Hehe, sorry guys I wasn't done, thanks for the reviews still though! :-P Oh, and I just got my wisdom teeth yanked, so I'm on a few drugs, but I was bored, so I thought I'd do this anyway...buuuut...I dunno if I'm thinking normally right now, (I got really excited when I had my dad steal a Barbie sticker from the oral surgeon...yea...) so forgive me if there are some...crappy moments :-P ahhhhhhh
They all saw the explosion, it blinded everyone for a moment. Even the members of the Alliance stopped to see what had happened. Logan had his claws deep in a woman's shoulder he had been blowing fire into his chest when suddenly her eyes faded completely black, her body began to burn through itself until there was nothing left.
"What the..." Logan pulled his hand away, his burns slowly recovering, but his leather suit had been damaged leaving a hole to see his wounds close up. Logan looked up and noticed quite a few other Alliance mutants evaporating and self destructing.
Jean rushed over to Logan, inspecting where he had been burned, but he was quickly healing. "Are you alright?" She prodded gently where the blisters were, fading back into his skin.
Logan nodded, he wasn't much concerned about himself, and he was still confused about what had happened though. The few Alliance members that were still left had seen what had happened to the others and they had taken off running. "What the hell just happened?" He sniffed the ground where the woman had been laying. There was nothing left except for small orange marble; he held it up, letting the moon shine through it. He searched out others, all of them different colors. There were more than a dozen rolling around in his fist. "What is this?"
Jean looked at the colored marbles, confused herself. She closed her eyes and let her hand hover over the marbles. "I can feel them...inside." She searched further with her mind. "But it doesn't make any sense..."
"I think I can explain." Professor Xavier floated forward, able to avoid rolling over the uneven snow. "Nickolas was a manipulator. In his mind, he was able to in a sense, create, people." There were dozens of the students, just waking up, who were inspecting the destroyed part of the mansion, looks of confusion covered most of their faces.
"But they weren't real." Logan smelled no life within the marbles, and he could sense no trace of them anywhere.
Xavier shook his head. "Oh no, they were quite real. More real than I think Nickolas expected them to be. He is more powerful than I think anyone knows, including himself."
Logan scoffed, "Is? Don't you mean was?" They had all seen the explosion that resulted in his death. "Jolie took him for a ride; I don't think anyone could have survived that." He spoke the last bit a little quieter. Though he had never liked Jolie a bit, it had taken a lot to sacrifice herself like that, he had been impressed despite himself.
"I would not be so sure about Nickolas' death; I still sense something of his presence." The professor had receded into his mind in order to concentrate further, no longer answering questions.
Logan saw Jean began to tear up next to him. He let her sob into his chest; she was really the only one who had gotten to know her. "Sh...it's okay Jeanie, she did what needed to be done."
Jean shook her head. "It shouldn't have been like this. If he's still alive it was a waste. Even though she was blocking me out of her thoughts, I still caught glimpses. She was a good person. I wish this hadn't of happened. We don't even know if she has any family." She managed to gain her composure again, brushing back her tears.
The professor had an odd look on his face, as though he was not quite focused on Jean. "Where is Scott?"
Scott pumped his legs faster than they had gone before. He had seen Jolie fly up into the air, suddenly charged with her own powers. He had seen her fly so high into the air that she had appeared only a star in the night sky, and he had seen her, plummet toward the ground, never slowing for a second.
He had began to run before she had gotten halfway down, the explosion had actually knocked him to his side, but he immediately regained his feet and continued to run. He had seen the general area where she had fallen, but heavy snow began to fall, and the moon had slipped beneath the horizon, leaving darkness just before dawn.
"Jolie!" He shouted into the forest around him; his lungs burned from the cold air. Scott couldn't see much of anything, he just hoped there would be a fallen tree, or something burned; anything to give him a hint as to where Jolie had fallen. He scanned the snow covered ground around him, still refusing to listen to the voice in the back of his head that knew she was dead.
The sun slowly peaked above the mountains ahead of him, barely lighting the trees. He stared at the sun for a moment, slowing to a walk. He did not see the dip in the snow and he stumbled, falling down to his knees. The snow here was crunchy, like it had been melted, but with Ororo's freezing winds it had instantly been frozen over again. Looking up he realized that the dip in the snow was a large circle, a large flat area in the middle, where the tip of the crater did not look quite natural. "Jolie?" He shouted, and attempted to get back up, but the ice on top of the snow caught up his feet and he managed to roll most of the way down the steep hill of snow. He rapidly dug at random spots in the snow, digging to find some sign of her. He had to crunch through the thick layer, and then toss around the light powder that lay beneath.
He cried out his frustrations, throwing his fists into the snow. He paused, realizing he had hit something that wasn't snow. He dug frantically and he produced a leg, tattered pajama bottoms hung loosely and the skin was beginning to turn an unnatural color. He quickly tore through the rest of the snow pile, revealing Jolie's broken and half frozen body impacted into the snow. Blood had dried onto her face, arms and clothing, it looked black and sickly. He pulled her out of the ground, carefully as he discovered her wings were still attached, bent at odd angles, but still buried beneath the snow. She was heavy and awkward to carry, her limbs weren't lose like they should have been, and her wings added extra weight.
He brought her back up over the ledge of the crater and laid her on the ground. Her clothing was tattered, leaving most of her skin exposed to the harsh weather. Her lips were a darker blue and her frost clung to her hair. He picked her back up and aimed his visor toward the ground. He started to melt the snow beneath her, holding her above the steam that was produced by the heat. He pulled off both of his gloves and grabbed her hands, they were frozen stiff but didn't show sever signs of frostbite yet. He breathed on them and rubbed them quickly, trying to produce some sort of heat; he then pulled his own gloves over her hands. He held his own hand against Jolie's neck, searching desperately for a pulse. He couldn't tell if it was just his own hope that convinced him there was, or if there was really a light pulse beating against his fingers. Whether it existed in his mind, or for real, the pulse was weak, and frighteningly so. He adjusted her once more in his arms and took off at a slow jog back toward the mansion.
The look of concern on his face made her run back to him quickly, "What is it Professor?"
He looked at her quickly, "Take some of the team, and go retrieve Dr. McCoy from Boston University, take the jet. Do not waste any time." His tone did not suggest that there was any need to question his reasoning.
"Storm!" She hollered, both in her mind and out loud. The woman with the white hair soon flew above her head.
"What is it?" She asked, lowering herself to the ground.
"We need to go. Come with me." Storm also asked no questions, following Jean as she sprinted into the mansion, past the large crowd of students that were still standing there baffled.
Xavier turned to face some of them. "John, perhaps you could get something of a fire going in the fire place in my office?" John gave him a quick nod and headed deeper into the mansion where the walls still stood. "Kurt, could you please retrieve some firewood for John?" The dark blue man nodded quickly, twitching his tail and suddenly disappearing, leaving only the smell of sulfur behind.
"Charles..." Scott's weak voice threatened to break. Xavier turned to see him half limping toward him, with Jolie cradled in his arms. "You must help her..." Xavier could see the hopelessness on Scott's face, it pained him to see someone so close to him to suffer like that.
"Into my office Scott, there should be a fire, try and keep her warm. I've sent for Hank."
Scott nodded and walked with new speed, as if that had been the best news he had heard in a while. He passed the curiously staring students and walked down the hall. Xavier turned to see Logan returning, someone stumbling along with him. Logan threw the frightened looking man to the ground in front of Charles. Once he caught up to the sputtering man he lifted him by the back of his neck.
"I found this snooping around in the trees." Logan spat on the ground, showing his evident disgust for the whimpering man. The smaller man shivered severely, his clothes were tattered and torn, and claw like marks on his body revealed that he had met Logan before.
"Bring him to my office." The professor waited for Logan to pass by the children who stared wide eyed and the man as Logan dragged him inside. "Peter?" A larger boy immediately turned his attention to the professor. "Can you see about lifting some of these walls back up, and Bobby, if you'd be so kind to seal everything up." They both nodded their answers and were already at work as Xavier passed away from them and into his office.A huge, beastlike man, hovered over Jolie's body, scratching his thick blue fur thoughtfully. He adjusted the pair of glasses over his nose and gave a defeated sigh. "I don't know what to tell you. She suffers from sever hypothermia, and the damage to her internal organs, not to mention her bones, is beyond my ability to heal. He blood pressure continues to drop, nothing short of a miracle could save her now, and it would need to be a pretty impressive miracle at that."
The mood of the room darkened, the Professor shook his head sadly. Jean leaned in close to Logan, and Logan let her rest her head on his shoulder. Kurt and John both stood near where Jolie lay on the couch, wrapped tightly in a wool blanket, ready to adjust the fire if needed. Scott stood away from them all, staring blankly at Hank McCoy.
Hank sighed, "I am sorry, I know that is not what you wanted to hear." The official tone of his voice changed to that of sympathy.
The man Logan had captured looked up suddenly. His arms were strapped behind his back and he was crouched in the corner. "I...I think I could help..." He spoke barely above a whisper.
But Hank's hearing was impeccable. "Ah, the miracle man speaks!" He walked quickly toward him frightening the man further as the blue beast descended upon him. "Well, explain yourself!" Hank took the man by the shoulders and lifted him easily; he gave him a slight shake when he said nothing. "I think I may have broken him..." He turned to the others, clearly annoyed that the man would leave them hanging like this.
Logan gave a look that suggested he wasn't joking. "Oh I think I could fix him," He unleashed his claws and began to walk toward the man.
"P..pen.. Pennsylvania..." he managed to stutter out seeing Logan approach. "Nickolas...he created a healing chamber...he...he put people in...and they were better...it's in our offices..." The man cringed away as Logan lifted his claws dangerously close to his neck.
"You better be a good navigator bub."