"Cold Iron, Hot Blood!"
by Chris Claremont & John Buscema
Illyana continues reminiscing on her past, recalling a time after last issue when she and Cat are attacked by a demon, which Cat ultimately kills. Another approaches, and a startled Illyana falls into a glowing circle of light on the ground. She finds herself lost and wishes her brother were there, when she turns around to find Colossus's contorted corpse hung on the wall behind her. She tries to scream when another demon approaches, S'ym, explaining he 'taught him a lesson' when he refused to follow Belasco. Cat comes to her rescue, and brings her through another portal.
They appear in a desert, which Cat explains is Belasco's version of the Savage Land, when a two-headed saber-tooth creature attacks them. Cat slays it savagely, which scares Illyana. The next morning they begin training, but Illyana can't take Cat's cruel and rigorous exercises. The more she falls the more Cat taunts her, and Illyana soon comes to hate her. Cat then attacks Illyana in an effort to teach her to defend herself and they get into a blade fight, which Cat wins easily.
Storm's astral form appears thereafter, begging them to return. Cat refuses, and Storm decides to leave her to her own destiny, her astral form vanishing. Time passes and Storm in not mentioned again. Meanwhile, Illyana's fighting ability is improving, and succeeds in cutting Cat with a dagger in another fight, which Cat is very pleased with. They reach the mountains and climb up to Belasco's citadel where Nightcrawler, Belasco's "most loyal servant", attacks them. Cat phases through the floor, reappearing beneath him to phase his foot into the ground, finishing him off with her sword.
Cat brings Illyana to Belasco's alter, which is where the dimensional barriers between Limbo and Earth are thinnest. She phases them through the barriers, where the X-Men greet them on the other side of a dimensional portal. Illyana outstretches her hand for Kitty to take, but is instead taken hold of by Belasco. He taunts her by pointing out the joy he read on her face when she learned it was he and not the X-Men, but she denies it.
He hovers over Nightcrawler's corpse, and seeks to make Cat his replacement since she killed him. Cat tries to kill Belasco too, but he stops her with a spell. Feeling his mistake was leaving her too human, he turned her even more feline in appearance and mentality. Illyana seems to be drawn in by his evil and cuts herself to fill another bloodstone in her medallion. She asks to go home, but he tells her that's where she is. Storm watches on her crystal ball, and curses Belasco. She loves Cat and Illyana, but for the sake of their souls and for the world, she realizes she must destroy them.