The Scott and Jean Archives
During a Danger Room session, Marvel Girl loses her temper with the entire team, fed up with Cyclops and Angel fighting over her affections, and Beast and Iceman making fun of the situation.
Xavier suggests she take a break from the team and cool off. Jean is angry that she is being sent home but takes leave nonetheless. She arrives home to fussing parents, who are even more “needy” than Scott.
Needing some time alone, she heads to the mall where she used to go with her best friend, Annie. This brings back memories of her childhood. Jean stops by the arcade, and finds a childhood acquaintance, Tony, still playing the same game as he did years ago. Jean remembered he had ambitions, but he is content leading a mundane life in the same small town. Looking around, Jean recognises all the people wandering around the mall, just “going through the motions of life”. She suspects that they are being mind-controlled.
She runs out of the mall, and is confronted by a vision of Annie. Jean’s guilt over Annie’s death and leaving her behind overwhelms Jean and becomes an imaginary monster. Jean realises that it is time she confronted her past and loss, and let it go. Even if Annie had lived, she would not have stopped Jean from being a mutant and living an extraordinary life.
In memory of Annie, Jean promises Xavier that she’s “going to have an amazing life”.