Disclaimer: Not mine

Author's Note: Here is another part of the fight. All the "lesser baddies" have kind of been dealt with in time for Wolverine Origins! Which I hope will inspire me to write some more!

As always, please let me know how I'm doing.

Enjoy!

Chapter 36

Gambit laughed to himself as the Blob continued to charge him. In the back of his mind he could sense Peter's pain, but he couldn't let that take him off his guard. His emotions had to stay out of the fight. The last time it didn't—well, he was still being woken by the nightmares from the memory of it. Pushing that reminder aside he focused once again on Blob. He had found that the surprisingly fast mutant was unfazed by the kinetically charged cards that he had thrown. Now, it was time to try something new. Waiting until the last moment he stopped running and dived towards the lumbering fat man, and kicked at his legs. He cursed when his kick did nothing, and the Blob caught his feet; hauling them up, so that Gambit hung upside down.

"Think you can beat the Blob? Think again!"

"Gambit is mon ami!" Gambit called with a laugh, as his hand made contact with the sand under the Blob's feet, "Let's see how unmoving you are when the ground go boom!" With timing that came from a lifetime of training and instincts that he trusted without fail, he let go of the glowing earth, rode the force of the explosion, and rolled to safety, watching with a proud smile as the Blob was blown ten feet in the air, and fell unconscious to the sand.

The quip he had planned to say fell mute on his lips when he saw, just over the dune, the fiery form of the Phoenix rise and heard the screech that accompanied it—and he knew. In his heart and his gut and his mind, he knew that Rogue was gone. Hope still clung within the growing aching that surprised him with its strength. She wasn't supposed to die. She was supposed to live. He still had lots of fighting to do for her. Swallowing hard, trying to moisten his drying throat, he turned away from the fiery effigy, sparing only a glance to where Kitty and Peter were, and looked to David. He still had a job to do. He would still make her proud.

But how can he stop someone in a coma without killing him? Sighing, head down, Gambit slowly made his way to the unprotected young man, knowing that with any luck, he would find a way. He collapsed his staff and stuffed it back into his pocket, pausing in his movements when he felt something that he didn't think had been there before: a psychic inhibitor. Touching it lightly, he turned once again to where the phoenix had once been, now faded from all but memory, and smiled. She had given him the means, now it was up to him, to find the way.

Oh yes, he still had a job to do—he would still fight. He would still make her proud.

---

Around him the battle still ragged on. Storm and Emma found the sand-created beings who did not feel the pain that the women inflicted upon them; Logan's growls told him that the feral man was still on his feet and going strong against the opponent who seemed as unlikely to quit as the Wolverine himself. Hank had rushed off, leaving only him, only Cyclops, facing the unstoppable Juggernaut. At first it was fun, taking out the knees with eye beams that have blasted holes through mountains. But then something happened, the phoenix had appeared, the flaming bird that he could remember seeing just before it took his fiancé, the love of his youth, away from him. Unfortunately, the Juggernaut was not a gentleman, and thought nothing of taking advantage of the man whose reminder of his recent loss caused him to be two seconds too slow in stopping the helmet clad mutant from slamming his hand around Scott's throat, his free hand clamping the brunet's eye-wear. Blind and desperate for air Cyclops could only hear, faintly over the sound of his own heart in his ear, the others coming to his aid. What had happened? He could still hear Logan and Sabertooth fighting. Was Hank coming to rescue him? Cyclops hoped that whoever it was wouldn't be too late.

---

Emma had closed her mind to everything around her, to Rogue's battle, to Onslaught, to the others over the Dune. They were distractions. Even the sight of the Phoenix and the pain that Rogue felt didn't stop her from battling the sand creatures that would not stop. With diamond skin in place she easily swiped though the masses that kept coming, trying to suffocate her and the Weather-Goddess. There, standing side-by-side, the goddess and queen finally found common ground in a fight to save their lives.

Then, the sand creatures fell away, and Emma allowed herself a moment to think, to discover the reason for them stopping—Xavier was gone from the Shadowking's mind…and she was overwhelmed. Scott!

Turning quickly she saw him at the Juggernaut's mercy and pointed Storm in the same direction. Only one clasp remained intact. Together they moved, Storm took to the air, a lightning bolt took care of the clasp and a wind storm removed it from his oversized body, leaving him vulnerable to Emma's powers. And Emma was not kind.

He screamed as fear and terror and panic overtook him, causing him to cower and hate himself and fear going back into that box that Magneto had found him in. And then, with a final blast of pure white mental energy he was in a state of sleep that even Emma herself wasn't sure he could ever find his way out of.

Scott fell to the ground, thankful for the air, hot and dry as it was. Storm and Emma were by his side instantly, helping him to his feet. On the ground by them was the being once called Onslaught, quickly recovering from Rogue's attack, and then, more recently, Gambit's.

"Xavier has been removed," Emma told them, probing his mind, "And Gambit was successful; David is no longer boosting him." Pausing for effect her eyes darted to Storm, "Only the Shadowking is left."

With a clenched jaw Storm looked to the man—the shell—that housed the bringer of her nightmares, her eyes turning white, "Then I say we bring him out to play."

"Inside the body he is strong," Emma yelled over the growing wind, "But outside, he only exists on the Astral Plane, there, I have a chance to beat him."

"Alright then," Cyclops said with a look between them, "Let's play smash the shell!"

---

Angel and Bobby fell to their knees beside Kitty.

"Oh God," Bobby muttered looking to Angel, his arms encircling Kitty who he knew needed him, no matter how strong she was trying to be, "What are we going to do?"

Angel swallowed hard. "I'm going to fix him." His voice shook, even though his mind had been made up on the matter. He wasn't sure if he could even do it; his healing abilities were new to him. He also didn't know what it would do to him. But he knew that he had to try. Peter risked his life for his fellow X-Men, and Warren knew in his guts that he could do no less. After all, Peter was only a knight, while he was an angel: and it was time he earned his wings.

"Can you do it?" Bobby asked him.

"We'll find out. But I'll need to touch him."

Bobby nodded, taking his cue. Peter was, after all, still smoldering from the assaults of Pyro's flame. "I'll cool him off."

"No," Kitty protested, sitting forward, "The sudden transition from extreme hot to cold could…"

He stopped her short, "Kitty, trust me. I know all about cold." Not waiting a moment longer he iced his hand and placed it on his friend, feeling for himself the torture that the colossal man had undergone. "He's still breathing," he told them with a hitched tone. Under his hand he could feel the flesh-like malleability of his metal skin, he could see the burns, and he could smell the burnt flesh mixed within the burnt metal.

A sigh escaped Peter as relief from the burning hit him and he sagged forward into Kitty's arms. For the first moment since Pyro's assault he could breathe a little bit easier.

"You're going to be okay," Kitty whispered, trying not to cry, casting a thankful look to her friend.

Bobby smiled at her, and stood, feeling as though he was intruding. "I'm going to check on the others." He didn't get far when he heard a screech that made everyone look to where they had landed. There, in the air, was the fiery Phoenix, and then, as suddenly as it came, the fire went out, and a figure fell from the air. "Rogue…" he swallowed hard, knowing that this was not the time, "I'm going to check on the others."

"Can you do this?" Kitty asked Angel, hopeful. She had a feeling what seeing that phoenix meant: they had lost Rogue. She didn't want to lose another.

"I'm going to try." He met Peter's eyes, "I've never done this before."

"It's okay," he breathed through his pain, a small smile on his face at the faint transparent figure over their shoulders, "You can do it. There is a big turtle watching over us."

---

Bobby focused on his breathing as he moved towards Lorna, he tried not to think: he had seen her fall. It happened too quickly… he shook his head trying to focus only on what was before him. He sunk to his knees beside the woman, hoping that she was still breathing. He had lost too many friends and teammates to make him alright with losing another.

He turned then, hand iced, when a shadow fell over him. Bobby relaxed, slightly, at the sight of Gambit, Bo staff in hand. They stayed like that a moment, staring at one another, both knowing, more than any other there, just what kind of loss the other was then experiencing.

Lorna's moaning called their attention to her, and Gambit offered Iceman his aid in helping the magnetic mutant to stand.

"Are you alright?" Bobby asked.

"Yes. Avalanche... he—I can't feel his armor any more. He's using the earth to block me. He's still alive."

"Catch your breath," Bobby soothed, "We'll get him."

"How else are we standing?"

"David is taken out," Gambit told her, "Onslaught is neutralized."

"Rogue…" Bobby couldn't continue.

Lorna nodded, fearing that she understood all too well what he couldn't say, "And the others?"

"You better see for yourself."

---

Before that moment the furthest that Angel had spread his healing abilities was the time when Wolfsbane had gotten poison ivy over her entire body after a game of fetch with Roberto. The experience had left him with a ghost itchiness that lingered for a couple days. This—well he wasn't sure what to expect—except for pain.

Hands shaking despite his best attempts to keep them calm Angel removed his gloves and placed his palms on the once smooth armored skin. Following the instructions that he had been given to access his new powers, Angel breathed deeply, finding the spot within him that he could only call his light, and pulled it to the surface. He felt the change as the light spread over him, his hair and feathers, he knew, would be golden, and the warmth that felt like he was under the tropical sun filled his entire self. If anything felt like heaven, it was that moment, right before entering hell.

Taking one final breath to steady his nerves he exhaled deeply, pushing the warmth from him, sending it, willing it, into Peter, shivering despite himself at the chill that came when it left him. His skin started to prickle as the texture of Peter's flesh started to become his own, and then, he knew that pain would soon follow.

But it didn't.

Surprised, he opened his eyes, wondering if it hadn't worked, if his fear had gotten the best of him. But it was working. Peter held the glow that had once filled Angel, and his skin was starting to smooth, and his pain, Warren could tell from his expression, was easing. After a couple moments, Colossus was strong enough to let his armor drop and his skin, tender and prickly, was once more exposed.

It was only then that Angel felt the toll of such an undertaking, of sharing his soul with another, and brought the warmth back, buried it deep within him, where it would again make him strong.

Kitty smiled and threw her arms around the weak blond, and eased him to a comfortable position beside her. There, with the three fallen mutants around her, she would keep guard, and keep them safe. It was now her turn to be the hero on duty.

"You did it!" Kitty cried with a laugh.

"It was weird," he told them, his hand on his head where it felt like the past moments had been spent in a dream, "It felt like I wasn't alone. Hey maybe heroes do get an angel looking over their shoulders!"

Peter smiled, his pain now bearable and his healing well underway, "Or maybe we get a Rogue?"

---

Please R&R… I hope it was worth the wait!