Prologue 12:

            Jean Grey stood behind the X-Jet and forcibly closed the door.

            The world around her was alive, moving and she could feel everything.

            Every tree, dormant under the winter snow...every living animal, moving as quickly as they could away from the oncoming flood...every piece of ice striking her hands and face in the bitter wind...

            Everyone who had been in pain.  Every person, human and mutant, in fear of what had happened less than a half hour before.  Every life they had just saved...

            The ground was beginning to tremble beneath her feet.  The living earth rolling in protest against the coming flood.  All life around her was being washed away...

            The dam had broken and the waters of Alkali Lake were spilling towards herself and the others.  She knew they were trying to stop her, get her back into the jet, so she focused quickly to disable their powers.  There would be no permanent harm, and they would regain control...when she was gone...

            Jean could feel their panic when they realized what she was planning to do.  She felt their anger, their determination to save her...she was glad she would not be here to feel their tears.

            The water was close now.  God, it was so alive.  Why hadn't she ever noticed before?

            Alive...life...lives, all around the world people could keep living...because of those people on that jet...

            Her friends...her family.  Nothing else in the world matters except them.

            And she did not intend to let them die.

            Jean reached backward with one hand and focused on the X-Jet.  It was so light, so easy to bring it to life again.  She could feel heat in her hands...

            The roaring tidal wave came into view and Jean reached out with her other hand and forced the waters to stop, to flow around the jet.  This was harder, so much life in the waves, so much life that was causing so much destruction.

            The flames leapt from her fingertips.  But it was so much more than fire.  A power from within, a power from all around her...God, it was so alive...

            Jean turned back towards the jet and lifted it from the ground. 

            The minds of every person on board were focused on her.

            The children, her students, sitting in confusion and terror.

            Storm, trying desperately to regain control, her composure lost in fear for her friend.

            Logan, his anger at his own helplessness, as he tried to fight his way to her.

            The Professor, sitting in stony silence, understanding he was about to watch another of his students die.

            Scott...he was the hardest to hear.  He was in a frenzy, raging and weeping, refusing to accept the fact that his lover was about to die.

            His lover...his love...his wife.

            Oh God, Scott, I didn't want to feel your tears...

            So she spoke, using the Professor without resistance.

            "I know what I'm doing," she said.       

            Jean... she felt Scott reply, Jean...don't do this...

            "Good bye..."

            Jean closed her mind then, closed herself to every thought and emotion.

            She no longer heard the people behind her, no longer felt her own sorrow or pain.

            There was nothing except the power, the flame.  The water stood before her, struggling against her will. 

            She smiled, savoring the feeling of its life as she prepared to give up her own.

            Life...energy with a purpose, power without malice or pride. 

            Power in simply being...the power just to be whatever fate or nature or God meant it to be...

            The jet was gone, her family was safe.  Life could go on.

            Jean lowered her arms, her body glowing with power, her eyes filled with flames.

            Why wasn't she afraid?  She should be afraid.  She had been afraid her whole life, so why not now?

            Maybe she was past fear, maybe it did not matter anymore. 

            She had done what she meant to do, and it was time to go.

            Death suddenly wasn't so hard to accept.  It was a part of life, after all.

            And death suddenly didn't seem like an end.  Not with so much life around her.

            Her power would become one with the power around her, the power in everyone.

            She only needed to spread her wings and......