| Synopsis
| - Continued from last issue...
Following their supposed victory against the Dire Wraiths, the X-Men and Forge find themselves besieged by a manifestation of Shadowbeings that threaten to swallow them up. As they struggle to free themselves from being assimilated, Storm uses the gun that Forge gave her to shoot off his mechanical leg so he can get away and find some help. As Forge calls out to Nazé, he is unaware that his tribe's shaman has been replaced by a Dire Wraith who now is casting an evil spell in the inner sanctum of Forge's penthouse. The Wraith-Nazé calls for a mystical being to aid the Dire Wraiths and offers the entire Earth in exchange. This powerful neither being scans "Nazé's" body and learns the truth and mystically strikes him down dead, finding that killing this pretender suits his purposes better.
Meanwhile, just above the Dallas/Fort Worth airport, Amanda Sefton is working her job as an airplane stewardess when suddenly Nightcrawler appears and teleports her away onto the Blackbird. He explains to her the X-Men's dilemma that the X-Men need her aid. They quickly teleport into Forge's Eagles Next and Amanda goes to work. With one mystical blast she frees the X-Men but fails to destroy the Shadowbeings. Rogue transforms into a Dire Wraith due to her mutant absorbing powers and battles with Colossus. Just then, Colossus's sister Magik appears and uses her Soul Sword to change Rogue back to normal while Amanda unleashes her full power to mystically snare the Shadowbeings so that Illyana can destroy them with her Soul Sword. However, they prove too powerful. Realizing that a Wraith must still be alive, Storm remembers the one she locked up on the roof Uncanny X-Men #187}}. Forge and Nightcrawler teleport there and Forge finds and terminates the last Wraith, ending the threat of the Shadowbeings inside.
With the X-Men recover from the battle, Forge goes looking for Nazé and finds what he believes to be his old friend’s unconscious body. Storm enters the room and tells him that the X-Men are leaving. Forge tries to stop her and she threatens to shoot him. She tells him that he should not worry, as they will meet again, however she tells him he might regret it, and she leaves.
Meanwhile, out in deep sea near the Bermuda Triangle, Lee Forester's fish crew is at work when they spot a man in the water being attacked by sharks. Lee manages to fend the creatures off with a rifle and pull the man aboard the ship. Getting a better look at the man she saved, she is shocked to see that it is Magneto. The master of magnetism remembers her from their previous encounter and tells her that he is indebted to her.
While at the X-Mansion, Storm and the other X-Men have returned to the mansion from Dallas. Storm is coming out of the pool after a swim and is met by Nightcrawler. Kurt comes to tell her that the Professor has called a meeting for the X-Men. Storm tells Kurt that since she is no longer a mutant she doesn't feel like she is part of the X-Men and declines to join. However Kurt manages to convince her to join.
As the X-Men are having their meeting, outside Rachel, Illyana and Sunspot try to listen in to what's going on. The Professor detects their presence and tells his young students to go to bed. Rachel declines to accompany the younger students and decides to stay up a while longer. Inside the Professor's study, the X-Men vent their frustrations over the United States government being responsible for stripping Storm of her powers and discuss what they should do about the coming Mutant Control Act that is being pushed through Congress.
Nightcrawler airs his frustrations about the current state of human and mutant affairs and points that anti-mutant sentiments were the reason Jean Grey died. Hearing this from outside, Rachel lashes out telepathically, not willing to believe that her mother had died years before she was born in the future. The Professor manages to calm her down and Rachel explains the story about her past, which may or may not be the X-Men's future. She explains how when she was a young girl, anti-mutant forces gunned down most of the students and blew up the mansion and that she witnessed Charles Xavier being shot herself. How as an adult she was locked in a concentration camp for mutants and how the X-Men tried to save their future while Kate Pryde was sent back in time to prevent their future from happening and how all the X-Men had died .
This vision from the future shocks all of the X-Men and the Professor is the most visibly shaken of them all. Rachel explains that when the X-Men failed to stop the Sentinels in her time she attempted to travel back in time, but found herself in a past that she does not remember. She pleads to Nightcrawler not to give up their struggle and to continue to fight for human mutant peace. Nightcrawler takes this to heart and agrees to keep on fighting.
At a New York shipping yard, a man named Jaime Rodriguez is hard at work hauling crates of fish when one crate accidentally falls to the ground and breaks open. Examining the spilled fish he notices that one of them has a strange golden amulet stuffed inside it. Removing it, Rodriquez marvels at how much money he could get selling it when the amulet suddenly speaks, telling him that if he dons the amulet he will have the power to rule the world.
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Supporting Characters:
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Adversaries:
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Other Characters:
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* Unnamed airline passengers
* Paolo & other crewmen on the Arcadia
* Unnamed fishermen
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Locations:
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*** Dallas / Fort Worth International Airport
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*** South Street Seaport
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Items:
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Vehicles:
* Trans World Airlines 747
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* Arcadia, Lee Forrester's trawler
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![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)