Previous episode: Hindsight (Part 3)
Next episode: Thieves Gambit
A man wanders through the deserts of Africa before collapsing. The sun beats down on him before another man on a camel finds him and gives him water. The fallen man opens his eyes revealing themselves to be completely black.
He grabs the second man's face and a blackness transfers itself to the other man. The second man opens his newly blackened eyes. He leaves on his camel leaving the first man in the desert.
At the Xavier Mansion, Logan is sound asleep until Charles Xavier's voice from the future wakes him up. He gets up and heads towards the War Room where the present Xavier is being kept. Unbeknownst to him, he is being followed by Emma Frost, but she is locked out.
Logan suddenly finds himself surrounded by white, alongside a standing Xavier. Xavier explains that they are still at the Institute but are talking on the astral plane. Xavier shows Logan the continent of Africa from high in Earth's atmosphere where much of the coast and Madagascar are destroyed. Xavier explains that twenty years ago, in Logan's time, something terrible happened. Xavier takes him to the ground, which is a barren wasteland covered in deep crevices and dust tornadoes. He tells Logan that no one survived. When Logan asks Xavier tells him that the former X-Man Storm did it. Wolverine doesn't believe that Storm would do such a thing, but Xavier says that she did and it cost her her life. Suddenly Xavier senses Emma's presence and ends the vision.
Logan sees Emma and angrily asks how she got in. She explains that she just read his mind for the security codes. He throws her into an elevator to get her out of there, explaining that he won't need her help.
In his lab, Beast is examining Africa but cannot find any abnormalities. Fortunately, this means that whatever pushes Storm over the edge hasn't happened yet and there's still time to find her and stop it. Unfortunately, this means that they need a psychic to use Cerebro to find her.
Logan finds Emma and takes her to Cerebro. She says that she'll find Storm if Logan lets her stay on the team. Logan says she needs to continually earn her place and his trust. Tired of him, Emma goes to leave but Logan relents and Emma uses Cerebro. She scans hundreds of people in Africa before finding Ororo Munroe.
In Africa, Ororo is using her powers to create a rainstorm to fill her tribe's reservoir. When she is done she asks Abasi, the tribal leader, what she should do next. He tells her about the southern crops and a celebration in her honor to be held later on.
At the mansion, Shadowcat is at Scott's room asking if he'll come along but he doesn't open the door. Iceman walks by and reminds her that Logan said not to bother. But Shadowcat knows that the old Scott would have gone along. The two leave without him.
In the hanger, Forge is polishing the Blackbird when the Beast, Emma, and Iceman come in. Since he just finished it he doesn't want the team to take it out, let alone to Africa, so he asks them to be gentle. Wolverine claims that the first scratch is the most painful, so he makes three of them with his claws so Forge can relax. Just then Cyclops enters the hanger and boards the jet.
The jet leaves the hanger through the tennis courts and blasts off.
The man on the camel walks up to a man with a boat. Later, the man with the boat transfers the darkness to a woman on a pier. At a market, the woman transfers the blackness to a young girl with a kiss on the forehead. A man with a truck picks up the girl to take her off and acquires the blackness.
At the celebration, Ororo is getting food from the people of her tribe, and thanks to each one as they do. The man with the truck walks up and transfers it to a boy. The boy walks up to another man and transfers the blackness. The blackness moves to another man and a woman to get in front of the crowd. The woman walks up and Ororo takes her hand, but the woman does not let go. She opens her eyes to reveal they are solid black.
The blackness transfers itself to the former X-Man, who opens her eyes to reveal solid blackness.
In her mind, Ororo is confronted by a large creature who calls himself her former master. Abasi wonders what is wrong with Ororo as she is suddenly freaking out. Ororo cries out to the thing that has invaded her mind so Abasi tells the people of the tribe to go to their homes. Ororo does not remember the creature, who claims to have been like a father to her.
The creature shows a flashback to when Ororo was a young street urchin and petty thief stealing wallets, watches, and jewelry. Amahl Farouk berates her when she doesn't bring as much as he would like. She then admits that she has a friend who says she is more than just a thief. When she refuses to reveal the friend's name he enters her mind and learns that it is Xavier. He promises to make both pays when Xavier himself enters to defend Ororo. The two then battle on the astral plane.
Ororo suddenly remembers him, but also that he was destroyed. He explains that only his flesh was destroyed, but he now lives as the Shadow King. Shadow King promises to make her wander without a home as he did. Suddenly the tribe's huts burst into flames. Ororo tells Abasi to run from the fires and flies up to create a storm to put them out. However, Abasi is confused as there are no fires.
Ororo sees the entire surrounding areas engulfed in flames. Shadow King tells her to stop the fires using the full force of the elements before everything is destroyed. To do so she creates a giant storm over the continent.
Beast sees the storm on the Blackbird's monitors. Wolverine tells everyone to hang on while he dives the Blackbird right into the storm.
Due to the rain, the reservoir is now flowing over the dam, which has begun to crack and break. The unleashed waters rush through the tribe while the people climb the trees for safety. As the waters rise they climb into boats and on top of their huts.
The Blackbird screams through the sky above the tribe.
However, Ororo sees a giant fireball and uses a tornado to try to put it out. This causes the Blackbird to spin out of control and crash into the reservoir. The glass breaks and the plane sinks below the surface while the X-Men are knocked unconscious.
As the Blackbird sinks below the surface the team wakes up and Cyclops blasts the side so he, Emma, and Iceman can swim up. Meanwhile, Shadowcat phases Wolverine and Beast up through the cockpit. The team makes it to the top of the dam to see Ororo controlling the storm. Wolverine looks around but the waters rage too wildly to swim through, so Iceman slides the team across.
Shadow King taunts Ororo into increasing the storm. In addition to high winds, Ororo creates a hail storm, pelting the X-Men. Wolverine slashes the ice shards as best he can while Cyclops blasts them out of his way. Shadowcat phases through them while Iceman creates a wall to protect himself and Beast. The team inches closer until the top of a hut flies off and hits Iceman while Shadowcat phases through it. Shadowcat grabs Iceman from the water he fell in but is knocked out by the hail. Beast grabs the two and seeks protection under a tree.
The other three continue, with Wolverine telling Emma to stay behind them. However, Emma uses her secondary mutation to turn herself into a diamond. Wolverine asks her why she never told them about her new form. She says she doesn't like it because it prevents her from using her telepathy. They get close to Ororo and Emma suggests that Cyclops blast her. When Cyclops is reluctant she says it's her or Africa. Wolverine then asks Cyclops to blast him instead.
Wolverine climbs to the top of a large rock near Ororo. Cyclops blast Wolverine so he is propelled towards her and knocks her out of the sky. Wolverine tries to reason with her but she ignores him. Emma enters her mind to see Africa on fire. She tries to reason with Ororo but is knocked away by the Shadow King. Emma tells the others about the Shadow King and enters once more but again is knocked away by the Shadow King's scythe. However, Emma tells them that Ororo knows the truth now.
Wolverine tries to reason with her again and this time she regains control of herself long enough to see the damage she is causing. She then calls back the storm and collapses from exhaustion.
Wolverine tries to convince Shadow King to leave Ororo. Instead, the disembodied villain tries to transfer to him so he can kill Ororo.
Emma runs up to the two and tackles the Shadow King on the astral plane. Shadow King gets up and knocks her away. Shadow King transforms his fingers into knives and throws them at Emma. She creates a shield to protect herself but is still knocked back.
When Shadow King's hand begins to shrink he moves towards Ororo. Ororo knows that if he cannot find a host he will not survive. Cyclops tries to blast him but it goes right through the projection and he keeps coming. Emma gets up and creates a whip which she uses to snag Shadow King as he tries to infect Cyclops.
Cyclops takes Ororo while Wolverine takes Emma away from the battle so that Shadow King has farther to travel. Shadow King tries to follow but Emma knocks him away and creates a Battle Ax. Shadow King makes his own battle-ax and attacks Emma. She gets out of the way and he makes another swing. She continues dodging his attacks and stabs him in the stomach.
He again knocks her away and forms his hands into blades. Emma does the same and the two continue their battle. Shadow King forms a hammer and knocks her away. He forms two more axes and moves to attack her. Fortunately, he is beginning to shrivel up after being out of his body for so long. Emma taunts him by revealing that there's nobody around for him to infect. She then slices him in two with a long blade and he dissolves away.
Ororo gets up as Emma returns to her body. The people of the tribe come out and thank the X-Men and Ororo. Wolverine smiles and gives a nod to Emma, who smiles back, acknowledging that she's earned her place on the team.
Back at the mansion, Ororo visits Xavier. She tells Logan that she will stay with the X-Men so she can help make the world a better place for Xavier to wake up in