Redemption

Chapter Nineteen

They were yelling, all of them. Even with the door closed, Laura and Gabby could hear everything that they were saying.

"We're all going to die!"

"We're not! We beat the Dark Phoenix before!"

"Yeah, barely!" 

"If we go after them we have to be careful about Rogue! We can't hurt her! Or Jean!"

"Oh, so you're only going to kill my son?" 

"He's dangerous, Logan!"

"We can change him!"

"No, we can't! We tried! Professor X tried! Daken's still as psychotic as ever!"

"Don't you da—"

"Be quiet!"

The room went silent.

"I believe we have some guests," said the voice of Charles Xavier as the door to the office swung open on its own.

The X-men looked at Laura and Gabby, both standing in the doorway, obviously listening in. Logan and Scott were both bright red from yelling.

"We can go after them if you want," said Laura. "I can go full rage mode on them."

"Yeah," said Gabby, "and Rogue and Jean won't hurt us."

"No, absolutely not," said Logan. "You saw what Daken did to Laura and that was single handedly. He's got the Dark Phoenix on his side and he's got the Muramasa blade."

"What's so special about some Murimodo blade?" Gabby asked.

"One; it's Muramasa," said Logan somewhat exasperatedly. "And two; it's the only thing that can kill me, you two, and Daken."

"Then why can't we just take it from him?"

"It's not that easy," said Logan.

"We'll go," said Laura. "I've got a score to settle with him and I don't want to waste a chance to get him back."

"Spoken like a true Wolverine," said Scott.

"Fine," growled Logan. "Good luck finding them though."

When I woke up, the car had stopped. Daken and Rogue were nowhere to be seen. I got out of the car and stretched my stiff limbs. I looked around, trying to recognize where we were. But I had never been here before. I looked over to see Rogue walking around a corner.

"Where are we?" I asked.

"I don't know," she said. "Somewhere just outside of San Francisco."

"Where's Daken?"

"I just went looking for him, I can't find him anywhere."

"Do you think he ditched us?"

"Ditched you? I'm not that petty,"

I turned to see Daken walking up to the car.

"Where did you go?" I demanded.

Daken shrugged, "Places,"

I groaned, "You're just like your father."

"Is that a compliment?" he asked, flashing a brilliant smile. "I know he has a thing for you."

I blushed. God, why am I blushing so much?

"It's not because he has a thing for me," I said, hoping he didn't notice the blush. "You just act like him sometimes. Where are we anyway?"

Daken shrugged, "I just stopped a couple miles outside of San Francisco."

"Where are we going?"

"I don't know," he said.

"I thought you had a plan!"

"I didn't know I was the leader here!" said Daken. "I thought that when you went all Dark Phoenix you would take charge!"

"Do you trust me?" I asked, raising my eyebrows.

"I'm just not good at leading," he said. There was a pause. "Where are we going, oh great leader?"

I stood there for a moment, my mind processing what had just happened. Daken had put me in charge? Why? I looked from Rogue who was watching me expectantly to Daken who had his arms crossed, watching me in just the same way. 

"Let's go back," I said, a plan forming in my head. "I have a plan."

"How are we going to find them?" Gabby asked as she stepped out of the boat onto one of the docks.

"We're Wolverine's remember," said Laura. "We can do a pretty good job of tracking them."

Gabby nodded, "But how are we going to get to them? They're probably out of state already."

"We'll find a way," Laura said.

"Oh, there you are!"

They looked up to see Rogue running toward them.

"Help me!" she yelled. "They're coming! Dark Phoenix is coming!"

"Get behind us!" Laura ordered, her claws sliding into place.

Gabby followed her motion. They waited. They waited some more. Then, they heard a boat. They whirled around to see Rogue driving their boat away.

"Sorry," she called after them. "Can't have you getting away."

Suddenly Gabby was pulled away from Laura's side by red magic. Laura whirled to see Jean Grey walking toward them, pulling Gabby closer. Laura ran at her, ready for a fight. She raised her claws to cut her but someone shot between them, blocking Laura's claws with a sword. Laura was blasted back and a pain shot through her forearms, signaling that they were broken. She looked up to see Daken standing over her, claws and sword at the ready.

"Let's finish this," he said.