1 Day Ago
Jean's POV
I opened my eyes only to see a large flaming bird blotting out the sky. My first instinct was to run, but the familiarity I felt from the bird made me hold on, and so I looked up and stared at the bird.
"When are you going to stop staring?"
I jerked back at that voice. It sounded like me, but more like a hundred Jean Greys had been put together and were speaking at once. I looked up again, but the giant bird wasn't there anymore. Instead, in front of me was my lookalike, and that was where the similarities stopped.
Flaming eyes and hair, along with an ethereal glow that made me want to stare longer.
"Can you stop staring?"
The voice sounded again, but this time, instead of inside my head, it came from her lips, and I heard it normally.
"Even Jin didn't stare as much as you did," she spoke again.
I stopped staring and spoke.
"Well, it hits different when you see your own face talking back to you."
"Maybe that is true."
"I called you here to—"
"Wait, where is here?" I asked, as apart from the place where we stood, it was infinite darkness all around.
"Don't worry. You are still at the mansion. This is just a part of your mind space connected to my domain."
She waved her hand towards a few metres away from us, and two sofas and a table with snacks appeared.
"Sit, sit, sit."
I walked towards the sofa, first of all sampling the pastries.
They taste good, I thought.
"Of course they taste good. They were made based on your preferences."
"Wait, who are you?" I asked.
"Maybe you should have asked that first," she said with some amusement in her tone.
Embarrassed, I turned my face away and muttered.
"Nevermind."
"I am Jin's big sister. Or one of his big sisters. Anyway, back to what—"
"No, no, no. That doesn't cut it."
"If you're really his big sis, you're more like a ball of fire, and Jin doesn't have any elemental powers. At least, I haven't seen him use any. Even if he had, he would be more towards the ice side of things considering his white hair and icy blue eyes."
I looked at her to prove me wrong, but she just shrugged.
"Well, appearances matter little in the grand scheme of things," she said.
"Well, that sounds ominous."
"Now, for what I am. I am what you call a Phoenix, or rather, the Phoenix Force."
"Wait, Phoenix?"
"Like rise from the ashes, Phoenix?"
"Yes, yes. That Phoenix."
The other me looked particularly annoyed, and I had no idea why.
"The reason I called you here is because you aren't out of the danger zone yet."
"What danger zone? When was I in danger?"
The other me turned to glare at me again, but then she turned away and sighed.
"You know what? One. I'm not cut out for explaining, so see for yourself."
She raised her hand, and a wisp of flame came out of it and shot towards me, entering my body before I could react.
And I saw it.
Everything I had done.
Almost killing Jin and Raven.
The D'Bari.
The train.
And the fight with Jin.
Well, calling it a fight was overplaying it.
I also saw myself as a child.
The things that happened back then.
The memories I had forgotten.
And then I saw Xavier.
The memories being sealed away.
I didn't remember all of it clearly, but I remembered enough to understand that the whole Dark Phoenix situation wasn't exactly something that had started recently.
"So Xavier sealed those memories away because of you?"
"Partly."
"The Phoenix?"
"Yes."
"So I've had you inside me this whole time?"
"More or less."
"That's... great."
"Hey, don't blame me. You're the one who got the cool cosmic bird."
"I'm not sure that's supposed to make me feel better."
"It should."
I stared at her for a few seconds.
"It really doesn't."
She shrugged.
"Anyway, that's part of why you're unstable."
As I came to, I turned towards the Phoenix and said,
"I never knew Jin was that strong."
"Well, he never had a reason to use that much strength."
"Now, for the reason I said you aren't stable is this. The wave that hit both of you on that space rescue mission was another fragment of my being."
"Why another is here, you don't need to know, so don't ask."
"I wasn't going to."
"When the wave hit the both of you, a part of that wave got into his system, and now you are incomplete."
"Short term, you will be fine, but he is going to get busier and busier as time goes on, so it's best if you do it now. And what's more, it will only take a week considering he is leaving in a week."
"Okay, I'll do it. What do I have to do?"
"Nothing much. All you have to do is..."