X-Men: From the Ashes Again: Part One

by Dale Ingram

In upstate New York, a few miles outside the Westchester County town of Salem Center, rests a venerable mansion and sprawling estate. For the better part of a century, it has served as the ancestral home of the Xavier family. In more recent years, it has been known as Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, an exclusive school for a select group of people.

At least that's what most people think. In truth, it was both home and headquarters to an outlaw group of mutants known as the X-Men, who once swore to protect a society that both feared and hated them, simply for existing. If the truth were known, they'd saved the world, and even the universe itself, more than a few times.

But today, the mansion lies vacant. It's halls, once filled with life, have fallen empty and silent. Stripped bare by a madman named Bastion, it has since been abandoned in the absence of it's owner, Professor Charles Xavier.

At least, until today, that is.

Scott Summers pulls up the driveway to the front door of the mansion in a rented BMW 325i, driving down the same road he's traveled countless times in his life. In all those trips down this road, and up this drive, he's never felt so empty as he does this time. This was the only home he'd ever known. The X-men, his only family. And now they're scattered. The dream has died.

As he approaches the door, his mind slips back six months, to the day it all fell apart.

"Scott, we simply can't do it", Ororo couldn't even look him in the eye as she said it. "We can barely pay the operating expenses of the mansion, let alone maintain the charade that there is still a school housed within it's walls." She paused briefly before adding, "I don't even want to relive the debacle that surrounded the board of education's inspection of the facilities."

"I realize that, Ororo, but there has to be some alternative to what you're talking about.". As he stood, the sharp, stabbing pain that was his stomach made its presence known. It was only weeks earlier that he'd had an explosive device removed from his stomach, and he was early in the stages of recovery from the makeshift surgery that removed it. It hurt to stand, or even move at times, but he simply couldn't sit still for this conversation. "The world... needs the X-Men. You can't just... disband the team."

"We've had this conversation before, Scott. Moira MacTaggert is the executor of Professor Xavier's estate. The courts have judged her unfit to oversee the estate, considering she's in the advanced stages of the Legacy Virus. Until the courts have worked out the details, we don't even have the legal right to stay there in his absence."

The words left him numb, same as they had days earlier, when they had this same exchange over the phone. Scott thought he could somehow convince her in person to see things his way, but seeing her here, in person, only served to prove her resolve in the matter.

"As for me,." She leaned on the table in Scott and Jean's dining room, hanging her head, before continuing, "I am tired, Scott, of fighting this fight. I am tired of shouldering the burden of leadership alone. I've been down that road before, and it nearly destroyed us all. Right now, you're in no condition to lead, and without the professor, the group simply cannot hold itself together. Do you remember what happened the last time the professor was gone?"

Scott ignores the pain in his abdomen, standing straight, defiant. "That was different, and you know it, Storm. The problem was, we didn't stick together. We took off and started X-Factor, and you went your own way with the X-men. Yes, it was a disaster. But you're standing here before me today, advocating the same basic course of action."

Storm snaps back, obviously Scott had hit a nerve. "I am simply trying to suggest that we can do far more good, both for ourselves, and for the world, if we didn't present such an attractive target. We seclude ourselves within the school, while deluding ourselves into thinking that we are working towards a dream of peaceful co-existence with humanity." It's no wonder that we spend most of our time fighting off threats that come knocking right on our front door, instead of doing any real good for others of our kind."

"Ororo, I agree, there are ways we can improve upon the professor's goals. But our greatest strength has always been in numbers. You and I, for example. We've not always seen eye to eye on just exactly how to lead the X-Men... but when the chips were down, I've always known that we could stand together. When that happens, nothing can stop us. I think that even Logan, despite his insistence that he'll always be a "loner", would agree with that."

"Scott, Logan has already left. He hopes to find the professor on his own."

That was when the reality of the situation hit Scott Summers. He looked out the window, it had begun to snow outside. From the looks of it, a major storm was brewing. Scott had seen the weather forecast this morning, and there was no mention of a weather advisory for this evening. He could tell that Ororo didn't come to this decision lightly, even now, she seemed to be in turmoil over it, and the weather was mirroring her mood. "It's already happened, hasn't it?"

"Yes. They all left, for their own reasons. The blame, if any, lies with me. When you left to recover from the injuries you suffered at the hands of that madman, Bastion, you couldn't have seen the state that the team was truly in. Everyone was weary, we'd barely gotten out with our lives this time, Scott. The group that remained was merely a shell... In the end, it was only Logan and I."

Ororo walks past him on her way to the door, "I'm sorry, Scott. She stands at the door, using her control over the elements to prevent the cold, winter air from entering the house. "You need time to rest and recuperate... Perhaps we all do."

With that, she summons a wind, which swiftly carries her off into the night. In parting, she says to him, "Be well, Scott Summers."

"Dammit, Ororo, I won't let you do this!" He bolts after her, out the door, but he's cut down by the blinding, hot pain that hits him as he clears the door. Scott Summers collapses in pain on his front lawn. He was the first X-Man, and now it turns out that he's the last. All he can do is scream his protest impotently at the night sky, and the falling snow.

Once again, Scott found himself at the door of the Mansion. That was yesterday, and this is today. The legal issue of Charles Xavier's estate has been settled, Scott was named executor after it was determined that Moira couldn't oversee the estate of her lifelong friend and associate. As soon as the papers were signed, this was the first place he came, the prodigal son, returning to continue the work of the man who made him who he is today. He half expects to open the door and find the professor there. Of course he realizes that it's nothing more than wishful thinking, when he opens the door, to find it as empty as the day he left it.

As he stands there in the doorway, Scott remembers the day he first came here. He remembers meeting the others. He was a shy, isolated kid who didn't feel like he belonged. He soon found first friendship, then brotherhood with the X-Men. He'd found a place where he truly felt at home, and a purpose to his life. It was here that he met, and married his one true love. In this house, his son was born. All these memories, now so much dust on the floors of an empty house.

He finds himself sitting on the floor of the foyer, as he thinks to himself "Where the hell are you, Charles? I swear to you, wherever you are, we will begin again."

END

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