MAGIK I
Author : Peter Luzifer and Ruth	Last Modified : Jan 17, 2010
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BIOGRAPHY - Page 4 Re-playing the news broadcast off the X-Men’s apparent death with a videorecorder again and again, Magik discovered Forge who cast the spell that caused the X-Men to “die“. Planning revenge she attacked Forge (the New Mutants in tow), but Freedom Force intervened, since Destiny was able to predict the plot. During the fight Destiny foretold Inferno and that Magik would have to “leave and learn“ or Earth would never be the same. Illyana did not care much, instead she took Forge, whom she was unable to beat on Earth, to Limbo, but as she was about to kill him, Mirage pulled the vision from Magik’s mind she was most afraid of - a completely demonic version of herself. Seeing how close to that image she already was, Illyana spared Forge. [New Mutants (1st series) #65-66] One night Baba Yaga, the witch crone from Russian fairy tales, had come to slaughter the New Mutants; only Illyana was able to escape the last second. Baba Yaga planned on eating the kids, but Illyana could not counteract her magic directly. Because sorcery is least effective against iron, she thought of her brother Colossus, since steel is a form of iron. She decided to use a necromancy spell to summon the dead back to life, but before she completed it the true Colossus appeared through one of Gateway’s teleportation portals. The fight went on and was quickly ended when Colossus punched Baba Yaga who screamed in agony. The siblings comforted each other, realizing how much they missed each other and Colossus assured her that she was a good person despite everything as long as she tried to be good. Still Illyana believed him to be a ghost. Gateway‘s portal opened and Piotr went back to Australia. Alone Magik thought about casting again the necromancy spell to have Colossus around for ever, but she realized that this spell would turn her eternally into a demon, and she wondered why she got off lucky the one time she used it. In Limbo S’ym revealed that Baba Yaga was a ploy to make Magik use the necromancy spell, which would have condemned her. Now he decided to wait, because each time Illyana used her sorcery he knew the walls between Limbo and Earth would weaken more, till Limbo’s demons would rule earth. [Uncanny X-Men #231] After another adventure in outer space, the New Mutants had to teleport through Limbo, where they were engaged in battle by S’ym and lost. With her full powers blocked Magik could only transport her team through time, yet they remained in Limbo. So the rest of the team finally witnessed Illyana’s harsh upbringing first-hand. An unknown demon named N’astirh pretended to help the team out of love for Magik. He tricked her into fully accepting her dark side, triggering her transformation into the Darkchylde, yet giving her back full access to her power. However, as soon as she opened a stepping disk to New York, N’astirh’s magicks wrested control from her. The disk remained open and demons rained down on Times Square. Once there, N’astirh put Magik in a no-win situation, where she had to wield the Soulsword again, causing her to fear losing her sanity, but in the meantime her teammates could close the stepping disk. As she was approached another time by S’ym, she was rescued by her brother who was also fighting Inferno’s effects in the streets of New York. Slowly the Darkchylde felt that she was about to give in to her dark side. Colossus was shocked about his sister‘s latest transformation. Ashamed she left to Limbo and with her dark side fully active, she easily resumed leadership there. Wolfsbane asked to at least to save the seven-year-old Illyana she saw earlier in Limbo, which gave Magik an idea how to end Inferno. She used a combination of magical spells, her Soulsword and stepping disks to suck all the demons back to Limbo and sacrificed herself in a last stroke that would purge herself from ever having existed. When the others found the scorched eldritch armor they thought her dead, but suddenly a voice from the inside was heard. Colossus ripped it apart to discover the six year old Illyana within; it appeared as if the teenage Magik had never been. [New Mutants (1st series) #71-73] Colossus trusted the New Mutants in returning her to Russia while he and the X-Men departed for Australia. A couple of days later, the team indeed brought her back to the Ust-Ordynski Collective where she was welcomed by her mother with open arms. [New Mutants (1st series) #77] About a year later, though, her parents were killed by Russian agents who wanted to recruit Illyana and catalyze her latent mutant abilities to battle the Soul Skinner, whose telepathic control did not work on children. Though too late to save the Rasputins, the X-Men found a way to defeat the Soul Skinner and rescue Illyana before her physiology was permanently altered by the genetic accelerator she was strapped in. Now orphaned, Illyana moved back to the states with her brother and stayed at the mansion in Westchester. However only after a few days at the school, an examination revealed that the child had contracted the deadly Legacy Virus, a fatal disease that kills mutants through their genetic code. [X-Men (2nd series) #17-19, Uncanny X-Men #300] Kitty Pryde came for a visit as soon as she learned of her best friend’s fate, and watched over the girl together with Jubilee. Illyana died in their care while her brother Colossus and the X-Men were away on a mission trying in vain to find a means to save her life. Her funeral was attended by all active X-teams at the time. [Uncanny X-Men #302-304]

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