The X-Men’s attack on New Attilan:
Young Cyclops is doing his part, while musing that people used to see him as boring but now, after what his older counterpart did, they look at him and see a villain. He’s been trying to fight that narrative for months. Trying to get his boring back. It was almost working too.
He is by the Inhuman Inferno who recognizes him. Scott dodges his blast, while musing that he and the X-Men are now trying to do the same thing as the older Scott - to save all mutantkind. When these people look at him and see the enemy, he has no argument.
Inferno gets ready for another shot but is taken out by adult Iceman, who tells Cyclops to find his team. Cyclops follows the advice and finds Oya, Genesis and Angel fighting an Inhuman.
Before he can join the fight, he is dragged back by a tendril of hair, courtesy of the Inhuman queen Medusa. Time travel is a complicated thing, she states when she gets a look at him. He is Cyclops. But not quite yet the monster. Here is his chance for self-defense. Tell her something good. Scott gulps but, before he can reply, he is saved when Magneto attacks Medusa and frees him. She hurls objects at Magneto with her living hair. Magneto tells Cyclops he can get up off his backside now; he’s been saved. Scott thanks him. Magneto tells him, child or not, he is Scott Summers. Go do something constructive. Scott stammers okay. He doesn’t, though. He is functionally useless for the rest of the fight.
Later, on the Muir Isle research station:
Not that they needed him, Scott thinks to himself. Now a bunch of X-Men are holed up on Muir Isle, and Scott feels that pretty much every one of them is staring at him. What’s up? he asks. When nobody replies, he announces he’ll find a hole to crawl into.
While he walks past the other X-Men, he realizes that, during their road trip, he forgot how the other X-Men who were friends with his older self look at him. Like they want to hug him or break his jaw. Like he is a painful memory made flesh… which is exactly what he is. He can’t blame them but it feels awful. Especially after what they did today. Attacking New Attilan. Following adult Scott’s lead, like he was right there with them. Pulling strings from beyond the grave.
Scott withdraws to a secluded corner and reads stories about Cyclops on his tablet. Warren joins him and states he thought he’d moved past this. So did he, Scott replies. He hasn’t wallowed in months. It was getting better. He isn’t Cyclops and doesn’t have to follow his mistakes. Most days he is okay. But today was rough. His head wasn’t in the battle. All those months trying to absolve himself of old Scott’s crimes. And now he is fighting Inhumans. It messed him up pretty bad. Fact is, he should be on a stretcher. But people kept saving him. Magneto saved his butt.
They both agree on how weird sort-of-a-good-guy Magneto is. Meanwhile, the world sees Scott Summers as a hate criminal who committed preemptive Inhuman genocide. So, what does this say about them, that they are dead set on doing the same thing? Destroy the Terrigen Mist, Inhumans be damned?
Warren doesn’t know but people are scared. Their whole race might die off in a week. Mutantkind is endangered. Scott shrugs, so what else is new. Warren protests, it is different. Scott retorts, what if it is not different, what if it is just the same? `What if they are on the wrong side of history here? Since when is self-preservation their primary goal? They are the friggin’ X-Men. They are supposed to be better than that!
That moment, Magneto walks past them and glares before he walks on. Scott asks, what if Magneto is still Magneto and all of them have switched sides? Warren has no answer.
Scott gets up and walks past the Stepford Cuckoos. They look up alarmed. Moments later, an energy being enters Scott and addresses him. He introduces himself as Mosaic. Big time baller turned Inhuman bodysnatcher. And he is borrowing Cyclops’ for a minute. He’ll give it right back. Scott tries to tackle him and falls right though him as Mosaic tells him this is not gonna work. None of this is real.
Cyclops’ mindscape:
Scott finds himself surrounded by memory images, of Xavier, enemies, the X-Men, the day he realized he was in love with Jean. He asks if that is her. Because if it is, she picked the worst moment.
In the outside world, Scott (under Mosaic’s control) is trying to fly the Blackbird. But he has no idea how to do it and Scott barely does. He tells Scott to peep some memories. He does not want to distract him, while he is trying to land the thing. Yeah sure, Scott replies bitterly, he is just going to peep the giant Magneto helmet that apparently exists in his brain.
Mosaic calls after him, saying that’s a leftover from the mean old dude he was in before. He always pulls hunks of memory with him. That guy was fierce. He is more or less the real-life bogeyman, Scott opines.
He enters the helmet and tumbles down to see horrible memories of Magneto. Being experimented on in Auschwitz. Tearing the adamantium out of Wolverine’s body. Being possessed by Xorn… and finally a memory where Magneto and Emma Frost discuss Emma’s actions after the adult Scott’s death, namely making the world believe that he destroyed the M-Cloud.
Scott realizes what this means. He didn’t – his older self didn’t do any of it! He’s been feeling the shame all the time when the real monster wasn’t him or some shameful version of him. It was a coldhearted monster with blonde hair.
He shouts at Mosaic to give him back his body. Mosaic complies but warns him it will take twelve hours for him to wake up again.
Scott thinks to himself that Emma has twelve hours. Then he will come for her.
