Captain Britain stares into the room, his lost wife Meggan slumbering in some strange dimension. What is he looking at? he asks of the demonic Plokta. Is this a portal to wherever that is?
With a smirk, Plokta replies he’d only go after her. This is a magical image of an actual location. But if he’s tempted by Plokta’s offer… his heart desire in return for serving him…
So magic’s moving between here and there, Cap muses aloud. Okay. Can’t tell if that’s an illusion or not. Not like the other rooms in the dream corridor. If there’s a chance… His power depends on confidence now, he announces. There’s nothing he’s afraid of. He’s not going to ask Plokta for Meggan. He’s going to get her! and he jumps in, destroying the demonic tentacles wrapped around the sleeping Meggan.
Plokta grins triumphantly as he tells his human servant Mrs. Dunley to lock the door. Good Lord, he snorts, as if he didn’t know all about him. He’s planned for this moment! Mrs. Dunley remarks they are so used to battling “super-villains,” people who stand for something. They’re quite surprised when someone lies to them. They’re just not ready for a duke of hell.
Plokta thanks her for the compliment. Now they have a major source of magical power trapped in the dream corridor. He orders her and the other human thralls to prepare it for its next victim. Turn up the Hellfire and say hello to the Mindless Ones.
And outside the building Alistaire Stuart is barely able to shout a warning at Captain Colton as the Hellfire grows again, swallowing the nearby buildings. It’s expanding exponentially Alistaire announces, checking his readings. If it keeps growing at that speed, it’ll cover Britain in three days and in a week… the world!
Inside the building, Blade screams in anticipation of the agony to come as the vampiric Spitfire crouches above him, ready to tear into his throat. Instead, she loosens her hold and with dignity announces she is a Falsworth. She’s in charge of who she is.
Blade curses her and puts his blade to her throat. Unfazed, Jaqueline coolly informs him she feels the evil here, but she’s in control of her urges. The question is: is he?
Blade’s rage gives way to an appreciative smile. Girl, later for that, he replies as the Mindless Ones storm the room.
In the basement, Captain Midlands warns Pete Wisdom, Faiza Hussain and the Black Knight they’ve got to stay focused. Don’t let yer mid wander off. It’s hard not to do it, in here. Not to think about… well, your heart’s desire. But that’s when he appears, just in you head.
He recalls Plokta appearing, summoned by the sheer vastness of their need. Any door can lead to one of his rooms. To get what you most desire, all they need do is enter. He knew what he’d see inside, Sidney, recalls, bowing his head as if ashamed. Like he said, he turned Plokta down. But it was so hard.
Faiza announces that she thinks Excalibur kind of knows where the demon thing is. It is pulling her upwards up the stairs. Up they go, Pete announces. And nobody, you know, think of anything they really like.
Elsewhere, Captain Britain shakes Meggan until she wakes up. With a cry of joy she recognizes him.
Back inside the building, Blade and Spitfire battle Mindless Ones. Where do these things come from? Blade complains, sword drawn. Through every door, Spitfire replies. She’ll have to remember this lot if she needs help moving house. She evades the optic blast of one Mindless One who then hits one his kind.
Blade slices one in half with his sword. They can die! he shouts. He and his adamantium odachi, they are in control of this situation! He had to say this out loud, he adds almost defensively. He’s just too loquacious, Jaqueline observes. That too, he admits.
As they’ve cut themselves a berth, Blade admits there’s something trying to get inside their heads. Spitfire agrees. It keeps dragging her thoughts to… to…
Can she smell her friends? Blade interrupts her. Yes, they’re heading upwards. Well then, Blade forces up the doors of the elevator behind him and then opens the hatch door in the ceiling. He swings upwards and stretches out his hand to her. Lady J, he tells her, he likes the way she fights. Promise, he won’t kill her. Until they’re out of it. Tremendously courteous of him, she replies. How could a girl refuse? And she takes his hand.
Elsewhere, holding hands, Meggan and Brian fly downwards to Earth. Though he doesn’t understand. How can that be Earth down there? She was in some other dimension. She doesn’t know, Meggan replies. She just woke. She just woke, she replies joyfully as she flies upwards, and she’s safe and he’s back. It’s perfect! She flies back to him. They kiss passionately, not heeding that they catch fire as they fall through the atmosphere.
Back inside the building, Pete’s group makes its way up the stairs with the Black Knight in the lead. Why’s this demon thing doing this? Faiza asks fearfully. Plokta must be doing something with the magical power he is harvesting from the people who go into his “dream corridor,” Dane suggests. He asks her to keep chatting to him, by the way. Between the sword playing up and trying not to think of his heart’s desire… now would not be the time for him to rub his stomach and chew gum.
What about her? No visions of some great longing. No, absolutely not, Faiza assures him almost too fast. Nothing at all. Worth mentioning, that is. She adds that she think that it would be totally hard to get to them anyway. Because they are prepared.
She misses Wisdom, lost in thought as behind a door visible only to him Plokta is showing him something. Isn’t it tempting? he asks as Pete looks at what seem to be the moon or another world, smiling.
At a table sit Pete, Maureen Raven and Kitty Pryde. A certain giant bullet is stuck in the planet’s surface. And that, Maureen, is why sending Brian recklessly into combat wasn’t really a repressed reaction to the death of John the Skrull, Pete is explaining to his dead girlfriend Maureen Raven.
That was an impressive explanation, she replies and assures him she completely believes him. Kitty Pryde (sitting in front of the mounted head of Lockheed the dragon) tells him it was great to meet his mom and sister tonight. And to hear that everyone he has ever had in his care is safe, and can never be harmed. That rocks.
And here, look, I’m not really dead, John the Skrull pipes up, serving the champagne.
Hey, wake up, comes the Black Knight’s voice as he shakes Wisdom and breaks the reverie. That’s how they get to you. He was just thinking about an old friend, Pete replies. Ow.
The swords, Dane suddenly shouts. Can she feel it? Yeah, Faiza admits, raising Excalibur, there’s something being made. Something being made out of magic. As if on cue, Mindless Ones surround them.
The hellfire has now covered more buildings, Alistaire Stuart and Captain Colton realize. Stuart, using binoculars, sees that Mindless Ones are in the building. He orders the captain to call in the heavy ordnance. Bring up everything they got and start talking to the RAFD. If those things are loose on Earth, their previous problems pale in comparison!
Braddock Manor, and at the bottom of the drive stands the Braddock Arms. Brian and Meggan sit at a table within the Pub. A pub with his name on, Meggan remarks teasingly. Bit of a male fantasy, Brian admits. But he never gets time to visits. He holds her hands. That’s what he’s going to do, now he’s got her back. Make time for all the things they never did. They’ve been given a second chance.
She’s loved these past few weeks, Meggan admits, just having the chance to breathe again. And it was great of Pete to give him compassionate leave. She notices he looks at her strangely. Why is he looking at her like that?
It’s nothing, he replies. Something just walked over his grave, as they say. It’s like he’s forgotten something he dreamed. He touches ho forehead. Maybe it’s just because this is what he’s wanted for so long. It’s hard to accept it’s all real. But, wait a sec, he tries to recall. He rescued Meggan from where Plokta had her and maybe he doesn’t entirely know his cross-dimensional powers yet, so he somehow unconsciously got them home…
Brian! she cries as there’s a crashing noise. What he’s feeling is nostalgia, comes the voice of a newcomer that hits Brian, the pain of remembering! Of remembering his own brother! Before them stands Brian’s elder brother, Jamie, holding a flaming sword and dressed thankfully in jeans and a Pink Floyd T-shirt (instead of his usual speedo).
Elsewhere, Blade and Spitfire are climbing up the elevator shaft. He kills vampires, Spitfire states. They have a lot in common, she muses. Her family’s been persecuted by the damn things. But she didn’t think there were many left. Yeah, about that… Blade hesitates, he got something in common with Pete Wisdom. A few months ago, he brought all the vampires back. Horrified, Spitfire realizes what that means to her. He could be alive! That’s what she most… most… She faints and falls the long way down the shaft.
Elsewhere in the building, Pete, Faiza, Sid and Dane are fighting Mindless Ones. This is what the magical energy’s used for, Pete shouts. Plokta’s making Mindless Ones.
Horrified, Dane realizes they don’t fall! The Ebony Blade… needs them to fall. He shouts out Faiza’s name as she is attacked by Mindless Ones.
Plokta, in the meantime, has gained access to his mind. The Knight knows what he’s going to offer him, doesn’t he? A chance to give up the Ebony Blade. To not be afraid to fight with all his might. Just step inside one of his rooms and sheath it. Dane sweats as he shouts no weakly. No! He shouts out loud and cuts off the arm of the Mindless One holding Faiza.
At the Braddock Arms, Meggan tries to reach out with her empathic power and calm Jamie. He is calm, she tells him. Don’t try to use her powers on him, “Meggan Puceanu,” he warns her. As if she could! And besides, he’s really not. With that, he buries his blade in Brian, apparently instantly evaporating him.
Back in the building. Dane shouts in pain: No blood! No blood! The Ebony Blade wants blood!
Faiza begs him to stop. He’s better than this. Pete cuts through a Mindless One with hotknives and orders Whitman to stand down. He’s ordering him to!
Dane raises his blade to Faiza. Pete shouts there’s something he has to know. Pete didn’t want to tell him. That’s not the Ebony Blade!
