throughaphase | The helicarrier- Tuesday

Kitty	They'd picked up quite a few people by now, though it didn't seem like nearly enough to Kitty. They'd gotten Spider-Man, Luke Cage, Cloak and Felicia Hardy before Clint and Kitty, then found Matt Murdock, Jennifer Walters, Tony Stark, Stephen Strange and Carol Danvers on the way. No one had any idea where Peter was, though it really bothered Kitty that he was the only one of her team missing. Getting ambushed by a SHIELD team consisting of Jessica Drew, Mystique, Kurt and Rogue had led to them getting pulled along, more or less on accident when Layla had freaked out and Rogue absorbed her powers. The SHIELD crew had proved to be a blessing, though, in that Jessica was able to get them access to the helicarrier, where Emma kept the agents on board from seeing them even when they were out in the open. So for now, they had huddled into the lunchroom, grabbing food and taking the time to rest up as they flew towards Genosha. People were talking quietly amongst themselves, or making what were probably very ill-advised calls, and then there was Rogue glaring at Layla, and Hawkeye glaring at everyone. Especially his AU face. Kitty waited till people were more or less otherwise occupied, then sat down next to Clint and asked, "How are you holding up?"
Clint	"I'm okay," Clint said, more occupied with looking around than eating at the moment. "Does the other me always look so angry? I mean, I know that I look angry sometimes when I'm really just thinking, but it's weird seeing that look on an actual person's face."
Kitty	"No, he doesn't," Kitty said, glancing over at the other him. "Word is he hasn't let his memory be restored. And when you hear you've come back from the dead, and the person who killed you is the same one who screwed up the world... I'd probably look angry, too."
Clint	"I bet it's not just that. It'd be one thing if this was all Loki, or some other bad guy deliberately trying to screw things up. But Wanda's an Avenger. Getting killed by someone who tries to kill you on a regular basis is one thing, but getting killed by a teammate... and now she's being used, which means she needs our help. But she's a killer, and there's no telling how much she's being used. It's complicated enough for me, and I'm not the one who actually died." Clint looked over at the other him and sighed, then smiled softly and reached for Kitty's hand. "How are you doing?"
Kitty	To start with, she was kind of hoping he didn't notice that she hadn't figured out what to do with the ring yet and had left it on. "My whole brain's in a weird place, but I'm better off than a lot of people here," she said. "And I'm starting to see why people wanted to put Wanda down."
Clint	Clint didn't always notice things that were right in front of him, but he did see the ring. He wasn't going to say anything though, because he didn't exactly mind seeing it on her. "Putting her down isn't the answer," Clint said. "If Magneto is using her, then it's not her fault. She just... someone's got to talk to her, or reason with her, or something. Killing her is a waste."
Kitty	"I'm not disagreeing with you," Kitty began. "But that's why they called the X-Men over there, to figure out what to do about her. The professor's not sure he's helping at all, she's not stable, and if she can rewrite reality on a whim, some people think she's too dangerous to have around. And those people have some pretty damning evidence now as to why they're right."
Clint	"She's definitely dangerous. But... there's got to be a way that doesn't involve killing," Clint said quietly. "I don't think I'll ever be okay with that. If nothing else, she's got a lot to apologize for."
Kitty	"She's also not exactly in her right mind. We went to find her to see what she wanted. I guess Magneto thought we were going to kill her and this was the response," Kitty said. "At any rate, I think the time for debate might be over if Logan and Emma have any say in it."
Clint	"Oh yeah, and those are definitely the people we want to listen to about anything," Clint muttered. "What do you think we should do?"
Kitty	"I've been insisting that it's wrong and we shouldn't do it," she answered. "But I'm not even sure it's going to matter. If we put the world back right, and it gets out that a mutant can do this, my entire race is screwed."
Clint	"I didn't think about that," Clint said, giving Kitty's hand a squeeze. "You guys have enough problems, you don't need this on top. It's weird to think how this morning we didn't think we had problems at all."
Kitty	"Oh, the flower arrangements were a problem, trust me," Kitty said with a little smile, squeezing his hand back. "And here we are, saving the world again." Maybe.
Clint	"Well, if there's anyone I trust to save the world, it's us. And maybe Cap. He's pretty good at it too," Clint said.
Emma	With the SHIELD agents still blissfully ignoring what was going on, Emma telepathically interrupted all of her team's conversations to be sure she had their attention. "Magneto convinced or forced his mentally ill daughter to turn the world into his own image. To pull this off, he has betrayed his friend Charles Xavier by drugging or in some way coercing the most powerful mutant psychic on the planet to dig into our minds and give us our heart's desire. Or something close enough where we would be pacified and happy. Content to live Magneto's dream. Xavier is the only psychic powerful enough to do this. The only one with the Cerebro technology wide enough to reach the world if he needed to... or was forced to. And he's missing. Gone. Never existed." She looked around the group. Is there anyone in this room who doubts that's what happened?" What Emma got was silence, though there didn't seem to be anyone doubting that. Except for one. "Hawkeye, I can hear your thoughts loud and clear," she said. "The only way you'll believe us is if you'll let Layla do what she does and unlock your memories of your life before this one."
Doctor Strange	"Clint, you don't have to do anything you don't want to," Doctor Strange said immediately.
Hawkeye	"What I want," Hawkeye snapped, "is for this mutant to get out of my head!"
Clint	"Hey!" Clint said, because two snapping Hawkeyes was exactly what this situation needed. "Look, I know it sucks having someone in your head, believe me. But she can't help it, and she's just trying to help. Everyone's just trying to help."
Hawkeye	"You know what really helps? My replacement telling me what to do!" Hawkeye shot back. Now he was getting into an argument with his own face. Today was going just great.
Clint	"I'm not your replacement. I have my own world to go back to. But I also have someone I care about who lives in this one, and that's why I give a crap," Clint said. "And I know you give a crap too and that you want to help, even if you're doing a bad job of showing it right now."
Hawkeye	The problem here was that Hawkeye couldn't really argue against that, but he also wasn't going to sit down and play nice, especially if Emma could read his thoughts. So instead, he turned and stalked out of the room. It was not the first time he'd ragequit anything, so everyone probably expected he'd be back.
Clint	"He'll be back," Clint said, in case anyone didn't already know that. "It's a... universal Hawkeye thing, apparently." Sorry Kitty, at least you were sort of used to it.
Scott	Scott sighed, and tried to bring things back on track. "Okay, listen up," he said. "I want to talk to you all for a second. I've been team leader of the X-Men since I was a teenager, and in that time I've always prided myself on my tactical restraint. Taking a moral high ground where violence is concerned. But today, there's no other way to say it. If we fail here, if we lose... we lose everything. Everything we have ever believed in, every fight we've ever fought, every battle... It'll all be- It'll all have meant nothing. So I'm saying that whatever restraint or personal boundaries you usually put on yourself in the name of good or right... Well, I think there's no place for any of that here in the fight we have in front of us. We can't lose this. We have to win. And to do that... you, all of you, are going to have to fight without any restraint. Does anyone disagree?"
Spider-Man	"But- wait, wait," Spider-Man spoke up. "I'm sorry, I want to know... are we going to try to put the world back? Can we put the world back? Or is it too late?"
Emma	"We'll know when we get there," Emma replied from where she'd taken a seat with Layla curled up next to her.
Ms. Marvel	"What if we try- and we don't?" Ms. Marvel asked. "Do we have to live here? In this? Like this? Being the only ones that know the truth? Or do we tell people?"
Emma	"We'll know when we get there," Emma repeated, more pointedly this time.
Kitty	"And are we supposed to do this?" Kitty wondered.
Felicia Hardy	"Supposed to do what, Kitty?" Felicia asked.
Kitty	"Doesn't trying to put the world back after what's happened seem just as bad as what's been done to it?" Kitty pointed out. "This isn't like stopping a bomb from going off. The bomb's already gone off. We might make it worse."
Clint	"Hopefully, when we put things back the way they're supposed to be, we can stop the bomb from going off," Clint said. "Or is that just wishful thinking?"
Kitty	"Probably wishful thinking," Kitty said apologetically. "I mean, what we experienced when we realized our lives were a lie... What if we put everything back and that happens to everyone in the world?"
Clint	"I think that's exactly what's going to happen. And yeah, it sucked, but it was better than continuing to live a life that wasn't ours," Clint said. "And if it happens to everyone, humanity might have some solidarity for once."
Kitty	"We had it easy, Clint. If things change back, I lose my dad again. And I'm prepared for that," she said. Wasn't even the second time that had happened. "But what about all the people who aren't prepared for that? What happens to the people who died and came back, like the other you? And the solidarity humanity gets will be against mutantkind, and they'd be right for it for once."
Clint	"Okay, okay you're right," Clint said, putting his hands up defensively. "I didn't think about it that way and--you're right, I'm sorry. It's you guys who will have to deal with the fallout, so it's your decision."
Jessica Drew	"I mean, who's being hurt here, exactly?" Jessica asked thoughtfully. "Magneto got what he wanted. But so did we. Isn't it a wash? Weren't we happier here? I was. I think I was. Wasn't everybody? They gave us what we always wanted, and isn't there an argument that we deserved to get this? To be happy for once?"
Logan	"One day, Jess," Logan said, "you're going to be really embarrassed you said that out loud."
Jessica	"Stop," Jessica said. "Just listen. My point is- when something of this magnitude happens, you have to step back for a second and say maybe it was time for this to happen. Who are we to decide how the world's supposed to be? When the meteors hit the Earth and destro a species, it's natural selection, right? Like Kitty said, a meteor just hit the Earth! Mabe this is how mutants become the dominant species. I don't know... maybe this was the time for this to happen."
Logan	"That's two things you're gonna be embarrassed you said out loud," Logan told her.
Jessica	"Translation: you don't know if you're right and it scares the crap out of you," Jessica said. "And it should."
Emma	"We have to try," Emma insisted. "We have to find Xavier."
Spider-Man	Spider-Man had had enough of the discussion, much of which hit way too close to home. He had a kid here, a Gwen and an Uncle Ben who were alive and fine. He couldn't really deal with this right now. "Excuse me," he said, making his way towards the exit.
Kitty	"I've never seen him like this," Kitty said, concerned. Most of the time when you saw Spider-Man around, he was usually quipping. Depressed Spidey was not okay.
Luke Cage	"Give him a minute," Luke said. "He'll get it together."
Scott	There was about a half a moment of blissed silence, and Scott asked, "Everybody done? Okay. We're going to need three teams..."

[NFB, NFI, OOC just fine. Adapted from House of M #5 & 6, and preplayed with the lovely

so_hawkward!]