The Scott and Jean Archives
The Celestials watch over earth 2.7 million years ago when homo sapiens were just a species fighting for its survival. But they are not to intervene.
In the not too distant past, the X-Men are visited by the Evolutionaries. Xavier makes a quick mental assessment of each of his students’ reaction, and telepathically commands Cyclops to “keep the others in line” if they rebel.
Xavier introduces himself and his X-Men, stating that they exist to “protect both mutantkind and humanity”. They seek to “coexist” with and not exterminate homo sapiens.
The Evolutionaries disagree with Xavier’s point of view and they tell him to prepare for the worst if they are to triumph over homo sapiens because mutantkind will inherit a planet that is endangered by humankind. They are not concerned with morals, and warn the X-Men if they don't strike first, the humans will “attempt to kill [them] all”.
Iceman is upset that the Evolutionaries are implying they kill all humans, including their family and friends, and attacks the Evolutionaries. But the X-Men are no match for the Evolutionaries’ superior powers. And the Evolutionaries are only defending themselves and not attacking the X-Men as their purpose is to preserve mutantkind.
Beast is able to get close to one of the Evolutionaries and smashes his helmet, only to reveal a being less alien than expected; a being that resembles an early human. Xavier commands his X-Men to cease the fight, and telepathically retrains them. He pleas with the Evolutionaries to spare the lives of humankind, but they reject his opinion. They do not believe that Xavier is the true leader of mutantkind and leave in search of “the leader of mutantkind”.
The Evolutionaries warned of the dark future that lay ahead for mutantkind and as the X-Men had not heeded their warning, humankind “engineered [mutantkind’s] destruction” and even tried to “stop evolution itself”.
In the present, the Evolutionaries arrive to tell Cyclops that they were right and that the X-Men should have eliminated humankind when they had the chance. The Evolutionaries fail to see how mutantkind claims to have thrived, seeing as how one of the original X-Men they visited all those years ago, Marvel Girl is now dead, and “by a mutant’s hand”. Cyclops tells the Evolutionaries that Jean “died defending Xavier’s dream”.
Cyclops commands his team to stand down and not fight the Evolutionaries, while he comes up with a plan. He has the telepaths relay his commands to the team and has the lab extract his memories of the Evolutionaries. He is convinced that Jean had a hand in helping him remember. Cyclops tries to explain to the Evolutionaries that despite the ” great and horrible losses”, mutantkind as a species is still alive. He is still hopeful they will survive.
The Evolutionaries deem Cyclops as an unsuitable leader for mutantkind and start attacking the X-Men. But the attacks are not lethal, and Cyclops suspects that the Evolutionaries are trying to get to Magneto. Just as they did so years before when they rejected Xavier as the leader of mutantkind.
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