"Vanished overnight?"

"What the hell does that even mean?"

The words echoed in the tense room, as if the walls themselves were struggling to contain the shock. Mutants glanced at one another, searching for answers in each other's faces, but finding only mirrored disbelief.

They had assumed gone meant exterminated—wiped out by some great war or cataclysm, an enemy too terrible to name.

But this… this was something else entirely.

One moment, everything was normal.

The next—poof.

An entire people erased without a ripple, leaving behind only empty homes, cold streets, and unanswered questions.

"What about Alex?"

Raven's voice sliced through the silence, low and urgent. Her sharp gaze pinned the two time travelers, as if daring them to say he had fallen. Surely someone as powerful as Alex would have survived, would have fought back.

"Homelander disappeared along with the rest."

Tony's words were casual, but the weight behind them was anything but. They landed like a physical blow, drawing a faint twitch from Alex's brow.

So… he hadn't participated in the Infinity War at all. Not in their timeline. That piece of history had played out without him.

"Stark. Rogers." Alex's voice cut like steel, cold and immovable.

"Tell me everything you know about Krakoa's disappearance. Every detail. Every rumor. Leave nothing out."

"Oh, this is rich."

Tony gave a crooked smirk, though it faltered slightly under the scrutiny of a room full of superpowered eyes. Blood still dripped slowly from his split lip, staining his goatee.

"You beat us half to death, and now you're asking for help? Why would we even—"

"Stark." Alex leaned forward, the faintest curve of a smile on his lips, but there was nothing warm in his expression.

"If you ever want to see your timeline again, you'll start talking."

The air seemed to grow heavier.

"Tony."

Steve's voice was firm, his eyes hard with the unspoken truth: Alex was right. As much as it burned his pride, they had no leverage here. With his abilities, Alex could strand them in this timeline forever. And if they refused?

Steve's gaze flicked to Emma Frost, who stood in the corner like an ice sculpture given life. They all knew she could tear the answers from their minds in seconds.

Better to talk than to test the limits of their captor's patience.

"Homelander, I'll tell you what I know."

Steve exhaled slowly, his jaw tight.

"But the truth is… we have no idea what happened."

A pause.

"It wasn't just Krakoa. Every mutant on Earth vanished at the same time."

The murmurs that followed were low, uneasy—like the growl of a storm building on the horizon.

That only made the mystery worse.

Alex's temple throbbed faintly. For the first time since his rebirth, he felt the flicker of something rare and unwelcome—being truly stumped. Whatever had caused the erasure wasn't just powerful; it was something beyond comprehension.

And if even he hadn't been able to stop it…

The thought sat heavy in the room.

"Stark, Rogers—you're dismissed. Raven, show them to their quarters."

The two men didn't argue. They simply exchanged a brief look, understanding the mutants needed to speak without them. They followed Raven out in silence, the door closing with a dull, final thud.

The tension broke instantly.

"This is bullshit!"

Vanessa's fist slammed onto the table hard enough to rattle glasses.

"Mutants don't just vanish!"

"They weren't lying."

Emma's voice was calm, but iron lay beneath the smooth surface. Her telepathy had already confirmed it—there was no deceit in the Avengers' story.

Vanessa knew that.

She just didn't want to accept it.

"What kind of future is this?"

Hank's hands curled into fists, knuckles white.

"What the hell do we even do?"

Scott's question lingered in the air like smoke. No one could answer.

The cruelest part wasn't knowing their fate—it was the absence of everything else.

No trail to follow.

No enemy to hunt.

Just… inevitability.

"We can't just sit here waiting to disappear!"

Vanessa's frustration boiled over; she kicked a chair hard enough to send it skidding into the wall.

The others said nothing, but their expressions mirrored her fury—anger without a target, fear without a form.

Then, inevitably, all eyes turned to Alex.

As always, he was their last hope.

"Well."

A sharp grin spread across his face, dangerous and almost eager.

"I guess we'll have to go to the future and see for ourselves."

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