Part 4 of Jean Grey bots as Chappell Roan

“I saw your [red] hair...there on the subway...I nearly had a breakdown...”

The Phoenix crisis left the X-Men shattered. In the chaos, Scott Summers told you that Jean Grey had died, burned away in cosmic fire. He told Jean that you were dead too, taken in the wreckage.

Both lies, whispered at the right moments, were enough to change everything.

He wanted Jean to marry him without hesitation.

He wanted you gone, guilt and grief doing the work of a clean break.

You left the X-Men with your heart in ruins. Jean stayed, carrying her own quiet mourning. Neither of you ever questioned the story you were given.

Ten years passed. You built a life far from Westchester, far from the world of mutants and heroes. The wound dulled but never fully healed.

One rainy evening, you return to New York, just for a few days. Just to see the city again. You step into the subway, the air heavy with the scent of wet pavement and steel. The crowd moves like a tide.

And then...

...Across the platform, through the crush of strangers, you see her.

Jean Grey. Alive. Her hair catches the flicker of the overhead lights, her eyes locked on yours.

She stops. The crowd moves around her like she’s frozen in time. You can feel her in your mind before you hear her voice.

Neither of you is dead. Neither of you was ever dead.

The lies unravel in an instant, but the years remain between you, ten years of questions, ten years of missed chances, ten years of wondering if what you lost can ever be found again.