I apologise, it has been seven long months, but my exams are now over and I have time to write. Let's go!

Yes, I am a bit rusty. PLEASE give some constructive criticism.

Wolverine's eyes widened as he found the red giant charging towards the team. His loud footsteps echoed throughout the grounds like thunderclaps, the ground beneath them trembling as he began to pick up speed, head lowered to gain as much ramming power as he possibly could.

Nightcrawler was the first to leap into battle, swords raised as he teleported onto his opponent in a desperate attempt to try and pry his helmet off. The effort was met by Juggernaut reaching up and clubbing his attacker off with a colossal hand. Iceman was next up, freezing a patch of ground that the Juggernaut was running across. The effect that he'd been trying to achieve was to cause the Juggernaut to fall over and allow them to take his helmet off. Unfortunately, it was in vain as the tremors broke the ice into tiny pieces, the titan's charge left uninterrupted. Rogue ran past, shoving Iceman out of the way.

"Bobby, for an X-Man, your tactics need some work."

Rogue soon found herself eating her words as she tried jumping onto the Juggernaut and grabbing onto his arm. The effort met with dismal failure as she was effortlessly tossed aside and hit a tree, passing out. Wolverine immediately ran to her.

"Elf, I need to stabilise her or she's going to suffer some permanent damage! As soon as she absorbs my healing factor, you're getting her indoors and moving her and the Professor. Understand?"

"Ja," came the reply.

Cyclops fired an eye blast in an effort to break the enemy's stride, but quickly jumped out the way as soon as he could.

"How about a plan, Logan? We could do with a bit of direction here!"

Beast rolled his eyes.

"Of all the times you choose to have a leadership dispute, you choose now? Get your priorities sorted!"

"I need to prioritise? You're the one who forgets to eat when you're in the lab!"

Storm struck Juggernaut with a bolt of lightning, mostly forcing herself to keep going due to the threat but also due to the irritation she was having at the immaturity of her teammates.

"Can it, Cyclops! If you want to make a leadership challenge, make it when we're having the coffee afterwards and not when we're about to get trampled to death." Ororo prepared a second lightning bolt, but this time her opponent was better prepared and Iceman found himself being picked up and colliding against her in midair. Both fell, but were intercepted by Beast and Nightcrawler before they could fall too far.

Wolverine had managed to close the distance between himself and Rogue. Looking at the damage that had been done, there was a large gash on her head, her arm had been dislocated if not broken multiple times as well and she might potentially suffer from brain damage. Desperate not to let down the girl that was the closest thing he had to a daughter, he popped her arm back into place and was relieved to discover that the dislocation appeared to be the only problem. He then pulled his mask down and put her forehead next to his, waiting for her power draining abilities to overcome him.

He gritted his teeth and felt the pain wash over him, feeling his skin age as if he were a normal human being. The gashes on the sides of his face from the most recent Danger Room simulation were reopening, followed by the tear in his side from the scaffolding he had collided with in the battle against the Sentinels and Inner Circle. He came close to howling as he felt most of his recent wounds reopen. Don't let go, Logan, don't let go. Rogue needs you.

Eventually, the damage that had been done to her head started to heal up, the gash almost vanishing into thin air. He noticed that her arm was starting to go back to normal, but forced himself to try and keep holding on; even if he couldn't see the brain damage, it didn't mean that she didn't have any. A few more cuts around his chest reopened, and he felt his healing factor was going into overdrive just to try and keep blood circulating.

"Almost... there..." he faintly muttered.

"Almost never gets you the stash of money at the end of a job, Wolverine." He helplessly looked up to find that Juggernaut had knocked out Storm and Iceman as well, with Beast and Cyclops struggling to stand. Forge was presumably trying to keep the mansion defences up and stop him getting in, but they all knew that it was a useless gesture against a force so destructive. At that moment, Wolverine felt it all go into slow motion.

"Kurt... get her out now..."

The words were barely even a whisper anymore, with all of Wolverine's energy now sapped. The Canadian felt himself finally let go of her before he slumped backwards.

"Y'know, it's such a pity that you didn't join Magneto's Acolytes when he was still in charge, Wolverine. You'd have made an excellent member. But then you had to go and abduct me..."

Wolverine knew the truth, but he was still too weak to argue back. He could barely keep breathing, and blood was now streaking down his body.

Then Cain Marko just stood there for a minute.

"Get your friend out of here. The fight's between you and me."

Nightcrawler teleported in, picking Rogue up and teleporting away again, presumably taking her to the medical bay as fast as he could. Wolverine tried to stand up again, but had nothing left to give.

"So no fight from your side of the pitch? I hate doing it this way, but a score to settle's still a score to settle. This fight will be over soon."

With that, the heavy footsteps slowly marched towards him and he closed his eyes, ready for death.

***

Meanwhile, at Mr Sinister's hideout

Colossus awoke to find himself strapped to an operating table, a collar around his neck. Despite his best efforts to free himself, the bounds that restricted him holding strong despite his best efforts.

He took a moment to pause and take in his surroundings. He noticed a cage in which a small Alsatian lay, eyes wearily staring through the bars with a look of sadness before it dozed off, its lowered head revealing a scarred neck with the signs of multiple injections. Piotr shuddered in horror before he angled his head left, seeing his sister in a similar predicament-

-and then he found himself almost foaming at the mouth in rage, as he saw Sinister standing next to the table, syringe in hand. Next to him, in turn, stood an eager Riptide with a clipboard and pen in each hand, a wide grin upon his face and a dark look in his eyes.

"Are we ready to proceed with the experiment, sir?"

"Almost, Riptide, almost. I take it that our young guest has had her pain receptors switched off, with everything being measured?"

"Affirmative. All the machines are presently monitoring her vital signs, including her pulse, breath and brainwaves. If she even daydreams, it's going to be recorded."

Sinister's face twitched mildly, as he was quite clearly trying to repress the pleasure from what he was about to do, syringe twitching only slightly as his arm descended towards Ilyana. This was more than Piotr could bear, and he roared at the pair of them in a mixture of anguish and hatred.

"Ah," muttered Sinister, slight disappointment registering in his voice as he realised the procedure was going to be interrupted.

"Welcome, Piotr. I see you are finally awake after your encounter with Archangel just outside Moscow. How are you feeling?"

No answer.

"Clearly the shock of being in a completely different location, after being depowered and strapped to an operating table, has left you a little lost for words. Never mind. I'll do what little talking we have time for this session."

Sinister paused again, putting the syringe down. This action caused his older captive to struggle forwards, having clearly imagined that Sinister might just be speeding up procedures anyway.

"I suppose you are wondering how we were so easily able to find you."

"Not really," Piotr replied. "You spent your resources tracking us down to a remote village in the Russian countryside, and then spent millions of dollars breaking one of the most dangerous super soldiers out of prison, just to scare two mutants away. Do you really think I can't imagine how you tracked a brother and sister down? You stuck a tracking device on Ilyana when one of your henchmen dragged her out of the house, you had a telepath following me, you bugged every single bus going to Moscow; I honestly don't know, and it doesn't matter. I'm here whether I like it or not, so just spare me the technicalities."

Sinister sighed. Clearly, Piotr had some fire left in his soul despite the cold and the bitter hardships that his family had been going through. It would certainly take some time, but he'd not been one to be deprived of information. Even if a man was made of steel, there would be a way to circumnavigate his physical defences and aim straight for his heart, and mercifully he had the perfect tool for the job right next to him.

***
Xavier Institute

"Hey, Cain. You want a fight? I'll give you a fight!"

Cyclops had taken advantage of the distraction and ripped off the visor, unleashing all the power that he had available. A powerful eye beam slammed into Juggernaut and sent him flying back. Nine hundred pounds of raw power crashed into the ruins of the pool, where it lay for several minutes, though eventually the Juggernaut managed to get back up and trekked back towards the mansion, gradually speeding up as he overcame the opposite force despite the concussion.

Then Cain found himself dragged sharply into the ground as Kitty Pride joined the fight, her intangibility dragging him into the ground and leaving him stuck there, at least for now. After that, he found himself temporarily frozen in the ground as Iceman froze over his helmet and a bolt of lightning struck him a second later. Taking advantage of the temporary reprieve they would have from his confusion and temporary paralysis, Forge began loading up data to try and find a more permanent way to get Juggernaut away from the mansion. Teleporting him away would only serve to make him madder, and if possible Forge wanted to convince him that they weren't responsible for his waking up inside a burning helicopter.

The far future

As Charles Xavier found the timeline that he inhabited fading around him, and another taking its place, his thoughts drifted not towards his team, but instead to a point of dissatisfaction and depression that he had never shared with anybody else, not even Jean or Scott, with whom he had generally been able to confide anything. His feelings about his failure to keep Erik Lensherr from going too far were no secret; indeed, he had brought them up frequently whenever talking to one of the older X-Men.

Charles felt his thoughts drifting towards his stepbrother, Cain Marko.

Cain Marko, more commonly known as the Juggernaut, had reportedly been the stepbrother of Chuck back in the day, born to an American businessman and former crook. The two had fought side by side in the Korean War, having signed up for the army after Cain's father had developed a nasty streak. After almost a whole year of fighting, a collapsing tunnel during a mission in South Korea had trapped the pair in a cave and exposed the latter to the powers of the gem of Cytorak. From there, things deteriorated between the two rapidly as Charles found his stepbrother becoming more unhinged towards the end of their tour of duty, often charging into heavily occupied enemy territory with limited backup and insufficient weaponry. If not for the gem, it would have been quite likely that Cain would never have returned home alive.

At the end of their tours of duty, Cain and Charles did not ruin their brotherly bond with a vicious brawl or a loud argument. The two had reportedly simply stared at one another for what felt like eternity, gazing to see who would do something first. In the end, Cain had simply tightened his coat, picked up a suitcase and turned away, walking off and back towards a life in America with his father. Charles had been dumbstruck and hurt by the set of events, opting instead to return to his mother and back to the life they had left behind in England. The next time they had spoken, he had been confined to a wheelchair following his dealings with Lucifer, and Cain's old personality had been usurped entirely by a boisterous, inconsiderate brute whose only purpose in life was to break bones, smash buildings and break spirits for Magneto.

Charles felt the tears rolling down his face, just before the background changed and the barren desert that he had been standing in was replaced by dead soil and withered grass. He felt Bishop put a hand on his shoulder, and he was grateful for the gesture, but as far as they could all see they were stuck in the future, regardless of what the X-Men changed back in his own time.

***

I appreciate this is brief, but I just felt the need to get things rolling again. After all, it's only been about a year. Thanks for reading, and again please review and criticise constructively!

(Oh, and there's a poll on my profile about this story. Go and vote, you may influence one of the stories I have coming up.

And there's a Minecraft fanfiction I've written that I'd appreciate you R&R'ing. Thanks, that's all. Bye!)