Chapter 1
In the smaller island known as Genosha, mutants once thrived. The colors were always in a happy tone, and a bright future for all was advertised. Emma Frost had a chance to start anew, to retire her title as White Queen once and for all. It was a dream, a lovely dream. Her students were learning about the arts.
Emma Frost is donned in white as her stilettos make the sound in the classroom. Using her telepathic powers to show the next slide as the students are avid to learn as far as Emma can tell. “Now, can you all tell me what you saw here?”
The slide shows young Kitty Pryde in her atrocious attire. She was 13 years old in the picture and posing. The students laugh at the photo. “Is that Kitty Pryde? The great Shadowcat?” a girl asked be wielded.
Emma´s arrogant smile is visible to all. “Our lesson of today is…don´t dress like Kitty Pryde ”
The classroom was bright, promising a gentle future for all the students. Now, the classroom is a mix of red, black, and corpses. So many corpses. Emma Frost is in the scrumbles of her old classroom, full of dead students.
In Genosha, promises of a better future were for everyone, including Emma Frost and her “sisters” the Stepford Cuckoos: Esme Cuckoo, Irma Cuckoo, Pheobe Cuckoo, and Sophie Cucko. Created thanks to Emma´s egg but crafted artificially and aged up. The Cuckoos are powerful telepaths, just like Emma Frost.
The Cuckoos lay dead. Their bodies are spread in the one classroom, among all the students who could have been anything in Genosha…Emma is holding Esme´s corpse while the smell of burned flesh stenchs the area.
The Sentinels attacked out of the blue, it was a batch of Sentinels upgraded to truly exterminate the mutants and the X-men plus Magneto fought with all of them until they were victorious. How victorious one can claim if Genosha is on fire?
Those Sentinels displayed a power no one had seen before. It was a new level of sheer destruction.
The X-men found Emma Frost, hours later of the combat, still alive and holding the dead body of her “sister”. Beast is the one to locate Emma in her diamond form, something completely new even for Emma Frost.
It was power absolute?
No.
“It seems your mutant gene unlocks a secondary mutation during such duress” Hank explained eloquently for Emma and his companions as if it is needed. Emma wants to laugh mockingly.
What is the point of becoming a diamond mutant if I can´t save my students?
“I´d be well under duress after all” Emma speaks more to herself. She can still feel the burning flesh assaulting her nose. Even as she is taken to where the survivors are recovering, as much as one can.
Emma Frost can only think one thing:
If I had the power, real power, none of this would happen.
Scott Summers is the one addressing the situation in Genosha to the world, his words are sparing no punch as anger is laced thick. Mutants suffered genocide and no one, not even the anti-mutants won as Genosha is still standing and the X-men survived.
Genosha was a place for a promise of a better future. A place where children would only need to worry about exams, not surviving.
Emma Frost lays in the hospital bed as the TV shows Scott Summers speaking about what truly happened. How his voice, eyes covered with his visor- are burning with rage. Emma is mesmerized.
What man!
The X–men are still a beacon of hope for the mutants of all worlds, even after Genosha, even after Jean Grey all eyes of mutantkind are on the X-men. The pressure is making them on the edge, Emma Frost being with the X-men is another point as well.
Kitty Pryde and Rachel Grey aren´t thrilled to see the White Queen walking in the halls of X-men, let alone being so close to Scott Summers. The rumours fly fast and Emma likes to bully Kitty in her sneaky way.
“How…you endure all of this?” Emma asked trying to be nice. Many eyes are on Scott Summers, all the big-shot decisions are on this man. Logan is still picking fights over Scott for a woman who never loved him, she picks Scott Summers even at the last minute.
Scott, always wearing his visor, makes one question to answer all Emma´s queries. “Do you want to read my mind again?” Scott asked amused. It´s not always you see the fearless leader of X-men attempting to make jokes.
You know, darling, you would have been a great male husband.
Emma throws this line to Scoot, mentally. Others would think she is being catty, after all, Scott was married to Jean.
Scott chuckles. “I heard that before”
Scott can smile, horses be damned.
“What you thought I was like?” Scott asked daring now. Fearless leader of the X-men who offers someone like Emma a peak on his mind. Trust is so precious and Emma feels bare, feels secure.
“Honestly? Someone boring, now I see I made an unfair judgment” Emma adds without fear, holding his face with her white glove, her face softening.”Even if you like to eat soup all the time, I even attempt to cook you some soup”
“Soup is good, promise, and easy to make” Scott lightly comments, and that stupid, charming smile stays. “You know how to cook?”
Emma ended up laughing, for once, not in a haunting or mocking tone, it was something she reserved for her “sisters”. “I used to cook for my sisters once or twice. I´m rich, we don´t worry about cooking”
Scott Summers understood that as a challenge.
Emma Frost is in to learn how to make soup. It´s silly, stupid and…she´s having fun.
How pathetic of m e… E mma muses to herself with a ghost of a smile as she admires Scott comforting the survivors of Genosha. Were you this pathetic too , Jean?
As Rogue uses her super strength to knock down one of the three Sentinels, Emma uses her telepathic power to link the other X-men, to brief them on the situation. The Sentinels were old models, the classic ones as Emma joked in a bitter tone. Scott, Rogue, Emma, Kitty, and Kurt were at the right time and in the right place when this attack began.
Maybe we can say this is our job: Be where the Sentinels are and fight them, forever.
Scott is using his optimal blasts and defeats one Sentinel entirely. The control Scott Summers NEEDS to have to use his power is something that will forever impress Emma Frost. It´s something Emma feels pity, feels for young Scott Summers who was trained to be a child soldier, he is one of the best. Isn´t that sad?
If Emma Frost had power, real power like Jean once had…could she do more for the mutants? More for the few people she loves?
Emma Frost, like a diamond, doesn´t break easily.
Kitty and Kurt have a combo attack and manage to take down the Sentinel. The battle is over, The X-men won.
And what victory is that?
Emma Frost is privy to the Phoenix saga. Who isn´t? A woman who is graced by such cosmic power as Pheonix Force. A woman who could revive and kill herself and others so easily.
Jean Grey became a God…she wielded a power no one could imagine.
Emma Frost is a talented and omega-level telepath…but she doesn´t have power, not the real one.
Diamonds can´t revive your family.
Not enough to help the X-men substantially, not enough to bring her “sisters” back, but Emma Frost IS the White Queen, if she is not a God…she will make herself appear as one.
Emma Frost picks up where the leaders of Humanity First are. Their thoughts are not hard to locate, nor they are smart enough to hide their tracks. Maybe, Jean Grey would have shown them mercy, maybe she would have been the better person.
Well, she is not here.
Emma levitates thanks to her power and only talks, telepathically, with Scott. I´ll be right back. Scott doesn´t stop her, and Emma is glad. The Leaders of the cult leave in a relatively closer building which if you ask the White Queen is such a stupid move in their villainous scheme.
After all…the Sentinels could have dropped drop in that building and smash them as insignificant bugs.
Wouldn´t that be a sight?
The building has a secretary. A woman shouted in horror “Mutie”- as if the act of a mutant entering this building is impossible- and Emma activated her telepathy and telekinesis. The woman is now covered in fire, her brain believes so and is doing everything to save herself.
Her screams are filling the hall. She is truly in a hell in her mind.
She goes to the first floor. Men cosplaying as soldiers have guns pointed at Emma Frost, her stone-cold resolve never wavers. Instead, With a flick of her mind, every soldier starts shooting at each other.
The blood bath ended in less than a minute. Not a single drop of red in her outfit can be seen.
On the second floor, more soldiers with more guns. “How repetitive” Emma chided bemused as her body entered her diamond form. Bullets can hardly tickle her.
Emma is not She-Hulk. But in diamond form, a punch can really kill. The blood drops from her diamond-like hands.
More dead soldiers.
The last floor has the big bosses, the leaders so to speak. The fearless leaders who advocate for mutant genocide are hiding in their offices, fearing and begging for forgiveness. Emma narrows her eyes.
“Begging? Now you beg for your lives? And our children? And our future? People like you have been killing us and won´t stop…” Emma´s eyes whiten as she hisses her last words. “But I´ll make you stop!”
She thinks of her “sisters” and how their deaths were brutal, how Emma had to witness that powerless.
The X-men don´t kill. It´s a golden rule many of the old members repeat to Emma time and time again. Yet, X-men do kill, it´s a very selective rule and frankly, Emma is never one to abide by all rules anyway.
Of cours e…b ut the X-men are ok with being killed.
The X-men are ok with Sentinels going and destroying their lives.
Killing someone is never an easy thing, especially if you do have some power. You need to be creative and thankfully Emma is very creative. She lifts the 4 men with her mind, tempted to toss them outside the window and let gravity kill them.
Instead, she put all the scenes of Genosha in their mind, all the terror and death in their little minds. Then, she continues to feel their mind, showing more and more. A telepath can endure that, but a normal person doesn´t.
BlowingBlow your mind…can be a realistic and deadly thing.
Their faces are red, and their veins are popping. Tears and droll are dropping as their words become more and harder to comprehend. “Please, have mercy,” one of them said. Emma doesn´t even know their names and yet…they create and release Sentinels to kill her.
Emma bends their spine, and blood starts to drop from their mouths. She continues feeding their mind with all the suffering of mutantkind. Until their minds break, She violently drops them on the floor.
They are dead now…their minds too.
Emma? Where are you?
Scott´s mind is linked to hers.
I killed them, Scot t…I killed them.
Jean Grey wouldn´t have done that…Maybe, the red hair would have found in her heart to forgive them, to be the bigger person. Emma is not the bigger person.
Good. You did well.
Somehow, darling, I don´t think your professor will agree.
___
Professor X is a bald man, as Emma is never shy to point out, who is always preaching about humans and mutants co-existing. Emma can look right now at him and sneers. “Stop trying to get into my mind, old man” Emma crosses her arms. It´s vexing how she is called to his office as if she is in trouble.
I´m a grown-up woman, not one of his students.
“Emma” Prof X chided as his attempts to invade her mind halted. “You killed those humans?! That is against the very core of the X-men.”The man's patronizing tone makes Emma grith her perfect white teeth, yet, her lips are shut.
Prof X is levitating, looking down on her in a literal sense. “Your actions are misguided, I know you´re hurt, I know you think this will help…but if anything, this will make us more of a target than anything” Prof X is not hiding how berating he sounds. His eyes still look down, judging and Emma Frost stares at him.
If I had more powe r…
“Are you done, preaching bald man? Because I can´t endure your annoying voice anymore. If you want humans and mutants to co-exist, great. What do we do about humans who want to exterminate us? Because we were leaving peacefully and away from humans and yet, our babies were burned, our houses were destroyed and you want us to make peace with humans. How?” Emma demands now.
Prof X is silent and instead uses his telepathic link to talk to Scott Summers, which infuriates Emma Frost.
Scott, your poor judgment is to blame here.
Emma Frows interlopes and intercedes in the mental link, she is a talented and gifted telepath.
Scott, darling, ignore the bald man. He has yet to answer me about his brilliant plan to make humans who gleefully build Sentinels want us, mutants, to exist.
Prof X sent daggers towards her. Prof X was a powerful telepath, sadly, there is always a bigger fish, and today, Emma proves to be above him.
Meanwhile, in the Avengers Tower, Tony Stark is doing his survey when his screen showcases a red alert. If it was on one screen, Tony could relegate the assignment, however, many screens started showing the same red alert. “Please, let be a malfunction” Tony pleads drily knowing deep down Tony Stark never makes mistakes, at least, not at that level.
PHEONIX IS RETURNING HOME.
All the Avengers are united in the room. Scarlet Witch gasps as the screen shows the cosmic force returning to Earth.
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