X-Men - Dark Phoenix

CHAPTER 11 - THE PHOENIX TALE

Everything is distorted...dreamlike...sounds of people yelling and in distress in the distance... dust and dirt fill the air...Cyclops comes to, lying face first on the ground.  The bonfires are extinguished, though smokes still billows from their warm cores.     

He struggles to get up, ears ringing, unsure of what just happened. He sees Quicksilver with Storm in his arms, she's barely conscious. He staggers to his feet, trying to get his bearings... when he sees her...Jean is lying a few feet away, unconscious. Extending from her immediate vicinity are circular rows upon rows of completely levelled trees and vegetation.

The rest of the night was a blur. Like some sort of strange dream where everything is familiar but not quite right. Cyclops, Beast, Mystique and any other unharmed and able student spent hours getting the injured and unconscious into the infirmary, monitoring their vitals and making certain they were recovering properly. 

However, the true extend of the night's incident could only be seen in its entirety by the following morning light. The woods had been decimated, with not a single tree left standing. The epicentre of the incident was evident too, and from it the destruction just spread out in every direction. 

Jean was still unconscious by the time the morning sun was high. Lying in her bed she looked so peaceful, so innocent, nothing like the fiery angel of death that had appeared last night. Xavier sits beside her, his hand upon hers, eyes closed, trying to probe her mind. Behind him, Beast patiently waits for a prognosis.

Xavier's brow furrows.
"What is it?" Beast asked,  "What do you see?"                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Xavier opens his eyes. They're filled with concern and disbelief."Nothing..."

                                                                                                                                                                                                  With a soft hiss, the doors to the Cerebro Chamber slid shut behind Xavier, Mystique and Beast.  Xavier approached the console hub with direct purpose in his eye.

"Her powers have grown exponentially," he explained,  "for the first time, I'm unable to penetrate her mind."

"So that's what we're doing down here.," Mystique added.
"I built Cerebro to amplify my power, " Xavier continued, "I think it's the only way I'm going to be able to get inside her head now. Only way we'll get any answers."

Beast is busy at the controls. He hands the headpiece to Xavier who slips it on and activates it. The walls of the circular room shimmer for a moment as Xavier connects to the minds of the populace.

"Hank, can you turn it up, please?" he asks and Beast obliges. Xavier concentrates but still he can't quite zero in on his objective.                                                                                                                                                                                                          "A little more, thank you" he's almost got it, "ah, there she is."

A sparkling image of Jean finally glints into view as Xavier begins to probe her mind. The room shifts once more and this time presents the holographic image of what appears to be a desolate landscape capped with a dome above made of crystal.
"Is it supposed to look like this?" Mystique wondered, taking in the wasteland presented.
"No...this is not Jean's subconscious," Xavier answered, grimly, "it can't be."
"Then who's —"