X-Man Annual 1997

Lilandra Neramani learns that energies from the M’Kraan Crystal are being siphoned off, and that the source is the planet Earth. On Earth, Nate Grey is attempting to discover the location of the Dark Beast. Someone who knows that location is Holocaust, who arrives in the hidden lab within the subway system where the Dark Beast is currently holed up. Dark Beast addresses Holocaust as Nemesis, and places him in a machine to learn why his armor is not performing like it is supposed to. Before the tests can conclude, though, Commander Kai’tra of the Shi’ar and her warriors burst in. Holocaust and the Dark Beast battle the Shi’ar, and the following explosions are seen by Nate, who flies to investigate, but en route is himself struck down by Shi’ar. Nate puts up a fight, and Kai’tra speaks to him, before using a psi-bomb to render him unconscious. Dark Beast and Holocaust wake to find themselves aboard a Shi’ar vessel, restrained with some power dampeners. Nate plays coy as he remembers Holocaust and the Dark Beast from their true reality, the Age of Apocalypse - not to mention the Sugar Man - who is also aboard the Shi’ar vessel, working with the Shi’ar. Nate realizes that he has to work with Holocaust and the Dark Beast if he wants to escape the Shi’ar, and a high priest speaks to them, explaining that there is a shard of the alternate M’Kraan Crystal inside each of them, which is draining this reality’s crystal, and if they cannot remove the shards from the three of them, they will be executed as heretics.