The Blood Phoenix 4: An X-Men: Dark Phoenix Fanfiction

Chapter 1: Jean Grey

(Flashback - sort of)

Jean Grey was a nice girl. She was one of my favourite students and we got along quite well. Charles and I had met her when she was eight years old. Her parents had just died in a car accident that she had caused. I was taken with her and so was Charles. After we had invited her to the school, we drove her there. When we got out, I helped Charles get into his wheelchair.

'What do you think?' I asked, breaking into young Jean's thoughts. She was staring at the large mansion in awe. I didn't need to read her mind to sense that she was also fearful. She lowered her gaze to us. I had my hand on the back of Charles' wheelchair and we were both smiling at Jean.

'I can't stay here,' she replied.

'OK. Why not?' Charles asked. I tried to warn him telepathically that pushing her buttons was not a good idea, but then she spoke.

'It's too nice. I... I break things.' He wheeled himself closer to her and looked into her eyes, forcing her to look into his.

'How does this sound? If you break something... anything, I can fix it. We can fix it.'

'Not anything,' she retorted. I almost winced at the way she said it. But Charles had way more patience with young telepathic mutants than I did.

'I can help you. I can help you so that you never have to break things ever again.'

'You think you can fix me too?' she said, almost snapping at him.

'No. No... because you are not broken.' She seemed to give him permission to take her on and with that, we began to take Jean under our wing.

A few years later (1991)...

'Edith, Charles, sit down and quit arguing over the toys!' I yelled. I was with Charles and Hank watching the launch of the NASA space shuttle Endeavour. Picking up Edith in my arms and settling her on my hip, I watched the slightly-coloured-television. The twins were getting heavier and they were only four years old, but they still begged to be picked up and carried. After all, it was only 1991. Television innovation was not the best. But that's besides the point. Closing my eyes, I heard the voice-over of the launch countdown.

'Ten... nine... eight... seven... six... five... four... three... two... one. Engines throttling up. Three engines now at 104%.' Hearing the shuttle blast off, I let out a sigh, realising I had been holding my breath the whole time. Then I heard Hank's voice.

'I know what you're thinking.'

'That's my trick,' Charles replied. It was true, knowing what another was thinking was his trick. The fact that that alone was scary, being married to a telepathic, was one of the reasons that Charles and I vowed when we got engaged and later when we got married to never read the other's mind, except when it was absolutely necessary.

'The answer is no,' Hank said. 'The jet can't get that high.'

'Even with your new booster rockets, and all your modifications?'

'They're built for acceleration, not elevation. Not this. No.' Just then we heard another voice-over, this time from the news.

'The system experienced massive failure. They've lost thrust vector control. Trajectory settings are irregular. Likely from the constant engine burn. Oxygen generation is down.' Just then the phone rang.

'I'll get it.' I put Edith down and went into Charles' office. Picking up the phone, I spoke into the receiver. 'Xavier residence. This is Adelaide Xavier speaking.' (The sentences in italics are the person on the other end of the receiver).

'This is the President. Is Charles Xavier there?'

'Yes. He is. I'll get him.'

'Thank you, Ms Xavier.' Placing my hand over the receiver, I motioned Charles over. He wheeled into his office and I placed the phone in his hand.

'It's for you, love.' He smiled at me, then put the phone to his ear.

'Yes. Yes, this is he.'

'Charles?'

'Mr President?'

'Are you seeing this on TV?'

'Yes, I'm watching now. Hank, Adelaide.'

'Yeah,' he replied, changing into his beast form. I nodded and went upstairs to change into my suit.

Moments later...

Jean Grey, Ororo Munroe, Scott Summers, Peter Maximoff, Kurt Wagner and I walked into the hanger, where Raven and Hank were waiting, having both changed into their blue forms.

'It's a simple extraction. We go into space. We get the astronauts. We bring them home. Any questions?' Raven asked.

'Yeah, like a thousand,' Peter replied. I always liked the kid, especially because he was my younger brother. He was cheery and quite cute and snappy at times. He was definitely a valuable asset to the team of the young X-Men.

'We don't have time for a thousand,' she snapped.

'So... we're going to space?' Kurt's German accent rang out.

'Yes, Kurt, we are going into space.' Raven always sounded like a mother trying to prepare her children for a difficult situation. Ever since she was put in charge of leading the X-Men, she had become less of a teenager who was just Charles' foster sister and more of a maternal figure. They were young... they needed mine and Raven's guidance and Hank's smarts to get them through anything. That was exactly what I needed when I was younger and on my first mission with the X-Men. I smiled with fondness as I remembered my first mission... Cuba. Where everything fell apart for me and made me a stronger mutant and a team player at the same time. Where the love of my life was injured and where we fully cemented our love for each other. Where my father Erik Lehnsherr finally showed his true colours. I soon broke out of my reverie as I heard Peter speak again.

'Doing space missions now. Cool.'

'Will the X-Jet even get that high?' Scott asked. Which is all what we were thinking.

'Well, technically, the-'

'It'll get us there. Let's go!' Raven announced, cutting Hank off. It was just as well she didn't, because I didn't want the younger X-Men worried about our impending mission. The rest of the X-Men went to the ship, including Jean, leaving me behind with my oldest friend, Raven Darkholme (Mystique).

'Raven... are you OK with this?' I asked.

'I forget sometimes you can read minds.' I chuckled at this.

'I didn't need to read your mind. It's written all over your face. You tell me it's good... it's good. I just don't the younger members of the team worried.'

'If anything goes wrong, I will turn us around in a heartbeat.'

'I know you will.' Squeezing her shoulder in encouragement, I headed for the ship, with Raven on my heels.

(News broadcast)

'A second ship has been spotted in the sky. We have been told that the President has called in the aid of the X-Men.'

(In the chamber of Cerebro)

'Ladies and gentlemen of NASA, this is Charles Xavier. Can someone please apprise me of the situation?'

'We are picking up solar flares. We believe the heat shorted out their electricity. They've lost control, communication, orientation, pretty much everything.'

'Not to worry, Mission Control. Help is on the way.'