Sorceress_Supreme

Before Her Time...

More than 100 years ago, the patriarch of the Rasputin bloodline, the legendary Grigory Rasputin, would be the first to meet Sinister. The two would make unlikely allies. After their encounter, the Rasputin family would never be the same. When Grigory was younger, around the time of the emergence of his own mutant powers, Sinister would give him an offer he couldn’t refuse. Sinister or the "Pale Man" as Grigory referred to him as, would offer Grigory the chance to create a bloodline from his DNA that would lead a race of super humans. Grigory's importance to Sinister was quite simple. He was a mutant, and based on the time one of the few firsts. Not only was he a mutant, but a powerful one. Grigory was aware of his gifts or the "miraculous occurrences" that surrounded him. He enjoyed them and used them regularly. Though unrevealed, it’s assumed that Grigory may have had matter manipulating abilities. These powers seemed similar to that of his future descendant, Mikhail. Powerful or not, Sinister's offer appealed to him and he accepted promptly after. Sinister would go to work immediately.

He would seek out females similar to Grigory, mutants with special powers. Sinister would find around 15-20 women and impregnate them all by crossing their genes with that of Grigory's. Sinister would experiment on the unborn babies with many dying in the process. There was one woman though that was a prefect match for Grigory, a woman by the name of Elena. Once Sinister found that the two could produce the outcome that he wished for he would put introduce the two. Shortly after meeting, two would marry each other. Elena would be his soon-to-be wife and bearer of his future army of super powered children. This would culminate with Grigory taking part in a mystical ceremony, led by Sinister, transferring his essence into his pregnant wife’s womb. His last words were that he promised to return to the world when the world was ready for him. With Elena giving birth to her baby months later it would be the beginning of the powerful mutant bloodline that would lead to the eventual birth of one Illyana Nikolievna Rasputin.

Innocent Beginnings

Nikolai Rasputin and Alexandra Rasputin had three children, two boys, named Mikhail and Piotr and, their youngest, a girl named Illyana. Mikhail was already an adult when Illyana was born. He wanted more than a farmer's life and decided to become a cosmonaut working for the Russian government. As a result Illyana would never have the opportunity to meet her eldest brother and unfortunately never would as reports would come indicating that Mikhail had died while in duty. The reality was that his mutant powers manifested and the government decided to use him as a guinea pig. They wanted to see if they could find a way to harness his gift. Basically they were exploiting him, with no intention of releasing him. Illyana's family grieved but she was relatively unaffected partially due to her age and she really didn't know him. Beyond that she had a fairly normal early childhood. She had a close knit family, more love then she could ever know and a bond between her brother and her that death couldn't break, literally. The Rasputins would thrive and continue to live their lives as best they could. They managed to achieve a little normalcy in their lives right when another mutant would make their self known.

Professor X & the X-Men

Mikhail wouldn't be the only of his sibling to have mutant powers. Piotr would also have his powers emerge. Though he would attempt to keep his mutant gifts hidden, he would be forced to reveal them in a much unexpected way. Illyana was playing alone when an unmanned tractor came barreling in her direction. No one was near or had the ability to help her, save Piotr. He reacted instinctively, running to her aid and unconsciously activating his mutant powers. In a bright flash of light his entire body turned into that of a silver, shiny, armored giant. Standing in the way of the tractor, it would hit him and go no further as it would be destroyed upon impact. Like a night in shinning armor he was able to save his "Little Snowflake," as he referred to her. Relieved that he was able to protect his sister, he never noticed that a visitor had arrived and had watched the entire event unfold.

A man that would change not only Piotr's life, but that of his little sister, Illyana's as well. This man was Professor Charles Xavier and he had arrived wanting to speak with Piotr, hoping to recruit him as one of his new X-Men. After much conversation Piotr would accept and begrudgingly leave his family to start a new one in the United States. While a member of the team he took the codename Colossus and became one of the vaunted X-Men. As a member of the X-Men he would save the world many times over. But for Piotr it was a rough transition. He missed his family. He often suffered from homesickness, and as such he tended to stay alone and withdrawn. While on missions he often hid his feelings. Hiding them as he might, nothing could prepare him for the following events.

Abduction

The X-Men would do battle with many a foe, but one of the oddest was the eccentric, murderous Arcade. An assassin for hire and creator of Murderworld he was one of the best at what he did, but would bite off too much when Doctor Doom was involved. Arcade became involved in dealings that went bad with Doctor Doom. As a result he was held captive with no means of freedom. An associate of Arcade's, Miss Locke, would devise a plan that would have the X-Men do all the hard work and free Arcade for her. Of course they would never do this willingly, she would have to force them somehow. Miss Locke decided that she would blackmail them by kidnapping numerous members of each of the X-Men's family, this would include Piotr's little sister Illyana, and force them to assist.

And they did. The X-Men sent in two units, sending the larger of their forces in to get Arcade and the few remaining to free their captive loved ones. The X-Men would find themselves to be successful and would return home. Colossus though would make a decision that would change his little sister's life permanently.

He decided that Illyana should stay with them and not return to Russia. He felt that it would be safer for her as he and the X-Men could protect her better, so that another incident like her being abducted could never happen again. Professor X agreed with the decision. He even telepathically taught all of his X-Men how to speak the Russian language so that Illyana would feel more comfortable in her new environment. He, too, wanted to test Illyana to see if she had the mutant gene, like her brothers feeling that there was a strong chance that she would be one. A discussion would follow but it would be decided to not test her. Feeling that she had many more years before her potential mutant powers would emerge based on her age. Illyana's stay would be granted by a special student visa. She would attend tutored classes by Professor X while at the X-mansion.

While there she brought a happiness to Colossus, one that he hadn't felt in a long time since he left his home long ago. Illyana would get close to all the X-Men, but especially Kitty Pryde. Kitty would read her bedtime stories and interact with her a lot. This would be the start of a bond that would only grow over time.

Abducted by Balasco

Illyana stayed with the X-Men all the time, save when they embarked on missions. This included when they were in need of a new temporary headquarters. Due to a recent battle it had sustained major damage and Xavier's Institute had been destroyed. The X-Men with no other choice would be forced to take up base elsewhere. They would find and inhabit an island that Magneto once used as a base. It was a strange alien city on an island in the Bermuda Triangle. Coming to this island would be the event that would lead to Illyana's destiny and future self.

Illyana was a child, only 7 years old, when the X-Men came to the island. Having been on the island for only a couple of days the X-Men had managed to settle themselves in; though they were still held doubts over their new location. Storm, the field leader, deciding they needed to release some stress had the X-Men participate in a training exercise while Illyana would play alone a short distance away as to not get hurt.

However, when no one was paying attention, the young Illyana began to walk away as if she was being guided. Unable to control herself she would continue on until she reached a temple, which she entered without hesitation. Of all the other X-men it was only Kitty who had noticed her missing, and began to follow with the X-Men not too far behind. Illyana would reach her destination in the back of the dimly lit tunnel inside of the dilapidated temple. She stood in the middle of a circular shape with glowing yellow and white lights and disappeared. The X-Men would follow and also get teleported to another dimension, one of the many splintered realms of Hell. This one was called Limbo.

As soon as Illyana arrived she was whisked away to the side of Belasco. He tempted her with many wonderful things including a glorious future. All the while the X-Men made their way to Limbo as well. Through a string of events they were informed, by a second set of X-Men, that they had to leave in order for their Illyana to survive. The second set of X-Men, those stuck in Limbo, attempting to rescue their Illyana were successful but they themselves found themselves unable to return; they too were stuck in Limbo. Immediately after the X-Men were spirited away back to Earth and Illyana was left to fend for herself. Meanwhile back with Illyana, Belasco had brought her to an altar and began a spell to withdraw the first of 5 pieces of Illyana's soul.

Effectively taking the first piece of her soul it was transformed into a "Bloodstone" and he placed it into what he called the Beatrice Amulet. The Amulet once opened had a 5-pointed star with open holes. The first Bloodstone filled the spot of one of those points. Belasco's intentions for Illyana was to slowly take all 5 portions of her soul and turn them into bloodstones to complete the Beatrice Medallion. He needed time to further corrupt her soul, all the while step by step consecrating her to evil and making her the instrument of Belasco's masters the Elder Gods. He would also use her to free him from Limbo and allow him to roam Earth once again, where he would take over and rule supreme. He would leave immediately after the Bloodstone was removed and allowed time to take place.

Girl Interrupted

Still on the altar, Illyana would be saved and taken in by an older alternate Storm and an alternate version of Kitty Pryde, now calling herself Cat. Both were very different; Cat actually had been transformed in to a cat/human hybrid by Belasco and as a result she hated magic. Differing from her mainstream counterpart, winds no longer listened to the elderly Storm so she could not control the weather anymore and instead she focused purely on magic. Ororo attempted to break Illyana free of the link she had with Belasco immediately after saving her. After a trip to the astral plane she finds that a part of Illyana was now and forever belonging to the side of evil, specifically to Belasco. When in Illyana's mind the "evil" part of Illyana would attack and try to kill the elderly Ororo, but Ororo luckily would survive. Once back Ororo devised a plan to help the young Illyana. Wanting to equip Illyana for her future, Ororo decided to teach Illyana all the white magic she knew by making Illyana her magical apprentice.

The goal was to teach Illyana so that she would be enabled to keep her dark side at bay with white magic. All of her lessons would take place in Ororo's magic garden, from there they would proceed to administer the classes on the astral plane. Illyana was trained and became quite adept at white magic, tapping into her ancestral magical lineage. Storm felt it necessary to teach Illyana so that she was prepared for her next confrontation with Belasco. What Illyana didn't know, was that Belasco had once attempted to use both Storm and Cat to draw bloodstones from but was unsuccessful. Storm knowing this would only further her want to protect the young child. Cat disagreed partially because she despised magic, but also because she felt that Storm would be doing Belasco’s dirty work for him. She felt that Storm was making a huge mistake. Regardless, Storm began teaching Illyana white magic. While there she taught Illyana about life, white magic and the creation of life itself.

Their Illyana stayed for an entire year and learned everything that Storm could teach. Illyana learned fast but was quite angered by the fact that, try as she might, each and every spell she would cast would always be tainted by darkness. Where Ororo would magically have the ability to create life such as plants (or her entire garden), Illyana's attempts always seemed to fail. Though her spells were done properly and she had the magical aptitude to make them work they would always turn out in a negative way.

Once the year was complete, in the middle of the night Cat would wake Illyana up and convince her to come with her leaving Ororo's garden. Cat was attempting to return Illyana to her home. During that night Illyana and Cat would get into a heated argument and during this time, Illyana's mutant powers first manifested. She accidentally created a stepping disc and fell through it. When she arrived she was still in Limbo but here is when she first meets her future servant and enemy, S'ym. He taunts her and begins to attack her. She luckily is saved by Cat and together they escape from S'ym. While seeking a way to send Illyana home they came upon a desert and were informed that at the end of the desert would be the wall of Limbo.

Where if Cat used her phasing powers she could take Illyana through and free her from Limbo. Their trek through the desert would take two long years. Through that time Cat would teach Illyana how to fight, use a sword and survival skills. At the end of the 2 years they would finally reach their destination only to find that they were misled by one of Belasco's illusions. Belasco would first transform Cat even further into a cat-like being and took the young Illyana with him as his pupil. It would be during this time that Belasco would create his second Bloodstone out of Illyana's soul, effectively tainting the essence of the child even further making her even more evil. Illyana followed Belasco to his palace, worried but accepting her situation. She fully understood that Cat would no longer be able to provide help to her. Belasco's spell halted Cat's ability to think for herself and she was now bound to Belasco doing his every bidding. In the 3 years that followed, Belasco made Illyana his pupil, teaching her all that he knew.

Illyana learned the darkest of dark magic and the blackest of black magic’s. She took to it quite quickly, and unlike the spells that Ororo taught her, Illyana could produce all the black spells with ease, without error. She realized that the reason why she was unable to produce spells that created life was because her soul was permanently tainted with darkness. She would never produce white magic spells without them going array. One day while Illyana was brainstorming a way to get out of Limbo, she inadvertently activated her latent mutant powers of teleportation. Now a few years old she had so much control learned from her magic teachings that she was able to practice her mutants powers without being afraid of them.

She began creating stepping discs and decided to walk through one to see where she would go. Her stepping disc took her to the future, unknown to her. Here she witnessed the arrival of her future teammates the New Mutants. Although at this point she had no clue who they were. The New Mutants were teleported to that very spot by a future Illyana. Seeing all she wanted to she, she created yet another stepping disc and teleported herself away. The disc this time sent her to the past. Here she witnessed a battle that took place many years ago in Limbo. The fight was between Belasco and a very young magician Storm.

Illyana watched as Storm was able to successfully defeat Belasco. As Storm was to make her killing stroke, she was taken over by darkness. In attempting to kill Belasco, Storm tainted her own soul, changing her. Scarred by what she saw she opened yet another disc and teleported to the current time. As she arrives, she sees yet another battle. The opponents were the same, but now Storm was very aged. The elderly Storm had attacked Belasco's palace in an attempt to free Illyana. Illyana immediately ran to Storm's aid but was cut off by the demonic Cat. They battled for a few short minutes but Illyana could tell that Cat was simply trying to hold Illyana back from helping Storm. Angered by this, Illyana lunged at Cat and snapped her neck, killing her immediately. When she finally gets to Storm she realizes that Storm too had fought against Cat and was dealt a mortal wound.

The elderly Storm was dying. Realizing it was all a trap, Illyana tried to take Storm when she found out that Belasco planned to used Storm's soul and life essence to create a 3rd Bloodstone. Not wanting to help Belasco get any closer to his goal she mercy kills Storm, putting a halt to Belasco's plan. Belasco sees what Illyana has done and became enraged, but put plan b into play. Instead of using Storm for the 3rd Bloodstone, he would use Illyana to create it. She immediately teleports away using her mutant powers and reappears in Russia on the farm she grew up on directly in front of the house of her parents.

Overcome with happiness when she realized that she could use her power to leave Limbo, she ran to her parent’s door and knocked. Her happiness would soon end when she sees her parents and tells them who she was. They, of course, did not recognize her and turned her away, under the assumption that their daughter was safe with their son Colossus in America and was a 6 year old little girl. Giving up she turned around and saw the corpses of the Limbo X-Men animated their to take her back to Limbo. When she gets back to Limbo, Belasco would quickly draw a 3rd Bloodstone from Illyana, even further tainting her soul and making it more demonic, and would exile her to the garden that the elderly Ororo taught her in many years ago. He would bind her powers disabling her use of her magics and mutant powers. Timing could not have been worse as it was the beginning of a harsh winter one that Illyana, likely, would not survive.

While in the garden Illyana used the skills taught to her by the now deceased Cat, managing to thrive in the unbearable cold. She also continued to practice the magic that the elderly Ororo taught her, attempting to find a way to free her self of the garden. Time and time again she was unable to produce magic that allowed creation, always coming out tainted as her soul was. She then had an epiphany, she was not able to produce magic like Ororo because they had differing motives. Ororo was attempting to help Illyana, Illyana's motive was quite simply revenge. She reconfigured the spell and used a small portion of her untainted, pure soul and a bright light grew directly in front of her. When she reached in she pulled out her Soulsword. Shortly after she headed to Belasco and with the use of her newly created weapon she battled and defeated Belasco. Just prior to her killing stroke she stopped not wanting to become anymore dark, any more like Belasco. She then exiled him from Limbo.

Due to this defeat, Illyana was now the unquestioned ruler of Limbo. And due to the 6 years of teaching she received while there, she had the ability to fight for her title if need be. Finally gaining confidence she would create a "stepping disc" and would return herself to home. When she arrived it would only be seconds from when they originally lost the younger Illyana. After a small conversation they believed her and took her to Professor X for further examination. He found that he was unable to probe her very much but did see, for the most part, that what she claims happened, did.

She would stay at the mansion with the rest of the X-Men uneventfully for a short while. She would be roomed with Kitty Pryde. They became quick friends and would lay the foundation for a relationship as best friends that would be unending. But even to Kitty she revealed nothing. She made sure not to tell anyone of her magical or mutant powers, wanting to keep them a secret. Illyana was attempting to try and cope with all the events and changes she went through while in Limbo. Try as she might, Illyana could not hide forever and her secrets would be revealed.....well one of them at least.

An unexpected arrival of Belasco would force her to use her mutant powers to teleport the New Mutants (mutant students who attend the Xavier Institute) to Limbo for their safety. Coincidentally, this would be what she saw when she was stuck in Limbo many years ago. When all was said and done the New Mutants were returned to Earth unharmed. Illyana would use a forgetting spell ensuring the New Mutants would not remember any of what occurred except for the fact that Illyana was a mutant. Once Professor X was informed of Illyana's mutant nature, she would be granted to ability to study with and join the New Mutants, which she gladly did.

Enter the New Mutants

While apart of the New Mutants, Illyana would finally allow herself to let her guard down....a little. In a short time she became a powerful and valued member of the team. Although they knew she was a mutant, she still guarded her magical side intensely. Due to the barriers she kept up she sometimes felt misunderstood and alone but the others truly cared for her. As a team, the New Mutants would go through more than their fair share of battles. Though they had many successes, they too had many great loses. First Professor X stepped down and left the school in the hand of the villainous Magneto. Magik and the New Mutants were none too happy about this change. Amidst the ups and downs of life Illyana finally revealed her magical side to her teammates, receiving mixed reviews. Shortly after that they would suffer yet another lose, this time the death of teammate Douglas Ramsey (Cypher).

As if that wasn't enough, the New Mutants all would then have their lives snuffed out by the Beyonder during the Secret Wars. He made it as if they never existed. The Beyonder was bent on the idea of humanity and the attempt to gain one. He would have a machine created that if working properly give one life or bring one back to life. Needing guinea pigs he would test it on the recently departed members of the New Mutants. Though they were alive again, the experiences of their deaths and resurrections was far too traumatic for them. They were all severely mentally affected by their experiences. Magik and the New Mutants were mere husks of their former selves and showed no human emotions. Once they returned to the Institute, Magneto would decide to send his students to Emma Frost, the White Queen of the Hellfire Club and leader of the Hellions. Emma was to use her vast telepathic powers to help repair the already damaged psyches of each of the New Mutants.

While under the care of Emma Frost, the New Mutants enrolled at her school and were recruited into her team of Hellions. This was her true plan all along. To her surprise though once Magik and the New Mutants were healed they would leave immediately back to the Xavier Institute.

The Inferno

During a standard trip through Limbo, something went wrong and the New Mutants were stuck. Illyana's evil and demonic side started to take over her body. The demons there wanted her to become the full lord of Limbo. When she tried to escape, the demon N'astirh used this as a way to open a huge teleportation disc between Earth and Limbo, which started an invasion of Earth by the demons of Limbo. Magik then managed to defeat the powerful demon S'ym . After the battle the New Mutants examined the remains of Magik's armor and found the seven-year old Illyana inside it. However she still possessed the bloodstone amulet. The 7 year old Illyana was then brought home and returned to Russia where she lived with her parents until they were murdered by the Russian government in order to make sure Illyana had her abilities to defeat a powerful psionic being, which posed a threat to Russia. After this, Illyana returned to the X-Mansion.

Death

Illyana was brought back to America and the X-mansion. However, shortly afterward, Illyana caught the Legacy Virus, a deadly and incurable disease that only effected mutants. At this time, the young X-woman Jubilee and Illyana made a special friendship. Although she was a fighter, and her brother was at her side almost always, Illyana succumbed to the virus a few weeks later and died in the X-Mansion. This happened at a time during witch her brother was on a mission with the X-Men, something he would never forgive himself for. She was buried at the Xavier Institute and was mourned by everybody, especially by her brother and good friend Kitty Pryde. Her spirit would later go on to visit Wolverine and her brother, Piotr.

Powers

Blast Power
Darkforce Manipulation
Earth Manipulation
Electricity Control
Energy Absorption
Energy Based Constructs
Energy Manipulation
Force Field
Healing
Hellfire Control
Holographic Projection
Hypnosis
Ice Control
Illusion Casting
Immortal
Invisibility
Levitation
Light Projection
Magic
Matter Absorption
Precognition
Reality Manpulation
Shape Shifter
Siphon Abilities
Soul Absorption
Super Strength
Swordsmanship
Telekinesis
Telepathy
Time Manipulation
Time Travel
Unarmed Combat
Water Control
Wind Bursts

Aliases

Illyana Nikolievna Rasputina
Illyana Rasputin
Darkchylde
Darkchild
Archimage
Red Flag #133
Lightchild
Enchantress
Sorceress Supreme
Shattershot
Black Magik
White Devil
Snowflake
Master of Limbo