In the memories, the kids are fighting their way across Krakoa, but they’ve lost contact with the Professor, and Petra and Darwin’s powers let them know that there’s something weird going on with this island. Vulcan keeps pushing them forward, because they’re X-Men now, and Sway uses her phantom powers to track where Cyclops was taken too. They find him with several of the islands creatures, attached to a tree. Petra still can’t sense them for some reason with her powers, so Vulcan just blasts the creatures away while Darwin retrieves Scott. They make a run back to the ship when they see the creatures starting to reform. While this is being shown to the others, Xavier and Rachel have a private conversation to try and find something in Vulcan’s mind that will stop him. Once back at the jet, Gabe confesses to Scott that they’re brothers.

Havok brings the whole thing to a stop, saying that’s impossible because he’d remember if he had a brother that was just a year younger than him. Vulcan points him towards the man who used to be able to erase minds, and Alex turns his fury to the professor, who quickly explains that Gabe wasn’t born on earth. Rachel shows them how Katherine Summers was two months pregnant when she and Corsair were kidnapped, and he fought to escape to save them, but failed and both were killed by D’Ken in front of him. Only Gabe wasn’t, and was placed in an incubation accelerator and then given as a slave to D’Ken’s lieutenant on Earth, where he escaped and was found by Moira.

Gabe’s a bit taken aback by this memory finally surfacing, but he still won’t buy into what Xavier’s saying and demands they show the rest of what happened with Scott’s memories, which are actually in Xavier’s head. In the past, Scott is frantic while he recounts what happened to the kids. They sent him off in the jet while they went back for the others, but the island sent some of its fiercest creatures at them, and killed them all. Scott is hysterical as he says he just sat there and let his brother die, so Xavier finally puts him to sleep while he checks with Cerebro, but only confirms their deaths. Moira is livid when she learns of the deaths of her students and that he still wants to save the others, and wonders how Scott will live with this, but Charles says that he’s decided that he doesn’t need to know, shocking Moira.

Scott doesn’t believe what he’s saying, and that the island let him go. Xavier says it is, and he even made it seem like the island talked to them too. Gabe kicks him while he’s down, calling him even more devious than he thought, but wants to know why he’s alive now. Rachel steps forward to answer that, saying it’s because of his friends. When Sway as cut in half, her body released the rest of her power, slowing down time for them, which gave Petra enough time to open the ground to try and save them, though she perished as well. Darwin and Gabe were slowly dying, but Darwin used his power to convert himself to energy and bonded with Gabe as the island was rocketed into space. But something affected them, and part of Sway and Petra’s powers merged with Darwin as well, which is why Gabe was using them before without even realizing it. But, Rachel says now back in the present, it’s time he woke up. She gets right next to Vulcan as he’s distracted, and puts her hands on his head causing some blue energy to erupt from his mouth and body. Xavier wonders what happened, and she said did what he asked: she found his weakness. This is the magic word for Wolverine, and he and the rest of the X-Men attack. Xavier tries to stop them, as Vulcan fends off an initial slash from Wolverine and a blast from Cyclops, but Logan catches him from behind, allowing Colossus to hit him, and the Kitty to phase through him, hurting them both. Scott tells him to give up, but Vulcan still won’t, saying he can’t believe that this is who the X-Men really are and that he can’t believe he wanted to be one of them. Scott’s not his brother he yells as he unleashes a mighty blast to knock them all back, and none of them mean anything he screams as he takes off through the stratosphere. None of the X-Men can catch him and Emma realizes he’s headed for where he came from. Xavier tries to talk to Scott, who isn’t in a listening mood, when Beast notices the energy that came from Vulcan starting to take on a human form!

A week later at the school, Beast is marveling at how Darwin is basically regrowing his body from pure energy and that he’s already got brain functions. Xavier thinks it is a combination of Darwin’s power, which makes it impossible to think what all he could live through, and the mutant energy wave that resurrected Vulcan as well and gave him his power boost. They leave to go and get ready for what else they need to do that day.

Outside, X-Men and their allies, new and old, have gathered to mourn the loss of the lives of Petra, Sway, and long time friend Banshee, as we also see a tearful Siryn at the ceremony. Afterwards, Xavier wants to talk to Scott, but Scott has something to say first. He knows what Xavier did, and part of him understands. He knows Charles for most of his life and he’s had his secrets, but that doesn’t change what happened, so he is no longer welcome at the institute. He isn’t even a mutant anymore so he doesn’t belong there anymore!

Deep in space, Vulcan is shown rocketing through the stars with a look of pure rage on his face and is only thinking of one thing: the man who killed his mother, D’Ken.

Review: I really think that this was a very good ending to a very good story. Yes, I can see a lot of people left a bit wanting after this thanks to Marvel pretty much spoiling all the big reveals in this book, but that still doesn’t mean it’s not a very well told story all around.

I’m very happy that Darwin is back, but also sad that Petra and Sway couldn’t make it. Darwin is a cool character in his own right and his powers can really make some interesting visuals in the future, and from hints that Brubaker has dropped, it also looks like we can expect him to be the mystery member of the new Uncanny team when Bru takes over in July. I really hope that possible resurrections still lie in wait for Petra and Sway somewhere down the line, as I think they have some tremendous potential as well. And lets face it too, the X-Men could use some more ladies with abilities we haven’t seen on an X-team before and plenty of untapped potential.

One thing that I’ve seen many people disagree with, and I don’t agree with them, is the treatment of Xavier in here. So many have said that what’s happened is not in character for him, but it’s exactly like that. Are we forgetting things like the Xavier Protocols that happened? He’s made numerous choices over the years that people can look at as shady, and this is only one more feather in that cap. Also, with the way Scott treated him in the end? That is EXACTLY what he should have done to Xavier. I’m only surprised that a punch across the face didn’t go along with it. For those that have complained about it, saying that it’s Xavier’s place, are we forgetting that it isn’t anymore? He turned control of it to Scott when he left. That isn’t his home anymore and Scott has all the right in the world to turn him out after what he just found out about the man who he trusted more than anything else in the past. Charles had it coming, and nothing short of what he got would have been realistic and satisfying.

Another thing that some people have said against this book is the choice of Vulcan as the villain. Many have said he’s not that interesting, but I have to somewhat disagree. With the situation he was put in, I think it’s very believable how he acted, and his motivations are a little cliché, but again, believable. Another thing too, we have to look at, it that Brubaker built Vulcan up to be a long time villain, so you can’t expect everything that happened around him to be explained automatically, because what would be left for the future of his character? Obviously, what Bru did has worked, since Vulcan will be the center of Ed’s first arc when he takes over Uncanny which will be a year-long one. One that I’m very much looking forward to with his work here.

Good job, Ed. Here’s looking forward to your future X-work.