Logan had been growling nonstop since Magneto had shut him up, even after he was released from the magnetic hold on his bones. He was listening intently to every sound he could pick up from Marie, her voice was muffled, which made him think she was inside whatever it was Magneto had installed on top of the torch. What scared him the most about this situation was that Marie genuinely sounded terrified, though she was still fighting, her strength shining through for him to see. She wasn’t giving up, she would fight them until the bitter end, through her terror. It hit him so hard mostly because he could never remember a time where Marie had been afraid. Even when he first came across her that cold snowy night, she had been wary, sure, but never afraid, even when he got knifed, she had been worried, but still not afraid. Right now, she was so far past afraid he could smell it, she didn’t think they were going to make it in time...

While he was listening to Marie, he was watching Sabretooth, he could get out of this, he was the only one that could, he just had to wait for the furball to be in the right position.

Unfortunately, Sabretooth decided to take an interest in Storm, and headed toward her across the room. Deciding on the fly to improvise as he heard Marie fall quiet, Logan released his claws, through his chest. Roaring in pain he twisted the blades, to cut away the metal bands that were holding him to the ceiling. He retracted the claws as he felt the metal give way and he began to fall to the floor. He slammed into the floor with a heavy thud, playing possum as he heard Sabretooth cautiously approach him.

When he was close enough Logan launched into action, rolling and tucking his legs to kick Sabretooth up through the hole in the ceiling, before he jumped to his feet and followed him out into the night. Sabretooth caught him off guard before he hit the roof, and punched him across the smooth surface. He caught himself by burying his claws into the statue, using that hold for leverage to launch himself back towards Sabretooth.

They were closely matched, so closely matched that under normal circumstances Logan wouldn't have been able to call the fight. In this case though, he was going to win, he had to, Marie's survival depended on it. He was momentarily distracted when an ear-piercing scream split the night. Sabretooth took advantage of his distraction to launch at him, knocking him off his feet. Thinking quickly, he flipped the pair of them over twice before kicking Sabretooth off the side of the statue. He buried his claws back into the statue, to stop himself from going over as well, when Sabretooth tried to claw at him as he disappeared into the darkness.

Pulling himself back to his feet, ignoring the burn of the multiple cuts and gouges healing across his body, he dropped back onto the viewing platform just as the machine on the torch above him began to whirl to life, knocking more debris from the torch in the process. He could see Marie now, and hear her, crying now, still trying to call for help.

He cut the rest of the team free quickly, noting the puncture marks through the ceiling beside Storm's head as he released her from the metal bindings. "Sorry about that," he commented, indicating to the holes.

Ororo just smiled at him and replied serenely, “No harm done.”

"How do we stop it?" Jean asked, watching as the machine began to rise and spin faster.

"Can you shoot it?" Logan asked Scott.

He replied with a shake of his head, "I can't get a clean shot, I could blow it up and kill her, Storm, can you lift someone up there?"

"I don't know, I can try, if Jean can stabilise them so they don't fly right over," Ororo replied honestly.

"Right, get me up there," Scott stated.

"No, I'll go," Logan interrupted. At a dark look from Scott he justified his statement, "If I miss you can still blast the damn thing." Scott's attitude deflated as he accepted the sense of his argument.

Moments later the wind picked up as Storm directed everyone else to hold on to something, as a small focused tornado began to lift him into the air. He tried to keep his eye on the torch platform he was aiming for, shooting his claws out to catch the edge of the platform to pull himself closer, as he felt a gentle shove pushing him in the right direction, and the tornado slowly dissipated. He dropped into a roll onto the platform, in front of the wildly spinning machine, right as it began to spew a bright white light. He could see Marie, trapped inside the spinning rings, handcuffed to what appeared to be a control panel. Bringing his claws up to cut through the spinning rings he was surprised to feel resistance against his claws, until he noticed a weak, barely conscious Magneto, hand outstretched toward him. With a quick twist Logan spun around, using the other set of claws to cut through the machine before Magneto could refocus his attention.

The machine exploded, a large chunk of metal flying towards Magneto, too fast for him to stop it in his weakened state, knocking him out where he lay, leaving Logan free to focus on Marie. He panicked as he moved toward her, trying desperately to detect her heartbeat, which remained concerningly silent. Pulling her into his arms he cut the handcuffs away, catching her as she collapsed against him.

"Marie, come on kid, don't do this to me... wake up darlin.” He lifted her head up to look into her face which remained still, she looked so small and fragile in his arms. He still couldn't hear her heartbeat, and he could feel she wasn't breathing. Quickly he tugged off one of the leather gloves he was wearing; if he could touch her, and they were right about how her mutation worked, he could heal her.

He placed his hand against her cold bare skin. "Damn it Marie, take it darlin, come on." With every second that slipped by that her skin didn't react he became more frantic. "I can't lose you Marie," he muttered, pressing every bare patch of his skin against hers. He could feel tears burning behind his eyes, along with a familiar deep pain in his chest. He had felt this before, when Sarah died, and he never wanted to feel this again, especially not now, not when they had only just begun. Marie didn't deserve to die like this.

He had never felt such joy as he did when he felt the stabbing burn of her mutation, it was so gentle when it started, slow, like it was struggling. He willed her to take his mutation and heal, forcing forward his thoughts of how much he loved her, how much he needed her to the forefront of his mind, feeling the burn build as her mutation strengthened. He held on for as long as he could, finally succumbing to darkness when he heard her take a gasping breath, as her heart began to thud strongly again.

--

Marie watched in numb shock as Logan's body collapsed onto the platform in front of her. He was covered in blood, wounds open all over his body, blood flowing freely. It took her a moment to realise that he wasn't healing.

Her brain was scrambling to try and piece together what had happened. She could hear voices in her head, one she recognised as the guy who called himself Magneto, a quieter voice that was little more than an unintelligible growl, then there was Logan. Strength, and light, and love, calling to her, begging her to live. It was then she realised how he had saved her. He had been right, she could take mutations, he had literally traded his life for hers.

That thought shocked her into action and she dropped to her knees in front of him, quickly casting an eye over his wounds. She needed to stop the bleeding. She tore her shirt off and began tearing it into strips, as she began packing the worst of the torn flesh. She was working so intently she didn't hear the big black jet approaching the torch, even as the gentle breeze blowing over her became a swirling maelstrom around her, until she heard a voice call to her.

"Rogue, is he alright?" Jean asked, jumping from the jet gangplank and rushing to her side.

"He touched me and now he's not healing," Rogue sobbed frantically, her hands not leaving the wounds she was applying pressure to.

"Scott, help me get him on board," Jean yelled back toward the jet. It took some careful manoeuvring, and even more careful flying, to get Logan back onto the jet.

Marie immediately tried to move to his side, only to be bustled out of the way by Jean, as she set to work on stemming the extensive bleeding. "Can I help?" Marie asked.

"Not at this stage," Jean answered, "Stay out of the way so I can work, okay?"

Marie sat down numbly on a nearby seat as the plane began to fly off into the night, watching and praying that Logan would be okay. His soft voice was speaking to her reassuringly, telling her he would be okay. It took a while for her to realise his was the only voice she could still hear now, she was too upset to give that fact more thought at the moment though. She let her tears flow freely as she settled in to wait for news.
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