X-Men Forever (3rd series) #1

1899, St James Hall, London:
A concert of Elgar’s new suite:
It is a rare date between Irene Adler and Raven Darkholme. They are accompanied by a male, gay couple, pretending to be each other’s dates. As gentlemen, they allow the women to sit inside, next to each other.

Throughout the concert, Irene feels disconcerted, not knowing why. When the music swells into the ninth variation, Nimrod, she believes she hears whistling. She turns around and, in her mind’s eye, her vision sees the head of an A.I., a crown symbol on its brow, whistling the tune. She sees God! Connected are visions of the future: Cyclops being incarcerated, Jean Grey murdered at the Hellfire Gala, Colossus, Shadowkat, Wolverine battling Sentinels. Krakoa. At last, she understands what she found four years earlier rustling around in Essex House after Nathaniel Essex’s death in Bedlam. From beyond the grave, he sought to make himself into what she thought was some kind of “clockwork god” and it had worked. Then understanding breaks her and she falls down in a fit. He was in all times and none, a smear on her vision.

It takes her six months of being pampered to rebuild her vision. She doesn’t tell Raven what she saw. The burst of new vision was not a part of her diaries. She realizes they must be new visions from after they build paradise. But what paradise can there be with that god above them?

In 1919, Paris, she arranges a meeting with one of Essex’s creations, Mr. Sinister. She tells him certain truths. Irene brutally reveals that Nathaniel Essex is dead. He created four variants to pursue certain goals, to outlive the threat he saw correctly arising from mechanical brains. Each variant believes theirs is the way to victory. However, this is a lie. They are all but devised to funnel the energy they collect to himself. He has built a kind of digital ghost that will feed upon all their efforts and achieve something greater than godhood. Sinister is the variant he left with an interest in mutants. He is a monster, but he is their monster. They are on the same side. They must be. Or else they are all doomed. She whispers something in his ears, believing this to be safe. She has seen no immediate consequence.

Suddenly, Mr. Sinister has a fit. Blood gushes from his eyes and mouth. “You’re a ghost,” he gasps as he sinks down, and Irene finds herself facing the A.I. god. She realizes now it works from outside time and hence her inability to predict it.

He calls her very clever. He thought she may have spotted him at the Enigma Variations’ debut. It’s a wonderful tune. If you are free from the restrictions of time and space, why not spend some of it, appreciating the very best of British culture? He took it as a name. He is Enigma, and Irene really shouldn’t have told that variation anything.

It is then that the terrified Irene realizes Enigma is not going to kill her. Enigma warns he will not let her meddle. He is outside time and fundamentally safe. Nothing she does can affect him. He can crush her at any point. With a smirk, she points out that she is still alive. He is not sure, is he? While Enigma doesn’t believe so, he will not take the risk. He protects the timeline. It is far too early for the variations to learn anything and what he just did to that clone he can do to anyone… or everyone. He orders her to stay away and he will let her have a free run to Krakoa.

The mutant city on the hill, she muses. So, he needs that too. He agrees. They must be on the same side, too. They aren’t on the same side, Irene corrects. They are merely going in the same direction. Her bravado amuses him but he doesn’t need to foresee the future. He has been there. Does she want to know why Mystique leaves her?

She is left alone with Sinister’s body. Mystique joins and asks if she was expecting that, referring to Sinister’s reaction. No, she wasn’t, though that in itself should have been a surprise. When Mystique presses her, Irene asks if she trusts her. Raven promises it would be the last thing in the world. What they have is immortal. Irene begs her not to ask again. She will tell her if she needs to hope, and she prays it will never come to that.

A London side street, weeks before the X-Men’s invasion of Earth:
In a red-brick house, Mother Righteous shouts a string of invective. As far as she is concerned, it has all gone pear-shaped.

Using a magical gate to enter her Sanctum Malefica, she is still not quite able to believe what happened. The other three failed. It was hers! But he was there - Nathaniel Essex. Dead but there. A computer ghost all along!

She peers through a Krakoan gate that allows her to look into the White Hot Room, where her animated manikin is now at the mercy of the Krakoans.

In the White Hot Room, Destiny kicks the manikin and on this side Mother Righteous feels the pain keenly. They are bound tightly, so the manikin’s death threatens her as well. She urges her other version to beg for her life.

In the White Hot Room:
Exodus tries to tend to the injured Jean Grey, while Destiny kicks the Mother Righteous manikin and shouts she undid everything. Exodus shouts that he cannot close Jean’s wound. They need to get her to the oasis. This unleashes another wave of rage in Destiny, who hits Mother Righteous and shouts she made a Dominion. She created the final piece!

Exodus hopes Elixir can help Jean and tells Hope they need to leave. Sure, she agrees, but first— She takes out her gun and aims it at the Mother Righteous manikin, who begs her not to. Hope snaps she can’t pretend she doesn’t deserve it. She lost! Mother Righteous shouts. She has made her worst nightmare! She made the man she married and who she went to her grave cursing into a digital god! Of course she wants to help stop him!

What can she do? Hope demands. Mother Righteous replies, she knows all the magic here. She brought them here! And her other half is in the real world. She can be their contact there and pass messages back and forth! And… she has an idea… She can find out about Mystique, she offers.

The real Mother Righteous watches, pleased. Now, while she has bought some time, she can work out how to dissolve her doll and leave them cursing her name.

Oh honey, he doesn’t think so, a voice chides her. She looks around to see a double nightmare: Dr. Stasis and Orbis Stellaris, two other variants, who do not seem to be quite up to speed on events. Orbis warns her she is not going to achieve dominionhood, and Stasis patronizingly asks if she thinks herself Victoria. He’s met Queen Victoria, and she is no Queen Victoria.

Furious, she fires a blast which they dodge, as she curses, how did they even find her? Stasis replies they can talk, when she is safe in an Orchis cell. Orbis traps her in a forcefield. Disgusted, he muses that one with such a heightened temper cannot be a Dominion. It takes one born of the coldness of space to reach such a heightened state.

She shouts that she failed, but they have no idea what is going on. Stasis tries to console her: he will succeed and she will sit at his side. She calls him a patronizing prat and uses a ‘thank you’ from him she had saved.

Immediately, Stasis turns against Orbis, ordering him to unhand his wife and firing a gun at him. While they fight each other, she heads for the magic doorway, wondering aloud how they got in here. They are no magicians.

The answer waits in her shop, namely Selene. Mother Righteous grins, figuring, when it comes to Selene, she has a lot of favors to call in. However, Selene is only amused as she recognizes the spell she is using. She did that herself when she lived in ancient Sumer. Went out of fashion, when everyone learned the loopholes. Except it’s been so long, everyone’s forgotten those. Except for her.

Selene gets up, unbothered. No, no, no, Mother Righteous mutters. Unleashing telekinetic blasts at her, Selene laughs: yes, yes yes!

Mother Righteous falls down, bleeding. Selene reminds her that she has been doing this significantly longer in significantly tighter outfits. Mother Righteous grabs one of her balloons and asks it for an escape. In return, she sets it free. A moment later, she is gone.

Selene is joined by Dr. Stasis and Orbis Stellaris. She explains Mother Righteous was spirited away by one of her trapped pet gods. But she is badly hurt. She won’t be far away.

Mother Righteous is only three alleys away and curses the Celtic god. No wonder the Celts stopped worshipping it! She moves onward, muttering there has to be a way out.

He is afraid not, comes a man’s voice and several knives telekinetically trap her against the wall without drawing further blood. Charles Xavier orders her not to struggle. These were designed for her. She is coming with them. She notes the plural and asks what he is talking about. She will find out, he tells her. Welcome to the X-Men!

Later in a lab, she again finds herself pinned to the floor in a pentagram and asks what this place is. He calls it a No-place, intent to hide them from what will be hunting them. What she unleashed. He turns to several screens and explains they tried to find her before she made her mistake, but only the energies of her attempted ascension allowed them to locate her. They were too weak to storm her fortress, so they leaked its location to Orchis. Angrily, she bursts out she could have died! Xavier coolly replies that he thinks he could have lived with that.

She’s got it! she snarks. He has a beard. She gets the semiotics, then wonders how he is even binding her, seeing as how he is no magician.

A new voice from one of the screens tells her they are using cold iron, frozen specifically for her, with notes of mysterium. The best anti-magic money can buy. Isn’t he with Orchis now? she asks. Sebastian Shaw orders her not to be so /&%$ naive. He is on his side. And she will find his side doesn’t forgive or forget. Xavier contacted him and told hm about his plan to capture her. After she welched on him, Shaw wanted in. Seemed like a good deal. He’ll stick to it. Sticking to your deals matters! He tells Xavier to erase this from his mind, as not to endanger Xavier. Orchis could pull this from his mind. Xavier agrees and thanks him. Though Shaw’s betrayal of Krakoa makes him surprised he’d worry.

Looking down, Shaw orders him to grow up. They knew he was a rat and put him on a sinking ship. Krakoa didn’t fail because Shaw betrayed them. He betrayed them because Krakoa had failed. He orders Xavier to destroy Mother Righteous. Take away everything that made her proud.

Xavier retorts that this is not their goal, but he dares say it will be a byproduct. Mother Righteous notes his use of plural. Xavier announces they are ready and from a chamber rises a clone of Cypher with a red diamond on his forehead – Mr. Sinister’s consciousness (from Xavier’s mind) reborn in Doug Ramsey’s body.

He is back, Sinister smirks. And the remaining Sinister dregs are purged from him, Xavier replies strictly. Nathaniel is out of his mind forever.

Xavier explains that the real Doug is trapped inside the hibernating Krakoa. Sinister has a copy of his gift. Can he progress in this body? Sinister tries, then explains that they can. Krakoa is holding tight to the real Doug but it is asleep, so whispering quietly can induce small gestures. It won’t even know what it’s doing. He then continues to transfer the consciousness from the Mr. Sinister trapped in Krakoa’s Pit to this body, and then has his other self destroyed by Krakoa. Now, to work, he muses aloud. Can he move this No-Place away from reality? Yes, he thinks he can.

He then turns to Mother Righteous and stresses she is alive for now. He’s into the whole reaping what you sow thing. Now if they patch her up, what can she do? She replies that she knows where the missing mutants are. They are alive? Xavier bursts out and, for a moment, goes through an onslaught of emotions before regaining his composure. He asks if she can speak to them.

In Atlantic Krakoa, in the White Hot Room, Mother Righteous’ simulacrum tells the Quiet Council-in-exile she has a message from the real world. Her other self has been captured by Xavier. He wants to talk. Hope orders her to download everything they’ve been through: Atlantic Krakoa, the Phoenix dying. Jean bleeding weirdly and… Destiny interrupts and demands to know what happened to her wife!

Mother Righteous passes it on and Xavier promises to try to find Mystique. She has a slippery mind. It could be difficult, except it isn’t. He finds her on Pacific Krakoa.

He tries to contact her, speaking of Irene. Mystique orders him to shut up. She is not speaking to him and she is not speaking to her, she adds darkly.

Mother Righteous passes on the message to a confused Destiny. Then she realizes what has happened: Mystique has read the book she wrote.

The captive Mother Righteous promises to work with them and tell them everything. She really, really doesn’t want her ex to become God. Sinister is pleased. And he didn’t even have to threaten torture. Character growth for everyone! Xavier decides they have to make this place as safe as possible and then they find a way to kill God.

No-place X, weeks later:
Inside, they have been joined by Rachel Summers and Rasputin IV. Sinister, pretending to be Cypher for the benefit of the newcomers, explains that they are now at 0.0001 existence. They are barely there. Xavier plays along and summarizes, the X-Men are beginning their attack on Orchis. Destiny believes that this large-scale chaos is their best opportunity for Enigma to be distracted. She also believes any later is too late.

Drawing her sword, Rasputin insists on killing the imprisoned Mother Righteous. She was manipulated by Sinister spawn for one thousand years. And now she risks being manipulated by another? “Cypher” pretends to be understanding but insists they need her. He adds ,that as the other Sinister’s greatest creation, Rasputin IV has the best chance at skipping between the raindrops and stopping him.

Xavier explains first stage: they try to stop Enigma’s ascension. The Stasis timeline seems most promising. They equip her with a suit that should keep her invisible to Enigma briefly. On it, she promises and steps out.

Xavier turns to Rachel. He explains that, if Rasputin fails, which she likely will, he needs her team ready and prepared. Rachel promises they will be. They have been resurrected and briefed in the White Hot Room. Luckily, they had a backup Cerebro cradle there. Time distortion will be weird, she adds, but what is not weird about this gig? Xavier thanks her and stresses that she is essential. Rachel shrugs; she gets it. If Jean is out of action, there is no other choice. Who else are they going to have on their team if they want to resurrect the Phoenix?

She gets to work as Sinister telepathically states that Xavier hasn’t told her the whole truth. She won’t like it. Xavier agrees but if they live, he can live with that…