X-Men: Red (2nd series) #15

The Fisher King’s memory:
He was born in a prison. He has never left, nor can he leave. Now, at the age of six, he finds himself in the depths of the Tower of Broken Thought. Chained to the wall is an emaciated nightmarish creature whose head consists of several giant brains with mouths. The being warns the young boy carrying food not to come closer. He killed the last food bearer. His thoughts buzzed. They stung! Blind and chained, he is still Azatoth, the dark one, the mind-ripper! His power cannot be bound by another’s.

The boy replies that he has no weapon to bind him with. The genetic seers say it will never come. Azatoth laughs at the thought that he is feared so much, they send a powerless child to bring his stale bread. Does the boy know what he could do to him if he came too close?

The boy comes closer and puts down the food. He could tear his mind open, he recites. Flay it alive in pain beyond pain. Azatoth laughs and agrees. Cut away his past, his name, everything he has been, the boy continues. Scar his very thoughts until they become unreadable. Until he becomes invisible, the boy smirks.

The present:
Storm calls the Fisher King’s name. Now, joined with Xilo, it is easy to become lost in history but, having added Xilo’s tactics to his and preserving Xilo’s history, they have both become more. He apologizes to Storm and focuses on the present. He tries to ignore Xilo’s worms’ writhing and show the rest of the Brotherhood a map. He shows them where they stand. Argyre’s lost but their western front is standing fast against attacks from that direction. The territories to the east are safe for now. To reach them by land, the forces of Arakko Prime have to pass between Isca’s lands and the Spire Vile of Tarn’s Locus.

That leaves the Autumn Continent, mostly dead land after Vulcan’s rage. Uncontested by either side. To open a new front, Genesis has to attack by sea, Sobunar’s ocean. Since she hasn’t done it yet, he believes she is treading carefully with Sobunar. But now she’ll push, and the place to push will be Black King Bay and the river route to Lake Hellas. He warns them to get ready. He believes, before the day is over, that sea will run with blood.

Flashback:
The prisons of Amenth:
The nameless boy is fifteen years old. He is a blank spot to the Vile omnipaths. He has learned to be invisible. He has learned to take lives. All for this moment.

Past the cells strides Tarn the Uncaring, flanked by the High Summoner (son of War) and another tall being, Rurik Slime-Weeper.

Any improvement on the Solem situation? Tarn demands. The Summoner regretfully replies that they cannot take Solem’s DNA by force due to his adamantium skin. There are other means… but he has a certain discipline if he wants to. Physically he does not provide… Tarn cuts him off. No need to spell it out. Rurik carefully praises Tarn, but why covet another’s weapon? he asks. To suggest he needed unbreakable skin would be an insult for any on Arakko. Any of Amenth, too, Tarh replies. He doesn’t need it. He wants to study it. As for posthumous glory, let them say he doesn’t fear a life that ends either. Death is only the beginning of change.

The hidden boy observes them. Knife in hand, he is ready to kill Tarn, but another hand grabs him. A bald girl with glowing eyes grabs his hand and orders him not to. If he does this, he will die. The boy replies that Isca is not with Tarn. He may not get a better chance! To what? she demands. Replace Tarn with the next in line? The Summoner, En Sabah Nur’s grandson, is hungry for more power and influence. Does he want to replace evil with evil? Or just feel he did something, as he dies at the weapons in their hands? The boy boasts he has nothing. And with enough nothing you can do anything! The girl, Zsora, smiles and replies, then let’s not do any one thing.

Present:
Genesis’s fleet is on one of Sobunar’s oceans, as predicted.

Here, Annihilation orders at a certain point and Genesis gives the order to stop not too far from the shore, but out of their foes’ range.

Sobunar protests as the Seat-Below-Us. They are Arakkii and they are enough! And his ocean does not belong to the land. His children are not hers, he adds in a smaller voice. She chides him this is not a decision for the depths. They are at war, so all defer to the Dawn and, as neither side can currently advance by land… She turns to Lycaeon as Seat of Stalemate and asks what he recommends. Predictably, both his heads, while claiming to be objective, enthusiastically support her course.

The two new members agree with Sobunar, they only need his permission to use their ships on his ocean, not anything more, but Ora Serrata sharply admonishes them that Ororo’s rebels and their ideas have weakened the very concept of Arakko itself. A challenge to all may be answered by all and all is all!

She turns to a green man called Satis Exotica and permits him to proceed. Satis Exotica drips some of his blood into the ocean. Blood is his power. It confers strength, and therefore all of Arakko shunned him, because it carries the stain of insult, but a fish has no pride. A seabeast has no honor and only one of them will be able to carry his gift to their enemies.

Storm gets a message from the Keep, which is still manned by Peepers and Hairbag, who didn’t attend the Hellfire Gala. Peepers warns them of the fleet. Storm is doubtful, as Genesis must know Storm’s powers can bring down a fleet. They soon get the answer, as they see the giant mutated beast striding toward Port Prometheus.

The image of the creature touches something in the Fisher King and Xilo, and Fisher tries to find out what it is.

Flashback:
The unnamed boy and Szora of the Spirit Flame fall in love and marry. Even more, they and Szora’s sister, Syzya of the Smoke, join together as the Night Seats and try in their own way to rebel as much as possible in the prisons of Amenth.

The man is 45 now, and he and Szora have two daughters.

The three Night Seats break into the cell that holds Solem, who is more amused than anything at their daring. Do they really think they have a hope…

The nameless man interrupts that it is not about hope. To be of Arakko means to fight without it. They fight, knowing they’ll lose, though they’d have more of a chance with Solem at their side.

Solem has managed to get luxury goods into his cell and busies himself with his musical instrument. He let them meet here in his lonely cell, Solem points out, and he even sent away his usual visitors, because he likes them and because their weapons let them pass his notes and keep his secrets. Tarn’s great omnipaths – so all-seeing, he mockingly sings, yet blinded by smoke, burned by flame, bamboozled by the lack of a name. An epic song he is composing for their awesome victory. Now what rhymes with “awesome?” Dare he say “foursome?”

Business before pleasure, Syzya chides him. In a week, Tarn will make the trek to the Vile Colleges and this time Annihilation will go with him to inspect the new abominations. As protection, the Horsemen and Isca will ride along. Why all on a single journey? Zsora asks. Fear of the White Sword, her sister explains. His Hundred can die as many times as Isca can win, after all. Even so, the Annihilation helm can hide the truth even from her, Zsora admits, and some things are too good to be true.

Nevertheless, her nameless husband votes with Syzya. They need to use this one-time-chance. Ora Serrata dies first. Once out of law’s shackles, the Great Ring can act…

That simple, hmm? Solem asks mockingly while feasting on some grapes. It’s their chance, Zsora pleads. Should they ignore it? They don’t all have his long lifetime. He agrees. He is ageless and beautiful and his heart is as unbreakable as his skin. But that’s not sure of everyone, is it?

Present:
Fisher King recalls they ignored Solem’s advice. The giant sea monster lumbers toward Port Prometheus. He observes that this kind of attack is unlike Genesis.

Storm takes to the air and, in the upper atmosphere, a hailstorm the size of a giant skull forms. Huricane winds throw it toward and through the creature’s head.

The attack is as elegant as Genesis’ should be. Fisher feels Xilo coil in his body. Merged as they are, Xilo can only speak in warnings from his history and Fisher’s own. The present becomes the past…

Flashback:
It is one day later, after they attempted their attack. The man and Zsora were caught. Now they hang from the wall in chains, facing Genesis / Annihilation, Famine and Pestilence.

Annihilation states an example must be made. Zsora asks if Solem betrayed them. Annihilation chides them not to mention that name to War. She imagines he suffers. Their teleporter has fled and they will deal with her when they catch her. But they know the punishment for conspirators. One dies to teach the others. And there are no exceptions for age. Death brings in the couple’s children: Zsen – still a preteen – and Khora, little more than a toddler.

While the nameless man is still protesting, Zsora already cries, she takes the punishment on herself. No! he protests. Was she supposed to let him go there first? she smiles sadly. She swore an oath to protect him with her life.

As she speaks, Famine unleashes his power taking all the water from her body and she dies.

Has the lesson been learned? Genesis asks. Good. Then she reveals that there was no traitor. Genesis’ power is control over plants. There is flora in their guts. The spies were inside them. Does he understand her, king of nothing? He has no weapon. She has all of them. He will never escape!

She leaves with her entourage. The man hangs there broken and, while little Khora weeps, Zsen despises her father for his weakness.

Present:
Fisher King realizes what Xilo has been trying to tell him with the memories: there is a spy inside. He shouts at Sunspot to destroy the creature’s corpse. Before he can act, vines break forth from it. With Xilo’s knowledge Fisher realizes what is happening here: This is ancient magic - an Okkara Gate.

Unlike the other gates, which need answering gates to link with. Instead, it creates one at its destination. The magic feeds on spilled blood and grows across realities to the Ivory Spires in the land of Amenth and the nightmares waiting there. Led by the Horsemen of the Apocalypse, the Summoners and the White Sword, an army of warriors and nightmares enters…