Logan surveyed the smoky bar. He dismissed the college girls and the needy divorcees, focusing in on the semi-professionals. There. She would do. She had a streetwise look to her, smart enough to know when to keep her mouth shut.
He leaned on the bar next to her, and she looked him up and down with a sly smile.
“Got a place?” he asked.
A flash of shock crossed her face at his total lack of preliminaries, but then she smiled again. He picked right. “Just down the street,” she purred.
“Let’s go.”
She was on him before they got through the door, and he had to work to peel her off gently, backing up to what turned out to be a kitchen counter and setting her on it. He dropped a stack of bills next to her.
“That’s a month’s rent. If anyone asks I gave you the ride of your life. Now go take a shower -- a long one. I have to make a phone call.”
She was quick on the uptake all right, snatching the money off the counter and taking it with her into the bathroom. She paused at the bathroom door, looking him up and down again. “I could still give you your money’s worth.”
He grinned at her. “I’m sure you could, darlin’. Now scoot.”
She gave him a mock salute and closed the bathroom door. He waited until the water was running before he pulled out the phone. An untraceable cell phone, and he dialed the number he had memorized to a similar phone in Xavier’s desk drawer.
“Logan?” The relief was evident in the old man’s voice, and Logan felt the still-novel feeling of belonging wash over him.
He sat back on the girl’s saggy old couch, putting his boots up on her scuffed coffee table. “Chuck. We’ve got a lot to catch up on.”
Logan could practically hear Xavier’s mind ticking as he ran down what he had learned about Shaw, Emma Frost, and most of all Rogue.
“The ability to take on others’ mutations...” Xavier repeated wonderingly.
“Yeah. You ever heard of anything like that?”
“I’ll ask Henry, but it is, in my experience, unprecedented.” Who the hell was Henry? Oh, of course, Hank. Logan had to smile at Xavier’s formality. It was always most evident when his mind was occupied, so he must be as puzzled by Rogue’s mutation as the rest of them.
“I’m sending you a picture of her, and of her fingerprints. Do what you can to find out who she is. Put Kitty on it. I don’t buy Shaw’s story for a minute. He wants her for something, I just can’t figure what. From what I can tell she seems to be the only person on earth who could actually kill that bastard, and he doesn’t seem the suicidal type.”
“If only we should be so lucky.” A rare wry comment from Xavier, making Logan smile again.
“And then these voices -- I don’t think she’s crazy, Chuck. Is that something they could be doing to her? You could do that, right? Could Emma?”
A thoughtful pause from Xavier. “She certainly could have that capability, although she would need to stay nearby. And you said she has been leaving on these trips with Shaw. But perhaps...perhaps we have it backwards.”
Logan waited patiently, knowing better than to interrupt Xavier’s line of thought.
“You said that after she touched this mutant, Azazel, she heard his voice as well.”
“Yeah. For a little while, and then when she concentrated he was gone.”
“Perhaps then...perhaps from that we can deduce that she absorbs not just energy, not just mutations, but even the consciousness of those she touches.”
Logan started to pace the room, thinking about it more. “She had to have touched other people. When she first manifested, through accidents...no one can be that careful. You think these voices have been there all along? Left over from the people she touched?”
“If so, Emma Frost may not be so much creating the voices as she is suppressing them. And perhaps letting them out as she chooses, to control the poor girl.”
“That kind of suppression...would that make it so she couldn’t remember? Could Emma have just...cut her off from everything in her past, voices and memories and all of it?”
“It would be grossly unethical...”-- Logan had to suppress a snort -- “...but it could be done. I might be able to tell, if she would allow me to look.”
Logan felt like he was in information overload. “We can speculate to hell and back, Chuck, but the upshot is we have to get her out of there. And, much as I hate to say it, I’ll be damned if I can see how any of this has anything to do with Jean.”
Xavier sighed. “I agree. We’ll see what we can find out over the next few days. Although, much as it adds to the confusion, I think I may have another piece of the puzzle.”
“I’m all ears, Chuck.”
“I received a call today from Tony Stark.”
Logan stopped pacing. “Yeah?”
“Someone broke into Stark Industries two days ago. In a very unusual way. Camera surveillance caught him outside the gates. Then suddenly a moment later on the grounds. And a moment later, in a secured area upstairs. His appearance was very distinctive.”
Logan started pacing again. “Azazel.”
“Precisely. As he was quite obviously a mutant Tony felt it appropriate to contact me.”
“What was he after?”
“Only one thing was stolen. A prototype, for a second generation arc reactor.”
“In English, Chuck.”
“A power source. Small, but almost infinitely powerful.”
Logan drew in a sharp breath. “Energy. Rogue said Shaw charges himself up with almost more energy than he can handle, so that he can give it to her in what he calls those ‘treatments.’ It fits. The only thing we’re missing is why. I sure as hell don’t buy that he’s doing it to help her.”
"I am inclined to agree with you, Logan.”
Logan felt the growl building in his chest, suppressing it with an effort. “That’s it. I’m not willing to fuck around here any longer, hoping for a lead on Jeannie. Extraction for both of us, tomorrow night. Just follow the plan we already put in place, but maybe a helmet for her on the bike that you’re gonna leave outside the south gate. We’ll meet you at the Blackbird at 2300 hours. And then we’d better be prepared to haul ass, because whatever it is Shaw wants her for, he’s not going to let her go easy. And we’ll have to figure out where we’re going. Shaw hasn’t connected me to the mansion, and we’re not gonna bring that kind of trouble to your doorstep.”
“I’ll arrange it. And Logan...”
Logan waited, but Xavier remained silent. “Yeah?”
“There is no other way to say it. Be careful. Shaw is...unlike anyone we have ever faced. I fear...” A heavy sigh from Xavier, as his voice returned with a slight quaver that sent a twinge of foreboding through Logan’s gut. “I fear for us all.”
_________________________________________
The sound of a chopper woke him. A brief period of disorientation as his sleep-disordered mind tried to pull a location from his jumbled memories -- Panmunjom? Cambodia? Where was he? What the fuck war was this? -- before he got his bearings. A real bed. Shaw’s house. Rogue.
He squinted out the window, watching it land. Fuck. He was hoping they would have another day, that they would be out of here before Shaw returned.
The henchmen came first, surveying the empty helipad cautiously. Then one jumped back in the open door of the helicopter. As Logan watched he slowly emerged again, Shaw leaning heavily on his shoulder. Jesus, what was this? Shaw looked pale and shaky, even as he shook off the henchman’s support with irritation, pulling back to stand somewhat unsteadily on his own. Logan heard his own words ringing through his head. I’m hard to kill too. Hard doesn’t mean impossible. Something had tested Shaw to his limits, but what?
Suddenly another voice, Rogue’s this time, clear in his head. It’s dangerous. He has to absorb a lot of energy first, almost more than he can handle, so that I can take from him without killing him. Goddammit. The arc reactor. And if Shaw was all charged up...
Logan hurriedly pulled on his shirt, jeans, and boots, trying to think. He had to get to Rogue before Shaw did. He didn’t know what the treatments were doing to her, but he’d be damned if he let Shaw do it again. He could get them past one of the gates somehow -- the bike wouldn’t be there, but...
He was down the stairs already, trying to slow his stride down the hall to a normal pace, and then suddenly there they were. Fuck, he had her already. Shaw was looking steadier now, and his gloved hand had a tight grip on Rogue’s arm. Dammit, dammit, dammit.
Logan froze, his claws burning in his forearms with the pressure. Something must have shown on his face -- Shaw took a step forward, still holding Rogue’s arm tightly, and the henchmen moved forward too. Only Emma lingered behind.
Shaw’s eyes narrowed on Logan’s face, cold challenge in his voice. “Wolverine?”
Behind him, in a barely perceptible movement, Rogue shook her head, warning Logan off. Logan saw Emma’s eyes catch the subtle signal, and a speculative look crossed her face, a malicious smile curling her lips. Goddammit. His mind ran through every potential mode of attack. The henchmen and Emma were no problem, they could be dead in seconds. But Shaw...Shaw...
The Wolverine snapped and snarled inside him as Logan forced himself to admit what he had known all along. He was fuckin’ powerless against Shaw, anything he did to him would only make him stronger. Would only make him hurt Rogue more.
Logan took a deep breath, forcing the words out. “I’ve got an update for you on those security changes. When you get a chance.” Bitter failure choked his throat even as he saw the relief on Rogue’s face.
Shaw nodded. “Excellent. I look forward to it.” He reached toward Rogue, and Logan felt his blood rush, roaring in his ears with the force of his fury as Shaw ran his hand from Rogue’s cheek down her throat. “Come along, dear.”
As Logan watched, Rogue suppressed her shudder, ducking her head to avoid Logan’s eyes as she followed Shaw down the hall.
Logan let them pass, desperately struggling to suppress every instinct he had, when another wave of emotion rocked him.
Jean. He could smell her on them, waves of her familiar scent all over them. Shaw and Emma -- both of them had seen Jean, and recently. Logan froze, paralyzed with impotent rage, the Wolverine howling inside him as he could do nothing but stand in the hall, watching them go.
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Author's Chapter Notes:
Hi guys! This chapter was a lot of talky-talky, so I threw in what was meant to be the beginning of the next chapter to give you a little taste of the drama to come. Enjoy!
Chapter End Notes:
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