Bullets tore through Lucas as he ran wildly across the battlefield, but bullets no longer bothered him. He stay in the past had cured him of that. Arrows were another case however. Arrows hurt, and worse over, they tore flesh when they went in as well as when you pulled them out. Flesh that needed to be put back in place to heal properly.

Lucas jumped, dodging dead men, horses, and donkeys. One of the bullets that passed through him proceeded in to the lung of a nearby horse. The horse reared and whinnied in pain, throwing gold coins out of her saddlebags to form a hail of treasure across the landscape before falling backwards in to a death shudder.

The guns were firing in a continuous thunder that surrounded him. He leapt forward and threw himself over the two Mexican men in front of him. A bullet smashed in to his skull just above his left eye and rang his head like a bell. "Stay down." He whispered to them.

Lucas pushed through the ringing in his head and put up a telekinetic shield around them. Many bullets were bouncing back the way they came, and many more were taking new directions as they ricocheted off. The occasional bullet actually stuck to the shield and began floating lazily about the surface above them.

"Come on." He said, lifting the first of the men to see the shield for the first time. His eyes widened with fear and confusion. A bullet bounced off the shield right before his eyes and he crossed himself as he watched it go.

The shield stretched as they stood up. They ran the thirty or so feet to the mouth of a cave, dragging the second Mexican man between them. He was barely breathing.

"Damn it!" Someone roared from the cliffs above. "What the hell was that?" He sounded pissed.

Lucas looked out of the cave. Several mules had been shot dead just outside. Probably to keep them from running off with the treasure they carried once the shooting had started.

"What the hell were you moving out there?" Lucas asked the man behind him, touching the mans mind so that it seemed that he was speaking Spanish.

"Our gold." The man replied. "We are bandits. Leaving Mexico." He replied through their translation. Lucas could see in his mind that they had looted an entire town while the townsfolk were off fighting a fire. He saw twenty-one pack animals, laden with gold, beginning the trip.

And he knew there were only six left standing outside.

"Damn." He thought silently. "Gold does make white men crazy."

He reached out with his mind and felt the treasure, scattered around the canyon outside. And he began to retrieve it. His eyes hurt from concentration and he felt his nose begin to bleed. Defensive T.K. was one thing but offensive T.K. was quite another.

He began with the largest pieces of gold. A six-foot tall statue of the Virgin Mary and a life size baby Jesus, both solid gold, looted from a church. Whole saddle bags full of coins, jewels, and jewelry. Until he fell to one knee and had to stop. He could feel the others moving down the trail toward the canyon floor. Soon they would be cornered. And he would have to wait them out. It was best to save his strength for when he needed it.

"Don't come any closer!" Lucas yelled out the entrance. "I'll shoot anyone foolish enough to test me!" He told them. "Take your gold and go!"

He could feel the mind of the gang's leader as it sneered at him. The leader was talking low to his men.

Finally, someone spoke. "Who all's in there?" A voice called in.

"No one you want to know pal." Lucas drew his gun and cocked the trigger. The sound echoed and he heard the approaching footsteps stop.

Just then a clear bottle full of liquid with a flaming rag jammed in the top flew in, arcing towards Lucas' feet. He reached out with his mind and caught it easily, drawing out the rag and mentally tossing it back out the mouth of the cave.

"Thanks." Lucas called out. "We were powerful thirsty." He smiled at himself, taking a drink from the bottle. He was surprised to find it was vodka. He passed it to his Mexican friend, who held it to the lips of the other man. "Now take your worthless gold and go." He told them.

"Sounds like an Indian to me." The leader hissed to his men. "Did anyone get a look at him?" He asked and surveyed a set of shaking heads. "Alright. Gather all this stuff up. You two, set up here, and here, and shoot anything that moves near that cave."

The men began to scramble.

Lucas looked back at the men in the cave. As he did, the man on the floor shuddered and went slack in his friend's lap.

Lucas jumped at him and knocked the kneeling man back as he was beginning to cry. The body fell to the ground between them. Lucas brought his hands up over the corpse. At first, there seemed to be a twinkling effect, between his fingers, then it became brighter between his hands, and in an instant filled the small cave with rippling lights and a ripping, roaring sound like that of water as he held a great kinetic charge within his grasp.

He had barely touched the dead mans chest with his fingertips when the current grabbed the man and drew him in to Lucas' touch then dropped him again. Lucas set a fierce look in his eye as his hands crackled to life again, this time carrying – encoded in the energy, the command to live.

And the body jumped again, this time, his eyes opening and a deep gasp as he drew his breath again and saw Lucas for the first time.

"Luke!' He smiled, confused "What are you doing here?"

"Saving your ass of course." He told his friend. "Just like in the bar." He was bridging the language gap again, almost unconsciously.

His friend smiled again at the memory and went to sit up. But his gut seized and he doubled over.

"Okay." Lucas took a deep breath and felt himself reaching, mentally, in to the wound. It was a bullet. It tore intestines and a lung. Fragments were everywhere.

Lucas made him lay down and be still. He grabbed the vodka off the floor of the cave and spilled it over his right hand. He threw his gun to the other man, who was terrified and crouched in the corner. "Watch the door." He tried to speak softly, to be reassuring, but the man was more afraid than mere words could comfort. Still, to his credit, he did as he was told.

Lucas took his sterile hand and felt the telekinesis respond to his will. It formed a current around his finger, flowing from one end to the other in a coil and turning his hand in to a telekinetic-magnet.

He then let the T.K field pour in to the wound until it touched every fragment of metal within. And as he slipped his hand in to his friends stomach, the field inflated, opening the wound. His hand began to tingle and all the metal fragments slowly back-tracked their trails to his waiting hand.

After a few attempts, he could detect no more fragments.

And so he turned his attention to the internal bleeding. His telekinetic field, still active within the wound, began to wrap itself in to the damaged organs, but as it did, Lucas could feel his own organs, tearing their own set of corresponding wounds.

His gut twisted and he locked his joints in place to keep himself from falling. And he took a deep breath before he realized that his body was using itself as a template, having duplicated the wounds, in order to understand how to heal them telekinetically in the man before him.

And a moment later, he felt the mans organs and skin pinch uncomfortably closed as the telekinetic field absorbed in to his organs to act as a sealant until the rest of the healing could proceed on it's own.

Suddenly, a piercing headache ran through him from the base of his spine, up through the top of his head. He felt as though he was flying down a long tunnel and in to a bright, white light. He found himself in a garden.

"Hey Kid." A voice said from behind him. He turned slowly to see who it was. It was Wolverine.

"Hey." Lucas replied, unsure of which Wolverine he was looking at.

Wolvie smiled. "You know, you always surprise me." He put his hands in his pockets. "Like that time you got Cyke to take you to that strip club?" He chuckled. "Or when you took my old motorcycle and got Kitty to phase the two of you through that hospital wall? To get your mother?" He smiled and shook his head. "And now, this whole healing other people thing, I never saw it coming. I'm told singularities are like that."

"You know me?" Lucas asked, still unsure.

He looked uneasy. "I'd like to think I do." He said softly and at last.

And a great look was exchanged between them, one that meant more than words could contain or convey. A deep awareness permeated the space between them. There was no need for anything so trivial as words.

Sometimes it's like that, between fathers and sons.

And while they both felt the need and the desire to stay there in that moment together, far more pressing and important was the pull of life from beyond.

"Go on." Wolverine told him as he felt himself receding. "I can wait."

And Lucas sat bolt upright off the floor with a gasp. The two Mexican men on either side of the door jumped. Night had fallen and a campfire, very obviously, burned just outside the cave on the canyon floor.