Rachel reaches the X-Men carrying a history they cannot remember. She comes from the nightmare future associated with Days of Future Past, where being a mutant could mean captiv…

Rachel reaches the X-Men carrying a history they cannot remember. She comes from the nightmare future associated with Days of Future Past, where being a mutant could mean captivity, persecution and death. Her connection to Scott and Jean is part of that history, but arriving in the past doesn't give her the family she expects to find. There is something especially cruel about recognizing people who can't recognize you in the same way. Rachel knows what these faces mean to her. They are meeting a distressed stranger who already has strong feelings about them. Every conversation starts with a gap that her telepathy cannot simply erase. Her first encounter with the present-day group in #184 also brings Selene into that story. Rachel doesn't arrive neatly introduced and ready for a place at the breakfast table. She is frightened, exhausted and in danger. The circumstances help explain why her eventual place with the team never feels as uncomplicated as adding another powerful psychic. Taking the Phoenix name adds another layer. For Rachel, it connects to her mother and the possibility of doing something worthwhile with what she has survived. For people who lived through Jean's loss, that name has its own terrible weight. The conflict with Wolverine over Selene in #207 exposes how far apart two teammates can be while both believe they understand the danger. Rachel's experience of violence shapes what she thinks has to happen next. The consequences carry into her departure from this cast by #209. This spotlight stops there, with a teammate gone and her time among these X-Men left painfully unsettled.