Chapter 25: Manipulation

Of course, the moment that they'd started the lockdown, all of the students of Xavier's were told to shelter in place if they were in tutoring sessions - or to proceed to the safe rooms that were sub level. And it was just sheer luck that both of the girls that had come to the institute with K were meeting up with their new tutors when the professor had sent out the mental call to all students informing them of what was going on.

Zoe had met her tutor, Alex just a few days after he and his green-haired fiance had arrived from who knows where. It was shocking to see someone that resembled Cyclops so strongly … but … with more blonde hair and a deep tan … and very little in the way of keeping him from cracking jokes and picking at the students with a grin. It was easy to see the resemblance when he was standing next to Scott … but … he was so … totally different. And their first session was pretty calm, even with the level of destruction that they were doling out in the Danger Room. Alex was sure to keep going in spite of the obvious snafu in their schedule that meant that they had to stay in the Danger Room.

Zoe was overly frustrated at the idea of needing a tutor, and just waiting for a Summers-esque break down but …

"Great – so …. let's see what you can do, alright?" Alex said with an easy grin, nodding to his girlfriend in the booth before the scene shifted to what looked like backyard shooting range.
"So, you just have to learn to aim your … shock waves? Is that what Scott said you called them?" Alex asked, his brow crinkled as he tried to understand.

She nodded her head and scuffed her feet against the ground. "Yeah, I don't know what else to call them," she said quietly.

He watched her fidget, her arms crossed over her chest. "O-kay … so, show me what you can do," Alex said, gesturing down range to the line of tin cans on a fence.

Zoe took a deep breath and focused, leveling the fence and all the cans on it.

"Okay. Good! Really, that's good! Now, let's try again, but this time, pick one can and try to knock it over, not the whole thing," Alex instructed as Lorna reset the sim and Zoe tried not to wonder too hard about how her sister had done in her tutoring session. But … half an hour later, Zoe'd gotten it well enough that she felt better about her aim, though she had to focus on a single letter on the label of the can to knock only the one off the fence.

Alex grinned broadly as the sim shimmered back to nothing. "Fantastic. It took me months to learn how to focus like that. Tomorrow we'll work on how much power you put behind them." He told her, excusing her for the day as soon as the professor called for all available teachers and for the students to go to their rooms.

Of course, that only meant that she got to meet up with her sister since they were roomies. "How did your session go?" Zoe asked as she met up with Chloe near the living room where she was only then finishing up her session with her temporary tutor, the lovely as ever Ms. Braddock.

"Not … great," Chloe admitted. "I mean … I talk to animals? But my new teacher couldn't get in for the lock down, so I guess … I guess she's out with some of the other teachers looking. I don't know."

The sisters shared a look and headed toward their room, entirely missing the fact that the teachers were all stationed in every room on the ground floor - and a few at the ends of hallways upstairs watching out the windows.

Meanwhile, Logan and K ran through the property, searching for Sabretooth. There was no reason to doubt what Charles and Jean reported that Abbey had seen. The little girl had never clapped eyes on the monster, so the image couldn't have been imagined. Logan caught his scent near the treeline and followed the trail deeply into the woods while K continued checking the perimeter around the house. The alarm had been on and it didn't go off when Creed breached the perimeter, so either he found a way to circumvent it, it was broken, or he'd gotten an upgrade of some sort in his absence. They were hoping like hell it wasn't some sort of upgrade.

The little couple communicated via earwigs so they could keep hands free as they ran with Scott monitoring as they hunted, his eyes on the monitors and more than ready to assist if he spotted Creed headed their way. Everything was looking like they were chasing ghosts when Scott suddenly realized that K's earwig wasn't working. "K?" he called out on the isolated channel so as not to alarm Logan needlessly if he could avoid it. That would be exactly the kind of thing that Creed would do to break Logan's concentration and he was going to avoid it if he could. Even before K had time to reply, Scott was trying to find a remote reason for the comm's failure, which was when he realized that it wasn't that it wasn't working … it wasn't there. As in, it was gone. Out of range. And that shouldn't have been able to happen in the short time that K was away from Logan. She shouldn't have been anywhere near the forest, let alone able to be off grounds.

That did it, and as he turned to start searching for her via cameras, Scott notified Logan immediately of what he did know just as Logan found where Creed's trail had circled back to where he picked it up to begin with.

Swearing outright, Logan ran to where K had been headed, quickly finding her trail and racing down it until her scent also simply disappeared. He circled around where the trail went cold, only to find nothing. He checked the trees since he knew she liked to travel that way to hide her scent - but still, nothing. And as the signs started to point more plainly to her being gone, Logan began to panic. She couldn't just disappear.

With his heart pounding, Logan ran toward where he was reasonably sure that Creed had hopped the fence, then launched himself over it and ran down the strong scent trail at full speed in search of where Creed had come from. But there was no car, no sign of where he'd been as that trail also just …. ended. It wasn't covered with pepper spray or otherwise tainted. It was simply gone. But Logan couldn't leave it at that. He continued to search, though it took some prompting for him to give Scott all the information he could with Charles trying to reach out and get more through Logan's panic as every single thing he tried failed to place where either his wife or Creed had disappeared.

In the mansion, Scott and Charles shared a look. They'd heard that tone of panic before. They knew that their teammate was on the brink of a real meltdown if they couldn't find her fast. Charles set his jaw and gave Scott a consoling sort of tight smile before he headed to Cerebro to try and start the search himself as well.

Hours passed and dark was falling but Logan still searched. Scott tried to call him in, but by that time, he was frantic. He was sure he had to have missed something. There had to be a clue – something small that he'd overlooked in his panic. He couldn't have just let her be taken. He was pushing the search further still - well beyond the neighboring lake miles down Greymalkin lane when Charles' voice rang in his head.

Logan, Abbey is looking for you, Charles projected. She needs you here. She knows something is wrong. I'm searching for K. I am certain I will find her. But you have another duty to fulfill right now and it's more important than losing your sanity.

Logan let out a frustrated almost laugh that was nothing but pure stress. Charles was right, of course, but handing over the search to someone else simply wasn't something that Logan had done before. He stood there for a moment, leaning on a tree and trying to control his panic. He had a little girl to protect, and she wanted him right now. It wasn't that he didn't want to be with her. He just … didn't want to give up. He looked around the forest for a long moment and started working hard to control his breathing and his pulse before he turned back, though the first step back toward the mansion hurt in all sorts of ways that he couldn't express. It wasn't long before Logan paused by the spot he and K kissed for the first time and he did his best to shake it off before he broke into a run for the mansion. Charles would have to find her. But when he did, Logan was going to take care of the problem permanently even if it killed him in the process.

K's heart was pounding frantically. She felt like a rabbit in a trap as Creed bound her hands tightly, warning her against trying anything funny. For the time being, she did as she was told, sitting shotgun in the SUV next to him, her head downcast.

He'd been eerily specific on how he was going to get to Abbey should she not cooperate, and she knew him well enough to know that he had backup plans in place to get what he wanted if she didn't agree to go along. It was odd to her, but she didn't scent a lie when he promised to leave Abbey alone if she didn't fight him. She was sure he had a loophole in there somewhere … a friend who'd do the deed instead, or a way to make it technically an accident. She also knew that if he made it past the mansion's security as easily as he did, that fighting him on this would mean that her little girl would absolutely be dead.

Quite frankly, she couldn't have trained for the uncontrollable, all-encompassing fear that hit her when Creed attacked her using Abbey as a bargaining chip. The maternal instinct to protect overrode what she should have done and now, as she watched him adjust the knots she felt as if the bottom had fallen out of her stomach.

"First smart thing you've done yet, frail." Creed growled out as he finally sat back in the driver's seat, watching her. K didn't speak, feeling as if she might vomit if she opened her mouth. After a while, when he was convinced that she really was going to cooperate, he reached down into the console and picked up a bag. He pulled out a bottle of some sort of injectable and a very large syringe. When he drew out a dose, she recognized the scent as the same stuff that Department K had used to sedate her years ago and honestly couldn't control the spike of panic, though she didn't move, even as he chuckled. He watched her for a moment before he moved quickly, grabbing her by the throat and pinning her head against the seat as he jammed the needle into her neck. But still, she managed to control the panic - mostly. Her hands were clenched tightly - white knuckled as she fought to keep from biting him or lashing out somehow. But Creed had seen it all and looked pleased.

"Good girl. Maybe I won't sell you back to the professor after all. You're smarter than you let on," he purred, leaning her seat back and smirking down at her as she slipped into blackness.

Naturally, on his way back to the house, Logan saw several other X-Men searching, and Kurt in particular was easy o find as he teleported from one spot to the next, alternating between calling out and hoping for a response from the missing little feral, or swearing up a blue streak in German at the frustration of wanting to stab someone and not being given the option. Logan could totally relate, but he would have been lying if he said that he wasn't at least a little jealous that at least Kurt could look.

He was frustrated that he was going in … and his entire focus was on finding his wife… but when he stepped into Charles' study and Abbey turned his way with a sad, but relieved sort of look on her face, his entire focus sort of … crumpled. He picked her up and she immediately snuggled into his neck, almost sniffling to herself, though she didn't know more than whatever she'd gleaned from the adults around her talking.

Logan took his time with her, curling around her protectively and taking the time to have a short psychic conversation with Jean, filling her in on what he knew - and what little he could find before he finally took the now sleeping little girl from the study - and upstairs to his old quarters.

One thing was for sure, he didn't want to have Abbey so far from help if she needed it should he be attacked in the boathouse alone with her.

When K woke up again, she very nearly startled had it not been for the drugs in her system, she would have anyhow. She was in what looked like a somewhat lavish bedroom, and no one was around, not that it did a thing for her nerves when she noted the scents that were in the air. There were drugs were strong enough that even after she got mostly upright, she was foggy - the sudden motion enough to throw her off balance. But she didn't see anyone to be alarmed by yet. She slowly turned to take in the details of the room, and it wasn't until she thought she'd seen it all that she started to wonder how the guys at Westchester were going to find her.

The device Creed carried guaranteed that Logan wouldn't be able to track them, seeing as it had teleported them to a spot far removed from the mansion before he loaded her into his hummer, binding her hands and feet. She had no clue at all where they were.

She didn't see him approach until Creed's heavy form settled next to her, but she didn't look at him as he started to speak."I haven't sold you off yet, girl. Not when I got a few scores I gotta settle before I figure it out. Until then, you better rest up. Yer gonna need yerr strength either way," He told her, running a hand down her back that she didn't respond to at all, too drugged up to pull away or bash him a good one. "I should thank you, by the way," he said once he realized how dopey she still was. That got K turning to look at him with confusion plain enough to read on her face. "It's been years since I seen hide nor hair of my sister. Only reason I didn't kill ya outright for marryin' the runt."

K's eyes widened and she started to wake up a little bit, wondering how much Clara knew. Once again her heart was racing. The X-Men didn't know what was going on. If she was working with Victor … she'd still be welcome in the mansion.

"That little girl is a problem though," Creed continued in a low, rumbling tone as he leaned closer to her. "I know, I said I wouldn't hurt her, but you have a choice to make, girly. Ya see, I promised Logan years ago he'd never have anyone to live for. So maybe I'll leave it up to you. Who lives and who dies? You can only pick one," he told her, patting her on the knee before rising up and sauntering toward the door.

"What the hell do you want from me?" K asked, getting Creed to freeze in the doorway.

He chuckled to himself. "I'm pretty sure you can figure that out, frail," he replied before simply stepping out and walking away.

She started to growl and got to her feet, though once she was upright, her balance failed her completely and she fell back to a seated position. That in itself was enough to make her wonder what he'd changed in the drugs that he'd given her, but it wasn't enough to prepare her for the very pretty blonde woman that stepped into the room a few minutes later.

K looked up at her and frowned when she saw the expression on her face. She seemed almost cheerful to have K there, and hers was not a face K was familiar with. The blonde paused a few steps in the door and the smile fell slightly as she concentrated on K. Very suddenly, her head was swimming, and it didn't register what was going on until she felt the prick of another needle - in her arm this time. She turned her head and frowned. "Are you working for him?" K managed to ask before the blonde gently pushed her back and started getting her settled in.

"Of course I am," she replied. "He's actually wonderful boss if you can follow the rules. Very generous."

But that was doing more to mess with K's head than anything that had happened so far. "What the hell are you talking about?" she spit out.

She let out a patient sigh. "Mr. Creed takes care of his employees well," she said. "And me in particular since I help him from time to time with his headaches. You'll see."

K picked up her head to argue but before she could get much further, the blonde concentrated on her and a moment later, if the drugs hadn't been enough, whatever it was that the telepath did laid her out flat and K couldn't even think as she passed out.

A week in to K's disappearance and strange things started to come in on reports. Odd sightings of Sabretooth around the globe. Alone.

Logan was constantly checking intel, and though Jean was enjoying her pregnancy, she was a little disheartened on how … grumpy that Abbey was being for her. The little girl was about as irritable as a child her age could be, and she simply didn't want much to do with her. Or Storm. Or Kurt … Scott … she would tolerate, but it seemed like that was only because he wasn't baby-talking to her and he was perfectly content to bring her with him when he peeked in on Logan to see what was going on with intel.

It was bad enough that the Avengers were lending a hand as well - and the quick, short conversations between Cap and Logan - or Tony and Scott - were frequent and all very disappointing.

And of course, the further out they got from K's disappearance, the more withdrawn Logan got until it was to a point that he flat didn't have anything to say to anyone but Abbey - and that was almost unnecessary since the little girl seemed as content as him to get her point across with a look or a snuggle.

And for K … the whole experience was a complete mess. After that first time waking up, absolutely nothing made sense.

One minute, it was like she was back in Westchester - only to look around and wonder how the hell she'd gotten back to the Weapon X facility. So many places and people passed her by - including a few that she had forgotten entirely until she heard their voices - she simply had no idea what was going on.

The only thing that remained constant was that through all of them, Creed was there. Pushing her. He was aggressive and handsy, and there were a few times where she didn't realize what was going on around her until she managed to catch the scent of the shampoo he used on his hair - which was disorienting to her since she couldn't smell any of the other scents he carried on him.

At one point, she was all but convinced that he was the grey-eyed stunningly gorgeous Norwegian she'd nearly married - and the setting around her certainly felt as if she was back in the little fishing village in Norway … until partway through a kiss that was nothing like Yngve... she could smell that damned shampoo.

Before the anger or panic could rise up this time, K reacted without thinking and bit down until her teeth met.

The angry snarl most definitely couldn't have been from the grey-eyed human, but K didn't let the illusion slow her down as she reached up with her claws extended and started stabbing.

By the time he bashed her hard and knocked her across the room, the illusion was broken, and K realized, belatedly, that she simply wasn't healing right as he came toward her snarling low. Still … she wasn't about to just … roll over for him.

The scene around her shifted, and the room seemed suddenly full of people - and not one of them was Creed. Which was not helpful at all for her, though when she heard his voice shift from the graveyard croak - to one that sounded a lot more like Steve than she thought was acceptable, at least she finally got the name of the telepath that was screwing with her.

"Get down here, Birdie," Creed-Steve shouted. "You need to get her out before I hurt 'er too bad."

But that had K frowning harder at the crowd, trying to isolate where his voice was coming from while it echoed around the room. Her heart was pounding hard by the time he slipped up behind her and wrapped his arms around her, pinning her arms to her side. She let out a little scream involuntarily, which only got a dark sort of chuckle from him as he leaned in over her shoulder to rasp out a whisper in her ear. "You know what, girlie? I think it's probably better all around if you do fight."

She let out a frantic sort of sound as she fought harder to wriggle loose and finally, the door to the room opened and the blonde telepath appeared with a syringe in hand, K couldn't move away from either of them for as tight as Victor was holding her, but she tried all the same, leaning her head back against him, too focused on the approaching woman to even care about the scratch of his facial hair on her cheek.

But when Birdie was close enough, K all but exploded and nearly folded herself in half to kick the woman under the chin. The syringe went flying and Birdie fell backward - out cold from the hit. Creed was outraged, but it was enough once the telepath was out cold that for the first time in K didn't know how long, she heard Charles's elated shock at finding her.

But that only lasted a moment before Creed covered her nose and mouth with one massive hand and cut her air off until she passed out.

Back in Westchester, Charles reached out to focus on Logan, who was at the moment in the game room, trying desperately to keep his mind off his worries. It had been nearly a month all told since K had disappeared and he had withdrawn to the point that Steve had stepped in to handle classes for him while he planned his path to leave with Abbey. Laura had come in long ago to help cover K's riding classes and to watch Logan for signs of exactly this … a planned escape from all of them.

Logan, I've found her, Charles projected. I've even deduced some of what's been happening to her this whole time. We must get her out of there NOW. His tone was rarely that urgent, but Charles knew exactly what Logan had been thinking, and all things considered, it was becoming an eventuality, not a possibility. Hand Abbey to Kitty. If this doesn't work, she may need intangibility.

Logan looked to his daughter who smiled up at him in a somewhat subdued manner, reaching for a kiss. It was clear that Abbey knew Daddy had to leave, even if she hadn't heard what was going on. His body language was more than enough for her to see it.

For an instant, Logan was anxious as he picked her up in a bear hug and Kitty phased through the door, responding to Charles' call. "Love you little girl. Don't forget that," Logan told Abbey softly as the two of them touched their foreheads together. "I'm gonna do everything I can to bring Mom home to you," he said, as the little one hugged him tightly again before he handed her to Kitty. She blew him a kiss as he walked away from her and Kitty snuggled up with her.

"Don't worry, Abbey," Kitty said. "They'll be back before you know it."

The first thing Scott did when Charles had told him what was going on was to pull together the best of their team to go with Wolverine.

Himself, Hank, Jean - who refused to stay behind, Ororo, Laura, Alex and Kurt were chosen to go. Or more accurately, they insisted that they were going with enough fire backing them up that Scott had a hard time finding a way to tell them no. The rest of the team were to remain behind, to protect Abbey and the school.

Scott was sure to pour on all the speed he could as soon as the doors to the blackbird were closed, and when the team arrived at the large complex deep in the Rockies, they immediately began to search, breaking off into predictable pairs. Jean and Scott headed off together while Wolverine and Kurt led the way. Logan was tracking while Kurt had his swords drawn and his senses alert - growling lightly himself at the situation the two old friends had found themselves in. Storm and Beast took a different path, looking for alternate routes while Laura and Alex split off in their own direction.

The building was massive, abandoned, and they were soon to find multi level. Laura and Alex were the first to find Sabretooth as he was ready to vacate the premises. Laura's nostrils flared when he got close and she viciously tore into him, shouting at Alex to just blast him, which he happily did.

The younger Summers did his best to avoid hitting Laura as he called for backup and the two terribly mismatched ferals tangled. In a purely lucky shot, Laura managed to slice Creed's teleporter, causing him to swear loudly and start a more vicious attack on her. It was nasty and bloody as Victor doubled down and pounced, tearing into Laura with reckless abandon. The fight was wildly unequal, and though she did her best, she was incredibly happy that Jean and Scott managed to make it to them as Creed backhanded Laura into a wall, cracking her skull.

At that point though, the two Summers boys easily kept him at bay while the rest of the team got caught up. Of course, Logan was already on the edge of a total berserk breakdown by the time he laid eyes on Creed. And the scales tipped against Victor entirely when Logan caught the scent that barely clung to the monster.

The team barely managed to clear away as Logan lost it completely. It was bad enough that even Creed realized the mistake he made when Logan tipped over into fully berserk.

The team left the fray for safety concerns, though Kurt refused to leave the two of them alone and instead took up a position on the ceiling well out of reach as Logan quickly worked Creed over, leaving him as little more than a puddle by the time he'd worked it out of his system.

Logan was all but worn out, panting and growling low, his claws still out, itching to fight when Laura roused. "Did you find her yet?" Laura asked as she started to sit up.

"No," Jean said, though she narrowed her eyes at the bloodied Creed while Kurt cautiously made his way over to help Logan to his feet. She took a moment to work through his most recent memories, almost growling herself when she saw what kind of state that her friend had been left in. "She's two floors down, drugged up out of her mind and in a berserk state herself," Jean told them. "Watch your backs. She has no idea where she is or what's going on."

Kurt nodded once and looked at his best friend for a nod before the two of them went ahead of the pack, teleporting down to where K was.

It wasn't hard to find her. She was clearly hallucinating … swinging at foes that weren't there, breathing heavily, and when they got close enough to her, it was plain to see that her pupils were dilated. She was right on the edge of a fight or flight response, and both of them could see it.

They crept a little closer with Kurt watching to tackle her from behind if need be when he spotted something that wasn't quite right. "Logan, she's not healing," Kurt said as he watched the blood drip off of her fingers. Her claws were put away, but she was still bleeding - far more than she should have been.

But on Kurt speaking, K's head whipped toward him and her gaze darted to the areas around him as she backed away from him, clearly leaning more to the 'flight' side of things. "Don't let her slip away," Logan said before he broke into a run at the same time K did.

Of course, that did nothing for her terror - to hear the footsteps behind her as she ran for all she was worth. But it was Kurt that caught up to her, not Logan.

She had the exit in her sights and was digging in hard, little vocal gasps coming with every breath when she was hammered sideways out of nowhere. Her limbs were restrained, and she was panicking openly - though that only multiplied when his tail wrapped around her ankles. He tried to shush her and calm her down, even switching to what little Swedish he'd picked up when English didn't seem to do the trick, and that at least had her relaxing slightly, but when Logan caught up to them, he positively froze when he got close.

All of the anger seemed to slip back as Logan made his way over and knelt down next to her, trying to get her attention. The shift was enough that Kurt was frowning openly at his old friend.

"Can you 'port her outta here?" Logan asked, wondering to himself if there was an inhibitor field in play.

"Yes, I think so," Kurt said, though he gestured for Logan to grab onto his shoulder before he did so.

The three of them were in the jet before the others - though Kurt projected to Jean what was going on so they knew what was happening anyhow as Logan tried to find out why K was not only not healing, but why whatever drugs she was on was even working.

But seeing as it wasn't obvious, all he could do in the meantime was get the supplies to clean her wounds and wrap up her injuries as the team gathered up.