Salome: Tears of the Goddess
Chapter 8
by
Albertina
Teaser: This is a Logan comicverse story, more or less, that doesn't fit into continuity. It just has some characters in it that I wanted to have skulking around the X-mansion so I put them in there.
Some of the highlights include: Nightcrawler, Cyclops, Gambit, and Wolvie go to a mutant strip club; Logan does his impression of a chicken; X-men throw a b'day party for Logan; and lots of sexual tension between Logan and an original female character. Oh-yeah- also some butt-kicking action. My first attempt at it. Feedback would be much appreciated.
Note: The best lines in this story are taken from the Song of Solomon in the Old Testament.
"Just do whatever they do, Cajun," Logan says. "We can't let any of these dupes get hurt. We just have to get her back and then let the police do the rest."
"Do we have any kind of plan or are we jus' crashing the party?"
"We're just going to wing it."
They pass an enormous garden. It is empty. Apparently, they are taking it easy this evening. The day's work is done. Logan picks up the scent of some pigs. Around the greenhouse, four enormous hogs eye the two men as they pass.
Jeannie, you got a make on where these kooks are stashin' themselves?
They're in the center of the house, must be the same room as before. Looks like a town meeting.
She's standing among the trees around the compound. She can still see Logan and Remy. At her feet are two unconscious mutants. So far, she's bearing up well under the strain.
I can't do this for very long, guys.
Don't worry darlin', this is going to be short work. This guy's not a mutant. He's just a guy.
The two men walk through the door. They are in an enormous kitchen, immaculately clean. It, too, is empty.
Gambit follows Logan. He can't lock in on Maggie's scent. It's drowned in the scent of the others. They pass through a long hallway, the same one as before, apparently. At least, it looks the same, Logan thinks to himself.
The entire place is very still, very quiet. After a moment, they are standing in front of the same enormous iron door. It's open. They walk through it. It's a scene similar to the one before. Candles on the walls, billowing incense. But no Maggie. No Messiah, either.
Logan and Gambit seat themselves in the middle. Although Jean has cloaked them in the appearance of the two members unconscious at her feet, no one greets them. No one appears to be talking to anyone else.
Gambit had been about to make a witty comment to Logan but he holds his tongue. They sit and wait. It occurs to Logan that he really has no idea what he and Gambit should do. They can't exactly just start killing people. He doesn't know what these other mutants are capable of. One thing he knows for certain, this guy is a small-timer, relatively speaking. Hardly the sort of madman mutant bent on world domination that they normally encountered.
Before long, the drums begin. They beat a slow, steady pulse into the air. The incense is choking Logan's senses. It's hard for him to lock onto anyone's scent.
The platform is empty but for a single person, mutant, obviously, who towers over everyone present. He has long black hair, nearly to his waist. It falls from beneath a black hood, his eyes visible through two holes in the fabric. It looks like the headwear of an executioner. He is holding in his hands a large black bottle.
The iron door at their backs opens but no one turns. Logan and Gambit hear the sound of two people walking through the mass of people slowly and heavily. Logan picks up Maggie's scent. He restrains himself, now. Gambit turns his head slightly to look at him. He fingers his deck of cards beneath the cloak.
The two men walk past Logan and Gambit. One is Messiah, the other a stranger. The unknown mutant carries Maggie in his arms. When they reach the platform, the mutant in black extends a hand to help Messiah onto the platform.
Logan singles out their heartbeats. He hears three. She's alive, but her heartbeart is faint and tentative.
Jeannie, how much longer?
Not long, Logan, act fast.
The man holding Maggie looks around the room. He whispers something to Messiah, so softly that even Logan can't hear it.
He can't see through your cover, Logan.
The man lays Maggie on the platform. She's covered by the same black hooded cloak.
Messiah holds up his arms. Tears streak his wasted face. He speaks in the same resonant, robust voice that belies his devastated figure.
"Our angel. Our radiant angel has fallen. All is lost. They have murdered her. The time has come. They are amongst us already."
The hooded people stir. A few moan out loud and sway.
He knows you're there, guys. I don't know how he shielded it from me, but he can't single you out. I can't hold this any longer. Act now.
Logan and Gambit rise to their feet. The illusion Phoenix had created evaporates. Wolverine and Gambit charge the platform. They notice that the hooded mutants remain where they are. Not a single one moves towards them or even seems surprised. Some moan, some rock themselves, some of them are crying.
"What the hell is going on here?" Logan asks.
Messiah, the executioner, and the slight mutant that had carried Maggie look back at them without surprise.
Logan and Gambit are repelled by an unseen barrier around the platform. It nearly knocks them off their feet.
"Remy, work on that field. It ain't that strong. They can't hold out against you, forever"
"Right. Stand back, Logan."
Gambit begins to fire at the force field. The three men behind it don't even flinch. They are standing and looking at the two X-men impassively, impersonally. They know by the time the two X-men break through the force field, they will already be dead.
The hooded executioner lifts the black bottle to his lips and drinks from it. He hands it to Messiah, who takes it from him.
"Are you the one she loves?" Messiah says in a deep, sepulchral tone, looking at Wolverine. "Are you the one that took her from me?"
Logan stares back at him. He unsheathes his claws.
"What do you know about her? I gave her life. I made her into a goddess, a queen."
Jeannie, can you stop him?
I can't...can't break through the field.
The executioner drops to his knees. Logan and Gambit hear the others begin to move behind them. They turn around to look at them. They don't clutch their throats, they don't convulse with the poison they've taken. They just slump to the floor. They are felled like trees.
Messiah doesn't even glance at them. Nor does he look at the dead executioner at his feet.
"Remy, blast through the damn thing, now!"
"It's holding, Logan, I'm barely breaking through. There's not enough time. Do something."
Messiah fixes his gaze on Logan.
"I gave her life, her fire. Now you can watch me take it back."
He bends down to Magadalene. He lifts her head and puts the bottle to her lips.
"No," Logan cries, slashing at the field with his claws.
I'm so sorry, Logan.
The liquid spills down the side of her face, into her mouth. She chokes and coughs. He seems to be emptying the entire bottle into her.
The slight mutant, the one obviously creating the force field watches as Messiah administers the poison to Magdalene. Then, he bends down and takes the bottle. Messiah drops to his knees. He lies down next to Magdalene and places a hand against her cheek.
"You shouldn't have left," he says.
The slight mutant drops to his knees. They can hear the force field snap as it begins to dissipate. It warps slightly, ripples and then it is gone. So is the mutant, stretched beside the dead body of Messiah.
The candles are extinguished. The room is utterly silent. Only the heartbeats of the two men can be heard in its stillness.
Logan falls to his knees. He can't hear her heartbeat any longer. Only his own and the rapid heart of his friend and fellow X-man, standing beside him.
Then, a hiss like the shift and slide of sand dunes. Glowing snakes of energy slide without direction over the platform and on the floor. They clamber over the bodies of the dead and fizzle out.
Stunned, Gambit and Wolverine watch them. They are the only things visible in the darkness. They hear a stuttering, faint hum. Logan closes his eyes, thankful. Her light flickers and sputters inside her. She chokes and coughs, sitting up.
Logan and Gambit don't move. They just watch her. She glows dimly, but she manages to rise to her feet. She reaches for the cloak obscuring her light, flings it from her shoulders. It flutters to the floor.
She is blazing, now. Translucent, like the energy of the sun caught under glass.
"What's burning in me is mine, you son-of-a-bitch." She kicks the dead body of Messiah at her feet and spits a mouthful of poison into his face.
Logan and Gambit stare at her, stunned. Gambit's face breaks into a smile.
"I knew you'd come," she says.
The two men rush at her and both attempt to throw their arms around her at the same time.
"Whoa. One bear hug at a time, guys please. You nearly knocked me over."
"How did you do that, chere?"
"Explanations, later, Remy, I'm worn out."
Maggie, you're okay? What's going on?
Thank you, Jean
You're so welcome. We're awfully glad you're not dead.
Logan is holding her hand. She smiles at him and squeezes his hand. Then she looks around the room. The smiles fades from her face.
"They're all dead. How can they all be dead?"
"They must've taken their poison before Gumbo and I got here," Logan says.
"No, no, no, no." Maggie begins to cry and drops her head into her hands.
"Darlin,' they took their lives of their own free will. There was nothing anyone could have done."
She doesn't answer him. She's looking over the dead bodies of her former friends.
"It could have happened anytime, you know that."
She doesn't respond. Her hand goes limp in his, but he doesn't let go of her.
"Let's get out of here," she says.
* * * * *
A few weeks later, the press coverage of the mass mutant suicide is finally beginning to die down. The man who'd called himself Messiah had been their primary target. For once, no mutants were blamed directly since it couldn't be denied that such things had happened among humans many times before. A small party of humans had even held a candlelight vigil for them somewhere in New Jersey. Members of some of the followers' families had come forward. Their stories were nearly as sad as those of the dead. A few of them mourned, some didn't. It was a sad commentary of the times for all of those staying at the mansion. Most of the older more experienced X-men were more accustomed to such things, and refused to dwell on it more than seemed necessary. They, too, held a vigil for the dead. Professor X spoke a few words about them, how he wished that they had had more of a sense of purpose, more dreams for themselves and others. Nightcrawler read a prayer as everyone bowed their heads.
Maggie had said little about the events that had befallen her and those she'd once considered friends. In fact, she hadn't said much at all in a good while. She slipped again into an impenetrable reserve. Even Logan couldn't shake her out of it.
He'd asked her exactly how she'd managed to survive the attempt on her life. When he'd heard her heart stop. Or he'd thought he had.
Messiah had injected a large quantity of heroin into her system to render her semi-conscious and pliant. Her body and her life force fought the drug the moment it entered her bloodstream. She'd discovered that he hadn't had cancer at all. He'd been a heavy drug user for years. He'd lied to them all about that, too.
She'd recovered enough to have the presence of mind not to injest the poison. Still, a little of it had entered her. It took a day or two for her body to fight it and neutralize it completely. Then, she seemed to be as healthy as she had been before.
"I guess I can't be poisoned very easily," she'd said a little ruefully. "Maybe I'm not as human as I thought."
"You don't know yet, all you're capable of, darlin,'" Logan replied.
He was worried about her. The entire mess plagued her, and her irrepressible enery seemed to have deserted her. He'd seen her bummed out before but not to this degree. Her vitality had reasserted itself, always, at some point. Her reserve was wearing on him, too. He missed her companionship, missed the sound of her laugh, even her absurd temper tantrums. But he sensed, too, that she needed this time to grieve, for them, for herself, perhaps, too.
So he left her alone, and their relationship cooled into a friendly, comfortable impasse. He knew that it pained her as much as it pained him.
* * * * *
Christmas festivities were under way at the mansion. Logan, who was mostly indifferent to Christmas and usually didn't stay for it, had decided to stick around, although he adamantly refused to do any caroling.
Magdalene, on the other hand, seemed a little puzzled. Her parents had been Moslem and she told Kurt that she'd never really completely understood Christmas.
She did, however, help decorate the truly enormous Christmas tree in the living room.
Classes were out for Christmas vacation. Some of the students were still there, though, and everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves.
Magdalene was studying each ornament. She had been trying to draw a connection between the figure of a reindeer in her hand to the notion of Christmas at large when Logan strolled into the room.
"I don't get it," she said to him. "What does this dog have to do with anything?"
"It's a reindeer, darlin.' One of Santa's best ones. He has a glowing red nose."
"That's the big, fat guy, right?"
"Yup."
"What does he have to do with the birth of Jesus?"
"Not a whole lot. It's best not to think about it too much."
"Oh." She chooses a spot on the tree and hangs Rudolph there.
"Maybe he was a mutant, too," she says.
"Who?"
"The reindeer with the nose."
"Oh...yeah...you're probably right."
"He knew he was going to die," she says.
"Who?"
"Jesus."
"Oh...yeah, well...that's how the story goes."
"I've been reading about it. A little. It's hard to understand. He was from my part of the world, Jesus was. Kurt was telling me that that woman, Mary Magdalene, was his favorite disciple. There is a book, that never made it into the Bible, that says he loved her best. Some people thought she must have been a prostitute. Kurt says no one knows for sure, though."
" 'Crawler would know, darlin.' He's devout."
"I know. I've never met anyone like him."
"Me, neither."
They sit together on the couch and watch the others mill about. There are many brightly wrapped gifts underneath the tree. It's Christmas Eve.
Logan looks over at Maggie. Her face has misted over. She's turning over something in her mind.
"Is everyone ready?" Jean says, standing near the outlet, cord in hand.
"Wait, the star we haven't put that up yet."
"Oh...how could I have forgotten that? Who is going to do the honors?" She says, looking around the room.
Kurt gets up and takes the star in his hand. He walks over to where Magdalene is sitting on the couch.
"Fraulein? Would you do us the honor?"
Maggie looks startled. Logan elbows her gently.
"Git, girl. Put that baby up there," he says, smacking her on the rear as she rises.
Magdalene walks over to the tree. Jean lifts her into the air until she hovers beside it. Magdalene places the star gently on top of the tree.
Then Jean plugs into the cord into the wall and the tree lights up.
Everyone stands around it, admiringly.
Magdalene, her feet back on the ground, catches Logan's eye and smiles at him. He winks at her.
"Merry Christmas, darlin,'"
"Merry Christmas, Logan."
Later, Logan meets Magdalene and Kurt in the hallway. They are bundling up for a trip outside, apparently.
"Where ya headed?" he asks them.
"Kurt is taking me to church."
"Church?"
"Yes."
Logan walks over to the closet and pulls on his jacket.
"I'm comin' to, darlin.' There's a first for everything. Those guys have probably never seen a sinner like me. Let's go."
"This is one Christmas I will not forget," Kurt says, grinning.
Later that night, everyone has finally gone to bed. Logan is in his room, lying in his bed but sleep eludes him. He is about to get up when Maggie's scent creeps underneath the door. He smiles.
"Logan? Are you awake?" she says, softly.
"Come on in, darlin.'"
She steps through the door wearing a pink terrycloth robe. Her hair is down. It falls over her shoulders. She seems so small. She stands at the foot of his bed, her hands in her pockets.
"I can't sleep," she says.
"No? Me neither."
"I want to talk."
"Shoot." He settles back on his pillows.
"I was thinking about that church. Especially the Virgin Mary."
"You were?"
"Yeah, I thought about her the whole time. Men worship her, don't they? Hail Mary full of grace and all that."
Logan looks at her, puzzled.
"I was thinking about how she wasn't a goddess. She wasn't all powerful or all-knowing. She was just a woman, a mother who loved her son, full of love. She couldn't even save him from the Romans. But she stayed with him at the cross, when even all his other followers had deserted him, and she was one of the first to see his resurrection. Men worship her because she was full of love, not because they wanted something from her. All they want from her is love, like you get from a mother.
"Something like that."
"I never thought of it that way. I thought men worshipped you because you were beautiful or powerful. That's all I've ever known."
She sits down on the edge of his bed. Tears of amber slip from her eyes.
"I understand now. I tried to break your will when I tried to get you to make love to me. I didn't care what you wanted or what you felt. I just wanted you to fill that empty place inside of me. I couldn't stand it that you wouldn't do it. I wanted to break you will. Every time you kissed me a part of me felt like I'd won. I felt victorious."
She reaches for his hand.
"Sometimes, I still want to break you. You're so damn pig-headed. I can still feel that in me, that desire to win at any cost, on my own terms. I've been that way for so long. It's hard to turn back. I guess that's the cross I'll have to bear for the rest of my life. I know what I should have done. I should have just loved you. Love isn't about winning or losing. You don't even have a choice in who you love, do you? Or in who loves you back. You just surrender to it. When you make love to someone it's not about power or conquestit's about surrender, isn't it? Two people surrendering to each other."
Logan just looks at her. He doesn't say anything.
"Thank you, Logan, for teaching me that."
She is about to get up from his bed. He pulls the hand he's still holding to his face and kisses her open palm. Her eyes close as his lips touch her skin.
"Thank you, darlin,' I never thought of it that way, either."
She stands up. Her hand slips from his as she turns toward the door. Her hand is on the doorknob when she feels him standing behind her. She can feel his heat at her back.
He puts his arms around her waist. He reaches for the ties to her robe. It slips from her shoulders. She's naked beneath it. His hands caress her stomach. She moans softly. He reaches for her breasts and takes them both in his hands, burying his face in her neck.
"Logan, are you sure?"
He doesn't answer, just grabs her shoulders and turns her around. He takes her mouth, pressing his body against hers hard.
He lifts her into the air. She has begun to glow again. He sets her down gently on the bed, reaches for his pants and slips out of them hurriedly. Then he rests beside her. She closes her eyes. She is panting.
He lets one hand travel down between her breasts to her stomach and then the warmth and wetness between her legs. He probes her desire for him, feels it in her heat, the pounding heart. He climbs on top of her, his face buried in her throat. He groans into her hair and parts her legs with his knees. He knows she is ready for him. He slips inside her, deliberately, slowly. Then he can hear only their heartbeats mingling as his rhythm mounts inside her. Later, he will explore every curve and sinew. For now, he is conscious only of the desire in him and in her that demands release, now, in this moment. He penetrates her again and again until he feels her back arch beneath him and a shudder ripples through her, then subsides. He follows soon after, holding back no longer, until he rests beside her.
She is trembling in his arms. He breaks from her flesh with a groan, kisses her again.
She is crying, again. He lets her cry herself out this time. She turns and rests her head on his chest. He holds her to him fast. He won't let go again. Not for a long time.
He listens to her heartbeat. If he listens closely enough, he can hear the very blood in her veins.
He thinks about Jeannie, suddenly, suspended among the stars, filled with such a terrible need. He remembers how he told Maggie that she belonged there too. He is filled with a sharp fear for her, suddenly. Something of what had taken hold of Jean possesses the young woman beside him. He doesn't want to lose her to the same dark, terrifying space in which they'd lost Jeannie, once. He wouldn't be able to save her from that, he knows. Not with his love, not with his body, not even his own indomitable will.
She was right. That was her cross to bear. And his, too. He shared that with her. Maybe everyone does. Inside each and everyone one of us, a flawed humanity that could break the strongest of them all, compromise the best of intentions.
He would still love her, even if she soared into the darkest reaches of space itself, stripped of her humanity. If her wings melted and she came crashing back to this life, shattered and broken, he would be waiting for her, to catch her every time.
He closes his eyes as sleep presses down on him. Her face floats up behind his eyelids. She smiles and dances for him again like the night he'd first seen her. What was it Nightcrawler had said that night? "Who is this that looks forth like the dawn, fair as the moon, bright as the sun, terrible as an army with banners?" Her disembodied face hovers for him there, amidst the sun, the moon, and the stars, all the infinite spaces that stretch before them both.
He pulls her to him close, holds her to him tightly, to seal the way back.
All references to characters belonging to the X-Men Universe are (c) and TM the Marvel Comics Group, 20th Century Fox and all related entities. All rights reserved. Any reproduction, duplication or distribution of these materials in any form is expressly prohibited. No money is being made from this archive. All images are also (c) and TM the Marvel Comics Group, 20th Century Fox and all related entities; they are not mine. This website, its operators and any content used on this site relating to the X-Men are not authorized by Marvel, Fox, etc. I am not, nor do I claim to be affiliated with any of these entities in any way.