Nightmares were supposed to end when you woke up. Screams were supposed to signal the end of nightmares. Either the person realized that they were dreaming, or something horrendous happened to them in the nightmare. Either way, they screamed and were instantly awake.
No matter how much Logan screamed, his nightmare kept on going.
“His heart rate is too rapid, doctor.”
“Then give him a sedative.”
“Sir, there is already ten times the amount of sedatives a human body can withstand pumping through him.”
“Yes, but Weapon X isn’t a normal human, now is he? Increase the dosage.”
“Marie!”
“Adamantium grafting is completely over 75% of his skeleton.”
“Then let’s get started on the other 25%. I want Weapon X fully operational within the next week.”
“Don’t you think that’s a little quick, doctor? It took us six months to get the other 75% properly grafted. His body is constantly rejecting the implants. It will take roughly two months to complete the procedure.”
“But we don’t have two months. We have a week. Put him in the water. I want to begin immediately.”
Logan’s screams were choked off as he was unceremoniously lowered into a large vat of water. His struggles, already hampered by the thick metal restraints around his wrists and ankles, became even less effective as his body was weighed down by the heavy water.
There was no longer any sound. Only a series of flashing lights, brief images floating into view and a mind numbing pain that effected every nerve and cell in his body.
As the pain increased, Logan’s mind faded into a welcoming oblivion where he felt nothing.
No pain.
No agony.
Just complete and utter nothingness.
~*~*~*~*~
“What the fuck are ya doing t’ him?!” Marie screamed as she pounded on the thick glass barrier that separated the room she was in from the one Logan was in. “LOGAN!!”
“He can’t hear you, Miss Fraser. And even if he were able to, Logan is in such a state that he wouldn’t be able to respond,” one of the doctors told her as he began reading a print out of Logan’s stats.
“Yer a bunch o’ fuckin’ sadists! What right d’ ya have t’ do that t’ Logan?” Marie demanded, whirling around to face the doctor. “What could he have possibly done that means ya can do that t’ him?”
The elderly doctor glanced up at her, a rather annoyed expression on his face. “My dear, Logan is a mutant. A rather powerful one at that. What other reason do I need to justify myself?”
“Logan is a livin’ breathin’ person just like either o’ us!” Marie insisted, her voice drowning out every other sound in the small room. “So what if he’s got a gene that makes him different from us! It doesn’t matter! It sure as hell don’t give ya the right t’ hurt Logan like that!”
“I’m afraid that is where our opinions differ, Miss Fraser,” the doctor said with a shake of his head. Rising from his seat, he walked over to join Marie at the window. “The human race has always been about survival. Destroying our enemies before they destroy us. Mutants are just another on the list of creatures that long to destroy us. So we must act first. Neutralize them before they cause any significant harm. Logan will be the first in an army of mutants whose job it will be to do just that. We will use him to annihilate entire populations of mutants in the name of humanity.”
It made Marie sick to her stomach watching the glee on his face as he spoke of what would eventually become a second Holocaust.
“Yer a sorry excuse fer a human being,” Marie hissed, turning her full attention back to Logan. It broke her heart to know that there was nothing she could do to help him.
“You should be thanking us, Miss Fraser. Were it not for us, that mutant would still be a burden to you,” the doctor said as he turned back to his computer.
“Logan could never be a burden t’ me,” Marie said softly, her eyes trained on Logan’s writing form.
~*~*~*~*~
Nothing to breathe.
No air. Only water. Too much water.
Where was Marie?
Whenever the nightmares came, so did Marie. She was the one that made them go away. She would make this one end, too.
MARIE!!
Where are you, Marie? I need you, Marie. Please help me, Marie. Make it end, Marie. I want to be safe, Marie. I want it to be over, Marie.
MARIE!!
~*~*~*~*~
Marie nearly fell to the ground as an explosion shook the entire complex. Alarms were going off everywhere, sending the various doctors that crowded the two rooms she could see into a frenzy.
“What the hell was that?” one of them shouted.
“It came from outside!” a doctor across the room shouted back. “Someone is attacking us!”
“Are they mutants?” the first one demanded.
There was a slight pause before another one answered. “Yes, sir. Visuals indicate that our assailants are mutants.”
Confusion reigned supreme after that. Doctors were running all over the place, trying to increase the facility’s defenses. The sadistic doctor that Marie had been talking with earlier was muttering about Weapon X not being ready and how this would have been an excellent trial run for him.
Grabbing a gun which had been discarded by an absent minded doctor, Marie rushed out of the control room in the midst of the confusion. She crashed into a group of soldiers almost immediately, but none of them seemed to notice her. Marie silently thanked whichever one of them had been the one to think ahead enough to grab a pair of clothes for her before leaving her cottage. It would be so much easier to sneak Logan out of the complex fully dressed than if she had still been wearing the tanktop, underwear and robe ensemble that she had on when they had knocked Logan out.
“All right, Logan, where are ya....” Marie muttered to herself as she searched for a door that would lead her into the room that Logan was being kept in.
A second explosion sent Marie crashing to her knees. As she pushed herself back to her feet, there was an explosion of sparks overhead and a door that she hadn’t even seen before slid open. From it spilled a throng of frightened doctors. She recognized the flame red hair as belonging to one of the doctors in the room with Logan. She had been hovering over his right side with a pretty nasty looking scalpel.
Marie guessed that the explosion must have done something to the mechanics of the door because it didn’t shut after she entered. Ignoring her momentary stroke of luck, Marie rushed across the room to the tank that Logan was submerged in.
“Logan!” Marie cried, reaching into the green tinged water to grab hold of Logan’s shoulders. She pulled him into a seated position, stroking his back as he coughed up lungfuls of water. “Ah’ve got ya now, Logan. Ah’ve got ya.”
“Marie...?” Logan moaned, his body slumping against hers.
“That’s right, Logan. It’s Marie,” she whispered in his ear as she struggled to pull all the different diodes from his body.
“Wouldn’t stop.... Kept screaming, but they wouldn’t... they wouldn’t stop....”
Marie squeezed her eyes shut tight, struggling to keep from bursting into tears at Logan’s pained whimpers. When it was over, and they were safe, she could hold Logan and cry for him. But not before. Until then she had to concentrate on getting Logan out of the complex and somewhere safe. Somewhere the sadistic doctors would find them and hurt Logan even more.
“They’re gone now, Logan. They won’t hurt you now,” Marie assured him, her voice cracking as her emotions fought to free themselves from her iron control. Exhaling deeply, Marie slipped Logan’s arm over her shoulders. “Ah need yer help now, Logan. We hafta get ya outta here ‘fore somethin’ bad happens. Okay?”
“I do believe that I can be of some assistance in this situation,” a cultured voice said from the doorway. “My name is Magneto.”