Pushing his suit to the limit he keeps pace with her as she arrives in New York and flies through the city. As she does so, the fires on the buildings are pulled into her, and buildings are put back together. Cars and other debris are put back into place. And even crushed people are brought back.
"She's," he is stunned by what the young mutant is doing, "She's putting out the fires Cap. She's putting them out and fixing a lot of the damage that's been done."
Next thing he knows he's in San Francisco where Hope repairs the bridges as she flies by. A few seconds later they are in the Himalayas and she is plugging up the volcanoes with boulders. Wakanda follows and is restored to it's former glory faster than they can react. And in their final trip across the Pacific, Hope flies by and absorbs all the fire on the surface of the water.
All of this was done in under a minute.
They arrive back at where the fight was going on. Tony lands by Steve and looks up at her. As do the rest of the heroes. All of them wait to see what happens next.
Hope looks at her hands in silence. Not a single one of them can guess what she is thinking. Only praying she is still on their side. Looking for the sign to show that they didn't just trade one Dark Phoenix for another.
"Is this what he meant?" She asks nobody in particular as she looks up from her hands and at the gathered heroes.
Cap asks the question they are all thinking, "Who?"
"Spider-Man," she responds as she looks back to her hands, at the power that surrounds her entire being, "Is this what he meant about power and responsibility?"
Some of them look at each other, wondering what she's talking about, while others look at her and wait for her to go into more detail.
"Back in K'un Lun," she starts as she looks to the sky, "He told me that 'With great power, comes great responsibility'. I didn't understand what that meant, and all he said was that I could try to live my life trying to find something more profound than that, but nothing would better define what it is to be a hero."
Cap looks down in thought for a moment, before he looks back up, "He was right," he says grabbing not only her attention but all the heroes attention, "I've given hundreds of inspirational and motivational speeches throughout my life. Before, after and sometimes even during a fight. Or even just when someone asked for some advice. But I've never given a simpler and yet more profound speech than those simple words."
Hope asks, "But what does it mean?"
The Thing steps forward this time, "It means, if ya can do som'ten, some'ten nobody else can do but you, ya do it for others. Ya do da right thing."
"The right thing?" Hope asks rhetorically then gestures to the down Scott Summers, "They were fixing so many of the worlds problems. And yet you all said what they were doing was wrong."
"Logically speaking they were right," Iron man speaks up this time, "Unfortunately the world isn't just logical. People aren't logical. People are emotional, stupid, and sometimes indifferent to the problems of the world. Because they think it doesn't affect them," he shrugs, "It's a mess. It's the way life is. One big mess."
"But I can fix it," Hope clenches her fists and the heroes tense up as the fire on her grow, "I can make the world better. I can do what nobody else can!"
"No."
All the heroes look at the very back of the crowd to see the Scarlett Witch walking forward past her fellow heroes, "This is not what you were meant to do with it," she stops right in below the younger mutant, "Your destiny was connected to the Phoenix, but not so you can wield it."
Hope slowly floats down to the ground and stands in front of Wanda, "Then what am I supposed to do?"
Wanda extends her hands for Hope to take them, "To let it go," she says and Hope widens her eyes at that, "You are the only one who has the strength to let it go. Scott and all of them couldn't do it. Even when it was divided amongst them, they still were not strong enough to resist it," she gives a small smile, "But you are."
Hope looks at her in surprise before slowly grabbing Wanda's hands.
"No more fire."
"No more fighting."
"No more playing God."
"No more Phoenix!/ No more Phoenix!"
All of a sudden the Phoenix flew out of her and burst into the sky. From the point of view of space, the power of the phoenix explodes and spreads throughout the world.
Back on the ground, Wanda holds on to Hope as the young girl collapse from sudden fatigue.
The heroes gather around them and give the young mutant messiah and Romanian witch proud and happy smiles.
"The mutants are returning," one of the Cuckoo's voices said, "She did it."
The present X-Men smiles grow a little bigger at this bit of news. After so long of their people being an extinct species, they were saved.
Wolverine places a hand on Hope's shoulder and says, "You did good kid," he looks to Wanda, "You both did."
They both give smiles of their own before Hope's smile turns into a frown of disappointment.
"I tried to fix all the damage they did," she tells them, "I even tried to bring everyone back."
Everyone is shocked to hear this and then are elated to know no real casualties happened.
"But it wouldn't let me," she says, their elation suddenly vanishing, "The Phoenix wouldn't let me bring back Xavier and Spider-Man."
At this bit of news, all of them hang their heads in disappointment. For they may have achieved victory, but it wasn't one worth celebrating.
Hope hangs her head in shame, "I'm sorry."
Iron fist places his hand on her shoulder and squeezes it. She looks at him in worry and he gives her a reassuring smile.
"Let's go home."
.......
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