Ever since the Krakoan Age of the X-Men began in Jonathan Hickman's House of X/Powers of X, the idea of someone becoming an all-powerful "Dominion" has been a key point, and it has been something that has particularly been pursued by the four clones of Nathaniel Essex - the established X-Men foe, Mister Sinister, as well as his fellow Essex clones, Doctor Stasis, Orbis Stellaris and Mother Righteous. Sinister's pursuit of Dominion status was the driving forces behind the Sins of Sinister crossover event. In Immortal X-Men #17, it appears as though Mother Righteous has discovered her path to becoming a Dominion, and it involves capturing Jean Grey within the White Hot Room, the place outside time and space that Jean goes while she recovers from death and prepares to return to life due to her role as the Phoenix.
Immortal X-Men #18 is from writer Kieron Gillen, artist Juan José Ryp, colorist David Curiel, letterer Clayton Cowles, and, of course, yet another stunning cover by Mark Brooks, and it continues the adventures of the thousands of mutants who were trapped in the White Hot Room, where the majority of the Krakoan mutants ended up after Charles Xavier was forced to send the vast majority of the Krakoan mutants (basically any mutant not able to fight off Xavier's telepathic commands) through teleportation gates during this year's Hellfire Gala, which was attacked by the villainous anti-mutant organization, Orchis.
In Immortal X-Men #16, it appeared that Mother Righteous was assisting the mutants. However, in the latest issue, we discover that her support was merely a pretense to capture Jean Grey before her resurrection. This deceptive maneuver apparently plays a significant role in elevating the antagonist to Dominion status.
Simultaneously, Mister Sinister, now confined to the recesses of Charles Xavier's consciousness, endeavors to assist Xavier in thwarting Mother Righteous' scheme. Previously, Sinister ingeniously implanted a fragment of himself into the minds of every resurrected Krakoan mutant. However, he has since been extracted from their collective consciousness and now solely resides within Xavier's mind. Despite Xavier's mistrust of Sinister, the latter is driven by a sense of vindictiveness, as he seeks to prevent one of his fellow clones from attaining the god-like status that eluded him.
In the preview pages, we see Mother Righteous escorting a captured Jean Grey through the desert in the White Hot Room, while explaining how she was able to harness the power of the gratitude the Krakoan mutants had for her for helping them earlier into magic enough to turn on them.
We see that Destiny, who Mother Righteous had mortally wounded with a stab wound to prevent her from warning the others of Mother Righteous' plan, is now healed by the mutant healer, Elixir. Destiny's powers typically don't work in the White Hot Room (since it exists outside of time and space, so precognition doesn't exist there), but she is teasing that she CAN do something that no one else can. What that is will be revealed next week in the series finale of Immortal X-Men!
Source: Marvel