Chapter 21: The Third Trumpet

The next time Sabere woke up, she was lying in the underground infirmary with almost half the X-Men. At first she panicked – she was the healer, and all this had happened while she had been out? Who was in danger?

"No one," Jean answered clearly. She was changing bandages on Angel's burn, and as Sabere glanced over the rest of the wounded, she saw more of the same – mostly-healed burns, some scrapes, and only one broken arm – Gambit's.

"Once you're able to move around," Jean continued, "I'd like you to look at Angel's wing – I think it broke in the same place, and it's a bit out of my area of expertise."

Without hesitating, Sabere swung her legs off the table and strode over to check on Angel, beaming at Kurt as she went. "How long was I out?"

Jean stared at her like she'd come back from the dead. "Do you even remember why you were unconscious?"

Sabere paused as she realized she didn't, exactly. "The Phoenix got us through the shield…" but what else?

"For one thing, you hit the ground from almost thirty feet in the air after punching through that shield, which would have taken the combined energies of all the X-Men with any amount of aggressive telekinetic abilities to even waver. You woke up on the plane and insisted everything was going to be fine, that the Phoenix was going to save us." She took a deep breath and looked at Sabere for an explanation.

Sabere laid her fingers in the pure white feathers and settled into the familiar healing process. "Xavier." What about him? she thought. I'm going to save him. "How is he?"

"In and out of consciousness," Jean answered warily. "He was able to meet us when we landed, but he's very weak – he can't leave his room anymore, and he's been unconscious for almost eight hours now."

Sabere heard the Phoenix's shriek in the back of her mind and forced it away, moving instead to Kurt's mostly-healed back. The power had a name, and an avatar – the Phoenix – but now it also had a consciousness, a mind that studied situations and made decisions without necessarily caring about the costs. Sabere had no doubt that it would help them, but there was a faint tingling fear attached to that doubt…why had it let her live after rescuing them from London, and what other doom did it have in store for her?

The room swung in a circle and she had to grab onto Kurt's shoulder to steady herself. "Liebchen? What is it?"

"Tired, I think…you never told me how long I was out."

"Twenty-one hours," Jean answered briskly. "Go up and get some rest."

Sabere's hand slipped idly from Kurt's and she wandered out to the elevators, trying to figure out why hearing his old name for her stirred memories that felt like someone else's.

She was so disoriented that she didn't even jump when Kurt 'ported into her room as she dug out her old pajamas. She turned to face him with a smile that (she felt) was just like old, but Kurt was not smiling.

"You are different."

"I'm tired."

"Let me see your eyes." He crouched on her desk and took her chin in his fingers, staring into her eyes – and through them. Whatever he was looking for, it didn't seem to be there. She pulled back, growing angry although she didn't know why. "What's wrong?"

"I know we are all exhausted and distressed from the battles, and things are not going to get any better from now on – in fact, if your visions are right, the only thing we have to look forward to is the possibility of heaven."

Visions. Reassurance of mortals who cannot comprehend the intricacies of time and space.

"But you have been acting differently, and it isn't because of our fate – you've been acting just as you ought to since you had that vision." He looked around the room, searching for words. "Now it's like you're beyond it. I can read you now – I love you and we are going to be married, and you can't think you're hiding things from me. Now, it is like you've…you are floating above it. You are doing what you want, or need, to do, because you know something else is coming." He peered into her eyes again. "Because something else has happened to you."

"Jean told you about the Phoenix."

"It is what killed her five years ago! You cannot think we are not horribly worried about you."

"You don't need to be." She slipped calmly out of her shirt, distantly thinking it wasn't the most decorous thing to do at the time.

Kurt heaved a sigh. "I wish you would give this more focus."

She pulled a sweatshirt over her head, chuckling. "What, you're upset because I took my shirt off? It's not like it's anything new."

"That is hardly what concerns me the most right now. Sabere as I knew her would have recognized that something beyond her control was toying with her for its own purposes, and no matter what it promised, she would have fought it. She would not be laughing it off and insisting everything was going to be fine."

But it will be.

"It will be." Sabere took his hands and brushed hair out of his eyes. "Kurt, I promise, everything will turn out as it should."

"'As it should' is not the same as 'fine.'" He let her kiss him for only a moment before 'porting out again.

In that same distant corner, Sabere worried that this did not bother her as much as it should.

-----

She wanders among the ruins of the city. New York – she's been here before. Sadness overwhelms her. She crouches in the dusty street, wanting to cry. But one cannot cry in these dreams. Tears are for the physical world. The power is there again. It stands calmly on a tumble of steel and concrete, its light simmering deep within, begging to be let loose on this dead city. She sees, finally, that the power is truly a Phoenix, a bird, massively and terrifyingly powerful – a tyrant posing as a grandfather.

Sabere stands uneasily. -I've seen you before-.

The bird nods. I have visited you before this night. You called me.

-I did?-

Yes. You need my help.

She shakes her head in frustration. Of course she needs its help! Apocalypse is ready to destroy everything. The X-Men need all the help they can get.

The bird still sits calmly. That is not why you need me. Not directly.

-What, then?-

The head turns, and a single eye shares its glowing energy in one slow, deliberate blink. The one called Xavier is ill. He is dying. You know this, as do your friends. Yet you do not help him.

-I can't.-

That is true. Alone, you cannot save the life of Xavier. That is why you called me.

-I don't remember calling you.-

No – you would not. I am something that cannot tangibly be summoned. I listen to all, and respond to those with the purest and most vital desires of the heart.

-But say you're dangerous, maybe mad – why do you help the pure?-

Who else deserves it more? And I am not mad – I simply see options that mortals do not appreciate. Tell me – why do you need to save Xavier so badly?

Unlawful tears press in her eyes and throat. -Because we need him – because he is the only one who can stop Apocalypse.-

Surely you have more cause to save him than for a weapon. You love him, as do your friends, yes?

-Yes.-

The bird, the power, nods its magnificent head. That seems pure, does it not? For this reason I come to your aid. I am, as you have seen, power. Energy. I can supplement you enough to heal Xavier. You know who I am, do you not?

Memories – the flood, Alkali, Jean, death. Wings of fire enclosing her own arms, a feeling of invincible benevolence -You are the Phoenix.-

I am – the Phoenix Force. As a telepath, I could hear Jean's cries. I listened for days, helping her secretly when she needed it most. Then the flood came, and her deepest desire came clear – she would save her friends, no matter the cost. I came to her in full then.

-But I am no telepath. How could you hear me? How can you help me?-

Your healing talents connect you on a most intimate level to any and all around you. Your very cells and energies are bound to those you heal on such a microscopic plane that telepathy seems loud and intrusive. These healing powers speak to me louder than any telepath could.

-Yet you heard Jean, and helped her – and killed her anyway.-

The bird does not change, always proud, always powerful. It is not influenced by the whims and morals of mortals – it chooses its fights, the noblest and best, and does not care about the price so long as it wins. That was the price she chose. Would you not have done the same?

Fear now. Emotions seem so much more raw in dreams. It abandoned her to die…and yet all her friends had been saved because of it. -I – I would. For Xavier, for the X-Men, for the world, yes, I would.-

The Phoenix seems to smile. You have not always been willing to pay that price. You have grown. Yet I doubt you will need to give your life. My energies can only suffice so much in the physical state. Jean, by giving her material life to me, was able to transcend the barriers of physicality and accept my energies in their raw, pure, unimpeded form. With your own emotional energies, and mine as I can give them in the physical state, there will be enough to heal Xavier.

Even in a dream, Sabere's head could hurt. The concept of energies flowing through physical matter is overwhelming, even in the dream world when the most absurd concepts seem logical. Sabere nods in agreement. -But if there is not enough – you will kill me.-

The Phoenix nods solemnly – perhaps there is a touch of madness is those fiery eyes. If you do not accept that possibility, I cannot help you.

She lifts her head defiantly. -I will pay your price, if necessary.-

Then we have an agreement, the Phoenix replies calmly. I will aid you as I can to heal Xavier.

-What about London? I did not ask you to help there.-

If I had not, you would not be here for me to help again. Definitely madness in that sweet voice now – but it is gone so quickly she thinks she imagined it.

-We're all going to be killed when we confront him in New York City – can you help that?-

Killed?

-I had a vision. They've –

-Never been wrong before, yes, I've heard you say this. But now tell me, are you absolutely certain beyond any question that your vision is correct and you will all die?

She hesitates. –My visions are never wrong.-

You have such blind faith in your own powers, except the ones that are concrete and certain. Sabere almost wants to tell it to stop – she feels that if the bird became angry, it would not end well… The future is so clouded no one can truly discern it, no matter what anyone tells you. You should not be so quick to trust these visions of destruction when you refuse to accept the full potential of your other powers. In fact, it would be wise to not put so much faith in your powers at all. They are not always reliable.

How can it suggest this? To Sabere, it seems blasphemous against the teachings of Xavier. -If we don't have faith in our powers we have nothing! The X-Men exist to help the world with their powers!-

I never said to distrust your powers. I said to trust your own logic. Do not accept anything as possible, yet do not refuse anything because it seems impossible.

The bird suddenly seems to enfold her. Fire, warm and comforting, wraps around her as she hangs in space. The face of the Phoenix Force stares benevolently at her, its eyes now shining with powerful yet compassionate flames. Sabere finally surrenders to the power's words. Do not despair. I can only help you so much, but I can tell you now that you will not be defeated.

Jean sat curled up on the edge of the bed, chin tucked into her knees, listening in on Sabere's dream, cold fear and memories swarming in her mind. Scott's arms slid around her waist and she felt his head rest on her shoulder.

"Leave it alone, Jean. Go to sleep."

"She's given in. I don't know what will happen to her now."

Scott lightly kissed her neck and jaw. "It's not in her hands. You, of all of us, know that…besides, after New York it won't really matter, will it?"

"Scott, it's mad! It's powerful, and it loves being in human body, a powerful one at that. It may survive New York, it may even help Apocalypse."

"Never. Sabere won't let it. Honey, please, relax – neither of us are going to get any sleep if you're frantic about what-ifs all night."

She sighed and leaned against him. "I know. What happens will happen, and we'll take care of it."