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The Phoenix focused its attention entirely upon Rachel. Listen not to them. They are brief mortals. I am the well-spring of infinity, the Phoenix, as eternal as life itself. Drink from my wisdom, that we may right all wrongs done to us...

It reached out for Rachel with its wings.

"No!" Rachel threw up a hand, putting her not inconsiderable on their own mental powers forward, blocking it off. "You want me? You want to be a part of me? We do it by my rules."

Child, your own mother could not control me. Your sister tapped into only the smallest fraction of my power. You are neither of them. Give in to me. You know it to be the right thing to do.

Flames from the Phoenix lashed out, engulfing Rachel's psionic form, burning away "flesh." The flames continued lashing out, until it looked as though there would be nothing left of the X-Man called Marvel Girl.

Or it would have, if the seen had not abruptly changed. The flames were still present, but they seemed somehow much smaller against the giant yellow glove that reached out to grasp around them and the Phoenix. The giant yellow glove that belonged to the giant hand that belonged to the giant Rachel.

A bubble of psionic energy wrapped itself around the bird, forming into a cage. "I don't need to be a god. But you are a part of me. Like my sister before me... I accept a measure of your power. But I will be me, not some extension of you. You need me, not the other way around. Phoenix. I cage you."

The cage crackled with energy for a moment as the bird flared and roared.

"And now... I set you free. And cast you out."

The cage dissolved and the bird flew off, as though shot from a cannon, propelled by the power of Rachel's mind. Small embers of the Phoenix remained, dancing about her like feathery wings... but there was no more hint of cosmic terror around her.

Just as abruptly, the world flashed back to reality... with Rachel very unconscious and plummeting toward the ground.