Magik2

Bereft of all hope, Illyana finally realized that Ororo's master spells were those of creation, and that Ororo had created life for its own sake. Illyana was looking to create life as a means to an end - as a way to wreak vengeance upon Belasco. Illyana finally realized that she needed a real weapon - not just a metaphorical one. So Illyana used the last of her own strength to work her spell once more, forming the SoulSword, which became the ultimate expression of her mystical power and her inner goodness. When it struck something that had magical powers, or a person that was enchanted, the SoulSword destoyed that magic, no matter how powerful. Thus the enchantments that held Illyana were broken with the creation of the SoulSword.

Illyana stepped to Belasco's citadel and challenged him. As the two fought, Illyana grew more and more demonic both mentally and physically, while Belasco grew more human, losing much of his power. Illyana defeated him quite easily, and again Belasco begged for mercy. Just as Illyana was about to kill Belasco with her SoulSword, she realized that she was holding him with her tail - that she had become more demonic than he was. She, like Ororo before her, was on the verge of giving in to her dark, demonic side. Illyana made the decision not to kill Belasco, defeating the impulses of her DarkSoul. By rejecting his ways and teachings, Illyana defeated Belasco and his hold upon her. He fled Limbo and Illyana regained her human form.

At long last, Illyana returned to Earth for good, seeming to arrive only seconds after the X-Men had. Yet Illyana was 13 years old - more than six years older than she had been only moments before that. Unable to return home to her parents, Illyana remained at the mansion in Westchester, and eventually became a member of the ~New Mutants She joined the New Mutants in their many adventures across the galaxy and through Limbo. Illyana and the X-Man ~Kitty Pryde (ShadowCat) became close friends and roommates, probably due to the fact that both of them felt somewhat out of place where they were. Kitty was the youngest member of the X-Men, and Illyana had not had a real childhood and often felt like an outsider among outsiders when with the more "normal" members of the New Mutants. The two girls also shared a strange bond through the SoulSword, which was the only object that could hurt Kitty when she was phased. This might have been due to the fact that Kitty had been one of Illyana's only friends during her childhood in Limbo. Or the fact that they were enemies as well. But that is merely conjecture - the reason for this has never been discovered/explained.

Several months after Illyana joined the New Mutants, Professor Xavier left the X-Men to join his beloved Lilandra and the StarJammers in their fight against the Shi'ar usurper Deathbird. During this time, the New Mutants were left in the care of the newly reformed Magneto, and they continued to study and learn to use their mutant abilities. Illyana found that as she spent more and more time away from Limbo, her command of Limbo and its demonic inhabitants was diminishing. In addition, when she drew her SoulSword parts of her body were covered by armor, called the Eldritch Armor, and the appearance was uncontrollable. First Illyana's left arm was covered by the armor, then her left leg. Eventually her entire body was covered by the armor when she was wielding her SoulSword.

While in the care of Magneto, many laws and acts were passed which restricted the movements of mutants. The political and emotional climate of the world was Anti-Mutant and hate crimes were committed with alarming frequency. Magneto, who had lived through the Holocaust, was afraid for the safety of the children in this climate, and began to resrict them to the school grounds. The New Mutants rebelled against his rules, as much due to his authoritarian manner as to the fact that they did not want to be controlled. The children had several "unsupervised" adventures.

On one adventure, the New Mutants escaped to Limbo, only to find it a much different place than when they last visited it. Many of her demons had been infected with the Transmode-Virus. In addition, there was a rebellion among the demons, headed by S'ym and N'astirh. Since they could reform and regenerate themselves whenever they needed too, the demons were more powerful than ever before. The New Mutants became seperated, half the group getting stuck in one timeline, and the other half in another. Illyana continued to fight the demons, but she couldn't beat them, they were too many. She was forced to purge Limbo of all sorcery by stabbing the ground with her SoulSword. She stepped to the other side fo the galaxy and was rescued by Xavier and the StarJammers.

Since Illyana's sorcerous powers came from the land of Limbo, she was unable to do magic when her land was free of sorcery. Only by reclaiming the SoulSword and the mystic side of herself could she regain the use of her magic. But without the use of her magicks, she felt helpless and useless to others, and to herself.

In order to save the life of Xavier, Illyana reclaimed her sorcerous powers. However she decided to continue fighting for peace between mutants and humans with the New Mutants, rather than returning to Limbo and regaining control of her demons. Without the firm hand of their mistress to command them, the demons ran wild. N'astirh and S'ym convinced the other demons to rebel along with them, undermining the power that Magik held in Limbo.

After this point, many of the adventures were done against Magneto's wishes and without his knowledge. Without adequate supervision, the New Mutants were bound to encounter a situation for which they were not prepared. And tragedy struck, resulting in the death of Doug Ramsey (Cipher) at the hands of Cameron Hodge and his anti-mutant militia. The loss of Cipher hit the team hard, and the children felt extremely guilty because they had been grounded by Magneto and deliberately disobeyed him by leaving the Mansion. Magneto, in his own grief at losing Doug, blamed the students for his death. And on top of all that, the children returned to the Mansion with Doug's body in time to watch a live TV broadcast showing the X-Men's "death" in Dallas during "The Fall of the Mutants." Among those X-Men presumed dead was Colossus, Illyana's brother, whom she had teleported to Dallas only a short while beforehand, so that he could fight with the X-Men.

It was these two events that caused the New Mutants to take a more "hard line" attitude and decide that they were going to fight for peace between mutants and humans like the X-Men had done before them. Due to these deaths, all the New Mutants became more sober about their abilities and responsibilities. The death of her brother caused Illyana to become darker and more hostile towards all people - even her New Mutant teammates. It was not hard to tell that Illyana was becoming more and more demonic. Despite this fact, 'Yana remained a member of the team for several more months, fighting alongside them against the Hellions and Spyder.