Synopsis: Storm orders Paige to hand Charles back, as he’s innocent. Paige retorts by saying that there are no innocents. She then recounts how she was captured and held indefinitely after the raid on Seattle. After Apocalypse’s defeat, his minions cleared out but left Paige there to die. (see Generation Next #4 for more details). She was finally rescued by the Guthries, who had come looking for her. As she makes a comment about ‘blood being thicker than water’ Logan tries to negotiate with her.
She refuses to listen and Logan almost loses his patience before Silver Samurai quiets him by talking about something in the shadows. Before the Guthries can quite figure out what’s happening, a shadowy figure snatches Charles away and dumps him in Logan’s arms. Psylocke (the Asian Ninja version) steps out of the shadows ready for battle. Apparently she and Logan have worked together before. Logan offloads the kid to Nightcrawler, who is upset about Logan barking out orders and vows to put him in his place later.
The X-Men attack and the Guthries look ready for battle but suddenly the roof of the mansion lifts. Magneto is back from Mexico and very angry. The Guthries are suddenly very demoralised. On Magneto’s orders Sunfire fries Elizabeth to death. Magneto then proceeds to wrap up the Guthries in cocoons of scrap metal and starts crushing them. Sam resists for a while with his blast field but eventually gives in as well when he realises he is only putting off the inevitable.
Quicksilver prepares to move in on and terminate Paige but Rogue stops him. She chides and mocks Paige for her actions and threatens to lock her up forever. On hearing Rogue’s taunts, Paige snaps and is about to stab Rogue when she is gutted from behind by Kirika. Kirika states that now Magneto owes her one. Before dying, Paige mutters that their true purpose was not revenge, but rather, they were sent there by Sinster who wants to use the boy Charles as bait. Apparently he’s unhappy at Magneto not honouring his side of the bargain.
As his X-Men start questioning him Magneto finally reveals the truth. He has made some sort of deal with Sinister. He didn’t save the planet either. It was Jean Grey. She’s alive and Sinister is holding her now prisoner.
Review: A very good action issue. We’re introduced to the AOA version of Psylocke whose absence from the original AOA run (She was the only major character then not included) was the subject of a lot of fan boy speculation. We aren’t given a lot of details about her though. Despite the comic consisting solely of one fight scene there are a lot of talking heads. The story doesn’t progress the way it has in the last few arcs but I think we’ve reached the point in the book where the focus be more on plot rather than showing of the AOA universe. A few complaints though, didn’t X-Man kill Sinister? The art again makes reading the comic a chore. This could have been a really good comic in the hands of a competent artist.