Dreamers & Demons

• Writer - Chris Claremont
• Penciler - Sean Chen
• Inker - Sandu Florea
• Colorist - Avalon Studios
• Lettering - Dave Sharpe
• Ass't Editor - Andy Schmidt
• Ass't Editor - Nicole Wiley
• Editor - Tom Brevoort
• Editor in Chief - Joe Quesada

Summary

  Scott gets a call at night; it can't be good. It's Jean's father John, who's seen the same vision of her; Scott only senses she's fine, but too far away to come home; he promises to inform him when they know more; angry, Mr. Grey insists "for once, don't let it be to tell us our daughter's dead -- again!" Emma thinks he should get on with his life and forget the past; Scott says, to him, he'll always be the man who left his daughter for another woman (X-Men II:130). As he looks in on their children, he says it was the hardest and best decision he's made.

  Meg tells them the baby's awake and upset; she read his mind, "what there is of it." Emma tucks her back in and promises to take care of things, although Meg is afraid of having the nightmare. Emma tells Scott it's unacceptable for his ex-wife to terrorize their children. Xavier's floating head appears; Emma disperses it, saying he's not welcome there. She tells Scott to settle this, while she cares for the children.

  Scott meets with the Spikes (the surviving Stepford Cuckoos), who now have different hairstyles. They didn't fail to notice Jean, who "hangs out in the heart of creation." They sensed a power wave but the message is encrypted, so they use Martha, their living Cerebra, to track it to its recipients.

  Kitty serves beer at the Belles of Hell (Mekanix ‘02 LS); Rachel has her head down on the bar, upset about her mother. Scott and the Spikes appear as astral projections; Rachel tells him to go away: he doesn't know where Jean is and couldn't get to her, anyway. Angry, she manifests the Phoenix force and yells at him; he disappears. Rachel tells Kitty she wishes her mother hadn't called; they were better off thinking her dead.

  Scott appears to Cable, who's busy punching terrorists in the Hindu Kush. He's reluctant to get involved with the X-Men again; he's never even called upon X-Corp Mumbai for help. Scott insists he needs him; Cable and Irene finish mopping up the terrorists, and he tells her they're going home for a visit. She gloats: her years of planning may now pay off.

  Scott appears to Logan. They can't get to Jean because the Shi'ar stargate network was collapsed; Logan cuts off his question about Ororo. Ororo says he should have told Scott she's dying; angry, he says he burnt up in the sun once (X-Men II:148), and the normal rules don't apply to them. She wishes they did, but he reassures her it isn't her time.

  Emma tells Scott they've become spoiled: it was quiet for so long. They look out the window at a palace, where Havok, Annie, and Carter (who hasn't aged in 15 years). Vargas appears, now and XSE officer, with confirmation on Kurt. He was demonstrating teleportation on the Letterman show and grabbed in transit. There's also a new lead on Sinister; Scott tells him to make sure it's really him; Emma tells him not to take him alive.

  In Vegas, Rogue and Remy kiss before their mission; they're married now. He bends and twists his way past "combat-strength lasers"; she extends a pole with a small metal platform so he can balance on it on one hand; with the other, he switches off the lasers. They stand before an enormous steel door; she jokingly asks if he can pick the lock and then kicks it in. They find Sinister and Domina inside, dead. They fought and killed each other, apparently (cf. X-Men II:102).

  Sinister, alive, watches on a hologram; he realizes she saw through his ruse. He's talking to a Slaver, angry that they didn't give him first dibs on Jean. No way to treat a valued client, who's given them many X-Men over the years. The Slaver, sweating, asks how to make things right; Sinister says he knows what he wants, and he makes the Slaver scream in pain.

  Kurt never thought he'd see her again; Jean asks if she means her or Nocturne; he means both. Nocturne's in a coma, which may be for the best. The Slavers had her a long time.

  Danvers says the creatures that attacked them (last iss.) were an evolution of the Brood, who were supposed to be extinct, thanks to Danvers and Ororo. It was Danvers' last mission as Warbird.

  Kurt and Jean arrive; Kurt is astonished to see Danvers as a holographic computer. He asks to be sent home: he's an actor now, not an X-Man. Aliyah says it's not about him: the Shi'ar empire has been in chaos since Nova as Xavier drove Lilandra mad (X-Men II:133). The new chancellor has restored some order, but also an expansionist policy, for which he needs new stargazes. He tried to get access to that of the Slavers, whose transit network spans dimensions. The Kree wanted to acquire Phoenix as a weapon against the Shi'ar. The Brood were probably after the stargate; Kurt realizes if they got it, they could spread everywhere. Aliyah says they have to warn the empire; Kurt asks who she is; she says she's Lucas's daughter; Kurt asks who her mother is.

  Lilandra stands before a statue of Deathbird; her chancellor (Khan, see X-Treme X-Men 16) shows her the star that suddenly went nova, and the Phoenix fire. She orders him to find and destroy it, and anyone who stands with it; she and her son leave. The chancellor worries Lilandra suspects; and aide says the nova wiped out the evidence. He tells her to alert their cadre on Earth; he doesn't want premature contact with the X-Men, but if they become a threat, they are to be eliminated.