CH 78: Phoenix Force
After Jean had been moved into the pocket realm, Lex finally stopped holding back.
Until now, he had been deliberately restricting the amount of telekinetic force he used because they were still in New York, where even a minor mistake could have sent an enormous amount of destructive energy through the surrounding city. Here, however, there was no such concern. The moment Lex decided that he could finally use everything at his disposal, the atmosphere of the pocket realm changed beneath the sheer pressure of his power, the space around him seeming to groan as his telekinesis surged outward and collided with the invisible barrier surrounding Jean.
The barrier itself had no visible surface, yet its presence became unmistakable the moment Lex attacked it. Space warped around Jean's floating body as his telekinetic force pressed against whatever protected her, distortions spreading outward like ripples across an invisible ocean while the ground beneath them trembled from the opposing forces. Lex wasn't struggling to overpower it; quite the opposite, the barrier began giving way almost immediately, sections of the invisible defense fracturing under the overwhelming pressure of his combined telekinetic abilities, and Lex could have continued until the entire thing collapsed.
Then Jean's face twisted in pain.
Lex immediately stopped.
The change was so sudden that the pocket realm seemed strangely quiet afterward, with only the faint disturbance of residual telekinetic energy remaining in the air. Jean was still unconscious, her body suspended exactly as it had been before, but her expression had betrayed what Lex's attack was doing to her; every time another section of the barrier had cracked, her features had tightened with agony, and when he had increased the pressure, the pain had become even more obvious. Whatever protected Jean was not merely an external shield that happened to surround her body. It was connected to her so deeply that tearing it apart by force was effectively the same as tearing apart something inside her.
Lex slowly lowered his hands, staring at her with a frown.
He could break through it.
That wasn't the problem.
The problem was that breaking through it meant hurting the very person he was trying to save, and there was no point in rescuing Jean from one form of suffering by inflicting another upon her himself. He could have simply overwhelmed the barrier until nothing remained, but watching Jean's unconscious face contort with pain had made that option unacceptable almost immediately.
A couple of minutes later, the passage into the pocket realm opened again, and Gwen, Kara, and Ben stepped through. They had apparently found the entrance Raphael had left behind and used Gwen's abilities to reach the realm, although Kara seemed far more interested in what was happening inside than in the method they had used to get there. Her attention immediately settled on Lex, and the surprise on her face quickly became disbelief as she took in the sight of him still completely engulfed in supernatural flames.
“Woah. Grayfia told us you were burning, but damn!”
Before Lex could answer, Kara inhaled deeply, drawing in enough air that it seemed as though the space around her briefly shifted toward her, and then unleashed a powerful stream of freezing breath directly at him. Frost spread rapidly across the surrounding air as the temperature plummeted, and for several seconds Lex's entire body disappeared beneath a thick cloud of freezing mist while ice formed over the flames.
When the mist finally cleared, Lex was still standing exactly where he had been.
The flames had not even flickered.
Kara stared at him for several seconds before slowly lowering her head, seemingly accepting that she had just added another failed experiment to the growing list.
“Okay, that didn't work.”
“Yeah, I've tried pretty much everything,” Lex replied, his attention already returning to Jean. “The fire doesn't seem to care about anything I've thrown at it.”
Ben had already shifted his attention toward Jean, studying the unconscious girl floating within the pocket realm. “So that's the girl who's trapped inside her own mind?”
“Yeah,” Lex said. “She's got this barrier around her, but tearing it apart hurts her, so I don't want to just brute-force my way through it. I was thinking about giving her a drop of my blood since that should help, but actually getting the blood to her is proving to be the difficult part.”
Gwen looked between Lex and Jean, her eyes narrowing slightly as she studied the strange barrier surrounding the girl's body. “I could astral project and go inside her mind. If she's trapped in there, maybe I could find her and figure out what's happening from the inside.”
Lex shook his head, although he didn't dismiss the suggestion entirely. “I'd rather not send you in there yet. There's some kind of powerful entity inside her, or at least something that feels like one. I don't know exactly what it is, but considering I'm still burning because of whatever reacted to me when I tried tracing this disturbance, I'm guessing it has something to do with fire. Maybe some kind of fire god or something.”
Kara glanced from Jean to the flames surrounding Lex, considering his words for a moment before shrugging. “What if you go inside? You're already burning.”
Lex slowly turned toward her.
“You make that sound like it's a benefit.”
“Well, you're already on fire.”
“I suppose that's technically true.”
Ben suddenly raised one finger, his expression brightening as though he had just remembered something useful. “What if I use Pesky Dust and get into her dream?”
Lex looked toward him with renewed interest, but Ben was already reaching for the Omnitrix. If Jean was trapped inside her own mind, getting into her dreams might allow him to reach her without directly fighting whatever defenses her subconscious had erected around her.
Green light swallowed his body.
When it faded, Ghostfreak stood where Ben had been, his translucent form hovering slightly above the ground while the Omnitrix remained visible on his chest. He looked down at himself, then at the device, and his expression carried an unmistakable trace of disappointment.
“Ghostfreak,” he announced. “And here I thought I'd finally be able to transform into the right aliens now.”
Lex blinked.
“Wait, you can transform into the wrong aliens?”
Ben, or rather Ghostfreak, looked at him as though Lex had somehow managed to ask the strangest question imaginable. “Sometimes.”
“And that's normal?”
“Ahh, it ends up working anyway.”
Since Ghostfreak wasn't Pesky Dust and therefore couldn't simply enter Jean's dream through the intended method, Ben improvised. He floated toward Jean and phased directly through her body, his translucent form disappearing into her as though her physical form were nothing more than smoke.
For several seconds, nothing happened.
Then Ghostfreak emerged again.
The casual expression he had worn before entering was gone, replaced by something considerably more serious.
“It’s a mess in there.”
Lex's attention immediately sharpened. “What did you see?”
“Mostly chaos,” Ben answered, glancing back toward Jean. “Her mind is basically drowning in its own power. She can't even properly control her own body, so when I got inside, I took control of it for a moment just to see if I could move her.”
He shook his head.
“I couldn't. It's like her powers have frozen everything in place while simultaneously reacting to every thought she has. She's not really controlling them, either. It's more like everything is happening around her while she's stuck in the middle of it.”
“And the entity?”
“I didn't see any fire god.”
Lex frowned.
“So you didn't find anything?”
“I found plenty. Just not a fire god,” Ben replied, his shoulders rising in a small shrug. “Whatever's happening in there, she isn't consciously controlling it.”
Kara looked at Jean for several seconds before extending her hand toward Lex.
“Give me your blood. Let me try.”
Lex didn't waste time questioning her plan. He produced a small drop of his blood and placed it into Kara's waiting hand, and she immediately accelerated toward Jean before anyone could say anything else.
Kara crossed the distance between herself and Jean in an instant, her body becoming little more than a blur as she drove herself directly into the psychic barrier. The invisible defense distorted violently around her as she forced her way through it, immense pressure rippling outward from the point where she made contact. Lex immediately recognized the reaction because he had already seen it himself.
Jean was hurting.
“Hey, that's hurting her!”
Kara didn't stop.
Rather than backing away, she gritted her teeth and pushed harder, forcing herself through the barrier before it could fully adapt to the sudden assault. Jean's face twisted with pain as the psychic defense resisted Kara's intrusion, but Kara had already committed herself to the approach and refused to let the resistance stop her. A heartbeat later, she reached Jean and immediately slapped the tiny drop of Lex's blood against the girl's lips.
The effect was immediate.
Lex felt the connection form.
There was no elaborate vision or sudden flood of information, only the unmistakable sensation that something had linked him to Jean. It was familiar in a way he had experienced many times before when passing the effects of Transcendent Self to someone else, and the connection came with a simple understanding: he could now extend his blessings to her.
Lex acted immediately.
Through that connection, he gave Jean everything he believed she needed to recover from what had happened to her. He reinforced her body against the strain it had endured, strengthened her mind against external interference, gave her the mental clarity necessary to distinguish her own thoughts from the psychic noise surrounding her, and provided the protection that would allow her consciousness to remain stable instead of being overwhelmed by the sheer scale of power moving through her.
He wasn't trying to change who Jean was or replace what she could do with something easier. He was simply removing the things that were preventing her from being herself, giving her mind the stability and clarity it needed to finally confront the situation without drowning beneath it.
What Transcendent Self could not do was control Jean's powers for her.
It could make her mind clear enough to understand them. It could protect her from the consequences of her own body and mind being overwhelmed by them. It could give her the foundation necessary to remain conscious and herself while dealing with everything inside her, but the enormous psychic power itself was still Jean's, and learning to control it was something she would ultimately have to accomplish herself.
The difference became apparent almost immediately.
Jean's mind was hers.
Her power was hers.
And the presence she had always instinctively perceived as being part of herself was something she could now distinguish from her own consciousness.
For the first time, she could actually feel the separation between herself and the other presence within her. It wasn't simply another voice in her own thoughts or some strange aspect of her personality that she had never understood. There was another consciousness there, something ancient and immense that had always existed alongside her own mind.
The Phoenix was there.
And Jean could finally feel it as something separate from herself.
Her floating body slowly began to descend as the barrier around her disappeared completely. Her eyes opened, unfocused at first, and then tears began spilling down her cheeks as the emotions she had been unable to properly process finally reached her without the psychic chaos drowning them out. She looked exhausted, confused and overwhelmed, but for the first time since Lex had found her, there was also a strange clarity behind her eyes.
Kara wiped the hand that had carried the blood against her clothes and looked toward Lex.
“Sometimes you've just gotta rip the Band-Aid off in one go.”
Lex looked at her for several moments, wanting to argue after seeing the pain Jean had experienced when Kara forced her way through the barrier, but the thought that followed was more complicated than simple disagreement.
Charles Xavier had hurt Jean because he had placed everyone else above her. In his mind, Jean was the sacrifice necessary to protect the world, and therefore her suffering had become an acceptable price for everyone else's safety. Kara had approached the situation from almost the exact opposite direction; she had knowingly forced her way through a barrier that was hurting Jean because she believed that getting Jean the help she needed mattered more than avoiding a few moments of pain.
Both approaches had hurt Jean.
The difference was why.
Charles had looked at Jean and decided that her suffering was acceptable if it protected everyone else, while Kara had looked at Jean and decided that some suffering was acceptable if it meant giving Jean a chance to live without the prison she had been trapped inside. Lex wasn't entirely sure whether Kara's method had been the correct one, especially after seeing Jean's reaction, but he understood the distinction between the two choices immediately, and that distinction mattered to him.
Jean's eyes slowly closed again.
The moment her body relaxed, it became obvious just how exhausted she truly was. The emotional strain, years of suppressed trauma, the psychic chaos that had surrounded her and the sudden stabilization of her mind had all caught up with her at once, and she slipped back into unconsciousness almost immediately after finally regaining it.
Kara's expression softened.
“Come on.”
She carefully lifted Jean into her arms and carried her out of the pocket realm, with Gwen following close behind. They eventually returned to the school, where Kara carried Jean to her bedroom and gently placed her on the bed, adjusting her position so she could rest comfortably while Gwen remained nearby.
Ben, meanwhile, had apparently decided that the emergency portion of his day was over.
“Well, this seems over, so I'm gonna go. I've got homework to finish.”
Lex didn't question it. He already knew Ben was still a teenager, and whatever else had happened today, apparently homework had survived the apocalypse.
He transformed again, choosing an alien capable of flight, and disappeared from the room, apparently returning to whatever remained of his normal day.
Kara watched him leave before turning back toward Lex.
“So, do you want any help with those flames?”
“Be my guest,” Lex replied. “I've already tried pretty much everything I can think of.”
Gwen studied the flames for several seconds, her expression becoming increasingly thoughtful as she considered the problem. “I think we should just wait until Jean wakes up. Whatever is responsible for those flames seems to be connected to what happened to her, so maybe she'll be able to understand them now that her mind is clear.”
“Or we can bury him and see if he's still burning,” Kara suggested.
Lex gave her an incredulous look.
“I already tried creating a vacuum around myself. I don't think burying me is going to accomplish much.”
Kara considered that for a moment.
“Throw you into the sun?”
“And how would that help?”
“I don't know. It might. Fire eating fire or something.”
Gwen stared at her.
“Actually, the Sun isn't on fire.”
“That depends,” Kara replied, folding her arms. “When has it ever been stated that fire has to mean the act of burning? I think fire is just a burst of heat.”
Gwen opened her mouth, apparently preparing to explain exactly why that wasn't how stars worked.
“Can you guys please shut up? I'm trying to sleep.”
The voice came from the bed.
Everyone turned.
Jean was awake.
She looked exhausted, her hair slightly disheveled and her eyes heavy with sleep, but there was considerably more awareness behind them than there had been before. Gwen immediately looked apologetic.
“Sorry.”
Everyone else looked toward Kara.
Kara stared back at them with an expression that suggested she saw absolutely no reason to apologize.
“What? I'm not saying sorry. She's got all those blessings now. I'm sure she's just pretending she needs sleep.” She tilted her head toward Jean. “Aren't you?”
Jean's expression shifted almost imperceptibly.
There was a brief flicker of embarrassment, followed by guilt and then hesitation as she looked away, her fingers tightening slightly against the bedsheets. Kara watched her for another moment, and the small smile that appeared on her face made it obvious that she had gotten the answer she wanted.
“I knew it.”
Jean sighed.
“I... just don't want to talk about it.”
Kara's expression softened almost immediately.
“That's alright. You don't have to talk to anyone if you don't want to.” She leaned casually against the wall, deliberately keeping her voice relaxed rather than pressing Jean for an explanation. “But you also don't need to pretend you're fine. Forget about this school for a while. Do what you actually want to do.”
Jean looked at her uncertainly.
“Honestly, I'd suggest traveling the world,” Kara continued. “Lex is ridiculously rich. He can sponsor the whole thing.”
Lex glanced toward her.
“You're really good at spending my money.”
“It's not like you can run out.”
Lex considered that for a moment before reluctantly nodding. “That is unfortunately a fair argument.”
Jean's lips twitched slightly at the exchange, although the tiny expression disappeared almost as quickly as it appeared.
“I don't want to hear anyone else's thoughts anymore,” she admitted quietly. “It's... actually kind of nice here.”
Her eyes moved between them.
“All three of you, and the guy who left, have minds my powers don't work on. So it's good. There's finally some silence in my head.”
Kara's expression softened further.
“Then stay with us for a while.”
Jean looked surprised.
“Everyone at the mansion has the same protection. You could actually get some peace there.”
Gwen rolled her eyes at Kara, the expression saying far more than words would have needed to.
Kara caught it.
“What?”
Gwen simply shook her head.
Jean hesitated before looking down at her hands.
“Can I? I really don't want to impose, but...” Her voice became quieter as she struggled to say the rest. “I don't actually have anywhere else to go.”
“Of course you can,” Kara answered immediately.
Lex nodded as well, although his attention remained on the flames surrounding him.
“Before all that, though, can you get these flames off me?”
Jean's expression became guilty.
“I want to.”
She looked at the fire surrounding Lex with a mixture of confusion and concern, her eyes following the strange flames as though she were trying to understand something she had only just become capable of perceiving properly.
“But I don't know how.”
Lex waited patiently.
Jean swallowed.
“It's connected to the Phoenix Force. The entity inside me.” Her voice remained uncertain as she tried to put the new understanding into words. “But after whatever you did... I can feel it now. I can actually tell where I end and where it begins. We're separate, but connected.”
She closed her eyes for a moment, concentrating on the sensation.
“I think I might be able to talk to it. Maybe I can ask it to stop.”
Lex listened quietly, but there was no need for him to reassure her that she had done something wrong because he could already see that she was blaming herself for not being able to remove the flames. Jean's thoughts were still catching up with everything that had happened, and beneath the exhaustion was an unfamiliar feeling that she wasn't accustomed to experiencing herself.
For the first time, she understood what it meant to be the person who needed saving.
She had helped young mutants before. She had protected frightened children, reassured them when they were terrified and tried to convince them that their lives could still become better despite everything that had happened to them. She had always been the one standing beside someone else while they struggled, the one offering support when they couldn't find their own strength.
She had never really been the person receiving that help.
And somehow, that made everything feel different.
Her eyes lowered.
Charles didn't count.
Whatever trust Jean had once placed in Professor Xavier had been shattered by what she had finally learned, and even now, with her mind clearer than it had been in years, she couldn't bring herself to consider what he had done as protection.
“You girls take her home,” Lex said after a moment. “I'll find a way to get rid of these flames.”
Gwen nodded.
“I'll see if I can find anything about the Phoenix Force while we're there.”
Kara helped Jean to her feet, supporting her when she swayed slightly from exhaustion, while Gwen moved beside them as the three prepared to leave. Jean glanced back at Lex one last time, her expression carrying a mixture of gratitude, uncertainty and exhaustion, before allowing Kara to guide her toward the exit.
Once they were gone, Lex remained alone with the fire.
He looked down at the flames covering his body, watching the supernatural fire continue to burn without consuming anything except him. Then he looked toward the passage through which Jean and the others had disappeared, his thoughts returning to Raphael's earlier suggestion that he leave the world and return.
Maybe he should actually make that trip to the Boys' Universe after all.
If Raphael was right, crossing into another world and then returning might finally sever whatever connection had been established between the Phoenix's power and himself. After everything that had happened, Lex was beginning to suspect that figuring out why he was still burning was going to be considerably easier than figuring out how to make it stop.