Jean sat back in her seat, resting her eyes, trying not to think. Today was her son's twenty fifth birthday, she hadn't seen him since he was nine months old, and she had no one to blame for that but herself. She had been torn for so long over whether she should wish he was alive and well, happy and healthy, or whether the girl she had tried to destroy had taken her revenge on her by taking her son away from this world permanently. There was no way to know for certain, the Professor had never been able to find any trace of them. Her only consolation had been, as far as she knew, his father had been with the woman who took him from her, hopefully that had been enough to save her sons life.
But damn it, she was trying *not* to think about this! She scowled as she shoved the thoughts aside.
The X-Men were on their way to a lab location they had been given, the only problem with that was, for the last six months every lab they had attempted to raid they had been beaten to. Whoever it was that was beating them, took no mercy on those running these places. Who they were, where they were based, and what they did with the captive mutants was still unclear.
When the jet touched down near the compound Jean began to feel a growing sensation of foreboding, as she made her way after her teammates. When they got to the front gate of the compound Scott exploded.
"God damn it, they beat us again, who the hell are these people!" he fumed, as he took in the warped and twisted metal fencing, and the mangled bodies littering the ground into the base.
"We're about to find out!" Jean replied apprehensively, as a rapidly growing fury built in her mind that she sensed to be several highly aggressive people approaching. They were distracted when the sound of an engine was suddenly heard roaring to life behind them, bright headlights flaring on as a black van crunched to a stop to their right. Headlights illuminating them but more importantly, lighting up the whole area in front of the base entrance eerily.
The driver of the van stepped out, a young girl, probably only about sixteen or seventeen. She gave them a once over before, without a word, she stalked toward the front entrance of the base just as several people exited. The X-Men turned their attention to these newcomers, three men, three women. Two of the women were carrying children, probably only about ten to twelve years old, one of the men was supporting the third women, obviously a captive of the lab, and probably in her mid-twenties.
"Who the hell are yo..." Scott started, just as one of the women handed over the child she was carrying to the van driver, before pulling a black balaclava off her head. Dark and light hair tumbled free down her shoulders.
"Aw, Scooter, you don't recognize me? I'm hurt... but she recognized me," Rogue chuckled, when Jean gasped and took a step back. One of the men chuckled too as he stepped forward, tugging his mask off, wrapping an arm around Rogue.
"Logan!? Rogue?" Scott stared in confusion at the pair. "But... why- what...?"
"Well you see, turns out the X-Men were doing a pretty shitty job shutting these places down, some of these dumb fuckers made the mistake of coming after our little girl-" Logan spoke, gesturing toward the other black-clad woman on their team- "We took exception to that, so now we're doing the job," he replied nonchalantly.
The X-Men had all relaxed now, now that they figured their old teammates would not be hostile. Well, except maybe to Jean but let's face it, after finding out the extent of what she had done to the pair, everyone had been a little hostile toward her.
"Your daughter?" Scott asked, curiously.
"Mmhmm, Laura, and that one's Alice, then the boys, James, and Jack, but that’s just the older ones, the young ones are still at home," Rogue introduced each, who nodded in turn. Jack tugged off his balaclava last, as all eyes turned to him.
For several minutes the X-Men observed the group, absorbing the news they were a family, until Jean stepped tentatively forward. Momentarily forgetting her fear of the pair who had ruined her life, leaving her alone, scarred, and shunned.
"Ch-Charlie!?" Jean suddenly commented, as she studied the features of the man Rogue called 'Jack'. He had Logan's dark hazel eyes, though the shape was neither Logan's nor Rogue's, and his dark hair was more Auburn than Black.
Cold, hard, eyes turned to her, an eyebrow cocking in a familiar gesture as he regarded her with contempt. "My name is Jack, use it," he growled. God he looked just like Logan, both of the boys did, though the other had a streak of white in his hair, obviously a trait from Rogue.
"No, your name is Charlie, I named you Charles and-" Jean began to tearfully explain.
"And I don't want anything from you, you bitch, not even your goddamn name," Jack interrupted, his tone deathly calm but dripping venom; obviously he didn't only get his looks from Logan.
"You don't know... I'm your mother, please Ch-Jack, they kidnapped you when you were just a baby, I couldn't find you, I-" Jean was sobbing now, pleading, reaching for him.
"I know damn well who you are egg donor, and I don't want a damn thing to do with you, so back the fuck off." He growled, deeply and ominously, as she continued to approach, until he had stepped up next to Rogue and stood protectively at her side.
"You bitch!" Jean screamed at the girl, though she was hardly a girl anymore, she must be in her forties by now, though she didn't look a day over twenty-five. "You think this is some sort of game, stealing my child and turning him against me!?" she fumed, though she had the good sense not to continue to approach now that both Logan and Charlie- Jack were protectively flanking her. Not to mention the other three 'children' who, though they appeared relaxed and at ease, were obviously ready to join the fight at a moments notice.
"The only one playing games was you Jean, and you lost," Rogue replied coolly, the barest of grins touching her lips even as she tried to quash the pity that rose in her heart for the women standing before her.
"You broke into my home, you attacked me, he carved horrible slurs into my body, and you stole my child, if that wasn't a game what was it?" Jean fumed.
"I’ll be honest with you, that was revenge. You wrote the rules Jean, you made your bed, now you lie in it, you're the one who used your mutation to manipulate us, you're the one that caused this, and you're still trying to act like the victim... well guess what, I don't need to act the victim, even though I was, Logan was, Jack was, but we all won, I got Logan, he got me, Jack got a family that loved him and wanted him, not a mother that just wanted him as a pawn to win a man she didn't have a right to," Rogue stated, angrily but calmly.
"That's not true, I loved him, I did, I wanted him, I..." Jean tried to argue.
"Maybe you wanted him, when you realised just how badly you lost," Rogue replied with a shrug, "And we didn't turn him against you, you did that, all we did was tell him the truth. Now if you'll excuse us, we have people to get home," Rogue finished, turning and walking away from the group, toward the van where their rescues were being loaded into seats. If she didn't leave soon she was going to lose her cool and attack Jean, but she had promised herself a long time ago she wouldn't. That woman had already stolen enough of her life.
"Logan, why don't you guys come back with us, we can work togeth--" Scott didn't bother finishing his sentence when he spied Logan turn his head, and pointedly glare at Jean. "Alright, fair enough... Do you guys need help? Where do you take the rescues? Do you need funding for medical expenses, schooling?" he asked instead.
"No Scott, we're sorted, we've got doctors, and a school, and a good town to help them, the younger ones come home with us, add them to the brood, the older ones get therapy, recovery, we help them get into college or a job, we've got this," Logan advised, shifting to completely ignore Jean who was still standing mutely in place just staring at Jack, who was pointedly acting as if she simply didn't exist.
"Well, is there some way we can contact you, to coordinate, so we're not treading on each other toes?" Scott queried.
With a tolerant chuckle and a shake of his head, Logan handed over a satellite phone. "Number's in there, emergencies only, she doesn't come within five hundred miles of our home, ever," he replied, pointing at Jean. "If we need to contact you we know how to."
Before he got a chance to walk away Scott stopped him with another query. "Your daughter, Laura, is she alright?"
"The usual; nightmares of repeated rapes, regular beatings because she takes after me in the compliance category, almost complete metal bonding procedure... but she's doing good, she's strong, and stubborn as hell, she gets that from Marie I swear," he and Scott both chuckled at that, there was no way he and Marie’s kids would have been anything but, not with both him and Marie to influence them.
"I'm sor--" Scott began to say.
"Don't," Logan interrupted, "What's done is done, we don't need your pity, she doesn't need your pity, we just need to shut these fuckers down for good, that's one reason we won't work with Chuck, he doesn't agree with our methods, does he?" Logan asked, brow cocked in amusement as he gestured toward the dead soldiers lying a short distance away.
"No, he doesn't approve of your methods... but we all understand the desire," Scott replied.
As Logan and Jack turned to walk away another thought occurred to Scott. "Hey, does Rogue still have Magneto's powers?" he asked curiously.
"A little, why do you ask?" Logan grunted in reply.
"I was wondering how you messed up the fence," Scott replied, pointing to the ten foot razor wire that had been effectively rolled back, several bodies caught up in it.
"Oh, that's Jack," Logan replied with a grin, as the young man's whole body seemed to glow, and he contorted the fence further telekinetically.
They were halfway across the clearing when Jean called out again. "Jack... I love you," she said softly.
The boy turned back to her for a split second. "I have a mother who loves me, I want nothing from you," was all he replied, before he continued to the waiting van and wrapped his arms around Rogue, hugging her tightly, then he picked her up and carried her into the van.
"I love you momma," he murmured, hugging her tightly as the van rolled away, toward their home. His dad was driving, Alice navigating, not that dad needed a navigator but she begged to come and wanted to be useful, even though Logan refused to let her actually come onto the base. James and Laura were dealing with the rescues, Laura cleaning and bandaging cuts and scrapes on the two little girls, James, splinting the woman’s left leg and wrist.
"I love you too little one," Marie replied, hugging him tightly as she felt a tear slip down her cheek. She had been dreading the day Jean finally found Jack, the last thing she wanted was to lose her son, she just hoped their relationship was strong enough.
Jack growled irritably a moment later, and at Marie's gentle query he told her Jean was trying to contact him telepathically.
"Want me to help?" Marie asked, with a grin.
"Sure," Jack answered, with a responding grin, feeling the moment she turned her skin on and gently nudged her way across her skin’s barrier and into his conscious mind. A moment later he felt the swift mental punch Marie threw at Jean, who promptly disappeared.
"What are you two up to?" Logan asked over the seat, when he heard them chuckling.
"Just dealing with an intruder," Jack replied, still grinning broadly, and settling back in his seat for the seven-hour ride home. He felt like a weight had been lifted off him, now that that 'introduction' had been dealt with, hopefully he didn't have to worry about dealing with that woman ever again.
--
Jean sat in silence on the way back to the mansion, the painkillers she had taken were doing absolutely nothing to help with the migraine she had had since she tried to contact Jack. God, trust Logan to give him such a horribly boring name, and that bitch Rogue, she knew what his name was why didn't she tell Logan!
'To spite you of course,' her subconscious mocked her. 'She's right though, you brought this on yourself, what goes around comes around,' was the last thought that went through her head as tears began to track her face.