Appearing in 1st story
Featured Characters:
- Wolverine (Logan)
- Inner Circle
- Solarr (Silas King) (First appearance) (Death and Reborn)
- Rogue (Anna Marie)
- Silver Samurai (Kenuichio Harada) (Death and Reborn)
- Shatterstar (Gaveedra Seven)
- Nightcrawler (Kurt Wagner)
- Psylocke (Betsy Braddock)
Supporting Characters:
- Sabretooth (Victor Creed)
- Arclight (Philippa Sontag) (Main story and flashback)
- Gambit (Remy LeBeau)
- Beast (Hank McCoy) (Death and Reborn)
- The Five
- Genesis
Antagonists:
- Arkon (First appearance) (Death)
- Ms. Marvel (Carol Danvers) (First appearance)
- Sauron (Karl Lykos) (First appearance)
- Juggernaut (Cain Marko) (First appearance)
- Lady Deathstrike (Yuriko Oyama) (Death)
- Erik the Red (Davan Shakari) (First appearance)
- Horsemen of Apocalypse (First appearance)
- War (Abraham Kieros) (First appearance)
- Famine (Autumn Rolfson) (First appearance)
- Pestilence (Plague) (First appearance)
- Arcade (First appearance)
- Brood Ur-Brood/Deadpool (Wade Wilson)
- Jubilee (Jubilation Lee) (Mentioned)
Other Characters:
- Tri-Sentinel (Mentioned)
- Forearm (Michael McCain) (First appearance) (Death and Reborn)
- X-Factor (Mentioned)
- Avengers (Mentioned)
- Fantastic Four (Mentioned)
- Orchis (Mentioned)
- Bolivar Trask (Mentioned)
Races and Species:
Locations:
- Jubilee 10
- Earth
- Pacific Ocean
- Madripoor (Mentioned)
- Arakko (Mentioned)
- Nova Roma (Mentioned)
- Polemachus
- Earth
Items:
Vehicles:
Synopsis for 1st story
Wolverine gets called away from Jubilee's hiding place by Jean Grey before he can find anything. Sabretooth remains behind, however, and begins to sniff something out. Wolverine arrives at the Inner Circle chambers where Forearm lies done, having been killed after going through a strange portal, his body returning with a message. The message reads that Arkon has conquered Krakoa's sister island of Arakko and challenges the X-Men to a 10v10 sword duel for the fate of both islands. Cyclops isn't sure they should engage, but Apocalypse eagerly accepts the challenge. Apocalypse, Archangel, Rogue, Cyclops, Psylocke, Nightcrawler, Solarr, Silver Samurai, Shatterstar, and Storm go through the portal to confront Arkon, whose team includes the Brood Queen, Lady Deathstrike, Ms. Marvel, Arcade, the Horsemen of Apocalypse, Eric the Red, and Sauron.
On Krakoa, Forearm is revived by the Resurrection Protocols, but comes back further mutated and angry, so Beast goes to warn the others that dying in Arkon's realm makes you come back wrong. In Arkon's realm, Solarr is quickly killed while Rogue spars with Ms. Marvel, who seems to want revenge for Rogue stealing her powers. Psylocke finds out that the Brood Queen is actually a mech piloted by Deadpool, who almost tells Psylocke about the Jubilee thing before Beast breaks in to warn the others. However, Deadpool's mech falls and crushes Beast and Silver Samurai, killing them both. Wolverine kills Lady Deathstrike, who reveals in her last words that Trask is still alive. Apocalypse and Arkon then face off, but Arkon is killed from behind by Genesis, Apocalypse's wife and queen of Arakko.
Genesis and Apocalypse send the Arakko mutants to live on Krakoa, while Apocalypse and Archangel stay behind to help Arakko rebuild from Arkon's takeover. Back on Krakoa, X-Force stands guard as Silver Samurai, Solarr, and Beast are resurrected wrong again, but Beast assures that everything is fine. Xavier and Magneto, meanwhile, plan to go to space to make space for all the Arakko mutants.
Solicit Synopsis
XCII OF SWORDS!
Raise your swords! When Apocalypse learns the fate of Krakoa's ancient sister-island of Arakko, it's up to the X-Men to take up arms and save it from the warlord of Polemachus, Arkon the Magnificent! Everyone's favorite X-team of the '90s gets caught up in a realm of blades and magic in this sprawling one-issue crossover!