Danielle had been mostly unaware of what happened, but little snapshots rolled through her eyes as she sat in the bathtub, feeling her eyes changes colors. She barely remembered being in the kitchen when her children were taken and later feeling the pain of a knife's edge in her arm and shoulder. She could not recall being in her room, but felt the pain of losing another child, her fourth since her marriage and widowhood. Afterward, her memories seemed a little sketchy, most of them dreams of Peter injecting her with Stryker's old serum, raping her or trying to torture her into submission. Then, she felt Logan carrying and cleaning her, but his words seemed a little slurred to her, his lips barely moving. She did not hear much of anything, but he begged her to stay before being taken away again by Peter Ellis.
How had Logan found out about my ability to live and die?
"You know, too many people care and would tell him anything."
A familiar voice said something. When Danielle turned to the voice, she saw her brother, Jay, kneeling by the bathtub with his arms across his chest. He looked the same age he was the day he died and almost without a scratch on him save for his own scars from his fights, one of them most noticeable on his face.
"You're supposed to be dead!" she croaked out with astonishment, unused to using her voice after such a short time of not using it.
"I am," Jay conceded, winking at her, "and I'm not. You see, Danielle, we're supposed to be one and the same…and two people at the same time. When I died, I held your hand, remember? I told you to never forget me before I passed on something to you, something that would have kept you alive. Without my consent, if I didn't give you half my mind, you would have died along with me because we are one and the same. I had half of your mind that died and you have mine that didn't."
"I…I don't…understand…"
"Don't, kiddo, you don't need to." For the first time in years, Danielle saw Jay's smile light the room, like it had before he left for Kuwait so many years before. "Just know that you have powers beyond your imagination, something that has kept you alive for these long years, mostly when it was for survival. Those times when everything is blue and silver again? When you have no color in your eyes? When my ability to run and fight merges with yours and nobody can defeat you? When the impossible seems to be possible? I'm there…always."
"But I am defeated!" Danielle lamented. "Jay, I can't protect my family, protect the one I truly love. I'm pathetic. Just look at me! I feel like hell broke all over me. I'm hurt and broken, disabled by the one thing that has stopped women for years and beaten by the men who I detest."
"Not if you think so." Jay uncrossed his arms and held Danielle's hand, energy surging from him to her. When she saw the bluish hue in her hands and the pain from the beatings receding, she felt strength fill her. "Now, be the assassin and Bluejay we taught you to be. You're still the young killer teenager inside of you, even if you're twenty-eight years old and older than you really are."
Jay let go of Danielle's hands, seeing her a little stronger for a short time, up to the fight ahead of her. He then tossed her some old fatigue clothes of his, helping her out of the bathtub and into them. He finally handed her his weapons, the two knives and the daishō katana he taught her to use when she was twelve and he just out of the Army.
"Jay?" Danielle looked up to her older brother, bewildered as she took the weapons, pocketing the knives in the fatigue pants and holding the katana with unskilled and rusty hands.
"Go get 'em, Bluejay," Jay only said, stepping aside for Danielle before starting to fade away. "Make me proud. I'll be with you the whole way, like I've always been and will be."
Danielle looked around her surroundings as Jay disappeared completely, feeling her way around with her powers for the first time in years. Her mind felt recharged and aware of everything, but it would be a short time before things caught up to her. Jay's boast of energy, however it had happened and why, was just what she needed to battle Peter Ellis and his people away from her home.
An animalistic scream echoed through the stairwell and into the hallway. When Danielle reached out to see who it was, she saw in her mind that it was Logan. In her mind, she also saw him tightly strapped to a chair meant to handle his adamantium body, the life being pulled from him, worse than what it had been with Yashida. Peter and a few of his men, including the old Trask salesman Dean Ferris, stood in a circle around this chair. Other furniture had been pushed aside for this chair in the corner, toys were overturned and her walls were becoming dented as Logan tipped his seat back and forth in pain.
There was no time. When Danielle checked the bedroom and felt that Michael and Riley were fine (wondering herself how she knew them to be there and safe), she dashed to the stairwell, sliding down the railing like she had years before. Grabbing her footing on the landing, she whipped her head around, hiding and watching the spectacle. She would use some of Jay's patience to wait her turn to strike. Otherwise, she would plan, the quiet assassin that would soon give those in her home enough terror to keep away.
~00~
When you walk away,
You don't hear me say,
"Please, oh, baby, don't go!"
Simple and clean is the way
That you're making me feel tonight.
It's hard to let it go…
You're giving me
Too many things lately.
You're all I need (oh, oh).
You smiled at me
And said, "Don't get me wrong.
"I love you, but does that mean
"I have to meet your father?"
It was torture, wherever he was. Logan could not remember the last time he felt pain like this. He wanted to say when he was in Japan, but it was barely pain. He slammed his body against the metal chair he was strapped to when he became conscious and can feel his body rock back and forth after he felt pain shot into his body. Repeatedly, his pleas for mercy, his head shaking under the waters, were unheeded. Laughing faces swirled around him, turning him back further into the past. He was back in a green and blue tank, drowning as his body was given adamantium. He was running away with Victor and Rose, a neighborhood girl who dared to follow him and his brother into exile from home and had later been killed. He was holding one dead body after another in his arms, friends he had made and lost during the many wars he had been through. He was deep in his prison at the camp in Japan, holding the metal door over Yashida as the atomic bomb went off above their heads. He was back in Vietnam, pulling Victor off a girl and assisting in his mutiny before facing an execution squad that could not kill them.
Blackness faced Logan, allowing him to be swallowed up. When he opened his eyes to a blinding light, he felt older than he really was, much weaker, more so than ever before. He tried lifting his head, but was not able to. He did hear more laughter though, merriment at a job well done, and clapping.
Logan was the freaks' show again, an experiment that could turn him into an animal, but this time, less powerful. He was the entertainment of humans. He knew that he was done for.
"I must say, Peter, this was a great idea," a frightful man said, someone who stood next to the Ellis cousin and was earlier watching Michael and Riley outside
"Well…" Peter faked his modesty, laughing again as his other men cheered.
It shamed Logan, a feeling that he rarely felt. He bowed his head in defeat, only wishing that the death coming would at least be honorable for the man with no master.
Only one person saw the anguish radiating from the mutant. From the shadows of the stairwell, Danielle saw the men were vulnerable and not suspecting anything behind them. While she saw little of what happened to Logan, she did see how much he aged, white hair circling his head and wrinkles covering his body. His strength and healing were gone.
No…
Danielle stepped lightly on the balls of her feet, walking around the kitchen island with the katana at her side, both hands on the handle. Gently, she hid behind island, placing the sword on its side on the floor. Then, taking the knives out of her pants, she peeked up, aimed, and hit two of Peter's men in the back. She ducked back down in time to hear the others become startled at the sudden attack. Indeed, Danielle imagined Dean Ferris biting on his fingernails and reaching for the nearest Trask weapon he could get his hands on and whirling around in fear. She was sure that she wasn't too far off with his feelings.
When we are older, you'll understand
What I meant when I said, "No."
I don't think life is quite that simple.
When you walk away,
You don't hear me say,
"Please, oh, baby, don't go!"
Simple and clean is the way
That you're making me feel tonight.
It's hard to let it go…
So simple and clean…
Peter turned around again and again, trying to determine the source, but could not find anything. His heart thumped quickly like a rabbit, aware that he was being watched…and was perhaps going to be assassinated, just like his cousin, and by a mutant, no doubt about it. Peter was sure that Danielle was a goner with the serum inside of her and Logan unable to get up from his nightmare, but Chameleon might have slipped in through the broken door, checking on his daughter and grandsons, like he had done before. The thought made Peter shiver, but the show must go on. He urged Ferris to up the power in the chair, accelerating the speed of Logan's upcoming death.
Danielle saw this as her chance to attack. Two men were down, but Peter still had two more plus Ferris to use as shields. Ferris was easy to knock out, controlling Logan and all and unwilling to fight her, but the other two Danielle could not tell if were easy prey or not. By their stance, they were trained fighters, but not as good as she was, if she still had it in her to be the assassin she was and should never be again.
There's no choice, isn't there?
The pain in Danielle's abdomen area sharply took her breath away, jabbing her awake, and a wave of nausea reminded her that she was running low on strength. There was no time. Jay's energy might run out soon and, with it, her chance to get Logan out of there.
Danielle picked up the katana with both hands, creeping again on the balls of her feet. She inwardly sighed, knowing the odds against her, and struck, first knocking the device out of Ferris' hands with the sword before knocking him out with an elbow and fighting off the remaining two men with the katana. Peter stood by, watching impressed, but backed away slowly, finding a safer spot to avoid the clash behind the dining room table. As Danielle fought though, he did not realize that her mind was at work, concentrating on not only two men, but also finagling the controls on the remote and the locks on the chair that held Logan. When she managed to free Logan, she signaled for him with her mind to stay out of the way, knowing how weak he was and the time he needed to recover. He was only too happy to obey, but slowly was able to regain his vision.
Within seconds, Peter's last line of defense was gone, sword wounds covering the men, but allowing them to live in a dreamland. He hovered for a moment, not believing that this one woman, this mutant, that he thought was dying, had again proved that she was a capable opponent and should be tamed into death once again. She even heard those thoughts too, staring at Peter with eyes that turned from red to black in a short span of time. She was ready to eliminate Peter Ellis.
"No!" Peter yelled, taking a chair and throwing it at Danielle. When a large silver-blue shield deflected it and it shattered into wood splinters, he stumbled into the kitchen, finally pulling out his gun when the opportunity made itself known.
"You're good at defecting bullets, Danielle, but not that good," Peter said coldly, pointing the gun at her heart. "This'll hurt you as much as Jayden's attack did, but at least you can die quicker than he did. I can give you that mercy at least."
"How thoughtful," Danielle replied, raising her katana with one hand in a mock salute. "And how can you assure it this time?"
"I thought you knew that." Peter chuckled, cocking the gun back. "Now, prepare to die, my pretty little pet. You were fun when it lasted, but it's the past now. The future begins now."
The daily things, like this
And that and what is what,
That keep us all busy are confusing me.
That's when you came to me
And said, "Wish I could prove I love you,
"But does that mean I have to walk on water?"
When we are older, you'll understand.
It's enough when I say so
And maybe, some things are that simple…
"No, bub, not this time."
Before Peter could say another word, Logan appeared in front of Danielle. While back to normal, with two small section of white hair on each side of his temples, Logan stepped in front of her, claws out again. Just as he surprised Peter, the gun sounded off without aim. When Danielle ducked again to avoid being shot, the katana clattering on the floor, Logan took the bullet without effort, healing immediately. He then grabbed Peter as he ran off, his back facing Logan as the latter held the former's collar. When Peter tried turning around to beat Logan, reaching for the last Trask disabling device in his pockets, Logan stuck his claws into Peter's back, just right to the spine.
Logan dropped Peter as easily as a sack when he retracted his claws. When the human evaluated his wounds as he hit the cold floor, he saw it fixable, but it would take months to recover and to extract his revenge on the two mutants. Already, he was losing feeling in his back and legs, leaving him more vulnerable than ever before. But he would have the last laugh, pointing behind Logan with a snicker.
"I guess I won't be the only one dying today," Peter commented with a bloody cough, motioning to Danielle on the floor too. When Logan turned to see Danielle behind him, her blood had returned in another heavy flow. Her strength was gone.
"Enjoy her while she lasts, mutant," Peter continued, dragging myself with his arms to the door, pathetically trying to escape as his men started regaining consciousness and running away with him, wounded too. "She has enough serum in her body to kill two dozen men without me asking her to obey me. She can be malleable, but the dosage can kill if a lot is given. She won't have a choice this time."
"No." Logan went to Danielle, skidding to a stop of her and kneeling, pulling her to him. As Ferris and the four men passed Logan, he ignored them and Peter Ellis, tending to Danielle. "Not this time. She won't die today."
Logan even ignored the laughter again. His only care was Danielle, whose eyes were fluttering. She was awake, but slipping away again. She lost too much blood and had suffered more than her fair share of beatings, but Logan could not tell what else happened to her other than that. He smelled something else, like dead flesh, but it could have been his imagination. The effort to save him drained her though and it was showing.
"You won't be left behind again," Danielle muttered again as Logan pulled her tighter to him, echoing her sentiments from two days previously. "I won't either. Trust me, Logan. Let them go. Let me go, if you need to, in order to move on."
When you walk away,
You don't hear me say,
"Please, oh, baby, don't go!"
Simple and clean is the way
That you're making me feel tonight.
It's hard to let it go…
Hold me,whatever lies
Beyond this morning is a little later on.
Regardless of warnings,
The future doesn't scare me at all.
Nothing's like before…
Logan said nothing, burying his face into Danielle, smelling her scent, past the blood and bruising. She was like a spring meadow in a damp morning, like she always was, and it fluttered inside of him like hope. Yes, there was plenty of it, since they had won the first battle finally, after many setbacks, and it cost them a lot. But whatever was held for them was never a fear anymore. They proved to be partners in everything, to protect and love the other when danger was near.
There was nothing more than Logan wanted to do but to keep within the moment. The van driving away without the children was enough. The two being alive was enough. And their love, which had somehow lasted the test of time, was still there, even if Danielle had said nothing to him directly in years.
"You know," Danielle said softly, eying Logan's hair and touching the sides where the white stood, "I think I can get used to you like that."
Danielle wanted to laugh, but could not, only seeing Logan's smile. Safe in Logan's arms at last, she allowed the darkness to claim her the final time today. Rest was a little ways out, but it was welcome after a morning of chaos and a dance with death.
Above lyrics are from the song, "Simple and Clean" by Hikaru Utada from the Kingdom Hearts game.
