Chapter 8

Rachel's PoV

When he loses track of the X-Men, Professor Xavier says that Cairo is too far for Cerebro to reach easily. But I see the worried lines on his tired face. He may think he is masking his concern well, but it does not even take a telepath to see it.

Or maybe it does. Because when I keep pressing him, Magneto takes his side. "Trust Charles," he says. "If anyone has your parents' best intentions in mind, it's him."

I wish I could believe him, but I've learned things about Charles Xavier this past year that made me think otherwise. He trained my parents and the rest of the X-Men as child soldiers. He left them to defend against horrible beings without the knowledge of what they were facing or how to strike.

And after all that, he still won't let me go to Cairo to find my parents. Because now he's siding with them and finds me too emotionally fragile to be out in the field. I'm taking it personally.

"Rachel," Xavier says. His voice sounds wise but I know I'm not going to like what he has to say. It's going to be the same thing he's been insisting on for the last hour. "I know you want your parents home safe. Believe me, I do as well, and with the rest of my X-Men as well. But I cannot go against their clear orders and let you go off to Africa by yourself. It is dangerous and I will not stand by it."

"But you lost them on Cerebro!" I exclaim. "Someone needs to make sure they're still alive!"

"Do you think I do not have a strong enough bond with my X-Men that I would not know when they are killed? Do you think your bond with your mother isn't strong enough to know if she is dead? Even if she is not conscious, if you focus hard enough, you should still be able to feel her. Especially with the power of the Phoenix."

"Remember when you agreed to keep my identity a secret from my parents for their sake? Without any regard for my safety? What happened to that attitude?"

"It was not without regard to your safety, Rachel, I am not a monster. I simply did not think your parents were ready for a responsibility like parenthood. But I was wrong. I tried to protect their emotions then, and I will do it again by forbidding you to go to Cairo."

Adults are so frustrating! They get a fully developed frontal lobe and suddenly they think they can tell you what you can and cannot do like they know better than you! It's bullshit.

"You know," I start, an idea popping into my head. "I don't need your permission or transport to go. I don't need your approval. My parents can't ground me if I saved their lives."

"Rachel," he warns, but it's too late. I'm off to my bedroom to grab my uniform.

Due to the whole, You're too young to be a part of the X-Men thing, I don't actually have a traditional uniform. But that doesn't stop my grandfather from delivering the last time he was on earth with the Starjammers.

It's a ruby red leather jacket, trench-length and thick to protect from injury. A pair of strappy boots to match. Both are made of Kreeian leather, which is the material that makes up their uniforms and is around ten times more durable than any other type of leather.

My grandfather knew regardless of what my parents said, I was going to find myself in situations like these, and he is right. I shrug the jacket over the training suit I have for danger room lessons, pull on my boots, and scribble down a quick note letting Kitty know I won't make it for our study group later today.

The Phoenix waits until I'm done before taking over and transporting us to Cairo. She gives me a moment to find my footing before giving me back complete control. It's well into the night. The streets are bare and stars twinkle above in the inky black sky. The flickering streetlights wash the dusty ground below my feet in a spotty, orange glow. It's hardly enough to see where I'm stepping.

Telepathically, I try scanning the area for any of the X-Men, but specifically my mom. We've formed enough of a bond that I can always feel her stronger than any of the others. I go street by street, but nobody's anywhere near.

I try to assure myself that they're not dead and just not local. Cairo is big, and who knows if the Shadow King even stayed in the city. He has all of Egypt, and all of the world that he could take Kendall.

Who knows what sort of wild goose hunt he's trying to get us off his scent.

I stop in my tracks when I sense someone close by. It doesn't take telepathy to know someone's watching me from the alley. Is it someone from the neighborhood wondering why a white girl like me is out so late?

Then someone else is behind me. I turn around and throw my hand out, telekinesis sends them backward against a lamp post. Armor clangs against the metal pole.

"What do you want?" I demand, facing a bald, African woman in a red uniform with silver armor. It has more of a traditional style than what I imagine Egyptian military wear, and a quick search of her brain tells me she's not from here, but from a different country who has tasked themselves with hunting down the Shadow King as well.

"You are X-Men, yes?" The woman asks. I'm a tad skeptical of her, but she has no ill intent that I can sense.

"Do you know where they are?" I reply instead of answering. I don't care about her questions right now, I just want my parents safe. Besides, I'm too prideful to admit that I'm not really an X-Man.

She nods. "After the Shadow King attacked them, our King brought them to our country to recover. They are safe."

"Okay, so who the fuck are you?"

"My name is Ayo. I, and my sister over there, were tasked with remaining in Cairo to make sure Shadow King does not return here. Or to alert our people, and now your X-Men, when he does."

"Did they at least find the baby?" I ask. She looks puzzled by a question.

"What baby?"

"I'll take that as a no." I sigh and attempt to scan the area for Kendall, but baby minds are so much different from developed ones. Their psychic signatures blend in with all the other babies, making it nearly impossible for me without spending much time with Kendall memorizing her signature.

When I finally give up, I look around one last time before addressing Ayo again. "How do I get to Wakanda?"


Not being known to the world, Wakanda is a bustling country. At first glance, it could definitely be mistaken as any other African country. With vast fields of harvestables and cattle, a river that sparkles from the stars above, and a powerful mountain range acting as a natural border.

But if the jet that Ayo brought me on is any indicator, this isn't your typical African country. Their technological advancements are beyond anything I've ever seen on Earth. It makes the phone in my jacket pocket seem as technically advanced as a rotary phone.

Ayo takes the jet into the landing bay of a lab, leading me inside. She's met by another woman in similar attire and a shaved head. "The Queen Mother alerted me of your return, Ayo. Who is this child?"

She looks me over and I feel a sensation in the pit of my stomach that I've never experienced. There's something especially embarrassing about this particular woman seeing me as a child.

"Rachel Grey. The daughter of two of the X-Men King T'Challa and you brought back. She came to Cairo looking for them," Ayo explains. The other woman nodded and ushered for me to follow. Soon I'm being taken to a glass, cylindrical elevator and we plunge several floors down.

The entire time I stood beside the woman, the feeling increased in my gut. Is this what intimidation feels like? She is strong, and even without telepathy, I can sense the power radiating off of her. With telepathy, I know she is the badass general of an all-woman army known as the Dora Milaje. Her name is Okoye and the presence of the X-Men is making her uneasy.

I follow her out of the elevator when the door opens and into a medical wing that makes the mansion's infirmary look pitiful. But as I walk between two panels of blue glass, a piercing alarm sounds, and the panels flash red.

"Do you have a weapon?" Okoye asked over the commotion. Even knowing I don't, I still find myself patting down my pockets, trying to find what is setting off the alarm. The sound stops as another girl, this one a teenager, approaches us. She scans me with some sort of dot-grid sensor that is produced by the beads around her wrist.

"She doesn't have a weapon. She is the weapon," She says as a second hologram appears above her wrist. "I know mutants are powerful, but your energy is literally off our charts. Which should not be possible as our charts were supposed to be infinite."

This makes me feel pretty good about myself, even though I know it's probably the Phoenix that she's detecting and not my natural mutation. "There's a cosmic being in my brain," I explain. I thought it would sound cool, but leaving my lips, I realize that makes the Phoenix sound more like some sort of parasite.

The girl stares at me for a few seconds, then a grin curls her lips. "Can I study you?" she asks, dark eyes twinkling.

"Shuri," Okoye hisses. "I highly doubt she wants to be your guinea pig."

Part of me wants to agree because of how excited she seems, but my parents come first. "Maybe after the X-Men defeat the Shadow Bastard," I compromise. "As long as we're still all alive."

"We've been tracking him. He is powerful, but not this," Shuri waves her hand in my direction. "Shit, I need to update the border's force field."

She wanders away from us, leaving me feeling an array of emotions. I haven't been humble about my sheer amount of power, but hearing her boosts my confidence.

And then my confidence quickly fades when I sense a strong wave of disappointment and turn to find my dad. Even behind his visor, I can tell he's glaring at me.

"What the hell are you doing here!?"