Limbo, inside the Hatchery:
Dani Moonstar shakes Cannonball out of his stupor and helps him up. Sunspot and the injured Magma are in the same cell, but they have no idea where Doug and Illyana are. They’ll have to find them later, Sam decides. The bloodstone amulet is their priority. They find Ulysses and his men, they can get it back!
It’s too late for that, Dani announces. They need to help their friends! Sam reminds her that, if the soldiers use that amulet to call the Elder Gods, it will mean the end of the world! He doesn’t get it, Dani tells him, it’s over, they’ve already lost!
They look outside to where the Elder Gods are decimating the denizen of Limbo. A starry sky with one moon seems to indicate that there is already a link to Earth. They did it, Sam stammers; the soulless bastards actually did it! Amara spells out that they have torn a hole to Earth. Everyone they’ve ever known… they are all going to…
They can’t walk away, Sam decides. Not after what they did to them. Dan tries to hold him back. They can’t look back. They killed the world! he tells her, they can’t walks away. He flies away.
Amara points up at the sky where she and Bobby see lllyana riding on a flying demon, trying to fight the enemy. Amara explains that isn’t their Illyana. It’s her before she travels back in time to warn them about Legion. She has to tell her what went wrong, to make her go back and fix this. She can barely walk, Sunspot tells her. Who knows how long before she can use her powers again? She agrees too easily to hiding. Don’t! he cuts her off. Illyana told him that she would trick him into leaving her and then she can go warn Illyana and die. She agrees. But it’s their only chance. It’s the end of the world! What does he want her to do? Sunspot stammers, then decides he wants her to let him come with her. He can’t let her die alone.
The men of Project Purgatory look after the leaving Elder Gods who have slain the demons. The attack on Earth was not what they expected, Noc stammers. Russell tells Ulysses he can’t find Trista. He thinks she’s back at base. Noc decides they still have the amulet and Ulysses has Toko hand it to him. Noc announces he must command the deities to halt their attack. Their world must not fall!
They don’t seem to be taking orders, do they? Ulysses points out. He can feel they want the amulet. The legends… the promise of power… just a lie to get what they want. He’ll give it to them. Maybe that will be enough, and if not…then the whole world will know the horrors they’ve seen.
Ulysses strides towards the horrors while Noc tells everyone else to run. “Come on then, you sons of whores!” Ulysses shouts. His name is General Charles Ulysses of the United States military. By the power vested in him through these bloodstones, he commands them to run back. Resolutely, the general holds the amulet aloft, a sight taken in by the multi-faceted eyes. To this challenge, the Elder Gods reply something in their own language and behead him.
Earthside:
Cyclops asks Illyana how they can stop the Elder Gods. They don’t, is the curt reply. This is beyond them. Cyclops refuses to accept this. Even if they all lay down their lives this day, they won’t cede Earth to her evil deities. There are wheels in motion, she replies vaguely. Perhaps to save them, perhaps not, but some things can’t be changed, some things can’t be stopped.
In Limbo, the other Illyana from an earlier time demands to know who unleashed the Gods!
Hiding further down, Sunspot and Magma have hammered out their plan. He will fight the demons as long as he can, hopefully drawing enough of them to gain her a passage. This is more than he can handle, she fears. Roberto explains that Juliana, his first love, was killed in front of him. He prayed for years that God would let him take her place. He thanks her for letting him do this. He’s welcome, she replies, tears in her eyes. Let’s do this! he shouts and turn to his solar form to attack the demons.
Elsewhere, Noc and the rest of the group have taken a train to take them back to Portal Epsilon with Noc the only one apparently understanding what horror they have unleashed. That moment, Cannonball appears in front of them and smashes through the rain at full speed.
Dani searches the Hatchery for Sam, instead finding Doug in a console room standing next to a kneeling Trista. He explains that she liked the way it sounded so she made him learn to play it, even though none of them knew what it did. It plays magic, symphonies of spells. He picked it up quickly. Language is power, he always believed, but in Limbo the power of a well-turned phrase is almost terrifying. He lifts Trista’s head – she no longer has a mouth, hence can no longer command him. Dani is shocked while he asks what’s the story with everyone else.
Is that all you’ve got? Sunspot shouts bravely, tearing into the demons. Amara turns back… she can’t… About to be overwhelmed, he shouts at her to run and whispers he loves her.
“Hmm that’s odd,” Illyana muses. She is not usually this sentimental. She orders the X-Men to prepare themselves. Moments later, she teleports them to Sunspot’s side and they attack the demons. Colossus breaks him free.
Why isn’t he dead? Roberto asks Illyana. She said if he protected Amara, he would die. That she couldn’t help him. She agrees. She should not have jeopardized her plans. But she supposes this is as good a place to watch as any. Watch what? Sunspot asks and gets his reply a moment later as a fully-powered Legion appears in the sky, whiteness glowing around him.
Inside Legion’s personality matrix, all the personalities are fleeing, save for David and Marci. The two are holding on to Karma, who assures them everything is going to be okay. Illyana knows what she’s doing.
The fighting has stopped. The X-Men stare at Legion in shock. The last time he flared like this, he destroyed their reality! Cyclops exclaims. How did-- He is her message to the Gods, Illyana replies. ”Long have you tormented me, you ancient embodiments of evil. My soul was torn from me to purchase your freedom. I have prevented your release many times… but banishment will no longer sate me. You hunger for human fear… human suffering. Today you understand that we are not human. We are superior!”
The madly grinning Legion turns to white energy. “Today you cease to be!” And in the light, the Elder Gods are torn apart.
Legion hovers in whiteness, the Beatrice amulet floating nearby. Darkchilde teleports to his side. Legion points at the amulet and it dissolves, the five bloodstones floating to the hands of Magik, who cradles them with a gentle smile. Legion too smiles at her.
And suddenly things are normal again. There’s a huge crater where the Elder Gods were before. Mutant / Legion has hacked reality code, Warlock announces. Rewritten to uncorrupted back-up? The X-Men try to process what happened. It is over, Illyana announces, human again and cradling an unconscious Legion.
Utopia, three days later. In the infirmary, Roberto hams up his suffering so that Amara can nurse him all the better. As they watch, Warlock asks Cypher if their proxy/family has sustained structural damage as result of Illyana’s interference. They are either growing or dying, Doug replies. Which is it?
Roberto suggests Amara could rub his back a little. Of course, she agrees, and Sunspot winks at Doug and Warlock. They’ll see, won’t they, Doug comments.
Elsewhere, Dani asks Sam if he caught up to the Inferno kids and Doctor Noc. What did he do? Sam doesn’t reply or meet her eyes and walks away.
Also in bed, Pixie gets a surprising gift from Illyana, her souldagger and her two soul gems. Did she get them all back? Pixie asks confused. Her own too? Does this mean she is a, you know, real girl again? She hopes to act like it does, if nothing else, Illyana replies and tells her good-bye.
Outside the room Shan is waiting for her. How did Legion find his way to Earth? She demands. Illyana smirks. He has the power to end the universe, Karma announces grimly. Every X-Man on the planet risked their lives to banish him from existence itself. And she brought him back because he was the only one who could kill the Elder Gods. She never had any intention of stopping Ulysses, did she? She let all of this happen so she could have her revenge… Yes, Illyana admits.
Shan exclaims that she has to tell the others. She will do what she must, Illyana agrees, just as she. Illyana walks to a waiting room where her brother Colossus is waiting. Shan calls after her: Why did Legion help her? What did she give him in return? Everyone wants to come home, Illyana replies. Even the worst of them.
Illyana joins his brother and tells him she’s back. Happily he hugs her. His snowflake! Yes, his snowflake, she agrees. While hugging him, she stares out of the glass window, her face strangely expressionless. Only Karma sees it.
