It’s winter in New York. Snow blankets the city, which is finally beginning to repair itself after the damages done by the hands of the Goblin Queen. People finally feel free and safe again walking the streets, exept of course for the daily dangers of New Yorking, like mugging and a gang war now and then. But one lonely man walking on the streets is about to find out that he has a lot more to be afraid of.
The man is attacked by brute force and bright lights and falls back. A voice asks Professor Xavier where he is heading to; doesn’t he know it isn’t safe alone at nights? Meaning especially to him. Professor X shows an angry look on his face, as the Four Horsemen of Apocalypse land before him. Xavier is surprised and asks Warren how he found him. Warren gets angry, explaining to Xavier that he’s called the Fallen now. Or, if you prefer, Death! And the one who the Fallen serves has his ways of tracking his enemies down and Xavier couldn’t hide from him forever.
Xavier gets up and unleashes a mind-blast against Warren, who is not much affected by it. Xavier tells Warren that this was an all-timed gambit, and that he is too close accomplishing his goal. Xavier uses a stronger mind-blast, making the Horsemen fall back. The attack takes a bit out of Xavier, who falls on his knees. Xavier is sorry that it had to come to this, as he was so close. Xavier telepathically yells that he was so close, and the yell goes all over the city.
Elsewhere, at New York’s Central Park, the Six are waiting by the fountain to meet their arranged rendezvous. Alex is seemingly nervous and asks Ice-Man if he shaved correctly, as he was so nervous to be with Scotty again he can’t remember if he shaved or not. Ice-Man jokingly asks if he’s only exicited to see Scotty again, or someone else, too? Alex playfully punches Ice-Man on the shoulder, but Bloodstorm tells them to better keep it queit, because they don’t need to draw attention on them, because they are still wanted criminals.
Captain America agrees and finds this a stupid plan of Alex. What if Fury attacks them here, he asks. Cap knows that Alex wants to see his son again, but this he can’t allow. Ice-Man jumps into the argument, telling Cap that Alex doesn’t only want to see Scotty. Alex powers-up a little and playfully throws a small plasma-blast towards Ice-Man, who jumps it away. Bloodstorm and Cap don’t even know why they even bother. Gambit sadistically finds it sorry and tells Alex and Ice-Man to look at this, as they have now angried the “mom and dad” of the team. Bloodstorm sarcastically congratulates Gambit on the expert commentary.
Their arguing is finally stopped when an overenthustiastic Scotty shows up, immediatly running towards his dad, Alex. He hugs Alex, who loses balance and drops into the snow. Scotty tells Alex that Elektra didn’t tell him where they were going until they got there. Elektra shows up, telling the boys to not make this a habit, because Scotty is way over his curfew. Alex and Scotty tell her they won’t do that. Scotty asks Alex if it’s okay he called him his dad, because, with his mom gone now, he’s the only family he’s got. Alex tells Scotty that’s okay. Scotty says that he misses his mom and wishes she’d come back. Alex wants to tell Scotty what happened, but finds it better suited that Scotty doesn’t know the whole thing, and simply answers to him that, wherever Maddie is, she’ll be missing Scotty as well.
Alex thinks to himself that he’s surprised to see Scotty this much in denial, and this is why he insisted that Jean Grey stayed elsewhere, not wanting Scotty to be any more confused than he already is. And Alex also wasn’t sure how Elektra would take it, seeing Jean, who looks so much alike Madelyne. When seeing Elektra, Alex thanks her for taking care of Scotty. But, thinking to himself, Alex isn’t sure, because he wasn’t really married to the Madelyne of this universe, and comes to the conclusion that this alternate time line stuff confuses even him.
Bloodstorm takes Scotty away, saying that surely he came to visit them all. Scotty plays with Brute in the snow and they chasing each other. Ice-Man tells Alex and Elektra that they’ll keep an eye on them and they can have fun, but jokingly tells them not to do anything he wouldn’t do. Alex strikes Ice-Man’s butt with a bigger plasma-blast. Alex and Elektra walk under a bridge but Alex isn’t really sure what to say. Suddenly, however, Elektra shuts him up with a kiss. Alex finds that nice. Elektra too, once he’d shut up. Suddenly, Cap shouts for them, as something is wrong with Scotty.
Elektra and Alex hurry over to them and find Scotty just standing there, frozen. Cap doesn’t know what happened, because one moment they were all having fun, and then he just stopped. Alex walks over to Scotty, asking what’s wrong. Scotty doesn’t know, but he knows that something bad is going to happen, and it is going to happen… now! Out of nowhere, the telepathic message from Professor Xavier can be heard, and his astral form-head appears from the snow, ordering them all to come to him. The pain is unbearable, and the heroes drop on their knees in the snow. Alex can’t believe that Xavier is alive there and needs their help. Everyone is down, exept for Scotty, who still stands straight up. Scotty doesn’t understand and asks who Xavier is and how he is doing this.
Alex can hardly say anything because of the pain but, as the astral form suddenly disappears, everyone seems to be allright and gets up, not being sure what this all was. Alex finds this weird all right, seeing how everyone told him that Professor X had died right after the X-Men were formed. So something must be wrong here. Alex orders Elektra to take Scotty away to a safe place, so does so and quickly takes off. The psychic storm has abated, but Alex knows that there is coming more, you don’t have to be a telepath to feel that in the air. Alex tells his team to be ready. Ice-Man asks for what, be ready for the ghost of a dead man? Suddenly, a bright white light shows up, Cap knowing that this is the telepathic storm. Xavier falls out of the light and Havok immediatly recognizes him.
Xavier falls down, hurting in his legs, so Alex picks him up. Alex asks him who did this to him. Barely unable to say a word, Xavier says that it’s too late, as they are coming. Alex asks who, just before the Four Horsemen of Apocalypse arrive! Ice-Man tells Alex that they better leave, as the last time they fought the Horsemen, they barely survived. They are not ready for them now. Cap says he never runs away from a battle, but a fight might bring attention to them and Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D. might show up. Alex doesn’t want to run, as they’ve got to give Scotty and Elektra time to escape. Xavier agrees, as he believes that Scotty must be kept safe at all costs. Brute sniffs something familar, when Ice-Man points to the sky. It’s… the Fallen!
The Fallen is honored that they recognize their old teammate, as he would have thought the Six would have realized the the Horsemen are incomplete without Death! The Fallen lands before his new teammates, asking if the Professor has enlightened them already about their current situation. The Fallen changes his mind, as he knows that the Professor hasn’t told anything of course, as the truth is meaningless to him. War is sick of the talking and wants to kill Xavier already; they are giving him too much time. Alex and the Six defend Xavier, saying nobody’s going to die tonight.
The Fallen isn’t too sure about that and tells War that nobody asked for his opinion, so he asks if he interupted him. War, hesitating, denies. The Fallen orders War to be quiet, unless he tells him otherwise. The Fallen thinks about telling the heroes the truth, but is certain that they most likely won’t believe him, considering their past encounters. The Fallen hopes that they are not too surprised to find out that he has returned to his former master. The Fallen orders Alex to hand Xavier to him, but he refuses. The Fallen orders his fellow Horsemen to attack and kill the Six if they must, but Xavier must be brought alive to him.
Cap dodges fired bullets with his shield, protecting his friends. Gambit says it looks like they are going to have to fight to safe this guy… even if it is Xavier. When Alex asks if Gambit believes that Xavier isn’t real, Gambit simply says that stranger things have happened. Xavier telepathically makes a mind-link with himself and the Six, telling them all that he is going to have to win their trust and he shall do this by aiding them telepathically in a fight they are most likely not going to win. Brute takes on Pestilence. Xavier warns Brute that Pestilence could be a match to his great strength. Pestilence removes the scarf from his mouth, opens it and prepares to fire a blast against Brute. Brute panics, but Xavier helps by telling Bloodstorm to strike Pestilence with a lightning bolt. Pestilence is defeated.
While fighting, Ice-Man congratulates Xavier on the assist, but wants him out of his head. Xavier finds that all right, but now won’t be able to warn Ice-Man about the attacking Famine. Ice-Man, just in time, dodges Famine’s deadly handstrike, which gets stuck in a tree. Famine isn’t able to pull herself free and Xavier quickly orders Ice-Man to freeze her in place, so he comes out the winner. Cap and Gambit see how two of the four Horsemen are down, and it seems that they have to battle War. Gambit doesn’t know how to fight him, but Xavier telepathically tells Gambit not to over think and not to attack alone. As he is part of a team now. A mutant team even. One team of which some members even don’t like to declare themselves openly. Cap can’t believe what he is hearing.
Xavier tells Cap and Gambit to work together. Xavier orders Gambit to charge-up Cap’s shield kinetically. He does so and Cap throws the shield away, which explodes and hits War, defeating him! The Fallen becomes angry, throwing fire at Alex, who can just in time dodge every attack. The Fallen calls them all fools, because they are all opening themselves to him. They simply don’t know what they are allowing to happen and the Fallen won’t allow this. Havok fires a plasma-blast, but the Fallen flies over it. Xavier telepathically tells Alex to stop being human to someone who won’t do the same, as there is only one way to stop the Fallen now that he has gone back serving Apocalypse: by killing him!
Alex can’t believe his ears. Xavier explains that the Fallen isn’t the one who Alex called his friend. He is dead now and helping the enemy, so they must strike him hard. Alex quietly apologizes to the Fallen, and fires a huge plasma-blast against the him. He drops down, defeated, but Xavier knows that Alex couldn’t do it. Xavier still believes that they must all be killed. Gambit thinks he might be right about that. Xavier says he is, when, suddenly, he writhes in pain and drops down on his knees. Alex picks him up and asks if everything is all right. Xavier’s worst fear has come true: he has arisen!
Xavier informs them that his ancient enemy has found him. All hopes of accomplishing what he had in mind for humankind can now be forgotten. For, even as they have wasted their time with his minions… Apocalypse walks amongst them! At the back, the Horsemen help each other crawl up. The Fallen holds himself back, and opens his eyes wide in agony as he sees his master: Apocalypse!
