Siege Perilous Crystal

Dazzler looks into the Siege Perilous and sees herself dying whilst Wolverine decides to leave to take care of some business. Carol Danvers (in control of Rogue's body) visits her brother’s grave and Senator Kelly says no to funding for new sentinel projects. Nimrod gets turned into Master Mold and is then attacked by Carol. In the midst of the battle Senator Kelly’s wife Sharon is shot by Nimrod’s eye blasts. Siege Perilous was gift from Roma.

Before it is able to deal a death-blow to a beaten Rogue, the Master Mold finds itself under attack by the newly arrived X-Men. Using teamwork, the X-Men are able to apparently destroy the Sentinel, only to realize the battle has already taken the life of an innocent; Senator Kelly's wife, Sharon. With little warning, the Master Mold springs back to life. Using newly generated defenses and weapons, the rejuvenated Sentinel seems more than a match for the X-Men. Realizing that she still has the Siege Perilous in her possession, Dazzler throws the crystal amulet toward the Sentinel. The Siege Perilous grows to a tremendous size, large enough for the Master Mold to pass through. Rogue, sensing Dazzler's plan, uses her powers to push the Sentinel through the portal, but not without being dragged inside with it. Kelly blames mutants for his wife’s death and ensures Shaw that his Sentinel project will get all required funding.

Elsewhere the Reavers are plotting revenge on the X-Men, unaware that Nanny and the Orphan Maker are watching them, who want the X-Men for them.

In the following weeks, the X-Men slowly began to drift apart. Some were apparently killed, while others left of their own accord. With only four X-Men remaining, Psylocke was convinced that they had only one option left when she sensed the Reavers closing in to attack the exhausted team. Betsy suggested escaping through the Siege Perilous, a mystical portal which judged all who entered it and sent them to new lives. After a short discussion, it was settled, though upon entering the mystic doorway, Piotr wondered if he would see Betsy again in his new life. He also entered the crystal and they were all teleported into different places and without any memory of the past.

Revival Session

Donald Pierce and his new compatriots, the Reavers, practice their coming attack on the X-Men. Meanwhile, back in Australia, Longshot is dreaming. In the state of Dreamtime, brought on by Gateway, Longshot speaks with Storm and tells her that he must leave the group to search for his identity. Nanny and the Orphan Maker, knowing of the coming deadly conflict with the Reavers, finalize their plan to save the X-Men, quite against their will. They arrive at the X-Men camp and swiftly capture Psylocke, Havok and Dazzler. The three captured X-Men are placed in armor, designed by Nanny, which bend the X-Men against their will. The three are then forced to use their powers against the still free X-Men, Storm and Colossus. During the following conflict Havok is freed from his armor. Still groggy, he fires a plasma discharge at Nanny's fleeing sky ship, which crashes to the ground, exploding on impact. To his horror, Havok is informed that the ship carried not only the fleeing Nanny and Orphan Maker, but the captured Storm as well. She is found dead among the debris.

After the fall of the X-Men, Beast returns in the Mansion and has come to Dallas, Texas on the trail of the X-Men, after using Cerebro to detect their whereabouts. He finds a group of characters at a circus that look like the X-Men, though here they are performers in Mr. Mike’s Circus. Caught after misinterpret one of the performer as Jean Grey. He is finally taken down by a huge metal fist crashing through the tent and is subsequently overpowered by greater numbers.

Then Jean Grey later joined the X-Factor with first five founding members. And she was informed by the fate of her fellow X-Men in Dallas battle. But they were not aware yet that X-Men are still alive and based in Australia.

As he is taken to their boss, Wolverine manages to free himself of his chains and forces a guard to spill the beans. He then manages to break the mental control on Jean, who frees the rest of the X-Men. Hank, meanwhile, discovers it is Mesmero who is running the show and, despite managing to defeat his goons, Hank is knocked unconscious by an unseen force. The X-Men break in to Mesmero’s caravan but he falls to the floor, out cold. Another man stands before them, a man who Cyclops knows they are in no fit state to face.

Magneto stands before the X-Men, having returned to gain revenge. Wolverine wants to take him down quick but Cyclops orders him to stand down, knowing Magneto must have an ace up his sleeve. Nightcrawler teleports outside the wagon and screams. Colossus rips open the door and they discover that they are now miles above ground, held there only by Magnetos power. He explains how he came to be there. He had followed Beast to the circus and overpowered Mesmero, simply to have this opportunity to defeat them. He ejects Mesmero from the wagon and is spotted by fighter pilots, who cannot keep up with the wagon.

Time passes, with the X-Men unable to do anything to stop Magneto and he takes them to the Antarctic. There, a volcano’s lava opens up before them and the wagon drops into one of Magneto’s secret bases. There, he explodes the wagon and tells them they won’t be leaving again. Cyclops takes the fight to him but Magneto proceeds to defeat each and every of them, even Phoenix, whose power fades at the most inopportune moment. When they awake later, they find themselves strapped into chairs, unable to access their powers. Magneto tells them that they will remain there, in this prison, each possessing their full power but helpless to use it. His robot, Nanny, will tend to their every need but their captivity will be a living hell.

Television coverage reports on another in a series of daring raids on research facilities throughout New Zealand and Australia by Magneto. He destroys the latest base but the authorities refuse to speculate on what he has actually stolen.

Charles Xavier is in Kirinos with Lilandra and wonders why he has lost telepathic contact with his students.

Meanwhile, underneath an Antarctic volcano, Nanny cares for her charges as Storm attempts to free herself using techniques learned as a child. Her plan is seemingly thwarted however by Nanny.

Later, aboard Asteroid M, Magneto is alerted to a problem in his Antarctic base and flies there, only to find the place dark and Nanny out of control. Storm’s second attempt to free herself and her comrades has succeeded and the team attacks Magneto, with Cyclops telepathically organizing them through Phoenix. They keep him occupied with hit and run tactics, so as not to allow him to utilize his powers, but, when the control center is smashed, the whole complex begins to crumble. Lava begins to seep in through the cracks. Magneto manages to free himself and heads away, as Phoenix and Beast also make it to the freezing surface, where a blizzard rages. The complex explodes behind them. Jean, however, is exhausted and Hank seems to have very few options available to him.

Beast manages to carry on, despite being in the middle of Antarctica and with little hope for survival after escaping Magneto’s underground complex. He sees helicopter lights and tries to wake Jean. He is successful and she creates a starburst in trying to save her friends, which also attracts the pilot’s attention.

During a bad weather day in Cairo, Illinois a young girl is discovered needing medical attention. She looks like Storm, but is way too young to be her. Wolverine and Jubilee escape from the Reavers base; the cyborgs pinpoint Muir Island as their most probable destination and plan to invade the island. Forge has a strange shamanic dream where he faces the Shadow King and realizes that Storm is still alive.

Forge basically exiled himself for the following months, living the life of a hermit at the continental divide, trying to somehow find a balance between his shaman and his mutant side. During a dream quest, he found himself in an old-fashioned Wild West saloon. Inside, he saw Storm in a cage and an Arabic gentleman (Amahl Farouk, a.k.a. the Shadow King) asking him if he wanted to save “his pet,” as the gentleman beside him had already tried and failed to do (that man was FBI agent Jacob Reizs – the man Farouk had taken over).

They played a game of arm-wrestling and Forge seemingly won but found that their arms merged as Farouk mocked that, there, the house always won. As Farouk threatened to consume his mind and soul, Forge struck him with his bionic hand, breaking contact in the process.

Muir Island Saga

On Muir Island, Moira has David Haller (Legion) use Cerebro to find the X-Men or her missing bodyguard, Callisto. David fails but, above him, a spirit image of Amahl Farouk appears, uttering the words ‘Storm’ and ‘Cairo.’

Callisto, in the meantime, is a prisoner of Masque, who promises that he’ll break her. A short time later, a gorgeous woman, who Peter has seen on several ads, runs into him and Peter notices she’s afraid of something.

Pierce reorganized the Reavers under his own leadership as a team consisting of himself, Lady Deathstryke, Cole, Macon, Reese, Bonebreaker, Pretty Boy, and Skullbuster. They returned to the original Reavers-Australian base, ambushed Wolverine when he returned there, and crucified him. Wolverine freed himself, recovering by means of his mutant healing factor. Ultimately he and his X-Men allies defeated this new team of Reavers. Pierce and his Reavers orchestrated a number of attacks against Wolverine and his allies, all of which failed.

Shortly thereafter, the Reavers were attacked and annihilated by giant robot Sentinels controlled by the mutant time-traveler Trevor Fitzroy. Pierce, Deathstryke, and Skullbuster have since reappeared, apparently being the only members of the Reavers to have survived Fitzroy's assault.

The first of the Reavers to encounter any of the X-Men was Donald Pierce, the former White King of the Inner Circle of the Hellfire Club, who bears a cyborg arm. Once, when Wolverine broke into the Club's Manhattan mansion, he severed Pierces cyborg arm from the rest of his body, Months later, Pierce rebelled against the rest of the Inner Circle, which was dominated by mutants led by Black King a.k.a. Sebastian Shaw. Pierce abducted Shaw's aide Tessa and held her captive.

However, Professor Charles Xavier thwarted Pierce and his new team, the New Mutants. Tessa regained her freedom, and Pierce was expelled from membership in the Inner Circle. Three other members of the Reavers, Cole, Macon, and Reese, were formerly mercenaries employed by the inner Circle. On the same night that he first met Pierce, Wolverine also encountered a squad of Hellfire Club mercenaries who had been sent to find and kill him. Wolverine lashed out at three of them--Cole, Macon, and Reese--with his adamantium claws, leaving the three of them severely wounded. The Inner Circle then had the three man converted into cyborgs. Cole, Macon, and Reese took Wolverine prisoner when the Inner circle attacked the X-Men's Westchester County headquarters months later, but Wolverine overcame the three men once more.

Amanda Sefton and Alysande Stuart arrive at Muir Island right before it is under attack by the Reavers. The many residents (some Morlocks’ Sunder and Warpies, Legion) try to defend themselves as well as they can, yet some are captured, injured and Sunder is even killed.

In New York Callisto fulfilled her task to seal off Xavier’s underground complex but Val Cooper sends Freedom Force along with Forge to help the people on Muir Island.

Daytripper (Amanda Sefton) and later known as Magik II or Jimaine Szardos in real name, she is the foster sister of Kurt Wagner a.k.a. Nightcrawler. She is a witch, wield the spells of the Winding Way, letting her create mystical shields and force bolts, sense natural and magical phenomenon, and manipulate elemental aspects of her environment, wields the Soulsword of Magik I (Illyana Rasputin) and stepping disks of the Darkchylde to cleave through spells and magical beings, command the souls of the living, and teleport over vast distances using Limbo as a stopping point

Sunder (unknown name) he is Morlock with super human strength. He survived in this time but alter he encountered and was killed by Pretty Boy of the Reavers

Forge contacted Val Cooper and her Freedom Force. They were, in turn, contacted by Moira MacTaggert’s research station on Muir Isle, which was under attack by a group of mutant-hating cyborgs called the Reavers. Val Cooper ordered Freedom Force into battle against the Reavers. Still furious at Forge for the supposed 'death' of Rogue, Mystique was reluctant to help, but was eventually forced to acquiesce. Destiny cryptically told her to be kinder to Forge, "considering how intimately your futures are intertwined."

Freedom Force and Forge arrived just as the Reavers had soundly defeated every X-person on Muir Island. One of the Reavers, Lady Deathstryke, attacked the plane, killing the pilots. Mystique angrily ordered Forge around after everyone was safe, telling him to look after Destiny, away from the fight. As the battle raged, Destiny urged Forge to go to the fight, insisting he save Mystique, and that he should love her. He disputed this, stating that his heart was spoken for but she reminded him of her ability to see the future and that it was the nature of storms to pass. Shortly after he left, Legion appeared, his evil Jack Wayne personality dominant, and killed Destiny.

Meanwhile in Salem, the Shadow King causes an increase of hatred all around the world and somehow uses this energy to fuel himself. The only force that could still stop him is Xavier and the X-Men so he plans to seduce the students to his sight to injure Xavier where he hurts the most.

On Muir Island things are deteriorating. Moira has her residents train against each other in some battle arena. Even new arrivals Rogue and Lila Cheney’s bodyguard Guido are fighting there.

In Salem, Rogue defeats him and the crowd cheers, however she wonders what happens. Not before long the Shadow King takes control of her too. Xavier sends the X-men to check on Muir Island, while he heads to the remains of the mansion in Westchester to use Cerebro, both for contacting X-factor and to identify the cause of the psychic states all over the world.

On Muir, the X-Men are taken by surprise and defeated by the various residents who are all under the Shadow King’s control.

In Westchester Xavier finds Stevie Hunter on the run from Colossus, who too is under mental control by the villain.

Under the mental control of the Shadow King, Colossus chases Xavier and Stevie Hunter through the ruins of the Xavier Institute. It comes to a showdown between Xavier and the Shadow King in the Danger Room, and Xavier realizes that he can only free Colossus by destroying the artist Peter Nicholas personality in Colossus head; though it hurts him as Piotr actually was happy as an artist.

On Muir Island, only Forge remained free from the Shadow King’s influence and the other X-Men are hunting him. Yet Forge is able to use a neurosynaptic scrambler on Wolverine and when being discovered by Rogue, he knocks her unconscious with a gun. The Shadow King realizes that he needs a new host body, as that of FBI agent Jacob Reizs is beginning to deteriorate.

Xavier, Stevie and Colossus witness a riot in Salem Center which is actually the Shadow King’s doing, they decide to call in X-Factor.

Xavier inspects the ruins of Muir Island and finds X-Factor and the free X-Men held in a telekinetic field by Legion, who has been made the Shadow King’s new host body. The Professor and the Shadow King fight and Storm, who had remained hidden after her defeat by Legion, zaps him with a lightning, causing him to loose control over the telekinetic field and retreating. Xavier and the free mutants come up with a plan; Xavier will engage the Shadow King on the astral plane, with Jean anchoring him and Storm, Cyclops, Colossus and Archangel shielding them from physical attacks, while Beast, Banshee, Iceman, Forge and Rogue will enter the lab complex to disrupt the Shadow King’s Nexus. Xavier is not faring very well on the astral plane, as his astral injuries all show on his physical body too. First his legs are broken and he suffers more injuries. The lab team has to fight the mutants still influenced by the Shadow King, and many personal issues hinder them, like Banshee having to go up against Moira and Siryn for example.

On Muir Isle, Forge has installed a defense system and Banshee is still unsettled by the wrongness he senses. Lorna Dane has been imprisoned by Legion. Thanks to her negative influence, his evil, Jack Wayne persona is now dominant and intends to make the entire island his personal playground.

The X-Men and X-Factor were reunited in Muir Island where they not only found a returned walking Xavier and Rogue (after departing with Magneto) but a possessed Legion. Legion's mind had been taken over by the Shadow King. After a long hard and costly fight the Shadow King was beaten, however Shadow King once again crippled Xavier this time. Also the mind of his son Legion was destroyed.

The team that is supposed to guard Xavier enters the astral plane too through Jean’s telepathy to help the Professor, yet this exposes him to physical danger in the form of Legion lurking around. The Shadow King now can destroy both Xavier’s mind and body, but before he fulfills his deed, Forge uses a neurosynaptic weapon on Psylocke and while she is still dazed, he plunges her psychic blade into Polaris’s head, disrupting the Nexus and the Shadow King’s power source. The Shadow King vanishes, Legion falls unconscious and Xavier’s body is heavily damaged.

Meanwhile, things quickly went downhill for Freedom Force until Forge unexpectedly arrived and killed the Reavers about to shoot Mystique and Pyro, putting the enemy on the run. Nevertheless, Mystique blamed Forge for Destiny’s death and swore she’d get even with him for the two lives he now owed her.

Later, with Freedom Force gone, Banshee asked the desolate Forge if he was interested in helping him find the X-Men and if he could develop a better defense system for Muir Isle. Forge complied. As Banshee noted that the behavior of several Muir island residents had changed for the worse, he asked Forge to sneak in a back door that would allow them to return undetected if need be.

Before Forge and Banshee embarked on their search for the missing X-Men, Forge was asked for help by Alpha Flight, who were referred to him by Val Cooper: The Roxxon Oil corporate building in Denver had been overtaken by one of their experiments, a being that could control all manners of technology and could access computer-systems worldwide. Alphan and techno-morph, Madison Jeffries, had tried to get in, but found his foe was too fast for him – they needed someone who could reconfigure technology with the speed of thought. With the help of Forge configuring Jeffries’ Box armor, they went in. Both men found they had something in common, as they were both veterans traumatized by the Vietnam War. Within the techno-horror, they found and saved James MacDonald Hudson, the original Guardian, a prisoner of Roxxon, who had been believed dead.

Back on Muir Island, with the help of Cerebro, they learned that Storm was in Cairo, unaware that the Shadow King used their Cerebro search to gain access to Muir Isle.

The X-Men return the treasures that the Reavers have stolen to their rightful owners. Rogue starts to befriend Gateway. Colossus gets the chance to comfort his sister and help her fight S’ym and some more demons of Limbo, even though she believes to have summoned his ghost image. In the process Colossus is able to change back to human form for the first time since the Marauders injury.

The X-Men discover that many people of Denver have been infected with Brood eggs. Madelyne discovers on TV that Jean Grey is alive; she is angry with Scott and smashes the screen, rendering her unconscious.

The X-Men have to fight brood infected mutants, Rogue and Psylocke switch sides due to the powers to a pheromone releasing mutant named Temptress. Wolverine is infected with a brood egg. The unconscious Madelyne has a dream about losing her husband, her identity, and her whole life to Jean Grey, while she remains alone in the desert. The X-Men defeat the mutant brood from Denver, although they might not have discovered all of them. In her dreams S’ym, who offers her the power to shape her own destiny, approaches Madelyne.