The footage clearly shows an all new Brotherhood of Evil Mutants at work within the Graydon Creed Memorial Gathering, where just moments before, the Friends of Humanity announced wide-spread political ambition. The mutants that broke up the gathering were then by stopped by another band outlaw mutants - the X-Men, who drove the Brotherhood away, but not before there were numerous casualties to the Friends of Humanity."

Cyclops watched the news feed, Jean sat next to him, her arms around her husband. This was what he had wanted - to show that the X-Men were there to help people, protect them and defend them against threats, and it had worked. However there was one voice that wasn't going to be silenced.

"Senator John Stocker, formerly of the Republican party, announced he was running for the Senate under the Friends of Humanity banner. The Senator had this to say:

'I don't care what the X-Men were doing, the fact is that they and the Brotherhood have for too long been a law unto themselves. They have had numerous public clashes in the past and nobody has done anything about it. The kind of mutants that are in X-Corp, those that know their place are the kind of mutants we need.'

"I asked the Senator what about the remarks he made regarding the mutant members of the Avengers and other hero teams, that have time and again saved the world."

'Perhaps if they weren't mostly reformed criminals, then I'd have a better time of it. Those kind of mutants are Avengers now because otherwise they would have been sent to the Vault by the same people they now work with.'

"The Senator's views are outspoken, but have hit a chord with some Americans and it will be interesting to see what happens in the upcoming elections. Andrea Kelly, BND."

The camera panned away from the reporter to show the inverted cross, slightly on it's side that had been scored in to the side of the building.

"Son of a bitch," said Cyclops, turning the television off. "He did that purposely. It's an X. If someone gets the connection..." He sighed in exasperation. "I can't believe he did that."

"They won't figure it," said Phoenix, soothingly. "At best they'll think it's an insult towards the X-Men by the Friends or the Brotherhood."

"It's not what we planned," said Cyclops. "I'll find out what he thought he was doing tomorrow. Addison..."

"I don't trust him," Jean replied. "I don't like him, I don't trust him. There was something wrong, I could sense it about him."

"He's been reckless," Scott admitted. "There are days I wonder why I ever bothered with the plan."

"It does concern me that you did. I know the Professor had his secrets and his methods, but he was Charles, he could keep an eye on things without even being there. As great as you are, lover, you've not got his powers."

"You think I'm trying to be Charles?" Scott turned to look at her and Jean looked in to his eyes, past the glasses he wore.

"Maybe," she said after a moment, "but you know you never had to be Charles, you were always best at being you." She kissed him and he kissed her back and they fell in to each other's arms.

Emma Frost watched the news reports as well from her room in the mansion and she frowned. Stocker was a buffoon, but he was a well-placed man and she had the contacts to finance the party's political ambitions.

That was what she had been up to while everyone else was mourning the loss of Wolverine - ensuring the people who owed her favours repaid their markers, and while she no longer had the telepathy, she still had her instincts and she also had her memory and she knew where the skeletons were buried and the people she had spoken to had rapidly agreed. Of course she had to be shocked that Sebastian Shaw, her old friend, had turned out to be such a villain and a mutant as well, but she could act well enough and they had bought it, and it had made setting things up all the easier.

The Friends of Humanity were like all humanity - they could be bought just as easily as any other party and nobody was aware that Emma Frost was a mutant. That had been Cyclops hold over her. He had documents, evidence of her dealings, of how she had used her powers and he had a list of contacts to send it to.

Emma would have been ruined, ensuring that if Cyclops couldn't use her then nobody could. It had been Xavier's secret weapon against her and Cyclops had it. Well, he'd had it anyway, because now she had possession of it and she had ensured it was destroyed, but she couldn't find any evidence of backups. If they were anywhere they were in the mansion.

That was where her deal with the Brotherhood came in. She had realised what the Grey King was up to long ago and now she was using it to her advantage. She could and would use them to ensure that any backups were destroyed, or at least provide cover while she arranged it. The pieces were already in place and she had been subtly using Allison since she moved in.

In Magma's room was a tape of subsonic recordings that had been slowly subverting her subconscious mind so that she also thought she was Amara Aquilla again and it had been working very well indeed - the relationship between Magma and Radius had been evident of that, and Emma knew it was the best indicator of her mind.

It would only take a slight push to break the young British woman and then all hell would break loose - literally. Emma smiled, thinking that tomorrow would be another day. The Brotherhood were due here to meet with Cyclops about what had happened and she knew it was going to come to a head between the X-Men and the Brotherhood. The truth would be revealed and things would never be the same again.

With that thought bringing a smile to her lips, Emma fell asleep.

Monet stood outside Jubilee's door, wanting to go in, wanting to tell her how she felt about her, that she thought she had fallen in love with her and that she had felt that way from the first time they had met. She had it all planned in her head, what to say, how to say it, how Jubilee would tell her she felt the same way.

She'd thought about it a lot, and it made sense - Jubilee had always had a rivalry with the other Monet, and it had been a stormy relationship from the start. M figured that was because Jubilee had an attraction towards Monet, which was why she had the need to be better, to be equal so that Monet would notice her and one night come to her room and tell her how she felt and the two of them would end up kissing, their feelings for each other finally realised.

Like she was now, but that was the dream. That was the hope beyond hope because there was the more likely scenario that it wouldn't work, that Jubilee had no attraction to her at all, it had all been something that Monet had seen and Jubilee would get really offended by it and that would be that. A friendship would be damaged, maybe beyond repair, and that wasn't something she wanted to risk. Jubilee always seemed to have had a thing for Synch and though they were good friends, it always looked as if it had the potential to boil over in to something more, but both of them were always holding back and never got around to doing anything about it.

Monet sighed, turned and went back to her room, cursing herself for not being able to confront these feelings head on. Jubilee had never been out on a date as far as Monet knew, so she had no idea if she was straight, had lesbian tendencies or wasn't interested in either yet. The only thing she knew for sure was that she was attracted to Jubilation Lee and there seemed to be nothing she could do about it. She was capable of doing a medical examination on all of the team while writing a paper on nuclear fission and it's effects on the bio-molecular structure of homo sapiens, but she had no idea what was in the heart of a crush. She knew she could go in to her head and see, but that was almost as bad as telling her.

She sighed as she flopped on to her bed and rolled over and buried her face in the pillow. The feelings she had were driving her nuts and she knew she had to do something about it and she made herself promise, swearing by her mother that she would do something about it in the morning. Scott and Jean were meeting with Addison Falk to discuss things, so they could sleep in a little longer and before she fell asleep Monet knew what she was going to do.

"Unbelievable," said Jared as he looked at the clock. It read 8:37 and he was as awake as he knew he was going to be, but that meant he couldn't get any more sleep. It was a day off, and he was awake, how lame was that? He'd had a good break in Canada, going back and seeing everyone and now he was back and he knew he was ready for whatever was thrown at them, and they'd seen so much in a short time.

First they'd faced the Juggernaut, but Cyclops wasn't counting that due to the Grey King's interference, then they'd taken on a Son of Set. Jared shivered at that, thinking how close he'd come to dying then and how lucky he had been. Then the Shadow King had sent his captives to off the original X-Men and they'd been sidelined while the action went on and now they'd fought the Brotherhood.

"Wonder if Scott'll have us take on Magneto at some point?" Jared said as he got out of bed. He knew the Brotherhood were supposed to be coming to visit today to discuss things and he'd have liked to get in on that, but that was Cyclops and Phoenix's job. They should be here by now, because he knew Cyclops had a think for early mornings. He poured himself a coffee and took a sip before getting in the shower. It was early, but he was awake and restless and he knew what he should do to solve it and he shook his head for even thinking like it as the water came down around him.

"God, I'm turning in to a regular X-Man," he muttered as he decided to get some work done down in the Danger Room before breakfast. A work out against some of the Alpha Flight foes, just to see if he was still in shape. He'd enjoyed his time in Alpha Flight, but the X-Men seemed to have a different class of villain. Canadians were generally too friendly to start a fight and he put on his uniform and wandered out in to the corridor, and as he did so he could see Monet walking down the hall and he wondered what she was doing up at this hour. He hated days off like that and he wandered in the opposite direction, going down to the Danger Room, but he got a shock when he went inside.

The room was in use, and from inside the control room he could see the room now resembled and ancient city, as if it were something out of biblical times and in the centre of it was someone he recognised.

"Allison?" he said to himself. He remembered the last encounter they'd had and he knew he was on dangerous ground but he needed to make sure she was okay. He turned on the intercom. "Allison, are you okay?"

"I'm fine!" she snapped. "Go away, Manuel! Just leave me alone!" A bolt of super heated plasma struck the booth, shattering the glass and Radius gasped to see her in there, her flame form now in total ignition, the city starting to burn.

"Allison?" he said but he looked at her and he didn't know her and then he realised something. "You're not her. You're Amara…"

"Yes," she said. "I'm Amara. I'm back and she will never cage me again…"

"Uh oh," said Jared and he knew he had to do something and quickly and knowing his force field would keep him safe he went inside to see if he could find out what had happened and what had made Allison Crestmere become Amara Aquila once more.

"Jubilee?" said Monet as she entered the room. Jubilee was still sleeping, her arms clutching the Bamf doll she had inherited from Illyana and Logan's hat half-covering her head. She looked as if she had been crying beforehand and Monet quietly slipped over to see her "Jubilee?" she whispered softly. "I need to talk to you."

"W… whu time is i'?" Jubilee said as she half opened her eyes.

"It's early," said Monet. "Please, I need to tell you this."

"Monny," Jubilee yawned, "can't it wait?"

"No," M replied. "I've not slept properly, because I needed to tell you this."

"Tell me what?" Jubilee said, a half whine. "This is why we have separate rooms, y'know?"

"What if we didn't have separate rooms?" Monet said, speaking quickly. "What if I moved in?"

"Why, what's wrong with your room?" said Jubilee, sitting up and looking at her

"I can't do this," Monet said and she kissed Jubilee on the lips, much to the other girl's surprise and the momentum laid the two of them out on the bed.

"He's late," said Jean as they waited in the study.

"Yes," Scott said as he looked out of the window. "No, wait, I see him… what the hell?"

"What is it?"

"He's brought all the Brotherhood with him." He looked at his wife, who was cradling Jacob in her arms. "Is he mad?"

"You know what I think, hon," she said absently as she gently bounced Jacob on her knee and the child gurgled happily.

"Yeah," said Scott and pressed a button on the desk. "Cerebro?"

"Coming," said the computer as he entered the room. "You want me to look after the baby, right?"

"Thanks," said Jean, handing Jacob over, who reached over for her, a longing in his arms.

"Oh he is so his father's son," said Scott, with mock seriousness. "Look at him…"

"You're still jealous of Logan?" said Jean. "For shame…"

"Whatever," said Scott as Addison Falk and the others entered the study and Cerebro took Jacob outside, leaving the grown ups to talk.

"So…" the Grey King said. "How did it go? I think it went well."

"What the hell did you think you were doing?" Scott said, his tone angry, but his body language was tempered. "You thought the cross was funny?"

"Yes," said Falk. "And the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants has a ring to it too."

"Wonderful," said Scott, the sarcasm dripping. "Magneto will be so proud."

"Oh, come on," said the Grey King. "We did the job, we went in, we killed people, you saved the rest and slapped us down. What more is there?"

"You went too far, Addison. You always go too far. First with the others when we fought the Juggernaut, then yesterday and when were you going to tell me about him?" He pointed at The Dazzler. "How am I supposed to look Warren in the eye when he sees that his uncle, the man that murdered his parents, is working for me?"

"Wear your visor?" Mercury asked and Landslide sniggered.

"Shut it," said Cyclops, "this is serious."

"How do you think we're going to convince the world that the two of us aren't related?" The Grey King shook his head as he spoke. "If he's with us, then he can't be a good mutant, because Worthington's face is on every media billboard this side of Manhattan. I didn't ask you to approve of my choices for the team…"

"You didn't need to," said Jean, looking at him. "Scott would have approved anyway."

"What?" Scott asked, wondering what she meant.

"I can see it in his mind," Jean replied, staring at him. "His defences are good, but they're not that good…" Her eyes sparkled with the power of the Phoenix. "I know you now, little man."

"What do you know?" the Grey King said.

"You worked for Apocalypse, you were one of his Prelates," said Jean, and the room seemed to go very quiet. "You were here when things returned to normal after the final battle…"

"What?" said Scott, unsure of what was going on. "That's not possible…"

"Oh it is," said the Grey King. "Haven't you figured it out yet, Scott? Apocalypse thought you were smarter than that…"

"Your mood swings, your change in attitudes," Phoenix said, as her powers came to life. "It was all Falk!"

"No," said Cyclops, horror setting in at what he had heard. "It can't be, I'd have known…"

"No," said Emma Frost, entering the room. "Jean's powers were gone so you wouldn't have known at all he was there. And then she left so there was no Jean, no telepaths about, who was there to protect you?"

"You knew?" said Scott, as things started to spin out of control.

"Of course. I know telepathic manipulation when I see it. I don't know what Falk wanted with me when he had you spring me, but I made sure he knew I wasn't as malleable as you were. I think he was forming his own Brotherhood and he thought I would work for him, but I have my own agenda…"

"You're finished, Frost," Cyclops said. "I'll use everything I have and you'll be ruined."

"Not yet," said Emma. "I've one last card…"

Then the mansion exploded.