Villain: Dark Xavier, imaginary evil X-Men: Angel, Beast, Marvel Girl, Iceman

Guest Appearance: Firelord, Misty Knight, Mr. & Mrs. Grey, Moira MacTaggary (flashback)

Letters Page: Letters page coming soon!

While Xavier slips further into his nightmare state, the X-Men are in the Danger Room going through a training workout. Colossus thinks Wolverine is in mortal danger from a falling steel girder, and he pushes him out of the way. Wolverine doesn't like that one bit and blows up in anger. Cyclops steps in as leader, and Wolverine accuses him of riding the team too hard, keeping them on edge. Banshee agrees with Wolverine, and Cyclops admits his anguish over the death of Thunderbird has something to do with it. For her part, Storm appreciates Cyclop's leadership, and suggests that perhaps Wolverine should be the one to exit the team.

While the X-Men work out their differences, the Angel appears from out of nowhere and starts to heckle the team. Then the Beast appears, in a similar surly mood, and grabs Cyclops, taunting him and the rest of the X-Men. One by one, the old X-Men appear- Iceman and Marvel Girl join them- and a war of words quickly escalates to combat. The new X-Men sense that something is amiss- that these old X-Men don't seem real, even though they walk and talk exactly like they used to. And in fact, they fight just like they used to, in full ownership of their respective powers. Plus, they fight as a team, which concerns Cyclops as he watches his new X-Men teammates fight on their own.

Finally, Cyclops sniffs out what is going on. These aren't the real old X-Men, but some sort of mirror image of them. The Angel agrees, telling them that as mirror images, they will never get tired and will keep up the assault until every new X-Man is dead. The battle rages on until Professor Xavier comes crawling into the Danger Room, saying he is responsible for creating the mirror images. He uses his mental will to make the mirror images disappear, fighting the sedatives he is under, as well as the nightmare madness that has overtaken him. Once they are disappeared, a new menace comes on the scene- a sort of ghostly image of Xavier, who declares he is going to destroy the X-Men. Cyclops optic blast passes through his form, and a huge crevasse opens up beneath Wolverine, nearly swallowing him, but Xavier coaches him to ignore it as merely a mirage that can only hurt him if he believes in it. Xavier brings back the old X-Men as mirror images, then encourages them to beat up on the "Dark Xavier." Thus pushed out of his mindscape, all the mirror images dissipate away to nothingness. Xavier explains that the battle they had just fought was waged by the dark, evil side of his personality, that only was able to emerge because he was weakened by the nightmares, or the madness...Xavier is unsure.

Xavier awakens by the stargate, confident that he has laid his demons to rest by reliving that old nightmare episode. Now, all that is left is to worry how his X-Men are doing on the other side of the stargate.

- -synopsis and panel images by Gormuu

- - panel scans provided by Jonathan Clarke, aka doesitmatter