"Morning," Logan gloated, as he shoved a freeze-dried ration through the purpose-built slot in the door of the quarantine-slash-holding cell. Sabretooth growled at him irritably but made no move to take the food.

"I can't help thinking about yesterday, you got outsmarted by a goddamn three-year-old," Logan didn’t even bother to try and suppress the chuckle that burst out of him.

"Well I didn't realise he had fucking claws did I, what kind of fucked up three-year-old has fucking claws?" Sabretooth replied irritably, finally taking the food.

"A three-year-old we picked up from a lab," Logan replied seriously.

"Shit," Sabretooth muttered, glancing at him apologetically. His current attitude could almost lead one to think he was a normal human being rather than a raving psychopath. "How long was he in there?"

"Almost a year, Ava was only a couple of months, managed to get to Caleb before the lab found him," Logan replied, pulling up a seat opposite him but on the outside of the cell.

"There's another one! Shit, you were busy," Sabretooth chuckled.

"That’s nothing, me and Rogue gonna add a couple more in the next few years, thanks to you being a complete failure of a kidnapper, what do you want with her anyway?" Logan asked, getting to the point of his visit.

"I was just the merc given the job, a very lucrative contract to get anywhere near you... Mystique rebuilt the machine, wanted to test it out again, needed the girl to do it. Where is she anyway?" Sabretooth asked confused.

"Rogue?" Logan asked, not planning on telling him she was right around the corner.

"Nah, 'Stique, you did get her didn't you?" he asked, "She didn't look in a good way once your girl was done with her."

"Yeah, Rogue fucked her up real good, it was touch and go if she would walk again for a while there, she's elsewhere, also detained, you're only here because this is the 'special' cell, don't count on getting out, this thing would hold me," Logan told him. "Where's the machine?"

Sabretooth grinned as he shook his head. "That's gonna cost you," he replied.

"What exactly would that information be worth?" Logan asked directly.

"Hmm, let me think... a million bucks... my pick of a car from this place's garage, and... an hour with the life sucker," he chuckled at Logan's growl.

Logan didn't respond further to the last comment. "How about we withhold your involvement in the Liberty Island incident from the prosecutor? ... I'll even sweeten the pot; we'll also withhold the evidence of your involvement in the murder of Senator Kelly's aide?"

"Wasn't that the poor guy who got mauled by that bear?" Sabretooth mocked.

"Yeah, a bear smart enough to wear gloves to hide his paw prints - but not smart enough to shave beforehand to avoid shedding all over the place," Logan replied pointedly.

"Oops," Sabretooth answered, with a fanged grin. When Logan didn't comment further, he rolled his eyes before adding, "It was on North Brother Island when I saw it last."

"The abandoned hospital island on East River?" Logan asked, how they'd managed to be messing around on the island with no one noticing was something that would need to be looked into.

"Yeah, 'hospital'," Sabretooth replied with a dark chuckle.

"I don't know if I want to know what follows that comment," Logan replied.

"You do, but you don't, it was at one-point part of a network of labs run by the guy who gave you the metal," Sabretooth replied.

"... How do you know that?" Logan asked after a moment.

"Because I was there, the name of the guy you've been looking for is Stryker, I believe he's a General now, he's still running the program, I'm going to have to assume the labs that held your kids were his, not sure who else would know about you..." Sabretooth was interrupted by a voice from down the hall, that frantically yelled for Logan.

Logan immediately stood to leave the room, throwing over his shoulder a sarcastic, "Don't go anywhere."

--

"What is it?" Logan asked, walking to the communications office where Rogue and Kitty had been watching his interaction with Sabretooth on the CCTV cameras.

"Is that what I think it is?" Kitty asked, pointing to two objects on the long-range radar.

"They look like military transports..." Logan said, scowling at the screen, "Can you enhance?" Kitty hit a few keys; the image enhanced a small amount but not enough to be certain. Logan's next question was where did they come from, a quick track back showed them coming from well outside of the long-range radar.

"See if you can pick up any chatter, it may just be a coincidence they're headed in this direction," Logan shrugged, "Keep an eye on them, let me know if they get within twenty clicks."

He wandered back down to the holding cell, shaking his head with a grin when he walked in on Sabretooth trying to cut into the door hinges. "I told you, that'll even hold me, and you don't have indestructible metal claws," he said, as he sat back down. Sabretooth gave one last slam to the transparent wall before he too sat back down.

"So, what else have you come to pick my brains over?" the burly mutant asked, reclining on the bed.

"Was anyone watching the Brotherhood that you know of?" he asked.

Sabretooth turned to him, brow cocked. "Someone like?"

"Military. Could be nothing but they're currently heading direct for us right now," Logan told him.

"Nope, the coastguard was getting curious about what was going on on the island, but one of the mutants 'Stique recruited could make mirages and disguised our presence, you don't think it could be..." Sabretooth started.

"Police reports from James' kidnapping," Logan commented, "If someone's watching they could have put two and two together."

"The fuck did you get the cops involved?" Sabretooth growled, sitting back up as he shook his head angrily.

"I wasn't the fuckwit that kidnapped a kid from the info kiosk, in plain sight of a dozen surveillance cameras, mall security called the cops, we didn't have a choice but to talk to them," Logan growled back, feeling the fury and worry from the day before rush through him again. Sabretooth had the good sense not to dig himself a bigger hole there, and remained silent.

"Proximity alert!" Kitty called from down the hall.

"Still on course?" Logan asked back, receiving an immediate affirmative. "Alert Chuck and call an immediate evac, make it clear this is not a drill. Rogue, get you and the kids out," he ordered, as Kitty and Rogue both rushed out of the communications room as an alarm began to sound throughout the building.

As he was getting ready to leave the room Sabretooth stopped him. "I can help."

"What's it going to cost?" Logan replied snarkily.

"Consider it me repaying a debt, fixing a fuck up," Sabretooth answered.

"I don't trust you," Logan replied, as he continued out of the room.

"You don't have to trust me to accept my help, you can't face off against fifty plus of the best of the best, if that is Stryker, or someone connected to him, they only use the best, that's why we were on his team back in the day, until he screwed us both over, the enemy of an enemy and all that shit... let me help Jimmy, I swear to god I'll never take another contract that puts you or your family in danger, if I'd known he was your kid and she was your mate I wouldn't have taken it this time," the feral tried to reason.

Logan pulled his comm out of his pocket, fitting it to his ear as he glared at him. "Shadowcat, update?"

"Evacuation complete, all students are in the tunnels, the team's in the locker suiting up, are you coming?" Kitty asked.

"Yeah, what about the incoming?" Logan asked, still eyeing Sabretooth warily.

"Choppers are on the ground, they - they're everywhere Logan, there must be at least fifty and they're armed to the teeth," Kitty replied, fear beginning to seep into her tone.

"Get the team to cover the evac, me and an enemy of an enemy will take care of the military, keep an eye on our progress but don't send anyone else out unless it looks like we've been overpowered," he ordered, keying in the code to open the cell door.

"Don't make me regret this," Logan warned him, stopping his progress with a trio of claws pressed up against his chest in warning. With a nod Sabretooth waited for instruction before they both headed to the elevator.

"Happy hunting," Sabretooth growled, as the elevator came to a stop, on the second floor so they could get a jump on those already on the ground floor.

--

Half an hour later Logan surveyed the carnage that was the battlefield. Every soldier was dead, both choppers were disabled, though fixable if the Professor had something to use them for. Sabretooth had disappeared the minute the last soldier fell, that hadn't surprised him, it was the likely result of letting him out. On the off chance he was still close enough to hear Logan called out, "Threaten my family again and I won't be taking you prisoner next time."

A gruff, "Understood," crackled over the radio of a nearby fallen soldier.

With an amused grin at the guys ingenuity, Logan activated his own comm, giving the all clear to the team. They appeared almost immediately, ignoring the carnage as they began to remove bodies and severed limbs to easy to dispose of piles.

"Where is Sabretooth?" Scott asked, looking around warily.

"Gone," Logan replied, "Fair enough I suppose, he helped save our asses after all."

"He kidnapped your son and you're happy to just let it go?" Jean asked shocked, then suddenly realized she was holding a severed arm, she quickly threw it into a pile, shaking her hand as she shuddered.

"We have an understanding," Logan answered, "He doesn't try it again and I won't kill him. Besides, he wasn't kidding when he said he hates this guy, the one who sent these goons, I would imagine he's on his way to track them down to settle a personal score, I imagine we'll see him, and need his help again, soon." At the incredulous looks shot at him he added, "I'm not too proud to let some things slide, James wasn't hurt, neither was Rogue, there are some situations that guy would be an asset, and now that we know what motivates him, we can exploit it."

It took a moment before everyone shook off their shock, shrugged, and got back on with the clean-up. All the bodies were loaded into one of the choppers, the plan was to get the chopper flying again then ditch it somewhere in the ocean, or maybe crash it into the desert, they'd decide in the next day or so. Once the bodies were gone, the students were allowed out of the evacuation tunnels to help with the washing up.

Most of the violent dismembering had been done outside so hosing off the patio and the yard was enough, though it was unlikely anyone would be using them for several weeks at least. Inside was mainly sweeping up broken glass and the odd blood puddle.

Rogue pulled Logan aside as soon as they could get away from the kids, and grilled him on Sabretooth again.

"Marie, I wouldn't have let him go if I thought there would be any danger to you, it's me he has a problem a with, he's agreed to keep you and the kids out of his sights, at worst I'll probably have to kick his ass from time to time, honestly though it's kind of pointless because neither of us appear to be able to kill each other, though I did tell him I'd find a way if he ever came anywhere near the rest of you. Trust me darlin," Logan finished the conversation.

"I know you don't like it when I get hurt and you know what, I don't like it when you get hurt either... but I do trust you, I just hope this doesn't come back to bite us in the ass," Rogue replied, as she followed him back to help finish the clean-up.

A few minutes later she giggled. "Logan, you're just making more for us to clean, go have a shower and wash all that blood off," she pointed out, before shooing him off up the stairs.

--

The next morning the team was holding a meeting trying to decide what to do with the chopper full of bodies parked on the lawn. The second chopper had already been carefully moved into the hanger, alongside the jet, and been stripped down to bare bones to be rebuilt at a later date.

"I've got a location on where they came from, one of our field ops is running surveillance now to gather intel," Scott advised, he and Kitty had had to hack into several air traffic radars to track back the choppers to a facility in Kentucky.

"What is the official purpose of the facility?" Logan asked, glancing at the aerial photos, clearly there was more to the facility underground.

"Standard 'research and development' tag," Scott replied, a split second before the door flew open.

"I'm coming on this one," Rogue said as she took a seat, handing over a sheaf of papers to Scott who began to peruse them with interest.

"Rogue, it's too dangerous-" Logan began.

"It's not up for debate Logan, things have changed," she replied, as Scott handed the papers to Logan.

"It seems Stryker is the beginning and end of the research and development arm of mutant experimentation for military purposes, shutting him down will throw the program into disarray, taking or destroying their research will set the program back a good forty years. This new intel suggests this is Stryker's main hub, this is where all operations are coordinated through, and where the main research servers are stored. Everyone's coming on this one, be ready to leave at twenty-two hundred," Scott ordered.

As everyone disbursed Logan caught Rogue's arm. "Darlin you don’t have to do this, what about the kids?"

"They're already arranged to have a pizza party and sleepover with Caleb and Sarah, we'll be back before they have time to miss us, and we're going to shut this down once and for all-" Rogue choked up, tears welling in her eyes.

"What do you mean... Marie, what else did you find?" Logan asked, watching the devastation peeking through the cracks in her calm, confident exterior.

She shook her head before she took his hand, and led him to the communications room where she had been researching. There was another stack of papers, this set in several folders and tied shut with string

"This is you Logan, this is your life, I - I managed to crack their firewall, this is every scrap of information Stryker had on you... this, is your past Logan ... I don’t think you should look in here until after the mission, I don’t want it to throw you off, I don’t want it to distract you ... I won't make that decision for you though so, take it or leave it," she finished in a hurry as she spun around and ran from the room, the scent of tears following her.

Logan considered the file for a minute before he too turned and walked out of the room, whatever was in there was obviously going to be big, something that would take some time to digest. He had asked Rogue to trust him the day before and that trust went both ways, so he would trust her now and wait.

Rogue hadn't got far; she was in the women's locker room trying to calm her breathing down. As soon as she saw him step into the room she brightened as she launched herself at him and hugged him tightly. "I'm sorry, I know you've been looking for so long and-"

"What's a few more hours going to matter, after all, I've been waiting seventeen years so far, this will be a drop in the bucket. Is this why you wanted to come, you wanted to keep an eye on me?" Logan asked with a grin.

"Not exactly, there's going to be closure here, that we both need," Rogue answered, at his questioning look she continued. "You remember Sergeant Connors?"

"The limp dick bastard who brutalized my daughter? Yeah, kinda hard to forget," Logan growled.

"He goes by the code name Hellhound, when he was thrown out by the doctors for what he did to Ava he was transferred back... to Stryker's personal guard," Rogue stated.

It took a moment for Logan to register what she was saying. "He's going to be there?"

She nodded in confirmation. "Stryker is on site now, for the rest of the week, his personal guard is four strong, when he's on base they usually work in pairs so he may not be with Stryker when you get to him, this is a picture of him," she added, pulling a folded piece of paper out of her pocket.

Logan studied the face of the man photographed, the face that still haunted his daughter's dreams regularly. Once he had every feature committed to memory, he folded it again and tucked it into his pocket. "I need to make a call," he said, as he made for the communications room again.

He shoved the file across the desk as he pulled out the radio he'd snagged off the soldier’s body the day before, hopefully Sabretooth still had the other one. He clicked the radio, using Morse code to transmit the first word that popped into his head.

"Really? Bat? Is that some sort of secret code?" Marie asked, confused. A moment later a response came through, turned out it was, and the response was 'balls'. Logan then transmitted a nine second silence with a two second release, followed by a four second silence. A single click was received in response and Logan switched to a civilian channel.

"So, you can't even remember your name but old no memories Jim can remember Morse code, the code word, and lane switching, you are full of surprises," Sabretooth’s voice crackled over the line.

"Apparently so, where are you?" Logan asked, receiving a response he continued. "We've found Oz, the twister goes through tonight, Dorothy is there, if you meet us there, I'll let you have him so long as you leave his bodyguards for me, one in particular. We got a deal?"

"Hell yeah, when and where?" Sabretooth replied, almost sounding like an excited kid on Christmas morning. The details were set up in a mix of word code and Morse before they both signed off.

"The Wizard of Oz?" Rogue asked curiously, “Why the Wizard of Oz?"

"I can't remember," Logan replied, with a shrug and a chuckle. Pulling her toward him he wrapped his arms around her, "You're still coming aren't you, nothing I can do to change your mind?"

"Yes, I'm coming, and not a thing," Rogue replied firmly.

"Well then, we'd best get some rest then, I want you bright eyed and bushy tailed all night, and you stay on my six from the second we get off the jet, you understand?" he stated back, just as firmly.

"Yes sir," Rogue replied, only mildly sarcastically, laughing as he spanked her playfully before tossing her over his shoulder and carrying her up to their room.
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