By the time Logan found his way back to the front, there was no more gunfire, and a jeep was flying gracefully up the hill towards the jet. Magneto was freaky.
"Where have you been?" He turned. Scott was standing with Peter, who wasn't shiny any more, and Mystique, by the ruined gate. "We were calling for you."
"Looks like you had it in hand."
"Never the less, don't do that. Come on." Scott turned and started up the hill towards the treeline. They were quiet for a minute.
"What do we do now?" Logan asked.
"Make sure there's nobody left alive in there, and raze the site."
"So why aren't we searching?"
"Telepath."
Scott was playing calm. Logan could smell his tension fresh on the wind, even if Scott's voice and stance weren't obvious about it. Logan decided he didn't care.
,
It felt like a really long time before Jean came down the hill. Storm and Peter had gone up as support, Magneto, Scott, Logan and Mystique were still by the base. Nothing was moving. Jean walked up to the doors without speaking and knelt, head in her hands. After a moment, she stood up, shaking her head.
"Nothing left alive."
"Get clear then." Magneto said. "I'll do the honours."
"I can." Scott said. "I'm not restricted to metal."
They cleared off up the hill, back towards the tree line, Magneto floating. Logan could hear bits of metal bending, tearing. Magneto was starting to break the base apart. As they reached the tree line, Scott turned and pulled his visor away from his face. Heck, he was destructive on full power. His eye beams smashed through concrete, ground, glass, the bits of metal Magneto was throwing around.
It took them seconds, between the two of them. The base was diminished to rubble. Logan looked down at his hand, at the dog tags. It would be months or more before anyone found whatever was left of Jameson C 849773's body. If anyone could even identify it without tags. Whatever she'd been on about to him. He wouldn't help anyone or anything by thinking about that. She'd made Rogue into a science experiment. She was gone now. That was it.
,
"There's nothing on here." Jean said, looking up from the screen at Rogue. "Labs are fine, I can't find any marks on you, nothing obvious radiographically, short of doing a full body MRI, which I'd need to take you to City for." Jean straightened. "Either whatever they were trying to do to you didn't work, or they were more interested in looking than doing. I think we're clear."
Rogue nodded, breaking eye contact. She drew a breath. "Bobby?"
Jean drew a breath slowly. "Part of a doctor's oath is confidentiality." But Rogue seemed to read in her face that Bobby also seemed to be fine.
"So…"
Jean perched herself on the end of a bed. "You and the rest still have to graduate, we postponed for you, we knew you were alive, then… life after highschool. You've been through a lot for a kid your age."
"Hasn't everyone here?"
"Most, yeah. But that doesn't make it less true." Rogue sighed. "You're going to be okay." Rogue looked up at her. "You're never going to be ordinary, you can't be, none of us can, but you're going to be okay."
,
"Beer." Logan said to the bartender, a skinny kid who looked hardly old enough to drink himself, with taped over slits on his neck that looked to Logan like gills.
"What kind?"
"What's cheap?"
"Ah.. Bud? Corona? Blue Ribbon?"
"I'll take a Bud."
Logan sat for a few minutes at the bar, just looking around. The lights were low, quiet music was playing somewhere. Then someone landed on the bar stool next to him.
"Evening Jules." She said to the bar tender.
"Nancy. Usual?"
"You know me." She took her drink from the bar tender and handed over a couple of notes. "Keep the change, Jules."
"This is why I love you."
She brushed her braids back and took a mouthful of her drink. "Are you new here?" She asked Logan, looking sideways at him. "Don't think I've seen you before."
"First time." Logan answered, then wondered if that had been dumb. The last time a woman had approached him in a bar, it had ended pretty badly. But this was a different bar.
"Welcome to Hellfire The Second." If she'd got in here, she had to be a mutant. "Who told you we were here?"
Logan hesitated. "A doctor said it might be good for my health."
Nancy slammed a hand on the bar. "Jean Grey! Little Jeanie Grey."
"You know her?"
"Most of us do. She's still working out of Xavier's isn't she?"
"Last I knew."
Nancy grinned. "Doctors recommending trips to a bar for medicinal reasons. I'll drink to that." She raised her glass to meet Logan's.
Fin
Thank you all for sticking with me this long. This is the longest project I've ever finished.
Thank you also to Jackie Human for fixing my Canadian flora.
Solo Dei Gloria