Xavier's Institute, Tuesday Mar. 12th 10:23 am
"Isn't there something you can do?" Scott asked earnestly. Xavier sighed. Frankly, they were lucky Rogue was alive and they didn't suffer more casualties. Kitty seemed relatively normal after a few days of rest. Kurt woke up in two days and Scott was getting back to normal. But Rogue was still unconscious. Nothing had changed since they returned from the sewers.
"I wish, Scott. I would do it." He rubbed his bald his head in hands. "Hopefully she'll just need some time to rest." He looked around. The mood had been depressed since Evan and Ray's deaths and the Morlocks massacre. The team came back with heavy injuries. Jubilee was pulled from enrollment subsequently, hurting the New Recruits further. Everyone pretty much stayed in their rooms or the infirmary. It was the not the vision Xavier had imagined for his school or dream.
He knew it wasn't the time but he couldn't help but feel frustrated. Angry. Infuriated at his apparent inadequacy at running a mutant school. It had been his dream for as long as he could have memories. And he'd achieved it. But at what cost? He couldn't stand to lose any more willing and loyal students, and he knew the losses were far from over.
"I just," Scott cut himself off before he got too emotional. 'Rogue...'
"I know, Scott." Said Xavier, exhausted and sympathetic. "You're worried about her. We all are." He cast a look at the mutant in the hospital bed. He looked at the wool blanket on his lap Ororo had gotten him and heaved a sigh. "I'm sure she'll be fine." He added with a tired smile. Scott huffed. 'She has to be.' "Why don't you get some more rest?" He scoffed.
"I've been doing that for days, professor." Scott clenched his fists. "Kind of want to do something about all this, now." His teammates in the hospital. Innocent mutants laying dead in their home. It wasn't right. And whoever was responsible had to pay.
"In time." They turned as Piotr came down the hall.
"Professor. Scott. Look," He showed them as his skin rapidly turned to metal. They smiled at him wearily. "Thanks to Joseph."
"Good, I'm glad, Piotr." Said Scott, nodding dutifully. He took a moment to think about all the injuries his team had sustained. It made his stomach ache.
"That's what I like to see. I'll pass along your thanks." He smiled and passed by them in the corridor. Scott grimaced.
70 minutes from Bayville High School, Tuesday Mar. 12th 1:13 pm
When Logan got about 70 minutes from Manhattan he could smell Sabretooth. Everywhere. His tracks were literally everywhere. It didn't make sense. 'What is he doing?' He thought, so angry at himself for leaving the kids. If Creed was active it meant nothing good for anyone. One lead chased after another. His research took him all over the world. It'd been almost two years since he laid eyes on them. He was anxious for them like never before. And now, on top of that, he smelled Creed.
Their feud spanned decades. Creed existed for no other reason than to torment Logan. To kill his loves. His kids he cared so much about. So he knew it was no coincidence. He remembered the last time he tried to use the kids to get his attention. That was a lifetime ago. Logan would do some unforgivable things for far less now. He sped faster on his black Harley Davidson.
'What does he want around here... Really want?' He thought to himself. Aside from messing with him, Creed had no goals or motivations. He listened to Mystique. Then Magneto. Who now? Creed never thought for himself.
He made it back to the institute in record time. Sabretooth's scent got stronger the closer he got. The scent so close to home was driving him wild. He left his bike bailed in the front of the institute. He figured the students should be in school. He wasn't alarmed not to be greeted at the door. He followed his nose to Sabretooth's scent. It was frighteningly close. 'What the fuck is he-'
He paused when he found him chained in the back courtyard. He looked like a beast. He was like Sabretooth but not. His eyes were dead. Blank. Vacant. Logan could tell from one look that the man in front of him was not his arch nemesis. He was no longer a threat, someone had mentally neutered him. He stared at him for a long while, his mannerisms ironically like a dopey dog's. He scratched himself with his leg and stared blankly at Logan. No rage. No hate. Just blank. Logan tore away silently into the institute for an explanation.
He halted though, sniffing. It was fading but the scent of blood was recent. He strained to differentiate between them. 'Rogue,' He thought, sensing her presence nearby. 'No. She's been hurt.' He tore quickly to the basement, not passing anybody on his way. His heart thudded in his chest as he raced to the infirmary. 'If Gambit did this I'll never forgive myself.' He thought bitterly, stumbling to the med bay.
He was shocked to find Magneto of all people at her bedside. Not Kurt, not Kitty, and not Scott. Magneto. With long white hair. Logan stood frozen in rage as Magneto brushed some of Rogue's hair out of her face. His body locked suddenly as he watched them in shock. Somehow, Magneto could touch her bare skin. Logan wasn't sure what he was doing to her. His claws shot out instantly.
Joseph looked at Rogue, still incapacitated. He was beginning to worry about her. With a sigh, he focused and his body was covered with purple energy. Protected, he leaned down and kissed Rogue on her bare lips. 'Please, wake up.'
Logan appeared in the doorway, glaring evilly at Joseph.
"What the fuck are you doing?"
'Charles?' Emma began, prying into the other telepath's mind. 'Did you know your friend Logan had returned?'
'What?' He responded, shocked. 'No, I would've noticed!' Truth be told, Xavier had been distracted lately. He'd been having escalating headaches, constant nightmares, and breaches in the control of his telepathy. All of these were signs of something not so good.
The loss of Jean. The failing public opinion of mutants. The Mutant Registration Act. The loss of Rahne. The Loss of Evan. The Loss of Ray. The Legacy Virus. All of these things were eating away at the barriers in Xavier's mind that kept him same. He had no answers for any of these things. The more time wore on the less prepared he felt to be responsible for a school full of mutants.
'How long till we end up like the Morlocks?' He thought to himself bitterly. Everyday it just seemed inevitable.
'I would've felt his presence.' Xavier insisted. Emma sighed, even in her telepathic voice.
'You've been distracted, dear.' She tried gently. 'Also, did you know that your friend Joseph had a habit of kissing 19 year olds?' Xavier's face paled.
'He what?'
'Because Logan does, now. Oh, and it's Rogue. I suggest you get prepared to separate them.' She was already on her way to the infirmary to help him, although she didn't want to.
'I am on my way.'
He scrubbed his face in his hand before rolling out of his door, hoping they surprised him.
"What the fuck are you doing?" Joseph looked up in surprise at the feral man. He hadn't seen him around the school before and could not judge him based on Rogue's interactions. He frowned, crouching protectively over Rogue.
Logan stared at her still form, his breath stopping short. 'Stripes...' He thought brokenly. She was white as a ghost and still. 'Why didn't anyone tell me?' He thought frantically. She was in the infirmary. And Magneto was skeezing on her. The white haired mutant watched him wearily.
'Logan? Logan? Do you hear me?'
'NOW you contact me, Chuck?'
'Logan listen,' Xavier pleaded. 'I think someone's been blocking our telepathic communications. Logan,'
"You should leave Anna's room." Joseph said, staring at Logan disdainfully. He snarled in response.
"What the fuck did you just call her, bub?" Joseph's eyes narrowed.
"Anna. Who is she to you?" That's when Logan smelled it. The kiss. Their scents, hopelessly muddled in each other. The way Jean smelled like him after he laid with her. He looked between them in confusion. Had they... No. Rogue would never.
"You..."
Rage flashed white in Logan's mind as he looked at Magneto. He didn't even care that he fundamentally had no chance of defeating him. He launched himself to Joseph's surprise.
"Hey-" He stumbled out of the way of his claws just in time. Logan's claws cut open a dam of repressed frustration and rage from the mutant. The past couple of months had been grueling on the Joseph, after all, do you know how hard it was to fake having amnesia?
On top of his brilliant plan he hadn't thought out he was starting to fall for the young, white haired mutant (and he already knew that wasn't going to end well). He thought she was going to lead the X-Men (and by proxy) he would, slowly influencing her decisions until he was acting as leader. That plan was foiled when Scott crash landed back in the X-Men.
Her ambition disappeared, happy to follow the boy scout cookie beta-mutant for reasons totally beyond him.
And now, Logan had reappeared and he was expected not to squash him like the impotent bug he was. No. Erik Lensherr had had enough.
"Logan." He snapped, his eyes black. "I'm so sick of you." He snarled, holding the animalistic mutant's limbs taut.
"Fuck you!" He seethed, struggling to dig his claws into Erik's gut. He smirked at him. He held him up in the air, writhing against his control.
"Logan, Logan, Logan..." He started, slowly closing a fist. "We are all but bit players in a play. What play you may ask? A tragedy called life." he clutched his fist tightly, causing Logan to howl in an anguish even he had never felt before. 'Shit... What's he doing?' The magnetic pulse was so strong Rogue slowly awoke.
'Joseph! Joseph, stop this at once!' Xavier could feel the dark, demented things his old friend was thinking. Thinking about doing to Logan. He could not stand for that. 'Erik!'
Rogue coughed and sputtered, her eyes bleary as she looked around. She inhaled. Infirmary. A smell she was getting used to. She looked around and thought she was hallucinating Logan. She rubbed her eyes. "W-What..."
'They're going to kill each other.' Emma reported, picking up her gait. 'Hank?'
'Aye, Emma.'
'Where are you?'
'The garden. Why-'
'Get to the infirmary. Now. You must stop Logan and Jo-' She didn't even have to finish before he tore from the garden into the mansion.
"JOSEPH," Rogue shouted hoarsely. "Joseph stop. Now! Stop, you have to!" Rogue screamed at him in horror. He didn't hear her though, he was focused on Logan's suffering.
Xavier appeared breathlessly in the doorway. "Joseph!"
"But today," Joseph continued mercilessly, contorting Logan's body further. "Perhaps for you-"
"STOP IT," Rogue screamed, hovering above her bed.
"Today the curtain falls. And the play is over!" In one swift movement time froze.
Logan didn't even have time to scream. Pain erupted through him on a molecular level. Magneto had always threatened it, but now he had done it. He had stripped Logan of his adamantium frame and tore it through his skin to the screams of Rogue and Xavier. The destabilization of the metal on his skeleton was painful enough, but then the metal burst through his skin.
"MAGNUS!" Xavier roared.
Time stood still for Rogue as her eyes glazed over, the metal shooting from his skin faster than her eyes could see. "L-Logan..."
Logan fell in a still, silent, heap on the ground. Nobody made a sound. Not even Joseph, or maybe Magneto. Joseph hovered to the ground, panting.
"No more..." Xavier panted. First Jean. Then Rahne. Then Evan. Then Ray. Now Logan. Rogue had collapsed on her infirmary bed in a trembling ball, the sight of Logan's gored and desecrated body sending her over the edge. "No more, Magnus. I've given you a pass before, no more." Xavier seethed. His mind was steaming. Fuming. He had never been drenched in such a rage.
"Charles-"
"How many inadvertent deaths have you caused?" Xavier's eyes began to glow pink. "How many lives ruined? It ends here. It ends now, Erik." The potent telepathic energy rocketed into Joseph. He let out a panicked yell. "You will never kill AGAIN!"
"CHARLES," Joseph dropped suddenly to the ground, his eyes staring vacantly at the ceiling. The professor had just committed revenge in front of Emma and Hank, who stood silently behind him in horror. Everyone stood in stunned silence as Joseph urinated on himself. Xavier had removed all of his faculties. That was completely unprecedented for the pacifistic telepath.
"Stars and garters, Charles..."
"Get to Logan..." He panted, looking away from Joseph's limp body. "He's in critical condition." Hank stifled a sob at Logan's desperate condition, ushering him to another part of the med bay.
"What about Rogue?" He asked, quietly. Xavier reached out but Emma smacked his hand away.
"No," She said quickly. "Not you. Upstairs. Rest." She was smiling but her words were firm. He turned and exited silently, retreating upstairs. She looked at Rogue wearily. "You're awake," She began. Rogue hugged her knees to her chest. She was staring at Joseph. She hated him for what he'd just done to Logan and if he were conscious she'd be throttling him, but she was seriously disturbed by what the professor had done. She would've done the same thing but she wasn't running a school for mutants on the platform of peace.
"What jus-"
"Rest, Rogue." She turned to exit. She wasn't going to get answers anytime soon.
'What just happened...'
"Rogue's awake." Emma said in passing as she grabbed a magazine off the coffee table. Scott eyed her, wondering how she could say that so casually. She counted the seconds in her head for him to go running to see her. She snickered to herself as he disappeared out of sight, sprinting to the elevator. He gasped when he opened the elevator and she was standing right there in a giant, black t shirt.
"S-Scott..." She whimpered, collapsing into his arms. He squeezed her tight, so relieved to see her fine and awake.
"Rogue... I'm so glad you're okay-" He looked into her eyes and could tell something was wrong. "What's wrong... What is it?" She shook her head and busted out crying to his dismay.
"S-Scott... It was awful. Joseph ripped Logan's adamantium out!" She threw herself onto the man's chest and bawled her eyes out. He paled at the thought of what she meant. He couldn't imagine something more painful, violent, or cruel. It was something Magneto would do, not Joseph. He shook his head, leaning his chin on her hair.
"I'm so sorry that happened." He told her honestly. "I can't imagine seeing something like that, I..." He set his face firm and forced himself to look convincing. "He's gonna be okay." It was a moment he was glad she couldn't see his eyes. She shook her head no automatically. "Everything's gonna be okay."
"His healin' factor... It can't, it can't handle that, Scott... He-" She sniffed, breaking down into sobs again. He rubbed her back instinctively.
"I know it looks bad." He said sympathetically. 'That's because it is.' "But he's going to be okay. You have my word. Just... Breathe." Rogue almost smiled. She pulled Scott aside and looked around as though someone might listen.
"Look, somethin' else happened, Scott." She croaked hoarsely. "I think the professor put Joseph in a coma..." He cocked an eyebrow at her. Her face darkened. "Not that he didn't deserve it but what the hell was the professor thinking?" Scott pushed his mouth into a grim line. It did go against everything he knew of the man. It wasn't like him to retaliate like that. He put his arm around Rogue with a shaky sigh. "What are we gonna do, Scott? Logan..." Her lip quivered.
"Tell you what, I'll check on the professor in a little while." She nodded sleepily, feeling better just by being with him.
"Okay. Maybe I should check on Logan-" She tried to turn back to the elevator but she stumbled, falling into Scott's broad arms. Living off the grid or whatever he had done had only added to physique. Rogue knew Scott in and out and she was definitely feeling some new muscles. She blushed in embarrassment, avoiding his concerned stare.
"Hank's not gonna let you in there right now." His face softened. "Why don't you get some real rest in your bed?" Rogue yawned involuntarily. She looked at Scott with large eyes. "I'll keep you company. Until you fall asleep, at least." He rubbed his head. "I'm still concussed, so I'm always tired." She chuckled a little, her voice watery.
"I've spent so long being so brave, Scott." She looked to him. "I'm scared." He hugged her closer to him.
"So am I, Rogue. So am I."
Something happened when the professor entered Magneto's mind. He shot him into unconsciousness and something was released. Something born out of his latent rage and hopelessness and Magneto's innate militaristic qualities. Something that would change the fabric of reality.
Jean opened her eyes in the White Hot Room. Someone was there. She could bring people of her choosing to the corner of the universe but she didn't know that other beings were like her and could travel dimensionally. She looked around but she was not afraid. The specter was like Magneto and the Juggernaut combined. Maybe this ten foot tall avatar was what Xavier wanted to feel like.
She eyed it wearily, towering over her in red and purple. His armor jutted out threatening. His helmet covered his face in a black shadow. Jean glared at him, an eyebrow cocked.
"Why are you here?" He didn't respond except for a loud, throaty laugh. "How do you exist on this plane?!" She demanded.
"I came to you," The voice purred menacingly. "Consider me... A sympathizer of the homo superior race." She crossed her arms, so far not impressed by the intruder. "Someone anxious to prepare you. Prepare you for your role in the upcoming confrontation. After millennia the confrontation between humans and mutants will reach a flash point." Jean yawned.
"A flash point?" She chuckled a little. "That's a little dramatic, isn't it?" Her stare hardened. "Yes, the relations between humans and mutants is as bad as ever. Maybe that they've ever been. But," Her expression changed. It was warmer. "There are people who... We fight for a better tomorrow. We share a-"
"A dream? Your precious professor's dream?" Jean frowned again. "And let's face it, Jean. Everything you are goes against that dream. Or you wouldn't be here." He sent visions of her defaulting to Dark Phoenix on earth, the X-men trying to stop her, the professor trying and failing to temper her. She glared at the figure.
"What do you know about trying to deal with anything like the Phoenix force? What do you know about longing? Pain? Frustration?" Jean couldn't see but he was grinning at her under his helmet.
"Jean I am frustration. I am pain. I am darkness." She stared at him, trying to discern where he came from.
Suddenly she was in New York again. Not space. "Wha-"
"How do you deal with it? Knowing you spent your time on earth serving creatures who despised you. Feared you. Were glad to see you disappear into the sky with a light show?" He shot a bright, yellow laser at the Xavier institute suddenly.
"What? NO," Jean screamed.
"Never fear. It is an illusion." Jean watched in awe as the rubble faded away. Jean didn't feel threatened by this presence but his mind was blank. Even the Phoenix Of The White Crown couldn't read it. He showed her an illusion of her old school, of Scott. And of professor Xavier. She chuckled. "You want to talk about pain? Darkness? Hypocrisy?" Try as he might he couldn't win over her interest. Not on the topic of the professor.
"Even before the Phoenix the professor and I were the most powerful telepaths on earth." She explained calmly. "Beyond that, there's nothing about him you can tell me. I know him. Inside and out." The figure began to laugh at her.
"Ah, but that is what you think..." They began, dragging up Xavier's memories.
"Listen... When I was on earth I trusted the professor completely, as a telepath. That's saying a lot." He smirked at her from under his helmet. "He is a father to me. A father to mutant-kind." The figure laughed hardily at her.
"Then look at this repressed memory..."
"Be careful, Jean." Scott looked down at the both of them. They had just started their senior years together. The institute was empty but he was hopeful, scanning mutant signatures everyday with Cerebro.
She smiled and placed a hand on his shoulder, her familiar purple shirt and tan khakis on. "Don't worry, professor. Remember how well you trained us." She grinned down at the man she doted on like a father. The memory continued into Xavier's mind.
'Don't worry...' He thought bitterly as Scott and Jean talked. 'How can I not worry for the one I love? How I wish I could tell her...' He looked up into her face. 'But she will always see me as a father figure. I cannot tell her..'
Not only could Jean see it but she felt it. The turbulent, overwrought, hopeless love the professor felt for her. And not platonically. And not as a daughter.
"What is the meaning of this?" She reared back in disbelief. "No... He wouldn't, this isn't real!" She shouted. 'He would never...' Logan would fall for her inevitably because he was tragic, and sad, and conflicted. An antihero. Chasing redemption. But the professor... He was a martyr. The school was his love, not his first student...
"Where do you think we are, Jean? We are in his mind." He gestured around them. "I cannot tamper with his memories. And don't worry, he never thinks about that memory either." The creature resembling Magneto clutched his fists. "Like every other bad thought and negative feeling, he forced it down. Unfaced. Locked away. Entombed." He looked at her. "Buried."
Jean swallowed. The simulated floor dropped from beneath Jean, causing her to scream. "No man can be the saint you assumed of Charles Xavier." He continued. "What even he doesn't realize is that in order to project that image he adopted, he's spent his entire life repressing every fear, rage, passion, prejudice... Every black thought he's ever experienced." A wave of darkness towered over them.
"A lifetime of repressed sin and anger festers in your beloved professor's mind. Who KNOWS what else is in here?" The darkness washed over Jean to her screams.
"NO,"
"Secret fears... Secret hatreds... The same dark, dank, shameful thoughts that everyone hides and everyone has. Taste them, Jean. DRINK EVERY LAST ONE."
"Who are you?!" She demanded, covering herself in an orb of flames.
"Who am I? Jean?" As suddenly as the visions started they were back in space, facing each other. "I am raw power, full unleashed. As YOU once were." She glared at him but her suit remained white. "I know you remember the lack of restraint you had from being Dark Phoenix. You can't reject the Phoenix force," He held his hand toward her. "You try to stay in control, integrated like this. Just give in. And Join me." She smiled.
"Fool. Dark Phoenix "joins" no one."
"I have a feeling we'd have a lot in common." They stared at each other. "I know you remember the feeling, Jean. How good it felt... The thrill of it all." She glared at him, covered literally in the filth of Xavier's repressed memories."In a sea of lies I will be that one truth, Jean. Be my consort. Join me and be yourself." She glared at him.
Flames blasted forth from Jean towering over even the stranger. "If you really thought I'd accept your proposal after showing me some memories," She shot the flaming bird at them. "You don't know who you're dealing with!" She shoved them back. "There's darkness in people? You think I, the Phoenix of all things, don't know that? What is this about, tiny man. What was the point of this!" She dashed toward him.
"Who are you?!" They began to glow with light.
"I think you already know, Jean." He pushed her back, surrounding himself with a black hole. "I am a great and terrible god. An angry god." She tried to send her flames into the darkness. "I am beyond human comprehension. Know my name." He shot the darkness back at Jean and she shrieked in fury and horror. She was shot back suddenly to the White Hot Room. She took in a deep breath, looking around.
"Onslaught."
Scott was getting the best sleep he'd gotten in years tangled in bed with Rogue. Remy's stay at the mansion had perfected Rogue's method of co-sleeping. Long sleeves, sweatpants, long socks, and gloves. It sounded weird but Rogue was more than used to sleeping heavily clothed (and she achieved this by cranking the air conditioner year round). Two, small blankets helped too. That didn't stop the two from cuddling despite the restraints. They were hopelessly muddled in each other and passed out. Until Rogue started screaming.
Rogue's dreamless sleep was interrupted by Jean.
"Is that you?" She asked in confusion.
"Rogue. I don't have long. It's easiest to communicate with you because of my psyche in your head." Rogue nodded dumbly in her dream. "I'm going to use my powers to help you have more control of your powers. I don't know if you can touch, but you'll be able to cycle freely through your absorbed abilities just from being bathed by the Phoenix force." Before Rogue could protest she was covered in a warm light.
"J-Jean..."
"There. Now Rogue, listen. Onslaught. He's coming." The word sent deep terror to Rogue's core but she didn't know why.
"What?"
"Don't trust the professor."
"Jean-"
"Not right now. Be careful. Tell Scott." Jean sighed, knowing she could show Rogue easier than she'd ever explain. She sent a quick image of her encounter with Onslaught and Rogue was shrieking in terror. "I'm sorry, Rogue..."
She awoke with a jerk, screaming at the top of her lungs. "NO," She said with a strangled cry. Scott's eyes ripped open and he was thankful for his visor. He scrambled to a sitting position, very carefully placing his hands on her shoulders.
"Whoa, whoa. Rogue!" The screaming and crying persisted. He held her steady and peered in her face. "It's okay! I'm here!"
"Onslaught..." She shuddered, causing him to make her face him. She was panting, the dream slipping away like grains of sands through her fingers.
"What did you just say?" He whispered worriedly, looking at her.
"Scott... I, my dream..." She steeled her face. "I saw Jean." His jaw clenched involuntarily. "She told me... She told us not to trust the professor."
Xavier Institute, Tuesday Mar. 12th 4:37 pm
Scott broke away from Rogue eventually to think about her ominous dream. 'Jean... Why do you keep contacting us?' He looked toward the sky in frustration. 'You're that close just come home!' A breeze blew by him outside and it felt like an answer from Jean. A plea to be patient. He sighed.
Rogue stood vigil at the mansion doors despite Ororo and Hank's protests. She needed to tell Kitty what had happened to Logan. She didn't know how she was going to but she'd find away. She stood, looking small in Scott's Duke sweatshirt and athletic pants. Kitty arrived to the door, chattering with Kurt, Bobby, and Amara.
"Yeah, an-" She paused when she saw Rogue standing at the door, a strange expression on her face. "Rogue?" She dropped her keys in surprised. "Y-You're..."
"ROGUE," Kurt burst forth and embraced her, too relieved to be self conscious about a few tears. "You're alright!" He grabbed her head by the hair and frowned when she didn't smile. "Sis, vhat's vrong?" Kitty peered at her crestfallen face in confusion, seeing Piotr ambling awkwardly in the distance. She could tell from both their faces that something was wrong. Very wrong. She placed an arm on Kurt's shoulder.
"Hey, everything okay?" Bobby placed a hand on Rogue's shoulder. She shook her head no, Kurt hugging her.
"Kitty, it's Logan." She squeaked out. Her blue eyes went wide.
"He's here-"
"Something's happened. He's in the infirmary..." Kitty could tell from her best friend's voice it was bad. Really bad.
"What, Rogue? What is it. Tell me." She demanded, her voice rising steadily. She could tell from Rogue's tumbling breaths it wasn't something she wanted to hear.
"Kitty... He, I-" She jumped when she felt a hand on her shoulder.
"He and Joseph fought." Scott explained somberly, in a tight fitting black sweater and worn jeans. "There's been an accident. Joseph ripped Logan's adamantium skeleton out. Hank is... Still working on him." He said for Rogue, knowing the girl couldn't stand to say it.
"No... That can't be true... Why would they fight? They professor would've told him he..." Everyone frowned. Scott sighed.
"Apparently he didn't, Kitty. I'm sorry-" He reached out for her but she shrank from his touch.
"No!" She snapped angrily. "You're wrong! You're just still mad at him for Jean, well... Well maybe she made a choice!" Kitty screamed, lunging angrily for Scott. Rogue stepped in between them, holding the frantic girl back.
"Katherine, Katherine stop it!" Rogue screamed, tears in her own eyes. "Kitty," She fell suddenly to her knees, dragging Rogue with her. She howled and sobbed in Rogue's arms, her fingers digging into her skin through layers. Rogue just sighed, hushing into Kitty's short hair. "There, there..." She murmured, stroking her head.
"No... No! It can't be true, it can't be true..." She sobbed, clutching her tight. They sat there like that for a long time. Piotr and Scott just watched solemnly. Eventually, Rogue carried Kitty's tired body to the infirmary lobby to wait for news.