When it happened, it happened without warning. One moment Alcatraz was lit up with all the brilliance of a small sun, the next it had simply… stopped. Like a candle that had been abruptly blown out, the island was now blanketed in darkness, and as the X-Men watched with open mouths it dropped from its position in the sky before colliding heavily with the water below. The violent impact caused a tidal wave of water to rush towards the bridge, only to be pushed back by Storm who had taken to the air immediately and summoned a mighty wind to repel the huge wall of liquid threatening to engulf them all. Meanwhile Alcatraz itself remained deathly quiet, the ominous silence deafening in the suddenly still night air.
Logan didn’t remember Colossus’ arms releasing him from their hold; he didn’t remember running for all he was worth, dodging obstacles and leaping over cars in his urgency to reach the foreboding island. His mind was working on auto-pilot, and the only thing he heard was his constant litany of, “Please. Please. Please.”
Reaching the end of the bridge, Logan jumped onto the remains of Alcatraz, vaguely aware of the rest of the team following and fanning out behind him while Storm flew overhead. They all searched with a desperate intensity, though none of them knew what or who they would find in the wreckage.
Water still somehow gushed from the sky in a torrential flood while a thick, oppressive fog swirled around them, masking the figures in black leather that continued their search of the island. Everything appeared out of focus and somewhat sinister, giving the entire situation a nightmarish quality that everyone noticed, but no one mentioned.
Logan ran blindly through the mist and falling water, all his senses dulled by the overpowering scent of burnt rubble and charred human flesh. He could barely see more than a foot in front of him, and he frequently bumped into various objects, making his fear grow with passing moment of silence, until at last he heard Storm calling out, “Logan! Over here!”
The words echoed back to him, and in that moment he was back at Alkali Lake, and Storm’s voice was cutting through the fog, telling him to hurry, hurry, hurry, and when he reached her it would be Jean’s body he saw, Jean who breathed on and survived.
In that endless second as the water from the sky still fell in sheets, as the fog clutched his body with their icy tendrils, Logan realized that he didn’t want it to be Jean. Marie’s face rose up behind his eyes as clearly as if she were standing right in front of him, Marie with her beautiful round green eyes and her wistful smile. As he began to run towards the sound of Storm’s voice, Logan remembered the day they first met, how when he pulled back the tarp on his camper she had raised her head and met his furious gaze head-on. He saw the colour of her eyes clearly for the first time on that snowy road, a deep emerald green with not a hint of blue or any other colour as so many others with green eyes usually had. Her face had been pale and gaunt, while dark circles of weariness and hunger ringed her unique eyes, yet still she was tragically beautiful with the snow falling around her as she hunched against his decrepit motorcycle.
Logan heard her sweetly accented voice calling to him, ‘Ah saved yo’ life.’ He knew now that he had been right when he told her that she didn’t. She hadn’t saved his life that day because at that point Logan didn’t have a life; he had an existence. He had only begun living after he met Marie; the place he called home, the people he considered family, everything was because of her, because for whatever reason, she had chosen him. No, she hadn’t saved his life at all. She had done so much more than that: she had saved his soul. And she continued to save it everyday that she was with him, every time he saw her, with every smile she bestowed on him. She gave him purpose, and she was living evidence that he wasn’t damned, because if this one magnificent person loved everything about him, good and bad both, then maybe he was worth something after all.
Marie didn’t try to look past the animal to see the man within; she embraced it because it was a part of him, and even after seeing all the darkest parts within his fragmented mind, she had never wavered in her affections, loving both the man and beast that he was and never asking him to change a thing.
Just up ahead, Logan could faintly make out Storm’s tall outline as she unclipped her cape from around her shoulders before draping it gently over a naked body that lay on the ground at her feet. Unable to make out who it was, Logan pumped his legs faster, closing the distance between them. In his haste, he never saw the piece of debris that became tangled in his feet, causing him to stumble to his knees just as he was about to reach his destination. His face smacked into the soggy earth, and for the split second that he lay in the mud, he saw a future without Marie; an endless parade of empty days and meaningless motions that would stretch on until the day he died. Because of his mutation, there was no telling how long he could live for, and the prospect of life without her was unbearable, knowing each day would become more pointless and hollow then the last without her by his side. He had survived Jean’s death and his life had carried on as usual, but in that moment it hit him with the force of a gong: to lose Marie would destroy him completely. His body would live on until everyone else around him had turned to dust, but inside he would be dead, a living corpse walking the earth until his time finally came to pass on.
Pulling himself to his feet, Logan staggered the last few yards to where Storm stood just as the rest of the team arrived. He shoved Beast roughly out of the way before falling to his knees beside the naked body lying in the dirt, whose back was facing him. It was clearly a woman, her flawless pale skin marred by numerous bruises and several patches of burnt flesh. The colour of her hair was impossible to determine due to the amount of dirt and water saturating the long strands, and though Logan breathed deeply, Storm’s own smell from her cape covering the body and the sheer amount of overwhelming odours surrounding them hindered him from catching the woman's scent.
Reaching for her shoulder with one shaking glove-covered hand, Logan slowly turned her over, praying to see the much beloved white streaks and delicate china-doll features.
“Please. Please. Please,” he chanted, realizing for the first time that the only occasions he had ever prayed, were always for Marie, for her and her alone. The unmoving body rolled towards him limply, her pulse visibly fluttering beneath the skin on her neck as her face came into view.
Uttering a choked sob, Logan lovingly ran his fingers through the sodden white streaks, now almost grey from the dirt covering them, before stroking Marie’s smooth brow, his eyes drinking her in as his heart hammered in relief. She was alive; unconscious, but alive. Mindful of her injuries, Logan gently scooped her up into his arms, keeping Storm's cape wrapped around her as he whispered, "Don't worry kid. I'm takin' you home now. We're goin' home."
Marie remained motionless in his embrace, yet still the warmth from her body seeped into Logan's heavy bones, giving him hope.
And just like that, she saved him again.
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Author's Chapter Notes:
Disclaimer: Don't own anything, nor do I get any money from it.
This chapter was brought on by the songs "falling slowly" by Glen Hansard and "rain city" by Turnin' Brakes. both songs are highly recommended if you wanna feel miserable. kind of a short chapter today, but i thought less was more. i imagine the next one is gonna be significantly longer, cause i got a lot to write for it. so i hope you all enjoy, and reviews are a good thing to wake up to in the morning!
This chapter was brought on by the songs "falling slowly" by Glen Hansard and "rain city" by Turnin' Brakes. both songs are highly recommended if you wanna feel miserable. kind of a short chapter today, but i thought less was more. i imagine the next one is gonna be significantly longer, cause i got a lot to write for it. so i hope you all enjoy, and reviews are a good thing to wake up to in the morning!