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Chapter Text

Logan took a few deep breaths trying to contain his anger and disappointment. He did not take kindly to someone trying to use him as a weapon and the idea infuriated him even more when such a ploy devised to make him complicit in a suicide that could lead to an all-out war between the mutants and humans came from someone he had once chosen to respect and follow. A loud SNIKT noise filled the long corridor of the prison as his claws popped out. He stood still in his tracks as his sensitive ears caught the tiniest hint of a muffled scream. Choked down and repressed just as the emotions of the man from whom the cry escaped. Wolverine looked at the door in front of him and contemplated leaving and letting the exhausting tale of the man’s downfall that had been plaguing him for the past few years end. He let out a few choice words. Chuck would want him to be better than that.

He turned on his heels and returned to the mutant block at a jog, once there he was welcomed with the sight of Scott Summers convulsing on the ground as one of the guards pushed a button on the control device. Logan knocked it from his hands and crushed the thing in the palm of his hand before throwing it back to the prison employee.

“Ya alright?” he asked his former leader as the prisoner tried to gather himself on the ground.

But before Scott could speak, Wolverine’s nostrils filled in with the acrid smell of terror and the younger man’s body was rocked by another seizure.

“The hell did ya do?” Logan growled at the guards.

Both of them rose their arms up in fear and shook their heads quickly.

“Nothing.”

A thorough sniff of the air confirmed that they weren’t lying.

“Get a medic. Now!” Wolverine barked.

Scott’s legs and arms kept jerking uncontrollably for almost another minute. Logan knew better than to grab his body and try to restrain its movements, he knew he had to wait until the rush of the seizure would relent. Instead he quickly moved to remove any objects that the other mutant could bump into, not that there was much in the meager holding cell.

Scott’s feet were dangling from out of the window as he watched the pavement below the building and wondered about how the splash of his blood would look in his red tinted vision. He only held onto the inside of the window as he braced himself for the imminent fall. For a moment he would fly and finally feel as free as he had felt back in his mother’s embrace all those years ago. And the world would be a better place without him in it. After all he was a walking weapon and it was only a matter of time before he hurt someone. He had already put people into too much danger by allowing himself to fall into the hands of a trigger happy madman like Jack Winters. The only way he could fix that mistake was by ending it all before the criminal could unleash the nuke in his head onto the world. He wasn’t worried that it would hurt, pain had become his constant companion over the past few years. He clutched his stomach as it groaned with hunger with his right hand. Another sign that this world had nothing but further suffering in store for him. He closed his eyes to make sure that the damned force in his eyes would not betray him one more time by dampening the impact of his fall.

As the shaking finally subsided, Scott tried to push himself from the ground but he stumbled back as he wasn’t counting with the weight of the helmet. He looked around, dazed and confused.

He started shivering and a string of nonsensical and jumbled words escaped his mouth. Underneath the gibberish a few words such as jumping, hell and dying found their way into Logan’s ear.

The older mutant tried to reach out and put a calming hand on his shoulder.

Scott jolted as if the touch had burned him and scuffled backwards towards the back of the cell as if trying to shrink into the corner.

“Don’t touch me,” he snarled finally before he reverted back to his gibbering.

Astonished by the scene in front of him, Logan tried to get a read of the whole thing by another means, taking a sniff of the smells coming from Cyclops discovering a surprising lack of the odor of familiarity between them.

“Shit,” he muttered, looking around for the medic.

Instead his ear drums suffered under the onslaught of iron clad feet bouncing off the ground as Tony Stark came running in his full Iron Man suit. He stopped himself in front of the cell and opened his helmet, taking in the picture.

“I thought you called for an emergency?”

“I called for a fucking medic.”

“Yeah, turns out those are in short supply when it comes to shady government sponsored prisons. And behold I was the next best thing around.”

Tony’s attention was caught by a whimpering sound escaping the cell.

“Tell me he’s not laughing.”

“He ain’t laughing, I’m pretty sure he’s crying actually,” Logan said, lightning a cigarette in his mouth.

“The hell did you do to him, Logan?”

“Nothin’,” the short man protested. “Why’d ya assume it was me?”

“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe because you unceremoniously told Steve this morning that if you go see Mr. Summers over there you would kill him?”

“And he still ain’t dead.”

“There also appears to be a substantial lack of blood oozing from any of his crevices in order for this to be a result of your work now that you mention it.”

“No kiddin’.”

“So what happened?”

“Shitty holes that the government allows to be called prisons have a shady knack of torturing mutants with seizure inducing collars.”

“And? I’m pretty sure that’s not what got our boy over there whimpering, as I recall you reminded me several times during the less pleasant of our missions where you complained about my girly screaming that Slim would have grinded his teeth through it without the sound effects.”

At Wolverine’s annoyed face he continued: “Okay, I get it. Former mutant leader and cruel and unusual punishment bad. But it’s not like we actually had a say in this particular joint of B&B that he has gotten himself into.”

“Your bedside manner sure needs work, second best thing after a medic. Maybe you might wanna actually take a look at the patient.”

Tony turned around to look at Scott and was relieved to see that the whimpering fit seemed to have stopped as he was drowning in second-hand embarrassment and his chattering with Logan was his way of stalling the inevitable. The seizure he was looking at didn’t serve to make him much happier though. He winced as he saw Scott’s hand bash against the metal frame of the bed, that might easily end up costing the man a few broken fingers.

“Okay, that’s not good,” he told Wolverine. “But not much one can do in the middle of a seizure, we have to wait until it stops. Maybe you could become useful and go ask the sicko who runs this place to stop inducing them though. Try to do it nicely, but use of claws isn’t strictly forbidden.”

“Haha,” Logan drawled. “I’ll take care of him for sure. Later. But I can assure you, he’s not doing this,” he said showing Iron Man the collar he had cut off from Scott’s neck after he caught the guards torturing him.

“So he keeps having the seizures. Wonderful.”

“Three in the last five minutes. And that’s not the worst of it.”

“What is?”

“Looks like some kind of amnesia. I’m pretty sure he doesn’t recognize me.”< p/>

“This keep getting better and better. We’re busting him out of here, aren’t we?” Tony said gravely.

"He’s dead meat here if he won’t be able to protect himself. And if he dies, I can assure you it will ignite a full scale war between humans and mutants.”

“Right,” Tony said as he turned around to face Scott again, aiming his Iron Man suit at the other man’s shoulder.

“The hell are ya doing?” Logan shouted.

“Relax. I just borrowed some sleep arrows from our resident bird-boy. He’ll come around in an hour or two. We might as well use that time to get him somewhere else.”

Logan watched from beyond a thick glass as Tony examined the still unconscious mutant in the Avenger Tower’s med-lab. He heard Steve’s heavy footsteps behind him.
“Logan, would you care to elaborate why I just got off the phone with a very angry President of the United States telling me that a pair of Avengers apparently abducted a super-criminal from his holding cell earlier today?” the Captain questioned as he stood next to the short hairy man, crossing his arms in front of his chest.
“How about telling him the truth?” Tony said as he exited the med lab.
“Which is?”
“That putting a seizure inducing collar on someone with a history of traumatic brain injury is hardly a good idea.”
“What do you mean?”
Tony pushed his hand in the air and a holographic screen showing a brain scan appeared.
“What am I looking at?” Steve asked.
“I got Dr. Rao to send over Summers’ old medical files which were recovered from the ruins of Utopia. You see right here?” the genius pointed towards a dark area on the first scan. “Old scarring from a childhood injury according to McCoy’s notes.”
“From the plane crash,” Logan elaborated. “It’s the reason why he never learned to control his powers I think.”
“Yeah, yeah, that’s not the point though,” Iron Man interrupted him, changing the view to a second picture. “See here, that’s some new damage as far as I can tell.”
“What’s the prognosis?” Captain America asked trying to keep his voice calm but the anxiety below it didn’t escape Logan’s attention.
“I don’t know, but I’ve already called on someone who should be able to tell, the best neurosurgeon on the East Coast. We’ll know more once they get a neurological exam done.”
The tall blond looked pensive before looking at Logan thoughtfully.
“You said that there appeared to be some kind of amnesia?”
“Yup.”
“Can you get a telepath here, someone whom you can trust completely?”
Logan’s shoulders slumped visibly.
“Sure I can. But I can tell ya she ain’t gonna like this one bit.”
“I don’t think any of us happen to be particularly overjoyed with this situation,” Tony snorted.
“Yeah, but Rachel’s the one who might actually kill us for letting this happen, bub.”
“Rachel? Which one is that?”
“Rachel Grey, also known as Rachel Summers to some.”
Tony gulped.
“So which one of us is telling Cyclops’ daughter that he has gotten himself some extra brain damage under our watch? I suggest Logan, healing factor and all.”

“No,” Bobby told Rachel resolutely causing several of the students to look back at him in surprise at the venom in his voice.
The redhead grabbed him by the hand and led him to her office, securing the door behind to make sure that no eager ears would hear the rest of their conversation. Warding the place against psychic interference she looked at her friend with pleading eyes.
“Bobby, if what Logan says it’s true, you’re probably the person who might be able to help him. There’s no one else around.”
“And whose fault is that precisely?” Iceman snapped.
Rachel sighed.
“That’s kind of a low blow and I’m starting to get really tired of everyone dumping their own issues and self-hatred on Scott. I think over the past few years many of us forgot that he’s also just a human being and an incredibly fallible one at that.”
“Look, Ray, I get it. He’s kind of your father and no matter what mistakes he makes and how wrong he is, you’ll always love him. And I can sympathize with that, trust me. But it doesn’t change anything on the fact that he killed Charles,” Bobby snarled this part out, punching the wall with an iced up fist. “And I’m allowed to hate him for that and never want to see him again.”
“I guess. I mean he made some choices that I’m not really happy about either. But being angry with someone and going as far as wishing they would just die are two different things. Especially when you know that the person wouldn’t hesitate a second before throwing away their own life to save yours if they were at full faculties.”
“That’s the trouble, Ray. I don’t think he would.”
“Yes, he would. In many ways he is still the same man who would throw himself at Apocalypse to protect the alternate reality son whom he just met or who would contain the Void in his mind to protect the woman he loves. Scott has changed, but not as much as you all seem to think. He has grown into the man mutantkind needed in order to survive. And to ensure that goal he was willing to sacrifice everything – his friendships, his reputation, his soul even.”
“I think your anger can be partly chalked up to the things Scott has done, but there’s more than that.”
“You’re right,” Bobby huffed. “I’m furious with him, if for nothing else because he never bothered to reach out and ask for help, instead he decided to carry the whole burden on his shoulders like the fucking martyr he is. But I’m also angry at everything. The world and the unfairness of it all, at myself even. And I suppose I’m also terrified. It’s just me left now, you know? Jean’s dead, Warren might as well be, Hank seems to be lost in the past and the simple fact that he chose to go there and try to drag our teenage selves into the future speaks volumes about the fact that he’s not all there anymore either and the Professor’s dead by Scott’s hand,” his voice broke.
“I’m supposed to be the baby of the family, the jokester, you know? But all of this means that I have to grow up now and the pressure is on me.”
“Bobby, sometimes you are an idiot. You have already done plenty of growing up. And I’m sure if they all could see you now, they would be proud of the progress you have made.”
Icy blue eyes found her green ones as he hesitated just a moment before speaking: “I’m still…,” but he wasn’t able to finish.
“There’s still a lot of places to go for you and maybe you will go there one day, but that doesn’t mean you don’t get to be proud of the road you’ve already taken.”
A pair of cold hands wrapped her in a chilly hug.
“Thank you, Rachel,” he whispered, voice full of sincerity.
“Will you now please help me figure out this thing with my dad? I’ve lost him before and I don’t think I can do it again.”
“Only as long as I get to kick his ass once he’s okay.”

“I have good news and bad news. Dr. Lopez has determined that the new damage is most probably some temporary swelling resulting from numerous seizures over a short period of time. As it seems that the attacks have stopped for now, she expects it will subside in a few days.”
“Where’s the bad news in that?”
“She’s unsure whether the last few seizures were just an aftereffect of what they did to him at the prison, there’s a chance he developed a seizure disorder and it will become a recurring thing, only time will tell. She also says that the damage is affecting pain centers rather than the memory center of his brain. And yet mysteriously our patient seems to have some prominent memory gaps based on the talk I just had with him.”
“What kind of gaps?”
“Well, he knows he’s Scott Summers, so there’s that. Unfortunately he also seems to labor under the assumption that he’s fourteen and most likely dead as a direct consequence of jumping from a window.”
Steve’s eyebrows jumped to his forehead at that.
“Why would he jump from a window?”
Logan, Rachel and Bobby exchanged a series of uncomfortable glances at that.
“Fourteen you said?” Iceman said finally. “That would be a time before the X-men.”
“Yeah, which means I can imagine a few reasons,” Logan sighed.
“I still don’t see the issue though,” Rachel said. “If it’s not caused by brain damage, I can go in and fix it.”
“Uh, you can’t. That’s where I get to deliver some extra bad news. You see, Dr. Lopez has managed to pull up a bunch of medical documents that your pa has had drawn up and signed a couple of years back. Let’s just say they’re very specific about precisely this kind of situation and extremely clear that there’s only one person allowed to tamper with his brain should something like this happen. Three guesses who that would be. Spoilers, it’s not you, dear.”
“Frost,” Rachel spat out.
“One hundred points for the redhead. Of course given her current criminal status, we could work around that legally speaking, but your father made sure to point out to any sucker who would dare to try that, that there are certain psychic safe-fails in place.”

There was a small part of Rachel that almost felt sorry for Emma when she was met with the sight of the once mighty White Queen of the Hellfire Club, consort to the leader of the whole mutant race, sitting in an orange prison overall which looked decidedly out of place.
The feeling lasted only until the icy blue eyes looked up at them and she drawled, contempt in her voice: “To what do I own the pleasure of seeing this whole cavalry?”
Rachel was almost shook by an uncontrollable rage at the nerve of this woman who had inflicted a world of hurt unto her mother and had stood by her father’s side as he went down the dark road, but then she caught Bobby’s projected thought.
This is all just posturing, her pride is the only things she has left.
“We need to talk, Frost,” Logan growled.
“Oh?” Emma asked as he examined the chirped away nail polish on her hands.
Ignoring Rogers and Stark, she examined the faces of the mutants present one by one, her cold glaze finally settling on Iceman.
“I’ll only talk to Robert and Grey,” she said finally.
“You’re in no position to negotiate, Miss Frost,” Steve stated just as Bobby blurted out “Deal”.
Captain America opened his mouth to protest, but Wolverine shook his head to stop him.
“Whatever, we’ll take it. But we’ll be watching, so don’t try anything funny.”
The blonde rolled her eyes.
“Like what?” she wondered, her hands reaching out to the power inhibitor around her neck. “Do you think that two powered X-men couldn’t handle one defenseless mutant criminal?”

“Why us?” Bobby wondered once he and Rachel found themselves sitting across the interrogation table from Emma.
“I thought that would be obvious,” she said. “Whatever the hell you want has to do with Scott, doesn’t it? So I’ve chosen the two people whom I believe I can trust when it comes to him. I know how you Summers people are about family. And you, Iceman, I’ve been in your body, remember? You might think you hate him right now, but your unwavering loyalty to your friends is hardly a secret to me. Additionally you both have the advantage of not belonging to that country invading outfit called the Avengers.”
“You’re right,” the read-headed telepath said before Bobby could protest Emma’s words. “We need your help with Scott.”
“Alright,” Emma conceded. “I’ll help you. But I have conditions, of course.”
“Don’t be ridiculous, Frost,” Bobby said. “We’re talking about his life here. If you ever truly loved him, you will help him.”
“Oh, come on, darling. It’s him I have to thank for finding myself stuck in this hellhole in this dreadful outfit. Orange is the new white isn’t exactly my cup of tea. If I can get better clothes and my freedom out of helping him, you bet that I will get it.”
“The Avengers will never agree to this,” the blond man pointed out.
“If they’re desperate enough, they will. We’ll just have to make sure that they don’t appear complicit in my escape,” Emma explained calmly, never breaking eye contact to look from Iceman to Rachel.
That didn’t stop the young Grey from picking up the first thought she heard since entering the room.
Your father would want me to get out of here sooner rather than later. I’ll show you why and hope I won’t live to regret sharing this with you.
“Yes, we will agree to your terms,” Rachel said quickly.
“Are you crazy?” Iceman shouted.
A red faced Steve Rogers burst through the door with Tony Stark and Wolverine on his heels.
“Stop this farce at once, Miss Frost. You seem to be harboring under the delusion that we will negotiate with you, I can assure you that we will not.”
Emma smirked.
“Oh, but you will. Once you realize that among everyone in this room, it’s me who holds all the cards. You’re also laboring under the wrong conclusion. You seem to think that a telepath needs to use their powers to read other people. Well, you’re wrong.”
“You’re bluffing,” Steve said.
“Uh, I don’t think she is,” Tony stepped in and Logan couldn’t help but agree with him.
“Stark is right. It doesn’t take someone who possesses world class telepathic skills to figure out that you’re at wits end. Otherwise the lot of you wouldn’t all bother coming to me. I might concede that some of you are here because you genuinely care about Scott, however it’s the fear of what might happen if the wrong kind of people learned that harm has come to him on your watch that brought most of you here.”
“I realize you think us the villains here, Miss Frost, but we…” Captain America started but Emma interrupted him.
“Spare me the boy scout shtick, Rogers. You will accept all of my conditions before I go and help you with Scott. And you know why? You suspect that the allies he and I still have out there might sniff out whatever happened soon and leak it to the media. And I can assure you that they will,” the former White Queen said leaning back in her chair. “You didn’t truly think that the man with contingency plan upon contingency plan wouldn’t have emergency protocols in place should the war between the Avengers and the X-Men end with his defeat?”
Logan who had been uncharacteristically quiet until that point popped the claws on one of his hands and slashed at the nearest wall. A grim expression crossed Steve’s face.
“Well played, Emma,” Tony said admiringly.

Chapter Text

They found themselves surrounded by a misty fog, echoes and pieces of old childhood memories flying all around them. Few of them appeared whole, most were little more than fragmented ghosts of voices.
“I’m not the expert on deep mind dives, but this looks quite messy,” Tony remarked.
“Yes, but no messier than usual,” Emma said. “This isn’t what we’re looking for, unfortunately I can assure you that this is beyond repair.”
“Effects of the old brain injury?” Steve inquired.
“Partly,” she answered pursing her lips to make it clear that she wouldn’t provide any clarification beyond that.
Suddenly a brown haired little boy no older than ten years of age appeared in front of them, his sincere hazel eyes finding Emma’s icy blue pair.
“You shouldn’t be here,” he whispered, face just as stoic and serious as he could muster at his age.
Rachel approached the boy and crouched in front of him and put a calming hand on his shoulders.
“It’s okay, Scott,” she said. “We’re here to help you.”
Pure terror crossed his face as he shook his head vigorously.
“No,” he groaned. “You don’t understand, bad things will happen to you if you stay. Bad things always happen to people around me.”
“Ahh!” he cried in agony, clutching his head before he took off at a start disappearing in the mist of memories.
“Just great,” Stark scoffed. “What do we do now?”
“We follow the trail,” Logan said already walking towards where the young figment of Scott’s subconsciousness had run to.
“You know, this isn’t exactly what I imagined Cyclops’ mind to be like,” Steve pondered looking around.
“It’s definitely more chaotic than the OCDshness one has grown to expect from such an anal retentive freak,” Stark agreed.
Emma rolled her eyes, but jumped to provide an explanation anyway: “This is the part of his mind that got damaged due to the brain injury and profound tinkering of a creepy telepath.”
“I assume that you’re not referring to yourself with that description,” Tony laughed.
“Very funny. No, I’m talking about someone a tad more sinister.”
They kept walking through the fog after Wolverine until they came to a place where it started slowly dissipating and the images became clearer.

A brown haired boy about twelve years of age was talking to a tall woman in a white coat who was decorating her office.
“Got no use for ‘em,” the boy said bitterly.
“Everyone needs friends.”
“Why? They’ll only hurt you.”
“Is that an unpunishable crime?” the doctor wondered.
“Why leave yourself open when it’s safer not to?”

The memory changed and they found themselves at some kind of airplane show, there was a previously unseen kind of excitement on young Scott’s face as he chattered about the planes. But it lasted only until he saw the men with the parachutes, all of a sudden he was clutching his head and running away screaming about being on fire.
“What’s going on?” Steve wondered.
“Looks like some kind of anxiety attack,” Tony offered.
Then the young Scott was sitting in a café and enjoying a large portion of ice-cream as the doctor and her friends whispered in the background.
Later he was talking to the pilot who was trying to explain that he only wished the best for the young boy even if it meant finding his original family, but if that fell through he and his wife were ready to offer him a new home.
“Dad,” the boy whispered, teary eyed as he wrapped his hands around the man’s neck.
In the next memory, a creepy boy kept on telling Scott how dumb it was of him to believe that there was something out there for his brain damaged self as the young Summers tried to talk to Dr. Hannover.
When she finally answered, there was something much colder in her voice than before as she told him that there had been no word from his prospective new parents and that the adoption would fall through if they didn’t show enough interest.
“I told you, didn’t I?” the ghost boy version of Scott told them, reappearing. “Leave me alone or you’ll end up dead just like them.”
“Well, that’s cheery,” Tony tried to bring a little humor into the situation even if he did not feel much enthusiasm after seeing those memories.
He looked around at the others and most seemed to be lost in their own thoughts, he turned to Rachel who was at the front of the group, her eyes glued to something beyond the memories that seemed to remain hidden to all of them.
“Grey, don’t!” Emma said forcefully as she tried to grab the younger telepath. “It’s better some things stay hidden.”
“Get your filthy hands off of me,” Rachel growled as she kept walking towards what Tony now recognized as a hidden door in the basement of the orphanage.
Inside they found Scott blindfolded and fully naked tied to an examination table as the dark form of Mr. Sinister was leaning over the struggling boy, his hands roaming freely over him.
Rachel put her hand in front her mouth as she ran from the lab, falling to her knees retching emptily as Bobby put her arms around her tightly.
“What was that?” Tony spat out, recovering enough to speak.
Emma stood outside the door, arms crossed in front of her chest, somehow still managing to look classy despite the circumstances around her.
“Sinister is a Darwinian geneticist who was always deeply convinced that the Summers’ genome, especially Scott’s, is something special. It hardly comes as a surprise that he’d want to investigate his stock profoundly.”
“Did you know?” Wolverine wondered.
“I had an inkling, but I don’t think Scott ever realized on more than a subconscious level. Probably why neither Xavier nor Jean ever dug it up. It’s why I tried to stop Grey junior, but it’s not like anyone ever listens to me.”
“Can we keep moving please?” Rachel asked, voice still shaky and weak.
None of the other memories they encountered moving on through the mist of the orphanage halls appeared to be whole. But once they passed a certain point, they found themselves on the cold streets of New York together with a taller version of the boy they had previously met. Shivering in his thin sweater he responded to a prodding voice that kept calling to him, unaware that he was being drawn in by a weak form of psychic power.
In the next memory they ended up surrounded by an extremely messy and dirty bedroom with mold forming all over the musky walls. Old clothes lay on the floor alongside of scrambled up textbooks and old candy wrappers. The sole occupant of the room, a teenage Scott, had opened the large window and slang his legs over the windowsill, sitting down on it while bracing himself internally.
His breath hitched in his throat and his fingers trembled over the sill.
Bobby grabbed Rachel’s hand tightly as she watched the scene and Emma turned her head away from the rest of the group so she could hide the sole tear that escaped her eyes.
“We can’t just let him jump,” Steve protested.
“There’s nothing we can do, Cap. It’s just a memory, remember? Whatever happens and however bad it is, we all know he’s going to survive it.
Logan remained uncharacteristically quiet, in his head he kept replaying the words Cyclops said to him the other day in the prison: “I’m dead weight now. I’ve done everything I can do. I die now and I’m a martyr.”
He pondered how long Scott had been suicidal. Of course he knew that the psychological damage ran deep with the other man, it came with the territory when it came to being an X-man.
They never got to find out whether the teenage mutant had decided to finish his plan as a sturdy man with diamond hands entered the room, grabbed the boy by the back of his shirt and thrust him against a wall. Upon the impact, Scott crashed to the floor. He tried to scramble on all fours and get up, but Jack Winters left him no chance to as he kicked him in the stomach.
“Did you seriously think you could escape me like that?” he growled as he kept kicking and punching. “Never forget that I own you. Your life isn’t yours for the taking, it’s mine. You’re nothing more than my property, boy! I OWN YOU!”
“Please make it stop,” Rachel whispered.
They never got to find out whether it was due to the strength of the woman’s wish, but they were surrounded by a large amount of mist and transferred to another part of Scott’s mind.

“Now, this is about what I expected,” Tony whistled as he looked around the long tidy corridors with dozens upon dozens of doors, everything looked clean, almost too sanitary and the rooms seemed to be built in a precise sort of order. They weren’t lined up year by year or any other chronological basis instead each part seemed to be dedicated to a certain aspect of the man’s personality.
It didn’t come as a surprise to anybody that the first few rooms were all about various strategies, battle plans and danger room simulations. They included contingency upon contingency plans drawn up for past enemies, but also notes on potential future threats and schemes how to defeat them. These all connected to a large room in the center where they found a fully costumed version of Scott sitting over a chessboard full of figures of real life people. Avengers and X-Men alike appeared clad in black, on the opposing side. Cyclops' king stood abandoned by himself against them, his white queen in his opponents clutches. Between his fingers this subconscious version of the once mutant leader fiddled with white figures of Magneto, Magik and Danger in his hands as if trying to decide on which side of the board to put them.
Steve pondered the scene with a frown on his face.
“Does he see us all as enemies now?” he wondered aloud.
Wolverine stepped closer to his comrade and put up a hand on his shoulder.
“Does it surprise you that he would after all you’ve seen so far?”
The next door let to a net of interconnected rooms which seemed to represent family, showing all kinds of memories with Corsair, few of them dating earlier than the X-men's space adventures. Katherine’s place was almost barren, the few recollections showing a woman whose face seemed to be built from photographs seen at a much later time than the memories took place. The relationship with Alex was depicted as a constant battle between fire and ice with Scott being torn between playing the role of the protector and the more recent feelings of betrayal.
The palace built in Jean’s name didn’t surprise any of the visitors to the man’s subconciousness and the same could be said about the throne room which housed his love for Emma. While both provided for some of the happiest memories they had all seen on this journey so far, they couldn’t help but notice that it was the ones seeped in guilt and betrayal that were at the forefront. Scott cheating on Jean. The stolen glances between Jean and Logan. Emma being forced to kiss Namor.
There were two other rooms, one of which once bore a resemblance to the first two, but appeared to have been torched to the ground, the blaze of Scott’s guilt and Sinister’s machinations marking the thoughts of Madelyne as a place to never be thought of. The smaller one housed the short romances and attractions. Tony whistled at the collection of the likes of Colleen Wing, Lee Forrester, Psylocke.
“Cyclops certainly does get around.”
Instead of gratifying him with a reply, Rachel looked into the chambers that expanded from Jean’s room, one for Nathan, another one for her and a third for Nate.
She could hear a calling towards a hidden entrance among this shrine constructed from her father’s love life. Leading the others toward it they found a smaller room that was filled with stacks upon stacks of folders.
The young Grey took the top binder and scanned through the file inside it. It contained a drawing of a ruby colored young blonde woman. Next to the picture there were multiple notes scribbled in her father’s handwriting naming the girl as Ruby Summers and describing the meeting that she had with Layla Miller and one of Jamie Madrox’s dupes.
“The Summers rebellion, huh?” Bobby read looking over her shoulder.
Logan grabbed another of the folders, this one contained multiple documents, each one for a different child – Megan Summers, Alex Summers as well as unnamed twins.
“What’s this then?” Steve wondered aloud.
“Isn’t it obvious?” Emma asked rolling her eyes. “Scott’s offspring from alternate timelines or alternate universes have a horrendous habit of popping up in our world. If you were in his place, wouldn’t you also try to research any of them that might show up?”
“Right, there’s nothing to see here,” Rachel said suddenly. “Let’s move.”

The next set of rooms was dedicated to the various X-Men and other mutants who had ever worked on the X teams under Scott’s leadership as well as all of his students. A thin veil separated all of the knowledge that the man had of their strengths and weaknesses, their abilities, intelligence and combat experience and the more personal details. While nobody was surprised at the precise recollection of the former, even Bobby felt some astonishment at the amount of intimate information that Scott had inferred about everyone. It didn’t quite fit with the image he had always had of his friend as the outsider looking in.
A chamber connected the section of the allies with that of the man’s enemies. Here Cyclops’ subconsciousness placed the people who tended to change from allies to enemies or the other way around. Memories of the X-men’s early battles against Magneto played on the screens, overshadowed by holographic projections of the master of magnetism falling to his knees on Utopia submitting to his leadership of the remainder of the mutant race.
Closer to the dark palace that contained the records of the villains Scott had faced over the years a portion of the space was dedicated to the Avengers. Steve felt a chill run down his back as he realized that the pictures of the friendly meetings and alliances were pushed to the background and most of the thoughts that ran through Cyclops’ mind regarding the Earth’s mightiest heroes concentrated on how to defeat each and every one of them. Members old and new alike, scenarios inflicting various effects from delaying an opponent through incapacitation to going straight for the kill.
“Don’t worry about it, bub,” Wolverine commented, noticing his companion’s unease. “Cyke’s developed scenarios on killing the X-Men too. Hell, he taught us dozens of ways of eliminating him should the need arise. Though the sucker didn’t calculate in that he might possess Phoenix powers.”
“We were fighting a war. Nobody was exactly holding back and all of you have tried eliminating Scott during the last battle. You can’t hold anything you see here against him,” Emma said darkly.
“Let’s just move on,” Logan said gruffly leading the shaken Steve Rogers and the rest of the group towards the black fortress.
Inside the construction appeared extremely simple, just one long corridor full of doors on each side. Under Emma’s watchful eyes, Bobby began opening the first few of them, but all they found were the X-men’s earliest skirmishes against the likes of the Blob or Sauron. The group walked through the chronologically sorted memories until they walked into Sinister’s room. It wasn’t the Phoenix Five’s battle against his forces of duplicates that drew their attention, but a more recent conversation between Scott and the mad geneticist which happened while the mutant leader was held in a detention cell.
“Or come out and play,” Sinister was goading him.
“Sonuva’bitch,” Wolverine cursed.
“He’s still alive?” Rachel wondered.
“Of course he is,” Emma said bitterly. “And SHIELD’s security obviously leaves a lot to be desired.”
“Come on, Frost. Essex has fooled all of us before,” Bobby argued.
“Could he be behind all of this?” Captain America wondered.
“I don’t think so,” Logan started. “Sinister likes manipulating his chess pieces and trying to rile up Cyke to try and break out of prison is precisely something he would do. But this doesn’t reek of him.”
“He’s right,” Emma agreed. “Essex is obsessed with Scott’s brain, he went as far as reconstructing himself based on his brain patterns. He’d never do anything that might damage his specimen such as causing him to have multiple seizures.”
Trusting the judgement of the two mutants, the rest of the group left Sinister’s room and let themselves be led away by Bobby to the next room.
“Uh, oh,” the ice manipulating mutant said as he opened the door which at first glance seemed to keep Scott’s thoughts about some darker sexual fantasies surrounding Jean.
Logan looked over his friend’s shoulder darkly and closed the chamber before the others could get a peek inside.
“This is about Apocalypse, right?” he asked Emma and as the telepath nodded, he continued gruffly for the benefit of the two Avengers: “This isn’t an abyss you want to look down into, trust me.”
Tony was only half-listening to the feral mutant’s talk as he found himself drawn to a door with a large X drawn across it. He wondered whether it was to symbolize the man’s long time allegiance to the X-men or if it served to warn off anyone who’d dare to enter. He put his hand on the door handle, after all he could never resist to ignore a sign that advised people not to cross.
Inside the room he was faced with a small black box with a big golden lock on it.
As he looked at it, a suggestive whisper entered his ears: “Come here. Let me out. I’ll give you everything you ever wanted.”
Emma Frost came running to him, her heels clicking against the marble floor of the corridor.
“Tony Stark, you bloody twat,” she admonished. “Get out of there now.”
The rest of the group caught up with the two as Tony awoke from the stupor caused by the power inside the box as Emma’s words reached him.
“What the hell was that?” he questioned.
The blonde clutched a hand against her head.
“It’s a sliver of the Void, a dark telepathic entity. One which was safely contained within Scott’s mind because he repressed it enough to make himself believe that he can contain it – at least until Stark decided to wander off on his own inside his mind. And brought two world class telepaths practically gift wrapped to it.”
“What are you saying, Ms. Frost?” Steve asked.
“She’s saying that if it escapes and takes over her or me the whole world is in danger,” Rachel explained. “Frost, do you think we can stop it?”
“We can patch it up if we work together,” the other psychic conceded.
“Can’t you just get rid of it?” Bobby asked, furrowing his brow and digging his nails into his palms.
“Whoa, you okay, ice boy?” Iron Man questioned. “You sound kinda pissy back there.”
“Of course I do. Who the hell just goes – oh, there’s a malevolent psychic entity, what should we do about it? Oh, I’ve got it! Let me just put it in a dark black room in my head and put a cross on the door to remind me to make me repress it even more than I do the rest of the stuff that the puny mortals generally tend to express.”
The air was broken by a high-pitched laugh coming from Emma.
“Mind sharing what you find so funny with the rest of the class?”
“Robert, you have known Scott Summers longer than any of us present here. This can hardly be the first experience you make with the man’s martyr complex.”
“It’s still infuriating,” Iceman mumbled.
“I never said it wasn’t,” Emma shot back as she stretched her hand towards Rachel.
The red-head reluctantly accepted it as they dived deeply into themselves and concentrated on the small black box, encircling it with navy blue chains of pure psychic energy. As an additional precaution, they closed the door and put a heavy lock behind it and repainted the large black X on the door.
Steve looked at it apprehensively and after a moment’s hesitation he said: “I will defer to you on psychic matters, Miss Frost and Miss Grey, but I can’t help but be concerned that an entity this dangerous is locked inside the brain of someone who might very well be suffering from a seizure disorder.”
“Capsicle here has a point,” Tony agreed.
“Maybe. The best thing we can do about it is find out whatever is suppressing Scott’s memories in here. But in light of Stark’s foolishness, nobody safe me decides where we go next from now on,” Emma said as she continued walking along the corridor opening door after door and peeking into them to find a hint of something that felt out of place.
Rachel looked like she was about to protest, but then she shivered as she remembered what happened the last time she didn’t listen to the other telepath’s advice. The painful truth of it all was that nobody alive knew most of the deepest corners of her father’s mind as well as this dreadful woman and if they were to find a safe passage they had no other choice but to follow her lead.
Then a sudden thought struck her. What if it wasn’t Scott they were looking for after all, but rather something that had become a part of him while at the same time tearing him apart because it was never meant for him? Could it be that the Scarlet Witch and Hope didn’t take out the entirety of the Phoenix from him and more than just a little residual energy of it remained in him? She closed her eyes and tried to recall how it felt to carry this particular gift, this particular burden. Rachel had the experience of living with this force of nature in harmony, if someone could sniff it out in another’s mind it was neither Wolverine nor Emma Frost, but her.
“What’s that?” Bobby asked pointing to the sudden vibrant light down the corridor.
They all rushed towards it and the trail lead them to a large mahogany door endowed with a burning painting of the firebird.
“Not the fucking bird again,” Logan muttered as Rachel instinctively reached out for the door handle.
But once the door was ajar, she waited for Emma to look inside first, just in case it was a portal into another dark secret corner of her dad’s mind.
“It’s okay, I think,” Bobby said, putting a hand on her shoulder and guiding her inside a room. There was a lone golden egg on the floor of the empty white room.
“It wants us to touch it,” Rachel explained.
“That’s nice, but should we?” Tony questioned looking at Emma whose fingers trailed just a few millimeters from the oval shape. “Did you learn nothing from your experience with the angry cosmic firebird, Frost?”
“No,” she protested loudly. “It’s all of you who didn’t learn anything. Come see how wrong you all were.”
“Well, when you put it like that, I’ll touch it just to prove how right I was.”

They were facing a brown haired teenager, no more than fifteen years old, thinner than Bobby could ever remember Scott being even though he had not yet hit the growth spurt that made him the tall and lanky boy that rescued Iceman from a mob. He stood solemnly eyes behind ruby quartz glasses turned towards the ground trying to avoid the world around him, hiding all kinds of burns and bruises behind the too big and ragged clothes.
Bobby felt a pang near his heart as a bald man walked towards the boy, eyes full of determination.
“Scott,” he smiled at the teenager and outstretched one of his hands.
Before the young Scott Summers could react, the adult Cyclops appeared in front of Charles Xavier in his full Phoenix glory, the sting of his fire palatable even through the memory.
“Step away from him,” he growled voice full of venom directed at his former mentor.
“Scott, my boy, don’t you see it?” the Professor questioned, his eyes full of sorrow and regret.
“I guess I’m too late to save you,” he admitted at last. “But I can still save him.”
A shrill inhuman laugh escaped from the older Scott Summers’ mouth.
The younger one grabbed his head and screamed in anguish.
“I’m not Scott Summers, you old arrogant fool,” Cyclops said. “I might be wearing his face, but he’s not home at the moment. I am fire and life incarnate. I am PHOENIX!”
“There, there,” Phoenix patted the teenage Scott’s head as his body fell down finding an escape in telepathically induced slumber.
The memory turned almost completely dark safe for the ever present flames of the cosmic firebird.
Charles tried to step forward and reach the boy, but he found shackles of blaze wrapped tightly around his hands and legs.
The Phoenix contemplated the teenager’s motionless body.
“Poor little orphan Scott Summers, what he desires the most is to make at least one of his daddies proud.”
“What are you talking about?” Charles asked, deciding to humor the entity he was talking to.
“He just told you a few minutes ago, didn’t he? With all of my power, he could have done anything and yet he chose to use it in order to try and build the world of your dream. Still seeking your approval after all this time.”
“No,” the Professor said strictly. “You don’t get to put this one on me, Scott…Phoenix…whoever the hell you are. He tried to build a world he wanted, disregarding anyone else’s opinion as has become his custom lately.”
“Oh did he now? Then answer me this, Charles Xavier. How would you know what the world of his dreams looks like when you never even gave him a chance to choose his path for himself?”
The elderly telepath pursed his mouth in anger.
“I have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about.”
“No? Then let me show you,” the Phoenix said and with a blaze of fire they all found themselves in a different moment.

“Where are we?” Charles asked, looking around the empty beach.
The Phoenix pointed towards the large island partly overgrown with trees, partly covered by large skyscrapers.
“That’s Utopia. In one of the possible futures, one that will never happen because of you trying to play God with people’s lives. This is a world where Scott Summers actually got a chance to choose his own destiny. And when he decided to leave, you let him walk away. Look over there, you’ll see an all grown-up Scott Summers who got himself help for all his past trauma and became whole. And he still turned out to be precisely the man that mutantkind needed, even without your meddling. This Scott and I together? We could have been something beautiful. Look at that!” the Phoenix cried bittersweet tears.
They all turned towards where the adult Scott’s hand was pointing. And indeed their eyes fell upon Cyclops with a smile on his face, his eyes glowing red but with the force beams fully under his control, as the Phoenix egg in his hands hatched.
“Hello there, old friend. Do you remember me?” he spoke to the freshly born force as his body was enveloped in its flames.
“It’s love,” were his first words as he flourished in the Phoenix’s embrace.
He closed his eyes and outstretched his hands using them to spread the force inside his body in order to restore the mutant population of this future’s Earth.
Finally, his burned out and exhausted body fell down onto the sand with a loud thud.
He tried to move, but his extremities were no longer working.
“Will you stay with me until the end?” he rasped.
The firebird answered with a soothing fire that entered directly into his heart.
“Scott, no!” Charles shouted, trying to run towards his former pupil.
“He’s gone, no more than a possibility that could have existed now,” the Phoenix told him, dragging him away from the body.
“But he would have died here, how would that make things better?” the Professor questioned.
“True. He would die, but he would get a hero’s death. There are few better things that life can offer than dying truly happy and loved. An end worthy of a martyr for his cause.”

Another lick of flames drew them back into the original memory, teenage Scott still passed out in the dark.
“And here?” the Phoenix pointed around him. “In the present where he is what you made him? Here he will probably die alone and in the dark, despised by everyone whom he ever loved. Do you see the error of your ways now, old man?”
Xavier shook his head, eyes still full of contempt.
“Maybe I need to remind you of your interference? It looks like in your belief that it would all serve the greater good, you made even yourself forget?”
The scenery around them changed as they found themselves in the office of the headmaster of Xavier’s school for the gifted. The Professor was sitting in his wheelchair, turning over the pages of a huge book dealing with the subject of genetics as a timid knock sounded against the mahogany door.

“Come in,” he called out to the visitor.
A teenage Scott Summers walked inside apprehensively, his ruby quartz covered eyes glued to the floor.
“I…,” he stammered at first, looking for the resolve to finish his thought. Finally looking up, he continued: “I’m going to quit the X-men. I really appreciate all you’ve done for me, sir, but I can’t go on like this. This horrendous power I hold inside threatens everyone around me and only a piece of ruby quartz stands between me and destroying everything around me. There’s a doctor in California who believes she might be able to cure my condition.”
“Scott, I understand it’s difficult. But you’ve made tremendous progress since you first came here. To throw all of that away would be a grave mistake, my boy,” Xavier tried to argue.
But the young mutant didn’t budge from his resolve.
“I’ve made my decision, Professor.”
“I see,” the older man said slowly. “And I’m sorry.”
The memory was enveloped by a haze of smoke and once it was pieced together again it showed a very confused Scott looking around himself in the study.
“I’m sorry, sir,” he stammered. “It’s these terrible headaches of mine again. I must have gotten confused by the pain and wandered off here.”
Xavier offered him a sad smile as he said: “You need to get some rest, Scott.”

With a blaze of fire they found themselves in the Phoenix’s mindscape again. Xavier looked pensive but recollecting his thoughts he insisted: “It was regrettable, but it had to be done. Being a mutant is not a disease, I couldn’t allow Scott to try get cured by some charlatan who claimed otherwise.”
“You still don’t get it. What a pompous idiot you are,” the entity in possession of Scott Summer’s body said. “He wouldn’t get cured because the doctor he was going to see insists that their patients deal with their psychological issues before giving a patient a surgery just as the Cyclops I showed you before has learned.”
The Professor didn’t appear convinced in the least.
“Scott has faced many demons over the years, just as most mutants have, but he's a survivor."
“Maybe. Or maybe you put him in a position where he couldn’t allow himself to show his struggle and where he has hidden it deep beneath. But it wasn’t just Scott Summers whom you manipulated as suited your goals best, was it?” the Phoenix said as they were dragged into yet another memory.
Bobby’s eyes fell down on a teenage version of himself, judging by his height and dress sense one from the X-men’s early days.

“Hank and I are meeting the girls at Coffee-a-go-go. You sure you don’t want to join us?”
The younger Scott shook his head quickly, visibly declining the invitation before he even gave himself a chance to contemplate it.
“I’ve got some reports to fill in and some training scenarios to run by the Professor,” he explained.
Teenage Bobby laughed.
“Careful, oh fearless leader, sometimes you have me thinking that you like work more than you like us.”
Scott sent his friend a sheepish grin before reaching out a hand to tousle his hair.
He froze, sometimes he forgot that Bobby wasn’t Alex.
“Sorry,” he said finally.
Bobby ran a hand through his hair trying to smooth it back.
“It’s all right. Sometimes you’re really weird, but I wouldn’t have you any other way.”
“Right,” Scott winced.
Then he remembered something.
“Wait? Did you say you were going to see the girls? But I thought you agreed to meet John Kane today,” Scott wondered aloud.
After all it was just the other day he had to suffer through Bobby chattering his ear off about meeting his new friend while Scott was trying to fly the X-jet back to the mansion after an exhausting mission fighting the Brotherhood of Mutants. Hank, Warren and Jean were recuperating in the back of the plane, but the youngest of the X-men showed no signs of planning to rest any time soon. In fact the excitement in his voice was almost infectious and it made Scott wonder whether the other teen was aware about the exact extent of his feelings for this person.
“Who?” the teenage Bobby asked, furrowing his brow in confusion.
A deep rage tried to burn its way onto the surface inside of Scott. He took in a deep breath and reminded himself of control, boxing the fury deep inside along with his other emotions just as the Professor had taught him. After all if he wanted to prevent himself from obliterating everyone in his sight, he had to always keep it cool.
He grimaced briefly, but as soon as the moment passed, his face turned into the perfect straight mask once again.
“Nobody,” Scott sighed. “Sorry, I think the exhaustion of yesterday’s mission is finally catching up to me. Enjoy your double date with Hank, Bobby.”
He turned on his heels in search of the Professor’s office, still trying to keep his emotions in check.
Teenage Iceman stood there dumbfounded by his friend’s strange behavior.
Scott braced himself for a fight as he knocked on the door of the Professor’s office.
“Ah, Scott, come in. Do you have the mission reports ready for me?” Charles called to him.
He stood in the entrance of the study on wobbly legs.
You know very well I don’t, just as you know why I really came to see you Scott thought.
The Professor finally looked up from his desk, surprised at the hostility of the thought.
“Come in, Scott,” he told the boy after a moment’s thought and gestured towards the chair opposite him.
The teenage Cyclops slid down onto the chair, shrinking a little on himself under the scrutiny of the telepath’s fierce gaze.
“What is that you wish to discuss with me, Cyclops?” the older mutant asked, turning into the use of the teenager’s field name in the hopes that it would allow him to feel safer to speak his words, aware that Scott wore the identity as an armor protecting him from his insecurities.
“I just wanted to talk to you about Bobby,” Scott mumbled.
“What about Robert?” the Professor asked, the sudden rigidness of his movements not escaping the younger mutants’ attention.
“Did you make him forget about John?”
Xavier grimaced.
“This is beyond your understanding Scott. I’m just trying to protect him. The world’s not yet ready for people like him.”
“People like him?” the teenage Scott echoed his words.
“Being a mutant will be difficult enough on all of you. But being different that way in this day and age? It would destroy him. You have to trust me on this, Cyclops.”
“Different that way? Are you even listening to yourself?” Scott questioned, the anger rising in him again. “Are you so afraid that you won’t even say it for what it is? You think that erasing who he is will make it all better?”
“Calm down, boy,” Charles growled and then grimaced when he felt the hurt radiating off Scott because he had addressed him with the word that Jack had used to call him. The man who had seen him as little more than a weapon to be used.
“I didn’t erase what Bobby is, I just gave him a nudge in a different direction.”
“And what direction is that? Hiding away from the world, pretending to be something he’s not, no matter the hurt it will cause him, just so that he can hold himself together enough to be part of your dream?” the teenage Cyclops spat out with venom.
A silent rage radiated off the Professor.
“You’re overstepping, Cyclops,” he said dismissing him.
The memory disintegrated in a puff of smoke.
Once the smoke dissipated, the teenage Scott was standing at the entrance of the Professor’s office, lost in a daze of confusion.
“How can I help you, Scott?” Charles Xavier questioned from behind his desk.
“Oh, “ the teenager tried to collect himself. “I’m sorry, but I was wondering whether the mission reports could wait until tomorrow? I think yesterday’s fight had a bigger toll on me than I first thought.”
“That’s alright,” the telepath smiled sympathetically. “Oh, and Scott? Take an aspirin or two for that headache.”
“Yes, sir.”

“What the hell are you doing, Frost?” Bobby growled wrapping his iced-up hands around the blonde woman’s throat as she turned into diamond.
“Robert, get your hands off of me. I’m not doing anything.”
“She’s right, bub. Remember Emma can’t use her telepathy in her diamond form, yet the memory didn’t disappear.”
“No,” Bobby exhaled. “This can’t be right.”
“I’m afraid it is,” Rachel said gravely. “I’ve been checking for telepathic tampering all along and so far I’ve detected no trace of Emma’s signature, in the early memories Sinister’s was all over the place, but the further we got the more I felt of the Professor’s. Emma only ever touched the memories to uncover the hidden ones.”
Wolverine sighed.
“We shouldn’t talk ill of the death, but we know that Chuck was never exactly a saint when it came to breaking boundaries of using his powers, Bobby.”
“What do you mean?” Steve asked confused, for all he knew the man had been revered almost as a saint by the people he knew from the mutant community. Hell, even his archenemy Magneto seemed to have a lot of respect for him.
Emma returned to her human form and rolled her eyes.
“The man made Scott forget that he had a second brother after sending said brother on a dangerous mission that Charles thought had killed him and all of his teammates,” she explained. “Ignoring boundaries is a mild way to put it. Then again Xavier grew so accustomed to viewing himself as the saintly version of himself that lived in all of your minds. But if it were for the greater good, there was rarely a line that he wasn’t willing to cross.”
As their discussion went on, the scene before them changed once again. They were once again looking at a teenage Scott Summers, this time inside a nuclear power plant facing the man they now knew as Jack Winters from the memories. Professor Xavier was also present in the back, sitting in his wheelchair and talking to Scott telepathically.
“You have to stop him,” he told the boy as Winters went on with his plan.
Scott reached to his ruby quartz glasses, but his hand hesitated on the frames.
There was no love lost between him and Jack, but murder was wrong no matter what and he never even considered using his powers on another human being. It was terrible enough that under Jack’s command he had used it to break into places.
He felt a sudden psychic push as Xavier whispered inside his mind: “Scott, sometimes the only decisions you have are bad ones. When it comes to choosing between an enemy’s life and the lives of civilians, you have to choose the innocent.”

“Is this your final judgement that you would thrust upon those who have hurt Scott Summers?” the Phoenix questioned looking to find any trace of doubt in the telepath’s face.
There was none to be found.
“If that’s the case, burn old man,” the entity in control of Scott Summer’s body said on the astral plane as the last cry of “THAT’S ENOUGH!” escaped the Professor’s body on the physical plane. The shout was met with both the Phoenix’s agreement and the blaze of its fire.
The teenager in the dark memory whimpered as he came up from his slumber. The blackness turned into various shades of red as he opened his eyes behind the ruby quartz of his visor. Spotting the burned body of the man, who had saved him from a life in the clutches of Jack Winters, he let out a hollow scream. He succumbed into rage and fury as the Phoenix’s flames swallowed him whole. He was fire and life incarnate, he was Dark Phoenix and he was going to burn the world in his fury and rebuild it in Xavier’s image.
Scott was falling into the darkness, deeper and deeper, soon he would drown, unable to tell where he ended and where the Phoenix started anymore. He fought to resurface and get a breath of fresh air from above the surface, but his efforts ceased to have any value.
He was crashing, tumbling, going down.
He awoke with a start in a dimly lit holding cell, completely unaware of the Phoenix’s parting gift that could turn both into a curse and into a blessing.
***
They were all jolted back into the Avenger’s mansion infirmary where they found themselves standing around Cyclops’ bed. The man himself remained unconscious, a thick lump of sweat visible on his forehead. Dr. Lopez was looking from monitor to monitor and scribbling down notes furiously.
“Is everything alright?” Rachel asked her apprehensively throwing a worried look towards her father’s still form.
“I’m not sure,” the doctor responded, frowning. “I’ll need to run an EEG and a few more tests after he wakes to see. But for the past hour he’s been having a series of small seizures almost constantly which would result in brain death in most patients.”
“But it hasn’t in his case?” Bobby asked hopefully.
“Not at all,” the Latina woman said. “There’s no disruption to his brain activity at all in the readings I’m getting.”
“Curious,” Stark noted as the comments had reawakened his scientific curiosity. He could tell that most other occupants of the room just felt relief that Cyclops might escape this more or less unscathed.
“What now, Miss Frost?” Steve asked, jaw clenched tight. “Do you take him with you?”
“No,” she said causing everyone else to look up at her in surprise.
“It’s time he chose his own path for himself,” she added, leaning over Scott's still form, she gently pushed away the hair and placed a soft kiss on his forehead.
Just as the telepath leaned back from her ex-lover, Illyana Rasputin teleported into the room together with Magneto and Danger by her side. Emma walked to join her companions, but before Magik could take them all away, she turned to Iceman.
“Robert, I am counting on you to be there for him. Don’t disappoint me.”

Chapter Text

As soon as Scott stirred, Dr. Lopez asked most of them to leave the room warning them not to overwhelm her patient. The decision was made that Bobby and Rachel would remain with him in the Avengers’ Tower, while Logan returned to the school. They didn’t know how long this sabbatical from their teaching duties would last, but given the fall of Utopia the mutant institution currently had ways of finding good substitute teachers easily. Steve also excused himself as he had to attend to some rather unpleasant talks with the President’s office and some other authorities. There was also the matter of appeasing SHIELD who were pressuring the two Avengers to hand Cyclops over to them. While they knew it was dangerous to disclose the current state of the mutant’s health to the agency, not betraying it also made it hard to argue that the Avengers should continue to be the ones to have him in custody.
Tony Stark remained in the doorway to the infirmary. Iceman looked up at him expectantly.
“You’re not leaving?”
“Sorry, can’t. Cap appointed me the official baby-sitter.”
“For whom? Scott or us?” Bobby asked angrily.
“Both,” came the curt reply.
“So you don’t believe we can be trusted?” the mutant challenged.
Before it could come to any further confrontation, the read-headed mutant stepped in.
“We appreciate your honesty, Mr.Stark,” she said throwing a concerned look to her ice-manipulating friend.
He rubbed his eyes.
“I’m doing it again, right? Letting my inner rage get the better of me, I mean.”
Before Rachel could answer, she was interrupted by the rustling sound of her father moving under the covers. The two of them approached the bed swiftly. Scott’s fingers were moving around trying to discern his surroundings. His eyes remained tightly closed out of habit.
“It’s okay to open your eyes, Scott,” Bobby assured him. “You’re wearing your glasses.”
Eyelids fluttered open behind the ruby quartz and the room remained silent while the mutant took in the sights around him. Noticing all the machines surrounding him, his pale face grew even more white until it resembled that of an animal shortly before slaughter.
If anyone else noticed the fight that Cyclops was having to stop his trembling hands, they didn’t say anything.
“It’s alright, Scott. You’re safe here,” Rachel told him.
He finally looked up, eyes moving from the read-head to the blond man.
“Do I know you?” he asked in a raspy whisper. “You seem kinda familiar.”
“Yes, you do,” Bobby said slowly. “Or you will.”
“What’s the last thing you remember Mr. Summers?” Dr. Lopez stepped into the conversation.
He furrowed his brow while trying to recall what had happened.
“I…,” he stammered. “I was at home with my foster father. Then I woke up here.”
“And what were you doing at that time?”
Scott’s hands clutched tightly around the covers as he lied quickly: “I don’t remember.”
“It’s alright,” Bobby told him putting a reassuring hand on the other man’s shoulder only to remove it quickly when he flinched under his touch.
“Uhh, sorry, I…,” he started again looking helplessly towards Rachel, hoping that she might be more capable of carefully delivering all the details of his predicament to Scott.
The read-head shrugged her shoulders, she was used to not disclosing details about future events surrounding the people around her and the art of gently breaking the fact that he was currently missing years of memories to her father wasn’t exactly a part of the time traveler’s handbook.
At this point Dr. Lopez stepped in to explain the situation to her patient, after all this was hardly the first time that she handled a prominent patient with amnesia. She provided only the most important information, relying on the other mutants to eventually gather themselves enough to pass on the details.
“Do you have any questions?” she asked Scott.
He bit down on his lip furiously before carefully asking: “Is it permanent?”
“We don’t know yet,” the neurosurgeon answered honestly. “Chances are that it isn’t, because I don’t see any damage to the memory centers of your brain.”
Rachel stopped the doctor before she could get any further in her assessment.
“We’ll take it a day at a time, Scott,” she assured him. “You should get some rest.”

“Can you do it?” Emma wondered.
“Yes,” Danger replied before continuing. “Under one condition – I do this and then I walk my own way.”
“But of course. You are a free being and I’m not Xavier. I’m not asking you do this as a slave or a subordinate, but as an ally. Mutant of your species for mutants of our species. As a friend even.”
“Then it shall be done.”
“And the small thing in the Avengers tower?”
“That can be arranged too.”
“By the end of all this, it will be me who is in your debt, Danger.”
“Maybe. Please don’t call me that name anymore, henceforth I shall be known as Liberty.”
“Thank you, Liberty,” Emma told her as she walked away towards Erik and Illyana.
“That’s a very dangerous A.I. right there,” Magneto whistled. “Tricking every single piece of technology on the entire planet into seeing something that’s not really there is quite the feat.”
“Agreed, we better make sure to stay on her good side.”
“She can handle herself,” Illyana commented turning to Emma: “It’s the part of the plan where you come into action that I truly worry about. Do you really think you can do it?”
“I’m disappointed you would think so little of me, darling.”
“Are you?” Magneto wondered. “Didn’t you prove as susceptible to the Phoenix as Magik did despite being a telepath?”
“You seem to assume that psychics have an easier time dealing with the Phoenix force than others do. Well, you’re wrong. We’re used to being able to recognize our own thoughts from those coming from an outside source. But the Phoenix? It becomes a part of you and consumes you whole by augmenting your strongest characteristics. I make no secrets about my dark soul, so of course I’m a great candidate to be corrupted by the Phoenix, just as Illyana is, just as you would be,” Emma explained angrily.
“I’m asking you again – can you do this?”
“Yes, Illyana, I can,” Emma said coming out from the dressing room in a new white dress.
“Let’s go be vigilantes and save some mutants,” the psychic projection of Cyclops in a new dark black uniform with a mask that covered his whole face with a large red X painted across it, said.

It wasn’t long after they finished their explanations that sleep consumed Scott once again. Dr. Lopez assured them that this was a perfectly normal side effect of suffering through numerous seizures. Once Steve had returned to the Tower he called in a meeting with Tony, the two mutants as well as the doctor.
“I don’t detect any physiological issues which could explain the amnesia at the moment. However I’m still unable to rule out a seizure disorder. But for that you don’t need a neurosurgeon, but rather a neurologist who specializes in diagnosing and treating epilepsy and other seizure disorders,” Dr. Lopez explained.
“Until you can get him to see one, I’d like to prescribe some anti-seizure medications. Even if the attacks don’t seem to have a long term effect on his brain, there’s still the risk of serious physical injury during a seizure.”
“Do you think the neurologist might also be able to help with the memory loss?” Tony asked.
“It’s possible,” she answered skeptically. “But I suspect that the reason behind it is most likely psychological in nature. A therapist might be of more use.”
“Right,” Steve said taking his cell phone out from his pocket. “Let me call Sam, one of his friends at the VA specializes in memory loss issues.”
“Absolutely not,” Bobby growled stretching out his right hand to freeze the phone in Captain America’s hands.
“Agreed. After everything that’s happened, I’m not letting an Avengers connected therapist step within a six foot radius of my father.”
“I think I know someone who’s more suitable and up for the task anyway,” Bobby said. “I’ll make a few calls later.”
“Sir, you asked me to track Miss Frost’s movement,” JARVIS told Tony suddenly. “Well, she’s made a few public appearances in world media within the last few hours. Do you wish me to play the footage, sir?”
“Yes, JARVIS.”
A holographic screen appeared in front of the group showing a collage of media reports from all over the worlds that had made the rounds earlier in the day. While Emma Frost certainly appeared in the videos accompanied by Illyana Rasputin and Magneto, most of the attention appeared to be focused on Scott Summers who stood in front of the other mutants and the caption FORMER X-MEN / CRIMINAL CYCLOPS DECLARES MUTANT REVOLUTION.
“Wherever there is a new mutant manifestation, there he is,” the newscaster said. “Scott Summers, the former X-men now apparently turned into a revolutionary. As security forces answer to these new mutants reports in order to ensure the safety of all our citizens, their guns get broken to pieces by the master of magnetism and our venerable officers find themselves staring into the face of the devil himself.”
“Once reinforcements come in they find the scene deserted with a few cues which point them to a place several miles away where they find the police officers sitting in a circle handcuffed, many of whom keep babbling about the crazy lady straight from Hell who had threatened she will let demons devour them should they ever point a gun in the direction of a freshly awakened mutant again.”
“The fugitives as well as the newly manifested mutants are nowhere to be found. Speculations from activism group Friends of Humanity suggest that Cyclops is gathering these new mutants in order to train them and prepare them for a war against humanity in which he will try to take control over the world and create a supremacist mutant regime where simply being human will reduce a person to being a slave.”
“What a load of crap,” Bobby swore.
“What the heck is Frost thinking?” Steve wondered.
Rachel’s face turned red as she replied angrily: “I’m not exactly Emma’s number one fan, but you can’t really be taking these media reports seriously, Mr. Rogers? I mean look at them giving space to such terrible humans as Friends of Humanity to talk. I don’t know what Emma’s endgame is, but for all we know all she and the others did was take custody of mutants who were being ambushed by the authorities.”
“Miss Grey, the law…,” Steve started.
“The law?” Bobby scoffed. “Do you seriously believe that the authorities apply the law the same way when it comes to humans and mutants? If you do, then you’re even more delusional than I thought.”
“You don’t seem to realize that humanity’s reaction towards things they don’t understand is either shoot to kill, particularly in this country, or try to contain it. I on the other hand have plenty of experience on that front and the scars to prove it,” Rachel continued.
“And trying to contain or forcefully stop a new mutant manifestation which can be a traumatic event of itself can make the situation go from bad to terrible within seconds,” Bobby added.
“But calling for a revolution?” Steve wondered.
“I’m not the biggest fan of the extremist rhetoric, but so far the point they’re making is don’t hurt us and we won’t hurt you either.”
“So you support extortion?”
“I prefer to call it compromise,” Bobby argued. “Stark, can you make sure that any of this doesn’t get shown anywhere around Scott? I don’t think it would be beneficial to his recovery.”
“Sure,” Tony who had been uncharacteristically quiet during the argument agreed quickly.

Chapter Text

The floor which Stark had designated for them had everything a guy stuck at the wayward teenager stage of his development could wish for. The man had really gone out of his way to offer Scott any pastime you could imagine. From state of the art technology, the newest Xbox and PlayStation completely equipped with games through books all the way to more dated things like board games or airplane models – the genius’ attempt to provide the mutant with things that would be more reminiscent of his time.
Not that Scott had made any attempt to use any of it, even if Bobby and Rachel and even Tony himself had tried to convince him to give some of the things a shot. He preferred to stay inconspicuous in his room and did not speak to any of them unless directly spoken to and even then his vocabulary seemed to be limited to mumbling a “Yes, sir”.
He’d thank politely for his food and eat all of his vegetables like the good boy-scout he was, but any other conversation was cut off with polite but court answers. The medical tests and examinations which he was subjected to in order to ascertain the condition of his brain made for a similar scenario. For the first few days on his new medications everything ran smoothly, but on the fifth day he was hit by another attack during lunch. Tony called the neurologist whom he had arranged for and as he examined his patient he ended up declaring that the seizure the mutant had experienced and its aftereffects were similar to any other episode that he had seen in a patient with epilepsy. Scott was now facing the prospect of life on medication. He didn’t voice any concerns, but they all could see his spirits fall even further down on the ladder as the doctor explained that with the number of seizures he would have no choice but to diagnose him with a seizure disorder. Rachel didn’t have to be a mind reader to see that her father stuck at the teenage stage of his development was already adding this next to orphan, brain-damaged, history of trauma and uncontrollable mutant powers on the long list that would discourage people from forming significant emotional connections with him.
“I know it sounds scary, Scott. And I admit in some ways it is, never knowing what happens next and when you will get a seizure, but you heard the doctor, it’s manageable,” she tried to cheer him up.
Neither her words nor Bobby’s clumsy attempts at humor which included launching a snowball fight with the small robot Dummy served to increase Cyclops’ spirits.

Recognizing that the situation required a more professional approach than either of them could offer, Bobby asked Rachel to keep watch as he made a recruitment trip. Upon his return he came accompanied by a black haired woman with tan skin whose youngish appearance was compensated by her large brown eyes which seemed to carry burdens beyond her years and her smart attire.
“Scott,” Bobby said turning to his friend. “This is Dr. Miles. Will you please talk to her for me?”
The mutant complied with this request as he had with all the others and he sat down on the plush chair in the meeting room that Tony had designated for the session. After a moment’s hesitation he put his feet on the chair as well and drew his knees to his chest, his eyes looking nervously towards the ground from behind his ruby quartz lenses.
Dr. Miles sat down on the nearby couch crossing her feet and offered Scott a light smile.
“Look, Scott, we can talk about anything you want,” she started and as she saw him tense up as she finished. “Or we can sit here the whole hour in silence. You know, I’m a mutant too. My powers are pretty lame though. I can hear silence.”
Scott didn’t answer this mysterious statement with the inquiry she was expecting. In fact he kept silent for the rest of the hour and even when she stood up.
“Well, thank you for your company, Scott,” she started saying her goodbyes. “Maybe we can sit in silence like this tomorrow again.”
“No!” he blurted out quickly.
“Why not?”
He put down his head on his knees and sighed.
“I know you’re all trying to be nice to me and help me. Bobby, Rachel, Tony and now you. And it’s not like I don’t appreciate it, but you just don’t get it, do you?”
“Get what, Scott? I could hear that you’re incredibly anxious about something in the silence, but I can’t help you until you tell me what it is.”
“That’s just it!” Scott hissed. “I can’t let you or anyone else help me! Because if I do, terrible things will happen to you. I didn’t get it before when it kept happening in the orphanage, but I do now. It’s almost like the seizures returned me some of my memories and I remember him now. He was the foundlings’ home director Dr. Milbury and yet he wasn’t and anytime something good happened to me he was there to destroy it.”
“So you made your decision not to let anything good happen to you in order to protect others, right?” Dr. Milbury asked sadly.

“What’s going on?” Tony asked as he noticed almost the entire squad of the Avengers cooped up in a meeting room. “Is there a mission I wasn’t informed about?”
“Hey Tony!” Hawkeye greeted. “I thought you were secluded on Floor 23 to finish your super-secret research?”
Before the genius could answer, Steve Rogers who had been standing in the corner sipping on his coffee beckoned Clint into the meeting room causing Iron Man to raise his eyebrows.
“What was that about?” he asked suspiciously.
“We’ve got a top secret mission from SHIELD.”
“But you didn’t ask for me?”
“It’s more like that Maria Hill explicitly stated that she didn’t want to have you included on this job seeing as you’re the one who let Cyclops escape our custody so that he could turn into a mutant terrorist who travels around the world speaking of mutant revolution.”
“What the hell?” Tony growled.
“I’m sorry, Tony. It’s the best I could do to protect Scott and make sure that our hands are free to deal with the real threat.”
“The real threat?”
“Yes, Tony. The real danger which is having ex-villains like Magneto and Frost run around and incite fear in people.”
“Come on, Steve. You heard what Rachel and Bobby said.”
“I did and that’s the danger of it, if even moderate mutants agree with them what does that tell you about the side they will stand on should it come to a war again? I know you feel sorry for Scott and so do I, believe me, but I can’t help but feel like you’re starting to let the fact that you identify with him in some regards cloud your judgement and you're forgetting what’s important.”
“Which is?”
“Protecting this world.”
“No matter the cost?”
When the Captain didn’t answer, Tony exhaled loudly.
“Wow. What the hell happened with the Steve Rogers who opposed me about the Hero Registration Act?” he asked, astonished.
The blond man’s features hardened.
“I guess he learned a lesson,” he snarled.

Illyana’s teleport had brought them all from the cold misery of Canada all the way to the suburban home of Eva Bell in Australia. They had traveled through Limbo which did not seem to agree with their new students. Emma made a mental note to ask Magik to program some scenarios into their new danger room so that they would be better prepared for the next trip. After all Fabio Medina was standing just a feet away from her and she could see the stocky boy’s checked shirt drowned in sweat.
“Fabio, take a deep breath,” she tried telling him.
Her attempt arrived too late and the fresh mutant’s confused emotions caused a spike of his powers.
“Look out,” Illyana called to the group as dozens of golden balls exploded from his body.
Luckily almost everyone managed to jump free, only Benjamin Deeds found himself struck to the head by one.
Emma could hear Erik ordering Triage to heal the boy if necessary, but she tried to tune out his voice as she attempted to use her mental powers for damage control.
Truth to be told, she was starting to feel exhausted, maintaining the image of psychic Scott in front of the students all the time took its toll. Yet, she didn’t know whether they could trust any of them enough to reveal the secret. Cyclops, the former X-men leader made a far better public face for their campaign than Emma, the former White Queen of the Hellfire Club, Magneto, the former terrorist or even Illyana, the child who grew up in a hellish dimension.
She chose to save some energy by having Eva try to explain the golden balls situation to her mother and instead concentrated on the projection of Scott, so that she could try to restore some calm in the students and build some good PR through talking with Tempus’ mother.
But he didn’t get to finish the words she had him say as he was interrupted by Steve Rogers’ roar of “Avengers Assemble”.

And the Captain didn’t bring just any team, it looked like most of the A-listers had joined the party. Captain Marvel, Hawkeye, Black Widow, Spider Woman, War Machine. Emma did a double take. Did they really bring The Hulk into a confrontation with recently manifested mutants, some of whom were not even of age?
The appearance of the Avengers caused another explosion of golden balls from Fabio. The group of young mutants moved out of reach of the projectiles but one of them deflected of off Hulk’s body in the direction of the Black Widow who performed some admirable gymnastics to avoid it and the ball fell down onto the ground next to Hawkeye with a loud thud.
The archer drew his bow in the direction of the projection of Scott as Magneto stepped in front of the young mutants.
“Get behind me,” he instructed them forming a protective magnetic field around the group. Illyana jumped next to his side, her soul sword ready.
“What the hell are you playing at?” psychic Scott hissed.
“You’ve got a lot to answer for,” Clint Barton told him. “Hell, I don’t see a reason why I shouldn’t execute you on the spot.”
“Hawkeye, no!” Steve cried, but the man ignored him and launched an arrow which headed directly for the mutant revolutionary.
The arrow whistled by Scott’s ear and ended up stuck in a tree in the Bell’s garden.
“I thought you never missed,” Illyana goaded the archer.
“I don’t,” Clint growled.
“Scott, you have to see reason. Give yourselves up and come with us quietly and we can still straighten this out,” Carol Danvers tried to appeal to the mutant’s better side.
Cyclops hands balled into fists.
“Why should I? All I see is the world mightiest heroes drawing their weapons on young mutants who had just come into bloom. And so do the cameras,” he said pointing to the group of television reporters that had amassed in the neighborhood.
Before the situation could escalate any further, Emma decided to continue the discussion with Rogers on the psychic plane.

“What the hell are you doing?” she growled. “I thought we had an agreement.”
Steve furrowed his brow.
“We did. And the agreement was that we’d let you walk free, not that we’d let you get away with terrorism.”
“Terrorism?” she spat out, her eyebrows jumping all the way to her forehead. “You dare to call rescuing mutant children from the police terrorism? Maybe you ought to get off your high horse and actually talk to them and let Benjamin Deeds tell you how a man who swore an oath to serve and protect all people, human or mutant, shot him just because his powers manifested. And how he would have been dead now had we not picked up a healer before we came to his rescue.”
“You have to understand that people fear what they don’t understand.”
“And that gives them the right to shoot before asking? I’ve had enough of your bullshit, Captain Hypocrisy.”
She dissolved the plane she had created for their discussion and back in the streets of Australia she turned to Eva Bell.
“Tempus, now,” she shouted just as Steve Rogers was raising his shield.
Before the eyes of the entire world the young Australian girl froze the entire Avengers squad in a time bubble.
The psychic projection of Scott turned to the cameras and gesturing wildly with his hands, he spoke passionately: “Terrorist they call us! Yet, it’s them who attack, not us. All we aspire to do is to protect our own kind and still they try to thwart us and label us as the bad guys. Maybe next time, they will come to your home for your child. But do not fear, we will no longer let them get away with it. Wherever there is a mutant in need, we and our acolytes will be there to help. For this is the mutant revolution!”
As he finished his speech, he raised both of his arms forming a shape of an X above his head. A few of the onlookers who had gathered to watch the scene followed to show their support. Before any reinforcements could arrive for the Avengers, Illyana gathered the group and teleported them back to their base of operations.

Chapter Text

“Well that could have gone better,” the ice-manipulating mutant told Dr. Miles after Scott stormed out on her and slammed the door of his room closed behind him.
“At least he found the courage and did see me unlike someone.”
Bobby put his hands behind his head as he mumbled: “To be fair, I was stopped from attending our session by an impeding apocalypse.”
“Right, one which I thought you mentioned was mostly caused by your old friend over there.”
The blond sighed loudly and looked away.
“It turned out it was a little more complicated than that. But it doesn’t matter, he’s in a bad way as is, no reason for me to unload crap he hasn’t even done yet as far as he’s concerned on him on top of that.”
“But you’re not going to just let it all go, are you?”
“Hell no. As soon as Scott regains his memories and I’m sure he’s not gonna seize on me we’ll be having words.”
“There’s more than just what he did fighting the Avengers,” Dr. Miles inferred from the silence.
Bobby pursed his lips and his chest sagged a little.
“Let’s just say that being inside his brain made me wonder about who I truly am once you strip away some stuff that has been done to me.”
“By Scott?”
“No,” he said quickly, but wouldn’t elaborate.
Dr. Miles took in a sharp painful breath under the onslaught of confusion, anger, betrayal and resentment in the words left unsaid.
“Sorry,” Bobby said, cringing as he noticed her discomfort. “I promise I’ll try to make sense of it all and come talk with you when I’m ready. But I just want to deal with this business with Scott first.”

“Here,” Tony said, pushing the thick envelope to Scott over the dining table. The mutant looked up from his vegetable soup briefly but made no move to take the files and the question hinted by the tightness in his jaw remained unspoken.
Bobby jumped in to voice it in his place.
“What’s this then?”
Stark humored him even though the request to hack into the archives of the Jean Grey School and download everything he could find on Mr. Sinister and his confrontations with the X-Men was Bobby’s idea in the first place. The report was made a little sparser after deleting the references to Madelyne Pryor and Nathan Summers, but the main point was to show Scott that despite everything while Sinister might not be easily killed, they could defeat him.
“It’s some information on the man who ran the orphanage you grew up in, Scott.”
The spoon in the man’s hand froze half-way on the way to his mouth.
“Buddy,” Bobby tried to reassure him. “I know you’re scared, Dr.Miles told me why.”
A bang sounded in the room as the spoon smashed into the soup.
“What? She had no right!” Scott growled, his face turning bright red.
“I know, I know,” the other mutant tried to appease. “And to be fair to her, she didn’t say it directly. She just asked me if I knew of someone called Mr. Millbury and then I connected the dots. Mr. Millbury also known as Nathaniel Essex or Mr. Sinister.”
“I’d love to reassure you and tell you that he’s out of the picture and you’re safe from him. But I can’t because I know for a fact that he’s out there and eager for another round of the effed up chess he just loves to play with you. But we have defeated him before and we will defeat him again.”
“What I can promise you for sure, you’re not placing me, Rachel, Dr. Miles or anyone in this Tower for that matter into danger by getting closer to us. We’re probably all chess figures in his games already anyway and the only thing you’re going to achieve with this attempt to protect us is hurting yourself.”
Bobby could see the struggle on his old friends’ face, he knew that the other man wanted to believe him, but with everything that life had thrust in his way he knew not to get his hopes up anymore. At last he reluctantly reached out for the file and after dinner he sat down in one of the comfy chairs in the common area and started to flip through the pages. Rachel sat down nearby pretending to read a genetics magazine she had picked up in the library, but her main focus lay on ensuring that she’s catch any sign of an oncoming seizure immediately. She could feel that Scott appreciated her quiet support and the knowledge warmed her heart.

“Miss Frost! You came,” Irma said astonished.
“Of course. I made a promise didn’t I?” Emma answered looking at the girl and her two identical sisters Celeste and Irma.
The rest of the students and staff that had gathered outside of the Jean Grey School were mostly ignoring the exchange as their unbelieving eyes landed on the man who had murdered the great Charles Xavier and had the guts to come to them and ask them to join his side.
“Umm,…” “…what is…” “…going on?” the three girls wondered aloud seeing right through the psychic projection.
“Shh,” Emma whispered putting a finger to her lips. “Later.”
Before the teenagers could demand further explanations there was a commotion as Wolverine walked out of the school’s door popping his claws and pointing them at the blonde.
“What the hell Frost?”
“Save the dramatic entrance, Logan. I’ll take my girls and go. You have bigger things than my impromptu visit to worry about.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Yes,” Emma nodded, her eyes set on the small brown haired female that approached from behind Logan. “Katherine.”
“Frost,” she growled. “What are you playing at? As someone with the power to phase through solid matter, I have a pretty exceptional grasp of when I see something immaterial. Even with the mind games.”
Magneto who had been supporting Cyclops’ speech and trying to lure some of the students or perhaps even teachers to join their efforts up till then cocked his head to the side at Kitty’s proclamation.
“Interesting. Wolverine has not told her?” he asked Emma.
The telepath pursed her lips in a sneer.
“No, he hasn’t. What a disappointed kitten. And here she thought that he’d placed all of his trust in her, making her headmistress even.”
“Will you stop talking as if I’m not here?”
In that moment Illyana teleported behind her allies, polishing some Limbo goo off of her shoe.
“What kept you?” Magneto wondered.
“I had some business to take care of,” she replied bristly and told Emma: “The package was delivered safely to Limbo, so the rumor mill issue should be taken care of.”
“Wonderful, let’s go girls.”
“Wait!” Kitty shouted her hands forming into fists.
“Just talk to Wolverine. I suggest you start by asking him what Robert and Rachel Grey have been up to lately.”
Illyana engulfed them all in a circle, but before she teleported them, she noted towards Logan: “I’ll drop off Quire sometimes later today. That’s if the little prick who doesn’t know not to poke his nose near our business survives, of course.”

Exactly twenty-four hours after their first session, Dr. Miles and Cyclops found themselves in almost the same spot as the day before. Once again, the therapist didn’t push the man to speak, deciding that she wouldn’t be able to break the ice with the other mutant until she addressed his worries that were screaming at her from the silence.
“I know you don’t trust me, Scott and you worry about me or the others being angry with you because of that. But I don’t mind. My line of work requires an incredible amount of trust between myself and my client. And trust is not something that can be bought with a pretty diploma on the wall, it’s something that needs to be built, especially with a person who has been through so much as you have. All I’m asking from you is that you give me a chance to earn it with you.”
“You don’t have to talk and we don’t have to go over the past or the future, we can concentrate on the now and here. What I feel helps the most with building trust is some old fashioned honesty and I like to do this thing wherein I try to imagine what I would worry about if I were in my patient’s body. And something makes me think that if I were you right now, it would probably be the seizure diagnosis that would hang most heavily over my head.”
Scott didn’t move in his chair, but the silence echoed his rapid breathing in Dr. Miles’ ears.
“It’s not about what might happen to you per se, it’s more about the fear of your mutant powers. After all, you can’t control your powers, so the prospect of them getting unleashed on innocent people when you’re in the middle of a seizure chills you to the bone.”
The other mutant’s sweaty palm unconsciously went to touch the frames of his red tinted glasses.
Dr.Miles continued calmly as if she hadn’t seen the movement.
“Another thing I like to do is help my patients deal with their worries one by one. Sometimes it’s all about learning coping skills and techniques, but other times things require a practical solution. Such as this one,” she said as she took out a small box out of her purse and handed it over to him.
“What is it?” Scott croaked.
“Some new glasses, courtesy of Mr.Stark. This version incorporates some ruby quartz protected nanobots that make sure that the glasses stick directly to your face even in case of uncontrollable movements.”

The next week brought a series of breakthroughs. While Scott still didn’t initiate conversations with them and was too polite to ever ask for anything, he’d jump at the opportunity to engage in activities with Bobby and Rachel and even Tony who spent a lot of time on their floor whenever he wasn’t stuck in his lab. The genius didn’t understand why Bobby laughed so much when he challenged Cyclops to a game of pool, but he soon learned his mistake as Scott easily defeated him in every and each of the ten rounds they played. On Wednesday morning Clint Barton who was staying in the Tower for a week while his apartment in Bed-Stuy underwent some reconstructions uncovered what or rather whom Floor 23 was really hiding on one of his ceiling vents excursions. The discovery almost led to a bloody confrontation but thanks to a short psychic head-butt exchange of information on Rachel’s part they avoided such a disaster.
After a short and heated discussion between the man and Tony behind closed doors, Hawkeye relented enough to even offer to teach Scott some basics of archery when he learnt of his unique gifts when it came to spatial awareness. The daily sessions with Dr. Miles continued and more often than not Scott was the one speaking. Although they barely skimmed the surface of his issues and Scott seemed to be making almost a conscious effort not to address any of the major tragedies of his life, he had made tremendous progress in the few days. The regiment of pills he was on helped with managing his condition and the seizures were few and far between by the end of the second week of his stay at the Avengers’ Tower. All in all everything seemed to be going well.
Then on Friday morning Bobby found Scott kneeling on the floor of the common room clutching at his chest. His shout for help was quickly answered by both Rachel and Tony. The read-head performed a quick telepathic scan which confirmed her suspicion that her father’s ragged breathing was caused by a panic attack.
“Can you guys give the two of us the room for a minute?” she asked of the two other man.
Reluctantly after she assured them that there was nothing physically wrong with Scott, they left.
“Scott, it’s alright. You’re having a panic attack,” she told her father as she pulled them both to the astral plane.
Once they were there she helped him stand up and as he turned his face upwards she noticed the glimmer of recognition in it.
“Ray?” he asked slowly.
“Dad?” she wondered and her heart jumped a little when she saw that he looked pensive rather than shocked at being addressed by her this way.
“I’ve been having these dreams,” he told her. “Except they weren’t really dreams, were they? They were memories that my mind rejected as if they weren’t mine own.”
“What were you dreaming about this morning?” she asked, dreading the answer.
“Nathan, when he was a baby…,” he didn’t have to finish in order for Rachel to realize that the nightmare he had experienced was about his son being ripped away from him.

On Sunday evening Scott, Rachel and Bobby were watching a movie while eating dinner as became their custom for the evenings when Tony was too busy tinkering in his lab to join them for dinner.
“Rachel, is the air clear?” Scott asked his daughter with a thoughtful expression on his face.
“Yes, nobody is listening as far as I can tell,” the redhead responded.
“And the surveillance cameras?”
“Danger has taken care of those.”
“What the hell is going on?” Bobby who had been watching the exchange in utter confusion wondered.
“I’m sorry,” Cyclops continued. “We had to be patient and make sure that we could really speak freely.”
“Was it all lies? You didn’t lose your memory, did you? You’re unbelievable, Scott. Tell me, do you enjoy playing these games with us?” Bobby approached his friend and slapped his shoulder in anger.
“I understand you’re angry, Iceman, but maybe you should let dad explain.”
The other mutant opened his mouth in disbelief.
“First of all I didn’t lie about losing my memories. I wasn’t acting or anything, my head was a total mess. It still is,” Scott explained clutching his forehead. “I just couldn’t tell you that they slowly started coming back to me. At the start they were just small fragments that crawled upon me in dreams. For a bit I thought that it was all they were, the nightmares and the good dreams. Just a product of my imagination going into hyper drive given the situation. And then I don’t know what exactly happened,” he said throwing up his arms and looking to his daughter for help.
“I think that somehow you stopped the Phoenix’s block from working,” she explained.
“Right. And then the dam just broke loose and I got it all back. Including the memories I had lost before, the ones Sinister took and the ones that Charles did,” Scott said, his voice breaking a little at mentioning their former teacher’s name.
“And having been in your head I can understand how that would open a whole another can of worms. I truly do, I just wish you’d stop with all the secrecy.”
“We know Bobby. But we had to make sure that we find a moment when nobody is listening in,” Rachel tried to support her father’s explanation.
“And I needed to figure out what to do next,” Cyclops added.
The door to the communal room opened automatically and Tony Stark stood in the door clapping his hands in appreciation.
“Your friendly A.I. did quite the job dealing with JARVIS when it came to surveilling this place. But did you really think that I would have no back-up plan in case someone would circumvent him?”
Rachel and Bobby froze, Scott remained as stoic as ever.
“What do you want Stark?” the ex-leader of the mutant race asked.
“A little more blood for a few tests when the time comes. Not yours this time,” Tony said jovially.
“You mean…?” Cyclops’ face turned a few shades paler as the words came out from his mouth.
“Indeed.”
“You realize what you’re asking me to do?”
“Yes. But do you have any idea what you want from me? Lying to Cap about letting you escape and join your merry band of fugitive mutants.”
“That’s not fair,” Rachel argued. “You’ve seen it yourself. Scott didn’t really do anything…,”
“Maybe. But the politicians and authorities don’t care about that one bit. All they need is a scapegoat. I’m offering you a very good deal here, Scott. I’d like to think that by now I have earned your trust regarding my intentions when it comes to mutants. The only reason I want the blood is because the whole thing is devouring me from the inside. And I need to satisfy my curiosity or it will kill me.”
“You will run the tests in a lab of our choosing under the careful watch of Dr. Kavita Rao and you’ll agree to telepathic checks. No matter what you find, there will be no records, notes or anything. And once you’re finished, the sample will be destroyed.”
“Deal,” Tony agreed eagerly. “I’ll even throw in an image inducer, so that you don’t get arrested the second you step out of this building.”
“Alright,” Scott conceded.
“Emma’s going to kill you,” Rachel told her father telepathically.

Chapter Text

Scott kept fiddling with his shot glass as Bobby nervously looked around, getting a feel of the place, trying to swallow the feeling that being here and going down this road was wrong while at the same time trying to reconcile with the fact that the older Summers looked as at ease here as any other frequent visitor.
A lanky guy in his late twenties sat on the bar stool on the other side of Cyclops and ran a hand through his strawberry curls before turning to the former mutant leader.
“Hello, handsome. Would you care to join me for a dance?” he drawled, his velvet voice pronounced by his Estuary accent.
Scott drowned his glass before looking at him.
“Sorry,” he said finally. “I’m just here to enjoy a few drinks with my friend over here, I’m not looking for anything tonight.”
“I see,” the Englishman sighed, before grabbing a napkin and after scribbling down a number on it, he leaned over securing it behind the mutant’s belt, his hot breath brushing against the soft skin of Scott’s left ear.
“If you change your mind, give me a call, anytime,” the man commented as he took his own drink from the bartender and gave Bobby a wave before returning to the swarm of other men and women.
Cyclops who looked completely non-pulsed by the whole encounter raised two of his fingers to order another round of drinks even if his companion had barely touched his first one.
Bobby was too busy gawking and gaping at his friend.
“Do you plan on closing your mouth anytime soon?” Scott wondered as he gulped down another shot.
“I’m sorry,” Bobby said, while trying to find the right words to express the reasoning behind his reaction. Had it been Warren in this situation he wouldn’t be the least bit surprised, were it Hank he would probably write it off as an attempt of gathering data for some weird kind of scientific experiment, but to see uptight stick up his ass Scott Summers of all people casually shrug off a guy who had just tried to pick him up as if it tended to happen to him on every other Friday was just…”It’s a bit unexpected, is all.”
Even though they were invisible behind his glasses, Iceman could particularly feel the other mutant rolling his eyes at him.
“Unexpected? I had been in a serious relationship with Emma Frost, the former White Queen of what in some ways was a glorified villainous S&M club. Does it really surprise you that sometimes I’d pick a guy up or she’d pick a girl up to spice things up?”
“Eww,” the younger man groaned, wishing for some psychic bleach that would delete this conversation from his mind. “I really didn’t need to know that.”
“Or maybe you did. Look, Bobby, I’ve decided to venture on a journey of reclaiming my own self after two decades of telepathic mingling. It’s a task so mammoth that despite being the guy who always has back-up plan upon back-up plan I’m not sure how to handle. So I thought I might as well start by freeing you from your own bit of psychic damage.”
“What are you saying?”
“I’m saying that it’s ok for a man to like men or for a woman to like women just as it’s okay to like both or anything in-between. And if there’s an inner voice that keeps telling you that it’s wrong for you to be like that, I can assure you it’s not your own voice. It’s been planted by a man who thought his dreams to be above the happiness of the minors in his care,” Scott explained while draining down another whiskey.
“What do you want me to do?”
“Nothing, I simply want you to free your mind and be open to all options. What you do and how you do it is completely up to you. I just want you to know that no matter what road you take, the people who truly love you will keep on loving you and those who will stop, well, those won’t matter anymore.”
Bobby finally started sipping on his own drink, only to grimace as the taste hit his tongue. He waved at the bartender and ordered a Mojito instead.
“What exactly are we doing here tonight?” he questioned.
Scott shrugged his shoulders.
“I’m here to get drunk as hell so that I get to forget about how much I fucking hate telepathy so that I can get up tomorrow morning and still have a place in my heart for the few people I care about and who had been endowed with that particular gift. You are free to do as you please.”
The younger mutant shot his friend a worried look as he noted the clenched jaw which was the only indication on how deep the rage ran within him.
“Don’t you think that this new shot at life the Phoenix gave you could also be used for you to start actually expressing your emotions rather than just pushing them down? Drinking them down is barely a step above that, I mean, look at Logan.”
“The Phoenix,” a hollow laugh escaped Cyclops’ mouth. “That’s the fucking worst thing about telepaths. Even when they try to give you back your agency, they do it by taking it away in the first place. I never asked for this reset.”
All eyes in the bar suddenly turned to the television as a breaking news report came up, showing Cyclops and his band of fugitives fighting against a group of Sentinels that had crashed a pro-mutant rally. Scott’s eyes were instantly glued to the TV, barely glancing at the “Dangerous terrorist or revolutionary?” headline, his eyes intently focusing on any footage that showed Emma as he tried to gauge her state of mind and whether she came to any harm in the battle.
Bobby toyed with the pink umbrella of his new drink as he prodded at Scott: “All that anger at telepaths and still your plan is to join Emma?”
“She knows better than to try anything like that on me,” Cyclops answered. “The one time she tried, she ended up paying a costly price for it.”
“How so?”
“She ended up falling in love with me which made her more vulnerable than she would like. And it taught her to not cross some boundaries.”
“There’s something more,” Bobby said sensing that while the answer was honest, it was an attempt to dodge the question at the same time.
His companion’s shoulders tensed visibly.
“Not here,” he growled.

Chapter Text

Rachel was stalking from one corner of the room to the other, picking up clothes and books and all kinds of other items which she was hastily putting into her red suitcase. When the brown haired smallish woman phased through the wall, she didn’t turn to face her.
“You’re being angry rather loudly,” the red-head sighed while trying to push her favorite make-up brush into the already overflown cosmetics bag.
“Gee, I wonder why,” Kitty said, crossing her arms in front of her chest.
“I’m sorry you feel left out,” Rachel said slowly while pondering the pile of books on her table and trying to decide which to take with her.
“But?”
“Bobby and I thought that Logan would tell you guys what happened. But even if I knew he didn’t, I probably wouldn’t inform you. Not because I didn’t want you to know, but because it was about the last thing on my mind. This whole thing hasn’t exactly been easy for me and dad is…,” she trailed off, throwing a sheepish look her friends’ way.
“Yeah, about that. I’m all for supporting family in times of crises, but how could you get over the things he did all of a sudden? The Professor is dead because of him!”
“What did Logan tell you?”
“Nothing at first,” Kitty said plonking down onto Rachel’s unmade bed. “But then Frost decided to turn up here with her new gang to pick-up her three teenage terrors. And she tried very hard to convince us that Scott also came here to cause some ruckus. “
“You saw right through her mind games, clever girl,” the red-head grinned before her face fell a little. “But if you did, I have to wonder who else might have…it’s about time that we go and fix this whole mess before the truth comes out.”
The other woman let out a barely audible "wow" hurling herself into Rachel’s way and phasing the sweater the telepath was about to add to the take pile.
“Please, Ray, can you be straight with me for five minutes? It’s all I’m asking for. Why the sudden change of heart? Why would you want to join Frost, why would Bobby? And why the heck did you guys get aboard with Cyclops again?” the questions spilled out of her one after the other.
The psychic hesitated a moment before reaching out a hand to touch her friend’s temple.
“Permission for psychic transfer of data?”
“Granted.”
Kitty stumbled backwards under the onslaught of memories and thoughts.
“Right,” she sighed finally. “I’m going with you guys.”
“You changed your mind just like that?” the other woman teased.
“Nope, but you and Illyana are my best friends, if you’re both wrong I want to be there to help you.”
“But you’re willing to give Scott a second chance?”
“I guess he’s entitled to one just like everyone else in our business.”
“I’m glad to hear that, Kitty. Especially since I need a small favor from you,” said the man leaning against the doorframe of Rachel’s room who was not quite able to hide his mannerisms from Kitty even under the mask provided by his image inducer.

“Sun’uvabitch,” Logan cursed as Kitty slipped into his office through the wall accompanied by a bulky blond man who was however giving off a very familiar scent. “Ya trying to give me a heart attack, kid?”
“I’m no kid anymore, Wolvie. And maybe if you stopped treating me like one and didn’t keep all these secrets from me, I wouldn’t be about to give you this,” she said throwing a thin slip of paper onto his desk.
“What’s this then?”
“My resignation. I’m going with Rachel.”
Before the man had any chance to respond, she walked out of the door slamming it shut behind herself instead of phasing through the wall.
“Uh, oh, I had no idea she was going to do that with me here,” the other man said, shooting for an apology.
“Whatever, Slim” Logan grumbled as he took another sip of his beer and Scott turned off the image inducer and changed back to his normal appearance.
“Is there anything else you wanted asides from poaching some of my best people?” the feral grunted.
“Yes,” the taller man answered as he cleared away several piles of documents and sat down on Logan’s desk, helping himself to a beer from the case.
“So, you’re stealing my beer now as well?”
“Can we speak like we’re not grumpy five year olds for a moment here, Logan? Rachel, Bobby and Kitty made their decision on their own and besides it’s not like I didn’t help to arrange some reinforcements for you after they’re gone. And I think you will appreciate having them around more than hanging out with Bobby,” Scott said as he instinctively tried to sort another mess of papers.
“Right. So I’m supposed just to sit back and watch as you and Frost drag down my friends again? Have you bothered to check the news today and did you see what your ol’ pal Magneto is up to?” Logan snarled crushing the can in his hands and throwing it towards the basket in the corner of the small office.
“I have,” Scott answered, his lips a rigid line. “And I don’t exactly agree with his methods.”
“I might be inclined to believe that you really think that, Slim. But what about Emma? Or Illyana?”
“Whatever Erik did today he was doing it on his own,” Cyclops insisted. “Look I didn’t come here to argue about semantics or about Magneto. I know we have disagreed on a lot of things recently, but the reason I came here was to offer you a truce.”
“A truce?” Logan snarled through his lips, almost choking on the sip of beer he was just taking.
“Yes, a truce that will benefit all mutants. I think it’s probably about time both of us took a step back from leadership. It’s why I asked Ororo to join you here at the school and why Bobby, Rachel and now Kitty are coming with me.”
“What about Emma?”
“She never wanted this life for herself in the first place. She made that pretty clear when you left Utopia. It’s about time she got to fulfill her dream. Properly this time around.”
“Another school?” Logan wondered. “If you’re genuine about it, you might all as well come back here,” he suggested trailing off as he noticed Scott turning his head towards the window which overlooked the mansion’s ground.
“No,” the mutant ex-leader said clearly. “Too many conflicting memories in this place. We all need a fresh start, not just me. Emma never truly felt at home here due to her past, Rachel has always been chased by the ghosts of her future and Bobby…well, there is some stuff he needs to figure out. Getting away from here will do him some good.”
Logan sniffed the air, surprised by the new demeanor in his old team leader. Scott shifted uneasily in his place on the table and the confident air that surrounded him during the talk up to this point was replaced by a hot salty smell. It took Wolverine a few seconds to realize that it was nervous sweat coming off the other man. It felt strange because it was mixed with the new sickly smell which he only connected to its cause because Scott kept fiddling with the silver bracelet with the words 'seizure disorder' engraved on it. He had to chuckle internally a little, of course getting that was one of the first things Scott Mr. Always Prepared Summers would get upon learning that he suffers from such a condition.
“Something’s different,” he said finally, acknowledging the elephant in the room which had nothing to do with the other mutants’ diagnosis.
“Yes,” Scott answered curtly. “It’s actually the most important thing I wanted to talk to you about. I’d rather avoid that you do something inadvisable when it comes to this matter.”
“It’s personal,” Logan suggested.
“Yes,” Cyclops conceded. “At least for me and Emma. But some people including you might think they need to take care of it. I wanted to alleviate any concerns you might have about it.”
“And if we disagree?”
The taller man’s features hardened as he breathed out: “In that case we will find ourselves fighting each other again. And I can assure you that Emma and I won’t lose this time around.”

“I can’t believe Logan actually gave you a Blackbird,” Bobby said as he strapped himself into the co-pilot’s seat while Rachel and Kitty took their place in the back of the plane.
“Of course he didn’t. I blasted him to hell and while he was recovering from yet another death, I picked you guys up and we are stealing the jet right now,” Scott answered dryly as he fiddled with the control switches in order to prepare for the long flight.
“Right,” the blond man answered, his face becoming a little paler for a second before he broke out in a laugh. “You should joke more often, Scotty. I’d love to see the faces of some people when you say this kind of stuff looking all serious.”

Erik Lehnsherr was standing in front of the building in his purple coat, looking up to the sky, tall and proud, watching as the Blackbird descended from the sky. He raised his hands up in order to alleviate the effect on the plane’s turbulence on the bunker. It helped him calm down somewhat and sort through his emotions, but he still couldn’t decide on the first words he would say to the boy – no, the man – whom he had become accustomed to seeing almost as a surrogate son, one that had not yet disappointed him like Pietro had on so many occasions. All those months ago when he had first come to Utopia he had seen so much potential in him that he had literally dropped on his knees in front of him, a physical sign of putting all of his hopes and dreams for the last vestiges of their species into this man’s hands. And technically Scott Summers had repaid him in kind. The mutant race was flourishing once again after long years of decimation caused by Erik’s very own crazed daughter. But at what cost? He closed his eyes remembering the torched body of Charles Xavier falling to the ground. Magneto braced himself for the moment when Cyclops would get off the plane. His heart froze when he set his eyes upon the three other mutants who were accompanying him. There could hardly be a better proof of the fact that his faith in Scott Summers had been misplaced after all.
Bobby changed into his ice-form and accompanied by Kitty prepared to charge against his oldest foe. Scott raised his hand into the air, giving them the stop command and Rachel clasped their hands firmly and pulled them back. Cyclops dragged his feet through the heavy snow towards the bent shape of the older man. He stopped a feet away from him.
“Pawn to G7,” Scott said after a long period of quiet.
Erik’s lips twitched a little almost forming a small smile.
“I guess that means checkmate for me,” he said, putting a hand on Scott’s shoulder. “And I think this is where the two of us say our goodbye and the next time we face each other it will be as the best of enemies.”
“I wish things were different, but after the stunt you pulled yesterday,” the younger man started.
“I understand. You can’t keep me here anymore. But don’t forget that while our methods might differ, we both still wish for the same thing. All of us here want to fight for the best of interest of mutantkind. Farewell, Scott.”

Chapter Text

Fabio took in a sharp breath, the pricking in his lower abdomen intensified. He swapped a hand across his forehead to swipe away the sweat. The other students were several feet ahead of him, but he could see most of them already slowing down as well. Only Eva kept on running ahead, ignoring everyone around as if she were trying to outrun her disappointment and anger.
Benjamin stopped and turned around to his friend: “You okay?”
“Yeah,” Fabio whispered as he toppled to the ground.
The lankier young mutant was quick to join his side and help him up.
“Good to see some teamwork,” Bobby whistled as he sent out a large chunk of ice to capture the two boys in place.
As Iceman came closer to the duo, Benjamin’s features slowly shifted to resemble those of the older mutant.
“Interesting,” Drake said thoughtfully.
“I don’t get it. What’s the point of all this? How does this help us control our powers?” Benjamin shouted as he glared at the ice-manipulating man.
Meanwhile Fabio was still trying to calm down his breathing patterns and as he took a large chunk of air in, his body churned out a stream of golden eggs one of which fell down on the ice shattering the blocks which had trapped them. But one smaller ones also managed to hit Benjamin in the face and another one scraped by Bobby’s left ear.
“Nice one, though next time maybe try not hitting your teammate?” Bobby suggested. “Oh, and also don’t think winning a part of the battle means winning the war.”
As the older mutant’s eyes glimmered with a spark, Fabio and Benjamin got to find out what he was hinting at. Something pulled at one of their legs and they found themselves being tugged underground though they were passing through the mud without feeling its touch. They only regained their solid mass when the only thing that remained above the ground were their heads.
“As for the answer to your question, Mr. Deeds,” Kitty said as she crossed her hands in front of her chest: “physical as well as mental training are very important facets of preparing for the rest of your lives as mutants. For one thing it helps you learn focus which is necessary if you want to learn to control your powers, at which the both of you are failing tremendously so far. For another, being a mutant in this world was never safe. We’re hoping you will help us change that, but until that day comes it’s important that every mutant learn how to defend themselves from potential attackers.”
"Boy, you're not sugar wrapping it for them," Bobby commented.
"You got a problem with that?"
"Nah. I think I like this you."

Kitty sat down on one of the old musty chairs in the conference room as she shivered, not even the newly installed fireplace could make up for the dark and gloomy impression of the place. It didn’t help that sitting next to Bobby made her feel even chillier. Rachel on her other side was pretending to be cheerful as she chattered her ear off. The White Queen snuggled into the comfiest chair and instead of her usual sparse clothing she wrapped a blanket tightly around her shoulders as she watched the flames flickering.
Her icy blue eyes only looked up when Scott’s footsteps echoed around the walls as he walked into the room.
“Where’s Illyana?” he asked instead of providing a greeting.
“She took off this morning,” Emma hissed.
“Took off where?”
“How would I know? I’m not exactly her keeper.”
Scott sighed at his ex-girlfriend’s hostile tone, he knew that it was partly caused by his reluctance to start a deeper discussion about were they were as a couple or whatever it was they were now. He and the others had been in Canada for three days now and Bobby, Rachel and Kitty had spent most of the time performing some basic training exercises with Emma’s new students. Emma on the other hand either spent the time teaching theoretical lessons or retiring to her room. She had not asked not to be disturbed, so it didn’t excuse Scott’s hesitance fully, but he had his hands full of checking the inventories, making lists of things they’d need, calling potential allies, making plans for things which had never been attempted before.
“Alright, let’s start without her,” he said finally while at the same time asking Emma for a private meeting later.
“What do you guys make of the students?” Scott asked.
Kitty screwed up her face as she was trying to think of a nice way to put it, daring to throw an uncertain glance towards Emma, she felt like she would be treading dangerous waters with the answer.
“Oh, I expect their performance in your tests was atrocious, no need to be polite about it, Pryde. It’s to be expected. They only just manifested their powers and are still coming to terms with them, they’re lacking both in education and experience. But we’re going to fix that and we will also add some more experienced students.”
“How? You’ve already tried to do that at Logan’s school and you’ve only got the Cuckoos to show for it,” Bobby pointed out.
“Right. But the Cuckoos were all I came for back then.”
“But now things are different. Logan and I closed a truce," Scott said. "And under one of its clauses his students are free to choose to join our school if they like our plans. Ray has already talked to some who seem interested.”
“Did you drug him so he would agree to that?” Kitty wondered.
“No. I just had to make some concessions, as did he. He’s stepping down as the headmaster of the school and letting Ororo take over. And in turn, I had to promise that this place will not have me in a similar position either. Emma’s the headmaster of the Frost school, but for the general org here we’re going to take votes when it comes to making decisions.”
“Wow,” Bobby mumbled as he scratched his ear. “And what exactly is the endgame here? What about Emma’s little revolution? Are we just going to pretend it never happened?”
“Oh, quiet the contrary, Robert. We’re going to scale it up.,” Emma chuckled. “What is it you called it in your head, darling? Operation Mutant freedom?”

“Do you want to get back together?” Emma asked, standing tall and proud, her porcelain skin a reflection of the snowy ground all around them, not showing how much she was dreading his answer no matter what he would say.
“I don’t know,” Scott said after a few seconds of thought. But he got up and encircled her in a tight hug, pressing her head against his shoulder and buried his chin in her blonde hair. “What I do know is that we’re tied together for the rest of our lives. If we get together again, I want to make it right this time. And I think it will take time until I’m okay enough to be capable of that.”
“That’s a more straightforward answer than I expected from you.”
“What do you want?” he questioned, accentuating the you in the sentence.
“I used to be so certain of things. But then I fell in love with you and everything turned upside down. But it felt right even if it made me feel vulnerable. But when I look back now, it all seems to be tainted by that one moment when you took the Phoenix’s power from me. I told you I was struggling; I practically poured my heart out to you begging you to help me as I felt myself descend into the darkness and instead of trying to help me you turned away from me because of what you felt was your duty.”
“I’m sorry,” Scott said as he grasped her head in his hands to make her look up to his face.
“No, you shouldn’t be. I knew what I was getting into. And I loved you for it. But I can’t help it, if it still stings, even when I know you weren’t in your right mind either.”
As she turned her back to him and dabbed at her face, Scott knew that the rare moment of complete vulnerability she had shown in front of him was over, but he felt privileged that after everything they had been through lately, she still trusted him enough to open up in front of him.
When Emma looked at him again, she did so with a flirtatious smile on her lips and tugging on his shoulder, she whispered: “You know that thing you said about us being tied for the rest of our lives? I believe you owe me some services on that front.”
“Uh-oh,” Scott chuckled as his cheeks turned red.

Bobby really tried to stop Alex, but when it came to the Summers brothers, stubbornness came in heaps too large to contain. Havok barged into the room, instantaneously stopping frozen in his tracks causing Steve and Tony to collide into him.
The scene that their eyes were met with was Emma lounging in a comfortable chair with her legs resting on top of a table while she sipped on some tea. This wasn’t the image that had the younger brother so shocked, his distress came from seeing Scott’s naked form wrapped around the torso of another undressed man and his tongue so deep inside the other’s throat that it took quite a while to untangle.
“Um, it’s not really what it looks like?” Cyclops said in a pitiful attempt to save the situation as he scampered from the bed to look for some more clothes for himself and his companion.
“You’re still a terrible liar, Scott,” Bobby groaned, trying to conceal his fit of laughter with a cough. “Technically it’s exactly what it looks like.”
Emma sent a devilish smirk in his direction before saying: “Robert at least stop pretending you’re not enjoying the view as much as I am.”
The three Avengers stood there in various states of surprise, pure terror and amusement.
Tony almost suggested that they get some popcorn before he noticed that Steve’s face had reached a color akin to a very ripe tomato on the color scale and in total contrast Alex’s had turned paler than white and it looked as if he were doing everything in his powers not to pass out.
“Iceman,” Cyclops started with as much dignity as a man caught inflagranti with another man while his ex-girlfriend watched the whole spectacle could muster. “Could you buy us a minute or two?”
Bobby who had been a little preoccupied with enjoying every single moment of the Avengers reacting to the situation at hand outstretched his hands as a solid wall of ice rose in place of the door to the room.
“You could have just closed the door, you know?” Scott shouted from the other side.
“Nah, and miss my chance to impress Captain America over here?” Iceman answered suggestively, grinning as Steve’s face climbed even further up on the red scheme as he mumbled something intelligible.
“So are we going to talk about that or what?” Tony asked enjoying the situation almost as much as Bobby for the sheer ridiculousness of it all.
“What the hell is going on?” a female voice sounded behind the five men as Kitty Pryde strode into the corridor, tagged by Illyana Rasputin and Rachel Grey on each side.
“Trust me, you don’t want to know,” her red-headed friend groaned as she picked up the thoughts of the other occupants of the corridor.
“I really wish you guys would learn to shield your thoughts,” she groaned towards the guys. “At least my father has the decency to shut me out when he does these things.”
Steve looked like he was about to finally regain enough composure to speak again, but just as he opened his mouth, Scott shouted from the other side of the barrier: “Stand back, everyone!”
Everyone managed to take a step back just as the force of Cyclops’s optic beam crushed through the ice.
“We need to talk, Scott,” Captain America started as he was faced with the mutant leader who was now fully dressed in his civilian garb.
“Sorry, Steve. I’m afraid that whatever you’re here to do – arrest me, scold me, fight me – will have to wait until after my daughter is born.”
All of the Avengers managed to stammer out multiple questions that none of the mutants occupying the bunker seemed to notice.
“Illyana get Dr. Rao here, now!” Kitty barked as she noticed Emma’s form now no longer hiding the bump behind the psychic pretensions.
Her face was contracted in pain and her bottom lip was bloody from biting down too hard on it in an effort to suppress the screams. After all, the White Queen could not afford to lose any more of her dignity in front of her enemies.
Scott telepathically ordered the Cuckoos to gather Triage and come to the makeshift infirmary as he scooped up Emma in his arms to carry her.
She buried her nails into his elbows and between the gasps she managed to say: “Summers, I’m already imagining all the very detailed ways I’m going to cut you into pieces for putting me into this undignified position.”
Seeing no other option, all of the mutants and Avengers alike followed in a procession after him, the Frost School students were all already waiting in front of the infirmary. Christopher Muse opened the door and Scott walked in and deposited Emma on the bed, the Cuckoos were quickly at her side, delivering some much needed telepathic painkillers. After a moment of hesitation, Rachel also went inside.
As Steve, Tony and Alex were about to walk into the room as well, they were stopped by the small form of Kitty Pryde.
“Nope,” she said, shaking her head and pointing them towards the chairs in the waiting room, where Tempus, Goldballs, Hijack and Benjamin Deeds were already sitting.
The three boys were exchanging ideas on what reason Cyclops could have had that made him crazy enough to think that knocking up Emma Frost was in any way a good idea while Eva Bell sat with knees drawn to her chest, looking forlorn. After all, it was still relatively early after she had learned that the man she had fallen in love with was nothing more than a telepathic illusion and the real him saw her as just one more student at his ex’s new school.
“Are you okay?” Steve asked the younger of the two Summers’ brothers as Havok slid down into a chair.
His answer came as a hollow laugh.
“You’d think that after all the alternate timelines kids and long lost secret brothers I’d be used to this by now. Kitty, what the hell is going on? When did this happen and why didn’t they tell anyone?”
“Well, I wasn’t around, but I think the timescale makes the when part pretty obvious. Also given the terrible things that tend to happen to your brother’s offspring, it can’t really come as a surprise that Emma would insist on hiding this from people as long as she could, “ Kitty explained.
“It’s what parents do for their children,” Steve mumbled.
“What?” Tony asked, confused.
“I just recalled a memory we had seen in Cyclops’ head, it’s what Cable told him after he tried to kill us. Scott knew we were about to fight a war and the last thing he wanted was for his child to become another pawn in it.”
Their conversation was interrupted by a chain of expletives that Emma shouted at Scott.

“What is it you’re saying Dr. Rao?” Scott questioned, an unusual harshness present in his voice.
“I’m saying you need to prepare and decide,” she said, eyes full of sorrow. “Miss Frost is not in labor, if my readings are correct, your daughter’s powers are just starting to manifest. Her whole body is reconstituting and morphing into something different.”
“But how can her powers be manifesting in the womb already?” Rachel wondered.
“Under normal circumstances, I’d be hard-pressed to find an answer, but given that her mother spent weeks connected to a cosmic entity that is known to promote mutation, I’d dare say the probable answer is clear.”
“There’s something more about the Phoenix,” Emma said between groans.
All heads turned towards her in surprise.
“What? You thought that you could just walk a few feet away from me and talk in hushed voices to stop me from hearing? I might be highly pregnant and in a lot of pain, but I’m still a world class telepath.”
Her eyes connected with the doctor as she telepathically received the answer from the other woman.
“Right, we might not want to be talking about that with three blood thirsty Avengers present in our home,” she said catching the doctor’s drift. “You could at least tell us how long the little one’s transformation will feel like she’s trying to kill me?”
The room was silent as Scott approached the bed and sat down on it, taking the blonde’s hand into his.
“Emma,” he said, gently. “She might very well kill you, you know how newly manifested mutants feel like teenagers and we’re talking about an unborn baby here. The next time she opens her eyes, she could blast through you. Or she could kick her way out from you in panic.”
“So what? We can let her do that and Christopher can heal me…,”
Scott shook his head and answered: “A single optic blast could totally disintegrate you and you can’t turn into diamond because then she will suffocate.”
“So when Rao said we have to decide, she meant…,” Emma’s words trailed off and were lost in a heart-wrenching sob.
“If it’s me or her, I choose her. Scott, I can’t let it happen again.”
She didn’t have to say it all aloud in order for him to understand. I can’t bear to stand over the corpse of another dead child, especially not one born of our love before it all burned and turned into ash.
“Emma, read my mind,” he said, projecting his plan. “Do you trust me?”
“Yes,” she said after a moment.
“Girls, Ray, can you put Emma under for this?” he questioned.
“No,” the pregnant woman protested.
“That’s not a suggestion, it’s an order,” Scott barked.
Emma exploded and hurled any expletives she could think of at her ex-boyfriend.
“You don’t get to pull rank on me, Cyclops. Not now, not here,” she seethed. “All they have to do is keep me calm and in turn I can concentrate my power on keeping the little one calm.”
“Alright,” Scott conceded as he opened the door and called: “Kitty, we need your help in here.”

“You want me to do what?!” she cried.
“Kitty, I wouldn’t be asking you if we had any other choice, trust me,” Scott explained.
“Just do it already,” Emma groaned.
Pryde’s right hand hovered over the telepath’s baby bump as she looked up at the screen that was showing the way that the unborn child was tangled inside of its umbilical cord. Dr. Rao guided her as her fingers phased through Emma’s skin slowly. Making sure that she had both of her hands on the small form on the screen, she solidified inside of the other woman’s womb to get a firm grip on her daughter so she could phase her through the blonde’s skin. Despite the psychic painkillers that the other telepaths in the room were delivering, Emma couldn’t stop herself from screaming due to the internal injuries caused by Kitty’s solid hands inside of her.
Frost opened her eyes and tried to look at her freshly born daughter as she clutched her nails deep into the palm of Scott’s hand in panic as she realized there was no sound coming from the little girl.
“Dr. Rao, please step in, Triage stand by,” Cyclops commanded, holding onto his leader persona, not allowing himself to feel the fear that was raging deep inside him.
The female doctor cut the place where the cord was sticking out of Emma’s skin and quickly carried over the unmoving silent form of the newborn over to the examination table.
“Triage, help Dr. Rao. Emma, turn diamond now,” Scott barked orders left and right.
The White Queen hesitated for a moment before changing into her solid form, she recognized that her ex-boyfriend’s aim was to make sure that her injuries weren’t bleeding while Christopher was too busy concentrating on saving the life of their daughter, but this form was hardly conductive to feeling emotions.
She got up and tried to join Dr. Rao and Triage who were leaning over the small silent form, but Scott wrapped his arms around her and stopped her, so that they both hovered a few feet away from the medical professionals.
They both glimpsed the small ruby colored form with eyes firmly closed, limbs not moving, chest not heaving due to the cord that was tangled all around her.
As the doctor quickly unwrapped her from it and was about to step aside to get Christopher to jump in, the ruby form slowly changed into the pale skin of a regular newborn and the girl opened her glowing red eyes for the first time and let out a healthy strong cry.
“Oh, you clever girl,” the mother cooed.
“I see,” the doctor nodded. “She recognized the danger to herself and changed to her ruby form to make sure she could survive. Astonishing.”
Emma tried to step forward to get closer to her newborn treasure but Scott stopped her and directed her back towards her bed.
“First Christopher heals you,” the mutant insisted. “I’m sure Dr. Rao needs to examine Ruby and make sure she’s truly okay.”
“Ruby? Is that what we’re calling her now? How frightfully unoriginal.”
“Do you have any better suggestions?”
“Not at the moment,” Emma responded as she laid down and once Triage was standing beside her, she shifted back into her human form.

Chapter Text

Alex paced from one wall to the other, repeatedly clenching and unclenching his fists ignoring the steady hum of whispers that the other mutants in the room were exchanging.
"Why don't you sit down?" Steve asked, putting a hand on his shoulder.
"I don't want to sit down," the younger Summers brother barked, shaking him off just as Kitty Pryde stepped outside from the makeshift infirmary.
Her curly fringe was drenched in sweat and she was barely keeping her eyes open, but a relieved smile played on her lips.
Suddenly Bobby appeared walking down the corridor, water drops falling from his blond hair as he clumsily tried to dry it with a pink towel. The man whom Scott had been kissing when the Avengers arrived, was trailing a few feet behind him as if unsure whether he should join the commotion or just remind standing aside.
“Where the hell have you been, Iceman?” Kitty hissed.
“Trust me, that’s another piece of information you really don’t want to know,” Rachel said as she cocked her head to the side looking at the ice-manipulating mutant.
“Uh-huh,” Bobby mumbled appreciating the telepath’s rescue attempt. “Did I miss something?”
“Oh you know, just the birth of another Summers’ child. Nothing unusual, that’s the kind of thing that seems to happen often in this family without any of us knowing,” Havok growled sarcastically.
“Ruby was born?” Bobby laughed, beaming.
"Yes, as I was about to say it's a girl, so yay for that," the woman answered dryly looking at Alex and Steve who obviously didn't seem to consider the occasion particularly joyous. Tony Stark on the other hand looked almost suspiciously gleeful. She dared to chance a look at Rachel whose expression became stuck somewhere between beaming at the birth of her sister and melancholia for the family she had lost.

Before anyone else had a chance to join the conversation, Steve’s phone started ringing. He stepped back a little to pick it up and listened to the voice on the other end of the line, a deep frown creasing his forehead.
“We’ve got to go,” he told Tony and Alex.
“What happened?”
“Nothing. But I’ve been summoned by Hill and need to get back.”
“I’m not leaving before I get to punch my brother,” Alex pushed out through his teeth.
“I think it’s better if I stay with him in that case,” Tony added innocently.
“In that case you’ll find yourselves stranded here with no way to get back,” Steve argued, his face contorted in an expression which made it clear that he wasn’t happy with them.
Bobby cleared his throat.
“I think I might have a solution. I…uh, need to drop someone off in New York,” he said pointing to a direction behind him with his finger, trying not to blush under Kitty’s amused gaze. “So how about I drop you off at the Avengers Tower and you leave your jet behind for these two for when Alex figures out his stuff?”
"Are you sure?" Steve asked Alex, not even acknowledging Tony.
Havok nodded.
Steve turned on his heels and started walking away, expecting Bobby to rush after him.
"How rude," Bobby murmured, tugging his companion along and rushing off after him.

The door of the infirmary opened again showing Scott Summers' red-rimmed glasses. Alex stood in front of him expectantly, but it was Tony on whom the perceived mutant revolutionary's eyes landed as he motioned to him to come into the room.
"Hello, ladies," Tony addressed Emma who was sitting down on the bed with her arms crossed in front of her chest shooting both him and Scott deathly stares and Dr. Rao who was furiously typing up some measurements she had taken from the newborn earlier into a laptop.
“You promised him what?” Emma snarled at Scott, seething as she read the thought that the playboy entrepreneur flaunted her way.
The other mutant sighed and prepared to start his explanation, but it was Tony Stark who spoke first.
“I’m sure that by now you’ve also plucked the terms and conditions from my head and you know for a fact that my only motivation here is scientific curiosity and the only one who could gain anything from it Is you as you might just find an answer to a question you have probably been asking yourself for a while.”
“What question?” it was now Cyclops turn to appear confused and somewhat angry.
The blonde pursed her lips and looked towards their young daughter who was lying in a cot next to her, glassy blue eyes not appearing to see anything just yet. As if on cue to baby’s eyes shined with the Phoenix’s fire.
All four of them found themselves surrounded in a haze of mist in the Towers of Utopia at its full Phoenix Five glory, though Dr. Rao was no longer with them. They saw two figures who appeared as if Emma were talking to a reflection of herself. Except only one of the women showed the aristocrat mannerisms, the other seemed at best to be attempting to copy them as if she were a chameleon in a human’s clothing.
“Stop it, Emma,” Scott barked.
The woman shook her head.
“It’s not me,” she whispered. “I think this is Ruby’s work.”
Cyclops’ face remained as stoic as ever, but nonetheless the onslaught of confusion and puzzlement inside his head hit Emma as a wrecking ball.
“But how?
“Just watch,” Emma said, the tiredness squeaking into her voice for the first time since she gave birth to their daughter.
“What do you want? Why do you keep fighting me? And what’s up with all the memories of children dying?”
“You’re the cosmic telepathic entity, you figure it out, darling.”
“If it’s to do with that new life growing in you, you don’t need to worry, accepting me won’t hurt her.”
“Ha. I don’t need to worry? Why do you think I keep replaying the list of my failures on a loop for you? Do you think it’s for amusement?”
"You want me to grant her protection?" the faux-Emma asked, voice uncertain. "If that's all, consider it granted."
"You'll have to do better than that. I need you to swear that no matter what happens to me, to her father or to you, you will make sure that the little one is protected for the rest of her life. I need you to swear on something that matters to you, I need you to swear on your love or whatever it is you hold for Scott Summers."
If she were human, the expression on the Phoenix Emma's face would almost show surprise.
"Oh, don't be so surprised, darling," the real Emma said, taking a sip from her champagne glass - what would god-like powers be for if they didn't help her enjoy the pleasures of life despite being pregnant with no consequences. "I keep a close eye on all of his stalkers. Sometimes it's like there's more of you than fish in the sea."
The faux-Emma tilted her head to the right.
"If I do this, you will let me be the one in charge of your body for the rest of this?"
"If you swear."
"Then I swear."
Emma nodded to give the Phoenix the go-ahead. The last thing she felt before the Phoenix overwhelmed her completely was the small presence under her belly growing in force.

The image of Utopia around them dissipated and they found themselves back in the improvised infirmary of the old Weapon-X base. Scott's face grew pale, his lips pursed into a thin line as he turned to Emma.
"Emma, what did you do?" he whispered, his voice seeped with anger. "And why didn't you tell me?"
"You're one to talk, Mr. who promised a vial of our daughter's blood to the bloke who bloody dropped the Phoenix on us in the first place. All I did was ensure that she would live and be safe in the only way that presented itself to me."
"Nice try, but you're deflecting," Cyclops retorted, throwing his arms up in frustration.
"Well, we've both been keeping secrets from each other regarding Ruby."
Tony cleared his throat.
"As much as I hate breaking up this lovers' squabble, how about Dr. Rao and I take that sample of blood and we answer the most pressing questions and you guys figure the rest from there?"
"Alright," Scott agreed reluctantly. "You think you can figure out the extent of what the Phoenix did to Ruby and her powers? Like this memory projection thing, is that her mutant power or...?"
Dr.Rao who had not dared to enter the conversation before this point, said: "Between me and Mr. Stark I believe we can learn a lot about Ruby."
"Stark, I hope it's clear to you that should any of the things you've learned so far or will learn moving forward escape the premises of this room, you will find yourself a vegetable."
"Noted," Tony mumbled.
"Where are you going?" Emma asked Scott as she noticed him walking towards the door.
"I need to clear my head," he said roughly.
"Wait," Tony said as he took out an aged bottle of whiskey and offered it to Scott with a grin.
“I was going to give it to you and Emma to congratulate you on the growing family, but thinking a little more about it, it doesn’t seem like such a suitable gift. But you could use it if you don’t want your brother to murder you.”
“Thanks, I guess.”

“Are you even listening to me?” Alex shouted.
Scott showed no indication of having heard him as he kept on looking through the cabinets until he finally found what he was looking for. He took out the two shot glasses and poured them full from the bottle that Tony had given him earlier.
As expected, the younger brother didn’t accept the offer, instead he used an energy blast to pulverize both of the glasses.
“Was that really necessary?” Scott asked, frowning.
“Yes!” Alex barked. “You don’t get to play older brother with me anymore. You’re a criminal, a murderer and the only reason I’m talking to you right now is because I want to give you one last chance to give yourself up and fix this.”
A hearty laugh filled the room as Emma entered the room with a small bundle in a blanket pressed into her chest.
“That’s rich coming from you, Alex. Always the screw up to Scott’s boy scout. Why don’t you tell him how much you truly enjoy the fact that you get to play the hero now?”
“Emma!” Scott admonished.
“What?” she shrugged. “It’s not like you’re not masochistic enough to enjoy playing the pariah for a little bit either. Otherwise I don’t get why you wouldn’t want to expose the whole truth to the whole world so that we don’t have to hide and raise our daughter in nowhere, middle of.”
She could see the vein in Scott's forehead pulsing as if he were about to explode. Then she heard a psychic warning bell which she seemed to get any time Cyclops was about to have a seizure. But his features weren't taken over by the usual convulsions, instead he took in a few calming breaths and turned around to leave the room.
"Where do you think you're going? I'm not done yet!" Alex shouted.
"Scott, you can't go out there! You almost just had a seizure right here, do you fancy getting one outside in the snow?" Emma added.
"Wait, what? Seizure?" the younger brother wondered, but both of their calls were only addressed to Scott's retreating back.

Once outside, Scott closed his eyes, trying to recall some of the breathing exercises he had learned with Dr. Miles. They had been intended for halting panic attacks, but he found that what brought those on didn't differ that much to what brought on his seizures.
“Hello, dad,” Cable greeted.
Cyclops turned to discover a sturdy lone figure leaning against a tree, his boots burrowed deep in the snow.
“I’ve been waiting for you to show up, Nathan,” Scott answered, his face not betraying in the least that his son’s ability to sneak up on him still spooked him a little.
“I told you before the war, didn’t I? I will be there for you when you’ll need me. Soon,” the time traveler explained.
“That you did,” the younger man sighed as he enveloped his older offspring in an awkward hug.
As he felt Nathan stiffen, he stepped back quickly and apologized.
“No, it’s okay,” Cable answered, flustered. ”It’s just we’ve never really been the ones for the hugging thing? That was always more mom’s thing.”
“Maybe,” Scott sighed. “Sadly she’s no longer around, so it’s up to me now.”
“Alright, then.”
“I’m sorry, Nathan. I’m really trying to be better at this stuff. To be an improved version of myself, a better friend and most importantly a better father. Unfortunately I don’t exactly have the best reference frame for the last one.”
“I had wished that my life had turned out differently, but the one thing I wouldn’t want to change is the time I spent with Slym and Redd. You were a good father to me as Slym, Scott. Just do what feels natural for you. It just might not be the same thing for me as for Rachel or as for Ruby.”
“Ruby, right,” Cyclops started. “How do you feel about having another sister?”
Cable looked up at the stars thoughtfully before looking back at his father’s anxious face.
“Her existence is a new piece of knowledge to me just as it is to Rachel. In a way it’s hard for me not to resent her. For all I know, she will get to grow with her father and mother present in her own time. I’d be lying if I said that it doesn’t bring up some bitter feelings. At the same time, I’d give my life to make sure she never gets that taken away.”
“Thank you for being honest about it, Nathan,” Scott said a sad smile playing around on his face. “I understand how you feel. When I found about what happened to Alex after he left the orphanage, I felt incredibly relieved and happy for him, to learn that he had not suffered as I had. But there was that tiny voice back in my mind – why didn’t I get to live that life too?”
An awkward silence passed between the two men who had not been used to having heart to heart conversations, even less so one that they would exchange among each other.
“Wolverine has agreed to disband his X-Force team,” Scott told his son. “He had conditions of course.”
“Such as?”
“He made me swear that I’d never sanction a kill squad ever again.”
“Uh, oh.”
“Yeah. And he made me agree in writing, even had Murdoch and Walters confirm the document legally.”
“So your hands are tied?”
“Not exactly,” Scott smirked. “There are loopholes of course. The document forbids me from sanctioning a kill squad, but it doesn’t say anything about a team concentrating on reconnaissance and espionage.”
“Logan’s not going to like you playing with words like that.”
“No, he’s not. But then again it’s not like I sanctioned anything. We took a vote. I voted against it, Rachel abstained, but Emma, Illyana, Kitty and Bobby outvoted me.”
“And you want me on this squad?”
“Not just on it, we want you to lead it, Nathan.”

Chapter Text

“What are we looking at, Stark?” Emma questioned harshly as she leaned over his shoulder trying to puzzle out the data on the screen.
Tony fiddled with the keyboard and pulled up what looked to be two graphs of some kind.
“On the left here, you can see the graphical representation of data I’ve assembled from the blood samples that I collected from Cyclops during his imprisonment. The falling curve represents how the traces of the Phoenix Force slowly fizzled out of his bloodstream over time. I’m hazarding a guess that if I were to undertake a similar experiment with samples from you, darling Emma, the result would be very much the same,” he explained.
“And the second graph is Ruby’s data?” Scott asked, clenching his jaw inaudibly.
“One hundred points for Mr. Summers,” Stark whistled. “And as you see there appears to be no trace of the force leaving the little tyke’s system. In fact, when Dr. Rao and I had a look at her DNA on a cellular level this is what we found.”
The graphs were replaced by the image of a spiraling structure.
“What does it mean?”
“It means that while the two of you and the rest of your merry renegade band once served as a host to the Phoenix Force, your little girl is somewhat different. The Phoenix appears to be tangled with her cells, it’s an inherent part of her DNA.”
“What does that make her?”
“She’s a mutant. But she’s also something else, something new.”
Cyclops let out a silent curse.
“There’s one more thing you should probably know,” Stark added as he pulled up another set of graphs on the screen. “The levels of Phoenix traces in Ruby’s blood remain exactly the same for each and every measurement. However multiple tests of the same sample undertaken in one-hour intervals show that it starts fizzling out and within three hours there isn’t so much as a grain of a trace left. It might be somewhat early for a conclusion; but it would appear that it’s not possible for her Phoenix Force to survive outside of her body.”
“So, should someone try to get the power of the Phoenix from her?” Emma posed half a question before Tony cut her off cheerfully.
“They won’t be able to. Unless she cooperates with them willingly. Her Phoenix powers are a part of her, so it’s not like others who have dealt with the Phoenix Force before. It’s nothing that would influence her mind or actions with the exception of being smart and able to use her telepathic powers far beyond her age.”
Scott raised his eyebrows in suspicion.
“You’re just saying all that in order to stop Emma from wiping your mind clean of the memories of the knowledge you’ve gained here.”
Tony huffed.
“Alright, there might be a tiny part of me that would do it for that reason only. But actually, what I’m trying to say is that I believe with all my heart that Ruby is no threat to the universe. She could become a weapon of mass destruction, but only if she is trained to become one. And I know now for certain that it’s the last thing you’d ever let happen to her, Scott.”
Cyclops turned his gaze to the ground even though Stark couldn’t really see his eyes behind his glasses. Bringing up the fact that way too many people have seen way too much of the parts of his past that he held closely to himself was somewhat of an unspoken taboo amongst the inhabitants of the former Weapon X base. Tony Stark on the other hand didn’t appear to have any qualms about slipping it into a conversation.
“Do whatever you want with him,” Scott told Emma before he stormed off from the med lab.

“Hi, Scotty, look what the cat dragged in,” Bobby said cheerfully as he led Dr. Miles to the room they had transformed to a sort of communal kitchen over the past few days.
Bobby’s eyes almost jumped out of their sockets as he noticed not only his friend, but also his younger brother and ex-girlfriend in the room. He had expected that by the time he was back from his trip to New York, the two Avengers would be long gone.
Cyclops pointedly ignored Alex’s lingering gaze as he went around the room, preparing milk for the toddler.
“Uh-oh,” the ice-manipulating mutant grumbled as all eyes in the room turned towards him and he didn’t particularly need Dr. Miles’ mutant powers to grasp the tension in the room.
“What’s going on?” he asked at last.
“Nothing. Just some run of the mill sibling moment where the little one insists upon talking while the big one doesn’t really fancy a chat,” Emma sighed. “Because we are all adults here, after all. Right, Ruby?”
The baby in her arms giggled and soon the two Summers brothers found themselves with a pacifier in their mouth.
“Right, glad we settled this,” Emma said looking down at Ruby with a proud smile on her face.
“I guess I’ll just give Monica the tour while you guys work out whatever this is,” Bobby said sheepishly as he grabbed his friend and dragged her away from the room.
“I hate to say this, but it seems we have reached the day where Bobby Drake is the voice of reason,” the blonde telepath muttered as she took away the bottle, testing the temperature of the milk on her forearm. Satisfied with it she offered the bottle to her daughter and stood up.
“Now talk,” she commanded before leaving the room and slamming the door closed.
Scott sighed and tried to follow in her footsteps, but the door wouldn’t budge no matter how hard he pushed. He took off his glasses and attempted to blow it open with one of his blasts. However, the old creaky thing still appeared the same.
“Just great. She locked us on the psychic plane,” he complained.
Alex whistled.
“You really don’t want to talk to me.”
Scott turned around and stared at his younger brother, at least as much as his ruby quartz-covered eyes would allow it.
“Maybe it’s because I’ve got nothing to say to you, Alex.”
“You pull all that bullshit and now you’ve got no words?” the younger Summers challenged.
Cyclops walked closer to him and leaned over the blond man; his lips pressed into a hard line.
“You have no idea what you’re talking about, Havok,” he hissed. “Everything I ever did; I did for our people. I’ve lost my wife, my son, I’ve had my name dragged through the mud and I am just starting to discover that I’ve had my life stolen from me. Still, I kept fighting and today mutantkind stands tall. Don’t presume to lecture me on the choices I have made. Because I’ve made plenty that I’d rather take back, but this one? I would gladly do it all over again.”
Alex took a step back.
“There’s no point talking to you when you’re like this,” he shot back as he shouted over his shoulder. “Emma, you better let me out, I’ve got better things to do.”
“Oh?” Scott asked raising his eyebrows. “You’ve got another public appearance scheduled for your don’t call me a mutant speech?”
The blond man sighed in frustration.
“All I’m trying to do is to stand for something bigger. And the Scott Summers I used to know before would have been proud of me, after all it’s what he stood for.”
“Yeah?” the older brother chuckled. “Well, maybe that Scott Summers was never a real person, but just a little toy soldier whom somebody molded to his liking. Charles Xavier made sure of that. I wonder if he ever made any adjustments with you, after all he did quite the job on Bobby. Probably not, because you never stuck around long enough, always the little rebel. Maybe that’s why I’m so angry with you right now.”
Scott ran a hand through his hair as he fought to get his anger back under control. Unleashing the vitriol, he felt any time he thought of Xavier made him feel a few pounds lighter, but at the same time it threatened to bring a wave of pressure to his brain that might lead to another seizure. He put a hand on Alex’s shoulder.
“I’m sorry for being so irrational about all this. If you want, you can sit down and we can talk. But only if you let me speak my truth first without interrupting and only pass your judgements after, alright?”

Emma snapped her eyes open just as the first images of the intruding nightmare entered her mind. She quickly turned her neck to check on Ruby, but the infant appeared to have turned into her ruby form during her sleep. The psychic sighed and unrolled from the bed, hesitating a little before she slipped on her night robe and silently tiptoed to the next room, carefully pulling the door closed behind her.
Once in his room, she hesitated as she leaned down over his half-naked form. She had redirected or even remolded his bad dreams many times over the past few years, once she had uncovered the layer upon layer of false pretenses and the true nightmares bubbled onto the top. But she had lost the right to violate Scott’s privacy even if he was projecting it rather loudly. His hands shifted as he clutched the covers more tightly and a drop of sweat fell from his forehead.
For a moment she considered backtracking, after all, she could just try to tune him out. But then again, what guarantee did she have that Ruby wouldn’t wake or turn into her physical form in her sleep and that the bad dreams wouldn’t then invade her mind as well? After all she appeared to be especially tuned in into her parents’ frequencies. The connection appeared to be stronger than any of the various mind shields that even someone like Scott had acquired over the years. Emma had fared a little better on that front, but even she was starting to feel that soon enough she would no longer be able to hide the truth even in the deepest recesses of her mind from someone as powerful as their daughter appeared to be. While this was a fact they would probably need to deal with very soon, she was resolved to retain Ruby encased in the little shelter of protectiveness that shielded her from the ghosts that haunted her parents’ minds.
She leaned closer to Scott and breathed in the scent of his aloe vera shampoo. It was still the same he had been using back on Utopia, one she had chosen for him.
“Scott,” she whispered.
Even though the sound of her voice appeared to be the first thing that alerted him to another presence to the room, he didn’t communicate his intent as he wrapped his arms around her neck and caught her in a headlock.
“Scott!” she snarled as she changed to her diamond form.
“Emma?” he mumbled sleepily as he released his hold on her and set back down on his bed removing his night goggles and replacing them with his regular glasses.
Before she knew what was happening, he pulled her into him and placed a small kiss on her lips, then proceeding to pull her into a longer one. It took a tremendous amount of inner strength for her to push him and lean away.
“Not like this,” she murmured. “You said you wanted to do it the right way if we do this again.”
He nodded and turned his head away in silent understanding.
The kiss had been little more than a diversion tactic to keep her discovering from what he didn’t want her to know, coupled with an acknowledgement that he was fairly terrible at being alone. She huffed when she realized that what he was trying to hide from her was the feeling of embarrassment that he had left himself exposed and open to attack.
She gingerly put a hand behind his neck and drew him towards her chest, placing a soft kiss on the top of his head. He didn’t protest and released a relaxed sigh as her fingers rummaged through his hair. She resisted the temptation to let one thing lead to another and take them down a path that they had unsuccessfully undertaken before.
Instead, she pulled the two of them on the psychic plane into the memory of a small dingy café in Westchester. They were sitting down at a table and other people appeared to be flowing around them, drinking their coffees or stuffing their mouths with cookies.
“They’re just decoration,” she conceded, looking at Scott and added: “They can’t hear us and neither can anyone back home, Rachel and Ruby included.”
“Right. But they might serve as a deterrent,” Scott inferred waving around his hand to point at the jungle of customers and baristas around them.
Emma smiled.
“You can’t exactly blame me for taking precautions given our history.”
“I guess not,” Scott agreed, before he showed her a rare smile. “Although if my memory serves right, it was you, Miss Frost who wasn’t exactly playing fair.”
She resisted the urge to let the conversation slope down the road of innuendos Scott seemed to be intent on letting it go. Tightening the robe closer to her body, she leaned back in the chair, out of his reach and asked.
“Tell me, what happened there, Scott? You were projecting your dreams rather loudly. And not the kind I would want our psychic infant daughter to pick up on.”
Scott’s jaw tightened at that.
“She didn’t…?”
“Not as far as I could tell,” Emma said, adding an explanation: “she had shifted to ruby in her sleep.”
Cyclops nodded, but she could feel the relief oozing out of his every pore even if his unclenched jaw appeared to be the only physical sign of lightening up slightly.
He sighed heavily.
“For years now, I have been using some techniques that Jean and the Professor,” he hesitates over the utterance of the second name a little and his emotions on the subject appeared to be such a mess that Emma catalogued them for later untangling. “And I have changed them a little, so they would work even on someone without inherent psychic abilities.”
She translates this part as him having perfected the art of hiding his true dreams within dreams upon dreams and still being capable of remaining alert enough to fend of any incoming attack, whether psychic or physical.
“However, Doctor Rao told me that she noticed that I wasn’t getting sufficient NREM Stage 3 sleep and as a result that increases the chance that the seizures will get worse. They might even get completely out of control.”
“Right,” Emma nodded, trying to choose her next words very carefully as she was painfully aware that when it came to Scott and the topic of control, she was threading dangerous waters. Rao would often praise Cyclops to me a model patient, but Emma knew that following doctors’ instruction precisely happened to be just another facet of Scott trying to wrestle back as much control over his body as was possible. Now he had to deal with the current of the memories of the time he had spent as a teenager in Sinister’s clutches as well as the unrelenting threat of losing control over his mutant powers and endangering people around him. Although he had trained himself to be meticulously careful about taking all precautions to stop his eyes from unleashing, there was little he would be able to do about it if he found himself writhing and convulsing on the ground in the thralls of a seizure. Therefore, his mind jumped to the next best solution, taking every and any conceivable precaution to ensure he could in order to avoid getting one.
“That’s not so difficult to figure out, now that you told Miss Frost where the issue lies,” she said finally and the illusion of the psychic plane dissolved around them as they found themselves pulled in back to their bedroom.
“How?’
“I can extend my own shields to cover a little more ground, you can get a good night’s sleep and nobody gets hurt.”
“You would do that?” he asked hesitantly.
“Of course, I’d do it, I mean it’s for Ruby.”
“Right.”

Chapter Text

Nathan stood with his back leaning against the wall as he diligently cleaned his guns one by one. Everyone on his hand-picked roster had chosen to return his call to service. If it were up to him, they would only briefly discuss their intel before diving straight deep into their first mission. But he had promised to Scott that he would give everyone a way out before they threw themselves into this hole. That didn’t mean that he had to like the decision and he definitely wasn’t going to be the one to give the talk. He never had much of a way with words anyway, he has always been a man of action, letting his deeds speak for him.
“If you’re having doubts about any of this, this is your chance to step back and leave. A new mutant order is almost upon us. And if you’re feeling queasy, it might offer you chances to help the cause in other ways. Our mission is to prevent and preempt threats that might endanger it. It is a valiant task, but those who will partake in it, won’t be remembered fondly. Cyclops might have provided us with a hitlist, but each and every of our steps from now on are ours alone. Join us only if you’re ready to offer this sacrifice for the welfare of our mutant sisters and brothers.”
Nathan looked up in time to see Tabitha smith roll her eyes.
“Yeah, whatever. Just forget it, Domino. None of us would be here if we didn’t want to. Just let me make something go boom at last,” she groaned.
Sunspot and Warpath didn’t say anything, but they had a determined look about them. That only left the last member, the one that Nathan had wondered about the most.
“You in, Sam?”
Sam Guthrie shared a brief glance with Berto, the two of them had always been able to convey entire conversations just through looks, and sighed: “Eh, I wasn’t cut out for teaching anyway.”
****
Nathan was running down the corridor, all guns ready to shoot, ignoring the racket that his teammates’ fights with the dupes of X-men former and present was creating in the tunnels. He had slain several of the clones on his way without having any second thoughts. He had thrown away any semblance of conscience that he still might have had in the moment when he accepted this role from Cyclops. He knew that some of the others felt differently, especially when they saw that the artificial clones still bled red and were made of flesh and bone.
Cable proceeded with only a single goal in mind. Putting a bullet through the brain of the caricature of a man who had put many a mutant including several members of the Summers’ family through hell on Earth. He did his best to ignore the tanks full of navy fluid which seemed to be housing tangles of limbs, either projects still in progress or discarded without cleaning up after them. A card surrounded by a violet aura scraped by his right ear. He slid behind one of the tanks and only reached out his right arm and shot a few rounds of ammo in the direction where they came from. Cable waited thirty seconds after his last shot before he left his hiding place. He scrunched up his nose as the stench of the bowels of a dying man reached his nose.
When he reached the end of the corridor, he was faced with a large oak door which looked uncharacteristically out of place in the sterile environment of the rest of the complex. There was no doubt in his mind that the eccentric target of this raid chose this particular fashion accessory to mark his lab. Cable braced himself and then kicked in the door and fired another one of his guns before stepping into the room. A body hit the floor with a thud. As Nathan approached the figure, a series of yellow sparks flew from its head.
He cursed under his breath. While he was faced with the face of the man whom he intended to eliminate tonight, it didn’t belong to a man of flesh and bone but just a Life-Model decoy of Nathaniel Essex. One with a bomb strapped to his chest and the seconds on its countdown timer started ticking as soon as the first shot hit him.
“Everyone, get out, NOW!” Cable bellowed into his communicator.
He eyed the red numbers showing only two minutes left until the whole complex would be leveled with the ground, time elapsing second by second.
“Cannonball, Neena, report,” he said, forehead furrowing as he recalled the conversation, he had had with Scott back in frosty Canada.
His father laid both of his hand on his ancient son’s shoulders, mouth in a tight line.
“Nathan, you’re a soldier, I know. So was I most of my life and I know how we both think. But things have changed now. The times of putting the mission ahead of any other potential damage including the loss of another mutant’s life in the name of the cause are past. I can’t find it in myself to regret some of the choices I have made when we were few, but now that we are many once again, we have to be better than that. While I can’t officially sanction X-Force, should you find yourself in trouble, I will find a way to help you, all you have to do is ask. I’ve let you die for the sake of saving mutantkind once, but I won’t let that happen again.”
He fought down his lone wolf nature and pushed the red button on the bracelet his dad had given him after they had finished the talk, concentrating his thoughts into a brief message that would let Frost and by extension Scott know what kind of trouble he and his team found themselves in, so that they would know what kind of assistance to send.
Satisfied that his team would be rescued, he started his work on searching every inch of the office he could cover in the remaining one hundred seconds. He turned over cabinets and opened drawers, trying to spot a clue that could lead him to the whereabouts of the real Mr. Sinister. All he found were documents and hundreds of hand-written notes about experiments, some of which were conducted years ago in an orphanage in Nebraska. He teared the papers apart in disgust, he would not learn anything new here, after all Nathaniel Essex’s sick obsession with his father and the genes of the Summers’ clan were nothing he had not known of before.
“Time to go, don’t you think, old man?” a voice of a teenage girl sounded from behind his back.
“Hope?” Cable asked, disbelieving.
She threw her red hair back as she smiled.
“Yup. Frost sent me,” she explained, jogging up to Nathan. “Bodyslide by two.”
*****
Scott felt his eyes getting tired, but he didn’t have the benefit of being able to scratch at them. The road was empty except the occasional truck. He had forgotten how dull traveling this way could be given how accustomed he had gotten to having a teleporter always on hand in the last few years. He chanced a look to the right, smiling slightly at the sight of Ruby in her baby car seat, in her natural form, icy blue eyes peeking at him as if she were able to see directly through him into his very soul.
“Daddy,” she communicated out to him through their psychic links. Most of the time she was only able to broadcast abstract thoughts that hit him with an onslaught of images and colors which were not fully discernible unless he truly focused on them. But over her short few weeks longs life span and continued use of her abilities, she was also slowly starting to pick up words and patterns of speech at an alarming rate. Though outwardly he would only hear her babble like any other infant before her body caught up with her consciousness, it would not be long before they could speak to each other properly on the psychic plane. No matter what the way of communication though, she was destined to be daddy’s little girl and just like her mother she would probably be able to hold sway over him.
That was why he found himself suddenly swerving the car to the right, away from the highway and towards the old road which was so beaten down that he could feel each and every bump even under the heaps of snow.
The sound of barking reached them almost a mile before they reached the rundown dog shelter. Their arrival attracted several of the staff who didn’t seem to be used to people appearing in their corner of the world all that often, and even less so folks who stepped out of shiny new cars. Scott took out the baby carrier with Ruby strapped inside safely and started to walk towards the shelter’s employees.
When their eyes fell on his face, most of them scattered and disappeared to their duties, leaving only a petite olive-skinned woman behind who looked at him with fire in her eyes.
“We’re not harboring any mutant haters here, so not sure what brough you here, but all you will find here are dogs and a few good old regular folks who take care of ‘em.”
Scott shook his head and cleared his throat before attempting to voice the reason why he stopped here at all. But spelling out that he came here because of a psychic nudge courtesy of his infant daughter didn’t appeal as the best strategic course of action to him.
Before he could get any words out, they were interrupted by the insistent whining of a Husky mix who had run towards them and started pawing at Scott’s leg. He looked into the dog’s multi-colored eyes with a frown.
“What is it Betty?” the employee asked, trying to calm down the dog with a few soft pats, but the dog wouldn’t relent.
Finally, the young woman stared at Scott as she wondered: “Is there any chance that you’re epileptic?”
“What?” Scott asked rather sharply.
“It’s just, Betty used to be a service dog for an old lady who suffered from regular seizures, she can sniff them out. The woman died and her family didn’t want the dog and she was considered too old to continue as a service dog with a different family.”
“Oh,” Cyclops said as Ruby let out a small cry.
Her father put the carrier with this daughter on the ground as he muttered: “I guess I better sit down in that case.”
The shelter worker leaned down and dragged the carrier with the baby a little further away on the snow in order to prevent Scott from hitting it as the first of the convulsions set in.
Scott regained himself slowly, and despite still feeling shaky and dizzy he tried to get up from the snow-covered ground. Betty whined in protest and pushed on his torso with her muzzle in order to keep him on the ground.
“I am guessing you don’t want me to call an ambulance given the being on SHIELD’s most wanted list, but I would hope that you’re not intending to drive with a toddler in your current condition,” the woman said slowly. “Is there someone I can call for you?”
Scott shook his head and looked to Ruby, wondering if he could get a message to someone through to her. Before his disjointed mind could postulate a plan, he received an image of Magik from his daughter.
“Yana help,” she told him over their mind link.
And just like that the blonde queen of Limbo appeared as the gates from her dark dimension opened.
“Someone call the Magikbus express to headquarters?” she said as she leaned over the baby carrier and the little girl exploded with a fit of giggles.
The young Russian woman picked up the baby carrier with ease and extended a hand to Scott as she helped him to his feet. He stood up on wobbly legs and leaned into Illyana’s support.
“Well then,” she said as a goodbye to the shelter worker before returning to Limbo. Or at least attempting to.
“Any moment now, Magik?” Cyclops asked, having to concentrate very hard to form the correct words.
“We appear to be stuck, boss. Something is blocking us.”
The husky mix approached their perimeter and Ruby cooed from her spot in the sorceresses’ arms.
“You want us to take the doggy back home with us?” the blonde questioned the baby.
Scott furrowed his brow in confusion as the mutant child though at them: “Not for me. For daddy.”
Along with her few words, images also streamed into their subconsciousness, Scott sitting with his back leaning against a wall taking in sharp breaths as he buried his head in the canine’s fur. Both adults knew not to discount Ruby’s request, after all they had seen that she was gifted with a certain amount of precognitive abilities.
“Why would I need a dog, kiddo?” he retorted back psychically, managing to avoid jumbling his thoughts too much. “I’ve got you after all.”
Another serious of images from his child’s mind assaulted him, showing an empty crib and panicked faces of his future self and Bobby. Ruby only accompanied the flashes by one word, but the lone few letters were enough to start Scott’s heart rate running frantically again. Gone, gone, gone. He would need the dog’s company, because at some point soon Ruby would disappear from her home.

Chapter Text

“Has he slept yet?” Bobby asked Emma noticing for the first time that she had gained a few new worry lines around her eyes in the past few weeks which she had not bothered to cover up or deal with yet. In a way the imminent threat to Ruby had seemingly done a lot of damage to both of her parents.
“No,” Emma hissed. “I keep telling him that he’s hardly likely to protect Ruby if he’s too tired on his feet, but the foolish man won’t listen to me.”
“Hey, why don’t you take a break and let me talk to him,” Iceman offered.
“Thank you, Robert,” the woman told him telepathically.
Bobby walked to the nursery with its walls carefully painted with stars and planets. Scott was sitting down next to the crib, his head bobbing down. Every time he’d force himself to open his eyes and look up by sheer force of will. Where that didn’t suffice, the husky mix Betty used her muzzle to lick his face and wake him.
The younger man sat down next to his friend putting a comforting hand on his leg.
“Scott,” he said softly. “I know you’re worried, we all are, but you need to get some rest, buddy.”
“I can’t, Bobby. Not while Ruby is in danger.”
The child stirred at the mention of her name and shared a projected image of Scott in a bed with the two mutants.
Daddy, sleep, she suggested with her psychic banter.
“Yes, kiddo, you’re right. Your pa needs some quality zzzs,” Iceman cooed at the little girl. His face turning more serious he turned to Scott.
“Is this about what happened with Nathan?” he asked.
Scott’s clenched fists were sufficient confirmation of Bobby’s suspicions.
“Look, I get it. You feel like you’ve failed one kid and this is your second chance to try and do everything right with Ruby. But what you’re doing here, it’s not healthy, Scotty.”
“With Nathan I didn’t know what hit me,” Cyclops struggled to say. “I didn’t know he was in danger until it was too late. It’s different with Ruby, I know someone’s coming for her and I’m going to stop them.”
“How? By spending the rest of your waking life not leaving her side? What kind of life is that? For you and for her? She’ll crave some freedom eventually. Her precog abilities haven’t proved to be very exact, the danger might come next day or in ten years. Whenever it comes, she has plenty of people ready to fight for her. But what she needs more than anything is for her father to be more than just the shadow that stands vigil by her bed all the time.”
“What do you expect me to do?” Scott said angrily throwing up his hands.
“Have you talked to Dr. Miles about what happened with Madelyne and Nathan at all? And how that shapes your fears when it comes to Ruby?” Bobby wondered.
“No. I’ve put the Madelyne business long behind me,” Scott said courtly. “And Nathan’s turned out alright given the circumstances, hasn’t he?”
“That’s not the point, buddy. You’ve still gone through the experience of losing a child and that would make anyone suffer through some anxiety of losing another, and you’ve got to deal with the fact that you know the danger is real with Ruby. As for Madelyne, Scotty, I’ve seen your mind when it concerns her, burning down your memories and feelings is not dealing with it.”
Before Scott could respond, Kitty barged into the room.
"Sorry, guys, but we have to go now if we want to make it for the meeting at Logan's school."
***
Logan furrowed his brow at the smell he caught emitting from the taller man walking behind him. At the precise moment, the husky-mix started whining and he heard Cyclops’ footsteps halt.
“Logan, take Ruby,” Scott commanded and Wolverine took the baby carriage swallowing his retort about the other mutant ordering him around as if nothing had changed between them within the past few years and they just were in the middle of a mission he was orchestrating as the X-men’s field leader. “How much time do we have?” Logan asked, as he glared at the group of students led by Pixie and Dust who chose this moment to try to pass through the corridor.
“Walk away,” he growled in their general direction, ignoring the questioning looks they were sending in Cyclops’ and Ruby’s direction. He should probably brief the students once he averted the current catastrophe.
“Two minutes at most,” Scott sighed.
“Come.” Logan said as he grabbed the other man’s shoulder and dragged him through the corridor, balancing the baby carrier on his other arm.
He hauled him into a room and breathed out a sigh of relief as he realized that the room was occupied only by a group of newer students and not someone like Quentin Quire. The last thing he needed was the little twerk spreading rumors.
“Get out,” he barked at the students and as they were scurrying away added: “If you breathe a word of this to anyone outside this room, I’ll kill ya.”
Logan let go of Scott’s shoulder as the younger man lied down on his side on the bed that was surrounded by the least amount of clutter.
“You worried about what being seen in a bedroom with me might do to your reputation?” Scott asked bashfully, making sure the pillow was well-adjusted under his head.
Wolverine raised his eyebrows, wondering if the earlier seizures had damaged some of Cyclops’ long ingrained inhibitions. Had he talked to Bobby since the ice-manipulating mutant left the school, he would know that crass attempts at humor were a recently discovered defense mechanism of this new Scott Summers who was struggling to find his own identity in the wake of the Phoenix unveiling the truths of Xavier’s manipulations.
Logan’s retort died in his throat as Scott’s body started shaking uncontrollably, his head and limbs repeatedly hitting the empty mattress. White foam formed around Scott’s mouth and the infant in Wolverine’s arm let out a heart-wrenching wail.
“Daddy hurt. Help.”
The short mutant sat down the carrier and unstrapped the baby and reluctantly took it into his arms, being mindful of not wanting to crush it with his adamantium skeleton.
“I know, little one. I wish I could help him. But all we can do is wait,” he said as he patted her back.
He jumped a little when he felt the chubby skin under his palm changed into something much harder and the weight in his arms shifted. He looked down and when he saw the ruby form in his embrace, he chastised himself. He should have expected something like this from Frosts spawn.
A pair of icy-blue eyes looked up at him as a few more words entered his mind.
“I strong. I not cry.”
“Sure thing, little one. You’re very strong for your dad,” Logan said back as he tried not to imagine all the hours of therapy this kid would probably require one day.
The shaking subsided and a low groan escaped Scott’s mouth.
“You back with us, Slim?” Logan asked, slipping back into the old nickname routine.
“Yeah,” the other mutant breathed out weakly as Logan crouched next to the bed and watched as Scott tried to pull himself into a sitting position.
“Heard you guys got yourselves a healer. Couldn’t he do something about this?”
The taller mutant shook his head, exhausted.
“Why?”
“Phoenix screwing up,” Cyclops managed to sputter through his parched lips.
“That damn bird never did anyone no good,” Logan growled and his brow furrowed as he noticed that his former leader appeared to be too worn out to protest his comment.
“You need something? Water?”
“Yeah.”
The husky mix started licking at Logan’s face fervently as if she were attempting to tell him something.
“What is it?” Wolverine asked.
“Her bag,” Scott muttered.
The stocky mutant pulled at the zipper on the small bag strapped to the dog’s back and pulled out a few pills and a small bottle of water.
“Still always prepared Slim, eh?” he chuckled as he offered the pills to Scott and held the bottle to his lips so he could swallow them down.
Logan was still balancing Ruby on his other arm, but Betty appeared to have other ideas as she grabbed the infant by the back of its shirt and carrying it in her snout she deposited in onto Scott’s chest and put a protective paw on both of her charges.
“Logan, Remy said ya wanted t’ see me?” Rogue asked in her Southern drawl from the door, stopping in her tracks when she noticed the other occupants of the room.
“Uh, hello, Scott,” the female mutant greeted quietly.
“Hi,” Cyclops managed to say weakly as his eyelids fluttered closed and he lost himself to a slumber.
“Can ya keep an eye on them while he recovers?” Logan requested. “I gotta talk to Bobby.”
“Sure, sugah,” Anne-Marie said weakly as she sat down with her back leaning against the bed, looking from Scott’s sweaty forehead to the child on his chest and the husky mix who was staring at her with head bowed as if in apprehension.
The baby’s eyes turned from their light blue and Rogue could swear she saw a cosmic firebird in them. The room shifted around her and she found herself in a room incredibly resemblant of a café she remembered the X-men visiting in their earlier days. At one of the tables, she found Scott sipping at a cup of tea, his visage not obscured by a visor or even his ruby quartz glasses, but a pair of hazel eyes that looked up to her face in surprise.
“The hell?” she wondered.
Scott sighed and turned to the chair next to him, where a ruby skinned baby with tufts of blond curls was sleeping in a baby carrier.
“Are you playing around with your powers again, Ruby?” he asked exasperatedly, though there was a visible note of affection in his voice.
“Sorry,” Cyclops said sheepishly. “We have been trying to teach her not to use her powers on unsuspecting folks, but as advanced as she might be in some regards for her age, there are still limits.”