Carol Danvers lies lifeless on the grounds of the Xavier Institute following a vicious conflict with a crazed otherdimensional counterpart calling herself Warbird. The Beast tries desperately to revive her with CPR as Rogue watches worriedly.
In Carol’s mind, she sees a bright light. Voices speak to each other, noting that there are difficulties and her heart has stopped. Carol can hear the voices and wonders what is happening. The voices say that they’ve come too far to lose her now and Carol suddenly begins to breathe again.
The Beast and Rogue are relieved to see her gasping for breath and returning to life. Warbird revives as well and looms over them, fully powered. She tells Carol that she’s going to have to do better than that and to get up. She lashes out with her energy lance and yells out “DIE!” as she strikes. Rogue grabs Carol and flies her out of harm’s way. Carol thanks her but tells her she’s got it now. Rogue tries to tell her she shouldn’t, but Carol angrily insists that she will handle it.
She walks towards Warbird and apologizes for losing her temper. Warbird shoots energy at Carol from her eyes and asks if this is how she settles her fights. Carol dodges the beams and punches Warbird in the face, having only apologized in order to catch her breath and get closer to Warbird. Carol dodges Warbird’s counterattack and suggests that either she’s acting this way due to being knocked unconscious so many times recently or she’s just not very bright.
Carol lands another punch to the jaw and tries to convince Warbird to settle down given what happened when they fought earlier using their photonic energies. Warbird asks if Carol thinks she needs photons to defeat her. Carol looks directly into Warbird’s eyes and coolly replies that she’s sure that Warbird is quite capable. She then decks Carol, knocking her off her feet. Now both women are fighting mad at each other as Warbird lunges at Carol.
Rogue asks the Beast what they should do and he suggests separating them and jokingly adds that allowing them to duke it out could advance the field of psychiatry a great deal.
Carol again outmaneuvers Warbird, using her own momentum to drive her into the wall of the mansion. She tells her counterpart that they could probably go at this for hours and both would enjoy it. Warbird tells her “Damn straight!” as she dives at Carol’s legs and forces her once more to the ground.
Rogue has seen enough and ignites her plasma powers. She flies down just as Warbird knocks Carol away with a punch. Rogue comes between them and unleashes a fiery blast at Warbird, who absorbs it and tells Rogue that it tickles.
Hank joins the fray and Warbird blasts him with her eyebeams. Beast lands next to Carol and comments on how much that hurt. Carol is upset that Rogue is getting in the middle of this. Warbird on the other hand sees it as a chance to kill the Southern X-Man and takes her by the throat. Carol dives in once more to save Rogue, tackling Warbird and driving her to the ground. Warbird manages to get to her feet and flings Carol directly into Rogue.
Carol rises and tells Rogue once more to stay out of the way. When Rogue tries to tell her that she looks like she could use help, Carol kicks Rogue in the ribs and tells her to shut up. Carol begins to go off on Rogue, telling her this is all her fault since she’s the one that Warbird came to kill. She adds that Warbird isn’t stupid enough to pretend to have forgiven Rogue the way she has.
Warbird approaches Carol and tells her that she’s visited dozens of realities in the last several weeks and in each of them Rogue had tried to kill Carol Danvers and that she balanced the scales in each. Carol asks if she killed all those versions of Rogue and Warbird smiles and says that she took revenge and set things right. She goads Carol into helping her kill this Rogue as well.
Carol transforms into Ms. Marvel and tells Warbird that that’s a good idea. Carol adds, “Setting things right, I mean,” as she backhands Warbird and sends her flying into the woods beyond the mansion. She pursues Warbird who is ticked off and asks her just how many Rogues she’s killed. Warbird happily reports that she’s killed dozens and Ms. Marvel declares that her killing stops here and not one more Rogue will die at her hands.
She strikes once more but Warbird rolls clear. She tells Ms. Marvel that this isn’t the first world where Carol has defended Rogue or the first where she’s had to kill them both. Warbird attacks with her photon lances and Ms. Marvel reminds her what happened the last time their energies crossed. Warbird replies that she was a bit woozy while Carol almost died. She says that those odds work for her as she presses her assault. Carol is only momentarily dazed and realizes that the fatal feedback only occurs when both use their energy powers simultaneously.
Ms. Marvel takes a moment to catch her breath but Warbird kicks her while she’s down. Warbird asks what is wrong with “all of you” and demands to know why on world after world Carol Danvers manages to forgive Rogue. She notes that on some worlds they are teammates, even close friends.
Ms. Marvel asks Warbird if she’s really killed other Carols and Warbird states that on every world she’s visited she’s killed a version of Rogue and Carol Danvers. Once she kills them, she is transported to another world and intent on doing the same thing here. She tells Carol that she’s beginning to think it’s the Lord’s will, otherwise why would she never be given a chance to rest. Warbird blasts again at Ms. Marvel with her eyebeams and says that once she’s finished her off, she’ll go back and kill Rogue.
Carol asks about Warbird’s early offer to join her and Warbird says that she wanted to know if Carol had the guts to finally take revenge on Rogue. She adds that Carol went further than any other Carol Danvers that she’s met so far and she almost thought she might actually kill Rogue. Ms. Marvel flies straight at Warbird, grabbing her in mid-air by the hair. She tells Warbird that if killing her is the only way that she can leave this reality, then she’s not leaving this world alive. That said, Carol unleashes a massive photon burst right at Warbird head.
Warbird falls to the ground, her hair burned away and her face singed. She lands hard and Ms. Marvel hovers down over her. She realizes that she may have killed her and is afraid for a moment. She then realizes that maybe she should kill her now while she has the chance. This thought scares Ms. Marvel even more.
Half an hour later, O*N*E troops arrive to collect the unconscious Warbird. The medics report that she’s stabilized and place her in a containment unit. The commanding officer offers to update Ms. Marvel on Warbird’s condition but Carol tells him that won’t be necessary. As Ms. Marvel leaves the scene, Warbird regains consciousness and tells her weakly to come back and finish her off.
Carol returns to the Xavier Institute to watch over Rogue who is stable after Carol broke her ribs. Carol realizes that she didn’t mean what she said earlier about pretending to forgive Rogue. She asks herself why she did what she did to Rogue and realizes that she was defending herself from Rogue…even though that “self” ended up being a psychotic alternate reality version of Carol Danvers. As she ponders this, the Beast arrives and tells Carol that Rogue will be fine in a few days but he doesn’t think Carol should be here right now. Carol begins to explain herself but Hank cuts her off and firmly repeats that she needs to go.
Ms. Marvel soars away from the mansion, thinking to herself that once this place was her home. She thinks of the dark places she’s been and appreciates that she’s survived them all. She says that she tries to believe that she’s a good person. Her flight takes her to the edge of space and she looks into the cosmos with wide-eyed appreciation. She remembers that the last time she ran away, it was into space and she lingered there for a while. She thinks how much she loves space, its beauty and peace. Seeing it this close makes her want to scream. She does with the full force of her pain and anguish. She wipes away her tears and remembers that one of the things about space is that there’s nobody out there which makes it easy to forget what makes you human. Despite its beauty, space is a place she runs away to. As she descends towards Earth she vows that she’s never going to run away from anything ever again.
