X-Force # 11 - Who the Hell is Eli Bard?

Back at Angel's Aerie, X-Force sits around Warpath and wait as he tells them what the mysterious Eli Bard has done so far. Before he begins Eli's origin story, X-23 and Elixir leave to find find Wolfsbane. Warpath's story starts two thousand years ago in Rome, showing Eli (real name Eliphas) as a rich and well respected politican and married to one of the city's most powerful women. But only in public. In reality his wife is just using him to help her lover Mascius gain power. Warpath states that Eli isn't evil, just pathetic. At this point Wolverine loses patience and asks if the story is going anywhere. Warpath then tells them how Eli was being seduced by Selene. Wolverine throws his beer against the wall in anger and Angel explains to Vanisher who Selene is. Selene offers Eli eternal life, and eternal love, by her side as her king, and in return she wants every soul in Rome. Eli was going to turn her do the right thing, until Mascius takes his Senate seat and his wife kicks him out and burns all of his possessions, making him turn to Selene.

She tells him that the Arena will host the largest battle the city has ever seen and, once he has placed five sigils around the city, she can devour thousands of souls at once. But, as he is on his way to complete his task, he warns a slave girl of what is to come and tells her to get her family out of the city. Just as Eli is finishing the final sigil he is stopped by Mascius and three guards. At the Arena, Selene is trying to complete her spell when she realises the sigils are unfinished, just as her body is punctured by several arrows. Mascius stands over her with Eli as his prisioner, taunting them both. Selene lunged for Mascius, stating that she can never die as he stabs her in the head. He orders them both to be taken out of the city and burned at the stake. Just as the soldiers are about to light the fire, Selene uses her magic to burn the soldiers instead. Angry at Eli, she curses him to live forever but to never be allowed in her presence. Seven hundred years later, Eli is dug up by a farmer, whom he quickly drains of blood as he speaks Selene's name.

Eli travels the world, searching for Selene and bringing death everywhere he goes. He eventually goes to America, killing meny Apache while there. In the present he found Selene in Nova Roma. But before he could approach her he knew he needed an offering. His plan to sacrifice the Purifiers to her was stopped by X-Force. Wapath states that all he cares about now is making Selene a goddess and getting her to love him again. At the same time in New Orleans, Eli meets up with Selene, surrounded by his Technarch-Zombie Apaches and saying he has an offering. When she turns down the Apaches, Eli states that his offer is actually the newly ressurected Caliban's ability to find dead mutants, all of who Eli will bring back and give to her. Selene smiles sinisterly.