A NEW AGE
Disclaimer: Nothing belongs to me: Marvel and Co!
Also still not English! So I'm very sorry for any error you will find while reading it! If you want to be my Beta be my guest! (really do NOT hesitate to contact me!)
Enjoy!
Chapter 1: The Sleeping Beauty and the Beast meet and go into the woods.
Since coming back to this version of his past, now the present, he feels lost. Everything is for the better though: mutants do not hide, they even have rights and defenders and there are no problems like "human rights" as there were in his past. Everything is calm.
Oh, don't get him wrong, he likes it. But he knows himself; soon he will be completely bored.
He is after all a creature of war, death and chaos.
The only advantage he has now is that his skeleton is free of adamantium. No more control in airport, and no more breaking the beds because of his weight.
Alas now he can't cut everything like he once did.
That's why, when Emma Frost comes to him about a year after he is "back", and talks about putting a new alloy on his claws – stronger than adamantium but without the disadvantages; no metal detection and almost no weight - he takes the chance.
He is after all no idiot, he knows peace will not last and when war comes; he will need every advantage on his side to survive.
The procedure is strangely painless, oh there is pain but not so much that his body react to it like in his once-was-first experimentation. Needless to say he is grateful to not add new nightmares.
It takes one week and two days to be fully operative again. A week he passes adjusting to this new and past feeling of metal claws, of training in the danger room to adapt to his new weight and capacity.
He feels himself again.
Still, he finds it very strange to see Scott, Phoenix, Rogue, Pyro, and Mystique at the mansion. Alive and well, and so very different from what he knew them to be.
And yes, he did say Phoenix. Not Jean. It seems like Charles really learned from his mistakes and didn't separate "them" this time around. And she is not fun. But Scotty , well, there is change there. He is not as uptight as he was, very fun to be around in fact, contrary to his wife. He does poker, skate and tennis with the kids at least thrice a week.
And yes, they would never be best friends but yes, this time around, they are kind of friends- well sometimes... When in "leader" mode he still is a big pain in his ass...
As he reflects on his life and its changes, Charles wheels himself close to him.
"Charles." Greets Logan while he smokes his cigar.
"Logan, we are not all healers, please do not smoke near the students."
"'Course, what do you need?"
"I need you to do some errands for me."
"What kind?"
"The normal and dangerous kind."
"Normal?"
"Just see some of our college students, talk to them and see if they need something, that kind of things."
"Dangerous?"
"I need you to check some bases. We pick up some serious reading for a couple of them, we need to be sure that no militaries or other organization did or are preparing something."
"Alright."
XXXXXXXXXX
Seven months on the road and Logan is feeling free.
He did his last "student inspection" three months ago and now he focuses on the dangerous kind.
Two of the seven bases Charles gave him to check were abandoned and very ancient post. The readings were from mutants and "normal" kids playing inside of it.
The last three were used by the military. No experimentations, but they certainly were playing with dangerous things. He marks them as "monitoring closely".
He is now in Utah at fifty miles from Kanab checking an underground base.
There are no monitors around the visible entrance. No guards, no camera. For all appearance, it is abandoned.
But his instincts are going crazy. There is something there.
And its calling to Wolverine.
XXXXXXXXXX
He hates it when he is right.
This base is a big tomb.
Every one- from guards to scientists- are just rotting corpses on the ground, work spaces or chairs.
The silence is almost getting to him.
Eerie.
He inspects every room and corridors. Corpses and more corpses...
At one point, he grasb six boxes and put all the files and discs videos he finds in the laboratories and inside the "boss" desk.
He will definitly read and watch them later, if their experiments are the cause of their death, he will need to inform not only Charles but also Fury. As much as he doesn't always see eye to eye with the SHIELD director, he is not idiot enough to not let him in if the situation requires it. And this one has the potential.
When in the boss office, he found a camera feedback. it shows a desert shed with only a tank inside.
Shivers run through him. His past superposing into the present.
Wolverine growls and urge him to go there. Following his instincts, he goes. But before going, he takes the boxes to his jeep. He wouldn't forgive hinself if he forget them here.
After putting five boxes away, he takes the last and goes for the tank. No need to delay more.
The tank is barred of any window or ways to see inside. Just his luck.
Carefully and on guard, he opens it.
His breath left him abrutly and didn't come back. His nightmare is playing before him but with another in the box.
This time its a woman.
The silence is suffocating. Trembling he lean closer to catch a breath or a heartbeat.
Nothing.
Cursing he frenetically search for the evacuation button. No way is he putting his hand in that liquid.
Finding it, he pushes hard and still frantic waits for it to leave the tank so he can reach the girl and save her.
If she can be saved.
Finally he can touch her. She's cold but not rigid. Not dead.
Carefully and tenderly he removes all the needles he finds attached to her body. And there are many.
Still no heartbeat or breathing.
He carefully removes her, careful not to hurt her head again the tank and lay her on the ground to perform CPR.
Third time the charm. Finally she breaths and her heart beats slowly. But strongly. Making him almost dizzy with relief.
She's alive.
He was in time.
He saved her.
He takes a moment to savour it then inspires deeply and focuses back to what need to be done.
They can't stay here. And he can't let this base like that. It needs to be cleaned and destroyed.
Well, Deadpool own him a favor or four. And the little shit like to destory things. Decision made, he grabs his phone and calls the mercenary - who is more than happy to do it for him.
Once that done, he put the phone back into his jacket and gathered her slowly in his arms, making sure that her head is nestling between his shoulder and neck. Letting him feel her breathing. Taking the last box, they finally let this place behind.
At the jeep, Logan focuses his senses around them, making sure that no alarm had been triggered or any one came to investigated. No one. No sounds apart fron the nature and them.
Good.
Tenderly and still very carefully, he arranges her in the back seat and covers her with a blanket. Then brushes slowly a lock of hair from her eyes.
Wolverine purrs in the back of his mind. Pack.
A bond had been made. And Logan doesn't really know what to do with it. But this is not the moment to analyse it.
Going to his seat, he watches the trees and with a nod says : " Well, we're going home Darling." Before driving away.
XXXXXXXXXX
Two days on the road and getting enough space between them and the base. A day since Wade called him back to tell him that the base was now a pile of burning ashes. And he finds a hotel. He and she needs a shower and a bath, respectively. And food. Good food not junks that was in the jeep.
She is still sleeping.
No change of breathing but her heart beats more strongly and not as slowly as first. So he knows she's fine.
He still hadn't call Charles. Or even Fury.
He isn't sure he wants to. At leat not Fury. Later maybe he will call Charles. Maybe.
The receptionist and owner is an old man, and give him the key to their room without batting an eyelid when he see him carrying her.
Maybe he sees them as a couple or kin on a long trip.
And he may not be wrong to think so as he had dressed her with some of his clothes. She certainly look like she belongs to him.
Another purr from Wolverine.
He ignores it and goes to the room. As soon as she's on the bed, he calls the reception and ask for two hearty meals. With his metabolism it's better to be on the safe than sorry side. And if she wakes, he will have something to make her drink and feed.
The meal comes after he had finished his shower. Its not the man but a pretty little thing. And no, this is not a sexual connotation. The girl is a pretty little thing, little because she can't be more than 12. He can't resist smiling and tipping her well. By scent, he knows she is the granddaughter of the receptionist.
He had just finished the first dishes when he picks it.
Her heartbeat is increasing. Rapidly as does her breathing. He goes to his knees beside the bed to look at her without looming over, in case she's waking up.
Soon enough she's gasping and moving as if she is fighting or reaching something or someone.
"Hey..hey. You're fine, you're fine" he whispers calmy trying to sooth her. Logan is careful to not touch her.
Abruptly she goes still and her eyes open.
They are green and suit her very well. He smiles.
"Hey, it's fine, you're safe. You are safe." He soothes her. " I'm Logan, and you?"
Her answer is a hoarse whispered, without his advanced senses he wouldn't have catch it.
"...Cassandra..."
"Hello Cassandra, do you know what happen to you?"
She doesn't answer, just stare at him. Not through him, but as if she could see inside of him.
Then the most beautiful smile he has ever had the privilege to see paint her lips and illuminate her forest eyes.
"I'm awake."
"That you are, Cassy, that you are!" He can't help but be joyous. She's finally awake!
He turns to take a bottle of water and a glass.
"Here Darling, slow alright?"
She nodds as he assists her, lifting her up on the bed till she's sitting and put the glass at her lips, she drink by little sip, at the fourth she turns her head. No more he guesses.
She's silent but her eyes are expressive.
"Ha yes.." He finds himself telling her as she look at him then the clothes she's wearing. " couldn't go into civilisation with a hospital gown on, you know."
She then inspects her arms, where there is still the needles mark marring her skin. She frown then it's as if a fire as lighten up under the little marks. Erasing them.
Huh. She is a healer. Like him.
Good to know.
Now he needs to call Charles.
No way the man didn't felt her.
XXXXXXXXX
Forget being civilized he wants to be a caveman.
He hates having to explain himself and even more trying to convince someone he is right.
Fuck it. He is way to old to argue with Charles, who compared to him is still a child.
At least, Charles doesn't know where his cabin is precisely. Only the nearer town. Thank God! Even if he knows that it won't stay that way for very long... Shit. Why can't he ever be left alone?!
"Logan. I know you want to help her but she-"
"Nothing." He cuts the lecture harshly, totally fed up. "What she need is peace and time away for people to get her head straight. Charles. And this is what I offer her. Stop trying to meddle. I know what she's going through. So stop." He congratulates himself because he didn't yell or even curse.
"...alright. But if you need anything call us Logan." Sighs Charles.
"Kay."
Alone at last!
He shifts on the chair and let his eyes fall on Cassy. She is eating slowly an apple on the bed. Her eyes are strangely veiled. Concerned, he goes to her.
He carefully sits on the bed, on her left side and softly calls her.
"Cassy?"
No answer. He tries again.
"Cassy? Is the apple any good? Want more?"
He has only a second to par the hit coming for his face. The plate of apple fly to the ground and shatter. She's fast even tangled in the sheets but he is heavier and managed to pin her to the bed, straddling her. All the while grunting her name in effort.
"Cassy! Cassy! Cassandra!"
The veil lift and her eyes are confused, dilated. She's gone limp in his grasp.
And to think Charles wanted them to go to the mansion.. No doubt she would have killed the kid trying to wake her.
" Darling? You're back with me?"
She looks all around them then at him and slowly nod yes.
"If I let you go, you gonna try again to fight?"
Another nod. No.
"Okay then, Darling."
And he goes back to sit on side of the bed. She stays laying. Looking at her hands in confusion.
He frowns seeing that.
" Do you want to tell me what it was?"
Again she gives him a look. No. Not yet she seems to say.
He nods back in understanding.
"Well, when you feel like it, I'm here." He grunts softly. Then Logan goes to pick up the pieces of the plate and apple on the floor.
He doesn't look back to see her reaction, else he would have seen her look puzzle but grateful.
" Well, want to shower? I did go shopping a bit, nothing fancy but I'm sure you will love having shoes."
A small smile and a nod. She goes to stand on her legs and he lets the pieces fall on the table to go help her. He is surprise when she doesn't fall back. She is perfectly steady.
And then he remembers, accelerate healing. He shakes his head but goes to collect the clothes and the pair of basket he bought for her during his last trip to the store near the hotel.
She doesn't take long, not even 20 minutes. She puts the tee on but not the jeans, she's still wearing his short.
He lifts an eyebrow in question, she shruggs and goes for the glass of milk.
" Forget anything?"
She thinks for a moment then goes back to the shower and present him an elastic. She mimes what she wants and he had to laugh a little.
" Alright Darling, but I'm telling you, been a long while since I braid hair, don't go crying if its not perfect."
She only smile and present him her back.
A show of trust.
XX
Night time. They are almost in Montana. But he is driving to the North Dakota.
Leaving false trails. No need if they are followed to led them to his cabin.
She's reading an old book that was in the jeep. Might have been a "gift" from Rogue or Jubilee - from two or three years ago.
He kind of did like it so he let it in.
She seems to be on the same opinion as him, she is already in the middle of it. "Endgame" is the name of the book.
He goes back to the road. His first love and freedom. Its endless and ever changing. No road or trip are the same. It thrills him.
She shifts and then he felt her head on his arm, using him as a pillow. Without any thought he kisses the top of her hair.
He smirk when he hear her huff as her hunger let itself known.
"Alright Darling, the next station we get some food."
She glares at her stomach then sighs and snuggles him.
Two hours later, a station is announced.
He parks and she goes out, she's laughing as she taps his window and present her hand for money. Then she glides to the store. No doubt she's famish. He used the time to fuel the jeep.
As he paid he sees her dancing around it seems at least to him. Is she saying hello? He subtly shakes his head in amusement.
"Darling, time to go."
She smiles and dance her way to her seat.
"Darling" he asks after thirty minutes on the road. "Did I saw you say hello at the station?"
She slowly stop eating to frown a little. Pensive. Then she shruggs. As if it doesn't matter.
Maybe it doesn't. At least they are almost home.
XX
The cabin is still in perfect condition. No bear or other wild life had dare come near it.
Its small but have two bedrooms, a fonctional kitchen, a living room and a shower with a toilet. Small, comfortable and lost in the woods. Perfect for him and for her.
Wolverine purrs as she takes the cabin in and seems to brighten even more, taking his free hand in hers to drag him inside. Wanting him to show her around.
She is very curious and seems not to have any idea about personal space or privacy. He find out that he actually likes it. When it comes from her.
She is always touching him, one way or another be it a hand on his shoulder, using him as a chair or a pillow or a clutch. Bumping against him playfully when she is in a mood.
But she have nightmares. She doesn't scream or cry but she is absolutly still and rigid during them. And when she wakes she always touch him. To make sure she is awake. And she always hum a song or two. After she finds him during one of his nightmare, she never slept in her room again. Always with him.
That is when she began to tell him about a gentle woman in her dreams. One with a pretty smile and always full of a strange mixed of fondness and exasperation toward her. A woman she think was-is important to her. Always surrended by equations and stars.
Theses moments are very precious to them as Cassandra doesn't have many memories of before the lab. Just flashes and sometimes impressions.
XX
Logan finds himself being whole. A novel experience. Wolverine is also very happy. It left him a bit disturb but soon can't find himself minding it.
He has a pack.
She is pack.
In a way Charles, even Rogue and all the others at the mansion can't ever be.
Doesn't mean he go easy on her. Every day since they arrived he had train with her. The one who had her knew what they were doing. She is deadly. And very quick and bendy. Add to that her mutation and she is his equal. And that saying something as he had been a soldier all his life.
She doesn't fear pain or hitting where it hurts or taking and administring a killing blow. If their mutation didn't include accelerate healing each of them would have died at least 10 times during one session.
Almost two months after beginning their everyday training, he almost had an heart attack. He cut her arm off. Lets just say they had been particularly brutal and emotional after a video night.
It grew back. She had lighten up as if lava was under her skin and her arm grew back. Under thirty seconds she was back to hitting him. An unstoppable force. Fuck. He was very glad to have freed her.
It was the fifth time she talked. Telling him of extremis and showing him the file and the video. If they weren't already dead he would have hunted them down.
After that she talked more freely. Still little but every week he was able to hear her talk to him or just answer him back.
And of course Charles had to send a package "gift" with clothes, food, money, newspaper and files.
After seeing Thor on a photograph. She became silent once more. A pensive, contemplative and lost silence. And then the surprise visit! Fucking hell!
And because she is pack he does his best to make her smile and laugh again.
That's why he is currently yelling at Charles on the phone.
"You shouldn't have give them my adress Charles!"
"I don't fucking care about your worries or of being the talk of the fucking school teacher! I told you she wasn't ready! I told you she needed peace and quiet! I told you that little things could triggered her! Scotty was fucking LUCKY I was here! Or he would be feeding the worms! "
"Xavier. I'm only gonna say it one time. Interfere once more and I leave your little band."
"Yes I'm very serious."
He shut it off. No need to hear his reply. He knows Charles and the X-men need him more than he needs them.
Because at the present time: She is more important than anything else.
XX
Because of their close proximity, of their understanding of each other and of their mutual need for the other. There is no secret between them.
He knows now thanks to the files and videos and Cassy that she have visions. And that she also can see what she calls thread when looking at certain individuals. No matter if its in person or not. She had told him about seeing his past- both version and his future - four versions of it. In it the one that will never come because of his traveling back to stop Raven from killing a scientist with political power. The one who did experiment on her to create the sentinels.
Cassy, because Cassandra is for she is having an episode or is trap inside a vision or a thread, cryied for him and what he had lost and gain. Cryied for his brother, for his life as a soldier and then mercenary. Not feeling any kind of pity. Never that but crying because he hadn't and she felt like it was important to mourn what was or should have been.
It freed him of a burden he hadn't even realized he was suffering from.
XX
Then that day came. Its been a week.
She informed him that Thor and the other Avenger were coming.
Her past will soon be catching up to her.
He didn't like that but he will be there. For her. He won't ler her go.
"When are they coming Darling?" He grunts displease as she twists in his lap to look at him.
"A few more days. " Her eyes are veiled as she concentred. "They are still debating about who will come."
"Hmpf".
She still looks at him for a moment then goes back to her book.
Wolverine is grumbling but knows that she needs to confront it to have a closure of a sort. But the thought of losing her to them is making his claws twitch under his skin.
He isn't even startled when her right hand stroke softly his hand. Just where his claws are. His Darling knows him too well.
XX
A week and two days later.
"They will be here after lunch." She states as she does yoga in the little garden, behind the cabin.
He sighs. Not liking it one bit.
"Alright. How many?"
She tilts her head to the side, her eyes are closed. " Six".
Great. Six of them... And one must be Thor. Great.
"If you want at any time to escape you go Darling. To our room or to the forest and I will take care of it."
She stops her exercise, rises and hugs him close. All the while smelling of happiness and relief.
They have a hearty meal: dear meat with potatoes and vegetables.
And as she had sayed, two hours after lunch he hears a flying engine coming. Fuck. Its a SHIELD one. Fuck. Fury will be there as well.
A giggle erupts behing him.
"Laugh while you can Darling!" He retorts playfully. Then seriously. "Darling go inside, I will give them some rules before inviting them in."
With a smile she nods and does as he says.
Five minutes later and the engine, a quinjet, land as softly ad the blackbird did.
And... Bingo. Fury is here. And he doesn't look happy. He snorts. When does his pseudo-friend ever seems happy?
And look: Thor is also here with Barton, Coulson and fuck is that Captain America? And a little chick. With how she clungs to Thor, she must be his.
He smokes some more. And wait on the porch for them. Hey them came to them! He doesn't see why he should deploy the red carpet. No way.
"Logan."
"Nicholas." He smirks slighty as Fury eye ticks a little. "and company. What you doing here?"
He watches them like the predator he is. Aware of every little twich of muscles.
" We are here for your guest. If you could call her here we would depart with her." Says Fury.
They all tense when his claws came out and he growls menacingly. "Why do you think I would let you take her away from me, kid?"
"Stop." Captain America takes his turn. " We are not here to fight. Nor even to take her back" at that he can see the woman ready to protest but Thor shush her gently. " We just want to see her and if she want to talk with her. Can we?"
Logan stays silent and keep watching them. But his senses are focused on Cassy.
And he can hear her. " Let them, they will behave now."
"Alright. But before that some rules." He lift his cigar to stop their protest. " these rules are for her weel-being and yourself." He let them think about that for a bit then he pursues. " No shooting. You want to talk then you speak normally. You don't lose your temper." They nod. " You don't touch her. If she touches you alright but don't initiate a touch."
"Why?" Barton asks, tense.
"She will kill you."
They all tense.
"Next don't take it the wrong way if she doesn't talk. She dislikes talking. And last: If she doesn't know who you are. Don't try to make her remember."
The Avengers and the woman are all shaken. Fury and Coulson are blank but Logan can hear Coulson heart beating eratically in his chest and smell his anxiety and fear.
Thr woman shakily asks:" She doesn't remember?"
" I don't know who she was before I find her, but the woman inside my house, she's Cassy. She lived through a nightmare for years and they took almost everything from her but she makes them pay and now she's free."
The woman almost collapses onto Thor arms.
" Right then. Follow me."
To be continued...