The three stood at the edge of the small forest that stood between them and Alkali Lake, fog surrounded the trees and they couldn’t see an inch in front of them as they stared into its depths. Lunar shifted into wolf form but felt pain wrack her mind as her telepathy did something unusual and spiked in power, she quickly shifted back and shook her head while looking at the others.
“You okay?” Cyclops asked as he glanced at her.
She nodded. “Just a slight headache.”
“Then lets get going, whatever’s going on isn’t going to wait for us.” Storm told them before walking forward.
“I thought I was the one who gave orders.” Cyclops grumbled a bit humorously before following.
Lunar felt the familiar sense of dread and turned to look at the peaceful road behind her before following them into the fog. They walked close together through to murky half light to avoid losing sight of each other but out of the three of them Lunar was the only one tripping every few minutes on things she couldn’t see. On the fifth time Storm finally stopped and gave her an impatient look.
“Why is it that out of us you’re the only one falling?” She asked. “You aren’t stalling for something are you?”
Lunar shook her head and felt the ground for what she tripped on only to find nothing. “Of course not, do you think I like looking like an idiot?”
“Let’s keep going then.” Cyclops replied. “I don’t like it here… something feels off.”
They set off again, this time single file with Lunar in the middle, but when Cyclops got hit in the head with a rock they had to stop again. Storm looked at the floating object in confusion while Cyclops rubbed the side of his head. “Storm, could you at least try to lift the fog before something else happens?”
“I don’t know why we didn’t sooner.” Lunar muttered to herself as she leaned up against a tree.
Storm’s eyes turned white as she used her mutation and a few minutes later they could see clearly, which didn’t comfort them because now they could see hundreds of floating rocks and branches. “What’s going on?”
“Well if one of us knew that we would tell you.” Lunar replied sarcastically.
Cyclops looked around before turning in a different direction. “Nothing good, come on, instead of walking around the lake this time how about we actually go to its edge?”
Lunar quickly followed before Storm could make any sort of comment back at her and this time they traveled much faster, only stopping to change to a shorter course when a scream erupted from another spot through the trees. When they came into view of the lake the reason became clear. Logan was standing in front of Jean while sand and rocks circled them, Jean looked different than Lunar remembered… evil almost, Logan was being torn apart in front of them but healing just as fast though it was clearly painful.
“Jean…?” Cyclops came out of the trees stared at her in disbelief.
Lunar glanced at Storm who nodded and followed their leader out to stand by his side. “Cyclops, I don’t think that’s Jean. She would never attack her friends.”
“Of course it’s her!” Cyclops growled.
Lunar watched as Jean suddenly turned her attention away from Logan and turned towards them. “Guys she’s coming towards us… and doesn’t look too happy.”
They stopped their argument and turned to face Jean, the apparently undead woman was close enough for them to see her eyes had turned black, behind her Logan fell to the ground as the attack on him stopped. Cyclops stepped forward to meet Jean only to have an invisible force stop him.
“Jean, it’s me.” He spoke up.
“Scott…” Jean’s eyes flashed with recognition before going back to the seemingly emotionless look a she stopped a few feet away from them. “Leave, all of you… now.”
“Jean, we’re your friends.” Cyclops managed to walk closer. “Come on, we can go home again. Everything can be just like it was… better.”
Jean raised her hand as if to reach out to him but instead used her telekinesis to send him flying back into the trees. Lunar flinch as she heard wood crack and shifted into her wolf form in preparation for the fight, completely forgetting the pain until it came back ten times worse.
Jean just looked at her. “So you are the one I felt in my head… You should have stayed out!”
Lunar growled as she felt Jean in her mind tearing at it wildly, the pain was becoming too much and she felt blood running out of her ears and nose, after a loud clap of thunder though it all just stopped. She lifted her head up and shook it Storm was distracting Jean still, careful not to hurt her old teammate and friend, with gusts of wind and lightning bolts.
“Phantom, get up! I can’t do this forever!” Storm shouted.
Lunar got back onto her feet, or paws at the moment, and ran towards Jean whose back was turned away. It was the perfect chance to kill her… and end this before someone got killed. When she was close enough Lunar jumped and prepared to bite through Jean’s neck but was knocked aside by someone heavy and very mad.
“I won’t let you kill her!” Logan roared as his claws came out.
Lunar struggled under the weight and she felt his claws sink into her back, two on ether side of her spine, if and when he slid out his middle claw, it would kill her. “Logan, don’t…”
“Give me a reason not to, you’re not one of us, you never will be. You’ll always be a killer and will eventually turn on us when a better opportunity for you arises.”
“One of ‘us’… and you are one of them? Logan you have always been a loner don’t pretend you have always been with the X-men. You only stayed because of Jean and Rogue at first, admit it, with Jean gone you just couldn’t bring yourself to admit you started to enjoy living with our kind.” Lunar shot back with venom in her thoughts. “I will never betray anyone unless I think their methods or ideals go against mine!”
The claws retracted and Lunar let out a howl of pain before a fist slammed into the back of her skull, she went limp as spots danced across her vision and more blood slowly ran down her neck and side from her new injuries. Lunar watched as Logan stopped Jean from delivering a killing blow to Storm while Cyclops limped over to help his teammate up, glaring slightly at Logan as he said something quietly to Jean that caused her to pause all attacks and turn around to face Lunar. The objects floating in the air started to gather in a circle around Lunar, spinning rapidly, and she realized what was about to happen. Logan had somehow convinced Jean of something bad about her and now Jean was going to kill her for him. Through the mass of mostly rocks Lunar could see Logan’s small triumphant smirk, she had known Jean’s ‘death’ had hurt him, they all knew that, but this was something on a completely different level. He was actually upset enough to still blame Lunar for what happened even after Jean turned up alive.
“Logan, make her stop!” Lunar shouted into his mind. Logan however pretended not to notice she’d told him anything.
Then the stones changed, they drew back away from her for a moment, and Jean was glaring at Storm and Cyclops as they spoke to her before quickly using her powers to throw them both away from the beach and turning back to her task. This time Lunar focused on Jean’s mind. “Jean… Logan is using you. Don’t listen to him.”
A telepathic force pushed her mind out and Lunar physically staggered from the power forced through her mind. She looked around one last time for any way to escape before the rapidly spinning rocks shot towards her and caused the world to fade away, the last thing she could remember was a scream filling a otherwise quiet void.
YOU ARE READING
The Phoenix Risen
Fanfiction*Sequel to The Wolf Inside.* It had been a month since Lunar agreed to stay. Xavier had been giving her lessons to help strengthen her telepathy and she had begun training with the remaining X-men and the future X-men team. Of course though, there w...
