Burning Brightly

Author's Note:

While I haven't read the novelization, I did read on Wikipedia that in the novel Bobby drags John to safety after the battle. So I have incorporated that detail into my story. And it would seem terribly out of character to me that Bobby would have just left John there to die after knocking him unconscious.

Warnings: More sex. And a little joke with a nod to D.C. Comics. No copyright infringement intended, etc. Don't sue.

Oh...And no, this isn't the last chapter. I've got two more coming.

Chapter Ten: It’s Over.

The next thing I remember was being dragged across something rough. My head hurt like hell and there was screaming and shouting all around. I started to struggle against the hands that wouldn’t let me rest.

“Come on, John! We’ve got to get out of here.” I blinked at Bobby’s face above me. What the fuck?

I tried to speak but what came out didn’t make any sense. Bobby jerked me to my feet hard enough that it sent throbbing waves of pain through my face and skull. I groaned.

“Come on John! Move it or she’ll kill us!” Bobby pulled my arm over his shoulder and I blinked again, trying to get the world back into focus.

“Who?” That did manage to sound like a word.

“Jean. She’s gone berserk.” He was half carrying, half dragging me through the wreckage. “She’s killing everyone!”

“Fuck. Told Magneto. Dumb idea.” I mumbled, trying to get my feet to move.

“John!” Martha came flying out of nowhere in a spray of gravel and suddenly I was in the middle of tug of war. After a moment they quit fighting each other and started to cooperate, making my life a little easier.

“Who is she?” Bobby stumbled a little on the rough ground. We were almost to the bridge.

“Martha? What are you doing here?” Damn it, she was supposed to stay back, out of the line of fire.

“Saving your ass.” She slung my other arm over her shoulder. I turned my head to look at her and was sorry. What I saw around me didn’t make sense. Pieces of twisted metal and people were flying through the air and water was rising upwards in sheets.

“I’ve got him.” Bobby grunted as he started to drag me up onto the bridge. I still couldn’t seem to get everything to come into focus. Dammit, my body wouldn’t cooperate either.

“Oh God! Come on!” She almost shrieked in my ear. There was a terrible roaring sound behind us and even more pieces of shrapnel flew by.

The three of us fell in a heap onto the bridge. It was shuddering and trembling in a way that made the pit of my stomach turn to greasy ice. Then two sets of hands were dragging me upright again.

We took off at a stumbling run away from the hell behind us. I didn’t even try to look back. One look at that shit was more than enough for a lifetime. My hands were burning and I looked down to find the skin cracked and bleeding.

“Bobby! What the fuck did you do to me?” I vaguely remembered the fight with Bobby, how he had turned to ice and grabbed my wrists.

“Shut up and run.” He snapped at me. Slowly my feet were starting to obey me.

We ran until we started to catch up with the rest of the refugees. Then we began to slow down. The cars here were jumbled together and we had to pick our way through them.

The world was still moving in unpleasant ways and I felt like I was going to puke.

“I gotta stop. Please stop.” I panted.

“I don’t know why the hell I’m doing this.” Bobby stopped and helped Martha prop me up against the door of an SUV.

“Because you’re a hero, dumbass.” I snapped.

“John. Let me see your hands. You’re bleeding.” Martha grabbed my wrists and I hissed in pain. The freeze burn went up my sleeves where she’d grabbed me.

“I should have done worse than that.” Bobby growled at me. “You tried to kill me. God knows how many people you’ve killed.”

I didn’t know how to answer that, so I didn’t.

“I should turn you in.” He said and I looked up. He was staring at my bleeding hands.

“You wouldn’t do that would you?” Something in Martha’s tone got my attention. I turned my head. She was pulling something out of her pocket. It was one of those damned Cure pistols. Bobby couldn’t see it, but I could.

“No he wouldn’t.” I reached out with my arm to block her, smearing blood on her sleeve.

“I should.” Bobby sounded uncertain.

“No, baby. It’s over. No more.” I put my hand over hers and leaned close. “We lost.”

Now Bobby could see the pistol and he backed away.

“Not Bobby. Never Bobby.” I whispered in her ear. “Put it away. Please.”

“But, John…”

“No.” I touched her face and she looked at me with those silver eyes. They seemed to reflect all the terrible images that had passed that night. “Just tell him to go find his friends.”

“I’m sorry.” She shoved the gun back in her pocket and looked over my shoulder.

“I’m sorry. About everything. Thanks for your help. You should probably get back to your friends. I’m sure they need you.”

I could see the glimmer of silver from the corner of my eye. I heard Bobby clear his throat.

“I…We should all go back. Together. I hit John pretty hard. He should get looked at.”

“I’ve got him. I’ll take care of him. Go on. They’re probably worried to death.” Another flash of silver. Come on Bobby, just go.

“I guess you’re right.”

“She is Bobby. We’ll be fine.” I tried to stand steady and waved him off.

“Be careful, Bobby. Watch your back.” She called after him as he made his way through the tangle of cars, looking for his team mates.

“Can you walk, John? We have to get out of here before someone recognizes us.”

“What does it matter? It’s over. We lost.”

“It matters to me.” I looked at her again. Really looked. She looked exhausted. She’d just run into that hellstorm to come after me. Why?

The answer hit me and I felt my throat close up. I couldn’t speak.

“Come on. Let’s go.” I let her pull me along as I tried to sort things out. We must have been some of the last to make it out. We slipped quietly through the abandoned cars, avoiding anyone else.

It was a long, nerve wracking walk. Twice Martha had to pull her Svengali routine on soldiers going back towards the island, convincing them we were just stranded bystanders. By the time we made it to the end of the bridge, we were both shaking. We were lucky that nobody had really taken charge of the scene yet and we managed to slip away into the night.

I really don’t remember large chunks of those first few days. I think I must have had a concussion. Martha kept us moving from one cheap motel to another, switching I.D.’s several times. She spent hours watching CNN trying to find out if we were wanted or presumed dead. I spent most of the time flat on my back with my eyes closed, waiting for the pain in my head to go away and for the world to stop spinning.

Eventually, the world did stop spinning and I had to face facts. The Brotherhood was gone. Most of them were dead and the few that weren’t dead were probably hiding just like us. Most of them were human now. Martha had told me everything she could about what happened after I went down.

“We’re lucky we didn’t get hit. There were Cure darts flying everywhere.” Martha sat across from me in the cheap hotel picking at her pizza. I never thought I’d say it, but I think I was just about sick of pizza. She hadn’t wanted to leave long enough to even get a burger.

“Were we?” I had been holding the Cure pistol in my hands, just fiddling with it. I set it on the table in front of us. I gave it a little spin and watched it turn slowly.

“Are you saying you want to take the Cure?” She watched the gun slowly come to a stop before she looked at me.

“I’m…I guess I’m saying it’s an option.”

“Yeah. I guess so.” She took a sip of her soda.

“Would you leave me if I did it?” I wasn’t sure what I felt about her, but she was all I had left. Everything and everyone else was gone.

“We’re more than just our powers, John. If that’s what you want…I’ll do it with you.” I could see the flush in her cheeks and the glitter in her eyes that told me she was trying not to cry.

“You don’t want to. You don’t want me to.” Sometimes I wished she would actually tell me what she wanted me to do. She was still so damn afraid of her own powers.

“I…I’d miss the fire. It’s part of you. Not just…not just the power. The…the fire that burns inside you. You’d be different.”

“No one even knows who you are. You could leave. Take the Cure. Forget about all this. Maybe go home even.” Maybe I was some sort of masochist, trying to talk her into leaving. Or maybe I just wanted to hear someone say I was wanted.

“I can’t go home. Not after all this. And whether they’re looking for me depends on just how much Mystique told them. I was a student intern for Senator Kelly for a while…”

“What did you do?” She hadn’t mentioned that before and I sat forward to listen.

“I influenced a couple of votes and ‘persuaded’ a couple of senators who were sitting on the fence to vote against the Mutant Registration Act and a couple of other things. If she rolled on me…I’m in big trouble. They think you’re dead. No even knows I was there.”

“Shit.” I hadn’t really thought about that. Kind of explained why they kept her out of sight for so long. “Bobby knows I’m alive. And he saw you.”

“If he hasn’t told yet, he probably won’t if we stay out of trouble. And he has no idea who I am.”

“Yeah.”

“So, are we gonna?” She nodded at the gun. She looked scared.

“No.” I got up and put it back in the drawer where I’d found it. Then I sat back down. “So, what do we do next? We can’t stay here forever.”

“I think we should get as far away from here as we can. Change our looks and our I.D.’s. I know where some of Mystique’s safe houses are. There’s one in New York, if you’d like to head back east.”

“That sounds good. I’d like to go back. You sure the cops won’t be waiting for us?”

“I don’t think Mystique would give up her own safe houses. As far as I can tell, she’s still in custody in D.C., so we shouldn’t run into her.”

“Then let’s do it.” It wasn’t like I had a better plan. This secret agent routine was her thing, not mine.

“All right. I’ve got to go out, do some shopping.”

She was gone for a long time, so long that I began to wonder if she’d changed her mind about staying with me. Or maybe she’d gotten busted.

Finally, she came back with a half dozen shopping bags from different stores. I’d been sitting at the little table where we’d eaten pizza, watching a movie.

“I hope black’s O.K. with you.” She pulled out a box of hair color. “I thought I’d go brown.”

“I like your hair.” I sighed and picked up the box. Well, this would be different. “Do we have to?”

“Well…I already had some I.D.’s made. Before we left camp. We need to match the photos.” Somehow she’d managed to hang onto her pack through all the chaos. I knew she’d brought her laptop and a whole deck of fake I.D.’s and credit cards. She dropped the rest of the bags on the bed and began digging in the pack.

“I…um…hope this is O.K. with you.” She returned and handed me two drivers licenses. She must have used a computer to doctor the hair colors. Mine was black and hers was brown. “I thought it would make for fewer questions if we were…married.”

“Kent?”

“Yeah.” She reached behind her neck and unclasped the gold chain she’d been wearing. When she pulled it off I could see a pair of wedding bands on it. “I’m not trying to trap you or anything. We could say were brother and sister instead…”

“No. It’s a good idea.” I set the I.D.’s on the table, and reached for the rings. “But, we’re not adopting a kid named ‘Clark.’” She let me have the rings and gave me a little smile.

“Maybe a dog then?” I reached out and put my arms around her waist, pulling her down into my lap.

“Maybe.” She smelled good and felt even better.

I took the rings off the chain and tossed it next to the I.D.’s. I tried the larger one on and it fit. Then I took her hand and slipped the other one on her finger. I looked at her and she was blushing.

“So it’s O.K.?”

“It’s just fine, baby.” I kissed her then. If it made her happy, it was fine with me. I would have liked to do more, but she pushed away after a moment.

“I guess you’re feeling better.”

“A lot better.” I tried to pull her back for another kiss, but she laughed a little and slid out of my lap.

“We’d better go ahead and take care of this.” She held up the box of hair color and I sighed. Not my idea of fun.

So we spent the next hour or two coloring our hair and wrecking a bunch of cheap motel towels. Finally it was done. By then it was late and we headed to bed.

I thought we were just going to sleep. We hadn’t done more than kiss since we’d left the Camp, mostly because I hadn’t felt up to it. But shortly after I lay down and closed my eyes I felt her hands moving slowly across my body.

For a moment I lay still, pretending to be asleep. I was enjoying the attention. She didn’t usually start things, maybe because I hadn’t given her much chance. Her fingers trailed lightly across my ribs and down my belly. She skirted around my dick, dragging her fingers through the hair there and almost tickling the inside of my thighs. Her breath was warm against the side of my neck.

Then I felt her lips on my neck, kissing and nibbling as her fingers began to slowly retrace their path. By now, my dick was hardening and my pulse was speeding up. She kissed her way up the line of my jaw to meet my lips. I gave up pretending to be asleep and kissed her back slowly. Her kiss was slow and gentle and so was her touch when her fingers started moving downwards again.

“This is different.” I whispered as she moved her lips again to my neck. I brought my hands up to stroke her hair back from her face. It was still damp and felt cool between my fingers. I gasped as her fingertips stroked lightly down the length of my dick and grazed my balls before continuing downwards.

“I want to…make love to you.” She whispered so quietly I wasn’t sure I’d heard her. She continued her slow caressing, her touch growing more firm with each trip up and down my body. I tried to copy her touch, running my fingers over her breasts and down her belly. I started to sit up to reach farther, but she pressed me back down gently.

“What?” I was a little confused as to what she wanted.

“Just lie back and take it easy, love.”

It was the first time she’d called me that and it surprised me a little. But I didn’t have long to think about it as she began to kiss me again. Her fingers wrapped around my dick and she began to stroke me slowly while her other hand continued to travel over my body, stopping now an again to gently knead my balls or lightly scratch them.

I let my hands wander over her body, caressing and stroking wherever they went. She sighed and moaned into my mouth. I felt her shiver a little, but her hands kept moving slowly, almost lazily. Slowly it began to get to me. I couldn’t seem to help making little noises, almost begging her to speed up.

“Please, baby. I need more.” I panted into her ear. “Please.”

“Just a sec.”

She pulled away for a moment and I heard the rustling of a shopping bag and something tearing. Then she was back. She stroked my dick again, then I felt her rolling the condom down over me. She leaned over me and kissed me again. I pulled her closer and deepened the kiss. When I let her go, she moved to straddle me.

“Yesss…” I hissed as I felt her slide down, sheathing my dick inside her. She gave a breathy little moan that sent chills down my spine. I slid my hands up her thighs to rest on her hips.

She began to move, rocking against me. I watched her above me, the streetlights shining through the cracks in the drapes. At first I just rested my hands on her hips, letting her set her own rhythm. God, it felt good. I watched her face, seeing her eyes glinting silver. Then she closed her eyes and bit her lip as she gave a little groan.

After a moment I could feel her body tensing and her movements became a little jerky. I knew she was getting close and I used my hands to steady her, pulling her back and forth. Then she stiffened and gave a little cry as she came. Afterwards she leaned down to kiss me again.

Now I used my hands to encourage her to move faster. I felt my own orgasm rising and I began to thrust upwards to meet her rocking. I couldn’t wait much longer and pulled her against me harder with each thrust. I felt her tense again and she gave a surprised little whimper as another orgasm ran through her. I didn’t stop moving, I was so close.

Then I felt myself explode inside her. I held her tight against me until I could see again and my dick began to go soft. She slipped away from me and peeled the condom off quickly before snuggling up against me with a contented little sigh.

Neither one of us seemed to want to break the silence. We curled up together under the cheap motel comforter and lazily kissed and touched one another until we fell asleep.