Japan, the village of Shirakawa-Go:
Wolverine walks past a Buddha statue. He would have been here. If he’d known he existed, he tells himself, he would have fought the devil himself to find him. To bring him home. To raise him. It’ll be the eternal curse of his life that he never knew. Who he could have been- who he wishes he was… and the difference it would have made to the life of one innocent boy.
Otherworld, the Starlight Citadel:
Psylocke enters her father’s former study, noting that it still smells like him. The smell paints a vivid image of his striking smile. His humble genius. His faith that she’d eventually turn her sodding life around. It’s a good smell. Smells like home.
Her brother, Brian aka Captain Britain, addresses her, noting she’s managed to keep him shut out of their psychic connection. Dare he ask--? It’s not like that, she replies. She quit X-Force. They all did. Disbanded. Which should make him happy.
If she’s come for a fight… he begins. She came to tell him he was right, she interrupts. What Fantomex did was a terrible crime! Brian and Jamie were right to put him on trial. Opal was right to convict him. She can only imagine how it must have looked from his perspective. How grotesque it must have seemed… her feelings for Fantomex…
Mollified, he explains he’s discovered things in their father’s old journals. Fantomex was a dangerous anomaly and their world is safer with him gone. But the man who shot that child and the man she fell in love with were not the same person. Fantomex was created with three different brains. One of which was a mutant-hunting Sentinel. He can only imagine the demons he was dealing with, the different directions he was pulled in. The fact that Fantomex was able to fight the conflicting voices in his head at all is a testament to his character.
So… he forgives her? she asks. He loves her! Brian assures her. Nothing will ever stand between them again. As he kisses her forehead, she smiles and tells him he may regret that when he hears the favour she is about to ask… Can she store the Shadow King and some Apocalypse armor here?
Evening at the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning. Evan is in his room when Deadpool sneaks in through the window and asks what he is reading. Does he think sneaking up on an Apocalypse is a good idea? Evan asks. Mindful meditation is the book’s title. Logan gave him this? Wade asks. He says it helped him, Evan explains.
Wade tells him never to refer to himself as an Apocalypse. For one, even if he were, it’s third person and sounds super arrogant. No one likes that. And most important: He’s not him. After all they went through together, he knows!
He is Apocalypse, Evan replies. He has that same capability of evil inside him. He almost killed Mystique… if Nightcrawler hadn’t shown up… They all have the capability to be crappy people with bad tempers, Wade points out. Difference is, Evan didn’t quit fighting. He never stopped trying to be the man his Uncle Cluster taught him to be!
Even though it was all a lie, the boy replies. His entire life. None of them remember their childhood much anyway, Wade replies. What they learn is built into their fiber. Virtual reality or reality reality, Fantomex raised him right. He’ll never have a son but, if he did and he came out half as awesome as Evan… what he’s trying t say… he’ll always be there when he needs him. Evan hugs him. He already was. At his lowest point, Wade was the hero who showed up to save him.
Embarrassed, Wade admits that that’s the first time anyone’s ever called him that. He should go before he spoils the mood with a fart joke. As he climbs out of the window, Evan remarks that he still has his book. Meditation is for hippies, Wade replies. Or psychopaths trying to be hippies. It ain’t for hm. He left him something he’ll get more use out of. Evan looks at his night stand to find some skin mags.
Betsy Braddock enters her Manhattan apartment to find Logan and EVA waiting for her. They left one complication unresolved, Logan informs her. She doesn’t suppose she can opt out? she asks.
She can’t, and soon EVA transports them to their destination. Betsy asks Logan, when they were in the future old Logan whispered something to him before they left… Logan remembers. Old Logan told him he couldn’t kill the boy. He let Daken live. He’ll kill his students if he lets him live. Does he understand what he’s telling him? Logan turns way, not replying. They arrive at the White Sky Facility.
Deadpool is already waiting. He started the mimicking sequence without them. EVA calls him a fool. She hadn’t finished the adjustments! Well, he did… or he hit some buttons. Whatever, it’s working.
Noise and mist come from the chamber as it opens… and Fantomex steps out. “You have got to be kidding,” he announces.
His teammates look at him in disbelief, then Betsy runs to him and hugs him. He was certain he died, he mumbles. Jean-Phillipe! she utters his name. No, that would be him, another Fantomex (dressed in black) remarks who has also exited from the chamber and is pointing a gun at them. Behind him stands a third female Fantomex with a long brown ponytail.
Elizabeth, so beautiful, “Jean-Philippe” muses. Logan tells him to ease down. They aren’t here to hurt him. How could they? he asks. He was already gone. And he is.
”Anything ever simple with you, Lepew?” Wolverine asks Fantomex who reminds him that they resurrected him. Three different Fantomexes? Deadpool exclaims. He just got his head around liking one. Sort of. What are they doing about Fantomsexy here?
Fantomex asks EVA to explain. She deposited his body in the cloning hatch. All three brains were intact .The consciousness mimickers clearly misunderstood and cloned a new body for each brain.
The female Fantomex reminds them that one of their brains isn’t very nice. But she’s nice? Deadpool asks. The nicest, she replies. Is he hitting on them? Fantomex asks. He might have missed him, Deadpool admits and shakes his hand. He might have missed him as well, Fantomex admits. But he was dead and couldn’t. But he might have. If he could.
What has he missed? Fantomex asks. What dastardly plot are they caught up in? Where are they off to? They look at him silently and he realizes X-Force is done. They never should have started, Bets remarks as she touches his shoulder. Okay, well, he takes her hand. They walk ahead, followed by female Fantomex and EVA. Better left unsaid, he decides.
EVA flies them into the French Alps and lands at a certain penthouse.
Where are they? Betsy asks. His home, is the reply. There’s someone he wants her to meet. His Mother awaits them with a tray of food. He pecks her on the cheeks as she states she’s been having nightmares. Not anymore, Fantomex tells her. Who’s this? she asks. Female Fantomex introduces herself as Cluster. She knows her own daughter, Mother replies. The other one. Betsy shakes her hand and introduces herself. She’s never met any of his girlfriends, Mother muses. He must like her.
Cluster and Mother head inside. Betsy and Fantomex stay outside in the snow. Is this real? she asks. Maybe, he shrugs. Is anything? What does he know? Maybe the Shadow King cooked her noodle and this is all in her head. Well if it is, then just this once she’d like to imagine a happy ending, Betsy decides and kisses him.
