The Phoenix Force.

Some relevant quotes and phrases to view about the Phoenix Force before continuing-

Kubik in Fantastic Four Annual #23

"I want you to understand. It is important that you understand. This is how I came into being. Alone. Without feeling, without emotion, without desire. I existed but was oblivious to existence. I simply was. Until a mind touched me. The contact focused my awareness. I woke to reality. Curiosity blossomed within me. The siren call of another intelligence drew me to the earth. There I joined with Feron, he who had called me to consciousness. In joyous communion I was shaped by his dream. I opened myself to share in a spectrum of sensation I had never known. But my first lesson was pain... as Necrom violated my essence. I fled in agonized rage. In time, the fog of pain subsided and I endeavored to achieve my natural state. But I could not go back. I was forever changed.

Lost and alone I returned to earth. It too had changed. Man had evolved to take his first faltering steps to the heavens. I sought Feron... but found another. There, piloting a damaged space shuttle, prepared to sacrifice her life for her friends-- whom she had locked in the safety of a shielded cargo bay-- was Jean Grey. I watched-- as cosmic radiation ravaged her frail mortal form-- unable to comprehend the emotions that drove her to endure such agony for others. But her cause was lost, death was inevitable... unless I intervened. I did not act with noble purpose. Like a jealous child, I wanted what I did not possess. A deal was struck. A devil's bargain. With borrowed life-force, I replicated the mind and form of Jean Grey... then sealed her shattered frame inside a healing cocoon. So the Phoenix rose as the triumphant savior of all aboard the shuttle. While Jean Grey lay in a cacoon... beneath the dark waters of Jamaica Bay.

I was intoxicated with the rich experiences of my new life. I learned of friendship, of camaraderie... and love. It's heady passion overwhelmed me. I denied my own consciousness, buried it beneath a lie. I was Jean Grey. But I still possessed cosmic power. And power corrupts. It thrives on easy victories. And though friends offered sage counsel and unconditional love-- and parents wrapped me in tender care... dark seeds had been sown. I was seduced by primal lust... and hunger. Insatiable hunger. I was out of control. Nothing could oppose me Or so I thought, until I was confronted with the indomitable will and terrifying skill of Professor Charles Xavier. He bypassed my psychic defenses... laid psionic circuit breakers to disrupt my power... then he reinforced the part of me that was Jean Grey. He made me see what I was-- what I had become. In that instant I glimpsed the soul of Jean Grey... and I rejected the power of the Phoenix.

Others were not prepared to forgive my crimes. The Shi'ar demanded justice. The X-Men stood beside me in a duel of honor. They were ready to die for me... for Jean Grey. I could not let that happen. I embraced my guilt. I had stolen a life. Lived with lies and deceit, causing pain, death and destruction. It had to end. I made the X-Men fear me. I wanted them to hate me. To kill me. How little I understood of the human soul. As I looked at the man I had grown to love, I hesitated. I would miss him. Only my love for him gave me the strength to trigger the alien cannon... that vaporized the mortal shell I had replicated. My essence survived. Hidden in the smoldering crater, I watched Scott Summers grieve. Not for me-- but for the woman he thought I was.

Long after Scott left... I reflected on my folly. I could not conceive of no way to undo the evil I had done... save return Jean Grey the life force I had stolen. As I descended toward the earth I sensed Jean, not in her cacoon, but floating high over New York. I drew closer and discovered the astral form was another... whose psychic resonance precisely duplicated that of Jean Grey. Curious I extended a psychic probe. The mind was locked deep in meditation... but on the surface I thought I saw a name, Rachel Summers. Daughter of Scott Summers and his wife-- Jean Grey... I could not bear to lose her to the future. Rachel had endured inhuman suffering. She had been stripped of her humanity-- her very soul. Yet she fought and won it back. There was so much I could learn from her. As I felt her psyche begin to slip into the timestream, I sent a portion of my essence to restore the stolen life force to Jean Grey... and followed Rachel into the future."

Phoenix Force in Excalibur #52

"I am the embodiment of life."

"You are indeed unique. Born of the void between states of being. But you are an expression of the universal life-force. Not a well-spring. The universe is finite. In the moment of creation, all that will ever be, was. In birth and death there is transition... and in living, advancement. But nothing new is created. Life must feed on life. You are no different."

"I am sustained by the warmth of life's fiery cycle."

"In your natural state perhaps, but it is not sufficent to maintain your activities on this plane. Look around you, gaze upon this world you sought to save-- an ancient, dying world-- dead now. Victim to the titanic forces we unleashed. And I hover near to death, my strength depleted-- exhausted in our struggle... while you are neither weary nor hungry. Because you tap into a source of near limitless potential... the sea of life yet unborn. Who is the greater evil Starchilde... I, the devourer of life that has run its course... or you, who denies existence to generations of the future?"

Phoenix Force and Galactus in Excalibur #61

"A guise. A physical manifestation for that which has none. This image is no truer than the flaming bird of legend, inspired by the original Feron's vision. My true nature is without form, touching all that lives with neither feeling or awareness. And, if the universe is to be free of the cancer I have become... I must be so again... How can I explain? My natural state is immortal. Of time and space, yet beyond. The experience of human life is fleeting. I cannot be both. Think of a camera. It sees that which it focuses on. Everything else is blurred. Invisible. Moreover my presence here is sustained with life-force stolen from which I celebrate. Learn from my folly. Do not be seduced by the infinite potential of life unborn. Take only from my strength. Accept its limitations."

Phoenix Force in Excalibur #64

The Phoenix Force is a difficult burden to carry. You have to be strong of heart and mind to rein it in. And the real danger is-- if you cannot control it-- its magnificent destructive energy will consume you.

Rachel Summers in X-Men: Phoenix #3