A Quiet Council session:
Sitting in a tree, Doug Ramsey aka Cypher watches. Hhe and Krakoa are the quietest part of the Quiet Council. And, while the arguments are raging, he notices something: the leaves are turning brown and falling. He asks Krakoa and the island answers, giving complicate reasons, summed up in a word with two meanings in the English language. “Fall.”
He turns his attention to the council’s session about the fallout of revealing the events of the Sinister timeline. Thanks to Colossus, the outside world now knows what happened. The cynics were proved right; the mutants did plan a conspiracy. Emma went to the UN on a personal mission. It didn’t go great. Xavier announces that they all saw the footage. Is there any personal note Emma wants to add? Emma silently recalls that day.
Flashback:
The protesting crowds outside the UN budling.
Annoyed, she telepathically ordered them to stop, until a frightened woman politely reminded her the Phoenix Foundation brought her daughter back. Is their little girl safe? Emma seriously replies that she thinks she is. She thinks she is?! the woman asks dumbfounded.
Present:
Nothing to add, she replies. It’s not good. Shaw agrees. Orders have gone through the floor. Humans don’t trust their products anymore. Exodus scoffs at the idea of humans refusing an extended lifespan of five years. Let them rush to their graves then… There are many who will inherit the Earth, but the stupid are not among their number!
Annoyed, Emma clarifies that the problem is Krakoa is not a self-sustaining nation. They sell goods and buy what they need. If their goods are not being bought, they cannot afford their little paradise. They perhaps have months! She lashes out at Shaw. As a businessman, he should have seen this coming before teaming up with the metal buffoon. And Colossus – ethics! Save them from ethics! Nastily, she adds that, if Kurt hadn’t gone to have a little cry, he probably would have voted for that too!
Xavier sternly orders her to stop and reminds her of the trauma Kurt suffered. His form was warped monstrously, painfully. He was used as a tool by Orchis to murder. He has had the very concept of hope torn from him! During Judgment Day, he resurrected himself twenty times, choosing to remember each death! They are complicit in Kurt’s pain. That he felt the need to leave is on them. They have been poor custodians of each other. They neglected their duty of care!
Emma sighs. That Xavier can be like this makes her understand how he breaks the hearts of people who actually love him, is Emma’s backhanded compliment-slash-insult. She’s not sure which of them is worse: she who pretends not to care or he who so obviously cares, then does everything that he does.
Why are people without votes hogging the floor? comes Selene’s bored question. Emma snarks that she wishes Hope had acted earlier, so Emma could have kicked down the door, pulled out Selene’s heart and not put up with her on the council.
Xavier pontificates that they kept to the rules. That matters. It shows who they are. Emma snarks back, does he think showing he is a good boy, proves Sinister is not in him? Maybe him stopping her was what Sinister wanted, so they could have little miss Mall Goth on the Council!
Destiny interrupts, proclaiming that Selene should be gone. She has broken their laws!
Cypher considers that nobody trusts Destiny anymore when she speaks. But when she speaks, she must believe it will have some effect.
“She’s working with Orchis, she’s working with Orchis!” Selene imitates Destiny mockingly and suggests she get a new tune. Her credibility is gone! Maybe she is a prophet too. Secondary mutation. She sees the future, and Destiny has none! she addresses Irene. Destiny calmly replies that one does not need her power to know Selene is a traitor. One only needs memory. She reminds everyone that Selene attacked Krakoa. She broke a sacred rule! They sent one council member to the Pit. They should send another.
Storm thinks this is the wrong time. They will tear themselves apart if they only play power games. They need to find a way to repair the council before they can do anything else.
Frustrated, Exodus orders to get Sinister out of the Pit, and he will tear the truth out of him. They can see whether he still has his claws in them or not. Kate sensibly points out that, if they let Sinister out, he might take over the potentially compromised members at once.
Destiny repeats: throw Selene into the Pit or off the Council. Having her vote removed would do.
Doug figures she is pressing this point, even though everybody wants to move on. There is a subtext.
Is she threatening her? Selene demands. Does she want her to have another magical tantrum? She can do it. Playing with her gun, Hope calmly asks if Selene wants her to shoot her in the head again. She can do it. She’s such a flirt! Selene laughs.
Desitny insists that Selene came back from the dead. If she had returned via the Five’s resurrection, she would have no vote either.
Doug understands. Selene doesn’t, as she remarks, bored, she came back via magical means. Sinister doesn’t have his claws dug into her. And Exodus gets it too. He suddenly attacks her with eyeblasts, then telekinesis. If she dies and the Five resurrect her, she too will lose her vote.
Selene animates the surroundings to attack Exodus and shouts there is no magical metal to help him here. He creates a protective forcefield and replies she doesn’t understand his powers. She cannot destroy the true mutant divine. He plans on separating all her molecules and scatter them to the corners of existence. Selene is helpless. Storm isn’t, as she attacks Exodus.
Doug notices Krakoa tense, but figures they would protect him if things got really bad.
In the darkening sky, Exodus accuses Storm of fighting for a monster, while he fights for Krakoa. Storm tells him he is not wrong, but she also fights for Krakoa and warns if they truly unleashed their power, they would kill everyone on this island. Would someone who truly fights for Krakoa do that?
Exodus cries out in frustration and teleports to the ground, where Xavier immediately chastises him that that was unacceptable.
Still on his knees, Exodus agrees, but what can they do about it? Sabretooth they could put in the Pit. Sinister. Maybe Selene. But him or Storm? If they choose not to be governed, they cannot be governed. That they allow themselves to be, is the pretense that allows their utopia. Chastened, he admits that he laughed at the Arakkii and their battles, but they know the simple truth – there is only power, and those whose power means they cannot be controlled and choose not to be controlled must lead - or the state cannot hold. That’s why they need the common purpose. Something for them all to believe in, so they choose to be together.
Angrily, he turns to Storm and shouts there is no common purpose! He tried to make one, but it’s a lie! He fights for Krakoa, but there is no Krakoa! They compromise with the devil! he shouts in horror. They invited all the snakes into the Garden of Eden and expected it to remain the Garden of Eden. What were they thinking? he cries in despair.
Hope sees his pain. Despite her anger at him, she supports him, walking away and gruffly orders him to walk it off.
Cypher silently figures that there is the Krakoa he fought for, that he doesn’t believe exists. Doug knows what he has to do or what they have to do.
He joins Professor X standing at a cliff. Xavier instantly makes excuses of having a lot of work to do before the council reconvenes. He hopes it is not too late to salvage this. Does he have a message from Krakoa or…
He does, Doug replies, but not in that way. He has a message from Krakoa. As in, it’s from everyone on the island! He tells Xavier, he is so tarnished he can’t save them. If he tries, he is going to drag them all down with him. Has he lost even him? Xavier sighs. Doug asks him to read his mind. He has prepared a message.
In the message, Doug points out that the leaves have been falling and the reason is they’ve been bad. He himself has been bad by trying to be good, when he saved Moira from Destiny and Mystique. Also, he hasn’t been running the Pit the way the Council wanted him to. Xavier, Emma, Exodus and Hope were the only ones who actually got the “trapped feeling nothing” thing. Everyone else got a psychic place to be. Sabretooth used that to escape, and everyone with him, which is why the place is empty bar Sinister and the Struckers.
Doug apologizes for the betrayal but insists the form of punishment was wrong. When Sabretooth got out, everyone realized what the Council had done, not the big important mutants. Those like him. The ones that don’t go into a battle and are likely to die. They are a persecuted people. They know what bad government looks like, and the Pit is it. With the Sinister timeline and Beast totally going out of control and everything else – people don’t believe in Krakoa! And the island feeds off them and it makes the island sick. They are a sick country and the council has made them so.
Doug watches Xavier critically, knowing he won’t take this well.
Xavier takes off the Cerebro helmet and looks away. He didn’t want this, he admits. It had to be a compromise. Moira’s experience showed purity failed, so he bent in so many ways… Mutant separatism? Even mutant essentialism? He despises the concept! His work has always been that mutants are humans. Their oppressors call them not human… for him to agree was loathsome. He is alone in that. Moira, Apocalypse, Eri… He corrects himself: Max, most of all. He was always the idealist. Not Xavier. He went along for tactics. Exodus was right. If they are bound together, they could survive. It is a lie, but a useful lie. He loves that more than he loves his dream. And now Max died on him, Moira betrayed him, Apocalypse left and Xavier is the one trying to hold their lie together. It’s up to him, he decides.
But he can’t do it, Doug replies. He has to let go. Can he let go? he challenges Xavier, because if he doesn’t, it’s all over. He’s quiet for a long time and then he speaks, and there is a plan.
When the Council meets again, Xavier has a proclamation: They have failed. This council’s authority is bankrupt. Unsurprised, Kate Pryde continues, they will announce the end of the council at this year’s gala. Get rid of the old management and hope the new one will be better, Emma adds.
Shaw was not in the know and shouts “what?” Equally surprised, Exodus remarks that many seem to know of this and he didn’t. Judging by Mystique and Selene’s faces, neither did they.
Hope explains they knew they’d object and they didn’t have the time to debate or give someone the chance to scheme or do something stupid. They are done. And to drive things home, she reveals she has talked to the rest of the Five. They are on strike until the Council agrees to a regime change.
Shaw blusters, they should have stopped resurrections anyway. At least until they can be sure, Hope isn’t corru… They can never be &%/# sure! Hope interrupts, That’s the problem!
Destiny weakly protests this is a mistake. Selene chuckles she probably wants to say Orchis wants this. Pretending to think about it, she decides she is in, as long as this is the end of all this nasty talk about her having to suffer consequences for her actions. She thinks the idea has merit.
What are they suggesting instead? Exodus asks. Democracy? A very human idea. Maybe, Emma retorts, but at least their democracy is telepathic. They won’t have to queue in the rain. Not being rained upon is not the revolutionary utopia he was fighting for, Exodus replies sadly.
Cypher finally speaks admitting this is not perfect, but it is not nothing. There is an evolution. Maybe what they buy today is a chance to evolve? He addresses Exodus directly. He knows, they keep talking about “human thinking,” but beveling you can build a utopia from scratch and it all goes perfectly? That’s the most “human thinking” thing of all! History is full of fallen utopias put together by those who thought themselves entirely unprecedented people. Exodus was right. They are not a people; they never had the chance to be a people! They are just people, singular, and they are alone! They have to find a way to be otherwise and that takes time. They don’t have time. They do this, they buy Krakoa space. Maybe they can be a people. Maybe they can be the utopia Exodus always wanted. He moves to dissolve this council. Any objections? Only Destiny raises her hand.
Cypher thanks them. He smiles and breathes, relieved for the first time in a year.
Krakoa says something and, over his protest, Krakoa’s vines begin to drag Doug down into the it. Emma demands what it is doing but, without the interface or Doug, they cannot speak to the island directly. Copying Cypher’s power, Hope asks the island what is going on “I must protect him,” she translates. She asks from what, but then loses the gift, as Doug has been moved too far away. Presumably somewhere safe. She swears.
Mystique asks Destiny what she sees now. She sees nothing, Destiny replies, a blinding white nothing! They’ve made a mistake. Oh Irene, Emma sighs. Just the one?
