Desperado

Ok I know I did this once – sort of – but well it just has to be redone. The idea is just too good NOT to play with it – and this time gets more of the goodness that is Marvel involved. This is somewhat AU, post X1, completely disregards X2 and 3. So all the usual I don't own them – except any OC's I create. Yes it is loosely based on the song by the Eagles.

Summary: It was just another job – but it ended up changing his life. Now he's faced with a difficult choice, can he pull himself out of the darkness and blood that consumes his life, or will he drag her down with him.

Chapter 6 – You're losin' all your highs and lows
Ain't it funny how the feeling goes away?

He pulled into the garage, the saddle bags on the bike full from his shopping trip. He'd managed to find everything he was looking for – seventeen years worth of birthday presents, one would be delivered in the morning, and he hoped to enlist the aid of a couple of the younger students to make sure everything was hidden where he wanted it. He was actually smiling as he opened the door to the house, and took a deep breath, waiting on her fresh scent to hit his sinuses...but it didn't.

He snarled, and climbed the stairs, where was she? He dropped the bags on his bed, and went looking for her. Jo rarely left the building, not long enough for her scent to go stale, but she hadn't been inside the mansion for at least twelve hours. He tried her door, but it was locked and he could smell she wasn't inside.

"Victor?" Charles came down the hall in his chair.

"Where's Jo?" He snapped. His mate wasn't here, and he felt a cold hand grip his stomach.

"She's not been out of her room all day, I thought she might be relaxing."

"She's not in there...I can't smell her." Logan walked up, his arm around Rogue.

"Jo?"

"Yeah. Her scent's gone stale."

Logan took a deep breath, and then glanced at Victor, and nodded.

"I'm opening this door." He snarled at Charles, before turning and kicking the door down.

"I have a key." Charles said.

The room was empty, her bed unmade, and the coverlet dragged halfway across the floor to the open window.

''Whoa – Jo NEVER sleeps with the window open." Rogue said.

"What?"

"She says it makes it hard to sleep with the scents from outside."

"That makes sense, I do the same thing."

"Me too..." Logan said, looking at Creed. Victor walked to the window, and took a deep scent. It was faint, at least ten hours old, but he could smell at least three people, two men and a woman had come through the window.

"Three." Logan said, standing next to him.

He nodded, and glared back over his shoulder at Charles – who had already turned his chair and was heading for the door. "I'm going to Cerebro now. We'll find her, suit up."

Victor tried to get the cold hand gripping his gut to let go, but he just couldn't. He'd just found her, his mate, the one chance he had at any kind of normal life, and she was gone, taken before he could even let her know how he felt. She couldn't be dead – he wouldn't let her be dead, and if she was, he would KILL everyone and everything involved.

Logan gripped his arm, and Victor tried to shrug him off.

"I'm with ya...If it were Rogue...We don't get along, Creed, but in this, I got your back." He looked at the man he'd tried to kill – to control – to terrorize for nearly two centuries, and KNEW this was the one person he could trust. He just nodded.

"Let's go suit up – and get the Blackbird ready." Rogue said.

"We're takin' Kitty, Baby. Go tell her."

"I'm goin to."

"NO!" Logan and Victor both roared at her.

"WHAT!?"

"You are goin' ta see Jean and Hank." Logan said, tensely. "If CREED can smell it, I don't want you anywhere NEAR danger for at least nine months."

"Nine month...?" Her face paled. "OH! I'll go find Kitty, and then go see Jean."

"Baby."

"I'll be fine, just let me deal with it."

"Grab metal boy too." Victor said as she turned.

"DAMN!"

"You alright."

"I ain't sure I'm ready ta be a father."

"Little late for that one...by the way how the HELL did that happen?"

Logan just glared at him.

"I meant logistically – with her skin." Victor growled.

"It WASN'T easy." Logan snapped back, and they both turned to walk out of the room, Victor stopped at her bed and froze...there was a drop of blood, not much, but enough to make him see red.

"Creed, she's alive, at least she was when they took her. Stay with me, we'll get her back."

He just nodded, and stormed down the hall, down the stairs and into the elevator. His first real mission with the Geeks – and he was having to rescue his own damned mate.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

She moaned. Her mouth felt like it was full of cotton, her head was pounding, and something was desperately wrong. She couldn't SMELL anything, or hear anything for that matter, other than her own heart pounding in her ears. She tried to open her eyes and cringed at the pain. Why wasn't she healing, and why did it hurt behind her ear?

She winced as she heard feet scuffing nearby. No one should have gotten that close, not without her hearing them.

"Are you awake?" a quiet voice said.

"Yeah." Jo groaned.

"Pretend to still be out. I'll give you what time I can." The voice said, near her ear.

"Is she awake?" A harsh woman's voice said.

"Not yet...the dose you gave her was too strong, her body isn't fighting it off as quickly."

"I want her in medical processing as quickly as possible." The woman said.

"You have to let the drugs wear off." The quiet voice said.

"Thirty-two, do not presume to issue orders." A man said.

"I am sorry, I am just concerned that with her mutation suppressed her body cannot fight off the drugs as well."

"Let her wake naturally, we have time. The healing factor will breed true, we have her now, we have time to wait." The woman said. Jo heard two sets of footsteps leaving the area.

"Stay down and stay quiet until I say." The quiet voice whispered.

Jo just trembled. She didn't know where she was, or if anyone at the school knew she was missing. She prayed they knew, and were looking for her.

"Okay, they're gone." Jo opened her eyes, and looked right at a girl around her own age.

"Who are you?"

"One three eight nine one three two."

"What?"

"Thirty-Two for short."

"You don't have a name?"

"No, only humans have names. Mutants born here only are given numbers."

"Where's here?"

"Genosha."

"Never heard of it."

"I'm not surprised, only the most powerful mutants know – and fear Genosha."

"What is this place?"

"This is newcomer processing. They will give you a physical and medical exam and decide where to put you, although it sounds like they've already made up their minds."

"What are the options?"

"The mines, the farms, or the breeding rooms."

"Breeding rooms?"

"The humans breed us, to create more powerful mutants. We all have suppression chips installed behind our ears to keep us in line. They find female mutants who's mutations are stable, and not likely to be modified by the male genetics, and then they breed them to get the mutation they want."

"Breed – how?"

"That depends."

"On what?"

"If the male they want to try to cross breed has earned privileges or not."

"What do you mean, privileges?"

"If they've been obedient, tractable, and not caused any problems, then they are allowed to try for natural impregnation...if not they use other methods."

"What about the women?"

"You have two choices, close your eyes and spread your legs, or be strapped down."

Jo gagged.

"If you have friends, who might help you, I'll give you as much time as I can, but you need to know, if you fight them, they will just force you. You're better off, letting them have their way."

"How long have I been here?"

"They brought you in about four hours ago." Four hours, did anyone even know she was missing.

Jo just closed her eyes, and tried to reach out for Charles.

There you are. I have a lock and the Blackbird is already in the air. Hold on Jo, they're coming. Please do what ever you have to do to stay alive until the team can get to you.

She let the sigh of relief escape her lips. They were on their way, HE was on his way, somehow she knew that Victor was going to save her.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

They were laying on a ridge overlooking a compound.

"I don't like it. The guards are too well armed." Logan said.

"She's in there, and we are GOING to get her out." Victor snarled.

"I didn't say we weren't, just that I didn't like it." Logan snarled back.

"I can phase in, and see if I can find her."

"Charles has a lock on her, but he can't stay in constant contact, they are using a telepathic shield, so we can't guarantee her location." Logan said to Kitty. "You could get in there and they could have moved him since the last time he was able to contact her. We need to know WHERE she is, before we go in."

"Katya, if they caught you..." Pete blanched at the thought.

"Pete – like they could."

"Katya, please, be careful."

"She's not going anywhere until we know where Jo is, and can get her out." Logan said.

"I could go in, get her scent and get her out." Victor snarled.

"No, we go in as a team or not at all, we don't need to set up two rescue efforts." Logan snarled back, before raising the night vision goggles back to his eyes.

Victor tried to ignore the teenage angst going on behind him as he looked for a sign of his mate in the compound below. He could smell metal boy's barely controlled lust as well as his true concern for the phase girl, and he could smell her fear and barely contained lust. Those two needed to just get a room already.

Logan chuckled. "Been sayin that for months."

"What?"

"Kitty and Pete need to get a room."

"Did I say that out loud?"

"Loud enough for me to hear."

"Shit." he chuckled. Even in this tense situation, he was actually relaxed with the damned Runt.

"I see her." Logan said, handing him the goggles.

She was being dragged across the compound by two men, an young girl close to her own age following not far behind. Victor growled low as one of the men shoved Jo hard enough to drop her to her knees. Even at this distance he could smell her fresh blood on the island breeze. His claws slipped out from under his nails and he dared Logan to say anything about his rage.

"Creed – we'll get her out, we know where she is – and where they are taking her, it will make it easier to get her out. You just have to have patience."

"I know – but I don't have ta like it."

"Kitty – they're taking her to the medical complex, do you think you can get her out?"

"Easy..." She grinned, phasing into nonexistence. Her radio burst with static, and then her laugh came through the special channel that was used when she was in her phased form.

"Be careful, Katia." Piotr growled into his own radio.

"I will, gentle giant..." Her laughter rang through their earpieces.

"I've got her – but they have her strapped to a table. I'll have to become normal again to unstrap her." The radio crackled with static.

"KATYA!" Pete shouted into the radio.

"It's alright. I got to her in time. We're on our way out, but we're not alone and have company following us."

Victor growled.

"Just get the plane ready to GO! NOW!" Kitty shouted. Logan, Pete and Victor ran to the camouflaged Blackbird, and with the back ramp down, prepped the plane for takeoff. They heard a sound behind them, and turned. Kitty became tangible, with Jo and another girl gripped by the elbows.

"Can we get MOVING!" She shouted.

Jo just stared at him – and Logan at the front of the plane, and then dropped to one of the seats, pulling on the harness and fastening it.

"I can't,my family will suffer..." The other girl was saying.

"Thirty-Two I'm not leaving you here." Jo said, and Victor started at the strange way of addressing her.

"Please, you don't understand, I have a sister, and a brother and they will be punished. Please leave me. I will tell them you overpowered me, please..."

"You better run, now, we're closing the ramp." Victor said to the young woman. Jo glared at him, but the girl ran down the ramp, and gave them enough distraction to lift off and get into the air. The island didn't have anything that could catch them in the air, and Victor made a silent vow to himself to come back here, and deal with these bastards later.

"Why did you let her go?" Jo demanded.

"Two reasons...One, she was right, her family would suffer. I've heard of this place, of what they do to mutants, and it's not pretty. Two, she gave us enough distraction to get the hell out of there with what we came for – YOU!" He said as the plane jostled him and he dropped into the seat next to her.

"We can't let them..."

"We won't, Jo, but our first priority was getting YOU out." Logan said. "Once you are back at the school, we'll get a plan together to deal with this." Victor could hear the promise in his voice, and nodded.

He glanced down at her knee, and the oozing blood from the cut. "What's wrong?"

"Some kind of implant behind my ear, it suppresses my mutation."

"Kitty, didn't you short it out when you phased her."

"Evidently not. It let me use my mutation on her, but won't let her use her own." Kitty said. Pete glared at Kitty, and she ducked her head.

XXXXXXXXXX

Jo looked at the man sitting next to her. He'd come to rescue her. She couldn't believe it. She knew Xavier probably asked him to, but he'd come. She tried to stop the tears, but the implant seemed to make her emotional and unable to concentrate on controlling her emotions as well.

"You alright?" He asked, roughly.

"Yeah." She flinched a little as he reached up and wiped a tear from her cheek with his thumb.

"Sorry." He growled, and she had a sudden insight.

"Don't. I'm not scared, you just surprised me."

"I had no right."

"Yes you did." She smiled at him, and was surprised by an answering light in his eyes.

"No..." She reached up to stroke the hair hanging down against the black leather of his uniform. He groaned, and gripped her fingers with his hand, stopping her. "Jo..."

"I'm sorry."

"You have nothing to be sorry for." He growled. He leaned forward, and brushed her hair back from behind her ear. "This is gonna hurt."

She felt the brush of his fingers, and the sharp pain of his claw slicing the skin behind her ear. He quickly found the implant and ripped it from where they'd clamped it to the bone of her skull. She flinched, but didn't cry out, and her entire body seemed to come alive again. She could smell, and all the little aches and pains of her body disappeared as her healing factor came back.

"Don't destroy it, Creed." Kitty said.

"Wasn't plannin' on it." He growled and handed the girl the small chip

"Professor Xavier wants to examine it, see how it works."

"I figured."

Jo closed her eyes, her body tired from her ordeal. She almost opened them again as she felt an arm move across the back of the bench of seats, and felt him pull her against his shoulder to sleep.

"Isn't tomorrow your birthday?" He whispered.

"Yeah."

"Happy Birthday." She could swear his lips brushed the top of her head, and she smiled and allowed herself to go to sleep against his side.