"We are here to honour the memory of two recently departed friends, Henry McCoy and Pietro Maximoff. We all knew them in some aspect or other, whether it was as a colleague at work, a friend or a family member and we will all miss their absence. It was tragic that they were snatched away at such a young age, but we can rest easier, knowing that they have gone on to a better place, a place without pain or suffering. I would now like to ask some family and friends to say a few words to remember them by." Father Lewis stepped back from the podium as Lance walked up to speak on Pietro's behalf.
"I knew Pietro as a colleague at work and as a close friend. He had overcome tremendous obstacles to get where he was today and he sacrificed so much to help others. He was a great friend and he helped me many times when I was in trouble. My deepest regret is that when he needed me the most, I couldn't help him.
"Pietro, you're going to be sorely missed by all of us. We'll never forget you," Lance was silent for several seconds before returning to his seat where Tabitha gave him a quick hug.
Several other people went up to the podium to speak about both Hank and Pietro, but Kitty wasn't really paying that close attention to what they were saying. All she could think about was Pietro's last words to her: 'I'll always be here for you'. She'd always known that there was a chance that Pietro would die on one of these missions, but it had never really sunk in, until now. Now that he was gone forever.
After the service was over several people came over to talk to Kitty. Lance had already explained to her what had happened in Malaysia, and apologised for failing to rescue Pietro, but Kitty didn't blame Lance. She didn't blame anyone to tell the truth, she was too upset to think about whose fault it had been.
Remy LeBeau and his wife, Marie, had been sitting next to Kitty - they'd flown over as soon as Kitty had phoned them with the news. Marie gave Kitty a hug and then Remy took Kitty aside. "If you want to get away from it all, just give me a call. We were planning on going on taking a trip to the Caribbean and you're more than welcome to come."
"Thanks, but I've got too much stuff to do here, I think I'll have to pass on that one."
"Well if you change your mind, you know where to contact us." Remy gave Kitty a hug, and followed Marie out of the church.
Charles Xavier came up to Kitty, a mournful expression on his face. "Kitty, I know how hard this must be on you - losing a loved one is never easy. I just wanted you to know how much good Pietro did while working with Excalibur, like Lance said he helped millions of people working for us."
"I know, and I'm not blaming Excalibur for Pietro's death. I knew it was only a matter of time anyway," Kitty sighed, and Xavier clasped her hand.
"It hurts a lot now I know, I've been through the same thing. To be perfectly honest the pain never truly goes away. But that can be seen as a good thing, Pietro was such a wonderful person and you will never forget him. It'll seem hard, these next few weeks, but you've just got to keep going. Pietro wouldn't have wanted you to end up dying of a broken heart. You were one of the people he died to protect."
"I know, and thank you," Kitty smiled and Xavier moved off to talk to some of Hank's family. Kitty turned to her friend Amanda, who was waiting next to her with her boyfriend, Kurt Wagner. "Let's go," Kitty said, and Amanda nodded.
"We'll take you home," she said, taking Kitty by the hand and leading her out to their car. As Kitty and Amanda left, Remy approached Charles Xavier.
The apartment seemed so empty when Kitty returned home. She could vividly remember Pietro taking her out for their anniversary, and she sighed sadly. Moving into the kitchen, Kitty knew that she should probably be sorting through Pietro's effects, but she was really too depressed to start doing that yet.
She sat down and poured herself a cup of coffee. Sipping it, she looked at the engagement ring that she still hadn't taken off. It was a gold band with a beautiful emerald set in the middle of it. As she stared at it Kitty could feel tears gathering at the corners of her eyes. She pulled the ring off, set it on the kitchen table and reached for the phone. She needed to get away from here, and that Caribbean trip sounded like the perfect way to do it.
In the Excalibur headquarters Xavier looked over the case file one last time before filing it away. The US military had captured the survivors from Genoa who had made it to shore and they had been able to find out from them how Trask had destroyed Tokyo. He'd managed to develop an incredibly powerful laser, which had been mounted on an old US nuclear physics satellite. It had been the result of a lifetime of work for Trask and unfortunately it had worked all too well. At the moment a team was being assembled to retrieve the satellite and study its design, in order to put it to use to help keep the peace rather than murder thousands of innocents.
Northern Finland was a desolate and windswept place, the last place you would have expected to see a lone man pulling a sled, which had a large crate on it. The man was short and powerfully built - every time he pulled on the sled's ropes the muscles in his arms and legs stood out. His thick dark hair was torn in a million directions at once by the wind, which whipped snowflakes into his eyes at such speed that they would have made a normal man look away. This man walked on unblinkingly.
As he reached the crest of the hill he was climbing, the man paused for breath and heard, above the howling of the wind, the dull thumping of a helicopter engine. He glanced at his watch and nodded - right on time.
Taking up the sled's ropes again he tramped through the snow for a few more minutes before coming to a clearing in the forest. A large helicopter was hovering above the clearing, powerful searchlights being trained on the ground to help it land. The man pulled the sled to the edge of the clearing and waited for the helicopter to land. When it had done so the main door of the helicopter was thrown open and a group of people approached the lone man.
As they approached him the man saw that the lead figure was a woman, tall and thin, she wore a black greatcoat with an insignia the man couldn't make out in the darkness. She stopped several feet away before addressing him. "You have the goods?"
"Right here," the man growled, waving a hand at the sled. The woman indicated two men, who dragged the sled forward and opened the top of the crate so that the woman could peer inside. What she saw obviously pleased her, because she nodded to the men who closed the crate and carried it over to the helicopter.
"Excellent work, as usual." The woman turned on her heel and walked back to the helicopter.
"What about my payment?" the man shouted gruffly.
"About that... there's been a slight change of plan." The woman shouted back as she climbed aboard the helicopter and the engine started up again. The troops she had left on the ground suddenly raised their weapons and opened fire. If the man had been a second slower, he would have died where he stood. As it was he had already dived behind a snowdrift when the fire began, a machine gun in his hand.
The man could hear the troops splitting up, and knew he had to deal with them quickly. He burst up from behind the snowdrift and opened fire, gunning down two of the startled troops before they could respond. A third snapped off a shot at him, which grazed his temple, drawing blood that dripped down the side of his face. The man turned his weapon on the third soldier before he could fire again and he was thrown backwards by the force of a dozen bullets.
The snapping of a twig gave away the position of the soldier behind him, and the man turned and leapt forwards, knocking the soldier off his feet. As the soldier fumbled for a knife, the man whipped a blade from its sheath and plunged it into the soldier's heart. The soldier let out a gurgling moan, and a trickle of blood seeped from the corner of his mouth before he lay still.
"Freeze!" The man looked up to see a soldier pointing his machine gun directly at him. The man dropped his blade and stood up slowly. The soldier was obviously unnerved by the violence, because his hands were shaking and in the wan moonlight the man could see that the soldier's face was a sickly green colour. The soldier moved forwards, keeping his gun trained on his captive but suddenly the man threw his right arm forwards. Before the soldier knew what was happening there was a knife embedded three inches into his heart. The soldier dropped to the floor, and the man stood still and listened.
After five minutes he was satisfied there were no more soldiers around, and he headed off. No one who had double-crossed the Wolverine had ever survived, and the woman would be no different Logan vowed as he made his way back to civilisation.
To be continued in... 'Tommorow Never Dies'
Thank you DaemonRogue 13 for sticking with this story from start to finish, you have been a great inspiration and I'm very glad that you've enjoyed the story. Thank you for your review Karakin, I'm glad you liked the story and I'm glad that the story makes up for the character's lack of powers. And thank you to everyone else who reviewed this story, I'm glad that everyone's enjoyed it!