ALL HER CHILDREN
"Get lost," Raven ordered drunkenly.
Raven was sitting in a run-down border cantina. Most of the other patrons were a mix of Texan and Mexican working stiffs. They were all keeping their distance. A few black eyes and facial bruises among the men, combined with Raven's skinned knuckles, told Logan that Raven had earned her right to some peace and quiet the hard way.
It was a shame he was about to ruin it.
Logan sat down at Raven's table, directly across from her. Then he picked up a half-empty bottle of tequila and studied the label thoughtfully. After a brief frown, Logan took a speculative slug straight from the bottle.
"You used to have better taste than this," Logan said as he put the bottle back on the table.
Raven stared at Logan for a long moment.
"Maybe I wasn't clear," she finally said. "Go away. Hit the road. Fuck the hell off."
A slender barmaid wordlessly put a shot-glass in front of Logan and then quickly retreated.
"We need to talk," Logan said.
Raven gritted her teeth, "God-DAMMIT, Logan! What does it take to get something through your thick head!?"
"I came to say goodbye," Logan said as he met Raven's eyes.
That seemed to calm Raven down. She poured herself a drink as she examined Logan. For the first time, she noticed the facial scar. That should have been impossible. And the blood-stained bandages on his hands. And then there were the cuts and bruises on his face and arms that weren't healing...
Raven suddenly slid the filled shot-glass over to Logan. Then she drew back the empty one and began to fill it.
"What's going on, Logan?" Raven asked.
"I don't think I have much time," Logan said calmly as he up-ended the shot-glass, "and I figured I should take care of something important with you - while I have the chance."
"You don't look so good," Raven said speculatively.
"I've felt better," Logan said dismissively - as if they were talking about something unimportant.
"Is this smart, Logan? You're obviously not at your best... and you're paying me a visit. That's the kind of mistake that you might not walk away from."
Logan sighed. "I'm not looking for a fight, Raven. And if you're smart, you ain't either."
"We've known one another for almost a hundred years, Logan," Raven shot back with a bitter smile. "There are only two things we do when we're together."
Logan just looked at Raven.
"We either fight or fuck," Raven clarified.
Logan shook his head, "As I recall, we've actually been known to talk."
Raven tilted her head to one side. "Talk. You want to talk?"
Logan nodded. "Yep."
"About what?"
Logan took a deep breath before continuing, "Kids. Yours and mine. Yours and Charles Xavier's. Maybe others."
Raven gave Logan a long, expressionless, look.
"We've had a pair of visitors from what Hank says is an alternate future," Logan continued. "One is a young tough-guy who looks a lot like you - blue skin, yellow eyes, red hair, and he's a pretty good shape-shifter. He's also has three claws on each hand and he regenerates. The other is the spitting image of a young Charles Xavier. They're half-brothers, and they don't make much of a secret as to who mommy and daddy are."
Raven still didn't say anything.
"Both of them can be generously described as assholes," Logan added regretfully. "The kid who's yours and mine is Sabertooth-level psycho. Yours and Xavier's boy is a soulless creep. Everything bad that a telepath can do, he does with a smile. Apparently things didn't go right for them in the future, so they've come back to our time to deal with those young X-Men that Hank dragged into the present. They're trying to reset history into something that will work out better for them."
"How's that going for them?" Raven asked slowly.
"Summers' crowd has been tangling with them on and off. It's been pretty nasty and I figure it's only a matter of time until someone dies. Given that Slim is running things, and has some pretty tough folks on his side, I'm betting that your sons will be the ones who bite it. But I also figure there's a good chance that some of the kids with Summers will get aced in the process. I don't like any of that."
Logan was one of the very few people on Earth who was able to detect the very slight flicker in Raven's solid eyes. But she otherwise didn't respond.
"I talked it over with Hank," Logan said. "He thinks that there's a good chance that our future offspring really do exist in the right here and now. So that's why I'm here."
Then Logan took a deep breath and leaned forward. "Let's admit something right now, Raven. We're both terrible parents. Just fucking terrible."
Her elbows on the table, Raven let out a soul-deep sigh and cradled her forehead in her hands. Logan took the opportunity to down another tequila.
"So I'm not giving you advice, Raven. I don't have the right to do that. But I am telling you what the outcome is going to be if we don't do something. It's going to be a damned train-wreck. The boys will go dead wrong, end up with some really bad enemies, and then be dumb enough to try and muck with time as they try to fix things in their favor."
"What do you want from me, Logan?" Raven asked tiredly, her head still in her hands.
Logan slammed his empty shot-glass onto the table with such force that everyone in the cantina jumped. Everyone except Raven.
"Well, for one thing, you could stop using your vagina as your own personal Weapon-X program," Logan said coldly.
Raven looked up at Logan. For a frozen second, they both hung on the knife edge of violence as Raven's furious eyes met Logan's hard gaze.
"So, Raven, just how many X-Men have you rubbed up against?" Logan eventually asked in a quieter tone.
Raven's smile was twisted, ugly, and more than a little crazy. Logan knew it pretty well. A century ago, after they first met, he'd spent too much time telling himself that it didn't mean what he damn well knew it meant.
Love was like that. It made you willfully blind.
"I like to collect interesting men," Raven said with a shrug.
"Names?" Logan grated.
"That's not a very gentlemanly question, Logan."
"When have I ever been mistaken for a gentleman?"
Raven leaned back in her chair. For the first time, Logan looked past her eyes and face and noticed how simply she was dressed. A pair of black jeans and a white blouse, with a simple silver necklace and bracelet. She'd left the long white dress and those damn skulls somewhere else today.
"Well... you and Victor, of course," Raven said thoughtfully. "And Bobby Drake and I weren't exactly a secret. You know, I do give Bobby credit for trying to save me. That was dumb, of course, but his heart is in the right place."
Raven paused. Logan waited for her to continue.
"For everyone else, I used a different form." Raven said as she toyed with her shotglass. "Back when he was the only mutant working for Interpol, Sean Cassidy picked up a cute Irish lass in a London bar. That was me. Peter Rasputin thought I was a Ukrainian immigrant girl when we met in a Greenwich village art studio. I still have a portrait that Peter sketched of me the next morning. Sam Guthrie and I bumped into each other in O'Hare airport - I was a pretty blonde from California who was about a year older than him. For Hank, I was a nerdy graduate student with a fur fetish. For Scott, a redheaded surfer girl on a Long Island beach. For Warren, a serving-wench at a Hellfire club party. For Doug Ramsey, a schoolgirl in a coffee-shop. And for Roberto DaCosta, I was a geisha he met during a business trip to Japan."
Logan rubbed his eyes. "Who were you for Magneto?"
Raven's eyes narrowed. "What makes you think he's on the list?"
"You wouldn't be able to resist," Logan replied immediately. "Charles and Erik are a matched set."
"I do hate being predictable."
Logan snorted. "Don't worry. You've never been that. So how many kids do you have?"
Raven cocked her head at Logan. "That brings us back to why we're having this conversation."
Logan nodded. "Is there anything I can do to help you with the kids? Without Irene to help, you obviously don't have the time to raise them yourself. But wherever you've got them and whoever is taking care of them, we've got good reason to believe that it's gonna go dead wrong."
"So you want me to put them in that ridiculous school of yours?" Raven sneered.
"Maybe," Logan replied quietly. "But mostly I just want them to have a chance. And I don't particularly care how that happens. They can go with Scott, if that's what it takes."
"That will be a cold day in hell, Logan!" Raven snarled. "Scott's already killed one Xavier, and he hates both of us! How do you think he'll treat our son?"
Raven paused for a long moment, looking at Logan steadily.
"So what's in this for you, Logan?" Raven finally asked.
Logan gave Raven a cold smile. "I have a boy that I'd like to do something right for before I can't. And I'm pretty sure some friends of mine also have an interest in this mess. And I don't want you to end up mourning your babies."
Raven nodded. "That sounds just like you. But I'm not giving my children to you or Scott. Putting them in the middle of your private little war won't do them any good."
"There's another option," Logan said slowly. "Somebody we both trust has offered to help."
"Who?" Raven asked skeptically.
Thanksgiving - two years later
"Momma!" a tow-headed girl yelled as she darted into Raven's arms. A boy eagerly followed her.
Raven crouched and gathered both of them up into a big hug.
The kids in Raven's arms started chattering excitedly. It was a weird cacophony of German and English, fractured by a bewilderingly intertwined set of accents right out of both Bavaria and the heart of Mississippi.
Raven closed her eyes and rocked back and forth, kissing the children in her arms. Kurt and Rogue watched the scene without saying anything. It had been two years since they'd left the X-Men and taken over raising Raven's kids, but they still weren't completely comfortable around their mother.
Maybe that would change someday. Maybe it wouldn't. But for the moment, there was too much history between them for it all to just go away.
"Hi, mom," Rogue said quietly.
Kurt still didn't say anything. He was holding the youngest and shyest child in his arms. Magda had curly auburn hair and, except for her pair of tiger-orange eyes, every day she seemed to more and more resemble her older half-sister.
Raven got to her feet. Lucinda was cradled in one of Raven's arms. Young Peter - quiet, stolid, and big for his age - was holding Raven's other hand.
Raze and Xavier stood next to Kurt and Rogue. They weren't quite teenagers yet, but they were close enough that it was important to them to try and pretend that they were adults. However, they were obviously happy to see their mother.
"Welcome home," Kurt told Raven. "You're just in time for dinner."
Magda suddenly grinned and held her arms out to her mother. Kurt handed her over and both Raze and Xavier took that as a signal to crowd closer to Raven.
Raven leaned over and kissed Rogue on the forehead as - surrounded by a mob of children - they began walking to the dining room.
Kurt waited for everyone to get well ahead of him. Then he glanced upwards and said, "Hurry back, mein freund. We need all the help we can get."