Of God and Man

Disclaimers: See Chapter 1

A/N: This is it guys. The last chapter. It's very sad, and very happy. Please be a good reader and let me know how it affected you. It didn't really turn out the way I envisioned it when I started but that happens sometimes.

Feedback: I love to get feedback. It helps me to improve my storytelling ability.

Chapter 14: Of God and Man

Rogue was struggling. She had to get a hold on the emotions swirling through her. Carolyn needed her to be clear headed and calm. This is where Rogue's mutation came in handy. She had absorbed so many personalities over the years that she had become proficient at locking foreign emotions away to separate herself from the others in her head. With years of practice, she was able to enter the astral plane and gather the emotions and cage them. Once again, she was clear headed although the echo of Carolyn's despair grated on her nerves.

She ran through the mansion, trying to find someone who could help her. Jean and Scott were unconscious in the kitchen. Bobby and Kitty, along with three young students were in the den, some on the couch, some on the floor. None were in any shape to help. She found Jubilee, Hank and Logan on the lower levels in the med lab. Jubilee and Hank appeared to be unconscious. Logan, however, was struggling to control himself.

"Logan," she gasped. "Carolyn's in trouble."

He didn't answer except to growl through gritted teeth. His eyes were swimming with tears.

"Logan," she yelled. "Get a grip. We gotta help Carolyn." She slapped him, hard.

His head snapped sideways. Quickly, it jerked back, his claws popping with a loud 'snickt'.

"Carolyn," she yelled in his face. "She's in trouble."

"Carol?"

"She's outside alone," Rogue told him. "Something's happened. Ah can feel it. She's had a power up."

"Alone?"

"Yeah, come on. We hafta help her."

Logan got to his feet on shaky legs.

"Are ya back in control?" Rogue asked.

"I'm fine," he told her, his voice rough. "Where is she?"

"Cerebra says she's in town. I'll fly ya there."

They ran back through the mansion, they're steps faltering each time they passed a teem member. Most were unconscious. Occasionally, they came on one who was crying uncontrollably. Logan was having a hard time controlling his own tears. He knew the emotions weren't his, they were Carolyn's. That she was in so much emotional pain at the time of her power up frightened him.

They were airborne as soon as they left the house.

"Do ya see her?" Rogue asked as they circled Salem Center.

"No," he yelled back. "If she's feeling like this, she's probably hiding or somewhere alone. Check the fields outside of town." A shaft of surprise and pain shot through them almost causing Rogue to loose her grip. Logan gasped. She was close. He began to smell fresh blood. "She's hurt," he yelled to Rogue. "I smell blood. She's upwind of here."

'Logan?' a voice intruded on his mind. 'It's Carolyn.'

'Carol?' he asked astonished. 'How are ya doin' this?'

'Power up,' she told him. Her mental voice was filled with pain.

'Where are ya?'

'Tell Steve I loved him.'

'Where are ya!' He was screaming in his head.

'Make sure Rogue gets to church on Sundays.'

"No," he yelled, mentally and physically.

'Remember your promise.' Joy filled them. 'So beautiful,' she gasped.

And the emotions were suddenly gone. It was so disorienting that Rogue dropped him, allowing him to fall fifty feet to the ground.

He rolled over, his wounds healing and bound to his feet. The coppery smell of blood filled his nostrils. He oriented himself and made his was toward the scent. He knew what he would find. He sent out a mental call to the other X-Men.

He found her in a pasture lying in a growing pool of her own blood. A local farmer was standing over her, a bloody knife in his hand and a look of horror on his face. Carolyn's blood was spattered over his clothes and skin.

"She was hurting so bad," he mumbled, his eyes glassy. "I couldn't stand it. I had to do something."

Logan bent quickly over the body and searched for a pulse.

"She's dead," he said with a flat voice. He pulled the crumpled sheets of paper from her hand.

"Oh God," the farmer gasped. "What have I done?"

Rogue landed beside him and took the knife from his slack hand. Tears were streaming down her face. She couldn't find it in herself to comfort the horrified man. Her best friend was dead by his hand.

The hum of the Blackbird overhead drew their eyes from the grisly tableau. The jet landed quickly and the ramp dropped open. Every X-Man in residence streamed out of the plane and gathered in a circle around their fallen member.

"What happened?" Scott croaked.

"I killed her," the farmer whispered. "Oh, God, I killed her." He fell to the ground, crying.

"She was radiating pain and despair, Cyke. He's not responsible," Logan told him sadly. "He just wanted her ta feel better."

"But why was she in so much pain?"

"Don't know," Logan's voice was rough. "I found this letter in her hand. I don't read Latin."

Kurt stepped up and took the letter and began to read. The more he read, the paler he became.

"Oh my God," he whispered as he crossed himself.

"What is it?" Jean asked.

"She's been excommunicated."

"On, no," Rogue moaned.

"What's that mean?" Logan demanded.

"She has been denied heaven by the church," Kurt explained.

"She was Catholic?" the farmer asked. Kurt nodded. "What did she do to get excommunicated?"

"She was born," Scott told him, his voice hard. "Let's do what we have to do. Sir, you'll have to take your clothes off. Jean, some clothes for him. Rogue, put the knife on the body along with the clothes."

Kurt pulled a small box from his pocket and knelt down beside the body. He anointed her forehead, hands and feet, murmuring prayers as he went. The oil perfumed the air with a sweet scent.

"Can ya do this darlin'?" Logans asked Jubilee as she limped to his side.

"Yeah," she nodded, tears gathering in her eyes. "It needs ta be done."

When they were ready, they gathered around the body and Jubilee sent her power streaming into it. Carolyn's body glowed red, then white with heat. When she was finished, there was nothing left except a small blood stained Crucifix, too hot to handle. Bobby sent a cooling mist over it. When it was cool to touch, he picked it up and gave it to Logan.

"Cap should have this," he said. Logan nodded, a huge lump in his throat.

They returned to the jet and left. The last thing that was done was a small mind probe that erased the memory of the incident from the farmer's mind.

When they returned to the mansion, Steve was waiting.

"What happened?" he demanded. "Where's Carolyn?"

He watched as the team passed, their shoulders stooped in grief. No one would meet his eyes. Most were silently crying. Steve felt his heart pound with dread.

Logan was the last off the plane. He stopped before his friend and lifted his face to look him in the eye.

"She loved you," he said quietly. "She wanted ya to know that."

"No!" he gasped in disbelief. He bound into the plane calling for her.

He searched the entire plane, calling, then crying her name. Logan was unable to help him overcome his denial. He watched, ready to catch him when he fell.

"She can't be dead," he said desperately. "If she is, where's the body? I won't believe it until I see her body."

"She asked that her body be cremated, immediately," Logan told him quietly. "She didn't want her DNA ta get inta the wrong hands." He pulled the Crucifix from his pocket and placed into Steve's hand. "This survived. We think you need to have it."

Steve looked at the tiny emblem of her faith that had never left her neck in the months he knew her and it hit him; she was dead. She would never had allowed the Crucifix to be removed unless she was. His shoulders began to shake as he held in the sobs of pain that threatened to tear him apart. He felt Logan place his hand on his shoulder and the dam broke.

Logan watched as his friend cried, his own eyes moist. Steve wept for ten minutes, his heart breaking with the pain, the loss.

"What happened?" he asked when he was in control again.

"Let's go have a beer and I'll tell ya," Logan said.

Logan guided him into the kitchen and parked him by the counter while dug in the refrigerator for his beer. When he turned back around, Steve was gone. He sighed. He knew where Cap was going.

He made his was to the team wing, stopping to talk to Rogue as he went. He found Cap exactly where he thought he would. He was standing in the middle of Carolyn's room, holding her comb.

"She wanted me to make love to her last night," Steve told him. "She was tired of the lock downs. She figured that if she was pregnant, Charles would let her go outside as much as she wanted. I didn't have the heart to tell her it would get worse."

"Did ya?" Logan asked.

"No," Steve said shaking his head. "I told her I wouldn't compromise her values because she didn't like three days of every month. It was the hardest thing I ever did, walking out of here."

"She got a letter," Logan began. "She didn't tell anyone about it but one of the students saw it on her desk. I guess she wanted ta be alone when she opened it so she sent a feeling of disinterest ta all of us so we wouldn't look fer her. She took off and went to the other side of town and read the letter. She was excommunicated Cap. The church meant everythin' ta her. Loosin' that part of her life tore her apart. She started ta project despair and pain. We all could feel it but it knocked us down, it was so strong. When Rogue started ta feel it, she knew Carol'd had a power up. She found me and knocked me outta the self pity Carol's emotions had caused and we went ta search fer her. We found her in a field, stabbed ta death by a farmer. He felt her pain so much that he needed ta put her outta her misery. She made me promise when she first found out about her potential that I would be sure ta burn her body right away."

"And you did?" Steve asked.

"Jubilee did," Logan told him. "We needed ta make sure there wasn't anything left ta clone."

"I felt it," he whispered. "We were in Jersey and I could feel it there. I knew it was Carolyn and my fear drove the despair out of me. I left the rest of the Avengers behind and flew here."

"Then you felt the joy at the end," Logan stated. Steve nodded, fresh tears spilling over his eyes and down his cheeks.

"And the farmer?" he sniffed.

"Jean wiped his memory."

"He needs to be brought to justice," Steve objected.

"Fer killin' a mutant? Ya know it'll never happen."

"She could have been the first."

"She was usin' her powers. No jury in the world would convict a mutant killer if the mutant was usin' her powers. 'Specially an omega mutant. And if we were ta leave her body ta the authorities, they'd take samples and do DNA tests. Any one of those samples coulda been grown inta a clone. Every clone of hers would be omega level but without the religion that kept her honest. We couldn't risk that happenin'."

"So he gets off?" Steve yelled. "He killed the woman I loved!"

"He couldn't help himself," Logan told him. "He was bein' controlled by Carol's powers."

"Leave me alone Logan. I need to think."

Logan took a sniff before he left. Grief with a smattering of anger. Not enough to make him try to get the farmer and no odor of possible suicidal intentions. Heleft the beer on the dresser andwent to his roomto called Tony Stark and tell him what had happened.

A week later, Carolyn's name was added to the monument dedicated to the fallen X-Men. Neither Steve nor Logan could bring themselves to attend the ceremony. Steve refused to come to the mansion even on business. If the X-Men wanted to talk, they had to go to him.

Logan sat on the dock, throwing pebbles into the lake and thinking while the others were at the dedication ceremony. He smelled the distinctive scent of brimstone as Kurt walked up behind him.

"They done?" he asked, not turning around.

"Ja," Kurt said. "You should have come. It was nice."

He grunted in response and continued to throw pebbles. Kurt watched him for a while, then sighing, he turned to leave.

"Elf," Logan stopped him. "Why did God abandon Carol?"

Kurt walked over an squatted beside him.

"God didn't abandon her Logan, man did," Kurt told him.

"She was excommunicated by her church."

"That doesn't mean God abandoned her. It meant that her aunt got to the ear of a powerful Cardinal. God doesn't desert those who truly believe." He shifted so he could see Logan's face better. "You felt the joy as she died, ja?"

Logan nodded. He had felt an overwhelming joy just before the emotions were cut off.

"That was when God touched her. She knew that God loved her and was bringing her home. She's happy now. No one can hurt her ever again."

Logan didn't speak. He was lost in his thoughts.

"She changed us," Kurt said quietly. "I have Kitty and you have Storm. Kitty and Jubilee are acting like sisters now. And Rogue will be baptized next Easter. She made us all rethink who we are and what our role is in the bigger picture. We will never be the same."

He didn't hear Kurt leave but that didn't surprise him. He continued to watch the ripples in the water caused by the pebbles as the fell in. He heard voices overhead and glanced up to see Jean and Rogue fly over him, deep in conversation. They had never gotten alongvery well until Carolyn made them see how much they were alike.A car door slammed behind himand he turned to see Jubilee climb into Kitty's car, chattering away excitedly to the little ninja. Both of them were smiling. Hank was out of his lab, wandering through Ororo's gardens, clipboard in hand. Remy and Bobby were shooting hoops on the court, arguing loudly about the rules. Cyke was chasing a fluttering sheet of paper that was staying determinedly out of his reach.

'Ah darlin',' he thought. 'Ya changed us, and fer the better.' He thought about what he had with Ororo.Carolyn turning him down was the best thing that ever happened to him.'Ro was good for him. He jumped up and headed back to the house.

"Logan," Scott yelled. "Help me catch that thing."

"Can't right now," He yelled happily. "I need ta go ta the city and ask 'Ro a question."

Finis