The War Room erupted in hushed murmurs as Xavier tapped the screen to black.
“Thoughts?” Xavier prompted calmly.
Logan realized his grip must be painfully tight on Marie’s arm, and loosened it with an effort. Still, he heard his own voice emerge as a rough snarl. “He’s full of shit. If he knows the first thing about you, he knows that you’d never turn over Rogue and Jean. He’s either trying to catch us off-guard in the next twenty-four hours, or he’s just toying with us.”
Xavier’s eyes grew distant as he considered Shaw’s motives. “Perhaps. Or perhaps his own disregard for the lives of a few is coloring his judgment of how others might act.”
Scott’s voice was crisp and decisive. “We need to attack within the twenty-four hour time frame. Keep the battle away from here as much as we can. Logan has given us the schematics of Shaw’s mansion.”
Ororo’s usually-gentle voice was steely with determination. “I’d like to see what this Whirlwind can do.”
“Da.” Piotr looked at Kitty. “If I stay shielded and Kitty stays phased, Azazel will not be able to harm us, and perhaps we can disable him.”
Xavier nodded. “I believe that I can block Emma’s psychic abilities sufficiently. Allow her to see only what we would wish her to see.”
Logan felt a tremor run through Marie. She suddenly shoved to her feet, the sharp smell of her fear and sorrow intensifying. “No!” She took in a deep shuddering breath. “You can’t do this...just...go in, guns blazing! It doesn’t matter what you could do against the others -- Sebastian could decimate you all, in a heartbeat. I can’t just let you all die.”
Xavier’s calm voice cut off Logan’s growl. “I understand your concern, Rogue. But what are you suggesting -- sacrificing yourself? And Jean? And Wolverine? And what of the rest of the world, if Shaw achieves his objective, and gains the power of the Phoenix?”
Marie hung her head, her desolation making Logan’s heart wrench.
Hank’s thoughtful voice interrupted the subsequent silence. “But Rogue is correct, in that any plan that does not begin by stopping Shaw is doomed to fail.”
Scott looked around the table, eyebrows furrowed in concentration above his visor. “So, what can stop Shaw?”
Marie raised her head, her face set with determination. “I can.”
___________________
Logan paced the confines of his room while Marie sat still and silent in the armchair in the corner. He had practically dragged her up here, and yet he couldn’t force out the words that were burning in his chest.
On some level he knew it wouldn’t matter anyway. In the War Room he had argued and growled, snarled and cajoled -- and she had responded to every attempt at persuasion or intimidation with a clear, steady resolve. She was determined on this plan, determined to risk herself to face Shaw. At the very thought of it his blood roared in his ears, claws itching in his forearms until he had to spring them to relieve the pressure.
She jumped a little as the claws snicked out, and he felt like shit. He sheathed the claws with an effort, leaning his head back wearily against the wall. He wasn’t trying to bully her. Well, not much. He was just desperate to keep her safe.
He squeezed his eyes shut, trying to force down his own fear for her so he could talk to her rationally, while the Wolverine was howling at the thought of being unable to protect his mate. My mate. He hadn’t really realized until this moment, and to understand what he had found only now, when he might lose her...
“I don’t want you to do this, Marie,” he finally ground out.
A soft sigh from her and the salty scent of her sorrow intensified. “I know,” she said gently.
He felt more than heard her stand up and then she was at his side, her slender arms wrapping around his waist. A shudder passed through him and then he held her tight, leaning her body into his as he rested back against the wall.
“Do you think I don’t feel the same?” She spoke the words softly into his shirt. “That I wouldn’t give anything to keep you safe? Neither of us chose this, sugar, but this is where we are. And this is the only way forward.”
He pressed her closer to his body, trying desperately to find some argument that he had missed, some other way out of the situation they were in. Finally he simply lowered his head to her hair, breathing in her scent.
“I don’t want to lose you.” His voice was low and rough, and he felt her shiver.
“I know, sugar. I don’t want to lose you either.” She raised her head, and he saw in her eyes the almost preternaturally calm determination that had filled her from the time she first devised the plan.
“I want to be sure you know, though, sugar...” She stopped and smiled despite the shine of tears in her eyes, kissing him gently on the lips. “Logan. No matter what happens, I don’t regret anything. We had this.” -- another kiss, deeper, more urgent. “Even if it was just for a little while, you gave this to me. And I’m so happy to have had it.”
“Goddammit, Marie, don’t.” He felt like he was choking, drowning. “Don’t say goodbye.”
This time he kissed her -- desperately, almost violently. He felt like she was the very breath to his body as he turned, pushing her hard up against the wall, grinding into her, trying to communicate everything he felt and couldn’t say with the force of his body.
He sensed nothing but acceptance from her -- she kept her body pliant against him, breathing a soft willing murmur into his mouth as she let his turbulent outburst pass through her. Her hands traced through his hair as she responded to his onslaught with such sweetness that he couldn’t help but gentle his actions. He could feel her resolve like water, clear and cool, giving the appearance of yielding and yet unchanging, wearing away stone.
Finally he drew back, leaving both of them panting as he buried his face into her neck. He felt the hitch in her breath and knew that she was close to tears, and would not let him see them. A harsh, desperate growl escaped him as she tightened her arms around him with a finality that made something inside of him break.
“Okay, then, sugar,” she said. “No goodbyes. Just...thanks.”
She pressed a final kiss to his lips, and slipped from his arms.
He watched the door shut hollowly behind her, clenching his jaw hard, choking down the forlorn howl that threatened to escape him.
___________
Rogue drove the truck up the path to the east gate, skidding to a stop just before the metal barrier with a spray of gravel.
She kicked the truck’s door open and reached back inside, half-dragging a woozy-looking Jean across the gear shift and out the driver’s side door with her. She tightened one hand in Jean’s hair, the other hand clenched on the grip of the gun.
She walked within a few feet of the startled guard who stood with his gun only half-raised.
“Get Shaw,” she barked.
They all stood in frozen silence until Shaw’s sleek car purred down the track. Shaw cautiously stepped out of the low-slung vehicle, Emma close behind him.
Rogue sneered at his hesitation as he approached the gate. “Rogue...” he began.
“Shut up!” she interrupted. “Here’s the deal. Not Xavier’s deal, not your deal, just mine.”
She forced Jean to her knees in the gravel. “You had to know an ivory-tower idealist like Xavier would never turn us over, so I have to assume that your message was aimed at me -- and I heard it loud and clear. So here’s my offer. Here’s Jean. And here I am.”
He seemed to finally be regaining his composure, raising a sardonic eyebrow. “Aren’t you forgetting something?”
She stepped forward, pulling Jean with her, ignoring her cry of pain as her knees skidded on the gravel. “Like I said, not your deal. Mine. And the deal is, the Wolverine lives.”
She reached in her back pocket and pulled out a jump drive, holding it up. “From Xavier’s files. The locations of five other superhealers. You don’t need it to be the Wolverine.”
Shaw’s face was still cautious, but he nodded at the guard, who caught the drive as Marie tossed it. “Am I to believe that Xavier authorized this exchange?”
“Of course not. But don’t you think a man like him could have stopped me if he really wanted? As long as someone else does his dirty work for him, he can be quite pragmatic.”
Shaw looked at Emma. She hesitated, her eyes still locked on Rogue, her brow furrowed in concentration. “She’s always been hard to read...” She narrowed her eyes and Rogue flinched at the stab of pain from her telepathic intrusion. “But she is telling the truth, in that she’d do anything to spare the Wolverine’s life.”
Shaw’s tension seemed to ease a bit at this pronouncement. “Well, well, well, Rogue,” he chuckled. “So love has brought you low, has it? But tell me, what exactly do you plan to do if I refuse this generous offer of yours?”
Without hesitation Rogue lifted the gun to her own head. “I end all your plans right now.”
Shaw took a surprised step back, and then looked at Emma again.
“Go ahead,” Rogue said. “Ask her if I’m bluffing. You said it yourself -- the life I had wasn’t much to lose anyway.”
Emma’s voice was shocked and urgent. “It’s true -- she would die for him.”
Shaw’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t believe it. For months I kept you here...”
“Not me,” Rogue hissed. “Just what was left, after Emma took away my memories. You haven’t really met me. The walls are down now. You have no idea what I’m capable of, Sebastian.”
He took another step towards her, but she saw the flicker of uncertainty in his eyes. “Killing yourself, maybe. Suicide is always the answer for the weak. But killing someone else? You’re bluffing.”
Rogue reached down and yanked Jean to her feet by her hair. Slowly, deliberately, she drew her glove off with her teeth.
“Rogue...please...you don’t have to do this...” Jean sobbed.
Without hesitation, Rogue placed her palm flat against Jean’s cheek. A moment of tense stillness from them all, and then Jean started to scream, black veins spreading through her cheek and down her neck. The scream choked off as she began to convulse, falling to her knees, Rogue mercilessly tightening her hold until Jean lay still on the ground.
Rogue straightened up, twin golden flames burning in her dark eyes.
Shaw paled. “Phoenix...” he breathed.
Rogue turned the gun back to her own head. “So what’s your answer, Sebastian?”
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Author's Chapter Notes:
C'mon, folks, three reviews for the last chapter? And one of them is a pity review from my beta. You can do better. ;-)
By the way, thanks to the awesome Emily Blackrose. I realize now I never actually asked her to be my beta, I just kept asking her for advice until she got drafted. ;-)
Last few chapters coming up. Stick with me. :-D
By the way, thanks to the awesome Emily Blackrose. I realize now I never actually asked her to be my beta, I just kept asking her for advice until she got drafted. ;-)
Last few chapters coming up. Stick with me. :-D
Chapter End Notes:
Please review! :-D