Issue 1 Downtime

Daniel's dreams were, generally, chaotic.

Tonight, he found himself in a rather odd land with the school, and the X-Men, on one side, and Genosha, with Exodus and the larger portion of the Accolytes, on the other. Oddly, the accolytes all seemed to be Daniel. And oddly, all of the X-Men appeared to be, too. Daniel himself, looking rather battle-weary, was sitting on a hill under a tree, watching them all go at it, evidently resigned that no, he couldn't stop the fighting.

With the fluttering of fiery wings, a bird perched in the tree.

Daniel glanced up as he heard/saw the bird perching, then sighed, looking around. "Well, no new army yet, maybe I still get to rest a little..."

The bird watched as the dream unfolded.

As the battle raged on, a couple of the Daniels broke off from the fighting, streaking over to where Daniel was sitting. They started arguing with each other on the way, and once they got there, they both started insisting that Daniel had to pick a side to turn the tide of the battle and help one side win.

"Why!?" he snapped, shaking off the arm of Accolyte-Danny, and driving back the X-Dan with a sudden jet of fire. "You want to fight, just fucking fight!"

"We're the ones who made you what you are, Scion! You can't turn your back on your people!"

"You can't trust them, Daniel! Look at what happened to your home because of them, look at what happened to England! Look at what happened to Kyra! Look at what they've done to you!"

"So what!" Daniel snapped. "I can do what I want, neither of you fucking own me!"

"You can't sit on the fence forever! If you don't choose, something will make you choose!"

"Look at them! Appologists, afraid of what it truly is to be Homo Sapiens Superior! You aren't one of them, Scion, and you know it!"

Both Daniels went to pull him to their side... and that was when the fighting started. Judging from the battered look of Daniel, it wasn't the first time this encounter, or one like it, had taken place.

And the bird watched.

The landscape wavered as they fought. When Daniel fought with the Accolyte, it seemed to shift into something resembling Genosha, with his superiors listing off his accomplishments, his services to the country, how he was a credit to his people with the favor of their leaders, who could one day make great things happen. When he gained the upper hand and turned to engage the X-Dan, the area seemed to be populated with corpses staring on, men and women, dictators and soldiers, and obviously the most disturbing to Daniel, from the way he lost ground whenever one came into view, quite a lot of very young children. All the reminders of what he really was, what they'd made him, and the things he'd still have to do, watched, accusation plain in their eyes.

The bird descended from the tree, and a girl in red stood behind Daniel, still watching.

The fight ended like the others before had, though Mira wouldn't have any idea of that. There was a final burst of fire from Daniel, which engulfed the Accolyte. "Whatever made me, I'm my OWN FUCKING PERSON!" he shouted as the figure was reduced to dream dust. "I'll make my OWN DECISIONS, and that goes for YOU TOO!" he added, turning the defiant flames on the X-Dan. "I know what I am, and I made that choice so no one else had to! And I'd do it all over again in a fucking heartbeat!"

The combatants gone, Daneil slumped to his knees, his dream-self reflecting his own mental exhaustion. It took him to notice the Phoenix behind him. "I guess it beats monotony," he said tiredly. "Your turn to judge me now?"

Daniel just nodded without looking back and made a go ahead motion, setting in on his knees in a resigned fashion.

He frowned, glancing back. "Whatever's supposed to happen next?"

"After the first couple hours, actively trying to do something seems stupid. I fight them enough when I'm awake," he said, flicking a hand at the fight going on in the distance. "And... yeah, when I have no idea what to do, waiting for something to happen seems like the best idea."

"Yeah, well, acting before you know what the hell's going on is a good way to do something stupid," he said. "And it's not like being judged requires a lot of action on my part."

"Not until I know how the 'judging me' goes, at least," he said, shrugging. "Not like any of this is real anyway..."

"This isn't real, and I've been getting that crap about ten times ever since I stopped trying to break up that fight," he said, waving a hand at the battle. "So... I really don't see what more arguing with myself would accomplish."

"Who are you arguing with?" she asked, taking a step closer.

"Me," he said. Then he gestured at the two warring factions. "Me and me, all the little 'me's down there. And now you I guess. My head must be a real mess now."

"I've been worse." He frowned, thinking about it. He'd deduced that this was a dream a while ago, which meant that, thankfully, it'd probably fall apart at some point and end, but even so, the dream-logic usually held. "Wait, you aren't part of the dream, are you?"

"I don't think I could possibly imagine you being as vague and evasive as you are in real life," he said with a smirk. "So yeah, welcome to my head. If I'd known you were coming over I'd have cleaned it up a little."

"Not particularly," he said. "I really doubt you're going to see anything that surprises you."

"You know me. Better than most people. Hell, you've been in my head before, but I'm pretty sure the landscape's changed some since then."

"This is true, it has," she nodded.

"And it's taken a turn toward 'annoying,' he mused, glowering down at the landscape and the figures on it."

"Oh, all that," he said, waving his hand at the fighting. "I mean, I'm not stupid. I know what this is. Part of me wants to cut ties with the Accolytes, part of me wants to focus on it, and for some reason it's stressing me out. End of the day? I don't need to choose, because I don't need an insignia on my chest to freaking define me." He shrugged. "Fight keeps on going on, though. As you can see."

He sighed. "Yeah, I know," he admitted. "That's where I'm stuck. I mean... I hate that 'all or nothing' stuff. Throw out everything I've known, or cling to a bunc hof guys that keep screwing up and a system that's crapped on my my whole life. This is me saying 'the hell with that," he said, pointing to himself.

He shrugged. "On the other hand, I'm sick of being a loner. So... yeah, fighting."

"And apparently not liking it," Daniel mused.

He shrugged. "So what brings you to my humble little brain?"