X-Men: The End Book 1: Dreamers and Demons
The series begins with Aliyah, an heir to the Shi'ar throne and the daughter of Lucas Bishop and Deathbird (the princess of the Shi'ar Empire and sister to Lilandra), in her sentient ship, the Starjammer (which is inhabited by the spirit of Carol Danvers). Aliyah is flying through space when she witnesses a Kree dreadnought entering orbit around a planet. Deciding to investigate, she lands on the planet to discover that the coalition of the Slavers (multi-dimensional traders of everything) have brokered a deal with the Kree for the Phoenix Egg, which the Kree hope to use against the Shi'ar. Realizing the danger to her people, Aliyah knows that she must warn the Shi'ar, but she is attacked by the Slavers' brainwashed mutant-bodyguards, the Hounds. Just as that happens, Shi'ar warships appear in space and start attacking the Kree ship in orbit. The Kree on the planet attempt to flee, when it is revealed that one of their troops is a Skrull agent who proceeds to blow the Kree landing-transport out of the sky. Just then, as the Slavers' decide to make a hasty retreat through their inter-dimensional portal, Brood eggs begin to land and hatch on the planet, killing any remaining Kree troops and going after Aliyah. In the meantime, the Phoenix Egg hatches, revealing Jean Grey, the previous bearer of the Phoenix Force. Jean Grey helps Aliyah escape onto her ship, saving Nightcrawler's enslaved alternate reality daughter, Nocturne, in the meantime. Both the Shi'ar and the Brood are apparently after a new stargate network.
Aliyah forces her ship to jump to warp inside the planet's atmosphere, which destroys the planet, and its star, and all ships in orbit. Jean Grey saves the Starjammer by manifesting the Phoenix Force. This discharge is noted by several parties: Scott and Emma Summers, their four children; Rachel Grey, campaign manager for Kitty Pryde's Chicago mayoral election campaign; Professor X; Cable; Logan and Storm, living in a house in Kenya; and Mr. Sinister who notes that all the pieces are finally back on the board to allow him to restart his plans for world domination.
It is revealed that Mr. Sinister had himself made a deal with the Slavers' for the Phoenix egg, and he becomes rather upset at the Slavers' representative for forgetting all the help he had given them with genetic samples of mutants (including the X-Men). Sinister sends his minions (Shaitan, Divinity, TechnarX, Shakti, and Scalphunter) to kill most X-Force members, including Cable - seemingly succeeding in killing all but a few (Feral, Rictor, and Domino survive). Cable is infected with a techno-organic virus (via TechnarX) that he cannot resist.
Shi'ar Empress Lilandra orders Phoenix destroyed once more. Her Lord Chancellor makes his own plans and orders the X-Men killed once and for all, and sends shape-shifting Warskrulls to Earth. Warskrulls attack every X-Man on Earth, including Storm and Logan in Africa, Emma Frost and Rogue in California, and Iceman and Sage in X-Corp headquarters.
Emma and Rogue survive only to realize that Rogue's home has been attacked and both Emma's (and Scott's) and Rogue's (and Gambit's) children have been taken, apparently, by Mr. Sinister, with Gambit seemingly betraying his wife and team to deliver the children to Sinister in person.
The first series ends with an attack on the Xavier Institute by Stryfe, Genesis, and Madelyne Pryor, all of whom turn out to be Warskrulls (except, as revealed only in Book 3, Madelyne). As the X-Men at Xavier's try to defend themselves, the deaths of many students and staff ensue and the mansion is once again destroyed with an explosion so large that it takes a large area of the landscape and all of the mansion's lower levels with it. Only a few students and X-Men escape.
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Famous quotes containing the words book, dreamers and/or demons:
“We have left undone those things which we ought to have done; and we have done those things which we ought not to have done.”
—Morning Prayer, General Confession, Book of Common Prayer (1662)
“All you violated ones with gentle hearts;
You violent dreamers whose cries shout heartbreak;”
—Margaret Abigail Walker (b. 1915)
“Until you have a son of your own . . . you will never know the joy, the love beyond feeling that resonates in the heart of a father as he looks upon his son. You will never know the sense of honor that makes a man want to be more than he is and to pass something good and hopeful into the hands of his son. And you will never know the heartbreak of the fathers who are haunted by the personal demons that keep them from being the men they want their sons to be.”
—Kent Nerburn (20th century)