On Muir Island, the Shadow King has taken over the minds of most of the X-Men. Forge is able to design a device that frees him from the mental hold, and manages to use it on Rogue, Wolverine and Banshee. Sean knows the extent of the Shadow King’s plan: He intends to psionically cause worldwide waves of hatred and prejudice, which will bundle in the form of Lorna Dane. As a catalyst for negative emotions, she has been made into a nexus between the physical and astral plane, and the Shadow King grows stronger by the minute.

In Washington, Val Cooper and Xavier call in X-Factor for a rescue mission.
They secretly approach Muir Isle by submarine. Also aboard is FBI agent Reisz, the Shadow King’s human host. When X-Factor invades the island, they are held in check by Legion, under the King’s control. On the submarine, Reisz starts to strangle Xavier, who pleads Val Cooper to help, but she too is under the King’s control... or so he thought. She suddenly shape-shifts, revealing herself to be the assumed-to-be-dead Mystique! She shoots Reisz, trapping the Shadow King on the astral plane.

X-Factor and the X-Men ponder how to free Lorna Dane from the nexus gate, to prevent the Shadow King from acquiring a new host. They face a dilemma, as separating Lorna from the device might kill her. They hesitate... too long. The Shadow King takes over Legion as his next host!

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