" We did what we had to," Betsy murmured, burying herself into the crook of your neck. It sounded weak, feeble even, more feeble than your normally confident girlfriend ever sounded. Those words played themselves out in your head 'What we had to do.' You two might as well get that tattooed somewhere on you. It was how Logan pitched X-Force to you two, and it was how you two slept at night when you managed. 'We did what we had to do.' It was usually true, you and Betsy both had to believe it was true.

X-Force meant lying to your friends on the X-Men, to your family, to everyone in the world but each other. It meant risking your life every night on missions no one else could know about. Scars on top of older scars. Betsy had once said the X-Men were firefighters; A problem would occur and the X-Men would react, putting out the fire. But X-Force were hunters, fighting the battles no one knew about before the problems could even start. Tonight? Logan had gotten word Apocalypse had returned. He'd brought you, Betsy, Wade, and Fantomex to take him out.

You'd found an infant instead. Betsy had been the first to break rank, saying they couldn't kill a child. You had tried to do it anyway, willing to damn yourself for the salvation of humanity, knowing what Apocalypse could do if he returned, even from this child. But you couldn't. None of you could, except Fantomex who had put one right between the child's eyes. What you had been there to do. What you had to do.

" We're not supposed to be able to sleep at night," Betsy whispered. " It's the sacrifice we make. We do this so everyone else can sleep at night." She wondered if she was trying to convince you or herself. She let go of your hand, something she had never done before. But there was just one thought on her mind; How could she ever hope to take your hand with all the blood on hers?