If Xavier had ever pushed his Astral self into a blackhole he doubted he would feel in a place more desolate. He doubted [i]he[/i] would feel more desolate, as he understood with every cerebral connection of his being that this was no place.

It was a concept equally as intangible. The type of thing that if you input it into a computer the machine would crash for being unable to process it --for understanding it was being asked to process something where something didn't exist. A question without a thought.

But the truth of this non-reality didn't enclose him in as tight a vice grip as the silent scream which responded to him.
More specifically the concepts it introduced.

[i]Ryder existed to become Umbra's. 
She was a shell.[/i]

Reveals that obfuscated instead of illuminated.

Except on one point that set there in Xavier's mind like something in the sharpest relief and flashing neon.

This. . .[i]Umbra[/i] wanted Ryder not as some weapon as [i]herself[/i], but as a vessel to subsume. What felt, to Xavier, as the ultimate destruction of Ryder's self. Nearly the difference between taking someone's life and removing their existence, except she would still exist in the places she impacted; in the minds who knew her.

Like Xavier's.
If Umbra "thought" or "felt" or whatever Umbra was capable, that these formless words would work to deter the flesh and blood form that was Astrally present before them, they only served to cause Xavier to [i]double down[/i].

Umbra had called him "warmth".
Xavier couldn't have felt colder towards any"thing" else.

It was at once not like him and yet, logical. Xavier was a proponent of life.
Umbra was something decidedly removed.

[i]Umbra was something that had to[/i] be [i]removed.[/i]
Ryder's earlier message about Umbra being conveyed to Xavier through Umbra "themself".

However, ahead of Xavier even being able to formulate a thought on how to exact his own power over his adversary,

one of his X-Men was exacting theirs without need for such a thought.

If there was any light down here it would've glinted tellingly off the adamantium claws that presently thrust towards Becker's body.
An animalistic yell having been held in until the exact second its sound would no longer serve as an alert: [right][h3][i][color=yellow]"AAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!"[/color][/i][/h3][/right]


It echoed like a rally cry and served as a compass point to the others -- if they hadn't seen Becker's form already, they certainly knew where to look now. 

At once they sprang into concerted action -- literally in the case of The Beast, who came at their foe with unpredictable acrobatics and the second sharpest claws on the X-Men's roster. 

Having decided a disorienting assault would be smarter than an easy to anticipate strike from one direction -at least as the opening- Cyclops sent several optic blasts in rapid succession ricocheting off separate points of the walls like some laser light show, augmenting Beast's errant movements with the plan Umbra wouldn't know where to look or from what angle a shot was actually coming -and trig-wiz that Cyke was, they were [i]all[/i] coming.

He wasn't concerned about Wolverine winding up taking most of the blasts instead--if he was still that much on "Becker" when all the blasts where through colliding, serious damage will already have been inflicted; Wolverine had his healing factor to keep this move from being a sacrifice.

Beast though bounced back out of the fray with all the skill of an agile spy avoiding a laser field.

While Cyclops set up to let loose with that dialed-up, direct shot once he had a clear one-
--clenching his jaw as Ryder's words -heard between the ricochets and now- laid heavy in his mind.
Was her initial read on how to handle this in error? Did Cyclops make the wrong call? They were too close to hesitate now, and so...

...Storm all the while was living up to her name as a literal thunderstorm raged -- the crash of thunder intensified in the enclosed space. Lightning striking the floor where rainwater now pooled [i]only beneath Becker's feet. . . .[/i]

Wolverine's too, but again, the healing factor,
plus adamantium made a pretty good conductor [i]--nothing like a sextet of [b]lightning claws[/b].[/i]