Synopsis / Summary / Plot
The previously page restates the basic 'incursion' situation from #2. An event on some alternate Earth started a chain reaction that is destroying universes. Pairs of universes join at Earth. 8 hours later both universes will die unless 1 Earth is destroyed sparing them both. Last issue the Illuminati stopped fighting Thanos' invasion to deal with the latest incursion. Before that in #9 Ebony Maw started to infiltrate the mind of Dr Strange. And the Wakandans beat back troops led by Black Dwarf.
Now Maximus and Lockjaw watch from afar the self-destruction of Attilan by Black Bolt, activating the Terrigen Bomb in Infinity #4. They leave on a prearranged mission.
And in Australia the Illuminati (without Black Bolt) attend the new incursion, in the pink-skied area hidden from the rest of the world, with the other Earth hanging ominously in the sky. Suddenly something falls at their feet from the other Earth and asks for a parley.
Iron Man recognises it as an Aleph robot of the Builders (from Avengers #1-3). It asks them to come and watch its masters destroy a world. On board the aliens' ship they meet some Builders and some Ex Nihili. 1 of the Ex Nihili detects and extracts something from Dr Strange's mind. It is a parasite left behind by Ebony Maw. (Which says that Thanos' son has been found in the lost Inhuman tribe of Lor, as seen last issue and Inf#4.)
While Black Panther is away with the Illuminati Wakanda is under attack again, this time by all the forces of Thanos led by his 3 generals Corvus Glaive, Proxima Midnight and Supergiant. (Black Dwarf has been exiled after his earlier failure, and Ebony Maw has not yet returned from his mission with Dr Strange.) (The Wakandans don't know that Sub-Mariner sent the aliens against them by falsely claiming in #9 that Wakanda hid the Time Gem that Thanos sought. He did this in revenge for the destruction of Atlantis by Wakanda in #8 during their war.)
Glaive masterminded the attack plan, which Supergiant is guiding. Corvus allows his wife Midnight to lead the troop which finally breaches the walls. The defence of Wakanda is led by Shuri, the current Black Panther queen of the Wakandans, and the white-clad Hatut Zeraze. Shuri sends a spear through Proxima Midnight. But the alien contemptuously plucks it out of her shoulder, and sends her own energy lance at Shuri. Who is only saved by the sacrifice of 1 of the Hatut Zeraze. Shuri orders a retreat to the palace.
The alien troops have captured a wounded Hatut Zeraze. Thanos isn't interested in Shuri and the Wakandans. He wants the male Black Panther, because he believes the Time Gem is held by 1 of the Illuminati. (And from Namor's imformatiom it must be T'Challa.) Proxima Midnight learns that T'Challa lives in the Necropolis.
Thanos has escaped the fall of Attilan, but without any information about the son he seeks among the Inhumans (as seen last issue and Inf#3-4). And his people have found no trace yet of the Time Gem in Wakanda's Necropolis, that is secretly the Illuminati's base. But Corvus Glaive leads him to a store of anti-matter bombs (that Panther and Mr Fantastic built in #7 to use to destroy incursion Earths if necessary). And to force-field prisons holding Black Swan (captured from the incursion in #1) and Terrax (the alternate reality version from #4).
In the incursion universe the Builders explain that their Superflow network outside of parallel realities recently collapsed (Avengers #7), stopping their free travel between alternate universes. But the last Builder from the Illuminati's reality just escaped to this one, after the Avengers killed the rest (actually Captain Universe in Av#21).
The Builders point out what the Illuminati must already have worked out, that the only way to save all the universes is to destroy all Earths. They send the Illuminati back to their own world, and destroy the other one. But before that they add that their world killer mechanism is too large to send through an incursion. As the Avengers have stopped the Builders from killing their Earth, it's up to the Illuminati to do the right thing, for the sake of theirs and other universes.