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It had been four days since Wolverine and his companions had come to the Xavier mansion, and two since Wolverine returned from his confrontation with the Hulk.

He had returned, or to be correct, had been returned by Fury and his SHIELD operatives. In his confrontation with the green giant, he had suffered massive injuries with parts of his body, the skin, muscles, cartilages torn right off his bone, revealing the metal underneath. The shocked X-Men were dumbstruck as to how could someone survive like this, their shock only increasing when they realized that not only was Wolverine alive, he was conscious and refused any sort of medical help, either from the X-Men or from SHIELD.

-----

//Flashback//

“We need to get him to the infirmary,” Jean stepped forward, her hand going to her forehead to telekinetically control of the stretcher Wolverine lay on.
“Nnnnnoo….” Wolverine grunted between coughs of blood, instead he raised his hand and grabbed X23 and yanked her towards his face.

Whatever he whispered into the girl’s ears, none of the x-men heard, but the very next moment, X jerked her head, signaling to Jubilee and Remy to help her.

“Where are you taking him?” Scott only spoke, but made no movements to halt their progress. He had had two run-ins with Wolverine and his protégé, or his daughter as the X-Men had taken to calling the intensely private X. During the whole time she, Jubilee and Remy had been the X-Men’s guests, the girl had barely spoken a whole sentence to any of the residents. She limited herself to Jubilee, keeping her distance from even Remy, something that surprised the X-Men.

“To the truck,” Jubilee answered for the trip as they resumed their movements.
“To the truck?” Jean repeated in exasperation. Almost done with her medical school, she couldn’t fathom how anyone could refuse medical attention, and that too at such a life or death juncture. “Are you nuts? He needs medical attention, he needs a doctor. Professor,” she turned to her mentor.

The way both X23 and Jubilee were behaving, Xavier surmised that maybe they knew what they were doing. Deciding to give them a chance, he contacted Jean telepathically.

**Jean, give them a chance. The infirmary is prepped. If the need arises, we can get him there within a minute**
**But Professor…** Jean started, but was silenced by a raised hand from Xavier.

Following their guests, Xavier and the other X-Men, Scott, Jean, Ororo, Bobby and Kitty reached the ramshackle looking truck. What struck them as odd was that Jubilee and Remy stopped near the front of the truck, with only X23 unlocking the door and stepping inside.

“Wha…” Scott started to speak but stopped at a low metallic whine of a motor running. His and his teammates’ eyes widened at what happened next. Right before their eyes, the almost a decade and a half old looking truck just fell apart….or looked as if it was falling apart. In fact, what was happening was something that none of them would have even fathomed, not even Scott, who had suspected something odd about Wolverine’s choice of transportation.

The driver’s side of the truck, just opened up, to reveal an interior that seemed to be out of a high tech vehicle, the X-Jet even, not a seemingly redneck mutant’s truck.

Whatever X23 had done inside had changed the interior completely. Instrument panels, screen and whatnots, littered the far side of the interior. The midsection, where Jubilee and Remy, with help from Jean’s telekinesis laid down Wolverine, was changed into a single bed. There were other things, which were covered by innocuous looking cooling boxes, closets etc.

“Holeeee….” Bobby whistled in awe. He had been impressed by Wolverine from the get go. After all, a guy with a rep like his had to have something. The fact that he didn’t take shit from the Professor, and more importantly from Cyke-‘tight-ass’-clops, made things even more in his favor. Now…now he was officially a charter member of the Wolverine Fan Club. “Do you see that?” He nudged Kitty with his elbow. “Do you?”
“Uh huh,” Kitty nodded the first time, scowling when Bobby didn’t let up on the elbowing. “Stop it icebox.”
“Uhn-what, oh, sorry,” Bobby withdrew his hand and stepped towards the truck for a better view.

--

**Professor** Scott telepathically contacted his mentor. Jean was helping X23 and Jubilee, but from the way the girls moved, it was clear that they were used to and adept with this sort of medical emergencies…..someone had taught them.
**Yes Scott** Xavier replied back, his mind also thinking the same things that both his students were. One, the two girls were trained….by a professional doctor, and two, some of the things he was able to see were as advanced as what the X-Men had in their underground headquarters and their vehicles….maybe even more. He was sure by now, that Wolverine had access to this technology, freely, and if his guess had been correct the first time, he knew who that person was, Dr. Henry Phillip McCoy, a mutant he had approached some years back. Although, McCoy had refused to join Xavier and his then fledging team, he had helped him out by designing various systems, including their base security and medical systems. The same systems that the mysterious hacker, who Xavier was sure was McCoy, had shut down so easily, and which the interior of Wolverine’s truck had installed in it.

‘But how…?’ Xavier was still mulling over this thought when Scott put up his question.

**Professor, we have the same technology** The engineering minded Cyclops reached the same conclusion as the telepath.
**Yes Scott, we do** Xavier’s answer didn’t reveal anything.

**But how?** was the obvious question. **Do you think they…he…**
**Rest assured, it wasn’t stolen from us** Xavier put an end to that line of thought.

**Then how…** Scott’s next question was silenced by a we’ll talk later, from Xavier.

----

“Why cannot we do this inside?” Was Ororo’s question. Jean had given up after the first couple of tries and was helping the girls, not that they needed it.
“He won’t go in,” Jubilee answered as she finished bandaging a deep gash running along Wolverine’s right forearm.
“We do it here,” X23’s tone left no room for argument, silencing even Ororo. Ororo stepped back, not so much from the tone or the words, but because of the girl. There was something about X23 that set her alarms off, not in the danger sort of way, but in the making her nervous sort of way.

Xavier detected her nervousness, but elected to remain silent. He already knew what was going in her mind and the reason behind it. Ororo had come to him, that morning and revealed the nightmares she had been having, not only at night, but also at any time she tried to sleep. At first, they had been vague and linked to her parents, but as they got more detailed, her parents went into the background and other people; strangers came in. Even the location, which was shuffling between a cold mountainous region and the African desert and savannah, grew more and more sinister, to where finally she repeatedly found herself in a lab of sorts. She was submerged with hundreds of wires and pins attached or inserted into her body. However, one thing that did not change was the ending. It always ended with a dark clawed figure diving towards her, claws extended as if to kill her. It was at that point that she always got up, her body shaking and covered with sweat.

What she had concluded and what Xavier thought too, was that maybe it was her memories that were trying to force their way back into the conscious psyche through these nightmares. Xavier would have been sure that it was one of the two ‘claw-possessing’ guests, except that Ororo wasn’t sure about the size and number of claws. According to her, the number of claws and the size and sex of her attacker kept on varying. The claws varied from two to four, while the sex alternated between male and female.

--

“Leave him,” X23’s growl drew his attention to the truck. The trio of Jean, Jubilee and X had finished cleaning and bandaging the wounds. Jean suggested that they should sedate him…for his own good; however, a blunt NO from both X23 and Jubilee silenced her.

“We cannot just leave him,” Jean voiced the thought that was on her and the mind of every single one of her teammates. What unnerved both Bobby and Kitty, and to some extent their seniors, was how the two girls had changed the moment they laid their eyes on the battered form of their friend-mentor-leader or whatever Wolverine was to them. It was as if they became someone else, well Jubilee became someone else, X23 was the same as before.
Where Jubilee has been talking nonstop, she had gone eerily silent, her attention completely focused on the task at hand. ‘They are better trained than us,’ Bobby kept his thought to himself. However, in the presence of two powerful telepaths, he couldn’t keep it from them, causing them to think along the same line.

“Leave,” X repeated a second time, emphasizing her *request* with a -snikt- of her closed right hand.

**Jean** Xavier telepathically contacted the redhead. **Step back**
**But Professor, I can’t just leave him** the doctor in her spoke. **Just look at him. He is hanging between life and death**
**I know** Xavier’s mental tone was firm. **But we have to think about our safety too. Both girls and even Gambit are on a hair trigger right now. Don’t provoke them.**

Sighing audibly, Jean sent a mental, **Yes Professor** and stepped out from within the truck which started to close behind it. Within seconds, it was back to the way it had been….looking like just another ‘normal’ truck.

--

“Let go homme,” Gambit stepped up to Scott who didn’t let up. They were still continuing their primping and showing off that they had begun in New Orleans, with the younger Gambit adding oil to fire by incessantly flirting with any and every ‘within range’ female in the mansion. His within range, started from the blush-able Kitty and went up. He deliberately paid special attention to Jean, not because he was especially ‘taken’ with her, but because he was Cyke’s girl and that pushed his buttons, on so many levels. However, what neither the annoyed Scott nor any of the other blushing females noticed was that for some reason he kept his distance from Ororo. Kept his distance, in his case meaning, he didn’t get all in her personal space and fiddle with her, caressing her hair, sides etc. etc. etc.

“After you monsieur,” Scott stepped aside, trying to get the last word in.
“Thankyou mon ami,” Gambit turned sideways and winked at Jean, who smirked and shook her head. She had caught onto Remy’s game and even if she wasn’t reciprocating to his advances, on some level, she was enjoying the affect it was having on Scott. Angry at Gambit, he was paying special attention to her, leading to two consecutive orgasm filled nights for her, thanking to her friendly neighborhood Cyclops.

“You are welcome,” Scott didn’t let up. “Jackass.”
“Back at ya,” neither did Gambit.

“Idiot,” Scott shot back.
”Ass…” whatever Gambit was to say was lost in the physical shove that Jean gave to him and to her boyfriend.

“Just get inside you two. Why don’t you just whip ‘em out and start measuring.”

“Jean!” Scott exclaimed in surprise and horror.
“Nice eye Jeannie,” Gambit’s red-black eyes glinted mischievously. “But the winner gets….” His gaze lingered over the redhead’s lithe body.

“Just. Get. In.”

//End Flashback//

-----

Present,

The senior X-Men were gathered in Xavier’s office. Their meeting had been going on for more than an hour now, with Jean starting by informing the others what they had already seen. The seemingly and truly near dead Wolverine had recovered from all of his injuries. It would have been a miracle, had it not been for his mutant powers. Even though neither he, nor any of his companions had been forthcoming about his powers, let alone theirs, the keen eyed X-Men had noticed and recorded some instances.

From what they gathered, Wolverine and X-23 shared powers, except that instead of Wolverine’s three claws on each hand, X23 just had two. What they didn’t know, was that, along with her hand claws, X23 also possessed a single claw on each foot. Apart from this, both seemed to possess a sort of healing factor that the X-Men had only seen in one other mutant, Sabertooth. Gambit’s power was clear to them the first time they had met the charmer. He was able to kinetically charge any and every object, as long as it was inorganic. That left Jubilee. About her power or powers, none of them had any idea. During the whole time she had been at the mansion, she hadn’t used her powers once. ‘Maybe she is a human,’ that thought had also risen, more than once.

Xavier then went on to reveal, mostly for Ororo’s sake, the case of Dr. Cecelia Reyes. As it had occurred during her ‘absence’, Ororo hadn’t known about it and was sorry for what the X-Men, inadvertently caused to happen to the surgeon. When Xavier revealed that Wolverine knew about her case, she just nodded and took it in silently. So far, nothing had disturbed her.

--

That all changed when Xavier handed her the Weapon X program file, the one he had until now, kept in his private locker. Waiting for her to skim to through, he resumed once she was done.

“I believe that Wolverine might be able to help us in finding out what happened to you,” was the simplest explanation he could come up with. “Either him or X23, or maybe even both.”
“Wolverine,” all three present X-Men detected the slightest of crack in her usually calm voice, but only the Professor knew the reason behind it….her nightmares. “Why do you think that?”

“We think that is a possibility because he was also in the Weapon X program,” Xavier started.
“The same people that got you….” Jean carried on. “….captured you.”
“The people we think may have captured you,” Scott presented his side of things. Somehow, he wasn’t still sold on the idea of Ororo being captured by the Weapon X people. Although, she had been gone for more than two years, she didn’t have any markings, like bar codes, or any implants, like locators etc. In his view, that alone, should negate the whole Weapon X and consequently Wolverine and/or X23 link.

“Yes Scott,” Xavier nodded patiently. He had detected aversion from the newcomers. First, because of Gambit and then because of his rescuers, Scott felt that his authority had been undermined and that they had shown…tried to show him up in front of his own teammates, and being the team-leader, that was something Cyclops couldn’t stomach quite well. “Nevertheless, we feel that from what we have been able to gather about Wolverine and his companions and what we have observed in the last few day, they might be able to help us in finding out about what happened to you, and maybe even to help you remember that time.”

His end of the speaking done, Xavier looked towards Jean and Scott if they had something to add. Getting a silent nod from either of them, he then turned to Ororo. “Ororo?”

Ororo was silent for what seemed like hours. On some level, she wanted to let that part of her life go. Even though she didn’t remember it, she dreamt about, at least she thought she did….and what she saw, pulled her equally towards both sides of the argument, the leave it and the get it sides. She had always thought that those two years were gone forever, along with everything that happened during that time….and she had made her peace with that decision. However, now, now, there was a chance, the barest one, but it was there. She could finally get to know whether her dreams….and her nightmares were her true memories, or just figments of her imagination….and that made the decision for her.

Taking a deep breath, she looked towards her three teammates and spoke just four words.

“I want to know.”

-----

Elsewhere,

“What do you have to report?” A European accented male voice spoke into the phone.
“Got news for you boss,” a make, but younger voice answered from the other end.

“Go on.”
“Wolverine’s here,” just two words were spoken from the other end. “And he’s got two girls with him, one of them with metal claws coming out of her hands.”

At the mention of the girl, there was a slight vibration in the air as the metal fork in the older man’s hand twisted, its three prongs bending in three different directions.

“Anything else?” The man asked tightly.
“Yeah, he’s…he was hurt,” the informant continued. “Been here for couple of days.”

“Good work.” The call ended with a click.

Standing up from his dinner table, the red and blue clad figure, the master of magnetism, the mutant known as Magneto, walked to the next room.

“Quicksilver,” he barked to the silver haired man sitting beside a beautiful redhead woman.
“Yes fa…” he began, only to stop at the hard look he got from his own biological father. “Yes Magneto.”

“Get me Raven….get Mystique.”

Note: Got a few faces here. New characters introduced and their descriptions (In order of mention/appearance)

Erik Lehnsherr (Magneto): Erik Lehnsherr aka Magnus aka Magneto, is a mixture of the movie, Ultimate and Evolutionverse Magneto. Mostly from Ultimateverse…cause that’s the one I am familiar with most at present. The normal Marvel Magneto is kind of a lost cause right now, and although the movieverse Mags is great (hats off to Sir Ian McAllen), he is a bit old for this specific fic. (Age: Same as Xavier i.e. fifty plus….50 to 53)

Pietro Maximoff (Quicksilver): Same here, mostly Ultimateverse. The Evolutionverse Pietro is too young and too shallow (but that’s just my view) (Age: Early twenties….23-25)

Wanda Maximoff (Scarlet Witch): Same as with her twin. Mostly Ultimateverse. The Evolutionverse Wanda is too angry for my taste. Oh, and another point. She has long red (Aurburn) hair, not the punk black as in the Evolution cartoon series, or the current long black in the Ultimates. (Age: Early twenties….23-25)

However, I would like to state, as I am following the Ultimate timeline for these three characters, they will be having the same dysfunctional family as in that comic series…including the whole underlying Pietro-Wanda thing.

Raven Darkholme (Mystique): This character is going to be a surprise one. A mixture of all universes, she will be different from the way I have written her until now. (Age: Unknown….in lieu of her mutation)

Please, don’t forget to review!!





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