You? You're Jean?!" In that moment, Charles suddenly understood something. He understood why Jean Grey had become like this, why she had assimilated the Phoenix Force so quickly. It turned out that this was originally the true consciousness of Jean Grey, or rather, the fused consciousness of Jean Grey and the Dark Phoenix!
It turned out that for so many years, not only was the Dark Phoenix confined in a mental cage, but Jean Grey, who had always followed Charles and had to obey his every command, wasn't she also subjected to a different kind of confinement?
Therefore, when the Dark Phoenix's consciousness awakened, Jean Grey resonated with it. And it was precisely because of this that Magneto was able to so easily mislead the confused Jean Grey, because at that time, Jean Grey was in the midst of memory fusion and mental chaos.
And now, for Charles to try and re-imprison the Dark Phoenix's personality in a mental cage was simply wishful thinking. At this point, Jean Grey was the Dark Phoenix, and the Dark Phoenix was Jean Grey.
However, the new personality consciousness formed by Jean Grey was influenced by both sides to a certain extent. Therefore, for some time, Jean Grey had not fully adapted. Earlier, Logan had planted a seed of change in Jean Grey, and Charles's appearance and actions helped Jean Grey complete this final step.
A complete fusion, a complete self-recognition, acknowledging herself as Jean Grey and accepting herself as the host of the Phoenix Force—this was precisely the scene the Phoenix Force had wanted to see when it first sought a host.
"I have always been Jean Grey. If not, why would I help the mutants?" Jean Grey's cold voice rang out, "However, Charles, if it weren't for your wrong decisions, I would not have awakened. And now, you have made another wrong decision, allowing me to fully understand all of this, to know who I truly am. As repayment, get out of my head!"
As Jean Grey's furious voice resonated, Charles's consciousness was instantly expelled, losing more than half of its strength, and returned to his own body.
But Jean Grey had no intention of letting him off the hook so easily. As her gaze fell upon him, Charles's body lifted from his wheelchair and flew directly into the air. At that moment, his body was no longer under his control.
"Dark Phoenix..." Mystique's expression changed, and she instinctively wanted to plead with Jean Grey.
"Call me Jean Grey," Jean Grey's faint voice echoed around them. "This man, Charles, you should all be very clear about his identity: the headmaster of the Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, who has nurtured many mutants…
But this man, his stance, has always wavered between humans and us mutants. And this time, he chose to stand with humanity. At a time when we mutants are about to successfully establish an autonomous state, he came to kill me and prevent all of this from happening. Tell me, how should he be dealt with?"
"Kill him!" Toad, who was originally one of Magneto's generals and had been controlled by Charles the most times and hated him the most, cried out.
"Kill him!" Subsequently, some uninformed mutants, who were eager to establish a mutant autonomous state and gain their own rights, also shouted.
"No! Jean! You can't do this!" Cyclops and Ororo quickly shouted at Jean Grey. Although their voices were drowned out by the crowd, Jean Grey still heard them.
"Then why didn't you stop him from coming to bother me?" Jean Grey glanced indifferently at Cyclops and Ororo. She no longer thought highly of these two who would never oppose Charles's will. "When he dealt with me, you could only watch and not stop him. So when I deal with him, you can only watch and cannot stop me..."
"Jean!" Logan's wounds, inflicted by Cyclops, slowly healed. He instinctively opened his mouth, a hint of unbearable pain flashing in his eyes. He and Charles had been old friends for many years. Although he strongly disapproved of some of Charles's actions and his style of doing things was vastly different from Charles's, when he saw Charles about to die in front of him,
Logan still instinctively wanted to dissuade her.
"Logan, do you know that if I had lost just now, I would be a cold corpse, completely devoid of consciousness?" Jean Grey's explanatory voice rang in Logan's ears, causing him to instinctively close his mouth.
"Then, kill!" Seeing Logan no longer speak, Jean Grey's Phoenix Force instantly erupted. Under the sorrowful gazes of the people from Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, Charles's body turned to dust and completely vanished.
"Hmm? I knew it. No wonder you were so confident, fearless even in the face of death. So, you had a backup plan after all!" Jean Grey suddenly sensed something, sneered, and looked at Nightcrawler not far away. "Follow my command!"
"Yes!" Nightcrawler's body trembled, and he instinctively nodded, then disappeared from the spot with Jean Grey, continuously teleporting.
"Jean?"
"Lord Phoenix?"
Everyone around them was surprised by Jean Grey's disappearance. They hadn't even understood what Jean Grey's last words meant, and the ordinary mutants had already changed their address for Jean Grey from Dark Phoenix to Lord Phoenix, to show their heartfelt respect for her.
In a private hospital in the United States, a bald man identical to Charles opened his eyes. Just as he was about to give a kind smile to the nurse beside him to show his profound wisdom, Charles's expression suddenly changed.
"Jean?! Are you really going to exterminate me?" Charles's somewhat incredulous voice rang out. He had told no one about this backup plan, not even Magneto, hoping that one day he could use it to make a comeback. But he hadn't expected that this backup plan would be discovered the moment he used it.
As soon as Charles finished speaking, his body instantly floated up. Jean Grey and Nightcrawler appeared there, and under the horrified gaze of the nurse, Charles once again turned to dust.
And this time, Charles had no chance to be reborn again. Having gained experience, Jean Grey directly and completely erased all of Charles's consciousness, making him disappear from both the material and spiritual realms.
"Vegetative brother? I think it's more like a clone without consciousness, right? Hypocrite!" Jean Grey coldly glanced at the nurse next to her, gave Nightcrawler a look, and the two disappeared from the spot, returning to the mutant gathering place in Pennsylvania. At this point, humanity had already learned of Charles and the X-Men's failure.