The Deal

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Chapter 5: Phoenix Rising

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I woke up with a gasp.

My heart was pounding. There had been no noise to wake me, but I immediately knew something was terribly wrong.

Logan was already sitting up in bed, looking tense and alert, and I put my hands against the warm muscles of his back.

I quickly glanced at the glowing numbers on the bedside clock. It said 3:21 am. I'd only been asleep for two hours.

"...Logan?" I asked softly.

He silenced me with a quick gesture.

My heartbeat was loud in my own ears; thud, thud, thud.

A second later my body jumped in surprise as I heard the familiar metallic sound of Logan's claws being unsheathed and he slid out of bed and onto his feet without a sound, stalking forward towards the door.

*Stay here. Don't move, Jean.* he thought at me, and his tone left no room for argument. Whatever this was, he was dead serious about it. I usually would've protested, but I was so disoriented from waking up all I could do was blink. Two seconds later the emergency lighting came on and the alarm sounded.

"Shit," Logan swore in a guttural tone and eased his way out the door as the dark red lights flashed over both of us.

For a moment I felt paralyzed...and then, like sliding on a glove, my training quickly came and took over. I climbed silently out of bed. Instead of following Logan, I stood behind the door, in a more easily defensible and hidden position. Standing there, I executed a quick psychic scan of the mansion. What I sensed made my blood run cold. Someone was trying to block me out-it was definitely technology and not another mutant -but I could get far enough around the shielding to vaguely sense many bodies, as many as twenty or thirty, all taking offensive stances around the mansion.

We were definitely under attack. From who, I didn't know, but they were obviously organized and probably determined.There was a moment of perfect calm, when all I could hear was the drone of the mansion's security alarm and the dull flash of the emergency lighting.

Then, all hell broke loose.

I gave a scream of surprise as the window behind me shattered and a canister of tear gas was thrown out into the room. I ran into the hall and saw Logan and Emma running for the stairs. Emma delivered a telepathic message to me seconds before she morphed into diamond form and lost the ability to project thoughts. What she sent me was only two words, but coming from Emma, it struck me like a blow. No matter what our disagreements were, no matter what personal differences we had, when it came to a fight we were a team and Emma was fully aware that I was a part of it. She knew I was a fighter on the front line. There could only one reason for her to deliver the message she did.

She said, "Hide, Jean."

I heard noise from downstairs-heard Scott's optic blast hit once, twice, and more glass breaking. I ran down the hall as fast as I could. Protocol in an emergency for any non-combatant personnel was to go directly the Danger Room. It functioned as the mansion's panic room, and if I could get inside I would be virtually untouchable.

If I could get inside. It meant going downstairs.

A second later, Xavier's voice filled up my head like a microphone in an amphitheatre-it was calm, rational among the chaos.

"X-Men, the mansion is under siege. The attackers are of unknown origin but appear to be human, technologically enhanced. We have ascertained their target is Jean Grey, her safety is currently the number one priority of the team."

I almost got sick when I heard it, but part of me knew there wasn't time for weakness now. As one of the X-Men, I'd been forged in fire. There was nothing I couldn't and hadn't faced down before, as I sure as hell wasn't going to let anyone change that now.

Without hesitation I ran straight for the stairs.

A body flew at me on the way up, knocking my shoulder back as I absorbed part of the blow using TK. I could see Hank, flashes of blue fur, black under the red lighting, fighting like a wild animal, flying effortlessly and gracefully through the air. They enemy appeared to be organized in troops of three or four; in the low light and din of noise I could count about twelve total, all in grey uniforms and some kind of gas masks, faces hidden. Logan was downstairs fighting as well, and I could see the slick blood covering his hands and chest. He'd never even gotten a chance to suit up; he was fighting in boxers.

I knew if he saw me he'd run towards me so I threw up a quick psy-block to keep him from sensing my presence and eased past the staircase.

I had one simple goal; one thought that cleared all else from my mind. My goal was to get unnoticed to the Danger Room as quickly as possible. I had run over combat training on the mansion grounds a thousand times before, and now I had two choices. I could either take the longer, but more covered route through the den, or I could go the open but more direct route down the hallway.

Glancing either way I made a run for the hall.

It was a gamble, and unfortunately it was a big mistake.

A second after I'd run out of cover into the hall, one of the shock troops turned the corner. In a burst of adrenaline I used a hard push of TK to send them reeling backwards. Right away I knew something was wrong. What I'd given them should've sent them flying, and instead they'd only stumbled back a few paces. It hit me with a panic; my powers weren't working right. They either had power dampeners or x-gene inhibitors on. Whoever these people were, they were serious about capturing me.

The first soldier in line quickly recovered from the TK blast and lunged towards me, some kind of stun gun drawn. As I threw my hands up to cover my face I heard a loud sound and a blinding flash of red light as Scott's optic blast hit the lead soldier full force, knocking him clear through a wall.

Without a word, Scott quickly helped me up. In a second Emma was by his side.

"Danger Room," I said quickly, and the two of them nodded. I could hear Hank and Logan still battling it out in the living room, a serious of growls, yells, and gunfire.

I turned around and ran towards the Danger Room with Scott and Emma flanking me on either side.

It was only a matter of yards now, the length of a hallway, and I would be safe.

A few feet from the entrance to the room, there was a sudden FWAPP sound and Scott gave a yell of surprise. A webbed net had exploded over him and Emma and then contracted, pulling them down, tangled together, effectively taking them out.

I turned in a panic to face the enemy. There were five or six men running down the hall. Part of the fear was in silence; none of these soldiers had spoken once, even the wounded. They simply dropped and clutched their limbs in pain. It was awful, just to hear the sounds of flesh and bone and nothing else.

I held up my hands against the onslaught, summoning all the muted power I had to repel them. I already knew it wouldn't be enough. Suddenly, one of the soldiers split open like a wet paper bag, disemboweled before my eyes. I stared in shock and horror until I saw the sharp gleam of adamantium as he was tossed aside. Logan was running towards me, literally covered in blood. Even though I'd seen it a million times it was still a haunting and grisly sight, the look in his eyes not quite human.

"Get in!" he yelled at me, voice hoarse.

I snapped to my senses and focused enough to quickly type in the access code on the wall panel that would open the large metal doors to the Danger Room.

I got it right on the first try, as the red light blinked to green.

Hurry, hurry, hurry I willed silently.

As the doors began to hiss open I turned my head back towards the hall. Logan was still facing me, all senses focused on me, unaware of the soldier running at him full speed from behind.

"LOGAN LOOK OUT!" I screamed. Logan turned, but not fast enough. The man was wielding something that reminded me a lot of a destructive weapon I hadn't seen in a long time; it bore an eerie resemblance to Psylocke's psychic knife.

Logan turned and sunk his claws deep into the belly of the soldier right as the soldier rammed the weapon against Logan's skull.

The soldier writhed wordlessly as he died; Logan fell like a stone.

He stayed down, not moving. Oh God, what had they done to him?

"LOGAN!" I screamed in agony. I glance around desperately. No sign of Hank. Emma and Scott were still stuck, struggling in the net. More soldiers were running down the hallway.

Behind me, the door to the Danger Room was open wide, ready to save me. Ready to hide me. And I had only one thought.

No.

It was a moment of perfect clarity in a sea of chaos, ringing out like a clear bell above all the panic that surrounded me.

No, I wasn't going to run.

I was going to fight.

I was going to win.

"Aaaaauuugghh," I screamed as it welled up inside me, feelings like fountains of molten lava tearing through me like a riptide. An elemental fire that felt all too familiar sparked within me and engulfed me whole. My body felt a familiar shock at its return, my vision temporarily blinded, my mind swimming in a pleasurable and omnipotent rage as the power hummed through my bones like a thousand volt live wire.

It took me over like a wildfire, burning hotter and hotter until it had consumed me whole.

Suddenly, I was not Jean.

I was Phoenix.

I was power.

I was violence.

I was death.

"GET OUT," I said, and my voice filled the mansion, filled every head, filled every thought and every memory, every sense the enemy had.

They were nothing to me. Little ants to be crushed, toys to torture and discard. They had tried to hurt me. Useless worms. Now, they would pay for this mistake with their lives.

I brought both my hands forwards and squeezed. I reached for the tissues of their souls, fingernails scraping against their vulnerable moments, dissolving their memories, the fabric of space-time twisting them inside out. Ten men collapsed before me, writhing on the ground, and I began to laugh. It was so pleasurable, to see them squirm. I enjoyed it very much. Yes, it was delicious. My smile was wide as I spoke.

"YOU PITIFUL MISCREANTS, WITH YOUR PITIFUL WEAPONS," I spat. "YOUR STUPID LITTLE GAMES. LET'S PLAY, THEN! PLAY WITH ME! I HAVE A GAME FOR YOU!"

Throwing my arms open wide, I encompassed all of them, all of the enemy I could find, and I tore off part of their reality like a photographic background. In its wake, my mind painted for them a hell more terrible than anything they could've imagined. Every secret they'd held, every person they'd loved, every crime they'd committed oozed out of them, suffocating them, binding them. As they died they screamed. Screamed and howled with abandon, and I took such joy from the sound.

I tilted my head back and laughed, letting the power flow through my veins, beautiful, effervescent.

But a second later I felt a sudden pain in my head, as if someone had psychically slapped me in my face.

I turned, enraged, ready to strike out and devour whoever had dealt the offending blow.

"Got your attention, I suppose?"

There stood Emma. She'd gotten out of the net and wasn't in diamond form. She'd had to sacrifice it in order to access her abilities as a telepath. Her blond hair reflected the psychic fire radiating off me. I smirked at her frail form, basked in my glow. She was nothing to me. I could crush her as easily as I could a fly.

Yet she stood with a look of cold determination.

"I don't want to kill you, Jean, but I will certainly die trying if I have to," Emma said in the same icy tone, not moving an inch. "Come back Jean, come back now. Come back to us before you do something you WILL regret."

Her words just enraged me further. Couldn't she see that compared to me she was a mere splinter?

"THE WHITE QUEEN... A JOKE," I taunted her. "A NOTHING. YOUR LIFE MEANS NOTHING TO ME."

"Jean," came another familiar voice. I knew that voice. Hearing his voice confused me, made me hurt. I didn't like the hurt.

Scott. It was Scott.

"Jean," he pleaded, standing behind Emma. "Please. This is not you. You are with child. Do you remember that? Do you remember Logan? He's the father. Do you remember me? Your husband. Come back, Jean. Remember us. Don't leave us, we need you, all of us."

His words hit me like a barrage of flying stones, I cringed under them.

And then, suddenly, it all began to fade around me, rushing back to me, images and pictures flying helter-skelter through my mind.

A wedding dress. Scott. White cake. Outside. The woods. Logan. Yes. I remembered Logan. Sense memory. Our bodies together, the place... that sacred white place of oneness...

My children. The unborn children I carried inside this body. Jean...Jean's body.

My body.

Babies, Hank had said with a grin on his face. Congratulation's you're..

"Having twins..." I said out loud, suddenly disoriented. "Having twins. Jean's pregnant, I'm...Scott... help... I am..." I struggled. He lunged forward, grabbed my shoulders, supporting me, his face close to mine.

"We're here for you, come back," he whispered to me, the intensity of his voice cutting into the static in my mind.

"Yes," I said, trying to push through the confusion.

"You are Jean," Scott said. "You are Jean Grey."

"Yes. I feel it. I am... I am.. Jean," I forced each word out. Saying out loud triggered something in me. In a sudden rush the fire left me, sucking the energy from my bones, leaving me cold and hollow as a shell.

"Oh God," I said, holding my suddenly empty head. "I'm so sorry. I'm..."

Emma and Scott were there at my side, holding me upright.

"Glad to have you back, Jean," Scott said with great relief, and he sounded sincere.

"Not that I wouldn't mind killing you dear, but I'm glad I didn't have to clean up the mess afterwards," Emma said, with the hint of a smile on her face.

I stood up, trembling but alive. The Phoenix was under control, at least for now. I looked at the bodies littered on the floor. I knew I'd killed many, and under normal circumstances it would twist at my heart, make me grieve... but in this case, I honestly didn't care.

However...

There was one body without a grey uniform, laying still and unmoving on the ground.

"Logan!" I cried, breaking away from Scott and Emma, rushing to his side.

He was perfectly still. I couldn't even tell if he wasn't breathing. It wasn't right. None of it was right. I couldn't see a wound on him, and even if there had been...his healing factor...

He'd been down for too long. Something was wrong.

"Get Hank," Scott said urgently to Emma and she took off and ran down the hall.

"Logan...don't die on me now," I said, a quaver in my voice.

He didn't respond.