Jean looked into the rippling waters of the ke, her fiery aura now pletely extinguished, repced by the faint warmth of the m sun. Her refle wavered, but her resolve remaieady. She g Aron, his expression calm but attentive, waiting for her to speak.

  "Aron," Jean began, her voice soft but den with gravity. "There's something I o tell you about Genosha. It's not the sanctuary you might think it is."

  'Yeah, I know. I think Mago rules that pd if I'm n, Cassandra Nova and Wild Sentinels will attad kill everyohere. But, I could be wrong,' Aron tilted his head slightly, intrigued but cautious. "What do you mean?"

  Jean took a deep breath. "Genosha is an isnd nation that could've been a paradise for mutants. But instead, it's bee a living hell. It's ruled by a man named Dr. David Moreau, the Genegineer. He's a mutant stist who developed a process called 'mutate bonding.' It strips mutants of their free will and binds them to servitude. They're used as bor—sves to keep the nation running while Moreau and his gover prosper."

  Aron's jaw tightened, his icy-blue eyes narrowing. "And no one's done anything about it?"

  "Ten years ago," Jean tinued, "Mago found out about the atrocities happening there. He wanted Charles to help raid the isnd, to free the ensved mutants, and take down Moreau. But Charles refused."

  "Why?" Aron asked, his tone sharp.

  Jeaated, her green eyes meeting his. "Charles said it was too dangerous. The Genoshans have advaeology—devices capable of dep mutants. If we failed, it would risk exposing mutants across the world to eveer oppression. Charles believed diplomacy would be better."

  Aro out a bitter ugh. "Diplomacy? With svers?"

  "Exactly what Mago said," She replied. "That's why he left the X-Meook his supporters and unched an atta Genosha. But the teology there... it was overwhelming. They barely escaped with their lives, and the mutants left behind suffered even worse punishments as a result. Sihen, Mago has been obsessed with growing strathering forces to one day try again."

  "And Charles?" He asked, his voice cold.

  Jean shook her head. "He's turned a blind eye, just like the rest of the world. Govers know about Genosha, but they ig because the isnd produces advaeology and resources they rely on. Even the Avengers and other heroes stay away. It's like Genosha does."

  Aron stared into the distance, his mind calg. "So, no one cares. Not heroes, not govers. Not even Mago anymore?"

  "Mago's a shadow of who he used to be," She said softly. "He's lost too much. But you... we could ge that."

  "I don't just want to ge it," Aron said, his voice like steel. "I want to burn that system to the ground."

  Jean smiled faintly, though sadness lingered in her eyes. "I thought you'd say that."

  Aron looked at her, his expression softening. "You've been through enough, Jean. You don't have to e with me."

  Jean shook her head. "I 't stay behind. Not when I know what's happening there. Besides," she said with a serious expression, "this fight isn't just yours. It's ours. Together, we free those people aroy everything Moreau has built."

  However, Aro something intense. A sudden surge in energy. It was so chaotid destructive, that he could not prehend the sheer scope of its power. And, he knew who it was.

  "Something wrong?" She asked notig his expression.

  "No. Things just got iing," Extending his senses, he used the raw energy of Phoenix Foraterialize an avatar form on the rooftop of a building in NY.

  ...

  [NY]

  eared in New York with a soft ripple in the air, her powers opening a portal to the bustling city. She moved through the streets, unnoticed by the people around her, her gaze fixed on the chaos that had followed Aron's miraculous return from the dead. Word had spread quickly. There were whispers of divine power, of a man who could resurrect the dead, and the fervor surrounding him alpable. Some saw him as a messianic figure, a savior, while others were quick to dub him a devil, a harbinger of destru.

  Wanda's crimson eyes glowed faintly as she reached out with her abilities. She had a unique gift for perceiviions and thoughts, tapping into the psychic web around her. As she passed, she allowed herself to read the minds of those who spoke of Aron—some with awe, others with fear, but all with fasation. Her power sifted through their fragmehoughts, pieg together a portrait of a man who had aheir reverence, and perhaps their fear.

  It wasn't long before she found herself standing before a gathering of Aron's followers, a crowd of devout believers who had been attending a makeshift memorial. They ted his name, and the air was thick with their fervor. Wanda closed her eyes, her miending outward, probing deeper. She brushed against the thoughts of the individuals around her, sifting through their memories.

  "He brought them back... my son. My wife. They're with us again."

  "He's a god. No one do what he does. He has to be the oo save us all."

  She tinued, diving deeper into their collective thoughts. Some stories were more chilling than others—ats of people who cimed to have seen loved ones return, their corpses revived with no expnation. Others spoke of strange, inexplicable phehat seemed to apany Aron's presence: a burst of goldehe crag of divine energy that felt both warm and terrifying.

  Wanda felt a sharp pull nition in her chest. This wasn't just a resurre; it was a manipution of life itself. Aron's power was vast, but there was something darker hiddeh its surface. The dead were returning, but what had truly been brought back? Was it their souls, their memories? Or was it something else entirely? She wao know what it actually was. If he really do all that then maybe... Maybe he could bring her parents and everyone who died that day back to life. She decided to drop Mago's mission and walk her own path.

  She withdrew from the crowd, her form shifting as she vanished into the shadows of an alley. The streets of New York felt eerily quiet as the hum of the crowd receded, repced by the overwhelming sense of chaos that now swirled in her mind.

  Wanda's thoughts began to with the implications of what she had uncovered. Aron's power t the dead back to life was not just remarkable; it was unpreted. No mutant had ever demonstrated such a capacity for maniputing life ah. Ahere were still unanswered questions—how did he do it? What was the cost? And why was he refusing to take trol of the world that was so eager to follow him?

  "A god or a devil?"

  ohe question, her mind flickering to Mago's words. Humans would betray him, Mago had said. They would turn on Aron ohey realized the true extent of his power, or perhaps once his power became a threat to their fragile sense of trol. Would Aron rise to cim the mantle of leadership? Or would he remaiached, an enigmatic figure in the eyes of the world?

  'I 't let that happen, Eric. You thought I was weak and that your little teology could stop me from reading your mind? I know everything you pnned. And now that I'm out of yrasp. It's time to show you what happens when you mess with me and my brother.' She thought with a cold expression.

  A subtle ripple in the air signaled a shift in her power. She extended her senses even further, gathering more impressions from those around her. But this time, her focus was different—she was no longer reading the minds of the masses. This time, she was looking for something specific: a sign, a clue that would lead her to Aron himself.

  It didn't take long. As her mind sifted through the work of human sciousness, a sudden vision fshed before her eyes—Aron, standing aloop a rooftop, his eyes glowing with golden light as he gazed down upoy. He was far from the worshipped hero the crowd thought him to be. There was a loneliness in him, aihat echoed in his every movement. He ying a game of his own, far more plex than any of them realized.

  He was smiling at her.

  'I'll be damned!'

  Wanda's lips curled into a small as she looked up at the building right before her.

  Before Aron could say or react, she gave him a wink and disappeared with a wisp of red energy.

  ---

  Chapter: Phoenix vs Chaos

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