CHAPTER 85

The Phoenix's arrival and departure changed something around me but I didn't know what it was.

Her arrival could be said to be a boon for me in respect to my ignorance but it also was a disaster lining that I was only beginning to see. I guess it was highly stupid of me to think that I was a norm in the vast multiverse of Marvel and I could just grow in power at a steady rate while also not having it worry about the big guys at the top. 

They are freaking Nigh-omniscient beings for crying out loud Draul! 

All-knowing means knowing everything… literally. Past, present, futures, alternatives, impossibilities, constants, taboos – these were all laid bare in their cosmic eyes. 

But then again, what is a Draul to do? Nothing! That's what. 

I could find ways to become stronger faster, but would it really make a difference when it came to them? The ugly answer was no.

Someone was crazy enough to bring my soul all the way from what the Phoenix called the Outer and I couldn't do anything about it. What would make anyone think that I could do anything about anything they wanted?

They've existed since before time was born and no matter what the comics had to say about some characters like Thanos, Franklin Richards, The Protégé, or even Doom, having a chance at defeating the number one was just plain foolish. 

Just the fact of the numerous reboots and retcons the Marvel Comics had gone through was proof enough that, at least, the top two, could flip the entire multiverse however they wanted. 

If they wanted to be defeated, then they would be. If they wanted to 'die', then they would. But the fact of the matter still remains that it was their choice to do so. 

There are some people you could defeat, but there are some you just don't want to even think about fighting. It is so ridiculous that at the end of it all you might just go crazy. 

I wonder if this is how Deadpool feels. I don't know if he existed in this universe but I for sure would definitely like to talk with him… or maybe his girlfriend Gwynpool or whatever her name was. 

The conclusion of all my thoughts were that while they were things I had power over, they were also things that I couldn't even help with. And to be perfectly and brutally honest with myself… I was fine with that. 

And although the Phoenix's event was as abrupt as anything I've ever experienced, it was still worth its weight in whatever scale you could scale her with. 

That said, getting out of the Mansion was another headache that almost reduced me to a mess of stressed cheese. 

It was like someone filtered depressants into their water system and vents and everyone was just oozing it in. 

Charles… Charles looked crushed. As much as I didn't like the guy, which was an understatement coming from me, the way he looked then was just too pitiful. Sure he was pitiful, which was my dislike for him speaking, but him looking THAT pitiful just sent me wrong signals. 

None of the others were doing any good either.

In a surprising show of event for everyone, Scott flipped at Charles, shouting at him and telling him how all this was his fault. And while I wanted to see Charles get kicked down his glorified wheelchair at least once, seeing Scott doing it wasn't it for me. I believed that I would have had more of a reaction if it were the other teachers than as it were Scott. 

… 

[FLASHBACK] 

"Scott stop!" Piotr held back the shade-wearing youth who looked as if he was just a degree away from blasting the bald head of Charles open. 

"It-it's all his fault! She's gone because of him!" Scott cried out in a mix of indignant rage as he was held back by the tin man. 

The office, or room, we were in was very spacious but the mood made it seem crowded, like it was stadium-packed full. 

"That's not Jean… and she's never coming back is she?" Logan came to my side and asked. 

I breathed out and looked at the man who seemed to be holding himself back from scowling. 

"I don't think so." I answered him. 

"You knew something like this would happen?" 

"Had a hunch… yeah."

He let out a sigh and deflated while resting his back on the wall as he looked at the room full of people. "It's not going to be the same without her here you know? Only now am I realizing how much her presence meant to the team. It's gonna take a while for everyone to get used to it before they can move on."

I smiled wryly at that. "What about you?"

He just shrugged as if it was nothing that couldn't be shrugged off. "Not my first time." Was all he said before we fell into silence with the rest of the room. 

"Are you enjoying this?" He asked out of the blue, making me do a double take. 

"What?"

"This…" He pointed at Charles. "Are you enjoying it?"

I looked at Charles and then at Logan before I just shrugged. 

"Meh. Thought I would, maybe I would have, if it wasn't Scott doing the bashing." I replied honestly. 

He gruffed but didn't say anything else after a short while. 

"You know where she'll be going?"

I shrugged. "Not a clue. Though I'd suggest you give up on searching for her."

"Yeah, about that. I'm afraid we can't do that, no matter what she says. No matter how long it takes." He said seriously. 

"Well sorry to burst your bubble of hope… but it won't matter. No matter how long you live, it won't be enough time for you to find her."

The way he turned to me told how much he was not expecting that. 

"The hell you saying bub? You know something we don't?" He was up in my face with the most threatening look I've ever seen in my life, no scratch that, the second most threatening look I've ever seen in my life. The number one goes to the impassive gaze of the Phoenix. 

His outburst drew the attention of the others in the room and soon we became the center of focus but Logan didn't care about that. "What do you mean by that?"

I know he was hurting, they all were, but I didn't like when people came in my face like that. Unless you were someone who could breathe my existence out, only then would I have to keep my shit shut. 

"Calm down man. I know you are all worked up but you need to step back a lil." I held my hands up in a placating manner as I didn't want this to dissolve into a meaner squabble. 

He looked at me and then at the knuckles of his hands that were already protruding his Adamantium claws. He looked around before taking deep breaths to cool his rising temper. 

"Sorry about that." He said as he took a step back but his focus was still on me. "What did you mean by we can't hope to find her? She is not dead is she?"

"Unless you can find a way to travel through the universe then I'll suggest you give up and just continue your lives."

"So what you are saying is that… she is not on earth?" Now they were the ones looking at me as if I was the crazy one. 

"Yes, she is not on earth." 

"Then where else would she go? She's just gonna what? Fly through the solar system?"

Now it was my turn to be speechless. 

"Wait, you are being serious?"

"What else is there to do in outer space?" 

"I don't believe this. Aliens! That's what's in space!" I ended up raising my voice as I said that. 

"W-wait, come again. Did you just say aliens?" Logan looked like he was just a punch away from skewering my ass if I turned out to be joking. "They exist?"

"God! You guys have abilities that are just plain impossibilities and you are surprised about there being aliens?" I was genuinely confused by this. If anything, there should be more accepting of the fact that aliens exist, I know some fools from my old world who did. 

"Woah! They really do exist, I knew it! Have you seen them? How do they look?" Kurt just poofed in front of me with mad curiosity in his eyes. 

I pushed him backwards a bit as he just appeared in my face. "While I haven't specifically met any of them, I however know some people who definitely have. Heck, aliens have been living on earth for almost a hundred years now and only few people know."

That seemed to pacify the kid although a little, as he went back to himself giggling about meeting some aliens and wondering what they looked like. 

"So you mean Jean is going to live with some aliens?" Ororo asked me after the surprise died down. 

"That's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is that there is a whole universe that she could explore out there and not too many powerful people to stop her. Worrying about her safety would just be stupid on your part." I said. 

They all fell silent but I could see that at least their moods had improved more than it was a few minutes earlier. 

"So we really aren't going to see her again?" Scott asked. 

"Sorry kid, but no. And if I'm to be brutally honest with you, you all are no more than strangers to her at this point." I figured this way was better than just letting them stew in hope and then finally giving up after a long time.

Charles looked like he wanted to dig a hole into the ground the way he kept staring at it. 

"I'll be out of your hair." I said and turned around to leave. 

"Draul!" Ororo stopped me before I walked out of the room which made me turn only to receive a hug. "Thank you, for helping us say goodbye."

"It's the least I could do." That was the most I could do, and it was thanks to the Phoenix's curiosity in me. 

I left the Mansion after some thank yous. 

… 

[FLASHBACK ENDS] 

"So she's a flaming bird that came from space that's sort of like a spirit that possesses different people throughout the universe since the dawn of time?"

One thing I hated more than a depressed Bucky was a sarcastic Bucky. He always managed to make sarcasm sound so… bland and off. 

"Wait so aliens really exist?" Yelena tooted. 

It really was surprising that they all thought that aliens didn't exist. Steve and Bucky played it off in a cool way but that was just them. 

I'm pretty sure Steve thinks aliens are the same as ghosts so that's why he looks like he doesn't get what's going on. 

The lesser said about Bucky the better. 

"Of course aliens exist. It would be pretty stupid of us to think that we are the only ones alive in this universe won't it?" It was a rhetorical question so-

"So they really do exist." And cue the capsicle. 

"Wait, if they were always here then why haven't we heard about them?" Nat asked. 

"Who says we haven't?" I asked back but just decided to tell them anyways. "Fury knows about the aliens, or he should." If Captain Marvel was a thing here then Fury was bound to know about aliens. Whatever happened to the Skrulls anyway? Meh, that'll take care of itself somehow. 

"Nick Fury knows about the aliens?" Give it to Bucky to ask a question and make it sound like a factual statement. 

"I'm saying he should, but even if he doesn't, there is no doubt that aliens exist." I told them what I thought. 

"So back to the bird – you said it was almost as old as the Universe? I somehow find that hard to believe." Nat said tapping her crown. 

"And it's not surprising for you to think so."

"And why's that?"

I answered Steve's question with another. "What do you think we know about the Universe?"

"We barely know everything there is to know about the arctic so I doubt there's any factual case study of the Universe available." He said. 

"And that right there is the reason. We don't even know anything about ourselves and where we live, what makes us think that we could begin to understand what's happening out there? It sounds arrogant if you stop to think about it for a second, doesn't it?"

They fell quiet at that, seemingly digesting the information I just gave to them. 

"So what you are saying is, there are beings out there who could destroy planets? And that girl was one of them?" This time Bucky sounded serious as he asked that question. 

"Believe it or not, that she was."

"So you really meant it when you said she was easily the strongest person on the planet?"

"Yep." I said popping out the 'p'. 

"Damn it, and it's not even Christmas yet. So does that mean that gods also exists?" Nat asked. 

Oh God. This was going to be a long night. 

===========================

A/N: Some people might find it off putting how calmly Draul is reacting to him being a pawn in someone's game and him not doing anything about it.

The reason for that is simple: THERE IS NOTHING HE CAN DO.

It doesn't matter how he far he plans or what he does in secret, when it comes to forces that truly matter, if you aren't strong enough then everything is null.

Draul understands that so he just toss it aside and worry about the present. Sure he might one day be strong enough to face them but that day isn't today. In front of true strength, everything else is meaningless. So Hakuna Matata, mate~

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