A young girl, Adani, looks back on her past.
Another planet, whose sun is about to explode. Adani’s father had taught her that the universe is protected by one omnipotent god. He taught her to pray and that their life should be one of subservience. Devote your entity to the one true, and redemption would be your reward. The problem is, of course, that redemption like an omnipotent god does not exist.
On the planet Adani’s father, a religious leader, preaches to his flock that this is not a time of fear, but of gratitude. To be thankful that the one true has provided them with the opportunity to show piety.
Adani’s father is a priest who, as a child, left the Universal Church of Truth, after learning that the church conquered whole planets offering their people only salvation or death.
Two men bring a man who has tried to flee. He would defy the will of the one true? Adani’s father demands. The young man spits back, does the one true want them all to die? The one true he believes in would not demand they let their children burn. Adani’s father hits him in the face with a stick.
Adani thinks that after the death of her mother her father’s life was ruled by fear, manifesting a hatred for anything he could not explain by faith.
If they run, when the one true calls for them, they are not worthy, he admonishes. Turning to his frightened daughter, he smiles and announces, whether the path is paved with flowers or ash, they will walk it together.
As he orders his flock to pray, the pillars surrounding them crumble and are about to crush them.
Adani thinks there is nothing he hated more than the Phoenix. The first time she encountered the Phoenix, Adani knew nothing of the crashlanding that resulted in the rebirth of a woman forever connected to the cosmic entity known as the Phoenix Force. And she didn’t know anything about Jean Grey’s quest for redemption. She only knew stories of a murderer who would destroy worlds, consuming suns for sustenance. The Phoenix was fear itself.
The flock panics as Jean Grey, surrounded by Phoenix-fire, appears in the sky and her telekinesis holds off the falling columns. Adani’s father shouts at her, accusing her of wishing to destroy them. Phoenix replies that she is not here to harm them. Their sun is dying and will take their world with it. She won’t let that happen.
Jean enters the sun and uses her power to stabilize it.
Adani would later spend time with Jean and learn about her past, how her powers were jolted into existence when she experienced the death of a friend as a child. A death that would haunt Jean and forge her connection with the Phoenix forever. When Jean told her those things, Adani felt grief for all the time Jean lost as a child. Only later she realized that it was not because but despite those experienced that Jean built a connection with the universe she cannot understand… a connection born from fire and ash.
Phoenix enters the sun, her power flares as she stabilizes it.
In the meantime, at Kyln-2, a Xandarian omega core intergalactic prison in a black hole, there is trouble as well, as the black hole threatens to swallow the station.
The warden Kade suggests they evacuate before the black hole collapses. She addresses the human hero Richard Rider aka Nova, telling him he didn’t wake up from a coma, just to die with these prisoners. However, the young hero is adamant in not leaving the prisoners behind to die. He orders Kade to prepare the transport ships. And then what? she demands, warning him those are some of the most dangerous prisoners in the galaxy and they don’t have an auxiliary prison to take them to after.
Suddenly, the station gets shaken badly. They flail around, alarms go off and, unfortunately, some holding cells are opened, among them the one holding Morg, former herald of Galactus. He immediately attacks Nova, who head-butts and blasts him, overpowering him. Does he still want to transport the prisoners? Kade asks. He does, but he sees her point. They could use some back-up.
Meditating in space, Phoenix telepathically calls her husband, Scott Summers aka Cyclops, currently at the X-Men’s new HQ, the Factory. She tells him how the people were afraid of her. He corrects that they were afraid of the Phoenix. She is the Phoenix, Jean points out. Scott explains that they only know about the corruptive power of the Phoenix Force and probably only through stories.
She sighs. She knew this wasn’t going to be easy, but she still wasn’t prepared for how it would feel trying to save a planet of people who are more afraid of her than the sun about to explode. He marvels at what she did. She absorbed the sun’s excess energy to lengthen its life span, Jean explains. She’s amazing, he marvels. Jean smiles; his heartrate just spiked. She merges their perceptions.
After a while, he states that they never really talked about a timeline. Jean doesn’t know how long she will stay in space. She just knows she needs to be out here.
To change the subject, she thanks him for what he did with the ship. Abashed, he states he knows she doesn’t need a ship as a cosmic being. She needs a reminder of him, she replies as she flies to the ship, and this is exactly what it is. She is interrupted by a distress signal and they say goodbye.
On the station, a panicked blue inmate shouts that they are going to let them die! He doesn’t have a life sentence! He prays to the Magus. A moment later, a threatening being kicks him, announcing he doesn’t need a god. Not that one anyway. The blue being recognizes him as Perrikus and asks him for help. A moment later, energy spikes disrupt the forcefield holding them in their cells. The blue man believes his prayers freed him and wants to make his way to the launch bay. Perrikus kills him easily and goes in his stead.
Elsewhere on the station, Morg is back to beating up Nova. When he goes for the killing strike, he finds he cannot move, thanks to Jean’s timely arrival and her telekinesis.
Nova is glad she got his psychic message. He wants to get her up to speed but she quickly makes it clear she is aware of the issue: The black hoke is destabilizing and they are trying to get hundreds of the most dangerous criminals off station. He adds that some cells broke open. The guards are trying to contain the prisoners but he has no idea how transport is going to be possible now. Jean tells him there is no need. She will stabilize the black hole. She tells him to keep everyone safe and yell if something happens.
In the launch bay, Perrikus throws a guard out of an escape pod, which he intends to use himself. As a consolation before he leaves, he adds that death by black hole happens quickly.
Phoenix, in the meantime, is dancing with the black hole, making it play by her rules and stabilizing it.
Nova sends her a psychic warning about Perrikus’ escape. Jean wants to stop the pod, but then sees that the prison has destabilized and is about to explode. Jean choses to save the prison, letting Perrikus escape, unare of the consequences.
Perrikus’ ship crash lands on the world of Adani’s people. They gather around the crater. When Perrikus steps out of the ship, the people run in a panic. Adani stays. Perrikus kneels and addresses her. After assuring she speaks his language, he wants to ask her a question. Her father runs toward them, knife drawn. He pulls Adani away and demands who Perrikus is. Perrikus notes his fear and that they are adherents to the Universal Church of Truth. They are peaceful followers of the One True, he corrects Perrikus and demands his identity.
Perrikus smirks and tells him they are in luck. He was sent in answer to their prayers - to free them from what they fear most! Adani’s father asks him to leave. Perrikus continues, saying he knows what he dreads. It sits like a weight on his heart. Be free! he tells him, grabs his knife and stabs the man in front of the girl.
Perrikus brought death to Adani’s home but, as she later learned, Jean Grey pointed the way.
