Rated PG-13 for violence and language
by R. John Burke

DISCLAIMER: The X-Men are a copyright of Marvel Comics. I don't own them, but this is only non-profit fan fiction. No money is involved and no infringement is intended.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: This story is the culmination of a plotline I began in five different stories: "Uncanny X-Men," "New X-Men," "X-Force," "X-Factor," and "eXcalibur," all with the Eternity name. If you're interesting, I recommend reading those first, starting from Uncanny and reading all the first chapters, then the second, etc. You -can- read whichever ones you prefer. If you just like one set of characters, great. But that's the approach for the completist.

Oh, and this story is really long. Like, really really long. I apologize for that in advance. But that's how long the story -was-, and hey, I broke it into chapters for ya... if you've been sticking with this series, or even if you haven't, I hope you'll enjoy.

--

WHAT HAS COME BEFORE...

Following the House of M, the Scarlet Witch unsuccessfully attempted to erase the world's mutant population. Instead, she awakened Jean Grey-- the Phoenix-- from the White Hot Room outside time. Their clash of cosmic powers not only scattered the X-Men into alternate realities and different time periods, it also set in motion a chain of events leading to the creation of the villain called Slayer.

Composed of psionic energy and shadow, the Slayer can appear in multiple realities at once. He has the ability to absorb the power of his enemies and even to possess their bodies. He has already captured a number of mutants: Rogue, Chamber, Kitty Pryde, Nightcrawler, Storm, and Blink. These heroes are caught in a living hell, unable to control their own actions and forced to fight their friends.

Somehow acting from beyond time, Professor X has countered these movies by using the Scarlet Witch's reality warp to resurrect the two dead Stepford Cuckoos. Their powered-up Five-in-One has acted on his behalf, guiding and protecting the X-Men in their new realities. But now Esme Cuckoo has turned against the others and helped the Slayer to neutralize her sisters, leaving the teams in darkness.

Back home, Emma Frost and Jubilee have opened a portal between Universes to rescue their friends. The teams regroup for a final battle, licking their wounds, while Jean Grey undertakes a separate mission: Her daughter Rachel, enraged by the Slayer's trickery in using an alternate-reality version of her brother Cable against her, has bonded with another reality's Phoenix Force. Now Jean must save her children, and also prevent the Slayer from absorbing Rachel... and with her the raw power of the Dark Phoenix...

--

ONE: PHOENIX

Summer 2032
Los Angeles, California
Reality #502

Nathan Christopher Summers was going to die.

The moment the Phoenix firebird appeared between him and his alternate-reality sister, Rachel Grey,in the parking lot of MacTaggart Medical Center, he understood what would happen. He remembered too well his mother's thoughts about the Phoenix before her death. She'd never talked about the tremendous power she wielded, but the precocious Nathan had not been above thoughtdropping.

The Phoenix burned away what didn't work. Nathan knew, if anyone did, just how terribly this reality had gone off course. How badly he himself had gone astray, playing both ends against the middle in a vain effort to achieve some form of victory for the mutant race. But the situation always got worse, and Nathan knew that he had failed. With the power of the Dark Phoenix, Rachel could destroy... everything, and Nathan didn't know that would be such a bad idea. He lowered his head and waited.

"Are you scared, Nathan?" said Rachel's voice, now with a peculiar echo as it emanated from her throat and from inside his brain at the same time. "Are you too scared to fight?"

"I don't want to fight you."

"Ha! You really don't. I can feel it all, Nathan-- I know the truth. I know you sold us out to the Slayer." Rachel laughed again. "Pathetic. -My- Cable would eat you for breakfast. You don't even have the guts to go down fighting."

Nathan met her eyes. "I understand, Ray. I know you must feel betrayed--"

"I don't feel betrayal anymore. It's like a comfortable coat I just shrug onto my shoulders every morning. Everything in my own reality... Scott and Emma here... Nobody I love ever turns out to be worth it. But -you-... I really thought you cared, Nathan. I thought you were my brother."

"I was."

"Stop lying to me! I AM SICK OF EVERYONE LYING!"

She gestured, and a burst of energy knocked Cable flat, writhing in agony. Rachel stood over him, flame and light playing in crazy patterns across her body, her eyes twin points of fire. She seemed content to watch him burn.

"You're a Summers," she said. "If you had any idea what you were, we could share this power. You could even take it from me. But I guess all you know about telepathy in -this- reality comes from that witch Frost. Well... if this is the best -you- can do, meeting her is going to be fun."

"Don't touch her!" Cable snarled, thinking of the woman who had raised him. (- see NXM #6) "This is between you and me."

Rachel frowned. "Hey. You do understand loyalty. Just not toward me, apparently."

"Everything I did..." he gasped, "-everything- was for the good of our people, Ray. I tried to protect you--"

"I DON'T HAVE ANY PEOPLE! Do you understand what I am, Nathan? I was a Hound. A monster. Killer of mutants. Sometimes I want to be something more. -You- made me feel like I could be. But that was just another lie." She took a step forward. "You were all so afraid of Mom... but Jean Grey was a sweet person with a family who loved her and a nice, normal life and normal ideals. She fought the Phoenix with everything in her. Did you ever wonder what would happen if she just... said... 'the hell with it?'"

"Yes," said a new voice. "I actually did."

Rachel froze; the agony eased, and Cable turned slightly. A woman stood before them, in front of a spinning white portal that felt like some kind of wormhole. That wasn't the part that flabbergasted Nathan Summers. It was the woman's face, a face he'd tried so hard to remember in recent years, but too often seemed to have half-forgotten. The sharp peel of thunder and sudden wind that blew her red hair around like autumn leaves provided just the right touch.

Nathan could barely choke out the word: "Mom?"

"WHAT KIND OF TRICK IS THIS!" Rachel growled, and unleashed a wave of power that partially caved-in a wall of the hospital and overturned at least three cars. One of them went flying like the house in 'The Wizard of Oz' and exploded on hitting the ground. Anything in the area would have been burned to cinders.

Except the woman who looked like Jean Grey. The power just rolled over her, leaving her beauty unblemished, as though the Phoenix recognized its own.

"Hello, Rachel," she said. "It's been a very long time."

Rachel's eyes glowed bright. "What are you? WHAT ARE YOU! I'm not falling for another lie! I will burn this planet to a cinder before--"

"That's not you talking, Rachel," Jean murmured, advancing. "That's the Phoenix. I know what it feels like, in your mind. I know what it wants. What you think -you- want. But it's all lies."

"Like I said," Rachel scoffed. "Everything is lies."

"I'm not." Another crash of thunder. Jean was only a few steps away now. "I swear to you, Rachel, I am not a trick, I am not going to disappear, and I'm not going to hurt you."

"You might even mean it," Rachel said. The fire dimmed. "What good is it? You're not really my mother. Everyone thinks I don't know that, but I do. Maybe there are a trillion Jean Greys in the Multiverse. Who cares? Only one was my mother, and she's never coming back. Nothing's coming back. None of it works."

"And you want it to burn," Jean said, "because it hurts so much to look on your life, your -world-, and see all that dirt and disorder and know that with a wave of your hand, you could make it clean and new."

"Yes..."

"You just want to stop controlling it, just let it -be-, let the fire burn. You want to scream. You want everyone -else- to scream."

"Yes," the girl breathed. Lightning flashed, very near them.

"You know this temptation, Rachel. You've faced it before. You've -beaten- it."

"But everything's so much worse, now..."

"No, it will be better," Jean said. She reached out to her, cradled Rachel's head against her breast, the fire rolling over both of them, turning the rain to steam. "We can make it better. This power wasn't meant for you, Rachel. It's too much, too soon. Let me help you with it. I'll be right here. I promise."

"I..."

The fire expanded, encompassing both of them, and suddenly went out. Rachel threw her arms around Jean and broke down crying. Nathan Christopher Summers watched from his hands and knees, struggling with a certain petty jealousy.

"Rachel..." he said.

"Get away!" she said, the fire reigniting briefly as betrayal radiated from her mind. "Go very far away, Nathan, and don't speak to me again."

Nathan looked from her to the likeness of his mother. Jean Grey's eyes were not without sympathy, but she wasn't there for him, after all. She had her -own- Cable, a better one from all accounts, and didn't seem interested in adopting another the way she had Rachel.

--I'm sorry,-- she said in his mind.

--Forget it,-- he replied, and turned to go...

And then another bolt of lightning blasted him off his feet. He was just about starting to wonder whether this might be a sign he wasn't living right, when Ororo Munroe touched down beside his mother and sister, laughing. Cable scrambled to his feet. At -best,- this might be his reality's Storm, a war criminal as dangerous as any woman in the world. At worst...

She turned to him with familiar eyes. Eyes not white, but glittering black.

"You know who I am, Nathan Summers," she said, somehow perfectly audible above the roar of thunder. "Thank you for delivering what I wanted."

"You said you wouldn't do this! You said I could protect Rachel!"

"You heard what you wanted to hear, boy," said the Slayer inside Storm. "Leave now, with your life."

"I don't think so..."

Although not half as experienced as the older man the Grey women would have recognized as Cable, Nathan Christopher Summers was still a powerful telepath and a battle-hardened soldier. He hit the Storm-thing with his teke, hit -hard,- and for a moment she was staggered.

Then she laughed, and the force of his blast doubled back against him, as though his own telekinesis was forcing the life out of him. He flew across the parking lot, toward the burning hulk of the car, his power out of control...

"GOTCHA!" cried a voice, and something slammed into Nathan just before -he- would have slammed into the wreck.

The 'something' turned out to be Neena Thurman-- his lieutenant, Domino. They rolled to a stop, disentangled themselves, and she started to laugh.

"Nice timing."

"Just lucky, I guess."

"I asked you to check with 'Berto."

"I did. Bad news: The X-Men escaped."

"That's actually good news."

"Is it? Whose side are we on today?"

"Not THAT one," Cable said, pointing at the miniature hurricane in the middle of the square. Rachel and Jean were trying to hold it off, but this wasn't just Storm's power, formidable as that was. This seemed to be something extra.

Domino sighed. "We're going in, aren't we?"

"Bet your ass."

"I -like- my ass. I'm gonna miss it when I'm gone."

She leaped to the attack, dodging and spinning past bolts of lightning, hail, and debris. Being Domino, none of it so much as scratched her. She pulled a pistol and unloaded a couple of rounds, didn't have a hope of getting through Storm's defenses, but she made a nice distraction while Cable summoned his power and tried to get a rock-solid hold on it, so the Slayer couldn't corrupt it again...

In the moment it took him to do that, it was too late. Storm did -something-- whatever it was, it involved electricity and air pressure and it made a terrible noise and somewhere in the middle of it all, Domino screamed. She was dead before she hit the ground.

Cable roared. He lashed out with everything he had, not yet able to absorb what had happened but plenty ready to pay somebody back for it. But he felt as though all his power hit a wall and stopped cold. Only the barrier wasn't of the Slayer's creation. It was Jean's.

"Stop this NOW. Get away from my children. Get away from my friends. Worry about ME!" Jean stepped unaffected into the eye of the hurricane, toe-to-toe with the thing in Storm's body. "You really should be more afraid right now."

"Of the Phoenix? Oh, I am. I have always been." Storm's lips arched in a smile. "Thank you, incidentally, for dispensing with Rachel's. Makes -this- so much easier."

"You--"

"ArrrrrAAAAAAAAARRRRRGGGHHH!" Rachel cried, as a black tendril slithered out of Storm and into her. "No-- no!-- NOOOOO!"

Now -her- power went berserk, slamming into her mother like a steamroller. Jean would have gone flying if Cable hadn't gotten a firm telekinetic hold on her and anchored her to the ground. At length, she managed to shield herself, marshaling her strength...

Most people possessed by the Slayer laughed or at least smiled. Rachel started crying again.

"There's hardly any pleasure in this one at all," she said, "only common despair. How disappointing. But there's power, too. It will suffice."

"Get out of her!" Jean snapped.

"Make me."

"You asked for it."

Calling up all her strength, tapping into a connection to the Phoenix Force of two different realities, the sheer amount of energy just radiating off Jean was staggering. She turned on Rachel...

--Don't!-- Cable sent telepathically. --The way your power levels are now, you'll kill her!--

Jean hesitated. --This has to -end-.--

--Not like this.-- Something caught Cable's eye. --Look.--

He fed Jean the picture of what he could see from his angle: Ororo shaking herself, lighting coming off her fitfully, half-heartedly as confusion swirled through her sense.

Jean caught on, sent: --Ororo, take over! He's trying to take Rachel before he's fully absorbed you, and it's too much for him! Fight him NOW!--

On some level, Storm understood. All her formidable willpower kicked, fought, struggled its way to the surface. Lightning blasted every which way. Rachel turned, trying to ward off the attack from within. Jean and Cable hunkered down, shielded themselves, and prayed...

"I..." Storm said. "I am not... I -will- not... I DO NOT BELONG TO YOU!"

BOOM. A wave of pure electrical energy pulsed off her, frying everything in its path...

...and then dissipated, quite suddenly. Cable looked up--

More X-Men had appeared on the scene, led by Lucas Bishop, who absorbed the energy Storm had cast like a lightning rod. With him, Cable recognized the ones who called themselves Monet and X-23. (- see New X-Men #6 for their situation).

Bishop pointed his fist in Rachel's direction.

"Thanks for the power-up," he said. "Don't make me return all this to sender."

Rachel grimaced. "You know what? There are just too many of you people. Seriously. Whatever happened to the Fantastic Four? -They- had an exclusive membership!"

"Sorry," said Monet, "-I'm- the only one allowed to spout elitist sentiments around here..."

She soared toward the Slayer fists-first. X-23 popped her claws. Jean and Cable worked together to try to heal Ororo's tormented mind, get her back on her feet--

And the Slayer abruptly opted for the better part of valor. Wrapping its shadows around both Rachel and Ororo, it tossed them one more grin, and then--

BLINK! Disappeared before Monet could hit it.

"DAMN!" she and Cable swore simultaneously. Bishop released a blast of energy into the atmosphere, looking disgusted. X-23 just growled.

Jean sank to her knees in the middle of it all, her head in her hands. Cable wanted to go to her, but he got as far as Neena's body and realized where his responsibilities lay.

It was Bishop who knelt beside her: "You okay, Jean?"

"I failed her, Lucas. Instead of saving her, I took away her only protection."

He put an arm around her. "We'll get him next time."

"There aren't going to be a lot of next times. Mindee said he wanted eight X-Men to complete his power. Now he's got all of them but one."

"Cutting it close, just like the X-Men." Bishop managed a smile. "We've got -you- back. That's something."

Jean hugged him, too exhausted for words. The embrace seemed to last a long time, until--

-Sniff. Sniff.-

Jean half-turned. X-23 was standing over her. "Sorry, um... who are you and why are you smelling me?"

"I know your scent," the girl said, "and I don't know how I know it."

Jean noted the adamantium claws coming out of her wrists; she arched an eyebrow at Bishop.

"Oh, you haven't met X!" he said. "She's Wolverine's clone."

Jean sat down heavily in the middle of the parking lot. "Okay. I have officially been away too long."

Cable, meanwhile, closed Neena's eyed, took off his jacket to cover her, and stood. "I assume you have a way home, Jean? Back to your X-Men?"

Monet glared at him. "You think you're coming with us? Before or after I break every bone in your body?"

"Quiet, girl, we don't have time for your--"

"Your soldiers turned on us! If I hadn't acted so heroically, all of us could be dead!"

"Neena IS dead!" Cable snapped. He and Monet squared off, simmering with anger. He nodded toward his friend's body. "Like it or not, I'm in this now."

"I certainly don't like it."

"I certainly don't care."

"Everybody shut up," Jean said, allowing Bishop to help her to her feet. "We have a lot of work to do..."