Uncanny X-Men I#160 (fb) - BTS) - Earth-8280's Ororo Munroe was a member of her reality's X-Men. At an unrevealed point in time, the team went to limbo to rescue Kitty Pryde and Colossus' sister Illyana who was lured there by the realm's demonic ruler Belasco. They were unable to escape limbo, which condemned them to a seeming eternity of fighting for their lives in a hostile dimension. In the end, Storm saw all her teammates either slaughtered or corrupted by Belasco.
(Magik I#4 (fb) - BTS) - Only Storm remained free from Belasco's control, continuing to oppose him for years while she fought to hang on to her humanity and innocence.
(Uncanny X-Men I#160 (fb) - BTS) - As the years passed and Storm grew into an older woman, her mutant control over the elements waned. Belasco allowed her to study the black arts, figuring she would succumb to its fundamental evil.
(Magik I#1 (fb) - BTS) - Storm eventually became a proficient sorcerer in her own right.
(Magik I#4 (fb) ) - Storm confronted Belasco in his palace and, eager to finally avenge her fellow X-Men, seemingly killed Belasco by frying him with lightning bolts. In reality, she had murdered an innocent creature Belasco had disguised as himself. This act allowed the lord of limbo to wretch away Ororo's final shreds of innocence. He claimed her body and soul, transforming her into a demonic version of herself.
(Magik I#1 (fb) - BTS) - Storm retained enough of her free will to escape Belasco teleporting away to a separate part of limbo, she truly reclaimed her freedom when she magically created an acorn to nurture and grow. From the tree that sprang forth, she built a lush, garden like sanctuary for herself. With a simple magic spell, she masked the physical evidence of Belasco's corruption.
(Magik I#4 (fb) - BTS) - Storm kept the location of her sanctuary hidden from Belasco through the use of powerful wards and protection spells tied to her lifeforce.
(Magik I#3 (fb) - BTS ) - Over time, she managed to let the good inside her to balance out and eventually outweigh the ever present evil implanted in her by Belasco. The demon remained ever eager to reclaim her.
(Uncanny X-Men I#160) - Storm sensed the arrival of Earth-616's Illyana
and her reality's X-Men and decided to save them from a similar fate.
Using her magics, she left an enchanted armlet for her alternate younger
self to find. She watched from a distance as Storm put on the jewel and
its magics allowed her to survive a mystical tentacle monster's attack
by briefly turning her body into an amalgam of Colossus, Wolverine and
Nightcrawler. (Uncanny X-Men I#160 - BTS) - Storm took her injured, younger counterpart back to her glade where she kept out of sight while laying out fresh clothes and a magical amulet for her to wear. She watched as Storm flew off to find her teammates, thinking to herself that she would help save the X-Men, even if that meant sacrificing her to do so.
(Uncanny X-Men I#160) - Storm reunited Earth-616's Wolverine and Colossus through limbo's teleportation circles. Thanks to her aid, they were able to team up and defeat Belasco's servant S'ym. Wolverine recognized Storm's scent but she teleported them both to Belasco's throne room before Logan could react.
(Uncanny X-Men I#160 - BTS) - Storm observed the X-Men's fight against Belasco which ended when her younger self showed up and chased the demon lord away with her weather powers.
(Uncanny X-Men I#160) - Storm made her presence known when she prevented her younger self from following Belasco by taking control of her winds. Storm revealed herself to the X-Men, explaining that her original decision to chase Belasco led to their exile in limbo. Using her magics, Ororo healed Kitty (who Belasco had separated from her skeleton). After a brief chat with Earth-616's Storm, in which she explained the purpose of her magical talisman, Storm began to recite the spell that would send the X-Men and Illyana home. They were interrupted by Belasco, S'ym and his attacking demon hordes. Belasco managed to slip by Storm who held off the lower demons. He grabbed Illyana and demanded Ororo abort her spell even as the X-Men faded from view.
(Magik I#1) - Belasco successfully caught Illyana and instantly
teleported away, prompting Ororo to stop her attack on his hordes and
follow them. She reappeared near an altar Belasco had already placed the
young girl on. Storm offered to trade the child's life for hers, but
Belasco refused on the grounds that he would soon have both. Storm fired
a magical bolt to stop Belasco from corrupting Illyana, but she was not
powerful enough to stop his magical indoctrination. (Magik I#1 - BTS) - Ororo watched as Belasco bound Illyana to his will and grafted the first of five bloodstones required to summon the Elder gods.
(Magik I#1) - Fearing Belasco would be unstoppable if he gained more than one bloodstone, Storm was ready to launch an all out assault, but was knocked back by a single magical blast. Belasco mocked the aged mutant witch for her frailties, claiming he would not even kill her, but instead allow nature to do the job for him. Both Storm and Illyana were saved by the arrival of Cat who chased Belasco off with her steel blades. Storm teleported Cat, Illyana and herself back to her sanctuary to consider their next step. Cat was on hand to catch Ororo when she fainted, a result of her recent experiences.
(Magik I#1 - BTS) - Illyana quietly watched the two women discussed her fate.
(Magik I#1) - Though she was weakened and nowhere near ready Storm decided she had to break Belasco's link with Illyana. She declined Cat's option to simply kill the child. Visiting Illyana in her bed, Storm explained what she was about to do. Mystically sending her astral self into Illyana's mind, she was shocked to find the child was already fully corrupted by Belasco. She fought a demonic representation of Illyana who mocked her by revealing Ororo's demonic form. Ororo fled from Illyana's mind with the child being none the wiser of her fate.
(Magik I#1 - BTS) - Cat was so furious with Storm's decision not to kill Illyana, she decided to leave.
(Magik I#1) - The next morning Storm took Illyana for a stroll to her
glade. Sitting down next to the tree that grew from the acorn she once
created, Storm taught Illyana how to view the world from their astral
form, teaching the child about lifeforce and limbo's fundamental evil.
To show what she meant, Storm tried to heal one of her plants, but the
effort nearly drained her and she snapped at Illyana when the young girl
wanted to manipulate lifeforces too. Storm apologized for her actions
and reminded her that she needed to act in harmony with nature and to
not ride roughshod over the natural order of things. Ororo then allowed
Illyana to see Belasco's corruption within her, symbolized by a crystal
in her chest. Much to her horror, Illyana turned and observed Ororo had
a similar crystal inside her, only bigger.(Magik I#1 - BTS) - Ororo subtly manipulated the flow of time in her sanctuary, causing Illyana to age a year during the lesson.
(Magik I#1) - Ororo took the now preteen Illyana away from the oaktree, unaware that the plants she had just tried to heal were now dead and rotted, a sign her magics had failed. Later that night, Ororo was powerless to prevent Cat from abducting Illyana from her sanctuary. The feline assassin had come to either take Illyana home or kill her if she proved irredeemable.
(Magik I#2 - BTS) - Cat took Illyana on a long, hard trek through limbo that quickly raised the girl and taught her valuable lessons about life, death and survival. Ororo kept abreast of their progress through her scrying crystal.
(Magik I#2) - Ororo appeared before Cat in her astral form, begging her to return Illyana to her sanctuary so she could continue to train her as her apprentice. When Cat refused, Ororo didn't press the issue and allowed to leave them to their destiny. Saying goodbye to her old teammate, Ororo predicted they would not meet again.
(Magik I#2 - BTS) - Ororo continued to watch Cat and Illyana through her crystal ball, even as they ultimately fell prey to Belasco again.
(Magik I#2) - After watching Belasco take Illyana as his apprentice and forcing her to create the second bloodstone, Storm grew furious and resigned herself to the fact she was now forced to kill both women for the sake of their souls and the world itself.
(New Mutants IV#25 - BTS) - While under Belasco's tutelage Illyana Rasputin was reminded how her friends Storm, Nightcrawler and Kitty Pryde had become twisted and changed under Belasco's magic.
(Magik I#3) - In her astral form, Ororo reached out to Illyana who was hard at work training to become Belasco's apprentice. Illyana told Ororo she was sure she could find a spell capable of destroying Belasco and was furious when Storm told her not to do it. Illyana grew desperate: every day the temptation to become more like Belasco grew greater, she needed help. Before vanishing, Ororo promised she would help in her own time and way.
(Magik I#3 - BTS) - Ororo subtly used her magics to allow one of limbo's naturally occurring teleport circles to appear in Illyana's bedroom inside Belasco's citadel. Unaware of all this, Illyana found she was able to control the light circles, in part through her newly manifested mutant powers.
(Magik I#3) - Storm observed as Illyana teleported herself to Belasco's library on her first try. In her astral form, Storm stopped Illyana from reading Belasco's grimoire, using her winds to blow the young girl onto a nearby light circle that landed her decades into limbo's past. There Illyana watched a young Storm fight Belasco and succumbing to his evil influence when she lost her final shred of innocence.
(Magik I#3 - BTS) - In limbo's present, Storm attacked Belasco's citadel and faced the demon lord in his throne room.
(Magik I#3) - Upon returning to the present, Illyana tried to aid Storm who was already starting to lose against Belasco. She was powerless to prevent the now fully feral Cat from slashing her in the back. As Storm lay dying, Illyana betrayed Belasco by killing Cat. Illyana tried to say goodbye to Storm, but their farewell was interrupted by Belasco who threatened to claim the souls of both women.
(Magik I#4) - Belasco laid out his plan to Illyana who begged for
Storm's soul to be spared. Instead, Belasco ordered her to conjure a
third bloodstone with which she would strip Ororo's soul from her dying
body to offer it in sacrifice to the elder gods. Instead of despairing,
Ororo gave Illyana a knowing smile and allowed the girl to quickly
deliver the deathblow. In death, Ororo's mutant weather powers spiked
out of control, creating an elemental tempest that brought down
Belasco's citadel. Illyana teleported herself and Storm's body away.(Magik I#4 - BTS) - Illyana buried Storm in her garden, but as soon as she finished the grave she noticed that Belasco was already asserting his influence over the once pristine glade now that Ororo's magics no longer kept it hidden. To make matters worse, a zombified Storm rose from her grave and attacked Illyana, claiming some transgressions cannot be forgiven. Illyana teleported away, but Ororo and the reanimated X-Men of Earth-8280 magically followed her wherever she went, even to her childhood home in Russia. After they captured her, Belasco returned to limbo with Illyana. As soon as he left, the enchantments keeping the X-Men around vanished, allowing the ghouls to crumble to dust.
