At long last, Cyclops' search for his wife and child has come to an end. But before he can move on and face the future, he'll have to come to terms with the past!

Synopsis

Mr. Sinister scoffs at Longshot, the lone X-Man, and then sends a bolt that knocks Longshot down. Longshot then tosses a belt that wraps around Polaris. Beast jumps in and distracts Mr. Sinister. This small gambit is enough to enable some of X-Factor and the X-Men to wake up. Cyclops sends a blast at Polaris, but Mr. Sinister quickly binds Cyclops's power. Psylocke and Rogue join the fight and Rogue attempts to drain Mr. Sinister's energy. This backfires and Mr. Sinister is able to control Rogue for a short time.

Something in this imbalance causes Cyclops to remember a scene from his childhood and realizes that Mr. Sinister is the reason Cyclops was in a coma for a year. Mr. Sinister admits that he was in charge of the Summers' boys younger years, including having Havok adopted away from Cyclops. Havok tries to blast Mr. Sinister but Polaris binds him in metal and begins to crush him. Cyclops's head begins to ache and he recalls trying to learn to control his powers at a young age, but to no avail.

While Mr. Sinister lords over Cyclops, Wolverine rallies the troops via a psychic link set up by Psylocke. The team brainstorms (while playing opossum) and figures that Mr. Sinister can counter all their attacks, but he must have some vulnerability to Cyclops's optic beam; why else would he go through the trouble of inhibiting it? Havok is sure he can solve Cyclops's problem if the team can get him free.

An all-out assault begins and Mr. Sinister is caught off guard. He handles each attack with ease, but his attention is lost from Jean Grey and Storm steals her away in some well-placed wind. Wolverine begins to rip Havok out but gets sidetracked by Sabretooth (which ends up being a very, very quick victory for Wolverine). Beast ends up busting Havok out and Havok begins blasting his brother with plasma while spouting words aimed at getting his brother angry. (The plasma makes his brother stronger.)

The battle with Mr. Sinister seems to be out of hand. Nothing is slowing him down and Longshot seems to have lost all luck, as a move of his results in Jean Grey falling right into Mr. Sinister's hands. This is the last straw, however, and Cyclops boils over. He is overloaded with power and turns a truly lethal blast on Mr. Sinister, blowing the madman to bits. Polaris escapes.

X-Factor and the X-Men realize that they have a lot of issues to work out, but they know that they can part amicably. They go their separate ways with a new determination to be better.