We had all heard about some lab generated super virus created as a means to finally kill off mutants once and for all, but none of us actually ever believed something called Legacy existed. Even the professor thought it was just some nasty rumor put into play by the government or maybe the FoH, so none of us were prepared when suddenly, world wide, perfectly healthy mutants were suddenly sick and dying off in rapid numbers in just a matter of days. It was like a nightmare…I couldn’t wrap my mind around the total, unbelievable horror even as the people I knew and loved and considered my family began to die right before my eyes while, thanks to the healing I had inherited from my encounter with Carol, I stayed health and set close with each one as the virus painfully took them from me.





Scott was the first to go, but after losing Jean two years prior to the release of the virus, I think that he was ready and in fact, he called me Jean several times towards the end, and I didn’t try and correct him. I felt I could give him that, the belief that it was the one he loved there with him…I held his hand until he drew his last breath and then I went to sit beside Storm, still so beautiful even when so ill and I thanked her for the kindness she had shown me and the friendship she had offered when I first arrived at the mansion and she smiled as if she understood what I was saying.





Ro died three hours after Scott and two days later, I set beside Bobby who told me he had always loved me and I cried when his eyes closed and then it was John that went after telling me he had always envied how Bobby had felt for me. He had loved Bobby for years and he seemed to regret that he had never told him that and I was sorry for him that it was too late.





A day and a half after that, Kitty and Jubes went almost within an hour of one another and I set between their beds, sobbing for a long time, remembering our carefree days as students and wishing with all my might that we could go back to that precious time in the past.





But we couldn’t.





And there was more death to come.





Remy…Kurt…Hank.





The Professor.





Somehow, that one hit me the hardest, mainly because I had always looked at Charles and saw him as being larger than life and therefore I just assumed he would be around forever. I thought he was one person I would never lose, and sitting beside him, I said all that important things, telling him he was like a father to me, he was one of the best men I had ever known and I cried for his heartache when he called out Eric’s name in the seconds before he finally faded.





I had heard, a few days before, that Eric had already fallen victim to the virus and I silently prayed that maybe, in whatever life came next, he and Charles could work out their differences and be together.





I also knew the rest of The Brotherhood was gone.





Toad…Mystique…all their young recruits, some that hadn’t been much older than I had when I first came to live at the mansion.





Everyone was dying and I cried for them all, even those I had once looked at as my enemy, because all the death and pain and suffering seemed so senseless to me and I was willing to bet that those who had created The Legacy agreed with me, as their precious mutant killing virus had mutated into a monster that began killing off humans in the same painful, horrible manner as it killed Mutants.





Some would have called that divine justice.





I just called it sad. All of it. The entire fucking world was sad.





It made me think about Eric.





Magneto.





He had seen this coming, he had seen it before, what irrational hate could drive men to do to one another…he had seen it all as a child in the camps and as an old man he had fallen victim to the same kind of stupid hate.





And for what? Why? What was the reason?





Humans wanted mutants dead.





Well, they got their wish, cause it was projected that less than ten percent of the hated mutant population would survive and around five percent of humans would still be left standing when the death dust settled.





And then what?





Did we find a way to finish one another off?





If Legacy couldn’t kill us, what could?





In a matter of months the world population across the globe dropped to a few hundred thousand scattered about, struggling to survive, living off the land and what they could find in abandoned homes and supermarkets.





Civilization was no more.





My family was gone.





The mansion was so hollow, so empty…I wondered from room to room.



I recalled all of them.





Scott…Ro…Bobby…John…Jubes…Kitty…Kurt…Hank…Remy…Charles.





I even remembered Jean, gone so long before the virus hit.





I wondered, if she had been alive, could she have found a cure?





I told myself it was foolish to wonder such things, as I set alone in the old rec room a full month after the last of my friends had died and suddenly I turned around and there he stood.





Logan.





With a strangled cry, I threw myself into his open arms and I sobbed against his chest as he told me he was sorry, he had been trying to get home, but the border between the US and Canada had been under heavy guard.





It wasn’t now.





Who was left to guard it and why did anyone care?





I assured him it was okay, I was just glad he was there, at long last and I began to sob again when I had to tell him that everyone else was gone…they had died off one at a time.





I was the only one left at the mansion.





Logan pulled back and looked down at me and he assured me it was okay, that he and I would stick together.





Then he said what I had always longed to hear.





He told me he loved me, that he had always loved me, even back when he flirted with Jean and I cried and whispered those words back to him…I told him I had always loved him…I would always.





It was a happy moment.





It was a heartbreaking moment.





None of my friends were there to share the joy with me.





But I had Logan and I thanked God for that at least as we set on the sofa and he held me close to him.





He let me cry for hours, cry for those I had lost…he let me grieve and I think he did the same in his own way, as we recalled our friends and family and I told him I would gladly go wherever he wanted to go.





But I couldn’t stay at the mansion.





For me, it was haunted.





Everywhere I looked I could see Charles and Scott…I could hear Jubes laughing and I could smell smoke created by John as he played with his fire…I heard Ro’s voice so soft yet strong telling me to go on with life and live it for all it was worth and I could see Remy winking at me, blowing me a kiss.





Moving on was right.





Logan agreed.





We packed what we thought we might need into an SUV and I went to each room my friends had once lived in and I took a little something…a pen from Bobby, an old book from Kitty, a CD from Jubes, a book from the professor, just different little things to keep them close and then Logan and I left.





But first, we burnt down the mansion.





It seemed right, Logan said, no one else needed to pillage what had once been so very precious and I cried as I watched the flames licked the sky.





Then Logan and I left.





We drove off and I didn’t look back, I just held Logan’s hand and I smiled when he told me he loved me.





Always.





Forever.





Nothing can kill what we feel for one another, no virus, no human mob or mad band of mutants has the power to destroy love, Logan promised and I believed him, as I had always believed him in all things.





Belief was all I had left.





Belief and Logan.





Those two things were my companions as I left Westchester behind.





That was twenty eight years ago, almost to the day.





Logan and I found a place in Canada, high in the mountains where we settled and we began to rebuild our lives.





Near a waterfall about a mile from the old log cabin we found, Logan and I exchanged our vowels, promising to love and honor for all our lives.





And for us, that meant something.





It was hard at times, I missed those I had lost, but I focused on what I did have and me and Logan, we did okay as time passed and we had three children, all boys, that we named Scott, Charles, and Hank.





They, along with Logan, are the loves of my life.





And, of course, I have told them about those they were named for as well as all the others and ever so slowly, we go down from our mountain from time to time and at a very cautious pace, the world is slowly rebuilding.





Civilization is returning.





There are even communities where mutants and humans live together in peace.



Turned out Charles was right.





Peace was possible.





To bad it took a worldwide holocaust to make us all see that clearly.





But maybe, just maybe, the lessons have all been learned now and maybe we can just move forward as people and not divide ourselves up by who has one more gene or who happens to be what religion or color.





Maybe the peace we have found can last.





I believe it can.





And when I look at Logan and our sons, I realize that really, that is all we have in this world that we can count on.





Belief and love.





When everything else goes away, those two things can and do remain and all you can do is cling to them with all your might and think God you have them.





Belief and love.





The End