Phoenix Endsong

• Writer - Greg Pak
• Penciler - Greg Land
• Inker - Matt Ryan
• Colorist - Justin Ponsor
• Lettering - Clem Robins
• Ass't Editor - Stephannie Moore
• Ass't Editor - Sean Ryan
• Editor - Mike Marts
• Editor in Chief - Joe Quesada

Summary

  Emma in Cerebra can't contact anyone; she calls out to Jean, asking if she's punishing her. She admits she stole her husband but says she's part of the universe now and should be able to look into her heart and see the love there and forgive her. Then she decides she sounds like an idiot.

  Kurt says something's wrong; Ororo says the Dark Phoenix is back and everything's wrong, but they need to deal with the Shi'ar ship first. She radios them to explain their presence, but the commander tells her to move or die. Ororo has Kurt port them inside the ship, but it blasts off, smashing Kurt's flying car, and he misses.

  Ororo realizes if they were there to exterminate mutants again (X-Men II:122), they'd have started, so they must be here to kill Dark Phoenix. She tells Kurt they need to be prepared to help them; she tells him to hold tight and flies off.

  Emma tells Jean this is passive-aggressive and asks for a real fight, though she knows she'd atomize her in nanoseconds, but she can't stand being cut off like this. Suddenly she isn't; Scott says the Omega mutant wasn't Jean but Quire, who telepathically froze everyone; Emma easily tracks "that little runt": heading north. Archangel returns, warning they found her.

  Scott gets everyone and Hank's "egg" containment device onto the jet. Piotr wants to come, but Scott makes him stay to guard the students. Kitty phases her hand through the jet to touch his hand, and the jet takes off so abruptly it rips his uniform with the blast. Scott tells Warren he'd want Piotr in any other fight, but he pulled his punch last time he had a chance to kill Dark Phoenix (UXM 137); Warren notes everyone else did, too. Scott says they can't make those mistakes again, and he warns them against thinking they may be able to save her, or thinking he just wants to avoid facing his wife. He admits he'll feel guilty about their marriage forever, but he knows her, that she's a hero, fighting the Phoenix even now, and she brought it to them because she trusts them to do the job.

  Phoenix spars with Logan, toying with him. It can't kill him, or Scott will just bomb from the air, and it needs to look into his eyes.

  The X-jet and the Shi'ar ship arrive at the same time; the Shi'ar immediately blast the Phoenix. Ororo hits the Shi'ar with lightning, but too late: there's just a hole in the woods where Phoenix and Logan were. The Shi'ar detect another Omega, heading north, but Emma and Scott appear telepathically, telling them to stop. They ask what the weapon did; the commander says it's an "Eleka'an event horizon," a miniature black hole from which there's no return. Scott insists they surrender their ship, but the commander wants to destroy the fleeing Omega and asks for their aid. Scott says Quire is innocent (Emma: "relatively speaking"), and by his reasoning they'd need to kill any Omega-level psychic. The commander says nothing, and Scott realizes he's insane.

  Emma gets word from the Cuckoos, and the X-jet takes off. Before the Shi'ar can follow, Kurt and Ororo teleport on board. She says Quire needs to be captured, not killed, and asks for their aid, or she'll tear the ship out of the skies.

  The Cuckoos direct Emma north; in Arctic regions Logan wakes with Jean, realizing they're not dead, and that he's being used as bait to lure Scott. Jean says that's someone else's plan, and she needs him to do what he's best at. Logan, barely moving, says she sure knows how to use a guy up, and she admits it's not fair. She says she was scattered, and some parts never came home, and she needs to try again. Logan guts her, and she falls.

  She rises in red uniform, saying, "Nice try," so Logan guts her again. And again and again, repeatedly, till she resurrects in green uniform. She thanks him, saying she's in charge now; she flies skyward and then plunges down through the ice.

  The X-jet arrives, and Logan says she's dead, under the ice. Scott sends Kitty to look, and Emma says there's no brain activity at all. Warren: "Not even Kitty?'; Emma: "Well, that hardly counts, does it?" Kitty returns, confirming green uniform, fifty feet down, frozen solid.

  Suddenly the Phoenix effect descends, and Scott is about to blast, but Logan knocks him aside, saying it came for him. Scott thinks that's because Jean knew he'd blast it, but Hank points out the Phoenix force feeds on stars, on energy like his optic blasts, and it was Phoenix that needed him. Phoenix lands and grabs him, telling him to just open his eyes.