Redemption

Chapter Eighteen

I watched as Jean's eyes flicked between my hand and the blade. Logan and Magneto had started fighting right before my little speech. They hadn't heard a word I had said. I was tempted to say something else but I didn't. It was best to let her do this part on her own. I had already planted the seed, it was time for her to let it grow.

I could tell she was trying to search my mind. I remember what Logan had said about my 'telepathic immunity'. I let her into my brain but I only let her see a few thoughts. The ones that went along with what I had said. I was going to kill Magneto, or at least try to. I was going to take Rogue and get out of the fight and leave the X-men behind me once and for all.

Tentatively, she took my hand. I smiled.

"Welcome back," I said, "Dark Phoenix."

When I took his hand, I felt a surge of power flow through me. The way he said it, the way he said 'Dark Phoenix' gave me power.

"When do we start?" I asked.

"When do you think?" he said, a devilish grin crossing his face. "Now."

"I'll get Rogue," I told him. "You deal with Magneto."

He nodded and we broke apart, him running toward Logan and Magneto, me running toward the alley.

Magneto's back was turned to me and Logan was only paying attention to his enemy. I smiled, this was going to be a good kill. I slipped up behind Magneto and stabbed him in the back.

"Sorry for the back stabbing but it's kinda my thing," I said. "I don't really like playing your puppet. There are mutants that deserve to die and normal people that don't."

I pushed the Muramasa blade deeper into his chest.

"I'm not apart of your fucking war with the X-men, Erik Lehnsherr," I hissed. "You should have stayed away from that alleyway when you were fighting Cyclops." 

I ripped the weapon out of his back and Magneto fell to the ground, blood already beginning to pool. I looked my dad straight in the eye.

"You're welcome,"

Slipping past the battling mutants was easy. They were too wrapped up in their fight to notice. I knelt next to Rogue and concentrated on waking her up. Finally, she stirred.

"It's alright, Rogue," I said soothingly. "Let's get out of here."

She groaned, "Where's Daken?"

"He's coming with us, don't worry," I said.

Her eyes widened with shock.

"We'll explain on the way, come on," I said, helping her up.

As I passed the fight Storm yelled to me; "Get her back to Utopia, Jean!"

We exited the alley and were instantly grabbed.

"We have to go!" Daken said. "Hurry!"

I looked behind him to see Logan. He looked at me and began to run, panic filling his eyes and mind. I grabbed Rogue's arm and tugged her after me and Daken. I turned and sent Logan flying into Juggernaut who was about to send Kurt to the center of the earth.

"We need some sort of transportation," I said to Daken as we continued to run. "Something that's not water-based."

Daken looked around and pointed at a nearby car, "There!"

"Is that even your car?"

"No, but it doesn't matter," said Daken. "I can jump start it."

"But what about the alarm?" Rogue asked.

Daken looked at me, eyebrows raised.

"I can try," I said. "But I've never used my powers for something like that."

"First time for everything," was all he said.

I grabbed the car handle and ripped the door open, bracing my ears for the car alarm. It never came. I looked at Jean, impressed.

"You did it!"

She grinned and wait . . . blushed? I brushed it off as a trick of the light and turned back to the car. I slipped into the driver's seat and got to work. 

I sit in my office, looking out over the ocean at San Francisco. I can tell that we've lost. Yes, Magneto was stabbed but we lost two and one has slipped farther away. I await for the X-men to return. I should have never let them go after Rogue and Daken. I should have known Daken would do something like this. I should have known Magneto would do something like this. There are a lot of things I should have done. 

But I failed. I am a failure. I could not figure things out that now are so obvious to me.

I sigh. This is my school. This is my island. This is the only area where I have not failed. I am Charles Xavier and I will do whatever I can to stop the Dark Wolverine and his two new puppets.

"What the hell was that?" Logan bellowed.

Magneto's mutant followers had scattered when they saw that he was down.

"Where's Rogue?" Cyclops yelled.

"I saw Jean take her," said Storm. "I told her to get Rogue back to Utopia."

Cyclops looked relieved.

"Jean didn't go back to Utopia with Rogue," said Logan quietly. "She betrayed us."

"How do you know?" Hank asked.

"I saw here leave with Rogue —" Logan paused, not wanting to believe it, "and Daken."

"And who?" roared Cyclops. 

"I tried to stop them but Jean threw me into the Juggernaut when he was fighting Kurt," said Logan.

"More like killing," Nightcrawler muttered under his breath.

"We have to find them!" Scott said angrily. "Which way did they go, Logan?"

"We can't go after them," said Storm calmly.

"Why?" demanded Logan.

"Rogue and Jean are under Daken's influence," said Storm. "If we go after them, we could get hurt, they could get hurt, or we could all die. We have to get back to Utopia. I have a feeling that Professor X already knows what happened here."