The four Genetex soldiers stood guard around the jet. They did not speak to one another, nor did they at any time lower their guns or their guard. They were impassive, professional. They were the best soldiers that money could buy.
They were also totally unprepared for the sudden attack that came next.

A bolt of lightning shot out of the dark, snow-bearing clouds in the sky. It struck one soldier full in the chest, knocking him unconscious. His neighbor was suddenly thrown backwards by a gale-force wind that picked up out of nowhere and was slammed into the body of the plane.
While the other two guards were still recovering from their shock, a young man wearing strange white armour leaped out into the clearing and sprinted toward them. The soldiers fired their dart guns, but the relatively low- velocity darts merely deflected of the young man's bony hide. Behind them, three more figures ran out of the trees; one large, blue and ape-like, one small, blue and demonic, and one fierce-looking red wolf. Demoralized, the soldiers turned to retreat, only to have their escape blocked by a wall of fire that shot up out of the snow. The attacking figures converged on the soldiers, and within seconds had rendered their opponents unconscious.
"Cool," commented Evan.

From the treeline, Ororo, Amara and Jamie stepped into the clearing. As the others watched, Jamie wandered over, picked up a dart gun from one of the fallen soldiers, held it in one hand, and used the other hand to slap himself firmly in the chest. Immediately, two more Jamies appeared, wearing identical clothing and wielding identical guns.
"Ja," agreed Kurt. "Cool." He glanced sideways at Evan, checking he'd said it right.
Evan grinned to show he had.

----

Ten minutes later, another assault took place. This one was at the Institute itself, some five hundred meters from the jet. This time, there were no ambushes, no charges from two sides, no bizarre weather phenomenae. Instead, there was a hail of dozens upon dozens of tranquilizer darts fired from the trees, behind banks of snow and parked vehicles, from every available hiding place. What the shooter seemed to lack in skill and aim, he more than made up for in enthusiasm and force of numbers; all six soldiers standing guard outside the mansion were struck numerous times and collapsed without a sound. Therefore, after Jamie had rejoined with his multiples, the small band entered the mansion without being seen by anyone.
The X-Men were taking back their home.
Moving through the mansion faster and more silently than the Genetex soldiers had earlier, Evan, Hank, Rahne and Jamie swiftly dealt with the remaining soldiers inside the Institute and began to revive the prisoners. With Ororo and Amara leading the way and Kurt following, the remaining trio made their way to Professor Xavier's private study.

Inside the room, Baine and the remaining three guards waited with Charles. Everyone except Charles was blissfully unaware of the drama taking place in the rest of the building, and none more so than Baine himself.
"... and if Trinity doesn't find 4127 out there, Xavier, I warn you that I will have to act. There is only so much that I can tolerate from you and your students –" Baine glowered at his captive "– and if you have lied to me, then your dear pupil Scott will be the first to die!"
Charles did not flinch. "Is that so?"
"Yes, it is!" Baine was becoming furious at his inability to intimidate this man, and the strain was showing in his voice. "Understand me, Xavier! I have come here to find 4127 and I WANT HIM HERE RIGHT NOW!!!"
Suddenly, Charles' face broke into a benign smile. "Well now, Francis, you know what they say; Be careful what you wish for..."
As Charles paused, the door exploded open and three very irate-looking mutants bounded in.
"... because it just might come true."
As Ororo and Amara dealt with the three very frightened-looking guards, Kurt snarled viciously at Baine and pounced. The force of his leap was so powerful that it sent both of them smashing through a nearby window and sprawling into the snow outside.

----

Trinity was angry. Well, he was almost always angry, but now he was furious. The demon was not where the chair-man had said. The chair-man had lied. Trinity wanted to kill something, anything, but there had been nothing to kill. Instead, he had swiftly flown back to the big house where Master and chair-man waited. He could, after all, find something to kill there.

From two hundred feet up, he could clearly see the big house. As he watched, two figures fell out of the side and into the snow.
One was the demon. The other was Master. The demon was killing Master.
The sea of hatred and fury that was Trinity's ravaged mind, now augmented by frustration, boiled over. The demon had to die or Master would be killed.
With an incoherent war-cry, Trinity fell into a steep dive and dropped, screaming madly, toward the demon.

----

Hearing Trinity's scream, Kurt dove aside at the last possible second. Trinity landed heavily on all fours but rounded swiftly for someone with such huge bulk and roared at Kurt.
All of a sudden, in his mind's eye, Kurt saw a similar scene again...

It was twilight, and it was raining. The mob had been chasing Kurt and Stefan; Jimaine was already dead. Out of desperation, Kurt had teleported with Stefan to a place almost two miles away that they had gone together sometimes when they were younger. The effect had knocked them both unconscious, but now Kurt was waking up. Someone was fighting nearby.
Struggling into a sitting position, he looked over to the edge of the cliff. He was just in time to see Trinity lift Stefan off the ground, viciously snap his neck, and hurl the lifeless body over the edge of the abyss.
"NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!"
At the sound of Kurt's scream, Trinity turned toward the prone mutant. Almost in response to Kurt's cry, Trinity let loose a brutal roar of triumph. The enormous mutant began to lumber toward Kurt, snarling as he came.

With an almost audible click, the warrior instincts ingrained in his mind from his formal Genetex combat training snapped into place. Whipping his weapons out of their respective sheaths, Kurt hurled himself toward his longtime nemesis. Dodging a sledgehammer blow from one of Trinity's massive fists, Kurt ducked in close and rammed his knife into Trinity's thigh, slashed his sword across the huge monster's belly, and rolled out of the way of a powerful swing from Trinity's other hand. Trinity was strong, he was big, and he was lethal when he got the chance, but he never came close to hitting Kurt in that first swift exchange. The smaller mutant was simply too fast, a speed that was tempered by Kurt's cold anger.
Falling back now, Kurt goaded the bigger mutant into a charge, and leaped high when Trinity was almost upon him. Reversing the grip on his blades, Kurt landed on Trinity's back and stabbed one blade deep into each shoulder, kicked Trinity in the back of the head, and flipped away: rather, he tried to flip away. Just as he left his perch, one of Trinity's wings shot up and knocked Kurt off balance. Trinity spun and sent Kurt flying with a backhand slap, then thundered after him. Kurt landed badly, hurting one shoulder, but didn't let the pain show. Instead he hurled his knife at Trinity; the spinning blade pegged into the center of Trinity's midriff, causing him to double up with the sudden pain. Kurt swiftly rose and circled around to Trinity's left side, advancing once more. He never bothered to look at Baine as he did so.
This was his biggest mistake so far.

Baine regretted the knowledge of what he had to do; he'd so wanted to capture 4127 alive, but it was becoming obvious that Trinity had met his match. With his entire strike team out of action, Baine needed Trinity's support to get out of the area alive. After all, when push came to shove, a loyal Trinity was infinitely better than a murderous 4127.
Baine reached into his coat, removed a powerful-looking handgun, and fired it into Kurt's back. The blue mutant stumbled, dropped his blade, and pitched face-down into the snow. Trinity roared in triumph, lumbered over, picked up Kurt's limp form and hurled him twenty feet. Kurt let out a groan of agony as he landed, but wasn't able get to his feet before Trinity reached him once more.

Trinity leaned over Kurt's immobile form and looked into his adversary's eyes. This, Kurt told himself, is the end. Now you are going to die.
Unable to speak the words, he recited them in his head, hoping that would be enough for God to hear him.
Our father, who art in heaven. Hallowed be thy name! Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven...
As Trinity raised his massive claw for the final blow, Kurt closed his eyes. Seconds later, hot blood splashed against his face and chest. Odd, Kurt thought. That didn't hurt...
Kurt opened his eyes again and saw immediately why he hadn't been hurt. Trinity hadn't even hit him, and the blood that covered his face wasn't even his.

Trinity rose unsteadily and, with one hand, poked at Kurt's sword. The long blade was sticking out the front of his chest, the hilt pressing against his wings on his back.
He had been run through.
Trinity turned around slowly. There, behind him, stood the one who'd stabbed the blade through Trinity's chest.
"Leave him alone, you... you... you big ASSHOLE!" shouted Jamie Mardox. He scampered away, hoping he'd done enough. Trinity lumbered after the boy, moving slower than before but lethal nonetheless. In a few massive strides, Trinity had reached Jamie. He knocked the young mutant to his feet and raised his claws for the killing blow.

The killing blow, however, stopped before it connected. Trinity roared in frustration at the sudden inability to move his arms and swung his massive head back and forth, seeking the cause of this new frustration. He saw it immediately; a red-haired girl was standing near the large building, pointing at him. As she waved her hands, Trinity felt himself being pushed back. Snarling with his mindless fury, he fought her control, forcing his enormous muscles to move despite the telekinetic restraints on him. With considerable effort, he managed to drop to one knee and raise his claws above his head. He focused the energy he'd rarely had to use, drawing it into his hands.
Size and strength were not the only experimental enhancements that Baine had given him. Not by a long shot.
The instant Trinity slammed his fists into the frozen earth, a seismic shockwave rippled out and threw Jean from her feet, incidentally blowing out all of the windows on the eastern side of the Institute. The invisible bonds restricting his movement lifted, and Trinity staggered to his feet, Kurt's sword and dagger still impaled in his chest and midriff. There were still foes standing; Master was not yet safe.
Trinity still had work to do.

Around the side of the mansion, the still-groggy students gaped at the sight. Hank, Rahne and Evan had revived them with a muscle stimulant Hank kept in the hospital wing, and had led them around to where there was evidently a fight going on. Jean had, apparently, received a summons from the Professor, and run on ahead. Now Hank, Evan, Jubilee, Bobby, Kitty, Rogue and Rahne gaped at their first sight of Trinity as he rose to his feet. Suddenly Bobby's mind clicked into action. Seeing Ororo off to one side, he raced toward Trinity, shouting.
"Ms. Monroe! Help me out, here!"
Not really understanding what Bobby had planned, Ororo ran after him. "Bobby! What are you doing?"
"This!" Bobby focused his energy on the behemoth standing twelve feet in front of him.
Stalagmites of ice suddenly shot up around Trinity's form, expanding and engulfing the enormous mutant's arms and legs. Trinity, stunned, did not react for an instant, but then he roared yet again and flexed his unnaturally large muscled. Large cracks began to appear in the icy bonds, and Bobby yelled out again.
"Ms. Monroe? Little help, please!"
Ororo shook her head, but quickly understood and concentrated her powers. A moment later, a whirlwind of ice and snow engulfed Trinity's form. Bobby began his efforts with renewed vigor, adding to the frozen tempest. Inside the miniature blizzard, Trinity's form could be seen writhing madly as he snarled and roared with rage. In a few moments, the roaring stopped. Shortly thereafter, so did all movement. When the freezing winds had stopped too, all that remained where Trinity had stood was a pale blue column of ice. Amara strode up to this clear, icy pillar, and stared into it. In the depths of the ice, she felt herself being observed; Trinity, unable to move, simply watched her, his presence betrayed by the faint red glow of his eyes. Amara huffed and turned to leave.

THRMMMMMM.

The ground seemed to quiver; Trinity's frozen prison definitely did.

THRMMMMMM. THRMMMMM.

The ground was definitely shaking now; those still standing lost their balance as one and fell into the snow.

THRMMMMMM.

"Seismic waves!" shouted Hank over the din. "He's destroying the ice!"

THRMMMMMM.

Indeed, flakes of ice were falling to the ground. Large cracks were beginning to appear in the frozen column.

THRMMMMMM. THRMMMMM. THRMMMMM.

A particularly large chunk of ice fell from the structure, revealing one side of Trinity's face. As he caught sight of Amara, trying to regain her feet, the malevolent red glow in his eyes seemed to flare brighter. In response, Amara narrowed her own and began to focus her energy.
Game over.

Moments later, an enormous fireball slammed into the bizarre frozen structure. There was a deafening explosion and a sound as though the very earth had cracked. Shards of ice flew everywhere. When the conflagration had died down, Amara stepped away from the smoking crater.
Trinity was no more.

----

Twenty feet away, Baine gaped at the defeat of his champion.
This was impossible.
No, he realized, it wasn't. It had happened. Now, what was he going to do?
Think, Francis.
Alright. He was alone in a strange place. He had no way to get to his plane, and anyway couldn't fly the damn thing in the blizzard which was threatening to start anew. He was surrounded by hostile mutants who wanted to kill him, and was armed with a single gun that contained two – he checked it, yes, two – bullets.

Even as he contemplated his next move, the mutants began to advance on him. Desperately he looked around, searching for a way out.
There was none.

As they neared him, he glanced over toward where Kurt lay. The blue mutant wasn't moving, a fact that did not altogether surprise Baine, considering the damage he'd taken on. In spite of himself, Baine smiled grimly at that. The boy had once said to him that he'd prefer to die than do what Baine wanted him to do.

It seemed that he'd gotten his wish.

"You win, boy," he muttered. "You win."

For one last time, he glanced around him. The other mutants were close now, very close. He didn't expect mercy from them; indeed, considering the situation, he could expect no less than a painful death.

That, at least, he could prevent. If nothing else, he was the master of his own life.

And with that final sentiment, Dr. Francis Baine, head researcher of the Genetex Laboratories, reversed the barrel of his gun, aimed it up under his chin, and pulled the trigger.

His final thought was a vague hope that there was indeed no such thing as an afterlife.

----

Kurt coughed harshly as the gun fired. These people had saved him. The deaths of his family had been avenged, thanks to the efforts of the people who lived in this place so near to the mountains he'd come to call his home. Grunting with pain and effort, he got to his feet. Staggering more than a little, he painfully made his way over to Jamie's side and helped the boy up. Holding on to one another for support, they made their way across to the others. Immediately, the members of the institute began babbling at Kurt, who naturally could not understand a word they said. Eventually, Evan managed to break into the one-sided conversation.
"Guys? He doesn't speak English. Remember? The Professor told us?"
Rogue made an 'Ah,' sound. "So how do we talk to him?" she asked.
Amara called out from a short distance away. "That would be where my presence is needed," she informed the haggard-looking Goth. Making her way over to them, she listened as Kurt managed a few short sentences and translated to the others.
"Thank you, I'm sorry, I hope no-one was hurt," she informed them. Kitty blinked.
"Uh, like, no problem," she offered. "It was, like, nothing..."
Kurt managed a weak smile at Amara's translation before his knees buckled under him and he fainted where he stood. Hank stooped and managed to catch him before he hit the ground.