Joseph has a sense that the world is not as he recalls: Iceman is mobbed by adoring fans; Rogue and Gambit can touch each other; Beast finds the cure for the Legacy Virus; police arrest Bastion and the Friends of Humanity; and Cyclops doesn't require his ruby quartz visor. When he sees Jean Grey's image disappear from a portrait of the X-Men, Joseph knows they're being manipulated, a fact emphasized when the others tell him they know no Jean Grey.
Thinking he's behaving oddly, Rogue and Gambit scuffle with Joseph, but he persaudes them to help him use Cerebro to trace Jean's genetic signature. The device points to a department store in Salem Center, and the trio go there. Jean, meanwhile, tries to escape from the dream world in which she's trapped alone.
Joseph, Rogue and Gambit fight their way through the enthralled store employees to reach a room where they find Phoenix hooked, unconscious, to a mind-controlling device. The Gamesmaster reveals himself as the architect behind the illusions, wanting to see how the X-Men react to having their dream comes true. The three try in vain to overcome the Gamesmaster, but the effort does weaken his hold on Jean; psychically armoring her astral form, she attacks him, but the Gamemaster get's away claiming she will never understand him, but not before mentioning how Onslaught's rampage damaged the psychic plane, allowing Jean to figure he never had the powers he claimed to permanently change the world.
