X-men Fan Fiction PG

Just had this idea come to me earlier when I was reading another story. I hated what happened to Scott in the movie. What if it happened differently? First time in the X-men fandom. I haven't read the comics, only watched the cartoons back in the day and watched all three movies.

Title: Good as Dead
Author: Eroticisms
Archive: Here and here. Elsewhere by permission only.
Note: X3 Spoilers!, Scott, Scott/Jean
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Not mine. I'm only playing with them in my head for a bit.

Scott wasn't sure how it happened. The last thing he remembered was seeing Jean walking towards him. They kissed, or at least he thought they had, and the rest that followed was just a blur. His glasses were gone, so he had to make his way blind to the bike. He'd always had a back-up set in case something happened, and he somehow managed to pull those out and slip them on. Not sure on how long he'd been out there, he wasn't sure where Jean was. He just knew he could no longer sense here there. Her voice in his head had quieted some, but he'd still get the occasional buzzing whisper.

The first place he thought to go was the school, but something was wrong there. He felt it the moment he arrived. He found a newspaper lying open on one of the tables, and he saw he had been gone for days. Xavier nowhere in sight. No sign of Ororo or Logan. Rogue gone missing as well. Something kept telling him something was wrong, but he couldn't figure out what. Jean's voice only got louder in his head as he looked through the mansion. The blackbird was even missing, so that meant the rest of the team was gone on some mission.

He wondered if any of them knew about him. He wondered if Jean was with them possibly. If they had found her though, how did they not also find him? So many questions, and there weren't enough answers. This didn't set well with him. He liked having the answers. He liked knowing, but since Jean's death things had been thrown into a whirlwind of doubt and not knowing. She wasn't dead though. Unless all that he did remember was just some sort of dream. Could that even be possible? Seeing her rise from the waters of Alkali Lake. Had he dreamt it all? Was he dreaming even now? For all he knew all of this was a dream, and he was in his bed once again dreaming a twisted reality in which she would return to him.

He'd waited for it. Wanted it, but he never thought it would happen. Only in his dreams had he allowed himself to dream her back to life. She had been his, and the moment the waters of the lake crashed over her, he had been lost. He still didn't understand how Logan could tell him to move on. That still got him. His hand reached up to run tired fingers through hair, but the gentle touch turned violent as he grabbed his head, Jean's voice shouting in his mind, accompanied by pain.

He fell to his knees as her voice went silent. No more whispers. No more Jean. His hand dropped, clutched in a fist. Somehow he knew now she was definitely forever lost. Her voice silent. Their connection broken. He stood there for a long moment before he knew what he had to do. He couldn't stay here, not without her. Whatever, they thought of him now, he'd allow them to think. He was good as dead without her anyway.

**

On Alcatraz Island, the Wolverine had put an end to the Phoenix, as she fell limp in his arms.