She had expected to find the ruins of the mansion. They were there, alright, surrounded with tents and olive green barracks. She drove past the firmly locked gates, trying her best to appear harmless to the soldiers that stood at the gate, guarding it.
She kept driving until she couldn’t be seen from the gate, then parked to the curb.
It was obvious that something was going on. But would Logan have tried to enter in to the camp Stryker had built? She closed her eyes and let out a frustrated sigh. For some reason she was unable to imagine Logan doing anything else than breaking in. He wasn’t the type to back out from problems.
“And where you go, I must follow. Fuck…” She whispered under hear breath, reaching for the little, girly gun she had kept hidden in the glove compartment, hoping against hope that she had the courage to use it if the need arose.
Getting in was far less problematic than she had expected. Mansion lay in ruins, but the thick brick wall surrounding the gardens was up. She snuck around it until she came to the spot she had used with Jubilee and Kitty numerous times before, partially crumbled section of the wall. She had often snuck over it with her friends after curfew, to go in to city, then returning at wee hours of dawn, giggling madly, trying to sneak in as soundlessly as possible, because Scott, the eternal king of surveillance would catch them red handed if… Except now it wouldn’t be Scott. Instead of Scott Stryker would catch her. Instead of house arrest she would probably get shot or worse for trespassing.
For her surprise there were people scurrying around amidst the tents and barracks, dressed as civilians. Instead of skulking around she joined to them, trying her best to look and act like she belonged. Nobody paid attention to her. And soon she found out the reason for it.
Area she was in seemed to be solely reserved for public audience. In front of her stood genuinely huge tent, door flap wide open. If there hadn’t been two men guarding it, clutching automatic rifles in their hands, one could have mistaken it rather failed attempt of a circus tent.
People were coming and going, in and out of the tent. She could hear their hushed conversations. They were all talking about the big match. The one big rumble. The last one. Everybody seemed keen to make profit out of it, squabbling over the most lucrative candidates for the biggest bets.
Arena. Running on pure luck she had stumbled upon the very thing she had been looking for.
Rest of the day she spent scouting around the area civilians were admitted to. There wasn’t much to see, but what she saw made her nauseous. Everywhere she went she could hear speculations of the outcome of the fights, people betting over which mutant would last longest.
She stopped briefly outside of an interesting looking tent. It was heavily guarded, and no civilians were let in. She could see several uniformed men inside. She could hear them talking.
“After this is over, we’ll be moving to the second phase,” man with no insignias on his uniform said, rifling through scattered papers in front of him.
“Thank God. This was getting ridiculous. We could have done this the traditional way, you know…” One of the men surrounding him said, receiving a sharp glance from the older man.
“This is the most traditional way, Hawkins. And after tonight there will be no mistaking of which one of those animals is better suited to our needs.”
“But William, did we really need all this extra attention?”
“We need the money. Now, if you excuse me… I have few mutants to meet. I trust they have been taken care of?”
“Sabretooth is ready. Wolverine… Last time I checked he was still in the infirmary.”
“Hmph…”
“Wouldn’t it be best to postpone the fight?”
“There’s no room for delays. I expect to see Wolverine in the ring within four hours.”
“But…”
“I don’t care what it takes! I want both of those animals up and running in four hours! Is that understood?”
She hurried away when it started to look like the guards were getting interested.
Logan was somewhere here. As was Sabretooth as well. She had no interest at all to find him. But she was more than interested in finding the infirmary. Maybe if she could get to Logan she could get him out of here before the match. She had no illusions of what would happen after it. As Stryker had said, after it the military would know which of them was better suited for their needs. Winner of the fight wouldn’t go free. And the loser… There wouldn’t even be a loser. Only a dead mutant.
Just as she was about to give up she stumbled upon something interesting. A small barrack, simply labeled as “Personnel”. There were no windows, and the barrack itself looked no bigger than an average train cart. Most importantly, it appeared to be unlocked. There was a huge padlock hanging from the side of the door, but it was open. What ever was in there wasn’t deemed worthy or hazardous enough to be locked up.
She crept slowly closer, making sure that nobody was watching. Pushed open the door and slid in to the darkness behind it. She could hear somebody breathing somewhere close by. She fumbled around for a light switch and found it, flicking it on.
“Logan!”
“Took you long enough…” Logan grunted, struggling to sit up. She hurried to the side of his bed, helping him.
“And now… Please… Please tell me that you had the sense to bring the old bucket-head with you…” Logan hissed, throwing off the blanket, revealing his battered and bandaged body.
“B-bucket-head?” She stuttered puzzled. Logan froze and just stared at her for a moment.
“Magneto! Where is he? …You came here alone?”
“Yes…”
“Are you fucking nuts? You can’t just walk in here like… Oh, jeesh, kid… You have to get the hell out of here before they catch you!”
“But… But I came to take you out of here…”
“Fuck, fuck, oh, fucking shit….” Logan grimaced and swung his legs over the edge of the bed, small beads of sweat gathering on to his forehead. He probably would have fallen face first on to the floor if she hadn’t stepped forward and steadied him.
“Come on, your clothes are over there. Get dressed. We’re leaving,” she said, mustering every bit of authority she could find in to her voice, turning towards the door.
“Just get dressed. I’ll go and keep watch…”
Logan’s hand landed on her shoulder and he turned her gently around.
“Unless you brought Magneto I’m not going anywhere,” he said.
“I know you’re in a bad shape, but I left the car close. It’s just around the corner, and I already have a good route planned, we can get there…”
“Unless you’re planning to carry me we won’t be getting anywhere. There’s something wrong… Doctors in here think it’s something to do with my spine. I can’t walk.”
“What do you mean? Can’t walk?” She asked stupefied.
“My left leg is paralyzed. Rest of this shit…” Logan gestured towards the bandages that covered him practically from head to toe.
“Rest of this shit is just a hindrance. But do you have any idea how much one dead leg weighs?”
“But it’s just your left leg, right? Not both of them. I’m sure we can figure out…”
“As long as I stay in here and keep nice and quiet they don’t bother to chain me down. If I try to escape, they’ll lock me up and there will be so many guards surrounding me that it would take a fucking divine intervention to pull me out from under that fucking heap. We need Magneto. He can arrange a diversion.”
“And why would he bother to help us?” She asked.
“He isn’t going to come and help us. He’s going to come in and tear this place apart. He isn’t that fond of humans who like to torture muties.”
“I don’t know… I don’t even know how to find him!”
“I have his number. Just call him.”
“What?”
“Xavier was not my only employer. And we really don’t have any more time to waste.”
“But… Why hasn’t Magneto attacked already? He must know about this place…”
“He needs intel. Map, headcount of the personnel, anything and everything you can tell him. Get the hell out of here and call him!”
It was the hardest decision of her life to leave Logan behind. She knew there really weren’t any other options, for that Logan was right. But she also knew something that Logan didn’t. No matter how fast she could contact Magneto, no matter if Logan was able to walk or not, he’d be taken to the arena within two hours. He’d have to fight. He’d have to win that fight, because it would most likely take some time from Magneto to plan his course of action and rally his troops.
“Just promise me… Promise me that you’ll be here when I come for you,” she whispered, fiddling with her gloves nervously. Logan grabbed her hand and placed a kiss on her palm, his eyes never leaving hers.
“I learned my lesson the last time I made a promise for you. I can’t… I don’t know if I can keep that kind of promise… But I promise to do what ever it takes to make sure that you find me later, okay?”
“O… Okay.”
“Good. You have a cell phone?”
“No. But there’s a payphone not too far from here.”
“You remember the number I told you?”
“Yes.”
“Go. Tell Eric what’s going on in here. Lie if you have to. Tell him that they’re crucifying us or something. That should rile him up…”
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