A/N: Ladies and gentlemen, we are officially near the end of this fic. Including this chapter, there are only 3 chapters left. Don't worry though. There's still plenty of story left to come. The next chapter will probably be really long. I doubt it's as long as the last one, but long nonetheless. Anyway, this chapter is one of those chapters that I've been looking forward to since the very beginning of the fic. Enjoy!

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Scott awoke to a stiff neck and a sharp pain in the back of his head. He slowly sat up with a groan and put a hand to his face to feel for his visor before opening his eyes. He looked around slowly and didn't recognize his surroundings. He was outside in some sort of forest. The birds were chirping loudly, which didn't help his throbbing head. It looked like morning and the grass around him was indeed wet with dew. He had absolutely no idea where he was.

"Yer up," said the gruff voice of Logan from behind him.

Scott turned around and saw the man, still in his Wolverine uniform, sitting on a rock about ten feet away.

"Where are we?"

"Don't know, but I'd rather be someplace else."

Scott stood up slowly and walked over to Wolverine.

"What happened? The last thing I remember, we were inside the Capitol fighting Magneto."

"We? I don't remember fightin' Buckethead."

Scott thought back for a second. He could see Magneto floating over the podium. A metal beam circled around as it hurtled towards him. He blasted it into the wall and looked for Jean to make sure she was okay. As he scanned the room, he saw Wolverine running in his direction, leaping over chunks of metal with his claws out.

"Yeah, you were there."

Wolverine frowned. "I never saw Magneto and definitely didn't fight him. Mystique got me. She looked like Jean, but it must've been Mystique. Ya must've seen her impersonatin' me."

It took a moment for Scott to digest this information. His head was still ringing and he was having trouble focusing on Logan's words.

"Why would Mystique attack you and me and then leave us here in the woods with each other?"

"She didn't leave us with each other. I woke up a few hours ago 'bout 5 miles east. I followed yer smell 'til I got here."

"Okay, so why would Mystique attack us and leave us in the woods then?"

Logan shook his head as he stared forward. "I don't know. You an' me are the only ones here. I'd know if there was someone else by the smell."

They sat in silence for a few minutes as the two men tried to sort the information out. Finally, Scott spoke up.

"How long have we been here?"

"Hard to say. After she knocked us out she must've drugged us. She had to have drugged me 'cause I didn't wake up 'til after dark. I should've woken up naturally just thirty minutes or so after gettin' knocked out."

"Well it was early afternoon when we went in the Capitol so that means I was out at least 15 or 16 hours."

"Yeah. Sun looks like it's about 7:30 now, so that's 'bout right."

They began to fall back into another silence, but Logan avoided it by handing Scott a twig with some berries on it.

"Here. Ya hungry?"

Scott eyed him suspiciously. "Are those safe?"

"Sure they are."

"You sure? I thought most berries were poisonous."

"I ate 'em an' I'm fine."

Scott gave him an annoyed look. "Says the guy with the advanced immune system."

Logan smiled. "You'll be fine. Just eat 'em."

Scott shrugged as he picked up the berries and popped a few in his mouth. They tasted okay.

"So how do we get home?" asked Scott between bites.

"We walk 'til we find a road. Then we find out where we are and get directions."

"Sounds like a plan. You ready to go?"

"If you are."

"Then let's do it."

The two mutant men stood up and began walking through the woods, pushing brush out of their way as they went. It was a little disheartening that there were no obvious trails to follow. Just how far away from civilization were they? And more importantly, just how were they supposed to survive each other's company? These were, after all, two guys who definitely did not get along!

Nearby, a small fox with yellow eyes began moving behind them.

*****

When it was nearly dark again, they found a good place to stop and cleared an area for a fire. Scott gathered wood and stacked it up while Logan tracked down a deer that he smelled just before they stopped. Scott sat and waited for him to get back once he had gathered plenty of firewood and built a large stack. Just how he was supposed to light it, he hadn't quite figured out.

He reflected on the past few months while he waited on Logan to return. It had been 5 months since the drama with Jean had started up. 5 months since he had been friends with Logan. 5 months since the two had even held a civil conversation. In fact, it had been 5 months since he could remember having a conversation with Logan at all! He hated Logan for the strain he had put on his relationship with Jean…twice, but he could sense that Logan hated him more. In Danger Room sessions, he seemed to pick on Scott. He gave him impossible assignments. He had even challenged Scott's authority in front of the group countless times! Scott felt it was time for Logan to grow up and accept the facts. Jean was in love with him and nothing would ever change that.

A rustling in the brush pulled Scott out of his thoughts. He looked back and saw Logan walking towards him with a dead deer draped over his shoulders. He set the animal on the ground next to the firewood and picked up a rock the size of Scott's fist.

"Hungry?"

"Yeah, but how do you plan on cooking that thing?"

Logan pointed to the wood. "Fire," he said sarcastically. Surely the kid was smarter than that!

Scott rolled his eyes. "And how do we start the fire?"

Logan tossed the rock into the air and caught it quickly. "Just watch." He knelt down next to the stack of wood and slipped the rock inside the stack along with some leaves. Then he put his fist down right next to the wood and extended his claws. The claws hit the rock, which caused a spark that lit the leaves, and eventually the wood, on fire.

"Oh," said Scott, his cheeks turning red with embarrassment.

They used some of the extra wood to build a makeshift rotisserie over the fire to cook the deer on. A few hours later, they enjoyed an impressively tasty venison meal.

Once they had eaten their fill, Scott lay down and went to sleep. Logan tried to do the same, but found it nearly impossible to sleep. There was too much going through his mind. Why had Mystique left them free in this forest? Why had she only taken the two of them? Why did he have to get stuck alone with Pinkeye in the woods?

The past five months had destroyed any semblance of a friendship that they had ever had. It had started as a feud for the affection of Jean, but over time it transformed. Now, Jean was only one of the many reasons Logan couldn't stand being around Scott. The main reason though was that Scott had emerged as the leader of the X-Men recently. When he was in high school, it made sense for Scott to be considered the leader. He was the oldest student and Logan expected the kids to look to him for leadership. But they had always seen Logan as the overall leader. He had always outranked Scott. Now Scott was a teacher, same as Logan. They had the same authority in the mansion, but Logan was the one in charge of battle tactics. He was the one who ran the Danger Room and he had more experience in battle. Logan was supposed to be the leader when they were caught in a fight. But in the last few fights, he had seen everyone turn to Scott for leadership, not Logan. In Cuba, it had been Scott who developed the plan. In Chicago, no one started moving toward battle until Scott gave the okay. And in Washington, just two days earlier, it had been Scott who gave everyone the orders to split up. It was growing painfully clearer to Logan that the X-Men all looked to Scott as the leader instead of him.

Logan closed his eyes and tried to wipe his mind clear before going to sleep.

*****

When Scott woke up the next morning, Logan had already woken up and gone into the woods to look for some water. Scott began playing with the fire, which Logan had kept alive during the night. Eventually, he stood up, stretched his arms out with a yawn, and trod off into the woods to relieve himself.

When he returned to the camp, he found Logan dropping what was left of the deer meat into the fire!

"What are you doing?!" asked Scott as he ran towards Logan in shock.

"Getting rid of this junk. It tasted awful last night."

"Are you crazy? That's all the food we have!"

"So find more."

"Find more? Why don't you do it if you're so convinced that last night's meal wasn't satisfactory!"

"I hunted last night. It's your turn."

"Oh right, and I guess I'll just kill it with my eyes, if the blast doesn't blow it up!"

"Whatever works for you, bub."

Scott just stared in anger and amazement as Logan dropped the last bit of meat into the fire. He sighed angrily and stomped off into the woods again.

Wolverine watched him go with a smile, then turned back and retreated to the woods in the opposite direction. Once it was safe, Mystique morphed back to her fox form.

*****

Scott didn't mention the incident to Wolverine for the rest of the day as they marched on in their mission to find a way home. When it started to get dark again, they stopped and Logan asked Scott to hand him the left over meat.

Scott stared at him in amazement. "What'd you say?"

"Give me what's left of the deer. We're gonna have it for dinner again."

Scott was now absolutely livid. "What are you talking about?! You burned all the meat this morning, remember?"

Wolverine stared at him for a moment and tried to comprehend what he had just heard. "Huh?"

"You threw all the meat in the fire this morning saying it wasn't any good."

"Why would I do that?"

"Because you're insane," shouted Scott.

A low growl sounded from Wolverine's throat. It was bad enough that the kid had lost their food. But to go so far as to make such a stupid excuse about it was infuriating.

"Fine, we do this like yesterday. Build a fire and I'll find us somethin' ta eat."

"Fine," mumbled Scott.

Logan was back 30 minutes later with about 3 quail, which was not near enough to fill both of their stomachs. When it was gone, Scott looked up at Logan and frowned.

"Is that all you could find?"

The accusation made Logan's blood boil. "Sorry kid, but we covered a lot of ground today. There ain't as much food here as there was back there. So maybe if ya hadn't lost the food we already had, we'd be okay now."

"If I hadn't lost it?! You're the one who burned it all up!"

It took all of Logan's self-control to keep from pouncing on the kid right then and ripping his head off. But it wouldn't look good if he returned to the mansion alone.

"Listen up, Summers. It ain't a secret that we don't like each other, but don't ya think I would remember it if I burned the food? If yer gonna lie, at least come up with a good one."

Scott jumped to his feet in a rage. "And don't you think I would remember what I saw with my own eyes?! How can you sit there and accuse me of lying, or don't you have a conscience? Maybe you're actually more like a wolverine than I thought, a careless animal!"

Wolverine jumped up as well and looked down at Scott. "That's it, visor boy! This ends tonight! If you think you're so much better than me, then prove it!" His arms flew down in front of him and seemed to shoot the claws out of his knuckles.

Scott put his hand to his visor and stood his ground against the intimidating Logan. "Fine! If that's how you want it, then that's how we'll have it!"

Logan watched Scott. One of them would have to make the first move and then it would be on and there would be no going back. His heightened senses kicked into high gear to warn him of Scott's eventual attack. He could smell Scott's rage in each breath. He could feel Scott's very movements on his skin. He could hear both of their hearts beating, offset so that one would always beat between the beats of the other. It was as if even their bodily functions refused to fall in line with one another. His hearing also detected Scott's breath inhaling and exhaling, taking deep breaths to get plenty of Oxygen in his blood.

It had gotten dark and the night happened to have a new moon, so the only light was that of the campfire shining an orange glow on the two men. The wind refused to blow and no animal stirred. Everything was silent save for the two men's breathing and their footsteps as they both planted their feet in the ground to prepare for the coming battle.

Suddenly, a faint noise in the bushes distracted Logan. He turned his head to see what it was. As soon as he moved, Scott fired a blast directly into his chest that sent him flying across the clearing. Logan crashed into a tree, but quickly returned to his feet. His eyes now stayed on Scott, but his ears were trained on the sound he'd heard earlier. It was gone, but he knew what it had been. He'd heard it before. It was the sound of laughter, of a knowing laugh that told Logan one thing. All of this was a setup.

Scott charged Logan with a yell and fired another blast at him. Logan saw this one coming and rolled across the ground to avoid it. He stayed crouched low to the ground, ready to leap away at a moment's notice and ready to pounce in an attack if need be. But he continued to listen for the noise again the whole time. There was more going on here than either he or Scott were aware of, though he had a hunch as to what it was.

Scott watched Logan crouch next to the ground. He had never seen him fight like this. Normally, Logan's style was to get close to the enemy and tear them apart. Scott could remember watching him fight the soldiers in Cuba. He had taken them down one by one and never given any of them a chance to fight back. So why wasn't he doing the same here?

"Fight me!" yelled Scott. "Don't hold back! You challenged me! This is what you wanted, so don't back out now!"

Why couldn't the kid shut up?! Logan was trying to listen for a noise, any noise, that would tell him where to look. He had a hunch but he needed confirmation. But Scott's words distracted him. He looked up at the kid's angry face. If that's how he wanted it, then that's how he'd get it!

Logan lunged at Scott with his claws forward just as he had done to so many other opponents. Scott grabbed Logan's forearms, careful to avoid the claws, and rolled onto his back as he kicked Logan over his head and across the ground. Logan may have fought hundreds of different opponents before, but none had ever seen him fight as often as Scott had. This would be an interesting battle. It was a shame he couldn't enjoy it.

Scott fired another quick beam at him and Logan narrowly avoided taking another hit to the chest. The kid had deadly aim. As the beam crashed through the brush behind him, Wolverine heard the soft grunt of someone avoiding the attack. He turned his head and faintly saw a pair of yellow eyes in the darkness.

Mystique! He had his confirmation. Whatever had happened to the meat, it had been Mystique. She had followed them the whole time and set up everything, even this fight! Now the only problem Logan had was convincing Scott to stop fighting without letting Mystique know that he knew about her.

Another beam flew at Wolverine and he jumped into the air to avoid it. Unfortunately, Cyke had apparently chosen to send a barrage of beams at him. It took all of Logan's acrobatic skills to avoid the onslaught, but he landed safely on the ground and rolled to the left before being forced to leap into the air again. This time, he grabbed a low-hanging branch and swung himself higher into the air before falling back to the ground behind Scott and taking the younger mutant down with a fast sweeping kick that knocked Scott's legs out from under him. Cyclops fell on his back and found himself looking straight up at Logan, who was just opening his mouth to say something. Scott fired another beam straight up at his face, though, before Logan had time to pronounce one syllable. Whatever he had to say, Scott didn't care. This wouldn't end until one of them was either dead or injured.

The blast hit Logan in the jaw and knocked him about fifteen feet into the air. Scott stood up and watched Logan's body rise into the night sky. When he came back down, he landed on Scott's back and wrestled him quickly to the ground.

"Listen, bub," whispered Logan into Scott's ear. "We got a problem."

"No!" shouted Scott as he broke Logan's hold on him and escaped to his feet. "Whatever reservations you have about this, you might as well forget 'em because you started this and now you're gonna finish it!"

Scott charged at him as fast as he could with a yell. Logan stood up and braced for the impact. Finally, Scott reached him and landed his right fist against Logan's chin. Scott looped his leg around one of Logan's legs, throwing the Canadian mutant's balance off, while Simultaneously grabbing Logan's right arm to ensure he didn't fall. With his free hand, Scott threw punch after punch at Logan's face and deflected the answering punches with his elbow. Finally, Scott deflected one last punch with his free hand as he raised the hand to his visor and attacked Logan with a vicious blast at nearly point-blank proximity. The force of the beam threw Logan over the campfire before he skidded to a stop yards away.

Logan slowly stood up and turned back around to face Scott as he extended his claws again. He had retracted them so as to not seriously hurt Scott when they were so close. He began walking back towards the 19-year-old boy with an angry frown.

"Do you know how easily I could kill you?" he asked threateningly. "Have you considered that no matter what you do, you can never kill me?"

Scott listened to the words and his confidence began to melt. Logan was right. No matter what kind of attack Scott used, Logan would always heal. Scott, on the other hand, would not heal if Wolverine started slicing at him.

Logan was still coming towards him slowly. "Have you considered that maybe I've been holding back because I don't want to kill you? And don't get arrogant about that. It isn't that I wouldn't love to rip yer head off and throw it in that fire right now. I just don't wanna do that ta Jean. It'd hurt her too much and I could never live with myself for doin' that ta her."

They were now standing face to face just inches apart from each other. Scott was finally seeing how futile this fight was for him, but he refused to show any feelings of worry to Logan at this point. He stood like a statue and attempted to stare Logan down.

Logan reached up quickly, grabbed Scott's head, and pointed it to the ground while holding Scott's wrists together with his free hand. He knelt down so that their heads nearly touched.

"Mystique set this up," he whispered as soft as he could. "She's in the woods right now. Don't let her know we know. I'm gonna let go. When I say 'come get me,' you fire a blast straight at me. Understand?"

"Ungh, got it," said Scott in a half groan, half whisper. Logan had quite a grip on his neck and wrists.

Finally, Logan let him go and they backed away from each other until they were about fifteen feet apart. Logan backed up nearly to the edge of the clearing and began moving along the brush. He listened and watched intently for any sign of Mystique.

"This ends tonight, Logan!" yelled Scott, playing along with the now fake fight.

"Yer right, Summers. It does end tonight, and it ends with yer fall!" He saw a flash of yellow and quickly moved towards it.

"Just one question for ya though," said Scott. "Would you rather be buried or burned when I'm done with you?"

Logan smirked. "Ya better burn me or else I'll be right back ta finish the job of killin' you!" He was almost in position. He took a few more steps and stopped. His claws unsheathed themselves as he glared at Scott. "All right, bub. You make the first move. Come an' get me!"

With that, Scott instantly sent an immensely powerful blast hurtling straight towards Logan. Logan waited, then jumped out of the way at the last second. He landed a few feet away on his feet and heard a quick cry of pain. He jumped up and ran towards the sound, as did Scott. Logan cleared the brush away with his claws and soon found a yellow-eyed fox lying on the ground. He raised his claws up and was just about to bring them down when the fox changed to a raven and flew straight up, narrowly escaping the blades. Scott fired a blast into the air and hit Mystique, knocking her back to the ground.

"It's over, Mystique!" yelled Wolverine as the two men charged towards the large bird lying on the ground.

Mystique let out a loud growl as she transformed into a huge lion. Scott fired another blast at her, but it flew just over her shoulder. Wolverine dove at her and sunk his right claws into the side of the lion. Mystique cried out in pain as she collapsed to the ground and slowly returned to her normal blue form. Logan grabbed her body and lifted her into the air so they were face to face.

"What's this about, Mystique? Why'd you bring us here?"

Mystique just groaned as her hand felt the side of her torso, where she was losing a lot of blood.

"Logan, we'll get answers later. She needs medical help right now," said Scott.

Logan raised one hand to silence his fellow X-Man. "We'll get answers now. She can find a doctor on her own time." Logan's eyes narrowed as he turned back to Mystique. "Now I'll ask one more time. Why did you bring us here?"

"Why should I tell you?" asked Mystique, her voice slightly strained from pain and intimidation.

"Because if you don't," growled Wolverine, "you bleed to death in this clearing. Answer our questions and you get to find medical help."

There was a second's pause before Mystique spoke up. "Irene told us to keep the two of you out of the fight if we wanted to win."

"Why bring us here?"

"It's remote, miles from anywhere. No one would find you and we hoped you wouldn't find anyone else."

"Why set up the fight between us?"

Mystique grinned through her pain. She was clearly quite proud of this part. "Simple. I could've killed Cyclops, but not you. I set up the fight so that Cyclops would hurt you to the point that you were a little more helpless. Then I'd pop out, kill Cyclops, and then kill you."

Scott's blood ran cold as he listened to her nonchalantly talk of murdering him. He had never realized how much trouble they were actually in.

Logan was mad, to say the least. He stared deep into Mystique's eyes coldly. "I'm gonna let ya go now. Fly away and find someplace to fix that wound." He dropped her to the ground before she could reply.

Mystique looked up at Logan with a strange look on her face. "You're letting me live? Why?"

"We don't kill unless we have to. You oughtta know that by now. Not that I wouldn't love to watch you die, of course."

Mystique smiled and opened her mouth to mock the two men, but was cut off by Scott.

"Get out of here Mystique. Leave now before we change our mind. No one would ever have to know we let you bleed to death in the middle of the woods. And at this point, we'd both love to let you die."

Mystique looked at Scott's face for a moment, then apparently decided he was serious. She turned into a raven and flew into the sky, small drops of blood dripping from her side every now and then.

Scott turned to look at Logan once she was out of sight. "So how do we get home?"

Logan was watching the sky, his enhanced sight allowing him to watch Mystique fly away longer than Scott could. "Same way we'd already planned to."

*****

Three days later, Scott and Logan arrived at the secret entrance to the Mansion's underground bunkers. They went in and were immediately greeted by the rest of the X-Men, who had seen them coming on the surveillance monitors. Scott and Jean exchanged a long kiss while Logan explained to the Professor everything that had happened.

"Well then," said the Professor when he had heard the whole story, "it seems Mystique has been quite busy lately."

Scott and Logan looked down at the wheelchair bound man in interest.

"What do you mean, Professor?" asked Scott.

The group was immediately silent. Scott and Logan looked around at their friends with worry. What had happened? What had they missed?

"What's wrong? Could we not stop Magneto?" asked Scott.

"No, we stopped Magneto," explained Xavier. "The Capitol Building was destroyed in the process, but we saved the lives of all the congressmen and everyone else in the building. But it seems while the battle inside the Capitol took place, Mystique was busy killing the President and the entire Secret Service."

Scott and Logan's jaws instantly dropped in pure shock. Surely they had misheard that. The President had been assassinated? And by Mystique?! That couldn't be right! They were both gripped with rage. They should have finished her off when they had the chance!

"So where does that leave our case?" asked Scott as the pieces began to fit together.

"We're not sure yet," answered the Professor. "As you know, Hank was already back in Oakland before we went to Washington. He tells me that we're still going to court, but our case looks much worse now. Mutants are not exactly a sympathetic group when there are radicals assassinating government leaders and destroying national landmarks."

"But there's gotta be somethin' we can do though, right Chuck?"

"I hope so, Logan. But at this point, I just don't know. Our lawyers have two months to prepare our case and then it will go to court. In the meantime, all we can do is wait and pray."