UNDER REVISION
In Ancient Egypt, in the Lazarus Chamber of Apocalypse, the X-Men come to without the Professor or Wolverine, who leapt through a time portal after Mystique and Apocalypse captured Charles, only to be captured himself. Still, Cable figures he can stick it to Apocalypse a little, and does what he traveled to the past to do; reduce Apocalypse's chamber to rubble. However, in the Axis Apocalypse watches and sneers. As he exists outside of time, he doesn't need it anyway.
Back at the X-Mansion, they recoinoiter, as they had a temporal tracker on the Professor, allowing them to work out where their enemies took him. Greymalkin's computer determines Charles is now outside of time, but before anyone else can do anything, Cable goes after his nemesis.
Now Apocalypse has the last psychic he needs to begin his true plan, and a fed up Magneto asks him to explain just what that plan is. So Apocalypse obliges.
Time, he explains, is thought, and motion and thought are unity. This is the reason some psychics can even see the future. Gathering the universe's most powerful psychics in the Axis of Time, he plans to destroy them, the psychic energy this will release being enough to stop the Axis, and stop time itself. This will destroy the universe, and allow him to remake it in his own image.
Magneto is appalled, having only signed up to make a world where Mutants ruled. Apocalypse chides him for being foolish enough to trust him, and orders his horseman Death to kill the master of magnetism. Instead, they attack Apocalypse, since it's just Mystique again. Magneto was, it turns out, not that foolish. They fight, knocking Apocalypse through a wall and into the bottomless nothing surrounding the Axis. But that still leaves the other Horsemen, along with Sinister and the Nasty Boys, who still serve Apocalypse.
Not that it matters, since the psychics are ready. The energy is released, and across time, people and places vanish as if they never were.
Outside the Axis, the lines of time fade, as Bishop tries outrunning them. He's confronted by Bender again, and reaches breaking point with the weird being's strange comments, opening fire. A stray shot manages to hit Psylocke's tube, sending it crashing to the... well, not ground, and disrupting Apocalypse's scheme. She instructs Bishop to free the others, and he enthusiastically obliges.
Noticing, Apocalypse and his Horsemen go to deal with Bishop, leaving Magneto, Mystique and Wolverine against the Nasty Boys, until they're joined by an extremely confused Cable. The fight causes the Axis of Time to start flying apart, sending Sinister and the Boys running, but even that isn't enough to slow Apocalypse down slightly. He just figures he'll kill them all, recapture the psychics and destroy time all over again, and nothing can stop him.
Nothing except the psychics themselves. Since they're in the Nexus of Time, their power is immensely greater than Apocalypse, and with their powers combined, they force him out of the Nexus. Without his Lazarus Chamber, he simply ceases to exist. And with that, the psychics restore everyone to their proper time and place, leaving behind Bender, who simply remarks on the mess they've made, and transforms into a very irritated Immortus, Lord of Time.
In the modern day, Scott and Jean are reunited, and the Professor and Magneto comment on what it was like to work together again, Magneto idly wondering that maybe, one day, they could do so again, while Beast asks Cable if he thinks anything will be different in his time with Apocalypse gone. For his part, Cable doesn't care. All he wants to do is go home to his son. And so he sets off to a hopefully Apocalypse-free future... a week before he left, so he can catch up with his son.
This episode provides examples of:
- Balance Between Good and Evil: Apocalypse explains that breaking this balance is the purpose of his plan. By killing all the powerful psychics in one swoop in the Axis of Time, the resulting wave of energy will stop time and allow him to recreate existence itself.Apocalypse: A perfect universe, where I shall rule unchallenged!
- Big "NO!": Apocalypse, after the psychics are all freed from imprisonment.
- Bring It: After the Axis of Time gets ripped apart, Wolverine challenges Apocalypse.Wolverine: Come on, Mr. Change the Universe! Let's see if you can handle one X-Man!
- Call-Back: Numerous ones to past episodes, including previous encounters with Apocalypse.
- The Cameo:
- Among the already-seen psychics are Emma Frost, Rachel Summers, and Stryfe.
- Turns out the strange creature providing exposition and irking Bishop the whole finale was actually Immortus, one of Kang's personas, who reveals his true face briefly before vanishing in the epilogue.
- Determinator: Cable being this gets called out by Apocalypse.Apocalypse: You have traveled over 50 centuries of time to stop me! When will you learn it cannot be done?
Cable: Guess I'm a slow learner. [grabs his rifle and opens fire] - Didn't See That Coming: Wolverine in response to Magneto saying they have to work together against Apocalypse.
- Enemy Mine: After being freed, Wolverine has to work with Magneto and Mystique.
- Forced to Watch: Apocalypse leaves Wolverine alive, in order to helplessly watch the end of all existence.
- Heel–Face Turn: Magneto and Mystique turn on Apocalypse once they find out his endgame plan, which was to remake the universe in his image, which doesn't coincide with their own plans for mutantkind.
- Horsemen of the Apocalypse: Pestilence, War, Famine and Death are still a major hassle to deal with in this grand finale.
- Ironic Echo: Wolverine and Magneto wind up saving each other.Wolverine: (catches a knocked out Magneto) Look who I'm saving! You'd think I was Xavier!Magneto: (catches a falling Wolverine) Look who I'm saving. You'd think I were an X-Man.
- Irony: Observing Bishop fight off Apocalypse and the Four Horsemen, Mr. Sinister is amused over how he's giving it his all for a universe that no longer exists.
- Near-Villain Victory: Apocalypse had begun the process of destroying existence, with everyone outside the Axis of Time fading away and the handful of heroes in it being overwhelmed by Apocalypse's forces. It is only because Bishop was also there that the effort was foiled.
- Negated Moment of Awesome: Before Wolverine can even try to take on Apocalypse, some debris causes him to lose his footing.
- No Ontological Inertia: As they predicted, when Apocalypse is pulled from the nexus (the only thing protecting him), without his Lazarus Chamber, he simply ceased to exist (mostly).
- Obfuscating Stupidity: Magneto reveals he never believed what Apocalypse was selling. He knew he was being told what he wanted to hear, so he played along to see what was really going on.
- Pre-Asskicking One-Liner: Apocalypse gets one when Cable shows up at the final fight.Cable: Where am I?Apocalypse: (grown to giant size) Your final resting place.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: After the psychics are freed and reality starts coming back, Mr. Sinister opens a portal for a speedy exit for himself and the Nasty Boys.
- Series Fauxnale: Intended to be the grand culmination of the show, and it shows, virtually every character has a part to play and it ties up countless loose ends, as well as destroys (for now at least) the ultimate Big Bad, Apocalypse in a showdown of Good vs. Evil. And then they decided to do just one more season after.
- Too Dumb to Live: Mr. Sinister is all-in on Apocalypse's plan, outright mocking Magneto and Mystique for thinking they could challenge the guy's sheer level of power.
- Trickster Mentor: Being Immortus in disguise, Bender was keeping tabs on Bishop. His crazy antics were a sly way to get Bishop to notice things relevant to the whole plot and to be in a position to stop Apocalypse at the right moment.
- Undying Loyalty: Wolverine is trapped in the Axis of Time because he leapt through the portal after Xavier.
- Unwitting Pawn: Apocalypse thought this was the case for Magneto, having told him want he wanted to hear and fully preparing to eliminate him once he was no longer needed. However, Magneto reveals he knew it all along and cut a deal with Mystique.
- Visionary Villain: Apocalypse wants to build a better world. It just so happens that achieving his vision requires destroying all of existence to get there:Apocalypse: Unfortunately for you... time... has run out!
- Who Dares?: After Bishop disrupts the final process by blasting the blue ring, an enraged Apocalypse shouts "HOW DARE YOU?!" at him.
- You're Insane!: Upon Apocalypse explaining his plan, Magneto describes it as utter madness.
