He peeled off his uniform and got as far as to the bathroom sink, his head ducked under the spray of cold water when Marie came after him, her small fists connecting with his back, leaving bruises and abrasions that healed over instantly. She was a silent fighter. She wasn’t screaming or crying, she was simply kicking, scratching, hitting and biting, and sooner than he thought it possible she got him pinned to the floor, her reddened face hovering only inches from his, her breath escaping with silent hiss from between her clenched teeth.

“I’m not like you, Logan,” she wheezed, her fingers digging in to the soft underside of his jaw, her nails parting his skin.
“I’m not insane like you...” She murmured.
“I don’t want to keep killing people just because of killing. I want you to let me go!” She finally screamed out her pent up rage and frustration. He grasped her arms trying not to aggravate the raw wounds underneath the thick dressings.
“I can’t let you go... You fucking know that...” He growled, trying to draw air that felt thick as a syrup, passing through the narrow gap she allowed him to have. He could feel his windpipe giving in under her ministrations.
“They need you... Scott, Jean... Professor X... They all need you when this... is over...” He managed to rasp before his throat filled with blood and bits and pieces of cartilage. With little strength he had left he pushed, throwing Marie away from him and turned on his side, curling over his mutilated front, trying to recoup enough to crawl away from her. There seemed to be no hurry. Marie lay defeated in the corner, her eyes fixed on to him. There was no fight left in her.

“Why the hell I am so fucking important?” She whispered.
“You know it damn well...” He coughed and rose carefully on to his hands and knees, spitting out blood and chunks of flesh his body dispelled from his raw throat.
“You’re probably the only sane person left in this fucked up mess they cooked for us... The rest of us, we need you when this is over... We need you to pull this shit together...” He croaked and scuttled out of the bathroom, dragging his battered body to upright position against the doorjamb. She followed him and urged him to lean on her. They wobbled over the floor unsteadily and crashed on to the bed. He was too wiped to bother with the cover. He turned on his side and covered her partly with his frame, pulling her flush against his chest.
“This good enough for you?” He asked.
“Yeah. I guess so. Go... Good night, Logan,” She whispered, stuttering only slightly.
“Good night, kid. Sleep tight...”

“You didn’t even ask if my skin was off...”
“Figured you’d killed me at the bathroom if that’s what you wanted. Good night, kid.”

“Why do you trust me so much, Logan?”
“I just do. Good night, Marie.”

“Logan?”
“Good night is only polite way to shut up the person you’re sleeping with.

“Good night, Logan.”

Crackling of the radio woke them up only moments later. They untangled groggily and Logan reached for his uniform.
“What is it, Scooter?” He asked after clearing his throat.
“Radar is picking up movement.”
“Could you be bit more specific? Where?” He asked. After a short pause Summers answered with a hollow voice.
“Everywhere. The Blackbird is surrounded. I counted twenty hostiles before the screen turned to blur.”
“Blur?”
“There’s too many to count. We have to take off before they start tearing on to the hull. We’ll be back for you guys later.”
“Copy that. Over and out.”

Marie stared at him, her eyes wide. From excitement or fear he didn’t know.
“I guess we just have to hope that they don’t know about us...” She whispered. Cornered like this, locked in to a small, rickety hut at the back of the gas station they had no means to fend off the horde of attackers.
“We better stay quiet. There’s a chance they don’t know about us,” Logan whispered and started to put on his uniform.
“But we better get dressed anyway. They might be after the Blackbird first because they know it can escape...”

Half an hour later it became quite apparent that the army of survivors waiting outside were oblivious of their presence. After the Blackbird took off they just stood there, shuffling their feet. One of them, probably the leader of the group was standing head taller than the others.
“See? They’re scared of us! If we show them that we’re not going just to lie down and die they leave us alone!” The giant bellowed.
“This sure could pose a problem for us...” Logan murmured. They followed the events through a small window, trying not to get caught.
“Too long we have had to live in fear! Too long they have had the upper hand! I say we find and get rid of those filthy animals! This country belongs to us!”
“He sounds awfully sure about that,” Marie whispered.
“Remember Xavier’s big speech right before we took off?” Logan asked. She blushed. Tone of the voice had been different, words more eloquent, but the message had been identical with the one that the giant boasted.
“But... If you think that Xavier was wrong, why are we doing this? If you think that killing all these people is wrong, why...”
“There’s no wrong or right, kid. It’s us or them. Even more so now than before. They carry the disease, but there’s no guarantee that we stay immune to it. After all, it was originally designed to target us.”
“But what about the cure?” She asked, still whispering. Logan huffed and rubbed his face tiredly.
“Kid? You have no idea how good it is that you’re asking those questions. But right now there’s only one answer. We keep killing them because there’s no cure. We keep killing them because Hank can’t guarantee that he’ll find one anytime soon. I’ll be more than happy to whip up one mean first-aid express as soon as the cure is finished, but in the mean time it’s better to keep the numbers of the contaminated as low as possible.”

There were other termination squads out there; they had even met few of them. As far as Logan’s crew knew, they were the only ones looking at this as a precaution. Rest of the teams were merely taking their revenge over every crime humans had committed against mutants during the war. Logan didn’t know if it made their cause any more justified than the others, but so far he had done damn good job at closing his eyes and ears. He could only hope that Marie would still be able to question their actions after this all was over.
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