BIOGRAPHY - Page 9
Emma continued to find her place among the X-Men. She personally helped Colossus seek out an old enemy, and helped Piotr work through his feelings over Kitty's disappearance and possible death. Piotr had found a group of Russian women being trafficked through the Bay area, and so Emma also took up the role of teacher again, helping these women acclimate to life in America in a classroom setting. The distance between her and Scott continued to grow, however, as the unspoken secrets drove them further apart. Scott's ex-wife the Red Queen attacked the X-Men 
with her Sisterhood, and Emma was psychically disabled by their combination of magic and telepathic powers. At least, until a vision of Jean Grey appeared in Emma's mind, freeing her from their influence and warning her to prepare for what's coming. The Sisterhood was defeated, but Emma could hardly feel secure about how she did it, having more questions than answers. [Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #508-511]
It was Hank McCoy of all people who broke the ice between Scott and Emma. Beast had been making his own notes about the compartmentalizing and the secret comings and goings. He strongly suggested they work out their baggage before everyone started to suffer. Emma's guilt about working with Osborn and manipulating Namor's trust had been weighing on her. She rejected Scott's attempt to open the doors between them and, the next morning, prepared to leave the X-Men and kill Norman Osborn before he did any further harm to the world. She couldn't go through with it, however, and Scott stopped Emma before she left. Scott brought Emma inside his 
mind and opened his black box to her. Rather than being filled with cherished memories of Jean, as Emma feared, it detailed the X-Force hit squad and black ops missions Cyclops had sanctioned for the good of mutantkind. She accepted what Scott had been doing, and he in turn recognized her reasons for working with Osborn. Promising no more secrets between them, they prepared to protect the future of the X-Men together. [Dark X-Men: The Confession #1]
The time came sooner than later. Simon Trask revealed the secret behind the Cooperstown massacre was a new mutant birth, and led Humanity Now! in a grass roots political movement to promote Proposition X, legislating the reproductive rights of mutants to prevent any further mutant births. 
Peaceful marches and counter demonstrations in San Francisco led to riots, with several X-Men at the center. Threats of martial law brought Norman Osborn and H.A.M.M.E.R. to the Bay area. Norman met with Emma privately and told her she had failed her mandate to keep mutant problems contained, so now things would be done his way.
Osborn's Dark Avengers began enforcing curfew on the streets and squabbling with the X-Men, while Norman declared Cyclops a "person of interest" in the riots. He used Mystique, disguised as Charles Xavier, to publicly reject Scott's leadership of the mutant people, setting the stage for his 
own Dark X-Men, led by Emma as a PR move. Emma went along with Norman's plans due to their alliance, re-branding herself as the Black Queen. Norman's Dark X-Men came pre-assembled, so Emma reached out to Namor to join the team as her closest ally in the field. While Norman presented Scott as a failure at best, and a terrorist at worst, Emma's X-Men were marketed as acceptable local heroes, under H.A.M.M.E.R.'s control.
Going along with Norman's plotting allowed Emma and her X-Men to defeat Simon Trask, who was revealed as a Biosentinel co-opting people against their will. However, it also meant her team captured and detained other mutants who opposed martial law, for the X-Men were essentially 
under house arrest in order to avoid any skirmishes with the heavy-handed H.A.M.M.E.R. and Dark Avengers units. Some mutants nevertheless took to the streets against Cyclops' orders, including a small group of violent demonstrators led by Julian Keller. Scott and Emma kept their plan close to the vest, leaving the team in the dark about their coordinated efforts. The majority of the X-Men were therefore confused about Emma's true motivations, and believed she had sided with Osborn against them.
Emma's work with the Dark X-Men at Alcatraz allowed her to discover the Omega Machine, where Dark Beast was draining mutant prisoners of their energies to keep them weak. The real Beast and Charles Xavier were rescued thanks to X-Force, just as Cyclops and the X-Men's science 
team raised Asteroid M as a new island sanctuary for mutants, called Utopia. Mutants were leaving the continental United States (and Osborn's jurisdiction) as the culmination of their peaceful protesting. At this point, Emma and Namor revealed their true allegiance, bringing several Dark X-Men with them as they reunited with Scott in opposition to Norman. The remaining Dark Avengers and Dark X-Men attacked Utopia as Norman was furious at being betrayed, but Cyclops' counter-measures and media friendly profile forced Norman to retreat without getting his pound of flesh. [Utopia crossover]
The whole endeavor wasn't cost-free, however. Emma defeated the Sentry, the uber-powerful Dark Avenger caught between his identities as the Golden Guardian of Good and the Void, a malevolent persona of pure darkness. Emma had telepathically counseled Sentry in the past and gotten through his defenses, but in doing so she absorbed a fragment of the Void. Emma was initially forced to remain in her emotionless diamond state, trapping the Void fragment so it could not corrupt her mind or her telepathic powers. Guided by Professor Xavier and Psylocke, Cyclops entered Emma's mind to confront the Void. It was a tough fight at first, and the Void soon jumped into Scott's mind, but Cyclops and Emma fought back and the sliver of Void was eventually contained in Scott's psychic black box, freeing Emma. [Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #515-519]
Living on a barren hunk of rock in the middle of the ocean was a stark metaphor to the sinking ship of the mutant race. Emma struggled to occupy herself while adjusting to their new, less-than-posh accommodations. It was decided that the X-Brig of prisoners such as Sebastian Shaw and her ex-student Empath would remain hidden beneath Greymalkin Industries on the mainland. Emma arranged for their new ally Danger to serve as warden for these unruly mutants. [Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #515] The Phoenix Force had also mysteriously evacuated the Stepford Cuckoos, thawing their diamond hearts and letting the girls feel emotions for the first time in months. Just as bored as Emma under the circumstances, the Cuckoos started acting out with telepathic pranks on their fellows. Emma redirected their energies to more productive work, such as teaching the younger students. This helped Emma herself feel productive, and was a small step towards reconciliation with her biological daughters. [Nation X #4] Some good news also came, following the recruitment of Magneto and him swearing loyalty to Scott's vision for mutantkind. To prove himself, Magneto reached out into space and retrieved the bullet containing Kitty Pryde, bringing her back to Earth. [Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #521-522]
Emma Frost's brief tenure as the Black Queen had larger consequences than she expected. Selene had gained great power through one of her servants, using the techno-organic virus to resurrect dead mutants under her thrall. Selene took it as a personal insult that Emma had adopted her colors and vowed to punish her for her transgression. A small army of undead 
mutants assaulted Utopia to eliminate key targets who had wronged their queen. The White Queen was forced to confront Banshee, fallen members of Generation X and her own Hellions, who now served Selene and blamed Emma for their deaths. X-Force defeated Selene and her zombies were mostly disabled, but Emma was forced to once again confront her own failures as a teacher in the past. [Necrosha crossover]