World's End

• Writer - Chris Claremont
• Penciler - Alan Davis
• Inker - Mark Farmer
• Colorist - Dean White
• Lettering - Virtual Calligraphy
• Lettering - Rus Wooton
• Ass't Editor - Sean Ryan
• Associated Editor - Nick Lowe
• Editor - Mike Marts
• Editor in Chief - Joe Quesada

The Enemy of my Enemy

Summary

  Betsy recounts the last time the X-Men were in the Savage Land: Brainchild mind-controlled them, reverting Ororo to a savage state, but the X-Men defeated him.

  Now, Lucas is ready to attack him, but Ka-Zar stops him. Lucas wonders if Brainchild is mind-controlling him, but the Saurians explain they allied with him, to avoid extermination by the Hauk'ka. Brainchild accepted for the same reason, as did Ka-Zar.

  Hauk'ka riding pterosaurs attack from the sky, but Vertigo uses her power to make the flying reptiles dizzy, and they all crash. The Hauk'ka realize some of their prey have powers; melee ensues, with Ka-Zar and Zabu leading the charge, keeping the battle so chaotic the Hauk'ka can't shoot their weapons without hitting each other.

  The powerless X-Men only observe from the tree line. Lucas realizes something's wrong: their side is winning, and the Hauk'ka aren't sending reinforcements from their nearby base; he thinks they're being tested, to determine their strength. He finds Betsy braiding her hair and asks her to user her psychic knife to try to free them from Rachel's psi-blocks. She warns him she doesn't have telepathy any more, just TK, so she may fry their brains, but they're desperate, and they trust her. Lucas kneels; Betsy manifests her psychic katana and slices.

  The Hauk'ka send reinforcements: "I am Raina! Those who would threaten the Hauk'ka must first deal with me!" Betsy finishes and gives Lucas some aspirin, happy she's being treated as an X-Man again, but probably just in time to die again. X-23 notices the change in the battle and joins in; Lucas follows, telling Betsy to work on Kurt. Vertigo approaches, and they realize she's under Rachel's control; she and Betsy spar with their powers, and she's happy to learn she has some immunity to telepathy.

  X-23 fights Raina; Leash asserts her telepathic control of Ka-Zar and call on him to protect Brainchild; a Hauk'ka blasts Zabu, but Ka-Zar just ignores his faithful sabretooth. Lucas picks up a tree to separate Raina and X-23 before the girl is forced to kill, but he gets zapped by Rachel from the sky, who also takes out Gaza and Barbarus.

  Raina is annoyed that X-23 won't fall down; Betsy slashes her with her katana, saying the X-Men never quit. Since she's immune to telepathy, Rachel lashes out with TK, but Lucas catches the blast and returns it. Rachel drops from the sky; Betsy tells Kurt to teleport over to catch her, but Lucas says the Hauk'ka will care for their own, and sure enough Masano catches her. Although the "mammals" have captured Raina, Kaidan says Rachel is their top priority.

  Kurt teleports everyone into the woods until he exhausts himself, but Brainchild insists he get them to high ground before the Hauk'ka start carpet-bombing the jungle. Sure enough, they do, but Rachel is unable to pinpoint the X-Men's location, so they return to the citadel.

  From a cave in the cliffside, Lucas watches dinosaurs fleeing the bombing; Brainchild plans for everything and has a distorter to hide them from Rachel. He hopes to modify it to defeat her; Kurt is worried she's becoming a Hauk'ka, and Brainchild confirms it's "genetic cascade": her power making her vision of herself into a physical reality. Lucas is sure Brainchild can reverse it, and he's more worried about the Hauk'ka using her as a weapon.

  Ororo is shackled and unable to use her powers; Rachel visits, and Ororo is shocked at the change in her physical form. Rachel orders the vault sealed and taps directly into Ororo's power. A blast of energy skyward, and snow begins to fall in the Savage Land.