Limbo

Illyana Rasputin stood in an arena surrounded by the demons of Limbo. In her Darkchilde form, she wasn’t far off from them. She held the Soulsword with both hands and had planned to take the fight directly to Belasco and finally claim his realm as hers.

However, he had other ideas and chose to nominate his own champion to fight in his stead.

Now, Marius St. Croix, the monster called Emplate, stood before her. His eyes were hungry, but his movements suggested reticence. Magik had no desire to fight him, but she was prepared to slay any who got between her and victory over Belasco.

Belasco smiled at Magik. By his side was Penance, the merged prison of Nicole and Claudette St. Croix. He gently rubbed her diamond-hard hair as if she were a pet. “Bring in the X-Men,” he said. “A little incentive.”

Illyana’s eyes drifted to her captured teammates. Sean Cassidy, Banshee. The team’s leader and armed with a powerful sonic scream. But that scream was rendered useless by the strange, ectoplasmic slime wrapped over his mouth. Kitty Pryde, Shadowcat. One of the X-Men’s greatest fighters and Illyana’s best friend. Except now, the mystical rope of thorns which bound her body prevented her from phasing.

And finally, her brother. Piotr Nikolaievitch Rasputin. When his flesh transformed into organic steel, he became Colossus, quite possibly the strongest of all the X-Men. That strength was being kept from him, due to shackles that were no doubt mystically designed to prevent him from accessing his powers.

With two of the people Illyana loved most, it was clear Belasco was trying to test her. Bring out her human side in order to weaken her in the battle against Emplate. And what was worse, Illyana felt it working.

“This was not how I expected the day’s events to go, but I must say I am enjoying it.” Emplate held his hand up to her so she could see the ravenous mouth snapping in the center of his palm. “I do wonder. Once I’ve killed you, which of the X-Men should I suck the life from first? Your brother looks like quite the powerful one. But then your friend, she has spirit.”

“Is this your plan, Emplate?” Magik raised her Soulsword. “Are you going to talk me to death?”

A tendril emerged from his hand. Not a usual power Emplate possessed, perhaps a trait he absorbed from one of the demons. Magik easily evaded the tendril as it came for her. She countered by slicing right through Emplate’s tendril.

He hissed and pulled back, the remnants of the tendril retreating into his hand. His fingers grew longer and more pointed, forming into claws. Magik jumped forward and brought the Soulsword down on him, but Emplate raised his hand to block it.

His skin was diamond-hard, no doubt due to all the years he fed off his sisters in their Penance form. He grabbed the sword with one hand, his other clawed hand wrapping around her throat. Emplate started to squeeze and Illyana saw the sick pleasure in his eyes. She could also feel the vampiric mouth biting into her neck, the energy transfer beginning.

“Yessssss…” he muttered, his eyes glazing over in ecstasy.

BLACK MAGIK

Part V

By Hunter Lambright and Dino Pollard

(Based on Plot Outlines by Chris Munn)

Magik had one chance. She concentrated on the Soulsword and it vanished, returning to her body and merging with her. Emplate’s eyes tried to follow the action, but he didn’t expect to see the sword materialize in Magik’s other hand. She struck.

Emplate screamed and released her, pulling away. His back was turned, his hands over his face. When he turned towards her again and revealed his face, Magik saw the Soulsword had left a deep gash running down from his forehead, between his eyes and over the bridge of his nose.

“I think I improved your face,” she said.

Emplate charged at her, his claws elongating. Magik did her best trying to parry his clawed attacks, but her attack was a gamble. She was weakened from even that brief feeding session. Meanwhile, Emplate was stronger than ever. And Illyana didn’t think even the power of the Darkchilde could enable her to defeat him.

*ZAKT*

The doors to the throne room were blasted open by concussive beams of crimson energy. Those who weren’t blinded by the flurry of multi-colored plasmoids that cracked all across the room were left staring in fear at the avatar of a fiery raptor.

Cyclops folded his arms across his chest, his voice booming throughout the throne room as he issued a command to the cadre of mutants that stood by his side.

“X-Men—let’s finish this.”

The call was given and M was the first off the ground. She blinked away tears of rage as she fixed her gaze on her brother. He looked right back at her with his beady eyes. Seeing the monster he’d become, she realized she had no sympathy for him any longer. It only fed her rage.

“This is the last time, Marius!” she screamed as she barreled into him.

Cannonball rocketed through the air, avoiding the demons and heading straight for the ring where he picked up Illyana in his arms and flew her towards a clearing to give her a chance to regain her footing.

“Ain’t seen ya like that in a long time, Illyana,” he said, referring to her demonic form. “You gonna be okay?”

“I’ll be fine, Sam,” said Magik. “I just need a minute and then I’m back in this fight.”

“Y’su—?”

“Sam.” Magik’s tone was firm as she cut him off. “You’ve got other things to worry about. I’m fine, just trust me.”

Cannonball looked uncertain, but then he gave a slow nod, choosing to grant his old friend the benefit of the doubt. “Awright, I’ll leave you to it. Meanwhile, I got a bone t’ pick with the sumbitch who kidnapped my students.”

“Go get ’im.”

Cannonball surrounded himself with his kinetic blast field, and it propelled him from the ground and towards Kierrok. And as for Magik, she wasn’t fine. But she still had a job to do, and she saw the rest of the mutants gathering. She went towards them.

Wither wrapped his hands around the mystic rope that bound Kitty. They appeared to be living, because his death touch left them in an advanced state of decay and she could feel her powers returning.

“Thanks,” she said, and then went to Peter first, holding his hands and phasing his body through the shackles. Once they were gone, he activated his mutant power, his skin transforming into organic steel.

Kitty next went to Sean, grasping his head. “Hold very still, I have to time this just right…”

She extended her phasing powers to the molecules in Sean’s body, careful to exclude those from the ectoplasm covering his mouth. It was more challenging than the shackles because the ectoplasm was actually attached to him. But with the proper concentration, the ectoplasm fell to the ground and then Kitty allowed both her and Sean to turn solid once more.

“Me thanks, Kitty,” said Banshee, instantly slipping into the leadership role. The rest of the X-Men quickly gathered around, having repelled the demons for a moment. “Illyana, what are we dealing with now?”

“I have to take out Belasco, he’s the key to all of this. But I can’t teleport in Limbo without risking the time differential.” Magik’s eyes fell on the pink-skinned girl named Clarice Ferguson. “Blink, can I count on you to give me a hand?”

Blink nodded. “I can get you to him.”

“Okay, the rest of us need to keep the fight off them,” said Banshee. “Jono, Lee, Kitty, Rogue, yeh’re on N’Garai duty. Forge, lay down cover fire for the rest of us. Paige, think your brother could use a hand, take Peter with. And—”

“Banshee.”

Sean looked to the source of the voice and saw Cyclops standing there. With the tension between them lately, he expected Scott to offer some kind of objection to his command. Instead, the first X-Man had something else to say.

“All I ask is you leave N’astirh to Jean and myself,” said Cyclops. “I think you know a little of our history.”

Banshee nodded. “Aye. With my blessings, boyo.”

Emplate flew through the air, kept aloft and rocketing by M’s consistent punches, her teeth gritted as she pounded her brother’s face. With his diamond-hard skin, she felt no need to hold back. Even if he wasn’t in his dense form, M doubted she would have pulled her punches.

“As long as you are there…” she said, punctuating with another punch.

M flew faster to catch up to him, grabbing his neck and then continuing. “As long as you are preying on mutants…”

She delivered another punch, sending him through the air again. M pushed her flight even further, grabbing hold of him once more.

“I will never be free!”

M coiled her fist, channeling her psionic energy into her strength and delivering one final blow. This one practically created a shockwave and threw Emplate through the air, crashing through one of the columns of the throne room.

Rubble collapsed upon him. M didn’t wait for him to rise back up. She dropped to the ground and dug through the rubble until she found him, his respirator damaged and his breathing labored. But through the wheezing, he still managed to let out a cackle.

“Do it…Monet…” he muttered. “Finish the job.”

M’s fist tightened and part of her was ready to punch right through his skull. But instead, she dropped him on the rubble.

“No.”

Emplate struck the ground and groaned, then laughed again. “Of course…never willing to do what’s necessary.”

“You can stay here,” she said. “With no mutants in Limbo, let’s see how well you enjoy feeding on demons.”

“Tempting, but I think not.” Emplate weakly smiled.

M blinked, not sure what she was seeing at first. Emplate’s body appeared distorted and too late, she realized he was phasing out of Limbo.

“No!” she cried, flying forward to grab him before he vanished. But she was too late. Emplate was gone and she knew at some point, they would encounter each other again.

Cannonball blasted Kierrok back into the throne room, at which point Kierrok broke free from Cannonball’s grip and spun his wings. The force of the wings redirected Cannonball’s trajectory and he blasted right into the ground. Kierrok grinned as he descended, ready to deliver a killing blow.

“Hey, ugly!”

Kierrok looked to the source of the voice. He saw the armored form of Colossus holding Husk in his hands. Husk smiled and said, “Catch!”

Colossus hurled Husk through the air. While in mid-air, Paige Guthrie tore her flesh off her body, revealing a fresh form made of jagged stone. She struck Kierrok and then dropped back to the ground, landing in a crouch.

Cannonball got up and saw the opening. Husk had created a deep wound in Kierrok’s chest and now he was going to use that. Cannonball activated his blast field and rocketed into Kierrok, expanding the kinetic energy as he made contact with the N’Garai’s flesh wound.

Once the smoke cleared, Cannonball hovered in the air and Kierrok was nowhere to be seen. He dropped back to the ground and dusted off his hands. Paige came up beside him and Sam offered her a smile.

“That’s what happens when you mess with the Guthries,” he said.

Paige chuckled and then looked away. “Seems you’re passin’ that message on. Have a look.”

Sam looked where Paige pointed. In another part of the battle, he saw Forge laying down cover fire while Rogue, Chamber, Shadowcat, and Jubilee laid waste to the N’Garai forces.

But what really impressed Cannonball were his students. Trance was by Forge’s side, firing energy at any demons that got too close. Wither was on the front lines, his gloves off and his death-touch leaving decaying corpses of demons littering the grounds. And Pixie flitted in and out of the shadows, throwing hallucinogenic dust around at the demons.

Sam allowed himself a prideful smile. “Well, would’ja look at that…”

“Welllll, look what we have here,” said N’astirh as he saw Cyclops and Phoenix stand off against him. “The adulterer and his whore.”

The flaming raptor avatar surrounded Phoenix’s body and she rose into the air. With a thought, Jean tore massive chunks of rock from the floor, the walls, and everything around them. She flung them at the demon, but N’astirh countered every attack by vaporizing the rocks with bolts of mystic energy, or simply swatting them away with his bare hands.

“I see you’ve grown stronger since the last time we met,” he said. “But you still lack the savagery to do what’s necessary. And because of that, you’ll always be weaker than my dear departed Goblin Queen.”

Jean’s eyes burned with flames. “You really think so? How about we test that theory?”

Now, instead of massive rocks, the Phoenix summoned microscopic debris. Millions of particles floated from the surroundings and Jean commanded them all as one. They began rapidly spinning, hurtling at N’astirh.

The demon quickly brought magic shields to defend himself, but it was hard to keep the debris at bay. They cut at his shield, moved far too fast for even his senses to track, and were omnipresent.

“Witch!” N’astirh screamed, unleashing his reserves of magical energy.

The spell reverberated out, striking at the Astral Plane. And it was strong enough to break Jean’s concentration. She cried and fell, but Cyclops was there to catch her.

“Jean!” he shouted.

“F-fine,” said Jean, cringing as her body felt pain from the slightest movement. “Just bruised and stunned. Think this one’s up to you.”

“Oh yes, let us see what this shell of a man can do,” said N’astirh with a chuckle. “I can see inside your soul, Scott Summers. You are nothing but a walking garbage heap of human insecurity and failure. Abandoned by both his biological father and his surrogate one. Unloved and unwanted as a child. His first wife programmed to love him, his second who constantly dies in order to escape him. A leader who sacrificed his brother and betrayed his team. And then there’s his own sons. One he abandoned to a future of strife, the other dead.”

Cyclops rose from his wife’s side and turned to face N’astirh. He started walking towards the demon, reaching his hands up to his mask and visor. At first, the ruby-quartz visor was necessary for Scott to control his powers. But now he had that control, so the visor was just there for precision. That wasn’t necessary at this point. Scott pulled the visor and his skullcap back, and when he opened his eyes, his irises were glowing bright red.

“Is that all you’ve got?” he asked. “I may not have been the perfect son, the perfect husband, the perfect father, or the perfect leader. But good or bad, those choices were my own. I made them and even if they were the wrong choices, I willingly accept the consequences. But what I won’t do is dwell on them anymore. Those decisions were made, and no one’s going to force me to curl up inside myself and live a life plagued by regret. Least of all a third-rate demon like you!”

The energy in Scott’s eyes built to a crescendo and them he unleashed it. N’astirh used his magicks to shield himself, but that wouldn’t last long. It seemed almost as if Cyclops’ reserves were limitless—the energy just kept pouring out of his eyes without any decrease in intensity.

“Jean, now!”

“What?” asked N’astirh.

The raptor appeared around Phoenix’s body once more and she instantly rose to a hover. She cast her eyes to the roof and the entire ceiling suddenly came down, burying N’astirh under the rubble.

“It’s called playing possum,” said Jean as she landed next to Scott.

Husband and wife turned away from the demon who had plagued their nightmares ever since the Inferno event. And beneath the rubble, a wing briefly twitched, but then went still…

Blink’s portal opened above Belasco’s throne and Magik fell through first, Soulsword pointed down. Belasco just looked up at her and smiled. “You think I didn’t expect this, Darkchilde?”

He moved from the throne, but Magik still managed to pierce his thick cape and pin the sword to the ground. As Belasco tried to free himself, Magik delivered a quick kick to his chest, followed by a punch.

“I know how to end this, Belasco. All of it.”

She pulled the Soulsword from his cape and pointed it at him. She raised it in a wide arc and brought it down. Except she didn’t bring it on Belasco. Instead, she brought the blade down upon Penance.

“Magik, no!” Blink screamed. She tried to go for one of her javelins, to charge it with teleportation energy before Magik could strike Blink’s former teammate.

But Magik was too quick and the Soulsword struck its target. The blade cleaved right through Penance, cracking her into two halves. The half-faces started to become whole, revealing the normal faces of the twins.

A bright light emitted from the cracked form, rolling over everything. Belasco and the demons screamed as the light consumed them. And once the light faded, they were in the church where the former Generation X had battled Emplate’s underlings, right before Paris was sucked into Limbo. Except this time, there were no demons. Just dozens of Parisians, who all looked extremely confused. And the X-Men.

“What the hell…?” asked Jubilee. “Are we…?”

Jean closed her eyes and ran a quick psychic scan. She opened them again and smiled. “Yes, we’re back. Paris is back.”

“It was Illyana,” said Kitty. “She must’ve defeated Belasco, must’ve—”

“Illyana!” Peter screamed. “Where is she?”

Limbo

Belasco looked to see the X-Men gone, as well as the Parisians who’d been transformed by his magicks. But when he saw Magik in her Darkchilde form still standing before him, he laughed.

“The X-Men may have escaped…but you are right where I want you,” he said. “This is just like old times, my dear. You are mine once again.”

“You think so?” she asked.

Magik’s grip tightened around the hilt of her Soulsword. She swung it in a quick flash, cutting right through Belasco’s neck. His head remained there for a moment and then rolled off his shoulders, striking the ground just a second before his body did.

“The girl you’re referring to?” asked Magik. “She died a long time ago.”

Magik began descending the steps from the throne. None of the demons dared challenge her. Instead, they made a path for her, parting like the Red Sea, and then knelt down in worship of their new mistress.

Epilogue

A week had passed. The former members of Generation X parted ways and returned to their lives. A lot of the tension many of the X-Men felt around Cyclops had seemed to lift somewhat after fighting off demons.

“Peter…?”

The Russian-born mutant didn’t look away from his canvas as he said, “I asked not to be disturbed, Katya.”

“I know,” she said. “But you haven’t come out since…”

“My sister is gone. Again,” he said. “After I’d finally gotten her back…after all those years we thought she was lost…”

“We’ll find her. We’ll—”

Kitty was interrupted by a bright light that suddenly appeared in the middle of the room. It was in the form of a glowing disc and a figure stepped out of it. A woman dressed in eldritch armor with a horned helmet and a powerful sword.

“Snowflake!”

Peter stood and rushed for his sister, knocking over his stool. He wrapped his arms around his sister, afraid to let her go.

Illyana smiled and patted him on the back. “I’m okay, Piotr. Now please…before you choke me…”

“I’m sorry,” he said, breaking the hug.

“Illyana…?” asked Kitty, stepping forward, staring at her best friend in surprise.

Illyana removed the helmet, revealing her long, blonde hair. ”I’m okay, Kitty, really.” She looked at the painting Peter had been working on. Heavy reds and blacks, evocative of Limbo. But also no doubt the turmoil he felt over losing her. She rolled her eyes as she looked at her brother. “I think you’re being just a bit melodramatic.”

“What about Belasco?” asked Kitty.

“He’s no longer a threat,” said Illyana. “But in the time I’ve been away, Limbo has—well, it’s gone to hell, to be frank. I have to stay there. For now, at least. Try and re-establish some semblance of order.”

“And after? You’ll come back?” asked Peter.

Illyana gave him a hug and a kiss on the cheek. “Try and keep me away, big brother.” She then embraced Kitty. “You keep him out of trouble, okay?”

Kitty nodded and hugged Illyana back tightly, closing her eyes as tears ran down her cheeks. “I’ll miss you.”

“Me too.”

Illyana broke the embrace and stepped away. She donned her helmet again and a stepping disc appeared beneath her, rising up and transporting her back to Limbo’s throne room. Magik sat in her throne and reached inside her armor, pulling out the amulet. She rubbed it with her thumb.

Oh yes, there was still plenty to do. All in preparation for her Lord…

Not the end…