"I voted to execute you, for the record."

Those were the lone words Emma Frost uttered to Tony Stark at the start of the flight, as she walked past him without looking in his direction as she embarked onto their current iteration of the Blackbird. The cape she wore was snow-white, extending to mid-thigh, covering the skin-tight full corset of white leather and sparkling white-lace mesh that exposed the tops of her hips and the sides of her body. Her bottoms were little more than matching white shorts, or actual lingerie shorts, given their fit and how much they revealed...white boots covered her from mid-thigh on down, each seam accentuated in rows of tiny white diamonds. 

Emma sat towards the front, with only Illyana Rasputin behind Tony among the five rows of seats. Unlike some of the jets the Avengers used over the years, the Blackbirds were typically smaller and more militaristic in interior design. The result was less legroom, but they could usually cram in a fair amount of people. Some Blackbirds were better than others, and designs tended to differ wildly depending on the generation of Blackbird used, but their current cramped rows of seats with a few feet of room for the pilot and co-pilot, with barely enough space for a center aisle? Cabling and tubing and hydraulics and more sticking out here and there? Not out of the norm for a Blackbird.

Beast and Cyclops took up pilot and co-pilot. Hank McCoy gave Stark little more than a single word greeting, the fallout of the Illuminati events before Battleworld and God King Doom still rubbed Hank's fur the wrong ways. At the end Tony had been unhinged, abandoning everything in the pursuit of some death, as Hank and the other Illuminati who kicked him out of the group had seen it. Cyclops had chuckled at Emma's response to the human before turning and starting to bleed engines and approach half-power. Beast handled the rest of the take-off. 

"Strange to leave Krakoa like this," After an hour Magik finally spoke up after she watched mile after mile of ocean pass under them outside the window as they flew at top speeds for upstate New York.

Cyclops kept his attention on instrument panels even as he felt the need to respond, "Yeah, the Council voted against allowing Stark a flower for Gate travel."

"His own people barely trust him, there was very little discussion on the matter," Emma Frost spoke up, though her white shadowed and black lined eyes remained closed, either the result of a cat nap or telepathic concentration was impossible to say. "I believe Shaw laughed, and Mystique appealed for the rest of the council to vote again on how to respond to such blatant and disrespectful violations of Krakoan borders. I seconded, if only holding out hope someone as soft as Charles or Storm would grow enough spine to execute him and send the only of message men like Stark understand."

Beast's only movement was that of his wrists and hands, his fur was slicked back, his eyes squinted as he focused on the horizon and sky. The only laugh he mustered was a short snort from his blue whiskered nostrils. "You are harsh, Emma. I'm sure Mr. Stark will appreciate the Council's reason in the matter, and in the future be respectful of Krakoa borders and air space."

Magik and Cyclops gave bittered chuckles, and not under their breath. Emma Frost, however, remained silent and feigning inattention once more, until the noise came. The sound of the comms system alerting of an incoming signal perked her left eye open, though otherwise she hardly moved a muscle. Beast eyed the display and tapped through the message text, Cyclops scanning it as Beast went. Magik was silent, but she was no longer just lounging in the back row with the armrests up, laying on her back. There was tension, and the message itself didn't really seem to help that. 

"It's the Fantastic Four. Reed Richards says they'll be meeting us in New York; apparently, a Celestial host is moving towards Earth from the outer edge of the system, and Galactus has made inquiries."

Prolong silence followed until Magik asked the question. "Is it possible this is some kind of end?"

"Jean wouldn't be the harbinger of death," Scott responded immediately, firmly. 

"...not unless you lived in a certain former star system. A trillion, right? More?"

Emma wasn't holding back. Even at her most villainous, she hadn't murdered over a trillion souls. Was it Jean? Was it the Phoenix Force animated Jean? Emma didn't care. She just knew that many people were dead, and they wouldn't be had Jean Grey never existed. Probably. 

"Jean's body wasn't present. It's unsure how much of that was Jean, how much of that was the Phoenix Force." Hank McCoy sounded uncertain of anything other than his desire to carefully measure and observe before coming to one conclusion or another. "Given she was at the bottom of Jamaica Bay, cocooned by the Phoenix itself, it can be easily argued she bears little to no fault. Would that we could ask her ourselves. I trust the three of you to know more about the Celestial response than I."

McCoy referenced the Phoenix Five, when Tony Stark had the brilliant idea of trying to shoot the Phoenix Force with a big gun. The result was simply the Phoenix dividing into five and taking five lesser hosts. Cyclops, Magik, and Emma Frost were three of the five. Cyclops would again host the Phoenix, alone, when he was brought into the Secret War conflict by Beast. 

"They're nervous about a Phoenix host. A White Phoenix of the Crown..." Magik tried to explain it, but she stopped as she struggled to find the words. Every Host knew of the White Phoenix of the Crown, on some level. Cyclops more than most. 

"The White Phoenix of the Crown would have been enough to stop Doom, maybe even stop the Beyonders. I felt a limit to the Phoenix Force's power, but the White Phoenix of the Crown doesn't have any such limit. They are truly omniversal in terms of power. Even Celestials are afraid of what that kind of power can do. They usually want a closer look." That happened when the Dreaming Celestial awoke, and Cyclops found himself telling the Celestial's that it was okay, it was handled, they could leave. To even his surprise, they did leave. 

Emma Frost sighed. "They want reassurance Ms. Perfect won't destroy the universe, or them. Marvel Girl, indeed..."

"Landing zone coming up fast," Beast broke in, "Prepare for landing."