Scott takes Madelyne aboard his father’s spaceship to see an earthrise. Their kiss is interrupted by Corsair and Hepzibah. Cosair introduces the pair to his crew, including his newest member Binary aka Carol Danvers.
Cosair asks if Scott has made up his mind whether he wants to join the Starjammers. Having met Madelyne, Scott is not as sure of leaving for space as he was before.
Scott: (Thoughts.) I haven’t felt so happy, so complete, since Jean died, like I’ve found a missing essential piece of myself. So why can’t I simply accept what is and have done with it?
Madelyne comes over to break Scott’s brooding silence. Madelyne asks Scott to put his past behind him and stop letting it control his life. And if he wants to go with his father, she does not want to hold him back. Scott asks if Madelyne would accompany him into space and proposes marriage to her.
Some time later, Scott and Madelyne are piloting a flight back to Anchorage, Alaska. During a routine check of the cabin, a passenger stops Scott in his path saying Scott dropped a photograph. The priest asks if the woman in the photo is Madelyne. Scott fumbles for words, and says that the woman is “someone who looks like her”. He recognises it from Jean’s “visit to Greece, just before her transformation to Dark Phoenix”. But he does not carry that photograph with him, and wonders how and why he chanced upon it.
Scott: (Thoughts.) Has the world gone crazy--or is it only me? I thought I had things all sorted out, but now I’m more confused--and scared--than ever!
The priest sits back in his seat with a sinister smirk on his face. Something suspicious is brewing.
Scott returns to the cockpit. He lies to Madelyne about feeling unwell because of something he ate. But Madelyne is not buying his story.
Madelyne makes a trip to the grocery store while Scott cooks dinner. No one notices a shadowed figure lurking in the basement. When Madelyne returns home she finds Scott brooding again, and no X-Men or Starjammers in attendance.
Scott cannot contain his anxiety since the flight incident and asks Madelyne the question that had been gnawing at him.
Scott: “I’ve been wrestling with this all day, trying to explain away my doubts--and fears--telling myself I’m being a fool, but it’s no good. I can’t. I have to know. Are you the reincarnation of Jean Grey? Are you Phoenix”
Angered, Madelyne punches Scott, causing him to fall over. Scott loses his shades and in the time for him to reach for his emergency pair, Madelyne is gone from the room. Instead, Dark Phoenix has taken her place.
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