章 30: The Tales of the Phoenix

1142 AD: 178 Years(17)

I and Master Yao, came out of the portal, to land in what looked like the African Deserts. Somewhere near Egypt, if my guess was right. The.. Entity, which was simply powerful enough to scare the shit out of me, was a few miles in front of us.

"Master Yao. I think.. it's better if you stay in the Mirror Realm, and keep an eye on me, while I make contact." I say, looking at the far enough point.

I'd rather we both didn't go there, but no matter what, as defenders of Earth, we need to face this being if it's a threat. And I'd rather face them first, keeping Master Yao as a back up.

Master Yao sighs, and says, "I don't want to agree, but you're right. I am getting old, aren't I?"

I smile at him, and say, "What are you saying? My father's still way older than you."

Master Yao simply chuckles, and enters the Mirror Dimension, so I start flying towards the Entity. It was barely a minute, after which I reached what looked like a town.

Huh. I recognize this town. Where from, though?

Shaking my head, I fly towards where I feel the threat is. Even before I reach there, I see something that scares me.

A woman, red headed, wearing what looked like a leather armour, was pointing her hand at a house, and the ground below it. She was using some form of Telekinesis, which was way superior than whatever I or Loki knew from our Magic studies, to pull the ground up, piece by piece.

"Oh, crap." I whisper to myself.

Immediately landing down near her, I summon the Mirror Dimension around myself, and the woman, or girl, I think to myself looking at her 20-25 year old face.

"What!? What happened?!" The girl shouts in shock, looking around, and then focusing her eyes at me, glaring angrily.

Master Yao opens a portal next to me, a few feet in front of the red head, while I simply look at her in disbelief.

"Are you an idiot?! Or were you actively trying to wake him!?" I shout at her, preparing to fight in case she was one of his agents.

Whose, you ask? Apocalypse.

The town was the place where En Sabah Nur's Pyramid used to be, and the ground below is where he was buried. Judging by the woman's powers, she was a mutant with TK powers, and was digging her way towards En Sabah Nur's resting place.

But, I know something from the movies. As soon as Sunlight touches the Celestial Technology that made up the golden crown of the Pyramid, En Sabah Nur will wake up, to bring Apocalypse once again. D*ck.

And this dumb b*tch, mind my tongue, was digging her way down using telekinesis, which would have let sunlight to hit the Golden crown, which is why without any thinking, I brought her into the Mirror Dimension, stopping her Telekinesis from working outside the Dimension, and from waking Apocalypse before his time.

"Take me back, or you will die." Red says, ignoring my anger, while floating in the air using her TK.

I put Ljosgeirr in front of me, and say, "Make me." While Master Yao summons Tao Mandala Shields in his hands.

Before I can do anything, the girl waves her hand, and pushes me a few feet back, although she looks shocked that I only went back a few feet.

Master Yao, meanwhile throws his Mandala at her, and then slams his leg on the ground, causing a wave to erupt, with him in the centre. Benefits of the Mirror Dimension. She dodges the shield, but gets hit in the touchie by the ground wave.

I immediately fly towards her, and punch her in the face, sending her back towards Master Yao, who without wasting any time, summons the Crimson Bands of Cyttorak, and binds her tightly.

Coming right behind the flying woman, I smack my palm in her chest, and push her Astral Form, out of her body.

The Astral woman looks at us with angry tears in her eyes, starts burning up, and shouts, "YOU WILL NOT STOP ME FROM HAVING MY REVENGE!"

Her whole Astral Form catches on fire. She waves her hands, sending both of us away from her body, and freeing it from the Crimson Bands at the same time. The ground around her body, about a few feet of it, gets immediately disintegrated.

Her wave of power was obviously more than just Telekinesis, which explains the peeled skin in my palm, and the disintegrated finger, which were both healing, although a bit slower than usual. Ouch!

Before she can do anything else, a beautiful trilling sound fills the space between us, which stops the angry woman right in her spot. She widens her eyes, when a burst of flames occurs in between us three, revealing Sol, in all her majestic glory.

I was supporting Master Yao, and helping him stand up, when I see Sol. She comes towards me, and cries on my finger, healing it back up, so I shout, "Sol! Get out of here!"

Goddamnit, Sol! Now's not the time to show off!

Sol simply trills and flies around. She says, 'No worries, Baldur. I know what I'm doing.'

Now that she's said that, I look at the woman, who is staring wide eyed at the Phoenix.

"Impossible " she whispers out, and loses her flames.

'Very much possible, My Lady.' Sol says in all our heads, and trills out a song along with it, calming all of us down.

Say whatever you want, if you need to calm your enemies, Phoenixes are the best.

"I thought I was the only Phoenix." The woman, who I'm calling Red from now on, whispers again. She was still in her Astral form, and her body was laying down on the ground.

'You are, or I should say, the being inside you is The Phoenix, My Lady. We are simply Magical Beings who were made after her image, calling ourselves Phoenixes as a homage to her.' Sol trills out, settling down near me.

Wait! What?! The Phoenix?! That's why Master Yao was scared! That's why she felt so familiar to me! But, why is the Phoenix helping Apocalypse?

"Why the hell is the Phoenix helping En Sabah Nur rise up?!" I ask, angrily standing up and pointing Ljosgeirr at her.

She looks away from Sol, and snaps angrily, "I WAS TRYING TO KILL HIM BEFORE HE WAKES UP!"

I slowly lower Ljosgeirr, look at Sol who nods in confirmation, and look at Red again.

"By all the Gods, you are more of an idiot than I'd thought." I mumble out, frankly shocked at her motive. If she was helping him wake up, that would have been understandable, and it would have been easy to fight her.

Now? She wants to kill him? And her best idea was to TK the ground above him to float his body up, and then kill him? Idiotic.

Red scowls angrily, and once more burst into flames, this time coming back into her body. Right. Phoenix Force. Astral manipulation is kinda one of her things.

She pulls Ljosgeirr out of my hands, and sends it hurling back at me. Unfortunately, she didn't touch it herself, or I would have gotten an amazing laugh at her expense.

Leaning to the side, I simply catch Ljosgeirr, and fire a concentrated beam of light at her, sending her flying back, and burning off her armour at her guts.

She stands up, and focuses more on her power, which was frankly, scary. I'm really grateful she has shit control over her powers, and that most of her power has been blocked by someone. Hey! This sounds really familiar!

'STOP!' Sol shouts, flaming between us, and trilling calming sounds.

Red stops flaming up, and says, "Do not presume to know my plans. I could have killed Apocalypse and left before the hour was even up."

I stare at her for a while, trusting Sol this time, and sigh out loud. Turning towards Master Yao, who was warily watching us talk, I say, "Master. Could you please restore the Town back? I'll talk with her and make her understand her faults."

Ignoring the indignant sputtering of Red, Master Yao, nods, and puts a hand on his hips. He says, "Just.. be careful. And tell me everything later."

He then makes a portal, and goes out to restore the town, probably using the Time Stone, so the people don't remember anything.

I turn back to Red, and then to Sol. I say, "Introductions. My name is Baldur Odinson, Prince of Asgard, Protector of the Realm of Midgard, Master of the Mystic Arts, and The God of Sun, and Light. This is Sol, my Phoenix Familiar, and my family. Now who are you, and where are you from? Don't lie, or I will Kill you."

Looking at my serious face and hearing my name, Red gets a little bit shocked. After shaking her head, she answers, "My name.. is.. Jean Grey. The Host to the Phoenix Force. And I came from Earth.. erm.. Midgard.. only, from the future, to kill Apocalypse before he wakes up."

What. The. Fuck.

I keep staring at her, and examine her properly. Red hair, green eyes, leather armour with an X on her belt. All three most common facts check out.

FUCK!! WHY THE HELL IS MARVEL GIRL TIME TRAVELLING?! I didn't remember anything about this from the movies! I know Logan time travelled, to save them all from sentinels. But Apocalypse? Doesn't Jean Grey kill him when she's like 16? This one looks 20-25, and she hasn't killed Apocalypse?!

I sigh out loud, cursing my life, and say, "Lets.. go somewhere. We'll sit down, and then talk. I promise not to harm you while you're with me."

Red, now Jean looks at me, and I feel a mental brush against my mind, way stronger than what the Hat used, but not even a little bit delicate. It pushes my head back, thanks to the mental pressure, and I swat it aside, with a lot of force.

I glare at her and say, "While you have amazing mental strength, your control needs work. Don't try that again."

Even Sol angrily trills out, and says, 'Do not do that again, Lady Phoenix! My Baldur WILL kill you.'

Jean looks at Sol, then me, and gulps. She nods at me and says, "Okay, fine. I promise that I'll not attack unless you attack me first. If you try anything though, I'll disintegrate your whole body."

I snort at the threat, but nod nevertheless. As of now, she could barely disintegrate my finger, and that was only when she got angry. Making a portal to my office in Hogwarts, on Avalon, I bid Jean to enter. Jean hesitates a bit, so I roll my eyes and enter first, Sol following after me.

Jean waits a beat, and then comes out of the portal, warily looking around. Sol flies for a few seconds, and settles down on her perch next to the window, which lets a lot of the Sunlight inside. Jean still looks around, and is prepared to attack in case of an ambush.

Ignoring her suspicions for a while, I sit down on my throne, which used to be the Headmaster's chair, and speak up, "Blinky." Which causes the House Elf to immediately appear next to me, startling Jean.

I look at her, and ask, "Would you like some tea? Coffee? Alcohol?"

"It's noon." Jean says, staring at me, like I'm an idiot, and then says, "I'll have a tea, please."

I shake my head at her, and turn to Blinky, "Tea for two, Blinky. You know which one." Then I turn to Jean, again, ignoring Blinky who went to prepare the tea, and say, "In Midgard, in Misr, yes, it was noon. Look outside, Red. It's not noon now, and you're not in Midgard."

Jean widens her eyes, and moves towards the window. Looking outside, at the setting sun, she whispers, "It's impossible. The Sun.. it's bigger than it's supposed to look like from Earth."

I shake my head at her denial, and say, "That's because, as I said, you're not in Midgard. This is the second planet of the Solar System, which I terraformed for my use."

"YOU TERRAFORMED VENUS!?" Jean shouts out, pushing a few things with her unintended use of TK.

I nod, and wave at her to sit. I say, "Yes. A few years ago, only in fact. Now, enough. Have the tea."

Only now, she notices the cup of Darjeeling Tea floating in front of her. She gingerly takes it, and sits back down on the chair in front of me.

A few minutes, during which I think up a few questions I want to ask, and the answers to any questions she might ask, we finish drinking our teas.

The cups vanish immediately, thanks to Blinky, which again startles Jean, who finally asks, "So.. how are we doing this?"

I smile mischievously, and say, "Well.. we can start by taking off our clothes, kiss, and then go wherever that takes us."

Jean blushes immediately, turning red, and stammers out, "Not.. not- that! You Idiot!"

I laugh softly at her face, which reminds me of Karin when Suigetsu teases her, and say, "Sorry, sorry. Couldn't resist. Let's do one for one. You ask one question, then I ask one. We either answer honestly, or not answer at all. Deal?"

She takes my offered hand, and shakes it, saying, "Deal." It immediately seals the magical deal I just tricked her into, making our hands glow a bit.

What?! I'm not taking any chances, alright!

Jean looks at our glowing hands, and asks, "What are you? And how are you doing all this?"

I snort at the frankly insulting question, and answer, "I am an Asgardian, the Second Born Prince of Asgard, in fact. You might remember me from your Mythology. Baldur, Thor, and Loki. The Sons of Odin."

"You're Baldur? The Baldur? A God?" Jean asks, in disbelief.

I nod and say, "Yes, to all those questions. Now, my turn. What do you know about Nazis?"

Jean looks at me weirdly, and says, "Nazis, bad news. They killed Jews, and were primarily responsible for millions of deaths during World War II. How the hell do you even know what Nazis are? I'm in the 12th century, am I not?!"

I smile mysteriously, and say, "I have my ways. And yes, you are in the 12th Century, the year being 1141. Does someone name Captain America, Steve Rogers, Johann Schmidt, or Red Skull exist in your past?"

Jean shakes her head, scowling at my first non answer, and replies, "None of those names seem familiar, no. I know a Klaus Schmidt, though. Now, why did you stop me from killing Apocalypse?"

I smile at her question, while mentally scowling at her answer. I answer back, "Your actions would have woken him up before you even trying to lift a finger to kill him. Do we Asgardians exist in your Universe?"

Jean widens her eyes, and asks, "What do you mean my Universe?! I simply travelled through time! I'm still in the same Universe, only in the past!"

I shake my head, and smile sadly at her. I say, "I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news, Red. But if you didn't recognize what I did, who I was, even when I introduced myself, and the names I mentioned, you are most definitely not in your own past."

Jean starts crying and slinks down in her chair. I offer her a handkerchief, which she takes, and says, "So even if I kill him here, nothing back home will change?"

Letting go of our question for question deal for now, I put a hand on her hand, and say, "Yes. Unfortunately, yes. This is an entirely different Universe to what you're used to. Even if this Apocalypse dies, and it's not his time to die yet, your Apocalypse would still stay alive, back in your own Universe."

Jean shakes her head, and says, "No.. he.. he is dead there too."

I blink. I look at her in shock, and say, "Whoa, there Red. Back up a second. Apocalypse is dead? For real dead? Meaning, there's no chance he will return? Then why the hell are you here?"

Jean looks up from her crying, and scrunches her face in thought. Damn she's cute. She says, "I.. don't know. It's just.. the whole planet is gone, so I don't think he could survive that."

Okay, she's just dropping bomb after bomb at me. I massage my head, and say, "Let's make another deal, Red. You tell me your story, I will help you kill your own Apocalypse, in your past, like you wanted."

Jean wipes her eyes, and nods. She starts telling her tale, crying a lot during speaking, with angry tears, while I use the Black Mirror to find her Universe.

Turns out, she's from a Universe where only the X-Men exist as superheroes. There are Celestials, yes, and Infinity Stones, but Avengers, Inhumans, and most of the Alien Races don't exist. Shi'ar empire still exist, but Kree and Xandar don't. Sorcerers exist, but stay away from the Mutant affairs. Plus, no Sorcerer could fight with the Apocalypse alone.

Now, this was almost similar to the X-MEN Movie Universe, only a lot more advanced. Until En Sabah Nur woke up in the 80s. In this Universe, he had woken up a lot of times in the recent past. Even as Early as the 1800s. So, a lot of technological advances happened a lot earlier than they did in the MCU.

When En Sabah Nur woke up, just like in the movie, he recruited Magneto, Angel, Storm, and Psylocke as his Horsemen, and then kidnapped Xavier so he could take over his body.

Only, this time, the X-MEN went to rescue him with a back up plan. A portable time machine, the control of which was on each X-man's wrists.

This time machine, designed by Hank McCoy, was to drop them into a distant past, so they can thwart En Sabah Nur before he rises. He had a whole timeline of events when Apocalypse woke up in the past.

This Apocalypse, was also a lot stronger than what the movies showed. And Taller too. This one was almost 8 feet tall. So he easily took over the body of Charles, and used it to take over the minds of everyone else.

Everyone! Everyone except other Telepaths, and Magneto was under the control of Apocalypse, for all of 20 mins. During these 20 minutes, Apocalypse used his new slaves to kill Magneto, and then, since he was unable to harm a Phoenix empowered Jean Grey, he tortured her mind instead.

He had the X-Men all kill themselves, leaving only Kurt, Nightcrawler alive. When even that didn't work to bring Jean's will down, he gave Nightcrawler the control of his head back, making them talk, and then blew him up. He absolutely disintegrated him.

That turned out to be the last straw for Jean, who immediately in one second disintegrated the whole planet.

She. Disintegrated. The. Whole Planet! In one second! If that doesn't scare you away from the Phoenix, I don't know what will.

Anyway, after that, she still stayed alive, while every other Earth dweller died, along with the Earth.

After a few years of simply floating through space, and getting over her grief, she decided to use the back up plan. To kill Apocalypse before he ever wakes up.

Unfortunately for her, as I realized, Xavier's binds on her mind were a lot stronger than she thought. Once she got her mind under control, and got through the pain and grief of losing Earth, the binds got back up.

This, in turn, caused the Phoenix Force to lash out, when she activated the time machine, sending her hurling not only through time, but also through space, dropping her in Egypt, where she last was on Earth, but in my Universe. And in the time that she set.

"And then, you found me, just as I had begun digging the site where he's resting. I could have killed him by now!" Jean finishes her story, and shouts in the end.

I put the Black Mirror aside, having verified the story myself, by viewing her past. And yes, I could now look into other universes, although I do need an anchor on my side. So unless I have an object from another Universe, I can't look into it.

I calmly look at the crying Jean, and say, "Red.." I pause, gathering what I want to say, and sigh. I say, "Look, I get that you want to kill him. I'm waiting for an ample opportunity too. But, what you were doing would have woken him up, immediately."

"How?" Jean simply asks, wiping her eyes.

Deciding to trust her, this once, I enlarge the Black Mirror, and show her exactly how En Sabah Nur woke up from his sleep.

The way the Sunlight, when it hit the Celestial Crown, energised the Altar on which he was sleeping. The way that the energy went into En Sabah Nur, and woke him up from his slumber.

This in turn, showed her that if I'd let her go through with her plans, Apocalypse would have woken up, ahead of schedule, and killed a whole lot of people before being sealed back, or killed.

Granted the Apocalypse from this Universe is weaker than the one this Jean faced, but he's not as weak as the one from the movies either.

Jean starts crying again, finally realising what she was about to do, and what it looked like to me and Master Yao when we got there. I simply let her cry, while checking out the Time Stone floating around in the space where Earth used to be, although it was cracked.

Damn. I really hope no one is stupid enough to mess with it. I'll have to bring it here, making it useless, so no one can use it there. Infinity Stones don't work outside their Universe either way.

The Tesseract was no where to be seen, having been taken back to Asgard by Odin in the 17th century itself, after Apocalypse had went to rest again. He did not want to chance keeping an Infinity Stone next to the champion of the Celestials.

A few minutes later, Jean gathers herself, and asks, "What should I do now?"

I look at her, and bluntly say, "You have two options. If you want, you can settle down here, or on Earth, I will make sure you stay hidden from any dangers to the Phoenix Force, or from other mutants. Second option, if you want, I can drop you to your own past, right before Apocalypse took over Xavier's body, so you can kill him then and there, like how he was actually supposed to die."

Jean looks at me with wide eyes, with hope in her eyes, and asks, "You can do that? Send me back?"

I sort of get why she's so shocked at this. Her Time machine was a one hit wonder. It can only send you somewhere once, not bring you back. Plus, it did not send her body here.

Yup, shocked me too. The time machine simply sent her soul to this place, where it took over a woman's body. Just like how Apocalypse takes over bodies, when Jean's soul landed in the body of the unfortunate woman, her body changed to that of Jean's.

Also reminding me of how Orochimaru, no matter in which body, looks exactly like Orochimaru. Jean's original body, was still in her own Universe, floating around.

I nod at Jean, and say, "Yes. I can do that, and more. But not yet. If you want to even hope to defeat Apocalypse yourself, you'll have to train. No offense, but you are not using your powers efficiently. Xavier has messed with your mind too. And we'll have to heal the Phoenix Force."

Jean, finally getting overwhelmed, faints and drops down from the chair, falling unconscious.

"Oh, dear." I say, not bothering to even stand up. I simply call Blinky to set her down in one of the guest rooms.

'She is coming, Baldur.' Sol says, looking outside the window.

I nod, and sigh audibly. I say, "Yeah, I feel her too. I give her a few days, max, until she reaches. One Phoenix Force was so hard to handle, and now I'll have to deal with two of them."

The Phoenix Force from this Universe was coming to Earth. She probably felt Jean's presence, and came to investigate.

If I didn't have a connection to Sol, and hadn't felt how Jean feels, I would never have felt the Phoenix Force coming. But, she was still hundreds of thousands of light years away.

'You'll have to free this one before the Phoenix comes here. Or else, Goodbye Earth.' Sol remarks, looking at the place where Jean used to be.

Sure, unseal a seal put on the mind of the Phoenix Host, by the most powerful Telepath of his century. Within 3 days.

I bang my head on the table, and groan loudly. Ignoring the chuckling Sol, I say, "Fuck my life."

~~~

A/N: How many of y'all are authors on either WN or FFN? Comment here so I can check out your books! I'm bored.

Now, I know a lot of authors like putting Omakes after their chapters. I'm not one of them. So instead, I'll write a Writing Prompt, so one of y'all can write on that. You simply have to post a comment here once you do, so I can follow your book.

~~~The Warrior who Stayed~~~

Fandom: Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Summary: There have been a lot of reincarnated souls who took over the bodies of Thor, Loki, Hela, and even some unnamed sibling to Odin. This time, a fortunate soul takes over the body of a Berserker of Asgard.

When the Berserker army goes back to Asgard, after the battle with Jotuns, one Warrior stays behind. Unfortunately, the Warrior who stayed, is not the warrior who woke up.

~~~

You can make him wake up in any era. It can be after the fight with Jotuns, after the first Convergence, or even after some unnamed campaign in the 12th century like the show said.

he's a relatively unknown character, so you can do anything with it. Comment if you're writing anything on it!

Ciao!