*A/N: There is a plethora of cursing in this chapter... just warning you! Thanks for reading and I hope that you enjoy! (Also, my internet is shut down for a little while, so please don't think that I'm just going to leave you guys in suspense and never update again! I am using friends' computers and business computers to upload... Thanks to all!) If there are any spelling mistakes, I am very sorry. (I am somewhat of a perfectionist and don't like having mistakes) ;) Happy Reading!

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I've fucked it up. I can't believe this... I've ruined everything that ever made sense to me. I've fucked it up. It's all gone.

Still sitting on Jubilee's bed, John slipped his head into his hands and felt every emotion drain from his body. He felt useless, he felt ashamed, and he felt the only woman for him slipping out of his reach.

"Py, what's wrong? Who was that girl?" Jubilee asked, her eyebrows furrowed.

Still by the door, Rogue's eyes narrowed in thought as she pieced together the situation. Realizing an answer, she quickly placed a hand over her mouth in shock. But after a moment, a small smile crept to her lips. Surprising as the situation might be, it was rather sweet. Waiting for a moment to speak, Rogue leaned against the door and listened to Jubilee in her vain attempts to comfort Pyro.

"John, who was she?" Jubilee asked more forcefully. John wasn't giving her any answers; he just sat there with his head downcast and his hands covering his eyes. She could hear him fighting back tears.

"Is... is she your girlfriend?"

The question stumbled from Jubilee's lips as if it were cautious to have ever been created. For a moment she wished that she hadn't have said it, but when John slowly nodded, Jubilee gasped with fright.

"John! You didn't tell me; I'm so sorry! I would never have... if I'd known... Oh, John!"

She draped her arms about his shoulders and felt him shy away from her touch in the smallest way. Rogue found this her opportunity to speak:

"Pyro, as I see it, you need to get off your ass before she steps off these grounds. If you want her, you're going to have to fight for her. Sitting here, wallowing in your crime, doesn't solve anything. You need to run after her; that's what she needs."

Silence followed her speech. Angrily, Rogue stomped over toward Pyro and grabbed his fists and threw them from his face.

She spat, "You need to catch her, John! Go fucking get her, you moron! You're sitting here while you could be making it up to her!" Pausing for a moment, Rogue then whispered, "This will be the second time you kill her."

John's lips separated slowly as his mouth dropped in shock. His eyes became less fiery and more innocent as he stared at Rogue through watery eyes. He whispered, "How do you know?" Rogue simply smiled at him and patted his hand.

"I think the question you need to be asking is: "Will you forgive me?", and not to me."

Comprehending, Pyro jumped from the bed and flung open the door into the hallway. His heart beat, threatening to burst through his chest. All he could think about was Mystique- the one who knew him more than anyone. The one who had made him see what kind of a person he truly was...

Rounding the corner, he leapt onto the banister of the grand staircase and slid to the bottom. Reaching the end, he jumped and landed just in front of the solid oak doors. Quickly letting himself out of the mansion, he scanned the terrain frantically for any sign of Mystique.

Just as he thought that all hope had dispersed, he saw her walking toward the main gates, still in disguise.

As fast as his legs could carry him, he sprinted toward the shape shifter. He only hoped that she would see it his way and not what she had seen personally.

Finally, he reached her and he grabbed her arm and spun her around. Breathing hard, he slid his hands down to meet hers; he fell to his knees before her and looked up to her face. He noticed that she was averting her eyes.

"I don't care if you don't look at me. Just hear me out."

Taking rapid breaths to calm himself down, John continued to explain himself.

"I didn't mean to kiss her, I swear! I wasn't thinking and it just happened; I never meant to hurt you, I swear to God I didn't mean to hurt you..."

He bowed his head and tightened his grip on her hands. She wasn't resisting so far, but something told Pyro that Mystique wouldn't be easy to convince. Suddenly, he felt her entire body tense and he knew that he was in for it- in for the worst.

"You didn't mean to kiss her? You didn't mean to kiss her! What kind of bullshit is that, Pyro? Tell me, did she put you in a daze with her pretty fireworks and trick you onto her bed? Huh? Illuminate me, Pyro. Explain to me how you started to kiss her and you pretended that it was me, or how you were only doing it because she wanted you to, or something along those lines! Because I don't think that I could take you telling me that it was just an accident!"

John was now weeping in front of her, still on his knees and grasping her trembling hands in his. He shook his head in denial as she spoke; his eyes squeezed tight, hoping not to see what was before him. His mind told him that this scene wasn't real, that he would wake up in his bed and make the decision all over again. He would have seen Mystique first...

"I don't have an excuse, Mystique. I'm not going to try and tell you any of those things because I know that it would only hurt you further, and God I don't want to do that. I don't know what you've been through in the past, but I don't want it to repeat with me! Tell me what you want me to do and I'll do it... I'll do anything... anything for you..."

The shape shifter's eyes almost softened as she drunk in his heartfelt words. But he had betrayed her. He had gone crawling back to his little girlfriend after he had led her to believe that he loved her! But he had never said that he loved her. He had never told her that he ever felt that way about her...

"I thought you were different, Pyro. I imagined us as more than this, more than we've grown to be. But now I see that you're just like everyone else and that you lied to me. You said you wanted to see me happy, but look where it's brought us! Look what it's fucking done!"

She threw his hands away from her, her heart and pulse pounding with rage. She looked down upon him as he peered upward into her eyes. Grabbing his chin, Mystique's eyes turned cold. The body that she was now disguised in sneered at his very form. The frigid gray eyes stared down upon him in disgust.

"I hope that you have fun with your little girlfriend, Pyro," she hissed, "I really hope that she's worth it." Glaring at him a bit more, she continued:

"And Dark Phoenix? Yes, she's coming. Today? Tomorrow? Who knows? All I know, is that you'll have one less person defending you, Pyro. And why is that? Because you think with the wrong head. I knew you did, but I thought you'd changed. And look where we are. Goodbye, Pyro."

And with that, she jerked John's face so aggressively that he flew backward and onto the irritating grass. Before he could raise himself up, she was gone.

The next day was nothing. Pyro stayed in his room and spoke to no one. His hair was a mess, his clothes were wrinkled, and his heart was in fragments.

Bobby had tried to comfort him, but John merely stared at the wall. Rogue had come in and tried to talk to him, but he gazed out the window. But when Jubilee came, it was a whole different story.

He threw everything he could reach at her: his books, pillows, an alarm clock, and lamp. He growled at her until she finally fled from his room in tears.

Good riddance, he thought savagely. And then before he had time to sink back into his depression, his door was knocked from its hinges and another visitor entered his room.

Wolverine.

Afraid to some extent, Pyro watched as Logan placed the door upright again and smashed it until the hinge relocked. After this display was over, Wolverine neared him and grabbed him by the throat.

"Don't be afraid, John. We only have to fight a god tomorrow..."

"Logan, I..."

"Save it, Kid. Now, tell me about Mystique."

Wolverine set John down harshly on his bed and took a seat on a nearby stool. Leaning back and crossing his arms, Logan gave John no choice but to tell him everything.

Two hours later, John was in fiercer tears and Wolverine stared at him in thought.

"It sounds to me like you've got it bad, Kid," Logan said somewhat less gruffly as he usually sounded.

John nodded, tears gliding down his face from his now scarlet eyes. Logan felt his face lose its composure and he lifted himself from his stool and sat next to Pyro. He put an arm around the teenager's shoulders and tried his best to comfort him.

"It's hard being in love," he said softly. "But if you really want it, you've got to fight for it. And if she left, Pyro, she's gonna come back. It's not a guarantee, but if she told you that you hurt her, it means that she cares. You can't just sit here and waste away while the world laughs in your face, Pyro. She wouldn't want to see you like this."

Slowly, John let the advice sink into him and he realized that Logan was right. Even if Mystique was gone, she wouldn't want him to just sit here and wallow in his self-pity.

"You're right Logan. You're right; she wouldn't. Thanks."

And before Wolverine could get up, John embraced him in a friendly hug.

"Yeah, that's great, Kid," Logan grunted a little uncomfortably. John released him and grinned.

"What? Can't take a little 'thank you'?"

But as Logan was answering, the door flew from its hinges again to reveal Ororo Munroe with a most worried look on her face. Her dark eyebrows furrowed as she spoke:

"Dark Phoenix is here."