Magneto is in the X-mansion, waiting for the attack of the Angel (dressed in his original X-Men uniform). Magneto thinks he is not an angel, but an adolescent, filled with the pride and the arrogance of youth… flying blindly into the heart of danger. So desperate to protect…
Magneto is at a loss, not recalling whom Angel is trying to protect or how he himself got here, but he knows he is here for a reason - that the Angel is his enemy!
He distracts him with a levitated axe and then imprisons him in a magnetic field to clip his wings. The young man falls, unconscious, and Magneto decides it will take mere seconds to pulp his bones, though a small voice inside him protests at this.
Suddenly, the features of his young prisoner change. It is no longer the Angel, but Cannonball.
Magneto recognizes him and recalls his name but cannot recall his own. An angry voice shouts at him to let Sam go. He tosses Cannonball aside, as he is attacked by the Iceman. He now recalls where he is: Xavier’s school, and he is here because he loathes Charles more than any man alive!
Again, the voice inside him protests that is not true.
He blasts Iceman, who too falls unconscious, and thinks he wants to slaughter Charles’ students… to destroy him. The voice inside him protests, Charles isn’t his enemy. He believed in him!
Again, the features change and, instead of Iceman, it is Cypher lying on the ground.
His thoughts are jumbled and he no longer knows if he is here to destroy Xavier’s students or save them. He catches a glimpse in the mirror. Inside, he sees the face of a young woman wearing a helmet like his. She reminds him that he is meant to drive Homo sapiens into the dust, to remake the world in his image. He notices her voice comes from inside his head. The image changes and instead he sees a young, emaciated boy in a concentration camp uniform. Horrified, he looks away, not wanting to recall what the boy reminds him of.
As he tries to remember, he gets pummeled by pieces of a suit of armor, courtesy of Marvel Girl’s telekinesis. He scoffs at the insipid name for someone potentially so powerful. He almost sees her future laid out before her, rising like a phoenix, and he wonders how he knows this.
He magnetically manipulates her neural pathways and she falls down, only to change into Rahne Sinclair. He tries to understand. It is like this all happened years ago, but Rahne wasn’t there. It’s like some loop in which present and past are colliding.
As if on cue, he gets attacked by a group of original X-Men and New Mutants. He needs to think and threatens them. Consumed by an unholy fury, he blasts them. For a moment, he believes he has found himself at last, Magneto - lord of the evil mutants, and it’s his destiny to crush humanity.
Looking at the unconscious youngsters, he chides himself that is not right: Magneto is a role he has chosen to play. A terrible sacrifice for the good of mutantkind. The good of the world! But, if that is the case, why has he taken such pleasure in it? Why has he hurt so many innocent people? Is that his legacy – death and carnage? Is that who he really is? He cries out loud trying to deny it.
Then he wakes up somewhere in the Subantarctic. Fettered to a strange chair while a young woman in a unform similar to his old one and other youngsters with mangled limbs and protheses bow down before him, chanting “hail Magneto.”
He demands who they are. The woman in the golden version of his outfit claims she is Irae - Queen of Wrath. She is his savior, as he has been hers.
He recalls that she attacked the school… his students. She corrects him that they are Xavier’s students, and she only mirrored what he once did, when he was a better, stronger man. He realizes she recreated the battle in his mind. She replies that his unconscious resisted her. An effort both admirable and foolish. Angrily, he calls her a fool, if she believes she can keep him prisoner… then screams in pain.
Irae explains that he is fighting the suppression protocols and fears he might even resist the Mindstormer. She presses a few buttons and tells her followers that he rests now and, when he awakens, their work will resume. They will liberate Lord Magneto from the lies and delusions he has woven around himself. And when they finally succeed, she swears to them he will thank them.
Back at Xavier’s School, the New Mutants have awakened again and are licking their wounds. Guess their holiday party didn’t turn out the way they planned, Doug complains. A Brobdingnagian understatement, Warlock agrees. Doug doesn’t understand the reference. Gigantic, Warlock explains, referring to Jonathan Swift’s novel Gulliver’s Travels.
Karma interrupts his lecture and points out they need to find Magneto and bring him home. How does she suggest they do that? Dani asks while Sunspot (who is trying to fix the Christmas tree with Cannonball) asks, a better question is why? What if Magneto planned this? Sam counters, noting the girl that attacked them also attacked him and took him away. Roberto suggests the whole scene might have been staged.
Rahne angrily shifts to her transitional form and shouts that Erik watched them like a guardian angel ever since Xavier left. He proved himself again and again! Illyana points out he spent years trying to subjugate humanity, destroy Charles, the X-Men, all they stand for. Perhaps he has changed and become a better person… or perhaps…
Rahne berates her, she can’t believe that nonsense, that he has been lying all the time! Dani calmly points out that it is not a matter of belief but taking Magneto’s entire history into account. She and the others aren’t saying they shouldn’t go after him, but they shouldn’t be blind to the danger ahead or the possibility that they have been betrayed.
Karma decides they can debate all day, but that won’t get them answers. She leads them to the Cerebro chamber, but Cerebro is locked down. As the others debate how to use their powers to open the door, Karma simply types in the code, which she knows thanks to being Xavier’s assistant.
Dani warns, they need a powerful mind like the professor’s. They don’t know what Cerebro would do to one of them. Warlock tries to merge with the technology and fails spectacularly.
Elsewhere, still locked onto the throne-like chair, Magneto is also trying to figure out the technology, though it seems familiar. Swearing never to be a victim again, he sends out an energy surge and his mind is hit by a counterwave in turn. He screams in pain.
Irae floats before him and remarks he has been at this for hours, trying and failing, over and over, and not realizing it, because every attempt drains his strength, … fragments of his memory. It breaks her heart to do this, but it has to be done for both their sakes, for the world’s sake!
He asks why the place seems familiar. Irae reveals it was once his; when he began his holy crusade, he had many hidden bases. And this is a fortress even his Brotherhood wasn’t aware of. She located it and prepared the way for him.
He demands to know who she is. Irae – queen of wrath, she repeats. But he may call her daughter. He looks shocked at this revelation. She begins to tell him a story…
Xavier’s mansion:
Warlock announces he cannot complete the merge. Cerebro needs a human mind. Sam wonders which of them can do that without having their brain turned into an omelet, Karma announces she is the only telepath here, so the risk should be hers. Illyana points out that Karma is hardly on the Professor’s level. She on the other hand has been dealing with the horrors of Limbo, the constant shifting back and forth of dimensions, for years, it has made her mind resilient and strong. Karma protests she is team leader. And that’s why they can’t afford to lose her, Magik retorts. Karma gives in and hands her the Cerebro helmet, but begs her to be careful.
Magik puts it on and asks them to be silent, so she can concentrate. She feels her consciousness expanding, then it is too much and the system gets overloaded. She is barely conscious but Cerebro did find something: An area called the forbidden islands near Madagascar in the southern Indian Ocean. Illyana weakly insists that Magneto was there, as was the girl. They need to stop her before… She falls unconscious.
Sam decides he will stay behind with her. Karma replies that they will need Cannonball’s power. Cypher grudgingly volunteers to stay behind, aware he was going to be chosen anyway.
Soon, they fly away in the jet Warlock has turned into.
Twenty minutes later, they are close to their destination when Warlock suddenly sounds an alarm. An energy wave is erupting from below. He tries to evade it. But it hits. They crashland, only for Sunspot to announce he told them so, when Magneto, surrounded by the Sisterhood, stands ready to attack them…
