IRENE / DESTINY.

Scott Summers. He stands to lose so much. Cyclops is a man on the precipice of ruination. Irene has no desire to see his downfall. That may be why she takes pity on him. “Something is wrong. I can’t say too much, but I can confirm what you fear.”

“I’ve seen many, with each worse than the last.” Sentinels. Apocalypse. Red diamonds glittering on the foreheads of the tarnished. “We stand at the beginning of the end.”

“Pretentious? Perhaps. I’d like to see how others would translate what I’ve seen.”

“Many things. Nothing.” Something. Everything. She reaches up with gloved hands and unclicks her helmet. Pulling the gold and blue dome from her head, Irene takes in a breath of fresh air. Even though it’s hot under the faceplate she prefers to remain masked. Nathan is not an enemy, though — not at the moment, at least. She sees potential for his corruption. Her best bet is to try and get through to him before it reaches that point. “Your family tree rots from the inside.” Misted eyes are trained in his general direction. “Mother. Daughter. For some, it’s too late.”

“I certainly won’t share it with you. I see far. You know that.”

“If people are calm or feel fine, there’s a reason.” Irene shakes her head. “A reason I don’t particularly like. But who wants to believe me when Charles Xavier preaches the opposite?”

“I mean things are no longer right. Outside forces have come from the inside.” It’s cryptic, she knows, but Irene can’t say too much. She and Raven know they need to play their cards close to their chests. “Be careful with who you ally with.”

Her head cants to the side. “And who said anything about running away?” Raven and Irene have whispered about it late at night in their chambers, but they haven’t made any announcements to the Council. They never will. They’ll simply be gone in the night. “You don’t have to pretend with me, Charles. The visions I’m having...they’re not always set, but I see commonalities. Threads tying things together. I see ruination.” 

He doesn’t know it, but Irene speaks of a literal inferno. She thinks of the timeline where she burned Moira Mactaggert alive; it’s not one she remembers, but it’s one that happened all the same. Moira knew Irene’s resurrection could signal the beginning of the end, and it was for that reason — coupled with Moira’s own selfish fear — that she had blocked Irene from resurrection. Now, Irene is back and fighting for the people who let her down. Moira has absconded to Orchis. Her lips tick upwards slightly behind her mask, but the gold faceplate betrays no emotion. “Once or twice, perhaps. Dramatic or not, I’m often right.” 

Her wife is a killer. Raven has an unforgiving hand that she culls her foes unapologetically. Irene is not the same as her love. She does not take the lives of others, even if she sees how they end all the same. “None of us can truly be on the side of death,” she muses. “Because death will come for all eventually.” Even Raven. Her bold, beautiful Raven. 

Irene inclines her head to the side as she blinks against the darkness. “And what insight do you look for?”

“Of course they do, and each is more desperate than the last. Your desperation does not make you special. You will have to have things unfold as they occur.” 

Where they would always stand with each other. Some may falsely believe Irene to be softer than Raven due to her being less inclined to violence, but they would be wrong. She does not forgive. She will not forget. “Then why, Magneto, are you here?”

“Your devotion has blinded you.” He cannot see the ghost of a smile that plays on her lips due to the verbiage used. “And you and I both know that that statement is not entirely truthful.” Exodus features prominently in her visions of the future. He will be a key player.

There’s a low hum in the back of her throat. “You chose to share before I could answer, and the two cents in question are not helpful or productive.” The usually aren’t. “You will be tested.” The words are vague and she makes no motion to explain them. “Everyone will be.”

“There’s corruption on Krakoa. Some things can only be concealed for so long before the inferno blazes.”

Irene knows what Rachel speaks about. Of course she does. She also knows the potential role she’ll play in it, how it’ll help bring the end to pass. Actions will need to be decisive and one will need to be spurred on to extreme action. Irene is no lynchpin by choice but she will play her part if that’s how things unfurl. Her words are even, measured. “Bad things happen often -- especially to mutants. This, too, shall come to pass.”