Jean's body began to glow—not with her normal psychic energy, but with something far more primal and powerful.
Golden-red flames erupted around her, not burning but transforming. Her clothing shifted, changing from her uniform into something that looked almost ceremonial—a flowing dress of deep crimson and brilliant gold, with a massive phoenix symbol blazing across her chest.
Her eyes ignited with the same golden-red fire, no longer merely glowing but actually burning with cosmic flame.
The Phoenix Force—the fundamental power of life, death, and rebirth itself—had awakened fully within Jean Grey.
And it was furious.
Immediately a figure materialized in the mindscape, emerging from the shadows of the ruined throne room like something being born from nightmare.
Querehsha's mental form appeared—not the beautiful-terrible hybrid she presented in the physical world, but her true essence. A massive, monstrous thing of chitin and venom, of disease and decay, of countless insects swarming together to form something that only pretended to be sapient.
Her multiple eyes fixed on Jean, and despite her monstrous form, genuine fear showed in every one of them.
She knew that facing Jean was preferable to facing Ethan. What she'd witnessed him do to Sillad had broken something in her, had made her understand that mercy was not something she could expect from him.
At least Jean was angry—anger she could understand, could possibly manipulate or redirect. Ethan's cold, clinical destruction was something else entirely.
So Querehsha gathered her power and prepared to fight, even knowing it was hopeless.
Jean didn't give her any time to prepare.
"SCREEEEE!"
A cry that shook the entire mindscape erupted from Jean's throat—but it wasn't a human sound. It was the call of a phoenix, primal and terrible and beautiful all at once.
Golden-red flames exploded outward from Jean's body, consuming everything they touched. Not normal fire, but the very concept of purification and rebirth made manifest.
Elizabeth eyes fluttered. He smiled down at her—a warm, genuine smile that promised safety.
"Good morning, Princess Elizabeth," he said softly. "You're safe now. I've got you."
Elizabeth stared up at him, her blue eyes wide with disbelief and desperate hope. Something about him made her feel safe in a way she hadn't felt in centuries. Her spiritual senses—still functioning despite everything—could read his emotions and intentions with perfect clarity.
He genuinely wanted to protect her. There was no deception, no hidden agenda. Just pure, simple desire to help someone who was suffering.
Without thinking, acting purely on instinct and overwhelming relief, Elizabeth wrapped her arms around Ethan's neck and held on tightly. She buried her face against his shoulder and finally—finally—allowed herself to believe that the nightmare might actually be ending.
Ethan was surprised by the gesture but held her securely, one hand supporting her back while the other cradled her head. He looked up at Jean and saw her floating several feet off the ground, the manifestation of a massive phoenix made of living fire spreading its wings behind her.
'She's really pissed,' Ethan thought with a mixture of awe and slight nervousness. 'Note to self: never, ever make Jean this angry at me.'
He raised his free hand toward Jean and gave her a small nod—permission to do what needed to be done.
Jean's eyes blazed brighter, and she unleashed the full power of the Phoenix Force.
"SCREEEEEEEEE!"
The phoenix's cry was even louder this time, carrying the weight of cosmic judgment.
Golden-red flames flooded the entire mindscape like a tsunami of purifying fire. They consumed everything—the ruined buildings, the corrupted gardens, the stagnant fountains, every trace of decay and disease.
Querehsha tried to fight back. She summoned her swarms, millions of insects materializing from her essence and launching themselves at Jean in desperate waves.
Every single one burned to ash before getting within ten meters of the Phoenix.
She tried attacking with concentrated plague energy, with disease that could kill gods, with corruption that broke down matter at the molecular level.
The phoenix flames consumed it all, purifying everything they touched.
Querehsha's monstrous form caught fire.
She screamed—a sound of pure agony that echoed across dimensions. The flames weren't burning her body (she didn't have a real body here, just a mental projection). They were burning her soul.
Phoenix Fire didn't just destroy. It purified. It burned away corruption and evil at the most basic level, leaving nothing behind but potential for rebirth.
For someone like Querehsha—a being made entirely of corruption and plague—that purification was the most agonizing death possible.
Ethan watched as Querehsha's form dissolved in the flames, her screams fading to nothing. His hand moved instinctively toward where her essence core would be—the fundamental authority that made her a Monarch.
Then he stopped.
He looked down at Elizabeth in his arms, at her thin, fragile form. His enhanced senses analyzed her current state with accuracy.
'Her body and Querehsha's essence have been fused for centuries. They're not just connected—they're integrated at the fundamental level. If I remove Querehsha's core now, Elizabeth's body will have nothing to sustain it. She'll die within seconds.'
His mind raced through possibilities, solutions, alternatives. Chronokinesis? No—reversing this would require changing centuries of timeline, which would create massive paradoxes and potentially destroy this entire reality's stability. Matter manipulation? No—the fusion was spiritual and conceptual, not physical. Genesis Authority of Rebirth? Maybe, but he'd need time to understand exactly how the fusion worked before attempting separation.
Time he didn't have. Querehsha's soul was being destroyed now. They hadn't thought before acting, driven only by emotion and anger. Now, it was too late for thought.
In another few seconds, there would be nothing left of the Monarch except her core essence.
Ethan made his decision in a fraction of a second.
Instead of removing Querehsha's core, he reached out with Genesis Telekinesis and grabbed it—but instead of extracting it from Elizabeth's body, he severed it from Querehsha's dying soul while leaving it connected to Elizabeth.
The Monarch's screams cut off abruptly as her essence was finally, completely destroyed by the Phoenix Fire. But her authority—the fundamental power of "Plague" and "Insects"—remained, now anchored solely to Elizabeth.
The entire mindscape erupted in golden-red flames one final time, consuming the last traces of Querehsha's presence and burning away centuries of corruption.
.
.
.
Outside, in the physical world, Querehsha's body convulsed violently in Ethan's arms.
She let out a single, agonized cry—loud enough to echo across the mountainside—then went completely limp.
Jean stood beside Ethan, her eyes slowly opening. They still glowed with the fading light of Phoenix Fire, gradually dimming back to their normal green as she released her hold on that cosmic power.
Anna watched nervously from a few feet away, concerned and confused but trusting that Ethan and Jean knew what they were doing.
Then, slowly, Querehsha's body began to change.
What remained was the form of a young woman with silver hair—exhausted, unconscious, but undeniably human. Elizabeth Liones, finally free in her own body after centuries of imprisonment.
Anna's eyes widened. "What... what happened? Ethan, can you—"
Before she could finish the question, Ethan's telepathy reached out and shared everything they'd experienced in the mindscape. The entire story—Elizabeth's background, her possession, her suffering, the battle with Querehsha, everything—flooded into Anna's mind in compressed form.
Her expression shifted from confusion to shock to absolute fury in the space of seconds. "That bitch!" Anna snarled, her hands clenching into fists. "She killed Elizabeth's entire family, destroyed her world, and then trapped her for decades while using her body to—"
She stopped herself, taking a deep breath. "But... wait. If Querehsha's dead, shouldn't Elizabeth be dead too? How is she still alive?"
Ethan adjusted his hold on Elizabeth's unconscious form, making sure she was comfortable. "Jean focused the Phoenix Force specifically on destroying Querehsha's soul while leaving the core essence intact," he explained. "While she was doing that, I used the opportunity to transfer the Monarch authority of Plagues directly to Elizabeth. That way, when Querehsha's soul was destroyed, Elizabeth's body still had something to sustain it."
Jean and Anna both looked at him with concern. Jean spoke first, "Ethan... was that the right thing to do? Don't get me wrong—I want Elizabeth alive, she deserves to live after everything she's endured. But... giving her the power of the being who destroyed her entire world? Won't that be traumatic for her?"
"Not to mention," Anna added, "Querehsha killed her family. Destroyed her kingdom. Committed genocide against her people using Elizabeth's own body. Is it really okay to give her that monster's power?"
Ethan's expression was serious but determined. "I understand your concerns. Believe me, I thought about this carefully in the seconds I had to make the decision."
He looked down at Elizabeth's peaceful face—the first genuinely peaceful expression she'd probably had in decades. "If I had taken Querehsha's core, Elizabeth would have died. Her body and the Monarch essence have been fused for too long—they're integrated at the fundamental level and can't be separated easily."
His eyes glowed slightly with Genesis power. "I couldn't use Chronokinesis to reverse the fusion because that would require changing centuries of timeline. That kind of large-scale temporal alteration would create paradoxes that could destabilize this entire reality. The cosmic imbalance alone could kill millions, maybe billions."
"So giving her the Monarch power was the only way to keep her alive?" Jean asked.
"In the immediate term, yes," Ethan confirmed. "But it's only temporary. I'm still learning how to use Power Genesis to create heralds—to share my cosmic authority with others the way Galactus shares the Power Cosmic with his heralds. Once I master that technique, I can replace Elizabeth's Monarch essence with Genesis power instead. That will allow her to live without needing Querehsha's authority."
He smiled gently, looking at Elizabeth's face. "But more than that... her desire to live is something extraordinary. After everything she's suffered, everything she's lost, she could have given up at any point. She didn't. She kept fighting, kept hoping, kept refusing to surrender."
His voice filled with genuine admiration. "That kind of will, that strength of spirit—that deserves to be rewarded. She deserves life, deserves a chance to rebuild, deserves happiness after decades of hell. I'm not going to let her die just because saving her is complicated."
Jean and Anna's expressions softened as they understood his reasoning. Anna smiled, her earlier anger fading into warmth. "You're right. She's been through enough. She deserves a chance at a real life."
"Agreed," Jean said, moving closer to gently brush a strand of silver hair from Elizabeth's face. "We'll help her adjust, teach her to control the Monarch power, and once you figure out how to create heralds, we'll transition her to Genesis power instead."
Both women turned to look at Sillad, who was still frozen in place by Ethan's enslavement spell. The Frost Monarch's eyes were wide with terror as he watched them, having witnessed everything and understanding exactly how outmatched he was.
Jean's expression hardened. She began walking slowly toward Sillad, her eyes beginning to glow again with phoenix fire. "I didn't expect Monarchs to be this cruel," she said, her voice cold and carrying an edge that made even Anna shiver slightly. "Using innocent people as vessels, destroying entire worlds, killing families while their loved ones watch helplessly..."
Her form began to change again. The phoenix manifestation materialized behind her—massive, majestic, and absolutely terrifying in its beauty.
"SCREEEEE!"
The phoenix's cry echoed across the mountains.
Golden-red flames began to spread from Jean's body, creating a circle of fire around her and Sillad. The Frost Monarch tried desperately to back away, but Ethan's enslavement spell kept him frozen in place, unable to escape.
Sillad stared at Jean in pure shock and horror. The level of power she was displaying—the cosmic authority behind that flame—was at or even beyond what a Monarch typically wielded.
'How?' he thought desperately. 'How does this human possess power rivaling our own? What ARE these people?'
Jean's eyes burned with righteous fury as she looked down at the helpless Monarch. "You wanted to trap us, kill us, make us suffer. You assembled armies to intimidate us. You worked with Querehsha."
The flames intensified, growing hotter and brighter.
"So I'm going to grant you something special," Jean said, her voice carrying terrible finality. "The most painful death I can create. You'll burn at the level of your soul, your essence, your very concept of existence. And unlike Querehsha, you won't have the mercy of a quick end. I'm going to make it slow."
Ethan, still holding the unconscious Elizabeth, watched as Jean prepared to execute Sillad with the Phoenix Force. He sighed quietly, shaking his head.
'It seems Jean is really pissed,' he thought with a mixture of respect and slight nervousness. 'This is why I make it a point never to genuinely anger my wives. Jean scary when she's protective. Anna's scary when I'm threatened. And both of them together when they're united in fury?'
He glanced at Anna, who was watching Jean with obvious approval.
'Yeah. I'm never crossing that line. Happy wives, happy life. Angry wives, cosmic genocide.'
The phoenix behind Jean spread its wings wider, and Sillad began to scream as the purifying flames started their slow, agonizing work.
Ethan wisely decided to focus his attention on Elizabeth, gently using his healing abilities to stabilize her exhausted body while Jean handled the execution.
Some things, he'd learned, were best left to his wives to handle in their own way.