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Provide a full summary of the comic book.

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Curtain!
In a darkened room, Arthur Allan Smith casually drinks a cup of steaming coffee while undergoing an interrogation. He smirks while the investigator asks him yet another series of detailed questions. Run it down for them again, the lieutenant asks Smith—like he’d never told it. It’s pretty difficult to grasp, he adds as justification.
Sure, Smith tells him. So much was happening—most of which didn’t even involve him. Starting from the beginning, he introduces himself once more as Arthur Allan Smith, stating that, with a last name like his, he feels the need to use his other two names as well. Anyway, he says, it started with whispers—or at least that’s what he calls the stuff he hears inside his head—stuff that calls him to join a certain group. This group claimed to be good, but underneath the whispers, Arthur could tell they meant harm—to the lady. That’s why he sneaked out of the prison up in Chanute. He knew he had to save her!
Once he was outside of Chanute, however, Arthur began hearing how much folks hated the lady he came to save—and hated her kind as well. It finally dawned on Arthur that if this beautiful person was ever going to be spared from people using and abusing her, there was only one way…
While Arthur speaks, a journalist pokes his head in behind the lieutenant and asks if there’s a story here for him. The lieutenant tells him that although nobody may ever get the full story, he’s at least got a guaranteed front-page article with the kid. “This kid killed that mutant,” the lieutenant says. “You know, the one who sang? Called herself… the Dazzler?”
And beyond the ability of any one person to tell are these events. Combined, they make up the final days of a shining superstar.
Flashback…Beast, the furry blue mutant who formerly served on both the X-Men and the Avengers, leaps onto the roof of the ranch house in Camp Silence. Once it was just a ranch, fallen on hard times. Then, the new people took over, naming it for the woman who led them. Rumor was they were some kind of cult—into strange meditation. But though they attracted the young, the disturbed and the disaffected, they kept to themselves and caused the community no problems. Others, outside the community, were not so lucky. Most unfortunate of all was Alison Blaire, the Dazzler.
Beast, caring not about stealth, crashes through a window of the ranch house. He calls for Alison as he enters. It’s him—Hank McCoy, he shouts! If these jokers are holding her, then make some noise, he says! He implores her, if she can hear, to let him know where she is. Shouting is bad strategy, but stealth isn’t really his style—not when his mutated form gives him ape-like speed and agility, and not when the woman he cares for most in the world might be suffering somewhere in this house. Swiftly as he moves, his eyes miss little: not the empty rooms, not the empty closets and not their bare, dangling hangers.
As he lands on the floor after his initial scan of the house, he observes aloud that the entire house is deserted; everyone in the place has split. He’s about to make a personal wager when a nearby door swings open and slams into the wall. In enters a shadowy man bearing a shotgun and a hulking dog. This man, O.Z. Chase, quickly recognizes the other person in the room as Hank McCoy and drops his guard. Chase tells him he’s checked out the meeting hall—a converted barn out back—as well as most of their current floor. He found nothing. He’d say Camp Silence is closed for the season. They knew Alison had some pretty powerful friends and must’ve decided not to be around in case they came looking for her.
Beast’s attention is focused on the wolf, Cerberus, who growls at him with suspicion. He’d better explain to his pooch that he’s one of the good guys, Beast says to Chase. He and Cerberus look enough alike, after all—he’d think the dog would love him. Chase tells him Cerberus has always been contrary. Now he’s grouchier than ever since the two of them recently gave up cigars. It’s a bit of the Dazzler’s influence, Chase adds. Funny—he started out hunting the lady, and wound up casting off a lifetime habit for her.
Shifting gears, Beast states that Chase has made the bunch they’re after sound pretty bad. If they’ve got Ali—as he figures—then reaching a dead end at Camp Silence is bad news. “Hey, I’m a professional bounty hunter, right?” Chase asks rhetorically. “Findin’ folks who don’t wanna be found is what I do best. I located you, didn’t I? So—”
“Your locatin’ days are over,” an intruder states, “—we were left behind to make sure.” Beast and Chase quickly turn around and find Chunk and Mama, the two remaining Outriders, standing in the doorway bearing lethal weapons. They should’ve started by checking the cellar, the brutish Mama laughs. She lifts her flamethrower for emphasis.
Elsewhere…Dazzler lies suspended in a vapid plane. The indefinable void envelopes her, leaving her floating weakly and helplessly. It overwhelms her—cuts off everything that gives her strength and purpose. It is silence—total, oppressive and unrelenting. Silence. It is not golden. To the mutant woman whose joy, whose power is to absorb sound, store it and radiate it back as glorious light, silence is madness and slow, slow death—until suddenly and mercifully, it ends.
Dazzler snaps back to consciousness and finds herself lying on a plain white bed. At her side sits Silence, the aging woman always seen wearing sunglasses. Silence tells Dazzler she just turned on the radio. She advises her not to move too quickly, though, instead inviting her to drink in the sound: she has to get ready for another performance. Sitting up, Dazzler puts a hand to her aching head. It’s hard for her to think, she says; this place isn’t where—
“—where you first rashly tried to confront me…? After battling my husband…? After your bounty hunter friend ended his life?” Silence asks. “No. Dust and I knew that someday it might be necessary to abandon Camp Silence—and had an agent find a spot for us in a city we’re not associated with. He leased this old auditorium when a new one was built. Welcome to Tulsa, Dazzler,” Silence says. She assumes Dazzler will be just as cooperative there as she was back at the ranch, when she first proved her mother’s life depended on it.
Dazzler continues her struggle to regain her composition. She recalls that Silence and her followers need her light. She feels so drained, though. Yes, Silence tells her. Until one experiences it, it’s hard to conceive of the power of pure silence. And, of course, they’ve been very demanding on Dazzler’s talent. Silence adds that, although she finds loud sounds painful, she will turn up the radio’s volume. Pain is a fair enough trade off, Silence thinks internally; after all, this is killing Dazzler!
Back at Camp Silence, a far less vague attempt at killing is underway. As he swings his roaring chainsaw at Beast, Chunk declares that it’s slicing-and-dicing time! They’re going to get back the powers they lost—Silence promised them! All they have to do, he says, is stop anybody who comes for the shining lady—stop them dead!
Beast deftly leaps over the latest arc of the chainsaw. “Hey, let’s be real,” Hank says. “Sure, that’s a nasty weapon and everything on you that looks like fat may really be muscle—but you’re dealing with a highly trained professional here!” With that, Beast kicks Chunk in the face and knocks the chainsaw from his hands. “I mean, we’re talking time-in grade as an Avenger, a Defender, and a lot of other stuff that modesty precludes mentioning!” He bounces off Chunk’s head for emphasis and leaps over to help Chase, who currently struggles fending off Mama’s flamethrower. He continues taunting his fallen foe, telling him and his girlfriend to give up on defeating him and Chase. As he nears Mama, however, she turns her flamethrower on him, catching him by surprise.
Fortunately for Chase, Mama’s momentary inattentiveness gives him the chance he needs to take her out of the fight. He swings his leg beneath hers, tripping her to the floor. It was a mistake to turn away that quickly, he says as she falls. He’s not fried yet—just singed around the edges! He beats out the flame enveloping his left arm. Beast, meanwhile, vaults onto Mama’s back and pins her to the floor. Nice assist, he tells Chase. Since all of his hair is a bit more combustible than Chase’s jacket, he spared him the indignity of becoming instant Beast-kabob!
Enraged, Mama flips onto her back and, after calling Beast a furry clown, tells him she’ll get him and Chase even if it means she has to burn down the whole house! They failed Dust and Silence once, she adds; it’s better to go up in flames than lose a second chance at being part of their new wave!
Beast, fully alarmed, cowers as Mama lifts the flamethrower. Her weapon is too far out of his reach to do anything, and he fears she truly might do what she says! Fortunately for all of them, Cerberus sneaks up behind Mama and clenches his teeth over the pipes connecting the napalm reservoir to the rest of Mama’s flamethrower. After his loyal dog quenches the threat, Chase tells McCoy he can rest easy; the king-size Bic just had its last flick!
Once the acetylene tank is secured, Chase begins interrogating his foes. Cerberus isn’t usually so helpful, he tells Mama; it’s just been so long since he had a cigar that he was desperate to chomp on anything. Or, maybe he’s just that anxious to find the Dazzler, Chase supposes. If so, then he certainly wouldn’t want to be the one trying to withhold where her boss lady has taken her.
In Tulsa, Silence declares that Dazzler has absorbed enough sound to regain her wonderful glow. Now, she intends to inspire her to performance level by looking in on their other guest. She leads Dazzler into the room where her mother, Barbara London, aka Katherine Blaire, rests. She appears much worse than the last time Dazzler saw her—during the glimpse she was given at Camp Silence to force her to cooperate. It’s the injections of the enhancement drugs she and her husband discovered a generation ago, Silence confesses. The side effects are still just as fatal as then were back then.
Dazzler calls to her mother, but Silence attempts to halt her. She reminds Dazzler her children are still waiting, and that she can visit her mother after she’s performed her service. She and Dust suffered for years in the face of death from the drugs, Silence adds; surely her mother can endure a few more days. Obstinate, Dazzler slaps Silence’s hand away. “Funny thing about control, Silence,” Dazzler says. “No matter how much you overexert it, it can snap completely. Don’t press your luck.”
Barbara London stirs as Dazzler embraces her. She opens her eyes to look up at Alison Blaire, the daughter a lifetime of personal tragedy had almost denied her. Dazzler tells her mother to hang on; she knows it’s awful, but she’s going to save her. “My…poor baby,” Barbara mutters. “I ran out on you when…you were still a child…stayed apart living under a different name...! And n-now…I’ve gotten you…into this…!” Dazzler assures her mother she hasn’t done anything—except fall innocent victim to the cold-blooded scheming of a mad woman and the monster she used to have for a husband! No more waiting, she tells Silence. Her mother goes downstairs that night. If her light can cleanse the killing effect of her drug as she claims it can, then Barbara London is going to benefit from it now!
Silence orders her protégé, Portia, to act. Without hesitation, Portia, an icy blond woman wearing sun-visors and a green jumpsuit, points her hands at Dazzler and psionically sends a jolt of electricity through her body. Silence merely smirks. Thanks to Dazzler’s previous efforts for them, she is now surrounded by reawakened talent. Paranormal power enhancement is an intriguing thing, she adds; the human mind’s psychic potential seems to manifest itself a bit differently in each subject. Portia seems disposed toward control of electron particles in the atmosphere. Barbara, meanwhile, cries out as she watches her daughter fall.
Approaching the fallen starlet, Silence tells Dazzler that her light does more than just cleanse. She explains that their drugs, while fatal to their test subjects, had a genetic component. The drugs survived dormant in the offspring of their subjects, and unlike ultra-violet rays or anything else they’ve experimented with, Dazzler’s radiance at full power can reawaken their psi-potential without killing them! She grabs Dazzler by the throat and head and lifts her upright. Through their own enhanced abilities, she and Dust welded these children to them, she says. Portia and others like her will be their new wave—able to replace the mutants and superheroes the world is growing to hate! That was the dream, she tells Dazzler—her dream and Dust’s dream! She tells Dazzler she deliberately kept her weak so she couldn’t spoil it, as she nearly did just a few days earlier in Colorado, when she, Dust and Jared—the first of their little family to benefit fully from Dazzler’s power—clashed in the mountains.
Dazzler recalls the incident. She recalls Jared lifting a house-sized boulder over her head to crush her. She recalls splitting it in two before he could drop it. She recalls him losing control of the two pieces, and those pieces cascading down onto Jared and Dust. Silence accuses her of having tricked Jared into using his new powers too fast and too hard. When he collapsed, her beloved Dust was left to face the Dazzler alone—in the body of Alison’s father, Carter Blaire, no less. Like her, Dust had been dying from the moment he used himself as the first test subject for their psi-enhancement drug. Unlike Silence, however, Dust could only fight death by taking over the bodies of others. Since she and Dust had more massive dosages of the drugs than anyone who followed them, their powers developed quickly enough to help save them. However, the clash of wills that occurred when Dust seized a new host sped the bodies to dust and decay, and Dazzler’s bounty hunter friend appeared in time to cut short Dust’s attempt to escape from Carter Blaire’s collapsing body into Alison’s.
Subsequently, when Alison fled upon learning from Dust that Silence held her mother hostage, she abandoned him to crumble to death on the battlefield. All the way in Camp Silence, she says, through her heightened telepathic abilities, she felt it! She felt him die! She experienced all of her husband’s agony and desperation! At that moment, Silence vowed that when she finally met Alison Blaire, she wouldn’t just bend her into fulfilling their dream—she’d break her! She has since assaulted her with silence and forced her to push her abilities to a critical point. She will also allow Alison to save her dear mother, but tells her to rest assured: by the time she does, it will be her last act.
Dazzler hangs her head. For her mother’s sake, she won’t test Silence’s theory right away. However, if there’s one thing she learned from her show business career, it was how to be a survivor. She tells Silence to get on with it.
Panicked, Barbara cries out for her daughter and insists she not concede to their demands! Don’t worry about her, she pleas! While Portia restrains her, she implores Alison to save herself, and escape.
However, Barbara London’s daughter is already gone, having moved downstairs to the one-time concert hall’s auditorium—for another forced performance. “Here,” Silence instructs. “Your place center stage. Don’t hold back when the music starts, Dazzler. For—the one useful phrase in all the brave, rebellious claptrap you spouted—your mother’s sake.”
Dazzler turns to the audience packed full of Camp Silence cultists and unleashes. The sound hits the darkened auditorium like a storm. It starts at the fullest decibel lever without build up: violent, barely recognizable as music. Prolonged, no one could bear it. But scarcely is the pain felt before it is transformed, as Alison Blaire absorbs back the barrage of noise and radiates it back as the shining glory that is Dazzler’s light. This time, however, the glory is tainted. Few things give the mutant performer more joy than the uninhibited use of her ability, but here, those who have destroyed her father, put her mother’s life in the balance are corrupting this thing of joy, leeching her light as vampires would blood. The physical strain of such constant, unlimited demands on her power, meanwhile, leeches at her life as well.
For Silence, who stands erect in the audience, this is triumph—justification for all she and her husband, Dust, have done to bring about this moment. The death their psi-enhancement drug loosed in her body weakens, cleansed away by the Dazzler’s light. The power of silence that she has developed to help meditate and mentally restrain the ravages of death and time will soon no longer be needed as a defensive weapon against the destructive pain sound wreaks upon her. Soon she will be whole, with a New Wave of powerful children at her control.
For the moment, Arthur Allan Smith’s delight at seeing the Dazzler again wipes away all the concern that has brought him to this place and moment—until Silence’s mood chillingly touches his mind. Arthur suddenly realizes that Silence is the same woman who sends out the whispers he sometimes hears—the same woman who has been summoning him and these others like him—the same woman who means to harm the lady!
Arthur recalls the first time he saw the Dazzler—a woman he so reveres that he refers to her only as ‘the lady’. During one of his rare periods of freedom outside the orphanages and correctional institutions that were his life, he saw her perform as the opening act for a rock group long since forgotten—and felt her light awaken something within him. Having never experienced even friendship with a woman, Arthur Allan Smith fell hopelessly in love.
Not long after that, an arrest for car theft landed him in an adult facility at Chanute, Kansas. There, a vulnerable target for brutal extortion and harassment, Arthur found he had the ability to ‘hide’, to somehow go unnoticed in plain sight—an ability he had never possessed before he saw the Lady. This ability was difficult to sustain and erratic to depend upon, but it enabled him to survive and find a relatively happy life as a model prisoner—until the whispers began touching his mind, reaching out with promises of power and a community in which to belong. The same feeling that enabled him to hide, however, allowed him to read hints and feelings behind the whispers, and sense dark and terrible aims at their source—aims that mortally endangered the lady he worshipped and loved. Through he had come to find his prison life comforting, less overwhelming that the times he’d been along and unwanted in the outside world, Arthur stretched his small power as never before, and followed the whispers to save the lady.
On his journey, he learned the feelings of many of his fellow men against the Dazzler and anyone like her. He recalls one particular instance at a gas station in which he heard two men discussing the mutant epidemic. One man claimed he’d heard of mutants who could shoot fire, then recalled the singer mutant, whom he swore looked prettier than most real women. The other man agreed this was scary. In fact, he claimed he kept a .357 magnum in his van in case he ever accidentally offered a mutant a ride!
Fortunately for Arthur, while these two bigots conversed, he managed to steal one of their vans, which proved a bonanza. Along with getting him to his destination in time to see what they were doing to the Dazzler, it provided Arthur with a change from his prison clothes—and, of course, the gun. He wasn’t sure why he kept it. He told himself it would keep the owner from ever using it for violence against mutants, but even then, deep down, he knew that wasn’t really the reason. Somewhere within him, another notion was forming, indistinct, uncertain, and suddenly interrupted by what he saw on stage.Snapping back to the present moment, Arthur Allan Smith bolts upright in his seat and points his finger at the stage. “The Lady!” he shouts.“Turn of the music,” Silence commands, “instantly! She’s fainting form exhaustion!” Sure enough, Dazzler collapses on stage. There is concern in Silence’s voice when she shouts, but not for Alison Blaire—only for what the incredible volume of sound might do to her and her concentration against the death not yet totally nullified within her. “Good,” she exclaims when the music stops; they cut the sound almost the second Dazzler stopped absorbing it. She tells her cult members to get their little power source back to her room. One more session should do, she adds. Silence will be completely cleansed at that point, the rest of her children will be at the peak of their abilities—and the mutant who took her husband from her will be dead!
Elsewhere, Chase speeds his truck along the freeway leading to Tulsa, Oklahoma. His traveling companion, Beast, remarks how quickly Mama started talking once she was face to face with Chase’s pooch. “Besides scaring female bikers, eating expensive cigars and drinking cheap beer, does Cerberus have any other super-powers to help with what’s ahead?” Beast asks. Chase reminds him that he keeps forgetting the dog has given up cigars. He wishes he could forget he gave them up too—especially at times like this. Whatever’s ahead, he adds, is way out of his league; he saw enough before he met up with Beast to convince him of that. In his opinion, they got off easy at Camp Silence.
“But you’re going ahead anyway,” Beast adds. He concludes that Chase must care about Alison as much as he does. Not enough that he has to be jealous, Chase replies. He likes the lady—and has a hunch Beast loves her. It kind of sneaked up on him during their time traveling together, but the Dazzler is just his friend. Whoever is waiting there in Tulsa has him scared, but his fear won’t make him overlook someone putting a hurting on a friend!
Meanwhile, Dazzler once again finds herself surrounded by silence—sheer, white silence. It closes in on her with relentless oppression. Silence. But this time, the void does not totally overwhelm her. This time, it seems there might be a way through it—that is, there would have been, had she not stared looking too late.
Silence stands in the doorway of the room in which Dazzler lies unconscious. As soon as she’s awake, they’ll schedule the final session, she tells Portia. She instructs her to summon her the moment little miss mutant stirs. They have plenty among them whose powers are almost fully developed, she adds. She instructs Portia to use them to double their security. If things have gone as she suspects they have since they departed Camp Silence, she presumes they’ll have visitors before the morning is over. After all, she left Chunk and Mama to direct their pursuers to their present location, even though the two of them didn’t realize that was their purpose! If any of Dazzler’s friends are going to play at rescuing her, she says, that information should bring them rushing in unprepared!
Portia tells her mistress that Dust would be proud of the way she handled things—just as she and the other members of the New Wave will try to make her proud of them. Silence assures her she is proud of them already. They’re her family, she says; all that her time researching and fleeing has denied her. She asks if they’ve had any new arrivals. Two or three since her last meditation session, Portia answers. Almost every offspring of her original control group is now represented. Descending the staircase, Silence tells Portia to stay on guard. Besides their enemies, she’d hope for at least one more recruit to their ranks.
As she heads toward the auditorium, Silence thinks to herself. She thinks about Dust and curses his passing. They had the dream for so many years, she says—long enough to lose their original identities and become the essence of their powers. How can he not be there now?
When she reaches the stage, another of her pupils tells her that he’s having anyone new or slow to respond sit at the front of the auditorium so they receive the strongest effects of Dazzler’s light. He’s doing fine, Silence tells him—all her children are. And after this final session, they’ll all be able to wear the uniform of the New Wave—America’s next era of heroes!
Outside the auditorium, Arthur Allan Smith, with his stolen pistol tucked safely in his pants, wanders away. A zealous member of the New Wave stops him in the hallway and tells him this is no time to wander off! He should be down in his seat in the front row; they want everyone ready and in place when the final session begins. Until then, they’re lecturing on how their uniforms help them channel their powers when they’re awakened. Arthur tries to ignore the man; there are just too many of them, he comments to himself. He’ll collapse if he tries to use his hiding power as much as it would require. Even with his gun, he couldn’t take them all, he realizes.
Upon remembering the gun, Arthur has an epiphany. Before arriving, he had thought he could sneak off, find the Dazzler and get her out of there. He realizes now that even if he gets away, so many folks still hate mutants! She’ll go through life never able to sing, or use her light in peace again. Slowly it comes to Arthur the only way he can truly save the lady…
Outside, the gray of early morning gives way to full daylight, but inside the old hall’s auditorium, darkness again holds sway, masking the deeply cracked walls and the chipped and flaking mortar. A weak a waning Barbara London is brought to a first row seat, and the moment that all previous activity was a prelude to at last arrives. Silence lifts her finger; everything’s in place, she tells Dazzler—even her dear mother. Time to begin the final performance, she adds. Music thunders, louder than ever, augmented by the additional speakers Silence’s people had been reluctant to use earlier because of the building’s condition. Yet, the violent sound is absorbed by the lone figure on stage—Dazzler.
Alison fires her channeled energy into her mother Barbara, in order to heal her. Silence objects. She’s restricting the light—letting it aid only her mother, she cries! She had hoped that by weakening Alison, she’d no longer be capable of that much control. However, it’s too late for such rebellion. She orders her pupils to seize the stage and grab Dazzler!
Outside, meanwhile, Chase and Beast case the building. Through his binoculars, Chase observes that there are guards covering every entrance. They’re all fresh-faced and eager, he notes—too eager for folks carrying such deadly weapons. Beast asks if it might be a trap. He swears he glimpsed someone entering as they arrived, though. Chase chalks this up to wishful thinking on Beast’s part. He thinks the guards are not just ready for trouble—they want it to come! They must have some kind of edge, he concludes. Probing to see what, exactly, it is will not be easy—or fast.
Beast, standing outside the truck, doesn’t think Alison can wait. He asks Chase and Cerberus how they feel about diversions. They have their moments, Chase replies. With that, he slams on the accelerator and rams his truck into the auditorium’s entrance.
Inside the building, Silence panics at the sound of the crash. Must be a full-scale attack, she deduces. She orders most of her children to the foyer to back up the guards. The rest, she keeps behind to detain Dazzler, who is about to have one last lesson in how painfully persuasive Silence can be! “Maybe not, lady,” a voice says, “—if you have to depend on all these teaching assistants!” Seemingly out of nowhere, Beast swings on to the stage using a curtain rope and kicks the New Wave cultists off of Dazzler.What was once a concert hall quickly becomes a battleground. Cerberus leaps out of the truck and begins attacking the cult members, while Chase hops onto its hood and swings at the attackers with a wrench. He tries to order Cerberus to get out of there; the kids don’t have an edge, he says; they have a whole blasted razor and all of its blades! Not even a mutt like him should have to deal with them. Cerberus, staying true to form, ignores his master and continues gnawing at the New Wave members. Chase grumbles that his dog is too contrary to save even his own worthless life.
Nearby, Beast bounces around on stage, trying to dodge the laser attacks unleashed by the budding powers of the New Wavers. Where are the wisecracks, McCoy? Just because this bunch is coming on like an X-Men/New Mutants farm team, don’t let them think you’re worried, he tells himself—no matter how worried you are! At least you’re keeping ‘em off Ali, giving her a fighting chance—I hope!
His hopes are in vain: Silence reaches Dazzler and grabs her by the wrists. The exhausted starlet slumps to the stage. She’s been playing games, hasn’t she? Silence asks her. Her collapse in the last session must have been a ploy to pull back from total exhaustion—to save her strength for this last stand! Well, it’s not enough, mutant, she screams! Not when Silence wraps and enfolds every sense she possesses, and strangles every emotion she has until she has no choice but to shatter! Shouting in Dazzler’s face, she tells her to break, and let all the sound she’s absorbing explode and fill the hall as radiant, reviving light! Dazzler refuses. Even if she dies, she says, it won’t be in giving Silence what she wants—but in fighting!
The maddening void of Silence strikes Alison Blaire harder than ever before. Earlier, she had sensed a way to oppose the force now suffocating her. Now, she has to learn if she can set her mind, turn her will and use those things. If only, in drowning in the endless waves of silence, she could find—sound.
Dazzler’s lips part. Silence looks on with worry. What emerges begins as one note. It becomes a focus point for Dazzler to do what she has never done before, and might never have the terrible need and desperation to do again. She releases the sound stored within her back at Silence—but releases it unchanged: not as glorious light, but as sound—untransduced, raw, ripping sound. It screams out of her, first as a rush, but then as a roar. Finally, it becomes an explosion that rocks the entire auditorium and strikes the woman called Silence like the wrath of the gods.
It repels Silence and sends her soaring across the stage. In facing this concentrated onslaught of unrelenting sound, her will—the incredible, paranormal psi-talent that held her not-yet-cleansed doom at bay for so long—finally breaks. Silence immediately withers into a decrepit old woman on the brink of death. Her hair turns completely white and the little flesh that remains on her shriveled form turns ashen gray. Death, in that one vulnerable instant, reclaims what it has been denied for more than twenty years. Meanwhile, Dazzler—silent and spent—can only watch as the sound system Silence had ordered finished what her one note had begun.
It’s too late for Silence. Ancient wiring, unable to sustain the demands upon it, short-circuits. The speakers blow. As the volume of sound drops, however, something else touches her young followers. Suddenly, they are free of the mental control with which she shaped and guided them. They cannot deal with it. Suddenly, they are dazed and purposeless. Fearful and uncertain of whatever has been awakened within them, they are once more confused children without parents or direction. Their instincts tell them to flee—with certain exceptions.
A red-haired female member of New Wave creeps up behind Barbara London, cups one hand over her neck, and with the other, addresses Dazzler on stage. The dream was in their grasp and she tore it apart, the boy shouts! There isn’t a price high enough to pay for that—but he’ll start by taking over this woman, just as he did her father!
Stunned, Dazzler realizes she is once again facing off against Dust. It can’t be, she tells herself. She and Chase—
…left him in a dissolving husk of a body with no chance of escape, Dust asks? They also left his young partner, Jared, unconscious nearby, and his wife, sensing his distress even over the long distance between them, mentally prodded Jared awake and to Dust’s withered form! Jared’s form barely lasted until Dust reached Tulsa and transferred his consciousness into a new guard. And now, having robbed him of his wife and his dream, he tells Dazzler he will leave her with the choice of letting him live on in her mother’s body or destroying her to get to him as she had to do with her father! As he speaks, the flesh flakes off his chin. Barbara’s face contorts with horror.
Dazzler will have none of it. Shouting in defiance, she leaps off the stage at Dust and pins him to the ground. Oh dear, Dust says, smirking. Perhaps he forgot another choice: Dazzler could leap into his grasp to save her dear mother—and he could seize control of her body and all its powers to rebuild the dream once more!
Panicked, Beast bounds over the seats toward Dazzler, begging her to resist Dust’s influence. He’s coming to help! From behind him, O.Z. Chase begs him to stop; Dust can just as easily take over Beast’s body if he gets his hands on him! If only he had his shotgun, he says, lamenting that he lost it in the fight. It is for not, though, as Beast continues his advance anyway.
Beast never reaches the battle, however, for in the next moment, there is a light—brilliant, blinding, and radiating with almost physical force. In its fading wake stands the Dazzler, holding the unconscious body of her assailant in triumph! “Your ranting got to me, Dust,” she says, “but it also gave me just enough time to replenish the sound I’d exhausted. And no matter how much ‘help’ my light might be for your purposes—when it’s close enough and strong enough, nothing stands up to it! Not even you!”
The hands of the Dazzler’s defeated opponent come up in that moment, perhaps in some last, desperate effort to seize back or salvage what has been lost. No one can be certain, though, for in that same moment, Arthur Allan Smith does what he feels has to be done. He fires three shots from his pistol in Dazzler’s direction. Above the low throb of music from the remaining, working speakers comes the wail of sirens and the screeching of tires outside the concert hall. These new sounds go ignored by three stunned witnesses, however. Barbara London, Beast and O.Z. Chase look on in horror at the seemingly lifeless body of the woman they all love in different ways.
The Beast reaches her first, hoping the Dazzler has merely pulled down her foe, and that the shots had been aimed at the body corrupted by Dust. Then he sees the blood—so much blood. Arthur, backing off, claims that while it seems awful, in reality he saved Alison. They’ll see, he adds. Now the lady is free from all the hatred and all the scheming—honest!
The building saves Arthur Allan Smith. Weakened by age and rocked by incredible sound vibrations that might have strained a modern hall, it dies as the Beast sets down the woman he loves and leaps to tear her killer apart. Chase tries to warn him that the entire building is collapsing! Don’t get killed trying to finish that little psycho, he pleads—they owe it to Ali to get her mother out of there!
The present…Arthur Allan Smith smiles as he sips his hot beverage. Behind him, the detectives converse. The squad car teams, who had been summoned by a telephone complaint, rushed in just after the shots, they say. However, the joint began tumbling down, and they had to retreat before they could make a collar. When the dust settled, the pick-up truck that had crashed into the foyer was gone, but Arthur was still there sitting in the rubble beside the mutant lady’s body—proud as a peacock. He insisted once more that he killed her to save her—the death of Alison Blaire, the world’s most famous mutant! It was just like the lieutenant said, he adds. It’s a front-page story, guaranteed! Their circulation department owes them large. The lieutenant just asks that they spell his name right. There are a lot of loose ends in this case, he adds, but the important stuff is all in place: the perpetrator, the motive and the smoking gun.
Epilogue…On a quiet side street not far from Tulsa’s main police station, six figures convene. “See?” a woman says as the sixth figure approaches. “I told the rest of you he’d come to see us off.” Beast declines to even argue the point; after all they’ve seen that day, he’ll believe anything. However, as the figure approaches, he admits the only problem he has is that he’s still smarting from being made to believe it was Alison who took those bullets rather than the body Dust was controlling!
The figure shadowy figure, now revealed to be Arthur Allan Smith, speaks and explains his actions. The police were coming, he says; he’d phoned them himself after realizing his powers had grown after his second dosage of Dazzler’s light. However, it was the reactions of Beast, Barbara and Chase that made what he had done with Dazzler completely convincing. Before, he had never understood how he hid himself. Now he knows it’s because he can make people believe they are seeing something else. By expanding on that, he made all of them—including the police—think the person who had been shot was the Lady, and not Dust.
Dazzler, kissing him on the cheek, adds that apart from some stunned moments back in the concert hall when she heard about her ‘death’, she owes thanks to Arthur. “If the world forgets Alison Blaire, the mutant, maybe Dazzler, the performer, can find a new life,” she says. She adds that she’s worried, though. Arthur asks if she means about him going back to prison. He did shoot Dust, he reminds her, though he believes Dust was trying to make a last effort to switch into Dazzler’s body. Anyway, he admits he’s never been comfortable outside of prison, and besides, thanks to Dazzler’s light, he can walk out any time he wants for as long as he needs. With that, he says his goodbyes and waves as he disappears into the shadows.
The rest of them better get moving too, O.Z. Chase says. If a prowl car spots his poor old truck…
Dazzler says her goodbyes to her mother. As she hugs her, she tells her she’s going to miss her. However, if this works out, they will finally be able to spend some time together safely. Until then, Barbara says, it’s been worth the danger to learn what a wonderful woman her daughter has become.
Next, Dazzler says farewell to Chase. They’ll keep an eye on Miss London, he tells her, so Alison can rest easy about her. “An’ if you ever need a non-smokin’ bounty hunter and a contrary mutt…”
“…I’ll zap mail a reward poster, Chase…with love,” Alison replies. She pats Cerberus on the snout and says goodbye.
After everyone leaves, Dazzler hooks arms with Beast and the two of them walk into the distance. Any suggestions for a recently deceased mutant lady about to make a new start? she asks. He tells her there are lots of factors to be considered. For instance, not that he’d ever dream of exerting influence, but…how does X-Factor strike her? Alison Blaire, the mutant singer known as the Dazzler, who now has a clean slate before her for the first time in recent memory, decides to take a moment to give this proposition some serious consideration.


[User]
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Provide a full summary of the comic book.

[Assistant]
In the Blood (track one)
 Tough Call (track two)
 Reflections (track three)
1st story: A trendy L.A. hot spot. Today…
What a joke, Alison Blaire thinks to herself as she scowls in the mirror. Waste of my time. Again. Come to L.A. for two reasons, and strike out on both. First a label rep offering to take a meeting, just to tell me Dazzler’s “toxic.” How can you be “too mutant-y”?!
Alison, dressed in her casual civilian clothes, exits the bathroom and enters the loud club, her mind continuing to wander as she moves through the crowd. She has other things to worry about, she reminds herself—something more… personal. Lois. She’s tried to reach out to her, but to no avail.
Dazzler tries to order a drink at the bar, but the bartender can’t hear her over the blaring music. It’s no surprise; Dazzler can barely hear her own thoughts. To get the bartender’s attention, she raises her fist, absorbs the sound in the bar and transduces is into a shining light, and shouts for service. Finally, the bartender notices her and serves her a drink. As she knocks it back, he casually tells her she just missed her sis. Goth chick with a creepy stare who could probably kill someone with a look? Yeah, she showed up while Alison was in the bathroom, closed out Ali’s tab, and left.
Alison curses. Lois was here, she realizes—and she missed her. Again. She can’t blame the bartender for not trying to keep her, though. After all, her half-sister, Lois London, can kill with a touch. Last time Alison saw her, she was with Selene and her death crew, screaming about Alison—but Lois didn’t take her shot when she had the chance. She just… left. She teleported away, courtesy of Blink, and went off the radar. Next thing Alison knows, Lois is calling her, asking her to meet. Now she shows up while Alison is in the bathroom—and buys her a drink? What’s her game?
Alison ponders these questions as she exits the nightclub. She barely makes it around the corner before she starts feeling woozy. As the world begins to spin, she realizes the point to Lois’s game, and curses herself for falling for it once again. She stumbles into an alleyway, trips, and falls to the ground right next to a dead man. As she loses consciousness, she hears the sounds of footsteps approaching. Then, the world goes black.
Sometime later, Dazzler begins to regain consciousness. As her eyes adjust to the light, the first thing she can make out in the room is a small, shining disco ball worn around the neck of a mannequin as a necklace. Her vision continues to adjust, allowing her to see that the mannequin is actually dressed in her old disco outfit: a white leather jumpsuit with a reflective mirrored cuffs, a disco ball necklace, and large hoop earrings. The mannequin is ever wearing a wig modeled after Dazzler’s old hairstyle, and wearing a placard around its neck that simply says “wear me.” Alison is not surprised; she wishes she could say this was the first time something like this has happened to her, but when one has a past like hers, it never stops coming back for a good haunting—especially if there are roller skates involved.
Soon, a recording begins to play in the room, which is revealed to be a starlet’s dress studio. The voice in the recording discourages her from trying to speak; the room, it says, is designed to absorb virtually all sound. They can’t have her rehearsing too much before the big opening, after all.
In response, Alison tries to speak, but finds that the sound she produces is muffled to the point of inaudibility. The recorded voice continues, telling her that its transmission is on a frequency only her highly developed ears can register, but not utilize. The voice then tells her to get ready; her audience is dying to see her—or she’s dying to see them. That’s the fun part, it adds.
Alison looks to her mirrored makeup studio. The dressing chair even has her whole name printed across the back of it. As she begins to get ready, she tries to figure out to whom the voice belongs. Because it’s a male voice, she figures she can rule out Selene—not to mention the fact that Selene is gone. The voice also isn’t Lois, she tells herself. Whoever it is, though, he wants a show. It could be worse, too; he could have left her a pink wig.
As she begins putting on her makeup, Alison tells herself she should be used to this. After all, she’s a product, packaged and sold. She started as a gimmick—anything to get her foot in the door. She put her career first. She was on the rise, for a while, on her terms. Then, the singer was shoved into the world of super heroes and super villains—a world she wanted no part of, honestly. Before long, she was outed as a mutant. The label would follow her for the rest of her life. Regrettably, she let it define her. She kept becoming what the world expected her to be. She guesses that she still does. Now, she’s a niche market—again. Perez Hilton even stopped doodling eye makeup on her face. Oh well, she tells herself; soon both she and Perez will be obscure and dated references. For now, however, her captor wants a show? In that case, she thinks while taking the stage and striking a pose, “go for it!”
The lights suddenly turn on, illuminating a seated audience, an arena the size of a football stadium, and a stage adorned with three oversized posters. Sometimes, you have to give the people what they want, Dazzler thinks. The mysterious voice, meanwhile, resumes addressing her. Miss Dazzler never misses a cue, does she, it asks? He would give her a moment to get her bearings, but she’s a professional; she should be used to this. He tells her that this is a rare performance. Consider it her comeback—her one chance. She must give the people the show of her life, or it will be her last. No encore, he says—and no lip-synching!
Suddenly, Dazzler’s old foes the Grapplers burst onto the stage and charge at her. The Grapplers. Man. Someone dug deep into my archives for these ladies, she thinks as she fires her first attack at the ferocious women. I mean, Poundcakes?!
She manages to repel Letha with a light blast before lunging at Screaming Mimi with her fists. As she punches Mimi across the jaw, Dazzler tells the costumed villainess she had heard she reformed. Besides, she liked her Songbird look way better; it was much more up to date. The irony of her wearing a disco jumpsuit as she says this is not lost on Dazzler. However, something about the fight with the Grapplers surprises her—it’s almost too easy.
Her suspicions deepen when she hits Titania with a light beam and discovers she’s actually a robot. Suddenly, Dazzler realizes exactly where she is, and calls out to her captor: Arcade!
At this point, Arcade, from the safety of his observation booth, officially welcomes Dazzler to Murderworld. He doesn’t really care if she survives the experience.
From behind Arcade, a shrouded figure tells him it was too easy; she paid him to kill her. Arcade turns to his client and reminds her that she actually paid him for all of this, he says as he gestures down to the arena. Of course, Dazzler will most likely die, he says, but that’s a fortunate byproduct. In the meantime, they have box seats to the greatest show Dazzler has ever performed—and he, for one, intends to enjoy every moment.
Meanwhile, on the stage, Dazzler finds herself having to find a robot version of the White Queen in her Hellfire Club garb. As she dodges one of robot-Emma’s kicks, Dazzler wonders why Arcade of all people is trying to kill her. They’ve never fought before, after all. Also, why is she having to face versions of these particular villains?
Turning her attention back to the fight, she tells the simulacrum of Emma that even the robot-version of her looks uptight. As she blasts the robot with a destructive beam fired from her eye sockets, she tells it to lighten up. Thankfully, Arcade provided her with an audience from which she could absorb sound. However, just as she thinks this, a new assailant hits her with an electric blast.
Temporarily stunned, Dazzler turns to face her new contenders: Dr. Doom and the Enchantress. Doom tells her that it is time to die, to which the Enchantress simply adds, “verily.” Before she counterattacks, Dazzler ponders what all these remnants from her past have in common. This was so surreal when she first started out; now it’s just insane!
“Hey Doomy, misplace the family jewels again?” Dazzler asks the Doombot. The Enchantress, meanwhile, she just insists really needs to stop crashing her gigs. She fires at the Enchantress, but the Norse goddess fires back, all the while reprimanding her for mocking one who is goddess-born. The Enchantress-bot’s attack actually hits Dazzler, however, sending her flying into the audience. She picks herself up, once again taunting her foe who claims to be goddess-born.
As she readies her counterattack, Alison supposes that at one time in her life, ignorance was bliss. She got lucky, though, and survived things she shouldn’t have by any means. She learned, evolved, and half the time never knew the meaning of the word ‘can’t’. As she stares now at the outstretched hands of deadly robots modeled after two of her most powerful foes, she wonders what she was thinking back then. That I can do whatever the hell I have to do in order to survive, she tells herself, answering her own query. With that, she returns to the stage and fires back at her two assailants.
Meanwhile, in the control booth, Arcade chortles. And people said Dazzler was washed up, he remarks. He starts to wish he had set up a merchant stand for this event; he really wants a T-shirt to remember it by. “Shut up, Arcade. Play the song,” the other person in the room tells him. Arcade tells her she’s really rather rude. In fact, she reminds him of his dear Miss Locke. Ahhh, she would hate her—it would be wonderful! But he consents, and agrees that it’s time for the big guns.
Down below, a simulacrum of Rogue, wearing the hero’s old green and white hooded tunic, flies toward Dazzler and charges at her like a missile. Dazzler deftly rolls out of the way of the cannonball attack. She knows that she and Rogue made up long ago, but just has to ask her: what was she thinking with that hair?
As Dazzler mocks the robot, a song suddenly begins to play on the sound system. It instantly captures her attention: “a little girl on a sunlit lawn, dreams of the day when she will be grown…”
Stunned, Dazzler begins to ask how this can be. She knows Arcade doesn’t take these gigs just for fun. He does it for profit, and whoever hired him as down their homework. They know Dazzler’s enemies, and they know—this song. The one she performed for her mother, just once—which means…
Before she can finish that thought, the anticipatory moans of the audience indicates to her that a new challenger has entered the arena. Wondering who it might be now, Dazzler turns around and faces yet another enemy from her past, only this one of a completely different scale: Galactus, the cosmic destroyer of planets. This is getting absurd, Dazzler tells herself as she faces the simulation of her former master. He addresses her as Earth-woman and emphasizes that she is barely of notice to him. Dazzler scoffs at his inclusion in the arena; she never fought Galactus! She was just his Herald!
As she says this, she realizes it sounds as ridiculous out loud as it does in her head. Still, she has to fight. While her touching ode to her mother continues to play, Dazzler charges her sound reservoirs and takes aim at Galactus. After thanking the folks for coming, she declares the show over, and unleashes a blinding pulse of pure white light in all directions. She’s never tried this much ultraviolet light at once, but since there’s nothing human on stage or in the crowd except for her, she figures it’s relatively risk-free. She takes in the cheers of the robotic audience, the music, and the sound of the air rushing through the vents—and uses it to bring down the house.
She does. The stage collapses, and the robots melt, leaving nothing but molten limbs scattered around the stage.
Up above, Arcade turns to his client and remarks that she never told him Dazzler was capable of that. He believes that is the curtain call. No, the woman responds; he promised she would die! Correcting her, Arcade remarks that he promised she would probably die. Now it’s time to take their bows; she’s faced all of her opponents.
This time, it is the woman who corrects Arcade. Dazzler hasn’t faced all of her opponents yet. As she says this, she melts the wall separating her from Dazzler with a touch of her hand. Standing immediately outside the makeshift entrance, Dazzler faces her would-be assassins. “We have some catching up to do—Lois,” she says to her sister.
“Hiya, sis,” Lois, now sporting a sinister new outfit, says to Alison. “Miss me?”
Arcade is stunned by the revelation that the two are sisters. This is too fabulous, he says, before proposing they perform a duet. In unison, they tell him to shut up. He thanks them for complying, in their own way.
Enraged, Dazzler turns to Lois and asked why she did this to her. Lois tells her to think real hard. She knows it’s tough, being blonde and all, but somewhere in her head, she’ll figure it out. She once swore she’d never lose her, right? In response, Dazzler reminds her sister she chose to stay in Los Angeles, just as she chose to go off with Selene.
Turning things back to Alison, Lois reminds her that it was she who walked out! She knew what kind of person her father was, and she left her with him anyway. He eventually found out what made the two of them special, and needless to say, he wasn’t a fan. Selene, on the other hand, offered her a life—her! And she swore to her that she would help her get revenge on Alison. But then, she died, and Lois was left alone again—but not for long.
Suddenly, the hard-light platform Dazzler was using to reach the control booth disappears from beneath her, and she falls to the stage. While Dazzler rubs her aching wounds, a new voice adds that she has ruined a lot of lives. Looking up, Dazzler beholds this latest speaker to be none other than Klaw, the sound-based supervillain whom she once killed in self-defense. “It’s been far too long. When was the last time? Oh yeah,” Klaw says, “—when you killed me.”
Springing into action, Dazzler somehow deduces that this Klaw cannot be a robot like the others. He uses his powers too deftly and too realistically. Klaw manifests a giant, sound-based mechanical dinosaur creature to attack Dazzler. In response, she creates a light-based super-dinosaur to battle his, all the while wondering how the hell Klaw and Lois hooked up. That girl has never made a good choice in her life, Dazzler remarks.
Arcade, meanwhile, beholds the stage in disbelief. Where did Klaw come from, he asks? He doesn’t recall him being on the set list. Scowling, Lois warns him to not make her melt his face. This is her fight; they play by her rules.
Back on the stage, Dazzler continues her duel with Klaw. He unloads lethal attack after lethal attack at her, but she manages to evade them. She somersaults through the air bearing swords made of hard-light, all the while planning her next moves. Klaw is thinking at the speed of sound, so she needs to react at the speed of light. She confirms that this is no robot, meaning it’s the real Klaw—the Klaw she stood trial for murdering. It’s the same man she killed in self-defense before he could kill her—the man made of living sound, which is something she can use.
Dazzler prepares to absorb Klaw—or enough of him to stop him, at least. Last time she couldn’t control it and accidentally absorbed him all, but now…
Klaw smiles and tells her it tickles. Dazzler, realizing her attack is ineffective, notices a familiar noise—the same noise she heard outside the club before she lost consciousness. She thought her drink had been spiked, but now she realizes it may have been something else. Frightened, she asks what’s happening. Klaw tells her she’s dying. It sounds wonderful, doesn’t it?
Confused, Dazzler remarks that she absorbed him once before, but Klaw informs her that he adapted. He had to make sure that it didn’t happen again. Now, she can’t absorb him; he’s like a cancer to her. Dazzler falls to the ground, her body severely weakened. Klaw approaches her, telling her that it doesn’t matter if she intended to or not, she killed him once before—and that wasn’t very fun for either of them, was it? Leveling the gun on his arm, he aims it at Dazzler and fires.
Dazzler writhes in agony. She feels like there are a million bugs inside her, screaming and clawing. She can’t convert the sound Klaw is firing at her. Continuing his diatribe, he reminds her that he was inside of her. He could hear her, and only her: her secrets, her dreams, and her fears. Now he’s here to ensure those come true—well, not all of them. He only cares about the nightmares. Dazzler lets out an agonizing scream.
Delighted at the suffering he’s inflicting on his foe, Klaw asks her to please not stop screaming—not that it matters to someone like her. Sound waves travel forever, he says, becoming too faint to be heard, but still traveling. They’re out there to sift through. If one listens close enough, one can hear the last breath of the dinosaurs, the screams of tortured prisoners, and the secrets they are forced to reveal. One can hear the cries of a lost little girl—a kindred spirit—cursing one name: Dazzler. One can hear a soft prayer that someone could make her dream of killing Dazzler come true. So please, he tells her—scream. Beg. Cry. Do whatever she needs to do. Her swan song will live forever, even if she doesn’t. Sound, he says, never dies. Pointing his sound gun at her head, he asks Dazzler if she has any final words.
Dazzler lifts her head. “%^$# you,” she tells Klaw.
Above, in the control room, Arcade questions Mortis about their latest guest. She brought in Klaw—the actual Klaw, and not one of his creations—without his permission? This was not part of their arrangement, Arcade says. Lois asks what that matters; she just brought in her own guy in case Arcade failed. Now Dazzler is dying, and Murderworld is living up to its name—for once. He should be happy, she tells Arcade. In response, he tells her that if she’s going to kill someone, she should at least have the decency to do it honestly. Cheaters, he reminds her, never win. With that, he flips a switch on his control board.
Down below, the machinery of Murderworld whirrs to life. Cranes and robotic arms begin cleaning up the mechanical debris scattered around the stage. Dazzler supposes that Arcade must be clearing out. She has no idea why, but now she has a shot at redemption—one shot. The chaos of the machinery creates sounds she can use, which power her up. Since Klaw is made of sound, she just has to find the right light spectrum frequency to surround him and he’ll skip like a record. She does this, creating a hard-light cage for Klaw, that she then launches across the arena. The soundproofed room lands with a crash. Dazzler hopes it absorbs some of Klaw’s energy if he escapes—assuming either of them survives this ordeal.
Enraged at her sister’s victory, Lois London growls and descends to the floor of the stage. She supposes she’ll have to do the job herself, she says. Alison is thankful that her sister still has some reason in her after all.
As Mortis approaches Dazzler, she tells her sister that she just bought this outfit, and asks her to try not to bleed on it. She then lunges at Dazzler, wrapping her deadly hands around her neck. The two sisters snarl at each other, locked in an angry embrace. Lois angrily asks her why she won’t die. Dazzler responds that she doesn’t think Lois can kill her. Lois is pretty sure she can, but Dazzler disagrees. She may want to kill her, but she can’t—at least not by using her powers. Dazzler will counter her, every time, because unlike Lois, she won’t be holding back on using hers. It’s in her blood.
Lois tells her to shut up. She didn’t ask for this, she says: being a mutant, having powers—all of that is Alison’s thing, not hers! She just wants to be herself!
Dazzler, recalling now the life she wanted for herself, informs her sister that none of them asked for this. Alison could have been a lawyer, but she wanted more: she wanted to entertain. She got way more than she bargained for, though. She recalls her time with the X-Men, her time in Mojoworld, her days in Britain with New Excalibur, and her life on Utopia. She tells Lois she thought she had to be one or the other. She gave it that power. She made some bad decisions, losing herself and letting herself be the label: the mutant, the has-been, and the joke. But the greatest realization she made in all of it was that it didn’t matter how everyone else saw her. She’s not just a mutant, or a singer, or any one thing. All of this, she says, is her.
With that, holograms of Dazzler’s various aspects swarm Lois, quickly overwhelming her. Lois strikes at them futilely, mocking Dazzler as she swings her fists. Look at her, all well adjusted suddenly, Lois sneers. Of course, she tells Dazzler, everything has been handed to her. She’s been the one screwing up her own life. She asks Alison to try walking in her heels for a while. She trusted their mother to raise her, and the woman turned out to be a drug-addicted weakling. Lois trusted Alison to guide her, and she walked out on her! When she finally thought she found someone who loved her for who she was, he cursed and rejected her! Her own father! She’s everything she is today because she’s a mutant—a freak! They both are, Lois asserts, and it’s all they ever will be. That’s why she wanted to kill every one of them. They’re abominations, she says.
“Okay, point missed completely,” Dazzler replies to her furious sister. “Lois, the only thing we have in common,” she adds, “is a bloody nose.” With that, she reaches through the holograms and punches Lois in the face, knocking her out cold.
Later, outside Murderworld, Dazzler, now dressed in her civilian clothes, meets with the police. Several police cars encircle the secret entrance to Murderworld, concealed in a normal-looking garage. A team of paramedics, meanwhile, loads the unconscious Lois onto a stretcher and into an ambulance. Dazzler folds her arms and observes this scene with conflicted emotions.
Her long-lost sister came back and still wanted to kill her because she’s a mutant, she thinks to herself. Suddenly agents and label reps look almost human to her. She advises the paramedics to be careful with Lois, and to keep her sedated. Alison is just grateful that the X-Men have a place of their own right now, considering how insane the rest of the world it. Maybe there, Lois can get the help she needs—and she can keep her eye on her. As far as the authorities go, they were both victims of Arcade’s insano funhouse. She’s comfortable blaming it on him, and Selene, and Klaw—which reminds her, she lost him in the chaos. Who knows when he’ll show up again, she wonders. She got lucky this time, and she’s not afraid to admit that. She needs time to process this, and to figure out what to do. She can blame Selene and everyone else, but she knows she’s responsible too. She can’t just let Lois go out of her life again. She needs help. She needs her sister. Not to mention, she probably still wants to kill me, Dazzler thinks. This should make for some interesting family therapy sessions.
Seeing Lois like that—hating herself and the world—has led Dazzler to realize what she’s been missing. After all this time, it wasn’t the fame she was missing, or the heroics; it was simply respect. She silently thanks the universe for showing her this, and sarcastically asks it if it can’t send her a less lethal clue next time. Sure, it took nearly being killed by a man she thought she murdered and her now-insane sister, but she understands it.
Carrying her old disco jumpsuit over to the garbage, Dazzler holds it for a moment and ponders what it means. Say what you will about me. What I’ve been or done, she thinks. Call me a has-been. Too nostalgic but too soon to be retro-cool. Tell me I have an “image-problem.” I don’t care anymore. What matters is I’m here. To stay. With a smile on her face, she turns away from the alley, taking her jumpsuit with her and holding it with pride.
Get used to it.
2nd story…
Utopia, home of the X-Men…
“This isn’t something you should just spring on us, Dazzler,” Cyclops says. Dazzler, sitting next to Psylocke at the bedside of her comatose sister, objects that she had nowhere else to go. She wasn’t going to leave Lois with the authorities…
“…which would have been the proper course of action,” Cyclops interjects. If that had happened, Dazzler rebuts, they would have arrested her and tried to contain her—and they can’t contain someone like Lois. She can kill with a touch! Besides, she’s mentally unstable, has had years of mental and physical abuse, and god only knows what Selene did to her mind while she was with her.
Cyclops reminds Alison that Lois was running around killing other mutants—which is exactly why she’s a danger on Utopia. Utopia is a place for every mutant, Dazzler says to Scott, reminding him of his earlier statement. Is that not what he said about Utopia? She asks him to take a look at her unconscious half-sister. What more can she do to them?
Cyclops replies that he’s more concerned about what might happen to Lois is she stays there. People want retribution, he reminds her. Her sister, after all, killed their friends. Dazzler reminds him that Lois also tried to kill her—and so has Magneto, and so has Scott’s girlfriend! Also, who else in the room has murdering psychopathic siblings? Frankly, she asks Scott why he’s employing such a double standard.
First of all, Cyclops rebuts, Emma never killed an X-Man. He concedes that although some people deserve a second chance, there are those who are beyond help! When Alison reminds him Lois is her sister, Cyclops adds that she also wants to kill her, and will do so the first chance she gets! Alison disagrees; Lois had the chance to kill her twice, and didn’t. She needs them.
Folding his arms, Scott sternly addresses Dazzler and Psylocke. Selene raised the dead and used them against the X-Men, he says. She used everyone, including the Hellions, Emma’s former students. Emma had to watch her children die, again—and Lois went along with it. Alison shouldn’t expect any help from Emma, he adds.
Psylocke, however, volunteers to help Lois. The girl has suffered great emotional trauma, Psylocke says, and her psyche is shattered. Right now, she’s beyond their reach, so Psylocke has to put her into a psychically induced coma. She pledges to work with her on the Astral Plane, healing what Selene, her father, and Ali’s mother did to her. It could take years to rehabilitate her, she says—but she will help her.
As he prepares to leave the room, Cyclops concedes to Psylocke and Dazzler. As Lois’s next of kin, this is Alison’s call, he says—and her responsibility. To that, Alison says it’s the best chance Lois has.
After he leaves, Alison sighs. “That went well,” she says. Psylocke asks how she’s holding up, or if she can get her anything. No, Alison tells her—she’s done so much already. Psylocke kisses her friend on the forehead and tells her she’s there for her, any time. Alison realizes that the hard part has come. Psylocke knows what she’s thinking; is she ready for this? She has to be, Dazzler replies. She’s the next of kin—it’s her responsibility.
Psylocke exits the room, leaving Dazzler at the bedside with her sister. Alison gradually grows forlorn, and buries her face in her hands. “Leave this one to the Dazzler,” she groans.
Pulling out her cellphone, she dials a number she hasn’t dialed in a long time. As the phone begins to ring, she notes that sometimes, the space between rings can cover a lifetime. During this time, one might think of all the things one wants to say—what one should say. And rarely are they the things, she thinks, that one actually says.
“Hello?” the party at the other end of the line says.
“Mom?” Alison asks into the phone.
“Ali, honey?” her mother responds. Alison confirms that yes, it is indeed her.
When her mother asks if everything is okay, Alison struggles to keep it together. She wants to scream into the phone that no, everything is not okay. Do they sound okay?!? Her other daughter just kidnapped her, made her fight robot versions of every big-bad—even some crappy C-listers—and then brought in Klaw, the one guy who could kill her, to finish the job! And she did this all because she hates Alison and hates being a mutant!
However, Alison refrains from saying all that. Instead, she remains silent for a moment, prompting her mother to ask if she’s still there. Alison just tells her that she’s calling about Lois. Her mother begins to fear the worst; is Lois…?
Again, Alison wants to scream into the phone and finish her mom’s sentence. Is Lois a psycho murdering bitch who killer her father and than came after her friends and tried to kill her? Is she someone that no one wants to take care of, but whom Alison now has to take care of because there isn’t anyone left, thanks to her mother? She wants to tell her mother that if she’d had the guts to get off the drugs or get herself into a safe environment where she could have grown up like a normal girl, maybe she could have stood a chance! However, she had to do what she did to Alison—what she always did—and run away, abandoning her daughter.
Alison wants to hurl the phone at the wall as she ponders this rant in her head. Somehow, she restrains herself, and calmly and politely tells her mother that Lois is going to be okay—she hopes.
Her mother, Barbara London, asks what happened. Alison tells her Lois is not well—she’s stable, but not well. Sitting at her piano at home, Barbara asks what Lois has done; she begs Alison to tell her what her sister has done. Replying that Lois is emotionally and mentally sick, Alison informs her mother that Lois has killed her father, Nick. She killed a lot of people, actually—and she tried to kill Alison as well. Lois is in a coma now, but it’s safe. She’ll be in the coma until she can get better.
Thoughts begin to whirl inside of Barbara London’s head. She blames herself for everything. She did this, she thinks. She was weak, and on drugs. She was out of her mind. She thought she could run, changer her name, and start over. However, she’s not fooling anyone—no one ever gets to start again.
After a prolonged silence, Alison asks if her mother is still there. Barbara confirms that she is, and that she heard her. She tells Alison that she is so thankful for her—and for her strength. Of all of them, Ali has always been the strongest. This—everything that happened—is her own fault, Barbara concedes. Alison begins to object, but Barbara stops her mid-sentence; they both know it’s the truth. She wasn’t there for Alison at all, and what she put Lois through…
Ali chalks this up to merely making some bad choices. However, Lois made some bad choices as well. Still blaming herself, Barbara insists these choices were based on her actions—actions Lois observed from her mother!
Believe it or not, Alison tells her distraught mother, she isn’t the only one to blame. Alison admits that she made a promise to Lois she didn’t keep. She promised Lois she would never lose her—but she did. Ali got caught up in everything but Lois. And then, she says, Lois lost herself. They all played their own roles there, but ultimately, it was Lois’s life, and Lois’s decisions—and her consequences to face. They all have to face the consequences, Barbara imagines.
Someone calls to Katherine Blaire in her apartment, telling her that her next appointment has arrived. Katherine tells her assistant, Connie, that she will just be a moment. Confused, Alison asks her mother why she’s now going by Katherine. What happened to the name Barbara London? Katherine tells her that was never really her—not really. “Sometimes you have to stop running form what you were and find out who you are truly meant to be,” Katherine says. “I trust you, honey. I said it before, but you are truly a remarkable young woman. And an inspiration. Lois is safe with you. I’ll be up as soon as possible. I promise. I love you,” she tells her daughter.
Alison, on the other end of the phone, tells her mom she loves her too, while tears stream down her face.
When the call ends, Alison walks over to Lois and rests her hand on her sister’s forehead. Sometimes you have to stop running from what you were, she thinks, pondering her mother’s words, and find out who you are truly meant to be.
“I won’t lose you, Lois,” she tells her comatose sister. “Not again.”


[User]
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Provide a full summary of the comic book.

[Assistant]
Earth Intruders
(Moira Engine III.9 timeline)The Treehouse, New York City. It has been split in two, and the headquarters of the X-Men is in ruin. Suddenly, there is a surge of energy, and five figures drop down into this reality. It is burned. The sky is gray. 'Smells like fire and brimstone. Not good' remarks Joanna Cargill a.k.a. Frenzy. David Alleyne a.k.a. Prodigy reports that something is wrong, as he can't pick up anyone – let alone Moira. He and Frenzy stand with their teammates, Jubilation Lee a.k.a. Jubilee, Alison Blaire a.k.a. Dazzler and Sam Guthrie a.k.a. Cannnonball, who declares that he doesn't think it takes super-special psychic brain stuff to tell that this place has seen better days. 'On the plus side, at least you're not screaming and crying and trying to keep your skull in one piece?' Jubilee asks, before Frenzy tells everyone to be quiet, as something is coming. Dazzler then screams as bat-like demon swoop down towards the dead X-Men, each of whom wears a unique version of the black and gold X-Men costumes.The X-Men have arrived in this reality one month after Illyana Rasputin ascended to the Lord of all Hells and razed the planet. 'Who dares tresspass in my realm?' the cloven-hooved demoness asks as she steps towards the X-Men. Prodigy then tells everyone 'She's not here. I can feel Magik's memory of killing her... and everyone else'. He looks concerned, and Jubilee announces that this timeline is toast. 'Pull us out! Pull us out!' Dazzler exclaims urgently, as energy crackles around the dead X-Men, and they are yanked away from this reality.(The White Hot Room)Atlantic Krakoa is currently held within the White Hot Room, and it's where the five dead X-Men suddenly rematerialize after being yanked from the alternate timeline. 'Rach cut that one close!' Dazzler remarks, while she and the others land in the Krakoan forest. 'We cut it close jumping twice in close succession. Even I'm winded' Frenzy declares. Cannonball lands on his stomach and looks up at his teammates: 'Right there with ya, Joanna. I'm all discombob- aww, come on now. I'm a good Southern boy' he exclaims, when suddenly, Rachel Summers a.k.a. Askani appears before them, as a face in a fiery blaze. 'You can't be showing up here as a burning bush. It just ain't right, Rachel!'Rachel tells Sam that she works with what is handy, and explains that the flames are part of the psychic package. 'Besides, you should be grateful I can even manifest right now...' Rachel begins.(No-Place X)In reality, Rachel is in this non-reality, no-nowhere and no-when. Wearing a red armor, Rachel hovers cross-legged and informs the dead X-Men that it is taking all of her focus just to communicate at a speed they can all comprehend. 'The clock operates very differently in my neck of the woods' Rachel adds. She tells the X-Men that if they linger in these timelines they will draw unwanted attention, but yanking them in and out as fast as she did, is like dancing between seconds for her. 'Any longer and we would have been demon barbecue' Dazzler points out, adding that the Hellfire Gala already proved to her that she is not as immortal as she used to think she was. 'Don't want to test my limits again' she adds.Prodigy tells Dazzler that they won't need to, because with everything Dazzler unlocked in his mind, he is getting faster and faster at detecting any signs of Moira – even if he is feeling every bit of the effort, too. He explains that all they need is one version of Moira who is not cybernetic and he can lift the information they need to get Xavier where he needs to go – Moira's own mental map of her past. Askani suggests that they all take a moment to catch their breath, but not much longer than that. She reminds the X-Men that Xavier entrusted her with assembling the right team for this mission. 'I had, oh, a few thousand mutants to choose from... and I picked the five of you' Askani jokes. She informs her team that Xavier has a plan to talk to Moira in her tenth life before her powers manifested, but that they need the exact date, time and location that happened.'He can't trust anything Moira told him before her betrayal' Askani states, adding that Prodigy is their best bet at getting to the truth. 'So no pressure, but the fate of all existence ever is on our shoulders!' Askani exclaims. Cannonball tells her that they won't let her down, and instructs her to send them back in. Askani tells Cannonball that she appreciates his enthusiasm, and that she hates to say it, but they are running out of Moira Engine pathways, noting that Sinister only made so many of those monstrosities. 'If you don't find what we're searching for on the next jump... we might be $#%& out of luck!'(Moira Engine II.4)The X-Men jump into the next pathway, arriving fifteen years after the end of the Earth. Part of the planet can be seen as a separate chunk from what remains of the Earth. The landscape is in ruin. 'This is even worse than the... the last...' Dazzler begins, before the X-Men realize that they can't breathe. They begin to writhe in agony, 'Helpless – as usual!' someone calls out as a pink portal appears behind the X-Men and grabs then, dragging them into the portal. This does not go unnoticed by a peg-legged figure wearing a cloak and standing on one of the demolished rooftops nearby. 'Ach, what's this now?' the figure asks.'Oh, sweet oxygen!' Jubilee exclaims as she and her teammates find themselves inside what appears to be temporary safety. 'Yes, courtesy of... the X-Men!' a voice exclaims, and the rescued X-Men look over to see this reality's Abigail Brand standing over them, aiming a weapon towards them. At her side are Blink, Random, Armor and Rootfire. 'Abigail Brand leading the X-Men? Oh, this is not a good future!' Jubilee remarks.'Now explain why you look like some of our long-dead allies... before we have our ship belch you out into the cold expanse of space' Brand scowls. Indeed, the rescued X-Men are inside a facility built into Krakoa which now resides on the back of an Acanti, a whale-like alien that is now the final mutant refuge. 'We are your allies, Brand – more or less. But we've come from a different -' Frenzy starts, when suddenly, Prodigy drops to his knees and clutches his head in agony.'The longer I'm in the dark, the itchier my trigger finger gets' the unimpressed Brand warns the new arrivals. 'Back off, G.I. Green' Jubilee snaps as she checks on Prodigy, explaining to Brand that he absorbs the knowledge and skills from anyone near him, and while he used to have a bunch of limits to keep his brain from melting out of his nose, he volunteered to have them removed for this mission. 'So he's reading my mind right now?' Brand asks. 'More or less' Prodigy replies as he gets to his feet, and announces that he knows what happened to Earth – that Brand got what she wanted all along – an intergalactic war! Prodigy reveals that it was Orbis Stellaris who was pulling the puppet strings that Brand thought she held tight, and the whole galaxy paid for her cockiness. He recounts the visions that he has seen – a wormhole strike on Krakoa vaporized the island before the precogs caught a glimpse of Orbis' plan, and all of Orchis, most of the Avengers and near enough to 92% of all life on the planet was snuffed out in the opening salvo. A simultaneous assault on Arakko happened too, just in case anyone got a notion for revenge. Storm was there. All that remained was a handful of surviving mutants scattered throughout the galaxy, with Abigail Brand humbled to find herself leading the team she accidentally manipulated to its downfall.'That's about the sum of it. Other than the “humbled” part' Brand remarks, before Armor asks Prodigy if he is here to fix this. 'Hisako, we...' Prodigy begins, before Frenzy interrupts him: 'You know how paradoxes work. We can't reveal our mission. We shouldn't even be talking to you right now. But our clock is ticking fast. We need you to take us back to Earth'. Random laughs at this and notes that they were having a real swell time down there when they saved them. 'No one's left on Earth except scavengers. Besides, we're in the middle of a supply run. You're lucky we picked up your life-form read-' Blink starts, when suddenly, something shunts into the Acanti, knocking the mutants about. 'What was that?' Jubilee asks, adjusting her shades. 'The exact attention we were hoping to avoid' Rootfire responds as they tap a button on a console. They reveal that Orbis Stellaris wiped out Nimrod and the other artificial intelligences allied with Orchis, however A.I. was never limited to just Earth, and the Technarchy has filled the void.'Oh, good, that's exactly what the party was missing, the freaking Phalanx. Aside from assimilating all life in existence, why are they chasing you? What are you hauling in this big space fish?' Dazzler asks. The Technarcy's ship blasts the Acanti and Krakoa once more, as Brand reveals that they are transporting the last cache of Mysterium in the universe!Meanwhile, in lunar orbit, just outside range of the Technarchy artillery, inside a strange U.F.O. style spaceship, Orbis Stellaris states that he blames the World Farm, of course, deciding that his ascension would have taken place over a decade hence, if not for that rare misstep. He wonders if perhaps he should be more forgiving to himself though, as intergalactic conflict takes time. He speaks to the mutant Vulcan, who is held in some sort of stasis tube. Orbis Stellaris notes that once he gathers the remaining Mysterium, that frustratingly singular mutant metal, time is something he will possess in ample. 'Still, how amusing. Even I could not predict that it would be more difficult to collect chunks of ore... than it was to obtain a fragment of the M'Kraan Crystal, the very Nexus of Realities itself' Orbis Stellaris remarks as he looks over at the shard of the M'Kraan Crystal.Back on the Acanti, in the remains of Krakoa, Brand's X-Men use space-helmets to enable them to breathe as the Technarchy launch their assault. 'Die on your feet, X-Men – and take as many of them with you as you can!' Brand calls out as she fires a weapon through the head of one of the aliens. The dead X-Men are also fitted with the space-helmets, and suddenly, Prodigy cries out in pain. 'Whoa, another brain freeze? Are you picking up these Techno-Organic goons?' Jubilee asks. Urgently, Prodigy exclaims 'No, it's her, Jubilee! Moira's here. She's close – and she's still human!' Dazzler asks if this is it, what they have been searching for, while Cannonball looks over to Brand's X-Men, who are struggling against the Technarchy, and tells his teammates 'Ah don't like these folks' odds without our help'. Frenzy helps Prodigy to stand up and reminds the others that they all knew the deal when they agreed to this mission.Frenzy tells her teammates that nothing they do can change this timeline – the Moira they are after may be depowered, but there is a Moira clone in Sinister's “engine” somewhere out there – and when she dies, everything resets. Random fires blasts towards the Technarchy, while Armor knocks several of the aliens backwards. 'If Prodigy's right...we can still fix everything. So we've got to trust Brand's X-Men can handle themselves' Frenzy tells the others. The dead X-Men team begin to run as a jet appears overhead and begins to open fire on the Technarchy, gunning several of them down, as a voice can be heard: 'C'mon, Abby – you started the fun without us?' Brand doesn't respond, so the voice from the jet continues – it's Sunspot, who tells Brand that the Starjammers like to arrive fashionably late anyway. 'Mind if we break out the big guns?' Sunspot smiles. With him is an armor-less Juggernaut, Hepzibah, Mercury and Lockheed, who sits in the cpatain's chair and says something in an alien language.'Roger that, Captain Lockheed' responds Warbird – Carol Danvers – who is in another part of the ship with a teenage boy with blond hair called Smasher. A moment later, as Cannonball, Frenzy, Dazzler, Prodigy and Jubilee rush across what has become the battlefield, the Technarchy ship is blown to pieces as Smasher collides with it. Prodigy cries out, shocked, as he realizes that Moira is headed towards them. 'Never... never absorbed a mind like hers before...' he utters as a crude vessel descends towards Krakoa.At that moment, Warbird flies through space towards the U.F.O. like spaceship, and reports back to the Starjammer, informing them that she has found their lurker. She smashes through the spaceship, and finds Orbis Stellaris, who exclaims 'You cretin! This is a hermetically sealed chamber!' Warbird frowns and tells Orbis Stellaris that she is just the opening act anyway. 'See, there's a kid on my crew. His dad died when you blew up Earth. His mom fell fighting for the galaxy. But he inherited both of their powers...and her called dibs on smashing your little toy' Warbird announces, as Smasher flies into the ship and begins tearing up everything in sight, while Orbis looks on in shock.Back on the remains of Krakoa, 'Clear a path for Prodigy t'get closer!' Cannonball calls out as he blasts above his teammates, telling them to take down as many of these junkheads as they can, because if Moira dies now, then this was all for nothing. Dazzler and Jubilee blast members of the Technarchy, while Jubilee asks 'What about if we die, ever think of that?' Suddenly, two of the X-Men are knocked backwards by falling debris from the ships overhead – and in the confusion, a piece of debris is lodged into Prodigy's chest. 'Oh, crap' Prodigy gasps, looking down at his chest. 'Been searching for this last piece for nigh on a decade, now' a figure on the crude vessel that recently landed calls out. Frenzy goes over to Prodigy and asks him how deep it penetrated, and whether his breathing is compromised. 'I – I don't know. It doesn't hurt like it should. Is... is that bad?' Prodigy asks. 'Figures I'd find it in the middle of a mutant melee. Some things never change' the cloaked figure remarks as they rush towards Prodigy.'Oh no you don't! No hitting my teammates while they're down!' Cannonball calls out as he blasts upwards then swoops down and slams into the cloaked figure, causing an explosion which knocks the mysterious figure into the air – and when they land on the ground, their cloak has fallen backwards, and their identity is revealed – it's Moira MacTaggert – or what is left of her. One of her arms has been severed at the elbow. Metal or cybernetic components can be seen on her face and her other arm appears to be completely robotic. Prodigy looks anguished as this reality's Moira's memories fill his mind – he sees Moira and Xavier kissing, then Moira standing next to Pyro as he burns Destiny. He sees Magneto giving Moira his helmet, and Charles and Moira looking on as a Sentinel blasts Wolverine. 'Oh god. There's so much...so much more than I expected' Prodigy gasps. 'What are ye?' a horrified Moira looks on.Dazzler helps Prodigy up as Prodigy reports that he got it, a full map of Moira's past – all of it. 'And not just her tenth life...we can go anywhere. Anywhen'. Prodigy declares that they could stop the Dominion before it is born. 'Then let's get the hell out of dodge already!' Dazzler suggests as they X-Men begin to run from Moira. 'What about her?' Frenzy asks, turning back to Moira. 'If we got what we came for, then we better leave well enough alone!' Cannonball suggests as he blasts onwards. 'Don't wanna mess around with this stuff more than we already have' Cannonball points out, as energy then crackles around he and his teammates – and the vanish.Moira wheezes as she runs over to where the X-Men vanished, and finds the shard that was lodged into Prodigy's chest. 'Ah, this'll do nicely' she remarks, when suddenly, 'Hey! Get away from that!' Abigail Brand snaps as she appears on a ridge overlooking the area where Moira is, and begins opening fire. Moira fights back, lunging at Brand and knocking her backwards. 'Wait – how are you still alive?' Brand asks. Moira holds up a large ax-like weapon and declares that she had to stay alive, to build this weapon. She announces that it is made from adamantium, carbonadium and vibranium, and has that Xorn fella's hackit-black-hole brain. 'And now the final piece. A wee shard of mysterium. The missing ingredient' she explains, having retrieved that mysterium shard. She grins wickedly as she boasts that she has everything she needs to cut a path back to her very first life and start over again – so she can make sure that Moira always wins....