Charles did do as promised, leaving his office the moment he finished speaking with Jean. He dscended down into the bowels of the mansion where Cerebro stood silent and gleaming. The door slid shut silently behind him as he wheeled himself to the end of the catwalk where the helmet sat on its pedestal in wait.
There was a small ray of hope in his heart as he placed the helmet on his head letting his mind clear before descending down to the mental state he needed to release his true potential. His eyes drifted shut as his mind reached outward, finding first the psychic signature of every mutant on the planet. Concentrating, he began to slowly narrow his search, parring away the mutants that did not match Logan’s own particular brainwaves.
It was a strange sensation, searching through that sea of thoughts and energies. A tidae of sensation and emotions, not to mention thoughts and memories begging entrance into his mind. Whispering to him to let his guard down, let them be heard. But he ignored them with practiced ease and continued his search.
The dots upon the spherical walls of the chamber began winking out as he narrowed his search down tighter and tighter, his powerful mind discarding one after another in search of the single psychic signature he was seeking. It took him many long minutes, but at the end of that time, the walls were dark; there was no single light shining like a beacon to tell him that the one he sought had been found.
He sighed loudly as he pulled himself away from his connection with Cerebro and back into himself. He had so hoped that Jean might be right; that somehow Ororo was communicating with Logan on some level they were unaware. That somehow, Logan was still alive, despite the implications that brought to mind about Forge. But that hope seemed to be floundering now in the face of failure.
He was lifting the helm from his head, preparing to place it back on its stand and leave the chamber when a sudden thought occurred to him. Jean had said Ororo claimed a strange connection with Logan, that somehow he had in fact visited her in her dreams, urging her to come to the lab and rescue him.
At first glance both he and Jean were ready to dismiss Ororo’s claims as nothing more than hallucinations brought on by her grief and denial. But something about the dreams, something about Ororo’s faith in it struck a chord in Charles. He well knew of the love between Ororo and Logan; he had in fact encouraged it whenever given the chance. And now he wondered. Could that love be enough to bridge the distance between two psychically ungifted people?
He did not know but he knew that he had to find out. Suddenly determined, he slid the metal fixture back into place and quickly connected with the sophisticated machine. He descended again and went in search of some answers.
Xavier wasn’t the only one with a need for answers. After speaking with Charles, Jean found herself feeling increasingly restless and frustrated. She wandered the mansion for nearly an hour looking for something to ease that restlessness when she suddenly found herself down in the medical lab, staring at the drawer where they had stored Logan’s body.
They had held off burying or disposing of his remains for reasons that none of them seemed willing to admit out loud. They had all thought him nearly invincible; gifted by his very genetics to survive wounds and damage far beyond any other human. Now he was gone, killed by something as innocuous as a neural disruptor.
His death brought their own mortality home to all of them; the man was invincible, invulnerable and had an inner core of strength that as of yet had never been fully realized. If it could happen to him, gifted as he was, it could happen to anyone. None of them wanted to face that just yet.
Burying him would only add credence to the doubt they all felt. And in their line of work, doubt was a bigger killer than all of their enemies combined. Not to mention that none of them were willing to let go just yet. So they had hesitated, holding onto a body that gave them ties to the past. Because they had no idea of just how to let go.
Jean felt guilt wash over her as she stood there. They weren’t the only ones that couldn’t let go. Ororo too was still unable to believe that Logan was gone. Jean sighed softly as she recalled her friends words: I believe in him Jean, I trust in him and his love for me. He would never have done what Forge claims he did; not like that. Logan is many things but he has never been a fool. And Forge’s claims are those of a fool.
Ororo trusted her, needed desperately to be believed. But did that mean that what she said was right? Could Forge be lying? Could Logan still be alive? And if he was, what did that mean about the body Forge had brought back? What did that mean about the story Forge had told them? Would it hurt so much to take a closer look, to be sure?
She shook her head slightly. If the professor was willing to give his time and effort to search with Cerebro, she could do no less with the skills she had at her disposal. Setting her face, she pulled open the drawer and drew out Logan’s body. She had work to do.
Several hours later, Xavier pulled himself free of Cerebro, mentally and physically exhausted at the effort he’d just put in to untangle the truth of the supposed connection Ororo claimed to have with Logan. He had more questions than he started with.
He had begun with Ororo, largely because she was there and the most convenient place to begin. He examined her closely and to his surprise, she was serving as a psychic anchor of some sort. But what exactly that anchor was attached to he could not say. When he traced the connection back along its path, he found nothing. It just suddenly ended, in open space. He had no explanation for it and hours of searching had proven fruitless.
He desperately needed a break and perhaps a fresh perspective. So he decided to leave the puzzle for a moment and return to it after a short break. He quietly shut Cerebro down and exited the sphere, heading to his office.
Meanwhile, down in the medical lab, Jean herself had uncovered the beginnings of her own mystery. Upon preliminary examination, a strange anomaly had cropped up in the skeletal structure of the body Forge brought back.. Jean ran serveral tests hoping to track down the answers to explain what she was seeing but nothing seemed to pan out. She was just about to pull her hair out in frustration when Hank walked through the door.
“Hank, you’re just the egghead I was hoping to see.” Jean smiled as the blue-haired mutant came over to her.
He smiled at the redhead. “Ah, how nice it is to be wanted.” He stepped closer, his eyes falling to the still form on the table. His eyes softened a bit as he glanced at the form of their fallen comrade. Then his voice filled the small room with its rich tones. “For the sword outwears its sheath, and the soul wears out the breast. And the heart must pause to breathe, and love itself have rest.” After a moment, he pulled his eyes away and looked at Jean, standing there watching him quietly. “What might I help you with my dear?”
Jean cut straight to the chase. “Hank, I don’t think this is Logan.”
“What?” Hank looked at her, his face suddenly stilled at her surprising words.
Jean picked up her clipboard and showed him the strange results she had been getting. “I can’t explain it but there’s something here that shouldn’t be. But I can’t find it. I need your help.”
Hank scanned the test results, his interest immediately piqued by them. “Fascinating. It seems we have quite the mystery on our hands.”
Jean nodded. “Yes we do; can you help me figure it out?”
Hank nodded, setting the clipboard aside. “Gladly.” He slipped into his lab coat and the two of them went back to work.
Both Jean and the professor soon became tied up in the sudden mysteries they found themselves in. So much so that both of them quickly lost track of time and forgot about Ororo. At least in so much as she was waiting impatiently for their responses. They needed so much to find answers for themselves and for her that it never occurred to them she might not wait, or that she might take their lack of response in the wrong way.
But Ororo was rapidly coming to the end of her rope. She knew deep in her heart that she was right, that Logan was still alive. The lack of response from both Jean and Xavier only served to enforce their denial in Ororo’s mind. While denial might be helping both of them to deal with their own grief, it was not helping Ororo. In fact it was having quite the opposite effect on her psyche. She was becoming very, very angry.
Ororo waited, for two days she waited for word from either Jean or the professor. She really did not expect them to find him; whoever had put in the effort to capture Logan would most likely have him well and heavily shielded. And no matter Xavier’s or Cerebro’s power, he was most likely lost to them psychically.
Despite that thought, she waited and hoped. But two more days of hoping and praying, two more nights of restless sleep crowded with the vivid dream convinced her that neither the professor or Jean were willing to help her in this. So she would have to take matters into her own hands. The second day after speaking with Jean about the dreams, she did just that. Seeking out the one person in the mansion who might be willing to listen to her without thought.
Of all the others in the mansion, Marie was the only other person who knew Logan even better than she did. And of all the people in the mansion, she was the most likely to believe in what Ororo was telling her.
“I need your help.” She approached Marie in one of the quiet hallways of the mansion near the library.
Marie stopped, her eyes heavy lidded with unshed tears and Ororo felt a surge of guilt at the sight. She had missed Marie’s grieving, neglected to think of the young girl’s pain. It had paled in comparision to her own, or so she had thought. Now faced with it, Ororo realized just how much Marie had loved Logan. And she was just as hurt by his loss as she herself was.
“What for?” Her voice was quiet, not carrying farther than the two of them.
Ororo stopped in the hall, looking Rogue in the eye as she jumped right to the point. “I need to steal the blackbird.”
Rogue couldn’t hide her surprise, her eyebrows rising alarmingly. “Ororo,” Ororo cut her off.
“He is alive Marie, I know he is alive.” She watched Marie hesitate a moment before she pressed on. “You know him Rogue better than anyone alive. You know he would never do what Forge claims he did. I have to be sure, I must know.” Her voice was intense, imploring as she nearly begged the young woman to believe her. Oh how she needed someone to believe her.
Marie hesitated only a moment longer, something changing in her face as she pondered Ororo’s impassioned words. Then she seemed to make up her mind and gave a simple reply. “Alright, what do ya need me ta do?”
Ororo supressed a surge of hope at Marie’s words and pressed on. “I need you to bypass the security codes on the blackbird and the hangar doors.” Rogue was very gifted with security systems and lockpicking; she was one of Ororo’s prized students in that regard and Ororo had no issues that what she asked would be beyond the young woman.
Rogue nodded, her mind already beginning to ponder the problems that she might face. “Ah might be able to handle the doors. But the jet might be beyond me.” She shrugged. “If it is, Ah’ll ask Kitty to help me.”
Ororo smiled slightly at the idea of the two teenagers working on the problem. “I suppose it goes without saying that the less who know about this, the better.”
Rogue chuckled. “Don’t worry bout us sugah, we’ll be careful.” She sobered as the seriousness of the situation came crashing back down on them both. “What are ya gonna do once ya have it?”
Ororo sighed. “I am going to go down there and find him and bring him home.”
Marie looked shocked again. “Alone?”
Ororo nodded. Her mind was made up. Jean and Xavier had chosen their paths; hers was not going to be the same. “Yes” A soft voice interrupted her from several feet away. Ororo whirled around to see Jimmy standing behind them
“No.” He stepped up to them, his eyes never leaving Ororo’s.
She looked at him in surprise; she had never even sensed his presence. She wondered how long he had been standing there. “Jimmy,” she got no further.
“He saved my life Ororo. I owe him this.” His eyes still bored into hers.
Ororo found herself unable to look away from his intense gaze. She had no idea of how to respond to his words. Before she could think of something, anything that might placate him, Marie spoke again.
“Please Ororo, he means something ta us too.” She reached out to touch Ororo’s arm gently.
Ororo looked at her, seeing the grief again on her face, feeling the guilt at having missed it, in both of them. Could she say anything to change their minds? Could she justify risking her own life but telling them it was too dangerous for them? How could she even contemplate telling them that when they were both nearly team members in their own rights.
The truth was, she could not and they both knew it. So she gave in to inevitable. “Very well. Here is what I want to do. Rogue, once I have cleared the mansion, you and Jimmy will meet me twenty minutes south of here at the barn on the old Johnston party. I shall be waiting for you there.” She gave them both stern stares. “Lay low until I tell you otherwise; no pranks, no trouble. I want no one to know about any of this or connect either of you to it. Am I understood?” The both nodded and she stepped away from them satisfied.
“Good luck Ororo.” Marie called after her as she walked off.
Ororo snorted quietly, calling back. “Wish me luck when we have managed to pull this off and the jet is in our hands.”
Ororo braced herself to wait several more days for results from Marie. She used the first few hours prepping a few minor things she knew she would need on the mission. But once that ran off, she feared she might go crazy. But as it turned out, she did not have long to wait. Marie came to her late that night, while she sat quietly in her room contemplating whether or not to use the sedative Hank gave her.
There was a quiet knock on her door. “Yes?”
Marie opened the door and slipped inside. She handed Ororo a large manilla folder. “Here.”
Ororo looked at it questioningly as she began slowly leafing through it. “What is this?”
“Everthing Forge had access to in the lab.”
Ororo looked at her in shock. “Where on Earth did you get this? Did you hack Forge’s laptop?”
Marie sighed loudly. “No, unfortunately Forge was a bit smarter than Ah gave him credit for. He didn’t have a damn bit of useful info on it.”
“Then how did you get this?” She waved the folder at Marie.
Marie smiled. “Kitty used his laptop to hack into the lab.”
Ororo sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose as an image of just what might have happened had they been caught flashed through her mind. “Not exactly subtle was it?”
“Hank was good enough to distract him down in the dangerroom for us.”
“Marie.” Ororo gave her a quelling look. It did little to stop the young woman’s enthusasim.
“Don’t worry, we were careful; Kitty covered her tracks.” She watched as Ororo began leafing through the folder once more. She and Kitty had read most of what it contained and most of it was not pretty. “Ororo, yer not gonna like what we found.”
Ororo paused, feeling vindicated and horrified all in the same instant. “He lied to us.”
Marie nodded. “Yeah; he’s been plannin’ this fer awhile. He’s the one behind the Canadian lab too.” Her voice was quiet as she dropped that final bombshell, both of them knowing just what that meant. He was responsible for the hell Jimmy had been forced to endure.
Ororo nearly threw the folder across the room. “Damn him, damn him, damn him.” It was not enough for the man to destroy her life twice, but he also had to destroy the life of an innocent child. The man had no soul. A sudden light appeared in her mind as a thought occurred to her. “That means that Logan is alive.”
Marie shrugged, sitting down on Ororo’s bed. “Ah don’t know fer sure Ororo. Kitty and Ah searched every nook and cranny of that lab for proof that he was there. But if they’ve got him, they’ve buried it deep. Ah even tried his dog tags, hopin’ it was an American operative number or somethin’. All we hit was a clearance wall for the Weapons X project in Canada.”
Ororo dug through the folder again. “Surely they have data about current projects.”
Marie nodded. “Yeah they do and they only have one runnin’ right now: codenamed Stryker. Ah can’t tell ya what it is, but Ah can tell ya one thing, its drawing a ton of power from their generator.”
Ororo closed the folder, her mind made up. “We have to go down there, even if we do not know for sure.”
Marie nodded. “Ah agree. There’s just one problem.”
“What might that be?”
“The cure exists; it’s a neurological field designed to block the specific brain wave patterns of mutants. Its supposed to block off the part of our brains we use ta access and control our powers. In effect we’re shut off from them. It affects a 2 mile radius from the lab.”
Ororo sighed loudly. If they were unable to use their powers to gain entry, how in the world were they going to free Logan? “That could present a bit of a problem. But we have no choice, we have to go. How soon can Kitty throw the switch?” Her mind was made up; she would take care of the field when they got there.
“She’s got everything set and ready to go, she’s just waitin’ fer the word from ya.”
“How soon can you and Jimmy be ready?”
“We’ve been ready to go since the moment ya asked.”
“Good, talk to Kitty, I need her to be ready to flip the switch in exactly thirty minutes. That should give me enough time to get my things. I shall be waiting for you and Jimmy at the farm.”
“We’ll be there.” Marie left the room.
After Marie left, Ororo threw on her robe before leaving her room. She felt a surge of energy fill her as she descended into the bowels of the mansion to gather her uniform and gear. She made one stop before she went into the basement; dropping off the folder containing the information that Kitty and Rogue had gathered on the lab and on Forge on Xavier’s desk. She hoped he would find it quickly.
She left the room, hurrying to the locker room where she donned her uniform quickly. She then hurried to the hangar doors, waiting several moments while she stared at the resting form of the blackbird just beyond. This was the final step, once she pushed through those doors there was no turning back. She would be committed.
Despite her conviction that Logan was alive, she still felt a bit of hesitation on taking that final step. She would be crossing a very distinct line and no matter the outcome, it was a bit of a difficult thing for her to do. But what else was left her? Jean and Xavier had made it very clear that her visions were little more than grief induced hallucinations. They had forced her hand in this, they were the reason she was forced to this extreme.
Taking a deep breath, she pushed through the doors and stepped quickly towards the jet. She had broken the law before; had stolen to stay alive when she was little more than a child. This was no different; the need beyond it even more pressing than a child’s survival. This time she was ensuring the survival of her very soul.
She walked up the ramp, moving quickly to the front cabin. She sat down, mentally noting the time and realizing that if Kitty had done as asked, she had thrown the switch almost two minutes before. Sending a silent prayer to the goddess, she began flicking switches, powering the jet up for take off before keying in the coded sequence to the recently repaired hangar doors.
They swung open quickly and she lifted the jet into the air, mentally ticking off the seconds in her mind before she knew Scott would contact her. She had barely reached ten when the com beeped loudly at her.
His voice filled the cabin in clipped tones. “Cyclops to Storm, just what the hell do you think you’re doing?”
She continued to lift the jet keeping her voice calm and even. “I am going to find him Scott. I’m going to find him and bring him home.”
There was a pause and muffled curse over the speaker before he came back on. “Dammit Storm, bring the Blackbird back here; that’s an order.”
Even though he could not see her, she shook her head. “I cannot do that. He is still alive and I am not going to rest until I bring him back home. Forgive me Scott.” She cut the channel with a savage gesture even as she pushed the throttle forward, leaving the mansion quickly behind.
Back in the mansion, Scott swore loudly as the blackbird quickly left their sensor range. He punched another button angrily as Jean and Hank came into the room. “Scott to Xavier, Ororo has just taken off with the blackbird!” He turned to them. “I can’t believe she did this! What the hell is the matter with her?”
Jean reached out to touch his arm gently. “The same thing that should be wrong with us. She might be right Scott.”
“What’re you talking about Jean?” No one failed to hear his exasperated tone.
Jean gave him a stern look, her arms crossed over her chest. “Hank and I spent the last two days examing the body Forge brought back. Whoever it is, it isn’t Logan.”
At just that moment, Charles wheeled himself into the room. “What did you find Jean?”
Jean looked at Hank who simply nodded. “Over the years that Logan’s been with us, we’ve scanned him numerous times. And those scans have shown us that the adamantium grafted to his skeleton has a very specific density and composition to it. In effect, it has a specific signature. In fact, because the metal is so very rare, every batch ever refined is unique.” She paused for a moment as Hank took over, stating what they both had concluded just an hour before.
“The batch used on this body does not match what we know about the adamantium in Logan.”
Xavier was silent for several moments, the sudden implications forming in his mind even as he asked. “How is that possible?”
“The most likely explanation would be a clone.” Hank stated baldly.
Xavier nodded to himself, his mind pondering the problem. “The only way they could have grown a clone of Logan so quickly would have been to accelerate its development.”
“Yes, but that’s not a good idea. The accelerated process would have left the clone in little more than a vegetative state. Its mind would have been scrambled; it wouldn’t have been viable.” Hank held up his hands questioningly. “What would be the point?”
A terrible thought suddenly occurred to Jean. “Maybe that was the point. If the objective was to make us believe Logan was dead, what better way than to make a clone of him, duplicate the adamantium bonding process on it and then kill it? With Logan presumed dead, they could study him at their leisure and we would be none the wiser.”
Scott scoffed loudly, unable to hide his disbelief. “Professor you can’t seriously believe this nonsense.”
Xavier looked thoughtful for several moments before shaking his head slowly. “No Scott, Jean raises a valid point. We all know that several governments have tried and failed many times to capture Logan to determine just how he survived the process that gave him his unique skeletal structure. What if it was Forge’s plan to come here and lure Logan away in the hopes of capturing him?”
Another issue occurred to Hank. “But that would mean that Forge had to have planned this for a fairly decent amount of time. Even with the accelerated growth, the clone wouldn’t have been the right age for at least two years.”
Jean quickly picked up his train of thought. “And if this was Forge’s plan all along…”
Scott finished the statement, the thought horrifying them all. “Then he’s been using us from the beginning.”
Hank sighed loudly as the last of it clicked into place. “And getting Ororo back was just a diversion to keep us from wondering just what in blue blazes was going on.”
Xavier nodded. “Yes, it was.” He held up the manilla folder Rogue had handed Ororo only an hour before. “Ororo left this on my desk before she left.” He handed it to Scott who began scanning it even as Xavier continued talking. “It gives details about the lab and its current porjects. There is a cure, but no group of young mutant guinea pigs as we were led to believe. There is also mention of the lab in Canada where Jimmy was held and Logan susequently destroyed when he realized they had rediscovered the adamantium process they used on him.” He paused as he let the final implication slide home. “And that means Forge has betrayed one of our own and imprisoned him. And Ororo has rushed off to rescue him alone.”
“Xavier, what’s our next step?” Scott looked up from the folder, a sick expression on his face.
Xavier sighed softly, feeling a bit of a headache coming on at the sudden wave of stress. “First and foremost, we keep this all to ourselves, no sense in revealing our hand just yet. But lets keep a close eye on our guest for the time being. Ensure that he does not leave the mansion for the next few days. I have a distinct feeling that when Ororo returns, she will want to speak to the man.”
“And then what do we do?”
“The only thing we can do Scott, we wait and we pray.”
[Reviews - 127]
-
Table of Contents [Report This]
Chapter or Story |
Chapter or Story |
Chapter or Story |
Has been viewed 1598 times
- Text Size +
-
Table of Contents [Report This]
Chapter or Story | Chapter or Story | Chapter or Story | - Text Size +
You must login () to review.
