Uncanny X-Men #300

After a telepathic summons from Professor X, Nightcrawler, the current leader of Excalibur, teleports to a beach in France. There he encounters Forge who validates Kurt’s identity. After informing Nightcrawler about a sixty mile zone in the area that Cerebro can’t penetrate, Forge hands Kurt a portable booster unit and asks him to pass it along to Charles when he arrives. Still hurting from the disastrous end of his relationship with Storm, Forge then departs before the X-Men arrive.

Sixteen miles away, the X-Men search a burning estate owned by Dr. Moira MacTaggert, trying to find her. They don’t find any bodies and Wolverine confirms that there was no scent of Moira in the fire. Storm uses a hurricane wind to put out the fire to stop it spreading. Some angry locals arrive and berate the X-Men after events that took place the last time the team was in France, at the trial of Magneto. Xavier hears them out, but then shields the team telepathically from the crowd’s sight, although he’s reluctant to do so.

Meanwhile, at Mont Saint Francis, the Acolytes are viewing memories of their captive, Moira MacTaggert, displayed on a screen by Milan. They see Charles Xavier explaining his plans to Moira about forming a team of Mutants as the X-Men. Moira viewed photos of the Mutants that would form the first class of students and X-Men at Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. She also saw photos of others that Xavier had considered, but had decided not to approach unless he needed further recruits. Moira then shared an Interpol file with Xavier that indicated the resurfacing of Magneto and his attempts to acquire the security parameter for Cape Citadel.

At this point, Milan starts to lose the images. He apologises to Fabian Cortez. Cortez and Amelia Voght both tell Milan to rest and continue his efforts tomorrow. The two then disagree about whether MacTaggert should be kept alive. Cortez feels that as Moira had once rearranged Magneto’s DNA structure, she is not someone to take lightly and may have more information that can be extracted by Milan. Unseen by either of them, Neophyte supplies Moira with something to eat and drink. He believes that it’s what Magneto would do if he were there.

Aboard the Blackbird, en route to their rendezvous with Nightcrawler, Colossus contacts Stevie Hunter and asks for an update on Illyana. Stevie replies that Illyana is resting as comfortably as possible, but that her fever is climbing. Iceman tries to reassure Colossus, but gets rebuked by Rasputin, who has lost all of his family apart from Illyana. The rest of the team discuss attempts to locate the Acolytes’ base after they escaped from Middleborough. However they need the device that Forge has supplied to detect exactly where in France the Acolytes and Moira might be. The X-Men land, emerge from the Blackbird and greet Nightcrawler. Storm is surprised that Forge is not with Kurt, and asks after Shadowcat.

At Mont Saint Francis, Cortez and Voght continue their debate. Cortez suggests that Moira could use the same brainwashing that she once used on the X-Men to bring new people into the Acolytes. Amelia insists that they need people that have seen the wisdom of Magneto’s way rather than reluctant converts. Moira wearily tries to voice the fact that Cortez murdered Magneto. She’s unheard by anyone other than Cortez and he angrily instructs Voght to get Milan to extract the rest of Moira’s memories and then kill her. After they depart the chamber, Moira speaks to Neophyte. Moira suggests that she can see Neophyte doesn’t believe Cortez. Neophyte recites scripture of the events of Magneto’s death and the deaths of the original group of Acolytes as though it was a holy event, but Moira insists that Cortez was responsible for those deaths.

As Moira continues to push, telling the young Mutant that Cortez will kill this group of Acolytes too, Neophyte becomes overwhelmed and escapes by phasing through the floor. Ten miles away, Archangel carries Bishop through the air. Warren tells Bishop that he believes Xavier has been influenced by Bishop’s presence on the team into forging a future where Mutants aren’t treated as they are in the time Bishop comes from. Bishop tells Archangel to put him down near Mont Saint Francis, as he believes they’ve located the Acolytes’ base.

Inside the building, Fabian Cortez demands the attention of the Gamesmaster. Cortez wants to secure the help of his fellow Upstarts. An image of the Gamesmaster appears and informs Cortez that he will not contact the others and that Fabian will just have to make do with the Acolytes. Cortez reminds the Gamesmaster that the Acolytes only follow him because they believe him to be Magneto’s successor. If they were to find out he murdered Magneto then they would turn against him. At that moment, Neophyte phases through the wall into the chamber where Cortez is speaking with the Gamesmaster. Neophyte is shocked after hearing Fabian’s admission, not having wanted to believe that Moira was right. He phases back out through the wall, but Cortez uses his ability to amplify another Mutant’s power to send Neophyte hurtling out of Mont Saint Francis, intending the young Acolyte to impact with the ground and kill him.

In a cave near the base of Mont Saint Francis, the other X-Men meet up with Archangel and Bishop. The team debate whether to enter the monastery without knowing if Moira is there. The booster unit works as it’s meant to and identifies a nearby Mutant. Neophyte, regaining consciousness, is greeted by a young woman crouched beside him. Neophyte identifies her as a Human and wonders why she would help a Mutant. Moments later, the young woman is killed by a blast of energy from Senyaka’s psionic whip. He and other Acolyte members, Spoor and Katu, had been told that Neophyte had been collaborating with Humans by Cortez and had been sent to kill him.

Senyaka traps Neophyte in his psionic whip, but it’s suddenly sliced by Wolverine’s claws. This causes Senyaka to pass out. Spoor attempts to retaliate against Wolverine, but a large piece of ice drops on him. Katu suspects Neophyte of having contacted the X-Men and revealed this location. He plans to alert the other Acolytes to the presence of the X-Men, but he’s hit by an optic blast from Cyclops. Neophyte still can’t understand why the other Acolytes murdered the woman who had tried to help him when she was no threat to them. He explains to the X-Men that he read of the death camps in which Magneto and his family were placed and he cannot believe the only thing Magneto left them was more of the same hatred that caused the death of his family. Xavier tells Neophyte that there is another way and even Magneto followed that way for a short time. Mutants and Humans living side by side in peace. He asks if Neophyte is strong enough to help bring about that dream.

Inside, Cortez is angry and can’t believe that the X-Men have gotten here without the Acolytes knowing they were arriving. Scanner says that her scanning ability was muffled by the cloaking device which was shielding the area, but now she can sense them. Cortez attempts to use his power on Moira. He’s prevented from doing so by the teleporting into the room of Nightcrawler and Colossus. They launch an attack against the Acolytes. They’re soon joined by Cyclops and Bishop who are phased up through the floor by Neophyte. Bishop blasts Harlan Kleinstock and Sven Kleinstock to take them out before they can merge as they did the last time they faced Jean. The rest of the team then smashes their way through the monastery wall. As the battle rages, Neophyte phases back through the floor and Cyclops lets him leave. Milan intends to extract more memories from Moira, but she gets saved by Archangel, who fires his wing blades at the Acolyte. The monitor screens that had been displaying Moira’s memories then explode, meaning all the information that had been gathered is lost.

During the battle, Bishop notices Fabian Cortez escaping. Carmella Unuscione knocks Archangel out of the air with a force field. Colossus displays an aggressive side, possibly due to his distress over his sister’s condition. Cargill battles Iceman and remarks that Bobby is just as pathetic as when they faced each other when he was in X-Factor. Iceman, having learned more about his powers after facing Mikhail Rasputin, bulks up with ice and punches out Cargill.

Javitz clamps his hands around Cyclops’ face and chides him that the X-Men suppress any Mutant who doesn’t conform to their views. Cyclops’ optic blast forces Javtiz to release him and counters that the X-Men fight to protect the rights of everyone as long as those people don’t try to hurt others. Jean attends to Moira. Mellencamp attacks Jean while she’s distracted. Jean uses a telekinetic blast to knock Mellencamp out of the monastery before flying Moira to the Blackbird for medical attention. As the battle ends, Cyclops notices that Bishop and Professor X are not amongst their number. Xavier telepathically contacts the team and tells them that he’s safe and that Bishop is in the turrets of the monastery.

Xavier enters another room, where Amelia Voght stands and prays to Magneto. Xavier greets her and they discuss the fact that Amelia had chosen not to join Xavier’s original class of students. Amelia says that after losing her family to attacks by Humans she decided to follow Magneto’s teachings. Xavier is surprised to see Magneto's Helmet on an altar and asks where she got it from. He receives no answer as Voght vanishes in a flash of light. Meanwhile, Cortez is on the roof of the building. Bishop’s hand smashes through the roof and pulls Cortez down. Bishop informs Cortez that, although he seems to be a major player in the present, in the future that Bishop comes from nobody has heard of him. So either Cortez gets killed somewhere along the way or here and now. As Storm and Wolverine fly up to them, Cortez grabs Bishop’s hand and causes all the energy within his body to pour out, burning him out.

Neophyte phases up through the floor and punches Cortez to stop him from killing the weakened Bishop. Cortez prepares to attack Neophyte, but gets stabbed by Wolverine’s claws. Soon, the rest of the X-Men gather. Neophyte expects that they will force him to join them, but Cyclops and Xavier tell him that he has to decide for himself if he wants to side with the X-Men. Neophyte replies that perhaps he will one day, but for now he needs to find his own way in the world. He then suggests that Xavier and Magneto might share a similar dream for the future. He then disappears from the roof, leaving Xavier with much to think about.

Fabian Cortez has been recovering in a hospital in France for a week following his being wounded by Wolverine. He’s in the process of being teleported by the power of Amelia Voght to another location. He asks why Voght waited so long to rescue him. She replies that she needed to be sure his wounds were healed, since the process of bringing him there would be painful and she didn’t want to be accused of trying to kill the leader of the Acolytes. This makes Cortez wonder if she suspects that he murdered Magneto. Amelia then leaves the room to allow Cortez to recover.

Suddenly, the Gamesmaster appears in front of Cortez. Cortez expects that the Gamesmaster has arrived to award him points for the death of Bishop, suspecting that he must have died after being drained by Cortez. The Gamesmaster informs Cortez that Bishop actually survived. Furthermore, Cortez is being stripped of all the points he’d accrued thus far due to some complications. Cortez disputes this and says that Magneto’s death was a result of his actions and wants to know what complications could change that. The Gamesmaster tells Cortez to figure it out for himself and vanishes. Cortez thinks about his control of the Acolytes becoming tenuous. He then realises the only reason he could lose the points he got from murdering Magneto is if Magneto isn’t dead.

Meanwhile, at Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, Professor X and Dr. Moira MacTaggert are in the Professor’s ready room, which was off-limits to everyone until recently. Thanks to Shi'ar technology, Charles and Moira are able to look at some holographic DNA based on medical reports of victims of the genetic disorder affecting people such as Illyana Rasputin. Xavier suggests that, based on the data, someone has released a virus that affects Mutants. Moira mentions her recent time on Genosha caring for Mutates. She had hoped that it was strictly a Mutate problem caused by their accelerated biologies.

Something that Moira says about legacy makes Xavier realise that he saw that word used regularly in files belonging to Stryfe. He asks Moira what experience she has in treating the disease. Moira sadly informs Xavier that there has been no success in treating the disease and in every case so far the virus has proved terminal. Meanwhile, Colossus has been reading to his sister in her room. He closes the book, touches his sister tenderly on the head and switches off the lamp next to her bed.