Storm wanders through the African desert, injured,
alone, and lost amidst a raging sandstorm. She howls for the wind to die down
and just after, the sun shines brightly once more. This makes Ororo think at
first that her powers have returned but she quickly finds it to have been a
delusion. The sandstorm rages on and she begins to hallucinate Forge. At first,
she is glad to see him until she remembers what he did to her and she angrily
leaves the hallucination behind. She trips and finds herself tangling with a
viper. She manages to hurl it away though she thinks she may have been bitten.
She finds a small cave to take refuge in and feels she may die there. Ororo
then hallucinates the X-Men in the cave, feeling pangs of resentment for having
been taken from her home by Xavier. Had that not happened, she would still have
her powers today. She voices regrets to the Jean hallucination at not being
able to save her and the Wolverine hallucination offers to end her suffering.
“Xavier” points out that he took Ororo from her comfort zone, a place she may
never have left otherwise, remaining spiritually an infant.
Storm’s anger drives these hallucinations away as well
and she discovers she had not been bitten before. The snake crawls harmlessly
away and Ororo begins to wonder if this had all been some kind of divine test. Ororo
then comes upon a crashed bus, the only survivor being a pregnant woman named
Shani. Ororo notes the irony to herself, that she’s in even worse shape than
Shani, but must act as the rescuer anyway. The two of them start the long trek
back to Shani’s village, and Ororo keeps her talking to keep them both awake
and alert. They stop for the night and light a fire, allowing Ororo to do some
soul-searching. She realizes that she had always been afraid of change and
trying something new, and that her closing off her emotions, what she thought
was a way to control her powers, had really just been cutting off her humanity.
Morning comes soon and Ororo and Shani discover a veritable graveyard of broken
down and discarded machines. As they trudge on, Ororo notes that the ground
becomes more barren and desolate, until they are at last back at Shani’s
village.
They are met by Shani’s parents and the village elder
Mjnari, who welcomes them back with open arms. Soon after, Ororo passes out
from exhaustion and awakens later to find that they’ve tended to her as best
they could. Mjnari alerts Ororo that there are complications with Shani’s baby
being born. Ororo promises to help as much as she can and acts as midwife,
coaching Shani along while the villagers perform a dance outside to aid as they
can. Shani’s son is born but Ororo realizes he isn’t breathing. She performs
mouth to mouth for several tense moments until at last, he lives! Mjnari
blesses the child before stating that he has one last duty to perform. Ororo
notes that the general air becomes somber as Mjnari begins to trek out of the
village, and Ororo realizes he won’t be coming back. She asks why he’s doing
this and he tells her about when technology was brought to their land in order
to aid them but was inevitably misused, causing their land to dry up and wither
away once the machines broke down.
The village realized they can only produce enough
crops to maintain a fixed number of people. Therefore, when a new life begins,
another must end, in order to maintain balance. Mjnari hopes that when the land
begins to heal, that future generations will learn from their mistakes, and
that Shani’s baby represents hope for the future and new beginnings. Mjnari
wills himself to die and Ororo mourns, his words staying with her. He said that
the old and new ways must be united for things to flourish, and a bridge must
rise up between them. Ororo is filled with a renewed sense of purpose, to take
that idea to heart in terms of humans and mutants, to be the bridge to
hopefully unite them together in peace. Invigorated by her newfound purpose,
Ororo realizes that though she has no powers and can no longer fly, she soars
where it truly matters, in her heart and soul!