Continued from X-Factor #38.
Their battle now over, Jean Grey kneels beside the
dead body of the Goblin Queen, Madelyne Pryor, with the X-Men and X-Factor both
still reeling from what they just went through. As Cyclops mourns Madelyne,
Jean suddenly cries out in anguish! With a telekinetic force field keeping them
from her, Psylocke sends the minds of herself, Cyclops, Storm, and Wolverine
into Jean’s mind to see what’s going on. They find themselves on the moon,
reliving the memory of when Phoenix sacrificed herself. Cyclops points out that
it can’t be Jean’s memory, since she wasn’t actually there, but before his
question can even be considered, the giant hand of Mister Sinister smashes
through the sky, attempting to destroy the memory! The X-Men float further
through Jean’s mind, past fragments of Madelyne’s memories, proving that Jean
psychically bonded with her before her death! Scott questions why Sinister
created Madelyne just to mate with him, when they finally come upon Jean’s
memories, the focal point being one of Xaver’s School. As they get closer,
they’re attacked by Madelyne as the Goblin Queen, before she shifts back to a
very apologetic Jean.
Psylocke reveals that what’s left of Madelyne now
resides in Jean’s mind and the two psyches are vying for control! Psylocke then
discovers that she can no longer broadcast in or out, as Sinister appears once
again and destroys one of Madelyne’s memories, in order to purge her mind, and
reshape it to suit his whims! The X-Men attempt to fight back against Sinister
but find their physical attacks useless against his astral form! Psylocke is
able to hold him off while Cyclops pleads with Madelyne to help them. She
doesn’t want to, figuring doing nothing will result in her getting her revenge.
Storm attempts to get through to her, stating that one’s creation is only the
first step to life, and that Madelyne is responsible for everything that
happens after, not Sinister. Finally, Psylocke is no longer able to hold
Sinister back, and he offers Madelyne to be born anew. Madelyne and Jean, now
essentially one, refuse and in an impressive display of power, cast Sinister
from their mind! Back in his physical body, Sinister sits stunned and tells
Polaris to prepare for the X-Men’s arrival.
During their confrontation, Jean learned that Sinister
had set up base in Xavier’s School and the two teams split up into groups to
approach it from all angles. The first group comprised of Cyclops, Jean, Storm,
Wolverine, and Archangel take the direct approach, and enter the mansion
through Storm’s old skylight. Though they can sense no opposition there, they
decided they must look around for themselves. With Madelyne now a part of her,
Jean understands the full extent of her suffering and hate, and realizes how
truly evil Sinister is, stating he needs to be stopped by any means necessary!
Meanwhile, Rogue and Psylocke take the path through the hangar towards the
mansion, all the while being watched from the shadows! Elsewhere, Beast takes
Jean’s parents and baby Nathan back to X-Factor’s vessel base where they’ll be
safe. He offers for Longshot to look after them, but Longshot admits he’s
worried. Scared at how deeply he was affected by the Inferno spell, Longshot
worries that the effects aren’t truly gone, fearing he may end up betraying the
X-Men again, or worse!
Finally, a group comprised of Colossus, Iceman, Havok,
and Dazzler make their way through the old Morlock tunnels that connect to the
mansion grounds, when they’re surprised by Blockbuster! Heavily mutated from
the Inferno spell, Blockbuster quickly knocks out Colossus and Iceman, before
setting his sights on Dazzler. Her photon beam does absolutely nothing to hold
him back, and just as he grabs her, he gets his head blasted off by Havok!
Though Dazzler is stunned at the brutal display, Havok just says that he’s
changed! Down in the hangar, Rogue and Psylocke get ambushed by Sabretooth!
Sabretooth aims to bite into Psylocke but before he can, she overloads his
brain with a telepathic assault and takes him out! In the mansion upstairs, the
others hear Jean scream and run to find her in the storage area, completely
trashed. Turns out, Sinister turned the entire place upside down, gathering as
much information on all of them as he could in order to more effectively know
them and strike where it hurts!
The group is then attacked by the Malice-possessed
Polaris. While Jean blocks her attacks, Storm tackles her and threatens her to
tell them what she knows. With all the groups reconvened, Storm commands
Psylocke to try and separate Malice from Polaris and learn where Sinister is
hiding. Polaris panics, stating that she and Malice are essentially one being
now, and that trying to separate them will kill them both! They implore her to
just tell them what she knows, when suddenly the entire mansion explodes! Polaris
climbs out of the rubble, furious at Sinister, stating she could have been
killed! Not caring in the slightest, Sinister digs Jean out of the rubble and
orders Polaris to kill the rest! However, they’re stopped by the arrival of
Longshot, who says they’ll have to get through him first! To be concluded!
Concluded in X-Factor #39.
Excelsioring your collection