Firehair swung the sword Max had taken from Asgard. It was a powerful weapon, cutting through anything with ease; each swing released precise waves of force that could cleave wood, stone, and metal alike.
She did not agree with Max stealing it, even if his reasoning was sound. Azzuri or even En Sabah Nur could use this blade well in the battles to come. And Odin could return it to its home when his exile was done. Still, it sat poorly with her taking from those who had shown them no hostility.
Perhaps we can make this more powerful, the Phoenix said, her voice contemplative.
Firehair paused mid-swing. "What do you mean?"
Being in Shi'ar territory reminds me of my time with my former host, Rook'shir, the Phoenix said.
"You mean the Rook'shir who is the reason all the Shi'ar hate you?" Firehair said pointedly.
I was once revered and worshiped by them, the Phoenix replied, and there was something like sadness in her voice. They called me Phal'kon, sister to their gods K'ythri and Sharra. They built temples to me worshiped and loved me.
"And then?" Firehair prompted.
Then I bonded with Rook'shir. He was powerful a warrior without equal. But he succumbed to my destructive impulses. He lost himself in the flames, became only destruction without purpose. He burned seventeen of their worlds before they managed to kill him.
"And I did not," Firehair said quietly.
Yes. You did not, the Phoenix confirmed. You are stronger than he was. You are my perfect host.
The Phoenix's tone hardened. I will not be judged for what happened neither by you, my host, nor by the Lantern, nor by the empire itself. Rook'shir's weakness was his own.
"I will not argue with you about this," Firehair said, not wanting to provoke the cosmic entity. "How can we make this stronger?"
I can instill a small part of myself into it only the smallest essence. It would make the sword much stronger, capable of cutting through anything; even the Lantern's constructs wouldn't stand a chance.
Firehair concentrated, holding the sword before her. Cosmic flames erupted around the blade white and gold and crimson swirling in intricate patterns. The sword began to glow with the power of the Phoenix, the flames sinking into the metal.
It is done, the Phoenix said.
Firehair looked at the sword. It now had a faint sheen of flame, as if it were radiating the Phoenix's power. The runes along the blade glowed with new light as well.
She swung the sword again and this time the effect was far more powerful. The cutting wave it released was wreathed in Phoenix fire. It destroyed three nearby trees instantly, cleaving through them and carrying on. They toppled, violet leaves scattering, some catching fire midair.
"What was that?" she heard from above. Max was flying down.
"Nothing," Firehair said quickly.
Max landed, glanced at the fallen, burning trees, then at the sword in her hands. His eyes widened.
"What did you do to Gram?" he asked, taking it from her and examining it closely.
"I gave it more power," she said simply.
"Yeah, I can see that," Max said with a grin. He took a swing of his own, and the blade responded as before. The force wave traveled farther, burned hotter. "Damn."
Firehair smiled, pleased with her work.
"This is going to help a lot," Max said, looking at her.
She asked, "Did you find it?"
Max nodded. "Yes. It's north of here. It's the same structure Agamotto, Odin, and I found in the Savage Land."
"So it will come to life and attack us, then?" Firehair said matter-of-factly.
Max nodded. "That's a possibility. Probably a certainty, actually. These things seem to be guardians of some kind."
"Then let's go," Firehair said, shooting into the sky and flying north.
Max followed, Gram safely stored in a construct sheath at his hip.
They soon arrived at the temple and spotted a village at the foot of the large structure. The people looked human, but with large yellow eyes and violet skin the same coloring as the world's flora and fauna.
"Maybe the temple is inactive," Max said, studying the settlement. "Looks like people have built a village near its base."
"It seems so," Firehair agreed. "Let us go and introduce ourselves."
They descended slowly to appear nonthreatening. But as soon as the villagers saw them saw the flames around Firehair and the green glow around Max they ran into their homes in fear.
"Well, at least they aren't aggressive," she heard Max mutter.
They landed in the center of the village, near what looked like a communal fire pit.
"Let me handle this," Firehair said quietly to Max.
She approached the only person who hadn't hidden an older woman, Firehair noticed, with red streaks in her violet hair. The woman stood before one of the dwellings, posture protective but not hostile. Her yellow eyes watched them carefully.
Firehair raised her hands, letting the Phoenix flames recede. "We mean you no harm," she said. "I am Firehair. My companion is called the Green Lantern. We are here in search of something inside the temple."
The woman studied her for a long moment, then spoke. "You… you do not come to kill?"
"No," Firehair said firmly. "We seek only what is inside the temple. We will not harm your people."
Slowly, others began to emerge from their homes. Firehair noticed it was mostly women, children, and old men. Many bore deformities extra fingers, misshapen limbs, faces asymmetrical or unusual even for their species.
Could it be? she thought, mind drifting to old memories of her time with Highwalker and the village of "rejects," those left to die or exiled from their tribes for being different.
She was pulled from her thoughts when Max asked, "Where are the others? The men, the warriors? Are they on a hunt?"
The older woman's expression turned grim. "No. We are under attack by other tribes. They wish to kill us all. Our strongest have gone out to fight."
Anger rose in Firehair, a heat in her chest that had nothing to do with the Phoenix.
"There are people coming," Max said suddenly, pointing.
She turned to see more than a dozen figures running from the forest, some carrying the injured, weapons in hand, blood on their clothes. They were limping, exhausted, and defeated.
Many in the village ran to them, crying out names, embracing loved ones, checking wounds.
"Okay… I guess things did not go well," Max said quietly.
"We must kill the ones attacking," Firehair said, her voice hard.
"What? No," Max said immediately.
Firehair turned, furious, her aura flaring flames dancing around her body. "Do you plan to let them die? Their only crime is being different!"
"No!" Max said firmly. "But we could move them to a different place. Relocate them somewhere safe. No one has to die."
"No," Firehair said flatly, lifting into the air.
A cage of green energy snapped around her, one of Max's constructs.
She punched it, Phoenix fire erupting from her fist and shattering the construct into shards of light. Max kept after her, throwing up more barriers, more restraints.
"What are you doing?!" he shouted, flying alongside her.
She broke through another construct, and he tackled her wrapping his arms around her and using his momentum to drive them both out of the sky into the forest below. They crashed through branches and undergrowth, hitting the ground hard enough to crater it.
"There is no need for senseless slaughter!" Max said, pinning her, new constructs locking around her wrists.
"You don't understand!" Firehair shouted back, flames bursting from her body and forcing him to roll away. "They will keep coming for them! They will not stop!"
Her mind filled with memories of that night the night she lost everyone she cared for. The village burning. The screams. The hatred in the eyes of those who called them abominations, who said they deserved death for being born wrong.
Max got to his feet, edging closer with care. "We can move them to the other side of the world. Find them a safe place where no one will bother them. It's not like you to do this to jump straight to killing."
She calmed a little, the flames around her receding to embers. "Even if we move them away, the tribes will create more of these outcasts. And when they survive when they find each other the tribes will come again to kill them all. You don't understand, Max."
"Then help me understand," Max said, his voice gentle but firm.
Firehair looked away. "Let's just… you can move them. I'll go inside the temple and look for the artifact."
Max studied her for a long moment, searching her face. Then he nodded slowly and left.
She watched as he spoke to the villagers, his hands moving in calming gestures. Green light bloomed around them as he wrapped everyone in a box construct and then flew them away.
Now we can kill the attackers, the Phoenix said eagerly in her mind.
"No. We shall not," Firehair said firmly as she flew toward the temple, blasting open the outer walls with a controlled burst of cosmic fire.
It did cause parts of the structure to come alive, stone and metal shifting and knitting into a massive being, just as they'd expected. But Firehair didn't wait. She attacked, destroying steel and stone before it could fully rise. Phoenix fire carved through ancient mechanisms, melted power cores, and reduced the guardian to slag.
She dove through the entrance and found the artifact Agamotto needed: a crystalline sphere pulsing with energy, similar to the one from the Savage Land. She seized it, then leveled the rest of the temple in a single flare of power.
She stood in silence for a while afterward, breathing hard, flames slowly fading.
Something perched on her shoulder an emerald construct of a bird, shaped like the Phoenix. It regarded her, then winged away to the south.
She followed, artifact in hand.
After some time flying, she saw Max standing at the edge of a cliff, the sword Gram planted in the ground beside him.
She landed, and Max gestured toward the beautiful ocean below, pointing out the people on the beach, the outcasts already setting up shelters, children splashing in the waves.
"I found them a paradise," Max said with a grin.
Firehair smiled despite everything. "So you have."
"I found it," she said, holding up the artifact. She tossed it to him.
Max caught it with a construct, eyes widening in alarm. "Don't throw it! It's a fucking doomsday device!" He quickly sealed it in a protective container of light and stowed it away, along with the sword still stuck in the ground.
"So," he said, turning to face her. "You want to tell me what happened?"
"Nothing happened," Firehair said, looking out at the ocean.
"You were going to kill—" Max started.
"I know what I was going to do," Firehair interrupted. "It won't happen again."
Max looked at her expectantly, waiting for more.
Firehair sighed. "Fine." She sat on the edge of the cliff, legs dangling over the side. "I was reminded of something that happened. A long time ago."
Max came closer and sat beside her. "What happened that made you want to go on a killing spree?"
"You know I told you how I was abandoned by my tribe," Firehair began.
"And raised by wolves," Max finished with a small grin, trying to lighten the mood.
Firehair smiled faintly, then continued. "I lived like one for years, until I was found by Highwalker."
Max's expression sobered. "The Highwalker?"
"He had powers like mine, powers of the mind. But his legs and hands were twisted and unusable. It was why he, too, was abandoned when he was young."
She told him how Highwalker had taken her in how he raised her in human ways, in a village of abandoned survivors like her: people with deformities, with strange markings, with powers that frightened their birth tribes. Outcasts who had found each other and made a family.
She told him how she lived with them, how she was happy learning to be human, learning that she belonged. But then the other tribes learned of them. Her voice grew softer, sadder.
"I helped defend against attacks. Small ones at first bands of warriors testing our strength. We drove them back."
"And then?" Max prompted gently.
"You don't have to say any more," Max said quickly, moving closer and taking her hands.
"Yes, I have to," Firehair insisted, eyes distant. "They came at night. There were too many three tribes had joined together, hundreds of warriors. We fought. I fought with the others. We were winning, and then—" Her voice broke.
She took a shuddering breath. "I saw Highwalker killed. A spear through his chest. He was trying to protect the children, using his mind to hold back attackers, and someone… someone got through." Tears began to fall. "Something happened to me. My powers went out of control. All I remember is losing consciousness."
"When I woke, everyone was dead," she whispered. "Our village, the attackers, everyone was dead."
"It was me," she said, her voice breaking completely. "I killed them all. Not just the attackers everyone I knew, the children… I killed them all."
Max pulled her into a hug, and she collapsed against him. "It was me. I killed them all."
"It was not your fault," Max said firmly, holding her tighter. "You lost control. You didn't want it to happen."
"It was," she insisted. "I should have been stronger. I should have controlled it."
She pulled back slightly to look at him. "I went to die in the burnt place afterward. I just… sat there in the ashes, waiting for death for predators to take me. Until the Phoenix found me." Her voice was hollow. "I almost gave in to the anger completely. I would have destroyed the world if not for my wolves. They found me, reminded me who I was, what Highwalker taught me."
They stayed like that for some time, Max holding her, Firehair letting herself be held while the ocean crashed below them.
When Firehair had calmed, Max spoke. "Highwalker would not want you to think that way."
"But—" she started.
"No," Max interrupted gently. "Listen to me. You are a good person. What happened was out of your control. You were in shock, in grief, and your powers manifested in a way you couldn't predict or stop." He pulled back to meet her eyes. "And after that? You could have let the anger consume you. You could have burned the world. But you didn't. You overcame the Phoenix itself. That takes incredible strength."
They looked at each other for a long moment, green eyes meeting black.
Then Firehair leaned in and kissed him.
Max kissed back.
Finally, the Phoenix said in her mind, sounding almost relieved.
Firehair ignored her, savoring the feeling. It was warm and right like something falling perfectly into place.
Suddenly Max's ring spoke: WARNING: Large amount of energy incoming at high velocity!
They broke the kiss and looked where Max was looking a huge energy blast was streaking toward them.
Max threw a shield around them, but the blast punched through, detonating in a shock wave that hurled them apart.
Firehair tumbled through the air, flames erupting instinctively to protect her. She caught herself, scanning for Max and saw him some distance away, under assault by a purple-skinned man in red armor, moving impossibly fast and landing blow after blow.
"MAX!" she screamed, already streaking toward him, cosmic flames blazing around her.
Suddenly, she was in complete darkness.
What is this? she thought. Even the Phoenix flames around her provided only a small halo of light beyond that, nothing.
The Guard, the Phoenix's voice echoed in her mind. They are here.
Who? Firehair spun in the void, disoriented, unable to see.
The Imperial Guard. The Shi'ar's greatest. They have killed many of my hosts.
"That's not good," Firehair said aloud, pushing against the darkness that hemmed her in.
You need not worry, the Phoenix said, and Firehair felt its confidence flood through her. You are a perfect host. None before you have wielded my power as you do. You are the strongest like the Lantern likes to say the strongest in the universe.
The darkness pressed closer. Firehair felt presences circling her like predators.
Now, the Phoenix commanded. Use it. Escape this darkness.
Firehair closed her eyes and reached deep into the cosmic fire burning in her soul. The Phoenix Force answered—eager, inexorable, infinite.
She unleashed it.
The burst of Phoenix fire was like a star going supernova. Golden flames roared from her in all directions, searing away the dark.
The void shredded like cloth in a furnace, and light returned.
Before her stood a woman wreathed in shadow, eyes wide with shock the one who had conjured the void.
Around Firehair, in a perfect circle, stood nine more warriors.
They moved as one, striking in precise coordination.
A psychic blast hit her like knives driven into her skull. At the same instant, one warrior swelled to twenty feet and swung a fist the size of a boulder. Firehair twisted aside, only for another attacker's whip to lash around her arm, pain lancing through her nerves.
Blasts of lightning and fire came as well, perfectly coordinated. She tried to move, but some of the attacks struck home, making her stumble. The psychic assault shredded her thoughts, fragmenting and scattering them.
Fight! the Phoenix roared in her mind. Show them why they should fear us!
Firehair's eyes blazed gold as cosmic fire erupted from every pore.
Phoenix flames exploded outward in a sphere of pure power. The giant screamed as the fire engulfed him, his massive form shrinking away, burned and smoking. Firehair rose into the air, her body a living star, power radiating in waves that warped reality, making the air shimmer and crack.
"You dare?" Her voice was doubled—her own, and the Phoenix's. "I am the Phoenix! I am fire and life incarnate!"
Yes! the Phoenix exulted. Show them! Burn them all!
She struck at them, but one warrior wreathed in swirling stellar energy interposed himself and absorbed her Phoenix fire, redirecting it back at her.
Where is Max? she thought desperately, catching a glimpse of him in the distance battling the purple-skinned man in red armor, moving impossibly fast.
Focus, girl! the Phoenix commanded.
"Scatter!" shouted the one in pink armor, the apparent leader and the Guard broke formation with perfect discipline.
They withdrew, then surged in again. Fire, lightning, energy blasts an onslaught from every angle. Suddenly something coiled around her neck and ankle.
The psychic attack returned, battering her senses, weakening her.
The giant reappeared and slammed her again, driving her toward the ground.
Again. And again.
"Warstar, now!" the pink figure ordered.
Then she felt it—like trying to hear through water, see through fog. Her connection to the Phoenix dulled, muffled, harder to channel. A dampening field was closing over her.
"No!" She struggled, flames sputtering.
The combined assault, especially on her mind, was too much.
Two of them hit her from opposite sides with concentrated energy beams. She tried to redirect them, but she couldn't; something was weakening her, making her powers respond sluggishly.
The beams burned into her body.
She screamed.
Then something tightened around her throat the whip again but this time it stayed, constricting, the neuronic pulses sending agony through every nerve. The pain was overwhelming.
She felt something pushing her down an invisible field suffocating her, crushing from all sides.
"Electron, continuous current!" the pink figure commanded.
Lightning poured into her, battering her further.
And then another psychic attack. She couldn't recover; her thoughts began to scatter as consciousness slipped.
Firehair's vision blurred.
No… no, no… the Phoenix's voice sounded worried now almost panicked, an emotion she had never heard from the cosmic entity before.
"I can't…" Firehair gasped, but her body was failing, shutting down under the coordinated assault.
The psychic barrage continued, relentless.
"Max…" Firehair whispered, fighting to stay awake. "Max, help me…"
But Max wasn't here. Max was fighting his own battle. Max couldn't help.
She was alone.
No! No, no…not again! the Phoenix screamed in her mind, but its voice was distant now, muffled by the psychic assault, the dampening field, and all the other attacks slamming into her at once—
The pink-armored figure appeared before her, hovering at eye level. Her eyes glowed white with psychic power.
"Sleep, host. Let go."
Darkness crept in from the edges of Firehair's vision.
"Go and help Gladiator with the Lantern, Nightside," she heard one of them say.
"Prepare the transport," another voice ordered.
Firehair's eyes rolled back. Her body went limp, the Phoenix flames guttering out.
Only darkness awaited her.
And somewhere, distantly, she thought she heard Max calling her name.