Chapter 21
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Wolverine brought Phoenix back to Xavier's school. By the time they arrived everyone had been informed of Scott and Jean's deaths. They mourned their friends of course. Noone blamed Phoenix, but they still felt weird. Wolverine had to be the one to tell Laura that her mother and her other father weren't coming back. She was three years old, didn't understand anything about death except that two of her parents couldn't be with her anymore. This new person was going to be an adjustment for everyone, but as Wolverine promised Xavier offered to help Phoenix. They would need it, because initial tests showed that Phoenix was far more powerful than either Jean or Scott had ever been. Whatever Sinister did, gave Phoenix great power. And as Ben Riley often quoted "With great power, there must also come great responsibility." There was a memorial service, Kurt said a brief prayer for their souls. They all mourned their lost friends, but they had to move on. The fight to win people's hearts and minds was far from over, there was much work to do.
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Phoenix adapted to the Xmen over the next few weeks and months. They made friends, trained to become a member of the Xmen. One day, a group were watching an old episode of "Star Trek: Voyager" in the rec room. Stanley and Lance were watching this episode as well. In the episode the characters of Tuvok and Neelix were accidentally merged into a single being, who called himself "Tuvix." At first they were unable to separate them, and Tuvix simply had to adapt to his new life. But eventually they figured out how to undo the procedure, but Tuvix did not want to die. Nevertheless captain Janeway forced Tuvix to undergo the procedure, essentially murdering Tuvix. This made Phoenix very angry, they ranted about how these people just murdered Tuvix. The rec room itself started to shake. When Phoenix realized what was happening they calmed down, and apologized to the others in the rec room. Later Lance and Stanley told Xavier what happened.
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Xavier: Phoenix got angry and made the room shake, over an old episode of Star Trek?
Stanley: Yeah. I mean it is a pretty controversial episode, but still.
Xavier: I will speak with Phoenix, try and help them with their anger issues.
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Xavier spoke with Phoenix in private.
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Phoenix: I'm sorry about what happened to the rec room.
Xavier: I don't mind that a television set was destroyed as long as no one was hurt. I don't know if you know this, but Jean Grey had trouble managing her powers at first.
Phoenix: I remember. When mother was in highschool she "accidentally" made some mean girls fall into food in the cafeteria. They used to call her Carrie, and I get the reference.
Xavier: Did you refer to Jean as "Mother?"
Phoenix: Yes. I have the memories of both Jean Grey and Scott Summers. It is easier to think of them as my parents.
Xavier: I can understand that. Why did the Star Trek episode touch a nerve?
Phoenix: I could relate to the character of Tuvix. He was also created from two people, through no fault of his own. And yet they murdered him, no one lifted a finger to help him. I suppose I fear that one day they will do this to me.
Xavier: We won't. I do mourn my friends, but no one blames you. And I will not murder an innocent man, not even to get my friends back.
Phoenix: Logan said the same thing, that you don't trade lives.
Xavier: He was right. I promise you that if it someday comes down to it, we will protect you.
Phoenix: Thank you professor. And I'll work on my anger issues again.
Xavier: Thank you Phoenix.
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When Bishop told Xavier and the Xmen about the future, he couldn't be certain exactly when certain events had happened. But he knew that at some point before Galactus came, after Kelly was assassinated, that the plaque occured. Mutants were blamed, although there was no real evidence of this. Sadly Bishop was no doctor, he couldn't begin to figure out how to stop the plaque from coming. Xavier had hoped that preventing Kelly's assassination, and the subsequent war, might prevent the plaque from coming. War often bred disease. It had been the first world war that brought about the influenza epidemic. That epidemic took the lives of at least 25 million people, and that was at a time when the world population was much lower, when travel between continents was much more difficult. If such a plague were to occur again, the death toll could easily reach over one billion men, women, and children. And this plague did indeed come back. At first it was just a few people. If one person felt too sick to go to school or work it was not suspicious, although some of their parents or employers wondered just how sick they really were. But it soon became apparent that these were not isolated incidents. Within a week hundreds of thousands of people were sick or dying. The World Health Organization declared a global pandemic, and advised people to stay at home and self quarantine as much as possible. President Kelly worked with world leaders to alleviate suffering as much as was possible. With so many people forced to miss work the president and Congress created a safety net, giving people supplemental income, and issuing a temporary moratorium on evictions. Some children were, at first, excited about missing a little school, but remote learning was instituted to keep children from falling behind too much. Nevertheless it was undeniable that the economy and the education system were going to be hit hard by this plague. Essential workers like doctors, police officers, and grocery store workers had to stay at their jobs, and they were given government bonuses for their service during this pandemic. People were now expected to wear face masks when they had to go outside. A few foolish people refused out of stupid pride, or a pathological hatred of some kind of authority. Not surprisingly most of them ended up getting sick and many died. As Xavier had feared many blamed mutants for this plague. They seemed to find it suspicious that it happened just as so many mutants fled to Antarctica, the mutants still in America were often attacked by humans. Anti-mutant bloggers and talk radio were quick to use this opportunity to stir up more hatred, as did a fair number of politicians. These people didn't know, or care, that mutants also got sick and died from this. Dr Hank McCoy was one of the leading doctors to develop a vaccine or cure for this plague, but to the Friends of Humanity this just fueled more hatred. The same people who bamed mutant doctors for abandoning their country when they needed them, would now claim that mutant doctors were part of some conspiracy. Insane conspiracy about how the new vaccines would secretly put government monitoring chips or the mark of the beast in people were gaining traction among mutant haters. They were proud of how they were going to reject the eventual vaccine, not caring about how they might then spread the plague to others. It seemed that at least part of Bishop's dystopian hell was going to come true.
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Lance and Stanley had broken up. He had tried to be there for his beloved, but he had fallen in love with a girl, or at least someone he thought was a girl. He wished Stanley the best, but this was not what he signed up for. Lance still wanted to be a part of the Xmen, still wanted to be the kind of man who was worthy of a great girl. One day, a few weeks after their breakup, Stanley came to see Lance, with some unexpected news.
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Lance: Everything okay?
Stanley: Depends how you look at it I guess, but I do think you deserve to know.
Lance: Sounds important.
Stanley: It is. Do you remember that night, about a month ago?
Lance: You mean when we...? I remember.
Stanley: Well anyway, I'm pregnant. And I you're wondering, yes, I'm having this baby. I realize this wasn't what you expected to hear, but you deserve to know.
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This news was indeed unexpected to Lance. But once the initial shock wore off, he became excited to be a father. The news around the world was far from encouraging, millions could potentially die, and yet here was a new spark of life. Lance hugged Stanley. Whatever came about, they were going to be parents together.