Uncanny X-Men #473

With James Braddock gone, the effects of his reality warping begin to wear off. Outside, Cyclops and the other members of his group of X-Men wake up, though Scott guesses that their troubles aren't over yet. The fact that Uatu is still looming over the grounds is definitely helping with that.

In the O*N*E command center, Commander Reyes declares the X-Men locked up and questioned about Braddock. Against Bishop's objections, Nightcrawler teleports everyone away, the Watcher disappearing after them. Kurt's team reappears in Central Park, New York, where Kurt promptly collapses from the strain. Betsy speculates that the unusually lengthy jump is the result of her brother's interference. Bishop then chides Kurt for refusing to trust the O*N*E, getting angry when Kurt retorts that he's not as comfortable with their jailers as Lucas. Cannonball interrupts to point out that Uatu is still looming over them, before wondering whether Jamie is behind the oddities the team has been experiencing lately, something Kurt dismisses, as his powers aren't that far-reaching. Rachel brings up the Butterfly Effect, how one effect causes another and another, asking what the end result of Jamie's manipulations could be. Kurt, meanwhile, asks Betsy about her brother's last words before disappearing, the "Foursaken".

The Foursaken, as Betsy explains, was the name Jamie and his school-friends called themselves, being a group of habitual rule-breakers. The last time they were together was during the Trans-Sahara Rallye, which encountered a sandstorm which only Jamie emerged from, completely insane. At this point, Uatu speaks up, declaring there is another meaning. As the Phoenix is the spirit of death and rebirth, it has an opposite, a male entity known as the First Fallen, which seeks to end death itself. The Forsaken are his servants. Betsy quietly notes that Uatu isn't the sort of being to hand out explanations like that for free. Kurt meanwhile just asks what drew this entity to Earth. At that, the Metropolitan Museum of Art lights up with a green column of energy. Rachel screams, apparently having tried to make contact with the energy's source. Floating salamanders appear from the beam, and promptly yank Cannonball's spirit out of his body. They are able to avoid Rachel's psychic blasts, while Psylocke is able to hit them with no problem. However, several dozen more creatures manage to make off with more.

As the team prepare to go after the creatures, a giant robot appears, directed by Godfrey Calthrop, one of the Foursaken. As Kurt and Betsy teleport, the others attack, Bishop being blasted a good distance away, where he meets Ned Horrocks, another of the four. Working together, Bishop, Rachel and Cannonball disable Calthrop's robot, only to be knocked out by Horrocks. Inside the Museum, Kurt and Betsy soon find the last of the Foursaken, Anita Synge, presiding over a strange ritual, with Jamie, Rachel, and Bishop strung up via Jamie's own strings. Evidently Anita requires Kurt to finish the ritual, making no mention of Psylocke. Watching, Kurt gets caught by one of the salamanders, leaving Betsy alone.

As Anita begins the ritual, Betsy decides to grab a guard's gun, using her telekinesis to compress it and turn it into projectiles, reasoning that the iron in its composition will disrupt whatever the Foursaken are doing. It works, though at the cost of sucking everyone present into the portal. Betsy tries pulling her comrades back to her, but to no avail. As a last resort, she grabs onto the Foursaken, dragging them into the vortex, as everything goes dark...