A mysterious figure watches the X-Men train on their
island hideout from his mysterious domain. While the X-Men are distracted, the
figure calls to young Illyana Rasputin, reaching out to her across dimensions.
Illyana follows the strange voice, which is noticed by Kitty Pryde. Kitty
follows Illyana into an old temple where she steps onto a strange glowing
circle and suddenly disappears! The X-Men are exhausted after their workout,
especially Storm, who has still been feeling the effects of their recent battle
with Dracula. The others notice Kitty and Illyana are gone and Wolverine tracks
them to the old temple. Wolverine finds that their scents are faint, when each
of the X-Men is also transported by the mysterious glowing circles to parts
unknown!
Elsewhere, Kitty awakens to find herself in a strange,
cavernous place. She is startled by Nightcrawler and hugs him, only to be
doubly surprised when Nightcrawler touches her inappropriately! She runs from
the twisted, warped Nightcrawler, refusing to believe he’s the real one, and
soon finds herself face to face with the ruler of this limbo dimension,
Belasco! Elsewhere in limbo, Storm and Colossus find themselves lost until
Storm is grabbed by tentacles sprouting from the ground! Colossus tries to help
but is transported away by another teleport disk and Storm suddenly transforms
into an amalgamation of her teammates and frees herself from the tentacles.
Back with Belasco, he traps Kitty in crystal and banishes the warped
Nightcrawler. He then summons a demon called S'ym to deal with others and S’ym
takes one of the claws from Wolverine’s nearby skeleton. Belasco magically
removes Kitty’s skeleton as well and gifts Illyana with a locket for when she
grows up, to fulfill her destiny. All this is witnessed from the shadows by the
real Nightcrawler, very much confused but determined to rescue or avenge his
friends, no matter what!
Meanwhile, Storm awakens in a beautiful glade, having
been rescued by a mystery helper. Storm dons new clothes and an amulet that
she’s drawn to, and flies off, her rescuer watching from the shadows.
Elsewhere, Nightcrawler encounters his doppelganger and the two engage in a
furious battle, the altered Nightcrawler revealing that he and the others came
to rescue Illyana long ago, the others having been killed and he forever
altered! Their battle continues until they both teleport away! Later, the
altered Nightcrawler reports to Belasco that he killed Kurt, seeking
forgiveness. Meanwhile, Wolverine comes upon the body of a dead Colossus, only
Wolverine’s senses tell him that Colossus was old when he died and has been
dead a long time. Wolverine is then attacked by S’ym and Wolverine is
transported away by another disk. S’ym reveals that the disks transport through
time as well as space, meaning the X-Men arrived here during a period after
they had already come long ago, existing concurrently with their alternate,
future selves! Colossus arrives, startled to see his own dead body. Try as he
might, S’ym overpowers Colossus until Wolverine shows back up, furiously
attacking him. While S’ym tangles with Wolverine, Colossus kicks him onto another
teleport disk, transporting him away!
Storm’s previous savior transports them to Belasco,
where Nightcrawler reveals he took his doppelgangers place and Storm arrives,
causing Belasco to flee. The mysterious figure that’s been helping them reveals
herself as an older Storm, one that’s been here for decades, and she uses magic
that she’s cultivated to reunite Kitty’s skeleton with her body. Belasco
returns with an army of demons and the older Storm stays to hold them off while
the rest enter the portal home that she set up. Just as they’re being
transported away, Belasco grabs Illyana! Now back at the island, Kitty pulls
with all her might before the portal can close, losing Illyana for a second!
She finds her again and they pull Illyana through, only to discover that she’s
now thirteen years old! During the single second that Kitty lost her, seven
years passed for Illyana, stuck in limbo! Colossus is despondent, not knowing
what he’ll tell their parents and wondering just how much Illyana changed while
stuck there. He stays with Illyana until they both fall asleep, though we see
that she still has the medallion that Belasco gifted her, promising a dark
destiny ahead!