X-Men Annual

Exodus returns from being banished to Nowhere.

Rogue, Mystique, and Cable go to a S.H.I.E.L.D. hellicarrier with Northstar and Aurora in the hopes to cure both of their fragmented minds. Using their technology, they believe they can finish the reprogramming of Northstar after he had been brainwashed by the Hand. They also hope to cure Aurora's schizophrenia. They will be reliving their lives in a VR program. Maria Hill, Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. reluctantly allows them to do so as long as they do not get in her way.

During the programming, the hellicarrier is attacked. Exodus, Random, Frenzy, and Tempo infultrate the carrier. They are doing what Exodus says is "necessary." S.H.I.E.L.D.'s computers are hacked into and it causes an overload in the system which puts a stop to the reprogramming.

Northstar and Aurora come out and seem to have had their minds merged into one. The X-Men try to go after them but are interrupted by Exodus' agents. A ways away, Northstar and Aurora decide to stop running from their confussion and decide to face the problem together. Touching hands, they let off a bright light. They appear to be cured.

In the hellicarrier's control room, Exodus has put together a device to create a make-shift Cerebro unit to detect mutants. It is his plan to take all the new mutants being born after the Decimation and create a new Genosha. The X-Men arrive to tell him that there aren't any.