The New Mutants #69

Magik transforms into her full demonic form as the Darkchilde! Meanwhile, the rescue mission for Lila Cheney hits a major snag…

The New Mutants were falling apart. Cannonball & Sunspot tended to Gosamyr who lay helpless on the floor. Wolfsbane was in tears. Magik hadn't said a word all day, depressed at her destiny to turn into the Darkchilde. Warlock & Mirage panicked at Admiral Dupen'th's order to destroy the space yacht they were travelling in. Gosamyr jumped up and blamed Mirage, causing them all to argue. Warlock begged his friends not to argue while the countdown to detonation continued. However, unknown to the New Mutants, Spyder ordered that the space yacht should be lowered to the planet. On board the yacht, they realised that it was far too convenient and again Gosamyr accused Mirage. Mirage claimed that Gosamyr was only jealous, but Mirage was already crying.

Spyder reclined while his slaves carried him alone. They tried Lila up, and she cried out that both she & Gosamyr were girls, not items to be traded. However, as Spyder watched the space yacht descend to the planet's surface he calculated the risks of physical violence to himself in a frontal attack. Therefore he left Gosamyr among the New Mutants to further disrupt their team-work.

As soon as the yacht landed, Mirage ran on to the planet's surface. In the alien back alleys she was assaulted by alien brutes.

The other New Mutants were unaware that Mirage had left the yacht. Wolfsbane desperately tried to remind Cannonball that he was there to save Lila, but Gosamyr used the opportunity to remind Wolfsbane of how they'd all seen her crush for him realised (see New Mutants #68). Sunspot grew protective of Gosamyr and shoved Cannonball away from her, while Warlock begged them not to fight. Warlock approached Magik to help, but she was too depressed and convinced that she would only make matters worse.

Mirage used her formidable training to defend herself against the aliens. She then used her power to create their heart's desire; the Bauble of Babel (see New Mutants #55). She was then able to flee while the aliens fight each other to possession the fake item.

Back inside the yacht Magik teleported down from her shelf to comfort Wolfsbane. Wolfsbane rejected her and began to crawl away when Warlock came screaming into the room; he couldn't find Mirage on board the yacht. Wolfsbane used her telepathic connection with Mirage to discover that she was outside and chased by aliens. The New Mutants teleported to Limbo where they quickly came under attack from the demons. Magik drew the Soulsword and became the Darkchilde, covered in Eldritch Armour. Wolfsbane implored her to leave the Soulsword behind, but the aliens had already caught Mirage.

Back on Earth, Magneto had discovered that his students were missing. The White Queen contacted him through her video communicator and informed him that the Hellions had heard everything from the live broadcast of Lila Cheney's concert. She then requested his presence at the Hellfire Club to help with current bizarre events. Magneto then donned his old helmet for the first time as he pledged to find the New Mutants where ever they were hiding on Earth.

Meanwhile in space, the New Mutants teleported in time to save Mirage from the aliens. Gosamyr stood back, frightened by the violence. Darkchilde sliced a robot in half with her Soulsword, but the two halves became demonic and swallowed an alien. The other aliens saw what had happened and ran for safety. One of them grabbed Gosamyr, causing Sunspot & Cannonball to race after her. They both crashed into the alien and began fighting over Gosamyr. Gosamyr picked herself up and boasted to Mirage that it proved her worth. Since the men were willing to fight over it, she demanded that it meant she was more important and that they should obey her. Warlock was wary of Gosamyr, and Darkchilde grew angry as she sensed some sort of magic coming from the little alien girl. So Darkshilde slashed her Soulsword through Gosamyr causing a strange transformation. Gosamyr uncontrollably grew into a giant fanged fire-monster with tentacles, and collapsed when she reverted to normal.

Although Cannonball had snapped out of Gosamyr's spell, Sunspot accused Darkchilde of trying to kill her. Darkchilde went to attack her again, but the others restrained her. Wolfsbane implored her to revert back to Magik, but she was unable to. Stuck as the Darkchilde she cried that she was the real monster, not Gosamyr. However Mirage & Cannonball both declared that it was Gosamyr who had turned them all against each other, which wasn't a 'pretty' thing to do. Gosamyr regained consciousness and declared that it was normal for people to behave like that around her. Warlock stated that he knew of Gosamyr's kind; they were extremely rare, precious and dangerous. He implored the New Mutants to leave her behind. Sunspot comforted Gosamyr saying he felt like he had a monster like that inside of him at times, and wanted to help teach her to control her subconscious abilities.

Darkchilde still wanted to kill Gosamyr blaming her for being stuck in her current demonic incarnation. She also stated that she wouldn't take the New Mutants back to Limbo as she felt it wouldn't let them leave again. So Warlock flew them all to Spyder's citadel. They broke in and used Wolfsbane's sense to track Lila. They soon found her gagged and bound in an energy field. However, Gosamyr fell back at a rumbling sound, avoiding a mecahnical cage that dropped over the New Mutants. Spyder then descended and placed his collar back on Gosamyr's neck as he held them all captive.