THE ILLUSIONIST WOMAN

thirteen. War On The Horizon

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LOGAN WAS ANGRY. BEYOND upset that he had broken the promise he made to Marie on the train that night. Believe her, Ximena was also mad for him but she there was nothing that could've been done. What was could not be changed, but what they did after that could transform the fabric of all events. The present, that's what mattered.

They couldn't delay and waste time by thinking of what could've been. At least, that's what she often coach herself to get through another day. And it was exactly what she was telling Logan now as he washed his face in a basin to get the sweat sticking on his brow off.

"You were right. You were right, I had a damn feeling about it and yet here we are." He grumbled to her, roughly drying his face with a towel he snatched from the hook on the wall.

"Dwelling on it would only fuel your rage."

Professor Xavier rolled into his room, his lips set in a disappointed scowl. "His helmet was designed to block my telepathy. I couldn't get through to him, couldn't stop his vengeful plans."

Throwing the towel to the side aggressively, Logan reached for his leather jacket and stormed out. Ximena furrowed her brow, speeding after him. "Where are you going?" She demanded.

"I'm gonna find her," He snapped back, causing her own anger to flare. Her expression indignant at his unnecessary attitude.

"And do what? Fight Magneto and his team by yourself, that's stupid Logan and you know it." She followed him down the main staircase with Ororo meeting them at the bottom. His steps were heavy and obnoxiously loud, pounding down the wood like he owned the place. "You can't be serious."

"Who's gonna help me? You? So far you've all done a bang-up job." He spitefully spewed and frankly, it pissed her off.

Ororo held her back by the wrist, giving her a knowingly look though she ignored it. "Now wait a god damn minute. We've been busting our culo for Marie while you've been pouting around here like the world is out to get you. Aye -- I'm talking to you!"

"I don't need this shit right now. I don't need you, your attitude or your band of misfit freaks." He spun around abruptly, facing her with a glare fiery enough to burn her through. However, Ximena matched his temperament, rolling her eyes in annoyance.

"Why can't you just get over yourself already--"

"Ximena," Professor warned, causing her to wave him off. She moved closer to Logan, narrowing her eyes into a fierce glare. His chest raised and fell with his heated breaths, only spurring her on at the challenge.

"Believe it or not, someone fucking needs you. We, the team need you."

"So what?"

"Join us," She fired back, causing him to scoff but she continued on. "Help fight with us."

"Fight with you? Be an X-Man?" He spoke condescendingly, sizing her and the team crowding around her like they were shit he accidently stepped on. The sight made Ximena's chest constrict with something she couldn't quite name. Made her blood boil. "Who the hell do you think you are? You're a mutant. The whole world out there is full of people that hate and fear you. And you're wasting your time trying to protect 'em? I got better things to do."

"Right, like hiking the side of the road with no home, no means and no form of income other than beating the shit out of random people. Sounds really fulfilling." Right now, Ximena was hurt, she was lashing out. He labeled her as something people fear, so she showed him exactly what she should be terrified of: Her rage.

Logan laughed humorlessly, heading to the front door with his hand on the knob. At first, he hesitated and for the brief second, Ximena hoped he would say forget all this and stay. But he only glanced over his shoulder to get the last word, like an arrogant prick. "You know, Magneto's right. There's a war coming. You sure you're on the right side?"

Ororo pulled Ximena beside her, arching an unimpressed brow at him. "At least we've chosen a side."

Without saying much else, he opened the door to the crisp night sky. And who was standing there not only shocked the Wolverine into pausing his dramatic storm out the school, but it took Ximena's mind off their stupid fight and gave her something to do.

Senator Kelly looked horrible, leaning heavily against the door frame. Ximena moved to help him, brushing Logan aside. "I'm looking for Dr. Jean Grey," He uttered before falling heavily into her arms.

Ximena hastily tried to pull him in, looking to Storm over her shoulder to do as the man asked. She left instantly, warily looking between Logan and her friend.

"Hang on, Senator. Just hang on," She sighed in exasperation, ignoring Logan's help to bring him to the hospital room by herself.

Jean and Ximena busied themselves around the lab to get things ready for Senator Kelly. She felt quite reluctant in helping him. A man only seeking to discriminate against her people. However, she made a vow to help people instead of hurt them. So, she would be working second for her ginger friend. In fear she'd let her volatile emotions from her and Logan's fight to get the best of her.

Professor Xavier rolled in the room to the Senator's side. And it was not lost on Ximena that Logan was lingering around for some reason. Frankly, she was annoyed with his presence and avoiding his eye contact on all fronts.

"Senator Kelly, I'm Professor Charles Xavier."

Ximena silently listened, pulling the cover tabs off the pads to monitor his heart rate. She placed them on his chest as it slowly moved up and down with his shallow breath. She had seen a vision of him before, meaning: she had some idea of what was going on with him. However, she didn't know the specifics.

"I was afraid if I went to a hospital, they would --"

"Treat you like a mutant?" The Professor finished. "We're not what you think. Not all of us."

"Tell it to the ones who did this to me," The Senator swallowed and Ximena couldn't help but think what hypocritical thought process he must be going through. Especially, when these mutants were trying to help him live to see another day.

It goes to show that not all kindness is appreciated.

"Senator... I want you to try and relax." The Professor rolled around his head to place his hands on either side. His body leaning over him slightly. "I'm not going to hurt you."

...

"THE MACHINE EMITS RADIATION that triggers mutation in ordinary human beings." Xavier revealed once they moved to his office. Ximena paced behind him, annoying mirroring Logan on the opposite side of the room. Once she realized it, she took a seat beside Jean, placing her clasps hands under her chin.

"But... the mutation is unnatural," Ximena breathed, gaining everyone's constantly shifting attention. "Senator Kelly's body is rejecting the transformation. His cells began to break down almost immediately."

"What effect does radiation have on mutants?" Scott wondered aloud.

"There appears to be none, but I fear it will seriously harm any normal person exposed to it." Professor worried.

Logan, with his jacket over her shoulder, ready to leave at any moment, spoke for the first time since the fight. Ximena bit her tongue when his lips parted, pushing away her grudge against him because she believed to have the answer. "So what does Magneto want with Rogue?"

"To use her abilities like a power source. Listen, it only makes sense."

Scott pointed to his friend, agreeing with her line of thinking. "Wait a second, you're right. You said this machine draws its power from Magento, and that it weakened him."

"Yes, it nearly killed him," Professor whispered under his breath.

"He's gonna transfer his power to Rogue and use her to power the machine," Ximena concluded, standing to her feet with a simultaneous feeling of accomplishment and dread. "I'm going to check on Senator Kelly. Tell me the plan of action when you have them. Excuse me."

Logan reached for her wrist before she could leave, causing pause. Ximena eyed him intensely, the corners of her lips down turning at his lack of words. She waited, waited for him to say anything, but when he had nothing to give, she walked away with no more than a scrunch of her nose.

"Is somebody there?" Ximena adjusted her lab coat as she neared him. The desperation in his voice could make anyone's heart lurch.

"Yes, Senator. I'm here." She grabbed a towel and laid it over his body. The water exerting from his pores was excessive, dripping onto the floor nauseatingly. He caught her forearm with a weak grasp. His skin moistened from his failing transformation. "Please, don't leave me... I don't w-want to be a-alone."

His breath came out in sputters. The whites of his eyes diminishing from view. Ximena let out a sharp breath as more of his body seeped out on the ground. She had never seen anything like it. "Do you hate normal people?"

Ximena thought to answer honestly, wetting her lips with sullen eyes. "I hate their systematic, prejudice behaviors. I hate how misunderstood we are. I hate... how afraid of them my people are. We're here -- to be different; to show the world they don't have to fear us with loaded guns anymore."

His heart rate raised as he wheezed. The veins under his translucent skin showing bright blue. His blood was losing oxygen, meaning his lungs weren't doing much of anything for him. Ximena went to grab a oxygen mask for him, but he grabbed her wrist once more to stop her.

It seemed he had already accepted his fate. "I think you've got one less person to -- to be afraid of." Suddenly, his back arched as his lungs filled with fluid or turned into fluid, Ximena didn't know.

Her eyes widened in appall. The dilation of his eyes as fear registered in his mind. The swiftly turning blue shade of his skin as he openly choked. The grip on her wrist tightened, but Ximena didn't care for it. It dripped and coated her fingers before it burst in a spout of water all together.

Ximena jumped, exclaiming a curse as his body morphed into a contracting ball of sludge. Then and only then did his entire body deteriorate, gushing onto the bed till the sheets were completely visible. His remains, nothing but a large puddle on the floor.

In shock, Ximena shook and openly gaped at what happened. The next second, she bolted, heading back to the office with adrenaline paralyzing her train of thought.

She burst through the door, chest heaving as she laid eyes on the group already starting another fight. Ororo appeared and laid a hand on her back to support her, maternally trying to calm her down. "S-Senator Kelly is dead."

A silence hovered over the room as Ximena settled her breathing.

Professor Xavier pursed his lips in a look she knew all too well. He met Ximena's eyes and nodded to knowingly. "I'm going to find Rogue," He vowed, turning to Scott with a more fatherly glare, "Settle this."

When he rolled out the room, the team was left to deal with their mess. Ximena ran her hands through her tangled hair, reluctantly waiting in the awkward silence to be filled with something meaningful.

Scott looked over the team begrudgingly including Logan too. "Suit up. All of you... we've got a girl to find."

Sighing, Ximena padded out of the room. Honestly, she was still reeling from witnessing Senator Kelly's horrific death. She was shaken up but not unhelpful. Her steps drew her to her bedroom and she was vaguely aware of Logan's heavy ass footsteps following after her.

"I'm not in the mood to argue with you again, Logan."

She opened her bedroom door, moving to her closet for her suit and gear. Noting that he was the one to close the door after her, she didn't pay he much mind. "I'm not going to yell at you again."

"Damn right you're not. Cansado de tu mierda," She sneered at him over her shoulder, before muttering more incoherent things under her breath. Taking off her lab coat, she set it aside before tugging off her sweatshirt disguise from earlier.

Logan arched his brows at her bra strap clad back, crossing his arms over his chest. "I wanted to -- apologize."

"Right," She scoffed unbelievably, scrunching the sweatshirt into a ball before tossing it in her hamper. "And you realized how bad you fucked up not but twenty minutes from when you claimed to have much better things to do with your time? Whatever."

"Mena," Logan growled in agitation, forcing her to spin around and face him. He couldn't stand talking to her back. The sign of shutting him out.

His large hands grabbed hold of her bare forearms, jostling her frame harshly to stand before him. The fire in his eyes only fueled her own hotter. She slapped his hands away stubbornly, glaring at him with nostrils flare. "Don't. You know you have a very serious issue with commitment. Whether it's women, a stable job, a house to stay in, even a group of decent friends. All things to help you thrive and yet you push it away, why is that?"

"I don't. I don't know," He gritted, sliding a rough hand down his bearded face. "I don't need anyone to help me thrive or whatever the hell that is."

"Yeah, but can't you see that people need you? Isn't that enough to stick around, to stick it out?" She furrowed her eyebrows as she observed him and his ever-changing emotions. The mark of a face who didn't want anyone to depend on him. The sight of a man who refused responsibilities and just wanted to do for him in the moment.

Ximena sighed through her nose, averting her gaze to her bare feet before gazing back into his eyes. The intensity of their eye lock was ground shaking, but that just came with the territory of Logan. The Doctor believed wholeheartedly that he had the ability to be ground shaking all by himself, if he just put it to something worthwhile.

"Now... is no time to be a coward," She voice in a soft tone. The aggression within her depleting but the passion was still there, hanging on the tip of her sharp tongue. "You can be that on your own time, but when saving that young girl, you better give it your all. If you won't do it for yourself, do it for her. Cause she's got her whole life ahead of her and you've had plenty to outlast the rest of us."

Taking that as a sign of dismissal, Logan swallowed deeply and stepped away. He didn't pause once to get the hell out of there. His steps sure and steady till he closed the door behind him. Ximena watched him go with no regrets, only the hope that he'd stick around for the mission.

Her chest still rumbling from the mix of chaotic emotions, she hollowly glanced around her room. A quiet moment to herself before she continued getting dressed with her orders in mind and Logan lingering not too far behind them.

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Unedited. 6/18/21

I'm on a roll today lol I absolutely love this chapter because who doesn't love when their otp fights hehe. Let me know what you thoughts of this chapter, comment, vote! Xx