The mindscape of Polaris:
‘Genetically, Magneto was my father’. Lorna “Polaris” Dane, an extremely powerful mutant just reveals to her former mentor Professor Charles Xavier, founder of the X-Men, and her current nemesis, Nurse Annie Ghazikhanian that one of the worlds deadliest mutants and the X-Men’s first and foremost foe is her father. Lorna reveals that upon looking into her birth mother’s plane crash, the FAA investigators found an unusual anomaly in the wreckage of the plane – that every scrap of metal was highly magnetized.
In her mindscape, Lorna, Xavier and Annie return to Genosha, Lorna informing Annie that Genosha was Magneto’s island nation. ‘I know what Genosha was’ Annie snaps back. The unlikely trio land in Genosha, Lorna proclaiming that she had no plan, only fury – except that upon her arrival she was greeted as a celebrity. Lorna believes that Magneto learned of her investigation and revealed to the Genoshans that she was his daughter. ‘They greeted me as a sovereign princess when I arrived… and were still worshipping me when they died’. Sentinels attack from all angles, killing everyone in their way.
The Real World
Somewhere else…possibly near La Isla Des Demonas, most of the Uncanny X-Men get to their feet and try and work out where they are. Alex “Havok” Summers assumes command, as he has been doing frequently as of late, checking his teammates. Most of them are okay, but Archangel reminds everyone that all he has of Iceman is a head, though despite his body been shattered into a thousand ice fragments, yet his eyes and mouth are moving. The reason the X-Men are even here in the first place, Kurt “Nightcrawler” Wagner informs his teammates that his hand is melted to another person, who is rather dead. Currently naked, Kurt also asks for some spare clothes.
Warren “Archangel” Worthington tells Kurt that he will cut him free with his sword. Kurt thanks him before saying that the last thing he remembers was lying in his bed at the institute. The sword cuts Kurt free from the other person as Warren tells him he was sleep walking. Wolverine a.k.a. Logan says that it was more like “sleep flying” and that the followed here in an X-plane.
A voice gets the attention of the X-Men and they all turn to face the mysterious demon known as Azazel and his cohorts. Azazel guesses he should have thought about the rest of the X-Men before summoning Kurt, that he should have anticipated that Kurt might have been seen by one of the X-Men as he left. A winged person next to Azazel points out that Warren is a Cheyarafirm, but Azazel tells the mutant that is called Yidrazil that he is only a newborn, no more than three decades ago, reminding him he has already talked to him about him. Yidrazil insists that he wears the “tunic of the Angels”, but Azazel points out that it is only a disturbing coincidence that was recently acquired.
Despite his hand being rather disfigured, Kurt is free from the person he was connected to and he asks Warren what the demons are talking about, Warren replies that he doesn’t know and besides, he is more concerned about Kurt. He offers to drip some of his blood onto the wound, as hopefully it should heal it. ‘Now there’s a question I thought no one would ever ask me, sure go ahead’ Kurt says.
Professor Dibble, one of the archaeologists on the island raises his voice to the demons and starts to make demands, until the handsome Havok cuts him off, asking Azazel who he and his people are and ‘what the hell is going on here?’ Azazel informs Alex that he asked an apt question considering where they are actually are, but everyone’s attention turns to Nightcrawler who finds his wound burning after Warren dripped some of his healing blood on it.
Yidrazil alerts Azazel to the Neyaphem’s burning hand, and as Azazel tells Yidrazil he knows what he is thinking a winged female demon, who looks remarkably like Nightcrawler, flies forward calling ‘Death to all angels’, but Azazel calls the demon, Jillian, off.
Meanwhile in Vancouver, Canada, three boys circle around their friend who is punching Samuel “Squidboy” Pare. The boy, Tommy, asks Squidboy where he has been as he hasn’t been able to get his “exercise” without him here. A mixture of blood and tears streaming down his broken face, Sammy snaps back ‘I been at your house Tommy, doing it with your mom’. ‘Wouldn't surprise me’ says Tommy as he punches Sammy again. That last punch proved too much, and Squidboy lashes back, punching Tommy over and over again, before leaping on top of the scared boy as he cries out for Sammy to stop. His friends stand and do nothing, but when Sammy calls himself “the Juggernaut” he says he stops for nothing, punches Tommy again and the other boys run away.
Not quite Vancouver, but in one of the X-Jets headed for Canada, piloting the craft is former Olympic skier, the handsome Jean-Paul Beaubier, also known as Northstar and a former member of Alpha Flight until joining the X-Men And teaching staff at the Xavier Institute. In another seat is Cain “Juggernaut” Marko, stepbrother to Charles Xavier and the reason Jean-Paul is returning to Canada. Northstar tells Juggernaut that he thinks an explanation as to why he was pulled out of class to fly him to Vancouver is needed.
Jean-Paul tells Cain that he knows he likes ‘the little goldfish’ but he believes this is taking it too far. Northstar asks Cain if he is doing anything untoward with the boy, to which Juggernaut says ‘Come on Northstar, I like girls – present company excluded of course’. Northstar smirks and says ‘Did you just call me a girl?’ Juggernaut reminds Jean-Paul that he likes boys. ‘No, I like men. Present company excluded’ the savvy French-Canadian shoots back. Juggernaut mocks that he may never fully recover from being rejected by a guy, to which Northstar tells him he wouldn't be the first.
Cain Marko frowns and asks Jean-Paul why he couldn’t just like girls, as it would make things easier in the long run. Northstar doesn’t rise to the bait, instead he asks Cain what his deal is and why he just cannot be nice to people and get along with someone over the age of fifteen. Cain grimaces and asks Northstar if he is going to fly the plane or just hassle him all day. Northstar smiles and replies that he is just going to give him crap all day as the auto-pilot is engaged and he has plenty of time to spare.
Juggernaut informs Northstar that a lot of women find him attractive, to which Jean-Paul says that he has better taste than most women and asks Cain if he is having a difficult time recovering from the painful shock of being rejected by a guy. Cain tells Jean-Paul that is not what he is trying to say, and what he is trying to say is that he “cleans-up” good. Northstar tells Cain that even though he isn't interested in men, this sounds like he wants Jean-Paul to find him attractive. ‘Its an odd sort of catch-22, isn't it?’ Jean-Paul adds before Cain asks him to shut-up.
Semi-Flashback, depicting the Genoshan Slaughter and what Polaris did during it
Back in Lorna’s mindscape, Sentinels kill everyone around them, all of them saying ‘Non-human entity determined. Execute’. Lorna fights back, but there were so many Sentinels, she sees people she knew killed in the most horrific ways right in front of her. So many killers, so much screaming and so many dying, the beautiful Lorna Dane became overwhelmed, she didn’t know who to help first, which Sentinel to destroy first. She adds that with the accusations of human judgment screaming in her ears, all she could think of was that ‘Magneto had been right all along’ and she screams the words out defiantly.
Dozens of Sentinels turn their attention to Polaris who shields herself in a magnetic bubble, and flies through the wailing mothers and dying children. The blood and bones couldn’t touch her – but the screams could. Lorna reveals to Xavier that she was no longer the X-Man heroine and just running, tears pouring from her eyes and running away from the horrors of the dying to find safety for herself, there had to be someplace she could hide – hadn’t there?
Reality:
Lying on the bed, a calm expression on her face, Lorna promises Xavier that she will be all right, tears smudged in her eyes, she says she doesn’t want to hurt anyone anymore, that she was so overwhelmed by it all and doesn’t want to hurt anyone anymore. She adds that she just wanted to be happy, that she wanted Alex to love her like he used to, she just wanted someone to love her and make her forget it all. Xavier tells her he knows, tears dripping from his eyes too, while the human Annie Ghazikhanian sits cowering under a table, clutching her face as tears stream from it.
Back in an unknown place, the Jillian demon lunges towards Archangel, the “angel” whom death has been sworn at. Suddenly, Warrens’ girlfriend, fellow X-Man, Paige “Husk” Guthrie, in a super-durable steel form jumps between Warren and Jillian, knocking the demon back, but then Jillian strikes at Paige with her sword. Husk lashes back, and punches Jillian, sending her careening into Nightcrawler. As more of his demon servants start moving towards the X-Men, Azazel orders everyone – X-Men included, to stop.
Jubilee asks a young Nightcrawler look-alike – Abyss – what he can do powers wise, and the boy replies that he can open a hole in space and suck things in. Using her “fireworks” powers on the demons, who obviously didn’t listen to their master and are still rushing forward, she asks the boy where things go to, to which he replies he doesn’t know. Jubilee asks him if wherever it is they go to is far away from here, and he tells her he doesn’t know, though he has never gotten anything back.
Jubilee tells the blue mutant that that sounds good enough to her and as they are horrible outnumbered, he should give it a shot sucking some of the demons into his dimensional hole. The boy starts to open a portal, however no demons go through it, instead things start to come from it, like is skateboard, the neighbors pet dog and –Mystique…. The boy looks a little nervous, and the mutant vixen smiles and tells the boy he doesn’t sound too happy to see her.
