Prologue

North Dakota, Border With Canada, 2040s

"Hello My Love."

Nina Nova knelt down beside the grave, the cross still tilted in the X, which really only made sense. She lay down the bouquet of flowers - purple, of course - and just sat for a few minutes, taking in the silence.

"I can't say there's really anything new to report since I visited last - just the same old, same old. Helping mutant-kind, continuing Charles's vision. But you know I wouldn't have it any other way, except to get everyone we've lost back, of course. Mutants aren't as many as they once were, but they're popping up again." At one time she would have said 'we' in reference to mutants, but she had long ago come to realize that she was not mutant herself, but something else entirely. "Laura sends her regards, of course. She's off doing good things, and has strength and confidence that I envy - you'd be so proud of her. I know I am." Their little girl, all grown up. "I miss you. I love you." She kissed her fingertips and pressed them tenderly to the top of the grave.

The wound was still fresh. It might always feel that way. The pain might never go away.

Whenever she visited, she always recalled his last words to her, spoken with a dying breath: "I know you're scared of ending up alone but you won't be, you'll never be truly alone..."

And true to his words, she hadn't been. She had stayed with Laura and the other children, had forged new friendships. No, she wasn't alone. She never had been, and if she had anything to do or say about it, she never would be.

She continued to sit in silence for a while, thinking through the memories, both good and bad. They had been through so much together, she and Logan, starting all the way back in the 1970s when they had met and worked together to save the future, their future. Originally having met in the early 2000s, all that changed when Logan made the journey, or rather his consciousness had, to the past to save the future. She was grateful for the extra time they had had.

Eventually she stood and left, completing her visiting ritual. Sometimes Laura came with her, but both women visited on their own as well.

Little was she aware that the peaceful grave she left behind would not last, for it would soon be wildly disturbed.