Notes: Oh yeah, I gotta agree with you, CC. My heart breaks for him. :(

Chapter 9: The Aftermath

The Brotherhood and the X-Men were still a good distance away from Genosha when they saw the first evidence of the fight. There was smoke rising from the island, along with the occasional bright flash of an explosion — and it had everyone in the jet suddenly much more tense.

"Ready Elf?" Logan asked as he looked out the window at the mess in the distance. Kurt nodded solemnly in response, and an instant later, the two of them were simply gone but for the swirl of smoke Kurt left behind. It was still another few minutes before those in the jet could see the flashes of light as Kurt teleported back and forth with Logan — the two of them already tag-teaming Sentinels one by one.

Not that the rest of the group was far behind, with most of the Brotherhood jumping in to fight — though Erik was sure to point out to several of the X-Men where the hidden dock was. "They will have fled here," he said, even as he sent part of a building through one of the few remaining Sentinels. The fact that there were only a handful left to be dealt with spoke to the power of Genosha's defenders, but he was honestly worried — he hadn't seen any of his children yet.

Thankfully, Charles had taken it upon himself to direct the team from Westchester, and Erik for once was not even wearing his helmet so that he could hear as soon as Charles found anyone. He wasn't bothering to hide his concern — or the outright alarm when Charles did finally find Lorna, only to immediately send Wolverine and Nightcrawler to her position.

They were not a moment too soon — Lorna was completely pinned down, and she had fallen to one knee, obviously struggling to keep up a magnetic shield against two Sentinels at once. She was caked in dust and rubble and blood, and Kurt didn't hesitate to simply teleport to her and get her out of danger, leaving Logan to tear the Sentinels apart.

"Are you alright, fraulein?" Kurt asked gently, though he didn't set her down.

Lorna was too tired to look anything but relieved as she leaned her head on his shoulder and let out all her breath. "The docks. Everyone is down beneath the island… they're under attack…"

"Yes, we know," Kurt assured her. "My teammates are going there now."

Lorna let out a noise of relief and then nodded. "Good."

Kurt frowned, especially when Lorna was so exhausted that she was nearly dead weight in his arms, and he teleported her back to the jet, gently laying her down before he teleported back just in time to see Logan yank his claws free of the second downed Sentinel.

The two of them shared a nod before they teleported once more, catching up to the rest of the group — where Storm had just created a massive maelstrom, knocking aside Sentinels from where Wanda was standing in front of her unconscious, bloodied brother. She was shaky where she stood as well, and no one stood in Erik's way when he went right to the two of them, helping Wanda to sit down while Hank examined Pietro — thankfully declaring that he was still alive, but in a bad way.

The last of the Sentinels fell to the rest of the X-Men, but even with the immediate threat dealt with… there was so much left to do.

There was no reaction the X-Men could have but horror to the scene around them. It was clear that some of the citizens of the island nation had tried to fight back — there were pockets of groups, marks on the Sentinels that were clearly made by more than just Magneto's kids or his Brotherhood. But it was also clear that the ones that fought back were targeted.

It was even worse because this was an island full of refugees and civilians. Families. And the Sentinels had hardly even been down and out before the sound of family members calling out to try and find each other was louder than anything else in the caves — except for people crying, in terror, in misery, in mourning.

When the rest of the robots had fallen, Logan took just a moment to look over the carnage before he started to slowly walk through the mess, looking and listening, doing his best to sniff out any survivors that might be caught in the rubble or hidden under bodies. There weren't many that were still alive, but most of those that he found were in very bad shape, and it wasn't too long before the X-Men were running a triage of sorts. Logan would find them, then kneel down next to them until Kurt or Angel or Jean could get to them to try and ease them out of whatever trouble they were in.

Hank was very busy trying to address whatever medical issues he could — and the team was proving to be much more organized than Erik had initially realized.

And when Logan found himself sliding down a little embankment of rubble, he tried to tread more carefully… watching his footing in case there was someone under the mess. Someone was down there — and if his ears were right, it was more than just one or two. When he got closer to the bottom, he heard a very little person crying — and he only just managed to move part of what looked like it had once been a wall when a little girl no more than four made her way over and simply attached herself to him.

Jeannie, I got a pocket down here, he projected out. Don't know how many yet, but there are some.

I'll be right there, Jean promised, already headed over to help Logan shift some of the rubble.

"My big brother and his friends—" The little girl looked up at Logan, half her face hidden by the way she was hugging his knees. "I was following them and — and—"

Logan blew out a breath and took a hold of her arms to get her off his leg, though when he crouched down to look her in the face, she darted forward to reattach — around his neck. "We'll find 'em, little darlin'." He wrapped his arms around her and let her curl in.

The little girl held on tighter and didn't see when Jean arrived, but Jean almost couldn't stop the smile at the scene. What's her name?

No idea, Logan replied.

Jean smiled at the little girl. "Are you alright?" she asked.

The girl hid a little more in Logan's neck and shook her head. "We're s'pposed to find Scott if we get in trouble, but he gotted hurt," she whispered, almost too soft for Jean to hear, though Logan was able to catch it just fine.

Logan glanced up at Jean. "She says Scott's been watchin' out for her, but he got hurt." Wouldn't hurt to see where the heck she came from.

For just a moment, Jean had frozen, but at Logan's prompting, she quickly nodded and peeked into the little girl's recollection of the attack — of running to keep up with her brother and a few others. She had fallen behind the group at large — which was apparently following Cyclops — but when Jean had seen where the attack happened, she directed Logan on where to look, already shifting some of the rubble herself as well.

The little girl finally let go of Logan so he could dig and move some of the rubble, and when he found a boot sticking out, he whistled to catch Jean's attention from the area she was trying to move on her own.

Between the two of them, they were able to dig out the scene a little better — though they weren't exactly expecting to find Cyclops half curled around a couple of boys and looking much worse for the wear, totally unconscious, though the boys looked a lot better.

Logan shook his head and made his way over to check on Cyclops, since the boys seemed to be more or less alright. "He's still breathin'," Logan said. "I can get him up top if you can get the kids."

Jean nodded, though she couldn't help her frown, since there didn't seem to be anyone else there. Though then again, it wasn't like 'Scott' was an unusual name. It could easily have been one of the boys'. She gently crouched down by the boys and introduced herself before she led them out of the cave-in — though now she was reaching out, looking for a familiar mind to see if her Scott had made it.

Logan took just a second to hoist Cyclops over his shoulder and started for the opening he'd found him in, though the little girl took a hold of Logan's hand as he walked by her.

By that time, it seemed most of the survivors had been gathered up, and Hank was still busy — though the rest of the team was pitching in with what little medical training they had, mostly just doing what Hank told them to patch up who they could or comfort any kids that didn't have someone with them.

The worst cases were being prioritized and stabilized to get to the jet for better medical care than they could give in the ruins of the island. Wanda was sticking close to Pietro, and Erik had relaxed significantly on seeing that Lorna was there — but Hank was adamant that both Pietro and Cyclops would need more serious medical care as soon as possible.

Which was interesting enough on its face, with all of Magneto's children requiring help in one way or another. But it was more interesting still when one of the boys that had come with Jean and Logan when they found Cyclops made his way over to Hank with a nervous sort of look.

"Is he gonna be okay?"

"Very likely," Hank said, watching the little guy. "He'll just need to spend some time healing."

The little boy nodded but stayed close by, shifting from one foot to the other as Hank removed Cyclops' helmet and cape so he could better assess him. But when Hank went to check his eyes, he let out a surprised little shout when he was met with a red beam — albeit one much less powerful than what he would usually see, more of a fizzle than anything, though that wasn't surprising, given how exhausted all of Genosha's defenders were.

Hank raised an eyebrow and let out a hum of interest before he returned to his examination — though he had learned his lesson and stayed away from the eyes.

Still, it had been enough of a noise to catch the attention of some of the others, and Jean made her way over, halfway ready to put Cyclops back to sleep if he was giving Hank a hard time… only to freeze when she saw him for the first time without the helmet.

"Scott?"

Hank turned to face Jean with both eyebrows raised high, especially when he saw that she was simply still, staring at the unconscious young man in front of them. "Scott," Hank repeated, then turned back to his patient, his eyebrows still high. "This is the young man you met before?"

Jean's eyes were still wide as she shifted her weight from one foot to the other. "Well, obviously he wasn't wearing that — that stupid helmet when I—" She bit her lip. She hadn't known… she hadn't even thought to look when she had seen him in person, because she had been so focused on the doctor… "There's got to be … there's no way Cyclops is…"

Hank let out a breath. "Yes, well, I would love to find the answers to this particular identity crisis as well, my dear, but if we don't get him on that jet, this will all be quite academic."

Jean nodded, though she still looked very much like a deer in the headlights, almost holding her breath as she helped Hank move the worst cases to the jet.

She couldn't even wrap her head around this latest curveball — how could she? The pig-headed idiot that she'd met was nothing like the sweet guy that wrote awkward letters and… judging from the kids' memories of the attack, protected little kids with everything he had.

But thankfully, she had plenty to distract her, and once the jet was gone, she did her best to force herself to focus on something else. She could figure out… whatever this was… when they got home.

Scott was a little bit surprised that he was waking up at all, considering the state of affairs the last thing he remembered. But with how drugged he felt, he couldn't help but panic for just a moment, wondering if that same doctor had shown up and that was how he'd gotten off of Genosha. It was hard to tell ... everything was sort of blending together.

It took a few tries for him to come back to full consciousness, and he wasn't sure how long he had been back asleep in between each attempt. But finally, he did come out of it enough to see that he was in a hospital. Not some weird lab but an actual hospital.

So that was a relief.

But when he looked around the room, he had to wonder how he'd gotten there. The last thing he remembered…

All of a sudden, Scott felt ill. A few of the monitors around him protested as his body responded to the feeling, and he sat up suddenly straighter. Genosha was gone. Everyone had been dying last he saw… he didn't know what had happened to the kids he was with… he didn't know where anyone else was.

When that initial panicked reaction had passed, the sick feeling hadn't gone away, and Scott leaned back against the pillows and closed his eyes. He didn't know where he was or who had found him, but he should have been on Genosha with everyone else. He'd promised to keep them safe.

The weight of it all seemed to hang over his head, and he simply kept his eyes closed as he tipped his head back. He hadn't asked to be taken from the island, but at this point, he didn't care where he was. He just… wanted to be done.

He heard the click of the door opening and didn't move. It was probably a doctor or a nurse, come to look at a survivor of the massacre at Genosha. He had promised to keep them safe, and he had been ready to give everything for that... He wanted the rest of the people to be here, not him.

But rather than a doctor or a nurse, the visitor had to be someone else, because he came to sit down and rested a hand on Scott's arm — which was enough of a surprise that Scott did actually open his eyes and turn his head. Erik was sitting there, looking far older and more weary than Scott had ever seen him before.

"I'm sorry," Scott said before he could even fully form the thought in his head. "You trusted me to protect Genosha and I…" He closed his eyes again and let the sentence drop off, leaning back in the bed with only the beeping of the monitor for a long moment.

"You did all that you could, and you saved a fair number of children. More than my own children could manage."

"They were trying to fight, and I told them to stay with me…" Scott glanced up at Erik. "Are they okay?"

"The ones that were with you are," Erik said. "You were hurt much worse than any of them."

"I couldn't ... I ran out," Scott said, dropping his gaze again, the frustration obvious.

"None of us could have held off the numbers that they attacked with," Erik said. "Even when I got there, it was a near thing to stop those that I did."

"I was wondering how I got… here," Scott said, gesturing vaguely at the bed.

Erik let out a breath and met his gaze. "I was in New York at the time the alarms went off — and I asked an old friend for help."

Scott didn't bother to hide his look of surprise as he straightened up a bit. "I don't know what happened after I was hit. Were you able to save ... how bad was it?" he almost breathed out.

"Lorna and the twins all survived, as did several dozen others. Mostly children," Erik said.

Scott had gone sort of still, the same sick feeling back again. "Pietro sounded the alarm that they were targeting the evacuation," he said almost dully. "Anyone there that could fight was defending the younger kids… even some of the kids were fighting." He closed his eyes — but then he just saw the scene more clearly — and then opened them again. "Do you know who sent them?" he asked, his tone softer, but more dangerous.

"That's being unravelled now," Erik replied in that same tone.

"I want to be there," Scott said. "If I can. I won't leave anything standing."

Jean was grateful that no one was trying to talk to her for most of the flight back to Westchester, all things considered. Though she didn't know whether that was them being respectful or the fact that Ororo was sitting beside her for the whole flight out and looked like she would personally bring lightning down on anyone who said anything about Scott — Cyclops.

She was still trying to wrap her head around that. It just didn't make any sense for the sweet, awkward boy that she'd been writing letters to… there was just no way that same boy was the pig-headed idiot following Magneto around.

It didn't line up. The X-Men had always thought that Cyclops was Magneto's son, but Jean knew from the peek she'd had of Scott's mind when they'd both been captured that his last name was Summers, and he seemed genuine when he talked about his family. Though if his parents were both dead and Magneto had taken him under his wing…

That had to be it. It was the best explanation — and it would also explain why Magneto had been there to rescue them in the first place when she and Scott had been kidnapped.

But then there was the fact that she'd seen in the minds of the kids on Genosha that Scott took care of them, that they trusted him. And they'd found him trying to shield kids with his own body. Again, that was more in line with the guy that had been writing her letters, not the idiot in the helmet.

There had to be more to the story, something they weren't seeing.

Jean wanted to reach out to Charles and ask him for his insights on the matter, but he looked deep in thought, and she was loathe to disturb him. She couldn't blame him for being distracted. After all, they had just seen devastation and horror on Genosha. A genocide.

Next to that, Jean's crisis over Cyclops' identity felt a little… petty, if she was honest. Even if, selfishly, she wanted to go right to the hospital where the Genosha survivors were being treated and dive into Scott's mind for herself and find out what was real and what wasn't.

Of course, it certainly didn't help matters when they did get back to New York and Jean found another letter waiting for her.

Hey Jean,

It honestly makes my day when I get a letter from you. I particularly love the way you sign things — are you going to do that for every letter? If this keeps up, you're going to have to get pretty creative.

I'm really glad to hear that you have a good group of friends, especially because I know it can be hard to find someone who gets what it's like to be different. They're lucky to have you around. I mean, if I get a smile out of a letter, I'm sure your friends are glad to be around you all the time. Everyone needs someone to make them smile.

As for the chess game, I don't mind losing to a good player, but if you're going to cheat, how can you ever get any good? It took me a long time playing with the man who taught me before I could beat him in a game, and it was such a satisfying feeling. I mean, if all you want to do is win, to each their own, but there is something really great about beating a chess master fair and square.

Still, as powers go, I think you're pretty lucky. I can't get mine to turn off, even though I've been trying since I was fourteen. It would be much nicer to have something like that — though I have met a few telepaths here, and they said it was hard to get used to hearing everyone's thoughts. Did you have the same problem?

I guess every power has its downsides. But still, I guess if we do ever meet up with each other, we'll have to play something with a little less strategy and a little more luck. At least then I have a chance of winning, right?

Of course, in this theoretical time when we're actually on the same continent, you're right: it would be winter, and there should be hot cocoa. But if that's the case, it's more fun to have it outside so you can see the stars. I don't know if you've ever seen the night sky away from all the light pollution, but my brother and I used to go out and see how many we could count. I know everyone hears 'Alaska' and thinks of the Aurora and all that, but honestly, that was more fun.

I might be biased, though, because it was something I did with my family.

Anyway, it was great to hear from you again, and I'm already looking forward to the next letter.

Sincerely Yours,

-Scott

Jean stared at the letter for a long moment before she let out a noise from the back of her throat. She very nearly crumpled it up in a ball and threw it across the room for how frustrated she felt. Why did he have to be so… she didn't even know how to explain it. HIs letters were the sweetest things she'd ever read, and yet he was Magneto's right hand…

"Anything I can do?" Ororo asked from the doorway, and Jean looked up to see that her friend had come to check on her.

Jean tipped her head back for a second and shook out her hair before she answered. "I don't even know," she admitted, not bothering to hide the frustration in her tone.

Ororo frowned and came to sit down by Jean. "Another letter?"

"Yes, and he's still… Scott," Jean said, unable to really explain it any better than that.

Ororo tipped her head to the side, though when Jean still couldn't explain it any better, Ororo let out a slow breath. "Well, which do you believe?" she asked at last.

"What?"

"Which version of him do you think is real — Cyclops or Scott?" Ororo asked.

"It's hard to fake that kind of sincerity," Jean pointed out. "But it's easy to be a jerk. At least … that's what I'm hoping."

Ororo nodded. "I hope so too," she admitted. "You've been in such good moods when you write him that I hope he's the boy in the letters for your sake."

Jean frowned to herself. "I'm not going to get attached until I find out for sure."

"That's smart," Ororo agreed, then gestured to the letter. "But what are you going to do in the meantime?"

"I guess … I'll write back … and see where it goes?"

"So your plan hasn't really changed," Ororo pointed out. She paused and then smiled lightly. "You may not think so, but I think… you're already attached, Jean."

"Oh shut up," Jean said, her eyes narrowed. "I just … I can write to him anyhow. It's not like there's any real option to meet up with him."

"No, and no mailbox to address it to," Ororo said thoughtfully. "With Genosha destroyed… it would be hard to write without giving yourself away."

"Dangit," she said, frowning. "I don't know then. Maybe … I should just wait to see … I know he's okay, relatively speaking ... "

Ororo smiled and put a hand on her arm. "I think you may have to wait for a new address," she said. "If he's as attached as you are, then he'll let you know where he is soon enough, I'm sure." Her eyes sparkled. "And in the meantime, if it would help to assuage your doubts, I'm sure no one would object if you were to shanghai him the next time we meet him as Cyclops. There are questions all of us would like answered too, you know."

"I'm sure," she agreed. "So it's back to just 'wait and see'." She frowned at that. "Maybe I should talk to Charles, too."

"I doubt he'd turn you down," Storm agreed.

"Might make it easier to find an approach if Charles knows the other side of this story."

Storm nodded. "If you tell him half of what you've told me about this boy, I think he'll want to know what he's doing with Magneto. You're right; it doesn't really fit."

Jean smirked and rushed over to wrap her friend in a warm hug. "You really are the best sounding board; you know that, right?"

Storm couldn't help but smirk as she returned the hug. "And you really are a wonderful friend. I want you to be happy — and not so frustrated you can't see straight. You know that, right?"

"Of course! And one way or another, it will work out. But heaven help him if the nice guy routine is a lie."

"Indeed," Storm said, this time with a spark in her gaze as well as her smile.