Chapter 1
Kim's P.O.V.
I woke up the next morning, alone. I got dressed and wandered down the hall, my twins moving restlessly inside me, probably knowing something was wrong.
"Kim, there you are." Even though the voice wasn't his, I turned around hoping. Instead all I saw was Scott.
"I've been looking for you."
"Why?"
"Logan's left." I felt like a part of me died. Sure, I'd been mad, but for him to have left? Oh no. I felt faint. Scott put his arm around me to support me. He started leading me down the hall, and next thing I knew I was in Charles' office.
"Kim, are you all right?" Charles asked. I shook my head and plopped down in a chair.
"Do you know where he is?" I choked out.
"Yes. I've already sent Storm after him."
"I want to go too," I said firmly.
"I can't risk sending you out right now."
"Charles, he's my husband! I need to talk to him, now."
"No!" Charles thundered. My eyes widened, and I couldn't help but gasp.
"I'm sorry," Charles said, calming down. "But I really can't send you out. You must stay here. Plus, your daughter's funeral is about to commence." I ran from the room, crying like the total idiot I was. I ended up in the backyard, and spent most of the day there, which worked out well since that's where Elizabeth's funeral was. When it was midnight, Storm came back, saying he refused to return. That made me cry even harder.
That's how I ended up in one of the open rooms with a TV at 4 in the morning, curled up in the fetal position and crying my heart out. I'd lost too much, too soon. First Elizabeth, now Logan. My life was falling to pieces. How would I ever explain to my twins how I had lost their father?
A day later, on schedule, my twins were born. Stacy looked everything like me, and Cole looked everything like Logan. It hurt me to look at Cole.
A month later, when my twins were sound asleep, I was back in one of the open rooms at 4 in the morning, crying hard again and thinking about Logan. I was done with this. I had no reason to live anymore.
I ran upstairs and changed into my jeans and a white tank top. I left a note in the twins' room saying that I wanted Kristen and Pyro to take care of my kids when I was gone. After making sure my tags were on securely, I ran from the room out to the balcony. My mind took me off of the concrete, and I teleported to Alkali Lake.
I know what your thinking, that's where Stryker's old base was, and it's ruined, right? Wrong.
Sure, the one in the dam is dead and gone, but he has another base deep in the woods by Alkali Lake, which is where he was the last two times I saw him.
Once I made it to the base, I landed carefully in the trees and slid down it. I ran stealthily up to the wall of the base and pressed myself up against it.
I closed my eyes and after chameleon-ing myself so no one could see me, I phased through the wall.
I ran down the halls, keeping an eye out for any sign of life.
Finally, I saw what I wanted.
A ton of soldiers and lab assistants were standing in a room which I guessed to be the lounge or something. I made myself plainly visible and I charged into the room, claws extended and roaring.
The soldiers turned their guns on me and shot wildly. I felt the bullets dig their way into my stomach and chest but kept running toward them. I had stabbed a few assistants and soldiers when someone was finally smart enough to shoot me in the head. I passed out almost immediately and fell to the cold stone floor.
When I awoke I was chained to a chair. My white tank top was torn and stained. I was covered in sweat, and I could tell these scars would be some of the worst. I looked up into a bright light to see Stryker.
"Now why is my precious experiment X here in my lab once more?" Stryker said pleasantly.
"I'm offering myself up. Quit taking my children and any other mutants from the school ever in return for experimenting on me however you wish. You could even kill me if you want," I told him, shaking sweaty hair from my face.
"Intriguing offer. But why are you offering me such things?" I looked down, not wanting to tell him the truth.
"No matter. Patricia dear, come here." An Asian woman with long black hair walked over to me. It was the woman who had sold me my wedding dress. She grabbed my forehead and closed her eyes. Her hand felt like it was burning a hole in my skull. I could feel her invading my thoughts, looking at whatever she wished.
"Her husband has left her, sir. After she yelled at him for lying about his past, err, intimacy, he ran away from the mansion," Patricia said. Stryker smirked.
"So I see it bugged you about Logan's past work," Stryker said.
"Shut up," I whispered.
I'm surprised, seeing as you could read his mind and everything."
"Shut up," I said louder.
"Is my X getting a little attitude?" Stryker egged me on with a smirk.
"SHUT UP!" I roared at him, struggling against my restraints. Stryker looked to a guard that had appeared at my side, and the guard hit me in the head with the butt of his gun. I spit a large amount of blood onto the floor and looked back up at Stryker.
"No matter, I can use you all the same. Although, sadly, we have no need to experiment on you, for your DNA has already been replicated, therefore allowing me to copy it into anyone I might ever need to. So, I shall take your second option, and kill you." I nodded, knowing this the option I had been hoping for.
"No crying? No pleading?" I shook my head at him and he laughed.
The dumb girl has no care for her life now that Wolverine is out of the picture! This is splendid! His thoughts echoed harshly in my head.
"We shall begin immediately, this will give me a chance to test my newest serum, a serum that might make you able to be controlled by us," Stryker said. He waved a small vial in front of my face. I used my mind to fling it out of his hand to the wall. It shattered into a million pieces.
"Idiotic child!" Stryker grabbed a gun from a nearby guard (this thing was huge, for all I know the thing could've been a freaking rocket launcher) and shot multiple rounds straight into my face.
I screamed louder than ever. The bullets must have been gigantic or something, because the blood came gushing down my face. I didn't know how badly I was hurt, so I decided to try something new. I'm sure you all remember the times I've had an out of body experience. I was going to try and do this now. I closed my eyes and focused hard on seeing me outside of my body, but I wanted to still be able to control my body.
Next thing I knew I was floating behind Stryker and I saw my blood-soaked body slump over as much as it could while chained to a chair. The gaping holes in my forehead, left cheek, lower right cheek, and nose easily showed the adamantium covering my skull, and my tank top had turned totally red.
Stryker smirked and motioned for someone to take me away. I felt a gigantic tug in my mind, and I reached to it. Since I was out of body, it drug my ghost self to the scene.
The front door to the mansion burst open and a dark, wet shape entered.
"What are you doing here?" Charles snapped as he wheeled into the room. A clock on the wall informed me it was 5 in the morning.
"I came back to see my kids," the mysterious shape said. The voice was rough and familiar.
Logan.
"Not to see your wife?" Charles snapped once more.
"No. She hates me."
"Oh, so that's why she has spent every morning for the past month in that room," Charles pointed to the TV room, "waiting for you to come home? Why would she have fought against me when I refused her to go and look for you? Why Logan, why?" Charles stared at Logan intently.
"I don't understand. She's not on the couch tonight! Where is she Charles?" Logan said while he stared at the empty couch. Charles closed his eyes for a moment, and then they flew open.
"Logan, you seem to do this every time. First with Jean and now with Kim. She's back at Stryker's headquarters at Alkali Lake. She's getting herself killed." Logan's eyes widened with fear.
I'm right here! I'm ok! Just get to the lake fast! I screamed with all my might with my mind, but they weren't acknowledging me. But suddenly I was jerked away from the scene, and I was back in my body.
My body, especially one arm, was strapped down to a cold metal table. Stryker was standing over me, a needle full of neon blue serum in one hand and a clipboard in the other.
"Hmm…yes, yes…ah, you're awake. Good." He hand the clipboard to a nearby assistant and leaned over me, staring at me.
"Next time you see your friends, you will be under my control. But this only works if the needle is inserted directly into the area closest to your highest adamantium point, which for you is your left arm, inside elbow. The serum will spread itself over the adamantium, making another thick layer on the indestructible side. But if the serum were to be accidently dropped onto the skin, it would seep through to your bones and cause the color of your adamantium to change colors and give you a nasty burn, which you would probably heal. After we get the results of this test, we're going to kill you. Now, shall we begin?" He injected the large needle into my skin, and I clenched my teeth to keep from yelling. When about half of the serum was inside me the door flew open. Logan ran forward with Bobby and Scott, fighting their way to me. A black cloud disappeared and reappeared right beside me. It formed into a blue man with pointed ears who punched Stryker in the face. Stryker fell back and as the mutant disappeared his tail hit the vial and caused it to spill its contents onto my skin. The strange serum immediately expanded and covered my body, then seeped down into my skin and bones.
I screamed in pain right as the mutant finished what he was saying.
"On earth as it is in heaven." He was dark blue as I said before, with short black hair sticking up and odd symbols all over his body. He had a thick German accent, pointy ears, and had a tail with a spear-like tip on it.
"Oh no, did I do that?" he asked.
"Yeah. Nice going, Elf," I said through gritted teeth as I felt the burns slowly heal.
Elf undid the restraints on my left arm, leg, and waist, then he teleported to my right and undid those restraints. Elf helped me sit up but he immediately laid me back down when I started violently coughing up blood.
"I vill be right back," he said thickly. He teleported once more to where the others were. He mostly fought by teleporting to where his target was and attacking them, then teleporting away. While Elf started fighting I saw Stryker get up and limo away down the hall.
A moment later I felt the table I was on being moved away. I looked up to see Patricia, of all people. I put my hands palm down on the sides of my head and flipped myself backwards over Patricia.
She whipped around to face me and her arm elbow down transformed into a sword.
"Oh crap. An inanimate shape shifter. Like a Terminator," I muttered. I extended my claws while her other arm shape-shifted, and we immediately began to parry. At one point her deflect caused me to stumble and she kicked me hard into the wall. She put her sword up against my throat and pushed lightly.
"Prepare to die," she growled.
"What happened to the, 'Hello, my name is Indigo Montoya' part?" I coughed up blood in her face and she screeched. As she tried to wipe it off I took this as my advantage. I first punched her under her jaw; making her bite her tongue and making it bleed. Then I kicked her in the same place, making her stumble backwards. After lifting my hand I made the table levitate and slam into her back. It slammed her into the wall and I formed it to keep her temporarily locked into it. I collapsed onto the floor breathing heavily and spitting out blood every so often.
Logan was splattered with blood: his and others. Bobby was limping and favoring his left arm. Scott's nose was crooked and bleeding heavily. Elf was untouched since he was able to teleport out of the way.
I heard the screech of metal and turned in time to see Patricia kicking a section of the metal out of her prison and she ducked out. She saw me sitting and ran for me, sword arms turned into machetes.
Right as her machete was about to hit my head I put up my hands and created a force field around me. Patricia continued her attacks against my bubble while I watched what was happening. There must have been way more people in the room than I thought, because the guys were still fighting. But my observations were cut short when I felt a stabbing pain in my palms.
I turned to see that my force field considerably smaller so that my palms were outside of the force field, so Patricia was now slicing away at my palms. I screamed and pulled my hands back into the force field, so the tips of my fingers were brushing my face. Sadly, at that moment I went into a fit of bloody coughing and my force field faltered. The machetes sliced across my stomach and down my spine. Screaming agonizingly, I fell flat with Patricia bearing down on me.
"You are unworthy of such powers and strength. When you are gone, I will take your place," Patricia hissed in my ear. I saw the machetes rising above me, glinting evilly and shining with my blood.
"Logan!" I screamed. "Help m-!" The rest of my plea for help was replaced by a blood-curdling scream. All of the guys looked to me and their jaws dropped. The machetes were half-way in my side. They were slightly spread apart to, which made me think, She's cutting me like people cut carrots! Stupid reverse emo!
Elf jumped forward and teleported, so when he reappeared he tackled Patricia and they disappeared through the door in a jumble of black smoke and flashing metal. I heard high pitched screams and turned my head slightly to see the rest of the team run in: Storm, Kitty, and Jean. Storm and Kitty had screamed at the sight of my blood drenched body and Jean looked sick.
"Kim!" Logan roared. He ran over to me and wiped my hair off my face. "Damn-it, Kim, this is all my fault. I'm sorry. I took so long to come back because I was scared you hated me and possible didn't love me anymore," Logan said in a rush. His hands were shaking as he stroked my cheek.
"L-Log-," I choked.
"Sh, don't talk. Not right now. Wait until you heal." Surprisingly, the gash in my side healed first so I propped myself up on one elbow.
"L-Logan, I w-would ne-never stop lov-ving you," I stuttered. I turned my head to the side and threw up more blood, which is considerably more painful than just throwing up stuff. I wiped the blood that was on my mouth off onto the back of my hand. Logan leaned down and kissed me softly. I tried to wipe the rest of the blood off, but that gets a little complicated when you're totally covered. Bobby ran over and did an old time gentleman trick and pulled a napkin out of his uniform pocket and handed it to Logan. Logan began wiping my face and I felt the bullet holes from earlier and the cuts on my back and hands healing. Once I was totally healed I sat up and groaned.
"Youz took quites ze beating zere," Elf said.
"Who's the elf?" I said weakly.
"Kurt Wagner, but in ze Munic Circus I was known as ze Incredible Nightcrawler," Kurt stated proudly. Logan rolled his eyes and I laughed weakly.
"Why did you leave?" Storm asked worriedly.
"Because I thought Logan was gone forever," I whispered sheepishly.
"So what? You were going to just leave your kids alone with no mother?" Scott yelled harshly.
"Well I-," I started.
"You have children, Kimberly! You can't just abandon them like you can people!" Scott continued.
"Shut up Scott! Yelling at her while she's in this shape won't help!" Kitty yelled at him.
"I didn't think about that when I left. I mean, they're just a month old, theirs no way they can remember what we look like," I said as I motioned my hands to include me and Logan in the 'we'. "I thought if I got someone else to take care of them early on then they could just believe they were their parents until told the truth," I said. Everyone was silent until we heard the far away sound of yelling.
"Zat iz the woman. We should leave," Kurt said.
"Not yet. Stryker said he has my DNA replicated. We need to destroy whatever he has it replicated on," I told them. I closed my eyes and found Stryker so I reached into his mind.
Huff huff…oh no…the DNA replica…it's in…the room…with Weapon X…
I surveyed the room and found the machine holding my DNA replica. I lifted my hand and the machine did with my hand. I clenched my fist and the machine crumbled in on itself. I dropped my hand and the machine crashed to the ground. I set the machine on fire with my mind and once it was totally destroyed Storm said, "Alright, we must go now." Logan helped me stand up. We were almost out of the room before we heard a roar from behind us.
"Oh shut up Patricia!" I yelled. I put up my hand and Patricia flew back down the opposite hall. I slumped more up against Logan, feeling extremely tired. We slowly progressed through the halls, every so often being met by a remaining soldier or lab assistant. When ever we saw one I would throw it against a wall using my mind, but my energy drained each time.
At one point during our progression I heard a scream and then a gun shot.
"Keep on guard," I commanded. When we rounded a corner something collided with me and Logan, knocking me off my feet. I skidded across the floor and looked up to see a short blonde also on the ground, rubbing her head. Logan ran over and helped me limp back over to the girl on the floor. She tried to get up but I put my palm up and used my mind to hold her to the ground.
"Who are you?" I asked hoarsely.
"M-my name is O-Olivia. Stryker c-captured me 2 years ago. Please don't hurt me," Olivia whimpered. I dropped my hand and she stood.
"We have a safe haven for mutants; would you like to come with us?" Storm asked her. Olivia nodded her head fiercely and we continued down the hall.
"So, what are your powers?" I asked her.
"It's stupid," she said, shaking her head.
"It's alright, tell us," Kitty assured her.
"I…I can manipulate and read peoples minds. Watch." She looked to Bobby. He immediately started running in circles bawking like a chicken, but she stopped him after a minute or two.
"That's not stupid, it's cool," I said.
"Than-. AH!" Olivia screamed. A group of soldiers appeared in front of us and I sent them flying against the opposite wall. Another wave came in and Olivia stared at them. With confused looks on their faces, they turned their guns around and shot themselves.
By the time we made it to the jet I was all but being drug inside. Logan sat me down on a seat by the wall and walked off to help Bobby get his broken arm around the harness of his seat. Olivia settled into the row of seats on the other side of the jet from me. She looked around, her eyes wide with terror, and she kept glancing at me then looking away because I was covered in blood and my eyes glowed white.
"Kim," Logan said as he sat down beside me. I turned toward him and raised an eyebrow.
"Yes," I answered.
"What Stryker said wa-."
"Was a lie, I know. I can read minds, remember?" I smiled and so did Logan.
"Good to know you're still intact. But, why were you going to kill yourself?"
"Well, when you didn't come back the first night, I thought you were just somewhere in the mansion. When I didn't see you at the funeral, I thought maybe I just couldn't find you. When you weren't at the twins' birth, I thought maybe you were stuck in traffic." I tried to laugh but I just ended up wheezing instead. "But when a week went by, I decided you were gone, forever, just like Elizabeth." Logan looked down, refusing to meet my eyes.
"Your eyes are cloudy," he whispered.
"I know." My eyes started to water, and red-tinted tears spilled down my face.
"I missed you so much!" I cried, throwing my bloody arms around him. He hugged me back, crying and apologizing as we rocked back and forth.
"So…you guys are married…right?" Olivia asked. We pulled apart and nodded at her, laughing.
When we landed Emma and Lily came running to greet us, along with my whole family.
"Holy Crap! Kim! We thought you were dead!" my brother yelled. He and my sister threw their arms around me, crying and laughing. My mom, dad, and Hannah were next. Then little Katherine and Collin ran up to me.
"Ew Kim! You dirty!" Katherine yelped. Collin burst out laughing.
"You won't believe this Aunt Kim! We have powers!" Collin said excitedly. "Watch us!" He raised his hand and made the large crates in the corner lift up off the ground and rearrange themselves.
"My power wittle uh…uh…" Katherine trailed off.
"Stupid," Collin coughed.
"Not stupid! Uh…weird? Yeah, weird," Katherine finished for herself. She rubbed her hand over the ground and small flowers grew out. They pulled themselves out of the ground and started rubbing their petals all over my arms, cleaning me up.
"That's not all they do. Watch." They ran over to the crates and one of them picked them up, and threw it to another one, who caught.
"So what are they? Flower demons?" I whispered to Matt. He laughed loudly and hugged me once more. Then he punched me, hard.
"Idiot!" he screeched.
"Yeah!" Kristen screamed. She slapped me across the face.
"What'd I do wrong?" I yelped as they continued to punch my arms.
"You're an idiot! You went to get yourself killed!" they screamed at me. We dissolved into giggles and they quit punching me.
"Now let me go officially clean up. I'm a bloody mess," I said. Logan and I helped Bobby out of his harness, and Olivia slowly stepped out of the hangar.
"Olivia?" Emma and Lily said.
"Emma! Lily!" Olivia screamed. She ran forward into their arms.
"She was friends with them before they ran away, then she found her powers, so she ran away to find them. While on the run she was caught by Stryker," I whispered to Logan and Bobby. They nodded and we continued to help Bobby down from the hangar.
"Wait, I'm being stupid." I grasped Bobby's broken arm and willed it to heal, so in a few moments he was able to move it without hurting it again. We waved goodbye to each other and went off to our separate rooms to shower. Since Logan and I had multiple rooms, we each went to one of them to cleanse ourselves of blood.