With enough power, you really could do whatever you wanted

"Stop lying to yourself. That bald man fears our power. He's using you. He's an outsider; we're one and the same. Unleash your power."

"No, that's not true. That isn't my power." Jean's voice trembled, as though she were trying to convince herself.

Russell turned and watched the red-haired woman crouching on the floor, her hands covering her ears like a child trying to shut a nightmare out.

He didn't approach, reach out, or speak. He simply watched in silence.

Because he knew the voice Jean was hearing came not from outside, but from within.

The other personality Charles Xavier had spent decades sealing deep within her consciousness—Dark Phoenix—was awakening.

As far as Dark Phoenix's awakening went, Russell had merely brought forward something already destined to happen.

Jean's body began to tremble.

Not from cold, but from something more primal, like a caged beast trembling as it clawed at iron bars.

Her hair moved without a breeze, its red strands floating in the air like seaweed swaying underwater.

Her eyes, once gentle and full of warmth, began to change color. The green faded as gold surged forth, like magma spilling through cracks in the earth's crust.

“Jean! Wake up!” Charles, who had been monitoring her all along, projected his voice straight into the red-haired woman's mind through Telepathy, even as he hurried toward the Training Room with the X-Men.

What he had feared had finally happened.

"Professor, what's wrong?" Scott looked at the agitated professor, bewildered.

"Jean. Something's happened to Jean."

"Jean!" Terrified for his girlfriend, Scott forgot even Professor X and raced toward the Training Room like a madman.

But it was already too late.

The earthquake began.

It was no metaphor, but a real earthquake, both physical and psychic, powerful enough to make people lose their footing.

The