"Let's get you home"
The pounding headache was the first thing John became aware of.
Then he noticed the pain radiating throughout his body. Everything hurt, and the cold hard ground under his back didn’t make anything better. Then he felt the dust on his face - he inhaled only to cough right after as the coarse particles invaded his throat.
What happened? Where was Magneto? Where was the rest of the Brotherhood, for that matter? Was he even alive anymore?
John saw movement out of the corner of his eye. It looked enough like a person to give him hope.
“Hey! Hey, over here!”
The figure turned around and started walking towards him. John immediately regretted opening his mouth. It was Logan.
“How in the hell are you still alive?” he growled, digging through the pieces of debris that had somehow landed on John and throwing them aside. John immediately tried to get up, but Logan was swift to land his foot on the side of his throat. There was no pressure, but it was a clear warning. One wrong move and I’ll break your fucking neck.
“We’ve got a survivor here!” Logan shouted. John rolled his eyes as he heard more footsteps approaching.
“John?”
John immediately recognized the voice. It was Bobby. Of course it was Bobby - as if being found by Logan wasn’t bad enough. Within seconds he was surrounded by the whole team.
“Logan, let go of him,” Storm commanded, but Logan didn’t budge.
“He’s just gonna run off if I do,” he said, looking down at John like he was some filthy pest. “Where is Magneto?”
“Fuck do I know,” John said truthfully, shifting around as he tried to find a more comfortable position, but Logan put more pressure on his neck until he stopped.
“You really expect me to believe that?” he asked, sounding condescending.
“I swear, I have no clue! The guy never told anyone anything beforehand!”
“He has no reason to lie,” Kitty pointed out. “Most of the Brotherhood is either dead or arrested and Magneto has no powers.”
“Well, thanks a lot for filling me in,” John retorted. “Look, if I knew where he was, I’d tell you. He left me here so clearly he either doesn’t think I'm useful or doesn’t care.”
“And that’s it? Your loyalty to the cause is gone just like that?” Logan questioned.
“Clearly we lost! Now they’ll try to eradicate all of us sooner or later, so what does it matter!” John exclaimed, growing more and more frustrated. He wanted the conversation to be over. If parroting Magneto’s predictions about the future was what it took to shut them up, so be it.
“So what should we do with you now?” Bobby asked, finally speaking up.
“I think Logan already has an idea,” John said, smirking up at the clawed mutant. “Come on, you fucking animal, just do it. Save yourself the trouble of having to deal with me.”
Rage burned in Logan’s eyes. He looked fully ready to tear John into pieces.
“Logan, don’t,” Bobby said, noticing his teammate’s rising anger. “We can- we can just take him back to the mansion. See what we can do. But we can’t stay out here for much longer.”
“Are you out of your mind? We can’t take him with us!” Logan exclaimed.
“I kind of agree, I mean, it would probably be smarter for us to just-” Kitty started, but Bobby cut him off.
“Leave him here? He’d probably get killed! We- we can’t!”
“Storm, what do you say?” Logan asked.
Storm stared into John’s eyes with an unreadable expression. Was it guilt? Sadness? Anger? John stared back, trying to make sense of the situation.
“I… I think we should take him,” Storm finally blurted out, breaking eye contact. “We can’t leave him out here to die. We’d be no better than Magneto.”
Logan finally raised his boot off John’s neck. Bobby kneeled down and put John’s arm around his shoulder, helping him up. “Can you walk?”
“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine,” John said, but allowed Bobby to help. He felt dizzy and wasn’t totally sure if his legs would actually support his weight.
“Come on then,” Bobby said. “Let’s get you home.”