"I am exact and merciless, but I love you
-There is no escape for you."
Walt Whitman
She had been lying there, keeping her faithful vigil next to the toilet bowl, the only movement registered from her being the occasional blinking of her eyes. She would eat but just enough for her to remain healthy; for her babies. Other than that, she wouldn’t move, wouldn’t speak.
They had taken her to scans, made thorough medical exams, and monitored everything that could be monitored in her body, making sure that her precious cargo was strong and healthy. It was still too early to hear their heat beats but she saw them on this wide black and white screen; two forms outlined in the dark night of her body. Rogue never paid much attention to the frown on one of the doctors’ face. She was just too glad that that horrible blond woman wasn’t there to torture or torment her today. The young girl put all her attention back on the screen, shutting out the rest, focusing on the two lives growing inside her. One word escaped her lips, though; a murmur in the otherwise silence of the room. “Logan”.
At the faint sound, the doctor next to her sent what she thought was a somewhat compassionate glance her way. The oddity of that glance struck her harder than anything else she had to endure during her captivity; stung painfully. They brought her back to her “room”, but today they didn’t take the usual way back. Instead, they stopped at another corridor which smelled of steam and antiseptic. One of the nurses walking at her side motioned Rogue forward to a white tiled room, vast enough to contain a hundred people. Divesting her of her paper gown, the woman pushed her to one of the far walls, away from the unique door. Alone now in the room, she heard a faint humming noise, like some engine warming up. Fear started to pool in her stomach, but Rogue made a quick calculation, estimating that whatever was about to happen, her captors weren’t about to harm her; not as long as she was pregnant. She then allowed herself to relax a little, although her eyes and mind were still on high alert, ready to take any chance she had to make a run for it.
Another sound echoed in the empty room, like a siren, and the ceiling slowly moved above her head. A row of what looked like shower heads appeared and soon poured warm water upon her. Memories of the last shower she had in the cell with Logan made Rogue shriek and press herself in the closest corner, but when the young woman realized that the pressure and temperature of the water were nothing like her latest experience, she berated herself for her kneejerk reaction and walked back under the spray of water. Another quick estimation had her conclude that it was indeed only water that was running down her body, and she noticed for the first time the bar of white soap dangling from a small rope attached to the wall next to her. Rogue took it gingerly in her hands and started to lathe it between her palms and then scrubbing the suds over her arms, neck and chest and going steadily southwards. Her hands stopped when she reached her stomach, her fingers lingering there, massaging softly, lovingly. The thought that crossed her mind then nearly made her cry out in pain and agony. Logan. Where was he? Was he still alive? Did he know? The same questions had been haunting her for the past weeks, turning over and over again in her troubled mind, and offering her no reprieve.
When she was done, the water stopped automatically, leaving her shivering slightly in the slowly cooling space. Rogue didn’t dwell too long on the sensation of being clean again, she wouldn’t allow herself even though she’d been longing for warm water and soap since her arrival in the complex. Still it was odd. Why would they care for her comfort and personal hygiene when everything else here was hellish at best? The answer was quickly brought to her when the wall behind her slid open to another sterile room where a chair was sitting in its middle. Lifting her gaze to the ceiling the young prisoner noticed a long black cable from which hung silver colored electric clippers. Letting her eyes sweep the rest of the room, Rogue noticed another paper gown neatly folded on the backrest of the chair. The young girl shivered as things started to click together in her mind. She heard steps behind her and she turned around quickly enough to notice a man dressed in black fatigues and shirt walking to her, flanked by two nurses.
One of them gestured her to the chair and the gown with one tilt of the head. Rogue, her eyes never leaving them walked slowly to the place indicated to her and proceeded to dress in the thin piece of clothing offered to her. Her body was still wet and shivering, goose bumps forming on every inch of her skin and making certain parts raise to attention. She caught the lingering stare of the soldier and quickly crossed her arms before her chest in an attempt at shielding her modesty. The two nurses then approached and made a quick work of sitting her on the chair and strapping the young prisoner to it. Where did they hide those damn things, Rogue thought, her anger flaring for once again failing to notice the leather straps that were now bound to her wrists and ankles. The man then stepped behind her, savagely gripping a handful of her long hair and starting the clippers. The young woman, unable to fight back bit her lip to prevent herself form crying in impotent rage at the new violation. The soldier took then a devious pleasure in grating the cold metal of the clippers over her damp head. Rogue lifted up teary eyes to the white light of the ceiling, feeling heavy tresses after heavy tresses of her hair being chopped off and falling on her shoulders and around her feet. Why? She thought, her mind screaming at the offending gesture. Why?!
When suddenly the buzzing noise stopped, the young girl chanced a look at her lap where some of her once magnificent hair lay like a lifeless body; cold and wet. When she saw the white streaks looking back at her, Rogue couldn’t contain her tears anymore. It wasn’t so much for the gesture than for the fact that one of the things Logan loved so much about her had been hacked off to the root. Marie let her head fall to her chest and sobbed shamelessly. One of the nurses stepped beside her and slid a metal chain around her neck. The young girl’s eyes followed the glint of metal resting now against her chest, reading the series of numbers and letters on the brand new dog tag: ‘Sample #458 25 244’. A number, she was now just a number. They hadn’t managed to break her completely, not until now.
***********************
Run, he had to run. He had to get to her, had to find her. Every turn lead to another dead end, and frustration and rage started to tint his field of vision a dangerous shade of dark red. He had one down, he had to find the others, but first he had to find her. He took deep breaths, more to taste the air around him than to regain any sort of clarity in his thinking. He filled his lungs until his brain could pick out her unique scent, and he started again in another direction, running faster than he could ever remember.
The halls were surprisingly empty, not that he minded. He didn’t want to call their attention upon him, not now anyway. He had more important things to do just for the time being. There, he thought. She was there; distressed, sad and angry, but otherwise okay. She was at the end of the corridor; that was where her scent led. He heard footsteps approaching quickly on his left. He ducked silently to the small recess in the wall and crouched, waiting that the steps came closer. Without a moment’s notice, he had the two lab coat wearing men to the floor, their throat slit from ear to ear, while the woman that was with them was pinned to the wall beside him by three adamantium claws through the chest. He stood back up, unbothered and advanced to his destination, his senses on high alert.
The door in front of him was made of thick heavy steel, but it could have been a flimsy curtain for all the hindrance it would be to his claws and his rage. He made a short work of the door, slicing it to shreds that heavily fell to the plastic floor. He’d found her! She was safe now; he was getting her away from this place. Searching the room for the familiar face of his young mate, Wolverine’s eyes were met by a vision he didn’t expect. Huddled in a corner of the vast room was a form that smelled like his mate but didn’t quite look like her. If it hadn’t been for his own underlying scent clinking to the person before him, he would have them impaled on his claws before they knew what hit them.
He approached slowly, his eyes riveted to the shivering form across from him and his whole body tensed, ready to strike. Then all of his strength failed him when two familiar brown eyes looked at him, wet with tears.
“Logan…?” the figure said. Wolverine wouldn’t let himself believe that this was his beloved mate, yet every fiber of his body screamed that it was her, it could only be her, and that she was pregnant; with *His* cub.
“Logan?” she asked again, her voice unsure.
Though Wolverine couldn’t understand what she was saying he was sure that he had heard her say that word before, and that it sounded good when it fell from her lips; it made something in him bloom with primal joy, and something deeper strain to the surface. He had clung to the image of her, that young girl, sensations, emotions so strong that they broke the darkness the lab men had forced his mind into. All the serums, gases and drugs in the whole world could never take away that one memory in him. The Wolverine had a mate, and he would do anything to be with her again!
And there she was…It was *her*, no doubt now. He had found her at last.
Wolverine strode purposefully towards the young woman still sitting on the floor and scooped her up. He had her in his arms, and he took a few seconds to revel in the sensation of her body cradled against his chest, making a low satisfactory growl echo in the white room. Running back to the door as fast as he could with his mate in his arms, he was slightly startled by the blaring of alarms going off all around him before resuming his march. He looked down at the face of his mate as if looking for assurances that everything was going to be okay, Wolverine made a run for it through the maze of corridors and doors, all hell breaking lose around him in a blur of earth shattering explosions and screams.
***************************
“Take cover!”
Colonel Montgomery was still looking at the bloodied form lying on the floor in front of him. Dr Mann had been a little too taken by her job it seemed. The grey haired man looked on with a frown of disgust as semen was slowly leaking from between his once lover’s legs. Her icy blue eyes were still opened and strangely calm, an expression of awe on her face partly covered in blood.
“Dr Mann is dead, what was she thinking coming in here alone? Where’s Wolverine? Arrrrgh, damnit!!” Said the man standing behind him, the man whose face always had been hidden.
“My guess is that he went after her, colonel. If the bite mark on Dr Mann’s throat is anything to go by, he’s in a feral state. And if it’s the case, he might have went after his female.”
“He shouldn’t even remember her, Montgomery!” Retorted the small rounded man, the fat of his face trembling in his rage. “I don’t care, wherever he is, they mustn’t get out of here! And godamnit, just who are these people?!”
“I have no idea sir, but they seem to be looking for something...or someone.”
“They’re here for Wolverine… They can’t take him away!!!”
“Colonel Stryker, what are your orders?”
“This facility is compromised; destroy all you can, the samples and embryos as well, especially the samples. Whoever they are, they mustn’t get their hands on those damn things, you hear?”
“Yes sir!”
“Find Wolverine and the girl, I want them alive. Use the maximum dose of alpha gas for Wolverine, it should be enough to tranq him for the length of the transfer, but do not hurt the girl. There are two different trucks, keep them apart at all costs!”
“Yes sir, I’m on it personally.”
Montgomery took his leave without further ado and assembled his men. He was on a chase and he had very little time if the sound of explosions going off through the complex and the screams of sheer horror from the medical personal were any indication.
“Collins, Murray and Jones, you come with me, the rest of you, go to the main storage room, blow it to bits, kill whoever you find.”
“Yes sir, but…sir, ‘whoever ‘can belong to the program…”
“Got some hearing problem Wilson?” Montgomery snarled to the soldier aiming a formerly invisible gun to the shorter man’s forehead. “I said whoever, even if it’s me, or the Pope or even their precious cargo bag and her lap dog, I don’t give a shit.”
“Yes sir!”
“Now get!”
*****************************
“Cyclops, Storm, you get in first and open the way. Shadow Cat, Ink and Colossus, try to locate where they hold Logan and Rogue. Remember that Logan might be in a feral state and uncontainable. Don’t hesitate to use the tranqs, I’ll scan your thoughts regularly and take care of him personally.”
“Yes, Professor!”
“Hank, you know what you have to do?”
“Everything is ready at the back of the jet. Jean, I need you to stay here with me, just in case.”
“Okay, Hank. Let’s just hope that Logan and Rogue will be the only prisoners in this place.”
“Yes, but we need to be ready, there might be more. Our sources were unable to state any approaching number of prisoners.”
“Jubilee, keep the jet at the ready. Pyro, Gambit, you will be the last line of defense.”
“Now everybody, good luck!”
“Alright! Now move, move!”
***********************
Smoke was stinging her eyes, her bare feet pounding against the cold floor as she followed Wolverine to the best of her capacities. He was holding her wrist in a vice like grip, leading her through the complex crumbling all around them. Rogue had insisted at some point in their race for freedom that she was perfectly capable of using her legs, and now she was hard pressed to keep up with her companion. She didn’t look around, she just watched her ‘mate’ opening the way, concentrating on him rather than on the pain in her calves and thighs, on her babies rather than on the fear pumping thickly in her veins. They had to make it!
Wolverine suddenly came to halt and Rogue almost collided with his heavy frame. She never had the time to ask herself why they had stopped as gun shots echoed in the air. Her companion made quick work of pushing her back in a corner as he lunged back to the source of the noise. Soon, screams of sheer horror bounced off the walls, along with the sound of flesh being shredded and the heavy thump of lifeless bodies falling to the ground. When a figure covered in blood reappeared in front of her, Marie almost let out a cry of terror herself. She stared wide eyed at the figure in front of her, naked, save for the dog-tags similar to hers around his neck, claws unsheathed and eyes an inky black. She nearly flinched when he extended a hand in her direction, but quickly reminded herself that it was the father of her soon to be born children making to touch her, and he would never hurt her, regardless of the violence and murderous intent now pouring from him.
The skin of his hand was sticky with partly clotted blood; marking her skin everywhere he touched her. They kept on running, occasionally encountering soldiers or doctors desperately running toward an exit always too far away. Rogue had tried using her powers during her captivity, tried to reawaken them to use on somebody in hopes of getting information about a way out, but whatever those doctors had done to her had permanently canceled her powers. She never thought that she would one day miss her powers so much. At some point she stole a key card from man that just had his head ripped off his body by Wolverine, body arms and legs still flailing uselessly in a desperate attempt at defense. They needed a plan, had to regroup.
Rogue stopped suddenly, holding Wolverine’s hand in hers.
“Logan, Logan, we need to find plans, something! We can’t keep running around in circles like that, we don’t know where we’re going!”
Her companion looked at her, lines furrowed on his brow in silent question.
“Logan, please…We need to…”
She never had the chance to finish as Wolverine just snorted and started dragging her after him at a dead run. She had the feeling that they had been running for hours, her legs threatened to give up on her any second, adrenaline being now the only thing keeping her going. Her pleas fell on death ears as far as her mate was concerned, so Marie did the only thing she could think of, wrenching her arm from Wolverine’s grasp and putting as much determination in her demeanor as she could muster and repeated herself, this time brandishing the key card in front of her former cellmate’s eyes.
“Logan, listen to me! I know you’re in there! You have no idea where the exit is!”
*************************
He had no idea what she was talking about… Her scent was now dangerously tinted of anger and frustration. Was she defying him? Now was not the time to stop for a little chit-chat! He could smell the outdoors closer now, the snow and pines just a few meters away. Wait… maybe it wasn’t defiance, maybe she was… She didn’t trust him to find his way out of this bad place. That knowledge almost made him unsheathe the claws at his mate, but the scent of her pregnancy stopped him, and he resolved to just bare his fangs at her warningly. He was her alpha, and she had better remember it. She was young, she would learn; learn to trust him with her life.
“Logan…?”
She needed to understand, and she obviously spoke a language he couldn’t. He needed to get her to trust him, now. So Wolverine opted for gentle coxing, grabbing her wrist less forcibly, laying a hand on her fabric covered stomach, doing his best to convey that he had her safety at heart, that he would lay down his life for her and the cub she was carrying. After a few seconds of hesitation, his young mate seemed to get the message. Lifting his head in the air, Wolverine inhaled deeply, turning his eyes to the source of the scent of fresh air, and then looked back at his female to emphasize his point: he knew what he was doing!
“Alright, Logan…lead the way.”
The light around them blinked then turned to inky darkness. The air was eerily silent all of a sudden, the siren coming to a startling stop; it wasn’t a good sign. Wolverine felt his mate tense behind him, sliding closer to him, grasping his side with shaking hands. He remained still, opening his ears to the smallest of sound, waiting. Ever so slowly, he backed away against the closest wall, his mate firmly tucked to his side. Footsteps were approaching, two females and a male, their breaths erratic and their scents shadowed by a mix of anticipation and fear.
A loud voice bleared coming from the walls and the ceiling, orange twirling light above their heads showed the empty corridor they were in, definitely not a good sing.
“This complex will be destroyed in three minutes…”
The three bodies stopped briefly before resuming their progress through the corridor.
“Kitty, are you sure it’s here?”
“Shadow Cat, Ink! Call me Shadow Cat! We’re on a mission, so call me by my damn code name!”
“Alright, sheesh, don’t get your leather panties in a twist, girly!”
“When you ladies are done blabbering on about bull shit, maybe we can get to the task at hand? This place is going to hell in less than three minutes now!”
“Oh, can it Tin-man!”
“It’s Colossus! Ball pen!”
“No you too?”
“What, why’d you stop?”
“Shhh….I can sense two people just out there.”
“You think it’s them?”
“Dunno…I’ll go check.”
“Ink! Don’t! Damn it, we have to stay close, okay?!”
“Don’t you worry your pretty head pussy cat, I’ll go under cover…as usual.”
“Ink!”
The liquid noise that echoed behind the wall got Wolverine tensing and he swiftly put his mate behind the protection of his body. A black spot on the floor shining darkly at his feet moved with watery ease and stopped just in front of him. Growling menacingly at the inky puddle, he tried to move to his right, only to see the puddle follow his movement, as if commandeered by a will of its own. Wolverine felt rather than saw his young female peek at the form from behind his thick arm and heard her yelp as the puddle countered him to head in her direction.
“Ink, come back! Now!”
The miniature inky black lake slid back and away rapidly, stopping a few feet from them and started escalating in the air, taking the shape of a body. Without giving it time to fully transform, Wolverine struck, aiming at the head with fully extended claws. The form screamed in surprise, and went back to its original liquid state.
“Ink!!”
The two others rounded the corner, one tall and covered in metal, the male and the other much smaller and looking like a cub, an expression of horror on her face, the female. Before he could rip them apart, Wolverine felt a hand gripping his arm tightly as his mate surged forward.
“Logan, no!!”
“ROGUE!!!!”
The Wolverine looked, horrified as his claws partly embedded themselves in his mate’s shoulder, blood immediately flowing profusely from the three wounds and cascading over the flimsy fabric covering the thin body of the girl. He sheathed back the claws; a sorrowful whimper coming from his throat as he quickly caught the young body in his arms in its descent to the ground.
“Logan, don’t, they’re here to help us… Don’t hurt them!”
***************************
“Scott!! Scott, we found them! Rogue is down!”
“Rogue, oh God, are you okay?”
“Colossus, damn it, tranq him!!”
“NO!!! Please, don’t he didn’t mean it! It’s…He doesn’t recognize you guys! Please don’t! It’s not his fault!”
“Rogue, you alright?” said a dark skinned young woman with glinting jet black hair and startlingly faireyes, finger pressing the trigger of her gun already and aiming at the large frame of the Wolverine. A face Rogue had seen before but took some time to remember.
Ink, alias Reese Parker, the latest member of the junior X-team. They had met just a few months before she left. She remembered that Reese had shown some kind of concern for her while at the mansion, and Rogue had taken up on herself to show her around and help her settle down a little. That was all before things went sour with the main X-team.
“This psycho just impaled you! I don’t give a fuck what’s wrong or right with your man right now, I’ll get him under wraps! Now!”
“NO! Please, I’ll calm him, but please don’t shoot him!” Marie screamed, pleading, begging for them not to hurt her mate.
She chanced a glance at his face, terror, panic and hurt engraved there made the young escapee’s heart twist painfully in her chest.
“Logan…? Logan, it’s okay, everything’s gonna be fine now. They’re not going to hurt you; nobody’s going to hurt you. Trust me?”
She heard him whine, whimper, his hands smoothing over her face, her body; tears streaming down from her mate’s eyes and disappearing in his bearded cheeks. He was frantic, trying to undo what had been done by sheer force of will.
“Baby, please, for me…for us.” Rogue said in a hushed tone, her hand holding Logan’s own flat on her stomach. That move didn’t go unnoticed as she heard three distinctive gasps behind her.
“What the fuck is going on here?! Rogue…you’re… you’re…” Reese Parker was for the first time in her life at a loss for words, at least as far as Marie ever remembered of her former classmate.
“It’s a long story.” Replied Rogue softly, her hand caressing her mate’s fingers splayed over her abdomen.
“Okay, now, let’s just get out of here.” Interjected Colossus. “Rogue, can you move?”
“Yes, I can. Help me, Logan?” And her mate miraculously understood her request, gently enfolding her in his arms and standing swiftly.
And with that, the five of them half ran, half flew through the now empty corridors, the voice of the siren reminding them every thirty seconds that everything was about to blow apart.
The Wolverine & Rogue Fanfiction Archive
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Author's Chapter Notes:
Long time no see! Sorry guys for the extra long wait, but you know what life is all about (twits and turns so sharp and numerous you wonder if you'll ever be able to handle everything...).
So! Here is the new chapter. I had thought about posting one ominously big chapter, but decided against it at the very last second. Which means two parts for this little episode... Won't say more.
PS: Original character alert...Ink... Don't sue, don't flame, you know everything of my twisted imagination. Blood, gore, language and sex warning......!
Enjoy!
So! Here is the new chapter. I had thought about posting one ominously big chapter, but decided against it at the very last second. Which means two parts for this little episode... Won't say more.
PS: Original character alert...Ink... Don't sue, don't flame, you know everything of my twisted imagination. Blood, gore, language and sex warning......!
Enjoy!