“Then I shall accept the throne of the Shi’ar Imperium, and the duties that come with it!” Lilandra declared loudly.

“LONG LIVE THE MAJESTRIX! LONG LIVE THE IMPERIUM!” rose the instant shouts from the watching Shi’ar, their enthusiasm totally unfeigned. The telepaths were confirming that D’Ken was a totally whimsical tyrant and unstable bastard, and his people had feared him and his deadly urges, not admired nor respected him.

They were a warrior people, and fear was enough to rule them by, as it turned out.

A warrior queen who had allies this formidable was definitely something worthy of respect by the Shi’ar, too!

“And you, Davan Shakari.” Lilandra turned her eyes on the kneeling courtier we knew as Eric the Red, who somehow managed to pale even further under her eyes. “Have you aught to say, daring to spur the wrath of the Phoenix Force itself, and unleash the power of the M’Kraan Crystal?” she demanded of him.

He didn’t dare to raise his head. “All that I have done, I did at the order of the Imperial Throne, my Majestrix!” he responded. “I am a loyal servant of the Imperium!”

“A loyal servant of the Imperium does not act to destroy it and all else that exists!” she responded, deadly steel in her voice. “Your loyalty was to my brother and his mad schemes, and the rewards he promised you!” I imagined having a telepath right next to you helped confirm that.

The way she turned her head away was a death sentence. “I leave your judgement to the Phoenix.”

Oh.

Jean Grey’s eyes lit up with Phoenix flames instantly.

So did the whole goddamn sky, as something really, really BIG up there had opened burning eyes and was looking down at everyone.

If you were a psi, the amount of rage building in the air was utterly cataclysmic. My Red Eyes were going bloody crazy. The Spiders all basically convulsed in shock.

Thank you, Still Silent Spell.

By the Power of the Phoenix and the Heavens above, pay the price for your sins!, I Invoked mentally, borrowing faith and belief in the utter power of the cosmic force above us as the Ur-Priest I was, and bringing down its Fire.

At the same time, a Sudden Fastcast Reach Protection from Chaos at IX suppressed Jean’s Warlock link to the Phoenix for the moment, and the overwhelming power coming down the pipe was snipped off before it could take her over.

All that hatred and rage came down in a single Flamestrike, bright as a star and about as merciful. Davan Shakari, loyal servant and agent of Emperor D’Ken of the Shi’ar, frozen and agape as he stared at the cosmic force that was looking directly at him, could do nothing as it came down.

It was more than hot enough to punch miles straight down through the stone of this place, leaving a red-hot pit ten feet across where the man had once been. I hoped there wasn’t a lava field down there, or this place was about to become volcanic... but I doubted we were going to stick around that long.

(I shortly found out it went right through the planet and came out the far side. Well, it was a conduit for the Phoenix Force’s anger, and that was not something to underestimate.)

There were a lot of stars dancing in everyone’s eyes, but nobody dared to curse. There was a swirl of frustration in the air, of rage that had not truly been vented, nor allowed to build to apocalyptic proportions.

But the targets of that rage were now dead and gone, leaving proper vengeance somewhat confused and without a goal, nor with an Avatar to act through. Miffed and perhaps confused, the eyes up in the sky slowly closed as they turned away, and I uttered a huge sigh of relief, along with everyone else.

One of the Imperial Guards, a precog as I recalled, was down on his knees, staring at me in shock and total gratitude. He’d obviously seen what might have happened had I not re-directed the Phoenix Force’s wrath so finely and accurately.

I was pretty sure that the Force was going to Possess Jean and go on an absolute tear of revenge for what the Shi’ar had done. That would not have ended well for anyone concerned.

With the trigger event removed and resolved, the Dark Phoenix had not manifested.

Pete, Cindy, and Gwen were all down on the ground, breathing hard. Solar annihilation-level threats were a big thing to have to face down. The Asgardians were also wide-eyed, having sensed a truly cosmic force about to act, and then just as suddenly withdrawn.

“Uh, where’s the M’Kraan Crystal?” Cyclops, protected from the bright light by his visor, pointed out before anyone else could.

I had Devasight, but the Crystal was behind me. I turned around, just like everybody else, and blinked.

It was gone. The totally massive jewel on its stand, that basically gave this planet a reason to exist... was gone. Everyone kind of blinked at the space where it had been, and wondered just what the Phoenix had done with it, and why.

---

Thor, Hercules, and Gladiator soon arrived from the distance. The Strontian Praetor looked very much the worse for wear, but his Eternal-class physiology was dealing with his injuries quickly. Despite not being able to see out of one eye, he was straight and tall, mohawk and all, as he came to the steps and knelt down in obeisance.

His gesture was repeated by every soldier and Imperial Guardsman there promptly. “Majestrix Shi’ar, the servants of the Empire await your orders!” he pronounced with a finality and authority that made damn sure nobody doubted where his loyalties lay, and by extension, where all their loyalties had better lay, too.

The transfer of power was basically complete, although doubtless there would be a big, expensive, and showy ceremony to follow.

And, of course, a celebration.

-------

Hours later...

There was a very quiet beeping from my phone. For some reason I was not at all surprised that the Crystal Vaccine could be reached way out here.

I saw the message was from Sama herself, made a face, and opened it hesitantly.

Well done, the message began, with all sorts of connotations, as it didn’t explain more. Use your magic and heal Xavier. Let him know that he should stay behind and help Lilandra with her reign. Furthermore, he should educate himself fully in the psychic traditions of the Shi’ar Empire. If he should return to Terra in the future and be willing to share those traditions with us, we will reciprocate in kind.

And that was it. The acknowledgement that Xavier didn’t have a Crystal phone was there, but given he was a pure telepath, understandable.

We were on a Shi’ar battleship that had been in orbit, former enemies now palling around with us, as much in relief as rivalry. We were all invited to the coronation ceremony whenever it occurred, and the Asgardians and Hercules in particular were looking forwards to it. The banquets of galaxy-wide empires apparently had a reputation behind them.

I wasn’t a psion (Yet! Working on it!), but Xavier had at least felt my thoughts and could not miss a directed thought at him coming out of nowhere.

Professor Xavier, I have been ordered to heal your spinal injury. Could you find a moment to meet me in the stateroom off the aft corridor?

The Shi’ar also had the medical science to do the deed, but I would be faster and cleaner. I also had the permission of the Great Bear to do so, and it was entirely likely that Xavier’s wound was Cursed and without that permission, couldn’t be mended.

Sure enough, he found a quick excuse to break loose from the politics of the new court that was starting to form and make his way to the sitting room back here with me.

I already had the two Disks out to lay him on. Our eyes met, green to blue, and he sighed despite himself. In response, I showed him the text I’d been sent.

He obviously knew what the crystal phones meant, and what not having one meant. “They aren’t going to give you one, because that would compromise your position as Imperial Consort,” I assured him softly. “There are other means and methods of staying in contact.”

“I understand.” I made a gesture, and Vier lifted him off his hoverchair and onto the Disks gently, laying him down, his blanket still wrapped around his legs. “Will this be painful?” he asked directly, although not afraid if it was.

I held up a finger, and put my hands over the wound on his abdomen, where a metal spike had punched completely through him and severed his spine. Psionic healing could easily have mended the wound at the time, were it permitted, but he had somehow managed to piss off everyone who was important, and so he wound up in a chair, legs withered and crippled.

“I will have to re-inflict the spinal injury, then apply Regeneration,” I told him. “If you can learn some basic biopsi from the Shi’ar, you should be able to clean away all the internal scarring. As a side effect, the magic reads your body’s entire physical condition, and will restore your legs to equal condition.” I noted he kept his upper body in excellent shape, such as he could.

“I can shut down my sense of pain, there will be no issues,” he assured me with a sigh, looking at the ceiling.

I nodded once and slid my hand under him as TK raised his back off the Disk. My finger pressed in, and a blade of electrons sliced across and through the wound and fused vertebra back there.

The Regeneration followed immediately thereafter, and he barely even bled before the magic started working. Lightning started crawling up and down his spine, then extended down into his lower abdomen and legs.

His nerves had been severed, but the electricity basically gave him a false network, and he gasped as suddenly his feet and toes twitched, more movement than he’d gotten out of them in at least a decade.

I kept a hand on his belly, feeding voltage into the spell and watching it work in silence.

“I am sorry,” he said at last, as a minute of silence save for some minor voltage crackles went by.

“I am not the one you should be apologizing to?” I told him.

“You are here, and they are working through you. You are an exceptional young woman on your own merits, too. I have made some very bad decisions in my life, spurred by arrogance and my talents.”

“You have,” I agreed, and he could only smile lopsidedly. “This isn’t forgiveness, you understand. This is acknowledgement that you are trying, and that you’re being thrown into a pit of sharks. You are going to need to be at your absolute best to deal with what is coming, and the two of them are harsh, not cruel.”

“What are your observations telling you?” he asked, watching me.

“Lilandra is a merciful woman, but the Shi’ar people do not respect mercy. Mercy is something only to be extended by the strong. The Shi’ar respect strength, so Lilandra will have to be strong, and extend mercy when it is a show of strength.

“Having someone around who can convey the heart of her people to her is important, and who can at least keep a modicum of truth in her court. Your ability to reach past the people who will be surrounding her to those beyond them can make her a mighty Empress, indeed... or break her, if her heart has too much empathy.

“Major Summers has been telling us many stories about the Shi’ar over the past two days, as have his crew. It is no exaggeration to say that a warrior people are capable of great cruelty, and while much of the Imperium is run well and proper for such a thing, there are places of terrible darkness that exist because of powers in the empire that profit from them.”