Chapter 169 – Solution

[2009 – October]

"Emma? What's wrong, Emma?", Elijah's voice sounded out, breaking her out of her state of shock as he came to her side and looked at the monitor.

"S-she is still dying, Elijah.", Emma stated softly, her voice nearly breaking while a frown settled on her younger brother's face.

"Her genetic makeup, is it identical to yours?", he asked calmly, though Emma didn't really understand in what way this mattered. She answered nonetheless after opening another file on the datapad that showed the result of the DNA test.

"No.", she shook her head, forcing herself to keep her voice even as she answered, "Though the test shows that the similarities between our DNA are about 92%. It's likely that they tried to clone me but failed, or they intentionally changed parts of her genetic makeup."

"Maybe it's both.", Elijah pondered as his frown deepened, "From what I understand, their cloning technology is imperfect but they also only used your genetic material as a template for what they tried to create."

"From the information that Kimura possessed, the Facility tried to clone different mutants with extraordinary powers in the past but all the clones that had been successfully created had extremely short lifespans due to instabilities in the genetic structure."

"Laura is one of the only successful attempts and even she is not a real clone. Her own mutant powers also give her the ability to regenerate, directly countering any possible degeneration of her DNA."

Sighing quietly, his gaze turned towards the sleeping girl as he continued: "Just because we saved her from suffering under the hands of the scientists working for the Facility, doesn't mean that she is exempt from these complications."

"Not to mention that I can feel incongruities in her life aura and presence.", Elijah added while ending with a sigh, "I don't know how they changed her genetic makeup to fit their plans but it affected the purity of her already delicate life force. She is indeed dying."

A coppery taste on her tongue, Emma realized that her teeth had dug into the flesh on the inside of her cheek while listening to her younger brother's words, her hands clenched into fists until her already pale skin seemed even lighter as it stretched over her knuckles.

Knowing that no technology that she had access to, or even only knowledge of, would be able to save Celeste, Emma looked at the only beings that she knew were capable of bending the laws of reality to their will for help.

"Can either of you help her?", she asked with desperate hope as her gaze moved from her brother to his lover, from the Lord of Darkforce to the Goddess of Life.

…

Having been silent up until this point, Jean hesitated to answer when faced with Emma's plea.

From the moment that she had stepped into the room, a little before that even, Jean had sensed the weakening life force of the girl and understood what this meant, even with her still having much to learn when it came to the powers that the Phoenix had bestowed upon her as its incarnation and successor.

She also knew that saving the delicate blonde, should be within her means but her control over the life-giving fire of the Phoenix was too lacking to even attempt such a thing, not to mention her ability to rule over life as a concept.

Jean knew that the likelihood of something going wrong was very high but faced with Emma's sincere plea, the young redhead was reluctant to admit her inability to help and crush the older blonde's hope.

"I'm sorry.", she eventually forced herself to answer after a few moments of silent contemplation, shaking her head as she added, "My control is too lacking. Besides Elijah, I don't dare to use my flames on anybody else for the time being."

"Elijah?", Emma asked, her gaze moving to the dark-haired teen next to her while Jean likewise shifted her attention to her love, hoping that he could do what she was unable to.

…

As the incarnation of one of the most malevolent forces in the Universe, Darkforce being the devourer of life and all things light, it wasn't farfetched for me to possess such extraordinary senses when it came to life force.

Adding in the fact that my Energy Vessel dialed all my senses to one hundred and eleven, I understood the situation of Emma's daughter rather well.

My knowledge of the comics also provided me with the necessary hints to find the reason for her peculiar state.

With my Extrasensory Perception, I could sense that the strength of the girl's mind was similar to Emma's, their presence having roughly the same intensity to them, even with her being asleep.

This was strange though since I knew that none of the Cuckoos had such great psychic abilities by themselves. To even use Cerebro they had to share the burden among themselvesin the comics, which was enough to showcase the disparity between them and an Omega-level telepath like Emma or Charles.

Only by integrating their minds into a single entity akin to a hive mind, could their abilities reach a level that allowed them to compete with first-class telepaths like Emma.

And yet, I could clearly sense that within the sleeping girl slumbered great powers that might not be any less exaggerated than Emma's.

Coupled with her mottled presence and life aura, a guess had already formed in my mind that made me speculate that the girl might have the ability to preserve her deceased sisters' strength through the innate connection that they had been born with.

These powers though didn't come without a price as I could sense her body's inability to contain her powers, which just exacerbated the birth defect that most clones shared – lifespan.

"Elijah?"

Hearing Emma's question, I put aside my musings as I calmly raised my hand and lightly tapped the forehead of the sleeping girl.

"Don't worry. With me around, it is impossible for her to die even if she wants to.", I stated calmly after anchoring an ethereal barrier to the girl's form, "I can protect her from the instability of her genetic structure and extend her life, even if I can't fix the underlying weakness of her life force."

Creating a barrier like that would have been absolutely impossible before I had become a Realm Lord as the mental strength necessary to keep it active might have just crushed my mortal mind.

This was different than simply healing someone's wounds by forcing my will onto reality through my shields.

Besides 'shielding' her genetic structure from instability and unnatural degeneration, extending her life beyond the capacity of her own life force was akin to defying 'Death', which was not an action to be taken lightly.

So even with my mind being countless times stronger at this point, I still felt the burden of my actions. Thankfully, it was a minor burden at best.

Turning to Jean, I smiled lightly as I continued: "You can heal her in the future when you have enough control over the Phoenix's powers, Firefly."

My words and actions made Emma heave a sigh of relief, an unbearable burden seemingly being lifted from her shoulders as she thanked me quietly.