Wolverine And The X-Men (2011 series) #13

The Phoenix Force has granted its power to 5 X-Men (Colossus, Cyclops, Emma Frost, Magik and Sub-Mariner) and they've started to create utopia on Earth. But the Shi'ar Emperor Gladiator (Kallark) has arrived with troops to save his son Kid Gladiator (Kubark) from the Phoenix, and they and Kubark's guardian Warbird (Ava'Dara Naganandini) have attacked the Phoenix 5.

As well as continuing that plotline this issue will also reveal Ava'Dara's background as flashbacks. And it starts with her 13 years ago as a young Shi'ar cadet undergoing a psychological test involving their analogue of Rorschach cards. She describes them as violent images because she knows that's what they want. But we see in her mind beautiful flowers and creatures. And she affirms her desire to become a Warbird and kill and die for the Imperium.

Now we see her attacking Emma Frost as Gladiator battles Colossus and troops tackle Sub-Mariner and warcraft blast them all. She plunges a sword into Frost's chest. The Phoenix-powered foe laughs it off, until the weapon explodes. Kallark drags Naganandini away and reminds her that *her* job is to find and protect his son.

Months ago she was a Deathbringer Class Warbird tracking a terrorist cell of aliens in the sky-slums (where she was born) of the Shi'ar throneworld Chandilar. She remembers that she was created from seed and egg harvested from the populace as a body-tax, and gestated in the womb of an alien slave who as usual died in her childbirth. That was merely her 1st kill for the Imperium. A munitions company bought and named her and when she could stand she worked in their war factory. But while others in the slums dreamed of being Imperial soldiers she is ashamed to remember having an interest in the natural world. But that doesn't stop her wading murderously through these aliens.

Now her sword has just hacked Iceman to pieces of ice, but that's OK of course because he can recover from that and he's still talking. She commends Bobby Drake as a valiant warrior and picks ups his head and kisses him and promises that she still wants to sleep with him. The fighting has escalated. Marvel Girl (Rachel Grey) is battling the Shi'ar Death Commandos (last seen in #11 where rumours of their death were greatly exaggerated). Cyclops is exchanging eyeblasts with Gladiator while reminding him that the Shi'ar and X-Men are usually friends. But Kallark says that the Phoenix has no friends. Warbird finds Kubark but he refuses to run away from the fight.

Back in flashbackland Warbird is still killing the terrorists but she remembers as a child drawing pictures of flora and fauna and then burning them in shame. But she no longer draws since she became a warrior. But now her killfest leads her to a little alien child also doing drawings. The child says her mother told her this would happen someday, and she's not afraid to die.

As the Cyclops/Gladiator fight continues Kubark is afraid that his father is going to lose. They've got to help him and if Warbird is too much of a coward then he'll have to do it alone. But Ava'Dara says the Emperor ordered her to keep him safe, and a Warbird always follows orders.

But back in the memory flashback we see that she saved the alien child and left it in a forest. But unfortunately the drawings got left behind. She confessed her sin to the Magistrates and they decided to remove her sympathy for children by making her hate them. By making her Kid Gladiator's bodyguard in the mutant school on Earth. And she also recalls that the alien kid was soon picked up and sent to a star mining station. And Ava'Dara found that she'd forgotten how to draw.

Now she has to fight Kubark to stop him going to his father, as the father is being savagely beaten by Colossus and Sub-Mariner.

Hours later she brings the unconscious body of Gladiator to the Westchester School to be medically tended by Doop, Husk and Kitty Pryde.