(the Adirondacks)
One of the X-Men’s jets lands in the forest as Kymera watches from nearby. Beast, Primal and Sprite get out, along with Shogo. Beast greets Kymera and wonders why Storm would authorize an infant to be brought into the field and why the request came from Kymera. Kymera takes Shogo and tells Beast that she is putting the pieces together against the history she knows, but this battle never took place in her timeline.
Beast says he is up to date on the bio-weapon “Bloodline” and Kymera tells him Shogo is the key to stopping it. Right now, the rest of the team is two miles away, fighting against a conscious, weaponized forest and at the center of it all is Shogo’s biological father. Beast says that the parentage isn’t confirmed but Kymera tells him in her timeline it is a 99.98% probability.
Kymera says she is going to take Shogo into the forest and, when Beast objects, she replies there isn’t a way to explain the reason to him properly. Beast becomes angry and Kymera’s panther growls at him. Beast points out that Shogo is just a child but the young girl retorts that he is also her best friend and that they will have to trust her. Sprite says she and Primal could easily stop the girl and Beast agrees. He also adds that he knows she and Shogo are friends and that in her mind she is doing what is right and necessary. Beast relents and lets Kymera take the child, but he and the other students go with her.
(the Dove)
At her computer, Cipher asks how the telemetry is looking, to which Storm replies it’s solid and that they are entering the hot zone now. Storm is flying the plane and Rachel tells her that she has lost contact with Monet on both the visual and psychic spectrum. Storm asks if Bloodline is blocking her and Rachel replies it is, but seems rather dismissive of the idea. As they fly over the forest, some of the trees dig up their own roots and launch themselves into the sky like rockets. The Dove is struck by one of the trees and Storm loses control, forcing the plane lower into the trees. Cipher yells that a tree hit them and that the whole area is glowing on the infra-red. Rachel yells in pain and says that the whole forest is screaming at her. Storm gains some altitude and Rachel explains the whole forest is processing information but it isn’t truly sentient. Rachel says that it cannot feel pain and so Storm flies out of the jet, telling Rachel to warn everyone she is attacking.
Down on the ground, Psylocke, Hellion, Anole and Rockslide suddenly feel the air around them get hotter. Rachel tells Psylocke to move everyone out of the way, as Storm is about to do something. A huge explosion rips through the forest and trees are scattered everywhere. A little way off, Kymera shrieks in horror and rushes off deeper into the forest, with Beast and his group hot on her heels. They run into Psylocke’s group and Kymera says that they have to stop Storm from attacking. Sprite says that Storm cleared the area but she’s freaking out now.
Psylocke contacts Rachel to find out what’s going on but the telepath replies that Storm isn’t responding to anything. Psylocke relays that Kymera is sure she is able to stop it but Storm needs to stop attacking. Rachel pulls the plane close to Storm and then grabs her from the open hanger door. Storm is worried about Monet and Psylocke but Rachel tells her they are down there and she needs to stop attacking.
Down below, Monet picks herself up off the floor and checks on the unconscious soldiers nearby to make sure they are still breathing. She radios up and says that, unless multiple homicide is her game plan, then she needs to stop the weather. Right now, there are some serious cases of heatstroke but the armed resistance threat has been neutralized. Storm asks if she is okay and then Rachel asks Storm the same question. Down below, Monet sarcastically says everyone is okay and that they need to get back to business.
She has a feeling Jubilee is still not okay but she can see a small house in the distance. She telepathically reaches out and finds Jubilee huddled up in one of the rooms. Jubilee doesn’t respond and so Monet jokes with her about saying once she never wanted to know what went through her head. Monet tells her she loves her and explains about the weaponized forest and the fact she will lose telepathy for a while. Jubilee doesn’t want Monet to break contact and asks about Shogo. Monet says that he is fine and that he’s miles away.
Back outside, the assembled group race towards the cabin and Sprite asks why Storm doesn’t just use the heat to kill the Bloodline. Psylocke replies that Jubilee is in the middle of the forest and that everything is tied into The Future somehow. If they kill him, they don’t know what might happen to Jubilee. Psylocke then has a realization that The Future is controlling the Bloodline with his own blood and that’s why Kymera bought Shogo. Kymera simply replies it will work.
From the Dove, Cipher reports that if Storm goes any further up the hill then she will be in active Bloodline territory. Based on how it stopped Monet, she doubts if any of them will make the climb. She says Jubilee is probably in the cabin, based on the readings from the plane. Storm, Monet and Rachel meet with the rest of the team and Storm isn’t happy to see Kymera and Shogo in the middle of the battle. Psylocke tells her to see it through and that she trusts Kymera.
With that, Kymera takes Shogo to a nearby bush and pricks his finger, causing it to bleed. Shogo starts to cry and Storm angrily yells at Kymera. Kymera wipes the blood on one of the bush’s leaves and then reassures Shogo that it’s all over. She hands Shogo to Storm and explains that the Bloodline is keyed to accept The Future’s DNA as its operating system and, as an offspring of The Future, it will also accept Shogo’s. As the young child sucks his thumb, tears stream down his face and Kymera says that the Bloodline should be offline now.
Inside the cabin, The Future realizes what has just happened and screams in anger. Jubilee realizes that he is weakened and uses her enhanced strength to burst through the wall of her cell and run through the cabin to find him. However, when she makes it to his room, she finds The Future being strangled by the very forest he once controlled. Vines have ripped up through the floor and they lift him in their air, constricting him into he dies. The vines drop him on the floor and Jubilee telepathically tells Rachel that he is dead. Rachel replies that Jubilee needs to get to them now, as Shogo is in trouble.
As Kymera holds Shogo, he doesn’t appear to be conscious and Beast tells her it might be a poison off the plants. Kymera says it wasn’t a design element of the version of Bloodline from her timeline. Beast confesses to Storm that he has used altered Arkea DNA to heal both Primal and Sprite and that he believes it can help heal Shogo too. Storm is alarmed that he wants to inject the baby with Arkea, but Beast explains the boy’s nervous system is shutting down and it isn’t exactly Arkea anymore. Storm relents, as she doesn’t want to lose Shogo after everything they went through, and so Beast enlists Primal’s aid in helping him.
Jubilee arrives and Storm comforts her as Beast gets to work. She tells Jubilee Shogo was the key to it all and he helped take down an adversary wanted by most global authorities. Beast injects Shogo with the Arkea strain and it gets to work fast, as he sits upright and appears to be as happy as ever. The team celebrate their victory and Shogo’s recovery and then fly back to base.
Later on, Storm receives a letter from Kymera that tells her this was the reason she stayed behind in the past. She doesn’t see herself staying at the school and doesn’t see the two of them getting along, as they didn’t in her timeline. Shogo is her family and, if she comes back, it will be because he needs her. It’s not like Storm signed up to have a teenage daughter and so Kymera tells her that she will do many world-changing things but none of them is having a daughter yet. She bids her mum goodbye and leaves the school.
