Logan sat at the bar, shoulders tense and hunched over staring into his glass of bourbon. It had been three years since the incident at Alcatraz, he knew most of the mansions residents thought he left because of Jean’s death and that he couldn’t deal with it. Logan wasn’t one to have insight on why he did the things he did, but if he was truly honest with himself he left because of his surprisingly strong feelings for Marie. Taking a sip of the bourbon it burned the back of his throat as he was replaying the events of the Alcatraz mission in his head.

//Logan looked from left to right at his teammates, catching a glimpse of Bobby and Kitty and even though they are both Marie’s age he couldn’t help feeling good that she wasn’t here. Due to this fact he felt content during the entirety of the battle and the fact that he came up with that ingenious ploy to administer the cure to Magneto was mainly because he knew Marie was safe he could focus all his attention on the battle. I felt good to see that son-of-a-bitch sink to the ground as Beast stabbed him with the cure.//

Still sitting in the bar solemnly Logan made a grunt of satisfaction, which drew the attentions of the bartender. She was the epitome of what some people call a buxom blonde; she sashayed over to where he was sitting trying her best to be sexy.

“Hey handsome we’re almost at last call did you want one more drink?”

Leaning over the counter with her low cut top her breast were nearly spilling out in front of him, looking her in the eyes he gave her a smirk before replying, “No thanks Darling, I’m about to hit the road.”

“Well if you have sometime before you leave I get off in about 10 minutes or so.”

Logan couldn’t help giving a deep bellowed chuckle at her innuendo simply because the old Logan wouldn’t think twice about waiting 10 minutes and then plowing her from behind in the back alley, but this Logan had somewhere to be and had to see about a girl.

“As fun as that sounds Darling I’m on a time crunch, but maybe next time,” was the best reply he could come up with to deny her invitation. Pouting her lips she stood up, while walking away she muttered something about gay men shouldn’t be that sexy. Deciding it was time to be on his way he got off the bar stool he was sitting on, making his way to his car in the parking lot he looked at his watch which read 1:15 am. He did the math in his head and figured if he didn’t make any pit stops he could make it to the mansion in 10 hours straight. Starting the ignition on the car, he made his way out of the parking lot heading east on the Alberta interstate, as he made his way to the only home he knew thoughts of Marie plagued his mind.

He wondered how she would look, and how she would react to his return to the mansion after all these years, but the question that pestered him the most was if he was too late to have the life he wanted to share with Marie.

Being gone from New York for three years Logan noticed a lot had changed while he was away, and it was a change he didn’t happen to like. New Yorkers always had a tinge of fear in their scent that he rarely noticed in other areas he had frequented throughout his lifetime, but the amount of fear he smelled when he reached the city limits was reaching a level even he found alarming.

Female pedestrians clutched their handbags and purses as if it was their most valuable piece of property, the small children skirted around anyone who walked by them, and the men had an air of paranoia around them that would make a Vietnam vet blush. Even the amount of traffic was cause for alarm; usually New York traffic consisted of streets full of cars bumper to bumper, but the traffic he was in was something he would expect in a cow-town not the city that never sleeps.

~What the hell is going on around here~

Logan thought as he looked around trying to figure what could have changed in the last three years that would make people so afraid. It was times like this that he wished he kept up with current affairs, instead of travelling the world and using the fight circuit in Canada as a source of income.

As Logan was coming up to a red light he felt something creeping up his spine and knew at once that it was guilt. He didn’t even know what was going on and he felt guilty about the fact that he wasn’t here to stop it. The more he pondered on his selfish reasons to leave the Xmen, the more he started thinking of other things to feel guilty about. Taking a deep breath to calm his nerves his thoughts once again went to that night on Alcatraz.

//“It’s over Jean it’s over,” he pushed out in between heavy breaths of exhaustion. Looking at Jeans face he could tell she was scared and confused about what exactly just happened, and that’s when the soldiers arrived too late for the actual battle and fired at Jean thinking she was still a threat. “No don’t shoot,” he screamed with pleading eyes looking at the soldiers, the fear on her face dissolved in seconds and was replaced with unbridled fury. Her eyes turned black and she emitted a dull orange aura around her, the cure pellets stopped in mid-air and then dissolved. Turning to face the soldiers the Phoenix obliterated all of them without a second thought, turning her head enough to look at Beast and himself she flew up in the air to land on a raised mound of earth surrounded by scrap metal and destroyed cars. He stood in shock and awe as the Phoenix was causing a tidal wave of destruction throughout the entire island. He heard Beast scream “Everybody get out of there,” while soldiers and mutants alike were being disintegrated, it was then that he notice Ro’ standing next to him, “I’m the only one who can stop her. Get everyone to safety. GO!” he knew she would understand what he meant when he said this, she gave him a look of pity before she flew toward the bridge.//

Coming out of the memory he noticed he was squeezing the steering wheel with a death grip, looking around at his surroundings he noticed he wasn’t even 10 minutes away from the mansions gates and his curiosity started stirring when he began to wonder how everyone else handled the memories of that night especially Marie.

It was nearly impossible for Logan not to notice the armed guard stationed at the mansions front gate.

~Apparently I have some catching up to do cause this is making the type of sense that just doesn’t~

“Can I help you sir?” asked one of the tall and stocky guards, while he had his hand over what looked like to him was a black Sig 9 mm.

~ Yeah sorry bub that little pea shooter isn’t going to work on me~

“I used to live here alright! I just need to speak with Ororo she knows who I am.” Logan said with as much enthusiasm as someone who having their teeth cleaned.

Pulling out a radio from behind him, he started speaking with someone on the other line. Logan was starting to get aggravated because he really didn’t have time to deal with a jarhead.

“What’s your name sir?” the same guard asked the question while the radio was perched near his mouth awaiting Logan’s answer.

“Logan”

“Logan what?” he retorted with a look on his face that read like he thought Logan wasn’t to smart.

“It’s just Logan bub.” Logan’s aggravation was escalating toward angry, and the Wolverine started to stir in the recesses of his due to his impatience he started to notice his knuckles were starting to itch with anticipation for a little violence.

“Longtime no see buddy.”

Not recognizing who the voice belonged he turned to his farther left to see Beast standing there in all his blue glory.

“Hey Big Blue. Are you going to help me out here or just watch?” Logan said while directing his looks to the stocky soldier, he wasn’t past chopping into little pieces a few moments ago.

“He’s legit guys. He’s with me.” Beast said with an authoritative voice towards the two soldiers.

The soldiers opened the gates and waived us by to open the grounds. There was a small piece of Logan that was disappointed he didn’t get to break a sweat and beat the shit out of those guys. Logan noticed that Beast’s vehicle wasn’t far behind him, and they were both nearing the huge mansions gates that belonged to the Xavier Institute. Beast pulled his car out to the right and directed Logan to follow him to the garage to park the cars. Once both the cars were stationed properly in the garage they both shut their engines off. Logan opened the car door; Beast was perched on the side of his car eyeing Logan with curiosity.

“What the hell is going on around here Blue?” Logan asked regarding the strange events he noticed today.

“Follow me and I’ll explain. Ororo is waiting for you in her office.” Beast retorted not actually answering my question but directing me to a source that might be able to. I followed him to a door in the garage that leads into the mansion. Looking around my surroundings I noticed the mansion looked the same, but I was picking up the scent of fear that was too strong to be considered normal. I noticed Beast was headed in the direction of the professor’s old office; we were almost at the door when a voice stopped me in my tracks.

“Well I’ll be damned the Big Bad Wolverine has returned.”
Turning around he saw Marie descending down the staircase in the master hall, she looked like a goddess gracing us mortals with her presence. When she came to stand in front of him he noticed that she still looked like Marie but she also looked different from the last time she saw her. Her hair still had that white streak where her bangs rested on her face, but the rest of her hair was no longer chestnut brown but now auburn red. Her eyes were no longer their deep chocolate brown but now a piercing green color, and he smelled power radiating off her presence it aroused the animal part of him.

“Yeah Darling I’m back. Did you miss me?” as he flirted her a bit.

“Maybe a little,” she retorted as she flirted back with him.

He smiled at her, glad that they fit back into their regular routine of things. Maybe things weren’t going to be so bad. Marie pulled him into a hug and it didn’t fail his attention that she didn’t avoid skin to skin contact.

“It’s nice to have you back, we’ll catch up later though I have some business to take care of,” she exclaimed with a strong tone of authority. Logan was disappointed that he wouldn’t have a chance to talk with her now; her presence caused him to momentarily forget that Beast was waiting behind him.

“Humph” Beast coughed to grab Logan’s attention back to the situation at hand.

“Yeah darling we’ll catch up later okay,” Logan said with a sad note of longing in his voice. She gave him a quick smile before walking in the opposite direction. Before entering Ororo’s office Logan couldn’t noticing the way Marie’s ass switched back and forth as she walked. Now getting back down to brass tacks Logan entered the office to see the Professor sitting in his chair, Ororo to the right and Scott and some blonde women to the left.

~Oh yeah he had a lot of catching up to do.~

“Well first things first when did you and Cyke decide to join the living again,” Logan asked still shocked to see two people he presumed dead three years ago alive and well. He had a lot of questions rattling around in his head, such as why the professor was walking around let alone had a body, and who the blonde woman next to One Eye was.

“We’ll get to that at another time Logan, Hank tells me since your arrival you haven’t been brought up to speed about the present situation going on here,” the professor retorted completely dismissing his first question.
Logan was a little upset by the dismissal but quickly realized he was more interested in what was going on presently, instead of the reason the Professor and Scott were back.

“Okay then shoot start from the beginning.” Logan responded slightly irritated. It wasn’t their fault he was feeling that way it was just he hasn’t slept in nearly 24 hours.

“You might want to sit down Logan so we can start from the beginning.”

Logan did as the professor asked by sitting down on chair not to far behind him. Looking around at the faces of his old teammates he saw all their graves faces and knew this was much more serious than he thought.

“We’ve determined Alcatraz was the first domino piece to topple in this domino effect.” It was this statement that had Logan on automatic alert. Alcatraz was part of the reason he left the mansion in the first place, that guilt started trickling up his spine again.

“Rogue filled us in on the events that happened that night.”

~So they know what happened that night then.~

“Due to your prolonged leave of absence,” chimed in Scott. Logan was about to retort with a snarky response but when he looked at Scott’s face he could tell it wasn’t an insult but more remorse about what Logan went through.

"As I was saying,” the professor said while glaring at Scott for interrupting him. “A series of events involving other superheroes happened in the following months after Alcatraz.” The professor handed Logan a file with details of the events he just mentioned. Looking through the paperwork he started understanding how bad things had gotten, in one of the files there was a picture of 26 victims supposedly killed by The Hulk in Las Vegas, and another file showed the descriptions of a super-villain named Nitro who destroyed nearly seven city blocks killing 600 to 1200 people 60 of whom were children. Logan was far from surprised to see that Nick Fury had something to do with all of this; he hated that ass he always felt he knew what was best for the country even though he obviously didn’t.

The professor continued on while Logan was going over all the information handed over to him.

“Due to these superhuman related incidents the government has asked all super humans and mutants to abide by the superhuman registration act which is not much different from the mutant registration act.”

~So these bastards are not only after mutants now but everyone.~

“So the problem were facing now is that the SRA has forced all supers to choose a side, choosing to be either pro-registration or fight against it. Due to the nature that we’ve been at the end of this spear for quite some time, because of the Mutant Registration Act most of us have chosen the side of anti-registration.” The professor said filling Logan in to the events presently at play.

“So where does that leave us now to fight this,” Logan asked curious what the professor’s next step of action was and where he would fit in since he just arrived.

“Ms. Frost here has pooled both of our resources together to expand the school not only to house mutants’ students, but also the allies we’ve gotten during this Civil War. We have quite a few living here as a matter of fact. The steps were trying right now involve taking a peaceful approach but honestly I fear the worst. By the way Logan due to our current circumstances we really could use you back on the team” the professor said while openly answering Logan’s previous question.

“You don’t have to worry Chuck I’m here to stay I’ll be a good boy and follow Scotts’ rules.” Logan said sarcastically. “Do you mind if I keep the files for tonight so I can get up to speed on exactly what and who we are dealing with,” he said to lessen the blow of his smartass remark a few seconds earlier.

“Sure Logan the info I provided will be substantiated by what is in the files, it will also have a list of those who have chosen to defend pro-registration and also a list of the allies we have including those residing at the mansion currently,” the professor said which let Logan know he approved of him reading over the material handed over to him.

Logan gave the professor his nod of thanks, and sent him a message telepathically hoping he would get it.

~When you get the chance you and I have some catching up to do~

~Sure thing Logan I’ll let you know when I’m free~

Logan ascended from his chair along with everyone else since the meeting was concluded, and they all made their way to the door to get back to their other duties.
Ororo, Hank, and Scott told Logan they were glad he was back on the team as they were making their way out the office door, and Emma Frost briefly introduced herself before rejoining Scott in the master hall. Logan being the last one to leave the office shut the door behind him and went in search of Marie. Tired or no he wanted to let her know how much he missed her the past three years and explain to her why he had left.

It didn’t take long for him to find her after he dropped the files off at his room; he just followed her scent which was still the same except the overlay power he smelled on her earlier. Standing outside the workshop class he noticed Scott and Emma teaching the older kids mechanics, and on the other side was Marie sitting on a table in a sexy forest green blouse and blue jeans holding hands with a man who was about 6’3, had dirty blonde hair with a side part and a muscular build.

The amount of jealousy Logan had surging through him was bordering a murderous intensity; avoiding as many residents as possible Logan made his way down to the lower levels toward the Danger Room. Logan wasn’t surprised his access code from three years ago was still usable; he was the only resident with the codes for levels that could cause fatalities so it was wise to assume no-one would use his access code since they didn’t have his healing factor. As the doors to the danger room opened and then shut behind him he thought what program he should do to calm his nerves before he actually confronted Marie.

Logan was being tossed around like a rag-doll by the Hulk on a snowy mountainous landscape; he would try to get up only to have a large and very green fist pound him further into the unforgiving earth. Logan was able to release his claws at some point and claw at the Hulks’ hand, making the Hulk angrier it gave Logan a small window of time to maneuver out of the crater his body made. Finally gaining some semblance of balance, Logan stood his ground with a wolfish grin spreading on his letting the Hulk know that the Wolverine was in control of this little dance they were having.

“Hey! You big baby, are you ready for your supper?” Wolverine growled amused between deep intakes of breath in the cold weather, showing the Hulk his adamantium claws that glistened from the sun’s rays.

“Hulk don’t like little man.” The green giant screamed at the wolverine a looked of annoyance and anger etching onto his face.

Their violent dance went on for almost three hours until Logan decided to end the simulation. Deciding to completely forego on taking a shower in the locker rooms, he made his way to his room instead. Reaching to grasp the doorknob to the room, he started to feel the open wounds covering his face begin to heal. Logan slammed the door to his room shut, not caring in the least if he woke up the other residents.

Stripping of his jeans and now tattered wife beater, he walked over to the bed in his boxer briefs. Noticing the file strewn over the top cover, Logan debated whether he wanted to spend more energy going over the file or just sleep. Deciding to sleep instead Logan collected the papers on his bed in a messy pile and put in on the bedside table to his left. Situating himself on the bed thoughts of Marie started crippling his mind again.

~ Why was she with that asshole, instead of waiting for him like she always did?~

~When did she learn to control her ability?~

~Why did she seem so different from the Marie he knew three years ago~

He knew he had no right to be upset that she found happiness with some, but he thought that her happiness should be with him. Logan felt like a dumbass because if he just told Marie how he felt he would have been the one to hold her hand, hold her petite form close to his own, and share the passion he feels for her daily.

Exhaustion got the best of Logan and he drifted off into a deep sleep.

//Standing his ground he looked around at all the destruction going on around him. Turning back to look at Jean she had was expressing a look of complete apathy; he made his way toward her.

“Jean I know your still there.”

That’s when he felt the pain, looking down he noticed the flesh on his chest and thighs start to regrow. It was a struggle to make it up that mound of earth as she was trying to erase his existence. Next thing he knew Jean was up in the air screaming with two bare hands wrapped around her face, looking up he could see Jean struggling to get the assailant off her, and just as quickly he saw a look of peace on Jean’s face before she started to fall back to earth. Making his way to the two bodies, he saw Marie’s unconscious form lying under Jean’s corpse.

Scooping Marie up in his arms he tried to shake her awake but nothing changed. Feeling hopeless he screamed to the heavens, he was supposed to protect her and he failed. Logan sat alone crying over the bodies of the woman everyone thought he loved and the woman he actually loved.//

A tall dark figure with piercing white eyes, stalked the halls of the mansion. He made his way to the lower levels where he was told Xavier’s team was holding weaponry that could be progressive for the registrations act progression. Apparently one of Xavier’s little helpers called Forge made the device a while ago that could temporarily neutralize super-human abilities.

Stark who was not able to discover the right mechanics to make a similar device of his own needed this one, because Stark figured it would solidify his chances of winning the war.

Finally reaching the lower levels towards the armaments, the shadowy figure stopped when he heard giggling coming from the mansions infirmary. Pressing himself against the wall to remain stealth, he slinked past the doors quietly while also looking inside to see who the two occupants were. Noticing the faces belonged to the mutant who could shoot red beams out of his eyes and the blonde telepath, the unheard figure cursed under his breath.

“Oh great a fucking telepath!” he whispered so low even his ears barely heard it.

Setting up the psychic blocks he learned after years of training, the shadowy figure proceeded to the armament. Reaching the door he noticed it needed a special code to open, smiling to himself he pulled out the small device Stark gave him to decipher the code. Jabbing the device into the computerized part of the door it started doing its work. Noticing the voices in the infirmary were getting louder he started anxious for the code to be deciphered, being caught didn’t sound like a great idea. Finally completed the door made a silent clicking sound and he pulled the door the open, after entering the room he closed it most of the was soon it looked like it was still closed but left enough space so he wouldn’t be locked in. Pulling out a picture of what the device looked he found it in the back behind a glass case, similar to the one’s in jewelry stores.

~Well so much for a stealth mission. Guess I’m going to have a discussion with Stark and Hill that Mission Impossible is just a movie~

Pulling out his cell phone he had to make a call before breaking the glass protection the weapon.

** “Hill speaking,” said a woman’s voice on the phone.

“It’s Wade. I’m in the safe but the device is guarded in a glass case that looks like it’s triggered to an alarm.” Wade said filling Maria in on his headway, before he got to the point.

“Okay! Do you have a plan in mind,” Maria expressed in a rushed manner.

“Here’s a picture of the room,” Wade pulled the camera up on his cell phone and took a picture of the room. “Have Azazel teleport here so I have an escape route.”

“Will do, Deadpool don’t do anything until Azazel gets there we can’t afford to screw this up.”**

Wade wasn’t waiting long before Azazel materialized in the room with him.

“Having trouble finding the place Red?” Wade joked knowing he wouldn’t take it seriously.

“Bite me Wilson,” he responded.

Both Wade and Azazel made their way back towards the room to get the device, and got established in front of the glass case holding the neutralizing device. Wade lifted his arm in the air and bent it at the elbow, with his elbow protruding out Wade brought his arm down to smash into the glass case in doing so though the alarm started blaring and the safe door automatically closed. Grabbing the device with his right hand, Wade latched his other on Azazel’s shoulder and both of them disappeared in a plume of smoke.

Since Scott and Emma were the nearest to the armament they were the firsts one at the scene, it wasn’t long though before the other X-men filled up the entrance to the weaponry. The professor was the last one to enter, knowing that he had to play mediator to his team to keep them calm as they processed the information they had before them.

“First things first is anything missing?”

They all looked at each other letting the professors’ question sink in, none of them actually checked since most of them were pretty hazy from being woken up.

“No sir.” Scott spoke up through the awkward silence, “we haven’t checked the inventory lists yet.”

“Well I suggest that is something that we do; I doubt anyone broke in just to trigger an alarm.”

Logan was no stranger to seeing the professor have a snarky attitude, last time was when he had confronted him about Jeans’ dual personality, and if he remembered it correctly the professor had straightforwardly to him he didn’t need to explain himself to him and to butt out of it.

“Scott, Emma, Ororo, Hank, Logan, and Rogue I want you six to go over the inventory to see if anything is missing, when you’re finish please meet me and the others in the Oval room we have much to discuss”

After the professor left the armament, the others split up into groups of two which so happened to leave him to team up with Marie.

~About freaking time I’ve been trying to get some alone time with her for the past week~

Scott and Emma had the front part of the room, Ororo and Hank had the middle portion, which left Marie and him the back portion of the armament.

“Here’s the list of items we need to check on- read them off for me one at a time, so we can weed out what’s missing.” Marie said with a sharp tone, while handing the list over to him.

Logan was surprised by her directness and sense of self, the Marie he remembered from three years ago was brash, reckless, with a wild temper, but the Marie in front of him was poised, collected, and refined. A third of a way through the list Logan spoke up no longer able to be this close to her and not ask her what’s was going on.

“So Darling is now a good time to catch-up with you?”

Her big green eyes widen with surprise at the randomness of the question, “Umm… I don’t see why not Logan.”

“So what have you been up to for the past three years Marie?”

After Logan asked the question, he could smell she was uneasiness wafting off of her.

“What do you think has been going on Logan,” she said harshly drawing out his name. “Were in the middle of a super-powered Civil War with old friends and colleagues, people we thought we could trust have betrayed us, and honestly I’m tired of attending funerals of people I cared about.”

Logan wasn’t so much paying attention to what Marie was saying, but more so to her eyes which were drastically changing colors they started out being a bright emerald green, and slowly flecks of black started edging into her irises. Logan grasped both her shoulders to calm her down as the lights started to flicker on and off.

“Marie calm down. It’s okay. Stay with me Marie.”

~What the hell is up with her eyes~

Logan’s hold on her seemed to help draw her back to reality, her eyes went from the sharp shards of bright green and pitch black to a hazel color with forest green and honey brown in her irises. The others ran toward them to see what was going on, and they all stared at Rogue with grave faces as they realized what could of happened if Logan’s words didn’t ground her.

“Guys I think I know what they took,” Storm said pointing at the case with all the broken glass. Storm wasn’t surprised to hear Scott’s voice read off the name of the device written on the inventory list, since she herself was once a victim of the device, her lover whom created it accidently used it on her.

In the professor’s office, the whole team stood grim faced when they were told what device was stolen.

“So what are we going to do now huh? The other side can now just take away our abilities on a whim and we have no way of protecting ourselves,” Jubilee screamed breaking the silence of the room. Gambit hugged her to him when she started fidgeting with anxiety and fear.

Logan smelled it on everyone except three occupants including him. He looked over at the first which was Gambit it looked like he also changed from the last time he saw him, Gambit used to have long brownish red hair and now it was strikingly pure white color, Logan couldn’t smell one ounce of fear on him. The second being Marie who’s eyes once again changed color from the soft hazel with flecks of green back to the bright green she had earlier today, he also didn’t fail to notice that Captain red, white, and blue all over was holding her from behind. Logan couldn’t help feel that surge of jealousy sweep back through him at the site of them together.

The professor finally responded to Jubilees question and the questioning glances of all the occupants in the room, after he took a moment to collect his thoughts.

“I will speak with Forge and see if he can create something that can disengage the weapon if it’s in the area, as for our new course of action we are no longer on the defensive but now on the offensive.”

Logan looked around and saw a lot of confused faces throughout the room, but he understood perfectly.

“Meaning the peaceful tactic is no longer an option, we must use all our resources available to win this war and use any force necessary, also no one is to enter or leave the mansion grounds from now on. Food and supplies will be brought directly to the mansion. I fit the puzzle pieces together and came to the conclusion that the thief or thieves had help getting past security to get the device meaning we have a spy in our mist.”

“What do you mean a fucking spy,” Kitty said panic in her voice but even Logan had a hard time hearing her over all the raised whispers going on throughout the room.

“It’s one of you isn’t” Bobby said accusingly while pointing his finger at all the other heroes in the room.

~That wasn’t such a good idea bub~

It seemed like the room came to life as those individuals who felt threatened by Bobby’s statement started screaming at Bobby. Kitty and Jubilee joined in in the yelling match, the others stood around with disappointed faces as they looked at the display in front of them.

“ENOUGH!” Storm’s voice boomed with a strange echo, lightning and thunder bellowed loudly outside, her eyes were those piercing white orbs and her white hair lifted from her shoulders electricity crackling in between the strands.

“Thank you Storm.” The professor said giving praise to his former student and successor. “Bobby none of them knew the lower level codes to have access to those levels of the mansion and Forge himself made sure the access was foolproof without a code.” The professor knew the list of accessed users by heart and it only had seven people on it.

“I would like to apologize about the earlier stated comment, and I will address to it accordingly. I want you all to know that you’re still very welcome under this roof.”

Bobby head hung low the whole time during the professor’s apology and Logan couldn’t help but notice it wasn’t just the professor glaring daggers his way.

~If looks could kill, that boy would be in a shitload of pain—actually I wouldn’t mind seeing something like that~

“I only need these people to remain here; the rest of you can retire to your bedrooms until tomorrow. We will all reconvene back at 1500 hours to discuss our further action.” “Ororo, Hank, Bobby, Jubilee, Remy, Rogue, Scott, and Logan please stay, the rest of you may retire for the night.”

Logan was extremely surprised to hear his name since he knew he didn’t have access to the infirmary and weaponry level, he was still surprised he had access to the Danger Room.

Scott got up and walked Emma out whispering something in her ear, which she seemed to accept. Rogue just stood and kissed her lover goodnight, and sat back in her chair when he exited the room.

Logan was leaning against the wall brooding, his face a hard passive stare. Pulling out a cigar, and roughly placing the butt in between his teeth he was ready to light it when he felt the familiar nudge in his mind of a telepathic presence.

~Remember that discussion we had quite a few years ago Logan, I really meant what I said I will have you under the belief that you are a six year old girl~

~Are you going to have Ro’ braid my hair and Rogue paint my toenails~

~Just put it away Logan~

“Seven of you have access to the lower levels for the infirmary and the armament. I have kept Logan here to help me with questioning; his mutation will come in handy for this type of situation. I’m sorry for the invasion of privacy, but as most of you are aware we can no longer disclose confidential information when someone is leaking it to other parties.”

Logan took in the scents of the other seven people in the room. The professor scent had tinges of disappointed and despair, and he felt sorry for the guy because he could see the hope that he always had starting to die in his eyes; similar to a camp fire down to the embers flickering light now and again but slowly the embers start to dim to nothingness.

Focusing his attentions on Scott and Ororo, they had that aroma that most leaders have vanity and arrogance, but there was a slight nervousness in their scent. They both sat in their chairs with their back as straight as possible pressed to the backs of the chairs they were in, their feet firmly planted on the ground, and their chins held high.

Jubilee and Bobby both had hummed of anxiousness; Jubilee always smelled anxious because she hated being in one place to long and because of the situation she also had that tinge of nervousness in her scent. Bobby was usually an arrogant prick who thought his shit didn’t stink, so arrogance was expected but Logan nearly choked with the amount of nervous energy he was radiating. Logan made a mental checklist to keep those two on his list of suspects.

Lastly were Hank, Gambit, and Marie sitting in the last row of chairs. Hank had a slight aroma of nervousness, which kind of peaked Logan interest. What reason did Hank have to be nervous he was probably the most trust worthy of anyone in this room? Gambit and Marie just scared the shit out of him because even he felt fear sometimes, and his fear usually turned into anger. With these two though there was nothing no fear, no anger, no nervousness, no anxiety—this was not the way normal people act if they’re going to be interrogated.

~What the hell is wrong with those two~

“Logan and I will first interview all of you as a group, and then separately if that’s okay.” The professor said directing the comment to the seven of them sitting down, the last part being a rhetorical question. “Is that okay with you Logan?”

Logan nodded his head ready for whatever may come of this.

~Logan I will ask most of the questions, I just need you to keep a lookout for odd behavior.~

~Okay Chuck I’ll shoot a message over if I notice anything odd.~

Even though Logan had already noticed plenty of odd behavior from every occupant in the room, he didn’t think this was going to be the end of their odd behavior.

The professor moved the group from the chairs they were sitting in to a table toward the back of the room that would seat them all. Logan pressed himself into one of the back corners in the room, his arms crossed over his large frame and his face holding a passive stare.

The professor walked toward the forefront of the group, and looked as if he was going to say something; instead the professor looked toward the corner where Logan was standing.

~Logan bring a chair over and come sit over here with the rest of the group~

Logan grimaced at the invasion in his mind he really didn’t like people in his head.

Pulling up a chair that looked sturdy enough to hold his frame he sat next to Marie, and looked at the profile of her face he didn’t fail to notice her eyes were once again honey brown. He couldn’t pin point where or who he saw those eyes on but he knew he saw those eyes before and it obviously wasn’t on Marie.

“Will all of you hold hands and close your eyes please this will be done telepathically,” the professor said while directing his rigid stare to the others sitting down.

Logan looked at the others in the group, being he was the last one to close his eyes. The professor was the first to close their eyes after the whole group had their hands interlocked; his face became stoic and almost unmoving. Ororo, Hank and Scott immediately followed suit, once their eyes closed their heads bowed down to where their chins were touching the tops of their chests. Bobby and Jubilee stared at their inert teammates, and then toward the others in the circle holding hands. They both had looks on their face similar to that of what a child would have when they know they’re about to get in a lot of trouble and there is no way of getting out of it. Logan followed Bobby and Jubilees eyes to see the Gambit and Marie had already closed their eyes. Logan was surprised he would think Gambit and Rogue two people notably known to be defiant and have hot tempers would be the last ones to follow the professors suit, but instead excluding himself Bobby and Jubilee were the last ones to close their eyes. After Jubilee and Bobby shut their eyes, Logan closed his eyes, his head falling forward as if he went into a deep slumber.

---

Logan looked around at the off white room the professor created within all of their minds, and he noticed it had no doors or windows, and he also noticed a long white table that some of the others were already seated at and the remainders were making their way towards it. Making his way over to sit down, Logan sat in the chair closest to the professor, and part of him knew the professor chose to use his help not only because of his sense of smell but also because of his expertise at reading body language. It took Logan five minutes using his skills of observation and he already knew which of his teammates were possibly guilty.

Those who chose to be further away from him and the professor were more likely to be guilty then those who were sitting in close proximity to them. Guilty people tend to distance themselves from their accusers. Logan’s first choices of primary suspects were the ones being as distant as they could possibly be, those people being Bobby, Jubilee, and Hank. The others didn’t seem to have any qualms about how close there were sitting to their accusers. Storm and Scott sat closest to Logan, while Marie and Gambit sat closest to the professor.

Even though Logan knew his attentions should probably be directed toward the three sitting at the farthest end of the table, he couldn’t help that his gaze kept landing on Marie. Marie caught Logan staring at her, and she stared into his penetrating hazel eyes with her soft honey brown a small smile also etching itself on her face.

“Now let’s begin everyone,” the professor’s voice boomed with a strong sense of authority. “I will apologize now for this invasion of privacy, but the steps I’m taking are a necessary evil as you all know we cannot afford any more losses.”

“Having a traitor under our roof doesn’t count as a substantial loss to our numbers. I say when we find good riddance when we find the fuck.” Bobby screamed at the professor.

“Yes Bobby, but given the fact that we don’t know why he or she did it we can’t jump to conclusions.”

“I’m not jumping to any fucking conclusions, but these are our lives you’re talking about--that weapon can kill us, and god only knows what else the enemy knows or has because we have a fucking mole under our roof.”

“No it can’t kill any of us Bobby it just neutralizes abilities, it would just make us vulnerable against other super-powered beings. If anyone would know this it would be me. Now sit down!” Storm said to Bobby her sharp tone implying her patience was starting to run thin.

“As we speak right now Mrs. Pryde is checking all your cell and computer records.” The professor said this to the entire group trying to see their reaction. Bobby and Hank seemed to be the only ones in the room whose scent spiked with fear. The professor got that profound look on his face when he receives disturbing news.

“From the disturbing information I just received I’ll need Bobby, Hank, Remy, Rogue, and Logan to stay. Ororo, Scott and Jubilee you will wake up and you can make your way to your rooms.”

---

Ororo, Scott and Jubilee woke up in the meeting room, they looked at their teammates and from an outside view it looked like they were sleeping peacefully. Scott was already heading out the door, not giving Ororo or Jubilee a second glance. Jubilee and Ororo being the only two left in the room, Jubilee was the first to speak directing her comment to her old teacher.

“Mrs. Munroe I’m sorry for the way I acted earlier today during the meeting, it’s just seems we keep going from bad to worse and nothing is getting better, and now one of our own is….”

“Shh… child. Everything is going to be alright we just need to stick together. Now go to bed.” Jubilee looked slightly relieved as she headed out the door Scott just went through.

Ororo completely understood why Jubilee was so wound tight, the five members still with Charles and Logan were the closest thing to family that either her or Jubilee had. Ororo also knew the reason most of them were being questioned about their loyalty wasn’t just about their access to the armory but more about past events that would put their loyalty to the test. At one point Charles trusted all of them with his life, but after Jean decimated his body the Charles that returned wasn’t the same it was like he knew anyone of us could turn for the worse.

//When Charles returned we tried to get back into the flow of things without Scott and Logan. The younger members joined the team, and things were starting to look up the government was still wary of mutants after Alcatraz but we were making strides toward something good. It wasn’t a perfect team there was tension as anyone could expect Bobby left Rogue for Kitty and Rogue shortly after started dating the newest member of the team Remy Labeau or Gambit. Anyone with eyes could see that Rogue and Gambit were in love with each other and Bobby wasn’t happy about that development.

It didn’t take long for the shit to hit the fan. Charles still used Cerebro to find younger mutants who needed housing, and though he never admitted to the others Charles also looked for Logan knowing he could be useful in the events coming their way. Ororo remembered Gambit and Rogue were kidnapped on a pickup mission; it took Charles a year to find them in the clutches of a demented and sadistic mutant called Mr. Sinister, and maybe it was just happenstance or a sick twist of fate the Scott was held prisoner along with Gambit and Rogue. Ororo knew immediately that her friends had changed and not necessarily for the best. She remember she found Gambit with all white hair, his muscle build grew to the size of Colossus’s in his metal form, and if Gambit’s eyes were piercing before now they seemed to look right into your soul. Rogues physical appearance changed as well her eyes were no longer deep chocolate brown but bright green and an orange ember circling the iris, her hair was no longer chestnut brown but more of an deep auburn red color. Scott wasn’t without changes either, his hair was still mostly brown but he also had a few gray strands, his eyes had a glowing red hue implying he was now able to control his ability, and similar to Gambit his body grew twice in size. //

Ororo sickened at her vague memory of the beginning of their purgatory, part of her blamed the cure for trying to change them into what they thought was something acceptable, and the other part blame Jean and the brotherhood for starting them down on this path. She looked at her teammates and felt the pit of despair growing in the pit of her stomach for the last two and a half years grow because she knew she was about to lose yet another friend.

---

After Charles was given the information by Kitty he knew who the traitor was, but he also found some extremely disconcerting information regarding the four other occupants in the room. The problem Charles faced now was how was he going to help these four without making it look like he was accusing them of being a traitor?

Charles looked around at the remaining five people at the table—five people he considered family, and just for a moment his despair had him considering giving up. The knowledge he learned from Kitty’s finds were disturbing. Jubilee, Ororo, and Scott also had their share of disturbing qualities as of late but they were at least open with the professor about their shortcomings, it’s not like he could exclude himself from having disastrous shortcomings.

Charles guessed if he wanted to make excuses he could use Jean turning into the Phoenix as the stressor for his slow spiral into misery and defeat, but he decided to be honest with himself for a change it was after the alkali lake incident. Stryker and Magneto were able to trick him into almost committing mass genocide on an entire species, and that didn’t help mutant affair matters much. Ororo was in theory the sole reason we were able to get back somewhat into the good graces of the government, Scott was so consumed with grief that he spent most days shacked up in Jean and his old room, Logan was there to help also, but never seemed to really want to be there, and of course there was himself who was allowing his past to catch up to him and consume him whole life. He didn’t even have the decency to tell his team that Jean was alive, or that she might be a threat to them all.

So when Phoenix had his arms strung out wide and about a foot in the air, he was at peace with the knowledge that he could finally be free of the guilt and his feelings of failure. He remembered when Logan looked at him, and he smiled because this was his opportunity for liberation but as fate would have it only his physical body was pardoned of his unwanted burdens, his beautiful mind went unwillingly into the body of his catatonic twin brother.


//Waking up in a hospital room on the other side of the world was a disorienting and nonplusing experience. He was confused because the last thing he remembers was being atomized by Phoenix’s deadly mind. The first thing he remembered seeing was Moira standing next to him, it took him a few tries to breath out her name due to scarce use of the body’s vocal cords.

Turning his head to his left without removing the oxygen concentrator he spoke his first words to Moira.

“Hello Moira”

She stared at him in complete shock, probably because she was given word he was dead or that he was speaking from the body of a man that has been comatose for nearly 30 years.

“Charles,” she said a look of surprise and incredulity impressed her features.

He couldn’t help cracking a weak smile at her, he hadn’t seen Moira in person in years. She walked over toward the hospital bed and removed the oxygen mask from his face.
Staring at him a little longer she finally spoke to him. “Oh my God Charles! I thought you had died,” tears were starting to secrete in her eyes making the blue in her irises start to shine. She quickly made her way to the hospital bed, bending down she hugged his enfeebled body to hers.

Moira spent two months doing physical therapy helping him strengthen the muscles in his body. Recovery wasn’t easy but the five months after were bliss for him. He and Moira got to have the relationship that was pilfered away so many years ago.

Five months wasn’t enough time but that’s when Emma Frost accidently picked up his mutant signature on Cerebro. A week into February he got a call from Ororo describing the teams broken state and how she didn’t feel fit to run the school by herself. For weeks he refused to return to the mansion feeling matters would work themselves out and he wasn’t needed there anymore, the turning point was when Ororo called to say Rogue and another team member Gambit. The x-men were like his own children since he never had the chance to have any of his own and even though he was finally able to be with the love of his life he couldn’t leave the people he love to suffer. His return to the mansion brought back the insecure feelings of failure, and it didn’t help matters that it took him nearly a year to find Gambit and Rogue. The only blessing in disguise was along with finding Gambit and Rogue alive they were also able to find Scott alive, finding them though was far from the godsend they all thought it to be.

Scott’s abilities were enhanced to the point where he could not only control his optic blasts but was also able to tap into his latent telepathic abilities. Charles felt that Rogue and Gambit were Sinister’s main focus, and that Sinister’s planned involved creating a mutant or mutants of transcendent abilities.

Gambit and Rogue’s newly acquired abilities frightened him more than Jean’s, and again he had to make the decision to face the lesser of two evils and similar to Jean he put psychic blocks within Gambit and Rogues mind.//

Charles stared around the table at his family, regret settling in his gut as he realized the choices he was going to make would probably cause more animosity within his team and toward him, but this was something that needed to be done to protect not only their mission but each other.

Gambit looked at the woman sitting beside him and remembered a time where he was madly in love with her. No one really talked about what happened nearly a year and half ago, and he figured for good reason cause the whole ordeal was pretty foggy for Rogue, Scott, and himself. It wasn’t long ago that the most he could remember of the torment they went through was blurry faces and distorted voices, but lately it seemed as if a wall had opened up and along with the memories came a surge of power he wasn’t quite sure he was ready for.

The empathic abilities Gambit used to possess weren’t advanced it was more useful in blocking psychic attacks or intrusions from telepaths, but the past few weeks had him feeling the emotions of those within a five yard radius and he was even channeling some of their feelings. The sudden changes in his abilities were nothing compared to the nightmares he was experiencing.

He figured most of the nightmares were repressed memories, he could actually see their faces and hear what they were saying now, and regrettably he could see what they were doing to him and his comrades. His nights now consisted of him tangling all his extremities in his bed sheets and then bolting upright in a cold sweat. When Logan returned to the mansion there was a point where he considered asking the man how he handled his nightmares of the lab.

All the pieces weren’t evident to him yet since he couldn’t remember all he had dreamt about, but he at least remembered when and where Rogue and he were snatched away. The how was still up for speculation.

//“Remy these chocolate strawberries are delicious,”

Rogue said before using her tongue to lick the remaining chocolate on her lips.

New Orleans had always felt like home to him, and he couldn’t think of a better place to propose to Rogue there. He never felt this way about any women, and he had been with an assortment of them. Rogue was a puzzle wrapped inside of a mystery wrapped inside an enigma. One minute she was a fierce warrior, and the next she was just as vulnerable as any other women, and the fact that her beauty could put the Greek goddess Aphrodite to shame didn’t help his love-struck heart.

“Mon chere don’t eat too many leave room for the main course.”

They didn’t have to wait long till their dinner was ready and brought to them. Gambit felt his father’s restaurant was the perfect place to ask for her hand.

“Cherie I need to ask you something.”

“What is it Remy?”

Gambit couldn’t help the little smile spreading onto his face. He could tell he was starting to worry her with his long silence so he pushed his nerves down and got up from his seat. Standing in front of her he dropped down to kneel on his left knee, and he face changed to worry from shock and surprise. Pulling open the gray jewelry case holding the engagement ring he got her, he slowly directed the ring toward her so she could see it.

“Will you marry me?"

“Yes!”

They hugged each other for a lengthy amount of time, and then returned to their dinner before it got cold. While they ate they discussed some of their plans for the future, and they both agreed neither wanted a huge wedding just family and friends present.//

That’s all he can remember, and it’s a constant reminder of what Sinister stole from him. Now all he has is horrific nightmares and memories to plague him.

She didn’t know who she was anymore. When Logan first brought her to the mansion she was Marie. Yeah Marie was a little broken and damaged from almost killing the first guy she kissed but it was still Marie underneath the untouchable skin, but that all changed after Liberty Island. Rogue remembered hearing the professor and Jean talking in the halls believing she wasn’t able to hear them, but she still had Logan keen senses and could hear every word they were saying. Both of them believed Rogue would separately have Logan and Magneto’s nightmares, and how she wished that was true. It was when Rogue first absorbed David that she discovered that whatever personality she absorbed meshed with her memories and became a part of her. So when the nightmares started it wasn’t like she was looking down at Logan submerged underwater with needles poked into his body but more like she could actually fill the water closed in around her while hot metal oozed throughout her body. When she dreamed about the memories of Auschwitz she didn’t see Magneto screaming for his family while crushing a metal gate with his hands, it was her crushing the actual gate while the Nazi guards were being dragged along with her. She even remembers the butt of the gun hitting her in the face.

Rogue looked at Gambit and remembered that it was the embodiement of Rogue who fell in love with him. Then turning to look at Logan who was staring back at her from across the table she found out it was Marie who had fallen in love with him. Presently she didn’t know who she was though; she was constantly drifting back and forth through all her personalities. She didn’t know much of what Sinister did to her, but she believed he was able to somehow turn all the personalities in her head into one persona instead of the compendium of voices she had before. Rogue remembered when Carol used to scream at her in her head that it was her fault that she was dead, and the Phoenix just told her how insignificant and mortal she was while Jean thanked her for saving her. Now the voices she was familiar with are gone and were replaced by the lurid thoughts of those around her. Another thing she remembered was that before they were kidnapped the voices and memories of those she touched were the only lasting side-effect she incurred when touching someone, but now she hears no voices but has all these powers she hasn’t gotten complete control over.

She was surprised no one brought up her nightmares, Steve especially. It was becoming a daily occurrence where every time she had a nightmare the room would shake and they would both wake up to objects levitating in the air. Every one also ignored the fact that her eyes were constantly changing color. She knew they recognized the changes going on with her just like they recognized the changes that were going on with Gambit and Scott. The thing about telepathy is even with total control certain thoughts still trickle through the walls that you set up to protect yourself, and all the thoughts she could hear regarding her were all about how much they feared her. The only ones who seemed not to fear her were again Scott and Remy, who from what she can decipher were in the same boat as she was.

She once again looked at Remy, and while doing so she could hear the jealous thoughts Logan was thinking. Much to Rogue’s derision there was a sick twisted part of her that enjoyed seeing Logan jealous over her. In the old days when she had a strange impulse or desire she could chalk it up to an overzealous personality in her head.
She knew the professor already knew who the traitor was but she felt this meeting had more to it than just determining who was a mole, but also trying to ascertain who could be a threat to their operation. The professors thoughts were scattered but bits and pieces were trickling in and she knew he was worried about the reasons for Logan’s return, who was the mole in our midst, and the most shocking piece of information she picked up was that he was afraid that both Remy and her psychic walls were disintegrating.

Logan couldn’t deny that he regretted leaving the mansion. Since the professor's death Storm had taken the responsibility and hardship of being the Headmaster of the school, mutant-human relationships was in the shitter because of the supposed incident at Alcatraz being the first domino to fall in a line of many, and even though he knew Marie would need her best friend he left being the selfish prick that he was to sort things out in his head.

~Yeah more like you left the woman you love believe you were in love with someone else, and that you were grieving her death~

Logan shook his head subtlety to get rid of the self-loathing thoughts rattling in his head. He cared about Jean that much had been true but he was never in love her. Memories of that night plague his mind again.

//“You would die for them?”

“No. Not for them. For you. For you.”

Logan was hoping what he said would bring out the humanity that was still in Jean, and he was relieved it worked.He saw her face changed to one of rage and it was replaced to one of fear and misery.

“Save me.”

This was the moment Storm asked if he was ready for, and he knew without a doubt he was. As long as Jean lived so would the Phoenix, and the Phoenix put them all in danger.

He was ready to stab her, and it was that instant that two things happened Rogue’s hands were closing around Jean’s head and Jean said something that made him blurt out the words meant for Marie.

He knew Jean knew Rogue was behind her, just from the short telepathic message she transmitted to him.

~Tell her Logan~

The words I love you just blurted out it seemed like Jean forced them out of his mouth, Logan looked toward the heavens while both women flew sky high and Jean struggled in Rogue’s hand. From the angle he was standing all he could see at first was Jean’s face contorted in pain then her face relaxing into a look of peace. As they both fell back to earth he could tell the second woman was Rogue. It seemed like he was running toward their falling forms through cement because he just couldn’t reach them in time. That’s when he screamed over both Rogue’s unconscious form and Jean’s dead corpse.

"Nooooooooooooooo."

"Noooooooooooo"

Logan scooped Marie in his arms and cried useless buckets of salt.//

That memory constantly plagues and even more now since he has the chance to relieve his failures in this room. It seems like he’s always failing someone he couldn’t save Scott or Chuck from Jean, he couldn’t save Jean from herself, and now he couldn’t save Marie from the whims of a madmen.

He was genuinely surprised by the cold war feeling New York gave off since he returned, before he left the mansion things seemed fine. We had a president who understood and respected us, he even appointed Hank the United States Ambassador to the United Nations. So he left to sort of his growing feelings, and become a man Marie could be proud of.

He traveled the world, and within a years’ time met old friends and enemies who help his forgotten memories deluge his mind. Remembering who he was was the worst thing to happen to him, he was a monster and a murderer. When he wasn’t killing someone he would stand by and let others do it for him, namely his brother Victor. There was no way he could be the man Marie needed when he at least didn’t try to mend the wrongs he had done, and it was a lot. So he travelled to the dark corners of the world he didn’t remember he had been before and mended what relationships he could, or helped people along the way.

But it seemed that no matter how much good he did, it didn’t help his insecurity that he would never be good enough for Marie or fill the void deep within his soul. So he decided Marie was better off without him, and that she was too good to be with a monster like him.

Pulling himself out his dark thoughts he looked at the professor who was still seated at the end of the table, and he was relieved that finding this mole was taking a bigger priority on Chuck’s mind than asking Logan why he had decided to return to the mansion. Logan wasn’t quite sure he was ready to divulge his true agenda on his surprise return. He wasn’t ready to tell the professor that the real reason he had come back to the mansion was because eight weeks ago he meant a prophetic mutant that told him that in the next few months Marie is going to die.

The professor knew the road ahead of them was going to be long and overwrought, especially considering that one of his team members betrayed them to S.H.E.I.L.D’s new division. A lot of people think telepathy is this amazing gift, and they don’t understand the burden that comes with hearing people’s thoughts. He hated hearing people’s deepest darkest secrets, repressed memories, or even just those fleeting thoughts that everyone has. So a comrade’s betrayal is the least of his worries. His biggest concern was that he housed two class five mutants who were ticking time bomb’s waiting to explode. He also couldn’t help hearing Logan’s last thought ~ in the next few months Marie is going to die. ~

When he was younger he felt that out of all the mutations in the world telepathy was the best because no one could tell he was a mutant and to his chagrin he would use it to get dates with a variety of women. His encounter with Sebastian Shaw brought on an inundation of responsibilities and resigned any personal conquests he had or ever would have. The whole experience finally instilled the meaning of the saying with great power comes great responsibility.

Here he was again in a situation where responsibility outweighed his personal feelings. The X-men weren’t just his team, but also his family so claiming that one of his own has betrayed them all was not going to be an easy job.

“This would be much easier if said person comes forward. Everyone makes mistakes and we’re all family here, but be advised that we can’t help anyone who doesn’t want to be helped,” the professor said to everyone still sitting at the table.

The room stayed quiet for a few moments, as they looked amongst each other. Logan noticed the beads of sweat on Bobby’s forehead, and was surprised that it wasn’t Bobby’s name on the professor’s lips.

“Hank?”

Everyone turned their heads to look at Beast.

“I’m sorry professor, but I had no choice.”

“We always have a choice Hank. I’d like to talk to Hank alone you may all be excused. I will discuss things with all of you later.”

Logan, Rogue, Gambit, and Bobby all woke up back in the conference room.

“I don’t know why he had us waste our time if he already knew it was Hank the whole time, if we still had Forge’s gun I would just use it against Hank.”

“Shut-up Bobby,” Logan said upset that Bobby was talking about his friend like that.

“Or what? Wolverine.” Bobby said lengthening Logan’s mutant name in a mocking fashion.

It took Logan a moment to realize that no one was trying to calm him down, looking around he saw that it was just Bobby and him in the room. Still upset with Bobby but wanting to catch up with Rogue before she got to her room, he started to walk towards the door.

“That’s what I thought Logan.”

“Whatever Bobby.” Logan said before closing the door behind him.

Logan flipped Bobby off before shutting the door behind him. Following Marie’s scent of honeysuckle and cinnamon led him to the floor where her room was. Before he completely ascended into the hallway he heard her talking to someone.

“The professor believes it was Hank.”

“Really? Hank? I don’t believe it.”

Logan recognizing a man’s voice peeked around the corner so not to be seen, but was still able to see who Marie was talking to. Logan couldn’t help feeling a twinge of jealousy at seeing how comfortable Marie was with the Captain.

“I saw it and I’m not sure if I believe it. Part of me thinks the professor has the wrong man.” Rogue said in response to what Steve just said.

“We can worry about that tomorrow. Let’s go to bed.” Steve said as he opened their bedroom door, unfortunately with Logan’s acute hearing he couldn’t help hearing the moans coming from behind the closed bedroom door.

Logan made way to his room wrathfully, he wanted to kill Rodgers, but the amount of hate he felt towards Rodgers was nothing compared to what he felt toward himself. Walking into the bathroom he turned the hot water handle in the tub to get ready to go into the shower. Running his hand under the running water of the faucet he could tell the temperature was to his liking, so pulling the latch above the spout water started to cascade from the shower head. Logan stripped of his clothes and step into the shower, as the water droplets started to glide down his body; he poured soap into the body sponge he brought with him. Lathering soap up and down his entire body he felt like he wasn’t only washing the dirt off his body, but also the guilt he felt towards leaving Rogue here by herself. Standing under the water the soap that was lathered on his body started to swirl with the water from the shower head.

Finishing his shower Logan grabbed his towel, and started to dry off his body and his hair. Feeling like he was dry enough where he wouldn’t dampen his bed, he pulled on his grey boxer briefs, and got under the covers. Things seemed quiet for a minute, and all he could hear was the crickets outside and the whistling of the wind. Starting to close his eyes to the peaceful noises of the night, he heard the unmistakable sounds of moaning. Marie’s room was a few rooms over and a level above his own so he knew it was her moaning. Cursing whatever god that gave him enhanced hearing he turned his TV on to help drown out the sounds coming from above him. Logan knew he couldn’t turn the TV up to its maximum volume because he would arouse whoever was asleep in the rooms neighboring his own. Giving up on the chance that he was going to get any peace from their moans of ecstasy, he turned off his sound system and left his room.

Silently descending into the hallway, Logan made his way downstairs towards the doors leading to the mansion’s grounds. Feeling he was deep enough in the woods where no one could see him and none of the residential telepaths could hear his thoughts, he started to remove his clothes. Starting with his belt buckle he unfastened the latch and pulled it away from his jeans. Logan then progressed in his frenzy to remove his clothes by unbuttoning, and then unzipping his boot cut jeans and pushing them down to rest against his calf. Logan took a sigh of relief from the pressure his jeans were causing to his now massively unyielding member. Looking down towards his boxer briefs he could see his cock was beginning to tent the front. Pulling it out from the slit placed in the front, his thought strayed to Marie and how she would look with him making love to her. Wrapping his hand around his cock he started to stroke it slowly imagining Marie looking into his eyes and her breath becoming shallow. As he became more involved in his fantasy, the strokes became rapider and more intense. Imagining Marie with her ankles around his shoulders he emptied the contents of his balls, as jets of cum left his body his closed his eyes to see Marie screaming his name in ecstasy and with one final stroke he finalized his climax.

Putting all his clothes back on, he made his way back to his room. By the time he got back to his room the sounds had fallen silent, getting himself comfortable for bed he laid down and feel into a restless sleep.

The thing about passion is it’s all about something or someone that stimulates you emotionally, no logical explanations or rational thought, just unadulterated raw emotion.

Just leaving the library Rogue made her way to Gambit’s room, and though she still doesn’t know the specifics of what Sinister did to them she knew the Gambit and herself had a closer bond now than they ever had dating. They had developed a psychic bond much like the theories scientist have mentioned about twins. She could feel what he felt, knew what he was thinking, and vice versa. Much to her chagrin she believed this was the reason for their breaking up, and though she enjoyed having at least one person understand what she’s going through, she couldn’t help feeling whether her link with Remy was more of a blessing or a curse.

Remy already knew she was standing in front of his door so she wasn’t surprise to see him open the door.

“Rogue,” pursing her name through his lips, not seeming the least bit surprised she was here.

“Remy,” Rogue said acknowledging his greeting.

To the naked eye Rogue and Remy greeting would look more like a two person Mexican standoff, but to someone like the Professor, Scott, or Emma it would be hubbub of thoughts between the two of them. Its’ funny how other than Jubes and Kitty, Gambit was one her closest friends but most of their conversations are telepathic not verbal.

Walking into his room, and sitting on the corner of his bed she looked toward him.

“I know since I’ve been thinking this you already know what I’m going to ask you.”

“Then you’ll also know my answer will be yes, and that I have felt a shift in my powers non,” Remy responded to her vague question.

“How’re you handling it,” Rogue asked worried about her friend.

“Hmm. Let’s just say my empathic abilities have tripled where I cannot only feel the emotional state of everyone on this floor, but also the one above and below us, and lately I’ve been having psychic visions.”

“What? Like seeing the future?”

“Yeah chere,” he sighed rubbing his temples. “Enough about me though belle what about you?”

“My telepathy has been going out of control lately, I can hear everyone. Also I’ve noticed the flight, strength, and telekinesis been acting peculiar.”

“You mean the other day when you tried to lift a book but couldn’t, when we were training and you needed Pete to help you lift that metal shield, or the fact you could barely levitate three inches off the ground.”

A chuckle escaped Rogue’s throat. “Yeah I’m pretty sure that would be classified as peculiar, also Steve told me that for the last month that I’ve been having nightmares that make the entire bedroom shake, and me levitating in our bed.”

Rogue looked up to Remy’s face and saw the forced smile on his face, and she knew exactly what he was thinking. He was thinking that as pointless as these conversations were because they already knew what each other was thinking and going to say they were also therapeutic.

Remy walked a few short steps to embrace Rogue.

“You know no matter what happens I’ll always be there for you chere.”

“Yeah I know swamp rat.”

This time she got a genuine smile out of him, and he whispered in her ear “I love it when you talk dirty.”

Feeling like a small piece of the burden on her shoulders had been lifted she left his room knowing Jubilee was coming up so her and Remy can spend quality time together. Making her way back to the library, she heard a thought so loud she could have sworn the person was standing next to her. ~ Yeah sorry bub that little pea shooter isn’t going to work on me~

“Logan?” she said to herself to shocked to believe it was him.

Something compelled her to find out if it was true he had returned to the mansion, by the time she had gotten to the main stairwell she saw that he was talking to Hank. Not knowing where the surge of emotions came from but seeing him there she felt a strange animal attraction to him, and instead of seeing Logan there she saw Wolverine.

Making her way down the stairs, she made her presence known.

“Well I’ll be damned the Big Bad Wolverine has returned.”
Hank and Logan turned to see her descend down the staircase, and though her empathic abilities were nowhere near Gambit’s she could feel the lust and arousal coming of Logan in waves. Almost toward the bottom of the stairs Logan answered her.

“Yeah Darling I’m back. Did you miss me?” Rogue couldn’t help noticing the obvious flirtation in his answer.

“Maybe a little,” she retorted as she flirted back with him.

Stepping into an embrace with him, she couldn’t help detecting that underneath all the lust and arousal he was feeling there was strong undertone of love. She snapped out of her frenzy, and started thinking of Steve and wondered where the animal attraction came from.

Going back to all business, she laid her authoritative voice on somewhat thick. “It’s nice to have you back; we’ll catch up later though I have some business to take care of.”

“Yeah darling we’ll catch up later okay,” he said a hopeful glint in his hazel eyes.

Rogue gave him a quick smile, and walked in the opposite direction. Starting to realize how fucked she truly was, and for lack of a better term her powers, mind, and body were going Rogue.

The X-men and their pompous beliefs that they could make the world a better place. He was still angry that they stopped him in the middle of his experiments.

Sinister balled up his large left hand into a fist and pounded it onto the table sitting in front of him. Releasing much of his pent up rage, he thought back on how things were finally working in his favor again. The X-men or mainly Charles Xavier attentions were so focused on the Superhuman Registration Act and the oncoming Civil War that he failed to notice Sinister was still alive. At first Sinister was surprised at the naiveté of Xavier until he saw the seriousness of the unfolding events, and decided that he would use this war to his advantage.

Thinking back he prided himself on creating three of the most powerful mutants alive.

//Lying on the shores of Alkali Lake was Scott Summers, seeming to all that he was dead to the world. Red eyes watched from the bushes to see if any civilians were nearby. Emerging from his hiding place Sinister checked Scott’s pulse to ensure that he was in fact alive. Satisfied he lifted his unconscious form easily onto his shoulder, and walked a short distance to his underground facility. His original plans included producing a child that of Jean Grey and Scott Summers to create the perfect mutant.

Sinister kept track of Phoenix’s whereabouts hoping for the opportunity where Jean would surface and he could bring her back here. Those plans failed utterly as he witnessed the events of Alcatraz, but he saw a ray of hope as the mutant called Rogue absorbed all that was Jean Grey/Phoenix into her very being. His files were limited regarding all of the other X-men his main focus was always on Scott and Jean. So he observed Rogue, and he saw how she struggled with her newly acquired telepathy and telekinesis, and he could never seem to find a way to get her alone.

Then opportunity presented itself in the form of Rogue’s new boyfriend Gambit, who lo and behold was now an X-man. So Sinister followed the happy couple, and for nearly a year he had to wait for the perfect opportunity. It finally came.

Sinister had one of the Nasty Boys follow them to a small family owned restaurant in New Orleans; Hairbag waited hours for them to exit the restaurant and finally when he saw them making their way back to the car they parked outside he shot both of them with a tranquilizer tailored just for mutants. With his enhanced strength he picked up both Rogue and Gambit one at a time and threw them in the back of the truck, he knew the sedative would last the day.

Hopping into the front of the car, he started the engine and backed out of the alley behind the restaurant. Hairbag knew no one saw him; he made sure he picked a location where no one on the street or in the restaurant would see him. He looked in the rearview mirror routinely just to make sure he wasn’t being followed, and was satisfied that he wasn’t. Making his way to the shorefront of the Gulf of Mexico, he parked the car on the beach and waited for the miniature Submarine Sinister said he would send.

Exiting the driver’s seat he left the two unconscious bodies in the backseat, while he waited for the nautical. It only took him a few moments for him to see bubbling in the water, looking around to see he was alone, he walked over and popped open the hatch. Walking back to the car he grabbed both Gambit and Rogue simultaneously exerting much of his enhanced strength. Finally making his way to the open hatch he shoved both of them in not so gently, and then sat in the driver’s seat. Pushing the blue button that said close hatch it started to close in on them.

The screen in the front started to crackle and came to life with Sinister’s face on the monitor screen.

“Did you retrieve the specimens?”

“Yes sir on our way now, I will be there in a few hours.”

“Good. The coordinates have already been put in.”

As the engine started, the screen had flickered off. The nautical pushed itself under the water towards its destination, and now they were completely submerged. Hairbag relaxed his head back against the headboard to fall asleep, knowing the tranquilizer would still be in effect when he woke up.

---

Rogue opened her eyes slowly, and at first all she could see were blurry figures surrounding her. After blinking a few times her eyes adjusted and she could see she was cuffed to a wall next to Gambit, and that she appeared to be underground. Hearing groaning to the right of her she could see that Gambit was also starting to wake up.

“Gambit! Are you okay?”

“Cherie is that you?”

“Well it’s nice to see that you two have decided to rejoin the living,” Sinister said noticing his guests had awakened.

“Yeah no thanks to you- you fucking powder puff. Who’re you supposed to be anyways a Count Dracula impersonator?” Rogue said to insult Sinister.

Sinister lifted one of his eyebrows to show how unimpressed he was, and it was not unlike the expression Logan would give to others when he was unmoved.

“Let’s just say I will be your liberator and I will bring you both to your destiny.”

“What are you off you fucking meds or something?”

“Quiet Rogue. Neither of you may understand now but you will. Bring him out.”

Rogue looked at Sinister shocked that he knew her name, looking towards Remy she began to struggle in her bonds but to no avail. That is when they both noticed someone being dragged out by two larger mutants. Squinting her eyes she could swear that she recognized the captive man, and as he got closer a light bulb went off and she knew whom she was seeing.

“Scott?”

It was at this moment Jean resurfaced in her mind, and things started to float nearby her.

“Who’s that?” Scott responded not recognizing the voice even though it was familiar.

She was about to respond Jean, but shook it off knowing that her emotional response to the man was not her own.

“Rogue.”

She could tell Scott was about to say something but Sinister cut him off.

“Oh this is perfect. I thought I had lost Jean at Alcatraz but she lives on in you Rogue.”

Rogue noticed the distraught that overcame Scott as he put two and two together. Scott learned that he had lost the woman he loved twice.

“Slab retrieve a vial of Rogue and Gambits blood for testing.”

“Don’t you dare fucking touch her or me for that matter.”

Sinister knowing Rogue’s newfound telekinesis would be a problem activated the sedative injector in their restraints as they began to drift off again, Sinister told them something.

“The name is Mr. Sinister by the way, and we will be getting to know each other for a while.”

---

Rogue, Gambit, and Scott all woke up in a cell together, not exactly sure how much time had passed or if anyone was looking for them yet.

Rogue thought of Logan and wondered if he would come back to find her, and as much as she loved Gambit a small piece of her always held out hope that Logan would want to be with her. Starting to feel guilty at the thoughts she was having she started to talk to Scott.

“How long have you been here Scott?”

“Beats the hell out of me, it’s not like they provided me a calendar.”

The attitude didn’t escape her attention, and yet she didn’t blame him. They had thought Scott dead for 9 fucking months and if he had been here the whole time, she would be bitter too.

“Sorry man,” Gambit said and Rogue wasn’t sure if he was apologizing on her behalf or just for Scott’s misfortune.
Scott looked between Gambit and Rogue and knew he shouldn’t be taking his anger out of them.

“Sorry I snapped at you Rogue. Let’s just say it’s been too long.”

“It’s ok Scott,” Rogue replied empathetically.

“I know you probably don’t want to talk about this Scott but what have they done to you?” Gambit asked of him, feeling the more they know the more prepared they could be. Scott’s answer shocked him.

“Nothing really just blood test, and they forced me to use my powers occasionally, but Sinister would keep saying he wasn’t ready yet.”

Both Gambit and Rogue stared at each other confused, because it just didn’t make sense to keep someone hostage and not ask for a ransom or use them to fulfill some purpose. All three of them began to feel tired all of the sudden, due to the gas seeping into their cell. All three fell to the ground hard and passed out.

Unfortunately for the lot of them they were about to discover what Sinister had in store for them.

---

Rogue, Gambit and Scott felt like their heads had been hit with a bat. Rogue in an attempt to reach up and touch her temples discovered her hands were tied down. Starting to panic she tried to scream and felt the gag around her mouth tighten. Next she tried to lift her entire body and felt that along with her hands her feet, and torso were also strapped down. She even tried tapping into Jean’s telekinesis to try and lift the restraints but no dice. All of them finally noticed their surroundings and noticed they weren’t the only ones strapped to a table, as they stared at each other in horror noticing the gags in their mouths and manacles constraining them. They also couldn’t help following a set of connected wires attached to all three of them.

“Are we ready to begin?” Sinister said while standing in the middle of all three of the metal stretchers. Holding his hand behind his ear, he challenged the three of them to answer back when they couldn’t he continued to speak. “Now I’m sure all of you have noticed that you are connected to a conduit of wires, these wires produce electricity. Now what you don’t know is I test all three of your blood samples, then tested them together and the result was phenomenal I must say. All three of you share a bond that is noticeable in your blood, I’m not sure as to the why but it’s still fascinating. So what we will try today is making that bond a physical reality.”

“yah shupta uph shugh,” Gambit screamed undiscernibly through the gag, his eyes turning a deep velvet and black shade.

“Sorry what was that?”

“Mumuph fukuph ah kump yah”

“Ruckus if you wouldn’t mind turning on the conduit."Sinister said ignoring Gambit mumbled ramblings.
As soon as he filled the switch all three knew they were in for some pain. At first the electric shocks just tickled but then it turned into searing pain. The gags smothered the majority of their screams.

It felt like their insides were being ripped out, and they were surprised they weren’t being ripped apart. Scott was the first to notice that between the searing pains, he could hear both Gambit and Rogue’s thoughts and feel what they were feeling. It took both Gambit and Rogue a little longer to realize that all three of them could hear each other’s thoughts, and feel each other’s emotions.

“Ruckus turn it off,” Sinister shouted above their cries.
Sinister stared at all three of them and notice Scott was twitching slightly on the table, Gambit was clenching and unclenching his fist while taking large amounts of air, and Rogue was crying tears streaming down her face.

~Can you hear me? ~

~I’ll kill you Sinister I’ll fucking kill you~ Gambit angrily shouted telepathically.

“It worked this is brilliant, oh I have much more in store for all of you.”

Two others came into the room and the bigger one grabbed Gambit, who couldn’t fight back due to his muscles feeling weakened. The other grabbed Scott who wasn’t in any better shape. The mutant who handled the toggle for the electricity grabbed Rogue and all three were dragged back to their cells.

---

Over the next year Sinister performed an array of experiments on them both as a group and separately. He felt he was exceedingly close to creating the perfect set of mutants, considering their body chemistry match perfectly. That’s when the X-men found his lair. Their battles with his Nasty Boys caused the facility to crumble apart, the last thing he saw was Gambit and Scott being led to safety by their friends. Rogue happened to be rescue by a new comer who wore a strange uniform of red, white, and blue, and was extremely tall and muscular. //

---

As Sinister came back from his musing, he thought that things were going according to plan. Given the circumstances the world was about to see evolution in the making in just a matter of a few months. Sitting down in his chair, he pressed both his hands together in a way that it made a spade looking shape between them. A menacing smile started to form on his face and his face slowly disappeared into the shadows the only thing that could be seen was his glowing red eyes

Steve watched the rise and fall of her chest, and a bittersweet happy feeling surge through him. Partly because when he first saw Rogue she reminded him so much of Peggy that he felt like fate had decided to provide him a second chance, but he also knew their relationship wouldn’t last forever because you know, relationships that start under intense circumstances, they never last.

Intense Circumstances! That wasn’t even covering the description of their first meeting. As much as he loved the woman lying beside him in their bed as he cradled her in his arms, there was a quality about her that frightened him. That was a shocker even to him considering this was coming from a man who used to weigh a whopping 115 pounds, was originally 5 feet 6 inches tall, but still had the nerve to try and enroll in the Army eight times until Dr. Erskine choose him for the Super Soldier initiative. The Hulk was the only other superhuman that instilled that much fear in him, and it wasn’t just because of his monstrous strength, but because he’s loose cannon and all you could hope for is that things hopefully turn out well.

Rogue never told him much about what had happened that year she was held captive, and if he actually thought about it the most information he received was when Rogue, Gambit, and Scott debriefed them as a group, and even he knew much of the story they told had been glazed over. Steve wasn’t stupid, he heard the rumors the others said about Rogue and Gambit, and it was coming to a point where he couldn’t deny their truisms anymore.

Shaking himself out of his reverie, he started to gently shake Rogue awake remembering the Professor asked to see them all at 1500 hours, and considering it was early afternoon it was time to get out of bed.

“Hey Baby it’s time to wake up,” Steve whispered in her ear while he used his other arm to keep jostling her moderately.

Rogue stretched out her body and yawned, “Just give me twenty more minutes.”

Steve looked at their alarm clock and figured twenty more minutes wouldn’t hurt. “Okay beautiful, I’ll give you twenty but I’m waking you up after my shower.”

“Humph.”

Steve silently chuckled at her failed attempt of acknowledgement and made his way to the shower. He made his shower quick so he wouldn’t lose track of time and wake Rogue up. Exiting the bathroom he proceeded to dry himself off, and walked over to his dresser to put some boxer briefs on.

“Oh! I was kinda liking the view there sugah,” Rogue said jutting out her lip to feign a pout.

Steve gave a toothy grin to his lover, and then responded, “You can see plenty more after the meeting.”
Swinging her legs over the side of the bed, she rose up and walked to the bathroom to get in the shower. “Long or short?” she asked twisting her neck to look over her shoulder at Steve.

“It’s going to have to be short,” he responded.
Rogue hated short showers; she always felt that showers were a luxury and that it helped relieve tension. Turning both faucets she put her hand under the running water until it was a temperature she liked. Pulling her green shower sponge off the faucet, she started to lather it with soap. She repeated the cleansing process two times, rinsed herself off, and then turned off the shower. Grabbing her towel she started to dry herself off, feeling she was dry enough she opened the bathroom door and walked over to her dresser. Grabbing her lotion on the counter she began to work the moisturizer into her skin from bottom to top.

Completely dressed Steve turned to see if Rogue was ready. He was greeted with the site of her wiggling into her panties, and he couldn’t help noticing his clothes seemed to get tighter near his nether regions.

~This woman is going to be the death of me~

Steve knew if he kept watching her, he wouldn’t be able to contain himself. So he turned on the television and knowing Rogue hated watching the news, he tried to find something more upbeat to watch. Steve pulled up the guide and searched through the channels for something that would appease him but found nothing. Turning the TV off he turned to see if Rogue was done getting dressed, and though she had all her clothes on she was still putting on her makeup.

“I’m almost done I swear,” Rogue said looking through the mirror at Steve.

“I don’t know why you have to put makeup on for a meeting downstairs with the professor.”

“Cause I want to look good,” Rogue countered.

Getting up from his seated position on the edge of the bed he walked over to her, and stood behind her. “You always look good. Remember makeup just enhances your beauty it doesn’t create it.”

Rolling her eyes, she continued putting her makeup on.

Finally done applying her makeup, she tilted her head up and replied, “By the way-thank you for the advice Oprah,” and then kissed him on the lips. “Let’s Go.”

---

Logan could smell them before they even entered the door, so when the knob turned and the door opened Logan was far from surprised to see Rogue and the Captain enter the conference room.

Logan couldn’t help but notice the Cap become more possessive of Rouge when he saw him staring at her. He also led Rogue towards the farthest area in the room away from Logan.

As irritated as Logan was from the Rodger’s display, he knew moving closer would just make his advances more obvious. Logan wasn’t great at many things, but women weren’t one of them. Through his many years on earth he had developed the subtle and sometimes not-so-subtle art of picking up women, and he would be damned if he was going to let his jealousy of Rodger’s get in the way of getting Marie.

It was at that moment the professor entered the meeting room…

“Oh so you just fucking lied to everybody is that it?” Logan practically screamed in the professor’s face.

The professor backed up a bit at Logan’s intensity. “Logan please sit down and let me explain.”

Logan looked around at his comrades and decided the professor deserved a chance to explain himself.

“As I was going to say Logan, Hank was able to infiltrate and earn a trusted position with S.H.I.E.L.D. He agreed to be an inside man to feed me information regarding their plans.

“So the weapon that was supposedly stolen was just a ploy?” Storm asked with a confused look on her face that seemed to match the others.

“No it was really stolen Ororo, and we do in fact have a S.H.I.E.L.D informant under our roof, but this is the only way to draw him out.”

“I have a bad feeling about this professor.” Scott said his brow furrowed in worry.

Logan was about to add his two cents when he noticed the professor body tense up, and the scent of fear occupied the room. The professor’s eyes seemed to have glanced over.

“Professor are you al…?” Scott asked

“Sorry yes I’m quite fine.”

Logan still watching the professor’s movement noticed a small nod toward Rogue and Gambit. Turning his head to look at the two they were making their way to the door and exiting the room.

---

Rogue and Gambit left the room, because their control was slipping. Both Gambit and Rogue were cracking under the pressure of the pandemonium of thoughts and feelings everyone had going on. They both made their way to the exit doors and headed to the woods, which seemingly is the only place either of them could find Zen. Reaching the outskirts of the woods they both went their separate ways.

---

Gambit went left and headed deeper into the woods. Both Rogue and he knew that these woods went on for miles and it was very easy to get lost, and he made it a point to go as remote as he could so no one would feel inclined to follow him.

Gambit felt like he was walking for about twenty minutes and felt he was far enough into the woods.

He sat down on the hard earth, closed his eyes and started to meditate to gain control of the constant influx of emotions and thoughts he was still hearing. It wasn’t as intense as before since he distanced himself from the mansion but he could still feel the presence of some of the residents.

---

Even though the professor was still talking and his comrades were still asking questions, Logan drowned them out as his worry for Rogue was more prevalent. As he was about to shove his uncertainties away, he noticed to figures outside walking towards the woods. Focusing a little more on the two figures he recognized them to be Rogue and Gambit.

If it wasn’t for his enhanced senses, he wouldn’t have been able to see them as clearly as he did. Watching the two reach the outlier of the mansion and the entrance to the woods, he could see both of them clearly as they both nodded at each other and go their separate ways. He watched as Gambit went left and Rogue went right.

It took Logan a few moments to realize the meeting had concluded and the others left the room, leaving just the professor and himself.

“Well I should go.”

“Not so fast Logan.”

“What?” Logan said with a frustrated sigh.

“Give her some space Logan, then you can go look for her, but my advice would be to give her some time.”

“Okay!”

“I mean it Logan”

“I said okay.” Logan growled back.

The professor nodded his head, and Logan exit the office. As much as he wanted to talk to Marie and find out what was going on with her, he took the professors advice and decided to give her some space.

---

An Hour and Ten minutes later:

Logan couldn’t wait any longer. He was going to use the Danger Room but Scott was doing a training session with the some of the younger students, and the library was full of gossiping brats. He decided to head up to Marie’s room to see if she was back yet, he knew the Captain wasn’t in there because he was with Scott in the Danger Room.

“Fuck it. I been back for almost a week and she hasn’t tried to talk to me once. Well she’s going to talk to me whether she likes it or not.”

Logan made it up to her room and knocked on her door. He waited for about a minute and still no answer. He knocked again and waited still no answer. Deciding against better judgment he used his middle claw on his left hand to pick the lock. Marie’s scent wafted into his nose and he became a man obsessed, her aroma surrounded him like a glove and he felt more at home the further he entered into the room. Walking towards a dresser near the window, Logan noticed a scarf hanging out of one of the drawers, he grabbed the tail end of it, balled it in his hand and inhaled. Facing the window with the scarf still under his nose, he opens his eyes right when a bright purple electric light shot up from the trees.

Stuffing the scarf in his coat pocket, he headed downstairs toward the exit leading to the woods. Logan walked toward the entrance of the woods cautiously. Reaching the opening he stopped to see if he heard any sounds or smell anything. As Logan started to get further into the woodland, he started to see that bright purple light. As he headed toward it a loud boom to his right caught his attention. Thinking he should ignore and still head toward the light, another loud bomb like noise came from his right. Unable to ignore it any further he ran toward the sounds that were getting louder as he got closer.

The scene he came upon blew him away. At least five tall oak trees were seemingly ripped from the earth and then tossed aside like they were weeds to be disposed of. Looking up towards the skies he saw Marie holding the trunk of an oak tree ready to toss it to the earth. Curious to see the method to her madness he watched as she toss the tree towards the pile of others, as it got closer to the ground it looked like it slowed down, and then it completely stopped. At first she seemed happy with the result but seconds later her face changed to one of panic and she lost not only control of the tree but her flight as well. Logan sprang into action to save her, she was still falling toward the earth when the tree hit the hard earth. Being so close to the impact knocked Logan onto his ass, and all he could do was watch as Marie fell towards the ground at an alarming speed.

Logan was terrified as Marie started plummeting to the impending earth beneath her. He tried scrambling to reach her, but she was to far away.

"MARIEEEEEE!!!" he screamed with terror when she was about to hit the ground, knowing the impact would kill her instantly.

She was about a foot away from impact when she just stopped, and her body was floating in the air. Her body bent strangely with her back arched up and her head and feet hanging down.

He got to his feet instantly. Putting his arms under her he cupped her body to him, and then tried to shake her awake.

"Marie? Marie, wake up."

Still no response.

"Wake up darlin' please," Logan begged to her still form.
He started carrying her back to the mansion when he heard a scream to his left and one closer to the mansion.

"Scott!"

"OH MY GOD REMY!."

Finally making it to the clearing of the woods leading back to the mansion, he could see Jubilee dragging Gambit to the edge of the woods next to Logan and Emma Frost screaming at a unconscious Scott on the grass.

He looked at Gambit and was shocked his skin turned into a dark shade blueish black.

Looking back up he noticed, Ro', Kurt, Chuck, and Rodgers walking towards him.

" What's going on?" Storm asked the the three of them, standing over Scott's unconscious body.

"Mein Gott im Himmel," Kurt said looking down at Gambit. Storm walked over and covered her mouth gasping in frightful surprise at his appearance.

The professor looked around a worriedsome look on his face.

"We must get them back to the medbay so we can determine the cause of this"

"I gree vit ta professor," Kurt said hurriedly to the professors previous remark.

"I'll take her from here"

Logan looked straight at Rodgers when he said that, and let out a menacing growl.

~There was no way in hell he would let this man carry his mate and get his scent all over her~

The edge of his claws were starting to pierce the skin of his muscles, and civil war or no civil war he was prepared to kill this man.

"Steve will you please carry Scott to the medical bay with the others," the professor asked a hint of warning in his voice.

"But..."

"There is no one else to carry him, you can attend to Rogue when we get to the Med Bay," the professor said cutting off any objections Rodgers had.

~Logan what are you trying to accomplish~

~STAY OUT OF MY HEAD OLD MAN~

The professor strayed toward the back watching the group head toward the mansion. Emma walking beside Steve looking over Scott worry etched onto her usually stoic features. Jubilee had tears streaming down her face as she looked over Gambit, just before Kurt teleported all three of them to the Med Bay. Logan carried Rogue in his arms, occasionally growling every time Steve looked back at them.

The professor knew at the moment the Wolverine was in control, and the best way to avoid bloodshed was to keep Rodgers away from the Wolverine.

Realize they didn't have a doctor at the moment he telepathically contacted Kitty.

~Kathryn will you please call Ms. Taggert and tell her we need her expertise at the mansion~

~Yes professor~

~Thank you Kathryn~

Now he had to think of a way to keep Wolverine and the Captain away from each other.

~Piotr will you please come down to the Med Bay and will you bring Mrs. Storm, Mr. Castle and Dr. Strange down with you as well~

~Ya professor vat is going on~

~I will explain when I get down there hurry we don't have much time~

~Kay professor~

~Kurt will you please teleport me to the Med Bay~

~Yes professor~

It was mearly seconds before Kurt was in front of him, and then he was transported to the Med Bay.

It was then only a minute later when the elevator to the lower levels opened revealing Piotr, Sue Storm, Frank Castle, and Dr. Steven Strange.

"What is going on Mr. Xavier?" Sue Storm surprised voice asking him.

"Yeah Chuck, don't you usually have your X-groupies down here," Frank Castle said his voice dripping with sarcasm.

"I don't have time to explain with words so I'll have to show you telepathically."

They all nodded their heads to acknowledge their permission for him to enter their minds, he didn't miss Castle rolling his eyes as well.

The three started see flashes of three of the professors most trusted team members unconscious, and the tension between Captain America and the infamous Wolverine.

"Gambit is already inside the Med Bay. I'll need you Mrs. Storm to carry Rogue inside and you Mr. Castle to carry in Scott."

"You can call me Frank, and what do you plan to do after we get them inside. I don't think either of those men will be okay with being separated from her."

"That's where you come in Dr. Strange can you do anything that will temporarily keep them out?"

"I have just the thing, do you have a doctor on staff yet?"

"She has not arrived yet."

"Would you like me to perform some of the test I am a licensed practitioner."

"That will be very helpful. Thank you."

"Piotr will you stand guard"

"Ya professor"

"I will be in the Med Bay if any of you need me"

They all nodded their heads and then both Strange and himself walked through the med bay doors.

---

Logan let Rodgers go down the elevator first not trusting himself to share such a small space with the other man.

The walked to the mansion had given him enough time to calm his animal side again. And he knew Marie would be more than displeased.

As he waited for the elevator to come back up he started to whisper in Marie's even though he knew she wouldn't respond.

"Wake up baby."

The doors to the elevator opened for him and he stepped inside.

" I can't lose you darlin', your my reason to breath,to eat,to drink, to live. I need you Marie. I lo..."

The elevator doors opened and four pairs of eyes were staring at him, including Rodgers. He started toward the Med Bay doors when a woman with blonde hair stopped him.

"Hello. My name is Sue Storm, the professor kindly asked me to take Rogue into the Med Bay as he feels any emotional tension could be detrimental to her recovery."

He started to hand Rogue over and gave her a light growl, he smelt her anxiety spike but other than that she held her ground.

"Take care of her."

"I promise." she responded, carrying her through the doors.

Moments passed and only Piotr, Logan, and Steve remained in the lobby.

"What're you still doing down here?"

"Fraid' I might take your girl when you're not looking Captain."

"I highly doubt she would be with someone like you"

"Like me, and what exactly is that?"

"A bad boy Wolverine"

At that moment a memory of something Jean told him came to mind.
"I love him Logan"

"Do you?"

"Girls flirt with the dangerous guy Logan, they don't take him home. They marry the good guy."

He was starting to get angry with this asshole. Who was he to say he wasn't the good guy. He stayed after Alkali Lake, taught her how to fight. Killed Jean cause he knew she would come after Marie next. Another memory popped into his head.

"The professor can help, he can fix it."

"I don't want to fix it," Jean no Phoenix said in a sinister voice.

~By the way Wolverine. After I get rid of the professor she's next~

He didn't realize till after Chuck's death who she was talking about, and thats why he stared at Marie during the entire funeral.

Hell. He found out his past for her, he made amends for her, he nearly died for her. Who was he to say he was not the good guy.

Logan stalked toward Rodgers. Piotr looked between the two having a bad feeling. Once Logan was in front of Rodgers, he gave him a grin that would scare the shit out of Sabretooth.

"You're right I'm not the good guy. I'm the hero and guess what the hero always gets the girl."

---

Since Scott was the closest on to him his mind is the first one he read. He saw images of Jean and Scott together. Their first date, their first kiss, when Logan and Rogue arrived, he saw Scott's sorrow at watching her die at Alkali Lake, Scott's joy at seeing her alive again, Scott's torture at the hands of Sinister. The professor was about to leave his mind when a message came through to him.

~ I am your coming storm, the bringer of darkness~

The professor didn't understand what the message meant, so he walked towards Gambit next trying to piece together the puzzle pieces.

Charles enter Gambits mind and saw dead bodies everywhere, cities destroyed. He saw a image of him with white hair, black and blue skin and red eyes, and his staff glowing with kinetic energy.

~Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds. Nothing can stand in my way~

Charles was terrified to read the last mind because he now knew all three were connected, but he had to see how bad it was. Standing over Rogue's, he placed both his hands near her temples.

He was shocked to see no images like he did with Scott and Gambit. It was pitch black.

~Welcome professor~

Charles cringe with fear he recognized that voice anywhere.

~Phoenix~

~Yes. Thought you could lock me away again didn't you learn the first time?~

~Phoenix this woman won't be able to contain your power~ Charles said hoping to quash Phoenix's hope of power.

~You foolish man, I couldn't be happier to be in this body. She has more power than you can imagine, and now I'll be able to wield it. I'm no longer Jean Grey or Rogue. I am fire and ice. I am light and dark. I am life incarnate. I AM PHOENIX!~

Phoenix laughed manically at him.

~EMMA~

"Yes Charles," Emma said still teary eyed but shocked by the professors loud telepathic shout.

"Help me put up mental blocks. NOW!"

"Help me put up mental blocks.NOW!"

"For who?"

"ALL OF THEM"

---

""You're right I'm not the good guy. I'm the hero and guess what the hero always gets the girl."

Steve just stared at the man in front of him, not backing down from the intense hazel stare the Wolverine was directing his way.

"She choose me Wolverine, just move on already," Steve said puffing out his chest for a sense of bravado.

Logan could smell the nervousness coming off Rodgers in waves. He was scared of the Big Bad Wolverine.

~Damn right he should be~

"The only reason your still breathing bub is because of that woman in there, don't push my patience," Logan said pushing his index finger on Rodgers sternum.

"Hey guys ve shud calms down huh?" Piotr asked trying to ease the tension between the two men.

" Stay away from my girl Wolverine."

"Fuck that. I'm staying until she tells me otherwise. I could give a rats ass what the fuck you want."

"Why you..." Rodgers back up a bit with his fist in the air getting ready to hit Logan square in the jaw.

"ENOUGH" Both men froze unable to move as the Professor along with Emma Frost, Sue Storm, and Frank Castle walked of the lab.

"Thank you for you help Mrs. Storm and Frank if there is anyway I can do to repay you please do not hesitate asking it of me.

Both of them nodded their heads and then looked toward the two men, who were looked more like museum manikins then two living breathing human beings. They both made their way to the elevator. Stepping inside they were ready to return to their rooms, the elevator door closing behind them once inside.

"Logan I'm going to release you first go up to my office, we need to have a discussion the others will meet you there followed by myself"

Logan whole body relaxed instantly,he glared daggers at Rodgers as he made his to the elevator. Once inside he pushed the number 2 on the electrical panel leading to the main lobby. Once the door of the elevator opened he started walking to the main foyer which housed the professors office.

"Oh. God. Logan!" Jubilee screeched kinda hurting his ears. Tears running down her face. He cold tell she wasn't handling the present situation very well. She ran up to him and smothered her face into his flannel shirt. She started mumbling sorrowfully into his shirt. Also waiting at the professors door was Emma Frost, Kitty, Piotr, Bobby, Ro'.

"hmmphmummphsumphhmmphhmmphpumpf"

"Huh?" Logan asked Jubilee who was still crying into his shirt.

Jubilee tears streaked eyes looked up into his, " I don't want to lose him Logan, but Remy warned me something like this would happen."

Jubilee now had his complete attention. "What do you mean he warned you?"

Her tears were starting to dry up, and she sniffled a few times before answering him. "Remy told me he could feel all the mental walls that the professor built for him collapsing."

"And..." Logan said trying to urge her on.

"And that when they do collapse that all of us should get as far away from Scott, Remy, and Rogue as we could."

"Is that all you know yellow?"

"No. I know that..."

Logan looked up and saw Chuck and Rodgers headed toward the office.

"Shhh. We'll talk about this later."

Jubilee following his gaze, nodded her head in agreement.
The professor reached the door, and upon open it beckoned everyone to take a seat.

The professor took a seat behind his desk, and remained quiet. His hands steepled, and his eyes closed.

"Professor?" Ro' said regarding her mentor anxiously.

Logan could smelled the nervousness and fear coming off everyone in the room, and he had no problem admitting he was also nervous and afraid.

"Phoenix has awakened."

The fear he smelled on everyone tripled in seconds.

"What about Scott and Gambit?" Emma asked.

"I fear that their minds are all connected, one is just as dangerous as the other." The professor then looked at everyone in the room. " I sorry to say, but no one is allowed into the Med Bay except Emma, a telepath I've called to assists us named Betsy Braddock also known as Psylocke and myself.

"I have to see Remy he needs me there," Jubilee exclaimed the tears starting again.

"I'm sorry Jubilee, but I feel to keep the situation under control keeping all those who do not have strong psychic barriers away from them is the best course of action."

"Are there any questions?"

"What if they wake up and they aren't themselves professor?" Kitty asked addressing the elephant in the room.

The professor took a deep breath," then Civil War will be the least of our worries."

No one else asked anymore questions after that, the seriousness of the situation weighing everyone down.

"Jubilee, Emma, and Logan may you stay behind please. The rest of you may leave. Thank you."

Ro's was the last out of the room and she shut the door behind her.

"Logan. Jubilee. Emma and I have a theory that we did not want to discuss in front of the others.

"Why not?" Logan asked not liking the direction this was going.

"Because it doesn't involve them. Yet. Logan."

"Yet?" Jubilee asked.

"Logan since you dealt with Phoenix you know she will try to take out anyone close to her." Emma said looking at both of them sympathetically.

"Wait a minute. Rogue is close to Remy and Scott aren't they in danger too?"

"About that," the professor interjected. " What Sinister did to them seemed to have created a pyschic and emotional bond between all three of them."

"The reason we're telling you this is because you two, the professor, and myself are the greatest emotional threats to them." Emma could see the questioning look on Logan's face so she continued to explain. "We are the ones they care about most. Namely our strong emotional attachment to them could be their downfall, so I fear they will probably try to..."

"Kill us"

Jubilee turned a shocked face to Logan. " Do you really think they would do that to us Logan?"

"Jean nearly killed Scott and the professor, and tried to kill me because I could reach her more human side."

"Professor?"

"Yes Jubilee."

"Could you, Emma, and this Betsy restore them to themselves"

The professor looked down, took a deep breath, and looked up to answer Jubilee. "Honestly, I don't know. We can try."

There was nothing else they needed to talk about after that. So Emma, Jubilee, and Logan all headed to their rooms. When Emma was out of sight Logan stopped Jubilee by gently holding her arm.

"What else do you know Yellow?"

"Remy told me once that they were all connected to each other physically, psychically, and emotionally."

"Yeah.Yeah.Yeah.I already know that."

"Um he told me that he had prophetic visions, sometimes he told me about them."

"Did he tell you anything about Rogue?" Logan asked irritation seeping in his tone.

"Ohlikeshe'smorepowerfulthanJeaneverwasandthatallthepersonalitiesrunningaroundherheadweren'tcagedorthatshedoesn'treallylovetheCaptainandis..."

"Whoa whoa whoa. Slow down calm down Jubilee."

She was fuming her fear of the situation finally turning to anger and she was turning it on me. While Logan was trying to calm Jubilee down, he finally caught on to the last part of what she said.

"What about Rodgers, Jubilee?"

"Ooops I wasn't supposed to say that, just forget I mentioned it."

"Jubilee!"

"I promised Rogue and Remy I wouldn't talk about it with anyone else. So forget it."

"NO!" Logan growled in her face, the grip on her arm tightening.

She started to get angry again, and she ripped her arm from his grip. "Why do you think the Professor kept you and not Steve in the room you fucking moron, because Captain America is no threat to Phoenix, but you are."

Logan looked like he wanted more info so Jubilee exasperatedly continued on.

"Oh fuck it. It can't hurt anything if I say anything now. Yes Wolvie you are the love of Rogue's life and now Phoenix knows that too, which makes you a threat to her."

It was the most bittersweet moment in his life. It was amazing to find out the woman he loves loves him back, but it was travesty to discover the beast inside of her was planning to kill him because of those intense feelings.

~Your hold on me is slipping girl, soon I'll have complete control~

~NO. The professor will stop you.~

~Your foolish child. No one can help you.~

~Hold on Rogue, you can beat this~

~Jean?~

~Yes Rogue. I'm here for you.~

~But I'm so tired Jean, she's so much stronger than me.~

~I know Rogue trust me I know, but you must fight.~

~She's right Rogue, you must fight don't you quit soldier.~

~Carol?~

~Yes soldier. Hold your ground.~

~Your slipping Marie~

~Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds. Nothing can stand in my way~

~Who are you?~

~Death,~ the telepathic voice responded with a guttural tone, barely even sounding human.

~Did I kill you too?~ Marie responded with a sob all the voices in her head confusing her.

~No chere. It's me.~

~Remy? You've never sounded like that before.~

~You not te only one wit voices in their head chere, but you and Gambit, we fight together non?~

~That sounds like a plan Remy.~

~You can't fight Death~

~Or a goddess for that matter. Why can't you simple-minded fools grasp that~

~Because that's what we do we fight.~

~Scott?~

~Yes. Rogue its me.~

~What're you doing here?~

~Unfortunately Remy, you, and I are in this mess together.~

~Are you hearing voices too.~

*Silence*

~Scott?~

~Of course he is child. You're all fighting a losing battle.~

~Scott where did you go?~

~I'm here Rogue, but she's right we're all fighting for our minds here. That's why we have to stand together.~

~He's right Rogue.~

~Jean is that you?~

~Yes. Scott. I've missed you so much.~

~Me too Jean. I love you.~

~And I love you Scott~

~Pathetic!~

~FUCK YOU PHOENIX!~ all the voices except Death and Phoenix yelled.

Phoenix laughs maniacally inside Rogue's head. ~Do you really think love will save you?~

~Yeah I do bub~

~Logan?~

~Yeah darlin' its me, and well...~

~My dear. If anyone knows about survival it would be Wolverine and myself.~

~That's enough buckethead.~

~You fools have no idea the storm that's coming. And not you or the puny X-men out there can stop the tidal wave of death,pain,strife,chaos,and destruction that will be left in its wake.~

All the voices got quiet.

---

Unsure what to do with themselves, since they couldn't help their friends let alone see them. Bobby, Jubilee, Colossus, Kitty, Storm, Kurt, Emma, and Logan decided a session in the danger room would do them all good. Unbeknownst to Logan, Storm had designed a program on Phoenix.

"Start program," Storm's strong but calm voice echoed throughout the room.

Logan thinking it was going to be Sentinels, had his claws at the ready. But instead what stood before them was what Logan saw the last time he saw Jean. Her eyes black cesspools of nothingness. Dark, sickly veins covering her once calm looking face. Logan was a little irritated that Storm failed to mention it to him, and the others looked a little shocked as well as to who their nemesis was.

Logan was about to give the team directions on who should strike, and how they should form their offensive line when the program shut-off and the danger-room was back to normal.

"What the fuck?"

"Beats me Logan, I didn't shut the program off." Storm responded.

" Start program," she said trying to start the program again. Nothing happened.

"Start program." Again nothing.

"Maybe the power went out, let me check the observation deck to see what was going on." Logan was already at the exit door before Storm could respond. "Doors open." Logan waited a good minute nothing happened. " DOORS OPEN," Logan practically screamed at the doors, the others now standing behind him.

"What's going on?" Both Jubilee and Kitty said at the same time, both looking at each other with thin smiles on their faces because given any other time it would have been funny.

"Your guess is as good as mine," Logan responded.

Unsheathing his claws on both hands, he slid his adamantium between the crease of the door, then pried them open. Honestly Logan was half expecting pandemonium in the hallways, and maybe that was because he was itching for a spot of violence to relieve the tension in his body. But there was nothing, no screaming children, no bombs going off, no Magnet spouting pointless lectures on the self-preservation of mutants. Nope it was a simple case of the power going out, at least that's what they thought. So they all went separate ways to wait for the power to come back on.

---

~You feel that chere? Scott?~

~Yeah all that worry and fear~ Scott responded feeling a sudden spike of intense negative emotions, but he didn't know from where.

~I have a bad feeling something terrible is about to happen.~ Rogue said the seventh sense she received from Carol warning her of danger coming.

~I told you fools. This is the calm before the storm. It has begun.~

The telepathic versions of Scott, Remy, and Rogue looked at each other, knowing the fight for their minds has begun.

Rogue, Gambit, and Cyclops all woke up simultaneously in the med bay. At least their bodies were awake.

Cyclops was the first to become aware of his surroundings. He got up from his bed to walk to the first available mirror he saw. Both his eyes blazed a deep ruby red, the glow from his eyes casting an eerie shadow effect.

~Scott held his breath when he saw his image in the mirror. But what really confused him is why he walked toward the mirror in the first place. He already witnessed the monstrosities that were in Rogue and Remy's heads, but was yet to meet his own. And he had a feeling he was about to.

Upon seeing his reflection in the mirror, he flinched. Both his eyes radiated a deep red hue that shined so bright the rest of his face seemed to be sullen in shadow. He also noticed silvery red veins glimmering all along his face, neck, and when he looked down it seemed to be all over his body. Terrified of what he had become, and not quite sure what he was capable of he tried to open his mouth to call for help. But Scott noticed that his body never moved away from the mirror nor did his mouth open. It was then he heard his own demon speak to him telepathically.

~Pathetic humans. They will really know of war now. They will beg before the end.~

Simply watching as a bystander, he watched as his body walked next to Gambit's still form first. It was merely seconds before Gambit bolted upright.

"Death what is your bidding?" Scott watched confused as his body said and did things against his own will.

Did those words come out of his mouth? Scott thought.

~Remy hate ta say tis Scott, but we fucked~

~What's going on gahs?~ Rogue said the note of alarm and panic evident in her tone of voice.

~We have no control Rogue!~ Scott practically screamed telepathically.

~What do ya mean?~

~I don tink we can fight tem chere, tey ave complete control~

Rogue was about to respond when light flooded into her view and she saw that she was in the med bay. Rogue tried talking to the others, but no words came out. Instead it was Phoenix talking to them.

"I will find you two later. I have some unfinished business to attend too."

Both Remy and Scott nodded at her. Wait... Correction more like Death and War nodded at her. Looking at both of them from her minds eye she was suddenly flooded with memories of bible camp as a kid. She was remembering the preacher describing the horseman death as a pale rider on a pale horse. In Remy's case there was no horse, but his eyes had a pale castor to it- like there was no life inside of them. And Scott reminded her of War the rider on the red horse, his whole body emblazoned in electrifying red veins, and his eyes blazing ruby red.
War walked to the medical bay doors, and placed his hand over the control panel. A bright red energy started to melt the control panel, and the sliding doors opened.
Rogue was startled out of her stupor by a aggressive voice inside her head.

~You're in for a treat tonight dearie. You'll finally be able to be with the man you've always loved. Well at least for a short while.~

Rogue knew immediately whom Phoenix was referring too, and she begged with Phoenix to leave him alone.

~Please Phoenix! I'll do anything just leave Logan out of this he's already been through enough.~

Her pleading went on deaf ears.

~Oh Please! I know you've wanted him since the moment you saw him, and since we're being so honest with each other I've wanted him too. I've never met an animal whose ferocity has matched my own.~

~He's not an animal.~ Rogue practically growled feeling like she was defending Logan's honor.

Phoenix laughed manically. ~Oh quite the contrary he is quite the animal. What do you think attracted him to Jean in the first place. It was me. His animal side craving a mate. Yes its true he's always wanted you and loved you, but now with us sharing a body he craves you.~

Rogue was shocked. Could it be true that Logan always loved her?

Rogue was so involved in her thoughts that she failed to realize where Phoenix had taken them to. Phoenix knocked on the door she knew belonged to Wolverine.

Logan who had been having trouble sleeping since Marie had ended up in the infirmary a few days ago, had finally got to sleep. So when he heard a knock at his door he was none to happy to be awaken from his much needed sleep. He was pulling on some sweatpants when the knocking at his door started again.

"Just a fuckin' minute," Logan harshly spat the words toward the door.

"WHAT!!!" Logan yelled at the person at his door, and was shocked to be greeted with Marie's face.

Phoenix put on her most innocent voice. "I'm sorry ta wake ya Logan. I'm just a little confused right now."

"Oh I'm sorry Marie, I didn't mean to yell at you like that."

"You couldn't smell me?"

"I'm so tired honestly I didn't even think about it, you're the last person I thought would be at my door anyways."

"Are ya okay Logan?" Marie asked him putting her smoothed hand on his cheek.

Logan moved toward her hand, basking in the warmth that was His Marie. " I am now Marie. I am now. I'm so glad you're alright. You scared me to death darlin'."

Rogue conscious stared at Logan, and her heart was breaking because Phoenix was using his feelings for her to her own advantage. Rogue used all the will power she had to try an warn Logan.

"Don't believe..." That was all Rogue was able to get out before Phoenix push her back to her spectator seat in her own mind.

Logan couldn't help notice the sudden change in her scent. It went from terrified to relaxed in minutes. "What's wrong darlin'?"

Phoenix had to think on her toes. " What I meant to say is you can't believe the amount of strength it takes to control all these personalities."

Logan couldn't smell a lie on her, even though he had a feeling she was hiding something.

"Do you need to lie down darlin'?"

"No I think I've rested enough Logan. I just needed to be someplace I felt safe, and you're the only thing that came to my mind."

~You maniacal bitch. How could you use my feelings for him like that?~

~It's easy Rogue. If you just watch and see, you'll know exactly how I can do that.~

Logan felt a swell of pride at hearing Marie tell him she felt safe with him.

"You know I would do anything to keep you safe Marie, I would die for you." Logan said while looking deep into Marie's eyes. But for the first time he didn't feel warmth looking into her eyes. They were still green, with shades of dark and honey brown, but they were fierce and very animalistic. And as much as his gut was telling him this wasn't Marie, the animal inside him was turned on.
As Logan was looking into Marie's fierce eyes, she was looking at his lips.

"Would you Logan?"

"Hmm what?" Logan responded confused by the question.

"Would you really die for me?" Phoenix said so full of passion.

"Of course darlin' you mean the world to me."

Phoenix's blood was running hot with lust for this man, and she couldn't take it anymore. Phoenix grabbed Logans head aggressively and brought her lips down on his, in a possessive kiss. Logan overcome with his lust matched her ferocity and kissed her hard. He could feel her opening up to him, and slid his tongue in her mouth, her tongue met his in an extremely erotic french kiss. To him their kissing seemed to last hours even though it was merely minutes. Drawing back from her lips, he started laying a siege of kisses, and nips at her neck. He could feel her arch under him, and she tilted her head back to release a moan of satisfaction.

Feeling pride in himself, he started to reach his hand under her spaghetti strap top to grab onto one of her perfect breast. Once he reached it he notice no bra, and started to squeeze her right breast, while his thumb tweaked her hard nipple. As he was laying on top of her, she wrapped both of her toned thighs around his waist, bring his groin area in direct contact with hers. He growled deep, and pushed himself closer towards her apex. Even though both of them were still clothed, he lifted her thigh to grind more into while he continued to kiss her.

"Harder," she practically hissed at him.

It was at the moment he looked into her eyes and noticed them quickly turn black before going back to normal. He quickly leaped off of her.

"Marie?"

"Why'd you stop? I want more."

Grabbing both sides of her head, he looked into her eyes again, the fierceness still there. "Marie this isn't you."

"Yes it is," she said trying to grab his head again to continue their sexual foreplay.

"You're acting a lot like Jean was."

"Ah so you guys went that far with each other huh?"
Phoenix said mockingly towards Logan. "Was it good Logan? I wonder how Scott would fair if he knew you fucked his wife."

"I didn't fuck Jean, Marie."

"What she wasn't animal enough for you?"

What she was saying hurt him in ways, he never thought possible. He couldn't believe that's what she really thought of him.

"Hmm?"

She was being persistent, and it was starting to anger him to no end.

"No I couldn't do it with her, because it wasn't you Marie," he practically spat in her face, disgusted with the way she was behaving. Her eyes suddenly turned all chocalately brown, but he turned his back so he failed to notice.

"Where am I?"

Logan was still angry so he wasn't quite paying attention to her body language yet. "You damn well know where you are, nobody forced you here."

"What? What's going on? How'd I get here? Where am I? Marie said in a teary voice. Logan turned around and noticed that she was confused.

"Marie you're in my room, you don't remember coming here." Logan asked worry not laced in his voice.

Marie finally looked at his face, and by the shocked expression on her face it would seem she hadn't seen him for years. "Logan?"

"Yeah darlin' its me. Are you all right?"

Marie stilled for a moment, in what looked like pensive thought. Her eyes were closed. And just as suddenly they snapped open, and she whispered "Oh god!"

Marie finally looked at his face, and by the shocked expression on her face it would seem she hadn't seen him for years. "Logan?"

"Yeah darlin' its me. Are you all right?"

Marie stilled for a moment, in what looked like pensive thought. Her eyes were closed. And just as suddenly they snapped open, and she whispered "Oh god!"

A deluge of memories flooded into Marie's head. Some of the events she remembered, but most of them she didn't recall. Then she started to relive all the memories of all the personas she absorbed. She saw Bobby enjoying a Christmas dinner with his family, Jean having her first argument with Scott, and it was about the way the bed was made of all things. She saw Carol talking to an Air Force recruiter. John and the jealousy he felt toward Bobby's family. Since she touched both Peter and Kitty she saw their growing attraction to each other. Eric being forced to move a coin before his mother was shot. And she saw Logan have adamantium grafted to his skeleton.  Then something weird happened she was seeing future events, and quite honestly they terrified her.
 
Logan was about to comfort Marie when he noticed a majority of his furniture was floating. The alarm clock turned on and was switching stations rapidly. Not wanting Marie to end up the same way Jean did, he tried anything to calm her down.

"Marie calm down baby, we're all here to help you"

Marie look up at his face, tears staining her cheeks. Her eyes sullen and hopeless. "What's wrong with me Logan?" she asked truly confused as to what was going on with her.

"You haven't got complete control over your powers, but we can help. We can make it like it was." After he said that to her, he could smell the anger in her scent getting stronger, and he knew he was losing her. Grabbing her shoulders, he looked into her eyes desperate to keep her calm so they could help her. "Marie don't you dare quit on me, I don't want to lose you again." The anger in her scent started dissipating, and for a minute he thought they were going to come through this okay.

"Kill me."

Even though it was barely above a whisper he heard it just fine. "What?" he asked her, not quite accepting what she was asking.

"She's to strong Logan, I don't want to hurt anyone. Kill me before I kill someone please." she practically begged.

"Marie I..."

"Kill me," she said her eyes widening.

"Stop it Marie, I'm not going to kill you."

"Please." she was begging him. "I'd rather die a hero then become a villain."

"Marie we can get rid of her, we can fix it"

Marie's eyes turned pitch black. "I don't want to fix it." She lifted him using her telekinesis and threw him through his bedroom window, sending him seven stories below and crashing into the cement.

Phoenix now back in control blasted Logan ' bedroom door into the hallway. She then ripped a hole into the side of the building and flew away.

The team found Logan starting to stand from inside a puddle of his own blood, and watched horrified as his skull was stitching itself together and all the gashes on his face start to knit together.

"Marie?"

It was the first word Logan said when he was coherent enough to talk.

"She's gone Logan." Ororo said sadly knowing the man before her would react badly.

"What do you mean she's gone Ro', where the hell did she go?"

Ororo didn't have the chance to answer, because the professor spoke first.

"Logan when your able meet me in my office."

The rest of the team followed the professor, while Logan finished healing. When his body was finished healing,  he started heading inside to the professor office. To be honest Logan was terrified of what the Professor was going to ask of him, because even though he had it in him to end Jean he didn't have it in him to end Marie.

Remy and Scott watch as two possessed spectators as they stood in front of the Stark tower.

~"What're we doing here Remy?"~

~"I don't know homme, but sum ting' tell me this ain't good."~

 

---

Phoenix using Rogues ability of flight, followed the psychic signature of Scott and Remy.

 

Smiling to herself as the wind blew her hair back, she thought that this was her purpose. She thought about something Magneto said to her, that she was a goddess. And she couldn't be happier with the vessel she was inhabitating, a being who truly has unlimited potential.

 

---

Logan neared the professors office, and immediately his senses were assaulted with the scent of his rival,  and upon entering the room he held back the urge to snarl at Rodgers.

The professor didn't waste any time getting to the point.

"I won't waste much time going over what's already known. As everyone has been able to ascertain the Phoenix has awoken, but it seems we discovered Scott and Remy are labeling themselves Death and War.

"Wait you mean like the four horseman of the apocalypse?" Ororo questioned a tinge of fear in her voice.

"Yes exactly Ororo."

"So we have Death and War where the other two,  I mean forgive me but I don't recall one of the horsemen calling themselves Phoenix." Emma directed towards the professor,  her steely blue gaze seemingly looking through him.

"Quite right Emma,  my theory is that even though Rogue is very much involved, she's not one of the horsemen."

"Meaning?" Steve addressed toward the professor his tone harsher than he meant it to be.

Logan glared at the man sitting in the chair before him, the Wolverine itching to impale him with six adamantium claws.

~ He better stay away from our mate bub~

 

~Finally something we angry on~

 

The professor looked at Logan, as he heard the internal struggle going on within the man.  However he swept it under the rug knowing he had bigger things to worry about.

---

Phoenix landed next to Death and War. 

"Shall we begin gentlemen? "

War gave Phoenix a mischievous toothy smile, his red eyes blazing fire.

War walked over to the Stark building,  and upon touching it he pulsed red energy into the infrastructure, while Death walked toward the street where oncoming traffic was coming. Looking at all the cars coming Death using Gambits kinetic abilities sent tendrils of energy toward the tires of all the cars, and minutes later they started to explode.

"Tony I think we should end this now,  the longer we wait the worst things will be for everyone." Maria Hill said while looking at everyone in the conference room.

Tony was about to respond when he heard people screaming outside,  curious to see what the commotion was about he started to head toward the big glass windows he installed to look out at the city. He never made it because the tower started to shake on its foundation, everyone in the room quickly grabbed onto the most stable furniture they could find.

Maria Hills eyes widened as she saw an assortment of things fling past her head.

" Hey guys is it just me or does it seem we're getting closer to our neighbor building there."

True to her word the building was heading toward a collision with another building.

"Everyone get away from the glass," Tony said while pressing the bracelet on his wrist to bring his suit to him.

His faceplate was the last thing to come to him when the building crashed, spraying shards of glass everywhere. Tony could hear his comrades screaming, and from the view he had they didn't have long before the building collapsed.

"Jarvis?"

"Yes sir?"

"Can you execute a escape route, I don't think I'll have enough time to carry everyone out one at a time.

"I'll have to agree with you sir, your best shot will be having them get to the roof then we can do the monkey in the barrel procedure.

"Everyone get to the roof. NOW!!!" Tony screamed desperately to his teammates.

His teammates scrambled toward the stairs leading to the roof, those who weren't able were help by those who were.

Tony was the last one to reach the roof, and advised his teammates to grab the person next to them's hand. He was going to send a small electric current through their arm where they wouldn't be able to let go.  He also advised their landing would hurt a bit.

Lifting all of them into the air, he couldn't help noticing the amount of debris and glass he had to avoid, as if it seemed to be defying gravity itself. Lowering each person one at a time as gracefully as he could, he finally landed himself, and had a chance to observe his surroundings.

Looking around at the destroyed city block, Tony met the intensely frightening gaze of a man with red eyes,  and he was emitting an aura of red energy. All Tony could do was stand still, as he waited for his team for backup.

War sneered at the man before him. "We're not here for you step aside."

Even though Tony was terrified, the hero inside him wouldn't let him flee. He had to make sure they didn't harm any more innocent people.

"What do you want?" Tony said with a shaky voice as he looked.

"We want Bruce Banner, where is he? Tell us and nobody else gets hurt."

Tony couldn't help laughing. "You came down here for someone you have no chance of controlling."

"We came for his location, that is it," said a striking beauty with red hair and white bangs. "Don't make me take it from you."

Tony couldn't help seeing the confusion in her eyes, like it was a struggle just to be there.

"I can help you if you let me," Tony said to her trying to convey that he was an ally.

Just as quickly her eyes lost that hint of innocence, and was replaced with a dark fury he never witnessed before in his life. Its intensity scared him.

"I don't want your help, I want the location of Bruce Banner," she said with suppressed rage.

"Sorry sweetheart, he didn't give me a forwarding address."

The air suddenly felt artic, and he felt like his blood was freezing within his body. Looking around he could see ice forming on the buildings surrounding him.

"I'm only going to ask you once more, if you're smart you tell me what I want to know. Where is the location of Bruce Banner."

Tony didn't miss the way she emphasized Bruce name.

"I don't know, where he is," Tony said all matter of joking left behind.

The dark beauty gave him a sinister smile. "Well maybe your teammates might know, "she said while looking behind him.

 

---

"Professor you should probably put the news on,"Kitty said enervated after running into the office.

The professor turned on the television to his left. As the screen came to life Jonah Jameson came on reporting terror in the streets in front of Stark Tower.

The camera man was able to get close enough to the action, where it was visible enough to see the Avengers still aligned with Stark backing him up against three opponents. Everyone in the room immediately recognized the three adversaries as Scott, Remy, and Rogue.

The Xmen could tell the Avengers were struggling to subdue the three of them.

"Chuck we have to go get them, "Logan said his main focus on saving Marie.

"I agree with Logan, we can't allow them to hurt innocent people. Storm ready the team.

The Xmen exited the professors office, and Logan rushed hurriedly to the lower levels. All he could think about was Marie, and how he couldn't lose her.