It was a slap across his face that woke Logan up from the lonely solitude of his dream. He cracked an eye open only to find himself looking into the frightening yellow eyes of the blue skinned shapshifter.
“Magneto says that you’ve been dreaming too much,” she drawled as she began circling around him.
“There’s a rule on dreaming now,” Logan grunted, wishing that he could shift his head so that he could pop the aching cricks in his neck. “Am I only going to be allowed to breathe once every minute now?”
He could sense Mystique’s grin from behind him when she spoke. “We could do that if it’s what you really want, Wolverine.”
“What I want is for you to shut off this fucking force field and let me go,” Logan growled, straining against its hold.
Mystique slithered around to stand in front of him, her pink tongue slipping out to lick her lips. “But I do so love a bound man. So much more pleasurable when they can’t move.”
Logan rolled his eyes, staring up at the ceiling. It was one of the few movements he was capable of. “You so realize that your sick, right?”
“I may be sick, but there’s nothing you can do to stop me,” Mystique informed him, standing up on tiptoe so that her eyes were level with his.
“Leave him alone, Mystique,” Magneto ordered, appearing in the doorway.
Pouting slightly, Mystique turned and slinked towards her master. Her arms slid around his waist easily as she molded her body to his. “You said that I could play with him. Are you going back on your word?”
“You will, my dear. Just not now. We have more important things to deal with right now,” Magneto whispered in her ear and it was only because of Logan’s advanced hearing that he was able to hear what the old man said.
Without another word, Magneto turned and led Mystique from the room. The door shut with a resounding slam that echoed through the small room, making Logan’s ears ring. Now that they were gone, Logan allowed his muscles to relax from their readied tension. He was still very tense, though. Logan had no idea what Magneto had planned for him and that worried him.
It caught Logan completely off guard when he went crashing to the ground.
Unprepared for the fall and still unused to voluntary movements, Logan wasn’t able to raise his arms to protect his head from connecting with the ground. The blow wasn’t enough to knock him out, but it did stun him slightly. Logan remained lying on the ground for several long minutes, staring at his right hand which he was slowly clenching and unclenching. The movement, simple as it was, was awe inspiring to Logan. It had been so long since he had been able to move so much on his own.
“Something’s not right,” Logan whispered to himself.
Instantly, both sets of claws sprung from his knuckles. Logan winced slightly at the pain, but quickly pushed it aside as he struggled to push his weakened frame into an upright position. He staggered towards the doorway, his left arm out-stretched and the other held at ready beside his hip.
Logan stood with his ear pressed against the door, listening for any sounds outside the room. There was the very strong possibility that Magneto had forgotten to put the magnetic field back up following his exit. If that was the case, he might just be able to sneak out of the building and get to a safe location. A place from where he could contact Marie and the other X-Men.
Once he was sure that there was no one outside of the room, Logan slammed his claws through the lock, shredding it to pieces so that he could open it. The impact of his claws in the metal door sent reverberations all the way up Logan’s arm to his shoulder, but he ignored it, intent only on his escape.
Logan opened the door with an aching slowness, not wanting to make any noise. He shuddered as he was hit with a cold, foul-smelling breeze. Dressed only in a simple pair of shorts, Logan had little protection from the cold and his enhanced sense of smell made the salty, fishy smell that much worse. Flaring his nostrils to breathe out most of the scent, Logan shut the door behind him and stepped fully into the hallway.
The predator now fully in control, Logan padded silently through the chilled hallways. He stalked with ease, all of his senses on the lookout for the approach of Magneto or one of his lackeys. Having no clue where he was or how to get out, Logan could only go where his instincts led him.
Within only a few minutes of his escape, Logan began to feel exhaustion creep up on him. Advanced healing factor or not, there was only so much that could be healed in muscles that hadn’t been used in four years. Logan was a very stubborn man and refused to let exhaustion claim his body. Not when he was so close to freedom.
Hearing voices approaching from behind, Logan sprang forward and down a nearby hall. He held his body pressed flat against the wall, slowing his breathing so that it was practically non-existent.
Chills ran down Logan’s spine when he saw the two people who had been behind him. Doctors. Two of them. It had been twenty years since he had been experimented on by the sadistic doctors that had given him his adamantium skeleton, but the memories still existed in his mind. Terrifying memories that came in the form of nightmares that haunted him to this day.
It was only when he could no longer sense them that Logan continued his journey through the labyrinth of hallways that he was trapped in. There were doctors in the building and Logan wanted out as soon as possible. There was no way that Logan was going to let them do anything else to his body. He’d had enough experimentation in his lifetime. More than enough. His indestructible skeleton was proof of that.
All too late, Logan caught scent of Magneto. It wasn’t until his skeleton froze and he lost all control of his body that he realized of his mistake.
“So foolish, my dear boy. Did you really think that I would let you go so easily?” Magneto taunted as he appeared in front of Logan. At his side was a man that Logan recalled vividly from his nightmares.
“Well, if it isn’t the infamous Wolverine. It’s been a long time,” the doctor announced, a smug smile on his aging face. Logan could think of no name to go along with the face, but the emotions the older man evoked in him held the same terror as his nightmares.
Logan growled pitifully in the back of his throat, the normally fierce sound this time more of a whine.
“Really, Wolverine, I would have thought that you’d be more happy to see the good doctor,” Magneto said boisterously. “I was informed that the two of you were well acquainted.”
Logan made no response other than to glare at the two men. He kept his eyes trained on them, waiting for whatever was to come next. To Logan’s surprise, rather than manipulating his skeleton as per usual, Magneto lifted his body a few inches off the ground. Just enough to move him in whatever direction he wanted to. Logan was floated through the hallways behind the two men and it wasn’t until he caught sight of the room they were going into the Logan began to struggle.
The room that he was forced into was an exact replica of the one he had found in the Canadian north. The one where he had first met the doctor Magneto had aligned himself with.
“Why, Wolverine, it would seem as though you object to coming here,” Magneto taunted, a malicious grin on his face. “Is this place familiar to you.”
“You’re a fucking prick,” Logan growled, still fighting against Magneto’s power.
“Such vile language. One would think that you had at least gotten some education in the sixteen years you were wandering the world,” the doctor declared with a roll of his eyes.
As Logan remained hovering above the ground, the room around him was flung into a flurry of activity as they prepared for whatever twisted experiments the doctor had planned. At the doctor’s command, Logan was placed in front of a large, cylindrical tube that he knew all too well. They would place an air mask on his face and he would be stuck in that tube only to have it filled with water, trapping him in a liquid prison as they did the gods knew what to him.
“We should have made this arraignment long ago, Erik. The Wolverine is so much more docile this way. And much easier to handle,” the doctor commented as one of his aids attached the breathing mask to Logan’s face.
“The money is certainly worthwhile,” was all that Magneto gave as a response.
The only thing worse than the fact that Logan was once again to be a test subject to some deranged doctor was the fact that he was unable to fight them off. He didn’t know whether he had been able to the first time around seeing as how he had no memories of his original capture, but he was entirely powerless this time around. He could only watch as his body was manipulated to make it easier for the doctors to affix monitors to him.
“And now comes the fun part,” Magneto sneered as he moved Logan’s body into the glass conduit.
Logan’s arms and legs were moved into position and the metal restraints were locked into place. Once Magneto gave up control of Logan’s metal skeleton, this would be what kept him from breaking through the thick glass imprisoning him. There was a swooshing sound as the glass slid shut and almost instantly Logan could feel the chill from the cold water seeping into the bottom of the chamber.
Free from Magneto’s control, Logan strained against the bonds. He knew full well that he wouldn’t be able to get free, but his survival instinct wouldn’t let him give in so easily. By the time the water was around his knees, Logan was struggling so much that his wrists began to bleed. The wounds healed instantly, only to be created again as Logan attempted to fight his way free.
Panic filled Logan as the water continued to rise. His claws exploded from his knuckles, but he didn’t have the leverage to do anything with them. He was trapped and about to be cut open and filled with molten metal.
Knowing that he had no chance of escape, Logan did the only thing that he could think of. He screamed. No sound passed between his lips, but a message was sent nonetheless. A loud message that Logan could only pray reached its intended.
~*~*~*~*~
Thousands of miles away, in a hallway of Professor Xavier’s mansion, a scream echoed in Marie’s head. A pained noise passed echoed from her throat as she clutched at her temples. Marie crumpled to the ground as the scream continued.
“Logan....” Marie whimpered, knowing in her heart the source of the pained scream.