David and Blindfold are sat at a table in a diner, each with a milkshake. Blindfold, wearing sunglasses to hide her blindfold, smiles and lists off mysterious midnight meeting, movies and milkshakes. She asks David if he has any other M’s in store and he tells her he does. He needs her advice and a bit of understanding. He says she knows what it’s like in his brain. It’s all down to self-belief, focus, purpose and having a goal. The truth is he has been having additional difficulties. Blindfold asks if he is referring to the gold-skinned %*#$ who ripped out her astral throat and left her in a coma. David uneasily confirms her guess. He goes on to explain he has the whole place terrified, the beasts as well as him. Inside his mind, David has been sneaking around and taking risks to amp up his self-belief. He has been slyly capturing other personalities and drawing upon their power. As he talks to Ruth, he takes control of the Origamist, as well as another personality.
David tells Ruth that the ones thing that can make him focus like no other goal is her. With that, they kiss. As they embrace, the world around them changes and when they part Blindfold looks around and swears in surprise. She tells him she knows what the other M is now. They are sat on the dusty ground with a force-field around them. Blindfold looks up, laughs and tells David it’s beautiful. She tells David to promise her he won’t forget about the oxygen, or go and build a floating clock tower or turn blue and get naked. David tells her he has no idea what she is talking about and she apologizes, as she is overwhelmed. It’s just part of a comic she read once, interplanetary teleportation and all. It’s about a guy with so much power he forgets how to be human. Blindfold looks down at the floor and draws a smiley face in the dust. They are sat on the moon looking at the Earth in the distance. A little way off in a crater are some alien-looking structures.
Blindfold looks across and asks David who the buildings belong to. He helps her to her feet and tells her they are why they are there. He then asks her if she trusts him and she warily tells him she does. He tells her not to freak out and to just listen. Her reaches across and places one hand on the side of her head. The world around her starts to blurs into various colors as David explains that, once upon a time, there lived a creepy old bugger in a house on the Moon. A thing from another world… a creature of smoke and power. In better days, he styled himself on the heroes of Earth and to this day he walks among us from time to time. He changes his face because he can do that and he tries not to talk too much as he likes silence and knowledge. So these days, his jaunts are mostly about stocking up.
As David explains, Blindfold is shown an image of an old man, with wisps of smoke coming off him. The old man walks into a library and takes a stack of books to the counter. The man behind the counter asks him if he wants a bag but he declines and walks away, saying that one must think about the environment.
The old man goes back to the Moon and changes his visage to his regular one. He now has pale white skin, pointy ears and a bald head. He is wearing a black bodysuit with a red cape. As he lands on one of the buildings in the crater David tells Blindfold his name is Aarkus. He is very old and he has been alone way to long and he has possibly gone insane. He lacks a filter; he has no investment in this world. No friends and no way of testing these borrowed nuggets of wisdom. So whatever biased bollocks he learns he takes it seriously.
David shows Aarkus reading all the books he borrowed from the library. One is titled “The Toxic Gene” produced by the I.B.S.S. Aarkus reads it and then starts quoting the anti-mutant sentiments from it.
David continues and says like so many of the superdudes who wouldn’t know normal of it bit them on the ass, he considers it his duty to protect it. So the very minute Aarkus finished reading that book, he started arming up. Horrorguns, smokemines, vaporspores and a hundred other shadow weapons we couldn’t even imagine. And when he is ready, Aarkus the Aatheric sets forth to save Earth. Cue the mutant murders.
David shows Blindfold images of Aarkus gathering his army and then launching attacks on Cyclops’ X-Men, Santi Sardina and other mutants.
Blindfold is shocked by what she has just been shown. She wonders how David can be so calm and she asks him where Aarkus is now. David tells her he is in the buildings not far away, planning his next attack. As they race towards them, David asks Blindfold what she thinks they should do. She says that they can’t fight him themselves, as David cannot use his powers freely and she is…. just her. David reminds her that she said she trusted him and he asks her to trust him on this. He tells her she is stronger than she thinks and he wouldn’t be telling her all this if she weren’t. She looks at him and says they need to call the X-Men.
David stops and looks down at the floor. He mutters “the X-Men” and Blindfold puts her hand on his arm. She says that she knows he doesn’t believe in them and disagrees with their methods. David tells her it isn’t that. He apologizes and says they have been out all night and she has been away from the mansion for hours. He tells her the story isn’t finished yet and touches her head, creating more psychic images. He says that Aarkus makes his first strike and slinks back to the Moon to celebrate but he has company within the hour. The visions show Wolverine and a squad of X-Men dressed in space suits. They arrive at Aarkus’ base and begin attacking his formidable defenses.
David explains that the retaliation for the unprovoked attack is epic, brutal and a glorious direct assault on the enemy’s bastion of power. It’s also completely %*&#* stupid. Blindfold says she doesn’t understand and asks what he isn’t telling her. He tells her they are reactive, crude and a blunt instrument designed to knackerpunch enemies who have already dropped the bomb. It’s too little too late. But they go in all headstrong and holier-than-thou at full-team strength. They don’t know what they are up against but they have right on their side and courage and leadership. But Aarkus takes them apart like they are made of straw. He looks away and says he saw it all. Blindfold asks him to show her and so he does. He shows her visions of the X-Men being attacked and overwhelmed by Aarkus’ shadow abilities until they are all dead.
Blindfold is horrified and collapses on the floor in shock. David kneels down and tells her it’s fine and that it’s just a story, as it didn’t happen yet. But it will. The entity, the yellow-skinned &*%# in his head that attacked her in the psychosphere. It saved him, controlled him and he fought it off in a way he never could. But in that instant, he tasted the future.
Blindfold is a little stunned that the story is all from something that fiend put in his head. She tells David he tricked her and says he made her think her friends were dead. David tells her they will be and that he had to show her and make her think it was real. He says that right now Aarkus is planning that awful stuff and they really will happen. David says “unless….” But Blindfold swats away his hand when he goes to touch her. She tells him she doesn’t want to see any more. David begs her and says it’s important. He touches her head again and shows her more visions.
It’s a different version of the same story and this is one they write themselves. The way it’s starts is with David and Blindfold sat in a diner drinking some milkshakes. In the vision, David explains to Blindfold that it’s all down to self-belief. Having a focus or purpose. In the real world, Blindfold mutters that the one thing that gives David purpose is…
David finishes her sentence and she that with her beside him in his thoughts he can do anything. Aarkus hasn’t struck yet so he expects no retaliation. He has his books and plans and he sleeps un-guarded. David wouldn’t have to hurt him; he could just switch off Aarkus’ mind and send him back to the mansion with Blindfold. He could make it so he doesn’t ever wake up. Blindfold is outraged by this and shouts for David to stop. David says he didn’t want to frighten her and he hates that he has ruined their first date. Blindfold tells him to %*#& the date.
David says he won’t be his father; he won’t serve the dream by reacting to the bastards that attack it. He will not wait for evil. Blindfold tells him he cannot punish someone for something they have not done yet. David yells at her and says that’s what her brother did to both of them. Taking a wee peek up time’s skirt and acting now on the maybes of tomorrow. Blindfold tells him he wanted her advice and her understanding. He says yes but she replies no. She says he wanted her permission. He wanted the mental strength he would get from her saying do it. And she won’t. David looks away as a tear rolls down his face. He says it’s not her permission he needs, only her approval. It turns out hoping for it was enough, as he did it five hours ago.
By now, the two have walked up to Aarkus’ base in the crater. David reaches his hand upwards and an unconscious Aarkus floats down to them. Blindfold is speechless for a few seconds and then simply tells David to send her home. David pleads with her and says this is how his war has to be and asks her to help him fight it. Blindfold slowly and sternly repeats herself and tells him to send her home.
David floats Aarkus into the air bubble around them. He tells Blindfold to watch Aarkus, re-educate him and revive him. Tell them to change his future. He begins to teleport, Blindfold and Aarkus to the gates of the Jean Grey School. As he does so, he tells Blindfold he thinks he loves her but he is partially cut off, as they teleport away. Outside the school gates, Blindfold kneels down on the floor and puts her face in her hands.
David sits in his bubble on the Moon looking out to Earth. He asks himself if he has any more M’s in store. He reaches into his backpack and pulls out a book. He says to himself M is for madness, M is for mutantkind and M is for monster. He opens the book, which is Luca Aldine’s diary, and he starts reading it.
