They'd flown into Calgary International Airport, and Teva was rather glad that Logan had dozed through the flight with a small empathic suggestion of calm; he was epically uncomfortable flying and she'd much rather deal with his jumbled dreams than the constant repetition in his head of "I will not puke" running like a mantra. His hatred of traveling by air bordered on phobic.
"If we were meant to fly, God woulda given us wings," he'd growled at her when she called him on it, and she kept the "or given us the mutation to fly" retort to herself. He ignored her protestation that air travel was statistically safer than driving.
In Calgary they'd rented a truck and a camper, the latter of which boasted a queen size bed, a kitchenette and a tiny bathroom with shower. Not knowing how long it would take to find the complex or how long they'd be there, it had seemed a safer bet than getting a hotel room in the city. Teva let him drive to keep his mind off of how queasy he still felt.
The first night they didn't make much headway. Kicking Horse Pass, though modernized with a highway, was still difficult to traverse in the middle of the winter, and they'd spent many fruitless hours tramping through the snow once they'd found a place to park. She didn't mind the grueling pace he set, was suddenly grateful she'd taken up a daily morning run with Ororo and regular practice in the Danger Room that used her new skills in kickboxing, because she was using her newfound endurance.
Logan moved tirelessly, a man on a mission, and Teva rather enjoyed watching him in what was very much his element. He'd apparently spent some time up this way in the past, though not in the area the hidden complex was in or they'd have found it by now. She could feel his frustration that he'd been so close to potential clues to his past without having known.
Neither one slept deeply that night, Logan because his mind wouldn't quiet down and Teva because she could hear him physically and mentally struggling. The one dream he had was vividly violent enough he got up to avoid unintentionally popping his claws and hurting her, and by dawn they were both wide awake. After a quick, cold breakfast they drove a little further north than yesterday to a spot he thought would be the right one.
It was Teva who found it first, using both the tracking skills Logan had been teaching her and her ability to sense psychic impressions: she'd begun to feel a little sick to her stomach and got flashes of fear and helplessness, catch glimpses of violence and blood splashed across footprints in white snow. She damn near tripped over the entrance to the bunker, her feet sliding in the snow despite the heavy treads on her combat boots.
She'd lost sight of Logan but knew he was nearby. ~Over here~ she sent over the link. ~This is it, I can feel it.~
Logan emerged from a nearby stand of trees and she was frozen for a moment, struck by how natural he looked in this environment, like he belonged here. The look in his eyes was distant but when he saw her his mouth quirked a little. ~I'm still here~ he thought. ~I could lose myself out here, I think.~
That didn't bother her. He might get lost but she'd always find him.
She crouched by the spot she'd found and brushed snow off to reveal doors both chained and padlocked shut. "With you we never need lockpicks," she joked.
He crouched beside her, the claws on his right hand extending and easily cutting through chains that, strangely, weren't rusted. The doors proved a little more difficult, even for a man as strong as Logan. They groaned opened to reveal steps going down into a yawning black abyss.
He didn't need a flashlight as he went down and she followed, seeing what he did through their link so that she could move as inerrantly as him. It was a strange yet exhilarating feeling to be able to see this way, to feel what he used without thought.
She found a bank of switches and tried them. Lights flickered on across the ceiling heading either direction, about half of them still functioning to varying degrees. "Any of this familiar to you?" she asked as she looked around. The corridor they stood in was bare, everything concrete as far as she could see, though in places were curious stains that looked very much like old blood. She shuddered and moved closer to him.
"Not so far," he answered. "Might be better to split up, you're armed, right?"
Teva unzipped her leather coat to reveal two 9mm Glocks, each one in a shoulder holster under either arm. "Like I'd be out here otherwise," she scoffed. "I'll keep the link open."
He nodded and quickly stalked down the hall and out of sight to the left.
She shook her head musingly and went down the corridor more slowly, cautiously putting a hand out to touch the wall beside her and recoiling immediately when screams filled her head; actually touching something like that made the impressions worse, whereas if she didn't touch anything she could at least shield herself. She closed her eyes, shuddered, and moved on, taking the right wing of the fork at a T-junction whereas Logan had taken the left.
Rooms spread out on either side of her as far as she could see, full of desks and filing cabinets that had been ripped open, the contents spilled out haphazardly across the floor; she stepped into one room and knelt to shuffle through the papers, eyes scanning quickly over military jargon she didn't really understand. She didn't get the feeling anything here was of importance so she moved on, back into the corridor.
The complex was vast, as she soon discovered, letting her impressions of the place guide her down hallways with lights that flickered uncertainly at times as if they weren't sure they wanted to stay on. Logan was a constant presence in the back of her mind and she occasionally took a peek at what he saw, which was just more of what she could see.
~Are you getting anything?~ she asked.
The answer was slow to come back as if he had to think harder to form the words, and she could feel that he'd begun to focus more with his senses instead of his brain. ~This place don't feel right, but I ain't found anything yet.~
She shivered as if he'd whispered the words right next to her ear as he did sometimes. A glance at the floor showed her a trail of blood that she didn't really want to follow except it might lead her to something important. The sheer amount of the substance long-since dried on most surfaces would have made her wonder just what the hell had gone on here had she not been privy to Logan's memories. She'd yet to come across anything other than administrative details but there was no other explanation for what this place was.
Finally, frustrated, she placed a hand on the wall and pushed out with her mutant abilities, trying to avoid the emotional imprint while she got a better picture of what the place looked like. She held on for only moments, long enough to wish she hadn't done it even though she now felt a pull from a nearby room. She wiped her hands across her jeans as if that would get rid of the phantom touch of something warm and sticky coating her skin.
Teva let her telepathy guide her down another hall, into another room much like the ones she'd already passed. With the power restored a lone computer monitor lit the small space, and from the look of it, it had been there a decade or more, she hadn't seen this kind of computer since she'd been in secondary. She righted an overturned chair and pulled it to the desk the computer sat on.
There were only a few icons on the desktop. She reached for the mouse and guided the cursor to one marked "Case Files." It opened to reveal more folders and she zeroed in on one named "Weapon Plus." A box for a password popped up and she cursed under her breath before she remembered the small gadget Kitty had pressed into her hand before they'd left, explaining it would decrypt as well as download anything they were able to find.
Kitty being a computer genius, Teva trusted her. She pulled the tiny black box out of her jacket pocket along with an adapter; she knew enough about computers to know that there was no way this thing had a USB port, and she had to turn the tower around to find a serial port that would fit the box's adapter. A red light blinked on as it went to work, trying thousands of options in a matter of moments, then the light blinked green and the folder opened.
"Gods, more folders," she muttered, each one marked with a Roman numeral all the way up to twenty that gave her the sinking suspicion that Logan wasn't just Weapon X, he was Weapon Ten, in a long line of experiments. She swallowed bile and opened the folder.
So much information flashed across the screen she would have had a seizure were she epileptic. Pictures, X-rays, medical files, military reports ...
~Logan, I think I've hit the mother lode.~ When he didn't respond after a few seconds she realized he'd closed their link from his end , something she didn't know he could do. She pushed against it. ~Logan, what's going on?~
Instead of responding verbally he let her see through his eyes, and what she saw was definitely not what she'd expected: A huge man, probably close to seven feet tall from Logan's perspective, stood in front of him. Long, disheveled blond hair hung in a predatory face, lips pulled back in a snarl that revealed canines sharper even than Logan's, and he had hands tipped in wicked claws.
Cursing more loudly, she shut the link down enough so he wouldn't be distracted by her, then pressed the button on the small black box Kitty had told her would start a download. "C'mon, c'mon," she said, her leg bouncing impatiently until the damn thing beeped to signal completion. She disconnected it and stuck it back in her pocket, pulling out a gun in its place and checking the clip to make sure it was full before she broke into a run, trusting blind instinct and her powers to show her where to go. She went past the entrance they'd come into and was hit with a wave of intense rage that felt very much like Logan's but wasn't his, and she followed that all the way in a twisting path that brought her closer to the sounds of two men speaking in low, growling tones.
"Nice of ya to join us," the stranger said, not looking at her as she entered the room. She took quick stock of the area in shambles, various strange equipment torn to pieces where it wasn't scorch-marked, and if she wasn't mistaken she could see claw marks on the walls, interspersed with dings from bullets and other signs of violence she didn't recognize based on sight alone.
"I already asked ya what ya were doin' here, Vic." Logan's voice was almost unintelligible, a bass deep enough it almost hurt Teva's ears to hear it. His hands were in fists but his claws hadn't emerged yet for all he held himself ready to attack.
"Same reason you are, runt. Heard this place was still here, wanted t' find some answers. Ya ain't the only one with swiss cheese fer a brain." He finally turned disturbing amber eyes to Teva. She'd thought she'd seen what a man looked like when he was more animal than human, but she'd been wrong. Where the man she loved still retained much of his humanity, only occasionally giving control to the beast inside of him, the creature looming over them both had given himself joyfully to his most basic instincts. Her hands rose of their own volition, her finger twitching off the Glock's safety before resting against but not inside the trigger guard.
He snarled a laugh at her. "Whatever caliber ya got in there ain't gonna be but a bee-sting, frail." His attention swung back to Logan. "Didn't know ya had a new girlfriend, Logan, or I'da stopped by fer a visit. Ya told her what I done t' yer other women?"
Teva glanced at her lover, picked the thought out of his head: The animal in the room with them had brutally murdered a woman Logan had once loved, a very long time ago, but under the burning pain of that was the frustration that he had memories of it happening more than once, and he didn't know when any of the murders had occurred. The only things he was sure of were after the adamantium bonding process, and even those memories were sometimes fuzzy.
She looked back at Vic – Victor Creed, Sabretooth, the thought came – and smiled grimly. "He did," she lied, "and I also ken those women were'nae able to put up much of a fight. I will'nae go down so easily, and that's if there's anything left of you after he's done with you."
"Ooh, I like this one." Creed's smile was cruel, mocking. "She's got fire in 'er."
She felt a flicker of annoyance from Logan, heard him think ~Thanks for the confidence but I don't need it.~ He spoke out loud then. "Let it go, Vic. We're here for the same reason, t' find answers we ain't got."
Creed shrugged massive shoulders and drew himself out of his crouch to his full height. "Until that gets boring, fine."
Teva stepped closer to Logan, thumbing the safety back on but not taking her eyes off Creed. ~I found files back where I was, I downloaded them.~ She hesitated a moment before adding ~Pretty much everything you're looking for, as far as I could see, but there may be more.~
Logan nodded. "There're some computer banks this way," he said, jerking his thumb in indication. "Place seems to be laid out same as the place I was in, far as I can remember. S'why I came this way."
She was a little surprised he wasn't asking what she'd found, especially since she could feel the sense of curiosity and the desire to know. He just wanted to make sure they hadn't overlooked anything.
Creed had gone the direction Logan indicated. "Place is on a back-up generator but it won't last long. I think I can remember how to access the files from here."
Teva looked at him in surprise and got an amused look in return.
"I know a lot about computers, frail. Logan and I both do, got some trainin' from the government." He tapped one long, taloned finger against his temple. "Smarter than I look."
"Must be really fucking smart, then." No one would ever accuse Teva of knowing when to shut her mouth, but instead of being angry he just chuckled like he was enjoying himself immensely.
She followed Logan without putting her weapon away, eyes scanning the room like she was trying to commit it to memory, and she kept coming back to Creed. He moved with the same deadly attentiveness Logan did, smooth and agile but with an edge of wariness like he expected an attack at any moment, for all he was huge. He'd chosen a console and begun tapping at its interface, but he turned his head and looked at her.
"Yer girl can't keep her eyes off me," he said with a low chuckle.
Logan was behind him at another computer, his fingers moving quickly. "She ain't ever seen a gorilla outta the zoo." His eyes rose to meet hers and he smirked.
~Thought you did'nae want me to provoke him.~
He shrugged. ~Different if I do it. Me and Vic – we go way back. Used t' work together.~
~Great, it's a lovely reunion.~ She let her hand, the one holding the Glock, dangle at her side as she leaned up against the console he was working on. She didn't like being in a room with two unpredictable ferals who obviously had an antagonistic history, no matter how civil they were being. She reached out with her telempathy and felt her stomach damn near bottom out when Creed's head snapped around again to stare at her.
"What is it with you and telepathic redheads, runt?"
"Leave 'im alone, Tev." Logan went back to concentrating on the computer in front of him, eyes scanning what came up on the screen. "Shit's encoded."
"Here." Creed tossed him a small object, a gadget not unlike the one Teva had in her pocket. "Decrypter. Just set it on top o' the console and it'll interface."
Teva wasn't sure she wanted to know where the hell he'd gotten the piece of equipment, especially since many of the things Xavier's people had access to were state-of-the-art.
Logan did as instructed and, as advertised, the small machine went to work. He surprised Teva by reaching for her hand and giving her fingers a squeeze, and as she turned her head to look at him again he made a choked sort of noise, his grip on her tightening almost painfully. Rage and pain slammed into her, made her blink and try to choke it down because it wasn't hers, it was Logan's and she didn't know quite what had set it off.
"What –-" she started to ask, her question cut off as something wrapped tight around her throat and she was yanked off of her feet. Her gun fell from her fingers as she brought her hands up to pry herself free and found herself staring into feral amber eyes, her own eyes having trouble focusing with Logan's anger.
Creed was grinning. "Yer lover there triggered a failsafe designed special just fer him, in case he ever got too close t' the truth." He laughed at her attempts to speak and tightened his fingers around her neck. "Lucky I got ya or he'd probably rip ya t' pieces and, babe, let me tell ya how much I appreciate the irony o' that."
Teva's vision was starting to spark at the edges, the proverbial stars in her eyes as her brain started to starve for oxygen. She thought about going for her other gun but knew he'd likely stop her before she did, so she brought her steel-toed boot up between his legs. The purely physical action made something in her want to crow even as she thought quite clearly about clawing his eyes out and watching the blood and other fluids drip down his face. It was a terrifying thought and, again, not quite her own.
The roar of pain he gave was disproportionate to the force behind her kick. After she'd hit the floor and took several gasping, painful breaths, she found Logan crouched over Creed, claws buried completely in the bigger man's chest. She scrambled to grab and aim the gun she'd dropped, though she couldn't take a shot without risking injuring Logan.
Creed's own claws sunk into Logan's shoulders and he pushed the smaller man off of him with enough force that the Wolverine landed a handful of yards away. They collided again with the force of super strength, blood flying with the blows they rained on each other, both men grunting and growling in pain and triumph.
When Sabretooth went down for a few moments, Teva reached out for Logan's mind and found nothing but red fury, matching what was pouring down the link from him to her. There was no man inside, his eyes now less human than his opponent's, the sounds coming from him not even close to sane. He turned those predator's eyes on hers and she found herself bringing her gun to bear out of sheer instinct. Sabretooth was up and moving before she had to make the choice, though, and the two men tumbled out of sight.
Panic was starting to creep in under the adrenaline, under the rage that made her vision seem red, tinted the color of blood. She did not want to be stuck with the winner of this fight no matter who it was because she wasn't sure she was going to survive it. No matter who emerged victorious, she was going to have her own battle to fight against someone much stronger.
A howl of pain and rage, cut abruptly short, nearly shook the room around her and she staggered to her feet, afraid to round the corner, not sure what she'd find.
Logan was face down in a spreading pool of blood. He wasn't moving, not even twitching in a death throe, and the rage she'd gotten from him lingered but was lesser now, not so mind-numbing. His utter stillness made her want to reach out until she realized she couldn't see Sabretooth.
Teva whipped around at the last second to find him in mid-leap at her. She raised her gun and fired into his midsection, emptying the clip in the space of time it took for him to close on her. The tackle sent her flying back into rubble, her gun lost for a second time. She curled into a ball with her arms over her head to prevent concussion, but having Sabretooth crouched over her when they came to a halt wasn't a better alternative.
"Just you an' me now, frail." He straddled her legs, all 500-some-odd pounds keeping her pinned. "Never had a chance t' actually have one o' his women before," he said, one huge hand grabbing her ponytail and wrenching her head up so she couldn't look away from him. "An' I know you'll fight back, ya wouldn't just lay there an' take it."
As he sat there and calmly talked about raping her, she was gathering her power. Only once before had she used her telepathy as a weapon, it wasn't something she'd actively developed beyond using it as a defensive measure, and she'd certainly never hoped that it'd be enough to kill someone, but never had she so clearly been staring death in the face. She'd be damned if she was going to even let him get started. He'd already shown the ability to know when telepathy was being used on him so she struck quickly, almost faster than the thought required.
Sabretooth blinked and for a moment she thought she'd failed as a growl trickled out between those deadly fangs. He wasn't moving, though. When she reached for her second gun and he still didn't move she sent a mental suggestion for him to stand. He got jerkily to his feet and she scrambled out from beneath him, gun pointed at him.
"Can't – hold me – f'rever," he said, words clipped between clenched teeth. "C'n – feel ya – gettin' weak."
It was true, she was having a difficult time maintaining her hold on him, like clenching a fist for too long. She could feel him regaining control but at least it had bought her time to get away, to check on Logan. She knelt beside him and automatically felt for the pulse in his neck, having to search a bit when her fingers slid against the blood on him; she could have wept when she felt his pulse there beneath her fingers, so weak it was almost unnoticeable. His healing factor must have been in overdrive to repair what seemed to be a neck wound, based on the amount of blood that had left his body, and she was almost positive that if she could buy him time, he'd survive this.
Physically, at least. Mentally ... she couldn't even hazard a guess. She could feel the chaos inside his mind, the completely feral rage that still clouded her vision and made her think of doing things to Creed that would have never otherwise occurred to her.
"Time's up." Sabretooth shook himself like a cat settling its fur as the last bits of her control faded.
Teva raised her gun and fired at him, clicking finally on empty as she watched him stalk toward her.
"Got adamantium an' a healin' factor, just like him."
She popped the clip and slid a new one in, raising the barrel just as he leapt at her and knocked her down again, though this time she kept her grip on the weapon. She landed up against a console so that she was sitting with her back against it.
"Ya smell like fear," he said, sniffing just above her face. His hand gripped her left thigh and she felt the small pop-pop-pop of his claws piercing the fabric of her jeans. "C'mon, frail, struggle a little."
"What's the point? You'll kill me quicker if I dinnae." She drew on what she'd gleaned of meditation from Logan, tried to use that to calm the spinning anger inside of her, the desire to lash out with a body that was not a weapon. She was fragile and the man kneeling in front of her wasn't.
His chuckle was so like the one Logan gave her in intimate situations, one given by a man who knew he had a woman right where he wanted her, but now it made her shudder in disgust. He leaned in to put his mouth beside her ear, his breath warm where it tickled against her skin. "Logan ever done this with ya?" he asked as his claws pierced her skin. "Ever drawn blood? Animals like us, we need it, or we get bored."
She didn't want to struggle, didn't want to fight back because that's what he wanted, and because it felt like a disturbing parody of her sexual life with Logan. More than once he'd gotten her pinned, whispered dangerous things into her ear because he liked her fear and she didn't mind the game, she knew he wouldn't really hurt her. He'd made her bleed before from bites and once or twice with his claws but only when she'd begged him to let go, begged him to take what he wanted, and she'd taken the pain because she enjoyed it. The only reason he had no scars from their lovemaking was because he healed; without that he'd be marked up all along his back and thighs by now from her nails.
The claws at her leg dug in further, drawing a pained gasp from her. "Bet ya make that sound for him," Creed said. "Make it again." He dug in harder and she cried out, couldn't scramble back away from him with the wall behind her. Tears caught in her eyelashes and as one fell he leaned forward and licked it off her cheek. His tongue was rough like a cat's against her skin, against her lips then as he forced a kiss on her at the same moment he pressed his claws in more and then dragged them down, opening furrows on her leg.
With his mouth against hers she brought her gun up and jammed it in under his chin. Before he had time to make a sound or otherwise react she pulled the trigger several times in quick succession and felt him jerk against her.
"Adamantium's only on the outside," she said as he slumped back and away, eyes rolling white. "See how ye do with some bullets rattling around in your skull." Very, very distantly, she was aware of the fact she'd just done something she'd never thought herself capable of.
Teva tried to get up and fell onto her hands and knees, retching as a wave of pain spread up from her leg; her meager breakfast made a reappearance and then she was dry heaving. She swayed for a moment before she pushed herself up, tried to shut the pain out. She needed to get to Logan, make sure he was okay.
She crawled to him and this time she did weep when she found him breathing, his pulse stronger. The belated thought that she needed to call for help brought her up short and she reached into an inner pocket of her jacket, pulling out a satellite phone. "Thank the gods," she breathed out shakily when she saw it had a signal; she hadn't expected one this far underground, but it was a powerful piece of equipment and likely there was some kind of receiver working inside the facility for just such a thing.
Scott answered and she explained the situation quickly, feeling herself losing a battle against unconsciousness. She hadn't realized it before but Logan was pulling on her, using her to keep his mind from fragmenting. She heard Scott telling her they were prepping the Blackbird and would be there, they had a lock on her signal. His voice sounded as if it were coming from very far away.
She blinked when the phone dropped from her fingers as if it weighed a ton. She looked at Logan, heard a clear, precise thought from him out of the chaos of the rest:
I remember everything.
The last thing she remembered was slumping down until her head was cradled against his lower back, her eyes sliding closed as blood loss and mental fatigue finally caught up with her.