Warren's Return - Part 1

Posted on Sun Dec 22nd, 2024 @ 11:58pm by Jean Grey & Pietro Maximoff & Warren Worthington III & Scott Summers & Bobby Drake

3,573 words; about a 18 minute read

Mission: Episode 5: Days of Fortune Past
Location: Baxter Building
Timeline: November 18, 1990

“I think that’s all of it…” Jean said as she poked and prodded at the mostly untouched slice of peanut butter pie that sat in front of her. She had brought the dessert over to Warren’s apartment as a thinly veiled attempt to check in on him and to her surprise she had found him willing to talk. Warren had never been one to wallow or sulk for very long but he had been running hot and cold since his return. Today, he was social and inquisitive.

“That’s it?!” Warren threw his napkin onto his empty plate in response to the absolutely ludicrous story Jean had just told him. “Jesus, Jean, what the hell happened while we were gone?”

It wasn’t a question he expected an answer to, it was more a statement of outrage and ire over the events that had occurred as of late. Warren’s frustrations began to focus on the one person he could blame for all of it.

“And that ring and the proposal, it happened right after you forgave him?” Warren nodded at the impressive green diamond on Jean’s finger.

“You know how we are.” Jean picked up her cup and took a sip of coffee. “It takes hardship to push us forward.”

“Sure,” Warren gave an incredulous shrug of his shoulders, the timing of it all was a little too heavy handed for his taste.“My dad buys my mom fancy jewelry every time he fucks up too. She has a whole drawer of shiny gifts now.”

“Warren.” Jean chastised him with the tone she took. “He loves me… and I love him.”

“You know I would have asked you to marry as soon as we could have.” Warren scoffed at her response, it wasn’t the feelings that he doubted just the motivation to finally move forward.

“If I had loved you, I would have said yes.” Jean picked up their plates and walked them to the kitchen, her words a firm reminder as to where her romantic affections remained.

“And that kid, the oops baby, you’re just going to raise it like your own?” Warren always went too far with this question because it was in the shock of it that people were disarmed and the truth was exposed.

“Warren, please,” Jean pleaded with him and then he finally saw the hurt in her. “I’m trying my best to be okay with all of this. It’s not the child’s fault.”

“Yeah, sure, of course it’s not.” Warren’s whole body bristled and tensed as his thoughts continued to sharpen and focus on the one person who was to blame for all of this. Scott was always granted so many chances and opportunities, his position of the favorite was a clear as day to Warren. That lack of accountability on Scott’s part, it made Warren furious. “Jeanie, my dear, would you excuse me for a moment? I think I’m finally ready to have a word with our leader.”

“Don’t make waves, Warren,” Jean warned him as his thoughts were practically screaming at her. She knew better than to come between Scott and Warren when they had conflict, the issue would fester until it became septic. They would have to hash it out in a way that worked best for them. “Speak your piece and then move on, for my sake?”

Warren didn’t acknowledge Jean’s gentle request as he stood and exited his apartment. Making his way to the office space that housed X-Factor, he didn’t hesitate or knock, rather he barged into the space with enough bluster to convey his heated state of mind. He found his target alone and reading a deposition.

“Summers, just who the hell do you think you are?” There was anger in Warren’s voice as he pointed an accusatory finger at Scott.

“Well, you already said my name,” Scott said glibly, unsure of what had crawled up Warren’s ass this time. “That was going to be my first answer.” Seeing that Warren was not just in a bad mood but actually had a bone to pick, Scott dropped the buddy act and crossed his arms, all business and ready for whatever Warren was about to sling his way. “Something I can help you with, Warren?”

“You don’t deserve her. You don’t deserve this place. And you don’t deserve us.” Warren gestured in the direction where Bobby’s apartment was as his anger continued to rise. “The minute you’re alone you lose all sense of a moral compass, you fuck some idiot carbon copy of Jean and then ruin her life with your bastard, then because you ruined your life at Xavier’s you drag everyone to the city so you can play office with daddy’s money!” Warren stepped in far too close to Scott, invading his personal space in a confrontational manner. “You took them away from the school and the team, Xavier’s is our home. We’re THE X-Men. And worst of all, you abandoned Hank.”

Scott nodded his head as Warren ranted. Each word was more biting than the last, and he let Warren speak them all uninterrupted. When he was finally finished, Scott said calmly, “We found you. Hank helped with that. We found Hank. Bobby helped with that. We found Bobby. I did that by using myself as bait with a mutant trafficking ring run by the Canadian government. I found Jean, too, and I did that without anybody’s help… well, except for Telford Porter and Shiro Yoshida, just like Pietro is with us now. You remember all of them, right, Warren?” Scott folded his arms. “Jean and I started this team because Professor Xavier’s attention was split between his dream with the new class and your fate. We set out on our own to find you, Warren. And we did.” Scott’s tone dropped to become far more pointed. “You’re welcome.”

“Of course you can’t own your shit.” Warren scoffed at Scott’s reply, “You expect us to forgive and forget all your shortcomings because you’re the one writing the narrative. But when people die because of your bad leadership there needs to be a moment of reflection.” He noticed that his blue tinted hand had clenched into a fist but Warren made no effort to open it. “Mara died because she was ill equipped for her first mission and she wasn’t given the additional support her experienced team needed to provide in order to remain safe.”

A fresh wave of anger filled Warren as he thought about everything that had happened to him and to their team. “Own it, Scott! If you want to take on the role of leader for any team, you can’t just share the highs or spin the story to a win, you have to be accountable for its lows too. All I see is a man trying to sweep his mistakes under the rug rather than grow and improve from them… that arrogance and lack of self-reflection is what caused our failure in Krakoa and what got Mara killed.”

“Amazing.” Scott made no effort to hide his scoff. “You’ve been to the brink of death and back, and you’re still too arrogant to look at anything outside the goggles of your own ego. That’s why the Professor never made you leader in the first place. That’s why Jean picked a scrawny, disabled orphan over you. You have exactly one way of looking at the world and it’s down your beakish nose.”

The fingers of Scott’s hands joined together into fists as his tone escalated to match Warren. “You want to know what I owned? I died that day on Krakoa but I didn’t have the mercy of a mind wipe or a power dampening collar that let me forget it all or become a mindless machine! I had to live every day and sleepless night alone with my failure and the loss of everything and everyone that ever mattered to me! Professor Xavier benched me because I was no good to anybody! I still don’t understand how things progressed the way they did with Aurora but I have owned that mistake up to the point of driving a wedge into my future marriage!”

By now Scott was shouting and he couldn’t make himself stop. “You want to talk mistakes, Warren? You want to talk casualties? Let’s get Bobby in here. He let his guard down trying to help you when you were at your worst and you almost killed him.” It was a low blow that Scott regretted almost as soon as the words were out, but he couldn’t take them back. “We’ve all done things we regret. Brooding over them isn’t going to help anyone. I learned that the hard way. We either fight for the future or we die in the past. I’ve made my choice. What’s yours going to be?”

“I own my mistakes and I learn from them, Summers. I’m asking you what you’re going to do differently so it never happens again.” Warren’s face turned almost to a shade of purple as anger made him hot under the collar. “I’m not the broody mess out of this group so the fact that you’re trying to call me out on it is almost comical.”

Warren then laughed at him in that trademark condescending manner that reminded everyone of the life he came from. “I noticed you skirted right past Mara dying and leaving Hank all on his own. I see that you also didn’t mention ignoring Bobby because some barely legal girl was warming your bed. No, let’s just focus on the few things you did fix and surprise, they're only the things connected to Jean so she would take you back after you broke her heart. The worst things that happened to you revolve around where you put your dick.”

Warren shook his head in disapproval before he continued. “Die in the past? I don’t know if you’ve noticed since I don’t have tits and red hair but I am a shell of the person I once was.” He looked down at his hands and finally unclenched them, his skin now a pale blue in color. “I am forever changed by what happened to me as a Sentinel. I had my wings ripped from my body, gone forever. There are nanites crawling under my skin that refuse to leave. My father declared me legally dead when I went missing and now I have to claw and crawl back to the surface just to claim what’s rightfully mine. But the worst part is, I remember every single person that I hurt and every life that I took. I’m a murderer, Scott, I slaughtered innocent people and mutants. I see their faces and hear their screams when I close my eyes. I became the monster we worked so hard to stop.”

Scott stared at him without flinching. The more buttons Warren pushed, the more insular Scott became. Soon his turgid emotions would come to a head, which would force him into a binary decision: to explode or not explode.

“What happened at Krakoa was a tragedy and then the events that followed were nightmares made real. I died that day and I have no past to go back to.” Warren’s hands returned to fists as his gaze met Scott’s glasses. “So how about you watch your goddamn mouth and think before you speak?”

Nodding in anger as well as in paltry attempts at empathy, Scott took a moment to let Warren’s words simmer. “What it sounds like,” he said slowly, “is that neither one of us can truly understand what the other went through these past few months. Want to be a team player, Warren? Act like one.” He waved his hand in the air as if to grasp their entire argument in his fist. “Because all this? This isn’t it. If you want an accounting, I’ll give you one, but let’s get one thing straight…” His lips turned to a slight snarl as he crossed his arms again. “I don’t answer to you. So change your tone, or your precious trust fund won’t be the only thing you have to work to get back.”

“You’re right, you don’t answer to just me but you do answer to all of us.” Warren didn’t adjust his tone, instead he matched Scott’s snarl. “Our team has never been a dictatorship. I’m allowed to be angry with you over the shit choices you made, especially when they hurt the people I care about.”

There it was, the real reason for Warren’s outrage. Warren was the defender of justice, the one whose call to action was righting the wrongdoings that had occurred. He had followed Scott on missions for years, but in this moment he viewed Scott as the offender and that idea hurt him too.

“Go ahead and threaten me, Summers. Maybe you’ll break my nose again?” Warren dared to move in closer to Scott as if to goad him. “But when I push back on you, it’s for a damn good reason, it’s not my fault you can’t handle it. A person died, you ruined lives, and you hurt your family.” While Scott had lived through and worked on healing from the events of Krakoa, all of this was new and fresh for Warren. “What have you done to make things right?”

“Look around you!” Scott yelled, finally losing his temper. “All of this, my blood, sweat, and tears, everything that you’ve shit on from your high horse, it’s all been an effort to make things right! Hank has a standing invitation to join us, but he would rather hide in his lab, and that’s his right to choose. You’re a royal asshole for taking that choice away from him just so you can whip me with it. Mara died as much from your hand as mine, but you don’t see anybody rubbing that in your face, do you?” Scott shook his head on Warren’s behalf just to underscore the fact it wasn’t his fault. “I know you’re angry, Warren, and you have every right to be, but take it from me that it won’t make you feel any better about what you’re doing right now.” His next words came out slow and pronounced, which almost made up for the hypocritical irony. “Get… a… grip.”

Scott’s words about him being to blame for Mara’s death finally pushed Warren over the edge. He had been helpless to stop the actions he had been commanded to do and the fact that Scott had alluded to him being able to prevent turned Warren’s vision red. Warren finally raised his fist, and when did so the inhuman ease in which he could attack took over. Using his newfound speed and strength Warren threw a punch, aiming for Scott’s face.

The punch landed to the right of Scott’s jaw, snapping his head to the side. Rather than fight back, Scott let his glasses slide the rest of the way off his face and gave Warren a hard stare. The optic beams drilled the other man to the far wall clear across the room and pinned him there.

“Just who do you think you are?!” Scott bellowed, pumping his fist in the air while his eyes blazed. “Don’t you ever touch me again! Do you hear me?! Never again!!!”

A jet stream of blue-shifting light shot through the air, sending off wisps of fog and mist in its wake. Bobby had entered the room and encased Scott a barrier of ice. The barrier around Scott’s face glowed red until the ice finally gave out and exploded into shards. In that time, Warren had his blissful reprieve from the optic beams.

“Calm down, Scott!” Bobby shouted.

Rather than argue, Scott hung his head low. It was a moment of shame for them all, but he had eyes only for one. The blame for the moment was at his feet. “You’re right.”

“I said ca—wait, what?” Bobby blinked at the unexpected capitulation. When had Scott ever not argued with him?

“You’re right,” Scott repeated. “I shouldn’t have done that. I screwed up. There’s no excuse.”

“Yeah…” said Bobby, still stunned at the sudden turnaround. “You did. And you don’t. Have an excuse, I mean. Warren is our friend.”

“I said I know!” Scott looked up and snapped, then lowered his head again. “I’m sorry. Will you let me out now?”

Bobby had nearly forgotten that he had left Scott encased in ice. “Oh! Yeah, okay.”

The frozen barrier around Scott fell away like a spring thaw, letting him break free. “I’m sorry, Warren,” he said again, this time pointedly at his old friend.

“Yeah I bet you are.” Warren grumbled while he got to his feet, his blistered and burned skin began to slowly heal.

“What is go…” Jean’s question stopped short as she surveyed the scene and scanned their minds. Taking in everything that had happened, Jean frowned as she made her way over to Scott and gave him back his glasses.

“I asked you not to make waves, Warren.” Jean scolded him as she examined Scott’s face and the already prominent mark appearing where he had been hit.

“He has some nerve…” Warren trailed off as Jean shot him an angry look. With a defeated sigh he looked over Scott.

“I apologize for losing my temper.” Warren apologized for how he had said things but not for what he had actually said but his tone was much softer and calmer now. “Blaming me for Mara’s death, that set me off, Scott. I was a slave as the Omega Sentinel, what I could and could not do was not my choice to make.”

“And…” Jean continued to glare at Warren.

“And I’m sorry I didn’t show you any compassion in regards to your struggles.” Warren folded his arms across his chest before he continued. “If everyone else can forgive you, I can too… you are making the effort to change so I should acknowledge those efforts.”

Jean’s eyes moved to Scott. Her tone wasn’t as abrasive with him but he could tell she was serious. “What about you?”

“I’m sorry for what I said,” Scott said. “You were being unfair, but that was no reason for me to do the same. We really are glad to have you back.” He choked up a little. “I… am glad you’re back. So that was no way to talk to you.”

“Hell no, it wasn’t!” The interjection from Bobby displayed a bit of backbone he’d seldom shown the older First Class members before. It was a new Bobby for Warren to see. “Warren’s always been a dick but he isn’t wrong. I was mad at you too. But you gave me time and we worked past all that. Give him the same time you did me, Scott. You owe him that much.”

“Yeah…” Scott sighed and looked about the room, avoiding eye contact with everyone present. It left his head jostling like a bobblehead. “Yeah, I get it. I had my buttons pushed too but I’m resetting them. We’re a family, the only one I ever had. I owe you all better than…” His hands splayed out to his sides. “... than this.”

“We’re family,” Warren affirmed, “and we love each other, warts and all.”

Jean reached out for Scott and pulled him in close to her. His feelings of disappointment and shame made her want to comfort him despite the fight that had just occurred. It was a low blow on Warren’s part to poke at some of the more sensitive topics that had occurred since Krakoa but then again Warren was never known for softening his punches.

“Let’s all take a breather and collect ourselves,” Jean proposed to the group. “We’ll all have dinner together tonight, okay?”

“And by all of us, I mean all of us,” Jean shouted down the hall and Pietro appeared sucking on the straw of a Big Gulp. He had been listening to the entire argument just out of sight but Jean didn’t need to see someone to know they were present.

“Me?” Pietro seemed shocked to be included after getting caught eavesdropping in the hall. He took a long sip from his drink and shrugged his shoulders. While the fight had been amusing, he was a little surprised by how it had ended. There were no apologies, merely penances in the Brotherhood. “Yeah, sure, okay,”

“Great, dinner at 6:30 then.” Warren said as he made his way to the door, he still seemed irritated but whatever acknowledgment Jean had facilitated calmed him down enough to be civil once more. “I’ll bring the wine.”

TBC

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