Disclaimer:I do not own X Men: Evolution, much as I wish I did.
Author's Note:One of the saddest characters of the X men definitely has to Logan. I mean think about it: his power keeps him alive, and he has to watch as the people around him grow old and die, while he stays exactly the same throughout all eternity. A rather sad fate, in my opinion.
Jim and Tommy had grown up together in a nice small neighborhood in Ontario. They'd been best friends since they were old enough to start stealing cookies from the cookie jar. They were the neighborhood pranksters when they were ten. And by the time they were thirteen they had both started noticing the opposite sex. And when they were sixteen they both lied about their ages to fight for their country.
Jim was now called James, and Tommy was now Thomas. And they were two little boys playing a game that not even a man could play, without losing something precious. And both James and Thomas lost something equally precious.
Thomas lost his life to a stray bombshell.
James lost his innocence holding Thomas as he died.
"I'm scared, Jim." Tommy whispers, his voice barely registering over the screeching of bullets as they enjoyed their short flight before finding their targets. At that moment however, Jim can hear everything more clearly than he ever has before. "I don't want to die. I want to see mamma again, and everyone else. I want to kiss Mary under the maple tree again. Don't let me die alone Jim. Don't let me."
Jim does the only thing he can do. He sits there on that field of chaos, rocking his dying friend in his arms, and sings one of his favorite hymns from church. Jim's voice has never been very good, and even now he's off key, but to Tommy as he drifts off into an eternal slumber, it's the most beautiful sound he's ever heard.
It is only after Tommy lets out one last shuddering breath, and leaves the earthly world, taking the innocent Jim with him, that James stands up, heedless of the danger, and begins running back to his trench, his dead friend in his arms. As he runs, given the sudden power to move again, by the rage that now pumps through his lungs, James finds himself echoing Tommy's last request that James was so powerless to grant.
He didn't want to die either. In fact, he never wanted to die and leave this world behind. Even with its ugliness. Because he wants to make a better world, a world for people like Tommy, the people who didn't deserve to die. A world with no bloodshed. Once he accomplishes that, then he'll die. But not before than.