Nightcrawlers #2 (2023)

Year 100 The group of Nightcrawler Chimeras that are freed from Sinister's X-Gene influence are now a religious order that call themselves the Nightkin. The Nightkin continue their gathering of powerful relics for the Reliquary Perilous, often seizing these items as other worlds and civilizations fall to Sinister-infected mutants. Vox Ignis returns to the Narthex, now a spaceship that houses the Nightkin. It has been two years since Ignis has been able to convert new Nightkin members, and there are only 53 of them left. Ignis observes a ceremony occurring nearby and asks Wagnerine about it. A Nightkin member, Summernight, has begun to sense the influence of Sinister's X-Gene breaking through. This was brought on by a traumatic event. Sinister wove infertility into their genes, but the healing factor in Wagnerine eventually allowed her to give birth to a baby girl. Summernight was the father. However, once the child was born, she glowed and teleported away to an unknown location, lost to all. This was the trauma that triggered Summernight's loss to Sinister's influence. Wagnerine says that Mother Righteous has made the lost child the core of their faith. Summernight, ready for his death, holds hands with Auntie Fortune to maximize the probability of a successful teleportation. He dies as the teleportation barrier on the Moira lab kills him. Wagnerine notes that the newer Nightkin members don't even know the significance of the lab, they only know it as being involved in their death rite. Vox Ignis tells Wagnerine that he is not seeing Nightcrawler chimeras in the field, likely because Sinister is not producing more. Wagnerine is losing hope, as fewer new Nightkin appear and Mother Righteous' list of items for the Reliquary Perilous continues to grow. Mother Righteous has told them that the Reliquary Perilous must be carried within the barrier to the lab to purge the world of Sinister's gene strain. Ignis recounts Mother Righteous visiting Legion in the astral plane. She asks Legion what he would have done differently, and he speaks on a lesson learned about leadership. Legion is fed up with Mother Righteous and accuses her of being out for no one but herself. Legion takes what remains of those he's saved and raptures himself to a “higher plane”. A page from Sinister's progress log from 99 years, 11 months, and 22 days since activation of Moira savepoint #7 discusses the degradation and abandonment of the Earth over the last century. The Quiet Council's vote to strike galactic empires first before they came for mutantdom eventually prompted expansion outward. By the time a Brood/Annihilus invasion made it to Earth, it had already essentially been abandoned, with a small number being left behind. On this abandoned Earth, the Nightkin arrive and find Doctor Nemesis. Most of his body has been taken over by his fungal brain augmentation. He begs the Nightkin to carefully extract the fungus before they free him, but they need to leave quickly and they cut him free. They teleport him back to the Narthex, as Wagnerine tells Mother Righteous that over time he may be able to help them to make new Nightkin members. Wagnerine says they were actually there for someone else, as the now-huge original Nightcrawler bursts into the room and grabs Mother Righteous. She subdues him, and mocks him in front of the Nightkin, chiding them for worshiping him and demanding their faith in her. She then executes Nightcrawler. Wagnerine attacks Mother Righteous but she snaps her fingers and all the Nightkin drop to their knees in agony. She tells Vox Ignis to burn the apostate (Wagnerine) and as she leans toward him, one of her lanterns brushes against Wagnerine. During this moment of distraction, Wagnerine teleports away. Mother Righteous orders the others to get rid of Nightcrawler's body and they wrap it in ceremonial linen and teleport it into the lab's barrier. Wagnerine senses doubt of Mother Righteous in the rest of the Nightkin, but she also had a vision when Mother Righteous' lantern touched her - her child is still alive and is being held captive. She says there is a new Spark - a spark of love for her child and love for her people - a love that will “last a thousand years”.