A Stolen Season - Part Six

by Khaki


POV: Logan

Salt. The smell of wet salt mixed with sadness brings me back into the world. I'd collapsed on the floor, but now I'm lying on the bed. Marie's in the crook of my arm, her head resting over my heart. My shirt's soaked with salty tears, but Marie's heartbeat is steady and her breathing's slow and deep. She must've cried herself to sleep.

Dammit. I don't feel as weak as the last time I touched her, so she couldn't have been too worried about me. The only explanation for the tears is that she got my memories.

Stupid, stupid, stupid. I should've touched her right away. It doesn't matter that the soldiers were comin'. I could've found a safe hideaway. I should've touched and then led her out so she couldn't see. Now, instead of protectin' her, I've just given her a whole new set of nightmares.

I told her we'd go after Cyke and the kids once she was better, but now... If she goes back with me, those government goons could hurt her again. Maybe they'll decide she's too much trouble and just kill 'er. I can't take that risk. O' course, if I leave her behind, then I won't be around to protect her if they do come lookin' for her.

Just leavin' Cyke and the kids behind ain't an option. He's a cocky kid but a good leader, not that I'd ever admit it. Besides, I just can't leave a teammate behind. There's no tellin' why those heartless monsters kept us alive when they murdered everyone else. Whatever the reason, I aim to see their plans and their lives end on my claws.

"Mmm," Marie moans by my side.

Hell! I'd pulled her too tight against me in my anger and now she's waking up.

"Logan?"

"Yeah, baby?"

She pulls herself up so she's leaning over me and gives me a critical look. "You ok?"

"Yeah. You?"

She pauses a second. "I think so."

"I'm sorry, darlin'. I..."

"It wasn't your fault, Logan," she insists.

"But now you've got more nightmares to deal with."

"You didn't attack the mansion, and we're going after who did."

"Marie, about that..."

"*We* are going after who did," she repeats.

**********

This plan stinks. It's only been a day and a half since we escaped and now we're back. We had to do this now, though, or there'd be nothing to come back to. A stray scent or scrap of paper could make all the difference. If I were them, I'd have set up a surveillance team or at least planted a few electronic detectors in case we returned, but I can't smell or hear anyone or anything yet.

We left the Jeep about five miles away and are sneaking through the woods onto the school's property in the near pitch darkness of the overcast night. We could've got a lot closer in the darkness, but I don't wanna risk someone coming across our only transportation. If they're lookin' for us, we won't have a quick getaway, but hopefully the woods and the night'll cover our escape.

After about an hour of hiking, we're as close as we can get without leaving the tree cover. The mansion looks the same as it did two days ago, but the feelin's wrong. There was always light, sounds, and smells broadcasting the life of the place. Now, it's dark, quiet, and musty. Even the smell of death is stale.

The grounds are clean of the bodies, but I don't smell freshly tilled soil so they can't have buried 'em here. They took 'em, took their corpses for whatever desecration they wanted to commit. Just the thought makes my claws snikt out.

"Logan?" Marie whispers behind me.

I growl and pull my claws back in. "Outside's clear," I say striding out over the manicured lawn towards the ornate building. She follows me without further comment.

Once we reach a door, I check around it, but still don't find any tampering. I can't sense anything past the door, either. It's like they got what they wanted and left, not caring who came after them.

The scents in here are stronger, and I pause a moment to memorize the musks of the unfamiliar men who passed through. I will find every one of them and make sure they meet the people they killed face to face. No mercy, only justice.

"Logan, there's nothing here. Let's check the security tapes."

I turn and nod, following Marie to the staircase we'd ascended only days ago.

**********

The jet's gone, Med Lab's ransacked, Cerebro's scrap, Map Room's dismantled, and the Security Room's trashed. There are no tapes, no clues, no hope. Still, we spend hours going over everything carefully, looking for anything they might've left behind.

Once we're done in the sublevels, we check the main level and upper floors with the same dedication to detail. The sun rises to its peak and descends to the horizon before we're done.

The rooms are intact. I can smell that the killers came up here, but they only collected whatever bodies lay around and left. No one's possessions were handled. Maybe they didn't have time. Maybe a mutant kid's baseball card collection isn't interesting to his murderers. I don't know.

Still, it's a lucky break for us. Our clothes are still in our room, so we can save on that cost. I got twenty-five thousand for the Porsche from that New York fence. It's less than half of what the car was worth, but I didn't have time to be picky. With the six grand I spent on the Jeep, we've got plenty to tide us over for a while, but it's nice to have our own stuff.

It isn't until we're packing that I look down at my hands and notice it.

"Dammit!"

"What?"

I hold up my hand for Marie to see.

"My ring."

It's got a strip cut out of it from when I'd released my claws. In a house full of kids, I've learned to keep them sheathed even in the most exasperating of circumstances, and I always take my ring off on missions so I won't lose it. It just never occurred to me that my claws would damage it.

Even though I've never been very superstitious, it gives me pause. Five months ago at our wedding, Kurt had explained the ring symbolized eternity and our everlasting love. With a notch cut out of it, the ring ends.

"It's ok," Marie comforts. "Gold's repairable. We'll get it taken care of soon enough."

I nod and go back to packing, but I can't shake off that weird feeling.

**********

POV: Dr. John Thacker (original character)

"So it wasn't a total success?" President Creed asks.

"Not totally," I answer truthfully. "We've discovered one mutation that is harder to contain, but I still believe capture is possible and desirable."

"The healer?"

"Yes, but I have an idea. Right now, if one nano is in the host body, the other nanos move to the skin surface to be passed along to other hosts. We could subtly change the programming so that several nanos stayed in the body of a healer. Then, if it takes longer for the body to be collected, the unused nanos could continue to recut the spinal cord and keep the mutant immobile."

The president nods. "That seems reasonable. I heard you eliminated the X-Men. What about the Brotherhood?"

"We don't actually know where the Brotherhood's headquarters are," I answer. We hadn't known where the X-Men were, either, but that's a fluke I'm willing to take credit for. "But, they should be as easily defeated as the X-Men," I add. "We'll just eliminate them with all the other mutants in our national deployment."

"How long until you have enough nanos to lace the food supply?"

"We're at full production now," I said, pausing to calculate the time necessary. "It should take about three months, so early Fall."


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