A bewildered Ms. Marvel stands her ground and asks Rogue what she’s doing in her apartment. Carol recalls the tense history between her and the southern X-Man but acknowledges that they’ve come to terms with their issues though she’d hardly call them friends.
Rogue asks if Ms. Marvel changed her costume when she wasn’t looking and Carol is perplexed by this comment. She asks Rogue what she means and she describes Carol’s previous costume with the shoulder pads and padded armor.
Ms. Marvel starts to explain that she hasn’t worn that uniform in a while but Rogue cuts her off and says there’s not need to fight if they can sort things out rationally. She makes it clear that if Carol makes a wrong move, she’ll burn her. To drive home her point, Rogue bursts into flames.
Carol raises her hands and switches out of her costume and into street clothes. She asks Rogue what’s going on and when she started catching on fire. Rogue tells her that it’s a long story and says that maybe first Carol could explain why she attacked her. Carol is clearly confused by this and asks if it’s a joke of some sort. She then asks how Rogue got into her apartment.
Rogue raises up a set of keys with an Avengers keychain and tells Carol she used her keys. Carol reaches into her pocket and produces an identical set as she tells Rogue that she has her keys on her. She then asks where Rogue got the duplicate. Rogue is stymied and asks Carol to hang on while she checks something. She heads down the hall to Carol’s bedroom. Carol asks what in her bedroom Rogue might need to see. Rogue enters and is shocked by what she sees. Asleep on the bed is another Carol Danvers. Carol enters and is just as surprised as Rogue was. Rogue asks the obvious question: “Who is she?”
Carol repeats the question and wonders where she came from. Rogue replies that until a moment ago, she thought this was the real Carol Danvers. She explains that the woman on the bed attacked her downtown. Rogue thought that she was the real deal and under somebody’s control or something, so she subdued her and brought her home in the hopes she could figure out what was wrong with her.
As Rogue explains this, Carol leans over to get a closer look at her mysterious “twin”. At that moment, she makes up and is startled to see her own face looking down at her. She leaps onto the bed and changes into her costume: the militaristic uniform Carol during the later part of her Warbird phase. Carol changes into her current costume as well. The doppelganger frantically asks what’s going on. Carol tries to calm her so they can figure things out.
But then the newcomer spots Rogue and anger flashes across her face as she ignites her energy powers. Lances of photonic energy spring forth from her hands and her eyes glow wickedly, as “Warbird” asks if the two are working together.
Ms. Marvel tells Rogue to get out of there but Rogue ignores the request and ignites her flame form as she tells Ms. Marvel that she can handle this. Carol tells her “No!” and explains that she just had the place rebuilt after the last battle that followed her home. Warbird takes the initiative and charges Rogue, forcing both women to go crashing through the wall of Carol’s bedroom and over the balcony outside. Ms. Marvel is dismayed as this is exactly what she had hoped to avoid.
Ms. Marvel flies after Rogue and Warbird who are trading blows as they fall to the ground. Warbird tells Rogue that she’s dreamed of killing her and unleashes a pair of energy bolts from her eyes. Rogue slams into a sidewalk café, upsetting the tables and chairs and sending its patrons fleeing from the battle.
As Warbird swoops down, Rogue hits her with a plasma blast which sends the woman through a wall and into the restaurant’s kitchen.
Ms. Marvel arrives on the scene and asks Rogue if she’s okay. Rogue tells her she’s fine but the same can’t be said for the restaurant. A handsome man in a suit arrives and tells them to take this out of his building. He then sees Ms. Marvel and is stunned speechless by the sight of her. He stammers as Carol tries to apologize. He mentions his insurance rates and the two share a moment of obvious attraction before Warbird comes to and resumes her attack on Rogue.
Carol tells the man that she should go help and he agrees and suggests they discuss his insurance situation later. Ms. Marvel says that would be nice before moving to stop her deranged doppelganger. Rogue punches Warbird, who returns the blow with another blast of energy from her eyes. This drives Rogue into a parked car and dazes her momentarily. Ms. Marvel grabs a parked car herself and hurls it at Warbird. She yells out “Catch!” as the car slams into her unsuspecting twin and knocks her unconscious.
Ms. Marvel lands gracefully near Rogue and notes that that could have gone better. Rogue adds that she warned Carol that her doppelganger was mean. Carol checks on her mystery twin as she tells Rogue that she’s going to call Hank to see if he can help figure out where her double came from. Rogue is surprised to hear that Carol would call the Beast and asks why she doesn’t take her to the Avengers.
She informs Rogue that there isn’t much of an Avengers team at the moment. Rogue places her hand on Ms. Marvel’s shoulder and tells her that “Warbird” here clearly hates her because of what she did to Carol way back when she ran with the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. She tells Carol that there’s nothing in her life that she’s sorrier about than what happened between them. She says that she feels she has to try and help in some way as she picks Warbird up, insisting on carrying her herself.
At the Xavier Institute, Beast runs some tests on the mysterious Warbird. Carol is relieved to hear that Warbird is not a clone but a temporally displaced version of her. Carol asks him if he’s sure and he feigns offense at being questioned by “the divine Ms. M”. Hank suggests updating his medical files on Carol while she’s there and immediately notes something strange. The readout shows some kind of anomaly in Carol’s head but the reading quickly changes to normal. Hank wonders aloud if it’s some kind of software glitch or something more concerning but realizes he’ll have to figure it out later. Carol asks how they’re going to get Warbird here home.
At that moment, she wakes up and is immediately ready to take out whoever smacked her with a car. Ms. Marvel apologizes for that but Warbird is more concerned with Rogue. Anger flares in her eyes as she changes once more into her fighting togs. She accuses them of working together as she ignites the energy lances from her hands that she manifested earlier.
Hank steps in and tells her that there’ll be no fighting here. She asks who he’s supposed to be which confirms for those present that she originates from an alternate reality. Ms. Marvel asks if her name is Carol and she replies that her name is Warbird. Carol replies that she goes by Ms. Marvel and Warbird responds that that name is weak. Ms. Marvel responds that she thought that once too, but realizes now that it carries a lot of history and responsibility. She explains to Warbird that something has displaced her from her proper place.
Hank notes that there are clearly some shared aspects to their histories and mentions Rogue, which again sends Warbird into a rage. Rogue tells her that she’d never met her before. Warbird asks about this “shared history” she has with Ms. Marvel and wonders how she could possibly fight alongside Rogue if their lives truly are parallel. Ms. Marvel replies that it was a long time and she’s gotten over it and moved on. Warbird asks how you ever get over something like that. Carol tries to calm Warbird down and asks her to tell her about herself and where she’s from.
Warbird recounts her history with Rogue. She explains how she was living in San Francisco when Rogue attacked her out of the blue. Their battle took them to the Golden Gate Bridge where Rogue permanently absorbed her powers and personality. Carol confirms that the same thing happened to her.
Warbird continues, sharing how Professor Xavier helped to restore her mind. Despite the years that had passed, she still felt dirty because of this. This led her to take the name Warbird and change her costume. She also began drinking but nothing seemed to help her move on.
Warbird stops her tale and asks those present if Spaulding, Georgia holds any special significance to them, since the Avengers were heading for there the night before. Hank is surprised to hear her say that it was only last night. Warbird notes that she was busy and couldn’t respond to the alien disturbance that the team was dealing with there. She says she knows that the team made it there and called her for back-up but doesn’t share what she was really doing: drinking.
When her Avengers communicator sounded, she simply said “Sounds like the world needs saving. Somebody oughta get right on that.” She didn’t recall what happened next but as she was stumbling from the bar she was hit by a destructive wave of energy.
Beast notes that this explains a great deal about Warbird’s presence and theorizes that Warbird absorbed some of the energy discharge from Spaulding and this is what propelled her into a different reality. He suspects that she’s been temporally adrift given that the incident in Spaulding occurred several weeks ago.
Rogue asks how they get her home and Hank replies that in all likelihood, her home planet was destroyed in the blast from Spaulding. Warbird looks to Ms. Marvel and then asks if they stopped it from happening here. Carol is clearly furious as she tells Warbird that she managed to avert this disaster single-handedly. She lays into Warbird, saying that she got off her bar stool and did her job. She acknowledges that she tried to drink her woes away for a while but then she stopped and “grew the hell up”.
Warbird takes offense to this but Carol does not relent. She adds that she’s been beating herself up lately for not doing all that she could be doing and wasting her potential. Rogue tries to interrupt but Carol will have none of it. She continues to deride Warbird who warns her to be careful about what she says next.
Carol gets in Warbird’s face and tells her that she sickens her. This brings the two women to immediate blows, as Ms. Marvel tells her “twin” that she’s everything that she’s fought not to be.
Warbird in turn rails at Ms. Marvel for forgiving Rogue for what she did to them. They both fire energy blasts at each other. This creates some kind of feedback which knocks both women out. Their costumes disappear as they fall from the sky and slam into the ground hard. Beast and Rogue rush out to check on them. Beast takes Carol’s pulse and replies “Oh no.”
