An X-Men Evolution Christmas Carol
By HazelEyes 401
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Disclaimer: I don't own X-men Evolution or the story A Christmas Carol.
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Chapter 4: The Ghost of Christmas Past
Logan lay down in his bed and tried to forget about that strange vision of the ghost of Captain America. Captain America was still in cryostasis waiting for a cure to his illness and in some way was still alive.
"I am never going to eat any of Kitty's cooking ever again. You'd think I'd learn from that time she gave me food poisoning." Logan grumbled as he drew his covers over his shoulder and closing his eye in sleep.
"Expect the first ghost at the strike of one."
The grandfather clock in the mansion rang at one o'clock and a loud bell sounded to signal the time.
Dong.
Logan popped his eyes awake as he remembered what Captain America had said earlier that night, about the ghosts coming. Logan didn't see anything so he shrugged his shoulders and closed his eyes only to open them again when a bright light filled his room. Logan sat up covering his eyes with his hand and still squinting as the light engulfed every corner of his room and with a flash disappeared leaving a glowing figure standing in the center of the room.
Logan moved his hand down and saw a familiar figure he never expected to see.
"Thomas Beauregard." Logan growled as he leapt with his claws out to attack the intruder . . . only to pass right through him and crash to the floor.
"Who is this Thomas Beauregard?" The ghost who sounded and looked like Thomas Beauregard spoke to the prone form of Logan.
"He's the trash of a mutant that looks like you! Who or what are you?" Logan demanded as he stood up from the floor and dusted himself off.
"Didn't anyone inform you Ah was coming?" The ghost waited as Logan shrugged his shoulders causing the ghost to sigh.
"Ah am the Ghost of Christmas Past." The ghost spread out his arms and made a small bow toward Logan.
"You're the Ghost of Christmas Past?" Logan asked as the Ghost nodded in affirmation.
"Why do you look like Rogue's older brother?"
"This is the form that would best reach you, but I take it you don't like this form very much." The Ghost surmised as Logan walked toward and around the Ghost to sit on his bed.
"No, we don't get along. First impressions tend to stick and we had a very bad first impression." Logan explained as he started to lie down.
"What are you doing, James?" The Ghost asked as he observed Logan getting comfortable under the covers.
"Look, it's been a long day and I am going back to sleep." Logan replied gruffly.
The Ghost of Christmas Past shook his head and looked at Logan.
"YTC was right you will be a difficult one. He'll never let us live that down." Christmas Past whispered under his breath then he spoke up to address Logan.
"Ya don't understand what's going on do ya? Ya see you don't go to sleep tonight, we have too much ta do and not a lot of time ta do it in. So, there will be no sleep for ya tonight." Christmas Past exclaimed as he telekinetically picked Logan off of the bed and they flew up, phasing through the mansion and Logan looked below to see they were flying over Bayville.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" Logan screamed to the Ghost of Christmas Past as he laughed and found a better grip on Logan's upper arm.
"We are going down memory lane and visit some of yer past Christmas days." Christmas Past exclaimed as Logan looked over to him.
"I guess you don't realize this but I don't have most of my memories. Something happened and I can't remember much before ten years ago so I guess you won't have much to work with." Logan yelled to make himself heard over the wind as Christmas Past smiled and looked Logan in the eye.
"Ya still don't understand? Ah can remember Christmas Days over the past thousand years. Ah remember yours even if you don't. Besides, Ah'm sure that those memories are stuck up in your head somewhere." Christmas Past joked as he tapped Logan's forehead with his index finger.
A light started glowing around Christmas Past's finger and engulfed the pair as Logan closed his eyes. Upon opening his eyes he saw they were over a different older city that belonged in the last century. The city that looked up on them was filled with snow covered trees and small houses with smoke pouring from the chimneys in the wintry day. There were a few old cars puttering down on the frigid roads being another testament that Logan was sometime deep in the past. The city was dirty looking with snow blanketed fields in the distance. The ground started getting closer as Christmas Past gently set them down at a farm house.
"What is this place, Thomas?" Logan asked.
"Ah'm the Ghost of Christmas Past, James. You tell me where we are. This is one of your memories." Christmas Past patted Logan on the back as he looked around.
A little girls peals of laughter caught Logan's attention as the little girl came running from around the little house. The little girl was no more than 4 feet tall with long light brown auburn hair held back in a loose pony tail as she skipped backward keeping her back to the pair of onlookers. Her long heavy dress was dark blue with a white laced hem, she had a black shawl that covered her shoulders as she clasped her hands behind her, playing with someone in the yard. She turned and Logan's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. The little girl looked exactly like a younger Rogue without the streaks of white in her hair, but other than that this little girl could be Rogue's twin. Everything was the same down to the girls light green eyes.
"I wonder who that could be? Do you know Logan?" Christmas Past looked toward his companion as the little girl skipped over to them and Logan moved out of the way when they would have collided.
"It looks like Rogue." Logan stared at the child as she continued to skip in a circle.
"Well, that's quite impossible since we are Seventy years into yer past." Logan snapped his head to stare at Christmas Past at this last statement.
"Seventy years in the past then this is. . . I can't remember the place but I know that girl, that's . . ."
"Bethany?" A man came running around the house chasing after the girl as she laughed some more as the man gently tackled her and picked her up to sit her on his shoulders.
"That's Bethany." Logan stared as he started to remember the little girl in his past.
"Who's Bethany?" Christmas Past asked as he watched the pair.
"She was a little girl I knew back before World War II destroyed everything." Christmas Past looked at Logan but his focus was redirected when he saw the man holding Bethany on his shoulders.
"Mr. Jimmy, you're so very strong." Logan and Christmas Past could see the man holding up Bethany was none other than a younger Logan, but still looking like the Logan of the present.
"Well, you're getting faster every day Bethany. It's going to take me longer to catch you if you keep this up." James Howlett joked with the girl on his shoulders.
"You're so funny, Mr. Jimmy. Oh, are you staying for Christmas Dinner? Mamma made a turkey with stuffing and all kinds of vegetables to eat. Besides, she cooked too much for our little family." Bethany gleefully asked the man holding her as he looked up and answered.
"Of course, I'll come. No one can turn down your mother's cooking it is the best in the country." James laughed as he walked off with the little girl on his shoulders around the house to enter the kitchen. Logan and Christmas Past could hear laughter as the family enjoyed Christmas Dinner in their little house with their Canadian friend.
"She seems like a nice girl and one that you see very often over the next few years." Christmas Past exclaimed as Logan looked up as the Ghost pointed toward the house the sun and moon started circling one another madly showing the passing of time until the sun settled over the sky and Christmas Past put his arm down.
"Now we are still with the family but they've gotten older now." Christmas Past stated as a young woman dressed in a long blue winter dress crossed the little yard and waved at a boy who stood across the street.
"Bethany." Logan heard his voice and was thinking it was getting creepy hearing his voice from a different source.
"Yes, Mr. Jimmy." Bethany turned around and she looked to be about fifteen years old now. James trotted up beside the girl as he saw the teenage boy across the street.
"Who's the boy?" James asked the girl as she started to intertwine her forefingers and started blushing growing nervous about talking to the boy.
"Oh no, not now, please don't fight." Logan clasped his hands together in prayer as he tried to beg his younger self not to fight with this dear girl.
"You really don't remember this, do you? This was before you became a bah humbug badger." Christmas Past joked as he pointed to the younger Logan speaking with Bethany.
"Oh, that's Hanz. He's a boy I met at school, he's really nice. I wanted to ask him to eat Christmas Dinner with us but I'm not sure if Mamma would allow it." Bethany explained as she stared at Hanz as he walked down the street away from Bethany's house.
"I'm sure he would have loved it, Bethany." Logan placed his hand on her skin and gasped in shock jerking his hand away.
"Ow. What was that? Bethany?" Logan asked the little girl as she held her arm where he had touched it.
"I, um, I don't know Mr. Jimmy. That's started happening a lot lately. It happened with Mamma and she started to faint. I caught her and she said she was just tired so I let her sleep. I've come from checking on her and she's up and better now. She thinks she was at the stove for too long and became too hot but I don't believe her." Bethany started babbling looking down at her exposed forearm as she adjusted her black shawl over her shoulders, then she looked up at Logan as he looked down at her.
"Spirit, was Bethany a mutant?" Logan looked over to Christmas Past as his question startled him.
"It would appear so. It would also seem that she has the same mutation as your friend, Rogue. If people were incarnated, then I believe Rogue is an incarnation of this Bethany."
"I never realized she was a mutant. I just thought it was static electricity from her wearing so many sweaters." Logan mused as he stared at the young woman who started looking so insecure and scared.
"I think that's all at this time, let's continue further on. Let's see what triggered this overprotective drive that you developed." Christmas Past pointed his finger as the time moved on and stopped sooner.
"What time is this now?" Logan asked Christmas Past.
"We are two years after that previous Christmas. I believe this is the year everything changed. This is the last Christmas you had with this family." Christmas Past sadly explained as they both saw Bethany walk out now looking more like Rogue even with the gloves covering her hands telling Logan her mutation had grown stronger.
"Bethany." James called out after Bethany as she turned back to face him her brown hair framing her face as she looked over at him.
"I know what they want with me, Mr. Jimmy. I saw it when he touched my face. They want to use me in some experiment. Why would they do that to me?" Bethany started crying holding her face in her hands to try and stem the tears. Logan ran over to her and walked right through her as he tried to hold her in comfort.
"These are only shadows of your past, Logan. These events cannot be changed." Christmas Past walked over to Logan and placed his hand on his shoulder.
"Now, watch." Logan looked up and saw Captain America walk up to Logan and Bethany.
"Steve. He's here he'll be able to help her. You'll see, Spirit." Logan tried to sound hopeful but still doubted since his memory still had several holes that needed to be filled.
"James, come we're needed to fight. The enemy armies have penetrated this countryside and these people are in danger. I'm afraid that you'll have to say goodbye to this family that you've been staying with." Captain America walked up to the pair in the front yard as Logan and Christmas Past watched.
"Hey, Bethany, how are you doing? Don't worry, I won't let them hurt you. I'll protect you." The boy from two years before, Hanz, walked up to Bethany as he held her close.
"You make sure to watch her and keep her safe, young man. I'm leaving her in your care." James declared to Hanz as he promised his services to help the young girl before stepping over to Captain America and preparing to leave.
"No, NO, James! Bethany, go get her and TAKE HER WITH YOU!!" Logan started to beg his younger self who didn't hear them since they were currently ghosts.
"Logan, as Ah said before these are shadows. But Ah gather that once you leave, nothing good happens to the girl." Christmas Past guessed the girl's fate.
"I'm starting to remember as soon as I saw Hanz. Bethany is a mutant but no one knew about mutants back then." Logan motioned toward Bethany and Hanz as he growled out the boys' name. "He said he loved her and he would protect her but the first chance he gets he turns her over to the authorities. She died in one of their tests, I never saw her after this day. I never forgave myself for letting her go. Is there nothing that can be done?" Logan stared up at Christmas Past begging from his knees for the ghost to change the events before him.
"All of these events happened in the past they are but shadows and cannot be changed." Christmas Past re-stated to Logan who sat on his knees clutching the foot of the robes in his massive hands.
"So this is the girl who changed yer life forever. Ah'm beginning ta understand why ya feel so protective around certain boys. Ah hope that ya can learn from this jog through yer past." The voice of Christmas Past began fading into the distance as Logan clutched onto the robe and sobbed into the fabric. A light engulfed Logan and the Ghost of Christmas Past shine and then fade into the darkness of Logan's room. Logan finds himself back in his room in the dark and sobbing into his bedcovers at the side of his bed. Logan jerked awake as he hears steps.
Logan jumped over his bed and jerked his door open to leap out and jump through Kitty as she phased through him with a scream.
"MR. LOGAN, You like scared me out of my skin." Kitty stood in front of Logan in her warm long sleeve pajamas. She stared down at him as he knelt on the floor of the hallway at the Institute.
"Kitty? What time is it?" Logan asked the scared girl.
"It is like 1:45. I was just like getting a drink of water 'cuz I was so thirsty. But I'll like go back to my room." Kitty quietly walked away from Logan and went upstairs to her room curious as to why he would leap out of his room in the middle of the night but ignoring the thought and going back to bed.
"It was all a dream?" Logan scoffed. "Of course it was! Ghosts don't exist and certainly not Christmas Ghosts. Wow, I've read 'A Christmas Carol' too many times." Logan mumbled to himself as he walked back into his room to go back to bed.
"But still, I started to remember. Let's hope those memories fade again." Logan complained as he started climbing under his covers trying to go back to bed.
…………
"I never realized his past was so dark." The green cloak stated sadly as it hung its hood low.
"Yes, the sorrow of the past always impacts the character of the future." The whispering voice of the black cloak grew stronger but remained raspy.
The Ghost of Christmas Past walks from the Christmas Wreath to stand alongside his companion ghosts.
"My job is done but Ah'm afraid that he's worse than before." The southern accent of the Ghost began fading as he stayed in the form of Thomas.
"Christmas Present, which form shall you take?" The black cloak questioned the green cloak.
"I have found one who is as cheerful as I at this time of year." The cloak proclaimed as a white light engulfed it's form and it morphed into a small girl resembling Kathryne Pryde.
"Do you like think this form will do?" The Ghost of Christmas Present laughed as she twirled in front of the other ghosts. Her long brown hair fell down to the middle of her back while a crown of candles sitting on a wreath adorned the top of her head. Her green cloak still shimmered in the light spreading joy onto whoever stood beside it.
"Yea, Ah think that form will do very well." Christmas Past laughed at his friend as the black cloak remained still, no sound of emotion could be heard in his voice.
"That form will do well for a time but I'm afraid he will not change from this form alone." The rasping voice began growing louder with intensity as the vocal cords were being put into use.
"Well, I'm sure he will see things different when he sees the joy of Christmas all around him. I'll get him all ready for you YTC, just you watch." Christmas Present laughed and started walking to the wreath her green robe trailing behind her.
"He will not change for you it will take all three of us working at our best. Choose your locations wisely." Christmas Present nodded to the dark cloak as she leapt through the wreath to land in the Xavier mansion as the clock neared two.
A/N: Well what did you think of my take on Logan's past? Please review and tell me what you think.