Chapter 115 – WHERE ARE WE?!

The sky over the ruins of what was once New York lay cloaked in ash and gloom. The skyline, once a testament to human progress, was now shattered, jagged steel and burned concrete like the bones of a corpse. Towering Sentinels drifted silently across the blackened clouds, their sensors sweeping for any trace of mutant life. They did not speak. They did not hesitate. They existed only to destroy.

Far beneath the city’s surface, hidden in the foundations of a forgotten subway line, the last remnants of the X-Men gathered in the bunker that had become their home, and their tomb.

Charles Xavier sat in silence near the center of the room, a dim blue light illuminating his withered face. His eyes were closed, not in rest, but in communion. His psychic reach, once able to span the globe, now barely touched the broken fragments of minds scattered across the continent. Even hope had become difficult to sense.

Opposite him stood Erik Lehnsherr, known once to the world as Magneto. His face, still strong, was marked with time. The metal in the room shifted gently around him, ever alert, as though ready to strike should the silence break.

“It was 1973,” Charles said quietly. His voice cracked like dried paper. “That’s where it all went wrong.”

Erik said nothing.

“They didn’t kill her,” Charles continued, eyes still shut. “Mystique. Raven. They captured her. And they studied her. Dissected her.”

“Her genome,” Erik said, his voice like rusted steel. “The perfect mimic. She could adapt. Change. They must have realized it could be copied.”

Charles opened his eyes, and they were filled with something beyond sorrow—shame. “They extracted her DNA. And from it, they created the Sentinels. Not the clumsy metal beasts of the early years. These ones… adapt. They transform. They predict. They evolve mid-combat.”

Magneto's jaw clenched. “Weapons that learn. Because of us.”

Charles nodded. “Because of her. Because of me. Because I couldn’t see what was coming. Because I wanted peace. Because I hoped.”

“They built them to stop us. But then they decided… why wait?” Magneto's voice turned darker. “They now target anyone who might give birth to mutants. Anyone carrying a single deviant gene, even if they were not yet awakened, humanity are near extinction.”

Charles bowed his head. “They no longer hunt us. They hunt the future.”

Before either could say more, the reinforced bunker doors opened with a hiss of pressure. Logan stepped in first, claws sheathed but his presence like a drawn blade. His body bore new scars, layered over old ones. Behind him, Storm entered, her white hair dusted with ash. Then Kitty Pryde, ever alert, followed by Bobby, better known as Iceman, alongside Blink, Bishop, Colossus, Sunspot, and Warpath. The last of the resistance.

“They’re sweeping Sector Twelve,” Kitty said, already checking her handheld scanner. “Dozens of Sentinels.”

“No change in pattern,” Storm added. “They’re herding survivors into kill zones.”

Bobby scowled. “It’s like they’re farming extinction.”

Charles looked up. “Have we lost communication with the Shanghai cell?”

“Three days,” Blink said. “We think they’re gone.”

Silence fell. The room, for all its people, felt hollow.

“They’ve already won,” Bishop growled, resting his hand on his rifle. “We’re just ghosts.”

A low tremor suddenly shook the bunker. Dust fell from the ceiling.

“What was that?” Colossus asked, already stepping toward the surface hatch.

Then another tremor. This one stronger, followed by a low thrum, like something ripping through the sky. A faint, rising vibration filled the metal walls.

Above the city, clouds churned unnaturally. Something cracked across the heavens like thunder made of glass.

Then the sky tore open.

It was not a meteorological event. This was wrong. A massive rupture opened in the upper atmosphere, jagged and circular, glowing in radiant hues of blue and violet. Reality twisted like a vortex, as if gravity itself had been rewritten.

And from it… five blazing objects fell.

Comets, but not. Burning like stars, they screamed through the sky, trailing contrails of green fire and furnace-bright sparks. The air split. The earth shook. And the city broke.

The X-Men scrambled. Above ground, Logan led the charge. The team emerged from the bunker into the wasteland cityscape just in time to see the impacts, five colossal shockwaves smashing into abandoned streets, sending blackened debris soaring for blocks.

Silence followed.

Ash drifted again like snow.

Then… they rose.

From five steaming craters, giants emerged. Armored figures in emerald green plate, each the size of a tank and built like a god of war. Their armor bore the mark of flame. Their weapons, old and terrible. Their presence, impossible.

One stepped forward. Steam hissed from his back vents. His helmet’s eye lenses burned like embers.

Magneto narrowed his eyes.

Xavier reached out mentally, and recoiled, as if touching a star. These were not mutants. Not like humans. Not anything from this Earth. Their minds were cold and disciplined, forged in fire and code. Weapons given thought.

The lead figure turned his head toward the small group of survivors.

His voice, like thunder over a battlefield.

“Where… are we?”

The X-Men stared up in awe and uncertainty.

A new chapter had just begun. And Earth would never be the same.

Ps:this is more like an AU of the x men.