Seven Years After Capture

Rachel's Age: 15 Years Old

Rewind. Play. Rewind. Play. Rewind. Play. I can't stop myself. One more time, I play it again. I hit pause. The frozen image bounces in black and white on an outdated lil' security camera, and I feel like someone just peeled my eyelids back two inches or so. Her eyes, those big, deep, burnin' eyes, like emeralds, so bright, you can almost feel the green hidin' underneath all that gray. Her hair, in thick, sweepin' curls all the way down her back. Her pouty lips, just slightly parted. Her cheekbones. Her fierce stare. Her perfect jaw line.

"We picked it up from Angola," Nick Fury says, soundin' far-off. "They assassinated the would-be President-Elect. What we can't seem to figure out is if it's really Jean and Victor or not."

I shake my head. "I dunno."

"Come on, Logan," he growls impatiently.

"What, Fury? Yer seein' the same thing as me. What do ya expect me to say?"

"No one knows these two better than you. We need to know if it's really them, do you understand? Men in suits are going to make big decisions based on this simple question: Who is this?" His finger points at her hip.

I clear my throat and run a hand through my hair. "Alright, it's like this. First, she's got a scar on her forehead. The Jean I know has lots of scars, but none on her face. Second, the Jean I know despises Sabretooth. She'd never work with him. Third, the Jean I know is anythin' but an assassin."

"But she has killed people."

"Never in cold blood, never for political reasons, and sure hell never for money!"

Fury puts his hand up to signal peace. "Okay, so let me ask another way. Is this Phoenix? Is this Dark Phoenix? Or is this some alternate-reality-version of Jean?"

"Well, we can rule out Dark Phoenix," I say immediately.

"Why?"

"You wouldn't have to ask if you'd ever stood face-to-face to the bitch."

"Fair enough. Good old, regular Phoenix?"

"Yeah, I think we can rule that out, too. For one thing, she's committing murder."

"Yes, but Phoenix has been confused by others before, especially in one of those rise-from-the-dead scenarios. Doesn't she usually lose her memory, at least temporarily? That would explain her working with Sabretooth. If he could tell her things about herself that she vaguely remembers, she might mistake him for a friend and align herself with him."

I shake my head. "No, I think that's out, too. Jean didn't have a scar on her forehead when she died last. If this was a Phoenix from the ashes deal, she wouldn't have acquired a new scar."

"Well, I know Phoenix doesn't typically get hurt but if she was newly risen and disoriented—"

"No."

"Or if—"

"Again, if you'd ever fought Phoenix in person, you'd stop right there. 'Course, SHIELD doesn't like getting' their hands dirty, so—"

"Alright. Point taken. So you think this is Jean and Victor from an alternate reality, then?"

"Yer gonna have to make the decision 'bout what to tell the suits. That's not why I'm here. I'm here to tell you if that could be Jean, Phoenix or Dark Phoenix. I'm tellin' you it's none of the three." I turn tail and head for the door.

"Logan, wait. You didn't answer my other question. Is that the Victor Creed that you and I both know?"

I don't bother answerin', 'cause he and I both know it don't matter. The suits don't care if the Creed standin' next to her is the real Creed or not. They only care 'bout the global threat that is the endless cycle of Jean Grey, Phoenix, Dark Phoenix, death, resurrection, Jean Grey, Phoenix, Dark Phoenix. But the truth is, yes, it is the Victor Creed that he and I both know. And that makes me very uncomfortable. What the fuck is Creed doin' with Jean, whatever version of her he found?

But he puts his hand on my shoulder and I look back at him. "It is him, isn't it?" There's something screamin' in his eyes. I turn 'round. He stares down the other agent in the room, and without a word, she leaves, closing the door behind her. Now he's got me curious.

"Look," Nick says, "About a year back, we had an attack. It was Creed—THE Creed-and a teenage girl that was described to me as 'If I didn't know better, I'd say it was Jean Grey twenty years ago'. They didn't take anything. They didn't demand anything. They killed only four men, and of the four, one was killed by a TK bolt."

When it hits me, my heart starts poundin' in my chest. "I need to see anythin' and everythin' you've got on the Summers Family Reunion Massacre."