He leaned back in his chair as he watched the post-climatic events play out on the night-shot monitor in front of him. The smoke from his cigar billowed around him, not moving anywhere in a hurry in the poorly vented space.

On the screen the scene was all played out even though the drama was still in full swing as his employees tried to subdue the last of them. He shook his head and reached for the warm scotch resting on his desk. The amber liquid was just about to touch his lips when a knock sounded at his door.

“Come in,” he called out, setting the glass back down.

Another man opened the door just enough to stick his head in. “Uh, Mr. Hartmen?”

“What, you buffoon? I said come in!” The man behind the desk snapped.

He bowed his head and scurried in. “Yes, sir, I’m sorry sir.”

“Well?” Hartmen hissed. “Is everything taken care of down there?”

He nodded, wriggling his hand together nervously. “Yes, sir. The resistance was effectively taken care off. All subjects have been secured in their cells.”

Hartmen shook his head and turned back towards the grainy, green monitor. He watched it steadily as he took a slow drag from his cigarette. “Was it 6521 again?”

“Yes, sir.”

He swore and rubbed the cigarette out on the top of his desk. “Damn persistent little pest, that one.”

“Yes, sir,” the other man quickly agreed. “And more and more of the others are starting to join it in the revolts. Should we put it through correction again, sir?”

Hartmen considered the suggestion as he watched the mutant in question pace back and forth in its cell. “No,” he finally decided. “It would make it the third time this month, evidently that isn’t getting through to it. Damn thing, its giving use more trouble than information on genetic corruption.”

“Elimination, then?”

“We’ll have to. The Company can not keep taking these damn little revolts, it damages specimens and personal.” Hartmen swore. “We’ve just invested so much damn money and time into 6521! All down the damn drain.”

“Perhaps, sir,” the other man spoke up. “Perhaps we could find a buyer for it? Try and recoup some of the Company’s investment?”

“And who the hell do you think is going to want to buy a mutant that’s been experimented on for the last three years? No matter what we’ve tried we haven’t been able to break it.” Hartmen narrowed his eyes in disgust at the screen. “It’s not good for anything but dog food at this point.”

The other man approached the desk cautiously, risking a few quick glances at the monitor before looking back at Hartmen. “But if I could…if I could find a buyer within the month…”

Hartmen narrowed his eyes at him. “You haven’t become…attached…to 6521 have you?” He asked, acid dripping in his voice.

The other man’s eyes went wide and he staggered back. “No! No, sir, of course not! I’m just thinking of the best interest of the Company.”

The old, cynic face didn’t buy his negation for a moment, his dark mud eyes showing the man as much. He scratched his nails through the side of his beard as he watched the man in front of him shake and quiver. “A week,” he finally declared. “You have a week to find a buyer, after that its elimination. And I get to destroy the damn thing myself.”

“Yes sir,” the man nodded and started backing away towards the door. “I’ll get the purchasing department right on it. I’m sure we’ll be able to find something.”

Hartmen snorted as the man all but ran out of his office. He lifted the ignore glass of scotch back to his lips and this time drank eagerly from it. As he drank he turned the chair around to face the monitor. The occupant inside had stopped pacing, and was now sitting down, leaning against one of the walls. Suddenly it looked up and flashed one finger right at the surveillance camera.

He glared at the screen and set his glass down. “Freak,” he jeered quietly.

The specimens tucked away behind the specialized steel bars were completely silent as he walked past. It was definitely a far cry from the ruckus they were making three days ago, when they actually thought they had a chance to escape.

Well, that rambunctiousness wasn’t usually in their nature. In his thirty years of mutant experimentation to find a cure he’d never seen them do anything besides crawl pathetically into a corner. That was until they acquired 6521, a perfect specimen.

Genetically speaking, of course. It would have been a perfect specimen if it’d crawl into its corner like the others. No, it had to fight them at every turn. That in its self wouldn’t have been a problem, except for it convinced the other specimens they could, and should, do they same.

He stopped in front of the heavy bolted door, the only one of its kind in the line. “Open it,” he commanded one of the employees standing behind him.

The employee nodded and adjusted his gun on his shoulder so he could unlatch the key ring from his belt. As soon as he flicked his wrist Hartmen pushed him out of the way and opened the door himself. Inside was a well lit area with a guard, who promptly stood when Hartmen walked in. Further into the space was a set of bars and then complete darkness behind them.

“Sir,” the guard greeted.

“Shut up,” Hartmen sneered and pushed past him. He walked further up to the bars, not getting any closer than a foot from them. “Wakey-wakey time,” he called into the darkness.

A groggy, pained “Fuck you” floated from some where in the dark.

Hartmen smiled, evidently satisfied at the strain in the voice. “It wasn’t that bad, was it? You didn’t really think we were just going to let you go without getting a few more tests did you?”

There was silence in the room before a softer voice came from behind the bars. “....Go?” It asked, confused, hopefully, tired, all at the same time.

“Why, yes,” Hartmen motioned for one of his employees to stop forward. “I have your key right here. As much as it pains me to say it, 6521, you will be leaving us today.”

Again silence stretched on in the tiny cell room. After a minute the sound of someone shifting in the darkness followed by the soft padding of bare feet on the cold cement floor broke it.

Hartmen smiled at her as she emerged from the shadows. “Ah, my dear Rogue.” He took the keys from the employee. “You’ve tried to run away from me for the last time,” he paused to sigh dramatically. “You win.”

Foggy, dazed green eyes shifted from his face to the nine or ten men standing piled up behind him, most of them clutching their guns tightly. She narrowed her eyes at him from under a curtain of stringy white hair.

“...Ya jus’ lettin’ me go?” She asked skeptically with her sand paper voice. “What about tha othas?”

“Ah,” Hartmen said. “Well, I’m afraid the military didn’t want them.” A toothy grin spread onto his face and he shrugged. “Just you.”

“The military?” She echoed.

“Yes, military,” he affirmed with a nod. “They have graciously agreed to buy you and take you off my hands. They said they know just how to reign in rogue units.”

To several of the men’s surprise in the room, a small smile came up on her face. When Hartmen saw it he instantly raised his hand. “Oh, no, my dear. No elaborate escape attempts for you. Appling, tranq it.”




She came to in a green room. It startled her because all the rooms she had ever been in were either white or grey cement. She tried to sit up but for some reason she couldn’t get enough strength in her arms to push her upper body in any sort of general direction.

“Colonel Sie, she’s awake,” a voice behind her said. It wasn’t a voice she recognized and she tried even harder to get some cooperation from her numb limbs.

“Good. I’ll be there in a second.”

“Yes, sir.” There was a click, electronic–walkie talkie. She managed to tilt her head to the side. The employees didn’t have walkie talkies, they used phones.

“Don’t move,” the voice behind her warned. It lightened her up a bit, there was a tremble underlying it.

The deep clang of metal moving came a few seconds later, followed by the stomping of heavy boots. Four sets, as far as she could tell. The employees definitely did not wear boots.

“So. You are the rogue.” A man suddenly stepped into her field of vision. He was elder, had a thick white moustache and was bald on top. He was wearing a green and brown printed suit. Military. “I hear you’ve been giving the GenNest Company hell. I like that. Deadly skin; young, attractive body; and piss and vinegar in your blood, just my kind of mutant.”

She fought the urge to roll her eyes at the man and instead tried to concentrate on her body. She could feel she was still wearing the wire suit from the labs, which meant naked arms and legs– plenty of toxic skin.

“Now,” the Colonel went on as he paced back and forth in front of her, his hands clasped together behind his back. “I dare say you’ll like it here infinitely more than at GenNest. We find your mutation sufficient. So simply do as we say and I can assure you we will keep you in good health. What say you to that?”

No response came from her, she merely blinked at him. Confused, he looked up from her to the other military personal in the room, they all shrugged. “You do speak, don’t you?”

She proved her abilities by saying, “Fuck off.”

There was a clatter of movement behind her but the Colonel shook his head and then started laughing. “That Mr. Hartmen is a clever man. I think ‘Rogue’ is a very apt name for you, firefly. I think we should get something straight here. I don’t hate mutants. In fact, I don’t know what I’d do without them. They make my work much easier.”

Then he kneeled down to her level and took of chuck of white hair in his hand. She tried to pull back away from him, but her body still refused. “You see, firefly?” He asked, holding the hair into her face. “See how much stress those horrible labs put on you? And it was such a beautiful color before...” He dropped the hair in his hand so he could stroke the remaining dark chocolate locks.

“Get tha hell away from me,” she hissed with as much venom as she could muster since she could do nothing with her body.

He stood up again. “I’m saving you. No more experiments, no more pain, you just have to do what we ask of you. You are a very pretty girl, even with those nasty scars. But how many more scars do you think it will take before you a no longer pretty? Not too many more...I’ll ask you again, firefly, what do you say?”

“Ah say...” she started, forcing her chin up as high as she could. “Kiss mah ass. Ah ain’t doin’ shit.”

He nodded, and then motioned to someone behind her. “Very well. Rogue to the end it will be then? Fine, we’ll treat you as hostile if that’s what you wish. Sergeant Alvin, please make sure you get the number tattooed on her from GenNest into the computer, at least we won’t have to waste a set of dog tags on this one.”

Right after the Colonel left some absolutely vile tasting pink liquid was unceremoniously poured down her throat. Then they grabbed her up from her armpits and dragged her out of the room. But at least she was beginning to retain some control of her body. Now she could shuffle her feet along with being dragged.

To her surprise the conditions of her surroundings didn’t deteriorate much as they moved, which was completely different than the labs. Everything here was crap, even the officers’ levels.

They went into an elevator that had the inside of it padded. That tweaked her interest about where exactly they were taking her. But it didn’t worry her so much that she couldn’t take advantage of it and she tried to lean against it to rest her wobbly legs. The two soldiers holding her up, however, wouldn’t let her and jerked her back onto her feet.

She wanted to laugh at their faces. They were tense and stone cold, staring blankly at the doors to the elevator. Most of the time the employees would talk as they transported her. Even if she was drugged up they gibbered away, bitching about their wife and kids usually. She had a sinking feeling these two didn’t bitch about anything unless they were told to.

The elevator doors slid open and it same dank green walls as the rest of the place. But there was of bars-cells-just like a prison.

They dragged her out of the elevator and started their march down the line. She peered into each cell as they passed them. Nobody. Slight worry crept up in her throat; there was nobody down there. She could even hear water drip and its echo.

“We ain’t taking any chances with you,” Sergeant Alvin said, obviously noticing her roaming eyes. “You gonna be staying far away from the others.”

“Welcome to high-security solitary confinement,” the solider on her other side added.

They stopped and unlocked one of the doors and pushed her stumbling body into the cell.

“Few days in here and you’ll be washing the Colonel’s feet is he asks,” the second soldier chuckled from the door.

She looked around the cell. The two green walls were absolutely disgusting but there was a relatively large cot in the corner. It even looked as if it had something of a mattress on top of it. And then folded and lying on the corner of it was not one only, but two blankets, and a pillow. Further optical inspection of the room revealed a sink with actual hot and cold taps. Above her was a light that even had a plastic covering over it. She turned around and gawked at the guards in disbelief. This was her ‘punishment’ for not conforming? It was a Ritz Carlton compared to the labs.

“Oh, woah is me,” she sighed and rolled her eyes as she plopped down on the cot. No springs or wood slats– definitely a mattress.

“Better warn her, Theo,” Alvin suggested, nudging the other guard in the stomach.

Theo nodded. “Right. Little thing like her don’t stand a chance. I’d stay away from those bars if I were you.” He pointed not to the door, but to one of the sides of the cage where an empty cell was connected to it.

She turned her head to peer into the other cell. It was completely empty, no cot or light hanging down. The sink was there, but if the awkward angle the pipes were bent were any indication it wasn’t functional. She raised an eyebrow at the soldiers, obviously not impressed by their threat.

“Sure, it’s empty now. He’s on a mission, but he’ll make it back,” Alvin nudged Theo again. “You can count on that. Both of them. One of them is there, next to you. The other was the next one over, but ah, they had to be-- separated-- so he was moved further down.”

“Both?” She asked, quirking her head to the side. “Ya boys ain’t real sure of tha definition of ‘solitary’ are ya?”

Theo smirked and leaned his fore arm against the bars. “These guys don’t count as people, *firefly*. So you might as well save your breath, your mutiny talk ain’t gonna get far on these two.”

“Real patriots?” She guessed.

“Nah,” Theo shook his head. “Real animals, wouldn’t understand a word you say.”

She huffed and let her body fall back against the wall the cot was up against. “Well with bein’ surroundin’ by a buncha folks that don’t know tha meaning of words like solitary themselves, ah ain’t tha least bit surprised.”

“Hey,” Theo hissed. “You better watch it, mutant. You ain’t gonna be Sie’s favorite for long. He’s got a short attention span.”

Alvin grabbed his arm and pulled him away from the bars. “Come on, man. Let it go. She’s not to have prolonged contact.”

“Right!” She yelled after them as they walked away down the hall. “‘Cuz heaven know what’ll it do ta mah vocabulary!” Her voice reverberated off the walls through the whole floor, followed by the clunking of the elevator doors shutting.

She stretched fully out on the cot. The blood was once again freely pumping through her limbs so they were no longer numb and lifeless. But she at the moment didn’t want to move them in the least. Her stomach was still killing her from the ‘goodbye’ from Hartmen and there was a soft cot under her. Unfortunately the pillow was stuck under one knee but good for that knee.

Her fingers came up to absentmindedly fumble with the wires that came out of her suit on her stomach. No more tests. No more procedures or experiments or needles or chemicals or treatments.

She closed her eyes and finally let the tears trickle out.



All the commotion dragged her out of her sleep land back into the ugly green reality. Men were hollering and banging around, nearly making the whole compound shake and they were still inside the elevator.

There was no telling how long she’d been asleep. She would have guessed only a matter of a few minutes but the fact that there were bright pink wrinkle lines on her arms suggested otherwise.

She sat up just as the elevator opened. Curious as to the roaring screams that soared louder than all the shouting, she pushed her body off the warm and comfortable cot and crept towards the door.

“Damn it, hold him still!”

“I’m trying! I–fucking hell!”

“Stun him or something, Simon!”

Wrapping her hands around the bars, she leaned closer, trying to get a view of the action. All she could make out was the men in military uniforms, piled around someone. Or something. They moved closer as a unit. Sometimes one of them would get hit back but he would quickly jump back on the pile.

She wondered she could reach her arm out enough to get a hand on one of the guards, help the mutant out. After all, that had to be who it was, what with the way it growled and roared.

As they approached her cell she calmed her nerves and released the control on her skin. But the guards got shoved out of her reached.

There was a flash of yellow and white amongst the green. And then blurred brown and black. The scream barely escaped her throat before she jerked back as a large clawed hand came flying at her. She fell to the concrete floor hard on her butt, eyes wide in fear as a beast ripped deep gauges into the bars of her cell, sending sparks everywhere.

“Fuck, get a hold of him!” She recognized Alvin as he pushed the chained man-beast away from her door and into the other guards. Her blood pressure pounded in her head and her heart showed no sign of slowing down.

The guards managed to wrestle the giant further down the line. Then there was a static sound that she easily could point out as a taser. Another angry animal cry shook the walls and she should have felt sorry for him. Instead she clenched her eyes hut and flinched in fear, curling up into a protective ball.

“I told you to stay away from the bars,” a voice puffed.

She cautiously opened her eyes to find the man named Theo standing in front of her cell. He was visibly out of breath, his chest heaving up and down. The other two joined him, exhausted themselves.

The roaring went on, an eerie wild noise that she had never heard before. It made her body immobile so that all she could do was lie there frozen on the cold floor.

“You might as well go back to bed,” Alvin said, his eyes were actually warm and nearly humane. “He’s not going to stop. Just try putting the pillow and blanket over your head.”

And then they left her. All alone with the beast-man who, from the sound of it, was throwing himself at his cage. If they were at the labs, and she hadn’t seen those teeth and claws coming at her, she would have cheered him on, trying to organize people with useful powers to help him get out. But here, when it was just her and him she scurried back onto her cot and buried herself under the blankets, wishing they had tasered him a few more times. Well, at least they left the light on.

He, in fact, did not stop his manic animal cry all night long, or whatever time of day it was. But after what she assumed were hours he finally did stop throwing his massive body against the bars of his cell. No, cage, not cell. And without the continuos vibrations of all the metal she managed to will herself back to sleep. Except for it was restless and shallow, she just couldn’t get over the shame she felt at choosing the guards’ side against the mutant’s. Or that she still felt that way.

Frustrated, she sat up with a loud huff. Her hand came up to rub her head but it stilled in the air. The action had brought the bar code and numbers tattooed on the underside of her forehead right into her face. 759-83-6521.

The arm feel limp into her lap and she laid her other hand to cover the offensive marking. She could remember when she was younger, probably about thirteen, begging her mom to let her get a tattoo. She wanted a cross, right between her shoulder blades, with a rose vine and angel wings wrapped around it. A number and a series of dashes just didn’t have the same poetic feeling. Or maybe it did.

A noise to the side of her made her jerk her head around. Her heart instantly jumped into her throat as the low, slow shuffling went on. It was coming from the cell next to her but she couldn’t see very far into it, the only lights in the whole room were in the center walkway and her cell. It had to have been a rat or something— Surely she would have known if they’d brought another mutant in, even if it only made half the noise the other did. She wasn’t that hard of a sleeper.

Her legs moved of their own accord, slowly moving her off the cot. She managed to stop them just as she stood in the middle of her cell. The shuffling stopped–so did her breathing.

“...Hello?” She whispered uncertainly. Nothing. She glanced up quickly at the light hanging above her head. If only she was a few feet taller she could bend it towards the cell, see what was inside. As it was it shined brightly down on her and left everything else in darkness all around her.

Her feet moved her another careful step forward. She was so tuned into the cell, listening for any hint of what was in it, she didn’t even hear the cries of the beast-man anymore. Her ears could pick up nothing but her own heart pounding in her chest and the ever so faint movement just behind the bars.

Another step and she couldn’t help feeling how utterly naked she was. It was silly, of course, because she hadn’t worn any more than the bathing suit-ish test suit for years. But somehow it didn’t feel like it was enough anymore. She felt just as she did when her mutation had first manifested, like she couldn’t put enough layers on.

Still she moved forward, pulled by her own curiosity. That should have been warning enough, her curiosity had been what got her trapped into this life in the first place. But she learned her lesson the last time and stopped a foot away from the bars.

“Hello?” She asked again, willing the shake in her voice away. “Is someone in there?”

Her scream was vastly delayed this time. Mainly because she didn’t see the hand shoot out from behind the bars until it already had a hold of her calf. It tugged hard, pulling her leg out from under her and sent her falling back down to the floor, which was when she finally coherent enough to shriek.

With the one hard tug it pulled her leg straight through the bars, dragging her across the floor of her cell. She screamed out in pain when her knee collided with the bars, making her body come to an abrupt halt.

“Stop! Stop!” She managed to yell through the tears and sit up enough to put a hand to her throbbing joint. The pulling stopped but the tight, death grip the hand had on her leg didn’t relax in the least.

“Please, please jus’ let me go,” she begged, not even trying to hide her fear.

And then there was a face. Not blond hair and black eyes, jet black hair, stuck up at wild angles and piercing deep blue eyes that made her involuntary try to jerk her leg back again. He didn’t release her, instead his mouth turned up, flashes bright white canines as he growled at her.

Where the beast-man from yesterday had long blonde overgrowth all over his face, he only had thick side burns and stumble across his chin and cheeks. A man. He growled and snarled at her like an animal, but there were no sharp claws digging into her calf, just a hot, damp hand. His arms and chest were covered with a thin layer of dark hair but he was wearing clothes–a white tank top and black shorts. A man.

“Ahm...ahm sorry ah don’t know ya name,” she decided to try to speak to him. It was difficult to sit all the way up with the angle he had her leg pin down but she manage to turn on her hip and push up with one hand. “If ya could just gimme mah leg back...”

He snarled again, his lip curling up further.

“Okay, calm down.” She wasn’t sure who she was talking to. The beast-man from the other night must of heard their ruckus because he was now back to throwing himself against his cage.

“Ahm Marie,” she introduced. “They call me Rogue, but that’s not mah name. Its Marie. What’s yours?”

He didn’t say anything just adjusted himself so he was kneeling closer to the bars. She gawked at his legs, they had to be the biggest thighs she’d ever seen. In fact, all of him was huge. She quickly began to panic again, but remembered not to try and pull her leg away.

“Ahm like ya.”

That didn’t appease him like she thought it would. Instead his growl deepened, and his face became more menacing as his thick, black eyebrows pitched together, casting a dark shadow over his blue eyes. One of the soldier’s words came to her brain, how they had to be separated. Maybe he didn’t like other animal like people?

“Ah meant ah’m a mutant too,” she quickly spit out. “That’s what ya are, right? A mutant? Ya bein’ kept here against ya will, like ah am, right?” That got no reaction out of him, but at least it didn’t piss him off anymore.

“Do ya think ya could let mah leg go, please? Ah don’t mean ya any harm, ah promise. It jus’ mah knee, it hurts, so if ya could let me go...”

He stopped growling and his mouth closed, hiding his formidable teeth and now just a man in front of her. But his eyes still bored into hers and as much as she refused to look away she couldn’t help but fidget under his glare.

His nose twitched, one nostril flaring once and then twice and then a third time. She breathed a small sigh of relief when the hand loosened its grip. He didn’t remove it from her though, but instead ran in down the rest of her leg to her ankle. She watched the hand glide across her skin, mesmerized, tempted to turn her mutation on to see what he was thinking.

Before she could give it anymore thought he stood up, his hand leaving her skin. She watched as him came up from his crouch. He looked much taller than he actually was, especially with the way he looked down on her.

Her senses finally came to her and she decided she had better get her leg out of his cell before he changed his mind. There was no way she could just pull it out, she could fell how swollen it was, bending it probably wasn’t a good idea.

“Thanks,” she said to him softly as she carefully scooted her whole body back until she could leaned against her cot. Completely in the light, she winced when she saw the damage. There was a purple, black, and yellow ban stretched from the center of her knee wrapping all away around to the inside of it. And of course it was swollen almost twice its size, which accounted for the tight feeling of a rubber band being around it.

She carefully rubbed it, more out of habit than to make the contusions any better. When she looked up she found him still watching her.

“Its fine. Ahm sure it ain’t broken.” She shrugged, although she wasn’t really sure he cared a stitch about her injury. “Ya neva did tell me ya name.”

He said nothing. And then beast-man further town the hall roared again, making him turn his head in that direction. She looked too, just as a reflex. They both turned back to face each other at the same time.

“Do ya...Do ya not have a name?” She asked. He only narrowed his eyes at her. “How ‘bout ah call ya Bill?”

He flinched back and she actually smiled at his reaction. “Don’t like Bill much, huh? Okay, its just that mah daddy loved tha wild west stuff, ya know? Anyway, he had this poem he always quoted ‘bout Buffalo Bill. ‘Jesus, he was a handsome man. And what ah want ta know is how do ya like your blue eyed boy, Mister Death.’” She looked back into the blue eyes starring at her and swallowed. “Ya jus’ remind of that, ah guess.”

His face didn’t soften in the least and she sighed. Maybe the guards were right, he didn’t understand a word she said. But he had flinched when she called him Bill, so he had to understand some things.

Well, she might as well figure out what he did know. It wasn’t like she had anything else to do. “Ya do understand me, dontca?”

He huffed, an actual snort, and turned away from her.

“Hey, wait!” She yelled from her position on the floor but he walked away, disappearing into the darkness of his cell.



Another few hours passed much the same as the hours before. The mutant down the hall continued yelling and roaring at the top of his lungs, she sat on her cot, the pillow still tucked up under her now fully inflamed knee, this time on purpose. The third champion didn’t make much of a difference to the events, he was silent and didn’t move around much. She had tried to talk to him again once or twice but he didn’t so much as grunt at her. So one was a ragging lunatic and the other was a silent one, great, she thought.

Then the blessed sound of the elevator door opened and she almost cheered. Its was only one soldier, the new guy from last night, Simon. He was pushing a wobble grey cart and she wondered why it wasn’t green.

“Food,” he said when he stopped in front of her cell. He grabbed a covered tray from the cart and slide it just under the door. She smiled.

“Thanks, but ah--” She tucked the messy white mass behind her ear and pouted at him. “Do ya think ya could bring it to me? Please?”

He looked at her skeptically. “No...”

“Please, ah had an accident,” she carefully rubbed either side of her knee. “Ah stood by tha bars ova there an’ he grabbed me an’ tried to pull me through. Ah was so scared... Ah jus’ don’t think ah can walk.”

“So crawl or don’t eat,” Simon snapped.

She frowned and looked down into her lap, still rubbing her knee. Then she tried her damnest not to smile when she heard the long groan.

“Fine,” Simon relented, reaching for the keys in his pocket.

He opened the cell door and picked the tray up off the floor as he stepped in. He walked quickly over to her, obviously in a hurry to get out. When he stopped beside the cot she pointed down to the floor and he grunted again before bending down to set the tray down. She switched off the control to her skin and quickly pressed her hand flat against the side of his face.

A strangled scream came out of him as his energy drained into her. As soon as she moved her hand away he fell to a twitching lump on the ground. She smiled down at him and gathered her nerves for standing up. Her knee crumbled at the first attempt, making her fall back onto the cot. But the second time she managed to put enough weight on it to limp to the open cell door.

She got one foot stepped into the hall when she heard the yell. “Hey!” She swore at her foolishness. They other guards were evidently there too, standing just outside of the elevator door.

She took off in the opposite direction. Limping was getting her no where so instead she hopped on her one good leg. The up and down jarring shook shock waves through her knee and up her leg but at least she was moving faster.

“Stop! God damn it, I said stop!”

The whole place revived up in a furry of noise from the guards yelling and their boots pounding on the floor to the beast man’s growls and thrashing about. But she didn’t turn to look at it at all and kept hopping, trying not to fall over.

But the rows of cells ended in a green cement wall. She cried out both from pain and frustration and just collapsed against it. Not seconds later gloved hands grabbed at her and hauled her to her feet. Her knee immediately buckled under her and she crumbled to the floor at their feet. She couldn’t see, she kept her eyes clinched shut in an attempt to fight the pain and keep the tears somewhat at bay.

“Fucking hell!” Alvin swore, that was Alvin.

The hands were back, turning her over onto her back. Two of them grabbed her arms, pushing them down firmly to the floor when another one grabbed her leg. She tried to jerk away but instantly regretted the action and screamed out.
“Shit,” Alvin swore again. “Her knee’s completely busted. Help me pick her up.”

The hands were all over her and she felt herself being lifted and moved. She was dumped back on her cot in what seemed like no time, mere seconds to get what ended up being just a short distance.

She finally opened her eyes to see them drag the unconscious Simon out through the door. It finally made sense on why there were so many hands, there was five guards, not two, standing outside of her cell. One of them was screaming down the corridor for the beast-man to shut up.

Something made her turn her head to find the man in the cell next to hers by the bars again. He looked briefly at her before turning his attention to the soldiers. While he watched them fuss about Simon she watched him. She desperately wished she could read the expression on his face.

Her attention was pulled away from him when Alvin stepped into her cell. “Touch me and these boys will shoot so many tranqs into you, you won’t wake up for a month,” he warned.

She wanted to roll her eyes at him, instead she sniffled and wiped the fallen tears off her cheeks.

He approached closer and looked down at her leg. He turned it inwards with a gloved hand and she cried out again.

“Go tell the Colonel what happen,” he said over his shoulder to one of the other guards. He then turned to the other cell. “This your handy work, Wolverine?”

She turned her head too but he gave no response, although his eyes were firing straight into Alvin.

Alvin seemed unimpressed by the stare down. “I asked you a question, mutie. Did you do this?” The one he called Wolverine growled lowly at him.

“Fuck, you’re gonna get it this time, Wolverine. Colonel Sie had a mission planned for her. She’s fucking useless for God knows how long now!” Alvin screamed at him. This time it was Wolverine’s turn to not be impressed.

“And you!” Alvin whipped around back to her. “Did you think it’d be THAT easy to get away from here? And. Stay. The. Fuck. Away. From. The. Bars. Fucking mutants, dumb as shit. All of them.” He continued mumbling as he stalked out of her cell and slammed the door shut then locked it.

All the soldiers filed out after him, carrying Simon with them. When the elevator closed the unbelievable happened.

“Prick,” Wolverine sneered under his breath after them and all she could do was gawk at him.

She almost forgot about her leg and jumped off the cot. Almost. Instead she frantically contorted her body around to best face him.

"Ya can talk!" She practically squealed.

He lifted an eyebrow at her than turned his back around.

"Wait, damn it," she huffed. "Wolverine!"

That got his attention and he jerked back around, growling menacing at her again. Her heart fluttered briefly at the sight before she willed it back down and forced up some of her wounded courage.

"Oh, stop it. Ahm sure if ya know 'prick' ya speak a few otha words," she said in a false bravado she was proud of.

He shot her a glare than stepped closer to the dark but she yelled at his name again. He looked expectantly at her and she realized she didn't have anything to say necessarily. She looked around herself for some kind of inspiration, her mind grabbing at nothing. And then her eyes fell down to the covered gray that amazingly was still undisturbed after all the action.

She gingerly swung her legs over the side of the cot and Wolverine took a cautious step back. She winced and wobbled as she got to her one good foot and with the help of the time tested airplane technique she found her balance.

"Ah guess ah probably scared tha food service away for tha night." She looked up out of the corner of her eye to assure she had his attention. "Ahm not really that hungry, queasy stomach an' all. Ya could have mine...if ya want."

The starring contest immediately began. It was almost funny the way he studied her. It sort of reminded her of her old dog BowBow, when he would twist and turn his head and lift his ears when you were doing something he didn't understand. Except for the chilling cobalt eyes were nothing like BowBow's warm, calming brown ones.

"Really. Big guy like ya gets pretty hungry, right?" she said demurely. He took the bait and edged himself closer to the bars.

Pushing the pain back she eased down onto the floor. She could feel his eyes burning into her as she moved so she made sure to keep her movements slow and deliberate as possible, like one did around a skittish horse.

With a shove she launched the tray across the smooth floor first. He didn't like that very much and snarled as he jumped back.

"Sorry," she muttered and chided herself. Moving back forward he seemed to accept it, although his face didn't look like he trust her in the least.

She began scooting forward and it hurt infinitely more than backwards had. The ache in her leg reminded her of who exactly she was dealing with. "Ya not gonna jus' attack me again, are ya?"

He crouched down in front of the bars and looked from the tray to her. Then he sniffed a few times, probably trying to pinpoint what was on the menu. She was amazed that he could even get a small sniff because she detected nothing leaking out from the thick plastic cover. But he must have pick up something because he gave her one short no fuss shake of his head.

With each scoot she unconsciously whimpered until she was right in front of the bars as well. She knew she was taking a big gamble, he hadn’t exactly proven he was trust worthy, and could easily rip her into pieces if he was so inclined. But he was a mutant, and the only other one within whispering distance from her, that meant at some point she would need him.

“Okay.” She smiled nervously then reached for the cover on the tray. Underneath was a thin slab of some kind of meat, beef it looked like. Then counter clock wise was a pile of baby carrots, green beans, beets, and even a roll. It was a feast she hadn’t seen since weeks before she left home and she was beginning to regret offering it up to him.

She sighed and looked longingly at it. She could always just take the food and scurry back into the corner and horde it for herself. That was probably what he would do if it was the other way around. With that roll sitting right in front of her, her stomach didn’t hurt nearly as much as she thought it did. But she already gave him claim and she could have sworn she saw his tongue dart out briefly to lick his lips.

“Ah guess ya want tha meat first,” she guessed.

He didn’t answer with words, like she hoped he would. But instead a non-descript rumble vibrated from the back of his throat. She assumed that meant ‘yes’.

Picking up the slab of beef with her fingertips she almost groaned when juices began dripping down from it onto the tray. She swore at herself for foolishly giving away juicy, tender meat. To a man that practically shattered her knee cap, no less.

She swallowed down her vicious inner voice screaming at her to just stuff it down her own throat in front of him and ripped the meat in half. The side bars didn’t have the same gap above the floor that the door did so she eased her shaking hand through, praying he wouldn’t eat it too. To her surprise he used his hand, not his mouth, to take it from her. And then with no ceremony or etiquette he stuffed it into his mouth, chewing ferociously. At least he chewed with his mouth closed.

“So…” she began and he slowed his chewing and looked questioning at her. “Wolverine, huh? That’s kinda a cool name.”

He gave no answer. Besides that he swallowed the masticated lump with a loud gulp and held his hand out again, although he stopped short of putting it through to her cell.

She ripped the remaining half in half again and he shot her annoyed glance, but she ignored it. “Back at tha labs they started callin’ me ‘tha Rogue’ ‘cause ah’d neva do anythin’ they wanted. Always tryin’ ta escape,” she gave a short, curt laugh as she handed him the remaining piece. “As ya saw ah ain’t really that good at it. Still here. But a few people got out in some a our little revolts, so that’s good. So ah guess ahm a little proud of it, tha name. Carrots?”

He nodded and she grabbed a handful of them. Again he surprised her by only taking one at a time. She smirked shyly at him. “Ah’ll jus’ bet ya got tha name Wolverine ‘cause ya got one of those naughty wolfish grins.”

‘Not that ah’ve seen one from ya’ she thought to herself. He seemed to share the same sentiments because he pursed his lip as he chewed and gave her a fleeting glance from under his thick, black eyebrows.

“Anyway,” she shrugged. “It’s pretty cool. This one guy, at the labs, the employees called him ‘Bugger’. Ya know, ‘cause he was always sick.”

His chewing slowed as he her watched her face drop. Her eyes because lost and cloudy as they went down to the number on her arm. His eyes followed her finger as she traced it along the mark with a ghostly touch of her fingertip. She snapped out of her dazed when he grunted and stuck out his hand again.

She smiled at him, it was weak but it was all she could manage. Instead of passing anything else through the bars to him she scooted back enough to put the tray in front of her and pressed it flush against the bars. His eye brows pinched together as he looked confused at her, evidently unsure of the sudden change in the process.

“Ah happen ta know ya arm will fit through tha bars. At least up ta ya elbow, anyway. It should be close enough,” She explained. He stiffed and looked down unsure at the tray.

“It’s okay,” she assured him. “Ya can jus’ reach through. Ah trust ya.”

He visibly balked but adjusted from his crouching position to sitting Indian style on the floor with his knees up against the bars. She moved as well, a slow exhaustion had creped up from somewhere deep in her and she eased onto her side, lying down on the cool concrete floor.

His piercing blue eyes followed her every movement and he shifted uncomfortably, rubbing his hands together. She propped her head up on her elbow and nodded at the tray. “Go on. Ah won’t scream bloody murdera, ah promise.”

With her permission for the third time his huge paw of a hand came through into her cell. For some reason she was fascinated by it. It was wide and strong, like everything else about him. It also had a thin scruff of dark hair on the back of it, also like everything else about him. And there was odd bright red shading that ran up from between his fingers to between his knuckles before it finally faded.

He ate slowly, but she was far past being surprised by it at that point. Her mind wandered as she watched him eat. She missed Bugger. And Lauren and Eleanor and Steven and Rick and Jenney, all of them. The labs were a horrible hell hole that put her body through things it was never intended to be able to cope with. But they were all in it together. They helped each other when they were in pain and supported each other when they just mentally collapsed. They were tortured but they were still allowed to be people.

Here they left her alone, so far anyway. And the guards seemed to acknowledge her humanity. But they stuck her in here and she couldn’t help up wonder how long it would take for her to become Wolverine or the insane beast-man down the hall, moaning and thrashing and slamming herself against her cage?

Well, she wasn’t going to lay down dead for the labs and she sure as hell wasn’t going to give her humanity to the government without a fight. And what she found out was that the mutants at the lab were eager to get their freedom back, they just needed a little push, an extra backbone that they weren't naturally born with. Maybe these guys would be just as hungry for their humanity.

“Can ah…Can ah have tha roll?” She asked him. An animal would quickly snatch it away.

He looked at her and then the roll. He was starring down at the roll with such intensity she wondered if he could devour it with his eyes. But when his hand came through the bar again he grabbed some more carrots and nodded at her.

Diner was a calm and peaceful process she hadn’t thought possible considering her location and associate. She got her roll, and it was in fact the best damn thing her tongue ever made contact with. It had a soft, buttery taste to it with that faint essence of salt. The exact kind of rolls her mama told her not to eat, less she’d get fat. Since she didn’t figure that was going to happen any time soon she scarfed the whole thing without a twinge of guilt. It even had the added benefit of soaking up the last remaining gurgles in her stomach. A true miracle roll.

Not only did dinner include the best roll ever made it also had a show. Wolverine ridded the tray of every little, tiny, minuscule scrap of food in a matter of minutes. Except for the beets. If the way his face scrunched up every time he picked one up and lifted in near his face was any indication he didn’t like them very much--- at all. She would have laughed at him but said face would have given the raging beast-man down the hall of run for his money so she zipped up for safety. But for some reason he was damned determined to get them down. Needless to say she enjoyed the performance very much.

Soon enough he swallowed the last of them and grunted at her before disappearing into his darkness. Surely it was some sort of ‘thank you’ but she didn’t get to think of it much before the sluggishness finally took over and dragged her out of the meanness of reality.




She might have not heard the elevator opening and she probably didn’t hear so much as feel the heavy steps of boots moving down the corridor. She opened her eyes and sat up just in time to see one of the guards aiming a gun.

A whistle instead of a pop accompanied her scream when it fired straight through the bars into Wolverine’s cell. Two other guards followed with similar shots shortly after and she willed her body up and to the bars and managed to shove against the next one’s calf, throwing his shot off.

“Stop it! Stop it ya bastards!” She screamed deliriously at them.

“You just stay the hell out of this, Rogue. And get the fuck away from the bars!” Theo yelled from behind several men.

She swore under her breath at them and spun around to bars adjoining Wolverine’s cell. He was growling and thrashing fiercely from somewhere she couldn’t see but at least it meant he was still alive.

“Wolverine. Wolverine, sugah, ya alright?” She tried to whisper as quietly as she could but one of the guard’s laughter rang out.

“Aw, little girls were always softies for puppies.”

“Shut it you nimrod,” Alvin snapped. And then suddenly he appeared out of the crowd and kneeled down in front of her cell. “He’s fine, Rogue. Just some tranqs.”

“Why?” She quipped back, fighting the urge to reach through the bars and grab his cheek.

Alvin sighed and looked up and then men behind him briefly before looking back at her. “It’s not of your concern, really. But the Colonel has a special job for him. We need to test what kind of damage several new prototypes of artillery we got will do to the body.”

Her eyes went wide in both shock and horror. “Ya...no, no! Please don’t! He didn’t hurt me that bad!”

Alvin’s top lip quirked up slightly as he pushed to his feet. “Relax. He’d have to do it any way, it isn’t because of you. Guys, it’s been a few minutes, let’s try and get him out of there.”

A few minutes evidently had not been enough. As soon as the first few men stepped into the cell she heard a slick ring but couldn’t get her eyes to shut soon enough before she saw Wolverine plunged what looked like shinny claws into the men’s torsos. And the blood dripping from his hands.

The screaming and panic from the guards went from there and she tried to root Wolverine on without actually having to open her eyes. Finally the whistling made her and the first sight she was greeted to was him stumbling back, six darts pointing out from his chest.

“Wolverine, no!” She yelled, although she wasn’t sure why. Even as he fell back onto his butt they kept firing into him. “Get up, get up!” She cheered and he actually looked over to her before he fell completely limp and unconscious.



Hours she waited. She wasn’t very good at telling time, having been removed from it for so long, but she was pretty sure it had been hours. In fact, she was positive. The trek back to her cot had been almost effortless. While her knee was still several lovely shades of cool colors in was down to a dull, vacant throb. Once there she started counting. At first the constant roaring down the hall kept making her miss her place but she was eventually able to tune it out till she basically didn’t even hear him anymore. And she just counted. Lots and lots of Mississippis went by.

She couldn’t remember how many times she passed sixty Mississippis sixty times, but it had to have been several. And finally the elevator door slid open. She quickly laid flat on the cot, going for the playing sleep trick. With one eye open she could make out them dragging something; she could only assume it was Wolverine.

They must have thrown him in his cell with some serious force because he landed with a loud slap that made her actually wince. Then they mumbled something to him that she couldn’t quite pick up but the way they broke out into laughter right after made her figure it wasn’t anything nice.

As hard as it was she stayed on her cot, her whole body just shaking with anticipation. The guards finally walked away. Slowly. Laughing the entire length of the hallway. The very second she heard the elevator close she jumped off the cot and nearly threw herself on the floor at the bars between their cells.

“Wolverine. Wolverine, talk to me,” she whispered frantically. She was just making him out in the dim light that came from her cell into his. The slapping noise was the bare skin of his chest colliding with the floor because he was no longer wearing a shirt. From what she could see there didn’t appear to be any holes in him or chunks of flesh missing. The skin on his back and arms was dirty and stained, but everything appeared to be otherwise unmarred.

“Come on, big guy, get up. Please.”

He groaned and started to push his hand under him and she squealed. Her little celebration stopped when a nasty, dry cough racking threw him, making even the muscles of his back bunch and shake.

“Are...are ya okay?” She asked looked over him again.

“Fine,” he grunted through the coughs so that she wasn’t exactly sure it was a real word.

“Ya need water,” she pointed out. But he just shook his head as his body continued to quake. She narrowed her eyes in confusion at him. Didn’t he see he was going to choke if he kept that up? “Ya haveta get some water in ya. Can ya not reach the sink?”

He merely ignored her and balled himself up, one hand pressed flat against his chest and the other holding him face away from the floor.

She swore, frustrated at everything, especially him. Then she noted his sink and it was still in its same mangled state. So it probably didn’t work.

“Okay,” she started. “Do ya think ya can drag yaself ova here?”

He looked up from the floor, his dark hair hanging in his face and deep blue eyes glaring threatening at her. She pushed her fear back; it was her fault they took him.

“Can ya? Jus’...jus’ try, alright?”

He raised an eyebrow at her but started pulled his lethargic body closer and closer to her cell, grunting and moaning the entire time.

“That’s it,” she encouraged. “Go real slow.”

He stopped to give her another cold glare but a seizure of cough went off again in him. He slammed his fist down on the floor with each cough. And then the ringing noise sounded out again and three blades shot out from between the knuckles. She knew she gasped and jumped back and was afraid she offended him in her surprise. But his head was still hung down as he continued to dry hack.

Finally he made it to a sort of a sitting position right in front of her and she thought about patting him on the shoulder. Except something told her he probably wouldn’t appreciate that.

“Justa sec’,” she said and jumped to her feet. She limped quickly over to her own sink and turned on the cold tap. The water was cool immediately and she formed a bowl with her hands. She went back to him carefully, leaving the faucet running.

She could actually feel his eyes on her with each step but oddly enough that stopped bothering her some time during dinner. Once she got to him she realized her problem. She couldn’t kneel down, not with her knee. If she tried to give it to him standing up it would all end up just dumping all over his face. And if she sat down not only would she probably spill most of it he’d have to bend down to drink the rest and it was doubtful the bars would let him.

Noticing her stilled form he growled low at her. With those blades out she decided not to angry him any more and opted for standing.

“Okay, let’s see if we can get this,” she said with a sigh and stuck her hands through the bars. He immediately opened his mouth, the tips of her fingers touching his bottom lip. She tipped her hands down, letting the water fall. Sure enough it splatter all of his face, dripping down on to his chest.

He licked his lips, getting what he could off of them.

“Ah’ll get some more,” she promised and did just that. They repeated the process two more times before her knee started wobbly under her. They were wasting too much water. His chest was now drenched, streaking whatever was on him even more and he was still coughing.

“Damn it,” she swore to herself and looked from him to the sink. Then she took a deep breath and said a pray.

“Alright,” she pointed her finger at him. “Ah can’t keep walkin’ back an’ forth like this. We’re gonna have ta try somethin’ else.” He lifted a eyebrow at her. “Jus’...can ya get lower? Try layin’ on ya side.”

He sort of got a milder version of his beet face but eased back down onto the floor nevertheless. She steeled her nerves a little bit more and made her way back to the sink, this time having to hold onto the bars as she went to keep herself up right. When she made it she didn’t put her hand under but instead pulled her hair back and lower her mouth to the flowing water, drinking it in.

She got back over to him and wasted no time falling to her butt, eager to get off her leg. By the time she was scooting up close to the bars he figured out what she was planning and propped himself up on his elbow.

She lowered her mouth slowly until the bars pushed against her cheeks stopped her from going any further. He meet her the rest of the way and pressed his dry, rough lips against hers. She opened her lips slightly, letting gravity trickle the water gently into his mouth. Only one small drop leaked from between them, running down his chin.

She pulled away and he swallowed. “Betta?” She asked and he nodded, although for the first time his eyes weren’t fixed onto her.

“Ah...ah could probably make anotha trip. Ya need some more?”

His eyes came back up to hers and they shifted back and forth, making her slightly nervous. Then they fell again, this time landing on her knee. Quickly, she covered it with her hand, making him snap his eyes back up to her.

“Its fine,” she said with a rough voice. “Ah said ah could make it. Do ya need more?”

He shook his head. “No,” he said rough in the mist of a rumbling growl.

But she definitely heard it that time and smiled at him. “Ah like when ya talk. Ya sure?” He turned away from her and wiped his hand down his soaked chest, flicking some of the water off. She sighed at his silence. At least now she was sure he could talk, he just didn’t want to it seemed.

He turned back around when she whimpered as she pushed back to her feet. Instead of the sink she stumbled the much shorter distance to her cot. But she did not sit down; she grabbed one of the green blankets and made her way back over to him.

“Here,” she said as she held it between the bars.

He narrowed his eyes at the bundle of fabric, like it was threatening him. She rolled her eyes at his reaction and had to grab the bars again to stay up right. “Jus’ take it. If ya don’t want it ta sleep with at least ya can dry yaself off with it. Ya’ll get sick if ya don’t.”

He snorted, which actually made her happy because at least it wasn’t a growl. “Take it, sugah, so ah can go sit down,” she said again, this time her voice sounding every bit as tired as her face looked.

The minute he had his hand on it she let go and started the trek back to her cot. She fell against it with a plop, and the pressure on her knee instantly lightened. She laid back and turned on her side, again the pillow under her leg instead of her head, but by then she was use to sleeping like that.

“Wolverine,” she called softly even though he disappeared back into where the light of her cell didn’t reach and she couldn’t see him. “Ah’m glad ya okay.”

The truth of the matter was that he knew lots of words; in several different languages apparently. Except they were all horrible, painful, scared words that she recognized from new comers after their first day at the labs. All words she had uttered herself, a long time ago, before she came to the decision that it was better for her mind to dwell on ways out instead of the pain. But she was surprised to hear them coming from his cell. He seemed so strong, vicious and arrogant almost. It really was a truly pitiful noise. But it in itself didn’t bother her– the laughter coming from further down the hall did.

She wanted to yell at him for being such a sick, selfish bastard. But she didn’t. Instead she stayed curled up on her own cot and listened to Wolverine weave in and out of his nightmarish pleas and the other man laughing at him.

It ended up being an unlikely source that delivered her from the maddening sounds.

“Rogue,” Sgt. Alvin greeted as he approached her door.

Theo came up a little ways behind him. “Hey, shut the hell up down there!” He yelled further down the hall the shook his head and mumbled, “God damn lunatic.”

Somehow she knew Wolverine was awake now, and not only because it was silent in his darkness. But it was almost as if she could feel the burning of his glaze, not necessarily on her, but on everything. And it didn’t seem like an unlikely notion to her that he could watch everything with equal intensity.

“Rogue, did you hear me?” Alvin asked, narrowing his eyes at her.

She slowly turned her head from Wolverine’s cell and matched his facial expression, although she still remained silent.

“Col. Sie wants to talk to you,” Alvin elaborated as he pulled a key ring from his belt. Behind him Theo raised his gun, aiming it at her.

She rolled her eyes and pushed off of the cot. As soon as she was within arm’s reached Alvin quickly grabbed her and slapped a pair of handcuffs on her wrists.

Alvin winked at her then pushed her in the direction of the elevator. “Nothing personal,” he added with a shrug.

She snorted then turned to head to spit at his feet except Theo got in the way and the ball of salvia ended up landing on his knee.

“Ugh!” He groaned and wiped the butt of his gun against. “All of you muties are disgusting!”

A small smile actually cracked her face. Before the same gun butt was rammed into her lower back, pushing her even farther forward.




The Colonel’s office was exactly the same with the exceptions of she being awake when they shoved her down onto a chair. And the fact that this time the elderly man was already sitting behind his desk, waiting for her.

“Ah, my little firefly, I missed you,” he greeted with a wide, fake smile plastered all over his face. He waited a second, but she kept silence and stone faced. “Very well,” he sighed. “No luxuries than, eh? Fine, fine, right down to business. Seeing as how you walked in here so very well on your own I am to assume your knee is alright. Didn’t anyone advise you to stay away from the bars, my dear?”

Behind her Theo snorted, she however didn’t react.

“Not a very pleasant chap, that Wolverine,” Sie went on. “But then again for his line of work he doesn’t have to be. Which brings me to why you are here. I have work for you as well.” He motioned to someone behind her. She didn’t turn around to look. But her blank face broke when one of the soldiers threw a bundle on the top of Sie’s desk in front of her.

Sie grinned at her wide, mesmerized eyes and leaned back into his chair. “Yes, firefly, actually clothes. Just for you, I might add.”

Her palms rubbed together anxiously as she starred at the folded jeans, white bra, panties, and socks, and a blouse. She couldn’t be sure but it looked an awful lot like cashmere.

“How long have you been wearing that suit?” Sie asked her. “A while to be sure. And all those wires sticking out of it, don’t they poke?” Then he leaned back forward, putting his elbows up on his desk. “I hate to be the one to tell you this but it doesn’t smell particularly fetching either.”

Finally she looked up to face him. “Ya brought me here justa gimme clothes?”

The Colonel’s hand reached out and stroked the blouse. He was certainly touching it like it was cashmere. “You will need them for the little assignment you will do for me.”

Of course. She scooted the chair back and inch or two, trying to put more space between her and the tempting pile of fabric. “Ah ain’t doin’ shit for you.”

Sie balked at her and crossed his arms over his chest. “You don’t even know what it is yet,” he pointed out.

“Ah don’t care,” she affirmed, forcing more power into her voice. “Ah wouldn’t pick up ya dry cleanin’.”

He sighed and pursed his lips together, eyeing her for a minute. Evidently he was deliberating with himself internally because after and few moments he nodded. “I know the solitary ward must be very difficult for you, a rogue leader with no army. Sabretooth and Wolverine simply won’t play, they don’t grasp such notions; their survivalists, loners. You, my dear, dear firefly are anything but. You’re a motivator; you feed off the energy of others, not just literally. This is not the labs, Rogue; there is simply no need to fight us with your stubbornness. Work with me, join the team, and you will soon have followers again, you can walk amongst the world again. And I think doing what the Canadian government asks of you in exchange is not an unfair request.”

The Colonel was a smart man, knowing exactly what to wave in front of her face. And she really wanted to take him up on his offer. She wanted to take off the stupid, chafing suit and put on the cashmere top. She wanted to see daylight and talk to people again.

But he was lying. She knew he was lying. Because it was the labs, all over again. She heard Wolverine as he faced his nightmares, and even the beast-man, Sabretooth apparently, no one became that deranged without being tortured and forced there. They were mutants, she was a mutant. The man sitting across from her was not.

“Fuck you,” she grounded out between clenched teeth.

“Excuse me?” Sie balked, his face swelling a bright red.

“Ah said ‘fuck you’,” she repeated, slower, for him.

“Oh, don’t be ridiculous, you----”

She interrupted him with a stern, “No.”

He swallowed and leaned further in, both his hands clasped together on top of the desk. “I don’t believe you quite understand what is going on here. The only choice I am giving you is if we are going to have to do this the hard way or you are going to be a good little firefly and be rewarded for it. Not whether you do what we tell you to or not.”

“Seein’ as how ahm not a firefly at all, good or other wise. Ahm a mutant.”

“You’ll regret your foolishly pride, my dear,” the Colonel hissed.

She shrugged. “Ah think tha whole point of pride is that ah ain’t.”


With a wave of his hand two hands wrapped around her arms and yanked her up and out of the chair, pulling her to the door. There was no point in hiding the longing in her eyes at she tried to keep them focused on the cashmere top as long as she could.

When she was brought back to her cell Wolverine was up, pacing back and forth in his darkness. She could occasionally see his shoulder pop into the light as he moved, besides that he was merely a noise.

Probably to keep from going mad her mind began focusing on the noise, absorbing it. It was actually relatively loud, making the clamor of ‘Sabretooth’ more of a background noise. She listened carefully and realized it was the boots adding to the extra sound. ‘When did he get boots?’ She thought. Had he been wearing them the whole time? How could she have missed he was wearing boots?

She looked down to her own feet, completely bare as always (even before the labs). There was a tiny white scar on the toe by her pinky toe. She loved that scar. It was from a puppy she had when she was little stepping on her foot with freshly cut nails. Even when it happened it never really hurt; it was just a lingering reminder of happy times. The other scars weren’t like that.

His pacing went on and on, acting the part of the restless caged animal. Eternity stretched on as the three mutants wasted away their lives pacing, banging, and dreaming of cashmere. And then all three of them stopped simultaneously at the sound of the elevator door opening.

A soldier pushing a cart came into their corridor. It wasn’t Simon, she noted with a hint of pride. It was some random, faceless soldier with three guns strapped to his back, entirely too much for kitchen duty.

He went straight past her, though, than Wolverine, down the hall to the bea—Sabretooth. She huffed annoyed and put her hands over her ears to diffuse the increase of volume from the maniac’s roaring and thrashing. The soldier must have survived the deliver, however, because the squeak of the wheels on the cart moved closer.

“Wolverine,” he greeted in so cheerful a voice it irked her nerves. “Man, you did great out there!” The soldier laughed as he pulled a tray off the cart. “Those little fuckers had no clue what hit them! You are good, big guy. Here,” he slid the tray under the door. “Extra rations from the Colonel. Quick and efficient, just as he likes it.”

Wolverine appeared into the light and grunted at him as he picked up the tray. The soldier seemed to get a kick out of it and broke out into more laughter. He made no attempt to still it from his voice when he stopped in front of her cell and said, “Sorry, girly, Colonel said nothing for you till your hunger out weighs your pride. You must have really ticked him off.”

She watched him walk away with her mouth hanging wide open. They were going to starve her? “What tha hell?” She gasped out loud. She already told them she wasn’t going to help them, why not just take her out and be done with it? This was just--- “Ugh!”

When she looked up after her outburst she found Wolverine sitting close to the bars with his over stocked tray, his body just inside the realm of light. His piercing blue eyes were shot straight at her and now that he had her attention he grumbled something.

Her face instantly turned bright red. “What?! Damn it, ya got somethin’ ta say ta me, ya SAY it!”

He barred his teeth at her, a faint, half growl issuing from his lips.

“Oh, jus’ stop it,” she said, her annoyance heavy in her already deep voice. Then she jumped to her feet, making him do the same thing as he growled louder at her sudden movement.

“Stop all tha gruntin’ and growlin’ and pacin’ and alla that otha crap ya do!” She snapped, one finger pointed at him. “What’s ya mutation, huh? Ya ‘animal-like’? That it? Well la-de-f-ing-da, control it! Ya wanna know what mine is? Poisonous skin! If ah can control that than so can you! Hey---!”

He turned his back to her and disappeared into the darkness, taking his tray with him.

“Ya come back here when ahm talkin’ ta you!” She fumed. The danger of how close she was getting to the bars between their cells was officially no longer registering on her.

“Ya know why ya down here? Ina little cell—excuse me, ‘cage’--- all by yaself? Guess what? It ain’t because ya an animal! Ya not an animal jus’ because they say ya are! It’s because they’re scared of ya! Ya betta than ‘em and they know it! Ya jus’ gonna let ‘em use you? They’re primitive compared ta you! Fuckin’ act like it!”

Her knuckles were stark white, even against her ghostly pale skin, from the grip she now had on the bars.

“God damn it, ya so pathetic. Ya jus’ let ‘em push ya around an’ throw a steak at ya when ya a ‘good boy’. Don’t that piss you off?! Don’t ya want more--- Ah don’t know, a fuckin’ life maybe? God-- even that INSANE MANAIC,” she screamed down the hall, “has more fight than ya an’ ONLY a nick of ya intelligence. An’ ah know ya smart, ah’ve heard ya at night; when ya asleep ya human! Hell—the damn bastards who ya sit and roll ova for aren’t as smart as you, ah know that too. But damn if they ain’t bigger cowards than you!”

He appeared back into the light, his top lip curled all the way up. There was no blue in his eyes; they were entirely black as they bored down on her. Then three gleaming metal claws shot from each of his hands and she didn’t even bat an eyelash.

“Ya mad at me now?” She taunted. “Good! Ahm pretty damn pissed at ya too, but at least ya got boots on ya feet.”

His thick black brow shot nearly all the way up to the unruly mass on top of his head, and then he looked briefly down at his feet.

“It’s not ‘bout tha boots!” She practically shrieked, causing him to flatten his palms over his ears.

“Have ya even tried?” She asked as she took a step back and slapped her hand against the bars. “Do those cut through metal? Do ya even care?”

He opened his mouth but the ring of the elevator door opening made his narrow his eyes at something over her shoulder. She then immediately turned her head to look.

“What the hell is going on here?” A soldier snapped, eyeing the two of them. A large group was right behind him, six or seven guys at least, their guns resting ready at their sides.

They were all pushed out of the way as Theo emerged from the group. “Fucking shit, Rogue, get the hell away from the bars! Am I speaking Portuguese or something?”

“Go sit on ya gun,” she huffed and rolled her eyes. She walked turned her back on all of them and walked towards the sink to wet her fry throat.

“Real cutie, that,” a voice said.

“Forget her,” the first voice commanded. “Wolverine, sorry about the short dinner time, but we got a situation that needs taken care of. Everyone ready?” Wolverine roared and took a step back but their trigger fingers were faster and he was soon loaded with darts.

Rogue flinched and closed her eyes, turning on the tap to drown out the sound of him going down. They must of had more potent stuff because it was only a few seconds before she heard the door groan open, then a “hurry up and get the chains, he won’t stay out long.” And then a lot of scuffing and swearing.


A good while later and still they didn’t bring him back. They did, however, come and get Sabretooth too and she nearly asked them what they had done with Wolverine. Instead she sat on the floor, up against the bars waiting.

In all the time she had to herself (in silence, no less) her anger deflated to the point that she was beginning to feel like complete shit for yelling at him. She tried to tell herself that at least she meant all of it, at least it wasn’t yelling for the sake of yelling, but it did little to ease the guilt. To make it worse his tray of food was sitting there, untouched, because she kept him from being able to eat it.

Another eternity after her butt went numb the elevator doors slid open again and she lifted her head from its resting place on her knees. He was surrounded by soldiers but she could still tell it was Wolverine and not Sabretooth; she could just make out the points in his hair. And it wasn’t the mass rumble she had seen that time they dragged Sabretooth past her cell, Wolverine was walking, slowly, in the middle of the circle of armed soldiers.

No one even looked at her when they got to his cell and opened it. They didn’t so much as push him in as steer him in and once inside he immediately sat on the floor, bowing his head between his knees. Then with no word to him, or her, they locked the door and left the way they came.

She turned to her body to face him, her hip pressed right against the bars. “Wolverine, ah jus’ wanted ta say----” The rest of her words stuck in her throat when she saw the holes in his back, and the slow deep stains setting into his gray shirt. “Oh mah God, are ya alright?!”

He didn’t move or acknowledge her in any way and she jumped to her feet.

“Hey!” She screamed, once she got to the door, down the empty corridor towards the elevator. “We need help! He’s bleedin’! Can anyone hear me? Hello! Help!”

He mumbled something during her screaming and she wiped her head back around to him.

“What?” She asked breathlessly. He shook his head and stared back forwards again. “No,” she quickly said and ran back over, throwing herself down on the floor by the bars. “No, no, ah wasn’t yelllin’, ah jus’ didn’t hear ya.”

“Fine—mutation,” he said, his voice rasp and coarse.

She blinked at him as she tried to process his limited words. “Uh, yeah, ahm fine with ya mutation too, ah didn’t mean to yell at ya earlier, ah was jus’ on overload. But we gotta get ya help, ya can’t keep bleadin’ like that.”

“No,” the word ended in a growl. “I heal. My mutation, I heal. So be quiet.”

“Ya heal?” She echoed. “That’s—that’s amazin’. But listen, you still----”

“Be,” he interrupted, finally turning his head to look at her. “Quiet.”

Her eyes went wide but she nodded, keeping her lips firmly together. The silence lasted for a few minutes, as long as she was fascinated by the movement of his skin as the holes closed. But when they were done and he was rolling his neck, making it pop loudly, she cracked.

“Ahm so sorry, ah had no right---” She stopped when he cocked and eyebrow at her. “What…?” she asked at his silence.

He shook his head against getting to his feet.

“No, hey, don’t go silent on me again,” she quipped, standing as well so she was eye level with him. “We were on a roll.”

“I’m hungry,” he said and moved towards his food.

“Okay,” she nodded, nearly dizzy with excitement at his sentences. “Ya eat, an’ then maybe we could talk some more. When ya done.”

He narrowed those clear blue eyes of his at her. “Why?”

“Ah--” She was at a loss of words. What was she suppose to tell him? So they could share what pain and torture they’ve been through? So they could formulate an escape plan? So they could quip about how much a ‘prick’ Sgt. Alvin was? So they could get to know each other better? So they could discuss how much they miss cashmere?

“Why not?” Was all she could counter.

His eyes remained fixed on her for a few seconds more before he disappeared back into his darkness with his tray again.

"Its...Ah can't think of what ta compare it to, but it feels amazing."

Describing cashmere to him was harder than she thought. First she tired to say it was like velvet, only better, but he didn't know what velvet was either. So she had to describe velvet to him, which was a lot like trying to describe cashmere.

They had been talking forever. Well, she had been talking and occasionally he would respond with a one or two word sentence. Some how they eased into their current position, on the floor, facing away from each other, pressed back to back against the bars. The bars were cold and sort of dug into her back, but his skin was warm and he was talking. She had nothing to complain about.

She told him about home, her dad and how crazy her mom was. How she was born in the States, Georgia, but grew up in Mississippi. He said he could tell and she smiled. After prying and poking him a bit he relinquished that he didn't remember anything but being in the army.

"Were ya born here...do ya think?" She asked in a coarse whisper. She could feel the shake of his head from the movement of the muscles in his back. Still, she started telling him about some of the people in the labs, some that were born there. And how that wasn't that unusual of a thing and it didn't mean there was anything wrong with them.

He asserted more forcefully that he wasn't born there. That he just didn't remember.

Feeling the tension in his back she decided to concede and moved on to how much she liked the color blue. She used to like blue and green, any of the cool colors really, but being here had quickly stripped away any affection she had for that color. So she told him her favorite was now most definitely blue and that she thought his eyes were pretty. He said nothing, and she wondered if he knew what the word pretty meant, at least he didn't seemed offended.

Just to get him to talk she asked which color was his favorite even though she was fully aware how ridiculous the conversation was. He said he didn't have one. And then he surprised her by elaborating that he didn't like yellow, though, it hurt his eyes. To which she teased him about being too sensitive. He said he had strong senses, his mutation. The teasing went on as she asked him how many mutation he had, anyway? He just grunted at her.

"That really cool, though," she told him. "So like ya hear and small things stronger too?"

He nodded then willingly offered, "You don't smell good." He said it without judgment or any emotion, really, and it made her sigh.

"Yeah, ah didn't figure ah did."

It went on and on like that, her talking about any random thing that popped into her head. Even when he didn't participate it was okay because it physically felt like he was listening to her. She never really got much about what he liked out of him, but if he didn’t like it he’d share that. He didn’t like being hot, he didn’t like water, he didn’t like onions or beats. The last one was a suggestion by her and he readily agreed.

Eventually, though, the conversation had to invariably veer to cashmere. How much she wanted it, missed it, needed it. He asked her if it was some kind of meat and she nearly passed out. Up till now she managed to get him to comprehend that it was a type of fabric, like his shirt, like velvet. What she was still trying to get across was how important it was, which he just wouldn't understand.

"Cashmere," he repeated the word, although apprehensively.

"Yeah. An' when ah find a way outta here ahm buyin' a drawer full. Trust me, ya'll love tha stuff."

There was silence for a bit and she wondered if he had finally tired of her and her mouth. Then a deep, tentative “How?” came from the other cell.

She turned her head sideways towards him. “How what?”

“How find a way out?”

Her teeth clenched down on her bottom lip. She really didn’t know. At the labs there was always people moving, in and out, employees getting people, bringing food, carrying things. None of that was here. “Ah don’t know,” she admitted with a heavy sigh and faced back front. “But ah will. An’ ah promise ta get ya out too when ah do.”

He was quiet for a few seconds again. “What if I don’t want out?”

Her head wiped back to the side in shock. He--? “Ah don’t care,” she hissed, her old anger at his compliancy flaring up again. “Ahm getting’ ya out of here whether ya want ta go or not!”

“Why?” he asked, still no emotion in his voice.

She turned her body around to face him. He turned too when her weight left his back.

“Why?” she echoed. “Because ya don’t belong here, ya don’t deserve this.”

Clear blue eyes remained transfixed on her. It was amazing how she still wasn’t use to it and they sent a chill up her spin.

“Your mutation,” he finally said. “You’re poisonous.”

“Not exactly,” she shrugged. “Ah absorb people’s life force through mah skin; Thoughts, memories, mutations, everythin’.”

He nodded, which she thought was a weird reaction to what she just told him.

“That’s why they want you,” he stated, like he finally understood. Why did he think she was here in the first place, she thought, punishment for unpaid parking tickets?

“Maybe, but they ain’t got no right ta have me,” she said sternly, making sure her eyes were on his then added, “Us.”

He shook his head, black hair falling all over his face and she quickly cut him off. “Listen ta me, Wolverine, ah know ya don’t remember anythin’ but this, but ya don’t *belong* here.”

“I do,” he argued. “I kill.”

She stilled for a second as fear took a fleeting grip of her throat. She willed it back down, surprised that she had any naivety left. Colonel Sie was right about one thing, this wasn’t the labs. So he wasn’t a guinea pig, that’s what labs have. The military has weapons.

“No, sugah,” she didn’t stop to think where the term came from. “Ya don’t kill, they do. They’re jus’ usin’ ya ta do it. When we get out nobody will use ya for anythin’.”

Something akin to laughter came out of him as he turned back around. She actually shivered at the dark noise. It was eerily similar to Sabretooth’s, except this time he was laughing at her.

All the hot air escaped her as she pushed up off the ground. She made as much noise was possible so to ensure he knew she didn’t think he was very funny, if he even understood things like girls storming off. Probably not, but her butt was killing her from sitting too long on the concrete floor, so it was time to move anyway.

Pacing around the cell helped loosen her stiff muscles. She tried not to think about how she never paced in the labs. Or even consider that he ‘companions’ could be rubbing off on or affecting her.

Not that they were bad people. Okay, Sabretooth scared the shit out of her and she didn’t want him within a tri-state area of her. And she was starting to think Wolverine was seriously lazy, but he was okay. She could see the small light of humanity in him. He interacted like an animal with the soldiers because they treated him like one. When she treated him like a man he usually responded like one, right down to telling her to be quiet.

There were still things she couldn’t talk him out of his animalistic tendencies. Sometime during their talk-feast she realized she was hungry. It was a weird feeling; she hadn’t been hungry in forever. Usually the labs had to ram things down her throat.

And it’s not like she was kidding herself when she asked if he had any food left, she knew the chance of getting food from him was slim. He had told her no, but a few minutes later she heard him chewing. The funny part was she never considered calling him out on it. She just kept on talking.

Except if hunger was foreign to her before she was now very acquainted with it. Next time they bring food she’d have to discuss that with him. Hopefully she could get enough scraps out of him to last her till she could get out of there.

She stopped her pacing and looked at him. He really did look pretty lazy slumping back against the bars like that. His eyes were closed but she knew he wasn’t asleep and for some reason that made her smile.

Her smile faded when she heard the sound of the elevator door opening. She looked quickly to Wolverine, but not a muscle in his body moved and his eyes remained closed.

A whole military precession was coming down the hallway, right down to Colonel Sie at the front, leading the pact.

Her feet started moving her backwards, back to the farthest wall of the cell. She looked again at Wolverine checking to see if he was panicking as well. His eyes were still closed.

“Rogue,” Colonel Sie said, but she ignored him. She was trying to concentrate on the uniformed men behind him, trying to count how many there were.

The sink came up on her before the wall did, though she barely noticed it pressing into her lower back.

“It’s time to play outside for a bit,” Sie said. “There is a man, an officer that has gone AWOL . We need you to find out what he knows, who he’s told, and then get rid of him.”

“No,” she barked loudly, half hoping it would make Wolverine move. “Not only no, but hell no.”

“That’s cute,” Sie weekly applauded. “But let me make sure you understand what’s going on here. I’m being extremely nice and giving you one last chance to do this one your own. Otherwise we will make you.”

She snorted, pulling out all the false bravado she had. “Mah momma couldn’t make me eat mah vegetables and ya can’t make me kill a man.”

“Actually, I can,” Sie said, his eyes sparkling with pride. “Boys.”

Men rushed into the cell in a green wave coming right at her. She didn’t waste time with screaming and just charged them, hoping to cause enough chaos to be able to get through the open door.

The plan never had a chance and immediately backfired. There were too many of them so she just ran right into their completely covered arms. The grabbed her, at least six of them did, and she finally screamed out as they forced her down to her knees.

She had to flip her hair back out of her face to see Sie and he could see the scowl on her face.

“Ya already had me caught, dumbass,” she spat at him as she tried to jerk her arms away. She caught a movement behind Sie out of the corner of her eye but refused to take her glare off the old man smiling down at her.

“Sir, try and stay away from the bars,” Theo’s voice came out from somewhere in the mass.

A strangled laugh actually popped out of her. “Is that all ya can say?”

“Everyone shut up!” Sie yelled, his whole face turning bright red. “Bring him forward, damn it, we don’t have all day.”


Her eyes went wide as the crowd parted. Sabretooth. He was heavily chained, arms pinned down to his side under the metal. Except for there wasn’t much covering him besides the metal chains binding him, only a pair of green and brown shorts. He wasn’t even fighting them, he was just grinning at her. She didn’t even have enough air left in her lungs to scream.

“We just need to make a few personality adjustments,” Colonel Sie said as he brought Sabretooth forward.

With each of his massive steps her twisting and kicking increased. As well did the pressure of the soldiers on her.

“Ah have control!” She screamed because the noise of everything around her much louder in her head than actuality. “Ah won’t absorb him!”

Sie didn’t respond just gave a strong nod and Sabretooth was pushed forward, colliding with her. Rough, leather skin connected firmly with hers, right up to his scratchy cheek laid flush against her smooth one.

Her fights and screaming intensified even though she was trapped between the two immobile forces. The gripping hands of the soldiers dug into her flesh, easily bruising it while the held her practically still against him. He rubbed his coarse body up against her, seemingly edged on by her screams to the point he bit down hard on her neck, than running his huge tongue along her skin, licking up the blood.

“The labs shared an interesting tidbit with me, firefly. You know what it was?” Sie asked though he hardly had an ounce of her attention. “They said that an electric shock jump starts your mutation every time.”

His words cut through everything to get to her ears and it still took a second for her brain to process it through the terror. Wolverine’s name barely managed to tear out of her mouth before a metal rod was shoved into her side and her skin was hungrily pulling Sabretooth in.

The long corridor of isolation was silent. There was no wind blowing against windows or footsteps moving, or the sound of water running through pipes. Not even the faintness of a chest rising and falling with breathing could be heard in the long alley way of cells. Nothing but the eerie peacefulness of stillness to fill the compartmentalize void. That was until the elevator clunked with its landing and the heavy slid of the door moving open.

The ruckus was instantaneous. Men cursed, yelling loudly to each other as they moved out of the elevator in a collective unit. They were packed together so tightly their guns and equipment banging together, metal rattling against metal. Nothing could be seen between their tightly compressed bodies as they moved together, struggling some unseen force between them.

The mob managed to stumble a few feet in tact. The wall of soldiers broke down, however, after a high-pitch hysteric scream emitted from their center.

She busted threw, sending three of the men crashing to the ground. Gone was the pale and tattered lab suit, now replaced with a full, black body stocking. The others tightened their grips on her arms, her waist; two even had a hold of her legs in an attempt to keep control of the thrashing girl. She only roared louder and whipped around, slashing blunt nails at them. They did little damage, but that didn’t keep her from trying again as she twisted and turned in their grasp; wild, wet brown and white hair flying every where.

“God damn it!” Some voice in the group yelled. “Just fucking tranq it her again!”

“We can’t,” Sgt. Alvin snapped, tightening his grip around her waist. “We don’t have any fucking left! Fucking hell men, its just a woman, hold fast!”

With a collective groaned they tugged in unison, hauling her failing figure back amongst them, more hands took a hold to secure her. She screamed again and tried to jump up, unleashing her feet in kicks against them but they quickly snatch her legs so that they just carried the jerking girl to her cell.

“Shit, who ever has the key unlock the god damn door already!”

Some called out ‘got it’ then they quickly tossed her into the cell, barely managing to slam the door shut before she sprang back up to her feet and lashed out them with an angry growl. The shut door did very little to slow her down and she slammed her body against, and then ricocheted back to the floor. Only to get up and do it again.

“The bitch is worse than Sabretooth was,” a soldier groaned as he rubbed his shoulder. “I think she fucking dislocated my arm.”

Murmuring of agreement rolled among them. Sgt. Alvin remained silent; his eyes heavy as he watched her continuously threw her body against the unrelenting steel bars. It was a process he was very familiar with, but now it was different, pathetic. The bars and the mass of the lunatic were a good match, neither moving when they both collided until he took a few steps back to charge it again. He was a vicious, homicidal caged animal. Each time she met with the bars she was knocked to the ground, hitting harder with the cement floor than the door.

“Let’s get the hell out of here,” Alvin said and turned around, stomping towards the door, no longer to stand the sight anymore.

She didn’t notice their departure, too intent on the destruction of the cage around her. A anger roar emitted from her mouth as she tried her shoulder, her hip, her entire body to bring the barrier down until she finally collapsed, exhausted.

Her chest heaved with heavy breaths as her two trembling hands came up and gripped her face tightly between them. She rocked back and forth three of four times before her head suddenly bent back and a mighty, animalistic yell tore out of her.

She turned her blunt nails on herself then, dragging them down the side of her face, cutting shallow pink lines into her skin that healed instantaneously.

Burning hot tears crept to her eyes as she managed to obtain some control of herself. They quickly multiplied, cascading down her face as she mentally pushed against the two men she had killed. She choked, coughing and bending in half, resting her head against the cold concrete floor as she cried.

She took a deep breath and turned her head so her cheek lay against the floor. Her eyes became fixed on her arm lying directly in front of her; a few sniffles went through her then her eyes narrowed. She sat up and ripped a massive chunk of the sleeve off revealing nothing but pale skin. It was gone. Her bottom lip went between her teeth as she traced a finger tip along the underside of her forearm where her tattoo used to be. Now there was nothing.

Then her whole body jerked and she screamed as she dragged deep gauges into her arm with her nails. The next second she was back up on her feet, throwing her body into the unmovable cell door.




He sat in the farthest corner of his cell, leaning his back against the wall, his heavy arms hanging lethargically off his knees. There was nothing but darkness all around him, encasing him.

He heard the commotion in the elevator before it reached the final level. He saw the fight with the guards. He starred at her and her alone intensely as she threw herself back at them, this time with metal in her way. His unwavering glaze didn’t move as she remained down, screamed, yelled, or when he smelled the tears or the blood. His eyes became harsher when she got back up and repeated the insistent attack on the bars.

He didn’t like the change in her scent. A nearly silent growl came from him as his top lip curled up. He didn’t like it one fucking bit.

Despite her best efforts the pain wasn’t enough. Nothing she could do to herself silenced the insistence murmur in her mind that she enjoyed pain, that she should inflict more of it, that it would ease the pressure of claustrophobia weighing down on her lungs. Even better than the pain was the taste of the sweet nectar of blood on her tongue as she raked it over a fresh, quickly healing, wound.

Worse than the maniacal blood lust was the fear. She couldn’t decipher hers from the AWOL soldier, the one that begged and pleaded with her when all she could think about was snapping his spine from his pelvis bone. It was almost funny. How scared she was of the beast-man when he was just a constant noise, a figure. Now he was a part of her and it should be so much worse but she just couldn’t get over the soldier’s fear of her. So she was forced to find a medium between the three of them. She curled up in a ball by her cot and bit down deeply into her arm and prayed hopefully this time it wouldn’t heal. At least they all agreed on one central thing. She wanted out.

Somehow her head lifted and she glared at the door. She wanted the fuck out. Her mind was completely exhausted but her body lifted to its feet anyway. And before she could reason with herself, she was throwing her body at the bars of the door again. She had lost count how many times she had done it already. Or how many times she told herself and whatever was driving her that she just couldn’t do it, it wasn’t working. ‘One more time’ the voice floated cold and demanding over and over again.

She pushed herself off the ground, rubbing her shoulder, slightly surprised at the faint, lingering pain.

‘Again.’

Frustration built up in her again and she roared as she charged. She slammed against the steel again but refused to fall and gripped the bars. She jerked and pulled herself flush with the metal surface, panting. Just a quick rest; she’d do it again; she just needed a quick rest.

Her heavy forehead came to rest against the bars as she closed her eyes. She tried to concentrate on the incessant murmurs, shut them up. But as she attempted to weave through the tangled fibers of her mind her nose twitched.

Her eyes popped open then narrowed as her nose twitched again. That smell…had she not noticed it before? It was so strong. She turned her head towards it again.

“You,” she growled, focusing on the dark just behind the bars on the other side. The rumbling in her throat continued as she took four steps closer to the shared side, although careful to stop a few feet away.

A slow, sinister smirk spread onto her face. “Ah know ya in there, runt. Ah can smell ya.”

The darkness behind the bars didn’t move but her ear nearly twitched. She heard the growl. Her smirk widened and she lifted her hands up to pop her knuckles.

“Aw,” She purred. “What’s wrong? Puppy wet his pants again?”

The growl escalated in volume and her newly sensitive eyes could just make out the movement in the shadows. Then two bright beacons of blue showed in the darkness, followed by a flash of white just under them.

“Come on, second rate,” she urged. Then she laughed, loud and chilling. “Maybe if ah beat ya into a pulp they won’t fill ya up again.”

The front half of his body came completely out of the light then. The massive muscles in his arms tense and corded from how tightly he hand his hands fisted at his side.

They both stood, equal distance away from the bars, starring off with each other for some time. Wolverine’s nose twitched in a few quick rapid sniffed then he growled again at the familiar scent. It was a deeper, rumbling vibration that went straight through the air to her.

‘Charge him!’ The voice snapped angrily. She managed to keep her body back against the urge, just barely, by digging her finger nails in the palms of her hands to satisfy the need for pain. But it didn’t take long after starring at him for her hatred to grow. Her blood reached boiling point and she rushed to the side bars, yelling at the top of her lungs.

She ran full speed into the metal, her arms reaching through to swipe at him with her hands. Wolverine moved at the same time, glistening claws erupting from his hands. The movements of her arms were useless, attempting to attack with weapons that weren’t there. Her nails only scratched harmlessly down his bare chest.

The clash ended when an uncharacteristically loud roar came from him. She gasped then screamed as jerked further against the bars. Lifting her head she looked briefly into his cold blue eyes before she whimper and stumbled back.

His face wrinkled up as she continued to back up, removing herself from of his claws. He left the claws out, his all of his muscles tense and ready for her next attack. But instead of swearing at him and coming again she wavered unsteadily on her feet, both her arms clutched tightly around her stomach. Finally she gasped and fell straight down onto her knees to the hard concrete floor.

His eyes widened when she remained silent and saw a tear trailing slowly down her cheek. Then she lifted her head and look up at him and he took a tentative step back, claws still ready.
“Ah--” she started then gasped and tighten her grip on her wound. Finally the pain was intense enough. She couldn’t feel how close the walls were around her or detect the staleness in the air. Nothing registered beyond the god-awful pain in her stomach.

Her head hung low as she pushed herself, slowly moving to sit on her butt. The tears only increase when she tried to scoot back towards her cot, one arm pulling her body, the other still wrapped around herself.

She managed to make it, though now panting and sweat plastering the white pieces of hair to her the side of her face and neck. With a heavy sigh she rested her back against the side of the cot, barely noticing how it dug into her back.

It took a few moments but slowly the pain began receding. She sighed and wiped her face with her sleeve and finally looked up.

Wolverine hadn’t moved. He was just standing there he with claws out, watching her. There was no emotion or hint of anything on his face but his eyes barreled into her with their usual intensity.

She swallowed, resting while the puncture wounds healed. When she was sure she would manage to live after all she licked her dry lips and tried to give him an unthreatening smile.

“Ah--”

He interrupted her with one word, hissed out between his teeth. “Creed.” She was sort of gob smacked into silence by the accusation in his voice.

“You smell like Creed,” he added, his scowl getting worse as he looked down at her.

She said the only thing she could think of. “Ah’m not.”

He ‘humpf’ and turned around back towards his darkness. She called out to him pushed off up to her feet, her wound already healed. He cocked an eyebrow at her, his mouth moving to a fierce frown.

“Ah’m not…ah didn’t want--,” she wasn’t sure how she was going to explain her actions to him. It turned out she didn’t have to. He merely retracting the claws and turned his back to her.

“Get rid of Creed,” He snarled before he disappeared back in the shadows.

Unfortunately she understood his issue. She supposed she probably did develop a trace of Sabretooth’s scent along with her own. And she didn’t smell that good any way to begin with. But he was absolutely ignoring her, which frustrated her because she was feeling like herself again. His three metal claws embedding themselves in her abdomen effectively drove Creed’s relentless insanity out of her mind.

“Wolverine,” She repeated his name again, must have been the tenth time. She wanted to move to the bars, talk, and sit back to back again. But she evidently still wasn’t his favorite person considering he hadn’t so much as growled at her, so she was careful to stay away.

Her voice softened after she sighed. “Come on, sugah, how long ya gonna ignore me? Ah promise to behave mahself.”

She waited. She even sat down in the middle of her cell on the cold concrete floor facing him, letting him know she had no intention of going anywhere. The last thing she wanted to do was rush him, force any kind of relationship on him that he just wasn’t ready for.

But she had to get out of there. She had to try or die, because she sure as hell wasn’t going to kill anyone else. Though her own stupidity and arrogance her rights, freedom, and whole world was taken away. But there was no way in hell she was going to let them make her less than human. Besides, she had already killed Sabretooth, at least she figured she had, and now he was no more prominent in her mind than anyone else. That meant if they wanted to force her hand again they’d most likely go to Wolverine.

A smirk cracked her face. Here she was thinking that she’d rather die than have to kill him. It was sickeningly funny somehow because it was an extremely one-sided comradeship. Hell, he had just stabbed her. She laughed under her breath. What was it about him that she was so drawn to? In theory she could probably get out without him, she had gotten close several times at the labs. Not to mention the addition of her new healing abilities, which, really meant she had to hurry because she didn’t keep other’s powers long usually, so the sooner she attempted the better. And leaving him would most definitely be quicker.

She squinted her eyes to peer better into the darkness. Shoulders, that was all she could make out. Big, huge, bulging shoulders that she’d probably just have to drag the entire way out. If he didn’t stab her again if she came near.

But damn it she would. She sighed again, this time loudly as she forced air out of her lungs. “Wolverine,” She said. Again. “Wolverine, ah know ya ain’t real happy with me right now. But first off it ain’t mah fault. Ah neva---ah didn’t want to absorb Sabretooth, ya understand that don’t ya?”
She paused to give him a chance to respond although she wasn’t very shocked when no sound came from his cell. “Right. More importantly we have to try and get out. Now, it’s the only chance, while I still have the exits of the base fresh in my mind and Sabretooth’s healin’ factor workin’ for me.”

“Not leavin’.”

Her jaw dropped at his faint voice. Then red flashed in front of her eyes that had nothing to do with Sabretooth. “We’ve been over this before. Ya ARE leavin’. With me. Out of this god damned hell hole. Now we can work together and probably make it or you could get me killed. Ah can’t leave ya, big guy. Jus’ not my nature.” She waited again, for any kind of reaction, any kind of signal that he understood the important of their impacts on each other. Again there was none and she whimpered in frustration.

“Seriously, Wolverine, don’t get me killed. Just help me out here,” she stood to here feet and stepped closer to the bars separating them, despite the voices in the back of her head saying how stupid it was.

“As ah see it,” she started to explain as she grabbed the bars with her hands. “Its me or them. Eitha ya side with me an’ we both get the fuck out of here. Be free. Or ya pick ‘em and stay in that nasty ole cell bein’ nothin’ but a pawn ta ‘em.”

With her closer position she could just make out the side of his face, staring off into the nothing in front of him. She couldn’t help but wonder if his eyes were even open, which only pissed her off even more. “Damn it! Ah don’t undastand what ya problem is here! Ya’d think me or them would be pretty easy!”

She smacked the bars and stomped her foot swearing at ‘the big moron’ in her head the whole time. Never. Never had anyone given her this much trouble before! She had convinced scared shitless mutants of all ages that they could take on fully armed employees but she couldn’t get a man the size of a boulder to get off his pathetic, complacent ass.

“Me,” he muttered.

She narrowed her eyes at him in confusion. “What?”

He turned his head towards her, blue spheres gleaming in the dark shadows under his brow. “I pick me.”

She snorted and laughed under her breath. As annoyed as she was with the lazy bum she loved a person that picked the third out of two options. “Yeah, sugah. Ah pick ya too.”

He growled then. Finally, and she was elastic to hear it, that meant he was finally in the conversation.

“Wolverine, ah---” She was interrupted by the sound of the elevator coming down, a noise she never picked up on before Sabretooth. Her heart started pounding in her chest with excitement. “Now, Wolverine. Ya gotta pick now. They’re comin’. If they open mah door ah’ll keep ‘em busy an’ ya try ta bust out. Try the claws. If they want ya, well ah think ya can probably handle ‘em and get the keys.”

The clunk of the doors opening was almost deafening loud in her ears. She looked briefly behind her to it then back to him, looking for some kind of sign, anything.

“We--” she started but didn’t get any farther.

“Hey!” She turned her head to find Theo and five or so other guards she couldn’t recognize.

“Get the fuck away from the god damn bars,” he snapped, then looked back to the men standing behind him. “Am I the only one that hears myself saying that?! Shit!”

She glared at him but took a three steps away from Wolverine’s cell, keeping her hand, then fingers, on the bar till the last possible second.

“Col. Sie would like a word with you,” Theo said and motioned to someone behind him. She swallowed. Six guys were a lot. And she wasn’t any kind of trained fighter, nothing close to what she assumed military personal were capable of. But Wolverine was pretty fast, she’d seen it before. Surely he could bust out before she or the guards really got into anything. And she healed now. She kept reminding herself of that last little, very important fact as one of the guards stepped forward with keys.

The door opened with a squeak of the hinges and she charged before any of them could take a step forward. The advantage of her bare skin on her hands and forearm was nil, they were completely covered except for their faces. So she settled for the grass roots tactic of getting low and ramming her shoulder into the gut of the guard who unlocked the door.

He fell to the ground on his back but her victory was short lived. Someone immediately grabbed a hold of her arm but she swung around and managed to punched them before they could secure the second. She gasped at the brief influx of her mutation from the skin on her fist connecting with his nose. He fell limp to the ground, even though it had nothing to do with the strength of her punch.

She wheeled around, surprise that the remaining four guys weren’t even trying to subdue her. For a second she thought maybe Wolverine had gotten free but when she got her bearings they were just standing there. One helping the first guard off the ground. Another holding a small gun, faint white smoke coming out of the end of it.

Then suddenly they rocked, all of them, from side to side like they were on a boat.

“Nighty, nighty, Rogue.” Theo taunted, a buck-tooth grin spread across his face.

She looked down and finally saw the little yellow dart sticking out of her thigh. Somehow she hadn’t felt that at all. She blinked a few times as she pulled it out and threw it to the ground. When she looked up again her head was clear and they were all still.

‘Sabretooth’ she said to herself. Then she smiled and charged them again, elbowing a stunned Theo right in the face. The noise suddenly escalated in the room. Mens’ voices were yelling all around her and she was invigorated. With a sweeping kick she knocked Theo’s legs out from under him and almost laughed when he landed face first onto the concrete floor.

Perhaps she got just a bit too much enjoyment out of it because she hadn’t seen the uppercut to her stomach coming. She doubled over at the impact, coughing up spit until her body again automatically corrected itself and the pain instantly faded as she punched the guard in the side of his face. ‘Just a little longer’ she told herself. She just had to keep them distracted for Wolverine a little longer.

But then the guard didn’t go down like the other. In fact he straighten himself back up nearly as quickly as she had.

“You little bitch,” he hissed, wiping his bloody nose. She was going to go for him again, show him how much a bitch she really was until the painful force of a heavy military boot pounded into her lower back.

She screamed out, pain shooting right up her spinal column and fell forward. The guard with the bloody nose caught her with his hand around her neck. He squeezed as he lifted her up and despite how she hard she tried no scream would come out. She was sure she should have blacked out, but evidently Sabretooth’s mutant was preventing it, leaving her to deal with the pain. Finally he released her then backhanded her across the face, her legs immediately gave out on her as she fell, but still she couldn’t manage a scream.

Gently she held her neck as she swallowed, wincing at the feeling of sandpaper going down.

“Get up, mutant.” She barely recognized Theo’s voice as he pulled her up to her feet. He didn’t even wait to see if she would fight back before her cocked his arm back then punched her in the face, grunting with the force he put into it.

She never even felt the ground. But evidently she had landed several feet away. If her eye wasn’t bleeding then it was completely due to her new healing since it felt like her skull had been crushed in. She forced herself to push up to her knees, wanting to wipe the tears away from her face for pride’s sake but couldn’t find the bravery to touch it.

Then she lifted her head to find dull metal bars right in front of her.

“----” She tried to say his name, but nothing would come out. She could see him, sitting against the far back wall. His head leaned back against it, his eyes closed. He hadn't even tried. He hadn’t move an inch.

She tried to call him again. “Wo” Neither her raw throat or the sudden mirage of pin pricks raining down on her back let her get out any more than that. Her sweat slicked hand began slipping on the smooth floor first, then his image began to blur until he was nothing but darkness.

The girl had been gone forever. He lost the ability years ago to be able to tell time but she’d been gone long enough that the image of angry, frustrated, and scared green eyes slowly closing played over and over again in his head at least twenty times. And what the hell did she expect him to do, exactly? Did she really think he’d *never* tried his fucking claws on the bars of the cell? Did she think the plumbing and the electrical had been ripped out just for the hell of it? He been in this dank hell hole for as long as he could remember and tried all sorts of shit on those damn bars.

Back in the days when he and Sabretooth were side-by-side they tried to combine they’re skills, their ideas; find some way to get the fuck out. But it was damn useless. Useless. It got to the point where he looked forward to those damn ‘assignments’ of theirs just for a chance to breathe fresh air and not have a nose full of his own shit. Then somehow it became a fucked up competition between the two of them. If they fucked each other over when they came to get one, the one‘s whose intestines weren’t on the floor got to go. If the assignment was a success you got feed. Feed well and somewhere along the way that became more important than anything else.

Now she comes along with her bright ideas about escape, like she’s the first mutant brilliant enough to come up with it. He supposed he could have flat out told her it was pointless but it was sort of nice to have her voice breaking up the endless silence. That and his vocal cords were near limp from years of limited use. The Colonel didn’t ask his opinion on many things over the years.

He shook his head and dragged a set of claws slowly across the stone floor, making the three foot raven a little bit deeper. Maybe she was right about him being lazy. Some of the guards were starting to get a little relax with him. Years of good behavior will get that, he supposed. But if he managed to get out of the cell, could he really make it out of the base? He was damn good at what he did but was he any match for a whole military compound? Some of them were bound to have those damn elephant tranquilizers near by. And her anthem of team work didn’t sit well with him. She wasn’t Sabretooth. She didn’t have military training or know how to fight; she was just a lab rat. She’d slow him down and if it was her or his freedom the choice wouldn’t be one she’d like.

The service elevator at the end of the hall chimed and he didn’t even move his head. The faint squeaking told him it was the food cart. One shuffling set of foot falls sounding behind it. The man stopped in front of the girl’s cell first, which caught his attention. He watched as he pulled a small ring of keys from his pocket and unlocked the door. He took something out from under the cart and Wolverine narrowed his eyes. Straps, leather straps. A frown found its way onto his face as the solider attached them to the side of the cot, tugging on them to insure they stayed.

He must have sensed his eyes on him because he looked up from his tasked and look toward him. “Howdy, Wolverine.” ‘Christ,” Wolverine thought.

“Don’t worry, big feller, I got your food. Just gotta make sure I’ve got this done before they bring Rogue back. Getting her enhancements now, you know? You remember what you were like afterwards.” As if to drive in the point the solider tugged on the straps again before letting them fall with a smirk.

A low growl rumble in his chest before he even recognized his bubbling anger at the solider. ‘Condescending prick,” Wolverine thought.

“Alright, tiger,” the solider went on as he locked the door of the girl’s cell. “Let’s get you feed.”

The solider push the cart the sort distant to his cell and bent over to retrieve the covered tray, whistling the whole time. The girl was right; he was smarter than these toy soldiers and had been a touch too lazy.

By the time the soldier turned around with the tray Wolverine launched himself out of the shadows and had the much smaller man by the neck. He trembled near convulsion in his hands and dropped the tray with a loud bang to the floor.

“Ple..please…” he stuttered, tears already leaking out of his wide eyes.

Wolverine snarled loudly at him and tightened his hold around his neck before plunging his claws deep in his chest. The shoulder gurgled as blood leaked from the corner of his mouth but went limp in Wolverine’s hand. He gave the claws one final twist before pulling them back into his forearms and released his grip around the body’s neck at the same time. It made a much softer noise as it hit the ground then the discarded tray of food. With a satisfied smirk he reached down and pulled the jingling keys out of the body’s pocket

They tried to ‘enhance’ her Sie called it. Strapped her down to a freezing cold table and cut into her deadly skin. The drugs from the tranquillizer darts thankfully blurred the pain from their tools to a sharp sting, something she was more or less fairly use to. Worst off the bastards dragged her exhausted carcass back to her cell with no ‘enhancements’ what so fucking ever. Unless tightly wrapped bandages going down the full length of her forearms were suppose to make her a more effective killing machine.

As they walked Sgt. Alvin was very tender with her, a gentle grasp on her upper arm and helping her stay up right in the elevator. She had a hard time feeling grateful though, considering his bosses just filleted her like a fish. The Colonel was fairly upset to say the least that she wasn’t holding Sabretooth’s mutation. At the first incisions the red wave began. She always had been a heavy bleeder and would have gladly told them that if they’d just asked. But no, they were caught unawares and rushing around to stop the bleeding, yelling all sorts of profanities at each other. Well, at least she was consistent. Rogue- disappointing authority figures since 1984.

So now she was light-headed from blood loss and her arms aflame and itching from the stupid stitches being escorted back to her home away from home by an army boy who evidently had a sweet spot for her. The dumbass.

The elevator dinged as it touched down and Alvy-boy gently pushed her out. The walk to her cell seemed to take forever but the guards didn’t rush her past her shuffling feet. How very sweet of them. The whole small group patiently waited as Theo stepped forward to unlock the door.

Something red caught her eye and see looked down to the ground. A small pond of red juice was puddle up in front of Wolverine’s cell; he really didn’t seem to like beets. Scattered haphazardly around it she noticed carrots and green beans lying like little casualties on the floor, a small steak another few feet away. She just caught sight of the tray caught in the bars of another cell when she was moving again, being pulled forward into her own.

‘Good,’ she thought. ‘Ah hope tha ass starves ta death.’

Her escort nudged her forward and actually accompanied her all the way to the cot. Any other time it would have been perfect, but now she was in no mood for an elaborate and dramatic escape. She just wanted to sleep for a while. Alvin quickly scurried out after she was seated; evidently he didn’t trust her as much as he liked her. The thought actually was able to make her give a weak smile.

Slowly she eased herself down onto the cot. Shoulder first, then roll over onto back, just like the older mutants at the labs taught. Despite her careful movements she still had to clench her eyes shut to ward off the feeling over her brain banging around and spinning in her head. She heard the door groan and clang shut then feet shuffling down the hall. Good, maybe by the time they get around to bringing her food she’d have enough strength to throw it at her neighbor through the bars.

Just as she was being to let the image of the massive man ducking and being pelted by celery lull her into sleep another groan of poorly oiled metal sounded. She really must be out of it. She didn’t even hear them move back down the hall. ‘Alvy –boy’ she thought in horror. Oh God, if he stayed back and thought he was going to get any kind of special alone time he was in for an unfortunate shock. She might have been too tired to open her eyes but her skin was on high-alert from the minute she saw scalpels.

Heavy footsteps moved closer to her, was he stomping or something? He didn’t seem drunk in the elevator— suddenly no more light was filtering in through her eyelids and she swallowed down the lump of nervousness in her throat. What little energy had went into forcing her eyelids open; wanting to make sure her attacker knew he wasn’t fooling anyone.

And there were clear blue eyes.

“Ya---,” She stuttered, her head suddenly hurting more. “Wolverine?”

He nodded, his face solemn as he looked up and down her body. She ignored his traveling glance, still in shock at the large man leaning over her, filling her whole line of sight.

“What tha hell…What are ya…How tha hell did ya get in here?” She huffed in disbelief, though that really wasn’t the question she wanted to ask.

Keys were dropped onto her stomach, the expression on his face never change. She however busted out into laughter, forced, painful laughter but it was all nearly too much to believe.

“Keys,” she coughed mid-laugh. “Please don’t tell me ya had keys this whole time?”

He shook his head, his eyebrows clinching in.

“Well, good. Ah guess ya ready to leave now, ain’t ya?” She asked and he nodded, bits of jet black hair following into his face. Her arm tried to reach up to smooth them away but it never moved. She groaned, muttered a short profanity. “Sugah, ya got worst timing than vocabulary skills,” one tear slid its way slowly down her cheek. “Ahm not goin’ anywhere. Not for a while.”

He frowned and muttered, “Creed heals.”

She sighed, another person disappointed in her and her mutant abilities. “Yes, he does. And he still is, which means ahm not. Aside from half-crazed ramblin’ and keep tryin’ ta get me ta tell ya ya smell like rabbit shit, he’s gone.”

His top lip lifted in a silent snarl.

“Hey, *ah* didn’t say it,” she countered.

He leaned back, she didn’t notice until then he had been sitting in a crouch beside her cot. ‘No wonder the man has thighs the size of log,’ she thought. But he was no longer looking at her, instead staring off into the direction she assumed the wide open door was. Considering leaving her? Probably, he seemed to be thinking awfully hard based on the way his face was all scrunched up.

Well, there was nothing she could do about it really. She supposed she couldn’t blame him, what with talking up cashmere and all other sorts of wonders from the outside world. She would just have to find her own way another time; it wasn’t like she couldn’t---

“Wait!” She gasped as he reached a hand towards her. He seemed upset, or annoyed, it was hard to tell but he dropped his huge hand down onto the edge of the cot. “Mah skin,” she explained. “Ahm….ahm too wiped out to control it.”

He narrowed his eyes again, looking up and down her body. She could tell what he was thinking. The suit from the labs went only from chest to hips, covering the basics. And aside from the bandages now covering her arms she had a lot of very deadly skin on display.

“Blanket,” he said and immediately began reaching for the edges of the thin-green material she was laying on. He soon had her in a tight cocoon and his thick arms sliding underneath her, separating her from the cot.

He, unlike the good sergeant, wasn’t particularly gentle as he lifted her up. Sort of just bounced her more securely into her arms and she couldn’t stop the cry of pain at the jerking. He didn’t so much as flinch.

“Ya think we can make it with ya carryin’ me?” She asked once her nerves settled.

“No,” he grunted and starting walking. His answer confused her, since he was obviously taking her. But then instead of going towards the only way out once they got pasts the cell door he veered back the other direction. Towards his cell.

“Wolverine—“

“Quiet,” he snapped and brought her into the shadows.

She panicked. It would have been a lie to tell herself she wasn’t. She was scared and confused and damn it, she was having a very rough day.

Above her head she heard him sniff, then growl softly. It did sort of smell kind of funny, but---

“Stop,” he commanded and she was even more confused. He had her in his arms and wrapped tightly in an army issued blanket. She wasn’t doing anything. She couldn’t do anything even if she wanted to.

“You’re scared,” he pointed out, just standing there holding her like she weighed nothing. Damn he was strong…

“No, ahm…” ‘Yes!’ “ahm just confused, sugah. What exactly are we doing here?”

“Waiting,” he supplied.

If she could just get him to speak in full sentences, things would go much more smoothly. She was sure of it. “Waiting on what?”

“You.”

“Me?” She asked surprised. He nodded then bounced her in his arms again. She grunted at the pain but understood his explanation that time, waiting for her to heal, to be able to walk her own sorry ass out of here. And okay, he got points for the blanket idea and double for the keys, wherever he managed it get them from but the notion was stupid. Best case scenario it might take her just a couple of days to recover from the amount of blood loss. Somehow she didn’t think the chances of the guards or someone not checking on them for several days was slim to none.

“We can’t wait that long,” she informed him, wishing he would put her down somewhere already. “Mah healin’ time is too slow compared to their paranoia. Hmm.. maybe if—“

He was ignoring her that much she could tell so she just shut up. He was, however, carrying her further into his shadows. It was sort of amazing; she had to admit, to be there. Being in the darkness made her feel…closer to him, she supposed. This seemed like a silly notion considering she was curled against his chest. But it felt like she was a part of his darkness, his shadows, and it wasn’t as scary being inside it then looking in on it and only seeing intense blue eyes.

In fact, her eyes were starting to adjust. She could make up the mangled sink and plumbing, there was a fairly deep hole dug in the floor. “What is..” she squinted, noticing something gleaming in the far corner and a huge lump beside it. Maybe it was his bed. Or.. “Oh mah gawd! Is that a body?!” She partly screamed, partly hiccupped.
Vacant eyes wide open, staring at her. A distinctive blotch on his chest she had a good guess what it was. Wishing she had never seen the gruesome thing she buried her face into Wolverine’s chest to try and make it go away.

“Keys,” he mumbled and she could feel the vibrations on his chest wall.

“Yeah, sugah, ah figured,” she talked into his chest.

Now that she knew what it was that funny smell from earlier made her retch in her throat. It wasn’t that she blamed him for it, killing and death couldn’t mean the same thing to him as it did to her. But the body was just *lying* there, leaning up against a damn food cart.

He growled-no, grumbled, and it was an interesting feeling against her cheek. Then they were moving again, but still she didn’t look but. At this point he could do and take her wherever he wanted, she trusted him. She just didn’t want to see it. A second later he bent, completely surrounding her again for a short time before her butt was on something fairly soft. She risk cracking open her eyes, careful to only look underneath her. A pillow. He eased her back an inch and there was the wall, hard against her back. The sink was beside her, she could tell, but didn’t want to look because she knew what was just past it.

Then his imposing presence was gone and that definitely caught her attention. Her eyes frantically searched for him in the dark. Unfortunately she found him- heaving the body up and recklessly depositing it on top of the cart. Most of the body dangled off the edges.

“Oh Gawd,” she groaned, quickly turning her head away. ‘Concentrate,’ she told herself. Concentrate on getting out and not the corpse…or what that new squeaky noise was. Escape. How was she going to get them out when she was in no condition to do anything?

Wolverine was back, if the sudden increase in the darkness in front of her was any indication. Looking up at him she wondered what he was watching her for, he was studying her face quite thoroughly. She looked away, not really sure what she was looking for but what she found made her smile. The body was gone. This time she actually looked for it, peered behind him. Nowhere.

She smiled up at him. “Thanks.”

He nodded and eased himself to sit on the ground in front of her, moving very graceful in spite of his size. She had an idea, really there only solution, and started to tell him when she stopped short. He was lifting something to his face, the steak.

“Ew!” She squealed, wrinkling up her nose. “That was on tha floor!”

Damn him if he didn’t immediate rip a large chunk out of the piece of meat with his teeth, swallowing it whole. A slight twinkle in his eye as he did it made her laugh.

“Ah hope ya healin’ covers bacterial infections,” she manage to get out through her soft giggling. He smirked at her and through the rest of the steak in, his jaw moving in large circles as he chewed. “Good,” she went on, hoping to feed off his evident good mood. “Can ah barrow some of it?”

His chewing stopped and he swallowed the mass whole.

She touched him. She had to. That was the only way they were going to be able to make any sort of move within his timeline. And evidently when Wolverine made his mind up to do something, it had to be done then. He didn’t seem particularly thrilled by the idea but he didn’t move away from her either when she suggested it. Or kill her for that matter.

When she asked him to lean in he growled. So she said please and promised to be careful. That didn’t seem to mean much to him. Neither did her asking him to trust her. Oddly enough in her exasperation she said something only the lines of Sabretooth not being scared of her touch, was he?

That did it and he was quickly in her face. Originally she was considering a hand to hand touch but with him being so close and her slight regret at obviously wounding his male ego she opted to simply close the distance and kiss him.

It was the second time their lips touched and the two experiences couldn’t be more different, one to give him life and one to take just a little bit of it away. It was hard, she found, trying to actually kiss the man and concentrate, with lip motion and everything in an attempt to give both of them even a minute bit of pleasure, when foreign memories and thoughts were rushing into her like a very grumpy freight train. At first he was very still, and then she could feel him slightly moving his lips against hers before he went completely limp again. That was when she pulled away.

He immediately collapsed against her and in no way was she prepared. She knew he would pass out, of course, but she did not expect it to feel like being hit by a truck. His memories provided the answer to the unnatural weight. They didn’t help her breathe or get him off her.

She managed to push him off to the side. He was wedged awkwardly against the sink but he was unconscious, so it wasn’t like he was going to complain. Besides the increased noise between her ears she was feeling pretty damn good. Wolverine had himself a nice little mutation and his personality didn’t have the unnerving need to take over like Sabretooth’s did. And now there was nothing left to do but sit back and wait for him to wake up, hopefully very soon.

At first she tried counting, one to help keep track of the time and two to give her something to do. She was suddenly feeling very restless and antsy and the itch from her arms seemed to move down her body and was now gnawing at her knuckles. It all had to come from Wolverine since it wasn’t just her energy level that was heightened. She could now smell that the body was still within the cell room; towards Sabretooth’s vacated cell was her best guess.

More counting, more pacing, more sleeping Wolverine. Maybe his healing her wasn’t such a great idea. A couple of hours were up at least, could be longer, her numbers started to get mixed up in her head. She kept telling herself he was going to wake up soon since things began fading to her. At first the itching eased in her knuckles, which she was extremely grateful for. Then she no longer wanted to pace. In fact, her feet were starting to get just a bit tired so she settled down on the floor next to him. A little while later the smell of the body at the far end of the corridor stopped burning the inside of her nose. He had to be waking up soon.

Uncertain minutes kept going on and still no glimpse of baby blues. Lightly she laid a hand on his chest, just to make sure. A strong, even beat played beneath her finger tips. She tried shaking his shoulder with her other hand, his head just rolled to the other side. With a groan she considered slapping him but she had enough of him lingering in her head to quickly decide against that.

‘Relax,’ she silently told herself, ‘he just needs a few more minutes.’ A few more minutes wasn’t going to cost them anything. She just needed to settle down and keep her wits about her, not build up useless paranoia. For goodness sakes, she was experienced at this. She never got out before but she got pretty close a few times, Wolverine would need her clear and level-headed when he woke up and they could start moving.

With a few relaxing breaths she settled against him, the hard body by far the most comfortable thing she’s laid on in a long time. He was warm, nearly hot, against her hand, even through his shirt. Her head had just joined her hand on his chest when the clear chime of the elevator sounded at the end of the hall.

“No,” she whimpered quietly in horror. It was too late, they were here. Her stupid plan wasn’t any better than his stupid plan. Except perhaps he could protect the both of if she was the one out of it and all the guards were no doubt covered in protective gear so she couldn’t do crap. There was no way there they were getting out now. The guards would find them and they were as good as dead. Or worse.

Boots sounded in a death drum to her ears. ‘Fight or flight’ she told herself and tried to push away from the warm man underneath her and get to her feet before they got to them. She didn’t get far. Something clamped down across the whole bottom of her face. She tried to scream but couldn’t get anything out and what felt like a think steel band wrapped around her waist, pulling her tightly against Wolverine’s hard chest.

Shock filtering back down she realized it was his hand and his arm. Wolverine was awake and staring intently at the oncoming soldiers. ‘Thank Gawd,’ she thought. Light, bubbling relief filled her chest. Not that she supposed it did them any good at this point; they were still going to get caught. The only question was how much of a blood bath she could handle.

She found herself patting his thigh before she moved to get up again. Saying good luck, she guessed. But again she didn’t go anywhere except being clenched harder into him. With a vice grip around her middle and his hand covering both her breathing passages her lungs were starting to burn.

‘Okay,’ she thought, ‘He doesn’t want me ta get up.’ Fine, if he had a plan that was great since hers went up in smoke. But he was going to have to let her breathe. She clawed at the massive hand covering her face. He didn’t remove it. He did, however, move his top two fingers that were covering her nose. She immediately inhaled a deep breath.

“Sir!” Someone shouted. Boots moved faster.

“Fucking hell! Call the Colonel. Sound the alarm.” Static. A beep. “Rogue unit on the loose! I repeat rogue unit loose!”

“Where do you want us to start searching, sir?”

“Hell if I know! It’s been five hours, she could be anywhere by now! Check the upper halls, fuck, search a thirty mile radius outside the base. Did someone fucking call the Colonel yet? What are you standing here for? We know she’s not here! Just find her, you nimrods!”

They laid there in the shadows crowded against a busted sink for a little while longer after the soldiers left. Just listening to the alarms blaring and each other’s heavy breathing (her through her nose and him very much through his mouth since his warm breath was ghosting against the side of her neck).

Eventually his hand came off her mouth and she was going to ask him what they were going to do next. Instead she just yelped as she was suddenly pushed and then miraculously standing on her feet. Wolverine came up to his right behind her.

“Ready?” She asked him with what she hoped was a reassuring smile. He nodded and pushed past her. It didn’t seem necessary but he kicked open the unlocked cell door. With such eagerness she was surprised when he merely walked down the long corridor. She wanted to run, you were supposed to run when you somehow find a way to escape hell but he was obviously in no rush. She just prayed he wasn’t having second thoughts. Or maybe he was savoring the moment. Not that the reason why mattered, with a soft sigh of submission she walked right behind him.

“Do ya think they have sensors on tha elevator?” she asked as they got to it. It seemed fairly old, so perhaps not. She looked to him; he just shrugged his huge shoulders and leaned forward to press the call button. It came down slowly. She was praying for it to hurry up already, he was looking down at his boots. Finally it chimed and she tried to enjoy it.

Inside the elevator there was only one button, one to close the doors. She’d never noticed that before but then again no one ever asked her if she wanted to press the buttons. Looking for what she didn’t know, but she watched Wolverine’s face the whole ride up. His eyes didn’t leave his boots.

The steel doors finally slid open again to reveal another set of guard bars locking the elevator from the rest of the base. Theo was there, leaning his back against the bars, a walkie-talkie in a white knuckle grip in his hands.

“No, sir,” he spoke into it as they stepped out of the elevator. “My men haven’t picked up anything on the lowers levels.”

As she crept forward she was for the first time extremely glad to not have any shoes on her feet, even though Wolverine managed to move just as quietly with his lumbering black boots on.

“Uh no, sir. We haven’t found out yet how she got out. Yes. Yes, sir. I know.”

Suddenly Wolverine’s hands were on her hips and pushing her towards the wall. Her hands went on top of his in surprise at his impromptu touch but she managed not to make a sound.

“I understand, Colonel. And we have people outside tracking her. But she couldn’t have gotten far, sir. Someone will spot her. For Christ sakes she’s barely wearing any clothes and has white streaks in her hair.”

Once he had her against the wall Wolverine point one finger at her the pointed down with it. She got the messages fairly clearly. ‘Stay.’

“No, sir. I’m---no, I’m not saying--- Yes, sir. I apologize, sir.”

She didn’t stay. When he moved, she followed. She hoped whatever Theo was getting reamed for was his lacked of keeping up with his military training because it was amazing that he couldn’t basically feel someone the size of Wolverine coming up behind him.

“I’ll join them in a minute. I’m just going to go back down for a little while. I want to see if Wolverine saw something. No, I know. I’ll find someway to get it out of him. Yes, sir. Thank you, sir.”

Metal claws slid out so slow it was even painful for her, but they didn’t make a single sound. Not wanting to witness the act first hand she turned her head to the side and covered her face with her hands and waited.

“I won’t. I’ll make sure he’ll still be good for the hit tonight, sir. What? No. No, sir. I know we’ll find her.”

A scream. “Wo…wo…wo…loo…LOOSE! All armed personal to----“ A wet, slicing noise, a pop, and a loud thud.

She kept her face covered until she heard the familiar groan of a metal cage door. When she risked a look Wolverine was standing just outside of the open doorway, Theo was on the ground, slouched against the bars, his head bent at an odd angle. She came forward timidly, careful to make as wide an arch away from the fallen soldier as she could. She knew she shouldn’t, that she’d regret it, but she looked at his face. Her hand instantly shot out and managed to blindly clutch at Wolverine’s.

Theo’s eyes were wise, staring without blinking at some unspeakable horror off in an unknown distance.

“Oh gawd,” she groaned, more in regret at seeing it herself than him being dead. “Ya should have stayed away from the bars, sugah.” Wolverine dragged her forward by their linked hands, away from the body and closer to freedom.

“Lieutenant? Lt. Theo! What in the hell are you doing? I know she’s loose, you imbecile! Stop playing with that God damn Wolverine and find her!”


They were moving quicker now through the dark corridors, but by no means running. Still hand in hand. She tried to think about how much their lives were in danger, but she couldn’t get out of her head how hot his hand was. It wasn’t sweaty, just hot.

From what she could tell the only thing Wolverine was worried about was the alarms. They seemed to be really bothering him because his face was contorted into a grimace and stayed that way. But they hadn’t run into anyone from the military yet so---Wolverine came to an abrupt stop and so did she when she ran out of length on her arm.

“Ow!” She rubbed her very likely dislocated shoulder with her free hand. “How’s about a little warning next---“

His head snapped around to her, blue eyes glaring at her under thick eyebrows. She opted not to finish her sentence and he went back to staring down the hallway behind them.

She was going to ask him if he heard anything when he jerked her arm out of its socket again, this time pulling her foreword with his command of “Run!”

“Hey! I need backup! All units, all units, sighting on first secondary level. Rogue confirmation . With Wolverine. I repeat with the Wolverine!”



He was trying to kill her. They were trying to kill her and he was trying to kill her. It was very apparent a while ago that she couldn’t run as fast as he could. That didn’t motivate him in the least to slow down or even let go of her hand. Her shoulder was throbbing from being dragged, her lungs were burning from running, her knees were shaking from trying to keep herself upright, and her head was hurting from all the yelling, alarms, and gunfire going off around them. There definitely was something to be said for sitting peacefully in your cell.

Another projectile wheezed passed her ear with a high pitched whistle. Bullet, dart, she hadn’t gotten a good enough look at one to tell, thankfully. The feeling of impending doom and the world crashing around was her clue that this wasn’t working.

“Damn it ta hell,” she swore. “Come on.”


He didn’t stop. She jerked again by her shoulder. “Ah got an idea,” she relented because she was never going to be able to pull him like he did her. His feet were going to have to go with her of their own accord.

“Now!” She yelled. He growled at her but let her pull him around the next corner. All the halls looked the exact same. No posters or maps showing the emergency exists. And did she ever need an emergency exit. She kept running until there was another corner, with no clue where she was leading them she took it.

Just after the turn was a nondescript door. Her mind didn’t register it until after they were past it. Finally clicking she came to an abrupt stop, this time Wolverine going ahead as far as the length of her arm. She winced and swore again under her breath. Being attached to a metal enhanced man was not easy.

“What?” He barked. Even she could hear the footsteps coming.

“Over here,” she tugged on his hand. Thankfully he followed without any more prodding. She stopped in front of the door and glared at it. A pad locked rested comfortably under the handle. She pulled on it once. Nothing. “Cut it off.”

Claws came out, it fell to the ground.

She picked up the fallen pieces of metal as he jerked open the door. They went inside without looking or even caring really where they were walking into. They never got a chance to either because the door shut behind them, pitching them room into darkness. Blind hands reached out in an attempt to feel her way around, find out where the hell they were. Her hand connected with something. Something stringy, wet, and cold. With an ‘eep’ she quickly pulled her hand away, fearing what she might have touched.

Suddenly light bathed over her, an anguished, dingy kind of light. Turning around she found Wolverine, his hand on a long string. She followed the string up with her eyes to one bare light blub hanging down from the ceiling that should have stopped working long ago. One thick black eyebrow hitched up higher than the other at her. With the new light she quickly looked back in front of her. A mop. A supply closet?

“Show off,” she huffed.

Footsteps sounded again and the light was gone as quickly as it came.

A warm hand appeared on the small of her back and pushed her hurriedly foreword. She was just waiting to collide into something in the dark, bracing for the impact. Did didn’t come, instead the pushing stopped then her arms were grabbed. She was spun around and pushed again, shuffling her feet backwards this time. Dizziness was being to dance around her. If the situation wasn’t so dire she would have said that he was screwing with her.

As she was being moved further back she realized they were wedged in between some where. Smoothness under her left hand, probably the wall. Her right hand told her definitely shelving. Her back barely had a chance to tell her about the other wall before the hot hands moved to her shoulders and pushed down.

She whimpered as her legs buckled under her and her butt collided none too softly with the concrete floor. A talk after all this about him learning his own strength was in order. She could feel him moving even closer so she quickly pulled her knees up to her chest, not wanting to risk him stepping on her in the dark. Again she was amazed that Theo didn’t have any notion about what was coming at him.

“Fuck’s sakes! They didn’t just disappear, people. Half you go down this way, the rest of us will take the left corridor. Let’s move, maggots!” It was muffed, by the door or distance she couldn’t tell, but she definitely still heard it.

Panic was beginning to creep up in her throat. She prayed they wouldn’t notice something as trivial as a smallish lock missing from a supply closet door. Because they were sure as hell cornered in here. She tried to will the mass back down to the pit of her stomach, where it belonged. No matter how hard she swallowed the damn thing refused to budge.

Again she couldn’t see but she could feel Wolverine moving. He crouched down in front of her, two huge thighs on either side of her that she had to rest her arms on to keep them from being trapped against her body in the tight space. Between his thighs and his chest that pressed her knees further into her body and her back into the wall she was effectively caged in. She wasn’t springing up anywhere. One burning hand landed itself heavily on her shoulder, thankfully the non-pulsating one, and the other disappeared somewhere behind her. It was probably supporting his body against the wall since he wasn’t absolutely crushing her. With a strong chin settling onto the top of her head the lump finally found its way back down.

The footsteps got louder. They had to be close.

“Woah, guys, wait. Didn’t there use to be a lock on this door?”

‘Ya have GOT ta be shittin’ me,’ she thought. Wolverine’s hand pressed harder into her shoulder, it hurt but not enough that her mind could register pain over fear.

The door opened with a faint squeak, light flooded in. She should have taken the opportunity to look and see where they were, how well they were hidden. Or at least the look on the soldiers faces when they saw them just sitting there. Instead she tucked her head into Wolverine’s chest and clinched her eyes shut.

“What the hell are you doing?”

“What? This door’s supposed to be locked. It wasn’t.”

“What, are you new to the job, man? Do you really think the Wolverine would hide in a fucking janitor’s closet?”

“Shit. No, you’re right. Buddy probably just forgot to put the lock back. He is starting to get over the hill.”

The light went out.

“Which is why we need the find these muties before Wolverine takes is head off just for the hell of it. Come on.”

Door shut. “Oh shit,” she breathed out loud. Wolverine’s head came off of hers as he leaned back again, easing the pressure on her chest.

“They know we’re not outside. That we’re still in tha base,” she pointed out. He grunted.

“Personal gonna get a little thick around here,” she went on, her voice wavering just a bit. He gave no response what so ever.

“Ain’t gonna be able to run willy-nilly through the halls ta tha well marked exit.” She admitted she was egging him on. But she was scared shitless and he was very close. There wasn’t a single tremble in his body.

Her hand slid all the way up his thigh to rest on his hip. With some creaking in her body and a few groans from both her and Wolverine she managed to sit up to her knees, bring her face closer to his. “What we need,” she continued, now that she could sort of make out his features in the dark. She could at least see those blue eyes of his. “Is a distraction.”

His eyes narrowed at her. Well, he really wasn’t going to like this. She leaned closer, resting both hands on his hips. “Ya think ya could track down Sabretooth in here?”

He said he could find him. Having had his abilities for a short period of time she believed him. What she doubted was even if they could locate the ranting terror there was no guarantee they were going to be able to get to him. Or even that he’d be any help what so ever. She tried to recall Sabretooth’s thoughts and feelings, get a feel of how he’d behave if they found him. Nothing. Nothing coherent anyway. All she could pick up from his lingering presence was this sickening constant scream that she quickly forced back into the recesses.

Thank God for Wolverine’s apparent reputation. They might have been right about him being too tough, direct, or proud to hide in a janitor’s closet. But she sure as hell wasn’t. When they emerged from their little hidey-hole there were no uniformed men in sight. Heavy boot steps weren’t sounding in her ears.

“Well?” She looked to her partner, oddly enjoying just standing out in the open in the hall. “Can ya pick him up?”

Cold eyes glared down at her. He wasn’t happy, she surmised.

Her hands went to her hips and she hoped to match his intensity as she glared back. “Ya really gonna tell me that a little bad blood between ya two is more important than gettin’ tha hell out of here?”

He didn’t respond to her, just turned and started walking away. She took after him, hoping he was headed in the general direction of Sabretooth. Or at least an uncrowded exit. They were back to moving at more of a walk than run. But she followed obediently behind, not wanting to push his button any more than necessary.

As they made their way through the maze of the halls they didn’t have a single run in with army base personal. Sure, they heard them running around and yelling at each other but it all seemed to be off in an unintimidating distance. It made her wonder if they didn’t need Sabretooth after all.

Wolverine’s next turn revealed a wide set of stairs, nearly ten feet across. It was well lit, unlike everything else around them. Her stomach didn’t tell her good things. There was bound to be more people up there. He stopped and she figured his stomach must have picked up the bad vibes as well. Then he sniffed the air, which was odd. She knew what he was doing, of course, but he’d never made such an obvious gesture of it before. He must have lost Sabretooth’s trail, she guessed, and was trying to pick it up again. Or, she noted with a sinking gut, a lot of other scents were standing in the way.

His hand reached out and grabbed her wrist. She thought it was a motion to hold hands again, which she wasn’t sure her and her shoulder were all for that. Instead he dragged her to the wall, shoved her against it, and put a silencing finger to his lips. She was going to make a comment on how it wasn’t really necessary to always move her so bodily. A gentle push would do. But a single echoing set of footsteps began moving down the stairway and her reprimand was forgotten.

“Things are different now.” She knew that voice. The charming Sergeant Alvin. “If Wolverine is out too we need a game plan. We can’t just keep *looking* for them.”

Wolverine’s claws on one hand barely started sliding out before she found her hand resting on top of his. He shot her a glare and she just shook her head.

“You stay,” she whispered and playfully jabbed a finger into his rock hard chest. His top lip curled up menacingly but she only shushed him.

“Stay,” she repeated again as she moved away from him. She kept her eyes on him as she moved to gauge his intentions to stay. His eyes followed her as well, the intensity much greater; however, she was more than use to that. And he seemed like his was going to stay. With one last deep breath, having no clue what the hell she was doing, she jogged back to the staircase. She managed to make it up four steps before Alvin’s shocked face greeted hers.

“Rogue?” He asked in disbelief, nearly dropping his walkie-talkie.

“Ah---uh,” she went up another step; he raised his hand in front of him.

“Just stay right there, Rogue.” He snapped, stashing the communicator somewhere behind him. “You’re in a lot of trouble.”

“Ah know,” she answered but didn’t move.

He sighed, “Alright. Just---shit. Where is Wolverine now?”

‘Right behind me, sugah’. “Ah don’t know.”

Brown eyes searched her face and she fought not to smile at him. It would have given them away for sure. Somehow she always seemed guilty when she tried to appear innocent. He took a couple of steps down, closer to her. “What in the hell did you think you were doing?” He asked. “Did you really think you were going to make it out of here?”

“Ah hoped.” She answered honestly, taking a step up towards him. “Ah don’t wanna be here.”

His eyes soften as he made is the rest of the way to her, stopping at the step above her. “I know. Shit, they’ve never brought a woman in, I--” he shook his head. “It doesn’t matter. It’s what you mutants are born for. Stop fighting it, Rogue, and it doesn’t have to be all bad.”

Again his eyes moved up and down her body. She wondered if he could tell her skin was turned on. “Your scars,” he said softly. “All your scars are gone.”

“Sabretooth,” she supplied with a shrug. “And Wolverine."

“Yeah, we guessed.” His face fell slightly. “How else could you’ve been up to running around after the blotched enhancement? Doesn’t sound much like the Wolverine, though.” His hand came forward and she stopped breathing as it settled against the side of her head, his thumb caressing one thick white strip. “He didn’t get them all.”

Her mouth dropped open and he smiled sadly at her. His hand moved to follow the pale path down until he cupped her cheek. The few wispy strands of white were not enough to separate his bare skin from hers. And her skin attacked instantly. She didn’t have to look at wide, painful eyes for long. Human never did hold up against her powers like mutants did. Pulling her face away from the cold, grey skin against her cheek, she gasped as he fell into her. The dead weight knocked her a few inches back, making one of her feet slip off the edge of the step.

She yelped as she fell. Thankfully the fall was short and her hip took most of the blow of the concrete floor at the base of the stairs. Alvin landed awkwardly across her. She turned her head and spotted Wolverine still leaning against the wall, his bulging arms crossed over his chest.

“A little help?” She asked him, wincing at Alvin’s gun jammed into her side.

“No,” he grunted as he pushed away from the wall.

“Hey!” She yelled as he stepped over them. He ignored her as he made his way up the steps.

“Wol—Argh!” She wiggled against Alvin’s weight. By pushing and squirming at the same time she managed to get out from under the fallen solider. “Asshole,” she muttered to the stairs as she got up and off the floor.

Looking down at the body at her feet she signed as she reached down and pressed her fingers to his neck. He was alive, barely, but enough so that her conscience allowed her to run after Wolverine without any extra weight. She caught up with him at the top step. “Ah didn’t kill him,” she said as she fell into step beside him.

He snorted.

There was only one way to go. Just like the stairs it was a wide hall going straight back. Light was all around them making her feel twitchy. It had been a long time since she bathed in that much light and it was like every ounce of grim and oil began sliding on her skin. In the distance ahead of them were two metal double doors. The only way to go besides through them was back down the steps. She was not going back down those steps.

Her bare, cracked feet moved her foreword. Boot steps didn’t follow behind her. She turned around. Wolverine stood stock still aside from his chest moving his deep breaths, blue eyes locked on the doors ahead of them.

“Come on, big guy,” she gently wrapped his hand in hers. His threatening eyes slide away from the distant doors down to her, but he didn’t move his hand away. When she took the first step forward, his feet echoed until they were officially moving down the hall. He lingered a bit behind her, again working the knots tighter in her shoulder but it was her own fault for extending the hand. And at least they were moving.

They both stopped at the doors. Cold, steel, beat all too hell, they were not doors that enticed entrance. Her free hand lifted and laid flat against the metal. It was so cold. Despite its size it relented to her hand and silently moved open.

Her eyes hectically danced around the room. It wasn’t like where they took her. It was…she choked. Images of the same room flashed behind her eyes flooding her with pain. So much pain. The same white walls. The same tank filled with green liquid she could feel going down her throat. She shook her head, trying to force the images away. It was the only time the Wolverine in her head demanded to come forward. Demanded she see. The equipment hanging down from the ceiling, the machines beside the large metal tables, all of it. Which one was for cutting, which for pouring burning liquid-no metal, burning metal into her body. How all of it felt. The pain.

“Stop,” she pleaded, pressing the heels of her hands into her temples. The pain. The pain. The pain. The pain. The pain. “Stop!”

The images relented and she dropped to her knees, exhausted. She took short, quick breaths to try and ease the tension in her chest. Opening her eyes she looked in front of her. The same room, so quiet. She looked up to Wolverine, his eyes were nearly black, staring ahead at the tank or the tables or any of it, she couldn’t tell. Or perhaps the other wide set of double doors on the other side of the room waiting behind all of it.

She looked down to the ground under her hands. It was so clean she spit on it. Just as she was going to push back up to her feet the doors across the room opened. Her eyes went wide. It wasn’t soldiers. It was lab coats.

Before her brain could move her body Wolverine sprang into action beside her. He roared, loud and vibrating, catching all the scientists’ attention. They moved to run back the way they came but Wolverine was already launching himself off one of the tables, raining down on them with claws out.

She turned her head away. The screams got louder. A lot of crashing. Her eyes popped open and her head jerked back around when she heard glass exploding.

Wolverine stood up out of the scattered tank, violently shaking his head, sending droplets flying everywhere. His body was shredded in long jagged cut, diluted blood smeared all over him. She jumped to her feet, not wanting anymore of the green liquid to touch her as it flowed across the floor covering the room. There were soldiers now, firing straight into him, bullets tearing sunto him and out again. It did nothing to slow him down.

She tried to make her way over to him. The green liquid was burning her bare feet and splashed up against her shins. Guards went flying, more came in. She ducked behind one of the heavy machinery, the cutting one, afraid to move any closer and catch the soldiers’ attention. It didn’t look like they were using tranqs and she wasn’t going to heal. More than that she didn’t want to catch Wolverine’s eye either. The way his claws were moving through flesh he wouldn’t know hers over Colonel Sie’s.

Suddenly it seemed no more guards were coming in. There were six of them that she could tell. She grunted at the burning sensation on her feet, it was getting bad enough she considered for a moment crawling on top of the table. Wolverine in her head kept her firmly planted in the green liquid.

She gasped as a body was suddenly deposited beside her. She barely managed to turn her face away before the splash it caused sent the green bile flying all over her. In horror she jumped to her feet. The burn settled into her skin but it was quickly forgotten when she caught sight of Wolverine’s back. Then a head flying.

Two soldier’s decent upon Wolverine at once. A snarling, frightening force she wasn’t worried about him. Until she saw another solider slowly creep up behind him. A large needle like instrument in his hands.

Instinct took a hold of her as she quickly rounded around the table. She grabbed the closest thing to her-- a gun lying submerged in the green liquid. Wolverine threw one of the soldiers off of him. The man collided into a far wall and immediately dropped down. Another swipe, the second solider fell in front of him.

She had to run to catch up as the last soldier raised his sharp weapon up, aiming it in the square of Wolverine’s back. Wolverine quickly turned around just as her arms swung the gun, bringing the butt of it hard onto the back of the soldier’s head. He went flying limply into Wolverine’s chest and the needle dropped with a small splash. Wolverine sneered and growled and pushed the body off of him.

“Oh Gawd,” she stared wide-eyed down at the man. And the huge bloody dent in his head. “Did ya hear tha noise it made when…when…oh Gawd. It was like a pecan crackin’---ah—ah--”

She began hyperventilating, clinching the gun tighter and tighter in her hand. Wolverine’s warm hand settled on her shoulder, he squeezed and turned her around. The doors were right there, all the lab warzone behind her. She nodded, trying to get herself under control. With her remaining strength she willed her stiff fingers to release the gun.

His other big hand, claws still out, closed over hers, forcing her hand to hold the gun. Her deep green eyes looked up at him in terror that had nothing to do with the sharp, gleaming metal.

“Let...let go,” she managed to stutter out, trying to work some command into her voice.

He shook his head and pushed her towards the door with the hand on her shoulder. “You need it,” his gravelly voice ground out. “For Creed.”

She was too tired to argue with him. She never argued with anyone so much in her life and he rarely even spoke in whole sentences. “Fine. Just…just not this one, okay? Please?”

He studied her for a minute. Then nodded and instead of letting her drop it he ripped it out of her hand and threw it down. She whimpered. The burning sensation on her skin began creeping up again. Her feet were bright red underneath the green liquid. Wolverine stomped off away from her, his boots moving effortlessly through the liquid. He ripped another gun away from a body laying face down and marched back over to her. She kept her eyes focused on his wide chest and his red-stained shirt as he slipped the gun strap over her head and across her chest.

“Let’s go,” he barked and pulled her forward by the strap.

She was shocked to see what was on the other side of the doors. It was so nice and clean. A soft grey tile floor stretched across the huge room but gave way to an off-white on the walls. Monitors and computers flashed along one wall, a weird paneling along the wall across from it. A heavy almost thumping noise was coming from somewhere in the room, but it was a quiet, mumbled kind of repetitive sound that she figured must have been coming from one of the pieces of machinery.

All she really cared about was the sink in the little kitchen area to the right with actual soap and hand towels. She moved over to it against Wolverine’s growl of disapproval. The blessed sink was mounted into a counter but it came well up almost to her chest and her shoulder was just too throbbing to lift her body weight.

“Help me up, sugah?” She said over her shoulder. His eyebrows clenched together but he made his way over to her. Smiling up at him she patted the countertop with her hand. He grunted and shot her a long look. And an annoyed look if she was getting any kind of skill in reading him. But large hands closed around her waist and heaved her up, depositing her onto the counter.

“Thanks.” She reached for the cold water tap and jerked it on, sending water flying out and all over the place. “Excuse me,” she muttered as she pushed him back just far enough to be able to swing her legs around and promptly shove her blistered feet under the cold spray. The incessant thumping bothered her less and less as the relief rose starting at her toes and moved up her skin.

After taking just as second to do nothing but wallow in the enjoyment of it she looked back up at Wolverine standing stock still beside her. She frowned. “Hey,” she said instead of reaching out to touch him. He didn’t move, his eyes staring down at her feet under the mini-torrential waterfall. So she reached out and laid a hand on the torn and bloody shirt barely covering his chest. “You okay?”

He snorted again at her, his eyes coming up to hers though. “I heal.”

She smirked at the near mocking tone in his rough voice. “Yeah, ah know. What ah meant was after bein’ in there--- ah mean, ya weren’t exactly—uh--” She huffed and blew out air. “Fuckin’ hell, you okay?”

His mood visibly darkened in front of her. She was thrown off how quickly they went from him almost teasing her to look at her like she’d just offended him. She almost through out an ‘I’m sorry’ but she had no clue what she was suppose to be sorry for and he didn’t seem like he really wanted to hear it. The memories, the pain…she was just worried about him, it must have been hard for him to even step into that room. Maybe she had insult his manhood? Suggested he was emotional weak?

When his accusing eyes pulled away from hers and she looked down to his fists. They were clenched so tight she could see the small gleam of metal just poking from his knuckles. Something of him inside of her rumbled and it hit her like a tidal wave. She quickly reached out and grabbed a hand full of grimy shirt to keep him from getting any farther away.

“Ah didn’t mean--” He snarled at the hand wrapped around in his shirt. “Ah didn’t mean what ya think.” His hand came up and latched tightly around her wrist but she didn’t let go. “Ah know ya ain’t an animal. Ah know. Ah was neva scared of ya.”

His grip stopped gaining pressure on her wrist bone but his glare did not lessen. “Alright. Ah’m lying, ah was scared of ya but justa gettin’ in ya way. Ah wanna know if ya okay mentally.” His chest began rumbling again. “No, no, not like that. Damn it, sugah. Are ya okay as in upset, in pain, sad?” A heavy sigh escaped her. “Ah think maybe ya got it right with tha not talkin’. Ah’m jus’ makin’ things worse, aren’t ah?”

He pulled her hand away and she let him. He reached over her and turned the cold water knob, shutting off the flow. She frowned up at him not because of the water since the burning had pretty much stopped. But because she had somehow managed to kill the best mood she’d seen him in since she unwillingly joined the military.

“The gun.”

His voice snapped her out of internal muttering. “What?”

He grumbled but instead of explaining reached for the stolen weapon lying up against her back. She lifted her arms as he pulled it around her, the leather strap rubbing uncomfortably on her bare shoulder as it moved. Once it was settled in her lap he grabbed her hand and held it on top of it.

“For Creed,” he said.

She nodded. “Ah know. When we find him, ah’ll be sure to shoot him, but what has that got ta---”

“He’s here.”

Her eyes nearly left her skull. “What? Where?” She looked around, which was really actually stupid. Sabretooth was at least twice Wolverine’s size. There was no way she wouldn’t have seen him leaning nonchalantly against one of the walls. But if Wolverine said he was here then the nut-job was here. Somewhere. As in he could pop out of anywhere, without warning…

Wolverine pointed towards the end of the room at the paneling. She instantly knew what that incessant thumping sound was. But it wasn’t thrashing or jerking, and that didn’t match Sabretooth.

“Holding cells,” Wolverine seemed to read her mind and answered in grumbled up words. “Chain you to wall.”

“Oh.” Normally she’d be floored by the novel coming out of his mouth. But instead she only felt grief for Sabretooth. “Is…is he okay, ya think?”

One black eyebrow went up. “He heals,” he said not in a light mocking tone but like he was talking to a complete idiot.

She rolled her eyes. Maybe he was talking to a complete idiot. Conversations with him didn’t go smoothly and it all went wrong on her end. How long ago was it that he snatched her out of her cell? Seemed like they’d been slowly crawling around inside this base for days. Okay, so she wasn’t the biggest idiot here because, sure, it hasn’t been days but they’d still been loose for a while—hour or two. And for that matter hadn’t gotten real far. As far as she could tell they were two floors up. It wasn’t like a few people haven’t seen them.

“So what’s the plan, smarty?” She grinned at him, knowing he had no clue of her internal mumbling but wanted to raise his mood again. “We jus’ gonna go over, let ‘em out, ask him to join tha party?”

He shook his head. “You stay.”

‘Of course’ she huffed to herself.

“If he gets close,” he went on. “You shoot.”

“Isn’t that a bit much, if he---“

“No.” Wolverine stopped her, his eyes darkening. “If he gets close you shoot.”

She raised her hands in defeat. She didn’t want to argue with him or be all that near to Sabretooth anyway. And as he liked to point out- they heal. “Anything ya say, big guy.”

He left her and all but marched down to the far end of the room. His heavy foot fall actually echoed so he must have wanted Sabretooth to hear him coming because up till those ominous steps he’d been moving silently. She just hoped more soldiers out in the base somewhere didn’t hear them as well. When he stopped in front of one of the panels—which must be doors—his claws shot out. She flinched. One set embedded into the door, sending electronic sparks flying everywhere and that time Wolverine flinched before quickly pulling the claws back. He kept the claws out and she was surprised when the door inched open but no large, hairy man jumped out. A dark, slow growl emerged from the crack in the door, however, and she found herself gripping the gun in her lap.

Wolverine slid the tips of his claws into the small opening and with a flip of his wrist pushed it further open. He stepped in. A torrent of animal noises erupted and she found it hard to tell one man from the other- of if there where even any men in there. Clanking, more thumping, and she found herself wincing, just imagining what was going.

Suddenly a very distinctive roar sounded throughout the room and Wolverine came flying out head first. She screamed as he collided into a large monitor across the room, glass shattering and sparks flying. She was so preoccupied watching him trying to get up she didn’t notice Sabretooth until he had a hold of Wolverine’s arm, pulling him to his feet. For half a second she thought that meant that was the end of it. That was before Sabretooth sent a big, arching uppercut into Wolverine’s gut sending him flying up and landing hard onto the title floor.

It occurred to her then that she didn’t know how to shoot a gun. She knew to pull the trigger but the aiming worried her, she didn’t want to waste any shots knowing Sabretooth’s mutation. And heaven help her if she missed and hit Wolverine. But just as she tried to pull up someone’s memories to help Wolverine was on his feet with a animalistic battle cry of his own and metal claws were buried into Sabretooth’s chest. She just about cheered when Wolverine’s other hand came up and backhanded Sabretooth across the face, forcefully removing him off his claws.

Sabretooth was on all fours panting on the ground. Wolverine took the opportunity to put a heavy black boot to Sabretooth’s back sending the bigger man flying into the small wooden table. It absolutely scattered and crumbled under him. He immediately turned around with a snarling roar. Wolverine was standing claws ready breathing heavy but merely smirked at him.

Sabretooth jumped to his feet, taking a hunk of wood with him. A big swing of it knocked Wolverine back into the open panel door. Him and the door bounced but didn’t go down. This was not going well to say the least. By the time they finished killing each other the soldiers would arrive, probably having them surrounded. And all they’d have to do it grab her and scrap those two off the floor.

“Hey!” She yelled. Two head snapped around. She swallowed the nervous thump and reminded herself she had a gun. “Would ya two knock it off already? Let’s at least try an’ make it a little hard for ‘em, how about it, boys?”

Pointy, yellow teeth revealed themselves on Sabretooth’s face as a crooked grin cracked it. Before she could scream he was moving, blond hair flying around him. She managed to get her hands up in a pathetic attempt to protect herself when she saw the red streaks on his long black nails.

She didn’t know she closed her eyes until she had to open them to find out why no pain came. Wolverine and Sabretooth were rolling around on the ground. Claws and hair and barks flying everywhere, Wolverine had very little of his shirt still attached to his body. Despite the carnage of the room and the sharp weapons they were both eagerly using there was no blood anywhere to be seen.

The ongoing battle of the animalistic Titans in front of her was awesome and she’d nearly wet herself the last time she tried to step in. But she had to do something. They had to stop. This was wasting time and didn’t help any of them. Damn it, if only it was not their first instincts to attack but talk.

“Boys!” She yelled again, this time making sure Wolverine had Sabretooth pretty well pinned. “Can we please channel some of that energy towards those guys in green? Ya know the ones that locked y’all up in here, treated ya like less than human, THOSE guys. Please?”

Instead of another bout they seemed to settle. There was some rumbling; some growls coming from the pile of man flesh on the floor but again for the life of her she couldn’t tell what came from whom. She found herself breathing a heavy sigh of relief when Wolverine pushed off the bigger mutant. The claws stayed out but he closely backed away. Sabretooth all but jumped to his feet, although thankfully he didn’t attack either. They just stood there staring at each other; she could only assume continuing their fight with their eyes instead of their claws.

Willingly herself not to be such a coward she pushed off the counter. The sound of her wet bare feet connecting with the tile somehow was so loud in the room. Neither man looked away from the other to her, but she could feel the growing of Sabretooth’s frightening smirk in her gut as she moved forward. As soon as she got close to the duo Wolverine’s hand shot out and snatched a hold of her arm, pulling her flush against him. She gasped at the action and the sudden collision of so much of her skin with his very warm skin. But with the catlike man beast looming over them she was still immensely glad he did it.

“You first,” the big man sneered. His voice was nothing like Wolverine’s. Where Wolverine’s voice was deep and rough, like sand paper lined his throat, Sabretooth’s was just a bit lighter but edged with razors like they could come flying out at her any time. She found herself thinking it did little to add to his terrifying presences, those large, completely black eyes accomplished that.

Wolverine’s grip around her tightened and a distinctive growl came up from deep in his chest. “Just walk, Creed.”

Sabretooth’s eyes settle onto her and a slimy red tongue came out and dragged roughly across his bottom lip. Despite trying to keep her courage she found herself yelping at the sight and moving to get behind Wolverine. Neither man seemed to acknowledge her action. Sabretooth merely turned around and headed towards the doors at the end of the room. She released the breath she had been holding but got no time to enjoy his retreating back before Wolverine was pulling her forward after him.

Through the doors the décor went back to poorly lit dark walls and plain concrete floors. It was another hall way, both going right and left went on as far as she could see. She kept from smiling when both men began sniffing the air and the same time.

Sabretooth spoke first, pointing to the right. “This way. More scents.”

Wolverine nodded and pulled her to the left. It became quickly clear that they were splitting up. Of course, it was what she hoped for and she was glad they were going in the direction of less scents but she was slightly surprised since she didn’t hear them discuss it with each other. They didn’t make three steps before Sabretooth called out to them again with a “Hey, runt!” They both turned to glared at the blond.

Sabretooth’s eyes raked over her again. “Why do you get the female?”

“Ah’m goin’ with him,” she immediately answered leaning further into Wolverine having no problem finding her voice then. There was not going to be any confusion about that. The thought occurred to her that it wasn’t too late to shoot him. The blond grunted then winked at her. She had never been so happy to see anyone’s back as he turned and walked away.

Wolverine pulled at her again and she reluctantly followed, not really happy about Sabretooth at her back until there was more space separating them. But Wolverine’s hold on left little discussion about it so she found herself back to obediently following. She trusted him to protect her from soldiers she could trust him to keep an eye open for the other mutant as well.

For being in the process of a do-or-die escape attempt she was feeling a very disturbing emotion. Countless escape attempts under her belt and nothing ever close to this. She was bored. Bored. Not even the time she tried hiding in the shower room waiting four hours for the guard change back in the labs had she been bored.

All the hallways looked the same. There were some doors. They never opened them. Her partner in crime walked ahead of her. For each new hallway he’d stop. Sniff. Take a left, or a right, or just kept walking straight. There was nothing for her to do; he had it all under control.

Nothing wasn’t quite true. Ever since the new alarm began sounding off over and over again through out the base she’d been contemplating it. It was a crisp, robotic female voice repeating, “Code 37. All personal evacuate.”

Sabretooth must have been causing some serious trouble. She and Wolverine loose together didn’t cause a Code 37, whatever that meant. It probably stood for ‘insane, homicidal mutant running around’. Or maybe it was Sabretooth’s personal alarm code? It could be a more general ‘get your ass out the place is going to hell’ too, she supposed.

At least Sabretooth wasn’t bored. A while ago she tried to spark up a conversation with her traveling companion but it didn’t take. He found answering her with nothing more than grunts and glares was more than acceptable so soon she gave up. But that had been a good six or seven turns and new hallways ago. The only person speaking since was the alarm lady.

“So.” The word popped out of her mouth without her brain’s consent. Wolverine’s head turned slightly towards her, just so she could make out the side of his face. His side burns were long and he had a good bit of dark stubble across his cheek. He must have shaved at least a couple of days ago, though. Her mind began wandering again. Did they give him a shaving kit or do it themselves? No, he had to do it. She couldn’t see the army dulling out muttonchops.

“What?” He snapped, jerking her mind back out of his facial hair.

“What?” She echoed. “Oh. Nothin’. Ah was jus’ wonderin’ how close we were?”

He turned back forward and shrugged. She sighed, that was about the answer she expected to get. He sniffed; they made a right turn-- another long hallway. The alarm lady kept talking. This was ridiculous.

“With ‘em evacuatin’ tha place they’ll probably be a lot of people outside. We’ll have ta be careful with that.” He grunted in response. “Funny, ain’t it? Now that we’re so close to getting’ out its safer in tha base than outta it.”

That got her a quiet growl.

“Ah’m jus’ makin’ a general observation, big guy. She gettin’ on ya nerve too?” She indicated towards the ceiling, though he probably couldn’t see it with his back to her.

But he turned his head again, this time looking straight at her. And nodded.

“Oh ha ha,” she huffed. A ghost of a smirk appeared on his face. They stopped at another hallway that cut across. He sniffed left, then right.

Then left again.

She arched an eyebrow, something she couldn’t ever remember doing before but had certainly seen it enough times. He sniffed right a second time.

“Problem?” She asked, crossing her arms over her chest. He ignored her, which she took as a yes. His face contorted in a fearsome glare at the two different directions. Then he turned right.

At first right looked like all the other rights they’d taken up to that point. And the lefts too for that matter. But the further they got she could make out something up ahead of them.

“Is that a door?” She asked quietly, as if she might scare it away.

He nodded. “Hanger.”

Her head jerked up to look at him. “Hanger?”

“Jet fuel. Oil. Fumes. Hanger,” He elaborated.

‘Exit’ was all she heard. “Awesome,” she grinned and looped her arm through his. He shot her a look so she let go with a laugh.

“Code 37. All personal evacuate’ continued its chant. For this one time she had every intention of following orders. With each step the door moved closer. She could make out the details on it. It was beautiful—heavy metal, a huge hinge on the top, big push bar in the middle. It was a door that screamed the outside was on the other side of it.

Suddenly as they were making their way happily down the hall the alarm stopped. She stopped as well and looked around for the reason why but they were seemingly still alone in the base. She heard a weird groan then, it didn’t sound anything like him but she turned back around towards Wolverine to look. He was bolting towards the door. Her feet were frozen in shock at the sight of the huge man running like a bull was chasing him. In a split second nothing around her was making any sense. Then she saw it.

The opening in the ceiling. The rapidly falling wall of metal bars.

She snapped out of her daze and took off running. Her bare feet pounded against the hard floor. Wolverine began looking so far away; the bars were coming down so quickly. There was no way they were going to make it.

He was close. Despite how hard she ran she was still practically miles away. She kept telling herself he could stop them. If he got there in time he was strong enough to stop them. Then he went down, tumbling over his feet onto the ground and she screamed. The wall of bars was going to crush him, she could just tell it. Her hear stopped in her chest even though her feet kept moving.

She was almost to him.

“Wolverine!” She called out. He didn’t get up. The bars kept falling. She tried to find a fifth gear to shift into but her legs could only move so fast. She gasped when he rolled. The metal bars slammed down onto the concrete floor, sending a thunderous boom all around her. Wolverine was jumping to his feet on the other side.

She didn’t stop. She didn’t slow down. She let her body colliding full force against the bars. They didn’t so much as shake. Tears freely flowed from her eyes as she slipped into hysteria. Sabretooth surged forward in her rapidly weakening mind making the pain meaningless to her as her body pounded against the unrelenting bars again and again.

Harder. If she could just hit them harder she could get through. She screamed out in agony when her tender shoulder hit squarely on one bar. Then she back up just far enough to do it again. All her strength went into each blow. The bars absorbed it nonchalantly and hit her back with it.

Vice grips around her upper arms prevented her from pulling back for another attack. She opened and focused her eyes to see Wolverine’s cold blue eyes boring down into her, his arms reaching through the bars and keeping her pinned against them with his strength. Pressure of his fingers digging into her skin forced Sabretooth away so that she was left with the all consuming pain. The familiar sight of him behind bars only made her cry harder. Except she was the only one on the wrong side.

With a heavy sigh and a choked sob she let her head fall forward and rest against the cool metal. Her hands came up to wrap around the bars to hold on as her world came crashing down all around her.

“Just go,” she mumbled, grinding her forehead against the metal and clenching her eyes shut. “Tha God damn door is right behind ya, sugah.”

His hands tightened painfully around her arms. She looked up at him but left the now warming metal against her cheeks. “What tha hell are ya waitin’ for? Direct orders? GO!”

Warm hands left her arms. Blue eyes gave way to a wide muscular back.

Her body and mind finally gave out at the sound of the door being pushed open. She collapsed onto her knees up against the metal bars by the time it closed.

She felt like a marionette doll. A shallow husk of a person slumped into a tangled mess, no strength to move her own limbs without someone to pull her strings for her. She felt utterly defeated. Everyone in the whole damn base got out but her, everyone but the one person who was actually trying to get out. Karma was bull shit, there was no way she deserved this.

Her next course of action was pretty clear. She was going to sit there. She wasn’t going to budge until she couldn’t feel her butt anymore and she didn’t have any tears left in her head. Eventually the soldiers were bound to come back. They’d walk past and see her then throw her back in her damn cell. She’d just have to lie on the cot and wait till some spark of fight rekindled in her body. She was certainly all out of it now.

This time she wouldn’t have anyone. No funny and crude old women to braid her hair at night and tell her that she made the white streaks work. No younger girls fresh out of puberty to watch with wide eyes as she flipped off the lab personnel. No terrified, yet hopeful faces to look up at her like she was some kind of hero—she just hadn’t saved them yet. No solemn sapphire eyes shinning through the dark to follow her every move. No large, impossibly warm hands that held no gentleness but yet somehow never left a mark. She opened her eyes to find her hand unconsciously rubbing her knee. Well, almost never.

From now on it was just her. Just she and the distant voices in her head that she always kept pushed back. Maybe mow she’d open the flood gate—maybe then she wouldn’t be alone. Because there was no way they were going to put anyone near her ever again. The military wasn’t stupid. And they didn’t have the same over crowded problem the lab did. They had plenty of space to let her rot on her own.

She turned her arm over to finger the numbered tattoo like she always did when she wallowed in self-pity. She frowned down at her arm- it wasn’t there. Trembling fingers ghosted across her skin anyway. She wasn’t sure if she was glad Wolverine took the mark away from her or not. The only symbol she had left of the labs was the platinum stripes in her hair and she went through a hell of lot more than a bad hair job.

She scoffed and shook her head. There was no point pretending to herself that she was doing anything besides trying to find something to be mad at him for. She couldn’t be mad that he left, hell she’d been the one preaching escape to him from the moment they met. She was the one that told him to go. Had they both made it out she knew she would be crying in gratitude that the accursed mark was off of her body.

In hindsight she should have taken the cashmere sweater when Sie offered it. She already killed two people since she’d been there; eventually she was sure she’d get us to it.

“No,” she said out loud. No, she wouldn’t. She would never get use to taking a life. She wasn’t like Sabretooth or Wolverine. She couldn’t just swipe and swing because they deserved it. It made her nauseous. And if Sie wanted her to use her skin on all his targets-- she didn’t know how long it would take but she would definitely go crazy. Not even the carefree, reckless crazy of Sabretooth, the lost in a mountain of voices crazy that would make her no good to anybody. Maybe she should have told Sie that when he propositioned her.

The sound of distant footsteps began approaching. The soldiers were coming back sooner than she though they would. That was good, she supposed, the sooner they found her the sooner she could get to her cot. She was so tired.

“Why the hell do we have to do it, anyway?”

“You seriously asking me this? Because we’re about fifty pounds lighter than most of the guys. Besides, you really want to be out there tangling with the Wolverine?”

She lifted her head up at the name.

“Hell no. But I don’t want to be in here waiting for a mutant she-devil to attack me either.”

“You’re over reacting. We see her, we tranq her, she goes down. Unlike the problem they’re having outside, so be grateful. I still say fifty bucks that we find her body sliced and diced.”

Wolverine didn’t get out, she thought with a heavy frown. No, he was out but he hadn’t escape. She had been right without knowing it. It was more dangerous outside the base than inside it. Now it sounded like Wolverine had a mass pile of large soldiers on top of him. She only had two light weights trolling the halls for her. Exhaustion began easing off the back of her eyes.

“No way. They were cell mates for two weeks then escaped together? There was something going on between them.”

Had it really only been two weeks?

“Ew, dude, spare me. Why’d he come out but not her then, huh? Makes him a piss poor boyfriend according to your theory.”

Her lips curled into a small smile, she bit her bottom lip to keep it from moving any further. Boots moved closer, she never figured it would make her happy. She grabbed the bars above her head and pulled herself up on her feet. There was a little spark of fight in her after all and it was itching to burn a little hotter.

“That’s not what I said, jerk-off. And who knows. Between what happened in the surgery room and Sabretooth getting out too, anything could have happened.”

She moved down the hall running on her tip toes, again glad she didn’t have any shoes. Before she reached the cross sections of the hallway she grabbed the gun slung over her shoulder and ripped it over her head.

“Fifty on girly being gutted, take it or leave it.”

“You’re on.”

She turned it upside, grabbing the muzzle. Just a corner was a piss poor hiding place; she’d have to move fast. At first black toe she moved, swinging the gun hard. It collided into the closest soldier’s gut.

“Ugh, fuck!” He grunted as he doubled over.

The second man yelled and lifted his gun; she pushed his moaning companion into him. The shot went wide as they both stumbled to the ground. She quickly jumped onto the pile, grabbing the top man by his neck and flipping her skin on. He screamed, and then the man under him began screaming.

Everything shifted as she was thrown off. She landed on her side, the unconscious soldier beside her. The remaining soldier was crawling on his knees, trying to reach his discarded gun.

“Nuh uh,” she snapped and moved to her knees as well, grabbing his arm and pulling him back towards her. His other arm came up swinging, the back of his hand meeting the side of her face. She flinched but was able to get an elbow hard into his chest.

“Damn it!” He swore and fully dove at her, pinning her to the cold ground. She tried to get another swing in but he grabbed a hold of her arms with his gloved hands and pushed them to the ground beside her head. “Fucking mutie, that hurt!”

“Duh!” She snapped, struggling against his hold. He tried to switch her wrist into one hand; she bucked up against him during the process, making him drop one of her hands. She immediately pushed it against his face. He passed out in a second, falling limply against her.

“Get tha hell off me!” She huffed and pushed the comatose body off of her.

She smiled as she stood up. It was amazing how quickly she went from completely giving up to once again enjoying the escape. Now she could say she was not bored. She bent down and felt into the pockets of the soldier that pinned her. Her hand touched leather and she pulled out his wallet.

“Here ya go, sugah,” she said to the first soldier she touched and tossed the wallet at him. “Congratulations, ya won tha bet.”

As she turned to walk back the way they came she notice that something else fell out of his pocket in the process. She picked up the small white rectangle off the ground. A security pass card.

She ran down the hall. It had to open something down there. The soldier boys didn’t pop out of nowhere. And they knew about Wolverine. And that he was in trouble. She stopped running. And what exactly was she going to do about? After thinking for a second she turned around and ran back to the fallen soldiers.

“’Cuse me, fellas,” she said as she picked up all the guns scattered around on the floor. “Jus’ gonna borrow these.”

She took off running again, pure adrenaline pumping for the first time in her veins. ‘Hold on, big guy,’ she thought. ‘Give ‘em hell till ah get there.’

It was a little difficult to stay focused. She was running pretty fast now for the first time since the escape, seeing as how Wolverine was no longer with her wanting to take his dear sweet time. He probably wouldn’t appreciate it but she was scared to death for him. And this stupid hallway looked exactly the same as the others, except this one had to have some kind of open exit attached to it. She just needed to try and not run past it in her hurry.

And then she saw it. She guessed there was no point to all her worrying, there was no way she was going to miss that. It was another hallway, little wonder, a green blinking light coming from the far end of it. A much smaller corridor, though. So much so that she wasn’t sure Wolverine’s massive shoulders would even have fit. She moved further in. Another wall of bars firmly blocking the exit. She approached it slowly, now that she was no longer running and her adrenaline began to wan the weight of all the weapons she was toting around was extremely heavy.

Fingertips hesitantly touched one cold bar. She studied the partisan from floor to ceiling, looking for any kind of latch or hinge. It had to open somehow somewhere. With a frown she pulled the security card out from the top of her suit. It tapped repeatedly against the bars as she gnawed on her bottom lip.

“Gotcha,” she smirked. Against the wall on the other side of the bars was a keypad with a slid channel attached to it.

In the thin hall it took her three whole steps to get to the wall. She stuck her arm through and reached toward the keypad. Then she groaned and leaned her head against the rough wall. Her arm wasn’t long enough.

“Son ova--.” She readjusted, trying to get another inch or two. With her whole shoulder through and her chest pushing against the bars she was close. The edge of the white card knocked against the channel of the keypad but no luck in actually getting the thing in. Her foot stomped in frustration. Her whole life she wanted to be several inches taller never more than right that minute.

She narrowed her eyes at the keypad, maybe if she looked threatening enough it would stop running away from her. It would have worked for Wolverine, she was sure of it. Again she reached and tried to get the card in the impossible slot. She quickly withdrew when her frantic inaccuracy just about knocked the damn thing out of her hand.

“Come here,” she commanded. It didn’t respond but she was use to one-sided conversations, as long as it stayed still this time she didn’t really care. A deep, steadying breath and a firm grip on the card she made another attempt. This time she lurched with her entire body, trying to get as much of her through as possible. The card made the distance but her aim was no where near the thin channel.

On her forth attempt she finally managed to get it in the slot. She breathed a sigh of relief as she held it in place with her middle finger. All she had to do now was let it slid down through the channel and not fall out. It was so simple. She hoped.

Carefully she rested her ring finger on the bottom corner of the card and eased the pressure of her middle finger. She let the card move slowly down through the slot, ignoring the metal bar imbedded in her chest and cheek as well as her need to bring in air to her lungs. Each downward millimeter was closely watched. Then something dinged and her whole body flinched in surprise.

“No!” She tried to catch the card as it tumbled but her grasping hand was nowhere close. Her eyes began to slowly drift closed in regret when she felt the hard metal slide against her body. She jumped back quickly, jerking her arm into the safety of her chest as she watch the bar wall slowly move up. Much slower than when the other came down, she noted annoyed.

She moved quick, ducking under the bars as soon as they were high enough. The card was left where it lay as she went straight to the door. It was nothing like the door Wolverine disappeared through. It was smaller, white—well, off white, and had a straight pull down handle instead of the push bar. It also had a small window in it that she had to stand on her tip toes to look out.

A plane. Or a jet probably was the correct term, not that she cared. A ceiling that went forever it seemed. It was either the same hanger Wolverine talked about or maybe a different one, although, as she turned her head to see further to the right it looked pretty large. Her depth perception wasn’t the best but it looked to her that it might keep going as far as she ran.

Her hand moved to rest on the handle when she jumped back, screaming. A face slammed into the small window, wide eyes, gaping mouth. She swallowed as it slid down, skin smearing on the glass. It just meant Wolverine was okay, she tried to tell herself. Don’t think about it as bodies, think about Wolverine being okay. She shook her head, steadying herself. She really didn’t want to go out there.

The door immediately opened for her. The body attached to the face fell forward, nearly onto her feet but she quickly jumped over it. She stopped and let her jaw drop for a minute. The place was huge. It went on as far as she could see in both directions. Planes, trucks, crates, tanks, countless two-ton objects were lying around everywhere, each one of them looking dwarfed. It had been a while since she got to look at the sky but she couldn’t imagine it being any higher than that roof.

Arms grabbing around her middle jerked her out of her amazement. She screamed in surprised but immediately began fighting against the hold. Her feet came off the ground and despite how much she kicked them she wasn’t making any contact with the person behind her.

“Colonel! I’ve got the mutie female!” He screamed into her ear. She winced at the damaged it did to her eardrum but it did give her an idea. She turned her head, her cheek flatten against his.

They both collapsed to the ground as her skin drained him. Quickly she untangled herself from him; it was difficult with her trembling. More soldiers were running towards her. Grabbing the tranquilizer guns she stole from the two lightweights she began firing into the group blinding, preferring to concentrate on running instead. She was sure she maybe might have hit a few of them, but she couldn’t hear anything besides her own blood pressure pounding in her ears to verify.

She ducked behind a truck but didn’t stop running. This was the stupidest idea she ever had. The worst. What the hell was she thinking? She was going to save Wolverine? All she was going to do was get her ass killed unless she had a heart attack first.

“Stop right there.”

She skitted to a stop. The soldier had popped out of nowhere, aiming his gun at her. She couldn’t tell if it fired tranqs or bullets and she really didn’t want to find out.

“Okay,” she said, hating how her voice shook. Either the pounded in her head was getting worse or more soldiers were running up behind her. She risked a quick look then shook her head and swore. She was surrounded.

“All the guns. Now.” The soldier in front of her said, not lowering his firearm. “Toss them over here.”

First the two tranquilizer guns, they couldn’t have had that many more darts left in them anyway. The she pulled the other gun from over her head. She just held it for a minute before she heard several clicks behind her. She didn’t turn to look.

“Don’t even think about it,” a voice behind her said.

She tossed it over to the man in front of her, on top of the other ones. As soon as it landed with a clank she was all but tackled from behind. She grunted as hard bodies knocked into her. Gloved hands grabbed at her, pulling her back and jerking her arms behind her back. They pulled backwards, half dragging and half carrying her. She fought and bucked against them as they moved through the hanger. The grip on her tightened, pulling her arms further back. Her tender shoulder screamed nearly as loud as she did.

The stopped struggling when she saw Sie.

“Firefly.” He greeted but moved no closer to her.

“Bastard,” she answered back though she couldn’t manage to work up a sarcastic smile.

He did not smile either; he even turned away from her. “Shoot her. She’s done nothing but make this whole base go to hell. All I want is Wolverine, is that understood?”

“Yes, sir.”

Before the words had a chance to sink in she was thrown to the ground. She didn’t even notice she landed on her bad shoulder.

She didn’t see him raise the gun but she heard the click of the safety. It wasn’t that she actually though she could get away or was foolish enough to believe that her movements would make him miss. But she sure as hell wasn’t going to just lay there on the ground and make shooting her easy. At the click she rolled over onto her knees so even if she didn’t get away at least she wouldn’t see the bullet coming.

She heard yelling and other jumbled up noises that she was too scared to even try to process but it sounded like a conniption going on behind her. It was impossible to believe the soldiers were thrown off and frantic just by her feeble attempt to escape. But she didn’t have a hole in the back of her head and she wasn’t going to waste that small miracle. She moved to push up to her feet but never made it.

A half developed scream came out of her as a huge, unrelenting band wrapped around her waist and hauled her up off the floor. This time they lifted her whole body completely up in the air, she came down a short second later, her chest bent over something that knocked all her breath out. She had to close her eyes against the dizziness brought on by her world flying and bouncing around her. It didn’t help that she was moving fast, running. Not her, her legs were dangling mid air, bumping against something hot and hard.

Her eyes flew open. “Wolverine!”

He growled as she yelled in his ear and she supposed she should have felt sorry for his sensitive hearing. She wasn’t. All she cared about was that it was his strong shoulder pressing hard under her breasts and his thick arm wrapped like a vice around her waist.

“Ya okay!” She declared through the bouncing. He didn’t answer her and that only made her smile.

The noise around them became faint back ground noise as far as she was concerned. She was too happy that neither one of them was dead yet to worry about silly things like their surroundings. So she barely heard the high pitched whistle before she was being thrown. She landed with a painful bounce behind some stacked crates. Wondering what the hell was going on she sat up but was quickly forced back down by Wolverine’s impossible weight falling on top of her. She couldn’t help but cry out feeling her ribs nearly give out under his frame.

“Get off,” she grunted out a plea.

He immediately rolled off her but took her with him as he pressed his back against a crate. She squirmed a bit, trying to find a comfortable position in his lap but his arm around her pulled her flush against his chest, stopping her moments. She didn’t notice until then how hard he was breathing. Deep breathes that were rocking her back and forth against his chest.

“Ya okay?” This time she asked, carefully sliding her hand down the soft hair on his bare chest. His face was turned away from her, obviously listening to the dangerous world waiting just behind the crates. She, however, was complete focused on him and his blue eyes darting around even though he never moved his head.

“Wolverine…” she prompted.

“Quiet!” He snapped, still with his head turned away.

She immediate closed her mouth. For the first time she noticed that both sets of his claws here out. Had he really had them out this whole time? If that was the case how did he manage not to so much as slice her pinky finger off in all their rolling around? She couldn’t help herself, she slowly reached out and land her hand carefully on his that was pressed to the ground. His head whipped around to her and nearly knocked her in the face but she managed to move her head back. He didn’t move his hand away.

The metal under her palm was at least twice as hot as his skin. “Are ya okay?” She repeated again, watching his eyes very closely. Now that his breathing was starting to slow she could feel the slight tremble in him.


“We can do this,” she whispered as she took his face in her hands. “We’re so close, sugah. Ah know we’re dyin’ a little bit here, but we are close. Ya gotta believe that.”

He didn’t, she could tell by the look in his eyes. “Don’t do this ta me. Don’t give up on me now, Wolv---”

“Wolverine.” They both turned their heads at the sound of Colonel Sie voice floating from somewhere in the war zone beyond the crates.

“Wolverine, I know you have the female,” Sie talked. Wolverine narrowed his eyes but she buried her face in his neck. She really didn’t want to hear whatever garbage was going to spew out of the bastard’s mouth. “Bring me the female, Wolverine, and you will not be punished for any of this.”

She clung to him tighter.

“Bring her to me,” Sie went on. “Mutants are hunted outside of these walls, Wolverine, you know that. You’ve been out there, you’ve seen it. I protect you. With us you are safe. Do not let her ruin the life you have made. She is just using you. Surely you must see that.”

She pushed back just enough to see his face. “Ah’m not,” she quickly tried to assure him. “Ah’m not, ya gotta believe me. Ah mean, Ah need ya help, but ah’m not using you. Not like him!”

Wolverine’s eyes moved to look at her but his head remained still.

“Wolverine!” Sie yelled, making him flinch and look back away. “Wolverine, bring her to me now! You will not disobey after all I have done for you!”

“What has he done,” she snapped, still whispering. “Thrown ya a steak every now and then? Use ya for God damn weapons tests? He’s scared of ya, sugah. He wouldn’t be tryin’ ta bargain with ya otherwise.”

Wolverine wouldn’t look at her again and she swallowed down a fresh lump of fear. They had no guaranteed companionship between them, she wasn’t sure he was completely on her side. But she thought he was. She thought they had worked some kind of forced bond between then two of them. Now that she was looking at his face, how hard he was concentrating on Sie she wasn’t so sure.

She relaxed into him, letting her head fall back onto his sweet glistened shoulder. If he was going to give her up then he was going to give her up. She wasn’t going to fight him too. Didn’t even want to. All that she could do was fully put her trust in him and hope that if he wasn’t convinced of her end of the bond that it would do it for him.

“Split up!” Sie’s next command. She really hoped he wasn’t talking to Wolverine still. “Find them!”

“If we can get ta a truck,” she whispered in Wolverine’s ear. “We might be able ta get outta here. Drive right ova anyone that tries ta stop us.”

She had his attention then and she couldn’t help but smile at him. “Yeah, sugah. We can do this. Think we can manage ta get ta a truck?”

He eased her off his lap and moved to kneel on his knees. He pushed up just high enough to be able to look above the crates. She assumed he was looking for said truck, at least she hoped so. She crawled along the floor to the end of the line of crate and peered around the edge of it. No truck, just soldiers standing around, looking paranoid, firearms at the ready.

“Four soldiers to tha right,” she whispered to him. He looked down at her surprised. Whether he was surprised that there were four soldiers still standing or that there were only four soldiers she couldn’t tell. Hopefully he wasn’t surprised by her trying to help.

“At least ten ahead,” he replied, ducking back down. It was the first time she wasn’t happy to hear him speak. “Probably more.”

“Probably,” she reluctantly agreed as she crawled back over to him. “Any trucks near by?”

He shook his head.

She really took a second to look at him then. He didn’t look so good to say the least. Sweat and blood smearing all over his chest, his skin was a disturbing shade of yellowish-gray and his eyes… She took his chin in her hands and gently pulled his face closer to her. His eyes were cloudy and still constantly shifting.

“Ya not okay,” she stated with certainty, not able to keep the worry out of her voice. He shook his head again and his clawed hand came up and gently wrapped around her wrist, removing her hand away from him.

And then suddenly he was gone. She gawked in surprise. It wasn’t very often that a big man disappeared in front of her eyes without even a puff of smoke. She looked around, finding no trace of him. Then screaming started again, seemingly louder than ever before. She jumped up to her feet.

Wolverine was fighting a group of soldiers, six of them with more running over. He was moving slowly, too slowly. They were getting good hits in and it was all she could do not to scream as several of them risked their fellow servicemen and fired. She kept quiet, though, because the claws were working and doing their thing. Soldiers were dropping in front of him and flying off, crashing into the sides of planes.

She knew she couldn’t waste the time he was buying. He was being a decoy. All the soldiers within ear shot were trying to take him down; she had to go find a truck.

Studying the hanger she finally caught sight of one. It was behind a good size plane and Wolverine and the soldiers, unfortunately, but it looked like it was a hummer. So it could with stand a bit of gun fire, she was thinking. She had to get over there.

Moving out from behind the crates she tried to stay in as much of a crotch as possible as she walked. She didn’t have any military training or even particularly strong thigh muscles as it turned out because she couldn’t keep up like that for long and collapses back down to the floor. She pulled herself along the ground until she was tucked behind a standing tool box. No one noticed her, evidently, but she waited a few seconds to be sure. Really, she just was trying to rest her legs and catch her breath.

Before she could get up something knocked the tool box into her. She grunted then clasped her hands over her mouth to cover her scream when a soldier’s body came tumbled over the top of it and landing right in front of her. She steadied herself and gave a fleeting look over the side of the tool box in Wolverine’s direction. He had a very unusual and disturbing talent at throwing bodies at her. He was also down to one knee and still had three soldiers running at him.

“Shit,” she swore and pushed to her feet. Stepping over the body she broke out into a run, not wanting to waste time with that damn foolish monkey running again. She veered farther to the left than necessarily but she didn’t want to run right past the soldiers and Wolverine. She was just ducking under the plane when she heard his torn roar. Her head jerked around. He was on all fours, two soldiers standing above him, their rifles pointed down directly at his back.

Her feet were moving her before she could think better of it. She got to them in record time and she had her hand flatten against the closet soldier’s face before she could even switch her skin on. But it quickly flared into life and must have sensed her fear because it ripped into the soldier before his partner even knew she was there.

He noticed his friend’s agonized scream though and lifted his rifle to fire. She dropped her hand and moved to back away but the soldier never got a shot out. One set of claws flew upward and embedded themselves in his abdomen. He gagged once then dropped own beside his other colleagues.

Wolverine started to drop as well.

“No!” She jumped to the ground and caught him. Because of his weight, however, she didn’t manage a catch so much as let him fall against her. She was trying to prop him up against her side but he was uncooperative and his skin was even more soaked with sweat so she couldn’t get a firm hold.

“Come on, big guy,” she urged, “Work with me, sugah, tha trucks right ova there!”

He grunted and the claws slid in but his body didn’t move.

“There!”

It was Sie. And she didn’t know she had started crying until she couldn’t see anything past Wolverine’s hair in her face as his head fell forward onto her chest.

“Damn it! What are you all waiting for, him to heal?! Open fire!”

Wolverine’s whole weight fell against her, burying her body beneath his own. At first she thought he had collapsed but then his hand came up and settled on the back of her head, tucking her more firmly under him. She held on tight as the popping sounded all around them. He jerked against her a few times and she let the tears fall even harder knowing he was being hit. And then his hand against her head went limp.

“No,” she mumbled into his chest. He didn’t move. “No.no.no.no.no” On and on she repeated as she gently forced his body off of hers. His eyes were closed and bullets hit him again. He didn’t jerk.

“No!” She screamed this time and used every ounce of her strength to pull them both along the ground. Closer to the truck. She had to get them to the truck. He would heal. She just had to get him up the truck and drive out of this place even if she had to ram through a closed hanger door to do it.

She had to stop dragging them both, though, when all her power was ripped out from under her. She screamed as pain seized up her whole body. Her calf felt like it was burning right off the bone from being struck by white lightening. She looked down, her leg was coated in blood and she could see the tip of the actual bone poking through.

Her whole body shaking did nothing to help her move the metal encased man along the hanger floor but she had to find a way to keep from going in shock, to push it back till later. So she had been shot. It didn’t matter, she had to get them out of there.

But her arm gave out under her and Wolverine mass immediately pinned her to the ground. She whimpered and opened her eyes to find the belly of a plane above them. They were so close. She’d gotten them to the plane. The truck was just behind it. She tried to push both their bodies up but she couldn’t use her shattered leg for leverage anymore. She pushed and pushed but her arm just didn’t have the strength to lift them both anymore if ever and she could do nothing but fall back down and let his body cover her.

She managed to wrap a hand around his arm before everything flashed red and then went black.

Her body registered the softness under her first. It was definitely padding, there was firmness underneath but it wasn’t a cold slab. They put dead bodies on cold slabs, she knew that much. How she wasn’t a dead body, she didn’t know. And as consciousness came a little more to her she wasn’t sure that was a good thing. Immediately pain began flaring up in her leg, preventing her from opening her eyes. She tried to stretch it and wiggle her toes. Nothing moved.

“Shit,” she groaned.

“Well, good morning. Or afternoon as it were.”

She opened her eyes at the greeting. Then screamed and tried to get away from the huge monster leaning over her. She fell off the cot like bed she’d evidently been laying on. Her butt took the brunt of her fall.

“I’m so sorry,” the monster said as he ran around the bed to her. He kneeled down a few feet away from her. Her eyes automatically flicked down to his gloved hands and her fear spike up even more. “Are you alright?”

“Who tha hell are ya?” She quipped, scooting back a little more.

He touched one gloved hand to his chest. “Yes, I’m sorry. I understand this is all very sudden for you. My name is Dr. Hank McCoy. You’re at the Xavier School for Gifted Youngster in New York.”

“New York!” She yelled. She’d been Georgia when the labs captured her. Of course she had no clue where the base was, but…shit, New York.

“Yes, my dear. We raided the military base in Vermont and brought you here for medical attention. You’ve been unconscious for several hours.”

“Vermont!” She interrupted him, aware how wide her mouth must have been hanging open but she couldn’t manage to close it. The pain in her leg began to disseminate as her mind began to freeze and shut down.

His large brown eyes narrowed slightly behind his glasses. “Yes…”

She studied his very large, very fuzzy, very blue face. He was a mutant to say the least that fact calmed her down considerably. There were mutants like him in the labs, but none of them ever in any kind of position of authority. His face shifted from cautious confusion back to open gentleness and she relaxed even further. One huge finger came up and she watched it in amazement as it pushed his glasses further back his nose.

“I know this is a lot, my dear. But I can assure you you’re safe now.”

His hand came forward and her eyes followed it as it rested against her leg. Not quite her leg, she noticed for the first time. There was a huge white cast covering it from toe to knee. The doctor’s voice came back again.

“We heard the commotion in the hanger. When we got there you were suffering from symptoms of shock,” he started to explain. “We were able to stabilize you on the jet and stop your blood loss. Now--”

“Wolverine!” She suddenly realized. Getting off the ground and to her feet wasn’t easy, not with the cast locking up most of her leg. The blue doctor came to her aid and offered her a hand. Between his firm grip and the edge of the bed she managed to get to her feet. Her stomach dropped when she saw the big man himself lying on another bed covered in wires. She turned to the doctor, venom dripping in her voice. “He heals. What tha hell is all that crap?”

“Please, sit back down. You’re going to injury yourself more.”

She ignored the doctor’s pleading. “Ah want ta know why he is still out an’ ah wanna know now! He heals!”

“Yes, I became quite aware of that during the his examination. Fascinating.” The doctor smiled faintly. “But it seems as the ordeal you two must have gone through was quite difficult on his mutation. He is healing slower than normal. I assume this because of the metal poisoning.”

“Metal poisoning?” She gawked suddenly feeling light headed. Her face must have turned white as well because the furry man rushed forward and took a hold of her arms. She let him help her back on to the bed, her gaze never left Wolverine’s immobile figure.

“How can he have metal poisoning?” She asked in disbelief. “He’s had it for a while. It neva seemed ta botha him before.”

“I’m sure it’s just because his mutation is overloaded. Given some time to rest I believe it should restore itself and his body into proper working order. He’s on a steroid and nutrient IV drip now to help with the process.”

She nodded, letting the information wash over her. She assumed all those words meant he was going to be okay.

“Ah, marvelous timing,” she heard the doctor say and she turned her head away from Wolverine towards the sound of his voice. Suddenly there were four new people standing there. She hadn’t heard a door open but they were walking closer to her, all of them smiling except the man in the red shades. She wanted to tell him that you weren’t suppose to wear sunglasses indoors but she kept her mouth shut and hoped Wolverine would wake up soon.

“Rogue,” Shades said and her eyes went wide.

“How tha hell do ya know my name?” She really wanted Wolverine awake now. Things were starting at a blue monster and getting more and more unsettling. Shades glanced over at the doctor for a split second then came back to her. Before he could open his mouth the face of the blond man standing behind him placed in her head. “You! Ah remember you! Ya one of Hartman’s lapdogs from tha labs!”

“I, uh--” The blond stuttered, disappearing further behind Shades.

“You’re right, Rogue,” Shades said. “We’ve been watching the GenNest Company for a while, Bobby was our inside man. We were planning a raid for just after you were transported but then Bobby gave us notice that Hartmen ordered your termination. He’s the one who arrange the sell to the military.”

She narrowed her eyes at the hidden blond. If Shades was attempting to defend him he was failing.

“We thought it would buy us some time,” he went on. “We thought we could get you mid-transport but Hartmen made the move without notice. We weren’t able to find out where until after we raided.”

The story was unbelievable. She looked from his face to the two women standing beside him then back to the furry doctor. He was the only one still smiling at her. “Who are you people?” She found herself asking.

“The X-Men, dear,” one of the women said. She had pure white hair that was shocking against her dark skin but her voice was cool and dignified.

She on the other hand snorted. “Tha X-Men? Ya right. Tha X-Men are jus’ somethin’ a bunch of lab muties made up to get themselves through the night.”

“I’m afraid not,” Shades said and actual smiled. It was a nice smile she had to admit. “Professor Xavier will see you later tonight, fill you in on the whole long story. He’s a little busy right now.”

She looked at all of them again their faces watching her just as closely as she was watching them. “Y’all are really serious, aren’t ya? All this isn’t a joke?”

“Of course not,” the blue doctor came forward. He laid a gloved hand on her shoulder.

“I’m gonna go tell the Prof she’s up,” the other much smaller girl said then practically skipped away. She flinched as she watched her walk through the door.

“Holy crap,” she breathed out. “Y’all are the X-Men!”

The doctor laughed and patted her shoulder.

“Come, Bobby,” the white haired woman said. “Let us get a couple of rooms ready for our new guests.”

The watched the two turn around and leave. It was little wonder why she didn’t hear them come in. The door slid open silently and closed just as quietly behind them. Shades took her attention away as he approached. It was a little unnerving but the doctor was still right beside her and he some how made her feel better.

“So how’s the leg feeling?” Shades asked. He was trying to be friendly, she could tell. And she felt bad for him because it sounded forced and a little painful. He wasn’t a very chit-chatty social man, she could tell. The thought made her look back over to Wolverine. He still hadn’t moved. Lazy, even in freedom, it seemed.

“Hurts like hell,” she answered honestly with a faint smirk to match his forced smile. That made his strung tight muscles relax slightly. But just slightly.

“Ah, yes, your leg,” the doctor started then looked to Shades. She didn’t like the sound of that and found one of her eyebrows arching on its own. “We need to discuss that.”

“Is she alright?” “Am Ah alright?” Her and Shades asked simultaneously.

The doctor took a step back from both of them. “The bullet shattered your tibia but unfortunately did not exit cleanly. I had to go in a remove it surgically. There was quite a big of muscle damage, you see---”

“Woah!” She wanted him to stop talking and stop talking immediately. Only bad things were coming out of his mouth. “Ya tryin’ ta tell me ah ain’t gonna be able to walk?”

“No, my dear,” the blue doctor tried to assure her and patted her shoulder again. It didn’t work; she glared at him with wide eyes. “There is no nerve damage that I could tell that would prevent such a thing as walking. Worst case you might have a slight limp. But we’ll worry about that in six or seven weeks.”

“Ah’m worryin’ about it now, Doc!” She yelled, looking down at her leg and the huge cast covering it.

“It’s going to be alright, Rogue,” Shades said. But he didn’t know. What the hell did he know? She tried to remind herself that beggars can’t be chooser and a few hours ago she thought she was good as dead on the floor of a hanger in a military base. She’d been stabbed and cut and mentally raped and had chemicals pumped in and out of her and her body used as a lab rat for years. Now she was free, by the fabled X-Men no less, and she was going to whine about a little limp? Yes, God damn it, yes she was!

“There is no need to get worked up,” the doctor said. “With appropriate physical therapy it is just as likely there will be no ill effects.”

She watched his eyes for any kind of bull he was trying to sell her. He seemed genuine in his statement and she found herself relaxing again. It must have been his warm and fuzzy teddy bear appearance that had that effect on her. It was a shame he wasn’t in the labs. They could have used someone like him.

“How long do ya think before Wolverine wakes up?” She asked in a quiet voice. His skin looked a lot better than the last time she saw him but see him wrapped up in wires and medical tools broke her heart a little bit.

“Who?” Shades asked. Her and the doctor both ignored him.

“I can not answer that,” Doc said, looking over to him as well. “I have no previous experience with his mutant abilities. The only way I could determine such a thing is by taking periodic blood tests and testing the amount of metal leaking into his bloodstream. And since he is obviously healing, that feels unnecessary.”

She nodded. That made sense; she didn’t want him to get poked by a needle any more than he had to be either. At least that is what she assumed the doctor was trying to say to her.

“Do ya think…” She bit her lips, watching the rise and fall of Wolverine’s chest. “Ah heard that lady say somethin’ about rooms. Do ya think we can move him up ta one of them now? Before he wakes up?”

The two X-Men, she still couldn’t believe it but X-Men, looked at each other. They had a quick, silent discussion amongst themselves. Finally the doctor was the one to speak up. “I’m uncomfortable with that. He should really stay on the IV drip until he awakes and his healing is more active.”

She looked down at the IV pole. It was on wheels. “Ya can take it with him, can’t ya?” The exchanged reluctant looks again and she sighed in frustration. “Listen, guys. He ain’t gonna like wakin’ up down here, ah’m jus’ gonna tell ya that now. He ain’t a big fan of medical facilitates if ya will.”

A third look at each other and she rolled her eyes. Shades elbowed the Doc.

“He’s quite heavy,” the Doc finally reluctantly said.

She glared at them, the both of them. Familiar anger was bubbling up in her chest. “He’s heavy?” She huffed. That was the best excuse he could come up with?

The doctor’s face fell and he looked down, fumbling with the sheet on her bed. “I mean no offence. It’s just that I had to help carry him onto the jet. And I understand it’s the adamantium, but---”

“It’s alright, Hank.” Shades saved him from his mumbling. “Of course we will go ahead and move him. You both have been through a lot. We just want to help. We’ll get Pete, Hank; you’ve done more than enough for today.”

The teddy bear doctor nodded, visibly relaxing. She suddenly regretted that she made him feel bad, especially after how much he’d done for not only her but Wolverine. And he didn’t even know them.

“Thank you, Doc,” she said and took his furry wrist above his glove. “For everythin’. Really.”

He smiled wide, flashing sharp canines that were far more impressive than Wolverine’s slight ones. “You are most welcome, my dear Rogue.”

The bath was amazing. Hot water, lavender soap, shampoo, and God help her conditioner too. She didn’t know how long she laid there submerged in the water with her cast leg sticking up awkwardly but it was a long time. Long enough that even when the water went cold she pulled the plug and jerked the fresh hot water of the shower on and just let it fall down on her. If she closed her eyes she could even pretend it was rain. Her fingers were completely pruned and even that was nice. It wasn’t that she was doing nothing but wasting water and goofing off. It took a while to just get all the dirt and grime off her, then she spent some time silently crying and finally letting the truth that it was all really over settle around her.

The Doc said they were going to try and washed Wolverine down a little bit too while she was in the bath. Storm, the one with the white hair she found out, came into her room some time during her bath and knocked on the bathroom door to tell her that he was all set up in his bed just across the hall. And that there was food waiting for her on her bed.

There weren’t many things that could have dragged her out of the sheer luxury of a bath but the mention of food sure as hell was one of them. That and her thigh was beginning to ache from the weight of the cast. Mainly it was the food.

She used crutches to get around. It took a second to get use to but she’d broken her ankle once when she was twelve so she already had the general swinging motion down. The only thing she was worried about was the unlocked bedroom door and the chance that an X-Man might pop in. She couldn’t hold a towel around her body and use the crutches at the same time. It was physically impossible.

She lucked out, though; no one popped their head in through the unopened door or anything like that. The sweats they left on the bed for her were no cashmere but they were extremely comfortable. She rubbed the long sleeve against her arm a couple of times. It was so nice to be completely covered for a change, her teenage self would have been mortified by that thought but there it was. She hoped they didn’t do anything to her lab suit yet—she wanted to burn it herself.

The food on her plate was an actual meal. The dream just kept going and going it seemed. It even had a brownie on it. It was a huge brownie that threatened to send her into tears again after she just swore at herself and told her mirror image to snap out of it. They stayed at bay behind her eyes but she still ate the brownie first. Just incase she woke up. She felt a little sick after her meal and she guessed she probably shouldn’t have eaten the whole thing. She was probably supposed to ease her stomach back into eating normal, lovely fatty portions slowly. But a little stomach ache was worth it as far as she was concerned.

When she was sure throwing it all up wasn’t a good possibility she began making her way to Wolverine’s room. Her original intent was to sneak over, not sure how she was supposed to act around these X-Men guys yet. The cast made that completely impossible, however. She dropped one of her crutches twice just trying to open her own door.

Somehow she made it. She was exhausted and could feel her face burning along with her leg but she made it across. At this point she was fairly certain she was indestructible anyway. Nothing else explained how she survived this long. No one bothered her as she wobbled her way into his room.

It was smaller than her room, which as she moved her lagging body towards him she was grateful for. He was lying on the bed, on top of the sheets, but in a standard gray X-Men issue sweat suit as well. When she thought about his skin should couldn’t help but think he must be burning hot in it.

The bedside lamp was on, its light diffracting through the bubbling liquid in the tube running down beside him. It was still off putting seeing him like that but his skin looked like it was starting to get a glow to it. His breaths sounded deep and easy, like he was sleep more than he was unconscious from metal poisoning.

The sight of him seemingly comfortable and surrounded by fine carved wood furnishing tugged at her tear-free reserves again.
Up until that point she’d been balling that she had gotten out, that she was finally free. But now it dawned on her that she’d gotten him out too. And he tried so hard to convince her that it was impossible. But here they both were. In a mansion full of mutants no less. She was going to tell him I told you so the minute he woke up.

That thought made her smile and she wobbled over to the side of the bed he wasn’t taking up. She leaned her crutches against the headboard and crawled in, careful of her leg. She made sure not to get too close to him, content to just sit there on the amazingly soft mattress and watch him sleep.

But then he always did have a habit of working against her.

She smiled as confused blue eyes searched the room. Then they finally settled on her. “Hey, sugah.”

He seemed to relax but it was short lived before he closed his eyes and groaned, rolling his head back and forth against his pillow. She quickly moved closer to him and laid a hand on his chest.

“Don’t,” she said softly, keeping a cautious eye on the needle tapped inside the back of his hand. “Ya healin’ factor took one hellova beatin’, ya still need ta rest it up.”

His eyes opened again but only looked at her briefly before moving past her. They clouded with confusion again and she could feel the muscles of his chest cording tighter under her hand.

“We made it,” she assured him, not wanting him to flip out on her. How she was going to explain the X-Men to him she didn’t know. Right now she really didn’t want to. She was tired; she could tell that he was still wiped as well. He just needed to know he was safe. Everything else could wait until later. “We’re out. We’re in a mutant safe house, sorta.”

With a fleeting smirk she leaned down and whispered, “Ah told ya so.”

She didn’t move back as blue eyes danced. “Where?” He finally ground out through his teeth. His voice made her flinch. It was even scratcher than before, how she didn’t know. There was no way the words didn’t hurt.

“New York,” she answered a little awe still in her voice. His chest rumbled but it wasn’t anything resembling a growl. It was a resignation of the fact, she guessed.

Then muscles began flexing all over his body and he clenched his eyes closed, groaning loudly. It took her a second to figure out he was trying to move, trying to lift himself. She swore, adding a little more pressure to his chest. He growled that time, even showed her a tiny bit of teeth but fell still onto the mattress.

“Sorry, big guy,” she said. And meant it. She didn’t really want to push him around just because she could, but she could see a clear urge to run in his eyes despite his obvious weakness. It was hiding behind lost confusion and pain but it was there.

“Jus’…jus’ not tonight, okay?” She asked him. She wasn’t going to get anything from him if he thought she was trying to bully him into anything. It would make him want to fight when what he need was to rest. “Tonight ya jus’ worry about gettin’ sleep and gettin’ strong again. Tomorrow we’ll figure out what we’re gonna do with this new found life of ours. Go on,” she commanded gently, noticing him start to surrender and his eyelids droop. “Go ahead an’ sleep. Ah’ll keep ya safe tonight.”

His eyes slid closed and didn’t open again. She let out a deep sigh and watched him for a few more minutes, partly to insure that he was really asleep and not just trying to trick her and partly because she enjoyed looking at him in peace. And in good lighting no less.

It wasn’t long before she felt exhaustion pulling restlessly against her as well. She settled down on the bed along side him still facing him, careful not to touch him. She wasn’t comfortable in that position, not with her cast, but she wasn’t going to risk waking him or hurting him by tossing and turning. It wasn’t like she was going to find a much more comfortable position and she was sure as tired as she was in a few minutes she wouldn’t notice it anyway.

**

The next time her eyes fluttered open the bedroom was bathed in sunlight. Her hand slowly and lazily came out from under her pillow to reach out to the empty pillow beside her. It wrapped around the dull metal chain that was lying against on top of the pillow and pulled it closer to her face. She already knew what was on it, but her thumb rubbed over the embossed name anyway.

She rolled over on to her back and lifted her forearm arm up to her face. The chain of the dog tag jingled slightly in her hand as her fingers moved to trace the spot where her own identification numbers were suppose to be.

She allowed herself to wallow in bed for a while longer before she forced herself up. She ran into Shades in the hall and he thankfully cleared the way for her to keep any one of the many kids running around from taking a crutch out from under her as he escorted her to Professor’s Xavier’s office. She’d meet the Professor briefly late yesterday, nothing more than saying hi and listen as he gave her the X-Men song and dance. Told her that there were a few younger kids from the labs attending the school now that heard she was there. They wanted to see her when she was up to it.

She wasn’t up to it, not yet. She found him out on a little balcony off his office. He was staring off in the distance looking content and serene. She hoped she could some how manage to look like that one day.

“Rogue,” he greeted with a warm fatherly smile. “Are you feeling much better this morning?”

“Yes, sir,” She nodded, leaning heavily onto her crutches. “Whatca lookin’ at?”

He shook his head but look back forward to the horizon. The horizon, she noted, with bright green grass and trees as far as she could see. And wind blowing her hair around her face. She almost cried again but was able to keep the tears back. She was getting better at controlling them.

“Nothing, my child. Just enjoying the day.”

“Yeah,” she agreed, watching the nothing in particular along with him. Suddenly a heavy feeling settled over her and she found her head turning back around to him. “He left?”

The Professor nodded. “Yes, I’m afraid so. I sensed it about four o’clock this morning.”

The tears were becoming harder and harder to control as she nodded at him. Her grip on the handles of her crutches tightened but they didn’t feel like they might break so she didn’t stop. “He’s not comin’ back, is he?”

“No, I don’t believe so,” He answered softly reaching a hand out to her. His hand was slightly wrinkled but soft as it lay on top of hers. “I can try and locate him if you want, Rogue. You could go find him.”

“No,” she answered immediately, surprising herself. “Ah belong here. Ah can feel it. When ah was in the labs, even in the base, all ah eva wanted was ta be surrounded by people that accepted me an’ help othas. He needs to figure out who he is and who he wants ta be all on his own.”

She loved driving, she really did. She loved the little short bursts of vacations Scott let her and no one else have to do nothing but see a little bit of the world. She dug a small place for herself in the world at the mansion, even managed to find a family. Her full time job now was to raid mutant labs like the ones that held her. It was easier to break people out from the outside, she found.

As impressed as she was that her life somehow found a way to turn out pretty alright she didn’t want it to be completely wrapped up in being a mutant and mutant affairs. She wanted to experience things she never had a chance to experience before. See what was out in the world.

So by no means did she hate the long drives seeing the world required. What she hated was being cooped up inside that damn box of a car for hours on end. Okay, maybe she’d developed a slightly bad case of claustrophobe but so what. Dingy hole in the wall bars in the middle of nowhere wasn’t exactly her idea of a relaxing break either but here she was. The smoke was too thick and the people were too loud but it wasn’t a car and it was the only thing for miles in any direction so it would have to do.

She settled onto the bar just as the crowded roared to life again. There must have been cock fights or dog fights or something in the middle of that crowd to get them going so much. Whatever it was she sure as hell didn’t want to see it. Sick bastards.

“Bourbon, please,” she order when the bartender lifted his chin at her. He smirked, at her manners she supposed. But a not so clean glass of amber was deposited immediately in front of her so she let his facial gestures slide.

It didn’t burn going down. It never did. She never understood how some people couldn’t even take a shot of it. Jubilee told her if she tried tequila she wouldn’t be so smug. It was probably true and that might have something to do with why she never drank tequila. She wasn’t openly searching dangerous thrills in her life anymore; she learned that lesson at sixteen.

She was, however, enjoying how it chased out the cold the damn Canadian winter forced into her bones with its own smooth warmth. The cold never did sit well with her. Three years she lived in New York and every winter she had to burry herself under layers. If it wasn’t for the chance to walk around with her mutation on she’d have insisted the professor move the school to below the Mason Dixon line. But she forgot the tingling feel her mutation left on her skin when it was on for a prolonged period of time and the winter let her enjoy if for a little bit.

She smirked as she started to warm and looked down to the liquor in her hand. Really, the dirty glass only added to the effect. A fever from any infection she caught would warm her up even more.

And then she dropped it.

“That’s right, ladies and gentlemen. The winner takes on returning champion! I give to you: Wolverine! King of the Cage!”

She was off the bar stool and to her feet before the announcers could even break out his bucked tooth smile. The crowd roared again, louder this time. She still couldn’t see anything but people.

Moving through a crowd of totally plastered Canadians was not easy, especially not with her slight limp dictating what steps she could take through the rowdy, constantly moving maze. But she got close enough to see the gleaming metal of the cage. And then black hair swooped up into two points. Her heart sank into her stomach for a few fleeting seconds and then she smiled.

She gave up any attempt to move closer into the crowd. They were getting even more rambunctious as they watched what she could only guess was a great fight. She’d seen Wolverine fight a time or two before and she could understand the excitement. Kind of. At the time she saw it first hand she was too scared shit-less to enjoy the beauty of it and tonight she was too short. Go figure.

There was a heavy thud that she could even hear over the crowd. Then they got louder. She lost sight of Wolverine’s tale-tell hair.

“Ladies and gentlemen!” The announcer’s voice was back. “Still your undisputed King of the Cage! Wolverine!”

Crowd cheered collectively. She tried a polite clamp but the guy shoved up beside her offer his hand up. So with a shrug she high-fived him. Three others around her wanted high-fives after that. One guy completely missed her hand. What she quickly wanted was to get away from them. Thankfully the crowd began clearing out a little bit; off to get more booze was her best guess. With the declaration of the King of the Cage the fights must have been officially over, so it was easier for her to push through the people and get to the cage.

It was definitely him. Ignoring the hair for a minute she knew that wide, muscular back by heart. It was forever imprinted in her memory when it walked away from her through a hanger door. It wasn’t that she moved on and lived her life, not thinking about him. He was mentally a part of her and something even more than that. But never had she purposely set out to find him, not in the three years since he left and she stayed. Still, it would have been a lie to say that a small part of the reason for her travels was to see if he might pop up somewhere. She’d given up on that a while ago, though. And yet here he was.

She smirked and wrapped her fingers through the wire mess of the cage leaning her body against it. “Wolverine!” She called out.

Clear blue eyes set in a fierce glare wiped around to her. One thick black eyebrow cocked up.

“We gotta stop meetin’ like this, sugah,” she said with a smirk as she rattled the wall of the cage a little bit.

He stalked forward, a grim frown on his face, and his big boulder of shoulders swaying as he walked. But then he suddenly pulled to a stop a few feet away from her. Both eyes narrowed at her and she relished in the feel of him taking her all in. It’d been a long time since anyone watched her with so much intensity like he did. She missed the shot to her nervous system it caused.

“Rogue,” he said, his voice laced with uncertainty. His voice. It knocked the knowing smile right off her face. No longer was it hoarse and rough. It was still bass drum deep but now smooth like the bourbon she’d just split all over the floor of the bar.

“Marie,” she corrected him with a shrug, her own voice seemingly taking up his former scratchiness.

He closed the rest of the distance and she was momentarily distracted by the way the light above the cage bounced off the sweat coating his chest. Until the lowered to his knees bringing himself eye level with her and it was all baby blues in her line of vision. She prided herself at somehow managing to stay stock still when he reached two fingers through the mess of the cage and pressed them to the metal tag hanging around her neck.

She smiled at him and gently closed her hand around his fingers. “Need mah help gettin’ outta there, Wolverine?”

He smirked at her. A slow, wolfish smirk that even long ago in the dark she knew he had in him. “No, darlin’, I think I can handle it this time. And it’s Logan now. Usually.”

“Logan,” she tried the name and instantly like how it flowed off her tongue. She smile returned to her face as she released his trapped fingers. “Ah like it.”

The two fingers didn’t return to their owner. Instead they rubbed the edge of her sweater just beside the chain. The caress was mostly through the thick material but his unnaturally hot fingers occasionally got skin and sent her skin flaring even with her mutation off. “Is that cashmere?”

She nodded, biting her lip.

“I like it.”

She couldn’t help it, she busted out laughing. “Ah’ll be at tha bar, big guy. Try not ta take forever.”