Magneto stood up and removed his helmet. Glen saw a man of about 60 with shining silver hair walking towards him.

"I understand you've been looking for me," Magneto said to Glen.

"That's right," Glen replied through clenched teeth.

"Well," said Magneto. "I'm glad we've found each other. We have much to discuss,"

"I'm usually not very talkative when I'm tied up," said Glen.

"Indeed. Well, I suppose it's the least I can do," Magneto said, waving his hand. With a loud hum, Glen's restraints unlocked, and he slid down to the floor. "Better?" Magneto asked, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Much," replied Glen, his own voice equally saturated. "Now what's this important business we have?"

"First of all, allow me to apologize for the loss of your friend. It was unfortunate, but necessary,"

"Necessary?" Glen roared. "How can you call cold-blooded murder necessary!"

"Not cold-blooded," Magneto said strongly. "I am not a man who kills without thought as to the consequences of such an action. I needed your friend because I need you,"

"Me? What do you need with me?"

"Forgive me, I'll explain more thoroughly. As you may already be aware, I have been assembling my own team of mutants, much like Professor Xavier. A pity I couldn't find you before he did. I could have taught you much,"

"I'm not interested any of your lessons," Glen retorted.

"You may find that you can learn something from me after all," said Magneto. "But no matter. Unfortunately, my own recruiting efforts have been somewhat lacking as of late. It seems that my dear friend Charles has been able to recruit new mutants to his side as soon as their abilities emerge. Do you have any idea how he is able to do that?"

"Maybe he just smarter than you," Glen said smugly.

"Charles' powers are great, but I assure you, mine are far superior to his. But it is not his powers that are helping him. Rather, he has a machine do all the searching for him, a computer called Cerebro. I'm sure you've seen it,"

"Yeah. What's your point?"

"My point is this. I no longer intend to remain at my current disadvantage. If my own goals are to be accomplished, I shall need greater numbers of mutants at my side. I intend to steal the components of Cerebro and construct my own mutant-finding computer, with some special improvements, of course,"

"Uh huh. And you expect me to help you with this. Forget it,"

"Obviously you've failed to grasp the larger scope of my endeavors. I did not kidnap and brainwash your friend because I thought he might succeed in this theft. Quite the contrary, I knew he would be caught,"

Glen stared at Magneto, his words beginning to sink in as the man continued.

"The chip I implanted in your friend allowed me to control his movements, influence his actions, and even see through his eyes. You can't believe how satisfying it was to see the look on your face when I activated the kill- switch," Magneto said, grinning wickedly. "I used him, and ultimately killed him so I could get to YOU,"

Glen could not believe what he was hearing. Magneto would use Sam as a pawn and casually kill him like he was throwing away a piece of trash, just to get to him "And you honestly expect me to help you after what you've done!"

Magneto's eyes narrowed as his voice became deathly deep. "Let me put it this way. I intend to get what I want, with or without your help. If I have to, I am prepared and capable to launch an all-out attack on your Institute to get those components. And don't think that I'd stop with just killing you lover," he said, with extra emphasis on 'lover'.

Glen's blood was beginning to boil at this point. He clenched his fists open and closed, trying to keep his emotions in check.

"I'd be more than willing to kill every mutant in that Institute to get what I want. But you wouldn't want that, would you? Would you really want the blood of your friends on your hands? Could you live with yourself, knowing that, say, Kitty was dead because of your inaction? Or Kurt? I could tell you something very interesting about Kurt."

Glen let out an anguished yell, his soul not being able to endure any more. He threw himself at Magneto, who casually waved his hand as if he were swatting at a fly. The table that Glen had been strapped to tore itself from the ground and hurtled towards Glen, striking him in the back with the full force of a wrecking ball.

Glen felt the wind knocked of his lungs as he went sprawling across the floor. He looked up to see Magneto standing above him, his scarlet cape billowing around him. "Excellent. Your rage is great. Very well, use it. Attack me, if you can,"

Glen raised his hand to shoot a stasis bolt at Magneto, but strangely, he did not feel the usual rush of energy snake up his arm that he normally felt when he used his powers. He tried again, but the lack of results was the same. "What have you done?" he asked angrily.

"The room we are in is surrounded by a special dampening field. Your powers are useless here," Magneto said. "And now, I will present my offer to you, after I make sure you fully understand the terms," He waved his hand again, and a length of cable tore itself off from the ceiling, descended, and wrapped around Glen's throat. Glen drew in as much air as he could before the cable lifted him off the ground, hanging him in mid-air. After a few seconds, he could feel his ears beginning to throb.

"My offer is simple," Magneto explained. "You can either die here, now, or you can help me. But lest you think you would be doing this for nothing, let me assure you that you will be greatly compensated,"

"What could you possibly offer me?" Glen said, struggling to remain conscious. He pried at the cable with his hands, but could not shake it loose from around his neck.

"Nothing really. Just your lover, alive," Magneto said.

"What?" Glen asked, his face starting to turn blue.

"Yes. Help me, and your lover will be returned to you, alive and in perfect health,"

"How can you do that?"

"I'd love to explain, but it would take quite a while, and I can clearly see that you are about to suffocate, so I would advise you to make your choice, while you still can,"

Glen was seconds away from death at this point. Despite his bitter hatred for the mutant in front of him, he sensed an air of truth in his voice. Could he somehow bring Sam back to life? There was only one way to find out.

"All right! I'll help you!" Glen croaked.

"Say again?" said Magneto tauntingly. "I couldn't quite make that out,"

"I said I'll help you!" Glen gasped with the last bit of air in his lungs.

"Excellent," Magneto said, and with a wave of his hand, the cable unwound itself from Glen's neck and he dropped to the ground, gasping for breath. "Follow me," Magneto said and turned to leave the room. Glen struggled to his feet, his lungs on fire. He went light-headed as he rose, but managed to stay conscious and followed Magneto through an arch-shaped doorway.

They walked down a corridor that was flowing with the same purple energy that had been present in the last chamber. "The dampening field extends through the whole complex," explained Magneto. "Just in case you decide to get brave and try something foolish,"

They continued to walk down the corridor, which finally opened into a large open room. Several computer banks lined the walls, and in the center of the room was a tall pod-shaped chamber. "What is that?" asked Glen.

"That is how you're going to help me," said Magneto. "This device will enhance your powers, allowing you to tap into abilities you would otherwise have to wait years to develop naturally. Unfortunately, this is a weaker version than my previous construction. The enhancements you gain will only be temporary, but they will last long enough for our purposes. You can thank Scott Summers for the loss of the prior model, by the way,"

"So what exactly will these 'enhanced powers' let me do?" asked Glen.

"For starters, your own basic powers will rise to a far greater level than they currently are at now. I have been studying your abilities from the small amount of data that the Brotherhood was able to provide me, and these enhancements should allow you to travel backwards in time a short distance,"

So that was Magneto's plan, thought Glen. Get him to travel back in time and steal Cerebro's components himself.

As if he could tell what he was thinking, Magneto said, "Once the enhancements are complete, you will travel back in time to before the death of your friend. Once you accomplish the theft, you will return to this time period and give them to me,"

"How will that bring Sam back to life?" asked Glen.

Magneto casually tossed him a small metal object that looked a bit like a pine-cone. "When you return to the past, activate that beacon. It will transmit a message to my past self, with instructions to delay killing your friend, pending your success, of course,"

Glen was very uncomfortable with this idea. And there was also the question of whether or not he could trust Magneto. "How can I be sure you won't kill him anyway after I give you what you want?"

Magneto glared at him. "I had thought we had established a level of trust by now. But if you require further incentive." A loud hum filled the room as various metallic implements lifted off the floor and hovered threateningly overhead.

Glen did not want to endure another round of Magneto's punishments. "Ok, fine. Let's just do this," he said.

"Step inside the chamber," Magneto said, gesturing towards the pod, which opened at his command. Glen walked inside and heard the door slam shut behind him. After a moment, the lights went out in the pod. For a short time, nothing happened. Then Glen heard a faint whine, which grew steadily louder. At the same time, a dim light appeared in the chamber and grew brighter and brighter.

After a few moments, the noise and light were overwhelming. Glen felt energy surge through him, and felt his body rack with spasms. He was not sure how much more he could take. Finally, when it seemed like he was about to burst, the machine shut down and the door hissed open, releasing a cloud of smoke as Glen slowly staggered out.

"Feel any different?" asked Magneto.

"Not really," said Glen, brushing a strand of hair away from his face. "Why did I just do that?" he thought to himself. "And why does my voice sound lower?"

"You may not feel any different, but I assure you that you have changed. Take a look at yourself," Magneto said.

Glen looked at his reflection in the polished surface of the machine he had just emerged from, and he was taken aback at what he saw. Staring back at him was not the boy he had been, but a figure that was that of a man's. He was taller and a bit more muscularly built while at the same time being impossibly slender. His clothes hung in tatters off of his body, no longer fitting. His hair had also changed. Instead of being dark and curly as it usually was, it now hung straight down to his shoulders. In addition, it was bright silver, just like Magneto's.

Glen was both amazed and slightly horrified at his new appearance. "Why do I look different?" he asked.

"I neglected to mention, this chamber changes the user's physical properties in addition to enhancing his powers. I should point out that these changes are much less dramatic than those instilled by the prior model,"

"This might make things a bit more difficult," Glen said. "Nobody will recognize me when I go back,"

"Then I suggest you use discretion, and don't put yourself in a position to be recognized," said Magneto, tossing Glen a garment. "I imagine you'll want some clothes that actually fit you now. Go ahead and put that on,"

Glen walked back into the chamber, starting to wonder if this was really such a good idea. Would these changes be permanent? As much as he liked the way his transformed body looked, he wasn't entirely sure he wanted to stay this way forever.

He discarded the remains of his clothes and slipped into the garment Magneto had handed him, a black and silver body suit and a pair of black boots. He could see its fabric shimmer as he moved around, getting used to its feel. He stepped back out.

Magneto next handed Glen an electronic display pad. "Take this with you. It contains everything you will need to access Cerebro's chamber and download the components I need,"

"How did you get this?"

"You aren't the first person who I've managed to get inside the Institute. I've had spies in there on several occasions. They have brought me useful information, and I expect no less from you,"

"Fine. So how exactly am I supposed to travel back in time?"

"Do you expect me to know how your powers work?" Magneto asked, feigning being insulted. "You know what point in the past you want to go back to, so just go there. Focus your mind, and it should be as simple as walking through a door,"

Glen began to focus his thoughts, concentrating harder than he ever had before. He could feel waves of time flowing around him. Opening his eyes, he saw a large vortex opening in front of him. Flowing around on the inside of it was a wondrous landscape of images, scenes from Glen's past.

After a few moments of searching, Glen found the particular image he was looking for and focused solely on that one. Immediately, the masses of images in the vortex vanished, and Glen could see the world of his past from that one particular image standing in front of him, just on the other side of the rift. Glen took a deep breath, and stepped through.

There was a bright flash of light, and when it faded, both Glen and the vortex he had created were gone.