Malachi and Tobias and the girl who controls the time portal have brought Iron Man to the citadel of Kang and Mantis, as seen in Avengers #393. Iron Man remembers the things he did in blackouts controlled by Kang and Mantis. The two halves of his mind have combined, and the dark side is dominant. But he still feels guilt, especially over his latest crime where he thinks he killed Janet Van Dyne while fully conscious.
The girl, who still hasn't been revealed as a teenage version of Crystal and Quicksilver's child Luna, won't meet Tony's eyes because she expects he knows she is a traitor. She has been paying temporal visits to various Avengers, trying to warn them all the while she has been ostensibly working for Kang.
I don't think Kang realises that Stark feels remorse. I suspect he believes they have switched Tony permanently to his blackout persona. When Luna appeared to Stark in Iron Man #322 she said she was trying to awaken him to what he was doing. Possibly the survival of his good side was her intention. But now she is worried because his bad side will remember her visits.
Tobias says they had to retrieve Stark because his cover was blown. Kang blames Mantis for this, for using Iron Man for personal vengeance. But it seems to me Kang sent for Stark because he wanted him for the task he now sets him.
Kang says the (still unrevealed) enemy is at the gates earlier than expected, and so Stark must go to Force Works HQ immediately and complete the job Kang designed him for.
The only people left in Force Works HQ are Amanda Chaney, Cybermancer, and Spider-Woman's daughter Rachel. Amanda has found a hidden sub-basement with a separate computer system from the future. Iron Man arrives via temporal portal and attacks her because she's seen too much. She flees into another part of the basement where she finds some freezer units. One of them contains Suzi Endo, who is supposed to be Cybermancer. Iron Man kills Amanda, but Rachel overhears through Amanda's communicator.
Iron Man orders the computer to start enacting program Siege Perilous.
Black Widow, U.S.Agent and War Machine get an update from Hawkeye on the events of Iron Man #323 and Avengers #393. That Iron Man is confirmed as the killer of Marilla and Rita DeMara, and that he blasted Jan before escaping. We saw the other end of Hawkeye's call in Avengers #393.
The trio are heading for Force Works HQ in a road vehicle salvaged from the wreck of their Hex ship in War Machine #21. Jim Rhodes uses his alien Warwear armour, gained in War Machine #18, to fly ahead. The armour springs into existence on mental command.
Iron Man and Cybermancer are searching for Rachel when Century returns. Century has been away discovering his extraterrestrial origins in the Century: Distant Suns 1-shot, gone since #15 before the crossover started. Jim Rhodes finds Rachel. Century stops Iron Man shooting the unarmed pair, KO's Cybermancer, and teleports Rachel to safety. Rhodey dons the Warwear and faces Iron Man.
Meanwhile, in the temple of Agaphaur in the displaced Vietnam, Scarlet Witch and Spider-Woman (Julia Carpenter) are trying to come to terms with Moonraker's claim that he is actually Gustav Brandt, the supposedly dead Libra of the villainous Zodiac. Julia is especially upset as she and Moonraker were lovers. Scarlet Witch sends her to look for Force Works' technician Fisher Todd.
Gustav claims that he really did die. However the Priests of Pama, based in this temple, saved his spirit because he was the father of Mantis, the Celestial Madonna.
He says that Kang has removed Vietnam as part of eradicating all trace of Mantis's past, including the Priests of Pama and the Cotati. The Priests foresaw this, and hid Libra in an alternate reality in Slade Truman, who as Moonraker *was* a member of Force Works and lover of Spider-Woman in that reality. They then transferred him across to the main Marvel reality to warn the Avengers. Dragging Moonraker's history with him. Gustav's memories would only surface when he came to Agaphaur.
Moonraker claims that Kang intends to take over the whole planet as he has stolen Vietnam, by shifting it into this other reality. Because he is 'scared of something'.
Spider-Woman and Fisher Todd arrive with the boy Kim that Fisher rescued last issue, who has mutated into a powerful winged being. Gustav tells them that some humans are given powers when they enter this realm, and Kang is recruiting them for his Anachronaut army. He also says that the Anachronauts they fought last issue were 'sent into this zone to hunt for recruits'. And he can use their technology to get Force Works home.
The Crossing continues in
WAR MACHINE (1994) #22.
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