ASHES, ASHES, WE ALL RISE UP…

By D. Doyle

Three Days Post-Desolation

The X-Men are dead. It’s a song that’s been sung before but this time there’d be no mysterious resurrection or miracle of time travel to set everything right again. Now there was only grief, loss and a profound sense of hopelessness.

Charles Xavier’s dream had led to many wonders, the crowning achievement of which was the sovereign nation of Genosha. Once a slave state where humans dehumanized innocent mutants and made them into chattel, transfigured like Jesus on the Mount into a glorious utopia of Mutant prosperity.

Co-existence was still the ultimate goal but there was something about a place that was just for them. They were not only free from humanity’s hatred and judgement but also from their conditional “acceptance”. No longer need they need to constantly censor themselves or conform to the status quo in order to be treated with even a modicum of decency. They could just be true to themselves.

It was too good to last.

The end of Genosha however came not at the hands of man or even the metallic grip of their precious sentinels, the artificial embodiments of their hatred but instead as a plague of beasts of armageddon, urged on from some exterior force so callous and indifferent it didn’t even feel the need to gloat or perform a time honored villain monologue as it succeeded at what so many villains have failed to do in the past: Destroyed the X-Men.

But even if you kill the dreamer… the dream lives on.

Two such torchbearers of the dead man’s vision are Danielle Moonstar and Xuân Cao Mạnh. Formerly New Mutants, the so-called X-Men in training though despite now being adults, experienced fighters and at the height of their mutant abilities, they’d never managed to obtain the title of ‘X-Man’ in their superheroic careers. Seems like almost nothing works out how it’s supposed to.

They were both doing work for the X-Men off-island when Genosha fell. Something that will no doubt haunt them both till their dying day. In two days since, they’ve done what they can to recoup losses both literally and figuratively: doing rescue efforts to locate and help survivors on the island and to take advantage of their worldly mission history to take the pulse of the world at large and regain stability: show this sorry planet that mutants aren’t fish in a barrel.

Reading the zeitgeist is relatively easy for the two, as both are telepaths. Though interestingly enough it’s not the primary power of either woman. Danielle’s greatest ability is that to manifest the fears of others as realistic illusions (affecting multiple senses not just sight) and Xuân’s is to override the consciousness of others and possess them, at least temporarily, a power more commonly associated with villains notably but she’s never faltered in her benevolence.

Xuân is, and has always been, a survivor, in a darkly ironic twist she had suffered possession at the hands of the dreaded Shadow King for over a year, he’d destroyed her health, ruined her relationship with her own body and such disconnect from her physical form was only furthered when she lost her leg. Her already composed and indifferent demeanor has only worsened as a result but it was this detachment that Dani valued, allowing her to pursue the correct course of action without bias and emotional conflict.

Meanwhile Danielle is all emotion. Not just in terms of her fear-based powers but also in her indomitable will and passion for justice. It was these very skills that made her, a cherokee girl from Earth, somehow become one of the greatest Valkyries of Asgard through a trick of fate: Despite being lost and confused in an otherworldly land of great danger she felt no fear, just sheer ballsy courage to save a winged horse from death without a single thought for herself. 

They’d reached out to their old teammates, desperately hoping they too were off-island during the enigmatic massacre. Of course they wanted to work together to keep fighting, they wouldn’t be beaten or give up on that much touted dream, not ever, but also, selfishly, there was  the simple human need to cling to loved ones in times of crisis and share the pain of their loss.

For no matter how often it’s conveniently forgotten: mutants ARE human after all…

Despite this genuine longing for community the two women have only recently, perhaps hardened by survivor’s guilt, begun keeping up with a rather unfortunate unofficial X-Men tradition, telepaths had long been in positions of leadership on the team, yes, but they also had a sordid history of manipulating their own teammates from behind the scenes… for their own good of course.

Chaos breeds more chaos so step one was: Get things under control. On that subject, for someone as aforementioned to be notably untempted by the darkside as Xuân had an unorthodox and quite devious idea to maintain order on the remnants of Genosha. One that ironically stoked an inferno of fear in Danielle Moonstar’s valkyrie heart.

Madripoor, during the Desolation of Genosha

Telepathy is a powerful gift and thus an equally powerful curse. Many telepaths who knew and loved the X-Men no doubt were flooded with horror and even visions of the Desolation as it played out but none perhaps got a better showing than the woman known as Madelyne Pryor.

Madelyne has lived many lives, most of them were complete works of fiction written and produced like major motion pictures either by a mad immortal scientist or demons from a netherrealm but that doesn’t necessarily make them any less true, for the past after all is ephemeral and only as real as we allow it to be.

The world may remember her as a villain, a witch from a fairy-tale snatching children from their cribs and holding congress with the dark forces of the supernatural, or as a clone of a great heroine forever cast in shadow: envious and conniving but Maddie preferred to remember herself as a strong woman, a survivor and a mother.

But of course here lies why her vision of the Desolation was so much stronger than most: Three of the mutants currently being slaughtered across the world for her was her ex-husband, her genetic template “sister” and most importantly her son.

Maddie lay on the floor of the restroom of her humble Madripoor apartment curled into the fetal position, the pain she felt racked her body, her mind and her very soul.

Her mind link with scott, her shared genetic code with Jean Grey and her beloved son Nathan, who she’d conjured magic, science and time travel to save in the past all ripped from this world and this life and part of her wanted to go with them but like Stingy Jack she was denied at the gates and forced to continue on this unworthy Earth. 

‘What next Madelyne?’ The question is ghoul picking at the grave of her life, circling like a vulture as she mourns the reality she knew. ‘Find your ‘father’ Sinister? Go back to your demon buddies?’ 

There was no answer. Maybe she’ll just lie here on the floor and let herself die. That’s all her family ever wanted anyways and that’s what a mother does after all: She makes her family happy.

Genosha | 66 Minutes Post-Desolation

Selene, one of the many who’d laid claim to the title of “first/oldest mutant”, the eXternals traitor, the mistress of Nova Roma, Black Queen of the Hellfire Club and so many titles lost to forgotten worlds and the catacombs of history, was actually the first to venture on the torched and abandoned carcass of land once known as Genosha.

Like Madelyne and so many others, she’d felt it almost the moment it happened. Death had always been an artform to her and her second love was steering the destiny of mutantkind over her vast centuries of life. These two passions met in a fiery dance as Genosha burned.

Fire was too bright for Selene, she’d always preferred the darkness. The kind of a fiery genocide she sensed she’d long associated with the other woman to share her title as Black Queen of the Hellfire Club: The Dark Phoenix herself.

Genosha was true to her expectations upon her silent arrival as she materialized from the darkness: nothing but ashes. It’s all that could be seen for miles, that and bodies. To many a horror but to Selene? It inspired the same kind of beauteous awe that some mundane nobody may feel looking at a sunrise.

She’d arrived before the calvary. Surely sweet Samuel, her eXternal cousin, at least in theory, would be here soon. She could almost smell the exhaust fumes of his flight but she had no fear of discovery, she was Selene a goddess in all the ways that counted and night was her domain. A time of secrets and shadow. 

She passed the time as she searched the island-wide impromptu graveyard by having casual conversations with the spirits that wailed around her. Doctor McCoy’s soliloquies and of course dearest Emma’s witty barbs. It didn’t take her long to find what she sought: the corpse of Sebastian Shaw.

“Oh Sebastian…” Selene sighed with a smile on her porcelain face as she knelt down and plucked a stray bit of debris away from the man’s skinless face. “Made a mess of yourself again I see.”

Holding a lifeless body was not new to the Black Queen by any stretch of the imagination. Her primary mutant power was to take the youth and vitality of others and drink it into herself to restore her own, leaving only an ashen husk. This however was not the only ability at Selene’s disposal however, her skills were myriad. You see, Selene was not just a mutant, not just an eXternal, she was also a witch. A sorceress of unimaginable strength and mistress of the darkest, most forbidden magicks. 

It was in this vocation that she sought her former Black King’s remains. Necromancy was a favorite talent of hers but now was not the time, she bore no desire whatsoever to raise Shaw from the grips of death. In Selene’s opinion this world was better off without his endless posturing. No, no, Shaw would serve her much better like this. With that thought in mind she took his head in her skillful hands and, with a sickening pop, she’d removed his skull clean off his spine.

Her chore didn’t take long and she should be able to make herself scarce long before the first responders arrive then she could find the right spot to begin her real work. Don’t get the wrong idea, she wouldn’t be leaving the island, no Genosha, that storied promise land of the mutant race had never held a place for her before but now? Drenched in sorrow and death? She was home.

Madripoor | Three Days Post-Desolation

No matter how much she wished she could have just died Madelyne Pryor is, as aforementioned, a survivor, whether she liked it or not. 

She spent the next few days as a zombie, not even sure what to do with herself now. Despite living on it truly did feel like her life was over. Who even was she now? Now that Jean Grey had died… again. No matter how often she tried to be her own person, Madelyne Pryor had been forever trapped by the constraints of the ever present comparison to the great and powerful Jean Grey.

So much had been stolen from Madelyne over her relatively short life: her identity, her sense of self, her agency, her marriage, her child and now? Her victory. She’d never know the satisfaction of beating Jean Grey one on one, once and for all. It was a battle that they’d both never actually started and yet one that was constantly happening, every minute of every day. She had known, or thought she had at least, that one day it would happen and now? That dark hope is the latest thing to be ripped away from her.

Surprisingly she was actually something close to sad. She’d hated Jean for so long that it was easy to ignore a strange but simple fact: She was perhaps, other than her son, the closest thing to immediate family Madelyne had. She’d long forsaken those false memories of fake parents who never were, her husband had abandoned her so many times it was almost a running joke and she definitely was not counting Sinister… then there was Jean: she was always there somehow, wherever Madelyne turned and as much as she hated to admit it, Jean had offered her an olive branch more than once.

Then there was Scott. He was now gone, supposedly the great love of her life, and as much as she wished it wasn’t true… a part of her would always love him in some capacity. Those vows may not have meant much to him in the end but they did to her. ‘Till Death to Us Part’ is fine to say but it doesn’t mean her feelings just stopped when his heart did. He wasn’t just her husband, he was the father of her son, there was once a unique miracle of life walking this Earth that was born of their love and that was something you don’t just forget.

Despite all her regrets of never getting a bloody and violent victory over her genetic template or finding a way to magically restore the happy marriage and nuclear family she’d lost, she must admit there was a small part of her deep down that equally regretted never taking the marvelous Marvel Girl and HER Cyclops up on their offers of reconciliation as well… even when it was always on their terms.

And Nathan… Oh Nathan, she still weeped his name as she attempted to be a “normal” person. Her son, the one “real” thing in her life. When she found out she was pregnant she was so happy and being his mother? Meant more to her than ever being “legendary” like Jean Grey. She never fully got the chance. It seemed the universe or destiny always stepped in and made being her baby’s mother an impossible task, pulling him ever farther away from her and now she’d never get the chance. Her child was dead. No matter how many times she tells herself this fact, despite psychically feeling it as it happened, she still wouldn’t fully let herself believe it.

She sleepwalked through life, with dreams of great spandex clad battles and a horde of loyal demons smothering out a fiery raptor at her bidding… her current version of “living” was not so fantastical. She was living as close to a “normal” life as someone like her could hope for: She’d renewed her pilot’s license and was currently making dubious private flights for some of the more civilized criminals in Madripoor. She didn’t ask questions about them and in return they did the same for her. She found solace in the quiet.

Which is probably why the knock on her door took her by surprise so much. She didn’t have “friends” in Madripoor and as far as everyone from her old life? She had hoped they all thought she was still dead, which she partially wished was true herself.

Curiosity pulled her from her chair, something solid that existed outside the nightmare in her mind was the promise on the other side of the door. As she stalked towards the door like a lioness she felt a bit of the old Goblyn Queen persona come back. She hadn’t used her powers, neither her dark magic or cloned mutant gifts, in such a long time but she felt it there beneath her fingertips, ready and waiting for any chance to smite her enemies once more.

She felt a powerful psychic shield pushing back against her telepathic probes as she reached for the doorknob, only increasing her shrewd predatory glare. With a defiant snarl she flung the door open. Immediately met by the horrific sight of a nightmare long past: the standard blue and gold costume of the X-Men, in double-vision no less.

She knew them, more by reputation. Her time with the X-Men didn’t overlap with theirs very much. They were Danielle Moonstar and Xuân Cao Mạnh, also known as Mirage and Karma. Former “New Mutants”, the children who represented mutantkind’s future, now children no longer.

“Hello Madelyne,” Karma smiled, “We have a proposition for you.”

Madelyne wasn’t sure how to react at first but seeing no weapons or psionic arrows in Moonstar’s case, she decided curiosity had a slight edge over her defensive furor for the moment and she stepped aside and gestured for them to enter.

“How did you find me?” She asked as they showed their own apprehension, eyeing the walls and closets as they entered the apartment, waiting for a legion of demons to pour out of any little crevice no doubt.

“Magic, telepathy and cerebro can be a powerful combination.” Danielle Moonstar said through gritted teeth.

“Clever,” Madelyne shrugged while rolling her eyes, “May I get you anything?” she asked more out of nagging social expectation than any real generosity.

“No thanks, no gingerbread for us Witchie-poo, we see the oven.” Danielle muttered, her Vietnamese companion shot her a look and the earth-born valkyrie seemed to submit and marginally lower her ire.

“So what can I do for you two?” Madelyne sighed and crossed her arms.

“What we ask for is not just a favor for us but a true exchange.” Karma began diplomatically, “We seek to give you renewed purpose in the mutant community Madelyne. You were a X-Man once… you can be again.”

“Excuse me?” Madelyne scoffed with a disbelieving smile. Of all the things she expected her to say, that was pretty low on the list.

“It’s an extreme solution to an extreme problem.” Danielle said seriously, her hard gaze meeting Madelyne’s own, “Mutants are lost…afraid, after Genosha. The X-Men…” For all her aggression, a soft undercurrent of grief seemed to overwhelm the Cherokee mutant as she spoke.

“The X-Men are gone but they don’t have to be.” Karma continues for her, “Not all of them anyway. For the world at large it’s Reagan and the AIDS crisis right now, no one is actually trying to assess what happened, help in any way really, which means… precious little in the way of an official list of fatalities.”

“Which includes Genosha’s president.” Mirage added bluntly. After a beat a dawning realization came over Madelyne’s face.

“You want me to BE Jean Grey?” Madelyne gasped, feeling a bit nauseous, “I feel like I’m married again…”

“We need an icon. A figurehead if you will.” Danielle explained flatly.

“How flattering. Just call me Princess Di.” Madelyne rolled her eyes.

“Listen, your Goblin highness.” Moonstar sounded at the end of her patience, “I’m not exactly thrilled with the idea but we, like all mutants, are pretty desperate right now. And despite my many misgivings, given your history, I did a lot of recon work for Xaiver’s before…” Her voice fades momentarily, “I know you’ve not only been keeping a low profile, i.e. not committing any direct crimes, but even volunteering at a local orphanage.”

“I’ve always been good with children.” Madelyne shrugged. Brushing off the breach of her precious privacy. She was long too used to her life not being her own but the thought of those stolen moments with the children, being reduced to just a factoid to be weighed against her many sins on the scales of Anubis, felt like it tainted it a bit for her.

“Yes, well given all that has happened, we’re willing to give you the benefit of the doubt. In fact, in looking over your profile in preparation for this meeting I think you’ve gotten a bit of a raw deal. I of all people know how possession can color events, I feel you may have been blamed for a lot that wasn’t necessarily your choice.” Karma said more civilly.

“Where was that kind of attitude before my kid was a traumatized cyborg physically almost two decades older than me oh and now dead by the way?” Maddie asked sarcastically under her breath.

“Madelyne.” Karma stared at her in a non-judgemental way, urging her. The offer was intriguing. Maybe this was her victory over Jean, the one she knew deep down would always come one day or… it was just a final acceptance that all she’ll ever be is a poor man’s copy of Jean Grey.

Still, to be handed such a position of power and authority over the future of mutants is a hard thing to turn down. Even if it comes with the oversight of Fear (Danielle) and Control (Xuân’). 

“Well…What’s your answer?” Dani asked.

Madelyne looked around her apartment, thought about her life her surrounded by the scum of the Earth and finally remembered those olive branches she had just been wishing she’d taken when she had the chance.

“When do we start?”

Genosha | Six Days Post-Desolation

It was Madelyne’s first day being “Jean” and it was… a challenge to say the least. She made her way around the island with a personal guard of former New Mutants/X-Force: Cannonball, Warpath, Moonstar, Karma, Wolfsbane and Sunspot. To any onlooker I’m sure it looked like dutiful students protecting and eagerly helping their beloved former teacher and current president Jean Grey but in reality she felt like she was on a perp-walk as these people were on alert for any “goblin”-like behavior from the clone.

All around her was death which wouldn’t be very encouraging but even alongside the decay there were also signs of life. Survivors had emerged and begun working alongside the off-island mutants to help with the disaster efforts.

Moonstar and Karma were right about one thing, even the sight of Madelyne (as “Jean”) seemed to bolster the people around her. Madelyne tried to push her inferiority complex and jealousy aside and simply feel good about helping people. 

Using her telekinesis to help lift debris and her telepathy to find trapped survivors, she truly felt like an X-Man again, like she wasn’t just some one-dimensional villainess, cackling like Margaret Hamilton. 

“Madam President!” A group shouted gleefully, running up to Madelyne in tears of joy. Maddie “feels” the Children of the Atom around her tense but they hesitantly allow the young mutants through.

“We’re so happy you made it President Grey!” One young woman whose skin was covered in patches of intense color swatches that moved in the manner of a lava lamp. One of her friends was a tall young person, whose ink-black featureless physical mutation made even an educated guess at their gender impossible, and the third looked indistinguishable from a “flatscan” human male but he had kind eyes.

“I’m here… for you.” Maddie smiled at them genuinely, cupping their cheeks maternally one after the other, “I’m not the only one who survived… Genosha did.”

“Ahem,” Rahne Sinclair half-growled/half coughed, “Madam President, we’re running behind schedule. They’re setting up for your address at MacTaggert Green.”

“Yes of course,” Maddie nodded in her best clipped “business as usual” tone before turning back to the young mutants, “Keep those smiles my friends. Look at that beautiful sky overhead and smell the fresh Genoshian air. We’re still here and we’re gonna rise again.”

“Like the phoenix!” The black void-like mutant exclaimed excitedly, causing Maddie to suppress a wince to maintain her open, pleasant expression.

“Yes my friend. Just like that.”

Madelyne was surprised to see that her reluctant entourage looked actually quite impressed with her rather than ready to kill her at a moment’s notice. 

“Right this way Jean.” James Proudstar gestured to a dais set up in a relatively intact city park. Cameras aimed at her as she ascended the stairway, seemingly made of Xavier and MCoy’s hybrid Shiar-phalanx tech, working on their own with no need of operators.

She looked down at the speech Mạnh and Moonstar had prepared for her and looked back up at the cameras with a smile.

“People of Genosha, fellow mutants. The desolation may have been one of the greatest tragedies in our shared history, it will never be forgotten, that is both a fact and a promise to always honor those we lost. That being said, it would not be an honor to those brave souls, my beloved fellow X-Men, the Brotherhood of Mutants and so many others, to let that day, that one terrible event haunt us.

No, to remember is one thing but we can not dwell in that dark place. Worse yet we cannot let our paradise, our holy land, these beautiful fields of Genosha be nothing more than a cemetery or a fixed, unchanging tribute to what was lost. ‘Thoughts and prayers’ given by those in the world at large before they go about their day and never give us and our kind another thought.

We must rise again from these ashes. For the very definition of the word mutant is to ‘change’. We will adapt, we will evolve and we will thrive but only if we do so together. To that end I, in my capacity as President of Genosha, hereby offer citizenship to all mutants worldwide and even amnesty to any mutant extremist or criminal wanting a fresh start. Yes, we would like to extend the hand of friendship to everyone, even those who had previously relished the role of ‘enemy’.

Genosha is more than the X-Men, more than Xavier and Magneto, Genosha is not just their dream… it’s ours. This place is what we make of it my mutant siblings, it need not be a symbol of murder and tragedy, we must not let that be how this story ends. Instead we must start a new chapter together as we write the story of Genosha, the mutant utopia!” 

Subterranean Genosha | One Week Post-Desolation

It’s easy to talk about forgiveness and moving forward together, it’s harder however to put that into effect. Much harder for some than others, one such person struggling with this concept was Danielle Moonstar.

Not only was she already cursed with suffering having the Goblyn Queen herself as an “ally” but now this. You see one of the many benefits of having so many telepaths in leadership positions, Pryor included, is that you drastically increase the odds of picking up vital information even by accident.

One such snippet of mental data had led the Cheyenne and the clone President into the darkness of Genosha. A stray thought belonging to someone they hoped they’d never need to see again and the infallible feeling that that person was all too close.

Their surroundings were quite the antithesis to all of Maddie’s pre-written poetic waxing about the Sun and brand new days on Genosha as they descended downwards into the all-encroaching dark. 

These tunnels had been built by Morlock traditionalists who immigrated to Genosha before the massacre. Now that they were mostly abandoned they’d unfortunately found a new purpose as the personal “Underworld” of the mutant would-be goddess Selene, once and future Black Queen of the Hellfire Club.

“What is she doing here?” Moonstar growled as they approached a conjunction of tunnels that seemed to serve as her home base, at least that’s where they sensed her presence the most.

“With Selene there’s absolutely no way to know for sure.” Maddie sighed.

“Well that was as appropriately unhelpful as an answer to a rhetorical question should be.” Moonstar rolled her eyes.

“Just trying to help.” Maddie sighed.

“Yeah well… you’re only here because you’re the only one of us getting a solid read on this bitch. Evil minds think alike I suppose…”

“Selene was never my friend or ally,” Maddie snapped back, “I wasn’t even the “Jean” who served on the Hellfire Club. All I know about her is that the only thing she truly cares about is assuring her own immortality, any and all connections she makes with others being subject to being sacrificed to further that goal at any given moment.”

“Like the time you tried to sacrifice your baby?” Moonstar grumbled, causing Maddie to stop dead in her tracks. After a second Dani realized Madelyne was no longer right behind her and sighed, turning around, actually looking moderately contrite, “Listen… I shouldn’t have said that.”

“No… you shouldn’t have.” Maddie said but there was no heat in it, only melancholy, “I’ve made mistakes but I care about other people, that’s a key difference. The… event… you referenced was not done by me under sound mind and body and–“

“Yeah,” Moonstar cut her off, “Listen I get it, or at least I’ve heard it, I know that you’re allegedly not that person anymore but there’s something I need to just put on the table right now: I understand the idea behind Xuân’s play by installing you as President in Jean’s place, and I will try to work on the teamwork thing with you but there will ALWAYS be a part of me that remembers you towering over Manhattan, gleefully reigning over a legion of demons as you brought down literal Hell on Earth.”

Madelyne took it in and after a beat she nodded with an accepting sigh.

“Understood.” The redhead replied softly.

With the cloud of tension over them slightly abated they turned to enter the intersection where this tunnel met the others only to be met with a flash of red and a snarl of razor-sharp teeth.

“What the–” Moonstar yelled even as a telekinetic power-effect of purple and green flame pulled her backwards. Just as a barely humanoid figure leapt in to block the junction’s entrance. If these tunnels were Selene’s Underworld it seemed she’d found her own personal Cerberus in the form of the former Dark Rider, Spyne.

“Is the mistress expecting you?” The animalistic mutant hissed.

“Sorry, I didn’t know where to call to make an appointment.” Madeleine rolled her eyes as she erected a telekinetic shield, as Danielle summoned her psionic bow and arrow, the golden astral energy bringing an alien light to the dim background.

“Let them in Spyne, darling.” The ancient mutant sorceress’s voice reverberated. The red-skinned beast man looked backwards into the tunnel junction and then shrugged, falling out of sight, leaving Madelyne and Moonstar on alert, their powers still activated.

“Come in. Come in, my children. We mustn’t lurk in doorways – it’s rude.” Selene’s voice rang out once more as the two women tentatively jumped off the tunnel’s opening into the dark expanse of the room, lit only by antique candle holders, “One might question your upbringing…” Selene smiled in her exaggerated posh voice, as the lights seemed to glow brighter and she came into view at last, lounging on a gothic throne on the far side of the makeshift “grand hall”.

“Yes well… we can’t all be nobility Selene.” Madelyne sighed as the two women made their way past what appeared to be the focal piece of the Black Queen’s chthonic kingdom: a human skull fixed in onyx.

“Yeah most of us aren’t old enough.” Moonstar sniped as she kept her illuminated bow and arrow at the ready, her fingers tightening as her eyes grazed the macabre totem and then back to Selene.

“Such a frosty tone Miss Moonstar.” Selene smirked as she rose from her seat, “We were pretty close once, were we not?” 

“You tried to turn me into a fucking leech like you, I wouldn’t call that close. Oh and if you’re hoping to get close now? Please remember I wasn’t a psychopomp then and you’re long past your expiration date.” Moonstar threatened.

“What about me Dani?” Another female voice asked from the shadows, “Aren’t we already close?” The figure emerged from behind Selene’s throne revealing the comely figure of Amara Aquilla AKA the former New Mutant, Magma. Her pale skin and blonde hair contrasting against the sleeveless black silk gown she wore.

“Amara?” Danielle gasped.

“The one and only.” Magma smiled and rushed forward to give Moonstar a hug. The indigenous mutant barely reacted fast enough to drop her psionic weapon in time for the embrace.

“What are you doing here?” Dani gasped.

“Where else would I be? I got the SOS call like the rest.” Amara shrugged.

“Why are you down here with Selene?” Madelyne interjected.

“Jean! I’m sorry I didn’t mean to forget you.” Magma rushed in before either Danielle or Madelyne could say anything and gave Maddie an equally warm hug. Madlyne awkwardly patted the young woman’s back while sharing a dubious glance with Danielle over her shoulder.

“Yes, well… Jean asks a good question.” Danielle said as Magma pulled back.

“I was with Selene when I got your message.” Amara said matter-of-factly.

“Why?” Moonstar asked dumbfounded.

“We’re all that’s left of Nova Roma Dani and… believe it or not she’s changed, or at least she’s trying to. What is it Jean said in her address? Amnesty and coming together in friendship and all that?” Magma said, smiling sweetly back at Selene.

“After everything she’s done?”

“What is amnesty if it doesn’t apply to everyone?” Magma asked innocently.

“True, I suppose.” Madelyne eyed Selene warily.

“Amara you should come back up with us, see the others there’s things we need to talk about.” Danielle insisted, Madelyne knowing she was looking for a private moment to let her fellow New Mutant in on the proxy Jean situation and Maddie’s real identity. Somehow however Maddie felt that may be a bad idea, something about this friendship Magma had developed with her one time tyrant left her unsettled but even as she thought it she knew it felt like a “villainous” thought, like she was encouraging Danielle to distrust her friends and cast doubt, stoke discord and in general return to her goblin ways…

“I will, I will but just like you’ve been working topside, we’ve been working down here. We’ve found a lot of survivors and even some clues to the cause of the Desolation. Trust me, this is good stuff! I’ll meet up with you soon however. Just trust me: Selene is here for the right reasons. She wants mutantkind to survive, she’s always wanted that. She jumpstarted my powers, tried to increase yours… I know she did that for malicious reasons but it doesn’t change the intended outcome.”

Much to Maddie’s shock Danielle seemed to look back at her for input. Madelyne shrugged and mouthed the words: ‘amnesty is amnesty I suppose?’ but also mimed ‘keep an eye on her’ with two fingers pointing at her own eyes and then vaguely in Selene’s direction. Danielle nodded imperceptibly.

“Okay Amara,” She nodded before turning back to Selene, “We’ll allow you to remain on Genosha… for now… on Amara’s recommendation. Amara please report to the capital building as soon as you can to get…” Moonstar’s voice faltered as she looked over at Madelyne, “the President up to speed on what’s happening down here.”

Amara, still the soldier forged in an isolated society upholding the ideals of Ancient Rome, immediately gave a stiff salute and firm nod, “Absolutely.”

“Welcome to Genosha, Selene.” Madelyne nodded at the semi-immortal mutant.

“Thank you… Jean.” She smiled, fading back into darkness as Madelyne and Moonstar made their way back to the tunnels. The candles’ gentle snapping sound was the only thing holding back the silence for quite some time, that and Spyne’s heavy breathing, while Selene made sure they were truly alone.

Magma’s smile became wider as she turned to her mistress.

“I think that went well.” The blonde woman said as she patted Spyne’s head.

“You did a beautiful acting job my dear,” Selene cooed, “You’re improving so much already. Two telepaths and neither one suspected you for a second… Malice.”

Genosha | The next morning

High on the precipice of Genosha’s Mount Sabah Nur. Madelyne Pryor found solace in the quiet once more.

“I like to think this is symbolic but if I’m honest… it feels a bit trite.” Maddie snarks, turning to the mechanical arm she clutched like an infant in her arms as if it could respond to her.

“A large pointed peak pointing towards the future?” She shrugged, “It had occurred to me you may not appreciate the name of this mountain but it is the highest one on Genosha and think of it this way… Now you’ll always be above him.” She chuckles darkly.

She knelt and laid the arm down on the stone edge. She reached out and telekinetically agitated the molecules of the rock causing her son’s disembodied arm to become embedded in the rockface, curled in an almost triangular shape.

She lit her index finger with brimstone eldritch fire and reached out to write a message beneath the arm: ‘Nathan Christopher Summers, a cable from the past, the present, the future and then back again. A living representation of time’s circle and the ability to start again and get things right. The hero we needed but did not deserve.‘

“We can always rename the damn mountain anyways.” Madelyne tried to recapture her casual tone as she brushed a burgeoning tear from her eye, “I am the president after all. The president of this land where you died. You’re dead.” She said, finally letting herself believe it, the tears now flowing freely.

“You died… for this place. Trying to save it and make it as much a paradise as the world in which you were raised was a perdition. Yes…” She thought, wiping her eyes, “Yes, looking at it that way? I can do this. I can be here in this place, using her name… because this is what you wanted to do with your life and so if I must be alive without you: it’s what I will do with mine.”

With this vow Maddie knew she would be no one’s figurehead. The crown she wore would be real and no matter what Danielle Moonstar, Xuân Cao Mạnh or even the dreaded Selene thought, wanted or plotted… she would decide not only Genosha’s future but her own. The Queen had arrived…and long may she reign.