"Logan?"
Logan cursed leaving her door unlocked. "Don't people knock on your home planet?" she asked without turning around to look at him.
"I heard you crying and thought maybe you were distressed and might want company," Tristan said.
"Okay, I'm not crying or distressed, and even if I was, I wouldn't want any company."
"Oh, of course. I forgot. You hide behind this 'loner' persona you have built for yourself when you do not want people to see who you really are."
Logan spun around, the tear streaks clear on her face. "You're one to talk, Dark Angel. After all, aren't you the one who told me you just forget all the pains of your past in order to move on with the future, or whatever that crap was you were going on about when you first got here."
"I don't understand you, Logan," Tristan said. "You tell me it is wrong to hide my emotions, and yet you will not face your own."
"I face my emotions just fine! It's Ric who runs from everything that could ever mean anything to him."
"And by that you mean he runs from you?"
Logan threw her arms in frustration. "God, why do you have to do that?! You're the last person I want to discuss my past relationships with."
"And why would that be? What about me makes you wary to discuss Ric?"
Logan paused at that question. Was he smirking? "Because I'm interested in you, all right? From the moment you came here I've been attracted to you, but the whole thing confuses me because I just broke up with Ric and I haven't exactly killed every warm feeling I ever had for him."
"I am attracted to you as well, while at the same time I have not been able to put aside my feelings for Maritheza."
"So where does that leave us?"
"I do not know."
Logan and Tristan stared at each other for a moment until she finally looked away and said, "I think you should go."
Tristan nodded and stepped out of the room, shutting the door behind him.
*** *** ***
Tristan sat alone in his room wondering what exactly had possessed him to bring the X-Men into this. True, he'd heard in the legends that they were a great fighting force, but his arrival here had disproved that. They were barely more than children, and while they had exhibited above-average combat training for people their age, it didn't take away from the fact that they were too young and inexperienced to face someone like The Dark One. They could get hurt.
Logan could get hurt.
The thought of her being harmed or worse—dying the way Maritheza had—made Tristan shutter. As Tristan had admitted to Logan he was attracted to her, but it was the strength of the attraction that frightened him. It wasn't just her beauty or her strength as a warrior, but everything about her. She was amazing, and his quest was going to kill her the same way it had Maritheza.
Falling for a woman was the last thing Tristan had wanted to do when he'd come to Earth, yet here he was, all but in love with Logan. If she'd asked him to stay instead of leave… The Dark Angel hung his head in his hands. He couldn't do this. In a way, he knew Ric had been right when he said he'd only hurt Logan in the end. Tristan was certain that by staying he'd be leading her—and all her friends—straight towards death.
He couldn't allow that to happen. Tristan already watched the Dark One slaughter those he cared about once. It wouldn't happen again. He'd asked too much of the X-Men when he'd told them to help him fight this battle—it wasn't theirs to fight. Tristan walked out of the room and towards the front door of the mansion.
The Dark Angel would fight his battle alone.
*** *** ***
Briana watched as Craig sat in the living room, talking with Jono and Nathan. He was into the conversation, and she knew he wouldn't notice if she quietly slipped away. She went upstairs and picked up the phone dialing the number from memory.
"'Ello?"
"It's Briana."
"Briana? Where the bloody 'ell are you? You were supposed to get back last week."
"I'm sorry, Howard. There's a problem here. I'm staying longer."
"We 'ave a wedding to plan, luv."
"I'll get home as soon as I can."
"Bri, baby, are you up here?"
Briana froze as she heard Craig coming up the stairs. She'd thought he would be downstairs longer. "Howard, I have to go."
"Briana…wait, 'ow long are you…"
"Good bye, Howard. I'll call you back later. Love you."
"Briana…"
"Bye, Howard."
Briana hung up the telephone at the same time as Craig walked in the room. "Baby, what are you doing up here?" he asked. "Were you on the phone?"
"Uh, yeah. I called my mum."
"Oh. You just sort of snuck out. I didn't know you'd left."
"Sorry, darling. You seemed to be involved in your conversation—I didn't want to bother you."
Craig sat down and pulled Briana over into his lap. "You could never bother me, baby."
Briana blushed a little and then pulled away some. "Craig, you know when this is all over I have to go back to England."
Craig frowned. "I know, but it doesn't mean we have to never see each other. I mean, I know it's a lot of distance, but…"
"There's no point in trying to keep anything going when we're that far away," Briana said.
"I'm not saying we should have a serious relationship, I'm just saying I don't want you out of my life completely. I…I like you a lot, Briana. You're not like any woman I've ever met."
She stood up. "All men say that."
"I mean it. Look, I understand if you don't want a relationship with that much distance between us, but don't tell me I have to walk out of your life forever. You've already grown to mean too much to me for that."
"Look, Craig, you don't need to make an emotional attachment to me that's…"
"But it's too late for me to prevent that…"
"Listen to me!" Briana yelled, then calmed down. She kneeled so she was eye-level with him still sitting and took his hands in hers. "Please, Craig, you're twenty-five years old. You have a good job, a good life. You're handsome, and I'm sure women are lining up at your door at a chance at you. One of these days, you're going to want to settle down with one of those women and you aren't going to need me holding you back."
"Briana, what are you talking about? I'm not proposing marriage to you or anybody else. I just don't want to lose you completely, that's all."
Briana was suddenly near tears. "But don't you get it, Craig? You can't lose me. You never bloody had me!" She ran out of the room, leaving Craig alone with his confusion.
*** *** ***
After Tristan left, Logan sat in her room, staring out the window. It had begun to rain, and she let the steady rhythm of the drops hitting the panes calm her. She'd almost stopped Tristan when he'd left, told him to stay, to talk to her. With Ric being gone, she felt so alone. It had been bad enough just not having him with her, but now that he wasn't even at the mansion… Tristan could be her chance to love again, and she'd let him walk away.
She'd thought it was for the best a couple of hours ago when he'd first been there, but now she wasn't so sure. Why was she pushing him away? With the way he'd been acting when he'd first come to the mansion, Logan figured that him admitting to being attracted to her was a big deal for him. She'd been the one to ask where it made things stand between them, but ultimately he'd given her the choice. And she'd told him to leave.
Logan pulled her knees up to her chin, slowly rocking back and forth. Had she made the wrong decision? Should she have told Tristan to stay? And even if she had, would she be doing anymore than setting herself up for disappointment? She was sure that once all of this was over, Tristan wouldn't exactly be settling down on Earth.
"Nice track record you're building here, Adanya," she muttered to herself. "One guy that's untouchable and another that comes from a different flamin' galaxy."
Logan wondered if Ric was what stopped her from giving into her feelings for Tristan. She couldn't deny she cared about him, even if the way he'd been acting hurt her, made her angry. But was it pointless to carry any sort of torch for Renegade? He'd made it clear that it was over, even if his jealous behavior suggested otherwise.
Logan's internal monologue came to an abrupt stop when she spotted someone coming out of the mansion. She immediately recognized it as Tristan. "Where is he going in the middle of the night—in the rain?" she wondered aloud.
Logan turned pale as she realized the only thing Tristan could be doing. "No…" she whispered. "God, could he really be such an idiot?"
Without giving it a second thought, she ran from her room, down the stairs, and out of the mansion. She ignored the rain pouring down on her and the chill in the night air. "Tristan!"
Tristan stopped at the sound of Logan calling his name. He'd hoped to avoid anything like this, hoped to get to a place far enough away from the mansion where he could take off without anyone seeing the light from his wings. Slowly, he turned around.
Logan ran up to him, and even soaked with rain, he though she was beautiful. "Where the hell do you think you're going?" she snapped.
Tristan almost smiled at just how, well, her the question was. "I cannot stay here any longer. I was wrong to ask all of you to place yourselves in danger. This is my battle. I cannot place you in harm's way because of something I should be fighting on my own."
"Tristan, really, be reasonable. You and I both know you don't stand a chance against The Dark One by yourself. Besides, we're X-Men—danger is what we do. The X we wear might as well be a friggin' bull's-eye for all the times someone wearing one has been attacked. And everyone in this mansion knew the risks of this job when we took it, yet none of us shied away. Hell, my whole life has been one risk after another, and still I keep taking more. Don't commit suicide just because you're afraid what happened before will happen again. Besides, you said that The Dark One was coming to enslave all of Earth. If you leave now, odds are you'll lose and we'll all die anyway. We're safer if you stay and let us fight by your side."
Tristan looked down at Logan, realizing the sense of her words. Either way, the X-Men were in danger, but with his help maybe they could succeed where those before them had failed. "Logan, I…" He met her eyes and his breath caught. He reached down, cupping her face in his hands then kissing her with a fervor Logan had not known before in her young life. After a moment, he broke away, and before she could say anything he scooped her up and started carrying her inside.
Logan wrapped her arms around his neck and resolved to just see where the night took her.
*** *** ***
Briana hadn't cried in earnest since she was a little girl. Sure, she'd used tears here and there in order to get what she wanted, but it had been years since she'd just curled up by herself and cried. How had things gotten to this point? How had she let flirting get this far?
She remembered being told once that someday she'd meet a man with whom she wouldn't be satisfied with by merely teasing him. She'd laughed it off, never believing that she'd ever have anything but complete control over a situation.
Well, she'd been wrong, and that day had come. Briana Braddock wasn't the person who had control over this situation. Craig Marshall was. All he had to do was look at her, and she melted.
Logically, he wasn't what she wanted. He had money, sure, but he wasn't from the sort of family she told herself she'd marry into. He wasn't even British…
But emotionally, he was the kind of man she'd always craved. His calm, assured presence made her weak in the knees. She didn't want to have power over him the way she had in past relationships. She craved his confidence, his strength.
That was what eventually led her to go back upstairs and beg him to hold her, silently praying he could make her forget who she was, even if it was only for a little while.
*** *** ***
Ric didn't have a clue as to where to go. He didn't want to go home, since he knew his parents would just try to convince him to go back to the mansion, and the mansion was the last place he wanted to be. Every time he saw Addie with Tristan, he couldn't help but kick himself for being such a fool. He loved her, and he'd let her go.
No, he told himself. It wasn't really his fault. He'd done what he had to do. He'd had to leave because he loved her, not because he didn't. He was dangerous to her, not just because of his natural absorption powers, but because of his borrowed magnetic powers as well. He kept telling himself that, hoping maybe it could ease some of the pain.
It didn't.
He ended up in a bar on the wrong side of town, the kind of place that never carded. He was nursing his third beer when a woman approached him.
"Never seen you around before, hon."
"Never been here before."
"You look lonely."
Ric regarded her for a moment. She was obviously a couple of years older than him, her eyes giving it away more so than the lines on her face. "So do you."
The woman laughed. "Most people in bars like this do."
"Then why'd you say it to me?"
She smirked. "It was a line."
"You're trying to pick me up?"
"You sound surprised."
"I just didn't come here looking for love," Ric told her. He slammed back the rest of his drink and motioned for the bartender to bring him another one. "If anything, I'm hiding from it."
"I'm not lookin' for love myself. Just a little lovin'." She gave him a wink and Ric blushed. She frowned. "You seem too innocent for a place like this."
Ric snorted. "Trust me, I'm not exactly innocent." He suppressed a shudder, memories of his life since he'd joined the X-Men flooding to the surface.
The woman stuck out her hand. "Eileen," she said, introducing herself.
"Renegade," Ric replied, taking her hand and giving it a firm shake before pulling away.
"Renegade," Eileen purred, "With a name like that I guess you can't be so innocent, sugar."
"Don't call me sugar," Ric said.
"Why? Does it remind you of someone?"
"Yeah," Ric replied. "My mother."
Eileen laughed. "Then I'll be sure not to call ya that." She reached up and ran her finger across the arm of his sunglasses. "You blind?" she asked.
"No."
"Then why are you wearing your sunglasses in a room this dark?"
"Rare eye condition."
"I don't believe you."
"Suit yourself."
Eileen inched closer to him. "So what color are your eyes?"
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you."
"Try me."
Ric faced her, pushing his sunglasses down just far enough to show her his red, glowing eyes. "Happy now?"
Eileen's breath caught in her throat and her face grew flushed. "I don't know if I'm frightened or turned on."
"As long as you don't decide it makes you want to kill me, I'm fine," Ric said.
"Oh I definitely don't want to kill ya, handsome," she said. "Can think of some other things I want to do to you, though."
"Look, I'm sure you're a very nice woman and all…"
"I'm anything but nice."
"Yeah, well, um…" Ric was blushing and stammering, not quite sure what to say. He suddenly thought of how ashamed of him his father would be of what his performance around this woman was doing to the LeBeau family name.
"Let me make you forget her, at least for one night."
"Forget who?"
"The woman that drove you to drink," Eileen said with a smirk, gesturing to Ric's glass.
"Logan's not the kind of woman you just forget," Ric told Eileen. "Ever."
"Then why aren't you with her now?"
"It's a long story. But it basically boils down to fate hating me, and some asshole getting the girl."
"She's with someone else?"
"Yep."
"Tonight?"
"Most likely."
"Then why should you be alone?"
"Self-penance?"
Eileen wrapped her body around his arm. "Pleasure is much better way to fill the void than penance, Renegade."
Ric stiffened at first at Eileen's touch. He'd had the magnetic shield that allowed for skin-to-skin contact for such a short time, and he still wasn't use to this level of closeness. He looked over the woman who was touching him now. The only other woman he'd ever had near him like this before was Logan, and Eileen with her chin-length blonde hair, brown eyes, and tall stature was definitely nothing like Logan.
Still she could touch him, was touching him. He got a mental image of Logan in Tristan's arms, allowing the Dark Angel to love her in a way that Ric never could. Why should he deny himself all touch when it was suddenly available to him, just because he couldn't be with the woman he wanted the most? Logan certainly hadn't let their break up hold her back from anything.
Renegade swallowed the rest of his drink and stood up. "Come on, Eileen, let's get out of here."
Eileen was more than happy to oblige.
*** *** ***
I know I've said this a million times, but sorry for the huge time gap between chapters. I actually had most of this one typed for a while and forgot about it…
