Chapter 9: The Colony

"What the hell happened?"

Magneto sighed and explained for the tenth time what he had seen and heard. "I went to see what had happened. I saw the little girl. As I was walking back to my tent, that man grabbed my shoulder, then he fainted and blood came out of his mouth and nose and eyes, just like the girl."

Vince stared at him. "Tell us again, what he said."

"He said that nothing could hold him and then he said, 'Help me.' That's all."

The man in question was lying inside his own tent on a cot. His wife, presumably, and his small children were sitting near him. He was not dead, but he had not moved or closed his eyes since he had first fallen down. The bleeding had stopped, but he still had red stains on his face and hands. After initially moving him into this tent, everyone seemed reluctant to touch him.

Logan stepped forward. "Is it some kind of virus?"

One of the men Magneto did not know spoke. "I've never seen anything like this."

"When he first spoke to me, it was as if he was not speaking in his own voice, as if he were in a trance. Then, he fell and seemed to be aware of himself again," Magneto said.

"This all started when he got here!" Greg said suddenly to Logan, pointing to Magneto. Magneto looked over at Logan, to see what his reaction would be. Logan looked at him.

"They're right, you know," he said. He turned to Greg, "But he's a metal worker, not a mind controller. Even if he's the reason this happened, he didn't do it."

"If he's the reason, he should leave." A murmuring began, assenting to what Greg had said.

"No," Logan said. "He stays."

Greg glared. "I say he goes. How many more people are gonna bleed out of their eyeballs before you agree with us?"

"With us?" Logan sneered. "Who's us?" He turned, slightly flashing his still white teeth, to face the rest of the people who had gathered in the tent and outside of it. There were no more murmurs of agreement. There was only silence.

Greg appeared unnerved by this, crossing his arms protectively in front of himself.

"There is no us," Logan growled. "There's me and there's you. You've trusted me all these years to protect you, protect your children. Trust me now." He pointed to Magneto. "If he becomes a problem, I'll deal with him. For now, he stays, or we both go and you're on your own."

The crowd shuffled uncomfortably, but not one of them raised his voice to oppose the Wolverine. Gradually, they began to depart until no one was left in the tent but Magneto, Logan, and the man on the bed.

"If I become a problem, you won't be able to deal with me, Wolverine," Magneto said quietly.

"I've gotten the better of you before."

"Not without help."

Logan looked coldly at him. "I've got help," he said ambivalently.

Magneto sat down in a chair opposite the man on the cot. "Do you know his name?"

"Patrick," he answered.

"Do you know all their names?"

Logan didn't answer. He checked the comatose Patrick's pulse and then said, "Is it possible you're being followed or tracked by a telepath?"

"Before I left the city, I was confronted by two mutants, a weather mutant called Sky and another metal worker."

"You've got Sky after you? Commander Sky of the Elemental forces?"

"Yes. Do you know her?"

"Heard of her. She's some kind of big shot."

Magneto frowned. "I was with two others, who were helping me. A girl named Tymah and a teleported called Daytripper."

Logan raised an eyebrow. "Daytripper?"

"Yes."

He nodded. "Who else did you meet?"

"When I was awoken, I met several Animalis mutants, Fellswoop...another called Creature."

"Jesus, you've met all the big wigs. You meet Godspeed too?"

Magneto shook his head. "No, but she was supposed to have been there, when they revived me."

"Jesus," he said again.

"They seem to think that I am the answer to peace in their time, a means to end the mutant wars."

Logan laughed. "Do they know your track record?"

Magneto smiled wryly.

"Well, I guess it's only fair. You did start them, after all."

"I started the war against humanity, this intermutant conflict is inexplicable to me."

Logan was quiet for a moment, then he said, "It's ironic, isn't it? You spent your life fighting to destroy humanity, and then sixty years later you had to find what was left of it in order to save your own life."

Magneto narrowed his eyes. "I was looking for you. If you had been in the Amazon defending the rain forest, I would have gone there."

"I thought about that," Logan mused, "not much for company, though, trees. Plus, I'm not a fan of bugs."

Then, there was a gasp and a cough and a sudden scream, and Patrick was awake.

The forest blazed a bright orange-green in the midst of the sunset. Tymah, Spitfire and Daytripper walked along in silence, leaves crunching gently underfoot, and the occasional twig snapping. There were a plethora of birds and bugs here that Tymah had never seen before and she realized, then, that she was, for the first time in her life, not in a city. Here, in these woods, these ongoing, never ending woods, the closest thing to rubble she could see was the occasional felled tree. And even they were beautiful. A fallen tree was more like an art sculpture, while a smashed building always looked like trash, no matter what angle you looked at it from. A pile of debris was a pile of debris, but here, in the forest, a pile of leaves and twigs was peaceful to behold. A hollowed out stump was much more poetic than a blown out building, with its windows in pieces on the sidewalk.

"Tymah? You ok?"

She had stopped walking without even realizing it. Spit had his hand on her shoulder, and she looked at him in surprise. "Sorry. I was just…can we just stay here?" she asked stupidly.

"If you want to," he replied, and for a moment, he seemed serious.

"Hey guys," Daytripper called ahead of them, "we can settle here for tonight." Tymah and Spit caught up with him. Their hotel for that night was much like their last, a pile of rocks, with extended ledges to keep out any possible rain. Spit started the fire. They ate what they had brought with them and drank water from their canteens.

Spit fell asleep first, wrapped tightly in his blanket, near the fire. Tymah edged closer to the flame. "Is it just me, or is it getting colder, the farther we walk?"

Daytripper smiled. "It's just gonna get colder. The farther north we go, the colder it gets."

"Can we go south?"

"We could, but we'll never get to the human colony if we do…" he answered, smiling still.

Tymah fell silent. Any mention of the human colony made her stomach churn. It was worse, infinitely worse, than dealing with Animalis. She had felt like a traitor then. Now, she felt like she was betraying not just her own species of mutant, but every mutant on the planet, every mutant that had ever walked the earth, from Magneto to Godspeed to Fellswoop.

"It won't be so bad, Tym," Daytripper said for the millionth time, "honestly. They're just humans…it's not like I'm leading us into a pit of poisonous snakes, or something."

"You might as well be," she said. "Why can't we just hide out here, until our powers come back?"

"Because eventually we're going to run out of food and supplies. Come on, I promise it'll be ok."

Tymah looked at him, and saw the kindness in his eyes, the same kindness and understanding she had seen that first night when Magneto had returned. She had been so frightened then, and he had known it. "I'm scared, Tripper," she said. "I'm really scared."

His expression changed. "Tymah, you're shivering."

"Yeah, I told you, I'm cold," she said.

Daytripper moved next to her, put his arm around her and a blanket around them both. "You trust me, right?"

Tymah nodded, feeling strange but safe with his arm around her.

"Then, trust me when I tell you that it'll be ok."

"I'm really trying," she said.

"Ok," he said. He lay down and she lay down beside him. "Let's get some sleep." He wrapped the blanket tight around them both, but did not put his arm around her again. It was odd, but she found herself wishing that he would.

"Patrick! Hey! Hey! It's alright, it's me, it's Logan!"

Wild-eyed, Patrick searched for the source of the voice. His eyes roved around the tent and finally focused on the Wolverine. "Shit…" he whispered hoarsely. "Logan…Logan…" He reached out and grabbed Logan's arm with a shaking hand.

"Yeah," Logan responded kindly, "yeah, Pat, it's me."

Patrick's eyes defocused and focused again. "Meredith…?"

"She's fine. She's with the kids. Do you know what happened? Do you remember?"

"Logan!" he cried frantically. "She's knows you!"

Logan frowned. "Of course Meredith knows me."

Patrick's mouth opened and closed. He shook his head furiously. Then he saw Magneto. "Him! She knows him!"

Logan turned to look at Magneto, and then turned back to the man on the bed. "No, she doesn't know him. Meredith couldn't know him. What are you talking about, Pat?"

Patrick looked like a child lost in the woods. He wanted to speak, but could not find the words. He was desperate to explain, but was incapable. His eyes kept leaping between Magneto and Logan and as they did, his mouth opened, as if about to speak, and then closed again, confused. Finally, his eyes rolled back into his head and he burst out with, "Magneto…!" The rest was unintelligible.

Magneto rushed to him and leaned over the bed. "Do you know me?" he asked. "Do you know me?"

Patrick's eyes were dead. They focused on nothing. "No," he answered dully, "but she does…"

"Who?" Magneto begged.

Patrick's head dropped to the side and a stream of blood came pouring out of his nose and mouth, quickly saturating the pillow.

"No!" Wolverine cried. "Patrick!" he shook him, "Patrick!," but Patrick's body was like a doll in his hands—lifeless and floppy. "Shit!" Wolverine growled. He swerved around, his claws flashing, ready to lunge at Magneto.

Instinctively, Magneto held him back. "Stop!" he yelled at him, his eyes shifting between Wolverine and the hideous visage of the corpse. "This is not my doing!"

"He said 'Magneto,' you son of a bitch!" Logan screamed. "You develop some new powers while you were in deep freeze?"

Magneto continued to hold him. "No!"

Logan snarled like an animal. "What did you do to him? What did you do to Nina?"

"Nina?"

"The little girl!"

"I did nothing! She did it!" Magneto said.

"Who's she?"

"That's what we need to find out." He raised his hand. "I could crush you, Wolverine. Right now. No amount of healing powers could repair the damage I could do to you! That is my power! Not…" he nodded mournfully towards the bloody Patrick, "not this…"

"Patrick?" said a small voice from behind them. "Patrick!" The woman whom Magneto assumed was Meredith, rushed to the side of her husband's bed, calling his name. She touched him, and then she saw his eyes. "Oh!" she cried. "Oh no…no!" She clapped her hands over her mouth, and two tears, one from each eye, dripped down over her long, white fingers. Magneto released his hold on Logan and with out a second look at him, Logan moved towards Meredith.

She put up her hand, indicating for him to stop. He remained where he was and said nothing. Magneto watched as the small, slightly built woman, stopped up her tears and stood up straight. She gather a handful of the sheets, and mechanically approached her dead husband.

Slowly, she stretched out the hand with the sheet grasped tightly in it, and after what seemed like an eternity, she began to mop the blood away from his face. As she did, her body relaxed, and the tears flowed freely, but silently.

"Meredith…" Logan started to say.

"Shh...," Meredith whispered, as she closed Patrick's eyes with her other hand, "I can't let the children see their daddy like this. Please, let me do this by myself."

Logan nodded, and Magneto followed him out of the tent. Several men approached them immediately. "He's dead," Logan said.

"Did he say anything? Did he wake up?"

Logan's eyes flitted briefly towards Magneto, but only for a split second. "No," he answered.

"What are we gonna do?"

"We're gonna let me figure it out," Logan answered gruffly, pushing past the men and walking away from the crowds.

"Should I thank you, or are you just going to kill me in my sleep?" asked Magneto, when they were far enough away from the people.

"Don't thank me. Get your stuff and get out of my camp."

"Logan, whatever is happening here, it is happening to us both!"

Logan walked on. "It didn't start till you got here, I know that much."

"Yes! And why is that? Why am I here?"

He stopped abruptly and turned in a slow, menacing way. "That's what this is all about? You think you were put here for a reason? I'll tell you something!" his voice raised, "There are no reasons! No purpose! You're here and I'm here! That's it! That's all!"

"No, Logan. That's not all. Memories erased, people remembering things that never happened, forgetting things that did! Our race pitted against itself!"

"I don't care!" he screamed back. "It's got nothing to do with me and my people!"

"These are not your people, Wolverine!"

Magneto's final words hung like a stuck pendulum, ceasing to swing, heavy like lead with finality and truth. He would never know what they would have lead up to, for at that moment, he saw someone walking towards them, someone he recognized.

"Tymah…" he said aloud.

"What?" Wolverine growled. He turned and saw her, too. Close behind her was Daytripper, followed by a young man Magneto did not know.

Logan's face revealed surprise. "Trip!" he called. "What the hell?"

"Hey, Logan," Daytripper said back.

"You don't usually take the long way here," said Logan.

Tripper smiled. "Yeah. It's a long story—," he stopped when he recognized—"Magneto!" He fell to one knee, looking up at him. "How did you—"

Tymah was smiling with relief. "We thought…we were afraid…" she smiled again, speechless.

Logan's face tensed. "Get up, Trip. He's not Jesus Christ!"

Daytripper looked at him in surprise. "Logan, this is Magneto!" he said incredulously.

"I know who he is, and if you want him to stay alive, start calling him Eric. The name Magneto doesn't exactly strike a pleasant cord around here."

Daytripper looked to Magneto, who nodded and said, "It's alright. Use my human name."

Tripper got up and Logan stared at all of them as if reviewing a bad play. "You are loving this, aren't you?" he said to Magneto coolly, "you son of a bitch."

"Logan!" Tripper hissed

"Shut up," ordered Logan. "On second thought, tell me who the hell you're bringing into my camp."

Daytripper looked shamefacedly at the rest of his entourage, clearly uneasy about being told what to do in such a gruff manner, and yet also seeming to be quite used to such behavior. "Tymah and I were Cured—by Elemental soldiers. Spit helped us escape. He's a fire a mutant."

"Spit?"

"Um…it's short for Spitfire," said Spit quietly.

Logan snorted. "Cute."

Tymah stared at the man Tripper had called Logan. He was a disgruntled, rough looking mutant, with scraggily, unkempt black hair, and a beard. He did not look a day over thirty five, but he carried himself with the self-assurance of a man who had been around much longer. His attitude towards Magneto disturbed her, as if he somehow knew Magneto better than they did, which was clearly impossible, as Magneto had allegedly died many years before this mutant was born.

It further intrigued her that Daytripper knew this man quite well, calling him by his name. She wondered how they knew each other and why this gruff looking mutant had taken to a human colony for refuge, instead of a mutant one. She had too many questions, so she said nothing.

Instead, she hung to the back with Spit, after their initial introduction to Logan. "That's the guy they call the Wolverine. He's been protecting this human colony for as long as anyone can remember," said Spit confidentially.

Tymah frowned. "He's a young man," she said.

"No, he's not. He's got healing powers. He could be as old as Magneto."

Tymah stared at this "Wolverine" with a new sense wonder and awe. She had heard of mutants with regenerative powers, but had never seen one. For all his gruffness and feral appearance, an appearance which suggested a violent, animal nature, the Wolverine had neither scratch nor scar, barely a crease on his brow.

Magneto approached them. "I'm so glad you're alright. I'm sorry I left you back there."

She shook her head. "You had to. And we're glad you're alright. How did you know to come here, sir?" she asked.

Magneto looked over at Logan, who was talking to Daytripper in an angry whisper, gesturing furiously toward Magneto, but not looking at him. "I know that mutant. I came to speak to him. Pyro told me where he was. It's pure coincidence that you are also here."

"He doesn't seem to like you much," Spit commented.

Magneto half-smiled. "I shouldn't think so. He was my enemy once upon a time. An X-Man. A group of mutants who took it upon themselves to defend humanity."

"I've never heard of them, sir," Tymah said.

"No…and that troubles me greatly. It's part of the reason I came here. Some of your history seems to have been unaccountably erased. I thought he might have some answers."

"Does he?"

Magneto did not answer. "There have been some incidents in this camp since my arrival and I'm afraid he wants me to leave it."

"What kind of incidents?" Tymah asked.

"Two deaths, strange and identical, but unrelated."

Tymah shivered. She wished she had her powers, she was so empty and fearful without them. She could see humans in the distance, clad in tattered cloth and animal skins. Her insides burned with the hatred she had been born with, but she said nothing. At the moment, much as she shuddered to think it, she was also human. It made her sick.

Persuaded by Daytripper, Logan reluctantly decided that Magneto should remain in the colony. Bitter as he may have been, Logan could not deny his curiosity at Magneto's sudden, and inexplicable resurrection. Likewise, it became more obvious that he did not believe Magneto had caused the deaths of the two humans, any more than Tymah did, and he wanted to know what had. Though not the cause, he believed Magneto to be the link. It was the only thing that made sense.

As they walked further into the colony, curious, prying eyes followed their every movement, and Tymah made sure to keep her eyes to the ground. If ever she looked up, it was to once again come face to face with the reality that she had become human, and was now forced into the company of humans for her own protection. She continued in this manner, when suddenly she saw a pair of bare feet come running into their little group. A young woman's voice cried, "Trip! Trip!"

Tymah looked up and saw a girl with long brown hair and pretty green eyes throwing herself onto Daytripper. Instinctively, Tymah moved to defend Tripper from the attacker, when she saw that he had embraced her, was holding her close and saying her name, "Janet!" And then, he kissed her on her lips, twice, three times, spinning her around in a happy twirl.

"I missed you!" Janet cried. "You were gone for so long this time!"

He pushed back her hair lovingly and apologized. "I missed you, too." He kissed her again, oblivious to anyone or anything other than the human female in front of him.

Tymah stepped back, a sick, twisting feeling in her stomach. Her legs felt like wavering blades of grass, she nearly fell. Disgusted, nauseated and betrayed—she spun around, tripping over her own feet, as she ran, pell-mell in absolutely no direction at all. She thought she heard someone call her name, but all she wanted to do was get away, get away, get away!