'Illumination is something that comes with wisdom,
But when your struggling in darkness
The only light you have is
within your own soul.'
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When Logan had told her his plan she'd balked at it at first, he wanted her to leave the US, for good. To become a Canadian citizen, and that meant getting married, her first instinct had been 'yes' but then her mind had cut in. Wouldn't Xaiver be able to find them that way, couldn't he hack into the system to find them? They had to register for citizenship, well she did at least. Logan had smiled at her then, he'd said where they were heading anyone who joined the community would be protected by that community.
It was only when he'd shown her the map had she understood the settlement of Little Whitefish in northern Alberta. It was a Native Reservation and as such the laws on that land were tribal, they only had a nodding acquiantance with the government. Many people had gone north in the wars, found refuge with the native people and then gone back after the draft. It was somewhere out of the way, off the radar and the way there would be harsh on them both.
So she'd packed up everything she actually wanted, loaded her truck, said goodbye to everyone that had given her respite and set off with Logan riding his bike in front of her. How he managed to cope in the cold she never knew but at the end of each day's travel he'd hold her to him until she could feel his warmth again.
The days had gone by pretty easily, her savings were slowly going down but Logan insisted on paying their way for the big things so she got the food. When they finally made it over the border it was February, the snow still deep and the world still wondering what to do with all the new mutants that were popping up. They'd just passed through the checkpoint when something made Logan's head snap upward, his eyes watching a shape in the clouded sky. Stopping herself Marie craned out of the window of her truck to look in the same direction, the swirl of snow had changed. As if someone were directing it, Logan shouted at her to get her ass in gear an to follow him.
As they drove through the borderland her mind was whirring, had they come to look for Logan? Did they know where he was and in so would they find out she was still alive? Panic wasn't somethign she was used to but her heart was in her mouth when Logan pulled over into a diner. She didn't think she could eat but she did, Logan ordered for her making sure it was heavy on the vitamins and fat. The screen above the counter was showing the X-Men fighting a group of unknown mutants, the background was a city street. The only difference to an american cty was that the streets were clean of graffitti and rubbish. Kitty was there, as was Bobby, they were fighting side by side against a mutant who could change their shape and body into fluid. Bobby froze the mutant solid, the face of the mutant frozen into a scream, the look of pride in Bobby's eye made Marie's stomach lurch. The sound was down so all this violence was being played out in silence. Several other customers asked for the sound to be turned up, the commentator was suddenly loud in the diner. What was being said was enough to make Logan flinch and look away to the great whiteness outside the windows, but Marie couldn't look away, her eyes were glued to the screen. Like a train wreck you needed to see just how bad it was.
"We're here on the outskirts of the French District, a group calling themselves 'The Arms of Brotherhood' were here to protest against the imprisonment of their leader. An aboriginal mutant called 'Shadow' who had been taken into custody after being stopped for suspicious driving. The entire incident here was sparked off when the American mutant team known as the X-Men arrived, the members of 'Arms of Brotherhood' attempted to talk to the X-Men but were met with hostile force. At the moment no one here knows which side to help, all we can do is hope that this battle is over before there are many more casualties."
When Logan turned back his face was grim, set in it's anger and Marie felt herself flinch from the harshness in him. She reached out toward him and he took her bare hand in his, his mouth thin and filled with venom as he looked at the screen. The X-Men were being helped by the police, they were gathering up the prone bodies of the 'Arm's of Brotherhood'. The screen quickly flicked to the police chief who was trying to keep everything calm, his voice was strained as he accpeted the help from the X-Men. His stance was one of anger and Logan knew it, he didn't know of the group that had been destroyed by the leather clad 'heroes' but he'd find out about them now. Listening to the voice of their imprisioned leader he saw a man who'd only wanted to be free. Seeing himself in the visage of the native canadian on screen he pulled on Marie's hand. Making her look at him, "Do you beleive that? That his small group were part of The Brotherhood?" He waited as Marie looked over the tired and emotional face of their leader.
She shook her head, "No Ah don't, not for a second." Logan smiled at her and they paid for the meal that had suddenly turned to lead in their bellies.
"Come on, we've got a long way to go before we're home." The rest of the diner didn't pay them any attention they were all watching the leader of the X-Men telling them that they'd had a lucky escape from a tyrant, that they were here for everyone in the world, mutant and human. The words were lost to the winter wind as soon as they went outside and for once Marie was glad of it.
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Three weeks it had taken, three weeks of struggling to learn a language that wasn't native to her, then it had been over in moments.
She was married, married to Logan at that.
It had been easy to gain access to the small community especailly when they'd shown how much they were willing to give in return for living on their land. Marie could teach, Logan could build, the community needed young people, mutant or human. Although the no alcohol rule had made him balk a little until he'd been told about the small town fifteen miles away. But they'd been welcomed, fed, given shelter until they built their own home.
She'd stood under a shelter made from pine boughs, dressed in a simple dress covered over with a huge fur coat, her feet in soft warm wool. Logan had worn his usual red flannel shirt under his jacket, the priest had been somewhat unusual. A man who'd been introduced to her as the doctor and the priest, Logan had explained it to her later that he was the shaman, the holy man of the tribe they were staying with. An as such any marriage he performed would be recoginised by the community as well as the government. She would be his as much as he would be hers, those simple words were enough to make her happy. But when he'd explained they'd have to do their vows in the native tongue she'd nearly choked.
So here she was tripping over words, she'd learned by heart, giving everything she was to a man who'd never given up on her. Even when she'd almost given up on herself, everyone in the settlement was there, some smiled as she stumbled through her words. But they didn't comment, knowing that every word she spoke she meant. To love, honor, chersih, keep sacred, hold his soul in her heart, to heal him when sick, to help him when he never asked for it, to see him as an equal to her. Her own eyes were filling as she finished her vows to him, seeing the elderly women around her humming with joy.
When Logan started his vows to her, they were low in tone, almost a rumble, but as they carried on his voice grew stronger, louder as if challenging anyone here to stop him. Many male faces smiled at the words he used, but they were similiar to hers but different, one especailly and several men whooped as he finished the sentence. Many women laughed and she didn't understand until later, when they were in bed that night, when he'd whispered to her that he'd promised to make her howl like the wolves in the coldest part of winter. She'd blushed to her feet when he'd told her that, he'd told everyone he'd be fulfilling her every sexual need. Things were done differently here, they were more literal, more honest. If you said you could do something then you'd better be able to, it was refreshing to live with people who saw you as a whole not just a part.
They even had a sort of church service every day, somewhere in the small community there were people gathered together, giving thanks, building something as a group. Every part of life was seen as sacred, there were no exceptions, everything was holy and that was something that Marie had never seen before.
Over the weeks they'd spent here she'd been confused at first, seeing Logan sitting with a few other men just sitting in silence. The air around them being filled with something she couldn't explain but she hadn't surprised them with her presence. An elderly woman had come to her rescue, telling her that men needed time together, just to be 'men'. She'd shown her how to weave on a wooden hand loom, now she had several on the go, her hands doing things she'd never even thought they were able to do.
They accpeted her, her accent, her tales about her skin and how she came to be touchable again. Several of the older women had told her it was a shame she'd given away her 'medicine'. They hoped that she'd recover it again by living in a 'human being' way again, and to her surprise Marie found herself agreeing with them. Here she could be what she'd been all along, a mutant with a gift not a curse.
Logan spent time teaching her and others how to build, using their small home as an example, soon others were springing up out of the softening ground. Here there was hope, life, love and something more, spirit, they were learning how rich life *could* be, if only the rest of the world could leave them be it would've been perfect. Yet as we all know the world turns and the gaze of the fates never stays still for too long.
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Author's Chapter Notes:
Things turn round on the couple we all love, time has come to stand on a side.