-If I may ask, what is the relevance of Apocalypse to you and the local population here, Elder Lensherr?- I /inquired, and they both turned to follow my gaze to the great statues of the ancient External and a woman down a long avenue, where many other presumed heroes and notables of the people were also displayed.

-Apocalypse is considered one of the great ancestors and generals of the people of Arakko, along with his wife Genesis. Although he left her behind when he secured Earth against the daemonic army of the world of Amenth, he returned and led the X-men here to finally vanquish the demons and the demon god who led them,- Magneto /informed me.

I eyed him strangely. -Those events have not yet taken place in this continuum. It is entirely likely your missing elders are still in this Amenth place, awaiting their rescue.- Both of them blinked at me. -Giving the numbers of people at risk here, we should address this matter promptly. I gather this was an event that took place before the year 1832?-

-Nearly a thousand years before. However, this is a mutant affair, and should be dealt with by mutants,- Magneto /said quickly. -With prior knowledge of the events, we should be able to triumph against them far more easily!-

I was unimpressed. -And what would happen if you lose?- I /inquired, crossing my arms.

They both blinked. -We will not!- Jean Grey /promised.

-I repeat my question.-

-Well,- Jean /said hesitantly, -the daemonic armies of Amenth, under their demon god Annihilation,- Okay, who kept re-using that word? Couldn’t he get a proper name? -would invade your world...-

-You said this was a mutant affair. So I trust this conquering army of daemons would ignore human Primos, Forsaken, Powered, Inhumans, mutates, and mystics, and would simply run about murdering only mutants?-

They both shut up at that, wincing despite themselves.

-Right. So this is actually a planetary threat that concerns everyone, and because of some endemic lack of cooperation and awareness with other interested parties, you just presumed to handle the matter yourselves and risked your whole planet of your own cognizance.- I raised a finger before they could say anything. -That is not how we do things here. The vast majority of mutants of Terra with combat abilities serve right alongside plenty of Primos, Powered, and Forsaken of all stripes. We don’t make the genetic distinctions you do, any more than we do on skin color,- I /informed them coolly. -If you have information to relate that will save lives, and so that we can head into this situation informed instead of playing it by ear, I would love to hear it.-

Looking rather abashed, the details of that conflict were soon transferred over by Jean Grey, and I considered them as I left the telepathic meeting politely.

It appeared Apocalypse choosing Krakoa was not a coincidence, as it had been the prior home of his kingdom of mutants many centuries ago. The island had also been cloven in twain, and would still maintain at least a partial link to its severed half in the dimension of Amenth, an incredibly isolated place whose existence wasn’t noted in any of the mystical libraries that I knew of.

In any event, these newly-recreated folks had all the relevant information we needed to act, so act we would, and if Apocalypse didn’t like the fact we were going to be on his island, well, too bad.

----------

A day or three later...

“Please, explain this matter to me in a way I can understand,” T’Challa said. Wakanda naturally had spacefaring capability, albeit not of the most advanced type without stealing some Kree/Skrull technology, and it was very reliant on vibranium.

Wakanda had been the first of Earth’s powers to reach out and contact us for diplomatic relations, especially when they realized there was another parallel world with another Wakanda over here. We returned the gesture by purging their systems of AI infections first, and King T’Challa of Earth had come himself to open a discourse.

“You understand the Incursions.” He made a gesture of acquiescence. “The key point here is the creation of your Earth by Reed Richards-616. For some reason Eternity allowed a timeline which never existed to be materialized. Richards-616 was completely incapable of sensing or recreating a Universe with powerful Nulls and Sources, like our Terra. However, the key interconnecting point of his efforts were our variant worlds. So instead of starting at the Beginning of Time and ending at the End of Time, he started with the interconnected Earths and expanded laterally from there.

“Thus, he created your world inside our timeline. However, he was unable to expand into the future, because our future comes when it comes, it is not something one can visit. Likewise, he could not expand into our past, because our past was set into stone.

“The divergence point of our universe from others was the births of the first Null and Source here in the year 1832 of the Christian Calendar. Thus, our worlds would have had identical timelines up to that point, and any resident of our world older than that would naturally have a counterpart on your world who could not be recreated.

“Likewise, all the people born before that point were already represented, so, for example, you will not find any of your older ancestors who were born before then in your afterlife.

“In addition, any time-traveling stunts, escapades, quests, journeys, or the like that you experienced have never happened in this timeline, and never will. We do receive time-travelers, but they are always from outside alternities, and are more like dimension-hoppers than time-travelers.”

His dark eyes studied the holographic representations that had accompanied my words, and he sighed. “So... we were created, like out of a dream, out of nothing?” he mused, trying to grapple with the concept.

“Well, almost the entire multiverse experienced the exact same thing. For Eternity, it was basically the same as regenerating His body.”

“Still, a very disturbing image.” He looked to his counterpart and Storm, both of them sitting there quietly. He was once married to the Ororo here, but they were either separated or divorced, it was unclear which, with an ambivalent relationship. The two Wakandan kings had already verified that they were not genetic twins, although they were more than close enough to be brothers. Time had taken many different twists after Sama and Briggs were born, and the effects had also extended to Wakanda.

“In our personal history, we sent an expedition into space to track the source of the vibranium meteor that landed in Wakanda in ancient times. They were thrown through a rift in time and ended up thousands of years in the past. There, they accomplished their mission, but without a means to return to our time, they instead colonized a world, and started building a realm of their own...”

Terra-T’Challa blinked. “How far did they take it?” he asked with some concern.

“They formed a Star Empire of Wakanda, with Bast replacing Osebo as their patron god.” E-T’Challa glanced at me. “By your words, this does not exist here?”

I shook my head, intrigued at the idea. “No, it does not.”

“We have never launched such a ship, either.” T-T’Challa gestured at me. “We would simply ask Dynamo here to track the meteor back and see if there is another source of vibranium there.”

“There is, and it is still there. However, we know that because the Acanti informed us of it years ago. We have been discreetly removing it via their services, so as not to attract undue attention. Given the struggle for resources in the local galactic clusters right now, many systems are being scanned and re-scanned repeatedly for viable resources. A vibranium find would cause, mmm, much excitement.”

“Many species would start shooting one another for it,” E-T’Challa deduced.

“Energetically!” I confirmed.

“This is a major loss of power and status for my Wakanda, of course, but not unwelcome in other ways. This multiworld ‘Pentad Alliance’, brother; what can you tell me of it?”

“Let me inform you of something crucial, brother,” T-T’Challa replied first. “Your Wakanda is by far the most advanced nation upon your world, even if its projected power is far less due to the restraint of our people.

“Upon Terra, Russia and the Tribal Alliance are our equals in matters of technology, and our superiors in mystical, mutant, and psionic training. They do not have vibranium in the quantity that we do, but they do not require it. It merely meant exploring other options.”

“Russia.” E-T’Challa’s dark eyes narrowed. “Yours is a very different world than my own, then. Russia’s governmental structure could never hope to advance its level so quickly without an outside force, and I am not sure what this Tribal Alliance is?”

“In 1832, Sama Rantha, called the Golden Hag, and Briggs, who is called the Great Bear, were born in Alaska to the indigenous tribes there, and in Kamchatka to a village of fishermen, respectively. They were the first Null and Source born upon Terra,” Storm finally spoke up in her warm voice. “In 1852, Sama Rantha began the process of uniting the native tribes of North America against European colonization. She bootstrapped their level of technology hundreds of years and chased the Europeans back across the Mississippi, slaughtering over a million of them in the process, afflicting them with massive droughts and pestilence to cripple their economies, and burned New York City to the ground as a warning."

E-T’Challa blinked. “A... formidable woman,” he finally managed to say.

“Briggs’ entire village was raided by Lemurians seeking slaves, and they were taken to one of their undersea cities. His people died in slavery or in the gladiatorial pits. He won himself free by taking advantage of a raid by the Eternal Gilgamesh, and swore that he would make the Deviants pay.

“Within ten years he had seized control of Russia, deposed the czar, broken the generals and nobility, and was also advancing their technology at a rapid pace. As Russia consolidated control of its own lands, the Alliance of Tribes expanded across the waters to other continents, throwing back the colonial empires of the Europeans, and spreading the knowledge and means to defend themselves from such aggression.

“Russia atom-bombed the Deviants basically into extinction before World War II ever began. The Tribal Alliance checked Japan’s imperial ambitions in the southeast Asian islands completely, and turned their conquering armies back with superhuman champions and wielders of mystic and psionic powers. Sama’s book The Core Disciplines has basically defined what it means to be superhuman for most of a century now.”

“I see.” E-T’Challa stroked his chin thoughtfully. “What is the status of Wakanda among the Pentad Alliance?”

“We are merely one of the main contributors of human citizens to the Alliance, as well as one of the beneficiaries thereof. The Bear and the Hag command far more people and influence than I, which they continually heckle me for,” T-T’Challa sighed in long-suffering tolerance. “They hold Wakanda at least partially responsible for the disjointed and broken state of Africa. I have taken steps to expand, but as you might imagine, there is great resistance to such things inside and outside of our homeland.

“Too, not all Wakandans are eligible to serve in the Alliance. The Alliance has little use for our isolationists, and the fact we pursued enlightenment without aiding our neighbors in also rising is not honorable behavior in their eyes. Perhaps our isolation allowed us to develop without interruption, but it also caused Africa to stagnate and suffer at the hands of the rest of the world.

“I would have to say that on a whole, the Golden Hag is more admired in Africa than the Black Panther, and unlike myself, she is completely willing to draw blood to quell problems. She has held back out of respect for the Totems of Africa and for Wakanda, but suffice it to say she is annoyed at our unwillingness to help the other tribes of Africa in anything but the most superficial ways.”

“Do these two people have designs upon our Earth?” E-T’Challa asked seriously.

“No,” I stated unequivocally. “There are many, many alternities with Terras like your own. The Hag and the Bear do not march willy-nilly into them and ‘correct’ them.

“That being said, your world is here, and benefitting from their efforts and protection. I know Briggs is looking at your world’s version of his homeland and grinding his teeth. Sama sees the lands of her people being abused, the Tribes being reduced to virtual refugees and the Totems to mockeries, and is very displeased... but that is how things are there. She was not born there, and has no claim.

“On the other hand, offering the tribes there a chance to emigrate to our world or Venus is entirely possible, and sponsoring or training Russians or Tribals to solve their own problems is also something they would do.”