AN: Ashley's opinions are not necessarily those of the author... Also, just to make it clear, there's been a brief time skip since the last chapter.

Snuggles The Symbiote

I was sitting on a bench, in between a very muscular but also very short man wearing a costume similar to what Wolverine had been wearing (I've been lead to believe that this man is also Wolverine and that he's the other Wolverine's father,) and a handsome blonde man with fluffy white-feathered wings.

This bench was located a the very edge of a room that was in a lighthouse in Cornwall. This lighthouse, it seemed, was made of soil and still living plant and fungal matter from an island where pretty much the entire biosphere was one continuous sapient organism, even when they were miles and miles away from the main body. So, in a way, I was kind of inside a living island's appendix or something.

In the middle of the room was an altar and upon the altar was an ornate chalice big enough that a baby could nap in it holding some kind of steaming hot liquid.

"My coven," the old, ancient mutant on one side of the altar said with arms raised, addressing the number of eccentrically dressed men and women who lined the walls, "this evening we are assembled for a most momentous occasion: The formal joining of the first true Initiate into our ranks. This child desires to learn the Magos Superior. Child, what are the names you have been given?"

"Ashley Tan-Shin," Ashley said confidently from her position opposite the giant greyish-blue man.

"And why were you given those names?"

"My father liked the name Ashley, and my mother's father's name was Tanshin. She added a hyphen to change the emphasis on the pronunciation to one she thought sounded better with Ashley."

Ashley's allegedly formally evil ancestor hemmed. "As good a reason to bestow those names as any. Now, allow us to explore the meanings of those names: Ashley, an English name which 'meadow of ash trees,' a name that speaks of the natural world. Tell me, my descendant, does the freedom of the natural world, a lung full of fresh air and the song of rustling leaves and chirping birds, call to you?"

"Yes."

"Tanshin as a name," the ancient man with an apparent universal understanding of all languages began, "is written with characters that mean 'red heart.' However, variations of Tan and Shin, with various meanings, are used as surnames and given names throughout East-Asia. In honoring her father, your mother also bestowed on you a name that represents both sides of your heritage. Furthermore," he continued, "in her native Japan, Tanshin can also be written to mean diligence, fidelity, faithfulness, and sincerity. I've seen first hand that you are sincere, but are you diligent? Loyal? Do you have faith? Can others have faith in you?"

Ashley hesitated this time. "Yes."

"And in altering the name to suit its new circumstances, be it her intention or not, your mother has shown that you have a willingness to adapt and evolve, something you have done much of and which you intend to do a great deal more. Mutant, what is your inherited name?"

"O'Leary."

"From O'Laoghaire, meaning 'descendant of the keeper of the calves,' referring to King Laoghaire mac Néill, of Ireland, the 'King of the Sea' who launched raids across England and mainland Europe from his sea-side fortress. While now a common name, your paternal ancestors were once Noble Lords who, in addition to their namesake also trace their ancestry to back to Lugaid Mac Con, High King of Ireland. However diluted it might be, the blood of old kings flows in your veins, flesh of my flesh. As a scion of fallen nobility, though you have thousands of named kin-folk and millions more who do not share your exact name, know that your name speaks strongly to your Gaelic heritage."

"And as you are descendant of the Gaels, so too are you descendant of the Cimmerians." Apparently, in Ashley's universe Conan the Barbarian is considered historical fiction, "And through them the original inhabitants of a pre-sunken Atlantis. Your bloodline is one of a people who hail from a lineage of strong warriors who were ancient when I was young. Blood of Kings and Warriors, your name is of one who is destined to do great deeds should they so choose. Do you wish to do great deeds?"

"Yes."

"What is the name you have chosen for yourself?"

"Cuddlebug."

"A name that speaks of love, kindness, and affection. The need for beings to come together and share warmth and comfort. Once upon a time, I would scoff at such things, but now I know of the strength that comes from people coming together."

"I know now what I need know, and bestow upon you a new name. A sorcerer's name. Blood of my blood, I name you..." and then there was something that I couldn't even begin to comprehend, let alone pronounce or spell.

Presumably, it was Krakoan, the artificial language that the mutants created for themselves, but...

"He's calling her 'Good News,'" the handsome man opposite of me from Wolverine translated for me, "though if I had to hazard a guess, based on his normal naming scheme he means 'Evangelion.' "

"Now, child, within this chalice is an infusion of the herbs and fungi of Krakoa boiled in the purified water of its streams, blended with the juices of its native fruits and vegetation and made sweet with the nectar of its native flowers. Drink deeply from the chalice and take the essence of your new homeland into yourself so that you may carry it with you wherever your travels take you."

Ashley lifted the massive cup with an ease that would be unexpected of someone of her height and proceeded to chug the damn thing until she slammed the now empty chalice back onto the alter.

"Welcome to the coven, Acolyte," Apocalypse finished.

"So where did the blood come from," Ashley asked suddenly and suspiciously. I cursed under my breath, I knew this was a bad idea.

"It was synthesized from our archives of mutant DNA. Forgive the deception, but I believed that you would be unwilling to participate in the initiation ritual if it involved taking in the essence of the other members of our Coven in addition to that of Krakoa."

"Look," Ashley said bitterly, "I'm already on the fence about this crap. Trick me again and... I swear by Thor's Glorious Golden Locks there won't be enough of you left to come back. You just tricked someone who gets powers from absorbing DNA into taking in the genes of two of the most powerful psychics in the world, a lunatic that can bend reality in his line of sight, two different people who blow crap up real good, a guy who makes earthquakes, and a woman who can kill with a touch. That's a really dangerous mistake to make with someone who hates you and already has every power you've got and a dozen more besides and... No, don't start adapting to it yet," Ashley suddenly changed gears, clearly taking to her symbiote, "those powers could all be super dangerous. I wanna save it for if we need it or at least until we know it's... Okay, I guess the telepathic resistance is okay, we've got a lot of that already but I guess you can never have too much that... Huh, that's from their power sets? Weird. Anyway, you might have just made a very serious mistake," she finished.

"And she still wants to be stronger," Wolverine muttered. "She's more like Bluelips than I'm guessin' she wants to admit."

"I heard that!" Ashley shouted.

"Child," Apocalypse began, "the Magos Superior bypasses the need for debt, submission to higher powers, and equivalent exchange that limit most mortal magics in part by drawing upon the strength of the community and the bond between the members of the coven. As you don't intend to remain upon Krakoa, if you have any intent to use Mutant Sorcery you need some sort of bond with the others. I composed an initiation rite with that in mind."

"Do you have any idea how culty that sounds!?"

"Count yourself fortunate: I did research into modern initiation rituals and I weep for the state of Academia if that is what the honored fraternities of the human universities do with their time."

Ashley continued to argue with her massive and ridiculously overpowered ancestor, drawing in some other members of the 'Coven,' few of whom seemed particularly sorcerer-like truth be told, but after a few minutes, I became certain that it wasn't going to erupt into violence and relaxed for a few moments.

"So tell me how this happened again?" the short man next to me asked.

"We were on the beach on Arcade's island after being rescued, waiting for the self destruct to be disabled and for a way off that everyone could use to be established, Ashley was pacing back and forth mumbling about how you people could possibly be working with Apocalypse, I confronted her about why she insisted that she needed to be stronger and that she was taking too many of those codex-things and it seemed to be messing with her. He," I gestured to the giant of a man, "made a comment about how obviously the problem was that she was too dependant on her symbiote so the strength didn't seem like it was really hers and that's why she constantly felt she needed more, she attacked him, they fought for a few minutes, then he offered to teach her sorcery and she extorted him into giving me and our teammates permanent invitations to Krakoa if he wanted to teach her so badly since she could easily just go on collecting Codices to get the strength she needs so he had to make training under him worth her time and effort. I don't know why he agreed."

If my life was a novel, it'd probably have gotten skipped over and recapped later due to the relative difficulty of writing it in a way that seemed believable because honestly, I was still confused about what happened and how it happened and I was there.

Grace had accepted hers and was now talking science with Dr. McCoy on the main Island, saying something about wanting to share what she's learned doing what she did with people who might be able to use it for good as part of her penance, but the others had taken a rain check: Dean and Missy had elected to go home early and Lisa was furthering her training under Doctor Strange.

"And I insisted on at least two supervisors who werren't part of the coven and didn't trust Apocalypse and I guess that's where you and, uh... I'm sorry, I didn't catch your name?" I said to the other man.

"Warren Worthington," the handsome blonde man with the wings said. "Call me Angel. And yes, that was a very wise thing to demand: I once accepted help from Apocalypse at a time when I desperately needed help from anyone and I'm still suffering the consequences."

"Should I even ask?" I said somewhat hesitantly.

In response, Angel spread a wing and pushed it forward so I could see it and before my very eyes, each feather from the tip slowly transformed from something soft and fluffy-white and beautiful to something sharp and metallic and very, very deadly looking. "These are the true forms of my wings now. My wings were carved off by a bigot and the shock drove me into a state of depression. Apocalypse came to me, before I knew who he was, and offered to help me get my wings back. Instead, he grafted onto me a pair of prosthetics adapted from his strain of the Techn-Organic Virus and then brainwashed me into serving as his soldier." Angel's gazes shifted as he spoke, as though he was starring at something a thousand yards away. "I was freed, eventually, and I discovered that I possessed a healing factor that eventually restored my flesh and blood wings, but the psychological damage is something I struggle with regularly and the viral nature of the prosthetics infected me and permanently altered my body."

"I do not have a response for that."

"So, you're basically her guardian while she's here," Wolverine said. "You could have shut this down before it got started."

"...I don't know how to say 'no' to her," I admitted. "And... I'm worried. Ashley's been impulsive and willing to speak her mind for as long as I've known her but lately, she's been getting a lot more aggressive and shortly after she violently stole the symbiote codices out of that Scorpion guy's back she said 'God is coming' and she doesn't believe she said it. I... I'm not happy about this, but... Good people use magic, right? And it doesn't make you crazy? If this gives her what she wants without taking more codices... If nothing else, if this doesn't work out it might get her away from those things for a while and her head might clear up... Buy me time to figure out how to put my foot down without upsetting her and making her..."

"Speaking as someone who has served as a father or older brother to a lot of girls and young women," Wolverine said, "you're gonna fight, it's just how families are. Trying to avoid it is just gonna make it worse when it finally does happen. Sometimes it's better to just rip the bandage off and get it over with."

"Maybe you're right, but..."

"You've gotta remember that what she needs and what she wants aren't always the same thing, and sometimes you can't give her what she needs. If you can't give it to her, find someone who can: The Truth is," Wolverine continued, "I wasn't much of a father to my daughter until she was an adult. I couldn't give her the stability she needed, so I left her with people who could and gave her what I could when I could. 'Sfar as I can tell, you're doing better than I am in that regard, that's something."

I laughed awkwardly. "So you're saying that... Where did that baby come from!?"

My train of thought was derailed when I noticed that the argument was over and now Ashley was playing with a baby who I'm pretty sure wasn't in this room a little bit ago.

"That's Shogo," Wolverine said. "He's Jubilee's kid."

"No," Ashley said to the baby, "the world's greatest hero is Spider-Man. Say it with me, Spi~i—"

"No!" The baby shouted in the way that babies did. "Momma."

"Look," Ashley said, "I don't wanna say bad things about your mommy but she's mostly just known for being one of Wolverine's sidekicks and—" Shogo interrupted Ashley by bopping her on the face. "You've made a powerful enemy today, baby," she said with a glare.

"Shogo."

"Fine. You've made a powerful enemy today Shogo."

There was nothing for it, I had to laugh. Hopefully, this would set the mood instead of the stuff that came before it.

Snuggles The Symbiote

I spent part of the next morning on the moon looking down at the Earth through a massive window. The only word I could use to describe it was...

"Humbling, is it not?" Apocalypse asked. "From this vantage, even the greatest of us appear to be utterly insignificant. And yet, also empowering, child? To know that you are part of a people whose reach extends far beyond their planet of origin? Every solid planet and many of the moons in this system are home to a Krakoa Habitat if not an entire facility. We even possess an Embassy on Chandilar, Throneworld of the Shi'ar Empire countless stars away."

"...The people who've repeatedly invaded the earth and committed at least one genocide of a human bloodline because of their irrational fear of the Phoenix Force?" Ashley asked incredulously. "How is having diplomatic relationships with them something to be proud of?"

"It's less that we have diplomatic ties to them and more that the current Empress is Chuck's kid," Wolverine snarked.

"So... Nepotism?" Ashley asked.

"Pretty much," the short man said, "now, I might live here but this habitat is called the Summers House for a reason. House might be empty right now, but Summers wants us out before Vulcan gets back from those classes on managing his pyromania." I wasn't even going to ask. "So I'm gonna grab a Pabst out the fridge and then we need to get to the next part of the tour."

"Seriously?" I asked with a raised eyebrow, "you're gonna drink in front of a little kid?" I said with a gesture to Ashley.

"I never claimed to be a role model," he deadpanned, " 'sides, with my healing factor, it might as well be water."

"...If you're not getting anything out of the alcohol then why drink at all," Ashley asked.

"I like the taste."

This prompted Ashley to turn and glare childishly at me. "And you think I'm weird for liking anchovies on pizza."

"Look what you started," I finished with a more serious glare at the short hairy man.

"Fine," the man grumbled and we left back for Earth through the portal, with Ashley holding my hand because apparently, that's the only way a 'human' like me can head through.

I had to admit that the island was very beautiful once you got past the fact that it was alive and presumably aware of every step I was taking on it. I took a moment to admire the strange trees and flowers as we walked to our next destination.

"So, uh," Ashley began awkwardly, "Mister Wolverine... You live in the moon habitat, yeah?"

"Yeah."

"And Cyclops lives in the moon habitat."

"It's his house, technically."

"And Jean Grey lives there, too."

"Yes, she does."

"...How's that working out?"

"What?"

"I mean, everyone knows that part of the reason you and Cyclops never got along was becuase you both liked Jean," Ashley said matter of factly, "so... How's that working out now?"

"I am not having this conversation with a ten-year-old." Wolverine didn't look old enough to be a grumpy old man, but with that tone, I could easily picture him telling a kid to get his ball from the yard and then get the hell out.

"Come on, it's not like I'm asking about gross adult stuff," Ashley insisted.

"Why do you even want to know?"

"Becuase I ship Summers-Grey and I want to know if one of my OTPs is IRL canon again or if they're still split up," Ashley said with a degree of seriousness that was completely inappropriate for the ridiculous thing she'd just said. "Now please answer the question."

"It's complicated," Wolverine said with complete finality.

"That's not an answer," Ashley whined.

"It's the only answer you're getting."

Both Angel and Apocalypse remained silent during the exchange. Angel seemed quiet in general

Ashley pouted the rest of the way to our destination.

We arrived in some kind of cavern with a massive tree in the center, with these weird golden pods stored in its roots. There were six other people here. Off to the side was a woman wearing a strange helmet while five people—A heavyset man of some kind of Hispanic descent, a man whose skin appeared to be solid gold, a woman with red hair, a man with black and white hair, and what appeared to be a glowing naked purple man who was alight with purple fire—were tinkering around with another pod.

"This is the heart and soul of Krakoa as a nation," Apocalypse explained. "The Arbor Magna: Here, The Five work diligently to ensure that all of mutant-kind has the benefit of immortality. Egg, formally Goldballs, produces an inert biological vessel that is transfused with the genetic information of a deceased mutant. The vessel is then brought to life by the reality-bending powers of Proteus," the purple man touched the pod, "Elixir manipulates the now living egg to produce a body based on the genetic material it is fused with: An exact duplicate of the deceased mutant's body at either just before the moment of death or in their physical prime, whichever is preferable." The golden man did something that I couldn't quite make out. "Tempus's near-Omega-Level control of time itself allows that which should take months or years to occur within mere moments.

The woman with the black and white hair held a hand out and before my very eyes, a human body started forming within the golden pod.

"Hope's ability to manipulate and replicate the powers of other mutants allows the others to operate at peak efficiency and to properly synchronize their talents," Apocalypse finished while the egg hatched.

On hands and knees, a boy who couldn't be much older than Ashley crawled from the remains of the egg from which he'd hatched. "The Five's job completed, a telepath uses the memories and emotions recorded within a Cerebro unit to place the dead mutant's soul into their new body, restoring them to life."

The woman in the helmet placed a hand upon the boy's head and some kind of jolt went through him, knocking him back. He blinked, looked around, looked at his hands, then started crying. He was then handed a towel and led aside, and I was speechless.

"Currently, the Five are pre-occupied with undoing a decade's worth of genocide committed against Mutantkind by humans fearful of their inevitable replacement by their betters."

"Drop the 'mutants are superior' bull or I will punch you so hard that your testicles will be where your brain supposed to be," Ashley said without missing a beat. It sounded wrong in her voice.

"You are welcome to try," Apocalypse said in a tone that indicated that he was not taking Ashley's threat at all seriously.

Ashley mumbled something about there not being a meaningful difference between humans and mutants before asking "So what's the point of showing me this?"

"As I said before, the Magos Superior is dependant on the bonds of community between the members of the Coven. If you wish to gain the strength you desire through Mutant Magic, you must be part of the same community as the others, which includes certain cultural experiences. Witnessing the literal rebirth of one of your mutant brethren is one of those experiences."

I found my voice. "It's certainly an awe... ama..." Or not. "I can't think of a word to describe it. It's..."

"Horrifying?" Ashley supplied. "Dr. Richards claims he's proven souls and the afterlife, which means even having the exact body and memories of a dead person doesn't mean you're that dead person come back to life. Unless you can prove it's the same soul you'd spend all the rest of your life wondering if you were really the person you think you are or if you're just a clone with extra steps. It's basically the platonic ideal of existential Hell." Ashley turned back to look at her ancestor and the two supervisors I'd insisted on. "Did you guys have Doctor Strange check this out?"

"The human sorcerer—"

"—With the artifact that lets him see through all deceptions and discern the true nature of what he's looking at," Ashley interrupted. "And thus can confirm 100% whether or not these are really resurrections or if you're just making clones with extra steps: Did you have him vet this?"

"No," the giant greyish-blue man admitted.

"...I'm opting out," Ashley said. "Do not resuscitate, all that jazz... If I die I'd rather stay dead than deal with that existential crap."

"Ashley," I started, but she interrupted me.

"Taylor, I'm biologically immortal, superhumanly durable, with reinforced bones and organs, and have more healing factors than I can keep track of. If we ever run into something that can kill me and keep me dead we've got bigger fish to fry," I couldn't fault that logic, but still. "And while I'm at it," she said back to the other mutants in our tour party, "If you have any of my DNA archived, destroy it. I explicitly do not content for it to be used for anything. And if you've got my mind backed up in a Cerebro, delete it... Unless it's a self-aware AI version of me. Then put her in an android body and let her be a person. But if it's just non-sentient archived memories, gone. Get rid of it. I don't want anyone doing anything with my DNA or memories. The last thing I need is to go through my own version of the Clone Saga."

"...Clone Saga?"

"There was a point in time where Spider-Man though he'd been replaced by a clone and then the 'real' one who was actually the clone and who'd previously been the Scarlet Spider took over as Spider-Man while the actually real Spider-Man who thought he was a clone retired for a little bit, and then there was another clone who like, framed Spider-Man's photographer for murder for some reason and then there was a third clone who had stretchy powers and it's all really confusing," Ashley said all in one breath.

"...Is this entire universe that insane?" I asked.

"I'm a centuries-old immortal Canadian Samurai who lives on the moon," Wolverine said with complete seriousness. "My closest friends, outside of the people who live here, are a mentally ill cancer patient with my powers, who sometimes tries to kill me, a vengeance crazed serial killer, and a superpowered circus acrobat who can't help but make dad-jokes."

"My mind and body have been altered several times, usually but not always against my will, and always in a way that grants enhancements to my powers and gives me new ones," Angel added. "To date, the only 'enhancement' that has managed to remain in place has been the one that I wish would vanish and never return."

"I don't have a response to any of that," was my straight-faced reply.

"Well, then yes, it is that insane," Wolverine conceded.

All the while we'd been talking, the people in front of us, the Five, continued to resurrect and/or clone Mutants, bringing back three more in that time, as though we werren't even here.

"Can we just, just go wherever it is we're going next?" Ashley asked while looking around one last time. "This place gives me the creeps."

With that, we all turned around and left. I wasn't going to tell her, but even if Ashley was right I was still impressed with what happened in this cavern.

Snuggles The Symbiote

After a long day of exploring the Island and, by extension, the world(we literally walked from San Francisco to Paris, France at one point) the tour ended in what was basically an outdoor Tiki bar surrounded by a stream. Most of the people around us were either sitting at tables or swinging in the stream, with everyone smiling, talking, happy to be alive. Also, the whole country and everyone in it was so rich that they didn't charge for drinks.

The only person I could see that seemed at all unhappy was Wolverine, who I had successfully shamed into drinking a Roy Rogers instead of the whiskey he was going to get. I didn't care if it didn't do anything to him, the principal of the matter was that if he was supervising a child he needed to be responsible.

Ashley finished her Shirley Temple, so I asked her "What do you think of this place?"

"...It's okay," she said, but the tone she said it in and the way she held her eyes told me she wasn't sure. "I don't belong here," she admitted quietly. "Everyone here is so proud to be a mutant. I'm glad they're happy and that there's finally a safe place for mutants, but... I've never thought of being a mutant as something to be proud of. It's just... It's like being proud of being white or Asian, of being gay or straight, of being autistic or whatever not-autistic is called. It''s not an accomplishment or something special, it's just the way you're born. Except those things have cultures or movements attached to them, and those are things you can be proud of. There's never been a..."

"The only thing I have in common with any of these people is that I'm a mutant... I don't think I'm gonna be able to learn Mutant Magic if I need to fit in here."

"Kid," Wolverine said, seemingly happy to have a distraction from his lack of liquor, "I've met a lot of young mutants who felt exactly the way you do, at one time or another. It's normal. Give it some time."

Ashley didn't answer. Shortly after Wolverine's attempt at reassurance, Ashley was glomped by a scaley green missile.

"Ashley!" Grace said in a tone that was just as bubbly as she was when she was Bonesaw, which concerned me, "I've learned so very, very much. And, and... Botany! I've never done anything with botany. That's an entirely new field of biology that I might be able to break into and then I'll be able to use my main power without hurting anyone or digging up memories that'll make me guilt-puke."

"That's great," Ashley said with a genuine smile. I resisted the urge to say something about Ashley being hugged and talked to by the person who'd tortured and killed her not that long ago.

"The people here have done so much with botany that it's... They can't let me take samples from Krakoan plants for socio-politico-economic reasons, but once we get home I should be able to genetically engineer some tinker-tech plants that function similarly enough that I can retro-engineer a reasonable facsimile of..."

I tuned out the tinker-babble, finished my Arnold Palmer, and then got up to get another pair of drinks for Ashley and myself. Or at least that's what I intended to do. Instead, I bumped into someone who'd been walking behind me who I hadn't noticed.

"Oof! Watch where you're going, Flatscan!"

The next few seconds were a blur of motion, but when I figured out what was going on I realized that Ashley had a boy dressed like a hipster with a pink mohawk bent over the table with his arm twisted behind his back. "Call her that again, and I'll eat your fucking brain!" She shouted.

"Ashley, language!" I shouted at the same time as Grace, which honestly made me uncomfortable enough to change my mind on Ashley cursing.

Ashley ignored us both. "Apologize," she commanded the young man she had pinned with anger dripping from her tongue. "Apologize to my foster-sister for that slur."

"Ashley, it's fine," I said. I didn't even know what Flatscan meant.

"No, it's not fine. Everyone says how horrible humans are becuase of how they treat mutants but if mutants go around calling humans by slurs and treating them like crap then we're no better."

"Why can't I psychic you into letting me go?" The young man said. He seemed more annoyed than concerned.

"Because I have the combined powers of Ms. Marvel, Lockheed, and that jerk," Ashley replied while pointing a thumb to Apocalypse at the next table over... Who the young man she had pinned couldn't see, "Who also tricked me into absorbing the DNA of all the members of Excalibur and the other two members of his coven last night and my Symbiote has been working on adding Jubilee's, Gambit's, and Exodus's psychic resistances into the mix ever since."

"Kid, you've got a right to be angry at Quire saying something he shouldn't have, but he's one of the people handling national security so if you could let him go?" Wolverine honestly sounded like he just wanted to climb into bed and get today over with.

There were a full thirty seconds before Ashley let the pink-haired-hipster up. "My threat stands."

"Whatever," Quire or whatever his name is dismissed. He turned to leave only to find Gwenpool standing there. She literally hadn't been there a second earlier. Only then did he look ashamed. "I'm sleeping on the couch tonight, aren't I?"

The blue-eyed-blond with frosted pink tips nodded, then dragged him off by the arm past a standing crowd and vanished.

"She can do better than him," Ashley commented as though she hadn't just threatened to murder someone.

"Ashley," I began, "we really need to talk about—"

My spider-sense started going off just as someone in my peripheral vision grabbed my arm and pulled it out. "Oh my god," said a somewhat camp voice with a mild British accent. "I. Love. Your outfit."

I turned to look and saw an impossibly pale man with black hair, solid red eyes, and a red diamond on his forehead. HE was dressed in a dark grey outfit and black strips of cloth that framed his shoulders and then trailed back like a cape. "What kind of silk is this? Who made it? I want to commission them to make a giant, flamboyant cape."

"Why are you here and why hasn't Magneto turned you inside out?" Ashley said while glaring at the man.

"I'm part of the Government," the man said dismissively, "now about this costume?"

"What now?" Ashley said flatly.

"Charles and Erik needed my technology to makes some of their pet projects work, so they offered me a seat in the Government," the pale man replied as though he honestly didn't care about the conversation. "Now, seriously young miss I must know where you got this costume?"

I yanked my arm from the man's grip. "I made it myself. I'm not taking commissions at this time." Hopefully, that would defuse the situation and...

"Wait, wait wait... Magneto, the Holocaust survivor, who was a prisoner at Auschwitz as a child, agreed to make you, the Nazi scientist who tortured and murdered children at Auschwitz, part of the Government of his new country." Ashley said incredulously, eyes darting about as though she was looking for something. "Am I being punked?"

"Okay one," the man said while turning from me to face Ashley, "I'm not a Nazi, I worked for the Nazis. There's a difference. Two, yes. Turns out that the man who thinks he's part of a Master Race and who wants to oppress the people he doesn't think are part of it is kind of a hypocrite about that whole 'hating Nazis' thing. Who could have possibly known?" He finished dryly.

"Kid, I know this looks bad," Wolverine began, "and it kind of is, making a new nation from scratch means there's a lot of dirty deals getting a done, but I'll assure you: If we didn't absolutely need him, I'd have killed him myself already."

This made the pale man laugh hysterically for exactly ten seconds. Then he stopped. "Oh, wait. You were serious." Then he started laughing harder.

"This is worse than dealing with Apocalypse," Ashley said. "He's evil but he's also pretty normal for someone from the Bronze Age. You're modern enough to know better."

I didn't like this. My spider-sense was going off and I didn't know why, this man was setting Ashley off while she was probably still upset from the last guy, and honestly, his even being here was souring me on this whole situation more than I already was.

"Ashley?" Grace asked, "Who is this guy?"

"Mister Sinister," Ashley said. "He's an edgelord from the Victorian Age whose been doing experiments with mutants and—"

"Technically I'm much younger than that. I killed the original Nathaniel Essex when he started dismissing Mutants as an evolutionary progression. I'm the clone with the Essex-Gene. My unique mutant power is being inherently amazing at everything and also being able to pull off any kind of cape."

"Apparently he's also the guy who discovered the X-Gene," Ashley said with deliberate emphasis, "I didn't know that part... Everything Jack brainwashed you into doing, Grace? Sinister did by his own choice and a billion other things besides."

"...Please go away, sir," was the lizard girl's only reply.

"No," the man dismissed. Now he was staring at Ashley with a contemplative expression. I was getting ready to make him leave when h mumbled "An Akkabaan named Ashley? Why does that sound so familiar?" Ashley's eyes widened and my stomach sank.

"...They were working for you?" Ashley asked quietly.

"They? Oh!" The man said in realization. "Little over a year ago, those amateurs with the bootleg Jackal-tech kidnapped a kid to harvest for MGH... and no, they werren't working for me. I found out some people were collecting mutant DNA and I discretely gave them a few samples, some start-up money, and pointed them to a mutant clinic. I figured if they made something useful I could steal it and use it for my own research so really it was more like investing," the man said. "Of course that was around the time I got bored with it. The morons burned down the clinic and framed the Sapien League to cover their tracks and then committed a very unsubtle and unnecessary double-homicide when acquiring the asset they learned about so I washed my hands of them shortly after that. I did manage to learn that being an Akkabaan didn't guarantee a useful power though, so there's that."

"...It's your fault my parents are dead."

"Sweety, it's my fault that a lot of people are dead. If you expect me to feel bad about it then you're going to be disappointed."

Four things happened in the next few seconds: Ashley's Hell-Mark ignited. She fired a photonic blast from her fist directly at Sinister's chest. The blast dispersed on contact with some kind of force field. And Sinister waved his hand and sent Ashley flying from her seat into the stream, scattering some of the celebratory mutants who'd been swimming there.

Immediately I leaped up to get to her. She'd told me that she didn't know how to swim once and...

The water was shallow enough that she could stand up and only be chest-deep. Still, I needed to make sure she was okay.

"That's why I need to be stronger," she seethed while I helped her to the bank. "The fact that people link him can, can just ruin people's lives and get people killed and, and, and get away with it and..." Ashley was breathing incredibly heavily for someone who didn't need to breathe at all. "I want off this island. If putting up with people like him is what being a mutant is about now then I don't want to be a mutant anymore."

"If you leave now," Apocalypse spoke up for the first time since the incident started, "I fear you will be unable to ever learn the Magos Superior."

"That's fine!" Ashley shouted. "There are lots of ways I can get the strength I need! There are fourteen Codices on this Island alone! If I can't get what I need from training with you I'll just take what I want!"

I pulled Ashley into a tight hug hoping to calm her down. "Ashley, sweety, no. I can't... I think you're overdoing it with the Codices. I don't like what they're doing to you, I'm sorry but—"

Ashley shoved me away. Hard. "You can't tell me what to do! You're not my mom!"

That? That had hurt.

By this point, everyone in the area was starring at us. Wolverine stood up.

"Okay, kid, you wanna leave? You can leave. You were staying with the Fantastic Four before you came here? There's a portal just a few blocks from where they live, I'll take you to it, but first, you need to calm down. You've got a right to be angry. Hell, I'm angry too, but if you go berserk here you're just gonna do something you'll regret."

In response, Ashley jumped for Wolverine, who caught her with the ease of someone who... actually, no, I couldn't think of a reason for why he'd be so good at catching small children who jumped at him with superhuman agility. All I knew was that he'd managed to catch Ashley so that he was holding her by her ribs.

"Kid, I mean it. Trust me, I know anger. I know rage. Sinister isn't even here anymore, he wondered off after you hit the stream. You're hurt and you're taking it out on the people around you and that's not—"

Suddenly, a tentacle shot out of Ashley's back, curved around, and stabbed Wolverine in his. He dropped her and the tentacle was ripped from his flesh with three stands of goo, one black, one red, and one a blend of both on the end. Ashley pulled the tentacle back inside herself before I could react and then...

Her costume started boiling and turning solid black starting from her midsection and spreading out while a fanged mouth erupted from the neck and completely swallowed her head. And then she roared and said something that felt like hot shards of sharp glass where being driven directly into my brain. Instead of eye-lenses, a red spiral dominated her face.

Her hands twisted and extended into her claws... There was another claw now, for a total of eight on each hand, and each of them was longer and sharper.

While this happened, most of the people around us got up and started fleeing and screaming. Pretty soon, the only people left in the area were Ashley, Angel, Wolverine down on the ground, a large and muscular dark-haired man, Grace, me... And Apocalypse, still sitting at a table, taking up a whole side, still nursing a drink out of a bamboo cup painted to look like his face.

The muscular man approached, his skin transforming into bands of steel as he walked. "Little girl, you are needing to be calming down and being a good girl now," he said in a thick Russian accent.

As the steel Russian stepped up, Angel's wings turned to metal and his skin faded to blue.

Ashley, berserk and feral, looked between the metal man and the dark angel before settling on Angel. She opened a lipless mouth and licked daggerlike fangs with an overly long tongue before roaring again, and I was left unsure what to do. Apocalypse sipped his drink.