Logan crept up the stairs, silent as a shadow for all his bulk. His heightened senses were on high alert, taking in the somewhat musty smell of the old townhouse, the scent of the polish that had been used on the rich wood of the banister, the slight sounds of activity in the room above.
As he moved stealthily closer, he was able to make out the rhythmic hiss and suck of a ventilator, the occasional beep of a monitor, the hum of a fluorescent light, even the slow dripping of intravenous medication. The stale scent of illness wafted down the stairs towards him. When he and Marie had discussed Stryker’s visits to this house, his money had been on Stryker keeping a mistress, but perhaps Marie was right and Stryker simply paid monthly visits to his invalid mother.
He stopped outside the slightly open door. He could just make out the figure in the hospital-style bed, but instead of the elderly woman he had been expecting it was a younger man. Logan could smell another person in the air, knowing by how the odor made his gut roil that the scent was Stryker’s, but the General was nowhere in sight.
In a smooth movement, Logan ducked through the door, flattening his body against the wall behind. After a moment spent assessing the situation, he approached the bed. A man probably in his early thirties, his figure so frail he looked like he had been bedridden for years, his skin papery, his head shaven. A breathing tube obscured some of his lower face, and sensors placed on both his chest and his head were connected to the monitors. An i.v. dripped medication steadily into a port in his vein.
Logan leaned down and sniffed the medication. In a rush, he was overwhelmed by the memory. /The hiss of a needle gun, the return to greyness./ This was the drug Marie had told him about, the one that had kept him only half-aware in the lab. This man was a mutant, and Stryker was trying to control him.
With an angry jerk Logan yanked the needle out of the man’s venous port, leaving it dangling to drip slowly and silently onto the threadbare oriental rug. He didn’t know what he hoped to accomplish, this man obviously wasn’t going anywhere, but he was too angry to care. Stryker, he thought, rage clouding his vision red for a moment.
As if the thought had summoned him like a demon, Logan smelled Styker approaching. He quickly flattened himself against the wall as the General entered the room, barely casting a glance at the man on the bed before crossing towards the window. Logan circled behind him silently before closing the door with a firm click. He saw Stryker straighten at the sound, but he did not turn around.
“The Wolverine,” Stryker drawled. “I was wondering how long it would take you.” Now he turned, hands, in his pockets, the cold grey eyes regarding Logan impassively.
Logan felt his claws snick out reflexively at the sound of the General’s voice. Stryker flicked a quick glance at the blades, and then back to Logan’s face. “Some of my best work,” he said.
Logan felt the growl start in his chest as the rage rose within him. His breath came in quick pants as he fought the urge to simply bury the claws in Stryker now. “You’re going to tell me what I want to know, and then I’m going to give you the chance to experience your work up close and personal,” he snarled.
Stryker smiled coldly, unimpressed by the threat. “No need to be so crude. I am happy to speak with you. The Wolverine, the most gifted of my children. Do you even know what you are?”
“I know what you made me.”
“You have no idea. Even I had no idea.” Stryker took a step closer, and Logan saw the mask of impassivity slipping for a moment, a shimmer of madness underneath. “The first time I had you I was blind to your true potential. I looked at you and saw a weapon that I could wield. A few...modifications...and you would be the perfect soldier. Invulnerable. Deadly. My vision was so narrow.”
Stryker’s eyes were wide with emotion, hands clenched in fists at his side. “I didn’t know what you truly were until you had escaped me. It took me almost two decades to find you again. My life’s work, finally in my grasp once again. And then they stole you away from me.”
Logan took a step closer. “Both times...it was you. Both times,” he hissed.
Stryker spoke quickly now, spittle flying from his mouth. “Of course it was me. You and I -- we are tied together, Wolverine. It took me far too long to realize your true potential, and once I knew I could never have let you go.”
“My potential for what?” Logan lifted his fist, the tip of a claw entering almost delicately into the skin at the side of Stryker’s neck. Stryker didn’t even seem to notice, his mad eyes gazing into Logan’s, jowls quivering with emotion. He pushed closer, a rivulet of blood trickling from claw’s entry point.
“All the labs...not just yours, but all of them. I oversaw them all, and never was there another like you. You, my child, are unique.”
“Stop raving, old man. I heal. It’s handy, but I’m not the only one.”
“No! You’re wrong! You’re so wrong!” Stryker turned and paced toward the window, almost manic in his agitation. “Others heal. They repair. You revert.”
“What are you talking about?” Logan growled.
Stryker was yelling now, a vein bulging in his neck. “What am I talking about?! I’m talking about a cure, you fool, a cure!” He took a step back, seemingly trying to gain some control over himself.
Stryker cast his eyes toward the bed for the first time. “My son,” he said flatly. “My son Jason. My beautiful boy. My pride. And then I found out. He was corrupted. Infected. The cancer of mutation became active in his body. And he became a monster.”
He strode toward the bed, lifting the man’s head roughly, and then dropping it back on the pillow. “You see him now. Inert. Harmless. But before -- he had the power to create nightmares. His own mother put a drill to her head to bore out the images he was projecting into her mind. My boy. The great illusionist.”
Logan felt a lurch of nausea. And he called his son a monster. “You did this to your own son?”
“Xavier promised to help him. He did nothing! It was to me to rescue him from the disease of mutation. And I realized too late, once you had already escaped my grasp, that you were the key to not only his redemption, but for all of humanity. The scourge of mutation, wiped from this earth!”
Logan had reached his limit. The madman’s ravings were not giving him any answers. With a growl he moved forward to strike, only to find his knees suddenly giving out beneath him. He hit the floor with a thud, catching himself with his hands as the claws snicked in. A wave of dizziness crashed over him.
“What did you do to me?” he grated out.
He saw Stryker’s polished shoes and creased trouser legs approaching him. Then he was pushed backwards, as the old man kicked him squarely in the chest, slamming him against the wall, his legs splayed helplessly in front of him, the breath knocked out of him. He struggled to rise, but he felt like he was mired in quicksand. He tried to lift his arms, grunting with the effort, but they barely twitched. His head fell back against the wall with a thunk, his eyes staring helplessly ahead at the old man’s knees.
Stryker leaned down, looking into Logan’s eyes. He reached out and slapped Logan’s cheek, an evil smile spreading across his face at Logan’s helpless paralysis.
“Not that some mutants aren’t useful, though,” Stryker chuckled. “We found a very helpful guy, has the ability to alter the molecular structure of chemicals. He needed a little arm-twisting, but we have people for that. He created the mutant tranquilizer, but he also whipped up a little something special for me when those damned X-Men stole you away from me.”
Stryker reached into his pocket and pulled out a glass vial, open and empty. “An airborne neurotoxin, specifically engineered to affect the Wolverine and you alone. I told you, Wolverine, you and I are tied. I knew you would find me. And wherever and whenever you did, I knew I wouldn’t let you escape me again. I released it the moment I knew you were here. It was a little slower to take effect than I hoped, but you can’t have everything.”
Logan felt his heart pounding in his chest, his blood roaring in his ears. He put every bit of strength he had into taking another breath. Marie, he thought.
“Don’t worry, Wolverine,” Stryker crooned. “As I said, you are unique. You will revert. In about half an hour you’ll be fine. Of course, you’ll be safely back in the lab by then. And we can begin the tests again. Every time we damage you and you revert back to your pre-injured state, we learn more about how you do it. And from that will come the cure. We just have to learn to control the setpoint, and then we have it. The ability to revert every mutant to their pre-mutation state. To turn back the hands of time and bring my beautiful boy back to me. To wipe the cancer of mutation from the face of the earth. You, Wolverine, will be a greater weapon than I had ever imagined.”
Logan struggled in another breath, despair overtaking him. He had failed. He was going back to the lab, and he would never see Marie again. Once they got the drug in him, he probably wouldn’t even remember she existed. And if this madman really could use him to generate a mutant cure, a war between humans and mutants would be inevitable. He had unknowingly put her in more danger than ever.
Now that he had irrevocably lost her, she suddenly seemed to be with him more than ever. He still tasted her on his lips, the scent of her filled his lungs. He felt a small warm hand brush his cheek, but nothing was there. Hallucination, he thought. And then he heard her voice, the softest possible breath in his ear. “Locking me in a bathroom, sugar? You thought that would hold me? Remind me to tell you about Kitty some time.”
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Author's Chapter Notes:
Another chapter running longer than I thought, so I'm dividing it up into two parts. Hope to get the next one up in a few days, and then one more epilogue-type chapter should finish it off. Thanks for reading!
I paraphrased one line from X2 and the next line is a direct quote. It was too good not to reuse. Tried to confess in the end notes to avoid spoilers, but it won't let me change them, so hopefully you'll know it when you see it.
Let's dedicate this one to Solidae, who totally called it. ;-)
I paraphrased one line from X2 and the next line is a direct quote. It was too good not to reuse. Tried to confess in the end notes to avoid spoilers, but it won't let me change them, so hopefully you'll know it when you see it.
Let's dedicate this one to Solidae, who totally called it. ;-)
Chapter End Notes:
Sorry, that was a lot of exposition. I tried to communicate the general idea without spelling it out in ridiculous detail, hope it makes at least some sort of sense. Feel free to review and let me know! ;-) Ass-kicking resumes with the next chapter. :-D