Jean hovered in the air above Wilson. She was bleeding from her hip and shoulder but Wilson watched as the wounds began to glow in soft gold and then flare to a blinding brilliance before vanishing entirely.
"I see." Wilson nodded. "Did you just kill them all?"
Jean smiled. "Fool. They've scattered."
"But you did kill him." Wilson looked to Kurt. "Why?"
Jean raised her arm in preparation to fire another blast.
Wilson smiled despite himself. "I wouldn't if I were you."
Jean's eyes narrowed as though daring Wilson to explain.
His coy little smile pulled at the corners of his mouth. "You know why?" He took a deep breath and then lowered his eyes to the floor in an embarrassed blush. "I have it on good authority that… I'm dangerous."
And Jean went to fire the blast at the boy but he lifted his head and she could see the menacing glint in his eye as he let loose with a blast of his own.
Years worth of anger, disillusionment and struggle came pouring out of him, tipped with his insane fear of Jean and what had happened around him, he projected the great emotional storm at her and let the chips fall where they may.
It sounded like the great screech of an abused and neglected guitar.
The sound seemed to tear Jean open as it hit her. Everywhere she felt the vibration of the sound she began to bleed.
She dropped out of the sky and on to the deck and Wilson eyed her, approaching slowly while he spoke.
"I don't know what's wrong with you… Or what's been going on around here lately…"
The scream continued and Wilson could feel his body beginning to tingle from the strain of it.
"But I've never really needed to know such things… So long as I know what's in my heart."
He placed his hand over his heart like it hurt.
"And I know that … I want to be useful."
He broke out in a sweat from the strain.
"I want to stand for something. That's why I came here." Wilson swallowed. "And if Excalibur is alive… Then all they need is a moment to regroup before they take you down."
He smiled as Jean began to vomit blood as she went flush and pale.
"And all I have to do… Is give them the time they need…"
Jean shivered. Not because he was right, but because she realized that – at first Wilson had looked soft or slightly fuzzy, but now… He was lost in a cloud of flesh colored atoms.
He's… being ripped… apart! She realized.
And suddenly… She wasn't real sure where she was – or why she was there.
"And so I ask you." Wilson said, feeling himself coming apart at the seams – beyond his ability to hold himself together. "Has anyone ever been more useful than me right here and now?"
His last word echoed and reverberated through the room as the boy dissipated in to nothing.
NO! Jean shrieked, realizing what had happened and what she had done.
Free now of Watt's mind control Jean let go of Rachael.
Rachael's eyes shot open and she leapt through the rubble to her feet. Her eyes glowed with an unearthly golden glow and her head whipped to face Jean through the remnants of the wall.
Rachael's mouth opened as she craned her neck and she screeched like a great wounded bird.
Suddenly Jean felt the polarization between them.
The phoenix force was being torn between them. Large, pure streams and bands of the force reached over and caressed Rachael like feathers where she stood, flowing in to and energizing her.
All the while Jean could only feel sicker and sicker. This phoenix force had never killed. Never known a dark indulgence before now… And now? It liked it – at least – a part of it did. And that part – stayed with Jean.
Jean's eye began to glow a reddish gold and she too opened her mouth to screech like a wounded bird – but in a menacing and threatening manner.
The air between them became ripe with energy and discharges of telekinetic energy as the phoenix force leveled itself equally in half between the two women.
Rachael's force was defiantly golden while Jean's was tinted red with her bloodlust and passion.
Rachael cried out again in the voice of an eagle and Jean cried back in the call of a hawk.
From beneath the rubble forge struggled to get up. He was buried under the debris from a collapsed wall.. But that wasn't the worst part of it.
He couldn't move because directly above him in every moveable sense – was Lucy.
She had thrown herself on top of him… And not responded since.
Forge isn't certain why… But her mid-rift and face are wet…
Kitty held Alistaire close as they descended towards the bottom of the lighthouse.
Knowing that silence was the best approach, as she phased them – allowing them to slowly float to the ground – and knowing they were in serious trouble so this might be her last chance… Kitty kissed Alistaire full on the mouth.
I… love…. My job! He admitted silently, before adding: Thank you Mister… Kurt. Where ever you are.
Betsy's eyes fluttered open and she realized she was hanging off the edge of the lighthouse. She looked up quickly and realized an arm was holding her.
She grabbed the arm and pulled herself up. "Let go!" She told him and he did.
Betsy scurried up his arm and found that he was Brian – and was buried beneath a collapsed outer wall.
She began to dig him out form the side as best she could, afraid to approach the shrieking telekinetic battle just above their heads.
Jean swooped in an angry fury and Rachael shrieked out a terrible cry as they raced headlong at each other. Their phoenix essences flared out around them like birds and as they got nearer the birds met claw to claw and snatched each other, spinning in a mad descent towards the ground while locked together – slinging psychic thunderbolts of fury and indignation between them.
A savage scratching gave way to fury beneath the rubble and a lone figure burst out with a snarl… In Kurt's bath robe.
Emma tied it tight behind her and threw her awareness at Jean.
"Time we had a little talk!" She screamed – latching on to Jean's mind and initiating communication – knowing full well that any battle with Jean on the psychic level would most certainly be a fatal one – Emma went in swinging.
Jean jolted for a minute and then Emma gasped and collapsed in to the rubble as she was transported to the psychic realm…
But this time – Everything was gold – and there before her was a being who radiated the light of the world.
Jean stood, prim and proper, emitting the light of the phoenix – of life itself.
Emma attacked immediately and this Jean deflected every blow with a precise movement. I am the force itself… You can not harm me…
I have to stop you… Emma replied.
Why? Am I not the force of all life in the universe? 'Jean' asked.
You've been corrupted. Trust me. I know corruption. Emma swallowed. You have to stop what you're doing in the outside world.
The Force smiled sarcastically. I am the light. Not where it shines.
And this version of Jean reached out and flicked Emma in the forehead jolting her immediately awake on the pile where she's fallen. She reached up to wipe the blood from her nose but there was none and her head refused to ache.
Just then she noticed Betsy trying to dig out Brian and Emma dove for the ledge, hauling Betsy up and beginning the effort of freeing Brian.
"Why can't he just smash out?" Betsy asked.
"He'll take down the lighthouse. I bet he knows that." Emma continued digging.
"Where's Kurt?" Betsy asked.
Emma stopped, frozen for just a moment before she continued to dig. "He's dead. Jean killed him."
Betsy's eyes turned to the battle as Jean and Rachael rushed towards the water in a violent free-for-all free-fall.
"Then she dies too." Betsy whispered.
"Agreed." Emma replied.
And the two shared a look – it was as hard as steel and as warm as fire – and said without reservation that this was a blood oath between them.
Kurt's blood – Had to be paid for.