Magik

This profile was edited with Thomas' Myspace Editor V3
Real Name: Illyana Nikolievna Rasputin Former Aliases: Darkchylde
First appearance: Giant Size X-Men ..1Joined the New Mutants in:New Mutants (1st series) ..15Last appearance: Uncanny X-Men ..303 (succumbed to the Legacy Virus)Known Relatives: Nicolai Rasputin (father, deceased), Alexandra Rasputin (mother, deceased), Mikhail Nikolievitch Rasputin (brother), Piotr Nikolievitch Rasputin / Colossus (brother), Peter (nephew) Profession: none Group Affiliation: New Mutants, Hellions Powers: soul-link with Limbo allows her to command the stepping disks native to the dimension, opening portals that use Limbo as a stepping stone between different points in time and space, utilized a scrying pool to view events outside of Limbo, manifest mystical armor that shields her from harm, and can summon her Soulsword that disrupts magical spells and can steal the soul essence of others
Born on the Ust-Ordynski Collective farm in Lake Baikal, Siberia, to Nikolai and Alexandra, Illyana is the youngest of three siblings, however she never got to know her older brother Mikhail, a cosmonaut, as at the time of her birth, he was already believed dead. Actually the State had staged his death in a space launch, letting his family believe he was dead, so they could better explore Mikhail’s newly discovered mutant powers and, at the same time, shield him from outside influences. Illyana grew up unaware of any of this, and she formed a close bond with her more than ten years older brother Piotr, who nicknamed her “little snowflake“.
In the following years, Piotr found out that he was a mutant as well, with the ability to turn into organic steel. He used this power rarely on the family‘s farm. One day, however, he spotted a runaway tractor racing towards Illyana, who was playing in the fields. Transforming into his steel-form, Piotr grabbed Illyana, but couldn't get out of the way in time, so simply stood still and let the tractor hit him. It crumbled before his strength. Professor Charles Xavier, who had come seeking Piotr, witnessed this incident and asked Piotr to join his new team of X-Men.
When Arcade was held hostage by Dr. Doom, his associate Miss Locke captured the X-Men's loved ones in order to force them into rescuing her boss. Colossus' sister Illyana was among the ones taken. The X-Men did as told and encountered Dr. Doom, while secretly a few reserve members entered Murderworld, trying to free the hostages. Both groups were successful. Happily reunited with her older brother, Illyana was granted to stay in the States. Xavier wanted to test the girl for mutant powers and the perpetually homesick Colossus was happy to have a member of his family around. Xavier telepathically taught his X-Men Russian, so that they could communicate with the girl and Kitty would often tell her bedtime stories.
Illyana was also with them when the X-Men were forced to move their headquarter to a strange alien city on a island in the Bermuda Triangle (their home had been attacked recently), but the location proved to be a bad choice. The demon sorcerer Belasco lured Illyana into a temple, which through randomly appearing “teleportation circles” - stepping disks - was somehow connected to his other-dimensional realm and prison Limbo, a place where the rules of time and space did not apply. Belasco promised the hapless girl a glorious future. The X-Men followed and encountered a second set of X-Men from another reality. They were much older, some of them dead, Nightcrawler serving Belasco and an elder Storm, who learned magics, opposing him. They learned that in the other X-Men’s reality, they had managed to free their Illyana, but were forced to stay behind in Limbo. For this set of X-Men the reverse was to occur. They were able to get Illyana back and the old Storm cast a spell to bring them back home, but in the last instant Belasco grabbed the child again, while the X-Men were spirited away back to their island.
Belasco brought the little girl to an altar where he used a piece of Illyana’s soul to create a bloodstone out of it. The stone was placed in a medallion, which had places for five of them. His intention was over time to create five bloodstones, by corrupting Illyana step by step consecrating her to evil and making her the instrument of the Elder Gods – his masters’ return to Earth. Afterwards Belasco left her alone and she was taken in by the old Storm and the other X-Men’s Kitty, calling herself Cat, because of having been transformed into a half-feline. Storm thought it best to teach Illyana white magic, to prepare her for another confrontation with the demon and to enable her to rein in the evil Belasco had planted within her. Cat, who despised magic, protested and thought Storm was making a big mistake, essentially doing Belasco’s dirty work for him. In her garden Ororo tutored Illyana about life, white magic and creation for about a year, but being old, her energies were weakening. In addition, Illyana realized that not only was there a stain of evil in herself, there was an even bigger taint within Ororo, which made her distrustful of the woman.
One night Cat returned and took Illyana with her, trying to return her home. When they got in a fight Illyana fell through one of the stepping disks floating around Limbo and landed near S’ym, another demon servant of Belasco. He made fun of the girl, threatened and tortured her, till Kitty arrived to help the girl. Phasing through Limbo’s walls they arrived in a desert which they had to cross to reach Belasco’s citadel, from where Cat wanted to send Illyana home. While walking through the desert Cat trained the little girl in fighting and survival skills, and after two long years they finally arrived. Kitty tried to phase both of them through the dimensions but they were misled by one of Belasco’s illusions. Belasco bound Cat to his will transforming her into an even more catlike creature and took in the little girl as his pupil, making her create a second bloodstone herself.
In Belasco’s palace Illyana was trained in black magic for years, but even though she learned creation spells, she was not able to create anything untainted the way the older Ororo could. One day while she was thinking of a way to get out, Illyana’s mutant ability to control Limbo’s stepping disks manifested. Practicing this newfound ability Illyana ran into the New Mutants, who years later would be sent there by her older self, and also she witnessed a battle in the past, between Belasco and the young magician Storm, who defeated and attempted to kill her captor, but became like him in turn. Returning to the present Illyana found the old Storm fighting Belasco for a second time over her. Illyana tried to help the old woman but she was kept busy fighting Cat, whom she had to kill by breaking her neck. She was too late however as Cat had already dealt Ororo a mortal wound. As she realized that Belasco wanted to make the third bloodstone out of the dying woman’s soul, Illyana mercy-killed her, before Belasco could begin the ritual.
Belasco was furious with her, and Illyana fled with her stepping discs, suddenly finding herself in front of her parents’ home in Russia. Happily, she realized that she could use Limbo’s teleportation circles to teleport her out of Limbo. Her happiness quickly turned sour when she greeted her parents, who didn’t recognize the teenager in the feral outfit – as far as they were concerned their daughter was a six-year-old living in the USA. They harshly told her to go away and as Illyana broke down, she was taken back to Limbo by the corpses of the older X-Men under Belasco’s control. Belasco created the third stone again of Illyana’s soul and exiled her without any powers to Ororo’s garden, where a harsh winter was beginning.
Alone in the winter cold of Storm’s garden Illyana practised her magical skills, but she failed time and again in copying Storm’s creation spell. At last Illyana realized that she failed in it, because she was not Storm and had other motives, namely revenge; modifying the spell she created a weapon out of a tiny part of her soul– the Soulsword.With this powerful weapon Illyana battled and defeated Belasco, but right before delivering the killing stroke, she remembered the past battle of the young Storm she had witnessed.Illyana, now considered Limbo’s ruler, let the demon go and called up a stepping disk that could breach the dimensional wall and bring her back to Earth. She emerged in the middle of the X-Men, for whom only seconds had passed, but Illyana was now seven years older than the little girl they remembered.
Trying to cope with what had happened to her, Illyana told nobody about her experiences in Limbo, and kept her abilities, both mutant and magical, hidden from Xavier, the X-Men and the new team, the New Mutants, none of whom wanted to put her under pressure, though Xavier noted that she had an unusually strong protection against telepathy, that was unlikely to be natural. Being roommates, she forged a special relationship with Kitty who was now about the same age as her. During a session in the Danger Room, Illyana volunteered to program the session. Whether deliberately or not she called up holograms of Belasco, S’ym and Limbo. As Kitty asked what she was thinking Illyana went from a trance into a murderous rage and manifested her Soulsword, managing to injure Kitty with it, even though the other girl was phasing. Illyana broke down afterwards, telling Kitty that she remembered what had happened to her.
On the night of her fourteenth birthday S’ym appeared in the mansion, sent by Belasco to retrieve Illyana. To buy herself time Illyana teleported the New Mutants through Limbo (this is the scene that Illyana witnessed years earlier) back into the house to help her fight the demon. Even though the New Mutants did their best, in the end it was Illyana who defeated S’ym using her Soulsword. With a forgetting spell she made sure that her sorcery remained secret, although she admitted being a mutant with teleportation capabilities, meaning that from that point on she studied with the New Mutants.
When the X-Men were away and Kitty Pryde got kidnapped by the White Queen, Illyana had to reveal that she was a sorceress to the New Mutants, which earned her the distrust of several of her teammates, especially the extremely religious Wolfsbane. Using a scrying spell she had learned of Kitty’s fate and the group attempted a rescue mission, but they were tricked by the White Queen. She had the mutants attacked by her own team, the Hellions, and invaded the New Mutants’ minds. Only in the last instant Illyana - whose mind was closed to telepaths - was able to teleport herself and Mirage away to Limbo. There Danielle learned what a nightmare Illyana’s childhood must have been and Illyana realized that she would always have to teleport via Limbo, since the stepping disks she controlled were parts of that dimension. After having a rest they tried to go back to the Massachusetts Academy, but Illyana’s control over the stepping disks wasn’t very accurate and they emerged over a year in the future, where they saw their former friends as loyal Hellions. In a second attempt Illyana got it almost right as they materialized a few days after their teammates‘ capture. Daring the Hellions for a duel over their friends a fight started, which soon was interrupted by the White Queen. In the confusion Kitty was able to cause the training room to malfunction; while everyone was getting to safety, Illyana teleported the whole group back to Salem Center.
At a time when several members of the team were absent, the X-Men found themselves fighting against the Dire Wraiths, an alien race with magical abilities. Hopelessly outnumbered, Professor Xavier sent Illyana to aid them. Up until now, she had kept her skills as both mutant and sorceress secret from her brother, fearing his reaction, but there was no more hiding possible. Once the villains were defeated, Illyana confessed to Piotr what she had experienced in Limbo and, naturally, he comforted her and promised to be there for her.
Later when Danielle Moonstar was attacked by the Demon Bear, who was believed to have killed her parents, it was Illyana with her Soulsword who defeated the bear by disrupting the spell that had imprisoned Dani’s parents in its spirit form. Strangely the injuries Illyana received in the fight were covered by pieces of silvery armor and her Soulsword changed its look from a “light-sabre” to a more traditional mediaeval sword. Worried, Xavier discussed Illyana with Dr. Strange after the X-Men and New Mutants shared an adventure with the Sorcerer Supreme. Strange told him that Illyana didn’t need further tutoring in magic which he could offer, but the growth of her spirit which she could best achieve with the help of her friends and family.
When the alien Warlock came to Xavier’s mansion and inadvertently attacked Illyana and Lockheed (not recognizing organic beings as sentient lifeforms), Illyana teleported herself and the dragon to Limbo. Hoping to cure herself of the techno-organic virus Warlock had infected her with, she cut herself with her Soulsword. She awoke in another part of the galaxy on a space ship where clones of the X-Men had fallen under the control of the Brood. Illyana and Lockheed defeated the Brood and Illyana later used her magicks to cure the fake X-Men, even subtly changing them to give them identities of their own. She then put them back on the spaceship as guardians to the sleeping crew.
Illyana’s sorcery also came in handy when her teammates Rahne and Sunspot had accidentally acquired the light and darkness based powers of Cloak and Dagger. With the help of Rogue and Xavier, Magik was able to exorcise her friends, transferring the powers back to Tyrone and Tandy, but Illyana also discovered that the eldritch armor appeared now each time she used her powers and each time it covered her body a little more.
When a strange hooded man appeared to her warning her of impending doom Illyana grew scared. Her fears became certainty when during a game of “truth or dare” Sunspot dared her to teleport the New Mutants into the future. There they crashed a reunion of the elder New Mutants and unfortunately learned that Illyana was dead, a victim of a mutant-killing virus called Legacy. Illyana angrily teleported to Limbo where she was expected by the hooded man, who was revealed to be her eldest brother Mikhail. Mikhail promised to save her, much to the happiness of Illyana and the younger mutants. Their older versions were hesitant though, as they knew Mikhail to be a villain. The two teams fought and the fight was decided by Karma, who turned against her teammates, the elder mutants, as she more than most of the others knew what it meant to lose a beloved sibling. Mikhail performed an operation on Illyana with his own powers, allegedly changing the genetic sequences that made her vulnerable to the virus. However Cypher snooped a little alter and learned that Mikhail was the one who had been infected and that he had transferred the infection to Illyana hoping her magically altered body could withstand the disease. Illyana threatened her brother, but he fled and the younger New Mutants, angry and sad, left as well, after Karma had telepathically erased their memories of that tragic day.
Following the kidnappers of their teammates Sunspot and Magma, Cannonball and Magik ended up fighting alongside Magneto and the X-Men against the omnipotent Beyonder. Curious, the Beyonder perceived Illyana’s demonic side and pulled it to the fore. Mad, Illyana teleported herself and those around her to Limbo, where she raged, until Kitty grabbed her Soulsword and restored Illyana to normal (another sign of the link they shared).
When the team was whisked away to Asgard, Magik was captured and tortured by the Enchantress while she at least saved her teammates scattering them through time and Asgard’s many realms. The Enchantress separated her Darkchylde half from her and intended to use her evil half as her servant recapturing the other mutants. Any injuries Darkchylde received were transferred to the helpless Illyana. Of course the other New Mutants came back to rescue Magik, and she kind of replaced Asgard‘s Enchantress claiming her quarters and studying her spells, turning colder and nastier in the process. Later when the X-Men showed up, they all were provided with a choice to stay there permanently or leave. The offer to become the new Enchantress was tempting, but since it was an all or none decision, Illyana released the Asgardian from Limbo, where she had put her, and traveled back to Earth with her friends.
Back on Earth, Professor Xavier almost died and was transported aboard the ship of the Starjammers for treatment. He left Magneto in charge of the school and the students. Soon after, Illyana was purged from her evil sorceress traits within her soul by the almighty Beyonder, but when she realized that sword, armor, magics and the problems coming along with them were transferred to Kitty, she took it all back, not wanting to see Kitty suffer the fate meant for her.Angered that she refused his gift, the Beyonder came back to kill her and her teammates. He did not settle with killing them, but erased them from ever having existed. Neither the X-Men nor their friends and families would remember them. The only reminder of Illyana was once more the Soulsword and armor being transferred to Kitty, the only one who remembered.
Determined to become human himself, the Beyonder created a machine to recreate his essence. For a test run, he used the New Mutants‘ remains and, indeed, the machine recreated the young mutants‘ bodies. However, they were almost zombies and lacking any emotions or happiness. Once the Beyonder was defeated by the assembled heroes of the Marvel Universe, Magneto was puzzled how to snap his young charges out of their lethargy. The New Mutants questioned the sense of life itself and most, like Illyana, were apathetic. Unable to help the kids Magneto asked the White Queen for help, and the team was transferred to the Massachusetts Academy where they joined the Hellions. The White Queen welcomed her new students at the Massachusetts Academy and immediately started to erase their memories of the painful events. On a surface level it seemed that the teenagers were themselves again, but Emma sensed that there still was something amiss. Meanwhile Magneto found out that he had been tricked by Empath, who had increased his feelings of self-doubt and despair, thus prompting the decision to transfer the kids. Angrily he tried to get his charges back, but Emma Frost called the local authorities, who in turn summoned the Avengers to detain Magneto. Luckily the New Mutants learned about the fight and after Illyana teleported them to the battlesite, they helped him. The White Queen decided to try another approach and offered to help the kids together with Magneto. This time the kids came out fine, her telepathic powers and Magneto’s emotional concern restored them to their old selves. With the Mutants deciding to return to Xavier’s school, Emma departed peacefully, however she left her invitation open.
However, whether due to the experience with the Beyonder that had traumatized most of the mutants in a way or for other reasons, Illyana found that more and more her spells were often having darker results than intended, as she was using black magic.Later the Magus tracked down his son Warlock and started to fight the New Mutants. Illyana tried to hide them in Limbo, but he even found a way to follow them to that dimension, where he allied himself with S’ym and turned him into a techno-organic being as well. Illyana teleported her friends away losing them in two different strings of alternate futures, while she herself fought the increasing techno-organic troops of S’ym. Finally, willing to die rather than give up, she tried to destroy Limbo itself using her Soulsword to stab into the ground.She emerged in outer space where she was found by Professor Xavier and the Starjammers. They opted to help Illyana, who seemed to be cleansed of her black magic and together they went back to Limbo and found the land transformed into a beautiful scenery, while the Sword was still sticking in the ground. As S’ym and his hordes moved in, Illyana had to reclaim the Sword and Limbo went back to its demonic state. Using more and more of her tainted magic, Illyana grew horns on her forehead taking on aspects of the Darkchylde. Xavier helped Illyana to locate her teammates and they all teleported to the Starjammers’ spaceship. Disgusted by the tainted demon magic Illyana went hysterical and vowed to never go to Limbo anymore, but that would have left the team stranded in space so Xavier ordered Karma to possess her and forced her to teleport them back through Limbo.
Illyana became angry and sullen, openly rebelling against any authority, feeling she was drowning inside, as on the one side she had to increasingly use black magic against S’ym’s troops and the two people who had been her anchor to normality – Kitty and Piotr – were fighting for their lives on Muir Isle after receiving horrible injuries from the Marauders. Instead of being frightened Magneto offered to battle the demons on her behalf, telling her she was his student, that he knew what it was like to have to live with one’s sins, but that it was possible to find a better way instead of giving in to despair. Touched by his faith, she started trusting him and lost the rebellious attitude for some time.
Later when the Animator killed Cypher in battle, Illyana snapped and she transported the enemy to Limbo and hurled him to S’ym and his masses.She also recognized the dimension changing to a darker place. When they got back home Magik went even more mad when she witnessed on TV the X-Men, among them her brother Colossus, sacrificing their lives in Dallas. More and more demonic traits manifested in her physical form, such as furred hooves, a tail and red skin.
Re-playing the news broadcast off the X-Men’s apparent death with a videorecorder again and again, Magik discovered Forge who cast the spell that caused the X-Men to “die“. Planning revenge she attacked Forge (the New Mutants in tow), but Freedom Force intervened, since Destiny was able to predict the plot. During the fight Destiny foretold Inferno and that Magik would have to “leave and learn“ or Earth would never be the same. Illyana did not care much, instead she took Forge, whom she was unable to beat on Earth, to Limbo, but as she was about to kill him, Mirage pulled the vision from Magik’s mind she was most afraid of - a completely demonic version of herself. Seeing how close to that image she already was, Illyana spared Forge.
One night Baba Yaga, the witch crone from Russian fairy tales, had come to slaughter the New Mutants; only Illyana was able to escape the last second. Baba Yaga planned on eating the kids, but Illyana could not counteract her magic directly. Because sorcery is least effective against iron, she thought of her brother Colossus, since steel is a form of iron. She decided to use a necromancy spell, to summon the dead back to life, but before she completed it the true Colossus appeared through one of Gateway’s teleportation portals. The fight went on and was quickly ended when Colossus punched Baba Yaga who screamed in agony. The siblings comforted each other, realizing how much they missed each other and Colossus assured her that she was a good person despite everything as long as she tried to be good. Still Illyana believed him to be a ghost. Gateway‘s portal opened and Piotr went back to Australia. Alone Magik thought about casting again the necromancy spell to have Colossus around for ever, but she realized that this spell would turn her eternally into a demon, she wondered why she got off lucky the one time she used it. In Limbo S’ym revealed that Baba Yaga was a ploy to make Magik use the necromancy spell, which would have condemned her. Now he decided to wait, because each time Illyana used her sorcery he knew the walls between Limbo and Earth would weaken more, till Limbo’s demons would rule earth.
After another adventure in outer space, the New Mutants had to teleport through Limbo, where they were engaged in battle by S’ym and lost. With her full powers blocked Magik could only transport her team through time, yet they remained in Limbo. So the rest of the team finally witnessed Illyana’s harsh upbringing first-hand. An unknown demon named N’astirh pretended to help the team out of love for Magik. He tricked her into fully accepting her dark side, triggering her transformation into the Darkchylde, yet giving her back full access to her power. But as she opened a stepping disk to New York, N’astirh’s magicks wrested control from her. The disk remained open and demons rained down on Times Square. Once there, N’astirh put Magik in a no-win situation, where she had to wield the Soulsword again, causing her to fear losing her sanity, but in the meantime her teammates could close the stepping disk. As she was approached another time by S’ym, she was rescued by her brother who was also fighting Inferno’s effects in the streets of New York.
Slowly the Darkchylde felt that she was about to give in to her dark side. Colossus was shocked about his sister‘s latest transformation. Ashamed she left to Limbo and with her dark side fully active, she easily resumed leadership there. Wolfsbane asked to at least to save the seven-year-old Illyana she saw earlier in Limbo, which gave Magik an idea how to end Inferno. She used a combination of magical spells, her Soulsword and stepping disks to suck all the demons back to Limbo and sacrificed herself in a last stroke that would purge herself from everhaving existed. When the others found the scorched eldritch armor they thought her dead, but suddenly a voice from the inside was heard. Colossus ripped it apart to discover the little child Illyana within; it appears as if the teenage Magik never existed, though everybody remembered her.
Colossus trusted the New Mutants in returning her to Russia while he and the X-Men departed for Australia. A couple of days later, the team indeed brought her back to the Ust-Ordynski Collective where she was welcomed by her mother with open arms
About a year later, though, her parents were killed by Russian agents who wanted to recruit Illyana and catalyze her latent mutant abilities to battle the Soul Skinner, whose telepathic control did not work on children. Though too late to save the Rasputins, the X-Men found a way to defeat the Soul Skinner and rescue Illyana before her physiology was permanently altered by the genetic accelerator she was strapped in. Now orphaned, Illyana moved back to the states with her brother and stayed at the mansion in Westchester. However only after a few days at the school, an examination revealed that the child had contracted the deadly Legacy Virus, the fatal disease that kills mutants through their genetic code.
Kitty Pryde came for a visit as soon as she learned of her best friend’s fate, and watched over the girl together with Jubilee. Illyana died in their care while her brother Colossus and the X-Men were away on a mission trying in vain to find a means to save her life.