This issue reprints X-Men (1st Series) #130.
Second story :
It’s an ugly stormy day and Moira MacTaggert stands at the graves of her estranged husband, Joe, and her son, Kevin, her bleak mood matching the weather. At a respectful distance, Moira’s lover, Sean Cassidy, is waiting for her, not knowing the right things to say. Moira knows that he wants to help, that he would like to mend her broken heart, but she won’t let him. She has lost her child and her husband. How could he ever understand the depth of her grief? She heads back to the car, curtly telling Sean to drive.
Back at Muir Isle, Moira buries herself in her work. Sean makes some tea and asks her to give herself a break. She doesn’t react. If she has so much work, he asks, why did she take the time to go to the cemetery? Because she wanted to grieve alone, she snaps. Why, does he think, did she send Alex, Lorna and Jamie to the mainland? So he’s supposed to leave her alone, he asks. She neither answers nor looks at him. Telling her “fine,” he leaves. Moira wants to ask him to come back, to apologize, but she doesn’t. Instead, she peruses an article on cloning.
Sean, in the meantime, heads for the gym, blowing off some steam in training. He wishes he hadn’t reacted so rashly. He worries about Moira cutting herself off from everybody. Being in love should mean facing problems together, right? The way he did, when he lost his powers? he wonders. Moira never talked to him about it, but he knows, she’s mad at him. She believed he was dead for weeks. He should have called her, but he was afraid. He felt he wasn’t a whole man without his sonic powers. His training finished, he vows that he won’t let Moira make the same mistakes. He heads back up to the den, stating that they have to talk but Moira is no longer at her place.
Moira is in one of her labs, calling up info on her son, Kevin aka Proteus. Kevin’s corpse lies in an airtight sealed chamber. She remembers s how her son was conceived in an act of hatred and violence. His life was hell, but it doesn’t have to be that way a second time.
Sean heads for her lab, but finds that his entry code is denied. He asks Moira not to play games over the intercom, but she doesn’t react and focuses on her work instead.
Frustrated, Sean heads up to the bedroom, where he finds a photo album on the floor. He looks at the pictures of Moira’s life, things he didn’t know. Her wedding to Joe MacTaggert, her time with Xavier, the day she received the Nobel Prize, memories. But they are more for Moira, aren’t they, he thinks. She wants Kevin will to from memories to life like a phoenix from the ashes. This can’t work.
In her lab, Moira carefully takes a cell sample from Kevin’s body. According to the spectograph readings, there is a chance for her plan to work.
Outside, Sean is fumbling with the electronics. You don’t have to be a Nobel prize winner to short-circuit them, he figures correctly as access is finally granted. Inside, Moira stands over a nutrient bath with her cell sample. She need only lower it, but hesitates. Sean calls out to her, asking why she’s doing this. It’s a second chance, she defends her decision. For Kevin or for her, he asks and begs her to reconsider.
But she won’t do it, she tells him. Is the clone going to revive itself, he asks. No, Moira explains that Kevin himself will do it, The power to alter reality is in his genes. His body and mind are dead, but his energy can recreate him. She steps down, urging Sean to imagine what could be. He’d be an innocent babe born without hatred and violence this time. Sean tells her that there is no perfection. She just wants a proper life for her son, she tells him, no more loneliness for him. She wants to make amends. Moira stumbles. Sean catches her, but the container with the cell sample falls and crashes.
Sean hugs her, telling her she made no mistakes. It was impossible to help her son, but her research helped hundreds of other mutants. That’s quite a legacy her son left the world. It’s not fair, she complains, looking at Kevin’s corpse. He reminds her of those she helped and is going to help in the future and suggests that he was wondering why his powers haven’t returned yet. Irish Whiskey should have helped. With a smile, she tells him that the doctor will take a look. As they embrace, he tells her he’d be the happiest patient in the world. Now they can build the future without clinging to the mistakes of the past. Life begins tomorrow. Moira looks back and presses a button. Air rushes into Kevin’s containment chamber and the corpse begins to dissolve. She wishes him to rest in peace and turns back to Sean, asking, “why not tonight?”
