Chandilar:
The trial of Jean Grey has begun. Having confronted the imprisoned Jean with the deeds of Dark Phoenix, of the millions who have died at her hand, Gladiator demands how she pleads. Jean looks down and stays silent. Gladiator booms, he takes her silence as – Innocence! another voice interjects sharply.
It is J-son, king of Spartax, who is making his way to the dais. He accuses Gladiator of blindness. Jean is but a child. She is not the Phoenix. She doesn’t even understand what Gladiator is accusing her of! His posturing seems quite insane!
He has no place at this tribunal, Gladiator hisses. J-son points out Gladiator invited him here like everyone else. Does he mean to say only the Shi’ar were affected by the Phoenix’s rampage years ago? He thought this tribunal was to keep civility in the galaxy. As far as he can tell, this girl has done nothing. Certainly not yet. While Gladiator and his people have kidnapped her and held her against her will. Wasn’t it also the Shi’ar who once sent an invasion to Earth and had her entire family and lineage wiped out? Jean looks up shocked. They killed her entire family, J-son continues. On the off chance that it was her genealogy that attracted the Phoenix Force. Is this true? Jean asks, wide-eyed.
J-son continues if that child were the Phoenix and Gladiator were the cause of her family’s demise… if she had the power, does he really think she would let him live? Jean glares and Oracle looks up disturbed.
Somewhere in space, Angela drifts seemingly lifelessly. The Shi’ar cannot identify her but decide to pull her in as an unidentified lifeform for the high science command to examine.
On the cloaked Guardians’ ship, Kitty asks if this is going to work. It’s working, Star-Lord replies. There are other ways, Drax mutters. Gamora tells him this needs a lighter touch.
On the Shi’ar ship, the Shi’ar examine the body to suddenly find it is quite alive.
Guardians, Starjammers and X-Men are waiting more or less patiently when they are finally hailed by Angela after she has finished off the Shi’ar. Admiringly, somebody asks her for her hand in marriage. Believing it is Rocket, she tells him he is too short. When finding out it was Gamora, she decides to think about it.
Meanwhile on Chandilar, a group of Imperial Guard members accompany Jean in her bubble prison out of the hall while the tribunal pauses. While disliking J-son, they wonder if he is wrong though.
Meanwhile, J-son and Gladiator are arguing. J-son asks what he said that was factually incorrect.
Both J-son and the Imperials wonder if Jean is just a girl, not the Phoenix. Suddenly. Jean looks up…
While the two kings are arguing, Oracle looks up, announcing something is wrong. She runs outside to find the Imperials unconscious and Jean gone. Angrily, Oracle shouts she warned Gladiator. Jean is capable of so much and he is so intent on pushing and pushing her! In his pathological fear of the Phoenix, he may have woken her from her slumber! Coolly, she recommends he stop thinking of assassinating Jean. If Oracle can read his thoughts, so can Jean.
J-son’s guard insists on protocol and getting him off-planet. Smiling, he replies he’s done what he came here to do…
In space, the Shi’ar command addresses the ship the Guardians, X-Men and Starjammers hijacked, telling it that it is out of formation. Rocket explains their commander is taking an unidentified humanoid to the Shi’ar science command. She is emitting an unidentified radiation and he is worried about his ship’s crew. Permission is granted and they are told to bring the alien to the science command headquarters at Tirgard and stay away from the throne city. They learn that the Earth girl escaped and the city is on lockdown.
Drax is impressed that Jean took down the Imperial Guard and wants to meet her. Cyclops demands they go faster. Rocket snaps that will get them the entire Shi’ar armada on their sakonnets. She needs them! Scott insists. Kitty tells him to steady.
Jean is jumping from rooftop to rooftop and hiding in the shadows. She is overcome by what she has learned of the Phoenix.
Elsewhere. the heroes land in the rubble of a city. Star-Lord, Corsair and Kitty brief the others. Angela announces she can find Jean if she has her scent. X-23 states she can track her and does have her scent. Peter puts her up front and tells Drax he is in charge of her well-being. Nobody go off half-cocked or whole-cocked or any kind of cocked.
Corsair asks Scott if he is gonna be okay out there and suggests he stay behind. That’s not going to happen, Scott replies simply. Corsair explains they can’t afford any kind of emotional – She’s out there! Scott interrupts him. Let’s go!
Nice try, Hepzibah tells her lover. Corsair admits he can’t stand watching him make the same mistakes again. She can’t even imagine how weird this is for him. He doesn’t know what to do. She tells him to have Scott’s back.
The heroes head out of the ship to find Gladiator and the Imperial Guard (Oracle Tempest, WarStar, Plutonia, Electron, Smasher and Manta) expecting them. Gladiator advises them to choose their next move wisely. All right, Rocket replies and fires his weapon at him. Iceman is surprised that they consider the opposition a solid threat when there are so few.
He soon learns why, as Manta blinds most of them with a strobe of light. Gladiator tells her to hit them again if they get up. The rest of them will take care of the stragglers, referring to Angela, Groot and Drax, who are still standing.
The three of them attack Gladiator, who grabs Drax and throws him against the other two. He wonders how the Guardians and Starjammers are involved in this madness, when he is hit in the back by Cyclops’ optic blast. Not bad, Corsair admits. Gladiator addresses Cyclops directly. The older him would have known better than to anger him this day. Bring him Jean Grey or he will kill him! Scott threatens. Gladiator takes it back. He sounds exactly like his older self.
He and the others are about to attack when a voice shouts ‘enough.’ It’s Jean. who calmly announces Gladiator is right. She is a monster.
