Chapter 166: Fire and Life Incarnate
The Blackbird hummed low, engines steady as the team sat in silence. Everyone bruised, drained, but alive. Logan leaned forward in his seat, eyes never leaving Jean. Her hands trembled in her lap, her eyes darting between them like she was listening to voices none of them could hear.
Logan finally broke it.
"Jeannie… talk t'me. Somethin's gnawin' at ya. Don't go lockin' us out."
He reached, heavy hand on her shoulder. A touch meant to anchor.
Jean's head snapped up. Eyes burning. She slapped his hand away, voice like venom.
"DON'T. Touch me, human."
For a second, nobody breathed.
Then her body ignited — black corset peeling into crimson and gold fire, hair whipping as if a storm lived inside her skull. The Phoenix emblem seared across her chest.
Logan staggered back, growling.
"Oh hell…"
The world went white.
The Blackbird exploded in a flower of fire, molten wings scattering into the clouds. The X-Men were torn loose, tossed screaming into the open sky.
---
Nightcrawler's instincts hit first. He grabbed Thunderbird mid-fall, body vanishing in a puff of brimstone. They reappeared groundside, both sprawling into the dirt.
"Mein Gott, that was too close!" Kurt gasped, chest heaving. Thunderbird rolled to his feet, cursing.
"You call that close? I call that a free fall into a meat grinder!"
Colossus tucked tight, steel skin gleaming as he plummeted like a boulder. He hit the earth with a crater-cracking slam, standing after with soil and rock raining down his shoulders. "I am… still here."
Storm soared, wind carrying her like a hawk. She snatched Cyclops in one hand, Logan in the other. Logan twisted, claws half-bared in reflex.
"Careful, darlin', I ain't exactly light."
"You will not fall, Wolverine!" she shot back, sweat beading her temples as she fought to hold them both.
They landed rough, Logan rolling free, boots crunching the ground. Cyclops tore his visor straight, already barking.
"Report! Everyone sound off!"
Shouts came back one by one. Bruised, rattled, but alive.
Then their eyes all lifted skyward.
---
She hovered there, framed by fire, silhouette terrible against the clouds. The Phoenix raptor spread its wings wide behind her, flames curling into the shape of a cosmic bird. Jean's voice thundered, not just into their ears but into their very skulls.
"I AM FIRE! AND LIFE INCARNATE! NOW AND FOREVER… I AM PHOENIX!"
Thunderbird muttered low, eyes wide.
"Yeah, we're screwed."
Logan bared his teeth. The scents pouring off her made no sense — ozone, ash, raw power, something alien. And under it all, the faint sweetness of Jean, drowning. His stomach twisted.
"Jeannie… what the hell've they done to ya?"
---
The X-Men spread, Cyclops taking point.
"Jean—listen! You're stronger than this thing. Fight it. We can help you!"
Phoenix looked down at him, and for a heartbeat there was recognition. Then her hand raised, and the air warped.
The ground erupted in a chain of fire. Cyclops dove, visor flashing wide — ruby beams carving the blaze apart before it swallowed the team.
Storm whipped torrents of rain, wind clawing at the inferno.
"Jean! You are not this monster! You are my sister of the skies!"
The Phoenix sneered, flames snuffing Storm's rain like candles.
"Your skies are mine now."
With a gesture, she hurled Ororo aside. The goddess of weather struck the ground, breath torn from her chest.
Nightcrawler tried bamfing behind her, but she didn't even turn. A wave of telekinetic fire knocked him back mid-teleport, slamming him into Thunderbird. Both rolled out groaning.
Colossus braced, steel fists raised.
"For Mother Russia—"
He never finished. She crushed him flat with invisible gravity, forcing him to his knees. Metal groaned as his body sank into the dirt.
Logan roared, claws flaring as he charged, instincts shrieking to tear through.
"JEAN!"
She flicked her gaze, and Logan was thrown like a ragdoll, tumbling through trees until bark and stone stopped him. He clawed up from the crater, coughing blood, body already knitting.
"Alright… so that's how it's gonna be."
---
It wasn't a fight. It was slaughter.
One by one, the X-Men fell. Jean—Phoenix—left them scattered and unconscious in the dirt, their leader groaning, their bonds with her shattered.
She hovered above them, flames whispering. Then she turned her face to the heavens, eyes no longer human.
Without a word, she streaked upward, a burning lance tearing through the clouds. The sky split with her passage, leaving the team broken in her wake.
Cyclops tried to rise, reaching after her.
"Jean—!" His voice cracked, hollow.
Logan staggered forward, claws retracting, chest heaving. He sniffed the scorched air, her fading scent pulling at every feral nerve in him.
"She ain't Jean no more…"
Above, the stars burned. And something far worse stirred.