Confrontation and Revelation
(Paris, France)
Power. It's a word Scott is all too familiar with, but never truly understood. For years he thought he had a dangerous power. Uncontrollable and untameable. Sadly he was nothing but a naive fool. What he had was no more than something akin to a water gun. Sure he could have leveled whole buildings and killed people with it, but true power can shape the world. True power allows you to be free. To be something beyond everyone and everything.
True power lets you hold the fate of the world in the palm of your hand and laugh at how insignificant it is.
'That is what I have now!' He mentally shouts to himself as floats over the city and he watches the heroes in their futile effort to try and stop the meteors, 'That is what I am now! I am power! I am fire! I am-'
He quickly whips around and grabs hold of Red-Hulks neck with one hand as he fires an optic beam at Iceman sliding on his dumb ice rail. Or whatever he calls it. To think he once thought that was something to behold.
Then again, he was only a mere mortal.
He can feel the struggle of the pest in his hand. Using all his strength to try and bend his arm and throwing a few punches for good measure. An impressive attempt, but to him, it's nothing more than a gnat hitting a wall.
He tosses said gnat to a 'God of Thunder' that was trying to hit him from behind. He then blasts off to another country to punch a green gnat hard enough to launch him across the world.
As a mere mortal, he would have never been able to do that.
(Algeria)
Hope has been trained since before she could walk by a variety of different mutant heroes. Cable, the man who essentially raised her and gave her purpose. Wolverine, who is arguably the most dangerous mutant ever. Cyclops, who was considered the man who will bring Charles Xavier's dream to life. Iron fist, who sharpened her skills. And Spider-Man, who oddly enough taught her valuable life lessons over physically training her. All four of them wanted to prepare her for the Phoenix Force so she may use its power to restore mutant kind.
Sadly it seems they couldn't prepare her well enough. Because one of her former teachers, and surrogate grandfather Scott, is now wielding the very same power he trained her to inherit.
Her last teacher was certainly right about one thing, she will have her moment to save the world.
The only problem is she doesn't know if she's ready.
"Alright everyone," Captain America calls out through the psychic link that the Cuckoos established with everyone involved, "I don't have time to make a speech! You all know the drill!"
She hears him mentally shout as she stands on a mountain, not far from the fight, and watches balls of fire rain from the sky. Waiting for the right moment to strike.
"It's the end of the world! This is what we do! The earth does not die on our watch!"
She doesn't know what it is about the Captain's voice that makes her want to follow him, but damn if it's not inspirational.
She can feel and hear other heroes, Avengers and X-men alike, around the world through the connection. She can feel their fear, their anger, and most of all their resolve to keep fighting. She can hear them all call out for help or call out their success in preventing so much death.
Damn if it doesn't get her to want to do the same.
But again she has to be patient.
"Patience sucks," she thought.
"But it is necessary."
Crap, she forgot that others, including Iron Fist who just spoke to her, can hear her thoughts right now.
"AVENGERS!" She hears Captain America shout from across the mountains, "TAKE HIM DOWN!"
They all rush at Cyclops with Captain America leading the charge.
Man, what is it about that guy that makes you want to die for him? Spider-Man was right, Captain Rogers is patriotism personified.
Hope figuratively gets knocked out of her musing when Captain America and the other heroes literally get knocked off their feet when Cyclops counters their charge with a psionic shockwave.
"Take him down?" Cyclops mocks them as he confidently struts forward, "Mere ants like yourselves have a better chance at blotting out the sun by throwing pebbles at it than you do at stopping me!"
Cyclops then fires an optic blast at the good Captain, which he blocks with his iconic shield. Wolverine charges at him from his blind spot, but Cyclops swings his arm and knocks the feral mutant away.
While the heroes are fighting, Hope is getting more and more restless. She needs to get in there and help. She knows she can. Everyone knows she can. But she was told to wait until the time is right.
Iron Fist said that timing is everything.
"It's almost time," an older female voice said to her as she looks at the woman in red who is going to help her save the world, "Get ready."
The Scarlet Witch. The magic-empowered mutant responsible for the extinction of mutants all over the world. The very person responsible for Scott's actions now.
And frankly, someone Hope wanted to avoid altogether.
(K'un Lun, Seventy-Two Hours Ago)
Hope is sitting on a platform for a rather beautiful fountain, lost in her thoughts of everything that has transpired since the arrival of the Phoenix on the moon, so she cannot admire the fountain.
The plan was so simple. The Phoenix was meant to be merged with her. She uses its power to restore mutant kind. And everything would be back to the way it was.
'Then again if it was that simple then me training since I could walk wasn't exactly necessary,' she thought to herself.
In reality, she should have known that none of her teachers could have taught her how to handle the Phoenix. Nobody could.
She is taken out of her head when she hears footsteps but doesn't turn to look. She already knows because she recognizes the feeling of whose powers she's imitating.
"I've been looking for you Hope," Wanda Maximoff says as she stops just behind her.
"You didn't have to look very far," the younger mutant responds without looking back, "Can't exactly go anywhere else. I have to stay hidden. If I come out then Cyclops and Frost will come and get me," she glares at the floor, "I'm sick of it."
"What?"
Hope gestures all around her, "This! All of this! I'm sick of constantly training for some destiny that I'm pretty sure I botched back at the moon! I'm sick of having to fight people who were my friends and mentors! And I'm sick of watching good people die for this!"
Wanda doesn't say anything for a few moments, letting the younger girl calm a bit, before asking, "You're talking about Spider-Man, aren't you?"
It was becoming a common topic of conversation amongst the gathered heroes. The death of one of the most well-known and well-respected heroes in their community is a bit of a controversial topic. While many say its part of their line of work when one of their comrades dies, some say it should not be so easily dismissed.
The younger woman sighs frustratingly, "I barely knew him. Hell, I didn't even know who he was underneath that mask of his. And yet despite that, I knew he was a really good guy."
Wanda crosses her arms, "Not many of us knew who he was underneath. He didn't trust most of us and frankly, I don't blame him."
Hope looks to the hex user curiously, "Who did he trust?"
Wanda shrugs as she recalls interactions she has seen, "Steve and Logan are the only Avengers I know about. I believe the Fantastic Four know as well, but that is based on how Ben Grimm has been. And based on how he interacts with them, I also suspect Professor Xavier, Carol, and Doctor Strange know."
Hope Turns her gaze back to the ground in front of her, "I hate this."
"This kind of life is not easy. There come times when sacrifices have to be made. Spider-Man understood that. You shouldn't blame yourself."
As soon as Hope hears the hex girl say that, her blood boils and she clenches her fists. She stands up and she says, "Your right. I shouldn't blame myself," she faces the older woman with a glare, "I should blame you!"
Wanda recoils at that, "What?"
"Everything that's happened is your fault!" Hope shouts as she begins to mimic Wanda's power, "You put mutants on the extinction list! You made them so desperate that they had to trust a power they can't hope to control! And made them put all their hopes on a little girl whose whole life revolved around training for some destiny she didn't even want!"
As she shouts, waves of chaos energy whip around the area around her as she charges up an attack.
"It's your fault my life turned out this way!"
Wanda summoned her powers to defend herself against Hope's attack. And while the young girl is copying her chaos magic, she does not have the same level of experience in controlling it. So as they clash the power is more spread out and erratic than concentrated.
And while Wanda gets pushed back, Hope gets thrown off her feet and lands in the fountain.
Wanda looks at the younger mutant with remorse as she says, "I blame myself more than you think. More than anyone believes. I hate myself every day for my part in what happened. For what's been happening."
Hope gets out of the water and glares at the older woman.
"I wish I could take it all back," Wanda continues as she watches the younger girl stalk towards her, "But I can't change the past. Right now, all I can do is try to fix what I-"
"SHUT UP!" Hope shouts as she blasts the woman again, only this time her own unique mimicked Phoenix power is mixed in with the chaos energy.
Wanda reacts in time to block it, but this time is unable to stop it entirely by hitting Hope directly. The Phoenix force and her own power mixed together make it difficult for her to bypass. As a result, she is blown back.
"I don't care if you blame yourself!" Hope shouts at her as he prepares to attack again, "You're the reason my life sucks! You're the reason people are suffering right now! And you're the reason my friend died!"
Wanda sees how angry Hope is, evident by all the power she is unleashing, so she'll defend herself but let her vent her frustration on her.
She deserves it after all.
Meanwhile, Iron Man had called a meeting with some of the members of the Avengers. Black Widow, Hawkeye, Iron Fist, and Doctor Strange are on his right, sitting on some debris. Thor, Wolverine, and The Thing are on his left by a collapsed building. And Captain America with Luke Cage, Red Hulk, Ms. Marvel, and Spider-Woman standing right in front of him.
"So that's it," Tony says to them, "That's all I've got. I've been working on this for weeks now with the best minds in the world, Mutant and human alike, and that is the best we got. Since nothing scientific will save the day, we figure this is the best option."
Everyone around him looks at him with bizarre expressions.
Wolverine steps forward, "So let me get this straight," the gruff man says, "Your saying we should do what Scott and them have planned to do from the very beginning? All 'cause you geniuses got nothing else."
Iron Man raises his hands in defense, "Hey, we exhausted all scientific alternatives, which is a first for us, so I figure maybe the original plan is the only one. Especially since that plan has any real results."
"What do ya mean?" Thing asks.
"Hope and Wanda are the only ones we know that can actually hurt this thing," he explains, "We tried everything to stop the Phoenix. We couldn't deflect it, contain it, or blow it up. Those two are our only option."
Cap sighs, "I don't like the idea of putting them in danger like that," he says before he looks to Tony, "But if this is the only way to do this, then I guess we don't have much of a choice. But they're not going alone."
"Well duh," Iron Man responds then ignores the look the good Captain gives him as he looks to everyone else, "Rally the troops, everybody! We need all hands on deck!"
Everyone present then begins to disperse. Leaving Tony and Steve alone with each other.
Steve looks to his closest friend and asks, "Is this really the only option we have?"
Tony doesn't look at Steve as he walks by him and answers, "I wouldn't have suggested it if it wasn't."
Steve then walks with him, "It doesn't seem right to put all our faith into one person."
"Haven't most of our battles come down to having faith in one person?"
Steve can't refute that.
They continue walking as Tony puts his hand on Steve's shoulder in reassurance, "Relax, Steve. I know it's a slim chance, but I'm telling you Hope and Wanda are the keys to this. They're the key to winning. We get them together and on the same page and we're good to-"
Tony stops as he sees Hope and Wanda getting ready to fight each other. They both launch energy blasts and then they enter into a power struggle and create a crater as a result. Debris flies all around them as they both struggle to overpower one another.
The energy around them slowly starts to condense in the center. It reaches the size of a baseball before it explodes and knocks them off their feet.
Hope shakes her head from the daze and prepares to continue.
"Enough!"
She stops as she sees Captain America standing to the side with a stern expression in his face. She still stays tense for a few moments before she sighs in frustration and lowers her hands.
The older man walks over to her, "Would you care to explain what happened here?"
She doesn't respond or look at him, and just scowls to the side.
Seeing this, Steve continues to talk, "The fate of the whole world is depending on the two of you working together and here you are trying to beat each other senseless."
Hope gives the Captain a hard look and says, "It's her fault this happened in the first place!"
"You weren't there, Hope," he sternly says to her, "You don't know how it happened. Or the circumstances that led to it."
Hope glares to the side again as she responds, "Yeah well plenty of people who were there, told me."
Steve can guess who those sources were and how they might've painted Wanda in a bad light.
Nevertheless, they had a job to do. And these two working together are a key factor. According to Tony at least.
Said billionaire is helping the Scarlet Witch back on her feet.
"So," he says as she dusts herself off, "I'm assuming you didn't antagonize her but instead tried to talk to her, and she just attacked you because she blames you for our current problem."
Wanda regards him for a moment before looking down in shame, "Pretty much."
He sighs, "Well at least you're trying," he says before he gestures her to leave, "Go see the medic to see if anything is broken. We need you to be in tip-top shape."
The quick scuffle with Hope was intense, but not enough to hurt her severely. But she doesn't feel like arguing with Stark right now.
So with that in mind, she walks away.
As the two women walk away, Steve and Tony watch them before Steve walks over to his fellow Avenger.
"Looks like our last resort needs a lot of work," the war veteran says.
"Does it?" Tony asks rhetorically before he gestures to the crater around them, "This is what they did when they fought each other-"
"-Imagine what they can do if they work together."
Those were the words Hope heard Stark say to the Captain about her and Wanda. As reluctant as the young mutant messiah is in working with the Scarlet Witch, she has to if she wants to save the world.
'It's almost time,' she hears Iron Fists' voice in her head.
Hope looks to Wanda as the older woman does the same. They both nod at each other in determination and understanding. Right now it's not about them, but the rest of the world.
As they both tense up and prepare to jump in when told to, Hope's mind wanders to what will happen if she's still not ready to inherit the Phoenix Force. Will it find someone else? Someone who frankly will do worse than Scott and them did?
She shakes her head and tries to reassure herself, 'I am ready. I've been ready. I've been training my whole life for this.'
Those words give her pause as she recalls the last time she said those words out loud. Doubt begins to deep into her.
'Now!'
Her musing is cut short when she hears Cap shout in her head. She and Wanda travel down to a crater that had just gotten made when Nova tackled Cyclops out of the sky with the force of a shooting star.
The cosmically powered mutant rises from the crater with his hand around the young Nova's throat.
"How pathetic," Scott says to him, "Did you honestly think your power can actually contest with the power that can destroy whole galaxies in an instant?"
"Actually," Hope says as she cracks her knuckles in her palm while she mimics the Phoenix force power, "I think he was just making sure you stayed for the real party to get started."
Cyclops turns in time to receive a chaos energy blast to the face courtesy of one Wanda Maximoff. Hope then charges in and punches him just as Maximoff stops her attack. Another blast of energy followed by a punch to the face and the possessed X-men leader staggers back.
The two mutant heroes continue their assault with such synergy that Cyclops is having difficulty finding an opportunity to counter them. The flames of the Phoenix flicker on and off as his mind begins to clear.
'I wanted to make the world better than it was.'
"Avengers Assemble!"
He hears a shout before he feels something knock him upside his head.
'To see my children, my friends, my people live in a world where instead of facing scorn and resentment, they would use their gifts to make the world a better place to live in.'
He tries to shake himself out of his daze but then feels three metal knives, that he knows very well who they belong to, slash him across his chest. He heals almost as quickly as it happens but the pain lingers for some reason.
'Where did I lose track of that?'
He feels some energy hit him square in the chest and gets sent back a few paces. He opens his eyes and looks up to see Iron Man was responsible for the attack.
'Did I forget why I set out to do this in the first place?'
"P-Please," Scott tries to call out, "Please kill me before I-"
'Or was this the only inevitable outcome?'
"GRRAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!"
The entire landscape around him catches on fire. The heroes that were attacking him ceased their advance and shield themselves from the intense heat.
Hope tries to power through by going down on her knees and grabbing the ground with one hand while using the other to cover her face. As she does so, doubt begins to seep into her again. She sees how dangerous the power of the Phoenix is. How easily it can corrupt even the best of men.
'It's my destiny to inherit it,' she thinks to herself as she clenched her fist and attempts to power through. She tried to mimic both the Phoenix and Wanda's power to attack Cyclops, but the power keeps flickering on and off in her hand.
'Why can't I do this!?' Hope thinks to herself, 'I've done it before! Hell, I've been doing this since the battle started!' Worry begins to seep in now. Is she still not ready? Is this a sign that she can't yet handle the power of the Phoenix? If that's the case will she ever be ready for it?
"Hope."
She hears a voice call out to her. The rushing winds in her ears begin to stop as the world starts to slow down.
"Hope."
That voice again. A very familiar voice, calls out to her. An ethereal image begins to form and she cannot believe who she sees.
Spider-Man. Standing right in front of her. She is stunned silent.
"Hope, you must go to the Dagobah system."
Aaand stunned silence is gone. And her shocked expression is replaced with one of annoyance.
"Okay," she says as she gets up from the ground, "at first I thought Scott or my mind were playing tricks on me, but I don't think either one is capable of coming up with something this genuinely annoying."
Spider-Man looks to the leader of the mutants, "Well Scott has no sense of humor. Even after years of knowing me," Hope rolls her eyes at his boast before he gestures to her, "As for you, I've never even seen you smile."
The young mutant messiah crosses her arms, a little offended at the statement, before she asks, "Where did you come from?"
"Blame my parents."
"I meant how are you here?"
"Well, when a boy and a girl love each other very much-"
Hope angrily asks, "I meant how are you alive again!?"
Not at all perturbed by her anger, Spider-Man looks down on himself and then at her and gestures to himself before he says, "I'm sorry, is me being ethereal considered alive now? Cause if so then Patrick Swayze will be thrilled."
Fed up with his sad and frankly insufferable attempts at being funny, she gives him an annoyed glare in the hopes he catches on fire.
He raises his hands placatingly, "Okay look," he says, "I can go into a long explanation of how I'm here or I can help you with your problem."
Her glare doesn't leave as she repeats, "My problem?"
"Why are you doubting yourself?"
Her glare leaves her and mild surprise replaces it. Not three seconds later that turns into indignation that she directs to herself.
She looks to the frozen visage of Scott setting fire to everything and gestures to him, "I'm supposed to be able to take him. I'm the secret weapon everyone is counting on."
"The weight of the world on your shoulders," he summarizes for her, "Been there a few times. Was actually close to your age too."
Hope looks back at him in slight surprise, "Really?"
Spider-Man nods, "Yeah," he sits down and crosses his legs together and Hope follows his example, "I was fifteen when I got my powers. I was going out every day saving people and beating up bad guys," he sighs with a bit of remorse, "And I made a lot of mistakes that nobody let me forget. Especially myself."
Hope looks down in shame, "Like I did on the moon."
"No," he immediately says and get her to look at him in slight surprise, "I told you I think you made the right decision back on the moon, and the reason why I thought that is because you've heard the stories about the Phoenix Force, but I don't think you really understood what it meant to actually have it inside you. What having the power to destroy and create things from thought is like. And how much it can corrupt you if you are not ready for it. I think you needed to see firsthand what it does, even to good people."
She looks back at the frozen image of Cyclops. His losing control of himself and attacking everyone is what she would have gone through if she accepted the Phoenix back on the moon. If only becuase she did not understand it like she does now.
"Although I don't think Emma and Namor fall in that category," she can't argue with, "but that's not my point. My point is that you needed to see it for yourself and not just hear the stories about it. So you can really be ready for it."
He stands up and looks down at her, "And you have an advantage that Jean, Scott, and everyone else didn't have. You are prepared for it. Everyone believes that, Hope. The only question is, do you believe in yourself?"
He fades away and she sits there in silent contemplation. His last words echo in her head.
Does she believe in herself?
'I do.'
She closes her eyes and takes deep breaths. She clenches and unclenches her fist as small wisps of Phoenix force and chaos energy float around her hand.
'I know I can do this.'
The world slowly begins to move again.
'Everyone is counting on me to do this.'
The fires all around her begin to swirl around the energy around her fist as it mimics the Phoenix Forces.
"What happened?"
She looks up to see Scott looking around bewildered. She guesses he noticed he was frozen in place briefly.
"What happened?" Hope repeats back to him as she stands up, "You made a mistake."
She charges at him and punches him in the face with her chaos/Phoenix-powered fist. He staggers back as the flames on him dissipate.
"You let this power go to your head," she punches him again as she continues to talk, "even after knowing what it will do to you eventually."
Scott tries to retaliate with a blast from his eyes but Hope hits him again and the blast fire off into the sky.
"Even after all the pain and suffering you all caused," as she continues to hit him, she doesn't notice the fires on the battlefield begin to gather into her hands, leaving them for the rest of the heroes to see, "You still thought you guys were in the right!"
She doesn't mean to include the X-men in that statement, but the ones watching and close enough to hear her wince at her words as she continues to beat Scott.
Cyclops falls to his knees, looking exhausted and bloody, looks up at the heavily breathing Hope and says, "You were supposed to be the one to take it," she keeps her expression still and doesn't say a word, "It was your destiny to take the Phoenix Force and use its power to save our people," he gives her a look of contempt, "But you rejected it. Because you were afraid of it."
Her determined look doesn't waver as she responds, "I was afraid of it. Especially after seeing you five."
She then uppercuts him right in the jaw and launches him two feet in the air. When he lands the Phoenix Force immediately gets out of him and flies into the sky.
It looks down at Hope and Hope looks back up at it. Unflinching.
"But not anymore."
It then dives down at her and she absorbs it. All the heroes watch on even as the heat and light get more intense. After a few moments, the intensity dies down and what could be seen is a girl on fire.
Wolverine hesitantly steps a bit closer and calls out to her, "Hope?"
She doesn't respond. Instead, she blasts off into the air.
"Tony!" Cap calls out.
"I'm on it!" Tony responds as he follows after her. They both vanish quickly from all the present heroes' sight.
Cap presses his finger to his ear and says, "Tony! Gives us an update! What is going on?"
Pushing his suit to the limit he keeps pace with her as she arrives in New York and flies through the city. As she does so, the fires on the buildings are pulled into her, and buildings are put back together. Cars and other debris are put back into place. And even crushed people are brought back.
"She's," he is stunned by what the young mutant is doing, "She's putting out the fires Cap. She's putting them out and fixing a lot of the damage that's been done."
Next thing he knows he's in San Francisco where Hope repairs the bridges as she flies by. A few seconds later they are in the Himalayas and she is plugging up the volcanoes with boulders. Wakanda follows and is restored to it's former glory faster than they can react. And in their final trip across the Pacific, Hope flies by and absorbs all the fire on the surface of the water.
All of this was done in under a minute.
They arrive back at where the fight was going on. Tony lands by Steve and looks up at her. As do the rest of the heroes. All of them wait to see what happens next.
Hope looks at her hands in silence. Not a single one of them can guess what she is thinking. Only praying she is still on their side. Looking for the sign to show that they didn't just trade one Dark Phoenix for another.
"Is this what he meant?" She asks nobody in particular as she looks up from her hands and at the gathered heroes.
Cap asks the question they are all thinking, "Who?"
"Spider-Man," she responds as she looks back to her hands, at the power that surrounds her entire being, "Is this what he meant about power and responsibility?"
Some of them look at each other, wondering what she's talking about, while others look at her and wait for her to go into more detail.
"Back in K'un Lun," she starts as she looks to the sky, "He told me that 'With great power, comes great responsibility'. I didn't understand what that meant, and all he said was that I could try to live my life trying to find something more profound than that, but nothing would better define what it is to be a hero."
Cap looks down in thought for a moment, before he looks back up, "He was right," he says grabbing not only her attention but all the heroes' attention, "I've given hundreds of inspirational and motivational speeches throughout my life. Before, after, and sometimes even during a fight. Or even just when someone asked for some advice. But I've never given a simpler and yet more profound speech than those simple words."
Hope asks, "But what does it mean?"
The Thing steps forward this time, "It means, if ya can do som'ten, some'ten nobody else can do but you, ya do it for others. Ya do da right thing."
"The right thing?" Hope asks rhetorically then gestures to the down Scott Summers, "They were fixing so many of the world's problems. And yet you all said what they were doing was wrong."
"Logically speaking they were right," Iron Man speaks up this time, "Unfortunately the world isn't just logical. People aren't logical. People are emotional, stupid, and sometimes indifferent to the problems of the world. Because they think it doesn't affect them," he shrugs, "It's a mess. It's the way life is. One big mess."
"But I can fix it," Hope clenches her fists and the heroes tense up as the fire on her grows, "I can make the world better. I can do what nobody else can!"
"No."
All the heroes look at the very back of the crowd to see the Scarlett Witch walking forward past her fellow heroes, "This is not what you were meant to do with it," she stops right in below the younger mutant, "Your destiny was connected to the Phoenix, but not so you can wield it."
Hope slowly floats down to the ground and stands in front of Wanda, "Then what am I supposed to do?"
Wanda extends her hands for Hope to take them, "To let it go," she says and Hope widens her eyes at that, "You are the only one who has the strength to let it go. Scott and all of them couldn't do it. Even when it was divided amongst them, they still were not strong enough to resist it," she gives a small smile, "But you are."
Hope looks at her in surprise before slowly grabbing Wanda's hands.
"No more fire."
"No more fighting."
"No more playing God."
"No more Phoenix!/ No more Phoenix!"
All of a sudden the Phoenix flew out of her and burst into the sky. From the point of view of space, the power of the phoenix explodes and spreads throughout the world.
Back on the ground, Wanda holds on to Hope as the young girl collapses from sudden fatigue.
The heroes gather around them and give the young mutant messiah and Romanian witch proud and happy smiles.
"The mutants are returning," one of the Cuckoo's voices said, "She did it."
The present X-Men smiles grow a little bigger at this bit of news. After so long of their people being an extinct species, they were saved.
Wolverine places a hand on Hope's shoulder and says, "You did good kid," he looks to Wanda, "You both did."
They both give smiles of their own before Hope's smile turns into a frown of disappointment.
"I tried to fix all the damage they did," she tells them, "I even tried to bring everyone back."
Everyone is shocked to hear this and then they are elated to know no real casualties happened.
"But it wouldn't let me," she says sadly, their elation suddenly vanishing, "The Phoenix wouldn't let me bring back Xavier and Spider-Man."
At this bit of news, all of them hang their heads in disappointment. For they may have achieved victory, but it wasn't one worth celebrating.
Hope hangs her head in shame, "I'm sorry."
Iron Fist places his hand on her shoulder and squeezes it. She looks at him in worry and he gives her a reassuring smile.
"Let's go home."
(K'un Lun Temple)
Inside the temple, where Spider-Mans body lies wrapped in gauze, it is quiet. Not a sound is heard. The body remains untouched, evident by the bit of dust on it.
The last thing one would expect to see is a horde of spiders surrounding it. If one were to get close enough, one would see the gaze of the small creatures transfixed on the corpse. But they do not move. Not a twitch of their legs or thorax. Their eyes remain steady and unmoving. As if they are waiting for something.
They do not wait long.
A wisp of fire comes through the door. The fire's light reflects on their black eyes before it enters the corpse. Two seconds later the horde of Spiders move forward.