'...' - Thoughts

Italic - Marie's psyches

[...] - Wolverine psyche inside Logan

{...} - Telepathic conversations

I promise I'll get better at action.

xXx

Chapter Fourteen

Logan was waiting. Not for the attack to begin but for the desire to kill Gumbo to go away. No such luck. With every passing minute and with every smirk on the bastard's face, Logan was coming really close to introducing his claws to him. After they had finished prepping the brats, the only thing Remy could do was delight them with tales of how much Marie loves him. And only him. Logan could have lived without knowing about how they had this romantic spur of the moment wedding in Turkey.

"Yeah. Sponsored by really strong alcohol." said Alex while walking out of the room. Logan wistfully looked at his back, wishing he could join him. Hell, he was ready to help Jean with the pre-flight jet check, if it meant that the fighting didn't start early.

[Relax, bub. He is only trying hard, because he heard that you and Marie were together last night.]

'Yeah, but they were in Turkey.'

[Doesn't mean anything. The fact that he is trying so hard means that Marie has given up on him. If you don't believe me then look at Victor's face. That should be the biggest indicator that Gumbo is not welcome.]

Logan turned to look at his half-brother. And saw that the other feral was perhaps just as much trying to stop himself from killing Remy, if not more than him. He walked over to him and sat beside him and said "You don't like Gumbo either do you?"

"It's not the matter of me liking him. I never liked him, actually none of us did. But we...overlooked his presence because he used to make Marie happy. If there was anyone who deserved a chance of being happy, it's her. And for a while she was, with him." This made Logan's heart sink. "I said used to, runt. That bastard hurt her in ways that... she shouldn't have been."

"What did he do?"

"That's her secret to tell, not mine."

"Rogue can't be Rogue without her secrets."

"Exactly. Besides we have our own secrets to discuss. Now we don't have time for the entire saga, but I'm sure you would at least want to know your name." Logan was speechless, this was the moment he was waiting for from the moment he opened his eyes fifteen years ago. "It's James Howlett. And Jimmy, if you hurt her like that thief, I don't care that you are my brother. I've lived more than fifteen years without you, so I won't hesitate in killing you."

This brought Logan pit of his daze. "What?"

"What what? It's pretty obvious that you love her. That your animal side as claimed her as your mate. The only thing I'm worried about is that she has dark hair."

"What?"

"Wow, your little stay at Xavier's has made you really eloquent, hasn't it? It's fairly simple, brother. You pull a wham, bam, thank you madam with blondes. When you find an unavailable redhead you make her your one and only source of salvation. The one thing that can 'save' a 'tortured soul' like yours. But the moment they leave their man for you, you drop them quicker that a hot potato, because it's too reminiscent of how your mother treated the man, who you thought was your father."

"Marie said I had mommy issues."

"Look at us. Don't we all. Any way then there are the dark hair that you get involved with. The common factor is that eventually they all die, because of you."

"That's bullshit."

"Well, at least we've progressed from 'what'. And it's not bullshit. There's Itsu and Kayla. So I don't want to wake up one day and discover that Marie died because of you."

But before Logan could respond, they were joined by Marie and Chuck, both looking extremely grim. He spoke first, "I think it's time that we ask the children to evacuate the mansion. We have 30 minutes, maximum."

"But as calmly as they can. Stryker needs to think that he is taking us unaware. They are going to use stealth and secrecy, and at the exact moment when they think that they have us cornered, we'll pounce on them."

"Cause you win by the war by making your enemies think that they have the upper hand over you." said Graydon as he and Alex joined everyone as well.

"Exactly, sugah. We will take them down, while the Professor and the X-Men leave in the jet."

"Now wait a minute, darling-"

But Logan was quickly interrupted by Victor. "She's right, runt. All of may be great fighters, but right now you're all simply leverage that Stryker can use to force baldy over here to power up his Cerebro"

"That's why we should stay back and defend our home." said Storm.

"Just because you're called a weather goddess doesn't mean you have celestial prowess." said Graydon. "Stryker is nothing like any other that you have ever faced. He makes Magneto look like a teddy bear. I mean a very emotionally distraught teddy bear, but you get the picture. If you guys don't believe me, then ask the metal-bender about his private session with the man in his plastic prison."

Eric said, "Stryker is a man one can't take lightly. He is a man who doesn't have anything to lose and that just makes him even more dangerous."

"Not to mention he is capable of taking down the wolf-man." said Remy. "As if that's such a difficult task."

Logan was about to charge and make jambalaya out of Gumbo's intestines but he was stopped by Victor, who said, "Even though Remy is being snarky, but he is telling the truth. Stryker winded you up nice and tight, brother. Because he uses weapons we have no chance against." He turned towards the others and continued," Now we can proceed to have this debate all night, or we could do the smart thing and evacuate."

"Jean probably has the jet ready." said Marie. "She's waiting for all of you in the hangar." For a moment Logan sensed that she was a little nervous.

Chuck sighed and said that they really shouldn't waste precious time and gave instructions to everyone. Hank and Storm went to the children and asked them to leave the mansion through the secret passages, while Scooter went with Chuck to the hangar. He was so busy noticing the activities of his team mates, he didn't notice the Marie, Victor, Alex and Graydon had already left.

xXx

Marie- Berry you do realize that what you've done...

_*_Flashback_*_

Marie could feel her heart beating like a hummingbird's. She needed to do something . And fast, as none of them had much time. She quickly grabbed Jean's face and said, "You have to push her away, Jean."

"I can't. She's too strong. She has always been strong, but now it's like she's unstoppable."

"Do it for your baby."

This seemed to make her focus, just a little, and she looked into Marie's eyes and asked in a whisper, "Baby? My baby?"

"Yes, Jean. Your baby. Yours and Scott's. Not hers, The baby can never be hers. She will never give it the life that Scott can."

"Scott?"

"Exactly, Scott, the man you love. You husband and the man who will be the father of your children. You want to have a life with him and your children, don't you?"

"Yeah. Both of us always wanted a family."

"That's why you must do it, Jean. Ah know that it is difficult and you feel like giving up, but if you want some sort of future for your child, then you must do it. Push. Her. Away."

Jean closed her eyes and her face screwed up in complete concentration. Now Marie's heart had halted to a stop. She didn't know that when Jean opens her eyes whether her eyes would be green as usual or burning black.

But somebody up in the sky must really love her right now, as when Jean opened her eyes, she truly was Jean and nothing else. And the only side-effect of Phoenix's almost debut was that Jean didn't remember the past couple of minutes or why Marie was holding her face so intently.

Marie avoided all of her questions by saying that the attack was about to begin and told her to prepare the jet for immediate take-off. And without checking if the redhead was doing as told, Marie teleported right in middle of Chuck's office.

_*_Ends_*_

'Yes, Wade-Spade. Ah realize that, what Ah did was nothing more than a quick fix. A temporary solution at best.'

Phoenix can still get out.

'Ah know that. But Ah managed to buy us some time. And we need the time, Wade. Not only for the attack but also to handle the whole Phoenix situation. She's smart and since Jean's mental blocks have pretty much been obliterated, she's strong as well.

But you are sure, that the plan would work?

'In theory it should. But Ah can't do that and stop Stryker at the same time.'

But before Wade inside her head could say anything else, a voice from behind her brought Marie's attention towards it.

"You weren't kidding about the stiletto boots, were you darling?"

Marie sighed. "There's one thing you need to learn about me, Logan and that is Ah consider joking about footwear, sacrilege. Besides shouldn't you be joining your team-mates in the hangar."

"What makes you think that I belong there with them and not here with you?"

"How about the fact that you're wearing the black leather whereas Ah'm in yellow spandex. Not that Ah'm saying you'll look bad in yellow spandex." She chuckled at the imagery. "But your place is with them, always has been. You know, years ago, when Charles and Eric were first forming the team, they approached you."

"And what did I say to them?"

"You told them to fuck off."

This send both of them into loud raucous laughter. Then Marie continued, "You should've said yes. You belong here more than you did anywhere else. You see, Logan, you hesitate. You've always hesitated. You can't go around doing what Ah do, and still sleep like a baby in the night. Ah do get nightmares. But it is never of the things Ah did in mah line of work. But such activities have always burdened you. You need to do good, to ...to simply live. Ah don't. That's why you don't belong here with me. And you never will."

Logan was silent for a minute. Suddenly he took a few steps and closed the gap between them, there wasn't going to be a table between them this time. And looked straight into her eyes, making her feel as if she will drown in a vast hazel ocean. "Is this what we will always do?"

"...What do you mean?" she asked after finally finding her voice.

"You pretending to goof around in front of everyone but when it is just the two of us, then it feels like you're bursting at the seams. Almost like you're begging for someone to finally see what truly lies here." 'Here' was her heart, where his finger was resting now.

But before Marie could even begin to form a single coherent thought, Alex started talking into her earpiece, saying that the troops had entered the mansion.

And just like that, just as Logan knew it would, her expression changed. Gone was the women who was desperately looking at him to confide in him and fighting every single impulse ingrained in her, to let him in. Now in front of him was a completely different women, who was a storm of violence and pure animalistic instinct, who will not stop until the goal has been achieved. She was Rogue.

"Have the children and X-Men left?"

"Yes, they're all gone. And we have the mansion all to us."

Marie and Logan turned to look right in front of them, where both with their advanced senses could feel their attackers approach, slowly and with stealth. Not that it was going to do them any good, as tonight every single one of them were going to die.

"And Stryker's troops of course."

"Well, it would be difficult to have party if they aren't here." came Victors' voice.

"Is this how you guys work?" asked Graydon. "Just standing around and talking. I thought it would be something epic. How disappointing."

"You want epic, brother dear, the you should have said so. Alex, play it."

"I was waiting for you to say it."

And just like that, on the school's PSA system, which was rarely used since Chuck could pretty much call anyone using his head-phone, but was surely put so that these guys look like a legitimate school or when Chuck isn't there, started blasting 'Maria' by Ricky Martin.

You couldn't tell who was more surprised with the music, the soldiers or Logan. Both were completely flabbergasted and thus didn't even notice Marie teleporting in front of each and every one of them, only to sink her claws in them.

"Seriously, frail." came Victor's voice from behind them. "The one silver lining line of Wade not being here with us, is that I don't have to listen to that guy's music. But you just had to play it, didn't you?"

Marie stopped, as she had ran out of soldiers to kill, and turned around, not even out of breath and said, "Since Wade is not here, we decided to honor him by playing his playlist."

Victor snorted. "A guy singing about which body part to shake or not shake, is not music."

"Then learn how to work an iPod, father dear." said Graydon, as he too joined them.

"You're bleeding." Marie rushed to her brother's side.

"Relax, sis. It's not mine."

"So you took care of others?"

"Wasn't that difficult. They were using Trask's things. I mean, if you are going to attack an entire mansion full of mutants, then at least use mine or Stark's weapons. This is the biggest indicator that our country is in dumps. Good thing I was wearing last year's Prada." He said while mournfully looking at the bloodstains.

"Amazing. In one sentence you proved yourself to be my son and yet not." said Victor.

"What else are sons for? But to thwart their fathers' hopes and dreams." He then turned towards Logan and said, "So, Logan are you going to spend the night gawking at us or are you actually going to prove yourself to be useful?"

"If I were you, Graydon, then I wouldn't have too high hopes for the wolf-man. After all he sucked at working for Stryker." said Remy, who smelled a lot like smoke. And Alex, who came with him huffed in exasperation. "Oh my god. Why don't you guys just pull your cocks out, so we can measure them and find out once and for all who's the bigger man?"

"Or we could simply ask my dear sister over here?" said Graydon, with a smirk. Though it also have been because now 'Livin' La Vida Loca' was playing.

"I'm not even going to dignify that with a response. We still have more soldiers all around the mansion, that we need to take care of. And Grady is right, Logan. Now that you are here, you can the very least kill a soldier or two." And teleported away.

xXx

Marie continued teleporting all over the mansion, wherever she felt their presence. It wasn't that difficult, when you had bone claws, optic blasts, magnetism, electricity, telepathy and telekinesis. Seriously she didn't even break a sweat. It was when she was taking care of few guys in the west wing, when she felt familiar tingling at the back of her head. The same one she had felt nearly three months ago.

She turned around and saw Jason approaching from the other side of the corridor. She closed her eyes and waited for his mental attack.

But it never came.

The only thing her senses picked up was the whirling sounds of Jason's wheelchair. She opened her eyes only to see him rolling away.

'Ah don't understand. He saw me and yet he did nothing. Why?'

I don't know either Roguey.

'He is supposed to be under Stryker's control. He is supposed to do anything that he is asked by him. He knows that Stryker wants me, so why didn't he do anything? Wait a minute, why is he here, anyway?'

None of the psyches in her head had any answers. She started cursing over the fact that in these five years why did she never touch that asshole, to find out how his mind works. But before she continue on her tirade, she suddenly got the smell of the man who had started this all. Stryker was nearby.

xXx

Logan was enjoying killing these soldiers, though he would never admit it and would say that it was the Wolverine. But he truly was enjoying himself. He couldn't even begin to care about them, just as they didn't care that they had come here fully knowing that their targets are children. That fact reduced his guilt, just a little. Not to mention it was good to embrace his animalistic side after such a long time. He hadn't let Wolverine come this close to the surface, since they had to save Marie from Magneto. And just like that, everyone was lying on the ground, dead.

He heard footsteps coming from behind him. He hid right at the turn of the hallway, crouched down and waited for the moment when they were right beside, just so that he could stab his claws right in their feet.

But after turning he came face to face with the X-Brats. To say that Jubilee, John, Kitty, Bobby, and Piotr were shocked to their gym teacher in full-on feral mode with claws and everything would be an understatement.

"What are you doing here? Weren't you guys supposed to be taking care of the younger ones?" He practically growled, as Wolverine was still too much in control. They didn't respond until Logan extracted his claws, which were still too close to their faces for comfort.

After the fear of mutilation had been avoided for now, then Kitty spoke, "We totally did that. We were all, like, running away and making sure the children had safely entered the escape route. But..but..then we .. what.."

"Oh Kit-Kat spit it put already." said Jubilee. "Kitty thought that when she did the head-count she missed a few of the kids, so I came with her to check if we missed out someone. But she must have miscalculated, because we found absolutely no one. The guys must have followed us, wanting to prove themselves to be heroes or whatnot. But before we could go back, the army dudes had come. And we got stuck."

Logan barely managed to rein in his anger. After letting out a forced breath, he said, "Please, tell me at least one of you buffoons managed to close the door before coming back in the mansion."

John was about to snort, but glare from Logan and it was gone, so he simply coughed and said, "Of course we did. We're not stupid."

"Well, the jury is still out on that one, bub."

"What the hell are you doing here? You're not supposed to be here." It was amazing that Alex managed to sound so coherent, when he was nearly foaming at the mouth at the sight of the teenagers.

"What happened now?" asked Graydon.

"There are still a couple of children here and-"

"We're not children." interjected Bobby.

"Oh really? Run around like morons in practically a war zone is what adults would do?" said Logan.

"Yes well, we're not exactly model examples of adults, so that analogy doesn't work. We have another problem, these guys just keep coming. Crawling up the lawn as well as falling from the sky. And they have enough ammunition to blow up the mansion. What do we do?"

"What do you mean 'what do we do'?" came Victor's voice. "We are here for Stryker. Where is that bastard?"

"He's not here, sugah. He's a no-show. The motherfucking bastard was probably too scared to do the dirty work himself. This mission is a failure. Ah say we abort, re-group with the X-Men and come up with something new. You guys leave with the kids, take one of Xavier's cars. Ah'll teleport out after checking out Cerebro once more."

Logan wanted to say something against that, but at that moment a helicopter came in front of the window, which is where they were standing and blasted the glass away.

"Marie's right, Logan. It's no use staying here if Stryker isn't here."

"But we can't just-"

"Marie will be fine. But they won't." He said while pointing at the students, who were still disorientated from the blast. "Right, Marie?"

"Logan, sugah, if you don't leave right now then Ah would be madder than a wet hen."

Logan realized that it was true, no matter how much he would have wanted the situation to be different. He reluctantly led everyone to the garage, where Graydon and Victor were already waiting for them, in front of the biggest SUV that Chuck owned.

xXx

"Logan, sugah, if you don't leave right now then Ah would be madder than a wet hen." said Marie into her mouthpiece.

And soon enough everyone had left. She then faced right in front of her. "They're gone. It's just us, as you wanted."

"Excellent, my dear. Now we can finally have the lengthy talk that has been long overdue. Five years, if my memory serves."

But Marie wasn't paying attention to him or his words. Her entire attention was on the two people standing beside him. Jason and Emma.