Author's Note: Sorry I took more than a month to update this story. This is very unlike me and I am ashamed : ( But I am cutting it short (I like the story but I feel it should end now) so don't be disappointed because more is coming soon. Many other stories are in store and most of them are JOTT. So JOTT lovers stay calm because this is not a tear jerker. Hehe. Anyways, read, review, and enjoy. And go read the latest story of Pinkchick's: Bond of Gold. Very heart warming and touching.
Sorry if there are many mistakes maybe in grammar or spelling, but I wrote this pretty quickly just so I won't keep any of you waiting any longer.
Chapter 5
"To Conquer Evil"
Jean searched through cerebro to pinpoint the woman she was looking for. She really was not very excited if she found her, but she would be hopeful. All the red lights shown to her as she concentrated on finding the one soul whom she was looking for. The professor always told her that a telepath needed to know what they were looking for when using cerebro in order to find it. She just wished life was that easy.
If she did finally meet face to face with Pyrexia after she herself found her, there was going to be a one on one battle between the two if Pyrexia did not speak clearly and inform her what she had been doing with her husband. Jean sensed she was a mutant from the moment she walked into the office. But she did not treat her differently than she would her other patients because she was no different. When Pyrexia came to the mansion to return the wedding ring that Jean had supposedly lost, she was absolutely sure that Pyrexia was a mutant. And she knew the woman was up to something. Jean always wondered who really walks out in those clothes? Unless, she wanted to snag someone's attention.
Jean had stared at her wedding ring for hours on end and started to think that Pyrexia had given her a fake in hope that this was not happening to her. In hope that Scott and her were still holding on to each other and the item that symbolized their marriage. She was surprised that Scott would be angry at her for supposedly losing the ring. He was the one who always told her it was not about the material objects that symbolized their marriage. He was the one who always told her that a tiny ring like that could not hold or symbolize all that love he had for her. He told her repeatedly that the ring would have to cost much more than the expensive price he bought it at to show his love to her. And she had trusted him. She had loved him back just the same. That was what she had held on to in hope of solving the confusion happening lately. But enough was enough when Logan told her what Scott had told him. She had completely lost her mind which was not such a great thing as a telepath who was once inhabited by the Phoenix.
Jean searched through the many mutants in this world who were living their lives normally. She searched through New York and then through the U.S. And she found many faces, except the one she was looking for. She tried the world just in case. With her eyes shut in concentration her face contorted into a frustrated expression. Was she not a mutant? Jean was sure she was. How would she just come to the mansion without fear as a human? How could she have taken her ring as a human? No, she had to be a mutant.
The full concentration on cerebro disappeared as Jean opened her eyes and released the helmet of cerebro from her head. She stared blankly at the gray walls in front of her. She walked with a solemn expression to the doors as they automatically opened before her and closed behind her.
It was the middle of the night and all through the mansion every soul was sleeping. So she made sure that the steps she took back to the kitchen were very quiet and discreet. She was hungry since she had not been eating dinner lately. She took a chocolate chip cookie from the cookie jar and devoured it with full satisfaction. Then she poured water into a glass cup and gulped half of it down her throat to quench her thirst. But she did not feel quenched. She felt as if she were drinking her water mechanically.
The red strands of her sweat covered ends blew away from her worried face. She turned to the back glass window of the kitchen to find it open. Knitting her eyebrows in paranoia she walked over to the open window with her guard up and her glass cup of water still in her hand.
Shattered glass filled Jean's ears and made her shudder as her eardrum vibrated. Her cheek was turned away from the window by a powerful gust of wind. It hurt, as if the wind had hands.
"You can't find me."
Jean's eyes widened at the voice. She used her telepathic abilities to try and find where the voice was coming from but she got nothing. Her body jolted back at the force of the block of her telepathic mind. The lights flickered as Jean was forced upon the edge of the kitchen counter. She fell to the floor in pain. But she struggled with all her energy to lift herself up, showing her attacker that she was not about to surrender.
"Wh-who are you?" Jean hesitated to ask. She tried to keep the nervousness in her voice low-key so she would not look so powerless. Then the black smoke turned into a physical formed she recognized right away. It was Pyrexia. Jean realized that Pyrexia looked less intimidating in the dim light of the kitchen then when she had been outside in the night, at their front door. Today, she did not feel like welcoming herself through the door.
Pyrexia's eyes threw invisible daggers at Jean and she suddenly remembered the power she had felt when the phoenix had inhabited her body. When Pyrexia finally broke eye contact with Jean through her beady eyes and blinked, Jean had lost that feeling completely. She felt weak but not empty and she knew she could not falter.
"You can't find me. I find you," Pyrexia said through a low and eerie voice. "I am not a physical being but an energy source of dark forces. I see people for who they really are. I saw right through Cyclops's visor, unlike the rest of you. I know his eyes have no color. I know he has no essence. I know the red in his eyes is just a shield from the real flare to kill deep inside him."
"You're wrong!" Jean almost shouted. Her face was flushed with anger at Pyrexia's obvious arrogance and blindness. She turned her face forward to look Pyrexia right in the eyes. She could not help notice the symbol of an eyeball hanging from her large necklace. Why had she not noticed it before?
Before Jean could continue Pyrexia summoned fierce winds in the kitchen as the lights flickered and Jean saw her life flash before her. Scott was in every scene. "How would you know sweetheart?" Pyrexia said rather annoyingly. "Did you ever get to look at his eyes? Not until I gave him that privilege and your reaction was most expected. For me at least."
"Scott may hide his feelings from everyone else, but not from me," Jean spat irritably, trying to prove the point she knew was true. But at this moment, looking Pyrexia straight in her eyes, she doubted it for a second in the little time she felt she had.
"It was all an act for Cyclops," Pyrexia said slowly and slyly. "Everyone is scared of what Cyclops can really do. All those feelings and hatred built up inside him can finally reveal itself for the good of the essence of life. What would be more perfect than a world where people were in chaos and fear every second of every hour? What would be more perfect than a world where people looked fear in the face and they finally realized that it is the ruler of their everyday lives? It would be so perfect for me. I'm quenched with the thought of a soulless world full of powerful lightening and smoke filled skies."
Jean's mouth was pursed in anger and frustration. Especially when Pyrexia continually called Scott Cyclops. "There's a force greater than you," Jean said rather quickly.
"Please don't enlighten me."
"It's love."
"What? Nonsense. Your love for Cyclops?" Pyrexia spat in cockiness. "Even the symbol of your love, your ring of course, seems to be going against you. Because the rightful owner of Cyclops is me. He will be my heartless and merciless king. Side by side we will conquer this world one person at a time. I am starting my big plan with this house and he is starting his work with you. He will begin his real destiny."
Jean's face contorted into what her thoughts felt like right now. She concentrated on defending herself and her home with her powers, but it was useless. She fell to the floor as her body surrendered in defeat. But she knew her mind had not yet surrendered, therefore this was not over.
Pyrexia waved her slender fingers in the air as her silky blond hair blew furiously. "See you soon."
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"Demon," a voice spoke loudly in the deep part of Nightcrawler's mind. "We need to kill the demon."
He had woken up after a frightful dream of not being able to see his eyes in the mirror. The same dream they all seemed to be having. But this time he felt it. He felt the pain of not having his yellow eyes. The eyes that normal humans, and even mutants were fearful of or intimidated by.
He had heard the voices in his dreams and now they would not leave him in his full consciousness. They were ringing in his ears. He tried to block them out but they would not desist. He suddenly began to itch his skin as he shot out of his bed with his flexible legs bent beneath him. The angelic symbols that were carved into his skin by him began to irritate him. His blue skin was becoming heated with fury and fear. Fear of the voices and fear of his own skin. What if people saw him as a blue man with unnaturally carved skin. What would they say?
Kurt neared his mirror and rubbed his empty eyes. He jumped back and landed on his bed. He began to teleport all across his room, the sound of his bamf sounding in the now smoke filled air. He finally stopped and landed in his chair. He leaned back and buried his face in his blue hands that had long yellow fingernails. Who was that man he had seen? He had been so frightening. Kurt tried to calm his fast beating heart, but it kept beating in his ears, every muscle in his body full of tension.
Were his worst fears coming to life? Was the nightmare he had woken up from becoming reality? With the thought of this, he raced to the door and ran outside. He walked quickly down the long corridor of the upstairs hallway decorated with red carpet. He turned his head back to see if the man he had spotted in his room was following him. His fast walking turned into jogging and then running. He ran around the corners until he made a full circle around the hallway, looking around him every few seconds. But something finally made him stop as he ran straight into Ororo. Ororo let out a loud scream which made Jean come running up the stairs to see what was going on.
"Storm, are you alright?" Jean asked as her heart beat faster with every event that took place these past two weeks.
Storm looked to Kurt with wide open brown eyes and he gave her the same expression causing Jean much confusion. Kurt spun on his heel quickly, looked erratically around as if he did not know where he was or who Jean and Storm were, and looked as if he had been trapped by four walls. Then he began to heave heavily, teleporting away after many long seconds of hanging silence.
"What's the matter with him?" Jean asked as she watched her best friend's eyes search the ceiling then the floor. Storm's eyes began to move in circles, very quickly. "What's wrong?" Jean tried to read her mind to find out what was wrong with her. After no answer, to her surprise, she found nothing.
"Why are you talking to me? Who are you? Where am I?" Storm said quickly with a shaking voice. Then her body began to shake, first with fear then with anger as Jean tried to calm her down. Maybe she could take her to the infirmary to see what was wrong with her. Maybe she was sick. But Jean only tried to make herself have hope with these words.
"It's Jean Grey," Jean began as if she was helping a friend regain her memory. "Your best friend. Your teammate. A fellow X-woman."
"You think I'm a freak like the rest of them!" Storm shouted. Jean felt heat build in the atmosphere of the mansion as if they were outside before a thunderstorm. "Don't talk to me like I'm one of you," Storm said between heavy breaths. She leaned harshly against the wall as if someone had pushed her. Jean's eyes were wide with concern and fear. What the hell was happening around here?
Storm's hands fluttered open and began to explore the wall as if she was holding on to dear life. It looked as if she was blocking moving walls from closing in on her. Jean knew Storm was claustrophobic, but this was a wide open space. Jean's hands gripped the railing as a gust of wind almost blew her down the steps.
"Mom, Dad. Don't let them keep me here!" Storm exclaimed frantically then muttered it over and over again to herself.
"Storm!" Jean yelled through the loud gust of the wind. She had obviously snapped Storm back from her aimless muttering. But she suddenly turned to Jean. She moved forward as Jean watched Storm's eyes roll to the back of her head and all that could be seen was white. She looked gloomy, the same way she looked when she summoned a tornado in the X-jet on a nigt mission a while back. Jean knew what was coming and acted on her instincts. "Sorry Storm," she said as she punched her jaw and Storm flew backwards. Her whole body shook as if she had just been shocked. Jean did not think it would knock her out. But that was even better at the moment.
"Pyrexia," Jean whispered to herself as she hurried down the stairs and to the library. "I've got to find Scott."
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"Bobby," Rogue said silently as she smelled the cold air that filled one of the living rooms. Bobby sat down but kept eye contact with Rogue. He had fear and worry in his bright blue eyes but he still knew who Rogue was. "Logan left to get a beer. He didn't look too good. He looked furious. But I don't feel any worry."
"Rogue," Bobby said with intensity in his shaking voice. He did not seem to care what Rogue was telling him. "My parents are going to send me away. They don't know why though and I feel so ashamed."
Rogue ignored his words as if what she was going through was the most important thing here. She did not break her eye contact with Bobby as she neared him and he began to shiver. She slowly sat down beside him and his muttering stopped. Now he was silent, looking at Rogue intently, concerned with the gaze that she was giving him.
She began to slip one of her black gloves off very slowly, revealing a pale but very soft looking hand. Bobby flinched a little as Rogue placed her hand on his, but then relaxed when no energy was drained from him. "Rogue," he whispered as cold air escaped his mouth with a fit of shivers.
Rogue neared his lips intently and Bobby looked at her with longing and wanting for so long. He did not know what was happening, but now was the chance he finally had. Something he has been wishing for since the day he met Rogue in Storm's class.
Their lips became entangled mechanically and then untangled just as quickly. No energy was drained from him but also no passion. "I don't understand," Bobby said solemnly and blankly as he looked away from Rogue's empty brown eyes.
"Ah thought ah should be thah happiest person in thah world a moment ago," Rogue whispered with her shaped eyebrows knitted with confusion. She shook her head and turned to Bobby apologetically. "But ah feel empty Bobby. Ah feel empty. Ah feel lahke mah voice is not mahne. Ah feel lahke mah body is not mahne. Who am ah anyway?"
"I don't know. No one really knows who they are," Bobby spoke as Rogue listened to a stranger's voice that spoke of a concept she could not grasp too tightly.
For she felt as empty as a dead person.
………………………………...
Scott's empty eyes stared straight forward. Not admiring Ororo's beautiful garden or the twinkling stars in the sky that were half covered by clouds. He did not feel the fog around him and the sound of the moon twinkling.
"I feel empowered with strength and I like it," a woman's voice boomed in mid air. The coldness of the night's air made Scott's bones shiver. He listened to the voice as if he had heard it from the day he was born. The voice did not scare him. Nothing scared him, for he felt nothing. Only the night's cold breath. The voice did not scare him and neither did the presence. "Good souls being trapped and minds being lost is energy for me. This household holds much energy and stress."
The swirled colors of the woman in the black dress curled around Scott's body and stopped behind him. She placed her now solid hands on his shoulder and whispered in his ear. "I know you like it too. You love to kill, just like me. And what I like about you is…you don't even know it."
Scott searched his mind to finally bring himself to speak. "That's not true."
"I just had a little talk with your bride. What's her name…oh yes…Jean," Pyrexia said seductively as she leaned against Scott's side in her non-solid form of black smoke. "It's not that I wasn't able to take her soul through those teary green eyes. It's that I didn't want to."
Scott suddenly felt a jolt and then his anger rose quickly. He turned to look at the seductive woman. "Leave Jean alone. What do you want with her? What do you want with me?"
In response, nothing but cruel and torturous laughter was heard from the woman who had disappeared into thin air. Only an echo of her words were left behind. Words dripping with evil and disdain. "I'll see you tonight."
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Jean's index finger searched through the many words of the book of mutants Professor Xavier wrote. She searched for the symbol she had seen on Pyrexia's necklace. The symbol of an eyeball. She read it out to herself in a whisper.
"One who wears this symbol is the thief of souls. It takes the shape of a human but is truly a powerful ball of energy. The physical form has to see the people in which it will take the souls of and look at their eyes, even just once. The thief of souls can also use a form of dark art to control the actions of those souls...
"The only way for it to live is to feed off of souls who have been damaged through life's hostilities. Souls that are unusual and have heavy loads of despair of emotional and physical stress," Jean looked up with hopeful eyes. So Pyrexia was after this mansion because so many of those souls lie in it. "What can stop her? What can stop her?" Jean exclaimed to herself as she kept skimming the page and turning it over to see if anything lies on the back.
But there was nothing. The information on this power had ended a sentence after where Jean had stopped reading. "Damn it!" Jean exclaimed with fury as she buried her face in her hands and sighed loudly and painfully. She looked at her wedding ring once more for the hundredth time today, and she looked at it long and hard. She slipped it off her finger to make sure Scott's name was still engraved inside. But the pupils in Jean's eyes narrowed until it seemed as if all that was visible was white.
S-C-O-T-T had disappeared before her eyes in a shadow of black. Jean's mouth hung open as she stared at the empty ring. But nonetheless, she slipped it back on her finger, more intrigued with the fact that this woman was the cause of all the chaos lately and Scott was innocent. Or was he?
No matter what though, she was going to keep the ring and keep him along with it. Maybe if she asked Scott who and where he had met these past two weeks she could figure out where Pyrexia was.
Jean searched the whole mansion. First telepathically, then physically. But there was no sign of him. She desperately needed to find Scott and ask him many important questions. She also needed to inform him about the crazy behavior of the members of this mansion. Jean fully believed that it was Pyrexia's doing. But she was not fully sure if Scott would care.
She turned the corner of the foyer and hurried through the door to check outside. He could be in the garage too. She moved forward and tried to see between the fog and the rain obviously caused by Storm's paranoia. Goose bumps ran up her arm and then covered her whole body in attempt to make her break out into a fit of shivers. The sky seemed to grow darker and Jean held her arm in her hand, rubbing furiously. She was beginning to feel scared. Maybe it was just the mood of the weather that affected her.
Why should she feel scared? She had not sensed anyone out here. She shook her head at herself in disbelief and spun on her heel. Bam. She suddenly felt something as hard as stone clash with her body and almost fell backwards. She felt her vision blur and for a moment, she felt as if she was going to turn into an ice statue.
But the arms clutched her roughly in an attempt to save her from falling. The strong arms held her firmly and brought her up slowly. He stood erect and looked at her through his blue eyes. They stood in silence for many seconds when he finally pulled her into an embrace. Jean's guard was let down as she melted into his chest. "Scott," she sighed out and felt warm in his arms. Was he snapped back into reality now? Jean didn't care, she was sulking in his arms voluntarily now.
They were finally at one with each other. They finally had hope to fight off Pyrexia together. A chance where he can show that arrogant woman who he really was and how mistaken she was about him.
"I love you, Scott," Jean said through a muffled voice in his chest and he held her tighter. Jean backed away from him lightly to look at his face. He was so handsome, especially in the wet rain that was coming down on them very heavily. He grabbed her wrists lightly and pulled her to him to kiss her lightly on the lips. Jean was shocked at how cold his lips were. She backed away from their kiss to look at him again.
He was not even shivering one bit in the cold of the rain and fog. Not the slightest shiver or goose bump on his skin. The trees around the mansion began to scream furiously across the wet air. He hadn't even answered back to her statement of loving him. Did he not love her back just the same? Maybe he was just confused of what was happening to him and the whole mansion along with it. "Don't worry, Scott. Everything will be alright. We can defeat Pyrexia together. She was the one who did this to you," Jean said lovingly as she stoked his strong jaw line.
But Scott's face seemed even more serious than ever. Even more than it was when she could not see his eyes. Jean just waited for a response. But there was just silence. Seconds later the silence was broken by a loud roar of thunder beneath the ground. The trees began to sway even more furiously as the rain fell even harder.
"She's not the enemy," Scott's voice finally spoke with a low vibration in his throat. His plump and wet lips were pursed tightly and Jean stepped back unconsciously. Her thoughts were now toppled over one another at his words. His grip tightened around her arms as Jean pushed them away with her telekinesis. His grip was even tighter than it had been the last time he attempted to grip her with harshness.
"What are you doing?" Jean asked with disbelief and fury as fire began to emanate around her with the force of the Phoenix. But Scott's gaze at her blew out the fire as he reached a hand to grab her throat. He lifted her above the ground and then dropped her seconds later, watching with satisfaction as she coughed for breath. She lifted herself off the ground with outrage as Scott held his stare even harder and longer this time.
Her energy was being drained from her body with every dagger he threw at her with his eyes. She suddenly fell to the ground and saw everything turning black.
The last thing she remembered seeing was Scott's empty blue eyes looking at her with the most cruel stare Jean has ever seen in her lifetime.
………………………………...
Jean opened her eyes to see everything hazy around her. She looked around her surroundings and tried to ignore the major headache she felt. She was in the back of Scott's red Mercedes. She remembered this car very clearly because of the memory she shared with Scott back here. It had been their one year anniversary and the car had broken down. It was cold that night, raining sleet. But Jean and Scott had found a way to keep themselves warm and that was when the bond had become stronger. They had had a two hour conversation before any physical action and Scott had allowed her to enter his thoughts as an anniversary gift. She had done the same and their bond had become even more powerful.
But right now she wanted to send Scott somewhere far and uncharted, which was what he seemed to be doing at the moment. She closed her eyes as she saw Scott turn his head to make sure Jean was still there and unconscious. Then she opened her eyes and silently looked out the window. The long pathway of the road was thin and a dead end with a huge bolder up ahead.
But the speed of the car accelerated and then stopped abruptly at the bolder, which caused the car to jolt. Jean had been forced to make a sound and realized that Scott had known she'd been awake. He got out of the driver's seat and into the back seat to pull Jean into a sitting position.
Jean could fight back with all her strength, but she did not want to. She knew if she escaped she would leave Scott with Pyrexia and loose him forever. So she decided to obey to everything Scott was doing. She did not struggle from his grip on her wrists. She did not struggle when he carried her over his shoulders and approached the rock.
They waited next to the rock for a moment's silence and then the ground beneath them opened as a hole big enough to drag them down under. Jean was screaming at the top of her lungs as they fell down the tube but Scott was so calm. When they made it underground they did not tumble over each other. Instead, Scott landed on his feet. He placed Jean harshly on her feet as Jean turned around to see what he was looking at.
The large square room was empty. It had a high ceiling that was enclosed. No crack of sunlight poured into the room. It was all rusty iron. Jean caught a glimpse of a painting in the back of the room. It was painted with Scott's eyes dark. The color of his eyes kept changing in the picture from empty blue to black. What Pyrexia thought was underneath.
The thief of souls can also use a form of dark art to control the actions of those souls... Jean remembered the words of the book. If she could control his soul with dark art then he still had one. So there was still hope.
But the spark of hope Jean had was vanished through the feeling of emptiness at the sight of black smoke. It filled their senses as Jean felt a force push upon her body and pull her to the wall. Her body seemed plastered there by a strong force. But Jean knew she could not break free, even with her powers, so she tried to relax her muscles.
Jean watched Pyrexia approach Scott and turn into her human form with her tube top black dress flowing behind her. The color did match her heart, if she had one. Pyrexia wrapped her arms around Scott's neck and embraced his lips with her own. They held the deep kiss for moments. Jean cringed as she felt like an actual sword had just pierced her.
Jean and Scott let out a small groan at the same time. Scott pulled Pyrexia away slowly. "Is something wrong darling?" Pyrexia asked smugly as she eyed Jean with no mercy and content.
"No," Scott denied. "Nothing's wrong, my love."
Jean's mouth was hanging open. It was obvious that Pyrexia had done this to him, therefore he was not his real self. But Pyrexia did not realize that and Jean feared that Scott would never realize it.
He approached Jean slowly and scowled at her with approval. "Your first experiment. Destroy her and gain a position next to me as the second thief of souls. And then we can rule the world," Pyrexia said as she broke out into evil laughter, circling the room through her black smoke.
Scott had his way. Pyrexia had her way. Scott tortured Jean physically and mentally. He punched her until she bled. He caused her to see all black and then almost go unconscious again. She felt the pain physically and emotionally as Scott converted his hate to her mentally. He even blasted her leg lightly with his red beams and that caused her so much pain. She knew that was how he was going to get rid of her. This was really the end.
As Scott was doing his work, Pyrexia began talking with pure victory. "You can be a mutant with power over the world. Over those who mistreated you. You deserve to hurt the people that hurt you in your life. They deserve nothing less. Being different will mean victory. You won't feel a sense of loss anymore. You won't have to question yourself about who you really are or feel 'bad' when you injure an 'innocent victim'. A life like hers is what mutants should have. Ha! Xavier believing that good wins over evil and mutants can live in a normal society as humans! What a bunch of rubbish."
Scott held Jean's throat in his hands harshly as Jean struggled for breath as her first instinct. Then the life and thoughts that were going through her head in a flash before she lost her life had flooded over to Scott who had suddenly loosened his grip on her throat. The memory of the night when their bond was strengthened in the Mercedes Scott owned washed over him like a waterfall let loose. The echo of Pyrexia's voice in the background of the scene began to shake.
"Wh?" Pyrexia's voice sounded through the air. It sounded scared, for once. Jean has never heard her like this.
Scott's grip on Jean's throat came loose and Jean fell from the wall and into his arms. She watched something come into Scott's blue eyes and they looked like pure light to Jean now. They were the most beautiful eyes she had ever seen. At the same time, holes of light pounded through the half physical and have smoke part of Pyrexia. She yelled in agony and even Jean did not like to hear it. She did not like to hear anyone yell in agony.
"I love you Jean. I'm so sorry…for everything. I didn't know what I was doing," Scott said as he ran his fingers through her hair and heaved a loud sigh. His voice was full of purity and love and the normal Scott she knew. How could Pyrexia ever think of him like that.
Scott turned to Pyrexia with anger. "Being a good mutant is what I am. That's what makes me who I am and I'm proud of it!" Scott said with a shaking voice of fury. "I don't like to hurt people. I'm an X-man to save and unite people. And…and I would NEVER EVER hurt Jean!" Scott held back his powerful red beams. As much as he wanted to hurt Pyrexia, he knew he was better than her. He leaned in to lock lips with Jean.
The kiss was apocalyptic. Their souls, thoughts, and feelings emerged with this deep kiss as the light struck through Pyrexia and the black smoke evaporated into thin air. She had made a hole in the ceiling and now the sun shone through, striking the middle of the dark room and then filling it with pure light.
Scott embraced Jean in a long hug as he began to cry. Jean had never seen him cry and shake this way before. "Why me? Am I really what she says?"
"Don't you ever say that," Jean began as she held him tightly like she's never held him before. "Her belief of you being like that was so strong that she wanted to make it true. She was just blind to see that there is something in there. But our love was stronger than an all powerful thing." Jean leaned forward to kiss his tear streaked, closed eyelids. The blood upon her face streamed down unto his as their flesh met. Her breaths were heavy from the pain she was feeling, but the hope and love for Scott conquered that pain. It felt as if she had no body, just a floating soul. "They're the most beautiful things I've ever laid my eyes on." Jean held him to her chest and reassured him that everything was going to be fine. That she would keep him warm. She felt his flustered mind and his thoughts of the people he has hurt in the past.
"Scott, it's people's weaknesses that make them strong. It makes us want to fight for something more. And there is no beauty without flaw."
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"Love can conquer anything," Scott said victoriously to the camera man outside the clinic as he held Jean to him closely. "And if anyone tries to close this clinic again I think we all have enough love to defeat it." Jean smiled and kissed him. Scott winked at all the X-men (who were back to normal) behind him.
He had opened the clinic for Jean as an anniversary present and was going to give her another present tonight. Jean looked at her ring and smiled to see that the engraving and the name had appeared once more. Scott had even volunteered to polish it for her. How could she have ever doubted their love? She knew she would never again doubt anything about this saint. Scott looked to Jean lovingly and said, "I love you."
"I love you too."
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