An unconscious Colossus lies sprawled on the ground, his metallic body half covered by the snow that surrounds him. A lone figure stands over his battered body. She clutches a staff and wears a full body suit, boasting extensive amounts of technology. The unknown woman begins to address Colossus in a seemingly familiar fashion when he suddenly wakes up. Thinking she is an attacker, he grabs her by the leg and flings her into the air. “Who said anything about attacking anyone,” she says, landing on the ground. An angry Colossus responds by demanding to know what she has done with Magneto. Before he can pursue the matter further, the woman blasts him into unconsciousness with energy from her staff. She explains that she has just found him alone and hadn’t intended to harm him, but needed him tranquilized. “I’ll apologize for knocking you out later, Peter. And after I do that, you and I can talk about old times… old loves.”
Meanwhile, Charles Xavier’s astral form soars across the astral plane. Despite the fact that this experience is usually quite comfortable, he finds himself being torn apart. Locked in a telepathic scream, he returns to the physical world of a fire-lit room in the Xavier Institute as Amelia Voght arrives. She hands him a towel, asking when he will end his long struggle and admit defeat. Xavier responds in broken sentences, explaining that some new psionic presence is disrupting the plane and blocking him. He refuses to give up until he finds out whether Scott, Jean, Peter and Magnus have survived Avalon’s destruction. Voght wonders if the attempt might kill him, but Xavier does not hesitate to respond that he would endure a thousand deaths for his students. When he asks her if she would do the same for the Acolytes, Voght decides it is a moot point. “Magneto’s dream has proven to be about as ephemeral as yours.”
She quickly changes the subject, inquiring as to the nature of some printouts on Xavier’s desk. He explains that they are Shi’ar telemetry energy wavelength signature reports, which he is using to compensate for the loss of Cerebro in the Phalanx attack. Voght begins to broach a philosophical discussion when Bishop interrupts, reporting in from the Blackbird. He relays that he and Psylocke have located Jean and Skids in Madagascar using the emergency signal, which Voght provided. Jean chimes in to add that her telepathic powers are being scrambled. Her psionic rapport with Scott has disappeared. “I can’t tell if Scott is dead or alive!”
In the Australian Outback, Scott and the rest of the survivors of Avalon have been wandering for hours in the barren void of Gibson Desert. Sven and Harlan Kleinstock begin to complain of their extreme thirst, proposing that it would have been better to die in the crash. Cargill and Unuscione chide them for their constant complaining, but the Kleinstocks insist that they have been walking too long without water, especially since Scanner has yet to find any assistance. Cyclops responds by blasting deep into the ground until he hits water. To the Acolytes’ surprise, it springs out of the earth. Cyclops urges them to drink and keep moving. Cargill uses her superhuman strength to reprimand the merged two-torso Kleinstocks for criticizing Cyclops, who has risked his life for them. The Kleinstocks wonder why Cargill is so quick to defend him, but Unuscione answers them for her. Employing her psionic exoskeleton, she tells them that Cyclops is hardly an enemy, considering that Avalon is destroyed, Magneto is a vegetable, Exodus is probably dead and the X-Man is the only thing standing between them and death. They do not respond.
Later on, Cyclops and the Acolytes are still walking. Cargill comments that Scanner hasn’t shown up in awhile, concerned that the girl looked pretty wiped after her last recon. Cyclops begins to explain why they need her electro-transitional state to scout out the surrounding area when Scanner suddenly reappears. Collapsing to the ground, she manages to explain that there was nothing within a four hundred mile radius. As she passes out, Unuscione is worried that Cyclops is pushing her too far, but he replies that he is pushing her as far as is needed to get the job done.
That night, the Acolytes sit around a makeshift fire while Cyclops perches himself apart on an overhanging rock. He is contemplating the implications of his inability to contact his wife through their psionic rapport when Scanner approaches him. She meekly thanks Cyclops for carrying her before inquiring as to the nature of the drawings he is making in the dirt with a large stick. He informs her that he’s trying to figure out where they are, judging from where they landed, how far they’ve walked, and the information from her survey trips. He assures her that they will be okay.
In the Filchner Ice Shelf of Antarctica, Colossus’s unknown assailant drags his unconscious body along on a sled behind her. She soon stumbles across a large citadel rising out of the snow. “Place has Magneto written all over it, Peter.” She notes that his escape pod was probably trying to reach the citadel before deciding to go in.
Back at the Xavier Institute, a fully recovered Jean sits strapped into a device that curiously resembles Cerebro. The Professor begs her to rest, but she rebukes his plea, justifying that the psionic haze and the loss of Cerebro requires everyone to work twice as hard to find Scott and Peter. They argue about their mutual exhaustion before Xavier reveals that he has come up with a way to find their missing comrades. Phoenix asks how she can help, but Xavier tells her that he will be asking someone else for assistance.
Down in the medical bay, Xavier makes this request of Voght. She is confused and surprised, telling him, “I’m not a psi – I’m just a teleporter.” Xavier informs her that he knows she is much more. Voght is at a loss for words when the Professor tells her that he knows that her natural form is mist and that she can only maintain her human form through intense exertion. He has known since the first moment they kissed. A stunned Voght asks what she can do to help. Xavier tells her that he needs to become a being of pure psionic energy, and to do that he must lose his physical form. Voght inquires as to the risks, which Xavier assures her are minimal. Although she doesn’t believe him, he invokes her guilty conscience by asking her if she has the humanity to help him.
Meanwhile, Cyclops has led the Acolytes into a seemingly dead end; they are surrounded on three sides by cliffs. The Kleinstocks begin to complain, but they are silenced when Scanner returns with good news. Their destination is on the other side of the cliff. Cyclops quickly blasts a path through, and the Acolytes marvel at the abandoned outpost before them. Upon Unuscione’s questioning how Cyclops knew it was there, he explains that it was once home to the X-Men.
Back at the Institute, Xavier and Voght continue with their plan. She transforms them both to mist, and they are almost torn apart on the astral plane. Gasping for breath, Xavier realizes that the plane was being disrupted by someone much more powerful than he. As Voght begins to chastise him for putting himself in danger, Cyclops contacts them on the screen in Xavier’s office. They exchange warm welcomes and the first thing Scott asks about is Jean. Upon hearing that she is okay, Cyclops reports that Gateway is no longer in residence, and the base seems to have been used in the meantime. Xavier brushes the matter aside, agreeing to send a Blackbird to pick up Cyclops and the Acolytes.
Once the conversation ends, Voght expresses her incredulity at the fact that Cyclops saved himself without Xavier and that their risky stunt was for naught. Xavier calmly expresses his dedication to his X-Men, asking her if she has found a cause that she would give her life for. Refusing eye contact, she quietly replies that both Xavier and Magnus are nothing but dreamers. Xavier proposes that both he and Magneto might be right in their own way, and suggests that she stay so that they might find out together. Disappearing into mist, Voght solemnly tells him that she doesn’t have the strength to make the sacrifices required of such a life. “That’s why Magneto’s offer appealed to me at first. It gave me a chance to run away… like I always have…” Xavier is left alone.
In the Antarctic, the mysterious woman has brought Colossus inside the citadel, instructing the computer to check his life signs from the sick bed where he lays. The computer asks if it should reduce the sedative that it is pumping into its patient when Colossus wakes up anyway. He quickly transforms to organic steel and crushes the various apparatuses attached to him. “Where am I? Who are you?” he angrily demands. The woman patiently answers his questions, informing him that she does not know where Magneto is. She finally removes her body suit, revealing herself to be an aged Callisto. In return for saving his life, Callisto asks Colossus if he and the X-Men could help her save the world.
