It’s nighttime in Madripoor, and inside the infamous Legacy House the party is just getting started. A shady auctioneer in a cowboy hat struts across the stage, working a room full of high-rolling criminals and weapon collectors like they’re old pals.
Floating above him in a glowing containment spheres is a supervillain’s wish list: a suitcase of stolen Iron Man armor, a Goblin Glider, the Hulk’s size-48 shoes with a matching trilby hat. But the main event is an opal taken from the tomb of the ancient mutant Apocalypse. “I hear the statue they plucked it off put up a bit of a fight too,” the auctioneer says in a joking manner.
Chaos at the Auction House
As the bidding starts, a hooded, green-skinned woman is watching the auction take place. A waiter asks for her invitation, which she ignores. Seconds later, she drops her disguise revealing herself to be Pestilence, one of Apocalypse’s Horsemen. Declaring herself “plague and sickness incarnate,” she snarls that nobody will steal what belongs to her. Then razor-sharp blades slice through the air toward her.
It’s Archangel (Warren Worthington III), ex-Horseman and he isn’t alone.
The rest of his X-Force team, Cable, Psylocke, Jubilee and Roberto (Sunspot) are there as well. Cable blocks the auctioneer’s escape at gunpoint with a cold “Going once, going twice, going nowhere,” and snatches the opal while Psylocke hits the man with a psychic blast. In the crowd, Jubilee and Roberto (Sunspot) try to evacuate the guests. Jubilee insists even scumbags deserve an orderly exit, while Roberto notes that half the room are probably international terrorists. When a man in a yellow hazmat suit (who looks a lot like M.O.D.O.K.) scrambles past, Jubilee hopes he has good health insurance.
Meanwhile, Pestilence screams at Archangel saying he turned his back on Apocalypse and denied her destiny at his side. She also threatens her fellow Horseman Famine, who isn’t at the auction house. She warns if Famine thinks she can win Apocalypse’s favor, she’ll discover new depths of disease. Archangel says little. His wings slice through her attack and shield him from her powers. He sends her flying across the room, battered and unconscious.
Psylocke is confused by the drama but Cable calls Pestilence a speed bump on the way to finding War and, through him, Apocalypse.
Unlocking the Opal
As X-Force’s jet flies over the Pacific Ocean, Psylocke explains that little opal is no mere gem. It’s the Opal of Ozymandias. Ozymandias is Apocalypse’s eternal chronicler, who has served the tyrant for centuries. Legend says he was the son of a pharaoh who tried to seize power when En Sabah Nur deposed the despot who had conquered their land. En Sabah Nur claimed the throne himself and cursed Ozymandias with prophetic sight and never-ending servitude.
Cable, whose timeline still has Ozymandias as a problem, wants to know if the stone can help them find War. Psylocke says Ozymandias’s precognition let him chronicle Apocalypse across the timestream, so she can use her powers to read the gem’s psychometric memory. By walking through the tyrant’s past, they may find the path to him. She touches the stone, and is flooded with images: a giant Apocalypse with glowing eyes, Ozymandias carving a tablet, and the early Horsemen on horseback.
Stranded in 3000 B.C.E.
The vision starts in ancient Egypt. Golden robot servants preach the greatness and benevolence of their master, Rama-Tut. Mid-sentence, one disappears in a cloud of purple smoke and a muffled BAMF.
Nightcrawler teleports in with the robot servant. Rogue slams it down in frustration, prompting Beast to ask her to go easy on the cranial module, since key components may be housed there. This group of X-Men, along with Professor Xavier and Magneto are stranded in the distant past. Beast is trying to jury-rig a time machine from Rama-Tut’s leftover tech, though he fears it may exceed his grasp as “a mere man of the 1990s.”
Xavier reassures him that everyone knows he’s pushing far beyond their capabilities to get them home. Rogue admits she’s going stir-crazy, since using their powers around the locals could turn the timeline upside down, but says she still has faith in him. Beast thanks her, noting that a capable scientist doesn’t waste time lamenting what he can’t control. “Onward and upward, my fellow mutants,” Beast says.
Elsewhere in the desert, Magneto stands on a rock beside a young En Sabah Nur, long before he becomes Apocalypse. Sensing his trouble, Magneto asks what’s wrong. Nur says it feels like walking on shifting sands. They aren’t gaining ground against Rama-Tut’s forces, only holding it at a great cost in vitality.
Magneto calls this “the plight of the mutant” since even stagnation takes immense effort. “Sometimes, survival is not enough. One must overcome,” Magneto tells Nur. Xavier rolls up with the suggestion the desert sun has gotten to everyone. Nur agrees they should rest, adding that they may fight together for a long, long time to come.
Deep into Apocalypse’s Memories
Back on the jet, Psylocke comes to and says the vision was so vivid she could feel the sand. She didn’t expect Apocalypse’s history to be so entangled with the X-Men. Jubilee and Roberto beg her to pass the opal around, but Cable shuts it down: “This is a squad, not a democracy.” Without telepathy, the stone is just a fancy paperweight. Psylocke warns him to be cautious as she dives back in, this time with Cable beside her as an observer.
They watch a woman named Candra speak to the newly empowered Apocalypse. He had sworn never to open his heart to anyone but Candra has exceeded his expectations, and he vows vengeance on all who enabled Rama-Tut’s tyranny. Candra says a mighty ruler shouldn’t stand alone and asks if she’s worthy to be his queen. Sensing great potential in her, Apocalypse kisses her.
Later, Ozymandias sneaks into a hidden chamber of Rama-Tut’s technology, hoping to use it to conquer Egypt. Apocalypse appears, mockingly thanking him for his “naked ambition” for leading him to one of the last remnants of Rama-Tut’s might. When Ozymandias asks if Apocalypse seeks dominion over eternity, Apocalypse presses the opal to his forehead and orders him to observe all of time at once. Ozymandias screams, and his eternal curse begins.
The vision jumps to a shirtless crusader named Bennet du Paris, the future Exodus. He’s staggering through a desert but he refuses to fail his quest. A voice asks if he’ll risk his life to prove he is among the strong. When he says yes, a boulder shatters to reveal Apocalypse, now in his dark armor.
“Survival is not enough. One must overcome,” Apocalypse tells him in a disturbingly dark parallel to Magneto. Just how much of Magneto’s attempts to redeem En Sabah Nur wound up influencing the cruelty he would inflict as Apocalypse?
A Future Heir of Apocalypse?
Finally, Cable and Psylocke are pulled into a scene aboard Apocalypse’s ship. Cable demands the rock show them where Apocalypse is now but Psylocke warns he might sense them. In the memory, Apocalypse strikes Ozymandias for suggesting heresy. Ozymandias insists he isn’t proposing a replacement or successor, but his visions show Apocalypse will need a vessel strong enough to contain his power. Rather than seek one, he could father one. Apocalypse asks who could be worthy of bearing his child, and the memory lingers on a green-skinned woman (Famine).
A shockwave blasts Cable and Psylocke out of the vision. Archangel catches Psylocke while Cable collapses in pain. She insists it can’t have happened already since someone would have revealed it. Roberto jokes about Apocalypse inventing a color Game Boy, and Jubilee demands to know what rattled her. Cable explains they’ve figured out why Pestilence was hunting Apocalypse, and why she feared Famine would find him first. One near-immortal tyrant was bad enough, but they may have to worry about an heir of Apocalypse too.
