From his city base in the Bermuda Triangle, Magneto
sends out a message via hologram to all of the world leaders, from the United
States to Russia to China. Magneto puts forth an ultimatum that all killing,
especially killing of mutants, will stop and all world powers will disarm their
nuclear weapons. If they do not comply or try to attack him, Magneto states he
will not hesitate to destroy any who are so foolish. Cyclops argues that
Magneto’s plan sounds insane and implausible, but Magneto defends himself,
saying that he’s tired of the way things are, and simply wants a better world,
especially for mutants, no matter what he must do to get it. Magneto questions
why Scott is with Lee Forrester and Scott tells him of Jean’s death, and
Magneto genuinely grieves for her, as a worthy foe and saddened by any
pointless mutant deaths. Magneto suddenly senses missiles heading for his base
and easily takes care of them, as well as sinking the Russian submarine they
originated from. Magneto then makes good on his promise, using a device he
created to manipulate the very earth, completely destroying a small Russian
city remotely, giving just enough time for it to be evacuated, and promising he
won’t be so merciful next time.
Later, Lee Forrester reflects on all she’s seen,
terrified of Magneto’s clear hatred of humans. Scott comes to comfort her,
stating that he has to do something to fight against Magneto, knowing his way
is wrong. Far above them, unseen, the Blackbird suddenly enters Magneto’s
magnetic field around his city, causing it, and the X-Men, to crash land into
the ocean below. With the X-Men, on a small boat nearby, are Charles Xavier,
Moira MacTaggert, Peter Corbeau, and a recently depowered Carol Danvers, all there
attempting to locate Scott after hearing of his disappearance. At the bottom of
the ocean, the X-Men escape their crashed ship and make their way for the
island they spotted as they crashed. As they get closer, Colossus suddenly and
involuntarily turns back from metal to flesh and blood and begins to drown,
having forgone an airpack due to his not needing to breath in metal form. On
the island, Lee spots something near the water, and when she goes to
investigate, is pulled into the water by Wolverine. The X-Men pull Colossus
onto land and Kitty Pryde and Wolverine perform CPR on him for long, agonizing
minutes, before he suddenly sputters back to life!
The X-Men are soon reunited with Cyclops, who fills
them in on Magneto’s plan, as well as his inhibitor field currently nullifying
their powers. Scott decides to strike while Magneto is unaware of the X-Men’s
presence and he and the male X-Men head to try and shut down Magneto’s seismic
device, while Storm and Kitty head for Magneto’s computer control room. While
Kitty tries to puzzle out of the computer controls, Storm finds a sleeping
Magneto in a nearby chamber and wonders if she should end the threat now by
killing him while he’s defenseless. Back with the guys, Nightcrawler and
Wolverine make their way out onto the seismic device to cut its vertical
support beams, hoping gravity will do the rest. Back with Storm, she grabs a
knife and wrestles with her conscience but finds that she cannot bring herself
to kill Magneto. It’s at that moment that Magneto awakens and blasts Storm out
of the window to her apparent death!
Magneto is suddenly bombarded by a mental attack from
Xavier, the two locked in a battle of wills, until Magneto levitates Xavier’s
chair, pulling him to the island and thereby nullifying his powers. The X-Men
have just finished destroying all the support beams, causing Magneto’s seismic
device to smash against the ground far below, when Magneto appears and easily
incapacitates all of them. He also casually repairs his device, instantly
undoing all of the X-Men’s hard work. Meanwhile, turns out Storm isn’t dead,
having caught her cape on a projection on the side of the building. She climbs
back up and destroys Magneto’s inhibitor, allowing them to use their powers
once more. Cyclops blasts the surprised Magneto and an epic battle ensues.
Nightcrawler teleports to hit Magneto from behind and the others press the
advantage though Magneto is able to hold them back. Storm then arrives, uniting
the team once more. Xavier lashes out and Wolverine destroys Magneto’s helmet
as the battle rages on.
While the X-Men continue to fight Magneto, Cyclops
sends Kitty to deal with Magneto’s computers, thereby shutting down the
computations needed to use his machine. The X-Men press the attack, and Kitty
finds the control room and phases through the computers, shorting them out.
Magneto lashes out, heavily burning Storm, until Nightcrawler teleports the two
of them into the ocean to safety. Magneto senses his computers are being messed
with and finds Kitty in his control room. Kitty tries phasing through him but
the enraged Magneto sends a charge of electricity through her, apparently
killing her. It’s then that Magneto realizes what he’s done. He’s killed a
mutant child, the very people he’s been doing all of this to protect. He thinks
of his own childhood, in the Auschwitz concentration camp, where his entire
family was murdered, giving birth to his hatred for humans. A furious Storm
shows up ready to kill Magneto, and he deigns not to fight back. He realizes
the bitter irony, that in his quest to remake the world into one where mutants
can be safe, above humans, he has become much like those he has always hated.
Magneto gives Kitty to Storm and escapes, while Kitty miraculously survives the
ordeal. The X-Men then relax on the beach, as Xavier states that they’ve won
against Magneto in the best possible way, causing him to reconsider his actions
and viewpoints, and hopefully caused him to come out of the ordeal a changed
man.