April 1, 1993

Two years had passed since Teller and Logan made their agreement. Since then, the world changed around them, in many ways better or worse, depending on the situation. Logan found it at an impasse, if he had to be honest with himself, although he found the excursions to Teller's a tad more interesting than what they used to be. Other than renovating and bringing in new acts (most of them young runaways with uncontrollable powers or mutant adults escaping jail), Logan felt himself enjoying the bright nightly life Teller provided. Even so, it was best when the bar owner was on the same page as Logan, although that had turned into a sticky business indeed.

Ellis, as well as Teller and Chameleon, were becoming impatient about their progress, although the mutants were becoming a more negative fad and one that Logan knew wasn't easy. However, the last two years saw a rise in the popular opinion that the mutants needed to be tamed. Ellis was also on the same wave, riding higher and higher and becoming more and more powerful on the senate floor. Even on his many vacation days, he was traveling the country, spreading the word, from the poor to the rich and of every race, religion and ethnicity, that the mutants were out to get them and they would stop it nothing to bring the world down and in ruins. They needed to be jailed, Ellis was insisting. They needed to be controlled and kept in prison so that humankind would be saved.

All the while, the same senator had been coming home often to Salem Center to instruct Teller and Chameleon. While the latter had shown his face maybe twice in so many years, he was still rumored to be around town, especially at the farmhouse Ellis still owned. Logan never asked Teller about Chameleon and just liked their honest chatter about everything else. Honestly, although keeping more and more to himself, Logan was more than happy to run over there, risk being picked up by the police, and run his claws through Chameleon's little heart. Logan did not care that he would be killing the Mitchell siblings' father. It would be worth his while to do it and eliminate a threat at the same time.

All and all though, it had been a disquieting two years, if Logan thought about it as he downed another shot of Jack Daniels. Scott had been used as a double agent still, although he was realizing that Cyclops was becoming a liability to Ellis and one that might be killed off. This worried Jean and even Ororo, although the two had been too busy with their love lives to really think about the world drama unfolding around them. Matthew Adams, the Mitchell cousin, had been seen the walls of a jail cell more often than not, mostly for protesting the abuse of mutants, all he while keeping his eyes on Ororo Munroe, even though he was still dating the very stylish Jubilee on and off.

It got tougher on his end. Jay had kept his job with Teller and continue to get as much as he could out of it. Mae Ellis and Roger Mortimer had been a steady couple for years, although that was coming apart each time the latter decided to run off on his assignments. Magneto and his Brotherhood had been called rarely, although they had been used by Roger mostly and without details to the others. Xavier, Hank, Alex and even Lorna was seeing the situation worsen and still felt the need to play the hand they had before making another move. This Logan agreed with, although he was dreading the day that Teller was looking forward to.

It all had to do with a young woman, nearly fourteen years old and with an old man in Congress who love with her. Danielle Mitchell, the apple of most people's eyes, had turned from a bubbly kid, a pest who followed Logan in every turn, to a teenager almost obsessed with death and loneliness. The change had been gradual and slow, Logan realized with a start as he poured himself another shot and drank. Over the course of the two years since her introduction to becoming a fighting machine for her brother and Roger Mortimer, she had crawling farther and farther into a shell that nobody could pull her out of. Even Jay, the ever-present brother, could not get her to talk. She was careful and soft with her words, quiet in her demeanor and almost like a whisper in the society in which she grew up in. She was frightening to deal with and going down a road that Logan continued to protest vigorously to Xavier, Hank and Alex, always with no results. The three understood that it was a rough patch in her life without feeling the need to intervene since nothing illegal was involved. They saw that she was still doing well with her classes (better than over ninety-nine percent of her classmates) and was on her way to becoming one of the youngest people to graduate from Xavier's school.

Even a wooing from Teller's little minion made Logan want to cringe. Vinnie Paul, a well-known local of Salem Center and an acknowledged asshole and ladies' man, picked Danielle off of the streets on her way to McDonald's one day a few months before and it's been on and off dates ever since. Danielle has not publically shown how she felt about Vinnie, although she has smiled a few times in his presence and even given him a kiss the handful of times Vinnie decided to drop her off at the mansion for school. Each time Logan thought about it, he felt his claws wanting to be freed. He was so tempted to kill the bastard, most of all for endangering a naïve teenager.

It was a bad situation and a most disorganized one if Logan ever saw it. Circumstances out of everyone's control and outside factors seem to show their failure in stopping Ellis and it was something Hank, Xavier and Alex were painfully aware of. They still had Ellis' final goal and that was more than they bargained for. They did not understand the means in which he was achieving it though. That's what bothered Logan the most, worse than Vinnie Paul trying to steadily date Danielle Mitchell. The steps to the end was going to their downfall.

"Here, Logan." Teller came up to the older mutant and poured more Jack Daniels into the shot glass before Logan had a chance to do it himself. "That's about sixteen shots. When you gonna stop, old man?"

"When I want to." Logan drank down the shot. "Got some extra cigars in the back?"

Teller nodded. "Come with me."

It had been their routine and a code of a sort. When Logan felt the need to talk to Teller and vice versa, Logan would ask for something to smoke or Teller would remind him of the cigars in the back. Either way, the two would head to the back room with the thickest walls, the same that Logan had seen Teller in with Chameleon, and the door would close. By then, Vinnie, Jay and Snake Eyes would take charge of the bar and report back to Teller if something went wrong. However, it would be a while before Teller would emerge. His conversations with Logan were always in-depth, long-winded and very secret.

This was a way the two could exchange information without someone spying on them. In two years, Logan learned that Fiona was still alive, that Scott was in danger everyday and that Ellis had a list of people to kill and had not shown Teller yet. In turn, Teller learned how to work with Xavier once more and had gone back and forth not only with mutant runaways, but also keeping anything told to him a secret. Like Scott, Teller was piling Ellis with false information, most of it the same and sometimes varying, and although it slowed the senator down in his plans, it just made them appear in every way to be a group with too many chiefs and too many corners Ellis like peeking around. It was better than admitting that Xavier's people were disorganized and without aim.

"Ok, Wolverine, you got me." Teller shut the door to their inner sanctum and watched as Logan lit up a cigar at their table. He walked around the table to the far wall. "What's up?"

"Oh, the usual," Logan replied, the smoke filling the room quickly. "Wanted to ask you a few things."

"When don't we ply each other with those then?"

Logan ignored the barb. "So, tell me about Vinnie."

"The image monster?" Teller had to laugh. "I've been keeping him a state secret, haven't I?"

"Well, it annoys me that I hear things about him from the grapevine."

"You mean Roger Mortimer, right?"

"Regardless. Tell me about the kid."

"He's no kid, let me tell you." Teller seemed serious, rubbing his chin with his right hand. "I picked up from the streets when he was just six. Without realizing it, he sent his parents into an insane asylum. Gave them pictures of their worst nightmares when his father tried disciplining him. He was so scared of what he did that he ran away. Middle of winter one night, I saw him trying to sneak into this bar while I was talking with Firebird and the Professor when we were all friendly with each other. He tried pulling the same tricks on me, but Xavier was there to save me. Professor offered the kid a spot in his school, but Vinnie was still so scared that he clung onto me and could not be persuaded otherwise. First and only time Charles Xavier lost a student to me like that. Made me promise to take care of him like a son."

"What do you make him do?"

"Oh, this and that. Put in some paperwork to adapt him and even made up a name for him to cover his tracks. Vinnie Paul used to be Ivan Michalovich or whatever the hell his Russian last name was. I schooled him until he was maybe fifteen, allowed him access to the bar to work and earn a living. He has an ear for music and always picks up the latest and greatest for me. He also has connections down below, ones that I don't know, and has yet to introduce me to."

"Ah, so you tried to be a father?"

"In a way, yes. We have an understanding, me and Vinnie. He works hard, he stays. Only reason why I took him in legally was so that nobody questioned it. At that point, people were searching for him. They suspected him rightfully of doing all those things to his parents and I didn't want to see a kid like him go in the slammer and experimented on like a freak. I would have felt a little guilty if I let him back on the streets. Being where he is right now might save him."

"It's not going to save him from me."

"I understand. It's also not going to save him from the senator, but that's beside the point. Vinnie being with Danielle Mitchell might be a good thing. She'll be learning the hard way."

Logan groaned.

"Anything else you wanted to know?" Teller was sure Logan had more to inquire about.

Logan forgot his animosity towards Vinnie at the moment. "Fiona Mitchell. You told me that she was alive. Prove it."

Teller sighed, raising his eyebrow. He then proceeded to a desk at the far corner of the room, unlocking a drawer with a key from his pocket and pulling out some photos. He turned, walked back over and handed them to Logan. He watched as the older mutant study the pictures. Teller knew that this wasn't exactly hard evidence that the Mitchell wife was alive. However, it was good enough for the time being and that alone was making the other mutant angrier just by seeing Fiona. Besides, Teller had nothing else to show Logan anyway.

"That's it?" Logan put out his cigar in a nearby ashtray on the table. "Just a few pictures of Fiona sitting on a bed, hogtied and panicking?"

"That's all I have," Teller admitted. "Anything else and I would be cornered by Ellis. I took them, Wolverine, about a few months ago. It was a hard way to go, especially the journey she had to travel. Ellis ensured the road that she was on was slippery enough for the car to skid off. Seeing that she was alive and bleeding, he ordered his men, with Chameleon in charge, to take her out and replace the other body in there. The body was some dead female from Tarrytown for all I knew. However, Ellis thought that holding Fiona Mitchell hostage was a better idea. Death was too much of a mercy for her."

"Where is she?" Logan demanded, feeling the rage behind his eyes turn him blinder.

"Moved," Teller confirmed. "I found out about her because I was my turn to babysit. By the time I was finished with my shift, Ellis immediately had her moved to another house with men dragging her, people I don't recognize. He wasn't taking any chances with this one. However, I can say that she was housed for a few hours on the farmland Ellis bought some time ago, where I had to watch her. That was because the good senator had nowhere else to put her."

Logan still had not calmed down. "Find. Her. Now."

"I can't." Teller seemed too scared to even make the queries, however much he did not want to cross Logan and his claws. "Old Chameleon would know better than I where she would be. Currently, as it stands, the good veteran and I have parted and on good terms. He will not communicate with me right now though. He sees eye to eye with me, Logan, but he is too much under Ellis' thumb to rebel like I am. However, I can't do it all the time. There has to be a way we can make a compromise here."

There was no room for negotiation in Logan's eyes. "Not for Ellis."

"You promised me many things, Wolverine," Teller reminded Logan. "One of them was handing over Danielle Mitchell when she was older."

"I only agreed that it had to be done. Not now."

"This year, Logan. It needs to be. Ellis is growing impatient."

"And I'm growing tired of his demands."

"We agreed to make slips when we could, Logan. We can't miss this one. Ellis will find a way without us to get Danielle Mitchell. When he does, it might not be pretty and there's no way we could stop him. This way, she'll be under some watchful eyes. You've got me, Vinnie, Jay, yourself, maybe a few others we trust…"

Logan shook his head, reaching for a bottle of alcohol on the table blindly. He did not care it was Chameleon's leftover Wild Turkey, although he never liked the bitter taste to begin with. He unscrewed the cap and drank from it, realizing that Teller was right. That thought alone was disturbing. The worst part about it is that the new Danielle would not care. It was no longer in her nature to give two shits about what was going on in her life. Just as long as she lived it and lived it well, she was glad to die by her own hands.

Teller watched Logan finish the Wild Turkey quickly. "Ask her," he urged Logan. "Just tell her that there's a chance for her to sing or be a waitress. I'm sure that'll get her attention."

"Perhaps," Logan allowed. "I'll work on it with the others and I'll get back to you. Deal?"

"Good enough for now." Teller crossed his arms. "Anything else?"

"Yeah. When you gonna change out the booze in this room? This is pretty stale."

"Not anything soon. Chameleon just forgot this bottle here and wouldn't care if it was gone anyway. Anything else?"

"Yeah. What are we doing about Jay Mitchell?"

"Well, I like him well enough. Don't know how much longer I'll have my bouncer though, especially in light of recent events. He's been doing a damned good job keeping this place clean and that makes me happy."

"And?"

"As far as I know, Ellis would make a definite move when he has them both." Teller pursed his lips. "He needs to make sure Danielle is pretty well-established and making a reputation for herself when he comes in."

"Hers is pretty clean as far as I can hear."

"And that's good for the younger Mitchell. However, there's much more going on than just that. There's going to be a phone call soon enough, coming in from the Mitchell home if it gets through. Vinnie can be pretty vicious to callers though. However, I'm also expecting some police officers in here shortly."

Logan stood up, outraged and claws out. "You double-cross me?"

"No," Teller reassured the old mutant, not feeling threatened, although he was shaking. "Not me this time. I just learned this. Between us and the wall, Logan, this was a last minute deal."

"You're not making this any easier," Logan said. "You better explain this to me and do it quickly before your head becomes part of my room's mantle."

"Ellis wants to split the Mitchell family apart," Teller quickly recounted, now feeling that he was cornered. "I just heard this an hour ago, I swear, Logan. He called some police friends of his, most likely the chief, and informed him that Jay Mitchell was a dangerous veteran and that his son is in danger because Shannon was suicidal. They're coming in to arrest him on charges of assault and abuse."

"And Danielle?" Logan demanded, knowing that she too was still a minor and a target in that house. He still kept his claws out. He felt that Teller might need a few scratches and need them soon if his answers weren't to his liking.

"To be taken from Child Protection Services," Teller confirmed. "Ellis is ensuring her confinement at the school instead of being with her mother and brother. He's trying a smear campaign, Logan. Jay would be the veteran who kills and Shannon would be the mother who ignores…and Ellis would be the politician who saves."