Sally Floyd’s apartment:
Sally offers coffee to the man sitting opposite her. He’d love to, Charles Xavier demurs, but alas… He’s not really here, she realizes.
Not physically, he amends. He is currently being held in a maximum security holding facility for dangerous mutants. A lifetime ago, it was a school… his school. He anticipated his captivity and took steps; he could still influence events on the outside. That’s why they kept having to move him. He describes one of his jailers, Scurvy – an emaciated bald man – apparently also a mutant who is quite a formidable telepath and excels at outmaneuvering him. In consequence, it has become more difficult to project his consciousness outside his cell.
Sally asks about the nosebleeds. Unavoidable, he is afraid. As his influence in the outside world wanes, he finds he is having to nudge them all more forcefully.
“Nudge,” Sally repeats, clearly disgusted. He tells her to look outside. Those people sleep soundly because they know the butcher of Krakoa is rotting in a dungeon. As long as that fiction holds, his people, his children, stand a chance. She must understand, that island was their last chance in so many ways. When it fell, he admits, that he entertained dark thoughts, shameful thoughts.
But they weren’t all his, he describes, referring to his partial possession by Mr. Sinister. That ghost tried to manipulate him. Instead, Xavier gained access to a mind even more ruthless and calculating than his own. So, when those fools tried to put Cyclops on trial for the crimes of their species, he knew what had to be done. Human herd behavior is astoundingly predictable. The punishment for the unforgivable sin of Krakoa would either have to be borne by all or by one…
Sally realizes he made himself a supervillain to save Scott. Xavier replies that Scott Summers is his son in every way that counts. But there’s more…
Xavier’s narration:
After he learned of Sentinel City’s true purpose, the Agnew mission and its destruction were both his idea. Like every con artist worth their salt, he approached Orchis with the problem and its solution.
He had only hours to execute the plan, using only the tools at hand, which were meager and unsuited for the task. But, as chance would have it, when mercenaries tried to take Krakoa… Mr. Sinister objected vehemently, using Xavier’s body to kill them.
Grisly business, but their bodies left him with the genetic raw material he needed to use Sinister’s cloning vats to grow a crew for the Agnew from borrowed flesh. Living effigies, born only to burn…
Present:
Sally interrupts, disgusted at the violation of their bodies. He shoots back that he has written several textbooks on bio-ethics. He waded into this moral quagmire with his eyes open, and he would do so again, if it meant saving lives.
Xavier’s Narration:
Sinister’s red diamond transport bubble got them inside in the blink of an eye. From there, it was a matter of influencing the authorities to switch their crew for his. Now creating people is tricky, even under ideal circumstances, but it was enough to buy his way into Orchis’ confidence to get close to their leader Moira MacTaggert.
He knew the world would hate and fear him for it. That is nothing new. But now his children would too, and that is where he faltered. He should have been unselfish. He should have let them hate him forever.
Impatient, Sally interrupts, asking him to cut to the end. Who gets to live, who is dying. He continues, in his vanity he left a clue. An indulgence only the members of his first class would recognize. The names of Arthurian authors. They alone would realize he wasn’t the butcher of Krakoa after all.
Present:
Except they didn’t – she did, Sally replies. She needs to ask him something and him to be straight with her. Four, he states to her confusion, then clarifies, they have had this conversation four times. He’s sorry he couldn’t let her remember. Not just her. Warren, Alice Bakker, Ben Urich. So, what happens now? she asks shocked. He is open to suggestions. If he keeps doing this, he will hurt her. Permanently.
Sally bursts out that she has so many things she wants to forget and begs him to take all her memories. He replies that she doesn’t know what she asks of him. He can’t just erase her. Replace then, she suggests. A cover personality. Not impossible, he muses. Obscene, but not impossible. She’d like to be a Megan, Sally continues. A Megan who hates puzzles. With a smile, he retorts even his abilities have their limits. He warns her that this will all unravel again. She is simply too curious. He can’t change her nature. More to the point, he won’t. Sally knows, but it will buy them more time.
Fairbank, Alaska:
A young woman has just moved into a house and neighboring couple, Jason and Laurie, knock at her door to welcome her to the neighborhood and bring her a lasagna and some wine. Megan thanks them but declines the wine. She doesn’t touch the stuff.
Laurie notes she doesn’t seem to have a lot of personal things. Just some games and jigsaws. With a smile, Megan replies that she likes puzzles.
