There was a loud crash. Jean flinched, glancing up at the top of the jet. Kurt had managed to retrieve the others and put them on the jet, including Hank, who appeared quite shaken up as he was trying to fly the jet with Moira. Jean could sense why – he'd had an encounter with Iris. He kept glancing back at the Professor, his expression unreadable.

The Professor was shouting, although his eyes were still closed. Jean was trying to calm him down, but he seemed so completely lost, she wasn't sure how she was supposed to. Somehow, he looked so oddly vulnerable without his hair. He looked more exposed than she had ever seen him. He could sense his pain and anguish, and she wanted to help him so desperately.

There was another crash. The top of the jet was beginning to fall away. Two of En Sabah Nur's servants were on top, trying to retrieve the Professor and kill the rest of them. They couldn't stay on the jet for any longer – it was too unsafe, even with Hank and Moira's skilled flying.

An idea struck Jean.

"Kurt!" She shouted, grabbing onto him, "Everybody grab onto Nightcrawler!"

Kurt's mouth fell open, "I've never done it with this many people before!"

Everyone held hands quickly, ignoring Kurt's protests. The top of the jet was ripped away, and the two servants leapt into the jet.

"Kurt, hurry!" Jean shouted, feeling her panic rising, "Kurt!"

She squeezed her eyes shut. The jet was plummeting towards the ground –

They disappeared from the jet. Jean opened her eyes and saw that Kurt had taken them to an abandoned house nearby. They were safe.

Kurt collapsed to the floor, seemingly exhausted after transporting so many people. people.

"Is he okay?" Someone asked Jean about the Professor as she gently lay him down on the floor.

"It's his energy. He's drained." She murmured.

"No." Charles muttered, "Get out... get... get out!"

Jean reached out and touched her fingers to his head gently to try and soothe him, "Professor. Professor, it's okay. You're with us, it's okay."

"Where's Iris?" Moira asked Hank, and he shook his head.

"She tried to attack me before I could knock her unconscious again. Kurt saved me just in time." He hesitated, "She's extremely powerful. I don't know how we can get hold of her without... without killing her."

Jean glanced up at the two of them, "Surely there's something we can do? We can't leave her like this. She must be... She must be strong enough to return to herself."

Hank shook his head, "Jean, I just don't know. She didn't even recognise me when she saw me. Whatever has been done to her, it seems to have been powerful enough to destroy any essence of her true self."

"Where... is... she?" The Professor asked, his eyes opening. Jean knew he was asking about Iris.

"We don't know," She whispered, "We will try and find her, Professor. I'm-"

She was cut off by the voice of En Sabah Nur outside the house.

"Charles. I know you can hear me. We're still connected." He paused, "Charles! Show yourself! Charles! Show yourself!"

He was cut off suddenly, and Jean reached into the minds of those nearby to try and understand what was going on. She held onto Peter's, and although it was happening far too fast for her to comprehend, she realised that he was beating En Sabah Nur up faster than he could react.

Suddenly, En Sabah Nur's eyes turned a misty grey, and he caused the sand to rise up and wrap around Peter's ankle, causing his leg to stop with a crack. Jean flinched, feeling his pain as Peter's leg broke.

"Foolish child," En Sabah Nur murmured, turning to Psylocke as she approached, "End him."

Psylocke raised her purple sword, and Jean realised who it was a second before she slit En Sabah Nur's throat instead of Peter's.

He reached out and clasped his hand around her fragile neck, and Raven returned to her natural blue form. She was choking, gasping for air frantically.

"Raven," The Professor whispered, his eyes filling with tears, "I'm going out there. It's me he wants."

Moira shook her head, "Charles, you can't give yourself up. If he has you, he has us all. The whole world."

Jean understood how the Professor was feeling – he was losing too many of those who he cared about. He didn't want to watch this anymore.

Outside, En Sabah Nur hissed, "You are feeble. Just like the others. Charles! Come! Rescue your weakling! Give your life for theirs!"

The Professor suddenly sat up, his eyes widening, "No. He was right. There is still some part of me connected to him. I can get inside his head."

"Charles!" En Sabah Nur shouted, "Will you do nothing?"

The Professor lay back down, closing his eyes, "Thank you for letting me in."

*

Family.

Erik had suffered so much.

He'd had his family snatched away from him as a child, and when he'd finally found happiness with a new family of his own, they'd been snatched from him too. He wanted to avenge them all. He had to.

And yet.

Something felt wrong.

This fight felt wrong.

He was fighting against friends that he'd known for over twenty years. Friends that had felt like family, once. In fact, they were friends that felt like family, still. He had fought against them so much in his life, but not because he disliked them at all. He valued them all so dearly – each and every one of them. It had simply been their views that had clashed.

What views was he fighting for now? He didn't even know. His mind was hazy.

This creature, En Sabah Nur, wasn't fighting for the rights of mutants. He simply wanted to enslave mankind – to make him a god.

And even though Erik wanted to avenge his family, he knew this was wrong. Everything about it was wrong.

He let go of the Earth's magnetic fields and lowered himself to the ground, his mind getting clearer as he did so. He felt like things were clicking into place, as suddenly he was running across the ruins of Cairo towards where En Sabah Nur was trying to defeat his friends. He could see an abandoned house with the front of it ripped off, where Charles was surrounded by some of his students and Moira. Mystique was on the ground beside En Sabah Nur. That strange boy Peter was on the floor, clutching his leg in agony. Hank and a young student with lasers for eyes were fighting En Sabah Nur's followers desperately.

His eyes locked on Iris.

She had a bruise blooming across her cheek, and a few cuts on her face, but appeared otherwise unscathed. She was slowly approaching En Sabah Nur, fire at her fingertips as she waited for her next command.

Erik couldn't take it anymore. Sebastian Shaw had haunted him for most of his life, and he'd despised it. But he'd haunted Iris, too. It wasn't right that a man from her past could still have such control over her life because of what he'd done to her as a child. Iris didn't deserve to be living this nightmare, and it was his fault that she was.

With a grunt, Erik heaved two metal beams out of a destroyed house, and sent them flying towards En Sabah Nur. They slammed into the ground directly in front of him, forming an X in the ground between him and Charles.

Erik lowered himself onto the ground from where he'd been standing as En Sabah Nur turned to look at him, his face stricken.

"You betray me." His voice boomed.

Erik simply shook his head, glancing at Iris, Charles, Hank, Moira, and Mystique.

"No. I betrayed them."

He reached out for every metal beam he could feel around him, aiming each and every one at En Sabah Nur. He was creating a cage for this creature that had taken advantage of his grief and pain, at a time when he was desperate for revenge.

No longer would he let his grief and pain control him. Charles had always told him how to control his power, and he reached out for that point now as he fought En Sabah Nur with all his might.

The point between rage and serenity.

*

Jean leant over the Professor, trying to soothe him as he fought En Sabah Nur's mind. She knew he was in pain, she knew he was struggling. She was desperate to help, but her fear was too strong. She could feel everyone else's fear in her head, too. It was overwhelming.

She heard two loud crashing noises, and glanced out of the front of the house. The man named Erik, who Hank and Raven had said they'd known from a life before, had turned on En Sabah Nur. He was fighting the false god, creating a metal prison for him with every piece of metal he could find in the ruins around him. Jean felt a brief flicker of hope. If enough of them fought against him, perhaps they could beat him.

Out of the corner of her eye, Jean saw a figure emerge into the room they were sitting in. She glanced up, and her blood ran cold.

It was Iris, wearing dark armour and an expressionless face. She had a few cuts and bruises that Jean could only assume Hank had given her in his brief fight with her.

There was no spark in her eyes – nothing at all – as she looked at the Professor in Jean's arms.

Moira scrambled up from where she was sitting and pointed her gun at Iris.

"Moira, don't shoot - " Jean started to say, but it was all the distraction Moira needed for Iris to flick the gun out of her hands and throw her onto the floor. Moira groaned, but Jean shook her head at Moira, reaching into her mind carefully.

Don't attack her.

Moira nodded discreetly.

Jean felt her breaths quicken as Iris' attention focused on her. A sword flickered into existence in Iris' hand, and she began to swing it playfully.

"Iris," Jean's voice was shaking, "This isn't you, don't you see? Please don't do this - "

Iris ignored her pleas, stepping forwards with the sword in her hand.

"I have orders," Iris' voice was low. Jean flinched.

Iris raised the sword up and begun to swing it down forcefully.

Jean raised her hands up over her head and screamed, "Please!"

There was a pause.

And then the sword clattered to the ground.

*

"Iris!"

"Iris, please!"

"Iris..."

Her name, called out so many times, by so many around her. She wasn't quite Iris, but she also was. She knew what she was doing, but she wouldn't stop – couldn't stop – because she had instructions. This was what she'd been trained to do – to follow her orders and fight. The full strength of her powers was coursing through her veins like fire. She was fire. She was En Sabah Nur's weapon, and she was fire.

Yet, something felt wrong as she approached the young girl with red hair who was in the corner of the room, protecting the telepath that En Sabah Nur wanted so desperately.

The young girl was terrified, but she wasn't fighting back. It struck Iris as odd. It reminded her of a distant memory, from a long time ago...

The girl was pleading, her voice getting louder and higher as Iris got closer to her. Who else had pleaded with her before? Why did it remind her of something? Iris didn't have time for this weak girl. She had orders.

She raised her sword.

"Please!" The girl screamed.

Iris paused. A memory struck her. When she was a child, under Shaw's influence, her parents had pleaded with her. They'd begged her not to use her powers for other people's gain. They'd died for her to no longer be a weapon.

If Iris killed this girl, the death of her parents would have been for nothing...

She dropped the sword, and it clattered to the floor. She blinked, the sound snapping her awake. She felt as though her vision was clearing.

The girl in front of her wasn't just anyone.

"Jean?" She whispered.

Slowly, fearfully, the young girl nodded.

Iris stumbled backwards frantically, trying to recall what she had done in the past few hours. Everything seemed a blur, but she could still remember it all. Showing everyone their worst nightmares and fears, fighting Hank, trying to kill Jean...

Her hands were shaking terribly, and she couldn't quite tell what she had done to everyone. Her powers felt so strong, her skin so hot with flames, she felt as though she was going to explode.

She blinked again, taking in what was going on in the room around her. Moira was curled up in the corner, eyeing Iris fearfully. Jean was sitting on the floor, and beside her was Charles.

Charles.

Iris felt her stomach roll over as she studied him – he was laying down on the floor, crying out in pain as he telepathically battled En Sabah Nur. He'd lost his hair, but he was alive.

Iris tried to steady her breaths. She felt so distant from these people she was meant to be fighting with. She'd been fighting against them, entirely against her will. She felt sick, she felt –

Jean called her name. She turned to face her, trying to focus.

"You can make what you've done right. Fight for us. Fight with us." Jean's voice was calm, despite everything.

She held her hand out to Iris, who glanced down at it hesitantly before grabbing onto it tightly.

The two of them began to walk towards the edge of the house, and while Jean floated on air, Iris created a bridge for herself to walk on. The two of them were approaching where En Sabah Nur was standing several feet below them, trying to break away from the metal cage Erik had created.

One more time, Jean spoke into Iris' head, Unleash your power along with mine.

The two were still holding hands, and Iris could already feel the power building up within the two of them. They were both more powerful than they could imagine, both terrified to the core of harming those that they loved, both terrified of losing themselves.

And yet, now, they both made that sacrifice to kill En Sabah Nur. They had each other, and they trusted each other. They were not going to let go. Not until he was gone.

Simultaneously, they screamed, and fire erupted from deep within them both. The bright orange flames engulfed En Sabah Nur, disintegrating him in moments.

Everyone around them on the floor below looked up in shock at the two figures producing the flames. They were both a vision of terrifying beauty.

The flames were still emerging from the hearts of them both, aimed at where En Sabah Nur had been standing to destroy any essence of him and his power.

The flames suddenly died out as quickly as they had come, and the two of them paused for a moment before stepping backwards into the house.

En Sabah Nur was gone. The most powerful mutant on Earth was gone.

All that was left behind was the destruction and pain that he had created in his path.