As the echoes of Thundebird's laughter finally faded into the recesses of the Krakoan jungle, the other members of the X-Men began to show up at the rally point. Storm and Colossus showed up first, looking relatively no worse for the wear. Wolverine and Banshee were second, with the two seeming to share some sort of secret agent tips between them. Third and last were Nightcrawler and Sunfire, with Shiro still being standoffish as ever.
Looking at the reassembled team, Scott nodded to the group as he stood up from the temple's steps, "Let me guess," he began, noticing Wolverine's costume looked worse for the wear, "The island, or something on it, tried to kill you all at some point?"
"Giant crabs," Banshee spoke up, his Irish brogue unable to hide his contempt for the seafood acting up, "Luckily Logan here's got come claws of his own. I was tempted to have a bit of a barbecue, but we are running on a time limit."
"The elements themselves tried killing us," Ororo Munroe added, looking at Piotr in a new light, "The very mountain fell against us, nearly crushing us had Colossus not put himself in harm's way and the rocks weak against my winds."
"Birds." Shiro muttered, not speaking another word.
Nightcrawler spoke up for him instead, "What our dear shy boy is trying to say is that the vibrant birds that populate our corner of the island tried turning us both into a pair of Hitchcock film victims." Nightcrawler gestured grandly to Sunfire and grinned, his white teeth reflecting brightly against his dark blue skin, "However, Shiro here was able to protect us both with his burst of flame that turned the birds into so much KFC. I merely wish we had a bucket to take the birds with us for everyone."
Scott couldn't help but grin at Nightcrawler's banter. Shame that Shiro didn't appreciate it, bristling at Nightcrawler's compliments and banter. Once again, Scott didn't mind. After all, it was remarkably unlikely that Shiro would stick around, the man was so antisocial that Scott actually believed the rumor that Sunfire had made his own team, just to quit before it was announced to the world.
Turning to the temple, Scott put his hands on his hips, "Good work, people. Now, quick crash-course lesson for being an X-Man. We've got a massive temple showing up in the middle of nowhere, an island doing its best to kill us off, and kidnapped X-men." He turned back to the team after walking up the rest of the steps, "Show of hands: who thinks this is a trap?"
Everyone's hands shot up into the air. Even Colossus looked like he wondered why this obvious question was being asked.
"Good, glad to see you've got more smarts than I did when I started this job," Cyclops grimaced, both thankful for his team and embarrassed he felt the need to ask, "Now. We've got a temple locked from the inside," Scott paused to pat on the stone slabs acting as a door for the temple, "Any ideas?"
Storm's hand went up again as she removed her headdress, "I was able to keep a series of lockpicks on myself, and am well versed in their use." Ororo paused at the odd glance from Sean Cassidy and explained, "In my wayward youth, until I met the Professor in Cairo many years ago, I was a thief. I have since mended my ways," she smiled as she put the headdress back on, "But old habits do die hard."
"Aye," Sean nodded, a grin on his face, "I may not be part of Interpol anymore, thanks to the time that someone brainwashed me into being a villain, but I still keep a gun on me at all times.
Scott blinked. That was new, wasn't it? Or, shamefully, had Scott just never noticed for the time Sean was on the team? Something to note for later.
The burly Piotr spoke up, his voice shy and soft as he did, "Why… do we just not punch said door down? Take people inside by surprise, and also ensure we have safe way out?"
"Sounds good to me." Logan agreed, patting the Russian on the back.
Scott nodded, "To be honest, that's kind of the X-Men's MO. If there isn't a door, make one." He paused, deep in thought for a second, "In retrospect, that might be part of why the people hate and fear us."
Colossus bulked up into his armored form as he joined Cyclops up the stairs. Cracking his metal knuckles, Colossus wound back and delivered a mighty blow to the stone door. The stone splintered, but did not budge. Cyclops, Sunfire, and Storm all joined Colossus in the next assault, a barrage of metal fists, intense heat, lightning, and kinetic energy from a dimension made of said power all rocked the door into mere rubble before them. As the dust and smoke cleared from the air, Scott's heart leapt up into his throat. While he'd known about this on a mental level, he still wasn't fully emotionally prepared for what he saw.
Jean.
From his perspective, she'd been dead for the better part of a decade. But before that, the two had spent literal decades together in one of the most convoluted relationships he'd ever heard of. Then again, when your family tree literally involved time travel for the source of your last name, this wasn't entirely unexpected. He and Jean had toyed with dating up to this point, never truly hooking up, but both treating the other like they were really the only one for them anyhow. But then the Phoenix had happened, and Scott had proposed to a cosmic entity that was masquerading as her. And then married the clone of Jean, Maddie. As if this wasn't convoluted enough, Jean came back and Madelyn's death when hell literally broke loose on Manhattan forced all of Maddie's and the Phoenix's memories into Jean's mind.
It sounded like a bad comic.
But that was all in the past. Future. It hadn't happened yet. Being able to remove one of the worst days of his life was within his fingertips, but was it better to let Phoenix take over and die on the moon? What about this time's Emma? Would Jean begin to understand if his heart now belonged to another? God. This was going to keep him up at night.
All of his thoughts and memories collided together, crashing into a mental trainwreck of colossal proportions. And it all took less than a second.
Jean, as well as the other X-Men from the first mission to Krakoa were alive, as Scott had always known. They were all strung up on a wall of vines and tentacles, suckers attached to key points of their bodies. There was still life to Scott's adopted family, and the unobservant eye could see things like Angel's wings twitching or the vines attached to Bobby Drake slowly freezing over as he tried to unconsciously free himself.
"Dear god," Scott rasped, his voice thick with emotion as he moved to Jean immediately as he began to step over the vines on the floor, "It's my team."
"And something is feeding on them, friend Scott!" Colossus gasped in shock.
Scott didn't reply, using his optic blast to begin cutting Jean down from her leafy prison. As she fell to the ground, Scott caught his lover in his arms. She was still unconscious, and couldn't help himself from running a hand along her cheek. Finally remembering where and when he was, Scott turned to the others, "Get them down, but be careful."
Within seconds, Angel, Polaris, Havok, and Iceman were all freed, each being held by another member of the X-Men as everyone began to leave the temple. As they all left the temple, however, the ground itself began to quake. The temple collapsed into so much rubble behind them, the first of the original X-Men began to stir.
"Scott…?" the Angel let out a low groan as his wings began to stretch for the first time in what felt like ages. Warren Worthington the III lurches to his feet as Storm let him try to stand on his feet alone, "Why'd you come back for us?"
"You're my family," Scott shrugged, answering honestly once more, "I'm not about to leave any of you trapped by some monster pretending to be an island."
Angel let out a laugh despite the situation, "The Professor figured it out that fast, huh?"
The ground began to shake again as the other four X-Men began to wake up. Slowly, a mound of dirt began to rise above their heads, taking shape to look remarkably like what Scott remembered as the Man-Thing from the swamps of the Florida Everglades. However, the howling maw and sharp fangs instantly told anyone familiar with the Man-Thing that this was no kindly creature.
"It wasn't hard to figure out," Scott replied as everyone watched Krakoa rise up in a beastly form above them, "I had to be sent back for a reason, and it was remarkably unlikely that all of us would be assaulted when we landed as we did."
Admittedly, he also knew it because this had happened before. But he wasn't about to get into that now.
"You came to find a mutant," Nightcralwer muttered to himself in German-accented English, "But the mutant is the entire island itself!"
Scott winced as images flooded his mind as it did the others beside him. A island resting in the Pacific Ocean, only to be blasted by multiple early atomic tests. The radiation unleashed an unknown side-effect, tying the minds of any living creature into a massive hivemind. The radiation that permeated the ground was enhanced by this hivemind, until the very island itself became a living organism itself. However, the land grew hungry, and it could feel the faint powers of other mutants on distant shores. Emitting a signal to the "legless one," it tricked Professor X into sending a first course: the X-Men.
And now we shall hunger no longer.
The voice echoed in Scott's mind. Scott knew that this should be the Professor's voice, that this was Professor X pretending to be a super-intelligent landmass to trick the X-Men in an convoluted plan to hide the use and demise of a second team. But it never felt like the Professor, and it didn't here either. Is it possible the Professor was still manipulated by Krakoa? Questions for later.
The time for explanations has past. The island boomed at everyone, the ruby red eyes on its avatar glowing with a bright pink, Now it is time for Krakoa to feed!
Pink energy lanced out, destroying the very ground on which the X-Men stood. Scott gave the order to scatter, but only a few of his expanded team chose to listen. Wolverine charged headlong at the mound of dirt, vegetation, and stone with a snikt.
"If you folks wanna flee, that's fine by me." Logan jumped at the arm of the island, slashing with his claws, "But the Wolverine aims to draw first blood!"
Jean pulled away from Scott in time to prevent a tree from crushing either one of them, stopping the blow with her mind as the two escaped. The X-Men continued to fight on, shooting bolts of solar energy, lances of lightning, directed sonic booms, and even ripping the ground apart with their bare hands. Scott could feel the Professor watching, monitoring the island in the corner of his mind the Professor could still access. This was spiraling out of his control, but it was also literally going exactly how he remembered.
"Jean!" Scott cried out to his one-time love, a germ of an idea forming, "Aside from us thirteen, and the island, do you sense any other minds here? Anyone lost, any sailors who got shipwrecked here?"
Jean's hands touched to her forehead as Scott gave her cover. Her mind reached out into the depths of Krakoa's own, into the ground to feel for others. After several seconds, she shook her head, "No. None here, Scott."
Cyclops frowned deep. He knew that Vulcan and Darwin were here, alone and alive. However, Darwin's powers of survival must have blended Vulcan and himself too well with the ground beneath their feet. Maybe it would be another two decades before he could see this brother again for the first time. It would be better this time around, if he still awoke, but it looks like an early reunion would be out of the question.
"Krakoa!" Scott shouted at the island that walked like a man, "You know us and our powers. Let us go free, and we will let you go undisturbed! Our leader, the legless one we call Xavier, he can help you learn to control your hunger, to move yourself across the seas to a location where you can rest in peace!"
The island slowed, still fighting off the attacking X-Men. The head of the avatar turned to Cyclops, its ruby gemstone eyes focusing on him. The mouth closed to a thin (relatively) line, seeming to think. The island's avatar began to shrink in stature, reducing itself down to a nearly human-sized creature. The other X-Men, noticing the change, ceased their attacks for the moment.
Krakoa does not like being alone. It spoke again, the island's hivemind speaking to put the complex emotions a hivemind contained for the first time in its existence, But Krakoa does not like being disturbed either.
Scott's mind was racing. There was a chance to change history here… and for the better.
"There's a place you may be able to move to, one day." Cyclops began to explain, taking a step towards the still-towering mass of ground, "Muir Isle. The weather is horrible, I admit, but you could thrive there. It's rarely inhabited, and while the owner Moira may wish to study you, you could still live there in peace if you wished." He paused, adding, "The facilities on the island are all powered by geothermal energy, which you could tap into to feed."
And potentially drain the excess powers of Moira's son, Kevin. Or Proteus, as almost anyone else knew him as.
Krakoa looked deep in thought once more, then spoke. Tell the legless one to stop reaching into Krakoa's mind without permission. The simplistic nature of his mind… it hurts us.
Scott nodded, hoping the Professor was hearing him, "He means well, I promise."
Krakoa's avatar began to slowly lower into the ground, speaking once more, Krakoa now knows where the Isle of Muir is. Krakoa will… visit in time. The one-eyed one has given Krakoa much to think about. The Island's avatar waived its hand and the island grew deadly quiet, but without menace, Call your transport. Krakoa will trouble you no longer.
"Thank you," Cyclops bowed slightly at the island, though he couldn't say why. It just felt right.
We will speak again, this time on Krakoa's terms. The island promised as the last of its avatar fell into disuse, vanishing into the dirt.
Scott's mind was racing like mad. It worked. The Professor may not have entirely been at fault for the fate of his other brother's X-Men team. Was he in an altered timeline already? It wasn't like that was an unfamiliar concept, seeing how his daughter from an alternate timeline had already done that to him and Jean to help raise his son Cable. He was beginning to get a migraine, but the pain was almost worth it.
There was something else he wanted to do, though. Once they were back home, once the original X-Men chose to leave, if they chose to leave, Scott wanted to ask Warren about getting into the Hellfire Club.
Jean stumbled, as if something was hitting her upside the head. She let out a low groan, one hand going to her forehead. Those emerald green eyes snapped open, looking instantly to Scott. They bored into his very soul, and Scott felt his heart skip a beat as he looked into hers for the first time in what felt like forever.
"Scott," Jean spoke slowly, as if still processing everything, "Who's Emma?"
Author's Notes:
To get ahead of the questions: the comics have established that Scott and Jean's psychic rapport pretty much transcends all time and space. Even after the Phoenix-as-Jean died, the revived Jean inherited that rapport in the 80s when she came back. I figure that since Scott still had the rapport when Jean died in Morrison's New X-Men run, it would re-latch onto her back in the past as well. So yeah, things are going to get complicated for Scott.
The ending here is something I didn't think of until I began writing it. I read over the original issue several times, trying to find a way to make a simple transcript of the comic exciting. I really couldn't, and didn't want to simply re-write the damned thing. This alternative comes from Scott dealing with far stranger peacefully, and future knowledge that just might help. Like, say, the Shadow King's takeover of Muir Isle a decade or so later.
As for the rough timeline I've "anchored down," it breaks down as follows...
-1983 to 1987 is the Silver Age run of the X-Men.
-1988 to 1989 covers the "reprint era," when Engelhart kept the X-Men alive during guest-appearances. This includes the Secret Empire storyline, where Richard Nixon tried taking over the US Government before blowing his brains out in the Oval Office. No, seriously. And it still happened here, just with Nixon trying to take it back in '88.
-1989-1999 is Claremont's era of X-Men. This is everything from Giant-Size to the Muir Island Saga.
-1999-2010 is the weird era, where you had things like Onslaught and Zero Tolerance starting the years. It ends with the Morrison/Wheadon refreshes of the X-Men.
-2010 starts with House of M, and things fall from there as they go for the last 5 years of Scott's life.
-Scott dies in 2015, and returns back to 1989. This is where things, as you can guess, will go off the damned rails.