53 Chapter 52

(Y'all have been complaining about your balls in the comment section. Apparently, they're blue. Anyways, I'm posting super duper early cos I can. It's just past midnight. If we hit 1100 by sunday, I'll post another, keeping my word, but that's left to y'all.)

Dante

I stumbled into a scene from a nightmare.

Xavier was on the floor, crushed and bleeding, Cerebro was in pieces, and Jean stood over my cornered team, flowing with boundless psionic energy. Her eyes burned like twin suns, and her red hair flowed without air.

She had her hand half-raised, poised to wipe out half of the future Avengers when she saw me.

Her eyes lost their glow.

"Dante?" Jean asked, then frowned. "You're–you're hurt."

"T'is just a scratch." I laughed through the pain as I leaned into the door frame. "I'll live."

The upper part of my armor was gone, showcasing the full extent of my burns and injuries.

I nudged towards Xavier's corpse.

"Thanks for taking care of that for me, by the way. Though that's not the way I'd like to have handled it."

"I was just so angry," Jean said, visibly shaking. "And I asked the Phoenix to hold you back until I was done with Charles. I never imagined that she would hurt you so much."

I laughed. "Maybe you should've been more specific. I know all this is new to you, Jean, so I won't fault you for nearly wiping out the team I assembled to help you in the first place. Fury won't be nearly as understanding, though. And trust me, he's the last person you want as an enemy."

"He's intense," Jean said quietly. "I saw that from Charles's memories."

"That he is," I said, taking her news about brainjacking Xavier in stride, "but he usually has good intentions. And you're going to need him on your side to deal with this fallout," I gestured around the room.

Jean folded her hands, immediately defensive. "I have it under control. Now that he's gone, the children are safe...and we could always rebuild the school."

She couldn't be serious.

"The children are terrified, Jean, and after what happened with Colossus, Ilyana, and Storm, I doubt the older members would be in a forgiving mood."

"Illy and Storm?" Jean asked, genuinely surprised. "What happened. They're not in danger, are they?"

I was too exhausted to relive that nightmare again, so I opened my mind to Jean. "Why don't you see for yourself."

Jean peered in after some hesitation and grew agitated. The weapons floating around the room started to whirl, and the glow in her eyes came and left.

"Peace, Jean," I croaked. "I know where they are, and we can get them back once you're stable enough."

My words seemed to soothe her, and floating weapons were released from their telekinetic hold, dropping into the void below.

"I can't..." Jean began and broke midway. "I can't believe I caused all of this. I don't know what to do," she said.

I was intimately familiar with that confusion and pain. I'd felt it on that night in Vegas when the X-Men found and essentially kidnapped me. Sure, I figured something out eventually, but it took desperate experimentation and much luck. And even then, I made a ton of mistakes.

If I'd been more tactical in my confrontation with Charles and kept Jean out of it, maybe Colossus wouldn't be lying outside, within an inch of his life, maybe Ilyana wouldn't be stuck in Limbo right now, with Storm.

There was always collateral damage. They just never talked about it in the comic books and movies.

"We need to get your new powers under control," I said. "And that will take time and seclusion from the X-Men. I wasn't kidding when I told Fury you were like a walking atomic bomb. Of course, I won't be cutting you off from the other mutants entirely. They can visit at Kamar Taj. I'm sure the Ancient one will be very accommodating, won't she, Drumm?"

"She's excited to meet the latest incarnation of the Phoenix," Drumm bowed at a clearly confused Jean. The rest of the team was so focused on remaining completely still that I could've sworn they were not breathing.

"What's a Kamar Taj?"

"Why don't you look in my head and find out?" I smiled at her, causing the redhead to regard me carefully.

"You're not afraid I'll hurt you?"

"I trust you, Jean."

"I'm not sure I deserve it."

"If we all got what we deserved, Xavier would've been long dead before you came along, and I wouldn't even be alive. I trust you, Jean, because I know what it feels like to be isolated because of what you are."

Tears flowed down her cheek.

"Chin up," I beamed. "Though, you might want to hurry this up before I crash."

That gave Jean the swift kick in the butt she needed to act. Looking deep into my head, she saw what little I remembered of Kamar Taj in the movies—a hidden Wizard training temple in the Himalayas.

"Is that what you see when you use your Devil's Eye?"

"This is something different entirely."

Clint slowly climbed to his feet and alternated between me and Jean.

"You have no idea how fucking good it is to see you. I'd hug you right now, but that might just kill you."

"It just might," I said. "I'm going to be getting medical attention from the wizard. In case you haven't quite put it together. Kamar Taj is their headquarters, and yes, it'll be a very terrible idea to go looking for it," I said, looking at Coulson in particular.

"What!" Coulson said. "You can't just tell us about Hogwarts and tell us not to try and find it."

I shook my head and looked at Natasha. Underneath the impassive stare, I saw a familiar pain and complexity. I didn't know if it was nearly dying or surviving the hardest match-up of my life, but I was straight with her, probably for the first time.

"I shouldn't have joked around about her," I said. "I'll tell you how to find her the next time we meet."

Natasha blinked, and it took some time for her to find her words. "I-I have to call the director. We need to establish a perimeter and contain the mansion. The public cannot know what happened here until we decide what to do about Xavier."

Natasha looked in Jean's direction briefly before turning to me.

"I'll tell him about your injuries."

I suppose I should be glad I got that much from the Ice Queen.

"Much appreciated," I nodded. "And get somebody to take a look at the big guy. He worse off than I am. Drumm, if you'll please do the honors?"

Drumm stepped forward, opening a gateway of gold and fire. On the other side laid the halls of Kamar Taj.

The group stared in amazement at the casual display of magic, and I nodded at Jean.

"Are you going to help me through or what?"

"Oh...Ah, sorry," she said sheepishly, wrapping her hands around me. I limped through with considerable effort, and Drumm followed behind us.

The world turned blurry a few hops into the magic school, the adrenaline of the fight finally fading away.

It was a small wonder I was standing.

HP: 10/620.

"Dante!" Jean's scream sounded like a distant whisper.

I drifted off into a slumber that did not relax me one bit.

I found myself back in the void, in Dante's skin, standing before a ginormous Phoenix made of fire and psychic energy.

Its sheer presence seemed to blot out my everything. I could not move or think properly, only breathe and await the judgment of the beast.

"Jean cares a great deal for you, Son of Sparda. It was her insistence that I saved your life."

The Phoenix leaned in, and suddenly, I felt the pressure break.

"That's very generous of you, considering you were the one that put my life in danger in the first place!"

The Phoenix hummed.

"Irreverence in the face of overwhelming adversity. A good trait to have. Careful not to let it become a folly."

She was right, of course. Something fundamental in me bucked against any sort of restriction. I knew where it came from and was self-aware enough not to let it drive me completely.

I refused to be reactionary, especially in a world where mistakes equaled death.

"You want something from me," I said to the bird. "You wouldn't have bothered to appear before me if you hadn't."

"Of all the beings on this planet, your potential ranks one of the highest. I can think of no better right hand to my host. Guide her, protect her from herself and all that would seek to do her harm, and help her heal her mind. And in time, you will have that which you most desire."

My brows hiked up. Did she know about the mission? Of course, she fucking knew. She is the congregation of all the psionic energy of living beings, past, future, and present. Reading my mind would've been trivial.

"And you don't mind losing a piece of yourself?" I asked.

"In exchange for the perfect host," she said, "granting your heart's desire is a small price to pay."

"Alright then," I said carefully, still a bit surprised. I'd imagined dozens of scenarios, and not once did I foresee the Phoenix simply handing me her fire.

Still, I suspected I'd have to really work for my keep. Protecting a mentally fragile Jean from the likes of Magneto, the government, and the dozen other shadow cabals would be a hell of an assignment.

"Trust in your strength, Nephilim," she said and dissolved in a storm of fire that swept past my astral form.

I turtled up, bracing for the incoming pain, but instead, I found myself seated on a plush black leather chair in a familiar white space.

In front of me was Shin, beaming in an ornate chair of black leather and silver.

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