Note: Follows not long after Mutant Massacre

Story is divided into 3 subplots happening simultaneously between the Uncanny X-men, New Mutants, and X-Factor

We focus first on the Uncanny X-men who deal with an enemy called The Adversary. At this point the Uncanny X-men consist of Kitty Pryde, Longshot (from Mojoworld), Dazzler, Wolverine, Havok, Psylocke, Storm, and Rogue

After a battle with the Juggernaut in Scotland between him and the X-men, Colossus contacts his sister Illyana to have her teleport him to Dallas, Texas where the U X-men are trying to find Storm in Forge’s apartment building. Forge is a mutant whose ability is to be able to invent anything. He is also the lover of Storm at this time

Freedom Force (formerly Mystique’s Brotherhood of Mutants) arrives to take them into custody since the U X-men are not registered with the MRA (Mutant Registration Act). New members to Freedom Force include Stonewall, Super Sabre, Crimson Commando, and a sorceress named Spiral who is also from Mojoworld and has conflictual history with Longshot

FF has Rogue, Psylocke, and Dazzler hostage while U X-men have Mystique. Mystique tells them that Destiny has predicted that anyone inside Eagle Tower will die at dawn which is where Forge’s apartment is and where the U X-men are now inside of

At nighttime a huge hole opens up in the sky and lights up the downtown core of Dallas making it seem like day

On a parallel Earth, where the goddess Roma holds dominion, Storm and Forge reside, placed there by The Adversary. Forge is wounded from a stab assault from Storm who was manipulated by Adversary posing as Forge’s mentor Naze. Storm is currently powerless inadvertently due to one of Forge’s machines/inventions. She was angry at him for a time but has since reconciled

The anomaly occurring over Dallas has jumbled the spectrum of time fusing prehistoric, ancient, middle ages and modern times 

The X-men and Freedom Force team up to deal with the anomaly. Among the X-men is Madelyne Pryor- a clone of Jean Grey created by Mr Sinister after her death at the conclusion of the Dark Phoenix Saga. She and Cyclops married but after Jean’s return, he left her

A war party of Cheyenne Native Americans travel from Wyoming to offer their assistance as the Adversary is a Cheyenne god of chaos- sadly they are gunned down by ignorant and bigoted Caucasian officers

The X-men determine that this anomaly must be due to something having had happened to Roma, guardian of the omniverse, who is being held prisoner by Adversary

Rogue and Spiral attempt to reconnoiter Forge’s penthouse but it is shielded by a force-field

In the heart of Eagle Tower, it has transformed into the jungles of Vietnam symbolically tied to Forge’s service there

Psylocke detects Roma’s psy-signature and Wolverine volunteers his Uncanny X-men to continue on. Mystique protests due to Destiny’s vision but he insists they’re expendable whereas FF is not so FF stays behind

Forge restores Storm’ s power, and using it, restores a hole to dimension 616

Adversary captures Forge and Storm and keeps them prisoner with Roma. Psylocke senses the 4 of them in a citadel above Eagle Tower in orbit

Using Longhost’s lucky probability powers they manage to get through the barrier around Adversary’s ship

Steel proves a weakness to Adversary when Colossus touches him and forces him out of his physical ‘Naze’ form and into his demonic form

The X-men are only able to stop him through magic and so 9 people (Colossus, Madelyne, Rogue, Psylocke, Dazzler, Longshot, Storm, Wolverine, and Havok) sacrifice their spirits as Forge merges them all through an incantation in a cross-shape and uses it to send Adversary back to his dimension

Forge comes out of Eagle Tower alone, blamed as a murderer by Mystique for sacrificing his friends

Roma brings the X-men back to life, explains that Adversary will only be imprisoned for a time, as nature needs him, and gives them a choice of returning to their lives prior to entering the city or starting them elsewhere allowing for people to think they are dead for a time and be able to operate freely. They choose the latter as Roma grants their wish 

The next arc sees the New Mutants helping out a being known as an Ani-Mate go back to its place of origin to release other Ani-Mates who are treated harshly and oppressed by their oppressor the Ani-Mator 

The Ani-Mate’s name is Bird-Brain dubbed by the New Mutants

The New Mutants are Illyana Rasputin (Magik), Rahne Sinclair (Wolfsbane), Sam Guthrie (Cannonball), Dani Moonstar, and Doug Ramsey (Cypher). At the X-Mansion are two more members, Roberto Dacosta (Sunspot), and Warlock

The NM get themselves captured

Ani-Mator disgustingly abuses Bird-Brain with physical aggression

He puts the NM in test tubes hoping to extract their DNA and fuse it with the DNA of his Ani-Mates

Magneto, Sunspot, and Warlock wonder where the NM are. Magneto goes to the Hellfire Club to locate them. Sunspot and Warlock get clues from the radio that they are north

NM convince the Ani-Mates that Ani-Mator plans to kill them eventually and are released. They overthrow Ani-Mator and the rest of his Ani-Mates but when they plan to escape, are intercepted by Cameron Hodge and captured

Bird-Brain leads the Ani-Mates in a successful rescue attempt. The NM and Ani-Mates fight against Hodge’s drone soldiers. Cypher sacrifices himself to save Wolfsbane’s life from a bullet. He dies. (Warlock and Sunspot had also arrived impeccably to assist in the battle)

Ilyana sends Ani-Mator to Limbo to be consumed by the demons there. She also sends some of Hodge’s soldiers there

Illyana teleports everyone back home and lashes out against Magneto for thinking he doesn’t care about them but he actually does

The NM pledge to fight anyone who opposes the X-men

The third and final arc focuses on X-Factor - the original 5 X-men, who after Magneto became headmaster of Xavier’s school, became disillusioned with Prof X and operated on their own

Everyone from the original team is mysteriously displaced onto a ship- Angel is the only member absent from the original team- he is substituted by Caliban who joined after the Mutant Massacre

They find themselves in the presence of Apocalypse- this is their 2nd encounter

Apocalypse reveals and introduces his Four Horsemen- Famine, War, Pestilence, and Death. When Death reveals his face, they realize it is Angel who they had thought had committed suicide 

After Angel’s wings were mutilated by the Marauders, they were amputated by Cameron Hodge who then sabotaged Angel’s private jet as it took off the roof of the hospital and staged an explosion to make it look like a suicide. After the X-men thought their friend dead, Angel felt absolutely abandoned but before the explosion he was spirited away by Apocalypse who offered him new wings. Angel accepted and received metallic wings, a blue hue to his skin, and was dubbed Archangel

In the battle against the Four Horsemen, Archangel fights his friends and Pestilence is killed. Beast, due to Pestilence’s touch, becomes less intelligent whilst also growing stronger and inadvertently causes the ship to crash on top of X-Factor HQ

Iceman tricks Archangel into thinking he killed Iceman which snaps Archangel out of Apocalypse’s control due to guilt

Caliban becomes the new Horseman of Death stemming from his oppression from the Marauders. Apocalypse takes Caliban and leaves his ship behind as payment to the X-men

Apocalypse disappears with his Four Horseman as the OG X-men rectify the damage (Archangel included). They speak to distrusting people that X-Factor was falsely portrayed as mutant-hunters and actually trained the mutants they ‘hunted’

Ends with Jean and Cyclops together in Apocalypse’s ship, then participating in a parade celebrating mutant-human unity with Archangel watching from a rooftop