"I...I did it for your own good. Your mental strength at the time couldn't handle the immense power within your body." Charles shook his head sadly.
Qin looked coldly at the bald old man with a compassionate expression, without saying a word, but the suffering she had endured in the darkness for decades could not be erased with just a few words.
She wanted to make that damned bald man deeply understand the pain she was going through, and the way she would do that was by killing the person he cared about most.
Just then, Bobby the Iceman rushed up from the side.
His body changed rapidly; his skin turned into ice crystals, his muscles turned into ice crystals, and even his blood turned into ice crystals.
With his powers fully unleashed, he transformed himself into an Iceman, attempting to suppress Jean's Telekinesis with Absolute Zero temperature.
His hands pressed on the ground, and ice spread out from the ground, extending towards the zither like a silvery-white snake.
Qin glanced at him, just once, and the ice stopped less than half a meter from her toes, then began to melt—not from being heated, but from being broken down.
The hydrogen bonds between water molecules are forcibly broken, and ice changes from a solid to a liquid, from a liquid to a gas, and from a gas to hydrogen and oxygen atoms.
The Phoenix Force granted Subatomic-level microscopic manipulation, which rendered Iceman's terrifying freezing abilities utterly ineffective against her.
The Iceman knelt on the ground, panting heavily. His power had been broken, not by stronger ice, but by being erased at a microscopic level.
"Enough, Qin, enough!" Charles's voice was choked with sobs. The old man, who never shed tears in front of his students, finally couldn't hold back anymore.
"Scott is dead, Hank is dead, and you've crippled Ororo. How many more people do you want to kill to be satisfied?!"
Qin tilted her head and looked at him, a hint of emotion flickering in her white eyes.
"I didn't kill Scott, that guy did." She turned to look at Russell. "Why did you kill him before I did?"
Russell's brow twitched; he hadn't expected the corrupted Jean to ask him that question.
This is an accusation that he stole someone's kill.
However, Jean Grey's methods as the Dark Phoenix were indeed more powerful than his own. At most, he destroyed Scott's physical body, while Hank, who died at Jean's hands, was completely annihilated by the terrifying power of the Phoenix Force.
"Because he's your boyfriend, only by killing him can you fully awaken and evolve into your complete form." Russell was bold and outspoken.
"No need for further explanation, I look forward to facing you."
Faced with Russell's challenge, Jean looked at him, at those indescribable eyes, for a full three seconds, before a bright smile appeared on her cool face.
"You're special. Your body is strong, your strength is immense, you can even absorb Scott's energy." A slight smile curved her lips. "You're strong, stronger than Scott, stronger than Logan, stronger than the bald professor. I like you very much."
Russell frowned; something seemed very wrong with what he had said.
Russell certainly knew he was very strong, but what was with the "like" part?
"I killed your boyfriend, aren't you going to seek revenge?"
"He's not my boyfriend." Qin tilted her head, a hint of a smile in her white eyes. "You are now."
Russell thought he had misheard, but his hearing couldn't be wrong, his brain couldn't be wrong, and the numbers still jumping on his system panel couldn't be wrong either.
[Favorability +1]
He looked at the zither, at those white eyes with golden flames burning deep within them, and at that delicate, aloof face.
You should hate me, not like me.
"Why?"
"Just because I killed Scott."
"You killed him to awaken me." Jean's lips curled slightly. "Logically, you freed me completely, so I won't hate you. Besides, I told you, Scott isn't my boyfriend; you are."
Charles hung in mid-air, his heart filled with mixed emotions. He wasn't worried about himself, but about Russell, about Jean, and about everyone.
Even though Russell killed Scott, even though Jean killed Hank and seriously injured Ororo, in his eyes, none of these children were wrong. The one who was wrong was him. He was not a qualified professor and failed to stop them from going further and further down the wrong path.
Jean, or rather, the Dark Phoenix, paid no heed to Professor X's thoughts, her eyes filled with interest in the sunny boy before her.
The Dark Phoenix is not controlled by anyone, and will never submit to anyone.
She admired Russell because Russell was strong enough that she found him interesting.
But appreciation is different from love between husband and wife, and it is not submission. If one day she feels that Russell is no longer interesting, she will leave him decisively.
"Russell, please, help me persuade Qin." Charles, having seen Qin's other personality, felt a special affinity for Russell and pleaded with him.
"Okay." Russell shrugged, making no other move.
"Russell..." Charles frowned.
"Okay." Russell shrugged again.
Charles: "..."
Seeing this, he could only turn his gaze to the zither.
"Jin, I know you hate me," Charles's voice was hoarse. "If killing me can erase the hatred in your heart, then do it. I won't resist."
Jean shifted her gaze from Russell, turned to look at Charles, and narrowed her white eyes.
"The person I hate the most is indeed you."
She drew her finger in the air, and Charles's body was thrown out of the air, crashing into the rubble, sliding down and rolling several meters before coming to a stop.
His wheelchair had long since been thrown away, and now he could only lie face down on the ground, like a turtle whose shell had been stepped on. His arms were bleeding, his forehead was bleeding, his mouth was bleeding, and his whole body ached, but his heart ached even more.
"But I won't let you die a quick death. I'll make you witness everything you cherish disappear, including the Xavier Institute you've painstakingly built."
The Iceman rose from the ground, his abilities somewhat restored. Ice crystals condensed between his fingers, and he pressed his hands onto the ground, causing ice to surge from all directions, freezing the entire Training Room ruins into a glacier.
Jean's feet, thighs, and upper body were all frozen solid by Bobby's unexpected attack. She looked down at the ice, which looked like a transparent armor on her body.
"Bobby, you're still so naive." A slight smile played on her lips, and then the ice shattered—not from the shock, but from an internal expansion that caused it to burst.
The molecular structure of ice was altered, changing from a solid to a gaseous state. It expanded hundreds of times in the confined space and then exploded.
The Iceman was thrown to the ground by the shockwave, and half of his body was shattered—not by the ice, but by the backlash of his own power.
His self-healing process was so slow that it was almost imperceptible; he lay on the ground, half of his body covered in frost.
Charles pressed his hand to his temple, using the last of his Psychic Power to probe his consciousness into Qin's brain.
It's not an attack on Jean, but a call—not to Dark Phoenix, but to the gentle, kind Jean Grey locked deep within her heart, who doesn't want to hurt anyone.
"Qin, if you were still here... stop her."
Qin's body froze, and a crack appeared in her white eyes. Not a physical crack, but a spiritual one, a crack in the Soul Stone, the kind of crack that appears when a person is torn in two, like a shattered mirror.
A faint, green light seeped through the white gaps, like a lamp about to go out.
"Professor..." Her voice was very soft, as soft as the wind, but everyone who heard it knew that it was not Dark Phoenix's voice, but Jean Grey's.
Charles shed tears.
"I'm here, Qin, I'm here."
Before anyone could respond, the crack vanished in an instant.
It wasn't filled in, it was erased by the Dark Phoenix.
Those eyes turned white again, as cold and indifferent as a glacier.
"You're still lying to us." Her voice was cold. "You're still trying to take her away from me. She is me, and I am her. Don't you understand? We are one."
She raised her hand towards Charles.
Charles closed his eyes.
Then he heard a voice.
It wasn't the sound of a piano, nor the voice of Dark Phoenix; it was a deep, magnetic voice, a voice he knew as intimately as a lifelong friend.
This is not a metaphor, but a fact.
"Charles, what happened to you?"
A huge steel disc descended from the sky, like a black petal blown by the wind, or a flying saucer falling from outer space.
An old man stood on the disc, with silver-white hair, a brown helmet, and a fluttering cloak. His hands were clasped behind his back, his posture as composed as a king surveying his territory.
Magneto, Erik Lehnsherr, learned that Russell had gone to Xavier Institute Rising Sun and feared that Charles would seize the opportunity to have his favorite child join the X-Men, so he rushed to the school alone.
Unexpectedly, things didn't go as planned; instead, the academy was about to be demolished.
He looked at Charles in the ruins, at Storm had lost both legs, at Iceman whose body was half destroyed, and at the woman burning with golden flames. His feelings were as complicated as if he were on a roller coaster.
"Erik, what are you doing here?" Qin's voice was soft, but every word pierced the ears of everyone present like nails.
Magneto looked at her, his gray eyes devoid of any emotion.
"I'm here to find someone, not you." His gaze fell on Russell, who was leaning against a half-wall at the edge of the ruins, a slight smile playing on his lips. "But I'm too late. It seems... the fighting is already over? Even Charles is kneeling."
Russell looked at him without saying a word.
Jean looked at Magneto, her white eyes narrowing. "You want to take the bald guy with you?"
Bald?
"Yes, I want to take him with me." Magneto's gaze fell on Charles with a complex expression.
"He was wrong about Mutants, but he's still an old friend of mine. Now that I'm here, I can't just stand by and watch him die."
Qin tilted her head and looked at him like a cat scrutinizing its prey.
You can't beat me.
"I know," Magneto didn't deny it, "but I don't need to beat you. I just need to—"
He reached out his hand, and the scattered Metal Fragments in the ruins began to tremble, float, and gather.
They spun, twisted, and deformed in the air, eventually forming a huge, birdcage-like structure that enclosed the instrument.
"--I'll trap you."
Qin looked down at the birdcage, watching the metal parts swirl around her, and tapped her fingers lightly on the metal bars.
The railing was broken, not smashed, but disintegrated. The metallic bonds between the iron atoms were forcibly broken, and the entire railing was instantly reduced to the original state of iron ore.
Magneto's brow furrowed even deeper. "Russell, give me a hand. I can't calm him down on my own."
"Okay." Russell only spoke, without making any move.
Huh? What's going on?
Russell didn't intervene; Magneto wasn't confident he could defeat Jean Grey in her current form, so he could only smile.
"Your strength seems to have increased compared to before."
"You too." Qin calmly walked out of Faraday Cage.
Magneto looked at her, and there was something in his gray eyes—not fear, not anger, but admiration and apprehension towards the daughter of an old friend.
"Erik." Charles's voice came from the ruins.
Magneto turned his head and looked at his old friend lying on the ground, the one who had once built Xavier Institute with him, the one who had fought alongside him, and the one who had later parted ways with him.
"Charles, you don't look well."
"I can still hold on," Charles said softly. "It's all my fault, and I'd give my life to make amends. It's just a pity for Steker and Hank, and everyone else who was hurt because of this."
I have a wish; please, no matter what, bring the violin back to me.
Magneto remained silent for a long time, staring at the Phoenix engulfed in golden flames, at those white eyes that could see nothing.
"She doesn't want to come back, and no one can bring her back."
"Then what are you doing here?"
"I came to see Russell, and also to catch up with you." Magneto looked at the young man leaning against the wall. "But now I realize I definitely don't have time to reminisce with you, nor do I have time to stay and see how this play ends, because if you, my old friend, die, I'll definitely regret it."
Jean looked at Magneto, at Charles, at Russell, and at the fallen X-Men in the ruins.
A slight smile played at the corners of her lips.
"You all want to stop me? You all think I'm a monster? You all want to save Baldy?"
She tilted her head. "Then let's give it a try."
"I don't think you're a monster," Russell finally stepped forward, his eyes burning, "But I would be more than happy to fight you."
"Come on," Qin didn't refuse. "If you can satisfy me, this bald man won't die today."
"Of course, I won't kill you. I'll hold back during the fight, after all, you're my boyfriend."
Magneto looked puzzled. Wasn't Jean Scott's girlfriend? How did she suddenly become Russell's girlfriend?
And where did Scott go?
"Don't misunderstand, don't hold back, I love Dark Phoenix at full power." Russell waved his hand.