Interlude I: Logan and Warren

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She was sitting in the Japanese gardens, huddled in an oversized blue and white plaid and a pair of men's boxer shorts, presumably Wisdom's, as they had little shots printed all over them. She didn't look as though she wished to be disturbed, but he couldn't help himself. He moved forward, making sure to make enough noise that she'd realize he was there, yet not enough to disturb her evident meditation.

"Why are you lurking in the shadows?" her voice, weaker than usual, called out.

"I was about ta ask ya the same thing yerself."

"I'm not lurking. Well, not lurking per se. You obviously wanted to be noticed back there, and I can't help but realize how attached the Phoenix is to you."

"Oh?"

"Yes," Chase smiled gently, and patted the bench beside her. "Sit with me? She wants comfort, and for some reason, she identifies comfort with you."

"Jeannie always did like me fer a cryin' shoulder."

"I'm not going to cry. I just want to talk."

"All right. If ya promise not ta get all sloppy on my new shirt."

"That's a new shirt?" she grinned wryly. "It looks just like the ones you always wear."

"Well, ain't we observant?" Logan pursed his thick lips gently as he eased himself down beside the tiny girl. Not girl. Woman. His mind corrected him. And what a woman she had become. She was still at least an inch shorter than him, and weighed a good ninety pounds less than he. And still, the manner with which she held herself demanded notice. She exuded power.

"You heard about the little tiff Nathan and I had with Stryfe today, didn't you?"

"Yeah. Cyke told me about it." Logan expected the Phoenix to flare up behind her eyes as it usually did at the mention of its former lover. But there was nothing.

"You're rather close with him, aren't you?"

"Close? I wouldn't say so. We competed fer years fer Jeannie."

"Yes," a kind of very odd, simpering smile touched her lips.

"Reservoir," Logan began.

"Chase." She corrected. "Call me Chase. You're always calling me either Reservoir or Rift, and then sometimes Phoenix, which pleases Her, but pisses me off something horrid."

"Chase, then. I got…kind o' a personal question. Do ya mind?"

"Go ahead."

"Do ya…what're yer…how does Phoenix feel about Jeannie's relationship with Scott?"

"She feels…resigned."

"But she still loves him?"

"Of course."

"Don't that affect you?"

"I suppose in ways I share her feelings for the man. How could one know someone so dedicated, so strong and so tender, so passionate and so distant, without at least admiring him? I know his faults and weaknesses, but I see how well his strengths balance them out."

"So ya love him?"

She looked down. "I'm not sure whether I should answer that. It might ruin my relationship with his son."

"I thought ya both agreed ta shut down the link until he's had his surgery."

"It's shut down. Partially. I promised him when we bonded that I'd never completely withdraw from his mind. That I'd remain there, however spectral, constantly. I'll answer your question. I love Scott in ways I shouldn't yet know of. There are years of pining within the Phoenix. She loves him. And you."

"Me?" startled, Logan made a move to stand, but Chase laid a cool hand on his brawny forearm.

"Don't be frightened. That wasn't a proposition. And even if it was, I know your feelings along those lines now." She joked, pouting her full, naked lips out in a wry moue. "Being an honorary member of the Summers clan isn't all it's cracked up to be. Sure, the health plan is great, and I'm sure there are numerous revivifications, but there's so much uncertainty. You're involved, too, whether you like it or not."

"Yeah?"

"Domino hates me, you know?" Chase murmured suddenly, in an evident bid to change the subject. Logan allowed her to. "The way she sees it, I took Nathan away from her. She thinks that somewhere in my subconscious, I'm in love with him, and that, as a man, he will constantly search for a prettier, younger face. She's so wrong, I wish she could see it. Or better yet, I wish I were dead."

"Why do ya say that?"

"Because." She shrugged. "So long as I'm alive, there's a wedge between them. To tear myself away from Nathan would kill both of us, and possibly injure both Jean and Domino's astral consciousnesses. If I were to die, the link would fade out naturally, and there would be no harm, no foul. Or at least, I wouldn't have to deal with all this madness."

"Ya shouldn't by any rights be here, kiddo. I'm sorry ya got involved."

"It wasn't your fault. It was mine. And my stupid brother's, for dying in the first place. If he were still alive, I might be something nice and normal, like a receptive empath, entirely uninvolved with the Summers family, and not wanting some man I'll never have. God, if Nathan were hearing me now, he'd be so angry."

"You two have a bond. That's stronger than a link. Don't that mean ya share emotions?"

"Yes. I see what you're getting at. You think that I may merely be experiencing emotional backwash for his father. But unless Nathan has some VERY dodgy sexual tendencies that no one knows about, I'm getting these feelings from Phoenix."

"I didn't mean that, but there's a base covered, too. I meant that don't ya think he'd know about this already?"

"No, I don't think so. I share MYSELF with Nathan, but not the Phoenix. He doesn't know her very well. He doesn't trust her entirely. He trusts me. Interesting, isn't that? Some genetically mindblind flatscan he trusts, but the most powerful cosmic entity in the history of the universe he doesn't much care for."

"An' the point is?"

"How loyal he remains."

"Yeah. I guess."

Suddenly, Chase made an odd sort of choking noise, and turned away from Logan with a curse.

"What's wrong, darlin'?"

"You'd better go."

"Why?"

"I promised I wouldn't cry, and She just showed me something about you that's going to make me lose a little bit of control. So you'd better leave."

"What'd She show ya, darlin'?" Logan was suddenly concerned. Perhaps it was a gruesome battle scene, or a vision of the haunting, albeit brief love he'd shared on occasion with Jean.

"Nothing to worry about. It reflects very positively on you," she sniffled, and stood up. "If you're not going, I am."

"Hey, it's just a little promise. C'mon, darlin'. It's all right," he held out a hand, and she grasped it, almost convulsively. That scared him. For all the years he'd known her, albeit from a distance, he'd always observed her to be the very paragon of control. And yet now, that very same virtue was slipping like the ebbing tide from between her fingers. He drew her into a hug, and she clutched at his chest like a drowning thing, her silent tears slowly soaking through his shirt, spreading moist chill over his skin like a mist over a freshly-bedewed field. "Hey, darlin', let it out."

She looked up suddenly into his eyes, and put her fingers over his lips. "You're a wonderful man, Logan. Thank you." Then, disengaging herself rapidly from his gentle embrace, she disappeared into the deepening shadows.

"What the hell was that?"

XXX

A Few Moments Earlier…

Warren swooped down to the entrance of the Japanese Gardens. Gambit had said Chase might be found there. Nathan was undergoing emergency psionic surgery after the hotly-pitched battle on his mindscape, where Reservoir had been forced to utilize extremely brutal methods of self-defense. Stryfe had been expunged, but Cable was seriously injured.

No one except for perhaps Jean blamed the girl for taking such drastic measures to save Nathan, but no one appreciated the risks she had taken. As anxious as he was to close a certain U.K'-based business deal, Warren had to see her. He knew precisely where she'd be, at her favorite bench…

Warren landed gently on the balls of his feet so as not to make a sound. He hoped to spring out of the bushes and surprise her. Incidentally, he also made sure he was downwind of her, as she could recognize his aftershave lotion from a mile away.

As he came into eyeshot of the bench, he gasped in horror. Chase, HIS Chase, was wrapped securely in a protective embrace, and that embrace belonged to none other than…"Wolverine," Warren growled low in his throat. He watched the woman he loved sob into his customary enemy's chest, watched his hands run down her back, that beautiful back he worshipped with every pore in his being, watched her eyes meet his as her fingers touched his lips, saw the soulful looks exchanged, heard her whispered words to him.

Backpedaling, Warren reached the Mansion on foot, but once there, he pushed himself off the ground and took to the skies, spiraling higher and higher until he could no longer be seen by those on terra firma.

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