of course, that's exactly what happened. But I was wrong to leave. Had I not been here, you may not have put your lives in danger. And believe it or not, keeping you out of danger is a part of my job."

The two stand completely still as Cyclops continues: "The world gets more and more dangerous every day, I don't need to tell you that. You're just kids... you shouldn't have to deal with these things. You shouldn't have to suffer the losses you have. But I want you to know that you did an amazing thing. You stood your ground against an opponent that even the X-Men never defeated, and according to Forge, he and your teammates are alive today thanks to the two of you."

He gets up, looking out the windows behind his desk. "Even Wolverine was impressed when he heard about it, and that's an accomplishment. I disagreed with Emma's method of choosing her squad, but I agree with her choice of its leader. The squad is yours, Nori. If you want to add members, just let me know. We're going to look to your team to help keep the other students safe."

Noriko smiles shyly. She expected to be expelled, and instead she's been relentlessly praised for her actions.

"But, sir... we ended up getting everyone else registered, didn't we?"

Scott turns back to them. "We already expected S.H.I.E.L.D. and the O.N.E. would pressure us to comply with the Act. It's not your fault, they've been looking for opportunities to get us all filed for a very long time. The only thing you did was speed that process up, and at least I'm glad this is what caused it."

"We're really not in trouble, right?"

He smiles. "No, you're not. Now, you should both get ready. Lucinda will be here soon."

The air is heavy when Lucinda Guthrie arrives. It's hard not to be in an introspective state of mind when a candlelight memorial is set to take place at the school. Not just for Jay, not just for those killed by Stryker, but everyone that the X-Men could not save.

It's hard for Scott not to blame himself for every single one of them. So many of them died under his watch.

As him and Emma join the students, candles in hand, Kitty begins her speech.

"We remember John Proudstar."

//LOG C2073B1 ⊗ [NO TITLE GIVEN]

I remember John Proudstar. I remember thinking he was reckless, stubborn and a liability. If Ororo had the mentality of a leader then, she could have saved him. Would I have allowed her, though? That's why I was so frequently at odds with Proudstar. I didn't like having my leadership undermined. That's something I needed to change.

"We remember Jean Grey."

I remember Jean Grey. I remember her every time my mind is allowed to wander off. I couldn't stand to look at my uniform after...

...

...and when she came back, I was so happy. So ecstatic. She survived. And we were happy. So, so happy. We were married. It's like a warm feeling at your core that never seems to go away. Jean made me whole.

Her last words to me were that I needed to live. So I will.

"We remember Madelyne Pryor."

I remember Madelyne Pryor. How could I not? I loved her as soon as I saw her. We had a child.

I thought Jean was more important, and I ruined our marriage, and she paid the price. She told me not to come back. So I didn't. How stupid I was.

"We remember Edward Tancredi.
We remember Sarah Vale.
We remember Mark Sheppard.
We remember Andrea Margulies.
We remember Callie Betto.
We remember Brian Cruz.
We remember Samuel Pare.
We remember Jeffrey Garrett.
We remember Sophie and Esme Stepford.
We remember Douglas Ramsey and Illyana Rasputin." She takes a deep breath, holding back her tears. "I miss you."

How stupid I am. To let so many of them die under my watch. It would be stupid to say that 'I won't let it happen again.' It implies I let it happen the first time. And I did... it was my fault. But now, more than ever, I need to protect mutantkind. There will be no more suffering. No more loss. No more pain.

"We remember Joshua Guthrie."

No more.

After the memorial is over, Scott restlessly paces around his bedroom once again. Emma lies in bed, her skin shining like a diamond. Suddenly, she sits up and turns back to normal.

"Your mind was racing back then, Scott. It still is, right now."

"Sorry."

"Don't be. But you need to stop blaming yourself to this degree."

He stops in his tracks. "Well, so do you. I don't have to be psychic to know it's all you can think about."

"You say you're not psychic..." Emma gets up, arms crossed. "...but in the Blackbird, you said you 'felt my mind move'? Are you having your own secondary mutation?"

"I think it's..." He shakes his head. "I think my head's been through so much, being merged with Apocalypse, building a psychic rapport with Jean, having you in my head at all times, controlling Cable's psimitar... I think I'm psi-sensitive. It's a tingling sensation spreading over your hair..."

"Something like that, yes. You should have Hank check it out. Who knows, maybe the Witch swapped yours and Charles' gifts."

"I really hope that's not the case. You know..." He sits on the bed, right next to her. "...I used to hear the professor talk about how glad he was that him and Magneto were born with their gifts. He used to say, 'Imagine what would happen if Magneto had my own gifts. There would be no humans left on Earth.' I understood back then. But... if I had Xavier's gift..."

Emma holds his hand as a single tear falls to his thigh. "If I had the power... I don't think I could stop myself from killing those people. And the thought scares me more than I'd like to admit."

She runs her fingers through his hair. "You don't find yourself aligning with his ideals any more, do you?"

"We used to be a people, Emma -- we had our culture, our idols, our issues -- we had as many supporters as we had critics. And that's when we were numbered in the millions. But then Genosha happened. And then M-Day. We're in the hundreds now. Hundreds. I can't let anyone else die, Emma. Until we find a way to undo what's happened to us, I have to guarantee our safety above everything else."

"Good," she says, stealing a kiss from him, "now you see things as I do. Good night, Scott."

"Good night, Emma."

He still can't sleep, however. Something still bothers him, deep inside. He can't stop thinking about Xavier and how he refused to go back to the Institute, going on about how he 'still had things to do'.

I was always embarrassed to agree with Emma on these things. After Genosha, one of the first things she told us was to put ourselves above everyone else. Before the House of M, it hurt to see her so casually advocate for putting Wanda down, as right as she was.

It's as if things aren't supposed to be this way. Blindfold keeps telling me that there's something terrible coming... I feel it as well. I just don't know the proportions it might take, or exactly how much will happen to us.

As he was about to lay in bed, he hears voices from the hallway.

"...Major Christopher Summers..."

"...how did you..."

"...structure is so similar to Scott's..."

"...losing me, I'm afraid."

Dad? And the professor?

He rushes out of the room, as he sees his brother, immobile. Alex doesn't seem to notice as Scott approaches, his gaze too fixated on the room he's analyzing.

"--Scott and Alex are not to know. They've been through enough already, and I don't want them..."

"...I thought they were all dead... I didn't..."

And suddenly, the voices are no more. Alex snaps out of it, recognizing his brother next to him. "Scott... did you see that?"

"What did you see, Alex?"

"Dad and Xavier... they were right there, talking to each other. I..."

"But that's impossible... so how..."

Havok's eyes widen. Part of him probably thinks this is a dream. "Someone's doing this to us, and we really need to find out who."

"My thoughts exactly."

The next day, as Bishop is left in charge of investigating the room where Xavier and Corsair supposedly had a conversation, Beast thoroughly analyzes Cyclops' DNA.

"You're not mutating..." Henry doesn't take his eyes off the microscope for even a second.

"Which isn't unexpected. But...?"

"But there's something else happening where the X-Gene is supposed to be." He directs Scott's sight towards a large screen. "There are 23 pairs of chromosomes in all of your cells. 22 of them contain your hereditary characteristics... natural eye, hair and skin color, height, blood type, those things. The last pair contains your sexual characteristics. You always have an X chromosome, which is where the X-Gene is usually located, and the second chromosome determines your sex."

"I've been to a biology class, Hank."

"Sorry, sorry. Well... what the Scarlet Witch's spell did was completely erase the X-Gene from most people, like it never existed. This is what happened to you. But you see..." He points to where the X-Gene is usually located. "Your optic beams were powered by solar energy. Since you lost your powers, you have no way to consume the energy you've stored."

"Then is it... flowing to my brain, somehow?"

"There's still a lot I don't know. It's one of the possibilites. But, see... your body hasn't stopped absorbing solar energy."

Scott frowns. "I thought I didn't have my X-Gene any more."

Hank frowns as well. "You don't. You shouldn't suffer any adverse effects, but theoretically, if there's a device capable of synthesizing that energy and converting it into an eye beam..." He glances over at Scott as he mentions the device, looking for a reaction. He sees the world's tiniest smile forming in the corner of his friend's mouth. Scott likes the idea.

"Do you think you can do it, Hank?"

"Maybe. But I know people who can. In the meantime... I've finished calibrating the PDS." Beast signals for him to follow.

They move towards a tall cylinder that stretches up to the roof of the mansion. Scott looks at it in awe. "PDS?"

"Psimitar Distress System. Did no one ever tell Cable it looks nothing like a scimitar?"

Carefully, Scott moves the psimitar towards the lab, trying not to get it stuck on a wall or anything of the sort. "Well, you should tell him next time." He gently places the psimitar inside the cylinder, which makes the upper parts of the structure close. "Does it work?"

"I sure hope it does. Just remember, make it move upwards first." Henry wipes his glasses on his lab coat. "Are you sure you don't need it with you?"

"It's not a matter of carrying it around with me. I just think we need better, more unconventional ways of communicating through long distances."

"Well... yes, this is quite unconventional. We'll see."

Suddenly, Bishop rushes into the lab, with a puzzled expression on his face. "You two done? You'll want to hear this."

In his investigation, Bishop absorbed a sizable amount of psychic energy. It wasn't fully psychic, however, like it had been mixed with all other different types of energy bar kinetic. Beast didn't waste any time attempting to analyze it.

"Oh, my stars and garters."

Cyclops and Bishop trade glances. This is either really good, or really bad.

"Sorry to put you through another lesson today, Scott, but... every type of energy has its own distinct signature. Basically, it allows you to tell to who it belongs to. Rachel's telepathy would emit a distinct psychic signature compared to Emma's, for example. But when you're biologically related... they share common structures, to the point where it's clear that they're closely related."

Xavier's voice from yesterday echoes in his head. "Cerebral structure is so similar to Scott's," he'd said. He feels his stomach sink.

"The energy Bishop absorbed in that room... it follows extremely similar patterns compared to the solar energy you absorb. If we were to compare it to Havok's plasma blasts, I'm confident they'd match similarly. This was the work of someone in your family."

He feels every muscle in his body tense up. "In my family? So... me, Alex, Dad, Nate and Ray?"

"The signature is far too similar to yours... we can rule out Corsair, Cable and Marvel Girl."

"Can I just say something?" Bishop interjects. "I've been hit by both you and your brother before, and it's not from either of you."

Henry throws his paws up in the air. "Well, I suppose there's a third Summers brother on the loose. One that can manipulate energy to his whim."

The hunt for the third Summers brother is an "all hands on deck" situation once Henry realizes what exactly an energy manipulator could do.

"Genetic mutants have very specific energy signatures... more powerful energy signatures. There were over a million mutants across the planet two weeks ago, and in a matter of hours, only a handful were left. So, I'm just asking... where did all that energy go?"

With Emma and the Stepford Cuckoos in charge of Cerebra, Husk and Cable attempt to hack any government satellites and data banks that could give them useful information. Beast manages to completely isolate the foreign energy signature, allowing the two groups to search specifically for this new mutant. Bishop, Wolverine, Marvel Girl, Rogue and Cyclops are left on standby, waiting for updates on the situation.

Throughout the day, more of these energy incidents happen to the X-Men: Nightcrawler is chased by the mob that attempted to kill him in Winzeldorf; Polaris is tormented by visions of the airplane where her parents died; Iceman is forced to listen to his father belittle him as if he were a child; Banshee sees figures that look like Black Tom Cassidy and Moira MacTaggert laughing at him; Mystique finds herself staring at an illusion of Destiny, who does not talk to her; Sabretooth whimpers as Birdy makes him remember everyone he's ever killed; Colossus is ambushed by a false tractor; Gambit refuses to tell anyone -- even Rogue -- what exactly was shown to him.

Eventually, the team comes to a conclusion:

"All five of us weren't affected by these... memories of ours. How?"

Rogue shakes her head. "Well, it's just you four, Ah've had mah own run-in with this thing. Miss Marvel, at that bridge."

Wolverine looks up for a moment. "You three. I've seen some stuff I could've gone without seein'."

Marvel Girl sighs. "You two. I'd... also rather not share what it was."

Bishop looks at Cyclops. "Alright, then it was just the two of us."

Cyclops throws his arms in the air, stumped by the situation. "It might have been just you. Me and Alex shared the same one."

Things start to shift inside Rachel's head. "But weren't all of them... memories? You've never seen Corsair and the Professor talking in this school, dad."

"How didn't I notice it before..."

"Bishop?"

He's smiling, because otherwise he'd be punching the air in anger. "That secret conversation you saw... it's gotta be this guy's memories. And, Cyke, if me and you didn't get our visions today or yesterday..."

"...then he's waiting for the right time to show ours."

Wolverine notices how strange it is for Bishop, a man with no relation to the Summers bloodline, to be the only one not confronted by these apparent ghosts of the past. He might not know what this new, Omega-level mutant is up to, but one thing's for sure: Bishop is up to something.

However, Logan's realization is interrupted by Cable entering the room. "You'll want to see this," he says, and they follow. "Found it in one of Moira MacTaggert's hard drives. It was encrypted, but it feels like she wanted it to be cracked open."

They stare at a monitor as a tearful Moira blows her nose before starting: "This is Moira MacTaggert, on June 14th, nineteen-- oh, who cares what day it is? This isn't meant to be a project tape... listen, Moira, you're upset now, as you have been so many times before, but you know this man... know you'll listen to him, forgive what he's done... but you need to remember what a total and utter bastard Charles Xavier is..."

All of them watch the tape. Every second of it. They don't say a word. Anna Marie, who the professor protected even when no one trusted her. James, who had learned so much about the world from him. Lucas, who grew up idolizing the man like he were a deity. Rachel, who he took under his tutelage without ever prying into her origin. Scott, who was irreversibly shaped into the man he is today because Xavier was there to guide him, to inspire him.

It's a pain like no other. He trusted Xavier, believed that they were doing the right thing. Part of him thinks this is a lie, a fabrication, a colossal misunderstanding, anything. He thinks of what Magneto told him, once. "Did Xavier explain my motives to you? My goals, my demons, the passions that drive me? Did he trust you to weigh the options and choose his side, to see the pure white reason of his dream? Or did he simply cry: 'evil mutant'?" It pains him to see, after all those years, that Magneto was right. He should have realized this before they fought Danger, even before M-Day. He's ashamed. Scott Summers is ashamed to have believed that man for so long, to have fallen for his caring personality and his utopian dream.

Once the recording is over, Cable looks at them once more. "We have coordinates on his location from an anonymous source. It could be nothing, but it's the only lead we've got. Stay safe, X-Men."

The team turns to Cyclops. They expect a rousing speech, something to bolster their morale for the upcoming confrontation. He closes his eyes for a moment. "Let's just go."

A two-hundred mile flight takes no time at all when you're on the Blackbird, especially when it's already so close to their location. The building they've arrived at seems to be abandoned. Logan immediately starts applying his tracking skills. "Chuck's been through here. There's someone else with him, that's our guy."

Rogue comes across a plaque, obscured by the rampant growth. This place has been abandoned for years. "Muir-MacTaggert Research & Development? Ah didn't know Moira ran a facility here in the States." Rachel raises an eyebrow.

"Dad? Have you ever heard about this facility before?"

He shakes his head. "I don't-- wait. I met Moira right after we found Alex. She helped the Professor do some tests on him... it's so close to the Institute, how did I forget?"

"Slim? You okay?"

"Damn it, I'm this close to remembering something. I can tell it's important, why can't I remember?"

Rachel stands next to him. "Dad. Do you want me to help?" He nods, and she starts digging into his brain, trying to find out why his memory fails him like this. She gasps, and is then kicked out of her father's head.

"Rachel! Are you okay? What did you see?"

She regains her composure, and then speaks slowly. "It's locked. The memory is sealed away. Suppressed. I-- I know who did this. You did, Dad."

"I did?"

Rogue scoffs. "Whatever you've seen here is bad news, is what Ah'm hearing. We gotta get the drop on 'em."

Bishop interjects. "Maybe it's best if you go by yourself, Cyclops. I'm sure you'll want answers. Things get bad, we'll join in."

"Seems like a plan. Rachel, you're with me. You're family. Logan, you can find them, right?"

As Wolverine guides the Summers duo towards Xavier's scent, Cyclops questions how passive he's become lately, how far removed from his role he feels. Everyone but him seems to be giving orders. Part of him thinks it's because he's not mutant anymore. He gave his blood for these people time after time, and so what? He was hit by "no more mutants" like everyone else. He's been stuck on a constant cycle of loss. And he doesn't know it yet, but he's about to lose so much more.

"He's through here, Slim. Good luck -- you'll need it." And just like that, Logan is gone, rushing to his position if plan B goes through.

Scott opens the door to what looks like a small laboratory. It creaks, alerting the two men in the room. Xavier, whose expression changes from general concern to outright terror, and the man levitating in front of him, who stares at him with curiosity.

"Hey."

He'd hoped Hank was wrong about these powers coming from a third Summers sibling. He was wrong.

Scott can hardly contain his anger. He feels nothing like himself. "Xavier."

The Professor leans on a nearby table, trying not to give away that he's close to crumbling down. "Gabriel, this is Scott. He's... the leader of the X-Men."

"Leader of the X-Men? Hah! One day, that'll be me! But right now, I have so many things I want to ask!"

Rachel isn't sure how to react, so she simply doesn't. In fact, she doesn't say anything.

"Your name... your name is Gabriel?"

"I'm Gabriel, but you can call me... Vulcan. I used to be Kid Vulcan, but... I'm not a kid anymore."

Before Gabriel can continue, Xavier cuts him off. "I've been helping Gabriel here control his abilities, Scott. He's been through a sudden power boost, presumably due to--"

"Because of M-Day, yes. But I need to know -- very desperately -- why are you here? Hidden away?"

Something inside Vulcan seems to change, like a wall broken down. "Professor? Why are we hidden from them?"

"I've been here before, Charles. Something happened to me here, and I have no idea what it is. I need you to tell me what happened."

Gabriel powers down, staring at the ceiling like he's looking for answers. "Something?"

"Scott, please, you're going to..."

"Professor, what is Krakoa?"

Moira's voice echoes inside Scott's head. He still doesn't want to accept it. Magneto's voice echoes inside Scott's head. He still doesn't want to accept it.

"Xavier, either you tell him or I do."

Defeated, Xavier raises his head. "Rachel? I need you to link the three of us, please."

As she merges their consciousnesses, the brothers share their memories.

Gabriel sees two children parachuting out of a plane. He watches them as they're taken to an orphanage. They're separated. There's a boy that humiliates him constantly. A man wants to give him the fatherhood he lost so suddenly. Another man interferes. There's something red leaking out of his eyes. He runs away, terrified. A man gives him red glasses, but he doesn't trust the man at all. Jean Grey enters his life. Professor Xavier enters his life. He becomes a leader. He is pointed towards dozens of evil mutants, rushing in to save the day every time. He is trapped in an island.

Scott sees a planet that isn't unfamiliar to him. He sees a child being forced into servitude. A sweet woman takes care of him. There's flames around him, and he can't control them. The sweet woman is swallowed by them. He learns to control the flames, and so he escapes. He's not on that planet any more. Moira MacTaggert enters his life. Professor Xavier enters his life. He starts having nightmares. He trains with the leader of the X-Men. The X-Men are gone. He trains for months with his friends. He is pointed towards an evil island, and he rushes in to save the day. He is trapped in an island.

»Dad?«

»Rachel? I'm listening.«

»Your memory of this place... it wasn't wrong to say you did suppress it, but it's not exactly right, either.«

»How so?«

»You didn't lock it away on your own. There's traces of psychic coercion here, and... well, I think I can unlock them. Should I?«

»Wait, why can you unlock them now?«

»I'm linked with the Professor... his mind had the key.«

The answer drives Scott over the edge. »Do it.«

»Are you sure? Gabriel will know as soon as you do.«

»He has a right to know.«

Rachel complies, and now the two brothers now know everything.

Gabriel is in an island, but there are others with him. Armando, who can adapt to any situation. Suzanne, who can manipulate time. Petra, who moves stone with her thoughts. They're here to rescue the X-Men.

Scott is in an island, trapped by the vines, all alone. He sees four kids running toward him. They free him and take him back to their jet, as he's too tired to move on. They say they're there to rescue the X-Men.

"Wait... you're those kids from Moira's lab. What are you doing here?"

Vulcan smiles. "We're not just kids, Cyclops, we're full-fledged X-Men. We've been training for months to save you."

"Months? No... it can't have been more than a few days..."

"There's something else, Scott. The Professor, he says that, well... he says that I'm your brother. I'm a Summers, too."

"What?"

The two hug. Neither wants to let go. They shouldn't have met like this.

Scott takes off, trying to establish contact with the Professor. He stares at those four kids from above.

He sees them die, one by one. Sway is torn, limb by limb, by the island's vines. Petra is crushed by the same rocks she was supposed to control. Vulcan attempts to take flight, but the island's been feeding on him, he's not strong enough. Darwin tries to help his friend, and both end up pulled deep underground. Cyclops escapes, incapable of processing what he's witnessed.

Back at the School, he is inconsolable. He saw his brother and three other kids get brutally killed, how could he not be? He needs to go back. He needs to be there. Alex is still there. Jean is still there.

Charles Xavier has other plans.

"I can't believe it."

"Scott, you need to understand what I--"

He wants to scream. He wants to scream until his throat starts to bleed. "I don't need to understand anything. How could you?"

Rachel looks for answers above all else. "But, wait, Krakoa was in outer space... how did he survive there? Maybe..."

Vulcan doesn't even acknowledge her question. He seems completely unaware of what's happening around him.

"Maybe... in order to survive, Darwin... bonded to you. You manipulate energy on a level no one's ever seen before. So, if Darwin were to become nothing but an energy construct..." She probes his mind lightly, trying not to have her psychic energy absorbed by him. There are, indeed, two consciousnesses within him. With a thought, she separates them.

Gabriel screams in pain. A pure energy construct flies out of his body. Rachel follows it out of the room, leaving the three men by themselves. They are not happy. The youngest of them, especially, is furious. "You left me to die! You tricked me!"

"Gabriel..."

"I don't want to hear it, Xavier! I don't want to hear a word!"

It takes Scott less than a second. »Up.«

Back at the Institute, his psimitar flies upwards. The Psimitar Distress System activates. Beast runs to the terminal near it, and reads the log.

//LOG C2073B2 ⊗ DEADLY GENESIS »»»» REDACTED VERSION

█ ████ ████ ██ ███████ ██.

█ ███████ ███████ ██████ ███ ██ ████ ███ ████ ██ ████ ███████.

█ █████ ██████ ████ ████████ ███. █████ ██████ ████ ████ █████ ████ ███ █████.

████ ██ ███ ██ █████ ████ ██? ███ ███ ██████ ██ ██████. █ ███ ███ ██████ ██ █████ ███ █ █████ ██ ████. ██ ████. █ ████ ███ ███ ████ ██ █████.

His name is Gabriel. I think he's about to kill Professor Xavier. The worst part is that he has every reason to do so.

The weapon flies at astonishing speeds towards its wielder. For once, he's glad to have it over his concussive blasts.

Vulcan has Xavier by the neck. There's far too much energy around him. The energy of almost a million people. One wrong move, and the entire facility might be reduced to a crater.

"You won't try to stop me, brother? I thought you were the leader of the X-Men, the strongest team on Earth. Is this what you are now? A sitting duck?"

He furrows his eyebrows. "Part of me doesn't want to stop you. The other part?"

The psimitar destroys the wall behind Vulcan. It pierces through his shoulder, causing him to let go of Xavier. The rest of the team, bar Rachel, storm into the room. It's time for plan B.

"It already did."

Rogue tackles him in the air, making skin contact and absorbing his powers, alongside a huge portion of the energy he carries. Vulcan tries to finish the Professor with his remaining strength, but Bishop takes the hit. Of course, he's unfazed. Vulcan has no energy left to manipulate. He's defeated. Wolverine traps his neck between two of his claws. "Don't try anything stupid, bub."

Xavier gets on his feet, thanks to Lucas' help. "Thank you, Logan, Bishop, Rogue. And you, Cyclops. I--"

Scott points his blade at Charles. "You're not off the hook just yet. You're gonna tell us what you've been up to with Gabriel."

He sighs, and then accepts. He talks about Gabriel's origins, how he was born under the Shi'ar Empire and artificially aged up. He explains his reasons for being so absent after M-Day as "receiving a second chance". Xavier recounts being met with a vision of the meeting between Avengers and X-Men, the meeting that caused all of this. He managed to find the source, an amnesiac Gabriel. Worried that Scott would recognize his brother, he hid this from the X-Men. He helped Gabriel control his recently amplified powers, using Moira's old facility as a base of operations. And then Scott came in through that door.

"How could you?"

"I had a chance to correct my mistake, Scott. I took it."

"But you can't correct your mistakes with Suzanne. You can't correct your mistakes with Petra."

Xavier cries. Tears stream down his face. "I know I can't."

"They were children, and you exploited them. You filled their heads with these ideas of heroism. Look where it got them, Charles. Look where it got them."

"I know what I took from them, Scott. I think about them every day. But... you understand... I did this for a reason. I was desperate. I was foolish. I vowed that it would never happen again, and it never did."

He wants Xavier to be hurt, and so he chooses his words very carefully: "I'm ashamed of you."

"Scott, please, you don't--"

"DON'T say my name. You disgust me. I don't... I don't want to look at you ever again. Don't come to the Institute. Don't try to find us. As long as I lead the X-Men, you don't have a place with us."

Charles nods. He accepts that he's been defeated. He recognizes that no one will ever see him in the same way again. "I'm sorry."

Scott isn't proud of this. Expressionless, he looks into the old headmaster's eyes. "I know. You should be." He turns to his brother. "Gabriel, we're going."

"I'm not going anywhere."

Logan looks down on him, moving his claws from his throat to his chin. "Careful, kid. Ya don't wanna push it."

Vulcan grits his teeth. "You don't get it." He forcefully reabsorbs the energy Rogue took from him, knocking her out. He blasts Wolverine's face, disfiguring him and launching him through the building. All the psychic energy that powers Cyclops' psimitar is suddenly drained. "I go where I please. And right now..."

He blasts through the ceiling, flying at such speeds that he becomes invisible. Emma's voice echoes in Scott's mind. »Scott, please don't tell me that was your secret third brother leaving the atmosphere.«

»The atmosphere? He must be going... home.«

»Home?«

»Uh... y-yeah.«

The flight back home is silent. Rachel maintains contact with Hank, keeping him updated on Darwin's situation. In minutes, he went from pure energy back to a living, breathing organism, though he doesn't seem to be fully healed.

Xavier stays behind, unforgiven. He'll have to rebuild, completely on his own.

He's back in his bedroom with Emma. Scott is just glad it's over.

"So how did he become so aggressive all of a sudden? I don't see Rachel getting sloppy."

"Hank says it might've been an effect of being bonded with Darwin. He... felt the need to adapt at that moment. So all of his emotions were shut off to avoid the trauma. But then..."

"...Rachel interfered."

He lets out a whimper. "Yes."

"Well, that doesn't quite explain the psychic turmoil we kept getting over here."

"You know, Hank has a theory for that, too."

She smiles. "Really?"

"Vulcan didn't even remember the School's existence. So we suspect Xavier's thoughts and recollections were getting boosted by Gabriel, subconsciously, and they were naturally attracted to us."

"But you didn't get one." She ponders. "Why?"

"Oh," he stops frowning, which is a start, "I did see mine."

"And what was it?"

Scott intertwines his fingers with hers. "Why don't you take a look?"

Emma sees Magneto, standing above a young Cyclops. This must be not long after their first battle, the one in Cape Citadel.

He speaks as Scott listens. "...the poison with which he infects your mind. His fairy tales of good and evil. I have seen evil, boy. Seen the horrors mankind inflicts upon itself. This is not evil. This is mere expediency. What did he tell you, Scott? When he sent you here to battle me? Did Xavier explain my motives to you? My goals, my demons, the passions that drive me? Did he trust you to weigh the options and choose his side, to see the pure white reason of his dream? Or did he simply cry: 'evil mutant'?"

Scott wants the seed planted in his mind to stop growing. "You've murdered innocents. Hijacked missiles. Threatened millions with destruction..."

"The fine line between revolutionary and terrorist. It depends which side wins, does it not?"

"No. It doesn't." He regains his composure. He's just a kid, but there's conviction behind his words. "Maybe the Professor's teachings are too simplistic. Maybe humans and mutants will always live together uneasily and in fear... but that doesn't mean we have to wipe each other out! We have to be better than that. We can be more. We should work on the same side!"

Erik smiles. He knows that he has already won in the long run. "Interesting theory, Scott... perhaps one day you will have the opportunity to test it, after your 'father' is dead and gone."

The memory dissipates. Emma is in disbelief. "Scott..."

He looks at her and smiles. It's a melancholic expression, he wishes he could go back to a time where he didn't think about any of these things. "You... get where I'm coming from, right?"

Emma nods, still shaken. She thought those ideas were instilled on him by her.

"Good", he says, stealing a kiss from her, "now you see things as I do. Good night, Emma."