At first, Logan thought he was hallucinating when he saw Braeden standing in the middle of the corridor. There was no possible way that his little boy could be there. It was impossible. Braeden was back home a the mansion where it was safe. That was why he had come alone. So that no one he cared about was in danger. Especially not his Marie and their children.
“You smell wike famiwy,” Braeden said suddenly, altering Logan the to fact that there was someone else in the corridor.
She was tall, probably mid-twenties, with long, nearly black, hair. “What are you doing here, kiddo?” she asked, kneeling down in front of him. “This isn’t a safe place for you.”
There was something very familiar about her. Something that Logan couldn’t quite put his finger on. The knowledge was tugging at the back of his mind like a long forgotten memory, but he was unable to dislodge it. Logan was convinced that he knew her in some way. Just what that way was had yet to be seen.
“Momma came here t’ find Daidee,” Braeden said after a time, obviously having found something familiar about her as well. “Have you seen my Daidee?”
No matter how familiar she was, though, Logan couldn’t leave his son with her. “Braeden!”
“Daidee!” Braeden cried, whirling around to face him. Seconds later, the little boy was charging towards him, a bright smile on his face.
In the next instant, Logan felt his entire world come to a staggering halt.
“Hello, Daddy,” the woman said as she rose slowly to her feet. “Long time no see.”
That statement shocked the hell outta Logan. The only children he had were Kristyn and Braeden. There was especially no way that he had a daughter as old as Marie. He would have remembered having a daughter. He would have....
Ye’ll ‘member me soon. Love you bunchles.
Holding Braeden tightly against him, Logan cautiously made his way closer to the woman. “Just who the hell are you?”
Instantly there were tears in her eyes and that caught Logan even more off guard. There was no reason for her to be upset. She was one of Magneto’s cronies and should have been pleased that he was alone and outnumbered inside the complex. Still, her tears were genuine and they were hardly the result of fear.
“I’m Alayna,” she said in a tiny whisper. “Your daughter.”
Logan laughed bitterly. “You ain’t my daughter. My daughter is seven years old and there’s no way in hell that’s you.”
“Do you remember this?”
“Daidee, dat looks like the tag Momma wears!” Braeden cried happily, uncaring of the present situation. “Dat means she famiwy!”
Caught completely off guard, all Logan could do was stare at the small scrap of metal Alayna was holding in her hand. As Braeden had said, it was identical to the dogtag Marie wore about her throat. The same one that he had worn for as long as he could remember. It was the one possession he’d had when he’d woken up in the forest twenty-three years before.
“How did you...?” Logan stammered, reaching towards Alayna’s outstretched hand. “That’s Marie’s. I gave it to her when we first met.”
Alayna shook her head, tears forming in her dark eyes. She closed her hand over to dogtag and drew her hand back towards her chest. “No it’s not. You had two of them. You gave this to me when I was a little girl.” By this time tears were sliding silently down her cheeks. “You said... you said as long as I had this, you’d always be with me. That you’d always love me.... After you went away, it was all that I had of you. I didn’t have a single possession in the world that was mine except for this. I’ve kept it with me every moment for the last twenty-three years, ten months and sixteen days.”
“You kept track of the time?” Logan demanded, not entirely believing her story.
“When I was about two, you um... you taught me something,” Alayna said, a ghost of a smile flickering over her features. “You taught me to put a mark on the wall next to my bed every night before I went to sleep. As soon as there were as many marks as there were fingers on my hand I’d get to see you the next morning. You’d always clean the marks off when they’d bring you in to see so that I could start again.... After the last time I just kept adding more than more ticks. Hoping that if I counted high enough that they’d bring you back to me.... But they never did. You never came back, Daddy, so I went looking for you. I broke out and went looking for you.... And now I’ve finally found you. After so long I’ve finally found you again.”
“LOGAN!”
Swiveling his head around, Logan came face to face with Marie who was sprinting towards him. She slowed when she got about ten yards away from him, staring past him at Alayna who was still crying silently in the middle of the corridor. He knew that she was confused by what was going on, but didn’t have the time to explain. Later. Once it was all over and he had destroyed the machine he would explain it to her.
“Marie, I want you to take Braeden back to the Blackbird,” Logan ordered, turning his attention back to Alayna. “Get him outta here.”
“Daidee, no! I wanna stay wif you!” Braeden shouted, clutching tightly at Logan’s neck.
“Don’t worry, squirt, I’ll see you real soon,” Logan promised, pressing a kiss to the top of his son’s head. “Momma’s just gonna take you back to the jet so that you don’t get hurt. Okay?”
Braeden pulled away and waved his right hand frantically in front of Logan’s face. Logan was caught off guard when he caught sight of the three bone claws protruding from Braeden’s small hand.
“I got dese, Daidee! I won’t getted hurt! Pwomise!”
Logan carefully grabbed hold of his son’s hand, holding it still in front of his face. “Careful with those things, squirt. They’re real dangerous. You got it, kiddo? So put ‘em away and go with Momma. Everything will be all right.”
“What? No! Logan, I’m not goin’ anywhere!” Marie shouted, finally finding her voice. “You’ve been gone fer almost a week an’ I’m not goin’ anywhere!”
“Darlin’, you have to get Braeden outta here. It’s dangerous for him to be here so you need to get him out,” Logan insisted, handing Braeden over to Marie. He quickly pulled Marie into a deep kiss, hoping to convey his love for her and let her know that he was all right.
It had been more than a day since his last hallucination which was the longest run he’d had for quite some time.
When he turned back to Alayna, she was gone. Logan could smell her fear and figured that she hadn’t taken Marie’s sudden presence very well. While he was not sure what Alayna’s presence meant, he wanted to find out. Logan had the vaguest of memories of a little girl being with him in the lab. True, the memories had been triggered by a hallucination, but only one of his memories had been a hallucination. The rest had been created by his own mind. That had to mean something.
“Logan, can we please just get outta here?” Marie pleaded, placing a hand on Logan’s arm when it became obvious that he wasn’t going anywhere at the moment. “It’s not safe fer you to be here any more than it is Braeden.”
Tearing his eyes away from the place Alayna had been standing, Logan looked back at Marie and shook his head. “No can do, darlin’. This needs to be done.”
“It’s not like you have to be the one to do it,” Marie protested, shifting Braeden so that it would be easier to hold him. “The others are all here and they can get it done just as easily.”
“This is somethin’ I have to do, darlin’.”
Not bothering to wait for Marie to respond, Logan took off at a run down the corridor. He tracked Alayna’s scent, hoping that it would take him to Magneto and the machine that had been messing with his head. For the life of him, Logan couldn’t figure out what to make of Alayna. There was a part of him that believed what she had told him; that she was his daughter. His instincts were just screaming that fact at him.
The scent of Alayna’s tears hung heavy in the corridors. Her tears provided not only a ready trail for Logan to track, but also helped clue Logan into her emotions. It had taken some time, but Logan had eventually caught onto the fact that there were many types of tears were women were concerned.
There were two very prominent emotions emanating from Alayna at that moment: joy and fear. That combination confused Logan a great deal. Even when she had been pregnant Marie had never let out such a combination of emotions. None of them woman had. At least that meant he wasn’t going to be a grandfather anytime soon.
Logan pressed onward, determined to find the machine that had sent his life spiraling out of control in so short a time. It was the only way to end it all. His family wouldn’t be safe until the last chip was deactivated or the machine destroyed. Their best chance would be to accomplish both.
As he wandered deeper into the compound, Logan could make out the sounds of a battle going on. A loud roar and the scent of burnt ozone told him that it was the X-Men and the Brotherhood facing off. At the very least Scott and Creed had crossed paths.
It didn’t surprise Logan when Alayna’s path turned away from the battle. If it was true that she was his daughter and that she had been born in the same lab that he had been “enhanced” at then she would have some strong preservation instincts. You didn’t survive long in there and when you first got out if you didn’t have them. Those instincts were a very real necessity.
So focused on Alayna, Logan didn’t sense Magneto until it was too late. By then the older man had him pressed to the wall. That, of course, pissed Logan right off because he knew that he should have been able to notice him before he even got the chance.
“We have been here before, haven’t we, my dear boy,” Magneto chuckled, striding towards Logan. “Several times, in fact. Is that not true?”
“Fuck you, asshole,” Logan growled, straining against Magneto’s hold even though he knew that it was pointless.
“Yes, I am well acquainted with your particular brand of insults. One would think you would adopt something new,” the aging mutant mused as he came to stand in front of a restrained Logan. “It makes one wonder where your daughter inherited her manners.”
As if on cue, Alayna stepped into view, her head raised defiantly. Logan could still make out of the faint trace of tears in her eyes, though he was pretty sure Logan could not. Alayna was doing good, making herself appear confident when all that he could sense from her was unease.
Magneto turned towards Alayna, holding out a hand. “So, my dear, is he everything you remember him to be?”
“The growling is quite familiar,” Alayna said demurely, flashing him a quick grin.
Logan was sure that he was the only one who noticed Alayna tense slightly when Magneto took her hand. That told Logan all he needed to know about her intentions.
“It had been my intention for you to kill Charles and put a severe dent in his little following,” Magneto informed him, looking quite upset that Logan had not done as expected.
“Yeah, my aim was off,” Logan grumbled, straining against the invisible force that held him in place.
“I assure you, your aim will not be off when I send you back to Charles new and improved yet again. This time, however, your thoughts will have no bearing.”
At that moment, Alayna’s fear went up a notch and Logan knew that it could not bode well.