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Life Signs, Part 3: "The Light of a Tainted Dawn"
Part 7 of "The Phalanx Covenant"
Upon reaching the Babel Spire, the four are greeted by Shinar. He reveals that Douglock was working for Shinar all along - his mission was to bring Forge, "The Maker," who is to be the "midwife" to the next generation of Phalanx by providing them with stable energy in their gestating pods. Wolfsbane tries to liberate the people about to be assimilated in the spire but to no avail and finds out that Douglock betrayed them and plans to assimilate both of them into the beacon. While the two are taken to the tower, Douglock reports himself to Shinar, who hits him to the floor and makes him part of the tower as well. Once assimilated, he carries Sam and Rahne at the top of the spire by making them part of himself. Apparently, he has other plans and even if Sam doubted that what Douglock is doing is good, Rahne still trusts him and convinces him that it's not right to be absorbed into one unit and a better way is to work together as a team, climbing together and relying on each other to get to the top. The team assigned to attack the spire reaches their destination just as the beacon is activated. At the same time, Douglock and company gets to the top and find out it is too late. Their only hope is if something jams the beam - a lifeforce that would block the life energies taken from the humans who make up the beacon and bring it back to them. Cannonball volunteers to jump into the beam but before he can, Douglock jumps in and disrupts the ray, saving countless lives but seemingly losing his...again. Meanwhile, Nightcrawler finds Forge and helps him fight the urge to help the Phalanx survive. When the beacon is destroyed and Forge destroys the pods, Shinar is destroyed as well. As it turns out, Douglock has survived the destruction and resolves to join Excalibur.