Jean Grey's POV
It happened so fast.
One moment, Dante was kneeling in front of us, a blade sticking out of his chest as dark, eldritch power gushed out of his soul; the next, he was gone—armor and weapons clattering to the floor of our fortress, his mind and body so far away that even the Phoenix could barely sense him.
The entire room went silent.
It was packed with all of the Sentinels, Yelena, Rin, a very reluctant Wanda, Pietro, Peter Parker, and the rest of the X-Men. Although Dante and Scott had their differences, they had always set them aside when it came to the common good.
And in Scott's own words, "There's nothing as important as keeping that asshole on our side."
"What the hell just happened?" Rin asked. "Where is he?"
"Somewhere you'll never find him," a familiar voice whispered from behind.
We turned.
Lauren stood at the edge of the chamber, cloaked in darkness so dense that it bent light and distorted space, swallowing even my psychic sight.
"What did you do to him?" I demanded, lashing out with telekinesis.
A prismatic shield flared into existence, rebuffing my attack effortlessly, all while Lauren smiled.
"Nothing," she said softly. "My god did. You didn't really think Shin would let him break his promises, did you? Not after everything he's been given?"
Rin moved first.
Power detonated in his chest as he drove his fist forward, filling the air above us with blows the size of school buses. They crashed down with apocalyptic force.
Lauren's eyes widened slightly in surprise, then she vanished.
Reappearing—directly in the path of Michael's blade.
The strike hit like a collapsing star. Her shield fractured instantly, spiderweb cracks racing across its surface before shattering completely. The density- and gravity-warped blade slammed into her raised Necrosword, and the impact hurled her across the chamber into the Twilight Adamantium wall.
She hit it feet-first, steadying herself, and the fortress groaned.
Slowly, she floated off and landed lightly on her feet, as if nothing had happened.
"Not bad for a hunk of metal," she said, rolling her shoulder.
"I'm excited to see the rest of what you can do."
Her eyes flickered across all of us hungrily, and I caught Peter shivering. The group's psychic signature wavered. I could feel the uncertainty seeping in.
Lauren saw it too—and capitalized.
"Surrender the Infinity Stones," she said, her tone almost conversational, "and I'll gladly talk to Shin about recruitment. Who knows, after a decade or two of service, he might let you keep whatever is left of Earth after the Prince is done with it."
"It's not yours to give away," Michael said, his voice harsh and ringing with power. "Earth is under our Lord's protection."
"Lord?" Lauren burst out laughing, nearly doubling over. "And they say I have an ego. Axel can protect nothing," she continued. "Right now, he's bleeding out several dozen universes away, seconds from dying."
"I don't believe you," I said, forcing steel into my voice as I met her intense green eyes. "He's beaten Shin before. Twice, without the Phoenix, or Yamato, or even halfway decent armor."
She tilted her head slightly, her smile widening just a fraction. "We'll see, won't we?"
My confidence wavered under that smile.
Dante was as tough as they came, but battling a god in an unknown universe, without proper armor or weapons, and suffering catastrophic soul damage?
It wasn't something he could simply craft his way out of.
He needed help. Desperately.
And so did the planet.
Psychic threads exploded outward from me, connecting every mind in the room. My thoughts, fears, and strategies spread instantly.
In less than a second, we had a plan, and we moved as one.
Wanda and Pietro would attempt to return to Earth and assist the Avengers and any available heroes.
The rest would hold Lauren and whatever forces she had hidden in her shadow.
I would go through a portal forged by the Phoenix and search for Dante across the multiverse.
"No takers?" Lauren taunted lazily. "I was hoping one of you would try to bargain."
Her gaze snapped to Peter.
"I've been looking forward to seeing you again. Try not to choke this time."
He flinched—and Lauren pounced.
Reality ruptured.
Dozens of clones appeared in the room, each distinct yet identical. Some moved faster. Others pulsed with more power. A few favored guns, others wielded Necroswords, and one hefted a pair of gauntlets.
All of them locked onto us.
Then the room ignited.
Thousands of runes etched into the superstructure flared to life, flooding the chamber with Anathema fire. Our armor absorbed the heat, siphoning it into our cores, while the screams of Lauren's clones echoed through the inferno.
Layered prismatic shields bloomed in sequence—intricate and adaptive. The fire tore into them, each cascading collapse accompanied by distorted, wrong-sounding screams.
We surged forward, cutting through the flames, locking onto targets with lethal intent.
But Lauren did not falter.
Each clone swung its Necrosword or weapon of choice, unleashing black slashes that carved scars into reality itself.
From those ruptures poured corrupted Frost Giants and massive, many-limbed creatures wielding cryomancy and destructive energy breaths.
Wolverine tore into them.
Lightning crackled across his body thanks to Pietro's bio-enchantments, and his claws extended to the length of a katana. Colossus's strength surged through him, amplifying every strike.
He was a whirlwind of violence.
Limbs, torsos, heads, tentacles—nothing survived contact.
The others followed suit, pushing their enchantments to the limit. Scott's optic blasts burned through symbiotes in waves, while Bobby fought with a spear, phasing in and out of solidity as he struck.
Peter, Yelena, and Kitty linked psychically and fought as one—teleporting, shifting between flame, telekinesis, gravity, web, and raw strength in seamless tandem.
At the center, Pietro and Sariel circled the defensive barrier Raphael had raised. Azrael, Uriel, and Michael served as relentless artillery, buying time for Rin, Wanda, and me.
Pietro and Sariel slew monsters by the hundreds.
Half of Lauren's forces fired at them. The rest hammered Raphael's barrier.
I called on the Phoenix—and she answered.
Phoenix fire surged through me, vast and ancient, bleeding into Dante's Anathema enchantments and transforming the flames into something far more terrifying—purple, white, and blue fire.
Lauren and her clones recoiled as if struck.
The Phoenix's talons raked across something unseen but immense—Shin's hold on the dimension—and ripped it apart.
Space screamed.
Lauren's portals collapsed, her foothold on Dante's dimension vanishing.
With Shin's interference disrupted, I focused on two points in space, hollowing them out, forcing reality itself to yield.
One portal for Wanda.
One for me.
Rin could not follow, despite how much he wanted to.
With the Soul Stone and the Time Stone—given to him by Dante at the last moment—he was our strongest fighter here, but even then, Lauren might still be stronger.
Absorbing Phoenix-touched Anathema fire could tip the balance.
It surged into him, amplifying everything—body, mind, and power.
My hope was that his budding psychic ability would allow him to bear the full weight of the stones and the Yamato.
He had claimed it after Dante's disappearance, along with his armor and Rebellion, now stored safely in his dimensional ring.
"You need to hurry," Wanda said, panic bleeding into her voice. "She's going to stop playing the second she realizes what you're doing."
She was right.
Splitting my focus between empowering Rin and forcing open two stable portals was pushing me to my limits—but I did not stop.
The air in front of me cracked.
Then it tore open—
Revealing a violent, chaotic current of flickering realities, billions of worlds rushing past in unstable succession.
A ghost of a smile touched my lips as sweat poured down my brow.
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