The man who had been Magneto's second in command agreed to meet with Wildcat. He had green skin, yellow hair, and his name was Mike. They sat at a card table in an old shack, each one across from the other.

Wildcat sat up straight and looked Mike in the eye, wanting to appear tall, in control. "My team can't allow you to go through with your planned attack on Tyler."

Mike looked down, unable to face Wildcat's gaze. "How could we? Magneto was our savior—our strength. Now thanks to you and your team, we've realized our hope was…misplaced. We're nothing but a group of gullible outcasts."

Logan had sympathy for him and the others, but she couldn't let any weakness show. Not now. "I need to make sure your people won't be able to hurt anyone once we're gone. You need to turn over your weapons."

Mike's jaw fell. "You can't be serious! How will we be able to protect ourselves?"

"You and I both know you didn't get those weapons for protection. Besides, you did a pretty good job of fighting us with just your powers."

Mike's mouth closed in a grim line. "Magneto told us that the X-Men were so dedicated to 'protecting' humans—the very people who want to kill us and all our kind—that they forgot they were even mutants. He said they thought they were better than us. I didn't really believe him about that, didn't think any mutant could be that way. Well, now I've met the X-Men, and I was wrong. You're exactly what he said you were."

"We haven't forgotten we're mutants. We just don't like to see blood spilled—whether it possesses an X-factor or not. If a group of humans was threatening to kill all the mutants in a city, we'd try to stop that, too."

"Then why haven't you done it? A few years ago when a new version of the Brotherhood of Mutants formed, and the hate groups were back in full swing, where were you? Where were you when my best friend was tied to the back of a car and drug until he died? Where were you when my girlfriend was hanged because she was carrying the baby of a mutant—my baby? I'll tell you where you were. You were fighting your fellow mutants."

"You don't understand," Logan said defensively. "The members of the Brotherhood weren't trying to help all mutantkind—only themselves. Starting a war, attacking humans, it doesn't help anything. We've made so much headway already. Violence will only make them fear us—will only set us back."

"Easy for you to say," Mike snapped, glaring. "You look normal; you can pass. People can't walk down the street and know you're different. The don't take one look at you and think 'mutie scum.' It's like that for all you X-Men.  You're all freaking gorgeous. Like models. You can't even begin to imagine what it's like to be us. I bet you've never even had anyone give you as much as a scratch because of the glitch in your DNA."

Logan unsheathed her claws. "Looks can be deceiving, bub. You think they coated these and every other bone in my body with metal 'cause they thought I was some normal, human kid?"

Mike looked taken aback. "If…if you know how humans can hurt us," he said after a moment, "then why are you so ready to protect them? They hate us—why should we care about them?"

"Because hate is hate, no matter where it comes from. I do my best to help people, even when maybe they wouldn't do the same for me. You can't stop discrimination with more bigotry."

"You think being nice to people who want to kill you is going to make them suddenly become our best friends? Out here in the real world, it doesn't work that way. You show them weakness, and they rip your throat out."

Logan stood up, putting her hands firmly on the table. "Look, just hand over the weapons or I'll have S.H.I.E.LD. come and get 'em—their way."

"This coming from a woman who only moments ago was spouting the rhetoric or nonviolence."

Wildcat turned and stormed out.

*** *** ***

"So I guess you're leavin', huh?"

Twister looked over at his little sister, guilt already beginning to gnaw at him. "You could come with me, Kim."

"No, Alex, I can't. My place is here." She gestured to the dilapidated mess "Magneto" had made his mutant haven. "A lot of changes are going to be made around here, and maybe if I stick around, I can do some good." She stopped, looking down and absent-mindedly kicking a pebble in front of her feet. "Y'know, what they're really gonna need around here is a leader. With Mag, uh, Zach gone, a lot of people aren't gonna know what to do. You could give them direction, Alex."

"Kimmy…my place is with the X-Men."

"Your home is here!"

"Kim, I…"

Kimmy sighed. "I know, Alex. I know."

*** *** ***

Tristan found Logan punching and kicking the trunk of an old tree. "What did the poor plant life ever do to you?" he asked.

Logan yelped, jumping backwards. "Tristan! You scared the hell outta me!"

Tristan frowned. "Since when could anyone sneak up on you?"

"Um, well, I was…"

"Someplace else?" Tristan asked with his half-smug grin he only wore for Logan.

"Yeah, pretty much."

"What's on your mind?" Tristan asked. He looked down at her, sternly.

"I just had a talk with one of 'Magneto's' followers. He said I wasn't being true to my fellow mutants—that I was trying to be too human. Do you think that's true?"

"I don't know," Tristan replied. "I don't know anything about mutant/human relations. The petty squabbles of the people of one planet don't concern me. My people have known suffering on a galactic scale."

Logan stopped her mouth before it could fall open. "How can you say that? Sure, it may not be as big of a problem as the ones you face back home, but that doesn't make it any less important."

"Yes, Adanya, it does." His voice was patronizing, as if he were talking to his child, not his lover.

Logan didn't know if she wanted to cry or lash out at him. She chose the latter. "You're here with us now, aren't you? Fighting with the X-Men? Our sole purpose is to help humans and mutants coexist. How can you be with us and say you don't care?"

"I'm not here for that. I'm here for you. Honestly, I don't care at all about the politics of Earth. If you want a man who can share you ideas on working to create a mutant/human Utopia, then maybe you should invite Renegade back into your bed."

"Is that what this is all about?" Logan asked. "Ric?"

Tristan bristled. "I saw you with him—outside the Blackbird. You were in his arms."

"That?! That was nothing, Tristan, really."

"It did not appear to be 'nothing.'"

"It was just one old friend comforting another. Nothing more."

Tristan backed Logan against the tree she'd been using as a punching bag earlier. "Are you certain about that?"

Logan trembled. "Tristan…"

"You're mine, Logan. Mine." He silenced anything she would've said with a kiss, then walked away, leaving her breathless.

*** *** ***

Tristan sought out Ric as soon as he returned. "Renegade," he called to him. "We need to talk."

Ric raised an eyebrow. "We do? About what?"

"I just want to make one thing clear right here, right now," Tristan said, his voice dark and menacing. "Logan's mine. My fingerprints are all over her body. You'll never have her again."

Ric's anger was obvious. "You don't have her, Tristan. You only think you do. For whatever reason, Logan's playing along with your little game of possession right now, but she won't forever. She'll get sick of letting you think you own her, and when she does, you're going to learn a thing or two about Adanya Logan that you never saw coming. You may think you know how passionate that woman is, but you don't. She fights for what she wants, and freedom is what she values most in the world. She won't give it to you, or anyone else."

Tristan just smirked. "You don't know what you're talking about. She loves me, adores me—would do anything for me."

"You really think that?" Ric shook his head. "You're an idiot."

Tristan struck out at Ric with a punch, but Ric ducked it easily. He started to throw one of his own, but Illyana ran out from the Blackbird. "Ric!" she yelled, coming to stand between them. She looked at Ric with pleading brown eyes. "Please. Don't fight." She took his hand. "Let's go back on the plane, okay?"

Ric looked from Illyana to Tristan, and then back to Illyana. "Yeah. Let's go."

As he walked away, Ric threw a look at Tristan over his shoulder that let the other man know that their fight was far from over.

*** *** ***

Rebecca knew Twister, sometimes better than she knew herself. He was her other half. They may not have had the psi-link Billy and Kacie and formed, but she knew when something was troubling him.

Like something was right then.

He told her it was her injury. That he was worried about her. She didn't doubt that he was concerned, but she knew him well enough to know it wasn't the whole truth. She'd asked him several times to tell her what was on his mind, but he hadn't let her in.

She kept asking. She also knew him well enough to know if she didn't give in, he'd give up.

The fifth time she asked, her strategy worked. Twister sighed. "It's Kimmy, all right?"

"What about her? Are you upset about going back to New York and leaving her?"

"That's part of it. And well, I talked to her earlier, and she told me I should stay here, trying to help the people that Zach's left behind now that he's, well, less than sane. She thinks I could be a leader."

"And why are you not going to?"

Twister looked surprised that she'd say that. "Because my place is with the X-Men—with you."

Rebecca put her hand on his. "If I am why you are not staying, then do not let me be. I do not wish to hold you back."

"I love you so much, I can't live without you, 'Becca. You're my light."

"And I could not live without you. Which is why if you decide to stay, you will not be staying alone."

"Rebecca, you can't do that. You're the leader of the X-Men."

"Some things are more important than giving orders to a team. If I am needed elsewhere, the X-Men will understand. And someone else could fill in for me as leader. I heard Logan did a fine job against Zach Tyson—as she did against the Dark One."

"I just don't know. Kimmy said this place is my home, but it really isn't. In so many ways, it never was. I don't know where I belong, except in your arms. And how could I help these people? I'm nothing myself."

"That is not true. You are an amazing man—one of the best I know. There is so much to you that you do not see—but I do. Your sister is right; you could help these people. And you would not need to worry. I would be here with you, beside you every step of the way."

"I…I just need to think about it."

"I understand. But know what ever decision you make, I support you."

*** *** ***

Logan walked back to the Blackbird as the sun was setting. She didn't know if she wanted to see Tristan or not. When he was gone, his possessiveness bothered her, even scared her a little, but when she was in his arms… She couldn't begin to describe what that man did to her. She guessed it was why she knew she couldn't walk away from him then, although she knew logically that she probably should.

Vicky Creed was leaning up against the Blackbird, smoking a cigarette, when Logan got back. "Hey there, runt."

"Don't call me that."

"Touchy like the old man?"

Logan sighed. "Come on, Vicky. We've been getting along all right for a day or so. Don't be a bitch."

Vicky flicked her cigarette. "Having a bad day are we? Have anything to do with Tristan?"

Logan's stance grew defensive. "Why do you ask that?"

"Because he came back earlier, and it looked like he and Ric were about to get in a fight. Illyana ran out here and pulled Ric away before it got bad, though."

Logan didn't know why she felt a little flare of jealousy at Vicky's mention of Illyana's name. "Typical for them. They hate each other."

"Does it give you a thrill, knowing two men want you enough to fight over you?"

"No," Logan snapped. "It makes me think that I'm dealing with a couple of children."

"Sure it does, runt."

"Please, just leave me alone. I'm tired. I'm going through hell right now. I don't need to be antagonized."

Vicky frowned and Logan's worn-out tone. "Sure. Wanna talk about it?"

"Why? So you can find something else to pick at me about?"

"No. So you can have someone to listen to you. Something tells me you don't get that very often."

"I don't need that."

"Runt, we all need that."

The 'runt' didn't offend Logan this time. Maybe it was because Vicky's smile was genuine. "No. But thanks. I'll be good. Once we get back to New York, things'll even out again."

"You sure about that?"

"No. But I like being in denial." Logan laughed. Vicky thought she looked like she'd rather be crying, but was glad she didn't. She was willing to be nice, but she didn't want to sit out there and comfort a sobbing Logan.

"Don't float so far down that river you fall off the waterfall."

"I won't." Logan paused for a moment, then asked, "Vicky, there's something I've been meaning to ask you."

"Go ahead. I may answer."

"Was that your father leading the Brotherhood back then?"

"No. I was going to school in Olympia, but I remember around when all that was happening. I didn't hear much about it—there wasn't much on the news—but I heard about there being some sort of violent mutant-rights group, and lots of hate groups in its wake. I remember because Dad called me, to make sure I was okay up at school. He was afraid someone might be giving me a hard time for being a mutant. He called me from Seattle, Logan. Not New York. I have caller ID on my cell phone. And he didn't seem weird either, like he was trying to hide something. Besides, I know my father. He's done a lot of bad things, sure, but that? It doesn't fit with him. He isn't into all that global domination shit. He does what pays. That wouldn't have."

"But if it wasn't your father, who was it? He looked like him, talked like him, even knew things that Creed would know. Like who my father was, just from looking at me. Who else could that be?"

Vicky shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe Dad has an evil twin."

Logan snorted. "Great. Sabretooth's evil twin. Just what the world needs."

"Look, one thing I know for sure is, you said you killed who ever that was, and my father's not dead. I saw him last Christmas, and we all heard him over the intercom back on the Blackbird. Whoever that guy who formed the Brotherhood was, it was someone else, Logan. Not Sabretooth."

"I'm starting to believe you're right."

"I am." Vicky took her pack of cigarettes out of her pocket and offered it to Logan. "Smoke?"

"No. I don't…"

"Bullshit. I've smelled it on you plenty of times, runt. Come on. Get your nicotine fix with me. We can bond. We have healing factors. Not like it's going to hurt us."

Logan laughed and took a cigarette.

*** *** ***

It took the X-Men three days to get everything sorted out in Texas. Zachary Tyson's former followers turned over their weapons, and Mackenzie Fury took them "someplace safe" in a S.H.I.E.L.D. transport.  She took Zach Tyson, too. He didn't seem to be recovering from the psychological blow Ric had dealt him.

Finally, it was time for the X-Men to go home.

And for them to say good-bye.

"Are you sure you won't come back with us?" Rachel Summers asked as she hugged Rebecca. Tears were forming in her eyes.

Rebecca hugged her back, her own eyes damp. "I cannot. Twister's place is here for now, and my place is with him."

"I'm going to miss you," Rachel said as she pulled away.

"And I will miss you." Rebecca smiled a little. "But I will be back. You cannot get rid of me forever."

"I'm going to hold you to that."

"Come on, Ray, the others are waiting."

Rachel turned at the feel of Warren's hand on her shoulder. "All right." She looked back at Rebecca. "Keep in touch."

"I will."

Warren and Rachel walked back to the Blackbird, his arm around her shoulder in comfort.

*** *** ***

One more chapter to go! I should have it up sometime next week, but until then—feedback, please!