Everything was white. A vast white emptiness surrounded him. Suddenly he felt a warm hand upon his, and a body embraced him. And the pair of bodies began to sway and slowly dance. There was no music, yet it felt as if the music had just ended but they had continued as if it was still playing… the two holding each close, moving as one… until, finally…
He opened his eyes, and his first response was to shout the name of his dancing partner and to unleash his optic blast towards her, clearly surprised she was there holding him in her long yellow dress. "Madelyne!" he shouted.
The red optic beam of pure energy passed through her as the green eyed beauty laughed. "Surely Scott darling you know better than to try to shoot a ghost," she said with a wicked smile, her red hair shining brightly with the dim light emerging from the fireplace behind her.
And he recognized the surroundings. His grandparent's lodge in Alaska. How could they be there? Why did she look so much like she used to so long ago? He could not understand what was happening. She was real then, she wasn't a ghost. His heart beat loudly against his chest. "What's going on here?" he said, donning his red sunglasses.
"I have been summoned," she said darkly and then she laughed. A cackling laugh that almost pierced his ears. A darkness seemed to erupt from her and the fireplace went out and everything was darker than night suddenly.
"The idea was to defeat N'astirh, Storm, not destroy him!"
"The one could not be accomplished without the other"
"And without him, how do we restore Manhattan to normal? How do we find my son?"
"Who is to say this is not "normal"?"
"Don't be ridiculous! Who appointed YOU Judge, Jury and Executioner?"
"I am Storm. I lead the X-Men. That gives me the responsibility, and the right!"
"Things change a lot, don't they?" said Maddie's voice in his ear. He could feel her arms tightening from behind, even though he knew she was a ghost. But he was less bothered by her presence than by what he was witnessing. He remembered the scene before his eyes very well. The aftermath of the Inferno in which New York was engulfed by her, his own wife, Madelyne Pryor. He remembered the next words as if he had uttered them seconds ago.
"That's not what Professor Xavier taught us!"
"No? And X-Factor is, I suppose, the true exemplar of his dream? Now who is being ridiculous? Vast and terrible powers threaten our world, Cyclops. It is our lot to stand against them."
"Why are we watching this?" he said, grabbing Maddie's hands and removing them from his chest.
Madelyne Pryor floated in front of him, smiling. "I just wanted to remind you, darling. Remind you of how things were," she said sporting her scantily-clad body, her long blue cape billowing behind her.
"Why? Why are you doing this?" He asked, furrowing his brow.
"I told I had been summoned. To remind you. To test you. To bring back memories you might have forgotten," she said, trying to sound innocent and naïve and failing miserably at it.
"I don't forget the past. I remember this moment quite well, you tried to kill us right after."
"Details," she said waving her hand dismissively. "This is not about what happened… but about you. About your feelings. About your actions… silly husband of mine." She raised her arms high and her cape seemed to grow and envelop them, and suddenly they weren't there anymore.
"They acted in an excess of zeal. If so… I – and I alone – shall determine their appropriate punishment."
"Pardon my asking, m'sieu, but who died an' made you God?"
"Magneto- don't do this! You're playing right into the hands of every demagogue who b'lieves mutants ought'a be wiped off the face o' the Earth!"
"He doesn't care, Rogue. About your words any more than the fact his people just laid waste to the heart of a city—to a hospital no less! Why should the Master of Magnetism—self-appointed leader of mutantkind—care a whit about the lives, and deaths, of ordinary human beings?"
"As always, Cyclops, you see me as you wish. And who knows, perhaps that is as I truly am—about that, you are quite correct, I do no longer care. About the devastation, some might call it fit punishment for a state whose prosperity was built on the backs of mutant slaves!"
Cyclops lowered his head as Maddie laughed next to him. They scene unfolded before their eyes just like the previous one. He clenched his fists with anger. He wasn't sure what hurt him more, if it was Magneto's declarations or his own. "Why are you doing this?"
Madelyne smiled. "I like to hurt you. I don't need psychic powers like that cow's to know you're hurting…" she said looking down upon him.
There was a loud bang. Cyclops turned his head rather fast and felt pain all over his body. Slowly he opened his eyes. He was on the floor next to his bed. He looked up and rubbed the back of his head. He remembered the chat with Magneto on the balcony. He remembered climbing to his empty bed, missing Emma and almost cursing that she was away shopping in Europe. And then he remembered Madelyne. Had it been a dream? Or something else? He removed the thought from his mind. It had to have been a dream. The chat with Magneto triggered those thoughts, those doubts. It had to be.
And then the glass door to the balcony opened suddenly, pushed by a strong wind. And the curtains billowed with fury as a female figure draped in black descended in front of the door. And he knew it could not have been a dream.
