He had been in something like a daze when the truth came out. Logan did not know time and space when Hank admitted that they would be courting with one of the most famous mutant terrorists groups in the US and perhaps the world. He did not even bother scouting the school like he normally did or storming into Xavier's office to demand that tactics change. He found a seat by the fountain and sat there for some hours, not moving or thinking, head in his hands and forgetting that he wanted to talk to Jean and Ororo. The next thing he knew, the final bell rang and the children had been freed for the day. Many of them came his way, going around him cautiously as if he would snap at them as he normally did, and went to the basketball court. Sighing inwardly, Logan got up and walked towards the woods. A voice behind him stopped him before he reached the outer limits though.

"What's wrong, Logan?"

Logan turned around and saw Jean. "Nothing," he reassured her. "Nothing you can concern yourself with."

"When someone is in danger, I do get concerned." Jean moved a little closer, halting some feet before Logan and almost daring herself to be more assertive with the older mutant. "Scott is out there, getting special privileges and giving information to Senator Ellis, and there's nothing I can do to make this any better. I can't even accept being the same kind of person he is choosing himself."

Jean's presence unnerved Logan, more so than usual, and it wasn't because she was older and prettier than five years ago. "It's a pretty tight spot for any of you," he said, as if cheering up Jean. "Hank didn't have much of a choice. He took his chances."

"And you?" Jean moved a little closer, as much as she dared. Her body shook, most likely in fear. "What are yours?"

"What? My chances?" Logan laughed. "Really, Jean, my chances are in hell."

"There's a lot to be said about Ellis too. His chances are about the same as yours."

"I doubt it. A powerful man in politics with connections is not likely to be falling anytime soon."

"But a man like him can fall. It might takes years. It does happen though."

Jean finally dared herself to stand before Logan, choosing to suppress the shaking. She was so close that Logan could smell her perfume like she had sprayed it on just the moment before. It was maddening, he thought, to be standing here with Jean, with her aura so intense. She was making no sense. On top of that, the perfume was enough to make Logan choke.

"Go forward," Jean urged Logan. "Make a move that might change what's on the chessboard. Get to the other end of the board and make yourself better than a pawn."

"How would you know of these things?" Logan asked her. "Jean, you're hardly here and aren't at the meetings."

"Alex tells Lorna and Scott and Scott tells me," Jean corrected. "I'm also not blind to what Senator Ellis is doing either. I'm not a child anymore, Logan. I'm nineteen years old and have been out of the school for some time now. I can see the world for what it is. Most certainly, especially after the events of some years back, you should know that nothing can get past me."

"Do you have to go along with them too?" Logan moaned, annoyed. "Do you need to be involved in this, just like the rest?"

"In this school, we all are involved, Logan. You can't deny, from the youngest child to the oldest instructor, that each of us will be affected by what Ellis is doing. Now, are you going to make your move or we are going to continue to stall?"

"Stall?"

"Logan, it's been some time since something happened. It's been a tough year all the way around. However, it's time something is changed. You can't let the small things bother you. You're not a pawn. You're going to be heading the other end and you're becoming a power of your own."

"Jean –"

"Hush." Jean put a finger on Logan's lips and kissed his forehead quickly. "Just do me a favor."

"Depends on what it is." Logan felt his face redden from the kiss.

"Watch out for Scott," Jean requested, sounding very serious. "See what Ellis wants with him and do all you can to protect him."

That was fair enough. "I can do all I can, Jean," Logan promised. "Someone wants to kill him and I'm not there? Nothing much I can do about it."

"That's all I'm asking." Jean backed away slowly. "Now, you going to tell me what's wrong?"

"Again, nothing to concern yourself with." Logan smiled, hoping that Jean wasn't brazen enough to find the information out herself in the most disrespectful way. By then though, he had enough to talking with her and his questions of earlier, for her and Ororo both, faded into memory. "There are too many things on my mind that you can't fix."

"Like Danielle?"

The name froze Logan. "There is no fixing that girl, Jean. We can all try, but she's been broken before we were in the picture."

Jean shrugged her shoulders, her gentle red hair shaking with the motion. "There's no stopping her either."

All and all, Logan was now getting annoyed, especially where the awkward conversation was going. "Don't you have an evening class to go to?"

"Yes." Jean checked a watch on her wrist. "You're right. I should be going. I'll see you later, Logan."

Jean turned around, walking back towards the school. Logan was relieved to be alone at last, especially with the swirling turmoil inside of him, and went into the woods. Blending right in, he felt more at home and wondered why he had not disappeared on Xavier in some years now, almost ten years really. He kept that thought to himself on the reason why and soon found his usual hiding place in the tree by the stream. He climbed up, perching on a high branch and checking out the town. He did not see anything unusual in Salem Center, although he sure that that was about to change.

Logan thought that Jean (and Hank in his own way) was right. He needed to do more than just sit there at Teller's, eavesdropping and drinking. There was more to this work right now than there was a couple of years ago. He did see that chance to step up and show his hand. Nowadays, ever since innocents had been killed and wives missing, it had been too dangerous to show that sort of change. Now, Logan was seeing that perhaps it was time to talk with Teller.

It was all up to the bar owner. It was going to be in his hands whether or not there can be a connection and if the two can play along as more than just agents. They would be walking on eggshells when it came to Ellis.

~00~

Logan had actually been bored all night. His determination to talk with Teller had slipped the more the night fled. By two-thirty in the morning, when the bar closed and Teller was cleaning up, Logan was about to finish his pitcher of beer. He had allowed it to linger too long and it tasted too stale, but that it did not seem to matter when it came down to talking to Teller. He waited patiently enough, even giving Vinnie Paul some evil looks to scare him away, and was awarded for that virtue when Teller himself came to the counter. He was cleaning glasses, although his eyes were on Logan.

"Bar's closed, Wolverine," Teller reminded him. "Two-thirty on the dot and the doors are shut. Get out of here."

"Not done." Logan indicated the last glass of beer he had in his hands, drank it, and then stared at Teller for a minute. "Besides, we need to talk."

"Oh?" Teller was interested, his mind still on cleaning and his eyes on ensuring that there were no smudges in his glasses. His cloth was perfect in making mirrors of the glasses.

"It's time for us to be honest, Teller. You switch sides every so often that I am wondering if you're in this for just you."

"What do you mean?"

"You gained Ellis' trust and shot him to the top. What was in it for you?"

"A chance for mutants like us. He turned against us and held things against us."

"Right. You've been playing his side and ours."

Teller faced Logan finally, putting his items down. "I don't know what you're talking about, Wolverine. Get out of here. The bar is closed."

"No unless I get some promises out of you," Logan vowed. "We all know that nobody is getting out alive with Ellis holding so much power over our heads. You can show him that it's real and come out with your ass intact in the end if you play your cards right."

Teller's eyes shone a different shade and he put a hand to his cheek, a black diamond itching to come out. "Logan, get –"

"No, not until we get this straight," Logan interjected, standing up and shoving his stool to the floor. He immediately grabbed Teller across the counter and held up upright, his other hand releasing the adamantium claws he so despised, the silver tips nicking Teller's throat. "And you're going to listen and listen now. I know who you are and what you've been up to. You've confessed it. You like Ellis too much and it's getting you too deep. You also like this mutant community too much and are willing to put a hand out to those who don't go to Xavier's. Make the stand and pick a side. You can't be making your own this time."

"Please," Teller begged.

"You and Chameleon need to do something about Ellis," Logan warned, "or we will. There's no stopping us. It might take us some time, but it'll get done and the war that's coming will end with too many lives lost. Me? I'm the best there is at what I do…and what I do best isn't very nice. I've had to get down and dirty ever since I was recruited to this little mission and it's been hitting my want to settling down someplace ever since. A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do though. It's about time you and Chameleon do the same."

Logan released Teller and retracted his claws. Picking up the stool again and brushing off some imaginary dirt, he sat back down again and watched for Teller's reaction. The bar owner was still surprised at what happened and it took some minutes for him to regain his composure. He loudly coughed, rubbing the beaded dots of blood from his neck before daring to look at Logan again. Although shaky, he still had some spunk left.

"Things that should be said cannot be spoken out loud," Teller reminded Logan. "Maybe it's time you learn that."

"I don't think it's best to deal in one of your sleazy rooms." Logan took out a cigar and lit it. The smoke swirled around him and Teller, creating a bubble that they alone were inside of.

Teller shrugged his shoulders. "Your problem now, not mine. I don't commit too much, Logan, but when I do, there's always gain. Ellis has made promises and more. We made ours and more too. There's no stopping that."

"There can be."

"How?"

"You enlighten me, Teller. I've seen you do it."

"Seen…what exactly?"

"Oh, this little rebellion and that. Don't act stupid. You speak in truths in the dark and lie in the light. Extend a hand in the right direction and maybe the rewards of that would be more fulfilling than those Ellis would possibly give at a later point."

"I don't know what you're talking about." Teller glanced quickly over in Vinnie's direction before facing Logan once more.

Logan turned his tone a little softer, hoping to be less menacing. "Money isn't a reward, Teller. Safeguarding the protection of all people, human and mutant, is. You have a chance to change the course. Do it. Do it before this consumes you and makes a demon out of you. You cannot hide behind a mask of a bar owner forever. Eventually, with his anti-mutant attitude and the laws he wants enacted, Ellis will come after you and Chameleon. By then, you'll be regretting the day you ever tried lending him a hand."

Teller paused, picking up the glass and cloth once more. His mind was back on his cleaning and his eyes were averted. "So tell me this truthfully, Wolverine…is there a way out of the darkness we all sought in the beginning?"

"If I was able to get out of there, will that help you with your journey?" Logan asked in return, still smoking.

"No," Teller admitted. "However, there is one thing I would need out of you to make this seem real."

"What?"

"Ellis wants the Mitchell siblings."

"We know this. Why?"

"Their powers."

"What?"

"You heard me, Logan. Ellis likes their powers too much. He sees the potential in them to use them in his campaign to smear the mutants and their names. Plus, there's a downside to this and one that I did not expect."

"What?" The way Teller pointed out bad news made Logan a little nervous.

"The good senator has had the pleasure of seeing Danielle on and off from afar ever since she was a little girl," Teller replied. "He's been eying her like candy."

Logan's heart sank. "No."

"Yes, Wolverine," Teller reiterated again. "Senator Leon Ellis is in love with the lovely Danielle Mitchell. What is she, twelve, thirteen?"

"Twelve," Logan confirmed.

"See? And the girl looks like she's in her twenties. She could fool anyone."

"So, you're telling me that Ellis…loves…Danielle Mitchell?"

"Without a doubt, Logan." Teller put his glass and cloth down. "Ellis saw her some years ago in town with Shannon once and asked around to know who she was and how old. When he learned that she was a mutant and extremely young at that, he lamented that fact and took upon himself the undertaking of making her perfect, a human. He has been imagining the life they would have later, when she would be the wife of his dreams and he the provider and protector. He still has that dream. No matter what it takes, no matter the destruction he wrecked upon society itself, he is more than willing to possess Danielle Mitchell…or he will die in the effort. This is why we need her, Logan. You need to allow her to grow up and hand her over to the dark exile sometime, sooner rather than later."

The line from Logan to Teller ("I'm the best there is at what I do...") comes from the comics and also from X-Men: Origins.