X-Men Omega Headquarters, Colorado...

All seven members of the Omega faction of X-Men reside in the Worthington Estate in the mountainous region of Colorado. It's night. The air is cold.

Quicksilver, Pietro Maximoff, is the leader of the X-Men. He is also the son of Magneto, the sometime enemy of the X-Men. While tensions with the master of magnetism have lessened with the death of Charles Xavier, the world lives in fear he will soon reclaim his terrorist ways. And no one fears it more than Quicksilver.

Quicksilver tosses and turns in his bed at alarming speeds. His eyes are in R.E.M.* He's dreaming.

(* Rapid eye movement -- Scientific Brad)

Pietro is tied down with large metal chains. An inhibitor collar is around his neck. His mutant ability of superhuman speed is turned off in all respects. His entire body tingles with pain. He wasn't used to having his molecules at a normal kinetic rate. He grits his teeth and screams.

He is in the middle of Magda Square in Genosha. Thousands of mutant troops march towards the capital building, Avalon Tower. Standing at the large balcony to the building is Magneto. Magneto raises his arms, and the soldiers bow in his presence. Wanda Maximoff, the Avengers' Scarlet Witch, walks up and stands to the side of her father.

Pietro tries to shout his sister's name, but he is in too much pain... he doesn't have the lung capacity to shout. Why would she swear allegiance to him? Suddenly, a strange cloaked individual appears next to the immobilized Quicksilver.

"You don' like this, 'ey, pup?"

Quicksilver gives the man an angry glare. Pietro notices the man has red pupils. Pietro blinks a few times. Suddenly, it clicks. The posture, the eyes, the five o' clock shadow.

"LeBeau?" Pietro asks.

"Le-who?"

I must be going crazy!

The woman known only as Rogue has had a turbulent life. She has the ability to absorb the memories and life energy of anyone she comes into tactile contact with. On one occasion, Rogue made a terrible mistake by permanently absorbing the abilities of Ms. Marvel, Carol Danvers.

Perhaps it was for the best? Rogue ended up joining the X-Men to cope with her duel persona she absorbed. She did get rid of Carol's psyche, but her abilities remained -- a daunting reminder of what Rogue had done.

Then there was Gambit. She loved him, yet she always held back. She didn't want him to suffer Carol's fate.

Now, Rogue tosses in her bed...

She feels the wind at her back. She's running... running from what? She doesn't know. Who is she? She thinks she remembers, but it's hard to tell. The first kiss she shared with her boyfriend, Cody, didn't turn out they way she planned. She can feel him inside of her.

"Keep runnin'. Just keep runnin'!" she tells herself.

She bumps into a cloaked man.

"You don' like dis... runnin', do ya, pup?"

Rogue gasps, "Remy? You're so...old!"

"You know who I am... but do you know who you are?"

"Ah... don't know...."

Clarice Ferguson, otherwise known as Blink, finds herself in the midst of a dream as well. Only, she isn't in a nightmare. She doesn't think so, anyway. She's having fun.

Blink hurdles over a Culling, an engineered soldier of the alternate timeline she once visited. She displaces three others with her teleportation powers. Fighting alongside of her is Sabretooth, the man who saved her from a burning building when she was a young girl.

"Nothin' like a good fight in the mornin'!" Creed yells.

"Indeed," Clarice says with a wry smile.

Suddenly, Mr. Creed and the Cullings disappear. A cloaked man appears, his eyes glowing with pink energy. He has a metal staff in his hand.

Blink starts yelling as she charges at the mystery man, "Where's Mr. Creed, monster?!"

The man blocks Clarice's kick with a whack of his staff. He then swipes Blink off her feet. The man steps on her stomach, gently applying pressure to her sternum.

"You don' like to lose, do ya, pup?"

Blink pants, looking to the side, "Not really...."

Archangel, Warren Worthington III, already lived through his nightmare in the form of Apocalypse. Why is he still harboring dark thoughts within his dream?

"Hey Warren!" the playboyish Angel says as he flies over head. "Well, I'm off to pick up some chicks and spend some moolah, see ya! Hoo ha!"

Archangel's eyes and hair glow like a nova as his skin turns blue and light explodes out of his back. His fingers elongate into talons. He slashes through his former self, "Damn kid!" he shouts.

Suddenly, both incarnations of his Death persona begin to attack Archangel. Warren instinctively flies to a safe altitude and begins firing feathers of focused light. The feathers pierce the monsters as they fall like flies to the earth below.

"You don' like what you used to be, do you?" the cloaked man asks.

"No," Warren says, returning to his human form, "I don't."

Victor Creed is a complex man. He's got an adamantium skeleton and a killer instinct, backed up with a berserker rage that could rival Wolverine's. He is Sabretooth. And he's hungry. Hungry for blood. He doesn't sleep in a bed, he sleeps in a cell. Like a caged animal.

He's the only one not sleeping, too many noises around the mansion are keeping him up. The cloaked man comes to him in person.

"You don' like the noise, do you?"

*SNIFF*

"You don't like expensive aftershave, do you, old man?" Sabretooth says with a smirk through his muzzle. Before Sabretooth can tear a hole in the annoyance, the cloaked man is gone.

"Weird..." Creed says.

Charles Lensherr, known to many on our world as Joseph, seems to be having trouble adapting to this new world. He was thought dead, until the would-be god, Deus, brought him back to life, so to speak. He came from the reality Blink lived in for a time. A timeline where Xavier never lived to create the X-Men. Magneto, Joseph's father, created them instead. Rogue was his mother, and now Joseph was teamed with his own mother as an X-Man again.

Joseph walks up the steps to a capital building. The Genoshan capital building, Avalon Tower, to be precise. Joseph opens the door and walks down two hallways before reaching his destination. His father's oval office. He opens the door.

"Welcome home, my son...," Magneto says.

"As if! He's my son, Erik!" Astra yells, firing some alien device at him. Magneto screams in pain.

"NO!" Joseph shouts. "Stop fighting! Please! You're my family!"

"No we ain't!" Rogue shouts. "This ain't your home, sugah!"

Joseph doesn't know what to do.

The cloaked man puts a gloved hand on Joseph's shoulder. "You don' like to see your family fight over you, do you?"

Besty Braddock, also called Psylocke, is in a match of wits with her brother, Brian, also the champion known as Captain Britain. Brian lunges for Betsy, but she flips over him. Through the efforts of Spiral, Mojo, and the Hand, Psylocke has been forged into the perfect ninja.

Once an ambitious Englishwoman, Betsy's mind was transferred into an Asian assassin's body. She has come to terms with this, and has loved every minute of it.

"I'm tired of living in your shadow, Brian!" Psylocke shouts, generating her psychic blade. She leaps in the air and plunges the blade into Brian's forehead, causing him to lose consciousness.

The cloaked man applauds, "You don' like to be seen as the lesser sibling, do you?"

St. John Allerdyce, the former Brotherhood member also known as Pyro, seems to be having the most troublesome nightmare of all. His former teammates are now hunting him down!

A grenade explodes in front of him. He instantly controls the flame it generates to vaporize the shrapnel before it wounds him. Suddenly, the Earth itself seems to swallow Pyro whole. Getting claustrophobic, Pyro kicks his flame throwers into overdrive and blasts his way through the dirt and rock.

"Bloody hell!" he shouts. "Avalanche, why are you doin' this to me, mate?"

"Quiet, traitorous trash!" Avalanche yells.

"Indeed, Allerdyce," McCoy says with a devilish smile, with a syringe in his hand. He leaps on Pyro's back, injecting the chemical into his system.

"NO!" Pyro yells as his entire body bursts into flames.

"You don' like it when you get burned, do ya?"

"Of course I don't, ya daft bean!"

Later that morning...

"Mornin', y'all," Rogue says groggily as the X-Men enjoy their breakfast. "How're ya doin'?"

"Terrible," Clarice says. "Hardly got any sleep."

"Me neither," the other X-Men say, almost collectively.

Rogue pulls up a chair to the kitchen table and pours herself a glass of orange juice. She's too tired to notice she's overflowing it. "Aw, dang!"

Pietro darts from his chair, grabs a napkin, and wipes up the spill before Rogue decides what to do about it. "You're welcome," Pietro says.

Rogue sighs. She takes a sip of the juice, "Ugh, it's sour!"

Warren raises an eyebrow, "It must be spoiled. I'll have someone pick some up at the store..." He returns to putting his head down on the table. He's got a splitting headache.

"Why don't you take some aspirin, luv?" Psylocke suggests.

Warren simply raises his head up, wiping the drool that streamed down his chin, "Did someone feed the animal?"

"Don't call him an animal," Clarice barks.

"Sorry. Will someone feed the psychopath?"

Clarice's nostrils flare.

*FWOOSH*

"Done," Pietro says. "Oh, and you're welcome, everyone. I am the leader, after all. Creed is part of this team whether we like it or not."

"Blah, blah, blah," Pyro says as he burps. He drops his empty can of Foster's on the floor. "Good night...*hic*..." John prepares to lie his head down on the table.

"It's morning, John," Joseph says between chews of scrambled eggs.

"Bloody hell..." Pyro says.

"You should really eat something, John. You need to stay healthy if you're gonna be on this team," Rogue warns. "You just recovered from the Legacy Virus..."

"Sorry, Miss Drama Queen," Pyro retorts.

"Hey, why don't you try having mah powers?" Rogue shouts.

"Everyone calm down!" Quicksilver shouts. The X-Men stop their bantering. They continue to eat their breakfasts.

The muffled shouts of Sabretooth can be heard, "Oh, shaddap!"

The Witness stealthily pulls up a chair, "Pass the cereal, chere..."

"Okay Witness--whazat? WITNESS?!" Rogue yelps. The other X-Men literally fall out of their chairs.

"Sweet Jesus!" Pyro exclaims.

"Mysterio!" Archangel shouts. "Bad move coming back!"

"My word," Joseph says. "The man in my dream..."

"Hey, you were in mine too!" Quicksilver says.

"Mine too!" the other X-Men say in unison... again.

"You de Power Rangers or what?" Witness asks with a smirk.

Psylocke closes her eyes as her Mark of the Dawn glows bright red. When she opens her eyes, she gasps. She looks at Witness and touches him. "Warren, this isn't one of Mysterio's illusions... he's real!"

The Witness smiles, "Don' state the obvious, petite. Makes everything dull..."

Quicksilver is the first one in Witness' face, "What are you doing here? Why are you driving us insane?"

Witness smiles, "Actually, you're the first one I wanna talk to, pup."

Quicksilver looks around at the other X-Men. He asks in astonishment, "Me?"

Witness says sincerely, "Yes, you, Pietro. You're the leader of the X-Men, so you're on the top of my list."

"What do you want?" Pietro asks.

"I need you to save the future," Witness says.

"But the other X-Men, as a team, are a much better way--" Pietro tries to reason.

"No," Witness says. "You're the only one with the power to make the time jump to the future."

Pietro calms himself.

"How am I going to make this time jump?" Pietro asks.

"A simple adjustment to yer mutant powers," Witness says bluntly. He reaches into his trenchcoat and pulls out a device. "Wit' dis, you'll be able to run faster than time itself. Your destination is pre-determined by the device. You can only go alone, however."

"Is that even possible?" Joseph asks.

"Ah'd have ta agree with Joseph, Witness. Ah'm not exactly sure if savin' the future matters if it's gonna hurt Pietro," Rogue says.

"I never said it would hurt him," Witness says.

"What if he refuses to go?" Warren asks.

"Er... yeah!" Pietro realizes. "I don't have to do anything if I don't want to!"

"If it's the future that needs saving, then why not just do something in the present?" Psylocke suggests.

"It has to be done in the future. It hasn't happened yet," Witness says. "It's the only way."

"Bloody! Just do it, Quicksilver. Get the bean to shut up," Pyro says.

Pietro sighs impatiently. "Alright. I'll do it."

Witness smiles, "Good. There's just one catch."

"Catch?" Pietro asks. "Catch?"

Witness sighs, "There's a risk of you tearing a hole through the space-time continuum. It could create a black hole or dimensional portal... I'm not sure."

"What do you mean you're not sure?" Blink exclaims.

"SHUT UP!" Sabretooth shouts from the confines of his cell.

Warren's eye twitches. "Will someone put him in a Danger Room session or something?"

"Alright, but I'm doing this outside," Pietro says, "I don't want to wreck the place." He grabs the device from Witness. "I'll be able to get back, right?"

"O' course," Witness says.

Pietro sighs heavily, "Rogue, you're in charge while I'm away."

"You got it, sugah. Good luck."

Without warning, Pietro darts out the front door and begins running at his limit. The device starts beeping and lighting up. Pietro is shocked to find himself going faster than he wants. "HOLY--!"

Before Quicksilver knows it, the environment around him seems to melt away. Pietro feels like he's running at a normal pace. Suddenly, there is a powerful force, that of friction, stopping Pietro's velocity. *POW!*

Pietro skids, for one-hundred feet or so, before stopping and toppling over on a rocky street. Pietro breathes heavily. He's never run that fast before. It was a rush. He looks at the strange cityscape. It looks advanced, yet morbid.

Witness is there to pick Pietro up, "Enjoy the trip, mon ami?"

"How--?"

"Don' ask, I need your help."

"With what?" Pietro asks.

Witness doesn't need to answer. Pietro spots a poster adhered to a wall. The poster reads: "ALL HAIL MAGNETO!"

"Oh God...no!" Pietro says.

NEXT ISSUE: Quicksilver must defeat his own father to save a world he doesn't know, a world that doesn't even exist yet. Will Witness' guidance be enough to help Pietro?