Jean Grey didn't have any control over her life for as long as she could remember.

 

For the first decade of her life, she was a child with no agency of her own, that was natural though, parents guided their children until they could choose their own paths but for Jean reality came crashing down when she was just a young girl playing with her best friend.

 

They say children are free and without worry but for Jean that couldn't have been further from the truth after that day. Her powers awakened and darkness seemed to consume her life as the little light she had before in her friend and parents were going after it.

 

She couldn't even control herself, she still saw the lifeless face of her best friend and the distrustful gazes of her parents in her nightmares but the worst was yet to come.

 

Jean Grey was sick, or so she was told. She needed to be cured of this ever-burning power inside of her lest it consumes her and all those she loved, thankfully the bald 'doctor' that came to help her had a cure for that. Jean, terrified of herself and her powers took it without much hesitation.

 

That was the last day Jean Grey was Jean Grey, the cure turned her into a shell, an emotionless husk that mimicked the human she was before. The real Jean slumbered somewhere deep beneath consciousness, her mind as tangled as a ball of yarn while her soul whimpered under the constricting seal.

 

The husk lived while Jean slept, the husk had retained Jean's talent for empathy and used it to make itself more human. It knew it was somehow wrong, somehow lesser. All these other people had that miraculous 'something' that let them feel and it felt whatever they felt and yet it had no feelings of its own.

 

Days turned into months, and the husk mimicked its schoolmates, 'friends' and passersby. Then came years and the husk grew into a young woman while Jean slept on, the memories of the husk slowly streaming into her sleepless mind.

 

Years went by and then the miracle happened, the husk 'felt' something for the first time. A tingle in its stomach that some would call butterflies and its teenage mind, overwhelmed with hormones associated with an emotion it felt from others so many times before with her own: Love.

 

It was in love with the boy that looked at her without fear, apprehension, or ill intent. She knew all he wanted was to protect her and keep her safe and happy. It didn't know what happiness was but the first taste of emotion in its dull life was like a drug and it was addicted.

 

It mimicked other 'girls' of its age and started dating the boy, gestures, touches and actions were done without any understanding for their reason aside from that others did it with those they 'loved'.

 

It was happy, it gave everything it had to the boy and even what it knew to be important to girls one day. The boy took it that night from it and told it that he loved her. That was the peak of the husk's life, never before has it felt so much emotion and never again afterward.

 

Its life went downhill after that night, the addictive 'love' the boy named Scott Summers gave it dampened, it felt that he truly loved it but its own feelings started to fade like it was getting used to it. It was all getting so very boring again and grey and lifeless.

 

It 'dated' Scott for another two years but the love faded fully by the end of the first year, it kept up hope for its return but it never did and by the end of it, the tediousness of the relationship eclipsed the fading memory of its love. It 'broke up' with Scott Summers.

 

Life was dull but the boring relationship gestures were gone so it was peaceful.

 

Its peace remained until it met a peculiar girl in the park and for whatever reason it agreed to go on a date with her, it might have been some form of interest in another of similar powers as its own or it was just bored but that was the single greatest decision either Jean Grey or the Husk that took her place has ever made.

 

That elusive love was unforthcoming throughout the date but it still found itself invested in it and it even felt what might have been a tinge of happiness as it kissed the girl. The girl's infatuation with it was clear but it wasn't willing to get back into the tediousness of a relationship again.

 

Still, it went along with her for now and its efforts were more than rewarded.

 

After a rather interesting sequence of events the girl attempted to 'heal' it, it remembered the last cure it received but it didn't have much else to lose. Its emotionless life was as pointless as it was getting tedious, if this girl who it knew to be sincere made her situation any worse it might have considered ending its suffering.

 

The opposite happened, the Husk remained but the slumbering Jean Grey awoke, her mind untangled and suddenly hit with almost a decade's worth of memories and the suddenness of being awake. It, no, SHE felt, she felt so much.

 

Happiness, guilt, shame, sadness, hope, anger, indignation, and adoration crashed into her like tumultuous waves fighting for control, throwing the tiny ship that was herself between each other. Her mind was clear, now realizing how constricted the Husk's thoughts and creativity were but more than that power once again bubbled just below the surface.

 

It would be alright now, she engraved the face of the girl, Emilia, into her memory. Those fleeting tints of what her Husk thought to be love were incomparable to the adoration and gratitude she felt towards this so very cute girl.

 

Emilia went above and beyond, teaching her to control her powers and telling her things that she never knew but looking back on it now, despite her initial existential crisis it was worth it. She had control now, she had agency. Yes, the Phoenix Force still wanted her as its puppet, avatar, toy, whatever an eldritch conceptual being wanted but she had control of her life.

 

She wasn't just a doll being puppeteered by others, she was wrestling for control with the Phoenix and gaining ground no less. She knew the being didn't actually fight her, it was just channeling so much of its power into her that it was an uphill battle to learn to control it at the same pace.

 

She felt its gaze whenever she stumbled in her control, whenever a single flicker of flame burned something she didn't intend to. The Phoenix was watching, waiting, for a sign of weakness. It was more than willing to let her use its godlike powers however she wished if she could tame them, if not ... well, ... then it'd have to do it itself, possess her and use its Avatar like she was meant to be used.

 

 

She left the institute and Xavier behind, she knew he wanted to help her sincerely but he also valued two other of his students lives above just her own. The man was a pragmatist, even if at heart he wanted everyone to be happy he knew it wasn't possible, sacrifices had to be made and she just so happened to be one of those sacrifices.

 

She both hated him for that and respected him but she could never again trust him.

 

In the last couple of months, Jean realized she loved control, not just over her powers and her life but over others. Her telepathy and telekinesis were manifestations of control and she relished in them unlike before when she feared them.

 

Jean Grey, free as a bird, glanced down at her lover who nearly moaned as she massaged her back. She'd give this girl the world and more, for she had given her more than she'd ever wanted or deserved. Jean loved the control Emilia gave her, the girl was willing to relinquish control of almost anything to her and that just endeared her even more to Jean.

 

 

Jean Grey thought much about this subject, about how to show Emilia how much more she meant to her than that brat. A part of her knew how easy it'd be to just share her emotions but she felt actions had more meaning at times.

 

Her actions would speak for themselves.

 

 

Once Jean was done with her 'apology massage' for burning Emilia to cinders the two of them returned to their flesh and blood bodies, still sitting calmly while holding the other's hand.

 

Emilia regretfully ran her thumb over Jean's palm before retrieving her hand and getting to her feet, the goons were close to ready to depart. A few seconds later Jean regained consciousness under Emilia's watchful gaze, she is getting faster, good.

 

Jean got to her feet, still a bit disorientated from her Astral Body snapping back into her real one. Emilia kept her steady with a touch of telekinesis, knowing that if she did so physically it'd take at least twenty minutes to once again disentangle herself from the girl.

 

"Let's get these lowlifes to work then," Jean stretched languidly before hopping off the back of the truck, floating a bit before letting her boots touch the sandy ground. Questionable footwear for this climate but Emilia wasn't complaining, it went well with her lover's denim jeans and white shirt.

 

Emilia hopped off after Jean a bit less gracefully and followed behind her girlfriend like a good little duckling. She was more than willing to relinquish her 'leading' station in terms of bullying these goons into doing what they were told and she had to admit Jean was much better than her at that.

 

A few well-placed fireballs and telekinetic throws later they were much more enthusiastic in their work, it barely took another hour before they were seated in the back of a Humvee which also had Klaw sitting next to a rather anxious driver.

 

Then they were off.

 

 

The road trip was a bit more interesting than they'd expected and an hour in the two started treating it like a safari. They pointed out interesting animals or plants to each other through their bond without the other two people in the vehicle knowing about it.

 

This made the rather long journey bearable.

 

*I'm telling you a rhino would absolutely demolish a hippo,* Jean sent along with a tumble of indignation at Emilia's refusal to accept what she viewed as facts.

 

*They might be tanky but hippos have an extremely strong bite, it'd eventually get through the rhino's hide,* Emilia reasoned, unwilling to back down.

 

*Humpf, you are not convincing,* Jean smirked.

 

*Humpf,* Emilia snorted in her mind, crossing her arms and glaring sideways at Jean who looked back at her triumphantly for some reason.

 

*You are adorable when you pout like that, you know that?*

 

"Humpf," Emilia turned her head away with a huff, knowing that it did nothing to hide the blush creeping down to her neck.

 

"Young Ladies we are here," Klaw's slimy voice reached Emilia's ears and she huffed one last time.

 

She glanced at Jean, imploring her to take the lead so she wouldn't have to talk with Klaw.

 

Jean understood the request and fulfilled it easily, her eyes took in the dense jungle surrounding the slim dirt road they were going on.

 

"What do you mean by here?" Jean asked and Emilia was of the same mind, the jungle was blocking out everything though so she let her mind take in what her psychic senses were telling her.

 

"The bunker has a hidden entrance in a nearby cliffside, it will let us park the cars there before going for the Vault," the man clarified, though his regret seeped into his tone at the second part.

 

"If you are behaving well we might even leave a bit of it behind," Jean said offhandedly which immediately restored the vigor of the aging man.

 

Emilia's senses expanded and she easily found the hollowed-out cliffside with a rather extensive tunnel system going deep into the hill. Hallways, crew spaces, kill zones, it was a deathtrap for any conventional invader with more than a few escape routes included.

 

Good thing they weren't conventional in any way, she'd already messed with the circuitry of a little device Klaw thought they didn't notice him having in his pocket and she also had to convince a few of his mercenaries that it was in their best interest to ignore his coded words and orders.

 

A few minutes later they reached the cliffside and the bulkhead pulled upwards, revealing a large hangar behind it with the LED lights turning on one by one as the convoy pulled into it.

 

Emilia glanced down at the amulet hanging from her neck, filled with her own psychic energy like a battery along with some of Jean's. It managed to siphon off some of the psychic attacks she sent her way in a previous spar.