The Golden Destroyer

The ruins of the base were still smoldering, debris and ashes covering the ground. Everything seemed frozen in a suspended moment, as if even nature was holding its breath. The metallic smell of blood and burnt stone filled the air, suffocating. Mystique, Avalanche, and Pyro had stayed behind, each disturbed by what they had seen.

They knew my nature. But seeing it, feeling the oppressive heat of the lightning devastating everything around me… It reminded them that, despite our alliances, I wasn't like them. I could feel their fear, that slight shift in their gestures, their hesitation to speak to me directly.

Mystique, true to herself, resumed her role as leader. She adjusted her tone to mask her uncertainty.

"We can't stay here, Jonathan."

I didn't answer. My eyes were fixed on the horizon, my thoughts elsewhere.

"Jonathan?" she insisted, her voice breaking slightly.

"We have visitors," I finally said, in a growl.

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She didn't need to ask who. The sky tore open before I finished my sentence. Storm, with her mastery of the elements, was the first to appear, her winds scattering the ashes like a cloth being cleaned with a sharp gesture.

Then they arrived one by one, their silhouettes standing out in the electricity-saturated air: Cyclops in the lead, Wolverine right behind, his claws already out. Jean Grey, silent but focused, brought up the rear with Nightcrawler and Beast.

They didn't speak right away. Cyclops advanced slowly, his gaze shifting between the ruins and me.

"So, this is your grand project, Jonathan? Reducing mountains to dust?" he said in a scathing tone.

I stared at him, impassive. Mystique, at my side, crossed her arms, defensive.

"We don't have to answer to you, Summers. You're not the authorities here."

Wolverine chuckled, a dry, mocking laugh.

"When people die because of your madness, it becomes our problem."

Pyro took a step forward, his hand already surrounded by a nascent flame.

"Keep talking like that, and I'll show you what real madness is."

"Pyro, stay back," Mystique ordered in a cold tone.

He stepped back, but the damage was done. Cyclops frowned, his anger rising.

"You think you can play gods? Look around you! You're no better than those you denounce. Monsters."

That word. That word again. "Monster." I could feel something boiling inside me, a wave of anger that I struggled to contain.

"And you, Cyclops, are you any better? Do you think you have the right to judge us?" My tone was low, but charged with a barely veiled threat.

Because of the vitriol of the words, the tension became unbearable. Cyclops was losing patience, and so was I. And what was bound to happen, happened: an innocuous swing of my tail, and everything went to hell. With a quick gesture, Cyclops reacted and fired an energy blast directly at me. It was the spark needed to ignite the fire.

I blocked the attack with a flick of my tail, dispersing it like a simple gust of wind. Mystique and Pyro reacted immediately, attacking their respective adversaries. Avalanche made the ground tremble, unbalancing Wolverine and Beast.

The fight began. It was nothing more than a frenzied chaos of flames, lightning, and blows. I remained in the center, immobile, watching them fight without really intervening. Their relentlessness was almost pathetic. My tails kept them at bay, my beams not being necessary.

Proof of this, I had sent Storm and Wolverine flying into a rock hundreds of meters away. Faced with the threat I represented, they all banded together to attack me.

It's ridiculous. What are they trying to prove with their attacks? I sighed in exasperation, already annoyed by the fight, my anger already fading.

Faced with the rout, Jean tried to reason with Cyclops, but her voice was lost in the tumult. She then looked at me, a mixture of fear and determination in her eyes.

"Jonathan, that's enough! If you continue…"

I didn't let her finish.

"If I continue what? What are you going to do?" I said, leaning one of my heads close to her. The eye menacing.

She hesitated for a few seconds, then attempted a full mental attack. It was the last mistake, before everything tipped over.

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When Jean tried to enter my mind, it was as if two universes collided. I felt a shock, violent and brutal, a cosmic scream that crossed not only my mind, but also reality itself.

A dull rumble filled the air, followed by a blinding explosion. The ground beneath our feet fractured, collapsing into gaping chasms. All around her, matter itself seemed to disintegrate and reform, as if the laws of physics were being rewritten in real time.

Jean screamed, but it was no longer her voice. It was a roar that seemed to come from the very bowels of the universe. Her hair ignited, transforming into a torrent of golden and red flames that swirled around her like an infernal crown. Her eyes became two suns, radiating a light so intense that even the shadows seemed to disappear.

The trees around us instantly burst into flames before being reduced to ashes. The rocks cracked and melted into rivers of lava. The bodies of the weakest—animals hidden in the mountains, insects, even the vegetation—were consumed in an instant, leaving only carbonized traces.

The other members of the Brotherhood and the X-Men were thrown to the ground by a titanic shockwave, struggling to breathe in this atmosphere saturated with raw energy. Mystique barely got up, blood flowing from her nose, while Pyro and Avalanche tried to protect themselves behind debris that was crumbling into dust around them.

Jean—or rather the Phoenix Force—then stared at me, and I felt a crushing weight on my chest, as if she wanted to crush me by the sheer force of her will.

"CREATURE OF CHAOS," she thundered, her voice resonating like a thousand echoes. "I AM INFINITE ORDER. AND YOU SHOULD NOT EXIST."

She raised a hand, and a sphere of incandescent light formed in the hollow of her palm, extending to encompass the entire sky. I then understood that it was not a simple attack. She wanted to annihilate everything that was present here, reduce this mountain, this region, and perhaps even more, to stardust.

When she unleashed this power, it was as if the sky itself was collapsing. A wave of cosmic fire swept over everything in its path, reducing the mountaintop to rubble. I had no choice but to channel everything I had to protect myself.

I raised my wings, trying to absorb the burning energy that was pouring down on me; it was in vain. At first, it was bearable. But every fiber of my being screamed, my wings burned under the heat, while my skin disintegrated faster than I could regenerate. In a desperate attempt to change the situation, I threw everything I had left at her in a massive attack. It was useless.

At that moment, I burst out laughing, an uncontrollable, almost hysterical laugh.

This was how it was going to end. Burning to death, by a burning Jean Grey. What cruel irony.

"Pathetic," I heard a voice growl in my mind.

"Let's chalk it up to your youth and inexperience." Observe.

I suddenly felt my body absorbing the energy that was disintegrating me. It was hot, delicious, giving me a feeling of euphoria and ecstasy. My body and wings regenerated at an incredible speed.

Faced with the change, the Phoenix Force hesitated, as if she finally understood that her power was no longer eliminating me. But rather that it was transforming me.

My body, saturated with cosmic energy, began to change. The air around me became heavy, each particle seeming to bend under a nascent gravitational force. The flames she unleashed extinguished on contact with me, drawn into this singularity that I was becoming.

The terrain around us was unrecognizable. The mountain had disappeared, replaced by an immense crater, whose gleaming walls testified to the heat that had shaped them. Having energy, I launched a counter-attack of gravitational waves that flattened everything in its path, mixed with a psychic attack that should hurt her.

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Silence fell, brutal and oppressive, as I fell heavily to the ground, unable to maintain my draconic form. My body felt like lead, every fiber of my being screaming under the weight of the cosmic energy I had tried to dominate. In front of me, Jean—or rather, the Phoenix Force that inhabited her—still floated, surrounded by an unbearably bright light, even if diminished.

She stared at me with her fiery gaze, a mixture of contempt and amusement in her burning eyes.

"You are more resilient than I would have imagined, little dragon," she declared, her voice resonating like a thousand echoes. "But make no mistake. If my host were ready, you would be nothing more than a memory consumed by the flames. Consider this a reprieve."

I didn't answer. I didn't have the strength. But even at that moment, I felt a dull anger rising within me, crushing my fatigue. It wasn't fear, no. It was a silent promise: one day, I would be ready.

With a last icy look, the Phoenix Force extinguished, leaving only Jean, staggering, who fell to her knees, unconscious. The fight was over, but I knew it was only the beginning of a much greater war.

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Overlooking the city from the terrace of the New York Sanctum, the Ancient One observed the residual effects of the clash through a dimensional projection. The energies released by the battle between Jonathan and the Phoenix Force had nearly torn the very fabric of their reality. She had had to act quickly, redirecting the gravitational and cosmic discharges into secondary dimensions to avert irreparable disaster. Fragments of Jonathan's last attack had triggered a wave of madness in the affected populations.

"You are troubled, Master," Mordo remarked, standing back.

The Ancient One lowered her eyes, her usually serene expression marked by a shadow of worry.

"I underestimated Jonathan. I thought his existence could be tolerated, monitored from afar. But he is a catalyst, Mordo, a potential breaking point for our world.

Mordo frowned

"What must we do, then?"

"We must prepare," she replied in a grave tone. "If Jonathan reaches his full potential unchecked, he could become a threat even greater than Dormammu. The way he alters the timelines through his actions is still unfathomable to me."

She turned to fix Mordo with a gaze filled with icy determination.

"Find the necessary artifacts. Study every ancient text that could help us contain such power. If he ever escapes all control, we must be ready to do the unthinkable."

Mordo nodded and walked away without a word. The Ancient One remained alone, her gaze lost in the immensity of the night sky, aware that the coming days would be crucial for the future of their dimension.