She stood up feeling stronger than in ages. Everything was suddenly so alive and clear. Logan lay at her feet shivering, clutching his still sluggishly bleeding wrist, trying to stem the blood flow. She wanted to run and dance, laugh and embrace the darkness waiting outside. Small giggle bubbled from her lips and she spun around wildly, discarding Logan’s jacket.
Enraged snarl made her froze.
“Fuck…” Logan swore. She turned to look at him. He was crawling towards his jacket she had thrown in to corner.
“Wolf… It’s… It’s rising…”
Wolverine was coming. Yellow glow was spreading rapidly in his eyes, engulfing hazel. Fast. Too fast.
”Cure… There’s one vial left, in the pocket…” She couldn’t move. Wouldn’t move. Blood was in her veins. It was in her head. It made everything hazy and distorted, yet giving unbelievable clarity at the same time. Wolf was coming. Let it come. She would take care of it. She would take care of it, and after she was through with it, there were very little it…
“Run!” Logan’s horrified gasp brought her out of the daydream, straight in to nightmare. Wolverine was really coming. This time there would be no distractions. No traps. No waiting beside it until Logan came back. She had used all her tricks, and Wolverine knew every trick Logan had taught her, and then some.
He finally reached his jacket and fumbled through numerous pockets, joints of his fingers already cracking and bending.
“Run! This’ll keep it down a while…” Logan whispered opening the vial he pulled out. Violent spasm made him spill contents of it all over his chest and floor.
“Christ!” It was burning, clouds of steam rose from him, but to Marie it looked like he was trying to cling harder to the shirt, pull it even closer to his skin rather than tear it off. And yellow in his eyes, it wasn’t diminishing, but it wasn’t spreading either.
“Silver… You have those bracelets you bought?” Logan asked. She nodded and went to retrieve them from her backpack. She was about to put them on when Logan’s deformed hand closed around her wrist.
“Give them…”
It was hard to believe that something so small and delicate could help. Logan took all four of the bracelets and put them on, two to each wrist. They were tight, sat snuggly against his skin, nearly cutting off blood flow to his fingers. Skin underneath was burning and blistering.
“I think it’s working…” He grunted, lips drawn in to a pained grimace.
Water had been drawn to dry floorboards from the spilled cure, but there was still left soggy mess of silver and garlic. He scooped it up and rubbed it all over his face, neck and hands, hissing when it ate away skin in contact, but it really seemed to work. Yellow shine in his eyes was a mere sparkle, blinking faintly when he finally relaxed, letting out relieved huff.
The whole time she had stood, frozen to place. Now she dared to move. She took a step towards the door.
“Where are you going?” Logan asked.
“Out…”
“Sun’s up. You’ll fry if you open that door… Sorry, honey. You’re stuck with me now…” Logan said, still crouching on the floor on his hands and knees, panting heavily.
“Sun? But how… Why… Wolverine?”
“I didn’t know. I’m sorry. I didn’t know. I thought… I’m so fucking arrogant. I thought I could have the power… Just use healing. Wolf thought that I was dying. It came to fight. If I die, Wolverine dies too. And it won’t go down quietly. I didn’t know… I’m sorry…” Suddenly he turned to look at her, eyes widening almost comically, but there was nothing to laugh about.
“Oh, God…”
His skin practically exploded open in a blur of black and white fur and silver. Powerful, long jaw pushing through, limbs bending and breaking, turning from human to animal. There was nowhere to run. Outside she would die from exposure, in here she would face the beast.
“No… Nonono… Goddess, help me now… God, help me…” Any deity would do, no matter religion or sex.
Wolf stood up slowly, then lunged past her and blocked her way to the door.
*It’s me. Silver… Hurts but Wolverine can’t control me,* creature lisped. Thick fur covering his skin was more grey than black, streaked through with white and silver strands. Silver from her bracelets she realized. Silver from bracelets and the spilled cure. It had bonded with his flesh, creating a barrier between his and Wolverine’s mind.
“Logan?” She asked with a shaky voice. Wolf nodded.
*Just me.*
He studied himself with great curiosity. Lifting gnarled paws in front of his snout, tilting his head, turning around and snorting, sounding almost amused when he spotted a short, sorry excuse of a tail attached to his behind. He was moving slowly, cautiously, staggering slightly, obviously insecure.
*It’s… Big. And clumsy,* he noted when he tried to sit down and ended up falling on his back on the floor.
“It’s big. You’re the clumsy one,” Marie said, remembering how graceful Wolverine’s every move had been out in the open. Logan seemed to be every bit of clumsy puppy that Wolverine imagined being. Suddenly he let out very puppy-like yelp and instinctively drew his left wrist towards his mouth, only to stop the move and brought it in his lap instead, rubbing it with his other paw.
*Your bracelets… They are still there, under skin. Don’t hurt as much as before but I can still feel them. Grating against bones.*
She reached hesitantly towards him. Logan flinched, but let her run her fingers through his pelt. It felt coarser than earlier. Must be the silver strands riddled among actual fur, she realized.
“It’s… Strange.” Last time she had been this close to the wolf it had tried to tear her apart. It was still hard to comprehend that it was really Logan in front of her, not Wolverine.
“What about Wolverine?” She asked. Logan shook his head.
*Still there. It’s quiet, but it’s still there. I don’t know if it’s the silver or cure, or both of them, but I can’t hear it. Just feel it. It’s confused. Scared. Weak. But not gone.*
“What happens next? Will you be able to turn back, or…”
*I don’t know.*
“Maybe it was telling the truth earlier. About the bonding of you two. Maybe this is part of it. Maybe this was supposed to happen all along…”
*I don’t know!* Logan barked.
*But I do know, that the bastard who bit you is in for a surprise of its unlife…*
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