Polaris had always carried emotional scars—wounds from a past riddled with trauma and betrayal. Now, faced with the judgmental stares of her former comrades and the well-meaning but condescending tone of Professor X, those old memories came flooding back like a tidal wave. The pain, the helplessness, the fury—it all surged forth in a storm she could no longer suppress.
Her emotions spiraled. Anger bubbled to the surface, and her powers began to react violently, the magnetic field around her crackling with an unstable green hue.
But Professor Charles Xavier, ever the diplomat and master of empathy, stepped forward, raising a hand in a calming gesture. His voice was soft but carried an unmistakable weight.
"Lorna," he said gently, "I understand your anger. I know the depth of your pain. You've lost people—friends, family—and you want justice. You want to make the world acknowledge the cruelty it has shown you."
Polaris trembled but didn't respond.
"But you're better than this," Xavier continued. "You've always believed in fairness. You want mutants to live peacefully alongside humans. That's what I'm fighting for too. My cooperation with the government isn't betrayal—it's strategy. Through the X-Men, I'm trying to show the world that we aren't a threat. That we can be protectors, not villains."
He stepped closer, his expression earnest. "War won't bring peace, Lorna. If we fight, they'll only fear us more. But if we prove that we can live among them—protect them—we might earn the equality we deserve."
For a moment, there was silence.
And then Polaris exploded.
"Move them?!" she shouted, voice shaking with emotion. "Do you really think anything you've done has moved them? No! They don't want peace—they want control! They want to make us slaves!"
Her words hit like a hammer. Professor X was momentarily stunned.
"That's not true," he said quietly. "Lorna… Why do you think that?"
Polaris laughed bitterly. "Why? Then tell me—why are they studying us? Why are they building devices to suppress our powers? Why do they lock us up like lab rats and dissect us like threats?"
Xavier's lips tightened. He couldn't deny what she said. The government's actions hadn't always aligned with his vision of peace. He had tried to keep lines of communication open, to bridge the divide. But there were factions within the government that saw mutants as nothing more than weapons or liabilities.
"I've been negotiating," he replied softly. "Trying to change things from the inside. Give me time. I can fix this."
"Time?" Polaris snapped. "I gave you time. I believed in you once, Charles. And what happened? Bella died! She was captured and experimented on, and you did nothing to save her!"
Her power surged again, the magnetic field intensifying. Small objects around her began to levitate, vibrating violently.
Realizing she was nearing the brink of complete emotional collapse, Professor X's expression shifted. His eyes narrowed, and his voice turned stern. He focused his mental energy and tried to exert control over Polaris's mind, hoping to calm her before she harmed someone—or herself.
But this was not the quiet, docile Polaris he once knew.
This was Polaris in full fury. Her mental state, fueled by grief and rage, was a storm Professor X couldn't penetrate. His attempt at psychic control was immediately repelled by a blast of magnetic force.
"Don't try to control me!" she screamed, her voice echoing unnaturally. A green aura enveloped her body, and she began to float several feet off the ground, crackling with raw energy.
The X-Men reacted instantly, assuming defensive stances. Cyclops reached for his visor. Mystique took a cautious step back. Wolverine's claws emerged instinctively.
"Don't do it!" Xavier ordered them. "Stand down! Let me try again."
He attempted once more to soothe her, this time ready to exert more mental pressure. But before he could act, a calm voice interrupted the chaos.
"Polaris, calm down."
Six words. Spoken plainly. Yet they carried the weight of a command from a god.
The storm stopped. Just like that.
The green light flickered and faded. Polaris lowered her arms, and her body gently descended back to the ground. The fury in her eyes melted into nervousness.
"Master Henry…" she whispered.
She looked toward the man who had spoken—Henry, standing tall and composed, arms crossed with an aura of unwavering confidence. His gaze was stern, but not cruel. Firm, yet understanding.
"I didn't mean to lose control," she said quickly, her voice now filled with shame.
"I know," Henry replied. "It's alright. I'll take care of it."
And then, reality itself seemed to fracture.
Click. Click. Click.
A series of strange, delicate cracking noises echoed through the space—like glass being tapped gently but repeatedly. The room began to shimmer and shift. The walls dissolved. The ground warped. The sky turned on its head.
The X-Men gasped as they found themselves standing in a new world. The architecture bent and twisted impossibly, like reflections in a shattered mirror. The laws of physics had taken a holiday. The sky itself seemed made of crystalline fractals, constantly moving.
They had entered Henry's Mirror Realm.
A powerful dimensional space—part illusion, part reality—created through the mystic arts of Kamar-Taj. The Mirror Dimension was a field of absolute control for sorcerers, a place where no harm spilled into the real world, but where all the rules could be rewritten.
Each sorcerer's Mirror Dimension was unique, shaped by their imagination and magical skill. And Henry's was a marvel of science fiction wonder: glowing cityscapes rising in impossible angles, rivers of light flowing through the air, and staircases leading into swirling portals of stardust.
"What the hell is this…?" Mystique whispered, spinning around in awe.
"This is my domain," Henry said evenly. "The Mirror Realm."
Just as he finished speaking, the ground beneath the X-Men cracked open without warning.
Before anyone could react, they plummeted.
Fell.
And fell.
They screamed as they dropped from an impossible height—miles into the air, plummeting toward what looked like concrete ground.
It was terrifying. Even for mutants.
Some tried to stabilize themselves with their powers. Cyclops reached for anything to grab. Storm summoned wind but couldn't anchor it. Beast flailed helplessly.
"This can't be real!" Wolverine yelled.
It wasn't.
They were in Henry's space. Nothing here was real—but everything felt real.
Just before they hit the concrete, the ground split again. They fell through a new illusion, repeating the free fall.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
It went on endlessly.
"Oh my god!!" Cyclops howled.
"I'm gonna throw up!" Beast shouted.
After what felt like ten minutes of falling, they suddenly landed—gently—on a wide floating stone platform, suspended in mid-air.
Panting. Sweating. Shocked. Silent.
"That… was hell," Wolverine muttered.
"I can't believe we're still alive," Storm said, clutching her knees.
Professor X was in the middle of the group, stunned beyond words. And more than a little angry.
After all, he was in a wheelchair. No one had even thought to consider how terrifying that fall must have felt for him. He couldn't even flail.
I'm going to sue, he thought bitterly.
Floating above them, Henry and Polaris slowly descended, standing on an adjacent stone platform.
"I told you," Henry said calmly. "Lorna is my housekeeper now. She doesn't want to leave. And you, Professor X—should know better than to bully a girl who's finally found peace."
Cyclops stepped forward, visibly agitated. "Professor… are we really going to let him insult us like this? He just—he just threw us out of reality!"
But Professor X, breathing deeply, held up a hand.
He knew better.
Henry wasn't some brat with powers. He was a mage with control over dimensional magic—someone who had recently made headlines for going toe-to-toe with the Hulk and walking away unscathed.
Fighting Henry would be foolish.
"I just wanted to help Lorna," Professor X said. "Her emotions were spiraling. I was worried she'd hurt someone."
Henry's tone was still calm, but the edge of warning was clear. "And your solution was to invade her mind?"
There was a long silence.
"I acted out of concern," Professor X said, more quietly now. "Not out of malice."
"She's in my home," Henry stated. "My responsibility. You're not welcome to interfere with my guests without invitation."
Polaris stepped forward, bowing slightly. "I'm sorry, Master Henry. I lost control. I shouldn't have disrespected your home."
Henry gave a rare smile. "You didn't. You're learning."
The X-Men remained silent, their pride wounded, their understanding shaken.
In Henry's world, everything was different.
And the rules… were his.
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