War of X

There was a quiet and starry night, when they still lived in the palace on Tarnax IV. The king’s room was a penthouse, where you could see all the constellations from your bed. On most nights, after a day’s work and some satisfying sex, they would lie side by side on the bed, and enjoy this intimate moment together. They cuddle, they chat, they gaze at the stars, Teddy would name every star in the sky, and Billy would laugh. “How could you remember all that?”

“I’m a king. My grandmother said a great king must know his empire well, so I learned our star map since I was five.”

“Sounds like I should remember it too.”

“I can teach you.”

Teddy pointed to a star system and introduced the planets in its orbits. Billy sighed and kissed him, effectively sealing his mouth. “I’ll forget about all this tomorrow morning!”

“It’s okay, you have the rest of your life to memorize them.”

“If I knew this is what I would get for marrying you, I would have reconsidered!”

“Well.” Teddy positioned himself on top of Billy. Billy let out an “ouch”, and Teddy gave his consort’s lips a bite. “How’s that reconsideration going?”

“I think…” Billy smiled, his hand found its way on his husband’s ear and gave it a gentle rub. “I’ll tolerate you for one more night.”

“And tomorrow?”

“Tomorrow…I’ll pledge myself to you again.”

Teddy…No, Emperor Dorrek-Vell realized that his lips curved unconsciously when these memories resurfaced. He shouldn’t smile, he sat on the ruins of Hala, next to the corpses of his warriors and his enemies. Whether he is to win or lose this war, he’s lost an entire star system and billions of soldiers already. The cost is way too high, his pain is immeasurable, and yet…

Yet, now that everyone else on this planet is dead, he felt at ease. Tired, yes, but like every night they’ve spent together, every moment they’ve shared in private, he loves the feeling, knowing that they belong to each other and each other only.

All his time, all his attention, all his love. His everything, reserved solely for the man standing before him.

His husband, and the greatest rival of his life.

“Dorrek,” said Billy. It would never not hurt, hearing him say this name instead of ‘Teddy’. Dorrek kept his silence. If this were the old times, upon sensing the agony in his voice, he would hold him in his arms and kiss him. Once, twice, a million times, and never let go.

Now…? Now they’re enemies. The only ones strong enough to kill each other. He doesn’t want to fight. He only wants to rest. Preferably, with his husband by his side.

Like the old times.

Dorrek didn’t move, so Billy sat down next to him. The starlight in his beloved’s eyes dimmed, and the familiar gaze rested upon the bruise on his face. Once filled with love, now with sorrow. All this time, they called his husband the Forger of Stars, but he’s never looked at the stars as attentively as he looked at him.

Billy’s hand brushed away the blood near his lips. Within seconds, all his wounds healed, his man couldn’t bear to watch him suffer.

Even though Billy was the only one who could strip him of his healing factor. He understood, though. It slowed him down, or he would’ve killed millions more. Still, his love’s heart ached, seeing him like this. Everything Billy took from him before the fight started now returned to him, but Dorrek doesn’t need them anymore. He only wants Billy, and Billy is here. He has everything he needs already.

“You can still stop this war,” said Billy, his fingers lingered on his man’s face. Slowly, he began to caress Dorrek’s neck too. It’s been long since they could touch each other like this. “They’ll listen to you.”

“They won’t. Too many dead. It’s too late,” said Dorrek in a soft voice. Only in front of Billy would he use this voice, and only Billy could know…that he regretted every choice he’s made since the day they parted ways.

“It doesn’t have to end like this,” said Billy. The feeling must be mutual. Yes…it doesn’t have to end like this, if only either of them could make a different choice.

“Remember what you told me…about the Sentinels?”

The Sentinels. Billy told him the story on one of those nights. It was after a long make-out session, Billy rested his head on Teddy’s upper arm and said, “My grandpa used to tell me and Tommy bedtime stories. Only I listened, though. Tommy always fell asleep in a few minutes.”

“Sounds nice. My grandmother only told me stories of how she backstabbed my grandfather.”

“Well, my grandpa talked about how he defeated the human extremists, so it’s not that different.”

“How did he do that?”

“Usually? He just beat them up and call it a day. But there was a guy who invented these Sentinels. They’re machines used to hunt mutants specifically. My great-aunt Moira saw many futures where they decimated the mutantkind. She spent thousands of years trying to stop them.”

“She did it, right?”

“Kinda. Technically, my mom did.”

“Huh? How?”

“Basically she just talked to the Sentinels and taught them what love is. It’s like…she reprogrammed them to not hate but love the mutants. Then they became the loudest advocators for human-mutant-machine co-existence.”

“She can do that?”

“Yeah. Crazy, right? All those futures where they fought each other to death like it’s inevitable, when there was an easy way out the whole time. They just have to learn to love.”

“Ha,” Billy of the present day laughed. “I wish it was that easy.”

“Maybe it was,” said Dorrek. Maybe, on every night he had to sleep alone, he wished Billy could just reprogram the entire universe too.

“If you had…if I give you a second chance,” said Billy. Starlight sparked in his eyes again, his voice was filled with excitement, but also fright. “Would you take it…?”

“…Would you?” Dorrek glanced at the mountains of corpses. Everyone he’s killed, everyone Billy has killed. Does either of them even deserve to have a second chance, after their war destroyed half the universe?

Billy didn’t answer. He retrieved his hand and turned around, then took a deep breath to stop his body from shaking.

“You know I meant every single word I said, every single day,” Billy continued. Dorrek, no, Teddy turned to him. This is the answer he needs. “Even after I left, I repeat them. Every single day.”

Teddy enclosed Billy in a deep, breathless hug. He’s waited too long, he’s yearned for this moment to come since he saw his man teleport away. No more goodbyes. No more tears. Just…no more.

He felt Billy resting his head on his shoulder, felt him kissing his neck. He wanted to enjoy the moment, wanted to kiss back, but…no.

Behind his beloved, he summoned the star sword.

For all the days they spent apart, he’s owed him many I love you, and owed him even more kisses. He will make it up to him, when he sees him again.

When they reunite on the other side.

Dorrek-Vell of the present saw his sword pierced through his future self’s body, along with the boy with starry eyes’. Every sparkle on the boy’s suit vanished. For the first time, the light of his star sword dimmed as well. Images of the future, still circled by the other’s arms, fell onto the rock together. Eyes closed, unconscious, as if they were merely asleep.

The world around them began to fade, erasing everything in his sight. Land broken into tiny pieces, bodies reduced to ashes and dust. Soon, there was nothing left where he stood, as if the universe had always been hollow.

At the center of the vast desolation, the king’s future self and the boy in his arms transformed into streams of colors. Colors of rainbow flowed in every direction, to every corner of the universe, until the simulation came to an end.

M'ryn had reshaped the temple back to the way it was. Dorrek stared silently at the flames, until the Magus finally gathered the courage to call his king.

“My liege…?”

“What happened afterwards?”

“The Pama System… as you just saw, was obliterated after your death. General Xavin led the final attack on Chandilar. Without theDemiurge…their mage and champion, the one your future self just killed, Shi'ar stood no chance against us. We won, albeit at great cost. And…according to your last will, General Xavin assumed the throne.”

“What?” said Xavin. By Skrullian laws, the king’s cousin was indeed the next in line. Yet anyone in their right mind would know that the talk of successor when the monarch was still in his prime years could pose grave danger to the would-be sovereign. “No! No way! Dorrek, I won’t-”

“Take us back,” the king commanded. He turned to M'ryn, who immediately transformed the temple into the ruins of Hala. Xavin had to keep their plea swallowed. They wouldn’t want to bother the king when Dorrek was clearly not in a good mood.

“I want to see every detail,” said the emperor. His generals dared not to step forward without his permission, and he wasn’t interested in inviting them to examine this with him either.

Dorrek crouched down next to his future, watching every move his older self made. How he talked, how he smiled, how he instinctively pressed his face into the boy’s palm, as if he was craving the touch. Why? He couldn’t understand anything he saw. Why did you allow him to touch you, when you were taught to keep distance from everyone, in case they stabbed you before you could react?

Why did you hug him? Die with him? Chat with him as if you were old friends, instead of ending his life when you had the chance?

Why would I look at him like that?

Whoever this Demiurge is to his future…he must be special.

So special that he didn’t want to share this knowledge with anyone else.

Once so rarely, sunlight shines into The Oracle, accompanying Moira MacTaggert down every step she made on the spiral staircase. When she reached the end, she saw Irene Adler, sitting in dull light, painting. It was a drawing of Moira, standing where she stood, watching Irene, sitting where she sat, as the artist left her final brush on the canvas.

Irene Adler turned around and heard a laugh from Moira. “Looks like I don’t have to explain why I’m here.”

The choice to ally with Irene Adler and Raven Darkholme, the mutant terrorists once known as Destiny and Mystique, was unthinkable to her even a lifetime ago. In her last life, after she learned of Destiny’s return, she knew it was over.

She tried to burn them, tried to keep secrets, and now it backfired and burned her. Again. So she turned to her last resort, one she loathed and hated, but now her only way out. Her power. She put a bullet in her head, burned herself before they could burn her, and woke up a child.

Ten times she made the wrong choice. She got so close last time, steps away from getting what she wanted, inches away from proving the voice in her head wrong. Yet they appeared once more, as if clockwork. Humans, machines, sentinels, Nimrod. Everyone with the power to crush her future.

She began to wonder. What exactly did she do wrong? Is extinction truly inevitable? Was the voice in her head right all along?

In her eleventh life, the life Destiny said it might not come, she made impossible choices, found impossible allies.

Wanda and Pietro Maximoff. She found Georg Odekirk before Max did and left him a message. If mutants had no future, if obliteration is their reality, she would need a boy who could outrun time, and a girl who could rewrite reality. When she met him at last, she saw a father of three, and a man who would let his enemies live.

“You’re like Charles,” she said. And he said, “Who?”

She told Max everything, and Max brought Charles to her. They were young, they talked for months, what they did right, what they did wrong, what they would do this time to save their future.

Until that woman dropped from the sky and took him away.

“You didn’t say this would happen,” said Max when the ship left their sight. “It didn’t happen,” she said. “She’s here early.”

She should have realized it back then. Everything she did, every choice she made, created ripples in the universe in ways she could never have imagined.

They waited. Days, weeks, months, years. Charles was too young, he hadn’t found the kids, hadn’t become attached, he could still afford to lose his dreams. When they realized he wouldn’t return, Max turned to her and asked, “Who else can we find?”

Max wouldn’t work with a Nazi even when softened. Moira suggested Apocalypse, and Max said no. “He would want my daughter dead,” he said. She pondered.

Impossible life, impossible times, impossible allies.

“You said our destinies are joined together,” she said, when she found her in Mississippi, living with her wife and children. “Then help us.”

Irene warned them before the Sentinels came online. Pietro took Wanda to their headquarters, where she had a talk with the Master Mold. On the next day, the Sentinels, now insisted on being referred to as synthezoids, announced that their mission is to educate human and mutantkind on ‘humanity’. Moira watched the news in House of M, on the mutant nation Krakoa she just built. Master Mold, now with a new body and calling themself ‘Vision’, had their legion of synthezoids take over the National Security Council and transform it into a ‘reeducation center’. It was ridiculous. She couldn’t stop laughing, couldn’t stop crying, until Max walked in and asked her, “What next?”

What next? She didn’t know. She’s never come this far, never won, so she did the only thing her ten lives taught her. “We watch them. If they ever change their mind…we kill them before they kill us.”

She needs Irene Adler.

“When are we leaving?” asked Raven. Medusa asked them to bring a prophet, but this prophet comes with a wife. The inhuman Queen shouldn’t mind.

“They’ll send their dog, but if you don’t like it, your son can take us.”

“The dog will do,” said Irene. She led the way up, Raven followed. Moira was a few steps behind them. She thought, as she climbed the staircase, as the inhuman princess and her dog appeared before her eyes, she remembered.

There was a day, she told Lorna to break up with Bobby. The girl listened. She found the boy sitting alone at the shore. He didn’t know of her role in this.

“Love hurts, right?” she sat down next to him. He nodded.

“Can I ask you a question, Dr. MacTaggert?”

“Yes?”

“Why did you…fight so hard? Your mutation isn’t obvious. You’re…almost no different from them. They wouldn’t know.”

“Your mutation isn’t obvious either when you don’t use your powers,” Moira reminded.

“Oh. Yes…I guess. You’re right.”

They sat in silence. She knew he wasn’t just talking about being a mutant.

“I would know,” she said. The boy turned to her, she smiled. “That I’m different. Even when they don’t know.”

“I lived ten lives. Spent the first two pretending to be one of them. Spent the third trying to make myself one of them. Spent the rest proving to myself…that I don’t have to be one of them.”

Mutation is not a disease. She lived eleven lives, finally convinced herself that being different would not kill her. This belief didn’t come easily, but could be taken away in a blink. She couldn’t afford to let that happen.

Whatever it takes.

It was…how many times he’s watched this?

The sword impaled their entwined bodies. Doesn’t make sense. Dorrek thought. Ekz'el-Zorr would never harm him, or his allies. He could easily shapeshift his vital organs away. This stab shouldn’t have killed him. Why?

The first time, he was shocked. He could understand why M'ryn was hesitant, why Mur-G'nn was stressed, why Xavin and Kl'rt dared not to make a sound when he watched these visions, again and again. Now…he’s calmed down a bit. His mind began to analyze everything he saw. Their clothes, their words, the looks on his face, the movements of the boy’s hand…their rings.

He recognized those rings. Not any bands…matching bands, his father’s Nega Bands, miniaturized. After he retrieved the bands, he hid them in a pocket battlefield made by Noh-Varr. No one else knew where they were, so no one else could use them to create the Nega Bombs. If there ever came a day when he had to detonate a Nega Bomb himself…he knew where to find the bands. He wouldn’t want to, it wouldn’t be necessary, it would deny his opponents a choice. It was, for the most part, insurance. If Shi'ar, or anyone, ever tried to deploy a star killer, they would fear his revenge.

Why would the bands be worn on his future’s hands?

“Do we have any idea who this Demiurge is?” said Kl'rt. At last, the Super Skrull had lost his patience. The king didn’t ask him to keep quiet, so his other generals regarded this as the permission to talk.

“Yes, he’s a Terran named William Kaplan Maximoff-Eisenhardt,” said M'ryn. “On their planet, he belonged to a species called homo superior.”

“Terrans? They are primitives,” said Kl'rt.

“Don’t underestimate them. Wakandans are from Terra too,” said Xavin.

“He does not look like a Wakandan.”

“He’s a Krakoan, a nation where over sixty percent of the population are super-powered homo superior,” added Mur-G'nn. “Like the Shi'ar Majestrix’s father.”

“Him?” Kl'rt was understandably angry at the mention of the man who caused dozens of his subordinates’ death. “Then we should go to Terra and kill this William right now!”

“You haven’t heard of the legends of the Demiurge, have you?” said Mur-G'nn. “There are ancient Skrullian texts that document his tales. First to ever exist, creator of this universe. He’s the maker of magic, forger of stars…and of the star sword the Majesty holds.”

…What? Dorrek turned to his general, the disbelief in his eyes prompted Mur-G'nn to continue. “It is said that Demiurge, in one of his previous incarnations, travelled to our galaxies and met one of yours. He made the star sword for him…for you, and granted it power to disrupt magic. Including his own.”

“…No,” Dorrek frowned. Doesn’t make sense, he thought. What kind of idiot would forge the very weapon that could kill him? And hand it to his enemy?

Ekz'el-Zorr is bound to him, answers to his will and his will only. M'ryn told him it’s because he’s the reincarnation of Dorrek Supreme, the sword’s first owner. If this Demiurge is truly so powerful, how did he fail to see that millions of years later, the sword would fall into the hands of his would-be slayer?

“If this Demiurge is as ancient and as powerful as you claim, how did he end up a Terran?” said Kl'rt, he must have as many doubts as Dorrek, and voiced out the questions for his king.

“The rules of reincarnation are ambiguous,” Mur-G'nn shrugged. “Everything has its reasons, even when we’re not privy to them.”

“There is a pattern,” M'ryn added. “In this incarnation, the Demiurge was born the same year as you, my liege.”

“So he is just a kid,” said Kl'rt. “I do not understand why we cannot kill him before he becomes more powerful.”

“He will reduce you to atoms before you had the chance to touch him,” said Mur-G'nn.

“If all of us strike together,” said Xavin. Between they and Kl'rt, they were usually the more cautious one, but this future clearly put them on edge. “We can distract him. Dorrek will have the chance to kill him.”

“I’m afraid that any move we make will only bring about the future you just saw, General,” said M'ryn.

“So what? We’ll do nothing? Let it happen? Because I can’t accept that!” said Xavin. Kl'rt stared at them, all of a sudden in unusual coldness, and said, “Can you not?”

“…What the hell do you mean?”

“Enough,” said Dorrek. His generals immediately hid away their budding hostility and turned to him, waiting for his orders. “This future…isn’t your concern. I’ll take care of it myself. Mur-G'nn, M'ryn, keep an eye on the situation in Tryl'sart. If they need help, please go there at once. Kl'rt, Xavin…please return to your positions. When I have a plan, I’ll call you.”

The king left his confused generals and walked out of the temple. Before he exited through the falls, Xavin caught up with him and said, “Dorrek!”

“You know I wouldn’t…you know I don’t want the throne, right?” said Xavin. Dorrek could tell that they panicked, that they thought he doesn’t trust them anymore because of how M'ryn’s prophecy ended. It wasn’t true. He just couldn’t talk about this with anyone, not even with his most trusted followers.

“You’re the King of Space, it should stay that way. All I ever want is to be of service to you…you know that, right?”

“I know,” said Dorrek. It didn’t ease his general’s mind, but at the moment, his cousin’s groundless fears really weren’t his greatest concerns. All he could think about…the boy, the bands, their future together.

The two souls wearing the same pair of Nega Bands are linked. William…should hear his thoughts and know his plans, before he had the chance to stab him. Why didn’t he stop him before the hug?

“Say hi to Karolina for me,” said Dorrek. He didn’t give Xavin the chance to explain further and left Ny'ni-Ahn on his own. Xavin watched their cousin flew out of sight and returned to the temple, where Kl'rt insisted to the mages that they should still try murder.

“You! Magus.” Xavin walked to the old mage, the flames in their fist caused M'ryn to retreat.

“General…?”

“What do you want? Or is this what you want? Dorrek doesn’t trust us anymore!”

“General Xavin, I’m afraid I don’t understand-”

“Did R'klll really want Dorrek dead? Or was it part of your plan as well? You, with these made-up prophecies. Dorrek trusts Kl'rt and I more than you and your daughter, so you came up with these lies and planted doubts in his head! You think you’re better than us, don’t you? Because you’re hybrids like him. Once you use his hands to get rid of us, the empire will be controlled by hybrids only!”

“General Xavin!” said Mur-G'nn. She conjured up a magic shield to protect herself and her father against her comrade’s rage. “This accusation is unacceptable! My father and I only want to serve the king. Our loyalties to him are no less than yours! How dare you suggest that we would ever use him!”

“General, my prophecies are all true,” said M'ryn. “I don’t believe that the king would want to see us turn against one another, especially at times like this.”

“What is the use of your prophecy, then?” said Kl'rt. “If you cannot stop what is to come, why bother to tell the king?”

“I promised the Majesty that I would inform him of everything I saw, however unpleasant they might be.”

“If we found any way to avoid this future, we would’ve told the liege too!”

“There is a way,” said Xavin. Their eyes locked onto Mur-G'nn’s, who slowly grasped the source of their fears.

“He only has to kill me.”

“General, I don’t mean-”

“The king wouldn’t do that,” said M'ryn. “He wouldn’t hurt his own people.”

“Won’t he? Because this is the easiest way to avoid your prophesied future. If Dorrek hadn’t brought me today, would you have suggested it to him, like your daughter said?”

“I’m sorry,” Mur-G'nn said and let down her guard. “There has to be another way. The Majesty will find it…We must have faith in him.”

It was a bright day at the farm, good for seeding, good for reaping. Fragrance of the flowers, along with the lovely sunlight, brought joy even to the most troubled minds. Max stood behind the bushes, watching his daughter Wanda trim the branches with magic rays. Petals after petals fell from the buds, growing wings and flying to a mystically powered grinder, where they were minced into fine powder and packaged into pills.

Works of Max’s grandson William, clearly. Whenever Max asked Billy to bring him something, be it utensils from the kitchen, a cup of water, or a roll of tissue paper, he’d always see them flying towards him. Well, better this than Tommy saying, “Why can’t you make everything metal so you can get it yourself?”

“Sir!” Kayla was the first to notice him. She was assigned to grow the flowers, ones that would benefit not just mutants but also humans. He and Charles used to say mutanthood is the next stage of evolution. Anya said, “Why can’t we all evolve together?”

They can. Flowers of Krakoa grant everyone immunity and longevity, humans and mutants alike.

“Lady Wanda and William are of great help today. I could never finish all of these on my own,” said Kayla.

“Anytime,” Max smiled. “If you need our help, just ask.”

“Dad!” Wanda finally saw Max and ran to him. “How’s the meeting going?”

“There were some…unexpected developments.”

“We done?” said Billy once he noticed no one else was working. “Oh, hi, grandpa.”

“William. Glad to see you helping out at the farm today.”

“Well, at least one of your grandsons has to be helpful.”

“Your brother has a date today,” said Wanda to excuse her other son.

“He has a date every day!”

“Good news, I’m here to take you off work,” said Max. Billy looked rather surprised. “Wait, me?”

“Yes. Your great-aunt Moira is waiting for us.” Max noticed that Crystal and Lockjaw just appeared at the farm. They must have taken Moira and the prophet to Attilan already. “So is your Aunt Crystal. We should go now.”

It was a few days after the visit to Skrullos when Xavin received orders from the king that they must move to Tarnax IV at once. No reasons given, Dorrek said he would explain everything ‘in due time’. Xavin didn’t ask questions, they had to earn the king’s trust again, which should include doing everything he asked devotedly.

When Xavin and Karolina arrived at the Tarnax IV hangar, they were, unexpectedly, greeted by both Dorrek and Kl'rt. Kl'rt looked as confused as them, but Dorrek seemed remarkably determined.

“My liege, I am afraid that I fail to understand your intentions,” said Kl'rt as he watched Xavin and Karolina exit the cruiser.

“Do you trust me?” asked Dorrek. Kl'rt immediately replied, “With my life, sire.”

“I trust you with my life too,” said Dorrek. He turned to Xavin. “Both of you.”

“I’ll leave the Throneworld for a while. In my absence, you two will oversee everything in the empire, and make decisions on my behalf.”

“Majesty! This is-”

“Part of the plan.” Dorrek stopped Kl'rt before his general could argue further. The king walked to another cruiser — a smaller one, with advanced cloaking technology and high speed, usually used for surveying — and boarded the aircraft.

“When I see you again…” he said before the ship’s door closed. “I’ll let you know.”

“…Is he okay?” said Karolina after Dorrek’s ship left the hangar and ventured into deep space. She kept her silence just now because Xavin asked, but seeing the look on her partner’s face, she couldn’t stay quiet anymore. “Are you okay, Xav?”

“…We should start moving,” said Xavin. The cruiser was filled with their belongings from Majesdane. It would take quite some time to move them all to the palace. Plus, they’d do anything just to be distracted from the cursed prophecy.

When Billy was woken by his Uncle Pietro this morning, he didn’t know that the day would be this long. At 7, they had breakfast. 7:10, Tommy disappeared, likely to annoy David. 7:30, he went back to sleep, only for Wanda to wake him again at 8. She forced him to help her at the Krakoan Flower Fields, until Grandpa Max appeared and took him to the inhuman royal court.

Since Pietro divorced Crystal, Billy and Tommy haven’t been to the inhuman kingdom. Occasionally, Luna and Lockjaw would visit at Krakoa, mostly because Max missed Luna and the kids missed Lockjaw. The inhuman royal family wasn’t exactly welcoming towards the House of M due to the aforementioned not-so-amicable divorce, but Billy was always fascinated with their city. Aunt Medusa told him the story once. Millions of years ago, ancient beings from another galaxy traveled all the way to Earth’s moon and erected a magnificent Blue City. These extraterrestrial visitors left the inhabitants of Sol with their great legacy, which eventually became the sanctuary for all inhumans. In the past, Karnak or Crystal would show him and Tommy around the time-worn city, usually with Luna tagging along. Tommy and Luna argued a lot, the adults had to keep an eye on them, which gave Billy the chance to explore and examine the otherworldly relics. Strange carvings, unknown technologies, but in no way inferior to Earth’s machinery, perhaps even more advanced. Billy wished that one day he could understand the meaning behind it all — the city, the words, the story, but he thought he lost the chance when Pietro returned from Attilan and told him, “No more moon visits.”

Despite the tension between her and Pietro, Crystal had always been nice to her nephews. She wasn’t close with Max, so Billy thought he was his grandpa’s excuse to see Luna. It would be too sentimental for the titular leader of Krakoa to visit a foreign nation just to see his granddaughter, especially when the girl’s father won’t be joining. Yet what kind of grandpa could say no to his grandson asking to see his aunt and cousin? And most of all, Lockjaw? To Billy’s dismay and surprise, however, Crystal and Lockjaw left once they teleported him and Max to the palace, while Luna was nowhere to be seen.

Medusa was the only one to greet them today. She brought them to a private room, where Moira and the famed prophet Irene Adler, as well as Irene’s wife Raven were already waiting. The last to join them was a young inhuman of similar age to Billy, whom Medusa introduced as “Ulysses Cain, the Predictor.”

“A precog?” Moira glanced at Irene. This should explain why a mutant prophet is necessary. Krakoa and Attilan may be allies, or at least not enemies, but it doesn’t mean they trust each other on everything. A prophet on each side isn’t for double checking, but a measure to prevent deception.

Well, this is why Billy hates politics. Yes, he’s an over-thinker, and Max has taught him about statesmanship, but that doesn’t mean he want to spend all his brain energy speculating whether someone will backstab him, especially if that someone is his cousin’s aunt. Good that Krakoa isn’t a monarchy so he and Tommy will never have to worry about this.

“Yes, considering the nature of Ulysses’s visions, you will want to verify them with a prophet of your own,” said Medusa. “I’ll save you the trouble.”

“Could’ve asked us to bring a telepath too,” said Max. “We’d like to see it for ourselves.”

See? Grandpa wouldn’t even believe what others describe! Untrusting. Billy sighed. If he knew this was a political meeting, he’d rather stay on the farm.

“Ulysses’s mind cannot be read by any telepaths,” Medusa smiled. She’s smug. Guess that explains why she and Max aren’t on good terms, and why Billy doesn’t get to visit moon anymore outside of political meetings.

“Besides, it would be redundant. Ulysses? Show them.”

“You may want to brace yourself for this,” said Ulysses. All of a sudden, his eyes became red, then everything in Billy’s sight turned red too.

No…he should’ve said bright. Bright as flames, bright as the sun, bright as the explosion of a nuclear weapon, except that this one was a huge energy blast coming from the sky.

From space! Someone was trying to blow up Earth from space-

Wait…? Billy could tell from the stars in the sky. This wasn’t Earth. Not the moon either, he’s seen how it looked like from the moon. As for the energy blast…it didn’t reach the planet he stood, whichever it was.

There was a shield that extended across the sky and completely absorbed the blast, leaving the planet perfectly intact. A blue energy shield, probably of mystical origins too…

Oh. He recognized it now. That’s my magic!

Medusa, not part of the vision, but the Medusa of today, did not seem interested in the energy blast or the shield. Instead, her stare was focused on Billy. Cold, judging stare. Billy frowned, he had no idea what happened, be it this strange future, or Medusa’s weird attitude. He wanted to ask, then noticed that everyone else was staring at him too. Max, Moira, Irene, Raven, even Ulysses.

Or rather, not at him, but at something behind him.

Someone.

Billy turned around and saw his future self, in a costume he couldn’t recognize, with eyes that resembled…spinning galaxies.

What? That’s NOT how he looks like when he uses his power! His eyes turned blue, not into stars…

The shield disappeared, along with the lights in his future’s palms. It was indeed his magic…but how? He doesn’t have powers of this scale. Not yet, at least.

“…How did this happened?” asked Billy. Everyone else seemed to be in a trance upon seeing the future him. “Is there more?”

“My power works like a snapshot in time,” said Ulysses. “The most I can do is a brief moment, like the one you just saw. The upside is I’m great at reconstructing details, so you can walk around here and see what you can find. Don’t you wanna try?”

Billy turned to Max and Moira, who looked distraught. He couldn’t see Irene’s face under the mask, but Raven looked horrified. That’s unusual…concerning, no, frightening. Billy didn’t remember seeing any of them looking petrified, ever. From the stories they’ve told him, they’ve all seen brutal deaths, perhaps even caused some too. What could’ve scared them all and made Medusa stare at him with rage in her eyes?

Maybe he should just take Ulysses’s advice and walk around, yeah.

Once Billy averted his attention from the sky and his future self, he soon figured out what was wrong. There were corpses not far from where they stood. Hundreds and thousands of corpses. Many looked like aliens, or physically-mutated mutants and inhumans, he could only hope that it wasn’t-

No, he wouldn’t wish this fate on aliens either. Not on anyone.

Yet he couldn’t deny, some of the bodies seemed human, or species bearing strong resemblances to humans. Machines, too, most of whom burned, because decapitation wouldn’t work on them. The farther he walked, the more deaths he saw, and the ways of deaths became diverse as well. Electrocuted, incinerated, decapitated…crushed skulls, torso sliced in half, a hole in the chest…

Billy had to stop going further. He saw the infinite number of corpses lying forward, and couldn’t bear the torment on his mind. He returned to where he started, and wished he could ask his future self, how did you manage to not lapse into a mental breakdown when you had to live through this?

“Seen enough?” said Medusa. Her eyes never left Billy when he explored the field. It was the same unnerving cold stare…as if she believed that he caused all the deaths they saw?

I would never. Billy thought. Whatever happened in the future…he wouldn’t commit a manslaughter. Not to mention that he just saved this planet, he wouldn’t have wanted the people here dead. It doesn’t make sense.

“You’ll explain?” asked Billy. Medusa nodded at Ulysses, and the catastrophic future was at last out of everyone’s sight.

“What was that!” Raven was the first to rush Medusa. She sounded outraged, but once again, an unfriendly smile appeared on Medusa’s face.

“The future. Except that Ulysses didn’t just project the visions onto your mind, he let you experience how you would feel at that moment too,” said Medusa. “Of course, some of you felt the coldness of death.”

“What?” Billy started to piece everything together, bit by bit. Was it why everyone looked appalled and paralyzed? They were…dead?

“Yes, William, I believe most of us here are dead by that point. Except you. Tell me, what did you feel back there? Triumphant? Gratified? Dominating?”

“Excruciated,” he said. No, on a second thought, upon seeing a disturbing scene like this, his natural reaction would be overwhelmed. He thought he’d cry, thought he’d feel his stomach turned, but it felt more like…he’s been grieving for so long that he became desensitized to pain. It’d still break his heart, but what good does it do when he’s already broken? Even tearing up required strength that his future self couldn’t muster. It’s what someone who has lost everything would feel.

“And what the hell are you implying?” Billy added. His intuitions were correct. Medusa viewed him as the mastermind behind all the deaths, but he couldn’t be. A villain would not be grieving…would not feel that he’d be better off dead.

“The planet you saw just now was Hala, capital of the once Kree Imperium,” said Medusa. “I assume that you haven’t had time to explain to your grandson why Kree Imperium would not exist in the future, Magnus?”

“No…” said Max. Billy never saw his grandfather looking so devastated, but surely he wouldn’t believe that his grandson was responsible for those deaths…right?

“Why didn’t you share this during the meeting?” said Moira. “Wouldn’t it be important information?”

“We don’t share everything with Wakanda,” said Medusa. “If this vision weren’t relevant to you, we would not have told you either.”

“Not everyone was in the meeting,” Billy reminded. “Can you at least explain why I would be on their capital if Kree Imperium doesn’t even exist anymore?”

“I was hoping you could tell me, William. Hala fell to the space tyrant Dorrek-Vell’s army one month ago. Why would you be defending his planet?”

“What-”

“It was you, wasn’t it? The shield. It took Ulysses and I quite some time to work out what happened. If you went farther, you’d see the corpse of J'son’s Flying Fortress, sliced into huge chunks by a sword.” Medusa’s hostility only increased as she recounted her theory. Her words seemed to have affected the others, now Raven stared at Billy with distrust too. Moira kept her silence, while Max…he stepped forward and stared back on Billy’s behalf.

“It appeared that you and Dorrek-Vell made a great team, William. You guarded the planet, he took care of the enemy. I wonder how many more you’ve killed together?”

“I don’t know any of the names you just mentioned-”

“Enough!” said Max. Billy shushed himself in panic, but his grandpa didn’t seem to be angry at him. “William was on the planet, he was saving his own life. You have no proof that he was doing it for Dorrek-Vell.”

“You grandson can create a planet-wide shield, but cannot teleport himself away?” Medusa scorned. Billy couldn’t say she’s wrong. He hadn’t tried interplanetary teleportation, but with the amount of power his future self displayed…it wouldn’t be impossible.

“J'son is the emperor of Spartax, member of the Galactic Council,” Medusa continued. “If Dorrek-Vell waged war against rest of the universe, Spartax’s planet killer is one of the few weapons that could stop him. Or was, until your grandson took his side.”

“Maybe this Galactic Council should think twice before launching a planet killer?” said Billy, trying to not sound too sarcastic.

“Sounds like you’re already siding with him.”

“I don’t even know him! And you’re excusing genocide,” Billy sighed. It’s frustrating, he used to consider Medusa family, but now she held the presumption of guilt against him? And he’s accused of what, exactly? Helping a so-called ‘space tyrant’, while said tyrant’s enemy was the one committing a massacre? How is he in the wrong? “I saved a planet of innocent lives, you keep acting like it’s a bad thing?”

“Innocent? Dorrek-Vell has killed all innocent lives! Everyone on that planet is loyal to him!”

“What — how would I know? And it still doesn’t justify killing people. What if they were forced? Even if not…death won’t bring anyone peace. You will only give them reasons to prolong the war and cause more deaths! What you need is-”

“Billy!” Moira interrupted him ardently. Her glare forced Billy to shut up, but he was confused. Was he wrong? Wasn’t it the lesson they learned from the human-mutant war? Bloodshed would only lock everyone in the vicious loop of revenge. The only way out is-

“I’m tired of your paranoia, Medusa,” Moira continued. “This meeting is meaningless. Whether your Galactic Council will start war with Dorrek-Vell or not, it is not Krakoa’s concern, and never Billy’s.”

“What if we stop their-”

“We have enough to worry about on Earth!” Moira insisted. Something’s wrong. Billy thought. Moira is angry…frightened, but not for the same reason as Medusa. Medusa feared him joining Dorrek-Vell, however ridiculous it sounded, but Moira worried that he’d…?

What? She doesn’t want him to stop them, doesn’t want him to join them, doesn’t want Krakoa to be involved in these galactic affairs in any way. Why? Wasn’t there a space program? Not to mention that, unlike her previous lives, Krakoa doesn’t have to worry about anti-mutant organizations anymore. Mutants are allies with humans and machines now. They could go out there and help stop an intergalactic war together. What’s she so scared of?

“Aliens are not Krakoa’s business and never will be.” Moira turned to Max, who, surprisingly, nodded. “If you’re this terrified of Dorrek-Vell, bother T’Challa, not us.”

“You think you can stay out of this?” Medusa breathed out a scoff. “William is in Ulysses’s vision-”

“These visions are only a possibility,” said Max. “We know how precognition works. Don’t treat us like fools.”

“I hope you’ll be as adamant as today when Charles Xavier comes asking for your help!” said Medusa. Another name Billy didn’t recognize. Yet from the looks on Moira’s and Max’s faces…they knew him, and were shocked to hear his name.

“Yes, we all know how soft you’re to your own kind,” added Medusa. A smile returned to her lips for making the leaders of Krakoa speechless.

“Umm, who’s Charles Xavier?” Billy asked. The name didn’t sound alien, at least. Moira didn’t want him to speak, but, well, Tommy wasn’t the only disobedient one.

“Father of the Shi'ar Empress,” said Medusa.

“And an old friend of them,” added Raven. “I don’t like you, but I’m starting to think that you may have a point.”

“Then you should know that Dorrek-Vell’s Kree/Skrull Empire is on the edge of war with Shi'ar. His troops has already launched an attack on Tryl'sart, a planet colonized by Shi'ar,” said Medusa. “If Dorrek-Vell wins, and he hasn’t lost a fight, will you be able to say no to Xavier when he asks for your help, Dr. MacTaggert?”

“No,” said Moira. Now she looked fully infuriated. “I’ll tell him to go to hell.”

Guess their friendship didn’t end on good terms. Billy thought, and tried to resist the urge to ask further questions.

“Moira-”

“He abandoned us!” Moira shouted at Max, Max kept his silence. “He has no right to ask for our help!”

“There, you have your answer.” She turned to Medusa again. “We don’t care about Shi'ar or Dorrek-Vell. If this is all that you have to say, we’ll be leaving now.”

“Why the hurry? You haven’t heard a word from your prophet,” said Medusa. She looked at Irene, who was unusually quiet the whole time. “Let’s see if Ms Adler believes that you’ll stay true to your words?”

How do you predict the future of a reality warper?

For Irene Adler, future is a tree with many branches, a crossroad with various paths. She cannot see, but sees the lives of individuals walking on different paths, even though they themselves could only see one. The number of branches may be huge but always finite, each with a different possibility. The quantity and probability can both vary, increase or decrease over time, but once you set onto the path, there is only one true future for you.

When she first met Moira MacTaggert, she was like a black hole to her. A black hole has an unfathomably large mass, and Moira has an infinite number of possible futures. You may think infinity makes it impossible. It doesn’t. It does, however, make her work tedious, trying to exhaust all those futures. Yet once she found the way to sort those lives, her visions became clear.

Moira, in each incarnation, has a finite number of branches like everyone else. Her paths in different lives are superimposed onto one another but can be separated, as long as you know how they started, and how they ended. The start of her first life would never lead to the end of her third life. It is the inherent rule of the universe. Cause and effect. Logic and order.

Reality warpers, however, are chaos incarnated.

Wanda Maximoff and William Kaplan bend the universe to their whims. There is no start, no end, no destiny. Time and space pose no restrictions to them. Reality is merely their drawing boards. You make them solve a maze, they don’t go through the twists and turns, but draw a line outside the maze and point directly to the destination. You thought they’d choose from the paths lay before them, and they say, NO, and pave a whole new road for themselves. The branches they walked can be chimeras of multiple realities, or never existed until an impulse arose. If they don’t like the reality they’re in, they can turn back, or skip forward, or change to another path, or stop walking altogether and fly to a higher plane.

There’s no logic, no order, no cause and effect. Nothing ever makes sense when reality warpers are involved, because they don’t care about the rules. Impossibles can become absolutes. Nevers can become forevers. Probability is a joke to them, while free will and determinism are both pointless.

Reality warpers defy the very concept of destiny, yet no one else in this universe has free will. Everyone follow the whims and wills of reality warpers. They can break the rules, because they make the rules.

How do you predict the future of a reality warper? There is no future. There is no past, either. There is only the present, you exist because they exist.

Irene has always avoided looking at Wanda Maximoff or William Kaplan. To save herself from being driven into insanity by the chaos in her visions. Yet the second William walked into this room today, she saw. Moments of his life flooded her sight, overwhelming her. Moments he has lived. Moments he will live. Moments that are destined to happen but will never happen. Moments that have already happened and yet never existed. She was trapped in a vortex, there’s no path, no branches. No way out.

“Love?” said Raven. At last, a hand to pull her out. She will not look at him. She will look at her.

“Yes…” said Irene. “I see…”

The inhuman child showed everyone a vision. Irene could not see the vision, but she could see her love, when Raven saw it. She knew how it looked. Hala, planet of Pama, hundreds of thousands of light years away. A time when the ‘Galactic Council’ was at war with the ‘Kree/Skrull Empire’…

No. Time does not matter to reality warpers.

She saw a moment, similar to the one seen by her love. A battleground on which lay countless corpses. Humans, mutants, machines, aliens, all dead but two. Next to the pile of corpses was William, hands rested on the neck and waist of another man. Dorrek-Vell. They were kissing next to millions of dead bodies…until they turned around and stared at her direction, as if they saw her.

They saw her.

“You shouldn’t be here,” said William.

She was thrown back into the vortex, paddling to find a way out. The waves made her efforts futile, she grasped a moment before the sea drowned her.

It was…a nice lakeside house. The landscape looked like Earth’s. She stood outside the house, peering through the windows at what appeared to be a kitchen. Leaning by the workbench were two men and a child, one teaching the kid to make a milkshake while the other watched, lovingly. Dorrek-Vell and William. A few years older, maybe a decade, but she could still tell. The same green skin and blonde hair, the same shade of blue as William cast a spell to clean the blender. The child dropped a sliced strawberry on top of the freshly made milkshake, then suddenly raised their head and stared at Irene.

Their parents stared at her too.

“You shouldn’t be here,” William frowned.

The vortex consumed her once more. She struggled to breathe, clutched onto another moment as her lifesaver, and found herself in a cinema.

In the dark, through the light of the screen, she saw two men holding hands. Grey hair has replaced the fairer and darker tints, but she knew. This is his life. Their life.

William, now of senior age, turned to her. Dorrek-Vell frowned at her too.

“How many times do I have to say you shouldn’t be here?”

The vortex returned. She was thrown to the bottom of the sea, with no moments as her breathers. Colors, lights, sounds, endless time and space, everything all at once, drowning her. She could no longer think, her mind was filled with only chaos…

“Irene!” Raven grabbed her. She realized that she almost fainted. Her love stared at William of the present, enraged. “What did you do to her?”

“…What?” said William, confused. He would be, he didn’t realize how powerful his subconscious mind was. She couldn’t look at him without blinding her eyes.

She would look at her love, then.

“I see the future,” she said, and took Raven’s hand.

The destiny of her love in the war to come… Irene was stopped by four corpses. Of her own, of her son, of her daughter, of her wife. Raven held her hand, as the flames took their lives. She knelt down next to her love’s body, caressing her face.

If she knew this moment would come…she would ask her to close her eyes.

“It doesn’t have to end like this,” said a voice. Irene turned around and saw Dorrek-Vell standing dozens of feet away. He’s talking to her. He could still see her.

“You don’t have to die…she doesn’t have to die,” he added.

“What do I need to do?” she asked, not sure if she would trust his answer.

“You just have to take the chance.”

“Take the chance?” said another voice. William. “I wish it was that easy. Why didn’t you take the chance, hon?”

Dorrek-Vell looked at him, but didn’t answer. William glanced at her. “You don’t belong here, Ms Adler,” he said. “For your own sake…I hope this will never be your future.”

The vision ended. “She’s right,” she said. The future filled her with fright, but she tried to sound calm. “They’re on the same side.”

It’s a lie, she didn’t understand, but she couldn’t lose Raven. William and Dorrek-Vell are lovers. They’re alive, while her love is dead. She couldn’t accept it, couldn’t let it happen. She’ll do what she has to do to keep her love safe.

“No…” Medusa’s words didn’t shatter Moira. Irene’s did. “What exactly did you see?”

“We’re in the war,” she said. She didn’t see Moira, it would take time to single out her future in this life from her many lives, but Moira didn’t have to know. “We didn’t survive.”

“No. Even if we joined the war, William won’t side with them,” said Magnus. Protective of his own family even in the face of truth. Magneto might’ve become less cruel, but never easy to break. “You’re lying.”

“Do you want to know your future?” she said.

What could possibly break Magneto?

She stood on the land of the dead once more. Magnus sat before her, bleeding from the many wounds caused by gun shots. Earth’s weapons would not have killed him, but these aliens…were millions of years more advanced in weaponry. He, however, did not see her. His eyes were fixed on an approaching figure. William.

William stopped near a green-skinned alien lying on the ground. “General,” he said. The alien was incapacitated, but apparently alive. “You wife lives. She would want you to live too.”

“No! Wait-”

He snapped his fingers, the alien was teleported away. No chance to fight back. William kept walking, his attention turned to a blue-skinned alien buried under the rocks. Another spell reduced the rocks to dust, the alien struggled to look at him.

“Live, Keeyah of the Clench,” he said, and the alien was teleported away as well.

At last, William walked to Magnus, who spoke before his grandson uttered a word.

“If you plan to send me away too, don’t bother.”

“The alternative is death, grandpa,” said William. For the first time, he looked upset too.

“Then I’ll embrace death.”

William glanced at the body Magnus sat next to. A bald man…Charles Xavier. “I’m sorry it ended like this,” he said, and snapped his fingers anyway.

Magnus was forced into a coma before teleported away. William turned to Irene, “You’re judging,” he said. “I tried to save lives…you think it’s unfair that he will survive?”

“No, I think you’re cruel. He wanted to die,” she said. If Raven were dead but not her…she would rather be dead, too.

“He won’t remember…I gave him a new life. A second chance.”

“Then I think you’re crueler. You erased his memory, made the choice for him. You killed him twice.”

“So you mean…death is mercy to those who rejected the chance.” William breathed out a cold laugh. His eyes rested on someone behind Irene…Dorrek-Vell, of course. “That’s ridiculous. I would always take the chance for a happier life…”

He paused, overcome by tears. So he does understand. Irene thought. She’s right. He’s cruel and self-absorbed. He’s the only one who still had hopes, the only one who hasn’t lost everything, so he would force this positivity — this faith in love — onto everyone else.

Reality warpers are born thinking the world revolves around them, because it actually does.

“…Would you?” William asked with reddish eyes. Dorrek-Vell sighed. “Billy…It wouldn’t be fair.”

“What if I don’t care?”

“…You should leave, Ms Adler,” said Dorrek-Vell. William returned his attention to her too. “Please don’t come back again.”

Visions of the inhuman palace became clear once more. “I saw you survived, Magnus,” said Irene. She realized, the truth would break him more than any lies ever could. “William blessed you with a happy life. A life where you’ve never lost your daughter, and never known Charles Xavier.”

“I’ve heard enough lies from you-”

“Magnus!” said Moira. “She has no reason to lie.”

“You don’t actually believe-”

“William,” Moira turned to the perplexed young man. Irene would almost say that he deserved it. “We need to talk. In private. Now.”

Billy sat down in Moira’s office, he couldn’t help but wonder how much worse the day could get. After Medusa and Irene Adler both accused him of ‘treason’ in a ‘forthcoming intergalactic war’, Lockjaw sent them home so that Max and Moira could interrogate him for something he hasn’t and will likely never do!

Mom would’ve believed me. Billy thought, staring at a solemn Max and a disturbed Moira. And Tommy! And Kate and Cassie and Eli and Nate and David! They’d all believe me!

“Billy.” Moira pressed her hand on his swivel chair and stopped him from spinning. She asked him to look at her in the eye. Max leaned on a desk and kept distance from them, as if he didn’t want to be part of this. As if he didn’t agree to this interrogation!

“I know it’s not easy for you to accept,” she said. “Still, I hope you can understand-”

“That not even my family would trust me? Yeah. Very understandable. No hard feelings at all.”

“I do trust you,” Moira sighed. “You’re on our side. I never doubted that.”

“Then what is this about?”

“I need insurance.” Moira glanced at Max, Max didn’t move, didn’t talk. She found another chair and sat down before Billy. “People change, William. It’s not an accusation, it’s a fact. Anyone can switch sides. I’ve switched sides. Not even you can promise that you will never have a change of heart.”

“I’ll never hurt people. I can promise that.”

“What if we ask you to hurt Dorrek-Vell for us?”

“…You shouldn’t ask that.”

“I don’t want to. You don’t want me to either. That’s why we’re here. We make sure the future we see never happens.”

“How do you make sure? What’s your insurance?”

“Something beyond your power, so you cannot undo it yourself.”

Billy frowned at this vague but clearly unfriendly answer. Moira’s stare frightened him. Medusa’s was unsettling too, but she couldn’t hurt him, Max would protect him. Moira, on the other hand, was no stranger. All his family knew her and trusted her for more years than he was alive. If she asked for something…they’d listen to her.

“Don’t worry, it’ll be reversible. You’ll have it back once we make sure their prophecies are wrong.”

“Wait, have what back?”

“There was a device.” Moira seemed to have recalled some unpleasant memories. “It doesn’t exist in this reality, because I killed anyone who could’ve made it. Their would-be successors were stopped by your mother’s synthezoids. But in the ten lives I had before…it was everywhere.”

“A power inhibitor. It makes you normal. The first generation was crude but effective. I know how to make the most advanced version. I designed it myself.”

“No,” said Max at last. He came between Billy and Moira, shielding him and glaring at her. “I did everything you asked, whatever it takes to ensure our survival, but this is too far. Taking away his power makes you no different from the Orchis you spoke of.”

“I don’t want to take his power. I want to protect us!” Moira snapped. She took a deep breath to calm down, then returned her attention to Billy.

“Please, William. I need you to understand. It’s only to make sure that, even if you were tricked or under mind control, you can’t hurt us. Or anyone. Wouldn’t you want that too?”

“He wouldn’t want to be erased,” said Max before Billy could answer. “His power is part of who he is. I don’t care how righteous you made it sound, taking away his power is erasing him. You might as well kill him, than to have him live as a husk!”

“I can kill him,” said Moira. She stared at Max, he finally had no words. Billy had to consider if he should just cast a spell and teleport away right now…but where could he go? If he stayed on Krakoa, Moira would find him sooner or later. Mom might protect him, but she couldn’t protect him forever. Maybe he should move to USA and live with his friends? No…Moira would track him down as long as he’s on Earth. If she couldn’t kill him this time, she’ll just have to kill him in her next life, before he was even born. There’s no escape.

“Would you rather that I kill him?” she repeated, then turned to Billy. “Would you rather die, Billy? Because if you say yes, I will kill you. You know I will.”

“…It’s not fair,” said Billy. Moira shook her head, “Life isn’t fair. I learned it the hard way.”

“One life for the future of mutantity. I’ve made this choice many times, and I’m willing to make it again. If I didn’t know you, you’d be dead by now, but you are family. Killing you will bring me more pain than relief. I don’t want to kill you. Don’t make me.”

Billy didn’t say anything. He doesn’t want to die, doesn’t want his power erased either, so he didn’t know what to do. Moira sighed. She’s threatened him already, next would be to sweeten the deal.

“It’ll be a small surgery, quick and painless,” she said. “A tiny electrode implanted into your brain, the region responsible for controlling your power. Nothing else will be affected. You won’t feel any different at all, I promise.”

“Sounds like lobotomy,” said Billy.

“Lobotomy can’t be undone. This can. You’re still you, just no power.”

“Yeah, you’re still you after part of your brain is removed too.”

“You think I’m cold-blooded, but this is the softest way. In my previous lives, you’re feared by many, including mutants. They tried to kill you for being too powerful. If Max and I take this to the council, how many do you think will vote to kill you?”

“But you said it’s different this time. It’s not like your previous lives.”

“I never told you about M-Day, did I?” Moira turned to Max. He frowned, confirming her words, “No.”

“I didn’t think I’d need to. I made sure it wouldn’t happen. But it was Wanda. With three words, she took away the powers of a million mutants.”

“What? Mom wouldn’t-”

“She wouldn’t, yes. She didn’t want to. If she never had a mental breakdown, she wouldn’t have done it. But she couldn’t control it. What if you can’t control it either, Billy? That’s why we make sure.”

“…There has to be another way. A better way,” Billy said, but his confidence dropped as the conversation proceeded. Moira almost convinced him, that he’s dangerous, that taking away his power is good for everyone, himself included. It doesn’t feel right, however. It’ll never feel right. Max was right, his power is part of him. His mutanthood isn’t the only thing that matters, but it’s important, same with being Jewish-Romani and gay. These identities are integral to him, they affect how he experiences the world and shape who he is. Without them, he wouldn’t be Billy, he’d just be an empty shell of his true self. It’s frightening.

“What if…I cast a spell? Like a firewall? A mental block? It’ll stop me from being too powerful, and from hurting people, and…”

Billy shushed himself. Moira gave him a smile, she realized it too. “Doesn’t sound too different from my suggestion, does it?”

“Yeah…”

“You’re the only one who can cast or lift the spell, Billy. If you change your mind, you can easily undo it. I need something that I can control but you can’t. It’s not that I don’t trust you. I can’t take the risk.”

“I’ve lived ten lives. I’ve died ten times. I’ve fought for thousands of years. This is the only time we win. I would’ve erased my own power, permanently, so that this life where we win is the only life that matters. But I know, victory can be taken away. Peace won’t last forever. Humans and machines may one day change their mind and turn on us again. I stay to make sure.”

“In a few decades, if there’s no more war, if all mutants live, I’ll enter hibernation until I’m needed again. Whenever mutants despaired, however distant the era…I’ll wake up and make sure that we survive, that wealways win. This is how it should be, until the universe itself comes to an end.”

“I spent every life I’ve lived fighting the mutant-human war. I cannot accept that, after we earned our victory, after I proved to myself that mutants can win, these aliens come out of nowhere and take it all away!”

“Please, Billy, I know you understand. The voice in your head telling you that you don’t deserve to live, that your existence a disease, that your only fate is death… This is the first life I stop listening to it, the only life where I had the courage to tell it to shut up. I cannot lose it all to Dorrek-Vell.”

“I…” Billy sighed. Yes, he does understand how it feels. Everything she’s said about saving the mutantkind…well, she did mean it, but it wasn’t her real motive. This is. It’s never about saving mutantity. She wants to save herself, from her own fears and toxic thoughts.

The world isn’t kind to people like him. The identities that shape him give others reasons to hurt him. Sometimes…he’s steps away from hurting himself too. It’s a tough fight, he tried not to let those thoughts win. When his family and friends are around, when he knows he’s loved, when they remind him that those thoughts are ridiculous, it’s easier to win. Not everyone is as lucky as him. Many have lost in the fight. Moira…she asks for his help. She had no one, her thoughts are consuming her and killing her. This is her last cry for help before death.

How could he say no to her when he knew how much it hurt?

“Okay. I’ll do it,” said Billy. He knew he would definitely regret it. He knew…this would make his fight harder. He just couldn’t watch her die. He had to believe that he’d still win, that this would save her, then maybe he could convince himself that he made the right choice. Two lives are greater than one…right?

“Thank you, Billy. You’re always the bravest. Braver than me,” said Moira. She looked relieved. Billy told himself that this is good. You want to save lives. You just did.

“I’ll have Dr. McCoy prepared. We’ll perform the surgery on you together. Tomorrow morning, okay?”

“Yeah.” Billy nodded, the good feelings of a heroic act soon disappeared. Sorrow over losing his power in less than 24 hours overwhelmed him and almost drove him to tears, but Moira allowed him to leave before he broke down crying.

Billy wished, as he walked up the stairs, that no one would notice him sobbing to his pillows.

“I don’t like this,” said Max after Billy left. “You used his kindness.”

“Better than killing him or locking him up.”

“Over a speculation?”

“Over ten lives of evidence,” Moira sighed. “I remember.”

“I’m sorry, it should’ve occurred to me earlier. There’s too much to remember. I can’t remember everyone, he wasn’t important to our story. But I remember now.”

“Who?” Max frowned. “Dorrek-Vell?”

“Hulkling was the name he went by. He’s a hero, a good kid. Never a threat, even believed himself to be one of us. I don’t know what happened this time that made him a tyrant, but there’s a constant across different incarnations.”

“Dorrek-Vell is Billy’s husband.”

“No.” Max threw her a glare. “That can’t be. You’re lying.”

“I wish.” She breathed out a bitter laugh. Moira could tell, even if Max didn’t want to believe her, he knew that she spoke the truth. “Don’t tell Billy. He’s too kind. If he knew, he’d believe that he could change him. It won’t work. Dorrek-Vell will change him. We must make sure that he never meets Dorrek-Vell.”