Rise of the Powers of X #4

No-place X, nowhere, nowhen:
Rasputin IV shouts Charles Xavier’s name in horror, as she just witnessed him killing Rachel Summers. She calls him a traitor and lifts her soulsword. Xavier dodges her blow and telepathically tells Mother Righteous he will release her if she stops Rasputin. With a grin, she agrees. A moment later, she cashes in the ‘thank yous’ Rasputin owes her to freeze her in position, just about to stab Xavier. He wryly remarks he is sure Mother Righteous will understand why he won’t thank her. He is catching on, she remarks. Xavier assures Rasputin he will switch off her pain receptors, as he begins firing his weapon at her. He remarks that her gifts make her quite durable. This will take some time.

Mother Righteous chuckles as he kills her. Unamused, he demands what she is laughing at. She reveals she’s worked out how to dissolve her other self in the White Hot Room, so he no longer has a gun pointed at her head. Xavier bursts out that she burned out all her power in her attempt to reach Dominionhood. She chuckles that she is a resourceful girl. She’ll find a way to be useful. She already is, he decides, and presses a button bringing the No-Place back to reality, namely the shore of Pacific Krakoa.

The moment they are there, he telepathically contacts the Orchis forces stationed there, announcing there will be a standing order to bring in Dr. Stasis’ wife. He has her.

A little later, he finds himself in an Orchis base, tied to a chair, faced by Omega Sentinel who informs him that Dr. Stasis is dead. She nearly didn’t come, but she was curious. Xavier looks up and reveals he knows that the A.I.s are moving against their human masters. If he warned the human allies, perhaps they could actually do something to stop them…

So what does he suggest? she asks. He summarizes that the A.I.s are fighting the mutants before moving against the humans. He is asking them to spare mutants. All they need is an island. Build them fences. Let the mutants live, and to hell with humanity. After all, it is the one thing they haven’t tried. Ask Moira. Mutants and A.I. against humanity. The two futures versus the past. They have more in common, he believes. Curious, she asks what he could offer in exchange for this… understanding. He reminds her that, with his telepathy, he sees the world like nobody else. He is the ultimate Sentinel.

In the White Hot Room, the Five resurrect Rachel Summers. Immediately, Rachel bursts out that Xavier killed her. He is going to do something terrible! They know, the three Quiet Council members assure her.

Later, Rachel stands at the edge of the dissipating White Hot Room, staring. Hope and Exodus join her. Hope assures her they don’t like this either and apologizes for not telling Rachel sooner, but they couldn’t. But right now, everyone needs Rachel. She kickstarts the Phoenix. It kicks Enigma’s ass. Rachel gets back to Earth and kicks whatever Orchis (/#/% she can find.

Rachel wishes Xavier hadn’t lied to her. Resigned, she adds that she guesses that’s Xavier. What’s a dream but a lie you choose to believe, right? Exodus corrects her: a dream is a lie you believe and then fight to make real!

The three fly back to the oasis. Rachel has some ideas for awakening the Phoenix but feels she cannot return to Earth as the cavalry. She muses that she knows it is a distraction, but what the hell is Xavier even doing for Orchis? Nothing that is not drenched in sin, Exodus prophesies.

Earth:
In a chamber with several Orchis scientists, Nimrod orders Omega Sentinel to start. She tells Xavier that Orchis scientists are useful, but they only want to feed true believers into their model. They don’t want to corrupt their data set. She asks which of them holds the slightest thought of rebellion. Xavier scans them and points out five, whom Nimrod instantly kills, gleefully adding sound effects. What next? Xavier asks grimly. Omega Sentinel points out that was easy. Even X-Men are killing Orchis right now. She ponders some suggestions, then states that the word leaders are being surprisingly coordinated about all this and orders him to do something about that.

Dejected, he adds a cognitive drain to them all. Not obvious enough to get them replaced, but useful enough to make them useless. Omega Sentinel orders him to get his X-Men away from Krakoa, before Orchis finishes it. What do the mutants need Krakoa for, when they are building mutants a little island cage of their own.

Xavier expresses disappointment. He’d have hoped that their superiors would have left gloating behind. Omega Sentinel snaps that she is from the future. For all his talk of persecution, she knows where it ends: with mutants killing all the A.I.s! Xavier replies that genocide is not a side and the future is what they make it. However, he is choosing to make a future that includes both their people, so less grandstanding and more direct and specific orders. He then muses and admits he would have expected Moira to be the one gloating.

Moira is elsewhere, still in talks with Enigma. She has just learned that Xavier is selling out humankind and can’t believe it. Enigma replies that he knows about him. He is up to something else. Moira wonders if maybe Xavier wants to join the winning side along with mutantkind. She offers to talk to Xavier but Enigma forbids it. Moira directly asks why Enigma doesn’t ask Xavier. Enigma admits he distrusts Xavier. He has seen the future and they win, but that makes him think of all the things he cannot see…

The White Hot Room:
Led by Rachel, the Dead X-Men carry Jean Grey to a pyre made of the wood imprinted with data from different timelines and place her atop. Rachel gives her a goodbye kiss and hopes to see her soon, before they leave.

Elsewhere, in the White Hot Room, Hope is rallying the troops and explains the situation to all the resurrected: Back on Earth, Krakoa is being hunted, its core left the island and is on the run and now Apocalypse is carrying it home. That’s where they will engage. Anyone with X-training or combat training has been resurrected and is ready to join the fray. Their fight for the world starts with Krakoa.

Rasputin IV asks how Hope is in contact with Earth, with the Mother Righteous homunculus gone. And how will they get there?

She looks shocked when she hears a familiar voice announcing he cannot get everyone home but this strikeforce. He thinks they can bud flowers across reality. He still has Doug’s X-gene.

It is Mr. Sinister who continues that he thinks Krakoa here and Krakoa there are connected, so he’s been having a good old chinwag. Krakoa is in a winter state and— Rasputin screams in fury and begins to throttle him. They brought back the deceiver? she shouts. The one who burnt a universe? He who colluded with Xavier to make them all dance?

Shaking her hands off, Sinister states, welcome to the X-Men. Getting %&$§ by Xavier is the experience. He implores her that this isn’t the right time. He thinks he can get the X-Men home. Let him! They can be heroes and then draw straws to see who gets to kill him. Or – long shot – maybe he’ll redeem himself. He won’t! Rasputin snaps, sitting astride him. See, she is already learning, he commends her.

Krakoa, Earth:
Apocalypse manages to return Krakoa’s core, then flowers bloom and the lost X-Men and allies spring from the buds.

An Orchis Base:
Omega Sentinel asks Xavier if he knows how many he is complicit in killing. He replies he doesn’t particularly. One is too many. What next? Humanity must be crushed, she replies, and his X-Men are attempting to destroy the solar weapons aboard Sentinel City. They’ll need an alternative method of annihilation. Can he provide?

Moira carefully listens and watches.

The nuclear codes, he has them, he reveals. For once, mutants must be on the winning side.

Over Krakoa, Exodus, full of rage, destroys the Sentinel. Good act, Rachel commends him. It is not an act, he replies. He has significant anger to funnel and will not lose Krakoa again. She reminds him of the big picture and there they cannot do anything. She wishes she could be there to set the fire, but it’s the one thing that Enigma has no way of seeing coming.

In a maximum security Orchis cell, Mother Righteous finds her nightmare coming true, as Enigma visits her. Please don’t kill her, she begs. She will tell him everything! And so he learns that the Phoenix isn’t as off the table as he thought. With all the lives Moira has opened up to him, he could crush the bird as it emerges from its egg, but why take the risk? And so, Enigma calls on all Dominions on helping him eradicate the Phoenix.

In the White Hot Room, Jean Grey’s pyre is consumed by fire.

And the other Dominions reply that, if the Phoenix returns, they will all come…