Chapter 88

  Arc 7 - Ch 5: Death

  Date: Monday, August 29, 2011.

  Location: Times Square, Manhattan, New York

  Pain exploded across Tyson's body. It was like his skin had been fyed. But it only sted a moment. His regeion, bined with the Juggernaut's, kicked in, healing him almost immediately. He turrying to figure out what hit him, and saw Pietro.

  With a copy of Muse in his hand.

  He couldn't alloietro was dangerous enough already.

  Muse was bound to him. While the speedster held a copy, the dagger was still beholden to his will. With a thought, he dismissed that copy. It immediately disappeared, leaving Pietro fused.

  Now Tyson had a problem. How did you hit someoh superspeed? He didn't have an answer. As strong as Tyson ietro was the real unstoppable force. He'd see anything Tyson threw at him far before the attaded. Additionally, while wearing Mago's helmet, Tyson couldn't use illusions. So, how? He'd o use an attack that Pietro would see ing. His powers weren't helpful for this. her were the Juggernauts... But maybe Max's power.

  Settling on the impromptu phrew Muse at Pietro. As he released, he ran all of Electro's power through his skin. He was already glowing blue; it just made him glow slightly more. It looked like the bde would hit the speedster, but suddenly, Pietro disappeared.

  And the electricity running under his skin discharged.

  Pietro was at his back, faster than his eyes could follow, trying to stab him with Muse. But he fell for Tyson's trap.

  Running the electricity along his skin forced it all to jump to the dagger when it pierced him. Electricity erupted from the on, c through the metal and into Pietro's body. The shock was immediate and overwhelming. Time, which had been moving so slowly for the speedster, suddenly snapped back to its normal pace. His eyes widened in surprise and pain as the current surged through him, paralyzing him pletely, the dagger still clutched in his hand, its tip barely breaking Tyson's skin.

  Tyson's eyes, which had been focused in the distance where Pietro stood previously, now locked onto his stunned face.

  "Gotcha," he said, almost versationally to the paralyzed speedster.

  Pietro tried to respond, to move, but his body refused to obey. The electricity tio course through him, causing intense pain and keeping him immobilized.

  Wanda's eyes widened, horror and fear gripping her as she watched her beloved twin paralyzed as the electric current locked his muscles, ing his power.

  "No," Wanda choked out.

  She could only see her helpless brother, trapped as Tyson reached for him. Their father had warhem. Oouch was all it took for Mirage to kill.

  Pietro would die if she didn't prevent Tyson from toug him.

  Rage simmered inside Wanda. Crimson energy sparked at her fingers, responding to the surge of desperate fury. Her eyes glowed red, power flowing through her veins.

  "You'll pay for this," she growled through gritted teeth, her Sokovian at being more pronounced with her anger.

  With a cry of desperation, Wanda unleashed her chaotic power. A corusg bolt of scarlet force streamed through the air. Tyson didn't register the attatil it smmed into him. The force of the impact sent him staggering backward, his feet sliding across the cracked pavement. Though Marko's absorbed power shielded him from serious harm, the sheer iy of Wanda's assault was enough to throw him off banentarily.

  More importantly, the Hex Bolt knocked Pietro out of Tyson's reach. The speedster tumbled to the ground, rolling several times before ing to a stop, where he y motionless.

  "Pietro!" Wanda cried out, her voice thick with .

  She rushed to her brother's side, kneeling beside him. Wanda's head snapped up, her eyes bzing with fury. "You dare threaten my family?" she spat.

  The air around her began to and twist as reality bent to her will. Small objeearby started to float, caught in the maelstrom of her power.

  Tyson raised his hands, trying to pcate the witch. "I'm not your enemy, Wanda. Mago's been lying to you, using you. There's so much you don't uand."

  "I uand enough," Wanda snarled. She rose to her feet, positioning herself protectively in front of Pietro. "No more words," she decred, raising her hands again. "You've hurt my brother. Now you face me."

  Wanda unleashed a barrage of hex bolts, prompting Tyson to run. He sidered his options as he dodged the bursts of crimson energy. Should he target the downed Pietro, Wanda, or his inal goal, Multiple Man? The speedster was too risky. He didn't know if Pietro's pranted him increased recovery. If it did, he might already be out of reach when Tyson got to him. That, and Wanda stood betweeyson would o gh her first. Even if he mao get a hold of her, the Scarlet Witch's poild. Her attacks were purely emotionally driven. Dangerous, yes, but her ck of trol made her power uable. He doubted that his meager magical training would be enough to trol her agic.

  Multiple Man, though... That power would turide. That had to be his target.

  He rolled under another hex bolt, putting Wanda and Pietra at his back. His enhanced reflexes let him weave betweeacks while each step brought him closer to Multiple Man.

  "Your whole family sucks!" Tyson called over his shoulder, provoking another barrage.

  He didn't let the attacks go unanswered. Crag electricity arced from his outstretched hands, ng through the air toward the Scarlet Witch as he fired ba her dire.

  But his attack went far wide.

  The lightning bolts spshed against a building's facade, leaving behind a pattern of bck scorch marks across its surface. Electricity poured from his hand in a tinuous stream.

  Whe it off, he fired another arg stream. But Wanda saw how poor his trol was.

  The crete facade of another office building on the side of the square took the brunt of the stray bolts, filling the air with the acrid smell of ozone and scorched metal.

  Wanda still hadn't nded a hit on Tyson, but she didn't o hit her target directly. Each hex bolt that struck the ground, the air, or nearby objects sent ripples of agic spreading outward. Reality itself ed and twisted in the wake of her power. Probabilities shifted, the impossible being possible, the unlikely beiain.

  A stray bolt hit a piece of debris, multiplying it into a field of identical obstacles. Another bolt dispersed, creating a localized pocket of increased air resistance.

  "Enough!" Wanda cried out.

  She brought her hands together in a thunderous cp, releasing a shockwave of chaotiergy that spread across the area. Reality ed around her in ways that defied all logid reason. The air thinned as if they stood at a mountain peak. Gravity stuttered for a split sed, releasing its hold on the area. Every solid surface for over thirty meters in every dire lost all fri, being smoother than the fi polished gss. Caught at the nexus point of this impossible series of events, Tyson was hit by the full force of the probability storm. The slippery grourayed his footing. The momentary pse of gravity left him suddenly weightless, his momentum hurling him helplessly into the air. He windmilled his arms, trying futilely tht himself, but found no purchase to stop his ast.

  With a gesture, Wanda halted Tyson's trajectory and pinned him in midair with an invisible telekiic grip. He floated spread-eagle, immobilized and vulnerable, his body surrounded by the scarlet glow of her magic.

  A look of surprise crossed his face. He had the Juggernaut's power. How had she stopped his movement? His eyes darted around, searg for a way out of his predit. His muscles strained against the invisible force holding him, but to no avail.

  Suddenly, Tyson fired a bolt of electricity from his body in a brilliant fsh of blue-white light. The bolt streaked across the square, not appearing targeted at Wanda but at other Brotherhood members. Still, it went far wide, striking a building on the opposite side of the square. The crete facade sizzled and smoked where the electricity made tact. He eled the electricity for a moment before cutting it off.

  "Your aim is as poor as your judgment," she spat.

  He fired again, another bolt of lightning shooting from his outstretched hand. This time, it veered even further off course, not even ing close to any of his enemies.

  The errant bolt struck yet another building, leaving behind a bed scorch mark.

  "What are you pying at?" Wanda demanded.

  Tyson's face was a mask of intense focus as he floated immobilized in the scarlet energy field. His eyes were closed, his attention turned inward, and he seemed oblivious to her question.

  She surveyed the se. The situation was finally under trol. Mago held the hulking Juggernaut aloft, havirieved and repced his protective helmet. The remaining Brotherhood members were freed to ehout attag them. Pietro y unmoving on the ground, but his chest's steady rise and fall reassured Wanda he would recover. And Mirage hung suspended, ralized for the moment.

  They'd won.

  Yet Mirage's face still dispyed an uling look of tration, as if he were pnning something. Her eyes narrowed, and she was wary of whatever scheme the illusionist had devised.

  "I don't know what game you're pying,” she said coldly, “but your tricks won’t save you. Now answer me. What were you aiming at?”

  In ayson's body erupted with electricity. It wasn't a single bolt this time but a sustained burst that split from his torso in four dires. The lightning arced through the air, each stream finding its way to one of the buildings he'd struck earlier.

  As the electricity touched the scorched facades, somethiraordinary happehe seemingly random marks left behind by Tyson's earlier attacks began to glow. He maintaihe e, eling Max's power into the marks, which filled with electricity, revealing intricate patterns burned into the buildings' surfaces.

  A symbol resembling a 'Y' lit up on the first building, its tral stroke protruding above the V shape.

  The sed building bore a mark akin to an 'X', with liending from the topmost point beyond the bottom.

  A crooked 'Z' became visible ohird structure, its lines crag with power.

  The fourth and final symbol appeared to be an 'H', but with the middle liarting higher on the left side.

  As the runes activated, Wanda felt a sudden, terrifying shift arouhe scarlet energy flowing through her veins like molten va abruptly cooled, leaving behind a hollow emptiness. She staggered backward, panic fshed across her face at the sudden severing of her power.

  "What have you done?" she gasped.

  With a dramatic thud, Tyson nded, kneeling on one knee in a cssic superhero pose, freed from Wanda's now-absent telekiic grip. Electricity still arced from his muscur frame, fueling the glowing runes surrounding the square. He raised his head and answered Wanda with a smug grin.

  "Magic."

  His eyes crackled with arcs of electricity. Twin bolts of lightnied from Tyson's eyes, ng through the air toward the Scarlet Witch. She threw up her hands, trying to summon a shield of scarlet energy, but her power didn't ahe call. The electric bst pierced through, striking her squarely in the chest. Wanda's body seized as the currents coursed through her, muscles log in agony. Her shriek of pain echoed across the square. He maintaihe flow, lightning tinuing to stream from his eyes. Wanda shuddered until she could take no more, her eyes rolling back as she slipped into unsciousness.

  Tyson's grin still hadn't faded as he cut off the attack, letting Wanda's figure colpse bonelessly to the ground. He mumbled a silent thanks to Agatha, then broke into a sprint, charging toward the dowwins.

  Pietro was his arget.

  Seeing the fight with Mirage shifting, one of the Brotherhood members, Arclight, stepped forward, raising her hands.

  "I've got him." She called, thrusting her arms forward, bringing her hands together in a cp that sent a powerful shockwave hurtling toward Tyson.

  Her shockwave smmed into him while he was in a full sprint, and the air seemed to ripple as the energy washed over him. Yet he appeared ued. Arclight's attack dissipated harmlessly around his chiseled form, leaving him pletely unscathed.

  "That's it?" He yelled arrogantly as he he unsaximoff's.

  But then, Tyson's belt detonated in a blindiion of light as the cealed miniaturized Arc reactor exploded. The bst hurtled Tyson away as if he'd been shot from a on. Eic fmes engulfed half his body, iing flesh to the iructible adamantium bone.

  He hadn't taken so much damage since being bsted by Gungnir.

  The Juggernaut's power must have faded, leaving his clothing, himself, and, most importantly, the Arc reactor vulnerable. Though his body was shredded, his healing factor quickly knit his wounds back together. Yet regeion mattered little now.

  The instant the fluctuating magic field around Tyson dissipated, Mago se. With a mere thought, Erik Lehnsherr seized trol through his supreme mastery ism and ferrokinesis. Invisible energy enfolded around Tyson, log down his limbs in an inescapable grip. He struggled against the invisible bonds to no avail.

  Mago anded, "Vanisher, get the twins out of here!"

  Brad Pitt materialized beside the falleer and witch. He k, grabbed Pietro's hand, and pced his other hand on Wanda's shoulder. The air around them seemed to ripple, and then they were gone, leaving behind only a faint distortion in the air where they had been. Their sudden absence left a momentary lull itlefield.

  But it was short-lived.

  A streak of color burst into the open expanse of Times Square. The yellow blur was difficult to track against the backdrop of neon signs and t billboards.

  Callisto, who had yet to engage in the fight beyond avoiding the Juggernaut, unched herself forward, tapping into her superhuman speed. She collided with the yellow blur. Both figures were catapulted away from each other, tumbling across the cracked pavement of Times Square. The newer was the first to rise, revealing her identity.

  Jubilee pushed herself to her feet, her trademark coat fluttering after the collision.

  "Sorry I'm te to the party," she quipped, shaking off the effects of the impact. She looked at Tyson and saw him immobilized, obviously trapped in Mago's hold. She mumbled, "Not again." She moved between Tyson and Mago.

  "This time, I'm going to save you, Tyson," she announced.

  Without missing a beat, Jubilee raised her hands, palms outward. The air around her fiips began to crackle and pop with pent-up energy.

  A dazzling array of psma bursts erupted from her hands, filling the air with a kaleidoscope of colors. The fireworks streaked towards Mago. Each burst trailed sparks and miniature explosions in its wake. The dispy was as beautiful as it was deadly.

  With a gesture, Mago summoned a barrier of twisted metal, pulling debris from the surrounding area to form a makeshift shield. Jubilee's psma bursts smmed into the barrier, each impact sending tremors through the metal and lighting up the night with brilliant fshes.

  "You dare challenge me, child?" Mago's voied, "Yht show is no match for the Master of Magism. I could snap my fingers and end you!"

  "Light show? Alright, Buckethead. Let's see how you hahis!"

  She looked at Tyson and winked.

  Jubilee held her hands out wide. Sparks of multicolored psma danced around her palms, growing brighter and more inteh each passing sed. The air seemed to crackle with barely tained energy as Jubilee shouted.

  "Final Fsh!"

  She brought her hands together and focused her mutant power into a single, devastating burst, releasing the psma bst she had been building up. A blinding explosion of light and energy erupted from her outstretched hands, f everyone nearby to cry out and shield their eyes against the brilliant gre. The light was overwhelming, even painful to look at directly. It washed across the area, scorg the earth and kig up a swirling cloud of dust and debris.

  As the dazzling explosion slowly faded, it revealed Jubilee standing strong at the edge of a smoking crater bsted into the earth. The rent in the Earth stretched out from her hands, reag to the h form of Mago.

  He hung suspended above the ed crete, his signature crimson cape billowing dramatically around him. The metal barrier he'd created was o be seeroyed i, but his magic shield held strong.

  "Impressive," he admitted, though his toill held a note of dession. "But ultimately futile. You ot hope to defeat me alone, child."

  Jubilee straightened, uerred by Mago's words. A fierce grin spread across her face. "Who says I'm alone?" she called back defiantly.

  Mago's fingers spyed wide. Shards of metal rose from the ground, suspended in a deadly cloud around him. With a flick of his wrist, he sent the lethal barrage hurtling towards Jubilee. Her eyes widened in arm. There was no way she could hope to evade su overwhelming attack. Thinking quickly, Jubilee raised her hands and unleashed a brilliant burst of sizzling psma energy, trying to bst an opening so she could escape.

  The Brotherhood members verged on her. She couldn't properly defend herself with her hands occupied trying to break through Mago's attack. Callisto's fist ected with her jaw with all the momentum of her superspeed dash, sending a shock of pain through her face. She stumbled back, tasting blood in her mouth.

  "Too slow, firecracker," Callisto taunted before shouting, "Kill her! My senses say she's not even a mutant. She's something else."

  Before Jubilee could recover, something slimy a ed around her ankle. She looked down to see Toad's eloongue coiled tightly around her leg. With a sharp yank, he pulled her off bance.

  Jubilee hit the ground but rolled, desperately trying to put distaween herself atackers. Her hands crackled with energy, ready to unleash a psma burst. But Mago's metal projectiles were still ing. She had to move. Scrambling to her feet, Jubilee darted to the side, narrowly avoiding a rebar rod that embedded in the crete where she'd been standing. A wall of fme erupted in front of her, cutting off her escape route. The heat seared her skin, f her to skid to a stop. She spun around, seeing Pyro manipute the fire.

  Trapped between Pyro's inferno and the advang Brotherhood members, Jubilee made a split-sed decision. She charged straight at Callisto and Toad, her hands bzing with multicolored energy.

  All her m training sessions with Tyson and Maki kicked in, and muscle memory took over. Jubilee ducked uhe wild swing. She pivoted, using the woman's momentum against her, and drove her elbow into Callisto's sor plexus. The speedster doubled asping for air.

  Toad leapt at her, but Jubilee was ready. She dropped low, letting him sail over her head, then spun and fired a trated burst of psma energy at his back. The bst caught Toad mid-air, sending him tumbling across the pavement with a pained yelp. For a moment, Jubilee had the upper hand.

  Then Mago intervened.

  With a casual flick of his wrist, he summoned jagged pieetal from the debris-strewn square. Jubilee saw the movement too te. A searing pain shot through her right ankle as a metal shard pierced through her boot, pinning her foot to the ground. She cried out, her voice raw with agony. Looking down in dismay, she saw the blood beginning to pool around the metal stake. Before she could even think about how to free herself, a seetal rod struck her left leg just above the ankle, driving deep into the flesh and bone.

  Panic set in as she realized she was trapped, rooted to the ground.

  Callisto capitalized on her immobilization. The other woman's fist ected with Jubilee's cheek, snapping her head to the side. Dazed and in agony, Jubilee raised her arms, firing her powers wildly to drive back Callisto and Toad.

  Tyson watched helplessly as Jubilee fought against the Brotherhood. He was desperate to aid his girlfriend, but Mago's iron grip held him firmly in pce. As the Brotherhood closed in, the fight seemed lost.

  Suddenly, the night sky lit up.

  But it wasn't Tysoricity or Jubilee's nuclear fireworks. The roar of multiple suit thrusters filled the air as armored figures desded otlefield. For a moment, hope surged through the crowd of onlookers. Siark Tower's stru began months earlier, New Yorkers were being familiar with the tell-tale blue-white glow of repulsors. Cheers erupted as people poio the sky, expeg to see Iron Man's red and gold armor join the fight.

  Despite being pinned down, Jubilee smugly announced, "I told you I wasn't alone."

  But as the suits hovered just above the ground of Times Square, it became clear that the other resident hero had not arrived.

  It wasn't Iron Man.

  These suits were bulkier, almost aged. Where Stark's armor had a certain heroic fir, these exuded cold, meical efficy.

  The suits raised their arms in perfeison. Miniguns unfolded from their forearms. The barrels began to spin, and then all hell broke loose.

  A deafening cacophony of gunfire filled the air as the suits opened fire on the Brotherhood members. Mago and the green-haired mutant instinctively raised their hands, attempting to halt or deflect the ining projectiles.

  But nothing happened.

  The green-haired mutant's eyes widened in shod pain as the noallic rounds pierced her body. She crumpled to the ground with an agonized cry.

  Mago's face twisted with rage and dawning horrnition fshed in his eyes as he reized the armored attackers' designs.

  "Sentinels!" he roared.

  Instead to stop the hail of bullets, a futile effainst noallic ammunition, he used his powers to reach out, tearing massive amounts of metal from nearby buildings and vehicles. The improvised shields rose between the Brotherhood members and the Sentinel suits, f protective barriers. Bullets pinged off the metal surface, leavis and scorch marks but uo pee.

  "Brotherhood!" Mago called out, his voice tinged with urgency. "Regroup!"

  Across the battlefield, the remaining members of the Brotherhood struggled to respond. Avanche sent tremors through the ground, trying in vain to destabilize the Sentinel suits. Pyro unleashed gouts of fme, attempting to melt their armor. But for every small victory, the Sentinels seemed to have a ter.

  Arclight's hands came together in a thunderous cp, sending shockwaves rippling. The Sentinels shattered like gss. Colpsing in shards of metal and circuitry.

  Vanisher reappeared briefly, grabbing the injured green-haired mutant before disappearing again.

  — Rogue Redemption —

  Jean Grey's red hair billowed around her head as she nded on a nearby rooftop. She'd been awaiting Tyson's arrival at House of M with the others when Wednesday notified them of the news broadcast. They'd set out immediately, but she couldn't keep pace with Jubilee's vampiric speed. Still, flying was faster than driving through traffic, which is what the others from the institute were doing in their van. She was thankful for all the early m training sessions as she nearly kept pace with the Sentinel suits. Her emerald eyes sed the chaotic battle unfolding below. Mago had trapped both Jubilee and Tyson with his power. The Brotherhood was occupied, engaging the Sentinel drohat Vanko trolled from back at the House of M.

  The biggest threat, now, was Mago. Stopping him was her priority.

  She recalled watg the video footage of Tyson matg her painst the Master of Magism. Even after months of growth and disciplined practice to focus her abilities, Jean still harbored doubts that she could overpower him with her telekinesis.

  But she didn't have a choice. Her friends needed her.

  The debris-strewn battlefield provided ample ammunition. Reag out with her telekiic powers, she gathered a dozen small projectiles, ks of crete, and shards of gss ahem hurtling toward Mago from different ahe objects streaked through the air, eae aimed with pinpoint precision. The first oruck Mago, interrupting his focus. But as the rest hey met an imperable wall.

  He'd raised his shield.

  The projectiles cttered harmlessly to the ground, leaving him untouched. Maguro face Jean. With a zy flick of his wrist, he sent a volley of metal fragments flying towards her. Jean's eyes widened, and she quickly threw up her own telekiic barrier. The first wave of shrapnel bounced off her shield, but Mago was relentless.

  Another wave followed, then another.

  Jean gritted her teeth, her tration wavering uhe stant barrage. Sweat beaded on her brow as she struggled to maintain her defenses. But Mago's assault was too much, too fast.

  Several metal shards slipped past her weakening barrier. Jean gasped as they sliced through her skin, leaving a trail of small, stinging wounds across her arms and legs. She stumbled backward, her breath ing in ragged pants.

  "I'm sorry, my dear," Mago's said. "But I 't allow you to stop me."

  Before Jean could recover, Mago made a sharp gesture with his hand. A rge pieetal flew towards her with dozens of others. Jean tried to deflect them all, but her reas were too slow. The metal shard embedded itself deep in her shoulder.

  A cry of pain tore from her throat as she fell to her khe world spun around her, and the edges of her vision blurred. She clutched at her wounded shoulder, feeling warm blood seepiween her fingers.

  She crumpled to the ground, hidden behind the rooftop's edge. Jean forced herself to breathe slowly and deeply, using the meditation teiques she'd lear the Institute. The pain was intense, but she mao push through. As she y there, out of sight of the ongoing battle, a new idea began to form in her mind. Her earlier attack hadn't been all in vain. She'd struck Mago with her first projectile. It revealed that his shield wasn't always up. He had to focus on it actively. If he wasn't, he was vulnerable.

  Pushing herself up just enough to look over the rooftop's edge, she saw Mago had refocused on engaging the sentinels, thinking her out of the fight.

  She reached out with her powers once more. But this time, she didn't gather debris or attempt to attack Mago directly. She wasn't strong enough for that.

  Instead, she released a small object from her pocket.

  Gently levitating it down from the rooftop, it went unseen by anyone amidst the raging battle, floating just above the ground, propelled steadily toward Mago. The Master of Magism remained oblivious, too distracted by the Seo notice the subtle threat gliding toward him. Jean narrowed her eyes, ily direg the small object. Her senses narrowed to the item aarget, nothing more. She didn't have the power to hurt Mago directly and didn't have the focus to pay attention to the battle or anything beyond that one object.

  In just a few more seds, it would be within range for her pn to be carried out...

  Tyson, trapped in Mago's invisible grip, was forced to watch the battle unfold around him. Jubilee k pinned by metal stakes. Jean had fallen from sight after Mago's assault, and the Brotherhood's bined might was slowly destroying the Sentinels.

  He o break free.

  Electro's power was again his only option. Usually, he gained full trol over someone's power with his absorption, but Max never had an opportunity to use his power, so Tyson gained no helpful memories. He was flying blind. Still, it was his only ce. And Juggernaut's power had already faded. He didn't have long before he'd lose the electricity, too. Maybe only seds.

  Tyson closed his eyes, blog out the chaos around him. He delved deep into his sciousness, seeking the crag energy he'd taken from Max. It buzzed beh his skin, eager to be unleashed. But Tyson knew brute force wouldn't be enough.

  His thoughts focused solely on his meta-knowledge from the movie. Electro had transformed into pure energy and traveled through eleid power lines. He didn't know how to use that ability, but Max had figured it out instinctively, and now Tyson o as well.

  Turning his focus to the billboard, Tyson imagined himself as a living current flowing through circuits and wires. His body tihe sensation growing stronger with each passing sed. Suddenly, he felt a shift. His physical form began to dissolve, atoms separating and realigning into pure electrical energy. He surged forward, no longer bound by Mago's magic hold. In a blinding fsh, his sciousness leaped into the billboard's circuitry. The advertisement flickered and distorted, pixels dang erratically as Tyson's essence merged with the flow of eles. He could feel every e, every surge of power running through the massive dispy.

  "No!" Mago roared as he realized his prey had slipped away.

  But more than that. A heavy, oppressive sensation filled Times Square as Tyson escaped Mago's grasp for the third time.

  Tyson's mind tried to make sense of his new form. He was everywhere and nowhere at once, a being of pure energy c through the billboard's systems. He struggled to maintain coherence, fighting against the urge to disperse into the city's prid. Tyson knew he o reform and rejoitle, but the pull of the electrical current was intoxig. It whispered promises of unlimited power, of freedom from the straints of flesh and bone.

  Mago was frustrated by Tyson's escape. He reached out with his pathering all the loose metal within reach. Half of the Sentinels were already reduced to scrap by Arclight's attacks. His eyes locked onto Jubilee, still pinned down, the only target of his rage. He knew she'd been a student at Xavier's school, but Callisto had been clear.

  She was not a mutant.

  Callisto's senses were impossibly accurate. Jubilee didn't deserve his mercy if she wasn't one of them. She was the sole reason Tyson had escaped his grasp again. Mago unched all the nearby metal debris directly at the young mutant with a gesture of cold fury.

  Jubilee was surrounded by the deadly shards now hurtling through the air.

  Still pio the earth by the metal driven through her limbs, Jubilee desperately unleashed a volley of psmoids. Brilliant bursts of colorful energy erupted from her palms, colliding with the onial, melting shards into sg or diverting their paths. But Mago's power uhe metal fragments from every dire. Try as she might, Jubilee could not halt them all.

  With moal effort, Tyson forced himself to focus. He gathered his scattered sciousness, trating on the memory of his physical form. Slowly, painfully, he began to coalesce. Sparks danced across the billboard's surface as Tyson's body started to materialize. As he solidified, Tyson became aware of his surroundings once more. He stood atop the billboard, electricity crag around him in a brilliant azure aura. Looking down, his eyes widened in horror as he took in the se of Jubilee trapped, vulnerable, with hundreds of metal shards targeting her. He called Max's power to shift bato electricity, to jump through the metal to reach her.

  But it was gone.

  The blue tinge had faded from his skin. Not dwelling on the lost power, he leaped from the billboard. Calling Muse to his hand as he fell, he was infused with vampiric speed. Once he hit the ground, he unched himself forward towards Jubilee.

  But even with his speed, the distance felt vast.

  The world around him seemed to slow, each sed stretg as he watched the deadly barrage of metal shards hurtling toward his friend. Tyson's heightened seook in every detail of the chaotic se in that moment of desperate sprint. The acrid smell of smoke and ozone filled his nostrils. He heard the cacophony of battle, explosions, the whine of Sentinel repulsors, and the screams from the crowd beyond Jubilee's trapped form, almost in the background. He'd nearly fotten about all the onlookers around the edges of Times Square. In that frozen moment, his eyes were drawn past Jubilee, parsing every fa that crowd.

  Amidst them, a woman stood out.

  She was impossibly pale, her features sharp aiful in a way that defied description. Her long, dark hair matched her equally dark, flowing bck gown. Her bck eyes were filled with a calm acceptance as they met his for a brief, eternal moment. She observed the unfolding drama with an air of patient anticipation. Somehow, impossibly, within the frozen moment, her gaze flickered between Tyson and Jubilee as if she knew something he didn't, as if she were privy to some secret he couldn't prehend.

  The sight of her inexplicably filled him with a renewed sense ency. He tore his eyes away, refog on Jubilee. Her face was a mask of fear as she tio unleash her psmoids.

  Tyson pushed himself harder. He could see eadividual piece of shrapnel now, spinning through the air in agonizing slow motion. His hand reached out, stretg towards Jubilee. Their gazes met, and her fear disappeared.

  She squinted, doing her best to smile with her eyes.

  He was so close now. Just a few more feet...

  But just as he reached out to grab her, shield her, an invisible force seized him, wreng him to an abrupt halt.

  Mago.

  Tyson strained against the magic fields enveloping his body, but even his enharength was no match.

  Until the small object Jean had released finally reached its target. With a soft click, it snapped around Mago's neck. And Tyson was free.

  But a single rge piece of shrapnel, razor-sharp and moving with terrifying speed, had reached Jubilee first.

  The cut was , almost surgical.

  One moment, Jubilee was doing her best impression of Kakashi. The , her head began falling forward in slow motion as if she were bowing.

  "I'm here, Jubilee." Tyson's arms ed arouorso as he finally reached her. "I'm not going anywhere."

  But something was terribly wrong.

  Instead of the solid form he expected, his hands passed through her.

  Jubilee's body began dispersing into motes of light.

  He khere, arms still outstretched, grasping at nothing. The world around Tyson faded into a muffled haze as he watched Jubilee, his friend, his lover, disappear from his arms. One moment, she was there reenag anime, as they always did. The , she was but a glow twisting up into the sky.

  "No," Tyson whispered, his voice crag with anguish.

  "No, no, no!"

  The words tumbled from his lips, each repetition more desperate tha. He could still feel the phantom sensation of her body against his chest, and he could still smell the lingering st of ozone from her fireworks mixed with her unique st of sparklers and bubblegum.

  This wasn't right. She couldn't be dead. He'd seen vampires die before. He'd killed enough of them to know that they disied into clouds of fine particles. Leaving behind but ash...

  He looked bad forth, trying to find her.

  Jubilee was just… Gohe glowing lights dispersed, not even a trace remaining.

  "Jubes?" he choked out.

  "Jubes? Please, e back."

  "You 't be gone. You 't..."

  Tyson was uo process the sudden, brutal loss. She was gone, wiped from existen the blink of an eye. Reality seemed distant and unreal. The world had narrowed to this small patch of ground where Jubilee had fallen amidst the debris of Times Square.

  Tyson's body shook with silent sobs as he felt the full weight of what had happened. He had failed her. With all his powers, he couldn't save the one person he could actually be with.

  "I'm sorry," he whispered. "I'm so sorry, Jubes. I wasn't fast enough. I wasn't strong enough. I couldn't... I couldn't save you."

  The guilt and self-loathing crashed over him in waves, threatening t him under. He had let her down.

  "You 't be gone," he pleaded, "ns, remember? We were going to css tomorrow. You were going to the mall afterward to pick up Fruit Ninja for the Xbox. We were..." His voice trailed off as a fresh wave of grief washed over him. They had talked about the future, about how they would hahe events to e… together. Now that future was gone, along with all the traces of Jubilee.

  What was the point of fighting and surviving if she wasn't here to share in the victory? If he couldn't protect the ones closest to him.

  Memories fshed through his mind in rapid succession.

  … Jubilee's enthusiasm when she'd been introduced to him in Professor Xavier's office.

  … The way her eyes lit up when she narrated as she pyed Red Dead Redemption.

  … The feel of her body pressed against him as they realized she was immuo his deadly touch.

  Each memory was a dagger to his heart, a stark reminder of all that had been lost in a single, cruel moment.

  "I love you," Tyson whispered, "I love you, Jubition Lee. I should have..." His voice broke off as a fresh wave of sobs wracked his body. The what-ifs and should-haves piled up in his mind, each a fresh torment. "e back," he pleaded. "Please, Jubes. I'll do anything. Just... please. Don't leave me alone."

  But there was no response. No miracle resurre, no st-minute reprieve from the cruel hand of fate. Just silence.

  The crowd that had liimes Square and remaio watch the battle fell into a hushed mencholy as Tyson's anguish pyed out on the massive ss surrounding them. Though they had viewed the fight with fear, excitement, and wary tension, they were all affected by the raw emotion he radiated. Their hero k alone amidst the rubble, oblivious to the tless eyes upon him. His shoulders shook with choked sobs. His head bowed uhe weight of despair. They looked on in solemn stillness. An unspoken mournful solidarity rippled through the hushed onlookers.

  — Rogue Redemption —

  The mutation inhibitor colr Jean had released finally reached its target, and the effect was instantaneous. Mago's eyes widened in shod horror as he felt his e to the magic fields abruptly severed. The colr, which Tyson had entrusted to Jean earlier that day, had dos job perfectly.

  Without his powers to keep him aloft, Mago plummeted. He crashed to the ground, his leg twisting at an unnatural angle as he nded. A siing crack echoed as the bone she same leg Tyson had broken in their first enter nearly a year ago.

  Jeaill k on the rooftop, barely within sight. The inhibitor colr had found its mark, ralizing Mago's powers.

  She'd beaten Mago.

  It wasn't as spectacur as Tyson's fight over the skies of the Bronx, but she'd do regardless. However, her moment of triumph was short-lived. Despite the thousands of minds nearby, eg withihoughts, one screamed to her telepathises.

  Overwhelming anguish.

  Her head whipped around, fog on the source.

  Tyson?

  That couldn't be right. She couldn't seyson from this distah his resistao telepathy. He was always so quiet that she o focus to get aions from him, even when nearby.

  But it could be no one else. Jean's heart ched as she felt his emotions wash over her. They spent so much time psychically ected that she couldn't tell if she was feeling his emotions, her own, or both. Her fusion was quickly washed away by a tidal wave of grief and self-loathing that spilled from him, threatening to overwhelm her empathises.

  The realization struck Jean like a sledgehammer, f the air from her lungs. Tyson was alone. Jubilee was gone.

  Jean had known loss before and had felt the sting of grief reverberating in the minds of others. But Tyson’s anguish was raw and feral, threatening to pull her into its riptide. She struggled to draw breath, to keep her head above the bck water of his despair. They had spent too long psychically iwined, like vines grown together around the same trellis. His pain became hers, inescapable, and she felt herself unraveling at the seams.

  She heard a voiewhere in the maze of her mind through the byrinth of Tyson’s suffering. Firm. Familiar.

  Let. Me. Go.

  The and was a lifeline, something solid to grasp amidst the flood. Jean reached for it desperately, pulling herself from the abyss. Tyson’s grief receded into background noise, along with the stant susurrus of thousands of other minds that she was tuning out. Her vision cleared, details sharpened, and she became aware of the hints of red energy dissipating from her body.

  Cradling her injured arm, she slowly desded from her vantage point. As she he ground, the familiar rumble of an engine caught her attention. The X-Van skidded into view, its tires screeg to a stop as it reached the debris-strewn pavement of Times Square.

  The cavalry had arrived, but Jean knew with a sinking feeling that they were too te.

  As the van's doors slid open, revealing the familiar faces of Cyclops, Storm, Wolverine, and Professor Xavier, Jean's attention was drawn away by a flicker of movement in her peripheral vision. She turned just in time to see a man materialize amidst the rubble. In the blink of an eye, he put a hand on the back of one Brotherhood member, the massive giant of a man, and they both disappeared.

  Jean's eyes widened as realization struck. Several of the Brotherhood were already gone. He must have snatched them to safety earlier while she was distracted. Before she could react, he reappeared and grabbed the remaining Brotherhood members battling the Sentinels. In another flicker, they, too, were gone.

  Wheerialized yet again near Mago's fallen form, Jean acted on pure instinct. Her hand shot forth, fingers spyed as she focused her telekiic power. She tore the telepathy-blog helmet off his head with a sharp gesture, exposing his mind to her formidable psychic abilities.

  Vanisher knew he was in trouble.

  Mago made it clear that if Mirage got iheir heads, the fight would be lost. He knew his mental defenses were gone once he felt the helmet leave his head. Instantly, he teleported away, not giving the illusionist a ce to render him helpless.

  Jean stole his helmet, driving the teleporter off. But her attentiouro Tyson as she felt a sudden shift in his emotional state. The overwhelming anguish radiating from him tly extinguished like a dle snuffed out by the wind. In its pce, a cold, terrible rage began to build. She watched him slowly rise to his feet, his body teh barely tained fury.

  His face showed a cold hatred so inte made Jean take an involuntary step back.

  He'd always had beautiful eyes.

  Amber, when he arrived at the institute, mismatched blue and green after Alkali Lake. But now, she could only describe them as… broken. They were still the mismatched purple-yellow as they always were when he wielded Muse, but now, the pupils looked like they shattered, spreading into the iris in the shape of a throwing star or sawbde. She wasn't sure if he was using his illusion powers, but the murderous i rolled off him in waves as his gaze locked onto Mago's prone form.

  And she wasn't the only oo se.

  Professor X, in his yellow hoverchair, moved closer. "Tyson, don't…" Xavier began, but his words were cut short as Tyson exploded into motion.

  He charged, closing the distaween himself and Mago. His stolen powers had faded during his grief, but with Muse, he charged faster than any normal human could move.

  "Scott!" Xavier called out. "Stop him!"

  Cyclops reached for his visor. A beam of cussive forced out, aiming to intercept Tyson's charge. But Tyson, operating on reflexes heightened by his borrowed speed, leapt and twisted in mid-air, avoiding the bst by mere inches. Cyclops released several more optic bsts, all off target, seemingly aimed in the wrong pce as Tyson used his illusions to mask his position.

  Logan growled, and his adamantium cws slid out. "What are you doing Chuck," he snarled.

  Storm's eyes clouded over, turning a milky white as she summoned her elemental powers. The air crackled with buildirical charge as she prepared to unleash a lightning strike to incapacitate Tyson.

  But it rofessor Xavier who acted first. His fingers pressed to his temple, his face a mask of tration as he reached out with his formidable psychic abilities.

  "Tyson," Xavier's voice echoed in the young mutant's mind. "I uand your pain, yer. But this is not the way. Jubilee wouldn't want…"

  Tyson's mental defenses smmed down with surprising force, cutting off Xavier's telepathitrusion.

  The Professor's eyes widened in shock. He closed his eyes and used his power to its fullest.

  Times Square froze.

  Thousands of minds, mutant and human alike, became immobile uhe weight of his immense psychic power. Even Tyson, mere feet from the fallen Mago, stood stock-still.

  Meanwhile, the live news cameras tinued broadcasting the image of Tyson, stationary only feet from Mago.

  Only Jean Grey remained ued. Her formidable psychic abilities shielded her from Xavier's influehe Brotherhood had all evacuated with Vanisher, and the Sentinels stood on standby. It was eerie how still everything was. Until she caught the slightest movement, she watched, her emerald eyes widened with shock, as Tyson's fiwitched. Then, impossibly, he took a step forward.

  Tyson was fighting off Xavier's power.

  Xavier's brow furrowed in tration, sweat beading on his forehead as he focused all his mental energy oraining his former student.

  But he took aep. Then another.

  At that moment, she felt a shift in the psychie. He was finally stopped when Xavier pulled Tyson into a mental struct within his own mind.

  Curiosity and warred within Jean as she pushed her sciousness forward. She followed the psychic trail in her astral form, which led her iyson's mind. There, she became an unseen observer in a familiar setting.

  The basketball court outside the Xavier Institute.

  Tyson stood at the ter of the court, fused as he took in his surroundings. The peaceful se trasted with the destru they had left behind in Times Square. It took only moments for Tyson to know where he was. Months earlier, he'd delved into his subscious, and the entrance had been a door just beyond this very court. He wasn't sure why this was the pce that his mind had decided was the entrao his subscious, but he didn't care at the moment.

  Professor Xavier wheeled onto the sidelines.

  "Let me go," Tyson demanded, his voice tight with barely tained fury.

  Xavier shook his head slowly. "I 't do that, Tyson. Not while you're on this path of destru."

  "Destru?" Tyson spat. "Magried to kill me again. He killed Jubilee!" His voice cracked o word, raw emotion bleeding through the anger.

  "I uand your pain," Xavier said gently. "But killing Mago won't bring Jubilee back. It won't ease your suffering. It will only lead you down a dark path from which there may be urn."

  Tyson menagly stepped toward Xavier. "I don't care. He has to pay for what he's done."

  "I demand my due!" He shouted.

  The psychie of his mindscape rumbled ominously, giving even Xavier pause.

  "Perhaps I owe you an expnation. What you're experieng now... it's my fault. I tried to help you stay on the right path. I thought that if I locked away all the psyches affeg you, you would be able to be yourself. But it didn't work as I had hoped."

  Tyson's head snapped around. "What are you talking about?"

  Xavier met his gaze steadily. "I made a choice. A choice I believed was for your own good. I locked you out of certain parts of your mind."

  Tyson looked around the court. His eyes fell on a door set into the wall beside the basketball court. Reition flickered in his eyes. "The white room," he murmured. Then he realized what Xavier was saying. "You... you locked me out of my own mind?" Shod betrayal were evident in every sylble.

  Xavier nodded solemnly. "I did what I thought was necessary to protect you, to give you a ce at a normal life. But I see now that my as, however well-iioned, have had unintended sequences."

  Tyson's hands ched into fists at his sides, his whole body trembling with rage and disbelief. "How could you? You had nht!"

  "You're right," Xavier admitted regretfully. "I overstepped. But what I did then, and what I'm doing now, I do for the greater good. For yood, Tyson, and for the good of all mutantkind."

  "What you're doing now…" Tyson mumbled, repeating the Professor's words. He took a step back, his eyes narrowing suspiciously. "What is it you're doing?"

  Xavier's expression hardened slightly. Resolve repced regret. "What I must." The air around them seemed to thi, and the peaceful illusion of the basketball court wavered at the edges.

  Jean, still unseen, could feel the tension buildiween Tyson and the Professor. The revetion of Xavier's as had clearly shaken him.

  "You must uand. Your power, your ability to absorb aain the abilities of others, is unlike anything we've ever entered. The potential food is immense, but so is the potential for harm. Both to yourself and to others."

  Tyson shook his head, taking aep back. "That doesn't give you the right to mess with my mind!"

  "No, it doesn't," Xavier agreed. "But it does give me the responsibility to try and help you trol it. The psyches you've absorbed are fragments of personalities, of memories, of lives lived. Without proper trol, they could overwhelm you, ge who you are at your core."

  Tyson's eyes darted to the door leading to the white room, then back to Xavier. "So you just decided to lock it all away? Without even asking me? Or telling me?"

  Xavier's face fell, genuine remorse etg lines around his eyes. "I made a mistake, Tyson. I thought I roteg you. By log away those psyches, I hoped to give you a ce to develop your owy without the influence of all those other minds. But I see now that in doing so, I may have caused more harm than good."

  For a moment, Tyson's anger seemed to falter, repced by a flicker of uainty. "What do you mean?"

  "The rage you're feeling now, the overwhelming desire for vengea's not all you," Xavier expined. "It's a culmination of all the minds you've absorbed, their anger and pain amplifying your own. By log away your access to that part of yourself, I iently created a pressure cooker of emotions with no release valve."

  "You have no idea what you're talking about. That's not all you did. You kept me from learning how to trol my power. It's the only reason I went to your damned school. And you didn't even lock the door correctly. Because guess rofessor? I still felt their influence. I was the one who had to learn to temper Sabertooth's viciousness. That was my trol. Not your meddling."

  His voice dripped with incredulity as he asked, "So what now? You unlock everything you locked away in my mind and hope for the best?"

  Professor X shook his head slowly. "No. I'm afraid it's far too te for that." He wheeled his chair closer, his voice softening. "You were about to kill a man. My friend. In cold blood."

  Tyson's ugh was sharp and bitter. "Your friend? Are you serious?" He paced bad forth, uo tain his agitation. "After everything Mago's done, you still call him a friend?"

  Xavier's face creased with . "This emotional influence from those other psyches will be too difficult to tame. The safest thing for you would be to erase them and remove your memories of the trauma. Then you could go back to living your life."

  Tyson disbelieved what he'd just heard. "You 't be serious."

  Xavier pressed on. "Hoeople have you killed since you woke up in that truck, Tyson?"

  Tyson reeled. The question hit him like a physical blow. "Two." he answered, but after a long moment, he tinued, "And... the soldiers that attacked the institute."

  "Sixty-Three, then," Xavier corrected, his voice heavy with sorrow. "Because you killed sixty-one during the i."

  Tyson's face torted with fury. "How dare you."

  "How many did I save?" he snarled, advang on Xavier. "You weren't even there. Again, because you were parying with your 'friend'... Mago." He spat the name like a curse. "If you had been there, how many would I have had to kill? You could have stopped that army in its tracks. Instead, I was left trying to salvage your school and save your students."

  "Don't bme your failure on me."

  Xavier raised his hands in a pg gesture. "I don't bme you, Tyson. I bme myself, Erik, and most of all Victor Creed for influeng you as he has."

  Tyson shouted, "Let's not fet how many you would have killed at Alkali Lake if I hadn't stopped you. How many would that have been, Professor? Millions? Billions?"

  As the argument raged on, Jean observed silently from the sidelines of the mental struct. She couldn't believe what she was hearing. The Professor was wrong, dangerously so. She had been there during the institute invasion and saw Tyson risk everything to save the students. Yes, he had killed, but there was little choice. A chill ran down her spine as she realized what Xavier roposing. He wao wipe Tyson's mind, to erase not just the trauma, not just the additional psyches within his subscious, but the very essence of who Tyson had bee. He'd be a shell of the man he was now and far worse off than he'd been when he arrived at the institute.

  She couldn't let that happen.

  Jean moved invisibly through the mental ndscape, approag the door to Tyson's subscious. She could sehe psychic lock, etched with Professor Xavier's unmistakable psionic signature, barriry, but there was no key.

  Reag out with her mind, Jean probed the lock, feeling along its meisms. As she did so, Xavier turned his focus from Tyson to the door, alerted by her tampering. Jean quickly created a blueprint of the lo her mind and used it as a mold to call forth her own psionic key. With a thought, she ied it into the lod turhe tumblers aligned and released their hold.

  The door swung open.

  Wasting no time, she withdrew her presence from Tyson's mind pletely.

  In the real world, she still had a telekiic hold on that teleporter's helmet. With a thought, she sent it flying towards the Professor.

  The helmet settled onto Xavier's head with a soft thunk. The effect was instantaneous. It didn't block just ining psionics but outgoing as well. Professor X was forcibly ejected from Tyson's mind, thrown bato his own body with a jolt that left them both reeling.

  The mental struct of the basketball court shattered like gss, reality rushing ba a dizzying wave. For a moment, Tyson looked disoriented, blinking rapidly as he readjusted to reality. Then he found Mago's prone form, and without hesitation, he unched forward. Before anyone could react, his hand closed around Mago's throat, lifting the once-powerful mutant into the air as if he weighed nothing.

  Jea a surge of psychiergy as Tyson's power activated. She could sehe life force, the very essenago, flow into Tyson. Along with it came the uation that had made Erik Lehnsherr one of the most formidable mutants on the p.

  He was a young boy in a tration camp bearing an indescribable weight of sadness. Fenced in by barbed wire, surrounded by soldiers and the emaciated faces of his fellow prisoners, he felt an overwhelming sense of hopelessness. A yellow Star of David patch sewn to his frail clothing marked him and the others like him. He left behind the haunted eyes of that little boy to grow into a powerful mutant. The world around him ged, but the memories of the camp never left. Instead, they fueled his passion and rage against a world he knew would never accept him and those like him. He met Charles Xavier. The brilliant, rich young man with the dream of coexisteween mutants and humans. Their friendship only made their eventual ideological divergence all the more painful. He felt the loss of family, love, and of friends. But above all, he had power. Power ic forces, power over metal, and now, the power to vert his enemies. He created a mae that would use his power to end the war with humanity by turning them into mutants…

  "Tyson, no!" Xavier cried out, "Ororo, Scott, stop him." But it was too te. The metal debris around the ruined area formed a rotating protective cloud around Tyson and Mago.

  Scott's beams were still firing off target, missing their mark by a wide margin. Storm brought her lightning to bear, but it dispersed among the metal barrier.

  All eyes were fixed on the incredible se unfolding before them. Tyson's brown hair lightened as a white streak formed along his hairline, marking where Mago's abilities had fused into his being. The older mutant grew visibly weaker with each passing sed.

  Xavier could only watch helplessly as his fingers struggled to remove the helmet from his head. He cried out, "Tyson, no!"

  Cyclops tinued firing his optic beams off-target. But Ororo could resist Tyson's simple illusions that ruined Cyclops's aim. Her eyes began glowing as she summoned a massive storm cloud overhead.

  "Ro. Stop." Logan reached out and pced a hand on her shoulder. "Sometimes you gotta take risks. Leave the kid to his choices. It's his battle."

  She responded with a gust of wind that blew him back, away from her.

  She called down a massive beam of crag lightning from above.

  But as their vision cleared, they saw it had no effect. Tyson had raised a magic forcefield to protect himself behind the rotatial barricade, yering his defenses.

  Ororo's eyes glowed aric white as she summohe full fury of her power. The f clouds darkened and boiled overhead, shot through with blinding forks of lightning. As she prepared to unleash nature's wrath, the air crackled with gathering energy.

  But before she could strike, Cyclops wheeled around, influenced by Tyson's illusion, and his visor fshed red. Ororo barely had time to cry out before the crimson optic bst caught her squarely in the chest, throwing her backward with explosive force. She hit the ground hard, the lightning fading from her eyes as she struggled tain the breath that had been knocked from her lungs.

  Ororo raised herself to her hands and knees, shaking her head to clear it. But she could taste blood in her mouth and knew she would be defenseless if Cyclops attacked again. But he didn't, tinuing to fire off harmlessly at targets only he could see.

  As Jean watched Tyson absorb Mago's powers and the professors divided, fighting amongst themselves, she couldn't help but wonder if she had made the right choice. She had acted to protect Tyson from Xavier's misguided attempt to alter his mind, but had she iently set something worse in motiotention was drawn to Professor Xavier. He sat in his wheelchair, fingers pressed to his temples, a look of intense tration on his face. She knew he was trying to reach out with his formidable psychic abilities, trying to break through the helmet's nullificatioried removing it, but she'd telekiicly kept it in pce.

  Xavier's eyes snapped open, filled with frustration a. "I've made a terrible mistake," he admitted. "I thought I roteg Tyson, but I may have pushed him to this extreme."

  The metal debris swirling around Tyson and Mago began to move faster. Tyson's feet slowly lifted off the ground using Mago's abilities.

  Jean rexed her hold over the helmet on Xavier's head and floated to where Tyson, one of her dearest friends, was about to kill a man. She moved into the metal cloud, knowing he wouldn't hurt her. And she was right. Tyson parted his defenses, allowing her entry.

  He knew she had pced the helmet on Xavier's head. Who else could have?

  "Tyson," she said gently. "I know you're hurting. I am, too. I know you want justice for Jubilee. So do I. But are you sure this is the way?"

  Tyson's head turned slightly, his eyes meeting Jean's. She could see the internal struggle on his face, the desire for vengeance warring with the core of who he was. This close, she could see the shards of his pupils more clearly. She was wrong earlier. They were still beautiful, but it was a dangerous beauty. That he now turned on Mago.

  "Please," the old mutant gasped, barely able to form words. "You don't... uand..."

  "I uand. Better than anyone else could. But she's right."

  "This isn't the way."

  For a sed, Jean and Xavier thought Tyson would let Mago go. But then he wrehe helmet from Mago's head and tossed it aside.

  "My power is killing you far too fast. You deserve so much worse."

  Tyson forced Mago's blue eyes to lock with his broken pupils. He said one word.

  "Tsukuyomi."

  And the world around them ed and twisted. In an instant, Mago found himself in a realm of endless darkness, his body bound to a cross. The air was thick with an oppressive, suffog aura.

  Tyson stood before him. Magled against his bonds, but they held fast. "What is this?" he demanded, fear creeping into his voice.

  "This is where you'll face justice," Tyson replied coldly. "For Jubilee. For every life you've destroyed in your misguided crusade."

  With a wave, Tyson jured images from Mago's past. The tration camps of his youth, the loss of his family, and the birth of his hatred for humanity.

  "Stop this!" Mago cried out.

  "No. You'll experience all the pain you've caused. The lives you've ruined firsthand."

  The se shifted, and Mago found himself reliving every act of violence he'd ever itted, but from the perspective of his victims. He felt the terror of the humahreatehe agony of those who had opposed him. Each memory lified, stretched out to feel like it sted for days.

  "I make a sed feel like ay. You'll experience years of torment in the blink of an eye."

  Mago screamed as pain wracked his body. He saw Jubilee's face, torted in fear and agony. He felt her final moments… He felt his head tumbling from his body.

  Then Tyson rewound the se, pying it out over and ain.

  "Please," Mago gasped between screams.

  But the torture tinued, relentless and unending. Mago experiehe pain of every life he'd ever taken, the anguish of every family he'd torn apart. He felt the weight of his as crushing down on him, threatening to break his very spirit.

  In the real world, not even a sed had passed. Xavier's fingers cwed at the helmet, wreng it from his head. The instant it was off, he accessed his telepathic powers and dived deep into Erik's mind. What he found there chilled him to his core.

  Erik was crucified, his face torted in agony. Xavier immediately tried to end the nightmarish se and free his old friend from the torment, but he quickly realized the futility of his efforts. Tyson's illusion power had pletely ied Mago's mind, creating a byrinth of pain and suffering that seemed to have no end.

  Tyson turo face Xavier, his cold, broken eyes meeting the Professaze. "e to catch the show, Charles?" he asked, his voice devoid of emotion.

  Xavier watched helplessly as the torture tinued. Erik was beheaded, only for the gruesome se to reset and py out again.

  And again.

  And again.

  Each time the pain never abated, Erik's screams grew more desperate and anguished.

  "I'll help you, old friend," Xavier mumbled, his heart breaking at the sight of Erik's suffering. He knew he couldhe tortures within Erik's mind... Tyson's hold was to, the illusion too deeply rooted.

  But perhaps he could offer a lifeline, a way out.

  Xavier tched onto Erik's psyche, fog all his siderable mental strength oing a e. He couldn't break the illusion. But he could offer an escape route.

  "Erik," he called out mentally, "e with me."

  Xavier redoubled his efforts, creating a mental lifeline for Erik to follow.

  Tyson taunted, "Go ahead. If you want to share in his tortures, be my guest. It's almost poetic. Like we're closing the circle. Mago came for me, and I fought him to a stalemate. Subsequently, he was captured. Then, I tried to save your students from Stryker, and I got captured and tortured. Because you were with Erik, you got captured and tortured by Jason. Then Erik captured me, but eventually, I freed you at Alkali Lake. Now, I've captured Erik, and you're trying to free him from me." Tyson ughed. "Whie of us is the 'bad guy'? It's so hard to tell anymore."

  Xavier tuned out Tyson's rambling as he worked. He was forced to share the psychological burden of the horrors Erik experiehe weight of every life Mago had taken, every family torn apart, every act of violenitted in the name of mutant supremacy, all of it crashed down upon Erik's and now Xavier's psyche in an endless, crushing wave.

  Charles couldn't undo Tyson's as or erase Erik's trauma. But he could offer sanctuary, a safe haven within his mind where Erik could recover.

  Xavier gritted his teeth, pushing through the…

  Onsught…

  Of ive emotions. With a final, moal effort, Xavier freed Erik's sciousness from Tyson's mental trap by transp them both into his psyche.

  For a long, tense moment, no one moved. The swirlial tis frenzied dance around Tyson, Mago, and Jean, who held her breath. Then, the metal began to slow its orbit until it settled down. Tyson lowered his feet back to the broken pavement. His grip on Mago's throat loosened, and he dropped the old mutant to the ground.

  He bent down to pick up Mago's discarded helmet.

  And he pced it upon his head.

  Behind the Ses

  So yeah, that happened. I'll highlight the big event in this chapter first; the rest of the behind-the-ses will e after. I'm not going to talk about Jean until the chapter's Behind the Ses.

  I've been foreshadowing Jubilee's death for a while. I didn't want to blindside you, so I've been dropping hints in every chapter since before she turned into a vampire...

  - Chapter 75, the A One's farewell. "Seek out the Entress, if that is the path you choose. And Jubition, know that should the day e when Tyson walks the path of the Mystic Arts, should you still be at his side, you would be weled at Kamar Taj."

  - Chapter 77, in the illusion with Jubilee at the Valley of the End. "I know you're scared. I'm scared too. But being a killer isn't the ahat's not who you are. I know you're not going to hurt any of us. You're such a nerd, I noticed all your little details. Three-tomoe sharingan, not a Mangekyō. Whether you inte or not, that has meaning."

  - Chapter 77, when Jean is in Tyson's head. She saw Jubilee through his eyes, growing paler and weaker from the vampire's bite. Felt his crushing fear of losihe desperate o save her at any cost. The memory shifted to his versation with Amora, her smile as she demanded he grow stroo earn her help. His determination crystallized into a sihought.

  He wasn't strong enough to protect those he cared about.

  - Chapter 77, after Tyson loses to the X-Men. "I'm dying. I feel it… And if you love me back, you'll be there to support me as I die."… With a shaky breath, he took her hand in his. "I'm here, Jubilee. I'm not going anywhere."

  - Chapter 78, the wedding se. "The ice ring sparkled on Jubilee's hand, catg the light. Tyson couldn't help but smile at the symbolism. A ring that was beautiful yet fleeting. Bobby promised it should st a little over two months before melting." Then, in Chapter 85, when Jubilee told Jessica about it. "Had a ring and everything. But it was made by one of the other students from really slow-melting ice; it only finished melting earlier today. Remember how marriage works. Till death do us part."

  There were 2 months and 4 days between that se and this chapter in-universe. And 10 weeks between these chapters' releases.

  - Chapter 78, after Jubilee dies the first time. "Jubilee... losing her? Her being a vampire? Is it my cost? The cost I o pay to bee a sorcerer?" The A One's expression remained inscrutable, but she gave a slight nod. "In part," she replied, her words cryptid den with hidden meaning.

  - Chapter 79, between bouts of lovemaking, Jubilee says. "You were my first. And you'll be my only."

  - Chapter 79, he end, Jubilee says. "Eveh couldn't keep us apart." Tyson sighed and said, "Let's not tempt fate. You dying once was enough. Let's keep it from happening again. Please."

  - Chapter 80, after power testing, Jubilee says. "Damn, I'm like immortal, immortal. If sunlight 't kill me, what does that leave? Silver and decapitation?"… "I'll stay with you until the end of my sed life."

  - Chapter 81, when Tyson goes over their pn in the park with Jubilee. "I don't want you intervening in the fight." he said… "Oray projectile could kill you permaly."

  - Chapter 82, after stopping La Magra. "If we stop a god..." she wondered aloud, "what stop us?" One er of Tyson's mouth quirked up. "Nothing," he replied, a note of humor undersg his fidence. Despite herself, Jubilee huffed a small ugh. "Except maybe Mago," she joked.

  - Chapter 83, the final line of Arc 6, said by Jubilee. "Yeah, and who knows? Maybe we'll even find a way to survive freshman year."

  - Chapter 84, in the car. "We're not fighting with you. We're fighting for you, just like you have for us," Jubilee stated firmly. "I'll die before I let him take you again."

  - Chapter 85, during the Arc 1 fshback. Jubilee chimed in. "Mago's lucky I got taken out by the sneak attack… He's really tough, though. I don't think I could take him 1v1 even now that I'm a vampire.

  - Chapter 86, when Tyson checks out Jessica. "I'm pretty sure yirlfriend, Jubilee, a geous vampire, is the femme fatale." The emphasis she pced on the wirlfriend" was a clear remio Tyson. "You shouldn't be looking at irls while she's still in the picture."

  - Chapter 87, When Mago exposed his identity. Earlier today, he'd told Jubilee that his secret identity was meant to protect those around him, not himself. But that those surrounding him now were strong enough. He could only hope that was true.

  - Chapter 87, Pyro's response when Tyson tries to talk him down. "I'm sorry. But, if one of us from our css has to die to secure the future for mutants, it's worthwhile."

  - Chapter 88, during the fight with Mago. "You dare challenge me, child?" Mago's voied, "Yht show is no match for the Master of Magism. I could snap my fingers and end you!"

  Almost every chapter for the st 3 months has hi this event.

  - I tried to go with a more iterpretation of ower. In this story, she and Pietro did not derive their abilities from the Mind Stone. During the fight with Wanda, Tyson is moving and she stops his momentum in midair. The Juggernaut is unstoppable, but his power is magic. Chthon > Cyttorak when it es to magical power. Tysohe same tri Wanda that Agatha did in Wandavision.

  - Vanisher is 'seen' in Deadpool 2. In the movie, he's invisible the whole time, up until his death, where he's briefly visible, and it's a cameo by Brad Pitt. I took pieces from his id movie characters for this story.

  - I might get pints about Tyson usiro's power te into the billboards because of his adamantium skeleton. I've covered physical transformation since way ba the beginning of this story. Chapter 19: Beside him, Dr. elius adjusted his gsses, adopting a professional tone. "If it's any sotion, we've refihe process over the years. Once bonded with a mutant healing factor, the adamantium undergoes a slight structural ge we call the Beta variant. It retains its strength yet allows for natural bone growth and healing." It happened with the Abomination. His skeleton grows with him. It adjusts to his biological form because it is part of him. It's not just metal that his muscles are attached to.

  - Arclight is somewhat gender fluid in X-Men: The Last Stand, but female in the ics, so I went with that. There's enough gender identity in this Arc with Jessica. I didn't o dive into it with a sed character, especially a minor one.

  - I fot to mention it during the Arc 6 Behind the Ses, but Tyson and Jubilee's Marriage was foreshadowed way ba Arc 4, Chapter 42, during the Truth or Strip game with Natasha

  Natasha leaned forward, an evil smirk pying on her full lips. "Okay, Tyso's spice things up. Fuck, Marry, Kill. Your choices are me, Felicia, and the mystery girl on the phone." He let out a ugh, his broad shoulders rexing. "Going right for it, huh? Alright," he said, accepting the challenge. "Marry the girl on the phone because she’s sweet, cool, fun, aiful. Fuck Felicia because... well, she’s sexy and flexible." He pointed a fi Natasha. "And kill you because you asked a question like that."

  - This chapter is not titled 'Death' because Jubilee o died.

  - When Tyson reached Jubilee he said, "I'm here, Jubilee. I'm not going anywhere." It's the same line he said in Chapter 77: Going Rogue when he accepted Jubilee was going to die and he would be there for her.

  "I love you. I love that you tried so hard… And if you love me back, you'll be there to support me as I die." The following silence was deafening, broken only by the gentle hum of the Bckbird's eyson's eyes widened with shod realization. His desperate pns and schemes now seemed hollow and meaningless in the face of Jubilee's plea. He had been so ed that he had fotten the most important thing. To be there for her, to love her, and to support her in her darkest hour. Tysohat he had a choiake. He could tinue dowh of desperation, seeking out powers and gods. Or he could choose to be the man Jubilee needed him to be, to stand by her side and face the ing darkogether. At that moment, as he looked into Jubilee's eyes, Tysohere was only one choice. With a shaky breath, he took her hand in his.

  "I'm here, Jubilee. I'm not going anywhere."

  - Tyson started the Naruto bit as a joke with Natasha. The first time Jubilee saw it was at the end of Arc 4 (Chapter 47). In Monaco (Chapter 50) he pys at being Naruto. He does Itachi against the Abomination in Arc 5 (Chapter 65). During the Arc 6 Lemons chapter (Chapter 74) Tyson tries to do Naruto again, but Jubilee prompts him that he isn't Naruto, he's Sasuke. She also says, "You're like, Mangekyou-level with these mind games." In Chapter 77, during the illusion with Jubilee at the Valley of the End, she says, "You're such a nerd, I noticed all your little details. Three-tomoe sharingan, not a Mangekyō. Whether you inte or not, that has meaning."

  - After leaving the club in Chapter 74, Jubilee wao be Hinata. But Tyson said, "You're not Hinata." Here, in this chapter, when Jubilee arrived she said, "This time, I'm going to save you, Tyson." And she stood between him and Mago. Which is what Hinata said and did during the Pain Arc when Naruto inned down by Pain…

  In the end, she got to be Hinata.

  So, in this chapter, we see Tyson gain his Mangekyo. Is it Meta? Meh, maybe, sure, I won't argue that. But I will state my case that this fits withiory. Though it requires some background information that wasn't fully expined in the narrative, nor within the movies it was derived from. But all the pieces were there.

  he following is a small spoiler.

  Justification:

  Muse. The ritual to summon La Magra required a dozen pureblood vampires and the blood of the daywalker. Why? There are 12 vampire sects, each with different strengths. The purpose of the ritual is to absorb all the strengths avaible to vampires between all the sects, and then the daywalker to remove the weaknesses. Muse got all of that, plus Tyson's blood, which is eveer, because it not only shores up the weaknesses of vampires, but it has abs qualities. That's why Muse create blood elemental duplicates of people it absorbs enough blood from. But the key to the Mangekyo is the power of those vampire sects. Three of them in particur.

  Yiki Onna - Exist as clouds of razor-sharp id turn into a humanoid form. (Transformation)

  Moksha - They feed as little as possible, and from their prolonged fasting, they gain mystical abilities. (Magic)

  Siren - Possesses empathid hypnotic abilities far beyond any other vampire. This ehem to seduce almost any creature and influeheir moods and physiological responses. (Psychic)

  While he's still learning Muse's capabilities, the on access all the vampire powers, including the above. A transformation, magid psychic abilities.

  Jubilee hihat Tyson ulling the Sharingan routine subsciously… The Mangekyo is unlocked when experieng a traumatiough event. I felt like this qualified and lined up perfectly. Jubilee's death allowed Tyson's subscious to el Muse's full potential for just an instant to make his eyes transform appropriately for the trauma he was experieng. Tsukuyomi fits rather nicely into Tyson's illusion powerset, but I don't think it's something I'll pull out again. I'd go so far as to say that Tyson won't be pulling out Naruto references much going forward after the trauma of this event.

  Shoutout to you if you read to the end of this long-ass AN. I appreciate you.

  Support Plug

  For those of you ied in supp my writing.

  patreon./Steatoda

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