The Limbo Embassy in New York City:
A hooded person rings at the door. The demon answering sighs, asking what do they want? The visitor explains she is there to see Alex Summers. She is interrupted that he is indisposed and wants no visitors. Then the door is slammed in her face, an insult you don’t have to take when you are master of magnetism like Lorna Dane aka Polaris. She uses her power and the door explodes inwards.
Dropping her hood and addressing the demon as Frylock, she states that Alex and her go way back. Tell him Polaris is here. He will see her.
A weak voice from above orders her to go home. She can’t quite see Alex, who is in the shadows, but tells him a lot of people are worried about him. It’s been months. He assures her he is fine and orders her to go.
She hands the demon doorman a letter and threatens what will happen if he doesn’t give it to Alex. As she leaves, he promises to pass it on, though pretty much immediately he throws the letter into the fireplace.
The demon K’yrb muses that he was gonna be somebody. Belasco himself appointed him as court scribe. But that’s all over. Now he is a caregiver for a mutant who can barely feed himself.
The Goblin Queen coolly points out he is late and asks if he brought the instruments.
K’yrb muses she is different these days, too. The other demons are beginning to talk.
The two of them enter Havok’s chamber. Madelyne asks how he is. She hears he had a visitor. Alex, in his zombified state, asks if she is gone. He didn’t want to have her see him like this.
K’yrb muses that he used to help her patch him up weekly. Now it’s daily.
She promises he will see all his friends when he is well again, then orders K’yrb to assist her, grafting new demon skin onto Alex’ body.
K’yrb almost feels sorry for him, but he knows where these skin grafts come from.
Flashback:
He recalls things were looking promising there for a while, when the Gobin Queen led her Dark X-Men team, Havok at her side, but then that crazy cyborg Albert turned Havok into shish kebab, so the Goblin Queen decided to resurrect him.
It’s not working out. Who’d willingly prolong a life like this? He’s a demon and even he knows this isn’t right.
Present:
Alex politely thanks K’yrb, who begins the treatment and calls him a good friend. K’ryb considers him an idiot. If he wasn’t so damn trusting, he would see he is his torturer!
Later, two larger demons accost K’ryb, asking if he is bringing more demon skin for the queen’s corpse-meat consort. They manhandle him and ask if the rumors are true. Do her loyalties lie with Limbo or that stinking carcass in there?
Suddenly, the two are blasted away and Havok shouts that the stinking carcass has heard quite enough. When the two bluster, this is none of his concern, he begs to differ. The welfare of his friend K’yrb is very much his concern!
K’yrb is touched at Havok’s display of loyalty toward him. He helps Havok back into his room and realizes what this stunt cost him. He asks what if he knew someone who could fix Alex up for real. How quick can he get them here? Alex asks. K’yrb explains that is the problem: they would have to go to Limbo…
