In their attempt to escape, the X-Men are found once
again and fired upon by the Brood. The Brood Queen instructs that the X-Men be
taken alive and unharmed, except for Wolverine, as his embryo has already been
destroyed. They fire wide warning shots, while the X-Men attempt to get far
enough away to engage the warp drive. Wolverine, Carol Danvers, and Colossus
head for the ship’s weapons, in order to fire back at the Brood. While
Wolverine and Carol are in their element, Colossus finds that his reaction times
are too slow, as well as feeling doubts about whether or not the Brood deserve
to die, nasty as they are. A ruby quartz bubble extends from the side of the
ship, allowing Cyclops to fire back at the Brood as well, and Storm uses her
lightning for cover. However, Storm finds that her control is shaky in space
and accidentally destroys a bunch of the ships, though she did not mean to kill
them.
The ship gets hit and Lilandra says that someone will
have to navigate the outside of the ship to effect repairs before they can slip
into warp drive. Nightcrawler volunteers but Kitty Pryde shoots him down,
saying he’s still too weak from last issue, and elects to go in his stead.
Though the others have reservations, she phases into a spacesuit to walk along
the outside of the ship until she finds the hole that was torn in the ship.
Storm refuses to keep using her powers, lest she accidentally kill more Brood,
while Carol begins have weird sensations. Kitty gets hit by some shrapnel and
the others tell her to come back inside. However, just then, Carol’s strange
spells hit their peak and she explodes outward with energy, vaporizing the
enemy Brood ships, changed due to the Brood’s experiments on her! Kitty
finishes the repairs and the ship slips into warp drive, with Kitty’s fate
unknown!
Back on Earth, at the recently rebuilt Xavier school,
Charles Xavier prepares dinner, feeling depressed and hopeless due to the
X-Men’s unknown fate. Illyana Rasputin joins him for dinner and he demonstrates
his telepathic abilities to her. Illyana admits that she can do special things
as well, with an ominous air of mystery. Xavier discovers that Illyana has a
powerful psionic shield and considers investigating, but finds that he no
longer has the drive, preferring to be left alone. Out in space, Kitty is rescued
by Carol in her new form as Binary, before she repowers the ship with her
considerable amounts of energy! Later, she and Colossus continue to effect
repairs on the outside and Carol admits that she’s unsure if she still has a
place on Earth.
Meanwhile, Nightcrawler examines Kitty and finds that
she’s miraculously healed from the injuries she suffered, as well as the fact
that she survived what should have been lethal amounts of radiation from the
warp drive. He brings his concerns to Cyclops who knows that Wolverine is
hiding something, especially after Wolverine lashes out when confronted. In the
shuttle bay, Storm suffers her own issue, feeling disconnected from her sense
of self and the world around her, deeply affecting her powers. She shares her
concerns with Cyclops, feeling a deep and unsettling change in herself and her
soul. She suddenly realizes what’s going on, feeling life within herself and in
a fit of anger and shock, she buffets Cyclops from the room and takes off in a
small vessel! The others arrive and Wolverine finally reveals the whole truth,
telling them that each of them is implanted with a Brood embryo that will
eventually turn them into a new Brood. Carol flies out in a fit of anger,
straight through the side of the ship, leaving the X-Men to contend with the
sudden decompression, as they’re all being sucked out into space! To be
continued!