Logan's POV

I was listening to her but I was too focused on her tattoo… until I smelt her tears.

"I feel like I… I let her down; I was too busy wallowing in my own pathetic, painful life that I didn't even think… I can't do anything." With that I turned her around so that she was facing me again.

"Don't say that. Ever. You couldn't have known what was happening. You had a lot going through your mind. Cat, you might be with her now going through only God knows what. What good would that have done? With us helping you, we can do a lot more to help Julie and the rest of the mutants. We have the chance to do so much more for more people. You're life's not pathetic. It was painful, yes, but that was the past and it's over. I can't but feel that I didn't do enough to protect you and more recently made it more painful for you and I'm sorry. I'm sorry for telling you to be with someone else, I know that probably hurt more than when I lied and said I didn't want you. I don't know why I said it, it makes my blood boil when I even think of you actually being in the arms of another man."

"You…what?" I braced myself for the verbal lashing I was sure to get; not that I didn't deserve it. But it never came, instead she wrapped her arms around me and pulled us together into a hug. It felt right. We fit together and in that moment I knew that she was more important to me than anything else. I truly did love her.

Cat's POV

I buried my face into his neck. I didn't care that he'd lied to me… he'd said more with those words than he could have if he had come right out and said that he did want me. I never felt so complete, so right than I did at that moment. I savored that moment and committed it to memory, I wanted to remember the feeling because I wasn't sure id I would ever feel it again. Though Logan had said that he lied to me about not wanting me, he had yet to say that he loves me. I would not break the promise I made to myself about only being with a man who wanted me because he loved me. It wasn't enough if he just wanted me. I'm not sure how long we stood there nor how long we would have if we weren't interrupted by someone clearing their throat.

"I hate to interrupt this happy reunion but we've got Sentinels to stop." Logan and I looked at Scott but didn't let go of each other… I think we were both sending him a message. "We've located there base of operations. Nairobi, Kenya."

"Africa?" Logan asked.

"Stryker." Scott looked at me and so did Logan. "That's the holding place for all the mutants that were experimented on. I would have been transferred there had I not managed to escape while in Russia. Stryker wasn't involved in Sentinel construction… he must had let someone else know about his holding cells in Kenya. I don't wanna think about what I could have gone through had I not gotten, and stayed, free. It was quite obvious that I was a wanted mutant with Omega Red and Magneto wanting me to join them in their plans for world domination. I mean I knew that I wasn't like other mutants; most mutants have only one mutation… if they have more than one the others are usually connected to the first, but not me. I'm a female Wolverine who can fly and control the weather, that's just not 'normal'… ok, the flying came from an experiment after they discovered I could control weather. Julie… well the easiest way to describe her mutations is that she's a combination of Xavier and Magneto."

"So she's a telepath with magnetism?" Scott didn't look too thrilled with that combination.

"Aye."

"But don't you actually have more mutations than mine and Storm's?"

"Yeah, well I guess I do if you wanna count empathy but sometimes I think Remy and I inherited it rather than it being a mutation."

"Well, we should suit up and get this over with." Scott said walking out the door.

"I guess we'll have to finish our conversation when we get back." I finally pulled away from, Logan, grabbed my jacket, and headed out of the Danger Room.

"Sure." That's all he said as he met me at the door. I knew he wasn't going to say anything else; he'd already said a lot, especially for him. We made our way to the locker room where Rogue handed me a uniform.

"Ok, I know, I know… how do you guys move in this?" I asked emerging from getting dressed.

"You might want to make holes for your claws." Logan said. I rolled my eyes, as if I hadn't already thought of that.

"Already did. Ok, does it have to be so tight? How am I going to even sit down, let alone fight in it?"

"Hahaha! Cat, don't worry, you'll get use to it." Rogue laughed.

"Ok… How much time before we leave?"

"Well, I've got to refuel the jet and make sure all the coordinates are accurate… so, about 30 minutes." Storm replied.

"Good. That'll give me enough time to play around in the Danger Room so I can get used to the uniform before fighting Sentinels again." I made my way to the Danger Room and was followed by everyone but Storm and Scott.

"You want to start a simulation fight or what?" Gambit asked.

"Nah, I just wanna mess around. Hey, Patrick, come here."

"What?" He stepped forward facing me with his back to everyone else.

"So you gonna ask Mary out when you get back to Ireland?" I knew this was a touching subject for him, I was trying to egg him on in order to get a fight going.

"No."

"Why not? I think you should." It wasn't going well; not how I planned.

"Because I'd rather ask you out, Cat." Definitely not how I plannes.

"Uh, um, well I… crap." I hope I didn't lead him on. I thought I'd made it very clear about my feelings for him. He was a friend and that was it. "Ok, very awkward. Patrick, I… crap." Yeah, again, the only word I can say in situations like this is 'crap.'

"I know how you feel about me, Cat. I know I'm not nor ever will be the one you want. Seriously though, Cat, the guy's a loser. If he let you go back when you were transferred to Ireland then he lost out. Why pine for someone who will never want you or even love you. I'm better for you than some guy named Wolverine… I mean the name says it all: dangerous, unpredictable, loner, wanderer… Why do you put yourself through it? Why don't you just forget him and…"

"Enough! Patrick, you have no right to talk about someone and something you don't know anything about. For your information, Wolverine did come back when I was being transferred to Ireland. I let him go. I told him to leave." I was looking at Logan instead of Patrick. "I could have gone with him and fled from Stryker but what good would that have done. I made him leave so he could remain free; so he could be happy." The look in Logan's eyes told me that he knew what I was saying: that I loved him so much that I was giving up my chance of freedom

"Well… he shouldn't have left you in the first place!" I was truly hoping that Rogue and Gambit were keeping Logan calm… although, I think Julie would realize that her brother's big mouth was what got him killed.

"You have NO idea what he… we went through. The process we had to go through in order to get these…" I showed him my claws, "not that it was a volunteer thing, was so painful we could have died. It's only because of our regenerative healing abilities that we're alive. He didn't have anyone, Patrick, I at least had the memories of my brother to keep my rage under control… at least till those guards provoked me."

"Please don't tell me that after all these years you're still hoping that he'll change and come find you?"

"Patrick, a love like that; a love so strong, that even in his absence, I feel the need to continue living, a love like that just doesn't go away. I know, I've tried to let it go… to let him go but I can't." I had never once taken my eyes of Logan who was standing behind Patrick. Which worked out well because Patrick thought I was looking at him. Suddenly, Logan moved forward. I held my breath, not knowing what he was going to do. I released it when I saw Logan step around Patrick and come towards me.

"Cat…" His voice was just loud enough for me to hear. He briefly looked into my eyes before pulling me into a hug. "I'm so sorry. I should have realized you sooner. I know you kept saying hoe you felt about me, it just didn't sink in until now." He said into my neck so that only I could hear.

"That's ok, Logan. If the most we can ever be is friends then I'll be fine." It was a weird moment to say that but there was nothing else I could say.

"Hugging again? I swear, Logan. What'd you do, kill the Wolverine?"

"I'll show you the Wolverine, bub." Logan growled at Scott. I just chuckled.

"Nah, he was just sleeping. Right, Wolvie?" I couldn't help myself. He just growled. "I'll take that as a 'yes.'" I was still smiling.

"Wait, he's the Wolverine?" As I looked at Patrick I couldn't hold the laughter anymore. I was laughing so hard I couldn't do anything but nod.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't be laughing but man, Patrick, you should've seen your face."

"What, you couldn't have said something earlier? He might have ripped me to pieces." At his tone of voice my laughter died.

"You talk to her like that again and I will." Logan was serious. "Nobody talks to her that way and Scooter, if you even think of laying a hand on her again… I don't care who you are…"

"Logan, calm down. Logan, look at me. Gosh darn it, Logan! Calm down!" I knew that look in his eyes; the Wolverine was taking over. "Everyone get out of here. We'll meet you at the jet. GO!" They obeyed and made their way to the jet. I had been standing slightly to the side of him but then I moved to where I was directly in his line of sight. I sighed when I realized that he wasn't seeing me. "You never see me when you're like this. Sometimes I wonder if you ever truly see me. Was Kayla right when she said that I was nothing more to you than a scared little kitten? Did you sometimes feel sorry for me so you actually showed me attention? Was I really that pathetic?" I turned my back and began to walk away. I felt his hand gently grab my arm.

"Don't ever walk away from me, Cat. Especially after asking those types of questions. Kayla was jealous of you; she was threatened by you. She must have seen something in the way we looked at each other. Cat, I was fallin'…"

"Are you two ready? Scott's… well, you've seen him lately. Anyway, we need to go now." Rogue came in, interrupting whatever it was Logan was about to say.

"Yeah, we're ready." He said instead. He looked back at me, "We'll finish this when we get back."

"Sure." I replied with his answer from earlier which he caught because he smirked. I dazed for a second… guess I'm still not immune to that look. He wrapped an arm across my back and that's how we entered. Of course that earned some smiles from most of the team members, including my oh-so-lovable brother. I think the only ones who weren't smiling were Patrick and Scott.

"Alright, let's get this show on the road." Most of us took the chance to get some sleep before we landed in Africa. Once we landed, everyone was awake and Scott started breaking us up into three teams: Team One was the defensive team, Team Two was the offensive team, and Team Three was the rescue team. Team One consisted of me, Cyclops, X-23, and Beast and our job was to destroy as many Sentinels as we could so that Team Two could do their thing. Team Two consisted of Rogue, Gambit, Storm, and Colossus and their task was to find the main control room and shut it down (by whatever means possible). Finally, Team Three consisted of Wolverine, Shadowcat, Nightcrawler, and Patrick and it was their job to find and release all the mutants being held here.

"Alright, let's move out and get this over with so we can go home."

"That's the best thing you've said all day, Cyclops." It was true so I just had to say it.

"Alright, let's move" And with that we split up into our teams. Of course the defensive team saw action first… we were also supposed to be the distraction so the others could get in. Thankfully, in the midst of the chaos I'd ended up partnered with Beast… though I would have gladly taken X-23 as well but didn't want to leave Cyclops alone to face these things. As much I didn't like him right then, these Sentinels are not as easy to destroy as he thinks. I watched as the other teams managed to make their way in… now it was our turn. We could have used Magneto or even Julie then; these things were coming from all sides.

"How many are there?" Beast asked.

"Apparently more than Cyclops originally thought." I replied. Thankfully we were still outside so I could conjure up a little lightning storm. Which is exactly what I did. That helped take down enough of them so we could make our way inside.

"Nice going, Thundercat."

"Thanks, X-23. Now let's continue the dance shall we?" I said nodding in the direction of even more Sentinels.

"This is crazy! There are a lot more than I planned on."

"No, really?" I know it wasn't the place or the time for it but I had to roll my eyes at our fearless leader. Sometimes he wasn't the brightest.

"Storm, how are you guys doing?" Cyclops ignored my comment and spoke over the communicator. We all had one, just in case we needed to call for help. Otherwise only the team leaders (Cyclops, Storm, and Wolverine) were supposed to use them.

"We've run into a bit of a hold up but I think we're almost there." Storm replied. You could hear fighting and explosions (Gambit) going on in the background.

"Wolverine?"

"We're in the basement, we've come across a lot of the captured mutants, but, Cyclops, there's no way we can possibly get this many mutants out until the Sentinels are stopped. There's gotta be at least 50 in the first room alone and one said there's at least five similar rooms and they're all about full."

"Looks like we'll have to stop these Sentinels first."

"Wow! Cyclops, you're a real Captain Obvious today." With my sensitive hearing I could have sworn I heard Wolverine chuckle over the communicator.

"You know, Thundercat, we could do without your sarcastic comments."

"Look, why don't we recruit some of those mutants downstairs. At least see if any are willing to help us." Beast suggested… trying to redirect the topic back to the events at hand.

"Beast's got a point, Cyclops. We could always use the extra hands, seeing how there's too many Sentinels for just the four of us." I agreed with Beast and hoped Cyclops would too.

"No, it's too risky."

"We can't fight this many with just us four, Cyclops, it's suicide."

"X-23's right, we can't hold out much longer." Even though I had amazing stamina it was still taking a toll on me.

"Too late, guys. I've already sent the ones who want to help up to meet you." Wolverine said and not a moment too soon before we heard running in the hall coming towards us.

"You guys must be team one. Wolverine sent us up here if we wanted to help fight these things. I'm Emma Frost. Let's get to it, shall we?" She was dressed all in white and seemed to take leadership over the other mutants.

"Wolverine, you stop sending them up. It's too dangerous."

"Give it up, Cyclops. They're flippin' robots, not the Phoenix. You're supposed to be the leader of the X-Men and right now you're not doing a very good job at it. Wolverine's thinking of us more than you are." I was sick of his spineless, arrogant, we-don't-need-help-from-anyone mentality. "Like it or not we CAN'T do this on our own. I can't use my weather control with no access to the sky, they're robots so I can't use their emotions against them. Cyclops all I've got are six claws, martial art skills, and the inability to die. Frankly I'm tired and I've already fought enough of these to last a lifetime but I'll keep going until every lost drop of my energy is gone because the people I love are in danger. Lest you forget who you've sent in there to stop this from the control room. Not to mention… Beast, look out!" I jumped and pushed him out of the before a laser beam hit him.

"That was close."

"Aye, too close." I looked at the charred mark on the floor. "An' t' t'ink dat could've been yo', Beasty."

"No time to talk about your rather odd changes in accent, my dear. We've got Sentinels to destroy."

"Aye, that we do." Oh boy, Beast was right. I do keep flipping between Irish and Cajun. I flew at the Sentinel, slicing both arms off then eventually the head. "Look out below!" I yelled as it fell.

"Well, at least some of us are having fun." Cyclops said sarcastically, but he did have a slight smile on his face. I jumped right into destroying more Sentinels. It was easy enough when they were only coming one or two at a time. I was getting into a groove when six showed up at once. Oh, crap.

"Hey, a little help here." When no one answered or came to help I looked back to where they were supposed to be. No one. When I reached up to use the communicator it was gone. It must have fallen or been knocked out while I was fighting. "When I get out of here the oh-so-fearless leader is going to get a piece of my mind… not to mention everyone who listened to him." I turned my rage and attention back to the six… no ten Sentinels. Oh, crap. I tried my hardest to destroy as many as I could but it was hard to fight ten robots at once. I'd destroyed three of them before getting blasted from behind. I was slammed against the wall and fell to the ground. I was about to get up when I was pinned down with what I assumed were pieces of the wall… a lot of big pieces. My last thought was that my nightmare had become reality… I was trapped, unable to move, in a very dangerous situation… and the worst part of it was that I was alone. And with that thought I slipped into the surrounding darkness.