Marvel Database
Don't have an account?
Register
Advertisement
Register
Marvel Database
Marvel Database
317,458
pages
in: Characters, Clan Askani (Earth-4935)/Members, Excalibur (Earth-616)/Members,
and 26 more

Rachel Summers (Mother Askani) (Earth-811)

Sign in to edit

Quote1 Thanks for today. Please for tomorrow. Quote2
—Askani prayer[src]

History

Days of Future Yet to Come[]

Rachel Summers was the time-displaced[4] all-powerful member of Excalibur, Phoenix.[5] Following an adventure to her future home reality, she returned Excalibur back to the present,[6] except for her teammate, Captain Britain.[7] As a temporal anomaly, Phoenix had actually took Captain Britain's place in the plane of existence. As such, she made the difficult decision of trading places with her teammate's position, becoming lost in the timestream.[8] Rachel Summers ultimately emerged in a distant future, where the world had been overtaken by Apocalypse and shaped into his views on survival of the fittest where mutants ruled as a superior caste. She regarded this society as a sick inverted perversion of her own dystopic world, which had humans in command.[1]

In the 37th century, Rachel soon went underground, surviving in the harsh future world by laying low for around one year. She struggled not to succumb to the brutal philosophy of Apocalypse as she noticed her connection with the Phoenix Force started to fade. During an incident with a cyborg scammer, she met he young psychic Blaquesmith, who referred to her the "Bright Lady" after she saved his life. She sensed his telepathic potential, but denied his request to become her disciple, choosing to remain solitary. Using the fake identity of the pyrokinetic "Aly'zrn Summerset," she attended Apocalypse's Festival of Resurrection with the intention of secretly murdering the tyrant in his dormant state. She was spotted by Apocalypse's prelates, Ch'vayre and Luminesca. Thus, when trying to finish Apocalypse's life, she was attacked by the High Councilor, Diamanda Nero. Luckily, Rachel was assisted by Diogenes Chang, an old member of the Order of the Witnesses, who resisted Apocalypse for centuries and kept track of Rachel Summers knowing about her actions as a time-traveller from the past. They also prophesized the arrival of a messiah, the "Chosen One," who would dethrone Apocalypse. The messiah was Nathan Summers, son of Cyclops, brother of Rachel and the time-travelling freedom fighter known as Cable. The Order also consider the connection both Rachel and Cable had to the Twelve, a group fabled mutants who played a pivotal role in the rise of Apocalypse millennia in the past.[1]

Clan Askani[]

Over the next year, Rachel Summers gathered followers to rebel against the regime under the name Clan Askani, meaning "outsiders." She was supervised by the Order of the Witnesses. Once again, she crossed paths with Blaquesmith when fighting Apocalypse supporters in the Hellhole. This time, realizing his prowess with technology, she took him in as her pupil. With Apocalypse still being comatose, Nero took control of his empire, making imperative to find Summers and end the Askani. Near the Scavenger Colony, Nero unleashed the humanoid virus Plague upon the Askani. Using the Phoenix, Rachel sacrificed her life to destroy Plague. Being reborn, she made contact with her own future self, who informed her about her role in protecting the upcoming messiah.[9] As her next move, Nero decided to wipe out the Order of the Witnesses. The Askani pursued her to the Order's headquarters in the ruins of the Savage Land, where they were ambushed by Nero's Infinites. By evading the troopers, the Askani rescued several girls previously protected by the Order, including the young Sanctity, another time-traveling telepath originally from the modern era. In a final showdown, Nero brutally assaulted Rachel. Having a precognitive vision, Rachel relinquished the power of the Phoenix to Nero, which proved to be too much for her to control. Ultimately, released the Phoenix Force into the cosmos and depowered Nero.[10]

The reverent tone adopted by Rachel Summers' followers sparked a religion. She became known as Mother Askani.[10] Gradually, the Askani evolved into a sisterhood of telepaths and developed tenets, such as "what is, is", that fate must be embraced, and "thanks for today, please for tomorrow," a belief that the past brings hope. They adamantly preached that the "Sacred Timeline" should be preserved and nurtured through careful time travel.[11][12] In this setting, Sanctity rose in the Clan as Madame Sanctity, becoming a close friend to Rachel. However, as the lost daughter of Dr. Bolivar Trask, the creator of the mutant-hunting Sentinels, Sanctity displayed erratic behavior and controversial attitude. She travelled to the past to alter it without Rachel's constent, in order to prevent Apocalypse's rise by herself. Rachel followed her and used telepathy to prevent Sanctity from interacting with her father to change the timeline. She was also able to convince Sanctity to return to the future and abandon her quest. However, Sanctity secretly planted information about the Twelve in the Sentinels' Master Mold computer.[13]

At different points, Mother Askani provided support to Cable in the past in order to forge him into the warrior destined to destroy Apocalypse. Most prominently, she assigned Blaquesmith to travel back in time to assist him.[14] When Blaquesmith was weary Cable was faltering from his mission of fighting Apocalypse's ascendancy, Mother Askani reassured him that Cable would not fail them after being contacted from the past.[15] On another occasion, Mother Askani contacted Cable himself to telepathically imprint on him crucial information about the identity of the Twelve.[16] She also sent Cable to her own home reality, which was terrorized by the ruthless cyborg Ahab. There, he joined the Resistance led by Cannonball to fight the tyrant.[17]

Askani'son[]

Rachel Summers (Mother Askani) (Earth-811) from X-Men Books of Askani Vol 1 1 0001

Rachel as Mother Askani

Many decades after resisting Apocalypse's rule, the elderly Mother Askani decided to fulfill the prophecies that sustained the Clan Askani, by actively retrieving their messiah. She sent a Sister Askani[18] through the synthcon Boak to the past.[19] Sister Askani arrived just as Apocalypse infected the infant Nathan Summers with a Techno-Organic Virus. Cyclops reluctantly allowed Sister Askani to take the baby forward to her time to cure him from the infection.[20] However, his condition proved to be apparently terminal. Fearing that Nathan would not survive the virus, Mother Askani had him cloned, much to her ally Throeblood's opposition.[21] She also assigned another Sister Askani to keep vigilance over Cyclops and Jean Grey in the past. Despite their original assessments, the original child would live after all. Just then, Apocalypse's troops, the Canaanites, attacked the Askani Temple. In desperation, Mother Askani ordered Boak to remove the children, but only the original baby was protected. Apocalypse took hold of the cloned child, planning to raise him to become his new vessel and rebaptizing him as Stryfe. Mother Askani witnessed Clan Askani be exterminated as she was lethally wounded by the attackers.[2]

The main opponent was Ch'vayre. Using her last fraction of power, Mother Askani brought the souls of her recently married parents Cyclops and Jean Grey into the future. She placed their minds in cloned bodies from their descendants with genetically similar make-ups Cyclops and Jean Grey saved baby Nathan from being captured by Ch'vayre and managed to escape. However, Mother Askani fell into a coma in the process.[22] In the years to come, Cyclops and Jean Grey raised Nathan under the identity of the human couple Slym and Redd Dayspring,[23] while Mother Askani's comatose body was kept hidden. She telepathically watched over her young brother, while her family found solace in Clan Rebellion, which kept the Askani's legacy alive by trying to undermine Apocalypse's empire. Clan Rebellion fell victim to Ch'vayre and Stryfe. For the first time, Mother Askani directly contacted Nathan, guiding him into unleashing his psychic powers to oppose Stryfe.[24] As he succumbed to the techno-organic infection, Mother Askani encourage him to telekinetically containing it. Meanwhile, Clan Rebellion attempted to prevent Apocalypse from possessing Stryfe. Together, they were able to destroy Apocalypse. Finally, Mother Askani succumbed to death. No longer tethering Cyclops and Jean Grey's souls to the future, she returned them to the present. In her last moments, Rachel Summers comforted Nathan about his solitary journey ahead and requested Jean Grey to assume the name Phoenix to honor her.[3]

After Cable executed Apocalypse in the present,[25][26] the version of Rachel Summers who was lost in the timestream diverged from her fate as Mother Askani. Being sent to the end of time, she was held prisoner by Gaunt.[27] Cable went to her rescue.[28] Together, they defeated Gaunt and Rachel returned them to the present. She retained only faint memories about her long life as Mother Askani and chose to take her second chance as an opportunity to live a normal life.[29]

Attributes

Powers

Seemingly those of Rachel Summers of Earth-811.[22]

Abilities

Seemingly those of Rachel Summers of Earth-811.

Weaknesses

Seemingly those of Rachel Summers of Earth-811.

See Also

Links and References

References

Community content is available under CC-BY-SA unless otherwise noted.
More Fandoms
Advertisement

Fan Feed

More Marvel Database