In the vast void of the astral plane, a small shadow finally began to grow once again. Battered and hurt, the Shadow King still managed to cling to existence by the thinnest of threads, the slenderest of cords. Hate sustained him; hate of Xavier and all the children of the atom who had denied him his well earned revenge and his justifed power. He had waited a lifetime to destroy Xavier and now all his plans were ashes after his defeat at Muir Island.

He had survived "death" before, first when Charles Xavier had fought him in a Cairo Cafe and later when he had been driven forth from the mutant Karma. But never had he been hurt so badly as this. He had been so close to defeating his most loathed enemy. Weak as he was it seemed an impossibility he would survive this defeat, for even an astral entity needed to feed and isolated from reality he was cut off from what feed him best -- the dark emotions of the human soul.

He needed a new host and a new way to inflict misery on a world filled with hatred and strife. But he had so little strength left. He knew that he would need a psionically aware host in order to become incranate again and yet he also needed one that could not fight back. Even better would be one that would welcome him. He needed a shelter against the endless night that awaited him. A refuge from the dark void.

And then, when all hope seemed exhausted and all avenues seemed ended, one became available. Fleeing from a shattered dream in space was the mindless body of one of the greatest mutants. The irony was delicious. Xavier had torn this ones mind out to prevent a war between humans and mutants. How fitting that the benevolent tyrant be replaced by the utter despot. Xavier's actions would rebound on him and bring ruin to his futile dream! He would make Xavier regret his decision to lobotmize his oldest enemy.

Quietly, gently the Shadow King slipped into the mind of his new host. He could feel the mind of this man buried deeply, the pride, the power, the pain, the passion and a will second to none! He had defied him once and alone had managed to drive him off. Now he was a slave. The Shadow King exercised his new mutant power carefully, to use a large amount of psionic or magnetic power would be to risk awakening his host and he could drive him out if that happened. Very well, subtlety would replace the sledgehammer of raw power. The name of Magneto would draw many to a hopeless crusade. And when the pain and death had given him the power to thrive he would merely move on to a new host when they tore this one apart.

In the endless antarctic night, beside an unconscious Colossus, Magneto laughed a cold, mocking laugh that seemed to echo forever across the frigid wasteland.

Xavier was tired. Sweat dripped down his face, stinging his eyes and clouding his vision. With a vast mental effort he fought off waves of fatigue. It had been eighteen hours since he had begun scanning for his oldest adversary... and his dearest friend.

The amount of psionic static in the antarctic region was simply phenomenal. Rarely had he encountered such resistance to his amplified mental probes. For all this effort he had little to show for his time. Cerebro had picked up traces of Magneto but he couldn't pinpoint them. The image of a dying and defenseless Magnus urged him on to greater efforts as he remembered how Magnus had come to his aid when he was dying in the snow after Siena Blaze's attack on the leaders of the X-Men. He would not leave him out there if he had a choice.

"Guilt, Xavier? Regret? Isn't it a little late for these feelings? You did tear my mind out after all. All that is left to die is an empty husk. Not a man at all but a mere shell" the astral image of Magneto remarked.

"Still my conscience, Magnus. Even when I kill you I am forced to deal with you!" Xavier remarked to the phantom in his mind. As a curious side effect of the mind-wipe he did on Magneto, he was haunted by images of the man. A psychosis he freely admitted but had neither the time nor inclination to inquire into.

"Perhaps we are bound together by tighter reins than you realize. There, at the beginning, there were only the two of us -- you who hoped for the best and I who prepared for the worst. Look at us now, you an impotent cripple trying to believe your dream hasn't been hopelessly tainted by compromise and I merely the memory of a dead man. Our marvellous mutant powers seem to have done little good. For all our skill and dedication at the end we are undone. Is there really any difference between us any longer?"

"There is a difference, Magnus, though you may choose to hide it however you wish," Xavier stormed. "My dream is a principle, a goal to be obtained. Your dream was a mad vision of power..."

"Power to keep my people safe..."

"Power to make yourself a king among men. How many lives have you taken? How could any dream based on the blood of so many be pure?"

"I see a lot of blood on your hands as well. My own for example. It is too late to deny it; the coming of Cable was a change in the philosophy of the X-Men as he took the future into his guardianship. Look at the newest X-Men -- Cannonball, whom he trained to be a warrior, and Bishop, a soldier. They are no longer young people seeking to bring peace. Instead they are warriors of the atom whom I was proud to fight beside. Some still cling to the dream but for how long? How long till they can go on no further?"

"As long as they have to!"

"Let the dream die Xavier..."

"And give you the ultimate victory!" Xavier shouted, lurching forward in his chair."After all the prices we have paid, all the struggle. No, until my dying day I will resist that path! I will..."

The doors of the ready room burst open as Bishop jumped in with his gun drawn and his eyes alert. "Professor? I heard shouting. Is something the matter?"

"Just old ghosts, my friend. Old ghosts that never seem to lie in peace. Go on I will be fine here." Bishop shot a worried glance around the room but he was already relaxing. Without another word he turned and exited.

Settling back into his chair Xavier forced himself to relax. One day soon he would deal with this problem. He would just as soon he finished the urgent business he was about.

It was obvious that nothing more could be learned from here in his command chair. He would have to go south in the blackbird and scan from a much closer range. As he let his mind wander, he noticed on the close range scan being done by Cerebro that Jean and Logan were at the nearby airport. Perfect! Focusing his powers he sent a telepathic probe forth.

"Jean! Logan! Can I call upon you for some assistance?"

"I have business elsewhere, bub. I ain't in a mood to be no flaming errand boy." Wolverine snarled.

"I understand but it won't be long. We can drop you off where ever you are going afterwards." Xavier said.

"Take the others. I have other engagements that are far more pressing than whatever side-show you have planned, Chuck!"

"They are unavailable at this time. Storm said something about a field trip... I have nobody else I can count on. You are an X-Man, Wolverine, much as you have forgotten it of late"

"I've forgotten nothin'. I have so many strings of duty and obligation that sometimes it feels like they're tearin' me apart..."

"Get ahold of yourself Wolverine. I need your enhanced senses and I dare not take Sabertooth as a replacement."

"That Psycho! You'd be lucky to end up merely dead. OK, I'll come! Let's get it over with, Chuckie. Just what are we up to?

"It involves Magneto. I want to relocate him and return him to the mansion. It is too dangerous having him on the loose."

"Ol' bucket head, eh? And if he resists?"

"Then we will restrain him. By any means necessary."

"Music to my ears, bub, music to my ears. I do hope he resists, I owe ol' buckethead a fistful of claw and I always give better than I get."

Logan looked bored and listless as the Blackbird continued to circle over the arctic wasteland. Jean was focused on the controls as she attempted to navigate clouds of psionic static. Xavier was concentrating on doing a psionic scan. The helmet of the mini-cerebro glinted in the cabin light and gave him the uncharacteristic appearance of a knight in a helmet. His eyes constantly flitted from dial to dial while his whole face was contorted with effort as he attempted to unscramble a weak signal. Hewas unable to shake the feeling that there was something out there in the darkness -- something waiting. As he glanced around the cabin he realised suddenly that Logan was growling softly. It was as if his animal senses were somehow telling him something was wrong. Perhaps, he should have brought more of the X-Men with him... But no, that would have meant waiting for them to return and he didn't have the time.

"Professor," Jean said breaking his reverie, "the computer has confirmed what I suspected. This static isn't natural and it isn't being caused on the psionic plane. It is magnetic in origin!"

"That tears it, ol' buckethead was just shamming. He's out there somewhere waiting for us. I can feel it. See if you can locate him Chuck, I'm afraid we're about ta ruin his whole day."

"Professor, we need to go back and bring a full team before proceeding with this mission. A helpless Magneto is one thing but a full strength one..." Jean said.

"Will die as easily as any other man if he doesn't see it comin'!" Wolverine snarled.

"Enough Wolverine. You may be right Jean and yet..."

The professor was cut off by a loud explosion at the back of the blackbird. Instantly the cabin was filled with blinding black smoke.

"The engines have been hit," Jean cried. "Brace yourselves! We're going down and there is nothing I can do to stop it."

Wolverine bounded to the co-pilots position and frantically tried to restart the engine while Xavier had his attention suddenly distracted by a familiar reading on the mini-cerebro as it scanned wildly about, it looked for a second like Rogue, but that just couldn't be the case now -- could it? As he pushed his mind forth he felt an oppressive blackness on the astral plane, fear flooded through him as the once pure plane felt like a place of horrors.

He was jolted back to reality as the blackbird suddenly made a controlled crash landing in the antarctic snow.

"Can you tell what hit us, Jean?" Xavier inquired as the cabin finally began to clear of smoke.

"We were hit by a bolt of magnetic force of some kind. It tore the engine apart. We're on fire and we're going to have to abandon the Blackbird." Jean replied.

"He's out there then," Wolverine growled. "He isn't getting the ol' canucklehead without a fight".

"Wait, Wolverine, I sense a presence out there but it isn't Magneto..." Xavier began as a scaly green arm smashed through the windshield and grabbed Phoenix by the throat. She let out an unholy scream of terror and agony as she was brutally torn from the plane.

"God God! That thing is eating her life-force! I can feel her pain..." Xavier sobbed.

SNICKT!

"Bad Mistake bub," snarled Wolverine as he bounded out into the antarctic snow to face... SAURON! "I heard you was a vegetable! Too flamin' bad ya didn't stay that way... for you!" Wolverine growled as he drove bone claws into Sauron's abdomen. His heightened senses could tell him Jean was almost dead, and the thought drove him wild. He swung again but Sauron threw Phoenix aside and grabbed his arm. Wolverine let forth a howl of agony as Sauron shattered it.

Meanwhile Xavier desperately tried to bring his massive psionic power to bear. But pain, fear and fatigue prevented him from hammering through the weak shields surrounding Sauron's mind. Why isn't he using his hypnotic power? What would drive him out into the snow this way?

Sauron grabbed Wolverine and savagely broke the mutants spine across his knee. Not one to go down quietly, Wolverine went for the eyes and tore the left one out. The battle had lasted for mere seconds and already it was over. Sauron reached forth with his life-force draining power and drank deep. Then he tossed the mutant aside. Blood streamed down the side of his face from Wolverines claw. He was mad and in pain from both his wounds and the harsh arctic cold. And there were two more life forms to kill. He grinned with anticipation of the coming feast.

Then a voice in his mind brought him instantly to heel. "WOLVERINE IS FINISHED. LEAVE XAVIER TO BURN. BRING GREY TO ME." The reptilian form of Sauron grabbed the helpless and almost dead Jean Summers and began to fly back to the Savage Land from whence he came.

The mutant stumbled through the cold bearing an unconscious burden. In the distance he could make out the Savage Land. It was shelter and warmth against the unforgiving antarctic cold. A lesser man would have given up but still he strode forward. All his problems and concerns sublimated into one train of thought. It was a thought that sustained him through his long march.

Seems that Magneto ain't aware that my healin' factor has been massively enhanced, neither did I until I was hit by that car, and counted me out too soon. His mistake and it's goin' to be his last. I will finish this one in blood!