Inside the Healing Gardens, Banshee has awoken from his coma. He sees his fellow patient, Apocalypse, howling in pain as the healers struggle to restrain him. Cecilia Reyes says that nothing is working, and they may have to accept that he is going to die. Hope tells them that it will take days to create a new egg in order to revive him, and Professor X suggests using her powers to augment Healer in an attempt to heal Apocalypse. Healer protests, saying that may just as easily kill Apocalypse as save him, but Apocalypse tells them to do it. It takes the combined power of Polaris and Magneto to restrain him during the procedure, and as he is healed, Apocalypse recounts again the story of Okkara.

He tells those assembled that Okkara was an ancient land torn asunder by the Twilight Sword of the enemy, who spilled forth from the chasm and waged war on the denizens of Okkara. The first to die were the twin-elementals of life, the living ikons of Okkara, followed by tens of thousands more. One hundred of the land's greatest champions, led by the White Sword pushed into the rift, and succeeded in weakening the enemy. The mutants gained the upper hand, in no small part due to their strongest champion; Genesis, Apocalypse's wife. The enemy asked to parley and the leader of the demonic horde, Annihilation, spoke secret terms to Genesis, after testing her mettle against its champions. Genesis did not share what terms Annihilation had offered, but fought on even harder, until the day her sister, Isca the Unbeaten, turned against them. Realizing they could not win, Gensis and the Horsemen chose to stay on Arakko, the half of Okkara that had fallen into the chasm, in order to hold the enemy off, while Apocalypse would remain on Krakoa and seal the breach behind them. Apocalypse wished to join his family, but Genesis told him he was not strong enough, and bid him to remain and judge the coming generations of mutants, in order to ensure only the fittest remained so that they could one day defeat the enemy.

Healer and Hope are successful, and Apocalypse is healed. He immediately leaves for Western Egypt, accompanied by Gorgon, to retrieve his sword and take his place as one of the champions in the coming tournament.

credit: marvel.fandom.com

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