DeathMark: Grey's End

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

Summary

  Note: this is a Decimation issue.

  After 24 seconds, Rachel and Elaine are the only Greys left alive, and Blackcloak is ready to execute Rachel, pronouncing Shi'ar law and edict while holding his spear ready. Just in time Kitty phases through the ground and grabs her away, giving her time to gather her TK. She beats on Blackcloak, reciting the names of her relatives that he just killed, and she uses his spear on him.

  In the ruins of the house, the Warskrull Flaw stands above an unconscious Betsy, while Elaine cowers. Flaw threatens them both, but Rachel just blasts him away; Blackcloak has recovered and stands with his team, calmly telling Rachel it's time for her to accept her fate and join her mother. He says she stands alone now, none of her blood left; Rachel says they killed innocents and children; he just explains they carried her genome.

  Elaine rises and slaps Rachel, denying her and cursing Xavier, the X-Men, and the Phoenix. She wants her family back, and her daughter back the way she was before all that, and she even wishes Jean and Rachel were never born. Rachel dissolves in tears; Blackcloak explains that her existence is a threat to all creation. The Shi'ar were once attacked by the Phoenix, and they plan to prevent another.

  A sonic boom: Sam has arrived, flying the 50 miles from Xavier's. He hits SeGa's force field, and the sound is heard over in Bard College; he decides to keep hitting it till it breaks. SeGa warns it will fail soon, finishing Sam and everyone else in a 5 mile radius. Rachel has Kitty tell Betsy to use her psychic knife on SeGa, which takes down the force field, and the X-Men attack en masse, with ONE Sentinels to help.

  The battle is quickly over, but with a final, futile gesture Blackcloak blasts Elaine, killing her. Scott, enraged, blasts at Blackcloak, but a Sentinel intervenes; Reyes stands between them, reminding Scott he's not an executioner. Val, monitoring, starts making arrangements for a holding facility and hopes Scott makes the right decision. Rachel pulls him into the astral plane, freezing time. She apologizes for letting this happen; Emma joins them, trying to comfort Scott. He says heroes are supposed to stop this sort of thing, but she reminds him they're only human, and they don't always win. Kitty enters the astral plane, too, and hugs Rachel, telling her Elaine didn't mean what she said, but Rachel knows she did. They see Elaine's ghost joining her husband's, and all the dead Greys walking off into the light, where Jean is.

  St. Stephen's Chapel, Bard College: the funerals. Rachel notes the Shi'ar overlooked Cable and she hopes they don't realize the mistake. For them, this was an act of statecraft; because Jean was the Phoenix, all the Greys were a danger, especially Rachel. But she stands over her family graves, noting she's not her mother or the Phoenix; when she's done, they'll wish she were.