A/N: There are no reviews, but I saw that a few people viewed it, so I figured as long as a couple of people are interested, I will keep going. Let me know what you think of my writing please! I really am trying to improve.
"Name a good reason I should not go," Kioni challenged her father.
"For one, he's dangerous!" he gestured wildly at me with the gun.
"That's true," I agreed nonchalantly.
"Two, we do not know him well enough for you to travel with him," Joshua ticked off on his fingers.
"Also true." Kioni glared at me.
"Three, you do not have the skill to chase down those men,"
"You really don't," I imparted to her. Her glare deepened.
"Four, now is not the time for you to leave home. We need you here. And besides, he may try to take advantage of you while you are away."
"Well, that's nothing new," I threw my two-cents in. "But I'd prefer her to be a willing participant."
Joshua looked like he might really shoot me this time. Kioni, again, intervened.
"He is dangerous," she countered, gesturing to me, "which is why he is the best for the job. Two, I can handle myself when I travel. I believe the circumstances of this situation allows us to disregard how well we know someone. I know that Wade fought for us today, and that he could have been killed saving so many. That is good enough for me." her father opened his mouth but she interrupted him. "And as for my skill, I have been training since my teenage years. True, I am no assassin, but my other skills make me a valuable asset. I can sense their desires before they act on them. And I am not content to stay home, like an animal in a cage, waiting for them to return and finish us all. I will go and we will stop them before they can finish the job. And as for him taking advantage of me, if he even thinks about it, he will find himself missing some parts of himself that he holds dear." she shot me a warning look. I gave her a little smirk.
"Kioni…" Joshua imparted again.
"I am going, father." her tone left no room for argument. "Someone must. You would, but you are needed her more than ever. You will need to alert the surrounding towns and rally together. Only you have the diplomatic pull to do so. Akina has her family to look after. That leaves me."
Joshua and Kioni both chose this moment to look at me. I raised an eyebrow in response.
"What do you think?" he asked me.
"Does my opinion matter?" I wasn't aware I was involved in the argument.
"Yes. Think hard about your answer. Because if she accompanies you, I am holding you personally responsible for anything that happens to her. And if something does happen to her, it is you we will be hunting. Understood?" Joshua had a fire in his eyes that I had to admire. His threat really didn't scare me. There would be no way he could find me if I didn't want to be found. And even if by some miracle he did, killing me would be a whole other basket of issues. Trust me, it wasn't a road he would want to go down. I nodded anyway.
"I'll take good care of her," I promised. And I would. She was growing on me.
"Then it's settled." Kioni announced. I glanced back at her father. He seemed to be on the brink of telling her something important. I could guess he was going to tell her about the cancer. Suddenly, the room was not a place I wanted to be. Luckily, Joshua gave me an out.
"Would you excuse us for a moment?" he asked me. His tone suggested that he might shoot me if I refused. Good thing I had no desire to stay. I nodded and beat it out of the room and down the hall. As I made my way back to my bedroom I noticed that parts of the building were in various states of disarray. There were scuffs on the hardwood floors from people running, and when I passed Kioni's room, I noticed a disgruntled employee sweeping up bloody shards of glass. He gave me a glare as I passed, but I just waved at him. I just saved all of their asses. The least they could do was clean up the mess.
I finally made it to my blissfully empty and blood-free room. I realized that in a few hours I was going to have to vacate the entire building and go searching for vengeance, but I was in no hurry. Revenge is tiring, and I new that Stryker was in the air still. When the helicopter landed, then I could begin to follow them. But seeing as flying is one of the few mutations I do not posses, the best plan I could formulate now was to take a nap.
I thought about just flopping down on the bed, but I remembered the cleaning guy. Poor sucker. In an uncharacteristic act of kindness I stripped off what remained of my clothing, thereby only getting blood, dirt and parts of Creed on the floor and not the bedding. I fell asleep the minute I hit the pillow. Healing is hard work, and I'm pretty sure some of my internal organs were trying to sew themselves shut. It hurt like hell. I drifted into restless dreams. I saw the lab room again, all the masked faces, I felt the searing pain, but I saw more this time. Stryker and Creed were there, but I saw two more people. There was a woman, brunette and pale skinned, in the corner of the room. There was also another man, as tall as I am, with black hair and wearing a wife beater. I knew this man. So did Creed. When he appeared, someone pulled a white sheet over my head and I couldn't see anymore. But I could hear. I heard a woman, a medic, protesting. I wasn't ready she argued. And I heard Stryker tell her to do it. I heard Creed roar, then I felt pain like I have never felt before and hope I never feel again. And it all went black.
I sat upright in bed, every hair standing on end. I had only slept for about an hour, maybe less. My body was covered in cold sweat and my heartbeat was erratic. Shit. I closed my eyes without thinking and meditated. Yet another thing I did but had no idea why. Damn Stryker for taking my memory. The last dream I had was of the last thing that happened to me before he wiped my brain clean. That bastard had to pay. I'm not the only one who wanted him dead. James Howlett, or Logan, the scruffy black-haired guy, had a vendetta to settle too. I don't think we were ever buddy-buddy, but I had a feeling he'd be willing to help me rid the world of one certain asshole. And I'm betting I could do it twice as fast, and get Stryker too with the help of Logan. If anyone was as good at fighting as me, it was him.
I opened my eyes again, considerably calmer than I had been a moment ago. I was still good and pissed though. I do some of my best work pissed off. It gets the adrenaline pumping. As long as I can control my anger, channel it, I was unstoppable. I threw back the covers and jumped out of bed just as Kioni came bursting into my room. She took one long look at me, then flushed three shades darker. It was then that I realized I was still naked.
"Oh! Oh, my gosh. I'm so sorry…" she stammered and shifted awkwardly, but didn't turn around. She just kept alternating between looking at my face, then down, then closing her eyes, then apologizing. I didn't make any effort to cover myself. I was having a good time watching her obvious internal debate. It's hard not to look at me when I've got my clothes on. Off, well, just one look can ruin a woman for life.
"Did you need something?" I asked innocently while stretching my arms over my head.
"Yes, but um…it can wait. I just wanted--" I started to laugh. She glanced up at me. "Can you please put some pants on, at least?" she covered her face with a hand.
"What's wrong?" I laughed harder, "You're acting like you've never seen a naked man before!" her blush deepened. "Don't tell me you haven't!" I asked incredulously. There was no way she was a virgin. But she just took her hand away from her eyes and looked at me one more time.
"Well now I have," she said curtly, embarrassment gone. "Now if you would please cover yourself." I gave her my crooked grin but decided to listen to her this time. She looked visibly relieved after I pulled on a pair of sweats.
"Alright, it's covered." I told her. "What did you want?"
"I wanted to talk about what we're going to do." she kicked my dirty clothes out of the way.
"So you're coming then?" I couldn't help the trace of shock in voice.
"Of course," she gave me a confused look. "I thought we established that."
"You're dad didn't try and talk you out of it?" I raised my eyebrow.
"He did. But he saw my point eventually." she shrugged.
So he hadn't told her. I knew I shouldn't care about other people's problems but my own, but if she was going to tag along, she was going to be a part of my problems. And I didn't want her to put herself in all kinds of danger with me to come home to a dead father. That does not sound like fun.
"Are you sure you want to do this? I mean, your family seems like they need you. And your dad is pretty old…" She looked ashamed for a moment.
"You're talking about his cancer," she said quietly.
"Uh, yeah…" I guess she knew.
"He doesn't know that I know," she explained. "But I sensed his desire to tell me long ago." she sighed, "That is why I have to go."
"I'm not following your logic," I told her.
"He is dying. But not anytime soon. He was just diagnosed. There is still hope if I can get a doctor, or medicine. But I will not find that in Kenya. I might not even find it in Africa."
Ah. That made more sense. "But if you go with me, you could find one while we look for Creed." I finished her train of thought.
"That is what I hope. Also, when I was helping you regain your memory, I noticed something before you shut me out the first time. You have cancer." she looked at me.
"Had." I corrected.
"And Stryker took it away?" she asked.
"Along with my memories. And whatever he did really hurt." I reminded her. "I would rather have died."
She looked taken aback for a moment. "But he still did it." She reaffirmed. "And maybe, if I just can look at his research, I can find out what he did to make it possible."
"You realize there's a snowball's chance in hell of you even finding that research, let alone being able to duplicate the procedure right?" I crossed my arms over my chest.
"Yes!" she gestured wildly, "but he is my father, and I will do what it takes to help him!" she was trying to get me to understand her point.
"You'd be better off just staying here."
"And holding his hand as he dies and leaves this town in chaos? I will not. I have lost one parent. I will not lose another to a disease. I'm going with you." she steeled her gaze. She looked fierce, like she might bite me if I told her no.
"Akina knows?" she nodded. "And she's ok with this?"
"She would go with me, but she has family. She will stay, and I will go. We can communicate through the bond we share." I didn't ask her to clarify. It was clearly a mutant thing that didn't concern me.
"It's not going to be easy. You're going to have to rough it." I warned her.
"I'm not a princess. Roughing it does not bother me." she assured me.
"You might see more naked men on this trip," I said with a straight face.
The corners of her lips twitched. "I believe that you may have desensitized me to the male form. So I wouldn't worry about it if I were you." I grinned at her.
"I have that effect on people." she rolled her eyes, but smiled.
"So, I can go with you?" she confirmed.
"We'll leave in the morning. Stryker's long gone anyway. Do you have a passport?" she shook her head. "No problem. We'll have to get fake ones anyway."
"Where are we going?" she questioned.
"We're going to find an old colleague of mine who might be willing to help us out. I think he's still in America somewhere." I pulled out my duffle bag and began putting my clothing into it.
"Why would he help?" she helped me fold some shirts.
"Because I'm pretty sure we're in the same boat." her brow creased as she lapsed into her thoughts.
"Alright. I'd better go get ready," she said. She gave me a last little smile, then started to back out of the room.
"Pack light!" I called after her.
"I will," she assured me.
"And don't worry tonight. You're going to need sleep to be ready for tomorrow." she gave me a wry smile.
"I don't think I will be sleeping too well tonight." she sighed.
"Come here," I gestured to her. She stepped toward me wearily. "Trust me," I told her. She opened her mouth to say something but I reached out and touched a spot between her neck and shoulder. She slumped over unceremoniously into my arms. I justified using a pressure point to knock her out by assuring myself that she would get enough sleep. She was going to need all her energy. Since her room was ruined, I put her under the covers in my bed, then I wandered out of the room to pack some stuff for her. You can never trust a woman to pack light. They over think too many things.
By the time I was done, it was late into the night. I needed to sleep too. I moseyed back to my room and flopped down next to Kioni. I shut my eyes, willing myself into a dreamless sleep.