Chapter 127

Jean

I was down to my underwear when I finally connected to the Astral plane and shoved off Kilgrave's command. The world seemed monochrome compared to the overwhelming beauty and bursting colors of the plane. Long lines of colors stretched into the sky, originating from the various minds around me.

They were all terrified, everyone from the infected soldiers to the trapped hostages. Only the mind demons and Kilgrave seemed unaffected.

The mind-demons immediately noticed my change, but it was still too late. I plucked the Astral threads of each demonic supersoldier and bent them to my will. Their minds temporarily overwrote the commands their bodies had been issued, but the underlying biological programming persisted. For now, it would have to do.

The Supersoldiers' guns turned on the demons they were supposed to protect in an instant.

They pulled their triggers at the same time, eliminating all four mind demons. Their mind-scrambling magic vanished as they breathed their last, finally allowing my restrained mind to unspool. It snaked out like a thousand-tentacled monstrosity, seizing control of every mind Kilgrave touched and wresting control of them before the brat playing villain gathered himself.

He was a screaming, gibbering mess.

"What the fuck! What the actual fuck! What the hell do you think you're doing?"

"What they're told," I said in an even voice as I rose.

"Stop!" he bellowed, but I didn't, stalking toward him. He tried to speak again, but I choked him with telekinesis, pushing him back and yanking him up until the very tip of his toes were scraping the ground.

His face turned red as circulation slowly cut off to his brain. He garbled and coughed and scratched and mentally begged, but nothing could change what was coming.

Kevin Thompson was going to die, but before he did. I needed him unconscious to fully break whatever biochemical control he held over me and everybody here.

I could keep pushing the mind to overcome the body, but I'd long determined it was better to remove his control entirely before I set everybody free.

I ordered everybody except the warped soldiers to run just as his consciousness faded, and they left frantically. A few ran after profusely thanking me. Others determined I could just be as dangerous as the demons and ran for their lives.

They were certainly not wrong, but it hurt to be lumped in the same category as a monster like Kilgrave.

In less than a minute, the square was empty, and the bottom floor of the science building started to splinter and collapse.

My mind went frantic as I saw into the building with my senses moments before it all came crashing down. N'tesh the Cambion was fighting Wanda's telepathic hold, and in the corner of the broken hallway, Rin's body lay under a mountain of rubble.

My breath hitched. From quickly reading the Cambion's mind, I could tell that it wasn't the debris that killed him but the Cambion's darkness magic, which still permeated every inch of the structure.

"I wasted too much time," I realized.

Rin was a bit younger than Dante and me, but his age never showed. He never complained, trained his butt off, and was loyal to a fault.

I failed him.

With considerable mental strain, I generated a shield around his body just before the floor collapsed, hoping to preserve what was left of him. Just as suddenly as the collapse started, it ended.

N'tesh broke nearly every bone in his body, but he was still well enough to control the darkness surrounding him to heal his wounds and recover.

I was blind in rage at the sight, and I raised my hand to finish the monster, but before I could rouse my energies…the floor shuddered. I felt my mental energy and most of N'tesh's shadow magic disappear into a sudden whirlpool from deep within the rubble. The hunger latched onto my energy reserves and kept pulling until I was staggering, suddenly exhausted of energy.

I felt the phoenix's heat churn inside me, but I pushed it down and refused to let my weakness control me. I knew it was Rin before his energy level stabilized and exploded forward in a wave of crimson energy that shook the foundations of the building. The second floor cracked like the first and collapsed on Rin and the demon.

Free from his feverish pull, I was free to observe once more.

N'tesh gathered enough darkness magic to teleport a floor up while Rin, who seemed frozen in a trance, took on the damage without flinching. The stones lost all their kinetic energy when they impacted him, lazily collapsing to the ground.

My eyes widened, remembering the conversation Dante had shared with me about Rin when he told me about taking him on.

"His father is Sebastian Shaw Jean, and while he seems somewhat ordinary next to you and I, Jean. That won't always be the case. We might have another Omega-level mutant if he manages to awaken his father's full mutation."

His words seemed almost prophetic.

Slowly, Rin reached for his blade, filled it with his peculiar energy, and swung. It blew out the side of the building, and he swaggered out, covered in an aura of blood-red energy. His distant, blank eyes fixed on me, and I could feel the aggression rolling off of him.

I reached into his mind before he acted on his instinct, massaging his mind and pulling forward the memories of our time together.

"Rin, remember who you are."

The boy blinked. First came confusion, then recognition.

"Ugh," he grunted as he massaged his head. "I need an Aspirin." Rin looked at his hand in surprise, then at the rest of his body, taken by the strange aura surrounding him.

"What the hell happened?" he said. "The last thing I remember is that son of a bitch N'tesh stabbing and then…"

"Congratulations," I said. "It would seem you've unlocked a secondary mutation and even more of your peculiar demonic heritage."

Rin was quiet for a time, eyes frantically darting as he came to term with his new self.

"Well, it's about damn time!" Rin smirked, then struck a pose. "The boss man better watch out. I'm coming for his spot."

I raised a brow. "You do know that I am technically stronger than he is."

"Of course," Rin reluctantly admitted, "but competing with somebody you can never beat is no fun. The boss man, though. He and I are not that different."

"I suppose not," I admitted. It was a surface-level comparison but had a surprising amount of depth. Both had come into their power under the threat of certain death. The only difference was one had died, and the other hadn't.

Rin suddenly looked past me at Kilgrave, who was passed out on the floor. His grip on his longsword tightened.

"Why is he still breathing?" he asked with a surprising edge to his voice. "Don't tell me you're going to spare him?"

"Not even if Dante asked," I said. "He's going to die. I need something from him first."

He nodded and let out a breath.

"I should get back in there. That asshole N'tesh doesn't strike me as the type to give up. He's coming back for a round two, I'm sure."

"Go on then. I'll join you after I'm done here."

"Sure thing," he nodded. "You might want to throw on something first, though."

My cheek turned red slightly, and Rin hurried away.

---

Getting into the building took a lot more work than getting out. After spending nearly a minute angling for a window that hadn't been completely barricaded, I leaped through one on the third floor without much effort, much to my surprise.

My upgrade, I discovered, had caused more of a change than I anticipated. I could hold onto energy now and use it in short bursts of kinetic force or upgrade my physical parameters, which had already received quite the boost from my resurrection.

I estimated I was about 20% stronger. Paired with my new Kinetic burst ability, it allowed me to tear through the walls and ceiling of the building until I reached the fifth and top floor. At the entrance to the lab, I found the team waiting for me, weapons raised, face twisted in suspicion.

Wanda stood at the front.

"What's going on guys?" I questioned, a bit astonished.

"Rin, is that you?" she asked tentatively.

"Who else could it fucking be?"

"You feel different?"

"Uh?"

"She sensed demonic energy flowing off you," Mystique cut to the chase. "Has that vile thing infected you, or were you like your master all along?"

"Uhhh…"

There was a terrible crash behind us before I could make a fool of myself. The lab was under attack.

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