Rahne is part of Cable's early group, even though she is absent from the lineup most often associated with the end of the series. Her friendships, fears and loyalties remain cen…

Rahne is part of Cable's early group, even though she is absent from the lineup most often associated with the end of the series. Her friendships, fears and loyalties remain central through much of #87–97. Reducing this period to the final recruits erases what happens to her. There are warning signs around supposed protection even before Genosha. In #88–89, Moira's attempt to take her back to Muir Island feels wrong to Rahne and Rictor. The situation keeps the question of adult authority alive: being told that someone knows what is best for her does not necessarily make it true. Then X-Tinction Agenda subjects that question to something far more brutal. Rahne is captured with other members of the group, stripped of power and processed by Genosha's system. By #96, the state has turned her into a mutate, treating her personhood as something that can be edited for obedience. The restoration in #97 is incomplete. She can recover herself in her wolf and transitional forms, while her human form remains affected by the conditioning. For a girl whose relationship with transformation has always been emotionally difficult, that reversal is especially cruel. Rahne stays in Genosha with Havok at the end of the crossover. It is a real departure from the New Mutants, and it belongs to the consequences of the story just told. It should not be described as an uncomplicated decision to graduate or try a different team. The gap she leaves has an immediate effect on Rictor. It also changes the balance among the remaining students. One of the founding friends is gone, and the reasons are still painful and unresolved when the series starts bringing in its final new faces.