Now It Begins

• Writer - Chris Claremont
• Penciler - Salvador Larroca
• Colorist - Liquid!
• Lettering - Tom Orzechowski
• Ass't Editor - Frank Dunkerley
• Editor - Matt Hicks
• Editor in Chief - Joe Quesada

Summary

  Ororo's team is in a hotel in Valencia, Spain, each luxuriating in a different way (as couples: Ororo and Hank, Betsy and Neal), until they are simultaneously attacked by the military.

  Rogue, her powers still unstable, flies away to avoid collateral damage, gets hit, and falls into the sea. Sage uses martial arts and all her wiles to escape. She wonders how anyone could have traced them, since they leisurely crossed the Atlantic by yacht, without powers.

  On board, Sage had explained: Destiny and "her companion" Mystique raised Rogue, till her powers went awry and she went to Xavier (who couldn't help her, either, X-Men I:171). When Destiny's power manifested at age 13 (evidently in the 1800s), she wrote her visions in diaries for 13 months and then went blind. She hired Mystique to help decipher and investigate, but they found it impossible to shape the future. Destiny was killed (X-Men I:254), Mystique jailed (X-Men II:108), and she gave her volumes of the diaries to Xavier, to let him fix the future or go mad trying. Ororo wants the diaries, not trusting Xavier because his power is unlimited, and the temptation would be too great.

  Cortes drives to a secret military base; the government sent her to prevent a public scandal. Sandoval has all the X-Men but Rogue and Sage and is running tests. Cortes isn't sure they're villains, especially since "Lucas" Bishop has Interpol ID and Hank was an Avenger.

  Soldiers who know the currents go to find Rogue's body; Vargas attacks them, wanting the diaries for himself.

  The X-Men wake in a metal tunnel and realize they've been experimented on. Betsy helped Neal train, and he sends a plasma ball down to an intersection to flush out an ambush. Melee ensues. Hank bounces; Betsy uses her TK katana; Neal charges Lucas; Ororo uses lightning to fry all the armor. Then the floor caves in.