We open to the Marauders saving Fever Pitch after he's gone berserk.
We cut to several days later. Kitty's moving through Krakoa's forest, guided by that mysterium puzzlebox from the Annual. Kitty talks out loud about how someone made an Archipelago from Krakoa's body, but made the island forget. She calls Xavier a jerk and that's Cassandra Nova's cue to turn up.
Cassandra's digging up Krakoa's organs from the ground with a serrated tool. She mentions that she feels "a tickle behind her ears" when she does so, suspecting it's guilt. (Likely this is from the empathy chip installed in her brain during the original X-Men Red run.) She's become enamored with the feeling and seems to have been spending her time pulling out Krakoa's organs.
Kitty's all "What's with the puzzlebox and why did it lead me to you?"
Cassandra is all "The first mutants of the second generation lived on Okkara, but the last of the first are fighting for their lives. I can guide you and help you save them lmao."
Kitty's like "Well, you have amnesty on Krakoa. But you bombed Genosha and killed my dad, so I don't trust you."
So then Cassandra is like "Read X-Men Red, Jean fixed me and now I won't hurt mutants lol."
Info page time! Bishop writes a letter to Kitty, talking about the crew. The tl;dr is that Psylocke is unsure of herself, but also one of their best. Tempo likes time. Daken enjoys the blood and Aurora's acceptance helps him. Aurora's time on X-Factor has made her want to focus on saving mutants BEFORE they die. Somnus could be the heart of the team. Cassandra is also part of the team, but Bishop will trust Kitty on this. Hellion gets no mention because they're probably saving him for later.
Back to now. Tempo and Psylocke are on Danger Island, exercising and hanging out by killing virtual enemies.
Jean shows up to check on Cassandra Nova. Nova thanks Jean for the compassion chip, because now Nova can appreciate the atrocities she commits a lot more now. Jean's shocked, but Cass is all "at least mutants won't need to fear me. Everybody else does though, lol. Now, please clean up these organs for me."
At the Boneyard, Bishop tells Aurora how the fire he absorbed from Fever Pitch went into power cells, which he donated to a homeless shelter. Aurora says that she's joining to help Daken get over the torture he endured under Brimstone Love. She's also kind of sick of all the death in X-Factor, so she wants to deal with life now.
Meanwhile, Somnus lets Daken live out his revenge fantasies in dreams, where he can torture Brimstone to his heart's content. Aurora shows up and says that she and Somnus conspired to do this for Daken.
Everyone gathers back on the new Marauders ship, which is some high-tech spaceship this time around. Kate introduces the Marauders to Cassandra, and Somnus has no idea who she is.
Info page: Sinister, Reyes and Nemesis debate on whether they should count Cassandra Nova as a mutant, since she has Charles' DNA. They conclude that she is.
Back to the boat. Cassandra reads Somnus' mind, then says that he'd have been able to block her out if he honed his powers. She goes on to say that Sinister and Apocalypse killed more people than she ever did, but they were on the Council while she's been under house arrest. Still, she wants to help and/or spill blood. Psylocke uses her powers to confirm that Cassandra does she knows where the first mutants are. They're being held by the Shi'ar.
While the Marauders fly their ship to Chandilar, Xandra and her attendants are able to detect Cassandra's presence among the pirates. Delphos the Red shoes up and dismisses the Imperial Guard. She says that she's a noble of the Kin Crimson, and a Shepherd of Shi'ar History. She outranks the Superguardians. She doesn't want to challenge Xandra's rule, though.
Delphos shows Xandra some Shi'ar history. We don't see what "The First Blood Spilled" is, but Xandra says that it could mean war with Arakko, with her friends, and with mutant kind. So she agrees with Delphos to stop the Marauders from finding out the truth.
Back on the ship, Tempo and Aurora sit on the floor and eat "boost fruits" to make the ship go faster. They're attacked the second they step into Shi'ar space, and Cassandra is all . Psylocke and Bishop go out to fight the enemy ship. The Marauders are stuck behind some energy field. Erik the Red shows up and tells them to go back.
It was a pretty long issue. Most of the characters got small moments to shine though, which was great.