Not only was Illyana growing more demonic, but every moment that she spent away from Limbo meant more of her power in Limbo was lost. N'astirh and S'ym knew this and decided to take advantage of it. Since they wished to command Limbo themselves, they sought out a woman they felt could be controlled. N'astirh and S'ym made a deal with Madelyne Pryor, the abandoned wife of Scott Summers and clone of Jean Grey: She could be queen of Limbo if she helped them open a gateway between Earth and Limbo. She would be granted magical powers and would be the supreme ruler of Earth using her magic and her power as The Goblin Queen. All this was to be accomplished by the sacrifice of Maddie's son, Nathan Christopher, AKA Cable, and several other babies.
Maddie accepted N'astirh's offer and became ~The Goblin Queen. Together they tricked Magik into opening a portal between Limbo and Earth. The Demons came through the portal, and the Goblin Queen transformed New York City into a version of Limbo. While the X-Men and X-Factor fought the demons in New York and tried to save little Nathan, the New Mutants and Magik entered Limbo to save the other children held captive there. Inside Limbo, Illyana/Magik was confronted by S'ym who made it plain he would defeat her if she did not fully accept her "heritage" as the DarkChilde.
Pushed beyond her limits, Illyana became the DarkChilde. Rahne, remembering that Limbo's naturally occurring "stepping discs" accessed all times and places, led the New Mutants on a chase through Limbo to find Illyana as a child. She hoped that the older, DarkChilde version of Illyana would be convinced to do good when confronted by a pure version of herself. They found the 7 year old Illyana just after she had been snatched from Kitty Pryde's arms by Belasco so many Limbo years ago. This version of Illyana had not yet become Belasco's apprentice in sorcery; indeed Belasco had not yet cast the DarkChilde spells upon her. The New Mutants brought the child Illyana with them to DarkChilde, who wanted to kill her, but Rahne intervened. Rahne told DarkChilde that destruction was the way of Limbo, the way she had been raised with, but that it didnt have to be HER way. Rahne told DarkChilde that she had a choice, that she was free to choose a new path, a different path.
Illyana/DarkChilde decided that she would not give in to the evil that was slowly consuming her soul. She teleported herself, the New Mutants, and little Illyana back to New York. Using all her sorcerous powers, Illyana/DarkChilde pulled all the demons, including S'ym and N'astirh, back into Limbo. She hurled her SoulSword into the "Heart of Darkness" - the portal between the two worlds - destroying it. After a blinding flash of light, Colossus and the other X-Men found the charred,seemingly empty Eldritch armor that DarkChilde had been wearing and realized Illyana had sacrificed herself to close the portal. As they began to mourn the loss of Illyana, Piotr heard a tiny voice say in Russian, "Piotr Nikolievich" and when he looked into the armor, the child Illyana was inside it.
The child Illyana, who had no memories of anything that had happened, was sent home to live with her parents in Siberia. But a few months later they were murdered by Soviet Mobsters. Illyana came to live with Piotr at the mansion again. After the Legacy Virus was released by Stryfe, it was found that little Illyana had contracted the virus. She died in the Mansion after a long and bitter struggle with the disease. |
