"The world is little different than it was before."
The tall mutant, Bishop, surveyed the destroyed landscape of what had once been a major metropolitan city.
"With one difference." the living legend at his side said, holding three fingers to his temples. "Here there are people. They may be fewer in number, but this is not a world run by machines."
"So we have a better chance to rebuild than we did before."
"Not only that." Charles Xavier said. He looked at the cerebro device he carried, the one that had allowed him to communicate with the X-Men in the past and avert the future where sentinels ruled the world.
"Where there are people, there is history."/
20 Years Earlier
"Watch out, Bobby!"
The laser beam cut though the ice platform the X-Man had been using to raise himself, shattering it and sending him falling twenty feet unceremoniously.
The laser's follow-up shot was cut short by a red blast, originating from the visor of the mutant known as Cyclops.
"How many times do I have to tell you, Shadowcat, that in combat we use our codenames? Get yourself up, Iceman!"
"Yes, sir!" Iceman extended his hand, forming a barrier of ice in front of him.
"Nice move." Shadowcat said, phasing through the ice. "How are you supposed to see what's going on?"
The ice shield exploded and Shadowcat grabbed iceman, phasing them both through the debris.
"Thanks." he said.
"It's times like this I miss Colossus. We could use him as a shield and he could throw me at the guns."
"We've got to retreat!" Cyclops yelled. "Nightcrawler, distract them! Buy us some time!"
The furry German X-Man began teleporting in front of each gun for between a quarter of a second and a half a second each, however long it took to get them to reprioritize him as their primarily target and make an aim adjustment accordingly.
"Iceman," Cyclops commanded, "we need some heavy spears."
"What good'll that do?" Iceman demanded. "We've got no one who can throw them!"
Cyclops turned to Marvel Girl, who nodded. "Sure we do."
"All right then."
Iceman began forming each spear-razor sharp, seven feet long, and four inches thick at the middle. Instead of falling to the ground, each spear wobbled in midair, then turned towards another laser cannon, directed by the telekinetic powers of Marvel girl.
"That's enough Nightcrawler!" Cyclops shouted when Iceman had made one spear for each laser cannon. The blue elf teleported away from the barrage he had attracted and back to the group.
"Now!"
At Cyclops' command Marvel girl opened her outstretched hands, launching each spear at the lasers so fast that they were a blur. The explosions as each laser cannon was struck were perhaps less impressive than the X-Men had learned to grow accustomed to in their many battles, but they were satisfying nonetheless.
"Yes!" Iceman exclaimed. "'Another Danger Room session bites the dust."
"And without any help from Wolverine." Marvel Girl said, taking off her mask to reveal the face of Jean Grey, the girlfriend of Scott Summers.
"Speak of the devil." Kitty Pryde said, motioning to the now open exit. There, leaning against the wall, was Logan, the man known as Wolverine.
"How was that, Logan?" Bobby Drake asked enthusiastically as he left. "We sure rocked this time, didn't we?"
"Yeah, Drake, whatever." Logan said dryly, not even paying Bobby a glance. He and Jean exchanged a smile when she left, much to the chagrin of Scott, who stopped to frown at Logan.
"It looks like now that Jean's back you've got your edge back." Logan said. "I'd think you never stopped barking orders."
Scott smiled. "I'd be lying if I said that didn't feel great."
"So how would you feel if you had the team back?"
"What?"
"The role as leader. We did what the Professor wanted. We saved the world. I never wanted this gig in the first place."
"Wow, Logan. I don't know."
"What do you mean, you don't know? You were born to lead the X-Men!"
"You saw how I was, just because Jean was missing. What if that happens again? I put my pain, and Jean, ahead of the team, ahead of stopping the war. I can't trust myself as a leader just yet."
"I see. Well, bub, you better start learning to trust yourself again soon. Cause I'll go crazy having responsibility for all of you soon."
'Logan.'
Both X-Men turned around at the sound of the voice.
"Chuck?"
'Logan.'
"Does he want to congratulate you again?" Scott asked.
"Dunno."
They walked to the infirmary, where the Charles Xavier of their time lay comatose.
"We're here, Chuck. What is it?"
The room turned completely white as they were transported into an astral realm where Xavier could communicate with them from the future.
"I have urgent news." Xavier said, appearing before them.
"What is it now? I thought we stopped the war." Logan said. "And the Phoenix."
"You did. That future has been averted. But another war will soon brew, one that has consumed this future as well."
Xavier allowed images from his mind to flood the astral plane. Destroyed cities, refugee camps filled to bursting with desperate people. Mutants blasting each other to atoms.
"What is this Charles?"
"The future, as created by Apocalypse."
Logan and Scott looked at each other in confusion. "Apocalypse?"
The images of catastrophe faded away, leaving in their place the form of a massive mutant-blue and grey, with a body seemingly made of armor.
"Apocalypse. He claims to be the first and most powerful mutant. It turns out that Mister Sinister has been working for him the entire time, building a mutant army for Apocalypse form the ground up."
"That's what he needed all that mutant DNA for." Logan said.
"Yes."
"My god!" Scott exclaimed.
"What is it, Scott?" Xavier asked.
"Sinister still has the genetic material he took from myself and Jean! He said that with it he would create the most powerful mutant in history!"
"I have not heard anything about that yet, Scott, and information is much easier to come by than it had been in the other future. It may be that that scheme never came to fruition."
"How long do we have, Charles?" Wolverine asked.
"A little under a year. Then Apocalypse and Sinister will strike, seeking to create a world that conforms to the laws of survival of the fittest. They will attempt to wipe out humanity and all mutants who aren't strong enough. They will conquer the western hemisphere in a matter of months, then begin carving their way into Europe, Asia, and Africa. There are very few free pockets left on Earth."
"We'll stop him, Charles. Just like we stopped Magneto."
"Magneto has been fighting against Apocalypse the entire time. Even he is not able to accomplish much."
Scott and Logan shared another look, one of shock and apprehension.
"This Apocalypse is for real." Scott said.
"However, given your past success I would like Logan to continue to lead the X-Men until this crisis has passed."
"Cyke's already passed the buck to me, right Cyke?….Summers?"
Scott was frozen, his mind temporarily stopped by Xavier.
"There's another reason you want me to lead, isn't there."
"Yes. At some point Sinister will turn Scott the way he turned Warren. They still serve Sinister to this day."
"And the X-Men won't be able to deal with their leader joining the enemy."
"Exactly."
"I'll keep an eye on him."
"I know. Thank you."
Xavier freed Scott from his control.
"The first step you must undertake, Logan, is to bring Colossus back to the X-Men."
"Peter?" Scott asked.
"We tried bringing him back, Chuck. He refused to leave his family again."
"It is his family I want."
For the third time, Logan and Scott looked at each other.
"For nearly fifteen years there was a nation in what is now Russia that Apocalypse was afraid to attack. It was ruled by two mutants. Colossus, and his sister."
"Sister?"
"Magneto himself served under them."
"Hard to believe he'd stoop to working for Peter of all people, Chuck."
"Which is why I believe that his sister is the key."
"We'll get them professor." Scott said.
"Thank you. Thank you both. I will contact you again when I have more information."
Xavier disappeared, and the white room was replaced once again by a room filled with technology and metal.
"Get Jean and Hank to Cerebro." Logan commanded./
"Peter's parents say that he doesn't live their anymore." the blue, furry mutant known as Beast said.
"What about their daughter?" Logan asked.
"They say they don't have a daughter."
"Well that's a big help." Scott quipped.
"Looks like having Jean use Cerebro is our only option." Logan said.
"I said no." Scott said suddenly. "It's too soon to push Jean's powers like that. We still don't know what she can still do after losing the phoenix force."
"Scott," Jean complained, "I'm a big girl. I can take care of myself. Besides, the world's at stake here."
"This is why you didn't want to be the leader, remember?" Logan observed.
"Yes." Scott said, beginning to sulk.
"Good. Go find, Peter, Jean."
Jean slowly sat down in the chair that had previously been occupied by Charles Xavier and Emma Frost. Slowly again, as if in awe of the significance of what she was doing, using the device custom built to amplify the professor's powers, she put on the Cerebro helmet.
"I've found Peter." she said after a few minutes. "He's still in Russia, but twenty miles from his home. It's a forest there."
"His parents apparently say it's not his home now. Do you see any other mutants near him?"
Jean closed her eyes and concentrated. "No. Not for miles around."
"So his sister isn't there." Scott said. "Maybe the professor got his information wrong. His parents say the have no daughter. It could have been his wife instead.
"We'll pick him up." Logan said. "And then we'll ask him."/
"I don't see a place to land." Beast said.
"We'll have to put the plane on autopilot." Wolverine said. "Have it circle until we're done."
"How long will that take?" Forge, the X-Men's resident mechanic, asked. "If you're going to keep the engine going for too long we won't have enough fuel to make it back to the East Coast."
"Tell you what. You stay on board, and if we run low on fuel you go back, pick up some gas, and come back and get us."
"No, that's ok. We should manage for a while yet."
"That wasn't a suggestion." Wolverine growled.
The X-Men, sans Forge, leapt out of the black bird and landed in the forest.
"This way." Jean said. "Not far at all."
She led them through the trees for a short while, until they heard a continuous, regular thumping sound.
"Someone chopping wood." Wolverine said.
The followed the noise until they came to a small clearing. A small log cabin stood there, outside of which a man who would have deserved the name Colossus even without his powers stood chopping wood with an axe. He looked the part of a farmer in his white shirt and blue overalls, albeit a six and a half foot farmer.
"Peter!" Kitty called out upon seeing him. Peter lowered his axe and turned around at the sound of the familiar voice. Kitty ran forward and hugged him.
"Kitty. What are you doing here?"
"Looking for you, bub." Wolverine said, coming into view along with the rest of the X-Men. Most of the X-Men were pleased to see Peter again, though Iceman pouted at him after the hug from Kitty.
"I told Hank, Logan, I am not coming back."
"You told Hank you weren't going to leave your family again. I don't see any family around here."
"Please leave."
"We can't do that. We've got a problem and could really use your help. The professor-"
"You can tell the professor that I don't care! I should have been here in Russia, protecting the people I care for! Thanks to him I wasn't here when I was needed the most!"
Peter took a deep breath, calming down. "I am glad to here that he has been found and is well, however."
"That's part of it, Pete. He's not well. Come back and we'll explain it all on the way."
Peter turned back to his house, which now seemed to small for a man his size. "I am sorry, Logan, but I cannot help you."
Logan hmphed and turned to leave as well, then stopped, turning and sniffing.
"Who else is here with you?"
There was a thud inside the house. Peter stopped, as did the X-Men. Out of the front door stepped a girl. She was blonde, about fifteen years old, and about a foot shorter than Peter. She wore a simple t-shirt and pants.
"Are these guests here for dinner?" she asked in Russian.
"No. They are leaving." Peter said. In English so everyone could hear him.
"Without first introducing us?" Wolverine asked.
Peter sighed. "This is my sister, Illyana."
"And I assume you are the X-Men." Illyana said in English, in an accent that was not Russian like her brother's. None of the X-Men could place it.
"Oh!"
Marvel Girl collapsed, or would have if Cyclops didn't catch her first. They had stayed behind in the woods so that Jean would be free to mind scan the vicinity.
"Are you all right, Jean?"
"Yes. I can't read her, Scott. It's like there's a wall around her mind. When I tried to push at it, it pushed back."
"Whoever is still in the woods should just come out." Illyana said. Marvel Girl and Cyclops came out to meet the entire group.
"Why are you here?" Illyana asked, stepping out to be next to Peter.
"We'd like you and your brother to come back with us." Wolverine said. "To join the X-Men."
"You dare?" Peter screamed. "After what happened to her you dare to ask us-"
Illyana put her hand on her brother's shoulder. He looked at her and was silent. "You'll have to forgive my brother. He is very overprotective of me. But I agree with him. Neither of us has a desire to join your fight for mutants."
"We've got information from the future that bad things are about to happen and that you are the key to stopping it."
Illyana walked up to Wolverine and looked him straight in the eye.
"You want mutants to be equal to everyone else. To not be feared and hated. I already know that I will be feared and hated by mutants the same way you are feared and hated by the rest of the world. My parents were fine with having a mutant son, but me? They disowned me and threw me out. I already see the same look in her eyes I saw in their's." She motioned at Jean, who was looking at her with a mixture of fear and suspicion.
"So, Mr. Logan, is it? I have no interest in helping people who will hate me, and my brother has no interest in leaving me alone."
She walked back into the cabin, followed by Peter, who gave them all glares.
"Stay here." Wolverine said to the group. He followed them into the cabin.
"What did we tell you?" was the angry response he received when he opened the door.
But Wolverine's attention was turned to the dinner that was placed on the table. An adult deer.
"Did you catch this with your bare hands?" he asked, examining it.
"Yes." Illyana answered, starting a fire. "Peter does the building around here and I prepare the food."
"Wouldn't something like a rabbit be easier?"
"They don't last very long. A deer can hold us for days."
"You are welcome to eat with us, Logan." Peter said. "But we will still not go with you, and I am not certain there will be enough for all of you."
"That's tempting, but I've got one last thing to say, and I'll leave you alone after I've said it.
"We are literally facing the end of the world. Illyana, if you're anything like your brother at all, then it's in your nature to help people. Eventually the two of you will remember that. I've had word from the future, so I know that much. The question is, will it be too late?"
Peter turned to Illyana, who looked at him out of the corner of her eyes.
