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Fire on the Mountains!
They came to the Andean Highlands for a whole host of reasons: they're X-Men, there's trouble, people need help—and many have already died, among them a team of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. That's why Nick Fury's there. One of the slain agents is a relative to Junior Juniper, the first of Fury's famed Howling Commandos to be killed in action. He can't help feeling responsible—again. As for the X-Men, this mission's a chance to take their collective minds off recent events. By ignoring what's happened, they all hope maybe it'll go away. With the appearance of an old adversary, however, all that tumult suddenly doesn't seem quite so bad.
As the Sentinel Master Mold locks its sights on the X-Men and announces their impending termination, Beast looks up into its beaming eyes and informs the rest of the X-Men of its presence. His telepathic teammate Jean Grey takes a moment to calm everyone's nerves. They've all fought these monsters before, she says. They know what to do. She telepathically instructs Shadowcat to grab hold of Colonel Fury and get him to safety.
Kitty eagerly complies with the order, but would like to know where she can even take Fury where he would be safe. Forcibly, she grabs Fury, shoves him out of the way of the Sentinel's blasts and phases him to safety. Meanwhile, Nightcrawler teleports out of the way of the giant's continuing attacks. Rogue, aching for a fight in which she doesn’t have to hold back her strength, eagerly takes to the skies to challenge the machine at its level. Jean echoes her teammate's sentiment. Instead of attacking, however, Jean puts up a telekinetic shield to defend both her and Beast from the Sentinel's blasts. She asks Hank how he's doing behind her. Hank admits he's just admiring the view. What can he say; she puts on quite a show!
Elsewhere, Nightcrawler teleports over to Shadowcat and Fury in an attempt to bring Fury to safety. The colonel insists he can help, but Kitty calls him stubborn and entrusts him into Kurt's custody. They need Fury to figure out the X-Men's next move, she says amidst the mayhem. Fury grunts at her; sounds like she inherited way more than a claw from the runt, he says.
As Kitty phases beneath the surface, she ponders Fury's parting words. Not only does she agree, but she wonders how much of her actually remains. The question scares her. Instead of contemplating it further, she takes refuge in action.
Meanwhile, Jean continues keeping the Sentinel's energy attacks at bay. She tells Hank they need a game-plan. He's working on it, he tells her. As he picks up a pair of S.H.I.E.L.D.-issued swords off the ground from the slain agents, he asks Jean to relay his tactical instructions to the rest of the X-Men. They need to strike simultaneously, he says. Rogue is to attack hot on Beast's heels and hit the Sentinel high. Kitty, he wants to assault the Sentinel from beneath the ground.
Hank doesn't realize that Kitty is already in position, acting by her own will. She's seen The Empire Strikes Back enough to know to always aim for the feet of giant offensive robots. She sneaks up underneath the Sentinel's enormous foot, phases inside—disrupting its electronic systems as she goes—and lets her adamantium claw do the rest. The ease with which her claw slices through the robot surprises her. Although she doesn't feel any stronger, the blade moves through obstructions as if they were nothing more than air. In fact, the edge of her claw is so sharp, she doesn't even feel it when it bursts through her skin. She worries what may happen if she is to ever to react to someone without thinking.
Having done as much damage as she can do, Shadowcat makes her exit from the base of the Sentinel. Meanwhile, Beast, possibly with a telekinetic assist from Jean Grey, leaps off the ground with his two acquired blades in his hands and barrels toward the Sentinel's head. Machetes may be a little rudimentary for his tastes, but nothing works better when trying to blind a Sentinel. He cuts a swath across the Sentinel's eyes, leaving it temporarily defenseless. Rogue arrives and delivers the coup de grace—a powerhouse punch to the side of the machine's head. The Sentinel Master Mold topples to the ground and collapses in the dense canopy of the Andean jungle.
"That felt—good!" Rogue says as she lowers herself to the surface. Kurt, in awe of her power, smiles. Fury, too, acknowledges that the lady certainly packs a punch. Despite the jubilation of most of the X-Men, however, Beast remains in a dour mood—which does not go unnoticed by Jean. When she asks him about it, he explains that he cannot help but think their respite is only temporary. He’s never been happy to see a Sentinel.
Fury makes a call in to Cyclops to get an update on the situation. Did he get a full telemetry reading on the encounter? Cyclops explains that so far, it's looking good—but mentions a growing pattern of interference. The S.H.I.E.L.D. agent manning the computer informs Cyclops that another storm front is moving into the site in the mountains, meaning they will probably soon lose communications for about 30 minutes. Cyclops has to talk fast. He tells Fury they are detecting a strong energy signature about a dozen klicks northwest of their position in the Andes. Because the massive interference in the area restricts them from investigating remotely, Cyclops asks Fury's team to check it out firsthand. Be careful, though, he advises; S.H.I.E.L.D. says they can't get back-up to Fury's team for at least a few hours. Until then, Fury and the X-Men are on their own.
Elsewhere...
The Consortium monitors the unfolding events in the Andes through a wall of television monitors. On the main screen, the defeated Sentinel lays dormant and smoking in the trees. One of the Consortium members asks how such a defeat is possible; they were told the new Sentinels would easily withstand any force. "And so they shall," his female colleague answers. The man does not understand what she means, as the screen clearly suggests otherwise. She explains to him the Sentinels are not just tanks with legs, but finely tuned instruments. "They are works of art, and as such, should not be judged until after their final act," she states. In the meantime, though, they must shut down their operations and destroy all the evidence.
A figure on one of the monitors addresses the members of the Consortium, but the weak signal garbles his message. Responding instead to his blonde, female colleague, one male Consortium member states they have the resources to start up the program again. Ensuring no one else gets their hands on the research stands as their top priority at the moment, though. Again, the man on the screen sends a garbled transmission that makes clear his intent to intercept the targets he sees. However, the female Consortium member advises against it. Moments after she gives those orders, the link dies; the Consortium has lost contact all with the site. "Then may God help us all," the woman mutters.
The Andes...
Nightcrawler ‘ports alongside Beast as he swings through the trees of the jungle, using its lush vines as transport. He comments on the impressive country, which Nightcrawler agrees is pristine. It's a rare gift these days, he adds. Changing subjects a bit, Hank informs him that, according to local legend, these highlands are supposedly haunted. Kurt assumes he's still bothered by the Sentinel. He's right; Hank is still brooding over the fact he didn't have enough time to examine the body. Kurt reminds him they have been over this already, but Hank insists he missed the opportunity to gather valuable information. However, he respects Nightcrawler's decision. He does ask, though, for a bit of time alone so he can think and puzzle through their situation. Kurt agrees and teleports away, leaving Beast with his thoughts.
Elsewhere, Shadowcat, Jean Grey and Nick Fury blaze a trial through the dense jungle foliage while Rogue keeps on eye on things overhead. Kitty leads the crew, slicing a path through the shrubbery with her adamantium claw. Fury cannot help but comment on how eagerly she seems to use her new toy. Jean, meanwhile, asks Rogue to monitor Hank; she doesn't want him out in the woods alone. When Rogue asks if she senses anything specific, Jean assures her she is only practicing caution. She refuses to lose anyone else.
Fury sends out a thought he hopes Jean detects psionically. He asks if her telepathy is getting anything from Pryde. She's trying not to pry, Jean politely informs him. Fury suggests she do so—at least in this situation. After all, Kitty has taken a brutal hit. Jean can deny the truth all she wants, but the kid still needs to be monitored. Plus, as both a telepath and the kid's friend, Jean can reach her on a level others cannot. Jean admits the X-Men helped bring Kitty into their crazy world. It was her, Logan and Storm who did so, actually, she realizes. She would do anything to protect Kitty—but at the same time, she worries her interference might make things worse.
Now switching to oral communication, Fury asks Shadowcat to ease off her pace a little bit. This is a marathon, he says—not a sprint. Kitty claims she can take it. That's not Fury's concern. Can she show some sympathy for an old man? What makes her think Fury can handle the frantic pace? "So long as I'm moving, I don't have time to think," Kitty says. Fury sighs; she's exhausted and stupid, and good to absolutely no one. Great. "That's mean. You taking lessons from Sabretooth?" Shadowcat asks. Sabretooth's not in his league, Fury says in his defense. However, he takes the opportunity to speak frankly to Kitty for a moment. She got a lousy break, and for that, he's sorry. However, she needs to remember she's alive. Does she want to run away—or deal with it?
Kitty begins to joke that she intends to run away, but the sudden appearance out of thin air of Nightcrawler—accompanied by his usual puff of brimstone smoke—cuts her quip short. Instead, she screams and bares her claw. He knows how much she hates it when he does that, Kitty shouts! Kurt, eyeing her extended claw suspiciously, tells her the point is taken. However, Hank sent him back to ask the rest of them to hurry, because he's found something.
Up ahead, the X-Men reach a clearing and what they see in the raises a few questions. Sitting right in the middle of the jungle is a large industrial facility that towers over the canopy of the trees. While Rogue informs Nightcrawler she scouted the facility's perimeter, Beast speculates that based on the substantial solar power and the full-spectrum satellite comm.-links, someone has gone through a great deal of trouble to keep this place self-sufficient and self-contained. The myriad satellite dishes and helicopter landing zones on the roof only fuel that suspicion. The sheer size of the place suggests a significant complement of staff, Hank adds. How would the rest of the X-Men feel about dropping in and seeing if they're up for hosting guests?
The Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters—Salem Center, New York...
What was once Xavier's School is now a temporary S.H.I.E.L.D. base assessing a global conspiracy that threatens the mutant race. Within its walls, Lil' 'Ro has been reading the files, watching the vids and basically trying to learn all she can about the older version of herself who used to live there. Except for age, she and Storm are identical—a perfect genetic match. Both of them are real, both—each in their own way—possibly a lie. Has Storm been lying to them from the very beginning, pulling the cruelest, most perfect of deceptions? Or has 'Ro lost her whole life, cast into this younger incarnation like someone reborn?
Just asking the questions makes her head hurt. Dressed in a yellow T-shirt adorned with a large, blue X and wearing a pair of casual, khaki-colored pants, 'Ro wanders into the S.H.I.E.L.D. control room with Kitty's pet dragon Lockheed at her side. The dragon coos at her. 'Ro asks which he’s worried about: Kitty or herself? "Prupp!" Lockheed replies.
Not knowing quite what to make of Lockheed’s response, ‘Ro turns her head and ponders her situation a bit more. She likes who she is and the friends she's made. She has her whole to life to look forward to, with untold choices waiting to be made. To her, it's the most exciting of adventures. She's grown up to like it here, even amidst the chaos of secret missions and malfunctioning Danger Rooms. To give any of it up would break her heart—as well as Lockheed's judging by the solemn expression on his face.
She was so happy when she saw Remy on that bridge, 'Ro admits. She finally believed she was safe. Now, she just doesn't know. "I like you, dragon," she tells Lockheed. "I really like Kitty—though I'm not sure how she feels about me. I wish I had wings like yours," she tells the dragon, "—or I could use my stupid powers to fly away."
She'll be using her powers soon enough, says a man sporting a thick, Cajun accent. 'Ro squeals in delight at the sight of her friend Remy. He stands in the doorway, dressed in his workout clothes with earphones dangling off the sides of his head and a smile plastered across his sweaty face. Remy asks 'Ro if she plans on wandering the halls all day. She asks how else she would find her way around the facility. "Always with the smart answer," Gambit says. “Why so désolée?” 'Ro admits she still doesn't know if she belongs. When Gambit asks her to give it some more time, she asks how much time she's supposed to give it. As much time as it takes, he tells her. The X-Men mean well, even if they don't seem that way all the time. Besides, where else would she get to hang out with a dragon? As he gently rests his hand on 'Ro's shoulder, she yields a smile. He's right about that much, she says.
"That's a good girl, cher," Gambit assures her. "You see, everything will be all right."
The Andes...
Having infiltrated the mysterious facility in the middle of the jungle, Nick Fury reports back to the X-Men the complex pretty much looks dead. He sees no signs of life—or of any bodies. He does, however, see clear evidence of some kind of brutal firefight. The damage looks fresh, as if it all happened within the last twenty-four hours. On top of that, huge chucks of the complex appear to have been strip-mined. He presumes the facility exists for manufacturing, yet everything missing all relates to construction. He uses extreme caution as he navigates the dark corridors.
Elsewhere within the facility, Jean reports that the memory cores of the computers have been similarly stripped. About all that's left of anything are scraps, she observes. Rogue asks if Sentinels did this too. Beast assumes it's possible. Kurt agrees; thoroughness is their hallmark. Not only do Sentinels take the components they need, but also the food and medical supplies that would otherwise prime their adversaries—in this case, the X-Men. However, Kurt remembers they left behind the bodies of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents at the crash site. Why, then, did they take everyone from this place?
"Not everyone, Kurt," Shadowcat says as she stumbles upon an unconscious scientist. "Looks like I've found a live one!" She phases through the door and approaches the dormant, blonde woman in the white lab coat.
Shortly thereafter, when the woman regains consciousness, the X-Men and Nick Fury regroup and question the survivor. As she speaks, Jean notes an interesting fact: she cannot pick up anything from the woman telepathically. She asks the scientist how she feels, having passed out and all. Claiming to feel fine, the woman thanks them for their help, only to realize as she speaks that they are the infamous X-Men! She didn't think anyone would come, considering the relative isolation of the establishment. She's lucky, Jean tells her; they happened to be in the neighborhood. However, the place is unknown to local authorities and is well hidden in other ways too. After asking her to forgive her bluntness, Jean asks the woman who she is and what, exactly, she is doing there.
"I'm Zigfried," the scientist says, introducing herself. She works as a genetic anthropologist, known by most as a DNA scientist. Her work centers around remote detection of anomalous nucleotides: basically, telling what species an animal is without testing its blood. This place looks like more than just a genetic research facility, Jean counters. Zigfried claims her project comprised but a small portion of the work done at this facility. That other work, however, was kept tightly under wraps. Things were going smoothly until just a few hours earlier, she claims, when she heard an explosion followed by some screaming. Before she knew it, people were running—and the next thing she remembers is waking up to the sight of the X-Men.
Fury asks if she has any idea at all what the others were building. Zigfried claims to have not had a clue. Next, he asks if her employer was government or private. Zigfried says she came on a private grant; research dollars are so tight that she didn't dare look her gift horse closely in the mouth.
Elsewhere in the facility, Beast wanders alone, still in search of clues. Something on a busted control panel catches his attention, however, raising an alarm in his head. He immediately gets in contact with Jean and asks her to bring the team down right away.
Up above, Jean reports to the X-Men, Fury and Zigfried that Hank found something. She advises everyone to stay on their toes; she shares Hank's concern that the place could spell trouble.
The group moves to Hank's position, where he directs their attention to the logo on the wall: a blue circle overlaid with four parallel, red lines. It's the same logo they say on the guys they fought in New York, he explains—the same goons who were working with Storm. Fury understands the implications. In his mind, the situation just got a whole lot bigger. As soon as they reestablish contact with the mansion, he wants the image cross-referenced with known terrorist organizations.
During this conversation, Rogue reaches out to Jean mentally and raises a concern of her own. The woman Zigfried is setting off all sorts of alarms in her head, Rogue says. She doesn't trust her; did Jean get a reading on her yet? Regrettably, Jean has not yet detected anything. While she can't tell if the woman is lying, she can't tell if she's telling the truth, either. That in and of itself is suspicious. Via telepathy, Jean asks Hank to do her a favor and ask the blunt question of why Zigfried possesses such formidable psychic defenses.
"Ziggy, is it?" Hank begins. After introducing himself as the Beast, he claims to have a feeling she isn't telling them something, a feeling that stems from the suspicious fact that their telepath can't read her at all.
Zigfried lowers her glasses. "A valid question, Dr. McCoy," she begins, somehow conjuring Beast's real name. She explains that she recognizes him, as his research in theoretical geneticist is paramount for any aspiring scientist: that is, any scientist who doesn't blindly subscribe to the current dogmatic principles in the field.
Beast is at a loss for words. Nightcrawler speaks up for him, basically explaining that the good Dr. McCoy is flattered. He leaps onto the table adjacent to Zigfried and hands her a rag to wipe off her glasses. Jean, by way of telepathy, asks what he is doing. ‘This woman is no more a threat than Lockheed’s toenail clippings,’ Kurt tells Jean.
Turning his attention back to Zigfried, he asks if there is anything else she can tell them about the facility. Ziggy says she just kept her head low and stayed out of everyone else’s way. They were a strange group of people, she adds, explaining that they implanted a chip in her head to prevent telepathic sabotage—hence Jean’s inability to read her telepathically.
Over in the corner of the room, Fury confides in Beast and Jean that he doesn’t trust Zigfried; he doesn’t like the way she smells. Although Beast reiterates his belief that she’s harmless, Jean asks if he is that susceptible to blatant flattery. “We can’t see demons behind every door,” Beast replies. “We’ll never end up leaving the room.”
Kurt, meanwhile, continues his conversation with Zigfried. Her work sounds interesting, he says. Ziggy claims it was, up until her present circumstances happened. Now, everything just seems creepy to her.
The X-Mansion…
Sabretooth, blind and nearly naked, gets out of his bed and greets his visitors, Cyclops and Professor X. He tells them the bed and the space are nice, but he does take issue with the ankle bracelet he must wear; it makes him think there’s not much trust happening. Cyclops assures him there isn’t; if it were up to him, Sabretooth would still be down in the brig. Xavier reminds Cyke it isn’t up to him. Keeping a blind man in isolation would be inhuman, the professor says.
After taking issue with Xavier’s definition of ‘human’, Cyclops reminds Sabretooth he is a guest at the mansion, but because they cannot watch him every second of every day, they at least want the ability to find him at a moment’s notice. Sabretooth asks if they really think this will help them keep an eye on him. He bets he could take off anytime he wanted. Interrupting him, Professor X tells Victor the only reason he gets to stay at the house is through an act of charity; he is not to mistake it for a gesture of affection. If he gets out of line, Xavier himself will see to it his sight is not the only thing he loses on the grounds of the mansion. “Heh. Nice to see I’m not the only one with claws here,” Sabretooth says.
Suddenly, an incoming alert from the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents diverts the attention of Cyclops and Xavier. It seems the storm around the Andes has passed, allowing them to gather data on the team. The S.H.I.E.L.D. agent asks them to hurry to the control room; he’s picking up a disturbance only a few klicks from the team’s current position. They’ll be right there, Cyclops says. However, in his mind, he realizes their presence in the control room will do the X-Men in the field no good. By the time backup arrived, the fight will have surely ended. He has no choice but to trust in the team’s raw power and brains—and hope for the best.
Moments later, in the Andes…
Fury, communicating with the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents back in Westchester, receives their incoming warning. The have another attack in a nearby village, he tells the X-Men. Immediately, Beast suggests Kitty Pryde remain behind while the rest of the X-Men go to investigate. She takes issue with this, naturally. So does Fury, who tells Beast to stop thinking like a scientist and start thinking like an agent on a combat mission, which he is. Shadowcat’s a key member of their team, Fury reminds him. They’ll need both her phasing ability and her adamantium claw to take down the Sentinels. Fury suggests the X-Men head out to deal with the threat while he remain behind and guard over the civilian, Zigfried—and see if Jean and Rogue’s suspicions about her are correct.
Kitty, meanwhile, unsheathes her claw and tells Beast to stop acting so protective over her. Logan used to do that, she says. She reminds everyone she is an X-Man and can take care of herself.
As the team heads for the exit, Beast says he stands corrected. Jean calls him a chauvinist; he tells her not to start. She will if he stops playing the butthead, Jean says. To this, Hank’s only response is a growl.
While Rogue flies alongside and Nightcrawler keeps up by porting repeatedly in succession, Jean carries the non-flying members of the team to the battle in her telekinetic bubble. En route, she admits to Beast she doesn’t feel quite right about this. However, Beast assures her Fury can take care of himself. They’d better hope that’s true, Rogue adds; she doesn’t want to have to tell the professor they let the head of S.H.I.E.L.D. get killed.
Back at the base, Fury makes chit-chit with Zigfried. How long has she been working at this site? Two years next month, she answers. Fury notes she doesn’t seem too broken up about her missing friends. The way they were restricted from talking to others about their jobs made it difficult to get to know anyone, Ziggy answers. It was a lonely job. Fury admits he doesn’t think they’re all dead. He supposes something went wrong and they took off, but not before taking all the information with them on what was really happening at the facility.
Zigfried reaches out to Fury from behind and lays a hand on his shoulder. He addresses her as ‘miss’, but as she spins him around to face her, she informs him her correct title is ‘doctor’—as in, Dr. Zigfried Trask! With a handgun leveled at Nick Fury’s face, Dr. Trask admits to her lineage as the daughter of Bolivar and the granddaughter of Dietrich, making her the heiress to the legacy of the Sentinels. “And you, Colonel Fury, hold a very special place in my heart,” Zigfried adds. “You and a certain Canadian soldier raided a lab back in World War II and killed my grandfather.”
His surprise settled, Fury calmly gazes at Zigfried over the barrel of her gun and acknowledges they have arrived full-circle. It was her grandfather’s research led to the technology needed to build something that could detect people who were different, he says. With that technology, they can now hunt and kill those who are different—and start a whole new holocaust.
Zigfried highly doubts that. They’re mutants, she explains. Humans weren’t meant to have wings, read minds or teleport. They’re monstrosities—warped, sick, twisted versions of the human race made from an imperfect god. Mutants have a limited life span and may burn out eventually, but Dr. Zigfried Trask asserts it is her responsibility to make sure that process is sped up.
Elsewhere, Jean Grey, Beast, Rogue, Nightcrawler and Shadowcat arrive at the disturbance site at the village and find themselves in a confrontation with several towering Sentinels.


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Provide a full summary of the comic book.

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Home, Come the Heroes!
The X-Men have barely returned from their adventure with the Sentinels and now they finally have time to mourn for their lost friend. Nightcrawler simply misses Wolverine. Kitty cowers in the shower, watched by her dragon Lockheed. Jean has begun the funeral preparations, helped out by ‘Ro. Charles Xavier has withdrawn, trying to find a cure for “Burnout.”
Noting all this, Cyclops suddenly noticed a noise as an angry Sabretooth attacks Gambit, shouting he’s had it with him. Feeling’s mutual! the Cajun snaps back. Throwing a charged up card in his face, Gambit warns him that Kitty and ’Ro are off-limits to him. Cyclops orders them to break it up. Sabretooth throws Gambit out of the window, announcing for him nothing is off-limits!
Having heard the noise, Nightcrawler teleports to Cyclops’ side with Beast also appearing. Sabretooth snarls out of the window that he doesn’t play games. Gambit throws down with him, he better be prepared to bleed!
Joining them, Jean shouts “enough!” ’Ro warns Sabretooth to lay off Remy or he will bleed. An angry Kitty also arrives, ordering him to stop. Because ‘Ro and Jean aren’t the ones he needs to worry about. How dare he?! she shouts. Logan is his son! Either he start showing him respect or she swears to God!
Seems like he hit a nerve, Sabretooth smirks. He doesn’t care if she doesn’t like his style. But she meant more than she knows to the boy and like it or not she’s a part of him now. So this once, he’ll do her the courtesy of playing by her rules. Just bear in mind, down the road it’ll be her turn to play by his. Should be fun.
Cyclops walks to the lab where he finds Xavier, who clearly has been at work for long. When Cyclops want to ask about Kitty’s state, Xavier tells him to save the question, he is steering clear of Katherine’s mind. The nature, the very structure of her thoughts has become too violently unbearable. Doesn’t that worry him? Scott asks. It terrifies him, Xavier replies, but it’s sometimes better to let the storm pass before moving ahead, to better see the way. What if they are talking about Mount Vesuvius and Pompeii? Scott points out. Rational caution can turn a crisis into an outright disaster. Has he an alternative? Xavier asks. Not yet, Scott admits. He’s still working on his. Then he still has work to do, Xavier replies. Scott reminds him he can’t help anyone if he doesn’t take care of himself, but realizes he might as well be talking to the wall.
He finds it hard to deal with Xavier, because he’s so angry at him for not telling him the truth. He looks at a picture of the original X-Men, all young and innocent and can’t believe how much has changed since then.
He runs into Jean, who is clearly out of sorts but thanks him for doing this. She falls asleep in his arms. Scott is torn between anger for losing her to Logan and his desire to help, the latter of which wins out.
Later, guests begin to arrive. SHIELD agents identify the first batch, four of the original New Mutants, Cannonball, Mirage, Wolfsbane and Sunspot, all of whom are greeted by Nightcrawler. More guests are coming. Moira MacTaggert and Banshee, the Avengers Vision and Scarlet Witch, her brother Quicksilver and his Inhuman wife Crystal, as well as the Fantastic Four and Jean’s parents.
There is an awkward moment when Forge sees ‘Ro, who wonders why he is staring at her so strangely.
Iceman and Archangel find Scott alone in the garden. Solitary as usual, Warren jokes He loves Scott but he can be such a cliché! Scott lights up when he sees his old friends and thanks them for coming, especially since Warren and Logan had their trouble in the beginning. In the end, Wolverine was there when they needed him. Can’t ask for more, Warren replies. They all owe him, even if most of the time they didn’t like him very much.
Did they get the latest data updates from Hank? Scott asks. New sentinels, new bad guys, Storm’s some kinda traitor, and they are all doomed, Bobby summarizes. That about cover it? Pretty much. Scott hugs his two friends as Warren asks what the plan is.
Elsewhere, Kurt and Kitty greet the Braddock twins. Brian tells Kurt that everybody in Excalibur sends their love and sympathies. Kitty greets Betsy, who telepathically tries to calm her. Brian asks Kurt how things are holding up. Alistaire Stuart and his sister are already working with Moira. What else can they do to help? After all, Excalibur has always been very good with miracles. So speaks the man whose habit is rising from the dead, Kurt jokes and gives Betsy a peck on the cheek. She tells him she misses the X-Men but he advises her to stay clear of them for the moment. Kitty hugs Brian crying, admitting she is happy to see them all and is miserable because of the reason. He empathizes and suggests the two of them talk after this. That’d be nice, she admits. She considers the Braddocks like elder siblings but silently fears this time even that won’t help.
Elsewhere in orbit is COSA - the Consortium orbital surveillance array - a scanner system. The Consortium watches the X-Men and finds that, since their return from South America, the place has been quiet. A woman criticizes they are depending too much on technology. Haven’t they got local spies? Given the enhanced SHIELD presence and the number of psychics among the X-Men, that’s not to be recommended. It just looks like the X-Men are going to ground. Which is uncharacteristic of them, the woman replies. They decide to keep up full surveillance.
Meanwhile in his lab, Beast has created a holographic cloak over Xavier’s estate to fool exactly spy satellites as those of the Consortium. Bobby surprises him and asks what is going on. Hank explains to his friends that today is private. Villains have no right to watch and gloat. Does Scott know what he is going to say? Warren asks. Still working on it, Cyclops admits.
At the door, Jean takes flowers from a special delivery man. “Remembrance of moments past,” she reads, but there is no signature. The delivery man, Bruce Banner, silently recalls how, before the X-Men, Wolverine helped him against the Wendigo. He’s sorry the Hulk wasn’t there when he needed him. Jean senses something familiar about him but hasn’t the strength for a psi-probe. Bobby and Warren greet her while Scott is getting ready.
Outside, Daisy Dugan commands the SHIELD guards. One of them wonders why Daisy is running the show when his partner Bill has way more seniority. Fury, in his dress uniform, informs them that in his command assignments are based on skill, not seniority. Besides, both of them are better in the field. He asks for the status on Sabretooth and is told he is quiet. The younger agent comments about the “fruit salad” on Fury’s chest. Distinguished service cross with clusters, silver star with clusters, purple heart with clusters and a medal of honor. He’s a real hero! the other agent agrees. His friend Logan was better, Fury replies simply.
The guests gather on the mansion’s ground outside where the ceremony is held. Looking around, Scott silently figures there should be a lot more people. But too many of the folks Logan knew best, Mystique, Yukio, his Madripoor friends, won’t come anywhere near a place watched over by the law. Imperial Japanese security refused to allow Mariko Yashida’s presence. Considering the circumstances with Jean, that’s probably for the best. Kitty got a letter from Balmoral, delivered by crown courier. She’s wearing the Torque she brought back from Scotland after that adventure, an ancient symbol of Celtic warrior royalty. So much of the past she shared with Logan is a private thing between them. She’s still just a kid. Scott hopes she can handle his loss and be smart enough to let them help her.
Scott begins his eulogy. Knowing Logan wasn’t easy, he admits. He was the best at what he did but what he did best wasn’t very nice. Certainly not what anyone would expect from a super hero. Then, he doesn’t think that’s a term Logan ever felt applied to him. He was a man who lived his life, did his job, made no apologies, because none were ever needed. When he came to the X-Men, they didn’t know his name. He was just called “Wolverine.” When the truth came out and they wondered why he never told them, he said simply “you never asked.”
He was a man who volunteered nothing. If you wanted to open a dialogue with him, you had to meet him halfway. And always treat him with respect. Yes, he killed, when the circumstances required it. It was to save lives. People tried to change that, to make him something darker, but he couldn’t be bought and he wouldn’t be broken. He was a man who stood beside Captain America and turned down Cap’s offer to be his first sidekick, suggesting that instead Cap would be better suited as his. He befriended Charles Xavier throughout the professor’s tours of duty in Southeast Asia, helping him through countless combat search and rescue retrievals to bring lost troopers home safely.
They all knew Logan lived a long and wild life but he doubts any of them imagined the sheer number of people he met over the decades. You want to know the kind of man he was, the life he lived, just look around.
Everybody is listening. Only Sabretooth is inside the building, nursing a drink.
The thing he remembers, Logan never gave up. He knew he wasn’t perfect, he didn’t care. What mattered wasn’t so much the victory as never giving up. He had a dream, a goal. He knew it was probably doomed. That no matter how hard he tried he couldn’t beat the animal in his nature. But that never stopped him from trying. Logan was a hard man to know, often impossible to like. He certainly never made it easy. Probably because he didn’t care. You took him or not on his terms, no questions asked, no quarter given. But if you were his friend, he was with you to the end.
Funny, he never thought of him as a friend, quite the opposite. They fought about pretty much everything. Yet he always knew he could trust him, that he had his back. He wishes that, at the end, he’d have had one last chance to do the same for him.
Logan was an X-Man. They may not see his like again, but they can do their very best to try to live up to the standard he set.
Rogue, Nightcrawler, Fury, Cyclops, the Thing and Walter Langkoswksi carry the casket adorned with the Canadian flag to the hearse. Everyone says their goodbyes. Scott watches Kitty and Mrs. Grey taking care of Jean.
Later, he flies to Alaska and lands outside his family home. His grandmother and father welcome him. He tells them he’s angled himself a leave of absence. His son Nate - a 5-6 year old boy - comes running outside and happily hugs Scott. Exuberantly, he tells Scott all the things he has done and that his grandpa is teaching him flying. The family walks inside for dinner.


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[Assistant]
Sentinels—Reborn!
Seventy years ago, Dietrich Trask had a dream—to find a way to sample a person’s DNA remotely, without a blood or tissue sample. Trask’s intentions were noble, for he was at bedrock an idealist. His Nazi masters, of course, saw other uses for this technology. To them, Trask had developed a method to help them perfect their final solution. That was why the Allies sent Logan and Nick Fury and his Howling Commandoes to stop him.
They thought themselves successful. The research complex was destroyed; they believed the threat eliminated. Sadly, however, Dietrich Trask’s descendants continued his work, building off his original designs and schematics. But as they did so, their creations began to evolve. The Sentinels developed a mind of their own and with it a better idea of their purpose. The species the Trasks created them to protect, they concluded, was fatally, fundamentally flawed. Better by far to purge them all, baseline human and mutant, from the global gene pool and start again.
The Central Andean Highlands, South America…
Now, these Sentinels lay waste to an unprotected village deep in the Andes Mountains. The frightened villagers run for their lives, but only can get so far before individually falling victim to a targeted Sentinel energy attack. One man watches in horror as the person next to him bursts into flames and melts down to an ashen skeleton. Another woman tears off on her own, cradling an infant in her arms. Her flight catches the attention of the Sentinels.
Suddenly, that attention is diverted by the approach of enemies. The Sentinels identify the energy signatures of the five assailants as mutant. Their power signatures confirm them as X-Men. Their primary directive applies; the X-Men are known targets and must be destroyed.
The approaching X-Men—Beast, Jean Grey, Shadowcat, Rogue and Nightcrawler—size up their adversaries. Beast advises the team to refrain from exercising caution; there are five X-Men versus ten Sentinels, and they have a whole town of innocent people to protect on top of that. Don’t assume what worked earlier will work now, Kitty adds. She reminds her teammates a hallmark of Sentinel technology is adaptation—especially to mutants. Jean, using her telekinesis to hoist both herself and Kitty through the air, keeps everyone linked via telepathy. That should provide them with total awareness and instant communications, she adds.
The airborne Jean blasts the nearest Sentinel in the face with telekinesis. Rogue follows up this attack by ripping its head from its shoulders. After Jean commends her finesse, she takes Shadowcat to their next target, hoping they can dismantle it just as quickly. She takes out the Sentinel’s eyes with her telekinesis before launching Kitty over to its head. Kitty, her adamantium claw extended, phases through the machine’s metal exterior but keeps her claw tangible. She cuts a swath through the Sentinel’s most sensitive area before phasing into its mainframe.
Nearby, Nightcrawler teleports to the ground. Beast follows suit shortly; he finds little need of his prosaic abilities in the canopy of the battle. As he descends, he notices something strange: these Sentinels have assimilated the raw materials of vehicles and technology they’ve destroyed. As far as Beast can tell, this is a new feature—but why are they doing it?
Meanwhile, back in the clandestine factory where this iteration of Sentinels was constructed, Nick Fury stares down the barrel of a handgun. “You killed my grandfather,” his enemy, Sigrid Trask, says. In his defense, Fury reminds her he killed a lot of people. After all, it was a war. Trask claims her grandfather was different; he was a dreamer and an idealist. That may be, Fury concedes, but his bosses wanted to use his creations as a weapon. He asks Trask to just look at what that precious technology has accomplished since World War II. How many times have the Sentinels nearly destroyed the world? Is that really what her grandfather, her father and her half-brother wanted? He asks her to just listen to him for a moment; it doesn’t have to be this way. All she is doing is perpetuating past mistakes.
The blonde-haired scientist refuses to budge. “You’re a sweet-talking devil, colonel,” she says with her gun leveled at him, “…but you’re wrong. At long last, Ziggy Trask is going to be the one to set things right!” With that, Dr. Sigrid Trask pulls the trigger.
Back in town, the X-Men continue their campaign against the gargantuan instruments of death. Beast barely evades an energy attack before realizing there are just too many Sentinels for them to handle. Anywhere he goes, he’s a sitting duck! In accordance with that fear, a Sentinel swings its hand downward, intending to smash Beast. Mere moments before he dies, however, Nightcrawler swoops in, grabs him and teleports him to safety—atop a Sentinel’s head. Is he all right? Beast assures his savior he is; he is merely awestruck by his sense of timing.
Jean, levitating nearby, tells Beast that is another one he owes her; coming to his rescue is getting to be a habit. Turning her attention back to the battle, she fires another TK blast at a Sentinel while asking Rogue to follow with the same move she used earlier. Rogue follows the order with pleasure. She charges fist-first at the Sentinel, swings her legs forward at the last second and kicks the machine to the ground.
The Sentinel slumps toward the jungle floor—right on top of Shadowcat, unfortunately. Kitty, fearing she will not have time to phase, holds her arms over her phase in a pitiful gesture of self-defense. The Sentinel completes its course and crashes onto her position.
Jean watches this scene unfold in horror. Enraged, she turns to the rest of the Sentinels, unleashes an enormous telekinetic pulse and declares the fight over! She has had enough of these wretched robots, she shouts. Her sudden display of immense energy catches Beast, Rogue and Nightcrawler by surprise. Where has she been hiding all that power—and where can Rogue get a piece of it? Nightcrawler suddenly has a very bad feeling about this.
Back at the research and manufacturing facility, Nick Fury applies pressure to his bleeding thigh and asks Dr. Trask if she feels better now. She bet he thought she’d shoot to kill, Trask says. “And where’s the fun in that?” Fury asks in response. “Shoot me dead, you lose your audience.” Commending his perception, Ziggy admits killing him would be too easy; she wants him to suffer. It’s a moment—and a vengeance—long overdue. Fury tells her he can understand why she feels that way. Trask curtly tells him not to patronize her.
“It was a world war, honey,” Fury continues. Guys on every side of the conflict did things they maybe came to regret later in life. As he speaks, Fury recalls some of the things he did and the horrors he saw in this raid, particularly parachuting into enemy territory with Logan and viewing the eviscerated corpse of Dietrich Trask. He tells Sigrid he is sorry about what happened to her grandfather, but the fact is that his death made a difference. If Dietrich Trask had lived—if his technology had been deployed—who knows how many more might have died?
He takes a moment to ask Sigrid a bit about herself. What’s her story? Ziggy doesn’t mind revealing some details. Her father and grandmother fled to South America because of the war. There, they started again. They worked to make the Trask name respectable once again, and they succeeded. After the death of Ziggy’s father’s first wife, he married the woman who would become Ziggy’s mother, and together, they worked to bring Dietrich’s dream to life. However, as close as they came, no matter how hard they tried, the accursed X-Men always stole away their rightful triumph!
Meanwhile, in the nearby village, the X-Men stare at Jean Grey in awe. She just single-handedly took down all the Sentinels, Beast says. Jean knows; she has a beaut of a headache to prove it! Worried, Rogue asks about Kitty Pryde. Jean, however, calms her nerves a bit by explaining she reestablished a link with Kitty; she’s just fine. However, her thoughts are a total mess and she’s really upset.
As if on cue, an adamantium claw emerges from the side of one of the downed Sentinels, taking Rogue back a bit. As the claw cuts its way through the shell, Beast cannot help but marvel at the ease with which Kitty makes herself an exit. The hide of Sentinel is as thick and tough as battleship armor, after all. She has got to let him examine that claw, Beast says.
Kitty finishes cutting the hole. The slab of armored skin collapses outward and falls to the ground. Gangway, she says! Nightcrawler, Beast, Rogue and Jean move to the makeshift entrance and peer inside, and what they see raises even more questions. These Sentinels, Shadowcat points out, are way different than the ones they normally fight. All the combat and operational systems seem confined to the limbs. The torso, however, looks mostly hollow. At first glance, Kitty presumes the hollow center is some sort of construction site—but the formatting pods are empty. Whatever they were making is long gone. They need to investigate the other Sentinels and see if they’re the same, Kitty adds. Maybe they will find a clue as to what the heck they were building!
Inside the Consortium-operated facility, Nick Fury continues mining Dr. Sigrid Trask for information. Her half-brother Larry knew the truth about the Sentinels; he realized the threat they posed to everyone, Fury tells her. The Sentinels nearly killed him for it, and would have, had not the X-Men saved him. Ziggy scoffs; lesser minds bring about flawed creations, she says. Her creations, however, will be perfect. Fury tells her that will not be the case if somebody stops her. As for who that might be, the sound of a jet hovering overhead provides an answer. Ziggy looks up in panic; what is that? All Fury tells her is that they X-Men have their own methods, and he has his. Game over, he tells Dr. Trask.
As S.H.I.E.L.D. soldiers repel out of the aircraft and infiltrate the abandoned base, Dr. Trask looks up in bewilderment. She didn’t expect things to turn out this way. Nevertheless, she aims her gun at Fury and tells him she’ll kill him first. He urges her to go ahead; it won’t change a thing. Before Trask can pull the trigger, however, a carefully aimed bullet fired from across the room knocks the gun out of her hand. She recoils.
Across the room, the redheaded Daisy Dugan hangs loosely from an open ventilation shaft with her free arm. In her other, she holds a smoking pistol. She orders Trask neither to utter a word nor make the slightest move. If she fails to comply, Dugan promises the next round she fires will make Ziggy scream. With the situation under control, Dugan reports to her colleague, Caruthers. She tells him the site is secure and their boss, safe. However, Fury has been shot, she says. She requests a medikit and an immediate evac.
Agent Caruthers confirms her request. They will have the gear and a medic on the ground in a jiff, he says over the radio. However, things do not proceed as smoothly from the aircraft’s end. The S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Manuel reports movement on the threat board. Caruthers doesn’t understand how; they swept the complex clean. Over the radio, Daisy Dugan urges her colleague Tori to drop the tethers and get out of there right away. Her warning comes too late. The S.H.I.E.L.D. agents in the jet suddenly detect multiple inbound contacts. Just as they realize what is heading for them, the explosives hit their jet and blow it out of the sky.
Fury and Agent Dugan direct their gazes overhead as the explosion reverberates through the building. Fury hopes the X-Men’s telepath sensed what just happened. He tells his agent on the ground, whose name he forgets, to keep an eye out for any survivors—and especially for whoever is responsible for the attack.
During this commotion, Dr. Ziggy Trask slips away. Daisy Dugan doesn’t notice she’s gone until it is too late. She begins to run after her, but Fury orders her to stand her ground. Ziggy knows the rat’s nest; Daisy doesn’t. Fury refuses to let her run off and get killed. He doesn’t want to lose any more agents on this assignment. Let Ziggy run, he says—for now.
After the X-Men rejoin Fury and Dugan, they search for Ziggy together. However, they fail to find her; she seems to have made her escape with success. Rogue asks Jean if she detects any sign of Ziggy, but Jean concedes she is too well-shielded. Rogue can’t find her either; the jungle canopy is too thick to spot a lone fugitive from the air. If Sabretooth were there, he could follow her trail, Shadowcat supposes. Nightcrawler reminds her that is why they’re a team: each of their abilities complement one another.
In the back of the briefing room, Nick Fury asks Beast if he found anything useful. Nothing he likes, McCoy answers. He does tell Fury they fought ten classic Sentinel models, all of which seemed to be construction models. Fury asks if they saw what these Sentinels were building. Not conclusively, McCoy tells him. He adds, however, that he saw one of them searching for scrap metal in the village. Although he didn’t understand it at the time, he believes they were attempting to procure building materials. Right now, all of Hank’s best guesses are giving him nightmares. Whatever is out there took down Fury’s plane, which makes it hostile. They can’t find any trace of it, meaning it’s undetectable. Since they’re derived from Sentinels, they need to assume they’re fundamentally nasty, both to humans and mutants. Basically, although they can label this round a draw, they need to realize it’s just the beginning.
Jean, meanwhile, wanders to the front of the room and stares out the broken windows into the jungle. She berates herself for not psi-probing Ziggy harder when she had the chance. She can’t wait to hear Scott scold her about it, either. Ziggy should have trusted her brother Larry’s judgment, Jean thinks. At least he understood the true nature of the Trask family’s creation. Ziggy may think she’s claiming her rightful legacy and fulfilling Dietrich Trask’s dream—but she’s wrong.
Right now, the only thing Ziggy Trask is feeling is scared. She’s running, following an instinct she didn’t know she possessed, trying to put as much distance as possible between herself and the construction complex. Any moment, she expects to be caught, if not by S.H.I.E.L.D., then by the accursed X-Men. Ziggy cranes her neck behind her as she runs, too terrified of what may be following to ignore the possibility it might be gaining distance on her. Unfortunately for her, her inattentiveness proves costly, as she trips over a snap, tumbles to the ground and hits her head. Ziggy just wants her mother to come to her rescue—like back when she was a little girl.
Flashback…:
“Stop crying, Ziggy,” Mrs. Trask says to her young daughter. Little Ziggy tells her she fell, though, and it really hurts! Her mother, dressed in a knee-length, floral print dress worn over a red, collared shirt, informs Ziggy she’s getting better, even as they speak. “The moment you learn to stand and walk, Ziggy,” Mrs. Trask says, “…you accept the reality that sooner or later you’re bound to fall. What matters, though, is making sure you’re able to get up and start again. Much as our family’s done.”
Mrs. Trask walks her daughter Ziggy through one of their family factories as she teaches her this tough lesson about life. She explains to Ziggy how her father and grandmother came to America with little more than the clothes on their backs. Look around, she instructs Ziggy, and see just how much her father created. He used both his skills as a doctor to make people healthy and those of a scientist to take all the secrets left to him by his father and use them to create a means of making everyone in the world safe. “But didn’t bad men kill Großvater Dietrich, mama?” Ziggy asks. “What if they come for papi?” Mrs. Trask encourages her not to worry; that was a long time ago in a far away place. This is their home now, and their days, better. They are quite safe in America. Besides, why would anyone try to hurt her father when he’s simply trying to help?
Speaking of her father, Ziggy spots her dad on the factory floor, wearing a hardhat and white lab-coat. She runs to him with enthusiasm. Bolivar Trask is delighted to see his little Ziggy. Where did she come from? As she leaps into his arms, Ziggy tells her papa she came from right nearby, with mama. She hadn’t seen her daddy for so long that mama brought her for a visit. Bolivar embraces his daughter. With a smile plastered on his face, he explains he has been busy. Ziggy knows this; she just misses him. Once more, Bolivar apologizes—but shows Ziggy his latest project that has taken up so much of his time.
Turning her attention to the factory floor, Bolivar asks her to behold a staggering array of giant, humanoid, purple and fuchsia robots. They stand in ordered rows, staring ahead with menace in their lifeless eyes. What does Ziggy think? All she can say is “wow!” Bolivar explains this is his father’s dream, at long last about to be realized. Soon, his Sentinels will take flight and keep the world—and the human race—safe forever.
End flashback…
That was the dream. Reality turned out to be far different. Trask had identified mutants as the greatest potential threat to humanity. His creations set out from the beginning to eliminate them. Bolivar Trask eventually came to realize that not all mutants were threats; indeed, his greatest adversaries, the X-Men, acted as humanity’s defenders. But he’d built far batter than he’d known. His Sentinels saw themselves not as defenders of humanity, but as Earth’s masters. As their programming evolved, they concluded that the entire human race were potential mutants and should therefore be purged. The struggle claimed Bolivar’s life, and very nearly Larry Trask’s, but in the end the X-Men—Angel, Beast, Iceman, Marvel Girl and Cyclops—apparently emerged triumphant.
Sadly, it seems that fate has other plans. Ziggy, picking herself up off the ground and catching her breath, examines her jungle surroundings. She can’t bring herself to run anymore; and to think she believed herself to be in shape. Still, she hopes she gave the X-Men and Nick Fury the slip.
A mysterious noise coming from the dense foliage grabs Ziggy’s attention. She turns to face it, her heartbeat racing. At first, she tells herself it’s just the jungle—it’s filled with noises. When she hears it again, however, she cannot deny it sounds out of place and that it’s drawing nearer. She calls out to the intruder and tells it to keep it’s distance; she’s armed. In a robotic voice, the approaching figure spits back that it ran a weapons scan on her. The subject is unarmed, it says. Ziggy’s eyes grow wide as she gets a look at the bearer of her fate.
The Consortium…
In the conference room encircled by TV monitors, three Consortium agents argue over the developing situation. It’s a fiasco, one agent declares. Not only have valuable assets and a fortune of resources been lost, but worst of all, their fundamental security may have been compromised. His female colleague disagrees; they do not know that yet. Given the circumstances, the man says, he would hardly expect an objective assessment. “Then you’re an idiot,” the female Consortium agent tells him. He begs her pardon; she explains to him that all along, he has been the one jumping to conclusions. The man disagrees. In his defense, sometimes the wait-and-see strategy merely guarantees disaster. Especially in a situation like this, his male colleague adds.
The woman refuses to budge. The disaster of which they speak will be of their own making if they insist on acting like precipitate fools. Yes, their adversaries have pieces of the puzzle—but nothing as of yet to connect them. They don’t even have a hint of how vast the truth really is, either—unless the Consortium’s overreaction provides that hint. “I will deal with my daughter, when it is appropriate,” the blonde-haired Consortium agent says, speaking of Sigrid Trask. “She sought to fulfill her father’s dream by succeeding where my stepson failed—to create at last an unflawed and perfect iteration of the Sentinel. We all knew the risks, yet the Consortium still sanctified the project. Before we take action,” she concludes, “we at least need to learn how it turned out.”
The Andes…
Dr. Ziggy Trask clings to a vine as a pair of bright headlights approaches her from the shadows of the forest. Its robotic voice tells her to remain calm; hostile contacts are subject to immediate elimination. That doesn’t sound too nice, Ziggy says to the mysterious figure. Whoever it is, she means no harm. The machine recognizes her voice and confirms her as Sigrid Trask. Surprised, Ziggy looks up at the glowing set of eyes; it knows her? “We are your creation,” the Sentinel says.
Ziggy asks what it means by “we”; she sees only one set of eyes. At that moment, however, sets of electronic eyes light up the shadows of the forest encircling her. She looks around at the horde of Sentinels at her command in wonder. “Wow,” she says with a fiendish grin on her face. “Oh mama, have I got a surprise for you—and for the X-Men!”


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Snap Trap! – Black Magik – part 1
South central Russia: A plane flies low. They are coming up on the drop zone, Arcadi announces. Any sign of hostiles? a woman asks. Calling her “Tzarina,” he replies the screens are clear. One man drops from the plane without a parachute. He lands hard but that means nothing to the armored form of Colossus.
Over comm.-link he too calls the woman “Tzarina” and tells her everything’s quiet. No contact yet. Will he stop calling her that? she complains. Bad enough hearing it from Arcadi. He didn’t think she’d be so sensitive, Piotr teases. With the last name of Rasputin she’d think he’d understand, she points out. He cannot make a joke? Only if it’s funny. Now she sounds like Katya, he remarks. Even better, she states sourly. Now he’s comparing her to children!
Looking at the snowy ground, Colossus remarks the quarry isn’t bothering to hide their trail. She warns him to be careful. Remember, his adversaries are also made of armor…
A huge, red, armored form tries to hit him. The Crimson Dynamo. Colossus grabs his oversized arms and throws his foe down with a judo move. The woman informs him that this is the first iteration of the Dynamo armor stolen from state archives by rogue spetznatz operatives out to make their fortune by selling old technology on the global terrorist market.
He’d say someone’s due for retirement, Colossus states as he hits through the armor. A force beam hits him from behind. Are they supposed to be impressed? another armored being mocks. After every battle they can be repaired. He bets, Colossus can’t say the same. Colossus is actually hurt. The newcomer grabs him by the foot, wondering if Colossus would bleed steel blood.
Suddenly, his captor is hit by kinetic energy. The Dynamo threatens that his friends won’t help Colossus. Suddenly, his systems go haywire as someone phases though him, namely Kitty Pryde, joined by Gambit who helped before and lil’ ‘Ro.
Kitty lands in Colossus’ arms. Surprised, he asks what they are doing here. Shouldn’t she be asking the same thing? Kitty teases. What’s all this she hears about Piotr Rasputin, hero of the Russian Republic? His country called. Was he supposed to say no? Who are her friends? Gambit remarks that his clothes may be new, but doesn’t Colossus recognize him? And this young lady is ‘Ro.
Noticing the tension between Piotr and Kitty, ‘Ro asks Remy if those two are gonna kiss. He tells her to mind herself. Kitty’s face is close to Piotr’s as she tells him she missed him. He responds in kind.
Suddenly, the Black Widow, the woman they all nicknamed Tzsarina harumphes. Much as she hates to interrupt the Xavier class reunion, they are here on a mission. Colossus remarks that Kitty and her friends actually helped. Kitty notices the looks passing between Piotr and Natasha and realizes they are a lot more than colleagues.
Let’s tidy up the mess, the Widow commands. Now that they have recovered the prize, she would like to learn who commissioned the theft. Ancient tech like that, one of the men, Yegeni scoffs. Natasha points out that the age of this tech doesn’t make it any less deadly.
Colossus suggests the X-Men might help. Natasha replies she figures they are not here by accident. Not exactly, Kitty replies in Russian. Natasha continues the Winter Guard was on a mission when they heard about Logan’s death. She owes him her life, more than once. She is sorry to have missed his funeral. Kitty replies he’d understand, but when Piotr didn’t show she wanted to make sure everything was alright.
Colossus explains that he will always be available if the X-Men need him but this is his home and his place. Natasha points out Shadowcat isn’t asking him to go back, she wanted to know if he was okay. And she assures Kitty that he is just fine.
Meanwhile at Xavier’s, Rogue comes down for breakfast to find an utterly cluttered sink. Angrily, she stalks through the mansion muttering if it’s too much to asks for that big slug to clean up his mess! Nightcrawler sees her striding by and figures there’s trouble. Keep her temper, he asks.
She heads to the patio where Sabretooth is sitting and asks why he didn’t do his dinner dishes. Why should he? he asks. They live together, that means they all help out, she explains. So why not help him out right now and get him a fresh brew, he asks. Angrily she shoves him into he pool. Not a smart move, Kurt sighs. Sabretooth comes rushing out, attacking her.
Jean joins them. Those two at it again? She sighs. Kurt asks her to use her telepathy to stop them. They’re going to kill each other. Jean is convinced they won’t. Besides, they both need to let off some steam.
She joins Hank in the lab. He tells her she is nicely stepping into Scott’s shoes as a leader. Jean wonders how she could miss it about their collective fate. So much for telepathy revealing all secrets. Not such a surprise, Hank replies. As X-Men, they were always focused on the beginning of the process. Looking for new mutants, helping them adapt to their changing realities. They took for granted that the rest of life would take care of itself. That was naïve of them.
Jean points out Charles couldn’t find an answer and he’s been searching for years. Hank admits he may be arrogant but he’s not Charles. He actually relishes the idea of succeeding where folks like Reed Richards and Tony Stark fail. They are all rooting for him, Jean assures him.
In his office, Xavier is sharing a bottle of whiskey with Nick Fury, who tells him that he got word from Vazhin (his Russian counterpart) that the X-Men are on site. Xavier muses it’s strange not to be in telepathic contact with them. The primal rage is too much for him.
So it’s easier to sit on the sidelines and feel sorry for himself, Fury challenges. Is that the real reason he chose to bail on combat and fly rescues instead during the war? He got to play the hero but didn’t have to do anything nasty, take any responsibility? Of course not, Xavier replies, he was bent on saving lives, not taking them. Really? Fury asks. Xavier admits he doesn’t know. Of course he does, Fury replies and pours another glass. He made a choice. Maybe the wrong choice bur for the best of reasons, to spare his kids pain while he tried his damnedest to save them. He can feel a little guilty. Anything more than that is self indulgence. Get over it! Get back to work! These kids need him now more than ever.
He wouldn’t understand, Xavier replies. To raise them and then lose them like Colossus is hard. So is killing people! Nick retorts. So is sending them to their death! Responsibility and powers walk hand in hand with grief. Means either learn to live with it and maybe make things better. Or turn his back and run away and truly leave his kids abandoned and alone. Is that his legacy? Colossus made his choice. Scott found the courage to face his past and his shame and do what was necessary to set things right. That wasn’t easy and it didn’t come from nowhere. Charles helped teach him that. He taught them all. So maybe now they get to teach him. Logan used to talk like that, Xavier muses. Perhaps it’s well past time he listened!
South central Russia:
The three X-Men are brough  by the Winter Guard to its secret complex. Kitty explains that the border South forms a shallow wedge between Kazakhstan, Mongolia and China. The highlands make an ideal place to keep a watchful eye on neighbors. Peter’s family’s farm is just north to the side of the Ural, that’s where his sister Illyana lives now.
‘Ro remarks she doesn’t feel welcome here. They are strangers in a secret installation, Gambit points out. Better get used to it. So much for their green light from Moscow, Kitty figures. Why so glum? Gambit asks her. He figured she’d be happy to see her friend. So did she. Are she and he…? Gambit begins. She asks him not to go there. It was a long time ago. She was just a kid. And now she’s all grown up? he teases. Feels like that, she replies glumly.
They are led to a brightly lit room with a set table. The Black Widow and Colossus are already waiting and welcome them. The Widow asks them to sit down. To have some dinner. Both to talk and to thank them for their help this morning.
Happened to be in the neighborhood. Seemed natural to lend a hand, Remy replies. She can see why Interpol holds him in such high regard, the Widow remarks. What name is he going by this week: LeBeau or Picard? Friends call him Remy, he replies smoothly.
’Ro figures with his flirting the poor woman will be charmed in no time. Kitty is less sure. Can’t fool her, ‘Ro replies smugly. Like she doesn’t want the widow to buy Gambit’s smooth moves. Leaving Peter for Kitty. Yeah, right, Kitty scoffs.
Gambit kisses Natasha’s hand and she is charmed. Peter and Kitty are less so. Touching Peter’s face, Natasha continues that her heart is spoken for quite to her surprise. Peter wants to explain to Kitty who tells him there is nothing to explain. She couldn’t be happier for him.
Gambit tells ‘Ro to put that look away and the thoughts behind this. It’s like everywhere Kitty turns someone she counted on isn’t there anymore. She needed Rasputin as an anchor but the boy only has eyes for the Widow.
About a  thousand miles west on the site of what was once known as the Ust-Ordinsky collective, Colossus’ young sister Illyana leaves the school bus to walk home. She wonders why the guard’s car is standing there in the open, unaware that the men are unconscious.
Suddenly, a big black limousine brakes next to her. The man inside asks if she is Illyana Nikovna Rasputin and asks her to join him. She must be freezing. Illyana replies she’s not supposed to go with strangers. Surely her mother wouldn’t want her to catch a cold, he replies. Illyana finds she can’t resist and enters the car. The driver promises her that a glorious destiny awaits her. The time has come for the rebirth of Magik!


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Race the Wind! – Black Magik – part 2
Ust-Ordinsky, a prosperous collectively owned farm in Central Russia. Arriving there, an agitated Colossus gets off a helicopter, followed by X-Men Gambit, Shadowcat and ‘Ro. The Farm has been attacked and they were told in a message that something had happened to Colossus’ baby sister, Illyana. All the guards sent there by the Winter Guard are heavily injured, as though savaged by wolves. Piotr goes looking for his parents and some guards assure him they are fine.
His parents explain that Illyana was kidnapped. She was due home from school. Suddenly there was screaming and, when it was over, they couldn’t find her. Just the body of Pavel, her bodyguard. Piotr promises they will get her back. His father warns him that the guards weren’t fighting men but monsters.
Kitty muses that the bad guys could have killed everyone. But this way the survivors tell everyone what happened and everyone gets scared. Gambit wonders why they took the girl. Was she a mutant? ‘Ro asks. Half her age, Kitty replies. Not even close to becoming active. Exiting the copter, the Black Widow points out that, if she were, considering her history, things might turn very nasty. She explains to Gambit and ‘Ro that Illyana isn’t simply a mutant. As apprentice to the demon Belasco, she became quite powerful at using magic. Her powers derive from both her mutant genes and the skills she gained as Magik. Such a combination should not be underestimated. She’s alerting the rest of the Winter Guard. She’s expecting the worst? Kitty asks. She is Russe and a Romanov, Natasha replies wryly. It comes naturally.
Meanwhile in New York:
Jean Grey and Hank McCoy are taking a walk along the Xavier estate, enjoying the day. Hank thanks her for hauling him out of the lab. Jean admits that she can relate. He asks if he can help. Just being there is a start, Jean assures him. Is she thinking about Scott? If only it were that simple, she sighs. It’s hard for her to explain. Does he know what happened aboard Starcore? He’s heard various accounts, Hank replies. That moment, she continues, when she became one with the quintessence of life, of creation, of passion, she had never felt anything so glorious. The feeling was indescribable. It was as if all her earthly interests – Xavier, the X-Men, even Scott – were trivial. And that feeling of power, of infinity, lasted all of twenty seconds. And when she felt herself falling helplessly back into the water, she cried Scott’s name.
Even a Phoenix needs someone to catch her as she falls, Henry tells her. It was a very human thing to do. And now her mind, which once touched opposite ends of the universe, can’t help but circle endlessly around these two mortals…. For the life of her, she can’t fathom why! Ours is not to reason why, ours is but to do and die, he quotes at her. Keats? Jean asks. Tennyson, but a good guess, he amends. Does he have anything more cheery? All’s fair in love and war. That’s not funny, she chides him but smiles.
In Xavier’s school, Charles is meeting with Moira to discuss Burnout. At the moment, she sees no answer. The human frame is finite. Mutant abilities stress the body’s physical and psychic realities to the max. When the resources are exhausted, the body dies. Presumably, Logan’s and Sabretooth’s healing factor continually replenishes these energies. But the rest… She observes that the cellular degeneration doesn’t seem constant from mutant to mutant, so they can’t predict the rate at which a mutant is burning out.
It’s peculiar, Charles muses. After all the dangers his X-Men and he faced over the years, Apocalypse, Mr. Sinister, even Dark Phoenix, he never dreamed that this would be their downfall. They’ve been given the abilities of gods and the only cost is their very lives. Whenever the X-Men set out against another foe, he was worried they might get killed and now he worries that they’ll go out with little more than a whimper. Moira comforts him that they still have time to get something done.
Sabretooth crouches on the roof, eavesdropping, figuring Moira now sounds a lot like Charles used to. While she talks of hope, Charles circles in on himself. Maybe it’s time someone put him out of his misery. Challengingly, he thinks whether Xavier caught that thought.
That moment, he senses that someone is watching him via a gun sight. He sniggers and then tells Daisy Dugan that sneaking up on a blind man isn’t nice. A moment later, he disappears. Daisy calls command and orders them to start an infrared scan of the estate to find Sabretooth.
Somewhere in a ruined warehouse:
Cossack has brought Illyana into a cold and empty room within one of the buildings and left her shut in alone. Illyana, however, remains surprisingly calm and composed, certain that her brother will rescue her and deal with the villain.
Cossack comes in, asking if she slept well. She didn’t sleep at all, she states and warns him he is making a mistake. And he’s going to be really sorry. Her brother and his friends rescued her from a demon. They saved the whole universe! He is no match for them.
Unamused, Cossack observes people say children have no imagination these days. Her brother has not met him. His name is Bhodan Shkro, but she can call him the Cossack. In truth, he actually believes the story about the demon. He’s had dealings with him. His name is Belasco. Does that frighten her? No, Illyana replies. Either incredibly honest or a most impressive liar, he muses and wonders which. Maybe both, she suggests.
Cossack observes that doesn’t sound like a young child and adds her family name is very famous in the Rodina. Illyana tells him she knows. Her biggest brother was a cosmonaut. He was actually thinking much further back to the days of the Czar. She’s just started school, lllyana retorts. She hasn’t learned anything about that. Cossack challenges that he thinks she knows exactly what he is talking about.
Illyana asks why is she there. What does he want from her? He informs her that he wants her to be all she can be. Angrily, she tells him he hurt the men her brother left to keep her safe. That is the nature of the world, he tells her. There are predators and there are prey. She should ask herself: what is she?
Elsewhere, Rogue flies above the Xavier estate, ashamed of how she handled Sabretooth. Bad enough she can’t control her power. It’s looking like she can’t control herself lately. Sabretooth just knows how to push her buttons. She lands at Breakstone Lake and wonders if he did the same to Logan. Of course, he did, she thinks. Every year on his birthday, Sabretooth tried to kill his own son, to remind him who’s number one. But Logan never tried to run away. He always met the challenge.
She wonders if that is the real lesson here. Part of her wants to run. Scott asked them to stay, to fight, so that others caught in this genetic trap won’t have to even though it will likely cost them everything! She rails against the unfairness. She came to the X-Men to find control over her power, not this. She decides that she will neither run from Sabretooth nor fate. But, she promises herself, she is going to win somehow.
At the Ust Ordinsky farm, the Winter Guard members are searching everything. Kitty tries to comfort Piotr, telling him they will find Illyana; she will be fine. She likes the new look, she tells him to distract him. He replies that he helped the world, he helped mutantkind, now he just wants to help the Rodina, his homeland. She agrees, it’s a good choice, but is somewhat surprised by him and the Black Widow being an item. They didn’t expect it, he admits, it just happened. The more they were together, the more they liked it. One thing pretty much led to another. He doesn’t think either of them thought about it. Things just felt so right. All it takes is a decent look at the two of them to realize that, she admits and assures him she is happy for them both. Piotr thanks her.
Natasha comes from the helicopter, announcing they may have a lead, about a hundred fifty kilometers northwest of Moscow, in an old industrial site. Is his sister all right? Piotr asks agitated. She explains that telemetry’s inconclusive; they can only be sure by going themselves.
They fly off without waiting for the rest of the Winter Guard. Just flash them an alert, Natasha orders and asks Arkadi for information about the location. Karinovski industrial facility. No listings on any official manifests but its location raises a lot of eyebrows. Middle of nowhere, easy access to many old state security sites. Suggestion is that it’s ghost site. An industrial plant built to survive a nuclear war. Private ownership now, Bohdan Shkuro, self styled head of the Yaroslov Cossacks.
The Widow explains that Shkuro came out of Spetsnatst, their equivalent of the America special forces. He worked a lot with the old KGB. He’s a man of arrogance and power, with the wealth and resources to make his wildest ambitions reality. And now he has Piotr’s sister, which, she admits, makes her nervous.
When they hover above the seemingly deserted site, Piotr drops down in Colossus form, smashing right through the roof of the empty and quiet building. They really need a telepath, he complains. The others follow. Natasha announces they make do with what they have.
They could have ten times that and it would still make no difference, a new voice announces as they are blinded by a flash of light. They may think themselves a match for the powers of men, Cossack gloats, but now they face Black Magik, a teenaged, clearly demonic Illyana Rasputin.


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Black Magik – part 3
The Winter Guard and X-Men members came to this abandoned warehouse to save Colossus’ baby sister, Illyana, from the evil Cossack. Instead, they find her transformed again into her teenage self and wielding her dark magical powers, which she seems to embrace. One magical blow has already flattened the heroes. Kitty, who knows what Illyana is capable of, warns the others they are in trouble. ‘Ro doesn’t know Illyana, but is frightened by her.
What has he done to his sister? Colossus demand of Cossack. Restored her to the life and the future that are rightfully hers, comes the reply. The Black Widow tells him to have faith. They will find a way to set things right.
Cossack snaps his fingers and several of his strongmen surround the few heroes. They are outnumbered, Cossack adds unnecessarily. He would hardly consider these goons a number. More like a fraction, maybe, Gambit quips.
At that moment, Cossack’s Tartars show their enhancements by transforming into werebeasts and attacking. Gambit orders ‘Ro to get clear and asks Kitty to keep her safe while he throws charged cards at the beasts. The Widow and Colossus attack as well.
Kitty grabs ‘Ro to get her out but Magik’s spear glows with magical energy in her hand and, a moment later, Kitty runs facefirst into a box, finding she cannot phase. Kitty swears that Illyana is making it really hard to remember that they were friends!
With some werebeasts after them, Kitty orders ‘Ro to run while she fights them with her adamantium claw. She catches up with ‘Ro and suddenly finds herself grateful for the claw. She tries to tell herself to think of those creeps as monsters, not people. Several of them cut off their path. Logan would go berserk, Kitty muses. ‘Course, he had six claws. She just has one!
‘Ro wants to do something. Lightning crackles from her eyes and flattens the three werebeasts. Both girls are surprised and ‘Ro is exhilarated, but doesn’t think she can repeat that stunt at the moment. Still, Kitty announces she bought some time and they should use it. They head for the crates labyrinth.
In the meantime at Xavier’s, Beast is playing some Jazz and Rock records for Jean, currently Nazgul. He reminisces how they attended the concert long ago. Jean wore a leather skirt that made her old Marvel Girl mini look positively demure. She was young, she had no shame, Jean replies. Beast tells her she was gorgeous and asks her to dance. He makes her smile and, for a moment, she doesn’t know what to say. She breaks off. He puts away the record, telling her it was a lovely moment though. Yes, Jean agrees, silently calling him a lovely man.
Nick Fury and Moira MacTaggert are meeting with Charles Xavier in his study. Moira has correlated Charles’ data with the bioscans of the oldest members of the X-community and they agree with his findings.
Hank isn’t being shy about that aspect of his thoughts, Charles remarks. He is determined to find a cure where older more famous minds have failed. What are his chances? Fury asks. Minimal, which drives him harder.
Charles announces that the team’s decided that of all the school’s students only the eight of them will remain active. The rest are shepherded by Archangel and will keep low profiles. Works for him, Fury replies. He could always reopen Manzanar, Moira points out. Fury reveals internment camps have been suggested. What happens when these kids lose their temper, when they realize they have no future? Think of Storm, if she decides to get even with the world? They’ve already had a taste of what that means and she’s just a single mutant.
Deep beneath Xavier’s mansion, SHIELD agent Mike Brown walks the corridors near Cerebro. He’s spent weeks to uncover the mutants’ secrets. He decides to make his move but then is nailed by Sabretooth, who moves incredibly fast despite his blindness.
The SHIELD agent fire and misses Sabretooth who ducks. Sabes hits him and breaks his neck. A moment later, Sabretooth finds himself threatened with a gun to the head courtesy of Daisy Dugan. Angrily, she berates him for killing a SHIELD agent. He explains he’s been ghosting this mook all week. He’s been systematically working his way through the entire X-underground complex. And he was planting these monitors all around Cerebro. He’s thinking he worked for the Consortium. Daisy agrees and wonders who to tell. Who can they trust, and that includes Sabretooth. He tells her he has a plan for just the two of them… She decides she’s in.
Back in Russia, Gambit, the Black Widow and Colossus are still fighting Cossack’s werebeasts, which have driven them out of the factory and away from the girls. Colossus finishes them off and the Widow tells them they have to find a way to catch the foe by surprise.
‘Ro and Kitty have sat down between the crates. They are stuck and are unlikely to be rescued. ‘Ro notes that Kitty doesn’t look great. Kitty admits she’s feeling poorly but doesn’t know why. She can’t figure out what’s happening to her. ‘Ro tries to tell her everything will be okay. Kitty exclaims that Illyana was her best friend. She’s always watched her back. Cossack did this to her. It isn’t her fault! If she fights Illyana now and reacts from instinct, her claw could take off her head!
‘Ro doubts she’ll be that easy. She doesn’t think Illyana is as innocent in this, sorry. Kitty reluctantly agrees. And adds that there is something about Illyana –she can’t keep these awful thoughts out of her head.
They begin entering the crates maze. She’s tired of playing Cossack’s game. They have to find a way to change the rules. Right thought, Illyana announces, unless the other side has beaten her to it. She steps out of a teleportation disk. Kitty begs her not to do this. She is stronger! Illyana agrees, but what makes Kitty think she wants to fight this? When Kitty pulled her out of Limbo she didn’t save Illyana, lllyana was supposed to pull her in.  She loves who she is. That’s why she wants Kitty to join her.
‘Ro wants to kick her but Kitty orders they run. That moment, Magik animates several ribbons which tie up and gag ‘Ro. Illyana tells the girl to enjoy the show. As soon as Cossack and she are finished with Shadowcat, it will be her turn. Kitty refuses to let her do this. She’s doing nothing, Magik replies. She’s just clearing the path, opening the door. Why else does Kitty think she chose the name Shadowcat? Magik is giving her what she truly wants!
A circle of brimstone begins to engulf Kitty as Cossack joins Illyana. Magik tells her it’s her own choice. She can keep things as they are, nice and secure and safe or pitch her soul across the Karmic Rubicon and join her! Kitty goes through the change, beginning to emit unholy flames. Now they’re gonna have some fun, Illyana announces.


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Darkness at Dawn! - Black Magik – part 4
Magik and Cossack’s spell have changed Shadowcat into a dark, fiery version of herself. Her soul made flesh, Illyana claims. Fierce and beautiful and full of passion. Not a Shadowcat, but her Firecat!
In Russian, Cossack reminds Magik that for the transformation to be permanent, the girl must shed blood. Illyana warns him that her friend speaks perfect Russian.
Why is she doing this? Kitty asks. Magik claims that their lives, souls and fates are bound together and she wants her best friend at her side. It’s wrong! Kitty protests. Oh please, Magik scoffs.
‘Ro wishes she could help, but is tied and gagged. Magik reminds Kitty that they are both outsiders but, now that Kitty has that claw, even her supposed friends are becoming afraid of her. And Logan’s dead. Storm betrayed her. Piotr loves the Widow now. Kitty’s world is in ruins; she’s all alone except for her. Illyana touches Kitty’s face, urging her to make a choice. Embrace who she is. Above all else, a cat is a predator…
Outside, the Karinivoski industrial facility, the Black Widow, Colossus and Gambit are expected by Winter Guard soldiers. The Widow tells her men that they need everyone with all the weapon and ammunitions they have. She climbs into the chopper.
An impressive woman, Gambit admits. She’s like this when it’s time for action, Colossus agrees. He knows they are going after his sister but, if the battle comes down to his blood or his heart, he has already made his choice…
Inside the chopper, Natasha tries to contact the rest of the Winter Guard but only reaches Darkstar and the Red Guardian as the others are on missions. Natasha tells them she isn’t waiting. They are to alert the rest of the Winter Guard and get here as quickly as they can.
She steps out and asks Arkadi where Colossus and Gambit and the rest of the team are. Arkadi explains they are gone. The American was anxious about the girl and wouldn’t wait. Piotr went to help. Simyon took his squad after them both. Natasha sighs muttering what it is about men, then tells the others to come and show these villains that all of the Winter Guard are a force to be reckoned with.
Meanwhile at Xavier’s School, alongside with Sabretooth, Daisy Dugan informs Nick Fury about what they’ve learned. The traitor in SHIELD totally strip-mined Cerebro. Fury agrees. He would have like to have a prisoner to interrogate. At the time, that wasn’t an option, Sabretooth blusters. Fury shoots back Logan would have found a way. Maybe that’s why he’s dead! Sabretooth shoots back. Fact is, his house stinks to heaven. And he killed their only lead, is the reply. If SHIELD’s been compromised, he doesn’t know whom to trust. There’s them, Daisy states.
Sabretooth tells Fury he knows what he’s thinking, so answer him this: Why should Sabretooth trust him? Why is he here at all? Fury asks. As a favor to her, Daisy reveals. She asked him. Finally, Fury begrudgingly admits Daisy is like her grandfather. Consider him sold. What worries him is, he handpicked the team here. These are people he’s known for years, agents he trusts. Daisy points out that Mike passed every security scan imaginable, including telepaths, with flying colors.
Didn’t get past his nose, Sabretooth boasts; he scented something wrong from the beginning. Then they’ll follow his lead, Fury decides and tells him to work his way through the mansion staff, then the support staff. But from here on he wants prisoners! He needs answers, not a bodycount. Is that understood? He’ll let him know, Sabretooth retorts.
Back in Russia, led by Colossus, the Winter Guard soldiers attack the complex from another side. Immediately, the werewolves are upon them and, no matter how often they are shot, they keep coming back for more.
Before they are overwhelmed, the Widow and the rest of the soldiers come as the cavalry. Natasha remarks now they know why she prefers her Widow’s Bite to bullets, as it seems to be more successful against the werewolves. She orders Arkadi to fan out and use only the shockfire ammunition for their weapons. Arkadi obeys but warns her to be careful. Colossus notes he sounds worried. Natasha tells him Arkadi’s grandfather Ivan was her first guardian. Covering her back has become a family tradition.
The battle rages and the tartar werewolves quickly adapt to the Winter Guard’s weapons. The outlook becomes increasingly bleak. Gambit defends Simyon with his power and jokes next time he can save him. Whatever makes him think there’ll be anything left to save? the possessed Kitty, now Firecat, mocks, flanked by Magik and Cossack. The tied up ‘Ro shouts for Remy to help them. Magik mocks he should give it his best shot.
Gambit warns Cossack to let the girls go or he’ll kill them. Cossack is not afraid and boasts that, like the two other girls, ‘Ro will be transformed. Gambit and Colossus attack but Magik’s spells stops Piotr, whereas Kitty phases though Gambit’s explosive cards, then jumps at him and knocks him down. Illyana orders Colossus to yield if he wants to live, or better yet join her!
Magik is struck by a beam of black energy courtesy of Darkstar, who has arrived with the Red Guardian. A little girl naughty as her deserves a spanking, Darkstar quips. Magik snarls she will pay for that.
Cossack focuses on ‘Ro, intent on catalyzing the darkness in her soul and start her transformation. ‘Ro resists, wild weather engulfs her and behind her appears the ghostly image of a grown-up version of her.
Magik snarls at Cossack to get the brat under control. The X-Men are safe in the eye of the hurricane, whereas the tartars are being hammered by the winds and rain alongside the Winter Guard.
Firecat gets ready to kill Gambit. He challenges her that ‘Ro is resisting, why isn’t she? Is this what she really wants? Kitty can hear Wolverine’s voice in her head, telling her she is a victim now. He thought she was tougher and stronger than that. She remembers that she fought Ogun, she fought the Shadow King, she’ll fight Cossack and win!
For a moment, she returns to her true form once more. Just taking a breath to say goodbye, she tells Gambit, before changing back into Firecat. But now she is in control, she tells Gambit and attacks Cossack, vowing to bring this to an end. She won’t let her friends suffer or die! What he’s done to her… he took her somewhere she should never have gone! If that costs her her soul, she can live with that!
Before she can kill him, the Black Widow shoots Cossack. She tells Kitty, who has returned to normal that a long time ago Logan saved her from this kind of evil He’s gone, but Kitty is the child of his soul. So she figures this is a way to repay the debt.
While Kitty has returned to normal, Illyana is still Magik. This is her true form, she boasts. She creates a teleportation disc and vows the war between them goes on.  The X-Men taught her well, next time they will find out how well! With that, threat she disappears.
The Winter Guard soldiers tell Natasha that the Tartars transformed to their wolf forms and ran for the hills. Natasha orders to send the red Guardian and Darkstar after them and make sure they are eradicated.
Colossus announces Illyana could be anywhere. Kitty tells him she is not even going to try and follow her. That’s what she wants. Colossus tells her that Illyana is his responsibility. He will do what he must to save her. Is she all right? he asks. No, she admits smiling. Latest in a line of heavy hits. But she is a survivor, like the Widow and him. Natasha promises that, when Illyana comes back, the Winter Guard will be ready for her. They will find a way to mend this. Kitty tells them she knows they will.
At Xavier’s, Nightcrawler gets a phone call from an agitated Amanda Sefton. He asks her to calm down and learns she is in Jackson, Mississippi and in serious trouble. Suddenly, she screams and the phone goes dead.
Rogue has walked by and asks what’s wrong. He reminds her that he and Amanda have always been best friends, once even lovers; he has to help. Mississippi is her home turf, Rogue reminds him and offers to come along.
In Manhattan, very late, Beast and Jean leave a jazz club in a good mood. Beast even got to play a set. He was great, she tells him. He was inspired by a lady, he retorts. Ever wonder, if they made a wrong turn somewhere? Exchange the lab coat for a piano. Him and Scott as Jeff and Beau Bridges, her as Michelle Pfeiffer, the Fabulous Baker Boys? Jean suggests. Something like that, Hank supposes. Jean reminds him their story didn’t have a happy ending. And this isn’t a story, but their lives. Surprisingly, she kisses him and tells him she’s always known. She’s just never been free before to say yes…
In Alaska, Scott Summers is working on his grandfather’s motorbike with the help of his son, Nathan. Afterwards, Scott goes for a ride. Nate fears he is leaving but Scott explains the bike needs to mow out the pistons; he is just going out for a spin. When Nate asks to come along, Scott promises him the next day and leaves.
Nate announces to his grandfather and great-grandmother that he hates the X-Men. They are going to take his daddy away. His great-grandmother comforts him that they are Scott’s family. He will always return to them.
Meanwhile, in Wakanda, the great panther statue is toppled and broken, hinting at a great change…