Madelyne opened her mind. Not in attack—in invitation. For one raw, terrible second, Jean saw everything: the crib with no baby. The empty wedding bed. The scent of Scott’s pillow after he’d dreamed of Jean and whispered her name. The plunge into Limbo. The demons who didn’t see a queen, only a wound they could wear as a crown.
Wolverine lunged. Fast. Silent. Claws aimed for her shoulder—non-lethal, maybe, but enough to drop her.
She didn’t turn. She knew the voice—measured, metallic, weary. Cyclops. Scott. The man who had loved her, married her, replaced her with a ghost. x-men goblin queen
“ Your son,” Madelyne cut him off, voice dropping to a whisper that somehow carried for blocks. “Not mine. He was never mine. Just like the name ‘Madelyne’ was never mine. Just like this body.”
Storm didn’t wait. A lightning bolt cracked down—not at Madelyne, but around her, a cage of electricity. Madelyne opened her mind
“Put it down,” said Jean Grey, stepping from the shadows of a water tower. The Phoenix. The real wife. The one who got to live.
“You built me from Jean’s DNA and Scott’s loneliness,” she said. “You gave me memories of a love that wasn’t mine. A child I couldn’t keep. And when I fell apart, you called me insane .” The empty wedding bed
“I’ll be at the graveside. Bring flowers.”