Family Ties
Chapter 1: The Smell of Shadows
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Wolverine has a new scent to track: a teenaged girl who knows something about his past. Why did she call him father? And what is Sabertooth doing there? AU mostly influenced by the Ultimate X-men.
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He breathed in deeply, trying to catch the scent, the scent of fresh snow and cold nights that had lured him to this wasteland. Over the years he had tracked hundreds of scents, first under the control of Weapon X, and then for the X-men, but this…this was different. He had hunted people down who needed killing, searched for others who needed saving, but never had he followed a scent so far and so long simply for his own sake.
There. He caught another wisp of it. He equated the scent to that of a shadow. That was the only place he ever caught it anyway, little trails that hopped from shade to shade. During the night, it was near impossible to track, especially under a new moon, but during the day the scent traveled between shadows like a connect-the-dots puzzle. His quarry knew that, apparently, and sprinted all night long to put distance between them.
As he headed for the marker he smelt, he thought back to when this all started.
It was a week ago now, back at the mansion. He was outside, putting Rogue and Kitty through a drill. They were doing well, working together. That's when he first caught the scent. Only for an instant, but definitely a scent.
He turned towards it, and Rogue grabbed the flag tucked into his belt.
"Ha," she called. "Ah got it."
"All right," Kitty chorused.
Logan hushed them, straining to hear. The scent faded. Hm, he thought. It might have been nothing. But there it was again, closer this time. Mildly he noted Rogue and Kitty's increased anxiety, but he needed to keep his attention on the tree line. Yes, it was coming closer, but he had no idea what it was.
"What's wrong, Logan?" Rogue called.
He saw a dark spot leap between two shadows and caught the smell again. Then it stopped. He walked forward. The thing had definitely jumped to the shadow of a big oak tree, but he couldn't see it, even when he stood right at the shadow's edge. His lip rose in a snarl. A claw burst through his skin and he swiped it across the space.
A girl shrieked. She formed from the darkness and tumbled out into the bright snow covered yard. She wore a torn and dirty jacket much too large for her and a pair of ripped jeans to match. She tucked and rolled, coming up a few yards away.
"I got her," Kitty called, racing forward, and leapt into a jump sidekick. To Logan's amazement, she didn't hit the girl but passed straight through.
"Girly, stop playing around," he called. The intruder was already sprinting in the other direction. He couldn't let her get away.
Kitty made a small whimper. "I didn't do it on purpose," she moaned. She put a hand to her head. "Ow."
Knowing Rogue would care for their fallen teammate, Logan raced after the girl. She headed for the shade of the trees again. He wouldn't overtake her. Suddenly a red beam shot past him and struck his target at the back of her legs. She dropped immediately. Logan reached her in a second, claws ready, but she threw up her hands in terror.
"Dad, don't," she shrieked.
He stopped dead in his tracks. Had he heard her correctly?
The girl glanced to where the rest of the X-men were approaching. She got back up and started running. Then she shrieked as Jean's telekinesis took her in its grip.
"Don't," Logan called, grabbing Jean's arm.
Her concentration broke, and the girl dropped to the ground, inches from the shadow of a tree. She reached for it, touched its edge, and her whole form darkened. It streamed into the shade, and she was gone.
"What did you do that for?" Jean demanded. "I had her."
"What happened?" Scott asked, coming up at their side. "What was that girl doing here?"
"I don't know," Logan said. He turned back to watch the spot where the unknown girl had disappeared.
"He let her get away," Jean snapped.
"Why?" Rogue called, supporting a very dazed Kitty. "You could have taken her."
"I'll find her," he snapped. When the others leaned back from the harshness in his words, he sighed. "I'll find her."
And that was that. It wasn't much to go on. One line ringing in his ears for the past seven days: "Dad, don't." That's all he had. Then again, it was a lot more than he'd ever had before. This girl, whoever she was, thought he was her father. If he was or not was still a question, but she had come looking for something, and it wasn't a fight.
He tracked her away from the mansion, out into the wilderness. She headed north for the most part. After a while he realized she traveled by teleporting between shadows. In the day, she hid from him, staying in thickets where she gave off barely a scent, but at night it seemed she could simply flow through the full on shade of darkness.
That was how it was right then, all darkness. He turned his attention to points of light, places where the branches above spread wider to let moonlight in. At night he could only catch her where she slipped up, where she passed under a spot like that, reforming for an instant and letting off a scent.
The spot he smelt was fresh. He was getting closer, much closer than he had been in days. As he tried to decide which direction she went now, he heard a snap. It was quiet, far away, but he heard it. Then a voice.
"What are you doing here?" It was the girl. She was eighty yards due north. As soon as he heard her voice, his nose filled with her scent. She reformed upwind from him. Careless.
"What am I doing here? What are you doing here?" The new voice was rough, deep, with a snarl at its base. He knew that voice, and the furious odor that came with it made him bare his teeth in a snarl.
Sabertooth.
He stalked closer.
"You went to see him, didn't you?" Sabertooth said.
"No, I just…I was just seeing. I didn't mean to reveal myself."
"Didn't mean to?" Sabertooth snarled. "Mara, did he see you?" There was a long silence. "Mara?"
"Yes."
"He's probably tracking you right now," he shrieked. "Do you have any idea what you've done? I told you, he doesn't remember anything. There's a reason they call him the Wolverine now, Mara. He won't listen to reason. You invaded his new home, his new family. He's not going to believe anything you say."
"He has to," she called back. Her voice cracked, and Logan could smell her tears. "He just has to." She hiccupped.
"No, Mara, he won't. Not with what they've done."
He could hear her sniffle.
That was quite enough in his opinion. Seconds before he broke through the underbrush, Sabertooth finally caught his scent.
"Mara, get back," he snarled and turned to meet Logan's claws with his own.
"No," the girl shrieked.
Neither man listened to her. They tumbled across the ground until Logan caught a good chunk of Sabertooth's left arm. The man broke away, snarling, his arm hanging loosely at his side.
"Dad, please stop," the girl shrieked. It was that same terrified voice. He couldn't help it. He stopped.
It wasn't until Sabertooth came out of his fighting stance that Logan finally regained his anger. Sabertooth backing down?
"What are you trying to pull?" Logan snarled at him. "The girl's cute. Did you kidnap her? What's he threatening you with, kid?"
"Please, he's not threatening me," she begged. The look in her eye seemed kind of familiar, but he kept his mind on the matter at hand. "Please, just listen, Dad."
Logan glared at his old adversary. "Why's she calling me that?" he snapped.
"Why do you think?" Sabertooth shot back. He glanced back at the teen. "Mara, get out of here. I told you, he's dangerous now."
"I don't believe you," she shouted. "He has to remember. He just has to."
"This is getting old, fast," Logan snarled. "Girly, you're coming with me. The X-men don't take kindly to people spying on the mansion."
"Just listen for a second, will you?" Sabertooth shot back. He sighed. That was the first time Logan could remember him seeming upset, that is, actually upset, not insanely mad or something. The shear humanizing affect of it made Logan back down.
When he stepped out of his fighting stance, the girl's eyes lit.
"See?" she called. "I knew it."
"Hush, Mara," Sabertooth whispered. He didn't move, not to run, not to attack. He just stood there. "Look, Logan, I've been remembering things, things before Weapon X. Things they tried to make us forget." He hesitated as if dreading the next line. Finally it came. "I'm your son." He motioned to the short thing next to him. "And Mara's your daughter."
"You're lying," Logan snapped.
"No, no, for the first time, I'm telling you the truth," he whispered. He turned to Mara, extending a hand. "Give it to me."
Quickly she gripped her hands together over her shirt and turned away from him. "It's mine," she said. "She gave it to me."
"I know, but he needs to see." His voice was surprisingly gentle.
Regretfully, she unclasped her hands and pulled the chain from around her neck. On it was a gold ring. She took it off the necklace and handed it to him. He in turn tossed the thing at Logan.
"Here," he said as Logan caught it. "See for yourself."
Making sure Sabertooth wasn't going to attack; Logan turned his attention to the shining piece in his hand. The moonlight made it sparkle, gold wrapped in a delicate loop, a small diamond set in its clasp.
"Cute," he muttered. It was all he could get out. He still didn't believe them, but there was something about the ring…
"Read the inside," Sabertooth told him.
Slowly Logan turned the ring over. On the inside of the band, in a familiar curling style, was a small engraving. "To Aria, my love and my life." He'd seen it before. There was a picture of it in a file from Weapon X, one of the only things they hadn't destroyed.
"Do you believe me now?" Sabertooth asked quietly.
Logan looked up at him, really looking for the first time in he didn't know how long. True, the man still carried that look in his eyes, that beaten dog look, the one that said he was liable to snap, but there was something else. Something was there that hadn't been for as long as Logan could remember: hope.
"And Aria?" Logan whispered. His voice cracked.
The two before him looked down.
"She's dead," Sabertooth whispered. "She was killed almost a year ago. I found Mara hiding from Weapon X. Took me weeks to convince her they weren't coming back."
"Weapon X?" Logan echoed.
"They tried to take our whole family," Sabertooth explained. "After you escaped the first time, they came for me and Mara, knowing we'd be able to withstand the bonding process. Mara's mostly got Mom's powers, but she's a healer, too. When they came, I stalled them long enough for Mara to escape, but after I left Weapon X, well…" He looked away.
"Ma fought hard," Mara whispered. A thick tear hit her cheek.
Neither of them continued. Logan watched them for a long time, but they didn't flinch. The look of pain and regret in their eyes was almost too much to bear.
"So what now?" he whispered. He didn't exactly believe them, but he couldn't think of anything else to say.
"We're still running," Sabertooth said. "There are still bases out there, and I don't want to risk Mara's life betting they don't need more test subjects."
"Come back to the mansion."
What did he just say? Did that honestly just come out of his mouth?
Honestly, it just did, and he knew he meant it.
Sabertooth was silent for a long time, shocked mute by Logan's proposal. "You…you're actually offering?" he whispered.
Logan swallowed deeply. "Yeah. What's the Professor always saying? The Institute is for all mutants, for them to be safe."
"Really?" Mara called. "You believe us?" Her excitement made him wince.
"I'm not saying that," he snapped. The speed at which her happiness drained from her ripped his heart out. "But I am willing to consider it," he whispered.
This brought the smile back to her face. "I knew it," she shouted. She rushed forward. Before he knew what was happening, she had her arms wrapped around him. "I knew you'd remember me," she said, her voice coming muffled from his shirt.
Something in that hug, something in the full on scent of her this close made him wonder. Slowly he wrapped his arms around her. It felt good, felt right. He glanced up at Sabertooth.
"This is going to be very hard to explain," he muttered.