August 19, 1992

"What's happening?" Hank roared.

Calvin winced and laid down, rubbing his head. Clarice had finished teleporting the last of the students into Hank's house, and Carly was helping her sit down. Hank knew she was injured, that he should be helping her, but he couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"David is leading a small group of other mutants to try to rescue the others," Calvin said, "Believe me, I didn't think it was a good idea either. Not like it stopped him."

"Your daughter wasn't among the people he was leading," Hank snapped.

Clarice forced herself to sit up.

"Hank, I think...David may know what he's doing," she said, "Apocalypse won't be expecting him. He doesn't think they have it in them."

"He's going to figure it out," Hank said.

Carly got up and put her hand on Hank's shoulder. Worry consumed his wife's eyes and he held her close, looking over her shoulder and staring at the wall. He wanted to demand that Clarice and Calvin take him there at once, but he knew that both of them would need time before they teleported again. Otherwise they might end up stranding them halfway to New York in the middle of nowhere.

The phone rang. Hank looked at it, cursing it. He didn't want to answer it, didn't want to find out what new political crisis was emerging while his daughter and the children of his friends fought for the fate of the world.

Out of instinct, he picked it up though.

"Hank McCoy," he muttered.

There was silence on the other end.

"Who is this?" Hank demanded.

"I'm...I'm sorry," a voice said, "I didn't know Sean's emergency contact would turn out to be you."

Hank furrowed his brow.

"Who is this?" Hank asked.

"My name is Phil Coulson," he said, "I've been trying to get a hold of Sean for a while now. His father knew mine...it's complicated. Anyway, I work with him, and there's one area my father always told me to watch out for. A small area in the county of Westchester in New York."

Hank shifted the phone around his head. Carly was looking up at him, her eyes wide.

"What about it?" he asked.

"My...boss for lack of a better word, knows something's going on down there," he said, "He wants to send in a team-"

"No!" Hank said.

He could hear the shock on the other end of the phone. Hank could feel it inside himself as well. He knew that the X-men could probably use all of the help they could get. However, he knew how delicate such a situation was. There were too many variables at stake. Having a second team that couldn't communicate with the first would end in disaster.

It wasn't like in the movies, where both teams found each other immediately. He'd been there himself. Neither would know who the enemy was, and it could end up in a full-blown shootout. It was the same reason why Sean hadn't wanted another team to go in when Sinister had been captured.

"I can't stall him forever," Coulson said.

He put a hand to his forehead and thought. Carly was giving him a determined look: she was close enough to hear the conversation. Her hands fisted into the fur of his arms and he took strength from that.

There was much to worry about, much that he needed strength to combat. His daughter was fighting a war that he hadn't prepared her for. His best friends and their families were at risk. Hank needed to help them.

"Let me talk to him," Hank said.

"What?" Coulson said.

"Your boss. I said, let me talk to him," Hank said, his teeth gritted.

There was a long pause.

"Do you know who you'd be talking to? Do you have any idea-?"

"I'm not a fool Agent Coulson," Hank said, "I have been in a very precarious position as the only mutant senator for the past few years. As such I have taken very careful note of everyone who has ever given me aid. In short, I know exactly who the people who investigated my assassination attempt are."

There was another pause.

"I'm passing him over," Coulson said.

"Thank you," Hank said.

He closed his eyes, his heart pounding. He used his spare hand to grip Carly's, all the while trying to marshal his thoughts.

"Senator McCoy."

"Director Fury," Hank said.

"Listen, I don't know what's going on with you right now, or why the hell Coulson thinks I'd want to talk to you. But-"

"No, I think you need to listen to me," Hank said, his voice low but sharp, "Maybe end-of-the-world situations are very ordinary where you come from, but to me they're not. The fact of the matter is, if you send a team down there right now, then we're going to have a very difficult situation on our hands. I know you might be able to get there in time to do some good, but it's more likely that you'll do some harm."

"You sound like you can positively confirm that the team already there can handle it," Fury snapped.

Hank took another deep breath.

"Whether I am positive or not, I have a great deal of faith in them," Hank said, "They know the enemy intimately Director Fury. While some of them may be younger, we've all been fighting our own personal war. A war that SHIELD has, for the most part, left untouched. You have trusted us to deal with it up to this point. Trust us a little longer."

There was a long pause. Hank could hear Fury simmering on the other end.

"You act like we've made this decision consciously," Fury said.

"You did make the decision," Hank said, "You made the decision every time you didn't intervene, every time an independent team had to save a child or a teen from a city-wide manhunt, every time criminals whose only crime was their powers going out of control were locked away. You let us be the ones to deal with it. This is not your responsibility any more Fury, it's ours. Until the world decides to help shoulder this burden, then it is still ours."

There was another pause.

"I wish to God you know what you're doing," Fury said.

"So do I Director," Hank said, "So do I."


Rogue looked around the cell block, feeling strange as the different X-men stepped into the hall. She knew her dismay showed on her face.

"What's wrong?" Max said.

She bit her lip.

"Remy ain't here," she said.

Max nodded, understanding. She didn't think that he truly understood though. If she'd been stronger at the camp then she could have helped him. Instead he'd been tossed around like a rag doll and taken away by force.

"I'm sure he's in another cell," Max said, "He's probably in the same room as the Professor or Kurt. David'll find him."

"Yeah," Rogue muttered.

Logan came out from one of the cells. Rogue hurried over and hugged him, careful not to touch any of his actual skin. After everything that had happened that night, she needed some comfort. Logan gave her a one-armed hug back.

"Interestin look," Logan said.

She pulled away and shrugged.

"Either tha or go in in my pajamas," she said.

"Good call," Logan said, "Ya don't belong here kid."

She gave him a helpless shrug.

"Ah wasn't gonna just leave when I coulda helped," she said.

"Not a bad point, but ya ain't a soldier kid," Logan said.

"Neither are any of us," Piotr said, "But we got you out."

Logan glared at Piotr. Max cleared his throat, one of his hands still on Luna's shoulders.

"We kind of had to draft some people in on this one," he said, "Not the best idea, sure, but we didn't have many options."

Scott sighed heavily and looked at his nephew. Rogue wondered what he was thinking, especially after what had happened between Max and Sinister. They didn't have to find out though. Jean raised one of her hands, her other hand by her temples.

"David says that they found the Professor and Moira," she said.

Scott grinned. Rogue let out a sigh of relief as Jean furrowed her brow.

"Moira's been infected with the Legacy virus," Jean said.

"What?" Scott asked.

Rogue had no idea what the Legacy virus was, but she could see the fear and shame on Scott's face. The older X-men, and the older members of the Brotherhood, were all exchanging worried looks.

"He says...he says that Apocalypse is planning on infecting the world with it," Jean said, her brow still furrowed, "It'll kill off most people, but the ones that survive are supposed to become mutants...it sounds complicated..."

"We'll have to stop him," Scott said.

"Back at the camp this guy went through us like a hot knife through butter," Max said, "No offense, but I don't think that you guys fared too well against him either. Do we have any sort of plan for this?"

"Not at the moment," Jean said.

"Okay," Max said.

He shrugged, forcing a smile on his face.

"The lower the odds, the more glory," he said.

"Max, you're not coming with us," Alex said, "I want you to take yourself and Luna and get out of here."

Max threw his hands into the air.

"Okay, I get that you're my dad and all, but I'm perfectly capable-" he said.

"I'm not an idiot Max, I saw what you just did to Sinister," Alex said, "But that doesn't change the fact that your sister is ten. She needs to get out of here, and you can protect her."

Rogue looked down. Luna was looking up at her father and brother with big eyes. Max's eyes widened with understanding before he slumped.

"I get that but, dad, there's nowhere to take her," he said, "The camp isn't safe, it isn't safe here, we can't get her to Uncle Hank's house without a teleporter, and I think that we need Kurt here."

Alex breathed in, his face troubled. Luna reached out and grasped her father's hand.

"It's okay," she whispered, "I'm not scared anymore."

Alex held Luna close. Rogue had to feel for the man. He'd come so close to losing both of his children, and his wife was still under Apocalypse's control. Rogue thought of Remy, the only person she cared about that she hadn't been able to see set free. It made her ache.

"Okay," Alex said, "but stay close."

He turned his head and looked over at Magneto. Some silent communication passed between them. Rogue still couldn't believe that the man who had kidnapped and nearly killed her was Max's grandfather. It explained why she had shivered when she'd first met Max. His resemblance to his grandfather obvious now that she was looking. When it came to personalities they couldn't be more different though.

"Let's get moving," Scott said, "Marvel, see if you can connect with David."

She nodded. Max drew level with his father as they turned outside the corridor.

"Sharon and Amanda are in the Blackbird right now, and Siryn and Deadpool are on the ground," Max said.

"What's she doing out there?" Sean asked.

"They're drawing fire," Max said, "I haven't heard from them since we got down here though."

"Right," Sean muttered.

Jean took her hand away from her head.

"We should meet them in the hall if we continue going through it," she said, "Mystique's trying to hack into the records, and they managed to get the Professor out of there. They need some of Archangel's blood if they want Moira to live-"

"Sure," Ororo said, her voice bitter, "we'll just ask him for it."

"Storm," Scott said.

She looked at him, her eyes still bitter. Rogue had no idea what was going on.

"Do you have any plan, any plan at all for bringing them back to us?" Ororo said.

"No, not yet," Scott said, "But we have several telepaths. That should help-"

An explosion cut him off. Scott was thrown backwards, knocking several others down. There was a faint light and the wall next to them blew up. Logan grabbed Rogue and pulled her to the ground, shielding her from the blast.

Rogue smelt burning flesh and looked up, her heart pounding. Logan was hurt, but he was healing. He got to his feet and helped her up. He sniffed the air and looked towards the end of the hallway at a figure standing there.

The figure stepped forward. Rogue put her hands in front of her mouth.

"Remy," she said.

Remy stared blankly at her, his skin gray and black. Armor had been strapped in place around him, obscured beneath a thick black coat. He extended his palm, several glowing cards there. A beam of red light shot them out of his hand. Scott stepped in front of them all, his hand on his goggles.

"Remy, don't-" he started.

Remy lashed out with his foot. Scott barely managed to dodge it as Remy pulled out more cards from his vest. He charged them and sent them flying across the room, blowing up several of the walls.

Rogue was blown back by the impact. She saw, from the other hall, David approaching with Kurt, Rahne, and the Professor in tow. David had one of his father's arms around his shoulders, the other around Kurt's. His face fell when he saw the scene.

Remy turned to him, the cards in his hands lighting up. David flung out his hand and sent him to the end of the hallway. David was breathing hard and Kurt gave him a desperate look. Remy had been their friend for years. Rogue remembered Remy telling her that they had saved his life.

"Marvel!" David yelled.

Jean got to her feet. David pounded his head. Rogue could see the Professor narrow his eyes in concentration. All three looked over at Remy and Rogue felt hope swell in her heart. They could help him. They were all telepaths. They could help him and Max's mother and the man with the wings.

Remy writhed on the ground before lying still. Rogue ventured closer, but then he moved. She took a step back as Remy rose to his feet, magenta light filling his hands. Rogue felt tears in her eyes and despair in her heart. It hadn't worked.