Excalibur #26

Issue Details

Synopsis

"The Times They Are A-Changin'" Rachel has a nightmare of Franklin Richards being killed by a Sentinel in her alternate reality that she is from. She wakes up the next morning to greet Shadowcat. Lockheed feels that there is something wrong and he tries to get Shadowcat's attention but she tells him not to bother her. Widget also feels this and Shadowcat tells him to go on as well. Elsewhere, Nightcrawler tells Meggan that she must stop worrying about what Brian is doing and move on. She starts to cry and Lockheed and Widget come in and sense her grief. Then Brian walks in the lighthouse and Nightcrawler says he was just talking and Captain Britain then walks by and tells them sternly to continue and then yells at Lockheed and Widget, who quickly leave. Brian then says that he is taking off and needs some time away. Meggan then picks up Nightcrawler and says that she is ready to move on and they fly off. Rachel and Shadowcat leave the lighthouse to go into town shopping. They walk out over the water and startle some boaters passing by. They reach town and start looking for some clothes. Rachel then thinks she sees Franklin Richards in the store. She walks up and asks him and it indeed appears to be Franklin. They embrace and say that nothing will keep them apart now. They leave and Shadowcat later finds them at a coffee shop. She introduces herself to Franklin and Shadowcat then thinks that she knows him but cannot determine how. They return to the lighthouse and Franklin and Rachel sit on the couch and talk. Shadowcat walks to her room and Lockheed and Widget see Franklin and get startled and fly off. Lockheed flies to Shadowcat and tries to pull her away from her room. Shadowcat finally gets up and tries to go upstairs and then finds herself on the same floor. She tries again and it seems that she is stuck in some sort of warped reality. Downstairs, Franklin and Rachel are beginning to create a psi-link. A fire burns around them. In walks Meggan and Nightcrawler and they seem to not be able to see the couple sitting on the couch. They appear suddenly on the astral plane and the Phoenix force takes over. Franklin then begins to take over and turns into a being of energy. Rachel does not seem to notice that she is being mind-controlled. Shadowcat is finally able to break from the room and finds Meggan and Kurt. She realizes that Franklin died in that reality. Her mind was in another person's body during the ordeal and she remembers the Sentinel killing him. They try to find out who is behind this con and Kitty says that she has a plan. Meanwhile, Moira MacTaggert is on Muir Island. She is watching monitors and hears one of them beeping. She cannot determine why there would be some sort of anomaly in one of the sleeper cellblocks. She goes to investigate and enters the room and is shocked by what she finds inside. Kitty tells Kurt and Meggan that her plan is to trick this villain into believing that they are incarnations of other beings that were associated with the Phoenix. Shadowcat turns into her alternate 'Days of Future Past' self, Kate. Meggan turns into the Black Queen and Nightcrawler teleports them to the living room. They startle Rachel. She does not know what is going on and this seems to break the link with "Franklin". This intruder shows himself as Captain Britain. He says that he has been posing as Brian and he then reveals himself to be Mastermind. Rachel gets angry at his deceitfulness and says that if he wants the Phoenix force and to taste its power then he can have it. She touches his face and this causes him to go into some state of shock. Kitty takes off her disguise and tries to calm Rachel. This works and Rachel falls to the ground crying. Later, they meet at Muir Island and Moira tells them that she found the real Brian Braddock in Mastermind's cell when she walked in. Brian tells them that Mastermind somehow used him to switch places with him while he went to the lighthouse and caused the confusion. Moira has put him back in his cellblock and now he believes he is still a being of energy and is stuck in his own reality in his mind.