"He that dies pays all debts." - William Shakespeare, The Tempest, Act 3, Scene 2.

Morphine sat in his apartment in the offices of the Xavier City Council, cigarette in his mouth, a drink in his hand and was whistling a tune.

There was a knock on his door. "Sod off, I'm busy!" he said, took a drink, and began to whistle from the beginning again. There was a slight odour coming from the door. He stopped, stubbed the cigarette out on the arm of the chair, and turned to see the door just vanish in a haze of light, as it broke down on a molecular level.

"Or just come in anyway, Xi'an." Morphine shook his head and took a drink and began to whistle again.

"I've come to find out what you are up to, Somers," said Xi'an. "I want to know your plans for the X-Men and... will you stop whistling and listen?"

"I am listening! I'm in a good mood, and when I'm in a good mood I whistle. Beethoven's Ninth. The Ode to Joy."

"I know what it is, and I want answers."

"It's simple," said Morphine, "the X-Men attract trouble - they always have. The X is like a target, so if we separate them, then instead of one trouble, we get lots of little ones. That's no good for the City in either case, so we keep them together and pre-empt trouble by hitting it first, as far away from Xavier City as possible. That way, the collateral damage is not ours to fix."

"What else?"

"Easy. It's gets them out of my hair. I have enough to do dealing with you, the rest of the council, and the City as well as my own stuff, and the X-Men will frankly be one more problem for me - one that I can deal with if they aren't here. It works to everyone's advantage."

"What are you up to?"

"Didn't I just explain it? I hope you're more on the ball next time we talk... and send someone to fix the door, there's a cold breeze out there at night."

"You won't win," said Xi'an as he left, "whatever game you're playing..."

"I don't bother playing these days unless it's a dead cert I'll win," murmured Morphine as he lit up another cigarette and began to whistle again.

Inside his own rooms, Victor Ten Eagles watched the discussion on the monitors. He'd installed cameras in Morphine's room - just in case. From what he could tell, Morphine had been honest with Xi'an, if not completely so. It was very unusual.

He checked his watch - it was about this time that Luna and Krys had their exercise session. He wondered if he could get cameras of that! Then he chided himself for such a thought, but it was something he could imagine, at any rate. Especially Krys...

"You'll have to do better than that!" said Luna with a smile as Krys fired a few crystal shards at her, which she dodged with ease.

This was one way for Luna to exercise control over her hunger, by working with a colleague, honing their skills and abilities. When it came to a sparring session, Krys armoured up so that they could fight on even terms.

"Sorry!" said Krys with a grin. "I'll see what I can do!"

She created some shards of varying lengths that moved at different speeds. Luna had to work hard to dodge them all, her muscles working underneath the tight leather uniform she wore. Unstable molecules meant the clothes didn't tear or rip as she moved, and she began to work up a sweat.

"Something on your mind?" she asked. Krys wasn't usually this aggressive with her moves.

"Always... and all three of them are men!"

"And?" Luna was concerned for her. Without Tim, she didn't feel like she belonged, and so becoming friends with others would back up her case if Xi'an decided to turf her out.

"Meanstreak... mostly, anyway..."

"Not this again!" They'd had this discussion before.

"He's still not spoken to me much since he returned! It's as if he wants as little to do with me as possible! He's never home, always out running around the Savage Land..."

'And yet we've not run in to each other!' Luna thought. "Maybe he's jealous?"

"Of?" Krys had an inkling of where this was going, but she had to ask anyway.

"You and Ten Eagles, maybe?"

Krys stopped dead, and Luna knew that she could still hit the target without using her powers. What would it be like to peel away her defences, to rape her mind bringing all her worst memories to the surface, feeding of the psionic energy, draining her until she was dry and nothing more than a vegetable? She stopped her thinking. Those animals in the Savage Land did curb the hunger, made the craving less, but also made it all the more addictive when it did happen.

"We're just friends!" said Krys, flushing slightly.

"Like you and Henri used to be? I know that look you give him and he gives you. The same look I got and gave with Tim, except you two won't admit it!"

"It wouldn't be right... you're imagining things!"

"That's what I said when you asked about Huang before." Krys stayed silent. "Ready for a little one on one?" asked Luna.

"Why not?" said Krys, thinking that some aggression might just work out these niggling little doubts. At least they wouldn't be able to continue this conversation as Krys didn't like the truths that had been shown to her.

Far away from Xavier City is the country of Latveria.

Newly rebuilt by the Phalanx after being tricked by Doom, the country is recovering under the leadership of Nostromo, the former scout of the Phalanx who was to pave the way for invasion, but Doom got there first and altered him so he could take the Phalanx down, if they didn't listen.

They didn't, and he killed them, at the cost of his own life. After the Phalanx were defeated, X-Nation regrouped. They had lost much since they had been formed - Clarion had died at the hands of Exodus, Twilight and Metalsmith had died during the Phalanx War, and Wulff had left to rediscover his humanity. All that was left of the group were Nostromo, December, Uproar, and Willow.

(back in X-Nation #6 - David)

(in 2099 World Of Tomorrow #7 - David)

(as seen in 2099 World of Tomorrow #8 - David)

December had returned from space after watching her friends die, unable to help them in any way. Uproar had been found adrift in the waters off the Savage Land coast and Willow had been fighting the Phalanx as part of the ground war, eventually helping to build Xavier City itself. They regrouped, mourned their losses, and went with Nostromo to help rebuild Latveria. It was the least they could do, after all, they were still a team.

(2099 World Of Tomorrow #7 again - David)

(2099 World Of Tomorrow #8 again - David)

(2099 World Of Tomorrow #7-8 yet again - David)

That was a while ago, and Latveria has been quiet since. No word has come in or out of the country, but more disturbing were reports that around the borders of the country, armaments had appeared. High-tech weapons and other means of preventing people getting in and out of the country.

One man stands alone, cloaked, his face hidden from sight. There seems to be a red glow from underneath the cowl. He shakes his head as he watches a small rodent cross the border and gets turned to ash by the weaponry. He knows he cannot do anything about this himself. Perhaps a message to Alchemax might sort this out, or at least bring in people who can.

Back in Xavier City, Eddie awoke in his apartment to the sound of a horrified cry. At first he thought there was a problem with Joaquim again, but he could see the lad sleeping over in the corner.

He raced in to the living area, where Maddie, the little girl they'd adopted, was with Rosa, trying to calm her.

"What happened?" asked Eddie. Rosa was white in shock and unable to speak, so Maddie answered for her.

"She was looking out of the window when she let out a cry and she went like this." Eddie went to the window and looked out, up and down the street. What he saw surprised him, though he hadn't thought they'd seen the last of him.

"Glitterspike!" he said through gritted teeth. Rosa's ex-husband; Joaquim's real father; a mutant assassin named Alexi Jaeger, also known as Glitterspike. He harboured a hatred for Eddie, which was mutual, and a desire to possess his son, not out of any fatherly instinct, but to sell him to the highest bidder. The way he'd walked past them apartment, he didn't know where they were, which would have made Eddie chuckle, but the situation was dire.

"He can't be here for a good reason. I'm going after him!"

"He'll kill you!" said Rosa, speaking for the first time. "You're not exactly inconspicuous..."

"Damn, you're right... except there is a way." He closed his eyes and focused his powers. He hadn't been able to do this for months, and he doubted he still could, but he had to try. He hoped his healing from the Phalanx virus didn't impede him. He hoped it would help him. He pushed, the strain on his face visible. He wasn't doing this for himself, he was doing it for Rosa. He was doing it because he had to.

He let out a yell of anguish and felt like he would pass out, until he felt himself being supported by an energy field. It mixed with his powers, and he felt the metal recede around him. It took a moment longer, but he had done it. Eddie was human once more.

"What happened?" he asked, then he saw.

"He helped you!" said Rosa, holding Joaquim's hand. "He used his psionic powers to trigger your automatic functions in your mind."

"A system reboot?" asked Eddie. "Thanks!" he said, ruffling the kid's hair. It felt good underneath his fingers, his sense of touch had been something he had missed. Jaeger had never seen him in human form, and neither had Rosa.

"Wow!" she said. "The bald look suits you."

"Thanks," he said, "but it's not permanent. Call the X-Men. I'm going to follow Alexi." He picked up his comlink and headed out.

It was busy down there, so Alexi would never know he was being followed.

Dust entered the building and looked around. This was where Shakti had told him to meet her. It was mostly empty, which was strange considering the business of the streets outside. Then he saw her, and he realised why it was a place she liked.

(last issue - David)

It was a Cybercafe. She jacked in so she could walk, run, and do whatever she wanted that she couldn't do in real life. Leaving it must be torturing her, he thought. He paid his credits and jacked in to join her.

"Hey," he said.

"Hey," she replied. The landscape was that of a old style bar and grille, circa the late 1990's. It was a strange place - in one corner there was a piano on a stage, which seemed to be used quite regularly, but not as much as the jukebox next to the main bar area. The neon sign on the window said 'Viva - Bar and Grill'. There were only three people other than them in here, except for the woman behind the bar.

"Guinness, please," he said when the waitress came over and asked him what he wanted, speaking in a slight French accent that made him wonder if this was supposed to be in New Orleans. He also knew that it wasn't a real Guinness, but it had been a very long time since he'd had one, and his brain wouldn't know the difference. Simulations were more sophisticated than they had been.

"I owe you an explanation."

"Go on," said Shakti, who obviously liked the setting of this place, reminding her of a happier, more innocent time. She came here a lot, and she knew the three regulars, as well as the woman behind the bar. In here, she was just another one of the regulars.

"The whole mutant messiah thing was a scam by Doom to bring out the scout of the Phalanx so he could stop them when they came along. I owed him a favour from way back, and I said I'd help him. I also knew it would bring me in to contact with the X-Men, and I needed to see them as well. So I agreed - I went along with it, even though I knew it was a lie. But if one of the next generation forgave me, then it would have been worth the lie..."

He paused to gather his thoughts, then continued, "There was also another reason. Xavier asked me to join the X-Men just before the first Phalanx invasion went down and I said no. Then they were captured and saved themselves by the skin of their teeth, calling in all the reserves. Maybe I'd have been as helpless as they were, but I kept thinking that maybe if I'd been there, I could have helped. This would reset the balance, and it did. Then when he stayed to listen, the others walked. You know... the black kid."

The waitress served him a drink and he took a gulp. "Never was much for political correctness." The thick black liquid went well down his throat.

"Clarion," said Shakti. "He died. X-Nation failed before it started..."

"What happened?" asked Dust, shocked by the revelation.

"Exodus happened..."

Morphine went for a walk in the city, and Glitterspike spotted him almost straight away, and with the sun burning down like it was, his powers to create objects out of light were fully energised. It would be like shooting fish in a barrel. He quickly created a weapon, and moved to stand behind Morphine.

"Down here," he said, pointing to a street that was under some construction work. Morphine said nothing, but followed the man's orders, thinking he'd turn him to dust by laying a hand on him. He'd be dead, a message would be sent to the other assassins who wanted a piece of him, and the X-Men would be none the wiser.

"Time to die," said Jaeger, and raised the weapon above his head, ready to bring it down and kill his target. However this wasn't the first time someone had tried to kill Morphine, and he was ready. He liked to work by surprise and finish things quickly with his powers, so he rolled as the weapon came down, trying to grasp his enemy, or even touch him. Jaeger moved quickly, fully aware of what Morphine could do, which threw off his aim so he missed and the weapon hit the floor. Morphine could see it was made of energy, so he couldn't stop the weapon. He had to stop the man. Morphine's mind raced at who the man could be and he came up blank, although there was something familiar about him.

"Who sent you?" he asked.

"No names," said Glitterspike, and he energised the missing arm to a weapon akin to a morning-star - a spiked ball at the end of a chain. A bead of sweat formed on Morphine's brow. Because of the lethal state of the weapon, and the range it possessed, he would have difficulty getting in close, which meant he would probably be dead in the next minute or so. He dodged the weapon as much as he could, but he knew he was delaying the inevitable. One thought went through his mind, and so shocked he was at thinking it he spoke it aloud.

"Why aren't there any X-Men around when you need them?"

"You mean us?" asked a voice. Glitterspike turned to be met by the fist of a human he didn't recognise, though there was something familiar about him. The blow pushed him back, but didn't knock him down, as his powers allowed him to fly. Then his attacker's skin turned to adamantium, and he saw the man he hated with a passion.

"Metalhead! I took you with ease before!" cried Glitterspike, flailing back with the morning star, catching Morphine on the chin as he had tried to get close to use his power. Glitterspike had been ready, and as soon as he disposed of the mutant he'd finish Somers. "How do you think you'll stop me now?"

"I brought my friends." said Eddie simply, as Luna, Krys, and Henri appeared behind him.

"Five for the price of one!" said Alexi with a grin, "He'll be so pleased!"

Luna leapt in first, her fingernails ready to scratch Alexi's face and rip out his eyes, but he turned the morning star to an arm, and threw her out of the way. La Lunatica was strong, but there was no way she could escape a grip of solid light. He threw her in to a wall, and turned his attention to Henri and Krys.

"Manoeuvre twelve," said Henri, and began to run around Glitterspike, created a mini-whirlwind, raising up the dust so that the access to the sun was blocked. Krystal encased him in porous crystal and Alexi was held.

"And that, Luna, is how the X-Men handle it - teamwork!"

"Oh yeah?" said Luna, her sarcasm echoing in her tone. "So when he was absorbing the light from your trails and you gave him prism like creations to amplify his powers, you were supplying the means to defeat him?"

"What?" asked Meanstreak but it was too late. Using the crystal formation around his arm, he bounced light up and down the street, taking out the X-Men with ease and hitting Eddie with the most force. The intensity of the light had cracked the crystal, allowing Alexi to break free. They'd only be out for a moment or so, but it would give him a chance to kill Morphine and leave. Except Morphine had fled.

"Damn!" said Glitterspike and took to the sky to find his quarry.

"Exodus?" asked Dust in surprise. "I thought Magnus had finished him once and for all? If he's free, then the whole planet is in danger."

"But what can we do? What do you know?"

"I don't know we can do," said Dust, "and you're not ready for what I know. But..."

They were interrupted by the lady behind the bar. Shakti had a com message, disguised in this place as a telephone call.

"Thanks, J," she said to the lady and picked up the reciever. "Haddad here... The X-Men are in trouble? Contact the other council members... there's nothing I can do."

With that, she hung up.

"Now hold on," commented Dust, shocked at her attitude. More than her physical situation had changed. This wasn't the same woman he'd met not so long ago.

"This is just a fantasy! Out there, I'm no better than dead. Perhaps I'd be better that way."

"Just because you're crippled and unable to use your powers does not mean your helpless," said Dust, thinking back to Xavier.

"Why?" asked Shakti, bitterly. "Is that because when you could help you chose not to? I chose not to because I can't!"

Dust stiffened, there was no getting through to her, and her attitude seemed rather irrational when he pressed her. If she wouldn't help...

"Then maybe it's about time I stopped asking for forgiveness with words." Dust logged off, leaving Shakti alone to dwell on the undue harshness of her words. Her disability had brought out a side of her she did not like.

The telephone rang again, snapping her out of her thoughts...

Morphine was seeing double. The blow he had taken had hurt, and he was not in a good state. As soon as he saw Krystalin encasing the assassin, he knew how it would turn out. His only option was to run, get undercover and figure a way of taking him out. Then he ran into a wall - a wall of light generated by the missing arm. Glitterspike had gotten quite creative now he was missing an appendage.

"Oh, shock," Morphine said quietly, as he knew that his running was over. There were no X-Men to save him this time. Jaeger grinned, but Morphine shook his head - he'd had enough. "Just shocking do it!"

"Goodbye, Morphine Somers. Haddad sends his greetings." Alexi smiled as he spoke, breaking the unwritten rule. He knew the X-Men would be too late, and that nobody could stop him now. Morphine's eyes went wide at the name, the will to live suddenly returning, but it was too late. The weapon was coming down on him, and his final thoughts were 'damn her'...

But the massive rush of pain never came...

"Huh?" he asked, as he saw an old man, holding Glitterspike at bay in a psionic grip. From his eye there was a red circle with lines of power leading from it, lines that he had seen once before. "Not him! Why couldn't he have just killed me earlier?"

Glitterspike was wondering where the hell the old guy had come from and what his stake was in this. A counter contract? Whatever the hell it was, he was holding him at bay with that psionic energy, and telekinetically preventing light from getting to him. He was burning off his energy reserves, so Alexi shut them down - there was little else he could do. Then the man spoke.

"Now," he said, and Meanstreak came in with a punch at great speed just as Dust released his psionic grip. Glitterspike came forward to meet the oncoming fist, which knocked him back in to a wall with a crunch. Krys then encased his legs in solid crystal, making certain that it would not reflect the light as easily as the last - she chided herself for that mistake. Her conversation with Luna and her interaction with Henri had obviously thrown her common sense. She looked over to Metalhead, and saw that he was still down.

"My turn!" cried La Lunatica as she leapt on Glitterspike, and as soon as she connected she began to feed on the pain, the anguish, the despair. She brought up enough memories to feed her hunger for days, and she had to be pulled off by Xi'an who arrived on the scene.

"THAT'S ENOUGH!" he said. He still had bitter memories of her doing the same thing to himself, and he would not allow it to go on longer than necessary.

(back in X-Men 2099 #25 - Eric)

"I'm sorry," she said, "I couldn't help it! I..." she looked around frantically, and then ran from the scene, ashamed of her behaviour.

"Henri," said Xi'an as he walked over to heal the wounded, "check on her, please."

"On it!" said Henri, and vanished in a blur of light.

"Nice work, stranger," said Xi'an to Dust. "You're a good leader."

"One-hundred and fifty years of experience," said Dust.

"How'd you like to put that experience to the test? The X-Men are without a field leader, and it showed today. Would you consider joining my X-Men?"

Before Dust answered, Shakti arrived on the scene in her hoverchair. She could feel Morphine's eyes watching her, and she wondered why. Was it because she hadn't been there, or was there something else? Whichever, she had news, news which had driven a dagger through her heart.

"The X-Men have been requested by Miguel O'Hara to go to Latveria. It appears they just declared war on the rest of the world!"

The cold wastes of the Antarctic were not what they were, but there was one thing of interest to the world's current Sorceror Supreme, Garokk...

The citadel that existed there, which he had visited before, contained something of importance kept by the man who owned it, so that no one else would use it. It appeared to have been visited recently as well. Garokk didn't like that, but he knew what he was after. He'd been made custodian of the place by Magnus after all.

(waaaay back in Uncanny X-Men #149-150 - Eric)

Then he found it - exactly what he wanted. It looked, moved, talked, and had the same powers as Magneto, except it was a robot. It had fooled both Mesmero and the X-Men, and it would do the same again, this time under his control.

The second of the Reavers had been gathered, next stop was Japan...

In X-Men 2099 #4: The X-Men head to Latveria to face an old enemy! Garokk gathers Reaver number three! Plus: one of Xavier City's finest is killed!