< “Where is our son?!” > a military figure demanded in Mandarin. He had a slight western accent from his native Tibetan dialect. Some would consider the act of joining the Chinese military betrayal, but that was a different time for him. Things have changed in China. There is little a rice farmer can do in the grand scheme of things in a Communist republic. His wife simply looked up at her battle weary husband, dressed in dark green military fatigues. Beside him was a younger man, bald. A strange glow came from his blackened eyes.

< “I don’t know,” > the wife responded. She looked out across the damp rice fields, < “What has he done this time? Fired from another job?” >

This time, the younger, bald man spoke, < “He is not in trouble yet. He was last seen in Shanghai. Protesting for the freedom of the Tibet province. That is a serious offense.” >

The wife smiled as she brushed her thin black hair out of her eyes, < “He can barely speak or understand the Southern dialect. He is a country boy. Why would he be there in the city? He’s a devout Buddhist.” >

< “The boy has already angered our ancestors by practicing that foul religion,” > the husband muttered. < “We are not monks, nor do we aspire to be. We are just trying to get by!” >

The bald man spoke up, < “He did exhibit certain…abilities. We think he may be what the Westerners call a mutant. The government is sketchy on the subject, especially—” >

< “Especially since you are one, I assume? They don’t want too many of them?” > the wife inquired. Soon after, the husband grabbed his rifle and slammed the butt of it against her temple. She recoiled in pain and shock as she covered her bloody head wound.

< “He gets that arrogance from you!” > the husband growled. He pointed the barrel at the crying woman’s head, < “Where is he?” >

< “NO!” > the woman wailed. < “I won’t let you kill him!” >

< “Intention to allude the authorities is a serious offense,” > the husband said. < “The boy is dangerous! He has killed Korean refugees that became prostitutes and he’s supported the Falun Gong! Not to mention the unpatriotic propaganda he is spreading! His words are the most dangerous! He is a walking political nightmare! If the Americans catch wind of this, we will never hear the end of it in the United Nations! Now WHERE IS HE?!” >

< “Xorn. He fled to the village of Xorn,” > the wife replied.

The husband withdrew his rifle and set it aside, rushing up to cradle his wife, < “Oh, I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to be so violent! This is serious…” > The wife simply nodded as she embraced her husband. However, in a flash, the married couple was reduced to ashes just as quickly as they reconciled.

Roni Santiago stood in the cool autumn air as John Allerdyce attempted to punch in the proper security codes at the front gate of the Xavier mansion, the base of the esteemed mutant outlaws known as the X-Men. Roni breathed through her nose, “Want me to just short-circuit it?”

“You’ll trigger the security,” Pyro said as he kept on trying to punch in the security code.

[[Access denied.]]

“Bugger!” Pyro spat.

“Can’t be that bad,” Diode said as she held out her hands, electricity bleeding from them.

Pyro smirked, “I appreciate the zeal, but you haven’t met Cyclops personally yet. Trust me. He designed this system. Imagine Xavier’s ideals mixed in with a cold, calculated man who has every possible scenario mapped out. Including me an’ you.”

“Is it true about the other X-Men that were captured?” Diode wondered.

Pyro shrugged, “I haven’t heard anything. Not that I really care all that much. They put their necks out on the line for all the black-ops shite. Not my fault.”

“Oh, come on, John,” Diode said as she crossed her arms. “Quit being such a heartless Aussie! We need to get you liquored up, honey.”

“Sorry,” Pyro muttered. “These blokes are different than the X-Corp crowd. Kinda elitist. Xavier’s brown-nosers postmortem.”

[[Access denied.]]

“Christ, I need a cig,” Pyro sighed. He turned around and scratched his head. “This is embarrassing.”

Diode grabbed her breasts and gave them a good squeeze together, promptly sliding her hands down her seductive curves, “Don’t worry. I know how to handle this. I’ll get their attention.”

“Er…?” Pyro muttered questionably.

Diode casually walked up to the control panel and composed herself, as if unconsciously preparing herself for what she was about to do. She pressed the speaker button and smiled, clearing her throat before yelling, “LET US IN, MOTHERFUCKERS OR I’LL ORGANIZE AN EVANGELIST PROTEST OUT HERE, ARGUING THAT MUTANTS WERE INTELLIGENTLY DESIGNED AND NOT EVOLVED!!!”

After a brief moment, she gasped, “Yeah…” Diode then turned and winked at Pyro. “P.S. PYRO SAID ICEMAN IS GAY!”

“Holy Christ, woman!” Pyro yelped. “Do not drag me into this!”

The skies became blackened by storm clouds and the air dropped to near subzero temperatures almost instantly. Snowball lightning crackled across the sky, striking the ground where Pyro and Diode stood. If not for a quick reaction by Diode, they would have been struck.

The sound of solidifying ice came from the mansion grounds and formed a bridge of frozen moisture up to the front gate as a man in a trench coat and blue-tinted sunglasses grimaced at the two mutants, lying on the ground just a couple yards from the lightning strike.

“The Brotherhood flunky? Awww, man!” Bobby Drake sighed, “So not in the mood for this!”

“Don’t get all sentimental on me, Frosty,” Pyro smirked.

An African woman with platinum hair descended to the ground, dressed in black and gold military-esque fatigues, accompanied by the graceful winds of the Arctic, “Stand down, Iceman.”

“Yeah, yeah…,” Bobby muttered.

Storm turned to the intruders, “What brings you here, Pyro?”

“Good question,” John replied in his Australian accent. He glanced over at Roni, “She’s back from the dead…and apparently not the figment of her brother’s imagination. Need a place for her to crash for awhile.”

“I wasn’t dead,” Diode growled through clenched teeth before winking at Storm. “We haven’t formerly met, unfortunately. I’m Veronica Santiago. Diode.” Storm emotionlessly held out her hand and felt a shock of electricity before she could shake Roni’s hand. Diode withdrew in alarm, “Whoa…sorry. Having a little trouble keeping my powers in check. Getting vaporized does that to a chick, y’know?”

Iceman rolled his eyes and crossed his arms, muttering to himself, “A comedian, eh?”

Storm rubbed the palm of her gloved hand, “It is…alright.”

{{“What the hell’s going on?!”}} Cyclops’s livid voice yelled through the radio piece in both Storm’s and Iceman’s communicators, located on their uniforms. Iceman jumped slightly, but Storm remained undisturbed. In ways, she was the only one who could take the full torrent of Cyclops in full-on commander-mode. If she could generate a hurricane in the blink of an eye, nothing should be able to faze her.

Storm replied, “It’s under control.” She turned to Iceman after turning off the radio, “Make sure Rogue is there to ease the tensions while we explain this. Scott will break another blood vessel.”

Iceman made a squeamish face, “Yeah. Cecelia’s only here part-time. I don’t like it when he and Jeannie get all sappy husbandy-wifey-patient-nursey every time one of them is injured. If anything, it makes me feel embarrassed for all their embittered alternate future children.”

{{“Radio’s still on, Bobby,”}} Cyclops grumbled.

Bobby scratched the back of his head and swallowed the lump in his throat, “Meant to. Ahem…Scotty. Meant to.” He switched the radio off and straightened his sunglasses, glancing at Diode, “So, X-Corp, huh? You guys need an accountant?”

Diode simply glimpsed Iceman, staring up and down his body. After spending a lengthy time observing the man of average-height, Roni finally asked, “So…what can you make out of ice? Anything?”

As Storm and Pyro walked into the mansion, Iceman cleared his throat, “Yeah. Pretty much.”

“Let’s see a scale model of your icicled-up package, then,” Diode demanded. “Colossus never showed me his armored beefstick. Transmuted penises intrigue me. Let’s see.”

Iceman smirked, a little shocked. He wisely cracked, “Not even enough moisture in the tri-state area, señorita.” He headed for the mansion, “Come on.”

Diode smiled to herself, licking her bottom lip. She muttered to herself, “A comedian, eh?”

Mojoworld.

“Oh, this is just fucking hilarious!” Spiral bellowed as she sat on a throne of Major Domo androids, smashed and broken beyond repair. All six of her arms were twirling katanas. Below the empowered ruler of the pocket dimension stood the remnants of X-Corp, Archangel, Dazzler, and Xorn.

Warren was too injured to fly, but his strength was still enough to make him an asset in the fight. But with Spiral’s power doubled with her Mojo status, it wasn’t clear whether or not they would truly make a dent in this new regime.

“Do you even know what you’re dealing with?” Spiral asked as she carelessly reclined on her throne.

“I know about fifty freedom fighters in the area that’ll storm this place if I shoot my special signal flare,” Dazzler warned as she crossed her arms. “Or do you forget I fought for years in this dimension trying to liberate it?”

“Yeah…,” Spiral sarcastically replied with a glint in her eye, “what a name you made for yourself. Failure. Failed rebellion, failed marriage.” Spiral stopped for a moment and leaned forward with a sinister grin on her face, “Failed pregnancy…”

An impenetrable hatred soon overcame Alison Blaire. Hatred she had never felt before. She fought alongside the X-Men, but her motivations were mainly altruistic in nature. She never really had that “spark” that made her the star player of superheroics. On stage, she was the master. She knew how to put on a show. But the X-Men were something different for her. She reluctantly joined because she really had nowhere else to go. She needed to matter. Her music career practically tanked. Her legacy was extinct.

It has been theorized that her unborn child, fathered by Longshot, grew up to become Shatterstar. But when Magneto killed him, any hopes or dreams of her miscarriage became as empty as her motivations. After Apollyon’s riot on Washington, DC, she felt she couldn’t continue with the X-Men. She would soon be another statistic rather than a memorable figure if she sustained with them. She wasn’t as combat ready as she once thought.

At least…until Spiral opened that twat of a mouth.

“BITCH!” Dazzler shouted as her entire form glowed with pure white light. For a moment, it seemed that all sound ceased as she absorbed it into herself. Archangel screamed in silence as he covered his sensitive eyes while Xorn mercilessly hovered in midair, seemingly unaffected. After nearly four seconds of charging herself up, Dazzler directed a torrent of pure photonic energy straight at the would-be six-armed ruler at the speed of light…finally allowing a massive *FBTHOOM!* to crackle in everyone’s ears seconds later.

Dazzler grit her teeth as she observed the pile of smoldering androids that once made up Spiral’s throne. A tear welled up in her left eye and she tried not to let it drip down her cheek to let anyone see, but it did anyway. Alison quickly wiped it away with her hand as she shakily grabbed onto the closest man, which happened to be Archangel.

“Oh my God, Warren…” Dazzler said as Archangel gently embraced her. “What did I do?”

“It’s okay, Alison,” Warren said as he buried his face into her neck and gently kissed it. Dazzler pulled away for a moment, shocked by his showing of affection. She looked back at Xorn, but he was strangely missing. Their surroundings seemed to have changed as well…into that of a disco-themed nightclub.

Warren arched his shirtless back onto the plush, heart-shaped couch and smiled, “Come on, Alison. Free your mind.” He held out a cube of LSD and gently placed it onto his tongue with his thumb and index finger.

“Warren, it’s been forever since I did that stuff,” Alison confessed. “I…” And yet, she was compelled to try it. She shook the hair to one side of her face as Warren fed her another cube of the hallucinogen. As she swallowed, her body seemed to reject the drug, but she received pleasure from it nonetheless. She straddled Warren on the couch and began to run her fingers up and down his bare chest.

“Ooo!” Alison moaned. An unexpected guest had begun to enter her from behind. She looked up and saw Beast, wearing nothing but his coat of fur.

“Sorry, but I am indefinitely wasted,” Dr. Hank McCoy said with a wry smile. A disco ball began to slowly spin, filling the dimly-lit room with an aquatic-like light show.

Alison tried to speak, but short bursts of pleasure came from her breath as she arched her back as the double penetration caused her to climax. She laid down on top of Warren’s torso and sighed pleasurably.

When she opened her eyes, two more nude males entered the room. Both of them were blonde. One had a terrible mullet. The other strangely wore flight goggles.

“Is this the gangbang?” Samuel Guthrie asked in his Kentucky accent as he removed his goggles.

“Yeah, it took forever to find this place,” Longshot, the one with the mullet, muttered.

Dazzler smiled, “What are they doing here?”

“They’re here for you, babe,” Warren said as he looked down at his ex-girlfriend. “You have a strange fetish for X-Men. The blonde ones anyway.”

“And bestiality…it would…appear,” Beast chimed in. “If I do say so myself.”

Dazzler lifted herself off of Archangel and stood in the center of the room, directly below the disco ball as the four suitors stood around her in a diamond formation, “I…I can’t have all of you at the same time.”

“But I love you,” Cannonball said, “you showed me things Tabitha never did for me. I still can’t get you out of my head!”

“—outta my head!” Strangely, the Kylie Minogue song began to play over the speakers at a high decibel.

“And I’m just an engineered humanoid,” Longshot declared. “Yet you married me, pledged your soul to me!”

“I just can't get you out of my head
Boy, your love is all I think about
I just can't get you out of my head
Boy, your lovin' is all I'm thinkin' 'bout”

“You were the best I’ve ever had,” Archangel said. “Better than Candy. Better than Betsy.”

“There's a dark secret in me
Don't leave me locked in your heart”

“I’m a huge insecure nerd,” Beast sheepishly giggled, “the fact that you even went out with me means that I’m obsessed with you…heh.”

“Set me free
Feel the need in me
Set me free
Stay forever and ever and ever…”

Dazzler sighed as she shielded her nude form with strategically-placed sparkles of light. Using the disco ball above her, she reflected high-intensity streams of photons directly at her potential suitors, seemingly vaporizing them.

“You’re not going to win that easily, Spiral,” Alison said, fully aware of the simulated reality. It took her a little longer than usual to figure out it wasn’t real. Her only question was…would Warren and Xorn make it out just as fast before they were consumed by their demons?

Earth 616.
Xavier Institute.

Pressurized air hissed as the metallic doors opened to the mansion’s sub-basement layer. Large footsteps echoed as they eventually found their way to the aptly-named War Room. A large circular table with many seats where the X-Men would regularly plan and coordinate their battles only had a select few occupants. One of them stood out in particular.

“Boize moi!” Colossus heard himself gasp. At the sound of the Russian man’s voice, Diode swiveled in her chair and darted into the man’s arms.

“Oh man, I missed you Tin Man!” Diode fake-sobbed. She looked into his eyes and whimpered, “Did the Wizard give you a heart?”

Piotr embraced her as he caught eyes with three of the original five X-Men: Cyclops, Phoenix, and Beast. Pyro also stood beside them. Jean looked on with a knowing smile while the rest of the men seemed a little less than enthusiastic with all the drama.

Colossus found it hard to breathe, “I…thought this was a cruel joke. I had to see it for myself.”

“I ran a couple tests on her,” Beast chimed in as he adjusted his bifocals. He had a slightly fatigued look to his scruffy blue visage from all the overtime he was pulling in outside of the X-Men. “Apparently, she has an innate and subconscious control over the electron bond of her molecules. In theory, she could be immortal. But don’t quote me on that.”

“Thanks for coming on such short notice, Peter,” Cyclops said after Diode was finished dry humping the large strong man.

“No problem,” Colossus said as he straightened his tie.

“How’s Nareel?” Jean asked, as if trying to calm the tensions in the air.

Colossus swallowed a bit and nodded, “She’ll be fine. There’s some nerve damage, but she’ll be able to walk eventually.”

Beast coughed slightly as he removed his bifocals and cleaned them off with a handkerchief, “Any word on Psylocke’s whereabouts? That’s another thing we were sort of worried about. I told everyone about it after we did the blood transfusion with her brother.”

Colossus solemnly replied in the negative. “All that was left were her wedding ring and a very pissed-off Wanda. We managed to get a few Hand ninja caught on camera before they ‘mysteriously’ shorted out. I assume she’s with them now. Not sure I really blame her.”

“We can’t worry about that now,” Cyclops said as he crossed his arms. “With Warren in Mojoworld doing whatever he’s doing, we can’t keep having these power struggles…in the business sense, I mean.”

“Our numbers are dwindling,” Phoenix said. “And if I’m right, Psylocke departed for a reason.” She didn’t turn to face the man standing with his arms crossed behind her, “Care to elaborate, John?”

Pyro shrugged and simply responded, “Well, the company’s sort of…fucked.”

Colossus seemed confused. He smiled, “Not really. I mean, I don’t see how.”

Pyro smirked, “Well…yeah, it is. I sold my shares to someone I probably shouldn’t have. So did Maggott. Proteus gave up his seat on the board (not to mention he’s goin’ back to Muir Isle with his mum or some such). Diode was sorta…dead. Psylocke is gone, so there goes her vote…the fact is…I don’t think Warren can do shit about what this new person is going to do.”

“I wasn’t dead!” Diode reiterated, almost taking it as an insult.

“The importance of a public face to the X-Men is still a priority,” Cyclops said. “So that’s why you’re here, Peter. We need to discuss the future of X-Corp. This isn’t about business, celebrity status, or any of that. This is about the dream.”

Colossus rested his chin on his fist and seemed amused, “The only reason I came out of retirement to work for Warren was to provide for my family and fight for the dream in a positive manner. Now both of those have nearly been destroyed.”

“If you sell your shares now, you’ll be able to support your family,” Phoenix said.

“How can you be sure?” Colossus asked as he put his hands on his hips. He looked at Pyro, “Wait…who did you sell your shares to in the first place?”

Pyro rolled his eyes.

Warren Worthington III awoke with a start as a cool breeze and the blue light of a full moon caressed his body. He was high in the atmosphere, “sleep-flying” it seemed. He never remembered it happening before. He never even remembered sleepwalking. He knew he wasn’t dreaming. Either way, it was a nice night outside, so he decided to keep his wings flapping.

Soon, just on the horizon, as he passed the New York skyline, two other winged figures came into view. Suddenly, Archangel knew what was happening. He remembered fighting Spiral, and then he woke up in this dreamworld.

“So is this where I confront my evil and good selves?” Warren wondered aloud, amused. “This has been done before, Spiral. I’ve come to terms with this a long time ago! This isn’t going to get to me!”

“Hello, son,” the first angelic figure said. He and his compatriot were actually dressed in white robes. Behind him, the other angel figure, was an elderly man. Strangely, they shared the same hairline and facial characteristics as Warren…only different ages.

His eyes widened, “Dad and…Grandpa?”

“Hey, kiddo,” Warren Worthington the First said with a slight nod. “Sorry, looks like this is a one-time deal. Your dad and I have been watching you for awhile now. Seems like this six-armed woman has finally made it possible for you to hear what we have to say…”

Warren gulped slightly as he was horrified and excited by the prospect of three generations of the Worthington family meeting for the first time in a long time. “Wait…” After a moment, he shook his head, “This can’t be real…”

“When you were six years old, your mother and I got you a puppy,” Warren Worthington the Second said with raised eyebrows. “Only you seemed to be more interested with a frog one of the butler’s kids had caught in the pond in back of the mansion.” Warren’s father smiled as he fondly recalled the event, “But when the puppy ran away, you went looking for it on your own. You were gone for hours. We had everyone looking for you. Police, FBI, or just anyone we could pay millions to just to get you home safe.”

Archangel smiled as he chuckled to himself, “I was in the pool house, with all the wives of your executives.”

Warren II smirked, “And I remember saying ‘that’a boy!’ much to the chagrin of your mother, who was happy you were found, of course.”

Warren III continued to flap his wings as the other two figures seemed to hover in midair, “Okay…I guess this could be constituted as somewhat real. If you know all that childhood crap.”

Warren’s grandfather crossed his arms, “And why are your father and I part of your inner demons?”

“E-excuse me?” Archangel wondered. “I came to terms with my inner demons long ago. We’ve been through this already. My whole Horseman of Death phase.” He scoffed at the thought, “Brainwashing, unleashing my dark side, killer metal wings. Yeah, whatever; I’m over it.”

“That’s not what he meant,” Warren, Jr. said. “Why are you haunted by your legacy? By us? By your—and by proxy—our name?”

Archangel’s wings stopped flapping as rapidly as he closed his eyes, “Ah crap…I guess Spiral drudged up something good to hit me with this time. As if divorcing the only woman I ever loved was bad enough.”

“That’s why you changed our company’s name, wasn’t it?” Warren, Sr. asked as he crossed his arms with disapproval. “MY company. I started it after I inherited my father’s wealth! I was the first Worthington in America to make something of myself! And you spat in the face of our name!”

“That’s not it, Grandpa…,” Archangel began.

“You thought you might have been able to throw a kink into our family history by marrying a Braddock, too, didn’t you? You know our families have had a centuries-old feud!” Warren Sr. shouted.

“God, what is this? Romeo and Juliet? Grow up!” Warren swallowed, “That wasn’t entirely my plan, actually. I was…and part of me is still in love with her!”

“But it was a chore…you had to force yourself to love her,” Warren Jr. said with a nod. “You were planning on having a daughter, too. Just so there wouldn’t be a Warren the Fourth.”

Warren turned his head away, ashamed, “…so what? You’re dead…obsolete. I’m in charge now—”

“You have been sabotaging the company from the start! All because you hate your heritage!” Warren’s father shouted as he swung his clenched fist into his son’s jaw, spewing blood into the night sky. “Leaving the company behind to a bunch of hacks while you swoop in to save innocent lives while stocks plummet!”

Archangel’s chin quivered as he mustered the strength to slug his father, connecting with his jaw, “Do you think it was easy to grow up as a Worthington for me?! So much to live up to! And don’t get me started on being a mutant! This isn’t the Royal Family of England! And I am not an heir to some kind of throne! Your company is nothing but numbers in a computer system! At least being an X-Man allowed me to finally give something BACK!!”

Archangel reeled his fist back again and crushed his fist through his grandfather’s chest, causing an explosion of light.

“Charles Xavier was not your father, I was!” Warren Jr. shouted as a sword miraculously appeared in his grasp. “I showed you how to be a man, Xavier taught you to fly through hoops like some kind of circus act!” He prepared to launch the sword through the air like a tomahawk, “I am tired of you embarrassing me and our family like this…”

Archangel suddenly grabbed the sword out of his father’s hands and jabbed it into the side of his ribcage. His eyes glowed with an eerie red as his skin turned pale blue and his feathered wings were replaced by cold, hard organic steel. “I’ve had other men try to show me a path!” Archangel growled as his father convulsed on the edge of the sword. After he ripped the sword from the man’s loins, the former Horseman tossed the weapon to fall towards the Earth below.

“…but I’ve learned to accept my past and build a new future regardless,” Archangel said as he appeared in normal form, flying above his father’s fading apparition.

Warren Jr. looked up as blood dripped down his cheeks like tears and smiled, “You keep…telling yourself that, son…maybe you’ll learn to fully deny the truth one day. You know that the company is failing…and you’re letting it.”

Archangel recoiled in shock as his father disappeared fully. He bowed his head and let his wings go limp as he began to go into a nosedive in midair, falling towards the ground at breakneck speeds. He swallowed the lump in his throat as he came to the haunting realization that his father—or whatever it was—was right.

Archangel killed X-Corp—killed his family’s company—right from the start. It was a slow-burning flame, but it finally happened. He would soon be free of his legacy.

As free as a bird.

“This is mightily familiar,” Xorn said with a hint of deadpan. Dozens of chains secured him in the center of a high-tech cell, mocked up to look like his prison in the Feng Tu military complex.

Spiral walked out of the shadows from the outer edge of the claustrophobic cubed room, “Too bad my magic doesn’t work on you. Your mind is…hard to screw with. I don’t know if it’s the mask or the multiple brain waves or constant hydrogen fusion.”

She smiled as she walked up to the Chinese mutant as she lifted his head up by placing one of her index fingers under his chin, “But I think part of you is used to the prison. That’s torture enough.”

Xorn’s eyes flashed, “No one gets used to this.”

Spiral laughed as she snapped her fingers on all six of her appendages. Suddenly, the chains disappeared. Xorn casually went into the Lotus position as Spiral paced around him in a circle for a few moments.

“I wasn’t talking about this room or the chains, sweetie,” Spiral said with a smirk as she did a little full-circle twirl. She licked his shoulder from behind and whispered into (what would be his “ear”), “You are your own prison. All that energy, emotion, innate anger…stored up. You’re like a bomb ready to explode.”

Xorn continued to meditate as he seemed unfazed by Spiral’s manipulations, “You wouldn’t want me to explode. I could destroy this entire dimension.”

“But you wouldn’t want to tarnish this image you’ve created for yourself, do you?” Spiral asked. “I can see through you. I might not be psychic, but a simple psychometric incantation reveals quite a lot about you, Kuan-Yin.”

Xorn’s head darted up, “How did you--?”

“Amazing that you remember your true name after so long,” Spiral laughed.

Xorn returned to his meditation, despite his growing hostility, “That name has no meaning, anyway. Do your worst.”

“You destroyed the entire village of Xorn when your star brain manifested. The gravity sucked every living being inside of you,” Spiral recited, as if she were narrating a documentary. “Nothing was left. But where there was one star…soon one-hundred and twenty-two smaller ones formed. The number of lives you took that day. The life force you stole…and gave back to heal others…only the energy has been depleted significantly as of late. You resorted to using mystical healing techniques.”

Spiral whispered in Xorn’s ear again, “The ‘collective’ of souls has ceased…you are Kuan-Yin again. Brash, arrogant, violent…criminal. You are no longer the wide-eyed innocent. Those souls provided you with a holier-than-thou persona you can no longer hold onto.”

“They taught me how to live with this burden,” Xorn said as he rose from the Lotus position and faced Spiral directly. “But even with one star in my fragmented skull, I am still more powerful than you can imagine, witch. I can bend dimensional walls, talk through radio frequencies, and incinerate anything in my path…in short, I’m a god.”

Spiral smirked, “With my new powers I can do just that—”

*SHUK*

Rita looked down and saw the tip of a blade, her own katana, piercing through her left breast. She felt someone kiss her cheek and whisper in her ear as energy encircled her. The godly energies of the Mojo ceased within her. She tried to speak, but only coughed up blood.

“As long as I’m around, you are not a god,” a man whispered. Spiral looked up out of the corner of her eye and saw Longshot, her former lover.

“You…stole my…heart,” Spiral said with a smile as she slowly fell to her knees, the blade still sticking through her back.

Longshot smiled knowingly, with contempt, “Not before you crushed mine.” Spiral gasped her last breath as her head fell onto the floor. A solitary tear fell down her cheek as Longshot crossed his arms.

“I’m glad you could make it,” Xorn said. “I figured you were the only one who could defeat her. I wasn’t sure if my frequency got through to you.”

Longshot nodded, “Seems the ass-kicking Colossus gave me got me thinking clearly now. I never got to apologize for what happened.”

“I’m not the one you need to apologize to,” Xorn said as he held up his hands. “But I’m sure they’ll forgive you.”

Longshot smiled, “Thanks.” His countenance became worried, “Are Archangel and Dazzler--?”

“They’re alright. I was scrambling their simulated-reality transmissions as best as I could, making it easy for them to break out of,” Xorn explained. “Still, you should get them out and get back to X-Corp…quickly.”

“Why? You’re not coming with?” Longshot wondered.

“I’m staying here,” Xorn said as he hovered in midair. A blue glow suddenly formed around him as a wind appeared to whip up in the room. “When Spiral touched me, she caused much of my star’s hydrogen to fuse…I don’t have much longer.”

“There are billions of lives here. They might be disgusting blobs, but…they’re innocent,” Longshot said. “Not to mention the other bipeds, like me.”

“My boy…energy doesn’t die, it just changes form,” Xorn said as the light around him grew brighter. “It’s best if I die here than on Earth. The Spineless Ones are in a perpetual prison, leeching off of Earth’s radio waves. They deserve freedom.”

Longshot bowed his head before he headed off to rescue Warren and Alison. He turned back, “Should I say good-bye to them for you, at least?”

Xorn sighed as pure ionized helium exited his mask, “I was never an official X-Man…but it’s nice to think I was part of the legacy. Just tell them to remember…the good that I did.” After a few moments, Xorn felt the gravitational pressure as his mask appeared to implode, “Hurry!”

Longshot darted for the door as Xorn grabbed his chest, feeling his blood boil, his lungs shrivel, and his organs liquefy. His body as he new it was reduced to burning ash and reabsorbed into his star brain. He only felt the pain for a moment, but his life didn’t end there. Soon, his iron mask was compressed and sucked into the glowing blue sphere of gasses, heat, and energy that was the microscopic star.

Through his acute connection with the electromagnetic spectrum, he felt Longshot, Archangel, Dazzler, and strangely…some Warwolves make the jump back to Earth.

Soon, the brain went into the red giant phase. A rumbling voice echoed throughout the entirety of Mojoworld…

FREEDOM. I GRANT YOU ALL FREEDOM FROM THE DARKNESS.

With those words, it marked the end for both Xorn and Mojoworld as a supernova overcame the entire dimension with the heat flare of trillions of hydrogen bombs, only to be condensed into a black hole only seconds later…

“Where the hell…?” Warren coughed as he woke up with the smell of smoke burning in his nostrils. Alison and Longshot were lying next to him in the X-Corp lobby. He winced in pain as his left wing was still wounded. Dazzler was the next one to recuperate. When he looked up and peered into her eyes, Warren smiled.

Longshot got up and stretched, “Mmmm. Man! I feel like a million bucks!”

“I know the feeling,” Dazzler said as she stared into Archangel’s eyes. Warren got to his feet and helped Alison up.

“I feel rejuvenated…like new life has been breathed into me I haven’t felt in months!” Warren shouted. Whatever spoke to him in Mojoworld, it made him realize he was tired of the Worthington legacy and that he secretly wanted the business out of his life, but now he felt X-Corp had a purpose again. Alison jumped into his arms and the two embraced. But suddenly, his smile faded as reality set in, “Xorn…?”

Dazzler loosened her grip around Warren’s torso as she looked at Longshot, her ex-husband, “Where’s Xorn?”

Longshot felt terrible as he had to bear the bad news, “He stayed behind. I’m sorry…he didn’t make it, guys. He brought me out of my coma…breached dimensional walls to get me to rescue you two, and then Spiral drained up most of his power…he didn’t have enough to sustain himself.”

Archangel closed his eyes, “We’ll have to make arrangements. Plan a memorial service.” He sighed, “I’ll need to go in my office. Call everyone up. Might have to restructure the team a little. Gotta check in on Betsy, see how she is. There’s just me, Alison, Peter…and I suppose I could open up a seat for you, Longshot…if you want.”

“There’s something I wanted to say…I’m not sure if I’m suited for the business world,” Dazzler confessed. “There’s a lot I’m not sure I can do…”

“We can talk about it in my office, don’t worry. You don’t have to be on the board of directors, just the hero division…we’re like the public face to the X-Men,” Warren explained as he walked up to his office with Dazzler and Longshot in tow. He met Sandy Fredrickson, his receptionist, in front of his office.

“Mr. Worthington!” she squealed.

Warren smiled, “Sorry. Got kind of hung up with Mojo business. Did you hold all of my calls?” He smacked his lips, “Damnit, I missed that golf outing with President Kelly, didn’t I? Shoot…I was looking forward to that…”

Sandy nervously fumbled with things on her desk, “Oh man…oh man, oh man…”

“Something wrong?” Archangel asked the blue-haired woman.

Sandy buried her face in her hands. She spoke with muffled whispers, “You were gone a loooong time. Longer than usual. I’m sorry, but…you can’t go into that office.”

Warren eyed Sandy suspiciously, “What?” He smiled, “Why? Did you get the carpet cleaned, you little brown-noser?”

“You don’t understand…,” Sandy breathed, almost to the point of hyperventilating.

Warren opened the door and felt his jaw drop.

“—you don’t have an appointment!” Sandy declared.

Inside the office, it was redecorated with white modernist architectural styles. In his desk, a chair swiveled around, revealing a platinum-haired woman. At first, he thought it was Psylocke, but the coldness of the voice changed that theory.