Chapter Summaries

Crossbones activated the Aria oscillator, incapacitating the mutant execution squad and giving the surviving STRIKE operatives a chance to kill them. Jean Grey, furious at the squad’s failure, turned her attention to Scott Summers and condemned him.

• Crossbones activated the Aria oscillator, inflicting overwhelming pain on Wolverine, Storm, Shadowcat, and the other mutants.
• Two surviving STRIKE operatives switched to armor-piercing rounds and prepared to shoot Wolverine and Storm.
• Jean Grey dismissed Crossbones and his operatives and focused on the incapacitated mutant execution squad.
• Jean Grey spoke into Scott Summers’s mind, calling him useless and questioning whether he deserved to join the master's collection.

Jean Grey used the Phoenix Mark’s authority to force Scott Summers to unleash a destructive beam that wiped out the sonic weapon and two STRIKE operatives. As Scott collapsed and the mutants recovered, Crossbones realized they had been enslaved and activated an emergency communicator to warn S.H.I.E.L.D.

• Jean Grey used the Throne Mark and Mind Link to force Scott Summers to open his eyes and fire his destructive beam.
• Scott’s beam vaporized the Aria oscillator and two STRIKE operatives, then carved a trench through the street and a building.
• The blast threw Crossbones into a wall, while Scott passed out and Wolverine, Storm, and the other mutants got back to their feet.
• Crossbones concluded that the X-Men had been enslaved and decided he had to alert Nick Fury and the world.
• Crossbones pressed the call button on his emergency communicator connected to S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Triskelion.

Crossbones sent Nick Fury a final warning that the X-Men had become someone’s lapdogs, but Jean Grey crushed his communicator and killed him before he could explain. Fury was left terrified by the power behind the X-Men’s enslavement, while Jean received her master’s approval and provoked jealous forces inside the Negative Zone prison.

• Crossbones used his last strength to warn that the X-Men had become lapdogs, after witnessing Jean Grey and the controlled X-Men massacre his STRIKE team.
• Nick Fury connected to Crossbones’s emergency transmission and watched Jean Grey telekinetically crush his communicator, cutting off the signal and killing him.
• Fury suspected that Charles Xavier had been enslaved and wondered what Lynn was, as he felt powerless before the threat.
• Jean Grey surveyed the dead and her empty-eyed teammates, then felt a brief sign of approval from her master and became ecstatic.
• Scarlet chaos magic and black death force gathered inside the Negative Zone prison as two jealous presences reacted to the approval Jean had received.

After Jean Grey’s brutal cleanup operation earned Lynn’s faint approval, Hela and Wanda grew jealous and competed to prove their worth. Wanda secretly crafted a Chaos Magic rune and targeted the unconscious Scott Summers, leaving her next move poised to test Jean’s control over him.

• Lynn reviewed Jean Grey’s cleanup operation in Manhattan and sent her a faint pulse of approval.
• Hela crushed a metal fragment in jealousy, while Wanda’s resentment grew at Jean receiving Lynn’s attention.
• Lynn watched Hela consider turning the prison’s surviving mutants into an undead legion and Wanda quietly weave a spell.
• Wanda inscribed a tiny Chaos Magic rune on her fingernail, then fixed her gaze on the unconscious Scott Summers.

Wanda secretly used chaos magic to break through Jean Grey’s control of Scott Summers and briefly restore his consciousness. Scott awoke to the destruction around him and realized he might have caused it.

• Wanda sent a wisp of chaos magic from the Negative Zone into Scott Summers’s mind.
• Jean Grey sensed an unfamiliar disturbance in her Mind Link and tried to identify its source.
• The chaos magic amplified Scott Summers’s suppressed emotions and cracked Jean Grey’s psychic control.
• Scott Summers regained consciousness and saw his injured body, his controlled former teammates, and the remains of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents.
• Scott Summers feared that he had caused the devastation around him.

Scott Summers regained consciousness amid the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents’ remains and realized Jean Grey had controlled him into killing them. As Scott’s mind collapsed, Crossbones armed a Micro Gamma Ray Bomb and charged Jean Grey, leaving her to face the bomb and Scott’s potential loss of control before Lynn.

• Scott Summers awoke pinned by the Four Night Sky Swords and saw Logan, Ororo, and the other X-Men standing under Jean Grey’s control.
• Scott remembered killing the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents with his Optic Blast and broke down in despair, his mental state collapsing.
• Jean Grey prepared to use her psychic power to suppress Scott’s returning consciousness, but his outburst briefly distracted her.
• Crossbones seized the chance to activate a Micro Gamma Ray Bomb and charged Jean Grey, intent on taking her and the X-Men with him.
• Jean Grey faced the bomb and Scott’s unstable condition as she tried to prevent Lynn from seeing her fail.

Jean Grey used her Dark Golden Flames to erase Scott Summers's restored self-awareness and used telekinesis to disarm and immobilize Crossbones, eliminating the crisis. She left Crossbones alive, intending to use him as a trophy for her master.

• Jean Grey blamed the imprisoned Asgardian goddess and Witch for disrupting her operation and resolved to restore her master's perfect script.
• Jean Grey poured Dark Golden Flames into Scott Summers's eyes, erasing his memories, beliefs, and sense of self and leaving him an obedient weapon.
• Jean Grey used telekinesis to stop Crossbones's Gamma Bomb from detonating and immobilized him.
• Jean Grey decided not to kill Crossbones, planning instead to use him to demonstrate her results to her master.

Jean Grey captured Crossbones after crushing S.H.I.E.L.D.'s probe and brought him, along with the mind-controlled X-Men, to Lynn in the Negative Zone. Lynn saw Crossbones as a useful pawn who might help lure out something more interesting.

• Jean Grey used her telekinesis to break Crossbones's limbs and left him alive after defeating the STRIKE Team.
• Jean Grey dragged Crossbones past the mind-controlled Logan, Ororo, and Scott Summers, then led them through a rift into the Negative Zone.
• Jean Grey flung Crossbones before Lynn's Throne and knelt, reporting that she had brought back the rat who disrupted his plan.
• Lynn ignored Jean Grey's plea for praise and considered how he could use Crossbones to lure out something more interesting.

Jean Grey returned to the Negative Zone with Crossbones as a trophy and presented him to Lynn, but Hela and Wanda challenged her claim that she had carried out Lynn’s orders successfully. The three women’s accusations escalated into a clash of powers as Lynn watched without intervening.

• Jean Grey knelt before Lynn and presented the captured Crossbones as proof that she had cleaned up the situation.
• Hela mocked Jean Grey’s handling of the mission, pointing out that she had nearly lost control and relied on Scott Summers to stop the bomb.
• Wanda accused Jean Grey of nearly destroying Lynn’s assets and said Scott had saved her from failure.
• Jean Grey erupted in anger and defended her loyalty to Lynn, calling Hela and Wanda jealous and useless.
• Hela formed a Night Sky Sword while Wanda gathered Chaos Magic, and the three women’s powers threatened to erupt into violence as Lynn observed.

Lynn quashed the fight between Hela, Wanda, and Jean Grey with his overwhelming presence, then condemned their jealousy and disobedience. With the three women still kneeling, he turned his attention to Crossbones.

• Lynn stopped Hela, Wanda, and Jean Grey from attacking each other by unleashing his superior presence.
• Jean Grey and Wanda were forced to their knees, and Hela eventually knelt under Lynn's pressure.
• Lynn criticized Jean Grey for her flawed performance, Wanda for her possessiveness, and Hela for her poor judgment.
• Lynn warned the three women that their power and purpose belonged to him and called their infighting cheap.
• After withdrawing his presence, Lynn turned his attention to Crossbones and said it was time to deal with him.

Lynn shattered Crossbones's psychological defenses by revealing that he knew Crossbones was Hydra and naming Alexander Pierce. He left the kneeling goddesses to decide how to extract the ruined agent’s final value.

• Lynn approached the badly injured Crossbones, who defied him and threatened him with S.H.I.E.L.D. and the World Security Council.
• Lynn identified Crossbones's Bastion suit as S.H.I.E.L.D. Level 7 equipment, then told him, “Hail Hydra.”
• Lynn named Alexander Pierce, causing Crossbones to lose his composure and collapse into fear and incoherence.
• Lynn declared that Crossbones was no longer useful as he was and asked Wanda, Hela, and Jean Grey how they should make him deliver his greatest value.

Lynn asked Hela, Wanda, and Jean Grey how they would maximize Crossbones’s value, and each proposed a different form of extreme torture. He rejected their ideas as too narrow and announced that he would hold a livestream to spread fear among their enemies.

• Hela proposed extracting Crossbones’s soul and refining it into a Wailing Stone that would make anyone who touched it relive his terror.
• Wanda offered to trap Crossbones in a recurring false reality and use him as a source of Hydra intelligence.
• Jean Grey proposed keeping Crossbones conscious through endless cycles of amplified pain and regeneration.
• Hela, Wanda, and Jean Grey argued over who should punish Crossbones, while Lynn judged their competing plans.
• Lynn rejected all three proposals and announced that he would hold a livestream.

Lynn ordered Wanda, Hela, and Jean Grey to create a livestream of Crossbones’s torture as a threat aimed at S.H.I.E.L.D., Hydra, and mutant networks. As the three women began preparing the broadcast, their cooperation was already sharpened by rivalry.

• Lynn explained that he wanted Crossbones’s public suffering to spread fear through S.H.I.E.L.D. and Hydra rather than merely punish him.
• Lynn ordered Wanda to infiltrate S.H.I.E.L.D. and Hydra communications and registered mutant networks worldwide.
• Lynn assigned Hela to create a deathly backdrop and Jean Grey to suspend Crossbones and project his terrified memories.
• Wanda, Hela, and Jean Grey unleashed their powers to begin the livestream, meeting one another’s gazes in a hostile contest.

Wanda, Hela, and Jean Grey competed while carrying out Lynn’s plan in the Negative Zone, each sabotaging the others as they built a communications link, a deathly stage, and a grotesque display of Crossbones. Wanda completed the forced link to S.H.I.E.L.D., and every screen in the Triskelion turned scarlet.

• At Lynn’s command, Wanda sent Chaos Magic threads through the networks while Hela began transforming the Negative Zone into a deathly stage.
• Hela reshaped the prison into a swamp and bone forest, summoned tortured Asgardian souls, and began building Lynn a throne of bones.
• Jean Grey lifted Crossbones and sculpted his body into a tortured display, while Wanda secretly disrupted his nervous system with a chaos rune.
• The three women continued undermining one another as they completed their respective tasks under Lynn’s watch.
• Wanda reported that the forced communication link was connected, and every screen in S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Triskelion turned scarlet.

Lynn hijacked every screen in the Triskelion and exposed the tortured, dead Brock Rumlow before S.H.I.E.L.D. and Alexander Pierce. The chapter ended with Lynn appearing on a bone throne and addressing Nick Fury and Pierce through the hijacked frequency.

• A mysterious hum froze S.H.I.E.L.D.'s systems, and scarlet interference spread across the Triskelion's screens.
• Nick Fury ordered the external network disconnected, but the technical supervisor reported that every line had been hijacked from within the system.
• The screens displayed a hellish bone forest and Brock Rumlow's mutilated body, horrifying the agents and Nick Fury.
• Alexander Pierce saw the same images on his supposedly offline computer and realized the enemy knew about Hydra.
• The viewpoint revealed Lynn seated on a throne, and he met Nick Fury's gaze before beginning to deliver an ultimatum.

Lynn confronted Nick Fury through S.H.I.E.L.D.’s hijacked systems and used the enslaved Hela, Wanda, Jean Grey, and X-Men to demonstrate his overwhelming power. He ended by ordering Alexander Pierce to launch Project Insight’s carriers, leaving S.H.I.E.L.D. facing an imminent crisis.

• Lynn greeted Nick Fury through the Triskelion’s screens and told him mortals had lost the right to ask questions.
• The screen revealed Hela, Wanda, and Jean Grey standing devotedly beside Lynn’s Throne.
• Fury and the agents saw Cyclops, Storm, Colossus, Shadowcat, and Wolverine kneeling before Lynn with their wills broken.
• Lynn mocked Fury’s plans and declared that his game with mortals was over.
• Lynn told someone to inform Pierce that it was time to launch Project Insight’s carriers.

Lynn revealed his knowledge of Project Insight and the Zola Algorithm to Alexander Pierce, shattering the Hydra leader’s composure. As Lynn prepared to end the transmission, Hela, Wanda, and Jean Grey decided to add their own display of power.

• Lynn ordered Pierce to launch Project Insight’s carriers, alarming Nick Fury and the agents in the Triskelion’s command center.
• Pierce realized Lynn knew about Project Insight and the Zola Algorithm, and he lost his composure as Lynn addressed him by name.
• Lynn watched Pierce’s fear from the Negative Zone and prepared to end the transmission.
• Hela, Wanda, and Jean Grey silently coordinated a more forceful display of divine wrath for the people watching.

Lynn’s goddesses turned his livestream into a supernatural assault on the S.H.I.E.L.D. command center, leaving Nick Fury and his agents terrified and defeated. Back in the Negative Zone, Lynn looked toward the helpless Crossbones.

• Lynn prepared to end the connection after exposing secrets that shattered Nick Fury and Alexander Pierce’s composure.
• Hela and Wanda secretly corrupted the signal with deathly cold and warped reality, while Jean Grey’s Phoenix power stirred behind the throne.
• Black mist, supernatural cold, failing equipment, and grotesque transformations terrorized the agents in the Triskelion command center.
• Nick Fury felt divine pressure tear at his soul as the projection screen exploded and severed the connection.
• Lynn watched the ruined command center disappear from the screen, then turned his gaze toward the terrified Crossbones.

Lynn judged the broken Crossbones to be trash, but Jean Grey turned him into a Psychic Crystal containing Hydra intelligence and earned Lynn’s praise. Hela and Wanda watched jealously as Lynn rewarded Jean, reigniting their rivalry.

• Lynn called the captive Crossbones trash as Hela and Wanda prepared to destroy him.
• Jean Grey offered to handle Crossbones, then erased his body with the Phoenix Force and condensed his memories into a Psychic Crystal.
• Jean presented the crystal of Hydra intelligence to Lynn, who took it and praised her while placing his hand on her head.
• Hela and Wanda reacted with murderous jealousy, and the rivalry between the three women flared up again.

Hela and Wanda attacked Jean Grey in a jealous rage, but Lynn stopped their escalating battle by destroying the psychic crystal and sharing its memories only with Jean. The fight subsided, leaving Hela and Wanda humiliated and furious while Jean received Lynn’s favor.

• Hela and Wanda joined forces to attack Jean Grey after Lynn praised and touched her.
• Jean Grey used the Phoenix Force to fend them off while taunting them about being less useful to Lynn.
• The three women’s powers tore at the Negative Zone’s structure, threatening to destroy the prison and the Baxter Building above it.
• Lynn crushed the psychic crystal made from Crossbones’s memories and began reading its contents.
• Lynn opened a Mind Link to share selected memories with Jean Grey alone, causing Hela and Wanda to freeze in humiliation.
• Hela and Wanda resumed attacking Jean Grey as the psychic storm subsided.