Hellfire Club

The mansion of Sebastian Shaw. Or rather, what remained of the mansion. Its owner, one of the wealthiest men in the world, was now nothing more than a pile of ash. So were his allies in the Inner Circle of the Hellfire Club.

Seven mutants remained standing, however. The only occupants of the mansion. Just moments before, they witnessed their friend and teammate Jean Grey come under the control of a powerful being called Sabah an-Nur and they watched as he and the Phoenix corrupted their friend, using her body and powers to eradicate the Hellfire Club. Before she could to the same to the X-Men, she departed.

"Okay… I want someone to please explain to me just what in the hell is goin’ on!" said Wolverine.

"It’s true…" said Nightcrawler. "Everything the Hellfire Club said, it was all true. Sabah an-Nur, the Phoenix. That means the Apocalypse is coming."

"Oh shut up," said Beast. "It’s all a load of crap."

"I’m sorry, were you not paying attention?" asked Nightcrawler. "Were your eyes closed when Jean was possessed by Sabah an-Nur? Or when she killed the Hellfire Club with a thought?"

"It’s a myth, Kurt. That’s all," said Beast.

"Then maybe you’d like to explain what happened here, ‘cause what the elf is saying sure sounds pretty damn accurate to me," said Thunderbird.

"Martinique and Emma," said Beast. "One’s an illusionist, the other a psychic. Together, they could have crafted any story they wanted and implanted it inside Jean’s head. That’s all that’s happened here."

"Doesn’t sound too surprising to me," said Colossus.

"Thank you," said Beast. "What we have here is a case of corruption. Jean’s psyche has been shattered because of the Hellfire Club. She’s enacting this little drama they’ve implanted in her mind. She believes herself to be this Sabah an-Nur character and now she’s going to fulfill the goals of the Hellfire Club. They wanted her as nothing more than a weapon."

"It doesn’t matter who she is or what’s been done to her," said Cyclops. "Jean’s our friend and right now we have to stop her before she does something rash."

"Rash is a pretty appropriate word. Do we have any idea what she’s planning?" asked Dazzler.

"She talked about razing and a purifying fire," said Nightcrawler.

"So what’s that mean?" asked Thunderbird.

"That’s what I’m trying to figure out," said Beast. "Let’s get back to the tunnels. We can use the makeshift Cerebro unit to try and find her and we’ll need Gateway to transport us there once we do."

"In the past, Cerebro needed a psychic," said Wolverine.

"I know," said Beast. "That’s the part we’re going to have to figure out. Maybe I can find a way to make it work without a psychic, or at least get some sort of general location."

Long Island

Professor John Grey was extremely nervous as he led the way up the stairs. His brown hair was turning gray at the temples in his middle age and his blue eyes looked out behind a pair of glasses.

"I’m so glad you decided to come," he said. "We’ve been at a loss for what to do ever since the accident. She won’t respond to therapy and… she keeps saying strange things."

The young man who stood next to Professor Grey was in his early twenties. Although his features were youthful, his hairline had already begun to recede when he was in his early teens and by the time he reached his eighteenth birthday he had lost all his hair.

"What things?" he asked.

"Well… I don’t know," said John. "See, the thing is I can’t understand a word she says. I don’t know if it’s any particular language she’s speaking but if she is I can tell you that it’s definitely not English."

"I see," said the bald man.

John looked at his former student with worry in his face. "Are you sure you can help her?"

"I won’t know before I’ve seen her, John," he said with a good-natured smile.

John nodded. "Right. This way." He led the young man to a room at the end of the hall. He opened the door and spoke slowly. "Jean? There’s someone here I’d like you to meet."

In the bed lay a young girl, around nine or ten years old. She had long red hair and bright green eyes. However, her eyes seemed almost completely vacant. As if there was nothing behind them. The bald man walked forward and sat on the edge of her bed.

"Hello Jean," he said. "My name is Charles Xavier. I was a student of your father’s."

She gave no response. But as Charles sat near her, he could feel an overwhelming psychic presence in the young girl’s mind. He looked up at John. "Leave me alone with her for a bit."

John nodded. "If you need anything, just let me know." He left the room, closing the door behind him.

Once John was gone, Charles turned his attention back to Jean. "Your father told me about the accident. I’m sorry to hear about Annie. I’m told you were close."

"How are you sorry?" asked Jean.

"I beg your pardon?" asked Charles.

"I said, how are you sorry?" she asked again. "You didn’t know Annie. How could you be sorry that she’s dead?"

"What I mean by that is I’m sorry you’re in pain," said Charles.

"But you don’t know me, either. You’re just here because of my father."

"You’re right, I am. He thought I could help you."

"No one can help me," said Jean. "Do you know what it’s like to be in someone’s mind when they die?"

"I can’t say I’ve ever experienced that."

"Then you’re useless to me."

"Do you really believe that?"

Jean looked at Charles quizzically.

"Did you think you were the only one with powers? You’re a mutant. You’re like me."

"No," said Jean. "I’m much more."

"What are you?"

Jean opened her mouth and spoke in a different language; one Charles was unable to understand.

"What?" he asked.

"It’s Egyptian," said Jean.

"How did you learn Egyptian?"

"I didn’t."

Charles felt something else in her mind. Another presence. One he could not quite explain.

"Jean… there’s something else, isn’t there?"

"…Phoenix."

"What?"

Her eyes seemed to ignite with flames in the center of them. "Jean is just the house where I live, Charles. Call me Phoenix."

Jean’s eyes snapped open, returned to their normal green. She looked down at her body and saw that below the neck, she seemed to be wearing a skintight outfit. However, there was no fabric on her body, and the "clothing" bore the appearance of flames. Even stranger was the fact that somehow, her short red hair had now grown. It was long, reaching all the way down to the small of her back.

She stood from the sand and looked around. It was then she realized where she was. Within a mile radius of her, she was surrounded on all sides by a waterfall. Jean gasped once she noticed this.

She extended her arms and hovered into the air, above the waterfalls. When she looked down, she realized she was in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. With a thought, she allowed the water to return to normal.

"What’s happening to me?" she asked.

"You have finally taken the first step towards your Ascension."

"I know you’re in my head," she said. "Sabah an-Nur."

"We have a job to do, my dear."

"You want me to help you kill millions of people."

"It is the only way for the strong to survive."

"Then to hell with that," said Jean. "I’m not your weapon."

"Yes Jean, you are. You are the agent of change. Evolution is never pretty, but it is a part of life. And like it or not, you are the engine which powers that change."

"No I’m not," she said.

Morlock Tunnels

Beast sighed as he tried to use the Cerebro unit. "It’s just not enough. I thought using it to amplify my own thoughts would work, but it’s not. Only a telepath will be able to operate it."

"So what now?" asked Thunderbird.

"I say we get drunk because I’m all out of ideas," said Beast.

Wolverine stepped away from the rest of the team to light a cigar. As he puffed on it, he heard something and looked in the direction. Nothing was there. He shrugged it off as just nerves and started to enjoy the cigar. This time, he felt something. Something inside his head.

Logan!

He froze and concentrated his thoughts. He could sense her. Somehow, she was reaching out to him. He wasn’t sure why or how, but he knew it had to be her.

"Jean…?" he muttered below his breath.

The psychic impression was stronger and this time it came so suddenly that it almost knocked him from his feet. He looked at the other X-Men.

"Long Island!" he said.

"What?" asked Dazzler.

"She’s in Long Island," said Wolverine. "She’s goin’ home."

Long Island

Slowly, Jean lowered herself until her feet gently touched the ground. The fiery aura of the Phoenix vanished from around her body and she walked up the driveway to the house she grew up in.

Jean stepped up to the door and turned the knob. Locked. She looked at the door as her eyes turned a deep red and it seemed to disintegrate. Jean walked through the frame and the door reformed itself once she was inside.

It was late at night, but her very presence in the house made it seem like every light was on. She walked over to the fireplace and looked at the framed photographs on the mantle. There was a family photo taken when she was sixteen. A picture of her at her high school graduation, and another of her sister Sarah’s graduation. A photo taken when Sarah got married. Photos of Jean’s niece and nephew. And one photograph in particular caught Jean’s attention. It was taken a little over ten years ago. A young Jean with another girl.

Annie.

Jean’s memories flashed back to that moment when Annie was hit by a car. How Jean felt when she accidentally used her powers for the first time and was inside Annie’s mind when the girl died. Jean twitched and shut her eyes tightly, trying to block out the memory, but it persisted.

She saw other images. These of sessions with Charles Xavier. She remembered him training her in the use of her powers. Placing mental blocks so she would not be able to use them to her full potential. She remembered breaking through those blocks when the Shadow King attacked.

The logs in the fireplace suddenly lit aflame with no apparent ignition. The frame in Jean’s hand melted and the picture was reduced to ash. She heard footsteps and sensed the presence of two people in the house. Jean turned to them and saw her parents.

"I don’t know who you are but—" John Grey stopped in his tracks as soon as Jean looked over her shoulder at him. "…Jean?"

Elaine’s hand went to her mouth in shock. John slowly walked closer to his daughter and wrapped his arms around her. "My god… we heard about what happened at the school… we thought you were dead!"

Jean slowly embraced her father and closed her eyes. A tear emerged from the corner of her eye and when she opened them they were a deep red. "I am," she hissed. The Phoenix avatar surrounded her again and the flames spread to her father. He screamed as he felt every molecule in his body burned away, slowly disintegrating him into nothingness.

Elaine Grey screamed when she witnessed her husband’s fate. The Phoenix hovered above the ground and turned her attention to the older woman. Elaine ran for the door, but when she touched the knob, it burned her skin.

There was a rumble as the house was ripped from its foundation and slowly rose into the air. Furniture, lamps, photographs—all of them began to hover in the air. Elaine fell to the ground and huddled in a corner, sobbing.

"Stop your crying, you pathetic weakling!"

Elaine’s body was forced into a rigid position all of a sudden as the Phoenix mentally manipulated the woman’s body. Elaine felt like her skeleton was about to jump out of her skin. Every nerve she had screamed in agony.

"Please Jean… don’t do this…"

The walls and the roof of the house exploded away, leaving just the ground floor and the staircase. The Phoenix gripped Elaine’s head and Jean’s mother screamed as her body began to glow white-hot and the flames consumed her just as they had her husband.

The Phoenix sensed additional minds in the area and she looked skyward to see a portal in the air and the form of a man with wild black hair, dressed in leather, descending from the sky. He growled at her, three adamantium claws extended from each fist. As the Wolverine dove towards her, Phoenix waved her hand to send him spiraling to the ground.

Another figure came towards her, this one Colossus. In her attempts to distract Wolverine, she had failed to stop him and the steel-plated Russian crashed into her. Phoenix quickly recovered and dropped him from the sky as well.

Additional portals opened on the ground and Phoenix watched as the Dazzler and Cyclops struck next, trying to keep her off-balance with their energy powers. The Phoenix shielded herself and a telekinetic wave forced them down to their feet.

Phoenix sensed another mind behind her and it was in that instant that Nightcrawler teleported that he slid something over her head. "I’m sorry, Jean," he said. She swatted him away and he teleported himself to safety.

All of a sudden, the Phoenix felt herself cut off from her vast powers. The remains of the house fell to the ground, as did she. Before she could strike the ground, a pair of powerful arms caught her. She looked up to see her cradled by Thunderbird.

"Feeling better?" he asked.

Jean smiled up at him. "Much," she said. The other X-Men gathered around her. Jean smiled up at them. A blue-furred visage came into her eyesight.

"Neural disruptor," said Beast. "Something I slapped together."

"It shows," she said.

"What do you—"

A telekinetic wave shoved the X-Men away from her and the Phoenix hovered in the air. She pulled the disruptor from her head and it melted in her hands. "Honestly Henry, did you think a little toy like this would be enough to stop me? And here you were supposed to be the intelligent one."

Light flashed brightly all around the Phoenix, drawing her attention to the Dazzler. "That’s enough, Jean," she said, walking towards her former teammate.

"Oh? And what is the former pop diva going to do about it? Torture me with her greatest hits album?"

Dazzler’s eyes flashed as she smiled. She crouched low and generated a light burst with her entire body, encasing both her and the Phoenix in the blast radius. When the light faded, Dazzler stood with a smile. That smile vanished when she saw the Phoenix hadn’t been phased at all by the attack.

"Cute. My turn."

The Phoenix rose her arm and a flaming talon appeared around it, one that slashed across Dazzler’s body, searing the young woman’s flesh. Wolverine moved in, grateful for the distraction and snuck up behind the Phoenix. He tried to plunge his claws into her, but they bent away before they could even touch her skin. The Phoenix faced him.

"Let me help you," he said. "I know that’s what you want. That’s why you reached out t’ me."

"Poor, poor Logan… still dwelling on that one night stand we had?"

With a thought, Wolverine’s arms and legs spread themselves painfully, and he could feel his claws pulled.

"Too bad you just weren’t good eno—"

Phoenix screamed and gripped her head, falling to her knees. With her concentration shattered, Wolverine hit the ground. The Phoenix’s eyes flickered between the burning red and the bright green eyes of Jean Grey.

"Stay out of this, Jean. You are worthless to us now. Learn to stay down."

"She ain’t gonna stay down," said Wolverine. "She’s an X-Man an’ we don’t quit, right Jeannie?"

"R-right," Jean managed to choke out. The Phoenix effect slowly vanished from her body as her eyes returned to normal. Jean stood and stumbled, but Logan caught her in his arms. She looked up at him with a smile. "Thank you."

"Don’t thank me, y’ did it all yourse—"

ZAKT

CRACK

The crimson energy illuminated the night for just a few moments and once that sudden burst was gone, Jean fell lifeless in Logan’s arms. He looked down at her in shock and looked up.

Cyclops stood a few feet away, his mouth slightly agape and his breathing shallow. He approached Logan and Jean’s body and the moment he looked at his friend lying there dead, he fell to his knees.

"I had to…" he said. "I heard her begging me… begging me to stop her…"

NEXT: Clash of the Titans