Synopsis: Following the revelations about Jean Grey from last issue’s climax, Logan attacks Magneto demanding the truth from him. Rogue chides Logan for attacking Magneto but Kirika backs him up saying Magneto’s lucky Weapon X hasn’t killed him outright. As they bicker Magneto tells them that he deserves what he’s getting. Logan almost skewers Magneto but stops and lets him know tells him the only reason he’s alive is because he owes them the truth.
Magneto tells everyone the secret he’s carried around for many months. He recounts how he and his family waited outside Apocalypse for the nuclear bombs to fall and destroy their world but as quickly as the fires of destruction spread they were pushed back by the manifestation of an unseen god-like power. Somehow Magneto was able to discern that it was the work of Jean Grey. However no one else saw the vision and everyone assumed Magneto was their saviour. As the word of his supposed exploits spread it united a nation of human and mutants and for the sake of peace Magneto decided to keep quiet assuming that no one else knew what happened but the guilt ate away at him.
However Sinister knew the truth and he confronted Magneto with it. The price of his silence was that Magneto and the X-Men stop hunting for him and he hinted that in the future he might need the services of the X-Men. He also revealed that Jean Grey was still alive and that she was his captive.
Wolfsbane, a victim of Sinister’s manipulations, tries to attack Magneto but Weapon X stops her saying he still needs Magneto alive. Rogue comforts her telling that she can’t explain away Magneto’s action but she intends to see Sinister go down. Quicksilver and Storm agree with her on the need to hunt Sinister down immediately. As Magneto tells them about possible leads on Sinister’s location Logan investigates Paige’s body looking for clues and tells him that Paige’s smell indicates that she had recently been in New York City and that’s where Sinister probably is.
The X-Men prepare to travel to New York. Magneto reaches for his helmet but Weapon X slashes it up telling him that its time he stopped hiding behind his helmet and faced the world. He also tells Magneto things aren’t over between them.
In New York they find that Sinister has restarted his old lab. Weapon X starts tearing the lab apart looking for Jean. They suddenly find themselves transported outside by Cloak and find themselves face to face with Sinister. Sinister introduces his Sinister Six including the Dark Phoenix: Jean Grey.
Review: After four issues that set up the details nicely the plot of the arc is finally revealed. Sinister is alive- (How? Didn't X-Man kill him?). He's got an AOA Sinister Six (I could only recognize Cloak and Sauron, I'm assuming Dagger might be in there somewhere) and Jean Grey has apparently manifested as the Dark Phoenix. I like the Phoenix explanation for why the AOA world didn't end, in fact it was pretty much what I was expecting to see. This is more of a talking heads issue as opposed to the liberal doses of action we saw in the first four issues. It's effective though in tying all the hints we've seen and set up for the big showdown at the climax.