The air was always sour, no matter how many times they swilled out the concrete floor it always stank the same, death has a taste to it. Greasy almost, like the fat that clogs the pan in his now defunct trailer, he still thinks about the trap, how they got him, how easy he made it for them to find him. He regrets nothing though, what’s the point it won’t change anything.

The door moves open and something is thrown inside his cell with him, something that was once human, but now like him looks like five miles of bad road.
He watches for any movement but nothing comes from the heap but the smell of death and defeat, there’s no threat to him right now so he takes advantage and sleeps some more.

DAY ONE
“Wake up kiddies!” The hose hits the lump first, pushing it to the back of the small cell, the sound of coughing and lungs trying to breathe through the pressurised hose water as it covers the lump of flesh, shifting arms and legs with it’s bruising force. It’s a woman, semi-naked, beaten half to death but a woman none the less, he tries to think of better scenarios but all his mind can think about as the hose hits is the last time he was up in the bright room. Something about ‘breeding’ they said or something like it, well if this was all they had for him he’d not be touching her.

The hose left her against the wall, chest heaving, the bruises on her skin showing where the clubs and nightsticks had left their mark. Her stomach was a greenish brown mess of tissue, her cheek bone and orbit on the left hand side smashed, must hurt like hell for a human. When the hose hit him he caught the eyes as they opened for the first time, they were green. Like hers.

Everything else was lost to the power of the hose; he let the water take away all the thoughts of that place, of that piece of his life. He wasn’t there anymore, he hadn’t been needed, they’d told him that, made sure he understood that she didn’t need him or his world. So he’d wandered instead and ended up here, locked in a concrete box with a woman who wasn’t even right enough to be called ‘female’.

After their wash the food was thrown in, it hit the floor with a slap; the hard tack bread soaked up the water, made it edible. She didn’t move at all, just watched as he took the whole thing and ate it in front of her. Her green eyed gaze never leaving the door, after a few hours of listening and watching she fell asleep, her skin goosing in the cold but for him it was an added amusement to have someone to sense.

DAY TWO
He didn’t sleep that night just in case she moved, when the morning sounds came she didn’t wake up, even when the door opened and food was dropped in again she didn’t wake up. Only after he’d eaten it all did she finally wake up.
“Have they gone?”
The words rang around the chamber even though they were whispered it had been the first words he’d heard from anyone in here who wasn’t a guard or a tech.
He just nodded to her, licking the remains of the bread off his fingers, making sure she saw that the food was all gone, again.

It didn’t phase her, all she did do was shuffle into the corner where the hole was for the latrine and support herself slowly against the walls, her hand trying to move her dirty trousers out of the way of her urine. The scent of it hit him, blood was in it, he could smell that, as well as protein, she was sick but her body was still trying to cope. She even managed to shit a little too, wiping herself with a small piece of her cloth trousers and dropping it down the hole. He’d given up on clothing the first week he’d been in here, there’d been no point to it as far as he was concerned. He’d cope with cold, hell he had done for five years before he’d known what ‘clothing’ was.
He watched as she swished her fingers in a small pool of water, trying to clean her skin. She shuffled over to the far wall and braced herself against it as if expecting him to rush at her. She could see he was naked but it didn’t phase her, all he sense from her was resignation.

When they got fed again, he threw her a piece, not half but enough to keep her alive. Whatever they had in mind for them both he didn’t know but one thing he knew she wasn’t going to do him any favours.

This time he slept well, she didn’t sleep at all, when he woke he could smell the salt in the air but he hadn’t heard her crying. Whatever she’d been through already had solved her of making sound.
DAY THREE
The door opened to reveal the tech’s, they kept him at bay with a machine gun and gave her a shot in the arm. She tried to bite one of them as they held her and she got a punch in the head for it, there were no countermands for the punishment. Whoever she was she didn’t matter as much as he did. When the technicians left a face that was familiar came into the doorway, his voice ice cold as it wound around the room.
“She’s had her injection?” The tech nodded and the whole group left, he kept his eye on the trigger finger of the guard on him, the guy wasn’t stupid, he had it half depressed already, one move and he’d be in a world of hurt.
“Good, double the ration, make sure she eats.”

Then they were gone, she was down on the concrete floor, hands slapping the surface as if she could break through it, salt spiked the air again as she cried silently to herself. He wasn’t even in the room with her, whatever she was doing it had nothing to do with him.

Food came with guards this time, they threw him his ration and forced her to eat, gun to her temple, finger on the trigger as she chewed the softened bread. When she’d finished they slapped a gag on her, she could talk but she couldn’t get her fingers in her mouth to vomit the food out. They left soon after, his own guard shooting a bullet just past his temple for a reminder. His eyes locked onto her own, wondering just what they had her in here for, why she was here and why she’d been put in with him.

He waited until the darkness and quiet filled the entire place, it was the only time he even thought about talking, because it was the only time no one was around to hear to him. If someone heard him they’d use what they heard against him. He knew she wasn’t asleep, her body’s shuddering told him that.
“Why are you here?” The tone was cold, harsh to his ears and he meant it to be, he wanted her out of his territory, wanted to be alone again. Others only meant pain.

Even in the dark he could see her movement, she faced him the gag on her mouth keeping her fingers out but her voice had no restriction.
“Because I said no to the wrong person, because I stood up for someone I believed in, because I’m ‘human’.”

The words rested in the dark, gallow birds that filled his mind with images of others who fought the good fight outside the prison he was in, those who didn’t give in and paid the cost.
“Where are you from?”

The silence took a while to empty and the scent of sorrow filled the cold dank air adding an extra spice to the already pungent mix. “A long way away, over the sea, into the hills of somewhere I called home. No one knows where I am, or who I am anymore, I’m just a thing, a number, an animal.”
The silence suddenly grew thick and a spark of hate flooded the cell, “That’s what they want me to believe, but inside….inside I’m still me. Still hoping for a miracle, still hoping for a death that’ll mean something, instead of marking time on the slim end of the wedge.”

He waited for her to say something else, waited for nearly an hour when she finally spoke again just before the light of dawn filled the grey of their cell. “They want you to kill me, I know they do, they think your right for it, that you’ve got nothing left, that no one cares about you anymore, that you’re utterly alone. Thing is you’re not alone anymore are you?”

Her eyes locked onto his own and for a moment he saw her as she had been, the fire in her face, suddenly filling her features, she’d been beautiful once. Filled with joy and life, her green eyes had been the windows to her heart, the scars on her skin faded and he saw her how she had been. He tore his gaze away first, he didn’t want to see her, didn’t want to hope. They didn’t know where she was, or who she was, so why could he hope that someone knew where he was? Turning away from her he tried to get some sleep before the food came round again.

DAY FOUR
“Get up!”
The sound of boots woke him from his slumber, three guards were in the cell, two had their guns on him, one was pulling her up from her rest. A gun was forced to her skull and she was marched out of the cell, one of the guards on him dropped his bread and a clear pack of juice.
“Reward day Wolverine, you didn’t kill her. That means we get to play with her now, doctors orders.” The smile on the guards face as he pulled the trigger on the weapon that had been resting against his gut, the bullet sang through him, the pain blossoming as his body strove to heal the damage wrought. It gave them enough time to get out before he could kill them.
On the floor of the cell the bread had been pre-swelled, it smelled of meat, he ate it all while outside he listened to her screaming. Trying to keep the sounds out of his head while inside his mind he was gutting the guards who’d kept him still.

She was brought back in the afternoon.

Head bowed, hands locked behind her back, zip strapped together, a fresh set of bruising on her shins and feet, her hair shaved in places, blood, semen, shit covering her trousers, bite marks on her breasts showing the treatment she’d received. Dumping her in a corner next to the latrine they held him at bay while they hosed her down, laughing as she tried to breathe through the water. When she’d been ‘cleaned’ enough, they threw her food into the water, two pieces of hard tack, already mouldy and grey.
Laughing they locked the door behind them, no thought given to them any longer, when the door shut they no longer existed.

The hard tack was still there when the door opened later, ‘he’ was there, the leader of this fun factory. He took a look at his little experiment and smiled, nodding to the technicians as they came and prodded him, taking blood samples and skin.
“Move them to the next phase, make sure he’s receiving the right dosage for his weight, we don’t want any accidents do we?”

She surprised all of them by speaking, her voice sounding clear and alive in the cell, filling his ears with its strength.
“If you’re going to kill me, why don’t you just do it? I mean you have enough guns, enough men. Why put him through this, why make him do it, why can’t you just pull the fucking trigger yourself?”

He didn’t answer her, just smiled to himself and pulled away from the cell, listening to the technicians as they whispered numbers and details to him. The guards were the last to leave, their guns losing power in her words, now he knew they’d never kill them that way. All that would do was inconvenience them.

When their footsteps had faded she turned her cut face to his own, her eyes dancing with madness, her voice whispering into the darkness that was filling the cell as night took hold. Her breath heaving as if this were her last chance at confession.
“Listen to me, listen…whoever you are they’re trying to make you kill me. I know they are but they don’t want you to just snap my neck, oh no they want you to enjoy doing it. They want you to think you’re not enough of a human not to, that you deserve this, they do. I heard them, while they were using me I heard them, concentrated on something else, not what they were doing to me but what they wanted you ‘for’. They want you unfeeling, uncaring, a machine, to use as and when they want, a tamed mutant, a tamed dog to use like an assassin. But you’re not, you’re not….”

He watched as she shifted around on her back, her body sending out signals of pain as she moved, trying to get herself to look at him face on. He waited for her, sat still watching as she struggled.
“If you’d wanted to, you’d have killed me the first night I was in here, I know I’ve been in other prisons like this. Too many days being handed round, being ‘used’.” The anger in her voice spiked for a moment but she forced it back down, “It comes down to this….are you what they think you are, or are you still yourself? Me I’m done fighting, I’ve had enough of this ride,” salt filled the now stygian darkness. “You’d be doing me a favour…but do it because you care about me not because they want you to. Because I care about you.”

Silence filled the space with the last words from her mouth, as if everything she’d had left had been given in those last few words, she began to whisper telling him about her life, where she’d been, how many cells like this one she’d been in. How many people she’d helped, taking blows for others, hiding children, selling herself when nothing else would do. Finally she finished her story with her beginning, telling him about a man, a man with mottled skin and blue eyes. Her love, the one they took away from her, made her act, made her fight, brought her here.

She must have thought he was asleep because she kept this part for the silence of three in the morning, when everything is asleep but the dead.
“Please…whatever happens let it be quick. I can’t do this anymore…I cared and I loved them but it didn’t save them, please god, whoever’s listening, please don’t let them kill him.”

He turned over silently facing the wall and let the words sink into his mind, filling the gap where his heart used to be with the images he’d pushed away, fought against and cut off. Feeling the pain of the separation at last, his own salt cleaning his skin as his mind opened up, sending out a call he’d denied sending before. A lifeline, a call for help in the cold of the dark.

DAY FIVE
They were left alone.

Food was delivered through the hatch but neither of them ate it. She kept her eyes on the ceiling as she pissed herself, he only moved to use the latrine hole.

Several faces came and looked into the cell, they didn’t leave happy.

All the while he called out for help, filling the silent air with his cries for freedom.


DAY SIX
“You’ve been a bad little Wolverine haven’t you?” The guards came in with shockers this time, no guns, just pain that echoed through his body, she wasn’t aware of them until his cries brought her out of her stupor.

She moved, got herself up on her knees and put her body between the shockers and his, each touch burned her skin, left a welt that wouldn’t heal, she tried to cover him with her body but they dragged her off and one guard made her suffer for it. Pissing on her then shocking her until she bent like a bow, he saw it all, through his pain he saw it all.

When they left they forced bread into his mouth along with something that tasted wrong, they held his head until he swallowed, he heard her whisper through broken lips.
“I’m sorry…I tried…oh god I’m so sorry.”

He wanted to kill.

He’d never felt so angry, never so wound as he did right now. His mind whirled and he looked for a target, seeing her laying there, back burned to a crisp, he’d be doing her a favour wouldn’t he? Wouldn’t he?
His blades fired and he could taste her death in the air when he turned her over, her eyes mere slits now, the bruising on her face puffing them nearly closed.
“Please, because you care for me…not because you can.”

He needed to feel her blood on his hands, he wanted to so badly, it was so easy.
“Please…because I love you, no matter what they do to you I still love you, as you are, as who you are right now.”
A face appeared to him, green-eyed and malen streaked hair, round faced and peach skin, Marie. Marie was under his hands right now, would he kill her? Could he kill her?

Screaming he plunged away from her sinking his fists over and over into the concrete wall above her head, killing the guards, the tech’s, everyone but her. Finally when the blood lust was over he looked down, her eyes were wide open, her lips holding a smile as best they could. But she was gone, her body gave up where her mind had told her she’d succeeded. Broken at last Logan sat with her cooling corpse, rocking back and forth with it, trying to tell himself it wasn’t Marie but it was someone else. Someone who hadn’t known him but had loved him just the same.

DAY SEVEN
He was still holding her when the door blew open, seeing the way clear he’d just run through it, carrying her broken corpse with him. Not even Colossus could separate him from her, all throughout the journey back he’d rocked with her back and forth, back and forth as if he could make her well again.

It was in med bay when Xavier went to him, followed by Marie that he finally dropped the body. Covered in blood and dirt she took him away to get clean, leading him by the hand to the showers, his words ringing in her ears.
“She told me she loved me…no matter what I did to her, she told me she loved me.”

Marie helped him to get under the shower, dressed head to toe she washed him down her own words filling the void he’d had in his heart.
“We both do sugar, we both do.”


Epilogue
It took nearly a year to find her home, the city she lived in, the people she’d known, but Xavier had done it, together they carried the ashes to the address they had for her family. Knocking on the door Marie held Logan’s hand tightly as a figure came to the door.
“Yes can I help you?” A slight woman with red hair looked out at the pair of them and the box they held in their hands.
Marie spoke first.
“You had a daughter?” The face softened and the door swung wide, a child was playing in the hallway, green-eyed and mottle-skinned, she looked just like her mother had and Logans hand tightened on Marie’s.
“Come in, you don’t want to be speaking on the doorstep.”

A final weight lifted from Logan’s heart, he knew now who she’d been doing it for and why, why she’d given everything for love, because out there she’d had someone to show an example to. She’d suffered, been destroyed physically but inside she’d stayed strong right to the end and that would be the tale he’d tell her family. One of which they could be proud.