Chapter 1: Eight years later
She looked up at the roof to see the cardboard collapsing from the rain, tiny droplets still dripping onto her back. Standing, she shook the water from her black coat. Farther down the alley, she saw the same group of stray dogs that she always saw. As they heard her get up, they looked up for just a second, then went back to eating from the garbage cans, though more wearily now. They knew not to mess with the black wolf.
She stretched her powerful muscles before trotting out onto the still dark street. Keeping close to the shadows, she could hardly be seen as she ran. Stopping at the wall of a hotel , she squeezed in the building from a hole in the wall. "Well, well, the wolf's back." A booming voice came from his place behind the desk. "What are you doing here girlie? Do you need some more food?"
The wolf trotted over to him and sat down, letting him pat her between the ears. "Well, let me see what I can scrounge up for ya." He walked into a back room and soon came back with half a sandwich. "Sorry girl, that's all the cook had ready this morning." He gave it to the wolf, and she gobbled it up quickly. "Now off you go, customers will be coming soon. Can't have you here in the lobby when that happens." He didn't have to say more, the she-wolf walked back through the hole, and back on the streets.
"Mommy, a doggie!" she heard a little boy call as she walked passed him, forgetting to stay in the shadows.
"Leave it alone Nicky, it looks disgusting." The wolf let it go, and continued on until it reached a puddle on the side of the road, and began to lap it up, quickly.
"Lookie here, we've finally found her." The wolf turned around, expecting the dog catchers again. She was surprised to see three people, one man, and two women. One of the women was short, with short white hair and brown eyes. The other had long reddish brown hair with green eyes. The man wore sunglasses, so the wolf couldn't see his eyes, but he had really short brown hair, and was quite tall. "Grab her Storm," the man said to the white haired girl.
Suddenly, a rope was around the wolf's neck. Both angry and shocked, she jumped at the three of them, biting down on whoever's limbs went into her mouth first. It turned out to be the man. "Ouch!" he yelled as the wolf was able to run, even with a loose rope on her neck. "Jean," the man ordered the other woman.
Before she could turn the corner, the red-head waved her hand, and the wolf was frozen in mid stride. The three walked over to her and looked at her, "Clara, it's about time. You should have come to the meeting." Jean said, almost too sweetly.
Clara snarled the best she could, though her lips weren't able to move, so the sound was muffled. "Let's go Storm, we need to get back to the school in an hour. This meeting won't be missing anybody." The man said, he wasn't even trying to be nice. He was angry at being bit by the girl. "You don't need to stay a wolf you know."
Jean let the dog go to see her turn into a girl who was just taller than Storm. She had expected Clara to have black hair, but instead she had medium length brown hair and a color of deep blue in her eyes. "Let's go," Storm said, leading the way back to where they had landed the secret plane.
"Your name is?" she asked the man as she sat in the back of the plane, literally tied to a chair.
"Later," he said harshly, keeping his eyes on the plane.
"No," Clara turned into a snake, making the ties fall to the floor. She slithered quickly up the dashboard and in front of the man's face so he couldn't see anything, "Tell me now."
"Clara!" They all shouted in unison as the plane started to descend.
"All I want is a name."
"Fine, Scott, you can call me Cyclopes if you want, now move!" he grabbed her around the neck and threw her out of the way. Grabbing the controls, he quickly fixed the plane's flight pattern, as Storm and Jean gave the stranger angry glares.
"I knew that actually, I just wanted to see if you'd answer me," she said again, sitting in a seat right behind them. "So, where are we going?"
Storm wanted to shout at her to shut up, but decided they needed to stay on course. "There's a school for people like us, we're going there?"
"People like us? You make it sound like we need to be separated." Clara laughed, "We're mutants, but we don't need to be separated."
"There are many who believe otherwise." Jean said, "Now please, no more talking. There'll be time for question and answers later." For the rest of the ride, they all stayed completely silent.
Upon arriving, Clara was again tied to one of the chairs, but she didn't care much. She could get out if she wanted to. Once the plane landed and the doors were open, that's exactly what she did. The girls turned quickly as a black, furry creature shot out the door.
"Stop her!" they yelled in unison to everybody outside the plane. A man turned around and grabbed her by the back of the neck, and before Clara could turn and bite him, his body turned into solid steel.
"What's going on?" He asked, turning to the others getting out of the plane.
"That's Clara, the one we've been after for months."
"It sure makes me feel good knowing I can keep out of the way easily. Wouldn't that just make you feel great too, Colossus, or do you prefer to be called Piotr?" Clara asked, seeing as they weren't going to let her free again.
"How do you know my name?" He asked, a little frightened by her.
"I know everyone's name who is here, well...minus 10 or so." Clara answered as she was given to the hands of Scott. "Fine...fine, I'll go." She turned human and walked ahead of the three into the school.
"This way," Scott pointed to a large brass door on the right. Clara opened the door and stepped in.
"Well hello Charles, how are things here?" She asked, being mockingly polite.
"Sit down, please," Jean sighed, practically shoving her into a chair, then sitting on her right. Storm sat on her left, and Cyclopes sat across from her. "She's been giving us trouble professor."
"I'm sure she has," he said, raising his eyebrow at her.
"I would appreciate it, professor, if my thoughts remained my own, and you stayed OUT OF MY HEAD!" she knocked the pitcher of water over that was in the middle of the table.
"My mistake," he said, withdrawing himself from her mind, but thinking constantly.
"Where is he professor?" Scott asked, obviously anxious to get this over with.
"He should be coming in just...about...now." Just as he said it, the door opened.
Clara turned, and then froze. There, standing in the doorway..."Logan," she said, in barely a whisper.
"Who's the new girl?" he asked, rudely.
Clara was taken aback, and almost made an angry retort, but just then Storm decided to talk for her. "This is Clara, you know, the one we've been looking to capture for almost a whole year."
"Oh yeah, the freak that turns into animals. I remember, how did you know my name?" He asked, sitting down and taking a drink from his soda that he had brought in with him.
"I know all your names...Wolverine, hmmm...that's a weird nickname. How did you get it?" she asked, testing him.
Suddenly, three claws came down, slicing across the table. Clara jumped back, snarling, the chair went flying to the ground. "Because of these I'm assuming," he said, though eyed her wearily.
"Put those destroyers away!" She yelled at him.
"What? You seem to know what they can do," he replied, pulling them back, but searching her face for any sign that he had seen her before.
"Yes, I've seen them, but obviously you don't remember that, or anything else I'm guessing," she said, righting the chair and sitting back down.
"I would think a person such as you would have been easy to remember. I tend to remember all people who are more annoying than ol' one eyed Scott over there."
"Logan," the boy warned.
"Alright, alright, everybody stop, and let's get down to what we're going to do about this Stryker guy," Xavier said, putting some folders down on the table with pictures in them of Stryker and his gang.
Clara swallowed hard, and looked away. "I will have nothing to do with this man."
"Why, you scared?" Logan asked, sitting back in his chair. "Don't worry little pussy cat, I'll protect ya...maybe."
"I'm not scared of him, and I'm not scared of you either," Clara snapped in reply.
"Clara, over these past few years you've been selling secrets of every side there is in this war to anybody who wants them. We need you on our side now," the professor said, then looked to his colleagues for input.
Storm and Jean looked at each other, then back to the new girl, "We're willing to be kind to you if you'll help us." Scott merely nodded, while Logan rolled his eyes.
Clara saw the eyes rolling in the man's head. "You don't want me here? Good, then I guess I will stay and help you...for now." With that, she got up and stomped out of the room, closely followed by the only person who could make this any worse.
"I don't know what, but you know something about my past, don't you?" Logan asked, grabbing her shoulder and turning her around.
"You bet I do, bastard," she snarled the last part at him.
"What do you know?" he asked, ignoring the name calling for the time being.
"Like I would tell you," she sidestepped to get around him, but he stayed in front of her. "If you don't move, I will hurt you."
"I can handle it. Tell me what you know, I've been trying to figure it out for eight years now."
Clara looked at him, and remembered the way he had looked at her before the horrible experiment...then she remembered how he looked at her as he hit her. "If you want to know, really want to know, you're going to have to show me you want it better than that." Finally he let her past and she stomped off to her room, trying to figure out what she'd do next. "He obviously doesn't remember. He doesn't know how he hit me, he doesn't know how he ran out on me, and he doesn't even remember me..."
