The Phoenix Force

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1st September 2005, Valley of Kings

(Jasmine POV)

A clusterfuck. That is the only thing I could use to describe what was happening in front of me. How the hell had that happened. The day had been eventful enough when I confronted the Phoenix Force avatar in the morning. Everything was coming according to plan. I had been planning to integrate myself to her life and involve myself in her training. To do that, I made her understand how screwed up she actually is and made her question Xavier's competence. Not that I was lying about that, the man really needs a reality check about the mutant coexistence issue. Additionally, the man screwed up his sealing of Jean's power, sealing a small part of Jean along with her abilities. I still can't believe they call him the 'world's greatest telepath' even after fucking up this badly.

In the end, Jean's confrontation with Xavier should have made her either extremely furious at the man, or simply uncomfortable to stay in the same residence as him, causing me to be the only person she could rely on for help controlling her powers. Jean's reaction will entirely depend on her professor's explanations of what he did and why he did it. Either way, she wasn't going to stay with him anymore. After all, you can't just forgive someone for messing with your head. It was manipulative, I'll admit to that, but this was the Phoenix Force we're talking about. I was not going to take any chances with it; any misstep and it could just destroy the planet.

I was prepared for Xavier to be defensive, try to mess with Jean's mind further or even attack me telepathically, but I didn't prepare for this. Later on, that night, I felt one of wards on my old temples in Egypt break. I wasn't overly worried; I had emptied pretty much every temple and every hidden cache from any dangerous artifacts or actually dangerous items and put them in my palace in Avalon.

To be honest, I only left the wards on so I could watch curse breakers try to get in. I left a sizable amount of treasure, mostly gold and jewels, as a rewards for breaking my wards and defeating my traps. It was silly but it was a way for me to have a bit of fun, something that added a bit of spice in my old age. It was like watching a real life Indiana Jones movie but with magic. Selene and I usually have bets on who would survive out of the teams that go through and how much they will be able to handle. And I had temples everywhere, in every continent and even in most countries.

So, when I got a signal that the entirety of my wards broke at once in one of my old temples in Egypt. It caused me to raise my eyebrows; while I weakened the wards by a lot so that the challengers would actually stand a chance, overpowering the wards even then, would take hundreds of wizards working at once. Curious, I teleported to the site.

This temple was a special one, in the fact that it was the one Apocalypse tried to break into thousands of years ago. It was also where most of my Ancient Egyptian treasures were hidden. In fact, my Ankh was hidden there. The artifact was the result of my experimentation with reality celestial runes; I had always had a problem with those, especially in understanding their limitations. I had created the artifact to learn reality manipulation without the usage of runes, the Ankh acting like a focus, similarity to a wand is to a wizard. It had helped me learn to hone an extremely dangerous and difficult field of magic. I'm pretty sure that I was the first one to use it. Even in Atlantis, I never heard of anyone using something even remotely similar.

The artifact in question is currently sitting in my vault in Avalon with the rest of my ridiculously powerful artifacts. I also call it the 'it was probably a mistake to make these' vault. Hey, don't judge me. It gets really boring living for so long.

Anyway, I wasn't too worried too much about it.

I had taken everything from it after the confrontation with En Sabah Nur, realizing that it was possible, no matter how unlikely it was for someone to break inside. I only left the gold, for the luck team of curse breakers who would be able to break in.

When I did arrive that I noticed how much things were going wrong. First of all, En Sabah Nur was back. Yeah, that guy. And he was trying to get inside my temple. Again. The guy really doesn't take no for an answer.

I was a bit surprised that I didn't get alerted by a ward when he woke up but there's chance that the ward broke after so many millennia without me maintaining it. I'm not proud of it but I will say that I kinda forgot about him. It was just so long ago and it was only a small fight that I barely remember. Additionally, just after it, I lost Hestia which caused a long period of depression.

Either way, the guy might have made me exert myself at the time, but I was barely as experienced as I am now and definitely not as powerful. I would have just taken him out, if only for the fact that I had a much bigger issue to deal with, the Phoenix Force Avatar, Jean Grey.

If I was just fighting En Sabah Nur, I would have just killed him and left. But with the X-men there, I would have let them handle it. They will need the experience for the things to come. I know it sounds very apathetic, but Apocalypse is a powerful foe and would give them a taste of what's waiting for them in the future. It will also serve as a wake up call for them to train their powers once more, if they want to save mutant kind, for both Xavier's X-men and Eric's Acolytes.

But unfortunately, someone ended up completely removing Jean's bindings at once. It was probably Xavier; it sounds like thing he would do if he's desperate. This is exactly what happens when someone idiotic who thinks they know better make righteous decisions without understanding the consequences.

There was a reason why I never just removed Jean's bindings and it was the fact that the power will simply overwhelm her. The bindings themselves are a problem because of the fact that the power was supposed to grow with her, not just pile off in the back of her mind to be released at once. So, when I tried to loosen the bindings somewhat and Xavier noticed, I just gave up on them; anything I would do will end up being undone by Xavier later and I couldn't risk removing all the bindings at once. The power will be too much for her to handle.

Any mortal mind will simply not understand the power they were gifted and make no mistake, Jean Grey is mortal. The breaking or removal of the bindings Xavier put will pretty much guarantee a dark phoenix situation, something that I dearly want to avoid.

Honestly, if I had a choice, I would have simply killed the girl. But an avatar of a cosmic being killing another one's avatar, has consequences. And I definitely don't want to anger the phoenix force. Even among an infinity of cosmic beings, it was one of the most powerful ones, right up there with Death. It was the source of all Psionic energy in every universe, in every multiverse. Any form of telepathy or telekinesis originated from it. But that was good and all, but while Life represents the beginning and Death represents the end, the Phoenix force is the balance. It is rebirth, the never ending cycle of Life and Death.

What the Phoenix force hates the most is stagnation or the lack of progress. In cases like this, it simply purges it like an infection and simply waits for new life to grow. It is Rebirth incarnated.

And that power was being represented in a hormonal teenaged girl with more issues than Vogue. And with the bindings gone, she was feeling her full powers at once and she was getting lost to it. Add in the fact that it was imbalanced due to Fawkes death, it would have been leaning towards darkness, also known as destruction.

I could see it now in her eyes, her powers are starting to overwhelm her. Jean Grey was becoming less and less. While the instincts of the Phoenix force were rising. If I do nothing, I would be left with nothing but a body with the messed instincts of the Phoenix force that were leaning towards destruction.

The girl was pretty much playing with Apocalypse now, but I could see it in her eyes, the girl was losing her humanity. The Summers kid is trying to calm her down and see sense. It would have worked it Jean was in love with the kid but it seems the boy's feelings were one sided; the redhead just knocked him out.

This was getting too much; I just create a powerful telekinetic pulse, knocking everyone around and causing the sand to block everyone's view. I walk towards the Phoenix Force Avatar wearing my Master of Death outfit and just shadow travel in front of her. I used the celestial power runes to physically bind her powers. I could have permanently done so, but I chose one that degraded over time. The better control she has over her abilities, the more it would loosen.

This was the way it was intended; with her growing with her powers. A least that's one disaster avoided.

Looking at the teenager, I can't help but pity her and try to reassure her, "I'm sorry, but you're not ready yet, child." Because that's what she is in my eyes, a child that was being failed by everyone around her. I promise to myself that I will not fail her as well, as the girl passes out in my arms. I take off my hood and put her down gently; there was no need for the girl to suffer further. She's going to feel terrible when she wakes up; her body is unused to channeling this type of energy, especially Phoenix flames.

But with that out of the way, I needed to think on the main issue. Someone was occluding my senses somehow; I have no idea how that happened. I should have sensed the Phoenix Force awakening during her fight. It was the same thing with Fawkes when Dumbledore killed him. I couldn't sense it either until after it had happened. My role as Death's avatar should allow me insight when something this important or this impactful happens. I thought that it was just a fluke with Fawkes. But this was something else, Something important, something sinister. The only thing able to suppress the power of a cosmic entity is another cosmic being, and whatever it was, is interested in the Phoenix Force somehow. I had no idea what was going on but I'll need to handle that later.

My thoughts were interrupted by a gravely voice, "How? You're supposed to be dead!"

Oh, yeah, that guy. I completely forgot about him. I stare at him and just shrug, "There's a reason they called me a Goddess, En Sabah Nur."

My words seem to enrage him further, "Do you have any idea how long I was imprisoned because of you?"

I just keep smirking at him, "Of course, I'm the one who planned it out after all."

Apocalypse's face contorted into a scowl, "I'm going to kill you for what you've done. I'm going to cut off your every limb one by one, until there's nothing left of you but a broken shell of a woman who dared defy me."

I just tilt my head and answer him with a distracted tone, "I'm sorry, did you say something?"

The face he made was hilarious. Trolling mad men is so much fun and I need to release some stress after the situation with Jean. I'm not going to say no to a punching bag.