Blindspot continues her story. After the Tokyo debacle, Mystique made it clear to her that her services were no longer needed. Blindspot begged the shapeshifter to let her continue her work, but Raven just wanted to destroy the friendship she and Rogue had. When Blindspot tries to find an explanation for it today, she thinks that Mystique was just trying to make certain that she could keep Rogue under control. Blindspot remembers the day her partnership with Rogue and Mystique ended.
Since she always erases tracks once a contract ends, Blindspot always makes sure her associates don’t remember her by using her powers on them and making her victims forget she exists. That’s also the reason what kept her out of jail for all these years. Blindspot managed to knock Mystique out and erase her memories and was happy to do it, but doing the same thing with Rogue was, she admits, the hardest thing she ever did, since they were so close. Blindspot recalls how Destiny approached her, holding a crossbow. She remembers the words the old woman said to her that night. Irene was aware that she would come tonight, and do what she just did. Destiny just didn’t do anything about it, because she would have erased the knowledge of Blindspot’s existence out of her friend’s minds by herself, if she could. Destiny told her to just get out, as she knew they would never meet again.
A few weeks later, Blindspot heard on the grapevine that Lord Dark Wind wanted them all dead for trying to steel his adamantium recipe. Blindspot knew the man would never succeed in tracking her down, but also that Rogue and Mystique now didn’t remember the caper. They’d be sitting ducks once Dark Wind would have send his ninja’s to New York. So, she decided to come out of hiding, and booked a flight to Japan. First, she paid Sunfire and his uncle a visit and removed any memory they had on the Dark Wind job. That left her to the hard part: sneaking into Dark Wind’s hideout. However, Blindspot succeeded, but once she got there, she found the man already dead.
As Blindspot talks, neither she nor Rogue realize that Lady Deathstrike is observing them from a monitor. Blindspot adds that she heard a rumor that Dark Wind wanted revenge because his daughter, Yuriko, was asking about Blindspot and the others. She wanted to carry on the old man’s legacy, and somehow got the idea that they actually succeeded in stealing her father’s experiment that day. Blindspot mentions that they weren’t dealing with the Lady Deathstrike of today at the time. No, back then, she was plain old Yuriko Oyama, a seriously mixed-up girl who killed her dad and went nuts trying to make up for it. Blindspot took Deathstrike by surprise and cleared her mind of hers, Mystique’s and Rogue’s existence. She thought it would be over doing that. She was wrong when she found out what Deathstrike had become. Blindspot apologizes for being the reason Rogue is here. She admits that she sent the photo to the newspaper to frame her and Sunfire.
Lady Deathstrike stands up, and sharpens her claws. Rogue hates the idea of how Blindspot treats her best friends. Blindspot admits she was desperate, and that Deathstrike would have killed her, wouldn’t it that Blindspot proved to be useful. During the conversation, nobody seems to notice that Sunfire is waking up, and mumbles something. Blindspot adds that, though she set up the trap, she kind of hoped that Rogue and Mystique would have come to save the day. Rogue is confused. She wants to know how, if Blindspot erased her existence from Lady Dee back when she was seventeen, she would know to come after her.
The door opens. An angry Deathstrike answers the question by saying that science finally overcame Blindspot’s powers. Deathstrike mentions that her last upgrade included diagnostic wetware that detected a gap in her long-term memory engrams. Her C.P.U. reconstructed them the same way Blindspot would recover lost data from a bad hard drive. Though Yuriko admits she was surprised when she found out what her three enemies had done to her father. Sunfire’s situation goes better unnoticed, and he still tries to say something, but can only mumble.
Yuriko wanted to disgrace Sunfire before killing him. And she needed to lure Rogue away from the protection of her fellow X-Men, and Blindspot was more than eager to make that happen. She even enlisted the Silver Samurai by making him forget he had abandoned his criminal live. He now thinks that Sunfire brainwashed him into destroying the criminal empire he inherited. But, Yuriko adds, the Samurai is making up for lost time even as they speak. Unfortunately, she continues, Blindspot was only buying time for herself. As it turned out, none of Yuriko’s enemies possessed her father’s secrets. She sees this situation as a wasted effort. Lady Deathstrike prepares herself, and thinks it’s now up to just erase all evidence from her crimes, and kill her foes.
She opens her claws, but gets attacked by a full blast of fire, and blasts her outside the room! Sunfire is partly awake, and wants Rogue to come closer to him. Rogue tries to get up, but is still tied to the bed. She orders Blindspot to release her before Deathstrike returns, but Blindspot doesn’t have the keys. Sunfire asks Rogue to absorb his powers, because he doesn’t want to live on in his current state, as he can’t even move at the moment. Plus, they’ll all die if Rogue refuses. Shiro sees this as a better way to die. Rogue still fears she might kill Sunfire if she absorbs his powers, and doesn’t want to do that. But, she agrees to absorb just a little bit, just to get her cuffs loose. Blindspot hears Deathstrike yelling and coming back. She doesn’t want to waste any more time, and pushes Rogue against Shiro’s face, and makes her absorb him!
Deathstrike runs back to her monitor room, and observes on her screens the status of Sunfire’s monitoring machine, and it looks like he’s dead. Yuriko is confident that she can win now, and goes back to her adversaries. But as she opens the door, Yuriko once again gets attacked by fire! Rogue triumphantly steps forward, and, talking in Sunfire’s voice and, in Japanese, and threats that nothing will spare Deathstrike for what she did.
Deathstrike runs outside of the building, with a rampaging and literally on fire Rogue following her. Blindspot is left behind. She asks Sunfire if he’s still awake, but he’s unconscious again. So, she runs outside. Deathstrike runs to the public streets, and by trying to make her way through, slams her head against a car. Rogue, still acting and talking like Sunfire, sees this as the perfect way for Deathstrike to end her life and that her execution should be public.
At the same time, the X-Men are trying to reach Japan in their plane. Gambit finds the situation ridiculous, as Rogue turned off her cell phone for days and, now that they’ve finally located her, she’s in the other half of the world! He thinks trouble is a brewing. Alex telepathically contacts Emma, and asks for an update since they are above Tokyo. Emma admits she just lost Rogue a few seconds ago, but mentions that something strange has happened to her mind: one moment it was there, the other, it was gone! Though, Emma is certain that Rogue isn’t dead, Emma just lost her fix on her. Alex doesn’t see a fast way to find Rogue, since there are twelve thousand people living below them.
Lady Deathstrike is prepared to fight for her live. Rogue smiles, and throws yet another big ball of fire against her. The X-Men notice it, and land. Blindspot arrives as well, and panics as she sees all the fire. Deathstrike is still alive, but her legs are on fire! Rogue refuses to stop, and tells Yuriko that since they are warriors of the Bushido code, death shouldn’t fear her. Rogue once again throws fire at Deathstrike and hits her hands.
Blindspot asks Rogue to stop and to remember who she truly is. Rogue thinks she knows perfectly who she is, and hasn’t forgotten about Blindspot: she will make her skin burn up first! The X-Men finally find Rogue, and ask her what’s wrong. Rogue gets a headache, and tells the mutants to stop calling her that. Blindspot panics and fears that the X-Men might take her. She wants her best friend back, and gives Rogue her proper memories back, but burns her hand in the process. Gambit rushes to her, and asks his love if she’s alright. But… Rogue doesn’t even know who the X-Men are!
Gambit explains to her that they are the X-Men. Rogue gets an angry expression on her face, and shouts that she hates the X-Men, and absorbs Havok! She uses Alex’s powers to make a path between the X-Men, her and Blindspot, and asks her where Mystique and the others are. Blindspot tells her that they’re alone, and asks Rogue how old she is. Rogue gets confused, and replies that she’s… seventeen years old! She wants to know why Blindspot asked it. She smiles, and answers that she was just checking.
