52 Chapter 51

Clint

We found her at the end of a long walkway in a spherical room covered in strange metal panels.

Her hair flowed without air, and her eyes glowed bright red.

"Jean, please," Xavier gasped as he floated aloft, locked in the air by her raised hand.

I cast a nervous look at the team and nodded to Natasha. We slowly lowered our guns as we stepped into the room.

"Jean Grey?" Natasha began. "We're here to help you. Dante sent us."

Jean didn't react. Instead, she slowly closed her outstretched hand, eliciting bone-chilling howls from Xavier.

"Jean, please. I beg of you…D–Gahh!" he howled again, and we all took an instinctive step back; even Natasha reached for her sidearm, but I held her shoulder to reassure her.

We couldn't let things escalate.

"Dante wouldn't want you doing this, Jean," Natasha said, carefully stepping forward. "He fought so hard to get us here to save you. In fact, he's still fighting right now. He thinks you can beat this thing trying to control you. Prove him right."

"Listen to her, Jean. I believe– Hagh!" With a twitch of Jean's finger, Xavier's hand snapped.

A single tear rolled down her cheek.

"You don't get to lecture me, not after what you stole from me. Did you think I would not remember them!" She roared, and Xavier's left knee snapped in the other direction.

He stared down at the limb in horror, the pain not registering because of his paralysis.

"Jean!"

"Shut up!" she roared, swinging her free hand. Sparks ignited in the large dome around us, traveling up and down the structure in a dizzying light show. Panels shot out of the walls, electric arcs surged, and wiring burst from nearly every surface, yet we stood at the center of the storm, untouched, frozen with terror.

I nearly shat myself.

Even Drumm looked terrified at her casual power. I was slowly coming to realize that we'd come woefully underprepared for this bullshit.

As nervous sweats blanketed my body, gluing my tight suit to my skin, my arm slipped into my pouch, thumbing a sonic grenade.

Coulson and May, who were barely holding on, had their hands tightly clutched around their rifles, slowly adjusting them to high voltage.

We all held onto something to keep us safe, yet recognized that we were one bad move away from utter catastrophe.

And we hadn't even broached the topic of saving Xavier.

"It's your parents, isn't it?" Natasha said in a soft voice, drawing the young calamity's attention. I flinched at her gaze as it swept by me to Natasha.

"I've read your file," Natasha said, "and I've learned a great deal about you from Dante. Dante told us that you lost your parents shortly after your abilities manifested, but that's not true. Is it? Your father is alive, and Xavier has been keeping him from you."

"He's a monster," Jean said coldly as she closed her hand more.

This time, his back arched, twisted past the natural limit, drawing a deep, blubbering cry from the older man.

"And that is why I have to kill him," she said, her voice heavy with grief. "It's the only way we will all be free."

She can't be serious. Thankfully, Natasha started speaking before any of us had to.

"Death is too good for him," Natasha said. "He should stand trial for everything he's done. The children and everyone he's hurt, they all need closure. And the world needs to see that mutants can hold their kind accountable."

Natasha's words seemed to get the teen thinking but she shook her head.

"Too risky. Dante thought it was just the X-men, but Charles influenced some of the most powerful people around the world. It's why the hate groups have never come to the gates of the school, it is why the president signed off on it, and it's why SHIELD has tolerated its existence.

Charles built a vast network of unwitting pawns, and the only way to break his hold is to kill him."

My jaw dropped. "That's…impossible." She was talking about a national security breach on a level we've never seen before. Yet, it made sense if you took the time to think about it. Charles had the means and motive, and if he'd been a little more psychotic and ambitious, the world would've laid at his feet.

"We've observed nothing," Drumm said slowly. "But if this is true, he could prove to be a bigger threat than the demons."

"This can't be real," Coulson muttered in disbelief.

"Maybe the girl has the right idea," May said, earning a look from Coulson, to which the agent simply shrugged.

I agreed with May but didn't dare give voice to it. Charles Xavier was too dangerous to be left alive, but Fury's orders were clear.

"Killing him right now would do more harm than good for the mutants," Natasha kept at it, trying her hardest to convince the teen. "You care about them, don't you? Removing Xavier's influence could leave you all vulnerable."

"Not necessarily. He's not the only powerful Telepath at this school," Jean said as she raised her other hand, bringing Xavier close. Her finger pressed against his skull. The Professor spasmed mid-air for a few seconds before he let out a violent cough. He'd looked rough before, between the bandages and blood, but now he was within an inch of his life.

"Now, I know who to visit," she smiled. "This is the end of the road, Professor."

Her fingers stretched out with a finality that made my chest tight. My finger wrapped around the pin on a sonic grenade.

"Now, wait a minute," I said. "Xavier might be a monster, but he's defenseless. Just think about this. Between our scientists and Dr Hank, I'm sure we could come up with a way to restrict his abilities.."

"Once you do this," Natasha said. "You can't go back. Trust me, I know. You'll be on the radar of every major organization in the world. Everyone who knew Charles will know about the girl who killed him, and they will come for you."

"Jean, please," Xavier begged. "Listen to them."

Jean's eyes burned brighter, and she declared with an iron conviction, "Let them come."

Her fingers snapped together, forming a tight fist, and Xavier folded into himself in a series of loud snaps and screams and dropped to the floor, reduced to a ball of bloody meat.

Time stopped as we stared in horror at the monstrosity.

"Are you finally going to attack?" Jean demanded, her eyes snapping to us. "Or would you like me to go first?"

No one moved.

Her reading our minds was a possibility we all foresaw, but we'd hoped if we put our best foot forward, she'd give us the benefit of the doubt.

Apparently, she wasn't as naive as we'd hoped.

Given what we'd just witnessed, I wasn't confident in our containment strategy.

It was like Dante warned; piss her off, and she'd reduce us to smudges of meat before we could even react.

I didn't even try to reach for the RX-29.

"Your plan might've worked half an hour ago," she said as she raised her hand, and all of our weapons went flying. Everything from the RX-29 to my last knife and arrow.

The show of force sent me stumbling and similarly put Natasha, May, and Coulson on their arses.

She spread her hand wide as she'd done once before, and my eyes grew wide.

Drumm stepped forward, forming two complicated mandalas on his hands. "Control yourself, young Phoenix. You're more than this."

"Phoenix," Jean muttered. "Where did you hear that name?" She squinted, staring at Drumm, and suddenly, the man lurched, gasping.

"So, he told you?" she remarked. "You just became a whole less interesting Sorcerer."

Jean's fingers danced around the air, and we slowly felt a weight settling upon us. I knew we were about to die, to a mercurial kid, no less. I wasn't even sure if bringing down the full force of SHIELD would've been able to take her down or just inflated the kill count. Just as she was about to crush us, her eyes snapped to the door.

"Dante?"