The New Mutants #63

Illyana has a dream that feels more like a prophetic vision, setting her on the course to gain answers from Forge about the X-Men’s demise.

Magik recalled the time Shadowcat found an alien spacesuit in her closet. Shadowcat was determined to hear the story of how she got it, even though Magik was trying to study. Shadowcat tickled Magik so much that they both fell through the bed and embarrassed Colossus who was naked after having a shower. The girls ran back upstairs laughing, and so Magik began to tell her story.

On the night the girls in the New Mutants had their slumber party, they were attacked by a mysterious alien creature. When the alien touched Magik's right-hand she became infected with a techno-organic virus. Cornered, she grabbed Lockheed and teleported to Limbo (see New Mutants #21).

In Limbo, a large tree-like demon tried to attack Magik. When it touched her infected hand, the demon became infected with the transmode virus. Eldritch armour began to cover the rest of Magik's body, and she summoned her Soulsword. She closed her eyes tightly afraid that it might hurt, and then sliced her own arm with the sword.

Magik had passed out, and when she woke she was lying on Shadowcat's bed wearing only a long green t-shirt. She recognised the room, but couldn't see any sign of her own possessions. Her hand showed no signs of the strange circuitry, and she thought it must have been a dream. She opened the drawer and changed into a t-shirt and shorts. Suddenly Shadowcat opened the door and demanded to know who Magik was and why she had so casually rummaged through her belongings. When the other X-Men surrounded Magik, she explained that she was Shadowcat's best friend and Colossus' little sister. However, Shadowcat continued to call Magik a stranger. When Magik asked where Lockheed was, she was told that the X-Men's private jet was still in the hangar. Magik began to cry. She thought she had lost control of her stepping discs and sent herself backwards in time.

It was a rainy night, and the X-Men locked Magik in a guest bedroom. She had change out of Shadowcat's clothes into a dressing gown, and put her right-arm in a sling. She sat in the lotus position, but failed to conjure any spells or stepping discs. Throwing herself on the bed, Magik began to cry. She was surprised when Lockheed licked her on the ear. She hugged the little dragon, but he tried to pull her away.

Colossus slammed the door open, and Lockheed blasted him with fiery breath. However, Colossus stood unaffected by the blast. He demanded that she accompany him to see Professor Xavier, but Lockheed pulled her out the window and lowered her to the ground. Cyclops then barked the Professor's orders; Magik was evil and should be destroyed. She ran through the woods from Cyclops' optic blasts and Storm's lightning bolts. The ground soon covered with snow as Storm tried to lure her out. Wolverine found Magik first and tried to stab her with a knife. Although she sstill had one arm in a sling, Magik managed to swerve Wolverine's attack and clobber him back-handed with a piece of log.

Magik continued to run through the woods until Lockheed roared, uncovering a giant spiked wall. Magik stepped inside a hole that Lockheed had created with is fiery breath. Inside, she stepped on a yellow path that suddenly moved. The automatic walkway carried her around for hours until she spotted Lockheed above her. She jumped off and climbed a long ladder. Once at the top she found herself inside the control deck of an alien spacecraft. Lockheed & Magik were in space.

The alien crew had died many years earlier, and so Magik took the gun from a female alien corpse. However, she was suddenly attacked by a Brood. The alien promised to Magik a host before it spat a paralysing fluid over both Magik & Lockheed. Magik managed to teleport to Limbo. There, she was able to conjure a spell to revitalise herself before she began to practise using the alien gun. When she teleported back, both the Brood and Lockheed had gone. Magik took the spacesuit off the alien corpse she had procured the ray gun from earlier.

Once she had changed into her new spacesuit, the X-Men appeared. The suit protected her from Storm's lightning bolt, and she fell backwards into an elevator. Once out of the lift she found herself in a hangar where the Brood was threatening to inject Lockheed. Magik threatened to shoot the Brood, and it revealed it's plans; it had escaped the X-Men's original attack (see Uncanny X-Men #166) with some of the Brood Queen's eggs and sampled of the X-Men's DNA. Therefore it cloned the X-Men, and made them believe that it was Professor Xavier. It infected the cloned X-Men who would change into super-powered Brood.

The X-Men clones appeared, bu they had heard the Brood's plans. They attacked the Brood, and freed Lockheed. Once the dragon was free he roared another fiery blast, reducing the Brood to ashes.

The clones X-Men then begged Magik to kill them. They didn't want to grow into Brood, and therefore preferred death over corruption. However, Magik couldn't bring herself to kill the X-Men again (see the Illyana & Storm: Magik mini series), and therefore gave them another option. She teleported the X-Men clones to Limbo where she could see the black light burning from the Brood eggs. When she slashed through the dark spots with her Soulword, the X-Men were freed from the Brood. The X-Men acknowledged that they were only clones, but they hoped to grow into worthy heroes travelling through space in the long abandoned alien spaceship.

After she finished her story, Shadowcat phased herself into the spacesuit, although she was too skinny to fill out the suit's curves. That night Magik read in bed with Lockheed perched on her shoulder. She thought about how Lockheed had killed the monster, while she had saved the X-Men.

Note: This follows events from New Mutants #21.