From the Ashes

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1st September 2005, Valley of Kings

(Jean Grey POV)

Jean felt Kurt's teleporting her to a small cave where the Professor was lying down, "Jean," he spoke to her, "I have a way to fight Apocalypse, a last resort if you will."

"What do you mean, Professor, we lost."

"He still hasn't gotten the artifact yet. Until he does, we still have a chance."

Jean gave him an incredulous look, "Everyone is down. We have no chance."

"There's still us, my dear."

"You want to fight him telepathically?"

He smiled sadly, "Something like that."

Before she could register, Jean felt an attack on her mind. She didn't know what it was doing. Was this the Professor?

The last things she hears was the Professor's sad tone, "I'm sorry Jean, but this is the only way."

After that, her world was enveloped with flames.

Jean didn't know exactly what happened; everything seemed to have slowed down. The bald man in front of her was frozen, no blinking and so was the blue devil child. The redhead couldn't feel the wind across her face anymore. Time didn't exist. Had it ever existed? Was the world simply a giant painting? A three dimensional painting of a frozen instance of time?

Jean never had thoughts like this before. Or was she always like this? It didn't matter. What mattered were the flames. The world was on fire, yet it was not. The flames were everywhere, yet nothing was burning. The flames were powerful yet kind. Destructive yet creative. The beginning and the end. And then the beginning once more.

The flames were all around her, consuming her, entering her soul, searing it bare to the core. They were red, like her hair. Was her hair made of fire? Was it always engulfed in fire? Jean didn't care, all that mattered were the flames.

They were death and rebirth, destruction and creation. They were life and rebirth. Everything came from the flames and will return to them.

Fire wasn't malicious yet it wasn't kind. It simply was. And it was all around her, enveloping her.

She was the fire. She was the flame that burns away the impurities of the universe. She was the balance between life and death. And she was angry.

She started seeing. Not with her eyes, but with the flames. She saw the corruption, she saw the defilement of the laws of life, she was disgusted.

She was going to burn this place, bit by bit, starting with the abomination that she was fighting.

The thing was disgusting, what was his name again? Oh yes, Apocalypse. What a silly name. Jean was the Apocalypse. She was creation and destruction. She was rebirth. And that thing that dared calling itself a god was just an ant before her flames.

Jean tried to remember why she was here, before she was consumed with the flames. She was fighting the abomination with the stitched soul. But why was she? Apart from him being a disgusting abomination that doesn't deserve to live a second more, of course.

She has flashes of the fight. She was scared. Why was she scared of the ant? It didn't make any sense. She was destruction incarnate. She was fire. But was she fighting alone?

No, she wasn't. She had comrades, allies. She remembered a couple of them; the animal man, the changing woman. And there was the nature woman. She was odd, her powers felt different; they came from the earth itself. It was odd but Jean was fire and fire didn't care for such things. At least she wasn't like the abomination.

Jean sneered at the thought of the creature. It was bad enough that it was there, its presence was insulting enough for the redhead but it had the audacity to try to fight her. An ant had no quarrel with a boot.

The abomination's presence was irking her. It was like having an itch that just wouldn't go away and Jean had had enough. She was going to kill the thing, at least the itch will be gone. Not that she cared about the abomination, the deader it was, the better.

Jean rose into the air, flying. It felt natural. It was like she was born with wings, wings of fire. Was she always meant to fly? She felt like she was. The flames followed her, listening to her commands, she was fire after all.

With barely a thought, she was propelled into the air, high in the sky. She spread her imaginary wings and the fire obeyed, creating two gigantic wings made of flames around her. The fire that wasn't fire enveloped her body. Yet it didn't hurt her one bit. She felt warm, complete for the first time in her life. She felt free.

Up in the air was where she was meant to be. Far above the world, cleansing the unworthy, destroying the corrupt. She was the ultimate Judge, Jury and executor. It was her right, the world is made of her flames, which means she had the right to burn it all away.

Up in the air, Jean noticed a beam of light coming from the ground, rising to the heavens. The redhead scowled in anger; it was the work of the abomination. Oh right, she had forgotten herself in the joys of flying. She was hunting for the creature. It just felt wrong. It was like having a man with twenty arms, thirty legs and seventeen brains. It felt like a violation of what it meant to be alive. I was his time to perish and be punished in his afterlife. Jean somehow knew for certain that the abomination will not survive the day.

Jean decided that enough was enough; it was time for the creature to die. She flew towards the beam of light. She arrived in front of a pyramid. It was producing that weird light. She did not arrive discreetly; after all, there was no need to be discrete in killing an ant. As she landed, she released a shockwave of power, sending the sand flying away.

The abomination seemed to have noticed. Good, it should know who will kill it today.

It looked angry. Why was it angry? It's supposed to be scared at the prospect of dying. Jean shrugged; she didn't care about the abomination's feelings. However, the abomination seemed to have decided to fight her. Silly, ant.

It turned sand into metallic spikes and hurled them towards her. Jean didn't move; the spikes couldn't hurt her. She was fire after all. She was proven right when her flames burned the metallic spikes, rendering them into nothing but ash.

The abomination wasn't expecting that. Not that it would comprehend what she could do. It was like an ant trying to understand an ocean. It simply couldn't understand. Jean wasn't sure she could understand either.

Jean decided to retaliate by simple grabbing him from the neck. She didn't actually lower herself to touch the abomination; she simply used her powers to do so. The act amused her and seemed somewhat familiar. Had she done this before? No, it was something else. An image of a man with a black suit and a mask appeared in her mind for a fraction of a second. It disappeared just as quickly, so Jean decided to think about it later; she had a bug to deal with.

The thing created a shield to stop her powers' grip on him. Jean had never been so insulted in her life. It was using a variation of her powers to stop her. Did it try to fight her with her own powers? What hubris! Now, that wouldn't do at all. It wasn't a matter of itch anymore but a matter of pride. Jean just pushed against the shield with her powers. It slowly started to crack until it broke like glass, sending the abomination flying from the impact. She didn't even let it go flying back, not wanting to chase it. She summoned it from the air, and it slowly floated by her, immobilized from the neck down with her powers.

He flames were eager to kill him, cleanse his presence from the world. Just before she did so, the abomination spoke and Jean let him; everyone deserve to have a few last words before departing to the afterlife. "Attack me and your friends die."

Its voice was as unnatural as it was. It was like it had as many voices as souls. Anyway, what is it talking about? She had no friends; she was fire after all. She turned around to see her allies bound with blades of steel pointing at them. Was he talking about them? They were just her allies, weren't they? Jean didn't remember. Did she want to remember? All she remembers was being broken girl in a fake life. Why would she want to acknowledge a lie? Did she care?

She was fire and fire didn't care about such things. Jean Grey was a broken girl. Did she want to be Jean Grey when she was so much more? Fire is immortal, it is life, it is death. Did a few lives truly matter in the end? She would rather just be the fire. Jean Grey never existed; she was fake. She wasn't even a person but a rough combination of everything around her. She didn't feel, not really; she just copied the feelings of others for her to feel. She had no ambitions that were not copied from someone else.

Jean Grey was a puppet but now she was free. She was the fire and she didn't want to be Jean Grey anymore.

Jean turned her head back to the abomination who was smirking in triumph. Its smirk disappeared when Jean simply raised her hand preparing to kill off the annoying insect. Unfortunately, she was interrupted once more when a beam of red light attacked her from the back.

She sensed it before it hit her, of course, and ended up creating a barrier around her, stopping the concussive blast as if it was nothing. It was one of her old allies. The boy who was infatuated with her. No, he was infatuated with Jean Grey; she wasn't Jean Grey anymore. She was so much more. Perhaps it was because the boy was as broken as Jean Grey and he was able to tell. In any case, Jean Grey did not like him. Neither did the new her.

"Snap out of it, Jean, please," the boy exclaimed, "you can't kill him. It's wrong."

What was he talking about? She was fire incarnate, life and rebirth. She had a duty to purge the world from abominations like the one in front of her. Why was the boy protecting it? It's unworthy of life.

The boy continued, "This isn't you, Jean. You're better than this. Killing is never the answer."

She was bored of the boy now. Perhaps he was simply an idiot? She didn't care anymore. She just pushed the annoying brat out of the way with her telekinesis, knocking him out.

Just as she prepared to kill the abomination once and for all, she was interrupted again. This was very exasperating.

However, this time, it wasn't a person that stopped her but the pyramid that did so. The beam of light stopped and the pyramid itself disintegrated into nothing. Releasing a shockwave that pushed her back a few feet. How was this possible?

As the sand cleared from the shockwave, a figure appeared from where the pyramid was and for the first time, she was afraid. She didn't know who it was but she felt their power. It was equal to her own, maybe even stronger. She didn't know, it was hidden but she could still glimpse it.

Were they a challenger? No, she knew it wasn't. They were her opposite, yet they were not. They radiated darkness and Death. She was confused and nervous. What will this being do?

She didn't have to wander long before she was surrounded by darkness. She felt her flames being contained, somehow. This was impossible; she was invincible. The being appeared out of the shadows in front of her and touched her chest. Suddenly, she felt her flames being snuffed out. Her vision was blurring, and the last thing she heard before falling unconscious was a kind definitely feminine voice, "I'm sorry, but you're not ready yet, child."