Disclaimer: I do not own any of the xmen characters or story lines, etc.
Logan was exhausted. Not the kind of exhaustion he felt when he came out of the gym, but complete, utter exhaustion, physically and mentally. His encounter with Deathstrike had left him weak, shaky, and he could still feel her claws in his mind, ripping through flesh, even though the physical evidence was being taken care of by his healing mutation. He had never felt that magnitude of pain before, even while cage fighting, and while his mutation could erase injuries, it could not stop the pain that followed. Logan put his hand over his shoulders. He could distinguish, although brely, little pinpricks that differed from his skin only slightly, the only evidence of the claws that had plunged through him, brutally, with no mercy.
He stood up, near the front of the plane, leaning on a spare seat for support, while Storm sat down at the controls of the plane. He watched as she expertly maneuvered the thrusters, expecting the plane to rise, and watched as her face showed the surprise that nothing happened. He watched as Scott walked up, more like strutted up, he thought vehemently, and joined Storm.
After talking and experimenting the controls with Storm, Scott concluded what was wrong.
"The vertical thrusters are off line," he said.
"Then fix it," Logan heard himself snarling. God, he pisses me off, he felt himself thinking.
Then Storm, in increasing urgency, pressed a button, and gave a desperate cry as the plane lost all of its power. Logan would remember this turning point as the moment things began to go irreversably wrong.
"Oh no, we've lost all power now," cried Storm.
Storm and Scott began to discuss what could be done to regain power.
"We need some kind of outward power source for the power cells to connect," Storm declared.
Then behind Logan, a voice spoke for the first time.
"Jean?"
It was the professor.
Logan looked around the plane for Jean, but noticed with a pang that he could not find her.
"Hey, where's Jean?" came Scott's agitated voice.
"She's outside."
The professor, with two words had managed to evoke a complete change of atmosphere in the plane; Scott rushed madly to the open ramp, which snapped shut just as he reached it. Logan watched in panic and fear as he pounded against it, and felt his eardrums reverbrate as he screamed for Storm to open it. Funnily, he felt no ill feeling toward Scott right now, for he himself would be screaming, had not his mouth been shut tight by fear.
"It's not working," Storm cried in desperation.
Logan couldn't bear to watch this scene anymore, so he turned to the window. What he saw gripped him more than any claws could, plunged him in horror, held him transfixed, so he couldn't look away, no matter how much he wanted to. Jean was walking, face screwed up against the cold, towards the rushing waters. He saw her raise one hand behind her, towards the plane, and suddenly all power returned, but nobody was able to leave. They all watched in horror as the water pounded towards her, and waited with baited breath for it to drown them all, but at the last minute she stopped veered it around them with her other hand. Logan could see in her face and posture how much concentration and energy this was taking from her, and he felt panic beyond anything he could remember feeling, dread at what he knew was inevitable.
A footstep behind him made him turn around. It was Rogue. She had left her seat and was walking briskly towards the professor. Her expression was one she had never seen before, she walked with purpose, with determination, and - was he imagining it? - a hint of remorse. He watched in awe as she stepped to the professor's side. There was one moment, as Rogue looked into the professor's eyes, and he looked right back, where the connection between the two was so strong, so ethereal, that everyone in the plane felt it, and turned to look at them in surprise. To Logan's eyes it seemed that she was asking him a question, a question of such importance that it could change her fate. The professor's gaze was searching, questioning, and at long last, Rogue nodded. There seemed such a finality in that nod, such closure, that Logan felt a thrill of foreboding at what would make Rogue look like that, make her give off an air of finality to that extent.
The next chain of events sent Logan into shock. He watched, frozen, as Rogue ripped off her gloves, and carefully place her hands on the professor's head. He distantly heard comments, shouts of confusion around him, but he had eyes only for the scene in front of him. He fowatched as slowly, the professor began to turn blue, and weaken, but it was Rogue to which his gaze was most drawn. She seemed so introspective, so concentrated in her mind, and he could feel more power radiating from her as the professor gave her more of his power. Her eyes were closed, and her face rumpled in consternation, but Logan felt remost of all, she was searching for someone. Why she was doing this, he did not know. But he had little time to speculate, for the ramp was lowering, to his astonishment, and soon hit the snow with a muffled thump. Logan was puzzled at this, for before Storm had been denied in her efforts to open, because Jean was forcing it closed, but as he saw Rogue remove her hands from the professor, moments before he lost all of his power, he felt fear. Fear of the unknown, fear of the cold, and most of all, fear for Rogue, for her power. For now Logan felt sure that it was she who had lowered the ramp, though for what purpose he did not know.
Logan watched with widened eyes as Rogue hurried down the open ramp. He did not call for her, like many of the others, but watched, in silence, in horror, as she walked out into the snow. Her path was clear, her goals set, as she made her way towards Jean. Jean was weakening rapidly now, and Logan knew she was barely holding on. The second she let go, the flood would pour over them all, burying them deep. So when Rogue reached her, he was shocked to see her place her bare hands on Jean's, taking her ever waning power away from her.
Logan stood transfixed at the window, watching as Rogue slowly separated herself from Jean, now using her borrowed power to take Jean's place in holding off the flood. Logan had no room inside himself for any emotion, he was just shocked, frozen, unable to tear his eyes away from the riveting scene. He watched as Jean began to rise, and float towards the plane. He could hear Scott behind him, rushing to the ramp as Jean floated to an empty seat in the helicopter, and Scott's voice of alarm as Jean immediately collapsed. But Logan didn't look, for he had eyes only for Rogue. She was now holding flood by the herself, and he could see, in the way that her stance was slowly drooping, that she was weak, Jean's power was leaving her, and he knew she had little time. Strangely, his insides were still empty, still emotionless, still in shock, even in the face of a crisis. He knew what was going to happen, but he still believed that everything would be all right, that Rogue would come back.
Then he felt the helicopter rise, up and up, high into the clouds, and followed his gaze to Rogue's arm, moving in synch with the plane. She was powering it, with the last of her strength, and Storm had no control. Higher they went, finally out of reach of the clouds, and then the plane stopped moving, just suspended in the air. The plane's occupants waited with bated breath.
Then behind them, came a voice. Logan turned around, to see the professor, eyes closed, but the voice emanating from him was not his own. It was the sweet, gentle voice
of the 18 year old that now stood on the brink, at the edge of the wave.
"Goodbye," came the whisper. " and thank you."
There were screams of horror around Logan, but he was only focused on the voice, the last words they would speak, so as he could imprint them in his mind forever.
The wave broke. The water crashed through the barrier, scattering the land that had, just moments ago, supported the entire group. But someone was missing.
Rogue was gone.
Logan's mind was fuzzy. Suddenly, all emotion seemed to return to him, bringing with it the pain of such a loss. Logan almost wished that it would stay away, leave him while longer, so he would not have to feel this pain. He couldn't believe what his eyes had just witnessed. He almost felt like it was some kind of trick, that he was going to wake up in his bed, and find that this was all a horrible nightmare. But he knew, somewhere, deep in his heart, that this was a nightmare he could never wake up from.
And as he struggled from breaking down completely, a bit of his sorrow emmulated themselves into words, the words that were repeating themselves inside his head, over and over.
"She's gone."
And as Logan felt the words leave his mouth, the horrible reality of them sunk in, and as the plane rose higher and higher, and the sun shown directly on him, he burried his face in his hands and began to sob.
A/N: So, how did you like it? I'm estimating a bit on Rogue's age, in the first movie she's seventeen, so I'm guessing she's eighteen in the second. Anyway, reviews and comments/criticism are always welcome, because that's how I can improve. I think the next chapter is going to be the aftermath of the incident, in another character's POV, basically how it affected them all( I think I'm going to focus on Logan, though, throughout the whole story). Any suggestions for which character to do? Thank you all for reading this, and remember, please review, so I can see your comments/critisicm/suggestions.
Thanks!
Marie
