Several hours later, the girl was asleep as Sabertooth pulled into the driveway of the place he was fairly certain he would not be welcome. At the very least though he needed to let them know he had taken care of the threat.
He pulled up out front of the large log cabin, spotting Logan pausing to observe his approach where he was digging a trench from the garage to the house. He could see Rogue in the fenced yard, eyeing him warily, with a tiny baby in her arms; he hadn't known they'd had another baby, no wonder Logan had been so angry about him being there. Logan confronted him the minute he stepped out of the truck, his slamming door waking his sleeping passenger.
"It's taken care of, I left the prisoners and the records for the X-Men, took out everyone else, the guy running the place was one William Stryker, don’t know if you remember him, he's been a thorn in our side since he found out about us, he's taken care of, you'll need to get Xavier to see if the chain of command went any higher and how the program was being funded--" the rest of his statement was cut off by the rush of wind and muffled roar of jet engines as one of the X-Jets floated in over the treetops and down into the clearing.
Sabretooth snorted in amusement when he saw two little scruffy heads pop over the fence, as the two little brothers watched the plane in wide-eyed awe. "Looks like they didn't get your dislike of all things to do with flying," he commented dryly.
"How do you know I don't like flying?" Logan queried, the first words he had spoken so far, as his scowl darkened.
"I don’t remember what happened between us to put us at odds but you're still my brother, I remember enough," Sabretooth replied, almost sounding sad. "Well, I'll leave you to it I guess, don’t want to overstay my welcome," he muttered turning to get back in the truck when he heard footsteps rushing up behind him. The last thing he wanted right now was another laser punt from the X-men leader, broken ribs were a pain in the ass to set right.
"Did you do that, the whole base, single handedly!?" a shocked voice caused him to pause; Sabretooth just grinned darkly and nodded as he turned toward the younger man. "But ... how?"
"I know Mystique always thought of me as nothing more than muscle for the grunt work but after two world wars, and multiple other militaristic commands, through multiple other conflicts, I do have extensive strategic combat experience, and folks are generally too preoccupied when you cut off their oxygen to put up much of a fight, the biggest problem with an underground base,” he shared with a sneer and a dismissive shrug, continuing back to his truck.
"Wait, don't go," the X-Men team leader added. "Logan, I know you and Rogue don't want him in your home but what we found concerns him too," Scott continued, when Logan growled warningly.
Rogue had approached cautiously during the exchange, and Creed didn’t dare attempt to approach. She still had the newborn baby in her arms, from the pinks and purples the tiny form was wrapped in he was going to assume it was a girl. Sabretooth watched as the pair held a silent conversation, before Rogue nodded minutely. When Logan relaxed he knew he had been given permission to stay, for now.
"If it's not too much to ask, seeing as I'm here for a bit, can the girl get a shower?" He nodded to the girl, still watching the scene intently from the front seat of the truck.
"You find a new toy?" Logan sneered derisively, when he spotted the girl.
Sabretooth grimaced. "I deserved that... She followed me from the lab, don't know why, I killed half a dozen people right in front of her, but apparently I was the better option than waiting for them-" he gestured toward the jet- "I haven't been able to stop anywhere yet for her to clean herself up and--"
"Yes, that’ll be fine, tell her to come in I'll get her sorted," Rogue spoke for the first time, before turning and walking back to the house, she was obviously uncomfortable with having him there but trying to hide it.
He moved to the passenger door of the truck, instructing the girl to follow 'the girl with the baby', and she would get her a shower. The girl cautiously began toward the house, pausing to look back to him every few steps. She seemed relieved when the whole group of men standing around the truck, all began to move toward the house also.
She almost tripped over two little boys who came tearing out of the house, yelling 'sowwy' behind them as they rushed up to one of the men and each grabbed onto one of his legs. She smiled at said man's complaints at the action, even though he continued to tramp back to the cabin, dragging the two boys along for the ride.
The woman with the baby was down the hallway, popping her head out at the commotion before motioning for her to follow. The bathroom was large and bright, with a huge shower, the mother was laying out towels and wash cloths, shampoo, body wash, and other items she thought the girl might need.
"I'll grab you a change of clothes too," she added with a friendly, if somewhat strained, smile.
"You don't like him," the girl stated bluntly.
Marie's smile faltered. "He did something horrible to me and I really don't feel comfortable being around him," she replied matter of factly.
"He's changed," the girl whispered, as Marie turned to leave the room.
"That doesn't undo what he did," she stated softly in response.
"He wishes he could," the girl replied quietly, a knowledge in her eyes that Marie had seen before; if she had to guess the girl was either a telepath or some form of empath.
"I'll leave the clothes outside the door," was all she could come up with to reply.
She made her way upstairs, ignoring the men as they walked in, she could see Ororo approaching the house from the jet. She hurriedly dug out some of her old clothes that had been relegated to the nostalgia section if her wardrobe, they still fit her, when she wasn’t pregnant, they just weren't practical for breastfeeding babies. Taking an outfit back downstairs, she placed it outside the door of the bathroom, before joining the crowd in the kitchen.
The boys were sitting at the coffee table drinking cocoa and munching on cookies while they coloured pictures, neither seemed disturbed by the stranger in their midst. Logan and Scott were fixing drinks for everyone else, while Ororo made a beeline to Marie to fuss over the new baby. Sabretooth meanwhile was sitting at the table trying to avoid eye contact with anyone but particularly her, he was closely watching Liam though.
They all took seats around the table, Logan and Marie on one side, Scott and Ororo on the other with Sabretooth at one end. Then Ororo began to speak.
"We were able to uncover all the records from the lab, this group has been experimenting on mutants for a very long time, including you Logan, and you Victor," Ororo addressed Sabretooth, as she handed each man a file, loaded with notes.
Logan leafed through his file, noting the x-rays and file notes from the eighties, relating to the metal bonding process, notes about memory wiping and mind control attempts. A file note halfway through suggested they believed he was deceased, though no explanation was given for how that might have occurred. That the file continued after he was marked deceased was concerning and he leafed through the remaining pages. There were references to DNA splicing attempts, and more recently to cloning and breeding attempts.
Logan paled as reached the last page which triumphantly declared;
'Breeding attempt 64.
Viable foetus post first trimester.
Viable foetus post second trimester, growth rate elevated.
30 weeks - Mutation stabilization procedure, begun.
34 weeks - Mutation stabilization procedure, complete.
36 weeks - Mutation activated.
36 weeks, 2 days - Pre-term delivery, foetus self-caesarean.
Claws, present.
Healing ability, active.
Control, minimal - neonate triggering release of claws but no discernible pattern or trigger.
Maternal link severed - female deceased.
Procedure successful.
Future recommendations: Delay mutation activation until post-birth.'
"This appears to be saying these fuckers were 'breeding' mutants," Logan commented shakily, as he passed the file to Marie for her to read. He didn't know whether to be terrified or furious, it seemed he had at least one more child.
"Not only you," Victor replied, snapping shut his own file with a furious snarl.
"Yes, we recovered two infants, less than two months old, Jean ran bloodwork on them first thing, the results... well, see for yourselves," Ororo handed each man a sheet of paper.
"Where are the babies?" Marie asked, she didn't need to see the DNA results to know what the implication was.
"We have brought both with us, they're still on the jet, Kitty's with them, we wanted to break the news gently. The mother of Logan's child is dead, as the child's father, Logan, you are its legal guardian, we assumed the two of you would want to raise the child, we brought the other because we simply didn't know what else to do with him, the mother refuses to have anything to do with him, as far as she is concerned, understandably, the child is the culmination of every bad thing that happened to her in that place, it doesn't help that the baby has claws, and fangs, and when the baby couldn't stomach formula, they strapped her down and forced her to breastfeed, it seems the baby reacted to her fear and fought against her as much as the doctors, bit and scratched her up pretty badly, how they eventually fed the child we're not entirely sure--"
"I did.” The girl Victor had brought with him spoke as she emerged from the hallway. She was clean, pale freckled skin glowing, brown hair still dark but now red and grease free, and eyes sparkling brightly at the amazing feeling of finally, after months, being clean. "I suppose I should introduce myself, my name is Anna," she said, as she crossed the room and took a seat between Logan and Victor.
Marie got to her feet, finally comfortable enough to put Keaira down, she placed her in her basket on the kitchen counter as she got the girl some food and a drink.
"My mutation is a form of touch empathy, I can read people's emotions and emotion-based thoughts, in the case of the, uh, let's go all Star Wars and call them the weak minded, I can influence emotions, the doctors used me to calm the babies down so they could be fed, in the end they decided rather than getting me to calm them and a third party to feed them, they would just manipulate my hormones until I lactated and get me to do the feeding too." The girl paused to thank Marie for the food she set down in front of her.
"Jean said the boys are borderline malnourished," Ororo advised concerned.
"Yeah, well, that's what happens when you don't feed people properly," the girl replied, around a mouthful of stew. "Also, my mutation when I use it to calm them, makes them sleepy and they don't feed well, they need to be fed by someone who actually makes them calm by appealing to their senses rather than manipulating their emotions, that was never going to happen in the lab though, everyone was too scared, and the doctors and soldiers were too angry."
"That makes sense," Marie commented, noting Victor was oddly quiet.
"Well, we weren't expecting Victor to be here but seeing as how you are, as the father you are--" Ororo began.
"No," Victor replied immediately, "I can't take the kid, I can barely look after myself, I don’t *want* to look after myself, there is no way that is a good situation for a kid. I know- I know I don’t have any right to ask," he started, turning to Logan and Marie, "But would you take him, at least then he can grow up with..." he broke off before mentioning Liam.
"Family?" Logan suggested, receiving a hopeful nod in return. "I don't know--" Logan began, only to be interrupted by Marie.
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