He reached for the remains of the railing still hanging from the torch, intending to drag himself up to the machine. Then let go and glanced over his shoulder.
“And if any of you schmucks as much as moves or even fucking breathes the wrong way, I’ll come and chop you up or hurl on you. That goes for Jeannie, too, Scott. Tell her if she wakes up and gets a bright idea to help me up there.”
That said he grabbed the railing again and braced his feet against the torch’s wall. And closed his eyes. He really didn’t need to see how high above the ground he was. And his hand-eye coordination was shot to hell anyway due to electric shock he had received earlier. When he cracked his eyes open partially to estimate the distance between him and the base of the machine he could see only non-existent stars and weird, swirling light patterns.
With Magneto unconscious he risked a quick peek from Marie through the bond. Force of the machine nearly made him loose his grip from the slippery railing, and he slammed the shields shut.
“We’re getting good at this shielding business, kid…” He gasped, pulling himself over the railing. For a moment he could only lie at her feet.
So small and pale. Face ashen. White streaks marring cascade of shining brown hair at her forehead.
He sat up and fell flat on his back again when he felt strong gust of wind and something hard swiping against the tip of his nose.
“What the fuck…” When he concentrated hard enough he could see some kind of rings spinning around the machine and the girl shackled to it. Inch closer and they would have nudged him over the railing.
“Nice. What the fuck do I do now?” He reached with his hand carefully. Rings were spinning so rapidly that they were practically invisible. He could feel the current of air their movement created. He rolled little further and rose on his feet, eyeing the machine, calculating the odds.
“Fuck it.” Calculus really hadn’t ever been his favorite way of approaching problems. He unsheathed claws from his right hand and stepped closer.
“Here goes nothing…”
He hadn’t met a material his claws weren’t able to cut through. To his relief Magneto’s machine wasn’t an exception to that rule. First of the rings hit him hard, throwing his hand away, and it fell numb to his side. He unsheathed the claws from his left hand, and hit towards spinning nothingness with everything he had left. At first he could feel some resistance, then the ring started to give in, sliding over his claws with sickening screech of metal on metal. Machine was slowing down. Suddenly both rings stopped. Top parts of them started to slide outwards, and the strange, bluish glow disappeared. Steady whirring and humming stopped abruptly.
It took him few seconds to realize that it was over. Machine scrapped, Magneto and Mystique unconscious or dead. And Marie?
He stepped over debris fallen from the rings of the machine. Girl was hanging between two metal pillars, hands shackled to them with metal manacles. He couldn’t hear her breathing. He couldn’t hear her heartbeat. He kneeled in front of her and circled her waist with his left hand. Cut through the manacles with slightly unsteady right hand. She fell on his lap, whole body limp, open eyes staring to nowhere and to everywhere.
“Don’t you fucking dare to die on me now. It wasn’t that fun to float around and get electrocuted…” He shook her carefully. Everything he didn’t know about traditional CPR could have easily filled up a library. And only doctor on board in this fucking flight was currently unconscious.
“Okay. You know the drill, kid. Take what you need.” He yanked off his glove and placed his hot and sweaty palm against her cold and dry cheek. And nothing happened. Absolutely nothing.
He let his shields down, reaching her through the bond. He met only darkness from where she had been. Only silence where her thoughts had been buzzing just few hours ago like rabid ants.
“Come on, kid! I swear I’ll fucking piss on your grave if you die now!” No. Not really. He grabbed her tighter and tucked her head under his chin, bare skin of her face resting comfortably against equally bare skin of his throat.
“You know… Had it been Jean or any other redhead for that matter in here instead of you… I’m not going to lie. I would have tried. I would have tried to save her. But you made me try harder. Could you… Could you try harder? For me?”
When her skin reacted and the pull started it was weak. Instead of earlier gut wrenching pain he felt only unfamiliar drowsiness settling over him.
“That’s it… Stay with me…” He tried to murmur encouraging words to her, but soon it became impossible to speak. He lacked the strength to do that. He was sliding slowly on his back, clinging to Marie for the dear life, determined to keep the skin contact long enough to rouse her.
When sudden rush of life flooded through the link and he could feel the confusion radiating from her he let go. No use to get himself killed. He pushed her off from him, trying to stay conscious long enough.
“Kid?” No answer.
“Marie?” No answer.
“Fucking talk to me!” Darkness was creeping over his field of vision. He felt like he was lying on top of cotton balls, floating and spinning around slowly.
“Logan?”
“Get us home, kid.” His last thought shut the lights before it left the building.
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