Synopsis & Review by Specter313:
Synopsis: Kitty and some of the students are trying to revive Blindfold with nothing but a projection of Beast to guide them. Just when Kitty is about to inject her with something, Emma pulls her astral self out of Kitty’s body for a little conference above the mansion. Emma explains how the Diaries were decoys, and then gives her a code word: “spark.” This triggers Kitty’s memory to when she, Emma, and Scott came up with a plan to hide the diaries, then mask their memories of doing such, and Kitty remembers that her code word is “flint.” Emma then remembers, but realizes they’re all too far away to do anything, so it’s up to Bobby and Sam.

Who just happen to be landing the jet in Flint, Michigan, per Emma’s instructions. She directs them into the correct abandoned building, all the way up to the room where the diaries are supposed to be hidden, but they find the room to be a complete mess. She tells them to hurry since the psi-blips she’s detecting are right on top of them.

Back down in Mississippi, the X-Men are finally free, and Emma, who still isn’t talking, gives Scott and update, who agrees with her that they are out of the game and everything lies on Sam and Bobby right now.

Those two, however, aren’t having much luck finding the box the diaries are hidden in. Bobby is just coming up with a plan, when they hear Sunder punching around upstairs. Bobby asks if Sam is tired of running, cause he is too, and ices up.

Outside, the Marauders have converged on the Blackbird, finding Sunfire tied up inside. After some snarking, he reveals that Iceman and Cannonball are in one of the buildings looking for the diaries. Mystique suggests splitting up to look for them, and Scalphunter rather heatedly tells her that they’ll pick their own teams, as the original Marauders plus Sunfire go off in one direction while Mystique and the other new Marauders go off in another. Scalphunter begins to send Riptide out to take point, when Sam bursts through the floor and grabs the spinner mutant and takes off. Malice detects two mutant signatures moving towards her group fast, and while they think its Sam and Bobby, it’s really Sam and Riptide, who Sam sends flying into the new Marauders. This is Bobby’s signal to take out the other Marauders by freezing them in a block of ice. Sam melts some of the other ice to flood the target room and the case floats to the top in their first lucky break and turn to leave.

The group at the school is still trying to revive Blindfold, with Kitty continually shocking her, when Ruth suddenly grabs her arm. She immediately jumps into one of her ramblings, saying they have to warn them, because “he” is coming.

Turns out that the “he” is none other than Sinister, who catches Sam and Bobby on their way out, taking them out simultaneously. The Marauders then join him, and he demands them to bring him the books. Bobby is trying to crawl and get the case, but Mystique shoots one of his arms off. Gambit and Scalphunter both seem to want a shot at Sam, who makes a dive for the case, and their shots get crossed and they end up destroying the case as well as hurting Sam. Sinister is livid and takes out his frustrations by wiping Sam’s mind. Iceman is still stirring and catches them off guard, allowing Sam to pull himself together enough to blast out of there swims away, but with Mystique on his tail. When he surfaces, she is right there with a gun to his head. He says he wondered how she lived with herself, but that’s not the right question, since he’s come to the conclusion she’s just rabid now. She states that he knows nothing about her or her motives and doesn’t have any sympathy for using him. However, she fires several shots into the air, instead of into him, to confuse the others, telling him to stay away from what’s coming and he might just live. And for what it’s worth, he’s the only one she’s giving the luxury of a warning, or a choice. As Bobby stumbles back to the jet where an unconscious Sam waits, Blindfold narrates about them being stuck in the dark and the jet leaves for the mansion.

Review: A very interesting end to the arc, more so from the various character interactions rather from the story itself. Bobby and Sam are a couple of characters that are really on the verge of breaking into superstardom in the X-world, where they just need the right push from the right writer, and I think Carey could be the one to do it. Both have taken some big steps in previous arcs, and they really stepped up in this issue, managing to take out all the Marauders on their own. Speaking of the Marauders, things don’t seem to be working out so harmoniously in the little group of baddies. Something is likely to boil down with the new vs. old, and it will probably explode at the worst possible moment for the team and Sinister, which probably won’t make the big guy too happy.

With the art, what else is there to say? Take everything I’ve said before: lather, rinse, repeat. Thank god this is his last issue, but now he’s going on to ruin Runaways.