[A/N]: Thank you for reading, everyone. It sure took a while, but I'm always happy to finish a story. I'll be taking a break to tune up some upcoming projects, then be back in the summer. And the X-Men? Well, there's always something to see if you stay til the end...
"My condolences, Professor."
Charles Xavier turned his chair around to face the visitor. He hadn't shaved in several days. His bloodshot eyes bored into her.
"You shouldn't have come."
The visitor was a woman whose age was difficult to place. Her head was entirely bald, but her eyes twinkled and creased with youthful energy. She wore a heavy yellow robe.
"You blame me."
Xavier laughed bitterly.
"Let's say that all the blame is currently in this room and leave it at that."
The Ancient One was unmoved.
"I told you there were risks involved in interplanar travel."
"You told me a great many things. I suspect you omitted a great deal more."
"You're welcome to read my mind, Charles" she said, smiling a thin smile now. "You'll learn far more than you bargained for."
He bowed his head.
"Ah yes. You have your rules, just as I have mine. Now. There comes the matter of the future."
"I'm not sure there is one. My team is coming apart, the school is closing, and the only other people I would trust to know what to do next are a world away. There's no one left to protect mutantkind. No more heroes to save us."
"It would certainly appear that way now," the woman tilted her head up.
"Now," Xavier chewed on the word a little longer. "But not forever?"
"We are both teachers. We both have people that have learned from us, who will graduate from our tutelage one day."
"And on that day," a light returned to Xavier's eyes. "The X-Men will return?"
"They might."
"But that could be a decade," Xavier realized angrily. "Mutants can't go unprotected that long. Humankind will not simply forget about us."
"No. They won't forget," her smile widened now.
"Not simply, at any rate."
Stephen Strange brought his hands together, returning the study to present day. A tiny point of green light in the pendant around his neck flickered as the oculus closed.
"Why did you show me this?" Kitty asked.
"My former teacher had a… unique way of looking at the world. One your professor seemed to share."
"And one which I'm pretty sure I don't."
"Likewise. After Xavier passed, an associate of mine regained his memory of this encounter. The oath of the Sorcerer Supreme forbids passage between Limbo and our realm. She made a single exception to allow your friends to try to rescue Illyana Rasputin. I am bound by that same oath as the new Sorcerer Supreme. However - as I said - Belasco will return somehow for the rest of the girl's soul. And when that happens, my oath won't be enough to stop the invasion." He gave her a wry grin.
"So you will help us?"
"Miss Pryde, we all will help you. Because when the Inferno reaches our dimension, the Avengers will be there to meet it."
Kitty shook Strange's hand. "And so will the X-Men."
The X-Men
and the Avengers
Will Return...
...In INFERNO
Coming this Winter
In the dark of a nameless pit in Limbo, a demon pawed at the shackles around his neck. Scuttling through a gap in the collapsed stonework, he came upon an unlit throne atop a heap of rusted metal.
"Master! News!"
A heavily armored hand lifted with great effort from the throne and pointed at the demon.
"It is as you said! The mutants came to free their comrades!"
"And what of the girl?" An intensely worn voice rasped from the throne.
"She is not here, Master," the demon winced. "The mutants still have her-"
The demons was suddenly foisted upwards by his chain, floating in the air before the seated figure. Two swords dislodged themselves from the pile and crossed in front of the demon's throat.
"Belasco... failed?"
"Belasco... argh!" The shackles tightened against his neck.
"Belasco still has two of the Stones! He will try again!"
The demon fell tot he ground and ran away sobbing.
"He will try again. And then it will finally be time," The figure whispered.
"For the reunion."