Jean Grey (2nd series) #4

Jean Grey sits, surrounded by former or alternate versions of her. And they are all angry at her.

She knows where they are! She knows why they are here! Marvel Girl, in the torn black gown, (from briefly before she first met the Phoenix force) tells her strictly.

It’s the White Hot Room, Jean replies. Because everyone’s dead! Dark Phoenix shouts at her. Not quite… not everyone, Jean protests weakly. Hope… Marvel Girl interrupts, it’s Jean’s fault - or that’s what she keeps telling herself!

It isn’t fair… she tried so hard, Jean trails off. Life isn’t fair! Jean from her teacher era snaps. Why should death be? And fair or not, she is dead!

Jean flies upward to get away from them, telling herself she isn’t - not yet. Maybe. Why are they all so angry? she lashes out. It can’t be because they are dead. They’ve been dead before.

Marvel Girl follows her and explains they are figments of her past, fragments of her nightmares.

Madelyne Pryor, as Goblin Queen, joins them as well. Products of imaginary stories she’s been telling herself, she continues. None of this is real. But then… she never was, Madelyne adds bitterly.

Except here, the Phoenix Force which appears in front of them announces. In the White Hot Room everything is real… in its own way. What does it mean? Jean demands.

She is joking, right! time-displaced teenage Marvel Girl asks, annoyed. She saw a dozen realities and her gut said – forget them all. She was ready to erase the X-Men’s memories of the future - until Jean stepped in – literally – and changed that.

Switching to her original uniform, teenage Jean telekinetically lashes out at Jean, blaming her for what happened.

Jean fends off her attack with a TK shield and tells her there is no point to that. She is as strong. Stronger even. Then act like it! teen Jean demands. Think! She turns to her older self and reminds Jean she used those memories to forge a terrible future. She begins to burn, as she shouts Jean brought the Phoenix into it. And everybody died!

Again she attacks and Jean shields herself. Because she didn’t trust herself! the other Jean shouts. She wouldn’t leave well enough alone! She had to meddle… step in where she wasn’t needed!

Jean tries to explain her X-Men were dead. She had to know was it her fault. Could she have saved them? Could she save them still. Teen Jean snaps back that she is confused. Jean is dead. Whereas teen Jean originally made the right choice. Jean chose arrogance and inflicted it on the world!

She breaks Jean’s shield and attacks with the Phoenix raptor, shouting she should have trusted her instincts. She should have trusted her! She is mad at herself!

Jean staggers away, trying to think things through.

Marvel Girl in the torn dress appears to her and asks how that went for her. She reminds her of the timeline where Wolverine became Phoenix, ending in a horror show, with Wolverine and Cyclops both dying. This wasn’t her choice. Why did she force that nightmare on her? she asks Jean. Jean admits that she was arrogant. She stood in the X-Men’s ashes and thought, maybe she was wrong. Maybe it would have been better if someone else was in charge. She recalls the events in the space shuttle. Maybe it wasn’t all up to her. Marvel Girl reminds her what really happened instead. She was replaced by the Phoenix. In her name, it destroyed the D’bari world. Unfortunate but not Jean’s fault. It rode Jean’s anger and need as far as possible, until Jean’s true self asserted itself and stopped it. Jean died of course, but that wasn’t the end. They found her true body and awakened her. She was returned to Scott, Marvel Girl states, while surrounded by Phoenix flames. How is that terrible?

Jean lashes out at her with her power and shouts, because of what came afterward! Impulsive arrogance didn’t work, so she tried logic! And set up her dearest love to die, Phoenix replies cruelly. From that perspective, reality was so much kinder.

To Jean anyway, Madelyne Pryor, dressed in her bridal gown, points out. Surely Jean hasn’t forgotten about her, as much as they all would rather, she challenges.

Jean recognizes Scott’s first wife and her clone. Mr. Sinister’s broodmare, Madelyne adds, turning into her Goblin Queen self. Mother. Her son in her arms disappears. A blank slate with so many possibilities, ones she was ready to exploit. As the Goblin Queen, Jean murmurs. Ruler of demons, Madelyne continues, improved. And in this reality transmoded - given free rein over a techno-organic transformed world. She got mad. Jean got mad, and things got a little out of hand. The end of the world, very cathartic, but maybe a little too much, even for her. Even here Jean could have stopped her, called the Phoenix, as she did before in her reality. But again she second-guessed herself. Questioned her priorities. And everyone – well, they didn’t die. But they weren’t quite themselves anymore.

Jean’s temper flares. Madelyne blamed her, but it wasn’t Jean’s fault in any reality!

It was her fault, Madelyne smirks. In the shuttle, the Phoenix came to her. Redolent with images of murdered D’bari, and Jean rejected it. And so it found Madelyne in her cocoon, bringing death even as it breathed life into her. Jean didn’t rewrite that scenario, did she? Make herself accept the Phoenix’s offer? She shuffled the power onto Wolverine and poor innocent Scott!

Jean’s temper flares as does the Phoenix effect as she demands whether she should have made a different choice. Accept the Dark Phoenix as it was, tainted with the deaths of millions, because that would have spared Madelyne? Would Maddie have been better off? Lacking the energy from any source? Jean becomes calmer. Never alive? she asks. Never feeling? No Scott? No baby Nathan? No kingdom to rule in hell?

Madelyne Pryor once more rises from the cocoon. Now she is getting it, she tells Jean. They have fine minds, but that’s not their greatest asset. Heart - depth of feeling – that’s what called the Phoenix to them. She takes Jean’s hands. Love is what Jean is all about. Madelyne has… other priorities. Inferno happened, for better or worse.

Jean agrees and hugs Madelyne. And it’s not the worst thing they have had to face. Life is a process, no matter how you are created. They all learn. Even Madelyne. Even her.

The Phoenix announces that is better. She has been creating worlds to prove she had no choice. Nightmare tales about the two of them brought death and destruction, how all paths led to death… is this really the story she wants to tell herself? Her dreams so much more terrible than even this reality? She is starting to awaken, isn’t she? her other selves state. Starting to remember?

Jean remembers the night of the Hellfire Gala. Orchis attacked. Jean tried to protect everyone and was stabbed in the back by Moira X.

Tears in her eyes, she asks why the Phoenix didn’t come to her? The tiny Phoenix asks how could it. It is as dead now as she is. Like her, it exists only here - a nexus between all Phoenix hosts and this eternal flame. It’s bits and pieces. Inactive. The White Hot Room is the heart of the Phoenix, and it is broken. When Jean woke up here, she asked what she did wrong. The answer is nothing. That’s why it encouraged those terrible fantasies where Jean changed things and everything went. wrong What did she think it was trying to tell her?

Her instinctive choices were right, Jean realizes. Her impulses were true. She did all she could, the Phoenix continues, but there were other forced at play. Even Jean can’t control everything. And in the end, no matter what choices we make, death claims us all? Jean asks. But not them, she decides, as she releases the Phoenix raptor, not completely. She follows it in the air: there is one more thing they can do. Shall they do it together?

She looks at the scene before her: Exodus and Hope fighting what seems to be Apocalypse who seems to be holding Jean’s body prisoner.

Unaware of Jean’s presence, Hope asks Exodus what does it mean that they are in the White Hot Room. It is a higher spiritual realm, he replies. He has often thought it akin to Tiphareth from the Kabbalah. They are in a place of primal creativity. Of ideas made flesh.

Jean is impressed at his knowledge. She recalls Hope’s gift is to mimic abilities of those near her. She touches her physical self and Hope manifests flaming wings and a burning sword, looking like an angel.

Did it work? the Phoenix asks her as the scene before them fades away. Jean doesn’t know, but at least they did no harm. So sure of herself, so arrogant, the Phoenix teases. Just following her gut, Jean replies. She holds the Phoenix and announces it isn’t over. Not for the others. Not for them, but whatever comes next - be it life or death – they’ll face it together!