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Sam

I set us down in the trees, away from Hank and Lila. I hadn't wanted to give their position up to the cannon's still chasing us. Anna smiled at me with tears in her eyes. She threw herself into my arms and kissed me enthusiastically on the lips. I felt my cheeks blush something fierce when she pulled away.

"Come on, Anna," I ducked away from her. "There's a lot I want to say to you right now, but it'll have to keep. We gotta get to the rendezvous point." I took hold of her hand and we sprinted from the noise of the river into the cold dark woods. I called out to Rachel with my mind, but got no response. I swallowed hard. I wasn't exactly sure which direction to turn to find Lila and Hank. The flight had gotten me turned around, and I cussed myself out for an amateur. It all looked different from the air, and I had been counting on Rachel to lead me back if we had trouble. I stopped after a few frantic minutes.

"What's wrong, sugar?" Anna was breathing as heavy as I was, sending billowing clouds of icy vapor towards the treetops. I leaned over and put my hands on my knees.

"Rachel. She's not answering." Anna chewed her lip like she did when she was concentrating.

"Haven't been able to raise her for a bit. Was hoping it was just because of that damn ship they had me on."

"She and Logan were going after your ship…" That had apparently been the wrong thing to say right then. She visibly paled.

"Shit!" She hissed and turned back towards the fighting.

"Whoa, girl. Hold on!" I grabbed her elbow and she spun on me, snarling vicious enough to scare me.

"That boat blew sky high, Sam!" Her voice was angry, but her green eyes were full of horror. "We gotta find them, they could be hurt!" I held her arm tightly and finally took a good look at her.

"Jesus, girl, you're in no condition to keep fighting. You're the one who's hurt!" Her dress, the only clothes she was wearing, was little more than scandalous scraps held together by threads. She was thin, thinner than I had ever seen her, corded muscles straining the surface of her painfully exposed skin. Angry red burns and blisters decorated her arms and legs, tattooed her neck and chest. She had ran barefoot with me through the tangled roots and frosty forest floor, and her feet were a bloody torn mess. She jutted her chin out at me defiantly and burst six bone claws from her hands.

"I'll heal." Stunned, my mouth hung open like the hillbilly that people assumed I was. We had been with Logan for the better part of a day. Since when could she hold onto powers that long?

"Those are new, cherie." Gambit appeared out of thin air like he always did. Rogue lowered her claws and turned warily towards Remy. I held my breath, wishing I wasn't standing here right now. Gambit smiled softly. "He get you those for Christmas?" Humor in the face of overwhelming danger had always been the X-Men's stock in trade.

"Don't try and stop me, Remy." Her voice was low, hoarse.

"Wouldn't dream of it, Anna. Just don't think it's needed. They weren't near your boat when it exploded, I could see them from my position on the bluff." He shrugged out of his coat and wrapped it around her shoulders. "Take my jacket, Anna." I heard her retract her claws and Remy helped her into the coat. Keeping hold of her hand, he brought her palm to his lips and kissed it, and she smiled softly. Two seconds was all it took to have her eating right out of his hand. I had to stop myself from kicking him in the balls; no wonder Bobby Drake hated him. Anna shook her head fiercely at him and looked to me.

"We still have to…" She was interrupted by the rip of a scream through the air. Lila's scream.

"Where!?" I seized Gambit's arm, but he shook his head.

"Sounded like…that way," he pointed. Rogue put her nose to the air.

"Lila? And Hank?" I nodded and she took off running full tilt, me and Gambit hot on her heels. Four of them had Hank and Lila pinned. The Beast flipped in the air, kicking out one direction and punching the other as we headed towards them. I took off with my power and slammed into another, sending it rolling down the hill. I circled back.

"There!" Rogue screamed and pointed at another half dozen of them crawling up the side of the bluff. I made a grab for Lila. Gambit unleashed a brace of charged cards and collapsed part of the rocky ledge, sending some of them tumbling back into the water below. More crashed through the trees brandishing quarter staffs outfitted with sharp looking fins.

"Blasters on the end of those things!" Rogue shrieked the warning a heartbeat before they opened fire on us. Beast took one square in the back, sending him careening into Gambit. "Remy!" Rogue dove at the shooter, dodging white hot bolts of energy. Her claws tore into its shoulder and it bellowed in pain, swung its staff in an arc towards her. Lila shifted to my back and wrapped her limbs tight. I prayed she would be safe, and dove into three of our attackers, knocking them sideways. Rogue roared in angry pain, the blades of that bastard's staff ripping into her leg on an upswing, but her claws connected. Her assailant gurgled and sputtered, blood spraying from its side. Lila and I dodged a shot, but still managed to hammer another into the ground. Gambit looked shaky, but was on his feet facing a trio of them, shooting cards from his deck one handed while he held the Beast up with the other. We were getting there, evening the odds, but we were still outnumbered. On the next pass, I grabbed Anna and threw her at her next target. She twisted in the air, dodging blaster shots left and right, connecting feet first with the side of one of their faces. I paused for one heartbeat and shuddered in amazement. She was ferocious and went right on slashing when she hit the ground.

"Sam!" Lila choked into my ear. My bowels seized up at the sight that greeted my eyes. Scores of them poured from the trees and slithered over the ragged bluffs.

"Rachel!" I screamed one more time in my head, losing count of the new targets in the frenzied volley of rounds they unleashed against us.

Logan

He outmaneuvered me 'til I found the turbo booster. I hammed the alien throttle to get alongside him, taking the turns and twists at full speed. Wreckage littered the surface of the water as far as my eyes could see. One thing about the X-Men that had held true as long as I had been a part of the team: you could always tell where we had been. I got as close as I could to them and threw myself onto the jet ski. The face the driver pulled, though full of angry sick fear, said I was fucking crazy in any language. I caught him and Rachel in one swoop of my arms and shoved the three of us into the water with the momentum of my weight, the ski kept going. Lost him, but managed to keep ahold of her arm on the way down. I got mine wrapped around her waist, and hauled her up to the churning surface. I had hoped the shock of the icy water would have snapped her awake, but no dice.

"Rachel!" I treaded water and shook her, tapped her clammy cheek with the back of my fingers. "Up and attem, darlin'!" Something yanked on her legs, tried to pull her under. Not real hard to guess who had grabbed for her. I hoped she wouldn't get too much water in her lungs, but it had to be taken care of. Tightening my grip on Rachel, I bobbed up and down, dove just under the surface and skewered the bastard with my claws. We broke the surface, me gasping for air, Rachel still limp in my arms.

Chaos reigned around us. Guthrie still strafed the ships, drawing their fire. Gambit bombed targets, and I saw him moving swiftly along the bluff, playing peek-a-boo in the trees to avoid becoming a bull's eye himself. I spotted Anna's ship a good league away and swam for it, dragging Rachel with me. Before I swam a hundred yards the ship exploded, shooting flames high into that icy turquoise sky.

"NO!" I screamed 'til my guts caved in. "ANNA!" It felt like somebody had punched my heart right out of my chest with a flaming fist. This wasn't fucking happening! I paddled like mad towards the scorching heat of the flames that danced on the water.

"Logan…" Rachel flailed awkwardly under my arm.

"Tell me she's okay, Red!" I screamed in her ear. "Tell me she wasn't on that boat!" She choked on scummy water, the explosions rippling waves into our faces.

"No…I don't think…" Her head lolled against my shoulder, faltered. I pinned her tight and kept paddling desperately. Guthrie barreled overhead and I tried to signal him, but he dipped into the water and rocketed towards the top of the bluffs. God fucking dammit! I realized the heat was gonna be too much for Rachel the closer I got to the flaming remnants of Anna's boat, at least while she was too out of it to use her powers.

"C'mon, Rachel, c'mon. Wake up, darlin'!" A strange little pod the size of a double wide surfboard drifted by us, bobbing in the wake of the waves. I caught it with an arm, steadied it and heaved Rachel out of the water onto its top. I pushed myself up and flopped next to her on my stomach, my legs still dangling in the river. My heart stopped when over the burning and smell of alien fuel and blasters, I caught Anna's scent. I sniffed, inhaled frantically, ran my nose over the surface of the pod. Anna's smell was all over it, but deeper down and stronger was the salty brine of our original assailants. They were in there, had gotten away from the blast. I ran my hands feverishly along the surface, looking for a way inside. Rachel coughed and sputtered next to me. She turned on her side and spewed water across the pod and I grabbed ahold of her, worried she was gonna roll off. I patted her back and squeezed her shoulder. "You all right, darlin'?" She rolled onto her side and closed her eyes.

"Think so…" she whispered painfully. I kept her shielded with my body and looked sickeningly towards the flickering boat. They had gotten away, but had she? I couldn't smell her burning flesh, but all their scents were tangled, confused. Would my powers have protected her if she had been caught in that fireball? Rachel tried to sit up and failed; she held her head in her hands.

"Careful, girl. We're still in the thick of it here." I grabbed her shoulder to push her back down, but she stiffened under my hand.

"Oh!" Her eyes snapped open. "She…she's fine, Logan. Anna's fine! But they're in trouble! We have to get to them!" Her power wrapped around us before I could say boo, and she erratically shot us towards where they had left Hank and Lila on the top of the bluffs. The sound, the smells of battle poured over my senses. Blood, the scorch of blasters, burning, tearing, ripping, screaming. My heart throbbed in my chest, my throat tightening at the sights and scents that enveloped me. Those briny-bastards were everywhere, dozens of them firing their staffs at anything that moved. Gambit and Hank were pinned against the trees. Cannonball, Cheney wrapped around his back, knocked into clusters of them in hit and run moves. In the middle of it Anna, alive and breathing, her bone claws glistening with blood, ripped three of them apart at once. I shook to my core for one second of magnificent relief at the sight of her.

"Go!" Rachel screamed in my mind and threw me full force into the fray with her powers. I let the berserker off the chain, let the bloodlust boil out of me. My claws slashed and hacked, ripped and shredded. They came at me swinging their bladed staffs, kicked and hammered me, but I felt no pain. Adrenaline pumped through with every beat of my heart. I caught Anna's gaze, her green eyes a steady emerald calm in the middle of the red haze. They just kept coming. Their tactics were obvious, they were herding us together despite our efforts to push back and push through their ranks. They were working to surround us and railroad over us. We were drowning, and a nagging fear told me this could be our last stand. I felt a tug, Rachel's powers faintly guiding my body. In my peripheral, I saw Anna, Hank, and Gambit wrenched closer to me and Rachel on an invisible telekinetic wave. She was bunching us together in a tight circle and I opened my mouth to shout at her, to tell her that was what they were trying to do, but I felt her resolve flow into my awareness.

"Sam!" Rachel's mind shouted, and Guthrie flew over the group of us gathered together. Anna grabbed for me desperately the second Guthrie touched down, her fingers scrabbling into the tatters of my flannel shirt. Lila dropped to the ground in the center of our circle. "That's all of us, Lila!" Rachel roared out loud and pushed our assailants back with a telekinetic shield. The force of their blaster bolts hammered the still wobbly redhead to her knees. "Go!"

"Next stop, Korvus and company!" Cheney screamed over the din. The too familiar light of one of her portals flashed around us. I pulled Anna into my chest for a single heartbeat, not caring who saw. Her body was warm and soft pressed against mine for one perfect moment before we all fell into the blackness.