Chapter Eight

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She came to herself a long time later, laying on her stomach and lapping from a stream. She looked down, and wondered who the tiny creature was who stared back from the bottom of the pool. Then her perspective lurched, and she realised - it was her reflection. It looked strange to her, as though she hadn't seen it in years.

"Oh, god," she whispered, her voice hoarse. She curled away, unable to face herself any longer. "Oh, god," she said again, and wrapped her arms around her head. She lay still, letting her own thoughts filter back. The creature - Sabretooth was his name, she now knew - had taken over for a while, the enhanced senses of his power overwhelming her, but whilst her own mind managed to push him back, his powers didn't fade. She'd never touched anyone for that long before. She'd killed him. Strangely, she didn't feel any remorse about that: his presence in her mind didn't seem to resent it. He felt/thought that he would have killed her with as little regret. It was a death struggle, his life or hers, simple and clear.

On the other hand, she wasn't celebrating. His instincts told her that celebrating was for the weak, and that she should dismiss this moment and move on, keep alert, keep waiting for the next fight, the next danger. She tried again to push him to the back of her mind, but the confusion of her own thoughts was making it harder. Knowing now what she did, having assimilated his personality, she knew that she'd had to kill him, but she also remembered the smell of shock and sharp fear coming from Logan. Him, she had alienated forever - she had shown him that she was a mutant in the worst possible way. She must never see him again, for her own safety and sanity. She couldn't bear to see the look of disgust that would surely be in his eyes when he looked at her now.

All her instincts - boosted by Sabretooth's - screamed against the loss. She belonged with him, her body was shouting it, but her grieving mind overruled it. She might want that, might feel it in every bone, every fibre, every nerve, but he sure as hell wouldn't - not now. He'd fear her; hate her probably, now he'd seen what she could do. It didn't matter that she'd thrown herself into the fight originally to protect Logan - she was an outcast. Dangerous. Deadly. Untouchable. She'd killed Sabretooth right in front of him. She was a freak, a vampire, an evil parasite. He knew what she was, now - had seen it with his own eyes, seen the worst part of her: the part that revelled in the power she stole.

A choked sob escaped her, and the sound was strange to her newly-enhanced ears. It was too loud, and she fought to repress her tears. She had to decide what to do now. She couldn't allow herself to be weak, to cry, until she was safe.

She didn't dare go back to the Princess - even if she didn't see Logan, she couldn't risk going into town in the state she was in - her mind was too overwhelmed by new sensations; she couldn't trust herself to keep the new personality under wraps. She would surely betray herself, even if Logan didn't. She knew that, with Sabretooth's memories and powers, she could survive out in the wild quite well, for now. She shouldn't start to rely on his healing ability, though. She could feel the life and health coursing through her veins right now, making her feel invulnerable, but she had no idea how long it would stay with her - she had never drained anyone to death before.

The thought made her shudder, and she climbed to her feet. She couldn't stay here - it was too exposed, too close to town. She sniffed the wind and set off in the direction of the lower mountain slopes, all without her conscious mind being involved. She allowed her instinct to lead her, knowing the wild man in her mind had far greater experience than her in - well, in almost everything. Cautiously, she sifted through some of his memories, and a succession of violent images and emotions ripped through her. She pushed back quickly, closing that part of her mind off before it engulfed her completely. His thoughts were too strong, too vivid. As she walked, she calmed herself, trying to regain some control. It was easier than she expected. Sabretooth was strong and vibrantly alive in her mind, his powers were a sensory overload, but cerebrally he was no match for her trained and disciplined mind. That gave her some satisfaction: at least she wasn't totally incapable of fighting him.

Incredulously, she picked through his memories of why he wanted her. Some lunatic called Magneto wanted her to power his machine, in his amazing plan to turn humans into mutants. It sounded like bullshit, but Sabretooth seemed to believe him. Well, he wouldn't be able to find her out here, particularly not now his best tracker was dead.

She moved tirelessly through the forest, unconscious of walking as silently as Logan - the catlike grace imparted to her through kinetic memory. She cleared her mind, listening to the land around her with her superior senses. Everything seemed so much clearer. She dropped into a gentle lope without realising it, and breathed the fresh air appreciatively. This was where she belonged, now - out here in the wild. If she was going to be an outcast, at least she could live out here, where life was straightforward. She couldn't go back to the humans now, she knew that. They were dangerous, bad, evil, complicated - she would have to make some kind of life for herself out in the wilds. Her logical brain calculated the odds of staying away from society - luckily for her, she was in Canada, and a particularly wild stretch of it at that. There was nothing but the town for miles, and, if she headed through the mountains for a while, even that small spark of civilisation would be decently distant.

A different scent caught her attention, and she paused. Deer. Her mouth watered. Food. She bared her teeth. Kill.

She suddenly realised what she was doing, and shook her head, staring at hands that had curled themselves into claws. God. Sabretooth was sneaky. He took the advantage every time she was distracted. She definitely couldn't go back to town like this. And she did want to go back, eventually - not necessarily to the Princess, or to Laughlin City, but to civilisation in general. Sabretooth might love it out here, and she had to admit that she did, too, especially now that she had his powers and memories to help her survive, but she couldn't live out here. She needed to talk to people; she got lonely on her own. She could survive out here until Magneto stopped looking for her, but it would be no kind of a life for her. Unless she could socialise with the Claw Monster.

The thought stopped her in her mental tracks. The Claw Monster. Good god. Was that how she would end up - a local myth, the feral creature that killed with a touch? Was there really a mutant out here somewhere? Well, maybe this was her chance to find out.

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