"What do you mean?" Jiaying frowned, glancing at Ethan.
"It means you can't kill him," Ethan replied calmly.
"Are you serious?" Calvin looked at Daisy, then at Agent May, whose expression was frozen in disbelief. Without another word, he turned and stormed out of the room.
"After everything they did to my wife, after they kept our daughter from us all this time... I won't forgive them."
Calvin raised a hand toward Baxley, but Ethan was quicker.
With a subtle motion, he redirected the force of Calvin's arm, stopping him cold. "Didn't you hear me? I said he can't die. I won't allow it."
Jiaying glared at Ethan. "So this is what cooperation between mutants looks like? This is your version of loyalty?"
Ethan's voice had an edge now.
"Let's get something straight. I warned you about Hydra's movements before, and somehow they still showed up. Funny thing is—they don't even have the artifact."
"That has nothing to do with us..."
"Don't bother lying," Ethan cut her off with a smirk. "With Emma Frost around, reading your mind would be child's play."
His gaze sharpened. "Let me guess. You planned to use the artifact to draw in Whitehall, then use mutant power to wipe him out. Tell me, was that plan for the benefit of your people—or just your own ego, Jiaying?"
Gordon and Lincoln shifted awkwardly, their eyes drifting toward her.
"Mom?" Daisy stepped forward, her voice soft but confused. She looked at Jiaying, disbelief spreading across her face. "Is that true?"
Jiaying hesitated.
Her fingers trembled around the weapon in her hand before she finally let it drop with a heavy breath. "Fine. He's yours. But we're heading to the central chamber. Now."
Without waiting for anyone else, Jiaying turned and disappeared into the shadowy corridor.
Ethan tossed Baxley to Colossus, then followed her in.
The ruins stretched deep.
Even though they'd made good time, it still took the group over an hour to reach the center.
Along the way, the carvings on the walls evolved—first glorifying the Kree, then shifting to how they genetically engineered enhanced beings.
Finally, Jiaying halted before six massive stone slabs.
At their center was a protruding stone pillar.
As they approached, the artifact in her hand glowed brighter and brighter until, with a hum, it slipped free and floated to the top of the pillar.
"Boom!" The ground quaked, and another set of six stone slabs rose up, sealing them in completely.
"What is this?" Ethan stared at the massive walls closing in.
"The ceremony is starting," Jiaying said with an almost manic glint in her eye.
As the chamber sealed, the artifact cracked open.
A brilliant blue crystal shimmered at its center.
The golden light on its surface faded, and the crystal began to grow—like a living thing—stretching upwards at an impossible rate.
Once the crystal reached about a foot high, it stopped. John, wide-eyed, stepped forward. "What happens now?"
"All mutants—stand in front of me," Ethan ordered, his eyes narrowing.
A soft hiss echoed through the chamber.
Light blue mist began pouring out.
Ethan immediately stepped in front of the others.
With a flick of his hand, the air around them twisted, forming a barrier that pushed the gas away.
Terrigen mist. A mutagenic agent—empowering for Inhumans, but fatal if you're not an Inhuman.
To anyone with the X-gene, it wasn't just dangerous—it could destroy what made them who they were.
Luckily, with Ethan's ability, controlling the air currents, he was able to redirect the poison safely.
On the other side of the chamber, Calvin clamped a hand over his nose and mouth.
The other Inhumans looked panicked.
Daisy cried out—the mist had started to take effect on her body.
Her skin began to show signs of petrification, a painful transformation underway.
"Don't be afraid, Daisy. This is just a transformation. You'll be okay soon," Jiaying said softly.
But before she could say more, Daisy had already turned completely into a stone statue.
At that moment, Ethan stepped forward and waved his hand.
A sharp gust of wind burst upward, blowing the Terrigen mist away from the chamber and out through the cracks above.
"What about those research files you said the Kree left behind here?" Ethan asked coldly.
He knew full well that Jiaying had kept quiet about the danger of the Terrigen Mist to mutants.
Sure, they had ways of protecting themselves—but that wasn't the point.
She didn't say a word, and that made Ethan even more irritated.
"Of course, they're here," Jiaying replied, ignoring the frustration in Ethan's tone.
She walked toward the obelisk, which had reverted back into a solid cluster of crystals.
As soon as her hand brushed against it—
A blinding light shot out of the obelisk, casting reflections on the massive stone slabs.
Those beams quickly transformed into countless images and texts.
Among them were scenes of the Kree conducting experiments on Earth, and even one of an epic space battle between the Kree and the early ancestors of mutants.
"So there was something valuable hidden here," Ethan murmured, his eyes widening as he watched the story unfold across the walls.
To be honest, when it came to figuring out a formula to unlock mutant abilities, Ethan hadn't been entirely confident.
This was ancient alien tech they were dealing with.
Even in the Marvel universe, where science pushed the edge of possibility, cracking this would've taken years of planning and resources.
But time wasn't a luxury anymore.
With the Chitauri preparing to invade Earth, humanity—and mutantkind—was being shoved headfirst into the galactic spotlight.
That's what made this discovery different.
The Kree were one of the two major cosmic powers in the universe.
Their experiments had been designed to defy even the cosmic gods.
If anyone could decode the X-gene, it was them.
And the very existence of the Inhumans proved they'd made some serious progress.
"Yes, the Kree left behind a massive amount of data," Jiaying said, her voice proud. "And that knowledge is the inheritance of the Inhumans."
As she spoke, she suddenly traced a few glowing glyphs in the air.
Instantly, all the surrounding stone slabs lit up.
Brilliant blue rays shot outward, forming a glowing energy matrix that surged around Ethan's team, trapping them inside.
Ethan narrowed his eyes. "So this is it. You found something so valuable in this ruin that you're ready to cut us mutants out completely."
John stepped forward with a glare. "We'll see about that." He summoned a blazing fireball and hurled it at the matrix.
The sphere struck the glowing wall and shimmered briefly—but instead of breaking through, the flames were quickly absorbed until the fireball flickered out and vanished.
"Let me give it a shot," said Pete, his entire body covered in hardened organic steel.
He clenched his fists and slammed them into the energy matrix with all his strength.
"Boom!" The matrix flashed and bounced him back like a spring.
Pete was thrown backwards, the metal coating around him destabilizing for a moment.
"You may be strong," Jiaying said with a smirk, "but don't forget—you're in a Kree lab. Of course they built in defenses to counter enhanced powers. Did you really think brute force would get you out?"
Ethan didn't respond immediately.
He just watched her carefully, processing every word. "So you're going to hoard this knowledge all for yourself? What's the point? The Inhumans don't even have the resources to make use of all this tech. You can't turn this into power. Not alone."
Jiaying gave a dry laugh. "You think the Inhuman sanctuary only contains data? You have no idea what's really hidden here."
Ethan tilted his head slightly, intrigued. "Oh? Then tell me—what else are you hiding?"
"Unfortunately," Jiaying said, her tone cold and distant, "this world may still be beautiful for us Inhumans... but not for you."
As she raised her hand, a massive projection of the Earth appeared above the obelisk, slowly rotating.
On the phantom, live atmospheric flow patterns glowed like veins, pulsing with movement.
"That idiot Whitehall believed the obelisk was just a weapon powerful enough to destroy the world," Jiaying continued.
"He wasn't entirely wrong... but what he didn't realize was that he was part of the problem the obelisk was designed to cleanse." Her voice trembled with deep-seated anger, her hatred for Whitehall raw and vicious.
It was clear how much it pained her not to be the one to end him.
"In the core of this Holy Land," she said, pacing slowly, "the Kree left behind reservoirs of primitive Terrigen Mist. Their plan was to flood the Earth with it—to remake this planet into a grand experiment. For some reason, they abandoned the plan, but the technology... survived."
"If that mist is released into the atmosphere," Ethan said, his eyes narrowing,
"then anyone with latent Inhuman genes might awaken. But what about normal humans? That much Terrigen... it won't all be pure."
"Of course not," Jiaying snapped, her expression twisted with fury.
"The weak—those who've oppressed us for centuries—they'll die. They were never meant to survive in the new world."
Ethan's face darkened. "So that's your plan. Wipe out everyone who isn't like you."
"You're justifying genocide with evolution," said Ethan.
He looked at her now, disappointed. "Ask yourself something, Jiaying. What's the real difference between Inhumans and mutants?"
Jiaying's eyes flickered with hesitation, but she answered, "It doesn't matter. Here, your powers are suppressed—just like ours. You're no stronger than us."
"Suppressed?" Ethan muttered.
He stepped forward.
The air around him began to shimmer subtly, a distortion forming like a heatwave.
Dust lifted from the floor, pebbles hovered mid-air. With deliberate precision, Ethan raised one foot and then drove it into the ground.
"BOOM!"
The ruins trembled violently.
A shockwave exploded outward in a perfect circle, flattening everything in its path but leaving his allies untouched.
Ethan didn't move wildly—he barely moved at all.
His power rippled through the vector field around him, bending the very forces of physics.
Above ground, people stumbled from buildings, shouting about an earthquake as tremors spread through the city.
Below, cracks snaked across the ancient stone walls, creeping toward the glowing energy matrix.
With a final pulse, the matrix flickered—then shattered into light.
Jiaying stared, stunned.
"You really think some dusty alien leftovers can hold an Omega-level mutant?" Ethan said calmly.
His voice was steady, but the air around him buzzed with invisible tension. "Have you ever actually seen what someone like me can do?"
The truth was, there was a difference between Inhumans and mutants.
Mutants didn't need external triggers. The X-gene awakened naturally, and mutations were usually enhancements—extra abilities, better physical traits.
Sure, some looked strange—claws, wings—but those mutations often came with incredible powers.
Inhumans, on the other hand, required forced activation—Terrigen Mist. And the results weren't always pretty.
Gordon was proof. He gained teleportation, but lost his eyes. A sacrifice that had nothing to do with his power. Just collateral damage.
Inhumans often came out of transformation... incomplete.
Even royalty wasn't immune. Triton, cousin to King Black Bolt, could breathe underwater—but now struggled to survive without it.
And strength? Sure, Black Bolt was powerful... but even he wouldn't stand up to an Omega-level mutant like Ethan.
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Word count: 1875
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