Title: And the past has got to go back into our dreams.
Series: X-men Evolution.
Rating: PG 13.
Pairing(s): Various.
Disclaimer: Own nothing.
Notes: Post series.
Summary: Scott. Rogue. After the flood.

---

3:13 am. Geneva, New York. Four months, Three weeks, Two days, Eight hours, Eleven minutes after the flood.

A pair of brown eyes close for a moment, reopening to stare at the fluorescent lights buzzing, casting a pale oppressive glow across the interior of the self service car wash stall.

He blinks again, one of the two long light bulbs flickers for a moment. Lightning flashes in the distance. The driving rain continues. He's leaning back in the driver seat of the cherry red convertible.

A car door slams behind him. Its approach was muffled slightly by the storm, but he knew the black S.U.V. was coming. It parked lengthwise across the rear door of the stall. A pair of black combat boots splash through the ever growing puddles as his pursuer rounded the building on foot to approach him from the front.

His naked eyes remained on the lights, watching their cycle. Bzzz. Bzzz. Bzzz. Snap. One of the pair blacked out.

"I'm not going back." His voice was strained. His eyes closed. They still burned from the tears.

"Where do you think you are going?" A light sigh as her eyes narrowed. He didn't even look up at her.

He noticed her voice was a bit shaky. He might have smiled at that. This time they sent the only person who could stop him.

---

First they had sent Logan… the master tracker; the wolf in human's clothing. Two weeks ago the Wolverine approached me the same way; asked the same question; demanded my return to the mansion; popped his claws. I assume that he's just now starting to grow some of his skin back. When he unsheathed his claws all bets were off. I blasted him twice. Full power. The first tore all of the flesh and musculature from his left leg below the hip joint. The second, three quarters of his face.

---

"Buffalo." He replied flatly. His lips curled up slightly at that. He wasn't sure why. Technically Buffalo didn't exist any more.

---

Buffalo wasn't the epicenter. The center was actually in Lackawanna. South park to be exact but that's just splitting hairs really, considering that everything within an eight mile radius was vaporized in the blast. It carved a perfectly spherical sixteen mile wide, eight mile deep addition to Lake Erie and its shoreline. The tidal wave caused massive damage to almost every city on the lake coast. It was thirteen days before the Niagara River flowed into Lake Ontario again.

---

"Ah thought you might be hungry." She lifted the brown paper bag she was carrying in her right hand and the drink caddy in her left. He reached over and swung open the passenger side door, eyes still locked on the lights. The second popped back on.

"Thanks." He took a long drag from the oversized cup of cola.

"Drive-thru Tacos is closed this late, had to settle for Clown-Burger." She popped a few fries in her mouth, looking off into the distance. He still hasn't looked at her.

"Next time it's on me… Well, if you can get out of the internment camp that is."

---

Mutant registration began within an hour of the blast. 'Voluntarily' of course… The military occupied the mansion within minutes. It was a direct order from the President himself. He called it a matter of national security. The legality of their occupation was in the courts, but it wasn't long before the sentinel robots arrived, 'guarding' the perimeter. The professor was able to negotiate some measure of freedom for his students, but with mandatory registration being debated in the Senate after quickly passing in the House of Representatives, the writing was on the wall.

---

"Ah…" She stopped herself. "We need you Scott."

He finished the bite of cheeseburger in his mouth, took another sip of cola, and sighed.

"I can't. I can't go back there." He closed his eyes again.

"Scott…"

---

Sam, Warren, and Bobby lead the retreat. Each grabbed as many as they could and flew, blasted, or ice slid as far and fast as possible. Warren's heart just about stopped when he felt Rhane's hand slip. He spent an hour crying into Tabitha's shoulder. He hasn't been the same since.

Bobby doubled back to where Rhane's wounded body lay almost motionless. He pushed his power beyond his perceived limits creating an ice-shield a half mile thick by a quarter mile wide to protect Rahne, Amara, and Danielle. A day later the four of them were found floating down the Saint Lawrence River on a chunk of ice and rock. Amara and Danielle saved Rhane's life; the three have been inseparable since.

---

"Scott… The professor…"

"F#$ the professor." Scott spat bitterly.

"He's doing his best."

"Tell that to Jamie Madrox."

---

Jamie was fourteen years old. Fourteen and a half he would protest. He loved playing with legos even though most of the kits were labeled ages eight through twelve. A year ago he and I built a model of the SR71 blackbird out of pieces from five or six different kits... He had inventively created a chain of duplicates; one hundred and twenty seven to be exact; in a failed attempt to outrun the blast.

---

"That's not fair." She took another bite from her cheeseburger. "He's a telepath, not a psychic."

"You have no idea what he is…" His voice was hollow. He crammed a handful of fries into his mouth, anger apparent as his molars tore into the fried potatoes as if they had betrayed him.

---

I was the one that Wanda came to when she wanted to cross the arbitrary line. Wanda and Todd had joined us around eight months earlier looking for a better life. For Wanda, 'a better life' meant casting off her lineage and doing something positive with her life and powers. For Todd 'a better life' was with Wanda. Their first and last kiss was during the initial flash.

---

"What aren't you telling me Scott?"

His eyes opened. He noticed that the second light was out again.

"Drop it… please…"

---

Kurt Wagner, for all his theatrics, never let on just how much teleporting physically hurt him. The strain was multiplied by distance and weight. Teleporting blind left him vulnerable. Without a second thought he grabbed as many as he could, porting as far as possible. The seven mile jump caused a massive heart attack. His left arm, and Jubilee's right, materialized inside of a tree. Both had to be amputated below the elbow. Rogue broke his sternum and most of his ribs trying to get him to breathe again. He's in a coma now. Jubilee spends six hours a day at his bedside, holding his right hand with her left.

---

"Where are you going… really?" She took a long sip of lemon-lime soda.

"Really?" He turned his head to the side, looking at her for the first time. "I have no idea… South? Florida perhaps? Then I thought I might see if my grandparents still lived in Anchorage… or sell the car and go visit Alex in Hawaii… I think I need to be with family…"

Her hand covered his, squeezing it tightly.

"You were with family…"

"Please don't." He started to pull his hand away, but gave up and simply turned his head back to the ceiling. The light was on again.

---

Kitty was there with me. She wanted to retreat with the others. I ordered her to help me get closer. She buried her face in my chest soaking my shirt with tears and phased. After the flash we were floating in the air near the center of the crater. She hasn't talked to me since.

---

"You shouldn't have to bear this alone…" She straddled his hips, looking down at him, staring deep into his eyes. Something she had dreamed of for as long as she could remember.

"Don't…" He offered no physical protestation as her gloved hands cupped and held his cheeks.

"Show me…" She leaned down, closed her eyes, and took his lips. It wasn't the kiss that she had fantasized about since high school.

---

I remember that I heard music… The song… haunting, beautiful… frightening. I think it may have been broadcast through our psychic rapport. She was there… floating. Fifteen feet in the air… everything was floating. Her skin was bright, almost glowing. Her hair flowed upward. The engagement ring I had saved up for months to buy her was dancing in front of her face secured by a chain around her neck. Her eyes were blank; her tears aflame as they streamed down her face. To my surprise she had beginnings of a modest bulge at her belly.

She was so beautiful.

I screamed her name, reaching out to her.

She turned, blinking out a few more tears as her eyes locked onto mine. They reverted to deep green pools as she had a moment of lucidity. She started to say my name. The song built to a crescendo.

Then…

Then, in one moment, she showed me… through our rapport.

She showed me…Everything.

It's impossible to describe. But for a moment, through our rapport, I was aware of everything. The entire universe. The philosophers stone. The bucket of truth. Everything.

Things humans weren't meant to comprehend.

Everything.

Even things about myself… Things I never knew, or would never know otherwise.

My only friend at the orphanage; and the demon that tortured me in my nightmares were one in the same… except… They weren't nightmares.

I saw myself holding my legs to my chest, eyes tightly bound by bandages, rocking back and forth on a hospital bed. Deciding…

My father alive, of all places, in outer space… A pirate…

That she was going to tell me about our daughter over dinner sometime the next week.

That she had picked out a name and wouldn't take no for an answer…

Then, in the next second I saw white for the first time since I was forced to hide my eyes behind ruby quartz glasses.

It was gone… but not without a parting gift.

I felt… everyone… every single life that was snuffed out by the explosion. I felt them all, individually, one by one.

I felt them die.

I woke up a month later in the med lab. They said it was a coma… Just like sinister did when I was a child and he was experimenting on me.

But it wasn't.

The truth.

He knew.

The professor knew this was going to happen.

---

His eyes opened and she was hugging him; holding onto him as tightly as she possibly could.

"I told you not to…"

Three months ago she would have asked him to take her with him. But now, she had responsibilities. Her brother, her friends, and finally the race… Scott's responsibilities…

An hour ago, part of her didn't understand how he could have run away from them.

Now she wondered how he didn't run sooner.

"Ah'm sorry…" She breathed into his ear before kissing him on the forehead. "About Rachel…" She collected the spent wrappers in the brown paper bag, stepped out of the car, and trailed her fingers down the length of the convertible as she headed back to the S.U.V. She had a long drive back to Westchester, and a damn good lie to come up with as to why she was returning empty handed.

His eyes locked onto the lights. The second one clicked back off.

Anchors Aweigh.

(Asitiswhenitwas)
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