Original release date: April 10, 2024
Cyclops and Jean have grown distant, unable to reconcile their separate lives. Worsening matters, she discovers he has been communicating telepathically with Madelyne and begins to develop feelings for Wolverine. Meanwhile, after Genosha is admitted into the UN, Magneto, Rogue, and Gambit head to the country, where Rogue and Gambit reunite with Madelyne and Nightcrawler while Magneto meets with the Genoshan council, who wish to make him their leader. He agrees on the provision that Rogue serve alongside him. After telling Gambit about the plan and admitting to having previous history with Magneto, Rogue declines Magneto’s proposal during the inauguration gala. Cable arrives to warn the X-Men of an impending attack, but is sent back to the future. Amidst this, Madelyne realizes Cable is an adult Nathan. Suddenly, a Wild Sentinel appears and leads a group of Sentinels in attacking Genosha, seemingly killing Madelyne, Magneto, and dozens of other mutants. Gambit sacrifices himself to destroy the Wild Sentinel, leaving Rogue heartbroken.
* * *
Was it caused by atomic testing?
Or is it nature herself, deciding the time has come to change the human race?
Some say they’re freaks, some call them monsters, but all over the planet, they are known as mutants.
We prefer to see it as a world that misunderstands us.
Fortunately,
helping us build those bridges is a journalist as esteemed as yourself.
Well, I am just as flattered to be sitting with a renowned scientist such as yourself, Doctor McCoy.
[chuckles] Blue blushes, too, my dear.
Here in Westchester County sits an unassuming English estate, the X-Men’s home.
A school for mutants, founded by the late Professor Charles Xavier.
Not like regular boring classes.
More hands-on learning, you know?
But with big death machines and vampire dinosaurs.
[Trish] For many of the X-Men, Xavier’s school is the only home they’ve ever known.
People who have fallen through the cracks.
Forgotten.
Desperate to belong.
But that sense of belonging goes worldwide today, as the UN formally admits the mutant nation of Genosha.
[Gambit sighs] This is taking forever.
Gambit, please remember that should the new Blackbird suffer a malfunction, you are the only soul on board for whom gravity would most certainly be an issue.
[scoffs] Can it, you roosters.
Look-y ahead.
[Gambit] Ki-yay!
They be busy doing a bit of renovating since Gambit’s last visit.
[boy laughing]
[laughs] Whoa!
[grunts and laughs]
[girl] We have to stop at my favorite stall for a–
[boy] Is that the X-Men?
[all gasping]
My friends!
Well, would you look at you, girl!
Lot of smiles at the mansion when we heard Madelyne Pryor scored a top spot among Genosha’s brass.
The Interim Council wanted an X-Man.
Luckily, you guys could spare a Jean.
[Gambit] Hush, madame.
Two always better than one.
And far better than three.
Most times.
Forgive Gambit’s passive adolescence.
He insisted on coming after Rogue agreed to join me at the gala.
I confess, the master of magnetism was surprised to receive an invite bearing the United Nations’ seal.
Yeah, I hear it’s called “the future.”
[chuckles]
Magneto, the Interim Council would love a word with you
before tonight’s gala.
Privately, if possible.
Hmm. So where the heck does that leave us?
Ha-ha!
Dang!
I’ll be a wet bird on a live wire.
Kurt Wagner, how the heck are ya, furball?
[speaks German]
[in English] We shall play tourist as the Council speaks with Magneto.
Kurt joined the Council to help work with Genosha’s various communities of faith.
Things to see!
Such wonders in this city.
Long as he left those faithful killer monks of his back at the monastery.
Ah, a scimitar tongue, Gambit, you remain as always.
We have much to discuss since our gothic adventure amid the Alps.
Come.
Everything around us would not have been possible without the work of the X-Men.
[laughs]
Oh, my!
It’s just like he said it’d be.
Who? The Professor?
Uh, yeah, sure.
Always used to say we’d have a place all our own one day.
More than a place.
A home.
Daddy’s charging pretty high rent.
Birthing a nation overnight is not without its share of stumbles.
[chuckles] Ignore him.
Fly can’t help but ruin honey.
Or maybe Gambit’s willing to ask questions no one else will.
Like, why is Magneto suddenly mutant MVP?
[lively music playing]
[man singing]
For a man named Gambit, your poker face is very poor.
Hey, mind your beeswax, furball.
Didn’t go ringing for no priest.
It does not take a priest to see you and Rogue’s souls touch in every gaze.
[Gambit] Ain’t the touch she be looking for.
[laughs] You Americans. So theatrical.
Life is violins und close-ups.
I blame soap operas.
Just marry the belle and be done.
Scoundrels like me, we don’t get no white picket reward.
We too busy for love.
Too busy sinning.
There is no love without sin.
For love is best measured in what we forgive.
[Trish] I am here with Scott Summers, also known as Cyclops.
Scott, are you surprised to see such a bold move in world politics?
Well, if being an X-Man teaches anything, Ms. Tilby,
it’s to expect the unexpected.
I always kept that in mind as field leader…
[man] Those shades are weirding out the lights.
Can you take ’em off?
I can’t. Sorry.
So, back as team leader…
Actually, let’s talk about you and Marvel Girl.
I hear you’re the X-Men’s power couple.
A love that spans galaxies.
So I have to ask, when did you know she was the one?
You’re skipping the questions, too?
Hard to interview someone who can’t tell which parts of her memories belong to her and which parts belong to her clone.
Even reacquainting myself with my psychic powers feels strange.
Like the face of an old friend seen from every angle but the one in your memory.
This busted mug ain’t changed in a hundred years, and you know it.
I remember so many things.
So many with Scott.
You two lovebirds still ain’t talking?
He’s grieving his son.
Although, the way he’s avoiding me recalls a time.
We were in Nevada.
I had just acquired the power of a cosmic entity.
The Phoenix.
Oh, right. You were there.
I asked Scott to go on a picnic at sunset.
She seemed nervous when I asked her to go out.
Like she didn’t trust me.
He was scared.
Afraid the Phoenix had changed me.
I wanted to reassure him.
I wanted to show her that nothing had changed.
She was still the hothead who knocked my books out of my hand when I ran into her on the first day of school.
But I could already feel the universe speaking to me.
Much like Scott used to through our special psychic rapport.
She snaps at me, and then she takes off my ruby glasses, which hold back my powers.
I needed to anchor myself because every fiber of me hungered to leave and travel the cosmos right then.
And nothing happened.
Jean was using the power of the Phoenix to block my optic blasts, and we could see each other’s eyes.
They anchored me.
Focused me.
His eyes made me stay.
Now…
I know all about drowning in memories.
Best to look up and keep paddling.
Keep moving, ’cause the past’ll yank ya under if ya don’t.
I forget how many sunrises your eyes have seen.
They only ever seen one of you, Red.
Just the one.
Logan, I’m…
You’re Jean Grey.
He’s Scott Summers.
Those are the rules.
You just forgot ’em for a sec.
Enough said.
Now go talk to that overgrown Boy Scout.
Now, the latest adventure, parenthood.
Jean…
Jean and I don’t have any kids.
You don’t?
No.
Strange.
I saw hospital records for one Nathan Charles Summers, born to Scott and Jean Grey Summers just last month.
Born at Westchester Memorial?
I spoke to a Dr. Brians there.
He said you told your teammate, told Rogue…
That jerk wouldn’t deliver my…
He called my kid a freak.
Scott, I came here today to give the X-Men a chance to show the world that mutants are just like us, people.
Normal.
And you lie.
Why lie?
Because you’re normal.
Excuse me?
I said, because you’re normal.
You’re ungrateful.
We fight, risk our lives for you.
Evil mutants, robots, crazy aliens.
I gave him up.
I gave him up because you can’t say thank you.
Because I have to stomach your questions and prove that I’m a person.
I lie because the truth is we’re nothing like you.
Thank God, because it’s the only reason you people are still alive.
Recent events have aligned themselves in an unprecedented fashion for our kind.
With even the most overlooked of us finally getting a voice.
We need to be thinking about how to speak loudly as one united community.
This concerns me and my X-Men, how?
[Emma] We need a handsome jawline that begs trust and respect.
A poster child king.
Careful, Ms. Frost.
Don’t go filling this man’s head with such notions.
Whose charitable idea was it to let a human be on the Council?
Were no others available to weep over semantics?
Moira’s a fierce ally to mutants.
And we all agreed on the title of Chancellor.
[Magneto] You eclectic allotment of social climbers wish for me to rule Genosha?
Hilarious.
One could argue, and many sadly do, that none of us would be here today were it not for you and your publicity stunt.
Are there no others better tempered to stomach the squabble of human diplomacy?
But Charles be gone, Magneto.
And I may not like it, but if Charles trusts you with his X-Men, he’d trust you with this.
We were at a bar in Germany when he first mentioned his dream.
I laughed at him.
Was he sentimental or suicidal?
Both earn an early grave.
He did that smile of his, that annoying secret smile.
“Magneto, any dream worth having is a dream worth dying for.”
We thought we’d perish before seeing the day when humanity accepted our people.
Like Moses and the Promised Land, we would carry the dream, but never live it.
Look, Magnus,
I may not be Jean Grey, but I know what the Professor would say if he was here.
“Time to dream bigger.”
You shall have me on one condition.
[Rogue] I ought to knock you from here to the North Pole.
You think making me your queen means we’re getting back together?
It is a political calculation, Rogue.
Me, mutant kind’s fiercest defender, and you, an X-Man whose touch allows her to feel anyone’s pain.
A true leader, an empathetic one.
Was this your plan all along?
Make everyone like ya and then take over?
This was Xavier’s design.
It is why he gave me his X-Men.
A final chance to uphold the promise we made to one another so long ago.
But I need help.
You take me for a fool.
Acting like this is all about you and the Professor.
I won’t deny my passion for you.
As with Gambit, loving you makes broken men whole so that even as you deny us, our heartache is not in vain.
We would be lucky to have you lead.
[Scott] I can’t believe I lost it like that.
Oh, Scott, anger is normal, even for mutants.
Sometimes you just have to let go.
[Scott] There are some things worth holding on to.
Describe him to me.
Describe Nathan.
I see him everywhere.
In every face, on every street, so clearly.
I can’t see color, but up here…
I see these big brown eyes and his wild rust-colored hair.
It reminds me of…
Of us.
[Jean] Don’t tell me you can explain.
Jean!
If you’ll excuse us, Madelyne.
[Sebastian] Something wrong, Miss Pryor?
Sorry, mind just drifted a moment.
Mind drift indeed.
Communicating via psychic rapport was our thing, Scott.
Just stop and let me explain, please.
Explain what? I know what I saw.
Jean, you…
How long has it been happening?
A month maybe. I was checking in after she moved overseas, but we ended it…
Go.
Go to Genosha. Be with my clone.
Oh, dear.
What you saw on the astral plane was confusion, Jean.
Grief.
She’s the mother of my son.
That’s the one thing I can be certain about right now.
[Jean] Do you love her?
I love both of you.
Whole galaxies beckoned me.
But I turned my back for you.
Sinister cuts out a part of me and you love it?
That wasn’t love in there, it’s ego.
The music is changing and you need a chair.
Leader, father, husband…
And you? You don’t trust your memories.
Do you even love me?
My love for you is the one thing I remember amid this pain and insanity!
[Scott] Remember? Or feel?
Choose, Jean.
Do not spin this on me.
Do you love me, Jean?
Or am I just a lovely memory?
Jean! What is it?
[Rogue] Hey, there.
Wasn’t expecting a lady caller.
What’s wrong, chère?
You best sit down.
It was back after I ran away from my daddy.
My evil mother was helping me with my powers, said she knew a fella who could help.
An associate.
The man seemed nice enough.
Seemed to wanna help.
Just not like I thought.
He spent weeks talking about how mutants were special.
How we’d have our own cities and culture one day.
He even had plans, too, Remy.
Mutant art, fashion, dance.
He showed me that being a mutant wasn’t just about my power.
It could be something more.
And when we realized that his electromagnetic powers protected him from my touch, other things started happening.
But then I started seeing the hurt in him, like raging waters.
There wasn’t enough room in our affair for his demons and mine.
When I joined the X-Men,
Erik said he wouldn’t want me to lose another family.
He acted like it never happened.
We both did.
[Gambit] You gonna accept his offer?
If Genosha’s shown us anything, it’s that we don’t need to be afraid of change.
And if I can play a bigger role in bettering the world, well, that’s the whole reason I became an X-Man.
[Gambit] You never wanted to make things official.
I respected that.
I played the swamp rat.
[Rogue] And I played your chère.
All the expectations, every time looking at you, seeing all the things I couldn’t do.
[Gambit] Like telling Gambit the dang truth?
I can’t touch you, Remy!
Your heart may beat for me, but I can’t feel it.
You light up everything you touch, but never me.
Some things be deeper than skin, chère.
[Rogue] Not this.
I wager that fool will break your heart in two.
Gambit always knows the odds.
That it?
[Gambit] In this game, he do.
Till then, we be friends, mon amie.
Just friends.
A drink for my dashing Cajun?
Not enough drink change the fact that others be more dashing, chère.
Assemble the Council. We need to talk.
Whatever is the matter, Dr. Cooper?
Is it your dress?
My former prosecutor has likely taken issue with your choice for Chancellor.
But surely Genosha’s right to self-govern will not only be protected but cherished, as it is with all UN nations.
Most other nations don’t allow a terrorist to be their leader.
Yet so many allow their leaders to be terrorists.
If it eases your mind, Magneto accepted only on the condition that we ask one of the X-Men to govern with him.
Rogue.
What did she say?
[electronic music playing]
Oh.
[groans]
[Cable] Turn it off. The music.
[Scott] Jean, what is it? Madelyne.
Thanks for the dance, sugar, but Remy was right.
Some things are deeper than skin.
Turn it off, the music.
Get everybody out.
[music continues]
Kill the music.
Cable?
You have to get everyone out.
Now! He’s coming.
Who’s coming? What’s going on?
[automated voice] Access failure imminent. Body slide one.
No, no!
Not again.
Your eyes.
You made it.
You survived.
I’m so sorry, Mom.
Sorry for what?
[exploding]
[people screaming]
[grunts]
What in tarnation.
Rogue, get to the gardens. Hurry! [screams]
[gasps]
[Sentinel] Terminate mutant.
[people clamoring]
[Gambit] Rogue!
Remy.
[Gambit] He alive.
So are you.
Gambit, how many?
Too many.
So many.
Some vile Godzilla Sentinel.
You go at it, you end up dead.
Can’t even dent it.
We’re trying to evacuate folks now, but the Morlocks, they stuck in the bay.
Right under its belly.
And there’s no way to them.
A promise was made.
[people screaming]
Hurry. Almost to the gardens.
[Sentinel] Mutants located.
I draw its fire away from the gardens.
Rogue clears a path for Gambit to the Morlocks.
Save as many as you can.
We shall not live our days wondering if we could’ve saved more.
Never much cared for roulette.
Then how about we spice up them rules?
[people screaming]
[groans]
They shall be avenged!
[gasps]
[Leech] Don’t worry.
Leech knows Callisto will find us.
If not her, Magneto.
He promised Leech would never be scared again.
The X-Men are no friends to the Morlocks.
[rumbling in distance]
[gasps]
[Sentinel] Mutants located.
Bonne soirée, mes amis.
Now, kindly follow me.
[grunts]
[Sentinel] Omega-level threat detected.
[both grunt]
No.
It’s too dangerous, chère.
Don’t you dare, Erik!
You hear me?
He’s trying to protect us, Rogue.
[speaks German] Do not be afraid.
Omega threat eliminated.
Gambit see your bet and raise it.
‘Cause the cards always be in my favor.
[groans]
Mutant intruder neutralized.
The name’s Gambit, mon ami.
Remember it.
How many?
How many, damn it?
To reiterate for those just returning to us.
Regardless of your stance on recent world events…
Oh, my.
…the images you are about to see
may be disturbing.
[Rogue sobbing]
Sugar.
I can’t feel you.
