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X-Men #52
"Breaking Away"
Writer: Lady Amethyst

Edinburgh, Scotland. 14th Feb.

Scott Summers and Marie Watson dived for cover as machine guns ripped apart the wall behind them. By the time they sat up the hitmen were gone in a screech of rubber.

"What the hell? I thought this sort of thing didn't happen in Britain?" said Cyclops.

"It doesn't," answered Marie grimly. "Unless you get on the wrong side of organised crime. My family were killed because my father turned in the wrong person to the police. They say they're fighting for freedom and some of them mean it, but too many of them use it as a cover for gun and drug dealing. Bastards the lot of them. Let's get going."

"We can't just leave and let them get away with that!"

"Your thinking like a super-hero, now think like someone with a brain and get real. They're gone, we're alive, my family are long dead. Chasing after them isn't going to get anyone anywhere. Now can we please leave?"

"Fine. Let's go. We've got things to do anyway."

Asteroid M. 17th Feb, morning.

Rachel lurked in the communications suite, establishing a few untraceable links to Earth systems in case anyone wanted to contact them. Not that it wasn't fairly easy to guess who it was floating about in earth orbit in a not-dreadfully-well cloaked asteroid anyway. Magneto no longer had the power to toss the space station across orbits like a tennis ball, the effort could only worsen his Legacy infection and although Rachel probably could have done it she didn't trust her knowledge of physics that much. So it would be a more or less normal space station for a change. If a very well designed one, recycling air and water to such an extent that restocking would only be needed once in a blue moon... she paused in her thoughts, bad choice of term there. After everything Jean Grey had been through it was almost a joke that she was once more on the brink of death. But it was not a joke to Rachel, or to her husband Scott Summers or to the father of her unborn child, Magneto (Jean got pregnant while she and Mags were under the Shadow King's influence). Another half-sister or brother for Rachel to fit into the ever changing family tree. She called up a blank screen on the computer and began to set out what ran through her mind.... 

 
 |---------------------------|
Scott Summers --- Jean Grey --- Wolverine | Magneto --- ?
 | | | |
 Nathan Christopher Rachel ? Quicksilver and 
 Scarlet Witch

She thought about adding more but the damn thing wouldn't fit on the screen and besides she was getting bored already. It amused her vaguely that the Jean Grey and Scott Summers of this time-line had never actually managed to have any children together. And her ex-father, Scott Summers, had been cuckolded twice and got the wrong Jean the other time. She supposed she shouldn't really find it funny but really, how could you take it seriously. Besides, her kind-of- mother was lying in a coma a few floors down and her half-brother Cable was dead of Legacy Virus. If she didn't laugh she would start to cry. But there was an easy way to fix that.

With a faint cry of pleasure she opened her mind to the Phoenix Force and let it flood through her synapses, washing away memory in its fiery tide. She sprang from her seat and flew through the molecules of the window into outer space.

As she left the comm panel began to beep insistently.

------

Jean Greys body breathed; blood pumped; muscles twitched; hormones flowed. No life support was needed, only constant monitoring. But her brain, as far as anyone could tell, was burnt out. There was nobody there. Nobody but the new life that was forming within her. Only a month old, but if you could have seen inside you would be able to make out all the basics; eyes, mouth, arms, legs; it is amazing just how much of a human is formed in the first fleeting moments of life. The most important days when life is so sensitive to every change in its environment.

Eric Magnus Lensherr worried. They had not known of Jean Greys pregnancy until several days after they had come to Asteroid M and this child, his child, had come to mean so much to him. Seemingly his last chance to create something unspoiled for his past history was littered with mistakes. Anya's death, Magda's fear, his treatment of Wanda and Pietro and now... the final blow. His grand-daughter was dying and it was at least partly his fault. Pietro's decision to take her through the Terrigen Mists had been based on his words earlier that day. Not understanding the differences between the different strains of Legacy and Pietro ready to grasp, understandably, at any straw offered. Even such a ludicrous one as his suggestion that were she a mutant, or an inhuman, she would be better able to fight the infection. Now it was quite possible she might go to her grave before him, though he at least would not be far behind. If only she had the tenacity of that damned McTaggart woman who had clung on for months now without showing half the signs of illness that others had displayed. After all the destruction she had caused in the past she didn't deserve the extra time she was being granted. But then she had lost children too, just as he had. They should stick together; him, Charles, Moira, Gabrielle; remnants of an age long past.

For the first time in his life, despite being 65, he felt old. Old as time. So much had happened since he was a boy. So many amazing, terrifying, awe inspiring things. But in the end there was nothing new, just death. From the dawn of man it had always ended there. He was being maudlin, he knew it. He cursed himself for wallowing in his sorrow as he had only yesterday chastised Xavier for doing.

*New life,* he told himself. *Always new life.* He reached over and laid his hand on Jean Greys' stomach.

He hear a loud cough at the door and turned to see Scott Summers standing there. Veiled anger in his eyes. "We got the supplies you needed, but I thought you might want to know that _your_ follower, Scanner, pulled the life support on her father. The authorities will probably be looking for her. Oh, and she's wanted by some bunch of terrorists too." He turned to go.

"Scott!"

He turned back. His expression was reminiscent of a teenager waiting for the same lecture he's heard and ignored a thousand times before.

Magneto decided to pry, he had no time to wait for things to be revealed any more. He had to do things now. "Why are you here? I mean it is obvious to me that Xavier sent you here to spy on me, but why did you accept? You and I have never been anything but enemies, you were not one of the X-Men when I was their teacher. It is clear that you despise me for my past and present actions," he glanced at Jean. "Whether they were under my control or not. So I ask you, why are you here?"

"My wife is here! Where else would I be?"

"Come now. You know as well as I that had you requested I would have returned her body to Earth. To tell the truth I am considering doing just that, what can we give her here? We have the facilities to support her but none of us are doctors, she would be better off under the care of someone like Dr McCoy. But back once more to my question that you cannot answer. What are you looking for? The opportunity to stab me in the back when I am looking the other way?"

"If I ever kill you, Magneto, it will be staring straight into your eyes," Cyclops answered coldly. "I have plenty of reasons for being here, not the least of which is my daughter Rachel."

"I'm sure that's what you think. But do you know what I think?"

"I don't really care what you think, Magneto."

Magnus smiled at that. "I think you have had enough of Charles Xavier. I think you have had enough of being kicked in the teeth by 'The Dream'. I think that you are here for the same reasons Pyotr Rasputin, Sally Blevins and Rusty Collins joined me on Avalon, because sometimes you've just had enough."

"Then you're a fool. Charles Xavier is ten times the man you will ever be. He's created more good in the past ten years than you could ever destroy."

"It amuses me to hear you defend him so. When only one month ago he would have allowed you to die in a nuclear holocaust."

"He did what had to be done, you lead him to it, you forced his hand."

"Ah yes, I, the dread villain. The unwilling puppet of the Shadow King without whose assistance none of you would have survived. Or do you forget who it was that shielded you from the blast at the risk of his own life?" Magneto was shouting now. "You are a petty little man, Scott Summers! So easily led and so quick to follow. I would be amazed if you had even one thought of your own in your well moulded little brain. Deep down you despise Charles for being weak willed, for not being what he always claimed to be, but you will never accept that because you are and always have been Xaviers little soldier. Loyal as the day is long and obedient as a puppy dog. Get out of my sight! You sicken me." He turned away from Cyclops. "Stay here if you want to but leave me alone. I do not wish to hear your poison in my last few days on Earth." He stood up and walked over to Scott. "Take Jean back to Xavier where she can be properly cared for and return if you will." He left the room.

------

Scott piloted the shuttle down to land in the hanger. Behind him Scanner, an unwilling guest on this trip, monitored Jean Grey. Professor Xavier was waiting with a familiar figure, that of Alex Summers. Behind them stood a woman in white, a nurse by the looks of things. Scott powered down the shuttle and went out to greet them.

"Alex! What are you doing here?"

"I came to see you, but everyone's gone. I tried to reach you at the Asteroid but there was no answer. I've... left X-Factor I guess."

"Left? Why? I mean what about Lorna?"

Alex looked upset, "That's one of the other reasons I came here. She doesn't want to see me anymore. To tell the truth I didn't really know where else to go."

"But why would she do that?"

"Well... I've kinda been out of it for a while. I was a prisoner of someone, but I don't know who... Random was working for them. Then I escaped and I guess she thought I was avoiding her or something since they didn't know where I was. I kind of got the feeling she was upset about something else though. I thought I'd let her work through it before I started trying to explain things."

"Prisoner? When? Why weren't we told you were missing?"

"I don't know, I'm not sure they even realised I was. Probably thought I was just taking an extended break. Lorna must have been pretty mad at me for not calling her. But that's quite enough about that. What about you? Are you alright? Is Jean really..."

Scott nodded, "Jean is in a coma. I... don't know what else to say." He turned his head and shouted back, "Scanner! Can you bring Jean down?"

"Sure." Scanner steered the antigrav stretcher down the ramp and over to the group. The nurse came forward and took over from her.

"I brought the nurse in while the X-Men are on their mission in Genosha," said Xavier. "Anyway, it will be good for Jean to have such round the clock care."

Scott nodded. He wondered if he should stay, no, he knew he should stay. But he wasn't going to. He didn't want to stay here. Just being here left a bad taste in his mouth. Besides, he knew Jean was dead. Large areas of her brain were burnt out as if by a laser, the power of the Phoenix had proved too much this time. He knew the others were so used to Jean returning time and time again from seeming death that they half-expected another miracle cure. He did not. There were some things that were just not meant to be. He had thought that they were meant to be together and that was why she always came back. But now he realised that they had never been meant, that was why so many things kept coming between them. He had nothing to stay here for. Nothing.

*Nothing?* inquired Xavier. *This is your home, Scott. I sent you with Magneto because I had to know what he planned. We will never be safe so long as he is still alive.*

Refusing to keep the conversation private, Scott answered aloud. "We have nothing to fear from Magneto. We never have had. We have wasted resources hunting him like an animal when we should have been concentrating on creatures like the Shadow King. Those few who are truly evil. Magneto is just a man, and if you are still trying to persecute him for having different ideas from you then you are no better than the people that made him so bitter in the first place."

"Scott!"

"Goodbye Professor."

*No!* Scott was caught immobile by a powerful telepathic order. "You will not leave here. Tell me what Magnus is plotting. Tell me what he has said to you to make you say such things. You are like a son to me, Scott. I will not have you speak like that."

"Magneto is plotting nothing and has said nothing that I did not already think in my heart. Your time has passed Professor. You created a wonderful thing when you create the X-Men, but it is over. The world has changed and you cannot seem to move with it. Magneto is no longer our enemy, he has not been for at least the past three years. Let it go! We have better things to worry about. Jean is dead. It's past time I found a life of my own."

He turned and began to walk back to the shuttlecraft when a voice stopped him.

"Um... Scott?"

He turned back, "Yes Alex?"

"Could I... come too? I mean I don't have anywhere else to go and..."

"I don't see why not. Let's go."

The two brothers climbed aboard the shuttle and left behind Charles Xavier. Once their mentor, now just an old man with a broken dream.

------

Magneto watched them return with a new member. Yet another Summers refugee. It was getting to be quite the family reunion around here. He wondered where Cable was, with his resources there was surely somewhere he had gone where they could stabilise, at least, his Legacy infection. And Scott had returned, as he had expected. He had to admit there was some small sense of achievement at having ripped Scott Summers from Xaviers grasp. But he felt sorry for Charles. Gone were the days of concrete black and white for the X-Men, if they had ever really existed in truth. Charles dream had always been one of absolutes, he was good and he was bad and everything will work out in the end. Destined to end this way really, in ashes. The ashes of one mans dream when everyone around him woke up to reality.

--End--

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