Scott opened his eyes and screamed, “NO! GET IT AWAY!!! I’M NOT DEAD! I’M NOT DEAD!”

"Scott!" Jean exclaimed, as she touched his shoulder.

He looked at her and felt her soft hand with his own. "I'm fine," he lied, as he looked at the clock. It was five p.m. In an hour, the sun should be setting.

Jean shook her head. "Not from the emotions I sensed while you were asleep."

**I am me. I am Scott,** Scott reminded himself, as he shielded his mind from his wife. "I just had a nightmare. That's all. Have I been asleep all day?"

"Pretty much," Jean answered. "Hank wanted to do some more tests but I convinced him to wait till you're all rested up. He told me that he's got a surprise for you." She paused as she watched Scott putting on the glasses again. Scott sighed in relief as he looked back up again. "Scott, I know what's it like to wonder who I am. With all these twisted memories of Madelynn and the Phoenix my mind, at first I didn't know who I was either. You are you. Despite the DNA change, you are still Scott Summers. You are still Cyclops. You are still the man who offered me a chair when we first met."

"You grabbed the chair away from me," Scott reminisced.

"Only because I wanted to show four hormonal teenage boys that I'm wasn't frail," Jean reminded.

"Those were the days."

"Nice try at changing the subject," Jean said, poking him.

"Damn it. I know what you're trying to get at. We have to tell the others about this," Scott said, as he lifted his glasses to reveal his eyes.

"They will understand," Jean said. "It's nothing out of the ordinary. After all, we've dealt with Betsy changing, Warren, Hank, and several others."

"I know. It's just that I'm afraid," Scott said, as he stared down at his clothes.

"Afraid of what?" Jean asked. She knows the answer, but had to hear Scott admit it.

"What if I'm not Scott?" he asked. "What if Sinister created me out of his Cyclops and Gambit DNA and just implanted memories in my mind? For all we know, Sinister killed Apocalypse and made me just to see what would happen."

"Don't think like that!" Jean snapped, causing Scott to stare at her. She grabbed his shoulders and his shirt. Her voice smoothed into a soothing tone. "You are you. Our telepathic link may have been down, but our bond is deeper than that. I know about Sinister because Logan told me about his and the Marauders' stench on your clothes and your body. I know what Sinister can and would do. He can make up people who think and act like the real thing. But you are not creation of Sinister. You are the man I loved and married." She held herself to him and said, "I know that you are you in mind, heart, and soul. I love you no matter whose DNA you have, no matter what that monster did to you. Just don't think for one second that you are not my husband; you are."

Scott stared at her as she tried to fight the threatening tears from her eyes. "Jean," he whispered, as tears trickled from behind his glasses, "I'm sorry. I'm just scared. I've been through hell with Apocalypse and I'm just tired of fighting."

"Then stop. You're home. We can have the children we always wanted."

"Hmmm ... Yes. Of course, Gambit will be like the uncle in a genetic sense. Oh god. How are we related?" Scott asked as he held his head to the growing complications of his family tree.

"See? You're angsting about your genetics and children that don't even exist yet. You're Scott Summers."

"Okay, I believe you," Scott said, smiling. "At least, I don't have to worry about Gambit taking over my life."

Jean started to smile, then her smile faltered. "Ummm ... I know this will sound odd, but did Nathan or anyone else tell you what happened over the past year?"

"About?" Scott asked, confused about Jean's smirk.

"Gambit and Rogue are co-leaders of the X-Men now," Jean said, as she looked, waiting for Scott to respond.

Scott stared at her. Jean stared back. He blinked and asked, "WHAT?! Those two?! Why? HOW?!"

"It's kinda complicated," Jean said.

"What about Ororo? Or Kurt? Or even Nathan? They had past experience as leaders."

"Ororo refused because she was looking after me while I was mourning. Kurt is pursuing a more religious way. Nathan and Gambit fought for leadership and Nathan lost," Jean explained. She had expected Scott to ask who was in charge of the X-Men, and even expected him to react the way this way.

"Are they good leaders?" Scott asked.

"Yes," Jean replied. "Rogue and Remy are more proactive. They have different styles of leading. Things have changed around here."

"No kidding," Scott said. "Where's the Professor? I expected him to be here constantly to see if my mind is okay. Is he ..?"

"No!" Jean replied. "Not at all. He's in space. Again."

"Lilandra?"

"No. Do you remember the Skrulls that were with Apocalypse?"

"Yes. I remember many of them remaining."

"Charles ran off with the remaining Skrulls to help them find a new homeworld to settle. He felt guilty for not being able to save their first homeworld. We tried to contact him when we found you, but we're having no luck so far." She frowned and said, "I wish I could tell him 'I told you so' right now."

"Does that explain the various Skrull technology that I recognize around here?" Scott asked, as he gestured towards various pieces of equipment.

"Yes," Jean said, as her voice became lined with bitterness.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Jean replied. "It's just that Charles and I have a little disagreement about your 'death.' I don't want to talk about it."

Scott nodded as he lay down. "So, when will the sun set?" he asked.

"Soon," Jean replied. "Don't worry. Hank ordered that all curtains and shades get pulled down and Ororo put up some clouds over the mansion to help. She doesn't know about the DNA change yet."

"Good. I'll tell the others about what happened to me," Scott said, as he rubbed his chin. "After a shave. I really need to shave."

Gambit felt the stares of his teammates as he sat there. He remained calm as he shuffled his cards. He knew exactly what everyone (including himself) was thinking. Now that Scott was back, would he go back to co-leading the X-Men? At first, he'd had trouble being the leader instead of the rebel. The constant weight of responsibility that weighed on him grew heavy on him. He'd had to deal with Jean's grief, Cable's stubbornness, as well as his own powers starting to get out of control. There was also the matter with his formerly dead ex-wife. He'd remained a partial outsider and became more responsible. "Ca te rappelle de quelqu'un, Remy?" he asked himself, as he smiled ironically. ¹

"Who are you thinking about?" Rogue asked.

"Nothing, Chere," Remy replied.

"Je sais le francais aussi. I know what you said under your breath," Rogue said. ²

"I know," Remy said, as he flipped another card. It was a one-eyed Jack.

"What do you think? Ah mean, about Scott coming back and all?"

Gambit blinked and replied, "Looks like my chances with Jean are gone now."

"I'm serious," Rogue said, as her southern accent faded. It was a habit of hers that she started when she began to lead the X-Men. A way for her to seem more serious and enable her orders to be understood better. "You know about how Scott would react to you being one of the leaders of the X-Men."

"If he wants the job back," Gambit said, as he lit up a card with his power, "he'll have to fight to get it back."

"A duel?"

"Why not? I know that he could be trusted before, but now ... I mean, do you think that he could survive being possessed by Apocalypse for that long with all of his marbles?"

Rogue reluctantly agreed. "Okay, so he's been through a lot. We can't just stop trusting him."

"I'm not saying that, Chere. It's just ... who knows what he's been through the past year,"

"I'll tell you as much as I can," another voice said, from behind them.

Gambit held his still charged up card up and turned to see Scott and Jean standing there. Remy decharged his card and asked, "How long have you been there?" He quickly had a look over of Scott. He was wearing his usual sunglasses. His long hair was tied up in a ponytail and his clothes looked familiar, somehow.

"Long enough," Scott said. "We ... need to talk. I need to tell the teams something big."

"What is it?" Rogue asked, as she noticed Scott staring at Gambit. She wondered if he knew about Gambit's leadership of the X-Men. Scott seemed to have a very stoic face on like he was hiding something.

"I'll tell when the meeting starts," Scott said, as he and Jean walked toward the War Room.

Rogue and Gambit followed them. Gambit's eyes widened when he remembered where he'd seen those clothes before. "Are dos my clothes?" Gambit asked Scott.

Scott looked down and said while he smiled almost in irony, "So they are. Thank Bobby for me when you see him," then walked out of the room.

Rogue looked at Remy and asked, "How did Bobby get your clothes?"

"Ummm ... you don't wanna know."

Scott sat down as groups of X-Men entered the room. He could feel everyone's stares and hear everyone's unasked questions. He knew that some people wouldn't trust him as much after he revealed what had occurred. Jean sat beside him and held his hand in support.

He looked up to see that all of the X-Men had arrived. Among the familiar faces were a pair of different ones that he'd never seen before. Alex was there as well with Lorna. Nathan sat in the back with his arms crossed.

"Is everyone here?" Scott asked, wanting to make sure that he didn't miss any of his teammates.

"Yes," Jean answered.

"Okay," Scott said, as he took a deep breath and put on his most serious expression. "As everyone here knows, I was possessed by Apocalypse when you last saw me. I know that all of you have questions about how I escaped. Hank, Cecilia, Moria, Nathan and Logan already know but they haven't told anyone, yet."

His hands shook as he briefly looked down and then looked up again. "Mr. Sinister was the one who managed to separate me from Apocalypse. He was the one who gave me a new body and destroyed Apocalypse."

He paused as he heard the various gasps of disbelief and murmurs. "I am me. I'm not a clone," Scott said, as he regained his voice. Jean squeezed his hand to make him go on. "But Sinister did alter me. As you might have noticed, I remained in the med lab until dark."

"We thought that you and Jean wanted privacy," Kitty remarked. Scott looked at her and noticed that Kitty had a very short haircut and her stance was similar to Logan's. The phrase 'Kitty got claws' sprung to mind.

"That too," Scott said, trying to lighten up the situation slightly. He cleared his throat and added, "The main reason is that my skin cannot stand the sun anymore. The smallest ray would cause me great pain and burns. Hank and the others will be trying to find ways for me to get out without burning. Until then, I'll have to wear a complete body costume suit or remain in the mansion with the curtains drawn."

There were more murmurs as well as a few, "Sinister did that?" "Poor guy." "How will his powers work?"

Scott spoke up again. "My powers work differently now because I have a different source of power. That's another thing I must tell you. My new body is a mix of two different sets of DNA, mine ... and another mutant's."

Ororo stood up and asked, "Forgive me for asking, Scott, but you look unchanged. You look normal."

"I know I may not _look_ different, but I am." Scott looked at Gambit who seemed fairly distant, yet had a look of sympathy in his red-on-black eyes. "This will be fairly shocking for you. In fact, it's still shocking for me. I would appreciate if there were no jokes whatsoever from any of you." He closed his eyes and took off his glasses. There were sounds of shuffling chairs and feet as most of the X-Men anticipated a pair of deadly optic blasts coming their way. Several people fell over anyway when he reopened his eyes. Some of the X-Men were staring in shock at Scott's now red-on-black eyes. More looked at Gambit to make sure that he was still there.

Gambit looked up with his own red-on-black eyes and muttered, "Il est moi ... He's me." ³ He looked at the various faces that were looking back and forth between Gambit and Cyclops. It was as if they were watching a tennis game from the center line. Gambit grinned falsely and said, "Looks like I got another brother." He secretly scowled. Scott had no control over the situation and he knew that, but he felt a deep sense of disgust. Red-on-black eyes were his eyes. No one else had anything like that and it was what he loved about having them. Now, Sinister had made Scott looked like Gambit. Remy leaned back and wondered why Sinister had altered him like that.

"I won't be able to be on active duty until I can get used to this new situation and my new powers," Scott continued, as he watched the various shocked expressions widen. He knew that the rumors would now start running faster than Quicksilver on a sugar rush.

"New powers?!" Gambit exclaimed. Everyone looked at him oddly as he schooled his face into an illusion of composure and calmness. He silently prayed to whoever watches thieves and rascals, **Please don't make those powers identical to mine.**

"Yes," Scott said, as he picked up a piece of paper. "I can't make objects explode like Gambit can." He held the piece of paper in his fingers as it glowed in a crimson red. He took out a small quarter, then tossed the quarter into the air, took the glowing piece of paper, and slashed the quarter in half. "I can make objects harder and sharper than before, but I still have my optic blasts," he explained, as he fired a pair of tiny blasts at the two halves as they fell. They landed with a pair of pinpoint holes in them. "Any questions?"

There was silence as the group sat there trying to think of a way to say something without hurting Scott's feelings. Finally, Alex raised his hand. "Yes, Alex?" Scott asked, as all eyes fell on the younger brother.

"So ... how do you feel?" Alex asked. Deep down, he wanted to ask more than that one question. Was Scott still immune to Alex's plasma blasts? Was Alex still immune to Scott's optic blasts? Did Scott still consider Alex to be his brother, despite the change in DNA?

"I feel fine," Scott answered. "Thanks for asking ... Bro."

Alex gave off a faint sigh of relief as he nodded.

"Whose team will you join when you return to active duty?" Rogue asked.

Scott frowned in deep thought. He hadn't considered that. He'd just thought that he would just lay back for a while and lead one of the teams again when he'd recovered enough. Jean and Nathan, Scott's wife and son, were on Gambit's team. Scott could join them but his current similarity to Gambit could pose an interesting issue. "I'm going to join Jean and Nathan," Scott replied. "I'll still let Gambit lead for a while."

Remy resisted the urge to glare at Scott. He made it sound like he was giving permission to Gambit to keep on leading. Remy knew that Scott couldn't trust him with the responsibilities of being a leader, but he had done a considerable job especially considering the fact that he’s leading the Guild of Thieves along with the X-Men.

"That's all," Scott said, as he put on his glasses. Jean knew that he put them on just to show that he was still Scott. The glasses were his mark and part of his very identity. Very few people had seen him without the glasses for any length of time. Scott walked out of the room, glancing behind him to see several X-Men already rushing to the phones.

He and Jean walked off to get ready for the long night ahead.

For those of you who can't speak French, here's the translations.

1. Who does that remind you of, Remy? Back

2. I know French too. Back

3. He's me. Back