"The good news is, the future has been reset."
"The bad news is, we'll have to create the future ourselves."
Fang Yuan said after releasing the souls of Professor X and Magneto.
"Creating our own future is never bad news." Professor X gazed at the same icy landscape and sighed.
Unlike before their jump, this place still had snow, but also the signs of life Professor X hadn't seen in ages.
"Canada—I remember doing some underground fighting here."
Wolverine walked over, bottle in his left hand, cigar in his right.
He offered Fang Yuan a bottle of hard liquor; in this frozen wasteland it was priceless.
Seeing Professor X and Magneto glance over, Logan shrugged. "What're you looking at? You can't drink anyway."
Fang Yuan had aimed for Logan's location, so merging Logan's soul back into his body was quick; next up were Professor X and Magneto.
Professor X was easy—Fang Yuan went straight to Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, and Old Charles slipped right in.
Maybe because it was the same timeline, there was no possession struggle as Fang Yuan expected; the souls simply overlapped and fused.
Before Professor X could greet his students, they jumped again.
Only Old Magneto's soul was still drifting.
"Where are you at this moment, and what are you doing?" Fang Yuan asked.
Old Magneto gave him a location.
"At this time I should be preparing the Mutant Converter."
Old Erik recalled.
"I'd heard of a Mutant girl who could absorb others' powers. I planned to let her take mine, then use her sacrifice to activate the converter and turn every New Yorker into a Mutant."
Logan instantly knew who he meant: "Rogue!"
Then he glared at Old Magneto, anger flashing as the bad memory resurfaced.
Adamantium against metal manipulation—he'd been toyed with for quite a while.
"And nearly killed everyone in New York," Old Charles added.
Old Magneto looked a bit embarrassed, but admitted it openly. "You know I'd lost it back then."
"Humans can be good or bad, but I only saw the worst, worsening the clash between humans and Mutants." He sighed.
They'd all lived through the Sentinel apocalypse; during those days Magneto had seen humans who helped Mutants. Fighting side-by-side with them had taught him coexistence wasn't impossible.
Following Old Magneto's coordinates, Fang Yuan brought everyone to the Brotherhood of Mutants' stronghold.
"Dark everywhere, crude facilities—there's a jail but no decent logistics department at all."
Magneto's soul merged smoothly, after which Fang Yuan kept roasting the Brotherhood: "You're supposed to be a villain group—how are you this broke?"
"You know I'm not a rich man like Charles, and we fight for Mutants' future, not for comfort." Magneto didn't see a problem.
"But killing a hundred people convinces fewer folks than slipping a senator a million-dollar check." Fang Yuan shot back.
That hit Magneto's blind spot; even Professor X looked blank.
"So Vought gets official support because you bribe Congress?" Wolverine had an epiphany.
"More than that." Fang Yuan shook his head. "In government, most power-holders—Congress, the courts—are pro-Vought; even the President is my guy."
"Buying the President? That must cost a fortune." Logan clicked his tongue.
To a guy who couldn't save ten grand in a century, the sum was astronomical.
"Not really."
Fang Yuan thumped his chest proudly: "I put him in office—if he doesn't listen, he's out!"
"Same for Congress: any senator who disobeys gets replaced. Stick with me for money and power; cross me and lose both. Everyone knows the smart choice."
Listening to Fang Yuan's Vought-style lessons, Logan, Old Charles and Old Magneto fell into an eerie silence.
They knew Fang Yuan had changed his World, but hadn't expected these twists behind it.
Old Charles was stunned—Fang Yuan's young self hadn't realized any of this. Young Charles had thought Vought's dominance was inevitable, that officials had no choice.
He never guessed these "trends" were man-made by Fang Yuan.
"The villain… is me?" Old Magneto asked at last.
Fang Yuan called himself the villain, yet compared to him Old Magneto felt downright naïve.
"This… this can't be right," Logan muttered.
None of it felt just.
"I fully agree with Fang's approach."
Suddenly Old Charles spoke, shocking both Logan and Old Magneto.
"Charles?"
Wolverine and Magneto couldn't believe those words came from the man who always held the moral high ground.
"Compared to the Sentinel apocalypse, this is the lightest price imaginable," Old Professor X explained.
"I keep wondering—if I hadn't clung so hard to non-interference with free will, could we have stopped the End of the World?"
"Following Fang's plan—sacrificing the interests of a small group to keep the whole World safe—sounds worth it to me."
"We all said we'd give everything to save the World, didn't we?"
Old Professor X's words made Old Erik frown.
"Charles, you're getting too radical," he warned. "Don't become the old me."
Hard to believe that advice is coming from Magneto.
One apocalypse can change a man's mind.
So an ultraconservative Professor X turning radical and an ultra-radical Magneto turning conservative aren't contradictory at all.
Besides, the comic-book Professor was never as saintly as the film version; after an apocalypse, it's perfectly natural for Professor X to team up with Fang Yuan.
"Relax, Erik—I've just shifted a little. I'm still light-years away from the old you." Old Charles winked at Old Magneto, teasing.
"At least I'm not planning to telepathically control the entire human race; that's way too unpredictable."
To Fang Yuan, both elders had simply swung from extremes to something closer to ordinary—people who use their powers for convenience, bend morals when necessary, but still keep a bottom line.
Willing to use abilities for convenience, able to adjust moral limits, yet still possessing a moral baseline.
Unlike a certain Black King—yes, Sebastian Shaw, I'm looking at you!
Logan's nerves were thick; puzzled, he asked, "Can't we just copy what Vought Corporation did in Fang Yuan's World?"
"Different era, Logan."
Old Charles explained: "Fang and the others started laying groundwork before the sixties Missile Crisis, before humans even knew Mutants existed, guiding humanity to understand us."
"But it's now 2000—forty years after the crisis, and sentinel robots have been around for thirty." Old Charles sighed. "Human prejudice against Mutants is already huge."
At this, both Old Charles and old Erik were vexed: for decades they'd focused on their own turf, never tackling human-Mutant relations from a global view, only worsening the rift.
Decades wasted.
Logan bought the old Professor's view; a kind wolf, he knew nothing beats an apocalypse for terror.
"Don't blame yourself, Charles," Logan consoled. "You did your best."
He didn't offer the same comfort to Old Magneto, whose face darkened.
If it wasn't Charles's fault, it must be Magneto's.
"So what do we do now?"
"Take out the Sentinels first?" Wolverine asked.
Professor X and Magneto both turned toward Fang Yuan.
They understood the principle and were ready to drop their bottom lines, but the specifics were still blind spots.
"Time for the professional!" Fang Yuan declared, chin lifted.
He began analyzing: "Now, even ordinary citizens reject mutants; the climate is far grimmer than forty years ago."
The three nodded—they'd lived through it and knew it would only get worse.
Mutants had lucked into a relatively enlightened President; even after an assassination attempt he favored conciliatory policies toward them.
But public outcry overrode him—Mutants felt wronged, humans felt threatened, and tensions kept rising.
That's why Magneto's Brotherhood of Mutants could recruit so many.
Of course, the human-Mutant mess owed plenty to Magneto's later contributions.
Yet Magneto had once held out hope; he only revolted when he couldn't bear it anymore.
"So in chaotic times use harsh laws; for grave illness use strong medicine. To salvage the Mutant image we need a bigger event to shift human attention!"
Fang Yuan had a plan.
"What if a World-conquering Great Demon King suddenly appeared—humans powerless, only Mutants able to save the day?"
Magneto frowned. "That would be me."
Fang Yuan waved it off. "Please, you're just a terrorist—you haven't killed as many as the real Terrorists."
"But a Mutant Great Demon King would still panic the public," Old Charles mused. "Unless this villain is a high-tech, magic-wielding, non-Mutant visitor from another World."
Fang Yuan puffed out his chest—at your service!
"Alas, for Mutants and the whole World I sacrifice so much; I'll reluctantly play the big bad," he sighed in mock sorrow.
Old Professor X, Magneto, and Logan's mouths all twitched.
Reluctantly?
You're clearly thrilled, hey!
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