Cameron Pryde has decided that his people, mutants, must die. His sister Christina bars his way. He muses that she’s been called the hope of their people. She puts up a good fight. Touching his bleeding nose, he admits she really hurt him. He’ll live, Chrissie snaps. Not if he gets to President Kelly before she does, he replies. A nice public assassination… Give the humans a good reason to wipe their kind off the map.
Mutants deserve extinction, Cameron insists. He laughs when he sees she is still wearing the tiger tooth pendant he gave her. He tells her to think of the tigers. Beautiful and deadly and rare and on the verge of annihilation. Then the first bombs fell and the zoos were abandoned, and now they breed like alley cats. They’ve overrun the cities. There are probably more of them than of mutants. They kill people just as mutants do. Just as he has… for her. Dukes, Magneto, Pyro – all for her. Is this what she meant by saving the species? Is this what she wants them to come back from the brink of annihilation from… as monsters? Better their kind should die! She’s the only person he doesn’t want to hurt. He offers his hand.
So what? Chrissie shouts and traps him with her fluid metal body. He kills Kelly, he’ll prove the people are right about mutants and humans will start a genocide on their people!
He phases and replies one species can live and the other die or both can go up in flames. They can’t coexist any longer. Out of all the lessons their parents taught them, that is the most obvious. See her at the plaza! He phases into the rubble and disappears.
Grimly, she states, he is wrong. And that’s the lesson she is finally going to teach him.
The skies above the National Plaza:
Storm is controlling the weather and bringing in Air Force One. She joins the others and asks if Chrissie is ready for her moment to shine. Rachel uses her telekinesis to bring the plane slowly down. Colossus feels there is something wrong. He wonders where Magneto and Kate are. Not to mention the big malfunctioning Sentinel. He asks Rachel if she is sure about the danger that rogue Sentinel poses.
Rachel repeats: the Sentinel will make an attempt on Kelly’s life. Chrissie will save the president. The world will watch and everything will become better.
Angel turns to the imprisoned and tied up Foster and Martinez. He hopes they’ll enjoy the newsreel they are going to help them make today. “A mutant girl saves the leader who wants her dead.” He’d watch that. And he thinks the rest of New York would too.
That moment, Cameron emerges and flies toward the plane. As soldiers give chase, Colossus demands where Magneto is. He was supposed to hold them off. Cameron retorts that he, Magneto and Chrissie came down on different sides of an ideological debate. They were looking to straighten the whole thing out, but he came up with a better solution. He tears open the plane and grabs the president by the throat. Can he spare a moment to talk about mutant reform?
He notices a shadow falling on them. Guess what, big brother? Mom’s home and she’s pissed! Chrissie announces. She, Kate and Logan sit on the back of the giant Lockheed. So how’s this for his plan going up in flames? Cameron is forced to drop Kelly as Lockheed swoops down.
Kate hits Rachel, accusing her of trying to help Magneto murder her child. Rachel admits she had this coming but they had to do something. Of course, Kate mocks. They need a villain for this story. She’s more than happy to audition for the role. To save the mutants, they needed a martyr, Rachel replies as she powers up. Kate phases through her attack and hits her again, threatening that Rachel may get her wish. She reaches for her heart. No more tricks. No more lies. Or she will squeeze. Kate belts Rachel, while the other X-Men take care of the Doom Sentinels.
Chrissie kneels down next to Kelly and announces she’s been waiting her whole life to say this. Hello, President Kelly. Her name is Chrissie Pryde. She is the last mutant ever born. And she’s here to rescue him.
Lockheed flies to them. While Chrissie shields Kelly, she tells him to climb on Lockheed’s back and please consider mutant reform and hold tight.
Lockheed takes off. Cameron angrily shouts he’ll find him. If he has to burn the city to the ground he’ll…
Chrissie burns his leg with her heated arm blade. She figures burnt cells won’t phase. Is this what he wanted? To play the Magneto and Xavier to their generation? Don’t make her do this. He promises to never stop. Mutants and humans… They will never stop killing, they’ll all die, because of the two of them. There aren’t any innocent bystanders here.
Realizing she can’t deter him from his course, she stabs him through the chest.
Kate screams and the others look on in shock. Kate hugs Chrissie as she cries that the danger is gone. The others are saved. Isn’t that what she wanted?
Colossus and Wolverine drag Kate and Chrissie away. Two soldiers get ready to fire at them but are ordered to stand down by Kelly.
They retreat to the Cathedral, believing the humans won’t touch it. Angel flies off to gather the rest of the refugees. Rachel tries to apologize to Kate who doesn’t care. When they’ve reached the cathedral, Colossus tells her Angel is inside, that means so are the refugees. Every mutant left. Less than a hundred.
Nightcrawler greets them and asks where Cameron is. Their facial expressions tell him everything. Chrissie cries in Kate’s arms that he never would have stopped until they were all dead. Kate tries to calm her.
He was his son too, Logan informs the grieving family. Yes, he was, Piotr agrees. They hear the sounds of sirens and helicopters. X-Men and refugees get ready for one last stand.
Kate hears a growl from within the cathedral and follows it. She wonders what will become of them. Do they fight? Do they die? Do they pass from the world and is the world brighter or darker for their passing? What is coming for them? What are the sirens she hears? Ambulance or Sentinels? She stares at the tiger in front of her. Is there truly a difference any longer?
