The cold went all the way to the marrow of her bones. It made her tremble from head to foot in the darkness which consumed her. Marie had woken in the inky blackness, not knowing where she was or what was going on. All she knew was that Erik was responsible. Erik had taken her away from Logan and put her in the dark. Curling herself into a ball, Marie leaned against the wall behind her, trying to keep whatever warmth in her system she could.
Marie cried out suddenly as an agonizing pain laced through her body. It lasted only a few moments and, when it faded, it was gone completely. Marie knew that it wasn’t her pain she was feeling. It was Logan’s. She could all but hear his screams echoing in her mind and there was nothing she could do for him.
“Gawd, Logan, what is he doin’ t’ ya?” Marie whimpered, wiping away tears that had formed only seconds before.
Resting her chin on her knees, Marie stared straight ahead into the nothingness. While Marie knew that she should be more concentrated on what could happen to her, but all she could think about was Logan and what Erik could possibly be doing to him. She desperately wanted to help Logan. To ensure that he stayed alive and that he wasn’t hurt. Logan had been through too much already to deserve any more pain.
“I must say that you were out longer than I had expected you to be,” Erik’s voice drifted from somewhere up above. “No worries, though, you missed nothing.”
“What have ya done t’ Logan!” Marie shouted, jumping to her feet and spinning around in a circle in search of the voice’s source. “If ya hurt one hair on his head, Ah swear Ah’ll....”
Erik’s boisterous laughed crackled through the darkness. “You can make no threats, child. This is your prison. Logan is trapped in another. His island prison which he will never be able to escape. Nor you your plastic one. You are separate and helpless and there is nothing you can do but follow my plans.”
Marie shook her head defiantly. “Never in a million years will we give inta ya! Now Ah want ya t’ take me back t’ Logan! Ya have no right t’ do this t’ us!”
Once again Erik’s laughter cut through the darkness. “You may think that, my dear, but it’s not going to stop me.”
“Leave Logan alone! He’s been through enough already!” Marie shouted, spining around in search of the origin of Erik’s voice.
“I intend to do nothing to your lover but leave him where he is. He can not get off the island and is therefore not a threat,” Erik informed her. “Logan is as helpless as they come. He can tear my island apart and he will not find a way off the island.”
Marie was momentarily blinded as the harsh overhead lights flared to life. Crying out, she covered her eyes with her hands in an attempt to block out the light. It worked for a moment and would have kept on working had someone not pulled her hands away from her eyes and violently pulled them behind her back. Before Marie even had a chance to scream, her hands were being taped together with what she assumed was duct tape. Marie tried to fight off the oppressive hold, but it was no use. Whoever was behind her was a lot stronger than she was and she couldn’t break free.
“Why are ya doin’ this?” Marie whimpered as she watched Erik float down from above. She continued to struggle against her captures, but her movements lacked any force. “Why are ya doin’ this t’ Logan? What did he do that was so awful?”
“I am quite intrigued by the fact that you seem to think that it is Logan I am after,” Erik said as he walked closer to Marie, stopping only a hairsbreadth away from her. “Did you know that you have your grandmother’s eyes?”
Marie’s eyes went wide, unable to believe what she had just heard. “Ya knew... ya knew Granny? How did ya know Granny?”
“My beloved Marianna,” Erik sighed wistfully, a ghost of a smile on his face. “We spent many wonderful years together. I was there for your birth when your parents decided to name you after her.”
“But Ah’ve never seen any pictures o’ ya,” Marie said softly, shaking her head in denial. “Ya were never married t’ Granny. Granny would never marry someone as awful as ya.”
Erik reached out and ran a finger along the side of Marie’s face. “Your grandmother and I were very happy together. We met in 1952 when I was working on a farm in Mississippi. I feel in love with Marianna the first moment I set eyes on her. You remind me a lot of her. You have her beauty those wide brown eyes....”
Erik closed his eyes, his face drifting closer to hers. Marie whimpered, trying to pull away. She was unable to, though, and that made her tears fall harder. This new side of Erik was scaring her. She liked him a hell of a lot better when he was helping her and Logan and not trying to rub against her.
“Please don’t do this....” Marie pleaded, turning her head away as far as possible.
“My beautiful Marianna,” Erik murmured, her fingers moving through her hair.
Gawd, Logan! Ah need ya so much! Marie wished that Logan could hear the thoughts she was directing at him. She wanted to be able to hear his voice and have him hold her in his arms. Marie would be safe there. She wanted to be safe.
Erik stood back suddenly, his face void of all emotions. “We need to move now. The summit begins in a few hours and we need to get everything in working order.”
“What are ya gonna do t’ me?” Marie asked as she was shoved forward by the person behind her.
Erik’s smile frightened her. “You, my dear, are going to mutate the world leaders gathered tonight on Ellis Island. I’d do it myself... but I’m afraid that I’ve become quite fond of living.”
A sense of dread filled Marie as Erik’s words sank in. She was going to die. She was going to be placed in the machine that Erik had used to mutate her.
Everything was starting to sink in.
Erik hadn’t been at Alkali Lake for Logan or Victor, he had been there for her. Logan had been the leverage that he had used to get her to agree to mutate herself. True, he could have simply forced her into doing it, but this way he could manipulate her into joining what she thought was the good fight. And she had. Marie had well and truly believed that she was doing something good that would help the world. She hadn’t even considered that her powers would be used to hurt people.
It had also explained why Erik had chosen her. As his blood, there was a very strong chance that she would have shared his mutation. It turned out to be a correct gamble because Marie had indeed inherited her grandfather’s mutation. It made Marie tremble to think of Erik as her grandfather. She couldn’t remember her grandfather. She had been told that he had died just after her birth. It had never occurred to her that no pictures had existed of him. Marie would have never thought that her grandfather was actually the radical mutant known as Magneto.
And now he was going to make her a martyr for the mutant cause.
Oddly enough, it wasn’t dying that scared Marie. It was the fact that she wouldn’t see Logan. That was the primary thought in her mind. Logan had no one that he trusted besides her. He was all alone in the world. If she died fulfilling Erik’s maniacal plan then he truly would be alone. He’d have Boris, but Marie didn’t think that Logan would let himself get close to anyone else for a long time.
“Please, don’t do this, Erik,” Marie pleaded, uncaring of the tears the slipped down her cheeks. She knew that she probably looked very pathetic at that moment and hoped that it would play on Erik’s sense of pity. “Don’t do this t’ me. Ah don’t wanna leave Logan alone. It’ll destroy him.”
Erik snickered darkly. “You think that I would give my plan up for one mutant? Powerful as the Wolverine may be, he is not worth risking all my plans.”
“He’s not a wolverine. He’s Logan,” Marie insisted, remembering one of the doctors at the military compound referring to Logan as The Wolverine.
“I’m afraid I must disagree with you there, Rogue,” Erik said almost absently. “Logan is the Wolverine. All that was Logan has been erased. Logan is no more.”
“No! That will never be true! He is Logan!” Marie screamed, turning to glare at Erik who was walking at her side.
The shock on Erik’s face was genuine. “I hadn’t expected you to fall in love with the brute so soon. If I had known that this would happen, I would have left Victor in the snow and not Logan.”
Marie smirked defiantly. “If ya’d sent Victor, Ah wouldn’t have brought him inta mah house. Only Logan.”
“I find that very hard to believe, my little Marie. You are to caring of a person to leave anyone out in the snow,” Erik countered, brushing her hair away from her face. His face darkened suddenly and he continued on down the corridor. “Let’s go, Mystique. I want to get there in plenty of time.”
Marie couldn’t stop herself from crying out at the painful jab in the small of her back that got her moving once again. Straightening her shoulders, Marie held her head up high, determined not to let them see how completely terrified she was.
~*~*~*~*~
“Magneto has something planned,” Professor Charles Xavier announced to the group of people in the room with him. “He will not let an opportunity like the summit go to waste. He will use it to his advantage.”
Scott glanced at his mentor, the light reflecting off the red lenses of his ruby quartz glasses. “Are you certain, Professor?”
“I am almost one hundred percent certain,” Professor Xavier confirmed. “I know Erik well enough to know that he will take advantage of the gathering of so many world leaders. If he does something at the summit, what better way to make his cause known throughout the world.”
“What do you want us to do about it, Professor?’ Dr. Jean Grey asked.
Professor Xavier sat back in his seat, resting his elbow on the armrest so that his hand stuck up straight in the air. “You will go to Ellis Island. Keep watch over the summit from there. If something happens, you will be close enough to act. I can only hope that we will be able to prevent anything disastrous.”