Hope

• Writer - Chuck Austen
• Penciler - Ron Garney
• Inker - Mark Morales
• Colorist - Hi-Fi Design
• Lettering - Comicraft
• Lettering - Richard Starkings
• Lettering - Saida Temofonte
• Ass't Editor - Mike Raicht
• Ass't Editor - Nova Suma
• Editor - Mike Marts
• Editor in Chief - Joe Quesada

conclusion

Summary

  Tom impales Bobby with a tendril; Kurt tries to talk to him although he's barely human, rooted like a plant into an assortment of captured mutants.

  Annie takes Alex outside; Scott has been in touch and is coming to take him away. She says she was foolish to fall in love with a catatonic man, but when Scott arrives and tells her Alex already has a girlfriend, she still offers to act as his nurse.

  Kurt has Stacy use her pheromone power to seduce Tom, so he'll want to be alone with her; Bobby freezes the roots, trying to separate Tom from his victims, but Tom fights it. Bobby wins; the mutants drop to the ground, and Stacy almost kisses Warren, but he's not into it.

  Tom starts to shake the island apart (Cassidy Keep is apparently now located on Muir Island); Cain helps the X-Men escape, tossing Logan up to Xavier, waiting in the X-Plane above. Tom accuses him of betrayal and drops him into the sea, so Xavier sends Sammy the salmon boy to rescue him. Ever hopeful, Xavier offers to let his half-brother recuperate at the mansion; Cain sees the shocked expressions on the X-Men's faces, so he accepts. He straps himself into one of the leather seats, making a sound Sammy teases him about.