BIOGRAPHY - Page 14
Returning to their home universe, the X-Men began a startling new initiative when Xavier and Magneto oversaw the formation of a mutant nation on the living island of Krakoa. With Krakoa’s consent, their mutant scientists cultivated exotic flowers in its soil which could grow gates to teleport from point to point, or drugs to cure the body or mind. A circuit of Five mutants also unlocked the secret of mutant resurrection. Mutant culture blossomed as citizenship was offered to all, and mutant politics used the distribution of the drugs as leverage to receive recognition in the United Nations. As trade partners, individual nations were required to acknowledge Krakoa’s sovereignty over their citizens, allowing all mutants to emigrate through the gates and giving amnesty to any mutant abroad. [House of X #1-6]
Xavier and Colossus anticipated in advance that Russia would reject Krakoa’s offers and feared for the mutants trapped in their borders. Some gate flowers were planted in Russia without the nation’s consent, but they quickly became guarded by heavily-armed soldiers with power-
neutralizing gear. Piotr started early with an underground railroad of sorts, trying to evacuate mutants from Russia before the net tightened. He had some success but suffered tragic losses as well. Colossus was traumatically wounded protecting the last band of mutants he gathered in Russia. He only escaped thanks to the intervention of Kate Pryde and her team of freebooters, the Marauders. [Marauders (1st series) #1, X-Force (6th series) #1]
Piotr recuperated in privacy on Krakoa, returning to his art as a release. He reconnected with Domino, who also suffered horrible injuries and torture as a scout infiltrating the human group, Xeno. Skin grafts carved from her flesh allowed assassins to infiltrate Krakoa registering as mutants and (temporarily) murder the professor. An upgraded assassin replicated Domino’s “luck” and began killing pro-mutant humans around the globe. Dom harnessed her pain like a weapon, 
using it to drive her to take revenge on Xeno. When Sage detected a train moving through Russia as a mobile base for Xeno’s body farm, Domino recruited Colossus as support. They destroyed the train and the many Domino copies on board, but Dom died in the process. As she passed, Dom made Piotr promise to let her keep her anger when the Five resurrected her. And yet, those were not the instructions the Five received. [X-Force (6th series) #7-8]
Colossus decided the train was his last field mission. He retired from action and returned to his life as a farmer. The Krakoan drugs were grown from extended biomes on Mars and the Savage Land. Piotr wanted to tend the land like his family had done for generations, contributing to Krakoa in a manner he was comfortable. He avoided Domino after her resurrection and began a relationship with a water-manipulating mutant named Kayla who helped at the Savage Land aquifer. She was protective of Piotr and his new life, especially when Domino came by trying to recruit him for X-Force full time. Colossus refused her, but he still charged back through the Krakoan gate when the main island was under attack. Russian bio-shop soldiers brought back from the Flower Cartel proved to be a Trojan Horse, unleashing homunculi to cause chaos on the island. [X-Force (6th series) #11]
This attack led to the theft of Cerebro data and a note pointing back to Russia and Mikhail Rasputin. With his brother and homeland identified as a threat to the state, Piotr came under suspicion by X-Force. The overbearing and self-important Beast decided to make a big show of arresting and interrogating Russian mutants like Colossus and Omega Red, even parading them 
in handcuffs through the gates. The other members of X-Force like Wolverine and Domino were not onboard with Beast’s theatrics, but the damage was done. [X-Force (6th series) #12] Jean Grey personally cleared Piotr of any wrongdoing through intensive telepathic probing. Beast personally apologized to Colossus for his accusations, but Piotr only acknowledged the apology without accepting it and returned to the peace and isolation of his farming. [X-Force (6th series) #15]
Piotr kept himself busy with his painting. He had been painting vigorously ever since returning from Russia. He drew his inspiration from Krakoa and painted many things he saw around the island. Almost as an after-thought, Piotr shipped his work overseas to be sold at galleries, but it was the muse that guided his hand, not the need for money. [X-Force (6th series) #19] Colossus made some odd choices for his paintings, like the savagery at the Crucible. Decimated mutants fought to the death for the right to be reborn in the Five’s resurrection queue with their powers restored. Piotr was a private man, especially after Beast paraded him like a criminal. Few were close to him these days, otherwise someone might have connected the painting of state secrets like resurrection with the sales at human galleries, and perhaps asked some questions. [X-Force (6th series) #22]
In fact, Piotr Rasputin’s mind had not been his own for many months. Mikhail Rasputin had virtually conquered Russia, manipulating the Kremlin into authorizing a second constitution for Russian mutants under his authority. Among the mutants of Russia that Mikhail commanded was a powerful writer called the Chronicler. If this writer understood a subject well enough, if they became his muse, he could link with them and scribe their reality onto the page. Mikhail shared stories of Piotr as only a brother could, and so the Chronicler made Colossus into Mikhail’s sleeper agent on Krakoa. He had no conscious knowledge of his actions (thereby escaping Jean’s search of his memories), but Piotr’s reality bent to the Chronicler’s pen and Mikhail’s will.
Piotr’s art was always bought by Mikhail, containing images of the Quiet Council’s chambers, the 
Cerebro helm, the Crucible, X-Force’s base at the Pointe and more pictures that told a thousand words. Kayla had proven a good distraction and alibi for Piotr on a few occasions, but now her story needed to end for the next chapter to begin. The Chronicler set the scene for Kayla to find Piotr’s hidden cache of artwork. When she confronted him about it, Piotr brought his lover into his arms and then turned them to steel, snapping her like a twig. After he robotically buried her body and washed the blood and dirt from his body, Piotr was surprised to have a visit from Charles Xavier. [X-Force (6th series) #23-24]
The Quiet Council had two open seats after the departure of Jean to the X-Men and Apocalypse to Amenth. Mystique managed to outmaneuver Xavier and Magneto to resurrect Destiny without their knowledge and place her on the Council. Charles wanted someone reliable and trustworthy to balance the new addition, and asked Colossus to join the Krakoan government at his nomination. Piotr Rasputin was inspired to accept the offer and he soon learned (along with the rest of the Quiet Council) the ugly truth – Moira MacTaggert was secretly a mutant reincarnated through ten lives who informed the birth of the nation. Russia’s mutant sleeper agent was now privy to all the secrets of Krakoa. [Inferno (2nd series) #2-4]
Colossus remained a quiet presence on the Quiet Council, as was expected of him. He oversaw the transition of Hope Summers to replace a retiring Magneto, the revelation that Sinister was but one of many, and the Eternals’ war with Krakoa. [Immortal X-Men #1-7] Piotr was also summoned to Limbo by a spell when Illyana struggled to transfer control of the realm to Madelyne Pryor, freeing herself from that obligation. Brother and sister had been distant since the near-wedding, but they took this time to mend fences… even while Piotr was screaming internally. [New Mutants (4th series) #26-29]
One of the few times he asserted himself was when the Council learned Beast had killed and resurrected Omega Red against his will as a spy against the Vampire Nation. Omega Red discovered this and attacked Krakoa for revenge, before being killed by Wolverine. Beast wanted to bury his pawn in the resurrection queue, but Sage spoke up in favor of rehabilitation for Omega 
Red. When Beast tried to quiet her and act as the one true voice of X-Force, Colossus spoke with the voice of the Quiet Council and bade McCoy to be silent. [X-Force (6th series) #27] He also rebuked Beast when he made noise about deporting Russian mutants recently recovered from human traffickers. [X-Force (6th series) #31]
Piotr made tiny acts of rebellion against his controller. Back when Domino died on the Xeno train, the Chronicler compelled him to instruct the Five that she no longer wished to remember her trauma at their hands. These memories contained details that might have led X-Force back to Xeno and the Man With the Peacock Tattoo’s main base. Somehow, Piotr was able to leave a painting of Domino’s trauma at her biome. When she came to confront him about it, the Chronicler naturally would not let Colossus admit he had been in her home and left the painting. This contradiction got Domino asking questions and thinking about Piotr’s behavior more than she had before. [X-Force (6th series) #36]
Beast finally went completely overboard and tried to enslave Logan as his personal weapon for murdering Krakoa’s enemies even before they became active threats. Wolverine got free and 
killed Beast, but McCoy had his own secret resurrection tech and fled Krakoa with clones of himself and Wolverine as analysts and executioners, a Weapons of X. In light of this scandal, Wolverine quit X-Force and Sage was promoted to new chief intelligence officer by the Quiet Council, now that Beast was on the run. The Council surmised their previous hands-off approach to X-Force for plausible deniability had led to this, and so they announced one of their own would become an active liaison with X-Force in the future. Piotr Rasputin volunteered for this duty and was given full access and oversight to X-Force’s intelligence and missions. [X-Force (6th series) #39]
Kid Omega emerged from the future and took X-Force to confront versions of Beast that the Prime McCoy had seeded at different points in the timeline. During this escapade, the connection between Colossus and the Chronicler was severed. Piotr compared it to a fog being lifted from his mind, although he did not immediately recall everything he had been made to do. Still, Domino 
noticed a change in his behavior where he was no longer as cold as in recent weeks. Piotr was on the verge of telling Neena to go to the farm and dig up Kayla’s body when they returned to the present. The Chronicler immediately brought his pen to bear again and led Colossus away from the conversation, but Domino remembered what Piotr started to say. [X-Force (6th series) #40-42]
Piotr’s presence on the Quiet Council elevated from spy to actual threat as the council began to fracture. Mister Sinister naturally planned to betray the mutants from the start, tainting his DNA samples for resurrection with a sleeper personality and genes from himself, making everyone truly Sinister. Hope’s presence on the Five somehow negated that but, once he assassinated Hope and half the Quiet Council, her resurrection and every resurrection after that was compromised. A horrifying timeline emerged from this, where Sinister mutants slowly co-opted the rest of the Council, Krakoa, the world and the universe beyond for a thousand years. This timeline was prevented by a figure named Mother Righteous and Sinister was sentenced to the Pit, but Hope, Emma, Xavier and Exodus were still potentially compromised, as further manipulation of their genes couldn’t be ruled out. To avoid a public scandal, they retained their seats on the Council, but no longer had the ability to vote. [Sins of Sinister crossover]
As regent of Arakko, Storm was increasingly absent from the Quiet Council, yet felt it necessary to keep an eye on the compromised members. She gave her vote to Piotr to exercise as her proxy with his discretion. [Immortal X-Men #11] After being abused by Orchis and used to kill against his will, Nightcrawler also stepped away from Krakoa and the Council. He left his proxy vote with Ororo, meaning that Colossus could hold three of twelve Council votes at a given meeting, and four of the remaining members could not vote at all. Mikhail Rasputin’s puppet now held nearly half the authority of Krakoa on matters of consequence. [X-Men: Before the Fall – Sons of X #1]
One day soon after, Colossus made his move. He made a deal in advance with Sebastian Shaw to vote his ally Selene onto the Council in Sinister’s vacant seat. Once the Council chambers were vacated by the compromised members, Piotr and Shaw used their four votes to elect Selene over the objections of Destiny, Mystique and Kate. With his new majority, Colossus had Nightcrawler’s 
vote permanently moved from Storm to him until Kurt’s return. He then twisted the knife and voted to release the details of the Sinister timeline to the world. Under the Chronicler’s pen, Piotr sold this disclosure as a matter of principle, disgusted with the corruption and compromises he saw on the Quiet Council and in X-Force. Yes, there would be substantial backlash against their nation, but it was worth it to “do the right thing.”
Deep within his own mind, Colossus could do little to deviate from the Chronicler’s mandates. He prayed that someone would recognize he was acting out of character in some way, and deliberately pressed for some verbal jousting with Kitty in the hopes she would catch the hint. Even when Storm was recalled from Arakko, the Chronciler’s plan would not be swayed. Destiny was also compromised by resurrection thanks to a plan by Mother Righteous, meaning the final 
vote was in Colossus’ favor 4-3, with five Council members unable to vote. Storm could not understand why her “little brother” would do this, but Piotr failed to get her to recognize the truth. The consequences for Krakoa after the revelation were so severe that the Quiet Council decided to disband at the next Hellfire Gala, allowing Krakoa to elect a new government to replace the current one which was hopelessly corrupt and unable to act. [Immortal X-Men #12-13]
[Note: The exact mechanics of the Chronicler’s control over Colossus seemed inconsistent from story to story. Above in Immortal X-Men, Piotr was completely aware of his actions, trapped within his own non-responsive body and trying to signal people in real time. In X-Force, however, he was more of a Manchurian Candidate, with no conscious memory of actions taken under the Chronicler’s pen (allowing him to deceive Jean’s telepathy). When separated from Chronicler during the time travel adventure, Piotr did not immediately start disclosing everything about his treachery. He seemed to only regain memory of what he had done over time.]
Mikhail believed the Hellfire Gala on Mykines would be the perfect moment of weakness to deliver a killing blow to Krakoa. He had a thousand bio-engineered super-soldiers at the ready to storm the Gala, eliminate the Quiet Council and dispose of many other high-value threats. As directing 
liaison to X-Force, Colossus was in position to coordinate their response at the Gala. Given recent scandals with Beast and Nightcrawler, Piotr directed Sage to keep X-Force security discreet and off-site, observing for threats only through remote surveillance. This would delay their response time when Mikhail and the Russian super-soldiers emerged from a new Krakoan gate that Colossus planted on Mykines for their deployment.
However, Domino had not forgotten the conversation which Colossus had suddenly cut off after returning from the future. She left X-Force to visit his farm and discovered Kayla’s shallow grave. At the same time, Orchis launched their own brutal strike on the Gala, preempting the Russian attack. Colossus and the Chronicler did not have a script for these events and were forced to ad lib. Colossus returned for X-Force and promised to lead them directly into the firefight, but instead lured them through his private gate to Russian and Mikhail. The absent Domino got on comms with Sage just in time to warn her that Colossus could not be trusted, and so Piotr only managed to capture Kid Omega, Laura Kinney and Omega Red for Mikhail.
Mikhail kept his puppet and the X-Force prisoners in his personal dimensional void and he scrambled to enact a new plan for accumulating power. He decided to repeat his same ploy with Colossus and apply it to Orchis, pressing the Chronicler to find a new muse among Orchis’ lower ranks who would be an adequate spy. The Chronicler laid out his fears that suddenly abandoning Piotr’s “story” could have dire consequences for Colossus’ mind and health, but Mikhail did not care. He even sent Piotr to the Orchis space station to temporarily kidnap his replacement, Jun 
Wei, so that the Chronicler would have the opportunity to forge a muse bond with her. While Mikhail, Jun Wei and the Chronicler were busy, Mikhail cast Piotr into a corner of the void like a discarded toy. The shift in Chronicler’s focus slowly allowed Piotr’s mind to regain autonomy and reflect on all his unintended actions over the past few months. If it weren’t for the art supplies left there for him to express himself, it’s possible the shock might have driven Colossus completely mad.
Meanwhile, the Chronicler was beyond tired of Mikhail’s abuse and tried to assassinate him with Jun Wei’s help. Mikhail instinctively teleported to his brother’s area of the void to recover from his injuries, and Piotr and Mikhail spoke directly for the first time since his return. Piotr still loved his brother, so he couldn’t comprehend Mikhail’s betrayal. In Mikhail’s mind, Piotr surely would have 
agreed to join his dream for Russia if asked. In order to avoid telepathic snooping, though, Peter needed to be unaware of his own actions. Colossus rejected Mikhail’s idea that shared blood excused how his brother used him, but he had too much blood on his hands to lash out at Mikhail. He renounced his brother and planned to leave him behind, but Mikhail used his powers to repair his wounds and turned his anger on Colossus.
As the brothers fought, Mikhail’s void began to fall apart around them and his true feelings came to the surface. Mikhail believed he was owed a glorious future thanks to his great powers and abilities, yet he felt overshadowed by the accomplishments of his little brother. He did not manipulate Piotr out of love, but out of envy. After pummeling Peter with his powers awhile, Mikhail became confident he had proved his superiority and got too close. Colossus regretfully 
struck out with a single blow that caved in his older brother’s chest before ripping his heart out. Mikhail’s body was cast into the void as it all began to crumble. Domino and Sage were already inside on a rescue mission for X-Force, and all the inhabitants of the void were cast out through the portal maintained by their ally, Doctor Strange. Now, X-Force had to decide what to do with Colossus. [X-Force (6th series) #43-46]
Piotr was interrogated for several days (both verbally and telepathically) to verify his story and his intentions. Colossus was completely forthright about his feelings. He admitted there was a chance he would have supported Mikhail in some way if his brother had reached out nobly, and he did nurse deep concerns about how Krakoa played out, which he was never in a position to properly consider or express. He hated being used against his will, though, and promised to aid X-Force in whatever efforts they took against Orchis. The team decided to trust him, and Colossus stood with 
X-Force over the next few weeks. They established a remote base called the Greenhouse up north, reconnected with Wolverine and other allies, and finally brought an end to McCoy’s madness. “Beast Prime” died during the destruction of his self-made doomsday weapon, and an earlier incarnation of Beast (from a backup made before Krakoa) took his place in the world. [X-Force (6th series) #47-50]
Colossus reunited with the dispersed X-Men as they gathered for the final retaliation against Orchis. Peter found himself working shoulder-to-shoulder with Wolverine and Nightcrawler again, as Orchis was exposed and their A.I. allies betrayed the human members in an effort to wipe out the Earth and achieve Dominion over all. Nimrod and the others fell, and Jean returned to achieve a lasting victory over the even greater threat of Enigma. [Fall of the House of X #1-5] Krakoa would not be resettled, however. The survivors of the Hellfire Gala massacre had formed their own peaceful community with the Atlantic Krakoa in the White Hot Room, and did not wish to return to the strife and divisions of Earth. The X-Men of Krakoa gathered one last time to witness the Pacific half of the island rejoin the Atlantic twin, as the united Krakoa left this dimension once more with most of the mutants on Earth. [Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #700]