Marvel Comics #1000 Addendum
Disclaimer: All characters belong to their owners, this is just for fun.
Chapter 2: Mourning
Cheyenne, Wyoming
A pair of candles were lit on the fireplace. The candles stood to the side of a portrait. The portrait, in a plain brown wooden frame, depicted a smiling young woman with scaly purple skin and copper-colored shiny hair.
Roger Eggers blew out the wick he used to light the candles and sighed sadly. This time of year was always rough for him. The passage of time eased the pain slightly, but this time of year always seemed to remind him that there was a hole in his family that would never be truly filled again. He ran a hand through his graying brown hair as memories started replaying in his head.
"Oh, Gina..." He sighed sadly. "I wish you were still here, kiddo."
"Can't believe how many years its been." A dark-haired woman said as she hugged Roger. Yvette Eggers looked up at the portrait. "Our little Gina..."
"And all we could do was watch those robots tear Genosha apart." Roger said. "I was so scared when she said she wanted to move there..."
"Can't blame her, dear." Yvette reminded. "After all she had endured here, a place for mutants? Who wouldn't have leapt at that?" Roger found anger welling up in his heart. The world saw Gina as a monster, a threat to humanity. But to him and Yvette, she was none of that. She was their daughter, the purple-scaled little girl who wanted to be a veterinarian and loved reading. She didn't even have any superpowers!
"It was because of people like those damned Helmsleys that Gina left for that island." Roger scowled. "They always gave our little girl hell." He thought back to when he first encountered a member of the well-to-do family after a ceremony the Eggers family held. They weren't able to get her body back from Genosha. He remembered the smug look on Trevor Helmsley's surgically-enhanced face, how he mocked the girl's memory...and how the man's nose would need some more surgery after that.
"She loved us, Roger." Yvette reminded. "She felt that she'd find a place there. Among her fellow mutants."
"I was always worried about her on that island. And yet...she sounded so happy when they last spoke."
"She found that vet job she always wanted." Yvette smiled with sad fondness.
"That island scared me. Ran by that madman Magneto...I feared something like that would happen. I just...I wish I could have saved her."
"We both do, honey." Yvette told him. She showed him a tablet. "Jerry's on the horn." Roger smiled sadly and took the tablet.
"Hey, dad." A young brown-haired man smiled. "How you and mom doing?"
"Doing fine, thanks." Roger glanced at the portrait of Gina. "How's Alice and little Kayla?"
"Doing well, dad." Jerry Eggers answered. "I wish Tom was able to call us today."
"I'm sure he sends his regards, son. His work in Antarctica and all that. Hey, you heard that Melissa is pregnant?"
Jerry lit up. "Yeah! I'm going to be an uncle!"
"Gina would've loved being an aunt." Yvette smiled.
"Yeah, she would have." Roger agreed. "She would have spoiled Alice and Kayla rotten."
"How you guys holding up?" Jerry asked.
"We're alright." Yvette answered. "Still hurts a bit. Why did this happen?"
"I don't know." Jerry sighed. "I really don't. I get why she went to Genosha, though. If I had a nickel for every time I had to defend her from punks around town. She never felt welcome around here."
"People never understood." Roger sighed. The Eggers had to deal with a lot thanks to having a mutant daughter. But they never blamed or resented her. Her being a mutant wasn't her fault. She had no more choice in the matter than any one else did over what was in their genetic code. "But some good did come of it." He smiled. "Telling Gina's story."
"Speaking about her has done us a lot of good." Yvette agreed. In the years since Gina's death, the Eggers family spoke out about their daughter. They told her tale, far and wide, to anyone who would hear it. People from all walks of life, from postmen to politicians, all got to hear about the little purple-scared copper-haired girl who only wanted to be seen as a regular person. "Maybe that's what will help change things."
"Maybe." Roger noted. He smiled at the picture of Gina. "Maybe one day, little girls like Gina will get to grow up feeling accepted in their hometowns thanks to her. The power of a story..."
2001 – Genosha's 16 million mutant inhabitants are wiped out by Cassandra Nova's Sentinels in New X-Men #115.