”Come on, kid. Time to go.”
“No.”
“For fuck’s sakes… He’s dead. They’re all dead. They’re not going to come back no matter how long you stare at those graves.”
“Fuck you. Leave me alone.”
“Do you think he would have wanted that? To leave you alone out here?”
“What do you know about anything? You weren’t even here! You don’t know me! You didn’t know them!”
“I know jack shit about you, but I did know Xavier. I knew him very well. And he asked me to take care of you if anything happened to him and his team.”
“I haven’t seen you before. I don’t even know your name, and you expect me to believe what you say? That’s rich. I wasn’t born yesterday. For all I know you could be one of those bastards that attacked us.”
“No. You weren’t born yesterday, Marie. You were born eighteen years ago. Two days from now is your birthday. Xavier was planning a big party for you. He even ordered that dress from Milan.”
“What… How…”
“How did I know? Because I knew Chuck. And because he called me and asked me to bring that dress to him. I had some business in Milan. If I hadn’t been two days late, none of this would have happened. Xavier and the others would be still alive, and you’d be planning with whom to dance the last dance of the evening. As it is, you’re fresh out of options, darling. The last dance is mine. You can call me Logan.”
The man standing next to her bowed dramatically and gestured towards beaten up Pontiac that stood at the driveway. Logan. She had heard that name before. Always whispered. Always behind closed doors. Always when something big was happening. Wolverine. Xavier had left her with the Wolverine.
“O… Okay. Let me just grab my bag and we’re good to go,” she whispered, casting one last glance towards the grey marble that marked their graves. Professor Xavier. His staff. All the children that used to live at Xavier’s school. All of them dead.
She reached for the bag that laid on her feet and hurried after Logan who was already striding towards the car as if there wasn’t fast enough way to get out from the cemetery they had been standing on.
“Anyway… I’m just a middleman. Xavier told me to take you to Eric if things went sour at his place,” Logan said, lighting a cigar and starting the car.
“Eric?” She asked.
“You brats probably knew him better by his other name. Magneto.”
“Magneto?”
“Yeah. You know? The old guy who runs the Brotherhood? Wears this freaky helmet? Really crafty with metals?”
“You’re going to take me to Magneto?”
“Yes.”
“Magneto?”
“Xavier never mentioned you being retarded…”
“You can’t take me to Magneto! Let me out! Let me out, I… I can make it on my own better than…” She rattled the door handle, in vain. Door refused to budge. Logan’s eyes narrowed. He steered the car to the curb and killed the engine.
“It’s not a good idea to jump out of a moving vehicle. Here, let me help you with that…” Logan grunted, leaning over her and cranking the door open. She stopped breathing. She could only stare at that bare arm, so dangerously close to her. Then it was gone. Logan was lounging against the driver’s door, taking long drags from his cigar.
“Well, I don’t have the whole fucking day, princess.”
“You… You’re letting me go?” She asked.
“Fuck. You’re a grown woman. You don’t want to go to Magneto? Then don’t.”
“What am I supposed to do, then?” She asked, more from herself than expecting an answer, but Logan provided her one.
“I couldn’t care less, kid. Close the goddamned door, it’s getting cold in here.”
She slammed the door shut. Logan leaned his forehead against the steering wheel, cigar clamped between his fingers.
“The way I see it, you have exactly two options. Get the fuck out of this car, or let me take you to Magneto. Which is it going to be?” He asked.
“I don’t want to go to Magneto. I… I don’t like the company he’s keeping.”
“Then get the fuck out of my car. I have better things to do than to baby-sit Xavier’s little princess,” Logan growled, again reaching over her and pushed the door open for her. She stepped out. Stood there.
“What am I supposed to do now?” She asked, now waiting for an answer.
“I don’t know.”
“You don’t know, or you don’t care?” She asked. Logan snorted.
“Pick one!” She heard him huffing, then the door slammed shut and the car sped away. With her bag resting in the trunk.
The day just kept getting better she noted when first huge wet drop of rain landed on top of her nose. She shoved her hands in to the pockets of her jeans and lowered her head. The coat she was wearing wouldn’t protect her from the rain long. She started to walk down the road. First thing she would do when she got in to the city was to kill all her credit cards. They were in the bag that Logan had basically stolen. As were her phone and her ID as well.
“Fuck!” She kicked hard when a small collection of pebbles got caught on her way. She kicked little too hard, and momentum threw her on her ass to the wet asphalt.
“Fuck!” She screamed. Screamed for the unfairness of it all.
For the past two years of her life she had been living in a school meant for mutant children, under watchful eye of Charles Xavier. He had taken her in after her parents had thrown her out. Then one night had changed it all. The night when the masked men came with their weapons, executed everybody they saw and spray painted the mansion all over with words and phrases filled with hate towards mutants before burning it.
And here she was now, sitting in a growing puddle of rainwater, with nothing to do and nowhere to go.
“Fuck…” She hissed again, sharpest edge of her anger dulling slowly, turning to worry. Out here alone she was regardless of her life-draining mutation quite vulnerable. Just as the worry started to turn fear she could hear car approaching. Fast.
She was still sitting on the ground when mat black Pontiac swerved to her field of vision. Logan. He was coming back. And he seemed to be in awful hurry. He sure seemed to be anxious in getting rid of her bag. For surely he was coming back just to return it.
The car skidded to halt, splashing more water all over her and the door flew open.
“Get in.”
She wasted no time in getting up and getting in. She only barely had the time to yank the door shut when the car launched forward like a rocket, throwing her against the backrest of the seat.
“I’m still not going to Magneto!” She screeched, trying to struggle up.
“Military. The whole fucking city is swarming with them,” Logan said, his eyes flickering between the road and rearview mirror.
“And that’s supposed to worry me because…?” She was honestly puzzled.
“FOH raid at the mansion made the headlines. I guess Stryker came to loot what was left of Xavier’s.”
“Stryker?”
“William F. Stryker. Leader of bioweapons section. Interested especially in mutants.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah. Magneto can take care of his people. We’re getting the hell out of Dodge before shit hits the fan.”
“We? As in you and me?” She asked. Logan threw a sharp glance towards her.
“Don’t see anybody else in this car. I guess it’s just you and me, kid.”
The Wolverine & Rogue Fanfiction Archive
Barely Legal Since 2000
Story Notes:
This is basically AU, though I have borrowed some tidbits from X1.