Title: Bathed in Gold
Author: Cammy
Rating: PG-13
Summary: After the Phoenix saga, Scott reflects at Jean's grave at what led them here, and his final choice.
Disclaimer: Not mine. Duh much?
Author's Note: Review if you liked and review if you didn't. I changed a few things so that they fit the story better but that's all. You probably need to know the comic verse to understand a couple things but that's really it... And it's only a few things.
They say you were bathed in gold.
I wouldn't know, but I like to think that you were.
It's funny in a way. You were the good girl, the one everyone thought was perfect. They envied you, hated you, and loved you. I loved you more. It doesn't matter, though, that I loved you so much more because you're dead.
Dead. That word... it sounds so strange.
You shouldn't be. Dead, I mean. You shouldn't be nothing but ash on the moon. You should be alive and laughing at me. You should be telling me, admit your own laughter, that I need to laugh more.
It hurts to dwell on the fact you never will again.
When you first declared to the world that you were Phoenix, I had mixed feelings. I was happy, a little awed, and a bit worried. Happy because you had reached your full potential, awed by the power you now wielded, and worried about whether or not it would consume you. It did in the end. The power just took over..
At first everything was fine. Your power was just awe inspiring but it didn't rule you. Then you became the Dark Phoenix.
Dark Phoenix
Destroyer of Worlds
Murderess.
You were so powerful, so hateful, so dangerous, and..
So beautiful.
I still can't help but think that you were beautiful. No matter who you were- Jean Grey, Phoenix, or Dark Phoenix- you were so beautiful to me.
You had just come back to us after the Dark Phoenix thanks to the Professor, and Lilandra arrived. I know it's selfish but I can't help but wish that she had never came. Perhaps we could have been happy again. Sure, it would have taken time before everything was perfectly fine again but... I loved you and wanted happily ever after with you. Sill do.
But the what ifs don't matter since Lilandra came. She just teleported us onto her ship and demanded your death. Eventually a trail was agreed upon; the X-Men against the Imperial Guard. If we won, you live and if they won, you die. I want to hate them so badly, but I can't because they had every right to demand justice. You had killed their people after all.
As we were fighting, you began reverting to the Dark Phoenix Red. You realized that you had to die. Had to because otherwise you would become the Dark Phoenix again.
You begged us to kill you.
We couldn't.
So you did it yourself.
You told me goodbye, Red, and triggered that damn energy cannon.
It annihilated you.
Bathed you in gold.
Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.
They all cried. Even Rogue, who has hated you for years, cried her heart out at the funeral.
The funeral was six hours ago. I'm the only one out here, standing at your grave.
Talking to your tombstone.
Dwelling on the past.
The point is, Red, that I'm leaving. I'm through with the X-Men. Never again will I be Cyclops, Leader of the X-Men.
It's just plain old Scott Summers now.
I've been Cyclops for too long.
They say that you were bathed in gold.
To me, you were bathed in red. And..
And you never looked more beautiful.