Chapter 20

(Logan)

"Logan, look out!" You hear Angela scream as the two of you dive for cover, barely making it as a missile explodes, taking out a chunk of wall near where you'd been standing. Bullets fly all around, tracers making bright lines in the darkness that sting your eyes. "What the fuck is going on?" She shouts over the din.

"I don't know!" You reply, fury bubbling in your chest. "Did Rogue and Atlas get Evie out ok?"

"As far as I know!" She replies, ducking as another rocket explodes, scattering shrapnel over you. "Where are the rest of the teams?"

"Beta's in front, keepin' 'em busy with strike an' runs, Polaris is doin' her best to keep the big ordnance out of it. Delta's on the roof tryin' to keep their choppers busy. Alpha One is in back, Alpha Two is tryin' to outflank 'em and we're in here."

"Where's Gamma?"

"Danger Room with the rest of the kids we couldn't get out in time." You look at her with a touch of fear. You knew this day was coming, even if you'd hoped something would change enough to stop it. "Darlin', I have to go outside an' give Alpha One a hand. You get to the coms and check on Blackbird Three."

"Logan, I'm not leaving you!" She cries, grabbing your hand.

"Damn it, you have to! She's more important than either of us. Just go, I'll be fine!"

"I…" The words catch in her throat as she looks at you, sudden tears spilling from her eyes. "I love you." She finally manages to whisper.

You look down at her and your expression softens for a moment. "I know, darlin'. I love you too." You grab her and kiss her hard enough to bruise her lips. "Now get outta here an' find the damn jet! I'll find you, no matter where you go. I'll find you. I promise."

She nods and reaches out to stroke your cheek one last time. You smile briefly, then your expression hardens as you look over the remains of the wall and your claws pop out with a "snikt". With a roar of primal rage, you throw yourself out of your scant cover and disappear into the night. You throw yourself at the nearest knot of attackers, a couple of them looking barely old enough to shave much less be part of a military action of any kind. But age doesn't matter when it comes to the enemy and you cut them down quickly before they have a chance to react to your sudden presence. A series of loud "thumps" echo across the grounds and you look up in time to see a sight you'd hoped you'd never see again; three stories tall, a red light pouring from its eyes that's really a high-tech sensor. A Sentinel.

You rush across the lawn towards the one person who can help you the most right now, Colossus. He's fighting side by side with the love of his life, Shadowcat, the only person you know who may be more invulnerable to harm than you are. It's damned hard to kill someone who's essentially a ghost all the time, keeping herself tangible purely by an act of will. Your claws slash out to the sides as you run, killing enemies as they come to bear. Bullets pepper your flesh, but you ignore the pain as best as you can. You finally reach your destination. "Tin Man! I need a Special, now!" You shout over the deafening noise of battle and the massive Russian turns and grabs you by the back of your jacket. He winds up and throws you as hard as he can at the incoming robot, and as you fly towards it, its mechanical voice booms in the night.

"Mutant DNA detected. Code name Wolverine, enhanced natural weaponry, accelerated healing, heightened senses. Extremely dangerous. Terminate on sight." Well, isn't that just a peach? They know who you are. You smile as you impact with the Sentinel's head, even as you sense that it's powering up for something. Your claws flash forward once, twice, three times and the face splits open, revealing the inner workings this thing calls a brain. You continue to slash at the wiring until finally, you feel it begin to fall forward. Just before it hits the ground, you push yourself off the thing and roll out of the way, springing to your feet and looking for something else to attack.

You find yourself disappointed. This was the only Sentinel they had with them and the remaining soldiers are retreating in droves. You lunge forward, intending to follow them, but the Professor's voice in your head stops you in your tracks. 'Logan, please come to the infirmary immediately. Angela has been badly injured and Hank swears that she's only holding on long enough to talk to you.'

'What?' You send back mentally, even as your feet are carrying you towards the house, dodging holes the size of Buicks and piles of debris that may have been vehicles at some point. 'How bad is she?'

'Hank says it's no worse than the last time she was shot, so she'll come back just fine. But she swears she has a message for you.'

You jump through the patio doors, shattered in the melee and nearly run over a knot of students that you absently note as being part of Beta team. They scatter in front of you and you keep running until you hit the stairs to the lower level. 'Almost there, tell her to hang on.'

'Hurry, Logan. I don't think she has much longer.'

No matter what they say, you're always convinced that this time is the time she won't come back. She can take bruises, lacerations, even some gunshots and heal up from them in a few hours' time. But serious gunshots and deep stab wounds are beyond her abilities and you know in your soul that there will come a day when her nine lives will decide that it's had enough. You make it to the bottom of the stairs and rush headlong down the hallway to the infirmary. The doors open and you skid to a halt at what you see before you.

Lying on one of the examination tables is Angela, a hole in her chest large enough to put your fist in. You can barely hear Hank as he tells you that it actually missed her heart, but she's losing blood fast and he simply hasn't got the time to stop it. You push the blue furry mutant aside and grip your lover's hand. "Hey tiger, what'd I tell you 'bout keepin' your head down all those years ago?"

"Well, you know me." She replies weakly, blood staining her lips. She gasps in pain and pulls you down, her lips brushing your ear. "They didn't find her. She got away. But they have something else, someONE else."

"Who, darlin'? Who did they take?"

"Not who they took, who they have." Her grip on your shirt loosens and her hand falls away. "Phoenix, they called her Phoenix, but it was Jea…" Her voice fails her and she dies.

A tear slides down your cheek as you gently close her eyes. You run a fingertip down the side of her face, then lean over and kiss her on the forehead. "Come back to me tomorrow, darlin'," you whisper, "I can't live without ya." You look up at the other two men here with you with a scowl. "Did you hear what she said? DID YOU?"

"Yes Logan, we did." Hank replies, his eyes wide with shock.

"Phoenix. They called it 'Project Phoenix' in the files, but never gave it another name." You curse under your breath, your mind going back to a talk you had with your woman so many months ago, a conversation where you swore there would never be a reason good enough to make you go back to Weapon X so long as your daughter was safe. You were wrong. "Damn it, Chuck, they cloned Jean."

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

I woke up with a shout, my claws out and sprang from the bed. It took me a minute to realize that Angela had done the same thing, but there was nothing in the room to see. I took a couple of breaths in an attempt to calm myself, when a sound from the other room broke through my sleep-addled brain. "Evie!" I cried and lunged for the door.

She was tangled in her blankets, tears rolling down her cheeks and whimpering something in her sleep. Angela and I were at her side in a flash, murmuring softly and trying to wake her up, but as soon as we touched her, she shouted "NO!" and sat bolt upright. She looked around, but it seemed as though she was still caught in the grip of her dream and I realized that it was the same nightmare I'd just had. Probably the same one Angela had too.

"Princess, wake up." I said softly, reaching out and taking her hand. "C'mon, Mommy an' Daddy are here."

A shudder ran through her body and she relaxed a bit. "D-daddy?" She whispered fearfully.

"Yeah punkin, Daddy's here." I replied and she threw herself into our arms. We both consoled her as she sobbed, the three of us sitting there in a tight huddle. After about fifteen minutes, she calmed down and looked at us. "You ok honey?"

"The bad men are coming." She stated plainly and I looked at her in alarm.

"Right now?" Angela asked, a frantic look in her eye.

"No, not today. But soon, they'll be here real soon."

"Evie, tell me what you saw."

"It was dark out an' I remember it was right after dinner. I was sittin' with Wendy an' Seth an' Simon, but I knew the bad men were close by. So I yelled for you an' Daddy an' told you about it an' you went to tell everyone but Daddy picked me up an' took me to the jet. Aunt Marie an' Uncle Atlas came right after with Uncle Remy an' Aunt 'Roro an' they took me away. But I could still see the bad men comin' to the school an' they had a big robot with them an' a bunch of weapons, like I was still in the school but I wasn't. Then everythin' got really confusin' an' I could see you an' Daddy an' what was happenin' with you both, but I wasn't really there cuz I was still on the jet." She hiccupped and another huge tear ran down her face as she looked at me. "Then the one bad man that was after me got mad when I was gone an' found Mommy an' shot her while you was cuttin' the robot up. The bad man looked at Mommy an' told her that she couldn't hide me forever cuz Phoenix could find me no matter what. Then a pretty girl with red hair came out an' smiled but it wasn't a nice smile. She looked at Mommy like she hates her an' then the bad man got a message on his radio that the robot was dead an' they left. Uncle Kyro found Mommy an' carried her downstairs to Uncle Hank, but she was dyin'. But Mommy had to tell you somethin' before she did an' you got there just in time." She wiped her eyes with sleeve and sighed. "Daddy, who's Jean anyway?"

"She was a friend, an X-Man, but she died savin' a bunch o' us from a big flood." I said with a touch of sadness.

"But she was there, I saw her!"

"I know, princess. I think the bad men have a way makin' a new one."

She nodded and another tear splashed down on her hand. "Can I sleep with you guys?"

"Of course sweetheart." Angela said and I lifted her up. She wrapped her little arms around my neck and I carried her into our room, settling her in the bed in between us. Angela and I both turned so we were facing her and we wrapped our arms around her, kissing her softly on her forehead. She was asleep in a few minutes, but it didn't come back so easily for us. "The dream changed." Angela whispered and I nodded. "We can't stop them from coming, but at least we know Evie gets away."

"But for how long?" I asked quietly. "If they cloned Jean, they have a telepath that's stronger than Chuck. She could probably find her without Cerebro to help."

"We'll have to find a way to shield her from telepathic scanning."

"Yeah, but how?"

"We'll have to ask the only person we know of that's ever done it."

Oh hell no. "Darlin', you can't be serious."

"I am." She murmured. "We'll have to send someone to talk to Magneto."

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"From what you've told me, I think we'll be safe at least until spring." Xavier said. We were in his office having a private breakfast to discuss Evie's dream. "You said the trees were not in full leaf, yet they hadn't changed color, so I think it's a safe assumption."

"Well, you know what they say when you assume somethin'." I replied.

The Professor smiled. "Yes Logan, I do. However, with that one detail I believe it's all right just this once. But I will make certain to double the watch in the security center and have Buzz give the security system a thorough overhaul."

"What about the rest of it?" Angela asked, her breakfast untouched but sipping her third cup of coffee. "I know what I saw. I am absolutely certain that was Jean."

"You said she appeared to be about thirteen or fourteen years old?" Angela nodded. "From what we've gleaned from the files you've taken over the past few years, we already know that they've successfully cloned at least one person as a means of perfecting the process so they could clone Logan. It seems that person was Jean and why not? We never recovered her body from Alkali Lake, but with the incident involving Scott and Sam up there, we do know they were still monitoring the facility. It would not surprise me if they recovered her body and used it for their experiments."

"You know we can't tell Scott about this, right? He'll go ballistic."

"Agreed. But I can't in good conscience keep him out of this. It would be worse for him to discover this on his own."

"So whattaya wanna do 'bout this?" I asked, shoving my own plate aside. With all of this so new in my mind, my appetite was shot. "They're comin', we can't stop 'em, so we need a plan."

"The safety of this school is my number one priority and that includes every student and faculty member in here. You outlined your plan to get Evie away, which I approve of wholeheartedly, but we'll have to evacuate the rest of the students at the same time."

"If what we saw in Evie's dream is right, they don't all get out. We know there's a bunch in the Danger Room."

"We'll simply have to make sure that Buzz is in there as well."

"For what?"

"As soon as those doors close, he will be instructed to delete all access codes and scramble the locks until I personally give him the go-ahead to open the door."

Angela and I nodded, then I leaned forward and took a deep breath. Now for the part I wasn't sure how to bring up, mostly because I didn't know how my woman would react. "Chuck, clone or no clone, we can't leave Jean there."

Angela choked on a mouthful of coffee. "Excuse me?"

"He's right, Angela." Xavier said. "Jean Grey was one of the only Class Five mutants I've ever known. Her power was without limit as far as I could tell, still growing stronger long after most mutants have achieved the peak of their abilities. If this Phoenix is as strong as the Jean Grey I knew, she would be a powerful weapon in their hands."

"But Charles, it's not Jean. It looks like her, has her powers, but it isn't her." I detected a note of something in her voice and scent that I wasn't accustomed to - jealousy. My woman was jealous of a thirteen-year-old girl. "She doesn't have Jean's memories or knowledge, she's a thing they created like they created me and Logan and Kyro."

"Are you suggesting we simply leave her there?" Angela looked away. "Whether or not Phoenix is our Jean Grey is irrelevant. She's a child and she's being used by the same people who used you and Logan and Kyro. Would you really consign her to the same fate because of who she was created from?"

She sighed. "No, I wouldn't." She looked back at me and her expression was unreadable. "I just want to make sure that everyone and I do mean everyone understands that this Phoenix is not Jean."

"Dontcha think I know that?" I spat, suddenly angry. "I let her go a long time ago darlin', in the woods somewhere in Pennsylvania. I love you an' nothin' an' nobody can ever change that."

"Look, I just know how easy it is to be fooled by your eyes. Or do I have to remind you about a certain story I heard about a tent and Mystique?"

I looked away, clenching my jaw and took a couple deep breaths to calm down. "That was an intense night for everyone. An' you weren't there anyway, you don't know what it was like."

"Which is neither here nor there." Xavier interjected. "We have other things to worry about, first and foremost being the implementation of extra security measures. The two of you can fight about this later. I believe the Danger Room will be free after three o' clock."

"Right." I said and shot a look at Angela. Oh, we would definitely fight about this later. "So, let's call Buzz up here an' start workin' on the updates for the security system…"

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Around four-thirty, Angela and I were lying in sweaty heaps on the floor of the Danger Room. I had a nice set of claw marks healing up across my chest and face, while she had a pretty good gash across her left thigh that had thankfully missed anything major in the blood vessel department, but it had to hurt like hell. To anyone that didn't know us, it would look like we were both the abusers in an abusive relationship, but it's really not like that. When the animal takes control, the "hunt, mate, kill" instincts are the strongest. Combine that with the anger we both felt – mine because Angela was jealous of a dead woman who might be a child now, hers because Jean was Jean in her mind – and there's really only one way to work it out. We don't fight often, but when we do it's usually pretty...colorful.

I raised my head off the floor to look over to where Angela was laying; her hands clamped over the cut in her leg and sighed. "So, are you done yet or ya just waitin' to get your second wind?"

"I'm done." She replied, her voice strained. "I'm sorry Logan. It's just…you get this look on your face whenever Jean comes up, this look in your eyes. I know that you're mine forever, but I can't help but think you regret not trying harder to get her away from Scott."

Ouch. Yeah, that hit kinda close to home. I sat up and scowled. "It wasn't up to me, darlin', it was always her choice. Yeah, I wanted her to know she had options an' that I should be one of 'em, but she made her decision."

"And she died before anyone got to find out if it was the right one." She sat up with a grimace and stripped off her shirt to hold over her leg. "And where would I be if she'd chosen you? Maybe Detroit, maybe somewhere else. Maybe I'd have seen you on the news one day, playing superhero and wishing like hell that was me on your arm. Sure, I could just bide my time, wait it out til she died, because she would and I know I'll be here longer. Or maybe the possessive bitch in me would have hunted you down and told you everything you wanted to know about your past, including the part where you swore you'd always love me."

"Angela, none o' that happened. She made her choice to leave the plane. I made mine to leave the mansion, to cross in Detroit instead of Buffalo, to walk into your bar. You're the one always sayin' that everythin' happens for a reason, even if it don't make sense at the time. Jean did what she did for her reasons an' we'll never know what those were. But I have no idea why I didn't cross in Buffalo, I always do. Somethin' drew me to Detroit an' if you wanna call it fate or destiny or just blind fuckin' luck, I don't care." I ran my fingers through my hair and stood. "But I ain't gonna sit here an' listen to you goin' on 'bout shit that never happened an' never will."

"Logan, I…"

I cut her off. "No, don't apologize, don't tell me how sorry you are. Jean's dead an' even if those bastards got some clone o' her, it ain't her." I stalked out of there and to the showers, locking the door behind me. I turned the water on as hot as I could stand it and let it pound over my body, focusing all of my senses inward until the only thing I could hear was the water and the sound of my own breathing, the only scents I detected were those that were in the shower with me. If Angela tried to come in and join me, I never knew. Sure, everything I told her was true. Jean was dead, no clone would ever be the Jean I knew, I had never been the one that Jean wanted or loved. But I was keeping things from my woman, like the part where Jean would always have a place in my heart, even if she wasn't there to fill it. Losing her had been the hardest thing that had happened to me, at least that I could remember at that time. Since then, I'd remembered plenty that was much worse, but Jean was still the most immediate and thinking about her still hurt.

Angela was jealous of dead woman, but could I really blame her? I love my mate with all my heart and soul, there can never be another woman for me. But the ghost of Jean still hung around the school, even after all this time. Scott tended to get depressed around certain days, like her birthday, the day they would have married. We both got more than a little touchy on the anniversary of her death, but so did Storm, Kurt, Hank and the Professor. There were still pictures of her in some of the halls and Hank had never had the heart to get rid of her lab coat with her name embroidered on it. As the cooling water poured over my skin and I finally started to calm down, I wondered how much of this whole thing might actually be my fault, if Angela was picking up on my lingering feelings for someone I'd never had to begin with. She knows I'm completely devoted to her and my daughter, I am certain of this. Which is what made this irrational behavior all the more puzzling to me.

Finally, the water got too cold for my liking and I switched it off. I stepped out of the shower and took my time drying off, then pulled on one of the thousands of Xavier School sweat suits that are always lying around. I went back upstairs just as slowly, still going over everything in my head. Was it me? Was it all her? Were we both crazy? Scratch that, of course we were. Students and faculty alike moved out of my way as I went back to the suite. I was about to fling the door open when I caught a strange scent coming from inside the room. It wasn't a bad smell, just unusual. I opened the door slowly and my jaw hit the floor.

I must have been in the shower longer than I thought, because Angela had transformed our room into something I'd only seen on TV shows. White candles stood on every available surface, unscented of course. The scent I'd picked up came from a small dish on the windowsill that held incense that smelled of vanilla and sandalwood. A bottle of wine and two glasses sat on the headboard and a tray with finger foods sat in the middle of the bed. Curled around the tray, looking like a very self-satisfied cat that had just gotten away with something was Angela, clad in a red silk robe.

"You wouldn't let me say it earlier, so I thought I'd just show you." She purred. I stepped inside and closed the door softly behind me. "Everyone who lives within three rooms of us agreed to move until tomorrow morning. Evie's with Sam and Storm."

"Angela, you didn't have to…"

She cut me off. "Yes, I did. I'm being irrational and it's not fair to you. So here we are, an entire wing to ourselves until tomorrow morning." She slid carefully off the bed and crossed over to me. "So, come join me so we can make up, ok?"

I nodded, wrapped my arms around her and leaned down to kiss her. She led me over to the bed and we made up until the wee hours of the morning. In the end, it didn't matter if it was me or her or Jean's ghost. I have Angela, she has me and we have Evie. We didn't need anything else.

AN: Well, i spoke too soon it would seem...my fiancee is BACK in the hospital...same shit, different week...but i'm almost out of vacation days and i have precious little to keep me awake at work, so i should be able to update a bit more regularly...i'm gonna try to get a couple chapters posted per week, but i make NO promises...also, my deepest apologies to TnTornado, who is a HE not a SHE...i'm so sorry!! Special thanks to all the usual suspects, with an extra burst of good mojo to Zac to hurry up and get better FOR REAL THIS TIME...at the rate you're going, they'll have to rename the hospital after you!

Now for the normal reminder that if i get even ONE new reviewer, then EVERYONE gets a new chapter as soon as i read the review! You don't even have to say anything more than "hello", so what are you waiting for?