Chapter 20: Now
The wind sang through the derelict tunnel as he looked up to Dani, desperately trying to understand. His body still ached from having the wind knocked out of him, and his mind still rang out in grief upon having seen the apparition of Laura. Dani, however, wasted no time, as she pulled a small touch screen out of her jacket pocket, punching a long stream of numbers into a key code. Then, a concrete wall with no seams to speak of was moving out of place, an opening appearing from nowhere.
“Follow me. We need to get you to Jean-Paul,” she said, before quickly turning on her heel and disappearing through the open doorway. Logan struggled to catch up with her, limping as he did so, attempting to keep his breath regulated and even. The halls were sprawling, eerie and familiar in such a way that Logan could practically feel the metal in his hands singing, as if they knew they were closer to their own birthplace. If Alkali had been a foreboding setting before, now it had corroded into something on the verge of collapse. The place smelled like mildew and mold. Most of the walls had deteriorated, water seeping through some of the web of cracks and divots in the concrete. After another turn down an empty hallway, Logan finally found himself muttering, “You plannin’ on renovating or…?” Mirage didn’t look up to him, but murmured from ahead, “We’ve pretty much only been here long enough to mop the blood from the floors.”
Meanwhile Dani had picked up her pace even more so, and Logan found his lungs were giving in, all of it too much as he wearily stopped and leaned against a concrete wall, spent.
“Hey, wait a second,” Logan croaked, before he was coughing heavily again. Mirage had whipped around, shocked to see him leaning up against a wall as he was, and was back at his side in an instant. Mirage harbored a look of surprise quickly turning into pity on her face, that fucking look he hated, even as Logan continued to heave.
“Sensei,” she began, before he held out a scarred hand to stop her from speaking. He noticed that she had shot him another worried glance as she took in his the damage to his knuckles. Logan might not have been in his prime when Mirage had been his student, but he certainly, absolutely had not looked, or felt, like he did now. Three years of altercations and a failing healing factor had taken small thin scars he had sported at Westchester and had created a snarl of long and deep raised scars, tracing a path over most of his chest and upper arms. The one from that fucking clone had been the worst, and he was grateful Dani couldn’t lay her eyes on that. But he had also picked up the limp after a broken bone in his leg had not set properly when Charles and he had been detained on their way to Mexico. And the slow poisoning, the infection that now laced his blood and bones alike? Well, the worst of that had begun happening when he had been driving in El Paso, while he slowly tried to drink himself to death. Plus, he hadn’t slept in four days. To her, he must have looked like the fucking grim reaper.
“Stop. Before we go further,” Logan finally said, regaining is ability to speak as the coughing subsided. “Look, I trust you, Mirage, but this is all happenin’ a little quickly. And I don’t know who you’re taking me to. I need more information, you understand? Who exactly are you working with?”
“Jean-Paul,” she responded.
“I know. You said. But who, or what, is a fucking Jean-Paul?” Logan asked warily. Dani sighed, planting the blunt end of her spear down on the floor as she did so.
“His other name is Northstar. He and his sister, Aurora, made up the original Alpha Flight team. They were practically disbanded when I sought them out two years ago. I headed north, after the students were released…” she trailed off for a moment, nodding her head a little out of respect for Westchester. None of this was surprising Logan. Mirage would have been the one to join up some other cause protecting mutants as soon as she could, even if she had only been fifteen or sixteen at the time. She was a soldier, like he was. The similarities in their likenesses spoke to each other, and that was one of the reasons Logan had taken her under his wing after he had found himself in Westchester after the jump. Mirage, always fighting. “Anyway, we’ve had a couple of mutants we have found since join us. Which is going to be incredibly important if we are going to succeed in the next mission-” she was saying.
“Whoa, slow down, kid. What next mission?” Logan asked, and she stopped, looking up to him seriously now.
“To get the children back,” she said simply. Logan’s eyes widened, as he realized they both understood who she was talking about.
“You know about the children?” he barely murmured.
“We approved their asylum,” she said, a small smile on her face. For some reason, the new upturn of Dani’s lips, however, irked Logan. It was all starting to seem like too little effort from Alpha Flight, far too late. And Logan was in no mood to cozy up to rational, sensible thought at the current moment that might have suggested otherwise.
“But why the fuck did you wait so long to find them? If you knew they already existed?” Logan snapped. If Dani was taken aback by his growing frustration, however, she didn’t show it
“Sensei, you must understand. We knew there was illegal activity happening in Mexico, but we weren’t sure of the extent and nature of it all. Our resources are still extremely limited. We had been solely focused on taking down the northern Alkali-Transigen distribution center in Canada, and by the time we received the call from their caretakers, the children were already making their way north,” she said, looking up to him. “We had cleared entry for them safely, had procured new social identification numbers and names, for some had even found families, but no one ever showed up at the extraction point just north of the border. We thought they had been slaughtered, but our drones recently discovered a smaller processing plant in the northern United States where we think they’re being held.”
“You think or you know?” he asked.
“Our hacker has procured video footage from inside the facility. We know they’re there,” Dani said.
“Alive?” Logan asked, barely looking at her.
“Yes, Sensei. Obviously.” Logan was getting restless now, as he dragged a boot across the grate, the animal growing more impatient in this hellhole by the minute.
“Laura…” the word fell from his lips before he could stop himself.
“Who?” Dani was asking, looking up to him strangely once again.
“The girl you conjured in the spillway,” he muttered. “Met her in Mexico. With Charles…” Logan attempted.
“Wait. The professor’s still…?” she managed to say, and Logan realized what he had made her think. It took everything in Logan just to shake his head slightly.
“No. I’m sorry, Dani. We got tangled up with some nasty shit with Transigen. But Laura survived. She... Well, she’s….”
“Like you?” Dani guessed, already putting together what he was still struggling to convey.
“Yes. I took her north, settled up near the arctic circle. But then…” he said, unable to go on for a moment.
“She disappeared into thin air?” Dani guessed again, but at her accuracy Logan straightened instinctively, a growing suspicion once more singing in his bones. Mirage wasn’t a feral, but she was an empath, and it was obvious now that she was easily reading him like an open book. That’s one of the reasons she made such a damn good fighter.
“You can trust us, Sensei. We just got word that Transigen has dumped their contract with the Reavers. We also have reason to believe they might have a teleporter working for them now. Yet another traitor…” she said through a sneer, spitting quietly to the ground near her feet. Logan’s thoughts flew to Caliban suddenly, and he grimaced.
“Don’t be so sure any mutant is acting on their own volition when they’re working for Transigen,” Logan growled. “You never know the whole story, kid.” She stared at him solemnly for a moment, partially chastised by his words, recalling, perhaps, the nature of their relationship in the time before. Teacher, and student.
“Where are they holding them, Dani?” he finally asked, and the frown Logan had put on Mirage’s face deepened.
“South Dakota. Just outside of Sioux Falls,” Mirage said simply. Logan stood back up to his full height, willing his body to move again.
“You listen to me, kid. I need you to give me the coordinates right now,” Logan growled. “I’m sorry I can’t meet the rest of your Canadian sweethearts, but every second here is a waste of my-”
“-Sensei, you cannot do this on your own,” she interrupted.
“Dani, I swear to god-”
“Sensei, kiku. Listen. To be a good fighter you must listen. Like you taught me, yes?” Logan sighed, relenting a bit as he did so, and finally let her speak.
“The plant has multiple buildings and each of those have several floors. It’s a maze of labs and factory lines alike. We have been planning this extraction mission every day for over two weeks now. It’s going to be quick and effective. Taking out the plant, extracting the children, dissembling more of what used to be Alkali-Transigen. And we do so in seventy-two hours,” she explained, gripping her spear more tightly, and he found himself almost envious of the way she still held all her power, all the vitality and volatile rage of youth strung through her every fiber.
“No. Absolutely not. Tell Jean-Paul-whatever-the-fuck-his-name-is to move the mission to tonight, tomorrow at latest,” Logan snapped.
“Sensei Logan…”
“Tomorrow, or I’m going on my own,” he growled. “Listen, Dani. You haven’t seen the fucked up shit these kids have been through. If they’re holding them alive, what they’re going through… might be worse than death. You’re wasting precious time. Call in all your fucking reinforcements, and call ‘em in now, if you have any left.”
“We do,” she said, and he could tell he was winning her over, finally convincing her of the need to act more quickly. Maybe, just maybe, she then could convince those higher up.
“Then call ‘em in, Dani. Convince whoever you need to there’s now a personal, significant investment in this. You’re right. I won’t resort to sloppy extraction tactics, but you seem to have plenty of time on this one. Now take me to this Jean-Paul bastard so he can run me through all the shit,” he said. Mirage nodded resolutely, turning to make her way once more to head down the hall again, before she stopped, hesitating slightly as she turned slowly to Logan.
“Kanojo wa anata no yuiitsu no chidesu ka?” She is your only blood?
Before he could help himself, his mind was returning to images of Laura carefully pressing a ballpoint pen to paper, dutifully returning home that first night to write more on her essay, responsibly finishing her homework. He thought of her cramming more tubes of Pringles into their shopping basket. He thought of her joy of reading, her temper, the way she got under his skin and stayed there.
“Yes,” Logan finall said. “And I’m going to get her back.”
---
It was the changes in the sounds that always gave them away. Los cambios. It was the switching of the staff, the night shift ending and the day shift beginning. It was the way that some of them held their breath around her cell. It was the sympathy she could practically smell on them. These weren't soldiers. They were people. She now knew they were under-trained. She now knew they were understaffed. The white, cold, cinderblock room was not so different from where she had been held before, but everything else was.
Laura had been here three days. Three days papa had been on his own. But, not for much longer. The guards set on monitoring them moved like animals always did, como presa, oblivious to the types of things Laura understood to be true about the world. In the end, the prey always yielded. It was always just a matter of when.
--
Logan now found the animal within him pacing in front of a closed door, despite the man being dead on his feet. Whatever metal compounds Stryker used to build this place were more than effective or he was finally starting to lose what was little left of his senses, because Logan couldn’t hear shit from what was being discussed from behind the door. Jean-Paul, Aurora, Dani and two other mutants he hadn’t caught the names of were there: Alpha Flight in its entirety. Their few numbers made Logan nervous, particularly when he had watched them all file into the room after terse, brief introductions.
Finally, the door opened and he was being asked to come in. As Logan walked inside, he realized what had been called a command center was nothing more than a couple of stainless steel tables shoved together with three or four old, albeit souped-up computers on them. If anything, it reminded Logan of the bunker back in Mexico where Storm and he had kept watch over the Blackbird, what felt like a century ago.
An older, clean-looking man who might’ve been an optimist had he seen better days stepped forward, now formally introducing himself as Jean-Paul. His sister said nothing and did not stand, and he found Dani over in the corner, pacing slightly. The other two sat at computers, totally ignoring his presence.
“Logan,” Jean-Paul said, “It’s an honor to have one of the infamous X-Men under our roof.”
“Yeah, well, it’s not my first time here,” Logan said, arms once more crossed as he shot a glance around the place, before standing near the table in front of him.
“Of course. Yes, I forget. I apologize. And I want to personally extend my condolences to what happened at Westchester. Dani tells me that Charles was under your care for a time… but no more?” Logan, once again, could only shake his head. Northstar let out a sigh of frustration as he did so.
“A great loss, although we assumed he had died shortly after the event anyway. In fact, we hadn’t had news that anyone had survived at all,” he said carefully, looking over Logan and his blood-stained clothes once more.
“How did you take over this place anyway?” Logan found himself asking.
“We’ve been tracking Transigen up north and their distribution practices for over a year. We discovered that they were working with Canewood and what they had done to the food, and we had been quietly bolstering the means to dissemble them.”
“They ain’t just operating up north,” Logan added.
“We know that now,” Jean-Paul responded. “We discovered what was happening here, above ground in the utility plant above the dam. We… inhibited… their work, and upon discovering the underground tunnels of labs in the dam, we thought it was best to stake a claim over the territory, especially if we are to take up more missions against Transigen.”
“Ain’t a bad idea, even if this place is in need of some work,” Logan grumbled, before rubbing his eyes tiredly, coming back to the matter at hand. “Why are they keeping the children alive, Northstar?”
“We don’t know that, Logan. Although our most recent footage from our hack shows they are relatively unharmed.”
“And Laura?”
“Yes. Dani mentioned her to me. I don’t know yet, Logan, our most recent footage is several days old. But if Transigen took her, she is likely there. And if she is, we will rescue her along with the rest. That, I can assure you.”
“Yeah, I meant to ask you about that. There are five of you. How is that enough for an extraction of this scale that you’re planning?”
“The X-Men used to do it with less,” he said through a small smile. “And Dani tells me you were just threatening to go it alone.” Logan sighed heavily.
“Well, my life ain’t worth much right now. I wouldn’t gamble with anyone else’s,” Logan grumbled, although he realized it was a thin defense at best. The truth was that he needed help, probably more than even Alpha Flight was able to give to bring down Transigen. Meanwhile, Jean-Paul continued on.
“Well, like you guessed, we have reinforcements. We have already called in two fringe teams to help us, hopefully with them arriving this evening, especially considering your…revised suggestions to our agenda.”
“And they plan to just up and leave wherever they are and get here that fast?”
“They will for us, yes. I have not told them why, but there will be no doubt when they discover you are the reason.” Logan’s brow furrowed at this.
“Last thing, JP. I hope you know, I ain’t applyin’ for a job. I’m retired. I’m grateful and all, but I’m here to get Laura back, and then we’re gone,” he said wearily, and he could tell Northstar was evaluating Logan’s tired, haggard frame once more.
“Of course, Logan,” he said simply.
A few minutes later, Dani was leading him to a series of relatively decent rooms that served as living quarters, this part having been cleaned up quite a bit over the rest. Logan discovered fresh cots and bedding, showers, and new military grade grey cargo pants and a white shirt.
“Sensei, you’ve been instructed to rest,” she said looking at him carefully. He smiled just barely over this, quietly appreciating the girl he had once known, had once had the pleasure of training.
“Thanks Mirage.”
She nodded her head slightly, before adding, “We’ll wake you in a few hours, and brief you then.”
The hot shower helped massage his aching muscles and he stood there for several long minutes, refusing to move as it beat down on him. His head was mostly empty now, devoid of the worst of his thoughts. He fell down into bed easily enough, his muscles and bones and body finally giving in. He lay there, heavy like a stone, chest rising and falling as the dull ache in his lungs relaxed its sharp grip on him, as finally sleep, illusive, mysterious sleep, avidly waited to greet him.
--
Three days. Six o’clock sharp. Meal time. A tray through a slot, as usual. But the man who delivered her meal yesterday had looked at her strangely, maybe with something verging on compassion, and she knew he was one who had not been adequately trained like a soldier should be. Presa. The doors were solid, but an empathetic hand was all she needed. She let out a fake, sad sob right before the tray was passed through the slot. He heard her, that wavering voice. “Everything okay in there?” it asked. She sobbed again, and then the door was open mere millimeters, and she sprang forward. She screamed as her claws sang through the air and she forced all of her strength upward into the man who had been foolish enough to be kind, up into his jugular and then she kept going, adamantium easily slicing through brain and bone. A shower of blood rained down her as she purposely slid underneath him, unsheathing a foot claw and slicing his femoral just for good measure before fleeing in the direction of Rictor’s cell as the alarms sounded, ringing in her ears.
No dejes que muera. The man’s death was necessary to sustain her father’s life. Her papa. He depended on her. Relied on her. He needed protection, and she had a promise to keep.
--
That night he dreamt of Alkali, but it wasn’t the Alkali he had known. It was the one his consciousness couldn’t recall, but his body was now remembering. He was all animal then, having been subjected to various forms of torture, enough that the man had retreated deep within himself and had left the Wolverine to deal with the trauma, the pain, the tests. Images of these experiments haunted him now, and he witnessed the animal growled out in pain, in loneliness, not understanding where the man had fled to, why he had gone for so long, even as it pulled his body through day after day after day, surviving now for them both…
Logan had woken with a start, sweating and breathing heavily. He looked around, anticipating and bracing for another coughing fit only to be reprieved, although he knew it couldn’t be far behind. He realized absent mindedly that his claws were out, and they hurt more than they ever had, the metal now having to force its way through scar tissue and infection every time they appeared, whether or not he had voluntarily summoned them forward. He gritted his teeth as he sheathed them, breathing steadily through the pain. He was still tired, but now he was a few hours away from that exhaustion that left him practically outside of himself. He stood carefully, before moving to the small sink in the tiny bathroom and washing the blood from his hands. He splashed some water onto his face, before picking up on the static of an old, classic CB walkie-talkie, a sound he hadn’t heard in years.
“We have a bird on the horizon. Landing in seven minutes,” a man’s voice said over the device. Dani’s voice responded with a simple “copy.” Then, her knock.
“Yeah,” he finally muttered and she let herself inside, seeming a little more settled with his appearance, particularly after a shower, shave and a couple hours’ sleep. Still no fucking prince charming, but perhaps not death warmed up either.
“They’ll be here in a few minutes,” she said quietly.
“Who’s they?” Logan asked roughly.
“Backup,” she said through a small smile. “There are a couple of fringe groups in the States and Canada that operate remotely, trying to find mutants, offering what little support they can if anyone wants or needs it.”
“Do they lend their services to you often?” he found himself asking.
“Well, no. And anyway, they are the ones that usually decide when to come and when to leave. Their group members keep changing too. It’s an evolving entity. Most activists like these act on their own or in small groups.”
“How do you know you can trust them?” Logan’s thoughts briefly flashed back to the Brotherhood and Magneto, most likely dead wherever he was.
“Trust is a luxury, Sensei. And we don’t have the resources to argue. We get help where we can,” Mirage admitted to him quietly. “Particularly since Westchester…”
“I get it, Dani,” he muttered. He noticed she still had a question in her eyes, however, and he looked to her again, mildly frustrated.
“What?” he barked.
“I apologize, Sensei. But I’ve been wondering…how did you possibly escape?” she asked. “With Charles?” Logan closed his eyes momentarily, keeping his mind dutifully blank.
“The seizures don’t work as well on me. Didn’t quite finish the job,” he muttered. Just then, her radio was whistling with static again.
“Bird landing in less than five,” the voice said. Mirage once more held the walkie-talkie to her lips and murmured a “copy” before looking to him once more.
“Would you like to help me go meet them? I’m in charge of in-takes. From there, we can lead them all to the mission briefing. You made quite a case for yourself. The mission will now commence in twelve hours.” Good, Logan thought. The sooner he was out of here, the better.
“Ok. Yeah, I guess. Why not?”
--
It felt good to be outside again, Logan thought, as he and Mirage stood next to the heliport platform, waiting for the chopper to show up. Something in the wilderness, all those natural sounds and scents did his body good. The snow that had fallen early this morning was less than a foot, no big deal to most Canadians, and as the sun broke through a line of clouds, it warmed the landscape and lake beyond them, making everything feel white and clean. Dark green pines in the distance sported snow as well, and the clear blue sky was welcoming up above. To be outside of Alkali, out of that awful place, was more than a relief, even if he had only been here a few hours.
He heard it before he saw it, the thick blades of the military helicopter, kicking up snow and making the precipitation dance around them. He hesitantly looked back to Mirage, trying to calculate her mood. Only one helicopter? Was this typical? He was hoping, praying for a fleet of them. He looked back to the platform that lay about thirty feet beyond and was surprised to find the helicopter already touching ground, its doors now sliding open, and Logan was disgruntled to see that only a handful of people were exiting the aircraft. He saw, too, that the machine’s rotors had no intent of slowing down, the pilot obviously planning on taking off again until all boots were all on the ground. How many people were there? Three? Four? Were they even mutants? Everyone looked pretty fucking normal. How the hell were they gonna do this?
Logan watched as the last person jumped down from off the helicopter, a thin woman adorned with a cargo jacket and heavy black combat boots. As she moved to slide the heavy door shut, the helicopter was already taking off, a brilliant black bird stretching its awful, powerful wings upward, lifting up into the blue, and that was the last normal moment Logan could recall before the whole world turned upside down.
The air became ground and the ground became the air. The pines had uprooted themselves, hanging all wrong in the sky. The sun must have spilled onto the snow, because now it was seeping underneath his boots. Time itself seemed exposed, as the woman turned, and her loosely braided dark hair flew out from behind her, the platinum strands braided in with all the rest winking in the bright winter light.
The last time he had seen her he had been holding her body, blood seeping from her nose and ears, as he listened to her heartbeat slow to nothing in the pale sunlight on the floor of their bedroom, while a hundred paper cranes watched silently from their perches above.
“Mirage...” Logan growled, his voice wavering as he quickly glanced to Dani. But Mirage had a strange, hesitant look about her as she looked him in the eye and gave just the slightest shake of her head. No apparitions. No trick of the light. No voices on the wind.
The woman had frozen half-way down the platform as her gaze finally settled on him, less than twenty paces between them now. The brown of her eyes almost steel colored in the blinding white light. His scarred hands in tight fists at his sides. A tendril of platinum hair escaping her braid as she shook her head slightly in confusion or desperation, his feet planting more firmly to the ground to save him from falling to his knees.
“Logan?” she finally asked, a hint of a whisper, voice breaking in disbelief.
Marie.
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Chapter End Notes:
Annnnnddd I’ve been holding onto this secret since chapter two. I’m excited to finally share it with you, my friends. More details to come. I ain’t leavin’ you hanging! Chapter 21 up by the end of the week.