First Story:
(Weeks ago)
It's nighttime in Madripoor, as Erik Lehnsherr a.k.a. Magneto walks alongside his daughter Lorna Dane a.k.a. Polaris. They are dressed for a night out, and Lorna admits to her father that the place they were at looked like a dump, but the food was amazing. Magneto tells Lorna that, at some point, she must learn to trust him. 'You're Magneto. It's going to take a lot more than sashimi to earn my trust' Lorna replies. 'Dessert, perhaps?' Magneto suggests, stopping at a store with a smiling ice cream on the window. 'Ha! You're not serious!' Lorna smiles, telling Magneto that if he tries to turn this into a father-daughter ice cream outing, she swears they are going to have a super hero brawl right here in Hightown. Putting a hand on one of her hips, Lorna tells Magneto that she appreciates the effort, before suggesting he cuts to the chase, and asks him what it is he wanted to talk about.
'Havok' Magneto replies. 'Oh. If I'd had known that, I might have gone for the ice cream after all' Lorna frowns at the mention of her ex-partner's name. They continue walking down the street and Magneto reminds Lorna that Havok is not to be taken lightly, and now that he has allied himself with Emma, he is even more dangerous. Magneto adds that Havok is not himself. 'If we could find a way to get through to him...to the man he once was -' Magneto begins. Lorna frowns again and asks her father if that is why he wants her to stick around – because he thinks she might be able to flip Alex in some way. 'Because if that's the only reason you want me here...then that's messed up' Lorna declares. They come to a stop, and Magneto tells Lorna that there are many reasons he wants her at his side, but he would be remiss if he ignored a unique advantage that she offers in this instance. 'No one knows Alex Summer better than you' Magneto points out, adding that if anyone can get through to him, it will be her. Lorna glances sideways and replies 'I don't know why you'd think that. I've never been able to get through to you'.
(Present)
In San Francisco, Lorna is suddenly surrounded by demonic hallucinations of her “demons” created by Wildside. 'You're no daughter of mine!' Magneto calls out. 'You did this!' Havok exclaims. 'This is the real you!' Malice snarls. 'This... is all an illusion!' Lorna shouts as she tries to attack Magneto with a surge of magnetic energy, 'Guess again!' Malice exclaims as she scratches Lorna's side. Wildside leaps at Polaris and tells her that, once upon a time, his hallucinations were all smoke and mirrors, but thanks to Mothervine, they are as real as the two of them. 'My madness...your madness – made flesh!' Wildside declares as Polaris takes to the air and blasts more power at her demonic foes, while, down below, her new teammates battle Wildside's associates, who have also been subjected to Mothervine. Daken attacks the massive Blob with two swords, while dodging Toad, who lashes out at him with his flaming tongue. Bloodstorm releases some lightning as Dragoness flies towards her, and Jimmy Hudson goes up against Wanderer, while Gazing Nightshade keeps watch over two locals who have been hideously mutated by Mothervine, and Xorn keeps watch on Carmella Unuscione, not affiliated with Wildside and the others, but caught up in this battle nonetheless, and surrounding herself in a bio-electric field.
'My creations can end you as surely as I can!' Wildside boasts as he leaps at Polaris, who quickly turns back to him, 'Not today, m'kay?' she replies as she uses a Sentinel hand that was nearby to grab and capture him, before punching Wildside in the face, knocking him out. 'Nice! As I was hoping, knocking you out shuts down your creations, too!' Lorna declares, frowning, she wished that everything worked itself out so easily.
In deep space, Danger, who has been transformed into the Blackbird jet, floats powerless in the darkness of space, until, suddenly, she springs to life, 'That did it! You brought her back! Danger's up and running! Alive!' Warren Worthington a.k.a. Angel exclaims as he and his fellow time-displaced X-Men Hank McCoy the Beast and Bobby “Iceman” Drake look around the jet. In the front of the jet, in the pilot's seat, Scott Summers a.k.a. Cyclops is surprised, 'A-alive?' he utters, as Eddie Brock a.k.a. Venom appears behind him and tells him not to get himself too worked up, as his teammates were talking about the ship. 'Your boy Beast worked his magic and re-routed just enough power to get us home'. 'Oh. For a second, I thought -' Scott begins, as Venom tells him that they know what he thought, but that he is just torturing himself – Marvel Girl is not coming back. 'What am I supposed to do?' Cyclops asks. Venom suggests to him that he gets mad, and the next time he sees one of those bastards that took her from him, he pays them back tenfold. 'You tear them apart. That's what we're gonna do'.
Back on Earth, this time in Madripoor, the home of Magneto's X-Men, where Magneto and his robot assistant, Ferris, find themselves under assault from the reality-displaced New Marauders. Ferris informs Magneto that he is trying to call for assistance, but no one is responding. 'Of course not, Ferris. The X-Men have their own battles to attend' Magneto replies as shrapnel floats around him. Magneto declares that if they are to weather this fight, then they must do so on their own. 'We should have met a lot sooner than thus, huh, Magneto? Maybe under better circumstances' Mach-2 remarks, adding that she has been told their magnetic abilities are quite similar. 'I'm afraid, my dear...you've been woefully misinformed!' Magneto exclaims as he releases the shrapnel at Mach-2, knocking her to the ground. 'I'm very sorry about this. It feels wrong' the reality-displaced Armor remarks as she uses her power to punch Magneto, knocking him over, she declares that for Mothervine to prevail, Magneto must die. 'Trust me, old man – it only gets worse if you fight us!' the reality-displaced winged mutant known as the Guardian remarks as he flies past Magneto, slashing his claws across Magneto's back.
Ferris, with several weapons, appears between Magneto and the New Marauders, and tells Magneto to get out of her, while he covers him. 'I will rise to the occasion' Ferris adds, before Mach-2 raises the floor, bringing large spiked shards of metal up through Ferris. 'You're doing nothing, robot. And neither are the Marauders. I've got my orders. Magneto dies – at the hands of the mutants he was trying to protect' Mach-2 exclaims as the Mothervine mutants who were brought to the Madripoor Mansion for safety gather around him – and begin to attack him, punching him and using their newfound powers on him, hammering him from every angle. Magneto falls back to the floor, and surrounds himself in a magnetic field. 'Damn you. Damn you for making me -' Magneto utters as he releases an energy at the Mothervine mutants forcing them back onto the various shards of metal strewn about the room, killing them.
'Emma... Havok... you'll pay... turning mutants against me... making me kill them... you'll bleed for this...' Magneto snarls, while the New Marauders watch him, 'He's spent. Take him' Mach-2 orders the others as they start to give him chase. Magneto rushes through the mansion, down some stairs, towards the time-platform which is located in a basement. He activates the platform, and when Mach-2, the Guardian and Armor arrive in the basement, they find him gone, and the platform glowing. 'Where'd he go?' Mach-2 wonders.
Back in San Francisco, 'Fight's won, X-Men. But there's no time to celebrate' Polaris remarks. Daken, Xorn, Gazing Nightshade, Jimmy Hudson and Bloodstorm gather around, while Blob, Wanderer and Wildside lay unconscious on the ground. Dragoness, Toad and the two Mothervine mutants are restrained in scrap metal, and Unuscione seems to be unconscious, too, resting against the remains of a Sentinel. 'So... these new mutants... they're programmed to work against us?' Daken asks. Xorn looks down at Unuscione and points out that she needed their help, and they brought her down – hard. 'She attacked us, Xorn. Maybe she wasn't in control of her abilities, but we didn't have much choice. We;ll still be able to help her' Daken replies. 'Can we?' Xorn asks, remarking that he grows weary of seeing mutants used against their will. 'Unless we find the puppet masters -' Xorn begins. 'We'll find them. Isn't that right, Toad?' Polaris scowls at the Toad, who calls her “Greenilocks” and tells her to slow her roll. 'Even if I wanted to throw you an assist – which I don't – what would you do? Get yourself killed?' Toad asks, adding that Polaris is going to want to live long enough to see what happens next.
'Where are they?' Lorna demands, shaking a fist in Toad's face. Toad asks her why she wants to stand in the way of progress, adding that her father was just as pigheaded, and now he has been deep-sixed before he saw his dreams come true. 'What are you saying?' Lorna asks, surprised. Jimmy goes over to Polaris and tells her that he knows what she is thinking, but points out that Magneto can take care of himself, and his orders were clear – they must find Sinister and shut Mothervine down. 'How are we supposed to do that, Jimmy?' Lorna asks. 'Leave it to me' Bloodstorm offers, as she flies over to the Wanderer. 'Damn it all. Damn my curse. Leave it to me' Bloodstorm utters quietly to herself. She grabs Wanderer by her hair, lifting her head back and asks 'You – you are their teleporter, yes? Look at me. Lose yourself in my gaze. Look at me and do as I command' Bloodstorm instructs her, putting Wanderer under her hypnotic gaze.
'How are we any better than them?' Emma Frost asks from the secret location where she, Alex “Havok” Summers, Bastion and Miss Sinister watch on monitors the Sentinels deploy Mothervine around the world. 'If we control these mutants...if we take away their free will...how can we hold ourselves in a different regard than those who would enslave us?' Emma asks. 'That's rich, coming from you of all people' Miss Sinister smirks, adding that she would have expected kudos from the White Queen. 'Controlling others... and through that influence controlling the world... seems like something you could appreciate' Miss Sinister points out, as Sentinels arrive in London. 'You keep throwing that in my face, Sinister, and see where it gets you' Emma snarls, declaring that everything she has done, whether she is proud of it or not, has been for the betterment of mutantkind. Miss Sinister smiles and tells Emma not to fret, that she is still queen of the ivory tower, and that some control at this point is necessary. 'Think about how you felt when your mutation first manifested. Without someone to tamp down the emerging terror, we'd have mass panic on our hands' Miss Sinister remarks as Sentinels touch down in Sydney.
Miss Sinister continues, pointing out that they would lose more mutants than they gain. 'That would not do. The mutant race must flourish' Bastion states. Miss Sinister explains that when she harvested the secrets of Mothervine from the off-universe mutants, she found genetically engineered coding – the mutants of their world were man-made, and the men who made them included oppression and repression fail-safes. Miss Sinister tells her allies that if they are going to stand on the shoulders of giants in order to save mutants, then they should use every resource those giants have provided. Havok looks at Emma and tells her that Sinister is right. Sinister puts a hand on Emma's shoulder and tells her that when the time comes she will release the Mothervine mutants from her control. 'If you want, you can even take credit for convincing me. We'll all be heroes in our own -' Sinister begins, before Emma switches to her diamond form and cracks Sinister's fingers within her own. 'It's bad enough that I allow you to talk down to me, you insipid twit. But I'll not have you insult me and place your nasty little fingers on my person. It's about time you learned why I'm called the Queen' Emma declares.
Havok goes over and pulls Emma's hand off of Sinister's and tells her that now is not the time, not when they were so close. Suddenly, an alarm sounds, 'What now?' Emma mutters, as Bastion states the obvious – that it is an alarm – and they have intruders.
Outside, human-sized Sentinels and Hellfire Guards engage Polaris and the other X-Men as they arrive, teleported to the secret location by Wanderer, who Bloodstorm throws to the ground. 'Apprehend mutants' one of the Sentinels states. 'Mutant life must be preserved' another Sentinel adds, and another, while one of the Hellfire Guards shouts 'Kill 'em!' 'You guys really need to get your stories straight. Do you want to save us or kill us?' Jimmy asks as he slices one of the Sentinels with his claws. Gazing Nightshade kicks a Hellfire Guard backwards and replies that, strangely, she thinks they want both. Daken destroys one of the Sentinels with his sword, while Xorn tells Polaris that they must get past these distractions, every second they delay gives their enemies a chance to strike. 'I know, Xorn! We just need to get through to one -' Polaris replies as she rips a Sentinel apart with her powers.
Suddenly, Bloodstorm, Daken and Gazing Nightshade clutch their heads in agony and scream, while a blast knocks Xorn backwards, and strange energy squares slam into Jimmy, pushing him against a wall, as plasma blasts ripple towards Polaris, who holds her ground, 'I...was wondering...when you'd show yourself' Polaris utters as she falls to the ground. 'You shouldn't have come here, Lorna. For so many reasons...you should have stayed away' Havok declares as he stands over Polaris, Emma, Miss Sinister and Bastion stand near him. Havok frowns and tells Lorna that, after all this time, her father issues finally caught up with her, that she started to believe him. 'Well, by this time, Magneto is dead. And he went out knowing what a failure he was' Havok adds, remarking that he only had to sacrifice a few dozen mutants to teach him a lesson. Emma frowns at that comment.
Havok kneels before Polaris and offers a hand to her, telling his longtime ex that she doesn't have to suffer the same fate, that she can live, can see what they have been working for: 'Mutants ruling the world. At last, we'll ascend to the role for which we were born'. Lorna looks into Alex's eyes and tells him that what you are saying, what he is doing, sacrificing mutants, sacrificing anyone, hurting people – it isn't him. Havok frowns, as Lorna tells him that she has to believe the real him is in there somewhere – and the real him would fight like hell to get back on top. Havok says nothing, and Emma looks at Havok and Polaris' hands, still holding each other, before Havok pulls Polaris up and passes her to Bastion, 'Take her away. Lock her up with the others' he instructs him. Havok then grins and tells Lorna that she is wrong about him – the other Alex, the one she thinks she knows, he was the lie, as this is the only Havok that is left. 'Don't worry, I'll prove it to you'.
Second story:
(20 years from now...)
The Xavier Institute for Mutant Education and Outreach, Central Park, New York City. 'Come on, children. Everything's going to be okay. Make your way to the ship. We're going to bring you somewhere safe!' Marvel Girl calls out as she supervises a dozen or so children, leading them onto a ship, as huge Sentinels blast the area around them, and Beast and Angel battle human-sized Sentinels in the distance. Cyclops fires an optic blast and tells Marvel Girl that she knows that is a lie, that it is like this everywhere – nowhere is safe, and they are going to find that out eventually. 'We should have gone back when we had the chance. If we'd only gone back to our own time – none of this would be happening!' Angel calls out as his glowing wings slice a Sentinel in half. The Beast tears another Sentinel's head off and tells his friend that they don't know that for certain. 'Let's just concern ourselves with the now and sort out -' the Beast begins, before he is blown apart by one of the Sentinels. 'HAAANK! NO!' Angel screams, and Cyclops and Marvel Girl enter the battle, 'We have to stop this!' Cyclops calls out as he fires an optic blast.
