Chapter Summaries

Lox prepared the Solar System’s forces for the Celestials’ arrival, while the Apostles identified him as an outsider and sent Ikaris to eliminate him. Ikaris attacked a government building in New York, where Magneto, Red Devil, and Professor X intervened, leaving him bound and under psychic attack.

• Lox ordered Pollux to defend Mandeville Point and Corswain to lead the main fleet against the approaching enemy warship.
• The cube-shaped warship entered the Solar System, evaded detection, and traveled toward Earth while Corswain’s fleet followed it.
• Sersi identified Lox as an outsider whose arrival had changed Earth’s history, and Ikaris left the ship to find and kill him.
• Ikaris landed in New York and confronted guards outside the federal government building, claiming he intended to restore the world’s original course.
• When a guard rejected Ikaris’s account of humanity’s destined future, Ikaris attacked the guards with heat beams.
• Magneto blocked Ikaris’s attack and bound him in metal, Red Devil evacuated the guards, and Professor X tried to take control of Ikaris’s mind.

Magneto and Professor X fought Ikaris and the other Eternals after they demanded that Earth surrender Lox, whom they blamed for altering the timeline. As the Eternals prepared to battle the mutants, Lox seized control of their warship and its artificial intelligence.

• Magneto and Professor X struggled to restrain Ikaris, while Cyclops and Havok joined the fight with long-range beams.
• Ikaris told Charles that the Eternals had come to eliminate Lox and restore the timeline, prompting the mutants to reject his demand.
• Ikaris summoned reinforcements, and Ajak led nine more Eternals down from their revealed warship to confront the mutants.
• Charles warned Ajak that the mutants could not hand over Lox because his power surpassed theirs, leaving her worried about the Eternals' target.
• Lox teleported to the Eternal warship, used his nanobots and the Omnissiah's authority to disable its systems, and took control of it.

Lox seized the Eternals’ warship and deployed Sentinel Iron Men and war-model Iron Men against the Eternals in New York. Haar defeated Gilgamesh and called on the remaining Eternals to surrender, leaving them awaiting Ikaris and Ajak’s decision.

• Phastos discovered that the Eternals had lost contact with their warship, while Druig and Professor X clashed telepathically.
• Lox’s nanobots took control of the warship and transported its data crystals to his underground base on Mars.
• Sentinel Iron Men and war-model Iron Men descended on New York and attacked the Eternals, whose defenses struggled against the machines’ varied weapons and abilities.
• Ikaris, Thena, and Gilgamesh charged into battle; Thena was badly wounded, and Gilgamesh carried her back to Ajak for healing.
• Lox sent Haar onto the battlefield, where Haar absorbed Gilgamesh’s attack and beat him unconscious before demanding the Eternals surrender.
• The surviving Eternals looked to Ikaris and Ajak for orders.

Ajak’s Eternal squad was defeated by Hal, Sevatar, and the Sentinel Iron Men, then taken prisoner for Lox to interrogate. As Charles and Magneto considered the threat of the Celestials, Charles revealed that he had found a possible Level Five mutant: Jean Grey.

• Ajak urged Ikaris to destroy the captured warship, then tried to negotiate with Hal, who refused and demanded the Eternals surrender.
• Druig attacked Hal’s mind but was overwhelmed by his memories and fury, leaving Druig unconscious and gravely wounded.
• Sevatar severed both of Ikaris’s arms, and Ajak surrendered; the surviving Eternals were restrained as more than a thousand Primaris Astartes arrived.
• Hill took the Eternals into custody, while Charles and Magneto discussed the Celestials’ possible retaliation and Charles identified Jean Grey as a possible Level Five mutant.
• Hill escorted the prisoners to a prison on one of Mars’s moons, where Lox planned to interrogate them and extract their intelligence.

Lox interrogated the captured Eternal leader Ajak on Phobos and used evidence about the Eternals’ origins and the Celestials’ exploitation of parallel universes to undermine her resolve. Charles learned the truth and declared war on the Celestials, while Ajak began sharing intelligence and warned that a much larger force would come if the Eternals failed to report back.

• Lox imprisoned the ten Eternals on Phobos, assigned Dark Angels to guard them, and authorized Pollux to build an extensive Solar System defense network.
• Lox visited the prison with Barabas Dantioch, Logan, and Charles, then confronted Ajak while the other Eternals faced separate interrogations.
• Lox revealed that the Eternals could reproduce with humans and shared genetic foundations with them, challenging Ajak’s pride in her people’s origins.
• Lox explained that the Celestials harvested life and souls across parallel universes, provoking Charles to reject his restraints and declare the Celestials his mortal enemies.
• Ajak warned Lox that the Celestials would send one hundred thousand legion warriors and ten thousand punitive warships if the Eternals did not return, and she began offering humanity intelligence.

Lox questioned Ajak about the Celestials’ response to the Eternals’ disappearance and sought to learn the secrets of their dimensional technology. Trazyn offered Necron knowledge in exchange for the decoded research, while Lox left Ajak with little choice but to cooperate as he envisioned humanity creating its own universe.

• Lox persuaded Ajak to reveal that a stronger force might arrive after one Earth year if the first team failed to return, though the Celestials could intervene sooner.
• Ajak explained that the Celestials created parallel universes and could be killed, while warning Lox that each Celestial possessed the power to destroy a universe.
• Lox learned that the Eternal warship’s database contained dimensional technology and decided to use the Eternals’ expertise to analyze it.
• Ajak sensed a divine presence in Lox’s Warp essence after he removed her psychic suppression, and Lox urged her to continue cooperating with humanity.
• Trazyn arrived on Phobos and offered Necron dimensional technology in exchange for a copy of humanity’s decoded research, adding that he wanted to oppose the Celestials and collect a fallen one.
• Lox told Ajak that her survival now depended on her usefulness and declared his goal of using dimensional technology to create a safe, independent universe for humanity.

Lox and his researchers studied the Eternals’ dimensional engine and devised a way to cut off and preserve a miniature universe, despite Trazyn’s warnings about the risks. Angie proposed taking the fight to the Celestials by using the engine to reach other parallel universes and ignite resistance, and Lox resolved to send his forces on the offensive.

• Ajax persuaded most of the remaining Eternals to abandon their hostility toward Lox, while Sersi helped the researchers analyze the Eternals’ warship.
• Cawl, Trazyn, Sersi, and the other researchers explained how dimensional engines could open passages to parallel universes and potentially sever part of the universe to create a stable miniature realm.
• Trazyn warned Lox that cutting apart the universe was dangerous, but Lox insisted that the risk was necessary to give humanity a chance to control its fate.
• Angie proposed using the warship’s records of parallel-universe frequencies to launch attacks, expose the Celestials, and encourage resistance across their many controlled worlds.
• Lox approved Angie’s strategy, assigning Cawl and the researchers to develop the dimensional engine while the Space Marines and Iron Men prepared to strike across parallel universes.

Lox’s first dimensional-engine test succeeded, sending Oliges and a warship into a parallel universe despite communication delays between universes. He organized humanity and its allies to mass-produce dimensional engines, build new fleets, and prepare expeditions to challenge the Celestials across parallel worlds.

• Lox authorized Oliges to activate the imitation dimensional engine and jump toward a parallel universe.
• After a tense loss of contact, Oliges confirmed that he and the warship had reached the target universe, though the engine needed days to cool down and recalibrate.
• Lox ordered Oliges to conceal the ship, observe that universe’s Earth, and avoid interfering until reinforcements arrived.
• Lox rallied humans, mutants, Stone Men, Iron Men, and Eternals around resisting the Celestials and assigned them to expand production and military forces.
• Lox authorized Cawl to develop new warships and expand industry beyond the Solar System, while Corswain and Hill continued recruiting Space Marines.
• The Space Marine leaders welcomed plans to lead independent expeditions into other universes and fight for humanity’s freedom.

Lox discovered that seven-year-old Jean Grey hosted a fragmented Phoenix Force and arranged for Janus to help guide and guard her. After returning to Mars to collect Trazyn’s promised knowledge of Necron god-slaying weapons, Lox heard more about their power while Trazyn demanded Emma as an added condition.

• Lox learned that Charles and the X-Men had found Jean Grey, a young mutant with Level Five potential, and went to the X Academy to assess her.
• Lox sensed the immense but broken Phoenix Force within Jean and told Charles and Erik that she could learn to control it if they helped her develop in a stable environment.
• Lox formed a group to oversee Jean’s growth and summoned Janus, who agreed to teach her to control her power and protect her soul.
• Lox left Jean in Janus and Charles’s care, then returned to Mars to claim Trazyn’s promised knowledge of Necron god-slaying weapons.
• Trazyn demanded that Lox add Emma to their exchange, and Lox encouraged him to explain how Necron weapons had shattered the C’tan.

Trazyn explained to Lox how the Necrons and Aeldari used psychic power, C'tan fragments, and an antimemetic generator to defeat the Void Dragon and other C'tan. After discussing the origins of the universe’s wars, Trazyn gave Lox an antimemetic generator, though this universe lacked the materials needed to make a conventional godslaying weapon.

• Trazyn sent Emma Frost away and showed Lox memories of the War in Heaven and the Void Dragon, Mag'ladroth, imprisoned beneath Mars.
• Trazyn explained that Blackstone Fortresses amplified the Warp to disrupt the Void Dragon, while the Aeldari Laughing God had encouraged C'tan to devour one another.
• The Necrons used an antimemetic generator to destroy the Void Dragon's complete form and reduce him to fragments, which they later forged into godslaying weapons.
• Trazyn described how the C'tan's greed and the War in Heaven helped awaken the Chaos Gods, while he and Lox acknowledged that the universe's cycle of war had no known beginning.
• When Lox demanded his promised weapon, Trazyn gave him an antimemetic generator and said the lack of C'tan shards and Blackstone prevented him from providing a conventional godslaying weapon.

Lox prepared the X-Men universe as a base for expeditions into parallel universes, strengthening his defenses and assembling three fleets to scout new worlds. As the fleets departed, Charles and McDonald addressed Earth’s security and the lingering threat of the Hellfire Club and the hidden elites behind it.

• Lox concluded that Trazyn had a deeper purpose and that the Silent King had likely directed him, while Trazyn privately regarded Lox as a crucial piece in a larger struggle against the C’tan.
• Lox and the Martian Forge World began building Trazyn’s antimemetic generator and prepared the Time Spindle and Spacetime Worm as weapons that could threaten even the Celestials.
• Hill reported that the Astartes legions had been reorganized into mixed formations, named Calth Wayne, Sevatar, and himself as commanders of three expeditionary legions, and confirmed that Pollux would defend the X-Men universe.
• Lox sent Coswain and Fafnir, Sevatar and Azkaellon, and himself with Hill, Barabas Dantioch, Hal, and Qin Xin to scout three parallel universes while Pollux and Janus stayed behind.
• The three fleets activated their dimensional engines and departed as Charles and McDonald watched from Earth, where they discussed Earth’s vulnerability and the United Government’s struggle to uncover the remaining Hellfire Club elites.

A frail Dantioch learned that loyal Iron Warriors from his former legion had survived and reunited with Kyl Valen, Kelvarren, and Qinon on Sotha. After they departed, Dantioch returned to the Pharos beacon and entered its tesseract labyrinth as his life neared its end.

• Dantioch prayed, continued deciphering Pharos, and learned from Opobdeyi that Kyl Valen and other loyal Iron Warriors were leading a penitence crusade.
• Dantioch welcomed Kyl Valen, Kelvarren, and Qinon when they arrived on Sotha, and the old Iron Warriors shared memories and news of Felix and Perturabo.
• Kelvarren and Qinon left to resume their duties, while Dantioch returned to his research at the Pharos caverns.
• Dantioch entered the tesseract labyrinth surrounding Pharos's energy source after sensing that his life was nearly over.

Dantioch entered the Pharos tesseract labyrinth after his soul left his dying body, then overpowered and assimilated the imprisoned C'tan shard Zahurash, restoring his youth and escaping as the Pharos collapsed. He encountered Dorn and a child-sized Perturabo amid temporal turbulence, beat Perturabo for his past abuses, and watched both primarchs vanish again as Obadai arrived to rescue him.

• Dantioch explored the tesseract labyrinth and discovered that it imprisoned the C'tan Overlord Zahurash, whose power sustained the prison.
• Dantioch rejected Zahurash's offers and used his thought matrix to overwrite the C'tan shard's consciousness, taking control of its power and rejuvenating his body.
• Dantioch damaged the labyrinth's energy system to escape, causing the Pharos Mountains to collapse as Obadiah and the Ultramarines searched for him.
• Dorn and a child-sized Perturabo emerged from temporal turbulence, and Dantioch explained that thirty years had passed since the Emperor returned to the Golden Throne.
• Dorn allowed Dantioch to beat Perturabo, and Dantioch struck him while condemning his treatment of the Iron Warriors and the deaths caused by his arrogance.
• Dorn and Perturabo disappeared again, and Obadai reached Dantioch by Thunderhawk as he resolved to shoulder greater responsibility for the Imperium.

Dorn and young Perturabo drifted through timelines, where Dorn confronted Perturabo about his resentment and the brothers finally spoke honestly about their rivalry. They arrived in the Iron Cage, where a second Dorn joined the battle against Perturabo and forced the Iron Warriors to surrender.

• Dorn mocked young Perturabo over Dantioch's criticism, then explained that he and the Emperor had valued their brothers equally and that he had been assigned to guide Perturabo because he understood him.
• Perturabo admitted that he had joined Horus and used Warp sorcery to defeat Dorn, and said he no longer wanted to fight; he proposed separating their opposing time currents, but Dorn refused to risk his life.
• The time currents sent Dorn and young Perturabo to the Iron Cage, where a battle-worn Dorn led the Imperial Fists into Perturabo's trap while blaming himself for the Horus Heresy and preparing to die.
• Time-traveling Dorn appeared on the battlefield, and after the two Dorns recognized each other, they joined forces and charged Perturabo with young Perturabo interfering with the Iron Circle robots.
• The two Dorns overwhelmed Perturabo and pinned him down, forcing the Iron Warriors to surrender.

Lox's fleet entered Universe 3206, a technologically advanced but Warp-suppressing universe, and found signs of ancient alien activity near Alpha Centauri. After Oligus shared scans of mechanical dinosaurs on Earth, Lox recognized the universe as one connected to Transformers, and Trazyn realized the AllSpark might restore souls to Necron constructs.

• Hill reported that Oligus had found a civilization on Earth nearing the fourth industrial revolution, along with evidence of mechanical dinosaurs dating back to the Cretaceous period.
• Trazyn explained that metal bodies alone proved little, while Lox concluded the ancient visitors might have vanished and ordered probes to investigate Alpha Centauri as the fleet moved on.
• Lox's fleet arrived near Alpha Centauri and detected that a Saturn-sized planet had once disappeared from the system, then left microscopic probes behind before heading for Earth.
• Oligus welcomed Lox's fleet to Universe 3206 and sent his intelligence, including scans of mechanical dinosaur remains, while Lox concealed the fleet behind Saturn and traveled toward Mars.
• Lox asked Trazyn whether he knew the Transformers films, and Trazyn identified the AllSpark as an artifact that could grant souls to machines and declared that they had to obtain it.

Trazyn pleaded with Lox to help recover the AllSpark, while Lox also sought it for the power it might add to his Omnissiah authority. After discovering that Unicron slept inside Earth and reacting violently to Lox’s presence, they realized that reaching the AllSpark could awaken a vastly dangerous enemy.

• Trazyn begged Lox to retrieve the AllSpark, offering the Nihilakh Dynasty’s wealth and arguing that even new souls would be worth accepting.
• Lox agreed that he needed the AllSpark, and he and Trazyn inspected a metal dinosaur Oligus had recovered, discovering its decayed AllSpark was useless.
• Lox and Trazyn teleported to North America to investigate Earth, where Lox sensed a vast living consciousness beneath the planet and identified it as Unicron.
• Unicron instinctively struck back, unleashing a crimson energy beam that tore open the atmosphere and caused a catastrophic storm across the Mojave Desert.
• Lox and Trazyn escaped the blast and concluded that taking the AllSpark could awaken Unicron, leaving them wary of approaching it.

After Unicron’s dormant counterattack devastated the Mojave Desert, Lox and Trazyn realized the sleeping god might be using the AllSpark to lure Transformers to Earth. They decided to exploit the Autobots and Decepticons to acquire the AllSpark without waking Unicron, beginning with a mission to seize Sentinel Prime’s Space Bridge technology.

• Lox left the devastated Mojave Desert with Trazyn, while military forces arrived and Agent Simmons identified the disaster as an extraterrestrial threat and ordered the area sealed off.
• Lox and Trazyn theorized that Unicron had arranged for the AllSpark to reach Earth as bait to draw Autobots and Decepticons within its reach.
• Trazyn used acoustic feedback to map Unicron’s vast mechanical body beneath Earth and concluded that its dormant awareness could distinguish human disturbances from extraterrestrial ones.
• Lox and Trazyn planned to let Transformers handle the AllSpark while they escaped before Unicron could react, and they identified other alien technologies they intended to take.
• Lox summoned his forces from Saturn and Phobos to gather on the Moon, intending to obtain Sentinel Prime’s Space Bridge technology first.

Lox led an expedition to the Moon to recover Sentinel Prime’s ship and its Space Bridge technology while avoiding provoking Unicron beneath Earth. He found Sentinel Prime hibernating and secured the ship and its technology, then withdrew without encountering Decepticons.

• Lox assigned Hill, Harl, Barabas Dantioch, and Qin Xin roles in the lunar mission and rallied the Astartes before their battle barges reached the Moon.
• Lox’s forces located Sentinel Prime’s crashed ship, Ark One, near the Apollo 11 landing site and collected its wreckage and scattered Cybertronian remains.
• The Iron Men recovered 121 Space Bridge components, and Lox removed the master control pillar from Sentinel Prime’s hand.
• Hill’s team found Sentinel Prime alive but hibernating, while scans confirmed that no Decepticons were present on the Moon.
• Lox ordered his forces to take Ark One and Sentinel Prime away, using engines and magnetic field control to avoid using psychic power near Unicron.

Lox met Optimus Prime and offered to cooperate with the Autobots, revealing the locations of the AllSpark and Megatron. After Bumblebee took Sam and Mikaela to retrieve the glasses, Lox prepared to visit Hoover Dam with Optimus Prime and his heavily armed human forces.

• Lox explained to Trazyn and Oligus that he wanted to work with Optimus Prime and discussed the Space Bridge research.
• Optimus Prime and the Autobots arrived in Los Angeles, met Sam and Mikaela, and learned that Sam’s heirloom glasses held the AllSpark’s location.
• Lox appeared before the Autobots, revealed that the AllSpark was at Hoover Dam and Megatron was frozen beneath Arctic ice, and proposed cooperation.
• Optimus Prime sent Bumblebee with Sam and Mikaela to retrieve the glasses, then agreed to go with Lox toward Hoover Dam.
• Lox challenged Optimus Prime’s despair over Cybertron’s fate, and Optimus acknowledged his words.
• Lox’s Primaris Astartes emerged from the darkness, and Optimus Prime realized that the human forces might outmatch the Autobots.

Lox revealed that Unicron had drawn the Cybertronians to Earth through the AllSpark, then allied with Optimus Prime to secure the Cube and stop Megatron. The Autobots and Space Marines seized Sector Seven, recovered the AllSpark, and awakened a dismembered Megatron, who found Optimus Prime waiting beside him.

• Optimus Prime recognized that Lox and his warriors came from another universe, and Lox admitted he wanted the AllSpark.
• Lox revealed that Unicron slept inside Earth and had used the AllSpark to lure Cybertronians into a deadly trap, so Optimus Prime agreed to cooperate.
• The Autobots reached Hoover Dam, where Barabas Dantioch and the Space Marines silently infiltrated Sector Seven and subdued its personnel.
• Optimus Prime confirmed the AllSpark was at the dam, transformed it into a palm-sized Cube, and kept it while Lox postponed their transaction.
• Optimus Prime cut off Megatron's limbs, and Jazz and Ironhide shut down the liquid nitrogen to awaken him.
• Megatron woke and demanded to know what Optimus Prime had done after discovering he had no limbs.