I sit beside Kitty and try to ignore the ache in my heart. Her hands hover to either side of Logan’s head, a strange blue light pulsing between her skin and his. It is almost the only illumination in this dark, gloomy stone room. I don’t speak to her, and she doesn’t say a word to me. Instead, we watch Logan’s still form and wait.
A few yards away, the Professor and Erik are talking in voices too quiet for me to make out. Their conversation seems serious, though, and I wonder if they are rehashing all those long-ago disagreements which have become so pointless in this dangerous world. Will the Professor ever admit that Erik was correct, that humans would attempt to destroy us before they would live in peace with us? The plan we are putting into motion this very moment makes me think that it is the other way around. The Professor must have convinced Erik at some point, perhaps during my imprisonment, that the only way for mutants to survive was if humanity survived peacefully beside them. After all, we have more than enough proof that humans are ingenuous in finding ways to destroy whatever frightens them, given enough cause.
As I stare at the lines of the face I love so well, I relive all the moments when he impacted my life, good and bad. It began in a shadowy bar thousands of miles away, on an entirely different continent than we find ourselves in today. My first sight of him was inspiring and terrifying at the same time. Even then, I knew there was something about him. That idiot fighter was right. No man should be able to take punches like that with so little visible damage. Something inside whispered mutant.
I want to touch the familiar planes of his jaw, his cheekbones, but I don’t dare interrupt the process of his insane task. Instead I fiddle with the edge of the too-large leather jacket I wear, trying to keep my fingers busy and away from him. The jacket is his, given to me before he laid down on the cold stone slab that may be his final resting place. He saw me shiver, and yet again he did his best to take care of me. I can still feel the warmth of his skin radiating from the worn lining inside, and I am comforted as best I can be.
Logan has been like this for five hours. Kitty looks strained but not exhausted. I remember one of my few duties and press the plastic straw from a silvery metal water bottle to her lips, inviting her to drink if she needs to. She has to keep a fine balance between staying hydrated enough to keep up her energy and drinking so much that she will need to stop to relieve herself. Neither of us want me to have to replace her for such a trivial matter, so she and I have come to an understanding. She doesn’t try to sip from the straw within a ten second window, so I pull back and place the bottle back on the ground. I will try again in another half hour.
Suddenly Logan convulses. He brings his arms up, claws suddenly extended, and I can only watch as he slashes into Kitty’s stomach. I reach over and grab his arms, pulling them down and using my new strength to keep him still until Erik comes to stand at his feet. Logan’s entire body relaxes then, but his skin still trembles as if he would shake if he could move.
“I’m losing him!” Kitty cries while the Professor moves over to her and begins to bandage her stomach.
“Keep him steady, Kitty! We can’t fail this time, or it will be our death! I can sense the masters of the Sentinels coming, and with them comes our destruction.” The Professor puts a bloody hand on Kitty’s shoulder, lending her the strength of his will.
Logan’s breath evens out as Kitty brings herself under control. I want to yell at her, tell her to pay attention, but I know that’s ridiculous. She’s injured, and she’s doing the best she can. Old grievances aside, Kitty hates this terror-filled world as much as I do. Like the rest of us, she clings to the hope Professor Xavier has given us that this time our efforts will take away all of the pain and death and horror we have experienced in the past seven years.
“So the Sentinels are almost here?” I ask Xavier softly.
“I’m afraid so. We have little time left, although our friends outside will give us as much as they can.” He appears worried as he stares down at Logan. I wonder if he can see what is happening, or if he’s even trying. Is he imagining what his past self is going through right now?
Erik walks up to me and hands me a granola bar, one of the few things we have plenty of. “Meanwhile, we must all keep up our strength. Have something to eat, Rogue.”
I give him a small smile and unwrap the bar. It tastes like sawdust, but I force it down anyway. He’s right. Who knows when my next meal will be, or if I’ll even get to eat again?
Just as I finish my food, the Professor gets a faraway look in his eyes. “They’ve come.”
Erik sighs and stands straight from where he was leaning against one wall. “Well, I’ll do little good in here. Good bye, old friend.” He holds out a hand to Xavier who grasps it warmly.
“Good bye, and good luck. Keep them back long enough for us, Erik.”
“I’ll do my best. We all will.”
“That’s all we can ask,” Xavier tells him, and once again I see the deep bond these two share as they exchange a speaking glance. Erik turns and walks out. The doors to the room slam behind him, and every large metal object nearby rushes to barricade the entrance. Then the metal fuses into one large, thick piece, maybe deeper than I am tall. The Sentinels will have to fight through that to get to us, and although I know they’re more than capable of it, the gesture comforts me, just as Erik no doubt intended.
Minutes later, the room begins to shudder. I glance at the Professor, but he only stares back at me. I am reassured by the calm I see there. He grounds me, as he always does, and we both turn back to Kitty and Logan, locked in her strange powers.
The sounds of the battle, muffled by the rock walls and thick metal door, reach us even as I notice the sweat dripping from Kitty’s forehead. I lean closer to look at her bandage and see that blood has completely soaked through. Her hazel eyes meet my own dark brown, and her mouth quirks up in a tired smile.
“Looks like you’re going to need to take over, Rogue,” she whispers. I realize that’s as loud as she can get right now. With the use of her powers and her injury, her energy is fading fast. Across the room, I hear the Professor’s indrawn breath. He’s aware of the state she’s in, too.
I pull off my gloves with shaking hands. “I’m sorry about this, Kit-kat,” I say, using the old nickname.
“Just make it last, Roguey. Get us back to a real life, not this half-death we’re playing in,” Kitty tells me.
I take a position behind her and reach out my hands to cover hers. Even as I feel the pull working, my mind is examining the new power and adapting to it, using it. I have never felt the draw happen so quickly, but maybe it’s because I’m prepared. I slip seamlessly into the vortex she’s created around Logan, barely noticing when my hands leave Kitty’s and she drops to the ground.
Being less experienced at this, I can’t pay as much attention to what is going on around me as Kitty was able to. I’m sure the battle is ongoing. I can hear the Professor as if from a distance, reporting the wounded, the dying. First Erik, then Storm, then Bishop. My eyes see Erik reappear, presumably with Blink’s help, and stagger to the ground. The Professor is telling me that they are close. Our death is at the door.
At the same time I see the strangest flashes. A stadium, but it looks as if it’s circling the White House of all places! Older versions of Sentinels, similar to the first ones we ever faced almost a decade ago. Logan, his face distorted in pain as something rips into him. What have we sent him into? Then all I can see is water. I can hear the Professor yelling, telling me to keep my hold on Logan. I want to cry, to scream, but I keep the power flowing from my hands to Logan. If I don’t succeed, we all die anyway. Logan has survived so much. Surely his past self will survive this, too.
The Professor suddenly yells that Bobby is dead. I should be sad, or at least upset, angry, something. I loved that man, once upon a time when we were just a boy and a girl. All I can feel is numbness and worry over the man who holds all of our lives, our very future, in his hands. I can no longer see flashes of what must be the past, and I worry that whatever he did isn’t enough.
The sounds are getting louder. The Sentinels are breaking through, or so Xavier says. I try to keep myself from panicking. Logan isn’t finished. It isn’t done! He’s still lying there. We’re still all here. This can’t be the end!
I hear an explosion behind us, and then I hear nothing at all.