A/N : Wow! It certainly has been sometime since I've done any writing, but never fear I love to write. Now, a warning, this chapter is gonna explain something, but you might be more confused as well. And that's the best part. More will be explained in the next chapter however. Until then, enjoy!
Disclaimer : Yadah Yadah Yadah
Chapter 4
7 : 00 A.M
"Breakfast will be served in one hour." The voice from the intercoms informs the units. "Please be ready to commence your regular duties by 9 A.M."
The lights in all the rooms flicker on.
Rogue does her best to shield her eyes with her sheet and pillow. She tries to extend her legs to the length of the bed, but finds herself blocked by something at the foot of the bed. Knowing that something to be a someone instead. Cautiously, she rises her head from under her covers to see who is sitting near her.
"Logan?" She runs a hand through her hair. "Yah haven't slept yet, have you?"
He doesn't answer, he just gives her a look from the corner of his eyes and balls up his fists on his knees. The man huffs out a breath of air.
The drained woman begins sitting up in bed. "So what's going on here?" She looks at him, waiting again for an answer. Still nothing. "And why on earth is this...cell...so, well nice?"
Wolverine sighs. "How are you so calm?"
The woman sitting next to him, shocked, blinks quickly a few times. "What..."
Turning briskly, he stares at her. "For God sakes Rogue. You were kidnapped by some agency, drugged, brought here, stripped of your powers. Then those two suns of bitches..." He growls.
"I...I don't..." Her eyes begin to water.
Logan runs his hands through his hair. This is not coming out the way he wanted it to. He's frustrated for her, not at her. "I'm sorry." He pulls her tiny frame towards his with his right arm.
"I'm gonna shower, then maybe you can tell me what goes on here?" She asks while heading to the bathroom.
"Uhm sure." He watches her head to the bathroom and then sighs out loud again. "Need to keep busy." He informs himself. So he does just that, he starts by making their beds.
Rogue enters the bathroom. Granted, it's nothing like the one she had at the mansion, but she concludes its gorgeous, especially for a lab slash prison.
All the walls are made out clear glass, but it's foggy. She can see her roommates silhouette through the glass, but she can't make out that it's him or what he's wearing. The only one exception is the far wall, it's entirely made out of what she's guessing is steel.
There's a lovely modern spa style sink and matching toilette. On the counter are several rolled up towels in a basket, a shelving unit with every toiletry imaginable and yes there's also make up and hair products.
"What the hell kind of joint is this?" She wonders.
She then turns around to find the beautifully spa inspired shower. On the wall are several hooks with clothes for her and fresh bath towels.
Shaking her head, she tosses her soiled clothing into the hamper and turns on the water.
The largest slot on the door is opened and two trays of food are placed on the fold out counter.
Logan makes his way over and grabs the trays and menu. He places everything on the table and decides to wait for Rogue. Not too long after he sits down, she emerges from the bathroom.
"Come on, you need to eat." He looks at the chair at the other end of the table.
"Ah don't know if..." She doesn't continue, but takes a seat regardless. "What's that?" She nods in the direction of the menu.
"It's a menu, for next week." He says to calmly.
Rogue raises her brow. "A what? Yah got to be kidding..."
Wolverine looks at her confused. "Why? How else are they suppose to know what we want to eat?"
"Logan, how long have you been here?" It's her turn to look at him puzzled.
"I don't know, a year maybe a little more." He shrugs his shoulders. "Why?"
"And you were saying that Ah was way too calm? Sugah, this isn't right. Yah acting like this is some vacation spot." She stares at him fiercely.
He leans back in his chair and crosses his massive arms over his chest. "The way I see it, is that it's better then being out there. Or have you forgotten what's going outside?"
She shakes her head. "No Ah haven't. But this still isn't right."
"Look, we're fed, clothed and live in a decent enough place..."
"Unless the guards think you're an attractive female." She cuts him off.
Logan sighs. "We need to talk about that."
"Not now." Rogue hugs herself looking away from him. "We've been through worst stuff before."
"But you've never been raped before!" He slams his fists on the metal table and she jumps a bit at the reaction.
"I'm going to kill'em." He grunts, not looking up at her.
"Ah know." She shivers. "And Ah know it's wrong, and Ah know the professor would hate to hear me say it, but Ah want yah to." Again, shivers run through her.
Ed sits across Dr. Howard's desk, looking at his mentor in shock. "They did what? And you're going to let the Wolverine do what? I'm sorry, this...this is just madness."
Andrew cleans his glasses with his piece of cloth, for what Ed thinks is the hundredth time. "I know it sounds outrageous, Ed. But you need to imagine this place out of order. Right now, we have perfect existence with both the guards and our units."
The doctor sighs. "If the rest of the units were to feel like they weren't protected they would rebel. However, if the guards feel like they could get away with anything, we would have a real problem on our hands."
Ed shakes his head agreeing. "Perfect coexistence."
"Exactly. It's always been our main goal. If we can have that, everything stays on schedule and our experiments continue as always." Andrew stretches his fingers and continues. "It's so much easier to continue with my work when the subjects are willing to partake. And they partake because they know there are consequences, but at the same time, they are content." He snorts. "Especially knowing whats outside of these walls. Really they are better off here."
"So Command would never really terminate any subjects from this level, would they?" Ed asks while rubbing his chin.
"Of coarse not. Like I said before, they are either too valuable, rare or dangerous. Command considers them top priority." Dr. Howard reassures.
"So the threat of termination..." The assistant tries to understand.
"Is still a very real threat. Only Command could ever truly make that call, but it's still a very active threat. However, highly unlikely. It helps keep the units under control." Andrew smirks.
"But make no mistake. These are my pets, this is my level. Command rarely interferes here. What I say goes." Again he cleans his glasses.
Ed smiles brightly at his mentor. "Of coarse. And you know sir, I think some of the units actually don't mind you all that much any more. They are starting to see that you just have their well being in mind."
The good doctor rises from his seat and stares out the window over the gardening section in his perfect level. "A good master always looks after his pets. A good master keeps the wolves at bay." His lip form a tight line. "Mr. Ed."
"Yes, sir?" Ed grabs his data pad and stands next to his teacher.
"We have some pets to train and some wolves to dispatch of."
"So lemme get this straight. We get a list of jobs and if we do them we get things as payment? And if we refuse to do anything or cooperate in any way we get to start that lovely punishment program?" Rogue is trying to make sense of everything.
"Yup." Logan agrees. "Basically everything that's here, we get to keep here no matter what. But if you want stuff like clean clothing, meals, extra clothing, blankets. You gotta do your minor chores. If you want access to the work out rooms or to the other specialty rooms, you got to do your major chores."
Rogue looks at her friend stunned. "Right. So minor chores are things like..."
"We get assigned. So you'll know." He nods.
"Ah'm just still confused." She grips her scalp in her hands.
Logan places a gentle hand on her shoulder. "It's a lot to take in, but you'll be fine. The doc promised you'll never be outta my sight." Logan pulls out a cigarette and lights it. "And trust me darlin, what that guy says goes."
Rogue stares at him shocked. "Where on earth did yah get that?"
Logan smirks. "I've been a good boy." He winks "So how bout I show you around now? It's been two days. Doc said we can start work when you feel up tah it."
She doesn't say anything. Just continues staring at her nails.
The massive man beside her pushes out a cloud of smoke. "Yah know there's a library here, full of books. I know how much you love to read." That didn't spark interest, he finds that odds, but not surprising, considering... "There's a garden too, Storm spends most of her time there."
"Storm's here?"
"Yup." Seeing her interest he decides to try to keep her mind off of other things. "Yeah, she was brought here about 4 months after me."
"Things are starting to make sense now. So who else is here?" She brings her knees up so that she can rest her chin on them.
"Uhm lemme think. There's Storm, Emma, Scott, Gambit, me and you." He winces an eye as the smoke passes by. "The others as far as I know are either on different levels, still on the other side of these walls or..."
"Oh..." She sighs, but doesn't really know why. Is she disappointed that he doesn't know where everyone is? Disappointed that there are not more of their teammates here? Or disappointed that she didn't know that her teammates have been here this entire time.
"We were looking for yah, all of you. Yah were the first to go missing." She sniffles.
"I know." He half grunts half laughs. "It's ok. We knew you guys were looking. So where is everyone else? Do you know?"
Rogue exhales, not really knowing what to say. She drags her fingers through her curly hair. "Well a few of us got away and a few of us...well..." She swallows hard and looks into his questioning eyes.
"Ah'm sorry sugah, but Jean, she's dead." Rogue shuts her eyes firmly, letting one lonely tear escape. "Ah'm sorry, ah know that..."
"I know." He replies with no emotion. "I had a dream, and she...I just know."
Rogue places a hand against his cheek. "It was only a few months after yah disappeared."
Wolverine clears his throat and gently removes her hand from his face. "Does Slim know?"
Rogue nods. "Yes, he was there."
"How? Yah know what never mind, I think I already know. " He takes another inhale of his sin stick.
"So can we look around now?" She asks politely.
Weeks have passed since Rogue first arrived at Level C. She finds herself getting use to having a routine and not really minding it. Every Monday, she picks out her meals for the week from the menu. Every day, her minor chores consist of cleaning the library, which she really didn't mind and emptying the garbage in the main lobby. Her major chores include making all the bread and pastries to go with the meals for all the units.
Every second Thursday is examination day. None of the units fight this, so neither does she. It's nothing to intruding and every unit is examined by Doctor Howard and his assistant only.
Every second Friday is what she hates the most, but again doesn't put up a fuss about it. This is dubbed X day, the X standing for Experimentation. Every unit, depending on their abilities, are subject to different experimentations. Logan never talks about his. Rogues consist of a few different things. Mostly being injected with stuff, she never gets the priviledge of knowing what said stuff is. Not knowing what was being poked into her veins, really doesn't sit well with her. But for some odd reason, she knows that the doctor wouldn't actually do anything to harm her.
Today is the end of her eighth second Thursday, she finds herself dreading tomorrow.
"What do yah think he's injecting me with?" She asks, sitting on her bed.
Logan swings his legs over the edge of his bed and sits up to face her. "Don't know. What do you think?"
Rogue squints her eyes. "Ah don't know. Don't know if Ah wanna know."
"Good point."
"Logan. What are they gonna do to you tomorrow?" There, she asked. Finally. She's been so curious. Concerned.
"Don't worry about it."
"But..." He gives her one of those 'leave it alone' looks and she shuts up.
"Alright, here's another question. Why do they have us in cells two by two? And why does it seem that everyone is paired Male and Female?"
"What? Are you serious? Wait of coarse you're serious." Ed scratches his brow. "But, I just don't get it."
Doctor Howard rolls his eyes and allows his shoulders to slouch. "Alright, let me explain this to you another way."
The doctor turns off his computer and relaxes his body into his chair. "Think of it like an experiment. We tell the units that if they do not comply one of them will be terminated. But we don't tell them who, just that it will be one of them."
"But we would never terminate any of them. Right?" The assistant asks clearly confused.
"No, no. However, one of them would start our little program." Andrew stretches his fingers and a few pops are heard. "Now, if this works, just imagine what we can achieve!"
7 : 00 A.M, Friday
"No chores will be preformed today. Breakfast, and a briefing will be presented to you at 8 A.M." The voice informs.
"Odd." Logan decides that this is strange, very strange.
"What? Is this the first time this has happened?" Rogue doesn't get an answer, but she can tell by his expression that this is a first for him as well.
"Alright then mister chatty. Ah'm gonna take a shower." She waits, still no responce. "Right..."
The slot on the door opens and just like the voice said breakfast was served along with a folder.
Logan picks up the folder, ignoring the food. He sits at the edge of his bed and lights a cig.
"This can't be good."
He begins reading, his eyes widen. Blue eyes search the room for what? Answers? His hands put the folder down, pick it up again. He reads it again, then sends the papers flying across the room.
"What the fuck?" The Wolverine is pissed. He begins pacing the floor back and forth, all the while staring at the mess of papers on the floor.
Drying her hair with a towel, Rogue walks out of the bathroom. "Is somethin wrong sugah? Ah heard..." She sees the mess on the floor and continues walking past it. "yah swearin. What's wrong?"
Wolverine looks at her with what she can only identify as, pity? No, something else, was it shame? But why? The crazed man drops his eyes to the folder then places his hands on his hips and stares at the ceiling and takes a deep breath.
The confused woman makes her way to the pile and begins reading. She covers her mouth with her hand so that the gasp she feels coming doesn't escape. Rogue tosses the papers back to the corner in disgust and all but crawls away backwards from it.
"They can't be serious!"
Logan shakes his head. "They don't give us things like this unless they mean it."
"But to what ends? What can they possibly get outta this?" Her eyes well up with tears. "It's gonna be just like those two guards...all over again."
His heart sinking for her, he sits beside her. He places some of her hair behind her ear. "You know I could never go through with this darlin."
The Wolverine & Rogue Fanfiction Archive
Barely Legal Since 2000
Author's Chapter Notes:
A/N : Wow! It certainly has been sometime since I've done any writing, but never fear I love to write. Now, a warning, this chapter is gonna explain something, but you might be more confused as well. And that's the best part. More will be explained in the next chapter however. Until then, enjoy!
Disclaimer : Yadah Yadah Yadah
Disclaimer : Yadah Yadah Yadah
Chapter End Notes:
Please R n R :)