Apocalypse: The Twelve

"The Twelve" is a comic book crossover storyline published by Marvel Comics in March 2000. The storyline was continued and concluded with the Ages of Apocalypse crossover.

The story of the Twelve begins with a young mutant by the name of Tanya Trask, who would later become Madame Sanctity. Adrift in the timestream, Tanya was rescued by Rachel Summers, in her guise of Mother Askani, who took her to the future and there healed her mind. This future, under the rule of Apocalypse, was somber and grim, and Tanya sought to change it. She traveled back in time, three years before the formation of the X-Men, despite Mother Askani's warnings not to do so, and attempted to contact her father, Bolivar Trask. Rachel followed her and stopped her from revealing herself to her father, but not before Tanya could tamper with her father's creation, Master Mold, and upload a program called "The Twelve".

Years later, as Cyclops pondered his relationship with Madelyne Pryor in Alaska, he was attacked by Master Mold, who claimed Cyclops was one of the Twelve and had to be killed. Master Mold was stopped, but not before revealing several other possible members of the Twelve, such as Charles Xavier, Apocalypse, Storm, Jean Grey, and Franklin Richards among others.

Master Mold survived the encounter and later faced Power Pack in an attempt to kill Franklin Richards. As the youngsters fought the demented robot, he revealed the nature of the Twelve: "The dozen mutant humans who will one day rise up and lead all of mutantkind in war against Homo sapiens in the twilight of Earth." He was stopped, but not before revealing several other possible candidates, including Danielle Moonstar, Cannonball and Psylocke.

The subsequent mention of the Twelve came from Apocalypse himself, claiming that not only was he one of the "fabled Twelve", but so too were all five original X-Men, Charles Xavier, Storm, Cannonball and Cable.

As the new millennium approached, a series of events led to the return of Apocalypse. Cable was witness to said events — the darkening of New York City, the arrival of the Harbinger of Apocalypse, and several other signs. Mother Askani's astral form revealed herself to Cable, implanting the knowledge of who the Twelve were. Sadly, he never had the opportunity to find them.

Apocalypse began his attack by planting a fake Wolverine among the ranks of the X-Men. This led Xavier, who suspected the infiltration, to disband the X-Men. The X-Men parted ways, and soon after, Rogue and Shadowcat found themselves protecting Mystique from Japan's military, the Yakiba. As Rogue fought Sunfire and his men, Kitty watched over Mystique and found, unwittingly, Destiny's diary. The diary itself had a cryptic description of a "thirteenth" and told that the Twelve would be involved in the destruction of the world.

With the death of Wolverine's imposter, the X-Men reunited at the mansion, only to discover it was not truly Wolverine who had died, but a Skrull. The infiltrator had been found. To save Polaris from abduction, Cyclops took her place using an image inducer, and the X-Men followed him to the Skrulls' lair, where they were attacked by Death, Apocalypse's most lethal and fiercest Horseman, the same person responsible for the death of the fake Wolverine. After a heavy battle, Death was unmasked by Colossus. The X-Men were surprised to see their newest enemy was in truth the real Wolverine, who had earlier volunteered for the role knowing that the other possibility (Sabretooth) would enjoy it too much whereas he himself would fight the conditioning involved. Following this revelation, Death escaped, leaving the X-Men with half-truths and enigmas that needed solving.