Post by Dawn on Dec 19, 2009 7:21:30 GMT -5
Real Name: Illyana Nikolievna Rasputina (shortened to Rasputin in America)
Alias or Nick-name: Magik, Dark Chylde
Age: (this is a difficult one to answer at this time. Illyana skips through Limbo, and time runs different there. And she has been moved between childhood and preteen years plenty of times...)
Height/Weight: 5'5"/120 lbs
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Blond
Persuasion: It changes. Normally Illyana is a quiet, sweet girl. But as Dark Chylde she is an evil demon.
Powers/Weapons:soul-link with Limbo allows her to command the stepping disks native to the dimension, opening portals that use Limbo as a stepping stone between different points in time and space, utilized a scrying pool to view events outside of Limbo,Magik is the sorceress supreme of her limbo dimension. The extent of her powers there has yet to be defined, but powerful demons of Limbo did not dare challenge her. Magik can probably cast any magic spell that Belasco could, having had access to his store of sorcerous knowledge. Her sorcery was a unique mix of black magic that she learned from Belasco and white magic she was taught by an alternative-reality Ororo Munroe. On one occasion she was shown to have easily inhibited the powers of The Enchantress while in Limbo despite The Enchantress being a powerful sorceress in her own right.
Magik's magical abilities are far more limited in Earth's dimension. On Earth she can perform astral projection, sense mystical presences, and cast simple spells. Her magical powers on Earth are primarily the use of her Soulsword, which is the ultimate embodiment of her mystical might. The Soulsword will generally have no physical effect on a non-supernatural creature; it will pass right through such a creature as if it were intangible. However, the Soulsword can disrupt magic, or release a non-supernatural being from any magical spell that it is under. Moreover, the Soulsword can physically injure and even kill a supernatural being such as a demon.Whenever the Soulsword is summoned her left arm is automatically covered with mystical armor.
The more that Magik uses her magical power on any occasion, the more mystical armor appears on her body in addition to demonic features such as horns, hooves, a tail and scales. It was revealed in Excalibur, by Doctor Doom, that the mystical armor is a natural power of whoever rules in Limbo. At one point Doom, coming in possession of the Soulsword, sheathed his whole body in the armor, indicating he held it back by will alone. If this is to believed, then Illyana was subconsciously holding back the armor somewhat until the Inferno caper, at which point she summoned the full suit of armor to encase her. Also shown during the Inferno storyline was an aspect of limited super-strength while in the armor, which makes Illyana similar in power to her brother. This was shown when the rather large demon S'ym was easily thrown several feet by Illyana when he attempted to force her to the ground.
Magik's Soulsword can physically injure Kitty Pryde, even when Pryde is using her phasing power to become intangible. Pryde is also the only known person other than Magik who can wield the Soulsword effectively. When Pryde does so, Magik's armor begins to appear on Pryde's body. Moreover, when the Beyonder once freed Illyana from the influence of her darksoul, Pryde gained the ability to produce and wield the Soulsword. Illyana later took the darksoul influence back into herself in order that she could again wield the Soulsword to save Pryde's life from a demon. It is also mentioned that she has formidable psionic shields, most likely a result of the time she spent in Limbo and the effects of her partially demonic soul. As such even powerful telepaths such as Charles Xavier and Rachel Summers could not mentally read Illyana's thoughts.
(UPDATE: Amanda has Illyana's Soul Sword, and is currently in Acoma due to Belasco taking over Limbo again.)
History: Illyana is the youngest of three siblings. she formed a close bond with her more than ten years older brother Piotr, who nicknamed her “little snowflake“.In the following years, Piotr found out that he was a mutant as well, with the ability to turn into organic steel. He used this power rarely on the family‘s farm. One day, however, he spotted a runaway tractor racing towards Illyana, who was playing in the fields. Transforming into his steel-form, Piotr grabbed Illyana, but couldn't get out of the way in time, so simply stood still and let the tractor hit him. It crumbled before his strength. Professor Charles Xavier, who had come seeking Piotr, witnessed this incident and asked Piotr to join his new team of X-Men.
When Arcade was held hostage by Dr. Doom, his associate Miss Locke captured the X-Men's loved ones in order to force them into rescuing her boss. Colossus' sister Illyana was among the ones taken. The X-Men did as told and encountered Dr. Doom, while secretly a few reserve members entered Murderworld, trying to free the hostages. Both groups were successful. Happily reunited with her older brother, Illyana was granted to stay in the States. Xavier wanted to test the girl for mutant powers and the perpetually homesick Colossus was happy to have a member of his family around. Xavier telepathically taught his X-Men Russian, so that they could communicate with the girl and Kitty would often tell her bedtime stories.
Illyana was also with them when the X-Men moved their headquarter to a island in the Bermuda Triangle, but the location proved to be a bad choice. The demon sorcerer Belasco lured Illyana into a temple, which through randomly appearing “teleportation circles” was somehow connected to his other-dimensional realm and prison Limbo, a place where the rules of time and space did not apply. The X-Men followed and encountered a second set of X-Men from another reality. They learned that in the other X-Men’s reality, they had managed to free their Illyana, but were forced to stay behind in Limbo. For this set of X-Men the reverse was to occur. They were able to get Illyana back and the old Storm cast a spell to bring them back home, but in the last instant Belasco grabbed the child again, while the X-Men were spirited away back to their island.
Belasco brought the little girl to an altar where he used a piece of Illyana’s soul to create a bloodstone out of it. The stone was placed in a medallion, which had places for five of them. His intention was over time to create five bloodstones, by corrupting Illyana step by step consecrating her to evil and making her the instrument of the Elder Gods – his masters’ return to Earth. Afterwards Belasco left her alone and she was taken in by the old Storm and the other X-Men’s Kitty, calling herself Cat, because of having been transformed into a half-feline. Storm thought it best to teach Illyana white magic, to prepare her for another confrontation with the demon and to enable her to rein in the evil Belasco had planted within her. Cat, who despised magic, protested and thought Storm was making a big mistake, essentially doing Belasco’s dirty work for him. In her garden Ororo tutored Illyana about life, white magic and creation for about a year, but being old, her energies were weakening. In addition, Illyana realized that not only was there a stain of evil in herself, there was an even bigger taint within Ororo, which made her distrustful of the woman.
One night Cat returned and took Illyana with her, trying to return her home. When they got in a fight Illyana fell through one of the stepping disks floating around Limbo and landed near S’ym, another demon servant of Belasco. He made fun of the girl, threatened and tortured her, till Kitty arrived to help the girl. Phasing through Limbo’s walls they arrived in a desert which they had to cross to reach Belasco’s citadel, from where Cat wanted to send Illyana home. While walking through the desert Cat trained the little girl in fighting and survival skills
and after two long years they finally arrived. Kitty tried to phase both of them through the dimensions but they were misled by one of Belasco’s illusions. Belasco bound Cat to his will transforming her into an even more catlike creature and took in the little girl as his pupil, making her create a second bloodstone herself.
In Belasco’s palace Illyana was trained in black magic for years, but even though she learned creation spells, she was not able to create anything untainted the way the older Ororo could. One day while she was thinking of a way to get out, Illyana’s mutant ability to control Limbo’s stepping disks manifested. Practicing this newfound ability Illyana ran into the New Mutants, who years later would be sent there by her older self, and also she witnessed a battle in the past, between Belasco and the young magician Storm, who defeated and attempted to kill her captor, but became like him in turn. Returning to the present Illyana found the old Storm fighting Belasco for a second time over her. Illyana tried to help the old woman but she was kept busy fighting Cat, whom she had to kill by breaking her neck. She was too late however as Cat had already dealt Ororo a mortal wound. As she realized that Belasco wanted to make the third bloodstone out of the dying woman’s soul, Illyana mercy-killed her, before Belasco could begin the ritual.
Belasco was furious with her, and Illyana fled with her stepping discs, suddenly finding herself in front of her parents’ home in Russia. Happily, she realized that she could use Limbo’s teleportation circles to teleport her out of Limbo. Her happiness quickly turned sour when she greeted her parents, who didn’t recognize the teenager in the feral outfit – as far as they were concerned their daughter was a six-year-old living in the USA. They harshly told her to go away and as Illyana broke down, she was taken back to Limbo by the corpses of the older X-Men under Belasco’s control. Belasco created the third stone again of Illyana’s soul and exiled her without any powers to Ororo’s garden, where a harsh winter was beginning.
Alone in the winter cold of Storm’s garden Illyana practised her magical skills, but she failed time and again in copying Storm’s creation spell. At last Illyana realized that she failed in it, because she was not Storm and had other motives, namely revenge; modifying the spell she created a weapon out of a tiny part of her soul– the Soulsword.
With this powerful weapon Illyana battled and defeated Belasco, but right before delivering the killing stroke, she remembered the past battle of the young Storm she had witnessed.
Illyana, now considered Limbo’s ruler, let the demon go and called up a stepping disk that could breach the dimensional wall and bring her back to Earth. She emerged in the middle of the X-Men, for whom only seconds had passed, but Illyana was now seven years older than the little girl they remembered.
Trying to cope with what had happened to her, Illyana told nobody about her experiences in Limbo, and kept her abilities, both mutant and magical, hidden from Xavier, the X-Men and the New Mutants, none of whom wanted to put her under pressure, though Xavier noted that she had an unusually strong protection against telepathy, that was unlikely to be natural. Being roommates, she forged a special relationship with Kitty who was now about the same age as her. During a session in the Danger Room, Illyana volunteered to program the session. Whether deliberately or not she called up holograms of Belasco, S’ym and Limbo. As Kitty asked what she was thinking Illyana went from a trance into a murderous rage and manifested her Soulsword, managing to injure Kitty with it, even though the other girl was phasing. Illyana broke down afterwards, telling Kitty that she remembered what had happened to her.
On the night of her fourteenth birthday S’ym appeared in the mansion, sent by Belasco to retrieve Illyana. To buy herself time Illyana teleported the New Mutants through Limbo (this is the scene that Illyana witnessed years earlier) back into the house to help her fight the demon. Even though the New Mutants did their best, in the end it was Illyana who defeated S’ym using her Soulsword. With a forgetting spell she made sure that her sorcery remained secret, although she admitted being a mutant with teleportation capabilities, meaning that from that point on she studied with the New Mutants.
When the X-Men were away and Kitty Pryde got kidnapped by the White Queen, Illyana had to reveal that she was a sorceress to the New Mutants, which earned her the distrust of several of her teammates, especially the extremely religious Wolfsbane. Using a scrying spell she had learned of Kitty’s fate and the group attempted a rescue mission, but they were tricked by the White Queen. She had the mutants attacked by her own team, the Hellions, and invaded the New Mutants’ minds. Only in the last instant Illyana - whose mind was closed to telepaths - was able to teleport herself and Mirage away to Limbo. There Danielle learned what a nightmare Illyana’s childhood must have been and Illyana realized that she would always have to teleport via Limbo, since the stepping disks she controlled were parts of that dimension. After having a rest they tried to go back to the Massachusetts Academy, but Illyana’s control over the stepping disks wasn’t very accurate and they emerged over a year in the future, where they saw their former friends as loyal Hellions. In a second attempt Illyana got it almost right as they materialized a few days after their teammates‘ capture. Daring the Hellions for a duel over their friends a fight started, which soon was interrupted by the White Queen. In the confusion Kitty was able to cause the training room to malfunction; while everyone was getting to safety, Illyana teleported the whole group back to Salem Center.
At a time when several members of the team were absent, the X-Men found themselves fighting against the Dire Wraiths, an alien race with magical abilities. Hopelessly outnumbered, Professor Xavier sent Illyana to aid them. Up until now, she had kept her skills as both mutant and sorceress secret from her brother, fearing his reaction, but there was no more hiding possible. Once the villains were defeated, Illyana confessed to Piotr what she had experienced in Limbo and, naturally, he comforted her and promised to be there for her.
Later when Danielle Moonstar was attacked by the Demon Bear, who was believed to have killed her parents, it was Illyana with her Soulsword who defeated the bear by disrupting the spell that had imprisoned Dani’s parents in its spirit form. Strangely the injuries Illyana received in the fight were covered by pieces of silvery armor and her Soulsword changed its look from a “light-sabre” to a more traditional mediaeval sword.
Worried, Xavier discussed Illyana with Dr. Strange after the X-Men and New Mutants shared an adventure with the Sorcerer Supreme. Strange told him that Illyana didn’t need further tutoring in magic which he could offer, but the growth of her spirit which she could best achieve with the help of her friends and family.
When the alien Warlock came to Xavier’s mansion and inadvertently attacked Illyana and Lockheed (not recognizing organic beings as sentient lifeforms), Illyana teleported herself and the dragon to Limbo. Hoping to cure herself of the techno-organic virus Warlock had infected her with, she cut herself with her Soulsword. She awoke in another part of the galaxy on a space ship where clones of the X-Men had fallen under the control of the Brood. Illyana and Lockheed defeated the Brood and Illyana later used her magicks to cure the fake X-Men, even subtly changing them to give them identities of their own. She then put them back on the spaceship as guardians to the sleeping crew.
Illyana’s sorcery also came in handy when her teammates Rahne and Sunspot had accidentally acquired the light and darkness based powers of Cloak and Dagger. With the help of Rogue and Xavier, Magik was able to exorcise her friends, transferring the powers back to Tyrone and Tandy, but Illyana also discovered that the eldritch armor appeared now each time she used her powers and each time it covered her body a little more.
When a strange hooded man appeared to her warning her of impending doom Illyana grew scared. Her fears became certainty when during a game of “truth or dare” Sunspot dared her to teleport the New Mutants into the future. There they crashed a reunion of the elder New Mutants and unfortunately learned that Illyana was dead, a victim of a mutant-killing virus called Legacy. Illyana angrily teleported to Limbo where she was expected by the hooded man, who was revealed to be her eldest brother Mikhail. Mikhail promised to save her, much to the happiness of Illyana and the younger mutants. Their older versions were hesitant though, as they knew Mikhail to be a villain. The two teams fought and the fight was decided by Karma, who turned against her teammates, the elder mutants, as she more than most of the others knew what it meant to lose a beloved sibling. Mikhail performed an operation on Illyana with his own powers, allegedly changing the genetic sequences that made her vulnerable to the virus. However Cypher snooped a little alter and learned that Mikhail was the one who had been infected and that he had transferred the infection to Illyana hoping her magically altered body could withstand the disease. Illyana threatened her brother, but he fled and the younger New Mutants, angry and sad, left as well, after Karma had telepathically erased their memories of that tragic day
Alias or Nick-name: Magik, Dark Chylde
Age: (this is a difficult one to answer at this time. Illyana skips through Limbo, and time runs different there. And she has been moved between childhood and preteen years plenty of times...)
Height/Weight: 5'5"/120 lbs
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Blond
Persuasion: It changes. Normally Illyana is a quiet, sweet girl. But as Dark Chylde she is an evil demon.
Powers/Weapons:soul-link with Limbo allows her to command the stepping disks native to the dimension, opening portals that use Limbo as a stepping stone between different points in time and space, utilized a scrying pool to view events outside of Limbo,Magik is the sorceress supreme of her limbo dimension. The extent of her powers there has yet to be defined, but powerful demons of Limbo did not dare challenge her. Magik can probably cast any magic spell that Belasco could, having had access to his store of sorcerous knowledge. Her sorcery was a unique mix of black magic that she learned from Belasco and white magic she was taught by an alternative-reality Ororo Munroe. On one occasion she was shown to have easily inhibited the powers of The Enchantress while in Limbo despite The Enchantress being a powerful sorceress in her own right.
Magik's magical abilities are far more limited in Earth's dimension. On Earth she can perform astral projection, sense mystical presences, and cast simple spells. Her magical powers on Earth are primarily the use of her Soulsword, which is the ultimate embodiment of her mystical might. The Soulsword will generally have no physical effect on a non-supernatural creature; it will pass right through such a creature as if it were intangible. However, the Soulsword can disrupt magic, or release a non-supernatural being from any magical spell that it is under. Moreover, the Soulsword can physically injure and even kill a supernatural being such as a demon.Whenever the Soulsword is summoned her left arm is automatically covered with mystical armor.
The more that Magik uses her magical power on any occasion, the more mystical armor appears on her body in addition to demonic features such as horns, hooves, a tail and scales. It was revealed in Excalibur, by Doctor Doom, that the mystical armor is a natural power of whoever rules in Limbo. At one point Doom, coming in possession of the Soulsword, sheathed his whole body in the armor, indicating he held it back by will alone. If this is to believed, then Illyana was subconsciously holding back the armor somewhat until the Inferno caper, at which point she summoned the full suit of armor to encase her. Also shown during the Inferno storyline was an aspect of limited super-strength while in the armor, which makes Illyana similar in power to her brother. This was shown when the rather large demon S'ym was easily thrown several feet by Illyana when he attempted to force her to the ground.
Magik's Soulsword can physically injure Kitty Pryde, even when Pryde is using her phasing power to become intangible. Pryde is also the only known person other than Magik who can wield the Soulsword effectively. When Pryde does so, Magik's armor begins to appear on Pryde's body. Moreover, when the Beyonder once freed Illyana from the influence of her darksoul, Pryde gained the ability to produce and wield the Soulsword. Illyana later took the darksoul influence back into herself in order that she could again wield the Soulsword to save Pryde's life from a demon. It is also mentioned that she has formidable psionic shields, most likely a result of the time she spent in Limbo and the effects of her partially demonic soul. As such even powerful telepaths such as Charles Xavier and Rachel Summers could not mentally read Illyana's thoughts.
(UPDATE: Amanda has Illyana's Soul Sword, and is currently in Acoma due to Belasco taking over Limbo again.)
History: Illyana is the youngest of three siblings. she formed a close bond with her more than ten years older brother Piotr, who nicknamed her “little snowflake“.In the following years, Piotr found out that he was a mutant as well, with the ability to turn into organic steel. He used this power rarely on the family‘s farm. One day, however, he spotted a runaway tractor racing towards Illyana, who was playing in the fields. Transforming into his steel-form, Piotr grabbed Illyana, but couldn't get out of the way in time, so simply stood still and let the tractor hit him. It crumbled before his strength. Professor Charles Xavier, who had come seeking Piotr, witnessed this incident and asked Piotr to join his new team of X-Men.
When Arcade was held hostage by Dr. Doom, his associate Miss Locke captured the X-Men's loved ones in order to force them into rescuing her boss. Colossus' sister Illyana was among the ones taken. The X-Men did as told and encountered Dr. Doom, while secretly a few reserve members entered Murderworld, trying to free the hostages. Both groups were successful. Happily reunited with her older brother, Illyana was granted to stay in the States. Xavier wanted to test the girl for mutant powers and the perpetually homesick Colossus was happy to have a member of his family around. Xavier telepathically taught his X-Men Russian, so that they could communicate with the girl and Kitty would often tell her bedtime stories.
Illyana was also with them when the X-Men moved their headquarter to a island in the Bermuda Triangle, but the location proved to be a bad choice. The demon sorcerer Belasco lured Illyana into a temple, which through randomly appearing “teleportation circles” was somehow connected to his other-dimensional realm and prison Limbo, a place where the rules of time and space did not apply. The X-Men followed and encountered a second set of X-Men from another reality. They learned that in the other X-Men’s reality, they had managed to free their Illyana, but were forced to stay behind in Limbo. For this set of X-Men the reverse was to occur. They were able to get Illyana back and the old Storm cast a spell to bring them back home, but in the last instant Belasco grabbed the child again, while the X-Men were spirited away back to their island.
Belasco brought the little girl to an altar where he used a piece of Illyana’s soul to create a bloodstone out of it. The stone was placed in a medallion, which had places for five of them. His intention was over time to create five bloodstones, by corrupting Illyana step by step consecrating her to evil and making her the instrument of the Elder Gods – his masters’ return to Earth. Afterwards Belasco left her alone and she was taken in by the old Storm and the other X-Men’s Kitty, calling herself Cat, because of having been transformed into a half-feline. Storm thought it best to teach Illyana white magic, to prepare her for another confrontation with the demon and to enable her to rein in the evil Belasco had planted within her. Cat, who despised magic, protested and thought Storm was making a big mistake, essentially doing Belasco’s dirty work for him. In her garden Ororo tutored Illyana about life, white magic and creation for about a year, but being old, her energies were weakening. In addition, Illyana realized that not only was there a stain of evil in herself, there was an even bigger taint within Ororo, which made her distrustful of the woman.
One night Cat returned and took Illyana with her, trying to return her home. When they got in a fight Illyana fell through one of the stepping disks floating around Limbo and landed near S’ym, another demon servant of Belasco. He made fun of the girl, threatened and tortured her, till Kitty arrived to help the girl. Phasing through Limbo’s walls they arrived in a desert which they had to cross to reach Belasco’s citadel, from where Cat wanted to send Illyana home. While walking through the desert Cat trained the little girl in fighting and survival skills
and after two long years they finally arrived. Kitty tried to phase both of them through the dimensions but they were misled by one of Belasco’s illusions. Belasco bound Cat to his will transforming her into an even more catlike creature and took in the little girl as his pupil, making her create a second bloodstone herself.
In Belasco’s palace Illyana was trained in black magic for years, but even though she learned creation spells, she was not able to create anything untainted the way the older Ororo could. One day while she was thinking of a way to get out, Illyana’s mutant ability to control Limbo’s stepping disks manifested. Practicing this newfound ability Illyana ran into the New Mutants, who years later would be sent there by her older self, and also she witnessed a battle in the past, between Belasco and the young magician Storm, who defeated and attempted to kill her captor, but became like him in turn. Returning to the present Illyana found the old Storm fighting Belasco for a second time over her. Illyana tried to help the old woman but she was kept busy fighting Cat, whom she had to kill by breaking her neck. She was too late however as Cat had already dealt Ororo a mortal wound. As she realized that Belasco wanted to make the third bloodstone out of the dying woman’s soul, Illyana mercy-killed her, before Belasco could begin the ritual.
Belasco was furious with her, and Illyana fled with her stepping discs, suddenly finding herself in front of her parents’ home in Russia. Happily, she realized that she could use Limbo’s teleportation circles to teleport her out of Limbo. Her happiness quickly turned sour when she greeted her parents, who didn’t recognize the teenager in the feral outfit – as far as they were concerned their daughter was a six-year-old living in the USA. They harshly told her to go away and as Illyana broke down, she was taken back to Limbo by the corpses of the older X-Men under Belasco’s control. Belasco created the third stone again of Illyana’s soul and exiled her without any powers to Ororo’s garden, where a harsh winter was beginning.
Alone in the winter cold of Storm’s garden Illyana practised her magical skills, but she failed time and again in copying Storm’s creation spell. At last Illyana realized that she failed in it, because she was not Storm and had other motives, namely revenge; modifying the spell she created a weapon out of a tiny part of her soul– the Soulsword.
With this powerful weapon Illyana battled and defeated Belasco, but right before delivering the killing stroke, she remembered the past battle of the young Storm she had witnessed.
Illyana, now considered Limbo’s ruler, let the demon go and called up a stepping disk that could breach the dimensional wall and bring her back to Earth. She emerged in the middle of the X-Men, for whom only seconds had passed, but Illyana was now seven years older than the little girl they remembered.
Trying to cope with what had happened to her, Illyana told nobody about her experiences in Limbo, and kept her abilities, both mutant and magical, hidden from Xavier, the X-Men and the New Mutants, none of whom wanted to put her under pressure, though Xavier noted that she had an unusually strong protection against telepathy, that was unlikely to be natural. Being roommates, she forged a special relationship with Kitty who was now about the same age as her. During a session in the Danger Room, Illyana volunteered to program the session. Whether deliberately or not she called up holograms of Belasco, S’ym and Limbo. As Kitty asked what she was thinking Illyana went from a trance into a murderous rage and manifested her Soulsword, managing to injure Kitty with it, even though the other girl was phasing. Illyana broke down afterwards, telling Kitty that she remembered what had happened to her.
On the night of her fourteenth birthday S’ym appeared in the mansion, sent by Belasco to retrieve Illyana. To buy herself time Illyana teleported the New Mutants through Limbo (this is the scene that Illyana witnessed years earlier) back into the house to help her fight the demon. Even though the New Mutants did their best, in the end it was Illyana who defeated S’ym using her Soulsword. With a forgetting spell she made sure that her sorcery remained secret, although she admitted being a mutant with teleportation capabilities, meaning that from that point on she studied with the New Mutants.
When the X-Men were away and Kitty Pryde got kidnapped by the White Queen, Illyana had to reveal that she was a sorceress to the New Mutants, which earned her the distrust of several of her teammates, especially the extremely religious Wolfsbane. Using a scrying spell she had learned of Kitty’s fate and the group attempted a rescue mission, but they were tricked by the White Queen. She had the mutants attacked by her own team, the Hellions, and invaded the New Mutants’ minds. Only in the last instant Illyana - whose mind was closed to telepaths - was able to teleport herself and Mirage away to Limbo. There Danielle learned what a nightmare Illyana’s childhood must have been and Illyana realized that she would always have to teleport via Limbo, since the stepping disks she controlled were parts of that dimension. After having a rest they tried to go back to the Massachusetts Academy, but Illyana’s control over the stepping disks wasn’t very accurate and they emerged over a year in the future, where they saw their former friends as loyal Hellions. In a second attempt Illyana got it almost right as they materialized a few days after their teammates‘ capture. Daring the Hellions for a duel over their friends a fight started, which soon was interrupted by the White Queen. In the confusion Kitty was able to cause the training room to malfunction; while everyone was getting to safety, Illyana teleported the whole group back to Salem Center.
At a time when several members of the team were absent, the X-Men found themselves fighting against the Dire Wraiths, an alien race with magical abilities. Hopelessly outnumbered, Professor Xavier sent Illyana to aid them. Up until now, she had kept her skills as both mutant and sorceress secret from her brother, fearing his reaction, but there was no more hiding possible. Once the villains were defeated, Illyana confessed to Piotr what she had experienced in Limbo and, naturally, he comforted her and promised to be there for her.
Later when Danielle Moonstar was attacked by the Demon Bear, who was believed to have killed her parents, it was Illyana with her Soulsword who defeated the bear by disrupting the spell that had imprisoned Dani’s parents in its spirit form. Strangely the injuries Illyana received in the fight were covered by pieces of silvery armor and her Soulsword changed its look from a “light-sabre” to a more traditional mediaeval sword.
Worried, Xavier discussed Illyana with Dr. Strange after the X-Men and New Mutants shared an adventure with the Sorcerer Supreme. Strange told him that Illyana didn’t need further tutoring in magic which he could offer, but the growth of her spirit which she could best achieve with the help of her friends and family.
When the alien Warlock came to Xavier’s mansion and inadvertently attacked Illyana and Lockheed (not recognizing organic beings as sentient lifeforms), Illyana teleported herself and the dragon to Limbo. Hoping to cure herself of the techno-organic virus Warlock had infected her with, she cut herself with her Soulsword. She awoke in another part of the galaxy on a space ship where clones of the X-Men had fallen under the control of the Brood. Illyana and Lockheed defeated the Brood and Illyana later used her magicks to cure the fake X-Men, even subtly changing them to give them identities of their own. She then put them back on the spaceship as guardians to the sleeping crew.
Illyana’s sorcery also came in handy when her teammates Rahne and Sunspot had accidentally acquired the light and darkness based powers of Cloak and Dagger. With the help of Rogue and Xavier, Magik was able to exorcise her friends, transferring the powers back to Tyrone and Tandy, but Illyana also discovered that the eldritch armor appeared now each time she used her powers and each time it covered her body a little more.
When a strange hooded man appeared to her warning her of impending doom Illyana grew scared. Her fears became certainty when during a game of “truth or dare” Sunspot dared her to teleport the New Mutants into the future. There they crashed a reunion of the elder New Mutants and unfortunately learned that Illyana was dead, a victim of a mutant-killing virus called Legacy. Illyana angrily teleported to Limbo where she was expected by the hooded man, who was revealed to be her eldest brother Mikhail. Mikhail promised to save her, much to the happiness of Illyana and the younger mutants. Their older versions were hesitant though, as they knew Mikhail to be a villain. The two teams fought and the fight was decided by Karma, who turned against her teammates, the elder mutants, as she more than most of the others knew what it meant to lose a beloved sibling. Mikhail performed an operation on Illyana with his own powers, allegedly changing the genetic sequences that made her vulnerable to the virus. However Cypher snooped a little alter and learned that Mikhail was the one who had been infected and that he had transferred the infection to Illyana hoping her magically altered body could withstand the disease. Illyana threatened her brother, but he fled and the younger New Mutants, angry and sad, left as well, after Karma had telepathically erased their memories of that tragic day
