Disclaimer: All of this is Stan Lee's and Bryan Singer's fault. They own this and this possible storyline, not me.

Disclaimer 2: If you have not seen X2, but want to and not be surprised, stop here. This takes place after the movie.

~~~~~~~X~~~~~~~

The flash came again. The screaming nightmare. Over and over, just repeating itself. It is different now then it was before. This time they hurt much more.

He gets flashes of the Weapon X Project. The tank, filled with its toxic green liquid, with the tube and wires filling his bones with the precious adamantium. Men- they were all men- monitored him, scratching their heads and clipboards with their pens. His X-gene healed his body as he became the perfect weapon, but they could not break his wild spirit. That was all he had. It kept him alive during the experiment, after the experiment, and presumably before. Then, it flashed to something new. Her standing next to him as the one who he thinks he loved sacrificed herself. He sees the door shut, the plane buckle backwards, water almost slamming into the plane, then she stopped it. She sent them away, him away. But a hand squeezed back as a heard the second scream of her name. Scott gave the first. Then, as the dream ended, he saw the bright blue water turn to green as the squeezing in his hand snapped back to the awful pain as the metal screamed around and through his bones.

Logan cursed as he woke. The younger students in their room down the hallway giggled. They needed a reason to smile and this was the best way to do it. And it was also the only way they could make a joke on Logan's behalf.

Stryker made him. But that is not quite right; he remade him, a rebirth like a phoenix, rising from the ashes from whatever his old life was, into this new jewel where he lived with his friends. Before the metal was painfully grafted onto his bone, it seemed he had to have endless darkness. Here at the academy, he had possibility for happiness. "Had" being the key word. But now, three months after the tragedy, it felt like he had nothing.

But, he still had the phantom feeling of that day in his hand. That had not left. It still made him tingle.

Shirt on, he left his room. He had gone two two-week trips on Scott's bike. Nothing happened, he just needed to breathe. Scott did not care. Ororo tended to him with Kurt, who were apparently becoming very close. Kurt is now the new professor of religion studies and German. He also instructs with Storm how to survive in the Danger Room. Scott helps sometimes, when he can. No one has been forcing him; not the Professor nor Ororo.

Logan made his way down the hallway, towards the kitchen. This was his nightly routine. Blinky was in front of the TV, with a book next to him now. For the months he has been here, he never asked Blinky his proper name or his real name, the one Blinky deserves. Logan really does not care either way. Sanford & Son, I Love Lucy, CNN, MSNBC, FoxNews, FX, The Three Stooges, ER, The Critic, The Twilight Zone. It got him sick and it left him with the question of how did Blinky not throw that idiot box out the window.

"Hey kid, why don't you just throw that idiot box out the window?" Logan was leaning against the doorway, smirking.

"Because then I would have nothing else to do." Blinky stared at the screen. Turning slightly, he said, "I've already read all books here."

"Ah. I'll get you a soda." Logan made his way down to the kitchen. Bobby was sometimes there with a pint of Basken Robbins. He liked her, Marie, but things were different now. Rogue was looking everywhere else but at Bobby, worrying about the school, how Scott is, where John is, and putting an extra eye on Logan. He is a good kid. Smart, funny, he'd watch your back in a fight, a good icemaker. He'd be great at party.

"Don't bother," Blinky said. "I don't want to wait for it."

Turning the corner, Logan got a surprise and that was not easy. Marie was in Bobby's spot with Bobby's ice cream with Bobby's spoon

"Hey. Can't sleep?"

"Darlin', I'll give the easy and just say yes. You feeling alright?"

"Logan, I wanted to talk to you. I've been feeling ... odd."

"Odd? Sick odd or other odd?"

She smiled. He blushed, but his facial hair covered it. "Other odd. It's almost a good thing, but I'm not sure." She leaned in, with an anything-but-coy smile. "It was my birthday last week. I wanted to tell someone and the girls and Bobby and everyone else would make a big stink about it. I wanted to tell you because, you know, you're special. You were first mutant I met and the first and only I really trust."

Now, he could not hide his rosy cheeks. "Thanks, doll. So how are you? Eleven, twelve?" He made a funny. Give him credit; humor is not his domain.

Her eyes locked onto his. "Eighteen, Logan. I'm the oldest kid here. I'm staying though. I think I'm needed. I like that feeling, you know?"

"I know. I'm getting that feeling right now." He looked around the room, stretching. "Here at the school, it's becoming home. I like that."

"Logan." She licked the spoon clean, in a less than subtle manner. "That's not quite what I meant."

"Huh." Unfortunately, out of the two possible right answers, he gave the second and lesser one. But, after the spoon, it was the only he could give.

"Logan. I trust you. You are the one person I can always count on. Scott's a wreck, Jean's gone, Ororo is busy with either Nightcrawler or the school, and the Professor has too many secrets."

"Like I have none?"  He was getting nervous. A nervous wolverine is a scary thing to watch.

"That's different. You are not hiding them." The dark wave came on cue over her face. "Something bad is going to happen soon. It's too quiet." A turn and a look. "I don't want to be alone anymore."

"Marie, I'm not stupid. I know what you are trying to say, and I'm saying it can't be. You are always ending up in trouble and I am-"

"Save it, Logan." And she kissed him. A short one, enough to make him dizzy, but only half of it was from her draining powers.

He forced, with his entire will, away. "Kid, don't. Just don't. It's not you. I'm breaking it down, all by myself, the mental block that is in my head. I seem to have the tendency to," he paused, a dark, empty memory floating back and fading, "to kill the people I love."

"Logan, it does not matter. Dammit!" She turned to leave and promptly stopped. "We are all stuck here in this place. Scott with his guilt, Xavier with his mission, you with your stupidness."

"And you with your stubbornness, Marie. You are eighteen. I could be easily over one hundred. I have metal claws. You cannot touch another living being without draining the life-force out of them."

"You think I care? You think I have not thought about that? It is my waking thought and the last thing to go through my head before I go to sleep. I need you." Her gloved hands, protected arms sloped down around his neck.

"I know. That is why I have to go. I just have to get out."

She almost laughed. "No." She started to giggle. "No. I'm not letting you. I finally figured you out. You go after what you can't have and when you get it, you run away. If something goes wrong, you run. If something good happens, you run. Well stop it. Your home is here. And I am here."

"I have to go. I have to go back to the lake. I- Scott has suffered enough and needs closure. Someone has to check if anything or anyone is left at Alkali Lake. I need a new beginning at wherever I started."

"I'm not letting you go. I will touch if I have to, to stop you." Her glove was already off, ready for anything.

"I know. I want you to come." He took her with their open palms joining. "Come with me."

Both their hands quaked with light, as they held each other, watching dawn rise, kissing.

Scott found the note an hour later. It was then he woke up from his three-month retreat from reality. Things were going to become normal again.

~~~~~~~X~~~~~~~

They reached the lake the next morning. She held him the entire ride and decided that night, after a day of empty searching, that she would never let go.