Metallica: Poor Twisted Me (cont.)
I don't want it
So tear me open, but beware
There's things inside without a care
And the dirt still stains me
So wash me, 'till I'm clean...
I'll tear me open, make you gone
No longer will you hurt anyone
And the fear still shapes me
So hold me, until it sleeps...
Until it sleeps...
~*~
The Price of Survival Chapter .4 - Frayed Ends of Sanity
(Sum up chapter before: After a walk in the woods, Logan is captured by the evil new Brotherhood, lead by Mystique, and is possessed and devoured from the inside by a child known as Knightmare. Storm, Jean, and Cyclops burst in and ruin Mystique's little party, and save Logan and manage to escape with their lives, and an extra one.)
*finally, we're back to the real present...*
"I've got it!" Jean burst in through the cafeteria doors, finding Storm seated at one of the empty tables gingerly sipping a cup of coffee, just as she had seen in her mind. "I know why he acted that way..." Storm nodded for her to continue, so she did.
Almost two hours later, Storm's eyes were wide with the mix of confusion and understanding, each one battling over one another. She had been so swept up in Jean's vision that her coffee still was filled where it had been when Jean had come in to the cafeteria.
"So he's possessed?" Ororo said, not being able to find the right word. She looked at Jean confusingly as she stared blankly back, neither of them completely understanding. "So, what do we do?" Ororo asked, spinning her cup on the tabletop, her fingernails clicking against the ceramic surface.
"I don't know..." Jean said, her chin was supported on her hand and her elbow held everything up on the tabletop. She turned her eyes up to stare at the ceiling as if that might help her think well or give her a clue to what they should do.
"Maybe we should go find Scott..." Ororo suggested, standing up and emptying her cold coffee down the sink in the back of the kitchen. She returned to find Jean slumped down on the table, her face hidden beneath her arms.
"Jean?" Ororo stooped beside her and gently placed her hand reassuringly on her shoulder, feeling her shake beneath her palm. "Are you alright?" Her dark eyes looked at Jean in pity as she rose, wiping away her tears with shaky hands.
"Let's go..." Jean managed, her eyeliner pulled into a long streak down her cheek, curving against the contour of her sharp cheekbones and jaw. She allowed Ororo to keep her hand on her shoulder as they walked out of the silent cafeteria.
After a quick stop to her room to freshen her make-up, Jean emerged, seeing Ororo sitting quietly on her bed, and she forced a smile. Jean raised her hand to her head and closed her eyes, looking to find Scott's brainwaves and quieting everything else in her mind.
*Scott, we know what happened to Logan...please come back...* She connected Ororo into the thought-link, letting her know what was going on. *I'm on my way...* Scott sent back, Jean watching him as he hopped back on his motorcycle and making his way back to the school.
He didn't appear to be angry at all; maybe the little joy ride had done him good. *We'll meet you in the garage...* She sent before dropping the link and opening her eyes. With a sideways glance at Ororo, she walked out of the room and made her way to the garage with Ororo in tow.
~*~
"Her name is Knightmare...she can transfer into others by physical touch..." Jean explained, looking up at Scott from her seated position on the ground. Scott sat sideways on his motorcycle, with both legs hanging over one side of the bike. Ororo sat in the driver's seat of a topless jeep parked near the group.
"So she's inside his body?" Scott raised an eyebrow, trying to choke down what she had just explained. She nodded, turning to Ororo to signify if she had missed anything. "And we have to get her out or after some time she'll mentally break him down and destroy Logan psychologically, but keep herself within his body physically..."
Scott shook his head, not quite understanding, his specially made ruby-quartz sunglasses gleamed crimson in the garage lights. He shifted his weight on the bike, his crushed hand resting in his lap, completely bandaged up to his elbow.
"How much time do we have..." Scott asked looking back to Jean for the answer. "...to get her out?"
Jean thought for a minute, adding up everything she had seen and experienced. "What time is it?" She asked trying to get a basis of what everything was sitting on. "It is seven fourteen." Ororo said, looking at her wristwatch." She added up the hours since his capture and their rescue, "three hours..."
"So how do we get her out?" Scott looked to Ororo, as if she knew what to do. She stared blankly at him for a minute before shaking her head glumly, folding her arms across her chest. Scott looked back to Jean, who paused then slowly nodded. "I might know..."
"I will go check on him once more..." Ororo said, turning to leave the garage. "We'll catch up with you," Scott said, grabbing Jean by the wrist with his good hand as she turned to follow Ororo.
"...I...I just wanted to say...that I'm sorry..." Scott said, looking her right in the face. "Me too, Scott." Jean said, the only thing she could think to say. Without a word, Scott turned and pulled something from the bag strapped to the side of the back, hiding it behind his back.
"I wanted to give you this..." He pulled his hand out from behind his back and showed her the most beautiful rose she had ever seen in her entire life. Every satin petal was laced in intricate patterned lines of crimson and blue, some merging and threading into a dazzling purple.
"Oh Scott..." She choked out, taking in the magnificence of the flower. "It's beautiful..." That was hardly the word to describe it, it was beyond magnificence and far greater than beautiful. "But, I know this rose..." She closed her eyes and looked back into her memory, filing through the images and emotions until coming upon it.
"Oh my god..." She began, reopening her eyes with a look of happiness and wonderment at the same time. "I have a plan." She said finally, taking the rose from Scott's hand and held it close to her heart.
~*~
Jean slowly leaned over Logan, watching his sleeping face with pity as she shifted to look under is bandaging. His wounds had just barely begun to heal; the blood slowly beginning to re-clot and his broken flesh begin to grow together.
All the medicine and such that was being pumped into him lamed his healing process dramatically, pulling it to an endless crawl. She quickly replaced the dressing, looking up to Ororo who sat on another medical table staring back.
*I hope this works...* Jean thought and took a syringe from a tray beside her, uncapping a plug in Logan's IV and slowly inserting the needle. The yellow liquid left the syringe and flowed into his IV, mixing with the blood to turn a concentrated orange as it entered his body.
He twitched lightly, his head flicking to the side with his eyelids fluttering. Jean immediately stepped back, making space between Logan and herself. Ororo stood and joined her at her side, waiting patiently.
They stood there, watching Logan as the twitch slowly grew into a shiver and suddenly his eyes snapped open and he let out a hoarse roar. "What are you doing?" Knightmare hissed from inside of him, feeling the poison fill his veins and coarse through his heart.
"Killing you..." Jean said under her breath, crossing her arms defiantly across her chest and looking Logan straight in the eye. "But you'll also kill your beloved Wolverine, so what do you get out of it?" Logan thundered, his voice deep as if he talked through a storm.
"The satisfaction of your death..." Storm said, stepping slightly forward, her eyes filled with mercy for Wolverine, but showed no forgiveness for Knightmare. Logan began to sniff the air, and cast a weary eye to Jean.
With fluid motion, he snapped the metal and silk bindings at his arms like nothing and his claws breaking through the thick layers of silk with little difficulty. He swept the claws downward and sliced the bindings at his legs in half, freeing himself from the IV's and hulking toward the two women with blazing brown eyes.
Ororo backed off while Jean stood her ground, her eyes never leaving Logan's, even as he brought his claws up to her throat. "You are brave...I'll give you that...But also extremely insane..."
"Insanity makes a man weak..." Knightmare continued, Logan's eyes blazing with rage as he grabbed Jean roughly by the arm and pulled her closer against the tips of the claws. "So does poison." Jean said, keeping her tone abrupt and direct.
"The poison I put into him is slowly shutting down his organs, swallowing them up one by one. It starts at his heart, slowly making it's way to his intestines and down into the extremities of his arms and legs...until eventually, it takes over his brain." Jean said, watching as Logan's eyes flicked back and forth as he thought.
Logan's other hand reached up to grip his head as he could feel the poison reach his brain, killing him slowly with as much pain as possible. "Wh-...where is...is...the rose?" Knightmare stuttered, pushing his voice through the pain, his words slurring.
Jean stood there, watching him as if she didn't care. But her conscious screamed at her as loud as it possibly could to help him that it almost went to the point where it hurt. She pushed down the tears that burned and threatened to swell in her eyes.
"Jean, please...please help me..." Knightmare let the real Logan talk, just as Jean had expected. But the conflict of emotions raged a bloody battle over the corpse filled plains of her heart. Before the real Logan could say anything more, Knightmare took control of him, pushing him down and re-attaining him.
Jean pretended to break down, filling her eyes with compassion and worry as Logan tightened his grip on her arm until it hurt. "Where...is...the...rose..." Knightmare demanded, Logan's knees shaking and barely able to support him.
"Scott has it..." Jean choked through the blade tips, swallowing hard on the jagged rock embedded in her throat. "Where...is...he?" Knightmare fumed, her patience growing weak as she needed the bit of essence that still was in the rose.
"Outside...in the field..." Jean said. "But you cannot go!" Ororo suddenly said, stepping forward and blocking the doorway with her body. "Why not?" Knightmare dared, Logan's nostrils flaring and bringing a low growl to his throat.
"Logan and yourself need medical attention. If you go out there, you risk death." Jean said, joining Ororo to block the door as both woman stared intensely at Logan. "Everything comes with a risk..." Knightmare laughed cruelly.
With that, Logan's head turned upright and his mouth opened wide as a painful roar escaped his throat. When the two women heard the sickening rip of flesh from Logan's back, they knew why he had screamed.
Huge, blood-covered wings grew out from his back, sopping and dripping with crimson that matted the otherwise beautifully snow-white feathers that gleamed in the light. It took at least a minute for the immense wings to fully outstretch, each wingtip barely able to touch both sides of the room.
Without so much as a look to the startled women, Logan's hands reached up over his head and he shot up like a torpedo, spiraling through the air and bursting through the ceiling. Small pieces of plaster and dust rained down on the women who turned to each other, and smiled.
Logan soared upward; racing through the blue sky and up until his immense wingspan blocked half of the sun with glittering beauty. There he stopped, his back to the sun and his head pointed down, looking back towards the school that seemed to be nothing more than a black dot.
But with the help of Wolverine's enhanced vision, Knightmare could see a single stalk of grass in the field as if she were right next to it. Logan's brown eyes danced across the field, finally falling on Scott sitting peacefully on a bench, the rose in a glass orb next to him.
Logan smiled; finding his mark and wrapping his wings tightly about his body, turning nose-down and falling through the air like a rock. He was so fast that he became nothing more than a blur in the great blue heavens.
Scott peeked up to see a blur drop through the sky, twisting clouds and heading straight towards him. He only sat quietly, waiting patiently as the blur swooped low and passed right over his lap, snatching up the rose and disappearing just as quickly. The jet lag from Logan's speeding body almost knocked Scott from his seat, but all he did was smile.
The blur finally made a large loop over the middle of the field before coming to land on the roof of the school, like a giant winged gargoyle that was made out of flesh and feathers. Logan wrapped the wings about him for protection as he clawed at the impenetrable orb with his fingernails.
There were no seams to get his fingernails under, so he opted to beat the orb against the roofing, hoping to break it that way. But to his surprise, the orb only clanged against the metal gutter, refusing to crack.
Logan roared, rearing back and extending his claws from one hand. With the hardest blow he could strike in his weakened strength, he hit the orb directly with his claws. He cried out as his claws almost seemed to bend backwards, stretching the skin behind his knuckles with fire.
With a growl of disgust, Logan looked around the ground until his eyes fell upon a cement deck at the entrance of the school, he smiled. Slinking silently across the roof, he positioned himself above the cement slab and outstretched his arms with the orb in hand.
Suddenly, he let the orb drop from his hands, allowing it to plummet downward to strike the cement with such force that a metallic sound echoed across the school grounds, but the orb did not break.
Logan roared in frustration and fluttered down from the roof, landing hard on his bare feet with his legs spread over the still complete and uncracked orb. Then suddenly, Knightmare had an idea.
With a scream of pain, Logan fell to his hands and knees, regurgitating an entire girl from his mouth. Knightmare came out covered with blood and bile, her wings dislodged from her back. Blood flowed from her shoulders, coating her back and dripping onto the pavement as she came out. With Knightmare fully dislodged from his body, Logan fell over unconscious onto the pavement the bloody wings still planted in his back.
Knightmare crawled over to the orb, barely having enough energy to reach out with a shaky hand and come within inches of the orb. She stretched, pushing her arm with all the strength she could muster until her fingertip just barely touched the orb.
Then, she was inside of it, wrapping herself about the rose and ripping it to shreds to find her essence to keep her alive. But with a scream of pain and betrayal, she found no essence. This rose was one Jean had clipped from the garden, trapping it in a transparent adamantium orb that one of the students had crafted with their special abilities.
Now that Knightmare was trapped within the orb and unable to get back out unless someone touched it, Jean, Ororo, and Scott came out from around the corner. Scott bent down next to Logan and checked over him, reaching out a timid hand to run along the bone of the wings.
Ororo and Jean walked toward the orb, bending down to see the girl smashed inside of it. She was bent to fill it, her face peeking out from beneath the tattered velvet of a petal. Her pallor was a deathly white, illuminating the crimson of the rose as she hid behind it, awaiting her death.
"You...you...tricked me..." Knightmare coughed, her hair matted and slimy against her face. Her eyes were graying; misting over with a fog that consumed her mind and took control almost as she had done to Logan.
"I'm sorry..." Jean said, compassion lightly tinting on her voice as she and Ororo watched the girl's face tense as the last beat of her heart ceased and the last exhale of her life happened. Jean closed her eyes and dropped her head, ashamed of herself for killing a little girl that could have had so much more to live for.
"It is not your fault." Ororo said quietly, placing her hand on Jean's shoulder compassionately. "You had no other choice..." Jean reopened her eyes and looked up to Ororo, a stray tear slipping down her cheek as she rose to her feet. "But she did..."
~*~
*one week later...*
The rain drizzled softly from the gray sky, pattering like footfalls on her shoulders and head and darkening her bright red hair. The quiet storm brought a cool draft into the cemetery, bringing with it almost a chill as if to soothe her nerves.
She stooped near the side of a glistening headstone and brushed away a chunk of sodden grass set astray on the grave with her gloved hand. With her other hand, she lay a beautiful red rose against the foot of the plaque.
Almost thoughtlessly, she removed the leather glove from her dainty hand, reaching out to feel the cold slab dripping with water beneath her hands. She traced her fingers in the blackened grooves of the tombstone, etching her fingertip along the curves of the picture and the words that read:
HERE LIES
ยท
VENUS "KNIGHTMARE" CROWE
Above the words was a pair of angel wings with a halo floating above them. "Are we gonna stand here all day?" A gruff voice spoke up from behind her, cutting through the tranquility like thunder.
With a sigh and a smile, Jean Grey stood and turned back to see Logan standing awkwardly, staring at her with a questioning gaze. Crutches were pushed up under his arms, supporting him as he waited for Jean to finish.
Jean stood silently next to him in anticipation until he began to lead the way out of the cemetery and back to the Jeep parked along the entrance. They walked in silence, only the patter of rain and the whisper of their shoes forbade the reticence.
With a sideways glance to Jean's troubled face, Logan ruffled his eyebrows, trying to push it out of him. "I'm sorry..." He said, chancing another look up to Jean who turned back to him with a questioning gaze.
"About what?" She asked, slowing her pace a bit so she was even with Logan. She stared at him until he brought his head up again, "For everythin' I did to ya." He said, hurrying his own pace as much as he could.
"Oh Logan..." She was about to contradict but suddenly fell silent, not thinking about anything to say. She sighed quietly and shook her head at herself; she opened the Jeep door for Logan and helped him maneuver inside.
There wasn't much anything to say on the way back home, so they drove in silence. Only the slap of the windshield wipers talked and only the thumps of the raindrops splattering against the window sang their lonely, sad song.
The End
By The By: For those of you kind and wonderful people that have read this story and been ever-so-kind to give me feedback and such, i figured i would return my gratitude with a little challenge for you if you would like,
I'm challenging any of you to write a branch off of this story of - What was Mystique going to do with all that money????? Anyways, thanks again and i hope you keep enjoying my work,
ANANOVA CROWE - THE ONE WHO LOVES YOU!!!! :* *smack!* I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!
I don't want it
So tear me open, but beware
There's things inside without a care
And the dirt still stains me
So wash me, 'till I'm clean...
I'll tear me open, make you gone
No longer will you hurt anyone
And the fear still shapes me
So hold me, until it sleeps...
Until it sleeps...
~*~
The Price of Survival Chapter .4 - Frayed Ends of Sanity
(Sum up chapter before: After a walk in the woods, Logan is captured by the evil new Brotherhood, lead by Mystique, and is possessed and devoured from the inside by a child known as Knightmare. Storm, Jean, and Cyclops burst in and ruin Mystique's little party, and save Logan and manage to escape with their lives, and an extra one.)
*finally, we're back to the real present...*
"I've got it!" Jean burst in through the cafeteria doors, finding Storm seated at one of the empty tables gingerly sipping a cup of coffee, just as she had seen in her mind. "I know why he acted that way..." Storm nodded for her to continue, so she did.
Almost two hours later, Storm's eyes were wide with the mix of confusion and understanding, each one battling over one another. She had been so swept up in Jean's vision that her coffee still was filled where it had been when Jean had come in to the cafeteria.
"So he's possessed?" Ororo said, not being able to find the right word. She looked at Jean confusingly as she stared blankly back, neither of them completely understanding. "So, what do we do?" Ororo asked, spinning her cup on the tabletop, her fingernails clicking against the ceramic surface.
"I don't know..." Jean said, her chin was supported on her hand and her elbow held everything up on the tabletop. She turned her eyes up to stare at the ceiling as if that might help her think well or give her a clue to what they should do.
"Maybe we should go find Scott..." Ororo suggested, standing up and emptying her cold coffee down the sink in the back of the kitchen. She returned to find Jean slumped down on the table, her face hidden beneath her arms.
"Jean?" Ororo stooped beside her and gently placed her hand reassuringly on her shoulder, feeling her shake beneath her palm. "Are you alright?" Her dark eyes looked at Jean in pity as she rose, wiping away her tears with shaky hands.
"Let's go..." Jean managed, her eyeliner pulled into a long streak down her cheek, curving against the contour of her sharp cheekbones and jaw. She allowed Ororo to keep her hand on her shoulder as they walked out of the silent cafeteria.
After a quick stop to her room to freshen her make-up, Jean emerged, seeing Ororo sitting quietly on her bed, and she forced a smile. Jean raised her hand to her head and closed her eyes, looking to find Scott's brainwaves and quieting everything else in her mind.
*Scott, we know what happened to Logan...please come back...* She connected Ororo into the thought-link, letting her know what was going on. *I'm on my way...* Scott sent back, Jean watching him as he hopped back on his motorcycle and making his way back to the school.
He didn't appear to be angry at all; maybe the little joy ride had done him good. *We'll meet you in the garage...* She sent before dropping the link and opening her eyes. With a sideways glance at Ororo, she walked out of the room and made her way to the garage with Ororo in tow.
~*~
"Her name is Knightmare...she can transfer into others by physical touch..." Jean explained, looking up at Scott from her seated position on the ground. Scott sat sideways on his motorcycle, with both legs hanging over one side of the bike. Ororo sat in the driver's seat of a topless jeep parked near the group.
"So she's inside his body?" Scott raised an eyebrow, trying to choke down what she had just explained. She nodded, turning to Ororo to signify if she had missed anything. "And we have to get her out or after some time she'll mentally break him down and destroy Logan psychologically, but keep herself within his body physically..."
Scott shook his head, not quite understanding, his specially made ruby-quartz sunglasses gleamed crimson in the garage lights. He shifted his weight on the bike, his crushed hand resting in his lap, completely bandaged up to his elbow.
"How much time do we have..." Scott asked looking back to Jean for the answer. "...to get her out?"
Jean thought for a minute, adding up everything she had seen and experienced. "What time is it?" She asked trying to get a basis of what everything was sitting on. "It is seven fourteen." Ororo said, looking at her wristwatch." She added up the hours since his capture and their rescue, "three hours..."
"So how do we get her out?" Scott looked to Ororo, as if she knew what to do. She stared blankly at him for a minute before shaking her head glumly, folding her arms across her chest. Scott looked back to Jean, who paused then slowly nodded. "I might know..."
"I will go check on him once more..." Ororo said, turning to leave the garage. "We'll catch up with you," Scott said, grabbing Jean by the wrist with his good hand as she turned to follow Ororo.
"...I...I just wanted to say...that I'm sorry..." Scott said, looking her right in the face. "Me too, Scott." Jean said, the only thing she could think to say. Without a word, Scott turned and pulled something from the bag strapped to the side of the back, hiding it behind his back.
"I wanted to give you this..." He pulled his hand out from behind his back and showed her the most beautiful rose she had ever seen in her entire life. Every satin petal was laced in intricate patterned lines of crimson and blue, some merging and threading into a dazzling purple.
"Oh Scott..." She choked out, taking in the magnificence of the flower. "It's beautiful..." That was hardly the word to describe it, it was beyond magnificence and far greater than beautiful. "But, I know this rose..." She closed her eyes and looked back into her memory, filing through the images and emotions until coming upon it.
"Oh my god..." She began, reopening her eyes with a look of happiness and wonderment at the same time. "I have a plan." She said finally, taking the rose from Scott's hand and held it close to her heart.
~*~
Jean slowly leaned over Logan, watching his sleeping face with pity as she shifted to look under is bandaging. His wounds had just barely begun to heal; the blood slowly beginning to re-clot and his broken flesh begin to grow together.
All the medicine and such that was being pumped into him lamed his healing process dramatically, pulling it to an endless crawl. She quickly replaced the dressing, looking up to Ororo who sat on another medical table staring back.
*I hope this works...* Jean thought and took a syringe from a tray beside her, uncapping a plug in Logan's IV and slowly inserting the needle. The yellow liquid left the syringe and flowed into his IV, mixing with the blood to turn a concentrated orange as it entered his body.
He twitched lightly, his head flicking to the side with his eyelids fluttering. Jean immediately stepped back, making space between Logan and herself. Ororo stood and joined her at her side, waiting patiently.
They stood there, watching Logan as the twitch slowly grew into a shiver and suddenly his eyes snapped open and he let out a hoarse roar. "What are you doing?" Knightmare hissed from inside of him, feeling the poison fill his veins and coarse through his heart.
"Killing you..." Jean said under her breath, crossing her arms defiantly across her chest and looking Logan straight in the eye. "But you'll also kill your beloved Wolverine, so what do you get out of it?" Logan thundered, his voice deep as if he talked through a storm.
"The satisfaction of your death..." Storm said, stepping slightly forward, her eyes filled with mercy for Wolverine, but showed no forgiveness for Knightmare. Logan began to sniff the air, and cast a weary eye to Jean.
With fluid motion, he snapped the metal and silk bindings at his arms like nothing and his claws breaking through the thick layers of silk with little difficulty. He swept the claws downward and sliced the bindings at his legs in half, freeing himself from the IV's and hulking toward the two women with blazing brown eyes.
Ororo backed off while Jean stood her ground, her eyes never leaving Logan's, even as he brought his claws up to her throat. "You are brave...I'll give you that...But also extremely insane..."
"Insanity makes a man weak..." Knightmare continued, Logan's eyes blazing with rage as he grabbed Jean roughly by the arm and pulled her closer against the tips of the claws. "So does poison." Jean said, keeping her tone abrupt and direct.
"The poison I put into him is slowly shutting down his organs, swallowing them up one by one. It starts at his heart, slowly making it's way to his intestines and down into the extremities of his arms and legs...until eventually, it takes over his brain." Jean said, watching as Logan's eyes flicked back and forth as he thought.
Logan's other hand reached up to grip his head as he could feel the poison reach his brain, killing him slowly with as much pain as possible. "Wh-...where is...is...the rose?" Knightmare stuttered, pushing his voice through the pain, his words slurring.
Jean stood there, watching him as if she didn't care. But her conscious screamed at her as loud as it possibly could to help him that it almost went to the point where it hurt. She pushed down the tears that burned and threatened to swell in her eyes.
"Jean, please...please help me..." Knightmare let the real Logan talk, just as Jean had expected. But the conflict of emotions raged a bloody battle over the corpse filled plains of her heart. Before the real Logan could say anything more, Knightmare took control of him, pushing him down and re-attaining him.
Jean pretended to break down, filling her eyes with compassion and worry as Logan tightened his grip on her arm until it hurt. "Where...is...the...rose..." Knightmare demanded, Logan's knees shaking and barely able to support him.
"Scott has it..." Jean choked through the blade tips, swallowing hard on the jagged rock embedded in her throat. "Where...is...he?" Knightmare fumed, her patience growing weak as she needed the bit of essence that still was in the rose.
"Outside...in the field..." Jean said. "But you cannot go!" Ororo suddenly said, stepping forward and blocking the doorway with her body. "Why not?" Knightmare dared, Logan's nostrils flaring and bringing a low growl to his throat.
"Logan and yourself need medical attention. If you go out there, you risk death." Jean said, joining Ororo to block the door as both woman stared intensely at Logan. "Everything comes with a risk..." Knightmare laughed cruelly.
With that, Logan's head turned upright and his mouth opened wide as a painful roar escaped his throat. When the two women heard the sickening rip of flesh from Logan's back, they knew why he had screamed.
Huge, blood-covered wings grew out from his back, sopping and dripping with crimson that matted the otherwise beautifully snow-white feathers that gleamed in the light. It took at least a minute for the immense wings to fully outstretch, each wingtip barely able to touch both sides of the room.
Without so much as a look to the startled women, Logan's hands reached up over his head and he shot up like a torpedo, spiraling through the air and bursting through the ceiling. Small pieces of plaster and dust rained down on the women who turned to each other, and smiled.
Logan soared upward; racing through the blue sky and up until his immense wingspan blocked half of the sun with glittering beauty. There he stopped, his back to the sun and his head pointed down, looking back towards the school that seemed to be nothing more than a black dot.
But with the help of Wolverine's enhanced vision, Knightmare could see a single stalk of grass in the field as if she were right next to it. Logan's brown eyes danced across the field, finally falling on Scott sitting peacefully on a bench, the rose in a glass orb next to him.
Logan smiled; finding his mark and wrapping his wings tightly about his body, turning nose-down and falling through the air like a rock. He was so fast that he became nothing more than a blur in the great blue heavens.
Scott peeked up to see a blur drop through the sky, twisting clouds and heading straight towards him. He only sat quietly, waiting patiently as the blur swooped low and passed right over his lap, snatching up the rose and disappearing just as quickly. The jet lag from Logan's speeding body almost knocked Scott from his seat, but all he did was smile.
The blur finally made a large loop over the middle of the field before coming to land on the roof of the school, like a giant winged gargoyle that was made out of flesh and feathers. Logan wrapped the wings about him for protection as he clawed at the impenetrable orb with his fingernails.
There were no seams to get his fingernails under, so he opted to beat the orb against the roofing, hoping to break it that way. But to his surprise, the orb only clanged against the metal gutter, refusing to crack.
Logan roared, rearing back and extending his claws from one hand. With the hardest blow he could strike in his weakened strength, he hit the orb directly with his claws. He cried out as his claws almost seemed to bend backwards, stretching the skin behind his knuckles with fire.
With a growl of disgust, Logan looked around the ground until his eyes fell upon a cement deck at the entrance of the school, he smiled. Slinking silently across the roof, he positioned himself above the cement slab and outstretched his arms with the orb in hand.
Suddenly, he let the orb drop from his hands, allowing it to plummet downward to strike the cement with such force that a metallic sound echoed across the school grounds, but the orb did not break.
Logan roared in frustration and fluttered down from the roof, landing hard on his bare feet with his legs spread over the still complete and uncracked orb. Then suddenly, Knightmare had an idea.
With a scream of pain, Logan fell to his hands and knees, regurgitating an entire girl from his mouth. Knightmare came out covered with blood and bile, her wings dislodged from her back. Blood flowed from her shoulders, coating her back and dripping onto the pavement as she came out. With Knightmare fully dislodged from his body, Logan fell over unconscious onto the pavement the bloody wings still planted in his back.
Knightmare crawled over to the orb, barely having enough energy to reach out with a shaky hand and come within inches of the orb. She stretched, pushing her arm with all the strength she could muster until her fingertip just barely touched the orb.
Then, she was inside of it, wrapping herself about the rose and ripping it to shreds to find her essence to keep her alive. But with a scream of pain and betrayal, she found no essence. This rose was one Jean had clipped from the garden, trapping it in a transparent adamantium orb that one of the students had crafted with their special abilities.
Now that Knightmare was trapped within the orb and unable to get back out unless someone touched it, Jean, Ororo, and Scott came out from around the corner. Scott bent down next to Logan and checked over him, reaching out a timid hand to run along the bone of the wings.
Ororo and Jean walked toward the orb, bending down to see the girl smashed inside of it. She was bent to fill it, her face peeking out from beneath the tattered velvet of a petal. Her pallor was a deathly white, illuminating the crimson of the rose as she hid behind it, awaiting her death.
"You...you...tricked me..." Knightmare coughed, her hair matted and slimy against her face. Her eyes were graying; misting over with a fog that consumed her mind and took control almost as she had done to Logan.
"I'm sorry..." Jean said, compassion lightly tinting on her voice as she and Ororo watched the girl's face tense as the last beat of her heart ceased and the last exhale of her life happened. Jean closed her eyes and dropped her head, ashamed of herself for killing a little girl that could have had so much more to live for.
"It is not your fault." Ororo said quietly, placing her hand on Jean's shoulder compassionately. "You had no other choice..." Jean reopened her eyes and looked up to Ororo, a stray tear slipping down her cheek as she rose to her feet. "But she did..."
~*~
*one week later...*
The rain drizzled softly from the gray sky, pattering like footfalls on her shoulders and head and darkening her bright red hair. The quiet storm brought a cool draft into the cemetery, bringing with it almost a chill as if to soothe her nerves.
She stooped near the side of a glistening headstone and brushed away a chunk of sodden grass set astray on the grave with her gloved hand. With her other hand, she lay a beautiful red rose against the foot of the plaque.
Almost thoughtlessly, she removed the leather glove from her dainty hand, reaching out to feel the cold slab dripping with water beneath her hands. She traced her fingers in the blackened grooves of the tombstone, etching her fingertip along the curves of the picture and the words that read:
HERE LIES
ยท
VENUS "KNIGHTMARE" CROWE
Above the words was a pair of angel wings with a halo floating above them. "Are we gonna stand here all day?" A gruff voice spoke up from behind her, cutting through the tranquility like thunder.
With a sigh and a smile, Jean Grey stood and turned back to see Logan standing awkwardly, staring at her with a questioning gaze. Crutches were pushed up under his arms, supporting him as he waited for Jean to finish.
Jean stood silently next to him in anticipation until he began to lead the way out of the cemetery and back to the Jeep parked along the entrance. They walked in silence, only the patter of rain and the whisper of their shoes forbade the reticence.
With a sideways glance to Jean's troubled face, Logan ruffled his eyebrows, trying to push it out of him. "I'm sorry..." He said, chancing another look up to Jean who turned back to him with a questioning gaze.
"About what?" She asked, slowing her pace a bit so she was even with Logan. She stared at him until he brought his head up again, "For everythin' I did to ya." He said, hurrying his own pace as much as he could.
"Oh Logan..." She was about to contradict but suddenly fell silent, not thinking about anything to say. She sighed quietly and shook her head at herself; she opened the Jeep door for Logan and helped him maneuver inside.
There wasn't much anything to say on the way back home, so they drove in silence. Only the slap of the windshield wipers talked and only the thumps of the raindrops splattering against the window sang their lonely, sad song.
The End
By The By: For those of you kind and wonderful people that have read this story and been ever-so-kind to give me feedback and such, i figured i would return my gratitude with a little challenge for you if you would like,
I'm challenging any of you to write a branch off of this story of - What was Mystique going to do with all that money????? Anyways, thanks again and i hope you keep enjoying my work,
ANANOVA CROWE - THE ONE WHO LOVES YOU!!!! :* *smack!* I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!