My blade was raised high, poised to cleave Cable in two. The edge of the Vibranium blade shimmered in the dim light, thirsting for blood. His eyes locked with mine—not wide with fear or pleading for mercy. No, they were resolute, brimming with fury, but strangely absent of despair. There was no flicker of hopelessness. Just defiance
And then, he smirked.
"You picked the wrong damn child to mess with," he said, voice calm and cold as steel.
Before I could react, a violent surge of energy exploded outward from him. It was like being hit by a tidal wave of raw force. My body was snatched mid-swing and hurled upward, crashing into the ceiling with enough force to crack the reinforced structure. Debris rained down around me, and pain roared through my spine.
Then the world changed.
A low, rumbling hum filled the air as a new presence entered the battlefield—something ancient, powerful, and terrifyingly serene. A cosmic energy radiated outward, engulfing the space in flame-like waves of golden light. But these were no ordinary flames. They shimmered and danced in impossible patterns, elegant and surreal, and yet they gave off no heat. They didn't burn—they purified.
Dazed, I dropped from the ceiling like a rock. The moment I landed, I saw her.
A lone figure stood over Scott's lifeless body. Her long red hair flowed behind her as if moved by invisible winds. Her eyes glowed, not with rage, but with purpose. Calm. Absolute. Divine.
"Wake up, honey," she whispered.
With that, Scott Summers—Cyclops—gasped to life as if yanked from the grave by an unseen force. His body convulsed briefly, then stilled, and he blinked up at the woman who had brought him back.
"Jean…" he rasped, reaching for her. "You're alive."
The moment their fingers touched, a halo of energy pulsed outward from their embrace. She smiled, radiant, divine. Her entire body shimmered with untamed cosmic power. It was a sight to behold—terrifying, and yet somehow beautiful.
"So this is the Phoenix Force," I muttered, a grin creeping onto my face despite the ache in my chest. "Took you long enough."
I pushed myself up, brushing the dust and debris from my armor. My systems whirred with effort as I recalibrated. My blade slid back into my hand, and I readied myself for another round.
Jean stepped away from Scott, rising into the air effortlessly. She hovered a few feet off the ground, arms spread wide, energy rippling around her like wings of light.
She looked at me as if daring me—begging me—to make my move.
"You're going to regret that," I growled, activating the thrusters in my boots. I launched forward like a missile, opening with a barrage of energy blasts. My cannons roared, unleashing torrents of plasma fire and micro-rockets. They collided with an invisible wall of energy and fizzled harmlessly.
The Phoenix Force shimmered like a celestial shield, absorbing everything.
Unfazed, I closed the distance in a blink, drawing my Vibranium blade in one fluid motion. I slashed at her with all the strength my augmented body could offer, aiming for a clean decapitation.
But she anticipated everything. Jean narrowed her eyes.
"It's my turn now," she whispered.
In that instant, the Phoenix awakened fully.
A colossal projection of the mythical bird—wings ablaze, talons sharp as meteors—erupted from her form. Its screech split the air like thunder. It unfurled its wings and unleashed a wave of destruction that tore through the mansion like it was made of paper. Entire sections of the estate disintegrated in a wave of fireless flame.
The force hit me like a freight train. I was flung back, tumbling through broken walls and shattered beams. If not for Bastion's recent upgrades—particularly the Vibranium alloy grafted to my spine and chest—I'd have been reduced to molten slag.
She was powerful. No, she was beyond powerful. Jean Grey had ascended.
This wasn't just a mutant anymore. This was a cosmic god.
I knew—deep down, brutally and bitterly—I couldn't defeat her. Not now. Not like this.
Panic gripped me, something I hadn't felt in years. I propelled myself skyward, hoping distance might give me a tactical advantage. But I was a fool to think she'd let me go that easily.
"I'll make you feel pain you've never known," she snarled.
Her voice echoed inside my skull like a sledgehammer. Suddenly, my body locked up. My limbs went stiff. My bones groaned. She had me in a telekinetic grip so powerful I could feel the metal in my exosuit creaking, bending.
My thrusters flared wildly as I tried to break free, but she squeezed tighter. My lungs wheezed. My sensors screamed.
I launched a desperate laser barrage from my chestplate, but her psionic defenses absorbed it without effort. The psychic hold only grew stronger.
Then, with a flick of her wrist, she hurled me toward the ground like a meteor. I smashed into the dirt with enough force to create a crater, dust and debris flying high into the sky.
She didn't stop.
Jean increased the gravitational force on my body, pressing me deeper into the earth. I could feel metal crack, synthetic muscles tearing.
"Shit!" I growled, pain coursing through every sensor. For the first time, I truly believed I might die. Right here. Right now.
"Bastion, you son of a bitch," I grunted, struggling to speak through the pressure. "Where the hell are you?!"
As if on cue, the sky lit up with incoming projectiles. A swarm of missiles rained down, exploding around Jean in a fiery barrage. The pressure on my body vanished as smoke engulfed the battlefield.
I staggered to my feet, systems barely functional. Through the clearing smoke, I saw him.
Bastion descended from above, calm and composed. His glowing eyes scanned the field before landing on Jean, still standing—untouched. She had shielded Scott and Cable with a telekinetic bubble.
"She's resilient," Bastion muttered. "A real problem."
Before he could utter another word, Jean materialized before him. One moment, she was thirty feet away. The next, she was in his face.
A sudden wave of telekinetic force dropped him to his knees.
"You dared to threaten my family," she seethed, voice trembling with fury.
The Phoenix flared again, brighter than before. My body was halfway through a self-repair sequence when she turned her gaze to me. A twitch of her fingers, and I was thrown like a ragdoll, crashing into a concrete pillar with bone-rattling force.
"You speak of family?" Bastion growled, rising shakily. "Let me show you mine."
His eyes glowed even brighter. The ground beneath Jean quaked violently. She looked down just as a massive mechanical hand erupted from the earth and grabbed her, dragging her into the ground.
Then they came.
The earth split apart, revealing legions of Sentinels—towering, mechanical monstrosities—climbing out like insects from a hive.
Hundreds. No, thousands.
Scott and Cable watched in horror.
"My God," Cable breathed, dread tightening his voice. "We're too late."
The future he had fought to prevent, the nightmare he thought he had escaped—it was happening again. No matter how many timelines he changed, fate always caught up.
BOOM! BOOM!
The Phoenix returned, rising from the wreckage like a god of vengeance. Jean tore through the Sentinels like a scythe through wheat. Her aura flared, and with every sweep of her hand, metal titans exploded into molten shrapnel.
But Bastion wouldn't relent.
"All Sentinels—engage!" he commanded.
The mechanical army swarmed her like a hurricane, raining laser fire and missiles. But Jean was an unstoppable force. She hovered amidst the chaos, her expression stoic, her power limitless.
Scott, finally regaining his strength, rose beside her. He tried firing his optic blasts at the Sentinels, but they bounced off their upgraded armor.
Jean noticed. Without speaking, she transferred a fragment of the Phoenix Force into him. His eyes glowed brilliantly, and when he fired again, the beam carved through steel like paper. Sentinels fell in droves.
Still, it wasn't enough.
"We have to retreat," Bastion said to me, his tone firm. "She's beyond anything we can handle."
As much as I hated the thought of running—of failing—I knew he was right. This wasn't a fight anymore. It was suicide.
We activated our thrusters, rising above the battlefield as Sentinels engaged the X-Men below. It was our only chance.
But just as we broke through the clouds, a sharp, shrill whine cut through the air. A sleek black aircraft swooped toward us from the horizon, guns blazing.
Bullets ricocheted off our bodies, not piercing—but they hurt. Every impact felt like a sledgehammer against my bones.
The plane zipped past, banking hard to line up another pass.
It was the Blackbird. And onboard?
The rest of the X-Men had arrived.