He remembers when he found her.
When the sentinels first attacked, he was alone. Rogue had left a while before, with the claim she needed to discover who she was, and he was still in the process of convincing himself he didn't care as the television in the bar broadcasted the beginning destruction. This was it, he knew, the apocalyptic end of his people and maybe death wouldn't be so bad: then he thought of her.
She's asleep now, head on his shoulder as they lean against the wall of the cavernous chamber. War Path, collapsed against the opposite wall, stares at them for a moment before pointedly looking away, and he glances down at the brown hair of his best friend.
The school had been in ruins, but he'd followed the transport truck for days, not knowing who had escaped and who was trapped sitting, waiting for the hell that was sure to follow. The Professor hadn't been there to help them and there was a burning hate of abandonment boiling in his bones, but he reminded himself that he hadn't been there either.
Even as he's thinking she seems peaceful, her forehead creases and the next breathe escapes as a whimper. He grabs her hand from where it's draped casually across her knees, brings it to his lips, and watches as she notably relaxes into his touch.
The walls of the containment camps were a lead and adamantium mix, thirty feet high and three feet thick. Getting past the guards had been the easy part, getting past the robots a kamikaze challenge, but somehow he found her cell. X-Men special privileges won her solitary confinement and plenty of torture, and he could only hope that there was enough of her left to rescue.
A slight smile plays across his mouth at the innocence that fills her features, and he thinks, not for the first time, that he's found a rare silver lining: even though he may not have much life left, he gets to spend it with her.
The first weeks were the hardest, when she'd wake up screaming and he'd hold her for hours, whisper in her ear, run his hands through her hair and wait for the tears to subside. They were alone for a while, facing the world from the shadows, and he realized he loved her.
He remembers when she saved him.