Rogue was enjoying this moment with her brother, Kurt Wagner. They had a hard time for a little while after they defeated Apocalypse, but they had managed to get through the rough spots. Like Wolverine, and everyone else, they enjoyed days where nothing was going on. No bad mutants trying to start a war with humanity or training until their limbs felt like they were going to drop off. She hoped the day could last as long as possible.
"Rogue, could you please report to my office." The voice of the Professor echoed inside her head.
"I knew this was too good to last." Rogue said in her southern accent.
"What is it?" Kurt asked her.
"Professor needs ta talk ta me. I'll be back when I can." Rogue said as she got up and made her way to the lavish mansion.
Rogue began to go over what the Professor might want to talk to her about. Maybe it was about all the powers she had absorbed? Maybe. Some time ago, all the memories and powers she had taken from different mutants began to come out all at once, and it almost drove her insane. The Professor was helping her get control of them.Rogue gave a slight shiver as she remembered how she went nuts. It was also the day she found out Mystique was her mother. Not biologically, but legally.
Rogue finally reached the large oak door to the Professor's office. Before she could knock, the Professor answered her.
"Come in, Rogue." The Professor told her from the other side.
Rogue opened the door to find the Professor talking to someone that was in one of the seats in front of his desk. Rogue could only see the back of his head.
"Oh great, another one. Probably wants me to show him around or – hello cutie." Rogue thought as the young man stood up and turned to face her.
He was about six foot one, he was as broad as Wolverine and had long black hair that went past his shoulders. One thing Rogue noticed right off the bat was his eyes. They were a deep green, almost like jade. He was wearing an old leather jacket, a pair of worn out gloves on his hands, and a t-shirt and pair of jeans that looked like they came from good will.
"Rogue, I'd like to introduce you to our newest student. I want you to help him get settled and let him know where everything is." The Professor told the young woman.
"Okay." Rogue said as she looked at the young man.
Rogue had a crush on Scott Summers for a whileand everyone knew it except Scott himself. Right now, if anyone were to ask Rogue about Scott, her only response would be Scott who?
"I-I'm Rogue." She said and offered her gloved hand to the young man.
"Nice to meet you. I'm Logan." The young man said and gently shook her hand with one of his gloved ones. His voice was a little rough, but also soft at the same time.
"Logan, could you wait outside for a moment. I need to ask Rogue something important." The Professor asked the new student.
"Sure." Logan said and left the office, closing the door behind him.
As Logan stood out in the hall, Wolverine kept an eye on him. He was amazed at how much the new student resembled him!
"He's gotta be a clone or something. Another X23 of Hydra's gone bad." He said to himself.
Logan may have lost many memories when he was given his unique skeleton, but he'd doubt he'd forget something important like a son. The Professor suspected Logan might be his real father, but he wanted to run a few tests before jumping to any conclusions.
"You can stop hiding from me. I could smell you a mile away." The young man said.
"He even talks like me." Logan whispered to himself as he stepped out of his hiding spot.
"So you're Wolverine, right?" Logan asked the older man.
"Yeah, that's me. I take it you're the new guy." Wolverine said as he walked toward the young man, trying to size him up.
"What made you guess? My name's Logan, the Professor told me you had the same thing happened to you?" Logan asked the man.
"You might have to elaborate on that." Wolverine told him, not letting his guard down for a second. He also didn't like bring up the one memory that stuck out above the rest.
The young man frowned and looked down for a second before he took a deep breath.
"You know what I mean. I don't to talk about it that much, but I don't know anyone else who went through the same shit I did." He said.
"I don't like to talk about it either, who would?"
Before Logan could respond, the door opened with Rogue coming out to greet them.
"Hey, Wolverine. I see you met Logan." Rogue said as she saw Wolverine give Logan the once over.
"I did. Get some rest, junior. Tomorrow, you're going to need all the strength you can get." Wolverine said and walked back down stairs.
"Why does that give me a feeling of impending dread?" Logan asked himself while Rogue snickered at his comment.
In a few moments, Rogue showed Logan to his room with a large mirror in one wall with a queen size bed not too far from it. There was a normal sized dresser with a color flat screen TV and a desk near the window.
"So I get this room all by myself?" Logan asked as he set his bag on the bed.
"You're lucky. I gotta share mah room with a girl that snores. Sometimes I wish she could just phase through the floor when she does that." Rogue said and earning a raised eyebrow from the new student.
"Long story. Listen, the Professor filled me in on your abilities." Rogue said, trying to get the ball rolling between them.
"Oh. Listen, I understand if you don't want to hang around me." Logan said to her, expecting her to try and run off soon.
"Nah, it's okay. The guy you met has similar powers and he'll be able to help you with, you know. But I'm the one that'll help you with the other one." Rogue told him.
Logan looked surprised when he heard what Rogue told him. When the Professor told him about a student with similar abilities helping him, he half expected a girl with glasses or something. He didn't think that a girl as pretty as Rogue had the same powers he did.
"Y-you have – um – you've got the – Xerox powers?" Logan asked her.
Rogue broke out into a laugh when he said that. After a few seconds, Logan began to laugh at what he said as well. He didn't know any other way to ask it.
"In all mah life, I never heard it put that way. Yeah, that's mah ability." shetold him.
"Sucks, doesn't it? I have to wear gloves, long sleeve shirts, jeans. Do you know how annoying it gets to wear a sweater on a summer day?" he asked her.
"Tell me about it. Try wearing long pants and a long sleeve shirt at the beach when it's almost a hundred degrees." She told him.
"Ouch. Out of curiosity, is that guy's name really Wolverine?" Logan asked her.
"No, that's just some kind of codename he got a long time ago. We each have little nicknames here. Mah brother Kurt is called Nightcrawler. Wolverine's real name is Logan." Rogue told him.
Logan was putting a few shirts in a drawer when he heard Wolverine's real name and dropped them as he came to a dead stop.
"His name is Logan?" he asked her as he fished for the photo in his pocket.
"Yeah, why?" Rogue asked him.
Logan pulled out the photo and looked at the back. His mother had written something on the back, but most of what had been written was gone. Part of his mother's name was still there, but there was also part of a word that was his only clue. The word written on there was an. Could it be Logan? No, there's no way it could be that easy, could it? Could that man be his father? He didn't know what his dad looked like, and his build was similar to the guy in the photo. No, it can't be that easy! Life taught him that much.
"Just weird is all. If you don't mind, I'm pretty tired and just want to get some rest." He told her as he put the photo on the dresser.
"Sure. I'll see you later." She said and headed to the door.
"Hey, Rogue. It was nice to meet you. It's been a while since someone's just talked to me." Logan told her.
"You're welcome." Rogue said with a smile as she walked out of the room.
"Get your head out of the clouds, Logan. You know you don't have a snowball's chance in hell." Logan said to himself and finished unpacking.
Sleep. This is the one thing Logan, young Logan, hated the most. Ever since he was thirteen years old, ever since they did that to him, he never had good dreams anymore. Only nightmares. Every night he re-lived that horrible night.
He was asleep in the bed with nothing on but a pair of shorts. Despite his powers, he could only stand so much heat from the clothes he had forced himself to wear. As he drifted off into his sleep, the horrific images started to come back to him.
The sounds of gunfire, men in black shooting someone in front of him, then the men in black taking him by force. Then he was put in the tank. The god damn tank filled with the green liquid. Machines were in there with him and cutting him open. Injections of the silver liquid and the burning sensations as it bonded to his bones. All of the faces in masks and the hollow eyes kept looking at him as he thrashed in pain.
Then the aching in his hands started. They were itching like he had a rash, and that's when muscles were ripped and the flesh was torn open.
"NOOOOO!" Logan shouted as sat up in his bed as he screamed into the night.
Rogue was lying awake in bed in her favorite t-shirt that was two sizes two big and a pair jogging shorts and listened to the sounds of Kitty Pride snoring. She wasn't as bad as others she had heard, but her snoring reminded Rogue of a few old vacuums she had heard growing up. She was also thinking about what the Professor had told her earlier that day.
How was she supposed to help someone use abilities like hers? She didn't even know how to use her own. She can't control her powers they way she wanted, how was she supposed to help Logan with his? That was another part that was weird. The Professor told her that Logan had the same powers as Wolverine, and she assumed he meant the heightened senses. Two Logan's now. That was going to be different.
"NOOOOO!"
Rogue and Kitty instantly bolted out of bed when they heard the scream. It sent a shiver down both of their spines when they heard it. Both were out f their beds and into the hall to find its source, but Rogue knew where it was coming from. It was coming from the new student's room.
Logan rarely slept anymore, even after he took care of who gave him his special skeleton. Every time he drifted to sleep, he would see different images each time. Sometimes it was when he got his claws, and other times it was images from a life he had long forgotten. It pissed him off too many times to count whenever he would see something, hoping it could bring part of his memories back. Then it would just fade away like a nightmare.
He had wondered down to the kitchen to find something to drink and maybe keep him awake. As he opened the fridge, he let out a small growl of frustration. You'd think in a school filled with teenaged students, you thought someone would try to sneak in some beer. Logan needed a good stiff drink to calm his nerves, and soda or milk wouldn't do it. He grabbed a bottle of water and sliced the top off with one of his claws. He took a big gulp that emptied most of the bottle and let the chill flow through his body to relax his nerves. Too many things for him to think about.
A son. He might actually have a son. How could he forget something like that? More importantly, why would he leave a son to fend for himself? Wolverine might not know much about his previous life, but he knew he would never leave a child behind. Wait a minute, didn't Charles say the kid never met his father? What ifWolverine didn'tknow? If the kid really is his, what ifWolverine didn't know he was going to be a father when he leftthe kid'smother?
"Here's comes another damn headache." Logan groaned to himself as he finished off the bottle and threw it in the garbage.
"NOOOOO!"
Logan heard the scream thanks to his sensitive ears. His instincts instantly came to attention as his muscles tensed and his claws came out. Logan bolted for the stairs and up them almost as fast as Quicksilver. He didn't know how he did it, but he beat Kitty and Rogue to the door that was hiding whoever screamed. Logan tried turning the knob, but the door was locked. With one good swift kick, the door was slammed open with part of the door frame in splinters. Rogue, and Kittyfollowed Wolverine intothe room and gasped at what they saw.
"Oh mah God." Rogue said as she saw the sight in front of her.
They didn't need the room light to see what had happened. There was enough light coming in from hall and the full moon outside to let the three people see what had happened. Logan was sitting up in his bed in a cold sweat, his breath coming out in heavy pants as he winced in pain. His right hand was tightly balled into a fist with three claws coming from in between the knuckles that almost seamed to glow in the moonlight. Where each claw had came out, a trail of blood dripped form the openings and onto the sheet he was lying on.
"Kid, you all right?" Logan asked as he walked near him.
"DON'T TOUCH ME!" Young Logan shouted as loud as he could, letting all the pain from his claws come out with it.
Older Logan took a few steps back from the sudden outburst, and then remembered what Charles had said earlier. The kid had powers like Rogue's, and that meant Wolverine would be out cold as soon as he touched the kid. A few more students had gathered in the hall and were talking about the claws that were coming out of young Logan's hand. Wolverine was about to tell them to go back to bed when Rogue saw something. Something that was making her point toyoung Logan'sleft leg while trying to get Wolverine to look.Wolverine took a few more steps and glanced at the young Logan's left leg.
"GET THE PROFESSOR NOW!" Wolverine shouted and saw Bobby and Jubilee take off like an Olympic track star.
Wolverine looked again and saw that Logan's left hand was still lowered, but that hand also had its claws extended. And the claws had embedded themselves deep into Logan's leg with blood dripping down the limb and onto the bed.
"Hang on, kid. The Professor will know how to treat this." Wolverine said as he got as close as he could without touching Logan.
"Just give me something to bite on." Logan said.
"What?"
"Nevermind." Logan said and ripped the three claws from his leg and let out a loud growl that sounded more like he was holding back a shout.
Every vein and muscle in his neck was exposed as he grimaced in pain from his actions and gritted his teeth hard enough that he was drooling some. His breathing was coming out in quick pants and starting to slow.
"Wolverine, what happened?" Charles asked as he entered the room.
Before Wolverine could say anything, both of them saw the three wounds on his leg start to close on their own accord. Soon, the wounds had sealed and left three brand new scars onthe limb. Logan started to let out shaky breaths as the pain slowly faded from his senses, but his claws were still extended.
"Rogue, help Logan to the medical bay. I want to make sure there isn't any permanent damage.
"Yes, Professor." Rogue said and went to retrieve a pair of gloves that went to the middle of her biceps. Soon, Rogue had an arm around his back and helping him walk to an elevator that would take him to the lower levels.
An hour and a half later, Logan sat in one of the medical beds and looked at his Adamantium claws. Each were nine inches in length and razor sharp. He found it hard to believe that these things had just ripped through his arms and they didn't have one once of blood on them.
"How come you haven't, you know, retracted them?" Rogue asked, checking in on him.
"It hurts too much to do that. I'm not ready for that much pain yet." He told her as he looked at them.
"I didn't know you also had those. I thought you're healing factor closed the wounds before you bled." Rogue said.
"Sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn't." Logan said as he balled his fists lined his hands with his arms.
Logan took a deep breath, and let out a loud groan of pain ashe retracted his claws back into his arms.
"You okay? Wait, stupid question." Rogue said to herself.
"It's okay. I'll be fine in a little bit." Logan said as he lowered his arms and leaned back against the bed.
"Does it really hurt that much?" Rogue asked him. She wanted to ask Wolverine now and then, but didn't risk it. Hey, who would want to ask Wolverine? The guy always looks like he's pissed off at something.
"I have a low pain threshold, so it's almost agony. I don't use those unless I have to." He told her as he began to calm down and felt a cool breeze from the air condition wash over him.
"How long have you had them?" she asked him.
"Four or five years now. I can't remember if I was twelve or thirteen when I got these things." He said.
"That young? What happened?" Rogue asked him.
Logan shuttered as he remembered the nightmare he had not too long ago. Every single image was a memory of that horrible event and he didn't want to repeat it.
"You know, they say talking about it helps." Rogue told him.
Why was she helping this kid? She was always the loner. The only person she had really tried to connect to was either Scott, her crush, or her brother Kurt. Why the sudden change in her character? Probably because he's got the same powers you do. Besides the sharp claws. "Shut up, brain." Rogue thought to herself as she looked at Logan.
Logan took a deep breath as he thought about what the girl in front of him said. He never talked about that day, not even to his best friend. Or should he say his former best friend? Maybe talking about it would help, he didn't know. Of course, little did he know, the older Logan was standing outside and keeping an eye on the two.
"I guess I was twelve when it happened. I don't really remember anymore. I had been living with my best friend Remi when my mother disappeared. Men with guns came. They wanted me and were dragging me away by force. I was kicking and screaming the entire time. Remi's father tried to stop them, and they shot him to death. In front of me, her, and her mother. That's when one of them slugged me. The rest is so jumbled, I don't which came first. I just remember floating in a tank with all these machines. Most of the time, I was asleep but not all the time. They kept me awakewhen they cut me open and doing some weird test. I don't even know how long I was in there. And I could see them. I could see the quacks that did this to me. My x-rays on a wall like posters and they were smiling when I was in pain.
"Then they did something else. I don't know how, but I just remember pain. It was like my whole body was on fire. And – and then it felt like my bones were – red hot pokers or something. Because they burned the most, it felt like there were melting me. When it was done, I kept begging them to kill me." Logan said as his jaw tightened and a few veins in his neck started to bulge.
Wolverine was watching the converssation and was getting andry while hearing Logan's story. How could people do that to a kid? Wolverine remembered his whole ordeal and wanted to destroy something.
"That's when they put that metal in you, wasn't it?"Rogue asked Logan.
"Yeah, it was. I don't how they did it, but they covered my bones with itwhen that stuff was still melted. I don't how I lived through it." Logan said as one tear fell down his face.
"Then the claws came out. It just felt my hands were itching, like when you get a rash. I kept scratching, but it just kept getting worse. I tensed my arms, and then they came out. I could see my blood in the tank when they ripped through my hands. Then I was angry. I was just so mad at what they had done to me.
"They violated me in one of the worst ways and enjoyed it. They were actually toasting to the fact that I had claws! I just wanted to rip them apart! Next thing I know, I'm slashing at the glass and it breaks. I hope I didn't kill anyone, but I just remember slashing at people in black suits and some other people in what looked like scrubs. I just remember running through woods after that. I don't how I got out of there. I found a stream and when I looked in it, my arms were covered in blood. I don't know if it was mine or – oh God, don't let me have killed anyone." Logan said with a shutter.
"If you're from Japan, how come you can speak English so well?" Rogue asked him, trying to change the subject. She saw how upset he was getting and didn't want him to hurt himself again.
"My mother taught me, and I taught my friend's family. Remi always enjoyed the fact she knewanother language." He said to himself.
"Was she okay?" Rogue asked him.
"No. They didn't rape her, thank God, but they beat her pretty bad. She had a scar across her face from one of the guns. I somehow found my way back to their house. I can't explain it, but I could smell her. It turns out I had been gone for almost a year. They cleaned me up and let me rest. But when she tried to hug me a few days later, I found out my other curse. I let her go as soon as it happened, so I didn't drain much. But all her memories are in my head. All of them. Then she was scared of me. I didn't know what to do. My one best friend was afraid of me, and I couldn't touch her anymore. So I ran away. Four to five years without the feel of human contact. I hate being a mutant so much that I tried to kill myself. I tried to slit my wrist, and it healed almost instantly. I don't why, but God hates me." He said as he tried his best to hold back tears.
"No, don't think that. Logan, I know how you feel. I can't touch anyone either. With mah first kiss, I put mah boyfriend in a coma. Logan it's a nightmare, I know." Rogue said as she squeezed his hand with her gloved covered hand.
Outside, Wolverinejust ran his hands through his hair as he let out a slow growl. His kid or not, no one should have to go through that kind of hell. He knew it far too well. He had to do his best to try and keep himself from clawing the wall apart.
"You know, I don't have a handle on mah powers either. I don't how I'm supposed to help." Rogue told him.
"You already did. I actually do feel better. Thanks." He said to her and returned the squeeze.
"So what was your mama's name?" Rogue asked him.
"I don't know her last name. But her name was Yuriko." Logan told her.
Wolverine eyes shot wide open as long forgotten images from his past began to run through his head. He almost fell down to the flooras they came flooding back all at once. Images of a house not too far from a river, and there was a woman. She had long flowing black hair and she almost seemed to be a living porcelain doll. Yuriko, the name kept repeating in his head.
"Logan, don't leave."
"I've got to. I don't have a choice, darlin'. This is the last mission, I swear. Yuriko, I'll always come back for you."
"I need to talk to Charles." Wolverine said and bolted out of the medical wing.
Author's Note(s): I'm not an X-Men expert, so I'm using a few things from the movie and the old cartoon show that used to come on Fox. Rogue kissing her boyfriend was from the first X-Men movie. Just thought I'd let the readers know.