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"Ungh," Waverley grunted as she used her weak arms to push herself up into a sitting position, letting her feet dangle off the side of the bed, bare toes gently touching the cold tile floor. She sat slouched forward, finding herself without the excess energy to sit up straight. Her eyes caught the face of an older woman stepping away from Casper, and the words she spoke made Waverley visibly shudder with relief. She let out a stuttering sigh, one that sounded almost like a tired laugh as she let her head hang limply forward. "Good, good, that's...that's amazing. I was afraid that...y'know..." she mumbled, trailing off. As she saw Sunshine come near, she shifted a bit in her seat to make room for the girl, only to watch as she walked past her to stand instead at the foot of Max's bed. Max, of all people. She'd thought that her and Sunshine were on the same page about that boy, she thought she shared her loathing. And she at the very least thought that perhaps the girl who Waverley seemed to be in a perpetual panic attack over trying to care for would at least stop by to see if she was okay. She had to admit that it shattered her a little inside to see her friend swept up into the arms of the guy who killed her mother. But this pain was almost immediately made trite and inconsequential when, only a few yards away, James disclosed the fate of Sapphire to Veil.

"Fuck..." Waverley couldn't help but mutter, her eyes going wide and wet despite her physical exhaustion. She gulped back the lump that began to rise in her throat. She was quiet for a few moments, before she lifted her head looking to Veil, her eyes soft, eyebrows furrowed in sympathy. She hadn't been all that close to Sapphire herself. She'd respected the woman, but she never elevated from 'boss' to 'boss and friend' the way Veil had. There was always that chill wall she put up that Waves never found the nerve to crack. But she knew that her and Veil were close, and she wanted more than anything to make this as she could for her. That said, she wasn't sure she was the best person to comfort Veil - she cared about the woman deeply, and the two were friends, but she didn't have the same history with her as Callie did, much less Echo. So instead, she did her best to shoulder the burden of...everything that was happening to allow Veil more mental capacity to mourn. She turned towards the older woman from before, the one who had been caring for Casper, and began to speak. "I...I think it would be better if we had some time to...process and heal. This is...this is a lot. Is she...here somewhere?" As Waverley asked about Sapphire's remains, she couldn't help but feel a small gnawing suspicion in her stomach, but with everything happening so suddenly, she didn't have the mind to give it any substance, and it remained a feeling rather than a thought.

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Zari made a bit of a face when Veil told her to not threaten people. Not her fault someone decided that now was a good time to start singing randomly for no damn reason! "Well he was being stupid and he shut up so I'd say it worked out well," she responded towards her, before turning her attention somewhat towards the others around the area, and the fact that the guy whose eyeball she popped out decided to threaten her, and what the hell was he even going on about anyway? Though she could tell that he was more then a little annoyed with her about the eye thing.

"What's the Quiet Council? Who exactly are you? What happened and why are we here? You look weird, also why do you have a robotic eye?" Zari was starting to ramble more then a little bit, but that was typically something that she tended to do. Especially when she was sort of freaked out over something, essentially it was her reflex for when she was scared but didn't want to admit it. She was surrounded by a bunch of people that she didn't know all too well really, and apparently had been a popsicle for several months, how else was she supposed to feel.

"Really Casper? What made you think of something so specific? Cause that was a little weird," Jack said to his brother with a small laugh. Yeah, Casper clearly was doing alright if he was making weirdly specific comments about the X-Men like that. He was glad that Casper was doing alright though, he didn't seem to really be having too many problems with the idea of having been stuck as a popsicle for 5 months, then again he's not sure if much would actually phase his brother at this point.

Then his brother mentioned Xavier and them just being left for dead, "You've met your father right? Would that really be that surprising to find out that he did?" he asked him. Then a few people started asking about Sapphire, and he was so glad that James decided to be the one to break the news to them about that. Though the thought still crossed Jack's mind about how she ended up dying from essentially her own powers, and he ended up living when based on his body being rubber he probably shouldn't have. He was still confused as to that entire matter.

Miranda looked at the others, and she gave Waverly a somewhat sad smile and shook her head, "No, she isn't... Her body isn't here," she said somewhat softly to her, before looking at the others. "I could show you what happened, and how things went, but well... I don't think that would be a very good idea..." it was true, she could technically show them what had happened in DC. Problem was well, she's not sure they'd actually want to see the death of someone they had known, that likely would end badly.

Her attention was drawn away by Max, and she shook her head slightly. "Actually Genosha was just about ready to go to begin with... As for the X-Cutioner, that entire situation was something we didn't expect to happen, and had nothing to do with it... It did cause there to be a rather large group of mutants who wished to come to the island afterwards though. And the entire Mutant Underground are regarded as heroes for what you all did for the entire Washington DC area and the mutants who resided there. Though many chose to come here afterwards as I said, it sort of ended up being the perfect storm of events that helped Genosha to flourish as it has."

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Veil felt her brother hold her hand, as her ears started ringing. It couldn't have been true. Sapphire couldn't be dead. She had to be just around the corner or something, having convinced James and everyone to do this horrible, horrible tone deaf prank. The walls felt like they were closing in around her and Veil just wanted to disappear. And thanks to her mutation, she literally did - she turned invisible, vanishing from everyone's sight. Her chest felt tight and painful, and she couldn't breathe. She hadn't had the time to fall apart before.

And now, she was falling apart all at once. So many of her friends, so many people had laid down their lives. For what? For the Mutant Underground? She used to believe that the Mutant Underground was a force for good, but now she was disillusioned. Sapphire had died - her death could have been prevented if Xavier had just picked up a phone... She used to think the world of him and the X-Men, but now they were hollow symbols of selfishness and cowardice.

"Oh yes, she definitely isn't here," Doctor Nemesis agreed, chuckling ever so slightly. "But perhaps she's being put to use at the Tiki Bar... The Quiet Council is the government of Genosha and I am Doctor Nemesis," he then added, answering the rest of Zari's questions.

"That's fucked up of you to say," Sunshine cut in, referring to the first bit, and shooting a look over at Doctor Nemesis. She would have given him some sort of disease, but he had been there for her friends and she didn't want to end up on the bad side of the Quiet Council. She didn't even want to be held up as a hero of Genosha. She liked just being an ordinary mutant girl on this island, no one special, well, maybe special to her bae, but to no one else.

She turned her attention back to Max and James. It felt like a million years ago that she had first run into the two of them - when they had ended up running into the sewer and going into the arms of the Morlocks. She missed Erg each and every day. It had been hard at first for her to accept Genosha, knowing that the Hellfire Club had built it. But Erg's murderer - Shaw - was gone. And she felt in her heart that Erg would have liked this place. It was a sanctuary for mutants, a place where they could live freely without humans. "Can't you conjure up some deodorant or something?" she asked Max.

Casper looked at James as he walked away, admiring the view before turning his attention to his family. Jack seemed to be fine more or less - he wasn't really sure if Jack had been awake for a while or not, but then again, he wasn't dressed like Princess Leia so Casper figured that Jack must have been up and about. His mom though, he couldn't help but be really excited to see her there. He was a momma's boy at his core. And knowing that his mom seemed to get along with his boyfriend? That was even better.

"Sapphire's dead," Ben said quietly, drawing Casper's attention.

"...What?" Casper said, staring at the ghost.

"You can give them all closure," Ben pointed out.

Casper stared at James a little longer, before he sighed slightly. He took a deep breath, before sitting on the little hospital bed and crossing his legs. He concentrated deeply, his eyes turning blue and blue energy warping around his hands, as he called forward the ghost of Sapphire. Meanwhile, Havok was beginning to stir.

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Callie looked down when James revealed the news that Sapphire had died trying to save all of them, she looked down as she tried to hold back some tears. She had been the one to attack X-Cutioner in the first place, and he triggered the bomb causing it to go off immediately, she looked over at Veil seeing her friend going invisible. While also being comforted by her brother Echo, she was tempted to go over to her right then and there but decided against it for now. She would go and comfort her once they had a private moment, when they werent being bothered by anyone else.

Callie looked up at James and gave him a slight nod she didnt really say anything else to him as he took her hand and started to heal her, feeling better enough now to stand on he own. Callie gave Dr. Nemisis a glare she was tempted to zap him right then and there, but she didnt want to get on this Quiet Council's bad side at all really. Miranda started to mention what had happened while they were frozen at least Mutants had a place now where they would be safe now, though she really didnt want to go to this ceremony at all.

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Kristina looked down as James broke the news and sighed slightly as she looked down to where she had been shot for a moment remembering the feeling of being frozen for the first time. Sapphire was able to save her life twice and she couldnt properly thank her at all, as she gripped the bedsheets slightly. She watched Veil disappear suddenly, Kris didnt really know the group that well really but she had a feeling that she and Sapphire were really close.

"Thats really fucked up for a doctor to even say." Kris couldnt help but say glaring at Dr. Nemesis, she thought that it was incredibly insensitive to even say that at all and she deciding that she didnt really like him that much even though he had brought them out of cryostasis in the first place. Kris watched as James started to go around and healing some more members of the Underground.

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No one answered her question, but that was okay. Learning about what happened to Sapphire was more important. She felt sad about it, but she hadn't known Sapphire very well so she didn't feel the heartache of lose like the others. Even Stareyes had to feel more upset since Sapphire had saved her twice now.

Andy looked over at Zari as she launched a series of questions and a smile quirked on her lips. She liked the girl's spunk. She liked Zari quite a bit actually. The girl was a good fighter and caring and smart. Andy didn't think about it much farther than that though. Just that if there was anyone out of those she had met through the MU that she would be upset if they died it'd be Zari.

Her arms were still wrapped around her legs and she felt isolated. She didn't deserve to be part of any ceremony either. She hadn't done anything. She didn't feel like they had succeeded at their job. And she was mad at Professor X. He hadn't seemed to care at all. Why hadn't he cared? Why hadn't he tried to help? He hadn't even returned the call to say he was working on some other mission that was equally important. All he had done was gave them some pills and send them into a trap. Andy decided she disliked Professor X.

SHe didn't say anything else. Just let the group deal with their loss. She looked over at Havoc starting to stir and wished it had been him who had died instead. She didn't like him. But he wasn't the type to make the sacrifice. Not from what she had seen of him so far. He was like those cocky guys she sometimes boxed who thought they could kick the teenage girl's ass. They always learned otherwise. She was too fast, too hard to hit.

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James stared flatly at Harry as he stumbled across to Veil on wobbly legs and all but collapsed on the poor woman in an attempt to offer some small sliver of comfort in the face of tragedy. James gave Max’s hand one last reassuring squeeze and followed the musician before he ended up doing something else that’d strain him. James flashed Harry a soft smile, unwilling to speak so he wouldn’t intrude on the pair, and laid a hand on Harry, letting the aches and pains lingering from cryostasis seep away. He left the pair to themselves quickly after so they’d have at least a little space to mourn.

Waverly was his next patient and it struck him then and there, seeing her worn and quiet under the weight of sleep and death, how much she’d been through since joining them. The strain of co-existing near… Max after the shit storm that was the Hellfire Club raid hadn’t managed to tarnish the kindness that rolled off her in waves and he couldn’t help the chuckle that came out. She reminded him of Cayden in that sense; she deserved the title of the nicest person in the Underground now. He reached out and took her hand, offering her what he hoped was a reassuring smile as he soothed away the lingering pain. “The ceremony might help. Seeing the faces of all the people that are still alive and breathing because of all the bombs we dismantled and disposed of– it won’t change anything and it won’t help with the…” James swallowed down the word guilt because he certainly didn’t feel in the same sense most people here would, “But it’ll help to remember this moment when you’re ready to take that first step, whenever that is.” James pulled her into a quick hug. “And circumstances what they are, I’mstill glad I got to see you awake again.”

James decided Andy was next, curled up into herself as she was. She’d asked a question that had gone unanswered because of James’ revelation but at least that was something he could fix. “It’s July 15th.” James offered, laying his hand on hers as he started soothing her pain.

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Waverley flinched as Veil suddenly popped out of existence, using her abilities to shield herself from view. Part of Waves wanted to reach out with her powers, caress the air where Veil had just been to make sure she was still there, but the notion didn't last long. She'd already decided she'd let Echo comfort his sister to avoid crowding her, so it wasn't going to do much good to know she was still there. After a few seconds, her silent stare directed at the empty spot Veil once inhabited was interrupted by a warm hand around hers. She snapped her head in the direction it came from, seeing James looming over her. She let out a breath through her nose, feeling undeniable comfort in his presence. It was strange; her body reacted to James' comfort as much as it did to his powers, so much so that it was hard to tell where one began and the other ended. It was hard to differentiate the relaxing of her muscles from the healing of them. Her insides had a pleasant warmth as they were pulled out of their damaged state. She almost missed his words in the feeling.

"A parade isn't what we need right now," Waverley replied into James' shoulder as his arms wrapped around her, though her words were sharper than she had intended. She let out a deep breath, returning her friend's hug. "Thank you..." her tone was as apologetic as it was grateful. As he stepped away, however, she was met with a new feeling, a feeling spurred on by the doctor's words, insensitive, apathetic.

Waverley wouldn't have normally done what she did. She likely would've glared at him like the others, maybe cussed him out. But...there was something odd in her brain. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say there was something missing: fear. All her life, she lived in horror, worried over every little thing, terrified that any wrong move would end in disaster. It'd gotten more visceral, vivid in her time with the Underground, dealing with actual life and death situations on a regular basis. And it'd all built up to the X-Cutioner. The worst had happened. She'd died, effectively. And here she was. It was like...anxiety afterglow. Bliss. Liberation. There was no fear in her as she stepped off her bed, briskly walking up to Dr. Nemesis and rearing her fist back, slamming it into the side of his face. Pain shot through her fist, the first vibrant feeling she'd had since waking up. It was almost refreshing, feeling the pulse of bruised skin in her fist as she let it drop to her side.

"I don't know what the fuck that was supposed to mean, but if you talk about anyone in the Underground like that again, there won't be a council in the world that'll be able to save you," Waverley threatened. It was true, Sapphire and her hadn't exactly been friends, but they'd still been family. And no one talks about family like that.

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Max rolled his eyes at Sunshine, glad she was feeling herself, and happy to have some familiarity after everything else in life had changed so much in a matter of seconds. Max made a wave with his hand, almost instinctually, and a flash of his cosmic magic flowed from the palm of his hand and began to encircle around him creating a light breeze. Once it had finished its loop, Max smelled of fresh linen, and felt cleaner. As if months of grime that had been stuck upon him simply was whisked away. He looked at his hand with shock and confusion. It felt as if his powers were more responsive than usual, granted the last time he used them he had been capable of creating great feats. His mood immediately soured when he recalled the brand new training room he had just created and the medical room he was beginning to make, all the cleaning he did and the work he had begun to place towards the Underground Mansion. It felt meaningless now, as if it was wasted efforts.

Max was brought back out of his thoughts, realizing he was still staring at his hand. He flexed his fingers slowly, before trying his powers once more. The magic surged forth once again and wrapped around his body in odd patterns, covering over his spandex suit. He didn't know if it held any medical reason to be on, so he decided not to mess with it. Instead long strips of magic fell like cloth, and formed a silhouette of his previous robes, now galaxy colored and speckled with stars. They began to solidfy and finally turned into the same yellow robes he had been wearing when he got frozen. Again there felt a new ease to it all. He flexed his fingers slowly once more before finally his mind got snapped back to what was happening in the room. Sapphire had died, Casper was glowing blue, and Waverly had just gone up and punched the doctor that helped save them. He involuntarily winced as her fist made contact with Nemesis, worried about if the quiet council would say anything about this. He had half a mind to say something, to get in between the pair, but then he heard her words, and he understood. This wasn't a place for him to speak. He would say Sapphire wouldn't want this, but given how he'd seen Sapphire a few times, at most he thought should would compliment the good right hook.

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Harry could feel the tension in the room. He didn't have to look to know there were eyes on him and Veil. Everyone would be watching to see how she took the news, and if he was being honest it almost made him sick. He knew they were worried for her, concerned, but she didn't need them to see her like this. She wouldn't want to be seen like this. As soon as Harry thought that, his sister vanished. Her hand still in his, though it appeared as if he was clasping air. "Je suis là pour toi petite soeur" He whispered towards her. He didn't need his powers to know where she was, so he stepped to where he would be in front of her, pulling her close into an embrace. His left arm ran up her back, the handle cradling her head as he held her close and allowed her to rest her head onto his shoulder if she needed to cry. His right hand had dropped her hand, wrapping around her waist as he held her close and kissed the top of her head.

"Je peux faire taire ton son si tu veux pleurer" Harry spoke quietly into her ear. He began to hum, only loud enough for them to hear, unless the room was deadly quiet. His hand stroking her hair as their mother once did. The song was an old tune she would hum to them all the time, whenever they were scared, or hurt, or upset. She would cradle them and hum to them this meoldy to help sooth their nerves. Back then Harry didn't have his powers, they hadn't manifested yet, but he was certain that if he did, this song would be the melody to his mother's heart. Harry only stopped once to speak, his voice calm and collected as if he needed to be strong for his sister while making sure not to break the soothing he was attempting to do. It was a tone a mother would use on a child when gently scolding them. "Waves, I understand you're frustrated, but we are better than that. Please." He gave her a pleading look, his eyes dropping down to Veil, as if to beg her, for Veils sake don't fight.

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"You still didn't answer the question of how come you have a robotic eye! What did someone poke your original eyeball out or something or what?" she asked Nemesis a bit pointedly. Zari was typically a curious person, and asking questions is something she typically did, and he had sort of ignored one of her questions, hence she was going to just ask it again, and probably ask it several times until he actually answered it. Since that was an important thing to her, was to having the answers to her questions.

Jack was just sort of hanging back still, not really saying anything to anyone, his brain was trying still to make sense of things, but people seemed to start entering their own little mental worlds, especially Veil since she just had been told that her best friend had died saving all of their lives. He hadn't really known Sapphire too well, she wasn't exactly very trusting of anyone that she didn't really know, but she did end up saving all of them when the bomb went off. If Xavier hadn't basically ignored them, then things probably wouldn't have gone as badly as they had.

Then, there was Nemesis, the guy was just crazy, and clearly despite technically being a doctor of some sort, the guy did not have any sort of bedside manner considering what he said, "Now really is not the time for you to be saying anything like that," Jack said towards him, clearly less than thrilled by his words. Of course, then Waverly just went up and sucker punched the guy in the eye, which likely was going to hurt afterwards if he had to guess. "Nice shot," he couldn't help but comment to her with a bit of a smile.

Miranda was just letting the words of what had happened with regards to their friend sink in. She knew it could be hard to lose someone close to you in that sort of way or because of something like that. It never got easier, no matter what you might want to tell yourself. Of course, then Nemesis had to make a tasteless joke like that one, and she was about ready to punch the guy herself, but someone else already quite literally beat her to the punch. She chuckled slightly, clearly amused by that sort of thing. "If you hadn't punched him, I would have."

Her attention shifted to look at James as he was comforting Waverly, "You can't change the past, no matter how much you might want to, I probably no that better then anyone, but you can learn from it, and sadly that's probably the best you can do. The hurt will still be there, years down the road, that's something that will never go away," she said rather calmly to the group in the room. Mistakes happened, people died, there wasn't anything that could change the fact, all that mattered right now was that they began the healing process. Of course, from what she was hearing, sounded like Casper was going to try to do something that might help.

Of course, at the moment Zari wasn't really paying attention to what was going on around her, as her mind started wondering where her robots were, since clearly they weren't in the room. She tried to use her powers to reach out to them, but she wasn't sensing them at all, and that irritated her. So instead of focusing on both, she switched tactics to focusing on one, Mr. Eyeball. Now she was able to sense the robot somewhere nearby, and suddenly there was a crash as the robotic eyeball came crashing through the door and over to her arms. "Mr. Eyeball!" she said happily, hugging the robot in her arms, "Ew why are you sticky where have you been?"

When Casper used his powers, Sapphire's ghost appeared, she was actually leaning up against a sort of end table near where Veil and Echo were. "Wow, never thought you'd miss me that much," she joked somewhat, before looking around at the group, "I didn't save your lives so you could all sit around feeling sorry for yourselves or whatever."

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"Funny, that's what my last boss said," Doctor Nemesis mused with a slight smirk. "Right before I gave him a first hand look at what happens to the human body when placed inside of a glorified pressure cooker. He shouldn't have cut my research budget." Despite all of the clean lines of the hospital, it would suddenly become quite clear to them all - Doctor Nemesis was a bad guy. He was a supervillain running a medical ward. They were lucky he hadn't done some horrible experiments to them and instead had simply assisted James in getting them back to full strength.

"Ya really should go to the ceremony, it ain't everyday that mutants get to be celebrated for doing something selfless," Renegade urged, glancing over at Waverley. "We just want ta thank ya."

Doctor Nemesis laughed though at Waverley - not a laugh of astonishment or shock, or even mockery, but one of malice. "I would sleep with one eye open, if I were you. Or don't. We've been sourcing our anesthetics from the island of Krakoa, they're extremely potent," he warned cryptically. Nemesis then popped his eyeball out of its pocket and polished it off quickly, before popping it back in. "As for you - don't make a habit of haunting my facility" Nemesis warned Sapphire's ghost.

Veil hadn't wanted to talk to anyone or see anyone. She had just wanted to be alone with her grief, her guilt, and her frustration. She loved her brother, but even as he hummed that old melody, one that had brought her comfort as a child, it fell short. Her best friend had been dead for months. Sapphire had sacrificed herself for Xavier's dream - a dream Veil didn't know if she believed in anymore, or more of, whether or not she believed in the dreamer.

But hearing Sapphire return from the land of the dead... that got through to her.

Veil flickered back into visibility, her messy hair somehow a thousand percent messier than it had been moments ago. She stared at Sapphire's glowing blue form - like Sapphire was a hologram from Star Wars. Veil couldn't help but burst into tears, the sound of her sobs only eliminated thanks to her brother's sound wave manipulation. "Sapphire!" Veil exclaimed, wiping away tears. She was smiling even as it hurt. "...Why'd you do it? Why'd you sacrifice yourself like that for us?" she asked quietly. "You had so much to--"

Veil was cut off however, as Havok regained consciousness. As much as his vision was extremely blurry, his hearing was working just fine and he had heard enough. Even as his voice sounded like it belonged to an old man, Havok made up for it with volume. "What the hell, Sapphire?! Get your ass over here so I can smack you for dying on me! Right after confessing love to me! Damnit!"

Sunshine was beaming, seeing that Sapphire was there. This had been one thing that she was looking forward to in particular - Casper could conjure up the dead, let them see them again. He could bring back Sapphire - he could even bring back Erg. As much as Sunshine decided she hated the X-Men and humans, she adored Sapphire even more. Sapphire was a martyr for mutants all across the world, a symbol of defiance against humanity. She wanted to know what Sapphire thought about Genosha.

And a small part of her wanted to know if Sapphire approved of her fiancée as well. "It's about time you showed up," she told Sapphire, her characteristic I-hate-you-but-I-really-love-you tone as strong as ever. It wasn't that different from the way she had greeted Max when he woke up again. Only in Max's case, Sunshine would never admit that she loved and cared about him - it would have been too embarrassing for her.

"Yes, yes, she's back from the dead, huzzah," Casper mumbled, his hands shaking slightly as he continued to allow Sapphire to pierce the veil. He would have preferred to talk about the weird sticky tennis ball thing that had flown into the room than go over the circumstances of a tragic death. He lived his life surrounded by dead people. With the exception of Ben, he preferred to keep his distance. And he didn't think that Sapphire was going to be the sort of ghost he wanted hanging over him all the time.

"You could be a little more tactful," Ben pointed out. "She just died."

"It's July, she's been dead for a while," Casper argued. "I don't think she wants to hang around here all day. She's probably got better things to do, like slapping Walt Disney around for not making Elsa a Disney Princess sooner!" His hands were shaking more and more. "Not to rush you or anything, Sapphire, but unless someone has a magic quarter, the meter's about to run out."

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Callie quickly got out of bed, just as Waverly ended up punching Dr. Nemesis in the face, it really wasnt a smart thing to do even though she wanted to do the same exact thing. "Waverly as much as I would love to do the same thing, please don't like Echo and Veil said we are better than that alright?" Callie said gently resting a hand on Waverly's shoulder Sapphire was a friend of hers, and Sapphire would have most likely punched him to. But Callie didnt want to piss off this Quiet Council or their doctor either really for that matter.

But they were a lot better than that as well to, and Veil was still processing what had happened to her best friend. She turned to look at Casper as he started to summon Sapphire himself seeing her ghostly form leaning up against an end table by Veil and Echo and gave her a sad smile. "I'm sorry for what happened Sapphire i'm glad to see you again.." She said to her Callie looked over towards Veil seeing her friend visible again just to see Sapphire again and Havok waking up and yelling at her for dying and hearing the door open and one of Zari's robotic friends came flying into her arms.

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Kristina winced slightly seeing Waverly punching Dr. Nemesis in the face, and threatening him which he proceeded to threaten her in return as well. She would have punched him herself but she was still to weak to get back up to her feet again, and eye blasting him wouldnt have been a smart idea either in a hospital. Callie had gotten up along with Echo to try and calm Waverly down as she leaned back resting her head against the pillow when she caught something glowing on the other side of the room leaning nearby Veil and Echo seeing and hearing Sapphire's voice.

Kris whipped some tears away from her eyes, Sapphire had saved her life twice now and now she was dead she wasnt sure how to thank her at all. "Thank you for saving me twice Sapphire, is there anyway I can repay you?" She asked she couldnt bring back the dead at all really and she wasnt sure if that was possible or not either. She watched as a door opened up and Zari's robot buddy came flying in and into Zari's arms which was actually pretty cute and made her smile a little bit.

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"Glad to see your personality isn't any different despite you being dead or whatever," Jack said towards Sapphire with a slight eye roll. A part of him wondered if she had more or less been wandering around Genosha as a bit of a ghost, or if she'd just been wherever dead people went afterwards that wasn't the land of the living. It was an interesting thing to think about, and part of him contemplated asking her, but figured now was not the time considering others were saying things to Sapphire now that she was back.

Zari now was paying attention and looked to see Sapphire the Ghost leaning against a table. "Wooooooooow, what's it like being dead? I always wondered..." she asked her instantly, not even seeming to care that the others seemed to be more concerned with the fact that Sapphire actually was dead, and clearly not living anymore. She had a few questions, since she didn't really know how things worked in the land of the dead, of course she always figured she'd end up in Valhalla when she died, but that was just her opinion.

"Wow, forgot that kid can be a bit blunt," Sapphire commented with a slight eye roll in Zari's direction, before commenting to Nemesis, "Relax this is not the place I'd haunt if I had a choice, can think of a few other places I'd go to first."

"Perhaps it might be better if you don't ask questions like that at the moment," Miranda said rather calmly to Zari. She didn't really know these people, at all. Any sort of previous interactions she had had with some of them in the past had been in an alternate reality. Actually she recalled a few people in the room, aside from the obvious of Jack and Casper, she had first met James, Max as well as Sapphire in that alternate reality. It was a bit sad that her second encounter with Sapphire was with her being dead and all.

"What? It was just an innocent question, everyone freaks out, a lot of people tend to fear death in some way, so wouldn't it be better for people to know ahead of time?" she asked. Zari didn't understand what the big deal was about her asking that question. It was just her wanting to be prepared for when she eventually did die. Was it so bad to be curious about how other people experienced things? Really people tended to over react a little bit when all you do is ask a simple question about death...

Sapphire turned her attention towards Veil now and shrugged, "Before you were rudely interrupted were you about to say "so much to live for"? Veil, think about it, we all would be dead if I didn't do something. And a lot more people would have died if I didn't react as quickly as I did. How many people do you think would have died if I just let that explosion go off? Aside from all of us, so just think about it, I was going to be dead anyway, so I thought I might as well try to do something about it and save all of you cause why not?" she said, before turning her attention towards Havok, giggling slightly, "You know you sound a bit like an old man, so maybe don't try and talk right now, and you need to get your ears checked, since I definitely did not say anything of the sort to you." She was lying, she knew that she was lying, but she definitely wasn't going to admit it.

Miranda was unsure of what to say in this group situation, since she was more of a bit of an outsider as opposed to someone who actually was a part of this group. So right now, she was remaining silent aside from her comments that were directed towards Zari specifically. Sapphire was an interesting person of sorts from what she knew, and from her interactions in the House of M reality. Though she wasn't sure if that was too much to go off of, considering people were different then their alternate reality counterparts.

"I will say, there is one thing, one thing that is bugging me somewhat. Since just going to be blunt about this, I was a little hesitant to freeze everyone, since I wasn't positive that everyone would survive, but I figured I could save as many of you as I could... There was only one person I wasn't sure would actually live through that cryo thing, and do you want to know who it was?" she commented, before motioning her hand in Jack's direction. "It's him, I am honestly surprised that Jack is standing there still breathing. Cause let me be blunt anyone else know what happens when you freeze rubber?"

"I already know the answer to that question, main reason I stay away from the cold," Jack said in response with a shrug. "When rubber freezes it tends to crack, and then it is very likely to shatter completely." He has had five months to think this sort of thing through, and even he didn't really know. He should be dead, he knows that he should be dead, so the question is why wasn't he? That was the thought process that was going through his brain since he woke up in that glade several months ago.

"Exactly, so how are you still breathing? Eh, maybe you just got lucky, who knows? But whatever," she added, before her attention turned to Kristina and her asking if there was anything she could do for her, "Aside from all you people stop being super upset that I'm dead? Since I'll be honest, that part is a little weird... What you can do for me is maybe contact a few of my friends who weren't part of the underground, since be amazed I had a few, most of them at this point are still at Serval last I checked, some of you met one of them anyway, Dr. Watts, and let them know that I'm not living, and you said you have a sister in SHIELD at one point... A good friend of mine works there to, Agent Flynn, he helped me out of a scrape a while ago, just let them know that I kicked the bucket would be really helpful to me."

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Waverley half expected all the fear to flood back into her as soon as the immediate consequences of her actions reared their ugly head, but even as the menacing man straightened out and released an evil laugh, she couldn't find it in herself to care. A small smile spread across her lips as she realized this, her eyes turning down towards her knuckles. She flexed her hand, gazing at the evidence of bruising that was starting to show. Her stare was broken when she felt the soft hand of Callie, causing her to glance up. She was about to respond to her, when a bright blue glow filled the room, stealing Waverley's attention. Sapphire. Waverley's expression softened, her smile widening, becoming warmer as it did.

"Good work, Sapph. You saved the day," Waverley said, filling the few words with all the sentiment welled up in her for her deceased teammate. She gave the woman a small nod, doing her best to convey that just because she was leaving most of the fussing to the other members of the Underground didn't mean she didn't care. She knew that the others needed the closure more than she did. As soon as Sapphire mentioned her old friends, Waverley gave a nod. "You got it. Kristina can contact her sister, I'll get in touch with the Doc," she promised, reaching to her backpack, only to find it wasn't there. Right, all they had was their weird scifi bodysuits. Lovely. She turned to look at the two older women, purposefully asking them over Nemesis. "Um, do you know where our stuff is? I need my laptop to contact Watts."

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Max watched Waverly closely after her attack on Nemesis. His eyes slowly darting back and forth between her and Nemesis, to see how he would react towards the sudden assault. They occasionally glanced at the others who spoke, but only for a minute second before focusing back to his main two interests. He didn't know Nemesis, but with a name like that, he could very well be trusted to take the hit lightly. Almost as if to confirm all of Max's suspicions, the good doctor began to laugh a maniacal laugh. It practically screamed villain, and if he wasn't then it was a very unfortunate laugh to have.

Max watched as Waverly flexed her hand, much the same way he did when he was feeling out his powers moments ago. He wondered if she would be going in for another hit, but then noticed the bruising forming on her hand. He figured if Nemesis' eye was robotic, then perhaps there was a metal casing surrounding it that Waverly had hit. Max didn't trust her not to punch him if he got too close, so from his distance he decided to try and do something he hadn't done in months.

Max curled his fingers as if he was holding an invisible wine glass, and then turned his hand and extended it towards Waves. His magic flowed from the palm of his hand, towards his fingertips, and finally it glided through the air and surrounded Waverlys hand, settling down on the bruised patches and beginning to heal her until it was all gone and the pain was nothing more than a phantom. He stared at his hand once more, almost afraid at how easy this had all been so far. A knot forming in his throat.

Before Max could think anymore of it, Sapphire had appeared, and was back to her usual self. Well with a more spectral self than usual but her attitude had hardly changed. Veil was clearly broken over the news, Javon following suit. One by one members began to thank Sapphire or express their sorrow for her passing in one way or another. The knot in Max's throat only grew larger and tighter and for a moment he thought he felt sorrow. But instantly he realized what the emotion was…guilt. Not for surviving, but because he didn't feel anything about Sapphires passing. He wasn't as sad as everyone else was, even Kristina, someone who recently joined, had more nice things to say than Max could think of. Casper was the only one who seemed to want to brush it all off, and Max was with him on that front. Sapphire did what anyone in the Underground would've done if they had the chance, and he wasn't going to feel bad about it.

Sapphire had pointed out the issue with having frozen Jack, and Max began to wonder about that as well now. There were so many things that had changed with that man in such a short span of time that Max was getting worried all over again about the incident with Sunshine. He looked over towards her and wondered if Jack had tried to do anything while everyone else was gone, he doubted James would let anything happen to her but the thought still clung to him.

Max only came back as Waverly brought up the missing possessions, something that Max hadn't fully considered with all the new information that was being thrown their way. He worried about two items in particular that he hadn't wanted anyone to see. The black book that Dr. Strange had given him, and the spellbook he had found on Magneto's Island. "I would also like to know where our stuff is."

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Harry held onto his sister as long as he could. Frustrated at how some of the others were acting and wondering how some of them could be so callous. He didn't care for everyone who practically cheered Waverly on for hitting someone, as if violence was anything to be rewarded when others were grieving. He knew that everyone showed grief in their own ways, and if Waverlys was violence then that was one thing, but for others to publicly applaud her while his sister was breaking down before him and had asked for a simple temporary truce? It made his stomach churn.

Harry looked up at Casper as he began to glow blue, something he'd only seen him do a few times before when summoning Ben. He wasn't sure if now was the time or place for his sassy gay ghost friend, but if there was one thing Harry learned it was the impossibility to stop Casper unless you were a sweet caring man named James. When Sapphire appeared his heart almost stopped. The melody he was humming was caught in his throat as he looked on and wondered how Veil would react to this. On one hand Harry was glad she could get closer, on the other he worried it could create a decency on Casper to see her more often.

Harry let go of his sister slowly, allowing her to move forward if she needed to, to hug his sister's friends spectral form if that's what she needed to close this chapter in her life. He was glad to see she didn't seem to mind her death too much, happy that she was telling others to move on from the grief. It was one thing to hear it from family, it was all another to hear it from the one who had passed away. Harry gave Veil a nod, as if telling her it'll be OK and that he'd be here for her when she's ready, and with that he let her go completely.

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When James held her hand for a moment Andy felt her muscles start to feel better. It probably was going to take some time to get back to peak fighting performance. But what he said felt like a bit of a gut punch. She had missed her birthday. As much as she had wanted to find something to do to not think about the day and that this was the first birthday since the Drummonds had died. It felt like she had been robbed that day of mourning. The others were talking with their dead friend. Andy just gave her a small wave and nod. Everyone else had said anything she might have.

She looked at Doctor Nemesis, proud of Waves for punching him. She wasn't surprised he was evil. With a name like Doctor Nemesis what else could he be. "Waves, I can teach you some boxing techniques if you'd like." She offered, and added, "I'd like my jacket back." She didn't care if it was 100 degrees outside she wanted it back. It had been Ash's.

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James released a long-suffering sigh from Andy’s bedside, fingers pinching the bridge of his nose, as Waverly all but launched herself at the Doctor. Just freshly awoken and healed, the first thing someone, anyone did, was launch the offensive. He should have expected it honestly. Waverly wouldn’t have been his first bet—she suffered Max all this time and hadn’t put him in the ground yet—but apparently five months in cryostasis changed a woman. James decided he didn’t want anything to do with this conflict. Sunshine certainly had plenty of time to help him understand how poorly received his meddling was and wasn’t quite ready to burn bridges with the doctor who helped him save everyone. He had enough headaches to juggle anyways so he turned his attention to the next person that needed a pick up.

And then his stupidly beautiful boyfriend decided to one up Waverly.

James froze at Sapphire’s voice, the hand reaching for Kristina stopping halfway as every muscle in his body tensed. Nothing could eclipse the relief and excitement that accompanied the Mutant Underground’s awakening but James couldn’t deny that Sapphire’s reappearance threatened to overwhelm the incredibly fragile mental balancing act James had learned to maintain in the time the Underground had been sleeping. He wasn’t ready to face the feelings, or lack thereof, he harbored about Sapphire’s death and hearing her was almost more than he could handle so instead, he ignored her. She was there, he couldn’t do anything about that, but he could do his damndest to focus on his work. He reached out like the others, took her hand, and let his healing factor get to work.

Once he’d finished Kristina, he moved quickly between Zari and Havok. He didn’t really know Zari, the little techno gremlin as aggressive as Sunshine, but Havok… was someone James really didn’t know how to face. At the time, James had been murderously frustrated with the idiot, pointlessly endangering the Mutant Underground because the woman he loved couldn’t possibly want to leave him. That James hadn’t known what it was like to have the one you loved right in front of you but not able to do anything about it. He couldn’t claim he’d have acted any more rationally that he had.

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Nemesis looked almost offended at Sapphire dismissing the hospital as a potential place to haunt - he didn't want her to haunt it, but he also didn't like the idea that she didn't want to haunt it. It was like someone had just called his baby ugly. "You'd be lucky to be able to haunt a facility of this grandeur," he argued, turning his nose up slightly, attempting to heal his damaged pride.

Veil stared at Sapphire, at a complete loss for words. She didn't know how to respond to that. She didn't know what she could argue. She couldn't be mad at Sapphire for what she had done - Sapphire had saved them all. She had been able to react fast enough to save them when no one else could have. No, Veil wasn't mad at Sapphire for what she had done - if anything, she felt guilty. She should have been the one to sacrifice herself. Not Sapphire. Sapphire should have been alive, able to pine after that SHIELD agent she was obsessed with. What was the point in fighting for a new world if no one was alive to live in it? And apparently, there was a mutant nation now... the Mutant Underground was obsolete.

"My brain may feel like a soggy microwaved burrito, but I know what you said!" Havok shouted. James had healed him up, so he got on up and walked on over to Sapphire's ghost, getting within inches of her.

Renegade was curiously silent with the topic change as to how her son, Jack, was still alive - as if she knew something that the rest of them didn't. Sunshine, however, tilted her head, thinking it through. She had never really played with silly putty as a child - most of her toys had been made out of scraps and trash. Her favorite toy growing up had been a plastic spoon she had found in a parking lot - only to then be almost replaced by a trampled on Happy Meal toy some kid had tossed away. She had seen silly putty in commercials though on TV in juvi and she tried to imagine it freezing, figuring it was something like Jack, and she then understood Sapphire's point.

"Fantastic, another secret my sperm donor is keeping from me, praise the gods," Sunshine muttered, crossing her arms. She wanted to be happy to have Sapphire back, but instead she was just feeling irritated with her father. She hadn't meant it when she had told him she didn't want him to be a father - she had been feeling angry and emotional. But Sunshine had too much pride to take it back - and she also figured she'd be grumpy and emotional again and change her mind once again. But it didn't matter. Her fiancée and her were going to start their own family from scratch - no humans allowed.

Veil was crying softly, but she couldn't help but laugh ever so slightly as Sapphire asked for Agent Flynn to be told about her death. Sapphire was a bit of a player - confessing her love to Havok, now denying it, and asking for someone to tell another crush of hers she was gone. "You and that fucking agent," Veil said, shaking her head. "You really want to hit that," she added, not even phrasing it as a question or anything. She turned her head to her brother, still crying a bit. "She's really obsessed with him. It's a lot."

"I don't know where your things are," Nemesis shrugged. "I'm not your nanny."

"Ah got 'em at my place, figured they'd be safe there - although I know some kids have been trying ta take some things out for a spin, like the robots," Renegade answered.

Meanwhile, Casper hadn't been kidding about only having a little bit more juice left in him. He couldn't indefinitely channel someone - having Sapphire hang around was easy, having her visible to everyone else? That was difficult. And he didn't dislike her or anything, he just never had really been friends with her. It was selfish of him, but he just didn't feel a need to grieve and mourn. She had saved his life and he was thankful for that, so he was giving her this chance to say goodbye. But at the same time, people died all the time - it was part of life. He lived with death ever since his mutation activated.

No one had called him out on it, but his dismissive behavior and selfish choices were eerily similar to his father's. It was probably for the best that no one had mentioned it. Casper would have lost his shit. "Have fun in ghost Hawaii or wherever!" Casper wished, waving slightly at Sapphire. She was flickering in and out already and then suddenly, she was gone. Well, she wasn't gone from Casper's view - just from everyone else's.

"Are you leaving? Or hanging around?" Ben asked Sapphire, wondering if he'd have company.

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Callie looked at Waverly for a moment satisfied for now that she wouldnt end up punching the doctor again, she made her way over towards Veil and gently rested a hand on her friend's shoulder. She still felt personally responsible for Sapphire's death, sighing slightly as she listened to Sapphire talking and her denying that she loved Havok was kind of funny. She looked towards Veil for a moment and thought about trying to manipulate her emotions to make her feel better, but decided that it would be a bad idea unless Veil told her to do it then she would without a problem.

She then started to see Sapphire flickering in and out knowing that her time was most likely done now and knowing that Casper wouldnt be able to channel her forever. "We'll see each other again Sapphire." Callie said waving goodbye to her friend knowing that they all would end up dying someday. The one woman Renegade had all of their things apparently which was a good thing then, she turned to look at Veil once more. "It'll be alright." Callie said as she went down and gave her a gentle hug.

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Kristina looked towards James as he approached her and started to heal her feeling the strength coming back to her limbs as she started to move them more freely now. "Thank you." Kris said towards James as she slowly started to get out of her bed just to stretch her legs, after being frozen for a second time for months she wanted to get moving a bit. Her attention turned towards Sapphire mentioning someone named Flynn and nodded towards her. "I can pass the message to her, and let her know for sure." Kristina said, she never really did get to meet any of her sister's teammates except for her sister's wife once.

She watched as Sapphire started to flicker in and out of reality. "Thank you again." Kris told Sapphire before she ended up disappearing from view. She did need to get her things back as Renegade mentioned that she had their things. Sighing in relief that her things were with the woman. She looked towards Veil for a moment seeing her mourning for her friend still made her feel sad and wanted to help her but she couldnt really.

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"Nope, no idea what you are talking about." she responded simply to Havok. "See you all later though," she added, before she blinked out.

Jack looked over at Sunshine, letting out a bit of a sigh when she seemed to lash out at the fact, "I don't know anything, otherwise I would have said something by now. So how about you just drop it for right now okay? Other things are going on and all," he said instantly to her. It wasn't that he didn't really want anyone else to question it or think it was weird, no, it was more along the fact that he tended to do better on his own working out questions and problems. At the moment that was the mystery that was bugging him the most, and no one was willing to help him out at all.

Zari was not thrilled to hear that some others had the nerve to mess with her robots. "Okay, who do I need to stab to get them to stay away from my robots!" she said instantly, looking over at Renegade, clearly not too thrilled at the idea of anyone aside from her messing with her robots. They were her things, not to mention the fact that she had made those robots with her mom, she didn't want anyone breaking or damaging them even though she could fix them easily.

"Calm down, there is no need for that. They just tend to be curious that is all," Miranda said rather calmly. Zari definitely seemed like the person to her who didn't really care about the rules or anything like that, she might cause trouble in her mind. Of course, she seemed a bit on the naïve side, and not so much of anything else. She was still just a child after all, so it was understandable that she'd want to keep her things as hers and not let anyone else mess with them.

"No, there is a need for it if people are going to be messing with my robots! They are mine and no one elses! Unless someone is actually declared dead then they have no reason to be messing with my stuff, so yeah, there is a need to argue about it!" she protested, clearly more then a little bit pissed off now that people weren't able to understand why it was that she didn't want anyone touching her things. In her mind violence was the proper answer, it was sort of the way she had grown up with people easily fighting each other for things as opposed to talking matters over.

Well at least some people were somewhat drawing the attention away from him. The whole thing about him still being alive was something that he thought about a lot. Of course the chaos that Zari was causing probably wasn't the best thing in the world, but it meant he could go back into his own little thought bubble and ignore the others. Yeah, he wanted to find the answers to his questions on his own, he really didn't want to have anyone help him. Jack felt like he needed to do this on his own.

"I know you don't want others messing with your things, but violence might not be the best option still," the girl was clearly going to be a bit of a handful. Of course, Miranda wasn't too sure what to exactly do at this point, she knew that Ellie knew something about how her son was still there, which seemed to have become the other talking point, but it wasn't too surprising that Ellie didn't really want to share. She herself had more or less been told not to try and help out with that problem for some strange reason. "Perhaps we can take them to get their things Renegade? That is if they are all feeling better."

"Eh, maybe, might be amusing to watch Waverly talking to Watts, the guy is beyond rude, maybe I should have said try and get a hold of Andrew, he's a whole lot nicer, but they haven't met him so figured mention someone they knew." she said to Ben, walking away from where Havok had more or less gotten in her face, "And Casper, I hated Hawaii, it is so over rated, plus a whole lot of bad memories there."

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"I might have to take you up on that," Waves replied to Andy with a snort, giving one last shake of her bruised knuckles. She winced a little bit when the woman mentioned their things being at her place, specifically the bit about Zari's robots. She knew what was coming even before it came, and within seconds, Zari was chewing out the mystery woman as if she weren't old enough to be her mother. Waverley looked over to Z, deciding it'd be best to try to calm her down before she did something reckless, like, say, punch one of the people who had helped bring them back. "Dude, you're a super genius. There's nothing some kid could do to your robots that you couldn't fix." Ego stroking always worked with Waverley's own genius sister, who had a lot in common with Zari, though admittedly her arrogance was far more prevalent than that of the time travelling Valkyrie. She then looked over to Casper as the glow left his eyes.

"Is there a ghost Hawa-" she began to ask, but her words quickly trailed off as she felt a strange feeling in her knuckles, the disappearing of pain. She looked down, seeing a soft magical hue surrounding her fist. She didn't have to follow it to know whose magic it was, but she did anyway, her eyes landing on Max waggling his fingers away as he worked his magic. Her gaze shifted into a puzzled glare, as if she was trying to figure out a riddle that didn't make any sense. And in a way, she was. She had a picture of Max concrete in her mind, one that was admittedly contradictory, though she didn't like to admit it. She saw him as something both chaotic and conniving, someone who was constantly scheming, always working towards some self-serving goal, but someone who was completely unpredictable, even to himself. So as her eyes burned into him, she tried to discern why it was he healed her, what end did that get him to? Was he just trying to win her over so stabbing her in the back would be easier later? Or was it more complex than that. She pondered on it for a good half a minute, staring at him, before eventually letting out a sigh and breaking the stare. She forced herself to get over her annoyance at not being able to figure out Max's agenda as her gaze fell upon Veil.

"You good to go get our stuff, or do you need a bit more time?" she asked, her voice soft, trying to be comforting.