Dr. Windsor thought he could return to his office straightaway after adjourning the press conference but it wasn't meant to be.

One of his aides, Remy LeBeau, approached him as he was heading for the DMA cafeteria to buy a sandwich or something he could eat quickly before returning to work.

"Mr. Secretary, President Cockrum wants to meet you right away," LeBeau said. "He said it was urgent. And I believe Secretary Trask is on his way to the White House as well."

"Good Lord," Dr. Windsor remarked. "This is probably about that appeal I made to Secretary Trask." He sighed. "All right. Mr. LeBeau, I need to pass by my office first."

After picking up a leather document case, Dr. Windsor and LeBeau began making their way to where the helicopter that was to take them to the White House was waiting.

LeBeau spoke into his lapel mike and waited for the response. "Mr. Yoshida has the chopper ready to go the east helipad, sir," he said. Dr. Windsor walked silently alongside his aide, who spoke quietly into his lapel mike once again. On their way to the helipad, they ran into Mystique and Pyro.

"Ah, Agents Mystique and Pyro." The Mutant Affairs secretary stopped and asked: "Are you going to be running drills with your team this afternoon?"

"No, sir," Mystique replied. "Why?"

"In that case, I'd like you and Agent Pyro to join me for a trip to the White House. I believe Secretary Trask may want to have words with us."

"Is that so?" Mystique remarked. "All right. This should be interesting." They proceeded to the helipad where Shiro Yoshida was waiting next to the secretary's aircraft. He was silent when he spotted Mystique and Pyro with Dr. Windsor but, other than a slightly arched eyebrow, he made no overt reaction. He and LeBeau waited until the secretary and his party were aboard the aircraft. Then Yoshida took the shotgun seat and LeBeau sat next to Dr. Windsor in the cabin.

"I'm telling you, Mr. President, he's out of line! He's bent over backwards so much to accommodate these people that he's thinking with the wrong end of his body!"

Bolivar Trask stood before President Cockrum's desk, the very picture of outrage. He'd been seething quietly while he watched the press conference at the DMA but now he was venting his ire freely and loudly.

"He's recruiting criminals to perform government duties and then he actually has the gall to ask the various law enforcement agencies and my own department to help him? That's absurd!" Secretary Trask stopped to wipe his bald head with a handkerchief before continuing: "It's beyond absurd, to be frank. It's monumental arrogance!"

"What do you find to be monumental arrogance, Secretary Trask?" Dr. Windsor asked as he entered the Oval Office.

The Homeland Security head turned to face his nemesis but stopped when he saw who was with him. "What the hell are they doing here?" he demanded, pointing a finger at Mystique and Pyro. Then he said to President Cockrum: "Do you see now, Mr. President? He's bringing criminals into the White House as if they had a place here!"

"As a matter of fact, they do," Dr. Windsor said softly. "After all, they were part of the team who brought Magneto into DMA custody. And Agent Mystique led the team herself."

"Agent Mystique?" bellowed Secretary Trask. "You're insane, Windsor! Appointing a known criminal who murdered no less than three of my own people when she escaped from our custody—"

"With all due respect. Mr. Secretary," Mystique said, "your people were under orders to murder me."

"Because you're a criminal!" Secretary Trask walked up to Mystique and jabbed a finger into her collarbone, just below her throat. "You're no different from Magneto, you freak of nature—"

"Secretary Trask," Dr. Windsor said, "I wouldn't do that—" The warning came too late. Mystique grabbed Secretary Trask's hand and quickly put him in a choke hold.

"Don't you ever lay so much as a finger on me ever again, Mr. Secretary," Mystique told him, spitting out the word as if it were poison. She tightened her arm around his throat. Pyro tried unsuccessfully to make her let go. "I'm doing this government's dirty work for it," she continued, "and you damn well better realize that. You sit in your office and push your subordinates around but I am not your subordinate and I don't take kindly to being pushed around."

She let him go with a push, sending him into a front corner of the President's desk. Secretary Trask sent papers flying but was able to stop himself from falling. When he turned around, he was no longer outraged—he looked like he was beyond any definition of anger.

"I could shoot you for that, you freak of nature," he said, eyeing Mystique furiously. His lips curled back like a dog snarling and getting ready to attack. He reached into his jacket but he was outdrawn. Mystique had a handgun aimed between his eyes even before his fingers closed around the handgrip of his own weapon.

"Try it," Mystique dared him. The look in her eyes was enough to give even a combat-hardened veteran like Secretary Trask pause.

"Agent Mystique!" Dr. Windsor said sharply. "That's enough!" He stood between the two adversaries. Pyro joined him, staying right in his team leader's line of sight.

"Hey, boss," he said, palms out, "come on, put the gun down, would you?"

President Cockrum decided to intervene: "Agent Mystique! Secretary Trask!"

"Yes?" Mystique responded.

"That's quite enough! We're supposed to be working together not trying to kill each other." The president approached all four of them as they stood before his desk. "Please, I'm asking you two—put your weapons away."

"Boss, you heard," Pyro said beseechingly. "Put the gun down already."

"Let go of your gun, Secretary Trask," Dr. Windsor told the Homeland Security head.

Mystique and Secretary Trask kept an eye on one another as they put their weapons away. The president informed a worried Secret Service that the situation was taken care of satisfactorily.

"That's better," President Cockrum said. "Now, if you're both ready, we can discuss the arrangements for Magneto's trial."

"Has the General Assembly approved the proposal then, Mr. President?" Dr. Windsor asked, seating himself in front of the President's desk. Secretary Trask did likewise. Mystique and Pyro stood close by.

"Not yet, Dr, Windsor, but I believe it's close." President Cockrum leaned forward, elbows on his desk. "The General Assembly seems to have taken a favorable view of our proposal. Dr. McCoy and I spoke with each other before you and Secretary Trask arrived. He assured me that there's a better than even chance that it could be approved within the day. In which case, the nomination of representatives should take place tomorrow."

"That's good news, sir!" Dr. Windsor said, pleased at the results of the efforts made by himself, the president, and Dr. McCoy.

"I must ask, though, doctor—where do you intend to hold the trial once it begins?" President Cockrum asked.

"Well, sir, I had the administrative wing of the DMA complex in mind," Dr. Windsor replied. "The meeting hall on the first floor of the Law Building should suffice. There's room for the magistrates and representatives, as well as the press. If I may say so, I think it will be more than sufficient. Although the ICCt will have to inspect the place to make sure."

"What about security?"

"Mr. President," Secretary Trask spoke up, "I believe Dr. Windsor wants the trial to be watched over by mutants."

"Jesus, this guy's something else," Pyro muttered under his breath.

"He doesn't like us, plain and simple," Mystique said to him.

"Tell me about it," Pyro remarked.

"What Secretary Trask said is correct," Dr. Windsor admitted. "I'm planning to expand the roster of the mutant operations team to be able to split them into three squads. I would like to assign the team that brought Magneto to the DMA to handle security inside the courtroom. The second squad will undertake surveillance throughout the trial from DMA Central Security while the third squad will be outside the building. Of course, Commander Terell and Commander Wisdom will also be taking part in this entire operation throughout the duration of the trial. I'd also like to request the Army or, perhaps, the National Guard to send troops to bolster our own security forces."

"If you'll allow me, sir," Secretary Trask said, "I have a simpler idea."

"What is it, Secretary Trask?" President Cockrum asked.

The Homeland Security head smiled at the Mutant Affairs secretary and his two subordinates. "Are you aware of Project Wide Awake, Mr. President?" he asked.

"I've heard it mentioned," President Cockrum replied. "Isn't it supposed to be a defense plan against mutant terrorism?"

"Exactly." Secretary Trask looked pleased. Dr. Windsor was puzzled.

"What's he talking about?" Pyro whispered to Mystique.

"I have an idea but I hope he's not serious about pushing it," she said. She remembered Colonel Stryker's facility at Alkali Lake. And she knew very well that Secretary Trask had served in the same branch of the military that Stryker did; more than that, she knew that they were friends—or at least they shared the same view of mutantkind. If the Homeland Security head did know about Project Wide Awake, then there was going to be trouble at the trial—and beyond that.

"Mr. President, Project Wide Awake was, as you said, created in order to provide a defense against mutant terrorism," Secretary Trask said. "It was developed precisely to combat high-level mutant threats such as Magneto. We weren't able to deploy it fully during the assault on Alcatraz but we've been testing it and refining it.

"And now, Mr. President...Dr. Windsor...I'm pleased to tell you that Project Wide Awake is now fully operational and ready for deployment."

"What exactly is Project Wide Awake, Mr. Secretary?" Dr. Windsor asked.

Secretary Trask got up. "Let me show you what we truly have on our side." He left the Oval Office briefly. When he returned, he had a couple of his own aides set up the necessary equipment for an audiovisual presentation. When everything was ready, he went to a laptop that one of his aides had brought and started his presentation.

"This is Project Wide Awake, gentlemen," Secretary Trask said. On the projector screen, a gigantic humanoid made out of metal flew across the sky, landed on the ground, and then began to attack a phalanx of armored vehicles.

"These are the Sentinels—the core of Project Wide Awake. Heavy armored robotic units designed for the purpose of eliminating mutants who prove to be dangerous to national security." The first Sentinel was joined by several more. The metal giants then began to execute preprogrammed combat maneuvers. "They're controlled by a state-of-the-art supercomputer with artificial-intelligence programming. It's been code-named Bastion because it is the first...the strongest...the ultimate line of defense that humanity has against mutant terror."

Mystique watched the screen with an impassive look on her face. Inside her, however, she could feel a knot of tension in her belly. She knew something about Project Wide Awake. She'd stolen the files pertaining to it from Stryker's Alkali Lake headquarters and did her own "research".

You were right, Irene, she thought. Your greatest fear is coming true. I'm only glad that you didn't live long enough to have to witness this terror.

The presentation ended. President Cockrum leafed through the sheaf of documents before him.

"Say the word, Mr. President," Secretary Trask said, "and I will implement Project Wide Awake."

"You really hate us, don't you, Trask?" Mystique asked.

"He doesn't hate all mutantkind," Dr. Windsor said. "Just one: Laurence Trask."

Secretary Trask's eyes widened in shock and anger. "What the hell are you talking about?"

Dr. Windsor quietly opened the leather document case that he'd brought with him from the DMA. He took out a brown envelope, opened it, and placed the photographs it contained down on the President's desk. The first picture showed a young man—little more than a teenager, actually—in a long line of people standing outside a low building guarded by police.

"This was taken at one of the anti-mutagen clinics here in Washington by DMA security agents who were undertaking surveillance to prevent an attack," Dr. Windsor said. He then shuffled to the second photograph. "This is from one of the internal cameras. Laurence Trask met with one of the clinic's counselors but left without undergoing anti-mutagen treatment." Before he could get to the other photos, however, Secretary Trask picked them up and tore them in two.

"I'd like to speak with you in private, doctor," he said.

Dr. Windsor nodded understandingly. "Of course."

"May I use your study, Mr. President?" Secretary Trask asked.

"Of course, Bolivar," President Cockrum said. "You know where it is."

Secretary Trask thanked the president and then turned to Dr. Windsor: "Come on." They left the Oval Office silently.

"Shouldn't we go with Dr. Windsor?" Pyro asked Mystique.

"No," Mystique said. "Let's give Secretary Trask the privacy that he asked for."

Once they were inside the President's private study, Secretary Trask dropped all formality and grabbed the front of Dr. Windsor's coat.

"I ought to kill you right now, Windsor," he said through clenched teeth. "How dare you drag my son into this?"

"Secretary Trask, I apologize for what seems to be a personal attack..." Dr. Windsor said, trying vainly to get the Homeland Security head to release him. "But you must admit...it is the truth, isn't it? Your son is a mutant..."

"My son is not a filthy freak of nature like those two you brought with you!" Secretary Trask bellowed. "He's a human being just like me!"

"Secretary Trask, your son was tested by the counselor at the clinic he went to...he's a mutant..."

"MY SON IS NOT A MUTANT!"

"Mr. Secretary, if you hate your son for what he is...don't project your hate onto the rest of mutantkind...just because you can't accept your son is different..."

Secretary Trask finally lost control. With one hand, he held onto the Mutant Affairs secretary. With the other, he punched him in the jaw.

"You had that coming—" the Homeland Security head was saying but then he noticed that Dr. Windsor hadn't fallen. The Mutant Affairs secretary simply brushed his hair back and then smiled a feral smile at Secretary Trask.

"Was that the best you can do, you genetic joke?" he asked.

"You want more?" Secretary Trask advanced menacingly. "I'll give you more—" Just as he was about to attack, though, Dr. Windsor reached out and grasped his throat. Secretary Trask felt his windpipe constrict tightly as the Mutant Affairs secretary lifted him off the floor with one hand.

"You amuse me, Trask," the Mutant Affairs secretary said. His voice, however, had changed. It had become deeper and it chilled Secretary Trask right down to his soul.

"Wh-what the hell...?" was all the Homeland Security head was able to say.

"Hell, indeed," Dr. Windsor said, his eyes beginning to glow red. In the Secret Service Control Center, the image from the security cameras showed an image of Dr. Windsor and Secretary Trask speaking with each other in a normal fashion.

"Who...the...hell..." Secretary Trask choked out as he tried to escape from Dr. Windsor's grip.

"Hell, indeed," Dr. Windsor repeated. He chuckled and the sound of it made Secretary Trask think of a snake hissing as it closed in on its prey. "Hell for you, perhaps."

Dr. Windsor lowered the Homeland Security head and forced him onto his knees. "Understand this, Trask," he said. "You are a pawn in the game we're playing. Nothing more than that. We will allow you to proceed with Project Wide Awake. It will suit our purposes after all."

Dr. Windsor's red eyes glowed even brighter. "Now, you will forget this little incident. Let us return to the Oval Office with a modicum of dignity, shall we?" He let Secretary Trask go and fixed his appearance.

"Come on, Trask," he said. "The president is waiting." He waited for the Homeland Security head to tidy himself up and then they returned to the Oval Office as if nothing had happened.

"Are you two done with your discussion?" President Cockrum asked.

"Quite so," Dr. Windsor said. "Secretary Trask apologized for his outburst."

"Y-yes, that's right," the Homeland Security head said. "It was a misunderstanding. Dr. Windsor knows that I love my son...I guess I was just..."

"No need to explain, Mr. Secretary," Dr. Windsor assured him. "As I said, your son's condition makes him no less human. And if he should ever want to join the DMA, he'll have a place there."

"Th-thank you, doctor," Secretary Trask said. "Mr. President, about Project Wide Awake—"

"I'll have to think about it, Bolivar," President Cockrum told him. "I'll inform both you and Dr. Windsor about my decision tomorrow."

"Fair enough, Mr. President." Dr. Windsor glanced at his watch. "I know this will seem impolite, sir, but I really must return to the DMA. There's so much to attend to in light of what you've told me."

"All right, doctor." The president shook hands with him. "Thank you for coming on such short notice."

"I serve at your pleasure, sir," Dr. Windsor said. He turned towards Secretary Trask. "I'll see you tomorrow then, Mr. Secretary?"

Secretary Trask nodded. "Count on it."

On their way back to the DMA, Dr. Windsor asked Mystique: "How do you feel about having three squads, Agent Mystique?"

"For the scale of the assignment that we'll be undertaking, Dr. Windsor," Mystique replied, "I think three squads is sufficient as long as we get the backup from Security. Commander Terell can be a bit difficult sometimes."

"I'll speak with him," Dr. Windsor assured her.

"Doc, what exactly is Project Wide Awake?" Pyro asked.

"It's a holdover from the former administrations," Dr. Windsor told him. "It's part of the Mutant Control Law. The 'mutant menace' was deemed as a high-priority security threat so the Department Of Defense and the National Security Council came up with Project Wide Awake. It's main goal was to adapt existing defense and security plans to combat mutants, as well as create new tactical and strategic systems to achieve that goal."

"And those giant robots—those Sentinels—are part of Project Wide Awake?"

"That's correct, Agent Pyro. One might say that the Sentinels represent the current state of the art of anti-mutant weaponry."

"And the president's actually considering letting those things loose during Magneto's trial?" Pyro's tone of voice made it clear that he saw the Sentinels as a definite danger to mutants.

Mystique weighed in with her opinion: "I hope not. Otherwise, we're all in trouble."

"I heartily agree with you," Dr. Windsor said. "Well, the decision is out of our hands. Let's just hope that nothing happens at the trial that we'll all come to regret."

The helicopter arrived at the DMA and Dr. Windsor went back to his office straight away. Mystique and Pyro went to the building where their team was being housed. While Pyro joined the rest of his teammates, Mystique entered her quarters and locked the door behind her.

She withdrew something from the trench coat that had been the only constant item of clothing in her wardrobe. Then she sat on her bunk and booted up the palmtop computer she always carried with her. She scrolled down to a particular file and opened it.

She looked at the photo, small though it was, on the screen of her palmtop. It was her—in human form, of course—and a woman by the name of Irene Adler. Irene had also been called Destiny because she could see things before they happened. Irene had hired her to help prevent some of the more awful things she'd foreseen from taking place. Mystique proved to be equal to the challenges that she and Irene faced. And with each adventure (that's what she considered them at the time; how young and foolish she was back then!), she began to see that Irene, though blind, was more than capable of looking after herself.

Of course, Irene knew almost from the start that there was something about her that wasn't normal. She guessed right away that her partner wasn't human. But that didn't bring about any judgments or any kind of the scorn that she'd met early on when she her mutation manifested itself. "My blindness doesn't mean I can't tell what kind of a person I'm dealing with," was Irene's explanation. "I am different from other people in my own way, though it cannot be seen as obviously as yours."

Their relationship metamorphosed from employer and employee to equal partners. She took Irene on as her apprentice and together they solved cases that most people would have considered impossible. They applied a combination of scientific inquiry and feminine intuition to every case and that combination proved formidable. Their professional relationship flourished. Before long, their investigative services were gaining renown beyond England, where they first met. The two of them went from one part of the world to another, always in pursuit of a mystery while, at the same time, carrying out their original task of halting the dire predictions that haunted Irene's sleep.

Inevitably, their professional relationship became something deeper. Something that Mystique had felt only a few times in her life. If it had just been the times that Irene had saved her life, she would have thought nothing of it since she usually evened things out by saving Irene's life. It was more than that. There were the moments when she would be together with Irene, in a cabin aboard a ship, perhaps, or on a train. Or when they shared a hotel room or a house. In those moments, she felt a kind of dumbstruck silence whenever she realized that she was in the company of another person.

Mystique had lived and traveled alone for most of her life and Irene's presence was something that stirred unexpected emotions. At first those emotions disgusted her—not because Irene was a woman; that meant little to her—but because she always associated such emotions with weakness. The disgust soon gave way to curiosity. Irene sensed it easily and allowed her to satisfy her curiosity. The curiosity became a hunger that burned inside her, a hunger that she never knew was hidden inside of her until she knew Irene. Irene's presence threw her solitary life in front of her as if reflected in a mirror and forced her to face what she felt in her heart and soul. Mystique looked at what her life was and decided that there was something missing. There was an emptiness there that was aching to be filled by something she had never found—until that time.

No, not something—someone, she thought in the silence of her quarters. Unconsciously, a tear fell from Mystique's eye. The pain, long kept away under lock and key, came back. By sheer force of will, she kept it from overwhelming her.

Finally she admitted the truth: she had come to love Irene. Irene felt the same way about her.

Mystique touched the photo tenderly, brushing away a tear that had fallen on the palmtop's screen. In between herself and Irene was a young girl with green eyes and long brown hair. They came across her in rural America. She was living by herself, far away from the nearest town. She was a mutant that had isolated herself to keep from harming others. Her power, they learned, was the ability to absorb the memories ans skills of others with a touch. When they tried to approach her, she threatened to blow the two of them away with her shotgun. Irene, for some reason, took to the girl. After a great deal of patience and trust, the girl joined them. The three of them became a family—something that Mystique never could remember having before then.

Anne Marie, Mystique thought to herself. Irene. They were a family and the three of them had been enough for each other. Of course, Irene could no longer go on assignments with Mystique; she had to take care of their daughter. Mystique, for her part, was no longer interested in looking for an honorable death; her suicidal courage had been tempered by the knowledge that she couldn't leave Irene and Anne Marie to face the world by themselves. Mutants were starting to emerge all over America—perhaps all over the world—and the reception this new breed was receiving was not encouraging. Normal humans saw mutants as freaks; before long, they began to see them as a danger to mankind itself.

Irene predicted with alarming frequency and even more alarming accuracy the events of the war that humanity would and eventually did declare against mutants. Anne Marie was frightened not so much by those predictions but by the thought that her parents would become casualties of that war. Mystique vowed to protect them both but the vow remained unfulfilled. Irene died before the shadow of the anti-mutant hysteria could actually touch her. Shocked by her death, Anne Marie had fled. Mystique was all alone once again.

Anne Marie. Irene. The two people she loved as much or maybe even more than herself.

Irene was dead. She was the lucky one. Anne Marie, on the other hand, was alive. And if Irene was correct, Anne Marie would be in as much danger as she herself would be once Project Wide Awake was implemented.

Mystique sat there and wept quietly. She wondered fleetingly to herself what a sight it would be if one of her team members were to see her at that moment.

So much loss and sadness, Raven. I fear the darkness coming. And yet there will be a greater darkness—fear silenced into oblivion. Those had been Irene's words.

Mystique's tears stopped the moment she stood up. No, Irene, the darkness won't come—not if I can help it.

She hid the palmtop, cleaned herself up, and then went outside to speak with her team.