DIVIDED DESTINY

Part I: Reunion

By Ryan Krupienski

It’s rather cold in Westchester County right now, about twenty-three degrees below zero to be exact. It’s winter, though, so that’s to be expected.

There are few people on the streets, freezing in the cold, some with nowhere to go and no way to protect themselves from the unforgiving, bitter frost. Like most others, though, the mutants known as the X-Men are all nice and warm, gathered together at their home, the Xavier Institute For Higher Learning. This is a very special place to them, as it is the place where they learned how to use and control their incredible powers, but most importantly how to use them for the betterment of a cruel world that would rather see them all dead.

Cyclops, Phoenix, Iceman, Archangel, Beast, Storm, Nightcrawler, Colossus, Shadowcat, Rogue, Gambit, Psylocke, Cecilia Reyes, and Professor Charles Xavier are all gathered together inside the vast living room of the Xavier Institute, a blazing fire providing them with warmth. Notably absent are Wolverine and Marrow – Wolverine off on his own business, and Marrow having her own reasons for not attending this gathering. The other X-Men are clustered in groups, all having different conversations.

Storm and Phoenix sit together on the soft leather couch, drinking coffee and talking.

“So the Brotherhood broke Charles out of the Hulkbuster base? How? That place was a heavily-guarded fortress!” Phoenix asks.

Storm sips her coffee, then looks over at Phoenix and responds, “From what Charles has told me, after Operation Zero Tolerance was shut down, the base was deserted up until Senator Kelly’s arrival, by which time Charles had already been liberated.”

“I don’t get it, Ororo. If they were so frightened, why not come to us? I know, they probably had no reason to trust we would help them, considering our past, but if it was really that big of a deal…”

“All that matters is that Charles is home, Cerebro has been defeated, and we are all here, together again.” Storm smiles at Phoenix, and Phoenix smiles back.

As Phoenix and Storm continue talking, Xavier talks with Cyclops, the very first to join his X-Men.

“We had no idea you were Bastion’s prisoner, or that you were at the Hulkbuster base. It turns out Jubilee was there as well, and she was the one who helped us get out. We would have tried to get you both out if we had known you were there,” Cyclops insists, sitting by Xavier along with Iceman and Beast.

“Scott, there is no need for that. You escaped, Bastion was stopped. Jubilee and myself are fine. I know you would have come back for me, but what if you had? You may not have gotten away, and Bastion may have done much more than just implant a bomb in your chest.” Xavier looks at Cyclops and puts a comforting hand on his shoulder.

“True. It’s just good that we’re all here, together again. Bastion’s gone, and everything’s pretty much back to normal.”

Iceman starts to speak, “Have you guys forgotten? Bishop’s still missing. He’s been gone for months, and no one has said a word about it. Don’t you think we should look for him? You were one of the last people to see him, Hank. Where do you think he is?”

Beast looks over at Iceman and replies, “The last time I saw Bishop was when we were in space with Deathbird. We had just defeated a more powerful race of Phalanx and were on our way back to Earth on a ship provided to us by Lilandra, but we were attacked, and…”

“Bishop’s dead?” Iceman asks with wide eyes.

“I… am not sure, Robert. It is quite possible that he and Deathbird perished on the ship, but I would like to think that he’s alive out there, somewhere…”

“Bobby, we will search for Bishop, I assure you. But I must inquire, why have you taken such an interest in him? I don’t remember much interaction between you two,” Xavier says.

“Well, it’s just that, Bishop’s our teammate, our friend. He’s been missing for a while, and no one seems to notice… or care.”

“We do care, Bobby,” says Phoenix, walking over with Storm to join Xavier, Cyclops, Beast, and Iceman.

As everyone continues to talk, Gambit stands at the other end of the room, pondering his future with the team. Will he ever truly be forgiven for what he unwittingly unleashed upon the defenseless Morlocks? He knows Storm, Wolverine, and Rogue forgive him, but what about Cyclops? Phoenix? What about Shadowcat, who was nearly killed by the Marauders? And Heaven forbid if Marrow ever finds out…

“Remy, what’re ya doin’ all the way over here, sugah? C’mon and join us… lotsa people over there that haven’t seen ya for a while,” Rogue says as she walks over to Gambit.

“No t’anks, chere. I t’ink I’ll stay over here,” Gambit replies.

“Remy, they don’t hate you. Ah know that’s what you must be thinking, because you ain’t got no other reason for stayin’ away from them.”

Gambit looks at Rogue and sighs. “How do you know they don’t? I started somet’ing that killed hundreds o’ innocent mutants, out of my own self-interest – for something I desperately wanted. I worked for Sinister, one of de people dat Cyclops hates most. Can you really truly say dat dey don’t hate me at all?”

“No, Remy, Ah guess Ah can’t… but Ah can say for sure that these are people that love ya, that you’ve known for a while now. They’re your family, Ah doubt they could ever hate you.”

Gambit looks at Rogue and smiles. “You too good to me, chere. I t’ink I’ll go take a walk. I don’ want to cause a ruckus, ‘specially with Warren around. He ain’t bound to be too happy to see me. Be seein’ ya, chere.”

“Remy…” Rogue calls out softly. Gambit doesn’t hear her, and walks out of the room. Rogue frowns slightly, and turns around to head back to the rest of her fellow X-Men.

Someplace, far away from the Xavier Institute. Where? Who knows. All that is known is that it’s the current home of the evil geneticist known as Mr. Sinister.

Computers and advanced technology of all kinds litter the room, which is dark, and Sinister stands at his main computer monitor. He’s watching something – someone, actually – and that someone he’s watching happened to be Mrs. Jean Grey-Summers, the telepathic Phoenix of the X-Men.

“You are pregnant, at last,” whispers Sinister, “and if things go according to plan, dear Jean, Apocalypse will not poison this child as he did the first child of Cyclops. This new, powerful, untainted child will be the first of a new generation of incredibly powerful mutants, mutants that I will create to usher in a new era for this plane-”

“Sir?” says a female voice, interrupting Sinister.

Sinister does not turn around. “What?” he asks curtly.

The voice replies nervously, “Th-The procedure is complete, sir. You told me to inform you when they were don-”

“Yes, I did. Thank you. Now leave.”

“Y-Yes, sir, I’m sorry if I bothered you,” the voice responds. Footsteps follow, and Sinister is alone again.

Sinister turns his attention once again to the monitor. “Take good care of her, Jean, or I will have to take her myself.”

Sinister takes one last look at the monitor, then turns it off and walks out of the room.

“Well, I have to get going,” announces Cecilia Reyes, “I’ve got a load of work to do, and some patients’ files to update…”

“No need for explanations, Cecilia. It was good to see you again after so long,” Xavier says, looking at Cecilia Reyes as she puts on her coat and prepares to leave.

Cecilia zips up her coat, grabs her purse, and turns to Xavier. “Thanks, Charles. You too. I’ll be around if you need me, if you really need me. I have patients to take care of, but if it’s something like the end of the world, I can help out.”

“Let’s not limit it to that, Cecilia. Call me some time, we’ll do lunch…” Phoenix says.

Cecilia looks at Phoenix and smiles, then gives her a hug. She hugs Storm, waves to a few others, then makes her way out of the institute.

Everyone returns to their discussions after Cecilia is gone. For about ten minutes, they talk, but are then interrupted by Cyclops.

Cyclops stands up and says loudly, “I have something to say. Everyone should hear this.” He stands facing all of his fellow X-Men, then clears his throat and begins.

“I was doing a lot of thinking during my sabbatical in Alaska. Professor… Charles, your dream is that someday humans and mutants can live together in this world in peace. You’ve been trying to accomplish this goal by finding mutants and training them in the use of their powers. You did that for almost all of us standing here right now. When the original X-Men were formed, the world at large didn’t know that mutants even existed.

“But now, Professor, that’s changed. I’d like to think that it’s gotten better when it comes to human/mutant relations, but it hasn’t… mutants everywhere are being hunted down by mutant-haters, being beaten to death. I was seriously injured during Operation Zero Tolerance. Why? Because I’m a mutant. Organizations like Operation Zero Tolerance and the Friends of Humanity were and are still formed because the human population in general thinks that we, mutants, are all loose cannons and want to take over the world. They think of us like that because people like Magneto, Sabretooth, Mystique, and countless others have been caught in the act of trying in one way or another to ‘destroy’ humankind or take over the world. Magneto was the first mutant to go public, and he did it by threatening to unleash an array of missiles on the world. So humans thought automatically that all mutants were evil.”– Ryan)

“It seems instead of taking a step forward, we’ve taken quite a few huge leaps backwards. Now we’re to the point where a human/mutant war could be brewing. I think we need to reconsider how we do things. We need to be more proactive, get to those mutant and even human criminals who would do harm and damage before they can do that harm and damage.

“To put it simply, we need to find, capture, and turn in any and all evil mutants that we can find.”

Cyclops pauses. Some of the X-Men’s eyes go wide, including the Professor’s. Xavier looks at Cyclops, absorbing his words.

“Scott… you want the X-Men to hunt down our own kind?” Xavier asks.

Storm looks at Cyclops and said, “Scott, the X-Men were not formed to hunt people down. Charles formed this team to create peace and harmony between human and mutantkind… your ideas have validity, but that is not the way to go about making the Professor’s dream a reality.”

“Ororo, thank you for your support, but I can handle this,” Xavier says, still looking at Cyclops.

“Professor, not to be rude, but there is nothing to handle. If we just sit around and wait for some evil mutant to attack, we’re never going to get anywhere.”

“Scott, the X-Men were formed to help mutants,” Xavier states, “help them better understand and control their powers…”

“Like you tried to help Sabretooth?”

The tension is growing between Cyclops and Xavier, everybody can see it. They glare at each other for what seems to be an eternity, until Xavier breaks the silence…

“That’s not fair, Scott.” Xavier gives Cyclops a cold look.

“Isn’t it, though? Sabretooth is one of the most vicious killers we have ever come across. You tried to help him, but couldn’t. He lived for killing. Like Magneto lived for mutant superiority. And Apocalypse lives for survival of the fittest. And many other mutants live for their own personal goals. Instead of trying to help them, we should just be locking them up and throwing away the key!”

Xavier, getting impatient with Cyclops, asks, “Scott… are you saying you’re going to act on this, even after I’ve stated my opinion on it?”

“Yes, Charles. Contrary to popular belief, I do have a mind of my own!” Becoming more frustrated, Cyclops continues, “Maybe you can sit around and wait for one of our old enemies to resurface and take lives, but I can’t!”

The tension in the room is now at boiling point. Storm and Xavier are clearly against Cyclops’ proposal, but the others have remained silent.

“So what happens now, Scott?” Xavier asks with a sigh.

“Well, Charles… it’s clear you’re not willing to do anything about this. We’re not going to agree at all on this… so I guess I’m going to have to do something about it myself!”

Be sure to read Divided Destiny Part 2 over in X-Men #1!

NEXT ISSUE: Cyclops and his new team say adios to Westchester and move to Chicago, the Windy City! Find out who’s on the new team, and watch as they stop an ordinary bank robbery and get their first taste of publicity in their new hometown! Also, appearances by Cecilia Reyes and the Thunderbolts!