In the frozen wasteland, the three heroes are huddled together while several dozen duplicates lock arms to create a sort-of shelter around them. Guido picks that time to tell his friends that he's quitting X-Factor in order to take Val Cooper up on her offer to become Sheriff of Mutant Town. Jamie doesn't like it, and he asks if Rahne has anything she'd like to say while they freeze to death. He asks why she didn't turn into a wolf, so that the fur could keep her alive. Rahne snaps at him that she wouldn't want to live longer if it meant outliving her friends while they froze to death. Jamie puts his hand on her shoulder and assures her that they're going to survive, and that she of all people should have faith. Rahne bats away his hand, telling Jamie that faith isn't enough. Rahne says that bad things happen to good people because the world is a cold and terrible place.

In Nevada, Monet and Siryn are still flying with Molly, Wally and their parents in an elevator. They set down on top of a large rock outcroping and Monet opens the elevator doors to reveal the grandparents who hired X-Factor. They have a touching reunion with the two kids, though the father is a bit angry at the kidnapping. Siryn shows everyone to the food that they set up and Monet asks if she can handle everything, because she's been trying to contact the rest of the team but there's been no answer. Monet can fly at supersonic speed, so she just wants to go check it out. While Siryn watches her fly away, the twins' parents whisper to each other that their plan worked. They reveal that both they and the grandparents were working for Huber to distract the girls. It was all a set-up.

Back in New York City, Huber is telling Rictor about his plan until the steel skin suddenly fades away. Rictor takes the opportunity to punch Huber and gets free. Huber blasts him with Cyclops' optic blast, but it doesn't do anything. Huber reveals, via narration, that he possesses the power of every living mutant on Earth. He never asked for it and never wanted it, and the powers never leave him alone for a second. The reason he's constantly popping medication pills is because they relieve him of the pain of the powers. And somehow Rictor is immune to all the powers. How is that possible? Huber tries to freeze Rictor in a block of ice, while explaining that he became the Isolationist in order to escape all mutants. It didn't work, and he was constantly suffering. With all of the telepaths, he could hear every single voice of every person in the world. With all the other powers out there, his body was constantly melting or freezing or something, and then just healing itself. M-Day was a Godsend because, in one fell swoop, the endless howling of powers became just a dull roar. So he knew that if he could eliminate the remaining mutants, at once if possible, then he'd be completely free.

In the subway, Layla's powers let her know that Nicole is coming. When she tries to push Layla onto the tracks, Layla knows to bend down at exactly the right time in order to roll Nicole over her back and onto the tracks. It looks like an accident to the witnesses. It's then revealed that Nicole is just a cyborg, built and designed by Huber using Forge's powers. Now she's all smashed.

The ice melts around Rictor and he's able to escape. Huber then uses super strength to pick up a street sign and try to smash Rictor. When he rolls out of the way, Rictor finds the teleportation remote control. Huber narrates that his plan to hold an all-mutant march on Washington was just a plan to get all the mutants together in one place. Then he'd kill them all at once. Rictor grabs the remote, but Huber is about to crush him with a car.

In the arctic, all of the dupes have nearly frozen to death and the shelter has collapsed. Madrox and his friends are expose to the elements and are still huddled together. Rahne tries to say that at least she won't kill him in the future, as her dream predicated but she's not able to say all of it. Madrox asks who she was talking about, but she smiles at him and says it doesn't matter anymore. Then she looks away an dsees something that makes her think that God hasn't abandoned them after all...

In New York, Monet arrived in time to grab the car and save Rictor. Huber instead smashes the car into Monet and decides he needs to leave. The fight has become pointless and his medication is wearing off. Monet's telepathy will ruin everything, plus just killing them would be so uncivilized. So Huber turns into sand and floats away in the wind. Meanwhile, the Terrigen Crystals in Rictor's back fal off and into a sewer grate. They were the trick that saved him from Huber's powers. Rictor uses the remote and brings Madrox, Guido and Wolfsbane back. Rahne asks why Huber would do this, and Madrox tells her that some people are just bad guys. Rahne cuses them to rot alone in their separate hells, and we see that Huber has indeed returned to his icy fortress and his former misery.

Review: This issue, and Huber specifically, turn out to be a big letdown. The entire issue is spent with Huber monologuing his purpose to us via narration boxes, and then he just sort of gives up for the hell of it. The mystery of Rictor's immunity is a bit of a stretch, then also just washes down a sewer when it's all over. I expected more. Huber's plan itself is kind of cool. Despite the complexities of a guy possessing all mutant powers at once, it's something of an original idea and M-Day is used to great effect to give him motivation. Unfortunately, that's where it all falls apart. The reason why he had to go through X-Factor to reach the X-Men isn't really explained, as well as the reason why he can't just kill mutants. Then, even worse, he explains that he's secretly been behind all of the villains in X-Factor so far. That was thoroughly disappointing. Singularity and the X-Cell stand perfectly well on their own, and are only cheapened by the idea that this guy came down from his Frozen Throne to hire them to mess with X-Factor. Then just as it appears that X-Factor actually has a real assignment, when it comes to the twins, it turns out that the people involved in that are also secretly working for Huber. I don't think their detective agency has had an actual, ordinary assignment since the MadroX mini series and the first story arc. It's a bit disappointing.

Equally disappointing is the frozen scene between Madrox, Guido and Rahne. Rather than having any actual discussion of their friendship or anything else meaningful, Rahne just postures a bit more about her dream of eventually killing Jamie. It's no shock that this series is at its best when the characters are interacting in semi-normal situations. A big super-villain battle and some near-death freezing just don't make for an exciting story. There isn't even a real climax. Huber just grows bored and leaves, then Madrox sums up that he was just a bad guy and its not important to understand them. A thoroughly disappointing issue to what had been an increasingly tense build-up.