“I daresay that your father is going quite insane by this point. Not that he was ever entirely sane, mind you, but there has been a drastic change,” Erik said as he regally lowered himself into the chair across from Alayna.
Alayna arched an eyebrow, setting her tea cup down on the table next to her. “Considering the life he has lived I find that very odd. By all rights he should have been locked away in an insane asylum years ago.”
“That, my dear, is the mystery of it all,” Erik mused, linking his fingers together and placing them on his lap. “Your father is a wild madman who rivals Creed in his brutality.”
Turning her head, Alayna stared into the depths of her tea cup. For the past few weeks she had been watching her father live his life. The life that he had built for himself without her. To this day, Alayna still carried with her vague memories of the brief time she and her father had spent together when she was a child. His eyes, the sound of his voice... all of those were locked tight within Alayna’s memory.
So were his hands.
When she had placed the computerized chips in his skull-- a part of her mutation that had been a gift to her from her long dead mother which had enabled her to reach through the metal that lined his skull and implant the chips --his hands had been the only part of her cherished memories that she had been able to make new. While he had lain there, unconscious and healing, Alayna had run her fingertips over his large, callused hands, tracing the lines that she knew from her childhood.
Staring at her own hands, Alayna recalled the way his hands had enclosed hers when she was a little girl. She had always felt so tiny when he held her. So protected. So loved. He had always taken such good care of her because they had never known how long the doctors would let them spend together. Then one day they had stopped bringing her to see him. Alayna had cried for weeks on end until she had finally come to the realization that she wasn’t going to see her Daddy again. That he wouldn’t be there to make her feel better after the bad doctors hurt her.
When she was twelve years old, Alayna had managed to sneak out of the complex that she had spent her entire life in. When they hadn’t been paying attention to her, she had hidden herself away in a laundry truck.
Ever since that day, Alayna had been searching for her father. No matter what had happened, she refused to believe that her father was dead. Her father was all she had in the world and Alayna wasn’t going to give up on him despite all the time they had been apart.
In the end, it had taken sixteen years for her to find her father.
This time she wasn’t going to lose him. It didn’t matter what Erik had planned for him, nothing was going to happen to her father. He was going to be safe no matter what. Alayna had created an override system that would give her full control of the chips should Creed do something that could seriously harm her father.
“You seem quite pensive all of a sudden,” Erik commented, snapping Alayna from her thoughts. “Fear not, we will prevail over Charles and his X-Men.”
“Yes, everything will turn out well in the end,” Alayna said rising to her feet. “If you will excuse me, Erik, I need some air.”
The elderly man nodded his head, his eyes trained on her as she headed out of the room. As soon as she exited the room, Alayna felt a shiver go through her body. It disgusted her what she was doing, but it was necessary if she was to be reunited with her father. That was all that really mattered to her. Alayna had been without him since she was about five years old and wanted him back as soon as possible.
Once she was sure that no one else was about, Alayna reached into her pocket and pulled out the only physical link that she had to her father. A small scrap of metal with a single word and a series of numbers engraved on it.
Wolverine 458 25 243
Her father had given it to her the last time she had seen him. It was as though he had known that they would never see each other again. he had told Alayna that he loved her and that as long as she had the tag that he was there with her. From the moment he had given her the small rectangle of adamantium, Alayna had guarded it zealously. In all the years she had spent in that wretched building, the doctors had never known about it. She kept it in her pocket or tucked up in her sock whenever they were around and would only take it out in the middle of the night when she was alone.
“I will see you again, Daddy,” Alayna murmured as she sat down on a large boulder within the forest that surrounded Erik’s compound. Holding the dogtag in front of her face, Alayna brought it to her lips and kissed it lightly. “We’ll be a family again.”
~*~*~*~*~
It had come to the point that Logan could no longer tell what was real and what was not. Images not of his making were constantly replacing what should have been visible. Without warning, a group of trees would turn into the horrible visage of the doctors who had tormented him in his nightmares. A part of him knew that they were not real, but the fear the images produced came nonetheless.
Logan’s only relief came from knowing that the voices were silent. In the time that had passed since he fled the mansion, Logan had not heard the voices once. It meant that Kitty had gotten at least one of the chips out of his brain before he’d gone ballistic and killed Jean.
In that split second, Logan had destroyed any chance he had of living a normal life. It wasn’t some nameless person or evil doer he had killed, it was Jean. No one at the mansion would be able to look him in the face after this. And there was no way he was going to risk hurting Marie or his children. Logan wasn’t sure where he was going to go after he destroyed whatever Magneto was using to mess with his head, but it wasn’t anywhere that he could possibly hurt his family.
Logan staggered, nearly falling to the ground, as the landscape around him changed in an instant.
Gone was the lush forest that he had been wandering through for the past few days. In its place was a sterile room with only a small cot and a metal table furnishing it. There was something eerily familiar about the location, but Logan couldn’t quite put his finger on what that was.
“Missed you, Daddy.”
Whirling around, Logan caught sight of a little girl standing a few feet away from him. The small child had long, dark brown hair and the same intense hazel eyes that always stared back at him from the mirror. Her attire was simple. A pair of jeans, white t-shirt and a scuffed up pair of sneakers. She looked to be a few years older than Braeden and a few years younger than Kristyn, however this little person didn’t have the same carefree aura that his children carried with them. There was something haunted about this girl... and something very familiar.
“Did you miss me too, Daddy?”
“I don’t.... Who...?”
Pursing her lips, the little girl crooked a finger at him, silently ordering him down to her level. As soon as he was kneeling in front of her, a sudden grin appeared on her face. “Ye’ll ‘member me soon. Love you bunchles.”
“I love you bunchles too, firefly,” Logan found himself saying without even being aware of it.
The little girl flashed him a brilliant smile... then she was gone.
For the first few moments, Logan’s vision swam and he felt a slight throbbing at the base of his skull. It was the same one that was always present whenever the chip was activated. During the first few days of his journey, Logan had attempted to dig the chip out with his claws. It had been a futile attempt that had resulted in nothing but severe blood loss and a pounding headache.
Logan leaned back against a nearby tree, waiting for his vision to clear. Something about that what he had just seen was incredibly unsettling. It wasn’t like any of the others. There was no violence, no fear. Just a little girl with all too familiar eyes.
“What the fuck is happening to me?” Logan mumbled, dropping his head back against the tree. Letting out a deep breath, he snaked his fingers into his hair, pounding his head repeatedly against the hard wood.
~*~*~*~*~
“I see temptation finally got the better of you.”
Alayna set the visor down and turned her chair so that she could see Erik. Plastering a fake smile on her face, she rose from her seat and strode towards him. “What can I say, Victor makes it look so fun, so I thought I’d give it a try.”
“And just what did you make him see?” Erik inquired, reaching a hand out to brush some of her long, dark hair behind her ear.
“Now if I told you that it wouldn’t be a surprise,” Alayna murmured, tracing a delicate finger along his jaw. “Don’t worry, you’ll find out soon enough. That’s a promise.”
She did her best not to cringe when Erik stepped behind her, keeping his fingertips in contact with her body at all times. Daddy will be here soon and this will be all over, Alayna reminded herself for what felt like the millionth time. If her calculations were correct, it would only be a few more days before her father arrived. Then this farce would all be over.
“You know that I do not like to be kept waiting,” Erik growled, grabbing hold of Alayna’s upper arms and spinning her around to face him. “What are you doing to the Wolverine?”
“I’m messing with his head, it’s as simple as that,” Alayna hissed, jerking herself out of his arms and backing away from him.
Erik seemed to collect himself right away, pursing his lips. “I am quite sorry for that, Alayna. My emotions got the better of me for a moment. Please accept my apologizes.”
Even though she knew that the bruises would have already healed, Alayna still rubbed her upper arms lightly. She smiled tightly and nodded her head. “Tensions are running high right now. I understand that. But I would still like to be alone for a little while.”
“Of course. I understand completely. Dinner will be in a hour,” Erik said, moving out of her way so that she could exit the room.
When she reached the door, Alayna turned to face him, a coy smile on her face. “I’ll be there. Never fear.”
The door shut behind her and Alayna bolted down the corridor. She needed to get outside. Alayna had always felt safer out of doors. Having spent her entire childhood trapped inside a sterile building with no contact to the outside world, Alayna had always craved being outdoors.
“I’m so sorry, Daddy,” Alayna whimpered as she collapsed in a boneless heap once she reached the confines of the forest. Pulling his tag out of her pocket, she clutched it tightly in her hands. “Please don’t hate me for doing this....”
~*~*~*~*~
Wrapping a blanket he had stolen from an unsuspecting group of campers, Logan settled down for the night in front of the meager fire he had built for himself. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t get the image of the little girl from his mind. There was something so familiar about her, but Logan couldn’t figure out where he had seen her.
“You keep this with you always, firefly,” Logan said, sweeping the child’s dark hair behind her ears. “Long as you have this, I’ll always be with you. You got it, kiddo? I love you so much. Always will. No matter what.”
The little girl was clutching a scrap of metal in her hand.... His dogtag.
“Love you too, Daddy,” she mumbled, bouncing into his arms.
Trembling slightly, Logan pulled the blanket tighter about his body. Logan wanted to believe that this image had been planted in his mind by Magneto, but there was no pain.
That meant it had been a memory.