11 = Let's Kick Some Ass!

Sunup arrived, and the team, all suited up, armed and ready, jumped in the Honda Odyssey to crash Cassandra's.

Elektra drove while Wade claimed the passenger seat - of course. Remy, Blade and Laura took the backseats, which meant that Nina was banished to the trunk, she being the smallest and everything, or so Wade said. This led to her peering over the backseats for most of the trip.

Remy tried to speak but once again Wade cut in. "I think what Gambit's trying to say is that getting Juggernaut's helmet isn't going to be easy - I'm just making stuff up at this point. Yeah, tilt up to Blade!"

"Gun!" Remy passed Blade the requested weapon, which Blade fired at the gates to Cassandra's compound from where he stood through the sunroof. He fired a blast which crashed right through the gates, allowing them an opening. Elektra floored it and soon they were spinning - literally - inside.

"Poor Nicepool's not getting his car back is he?" Nina muttered.

As soon as they stopped spinning, everyone was out, gathering together to face down Cassandra's amassing forces.

Once most of their group was out, the back hatch swung open. Nina's legs dangled off the side for a second before she jumped down and joined them - all suited up.

The suit looked a lot like Wade's style-wise, but purple in the place of red, of course. Of course. And instead of a full face mask she had an eye mask with a crown.

"Looking good, Shorty! Hey, since your powers are shit right now, here, you can have Baby Knife." Wade handed it over.

"Thanks... So much..."

But that wasn't all - or rather, that wasn't everyone.

Having had a change of heart from the night previous, Logan also emerged from the trunk, stalking over to join them. Variant mother and daughter shared a smile.

"Where the hell were you sitting? On his lap?" Wade asked Nina.

"Jealous?"

"Oh ho ho! Was he there the whole time?"

"Couldn't spoil the surprise."

"Oh this is gonna be good..." Blade cracked his neck.

"Oh you know how long I've been waiting for this?" Remy agreed, "I'm about to make a name for myself here!"

"I don't think you guys walk away from this," Logan stated.

"You just make sure people out there know what happened here today," said Remy.

"We will," Nina assured him.

"And once you're outta here make sure you have a drink for me, eh?"

"You just stay on our six and get inside," Blade directed. "And we'll make sure you get the package." Juggernaut's helmet, once retrieved.

"And we'll get our ending," Elektra said with the whisper of a smile.

"AHHHHHH!" With a cry in unison, Cassandra's forces didn't waste another moment and charged. There were the ground forces, and then there were snipers up above them, raining down fire.

"Remy, boost!" called Nina.

"Anything, Chere!" He tossed his glowing deck of cards towards her and they formed a purple staircase leading up to the upper level of the fortress, where she started attacking the snipers with the help of Baby Knife.

Pausing in his own fight for a moment, Logan looked up and watched her mid-attack. A smirk played on his lips. "That's my girl." Then it was back into action for him.

The snipers taken care of, Nina paused to look down upon the fight. Her eyes jumped to Laura who let out one hell of a battle cry and leapt onto one of Cassandra's henchmen, continually stabbing him with her claws.

"That's my girl. Yeah Laura, fuck them up!"

Pretty soon, their smaller group had pushed their way to the other side where the stairs leading inside the fortress were, leading to Cassandra.

Logan and Wade jogged inside and disappeared.

They were in.

Cassandra pointed her elongated finger in Logan's face, swirling it around. Then, in a singsong voice, she said, "What's going on in here..."

...

Suddenly, he wasn't there anymore, in the Void, in Cassandra's fortress, no. He was alone, alone in a familiar place, one he had visited countless times over the years: the graveyard of the X-Men, his friends, his loved ones. His family.

Up ahead, in the grass, a body lay. A familiar body.

No, please no-

But that made no sense, she had been buried with the others, he had seen to it himself. How could she be here now? This was so fucked up.

He remembered this part all too well. It haunted him every moment of every day: the only person still alive among the carnage, who had then proceeded to die in his arms.

Nina, his Nina, his wife, how he had found her upon returning to the mansion that fateful night.

"You found her last-" Suddenly, Cassandra was there with him, also standing over Nina's body. "-Knowing what fate awaited her since you had seen the others first."

Logan fell to his knees, physically unable to stand and support himself any longer. "She would never have abandoned them. And so she didn't." Not like me. He didn't need to say it though, for the intent was clear.

And because she had not abandoned them, she suffered the same fate as each and every one of the X-Men had.

"Logan-" Her voice was just a whisper, but he heard it. He knew how this would play out, after all. He relived it multiple times a day.

"Nina - Baby, I'm here." He reached out and held her broken, bleeding, fading form close.

"This is your fault."

His head snapped up. Wait, what? That wasn't what happened.

"This is your fault," she said again, more harshly this time. "Your fault! You're a monster!"

"Nina - Nina, no, please! NINA!" He shook her, but she was already gone. "NINA!"

And suddenly, it all ended, and he was back in the Void, back at Cassandra's, with the woman standing before him.

"She didn't say that! She never said that!" he growled.

"No, but I'm sure she thought it. And when you started killing, you knew she would have hated to see what you became in the wake of it all. But then again, we'll never know what her final thoughts were... Oh, you poor thing. I've got you."

"No, I got you-"

"I am wearing this suit, and that means a lot of things but most of all, it means I'm an X-Man. And I know your brother - and as much as I want to fucking kill you, every bone in my body wants to FUCKING KILL YOU, he would not let me stand here and watch you die! So this is for him, this is for Charles." Logan reached out and removed Juggernaut's helmet, which they had just placed on Cassandra's head.

Cassandra stared at him. "My brother loved you."

"He loved all of us."

"Must be nice."

"He would have loved you too."

Cassandra scoffed at this.

"No, Logan's right," Nina insisted. "That was just who he was. Even those who had disappointed him in the past, he still believed in them. Never gave up on them."

"Nina's right," Logan agreed. "If he knew about you, if he knew where you were, he would have torn a hole in the fucking universe just to bring you home."

Cassandra absorbed this. Then she gave a solemn shrug. "This is my home."

"Then at least let us save his."

Cassandra looked from him, to Nina, and then to Wade. "You want to hear something crazy? An amateur magician rolled through here a while back. I killed him, of course, and wore his skin around for four days. But, I found this little trinket on his lovely fingers-" She held up a gold ring with holes for two fingers.

"Strange!" cried Wade in excitement.

Cassandra slipped the ring on and swirled her opposite hand, a glowing circle appearing in the air before her.

Now Wade gasped again. "Marvel sparkle circle!"

"What's that?" Logan asked.

"This is your way home. I do owe you for saving my life, but let's keep things interesting: I say you have about four seconds before you're Alioth's food." Indeed, the purple cloud creature was headed right this way.

Wade chuckled. "Race you! Keep up, Shorty!""

They jumped.

Whew, I finally finished that! I apologize for the delay - work has been CRAZY!

Hope this was worth the wait :) As always, thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed! :)