She'd been expecting a bigger place, not this small community of only thirty buildings strung out along a forested roadway. There wasn't even a motel here, they were sleeping outdoors, the truck hidden they'd been watching the small townsfolk doing their usual business for two days now. It was a quiet place, no one looked odd, no one looked out of place, it was peaceful, calm, no picket fences but the porches at night glowed with a light that seemed to burn to her bones when it hit her skin.
The only clinic here was a small surgery, it's doctor doing general practice, Logan had shadowed him home while she'd been watching the practice after hours for movement. They'd found nothing, absolutely nothing, not even a trace of mutant activity. She'd wanted to leave when it was evident that they'd been given false intel but Logan was adamant they stay. His twitchy nerves had had her own reacting to his annoyance and paranoia, she'd kept herself to herself these last two nights.
Frustration beginning to make her own anger peak at the orders Logan put her through, she'd been watching the medical centre. Laid out on the warm ground; spring growth hiding her shape on the rise above the building when she caught a vision she'd thought she'd never see.
Emma Frost.
Emma Frost, a rival to Xavier, having her own school somewhere in the mid-west, her head tried to remember what she'd read about her in her research of other mutant factions moving in the underground. All she knew was that she was a powerful telepath and telekine, dropping her form even further into the ground she kept her eyes locked onto the new player in the game. Emma was dressed down, her jeans still looked expensive, as were her boots, but her demeanor from the looks of it was friendly. Something about her being there disturbed her somehow, the man she was holding by the arm was the doctor of the place. He was smiling and pointing toward the small church that lay only half a mile away. Emma let go of his arm her eyes scanning the horizon, Marie kept her mind blank as the gaze swept over her hidden form. When she was sure Emma wouldn't find her she shifted back from the edge her mind a tumble of questions as she went to inform Logan.
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Wolverine had found the boy, the scent of him had been hard to track down but it had been worth the effort. The kid was scrawny, soft shoulder length hair dropping down narrow shoulders that had yet to fill out. He was stood in the small quiet area that was at the back of the church. His hands filled with a shovel and gloves, the evidence of his work there in the midday sun. A dark hole gaping in the warm sunlight, the earth deep and rich sending a smell of decay to him in his hidden place. Just behind a stand of maple kneeling to the damp ground, hands wrapped around the strudy trunks next to him. Biding his time, watching the boy dig the grave he'd soon be occupying. Tensing himself he waited, the day would be over soon,once the boy turned his back it'd be over. He'd make it look like an animal attack, brutal and vicious, dragging the kid out into the forest before finishing him.
Eyes narrowing further as the boy stopped working, his head snapping up as someone called his name out. A low growl filling his chest as the priest came around the corner of the church with someone else in tow. They both approached the boy, the priest with his black raven clothing the woman by his side shining out against his drab coverings. Her hair a near white blonde, her gaze going over the boy quickly before her gaze snapped to where he was hiding. A sudden intrusion in his head making his blades fire into the tree and soil. He was about to move when he smelt Marie approaching, growling still he heard the woman talk to the priest, asking if they could continue inside. Watching silently as they all moved inside the church, the boy smiling as the beauty who'd offered her arm to him shifted him away from the death he'd had planned for him. Turning to see Marie's face pale and her scent confused he pulled them back into the forest further. They'd watch and wait, the job was still on, they *had* to complete it otherwise Xavier would suspect them both. They needed time to get the team first before they went after him. Things had become a little harder that's all and he'd never said it would be easy.
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Logan was quiet when they got back to their camp but she knew he was seething inside, making plans, reassessing the job they had to do. If need be he'd kill the entire place to hide what he was being asked to do but to her they'd been given a chance.
Emma Frost was a mutant like them, all intents and purposes against Xavier and his 'theories' about human and mutant relations. She was obviously here for the kid too, but Emma's alliances weren't known to her for that she'd have to meet her. And if things went sour she'd have to kill not just the boy but Emma as well. Turning to Logan who'd been unpacking some food for them she gave her thoughts some air.
"Logan, ah know who she is, the woman who came for the kid." His eyes lifted up from the food and met hers with an open curiosity, his hands offered her the driedmeat as she continued. "Her names Emma Frost, she runs another school for mutants somewhere in the mid-west. Xavier has a file on her, she runs guerrilla groups as far as the information goes. How much of it is true ah'm not sure, but her people have met up with the X-Men before, kicked their asses as ah remember." Logan raised an eyebrow as if to say 'as if it were difficult to beat that lot'. Marie felt herself wanting to defend them but quickly squashed the feeling. "Ah know, they're not that hard to beat if you know their weak spots. Emma keeps her profile low in the mutant community, Xavier thinks she's working for Magneto but ah've never found any evidence of it. After all ah was his little ferret for intel on Ol'Buckethead." Logan's face almost broke into a smile and she felt her skin flush with heat as she realised it was what her inner Logan called Magneto. Clearing her throat she broached the question she'd been dreading the answer to.
"What we gonna do Logan? Are we gonna do it or are we gonna find what she's doing here and what she wants with the kid?"
He kept silent as he chewed on the dried meat, his teeth glinting in the sunlight as it dappled the ground around them. Thinking he stood up, turning to the church below them, nodding at the large structure, voice low and thoughts still thundering through his mind.
"She won't leave just yet, it's not safe. She sensed me watching the kid, she'll wait for back up if she's as smart as you say she is." When he turned back round to face her his face was split into a wide grin, the mirth never reaching the cold darkness in his eyes. Pushing the last of the dried meat into his mouth he motioned to the church, "Lets go pray for our souls and pay her a visit before the cavalry arrive." Butterflies twitching in her stomach Marie nodded and follwed him back down toward the town one way or another they were doing 'business' today.
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"I'm only saying this as a warning minister, the man who's out there has no qualms about killing you or the child your sheltering. He's a lapdog, a killer for hire and he's been sent out after Thomas, there are some people, some mutants who see his power as a burden. An uncontrollable force that can't be directed by anyone but the boy himself and it's that thing alone that this man wants to kill Thomas for. Not what he'd done but what he *could* do, that's why I'm here. I'm offering a safe place, a place where he can grow up the way he wants to without being told to behave carefully or squash what God made him into."
They'd picked the locks at the back of the church, pitiful really when she'd looked at them, they wouldn't keep anyone out but here she guessed no one ever thought of robbing the church. Moving quietly through the empty pews and apse they'd gone toward the only source of light in the place. Behind the altar, a small door leading to the priests chambers and it was this they were listening behind.
Emma had been talking quietly, trying to convince the priest of the danger surrounding the boy and the community around them by keeping him here any longer. When she heard Logan described as a lapdog she bristled, her fists forming on instinct alone but Logan was calm, poised, composed. Standing up he took the door handle in his grip and turned it slowly, it was locked but it didn't last long against his strength.
The view that met their eyes was one they were unprepared for, the priest was sitting on a small bed with the boy. His pale young face turned to the floor as if he was carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders. Emma was drawing a gun as they entered, pointing it directly at Logan's skull, her features pinched but she was staying firm. The priest was the first to speak, his tone one of apeasement, "Please, this is a house of God! There's no need for this in here!" Emma kept her gun raised but looked at Marie who's hands were now down by her sides clenching and unclenching. Not daring to move in the small space unless Emma put a bullet through Logan's eye. She had no doubt he'd heal but the pain and time it would take to heal would cost them both dear.
Marie put her hand on Logan's arm, "Logan?" Backing up a little making sure he was between Marie and the gun still in Emma's grip. Emma lowered the weapon to her hip, the barrel still pointing in his direction.
"So, this is 'The Wolverine' I've been hearing about, you're a hard man to track down for a lapdog of Xavier's." The words flew out of her mouth before she could stop them.
"He's no one's 'lapdog' Miss Emma Frost!" The look of surprise passed her face quickly replaced by a quirky smile.
"It looks like we all know who we're dealing with then doesn't it?" Her cool gaze dropped onto her own and she felt Emma's probing of her mind. Snarling she threw up everything Logan had told her to if she met Xavier, the pain, the torture, the loneliness, the ache of suffering that still echoed through nerves. All of this she dumped into Emma's probing mind, the confusion was enough for Logan to act. He tore the gun out of her hand, the other wrapping around her throat as he pushed her to the wall. The priest covered the young boy with his own body to shelter him just in case the gun was fired by mistake.
Marie put herself with the priest and the boy, defending them from the other side as Logan secured Emma. The gun gone across the floor into the church properly Logan turned to talk to the woman he had by the neck. Looking back at her he noticed her skin was translucent as was the rest of her face, it was as if he was holding warm ice. The petite smile on her lips was one that infuriated him and his claws sang out, bringing them upto her neck he pushed one close to her pulse. "Nice trick, won't stop you dyin' though."
Emma tried to laugh but his grip stopped the sound. "Diamond skin, your claws wouldn't even get through it. I'm invulnerable like this you *can't* hurt me." Logan could scent her confidence even as he pressed his claws under her chin, felt the resistance of her skin against the sharpness of his claws.
Rumbling out to Emma, "Adamantium beats diamond darlin'; diamond chips, this just cuts through anything in the way."
Emma's face became still, her eyes focussed on Logan's face before switching to the group on the small bed. Unwrapping themselves now that the threat of gunfire was gone, the boy finally having the strength to speak.
"Let her go." Marie looked at the boy's face, he was thin, not emaciated but skinny, his eyes were ringed with dark circles. He'd been out on the road a while, his hands raw with blisters and callouses, just by the way he held himself she knew he'd been on the wrong end of a few fights. "I'll go with you if you'll let her go. I don't care anymore, if it means you won't hurt her I'll do what you want." Marie could see the muscle of Logan's back shift, he'd won, the way he moved, the way he smelled, everything about him told her that if he took him outside he'd kill him. Quick and clean but he'd be dead as sure as the sun would rise tomorrow. Grabbing the boys hand she took in his thoughts, his powers to an extent and saw what he was giving up.
Life on the road, too many stops, too many people, too much to cope with, so much energy filling his body he sparked, grounding it where he could, desperate for help but finding nothing but hatred. Pain, hunger, betrayal, his gift out of control as he killed a field of animals, lightning from his skin arcing into the world destruction so great it could destroy a city. Needing to be free, to be alone, to be *safe* where he couldn't harm anyone, knowing he had someone or something to rely on if he needed it. Family faces turned from love to hate as they learned his truth, the pain of seperation the hurt of the miles as he'd walked across three states. Dodging police, gangs of roving men, drunks and weirdo's, just trying to find somewhere, anywhere. Then here, the priest being kind, offering help, offering a hand, showing care, showing love, the doctor testing him, learning about his power, how it affects him. How his emotions power it, his body a battery storing energy to release it when he needed to. But he was too disturbed to control it, too many things inside his head to cope with it all, too much pain, too much isolation and now this, he'd brought all this here, he'd disturbed the peace, shattered it with him being here, depression so great it filled her heart until she felt it begin to slow, the beat of it echoing in her ears until she heard it stop. Light fading in her sight as she faded from the world, the howl of Wolverine in her mind vying with Logan in her mind as she drifted off into the welcoming darkness. There was no pain, no hurt, no anything, only weightlessness.
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He didn't hear her drop, but he did feel the loss of her presence immediately, her skin beginning to pallor along with the boy next to her. The priest trying to shake them both awake but the scent of death was all over the boy. Dropping Emma he was over to Marie like a shot, pulling her away and onto the floor. Dropping onto her, touching her skin with his own, feeling the tingling draw from her mutation as the colour returned to her skin. When her eyes opened she just gripped onto him like death, he'd been shaken, she'd wanted to go, she'd wanted to die and she'd been touching the boy.
Looking over he saw Emma and the priest trying to revive him, everything they did for him made his stomach shift. They were still trying when Marie forced her head out of Logan's arm, "Stop, let him go. He doesn't want to be here anymore, for god's sake let him go!" She let the tears flow from her, the pain of his life being emptied from her with each one. Logan wrapped around her protectively guarding her against the other two in the room.
Over the next hour she let them all hear his life, his pain, the things he'd done, the memories she'd taken from him. The eventual slide into darkness, his switching off of his life until there was nothing left but calmness and weightlessness. The priest laid the boy out on the bed beginning his liturgy for a fallen soul, Emma looked on with a hidden steel in her gaze as the priest finished his words. They all left the room; the priest locking it back up as they walked into the church proper. He left them alone in the stone and clapboard building, Emma still lost in her thoughts and Logan still holding onto her tightly as they walked down the centre of the pews. Just before they left Emma spoke to them both, "Next time you come between me and someone Wolverine I'll shoot first and ask questions later. He could've been safe with me, had a life, but you and your 'mate' had to kill him didn't you?"
Logan was about to answer when Marie beat him to it, "You really think that don't ya? That ah wanted to hurt him, well ah didn't ah wanted to protect him just as much as you did. Not everyone who works for that bastard likes what they have to do." Emma turned round completely and this time when she probed her mind Marie let her see what had happened to her, what had driven her to the arms of Logan, what they meant to each other and what it meant for Xavier. A small smile was on her face when she turned back, her voice carrying over the silence that filled the now darkening church.
"God go with you Rogue, you'll need it if you do what your planning. I might keep an eye on you both, just in case." With that she turned back round and let them leave unmolested.
Within the hour they were on the road and away, heading for 'home', Logan was silent all the way to the small motel six they stopped at to sleep. When she'd showered she found him waiting in bed for her, arms open and a needy look in his gaze. He'd nearly lost her today and he needed to touch her as much as she needed to touch him. The mission was over but they still had to talk about this, they had someone who knew about their plans. Someone who could be a bonus or a risk to them both, they had to find out as much as possible about Emma Frost and her school. That meant going home and using the research there, something neither of them wanted to do but it made sense to both of them.
They'd been given a way to help the kids Logan was sent to kill but she still had to find out why he'd agreed to do it in the first place. This was one conversation that would wait until they were on the road, difficult ones always went better when they were driving. Snuggling down she let herself drift off, recapturing for a moment the utter nothing of the boys experience given to her earlier. It gave her respite from the dreams that sometimes haunted her mind, letting her rest after the painful day.
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Author's Chapter Notes:
The kid is found, the deal done but not everyone comes out of this unscathed.