The Autumn Lands:
Vulcan has just been freed from his tomb. Floating in the air, he demands of Apocalypse, is he to be his Death? No, is the unimpressed reply. He is not. On any level. In times past, he ordained his chosen warriors with the names of those he had lost – and wrote their names in blood in the sacred texts of humankind. But now is the time for older concepts. Had his family understood his path, this would be a simpler matter. But it is happening as it must – it is happening now, and he does not need a new Death. He needs the fire to be fire. Vulcan smirks satisfied.
But fire is useful only, when harnessed, Apocalypse continues, so Vulcan will remain bound to Apocalypse and his will. He uses a spell to restrain him. Vulcan blusters.
Simmer down, boy, the hooded man sitting on a log, orders. To this, the daemon Orc adds that they all got cool backstories. He will not simmer, he will burn! Vulcan shouts. He may have freed him from his prison…
Apocalypse interrupts that Vulcan strained against the oubliette he was trapped in for months – and it was well deserved, destroyer of worlds, while Apocalypse tore it easily with bare hands. A small challenge! Mysterium was brought into this plane as coin – base metal imprinted to the material world and its material laws. The anti-magic. He would have made it a sword of holy fire…
The hooded man suggests they skip the what-ifs. They are here now and all see where this is going. He needs four elements – fire, air, earth, water. And the big A is the hot air, Orc laughs. More like water, the hooded man replies. He flows, changes, takes new shapes; it’s his power. He is guessing Storm is the air. Apocalypse corrects him; Ororo isn’t a mere ingredient of the magic. She is the magic.
On the coast of the barren, Autumn continent, Storm’s force awaits the end. Their fighting retreat from Port Prometheus had gone hard. The western front was lost quickly to the daemons. The White Sword had attacked the Morrowlands. Of the Earth mutants, the lucky few were evacuated to Shi’ar space by Craig Marshall and Peter Corbeau. The less fortunate ones have been enslaved by Genesis.
Ororo’s choice is yet to be made. In her hands she holds the small cube connecting her to the Eternal Uranos the Undying, who urges her the clock is ticking. What is her decision? Which massacre will she choose? She has company, by the way.
Give him the trigger, Jon Ironfire demands. She asks if he knows what Uranos offers. Syzya told him. Storm stresses that, if they free Uranos, he will kill all that march under Genesis’ banner. Ironfire spells it out: the Hundred march under her command; his General does. And they cannot be saved. How many times have they tried to convince Sobunar? he shouts. And now Genesis’ armies have driven them here. She holds the world, and every hour she tightens her grip. Her and that damned staff! It has to end. Someone has to do it. And if she is not strong enough…
Suddenly, lightning flares and destroys the trigger. “Her choice” are Uranos’ parting words. He hopes she doesn’t regret it.
Storm tosses the destroyed trigger to Ironfire. Horrified, he shouts that that was the end to their war. It was victory! It was genocide! she shoots back. It was mercy! he shouts. It was the innocents under Annihilation’s spell or the innocents here! Genesis is coming! Does she know who she is? Because he does. He lived alongside her in a paradise of art and freedom and love – and she feared it! The Hundred fought to make Okkara whole again – she fought to break it further apart! And if Storm thinks that Annihilation is using her somehow… he knows she is using Annihilation! Planting her damn whispers in the minds of anyone she thinks is useful, no matter what they believed before.
And how is that different from his general? Storm demands. Once, the White Sword commanded him – is he beholden to his whims now? Ironfire retorts that he wasn’t beholden to a whim – he was conscripted into an army! Debate the morals, if she likes, but Blue never demanded more from them than the mission. Ask Doug Ramsey if the White Sword needed to be worshipped. And when the mission was done, he gave him an honorable discharge! No, Ironfire has to end this! He stalks off and orders Syzya to transport him to the mainland.
Sunspot suggests Storm could stop him. Not without killing him, she fears and there will be death soon enough. She asks about Nova’s state. Speaking of dying, Roberto sighs. He isn’t. The Nova Force is keeping him alive, but it only holds the infection at bay. And the pain… the telepaths say he has shut off - gone deep inside his mind. Maybe he’ll never come out. They couldn’t have known about Pestilence’s arrow and Nova catching it, but he didn’t take that arrow so Storm could press a “kill a million mutants” button. Storm agrees grimly. He knew there’d be no button. Suddenly, there are reverent shouts as Apocalypse stalks through the camp.
Sunspot prepares himself to fight but Storm holds him back. He’d have been with Genesis from the start, if he were on her side and he is unarmed. That sends a message. She orders Sunspot to keep everyone back.
Death approaches his father, who is impressed at him choosing this side. Death explains his reasoning, that the honor of Arakko is here… then admits to killing his sister Pestilence. When his father walks on, Death asks if he even cares. Apocalypse tells him, life teaches. He has learned. Continue his lessons.
Stom lands in front of Apocalypse and states he has not sided with Genesis. He replies he will not stand against his wife, but neither will he stand aside. This world needs and deserves more than Genesis offers. It needs magic. It needs her, he tells a surprised Storm.
In the Morrowlands, the White Sword’s Ninety-nine have beaten the locals. The White Swords asks what this place was called again. Some art colony, one of them replies. The White Sword admits that those who stayed fought well. How many of his troops did he have to raise? Twelve, he is told. The warrior deferentially adds, if he had the actual white sword with him, it would be less… What’s death to them? the White Sword interrupts. So, Genesis has his sword - it is still his. When she lets it go, it will return to his hand.
She will never let it go! a new voice cries out. Hello, Jon, the White Sword greets his old friend Jon Ironfire, who shouts it is a trophy. She will never give it up! Then so be it, the White Sword shrugs. She is his queen. But they will make Jon’s death quick. As befits one who was once part of his Ninety-nine. Beginning to fight and beat his troops, Ironfire counts down from ninety-nine. The White Sword orders more troops to wear him down, Jon challenges them to do so.
Apocalypse leads Storm to some place away on the Autumn Continent. She brings him up to speed regarding the Uranos situation. He offered the illusion of clean hands, Storm explains. The lie that she could summon evil and not claim it. The blood on her hand she accepts – but it must be her hands. And at least she’d know when to stop.
Yes, that’s what they tell themselves, Apocalypse replies enigmatically, then offers a different choice but no illusions: the forces of Genesis are coming for her people – perhaps even now. Then she has to trust her people, and in this she trusts him. He leads her to a circle with strange symbols and an x inside and three people already waiting.
Apocalypse warns Storm that trust can be a liar. He trusted that his children would one day stand at the corners of this X, but they have not learned what they needed to learn. Death shows some promise… but Pestilence is lost, and the rest are not suitable, so he must work with those whom fate has provided. Like him, the hooded man says and greets Ororo. He reveals himself to be Sunfire, carrying Redroot as part of his body now after saving her in Otherworld. When he came here, he took land for himself and killed to keep it, now he is the land and removing Redroot would kill him.
Apocalypse explains that his original choice was Rictor but what would have been must be sacrificed to what is. He will represent water. Orc, his daemon familiar with his quick wit and hunger for knowledge, is air. Kind of a reach, Orc mutters. And he points to the one representing fire, the volatile Vulcan, who hurls insults in anger, when he sees Storm who imprisoned him here.
Storm icily reminds him that only Krakoa gave him amnesty. The billions of dead at his hand would call what they did to him mercy. Vulcan promises that, once he is free of this blue freak, he will make these billions seem like fractions – that’s his mercy! Everything that lives will die – And everything that has died will live, Apocalypse cuts him off. When he then asks Storm to stand in the center of the circle, she asks which magic is this. Which element in his alchemy is she?
He begins to glow, as do the others, as he explains that Genesis’ first act was to return what had seemed dead – the living island Arakko. To win, Storm must answer that act – like for like! This is the mutant magic! The highest mutant technology! Let the fire be fire! Let the air be free! Let the earth support the people! Let the water reshape the world! Ororo is what brings them together! She is the weather; she is the storm! She is the breath of life, and the breath of life is in her, and as she lives so does the land… let the living land be reborn! Storm crackles with energy.
On a cliff at Arakko Prime stand Genesis and Sobunar. She tells him it is almost over. The rebellion has been put down. The weak live once more under the strong – in their gracious protection. Once the ringleaders on their barren island have paid the price, they will sequester themselves in the Ten Towers and let their greater enemy lay siege.
Sobunar tries to say something but she continues that that way the humans will come to them, to their slaughter. And she won’t let pride force her to give up that advantage. She won’t make the same mistake twice. Make the same, Annihilation begins, but again Sobunar interrupts urgently, shouting something is wandering through his blood, through the ocean. Toward them! He can feel it; it is big enough for him to feel it! He shouts at her to look and points as what once was the Autumn Continent has turned into the living walking island Kaorak, striding toward them, with Storm flying ahead. Genesis claims to speak for Arakko? Storm demands. Then raise her island and fight!
