NEW YORK CITY STREETS/EDGE OF CENTRAL PARK - NIGHT

The Range Rovers move in tandem from the park to New York streets,taking the turns with smoking, screeching tires.

CENTRAL PARK, THE POND - NIGHT

Xavier lays unconscious, not far from his fallen wheelchair. A shadow falls across him. It's Magneto.

"Xavier... my dear fellow. What have you gotten yourself into?" Magneto goes to Xavier, bows and lifts him into his arms, gently as possible.

STATUE OF LIBERTY - NIGHT

Xavier's starting to come around. He sits up, sees his wheelchair nearby, looks around and realizes he's lying atop the Statue Of Liberty, with the mighty, torch-bearing arm above.

Magneto stands nearby, looking to Manhattan's distant skyline.

"Welcome back to the land of the living."

"Eric! What have you done with Beast?" Magneto turns as Xavier pulls himself into his wheelchair.

"Not me. The government took him. Though, I did help them along with an anonymous call to the National Security Council."

"If they harm him in any way, I swear..."

"What? What do you swear? You should be grateful. I spared your life. I'm sparing it with each passing second, and I could take it with a wave of my hand."

"And, with a thought, I could destroy your mind. My abilities are stronger now than they used to be."

He smiles, and continues. "A stalemate, then... of mutual assured destruction."

"Why didn't you kill me?"

"I suppose I don't really want you dead, Charles. I want you with me, at my side... like the good old days. The offer I make to you this evening is the offer I will soon make to the world..." He turns and faces New York City.

"Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled mutants yearning to breath free."

He faces Xavier again.

"There's a place for you in the Brotherhood, and for your X-Men."

"We want no part of wholesale slaughter, or of your desire to see homo-sapiens enslaved by homo-superior."

"You still dream of co-existence, don't you? You still think man and mutant can live together."

"I do."

"The battle you've chosen has left great men dead in it's wake."

"That doesn't mean it's not worth fighting."

"Oh, you amaze me. Look at all the killing and "ethnic cleansing" going on in this world. Look at what has happened to Beast. Man's inhumanity to man is ageless and timeless. If the Congress had their way... the great leaders of this nation, they'd have you in chains, with a number burned into your forehead."

"But, they won't have their way." He says confidently.

"If not for me, they would."

"No. Their hatred comes from fear, and you feed that fear. By the assassination of a United States Senator, by acts of random terrorism, you're only widening the rift." Xaiver says, angered by Magneto's acts.

"By the time I'm done, that rift will be a gaping chasm."

"Then, what good are you doing? Why not join with me to help heal this bigotry, instead of adding to it?"

"Because, if you want to be heard in a room full of people screaming at the top of their lungs, you have to be the one who screams the loudest and the longest. You have to roar into the maelstrom." He pauses, probably adding for dramatic effect.

"I'd love to share my plans with you. I once thought of you as my only friend. I give you one last chance to join me, because against me, you will never win."

"We're ready for you."

"You wear your brave face well. Pity it will soon turn to a mask of sorrow." Magneto climbs and walks out onto one of the crown's points.

"One last thing, Charles. I know you have him. Your animal pet, with his big sharp claws. He will not save you." Magneto holds up his arms, fingers spread. The air crackles as a ball of magnetic energy forms around him. He rises into the dark. Xavier watches Magneto go, then looks around. He realizes his immediate dilemma, wheeling to look towards the ground far below. He turns and sees a trap door behind him.

STATUE OF LIBERTY'S CROWN - NIGHT

The trap door opens above a ladder. Xavier pushes his folded wheelchair through and drops it to the ground. He shifts his body, using upper body strength and his arms, lowering his legs. He gets a grip on the edge and swings down with a grunt, hanging on, legs dangling. He grasps the ladder and starts down.