The issue opens with Jean in a daze, back in her official uniform, and in an undisclosed location, presumably after Orchis’ attack at the Hellfire Gala. She reminds herself that she is dying. “There’s nothing new in dying,” she muses. “At least not for me. Been there…so many times before.” She also reminds herself that “there are others” dead or dying, too, and that “time is running out.” She thinks, “This is my fault. It has to be. Why else would I be here? … If I can understand, maybe I can fix…everything.” Suddenly, she is making her way through glowing shards of memory—gleaming fragments of her life—while noting, “My mind feels…broken…memories scattered, like puzzle pieces waiting to be assembled.” She wonders, “But into what?”
She briefly recounts pivotal moments during her prepubescence and adolescence. She remembers the death of her best friend, Annie Richardson, and how her reflexive choice to be with her in both mind and body not only led to the activation of her nascent telepathic power but also nearly killed her. She decides, “despite the danger,” she made the right choice. She then recalls meeting Professor Xavier, who offered to suppress her “out-of-control telepathy”—“just one of my emerging psi powers”— which she accepted. “Block them,” she had said to him, and he did. She decides she made the right choice then, too.
Subsequently, she ponders whether accepting Xavier’s later offer of a scholarship to his School for Gifted Youngsters may have been the pivotal mistake she now seeks to rectify. “No,” she assures herself, reminiscing, “That was…the best!” But her thoughts are soon snagged on a memory: An older Hank, having “arrived from a terrible future,” asking her and the remaining founding X-Men “to travel through time to save the world.” She recalls their temporal sojourn and how their “presence made things worse.” And she remembers, years after their time displacement, a young Cable from a more distant future urging them to go back to their own time and convincing her to forget their years in the future, "to excise a chunk of [their] own lives.” She hones in on and digs deeper into the memory. “Is this where I went wrong?” she ponders.
Suddenly, she is transported to the moment in which a young Jean, Scott, Hank, Bobby, and Warren return from the future to their proper time and place as young students at Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters. We catch teenage Jean in mid-sentence: “…but what if we don’t forget what happened to us? What if we need that knowledge?” Everyone’s curiosity is peaked, and Jean continues: “We have control of our powers now. And we’ve seen the future—a batch of futures—so we know what to avoid.” Warren asks, “Like the Phoenix?” Jean responds, “Yeah, Warren. Like that.” And just as the others continue to ponder the possibilities, Xavier summons them to the Danger Room for training. Warren notes, “Professor X will read our minds,” to which Jean responds, “I’ve blocked him…for now.” Bobby opines, “This won’t work.” And Jean retorts with a certain obstinate finality, “Yes, it will, Bobby. I’ll make it work. Come on.”
Later the team is in the midst of a training session when Jean suddenly reveals to them, "Magneto’s attacking. In Manhattan.” Xavier emerges from behind her and asks, “So, you already know that?” Without skipping a beat, she admits, “The block you put on my telepathy is gone, Professor Xavier. I can control the power now, which is good since I want what you want…” Xavier peers at her, “And what is that?” “To save mutantkind. To safeguard the future,” Jean assures him confidently. Xavier attempts a retort—“You don’t know—”—but Jean interrupts him. “I know more than you can imagine.” Xavier tries to reason with her, admitting, “You’re very powerful, Jean, and you mean well, but—” Jean interrupts, “But with me at full strength, we’re better positioned to stand against evil. It will work. You’ll see.”
What ensues is a rapid succession of happenstances and reckless, ill-fated decisions.
Above what seems like the George Washington Bridge, Magneto and the X-Men face off. He tries convincing them that established mutants need to band together and “prepare a safe haven” for themselves and for newly emerging mutants. “Your war is against the humans,” Jean notes, “but you’re fine with killing us?” Magneto confirms, “If that’s what it takes—AAK!” But before he can finish, Jean removes his helmet and levels with him. “So, that’s how we play this,” she says. “You think I’m weak, Magneto! A child to be threatened. But I am so much more.” She calls him “a fanatic” and “a terrorist,” and, in turn, he categorizes her as one of “Charles’ stooges.” She snaps. “Not…exactly. Xavier wouldn’t do this,” she says as she wipes his mind completely clean. He drops to the ground.
The others scramble to reinforce the destabilized bridge as Scott tends to Magneto and admonishes Jean for what she’s done to him. “[He’s] Nothing. Gone. A blank. You can’t do that!” Jean tries reasoning with him and reminding him that they already know what Magneto’s actions will lead to. “And the witnesses?” Scott asks. “I could change their perceptions. Xavier does it.” Warren yells, “Don’t!” And Jean acquiesces. “Okay," she says. "For now, we can control the spin…”
We learn that Xavier and his students parted ways soon after the latter’s showdown with Magneto. However, Warren’s inheritance afforded the team their independence from their former leader and a new base of operations in Manhattan. Meanwhile, Jean continues exhibiting a simmering, although nonetheless reckless, abandon, noting that “one tiny mind tweak” could turn Juggernaut into an “instant good guy.” Scott warns her that she “can’t keep doing that,” as Hank emerges with his newly improved portable Cerebro machine. Suddenly, Trask is on television, addressing the nation—“…but more mutants appear weekly, and some powers are dangerous…”—and the team zones in on his words. They agree to use Cerebro to locate emerging mutants. Jean tries out the new portable headset and approves. “We have a hit.”
Sometime later, Jean locates a young, panicking kid with “a strong psi power of some kind.” But before they can reach him, his abilities cause an explosion in the penthouse in which he resides. The team pushes through fire, smoke, and debris to get to him. Jean notes, “People above and below. Injured, but alive.” Hank, Bobby, and Warren rush to save the others, and Jean and Scott remain behind with the young boy. Jean observes that he’s severely injured. “It’s okay. I’m with you. I won’t leave…” She psi-links with the boy. “Scott, he’s…” Her voice trails off, and she collapses just as the young boy dies. Scott screams for her. Jean whispers: “It’s…okay. I’m strong now. Strong enough…” Scott finishes her sentence. “To get pulled toward death, again and again?” She groans, “Stayed with him. Eased his pain. All…I could do.” Scott insists, “This won’t be the last time. There has to be a better way.”
Soon after, we learn that Jean made the bystanders and emergency responders believe that the explosion was caused by a gas leak, not the young boy’s emergent powers. The team interrogates, warns, and admonishes her over her actions. Bobby notes, “I won’t volunteer information, but if they ask me directly, I won’t lie.” Jean, with a steely determination, responds, “I can make you think it isn’t a lie.” The team balks.
Continued...