I had heard television evangelist and overly zealous religious fanatics say for years that one day, the world as we all knew it would come to a tragic end, but I have to say that I never really believed it. I guess I could never wrap my mind around God ending all the world, because there were times that I wasn’t so sure I actually believed in God. I knew I had as a child, growing up in Mississippi, attending church every Sunday with my mom and dad, but after my mutation reared its ugly head and my family tossed me out, my belief wavered some and it continued doing so during the eight months that I spent on the road, because I saw some things so horrible it was hard for me to believe things like that could actually happen in a world that God governed.





Then I came to the mansion, to Charles Xavier’s School For The Gifted, and I thought it was okay if I believed in God cause He had allowed me to find someplace where I was safe, but over the years, through being kidnapped, seeing battle after battle, and killing Carol when she went crazy, my doubts resurfaced only to fade once more when I saw something good happen, but even during those times when my belief in God was weak or strong, I never thought the world would end.





I never believed something like Legacy would happen.





I knew many humans hated mutants, and I knew there were humans that wanted to see mutants dead, but never in my worst nightmare did I imagine humans would be so insane as to unleash a lab generated virus intended to wipe out the mutant population in a matter of months.





Of course, I am willing to bet the humans never imagined there precious virus would mutate until it effortlessly killed everyone, mutants and humans alike.





After four months, less than ten percent of the mutant population was left standing along with just about five percent of the humans.





The world came to an end.





Only God hadn’t ended it, hate had…humans had…I wanted to scream and cry and curse but I could do none of those things as I watched my friends, the people I saw as my family, die agonizingly painful deaths while I remained strong and healthy thanks to the powers I had inherited from Carol.





I was perfectly healthy as I watched Charles and Ro and Jean and Scott die.





I didn’t even have a case of the chills when Jubes and John and Bobby and then Kitty faded.





I felt fine when Hank and Remy drew their last breaths.





I didn’t even feel tired and after I buried all of them myself, after I laid flowers on their graves and finally allowed myself the chance to cry for my friends…my family…I cried for Bobby and John that had never admitted their love for one another and I cried for Remy and Kitty who had just began to explore what they felt.





I cried for Scott and Jean, who had been planning on having a baby.





They had wanted to create a life.





Instead they had died.





I cried for Ro, who had always been so graceful and beautiful.





I cried for Charles, for the man I had looked at as a father…I cried because I knew he had been thinking about Eric at the end and I wondered if Eric had been thinking about Charles.





I knew Eric had died.





I knew Mystique had died along with Toad and all of the other young recruits Eric had drawn into The Brotherhood.





Sabertooth was still alive, I was sure.





I figured Wolverine was still somewhere, I knew he had a healing factor, that he was a man that could find and would find a way to fend for himself no matter what or how hard it seemed. I had seen him in battle over the years, he was strong and smart and he struck me as fearless and despite the fact that he had joined The Brotherhood even after Charles tried to get him to be an X-Man, I had always respected him, considering all he had been through in his life.





Charles had told us about the lab, Wolverine had been in, how he had metal on his bones and claws and few memories about his past and…I hated to admit it, but there had been something about the man that had attracted me, draw me to him and often I had thought it was mutual, when our eyes caught at the end of a battle. I could feel him looking at me…I never let myself think about it much, we were on two different sides, fighting the same battle, only following different leaders, but suddenly I wasn’t so sure battle lines mattered anymore as I buried the last of my friends before wondering back to the empty mansion.





For weeks after Charles died, I wondered about kind of aimlessly, not sure what to do, I felt alone, worried, the mansion seemed so hollow…I couldn’t sleep at night, I felt as if I were haunted by memories of those I had loved and lost. I had no idea what to do, the need for X-Men no longer existed and it was a good thing, cause me alone wouldn’t have made a difference, rules that had once mattered in society no longer existed, it was a new world, where everyone had to look out for number one and I was sitting in the professor’s office, thinking about how sad that seemed, when a noise startled me from my thoughts and I looked up to see him.





The Wolverine.





It was so unexpected, him standing there, but oddly, I wasn’t frightened or caught off guard, I was just…I realized it was comforting somehow to see him, it was proof indeed that I wasn’t alone in the world.





Someone else was alive.





“Kind of figured you survived.”





He leaned casually against the doorway as he said it and I half smiled.





“Kind of figured the same about you.”





“Everyone else…” He gave me a meaningful look and I nodded.





“They are all gone.”





“Some with The Brotherhood.”





“Sabertooth?”





“He took off when it hit.”





“I’m sorry.” And I was. For all of them. For all of us.





“Me too.”





“Charles, he was thinking about Eric in the end.”





“Eric, he said that sides didn’t matter after all and neither he or Charles were right.”





I thought about that, realizing Eric had been right, sides didn’t matter, the different ways he and Charles had gone about fighting hadn’t made any impact in the end and the humans that had sided against mutants had died for their efforts, along with most of the mutants they had hated.





Talk about a fucking no win situation.





“What now?”





His question drew my attention back to him and I shrugged.





“I don’t know. I’ve been trying to figure it out.”





“Guess The X-Men and The Brotherhood are over.”





“Yeah. It would be kind of stupid for me and you to continue the fight.”





He half smiled at that. “Yeah.”





“What are you gonna do?”





“I got a place, in Canada, up in the mountains.”





“You headed up there?”





“Thought I would. It’s safe. Secure. In the forest. Plenty of hunting and food.”





“Sounds nice.”





“It is. That’s kind of why I’m here.”





“What do you mean?”





“I was thinking, since the X-Men and The Brotherhood have busted up, and me and you are the last ones standing, I figured maybe we should join up and face this new battle for survival together.”





I allowed that to sink it, as I set at the professor’s desk and he stood and I realized that his offer was not surprising and more importantly, I liked it.





“I think I could go for that plan.”





He nodded. “It might not always be easy.”





“Life never is.”





“No, no it isn’t.”





“But it’s still worth living.”





“I agree.”





Our eyes locked and held then, as they had before and I felt it…I felt the connection that had always existed between us and in my gut, I knew that connection was all we would really need.





Standing, I walked towards him and he smiled as I approached.





“We should take anything from here you think we might need.”





He nodded at the suggestion. “Will do. But I got on question.”





“Go for it.”





“What kind of name is Rogue?”





I smiled at that. “I don’t know. What kind of name is Wolverine?”





“Logan.”





“Marie.”





“Nice to meet you, Marie.”





“Same here, Logan.”





Our eyes locked again and he smiled and held out a hand that I accepted, silently confirming that I would walk into the future with him, even if that future was still very uncertain.





Even if we had started out on different sides, cause like Eric had said, sides no longer mattered.





Survival mattered.





Life mattered.





Love mattered.





And with Logan, I knew I had a chance at all three, and that was all that mattered.





THE END