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2. Inner Turmoil

“Ororo” It took her a few moments to clear through the haze in her mind. Standing next to her, dressed impeccably in a black suit, with his long black hair slicked back, was – Forge.
“Ororo” he called her again, concern written clearly over his handsome face. “Are you alright?”
Ororo nodded her head, her throat dry and constricted from her mental ordeal.
“Here, drink this?” came the voice from the other side of the bed, as a hand reached behind to caress her back.
Jean Grey knew enough about her friend’s nightmares to know what to do.
“It’ll help you speak.”
Ororo raised one shaky hand to grasp the glass and slowly brought it to her lips, the cool water flowing down her throat, relaxing it. “Thank you” she croaked, rubbing her throat.
“You’re welcome,” responded Jean with a smile. “You ready to go?” she asked after a couple of minutes.
Nodding her head, Ororo started to get off the bed, but was interrupted by Forge.

“Don’t you think it is a bit *early* to let her leave?” he said sarcastically.
Jean started to say something but was cut off by Ororo.
“It’s alright Forge. I am used to it…and so is Jean,” she said evenly, once again donning the emotionless mask that was her ‘public’ face.
Wishing both of her team-mates goodnight, she began walking to the door.
“At least let me walk you to your room” offered Forge, catching up with her.
“NO” she answered bluntly. “No” she repeated herself, slowly “I need some time alone.”

Just as the infirmary door slid open, Ororo turned to Forge. “Sorry for wrecking your evening.”
Forge gave her a smile. “Never mind,” he said shrugging it off. “Although you can make it up to me, by agreeing to go out again next friday,” he offered.
Instead of answering his question, Ororo walked away. It was as if she hadn’t heard him at all.

---

Forge turned to Jean. “Who is Logan?” he asked bluntly.
“We don’t know” she answered him plainly. “No one does, only Ororo knows.”
“Not even the professor” Forge asked, surprised at the revelation. He had thought Logan would be an ex-teammate or ex-boyfriend. “Not even Remy?”
“I am not sure about the professor,” she responded thoughtfully. “Although I am pretty sure that even Remy doesn’t know who ‘Logan’ is. It must have been before she met him and came to the institute.”
“Before that” “but that would mean she was a teenager when she met this Logan” he spat the name out.
Forge had joined the X-Men a few months back and had been pursuing the resident weather goddess since day one. Recently he had had some success, with Ororo agreeing to go out with him for dinner. He had been ecstatic over his achievement – for about five minutes. Then Jean burst his bubble by telling him that although Ororo was pursued many times by various X-men and Non X-men, things never progressed beyond dinners. Witnessing what he just had, he guessed whoever this ‘Logan’ person was, was the cause of all this. He frowned at this thought.

---

Ororo was standing in her attic-apartment balcony. Reaching her room, she had removed her black dress, pearl necklace and earrings and changed into her nightgown. The soft cloth of the nightgown provided smooth caresses to her full toned body, but could do nothing for the turmoil in her mind.

She was thinking about the nightmare she had just had. It was nothing new. She had experienced the same nightmare, hundreds of times over the past seven years and there was a ‘sick’ familiarity about it that provided a certain peace to her suffering soul.

What troubled her wasn’t the nightmares but their increased intensity and frequency. Usually they occurred couple of times a year. On her *special days* as she liked to call them. However over the past couple of months they had become an almost weekly feature with thrice in the past five days itself. It was as if her subconscious was trying to tell her something – he was looking for her, calling out to her. ‘Hmmmph…stupid adolescent wishes’ the logic in her chided.
‘He’s probably forgotten that you even exist’ her logic pressed.
‘No, he wouldn’t. He promised he’ll find me.’
Her logic laughed at that. ‘Promised’ ‘Stop living in the past Ororo Monroe and start living in the present. Look around how many potential suitors are there.’ ‘Look at Forge. He can give you want you want.’ Her practical side suggested.
‘Forge’ she thought. ‘No’ ‘No he can’t. No one can…no one but him.’
‘HIM’ her logic snorted. ‘Like I said, stop living in the past. Lets say he finds you or you find him. Who is to say that you will have the same feelings towards him that you did all those years ago. You are no longer the scrawny, wet thief he rescued from the mob. You are Ororo Monroe ‘Storm’, co-leader of the X-men and a respected member of society….the mutant society at least. Find someone worthy of you and leave ghosts of the past in the past.’
Leave ghosts of the past in the past. Could she do that, did she even want to? Those were her last thoughts as she fell asleep in her balcony.

---

“Tired” asked Jean, looking towards her best-friend and teammate.
“Didn’t sleep well last night,” answered Ororo as an explanation, accepting the coffee Jean was offering.
Just then, Scott and Forge walked in through the kitchen door. They had spent an hour in the ‘new’ danger room Forge had designed. It was the pride and joy of the x-men and Scott had the best time records on all the levels. A fact, which he liked to express in front of his other teammates. Oh, he did not rub it directly in their noses. He packaged it nicely in what he called ‘Team Building Exercises’.
“Morning hon,” greeted Jean. “Looks like you boys enjoyed yourselves in the danger room.”
“Oh Yeah” Scott snapped his finger. “Just think who broke the level ten record *again*” he said, pointing towards himself.
“Ummmm…let me guess” said his telepathic girlfriend. “Could it be Bobby or Kurt….oh I got it….Gambit.”
“Jeeeaaaannnn”
“Sorry dear, just playing with you” “Who else but my boyfriend could beat his *own set* record” she ended, getting a kiss from Scott.
“Damn straight.”

“Oh, hey Ororo” he began looking at Ororo. “How did your night go? Aren’t you guys sorry not being able to complete your date?” he added, winking at Forge who had occupied the chair opposite Scott and Jean. Scott had got off with Forge since the beginning and was happy to see him pursue Ororo. She had never dated in her all her five and half years with the X-men. Forge seemed genuinely interested in her and Scott wished him the best of luck, knowing about the unspoken unknown competitor that was Logan.
“My night was just fine, thank you” “And it wasn’t a date, it was a dinner” she ended tightly.
Jean could sense the emotions and turmoil rolling off her friend. It was nothing new after a nightmare. What was new was that some of the emotions and turmoil was related to the handsome Red Indian mutant sitting across from her. Was Ororo finally falling for someone, she thought.

Their thoughts and breakfast were interrupted by a telepathic summon. ““Please assemble in my office my X-men.””

---

Five minutes later, Scott, Jean, Ororo, Forge, Beast, Bobby, Gambit, Rogue, Kurt, Kitty and Colossus had gathered in the professor’s office.
“Thank you all for coming” Xavier started with a smile. “I know it is still early for some of you,” he added looking towards the resident party couple – Rogue and Gambit.
“Ah Alraht” Rogue drawled, her southern accent thick with sleep. “And so is Gambit” she added, referring to her boyfriend.
“Yes Mon ami” concurred Gambit.
“In that case lets get started” said Xavier pressing a button. Immediately a three dimensional holographic map was formed before the gathered X-men.”

“Where is this?” inquired Scott.
“What is this?” Forge asked pointing to a building on the map. The building looked simple enough, except for the vast underground construction under it.
“That my X-men is your target” informed Xavier. “It is a mutant testing facility.”
“Meaning” piped up Kitty.
“It’s a torture lab,” Ororo explained bitterly.
“Yes, I am afraid that’s one way of putting it,” agreed Xavier.
“How do you know that?” asked Forge, looking at Ororo, who didn’t meet his gaze and disregarded his question.

“Your mission is the decommissioning of this lab and the rescue of one mutant,” said Xavier finally informing them about their mission objective.
“Just one mutant?” questioned Scott.
“Yes, just one” responded Xavier. “You will have to be extremely careful on this mission. This whole setup you see before your eyes is just to keep him contained.”
“All this for just one mutant” said Bobby, his eyes widening with wonder. “He must be a kick ass one.”
Xavier gave a small smile at Bobby’s remark. “Yes. This mutant is possibly the most dangerous one you have ever faced or will face for that matter. So I once again stress on exercising extreme caution.”
“Even more than Ol’ Bucket-head” questioned Rogue, referring to the X-men’s greatest and oldest mutant foe, Magneto.
“In closed quarters – YES” “Are there any more questions?” asked Xavier.

“Just one professor” spoke the giant blue mutant named Beast. “What is this gentleman’s name? What should we address him as once we find him?”

“His name is – WOLVERINE.”





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