The call from Fury came in the middle of an intense round of pushups. I was on my 998th repetition, sweating balls, spiking Angel regeneration to keep from collapsing, while my health shook like the waist of an exotic dancer.

"I can see that some things haven't changed about you since you manifested your power," Yao said behind me. "You're still as pigheaded as ever."

I climbed to my feet with a fierce gasp. "You told me the secrets of healing my body was in my magic. Rest won't help me. Training might."

And the grind was already bearing fruit.

+1 AE.

Yao shook her head, manifesting a cell phone from the air. "Fury wants to talk. He says it's important."

I was immediately suspicious. Things must be really bad if he's already reaching out. It has barely been 48 hours.

"Wait, how did he know who to call?"

"Magic, of course," Yao said casually. "We've devised a spell that allows people to automatically reach us when they pick up their phone with the intention to reach the Sanctums."

Wow. That sounded like an amazing but needlessly complicated way to disseminate information. Yao didn't strike me as the wasteful sort.

"He called Mordo, didn't he?" I said, narrowing my eyes.

Yao's lips twitched the slightest bit. The amusement was clear in her voice as she spoke. "Of course, he did. We won't cast a reality-changing spell when we have phones and portals."

I chuckled. "What does he want?"

"Why don't you wait and find out." Yao floated the phone with telekinesis, and I carefully took it from the invisible hand.

Once again, I found myself jonesing for magic.

"Please tell me that I'll be able to do that one day?"

"I have no clue," Yao said, turning around. "Like you said, your magic is unique; who knows what you're capable of."

I narrowed my eyes, watching her walk away. The sass was unreal. As I opened my mouth to say something, the phone rang again.

"How are the Himalayas?" Fury's voice cut in when I accepted the call.

"Oddly warm and devoid of snow," I joked. "You know that the Sorcerer's headquarters is not in the Himalayas, right?"

"Now I know. One less country to search," he said. He'd intended it as an offhand joke, but Fury was the type of man you paid close attention to. There was always an undertone of violence with him.

"If you're well enough to shoot the shit, then you must be well enough to travel," he said slowly.

"I just got off a call with Pierce, and the prognosis is not good. He wants you and Jean on base in 72 hours."

"Christ," I massaged my nose bridge. "Or what?"

"He's going public with Jean's crime and coming after her and likely all mutants with tech he's about to get from Bolivar Trask."

I sucked my teeth. "That's bad. Very fucking bad. Trying to force mutant registration. Is he trying to start a civil war?"

"That's what I said."

"And about Trask, he takes Priority. Whatever he's working on for Hydra, it's the stuff of nightmares. The Sentinel program must never get off the ground, or it could be the end of our mutant population and likely regular humans as well. You know the mutants won't go out without a fight."

"Well, that's just fan-fucking-tastic," Fury muttered. "And this talk of the Sentinel program. Did you get another vision?"

"Sure I did," I said, running my hand through my dyed black hair. "So, out with it, Fury. You already told me what Pierce wanted. How do you want to play this?"

"I need you to bring the girl in to meet Pierce," he said slowly.

"What! Why would you ever think I'd agree to that?" I started pacing.

"Because she could end all of this before it starts," Fury said. "Say what you will about Xavier, but he kept the peace and the government off the mutant's neck. If Jean could manage what Xavier did with Pierce—"

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"We could dismantle Hydra at our pace," I realized. "We'd have a mole at the highest level of government and kill the Mutant registration bill before it gets off the ground."

"But only if your girl is up for it," Fury said. "We could save a whole lot of people if we get this right."

"Aren't you afraid we will make another Charles Xavier?"

"I am," Fury said with some hesitation, "but Charles is not Jean Grey, and vice versa. She could end up worse or humanity's greatest hero. Jean is not the first superhuman of her caliber that I've met. She turned out alright, even if she did end up leaving Earth, but that's a story for another day.

"It's risky, I know, but we have to take it. We can't fight back the demons, a space invasion, and police America for mutant threats."

I chewed my lip in conflict. Fury was right, of course. Jean could dominate Pierce thoroughly with a simple look, but too many things could go wrong. She could explode his head instead of controlling him because of a Phoenix-induced mood spike or botch the mind flay by not digging deep enough.

Even if everything went perfectly according to plan and Jean somehow gained the finesse of a master telepath overnight, we'd be opening Pandora's box.

Absolute power corrupted absolutely, and I feared what she would become if I, one of her only friends, suggested that mental domination on the level of Xavier was permitted if the situation was desperate enough.

I did not want her going down that route, and with her current mental state, I doubted she'd need much convincing. I didn't imagine the Phoenix would be pleased, either.

'But hasn't that ship already sailed?' an insidious voice whispered.

'She mind-raped Xavier, ripping all of his memories out. She's closer to Master-level than you think. She's also the avatar of the Phoenix. What was the point of all that power if she isn't going to use it.'

"I'll have to think about this," I said slowly. "Jean is still recovering, and so am I. Believe it or not, third-degree burns via mystical fire is not something you can shrug off in 48 hours, healing factor or not."

"I get that you want to protect her," Fury said, "but you need to nut up and ask her the god-damned question or prepare for the fallout! At least then, her talent would be of more use. You said it yourself, but we can't let Pierce get his project off the ground."

I gritted my teeth. It pissed me off that Fury was putting me on the spot like this, but he had a point. She'd be dragged into this one way or the other.

Jean was ultimately her own person. I had to tell her.

"How long do we have?"

"24 hours."

—

My training session turned meditative as I worked through my thoughts.

I mixed Calisthenics movements with bodyweight exercises, wall punches, and kicks to increase my pain resistance skill and work towards my core resistance skill.

The hours seemed to slip away as I exercised, meditated, and shadow-boxed, but no matter how hard I trained, I couldn't stop thinking about Jean.

Telling her about Fury's request was obviously the right thing to do. The problem was that Jean was not in the right frame of mind. She was isolated from her friends, likely indebted to me because of what I'd done for her.

If I asked her to dominate a bad man's mind. She'd likely do it.

"It's the walls," I suddenly muttered, pulled from my thoughts.

"It's not letting me cut loose."

I could not remember the last time I trained without fear of somebody spying on me, discovering my secrets, or plotting against me.

Part of it was pure paranoia, but recent events gave me good reason to be paranoid.

I found my way to the main training hall after navigating through a complicated series of stairs and corridors. I watched silently as the men and women of all ages were put through their paces by a British Black Man with a familiar timber to his voice.

The group generated flickering circles of fire and light, and I stared on in envy.

How great would it be to port around the world as I pleased? It'd certainly make deleting problems like Trask and Pierce easy. Sure, assassinating big names like that would create as many problems as it solved, but at the very least, Jean would be safe.

A golden portal opened beside me, and inside, I could see Yao waiting for me, standing beside several tomes that she promised.

I walked through.

"If you're set on training yourself into an early grave, it's better you have everything we keep on Demon and Angelic Magic. Your parents wrote more, but it was lost in the fire that destroyed your home," Yao said.

"Thanks," I murmured. Yao immediately noticed my mood shift.

"What did Fury want?"

"He wants me to ask Jean to dominate a high government official set to see the mutant and human population tear each other apart."

"And you're debating whether to tell her, refuse him, or take matters into your own hands?"

"Yeah…" I said with some surprise. "Were you spying on me?"

Yao waved. "When you've lived as long as I have, all it takes is a glance."

"Got any advice?"

Yao took her time to speak.

"You like Jean, but you do not trust her. You're afraid she'll put you and the wide world in danger without ever meaning to, just like she did back at the mansion."

"That about covers it," I muttered, still slightly unbalanced by how quickly she'd seen through me. It was strange to be on the receiving end for once.

"If you want the Young Phoenix to make better decisions, you need to have faith in her and not manipulate her to your ends," Yao said firmly, "whatever they are."

I opened my mouth to deny the accusation, but Yao cut me off.

"We spoke at length about you," she said. "You opened Pandora's box when you told her about the Phoenix. I don't exactly know how this Devil's Eye of yours works, but I've watched you long enough to know it was a calculated choice. The girl holds you in such high regard. Do not let her down."

I could've said a thousand and one things, tried to deny it, and gaslighted the ancient one, but she'd already established that my bullshit wouldn't work on her.

Instead, I accepted her wisdom with a nod. "I won't."

Yao nodded and left me to peruse the literature. What I found inside those pages were world-changing.

Sparda's books were varied, going into a great deal about history, power, the archdemons, the wider Marvel universe, and an intriguing phenomenon called World Bridges. They let you hop from one planet to the next using magic.

However, the book that caught my eye the most was something called-- Affinity and Power: Path of the Nephilim. It was co-authored by Sparda and Eva.