Six hours from now, a superstorm starts to build up in the sky. Surrounded by it, hovering in the sky, are Storm and Magneto. In the midst of the tempest, Storm observes that this is what they have come to.
Freeport, Bahamas, now:
In the storm, the X-jet flies as close to the island as possible, then Nightcrawler teleports the team in. Storm flies upward to try and calm the weather before the island is swallowed.
While the others evacuate and help people, Storm does her best, aware that she can’t simply abort destructive weather. She has to work with it and sometimes it has to run its course.
She has calmed the weather somewhat but Magneto senses a strong magnetic field. There is still lightning on the way. Storm announces she is working on it and then challenges him that he can’t even look her in the eye. They need to talk! Magneto flies away without another word.
Home again, Nightcrawler wonders if they made the news. X-23 worries if they left to soon but X-Man praises the Bahamians as a strong community of individuals. They put the X-Men’s effort to shame.
However, when they turn on the TV, it is the face of En Sabah Nur that they see. He is being interviewed and talks about how his X-tracts have touched the lives of countless. As they approach Xavier Day this year, he asks that they consider their past. And once they have done that, they must consider what they and their loved ones want for the future.
Colossus angrily reminds his teammates, they should have stopped him.
Nature Girl wonders why they didn’t know about this. X-Man points out they had other pressing matters do deal with.
The news anchor continues that this is just one of several worldwide love protests. While the movement is led by the mysterious murshid, others are starting to take the lead. Take Kitty Pryde, for example. They show a short clip of Kitty demanding their right to love.
Jean criticizes the channel for showing this and giving people bad ideas. Kurt points out they are keeping people informed. Laura muses she hates seeing a girl like this involved with a group of psychopaths. Nearby, Colossus stares and is strangely silent.
Magneto orders them to turn off the interview. X-Man and Storm protest: they need to know why people listen to them.
The interview with En Sabah Nur continues, and there are questions about his son. En Sabah Nur encourages everyone to look for their family members - they weren’t all born in test tubes. When asked whether he will be in London on Xavier Day, he replies the flames will burn brighter than before.
Colossus has had enough and smashes the TV set. They heard him! He threatened the day they hold most sacred! X-23 tells him to chill; they are pacifists. Colossus doesn’t accept that but Nightcrawler chimes in; they are relief workers. They should leave this to Department X.
Magneto supports Colossus. Today they may be a movement, but by Xavier Day they will be a cause! Nature Girl points out the blue man is speaking to people’s biology. For millennia, their biology has been coded to live in groups. They may be evolved now but that survival mechanism is part of them. She doesn’t agree but can understand why his teachings are comforting.
X-23 asks Jean for help but Jean replies she also understands why this is comforting and therefore why it is dangerous. Department X isn’t enough. They need to make a stand for evolutionary rights.
Kurt apologizes that Studio X won’t allow him to be part of something so political. Nate announces they are each their own tribe and free to roam as they please. But they must also support the others in their decision to stay behind.
Colossus agrees. Those of them that choose to – him, Jean, Magneto and Nature Girl – will meet En Sabah Nur on Xavier Day.
Later:
Magneto still wonders about the events in his home, unaware that from outside Storm is watching him.
Nature Girl is busy pampering a sick plant. X-23 muses about Logan whom she misses. Taking a shower, Jean wonders why it feels like the X-Men are always running in circles. Colossus paints the girl he saw with En Sabah Nur. He remembers her name is Kitty. Kurt complains the studio always calls him back, as soon as he gets home. All he wants is a moment alone!
Meditating, Nate feels claustrophobic even as he sends his mind into orbit to look down on Earth. There’s so much to take care of, but he’s stuck dealing with petty arguments, the same ones they always had. There’s a division within the team. It’s in factions; even when trying to be individual heroes, they group together! He reminds himself that none can see on the same scale as he can. Every moment they drift further from their dreams. Building bonds, getting too close. But he has to abide by his own teaching. Show them enlightenment isn’t a destination. It’s a way of life along an ever-winding river.
In his home, Magneto fastens a metal plate to the wall to cover the fissure. Storm enters without knocking and confronts him about this, how she saw Pietro and Wanda saying these horrible things to him… but they remember Stryfe killing them!
Magneto decides they can’t talk about this here. As they rise up into the air, he hopes to find somewhere safe from the two most powerful psychics in existence.
They end up in the clouds in the middle of a thunderstorm. Storm admits that she saw visions too! She saw herself leading the X-Men, she saw their kind going extinct. Something called the Terrigen Mists. Forced to watch beloved friends already dead die again. The most disturbing thing is it felt like memories.
He agrees, and that makes these past few years of peace seem like a dream. She wonders what to do and Magneto admits for once he doesn’t have all the answers. She asks where he was on the day IT happened. He was back in Munich recovering from his injuries. His vision fully returned the day of the Resolution. The first thing he saw was a four year old girl flying outside his window. He walked out into a world of mutants. It felt like the first time he could truly see.
Ororo clarifies she meant before the Resolution. The day they died. Magneto replies he had to leave Quadra Island. Mister Sinister severed his optic nerve with a telekinetic scalpel. He thought they had Stryfe handled. Had he known Wanda and Pietro were going to…
Storm apologizes, but he knows better than anyone that history makes them what they are. Which is what makes these visions so troubling. Ororo muses, whether those X-tract people are responsible. Could En Sabah Nur have reality-altering power like Wanda? Magneto doesn’t believe that. He thinks those X-tracts and their followers are uneducated. It is a fetishization of their struggle. Storm figures it is their job as X-Men to educate them.
Meditating in orbit, X-Man feels a fissure having opened up. He needs to find it. He vowed to himself that he would create the world that they wanted. That they needed. They are in the middle of this story and it has to work. There is no other choice. This is all he has. The gift of healing falls on his shoulders. He is hit by an energy blast and falls, seeing a thunderstorm on Earth.
Inside the storm, Magneto continues his argument. Not everyone is capable of learning. They have to do away with En Sabah Nur. Ororo criticizes that he has always looked at things as “us versus them.” But there is only “us.” Mutantkind. They can’t do anything before they consult the others. He retorts that this is exactly why he didn’t want to talk to her.
Storm insists that, if anyone can make sense of this, it is Jean and Nate. Magneto believes if they tell the telepaths, they will reveal less about what they actually know. Ororo is disappointed at his lack of trust.
That moment, Nate interrupts them. He’s been looking everywhere for them. He’s detected some sort of anomaly in the Rocky Mountains. Are they free to take a look? Glaring at each other, they agree and follow Nate.
Soon they see energy emitting from the mountains but neither Storm nor Magneto senses anything.
They find another fissure. Through it, Magneto sees the Phoenix possessing Cyclops as he attacks Charles Xavier. He watches horrified as his alter ego pleads with Cyclops not to throw everything away.
Storm tells X-Man this isn’t the first time she and Magneto have seen something like this. They were just talking about these manifestations. They don’t know what they are, but… He knows! X-Man interrupts, they weren’t meant to see this.
“You are not my father!” Phoenix Cyclops shouts and kills Charles Xavier.
Magneto suddenly senses Nate within his mind. Nate apologizes. This all happened so fast. He’s doing the best he can. The last few years have been so hard on mutantkind. He gave them the story they deserve.
Magneto gets ready to fight, while Storm gets between them. Magneto accuses X-Man of betrayal. He replies that is a concept of those who see the world in black and white. He believes there is a way to achieve peace without killing people. He orders them to go home, makes them forget. He needs some time alone.
Nate concentrates on closing the fissure, while hating what he has to do to people he respects. He wishes he could tell them the truth of his dream and knows they’d understand. Instead, they are too focused on forming bonds that force them to see themselves as others do. They still see him as the brash headstrong time-lost kid in a leather jacket. So, he is forced to see himself that way and he hates it. Because he is not his past. He is the world in front of himself.
“Hell is other people,” Jean Paul Sartre: No Exit
