I draw from the absurd three consequences, which are my revolt, my freedom, and my passion. By the mere activity of consciousness I transform into a rule of life what was an invitation to death — and I refuse suicide.
-Albert Camus
********
Melina did not want to die.
She had felt death's cold touch before. The void of sensation had been a welcome relief at the time—the release from her duty, entrusting the future to her Lord and her Lord to Lady Ranni.
At the time, it had been liberating.
Now?
Death was not an option.
Even at her lowest, when Melina felt the most useless and small, she never even contemplated ending her life.
It was not hers to lose.
So she wouldn't.
What she was doing now was not some noble sacrifice, some twisted way to excise her useless existence in a dramatic display of martyrdom.
She had done that once before, and it had ended terribly.
More to the point, if she sacrificed herself again and again found out it was pointless, she would never live down the shame. She'd be forced to recuse herself to her room and never leave until everything, and everyone forgot about her existence.
No, Melina had gone into this with a plan. One she thought had a good chance of working.
The first step had been to convince Pride to bring her into Wonder Woman's shadow. It had been easy with the promise of a 'reward/punishment' from Mikael if they pulled it off.
Neither feared the void of space, but Melina was entrusting the Demon Lord to defend her from the League and the Phoenix if either tried to attack. Melina was not their equal in any way, but the manifestation of Raven's demon side was more than enough to defend her for long enough to teleport back to the Island.
It would be embarrassing to sneak off and then return with their tails between their legs, but that just gave Melina incentive to not fail.
And Melina didn't think she would.
If there was one thing she had learned over her time with her Lord, Mikael sometimes got too caught up in his head. In hypothetical scenarios and in his worries. Likely a habit of being alone for so long, it was a great tool when he wished to craft intricate plans, as he tended to catch things others missed. It nonetheless led to him overcomplicating things. And he tended to drag others along with reason and his logic.
Melina admired that about him, that force of personality that shaped the Lands Between into a better place.
If leaving this world to its fate was truly the only thing to do, then she'd accept it as would the others.
But it would hurt. He and the rest of the Family.
Not half an hour ago, she had been pleased with his efforts to form connections, and now he had to tear them apart again?
Melina did not want him to have any more regrets.
So, she had an idea that would solve most of their current issues with minimal risk.
Mikael would never allow it if she asked for permission or told him the plan.
Because it was her.
This was what she wanted, a way for her to be useful. To regain a purpose, one she chose herself.
This was Melina's own form of Freedom.
All she needed was a bit of time, a few minutes to communicate with the Phoenix.
She should have expected things to go wrong from the beginning.
Instead of appearing in the void of space amid a battle between beleaguered heroes and a titanic force of fire and energy, Melina and Pride emerged on top of a pile of sleeping bodies, limbs tangled in a mess.
It was lucky that the Amazon had been on top of the mound of heroes, or the two women would have had to dig themselves out.
"Where are we?" Melina asked, looking around the ship's tight confines and the pile of bodies.
"I can feel the Phoenix outside," Pride said with a frown as she softly kicked Tony Stark's hand away to free some space to stand. "It might have knocked them out. How weak. I dealt with all the cameras and surveillance equipment. No mistakes this time."
Melina didn't say anything as she looked around.
A ritual circle on the floor still glowed with fiery power, and the console of the ship's display was the image of the Phoenix in space. Robotic bodies floated by the screens powerlessly, including the gigantic Iron Man suit she had seen on Valeria's display. They hadn't been destroyed, only... turned off? Yet the ship was still powered, cycling air and insulated from the dangerous void beyond. Nobody was dead, as far as Melina could tell. There were signs of battle, like singed clothing, but not an injury on their bodies.
The Phoenix Force had knocked them out and transported them rather than just blast them? That didn't fit with the creature Mikael had spoken of.
Still, the heroes were incapacitated, which was one less worry. If there was a third player here, they'd reveal themselves soon.
Melina nodded at Pride, who was poking the sleeping Sorcerer Supreme in the cheek with her foot and stepped towards the front of the ship.
...Or at least what she thought was the front of the ship. Grail Knowledge only gave her a basic understanding of electronic technology, and space fairing vessels were above its usual pay grade.
With nothing to stop her, Melina lowered her Information Defence.
Suddenly, her mind was visible for the universe to find.
The Phoenix trilled in joy, the sound a beautiful ring in the quiet of space. It was at once like the tinkling of wind chimes and the crackling of a hearth.
It was also loud enough that the ship shook and rattled by the vibration. The sleeping heroes slid along the ground as the artificial gravity lowered for an instant before re-establishing itself.
Melina kept a firm hold of the other Defences, especially Mind and Possession. The Phoenix wasn't cheering for her but for what it saw in her mind.
Melina was not a psychic in any way. Like the others, she possessed the Talent for it, but Talent was useless without ability. If there was a spell to read minds, the others of the Family would be able to learn it quickly, but until such an ability was developed, the Talent languished in uselessness for most of them, like a swordsman without a sword.
But the Phoenix was THE psychic.
Melina felt its touch upon her mind, the brushing of its existence against the walls of her thoughts, and if she didn't have the Defences, she might have given up then and there.
It was vast.
Melina had stood before gods, had felt the titanic power of the Erdtree, and bathed in the power of her Lord under his Command Seal.
The Phoenix was more than all of them.
Gods were nothing to it. It could burn the Erdtree with but a thought. The Elden Ring, the prize her entire world warred over for millennia, was but a glimmering bauble to it.
The closest comparison Melina was when her Lord granted her power, and even that was... limited.
Mikael's power was a lake with no bottom. Eternally, it fountained and flowed, never running dry.
The Phoenix was an ocean. The seabed was there, miles down, but the vastness of it did not allow for any contemplation of the limit.
If this sea of power had brushed against Mikael's mind for eons, especially when he was at his youngest and weakest, it was no wonder he had reacted so violently to the knowledge of its approach. Like her Lord, Melina could feel it, though it couldn't influence her.
It was like standing at the foot of a dam holding back the ocean, knowing you were safe but well aware of the tides waiting to break upon you.
Melina was no one special.
If not for the Defences, she would have lost herself in those red waves, drowning in the power of life and fire.
And it would have welcomed her.
Anybody can become the host of the Phoenix. There was no requirement whatsoever. So long as it aligned with the bird's will, no life was too large or small. They all were embraced equally.
And they'd drown in a sea of psychic fire.
The Phoenix wasn't malicious. It just viewed all life equally.
A blade of grass was as important to it as a human life. The only reason the latter would have more import in its eyes was because humans were made up of billions of tiny lives. Yet even that was a red drop in the vast ocean of life.
And Melina would be another.
If only she had allowed it.
She didn't.
Melina had burned once before.
This fire would not consume her.
"You will not have him."
Her words echoed in the confines of the steel cabin. They were firm, sure and unwavering.
The Phoenix's trill turned into a shriek.
"You know I speak true." Melina continued, speaking to nothing, yet knowing the bird was reading her mind and could hear her. "You've seen my memories. I know Mikael. Better than anyone else, I know him. He will never allow anyone to into his mind and soul."
Melina felt something, thanks to Psychic Talent, but her Defences remained in place. She would not let even the tiniest fraction of the Phoenix Force into her until the deal was struck.
Thankfully, she had enough experience with psychics to identify it was some method of communication, even if the Defences blocked it.
"If you wish to speak, do so in person."
She felt it's displeasure, but it knew she would leave if it attacked.
And as much as Mikael wanted the Phoenix gone, the Phoenix Force wanted Mikael more.
Melina channelled Mikael as much as possible. Many nights had been spent curled in blankets around a fire, talking for hours. They had spent years together, and Melina had never forgotten his words.
And she had learned a few tricks. Even when he was the weaker party, Mikael never negotiated from the lower position.
Leverage and compromise, he had told her.
That was the key to any deal. Both sides had to gain something. Otherwise, it wasn't a deal. You always give up something. But leverage determines who gives up more, and knowing how to use what leverage you had was critical to achieving a deal you were happy with.
The Phoenix could see her thoughts. It knew her plan.
Yet it acquiesced.
Those memories, his embrace, and their long moments together were the sweetest temptations to the Phoenix.
Fire burned itself into reality before Melina.
The flames shaped themselves into a female form.
Crimson reds made up long hair, and pale fire curved itself into flickering skin. Green flames lit the eyes with an intense glow that pierced Melina's soul.
Within an eye blink, a woman made of flowing flames was before the kindling maiden, staring at her as her body roiled in waves of smokeless fire.
Melina recognized the body. She had seen images of it. Jean Grey must have left an impression on this Phoenix for it to assume her form, even if it didn't consider her its perfect host in this universe.
Melina was glad Mikael was not here.
He would have made so many jokes about the woman's nudity.
'Oh no, she's hot.' Or. 'My inner pyromaniac has never been this hard.' Or simply: 'Smoking.'
... She had spent too much time with the man if she was making the jokes for him.
The Phoenix tilted its humanoid head at an angle in a bird-like fashion, long flames of fair dancing with its movement.
"Why?"
The voice was perfectly human but contained a musical note, like an echo of a bird's song.
Melina didn't know what, exactly, the alien being was asking. Why was she here? Why was Mikael trying to run? Why did it need to talk like this?
Instead of answering any of those, Melina continued with her spiel. She needed to lead the conversation in a way she wanted.
"No matter what you do, he will never merge with you."
The flames that made up the woman darkened. Its face twisted in an almost overestimated expression of anger, like a child about to throw a tantrum.
"Why!" It wasn't a question. It was a demand. And the spaceship shook with the force of it. "We are life. Life is Life. We can be one. We ARE one."
"No," Melina shook her head softly. "You are not."
Pride had sidled up beside the kindling maiden, red eyes glowing in wary amusement as she kept her arms crossed below her chest. The Phoenix never gave the Demon Lord a single look.
Its eyes of green flame never left Melina.
"We will be."
A promise. A prophecy. The Phoenix said it with such grim certainty that Melina was reminded of Mikael's warning. If it meant getting to him, the Phoenix Force would burn the world and everyone on it.
And Melina knew what her Lord would do in response.
"Then you'll lose him forever."
The black flames sputtered and died.
"Why?"
The same question was asked for the third time.
Only the Phoenix spoke with such despair, such total heartbreak that Melina's soul ached with empathy. She knew what it was like to want something so desperately that it hurt, yet knowing with bone-deep certainty she would never have it.
Mikael hadn't been the only one to keep secrets during their travels together. Until the end, he had never known what she had been born for.
But Melina had known.
She had known that any future with him was impossible. Knew her role was to die and that her feelings would all lead to naught.
And she had fallen in love anyway.
Melina grasped that empathy, that kindred flame, and held it firm. Now was not the time to let it burn.
"Because he's scared," Melina said simply. The Phoenix tilted its head again, understanding Melina's words but uncomprehending their whole meaning.
This was why the Phoenix, able to pear into practically any mind in the universe, was seemingly so naive.
It existed on a level wholly different than any of the minds it touched. It could see everything they saw, but the context, the perspective, was simply too different.
The Phoenix Force simply was.
For all its power, for all its age and reach, the Phoenix was limited in one key area.
It had a purpose. A reason for its existence.
It existed to see life flourish.
That purpose defined it, empowered it and limited it. It gave the Phoenix a surety to its existence that other life forms lacked. It knew, in every core of its body, what its role was. So long as it lived, it would fulfill that purpose. If it died? That meant its purpose had been fulfilled, as it would mean no life was left.
Melina envied that, even as she pitied it.
She once knew her purpose, but she also knew what it was like to choose for herself rather than be confined to it as the Phoenix was.
She took that pity and bundled it with her empathy.
Its obsession with Mikael had started because of that purpose. It had found the perfect host for itself.
It was only recently that it could connect with a host well enough to feel emotions, and even then, they were raw and uncontrolled. And it wasn't 'its' emotions, but that of its host imprinted on it.
Maybe what it felt towards Mikael was love, affection, or other emotions, but it had no context for those within its purpose.
It saw Melina's memories of Mikael, but it failed to grasp the fear that drove him.
It knew of fear. It did not feel fear.
"We will be..." the fiery woman paused, searching for the right word to convey all it wanted. Talking was so limiting. "Perfect. Whole. Pure. Powerful. One. There will be no fear."
"That is what he fears." Melina wasn't good with explanations or communication in general. She was counting on her thoughts to give the Phoenix deeper context to her words. "He doesn't fear you. He fears himself. The loss of himself. He doesn't want to be Mikael, the perfect being. He wants to be Mikael. He'd take it if you gave him powers, but that is not what you want. You want him. To be with him. You want to be one."
The flames flared brightly, stimulated by Melina's words.
"Yes."
"He wants to be two."
Melina was playing a risky game here, denying the Phoenix its wishes. If it was a simple case of being a 'Yandere,' as her Lord liked to joke about, the Mikael would have no problem working something out with the Phoenix. He was doing something similar with this world's version of Emma Frost, even if he didn't think it would lead anywhere.
But this wasn't the love of mortals.
Why would the firebird settle for something so... limiting as sex. The Phoenix did not just want to love and be loved by Mikael. It wanted to become one being with him. To be so close that there was no marker between where the Phoenix ended and Mikael began.
Nothing terrified Mikael more.
"We will be one." The Phoenix declared, eyes of green flame narrowing as the heat in the spaceship started to increase.
Melina had dealt with worse.
Pride giggled.
"Daddy does what he wants, Tweety Bird," the Demon Lord mocked as she started to circle the bird like a cat on the prowl. She rolled her hips in a sensual sway that promised sin and sex. "He IS one. He doesn't need you. But you need him, don't you?"
The Phoenix's eyes hadn't left Melina, but it wasn't as if this woman of flames was its real body or it was in any way limited to it.
A second Jean Grey, made of darker flames, walked beside Pride in an instant, her strides matching the Demon's perfectly, even if it lacked the sexuality.
"We will be one." Both women of flames spoke as one, even as they locked eyes with Melina and Pride simultaneously. It was one voice speaking with absolute certainty.
Pride's giggled louder.
"He won't kill you," Pride said, continuing her languid circling even with her tag-a-long. "He'll just leave. You'll never find him again." Both avatars of the Phoenix flickered and glared at the Demon. "Because you don't get it. You don't understand."
"I understand him!" The Phoenix argued, black flames rising in its body. "I know him. We have been together for longer than all of you put together. Millions of years."
"Then why does he embrace me and run from you?" Pride asked with a sneer.
The Phoenix said nothing, continuing to glare.
Throughout it all, Pride's mind continued to be shielded from the force of nature, but Melina's hadn't. Her thoughts and her memories transmitted the meaning of Pride's mockery and how true it was.
"What's in it for him?" Melina suddenly asked. It saw her mind and knew the meaning of the question, but it didn't understand.
"We will be one," it said simply as if that would explain everything.
"Why would he want that?" Melina pressed. The Phoenix looked confused. "What does merging with you, becoming your host, give him."
"Power." The answer was immediate. "We could do anything. Be anywhere. Have anything."
"He has power," Melina said flatly. "Every second he breaths, he grows in power. Haki. Aura. Magic. He has so much power he doesn't have time to collect it all. He has all he wants. Family. Fame. Wealth. Eternal life. What can you give him that he doesn't already have?"
"Everything!" There was anger in the firebird's voice now. A glimmer of the Dark Phoenix. "All his enemies, gone! His limits? Gone! Together, we will be beyond anything we are apart. Anything we want, we will have."
Pride laughed, harsh and loud.
Melina did not bundle the emotion she felt away, allowing it to flow from her to the force of nature unrestrained.
Disappointment.
The Phoenix recoiled more from the emotion than it did the Demon Lord's mockery.
"Mikael," Pride said the name almost reverently. "'Like god.' That's what his name means. Did you know that, Tweety?"
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
"Yes."
"Did you know, of those two words, 'like' is the most important to him?" The Phoenix Force did not respond. "He doesn't want to be god. He doesn't want to be perfect or all-powerful. He wants the struggle. The failure. He likes his limits, even when they frustrate him. It means he is still mortal. He is still him."
Melina transmitted images to the Phoenix, her memories of the man.
Mikael burned in the fire of dragon's breath, skin blackening and lungs filled with flame. Dozens of limbs reached out for him, the grotesque form of the Grafted Demigod doing his best to kill the tarnished interloper.
Mikael walked out of a library, severed arm in hand, the weeping and wailing of its inhabitants flowing behind him.
Mikael was a ruined wreck. Exhausted from days awake and the concentration of coordinating multiple combatants against the mountain of a man. He died to the Starscourge multiple times already, and it showed.
Melina's blade swiped a curved slash at the Omen King's back. His tail blocked it, even as Mikael's sword swerved under his guard. Then they both retreated as golden blades rained from the sky. As one, they danced.
The battles were all different. Sometimes, he was alone. Others he had aid. He sometimes laughed as he fought, joking and mocking. In others, he was as silent as the grave. He got hurt, healed, and got hurt again. Every battle Melina had ever seen Mikael be challenged in were all fought differently.
But they all ended the same way.
Mikael was always smiling in the end.
"It was not a god that killed Trigon the Terrible," Pride said with dark amusement. "It was not a dragon or phoenix. It was a man. And I felt his emotions. He relished it. Not a single punch or attack was thrown, but the battle was everything he wanted. He killed the Lord of Madness with only his wits, a week's notice, his wives, and few illusions. The challenge, the risk of failure, and the triumph. Mikael wants the fear. And he wants to overcome it."
He was scared of merging with the Phoenix, yes, but more importantly, he wanted to be scared.
That was the dichotomy of the man. He hated the fear, but he clung to it.
Mikael liked to think he was simple, but like everyone, he had layers of motivations, fears, desires, and goals. It all made sense to him, so it looked simple, but Melina knew the hypocrisy in the man. She had spent decades with him.
The only time Melina saw the fear recede was when he sunk himself into his Great One aspect, which was one reason Melina tried to prevent that as much as possible.
"He isn't looking for an easy life," Melina said plainly. "He is looking for Life and Freedom. Both need challenges."
Mikael would never say it because it was an objectively terrible thing to say and would anger his wives, but Melina was sure he was happy that the 'Oppressor' existed. He was delighted that there was some threat out there that was challenging him, pushing him to think, react, and plan. It was one of the reasons he was trying to solve the issues instead of running. Even the Phoenix was only an issue he would avoid for a time because there was nothing to gain, nothing to overthrow or defeat.
Mikael wanted challenge. He wanted to fear an enemy and still defeat it.
He was always looking for his next Wall.
"I want that!" The woman's flames flared bright and black as she glared at the two women who denied her. "He doesn't want power? Fine. I'll keep my power. But we will be one!"
The spaceship shook, and the metal started to boil. Melina knew it was made with materials specifically to avoid such an occurrence, but the power of the Phoenix Force was not so easily thwarted by mortal hands.
"If you do not offer anything, why would he want that?" Pride mocked. "All you've talked about is being one with him, being perfect, or how powerful you'll be. A man who has everything does not need you."
The Phoenix Force's flames continued to rise, and metal twisted. The seating of the ship tore itself from the bolts of the floor and levitated in the air as psychic energy warped space. The sleeping heroes were not unscathed. Defenseless, they, too, rose and twisted in the air. If this continued, they would be little more than debris floating in space soon. Some might survive, but others certainly wouldn't.
The Phoenix knew what the two women were doing. It could see it in Melina's mind. See her plan and the goal she was working toward.
But, just because it could see the plan didn't mean it could stop her. Because it was reading Melina's mind, it knew nothing they had said was wrong.
"Two things stop Mikael from joining with you," Melina laid out the fact simply. Now that Phoenix had shown the extent of its emotions, she knew she had it. "His fear of you and lack of benefit you bring. We have a psychic already. A reality warper is nice but not needed. We were preparing to invent one. And his fear is justified. Even your most compatible host is influenced by you. You'd try to do the same if he let you in."
The Phoenix didn't deny that.
That was what it meant to be one with someone. Each 'person' assumed the others' goals, mindset, desires, and emotions. What they were before ceased to exist, and something greater emerged.
The Phoenix Force wanted that, knowing it wasn't death but growth.
Mikael didn't want that, seeing it as the death of himself and the creation of something new.
Both weren't wrong.
"He's planning on running from you," Melina said unnecessarily. It saw her mind. It knew that. But she was laying everything out. "Forever. You will never get your wish. Unless you work with me."
The Phoenix knew the stick. Now for the carrot.
It had seen the plan, but it lacked the reasoning behind it. The emotional aspect was crucial and it, with its infantile grasp of only the strongest emotions, didn't understand the subtle complexity of Melina's emotions.
The Phoenix Force simply didn't understand the melange of motivations, fears, and hopes in the plan. It understood Melina loved Mikael, desired to be useful to him, and was looking for a purpose, but why she came up with this plan, why she went ahead of it without alerting him, or how she hoped it would work was all beyond the force of nature.
It knew Melina. It did not understand Melina.
"I offer you an accord." The one-eyed woman said, staring into green flames. "I will be your host."
"I don't want you."
That was the plain truth laid bare.
The Phoenix didn't want anyone but Mikael. It had let Jean Grey, its theoretically perfect host, die so that it could return the White Dragon. It knew Melina's plan had been to become its host as soon she had bared her mind to the firebird. But it failed to see why merging with the woman would benefit its goal of becoming one with Mikael.
Melina would never force Life to become one with the Phoenix. In fact, the psychic entity knew the woman had no intention of even encouraging Mikael to take the bird from her. For all intents and purposes, Melina's goal was just to be the host of the Phoenix and do... nothing. Sure, she could gain power and be more useful, but Melina had no direct plans to use that power.
Being the Phoenix host was not a step towards helping further her goal. Melina's goal was to be the Phoenix host. That was it.
Anything after that was up to Mikael, the Phoenix and the Family.
The Phoenix, a slave to its purpose, could not understand how someone could want power and not use it.
It was always moving towards its next host, to the next world to burn and revitalize, towards corruption or decay that needed to be cleansed.
"Become my ally," Melina insisted softly, extending an arm to the woman of flames. "Join with me, and I shall take up your purpose as my own. I will guide you, and you will learn. About Mikael. About love."
"I don't want you," it repeated. "I want Life."
"There has only been one being my Lord has ever become one with." Melina did not retract her hand. "And you are not her."
The flames of the Phoenix darkened to a black pitch. It could see the woman in Melina's memory.
Emma Frost was the psychic of the Family. With her there, they didn't need the Phoenix.
Emma Frost was the one who had called out, taunting the Phoenix with its greatest desire only to rip it away cruelly.
At that moment, had Emma Frost been there, the Phoenix would have destroyed her.
"But you could be."
Black flames froze.
"My Lord allows Pride to read his emotions," Melina explained, bringing up the memories easily. Pride puffed out her chest with... pride. "His mind and emotions are never hidden from Family. They wouldn't be if I could read them too."
Black flames flickered red. It was a temptation the Phoenix couldn't ignore. For millions of years, it had pressed against Life's mind, never able to truly know it. To have access, to truly understand its obsession...
It wanted that. Badly.
But it wanted to be one with him more.
"Should you accept my accord, we will become one. He will never leave me. And, if I wish it, he will not force you out." Melina had complete faith in her Lord. He'd need convincing, but so long as the Phoenix was not a threat or forcing Melina to act against her will, he'd allow it to stay.
But he didn't want to. That's why he never brought up the option of having one of them act as its host. That's why the Phoenix needed to be the one to make the first step. The first concession. If it wanted Mikael to come to trust it, it would need to prove it wasn't a threat to its host.
"Work with us, and he will come to trust you," Pride urged. "Prove your usefulness, your benefit to the Family, and you will have hope for one day achieving your dream."
"I don't want hope. I want Life." Less of a declaration, this time, the words came out in an almost pitiable plea.
The Phoenix Force simply didn't understand why all this was necessary. It had never negotiated for anything. It had never wanted anything. It simply was. It simply did.
To it, the answer to this problem was simple because there was no problem. Become one with Life. It was a desire, a want, a goal.
Everything after that wasn't worth thought because it would never need more than a thought to achieve its goals from there.
"Take my accord, and he will resent you for years," Melina continued. "For centuries after that, he will distrust you. Millennia, from now on, he will accept you. When this universe ends, he might trust you. Eons from now, you will become one."
All Melina offered was hope.
To the Phoenix, the deal seemed so... wrong. It gained nothing but a sub-optimal host in exchange for no promises of achieving its goal.
"Eons," it tasted the words on lips of red flame. "Even to me, that is no small time. I was offered Life in three years."
Both Melina and Pride's eyebrows rose. It was the Demon who asked the question.
"By who?"
That was when Odin struck.
He had veiled himself when arriving, hidden from even the likes of the Sorcerer Supreme. While he had dropped some of his security to converse with the Phoenix, as soon as he noticed the arrival of two of the Elden Lord's consorts, he had hidden himself again.
Every technique he knew was used to hide from the Daughter of Trigon.
He was Odin, the god of magic and wisdom.
He knew a lot of techniques.
Initially, he had only sought to learn about their goals, abilities, and any information they would provide about the Elden Lord. No matter how the battle with the Enemy progressed, the White Dragon was not a force to be ignored.
From this conversation, Odin now had a firmer grasp on the mind of the Elden Lord and how he would be able to coerce or convince the beast to aid him.
He needn't work against the Family. His only goal was to save his people. As a king and god, he had his duty and would not mind making deals to accomplish his goals.
But he needed the Phoenix. It was the only force of rejuvenation that Odin knew could save everyone he cared about. It had brought Thor back to life when he was first born to him and Gaea. Other items or beings of power were simply too out of reach for Odin to grasp.
Odin was the last God of Earth. It's last hope.
If he could trust the Elden Lord, they might work together.
But Odin couldn't.
He could not see the dragon's fate. It was veiled from his sight. And, knowingly or not, the Elden Lord had served the Enemy's plan too perfectly. Either they were working together, or the beast was so easily led around that he was an unreliable ally. Worse than an enemy.
For the same reason, he could not allow the heroes to gain the Phoenix egg, he also could not allow anyone else to be its host.
Odin was weaker than he had been in millennia. Without the full power of the Odinforce and so far from his last Odinsleep, he was weaker than most common gods.
But power was not everything.
Wisdom was a power greater than force.
So Odin waited for the time to strike. The Demon had initially kept its guard up, but after minutes of not sensing anything, it focused on the Phoenix as the only threat.
So many objects and bodies had floated in the air, and the room was filled with flames, so nobody had paid attention to the blade glowing red as it was wreathed in stolen flames.
The Amazon's sword, already a divinely made weapon, was empowered by stolen Phoenix flame as it sliced the four-eyed woman in half.
Pride only had time to widen her red eyes as she fell apart into shadow.
Her death gave Melina time to dodge, her curved blade flashing as it deflected the flaming sword.
Odin had prepared for that.
He didn't want to antagonize the Elden Lord, and killing his wives was a surefire way to anger the dragon. He couldn't afford more enemies at the moment.
He just needed the Demon Lord out of the way. It was only a part of Trigon's Daughter and not even her true self. It would either reform or return to the main body.
He had minutes, at best, to finish this before the entire Family descended on him.
"Who's there?" Melina asked, even as she deflected another blow from the flying sword.
Odin had not made the mistake of revealing himself that many others would. It would be best if no one knew who had done this.
The sword continued to attack, and Melina continued to dodge and deflect. It was impressive, especially considering the tight confines of the ship. She was not the most powerful of warriors he had seen and certainly not the fastest, but she was nimble and creative. She even used the Amazon's unconscious body as a shield, the sword unable to pierce deeply into the red and gold armour.
Odin idly wished he was wielding the sword directly. It had been too long, and only manipulating it by magic limited the speed and force he could move it, especially as he split his attention to the real trap.
But it was enough.
Melina's foot fell upon Steven Strange's sleeping body, ready to use it as a springboard to jump over another swipe.
Fire consumed her as the ritual circle below her feet lit up with red flames.
Melina's blade tumbled from limp hands as she fell to the ground. She was asleep before her head landed.
It wouldn't injure her.
The spell was the same one he had stolen from the Sorcerer Supreme, the healing rest Strange was planning on using against the Phoenix using its stolen power. All those under it would wake up in even better health than when they had fallen asleep. And, Odin noted with a bit of wry amusement at the irony, the woman might even regain her eye.
It would just be a while before they woke.
The Elden Lord would have no cause for vengeance and, after everything Odin had just heard, might even thank him for dealing with the Phoenix Force for a while.
Through it all, the Phoenix flying in space and its avatar in the ship did not move to intervene in any way.
It did not care who won the fight. Both sides had promised it what it wanted. It didn't care about anything but its purpose and Life, its perfect host.
Even with the need to save time, Odin waited a few moments to ensure the sleeping woman wasn't faking it to trap him.
Only after he was sure she was trapped in his spell did the one-eyed god reveal himself to the Phoenix Force again. He was still outside the ship, so he focused on the actual Phoenix Force, not its avatar.
"Three years." He repeated to the bird as he opened himself up again. With his new insight into the Elden Lord, he was even more certain he'd be able to keep his promise. "Help me save my people; you will only need to wait three years."
Odin saw himself as the Phoenix saw him. Old. Weak. But familiar and wise. It remembered him from when Firehair loved him. It remembered him from working together over millennia. It remembered Thor, the baby it had brought back. The infant god had been the closest thing the Phoenix could claim to be its child.
But Odin also saw the one-eyed woman through its eyes.
Also weak. And unfamiliar. But Melina knew Life better than it did. She had been so sure of her words. She had been certain that the White Dragon would run if it tried to force the issue. It had seen her mind and seen her love. That emotion that so taunted the Phoenix Force.
The Phoenix Force wanted Life.
But it also wanted Life to want it.
But it had been so long. Too long. It finally had an opportunity, one it had been missing for millions of years.
It could wait eons for a guaranteed outcome.
It just didn't want to.
And it didn't know what the correct answer was.
One promised Life soon and was wise enough that its plans usually worked.
The other promised Life and Love, but it could wait for so, so long.
Behind his grey beard, Odin smiled.
This had been the woman's mistake. She had been honest, yes, but also too direct. A 'do this, or else' accord did not affect the Phoenix Force as it would a mortal. It didn't understand the concept of threats. Her ignorance of the firebird's way of thought showed through when she forced it to communicate through words.
But Odin had known it for thousands of years.
The Phoenix Force could be swayed as one would a gushing river.
So, rather than threaten or coerce the Phoenix, Odin directed it down the path he wanted it to take.
With its power, he would heal his people. With it and his people, he'd wage war upon the Enemy and banish them from Midgard. In doing so, the Phoenix Force would prove its usefulness to the Elden Lord and its trustworthiness by only doing as Odin directed.
It wouldn't control him. It would only work for his purpose. Seeing that, the Elden Lord would wish the Phoenix for himself.
It was a childish gambit based on jealousy, but it was one the Phoenix could understand. It also played into what Odin knew of the White Dragon.
It liked to take control of factors, and if the Phoenix was an active participant, the Elden Lord would want it on his side once he saw what it could do.
In some way, the Elden Lord's consort had even helped Odin by focusing its attention on being compliant.
Open as he was to the Phoenix, Odin could feel its approval of his idea, and he prepared himself to welcome the power it would give him.
But he was cautious enough to have never let his surveillance of the ship fall, so he heard the two words that undid it all.
"Rule Breaker."
A blue moon rose in the dark of space.
The Phoenix, the spaceship, and all its inhabitants were gone.
Odin was alone in the dark.
********
Melina woke to a jagged dagger sticking out of her chest and Medea giving her a look of exasperation.
With the instincts of battle recent in her mind, she was on her feet in an instant, curved blade ready to defend herself.
No attack came.
"What happened," Melina asked, keeping her eyes roving around the spaceship.
Pride was still gone, and the heroes were still sleeping, but beside Medea, the only other occupant was the avatar of the Phoenix. The woman of fire had made no move in the entire skirmish.
The ritual circle was dark again, and the sword no longer glowed with stolen Phoenix fire.
"Raven, Ranni and I came to retrieve you," Medea said with a slight scowl, her eyes locked on the Phoenix. "We're in Ranni's Diorama with the Phoenix. Whatever attacked you is either in here with us or outside, where it will deal with Raven."
"Perfect timing," Melina nodded, putting her back to the witch and keeping her eyes on a swivel.
The Phoenix tilted its head in that bird-like motion once more.
"You are Medea," it said simply. "Another of Life's... people? Lovers? Things?"
It said each word slowly as if tasting it on the tongue, but none felt right to the bird.
"Wife," Medea answered, Rule Breaker still clasped in her hand and cloak glowing with power. Then she spoke to Melina, not bothering to try and whisper. "We've been here for a few minutes under my concealing spell. Watching."
"Why did you not say anything?"
The stillness of the spacecraft was eery after the frantic battle of only a few moments ago.
"We wanted to see your plan," Medea drawled sarcastically. "It almost worked, but you should have investigated the bodies first."
Left unsaid was that once the sword attacked, they had remained hidden to defend her just in case and find the attacker.
"No." the Phoenix denied. "It didn't. I had a better offer."
"From who?" Medea asked. "The one controlling the sword?"
"Odin promised three years." The Phoenix Force saw no need for secrecy. Tricks? Deception? They were so far below the sapient force of nature that it never even thought of them.
"Odin?" Medea muttered a few choice words under her breath. "Of course, gods will continue to make our lives difficult." Then she spoke louder. "If you are here, King of Asgard, come out. We will talk. You did not wish to kill, so long as you parley, we can have peace."
Nothing happened.
"He is outside," the Phoenix answered.
Neither woman took the Phoenix at her words, but a blue doll did appear beside them, holding one of Dragon's unpowered drones.
"She speaks true," the Goddess of the Chill Moon said. "Naught but us, the Phoenix, and this dross is in mine Semblance." She threw the bot on the pile of unconscious bodies. "The God fled when Raven assaulted him with her full might."
Now, the women relaxed slightly.
"Why have you brought me here?" The Phoenix asked. "I don't care about you. I want Life. If you bring me to him, I will thank you. Otherwise, I will burn you and go to him myself. Or to Odin."
"He will not see you," Melina answered.
There was only one reason Mikael had sent these three to her instead of coming himself. He did not want to exacerbate the Phoenix situation, and all three of these women had ways of escaping the Phoenix without it catching them and bringing her home.
Melina also noted that these women would be most able to rescue the Heroes if they, too, needed to flee the Phoenix. A coincidence, or was Mikael more concerned about them than he let on?
"Our Lord knows of thy approach," Ranni said in the usual monotone of her doll. "He shall ever flee from thee beyond the bonds of thy reach."
Melina let the tiniest of frowns darken her face.
Mikael knew she had left and likely suspected where she had gone. He had sent these three to retrieve her.
But they hadn't.
They had watched and listened to her talk. That left one question.
"Does he know what I was going to do?" Melina asked softly.
Medea side-eyed her, but the miniature Raven that appeared on her shoulder, wearing a pink cape, cheerfully answered.
"He knows," Happiness chirped. "I've been communicating everything to him and the original. He was going to summon you if anything went wrong. Pride is sooooo mad."
Melina wondered at that for a moment, but Ranni provided the last piece of the puzzle."
"Our Lord Husband's message was thus." Ranni affected a lower, rumbling voice in an imitation of Mikael. "'Last time I didn't trust you. This time, I will. On one condition. Come back to me.'"
Melina took that in. And what it meant.
In less than an eyeblink, the Phoenix was there, both faces of flame pressed close to Melina's face as it stared at her. Green eyes of flame bored into her one eye with wide shock and crazed desire.
The ship glowed a fiery red as the Phoenix blazed.
It had been reading Melina's mind this entire time. It knew the thoughts she had as soon as she did.
Ranni's doll tried to blast it away with a shard of crystalline magic on instinct, even as Medea wrapped herself in her cloak and launched herself back, magic circles springing to life around her.
The avatars of the Phoenix, its fake Jean Grey bodies, ignored them both, the magic passing through it without doing any harm. Its entire focus was on Melina and her mind.
"Life... wants me?" It asked with almost reverent awe.
"He wants to be able to trust you," Melina clarified. Piecing what she knew of the man and how he would see the situation. "He doesn't want to run from you. Should our accord flourish, he will not need to. He accepted the risk. But you need to take the first step."
The Phoenix was silent, giving the words and thoughts consideration.
It didn't want to wait eons if Mikael ever came to trust her. It didn't want a host that wasn't compatible, as it lessened the emotions it would feel. It didn't want this situation.
It simply wanted Life.
But it wanted Life to want it back.
Medea cleared her throat, and Melina looked at her while she waited.
"Don't ignore the subtext of his words," the Greek witch said. "It has to be you that comes back. How are you going to let it in while remaining you? You are an exceptional fit conceptually. Physically, you are only slightly superior to the average person. You are not a psychic, despite the Talent, nor do you use fire. For the Phoenix to express itself through you, it must supplant you. Unless you have an answer for me, I will have him summon you back, and we will leave."
The Phoenix remained silent, not giving Medea any of her attention.
Melina knew what she meant. Conceptually, she had excellent compatibility. Even ignoring her death, the fact that she had returned to life resonated well with the idea of a phoenix. Her efforts to bring Destined Death back to the Lands Between were reminiscent of the Phoenix Force's burning of planets to rejuvenate life on them.
But physically? She was probably one of the weakest of the Family, and her specialty lay in magic, not anything psychic. Melina couldn't even claim expertise with Haki, the closest the Family had to psionics, as she had not focused on it.
But she had a plan.
"I needed Pride for that," Melina said, and the miniature pink Raven waved its hands excitedly. Melina looked at Happiness and asked her for the last puzzle piece. "I need his blood. As much of it as you have."
Medea's eyes narrowed in thought as three large barrels emerged from her shadow.
"I see," she murmured, looking from the barrels of blood to Melina to the Phoenix. "You are close enough to the next Tier that I don't think there's too much risk."
The Family was usually judicious with its use of Dragon's Blood. Its purpose was to raise the Tier of anyone who imbibed it over time, each rise accompanied by the need to consume five times more than the last.
But each power increase necessitated retraining and getting used to new abilities before they advanced. And the higher the Tier, the greater the expansion of their powers. So caution was warranted, even if some of the women of the Family had started at such a high Tier that they had not even advanced once since their first summoning.
To be cautious, everyone only consumed three litres of blood each day, one litre condensed into a pill by Medea for every meal.
It was a slow but steady growth, reflecting how cautious the Family was of every aspect of the Catalogue. It also was a matter of material availability. Getting from Tier 9 to Tier 10 for one person took almost fifty thousand litres of blood. Sixty thousand if they had started from Tier 1.
To get every woman in the Family to Tier 10 would take between six hundred and fifty thousand and seven hundred and eighty thousand litres of blood, depending on their starting Tier and external factors.
Unless they spent all their time drinking blood, raising anyone to their highest point would take years. There was talk about increasing the daily dosage as they rose in Tier, but it was simply better logic to take their time.
Melina didn't know what Tier she was considered when she first met Mikael. She and Ranni came from a world not included in the Catalogue Mikael had filled out. All she knew was that after two months of taking in Dragon Blood, neither of the women had seen a measurable increase in power, meaning they had been at least Tier 7.
Melina personally thought that was an overestimation of her abilities.
Through testing and conjoining records from the Dream, the Family had found that one gained a draconic aspect when they consumed enough blood to take a Tier 1 to Tier 7. Even Artoria or Diana had become dragons when they reached that point, though they had started as Tier 8 and 9, respectively.
Melina had taken in enough to get to Tier 6 and half the amount needed to get to Tier 7. She and Ranni were only a few months away from becoming Dragons and gaining their own Elements.
But that was close enough that they could force the issue.
"There shall be no second chance," Ranni said. "Hast thou given this appropriate thought?"
"I'm sure," Melina said softly, eyes drifting back to the thinking Phoenix.
"I've decided."
That was all the warning Melina got.
The avatar, shaped like Jean Grey dissolved into a stream of fire and flowed towards the kindling maiden.
And stopped.
Melina closed her eyes and lowered her Mind and Possession Defences to the Phoenix Force.
Mikeal had been the bait, the incentive to gain the Phoenix's cooperation. From here, it stopped being about him.
It was now all about the Melina.
The dam burst.
And she burned.
The fireproof spaceship did not stop the flames from flowing from the Phoenix to its newest host.
Melina burned.
It hurt. A lot.
But she wasn't dying. She was just... small.
Without the Defences, the full brunt of the Phoenix fell upon her once more. Her flesh crackled away in fiery power only to regrow in an instant. Her body was breaking down. Nobody at her level could contain the full power of the Phoenix Force.
And through it all, Melina felt it.
Felt its mind, its desires and its purpose.
Its presence was so massive, so grand, that it was accidentally wiping her away.
The Phoenix didn't want to kill her, but it was like a star hurtling through space. It burned planets to ash with just its presence.
She was drowning in a psychic lake of fire and could do nothing to stop it.
At some point, Melina had fallen to the ground, writhing in pain as more and more of the Phoenix filled her.
"Raven!" Medea called. "Get Mikael to summon her back and free her! It's too much!"
"No," Melina gasped.
She was burning again, her greatest nightmare made real.
Yet... the pain was nothing.
Nothing compared to the fires of the Forge of the Giants.
Nothing compared to dying for her Lord.
Nothing compared to saying goodbye.
Melina had burned before and still could wish her love the best. Now, consumed in flames once more, she had no problem saying one word.
"Blood."
A crimson tide flowed into her mouth, drowning her even as the flames of the Phoenix continued to burn. It kept her alive as it killed her.
But the iron tang of blood was like water in the desert.
Even with Medea actively using magic to soothe the flow of blood down her throat, even with Melina's inability to actually drown, even with the Phoenix forcing more of itself into her soul, it took minutes before she felt the change.
Through it all, Melina focused on herself. The love she felt, the memories that made her who she was, and the joy she had felt when she first woke in the Mansion.
And she focused on the Phoenix, her sympathy for it, and the hope they both held.
And on their shared purpose.
"OUT!" Medea shouted as scales sprouted from Melina's skin.
Ranni did not teleport the woman away. Instead, she forced the spaceship and its sleeping inhabitants from her Semblance, leaving the three women and the Phoenix as the only occupants of the Diorama.
Only they and the blue moon overhead saw the transformation.
This was the uncertainty of the plan.
A dragon's Element was as much an ability as a manifestation of the person themselves. While it was only expressed with one word, there were differences between people with the same Element based on who they were.
By gaining an Element while being the Phoenix host, Melina hoped it would aid her in being its host. Maybe not the perfect host Jean Grey or Mikael would be, but one close enough that she could control the Phoenix Force without worry of self-destruction.
But it came at a cost.
Melina was giving up her personal Element for one that represented them both as one.
And the Phoenix Force was the much greater entity.
She would not return to her true Element once it left her.
Melina knew that, but she had considered it worthwhile. And she had a few ideas about what it would be.
Light, like Artoria, was a possibility, given her spells. Like Tsunade and Mikeal, Life was even more likely given her healing magic and what the Phoenix represented. There was also the possibility of more esoteric or specific Elements, like Phoenix, Psychic, or even Death.
But deep down, Melina knew what it would be.
Melina burned as the Phoenix finished merging with her.
Clothes burned to ash as flesh turned red and gold.
Scales grew and grew, longer and thinner than the rest of the Family.
Wings of fire, glowing resplendently in golds, oranges, reds, greens, blues and white flames, burst from her back.
A tail sprouted, long and feathery. Closer to a bird of paradise than a lizard.
Melina burned.
But it did not hurt.
And the Dragon of Fire cried out in musical birdsong.
Fire was basic, dull, and incredibly common as far as dragon Elements went.
But Melina had been born to burn.
She was Fire.
A Fire that burned for others.
And the Phoenix Force burned for all.
With one mind and will, the dragon that looked like a phoenix opened a portal to the Island.
As they passed through, they transformed back.
It was a woman with fire-red hair, with one eye the colour of firewood and the other of flames, that landed on a dining table surrounded by a worried Family.
Mikael only had a second to be surprised before his lips were captured in a passionate, fiery kiss.