Sins of Sinister: Dominion #1 (2023)

The Storm System, +1000 Years The story begins just after the events of Storm & the Brotherhood of Mutants Vol 1 3 and just prior to the events of Nightcrawlers Vol 1 3. Mister Sinister stands over the dead Jon Ironfire while, in a nearby room, Moira-VII stands just outside the door to the Moira engine. Sinister is still frustrated as the way into the lab that Destiny hinted at has not been revealed. Soon thereafter, the Juggernaut bullet rips through the undead Ghost Rider Galactus, destroying it and providing access to the Moira engine . Moira begins to head into the lab to reset the timeline, but Sinister tells her to wait because he has plans to upload. Sinister is then attacked by the still-alive Jon Ironfire as Moira proceeds towards the Moira engine. On the Empire of the Red Diamond's command ship, Beast takes command after Emma Frost's demise . Beast wants the Moira engine as well, but senses he needs an alliance with Xavier to do so, and tells the Stepford Cuckoos to dismantle the psychic defenses that were previously in place. The Cuckoos warn Beast about the risk in taking down the defenses, but he claims he was trained to resist Xavier a long time ago. Elsewhere, Xavier senses that the psychic defenses have come down and sees that the Moira lab is accessible now. Xavier astrally projects through Beast and combines his mind together with all other affected mutants to form a huge Ego-like planet. Ironfire senses the amount of trouble they're in and begins cutting himself to use his blood to form armor that would be resistant to Xavier's attacks. He starts towards Sinister to kill him but Sinister says he can help defeat Xavier by injecting Ironfire with an Iceman gene that would allow him to generate water to help produce more blood for the fight. Sinister wants to be let go in return, and points out that while he will try to reset the timeline, the bigger threat at the moment is Xavier, and if Xavier wins, the timeline and universe will be his to rule. Ironfire agrees, Sinister injects him, and Ironfire becomes a huge red armored giant. Back on the ship, Sinister makes his way to the Moira engine to find Moira already there. He sees a dead Mother Righteous and Vox Ignis on the ground near the clone tanks . Sinister and Moira have a gunfight with each other while trying to get to the lab. Sinister wants to upload his files to the clones before the timeline is reset, otherwise the timeline will just happen again. Sinister reasons that Xavier and the remains of the Red Diamond Empire are on their way to descend upon them and that he is Moira's best option to get the timeline reset. Moira relents and advises him to destroy the lab once the timeline resets. He begins to upload the thousand years worth of data while Moira covers him and defends the lab. Moira tells him to activate the engine, but he hesitates as he wonders whether to reset the timeline and change his ways or “become a god”. A data page reveals that Sinister added a fail-safe to his modified X-Gene that would not only destroy his experiment (taking over all of mutantdom with the corrupted X-Gene), but would also harvest all their psychic essences and use them to achieve Dominionhood. Sinister decides to initiate his fail-safe because the timeline would be wiped away regardless. The mutant universe and everyone in it burns from within and Sinister's astral form begins to ascend towards Dominionhood until he discovers that someone has beaten him to it. The entity says “I am the being harvesting the power you stole, as whatever is yours is mine now.” Sinister's astral form is destroyed at the edge of the other dominion like a bug on a zapper. Sinister comes back to his body at the scene of the Moira lab, distraught that he was not the first to Dominionhood. Ironfire soon arrives and kills Sinister, who is still upset at the recent events. Moira then resets the timeline by shooting a Moira clone. A short datapage shows that the peak mutant population during the 1,000 year timeline was 8,662,221,825,176,193 mutants, and the casualties in the psychic inferno were 8,662,221,825,176,190. Successful ascension attempts to Dominionhood were zero. Back at the Moira lab - all the way back to just prior to the start of the Sins of Sinister timeline, Sinister finds that a clone has a new upload containing one thousand years worth of data and begins to download it. An explosion rocks the lab and Sinister hears Moira tell him about the end of the last timeline. However, Moira tells him about Mother Righteous' plan to upload her mythic virus into the Moira engine and her subsequent demise . Moira says that Mother Righteous needed a specific soul to sacrifice to finish the job. Mother Righteous intended this to be the Golden Child, but instead Moira sacrifices her into the heart that contained the virus and corrupted the machine. Moira was interrupted by Sinister before she could reset the timeline. She tells Sinister that he failed to achieve Dominionhood in that timeline and she took a reading of his mind at this moment. She allows Sinister in the current timeline to experience that feeling and that is all she allows him to learn from the 1,000 years of data. Moira says that the main lesson is that “this is my story”. The Moira lab then explodes, killing the seven Moira clones. Sinister is surprised that reality still exists and notices that the clones' corrupted X-Genes were neutralized by the mythic virus before they were killed. He also sees that the 1,000 years of data is being uploaded to an unknown location. The lab computer initiates a program unknown to Sinister which triggers the growth cycle of a “Moira-VII.RPIV”. Rasputin IV then emerges from a clone pod and she subdues Sinister and tells him he will pay for his sins. Elsewhere, in Mother Righteous' Sanctum, she notices a whole new massive library wing full of books authored by herself, presumably the information from the 1,000 years of the previous timeline. On Krakoa, the Quiet Council reels after Sinister's murders of Hope Summers, Charles Xavier, Exodus, and Emma Frost . As they decide what to do next, Destiny stops and says that the future has changed and that “there's more of it”. Suddenly Rasputin IV teleports there with Sinister in tow. She tells them that she is from 1,000 years in the future and that Sinister must be brought to justice. Later, the full Council, including the recently resurrected four who were killed by Sinister, prepare to toss him in the Pit of Exile. He pleads with them and tries to tell them that the “other Sinisters” are the real threat and that one of them achieved Dominionhood. He specifically begs Destiny for help as “only [she] understands”. Kate Pryde asks Rasputin IV how she saved them from their dark future, and Rasputin says it was not her, but Mother Righteous, whom she introduces. Mother Righteous tells the Council about Sinister's plans with the Moira engine, how the Sinister timeline started, and that she stopped it by uploading a virus. She says that the virus deactivated the Moira clones' X-Genes and that their stories were sent to her, plus it cloned Rasputin IV to ensure Sinister didn't escape. Xavier begins to convene the Quiet Council to discuss these events, but Mother Righteous informs them that since they were resurrected, they were infected by Sinister's corrupted X-Gene. The Council discusses these revelations and decide that due to their potential corruption, Xavier, Emma, Exodus, and Hope, must enter the Pit. Storm asks Mother Righteous what they can do to repay her. Righteous says that a “thank you” would do, and Storm says “thank you” from “every mutant on the island”.