Jean set her jaw and pushed. The man Scott had winged flew back, as though pulled by a wire. He landed in a heap in the corridor beyond. She was carefully not listening to his mind, she didn't want to feel the pain she inflicted. She was sheltering behind the barricade, using the senses of the other three X-men to direct her attacks. Scott took the next ranged shot. He was taking most of them. Using his power didn't tire him. She had a fatigue threshold somewhere. But she could do so much more than she was doing.

Shatter me.

She could feel tiredness dragging at Logan, he was getting slower, his guard was slipping. Peter was having to take more and more of the hand to hand fighting as Logan started to fall apart. He'd taken a lot of damage tonight.

Set me free.

Peter on his own would not hold the door, not for long, she and Scott would have to fight for the middle ground. Neither one of them could take a bullet. A year ago, that sort of fight would have been death for both of them fairly quickly, but now…

Shatter me.

She had the capacity to end this, surely. If she could do what she'd done at Alkali lake, surely she could end this. But what would happen if she did? Did she have the strength to control it? Would she be able to protect Scott and the others from it?

Set me free.

Five of them came through the door together, driving like a ram. Logan and Peter took one each, Scott took the one at the back, she went for one in the middle, catapulting him backwards. The fifth had a sawn-off shotgun. All four of them had seen him. None of them was quite quick enough.

Shatter me.

He stepped up to Logan, behind the sweep of his claws, and shot him. Point blank range, lower abdomen. And for a split, second, Jean felt it. She doubled over in pain, suddenly unable to breathe. Then The Professor sorted his blocks out. Logan bellowed and fell to the ground. The next wave was coming in. Peter on his own wouldn't be able to protect him.

Set me free.

Jean acted. She threw her hands forward, forming a shield that flickered like fire over Logan, where he lay gasping. Bullets disintegrated as they hit it. She could do more. She could do so much more. She could end it. She could save them all.

Shatter me.

She climbed the barricade and jumped. She landed as though the ten feet were ten inches. She walked to the centre of the room. She raised a hand and the wave of bullets that flew at her disintegrated in front of her. She felt The Professor's network fall away.

"Get out of the way." She warned the others. She could protect them. She would protect them.

Scott's ocular blast went dead in the air above her head, like a torch beam on a blackout curtain. Peter ran to the left, Logan crawled to the right. She raised her arms like wings. Power unfurled inside her. She was not afraid. She could control this.

I am.

Yes, she was. A wall of her power formed between them and the invaders.

"Get behind me." She ordered. Her ears were ringing. Her eyes were dark, but what she had now was more than sight, more than hearing, unfettered by mortal senses. She perceived. She perceived the myosin and fibrin in Logan's abdomen pulling and pushing the birdshot out in bits. She perceived Peter shielding his eyes from her in awe. She perceived Scott's stare on the back of her head. He was awestruck and afraid of her power. He would not harm her, he could not. She perceived Xavier, helmet off, head between his knees, panting. He hadn't been able to deal with her power. She turned her attention back to the invaders, who were stumbling back in fear. Still shooting at her. Why did they bother? They had no hope of fighting her.

,

Logan lifted his head and looked up at Jean. The movement pulled at his guts. He was still dripping blood, he could feel it. He'd felt the bits of shot drop out, that hurt nearly as much as them going in. But Jean… She was standing in the middle of the room, the bullets that flew at her turned to dust a foot ahead of her. The… what were they? Shapes of light in the air around her, what the bullets hit as they came apart, they'd formed like wings in the air behind her. Great red, flickering wings. Why hadn't she done this before? Had she not been able?

She was walking forwards, pushing that haze of power out before her. Logan staggered upright.

She wasn't moving particularly fast, she was – Logan looked down and did a double take. Her feet weren't actually on the floor, she was walking on air, two inches above it.

Gunmen were backing away ahead of them, firing straight at Jean, she didn't seem to care. Logan picked his way over the bodies, you could tell who'd killed which. His were the bloodiest, slashed or stabbed, three wounds an inch apart each. Peter's were just battered, heads caved in or chests crushed. Scott's stank. If the heat from his eyes met Kevlar, the Kevlar seemed to sort of burn and fuse itself on to the wearer's body, with a hole like a massive cigarette burn where Scott had actually hit them. The one that had shot him just now, the one Jean had killed a second ago, was… half his chest was gone. Not burned off, not torn off, just… gone.

They went on after her, the three of them, not knowing what else to do. As she neared the remaining gunmen, who were all backing away now, her power pushed them back and… it was like someone taking a vacuum cleaner to a thing made of sand, bits of them just… came apart, no, not even apart, just… stopped existing. There was no stopping her now. She was terrifyingly powerful.

,

Scott stared after Jean, not even able to confirm her command. She was… surely she couldn't do this safely. It was going to kill her. It was like what Magneto could do with metal, but Jean seemed to be able to do it to anything right now. This was level five power. Level fives usually didn't live very long.

Jean stormed through the terrified gunmen, though none of them tried to surrender. But she wasn't moving fast. He guessed she didn't need to. Scott hadn't heard anything from The Professor since Jean had jumped off the barricade, and not landed on the floor. Had Jean's power… done something to him? Was he okay?

She hadn't hurt them, she'd protected them. Why should he assume she'd hurt The Professor? She clearly could control herself.

Kurt appeared behind them with Storm, whose mouth fell open in shock as the last gunman went down, there was almost nothing left of him. He hadn't even had time to scream. She looked at Scott, who just shook his head. He had no idea what was going on.

Jean looked at the open elevator. There was blood everywhere from Logan's efforts earlier. Her eyes were unfocused, but her meaning was clear. Scott walked in, the others followed him. Jean stood directly in front of the door. She folded her arms in to her chest, the strange lights in the air around her died.

"Jean?" She landed on the floor at last, but didn't turn. "Jean, look at me, please." She didn't respond at all. "Jean, please. You can stop now."

She turned her head. "Ten more." She said. She wasn't really… looking at him. She… it almost looked like she was blind.

"Jean, can you see?" She turned her head back to the elevator doors. "Jean. Answer me." The elevator doors opened. She stepped out, unfurling her arms like wings. Her breathing was changing. When she'd got in to the lift, she'd been breathing so lightly he hadn't really been able to see or hear it, now her breaths were deep, almost laboured. "Jean-"

She strode away from him. Men were shouting up above, presumably they'd been hunting for Storm. Again, Jean didn't seem to be in a hurry. They were running. The invaders were retreating. Scott supposed he would have done the same against a level five telekinetic – level five telekinetic. That wasn't Jean. That wasn't supposed to be Jean. This was wrong.

They were passing under the stairs now, to where the gunmen had kicked the door down. It was dusk. Scott could see one man tearing away down the steps, he'd dropped his gun. Jean reached out a hand after him. Scott didn't see what happened. But Jean stumbled. Then she stopped dead, panting as though she'd run all the way up from the basement labs. She braced her hands on her knees.

"Jean?" Level fives don't live. Level fives never last long. She fell to her knees. "Jean!" Scott ran towards her. She fell on to her side, limp as a rag doll.

Oh no. Oh God, no, not again. He couldn't go through this again. He dropped to his knees beside her. So did Storm.

"Jean, come on, don't do this."

"She's breathing." Storm said. Scott went still. She was. Jean's chest was moving, only slightly, but it was moving. But he needed to be sure. He'd believe it when she sat up, spoke and knew who she was. Who knew what sort of damage a telepath could do to herself like that. Storm pulled her glove off and felt for a pulse at Jean's neck. "She's alive." She looked at him. She was waiting for an order. He was in charge of this, still. There were still gunmen in the grounds. Bobby and Rogue. But he had to stay with Jean, he had to be sure she was okay.

Never let it control you.

They had two X-men MIA. They had to be his priority now. There was nothing he could do for Jean, he wasn't a medic. He had to leave Storm with her and take everyone else.

Damn it, no. Storm was the strongest of them above ground in this sort of fight. But she was their only medic left. Jean was out. Bobby was… whatever the hell had happened to him.

But Jean was… He did not want to be in charge right now. He just wanted someone else to tell him what to do.

But he was in charge. He had to make the call. He got up.

"Storm, stay with her. Everyone else, with me. We're going after Bobby and Rogue."

He set off at a jog. He would not look back. Not even for a heartbeat. Though there was nothing he wanted to do more than go back to her. There was nothing he could do for her. Nothing. Bobby and Rogue, he might be able to help.

It was a good thing the visor hid his eyes.