BIOGRAPHY - Page 4
Moira’s life of quiet research continued to be interrupted. She was kidnapped (along with several other friends of the X-Men) to force the team into a dispute between Doctor Doom and Arcade. After being rescued, Moira and Sean were visiting in Westchester when Banshee was introduced to a young woman named Theresa, his long-lost daughter. Moira was happy for Sean and his reunion, but also selfishly resented the fact that she could never give Banshee a daughter of their own. Her genes produced one monster already in Proteus, and she didn’t dare try for another child. Still, she invited Theresa to come live with them on Muir Island. Finally, Moira was present when Charles and the X-Men had their next battle with Magneto, a turning point for the rivals. On Island M in the Bermuda Triangle, an enraged Magneto fought the X-Men and nearly killed their youngest member, Kitty Pryde. Once he recognized that he had lashed out in anger at a child, Magnus was shamed into ending the fight. Despite his continued belief in mutant supremacy, Magneto began to consider turning from the path of hatred. [Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #145-150]
It was around this point that Moira and Charles first reached out to Magneto about the greater game they were playing. Approaching Island M under a flag of truce, Xavier gave Magnus the tantalizing bait that perhaps both their dreams were wrong. With Magneto’s permission, Charles opened Moira’s memories to Magnus, allowing him to experience the full sum of Moira X’s lives as 
Charles once did. Realizing what was at stake, Magneto agreed to chart the long-term future of the mutant race with these two co-conspirators. [Powers of X #2] This was a major step in Moira’s plans, but it also meant she lost a degree of control. Magneto could not be reasoned with or manipulated like Xavier, and now the two men had each other to confer with. As part of Charles' long-term dreams for mutant resurrection and gestalt theory, Xavier and Magneto reached out to the mad geneticist Mister Sinister in an alliance to preserve as many mutant DNA samples as possible. This contact was against Moira’s knowledge and advice, given her own memories of Sinister’s capacity for betrayal, particularly in her last life. Even more concerning, Xavier and Magneto’s report on Sinister to her indicated that Essex’s Chimera mutant research was already active, something Moira X couldn’t account for even with the butterfly effect. [Powers of X #6]
The new allies’ planning also faced other setbacks. While interacting with the Shi’ar and Starjammers, Charles Xavier fell into a deep coma from an unknown malady, and Moira attended to his care. No sooner had Charles recovered from his coma that the X-Men were lost in space and believed dead by their friends and allies back on Earth. Moira consoled Xavier as his grief led him to give up on the dream, refusing to train any further students to die on behalf of his ideals. Moira pressured Charles to continue their work and told him of a young girl named Xi’an Coy 
Manh, a mutant in need of training who recently met the Fantastic Four. Though he initially rejected the idea of meeting her, Moira called his bluff and told Charles she would merely refer Xi’an to Emma Frost and the Hellfire Club then. Moira forced Charles to accept the role he had carved out for himself as the guiding hand of mutantkind, and that it was not a job he could ever quit half-finished. [Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #158-165]
Moira ended up doubling down on her demands of Xavier faster than she expected. Back visiting on Kinross land in Scotland, Lady MacTaggert was accosted by a wolf. The wolf soon revealed herself to be a shape-changer, a local girl named Rahne Sinclair. Moira had delivered Rahne thirteen years ago and had identified genetic markers indicating mutant potential at the time. Rahne’s guardian was the fearsomely pious Reverend Craig, who led a mob with pitchforks after his Satan-spawned ward. Moira stood up against the men, defending her land and her young charge. Moira arranged to acquire legal guardianship of Rahne, and soon brought her to meet Charles Xavier as well. As Moira and Charles performed their early tests on Xi’an and Rahne, 
word came of another young mutant named Danielle Moonstar, child of a man Xavier knew from the war. In seeking out Danielle, they soon learned Donald Pierce of the Hellfire Club was also hunting young mutants. A conflict with Pierce’s mercenaries led to the recruitment of Roberto Dacosta and Samuel Guthrie, and Charles Xavier soon found himself with a new generation of New Mutants to teach at his school, whether he wanted it or not. [Marvel Graphic Novel #4]
Moira intended to help Charles restore his school, but other events affected their plans. The X-Men returned from space, alive and well, with a warning that Xavier had been infested weeks ago by a Brood Queen embryo. Professor X’s body was fully transformed into a Brood, but his force of will kept his mind from being consumed as well. With the help of the Starjammers’ medic Sikorsky, 
Moira oversaw the transplantation of Xavier’s mind into a new body, grown from earlier tissue samples. This freed him from the Brood infection and also restored his ability to walk. [Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #167] The viability of transplanting psyches into receptive clone bodies would be filed away by Charles and Moira for use in their long-term plans for Cerebro and mutantkind. [Powers of X #5-6]
It fell to Xavier’s Shi’ar lover Lilandra to tend to his recovery, though, for Doctor MacTaggert was summoned to London by the Israeli ambassador, Gabrielle Haller. Gabrielle had an autistic son whose mutant abilities were tied up in his mental condition, and she wanted Moira’s expertise in 
finding treatment for David. When Moira suggested Charles Xavier as a contact, Haller reluctantly revealed that Xavier was David Haller’s father, and she wanted it kept a secret from him. Moira agreed to evaluate the boy and design her own treatment protocol for David. She then retired back to Muir Island to conduct her work without Charles’ oversight. [New Mutants (1st series) #1-3]
Still, Moira could never stay away from Westchester and its research opportunities for long. A police officer and a nurse named Tom Corsi and Sharon Friedlander had their bodies altered against their will during a supernatural encounter involving the New Mutants. While they adjusted to their changes, Moira offered them housing on Muir Island. Sharon also served as David’s nurse while Moira was away. At Xavier’s school, Moira was called in to help Charles evaluate a new student, the techno-organic alien known as Warlock of the Technarch. While in New York, Moira learned her young ward Wolfsbane was experiencing emotional and physiological changes. Weeks earlier, Rahne and Sunspot had metabolized the same drugs which gave the vigilantes Cloak & Dagger their powers and were now manifesting similar transformations. The effect only ended once the original Cloak & Dagger reclaimed their power from the two mutants. [New Mutants (1st series) #22-25]
The time came when Moira and Gabrielle could no longer hide David’s existence from Charles Xavier. The boy was telepathic, telekinetic and pyrokinetic on top of his psychological issues and, one day, his mind simply absorbed those of Corsi and Friedlander, leaving them catatonic. The psychic barriers around David’s mind were formidable, but also quite similar to the ones Charles Xavier once helped bring down in Gabrielle’s mind. David’s hungry mind absorbed Moira and Rahne next, and Xavier soon learned the truth about his son. On David’s inner mindscape, they 
discovered an earlier trauma had fractured him into splinter personalities. Many were reabsorbed into David’s core consciousness but, in the process of saving his recent victims, three alters remained. Nicknamed Legion, David Haller overcame his initial catatonia, but now demonstrated multiple personalities and remained in Moira’s care to monitor his psychology and developing powers. [New Mutants (1st series) #26-28, 44, Secret Wars II #1]
After Charles Xavier was critically wounded, he was drawn away to the Shi’ar Empire for recuperation, leaving Magneto in charge of the school. [Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #199-200] One morning, Moira was abruptly brought back to Westchester by the teleporting Illyana Rasputin. The Marauders had begun their massacre of the Morlocks, and several X-Men were also among 
the growing casualties – Nightcrawler was comatose, Colossus paralyzed, and Shadowcat trapped in an ever-weakening intangible state. Moira worked with Magneto to establish a triage center in the underground hanger, working as fast as possible to save as many lives as possible. After the mansion was assaulted once by the Marauder Sabretooth, however, it was decided to move the Morlock patients to Muir Isle for safer treatment. [Mutant Massacre crossover]
The X-Men soon followed the Morlocks, leaving the mansion behind to fortify what remained of the team at Moira’s island. Moira and Banshee made room for more house guests, the dead and dying, and hospital staff to save who they could. The Morlocks’ former leader Callisto remained on Muir Island with the survivors of her people and named herself Moira’s bodyguard out of gratitude for the doctor’s work on their behalf. [Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #216-217] Still, the occupants 
of Muir Island would be ever changing. After receiving a request for aid from Magneto at Xavier’s, Moira’s young assistants Madrox and Siryn ran off to join a group known as the Fallen Angels. [Fallen Angels (1st series) #1-2] The X-Men also kept on the move, to avoid drawing their enemies to Muir. The active roster was involved in a major struggle with the Adversary in Dallas, Texas and seemingly died on live television. Moira helped the recovery of Shadowcat and Nightcrawler, but their friends had apparently passed away in their absence. [Fantastic Four vs. the X-Men #1-2, Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #227]
Moira was once involved in a truly bizarre hostage exchange scenario. Doctor MacTaggert and her bodyguard, Callisto, were traveling by train through Scotland when they encountered the entity known as Widget. The trans-dimensional teleporter cast a gateway across the arch their train passed under, sending the women to another Earth. [Excalibur (1st series) #4] In their place arrived a second train, from Earth-597, where the Nazis won World War II. Reichsminister MacTaggert and her Callisto were unpleasant guests who prompted a conflict between Excalibur and their 597 counterparts, Hauptmann Englande and the Lightning Force. Eventually, both Earths agreed to transfer their citizens back at the same time, to avoid further inter-dimensional feuding. [Excalibur (1st series) #11]