Chapter 7: Firewall

Rachel was still getting used to being the headmistress at the Chicago school.

She felt a little bit like an imposter, if she was being honest. This still felt like Kitty's school, and Rachel could practically feel her ghost roaming the halls. Kitty had been the genius that could connect with other geniuses. Rachel was married to the guy who made the geniuses learn how to deal with money before they screwed up the futures they all had in store by blowing their incoming grants and patents and whatnot on stupid stuff.

It wasn't that Rachel didn't think she could run a school. She knew she could. She knew she was more than capable of helping mutant kids learn their powers and go out into the real world ready for whatever it had in store. It was the caliber of students that wasn't her specialty. She preferred being the telepathy instructor, not the headmistress.

That was why she usually had someone on hand who could talk with new students and teachers in whatever geek language they spoke. David could go on for hours with tech students. America practically had a cult following of astronomers and prospective space explorers and rocket scientists.

Which was why she wanted to give Howard Stark a chance. He was the same age as a lot of the students there, so he'd be approachable. And he spoke the language.

Still, she'd expected him to be a little more excited to be there. His father was always a whirlwind of energy when he took on new projects, so Rachel had assumed Howard would be the same. Instead, he seemed almost wooden as he shook her hand and thanked her for the opportunity.

And as was her habit, she sated her curiosity as soon as the thought crossed her mind, peeking into his thoughts to see what was dragging him down when he usually took after his father in the energy department.

She should have known the problem was a girl.

Rachel shook her head and tried not to look too amused when she heard how caught up Howard was in Sadie Howlett. The girls in that family were shaping up to be heartbreakers, it seemed. And Howard really was too young to think he was as in love with her as he was convinced he was.

Teenagers, Rachel thought, smirking hard.

To her credit, she managed to keep her smirk to herself as she showed Howard around, though she was in a pretty good mood all the same as she headed back to her office once he was settled in. She might have been struggling with her own issues lately, but at least she didn't have to deal with teenage-level dating anymore.

She was lazily strolling along, thinking of Bobby and how awkward he had been when he'd first realized he liked her, when she heard her daughter's voice and stopped to peek in on her. Willow was still in her preteen years, and everything was dramatic lately. Rachel figured she might as well get a sneak peek at whatever Willow would be complaining about that night after dinner.

But… instead of an annoying boy or catty girl, Willow didn't seem to be talking to anyone. At all.

"Anything?" Willow asked the air as Rachel paused, her eyes narrowed, not liking the tone of her own daughter's voice. "I mean, if I could do anything, I'd really like to bring back Kitty and Cody. Nothing's been the same since they died. I miss them."

Rachel frowned and stepped into the room, reaching out telepathically and finding, to her fury, that the telepathic presence around her daughter was hot.

"Get the hell away from her," Rachel said, starting to float off the floor as she confronted the Phoenix, her eyes flashing without fire. "Willow, get behind me. Now."

Willow gasped but rushed to Rachel's side, recognizing her tone for what it was. The schools had been attacked too many times for Willow to question it when Rachel gave an order like that.

As soon as Willow moved, though, the Phoenix took material form, spreading out its wings of fire until it had nearly filled the room, looming over both of them and filling their minds with what it wanted from them.

For Willow, that meant her mind was filled with promises of how much happier her family could be if she let the Phoenix in. Cody, her uncle, would be back. Kitty, who had always been like an aunt to her, would help her with her homework again. Her mother wouldn't have to worry about holding back the Phoenix anymore. She wouldn't carry the guilt of what she'd done to James. Willow could take that burden away from her and become the next Phoenix host.

For Rachel, the promises were slightly different. The Phoenix didn't appreciate the fact that Rachel wasn't using its power as much anymore. Before, when Rachel was confident in her control, the Phoenix had been able to leech out more and more, until Rachel thought she was showing off. The Phoenix promised that Rachel could do as she'd always done. She'd never had issues before, and the thing with Apocalypse had been a special circumstance, hadn't it?

But Rachel knew better. Rachel had seen this thing destroy her family far too many times to believe it would stop taunting Willow. "No," she said out loud, the force of her response drawing Willow's attention too. "No, I won't let you groom my daughter right under my nose. You're not welcome here anymore."

The Phoenix shrieked, spreading its wings wider, until the school was at risk of catching fire, but Rachel held out a hand, her eyes narrowed in concentration as she held it at bay.

"I said no," she replied, her eyes flashing not with fire but with anger. "You've done enough damage already. You nearly destroyed James and left him a husk. You used me to wipe someone I love clean of everything that made them a living, breathing soul. You would have kept going and turned everything else just as desolate if my family hadn't been there to stop me. What the hell makes you think I'd trust you again?"

In answer, the Phoenix grew slightly bigger, but instead of trying to threaten the school, all at once, it shifted its focus, surrounding Willow so that she was completely engulfed in the flames - though Rachel managed to keep them from touching Willow.

"Mom!" Willow cried out, the terror apparent in her voice. The heat from the fire surrounding her had sweat pouring down her face after only a few seconds — especially since Willow and Ivy had their father's aversion to heat, albeit to differing degrees.

"I said," Rachel said, grinding out the words past her lips when she was throwing every other ounce of her willpower into keeping her daughter safe, "leave my daughter alone."

The Phoenix screamed until neither Willow nor Rachel could hear anything but the sound of the firebird, but Rachel didn't let it get any closer to Willow — and she didn't let it find any refuge in her mind, either. She had been in control for so long that she knew how to find her center, even if she'd lost it with Apocalypse.

But this was different. This was her daughter. There was too much on the line to lose her concentration, to lose her grip. The Phoenix had massively miscalculated. It hadn't scared Rachel away from fighting it. If anything, it had only given her exactly what she needed to find the confidence to hold it in place.

"You're not welcome here," Rachel told the Phoenix. Willow couldn't hear what her mother was saying over the sound of the Phoenix, but the Phoenix caught every word. "You're not welcome on Earth at all, actually. It's high time someone showed you what it feels like to lose." Her hand was still thrust out in front of her, and she spread her fingers as she closed her eyes to concentrate.

She'd never attempted anything like this before.

As Willow watched with wide eyes, Rachel forced the Phoenix away from her daughter until it was small enough that it looked like a bird of prey frozen in the air in front of Rachel in mid-dive. Willow thought it looked like the Phoenix was trying to sink its fiery talons into her mother, but Rachel hadn't let it move an inch closer than she wanted it to.

Once Rachel had the firebird away from Willow, she used her other hand to help her direct her power, keeping her eyes closed as she focused on a spot far from Earth, far from any planet where it might find a foothold in someone's mind again.

But it wasn't enough to strand the Phoenix in space. No, Rachel knew from experience that it would be stronger out there. So instead of simply banishing it, she summoned every last bit of strength she had for a coup de grace, banishing the Phoenix to the far corners of space while at the same time leaving it with the command to spread itself so wide and so thin that it would have trouble maintaining itself without losing its essence to the vacuum of space.

She couldn't be sure the job was entirely done, but she knew it was at least weakened and banished by the time the strain was too much as she collapsed in a heap on the floor.

The next thing Rachel was aware of was a hand on her forehead and another hand on her arm, and she let out a soft moan as she opened her eyes. Bobby was there — of course he was — along with Willow. Both of them looked worried, and Rachel could see tear tracks down her daughter's face.

"Sorry," she croaked out. She was sweaty, and her lips were cracked. She felt dehydrated and uncomfortably sticky — the result of playing with fire, she supposed.

It could have been much worse, she thought, remembering the blank landscape of James' mind, grateful that she'd managed to expel the Phoenix without pulling down that kind of catastrophe on herself. Looking at her husband and oldest daughter, she could plainly see that they couldn't weather another loss. Not so soon after everything else.

So, she said, "sorry," again.

"Stop saying that," Bobby said and yanked her upright so he could pull her to him with her head underneath his chin. "You're such a Summers, you know that?"

"Not sure why you expected that to change just because I agreed to your last name," she teased him, though she didn't move from where she was, instead pulling her arms around him so that she had someone solid to hang onto. She was exhausted in a way she hadn't felt very many times before in her life — and all of those had been events involving the Phoenix or something close to it.

The next thing Rachel and Bobby knew, Willow had rushed over as well and simply wrapped Rachel up in a hug from the other side, her breath hitching horribly as she tried and failed to hide how upset she was. "I'm so sorry, Mom," she said, burying her face in Rachel's shoulder. "I'm so sorry."

Rachel let go of Bobby so she could turn toward Willow, pulling her tightly to her chest — or as tightly as she could manage when she felt like she had been completely drained of all her energy. "It's alright, baby," she said, running her hand through Willow's hair. "It's alright. It's not your fault."

"Do you want to clue me in here?" Bobby asked. His tone was light, but his gaze was hard. He'd been an X-Man too long not to know that something nearly-disastrous had happened, but on the other hand, he'd been an X-Man too long to think he could possibly guess what it was.

"The Phoenix was toying with the idea of a new host," Rachel said, her eyes flashing as she held Willow tighter to her.

"What." Bobby looked like he was ready to go to war. Rachel had always liked that look on him.

"It… it sounded like Mom," Willow whispered, her eyes wide, her expression horrified.

"Baby, it's not your fault," Rachel said again.

"But I knew it wasn't you," Willow said, still sounding absolutely mortified with herself. "I knew something was off, but I couldn't put my finger on it, so I kept talking to it instead of telling anyone like you taught me."

"I wouldn't be surprised if the Phoenix had tweaked your mind a little so you wouldn't think of telling anyone," Bobby said. Willow was still hanging onto her mom, so she couldn't see that Bobby's expression was as dark as it was — and he kept his tone as light as he could so that neither Rachel nor Willow would feel any worse than they already did.

He'd been helping Summerses through their own panic since he was a teenager. He knew what to do.

"Are you sure?" Willow asked, peeking around her mom to look at her father, eyes wide and watery.

Bobby nodded. "Jean Grey was one of my best friends in the world. I knew her when she first started having Phoenix issues." He kissed Rachel now that she'd turned his way too. "And I've been married to your mom for how long now? I'm pretty sure I get how the Phoenix works, even if it never took me over."

"Obviously, you were too hot to handle," Rachel said with a tired smirk.

"And obviously, you must have overstretched yourself, babe," Bobby said, only half teasing. "You're the one that's too hot to handle. I'm way too cool for that wanna-be Grey."

"I sent the Phoenix to a far corner of space and spread it as thin as I could," Rachel told him, leaning against him and glad for the teasing.

Bobby nodded slowly. "Didn't want it anywhere near our family. Smart. I like it," he said. "We can celebrate the exorcism later…."

Rachel laughed. "Really?"

"We can even watch The Exorcist. You, me, an old horror movie…"

"You know what? That actually sounds good."

"See? I'm a genius," Bobby said, grinning as he helped both Rachel and Willow up from the floor. "But for the record? You don't have to be so dramatic to get my attention, Rach. You're such a Summers."

"Oh, is that where the drama comes from?" she asked dryly.

"Must be."

Rachel shook her head and then leaned in to steal a kiss. "I thought you wanted a romantic evening, and here you're comparing me to my dad."

"Right. What was I thinking," Bobby said, grinning and pulling her into a kiss that lasted until Willow made 'eww' noises and loudly excused herself.

"You guys are so weird!" she called over her shoulder — in typical pre-teen fashion.

So, all was mostly back to normal, then.

Two time zones to the west, Tony Stark was forcing himself to take a little time and relax. It wasn't by choice, either. It was out of sheer necessity. He'd been working triple time since Howard had left for Chicago to work for the Xavier Institute there - and with James still off with Logan blocking him from coming in to work, Tony was trying to cover all the bases on his own in the lab.

Sure, Howard hadn't been the biggest help without James around- especially since he didn't really enjoy inventing like Tony did. Not really. But worse than that, with James not coming in to mediate, whatever inventions that Tony and Howard created between them were next to impossible to replicate because Howard was terrible about leaving notes. The kid was leaving a hole in their well-crafted system. So with both boys gone, Tony was more stressed out than he wanted to admit to.

But Pepper wasn't about to let him wallow in his stress. She made the executive decision to make him go out to the west coast - leaving Steve in charge of the team. He'd already pushed forward enough on work projects anyhow.

The impromptu vacation had just started to actually do Tony some good when an alarm went off that took Tony a few moments to even identify. And when he did realize that the alarm was for the Phoenix, he couldn't quite stop himself from bursting to his feet from where he'd been sitting down watching the ocean. He rushed to his workshop to get into his system and look over the holotable to see what and where the trouble was, exactly.

Rachel had been showing better control than anyone that had hosted the Phoenix so far … and he was honestly concerned that something else catastrophic had hit the X-Men out of nowhere again. But the readouts he was seeing on the holotable … well, they showed the Phoenix force was leaving the planet.

Tony sat back in his chair with a frown, trying to figure out what had happened and how. It was a good thing he had an 'in' waiting in Chicago. With a little hum, Tony called Howard, though Howard must have been preoccupied if the way he answered the phone was any indicator.

"Dad, I told you, everything is fine, Chicago's great …"

"Glad to hear it, but that's not why I called," Tony replied, shaking his head to himself.

"Then … okay. What … what happened? Is Mom okay?"

"She's fine; we're fine. I just wanted to ask … is everyone there that should be there?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, there's not some big space soiree or a Shi'ar uprising or -"

"Dad. You have to stop thinking that you're some kind of precognitive dreamer," Howard said, making it clear that he didn't appreciate Tony's passionate reactions to his vivid dreams.

"That is not even close-" Tony let out a patient sigh. "Just … is Rachel there?"

"Yeah, but if you wanted to talk to her, why didn't you call her instead of me?" Howard asked.

"You're sure-"

"Dad. I saw her not five minutes ago carrying Willow piggy back and promising to make caramel corn for the movie. Seriously. Stop putting so much into your dreams."

"It wasn't ...you know what, nevermind," Tony shot back. "Forget I asked, okay?"

Howard was quiet for a long moment. "Hey, Dad?"

"What."

"I know we've talked it to death already, but … if you want to get James back full time again, you probably just have to ask. I know you're trying to give him room to breathe, but Dad, even when he was freaking me out over Sadie ... I miss him, too. Talk to K. She knows how to handle them when they're all … rawr."

"That's not at all why I called."

"No, but … it's still a thing. Go get my not-a-Stark brother back, huh?"

"You know, if you get him to go to Chicago, too, your mom and I will take the time to shift a few things back to Lakeshore Drive-"

"Dad."

"Just take a phone call or two-"

"Dad."

"Alright," Tony said, sounding disappointed, though he was smiling to himself. "Just … tell Rachel to give me a call, would you? I have a few questions when she's not too busy. If you say she's really okay."

"I'm looking right at her," Howard said. "She looks more relaxed than I've seen since I've been here."

"Alright. Then I don't want to interrupt right now. Just pass the message on, please."

"Tell Mom I said 'hi'."

"You got it. Get to work, slacker."