Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream

• Writer - Chris Claremont
• Penciler - Chris Bachalo
• Inker - Tim Townsend
• Inker - Norm Rapmund
• Inker - Jon Holdredge
• Inker - Jaime Mendoza
• Inker - Victor Olazaba
• Inker - Al Vey
• Lettering - Virtual Calligraphy
• Lettering - Joe Caramagna
• Colorist - Studio F
• Ass't Editor - Sean Ryan
• Associated Editor - Nick Lowe
• Editor - Mike Marts
• Editor in Chief - Joe Quesada

Summary

  Note: this is a Decimation issue.

  The team returns Rachel to Xavier's in the X-Jet; they remind her not to judge the situation by appearances.

  She was raised in the future, in a mutant concentration camp, where she was trained to hunt down her own kind. She was the best. The camp had guardian Sentinels, designed to make mutants extinct, and they almost succeeded. She came back to the past to make sure this never happens. Now there are Sentinels guarding Xavier's (see X-Men II:177).

  On what is now called "M-Day," mutants were decimated, most losing their powers and the genome that caused them. Nobody knows how, and everyone's scared. The X-Men are left to keep the peace.

  Annandale-on-Hudson: Rachel plays hoops with her "grandpa" John and uses her powers, cheating but scoring, and even he admits she was spectacular. Elaine watches them, but it just reminds her that she misses Jean; in her heart she curses Xavier for drafting her into the X-Men. Rachel senses her thoughts; John tells her Elaine's grief will pass, and he grabs Rachel for a road trip.

  Betsy runs each morning from one end of the estate to the other, never the same way twice. She stretches first, always near the Sentinels. They're driven by men, and she gives them a show, getting them to think of her as a "babe" rather than a warrior.

  Sam and Kurt fish off the dock; they see Betsy levitating in the distance, with all the Sentinels staring at her. Kurt's phone rings, so Sam blasts off to give him privacy. It's Nocturne; she's worried about him, but he says things are fine, but she should stay in London with Capt. Britain while the X-Men sort things out.

  Sam blasts by Betsy, catching her unawares; she says she was meditating, but then he swoops by again, asking her what her excuse is that time. A third time, and he catches her, asking for a kiss, but she kicks him away, saying he hasn't earned it. A Sentinel catches Sam in its hand, warning him this is a restricted military zone.

  The carriage house: Bishop runs Sage's cyber-net now, and the news is bad all over. Whedon is living in Ororo's loft with her ward D'Ancanto; most of her mutant clients aren't either anymore, and her most recent request for an injunction was denied. In a time of national crisis, judges tend to defer to the executive branch, and fighting it tends to make you look bad. D'Ancanto warns her that many people will try to take revenge on mutants, now, like she once did (X-Treme X-Men 31).

  Scott and Emma confer with their ONE guards: Val, Col. Reyes, and Dr. Senyaka. They claim to be there to help; Emma shifts onto the astral plane with Scott, so they can talk privately. The others' thoughts are closed to her; they may be using a device, and Scott wonders if they can read their minds. Val asks Emma to call off her lawyers; Emma asks Val to remove her Sentinels, but she says they're for their protection. Reyes asks about Cerebra; he wants access to their database records of mutants worldwide as "standard disease protocol"; Scott already purged the files and claims there was a power overload.

  Scott asks if Reyes is any relation to Cecelia; she was his younger sister, who joined the X-Men and disappeared (X-Men II:70, Weapon X II:5). He says during this emergency, there are some rules: his men get complete access to the school; the X-Men can come and go, but he can assign a Sentinel escort. He reminds them ONE is there because the president considers mutants a strategic asset, and it's in the national interest to keep them safe. Emma tells Scott it was easier when they were outlaws.

  John and Rachel finish buying groceries; she sees a photo of a Sentinel on a magazine cover and tenses up, but she only says the ones she knew weren't friendly. He hugs her, saying it's not her fault she survived.

  She lies in bed, on the phone with Kitty. Elaine has invited the entire Grey clan to visit with her, but when Rachel was raised, they'd all been killed. Kitty tells her to lighten up and enjoy the party; she gets dressed and comes down to a house full of family. She's surprised to find herself having fun, getting to know her relatives, conservative and liberal, old and young. She makes a wisecrack against mutant control, so Terry Maguire hustles her onto the porch before she starts an argument. He introduces himself, but then John finds them and insists on the next dance, embarrassing her. He notes that her telepathy is just like her mother's, and he wishes they'd known better how to cope. Rachel says Jean saved the universe, so they must have done great. She admits she doesn't know how to dance, so he says he'll teach her. Then he explodes.