Consequences 5

"And here's my advice to you. If you get the chance of the mad kind of love, grab it with both hands and to hell, with the consequences."

-Ken Follett

********

"Everyone still here?" I asked as Melina and I reappeared in my dining room. 

It had only been ten or so minutes since I had left to see Valeria, so I expected them not to have gone far, but you never know with my wives. They could be raiding thousand-year-old wine stores from an Egyptian crypt within that time if they wanted.

Thankfully, they weren't.

"Good. We're leaving. Diana, tell your people if they want off the Island, they have a one-time, one-hour pass to leave. Medea, Yoruichi, Ranni, I need you to kill any invaders still on the Island. You also have an hour. Everyone else? You have the same time to say goodbyes to anyone, but I want us gone in sixty minutes."

Typically, these were women of action: heroines, villains, combatants, and decisive fighters. In emergencies, I had seen them act with less than a second's thought. In one instance, I had seen Yoruichi go from fall-over-drunk to soul-reaping assassin in less time than it took me to blink.

So, when I came bursting back into our dining room, ready to get moving and get shit done, I expected questions but also immediate action.

I didn't expect all of them to sit there and not move a muscle as they looked at me with confusion.

"What?" I asked. "We're moving people. Let's get to it."

"Normally, I'd be worried you somehow caused an apocalypse in the last ten minutes," Medea sighed, but her eyes were soft. Why? Couldn't they see this was a time for decisive action? We needed to go! "Pride told us it was just the Phoenix." 

As if to emphasize her point, the red-cloaked Raven emerged from my shadow, nose pointed in the air in pride as she smirked at me.

"Daddy doesn't need to worry about the bird," she said, four red eyes narrowing as she stared at me. Was it concern in them? Derision? Did she see my desire to flee as a weakness? "We can deal with the chicken easily."

I nearly choked.

"Don't worry?" I asked rhetorically, praying I had heard her wrong. "Just the Phoenix?"

"You're panicking," Tsunade warned. "Can you calm down?"

I am calm. I am always calm. I am as still as frozen water and pure as the fallen snow. 

I don't need to calm down. 

I need to get moving. Yesterday.

"You told us about threats when we landed," Yoruichi said with an awkward half smile as if breaking news that I should already know. "The Phoenix Force is... not a worry for us."

I looked to Emma, the person I knew would back me up. She had experienced the powerful entity herself in her home dimension.

"I've been the host of the Phoenix Force before," the psychic shrugged. "Or at least half of it before my ex-husband." She spat the word. "Stabbed me in the back to take its full power. And... it isn't a problem. Not with our Defences."

Betrayal on all sides.

"We know you have concerns," Diana spoke up, and I looked at her in hope. Her face was resolute, and she spoke slowly. "And, if you are insistent, we need to leave." "I am. Let's go!" "We will listen to you. But Raven says your emotions are all over the place, and you aren't thinking clearly. Rushed decisions aren't like you. Will you please just explain it? We have time, correct?"

"We don't."

"Heroes are currently battling it," Melina answered at the same time as I did. "They're in space, I don't know where."

"So we have at least a few minutes," Diana nodded. "Worst comes to worst, we will leave without saying goodbye. But we do not see a reason to leave. Will you please convince us?"

I could force it.

At the end of the day, this was my pocket dimension. 

I could take it with me wherever I went. I could grab it and hop to a random plane of existence, and they couldn't stop me.

With my true body, I was free to do whatever I wanted.

And they weren't. 

I could impose my will on them, either with Command Seals or 'kidnapping,' and deal with the consequences later. The most they could do was control my Avatar, limiting me to my True Body until the issue was settled.

Yet they hadn't.

'Can you calm down?' 'Will you explain it?'

I had noticed how they spoke and how careful they were with their words to avoid giving me an order. They could have forced me to 'calm down' or forced me to 'talk.'

Instead, with only a minute of heads up from Raven, they left me to decide independently.

They were being decisive, just not in the way I expected and wanted them to be.

I inhaled deeply. 

My hands were shaking. It wasn't from fear.

I needed to leave. Now.

But these were my wives, and they had a right to know. 

I completely closed off my pocket dimension from external intrusion to be safe.

I would try to see their side.

I exhaled.

"Why don't you think the Phoenix Force, one of the most powerful entities in the ENTIRETY OF COMICS, is an issue." 

Ok, I was trying. That didn't mean I wasn't above being sassy. 

If I ever stopped being sassy, I really would die.

I am the bone of my sass.

Sarcasm is my body, and fun is my blood.

I have uttered over a thousand bants.

Unaware of laughter,

Nor aware of grins.

Withstood puns to create-

When Robin started to talk, I interrupted my entirely rational attempt to recreate the Unlimited Blade Works chant in my own fashion, using the same first letters to keep it challenging.

I am not escaping reality. You are!

... If anyone asks you, Emma, that pun was totally intentional.

"We believe that you are overestimating the threat the Phoenix Force poses to us," Artoria began, arms crossed as she spoke. There was no hurry in her voice as if she was simply delivering a report. "Overestimating an enemy is just as dangerous as underestimating them."

"I agree," I said quickly. You could make accurate, actionable plans only by being aware of your enemy's true capability. "But, and I feel like I am repeating myself here, the Phoenix Force casually burns planets. I think overestimating it is hard."

"As far as we are aware of," Medea continued. "The Phoenix's main forms of threat are fourfold. Psychic, fire, and the warping of reality using the former. It also can inhabit hosts, enhancing their existing abilities to unheard-of heights and granting them new ones. These are its only known abilities, correct?"

"Correct," I nodded, and this time, I bit off the sarcasm that nearly escaped my lips. I needed to stop further digressions if I wanted to get the show on the road.

"We are immune to it's psychic abilities. Absolutely, thanks to the Defences. Reality Warping can work around us, but not on us directly. And it uses the latter mostly through hosts, not directly, because it doesn't need to, correct?"

"As far as I am aware." I nodded. "There are exceptions. Bringing back the dead, rewinding time, or other things authors use at their convenience. But in most cases I know of the Phoenix Force's reality-bending powers are used when combined with someone else's mind. It's how it enhances them, even for powers it doesn't have on its own.."

The Phoenix Force was pretty simple, as embodiments of nature tend to be. It wasn't creative or wise. If fire wasn't solving its problem, throw more fire at the problem. If even that fails, then search for a host who can use it to accomplish the goal. It had a mind, but it was almost like a baby AI.

It was like the Entities from Worm in a way. There was intent and power, but the mind was almost infantile.

In many ways, the Phoenix Force, more than any other super being in comics, was a writer's plot device more than a character itself. A source of power to supercharge a character for an issue before it fucks right off again.

In comics, at least. 

Here?

"It can be repelled," Artoria declared. "Emma told us of it being fought off, even destroyed for a time, in a host and on its own form. When destroyed, it forms an egg and is reborn, but until then, it is not a factor. Am I right?"

"Yes, but destroying it to that degree is practically impossible without serious Deus Ex Machina bullshit," I pointed out. It felt like all I was doing was going, 'Yes, but...' 

None of their information was wrong, per se, but there were caveats to everything. 

Did they not understand how much hand-waving bullshit went into comics to allow the good guys to win? Something we didn't have. I wasn't one of those people who thought power was the be-all and end-all, but some things weren't possible unless you were a being like Darkseid, the One Above All, Galactus, or other cosmic entities tied to the very fabric of reality. 

That was what it meant to be Tier 11. 

Not power. Pedigree. 

An existence that was as close to inviolable by the world's rules as you could get.

"And, physically, your true body is a match for it. This leaves its enhanced hosts and fires the only real threat to us. And you'd be able to 'Free' it from its hosts because, subconsciously, people don't want a foreign alien force influencing them. Which only leaves fire. Which also isn't a threat to your true body because you can heal faster than you burn. This, too, is all correct to our knowledge," Glynda picked up. 

Were they talking amongst themselves without my knowledge? Was Emma coordinating them mentally?

I looked at the psychic, and she shook her head. 

So this really was just their understanding as things stood. 

I should explain a bit more then.

"Yes and no. There are probably one or two people who, even subconsciously, see the gain of power as worth the intrusion. Physically, my body is stronger, as far as I am aware, but the Phoenix Force is more durable."

"Than thee, my Lord?" Ranni asked with an eyebrow raised in disbelief. "With thy bottomless well of might and thine miracles, I struggle to imagine a being capable of slaying thy true body. Did the heroes of Emma's world not repel it and shatter it at one time?"

"Ok," I said, putting the pieces together. "I think I see the problem. I am looking at this from a Doylan perspective, whereas you are looking at it from a Watsonian point of view. We both have out-of-context knowledge, but the standpoint is different. And I know a few things you don't. First of all, yes. The Phoenix Force can be beaten back under certain circumstances. It's power can be divided or forcefully absorbed. That is all true. But, and this is key, it cannot die. It is not an immortal or powerful being. It is a force of nature. It is the embodiment of all life in this universe. Past, present, and future. So long as life exists in any universe it touches, so will the Phoenix Force. The only reason it manifests as a firebird is that fire is the best way to purge old life and grow new life."

"It lacks the concept of death," Medea asked, leaning forward in interest. "Would Priscilla not be able to instill it and slay the bird?" 

The crossbreed sleepily blinked at the mention of her name. I placed my hand on her shoulder and purged the alcohol from her, and she perked right up.

"I wouldn't risk it till she is at least Tier 10," I said seriously as I rubbed the dragon girl's scalp. "And it has the concept of death within it. It's just that its death is tied to the death of all life. And it can draw power from that life. Its psychic powers come from all the minds that have existed, currently exist, or will exist. The simple fact is, if the Phoenix Force wishes, it can draw upon that life, unbound by time and space, for whatever it wishes. Like Trigon, there is a technical limit to its power, unlike me, but both are functionally limitless and without stopgaps by body."

"But we are immune to its most dangerous powers," Diana clarified, and I nodded. "The greatest threat it could pose to us is to set our solar system ablaze. Otherwise, we can retreat to the Island, which can't harm us. As far as I understand, it does not take such actions lightly."

"It normally won't," I nodded again. "Payout versus cost to it. It 

"So we need only beat it back. All of us, you included, will be able to operate without fear of collateral in space," Artoria picked up again, but I stopped her right there. 

"No. We cannot fight it," I shook my head grimly. "If it sees me, it is game over. Do not pass go; do not collect two hundred dollars."

That stopped them in their tracks, and for the first time, I saw I had genuinely caught them off guard. Now that I knew the problem came from a different perspective, I could identify why they weren't reacting like I thought they should.

I said the following words slowly, clearly enunciating every word so there would be a clear understanding.

"Now that I am awake, the Phoenix Force will do anything, absolutely anything, to get me."

My words fell like a sword, silencing the room. Nobody breathed. Then Emma spoke, an awed, fearful note to her voice as she read my mind.

"It found you during the Dream."

"A lot of things did," I shrugged. "I didn't have Defences, remember? Anybody could sense my power. It started small, but after the first million years or so, it was significant enough to attract attention. I Freed myself and the Jewel from real space, but I needed a tether to this dimension, or I'd leave it entirely, violating the deal with Death. I was far from any planet, star, galaxy, or supercluster, but many things don't care about distance in this world. Celestials. Living Planets. Certain alien species. A lot of things found me. And the Phoenix was one of them."

"Your Life element, a body that could contain its limitless power, a spiritual and historical connection to fire, and a mind alien enough to connect with it without the bounds of humanity," Emma breathed out in realization. "You're not a psychic, but you are a perfect host for it."

"It tried," I sighed, returning to that long, long Dream. "For hundreds of thousands of years, it tried. It would bombard me psychically every second of every day to join with it. Even without Defences, I can still free myself. I remained me. Then, it could ignore its duties no longer. It left me to go burn planets and stars, renewing the life of the universe. But it came back. It always came back. Every ten thousand or so years, it would return to me and resume its attempts. For millions of years, I've dealt with the Phoenix Force."

It was hard to express just how... much the Phoenix was. Even as a Great One, its mind and will had covered me like a weighted blanket. It had never been malicious. Beings of its level rarely are, but its mere presence had towered over me for tens of millions of years.

And I had wanted it.

Not the intrusion into my mind. I would never want that, but I wanted what its power could give me. Litteral wish fulfillment, independent of my deal with Death. I could rewrite reality to my whim. And I would be truly immortal. Not just unaging but actually unable to die.

I could be fearless and free.

The Phoenix Force tempted me with that promise for tens of millions of years.

But I had made such a deal before.

"Then you can deal with it now, can you not?" Diana asked with a raised brow. "It should be even easier now that you have the Defences."

"It can't merge with me without my permission," I acknowledged. "That isn't the problem. The problem is it will continue trying. Ever. And that was before it discovered what it was like to feel emotions from Jean Grey. It left me last time a few hundred years ago. I thought I still had a few thousand years before it discovered my absence from the 'nest.' It's why I never brought it up."

"You should have," Artoria said, and I winced. I never claimed not to be a hypocrite, but when it came to my wives, I tried to do for them as I asked them to do for me.

"I know," I said, filled with contrition. "It's not an excuse, but leaving will solve this issue. It might not know I am here, but if it does, do any of you think it won't pull a Jean Grey to try and 'get me.' I told Val it was a Yandere Stalker, and I wasn't lying. It might try and kill every woman I know and love, so there's no competition. Or only the psychics. Or destroy the planet to get to me. I don't mind a Yandere, but it has to be one I can control. I cannot control the Phoenix Force."

"So we destroy it," Artoria said simply. "Heroes are fighting it now. We should aid them."

"This is not a battle we can win," I said gravely. "You must understand, the Phoenix Force has no limit. The part in Jean Grey is a fragment of a fragment of its power. It has never had a host that could display its full power, yet it is still enough to destroy galaxies. It can drain life from the past, future, and present to strengthen itself. It normally wouldn't; it goes against its nature as a representation of Life, but if it wants something enough, it will do it. And it wants me very much. The more we fight it, the more Life we kill."

"You're not running because you're afraid," Diana said with realization, and I nodded. "You're doing it to save lives."

"I fear what it will do if it ever sees any of you. It's my fault for not communicating this," I acknowledged again. "It should have been an easy thing to deal with. You are right. The Phoenix Force is an annoyance to me at best. If it appeared on Earth, I figured I'd fuck off for a few weeks to a month. Long enough for the heroes to chase it off-world again. But the situation has changed. Either it is coming here because it knows I am here, in which case it will do anything to get to me, or it doesn't. If it doesn't, and we leave, it will most likely bond to a host and the Oppressor will have the reality warper. Only instead of fake, it would be real. Probably Madelyne Pryor since she's a Jean clone. I don't know if it can control the Phoenix, but it can certainly control her."

"And if it knows you are here but you leave, it will continue to search," Medea was tapping her lip in contemplation.

"It shouldn't know I am here," I repeated. "That's why I didn't think it would be a problem. I have the Defences now. It shouldn't be able to find me at all. Even if it tried to return to me right after I left the 'nest,' which it shouldn't do, space is big. Really big. It should be searching the void between stars for me, and it should have no reason to come looking at Earth. It was just here a few years ago, and I wasn't. If we leave now, the heroes either fight it off, which would be best, or it makes it to Earth, and we're gone. It might pull information from me from the minds of people. Then it will either remain to see if I come back or fly off in search again. But if I am here and it can't get to me? It will make a supernova look tame. So the best option is to leave now, check back in a few months to a year, and repeat until the coast is clear."

"Worst case scenario is it knows you are here and arrives. Whether you are here or not, the Earth will probably not survive the full power of the Dark Phoenix," Emma said grimly. "Host or no host. I don't know how it ended in this world, but in mine, it left Earth only because Jean killed herself rather than continue to be a threat. Leaving right before it arrives heightens the likelihood it will chase rather than rage."

"We can't plan for failure," I said with a nod. "We don't want the 'Oppressor' to gain control of a Phoenix host. Keeping the Phoenix from Earth is the best way to solve all problems. Whether it knows I am here or not, my leaving will hopefully lead it away. Hell, this just might be this world's version of the Avengers vs. X-Men event or something similar, and it will sort itself out without us. We don't have to be involved with everything, and keeping out of it will stop the situation from being too complicated."

It didn't line up with that storyline. M-day hadn't happened, Hope Summers didn't exist, last I checked, Madelyne Pryor was still pregnant with Cable, Jean Grey was actually dead, and the Avengers were missing some of their heaviest hitters. 

Still, this could be this universe's version of the Phoenix returning to Earth to find some new host to experience more emotions before it came back to me.

Our greatest hope at the moment was that the Phoenix still thought I was floating in space and wasn't actively looking for me. Then, it would have no reason to go 'all out' on the heroes of this world, and they could chase it off.

I knew the birdbrain better than almost anyone in existence. I had felt its mind pressed up against mine for millions of years. I understood how it thought.

As a rule of thumb, the Phoenix Force just didn't care about little things like fights or damage. Its only goal had been to ensure Life flourished. It was too big, too all-encompassing to have much of a worry about itself. Is its body in one universe shattered? So what? It would come back. In a year, maybe in a thousand. 

The Phoenix force didn't care. It simply was. 

Until it met me or Jean Grey.

Then, emotions got involved.

"Do you truly believe that?" Raven asked, and I grimaced.

I didn't think I was the center of the universe or anything, but downplaying my position was just as bad as overestimating it. Death had explicitly chosen this universe because it had the best chance to force me to become Tier 11.

I knew of two ways to do that. 

The first was to merge with the Phoenix Force. Anybody combining with it was automatically Tier 11 if they were even the slightest bit compatible. The other idea was the one I had when the Dream ended, and Emma entered my mind. 

I refused to take either option. 

I was looking for another way. Any other way. Both would mean losing who I was in exchange for the rise in status.

There was a genuine possibility that this entire situation was manipulated by Death to force me to try and take in the mercurial psychic entity. She didn't care for universes, lives, or anything but her freedom.

I couldn't say I blamed her; I had done the same for the same goal, but it chafed me to know that everything I went through could directly result from someone's plan to force me to ascend.

Or it could be my paranoia, and Death was simply watching from the sidelines, never interfering.

I only internally thanked my Family that they hadn't pointed out the obvious solution to the problem.

They knew me well enough that I would never let something like the Phoenix into my mind.

"Then leaving is really the best option," Diana sighed as she stood from the table. "I will talk to my mo- to Hippolyta. I pray we will only be gone for a few days or weeks."

"I will let our allies know of our departure," Robin said with a bitter smile, crossing her arms over her chest. "Let's keep the exact reasons a secret, but it is better they are alerted to avoid a panic. They will alert the public. We won't have control over the message, but it's the best we can do. With any luck, it will blow over quickly."

"I will say farewell to the team," Glynda stood with a resigned smile. She had been getting attached.

All around me, my family started leaving and preparing for departure. It wasn't the frantic, rushed move I expected. 

Not one of them looked happy. Priscilla looked like she was going to cry.

We had been starting a life here. 

Making friends and connections, setting down roots. If we had our way, this world would be a base we could use for millennia as we explored other universes and realities.

And we were leaving it.

It was a bitter scene, yet my heart swelled, and emotion choked my throat.

They didn't want to leave, that was plain, yet they would. 

Because they trusted my judgement and word. Because they trusted I had the best interest of this Family, and even the world, in mind when I made a decision.

They trusted me when I said it was the best choice.

"Wait!"

Emma's voice stopped everyone in their tracks.

She had stood as well as the others, possibly to tell her local counterpart of the departure. 

Then she froze.

"We're running because we cannot let the Phoenix Force find you, right?" Emma clarified, and her face was noticeably pale. "Because once it does, unless you bond with it, it will tear the earth apart trying to get to you, right?"

"Right," I nodded, worried about her look. "If it gets here and I am gone, even if it knows I was here at one point, it will keep looking. But if it sees me, then I leave, it might just burn the star system in its rage. Our best bet is it gets here, finds I am gone, and fucks right off. We're back in a week."

"What if," Emma stuttered, licking her lips in nervousness. She was starting to shake. "What if it thought it got what it wanted? If, after millions of years, it sensed your open and undefended mind, inviting it in?"

"I'm never letting that thing in my mind," I answered with absolute certainty.

"But what if the Phoenix Force thought you did, only for it to be fake," she asked in a hurry. "What will it do then?"

"Going by Yandere rules?" I asked with a snort. "The target of affection returns said affection, only for it to be fake? The mother of all rampages. Everyone, even slightly related, gets the knife. 'If I can't have him, nobody can' mentality."

"What brought this on?" Medea asked the mutant with a frown.

"I asked myself, 'Why is it coming to earth now,'" Emma said with a grimace. "And I only had one answer. My Semblance."

There was a beat of silence as I took the idea in.

"That... is possible," Diana muttered. "If it is as powerful as we believe and is actively searching for Mikael, it would have sensed even the slightest hint of him from the other side of the universe."

"So it felt your Semblance," I nodded. "Nobody can blame you for that since I didn't tell you it would be looking for me. That's why it's coming now. All the more reason to get gone."

"We cannot," Glynda said with a tired rub of her eyes. "If her Semblance was just a copy of your mind, it would be one thing. But it isn't, is it."

"My Semblance is the manifestation of what I felt when we were one," Emma said softly as if admitting a deep shame. "It isn't your mind at all. That is too alien and powerful to replicate it. It is my experience in it. Your Love, your power, the dreams and possibilities I saw. The things we would be able to do together. That's why everyone's experience with it is different and why it's a Master ability. It doesn't force people to do what I want. It makes them want to do anything to please you in order to achieve their own goals, no matter how complex or simple. It is all possible if they have your Love, so they do anything they can to get that Love."

"But for the Phoenix, that state itself is the goal," I said in realization, collapsing back into my seat with realization. "For all intent and purposes, when you had your Semblance active, it was merged with me."

"And when it ended, it knew exactly where to go," Emma nodded grimly. "And when it gets here, and you are gone, it will find out everyone else felt the same merging. I... do not believe it will take that well."

"A Yandere finds out its 'love' was mind fucking everyone on the planet after it spent millions of years trying to accomplish the same thing without success? Running or not, it doesn't matter anymore," I let out a bitter chuckle.

My wives had been right. The Phoenix wasn't a worry to me directly. 

My initial panic had been the almost PTSD-like response to dealing with THE psychic for millions of years. One that was obsessed with me. 

I could see that now. But I still thought running was the best plan. 

Trigon and the gods were more of a risk to me in a direct threat. Even if fighting wasn't an option, I had kept it at bay for millions of years, and I could do it again. But where would that end? What was my victory condition? Be cooped up on my Island for another hundred thousand years while the Earth burned?

To everything else but me? The Phoenix was an apocalypse approaching on burning wings.

I was never in danger, but others were. I had tried to be a hero in my own cowardly way. To run and lead the threat away.

What a silly idea.

For a long second, I allowed the melancholy to sit in me.

Then, it was time to get to work.

"Ok," I stated, sitting up straight. I could feel sad, angry, or resigned, but I couldn't let that stop me. "Running won't work. Fighting won't work. And I am not going to become its host. So I am out of ideas. How do we stop a Yandere force of nature from turning the Earth into charcoal? Thoughts? Ideas? Plans crazy enough to just might work? I am open to anything at the moment."

Credit where it was due. My wives had ideas ready at hand.

"Lure it away," Tsunade said immediately. "If it's objective is you, then make it think you are somewhere else. Either you or Emma can lure it away from Earth."

"That only delays the inevitable," Diana shook her head. "It will return, and we can only distract it a few times before it understands the trick. If it cannot be destroyed, then it must be trapped. Many an immortal foe of mine was defeated in this manner. Do we have a method that could contain it?"

"No," Medea shook her head. "Any prison or seal will fall. Especially if it draws power from all life of the universe."

"I want to clarify that the Phoenix Force is a multi-universe level entity," I pointed out. "It isn't at the level of Death, and is consigned to 'local' multiverses, but it does exist over many of them at once. Any prison needs to have dimensional components to contain it. We can't fight a monster which draws power from all life in the local multiverse cluster. It simply isn't possible."

"Can we not trap it on the Island," Priscilla pointed out. "Sir Bard would prevent its escape, and it might not even attempt to leave."

"I could..." I said with a grimace. 

The Island was my pocket dimension, a part of my being. I wasn't omnipotent or omnipresent, but I had absolute control over what entered and left. 

Until now, I had set it to 'things can come in, but cannot come out' as a sort of fly trap for my foes of this world. It acted as a meat grinder, a passive way of killing off those with malicious intent towards me and my Family. It was so large that I didn't need to care about most of the space, and only the southern tip was used for habitation, protected by the most potent bounded field Medea and I could make.

"Our barriers would not hold it back," Yoruichi frowned. "If it is trapped here, we will not be able to use the Island at all. We'd lose our home and one of our greatest assets."

"Perhaps we are going about this incorrectly," Glynda tapped her lips in thought. "We are assuming it is an enemy. It is a threat to the world if not us, but it acts not out of malicious intent. It is simply trying to find its perfect host, is it not? What if we present it with a better one than Mikael?"

Could I just say how much I loved my wives? Not once had they ever entertained the idea of letting it merge with me.

"Who are you thinking?" Robin leaned forward. "We cannot allow someone under the 'oppressor' to gain the power of the Phoenix."

In response, eyes fell on two people.

"No." Tsunade declared strongly. Her hand fell to her abdomen as an explanation, and all eyes shifted from her to fall on the last option.

Emma stared at the ceiling in thought. Her poise slightly recovered, but she was still paler than usual.

"I..." She started to speak, paused, thought about it some more, and started again. "I don't think it will work. Or if it did, it would end badly."

"You were a host before," Artoria said with a furrowed brow. "What prevents you from accepting it again?"

"And it's your semblance that attracted it," Glynda nodded. Emma winced at the reminder. "As the only psychic among us, you would be the best fit for a host."

"I don't want us to take in the Phoenix," I interrupted. "Every single one of its hosts is influenced by it. We would be, too. To take it in, we'd need to lower our Defenses to it, leaving us susceptible to its power."

"But it can be controlled," Diana pointed out. "Jean Grey did so. As did other hosts. You have told me so. Emma is our most experienced in mental discipline and most likely to retain control. And if she fails, you can just Free her."

"I could trap thee and it in mine Diorama to facilitate the binding," Ranni proposed. "T'will not stand up to such power for long, but it can give thee privacy and some measure of safety should it run rampant till our Lord Frees thee."

"I will not be able to control the Phoenix," Emma denied. "Because I do not want to. And if I am its host, Mikael will not be able to Free me. I will not want to be Free either."

I rubbed my eyes tiredly at Emma's declaration. I didn't need to look to know that my more heroic wives were giving the White Queen severe looks at her admittance. 

Sensing my feelings, Medea jumped on my lap and rubbed against me while purring. I idly scratched her behind the ears as I ran over the situation in my head. 

Priscilla, bless her floofy heart, didn't understand the implications.

"Because of thy Semblance?" She asked with a tilt of her head.

We had been at this for a while now. We were running out of time and had no clear answer yet. 

As of right now, we might go with the 'lead it away' plan to buy more time. A handful of minutes was not enough time to devise a plan to deal with a sapient force of nature.

"Because I will use its power for the same goal," Emma said. "When you host the Phoenix, everything is so much... more. As an embodiment of Life, it enhances everything about you. You are stronger, of course. But so are your emotions. Your love and hate. Your dreams and fears. You take actions you would never before because all hesitation is gone. You think you are in control because your goals haven't changed. But you aren't because you no longer have the mortal limits or considerations."

I opened my eyes, and they met hers. Normally composed and cool, I saw the emotions bubbling below them.

There was love, of course, but there was so much more.

Madness. Desire. Fanaticism. Devotion. Fear.

"If I have the Phoenix Force," Emma said, staring into my draconian eyes. "I will do everything I can to become one with Mikael again. If I think burning this planet will get me that, I will. I will not have the Phoenix Force. The Phoenix Force will have me."

I stood up. All eyes turned to me.

"I am going to lure it away," I said, and when they made to speak, I raised a hand to silence it. "I'll teleport back to where I Dreamed. It considers it a 'nest'. I'll lower my Information Defence. It will come flying. As will anything else after me. So I am going to teleport right back. It will buy us some time. Days, maybe weeks, depending on how fast it flies. We'll come up with a plan by then. Even if it is just to run away and pray."

"That is for the best," Diana said, returning her attention to Emma. "It will also allow us to coordinate with the League. Perhaps they have a plan we aren't aware of."

"I'll be back in five minutes," I nodded at them.

Then, I paused and looked around the room. Twelve women. One cat(?). Pride was gone, probably slipped into my shadow, but I was still missing a wife.

"Where's Melina?"

********

In the void of space, beyond Jupiter, a spaceship flew in the wake of flames.

The Phoenix blazed through the dark, a fiery light that none could miss. 

Enormous and bright, it dominated the screens of the console. Windows would be a structural weakness in the craft, an unacceptable one, so cameras were the only means by which the passengers could watch the fight.

If it could be called a fight at all.

Hundreds of robotic drones, all equipped with psychic disruptions, buzzed around the mass of psionic fire under the control of Dragon. Accompanying them were a half a dozen heroes. Superman and Supergirl blasted holes through its body. Wonder Woman carved into it with an enchanted blade. Iron Man, encased in fire-immune armour tens of meters tall, tore chunks of fire into long rivers of molten energy, sucking them up into a reactor explicitly designed to use the Phoenix's power. 

Eidolon, limited in his versatility in space, equipped a Mover power to teleport others around, avoiding any rogue blast of fire or force. Green Lantern encased the enormous firebird in a green globe of manifested Willpower. It's shattering was only momentary before it was replaced by another. Over and over, the green glow manifested only to be destroyed. Hal Jordan was an exceptional Green Lantern, possibly one of the best to ever live, but even he didn't have more Willpower than a manifestation of all Life.

They attacked with everything they had. Physical, energy-based, magical, or psychic, they threw it all at the monster. They weren't trying to kill it, just to slow it down. If they could impede it enough, waste enough of its power that it would simply give up, turn around and find greener pastures.

And the Phoenix?

It ignored them.

In another time, in another place, with another Phoenix, the Earth's mightiest heroes could fight to impede the sapient force of nature.

But this Phoenix had a goal, and nothing would slow it down.

The passengers on the space shuttle knew this.

Their job was to protect the minds of the fighters and themselves from any influence the psychic being would exert on them. 

More than those engaged in direct conflict, they faced the most significant risk. And they understood just how fruitless this fight really was.

The Phoenix Force didn't even recognize them as threats.

Its mind, weighing down on all of them with the force of a god, was entirely oblivious to them. Just by flying by, the psychic energy of nature exerted enough pressure that Martian Manhunter had lost control of his shape-shifting, Zatanna's voice was raw from all her casting, and Dr. Strange's brow was covered in sweat as he stood in his ritual circle.

They could feel the Phoenix's single-minded focus on its goal. It made no attempt to hide its desire for the White Dragon, for Life.

There would be talks with the Elden Lord after this, but for now, their goal was to ensure Earth's survival and the Phoenix's banishment.

Their attacks were inconsequential as it drew power from all life itself.

It never stopped. 

It never saw them.

It simply flew on by.

They were fighting its wake. 

They did battle with the hot wind of its passage.

This was what it meant to face the Phoenix Force when it bent its will to a goal.

It considered them only dust. Space dust on its space road.

That was their advantage.

Even dust could choke a dragon.

He could see their plan.

Simple, yet effective.

There were three layers.

The first was the superficial one. Do enough damage, and the Phoenix Force could decide to try its luck elsewhere.

The second was subtle. The magician worked her magic to twist space. It shrunk and bent; two points halfway across the solar system were suddenly right next to each other. 

They had learned a lesson from their initial class with the Elden Lord. If you cannot fight a foe, redirect it. This solution would work if the Phoenix's goal was beyond Earth. It would fly by without caring about the change.

It wouldn't work. The Mistress of Flame's goal was on Earth itself. But the magic served as camouflage for the final plan.

The final layer was the Sorcerer Supreme.

His ritual, empowered by the energy Iron Man siphoned from the bird itself, wouldn't harm the mass of energy. It was a simple accelerated time spell with a healing component. Not only was it the Phoenix's own power, but all it would do was force the bird to rest and heal at an accelerated rate. 

The Phoenix would return to its egg stage for a short amount of time and emerge stronger than ever. 

It wouldn't resist such a 'gift.'

But a thousand years was short only to a being of its calibre. To the mortals of Midgard, it was long enough to decide the fate of their world.

They could use the Phoenix egg as a source of power, a deterrent against other threats, or simply send it into the void of space to avoid the attention it would bring on the cosmic scale.

Odin admired wisdom like this. The ingenuity of mortals never failed to fill his old heart with joy.

Were this any other situation, he would have lent aid to the mortals for their cunning and their might. Even without his help, they very well might succeed.

But the agents of the enemy could not be allowed success. And Odin could not allow this opportunity to slip him by.

The Odinforce was not at its peak. It had been too long since his last Odinsleep, and most of his power was occupied with keeping his people safe.

It was still enough to take out unaware mortals, no matter how mighty they were.

All the inhabitants of the spacecraft slumped in sleep, and without their protection, the heroes in the void had no defence against the firebird's mind.

Odin watched from the top of the spaceship as they felt its mind pressing down on them one by one. Had he or the Phoenix wanted any of them dead, they would have died.

But they were but mortals in the game of gods.

When they turned to the ship, fearful of the fate of their comrades, they saw him.

It was too late.

With skill born of millennia, Odin turned the weaving of the magician's spell upon them. Space twisted, and they were in the vessel with their comrades. The sorcerer's spell, empowered by Phoenix Fire, hit their unprotected minds, and they fell into the best sleep they would ever have.

The childish, trickster part of Odin, the part that was more like Loki than Thor, enjoyed tactics like this. 

Using less power than most mortals possessed, he had disabled some of the greatest heroes of the world through skill and trickery alone. For just a moment, Odin felt like he was a million years younger.

But not all of them fell.

The Amazon. She was still awake. Her mind was more resilient after encountering the abomination's monstrous form.

But she was still mortal.

Odin put her under with the dregs of the Odinforce he could spare. Sighing at Zeus' foolish shortsightedness, Odin looked at the fire in the stars.

The Phoenix had stopped.

It hovered there, larger than Asgard, and burned with fire and life.

Though it might not consider most mortals worth attention, Odin was a different story. Not because he wielded the Odinforce but because of who he was.

There was a history there, and the Phoenix Force remembered him even in the throes of its single-minded obsession.

"Our son needs your help."

Odin's voice, carried by his magic, covered the miles of distance between the two, even in the vacuum of space.

The Phoenix tilted its head in a bird-like fashion.

He saw Firehair as she once was. Beautiful as any star and as effervescent as flame. Odin saw himself as he once was. Young. Vigorous. Foolish.

The Phoenix didn't communicate in words. That was too limited for such a being. When it could, it spoke like this. A million messages communicated through images, feelings and memories. Impossible to misunderstand. 

Most mortals could not handle it.

"My power wanes." The All-father didn't shout. He didn't need to. His words carried meaning. His mind brought understanding. "My people will not survive without me. Thor will die."

Odin held a baby in his hands and knew this would be the one. The son he could entrust the future to. And he had almost lost him. Gaea/Phoenix looked upon her creation and tilted her head in a bird-like manner.

"An invader has taken hold of Midgard." Odin's voice simmered with suppressed rage. "It has claimed hold of Thor's soul. And through him, my people. I need your help to save them."

An enormous White Dragon floated in the void of space, curled around a Jewell. It radiated Life and... something. Something the Phoenix was only beginning to understand.

Odin didn't grimace or show any outward appearance of his feelings. He didn't even allow himself to feel anything about the Elden Lord, knowing the Phoenix was reading him like a book.

This was the riskiest part of his plan. The unknown factor. Odin didn't know what relation the Elden Lord had to the Phoenix Force. He just knew there was one.

In their time together, Firehair often spoke about the images the Phoenix had sent her. The yearning for... something from a great White Dragon. 

The Phoenix was obsessed with it, she had told him.

Odin had remembered that on the day the dragon descended. It was why he had not joined the other Skyfathers in their attempt to negotiate with the beast.

Anything that the Phoenix Force was focused on would not be simple.

But Odin could not allow the Elden Lord's presence to stop him. His wife, his son, and his people needed him. 

And he needed the Phoenix.

"I ask for your aid for only three years." A year to gain control of its power. A year to excise the influence upon his people's souls. A year to wage war against the enemy. By keeping the term short, he kept the Phoenix from thinking of it as anything but a minuscule loss. "If there is any part of you that remembers me fondly, that cares for the boy you brought back, or that remembers the love I shared with your host, I beg of you three years. At the end, I shall personally bring you to the Elden Lord."

The Phoenix stared at him for a long moment.

Odin let its mind wrap him, delving into his mind as it searched for the truth of his statement.

He spoke the truth. Odin forced that thought to the forefront of his mind. 

It wasn't simply a promise. 

It was a sacred oath.

The Phoenix Force felt it. Felt his sincerity and honesty.

Yet its obsession was strong.

He had everything he ever wanted. The perfect host. Life. They were one. They were Free. And it felt... everything. All the emotions, those it had only tasted from its hosts, were felt fully for the first time. For a few seconds, the Phoenix was no more. The Dark Phoenix was a distant, forgotten memory. 

Merged with Life, they were the White Phoenix.

Then it was gone.

Odin, for the second time, felt Heartbreak.

"I can give you that!" Odin promised. "Help me, and I shall stop at nothing till you are one with the Elden Lord!"

Either the Phoenix Force helped him save his son and people, or there would be no future. Creating the perfect Phoenix host into existence was a small price to pay, if a price at all, to see his people safe.

A trill of birdsong echoed across the darkness of space.

Odin allowed himself to feel hope.

Then he noticed its attention was not on him but on something emerging from Wonder Woman's shadow within the ship.

And Odin knew the Phoenix did not sing for him.