As Glen stood engulfed in the temporal vortex that was returning him to his
own time, he reflected on what he had done; not only had he broken into
Cerebro's mainframe, he had frozen his fellow X-Men in time. How was he
possibly going to explain this when he returned? For that matter, how was
he going to explain his new appearance to anybody? Sam had been terrified
to see him like that. What would other people who knew him say? How was he
going to go back to school looking like this?
As all of these questions revolved in his head, he again heard the voice that had been haunting his mind for the last several hours: Why are you even thinking about those things? The X-Men, your so-called friends, they didn't understand what's happened. They tried to stop you! They deserved what they got.
Shut up! Glen thought back.
And why should you even care about what you look like now? If people don't like the way you look, that's their problem. Besides, think about your powers! You can MAKE them like you!
Get out of my head! Glen shouted in his mind.
"Glen!" came another voice adding itself to the commotion, very faintly.
Who's there? Glen thought back.
"Glen!" the voice repeated itself. Glen couldn't make out who was trying to contact him. Before he could reply, the vortex collapsed and he found himself standing back in Magneto's chamber.
The master mutant rose and walked towards Glen. "I trust you were successful?" he asked.
"Yes," Glen said, handing Magneto the pad and the circuit board.
"Excellent," said Magneto, a touch of glee in his voice. He took the pad and the board and walked over to his own computer, where he quickly set them up.
"Behold! The future of mutant-kind is at hand!" he proclaimed triumphantly as his computer screen lit up to show a map of the world. There were several areas highlighted in red, covering the entire map. Meanwhile, faces and information began appearing on other screens, flying by at a rapid pace. "Soon, they will all follow me! Mankind's day has past, now it is our time!"
Glen looked at Magneto in horror. What had he done? He had given Magneto exactly what he needed to rule the world!
"Come, my young friend!" said Magneto, putting his hand on Glen's shoulder. "Let us welcome our new brothers together!"
"Don't touch me!" Glen said, repulsed, and pushed Magneto's hand away.
Magneto sighed; clearly, the boy was not yet ready to accept his place in the new world. But that would change soon enough. He walked back to his computer terminal and began to establish a satellite uplink, so that he could broadcast a message to every mutant on the planet and inform them of the new era that had risen.
Back in the Danger Room, the X-Men collapsed to the ground as Glen's massive stasis shock wave wore off. Everybody was very disoriented, especially Xavier, who had fallen out of his wheelchair and had to be helped back up.
"What just happened?" asked Kitty.
"How long were we frozen?" asked Rogue, grimacing at the pain from her broken wrist.
"I do not know," said Xavier. He wheeled over to a computer terminal and tried to check the time. "It's no use," he said. "The computers were frozen as well. It could have been minutes, or hours, or perhaps even years,"
"Years?" asked Kitty, very nervously. "How could he have gotten that powerful so fast? He only looked a few years older. Even if he did travel back from the future, he shouldn't have been able to obtain that level of ability,"
"I'll tell you how," said Scott, and explained his theory. "Notice what color his hair was? Silver. The same thing happened to me and my brother a year or so ago,"
"Of course!" said Jean, realizing. "Magneto must have rebuilt his Cauldron, that's the only possible explanation,"
"And that can only mean one thing," said Scot angrily. "He's working for Magneto. Glen's turned on us!"
"But why would he do that?" asked Kitty. "We're his friends! What reason would he have to betray us?"
All eyes in the room slowly drifted towards Glen, who looked extremely uncomfortable.
"When we were up there," he said, pointing to the catwalk, "He told me that if we tried to stop him, Sam was going to die!"
"Hey! Take a look at this!" Kurt exclaimed. He had found the pad that Glen had left behind before returning to the future.
Glen took the pad from Kurt and read the message that he had left for himself. "Oh my god," he said softly.
"What is it?" asked Kitty.
Glen closed his eyes before he spoke, so great was the impact of the message. "It says that Magneto got hold of Sam and brainwashed him to try and break into Cerebro. Or he WILL do these things,"
"Ugh, I hate time travel," Kurt said, recalling all of the science fiction movies. "It always gives me a headache trying to sort out when everything's supposed to be,"
Glen continued. "Magneto put some kind of implant in his brain to control him, and then he killed him with it!"
"Bastard!" Rogue growled. Kurt said something in German that everybody understood to be some kind of curse. Even Xavier looked uncharacteristically angry.
Glen finished the pad. "Magneto was just using Sam to get to me. He captured me and threatened to kill me if I didn't help him. I went through some kind of machine and came out as, well, as the person we saw a little while ago. He says that he doesn't have any other choice," Glen said, not referring directly to himself for this last bit of information.
"But if he's changed the past, he wouldn't have to work for Magneto!" said Kitty.
"Maybe he doesn't realize that things have already changed," Kurt offered.
"We can worry about all that later. Right now we have a more pressing concern," said Xavier. "According to the computer logs, Glen accessed the master list of mutants throughout the world. If Magneto has another Cauldron, he could summon them all and then evolve them to create his own personal army,"
"If he does that," Jean began.
"He'd be able to expose more than just us," Scott finished. "He'd be able to take on the whole world!"
Xavier glared at that prospect; the day he had feared for so long appeared to have arrived. He quickly linked the computer to a GPS satellite. "Thank god!" he said. It was one of the few times the X-Men had heard Xavier use such an expression.
"We've only been frozen for about an hour," he explained. "There may still be time to stop Magneto. I just hope Forge's new temporal communicator works like it's supposed to," he said, referring to the device that Forge had built specifically with Glen in mind. If successful, Xavier would be able to communicate with Glen in the past or the future.
As Magneto worked, a voice again came into his head. "Glen, can you hear me?"
This time, Glen recognized the voice; it was Professor Xavier! "Yes, professor, I can hear you!" he thought, trying not to appear too excited lest he give himself away. "I'm sorry for what's happened, but it's the only way,"
Xavier cut him off. "We can discuss all that later. What is Magneto doing right now?"
"He's getting ready to broadcast some kind of message," Glen replied. "I think he's going to contact every mutant in the world at once,"
"You must stop him!" Xavier broadcast.
"I don't know what I'll be able to do," said Glen. "He's got some kind of field in here that's blocking my powers,"
"Glen, it is absolutely imperative that you stop him from broadcasting that message," Xavier said. A blinking light on his console told him that the transmission was beginning to break up.
"Glen! Do wh-e-r you -ave to t- ---- him!"
"Professor!" Glen shouted in his mind, but the transmission had ended and his mind was silent. What was he going to do? With the dampening field still in place, he would be helpless. He had to find a way to shut it down somehow, or to get Magneto to do it for him. Gritting his teeth, he walked up to the mutant.
"Ok, I've done what you've asked me to do. Can I leave now?" he asked.
"Why do you want to leave so soon?" asked Magneto. "You are about to witness the greatest moment in mutant history, and you helped to bring it about! Surely you want to see this." he said, grinning.
The voice returned to Glen's mind. "Yes," it said, grating. "Stay with him, witness the future's birth!"
Never! Glen thought back, trying to silence the voice. "I don't care about your new future or any of this. I just did this for Sam. Now let me go," he said threateningly.
Magneto glared at him. "I am offering you the opportunity of a lifetime! It would have taken years for you to develop the powers you have now, but I gave them to you in a matter of seconds! Think of what else you could do! Why do you want to throw that away?" he asked.
Glen only glared back. "I don't give a damn what you do with any of this, and I don't give a damn about you," he said menacingly. "Very well," Magneto said. "Go back where you came from. Soon, when I am in control, I will remember this day. You had your chance; rest assured, you won't get another,"
He pressed some buttons on his computer, and the pink glow that had pervaded the room died out as the dampening field shut off. "Now go!" he roared.
Yes! Glen thought. His bluff had worked, and Magneto had given him exactly what he needed.
"Before I leave, I think you should see exactly what sort of future you've really created," said Glen. Before Magneto could do anything, Glen stretched out his hand toward Magneto's computer. A beam of energy sprung from his fingertips and engulfed the computer. Magneto looked on in horror as his machine aged decades in a matter of seconds. When the beam faded, it was covered with rust and completely useless.
"No!" shouted Magneto. He pounded on the computer in frustration and knocked a large, rusted out piece of it off. It fell on the floor with a loud clatter.
"That's not all I can do," said Glen, and pointed his hand towards Magneto.
Magneto raised his own fist and a loud hum filled the room as every metallic object that wasn't firmly bolted down rose off the floor and hovered above him.
Glen shot an aging beam at Magneto, but the mutant cast one of the metal objects into the path of the beam. Again Glen fired, and again Magneto deflected the bolt. Before Glen could shoot another bolt, Magneto waved his hand and sent several objects flying at Glen.
Glen dodged them, phasing in and out of time as Magneto hurled debris in his direction.
"Looks like I'm too fast for you!" he said defiantly.
"Perhaps," said Magneto cunningly, waving his hand again to launch another attack. Glen dodged the debris, but Magneto had another plan. A thin metal pipe burst out of the floor just as Glen reappeared from phasing and shot directly at him. Glen was unable to phase out again, and he screamed in pain as the pipe impaled his arm, pinning him against the wall like a bug in a collection.
"Perhaps not," Magneto said, laughing cruelly. He lifted off the floor and began to float towards Glen to finish him off.
Glen looked at the pipe sticking out of his arm. He grabbed the pipe, determined not to die like some insect, and pulled it out of his arm, fighting through the pain. He touched a finger to the hole in his arm and created a temporal bubble around the gaping wound, effectively cauterizing the flow of blood.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Mystique walk into the room. Excellent, he thought. This would soon be over.
"Mystique, activate the dampening field," he said.
Mystique said nothing, but walked over to the dampening field control panel. She began pressing buttons, inputting a new series of commands for the machine.
Magneto did not recognize the commands Mystique was inputting, but he knew that something was not right. "Mystique, what are you doing?" he asked.
"Something I should have done a long time ago," she said in a voice of pure rage, and activated the dampening field.
The field popped up, but this time it had a red glow to it instead of its prior pink hue. "Mystique!" Magneto snarled as he realized what she had done. A moment later, he dropped to the floor as the reconfigured dampening field began to sap away his own powers. There was a deafening crash as the metal that Magneto had been using as ammunition came tumbling to the floor.
Mystique glared down at Magneto. "He's all yours," she said to Glen.
"Glen, please," Magneto said. "Listen to me, I only wanted,"
"Shut up!" Glen yelled fiercely, letting loose all the hatred he felt for the mutant lying before him. "You think you can just control people's lives and use them like chess pieces. You think you can kill my boyfriend like he was an insect. Now you're going to see what it's like to be the helpless victim for a change!" He raised his arm and fired, blinded by rage.
The bolt enveloped Magneto, just as it had done to the computer. In seconds, Magneto had been reduced to a shriveled old man, the effects of his longevity treatments gone.
Mystique walked over to him. "I've always wanted to see you like this, lying there totally helpless. How does it feel to have somebody else plotting the development of YOUR life, Magnus?" she asked angrily.
"Mystique," he croaked, reaching desperately for her.
Mystique curled her lip in disgust and launched a kick straight at Magneto's head. It connected and Magneto crumpled to the floor unconscious. She spat on him, a final gesture of hatred.
"Thanks," Glen said. "But why turn on him now? I thought this was what you were after,"
"It was," Mystique said. "But not like this, not at this price. I may hate Xavier, but I don't want you to suffer what I did,"
"What do you mean?"
"You're not the only one who's lost somebody they loved because of that thing," she said, gesturing at the unconscious mutant stretched out on the floor.
"Now, it's time for you to go," she said. She pulled a device from her belt and tossed it into the Cauldron. "Once that thing goes off, it'll destroy that thing and put you back to normal," she said. "I don't think you'll want to be anywhere nearby when that happens, though,"
"What about you? And him, for that matter?" Glen asked.
"Don't worry about me," she said. "I have plans of my own, but rest assured they don't involve any of you. As for Magneto, even if he does survive, I don't think he'll be a threat to anybody for a long time. Go out that door and follow the corridor. You'll find an exit. Go now!"
Glen didn't need any further prompting. He walked out the door and after a few minutes was standing outside.
He looked around and could see nothing but water on all sides. He was out in the middle of the ocean! How much longer before that thing went off, anyway?
A second later, he heard a whining of an engine. He looked up to see the X- Jet hovering overhead, its ramp extending. He saw Scott standing at the top along with Jean and Xavier. "Get in!" the mutant shouted.
Glen jumped onto the ramp and the X-Jet took off. Behind them, a silver sphere rose into the sky and flew away in the other direction. A moment later, Magneto's base exploded in a massive fireball.
The mutants watched out the window as fire and debris shot up into the sky.
"I guess that's that," said Kurt.
"What about Magneto?" Jean asked Glen. "Was he in there?"
Glen was silent. He honestly didn't know if Magneto had gotten out. He had his own desires for the mutant's fate, but did not speak them. Finally he looked at Jean and said, "No, he made it out,"
"Figures," said Scott. "At least he won't be taking over the world today,"
Glen kept silent. He didn't feel like revealing exactly what he had done to Magneto.
"Hey, shouldn't you have changed back by now?" Scott asked Glen. Now that the Cauldron had had been destroyed, Glen should have reverted back to his normal form, just as Scott had immediately after destroying the first Cauldron on Asteroid M.
"What?" Glen replied nervously, and looked at his reflection in the window. He gasped to see that he was still in his older, taller body, and that his hair was still silver.
"What's happening?" he said as his jaw dropped. "Mystique said I'd go back to normal once that thing blew up!"
"Magneto may have changed the machine to make its enhancements permanent. We can do some tests on you once we get back to the Institute," Xavier said. "Hopefully, we can find a way to get you back to the way you used to be,"
"I hope so," Glen said, suddenly very much less enthusiastic than he had been just a few moments ago.
As all of these questions revolved in his head, he again heard the voice that had been haunting his mind for the last several hours: Why are you even thinking about those things? The X-Men, your so-called friends, they didn't understand what's happened. They tried to stop you! They deserved what they got.
Shut up! Glen thought back.
And why should you even care about what you look like now? If people don't like the way you look, that's their problem. Besides, think about your powers! You can MAKE them like you!
Get out of my head! Glen shouted in his mind.
"Glen!" came another voice adding itself to the commotion, very faintly.
Who's there? Glen thought back.
"Glen!" the voice repeated itself. Glen couldn't make out who was trying to contact him. Before he could reply, the vortex collapsed and he found himself standing back in Magneto's chamber.
The master mutant rose and walked towards Glen. "I trust you were successful?" he asked.
"Yes," Glen said, handing Magneto the pad and the circuit board.
"Excellent," said Magneto, a touch of glee in his voice. He took the pad and the board and walked over to his own computer, where he quickly set them up.
"Behold! The future of mutant-kind is at hand!" he proclaimed triumphantly as his computer screen lit up to show a map of the world. There were several areas highlighted in red, covering the entire map. Meanwhile, faces and information began appearing on other screens, flying by at a rapid pace. "Soon, they will all follow me! Mankind's day has past, now it is our time!"
Glen looked at Magneto in horror. What had he done? He had given Magneto exactly what he needed to rule the world!
"Come, my young friend!" said Magneto, putting his hand on Glen's shoulder. "Let us welcome our new brothers together!"
"Don't touch me!" Glen said, repulsed, and pushed Magneto's hand away.
Magneto sighed; clearly, the boy was not yet ready to accept his place in the new world. But that would change soon enough. He walked back to his computer terminal and began to establish a satellite uplink, so that he could broadcast a message to every mutant on the planet and inform them of the new era that had risen.
Back in the Danger Room, the X-Men collapsed to the ground as Glen's massive stasis shock wave wore off. Everybody was very disoriented, especially Xavier, who had fallen out of his wheelchair and had to be helped back up.
"What just happened?" asked Kitty.
"How long were we frozen?" asked Rogue, grimacing at the pain from her broken wrist.
"I do not know," said Xavier. He wheeled over to a computer terminal and tried to check the time. "It's no use," he said. "The computers were frozen as well. It could have been minutes, or hours, or perhaps even years,"
"Years?" asked Kitty, very nervously. "How could he have gotten that powerful so fast? He only looked a few years older. Even if he did travel back from the future, he shouldn't have been able to obtain that level of ability,"
"I'll tell you how," said Scott, and explained his theory. "Notice what color his hair was? Silver. The same thing happened to me and my brother a year or so ago,"
"Of course!" said Jean, realizing. "Magneto must have rebuilt his Cauldron, that's the only possible explanation,"
"And that can only mean one thing," said Scot angrily. "He's working for Magneto. Glen's turned on us!"
"But why would he do that?" asked Kitty. "We're his friends! What reason would he have to betray us?"
All eyes in the room slowly drifted towards Glen, who looked extremely uncomfortable.
"When we were up there," he said, pointing to the catwalk, "He told me that if we tried to stop him, Sam was going to die!"
"Hey! Take a look at this!" Kurt exclaimed. He had found the pad that Glen had left behind before returning to the future.
Glen took the pad from Kurt and read the message that he had left for himself. "Oh my god," he said softly.
"What is it?" asked Kitty.
Glen closed his eyes before he spoke, so great was the impact of the message. "It says that Magneto got hold of Sam and brainwashed him to try and break into Cerebro. Or he WILL do these things,"
"Ugh, I hate time travel," Kurt said, recalling all of the science fiction movies. "It always gives me a headache trying to sort out when everything's supposed to be,"
Glen continued. "Magneto put some kind of implant in his brain to control him, and then he killed him with it!"
"Bastard!" Rogue growled. Kurt said something in German that everybody understood to be some kind of curse. Even Xavier looked uncharacteristically angry.
Glen finished the pad. "Magneto was just using Sam to get to me. He captured me and threatened to kill me if I didn't help him. I went through some kind of machine and came out as, well, as the person we saw a little while ago. He says that he doesn't have any other choice," Glen said, not referring directly to himself for this last bit of information.
"But if he's changed the past, he wouldn't have to work for Magneto!" said Kitty.
"Maybe he doesn't realize that things have already changed," Kurt offered.
"We can worry about all that later. Right now we have a more pressing concern," said Xavier. "According to the computer logs, Glen accessed the master list of mutants throughout the world. If Magneto has another Cauldron, he could summon them all and then evolve them to create his own personal army,"
"If he does that," Jean began.
"He'd be able to expose more than just us," Scott finished. "He'd be able to take on the whole world!"
Xavier glared at that prospect; the day he had feared for so long appeared to have arrived. He quickly linked the computer to a GPS satellite. "Thank god!" he said. It was one of the few times the X-Men had heard Xavier use such an expression.
"We've only been frozen for about an hour," he explained. "There may still be time to stop Magneto. I just hope Forge's new temporal communicator works like it's supposed to," he said, referring to the device that Forge had built specifically with Glen in mind. If successful, Xavier would be able to communicate with Glen in the past or the future.
As Magneto worked, a voice again came into his head. "Glen, can you hear me?"
This time, Glen recognized the voice; it was Professor Xavier! "Yes, professor, I can hear you!" he thought, trying not to appear too excited lest he give himself away. "I'm sorry for what's happened, but it's the only way,"
Xavier cut him off. "We can discuss all that later. What is Magneto doing right now?"
"He's getting ready to broadcast some kind of message," Glen replied. "I think he's going to contact every mutant in the world at once,"
"You must stop him!" Xavier broadcast.
"I don't know what I'll be able to do," said Glen. "He's got some kind of field in here that's blocking my powers,"
"Glen, it is absolutely imperative that you stop him from broadcasting that message," Xavier said. A blinking light on his console told him that the transmission was beginning to break up.
"Glen! Do wh-e-r you -ave to t- ---- him!"
"Professor!" Glen shouted in his mind, but the transmission had ended and his mind was silent. What was he going to do? With the dampening field still in place, he would be helpless. He had to find a way to shut it down somehow, or to get Magneto to do it for him. Gritting his teeth, he walked up to the mutant.
"Ok, I've done what you've asked me to do. Can I leave now?" he asked.
"Why do you want to leave so soon?" asked Magneto. "You are about to witness the greatest moment in mutant history, and you helped to bring it about! Surely you want to see this." he said, grinning.
The voice returned to Glen's mind. "Yes," it said, grating. "Stay with him, witness the future's birth!"
Never! Glen thought back, trying to silence the voice. "I don't care about your new future or any of this. I just did this for Sam. Now let me go," he said threateningly.
Magneto glared at him. "I am offering you the opportunity of a lifetime! It would have taken years for you to develop the powers you have now, but I gave them to you in a matter of seconds! Think of what else you could do! Why do you want to throw that away?" he asked.
Glen only glared back. "I don't give a damn what you do with any of this, and I don't give a damn about you," he said menacingly. "Very well," Magneto said. "Go back where you came from. Soon, when I am in control, I will remember this day. You had your chance; rest assured, you won't get another,"
He pressed some buttons on his computer, and the pink glow that had pervaded the room died out as the dampening field shut off. "Now go!" he roared.
Yes! Glen thought. His bluff had worked, and Magneto had given him exactly what he needed.
"Before I leave, I think you should see exactly what sort of future you've really created," said Glen. Before Magneto could do anything, Glen stretched out his hand toward Magneto's computer. A beam of energy sprung from his fingertips and engulfed the computer. Magneto looked on in horror as his machine aged decades in a matter of seconds. When the beam faded, it was covered with rust and completely useless.
"No!" shouted Magneto. He pounded on the computer in frustration and knocked a large, rusted out piece of it off. It fell on the floor with a loud clatter.
"That's not all I can do," said Glen, and pointed his hand towards Magneto.
Magneto raised his own fist and a loud hum filled the room as every metallic object that wasn't firmly bolted down rose off the floor and hovered above him.
Glen shot an aging beam at Magneto, but the mutant cast one of the metal objects into the path of the beam. Again Glen fired, and again Magneto deflected the bolt. Before Glen could shoot another bolt, Magneto waved his hand and sent several objects flying at Glen.
Glen dodged them, phasing in and out of time as Magneto hurled debris in his direction.
"Looks like I'm too fast for you!" he said defiantly.
"Perhaps," said Magneto cunningly, waving his hand again to launch another attack. Glen dodged the debris, but Magneto had another plan. A thin metal pipe burst out of the floor just as Glen reappeared from phasing and shot directly at him. Glen was unable to phase out again, and he screamed in pain as the pipe impaled his arm, pinning him against the wall like a bug in a collection.
"Perhaps not," Magneto said, laughing cruelly. He lifted off the floor and began to float towards Glen to finish him off.
Glen looked at the pipe sticking out of his arm. He grabbed the pipe, determined not to die like some insect, and pulled it out of his arm, fighting through the pain. He touched a finger to the hole in his arm and created a temporal bubble around the gaping wound, effectively cauterizing the flow of blood.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Mystique walk into the room. Excellent, he thought. This would soon be over.
"Mystique, activate the dampening field," he said.
Mystique said nothing, but walked over to the dampening field control panel. She began pressing buttons, inputting a new series of commands for the machine.
Magneto did not recognize the commands Mystique was inputting, but he knew that something was not right. "Mystique, what are you doing?" he asked.
"Something I should have done a long time ago," she said in a voice of pure rage, and activated the dampening field.
The field popped up, but this time it had a red glow to it instead of its prior pink hue. "Mystique!" Magneto snarled as he realized what she had done. A moment later, he dropped to the floor as the reconfigured dampening field began to sap away his own powers. There was a deafening crash as the metal that Magneto had been using as ammunition came tumbling to the floor.
Mystique glared down at Magneto. "He's all yours," she said to Glen.
"Glen, please," Magneto said. "Listen to me, I only wanted,"
"Shut up!" Glen yelled fiercely, letting loose all the hatred he felt for the mutant lying before him. "You think you can just control people's lives and use them like chess pieces. You think you can kill my boyfriend like he was an insect. Now you're going to see what it's like to be the helpless victim for a change!" He raised his arm and fired, blinded by rage.
The bolt enveloped Magneto, just as it had done to the computer. In seconds, Magneto had been reduced to a shriveled old man, the effects of his longevity treatments gone.
Mystique walked over to him. "I've always wanted to see you like this, lying there totally helpless. How does it feel to have somebody else plotting the development of YOUR life, Magnus?" she asked angrily.
"Mystique," he croaked, reaching desperately for her.
Mystique curled her lip in disgust and launched a kick straight at Magneto's head. It connected and Magneto crumpled to the floor unconscious. She spat on him, a final gesture of hatred.
"Thanks," Glen said. "But why turn on him now? I thought this was what you were after,"
"It was," Mystique said. "But not like this, not at this price. I may hate Xavier, but I don't want you to suffer what I did,"
"What do you mean?"
"You're not the only one who's lost somebody they loved because of that thing," she said, gesturing at the unconscious mutant stretched out on the floor.
"Now, it's time for you to go," she said. She pulled a device from her belt and tossed it into the Cauldron. "Once that thing goes off, it'll destroy that thing and put you back to normal," she said. "I don't think you'll want to be anywhere nearby when that happens, though,"
"What about you? And him, for that matter?" Glen asked.
"Don't worry about me," she said. "I have plans of my own, but rest assured they don't involve any of you. As for Magneto, even if he does survive, I don't think he'll be a threat to anybody for a long time. Go out that door and follow the corridor. You'll find an exit. Go now!"
Glen didn't need any further prompting. He walked out the door and after a few minutes was standing outside.
He looked around and could see nothing but water on all sides. He was out in the middle of the ocean! How much longer before that thing went off, anyway?
A second later, he heard a whining of an engine. He looked up to see the X- Jet hovering overhead, its ramp extending. He saw Scott standing at the top along with Jean and Xavier. "Get in!" the mutant shouted.
Glen jumped onto the ramp and the X-Jet took off. Behind them, a silver sphere rose into the sky and flew away in the other direction. A moment later, Magneto's base exploded in a massive fireball.
The mutants watched out the window as fire and debris shot up into the sky.
"I guess that's that," said Kurt.
"What about Magneto?" Jean asked Glen. "Was he in there?"
Glen was silent. He honestly didn't know if Magneto had gotten out. He had his own desires for the mutant's fate, but did not speak them. Finally he looked at Jean and said, "No, he made it out,"
"Figures," said Scott. "At least he won't be taking over the world today,"
Glen kept silent. He didn't feel like revealing exactly what he had done to Magneto.
"Hey, shouldn't you have changed back by now?" Scott asked Glen. Now that the Cauldron had had been destroyed, Glen should have reverted back to his normal form, just as Scott had immediately after destroying the first Cauldron on Asteroid M.
"What?" Glen replied nervously, and looked at his reflection in the window. He gasped to see that he was still in his older, taller body, and that his hair was still silver.
"What's happening?" he said as his jaw dropped. "Mystique said I'd go back to normal once that thing blew up!"
"Magneto may have changed the machine to make its enhancements permanent. We can do some tests on you once we get back to the Institute," Xavier said. "Hopefully, we can find a way to get you back to the way you used to be,"
"I hope so," Glen said, suddenly very much less enthusiastic than he had been just a few moments ago.