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[Assistant]
Trust
Still on the Scottish mainland, Nate Grey stares at the nearby Muir Island, thinking hard. It is the foremost genetic research center into human mutation, run by Nobel Prize-winning geneticist Dr. Moira MacTaggert. Nate prays she has an answer for him. He is still new on this confusing world and finds he has many questions about his powers. Recently, he met a woman named Rogue, who suggested he go visit Dr Moira, who may help him. Nate intends to do just that, as he takes off via Muir Island.
He does not get the welcome he expected, however, as Britannic meets him the air and brutally hits him. Nate feels the blow in spite of his telekinetic shield. He falls, only to find himself victim of another blow as he nears the ground, this time courtesy of the Russian powerhouse Colossus.
Nate grows irate, as his right eye flare off. He wasn’t looking for a fight but, if these people want to attack him, he’s game. He lets loose a telekinetic blast at Colossus. Suddenly, a girl comes up through the ground, passing right through him. As Shadowcat distracts Nate, Nightcrawler teleports right onto him, finally taking Nate out with a practiced kick to the face. They are joined by Moira MacTaggert, who angrily asks them if they are all mad. This is the boy Rogue rang her about; the one Charles Xavier wants them to help. What made them decide to attack him, she asks accusingly.
Britanic explains that he didn’t know about any of that. They just saw him as an unidentified intruder. And, with some terrorists recently destroying the Houses of Parliament… That was the bloody Hulk, Moira impatiently interrupts him, which he’d know if he monitored the newscast. She orders the heroes to help her carry the boy to the infirmary and then get lost before he wakes up.
Having checked his vitals, Moira patiently waits at his bedside until he snaps awake. Still believing this to be a battle, he powers up, threatening her. Calmly, Moira apologizes, telling him that Excalibur overreacted. She asks him to sit down and the confused boy complies, asking if she is Doctor MacTaggert. Moira tells him that Rogue called her and told her about him, but she’d not time to tell the others of him. Now, how can she help him? Nate explains that he’s heard about the Legacy Virus killing mutants and, sometimes, he’s got these painful headaches and his powers blink on and off or he has trouble controlling them… Moira tells him they’ll find out, but first he needs something to eat.
Elsewhere, a young woman named Threnody reluctantly listens to a holo-transmission of the man she is forced to serve: the mad scientist, Mr Sinister. He asks the young woman what they know about one “Nate Grey”. Threnody feigns ignorance. Sinister decides that they will prepare a search when he returns. He has to be found. As the transmission breaks off. Threnody relaxes in a chair, surrounded by screens showing… Nate Grey. She realizes that Sinister suspects, but is sure that he won’t act on his suspicions yet. She will be free and Nate Grey will be her ticket to getting and staying that way.
Back at Muir Island, Mora conducts all kinds of tests on Nate, who is strapped into some apparatus. The young boy has to fight the urge to strike out, as the machine reminds him of the slave pens, which held him captive for his entire life. But he restrains the impulse, reminding himself that this is not that world and that Dr MacTaggert is trying to help him. He forces himself to relax and trust.
Moira, on the other hand, is confronting an unknown being. Although his bio-signature resembles Cable, she has to believe Xavier’s assurances that the boy is neither Cable nor his evil clone, Stryfe, who is responsible for the Legacy Virus that is slowly killing her. However, Nate reminds her o her own son, Kevin, Proteus, who was consumed by his immense power. She tells herself that Nate is not Kevin, but what she sees makes her fear. Meanwhile, outside the lab, Excalibur’s youngest member, Moira’s foster daughter, Wolfsbane, watches in amazement: she s visibly attracted to Nate.
Moira asks Nate to step down. While he clearly isn’t suffering from Legacy, there are still some readings she cannot figure out. She’d like to run some more tests the next day. An angry Rory Campell, Moira’s lab assistant, walks in and tells Rahne to leave. Moira told all of Excalibur to stay clear of the lab. Stepping outside, Nate senses something else and asks what is behind the locked door. No business of his, Rory grimly states. Moira asks him not to mind Rory and asks him to take a walk with her. There’s something she’d like him to see.
Moira brings him out to see the sunset, but it’s Rahne sitting in the sunset that draws Nate from Moira’s side. Nate introduces himself and sits down beside her on the cliff, asking her if this is a favorite spot of hers. Rahne ells him that, when she was younger, Mora would sometimes bring her here to tell her all kinds of ancient tales about shipwrecks and lost treasures. It’s funny how she could believe in those stories then. Sometimes she’d close her eyes and see it in her mind what it would be like to discover such a treasure. Would she still like to, Nate asks and offers her hand. Hesitatingly she takes it and holding on to her Nate takes off.
Moira watches them sadly. Nate reminds her so much of her own son. So much power wasn’t meant for one so young. She wonders if she will be able to help him any more than she could help Kevin. She doesn’t know if she can bear having her heart broken a second time, but she will try.
At the bottom of the sea, Nate concentrates separating the masses of water around them. Rahne notices that his nose is bleeding from the strain. He tells her it is nothing and points out the shipwreck. Rahne transforms into her human shape, as she gazes in wonder.
As evening steals in, Moira finishes sifting through her data. Having come to a disheartening conclusion, she calls Charles Xavier to discuss her findings with him: Her readings indicate that Nate is going to die! Maybe he’ll last until he’s 21, but not with the kind of stress he keeps on putting on his body. His power is eating him alive and there is nothing anyone can do about it. All the more reason to try and help him, Xavier decides. He cannot do it, as Nate does not trust him, so it must be Moira. He hates to ask this of her given her pain over, Proteus, Phoenix, her own failing health… Moira agrees as she cuts off the transmission. It’s a hard path but one she knows very well. She’ll do what she can.
Nate, in the meantime, is snooping around in the areas of the complex they didn’t want him to see. He felt another mind tapped in there and intends to check this out. Telekinetically, he bypasses the security measures without tripping any alarms. Alarms, however, go off in Nate’s mind, as he sees a row of empty cages. He is reminded of the mutant-holding pens from Apocalypse’s world that still haunt his dreams and his heart sickens. All the cells are vacant, save one; the one housing the former Acolyte named Spoor. Nate asks why he’s here. Spoor offers he’ll tell Nate if he lets him out. Nate wants information first. Spoor senses that Nate knows what it’s like to be a prisoner. He hints that there are lots of cells down here – what does Nate think they were used for? The place is a mutagenic test facility and he is the last lab rat. They experiment on mutants till there is nothing left to experiment on.
 Nate’s confused. Spoor is not being totally honest and, yet, he senses that he isn’t completely lying either. Spoor continues, claiming that Excalibur are sell-outs who are preying on their own kind to keep their skins intact. They got him and they’ll get Nate too, unless they help each other.
Nate wants to hear MacTaggert’s side of it and goes to face her in the lab. Angrily, he tells her that he has seen Spoor and demands what this place is really about. Before Moira can answer, Nate simply forces himself into Moira’s mind. He finds traces of her most recent memories and concerns and they explode in him like a bombshell. Moira begs him to let her explain. Angrily, he powers up crying “Explain what?” That she’s been talking to Xavier? Reporting on him? That she’s afraid of him? That she’s saying he ‘s going to die now? She’d said before that he was going to live! She’s betrayed him!
Moira tries to explain: she’d only told him that he didn’t have the Legacy Virus. This is something else. She tells him that he only caught a glimpse in her mind and asks him not to lose control. Sitting outside, Colossus and Nightcrawler rise in shock as Moira’s lab explodes.


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[Assistant]
The Hunted Below
(Paris)
Threnody runs through the sewers beneath Paris. Normally, it is humans who hound people like her but, today, people of her own kind are in pursuit. She realizes what she has done is stupid. She thought she was so clever, slipping away from Sinister before he had any idea what she was up to. Unfortunately, Sinister doesn’t let anyone walk away from his service. He had her pegged before she took a step.
Threnody had hinged everything on getting to know this ‘unknown’ new mutant; Nate Grey. She thought she could get him to help her. She doesn’t know why she thought of him, and not Beast or the X-Men. She sorta feels a connection to him, like she can trust him. She knows that Nate is somewhere in Paris, but she hasn’t had time to locate him. Now, Sinister’s hounds, his cloned Marauders, are on her trail and she’s scared. Arclight can hear her splashing through the dregs society has flushed into the sewers, and senses a kill.
Above, on the rooftops, sits Nate Grey. Like Threnody, he feels he was a fool. The way he lashed out at Dr. MacTaggert and the rest of Excalibur like that… he might have killed someone. If they hadn’t opened their minds to him, daring him to face the truth, he might have. Mind you, a few of them believed he was some sort of terrorist when he showed up. He guesses he was, once. Another time, another world, but not here. He wonders who he can trust. Whom does he believe?
Rogue? A woman who, on his world, actually led the X-Men. Moira MacTaggert? She seems genuinely concerned about his well being. If only she wasn’t so close to Xavier. Then there’s Madelyne, who he came back to Paris to find. She is the only person he can turn to and she is out of his reach, lost somewhere. He thinks about when Xavier attacked him. Did he just overreact during that situation? Dark Beast wanted him to side with him. He said they were from the same world. If he hadn’t been so forceful and attacked him as well, he may have joined him.
Maybe it doesn’t matter, he thinks, as he looks at the city below. Moira’s tests indicate that he’s going to die before he’s twenty-one. His own power is consuming him. There’s news he could have lived without. Just where is Madelyne, when he needs her, and why can’t he locate her using psi-scans? Maybe, he considers, she is no longer in Paris.
Suddenly, there is a large explosion below and a plume of smoke rises to his rooftop location. Nate picks up someone’s thoughts, calling him from below, so he drops to the ground. Whoever it is, they are scared and trapped below ground. In the sewers, Threnody calls for him to help her, as she is hotly pursued by the rampaging Marauders. Prism taunts her by asking if she thinks Sinister really wants her back, or is he going to allow them to have some fun. Nate hears the name, Sinister, and now knows that Sinister is alive, on this world.
He discovers the Marauders and orders them to turn around. He doesn’t know what their gripe is with the girl, but if they work for Sinister then there’s just one question. Where is he? He tells them that he is responsible for countless deaths, including those of his friends. Blockbuster warns him that he’s come on the wrong scene at the wrong time. Nate doesn’t hesitate in unleashing a telekinetic assault on the hulking Marauder.
His team mates soon back him up and Scalphunter says that it seems like the ‘little geek’ has more to him than they first thought. Blockbuster adds that they have more and they’ll kill him. Nate feels they need some sense pounding into them and he’ll be happy to oblige. He attacks them with a flurry of loose masonry from the tunnels, so Arclight tells the others to stand behind her and Blockbuster. She hammers her fist into the ground to create a shockwave, which spins Nate straight onto his back.
Scrambler wastes no time in leaping on Nate and grabbing his head. His power scrambles other people’s talents, and he toys with Nate’s. Threnody warns him not to do that. He doesn’t know what he’s playing with. Above ground, an engineer is placing barricades around an open sewer access tunnel, when the whole street is rocked by a massive explosion from below ground. Policemen and passers-by flee for their lives, as flames shoot out through the gaps in the asphalt.
Meanwhile, not far away, Madelyne Pryor stands on a balcony, looking across town, taking in the night air. She spots the light from the explosion and wonders what it could be. Selene tells her never to mind. Madelyne turns, not exactly happy that Selene has read her mind. Selene tells her that she enjoys using her gift from time to time. She adds that Madelyne is far too precious to get involved in the dangers of the outside world. At least for now, she adds, inwardly. As you wish, Madelyne replies, still wondering what’s going on across the city. Selene leads her back inside and informs her that she is her treasured pearl, and, one day soon, the world will be their oyster.
Back in the sewers, Nate recovers from the unleashing of so much energy. The Marauders lie in the ruins of the tunnel, but Threnody is okay and she helps Nate to his feet. She leads him away and he tells her that he doesn’t run away from fights. “You do if you wanna live,” she replies. The Marauders regain some semblance of order and discover Scrambler’s dead body. Prism creates some light and the remaining Marauders head after their quarry.
Emerging into a large opening in the tunnel system, Nate asks Threnody who she is, and why the Marauders are after her. She informs him that people have called her a lot of things, but the only name that seems to have stuck is Threnody, like in the song of mourning. As for the Marauders, Sinister sent them after her. She couldn’t bear to be used by him any longer. She points him to a side tunnel and thinks that it’ll maybe throw their pursuers off a little. Nate asks her to hold up a second, but she says they haven’t time. Nate insists they must make time. He doesn’t like being manipulated by anyone, including her, so she shouldn’t push it.
He catches his breath and tells her that the only thing he seems to know is that Sinister is involved in all of this. He thought Sinister was dead. He asks her just what is going on here. Threnody agrees to cooperate. She knows he can verify what she says with a psi-scan, but asks him not to go sticking his mind where it isn’t wanted.
Threnody explains that she’s a mutant, just like him, but she never had any success controlling her powers. In the end, she became overwhelmed and crazy. She could sense people dying all over the world, especially mutants who were suffering from the Legacy Virus. Their agony would well up inside her. She could feel every cell dying in their bodies and that pain would build up to the point where it made her lose her mind. That’s when she met the X-Men. She also met Sinister, who promised he could stop her pain. She was so desperate that she agreed to let him help, and the X-Men reluctantly entrusted her to his care.
Sinister ‘fixed’ her. She continues to inform Nate that she doesn’t know exactly what he did, but it worked, and at least the voices and the pain stopped. Once again, she was sane but she was stuck in Sinister’s servitude. He had her locate mutants suffering from the virus and keep an eye on mutants who weren’t. Over time, she grew to despise him and his twisted desire to manipulate others. She waited for the right time to break away, and that time is now.
As they continue wandering through the labyrinth of tunnels, Nate mentions that he heard her call out earlier, and asks how she knew who he was. Threnody replies that she was aware of him the moment he landed on Earth, as she was aware of all things. Nate asks if Sinister knows he is here. No, she replies. He doesn’t know exactly who he is, as she kept all knowledge of him hidden. Why? asks Nate. Threnody tells him that she didn’t want to see him fall into anyone’s hands; to be used as he has used so many others including herself. Nate smiles with the knowledge that he at least has the element of surprise over Sinister.
The Marauders come to an opening themselves, with several offshoots heading in several directions. Prism wonders if they should split up into teams but, before an answer is forthcoming, Scalphunter feels some unseen force pull the trigger on his gun. He warns Riptide and Prism to get out of the way, but only Riptide makes it. Prism is killed instantly and Scalphunter is also killed in an explosion. Nate and Threnody watch from a dark recess. She asks if he did that, and Nate asks her to speak with her thoughts so they don’t hear them. All he used was a little telekinesis; then he blew Scalp’s cartridge case.
The Marauders are reeling. Three of their number lie dead, and Vertigo doesn’t plan on being next. Nate appears out of nowhere and asks Arclight if she’s looking for anyone in particular. She aims a punch at him, putting her whole body into the punch. Nate, it seems, is simply a telepathic mirage,and Arclight’s punch instead finds Blockbuster’s chest on the receiving end. The power of the punch sends him flying backwards, smashing the giant against a tunnel wall. Vertigo deduces that it must have been a telepathic trick, which means Nate’s playing games. He has to be in visual contact somewhere nearby. She stands and unleashes her own powers into the darkness. The result does indeed confuse Nate and Threnody, and their hiding place is discovered.
Now in the open, the Marauders close in for the kill. Nate struggles to his feet. He informs them that knocking him down isn’t knocking him out. As much as he would rather not do this, they leave him with no choice. He takes telepathic control of Riptide and forces him to spin uncontrollably; his shurikens rocketing outwards with every turn. They slice their way through his two comrades with ease. With only Riptide left, Nate bends down and takes hold of him. Threnody now realizes that Nate’s power is so extraordinary; it’s no wonder Sinister is so keen on looking for him.
Nate tells Threnody that he’ll allow Riptide to live. He’ll send him back to Sinister with a psychic implant. From this day forth, Riptide will not truly recall what happened here. What he will believe has happened is that the Marauders found Threnody alone. The others were lost in battle and only he survived. As far as Sinister is concerned, the woman known as Threnody no longer exists. If he should fight the implant even for a second, Riptide’s mind will explode, destroying him instantly.
It’s all over. With their opponents finished, they are free to do as they wish. Threnody asks Nate what his plans are and he says he’s going to find a friend of his who is greatly missed. “Mind if I tag along?” she asks. “Suit yourself,” replies Nate.
A short time later, another mutant travels along the fetid labyrinth, searching for the young man that has unmistakably passed through the tunnels. Cable comes across Vertigo’s body and recognizes his psychic residue. He’s close, real close. For the sake of Charles Xavier and the X-Men, for the sake of the entire world, he won’t stop until he finds him.


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[Assistant]
Fallen from grace
(Switzerland)
After his safe house exploded, moments ago, Cable has emerged intact. Looking at energy flares emanating from the other side of a small snowy ridge, he realizes that he isn’t the only survivor. He finally managed to track Nate Grey, halfway around the world, a man almost identical to himself. Now that he has found him, unless he is sorely mistaken, Nate is in real trouble.
On the other side of the ridge, Exodus and Nate are fighting. Exodus, once the right hand of Magneto, desires psionic energy and attacks Nate in order to get it. It’s exactly what Cable was afraid of. From what he’s seen already, Nate exhibits all his psionic and telekinetic potential, and then some, only unchecked by the techno-virus Cable himself carries. At full strength, Exodus once walked through X-Force without breaking a sweat. He also nearly obliterated the island of Genosha in one fell swoop, slaughtering humans and mutants indiscriminately. Now, Exodus is drained and desperate and Cable dreads to think what he could do with Nate’s power.
Cable’s main concern switches to a localized avalanche, brought about by the battle. He erects a psi-shield to protect him, whilst Exodus and Nate continue their battle unabated. Nate feels that Exodus is wasting his time, as he has the speed of thought on his side, but Exodus tells him he could hardly be more wrong. His every psychic effort expends precious forces that feed his ravenous appetite, and refuel his ravaged form. Nate takes stock of this and decides upon a more physical approach. He gives his opponent a powerful left uppercut that sends Exodus sprawling.
Threnody rushes over to Nate, who is in agony but not from any injuries inflicted by Exodus. Cable is close and this affects him, by causing a constant pounding in his head. He’s also bleeding again and Threnody knows he needs to get out of there. She doesn’t think Cable is their main concern. She knows of Exodus and that he feeds on life, just as she feeds on death. She won’t lose Nate to it.
(Paris)
Selene’s home is currently host to her new ally, Madelyne Pryor. She is in the kitchen with Selene’s maid, Ella, preparing some food. Madelyne enjoys cooking, which allows her to relax. Her mind wanders and Nate’s image soon comes to the fore. She can’t seem to think of anything, or anybody, since they met. Her distraction causes her to be careless with the kitchen knife and she slices the palm of her right hand. Blood oozes from it and Ella heads off to find some bandages. Madelyne looks at her hand and thinks it’s strange that, although her hand now hurts terribly, it didn’t until she noticed it. It didn’t even bleed to start with, almost as if…. Madelyne doesn’t understand, but something is very strange.
(Switzerland)
Cable emerges from under the minor avalanche covered in snow. Blaquesmith has arrived and he telepathically comments that time has been both friend and foe to Cable, and now he continues to waste it with such alarming abandon. Cable orders him out of his head. He is well aware what needs to be done. He brushes the snow from his body and prepares to deal with Exodus. Blaquesmith, however, has other plans. He wants Nathan to deal with the boy, not Exodus. He really doesn’t like the thought of Nate’s existence.
Nate and Threnody head away from the battleground, taking advantage of Exodus’ temporary incapacitation. Threnody tells Nate that they can’t allow either Cable or Exodus to ride up their heels, until they can come up with some kind of edge. As the sentence drips from her mouth, she notices something shining beside a tree, half covered in snow. She picks it up. It’s Cable’s really big gun, and it’s even heavier than it looks. Nate takes hold of it and reckons the size is right for him; fits like a glove, in fact, but it’s not his style. When it comes down to raw power and strength, he prefers to rely on himself.
A voice from above distracts Nate. “And I promise to relish each and every ounce, otherworlder.” Nate looks up to see the descending figure of Exodus right above him. He lands with both feet on Nate’s head, crunching him into the snow. Threnody grabs the gun back and shoots, the recoil throwing her backwards, but Exodus deflects her blast with a telekinetic wall. Immediately, he grabs her by the neck and tells her that the fire within her will fuel those within him. Before he can act, Nate recovers and uses his folded elbow to hammer Exodus’s face into a nearby tree. “In case you hadn’t noticed,” he tells the age-old villain, “the lady’s still using that life-essence.”
The pair of them go hard at it, hand to hand, but their psionic powers accompany their physical ones. Energy flares spark off in every direction, as they struggle with each other. Threnody looks on in horror. She knows that the battle itself sustains Exodus, and Nate’s barrelling right into a trap. She considers fleeing, but Cable appears behind her and demands his gun back. Threnody hasn’t the time to argue, before Cable removes it from her hands. Blaquesmith is with him and he telepathically calls for Cable to eliminate the boy first. Cable isn’t going to comply on his say-so and, instead, fires at Exodus. The bullets never meet their target, as they are deflected in the same way as Threnody’s attempt was earlier.
Exodus thinks the two of them are fascinating. Overlapping psi-patterns; analogous, yet singularly specific to each other, creating an interference wave of sorts. A mental echo, if you will. He assumes it must cause them both some discomfort and he is correct. Both Nate and Cable feel the pounding that their close proximity to each other brings on.
Blaquesmith uses his level-headedness to bring the battle to a temporary halt. He informs Cable that Exodus belongs to the living Apocalypse, and his dark night to come. He bears the marks on his brow. Nonetheless, he still wants Cable to prioritize Nate Grey. Cable has other ideas. He telepathically calls for Nate to let him in to his mind, for both their sakes. He insists they can do this together and push past the noise and confusion. Nate tells him to forget it. He fights the only way he knows how… alone. Cable replies that he doesn’t have to anymore. He shouldn’t. Cable learned that the hard way, and reminds Nate that they’re two sides of the same scarred coin.
Exodus is listening to their telepathic conversation, his power being the last legacy of Apocalypse. To Nate, his opponent’s connection to the hated Apocalypse condemns him, and he ups his attack. Cable sees that the situation is out of control. He barely had time to break contact with Nate before he went off the scale.
Hovering several meters in the air, Nate and Exodus fight furiously, and Exodus asks if it can be possible, that a being of so much power and potential can exist - yet hardly be tapped. Nate’s anger comes from the fact that his own world was bloodied and broken by the being Exodus represents. Cable and Threnody can only see the situation worsening. Nate’s going critical on them, shoving power down Exodus’s throat to see how much he can handle. Even Blaquesmith now sees that they are nowhere near prepared for Nate. It’s too soon for them.
Nate manages to push Exodus to his limits and he hovers, with Exodus’s battered body held aloft. “The innocent need never fear again, the demon lord,” he cries, as he throws Exodus into a deep crevice in the mountain. Exodus screams, as he plummets into the darkness. Nate extends an arm, and telekinetically drags the stone walls at either side of the crevice towards the other, closing the gap above Exodus. Threnody now sees Nate’s true power and wonders if she swapped Sinister, the devil she knew, for Nate, the devil she doesn’t.
Blaquesmith speaks telepathically to Nathan. It is worse than he feared; than he dare voice. The dark night descends, no dawn to follow if the atrocity arises. Nate turns, his face distorted with fury. “If! Psi-worm?!” he cries. “You distrust me, fear me - each one of you for reasons all your own, just like every spoiled man, woman and child I’ve run into on this unspoiled sphere. Every little mind I’ve touched. And I’ve only just begun…”


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[Assistant]
Turning Point
(Nate’s dream)
For the first time in far too many months, the wanderer knows exactly where he is. Nate Grey recognizes this world without a future, this land of little light and less color. As he steps carefully through some ruins, he remembers it as a place of purpose and meaning to him; a place familiar with friends and would-be family. Sitting on some debris, Nate comes across an all-too familiar face and can’t believe it when the man removes his hood. Something is wrong here, and oh so very right.
Sitting in front of him is Forge, but not the Forge of this world. This is the man he knew in his own time, in the Age of Apocalypse. Nate can’t help but contain his excitement. He tells Forge that it’s so good to see him again. Nate believes he has just snapped out of a long and protracted dream, too weird and too long for his liking about some other Earth, totally out of whack. But, the place had some potential, he admits.
Forge replies that his first mistake, as usual, is assuming that reality is what it appears to be. This is the dream, he tells Nate, as they hug one another. Nate asks what he is talking about. He can feel Forge. He is solid in his grip. Forge asks if he taught him nothing. His dreams, at least, are as real as he wants them to be. To one as thick-headed and thick-skinned as he insists on being, of course, that ability proves both blessing and curse. He continues to inform Nate that it is as it always has been. Be in control, or be controlled. Nate will ever be a target of those who would misuse his powerful potential, as well as a pawn of his own painful passions. As Forge’s image begins to disappear, he adds that this will be the case, until Nate finally learns to listen, and listens to learn.
Nate Grey wakes up and finds himself recumbent, with Madelyne Pryor lying beside him. She asks who Forge is and what she looks like. Nate explains that, for a second, he thought he was back with his teacher, his father for all intents, on the world where they… Madelyne says it was just a dream, like any other. Nate rubs his forehead and remembers that she disappeared on him recently; he’s sure of that. There were also some others, another girl… Madelyne leans over and places her ruby-red lips close to his. “In that case champ, maybe I’m the dream.”
(Reality, Switzerland)
Nate wakes up for real this time, with Threnody’s lips stuck to his own. ‘Just a dream,’ he thinks, while Threnody thinks it’s a dream come true, for both of them she hopes. The telepathic channel they share will take some getting used to, and she’s not sure if she’ll ever be able to send thoughts to him as well.
Nate opens his eyes and his head jerks back with a start. She welcomes him back to the land of the living, and welcomes him to the real world. Where? he asks. She explains that they’re in a ski lodge near the Swiss border, converted to a makeshift Red Cross station. Rescue teams had brought them in with the rest of the injured after the quake and the avalanche he caused. Around them, more than a dozen other people rest or are being treated, some for minor scratches, others with a more serious condition.
Nate asks uncertainly if he did all this. Threnody assures him that he did all he had to in order to survive. He did whatever it took to stop Exodus and save them all from his ugly little appetite for life. She explains that Blaquesmith and Cable were the ones who wouldn’t let it go, who kept hounding him. Nate informs her that Cable claimed that he was… him, older, wiser and true to this reality. How can he be sure of anything anymore, anyone, even Threnody herself? After all, he says, she told him that she served Sinister, an expert in the art of manipulation. Threnody replies that this was never by choice; and then she found Nate. “A weapon to protect you from his wrath,” Nate replies through gritted teeth, psionic energy slowly building in his young body.
Threnody doesn’t care for being accused like this, and says she thought of him as another scared kid, actually, who seemed to need her as much as she needed him. Nate says he needs the truth, nothing else. How does he know that Sinister is not using her to get to him? How does she know? In an instant, Nate Grey has entered Threnody’s fragile mind.
(Threnody’s mind)
He delves slowly, past some artificial resistance at the edges. Her inherent mental defenses are weak, unnaturally thin, a mind focusing all its strength and shields on the battle within. She has the mind of a mutant who lives on death; literally feeding on each and every breath of the dying. He mentally calls her name, but she can’t hear him over the echo of screams in this madhouse. He sees scores of tortured faces, the shadows of blood and bones, with Sinister’s face dead center.
He can feel Threnody under there somewhere, buried alive. She can’t stop moving, not for a second, like a shark, or she’ll drown in this madness. As he searches for her, he finds himself caught up in her pain, which cuts him deep, sweeping him away. He concentrates hard and pulls himself out of her mind, leaving the pair of them physically weakened by the experience. That was too close for comfort and too soon for Nate after his last round of head games. He’s exhausted already, but Threnody’s actually in shock, as if she just switched off somehow to avoid dragging him down with her.
He leans against the wall and berates himself for taking such a risk with her fragile psyche. Is he becoming what Forge always feared: impulsive and dangerous? He never suspected the depths of her dementia, had never known another mind like that. He wonders if that is the full face of insanity. He stands and walks over to her, crouching in front of her as she slowly recovers her energy. He wonders if that is what it is like inside her head all the time. Puppet or pawn of Sinister, he would use them both; that much they do share.
Nate looks at one of the strange device on her forehead and reaches out for it. He thinks he’s come to know the strings of the puppet master, and he’s learning how to pluck the…..
Threnody has only the time to utter the faintest of warnings before half the ski-lodge explodes in a ball of flame and smoke, sending them hurtling both skywards. Nate’s last gasp is consumed by the impossible effort of survival. As debris rains down on the lodge, Nate and Threnody are thrown far out into the snow-covered forest, landing ungraciously with a thump.
(Paris)
Maddie Pryor enjoys a luxurious bath. Not so long ago, she was believed deceased, so how can this be her? She relishes the scent of lemon and roses sharing the air with the strains of Tchaikovsky; warm bubbles tickling her skin and tingling her scalp. Beside her is a sparkling Bordeaux from her absentee hostess’s own vineyard. Nothing but the best for a guest of Selene. She finds herself drifting asleep when she is interrupted by the maid, Ella. She’s brought some new bandages to dress her wounds.
Maddie leans forward and offers her hand, but says that it’s nothing to be concerned with. Ella takes her hand and removes the old bandage, as Maddie explains that she hasn’t had any problems with it since she bandaged it in the first place. Ella is shocked to discover that Maddie’s hand is perfect, without the slightest hint of a scar. Madelyne becomes a little defensive and orders her to leave. Ella scuttles away, replying that she’ll meet her in the wardrobe. She steps from the bath and wonders how she does that. Why does she keep letting her force her to face the difficult questions? When and where did she learn to speak French, for starters?  She looks at herself in the mirror and wonders about her past; about the people and places she can’t seem to recall, about her life, her past. In fact, absolutely everything she knew before she met Nate Grey!
(Switzerland)
Nate lies unconscious, as Threnody climbs to her feet. She calls him an idiot. That little invasion of privacy released every iota of death charge she’d been building since her last purge, wholly unchecked by Sinister’s neuro-locks. She looks down at Nate. It appears it took all he had to funnel the force of her blast straight up and out of the lodge, shunting it away from the innocents inside, whilst taking the brunt of it himself. What a waste, she thinks, as she wanders off into the forest.
She stops and turns. Somehow, she finds that the normal easy abandon she’s used to doesn’t come so easy all of a sudden; not with Grey. She returns for him, thinking that maybe it’s because he really touched her, in her mind at least, and she’s not so easily touched. Maybe, she thinks, it’s because he’s the first to survive the experience, and she needs that kind of strength now more than he can know. Maybe he is the only one who can save her.
(Elsewhere)
Monsters come in many forms, from every time and place. Holocaust hails from a world that never was and he comes with power to burn. Before him is Sebastian Shaw, with his ever faithful assistant, Tessa, by his side. Holocaust asks if their mission was successful and Shaw replies that their overseas mission went as planned. He notices that Holocaust is familiarizing himself with his resources, from information to technology. They are always at his disposal, of course, Shaw reminds him. Tessa picks up a new image in Holocaust’s thoughts, something big…huge!
With a start, they both turn and see the looming silhouette of Onslaught staring back at them. Shaw instinctively lashes out, but his attack has little or no effect. Onslaught grabs him by the face and drags him towards him through a doorway, away from Tessa. Shaw has no idea how he managed to breach his estate’s perimeters without him knowing. Tessa telepathically orders Onslaught to release him. She notices that Onslaught’s psi-shields are polished, indeed reflecting probes and protecting his identity. She tries to use a tempered psi-lance to pierce his mental smoke and mirrors, but as she tries, Onslaught’s power is too much for her and she collapses from the backlash.
Holocaust is impressed, but Onslaught says Holocaust is afraid. He knows him for exactly what he is. They have faced a common foe and share an interest in his limited future. He commands Holocaust to bring him the boy named Nate Grey, and he shall know power beyond his wildest dreams. He offers only the merest taste of what’s to come.
(Greece, one week later)
Nate sits on a beach, enjoying the relaxed atmosphere. Unbelievable, he thinks. Forge had told him all about Europe and how it was the last great haven for humanity on their world. He never imagined it had such a rich history and serenity. Threnody had all but carried him here from Switzerland, which has given him some time to recover and to think things through. He still hasn’t figured out how to thank her; not sure he can, really. He wonders if he will even get the chance. He nearly overloaded his body and mind in his struggle against Exodus and Cable. He might have died then if Cable hadn’t saved him. Why did he do that? Nate wonders. Didn’t he realize he was just going to die anyway?
Threnody calls his name and runs across the beach having been for a swim in the Mediterranean Sea. She like the fact that his camo-field hides her headgear from everyone on the beach and Nate apologizes for not thinking about it earlier. She wants Nate to have some fun. He should be enjoying the sun, the water, and her for that matter. She asks why he’s always so serious. Nate replies that he’s going to die. Threnody says he won’t if he keeps his power in check. Nate thinks that she isn’t too surprised to find out but Threnody explains that she can sense people dying. That’s her mutant power. She sensed it in him when he fought Exodus and she’s never been so frightened in her life.
She seats herself beside him and adds that this is the reason she brought him to Greece; she can help him. Here, he can relax, let his guard down and figure things out for himself. He has plenty of power to be sure, but he’ll have to use it wisely, or he’ll burn out just that much quicker. She compares him to Cable, who has the same power. Look how old he is. She stands and heads for the water again, asking him to just listen to what she’s saying, for his own sake. She asks if he’s going to join her in the water and he replies that he’ll be there in a minute.
While she enjoys the warm waters, a shadow falls over Nate’s body as he lies down and closes his eyes. Maybe she’s right, he thinks. The dream he had about Forge; is this what he was trying to tell him? Is he letting his impulsiveness get the best of him? He figures that Threnody has convinced him to think before he acts and, in doing so, he may very well be saving his own life. However, he feels that it’s gonna be easier said than done. Behind him, his psionic presence shielded from Nate Grey, the ominous armored form of Holocaust stands, ready to strike.


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[Assistant]
Survivors of the Storm
(Flashback)
Nate Grey arrived on this Earth from a different time and place, a place where Apocalypse reigned and humanity suffered in his wake. By thrusting a shard of the M’kraan Crystal into the chest of Holocaust, his own world ended and he was mysteriously transported elsewhere. There are moments when he allows himself to wonder if that cold and colorless place, more shadow than light, was only a nightmare. More often, Nate suspects that this is the dream. For the first time ever, he prays that it is. The very sight of the impossible being before him evokes the all-too-familiar sound of shouts and screams shattering the long night. He can smell the sickening stench of burnt and broken bodies on the breeze; the bitter taste of blood in the air.
(Present - Greece)
He stands and sees Holocaust bearing down on him; Holocaust, who, like himself, shouldn’t really be here. Holocaust explains that he tracked him down to this island paradise. Nate’s expression alone is worth abandoning the advantage of surprise. Now that he has his attention, he smashes Nate with his huge fists and sends him hurtling across the beach, to the horror of sun-worshippers enjoying themselves on the sand. Using his telekinesis to prevent the rocks from smashing his young body, Nate slowly gets to his feet, telling the shocked onlookers that he has psionically shunted the brunt of the rock fall, but the butcher won’t hesitate to cut everyone down, like…
“Chattel of course,” adds Holocaust, as he unleashes a burst of bio-nuclear microwave energy from his armor. “You can’t mean to tell me you’ve become attached to them here as well, boy; such small and fragile playthings.” The blast destroys the rocks further, forcing Nate to extend his own power to protect the innocents around him.
A mere moment ago, Threnody was relaxing in the warm currents, drifting peacefully around the cove, when, being a rare breed of mutant with the ability to sense the energies of the dying, she suddenly sensed a great deal of pain, pulsing through every vein in her body. She is empathically connected to death’s dark side, and she screams. Believing Nate down for the count, Holocaust telepathically contacts Onslaught and informs him that his job is done and that he will deliver the boy to him.
To his surprise, Nate shouts over, asking who dares share his telepathic call. He telekinetically blasts the rock from above him and, carrying a woman in his arms, he emerges from underneath them, surrounded by numerous bodies. He asks who would answer for the near-death of this innocent woman. Holocaust replies that it’s the one who sent him, the one who shields him from Nate’s so-called psi-scans. His employer is interested in him and him alone. He’s the one who gets to reel him in. Nate grimaces. He barely had time to erect a TK shield around everyone and can’t tell if they’re all okay.
He looks into the air and sees Holocaust high above him. He lays the woman on the beach and informs Holocaust that these are people; human beings one and all with lives and loves they’ll never know about. They are not pawns in some perverse game. He flies at Holocaust and orders him to keep away from them. Nate’s speed appears to catch Holocaust by surprise.
Threnody staggers onto the beach, recovering from the sudden surge of death energy. She sees the beach and realizes something awful has happened. She starts running and calls Nate’s name, seeing only an outstretched arm hanging lifelessly from a pile of rock.
(Paris)
Despite the drizzle, Paris still shines. To avoid the shimmer and shine of the city of lights, one seeks shelter behind closed doors. Inside the house of Selene, shadows linger, silence echoes and from the oddly Romanesque halls to the sumptuously appointed guest chambers. It stands dark and still. The mutant mistress of immortality has been a long time gone now and, in her absence, she has uninvited visitors.
Madelyne Pryor carries a lamp to light her way through the old house, followed closely by the maid, Ella. She knows this manse better than she knows herself; literally. Her past is a puzzle, shrouded in questions and confusion about her very existence before meeting Nate Grey. In the weeks she has lived here, Madelyne has explored every inch of her horizons, accompanied by Ella. She is pleasantly surprised to find very few boundaries she could not cross. The locked door before her, however, is a mystery, finally demanding to be solved.
She smashes the lock and enters, gasping at the scene of horror that greets her. Ella tells her that they shouldn’t be there and she should never have shared the secret of her employer’s concealed staircase. They must leave now, as she is coming. A noise gets Madelyne’s attention but she dismisses it as the wind, picking through the cracks in the rotten wood. She is wrong.
“Party’s over girls,” comes a voice from inside the room, “Selene has returned.” Selene smiles as she looks right at the two women, surrounded by a host of bodies whose life has been sucked right out of them. She informs Madelyne that she is at the height of her powers, brimming with the collective life-essence of an entire clan of Externals. However, she adds, a dark tempest grows on the horizon, promising turmoil and tumult, unmatched in all her centuries on this plane. Her heir apparent must mark her path through these dark times ahead if they are to survive.
(Greece)
Nate Grey and Holocaust continue their battle unabated, high in the air. Nate attacks, but it has little effect on Holocaust’s armor. His foe tries to explain that their mistake on this world was working against each other. They are wasting their energies. Powers like theirs, combined, can be used to wash away all the troubles and strife that plague these pathetic flatscans of his. Nate vehemently replies, “Never, Holocaust!” adding that he will never allow him, or his demon-sire to purge life on this planet, in more rivers of human blood.  Holocaust fizzles with power and tells him he has become quite a confident young man. He informs Nate that he no longer serves the Apocalypse he once knew. A new alliance has been forged. He told him Nate was dying, consumed by the fires within. Nate is smashed down and plummets to the ground amidst an ancient ruin. He uses a TK shield to cushion his fall, but still hits the rock with force. As he drops, Holocaust tells him that the man behind the mask of Onslaught would save Nate from himself.
While all this is going on, Threnody comes across a woman lying amongst a pile of shattered rocks. She asks her to take it easy as the woman groans. She looks like she has a couple of broken ribs and maybe even a broken arm. Threnody tells her she needs a hospital, but the woman is more concerned with her husband. He lies nearby, crushed under a larger rock. Threnody moves across to him and notices that he reeks of death. It assaults her senses on an almost physical level the closer she gets. He sounds like he’s in unimaginable pain and, as she reaches out, her eyes light up.
(Paris)
Madelyne is dressed in a new black costume. Black thigh-length boots with violet collars and black tights with a violet waistband are matched by the top and gloves. A gold chain belt completes the look. She explains to Ella that she was shocked upon seeing the dead guests at first, but she could hardly call them prisoners, as they were behind a door, unlocked from within. They were simply guests of Selene’s that outstayed their welcome, just as she said. They were drowned in wine and soft satin, each and every face enrapt. They were victims of their own desire, from all appearances. Ella reluctantly agrees, but adds that as with so much else in the shadow of Mistress Selene however, appearances can so often be….
Selene interjects. “Captivating.” She hopes she didn’t interrupt anything, but she was eager to see if she’d made the right selection. She checks out Madelyne’s new outfit and thinks it’s not exactly this year’s Seventh Avenue style statement, but it’s all the rage in her circles, and it suits Madelyne. Fits like a glove, all over, she replies, which makes her more than a little curious about this ‘old chum’ she’s so anxious for her to connect with. She asks how she’ll find this ‘Rob Roy’ of hers once she reaches London. Selene replies that it doesn’t matter; he will most certainly find her.
(Greece)
Holocaust has gained the upper hand in battle. He taunts Nate, informing him that he’s weaker, whether he knows it or not. He’s hardly the mutant Holocaust faced back home. Nate asks him to guess again. Threnody had just gotten through to him, finally convincing him of the wisdom of his old friend, Forge’s, warnings. He needs to control his psi-power before it kills him. Knowing that, he held back, at first. Nate then launches another attack, dragging many of the marble columns apart with his telekinesis and hurling them at holocaust with devastating force.
The skeletal face of Holocaust looks back at him and tells him that his attack, though impressive, was ultimately ineffective. With no cosmic crystal to protect him this time, no blood-red splinter to counter his own blazing flame, he is as good as theirs. He retaliates with his own display of power, reminding Nate just how quick he can be, and how ruthless.
As Nate descends uncontrollably down the cliff face towards the beach, Threnody is recovering from her latest experience. The sunbathers are trying to find friends and relatives amongst the rubble. The woman Threnody tried to help earlier asks her if her husband will live. Threnody holds her head. Nothing like that has ever happened before. She’s felt the suffering of others in her mind, but never physically touched the pain of one at first hand. She’s never shared the agony before and she’s beginning to hunger for more.
Holocaust, meanwhile, follows Nate, giving him no time to recover as he gives Nate another blistering burst of energy, which Nate just manages to deflect using a TK shield. Nate is all that stands between Holocaust and the innocent humans, and shouts to Holocaust that there’ll be no more victims. Their salvation will be his. Threnody watches the battle, with tears welling up in her eyes. The kid makes enemies faster than she does, she thinks. It’s strange that she’s practically monitored the world for Sinister, yet she doesn’t recognize the flying furnace he’s facing. How could she not know who he is? She doesn’t understand what’s going on here, but she’s certain that Nate can’t maintain a telekinetic buffer of that size and strength forever. She is equally sure that he’ll ignore the danger to himself; the risk of burning out again, as long as there’s a single survivor here.
Threnody turns to the woman and tells her that her husband can’t be moved, and she should help get the others to safety. She turns to the husband, half lying under the rock. Half his body is as good as gone, crushed under the weight of the boulder. He’s suffocating before her very eyes, still so desperate to hold on. It hardly takes more than a push to send him over the edge. Threnody holds his hands and screams as his life ebbs away. She is thrown backwards and, as she recovers, she admits that she enjoyed the rush she got when he passed on.
Holocaust looks over and sees what she did. “Interesting. A proactive empath of some sort, I gather.” He temporarily ignores Nate and leaps towards Threnody, who is somewhat the worse for wear. Nate needs answers and asks him who this Onslaught is he now serves. Who on this world needs him so? Holocaust grabs Threnody by the hair. He replies that the answer to that might be given if he comes with him, voluntarily. If he doesn’t, then some persuasion is necessary.
Threnody orders Nate not to give in, not for her. She’s been halfway through deaths door most of her life. She’s not scared of dying, but she won’t carry him on her conscience. She tells Nate that he doesn’t really know what she’s really capable of. Even she doesn’t know anymore. She begs him not to give in, but Nate apologizes and drops to his knees. That isn’t even a choice. He tells Holocaust he is all his.


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One Step Forward
(Greece)
Holocaust holds Threnody in his powerful fist, an act which has forced Nate Grey to surrender to him. He kneels before him but, in this briefest of opportunities, he tries to communicate with Threnody, telepathically. He wants her to free herself, but his attempts are met with a wall of silence. Holocaust knows that he is too quiet and tells him that his surrender simply appears to be a bluff. If he doesn’t break this ‘psi-lence’ and cast his mind open for all to hear, by the count of three, Threnody will die.
Nate can’t stall him any longer and tries one last time to prompt a reaction from Threnody. It’s no use; he has to act alone. He carefully threads his way through Threnody’s fragile psyche, through the delicate chaos and pulls a few strings; hits a few buttons. He manages to access her mutant power and release the death charge already built up in her system. Her fingertips press against Holocaust’s armor and, in a burst of energy, Holocaust is sent hurtling towards the open sea, screaming as he does so.
Nate grabs the weakened Threnody. She was an orphan and outcast since the earliest manifestation of her mutation. She has known more than her share of death and despair, and today is no exception. Death, she has come to learn, can sometimes be an empowering experience. Nate Grey on the other hand is power, pure simple power. He is psionic to the nth degree, limited only by the potential price to his psyche, the deadly damage done with overexerting his powers.
Threnody opens her eyes and says she thought they agreed, indeed he promised, not to overdo things. He replies that he promised to try. Holocaust’s appearance in this Greek paradise changed all the rules. As soon as the blood-spawn of Apocalypse caved in the hillside, cutting off the cove from the rest of the island and turning the beach into a battle zone, he had little choice. Threnody is surprised that he is the son of Apocalypse. Nate explains that Holocaust is from his own Earth. For so long, he assumed he was the only survivor, exiled here alone. With plenty of injured people still on the beach, Nate flies towards them as, unseen by the pair of them, ripples in the water hint at unfinished business.
A man holds his wife, Marie, in his arms and pleads with someone to help her. Threnody kneels beside them and assures the man that she will live; and she should know. The woman, however, does need a hospital, fast. Nate tries to calm everyone down, telling them he’s here to help. Behind Threnody, the beach now shakes as the sand is displaced. Nate creates a telekinetic net and lifts the injured innocents. The man thanks him, but the woman whose husband died, thanks them for nothing. Tears stream down her cheeks as she thanks them for hiding among them, for fighting another mutie monster in the midst of normal people, a monster who killed her husband on their honeymoon.
Nate doesn’t respond as he concentrates, but Threnody knows that was her doing. She had no choice. Suddenly, she finally notices the movement behind her and turns, finding the towering Holocaust standing before her. He is a living powerhouse of bio-plasmic energies that defy definition. He is the once and future heir to the mantle of En Sabah Nur, the mutant Apocalypse; death himself. He is another fugitive of a world that was once Nate Grey’s reality. It was a stark and barren realm of ruthless mutant supremacy, unchecked by the conscience of a solitary man: Professor Charles Xavier.
(London, England)In a large bar, seated in a discreet snug, Trevor Fitzroy chats with a man named Craken, asking what he and his people have heard of Xavier. Craken informs Fitzroy that, recently, they’ve heard nothing much, now that he mentions it. His underground and theirs haven’t had much contact since the Hellfire incident a few years back. Fitzroy says that, whatever it takes, he wants information at any cost, and he wants it yesterday.
Elsewhere in the bar, Madelyne Pryor is beginning to catch the eyes of all around her. Her past remains a question best left unasked. She remembers nothing before meeting Nate Grey in the Swiss Alps several months ago. She is playing darts and, having scored three darts in the bullseye, wins another round from Shorty. She asks the barman, Oscar, for a Remy. Trevor Fitzroy notices her and finds it fascinating that her darts are nowhere near as precise as she would have people believe. He wonders if it was an intentional illusion of some kind. Maybe she is a minor manipulator of more modest minds. There is also the very distinct possibility that they are all simply mesmerized by the undeniable presence of this incredible creature, as he himself is.
She has hair like the fires of dawn, fanning and flaming the smoldering spark in her burning eyes. Fitzroy cannot resist and approaches her, asking Oscar for a carafe from his private stock, and two goblets. He introduces himself to Madelyne and apologizes for taking the liberty of presuming her appreciation for the finer things in life. She leans against the bar, as Fitzroy tells her that he thinks she looks familiar, yet he cannot imagine forgetting such an exquisite young woman, no matter how passing their acquaintance. He offers to raise a toast, “To an exploration of all the possibilities…” Madelyne cuts him off, and replies, “Thank you, no. I’ve had my fill.” She wanders towards the exit and heads out into the evening. She is a hunter amongst hunters.
(Greece)Holocaust offers Threnody two choices, one more chance. She can surrender Nate Grey to him and watch him walk willingly into the fold of the newborn Onslaught, or witness him being dragged, broken and bleeding over her own torn and tattered corpse. Nate sees the threat and flies towards them, just as Holocaust prepares to kill her. At the exact moment Holocaust discharges his blast, Nate places himself between them and uses another telekinetic bubble to shield them both from his attack. Holocaust taunts Nate that, in a one-on-one, it’s no contest and never was. Nate replies that he’s about to learn a lesson for once and for all, the hard way!
In the blink of an eye, Nate telekinetically lifts himself upwards, creating a nigh-impenetrable TK sphere around both himself and his foe. “You wanted me, butcher. You dogged me across two worlds like some lousy bloodhound. You got me!” Holocaust likes it this way and says, “Let’s dance.” Threnody watches them rise higher and higher, and wonders what Nate has gone and done now.
(London)Madelyne peers over a bridge at the mist drifting across the water. She’s in a beautiful old city, on a simple foray for a mistress who’s been good to her. All she can do is wonder. She wonders if she’s ever been here before or, indeed, if she’s ever been to the Americas, Asia or Africa for that matter. Her train of thought is interrupted by Trevor Fitzroy, who tells her that he decided to accept her gracious invitation after all.
Fitzroy is not the modern gentleman he appears to be. He is a mutant refugee from a future that must never happen, a long night to come when Homo sapien and superior alike have both fallen victim to their own worst instincts. Power today is for his asking. Madelyne replies that he imagined his invitation. She looked only to find him, for someone else. Fitzroy never asks for anything. He holds her by the cheeks, and informs her that this is her first stalemate. Could she truly believe it might end with such a tantalizing encounter, without the slightest taste of much more to come once he had found her? He kisses her, but her touch horrifies him. He throws her to the ground and asks what in the world she is; such a cold, hollow fire, with no natural flame to speak of. Madelyne stares back at him. “What’s the matter, Fitzroy; you don’t want me anymore?”
(Greece)Energy skitters across Nate’s TK sphere. Nate asks Holocaust to tell him, before they destroy each other above a world they never got to know, who is this Onslaught he serves? Holocaust is enigmatic in his reply, replying that the answer would hardly surprise him. Onslaught’s final gift, the selfsame tele-screen that allowed him to ambush Nate in the first place, still serves to protect him from Nate’s crude psi-probes. He adds that if Nate would really know the truth, if he is finally man enough to face the newlord of the millennium, “Join us…” Nate and Holocaust go at it, with Nate refusing to bow down, to never kneel to this nightmare his opponent promises. His attack finally ends when he cracks Holocaust’s armor which allows Nate to use his fists on Holocaust’s face itself.
(London)Madelyne slaps Trevor Fitzroy down. He knows who sent her, and that Madelyne is only there to lure him out into the open and expose him to the witch of all witches. Suddenly, a crackle of energy allows Fitzroy to don his armor. His omnium mesh armor is impervious to all known forms of energy. It’s cyber-linked to his central nervous system, which is hyper-simulating his strength and speed. Endorphins, even now, make him that much faster and stronger than she. As Nate and Holocaust battle in Greece, Madelyne explains to Fitzroy that he misjudged her. She attacks him and, amazingly, she manages to smash his armor, allowing her fists to make contact with his chin.
With Fitzroy on his knees, Selene makes her appearance, carrying a strange creature on her arm. She informs Fitzroy that he has ever suffered a weakness for the woman he would use, and a dangerous habit of underestimating them. Fitzroy is petrified at the sight of the witch. “Y-you. It is you…” She smiles and replies, saying it is indeed; the same woman he watched unravel, quite literally, over and over again before his very eyes. An immortal left to an eternity of mortal agony. Much as she relished the irony of witnessing, from afar, the eventual betrayal of his own mutant powers, his long, slow recovery was torture for them both.
Selene thanks Madelyne, adding that vengeance is a grand and glorious first offering, with so much more to offer. She leans forward and kisses Fitzroy, who screams into the night.
(Greece)Holocaust, his armor broken and having lost his upper hand, decides to depart. As he flies away, he informs Nate that his victory was pyrrhic at best. He has bared his all now, his possibilities and his potential, as well as his limits and his liabilities. Nate’s own power will be the death of him, and Onslaught himself will surely come for him now, in person. He flies into the night sky, as Threnody expresses concern for her friend. She tells him that he can’t keep doing this to himself. Every time he falls into battle, lives are put at risk. They have to find help.
She suggests reaching Muir Island in order to contact the X-Men. Nate cuts that idea off at the root. He has no reason to trust any who wear the colors of Xavier; she knows that. She then suggests other heroes in the city of New York. There’s a place called Avengers mansion, or he could start with the Fantastic Four. Nate’s listening, and asks her to tell him more about these Avengers.


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In the Company of Strangers
(Akkaba)
Mister Sinister is in Egypt to put his mind at rest. There is a struggle between life and death that concerns him, and he must know one way or the other if his fears are justified. Hidden away from prying eyes, the sarcophagus of Apocalypse sits silently. Sinister releases the tomb’s electronic locks and discovers that Apocalypse no longer resides within. Nextnight has fallen earlier than calculated. Believing in nothing save his precious “Survival of the fittest,” the Apocalypse walks again. Yet, ponders Sinister, there is a new, unpredicted player, who has stepped forth as well, to cast his shadow across the land. Why does he find it alarming that in these, the very worst of times, all things are possible?
(The Xavier Institute for Higher Learning)
The Institute, often a refuge and retreat for the rare mutants among us, is now a foxhole. Nate Grey sits alone, yet surrounding him with inquisitive eyes are the assembled members of X-Force. Their mission is to keep Nate Grey alive and out of enemy hands, at all costs. They look at a large screen displaying images of the recent battle between Onslaught and the Institute’s other residents, the X-Men. Domino asks for recommendations; suggested strategies, possible weak links. The straight-talking Siryn looks saddened as she explains that they must face facts. Onslaught is Xavier, the founding father of all who wear the X, and there he is, defeating the X-Men, on the screen and bigger than life - out there somewhere.
Meltdown practices her fine motor control, creating a small flaming time bomb. “Xavier…Onslaught…the Nutty Professor. All comes down the same again, red. Us against them - as usual.” Sunspot tinkers with the mansion’s monitor circuitry, and feels that it’s incredible that the tape loops of Xavier’s betrayal have been locked directly into the monitor’s circuits, but the hardware itself remains untouched. He’s laughing at them. They know who Onslaught is, but they don’t quite know what he is.
Nate watches their casual camaraderie with interest. In another time, another world, this could have been a haven for him, maybe even a home. His nagging concerns remain, however, as he watches Caliban and Domino interact with the rest. Domino turns to him and sees him checking her out. She wanders over to him and tells him that he has a look in his eye. It’s like he has something to say, but little intention of actually saying it. She’d recognize it a mile away. Nate looks up at the striking figure. He explains that he knew a woman like her once. She was a cold-blooded assassin, a heartless mercenary. Domino offers an enigmatic smile. “And…?” she replies. Nate has no time for frivolity and replies that she butchered his best friends in cold blood, right before his eyes; loved every minute of it too.
“Ouch,” replies Domino, kneeling before him, “And you also know that wasn’t me.” Nate supposes he does, and it hardly matters anyway. This is war, and the last war, judging from appearances. War is what he does best; always has been, until he found this world anyway. He continues to tell Domino that this battleground seems so strange and her X-Force seems so completely balanced already. He feels he could be of little use to them. Everybody wants him all of a sudden, now more than ever, but the only person who ever really needed him is the girl he left behind.
(Manhattan)
A full moon silhouettes New York City, and in particular a church in the heart of the upper west side. St. John the Divine Cathedral is one of the few precious places Threnody has ever found comfort in the city of her birth. She sits in an upright foetal position, leaning against the solid stone that provides this comfort. It’s not so much the presence of something bigger, the awareness of someone watching her, surrounding her; that’s a sensation she’s never been able to escape. It offers far less security than it should. It’s just the light in the darkness. The way the stained-glass windows casts the sharpest shades into the deepest shadows; splinters of red slashing through shards of black, reflecting mosaics of chaotic colors. Threnody knows how that feels.
She prays as she looks warily around her. As a mutant with the twisted ability to absorb and rechannel the energies released in death, she’s a target on her best days. Tonight is no exception. The stained-glass window shatters, as four Marauders come crashing through. Scalp-Hunter aims his weapon down towards her and he is followed by Harpoon, Arclight and Vertigo. Scalp-Hunter finishes off her prayer and begins to fire, as Threnody scampers away to safety. She hides from his assault behind a strong stone pillar, but this is no hiding place from Vertigo’s mental whammy. It sends Threnody to the ground, but she recovers enough to sprint away, leaving Scalp-Hunter to fire at his colleague inadvertently.
Threnody recovers and tries to think of a way out of this ambush without getting killed. As she thinks, Arclight appears behind her and delivers a hefty kick, which launches Threnody back towards Vertigo. She lands beside her and notices that Scalp-Hunter’s using stun pellets. They are clearly not out to kill her. She siphons off some of Vertigo’s pain, like she did to the guy in Greece, and releases it back at the cloned Marauders, knocking the fight out of them all. They weren’t expecting that. For now, she has the chance to make good her escape. She does, however, wonder why they wanted her alive.
She turns to leave, but a shadow causes her to look behind her. Startlingly, the shadow belongs to Mister Sinister himself. “Welcome home,” he grins, holding an outstretched hand towards her. He tells her they have much to discuss. She has played her role of damsel in distress all too well, thus far. However, it’s only the beginning. The boy has yet to trust her completely. Ready or not, the seed of Summers must be harvested.
(The Xavier Institute for Higher Learning, thirty minutes later)
The flickering trails of Sinister’s cloak drift almost unchallenged through the mansion’s grounds. Inside, Sunspot is doing his utmost to maintain security, but the perimeter defense drones are dropping like flies. Nate scans the surface but his efforts are blocked. Someone’s out there and, as soon as he punches through the interference, he’ll discover who. Domino warns him not to expose himself to Onslaught directly. That’s way too dangerous.
She commands Siryn to take Caliban outside to scout the grounds. She adds that they mustn’t engage who or what they find, but must return to the armory to rejoin the rest of them. Meltdown asks Shatterstar how he’s holding up. Recently, he discovered he isn’t quite the man he thought he was. Now isn’t the time to discuss these matters, however. As Domino, Sunspot, Meltdown and Shatterstar head to the armory, Nate insists that he will not retreat. Siryn reminds him that he is Onslaught’s quarry. He has the powers that could mean the death of them all in the hands of Onslaught. He can’t go with them and, as she sees it and hears it from Moira MacTaggert, Nate already knows plenty about the nature of sacrifice. Nate follows the others to the armory.
Siryn and Caliban then set off. They haven’t got very far when Caliban suddenly detects another presence nearby. Unfortunately, it is already too late, and both he and Teresa fall unconscious to the power of Mister Sinister. He looks down at the hulking figure of Caliban and recognizes him as a tunnel-dweller who survived his Marauders attack in the sewers. He also sees that he has been reborn in the image of En Sabah Nur. He and Caliban would have much to explore together, if time allowed.
The rest of X-Force reaches Cable’s stockpile in the munitions vault. The walls are lined with exotic weaponry and armor. Domino tells them that a telepath of Onslaught’s stature already knows all there is to know about their individual powers; their tried and tested combat maneuvers, so everything goes. She tells them to choose their weapons carefully, and to check and recheck everything - twice. She asks Nate to flash her thoughts for everything he needs to know about the weapons, but Nate has already done it, and telekinetically takes apart a gun.
Sunspot says he still can’t get used to the way he so freely utilizes his powers. Cable is so buttoned up and so wary of wasting his telekinesis. “And I’m just a kid with way too much power on his hands,” replies Nate; “Not quite Cable.” Domino assures Nate that nobody’s saying that, but he has to understand how they all have come to feel about the man. Nate is beginning to. With everyone baring weaponry, they prepare to leave but, before they can move, as Domino mentions how Cable risked his very sanity to save her a few weeks back, they are forced to the floor as a wall explodes, throwing masonry and people to the ground. In strides Mister Sinister.
“Truth. I, too, owe a great debt to Nathan Christopher. Thanks to the man,” Sinister tells the fallen heroes, “the boy - all that I strived for for so long, will be mine.” His mind in a haze, Nate looks up at the man standing before him and asks how he could hide from him. Sinister simply replies that at, long last, they meet, face to face. Nate recognizes the face and memories abruptly flood his mind, a tidal wave of thoughts and feelings raging out of control. He compares Mister Sinister’s face to the one he knows from his former life; the one who slaughtered Forge. As he thinks back, the sudden sight of the man brings about an important revelation. ‘Sinister…? Sinister created me?’
Suddenly, X-Force attacks, having sufficiently recovered from their ambush. They fire on the villain, but their hi-tech weapons appear to have little effect. “Away from him Dr. Demento; the kid’s with X-Force,” shouts Domino, ever the born leader. Sinister reaches out his hand and, with a thought, Sunspot is sent reeling into his cohorts, his mind in pain. Sinister tells them that they are hardly a hurdle to someone who has the knowledge and ability to prevent them from accessing their mutant powers.
Nate stands and confronts his foe. To Domino’s concern, he tells Sinister that he is the one he’s after and insists he should leave them alone. Mister Sinister is impressed. Nate is such a magnificent culmination of genetic perfection; all he’s ever wanted and worked for in one raw, untrained body. He calmly assures Nate that he need not fear him. He mentions that Nate’s very arrival here in this reality may have awakened the very concept of Onslaught. Nate wonders what he’s talking about. Sinister explains that he was the one that gave the psi-beast physical access to its armor for the first time, when he forcibly pulled Xavier from the Astral Plane; virtually teaching him how.
Nate is having none of this and calls Sinister a liar. He could never believe a word he says. Nate tells him that he knows all about him and his genetic games, what he did to Threnody and how he used her to spy on mutants around the globe. “We used each other,” replies Sinister. He saved the girl from her own sad song; from a power that will consume her without his help. Nate shouldn’t doubt for a single moment that Sinister won’t do the same for him. With his hand outstretched again, this time it is Nate that reels from Sinister’s power. He grabs his head, not quite knowing what’s going on.
Mister Sinister smugly explains that, in the weeks he has studied him and his abilities, he has mapped his mind far more intimately that he could possibly know. He learned all about Nate; the infinite potential at his command, the full promise of the man known as Cable. It was his once before, his by right. Sinister concentrates and even Nate’s formidable psi-defenses crumble in the face of superior skill. He falls to the ground with a sickening thud. Domino stands alone, pointing her weapon at Sinister, but knowing it is effectively useless. Nate may be power incarnate; crude, uncontained power, but Sinister is in control!


[User]
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Provide a full summary of the comic book.

[Assistant]
Shades of Grey
His name is Sinister. His motives are less clear. He has focused his lifetime’s work in mutation genetics on a single bloodline and, as he asks Nate to come to him, he feels his destiny has finally been delivered. Nate is all too acquainted with Sinister’s alternate from his own reality, a place now gone, but not forgotten.
Kneeling at the bottom of a small flight of stone stairs, Nate defiantly replies, “Never, murderer.” He will never take his hand no matter what the threat. He adds that Sinister should have killed him before he had the chance to recover from his psionic ambush. Sinister tells him that was a necessary evil. Nate’s own power backlash offered the simplest solution to the problem of X-Force - his would-be protectors and peers. Nate asks about Teresa, Domino and the others, and Sinister informs him that they’re probably recovering back in Westchester, ultimately unharmed for the most part. Considering the onslaught upon them all, he can ill afford to waste mutants before their time.
Nate asks what Onslaught has to do with this. Sinister sits in a stone-built throne and replies, “The end. The end of everything.” He relaxes, and tells Nate that, by the time he learned of his existence, he already knew that he would need him. He thought it impossible he didn’t know about him earlier, knowing of the blood that Nate bears in his veins. He finally recognized in Nate the culmination of all that he has ever sought and strived for. He wanted Nate and he got him, by simply being aware that he was of an age which tends to prove more susceptible to certain obvious charms. He was equally confident that Threnody would provide the most direct route to him.
Upon hearing her name, Nate leaps towards Sinister, but he casually stops Nate in his tracks using a mental punch. Nate reels, as Sinister explains that he knew that the sheer force of Nate’s will was beyond even his considerable ability to penetrate. To this end, he created Threnody’s neuro locks, which, when Nate ventured inside Threnody’s mind, unwittingly opened a direct channel back into his own mutant brain. A psi-path was therefore mapped for Sinister, which he ruthlessly took advantage of.
Nate groans as he recovers, and asks where she is. Sinister tells him that the poor child was quite foolish to have separated herself from Nate once he reached New York. Evidently, she is smitten as well. She is safe, he adds, perfectly safe in New York City.
(New York City)
The big apple is overrun with giant Sentinels, leaving the common man in fear for his future. They’ve cut off the bridges and tunnels, surrounding Manhattan. Every moment, Onslaught grows with each and every psi-lord it gathers inside its void. The shadow of the beast deepens and darkens, moment by moment, eclipsing the last of the light.
Threnody is no stranger to the labyrinth of sewers underneath the city. It seems like merely yesterday, to her, when her own mutant ‘gift’ initially surfaced with the taste of another’s death still lingering on her lips, threatening to erupt from every pore. This was a secret sanctuary and shelter to the scared and lonely child. But, nothing lasts forever. She sits alone, chained to the wall with Scalp-Hunter and Arclight sitting on another wall nearby.
They taunt her by telling her that no one escapes from Sinister, and asks if the name Malice rings any bells. “Maybe she wasn’t able to escape him, Scalp-Hunter,” replies Threnody, defiantly, “But the Cajun’s still out there isn’t he? Nate will be comin’ for me soon enough, you’ll see, soon as he figures out…” Arclight replies that it’s too little, too late. According to Sinister himself, they might just be living at the end of the world as they know it. She and Scalp-Hunter look into each other’s eyes, and, despite being cloned over and over again, they find they still have feelings for one another. They’re only human.
(interlude)
Onslaught, on the other hand, defies all such description or definition. Both mutant and mortal once, this creature is no longer either. It is the dream of one man, tainted by the schemes of another. It is a culmination of the frustrations and failures of Professor Charles Xavier and the defeats and disappointments of Eric Magnus Lensherr; the doom and despair of man’s inhumanity to mutant-kind. It will remake the world in its image, as any god would. But to build, one must burn, and deep in the heart of the beast that is Onslaught, flickers the flame that feeds the hellfire.
Harboring the latent ability to manipulate reality to his will, to reshape the very laws of time and space, young Franklin Richards is a largely untapped mutant of the highest possible potential. He is also yet another victim of the psi-lord, Onslaught; a pawn in truth. He is compelled to send out a siren call to Nate Grey, the next victim of Onslaught’s twisted machinations. As Franklin’s call is forced to roar above the blare of the sweeping blaze, he is secretly learning how to whisper. ‘Mommy,” he utters.
(Elsewhere)
Nate is still on the floor, and hears the faintest of calls. He turns and asks Mister Sinister what he just said, but Sinister ignores it, telling him he mustn’t let his mind wander whilst he is speaking. He creates images of Nate’s reality with a motion. The visage of Apocalypse appears over a mound of dead bodies as Infinites patrol around them. He tells Nate he is well aware of Apocalypse’s reign in his parallel world, but asks Nate if he did not think there could be even worse than Apocalypse? Nate replies that he knows there is - him.
He tells Sinister that his ‘familiar’ killed everyone and everything he held dear, long before his world fell to the ageless one. He creates his own telemorphic manifestations; theoretically impossible according to Sinister, but nevertheless there. With the images of Onslaught, Cable, Dark Beast and Sugarman amongst others appearing, he informs Sinister that he’s been hunted on two worlds now for power that is rightfully his, and his alone. Now, he’s just looking for a life, trying to find some version of normalcy. All he ever wanted, really, and he would take that away? To use him as a weapon of war?
Sinister replies that he is a weapon, make no mistake about that. He dismisses the manifestations, adding that he is the most wondrous, enchanted and limitless weapon this world has yet to see wielded. And this is a war to end all wars. He promises he will not have Nate fall on another’s battlefield. He will see him steeled for the final conflict to come, first tempered and tutored by the finest of all. Nate holds his forehead, as he can hear some kind of hum. Sinister asks what he’s talking about, before realizing what it might be. “Stop listening, boy, immediately. Shut it out now!”
(New York City)
Back in New York, Threnody knows that Nate might need her now, more than ever. She spots a rat scuttling through the sewers. She is able to reach it, and absorb the bio-energy that is released as she snaps its neck.
(Elsewhere)
Nate tells Sinister that he is a weapon indeed; a human weapon, with his own calling to follow. Sinister turns him around, insisting that he is a mutant weapon. He tells Nate that he cannot deny his place among homo superior, apart from Homo sapiens. Nate takes to the air, swooping graciously above Sinister. “Your distinction, Sinister, your labels…not mine. A distinction that more and more escapes me in fact.” Nate is once again shown a glimpse of Mister Sinister’s power as his opponent motions towards him. Nate grabs his head and informs Sinister, “That hurt! For the last time…”
Sinister creates long, winding tendrils, which emerge from the ground and arc upwards towards the young mutant. He tells Nate that it did not have to be this way, but he cannot allow him to go to Onslaught. It’s all about control; who controls what, and who. His tendrils wrap themselves around Nate’s body, locking his arms and legs into position. He tells Nate that he must control himself before he can even begin to control his powers, before they kill him or, worse, kill us all.
With Nate helpless, Mister Sinister looks up at him with his deep red eyes and offers him that control. For all the immeasurable might of Nate’s mind, he tells him, he cannot deny Sinister’s ability to switch it off with a mere thought. Nate pulls at a tendril around his neck, and replies that it was simply an opening gambit. If Sinister truly had the skills to cut his powers off again, or to limit them in any way at all, he would have used them by now. This show of force would hardly have been necessary. Nate bets that it was a one-time trick only. His brain has already rerouted synaptic links, neural relays and whatever else it takes to shut Sinister out. Some kind of automatic psionic defense mechanism, guesses Nate. Now back in control again, Nate shreds the tendrils with his telekinesis and aims his fist towards Sinister below. “And you know it,” he adds, “Because you never stopped trying to pierce through those defenses.”
(New York City)
Having escaped her chains, Threnody scampers through the tunnels, knowing that, despite her familiarity with them, she’s seen Scalp-Hunter track a snowflake through a blizzard. She thinks she’d rather take her chances topside. Suddenly, Scalp-Hunter and Arclight are upon her, and posing. Hunter tells her there’s nowhere left to run, while his female companion informs her that they’ve had their little fun at least, but it seems like love hasn’t been kind to Threnody. Threnody replies that Nate cares about her, and he will come for her. He’ll destroy them like he did before. Arclight tells her to get real. “If your big bad boyfriend cared a hoot ‘bout his little tramp…” Her sentence remains unfinished as a figure appears behind them. They both turn and Threnody exclaims, “Y-You…!”
(Elsewhere)
Nate returns to the ground and taunts Sinister that he took everything he had and then some. He stands before his foe, and says that the web he weaves leaves little room to maneuver, but he gave it his best shot. He places his hand on Sinister’s shoulder, and adds that he’s right. It’s all about control. Control of him. He adds that Sinister can’t help him achieve this control; that much is obvious. No one can. No one but Nate Grey can offer anything but an illusion of control over Nate Grey. He can start picking and choosing his own battles. Nate’s attention is then diverted from Sinister by a strange kind of portal, which appears behind him, unseen by Sinister who warns him not to turn his back on him. Nate informs Sinister that his way with words is undeniable but, right now, a child’s voice speaks to him from a place he’s come to know so well.
Through the portal, the frightened face of Franklin Richards peers at Nate. He reaches his small hand out and says, “Help m-me… p-please mister…help me…” Nate reaches out his own hand, as Sinister realizes the awful truth about what’s going on. He tries telling Nate it’s a trap but, by the time he’s finished his sentence, Franklin’s hand becomes that of Onslaught. It grasps Nate’s arm and pulls him into its claws. “Yes,” Onslaught tells Sinister, “It was.” As Nate vanishes from sight through the portal, all of reality ripples in Onslaught’s wake.  Sinister knows when he’s beaten.