X-Men: Red (2nd series) #13

Arakko:
The Great Circle has been joined by several new members. Among them is Lycaeon, a two headed man-wolf both of whose heads have a different personality which – in their own opinion at least – makes them wise and the perfect holder of the Seat of Stalemate. His statement is greeted by a thrown knife, courtesy of Lodus Logos, which hits one of Lycaeon’s heads in the brow. Lodus Logos suggests he acquire the wisdom to duck. Lycaeon‘s left head calls this an indignity. He draws the knife and already heals, comparing this to true wisdom always winning over those who would silence…

Storm asks him to be silent and adds he is not the first newcomer Lodus Logos has tested, and they have more pressing business than his grand entrance. Indignity upon indignity! the wolf-man protests and demands decorum.

Kobak Never-Held, new to the Seat of Victory, agrees with Storm. They are still missing their Seat of Dreams, but they have a quorum and should proceed. Jon Ironfire, first of the White Sword’s Hundred, has the floor. The Ninety-nine now, Ironfire corrects Kobak. He is not of the Hundred anymore. Blue cut him loose from his healing, from his army, and now he walks alone.

He shows them the white sword Putity which he gave Ironfire, for if their enemy got ahold of it, that would mean the end.

Which enemy? Kobak demands. Have the demonic forces of Amenth risen again? Worse, Ironfire informs them. The forces of Annihilation. But the helm was destroyed! Sobunar of the Depths protests. The helm is not the staff, Ironfire replies. The power is more subtle… but perhaps more potent. Particularly clutched in the cold hand of…

Lycaeon interrupts him and tells them to look. A lone figure in the distance is walking toward them.

Storm, Ora Serrata, Lactuca and Lodus Logos immediately realize who it is, and so soon do the others, as the lone woman demands Ironfire finish his sentence and say her name. In the hand of who? In the hand of Genesis! he replies, looking her in the face.

The council members have different thoughts:
Kobak is immediately aware that Genesis will want his seat which used to be hers and accepts the danger. He is not afraid of a life that ends.

Lycaeon Two Wolves bows his head in reverence, admiring her as both a tactical leader and a living goddess.

Storm senses the anger coming from the Annihilation staff and its subtle influence.

Lodus Logos is aware that Genesis has little love for poets and even less so for those who change things.

Sobunar is already being influenced by Annihilation.

Ora Serrata is mostly interested in keeping her life and position. What is left of Xilo realizes how little he remembers about her and is aware he needs someone to fuse with.

And is this her welcome? Genesis demands. A desert of bones where proud mutants once lived? A Great Ring so lessened? A history so diminished? A feckless poet in the seat that guides the turn of the world? If she was weak enough for tears, she would shed them now, at how far Arakko has fallen.

Arakko has fallen, Annihilation whispers. Did someone speak? Ora Serrata asks nervously. She heard nothing, Genesis replies, but then hearing isn’t Ora’s strong point. She who oversaw the law in Genesis’s land. Who was her iron gaze. Why does she allow the lies of a madman in this place? It offends her!

Madman, Annihilation whispers and Ora Serrata stammers that Ironfire seemed coherent. Did he not come here from the White Sword’s own spire? Genesis asks. Death is their daily sacrament, rebirth their nightly religion. These are not sane people. Of course they’d try to stir up a civil war between them. Even such a lessened Great Ring, as this one can surely see that the boy is mad! she argues. See it, the staff whispers. In his delirium, this refugee from the Hundred’s asylum even considers the nobility of Arakko as equal to daemons…

The daemons turned up to fight! Ironfire shouts. She never showed up. She’s lower.

He cannot say such things to her! Ora Serrata protests weakly. He can say what he pleases! Ironfire shouts and unexpectedly asks if they know why the Hundred live in the Ivory Spire. They didn’t spin that ivory from the air. They weren’t fancy mutants with fancy gifts. Be silent! Lycaeon orders. They built it from their bones! Ironfire shouts. As they died and they died and they died! For a hundred years! A thousand years! Waiting and waiting! They were the frontline. They were the first wave, and Genesis’s people were meant to be the second! Their reinforcements. Yes, they died every day, because she left them to die! He was there! he tells her as he points Purity accusingly at her. Where was she?

She’s sorry, she replies in feigned disbelief. Reinforcements? Did they hear this grubby little nobody whom they’ve allowed to address them? Do they hear him beg for help? Beg. For help. Annihilation whispers.

Ironfire is silenced and tied up, by the vines she controls. She wants to hear the excuses the others have.

Sobunar stammers the word “help” is not the shame it once was.

Shame, Annihilation whispers and Sobunar looks down, realizing they have fallen. Yes, they have, Genesis agrees mercilessly. It is such a simple concept: The strong survive, the weak do not, for if they did, they would be strong. Thus, life is a test. How can you pass that test, if another takes it for you? Their mutant weapons define them, the powers define their place in a glorious hierarchy. They may rise or fall as individuals, but the hierarchy is eternal. So how can they truly win if none lose? How are they truly thriving if there are none beneath them? How can they conquer if…

Eyes ablaze with lightning, Storm stands and demand if that is who they truly are… is that what they fought for, stood against Annihilation for? To hold that same power in their own hands. Is that all they can be?

While in the background, Ironfire tries and fails to cut himself loose from Genesis’s vines, she informs Storm she is bringing her emotions to a place of hard cold facts. The strong are strong and the weak are weak! That is simply nature. But, with proper encouragement, the weak can be made stronger. This time of “peace” was a time of opportunity, a time to fortify themselves – to fortify the Earth. To teach that world which they coddled with their sacrifice to stand on their own feet. Instead, under Storm’s influence, Arakko fled… to grow fat and complacent in a place of luxuries. And paid a dear price. For the Seat of Loss Storm asks many questions. But she has only one for her: Who is the “we” she is talking about? While true Arakki fought and died against the daemons of Amenth and the Eternals of Earth, where was she?

Sobunar again weakly protests, recalling the words of the unarmed king: if she wasn’t there, she was… Nowhere, Annihilation whispers. Coward. All of them soft cowards! Soubnar groans.

Lycaeon’s one head eagerly supports Genesis’s ideas. The other head adds that in the spirit of compromise he would go further still… Kobak Never-Held cuts him off. He will not hear this slander. He faced Ororo in the Circle Perilous and she prevailed. She was instrumental in caging Uranos…

Not killing him, Genesis states. And what is this “instrumental?” If Ororo truly was to be respected, she would have finished him alone. Instead, Genesis hears, she leaned on humans and dying old men. So she will not take a personal endorsement of Storm’s brave character from one who wept like a child over a single death.

Enough! Storm shouts and fires a lightning bolt but, thanks to Annihilation’s influence, misses. Enough indeed, Genesis agrees. A crying child sits in her seat. This is an insult against her person she will not tolerate. Does Kobak accept her challenge? Angrily, he jumps up, as he agrees, here and now! Let those present be their witnesses. And let none interfere! The staff tells him he will lose and die, while Genesis promises to make it quick at least. She doesn’t want her chair to get cold.

Ironfire orders Kobak to stand down. He claims prior challenge by about a thousand years! He finally frees himself and charges at Genesis, the sword Purity drawn. But the staff orders him to miss and he does. Genesis mocks he missed his chance and adds, poor Blue chose the wrong warrior. She grabs the sword Purity and chooses it as her weapon. Any last words? she asks Kobak. Storm shouts, she will not allow this.

Genesis is right, the staff whispers. Finally swayed, Sobunar challenges Storm, as he attacks with his control over water. Rising into the sky, Storm asks if he truly wants the strong to rule. A world without pity and mercy? She warns him she will show him this world!

Lodus Logos turns to Lactuca and pleads, she knows this is wrong. She seems to be on neither side, though. What is it to her? she asks. Lodus Logos explains that Genesis wishes to shape Arakko’s soul. She has lost that right. She wore the helm. She failed Arakko! Now she wants to own them and calls that a challenge to all. Let them answer it, not by her rules but their own terms. The stars move still, Lactuca replies, what is a world to her?

Nevertheless, she notices the whispers of the staff tipping the scales, so she intends to tip them back. To be strong is to survive, Genesis says? Rebels of Arakko, survive! she orders and teleports away Lodus Logos, Storm, Kobak, Xilo and Jon Ironfire.

Genesis seethes. Ora Serrata carefully muses that you cannot call it running away, but one could argue that Lactuca committed a challenge to Genesis. She could, Lactuca agrees. If Genesis wants Lactuca to challenge her.

They ran, Annihilation whispers and that is what Genesis chooses to believe. They have all lived at the whims of the weak long enough but those days are done! Rightful rule has returned and, when the true rulers of Arakko march to war, it will be under her banner!