We open with a data page, a letter from Xavier to the QC about Vulcan. It had originally been decided that Gabriel be moved to a place of tertiary importance in the resurrection queue due to his increasingly unstable behavior. However due to Magneto's death, Brand has pushed for the return of Vulcan to make up for the Omega shortfall. Xavier believes he can perform "telepathic surgery" on him to address his mental state. Ewing gives us a laugh when Xavier writers, "I would never alter a mutant's mind or memories - that would be the ultimate mental violation. I simply will not do it under any circumstances. (Barring cases of absolute necessity, of course.)" Hahahaha, good one.
We get the preview pages where they attempt to resurrect Vulcan while Xavier is trying out this telepathic surgery, Alex questions the trust in Xavier and sure enough it all goes to crap when Vulcan, on fire and naked, busts out of the egg having snatched his mind from Xavier's grasp.
We're now in the present, the diplomatic zone. Vulcan asks Deathbird about his son (yikes, he knows) and she responds that he's somewhere safe, away from him. Vulcan calls himself Emperor, questioning young Xandra's place on the throne. Gladiator tells him his days of Emperor were stricken from the official memory. Nova is annoyed that the Krakoans brought him back to begin with, and Frenzy explains that he had survived the Fault, what were they supposed to do with him? Nova says they should have fired him out of a cannon. They continue to exchange words and Vulcan absorbs Gladiator's energy, rerouting the electrical impulses from his enlarged prefrontal cortex, turning Gladiator thin and frail. Gladiator falls. Vulcan laughs.
Nova says Vulcan is hereby charged with crimes against sentient life under the Pan-Worlds Treaty (bless his heart.) He orders Vulcan to surrender but Vulcan mocks him as the "galaxy's last good cowboy" and absorbs his energy as well. Nova falls. Frenzy gets a punch in before she's blasted into a wall.
Mentallo and Brand are watching this play out on monitors and Brand mentions how she would have liked Frenzy in her inner circle, but Frenzy has morals and what not. Mentallo not so much, and he enjoys his inner circle paycheck. He says Frenzy cares about suckers and Brand mentions how she herself cares about everybody in the Sol System. "Somebody's got to. Somebody's got to care enough to be the bad guy." They watch as Vulcan blasts Paibok, possibly severing his arm.
Wiz-Kid is in the ship waiting around the World Farm, kinda bored, until two Progenitors (?) appear and identify his ship as a threat and announce that they will "end threat." Inside, Cable instructs the team to knock Orbis off-balance, and Thunderbird and Zsen attack his tendons. Cable shoots Orbis in the chest with his blaster and Orbis falls. He's not much of a fighter. Orbis' head detaches from his useless armored body and he awakens the three aliens that were in stasis (the ones that experimented on Vulcan way back when.) One of them targets Manifold and seems to take control of him, seemingly using Eden to open a portal. Cable tells Thunderbird to get his knife ready, as I guess beings are about to flood in through the portal? We shall see.
Back to the Diplomatic Zone battle. Vulcan is energetically suffocating Frenzy. Nova flies at him and gets kicked into a wall.
Interestingly, Xandra looks quite bored, at one point with one leg up on the throne, and checking her nails at another point.
Deathbird tells Vulcan that it's not too late to stop this and she promises that this is not what he wants. Vulcan says he will never bend to the throne. He turns to Xandra and blasts her. Watching on the monitors, Mentallo asks Brand if he can look away as watching Xandra being burned alive is too much, but she denies his request. She says they have to look at what they do, that's the price they pay for... she pauses, eyes going wide. She finishes her sentence with, "Oh no." Deathbird is smiling and Vulcan is shocked.
"Wonderful things, Shi'ar image inducers. They even do the voices. Xandra couldn't make it, Vulcan."
Yooooo! Vulcan threatens to burn Sunspot alive for this but 'Berto is all, "Will you? We both eat solar energy, remember." Try me, bro. "Find out which of us is hotter." Vulcan pauses then calls Berto a distraction from killing Xandra. He says if she's not here, he knows where to find her and flies off through the ceiling. Deathbird coyly reminds Roberto that Vulcan would have incinerated him but his bluff worked and besides, he's better looking than Vulcan and it's the moral victory that's important.
Vulcan arrives at the Autumn Palace, landing hard on the ground. He enters, lighting up everything around him, saying he can feel "Xandra Throne-Stealer" scratching at his mind. But then he stops mid sentence...
Vulcan: "You. I've been dreaming of this moment - this fight - since before I died."
The Goddess: "Really?"