|two hours later|

Mystique, Hank, Moira and Quicksilver wake up in a cell together.

"Whoa, what's wrong with you is that going to happen to all of us?" Pietro asks upon seeing Hank with his blue fur.

"No, I just left my meds in the house." Hank replies.

"Hey, where are we?!" Mystique shouts up to the soldier watching them from a window above them.

"Hello Mystique." He says.

"Major Striker." She greets him back.

"Colonel Striker and I wouldn't get to close to the wall if I were you, it may create some discomfort." He tells the group.

"I'm Moira McTaggart, I'm a senior officer of the CIA and you cannot keep me here." Moira tells him.

"Actually I can. A psychic event just destroyed every nuke from here to Moskow. That event originated from exactly where we found you. At the home of the world's most powerful psychic. So now you're going to tell me, where is Charles Xavier?" Striker informs her.

"It's not him you should be worried about. There is someone else, someone more powerful." Moira warns him.

"If you let us out of here, we can help you." Mystique tells him.

"Do you really expect me to believe that? You can put on any face you want but I know who you are, what you are." Striker replies.

"Uhm Moira, what did you mean when you said someone more powerful than Charles?" Hank asks unsettled and the woman fills her fellow prisoners in on what she knows about Apocalypse.

Meanwhile elsewhere on the base Jean, Scott and Kurt are searching the base, looking for Hank and the others with Jean hiding them from guards with her psychic ability.

"What's taking so long?" Scott asks Kurt, who is trying to teleport through a door.

"I can't get in, they have a field around it like the helicopter." Kurt informs his two friends.

"Well there's got to be a way to cut the power." Scott says and the three continue on, looking for a way to free their friends.

While they are looking through the base, everywhere on earth people get a message from Apocalypse, who uses Charles abilities to speak to every living human on earth and tells them that their world is coming to an end and that he is going to build a new one from the ashes of the old. The last message of Apocalypse which is that the strong will inherit the world Charles doesn't transmit and instead asks the strong to protect the weak.

While he is transmitting Apocalypses message he reaches out to Jean and asks her to find him and Apocalypse.

"He just spoke to me." Jean tells her two friends.

"I think we all heard him." Kurt chimes in.

"No, he sent me a hidden message, one that only I would hear. I know where they are." Jean tells them. In their moment of carelessness, a guard finds them and opens fire. Kurt grabs his friends and teleports them somewhere else in the compound, but they get picked up on the security cameras.

The three arrive in a room where some Generators are kept and teleport in with Kurt's help but once inside they see a large container with two sounds of growling and howling coming from inside, one sounding more like a darker growl similar to a wolf and the other one is of a higher pitch and is familiar to a Hyena's laughter.

"There's some kind of animal inside." Scott says wearily, eyeing the container with his two friends.

"It's no animal. There are people inside." Jean tells them, feeling the human minds inside the container.

"A part of the first one has been taken away and the second one is asleep?" She tells them confused.

"What do you mean?" Scott asks.

"I mean they turned him into some kind of weapon." Jean explains. A moment later guards arrive, and Jean, Scott and Kurt hide behind the container and Jean removes the lock from its door quietly, with her telekinesis.

Once the fortified container is unlocked alarms start blaring and the personnel on the base starts to panic.

A muscular man, dressed in a pair of worn shorts steps outside with a remainder of some kind of headband on him, obviously intending to control him but the wires of the receiver have been ripped of.

"Fire!" One of the three guards who were sent to collect the intruders yells and they open fire on the man, who gets angry and three metal claws on each hand appear in between his knuckles.

Before he attacks the firing soldiers however another being steps outside, one which sends chills down the three young mutants backs. It is a creature made of sand, the size of a large bear ,with purple lines running over its body and a tail waving angrily behind it, almost hitting the three young creature looks only partially formed however, with a third of it being a teen around their age with red hair and a carving on his forehead.

Gaara, who is still knocked out has been overtaken by the other entity which was forced into him when Apocalypse enhanced his powers.

"You dare try to control me and force me into this host?! You will pay for that!" the creature formed around Gaara's body screeches with its half of its face and sends a blast of Sand towards the men, holding them against a wall and impaling them with multiple sand spears.

The creature looks at the man it was imprisoned with and gives him a sinister smile after which the two start to run through the base, killing and maiming whoever they come across in a grueling fashion, splattering the ground and walls with blood.

Scott, Jean and Kurt follow the trail of carnage until they reach the two, with the man opening a door to the outside for them.

"Scott wait!" Jean stops him from shooting the two with his lazers while the two turn to them, the older man simply eyeing them uncertainly while the creature waits for the outcome from Jean trying to talk the other guy down.

"I can help you." Jean tells the older man and takes off the headband from him before touching the sides of his head and helping him remember, what she can with her still untrained ability.

The man calms down and removes some pieces of electronics still embedded in him and throw it to the floor, leaving him in only his shorts before he runs out of the compound and into the cold.

"Who are you?" The sand creature asks the three mutants in a shrill voice.

"I'm Scott, what are you?" The glasses wearing teen replies.

"I wasn't talking to you red-eye." The creature around Gaara says and focuses his eyes on Jean.

"I'm Jean. I can try to help you if you let me." She offers him, feeling confident after helping the other man remember some of his past.

"Hahahaha! Clearly you can't if you don't even grasp that I am not the boy you see. He is merely the container I was forced into." The creature replies and pokes the sleeping Gaara slightly.

"What are you then?" Jean asks, hoping to not anger whatever caused the carnage they witnessed.

"I am Shukaku and I am the all-powerful sand-elemental! Normally I wouldn't bother with humans as I've transcended their grasp of understanding but one of your kind sealed me into this puny human." Shukaku says.

"Is there no way to free you from him?" Jean asks.

"I don't know, I've only been bonded to this person for a day and most of the time whoever sealed me kept me sealed away from his mind so I can't take over and get revenge." Shukaku informs her.

"I know someone who can help you then. In fact, we are trying to free our friends and save the world from destruction right now." Jean says.

"I feel like you are telling the truth and to be honest I'm getting tired of staying in this form with no sand around. It's just no fun, so talk to the boy and tell him to get me out of his body and get your friend to free me from my cell inside the boys head or you all will regret it!" Shukaku tells them while the Sand around Gaara starts to flow down his body and get sucked into the gourd on his back with Gaara remaining on the ground still asleep.

"What the fuck was that?" Scott yells freaked out.

"It was very disturbing." Kurt agrees.

"I know this sounds weird but I think it was telling the truth, I was only able to see very little into its mind but I believe its story and have seen how it was sealed away against its will." Jean tells her friends.

"So now what? Do we drag him around with us?" Scott asks with a scoff.

"Wait, let me try something." Jean says and taps Gaara's forehead, right on the symbol carved in his forehead and wakes him telepathically.

"Who… Who are you and where am I?" Gaara asks the three, shooting up and going with his back against a wall while raising a loose sand shield in front of him, blocking him from the three with only his face being revealed to them while the sand hovers in mid-air.

"We are mutants as well and we are trying to save our friends, they have been kidnapped same as you were." Jean explains calmly, while Scott watches this with a frown, not liking them getting sidetracked by the sand user.

"Come on let's go. You woke him up, what he does is up to him now." Scott says and grabs Jean's arm and starts to drag her away with her trying to protest but he ignores it and drags her away with Kurt following behind them.

"Where, am I?" Gaara asks himself, his sand recalling itself back into the gourd and he looks out of the opened door, into the icy wilderness.

"This is not good." He says, feeling cold.

"I guess I have no choice but to follow them." Gaara says and forms a board of sand under him and uses it to fly after the three.

When the three mutants reach their friends, Kurt goes to the observing room and warns the captives to stay away from the door, just before Scott uses his laser eyes to blow a hole in the door.

"We know where the professor is." Jean tells the group which steps out of their cell.

"Well you've been busy." Mystique tells them, meaning the carnage the group also witnessed partially.

"We had a little help." Scott replies and leads the group through the compound, to the hangar.

Just as they step through the door Gaara catches up to the group, now consisting of 7.

"Are these your friends?" Gaara asks, looking around the new faces with unease, since he'd be largely outnumbered if they decided to fight him.

"Yes. Come on we can get you out of here." Jean tells him, offering him her hand.

"Hey Hank, do you think you can fly this thing?" Mystique asks Hank, when they see a jet in the room.

"Yeah, I think I can manage." Hank tells her.

"Hey guys. Flight suits." Scott tells them as he opens a cabinet with around 10 black combat suits in it.

"You've got your war plane, so lets go to war." Mystique tells Hank.

"War? Who are you guys?" Gaara asks them, being on guard at the blonde's exclamation.

"We are trying to safe the world. Didn't you hear the message that this mutant is trying to destroy the world?" Hank asks the newcomer with annoyance.

"He probably didn't at the time he was still unconscious." Jean informs Hank.

"Wait, destroy the world? Are you talking about, what was his name? En Sabah nur?" Gaara asks them.

"Yes. How do you know that name?" Moira asks shocked.

"He controlled my mind. When he released me from his control I was caught in an explosion, I don't know how I survived." Gaara tells them.

"Right. You must've been the one who saved Alex. You were inside the sand dome!" Kurt guesses, not having seen the guys face from their hiding point back at the institute.

"You saved my brother? It makes sense how you ended up here but how did you get to the institute?" Scott asks, opening up to the teen since he saved his brother from death.

"En Sabah Nur portaled them in, I remember you now. You were the one helping them kidnap the professor!" Hank shouts and jumps at Gaara, only for a shield to form around Gaara, without the teens doing.

"What is going on?" Gaara asks confused at Hank attacking him and at the sand moving on its own.

"Stop everyone. We don't have time for this. We'll figure this out on the plane. Are you coming with us or not?" Mystique tells everyone and asks Gaara if he is coming.

Hank scoffs but gets to the jet and Gaara nods towards the blonde woman once the sand has recalled itself.

The group then gets in the jet and take off.

"What happened back at the Institute?" Mystique asks Gaara, breaking the awkward silence in the jet.

"I don't know. All I remember is dodging a laser blast and then the explosion happened. Before that I was back in Egypt in our hideout and this En Sabah nur did something to me." Gaara explains.

"He sealed something inside you. We met it. It called itself a sand-elemental." Jean explains.

"Is that what is making the sand move on its own?" Gaara asks.

"It moves on its own? I thought you were a mutant with control over sand." Kurt says surprised.

"I am but when the blue guy jumped at me the sand protected me on its own." Gaara explains, pointing at Hank.

"Wait, you said our hideout who else did you mean?" Moira asks.

"Ororo. Or as she likes to call herself Storm. She's another mutant and En Sabah Nur changed her like he did me. But she said it was OK and he helped her." Gaara explains confused himself.

"It's alright, we'll get this all sorted out one way or another." Moira tells the confused teen, who stares at his hands as Sand is swirling around it.

"I can't control it." Gaara mumbles.

"What?" Scott asks not having understood him and sitting across from him, next to Kurt while Jean is one seat away from Gaara.

"I can't control it. I'm not doing this." Gaara tells him while Sand swirls around him slowly.

Jean takes the seat next to him and puts her hand on his shoulder saying, "It's OK. I'm sure the professor can help you once all this is over. The elemental said that he wants to be separated from you again and that the professor should free it from its cage inside your mind."

"I hope he can help me." Gaara says defeated.

"He can. Trust me." Jean says and grabs his hand, squeezing it for support.

"Thank you. I'm Gaara." He introduces herself.

"Jean Grey." She replies with a small grin before she takes her hand back.

"So you control sand, can you do something else?" She asks him.

"grab my arm." Gaara says, holding out his arm for her and she looks at him uncertainly but gets a confident nod from him and she grabs the arm only for it to come apart and her to have a hand full of sand with a hole being in Gaara's arm.

"Cool." She says impressed while Gaara recalls the sand, forming his arm whole again.

"Let me try." Scott says intrigued and goes over to Garaa, reaching towards the teen but is blocked by a wall of sand erecting in front of his hand, being as hard as stone.

"I didn't do that." Gaara tells the glasses wearing teen, feeling guilty.

"Yeah right." Scott scoff and goes back to his seat.

"Don't worry. He's not the brightest so it'll take him a while to understand that you have another consciousness inside you." Jean tells Gaara.

Gaara only gives her a doubtful look before saying , "We both know that's just wishful thinking but thanks anyways."

AN: Let me know what you think and stay safe with Corona Virus going around :)