Disclaimer: don't own anything except some characters and plot
Aftermath
"Ahhh…" a loud scream pierced the air.
"Rogue!" Bobby shouted as he ran out from behind the wall of ice he had created to protect him and John, and went in search of his screaming girlfriend. He raced over to where the scream originated, and tried to pull up the wall that she was stuck underneath. Bobby grunted with the effort, it was just too heavy. Then, suddenly he lifted it and he looked up to see Piotr across from him lifting up the other side. So together they moved the fallen wall to uncover a trembling Rogue underneath Remy.
Bobby pushed Gambit aside and pulled Rogue into his arms. "What happened?" he asked her as she sobbed uncontrollable. And then, "What did he do to her?" as Bobby got a glimpse of what used to be her emerald green eyes, they were now scarlet against a black abyss.
She sobbed even harder as she thought back on what happened.
She was sent flying back by the telekinetic backlash and was blinded by the white light. Then, she collided with something solid. She thought it was a wall until a pair of strong arms wrapped around her and the person broke her fall.
Opening her eyes after her fall she gasped as she saw a wall that was going to crush them on its way down. The man rolled over and covered her body with his own. It was then that she realized the man was Gambit. The wall smashed into his back, and he tried to hold it up to keep it from crushing her. But it was just too heavy and he crashed down on top of her, cheek to cheek. Then, came the inevitable pull of her powers.
She was on the street watching a man and she thought he would be a prime target. So she walked past him and slipped her hand into his pocket. The man grabbed her wrist and she was caught.
"Mais, père what if Remy don' wanna?" Rogue seemingly questioned of the man that she had been caught trying to pickpocket.
"You will do it for the guild Remy."
Sabertooth was standing before her, "pick one!" he growled as he held a woman and a man dangling them above a building and let go. The view zoomed out and you could see the woman's mangled body lying on the ground.
Now she was fighting with some man, Julien, who had challenged her to a duel. She stabbed him and blood gushed from his chest.
After that, she was in front of a number of people who seemed to be judging her, as her eyes were downcast.
"You are banished from the guild and never to return to New Orleans." Pained at the sentence she left her family and her home.
She dropped her bag and stood before a door, and sighed before she knocked. A women with white hair answered, Ororo. She gasped, "Remy!"
"Stormy!" And the two embraced.
She sat in a chair across from Xavier, and a blonde girl sat to the right of her.
Xavier steepled his fingers, "I fear a war is brewing," he began, "between mutants and non-mutants." She nodded, wondering where this was going.
"Magneto's actions will not go unpunished for long," Xavier continued, "and I fear that the government will punish all mutants. I think it would be best to keep a close eye on Magneto and to try and prevent this war. Remy, I believe with your skills, and the fact that Magneto doesn't know about you, that you would be best suited to the task."
"Ya mean like a covert ops?"
"Exactly. Now Tessa I would like you to be the liason between Remy and the X-Men. You will form a secret team whose mission is to put a stop to Magneto."
"Why me?"
"Why not? You are a powerful telepath, making communication between everyone easy and undetectable. Also, you are a fine young women who would make a great leader."
Tessa smiled at the praise, "Alright, I'm in."
"Remy too."
Ororo pulled back from their hug, "Be careful Remy."
"Remy's always careful," Ororo just rolled her eyes and pulled him in for one last hug before he had to leave.
"Gambit don't get paid enough for dis," she muttered as she looked down from her perch 12 stories up. Finding the right window she put her finger to the pane and charged a smiley face and moved away as it exploded.
Dead bodies littered the floor as she stormed a government building with Magneto's troops. She grabbed the lock on one of the cells and charged it. It exploded and she let herself in. In the corner, a petit brunette was huddled and she looked up with her blue eyes as she walked in. A gamut of emotions coursed through her: anger and pain, then relief, and finally determination. She extended her hand to help the girl up, and as their hands met she handed the girl a playing card.
She winced in pain as the three metal claws sliced her chest. "Well until next time," and with that she sprinted away after throwing charged cards around the clearing to cover her exit.
Hopping off her bike she looked around, thinking that the place would do. No one was around for miles. Thinking hard she tried calling out for Tessa. It wasn't easy communicating with a telepath when you weren't one, but over the years it had gotten easier, and Tessa kept a mind's ear open for him.
'Tessa. Tessa.'
'Yes Gambit.'
'Bonjour cherie, Magneto is movin' out tomorrow for Alcatraz. He's after de boy. So get your cute butt in gear and warn the X-Men.'
'Thanks Gambit, and no more comments about my butt and get that image out of your head.'
'Desole chere, be careful.'
'You too. Goodbye.'
'Au revoir.'
Rogue was pulled out of her memories as she felt a hot tingling sensation in her hands. She looked down at them and gasped as she saw that they were glowing pink.
Storm glanced at her from her position checking Gambit's pulse. Following Rogue's gaze Storm leapt up and ripped the glowing gloves off her hands and threw them into the air where they exploded.
XXX
"Ugh…" Andy groaned as he pushed raised rubble off of himself. He stood up and dusted himself off and checked himself for injuries, nothing too serious just a couple of cuts and bruises. He looked to the right as he heard movement.
"Jace, is that you?" He asked as he saw someone moving underneath a pile of debris.
"Yeah, could ya lend me a hand?" Andy rushed over and started pulling rubble off his friend. Once he was clear, Andy grabbed his hand and hauled him up.
"Thanks man."
"No problem." Both boys noticed that Jace's right arm was hanging limply at his side. "Looks like it's dislocated. Want me to pop it back in?"
"Yeah."
"Alright on the count of three," Jace braced himself for the pain to come.
"Three," and Andy popped it back in as Jace screamed in pain.
"That wasn't three," Jace groaned through clenched teeth.
"Didn't want you to chicken out," Andy grinned as Jace glared at him.
"Help!"
"Somebody help!"
The boys' eyes widened, "the girls," they exclaimed in unison and raced towards the shouting.
Arriving upon the scene, they saw Rachel and Charissa, grimy and dirty, trying to move one of the jeeps that they had arrived in that was lying on its side.
"What's going on?" Jace asked as they ran up.
Rachel looked up at the two boys in relief, "Melissa's stuck under the jeep and we can't move it."
Upon closer inspection, the two could see that Melissa was indeed on the ground with her legs crushed beneath the jeep. She had various cuts from the glass from the jeep and was beginning to panic as she futilely pushed at the vehicle.
"Alright, stand back," Andy said taking charge. The two girls quickly moved out of the way, wanting their friend to be freed as soon as possible. Andy lifted his hands into the air and the jeep flew straight up, high into the air as it lost the gravitational force that held it down to Earth.
Charissa and Rachel ran to their fallen comrade and pulled her up and out of the way as Andy dropped his hands and the jeep came crashing back down to Earth. Melissa hobbled over to Andy, her arms around Rachel and Charissa's shoulders for support. It looked like one of her legs was broken. When she reached him she smiled up at him, "Thanks Andy!"
He smiled and shrugged, "No problem at all! Here, let me help you," glancing down at her leg, he walked over and scooped her up into his arms. Melissa gasped at the unexpected action and wrapped her arms around his neck.
"Lets get you to one of the helicopters so that they can take you to a hospital to get your leg looked at."
Andy looked down at her as she started to pull away, "No! I'm not leaving until I know that everyone is okay."
"Alright, alright stop struggling." Melissa stopped and rested her head against his chest and listened to his beating heart as she worried about the rest of her teammates.
XXX
"Jean!" Logan shouted as he made his way through the rubble toward her. His cuts were healing, leaving only a faint trace of blood behind, and his broken bones were resetting themselves as his healing factor kicked in.
He threw the debris off her and pulled her to his chest with tears trailing down his face, she looked so pale and lifeless. Then, he felt a pulse. She was alive!
XXX
Warren pushed the debris off himself and stood up. He unfurled his wings to check that they were not damaged. Taking flight he scoured the ruins in search of survivors. A flash of purple caught his attention amidst the desolate land, after closer examination he realized that it was the woman he had caught earlier as she plummeted down to Earth. Swooping down with a graceful landing he uncovered her and scooped her unconscious body into his arms.
XXX
Alex was pushing the rubble of himself when he felt a breeze and looked up.
"Need a hand," Dani asked as she began to help free him before he even had time to reply.
"Thanks," Alex said as he grabbed Dani's proffered hand to help him up.
"You okay?" Dani asked as she heard his sharp intake of air as he stood up.
"I think I just cracked a few ribs. You?" He looked her up and down and noticed that there was not a speck of soot on her, and she did not look like she had been caught in a telekinetic backlash.
She looked away sheepishly, "I kind of ran away before the backlash. What, I thought a healthy Dani would be better suited to help others in the aftermath than a Dani who was sore and grumpy," she explained at his incredulous look.
He laughed and then winced as pain wracked through his body because of his broken ribs, "Don't make me laugh."
"Alright, lets just take this nice and easy." Dani wrapped an arm around Alex and helped him reach medical attention.
XXX
Kitty groaned and phased herself through the rubble that was covering her. It took her a few moments to remember what happened, and then it hit her, she phased through the debris.
"Jimmy!" She started frantically digging through the rubble, looking for the boy that they had come here to save.
She gasped with relief when she found him and saw his chest moving up and down. She pulled him out and picked him up with a little effort and went in search of the X-Men.
XXX
Dylan opened his eyes and let out a moan as he remembered what happened. He was in mid flight as a hawk trying to escape the backlash, but it caught him and he fell to the ground hard as he shifted back into regular old Dylan Vancouver. He tried pushing himself up, but a pain shot up his wrist and he fell back down. Glancing at his wrist he noticed that it seemed to be broken and was beginning to swell.
"You alright son?" Hank McCoy bounded over as he saw the boy struggling to get up.
"Yeah, I just think my wrist is broken. I must have fallen on it," Dylan grabbed the extended blue, furry hand to pull himself up.
XXX
"Elizabeth! Elizabeth!" Jason called frantically as he began to panic and ran around searching for her. He didn't know where she was when the backlash struck so he had no idea where to begin to look for her.
Luckily for him she answered his calls, "Jason!"
The two ran to each other and embraced each other in a bone-crushing hug. He pushed her back, looking her up and down for any injuries, but other than a gash on her cheek he could see none. As he did this, she returned the favor and was worried by the deep wound on his head that left dried blood all along the side of his face.
Then, their eyes met, ice blue on cerulean, "I don't know what I would do if I lost you," Jason began as he licked his lips nervously, "I love you Elizabeth."
"I love you too Jason," and they sealed their proclamations of love with a deep, passionate kiss.
XXX
It seemed as if everyone was pulled to ground zero, the spot that was in the center of where the Phoenix, Tessa, and Zhane duked it out. It was the one clear zone since it was the epicenter of the backlash and the backlash pushed outwards, pushing everything away from it.
Counting heads, Rachel realized that two from her team were missing, "Where's Zhane and Tessa?"
Everyone else looked around, also noticing that they were M.I.A. That's when Jason noticed a hand under the rubble a few feet from where Zhane and Tessa had been standing as they battled the Phoenix. He raced over and started to uncover what was buried underneath.
Elizabeth gasped at the sight that was uncovered. Dani gripped Alex tighter and turned away, but it was useless, the image was burned on her mind's eye. Melissa buried her head in Andy's chest, and he tightened his grip as his knees became weak.
"Are they…" Jace trailed off, not able to finish.
Both Zhane and Tessa were unconscious and had cuts and bruises all over their bodies. The worst part though was the pole that was jutting out through Tessa's chest that stained her uniform red. And through it all the two never lost a hold of each other as they were still holding hands.