Double Dilemma
Chapter Four – Power
Once we had stood there in shock for a reasonable amount of time, Logan rushed to aid Warren's rapidly failing cause. He very carefully took Summers from him, and then went as quickly and carefully as he could into the mansion, kicking open the door as he went. I assumed he was headed straight for the med-lab where Beast could get to work on him. Storm came running up the lawn from where she had been, supervising the younger kids and caught Warren just before he collapsed onto the grass. I held the door open and helped her, the best I could, to get him inside and onto the common room couch.
"I couldn't- I couldn't get there," Warren was mumbling, "I just—"
Storm was attempting to sooth him as I ran down the hall to the supply closet for a few things. I grabbed healing ointment, bandages, and a couple cloths before running back into the room, and then went to the nearest sink to soak the towels in hot water. Warren kept mumbling and ranting about what he had seen, from what I could piece together in his rambling while I very carefully tried to help Storm clean him up – the professor hadn't sent him on the easiest of tasks. He had sent Warren to the vacation village where Scott and Jean were. Only he got there and the place was a mess, and then he kept talking about Jean like he could see her.
"Warren, calm down," I finally said once we had finished patching him up, "It's ok. You're back at the mansion, and we're taking care of you ok?"
"Where's Jean?" He asked, the phrase had been in some of his rambling, "Where's Jean?"
"We don't know, Warren," Storm said calmly, like it was something that he didn't need to worry about, "You only came back with Scott. Now, relax – and try and get some rest, ok?"
Warren didn't even respond, he just closed his eyes and was out cold before either of us could even bat an eyelash. For a second we watched him sleeping, just in case there was something else wrong with him, then I got up. He hadn't gotten breakfast, so knowing that Storm was watching him, I headed to the kitchen. I whipped him up his favorite sandwich, and then snagged some left over food from dinner the night before for him in case he wanted those. I set the plate of food on the coffee table by where he was laying just as the professor walked in, flanked on both sides, Logan on one and Tony on the other.
"Storm," The Professors stern and very serious voice said, "Please go round up the children. Don't let them know anything's up – just keep them together. No need to panic just yet."
"Yes, Professor," She said, excusing herself from the room and heading outside to where everyone was.
"Angel," He nearly barked, and Warren jerked awake, "Eat. You'll need that more than sleep right now."
"How's Summers?" I asked and Logan shrugged.
"He doesn't look good, kid," He replied, slightly sullen.
Everyone knew that Scott and Logan didn't get along, but that in no way meant that Logan wished him any real harm. Logan thought he was annoying, a bit too polished, and possibly the most arrogant person he had ever met – but he wasn't going to act all high and mighty when Scott was clearly severely injured. That was one of the things that I adored about him, even the people he thought were so stupid and irritating, he took care of. He knew the value of life, no matter who's it was.
"I'm terribly sorry, Angel," The Professor said, "It seems I've been interrupting your meals all day – but could you possibly finish your sandwich as we walk? I'd like us all to go pay a visit to Mr. Summers."
"He can't walk," I said, "He's exhausted and worn out."
"I'll help 'em," Logan offered gruffly, and Warren nodded.
"That should be fine," He said, trying to get up and Logan went over and offered him his shoulder as a crutch.
We all followed the Professor's wheelchair apprehensively as he led us down towards the med-lab where Summers was. I was walking slowly, on the other side of Warren from Logan, just to make sure he didn't tip over while Tony was walking up with the Professor. I was trying my hardest not to check him out from behind, but I couldn't help myself, and I prayed that no one else noticed. I pried my eyes away from him, and looked to Warren, who had been too busy trying to balance to notice, but Logan rolled his eyes at me. I blushed.
"What?" I challenged him, and he shook his head.
"Nothin', Kid," He replied and I got a little sad.
I had been in love with Logan much too long, I almost felt guilty about the little bit of feelings that were starting to develop for Tony. Tony was great, he was telling me all the things that I wanted to hear, he was being the man the man that I had wanted. He and Logan, though they were so different, they were cut from the same fabric. They were both drinking, womanizing, sarcastic, and stubborn. They both wanted it to seem as if they didn't care about anyone, they were both so driven – they were just opposite sides of the spectrum of life. I wanted to hit myself, I was settling – with Tony, he was there in the way I wanted Logan to be – but I still wanted Logan.
"Everyone, please, take a seat," The Professor interrupted my train of thought as we walked into a room where Scott was hooked up to a bunch of machines, "So I can explain what's happened."
Surprisingly, no one gave him much trouble about that. I was expecting a quick comment, something snarky from either Tony or Logan, but I was disappointed. They both seemed to pick up in the direness of the situation, and hadn't said a word. Logan took a loyal seat to my right and Tony took a seat by the professor, almost directly across the room from us.
"I know exactly what's happened," Warren piped up, "Magneto's kidnapped Jean."
"What?" That got Logan's attention, Jean always got Logan's attention.
I could feel my blood start to boil, and the guilt rising up my esophagus. I was jealous of her, still I was jealous of her. She was in the hands of the brotherhood, everyone had every right to be worried about her, that included Logan.
"I'm afraid that's not nearly the worst of it," The Professor replied and Tony looked as if someone had just pushed the flashing red button to release the nukes to end the world.
"Jean Grey?" Tony checked and the Professor nodded, "Well, that sounds like terrific news. How the hell could you let this happen? The only reason she was permitted to stay was because you had her under control. You allowed her out of your sight? How recklessly irrespons—"
"You and I are not speaking of the same Jean," The Professor cut him off, "I'm thinking of the beautiful, brilliant example of a person. A human being, a mutant, but still a human being who wanted to go on an anniversary trip with her husband. I had an eye on things, and sent Angel to retrieve them this morning. I was a little off on my calculation-"
"You allowed a highly dangerous class five mutant—"
"Jean's a class five?" Warren interjected, but was ignored by the arguing parties.
"Would you rather have me lock her somewhere in a tower?" The Professor asked rhetorically, "Jean hadn't had an incident in years, there was no reason to think—"
"Oh, that fireplace hasn't set the mansion on fire lately, let's let it burn unsupervised," Tony retorted, "Maybe we can burn the whole city."
"Smartass," Logan managed to get Tony's attention, "Why don't you shut the hell up so the rest of us can be let in on what's going on here."
"Take it away, Xavier," Tony was still steaming, "Why don't you explain just how horribly you've screwed us all."
The Professor very quickly delved into the story of how he and Erik, before he completely took on Magneto as a persona, used to go and collect the students. He explained that he had been tracking a certain mutant, Jean, since she was born. Her birth had nearly destroyed Cerebro because of the amount of power she had added to the system. He told us about how he and Erik had gone to speak with her parents, only to find them scared of their own daughter, and her mutation.
"Most parents are a little scared when they discover for a fact that their child is a mutant," The Professor said, "But this was different – most parents are concerned for their child's safety, or heartbroken that their children will not lead what they'd consider a 'normal' life. This was much different than that, they were scared for themselves, not their daughter."
"Bastards," Logan said, and I involuntarily shifted away from him slightly.
It was just my gut reaction, I hated to hear him even show concern for her. Did that make me a bad person? Probably. But, she didn't want him. She had played with Logan, my Logan, for years while still married to Scott. She teased and just played with him, played with the very solemnly shown emotions of my Logan. For him to still even care about what happened to her – it shred my heart in about a million pieces. My perfect Logan, he was everything to me, and she had treated him like shit. Worse than shit, she didn't see the amazing guy that was before her. She had even at one point been the reason for him trying to change himself. That was when I had had to have a serious talk with him.
"The truth was, Jean is the most powerful mutant I've ever come across," The Professor continued as if he hadn't been interrupted, "To keep it brief, I was able to suppress much of her power under an alter personality – the Phoenix. This allowed for Jean to be able to live a relatively normal life. The point of putting so much mental stress on her was the idea that she would be able to live normally – that's why I never locked her away or kept her chained to my chair. I figured that that would be the equivalent of locking a child with down syndrome or any other abnormality in the attic or basement."
Tony scoffed.
"The difference would be that those kids weren't a danger to others."
"They thought they were dangerous at the time," The Professor replied.
"So why is it that this Phoenix is so dangerous?" It was my turn to ask a question.
"Well," The Professor replied, "In suppressing the girl's powers, the alternate personality became extraordinarily violent. There's no way of knowing the extent of damage that she could cause."
"Ok," said Logan, "So then why did Magneto take her? If he can't even begin to be able to control her powers. The guy's nuts, but he's not suicidal."
"For months now, the Phoenix has been gaining strength," Xavier continued, "I do not believe Erik realizes just how much. I believe he was under the impression that he could use her power without her knowledge. Suck it out of her without actually awaking The Phoenix. He of course was not aware that the Phoenix was about to burst through. I've been working with her, trying to reinforce the layers I'd put between her and The Phoenix, but…"
"So, Jean's a timebomb," Logan said and the Professor nodded.
"Rapidly approaching Zero too," He responded.
"So what're we gonna do?" Warren asked.
"We train, and we fight," The Professor replied, "That's really all we can do. We'll leave Storm and Scott once he recovers – he's too close to the situation be viable – to watch over the students. While you four, and myself go and train."
"Go and train?" Warren asked.
"The four of us?" I thought this was the greater issue here, "The four of us, against a level five?"
"Professor," Logan's turn to pipe up, he looked to me – somewhat subconsciously – then looked back at the Professor, "I think their might be a few holes in your plans here."
"It's a suicide mission," Tony remarked, somewhat less kindly than Logan.
"I think that if you four were to work together, you would be able to do it," Xavier replied then raised an eyebrow, "I would think it would be no problem for you, Stark. I figured that the Wolverine, Rogue, and Angel would be a little overkill actually."
I smiled, he was appealing to Tony's ego. Tony didn't say anything. None of us said anything. The professor excused us, but none of us moved. Finally, Logan got up and helped Warren to his feet. I followed them out of the room, and onto the elevator. None of us said anything, and we went right up to Warren's room. I got the door, and Logan helped him onto his bed so that he could rest. I got his water bottle, and filled it for him, putting it within his reach before I walked out into the hall with Logan again.
"Dinner?" He asked as he closed the door behind us, checking the time on the wall behind me.
"It's really time for dinner?" I asked and he nodded.
Dinner was quiet, mostly because my whole mind was spinning on its side. I walked into the dining room with Logan, completely ignoring the fact that Tony was over in the corner. His head popped up when we walked in, and I pretended not to notice. I pretended I was too wrapped up in Logan and I's lack of usual banter to see that Tony was looking for us – well at least me – to join him. Logan seems a little happier than he had been earlier in the day. We sat, we ate, and my mind continued to spin.
I felt terrible about ignoring Tony, but I didn't want him. Not really, and even if I did – I was talking myself out of it. There was no way that I was going to end up with him, so why bother? And why bother possibly alienating Logan about it? Logan was my friend, my best friend, even if nothing changed between us – he was still there. He wasn't going anywhere – unless I let Tony drive him away – which I wasn't going to do. I wanted Logan, whether he wanted me the same way or not. No more tooling around with Tony, it wasn't fair to anyone – I loved Logan. I loved Logan, and no matter how much flirtation, attraction, and – damn he was adorable.
"Everything ok, Marie?" Logan asked, somehow we had gotten into the hallway outside the dining room – Had I already eaten?
"Yeah, I'm just tired," I lied, he knew.
"Well, if you're interested, I was going to head down into town for a bit," He said, "I'd be picking up beer – but maybe I could get you something for dessert if you came with me?"
"No thanks, Logan," I said, wait, what?
"Ok, get some rest, Marie," He smiled nonchalantly and headed off in a different direction.
I understood with the current situation that the Professor had bigger things to do than teach me to control my skin. His new orders for training meant that our sessions probably wouldn't be, so I had to work on it myself. I wasn't going to let whatever little progress I had go out the window because Jean decided to self-destruct. I went to my room and laid on my bed, trying to calm my mind down. This wasn't something that I was all that great at, but I knew that practice would only help. I was about to get up to try the ball, when there was a knock on the door. I opened the door, and Tony waltzed right into my room.
"What're you doing here?" I asked and he held up a finger to silence me.
"Just listen," He said, "I get it, ok? I'm not a moron. You and Wolverine have something going on, and it seems like it's been going on a while. Whatever, he's muscular, and macho, and furry– we're all entitled to our own preferences. But it doesn't seem to be going anywhere – and I know you like me, Rogue. I know you do, so I'm not going to let you just push me aside and ignore me. You're not going to ignore me, Rogue. If Wolverine hasn't snatched you up yet, that's his problem."
"Don't you get it, Tony?" I asked, "I do like you, but I'm in love with him. I can't just switch that off, he's my best friend."
"Best friends make lousy lovers," He replied, "I should know – they know you too well. Fights start over your thoughts."
"I can't be anyone's lover," I corrected him, and he pouted disappointedly.
"Well maybe you could be," He handed me a vile of very light blue liquid.
"What's this?"
"Something I made up for you, drink it," He said and I narrowed my gaze at him, "It's why I made you touch my arm the other night, I made you a temporary cure. It coats your nervous system, a swallow'll give you a half hour if you need it."
"I can touch people?" I asked and he nodded.
"Take a sip," He prompted, and I did.
I could feel a coolness that I had never felt before wash over me. I closed my eyes and quivered it was sour as it went down, like it was a bitter taste to my system. When I opened my eyes, Tony was close to me. Closer than he had been before. I could see the lines on his gorgeous face much more clearly than I would have normally. I followed one from his forehead to where it started onto his nose, then glanced to his lips. Before I had really registered what was going on, I felt his arm wrap around my waist, and his hand clear a few strands of hair from my face – touching me without anything happening.
The next thing I felt were his lips, very lightly, very gently – cautiously grazing the side of my face. A kiss on the cheek, and slowly he dragged them towards my mouth, with enough time for me to stop him, but for some reason I didn't – even though I knew I should have. The feeling was exhilarating, the feeling of being kissed without causing the man pain. My eyes closed, for some reason the face I had in my head was a blur. I knew that I wanted it to be Logan, but for some reason it changed, slightly – but never showed who exactly it was.
"Tony," I pulled away, a little breathless – and he stepped back.
As soon as he did, I caught a glimpse of someone standing behind him, in the doorway. I didn't get a look at them, other than out of the corner of my eye before they took off – but there was only one person that it could have been. Logan.
A/n: so I'm sorry I haven't updated in a few days... I've been pretty busy... and sadly to say it'll probably be a few days before I can update again... :( I hope you enjoyed the chapter, and be sure to leave me a review and tell me whatcha think...
