Rebirth: Jean and Liz

By Darque Phoenyx
(darquephoenyx@yahoo.com)

Disclaimer: The characters appearing in this work of fan fiction belong to
Marvel Comics. No profit is being made nor accepted on this work. This work
is for entertainment purposes only. The concept and story idea remain mine.
I enjoy playing in this Marvellous sandbox!
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My name is Liz.

Or so Jean and Carol tell me. 

I'm not sure how I got here, either.

I'm supposedly an English peer. A Baroness. A former model.
A former SHIELD agent. A former corportate magnate. 

I'm a "formerly" alot of things, and currently?

I'm just trying to figure out what *did* happen to me, and
who I am now. I feel like I've gone for an extended vaccation
on the other side of the River Lethe.

Then again, the Seige Perilous does that to one, or so Roma 
tells me.

I caught the Legacy Virus, and I didn't die, like so many others.
Instead, I seem to be immune to poisons, diseases and I heal insanely
fast. 

Faster even than the two men who call themselves the Wolverine and
the Sabretooth, if one can believe that.

And I'm almost as tough as Warbird, but I'm not in a hurry to test
that theory, nor am I exactly in a hurry to test out the fact that
I am stronger than most humans.

I *can* fly, apparently part of the "something else" that is in my
veins and my DNA.

And unlike many metahumans, I happen to like flying for the sheer 
joy of being able to defy the laws of gravity. There's something to
be said for it: the feeling of wind in your hair, the solitude and
the freedom of living Leonardo's waking dream.

And I'm not exactly Human, apparently never was. I'm a child of the
Otherworld. Tuatha d'Dannu or Fae or Danion Sidhe. My psionics are
of that blood. 

So are the "other things" about me, it seems. I am not sure if I want
to know what those other things are. Yet.

I remember things I'm being told, like a week old dream, the rest of 
my self remembers them from another point of view, or as if I might 
have read about those events in a book...my sanity doesn't seem to 
be in question, but the authenticity of my knowledge does...

But there are things I do know: like who the members of the Inner 
Circle of the august Hellfire Club are...of which I'm a member it
seems...and peculiar things, like the identities and weaknesses of
various foes of the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, and the Avengers.

I know who Spiderman is. I know that that Wilson Fisk bloke is an
ally of the Vixen, and a crime lord, and I might be able to prove 
it...but nobody believes me.

Except for Jean and Carol. 

They've told me what they saw happen, and what their theory is.

You see, Emma Frost and Baroness Elizabeth Braddock were badly 
injured while telepathicly gestalted, and we were trying to drive
those "prime sentinel" constructs through the Seige, only to be
pulled through, ourselves. 

And we were merged into one being, with memories of both, it would
seem. I, Liz, certainly bear more than a passing resemblence to 
both of these women: I have silvery white-blonde hair and violet
eyes, I am the same height as both of them, and my build appears to
be a blend of the two. A very tall, slender, athletic woman, with 
fair skin and well defined muscles.

Even my facial features are a blend of English aristocracy and 
classical American beauty, and I retain the pointed ears that are
the legacy of Lady Braddock's Otherworldly father.

Jean and Carol are certain that I possess the sum total of Emma and
Elisabeth's telepathy, and other psionic abilities... I don't know,
but I'm going to learn to control.

I'm not sure why the various members of the X-Men seem to take such 
a dislike to me, but Carol and Jean are possibly the only friends I
have now, outside of Shinobi Shaw or Dr. von Doom.

Shinobi tells me that the Hellfire Club takes care of their own, 
and both Emma and Elizabeth were members. The White Queen and 
Black Bishop respectively. But what am I? Am a a Pawn or a Queen?
Where do I stand on the chessboard?

Jean is the once and future Black Queen, even though she is not 
unchanged. I wonder how Carol feels? She's rather stuck in this 
matter with us...

So, you're probably wonder what people call me. I've taken the name 
of Elisabeth Emma Anastasia Frost. I'm genetically a "half sister" 
to both Elizabeth and Emma, and that is how I have managed to hold
onto both fortunes, thus blocking Adrienne and Cordelia from 
getting their hooks into one of the world's leading electronics
firms.

I've been on an extended "vacation" for several months now, with
Carol and Jean, living in the San Fransisco penthouse, refining my
telepathic control, my ESPer talents, and taking an intensive course
of study in a variety of half remembered skills.

And in the end, I think I'm going to be okay.


---------------------------------------------


I remember dying. Again.

I remember being torn apart: molecule by molecule during a Prime 
Sentinal attack. 

We were at the Hellfire Club, a strategy meeting with the White 
Queen...the Upstarts and those Sentinals attacked.... I remember....

Seeing Selene, Sebastian and Ororo taken down...seeing Liz and Emma
gestalting, in an effort to stop them...and seeing them fall through 
the Seige Perilous...

..and I remember Rogue trying to save me...

There was a flash of light and indescribable pain...then nothing....
it was so horribly quiet..I couldn't feel their minds, or Rogue's...

Then Carol Danvers showed up, in this "place" with me.

And she told me that I wasn't dead.

She helped me through the psychic vertigo and then I learned what had 
actually occurred: Rogue had touched me before I "died"--absorbing my
mind and my powers--only have the power surge of "me" burn out her own
fragile psyche.

Carol and I are now living in "her" body.

There are some benefits to this, though. I've got the most powerful 
psi screens to protect my secret, though Liz is capable of mindspeaking
to me, and I can reply back...and I'm headblind. Again.

At least I retain most of my memories and my telekinetic powers... I'm
still "me" it would seem.

And I'm the only one who can help Liz come to terms with her psi-talents.

There is something about her that terrifies Charles. I could see it in his
eyes when we left, and I know Liz could feel it. 

He's not the "world's most poweful telpath" any more. And it scares him to
the core of his being, knowing that there is a psi out there, that he didn't
train, that he can't control, who could learn his deepest, darkest secrets
and that he would never know it.

He fears Liz the way he feared me, when I was Phoenix. Only moreso.

She can be ruthless, it's in her nature...a legacy of two women who
refused to obey the "rules" like good little girls. Two women who dared
to take on the world, on their own terms, and would settle for nothing 
less than the best.

I admire that, more than either Elisabeth or Emma ever knew. I wanted to
be like them: to rebel and succeed, but I was too much of a coward. 

I died the first time, and a second time because of it. 

Never again.

I have to admit, though, that I was rather disconcerted to see Scott
with Madelyne again... Ah well... even though "Jean's dead again (tm)"
is the story, I will survive. I have to.

Liz needs me. Carol helped me pull off a "Rogue goes on leave" stunt,
and when Liz emerged from the Seige, she joined "us" to recover from 
the trauma of becoming a whole based on parts of two women....

I'm trying to cope with life, and get used to being super strong, and
damned nigh invulnerable..and sharing with Carol...even though we find
ourselves blending...

"We" are Jean Danvers now, we agreed on that much at least.

Watching  Liz trying to cope is painful, but amazing in how she is 
able to draw on a well of strength bequeathed to her by her former
selves, and not only survive, but triumph over the obstacles that
life is throwing in her path...

...Carol's always been strong, and so have I, but somehow, when we
put our "heads" together, the sum of the whole is stronger than either
of its componant parts.

What's surprising, is that neither of us mind this.

I don't mind being like this, not at all. 

I've begun to build a life away from Scott, Sarah and everything I've 
ever loved. But that's the price I've paid for remaining alive.

The price for finally achieving my independance.

Carol lost everything when Rogue accidentally absorbed her... but me?
It seems she may have absorbed me intentionally--but to what end?

To save my life?