“Now I don’t want you to move away from this spot, Braeden. Do you understand me?” Marie said as she set her son down on a seat in the Blackbird. “If I so much as see you again you’re gonna be in big trouble, mister.”
Braeden nodded his head sullenly, staring at his scuffed up sneakers. “Yes, Momma.”
“When we get home Daidee an’ I are gonna have a nice long talk with you,” Marie said sternly.
“Yes, Momma.”
After pressing a kiss to the top of his head, Marie ran her fingers through the unruly locks then headed out of the jet. Marie was terrified and was desperate to know what had happened to Logan. As soon as they got him safe, the two of them were going to have a serious discussion about Logan’s insane need to act as a hero. While she was well aware that Logan was very strong and could heal from just about anything, that didn’t mean he didn’t feel any pain. If anything, he felt the pain worse because it healed so rapidly.
“Rogue, where are you?” Scott demanded, his voice staticy in her ear piece. “We need your help.”
“I’m goin’ to find Logan,” Marie informed him, sprinting back towards the corridor where she had last seen her husband. “He’s in some real danger.”
“Rogue....”
Marie shook her head even though she knew that Scott couldn’t see the movement. “I don’t wanna hear it. I’m goin’ after Logan an’ that’s all there is to it.”
~*~*~*~*~
For the first time since she had conceived of this plan, Alayna was unsure. What Erik had said caught her completely off guard. This wasn’t something that Erik had told her about. He had promised her that he wouldn’t do anything else to her father. Only the other X-Men. Her father was supposed to be free from Erik’s games.
“What are you going to do to him?” Alayna inquired, her voice trembling.
Erik turned to her, a smirk twisting his features. “You, my dear, are going to build another of those wonderful chips that we can control at all times. None of this nonsense about waiting for his mind to be relaxed.”
In the instant that the words were uttered, Alayna knew that she had lost her father for good. There was no way that he would accept her now. Not after what she had done. Because of her, one of his friends was dead and he had nearly killed his own wife. He would hate her for the rest of his life because she was the reason he had done those horrible things to the people he loved.
“I’ll wager that you never predicted that one of your progeny would turn against you, did you, Wolverine?” Erik inquired, releasing Alayna’s hand and stepping towards the restrained man. “Mind boggling, isn’t it, that one of your own could do this to you? Yet the evidence is right here.”
His face was utterly unreadable. Even with her enhanced senses she couldn’t make out a single emotion. He wasn’t giving anything away and that terrified Alayna. She had waited so long to have her father back and now she was sure that she would lose him all over again.
“I won’t do it,” Alayna declared, squaring her shoulders.
Erik whirled around on her, anger turning his dark eyes even blacker. “What did you say?”
“I said that I’m not going to do it. I’m not going to hurt my father anymore,” Alayna said in a stronger voice.
All too late, Alayna realized the error of making her revelation in that particular room. Surrounding them were countless medical instruments. Instruments all made of surgical steel that Erik could manipulate with barely a thought.
“That, my dear, was hardly wise,” Erik hissed as a scalpel found its way into her stomach.
Before she had a chance to pull it out, there were at least a dozen more embedded within her skin. While the blades caused her no small amount of pain, Alayna knew that she could withstand much more thanks to her father’s healing abilities she had inherited.
Worse came in the form of a large monitor hurtling towards her. One that Alayna noticed only seconds before it impacted her skull.
Then the world faded into a black oblivion.
~*~*~*~*~
Not for the first time Marie found herself wishing that she had Logan’s enhanced senses. It would make finding him so much easier. Still, Marie knew that she would be able to find him. In the end she always did.
Marie’s mind was still spinning from what had happened only a short time ago. She knew that the dark-haired woman meant trouble for her family. Even without Braeden’s affirmation that she was his big sister, Marie had been able to determine as much from simply one look at the other woman’s eyes.
Logan’s eyes.
At first Marie had thought her to be his sister, but this made it much worse. Marie knew first hand that there was an incredibly strong bond between parent and child. No matter what she had done, Marie was confident that Logan wouldn’t abandon his daughter. Even if she was working with Magneto.
That meant that she was entirely too capable of hurting Logan.
Retracing her earlier steps, Marie found herself in the same corridor where she had last seen Logan. Drawing upon the remnants of her mental link with Logan, Marie began sprinting down the corridor that he had followed his daughter into. There was a brief flicker of Logan’s presence followed by a quick growl. More than anything it was a pitiful growl which greatly worried Marie. When she had had Logan full force in her mind, Marie had always been able to sense Logan’s emotions. If that was still the case then Logan was in serious trouble.
Marie prayed that their connection went both ways as she began willing her thoughts to Logan. Telling him that she was coming and that she wouldn’t let Magneto do anything to him.
~*~*~*~*~
Braeden poked his head around the corner, making sure that none of the bad people were coming. He couldn’t smell any of them, but Daidee said that sometimes the bad men hid their stinks so that the good guys couldn’t find them.
Braeden knew that Momma was gonna yell at him later, but he had to help Daidee. He had claws like Daidee so he could help beat up the bad guys. And he wouldn’t get lost like Momma said he would ‘cause he could smell the outside air inside. Momma couldn’t smell the outside air. She wasn’t like him and Daidee.
The lights in the long hallway started to flicker for a few minutes. Braeden didn’t like being in the dark and almost went back to the big black plane, but he knew that Daidee needed his help. He was gonna show Momma and Daidee that he was a big boy and that he could help them out. He was gonna help Daidee.
~*~*~*~*~
“NNNNNOOOOOOO!!”
Marie stopped dead in her tracks when she heard Logan’s furious scream. Logan sounded like a caged animal, as though he would chew his own arm off in order to free himself. Focusing on the sound of the shout, Marie took off in that direction.
“I’m comin’, babe. Just hold on a little longer.”
Bolting around a corner, Marie quickly bypassed St. John and a flame-throwing lackey of Magneto’s. In her peripheral vision, Marie could make out a battle going on between her fellow X-Men and the Brotherhood. None of that mattered, though. Marie’s only concern was getting to Logan.
“Don’t you lay a fucking hand on her!”
Those words gave Marie pause. Of the three other X-Women who had come, none of them were anywhere near where Logan’s shout had come from. As she had run through the compound, Marie had seen the vivid yellow highlights of Jubilee’s uniform and had nearly been knocked over by a wind storm created by Storm in an attempt to subdue Sabertooth.
That only left the girl.
The dark-haired woman who looked at her with Logan’s eyes.
“AAAGGGGGHHHHHH!!”
This time the screams were ones of pain. Only they were not Logan’s screams. The cries were most definitely female and were quickly followed by Logan’s shouted protests.
“You leave her alone! Alayna!”
~*~*~*~*~
Logan watched in horror as Magneto sent a wide metal pipe through his daughter’s abdomen. She had already been defenseless after receiving the monitor to the skull, but the aging mutant had obviously still been worried about her ruining his plans. That meant the blow would not keep her out for long and that Alayna had likely inherited his rapid healing ability.
Still, watching as Alayna struggled with blood covered hands to remove the metal from her stomach, Logan felt an incredible rage boiling within him.
“No worries, my dear boy, she will heal right up just as you would,” Magneto informed him as he turned away from the prone woman. “Unfortunately, by the time she is healed up it won’t matter to you. Your mind will be out of your control and you will kill her on command.... After I allow Creed to play with her for a time.”
“That ain’t happening, Buckethead,” Logan snarled, glaring at the aging mutant as he struggled to free his frozen limbs.
Magneto arched an eyebrow. “I’m sorry, but were you under the impression that you had a choice in the matter? Silly boy. Very soon you will lose all control of your thoughts and actions.”
“Daddy....”
Logan felt his heart clench when he heard his daughter’s pained moan. Despite her role in recent events, it didn’t take away from the fact that she was his daughter. Logan had done some less than admirable things over the years and had no grounds for which to condemn Alayna for the way she had chosen to survive in the world that had hurt her so much.
“Weave my Daidee awone!”
“Braeden no!” Logan roared when he caught sight of his small son standing on the other side of the room, his tiny fists curled up with the claws extended. Then Logan caught sight of Magneto who had another one of those deadly pipes aimed at his son. “NOO!”