“Was it worth it?” Marie asked. They were sitting outside of the Blackbird, leaning their backs against the hull of the jet while Jean stayed inside, trying to find the perfect moment and perfect way to cut the bond that tied her together with Scott on psychological level.
“Was what worth what?” Logan asked.
“You. Jean. Was it good?”
“Uh...”
“Must have been. I know you both. You wouldn’t settle for anything less than perfect.”
“Ah, kid...”
“Was she better than me?”
“Jesus Christ! Stop grilling me! It’s kind of private!”
“Except that it isn’t. It is partly your fault that we’re in this mess.”
“Well, if you must know...”
“I do.”
“I felt like I was boning my fucking sister, and when it was over Jean told me that she had been imagining that she was with Scott because being with me felt so weird! Happy now?”
For a long while they sat in silence. Birds were chirping. Sun was shining and the hull of the jet felt toasty warm. When crickets tuned their violins Marie finally coughed.
“We’re only missing lonely tumbleweed rolling down that path and this is perfect,” she noted.
“Yeah.”
“I’m sorry.”
“You and me both, kid. I shouldn’t have done it.”
“But what is done can’t be undone. I think... I think I can live with this. I don’t know would it bother me more if it was good for you guys, but now I’m okay with it.”
“Yeah. Shit happens. Life goes on... Are we good now?” Logan asked, stretching his shoulders lazily.
“We’re good. For now. But you should know one thing.”
“Oh, yeah? What?”
“If I ever find out that you’re fucking with Jean again there won’t be anything left for Scott to beat up after I’m finished with you two. Understood?”
“Perfectly.”
They had been waiting around for several hours already when Logan’s walkie-talkie crackled. In the silence it sounded almost obscene, echoing from the surrounding trees rather offensively.
“Yeah?”
“Logan?” It was Scott. He sounded scared. Absolutely horrified.
“What’s the matter, Summers?” Logan asked, pretending not to know what was going on. Most likely Jean had finally found a way to cut the bond, and Scott was suffering from repercussions of it. Marie stood up and crept silently in to Blackbird to check up on Jean.
“I... I don’t feel so good...” Scott whispered, and Logan could hear him gagging.
“Are you sick?” He asked, suddenly truly worried. Legacy was still running rampant.
“I don’t know... My head hurts... And it’s so silent all of a sudden... Can you guys come back?” Scott was on the verge of tears, his voice thick and throaty.
“Uh... I have to ask from Jean about that, she said that there’s something she needs to investigate, and it...”
“Fuck... This really hurts... Tell Jean to come home!” Scott cried, then Logan could hear a harsh clatter and the line went dead.
“Jean!” He sprinted to the Blackbird, only to be stopped by Marie.
“She did it. But she’s a bit shaken out now. Can it wait?” She asked.
“Scott’s not doing so well. It sounded like he was really sick. Can this psychological mumbo-jumbo cause same kind of symptoms as Legacy?” Logan asked. Marie paled.
“I don’t know... Jean!”
They both hurried to the cockpit where Jean sat, rubbing the bridge of her nose, tears streaming down her cheeks.
“I feel awful... But I guess it had to be done...” She whispered, obviously trying to regain her composure, not doing a very good job with it.
“Scott just called. He’s feeling sick. He wants us to go back home,” Logan said. Jean shook her head.
“He’s feeling lonely. That’s understandable side-effect. But we can’t risk getting hurt by him just because of...”
“No, Jeannie... He’s really sick. At least it sounded like that over the radio. He’s having... Well, to me it sounded a lot like he’s caught the Legacy.”
“Way to go, wise-guy...” Marie growled when Jean at first froze, then fell to a sobbing heap over the console board of the jet.
“What the hell were you thinking, you moron?” Marie half whispered, half growled when they were trudging through the forest once more, this time trying to keep up with Jean who was hurrying to meet Scott.
“I was thinking that she should know. I was thinking that at least Scott deserves to see her once more if it happens to be Legacy. I was thinking that maybe this whole let’s-isolate-the-insane –scheme is something straight out of fucking Middle Ages, and maybe, just maybe we could snap Scott back to reality if we actually tried instead of running away from him!”
“And you just had to choose this day to grow a conscience! We could all get killed, you know!” Marie snapped, trying to keep up with Jean who was now picking up her pace.
“And if you’re so fucking afraid, why are you running?” Logan huffed, trying to preserve the precious air his lungs seemed to crave in obnoxious quantities. It wasn’t working very well, and by the time he reached the lumber mill he was staggering, fighting tooth and nail just to keep going.
It was a surreal experience. Again he could smell burning fuel; he could taste the led at the back of his throat and feel the small particles of soot to fill his nostrils. There was no fire or smoke in sight, yet both of the women laid collapsed on the ground. Large portion of the mill was blown up, sturdy planks and wooden support pillars splintered and scattered to all directions.
He checked both Marie and Jean for the best of his abilities. As far as he could tell, they were simply unconscious, not in any real danger right now. He left them. Scott. Where was he? What the hell had happened here?
Logan entered to what was left of the lumber mill. Place was an utter chaos. Whole sections of walls torn apart, heavy machines thrown around and twisted to odd shapes, smoking craters here and there...
“Scott?” There was no answer. He cleared his throat and called Scott again. When there was no answer he started to shift the piles of rubble and debris, fearing the worst. He could see it in his mind’s eye. What ever had happened, what ever had made the place to blow up, it had buried Scott alive. He’d fiend his friend badly injured, or worse, choked to death.
He didn’t notice the arrival of Marie and Jean, not before Marie started screaming. Soon enough Jean joined to the choir, and he was forced to leave his rescue attempt and turn his attention to the corner where the women stood. He shuffled to them, picking his way through broken slabs of concrete and sharply jutting splinters of wood and metal rods.
For a while they all could just stand there, staring at the sight in front of them with disbelieving eyes.
Marie was the first to turn away. Logan could hear her trying to run, then vomiting. Jean had stopped screaming and crying. She was frozen, barely breathing. Logan tried to grasp her shoulders to steer her away from the horrendous sight, but she refused, kneeling beside blown up and mutilated corpse they could clearly recognise as Scott Summers from a broken visor partly covering his face.
The Wolverine & Rogue Fanfiction Archive
Barely Legal Since 2000