05: Bird and Snake

[Time Skip: 7 Months: 07/09/1992]

James searched in old newspapers and asked the Ancient One, that he calls Master if the events of the X-Men: Apocalypse happened... And it didn't. James was very confused, he made some research and discovered that he is in a Multiverse that some things didn't happen, like The Apocalypse, he thought that the X-Men wouldn't exist... Until today. He was talking with his master when the two of them felt a huge weak wave of gamma radiation. In these 7 Months that James trained and meditated, he retrieved 5 of his soul parts. Cancer was the first, Aquarius the second, Aries the third, Gemini the fourth, and Pisces the fifth.

When he returned the piece of his soul, the personality would die and cease to exist, but the emotions of the personality would still be inside James' body, so when he felt the weak trace of energy, he felt excited because of the emotions that Cancer left behind. He looked at the Ancient One that was calm, it seeks that she already looked at the future... So, James used his ring to open a portal to New York and said goodbye to his master, in those 7 months he learned a lot... His emotions now couldn't be influenced easily by his other 7 personalities.

When James appeared in New York, he started to follow the energy he felt. He arrived at a house, instantly he saw a red-haired woman using her powers to kill another red-haired woman, but this one with blue skin. James unleashes a huge energy blast on Jean, making her fall down. She can't control anything she does. James felt pity for her, when he entered her mind he saw that she was suffering like him when his other personalities tried to invade and be the one controlling his body all the time. He ignored the stunned X-Men and touched Jean's forehead, making the Phoenix that was confused and scared stop attacking Jean's mind.

James felt someone trying to invade his mind, looking at Professor-X he sighed and blocked the mind attack, he then looked at the Jean that was sleeping in his arms and at the Mystique that was on the ground bleeding. He switched to his Aries form, his hair became pink and two little horns appeared on his head. On his hand, a golden staff appeared and when James touched the ground the life around him, the grass and even the earth itself became happy. James pointed towards Mystique with the staff and green energy penetrated her body, healing her injuries completely. James returned to his formless mode and his hair became blond again.

He then decided, he touched Jean's forehead between her eyebrows, his mental energy began to form a link with her. When he opened his eyes again, he was inside Jean's mind. There he saw a flaming bird, a flaming bird that was very peculiar... Its flames had three different colors: Red, White, and Black. James knew what it means, it means that the Phoenix is starting to transform into or White Phoenix or Black Phoenix... But it can't decide! When James calmed the Phoenix down, it felt the purest and best emotions and the worse emotions James felt.

It wasn't intentional, it happened because James unconsciously wanted to be the Phoenix's friend and the Phoenix wanted a host that could help it. They completed each other, making a link and what resulted in the Phoenix switching host from Jean to James. What caused a certain... Crumble. On the outside world, James' body started to burn, but because he had the regeneration power and because the Phoenix doesn't want his/her host to die, James won't die by this flames. But obviously, he would feel pain.

A lot of pain. It was like all the cells of his body were dying and resurrecting at the same time, his bones and even his blood was boiling. James fainted several times, but the pain woke him up again. After 10 minutes on the outside world burning, James' eyes changed to red and the flames on his body disappeared. The Phoenix successfully changed hosts. James then felt the gamma energy of the Phoenix changing, the red flames started to turn white! White Phoenix. James then felt another gamma energy fighting with the White Phoenix...

James saw his 13th Zodiac for the first time, it was a giant black snake, Ophiuchus (⛎). Ophiuchus was emanating a terrible aura... The White Phoenix and the Black Ophiuchus started to fight inside James' mind, every clash of their bodies made James' mind break a little more... James felt a lot of pain. Ophiuchus seems to be handling the White Phoenix pretty well. "STOP!" James shouted the two Cosmic Entities stopped fighting. They looked around and saw the meds they made on their host's mind.

The Phoenix and Ophiuchus decided to separate the mind in two halves, so they won't fight and destroy their host. The Phoenix didn't want to leave James' body and neither Ophiuchus wanted to leave. So... They had to cooperate with each other and not fight. James' felt that something strange happened and when he searched for his other personalities he discovered that all of them were absorbed by his original soul.

Ophiuchus, the 13th personality became too strong for the original soul absorb, so now James had two personalities... The White Phoenix and the Black Ophiuchus. James received the memories and emotions of all the other 12 Zodiacs, their happiness, sadness, madness, and their love for him... Even when they wanted to have 100% of the control over the body they loved him. And it seems that they weren't doing it by their own will. They were being controlled by a Cosmic Entity. The One Below All...

It seems that when James reincarnated, Ophiuchus was corrupted by the One Below All using Gamma Radiation, but something else happened. Ophiuchus became a Cosmic Entity too, which freed it from the One Below All control, but his other 12 Zodiac forms were weaker than Ophiuchus, so he tried to use them to control the body. When James absorbed the Zodiac soul to his original soul, his soul was absorbing Gamma Radiation, which changed not only his body but also his soul making his body strong enough to handle 2 Cosmic Entities.

Basically, James can freely change between his 12 Zodiac Forms, Phoenix Form and Ophiuchus form. He only needs to control his strength... On the outside world, only two seconds passed and Jean woke up feeling refreshed. The first thing she saw was a kid burning in red flames, but then the flames stopped and a dark aura leaked out of his body, followed by a white aura that crashed into each other. A second later, the two auras entered the body again and the boy opened his eyes, looking at Jean. James' body felt heavy, he sighed and coughed some blood and got up ready to leave.

He decided to try his Phoenix teleportation power, he thought about Kama-Taj and focused, thinking of flames. His body burned with white flames and he disappeared.