Biography - Page 8
Out on his own and through unknown means, Sebastian eventually regained his memories and old personality. He laid low, for the most part, but eventually reasserted himself among the Hellfire Club and reclaimed the Inner Circle. Sebastian Shaw once more moved among the movers and shakers of the business world. [Uncanny X-Men (4th series) #6, Mighty Thor (2nd series) #8] Shaw chose to remain on cordial terms with the X-Men. He formed an alliance with Magneto’s team for their mutual gain, even allowing Magnus back into the Inner Circle as White King, despite 
their past differences. [Uncanny X-Men (4th series) #11-14] Sebastian also worked with Rogue and Cable of the Avengers Unity Division, providing support in their efforts to contain the M-Pox plague affecting mutants around the world due to the Inhumans’ Terrigen Mists. [Uncanny Avengers (3rd series) #13-14] He and Xorn ruled over occupied New Attilan when the X-Men went to war with the Inhumans because of the threat of the Terrigen Mists. [Uncanny X-Men (4th series) #18]
The strange bedfellows continued as Hydra took over America. The imposter Captain America helped orchestrate a new mutant homeland on the west coast to rise in synch with his conquest of the rest of America, isolating mutants and using them as a convenient scapegoat and enemy nation to maintain his martial law over the United States. New Tian used the old Utopia island off the coast of San Francisco as its capital, with Xorn ruling as king of the mutant state. Sebastian became one of Xorn’s advisors alongside Beast, Archangel and Emma, as most of the X-Men were trapped in Manhattan by Hydra. They remained on the brink of war with Hydra’s America until Rogers’ downfall was engineered by the real Captain America and other remaining heroes. [Secret Empire event]
Emerging from this collaboration was a cabal that included Sebastian, Emma, Miss Sinister, Bastion and the inverted Havok. Sinister had discovered a form of artificially-induced mutants from another dimension, genetically engineered using the Mothervine nano-virus. With Shaw and the Hellfire Club’s resources, plus contributions from the others, this cabal planned to disseminate Mothervine around the globe to trigger millions of new mutants, restoring the population to number not seen since before the Genoshan massacre. Existing mutants would also receive secondary mutations from Mothervine exposure, and Sebastian tested this form of enhancement on himself.
Magneto opposed the cabal, distrustful of some of its members’ intentions. This created a divide between him and the Hellfire Club, and Magneto arrived at the club to oppose Sebastian. Shaw seemed to have his own concerns about Mothervine and had nearly drank himself into a stupor while ruminating when Magnus approached him. Still, Sebastian remained committed to his endeavor, and used his secondary mutation to supercharge his powers and sober up before 
squaring off against Magneto. Shaw could now draw energy from anywhere to increase his strength, from Magneto’s electromagnetism to the ambient kinetic energy in the air itself. Sebastian’s power was impressive but, as Magneto suspected, it was also unstable. The Black King’s mutation began draining power from his body, and Shaw started to wither under the might of his own mutation. Sebastian’s fall was the final straw Magneto needed to confirm the Mothervine cabal was reckless and dangerous, and he opposed them to the end. [X-Men: Blue #23-25]
Sebastian thought to strike out at Magneto through his X-Men, but his efforts were diverted by Jimmy Hudson before he even reached the young X-Men. [X-Men: Gold #36] In truth, Sebastian was severely weakened as his body rejected Mothervine, and he needed time to recover. The Hellfire Club had been greatly reduced by Magneto’s aggressive attacks on their holdings to find Shaw and Emma Frost. Emma manipulated the X-Men into helping her weaken Shaw’s loyalists even further so she could lay claim to the entire Hellfire Club for herself. She advanced on Sebastian personally, using an affiliate to poison Shaw at his bedside to ensure the outcome of their confrontation. Sebastian fell paralyzed at her feet, and did not recover until after Emma had thoroughly dismantled his power structure and made the Club hers and hers alone. [X-Men: Black – Emma Frost]
Nevertheless, Emma was soon placed in a position where she had to allow Sebastian back into the Hellfire Club. Moves were made by Magneto and Charles Xavier to establish a mutant homeland on the living island of Krakoa. In order to gain the leverage necessary for Krakoa to be accepted on the international stage, they cultivated exotic flowers from Krakoa’s unique soil to create pharmaceuticals able to extend human lifespans, serve as a universal anti-biotic and cure many diseases of the mind. These revolutionary drugs needed a distribution network, and Xavier and Magneto approached Emma to rebrand the Club as the Hellfire Trading Company. While the White Queen would coordinate negotiations with Krakoa’s partner nations, though, a Black King was needed to rule the black market, set prices for resale of the three drugs and punish nations 
who refused treaty with Krakoa yet still tried to profit from the Krakoan drugs. Emma reluctantly agreed to allow Sebastian back into Hellfire for his connections and unscrupulous ability to do business, now in favor of a common cause. The ruling Quiet Council of Krakoa would be a body of twelve, and Emma secured three seats for the Hellfire Trading Company: herself, Sebastian and the unclaimed Red monarchy. [House of X #5-6]
Sebastian had designs towards the Red seat and Krakoa gave him a unique opportunity to fulfill his ambitions. New advances in “mutant technology” meant the mutant race no longer needed to fear death. A group known as the Resurrection Five could combine their powers to restore any dead mutant to life, operating from a back-up copy of their mind stored and updated perpetually by Xavier in Cerebro. Shaw’s son Shinobi had been resurrected earlier only to die again in the 
chaos surrounding O*N*E shortly before Krakoa was founded. Sebastian arranged for Shinobi’s resurrection and hoped to establish him as the Red King (and perhaps rebuild the damage to their relationship over the preceding years). Sebastian gave Shinobi a selfishly edited version of events surrounding the establishment of the Hellfire Trading Company. In particular, he hid Shinobi’s suicide from his son, claiming instead that the White Queen had him killed.
Sebastian’s greed and ambitions were hampered by plans Emma already had in motion when he returned to Hellfire. She had made an offer of the Red to Kate Pryde of the X-Men, and the new Red Queen was established before Shaw could maneuver Shinobi into the post. Kate and her Marauders ensured mutant refugees who wanted to flee their home countries for Krakoa were allowed to reach the Krakoan teleport gates, regardless of their government’s feelings on the matter. When Sebastian exceeded his mandate and used the black market to cater to his friends in the 1%, Emma also had Kate and the Marauder’s crew slap his hand, destroying his shipments and reducing his liquid capital. Emma had a head start with the trading company before Sebastian 
came aboard, and she was clearly interested in maintaining it. Sebastian was forced to position Shinobi as his Black Bishop instead, acting as captain of the Black royalty’s military frigate, the Upstart. At his residence Blackstone in Hellfire Bay, Sebastian stared across the water at the White Palace and plotted his next move. [Marauders (1st series) #2-3]
While his feuding with Emma continued, Sebastian kept up with his duties to Krakoa and maintaining control of the black market. He joined the White Queen and Great Captain Commander Cyclops in investigating a disruption at the Krakoa gate in the Savage Land, near the harvesting fields. A group of botanical scientists called Hordeculture had learned how to hijack the gates and stole Krakoan seeds. Sebastian attempted to negotiate with them in the name of mutual greed, but they refused and were declared enemies of the mutant state. [X-Men (5th series) #3] When a drug kingpin in the small nation of Costa Perdita wanted Krakoan drugs, he arranged to target the family of a mutant named Beak, who was not yet on the island. Several students from Krakoa got involved and Beak’s parents ended up dead. Sebastian took charge and shut down the Bohem Cartel by making an exclusive deal with their competitor, the Carrascos. The kingpin was ruined, and Shaw sent a strong message about his control of the black market for Krakoan drugs. [New Mutants (4th series) #8]
When the opportunity arose, Sebastian made his move to eliminate the Red Queen and fortify his position. Knowing the Red and White would object to any idea of his on principle, the Black King manipulated a Hellfire meeting to ensure his Black Bishop and the Upstart would run into trouble in Madripoor. Donald Pierce had risen to become ambassador to the United Nations from Madripoor’s kleptocratic “government,” now controlled by an anti-mutant group called Verendi. Shaw approached Pierce and arranged for Verendi to attack the Upstart in the harbor, prompting a rescue response from Pryde and the Marauder. Once the Red Queen had secured both a hull full of mutant refugees and a second Verendi ship with a stockpile of power-dampening armor, the Marauders separated to deal with them both. Kate would sail the slower vessel to Magneto’s 
Island M (keeping the power dampeners away from Krakoa), while her crew took the Marauder and the refugees on the faster ship. Having hidden himself inside of one of the armored suits, Sebastian emerged to eliminate the Red Queen. He tossed her dragon Lockheed in a net over the side and sent Kate after him moments later. The Red Queen drowned, and Sebastian Shaw was one step closer to having his due. [Marauders (1st series) #5-6]
Sebastian enjoyed some small victories in Kate’s absence. He arranged for a successful vote in the Quiet Council, knowing the Red Queen would be absent. He also worked through Shinobi to acquire Black Knights for their Hellfire royalty in the Fenris twins. Sebastian’s personal successes ended up coming at the expense of Krakoa, however. The Krakoan drugs he provided to Pierce as payment were labeled for reshipment by Verendi after they were laced with deadly poisons. Verendi intended to cripple public opinion of Krakoa and their drugs and didn’t care how many innocent people were harmed in the process. It was only thanks to a hot tip from the United States’ X-Desk that the Krakoans prevented the loss of life (and business) due to Sebastian’s shenanigans. [Marauders (1st series) #7-11]
The Black King’s real problems arose when Kate Pryde’s body was recovered and, eventually, restored to life successfully by the Five. Moreover, Lockheed also survived his assassination attempt, and returned to telepathically share evidence of Shaw’s crimes with the Red and White Queens. [Marauders (1st series) #11-12] After the Swordbearers tournament in Otherworld concluded, Kate and Emma brought their complaints to Blackstone. Emma had acquired a power-dampening gun, neutralizing Sebastian’s advantage. They charged Sebastian with moving against his fellow councilperson, undermining the nation with Verendi and contributing to the poisoned Krakoan drugs, even if inadvertently. His crimes, if revealed to the Quiet Council, would lead to his exile 
into the lower reaches of Krakoa like Sabretooth. Or, the matter could be quietly resolved among the heads of the Hellfire Trading Company. Shaw relented, but he still suffered as Lockheed extracted his own pound of flesh (literally, Shaw’s eye) and the Queens fed him whiskey laced with the same Verendi poison he nearly allowed into their market. Crippled, humbled and weakened both physically and politically, Sebastian was allowed to survive, but little else. [Marauders (1st series) #16]
Sebastian was suitably cowed by Emma's rebuke, and remained a relatively passive observer as Emma prepared the first Hellfire Gala for Krakoa. In fact, his mind turned towards the past and Sebastian began thinking about Lourdes Chantal again. Sebastian regretted that his fiance's death occurred prior to Cerebro's backup system coming fully online, meaning she could not be resurrected. By the terms of his agreement with Emma, Sebastian was allowed to fix the damage done to his body after the Gala. His reminiscence led Shaw to conceive a plan for reviving mutants who died earlier than Cerebro could account for, using time travel and so forth. After Shaw brought this plan to Xavier before taking it to the Council, Emma was put in a position to come clean with Sebastian. She revealed Lourdes had never died, but had been living in secret all these years. Sebastian's abuse of Lourdes reached a point where she needed an escape, and Emma telepathically faked Lourdes's death at the Sentinels' hands to allow her to flee. Emotionally crushed by the lies he had been living under, Emma left Sebastian alone to dwell on the consequences of his actions. [Marauders (1st series) #17-22]
Sebastian seemed genuinely contrite after the revelations about Lourdes. He was found drinking at an Arakkoan bar when the Marauders crossed paths with Eden Rixlo. Sebastian spoke relatively well of Emma and Kate, and worked with them to defuse the situation. [Marauders (1st series) #24-25] Next, Sebastian and Emma came together to arrange the resurrection of their old friend, Harry Leland. A mutant business magnate and corporate lawyer, Leland was well suited to serve as Krakoa's ambassador to the United Nations, sitting across from their old colleague and rival, Donald Pierce of Madripoor. Sebastian truly missed Harry's friendship, and they got drunk together, fought, and caught up on old times. This included Shaw finally coming clean about Shinobi's parentage. He introduced Harry to Shinobi and explained that Shinobi's mother had been close with both men before writing to Shaw asking for money and support. Sebastian had claimed Shinobi, but it was Leland who was his true biological father. [Marauders (1st series) #26]
In the weeks that followed, major changes came to the Quiet Council as pieces moved and secrets were revealed. [Inferno (2nd series) #1-4] Sebastian was already considering putting more of his focus on the Council when Emma arrived at Blackstone with Lourdes Chantal. Sebastian wanted Lourdes' forgiveness, and in response she asked for his seat on the Hellfire Trading Company. Sebastian agreed, asking in exchange only that she keep Shinobi on as her Black Bishop. The new Black Queen wanted nothing more to do with Shaw, and so Sebastian was left to prepare his own plans. He separately warned Lourdes about Shinobi while also encouraging Shinobi to live up to his adopted name and strike to gain control of the HTC. Humbled perhaps, for a time, Sebastian Shaw is never a man to turn your back on too soon, or for too long. [Marauders (1st series) #27]