The night before Halloween is Devil's Night.
Most of the trees in New York have already shed their leaves, but not the Treehouse in Seneca Gardens. For this year, it is a quiet and chilly autumn at the home of the X-Men. Jack-o-lanterns surround the Krakoan gate at the Treehouse, while in the situation room, Shiro Yoshida a.k.a. Sunfire is on monitor-duty, observing the world as it turns. The heroes of Krakoa will make sure that dawn will come.
The rest of the X-Men lay nested in their blomes – but their sleep is restless. A shirtless Scott Summers a.k.a. Cyclops lays in bed with Jean Grey. He dreams of his past tragedies – falling from the plane as a child while clutching his younger brother, Alex. Of Sentinel attacks. And his son which he has given up many times now. Scott grips at his bedsheets. He fears not for himself, but for his team.
Next to him, Jean Grey also relives a few nightmares. 'No. Please' Jean whispers in her sleep. Sins of the past are living new lives again in dreams, as Jean's nightmare sees her as the Phoenix, destroying a star system, ending countless lives.
At the end of Scott and Jean's bed stands the diabolical villain known as Nightmare. He grins and his eyes glow green as he utters 'The x-Men pinball between death and destruction then die and live again, and I've never enjoyed nightmares more than the ones in their little heads. What a delight – for NIGHTMARE!'
Nightmare leaps across rooftops surrounding Central Park with glee, recalling how when he usually rides across this plane, the Sorcerer Supreme rides out to meet him. 'But unfortunately, he's as dead as a doornail!' Nightmare grins, before bursting into wicked laughter. A woman screams as she sits up in her bed while Nightmare darts past her window. 'Mmm. Guilt over a deceased spouse. Delicious' Nightmare utters.
He moves towards the X-Men's Treehouse and tells himself that it is new since he last danced through New York. 'A tree ripe with nightmares...and these two are the peaches' Nightmare decides as he returns to Scott and Jean's room and lies between them in their bed. The dreams continue – as the time-displaced Cyclops says he is sorry to the time-displaced Marvel Girl. And Cyclops tells Emma Frost he is sorry at another point in time. In more recent times, Cyclops tells Xavier and Magneto that he is sorry, and that he knows this is because he lied. 'You cost us' Xavier responds. '...everything' Magneto declares. As Krakoa burns in the nightmare, Nightmare tells himself that the mutants will learn that when you build to great heights that you have more to lose when the flames rise. The Treehouse burns, with Cyclops inside a coffin on the lawn in front of the Treehouse, “Cyclops was wrong” someone has taped to his body. Nightmare decides that Cyclops is a leader of heroes and is afraid that as the X-Men go so goes mutantdom – which must be fearsome, because most of the others fear failing Cyclops.
Cyclops stirs in his sleep, a small burst of optic energy glows behind his ruby quartz shades. Jean is restless next to him, tossing in her sleep, too. Cyclops decides that Cyclops is a bit of a bore, but that his partner is infinitely more interesting.
Wearing her original Marvel Girl costume, Jean Grey walks across the grounds of the Xavier School for the gifted. She sees Nature Girl and Quentin Quire standing nearby. When she enters the school building, she is wearing her green mini-dress costume. 'Hey, Jean' Emma Frost calls out to her. 'Hello, Emma' Jean smiles back. 'Did you make this?' Emma asks, pulling at the sleeve of Jean's green costume. 'I did...do you like it?' Jean asks, continuing to smile. 'It's not for me...or you' Emma grins back.
Nightmare leaps between branches of the Treehouse, and decides that Jean Grey is a lost little girl – a child soldier and then host to the Phoenix. 'A little genocide does keep one up at night' Nightmare remarks, before grinning as he smells another's fear. He comes to the room where Laura Kinney a.k.a. Wolverine lies asleep. He looks at her and decides that she fears the unknown. As she sleeps, Laura suddenly pops her claws. In her dreams, she stands before the Vault. She is afraid of what was left behind, locked away in the Vault. So at night, she closes her eyes and claws away at the blank spot in her mind. It would be so easy for her to fix – a telepath could just give her what she seeks from the mind of Synch. But Laura doesn't dare ask – she doesn't want to love Synch. Nightmare realizes that Laura Kinney is paralyzed, at war with herself, and missing her past so she truly is Wolverine. He watches her dream, in which she fights herself, and eventually skewers herself.
'How delicio -' Nightmare begins, before he cries out as someone grabs the back of his clothing. 'How. Dare. You. I am Nightmare. I will -' the powerful being begins, before Jean, who grabbed him, interrupts him: 'You will be quiet while I throw you out of here!' she informs him. 'UNHAND ME, WOMAN!' Nightmare shouts. 'No' Jean replies as she slaps Nightmare across his face. 'Perhaps you need a good reminder of all those souls you burned up in space' Nightmare suggests, his hands glowing green as he raises them towards Jean – but she grabs his hands and tells Nightmare that she could make matters worse for him, but that she is trying to be kind, so will give him a gift – one of hope and redemption. 'I will show you my truth...the one I spoke at the Hellfire Gala when I joined mutant minds together and advocated for himself' Jean explains.
Jean appears in her Hellfire Gala costume as she states that she was once a vessel for death, and that she knows she can never save the number of souls that the Phoenix burned – she can't completely balance that scale – but she can strive to do it, and even though she will fail, she will leave this world and the universe a better place. 'I am an Omega-level telepath and telekinetic, but my greatest weapons will be love and kindness. Make me an X-Man'.
Jean returns to her green costume as she tells Nightmare that he may be a demon, but that he is like so many other weak men – protecting his own. 'You sanctimonious wretch! In AM -' Nightmare retorts, before Jean hurls him out of the Treehouse with her telekinetic power.
At that moment, Nightmare's steed, Dreamstalker, rides across the sky and collects Nightmare. 'I AM ABOVE YOU, WITCH! MUTANT, HUMAN – YOU ARE ALL INSECTS!' Nightmare boasts, as Dreamstalker drops down onto the top of the Treehouse. Dreamstalker rises up on his hind legs, while Nightmare calls out 'I AM NIGHTMARE, AND I SHALL MURDER SLEEP FOREVER IF I CHOOSE!' Inside a nearby apartment, someone screams. 'Oh, no!' someone else calls out. 'GOD!' another utters. Nightmare clenches a fist as he looks down at the Treehouse and shouts 'Do you even hear me down there, Marvel Girl? You've made an enemy this night!'
'I hear you... even all the way up here' Jean's thoughts answer Nightmare, as a psychic projection of herself appears, towering above the Treehouse, she points down at Nightmare and informs him that he risked much by entering her mind, and that she is still clinging to her kindness for his benefit. 'But you must know...how small you are, demon'. Nightmare looks up in shock, before more psychic projections of Jean appear, surrounding Nightmare and Dreamstalker, they all wear different costumes. 'I am not weaker than you' Jean in the green Phoenix costume utters. In her Marvel Girl costume, Jean tells Nightmare he should be ashamed for taking advantage of Dr Strange's death to come creeping around, pretending that he owns the place. In another costume, Jean tells Nightmare that she needs him to understand, that she has his scent now – and if she finds him preying on them again when they should be dreaming – she will end him. 'Now get the hell out of here!' Jean exclaims as she slaps Dreamstalker on his rear. Nightmare cries out in shock as he clings to Dreamstalker, who rushses down the side of the Treehouse.
This is a tough night for many New Yorkers. They will wake up tired and anxious over the nightmares that played out in their heads. They won't ever know they had an angel watching out for them. 'Sweet dreams, everybody' Jean Grey remarks telepathically, as she flies up above the Treehouse, she adds 'Close your eyes...and let the negativity just fall away like rain'. Jean drops down to her and Scott's room, where she sees Scott sitting up in bed. 'I see I'm not the only one who was having trouble sleeping' Scott remarks. 'Scott... Sleep is for the weak' Jean replies as she wraps her arms around him.
Devils and angels are not the only ones about on this cold night. A storyteller is on the prowl just a stone’s throw from Sleepy Hollow, New York. His name is Ben Urich, and he stands with a cemetary worker. 'All my years here, I never had a grave robbed...till this one!' the cemetary worker exclaims. 'Should, uh...you...maybe, fill this in?' Ben Urich asks as he shines a torch down into the empty grave which belongs to Nathan Summers. 'I get paid per funeral. Not to fix one that's been undone' the cemetery worker replies. 'Fair enough' Ben agrees, while writing some notes in his book, he thanks the man for seeing him so late. 'I'm glad to know somebody else keeps my hours. I appreciate your time' Ben concludes.
Meanwhile, a rocket propells through space. At its current distance, light from Arakko takes nearly ten minutes to reach Earth. Most men couldn't find it in the night sky...and some of the folks that can't find the red planet in the sky don't even believe it was colonized by mutants. But for one man, taking that planet remains his goal. The rocket sheds unnecessary parts as it becomes a smaller space station. Mankind's previous record traveling to the planet (when it was called Mars) was 39 days...but the man called Feilong is cutting that time in half. 'It's time' Feilong remarks. 'Understood. I'm readying the observatory. Did you have a lens in mind?' a voice responds. Feilong floats through the space station as he replies 'Let's not ease into it' and states that he would rather overextend and need to recuperate than arrive at the party empty-handed. 'Wht don't we begin with some ruby quartz' he suggests as he floats into a large optn chamber. Some ruby quartz is placed into a device, and energy pours into it – which then Feilong bathes in as the red glow smothers him. 'Cosmic ray harnessing and focus test one. Lens is ruby quarta. Set exposure for ten minutes' Feilong commands. He then declares that the mutants may have changed the equation, but that he vowed his body would be prepared for Mars – and so it shall be!
