"Greetings, subjects. I assume I need no introduction.

"Given my status as the new world ruler, I would assume you have some questions about who I am, where I came from, and why I have all this advanced technology at my disposal. You must keep in mind that the information I am about to impart to you is of a general nature; once we get a worldwide network that is connected to the Font of All Knowledge operational, there will be no need for me to distribute such archaic technology as compact discs, and you can question the Font to your heart's content.

"I must warn in advance that the answer to your most obvious questions are a bit complex, and require a bit of explanation. It does involve time travel, which can confuse even the most intelligent of us. I must start with the individual I know only as Rama Tut—though I am certain that is not his real name.

"In fact, I am not certain of much about Rama Tut before he time-traveled back to the past. You see, most of what I learned about him I learned from the Font and the Eye of Ages. The records on him are sparse and don't even mention Rama Tut—they only record the history from before 11895 A.D., when Rama Tut chose to time-travel into the past. As such, the 'recent' history from the point of view of 11895 A.D.—that is, how Rama Tut came to acquire all that he did—I do not know. What I have learned from the Font and the Eye is mostly the situation at that point in time that led up to Rama Tut's heist—I have had to connect the dots myself about any information about him before the time-travel, myself.

"I apologize; I am dancing around the actual explanation. In the year 11895, the person I knew as Rama Tut, as well as several of his colleagues, stole a space station orbiting Earth, using time travel technology on it to bring it into the past. Who his colleagues were, I do not know; I have only seen other corpses wearing similarly futuristic clothes scattered around the Atlantean ruins, and am certain that this heist could not have been accomplished by only one person, given what I know about this station.

"I also am not sure how they pulled off this heist; the Font and Eye contain no records of it, other than records that the space station was 'temporally displaced' in that period. However they did so, it must have reacquired a tremendous amount of skill and foreplanning; such a thing was assuredly not common in the future, or we would have had more meddling in the past than I am aware of.

"You see, in this future—you will see why I am using such terms shortly—Mutants were eradicated eons ago by humanity. By 11895, reports of any Mutants are astonishingly rare, and humanity has spread out to the stars. Their technology, of course, was advanced far beyond what we have today—it is this technology that I have used in my quest to ensure Mutants take their rightful place as rulers of this planet. The space station that Rama Tut and his colleagues stole was a particularly special one, though, as time travel—though it was discovered some time before Rama Tut enacted his heist-is prohibited under normal circumstances, for obvious reasons. The space station they stole had illegal time travel technology, and they must have known it, for therein was the reason why they had stolen it.

"What little information I have been able to find in the Font databases refers to Rama Tut as an outlaw, and not to be trusted. He was on the run from authorities for several crimes—and so, I assume, were his colleagues. I assume that they were tired of running, and so they wanted to escape somewhere no one would find them—the past. And so they traveled back to my time, over five thousand years ago, during the beginning of the days of the Egyptian empire.

"They wanted to use their technology to rule over the primitive peoples of that time, and so landed their space station—named Atlantis—in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. However, during the time travel something must have gone wrong, given the current state of Atlantis. They were not able to bring its full force to bear upon Earth's primitive inhabitants; I assume it was shortly after this that Rama Tut killed his partners-in-crime and decided to create an empire by himself.

"He took an artifact that we call the Eye of Ages—but that likely had a considerably less impressive name, originally—and used it to land in ancient Egypt, using its power to make the land fertile and prosperous. The locals began to worship him as a god, and Rama Tut, of course, encouraged it. Eventually he became pharaoh of Egypt, and used many of his slaves not only to take some of the technology from the mostly deactivated space station Atlantis but to build it in an Egyptian 'style', to further put in the people's minds that he was a god. This is why the Sphinx had a secret, large, pyramid underneath it—because of Rama Tut's ambitions. It was to be the central place from which he ruled his empire. He also had his slaves cover the automatons that used to wander the halls of Atlantis in Egyptian rock and carvings, to help them blend in with their primitive surroundings. (It also helped that the dominant language in 11895 is not completely dissimilar to Egyptian hieroglyphics in its general appearance.)

"This was not enough for Rama Tut, however. He did not just want to rule the Egyptians; he wanted to rule the world. As a mere human, this was beyond his ability, and thus was his downfall.

"I was raised at around this time by a warrior tribe, headed by a leader called Baal. According to what he told me as I grew older, he had found me abandoned in the desert, and seeing the power in me, adopted me, making him my father of sorts. We were a fierce tribe, ruthless but fair; but we were also unwilling to bow to any others, and when Rama Tut wanted us to join his kingdom, we refused.

"A short war thus ensued, and nearly everyone in my tribe was killed—including my… my father. It was around this time that my powers had begun to manifest, and I used them to kill anyone who opposed me. I defeated the army nearly single-handedly and slaughtered my way to Rama Tut—but he had already abandoned his position, afraid of the Pandora's Box he had just opened by attacking my family. I found out only recently that he must have taken a few of his personal guard and went back to Atlantis in a last attempt to get the space station working again—though he failed, no longer having possession of the Font of All Knowledge at that point (I had taken it from his stores), and Rama Tut died within the walls of Atlantis.

"As those who were formerly under Rama Tut began to—rightly—fear me, I not only was accepted into the Egyptian ranks but, once I proved my power, was made pharaoh in Rama Tut's place. It was then that, through the Font of All Knowledge. I learned about the Eye of Ages, and spent several years studying this magnificent device. I learned where it had come from, what I was, and what it could do—that is, with the right modifications, and the right equipment, it could emit a distinctive radiation that would turn any one near it into Mutants (or kill them, depending upon the human). Knowing what I now was, I sought to turn the entirety of humankind into Mutants to prevent this future of Rama Tut's from coming to pass—and I planned to do it with the tools he had left me.

"Over the years, I expanded my empire far more than Rama Tut could have ever hoped for—I even had small tribes over in Central America far before civilization as a whole 'discovered' that continent, and I had my slaves build special pyramids in Egypt, China, and Mexico as part of my plan. Not trusting the Font to anyone else, I made sure to hide it under the Mexican pyramid.

"Unfortunately, it appears that my premonitions of distrust were correct—I had put my faith in the wrong people. To enact the plan, I needed to use the Eye of Ages as a power source—but when I did so, my Mutant power became temporarily depleted. My Council wanted to rule themselves, and they were afraid of change. Thus, when I was at my weakest, they locked me within the Eye of Ages and used what of the advanced technology they could understand to lock me behind three specially-designed doors in the Himalayas.

"It is here that our story, more or less, takes an interlude until a few short years ago. My Council fought amongst themselves, one of them eventually becoming the new pharaoh of Egypt—but without the Eye of Ages or the Font, their knowledge of the advanced technology we had been given was incomplete. Their hold on all the territory I had conquered crumbled, and was eventually forgotten throughout the centuries, beyond a few loyal locals who looked for a day when they could reopen my 'coffin' and awaken me again.

"It was also during these next few thousand years that the space station Atlantis, without power, eventually drifted in the ocean far, far south until it collided with the continent Antarctica. Over time the cold temperatures solidly froze it to the rest of the continent, and layers and layers of snow and ice on top of the station ensured that it, too, was forgotten about, becoming only a myth of a 'lost continent' that many assumed had sunk under the sea.

"A few years ago, a loyal acolyte of mine managed to revive me, and all of you are, I am sure, aware of what I tried to do first. I simply set out to complete what my plan had been in the first place—turning the world into Mutants. I regret to say that the X-Men and Brotherhood stopped me with cheap tricks, and banished me to another realm, one of pure time. (In case you are wondering why I did not activate Atlantis prior to my first attempt at this world's Ascension, I was overly confident that my plan would work—I also had no current means to enter Atlantis, with its advanced security systems, regardless. Once I had converted the world into Mutants, I would have used some of them to help me gain access to Atlantis and then activate it, to be a center point for Mutant activity and governance. Atlantis was always in the cards, but it was to come online later.)

"Regardless, after my defeat it was there, in that chronal plane, that my life outlook changed slightly. You see, when I had seen all of these images of what the Font had recorded of its past—from the point of view of the year 11895, that is—I assumed that my destiny was to change this history—to make sure that Mutant extinction had never occurred. Once I had first awoken from my 'tomb' in the Himalayas, I had merged with the Font once more at my first stop, the pyramid in Mexico—and history had changed. It had now shown me winning my battle with the X-Men and ensuring that Mutants remained the dominant species on the planet.

"But, obviously, that had not come true. So there I lay, inside the Eye of Ages in a dimension of pure time, reflecting upon my mistakes. Obviously the Font changed routinely based upon present events, and my 'destiny' was anything but. I felt that, perhaps, that dystopian future for Mutants was instead the one that was destined to come to pass. To say that I was…frustrated…was an understatement; in a fit of fury, I bashed open the Eye of Ages and left it behind in that plane of existence.

"That turned out to be another mistake. My merging with the Eye's futuristic technology on a cellular level began to disintegrate as I was left alone in the ravages of that plane. It led me to this scarred, 'half-cybernetic, half-organic' appearance you now see before you.

"I now hold a fragment of the Font in my head again, with access to its secrets—though this time, I am ensuring that I do not fail again. My backup plans have their own backup plans, you see, and that is why I will have won by the time this is distributed. I am not merely placing my bets upon one piece of futuristic technology, but several.

"Using the resources at my disposal, I have waited for several months, but at long last my plan is ready; we enact it within a few days of this recording. Knowing that the future is changed—that my victory is NOT already assured by 'destiny'—I have worked doubly hard to ensure that my efforts will not be in vain this time. I will stop the future I saw in the Font of All Knowledge from coming true, with the help of my new Horsemen.

"To demonstrate my dedication to this ideal, I have kept my appearance as it has been since I emerged back into the present day from that chronal plane. When I fully activate the Font, I will be fully merged with this technology from the future once again—if I wanted to, I could assume the strong, blue-skinned, cyborg form you have doubtless seen on television during my first attempt at this planet's Ascension. But I keep this current scarred look to remind me—constantly—of my mistakes, and to push me to never make them again. I am the planet's first and strongest Mutant, and thus by natural selection meant to lead—but I must earn that title, not simply gain it because of my birthright."

ALL LOGS HAVE BEEN PLAYED.

PLAY AGAIN OR EXIT?

"So, how are things going?"

"Well," Xavier replied, gripping his mug of coffee, "It would seem that all of my teams are utterly exhausted. They put all they had into defeating the Horsemen—and now, as you tell me, Apocalypse has yet another card up his sleeve, having deployed an innumerable number of guardians to remake the world in his image even when his own Horsemen could not."

"Yes. Already Colonel Fury tells me that they're advancing to the nearest major city—Rio de Janeiro. Or, at least, what's left of it after the tsunamis swept through and obliterated the parts of the city near to the coast… Apocalypse is still keeping a sizable contingent orbiting around that continent of his, though we still have no idea how Apocalypse was able to get something like that... however, our satellites showed some rather odd images of this subcontinent before they were taken offline."

"Oh? How so, Theresa?"

"Look at this," Kitty's mother said as she rotated in her chair back to her station, bringing up a display of the satellite. "…Now, you look at that and tell me it's not artificial."

"Good heavens," Xavier said, enthralled by the image on screen. "With all that ice and snow melting away, and large chunks of the initial segment having broken off into icebergs… it looks like the subcontinent is a perfect circle… but there's definitely a central hub. Rogue mentioned a few details about Apocalypse's base being called 'Atlantis' on the way back to the helicarrier, but she had gained such an enormous amount of knowledge from that diamond fragment she had acquired from Pestilence—the 'Font of All Knowledge', she had called it—that she was having trouble sorting through much of it. It was too much, too fast. She said it came from the far future… which matches up with what I learned when I interfaced with the Eye of Ages briefly, during my team's failed attempt to stop Apocalypse from first being released from his tomb. So it appears that all of Apocalypse's technology is from another time. How it got here—well, that's another story, and one that Rogue was too confused about to answer."

"There's more," Theresa Pryde said, punching up the same image of the subcontinent, but highlighted in different colors. "These different shades show the relative thickness of this 'Atlantis'. Notice a pattern?"

"Yes," Xavier nodded. "You've got a massive central hub—at what scale is this?"

"That 'central hub' is about three hundred miles wide," Theresa said.

Xavier shook his head slightly before continuing. "Alright… then, taking that into account, it looks like it's got four arms branching off of the central hub, looking to be about…. five hundred miles long each? Then, everything is connected by an outside ring."

"It looks like some sort of giant wheel." Theresa nodded. "How it got to ANTARCTICA is anyone's guess, but this isn't likely something Apocalypse made—at least, not entirely. It resembles some kind of futuristic space station, from the shape of it."

"So I assume it has automated defenses beyond simply the guardians, then," Xavier sighed.

"Right… so we've got to be prepared for anything. But enough about whatever Apocalypse's got going on. How's Kitty… how is everybody else holding up? I know you said they were exhausted, but…"

"We've lost more in the last day than we have since the X-Men were first founded, Theresa," Xavier responded sadly. "Even as exhausted as most of them are, not many are sleeping. Especially knowing what we still have in store. Ororo in particular is taking the loss of her nephew very hard—it took quite a bit of convincing to keep her from going after Domino. From what I've been told by Steve Rogers, Blob from the Br—erm, X-Force—is taking the death of his teammate hard, as well. Scott is also… not well. He's tried so hard for so long to keep his composure—being the 'default leader' of the younger X-Men—but it's slipping. Between his brother's death and Jean's… inexplicable power surge… he's in a quite deep depression."

"Did I hear right? Did we send Jean back to Bayville?"

"She's on a helijet back there, yes, to help out with excavating the ruins of the Empire State Building. I didn't want to risk her being in an even more uncontrollable situation as the final battle against Apocalypse nears."

"But if Apocalypse wins, when he otherwise wouldn't have if she were here…"

"That…. that won't happen. And if it did, it would unleash something even worse."

"What? Worse than Apocalypse? How do you know?"

Xavier merely sighed and muttered something nervously under his breath.

"What?" Theresa said, putting a hand on Xavier's shoulder. "Please, Professor Xavier, you've done so much for my daughter—I can tell that you're troubled about this, even more than would seem appropriate."

"Theresa, this is going to sound…" Xavier sighed again. "I'm not sure I even believe it myself anymore…"

"Believe what?"

"Theresa, when I was one of Apocalypse's Horsemen during his first attempt at world domination… I was connected to his mind via the cybernetic implants he had hooked up to me, which had escalated my powers to the nth degree. I don't remember much of anything when I was under his control, but when Rogue turned off the Eye of Ages, when our link was broken—I got a brief flash of images from the future. At least, one future. At the time—as I had told everyone who had helped us, that first time—I was certain it was our future. And I grew more certain as I saw certain images of it come true… I saw, Theresa, I saw Nimrod's attack. I didn't know when it would occur or how, but I saw it. I also saw several X-Men and X-Force members, several years older than they are now. I saw… whatever Jean might become…

"But I also saw that, through thick and thin, the X-Men would always be together. Even though individual members might falter, the organization, and its mission—it would live on. But now I have my doubts."

"Why? If you've seen so many of your visions come true already—"

"Yes, but I've also seen that at least one of my visions did NOT come true. And I know it never came true because it should have happened already. Already the specifics of that part of my vision are blurry—something about Magneto—but with him most definitively dead, it means that parts of my foreseen future may or may not come true. The future is malleable, Theresa. And—though that may relieve that part of ourselves that believes we can change our own destiny—"

"It means that you don't know if the X-Men survive anymore," Theresa finished for him. "That is… that is quite the admission, Professor. But thank you for telling me. That must have been quite the burden to carry."

"Well, I have shared it with Hank—at least parts of it. I've certainly kept the specifics of it from my students—they have enough to deal with. And if Jean were to know about her future, would it affect it? Make it occur earlier, later, not at all? I… I don't know, anymore. And Jubilee… she said something to me, a while ago, but it's sticking with me."

"What?"

"It was during one of the times she was threatening to leave. She had said something akin to how I had made them soldiers, when they hadn't signed up to be. Most of them, they had simply wanted a place to practice their powers and be safe from the outside world. Meanwhile, I usually was in a 'safe' position, simply directing them via Cerebro or whatnot. And she seems convinced that I HAD, in fact, intended for this to be the outcome. She isn't leaving, as she feels a moral obligation to see this through—but she wishes she could leave. And that attitude… that is the last thing I had EVER wanted any of my students to feel."

"Kitty… before she came back to the X-Men again, she had said something a bit similar… but she didn't lay the blame on you. My daughter blamed the world, more than anything else. But I think… I think the X-Men is where she belongs. And I think she knows it too, now. It's where she can do the most good—as can all of your students."

"I… I partially agree with you," Xavier said. "The past is the past; I can't change it. But I am through sitting on the sidelines while my students largely fight Mutantkind's battles for me. Forge—wherever he is now—he gave me this mobile hoverchair, and I can't tell you how grateful I am for it. But I still need to go a step further… I'm just not sure how to take that step. At least, not yet."

"Yes," Theresa said solemnly, "I certainly understand that. I hate that my daughter has to be a front-line warrior in all of this… but at least I feel like I belong here, at S.H.I.E.L.D., putting my computer skills to good use. But this upcoming battle—what can we do? From what you've told me, it took a large number of X-Men and former Acolytes to simply take down about half a dozen of these… these stone guardians that Apocalypse has encircling his entire station, now. How can we possibly take down enough of them to even GET at Apocalypse—and even if we do, what then?"

"Despite our wins against the Horsemen, the future looks dark, Theresa," Xavier agreed grimly, taking a sip of his coffee. "I only hope Mr. Torque and the other S.H.I.E.L.D. hacking experts have managed to make progress on the shards of that 'Font of All Knowledge' that we had collected from the Horsemen's corpses. That seems our best bet so far, but… even then, I'm not sure how much good it will do."

"Did you SEE that?"

"It was awfully hard to miss," Webber Torque said as he hesitantly leaned over and picked up the larger Font fragment that now lay on the floor in the center of the room he and the other specialty hackers had been assigned to work in. "As soon as we get the four fragments in the room, they rip themselves out of their caretakers' hands and crash into each other in the middle of the room, combining into one larger fragment?"

"Well, that Rogue person said that it was alive," said one of the techs, a blonde-haired female. "I'm not sure HOW it could be alive, but…"

"But behavior like THAT certainly suggested it has at least some rudimentary intelligence, even if it's pre-programmed," said another tech, an overweight Hispanic male with large glasses.

"Hrrm," Webber said, turning the Font fragment over in his hands. "I wonder… Font! Activate!"

Webber and all of the other techs focused their eyes on the Font….which did absolutely nothing.

"Maybe that's not the right activation phrase," said another tech.

"So then, let's yell commands at it until it activates," the blonde-haired tech suggested. "It's got to be some common word."

"I don't—" Webber began, but he was interrupted by a bunch of abrupt shouts from the other techs.

"TURN ON!"

"POWER!"

"START!"

"I really don't think that this—"

"INQUIRY!"

"INITIATE!"

"OKAY, STOP already!" Webber interrupted, pinching his sinuses. "Geez! You guys are the best S.H.I.E.L.D. could hire? Seriously?"

"Yeah, like you've got a better idea," said the overweight tech defensively. "It's called trial and error, 'Arcade'."

"Look, okay, here's what I'm hypothesizing," Webber said, adjusting his glasses as he glared at the defensive tech. "This… Font…thing, it's the same kind of tech that Apocalypse has, right? Remember the glowing writing on all those pyramids he activated a while ago? None of it was English. I'm thinking that we're going to need to get some linguists in here—maybe use some archival footage of the pyramids from before they were destroyed, see if they can piece together some of the basic language."

"That would take way too much time," said another tech. "Apocalypse has got this gigantic robotic army, and we're going to try to poke around what's left of the worldwide communication system looking for linguists to try to figure out an entire language?"

"Well, I mean, this language was around in ancient Egyptian times, so it had to have made its way at least a little bit into ancient Egyptian language…right?" Webber said.

The other techs shook their heads.

"You're grasping at straws," said the blonde-haired tech, laying her head in defeat on her desk. "We've hit a dead end."

"Oh, come on!" Webber said, exasperated. "We can't give up that easily!"

"It wasn't 'easily'," said the overweight tech. "We've been at this for almost a solid DAY, Webber. And with the short timetable we've got, it's time to realize that this thing has beaten us. We don't have other Apocalypse tech; and even if we did, we wouldn't know how to use it. We can't activate it. Game over."

Webber sighed and collapsed back into his own chair. As much as he hated to admit it, the others were right.

Not only was it game over, but they were just about out of time—and there weren't any do-overs with this "game".

To say that the mood in the conference room was dire was the understatement of the millennium.

All of the X-Men and X-Force members that were physically and/or mentally able to attend Webber's briefing were there—that is, everyone currently alive except for Wanda, Jamie, Colossus, Cyclops, and Blob, the latter two still not ready to be seen publicly at this point. Storm herself was barely holding in her fury—if looks could kill, Domino would have been killed a hundred times over during the briefing. Laura was also unusually fidgety, for some reason.

"So that's about the gist of it," Fury said from the head of the table, Webber and Professor Xavier flanking him. "Somehow, Apocalypse has been able to detect this 'Font of All Knowledge' thing that I'm holding even through all of the helicarrier's stealth shielding and we detecting the entire portion of his robot army that had stationed themselves around his base give up their positions and head towards us about twenty minutes ago. They'll be here within about two hours, and then…"

"Then we're all dead," Jubilee said.

No one even had the strength to refute Jubilee's interruption. Even with all of the X-Men and X-Force members together and combined with S.H.I.E.L.D.'s helicarrier armaments and personnel, there was no way they would win a confrontation with that many of Apocalypse's automated guardians. Counting everyone on the helicarrier, the mass of guardians heading towards them outnumbered them more than ten-to-one.

"What if we split up before they get here, take refuge amongst those nations that haven't been damaged yet—fight a guerilla war?" Captain America asked.

"So they could pick us off one by one? No thanks," Quicksilver replied, and it appeared that the vast majority of those present agreed with him.

"What we CAN do," Fury said, laying the inert Font on the table in front of him, "is head the helicarrier towards them at full speed. I'll set the engine reactor to blow—take out as many of them as we can."

There was a long silence as everyone took in just how grim things were for Nick Fury to suggest that.

"This finale sucks," Deadpool moped.

"It sounds like that's the way to do the most damage," Beast said dejectedly. "I—reluctantly—agree with Colonel Fury's plan."

"I can't believe it's come to this," Rahne cried. "All 'o this—fightin' the Horsemen, the deaths—and it all comes down t' nothin'. We still didn't stop him, we just delayed him by a couple 'o hours."

"If anyone wants to leave before they arrive, you're free to take a helijet out now," Fury said solemnly.

"Why? Where would we go?" Mercury said. "I'd… I'd rather have my last m-moments by with all of you than backed into a corner by myself."

No one else said anything, so it appeared to Fury that no one was going to take him up on his offer.

"Alright, then," Fury said, "I'll instruct the helicarrier pilots to fly right to the incoming swarm of robots, maximum speed. Go ahead and say your goodbyes, say your prayers, whatever you need to do—just remember you've got less than two hours to do it. I'll get down to the reactor and prep it for overloading when the time comes. Dismissed."

Everyone except Webber and Xavier got up from their chairs and slowly made their way out of the briefing room, dejected—except for Laura, who for some reason walked quite quickly out of the room, apparently on some personal mission.

After about a minute of silence, Webber sighed and looked at the Font lying there on the table in front of him. "I… I'm so sorry, Professor X. We… we tried our best. Kitty, she put all her faith in me, and I still couldn't crack the code."

"It wasn't your fault, Webber," Xavier sighed. "If you couldn't crack the Font, I sincerely doubt anyone could."

"Yeah… I guess," Webber said, a single tear trickling its way down one of his cheeks. "I'm… I'm gonna go ahead and contact my parents… one last time."

"Yes, by all means," Xavier said. "I'll be fine here—I just want to… ponder some things for a moment."

Webber nodded and wordlessly made his way out of the room.

Xavier sighed and put his head down on the table in front of him.

After all we've been through, to have it end like this…

A sudden urge to take out his frustration on something came upon Xavier, and with no one else there to see him, he felt he could indulge it. Grabbing the Font—this accursed thing, we were so close but so far!—he prepared to throw it across the room.

He nearly jumped out of his chair when it suddenly came to life as soon as he touched it. The Font's circuitry lines suddenly began to glow blue again, and it started to transform itself slightly, until it partially came open, a piercingly bright blue light coming out of the center.

Even more surprising, the Font spoke.

*User –ecog-ized- Welc-me, P-ofes-or Ch-rle- Xavie-.*

Xavier immediately let the Font fall, but it stayed there, hovering in mid-air as Professor X cautiously wheeled away from it. It was slightly hard to understand, short chirps in its speech occurring at irregular intervals—but Xavier got the gist of it.

"What the- how did you activate? How do you know my name?"

*I su-pose I -ave –hang-d vis-ally… -ut st-ll, I -m s-rprise-. Do y-u not r-cogn-ze yo-r cre-tion?*

"My… my what?" Xavier stammered. "I… I never created anything like you."

*But -ou pl-nted -he seeds- Alth-ugh I go by t-e name- "Font o- All K-owle-ge" in t-e fut-re, my or-gin-l titl- was C-rebro.*

"….What?"

Jamie looked up from his small personal med-bay room as Laura came in quickly, the door sliding shut behind her.

"Oh… hey, Laura. Uh… what do you need?"

Laura made a motion as if to sit on the side of Jamie's bed, but then quickly stood back up, looking even more stiff than usual.

"I… just wanted to see how you are doing. Have any of your ribs healed yet?"

Jamie let out a chuckle, stopping it abruptly as he winced at the pain. "They're broken bones, Laura. It's gonna probably be at least six weeks before I'm going to be able to get up and move around normally again—and that's a bare minimum."

Laura's eyes widened slightly, but again she managed to put her face back in a neutral expression after a split second. "Six weeks? How are you able to handle being confined to a bed for six weeks? I could not imagine having to do that."

Jamie smiled and held up a handheld gaming system. "Well, stuff like this helps. I mean, yeah, it stinks, but… it's not like I've got any other option. Not everyone can heal as fast as you can, y'know."

"I… I realize that. It is just… I didn't realize a normal person's healing factor was quite that low."

"So, how are the others doing?"

"Colossus had his face caved in from one of Death's punches. He will be able to survive, though it is taking the S.H.I.E.L.D. doctors a significant amount of effort to reshape his face into its former look—they have to use very high-pressured tools to bend Colossus' organic metal back into place. He also has to be awake for it, since no needle can penetrate his arm right now to give him coma-inducing drugs, and if he were to turn back into his normal form, the damage to his face in a flesh form would likely kill him almost immediately."

Jamie winced. "Ouch."

"The others—Scarlet Witch is much like you. In good condition, but confined to a bed for now. The rest of the Mutants assembled here are having a… difficult time emotionally."

"Yeah," Jamie sighed. "But at least we're one step closer to saving the day, right?"

Laura's eyes glanced downwards for a moment before meeting him again. "Yes… but our defeat seems assured at this point."

"Wh-what? Why? Don't have such a pessimistic attitude, Laura. I mean, we thought were all gonna be doomed when the new Horsemen showed up, and it took a lot of work, but look what happened to—"

"Colonel Fury said it himself," Laura interrupted, which caused Jamie's expression to widen.

"W-why would he say something like that?! Before we even engage in a fight… and after everything we've done already?"

"It does not matter," Laura said. "You have been confined here—you do not know what is happening. Apocalypse is still within his enormous base, and he has launched many thousands of the same cybernetic guardians that I recall some of the X-Men faced underneath the Sphinx some time ago. We thought we still had time to come up with a plan, rest, and heal… but we do not. Apocalypse's tech has managed to cut through the S.H.I.E.L.D. encryption algorithms, and he knows where we are. A significant force is heading our way… and we are heading their way. Colonel Fury expects engagement in roughly ninety minutes over the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, about a hundred miles away from where Apocalypse's base of operations is. There is… no chance that we survive against those kinds of numbers."

"….Oh," Jamie said, a few tears beginning to run down his cheeks. "Well, I… guess I can't say I'm surprised. Optimism can only get you so far. Still, after everything we've done in the past day, I thought we still had a chance. Thanks, uh… thanks for telling me, Laura. Better this than it being a surprise to me when they suddenly attack the helicarrier."

Laura still stood there awkwardly, her gaze shifting down to her feet.

"…Laura? You… you dealing with this okay?"

"Given my… background, I have always assumed I would meet a violent end," Laura said. "That is not what bothers me. It is… it is… just…"

"….Well?"

"…It is just… I do not have much time left. There was something Maverick told me a short while ago, before he died… something I think I will give a try. Only there is not much time left, so I do not have time to do this as proper custom dictates."

"What are you talking abou—"

Jamie was interrupted as, in the blink of an eye, Laura stepped over to the side of the bed, leaned down, and kissed him. Jamie's eyes went wide for a moment, but he quickly relented and kissed back.

As quickly as it began, it was over—and Laura pulled back away, her face flushed as she wiped her mouth briefly with her sleeve.

"I… I am sorry. I should go. Do not tell anyone of this."

"No, Laura, wait—"

But Laura had already exited Jamie's medbay room, the door sliding shut behind her.

Colonel Nick Fury had just inserted his command key to prep the helicarrier's reactor for an overload countdown when he got a message via his comlink headset.

*Colonel Fury?*

"What is it? Good news or bad news?"

*I'm… not sure, sir. It… it could be both, actually.*

Nick Fury sighed, impatient. "I guess the answer I'm asking for is, should I continue with prepping the reactor or not?"

*I think you should hold off on that. For now.*

"You know I don't have the patience for this—quit with the cryptic talk. What. Is it?"

*U-uh—well, sir, a lot of unidentified bogeys have appeared on the long-range scanners. But they're not coming from the same direction as Apocalypse's guardians—they're coming from both the east AND west. I'm not sure who or what they are—waiting on satellite confirmation, and that'll take a few minutes. I just thought I'd tell you before you… you know, start something you can't take back.*

"Did you send out a broadcast, telling them to identify themselves?"

*I did, sir. No response yet, but that doesn't necessarily mean they're not friendly—you know how advanced our tech is compared to… well, anyone but Apocalypse. They're likely on our scanners before we're on theirs… though that wouldn't explain why they seem to be converging on our position.*

"I… see. ETA on arrival?"

*About sixty minutes—ten minutes or so before Apocalypse's guardians are set to arrive, if both sets of bogeys keep their speed constant.*

"Hrrmm… alright. Thank you for the information. Holding off on the reactor countdown for now—but contact me the second you've got some confirmation on whatever else it is we're dealing with, here."

*Will do, sir.*

*Are –ou sur- you do-'t want –e to re-ate my –acks-ory? –t wo-ld hel- you un-erst-nd you- situ-tion be-ter…*

"Backstories can wait until later," Xavier replied, the hovering, glowing Font following his hoverchair through the corridors of the helicarrier. "I need you to help with something more important first." They passed the occasional S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, who either looked at the Font with a wide-eyed stare or simply turned around when they saw it and walked in the opposite direction. It wouldn't be long before word that the Font was active would spread throughout the helicarrier, and he was certain that explanations would be needed—but there wasn't time for that. Not right now, not with scarcely an hour before Apocalypse's armada arrived at S.H.I.E.L.D.'s mobile doorstep.

Xavier looked at door after door, until he saw the one that he wanted. Luckily for him, it was open—and inside, in the computer- and monitor-filled room, sat Webber Torque and an assortment of other depressed S.H.I.E.L.D. techs, most of them composing e-mails or using other means of electronic correspondence to say goodbye to their loved ones.

"Webber," Xavier said, clearing his throat as he and the Font entered the room.

Webber looked up, along with the rest of the S.H.I.E.L.D. techs—and their eyes went wide.

"Wh-what?!" Webber exclaimed, getting up excitedly yet cautiously and tentatively walking over to the hovering Font. "How… how did you get it to work?!"

"There's no time for that," Xavier said quickly, waving Webber's request away. "We've got a lot of work to do and not much time to do it in. I've conversed a short while with this… Font, and it can help you break Apocalypse's code."

Immediately a cheer went up in the room.

"Alright!" Webber shouted, practically jumping up in the air in excitement. "If we can break Apocalypse's code, than this means…this means that we can shut down the whole operation! That entire huge ship he's got in the Atlantic! I mean, Apocalypse himself will still be active, but that's a major obstacle down—"

*I am –frai- it –s not th-t si-ple,* the Font spoke, causing the various techs' eyes to grow even wider. *I am –nly four-fi-ths –ompl-te, -hich is w-y my –oc-l pr-cesso- is ha-ing tr-ubl- c-mplet-ng –ords. I c-n gr-nt yo- acces- to the –tatio-'s sec-ri-y syst-ms, -ut I can-ot d-sable –hem. Ap-cal-pse has on- fragm-nt of –e, and is –n cont-ol of it. I –annot sh-t –own any-hing f-r good unl-ss I am –omplet-. *

Immediately the mood in the room turned dour again.

"B-but… what is that gonna matter?" asked the overweight, tan-skinned tech. "We've got a bajillion guardians heading towards us, so why would we bother hacking systems just to do stuff like open and close doors in Apocalypse's base if we can't turn off the guardians? It's a futile endeavor."

"Not futile, not at all," Xavier said. "I have… discussed… some things with this portion of the Font, and as a recognized 'user', it has gone along with my plan. But first things first—it needs to give you the information you need if- or when—we make it to Apocalypse's base of operations."

Webber gave Xavier an odd look for a moment, but then sat down and turned towards his computer. "Uh… alright, then. Go ahead."

*If –his is –hat th- use- wants, -han I –hall ob-y.*

"Yes, this is what the 'user' wants," Xavier smirked. "Download all the information you have on the code the station is run with into the servers here."

*Un-ersto-d. Tran-ferr-ng –ow.*

Scott heard a heavy knock on his temporary bedroom's door.

"Hey. Summers," came a muffled voice from the other side.

"Go away, Toad," Scott sniffled, wiping his nose, his back to the door as he sat slouched on a bed. "I am not in the mood."

"An' you think I am? Just lemme in."

Scott sighed and motioned for the door to slide open, which Toad awkwardly walked through. Scott still refused to turn around to face his visitor, though.

"…Well?" Scott said after a few moments of silence had gone by.

"I'm workin' on it!" Toad protested. "I just… I didn't think you'd open up the door so easily, man."

"Then come back when you've got something to—" Scott began, but Toad interrupted him.

"So I heard about your brother," Toad said, twiddling his fingers as his gaze turned down towards the floor. "I'm sorry."

"Everyone's heard about my brother by now," Scott said. "That's not why you came in here, Toad. Out with it."

"I just… I just wanted ya to know that you're not alone in this," Toad said.

"I know. I heard about Surge, too. We've also lost Amara, Evan, Alex, Maverick… maybe Jean…"

"Now don't think like that. She's on her way back to Bayville to help out, right?"

"You weren't there, Toad, and neither was I. But Professor X was, as was Storm. I… I talked to both of them. They were both scared, Toad. More scared than I've ever seen them… and yeah, that includes the past day or so. They described what they saw to me when I asked why Jean wasn't staying to help, but… I've…. I've lost my brother already today, and I don't know what's happening to my wife. And now it looks like we're all going to die in the next thirty minutes… I guess it's just as well. I just… wanted to spare them some thoughts before—"

"Okay, that's enough of that pity party already," Toad interjected.

"How DARE you-!" Scott began, turning around for the first time, his face red, flushed, and tired-but he was interrupted again.

"Don't get me wrong, I had my fair share of it myself earlier," Toad said, putting his hands up slightly in a defensive gesture. "But Blob—heh. I helped him through it, as did the rest of X-Force. And your friends'll help you, too, if we make it through this."

"We won't."

"Well, there's that inspiring leader-speak you're so famous for, ain't it?"

"…Shut up. Just… just leave already."

"No. I ain't gonna leave, Summers, because we're gonna need every one of us for this upcomin' fight. And I mean, this whole thing, it started with us… I figured you're the guy I should talk to now that Blob's feelin' at least a bit better."

"It didn't start with us," Scott corrected. "It started with Professor X and Magneto. And Mystique."

"Look, y' know what I mean, aight? I was the first one who wasn't some kinda leader choosin' a side other than the X-Men. I started makin' all of us choose sides. So this… it's all a bit o' symmetry, y'see, to have th' whole thing end with us talkin', too. But you helped me then, an' I'm helping you now. I mean… we can't go out like this. If we're gonna go out, let's go out takin' down as many of those robo-statues with us."

"I'm tired, Toad. I'm just… I'm tired of fighting."

"Then take all that pain, all that rage, ya got… and channel it into this."

"I'm not going to take advice on how to control my feelings from a Brotherhood member, thanks."

"Man, you still on that? I thought you hero-types didn't hold grudges."

"After all the crud you pulled under Mystique's tutelage? I think it's more than deserved."

"Yeah, an' I realize now that all that wasn't the best stuff to do, but… I can't take back the past. Me and the rest of X-Force… I thought by now we'd have showed you that we've struck out on a different path. Now, I still don't feel as forgivin' to humanity as you X-Men do, but—"

"So you're trying to make amends, then?"

"…Yeah, I suppose. Kinda. I mean, we DID just save a buncha people."

"Haven't we all."

"Look, stop with the comebacks already, aight? Others, they're mournin', but they're ready for a fight—but you, the others told me you're not. And I ain't gonna see a fellow Mutant—even you—just sit somethin' like this out."

"Why not? What does it matter?"

"What does it matter? Okay, Summers, let's think. Let's say… I dunno, one guy lives. One lucky S.H.I.E.L.D. agent lives, and makes it back to a continent. The world's under Apocalypse's control, right? Everyone's feelin' hopeless. And then they hear from this one lucky agent guy who lives, he says, yeah, the leader of the X-Men, he just gave up. Whaddaya think that's gonna do to anyone who's thinkin' about resistin'?"

For the first time, Scott looked up slightly, his eyes meeting Toad's.

"But if that same situation happens, an' we stood up to the last guy?" Toad continued. "Just think what kinda inspirin' story that'll make. Even if we don't make the difference in the war against Apocalypse today, we might make the difference much later down the line—long after we're dead."

After a few moments of silence, Scott stood up, wiping his nose again and clearing his throat.

"Y'know, Todd, you can… you can be a bit of an inspiration, sometimes. I never knew you had it in you."

"Eh, honestly, ninety percent 'a that Captain America told to me just twenty minutes ago," Toad shrugged sheepishly. "But I felt it was worth repeatin'. 'Specially to you."

"So, then," Scott said, breathing in deeply. "Let's get ready for this."

"Now THAT'S the kinda response I wanted ta—"

Toad was interrupted as a shudder shook the helicarrier, and blaring red alarm klaxons went off everywhere.

"What is going on?!" Fury radioed out. "What's happening?"

*The incoming bogies, sir… we got a satellite lock on them a few seconds ago. They're…. it's an armada, Colonel Fury! Military jets, transport planes, fighters of every kind… from, from dozens of nations… they're all converging on us.*

"What? That doesn't make any sense!" Fury said, wincing as another shudder shook the carrier. "They're on our side, why would they fire on us?!"

*Well, the world as a whole doesn't know about the existence of helicarriers, much less S.H.I.E.L.D…. they must have broken through our camouflage… maybe they're convinced we're allied with Apocalypse, given our comparatively advanced tech?*

"That's ridiculous!" Fury roared, struggling to be heard over the alarm klaxons. "We've been sending them messages to identify themselves constantly for the last several minutes… haven't we?"

Another distant boom, though this one caused the floor the shake so much Fury had to brace himself to keep from falling over.

*We… we absolutely have, sir! I can't imagine why they haven't responded—*

They think it's a trick, came a voice inside Fury's head—and apparently inside the head of the tech that was on the other end of the comlink as well, since his sentence abruptly stopped. They're determined to destroy us—the nations of the world, though they've started to recover militarily from the Horsemen's attacks, are still panicking, and at this point are firing on anything that they don't recognize.

"And how do you know all this, Xavier?!" Fury shot back.

I know it because I've read all of their minds.

It wasn't just a few S.H.I.E.L.D. operatives that Professor X had telepathically communicated with—it was everyone on board. Everyone was listening to Xavier's mass-release telepathic message.

Webber Torque and the other S.H.I.E.L.D. techs had witnessed how it had all happened. After the Font had transferred the de-coding information to their computers, Webber had checked on the computers.

"I-it's like I hypothesized," Webber sputtered as he glanced at the new information spilling in onscreen. "That's why we were never able to solve this thing! This isn't just a simple binary on-off language, it's an actual language that's being used in Apocalypse's systems!"

"Slightly modified from our own," the blonde tech commented as she looked at the information displayed on her own monitor. "It's got thirty-one letters…but I can see some of the roots… this is amazing."

*Is th-s –nough?* the Font chirped.

"Uh… y-yeah, now that we know the language, we should be able to figure out any hacks," Webber said. "Though Apocalypse can still override us?"

*If he –pecif-ally f-c-ses on ov-rriding th- c-mma-d,* the Font stated.

"Font… er, Cerebro," Xavier asked the artifact, drawing Webber's bewildered gaze as he uttered the latter word. "Forgive me for the straightforward question here, but we don't have much time, and I'm forming… something of a plan, at least. By ourselves, we don't stand much of a chance against Apocalypse, much less his armada of guardians coming our way. But… I mean, if I were to, erm…. interface with you in the same manner that you did with the Horsemen…"

"Professor, are you nuts?!" Webber interrupted. "We all heard what happened to Death—Sinister, whatever—when he disobeyed Apocalypse! You want that to happen to you, too?!"

"Will it?" Xavier asked the Font.

*Neg-tiv-,* the Font replied. *A-ocalyp-e has th- co-mand –ragme-t, but –ou h-ve f-ur of –he fiv-. You –ould not –ffec- his frag-ent, -ut neit-er –ould h- y-urs.*

Xavier let out a long sigh. "And it will enhance my powers? Just like it did for the Horsemen?"

*Aff-rm-tive.*

"Then let's do it—with your permission, of course," Xavier said, with less confidence than he intended. "Rogue said that you were alive and of your own intelligence, correct?"

*I –m an ar-ific-al i-tellig-nce, but I –ake my –wn d-cisi-ns. I giv- you –y pe-miss-on.*

Wordlessly, the light coming from the center of the Font was cut off as it reshaped itself into a familiar diamond-shaped form again, and then slowly hovered up and into Xavier's forehead, disappearing from view as it merged with his mind at a molecular level.

Xavier let out a gasp as he abruptly jolted backward, hitting his head hard on the seat of his hover-chair, blue light streaming out of his eyes as he began to spasm.

"Professor!" Webber said, practically jumping out of his chair. "Oh, man, I knew that this was a bad—"

Webber laid out a hand to try to hold the Professor steady, but Xavier shot out one of his own arms at Webber, catching the red-haired teen by the elbow.

It's… it's fine, Xavier said, his eyes still shining brightly, though otherwise he looked unchanged—that is, until he let go of Webber's arm gently and rose out of his hover-chair, the Professor now hovering above the ground under his own power.

You'll pardon me, everyone, Xavier said into the minds of everyone present, his expression a mixture of calm and intrigue. But I'm going to need to expand this conversation to everyone onboard… and further. Time is even shorter than I realized.

Apocalypse winced as a flood of images invaded his mind.

Xavier…. No.

Apocalypse had just "felt" the other four-fifths of the Font activate again, as well as their bonding to—of all people—Xavier.

He had hoped that, with the Font in their possession, they wouldn't have discovered the Font's origins… but it looked like, somehow, they had.

If only all of my Horsemen hadn't failed me…

Looking back up at the various virtual view screens displayed in front of him, Apocalypse felt the slightest tinge of a feeling he had felt only twice before in his life—a feeling that was so alien to him, it took a moment for him to place exactly what it was, and why he hated it so.

That feeling was fear.

What was remarkable about Xavier's following "conversation" with everyone onboard the helicarrier was the speed at which it took place. When someone asked or "thought" a question back at Xavier, that thought occurred at roughly the same speed as speech, and Xavier waited patiently for the person to stop speaking or "thinking at him", but whenever Xavier himself "spoke" to his audience, the entire conversation occurred over a dozen times faster than if he were to have said it. With his newfound abilities, Xavier could simply implant the memory of this conversation—along with relevant images—into everyone's minds. There was no need to have a literal "thought dialogue" with everyone else.

First things first, Xavier thought after he had replied to Nick Fury's question. All of the nations of the world that are present in this assault—we are not your enemy. Allow me to show you all that the X-Men, X-Force, and S.H.I.E.L.D. have been through over the past day or so…

…And now you see why we are where we are. We are not your enemy; S.H.I.E.L.D. may be more secretive at times than I think they need be, but we are all on the same side. Against Apocalypse.

One more missile impacted the helicarrier, though it was a glancing blow.

…Commander Kristov from the Russian Air Force apologizes for that last hit, Xavier thought to everyone, "relaying" the apology from one of the many minds he had connected to from the incoming impromptu coalition of airships. He had just hit the launch button when I entered his mind.

"Professor?" Storm asked from her room deep within the helicarrier. "What… what have you done?"

What I had to, Storm. This… this international coalition… ironically enough, they had taken up the battle when they saw that we had retreated. With many satellites lacking receivers worldwide and all the broken communication lines due to all the damage from the Horseman and the tsunamis, nations had to largely rely on older technology to get their forces together. They didn't know why we had retreated, but they knew that we had saved them—especially the Chinese, the Russians, the English, and the Americans, who together make up a bit more proportionally of this coalition of fighter jets, planes, and other kinds of aircraft than their respective populations would suggest.

They knew that we had saved them, and they knew at least enough about the world events to know about Apocalypse's time-displaced station separating from Antarctica. So they took whatever forces they were able to gather and contacted other nearby countries—and those countries contacted others. They all know that this fight is for the world itself—and they are prepared to stand with us if it means the defeat of Apocalypse.

"That's nice, but… d' they know what they're getting' into?" Toad asked skeptically.

I have already relayed to them what I am planning.

"And what is that?" the Scarlet Witch asked from her recovery room.

I've activated and merged with the Font—just as the Horsemen did.

About a hundred different protests rose up from around the helicarrier, but Xavier brushed their concerns aside.

I've talked to the Font itself. It… it recognizes me as a user. It told me—and the history it's fed me confirms this—that the 'Font of All Knowledge' actually started out its "life" as Cerebro. In this future that Apocalypse's fortress—a space station from the far future taken back into the distant past—came from, Mutantkind has been exterminated—and Cerebro's archives were the main weapon the human authorities used to hunt down and destroy us. Eventually, Cerebro became such an important source of information that, over time, its databanks were distributed worldwide. Other information—mostly historical—also became embedded in Cerebro over time, until it essentially became a one-stop "encyclopedia" of the future, with hundreds if not thousands of copies made of it. However, with Mutants no more, those who modified Cerebro into what they called the Font of All Knowledge didn't discover that Cerebro's ability to magnify my powers was altered over its many upgrades to be able to magnify ANY Mutant's powers, and considerably moreso. This is what Apocalypse discovered back in his time, and thus hid the Font in an inaccessible location below his "modified" Mayan pyramid. That was where the Font I have currently merged with came from—and why I am able to activate it.

"But… but if you already know about the future, we're doomed anyways!" Avalanche lamented. "We'll all be wiped out eventually!"

The future, as I have found out myself, is NOT fixed, and Apocalypse now knows that, too. We can stop this madman from enacting his plan, but only if we all work together. Having seen glimpses into everyone's minds that are gathered within a several-mile radius, I know our strengths and our weaknesses. With my help and relaying of orders, we can stop that from happening. Here. Today.

But, as enhanced as my powers now are, I cannot stop this alone. I will need your help—all of you.

Xavier smiled as the various responses to that call to action came pouring into his mind.

Thank you all. Now… here's my plan…

After telling everyone of the roles they each would play, Xavier stopped conversing with everyone mentally (though he still could hear the thoughts of anyone nearby that he chose to). He sent two quick mental messages to two other individuals quickly, then made his way down to the helicarrier's hangar.

"Well, look on the bright side. At least we'll die either in mid-air or in some alien space station base-thing, instead of here among people we know and could've fought alongside. Again, this finale sucks."

"Be quiet, Deadpool," Rogue sneered. "If I hafta tolerate much more 'a your constant ranting, I'm gonna convince the Professor to replace you with Talon."

"Is everyone buckled up and in their flight suits?" Nightcrawler asked, raising his voice abruptly as another boom sounded throughout the helicarrier.

"It's kinda tight, but it fits," Blob replied. "I'm surprised they had one in my size…"

"Good to go," Quicksilver said, a much closer boom sounding through the helicarrier's hangar.

"I'm not," Deadpool replied. "I can't believe I forgot to bring that little book of one-liners I had written with me when were recruited by S.H.I.E.L.D. this time. Apocalypse is gonna say something ridiculously clever, and my response is going to be little better than, "Uh, well…. your face! Stupid Domino, she should've reminded me…"

"Does anyone have any actual problems?" Nightcrawler asked, rolling his eyes.

Silence.

Okay, then, Professor, Nightcrawler thought. Let's give this a go.

Excellent, the Professor said, smiling. Remember, don't engage the helijet's engines, that could throw me off. I'll be bringing the vehicle along with me telekinetically, while making sure you're wrapped in a mental force field bubble to be kept safe until we get to Apocalypse's base.

"Enough with the exposition already!" Deadpool groaned. "Let's get to the action!"

Fair enough, Xavier thought back, his eyes glowing brighter briefly as he turned away from them and towards the hangar door, still hovering as, with a gesture, he raised the giant door open. Brace yourselves. We've got a lot of territory to cover and not a lot of time to do it in.

Quicksilver, Nightcrawler, and Shadowcat visibly gulped as the helijet they were strapped into began to move of its own volition, following closely behind Xavier's hovering, glowing form as he guided both of them out the shaking helicarrier hangar and into the open air.

Outside, it appeared to be chaos. There was so much going on around them that it seemed a bit removed from the occupants of Xavier's helijet, as if they were watching a blockbuster movie instead of reality. Apocalypse's armada of futuristic guardians had engaged the helicarrier mere minutes ago, and there were thousands of individual fights being waged all around the helicarrier, which itself was suspended a few hundred feet over the northern middle area of the Atlantic Ocean and slowly losing altitude, with two of its turbines already offline.

Still, given such a huge armada, they were holding up surprisingly well. Storm, Iceman, Angel—any Mutant who could fly was diving around all over the place, attacking the sturdy mechanical guardians in a hit-and-run method, dodging every punch thrown their way, at least so far. The helicarrier's defenses were on full alert, automated and manual guns firing from all over the vast flying structure, though they were being fairly quickly taken out due to their fixed positions. That wasn't to say that the helicarrier itself was defenseless, however—any guardians that had already managed to penetrate the carrier's tough, armored exterior were being turned at least temporarily back by crowds of S.H.I.E.L.D. soldiers and various X-Men and X-Force members who weren't able to fly.

Most unbelievable of all were the sheer numbers of aerial dogfights going on between the guardians and allied aircraft, whether they were from S.H.I.E.L.D.'s own forces or from the vast armada of jets and planes from other countries. So much was happening at once that it was almost too much for one to even look at—and yet, their efforts were all being directed mentally by Xavier, who—through casual glances in people's minds—was able to see where their front was weak, faltering, or had outright been broken through, and he redirected anyone remotely nearby to help reinforce that portion of their line. As such, the large coalition army of Mutants and humans were working together nearly as efficiently as a hive mind.

Even so, everyone knew it could only last so long—and shortly Xavier would be occupied with his own task, leaving S.H.I.E.L.D. techs like Theresa Pryde and Webber Torque to coordinate their defenses. What was more, the flying guardians (who, at least, didn't have ranged weapons) continued to pour onto or into the helicarrier and its hundreds of support vehicles. For every guardian that was destroyed, ten more landed and began their assault.

Time was of the utmost essence, and Xavier knew it.

Hold on tight, was all he thought to the Mutant crew in the helijet behind him as he suddenly bursted forward at a speed quickly approaching supersonic, the helijet accelerating quickly as it followed right behind him.

Any guardians unfortunate enough to be in Xavier's way were either outright obliterated by the psychic bubble that surrounded him and the helijet, or were at least knocked far, far out of the way if they happened to get merely a glancing blow from the telekinetic sphere.

The Mutant crew in the helijet could only clutch their armrests tightly as they continued to accelerate to the point where they felt the blood draining from the front of their bodies, their speed now at multiple Machs. If they accelerated any further, Xavier knew they would blackout, even with the temporary pilot suits they all currently wore that were specifically designed to keep blood circulating at high Gs. Thus, he kept his speed just slow enough so that the Mutants he had picked specifically for this incursion wouldn't fail their mission before it even begun.

Jubilee fired a strong blast of her fireworks right into the guardian's optical sensors, shattering them.

That seemed to finally do it; after the battering she, Armor, Pyro, Cyclops, and several S.H.I.E.L.D. soldiers had given it, it finally collapsed to the ground with a dull boom, bits still smoking.

Jubilee removed her goggles for a second and caught her breath, looking out the large hole in the wall of the helicarrier that the guardian had ripped open a short while earlier, out to the masses of other robotic guardians that were still incoming—and a pinkish-purple psychic bubble blasting a hole through the enemy's ranks as it zoomed out to the horizon.

Jubilee gulped in air, not really having the energy to let out a sob, though a single tear ran down one of her cheeks.

She had been one of the people Xavier had contacted via a private telepathic conversation as soon as his "mass mind broadcast" had finished.

She hadn't said—or thought anything back—as Xavier had said his peace, though she still felt a little bit guilty about what had prompted the private message. She immediately shook that feeling away, or at least tried to—she knew that instilling a measure of guilt wasn't what Xavier had intended—and she knew that she had been right to call him out on it, all those months back. But still… as she saw that glowing psychic bubble disappear over the horizon, carrying friends that she very likely would never see again, she couldn't help but recall the psychic message Xavier had told her.

Jubilee… I just wanted to say something to you before everything begins in a few more minutes. Do you remember, that night several months ago, when you said that I had essentially forced unwilling students into becoming soldiers—that due to moral obligations, I had forced all of you into this life when, if you had known about the consequences, you wouldn't have joined the Institute in the first place?

It's been eating at me ever since. I've tried to brush it away, but it keeps coming back. You were right, Jubilee—at least partially. I truly did not see, when I formed the Xavier Institute for Gifted Youngsters, that it would all eventually come to this once Mutants became public knowledge—and for that, I was a fool.

But my intentions aren't what matter now—it's the results, and you were exactly right about the results. I forced you unwittingly into all of this, and I don't know how to adequately express my sorrow and regret for all of the grief I have caused you and all of my students.

If my plan works—if we, somehow, manage to get all through this and defeat Apocalypse—I will not repeat this mistake again. The X-Men will become something different—something better.

I promise.

And if I cannot do so myself—for whatever reason—then that's why I'm telling you this, now. So that someone knows my intentions and can make sure that, when we rebuild, it's not simply like last time.

Jubilee was shaken out of her reverie by Cyclops' voice.

"Alright, everyone, just got a call—three more guardians have penetrated the hull, two decks down! MOVE!"

Jubilee wiped her face with the back of her yellow sleeve, put her goggles back down over her eyes, and ran after her teammates back into the red-flashing corridors of the helicarrier.

Slight change of plans, everyone.

"What? NOW?" Shadowcat said in disbelief as Xavier and the helijet he had been pulling along began to slow down dramatically.

A few hundred feet below was a mind-bogglingly enormous futuristic pyramid, large bits of melting ice and snow still clinging to its sides, partially obscuring the giant glowing blue letters embedded into the structure. The top of the pyramid nearly reached the clouds, and near the horizon, one could make out one of the four huge semicircular tunnels that came out of the pyramid's base, running off in the four cardinal directions. The ground outside of those obvious curved tunnels still looked like any part of Antarctica, though it was clearly continuing to melt and decay—if Apocalypse's station kept moving up towards the equator at this rate, there likely wouldn't be much left of the many layers of snow and ice that had built up around the station during the millennia it had been stuck next to the real Antarctic continent. Turrets and guns all over the pyramid were blasting away at them with what seemed like some sort of plasma weaponry, but Xavier's psychic bubble was easily deflecting all of the incoming projectiles.

"Professor," Shadowcat continued, "I think it's a bit late to—"

I'm sensing Forge in there. He's being controlled by the same technology that Apocalypse used on me during his first attempt at world domination.

Quicksilver's mouth dropped open. "You're kidding me. I figured he was dead, just like Destiny and that green kid are."

"Then what are we waiting for?!" Nightcrawler exclaimed. "Let's get in there and save him!"

I agree—but you need to get him as far away from the center of this pyramid. Preferably into one of the tunnels leading away from it, if possible. Once I engage with Apocalypse, things are bound to get… dangerous.

"So where is the tech-head?" Deadpool asked.

Nightcrawler, I'm sending you the coordinates. Do you see them in your mind?

"I… yes, Professor."

Then take the others and exit, now. Free Forge from the mind-control tech and see if he can help us somehow.

"Got it. Hold on, everyone."

Nightcrawler unbuckled his seatbelt and hopped into the middle of the helijet, as the rest of the team—Blob, Quicksilver, Shadowcat, Deadpool, and Rogue—all unbuckled their own belts and held onto one of Kurt's arms or shoulders.

A second later, they were gone.

Good, Xavier thought to himself. Now that they've left… time to ring the doorbell, as it were.

Xavier telekinetically ripped off the propellers from the helijet—he wanted the vehicle as aerodynamic as possible, given its imminent use as a projectile.

Moving the helijet through the air with his mind until it was in front of him, Xavier took a deep breath and readied himself to shoot it at the part of the pyramid he knew Apocalypse was located in—that is, until a small explosion rocked that exact section of the structure.

Rock and metal exploding outwards, Apocalypse launched himself through the hole he had created via telekinetic force and right at Professor Xavier, shredding the helijet into nothingness with his mind before Xavier could do so much as move it out of the way.

Even with the full force of his psychic bubble in the way, Xavier had the wind knocked out of him as he and Apocalypse impacted in mid-air, the resulting explosion of psychic energy sending out a massive shockwave as Apocalypse continued to push an unwilling Professor X in a large arc, up into the clouds and then down towards the snowy ground far below.

"XAVIER!" Apocalypse roared. "THIS! ENDS! NOW!"

"My thoughts exactly," Xavier sneered, right as Apocalypse let go a split-second before the Professor impacted back-first into the unstable Antarctic ground below, another massive explosion of force resulting from the impact and crumbling the ice and rock below him, a huge crater having formed around him once the debris had settled.

Shaking his head and standing up, Xavier held his ground this time, putting up his hands to create a telekinetic barrier as Apocalypse came down with all of the psychic and physical force the self-proclaimed future ruler of the world could manage—driving them both deeper and deeper into the ground until at last they broke through the bottom of all the layers of compacted ice and snow, plunging into the deep ocean far below the floating station subcontinent.

For a moment at least, it was silent—until Apocalypse flew out of the hole they had made into the deep ocean, up into the air again—backwards. Xavier flew up right behind him, ocean water streaming off of him, his nose bleeding from the psychic force exertion he had exerted right back on Apocalypse.

"Every horrible action you've done to the people of this world deserves an equal and opposite reaction," Xavier yelled, "And you've had this coming for a long time, Apocalypse! Let's see how you deal with someone who is now your equal!"

"This is insane!"

"Oh, please," Deadpool commented to Shadowcat as distant booms continued to sound and shake the pyramid's interior slightly every now and then. "Compared to everything else we've been through in the past few days? This seems pretty normal."

It had only taken about a second after Nightcrawler had teleported them into the corridor Forge was occupying before the latter had taken notice of them. Using his enhanced powers, Forge didn't just change his mechanical limbs into bulkier, stronger versions; his shoulders had also sprouted missile launchers and his hands turned into chain guns. The assembled Mutants had barely had time to duck behind a corner before Forge unleashed a barrage of projectiles at them. They had quickly taken off their bulky flight suits, as their regular uniforms were worn under them.

"Well, there goes my theory that Forge's powers could have found a way around Apocalypse's mind control," Nightcrawler lamented.

"Uh, guys?" Quicksilver said, pointing at a few other nearby turrets popping out of the sides of the corridor and taking aim at them. "Forge isn't the only thing we need to worry about in here!"

"Blob, give me cover!" Shadowcat yelled.

"Who put you in—aw, fine!" Blob said, running over and putting his bulk around Shadowcat to intercept the turret fire from reaching her.

"Oh, sure, protect the person who can phase through matter and leave the regenerating guy as the human pincushion," Deadpool sneered, taking several bullets from Forge and plasma blasts from the turrets right in the chest as he motioned for Rogue—now with M in charge of her body—to throw him up against the nearest wall. Using his swords and legs as pivots, Deadpool managed to pirouette in the air and slash down the closest of the turrets.

"I can't phase with electrical equipment on me—I'll short it out!" Shadowcat shot back as she tapped her headset. "Webber? Arcade, can you hear me?"

*K-Kitty? Is-zzt-you? You made it?!*

"Chat later!" Shadowcat exclaimed, as Nightcrawler teleported away from incoming fire, M began mangling another wall turret, and Quicksilver made a beeline for Forge, quickly sidestepping any projectiles. We need to you hack this corridor, shut down the defenses—and Forge's mind-control equipment, as well!"

*Forge is -zztt-ere?! I thought he was dead!*

"WEBBER!"

*Right, right—what corridor are –zzt- guys on?*

"Um… uh…" Shadowcat looked around, trying to see any identifying marks. "I… I dunno!"

*Well, I –zzt—eed something! The place you're in is huge, and now that I'm inside its systems thanks to the Font, I'm getting mult-zzt—alarms throughout the place—several hull breeches, among other things!*

"That's Xavier and Apocalypse fighting outside!"

*Well, I need some—zzt—help narrow it down!*

Meanwhile, Nightcrawler had teleported behind Forge, trying to yank off the mind control technology attached to the latter's skin—to no avail.

"C'mon, Forge! It's me, Kurt Wagner! You know—"

Nightcrawler was forced to teleport away as a long, sharp claw erupted from the back of Forge's shoulder, attempting to impale the blue furry X-Man.

"You've got the wrong idea, 'Crawler," Quicksilver yelled as he continued to sidestep the projectiles and impacted Forge's side at a high velocity, causing the mind-controlled Mutant to bowl over for a moment before he quickly righted himself and began firing at Quicksilver again. "We've got to take him down first! We already know we can't get through to him this way!"

"Speedy Gonzales is right," Deadpool said, slicing through a few incoming projectiles as he charged at Forge. "If I have to, I can cut it off, and…. and…"

Deadpool stared down at the hole a cluster of Forge's missiles had just made in his torso.

"Well, at least Forge… got through to… to me… heh…" Deadpool said weakly before collapsing to the ground.

Shadowcat had finally managed to find some identifying symbols—above a nearby door in the hallway. In fact, she noticed small symbols above every door in the hallway, though the language was, of course, nothing that she recognized.

Wait a minute… the first symbol… and the second… are both the same! Above all the doors!

"Okay, Webber, let's see if this can help," Shadowcat said, speaking into her headset again. "I'm seeing identifying symbols above several of the doors here. The first two are the same for each. One is… it's kinda of like a squiggly line with two straight notches near the middle…"

*Are the -zzt-hes long or short?*

"Uh…. short, I guess."

*Okay, you're in what would be the commons, if -zzzt- place was inhabited. And the second?*

"Can we hurry this up?!" Blob grunted. "Takin' all this fire non-stop is starting to hurt!"

"I'm hurrying!" Shadowcat said in a huff before addressing her headset again. "Um… the second is… this is gonna be hard to describe—it's, like, a circle with a long dash across it, at a… fifty-five degree angle? And then there's a…"

*That's enough, I've got it," Webber said back. *Accessing cameras… There! I see you!*

"Good! Then SHUT IT DOWN!" Shadowcat yelled.

*Ri-zzz-t- ould be shutting down shortly.*

As if on cue, the turrets in the hallway suddenly stopped shooting at the intruders, made a low whining noise, and then retracted back into their alcoves—the lights shut off, too, leaving all of the X-Men only in very dim light reflected from other, activated, corridors a long distance away.

"You shut down the lights, too, Webber!"

*They're on the same –zzzt-. Had to do it.*

"Alright, then do the same to Forge!" Nightcrawler said, teleporting back to Shadowcat's side, a brief burst of pink light illuminating the area as he did so—ever since leaving Forge, he had simply been teleporting from one place in the corridor to another to keep from getting hit.

*Just tried –zzt-. Any response?*

"I should say not!" Quicksilver yelled into his own headset, nearly falling on his face as a missile from Forge's launchers impacted the ground right in front of where he had been running.

*Huh. -lypse must be keeping close tabs on him, despite the –zzt—that he's fighting with Professor X. If he pays close enough -zzt-, he can override my commands.*

"So what do we do?" Shadowcat asked.

*The comm—zz-t- will work, but only for a second. You need to tell me right before you yank it.*

"Alright, then!" Shadowcat yelled, getting the attention of everyone in the corridor but the unconscious—and healing—form of Deadpool. "Blob, M, pin him down! We've got to be exact about this…"

"This… is for AMARA!" Xavier cried, a giant telekinetic fist pounding Apocalypse further up into the air.

Both of them had been trading eardrum-shattering punches, flinging each other to and fro across the subcontinent, the receiver of the blow often landing miles from where they had been assaulted. Several huge holes dotted the landscape around the pyramid at the center—and Xavier flew up to near the clouds where he had punched his adversary, using his powers to hold Apocalypse in a firm telekinetic grip. Making a head-butting motion, Xavier sent Apocalypse careening towards the ground.

"And that was for DORIAN!" Xavier, a few tears streaming down his eyes, which were partially obscured by his furrowed brows.

Apocalypse hit the distant ground with another loud boom, and Xavier flew in towards him at supersonic speed.

"And THIS is for—"

"Let me guess," Apocalypse smirked, gesturing a "stop" motion with one of his hands and abruptly stopping Xavier in mid-flight, much to the latter's surprise. "You've got one more punch for each of the other fallen race traitors on your team? Predictable—though you should add one of your beloved son, as well."

Xavier looked confused for a moment, but his face quickly turned red. "YOU were responsible for that?! YOU killed my son?!"

"Indirectly. He was unstable and a possible threat, so I had the Five-in-One do it. I also took control of an agent and used him to infect Edward Kelly—to spread panic and distrust, to make certain I would catch all of you off guard while you fought amongst yourselves.

"However, I must admit, Xavier, you had me concerned for a short while. But as this battle has gone on… you are tiring. You look horrible. And I do not."

Indeed, Apocalypse's swelled eye and broken nose from the last blow were already rapidly recovering, due to his ability to mentally manipulate the structure of his body. Xavier, on the other hand, had several visible bruises all over his body, and blood was trickling from his nose and a corner of his mouth—certainly far less than he would have had sustained from just one blow from Apocalypse had the Professor's mutation been at its normal level, but he was in far worse shape than Apocalypse—the partially blue-skinned Mutant looked none the worse for wear outside of his rapidly healing injuries.

"I, on the other hand, have been holding back. Waiting, evaluating your power level… and I have still found it wanting."

Apocalypse made a flicking motion with his fingers, sending Xavier careening far across the landscape, the arc looking to impact the subcontinent's ice and snow over two miles away.

Xavier tried his best to use his upgraded powers to resist the telekinetic force Apocalypse continued to exert upon him as he flew backwards through the air, but he now had to admit it.

Despite his earlier proclamation, it was becoming increasingly clear that, despite the giant boost the Font had given to his Mutant powers, Apocalypse was still more powerful—and Xavier had delivered himself and a handful of his team right into the maniacal Mutant's hands.

Slowly but surely, Xavier was losing.

"Alright, you got it?"

"Yeah, a' course I got 'im! YOU got 'im?"

"Don't be a smart aleck," M replied, taking a burst of a few sharp metal quills Forge had launched against her in the gut. They shattered on impact, but they still made her grunt from the force.

Both she and Blob had taken a hold of Forge's shoulders, with Quicksilver and Nightcrawler serving as distractions for the mind-controlled Mutant, while Shadowcat made her way behind the super-powered genius, phasing a portion of her body through anything Forge shot at her—being careful not to phase her head, as that would short out the headset she had on.

"Webber, are you ready? We are. I'm going to need you to disable Forge's mind-control tech again."

*Rea-zztt-when you are.*

"Alright," Shadowcat said, placing her hand on the robotic band around Forge's green, glowing eyes. "Ready, and…. NOW!"

*Shut-zzt—it off…. Go!*

Shadowcat immediately phased her arm through the headset, bring her phased arm down lightning-quick though Forge's spine, the green circuitry lines ceasing to glow as she disrupted their electrical connection to their host. Forge's various augmentations began to collapse back into his mechanical limbs, which themselves began shrinking to a more normal width.

Shadowcat tensed as the green circuitry lines began to flicker again.
"OH no you don't!" Forge grunted, wrenching one of his hands free from M and ripping the couple of inches left on his skin off before the green circuitry could fully activate again, Kitty then deftly flinging the control 'suit' across the corridor.

The job done, Blob let go of Forge's remaining appendage and the latter fell to his knees, shaking and breathing in air.

"You guys… thank… thank you…"

"Webber, we've got Forge free," Shadowcat said into her comlink. "Thank you… so much. Now, get back to your own battle. We'll do our best to finish up here."

*-zzt-blem. I thin-zzzzzztt- idual side eff-zzzzt*

"Webber? Webber! You're breaking up!" Shadowcat said, tapping the side of her headset urgently.

Nothing but static answered this time.

Shadowcat ripped the headset off of her and threw it to the floor in frustration.

"Well, THAT isn't a good sign," Nightcrawler said as he teleported next to her. "It looks like the helicarrier's communication systems have been damaged too much from all those attacking statues."

"Well, it COULD be some interference that the pyramid's creating," Quicksilver said, stopping with a screech next to the assembled group.

"It's… it's not," Forge said dejectedly. "The pyramid's defensive shield is currently down… nothing should interfere with tight-band communications like that. Thanks for freeing me… Kitty. It's still taking me a bit to… to process everything, but you yanking the control tech off me like that… kept some connections still active. I didn't forget the knowledge I had picked up from the base's systems."

"Did I miss something?" Deadpool said weakly, getting back up slowly from his spot a couple of dozen feet away, the hole in his torso now healed.

"You missed being of USE, that's all," M shot back.

"Alright, enough," Shadowcat said. "This whole place is still shaking on a regular basis… but we don't know who's winning out there. We've got to do something to make sure the odds are in the Professor's favor, and fast."

"Forge, do you know about anything in this place that could do that?" Nightcrawler asked.

"No… no," Forge said sullenly. A few awkward moments passed before his visage lit up. "W-wait a minute… I think I remember something from when I was under Apocalypse's control. It's in the main command center."

"Great," Rogue said, her voice now her own again. "And where would that be?"

"It's…" Forge paused for a moment, searching his brain frantically. "Near the center of the pyramid. We're in one of the outer corridors…. If we go left at the intersection up ahead, take two rights, another left, and go straight… we should be there."

"How far away is that?" Shadowcat asked.

"Over a mile," Forge said, shaking his head. "And I need to do it myself—Speedy there can't help us here."

"Yes, he can," Shadowcat said. "Quicksilver, can you scout ahead, try to find the most efficient path to this 'command center'? If I need to phase us all through a wall or two, that's fine—but we've got to hurry. This corridor's still offline, but I imagine the security systems for the rest of the pyramid are still active."

"Got it," Quicksilver nodded, taking off in a streak of blue and white, taking a turn over a distant bend in the corridor a moment later.

"You guys were lucky," Forge commented. "I was in the midst of upgrading the security systems when all of you arrived. Had you arrived about an hour later, we'd have this place's energy field re-activated again."

"Energy field?" Rogue asked.

"I'll spare you the details," Forge said, "but suffice to say it targets those it deems 'intruders' at a molecular level. If it was on when 'Crawler had teleported all of you in, you'd have deteriorated into nothing within a few seconds."

"But it's definitely deactivated now, right?" Nightcrawler asked.

"Yeah, there's a major power conduit that goes underneath the floor of this corridor," Forge said, thumbing back in the direction of where he had been when the team had teleported in—the floor there was opened up, a large, presumably deactivated conduit exposed.

"You were upgrading the security system right when Apocalypse was focusing on his big attack?" Blob said, scratching his head. "That seems kinda dumb."

Forge shrugged. "I'm not entirely sure of my thought processes during the mind-controlled state that I had been in, but I'd like to think some part of me knew that and—using my powers of finding a technological way of doing anything I can think of if I put my mind to it—I had tried to sabotage Apocalypse's work in at least a minimal way. He wasn't paying much attention to me at the time, anyway—as long as I was mind-controlled, he was fine to leave me be."

"I KNEW it!" Nightcrawler said, putting out a fist for Forge to bump. "Apocalypse made a big mistake, leaving you to your own devices in here. He didn't know what he was getting himself into!"

Forge eyed Kurt's fist, but sighed instead of returning Nightcrawler's fist bump. "Kurt…we-no, I was responsible for all of this."

"No one's blaming you for what you just did," Shadowcat said. "I mean, you were under Apocalypse's control."

"That's not what I'm talking about," Forge replied, shaking his head. "I mean, Kurt—haven't you wondered how Apocalypse got back in the first place? It was because of me."

"…What are you talking about?" Nightcrawler said warily.

"Remember when I sent you back in time—when we had that idea to 'correct' history so that Mutants had never been made public knowledge?"

"Yeah, and it backfired," Nightcrawler shrugged. "Nothing changed, and it was a dumb idea—I get that now. But what about it?"

"When we did that, we left a slightly weakened—though inactive—time portal in my basement. And, when some solar flares a while back weakened the boundaries further… well, that was when Apocalypse came back through. None of this would've happened if it wasn't for me, Kurt. Me and my stupid… fiddling with everything…"

"You…. you what?" Blob asked, continuing to scratch his head. "…I don't get it."

"Nice one, Forge," Deadpool said.

"Hey, be quiet!" Nightcrawler shot back, making a motion as if to backhand Deadpool, though Kurt himself looked deeply upset by the news. "There's no… no way we could've known that at the time…"

"Perhaps not," Shadowcat said diplomatically, "But… I mean, Forge… your curiosity has always gotten the better of you. If we make it out of all this… this had got to stop."

"I know… I know," Forge said softly. "I need to… think things through a bit more before I go wild with my inventions. I should've figured that out many times over by now."

"Look, that's nice, but none 'a that matters now," Rogue interjected. "The main thing is, we can use Forge's new knowledge of this tech he acquired as a slave to sabotage this place—shut it down, or turn the guardians against Apocalypse, maybe?"

"We can't shut it down," Forge replied, "But you're absolutely right… we can turn it against Apocalypse. The only problem is, we need at least a fragment of that Font of Knowledge thing to make it work."

"Thaaat could be a problem," Deadpool said. "Given that Apocalypse and Professor X are probably enacting the entirety of Dragonball Z outside, what with all the loud booms and shaking we keep feeling."

"Yeah, I don't think we'd even be able to get close to 'em without either Apocalypse annihilating us or at the very least throwing the Professor off his game," Rogue commented, shaking her head. "So what do we do?"

While Rogue had been in the middle of talking, Quicksilver had zoomed back around the corner and came to a screeching halt just as she finished.

"Alright," Quicksilver huffed, breathing a bit heavily. "It took a while—there's a lot of corridors around here—but I finally found a workaround though this maze. It'd take too long if all of you were to run it, but if Shadowcat can phase us through a few walls we can be there within… ten minutes, tops."

"That's already longer than I'd like," Shadowcat said, shaking her head. "But it's the best we've got. C'mon, everyone, let's get going—except for you two—Kurt and Deadpool. You two are going to get a fragment of that thing for us, and meet us in this command room. Forge, can you tell Kurt the coordinates?"

"Sure thing," Forge nodded, and walked up next to his blue friend, mumbling lowly as he and Kurt discussed the details—such as the exact height up and how far into the interior—the command center was, so that Kurt could teleport to the location exactly without having seen it personally.

"Wait just a gosh durn minute!" Deadpool said, raising his hand. "I get that you need Blue Boy for the whole 'teleportation' thing, but why am I going along to certain death?"

"To do what you do best," Shadowcat replied matter-of-factly. "Serve as a distraction for Apocalypse."

"Oh, you little…" Deadpool narrowed his eyes and took a step forward, but stopped himself. "Alright, fine. But, just for the record: Shoryuken. Kitty Pryde. Google Image it when you have the time."

"Whatever," Shadowcat said, waving Deadpool's odd threat away as she and the rest of the team followed Quicksilver's lead while Nightcrawler walked over and gripped one of Deadpool's arms.

Xavier could barely lift his head up as Apocalypse finally finished smashing the X-Men leader into the rock again and again with telekinetic force.

"Unnnhhhh…" Xavier groaned. He was sure at least half of his bones were broken, and he was bleeding profusely, even if most of it was internal. One of his eyes was swollen shut as well, and the other didn't look too good either.

"So this is how the great 'Professor X' dies," Apocalypse said, breathing heavily as he leaned over slightly to catch his breath. Apocalypse was sweating profusely now, but still overall looked none the worse for wear. Their battle had carried them far away on the subcontinent, the central pyramid just barely visible on the horizon. "Alone, his team scattered and dying. Still, you are by far the toughest opponent I have ever faced. To have come this far—to have defeated all of my Horsemen, albeit indirectly, and to have gathered and activated the Font shards because of your connection to Cerebro… I must admit I have the slightest bit of respect for you. Instead of just pounding you into oblivion, I will make sure your corpse is buried in a highly visible grave, to serve as an example of what happens to all those who oppose me."

Xavier moaned and coughed up a bit of blood in response.

"Your last words? Very well, you've earned them. Let's hear it."

"Your… your arrogance… will be your downfall," Xavier coughed.

Apocalypse couldn't help but let out a loud laugh. "MY arrogance? YOU were the one who dared to think yourself my equal. No one is my equal, Xavier. You should have learned this by now. You come here, on my territory, and challenge me? This is my world now, Xavier. YOU have no place in it."

"That's… that's not what I meant," Xavier breathed.

"Oh?" Apocalypse smirked, now simply humoring the dying Professor.

"You… the-the threat of you… it has united mankind. M-mutants, humans, nations… for the first time ever, we are united. Because you threw so much at us—attacking the world instead of simply taking your revenge on us first, they… had no other choice."

"Feh. And a lot of good it's doing you. Because of the Font within my head, I have control over my army. Your helicarrier is downed. This mass 'uniting' of so many nations may have delayed my army, but only for a short while. They are failing, and it won't be long until all of them sink beneath the waves.

"Not to mention you overestimate the importance of this 'uniting'. Mankind has allied with you against a common threat, nothing more. Let us say that, in some alternate universe, this attack had actually succeeded. This union of nations would not have lasted much longer than the rebuilding. The better part of a decade, if you were lucky. But soon enough, they would have turned on you once again, as soon as they wanted something that you had."

"You… are likely right…," Xavier coughed. "But it is… something that hasn't been done before, nonetheless… It gives me hope. Hope for the future…"

"Yes. MY future."

Now it was time for Xavier to let out his own laugh, albeit one that devolved into a cough laced with blood. "You don't see it… do you? You think yourself… the only one capable of planning… testing your enemy."

Apocalypse narrowed his eyes. "What are you babbling about?"

Xavier smiled, one last time, a slight visual distortion appearing a few inches above his head as he summoned up all of his remaining telekinetic power.

"I have been holding back, too."

Nightcrawler and Deadpool had been watching the confrontation from far away, behind a short outcropping of melting ice—far enough that they were using binoculars to watch Apocalypse address the dying Professor. They weren't risking getting anywhere near Apocalypse for the moment and drawing his ire—not when he could obliterate both of them in an instant, if he so desired.

"No… no!" Nightcrawler cried, watching Xavier coughing up blood as the two conversed. "He's… he's dying…"

"Oh, come on, it's not like we didn't expect this," Deadpool said. "The guy was facing down Apocalypse. That's what's happens when you do that. Hence why I didn't just waltz in there, since the big guy is already distracted."

"Even after all this…" Nightcrawler said to himself, lowering the binoculars. "To have it come to this… I can't watch…"

"Then gimme," Deadpool said, grabbing the binoculars from Nightcrawler and focusing them back on the two distant figures. "…Hey, 'Crawler… you see that? Looks like some kinda… mirage, right over Xavier."

"What?" Nightcrawler said, looking up—right before a loud thought entered his head.

Take cover, Xavier told him.

Nightcrawler yanked Deadpool down as an enormous, white-hot explosion suddenly erupted, with Xavier at its epicenter.

The shockwave quickly spread out, further and further, the light blinding, the earth underneath their feet shaking tremendously, ice and rock cascading everywhere as the shockwave hit them, the sound deafening even with their hands covering their ears. For a moment, Kurt got ready to teleport himself and Deadpool somewhere else, as it looked like the ground was about to shatter out from undereath them.

But then, as suddenly as it had begun, the shockwave passed, and the explosion was over.

Both of them slowly stood up again, their ears ringing, as they looked at the mile-wide, blackened crater that was left.

They both stared for a moment, their minds filled with questions as they visually searched the blackened, smoldering crater for any signs of life.

Kurt was so stunned, he barely heard the comlink in his headset.

*Nightcrawler?! Kurt?! Deadpool? What was that?!*

"Uh… Forge," Kurt replied into his headset, "That was…. an explosion. A really big one. I'm… not sure what that was."

*Well, I need something! Is Professor X still alive? What about Apocalypse?!*

Deadpool yanked on the shoulder of Kurt's uniform and pointed to a spot near one edge of the crater. "There. Two things. You seein' what I'm seein'?"

Kurt truly didn't know whether to grin or let out a groan of frustration.

"Alright, we get there and we get OUT before he recovers," Kurt said, grabbing Deadpool, the two disappearing with a BAMF!

Apocalypse groaned.

He felt around—but he couldn't see.

What… what happened to—

And suddenly he remembered.

Apocalypse tried to give a roar of frustration, but found his mouth unable to speak.

He raised his hands up to his face, and felt—his skin was rapidly regenerating, shaping itself into his face again via his mental prodding. Such a white-hot explosion had horribly burned his body—even blown away some small bits of it—but he was quickly recovering.

Such a meaningless sacrifice—Apocalypse thought, but interrupted himself as he realized that something was missing.

Some knowledge—some presence—that should have been in his head wasn't there.

No.

"NO!" Apocalypse bellowed just as his mouth finished reforming. A few moments later, his eyes reformed, and he could visually confirm it.

His fragment of the Font was neither in his head, nor anywhere near him.

He searched with his mind, reaching out to look for its presence…

The command center. It was in the command center.

"NOOOO!" Apocalypse roared again, more desperate this time as he leapt into the air, flying as fast as he could towards the distant pyramid on the horizon.

A sudden BAMF! nearby scared the others speechless as Nightcrawler and Deadpool both suddenly appeared in the command center, in the midst of the rest of the team.

"Here's the MacGuffin," Deadpool said, dumping a fragment of the Font in Forge's hands. "Gogogo!"

"Uh… right!" Forge replied, placing the fragment inside a larger receptacle on the command center that had been properly sized for the entire Font, and not just a piece of it—nevertheless, it was enough to bring up several virtual keypads and screens in front of him. Forge began tapping away on the virtual pads, the knowledge he had absorbed as Apocalypse's slave allowing him to read the language on the screens.

"What happened?!" Rogue asked.

"Professor X, he… he sacrificed himself," Nightcrawler choked out, dropping to one knee as he tried recovering from the series of teleports it had taken for him and Deadpool to get this far.

Various gasps emitted from the group-Shadowcat buried her face in her hands and immediately began sobbing, though Rogue put an unsure—but comforting—hand on her shoulder.

"More details would be nice," Rogue said. "How? Why?"

"I… think I'm piecing together that," Forge said, his fingers continuing to fly between the virtual keys. "We only have one fragment of the Font left… Apocalypse's. The Professor knew—from the Font's knowledge database, I would assume—that this thing was instrumental to operating the station. But giving us a fragment from his part of the Font would partially depower him, so at least earlier in the game, that wasn't considered an option. Once he was certain that he wasn't going to make it, from the sound of it he used his remaining telekinetic power to crack open the part of the Font in HIS head, and the explosion… well, you saw. And with Apocalypse that close to the epicenter, it likely fried him, at least momentarily. I mean, a fragment of the Font survived re-entry into the atmosphere… it must've taken an enormous amount of force to crack it, and it must've had an enormous amount of energy stored inside it."

"Apocalypse did look like the front half of him had been practically blown away when we teleported there and snatched up the fragment," Nightcrawler added, getting back up on his own two feet. "I guess the explosion evaporated away at least enough of him for his section of the Font to fall out of his forehead before he could regenerate."

"That seems to be the gist of it," Forge said, bringing up a large screen that showed a zoomed-out, top-down view of the pyramid they were in and the surrounding continent for roughly fifty miles out. Pointing to a flashing dot that was quickly making a beeline for the pyramid, he continued, "It definitely didn't slow down Apocalypse down for long, though. That's him."

"So how long until he gets here?" Blob asked.

"According to the systems… slightly over a minute," Forge replied nervously.

"Can nothing kill that monster?!" Shadowcat cried.

"I'm beginning to think not—at least, nothing we can do," Forge said, his fingers dashing over the keys in front of him again as a second large screen came up alongside the first, containing rapidly-changing symbols on it.

"So that's it, then," Quicksilver said, his shoulders slumping. "After all this…game over."

"Actually," Forge said, pointing to a pile of discs on a cart that was on one side of the room. "Kurt, would you mind grabbing one of those?"

"Sure thing," Nightcrawler said, taking one and handing it to Forge. "What is it?"

"Oh, I won't be needing it," Forge said, waving away what Kurt was offering him, the genius' primary attention on the screens in front of him. Kurt reluctantly held onto the disc with his tail. "But it might help explain things later… things that I just don't have time to tell you about."

"What are you talking about?" Blob asked, raising an eyebrow.

"That disc you're holding, Kurt—it's a regular compact disc. I overheard Apocalypse talking briefly to the Horsemen about it when they were taking me to be mind-controlled—they were planning on distributing it to the world after their takeover. It contains interviews and information about the whys and hows when it comes to the Horsemen and where all this tech came from."

"Forge, have you lost it?" Rogue said. "We've got less than a minute until Apocalypse gets here and you want us to look at a- AUUGHH!"

Suddenly, a harmful—but not debilitating—shock suddenly came out of the floor, affecting everyone in the room but Forge, who was still typing away. The electrical field expanded, coalesced from the floor to the ceiling, and quickly pushed everyone else but Forge out of the command room, staying in place to prevent anyone from coming in.

As soon as the rest of them were out, a see-through but very hard material slid down out of the ceiling, cutting off the others from Forge as it completely sealed off the command room.

"Forge!" Nightcrawler said, putting his hands against the material, his face panic-stricken. "What's going on?!"

"I… for some reason I can't phase through this!" Shadowcat exclaimed, pressing her hand against the glass.

"You aren't supposed to… Listen. All my life, I've never fit in," Forge said. "Even among you guys. I mean, here I am, twenty-five years younger-looking than I should be, and-"

"What does that have to do with anything?!" Rogue interrupted worriedly.

"Let me finish—twenty seconds now and counting," Forge said, pointing to the screen that showed Apocalypse's incoming Mutant signature. "My inventions—my Middleverse-maker, my time machine—all they did was screw stuff up more. I appreciate that the X-Men have been my friends, but—the world just isn't ready for me to use my powers to their fullest extent yet. But maybe the world in the future will be. This whole place came from the year 11895, guys. Maybe I'll more at-home there—and they'll have the tech to stop Apocalypse. I'm destroying this console as soon as it all-"

Forge didn't have time to continue as a loud "BOOM" sounded through the place—the sound of Apocalypse breaking through the outer wall of the pyramid on his bee-line for the command room.

"NO!" Kurt cried, a tear falling down his cheek as Forge turned around and sadly waved goodbye to them, as another few "BOOMs" sounded—much closer this time.

And then, in an instant, their entire surroundings disappeared in a flash of bright blue light.

"No way—" Quicksilver managed to get out before the team suddenly starting plummeting through the air.

Not just the entire pyramid, but the entire station had just gone away in flash. As the team began to fall, they looked below them—thousands of feet below, to the ocean that a second ago had been below the center of the Atlantis station. Mind-bogglingly huge sections of rock, snow, and ice that had accumulated above the Atlantis station and between its "spokes" now suddenly were in a completely unsupported position, and with a multitude of incredibly loud, rumbling cracks, began to fall down into the ocean below, along with the group of Mutants.

"This finale suuuuucks!" Deadpool screamed as they continued to fall down to the ocean far, far below.

"Hold on," M yelled, taking control of Rogue's body and grabbing a hold of Blob with one of her hands, beginning—with much effort—to reach out to the others. "Nightcrawler, teleport everyone to me!"

Nightcrawler looked at M confusingly for a moment, overwhelmed by all that had suddenly occurred within the past couple of seconds. He nodded after a few moments though, and as they continued to plunge along with large sections of ice and snow down towards the ocean far below, Kurt teleported back-and-forth between the chain M was forming—within another couple of seconds, he had teleported Deadpool so that the latter could grab a hold of Blob's arm, and continued the chain by adding Quicksilver, then Shadowcat and himself.

"Alright, brace yourselves!" M said, grunting as she suddenly engaged her flight power and pulled up on Blob's hand with a grunt.

With several loud cries of pain, the semi-circle of Mutants became a dangling chain in mid-air, with M struggling at the top to hold the bulk of Blob in addition to the others, with Nightcrawler at the bottom.

"AUGH!" Deadpool cried. "Shoulder… dislocating!"

"I'm slipping, I'm slipping!" Shadowcat screamed—right before she did, and she and Kurt plummeted towards the ocean again.

"Hold on, I'll—" Kurt began to say to Shadowcat—before both he and Shadowcat abruptly stopped falling, hovering in mid-air.

"What the-?!" Shadowcat cried, looking around.

"Jean!" M grunted from her position at the top of the remaining "Mutant chain". "Sure could use some help!"

"I've got it!" Jean yelled, and with a gesture of her hands, the rest of them began floating up to her level, allowing M to finally let go of Blob.

They both just looked at each other for a few moments, their minds trying to wrap around what they were seeing and just trying to catch their breath as the first enormous chunks of ice impacted the ocean deep below, cracking apart further from the impact and sending out enormous waves as they did so.

"Is… is everyone alright?" Jean asked everyone floating in the air, far above the crashing and splashing noises far below. "Where's… where's the Professor?"

"He's…. he's dead," Shadowcat said.

Jean clenched her eyes shut for a short while, obviously attempting to calm herself, even though when she opened her eyes again, tears were streaming down their cheeks. "I… I wish I could say I was surprised…"

"How are you here?" Quicksilver asked. "I mean, not that I'm not grateful for the save, but—weren't you sent back to Bayville because of the, uh… the thing? That happened?"

Jean pointed to a couple of helijets off on the distant horizon. "Professor Xavier… he had contacted me telepathically before he left with all of you. Told me what his plans were, and that as much as he hated it in spite of his earlier promise to me, he felt I might be needed if things were to go 'wrong'—but to stay far out of mental range unless I was 'certain' everything depended upon me using my powers, so that I wouldn't be detected by Apocalypse. So I did. The Professor's tone, he… I think he knew he was going to die. And, as… as unsure of myself as I am now, I knew that there was no way I was going to deny Professor X his request. Not when he asked it of me as he did. Besides, I'm… I'm feeling a bit more stable now. At least when it comes to my powers. I'm not sure what happened, and it still frightens me to no end, but… I'm dealing with it.

"But what happened to Apocalypse?" Jean continued, looking around. "I don't see or sense him—is he—"

"We're, uh, not sure," Nightcrawler said, "Forge… sent both himself, Apocalypse, and the station itself into the far future."

"I… I don't understand," Jean said. "How?"

"It's a long story," Nightcrawler replied, holding up the disc he still held by the tail. "And apparently, it's got an appendix."

"Well," Jean said, smiling sadly as she began to telekinetically carry them all towards the distant helijets, "We've got plenty of time to talk about that on the way home."

"Unnhhh… wh… what…"

"Holy…! Frank, Ted, get over here, help me wit' this! We've got an alive one under here!"

"Alive?! How's he just gettin' up now? It's been days…"

"Don't ask stupid questions, just help me lift this up, alla ya!"

The man underneath the rubble opened his eyes and immediately shielded them as little pebble-sized pieces of rock pelted him in the face while the three rescue workers lifted up a large piece of debris from above him. Once he was sure nothing else was going to fall in his face, the man opened up his eyes again—though the scenery in front of him was still rather blurry. He spotted three man-shaped blurry blobs above him, one of them stooping down and offering a hand to him.

"Hey, guy, you in good enough condition to give me yer hand? If not, don't worry about it—I can call in the paramedics. They're on the other side'a the block currently, but it won't take 'em long to get over here."

"No, no, no, I'm… I'm fine," the man said, lifting up a hand and allowing his rescuer to help pull him up. He scraped his hand a bit, but otherwise was pulled up without injury.

"What happened?" he gasped once he had been pulled up to the street level. His eyesight wasn't the best—not without his glasses—but he could see well enough to tell that the scene before him was of an entire city, utterly leveled. Here and there, the telltale flashes of sirens pointed out emergency crews working to help clear away the debris and help any survivors, though it would be a long, long time before a disaster of this size was cleaned up.

"You're telling me y' don't remember?" the man who had pulled him up said, scratching his head as the other two—Frank and Ted, apparently—let go of the piece of building debris they had lifted up, letting it fall back to the ground with a loud thump. "Guys, we're definitely gonna need to get the paramedics. Gotta case of amnesia, here. Probably a bad blow to the head. Lemme see, guy…"

"I told you, I'm fine!" the man said aggravatingly, pulling away from his rescuer. "I can remember everything up to… up to being with my family for Christmas…"

Frank and Ted came over, and one of them let out a low whistle. "Hey Rob, don't you recognize this guy?"

"No, should I?"

"He's Mayor Kelly! Y'know, from Bayville? The anti-Mutant guy? The guy who friggin' jumped off the roof of the Times Square Building right before this whole mess started?!"

"No way—no way he'd survive a fall from that height!"

"I'm tellin' ya, man, picture him with glasses. Spittin' image."

"No way… aw man… fella, you ain't really Mayor Edward Kelly, are ya? You do look a lot like 'im though, I gotta say."

"Of course I'm Mayor Kelly!" the man shot back. "Now, what are all of you talking about? You're saying I jumped off the Times Square Building?! Why would I do that?"

"This is unbelievable," Rob said. "Absolutely unbelievable. Hey, Ted, call the press. We gotta get this news out there."

"Now, you mind—" Mayor Kelly began, but stopped as soon as he saw the bad scrape on his hand suddenly glow a light blue.

"What the…?" Kelly mumbled to himself, squinting as he pulled his hand close enough to his face where he could see it clearly. The scrape was clearly healing itself right before his eyes, the light blue patterns fading as they finished healing a portion of the injury.

Those look like… like circuitry patterns…

"Whaddaya lookin' at?" Rob asked.

"Uh… nothing," Kelly said, putting his hand behind his back. "Thank you, gentlemen, for your ah… your fine work. I'll make sure you get the recognition you deserve, but… there's plenty of other people here that are going to need saving. I'm not worth calling the press about, not right now—I'll find my own way to get the word to my family."

"You sure? There ain't much around here in the way of—"

"I'm sure!" Kelly insisted, running off from the trio of confused rescue workers at a pace just slightly faster than one would consider appropriate, given the unstable, debris-filled nature of the area.

Laura stood at the top of the Institute's cliff side, letting the incoming breeze from the ocean push her long dark brown hair back in uneven streams. The wind was chilly, but it carried with it a hint of warmth—a feeling that was visually buoyed by the fact that most of the plants were just starting to bud.

It was late March now, and spring was finally starting to arrive in Bayville, pretty much right on schedule.

She glanced behind her again, at the ruins of the Xavier Institute. The portion of the Empire State Building that had collapsed directly on top of the Institute had been cleared away by now, though the rebuilding efforts hadn't begun in earnest—not yet, anyways. That was what the big meeting was about that was going on now in the temporary underground facilities, near the edge of the Mansion grounds.

Laura abruptly turned her head back to the bay, a familiar scent coming from below her, further down the cliff. Her scent.

They must have finally dug it up.

Laura walked over to the portion of the Empire State Building that sat at a crooked angle against the Mansion's cliff side facing the bay, going diagonally down to the sandy, rocky soil below the rock outcroppings far below. This portion had been carefully picked through for any human remains, but the structure itself was still stable enough for Laura to hop down along it without having to worry about falling off from a sudden shift—the crews hadn't quite yet gotten to dismantling this section of the Empire State Building. There were the lower levels of the Xavier Institute to excavate, first.

Laura stole a sad look at the graveyard looking out at the bay before she dropped down below the cliff side's ground level. It was the one part of the Institute that had been rebuilt so far, and it was certainly a lot larger than it used to be. Besides Sam, Kitty's father, and Logan, there were now markers for Amara, Maverick, Destiny, Dorian Leitch, Alex, Evan… and, of course, a tomb for Professor Xavier himself. (Kurt had insisted that they not put up a marker for Forge… that would be "giving up", he had said. Apocalypse hadn't come back, and given the nature of time travel, that likely meant that something had worked.) In addition, there were a few graves there for individuals that had been in the Empire State Building when it had been teleported above the Institute—for the few bodies that had been found that were mangled beyond any recognition.

Interestingly enough, it wasn't Xavier's tomb that stood out the most—it was Evan's. Ororo had insisted on using the special spike-laced skateboard she had given Evan a while back as his headstone. Both Ororo and Evan's mother had said that that would have been what Evan would have done... he wouldn't have wanted a "boring" old tombstone, but rather something that immediately told you who that marker stood for, without you even having to read any inscription on it.

Laura made it down quickly enough to the cave that used to be behind a waterfall, and made her way quietly into the tunnel that had once been used as a sort of underground "runway" for the Blackbird. She was quiet enough that she nearly startled Armor, as well as Jamie's multiple copies and the other construction personnel that were down there, helping to dig out the tunnel.

"Laura!" the nearest Jamie said upon seeing her. "So, you uh… how you'd know that we had found the uh… remains of your lower body?"

Laura pointed briefly to her nose, and pointed to the two adamantium claws that one of the Jamies had in his hands. "How did you get those?"

"Well, it's kinda gross," said that Jamie, coming over to Laura, "But we figured that—you know, since you're you—that you'd want to… insert these into your feet again, in place of your bone claws. So, Hisako… ergh… cut them out of your feet over there."

"Thank you," Laura said as the relevant Jamie duplicate gave her the two adamantium claws. "I will… deal with them shortly."

"Yeah… yeah," Jamie said, giving Laura a glance—a glance that they both held for just a moment longer than two people normally would, before Laura abruptly turned around and took a running leap, catching onto the side of the Empire State Building and continuing down to the bottom.

The soil made loud squelching noises as she landed on it and continued a couple of dozen yards forward, to the current shoreline of Bayville's bay.

The water level was still stabilizing across the world—the tides every day were considerably higher and lower than they had ever been before. Slowly but surely, however, the differences in the tides each day was lessening as the ocean level stabilized more and more. Even ignoring the tsunamis that had been generated by the breaking off of Atlantis, the sudden disappearance of a subcontinent-sized vessel in the ocean had caused a massive amount of ocean water to fill in the gap. All of this together had led to these enormous tidal swells, but what was clear was that sea level had dropped substantially all over the world. Bayville barely had a bay anymore—a few months ago, where Laura stood at the water's edge now had been covered by at least two dozen feet of water. Every state and country was dealing with the relatively sudden drop in sea level in their own ways, varying from expanding the amount of beachfront property to planting vegetation along the new coastlines to help lessen the dreary, "dead" look the newly exposed soil had. Some had more important issues to deal with, though—there was currently a rather heated dispute between Alaska and Russia over who had control over the new narrow land bridge between America and Asia—a large number of countries had united to help each other rebuild, but the inevitable divisions were already starting to set them against each other again. The world had certainly changed in the last few months, and it would continue to do so.

Laura looked down at the two adamantium claws in her hands. Sure, the world had changed, but had she changed, too? Even with all she had been through… the whole Apocalypse saga had made her a bit more concerned about life—hers, and… others.

Cutting out the bone claws that had regenerated in her feet and replacing them with the adamantium claws she carried certainly made logical sense… but then again, perhaps logic wasn't the be-all end-all sometimes. She still had her adamantium claws sheathed in her wrists, of course—but there was a difference between keeping a change someone else had made for you, and re-instituting that change by your own will after it had been un-done.

She continued to stare at the adamantium claws for some time… but she knew that every time she looked at them, she would be reminded of H.Y.D.R.A. And though that part of her life had certainly been a big part of who she was now… it wasn't all there was to her.

Not anymore.

Laura took the claws and, with a motion as strong as she could muster, heaved the pair of adamantium claws far into the bay's waters.

"I don't get it… why rebuild smaller?" Rogue asked from her position at the table.

Two large tables had been pushed together for this "meeting of the minds" in the temporary underground meeting room. Nearly everyone who had any type of pull with the X-Men was seated around the long, crowded pair of tables—beyond the remaining X-Men "originals" and instructors, Captain America was there, as well as Nick Fury, several other S.H.I.E.L.D. and government agents, Lucid, Arcade, and Angel, the latter of which had taken Xavier's hoverchair for his own, since Warren's own back had been broken during the assault on the helicarrier by the guardians.

The assault had been brutal; there had been nearly a hundred S.H.I.E.L.D. agent deaths (thankfully, Kitty's mother hadn't been among them), and many more were wounded. Nearly all of the X-Men and X-Force members had sustained some kind of temporary injury, but none of them had died—the guardians had demolished much of the helicarrier's infrastructure, but during the last minutes of the battle there had been a mass abandonment to many of the larger aircraft belonging to the impromptu army of nations that had been fighting Apocalypse's guardians alongside S.H.I.E.L.D., saving many from drowning in the Atlantic. Before the guardians had managed to do much further damage, they were all abruptly teleported away—apparently to the future, they would later find out once the crew assigned to infiltrate Atlantis had made it back. The ones that had been attacking Rio De Janeiro had disappeared, too. Warren also wasn't the only one who had suffered a major injury; Wolfsbane had sustained a blow so bad she had only woken up from a coma last week, Lucid had endured a concussion, and one of Sunspot's arms was still in a cast, all of the bones having been thoroughly crushed by a guardian. Still, all things considered, the fact that none of the X-Men or X-Force members had died during that battle had been nothing short of miraculous.

The time for recovering was largely over, though; the time for rebuilding was at hand. At first there had been a debate about whether the Xavier Institute should even remain open, but that had been quickly shot down; no, what the Institute was doing was necessary.

Jubilee had told them all what Xavier had told her, though; that he had wanted things to turn out differently, this time. No Mutants should be forced to be soldiers in a conflict if they didn't want to.

Hence, the current proposal.

"The designs are smaller because we'll be split up across the country—maybe even across other countries, if it all goes well and they agree to allow us to build there," Beast replied. "The Mutant population is continuing to explode; there's going to need to be several Institutes put up. One isn't enough anymore-- but even Xavier's money only goes so far."

"Not to mention the strategic advantage," Fury added. "Putting several Institutes in different places makes each of them, individually, safer from attack—all of you won't be clustered around one area of the nation."

"Besides," Storm added. "With Mayor Kelly back in action, I doubt we've seen the last of public policies being used against us, and diversifying our location will help lessen the blow of any one law that man and others like him can pass."

"So, what, the tech Apocalypse had planted in him had somehow saved him?" Captain America asked.

"Well, it had control over his body itself—and after he had 'sacrificed himself' for their cause, the Horseman and Apocalypse were obviously done with him," Fury said. "Kelly refuses to let anyone look at him directly, so we can't confirm this, but we think that whatever tech had 'infected' Kelly had, interestingly enough, also saved him. Without any 'commands' being received from Atlantis anymore, the futuristic tech in Kelly's body probably went into some sort of 'self-preservation' mode, and healed him. (Thankfully, we've ruled out that he's not still being controlled by the tech.) The guy probably won't die for a good long while… though we'll keep a close eye on him to make sure he doesn't do anything… unlawful with that tech."

"And you had better not, either," Beast said to Fury sternly. "Leave it alone, Fury."

"Don't worry, he will," Captain America said, casting a glance at Fury.

Fury huffed slightly, but nodded.

"What about those recordings Apocalypse and his Horsemen made?" Paige asked. "Should we distribute them, or…?"

"I think it's important for people to hear that kind of stuff," Jean said. Over the past few months, she had become more comfortable with herself again—there had been no more 'outbursts', and she insisted that she felt find once more. "So yeah, I think it's good to put it out there—maybe title it 'How Not to Think'."

"One other thing," Kitty said after the light laughter had died down. "Lucid, did you ever manage to contact the Morlocks?"

"No," Lucid replied, shaking his head sadly. "I'm with all of you now, but the rest of them… they just want to be left alone, I guess—just like a lot of those Genoshan prisoners S.H.I.E.L.D. has. They don't want to be helped."

"Well," Scott said, cracking his knuckles. "Is everybody overall satisfied with the proposal we've all laid out, and the locations for the new Institutes, as well as each Institute's area of focus?"

Everyone present nodded, though there were varying levels of enthusiasm.

"Alright then," Beast said, smiling as he stood up from his chair. "It's a new world out there, everyone, and to fit it, the X-Men are 'evolving' once again. So-let's get to work."

X-MEN: EVOLUTION SEASON 8

FIN
 

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