MAB86 - I'm really happy you're enjoying it, hopefully you'll continue to like the direction it's going in :) . And no problems, in the next chapter there should be little bit more of Kitty.

Chapter 6

The sorcerer stood in front of an old cave untouched for over a century, and reached out with his hand, his eye's flaming with hell-fire, and the silence deepened, and just at the edge of hearing a chorus of unearthly screams could be heard, the air charged with power. For a moment nothing happened, then a figure slowly began to emerge from the darkness, a tall, powerfully built figure of a man, dressed in the tattered remains of an old trapper's outfit, and a fur cloak, the face appearing out from under the cloaked hood was covered in thick sideburns and moustache, with three parallel scars across his wild face. The man moved oddly, and his face was grey and lifeless, a bloody wound on his chest, which looked black, filled with something moving disturbingly beneath it. It moved until it stood before the blond vampire sorcerer and stood still.

'How are you doing in there Thomas?' asked the sorcerer.

'Me an' the boy are havin' a nice little reunion,' a voice seemed to echo hollowly within the lifeless figure, 'just getting' used to my boy Dog's body, feels a little stiff at the moment, but we'll get there ain't that right boy?'

Another voice struggled up, echoing up, 'sure, Pa. As long was I can finish with James an' Rose, I'll take it for this hell you've dragged me in,' it responded sullenly.

There was a sudden sound of a crack of power and the original voice came back, 'know you're place you worthless mutt. I always told you not to get mixed up with their station, you didn't listen and got us all pulled into this hellish mess. All that's left, is getting' ours, and seeing that other son of mine hurt and tormented forever. An' soon thanks to him this world be ours for taking. Now quite your whining an' do what I tell you boy.'

Dog Logan's body looked towards the sorcerer and Thomas continued, 'but you promised me this form was supposed to be more powerful, more unique than the others, it feels like nothin' but a walkin' corpse right now.'

The sorcerer smiled wickedly and with a rippling, twisting and elongating his body, he shifted into his clawed and demonic horned form, eyes flaring with hell-fire, his fanged maw turning the grin into a demonic laughing visage, as flames shot forth from his claws, and he replied, 'that's because the spell isn't completed yet, I have carried that power with me,' and outreaching his hands together, flaming fingers touch each other forming a sphere of helf-fire, and black blood began to stream out from the wound towards the sphere, things seeming to move in the black stream, and as it hit the globe of fire, it swirled within and ignited, the unholy fire streaming back into Dog Logan's body. Stiffening and letting out a terrible howl, the fire could be seen to burn in and through his veins and arteries, hell-fire shooting from his eyes, and as the fire seemed to consume the figure began to shift and change. The fur cloak bursting on fire seemed to merge with the figure, and it grew larger, longer and more hunched, hands turning into claws and the mouth within the flames turned into a rictus grin of long, misshapen sharp teeth. As the flames died down, the body that had been Dog Logan was covered in matted, rotting and decayed fur, grey with bestial legs bent backwards at the ankle, long talons on the elongated feet, and matching claws on the elongated hands. It's face seemed like a strange mix of the wolf of the cloak and the man Dog had been, grey and haired, with an elongated face full of the maw of sharp, long teeth, dead eyes lit only by the unholy fire animating it, long furred eyes, with the long hair and side-burns and moustache of Dog upon them, along with the three parallel scars that glowed dully, along with six close parallel stab scars on it's chest, also dully glowing. The decayed monstrosity rose to it's full length and let forth a terrifying howl, fire flaring to life on it's claws, before looking that sorcerer and then flaming blur shifted back to the form of the man, still grey but the face animated with the eyes glowing with glowing fire, and the face seemed odd, seeming to shift from that of Dog to one that looked like a figure with dark hair and sideburns.

'Yes,' a guttural voice, seeming a mix of the two earlier voices of Thomas and Dog, 'this is much better, you've have more than kept you're word.'

Letting forth another call into the cold air demonic Logans continued, 'an' now to sent a little present to dear James an' Rose, a little somethin' to get 'em in the mood for what's to come.'

The sorcerer frowned, 'I didn't bring you both here and grant you the powers you have from the pit to interrupt our plans, we're not ready yet to take Logan-san. Everything must be prepared, we have only just began to take control of one of Persephone's old facilities, it will take time to convert it to our needs and lay our trap.'

'Don't worry your head about it,' the Logans replied, 'when your trackin' difficult prey the first thing to do is test and harry it a bit, and never let it get comfortable.'

At that a large grizzly came lumbering out of the forest below, heading towards the two unnatural figures, the Logans once more reverting to the bestial demonic figure of before, as the bear seemed to approach unwillingly towards them, before stopping. From the glowing scars the black blood flowed and struck the grizzly in it's eyes and mouth, sinking it it, it started shaking and letting forth a gasping noise as rips and tears appeared over it's body, leaking the black substance, it's body twisting and distorting. Soon, the blood drew back in, and the grizzly's eyes dark voids, it's mouth twisted into a seeming demonic sneer.

Patting it mockingly, the Logans responded, 'there a nice little hound to send after our little Wolverine. A part of ourselves to test our love-birds out, see what their made off, an' don't worry about any early suspicions tracin' to us. Our power is in it, and once our magic allows it to pass through a Krakoan gate, the very one Jamey has by the ol' Howlett mansion, it change an' shift, feedin' off the life of the island, a become somethin' different, somethin' more dangerous. The island and the realms it's connected produces all kinds of creatures, they'll think it from the island, after all it's not the first time a creature's attacked, somethin' James himself was witness too. And even if they do suspect somethin' more, they won't link it to us until to late, might even blame that Irish whore,' and laughed as the bear began to move off at speed.

'You had best be right, I still find this move dangerously hasty,' the sorcerer said.

'Don't you worry Ogun, you'll get our boy's body an' soul, and we'll get his torment, just like we agreed,' the Logans replied.

Logan was still having trouble believing it all, he was walking through a meadow with Rose on his arm, her arm linked with his, resting her head in his shoulder. It seemed like some dream come true, a calming balm beginning to wash away the long years of grief, guilt and loss and that had long hardened within him. A dream he'd long forgotten even hoping for had arrived and Logan couldn't help thinking he'd wake up any moment and find it to be exactly that, a dream. He wasn't the kind of guy who got the happy ending, didn't deserve one, and wondered when the catch would come, when fate would tear her away from him again.

'James,' Rose sighed, 'I don't know if there is something unexpected to come, but whatever it is we'll face it together,' and Logan realised she was hearing his thoughts again. Shooting him a determined look she continued, 'I'm not going anywhere, and I won't let anything tear us apart again, nor anything hurt you, ever again.'

'Shouldn't that be my line darlin'?,' Logan replied, smiling without thinking, somehow Rose's certainly was infectious, and seemed to drive his fears away, and he began to hope this all might last, that he had a second chance at last.

'It's always been my job to take care of you James,' Rose winked, hugging his arm tightly, 'but I guess you can help me with that, you just need to stop being so negative and moody,' and grinned at him.

'Moody am I?' Logan replied, arching his eyebrow.

'Sure, with that whole, what do they call it nowadays. 'bad boy' image you put out,' Rose giggled, 'but I'm afraid the rough, tough, 'I'm the best at what I do, and what I do isn't very nice' act doesn't wash with me mister. I know the real you, but I guess your in luck, I kind of like the real you.'

Grinning mischievously up at him Rose added, 'but don't worry, your secret is safe with me,' and patted his shoulder.

'Why thank you Ms O'Hara,' Logan replied, an uncharacteristic grin forming on his face, 'much obliged for your consideration.'

'My pleasure, Mr Howlett,' Rose giggled in return, putting her head back on his shoulders.

After a few minutes of comfortable silence as they walked along, Rose sighed contentedly, 'this is so pleasant, James. You have no idea how long I've longed just to do something simple like this with you, just going on a stroll with you on a nice summer's day.'

Logan chucked, 'never would ever seen myself as that guy, even back in the quarry, going on walks with a lady wasn't really a feature of life there,' but despite what he said, Logan felt young, younger than he'd felt in decades.

'Good thing we're not there anymore than isn't it James,' Rose replied, smiling wistfully. 'Now tell me more of this place, it's beautiful but it seems so strange, how it changes and feeling the mind of the island all around us.'

'It's somethin' all right,' Logan replied, 'it seems to shape itself to everyone's needs, an' there's no doubts it gives mutants protection an' and place to call home. Don't have any argument there, but somethin' about it, I don't know, it's not hostile but I'm not always sure what's going on it best for us. For one, it makes us too complacent and forget what dangers are out there, and how to be ready for them. The rest, is the unreality to it, resurrection when you die, clone bodies on tap, just seems to trivialise all life. Gettin' all our needs meet, it's changin' us, and I keep waitin' for the other shoe to drop, are we safe or is this some kind of prison?'

'You worried about it, aren't you' Rose enquired.

'More than a little,' Logan responded. 'I guess my instincts say somethin' just feels off, and while I agree for now it's saved us, is this really the right thing for the long term? And what of Charley's dream, we seem to be separating from everyone else, setting ourselves up as superior, got de-powered mutants turning up getting' killed just to get cloned bodies with their powers, and we've got people like En Sabah Nur and Essex an' a few other psychos not only livin' here but sittin' in government. I know I'm the last the speak, given the stuff I've done but I can't agree with everythin' here Rose, it's why I've left. I still help, I'm still on their teams, I'm their good little soldier when they need me, even back in a covert ops team. I'm not gonna abandon my friends and I'll do my bit to make sure mutants have a safe refuge, but besides that, yeah, it's not for me. Just never thought the X-Men would be signin' up to some of the stuff going on, and I don't know what to think about it.'

'That's why you left,' Rose asked.

'Yep,' Logan replied, 'ended up livin' back at the Howlett mansion, would you believe it. Well, more on a cabin built on what remains of the grounds. Looks like grandfather had a change of heart and wanted me to have it, and left it in trust, an' when I proved who I was thanks to Nick Fury, it passed back to me. Only just decided to take it up, use some of the money grandfather set aside that's been buildin' up interest to start rebuildin' place. Not sure why, the ol' man was crotchety ol' devil, but I guess maybe for my father, maybe because despite the pain it's part of my past, and a place if any friends want to stay, place will certainly be big enough. But anyway, I decided to see it restored, even though I'll never really live there.'

'I hope we can go see it soon,' Rose replied, 'allot of pain happened there, but there were happy moments and I'd like to visit it and the village again, see what's happened there.'

'Soon as we get thing's cleared up here we can be off Rose,' Logan promised.

'Good,' Rose smiled. She looked around at the few of the mutant children that had been looking at them both curiously as they walked past.

'We seem to be drawing attention,' Rose quietly remarked.

'Well your in a somewhat formal and shall we say classic and more old fashioned dress, not often seen here, walkin' with me in my Wolverine outfit, apart from the mask, we probably do look a bit of a sight,' Logan chuckled.

'Hmm,' Rose said, 'well I guess you could have dressed up a little, like a proper gentleman,' she teased him.

'Don't think anyone ever mistook me for one of those, Red,' Logan laughed.

'True enough, but you are a noble man,' Rose answered more seriously.

'I'll have to trust you on that one Rose,' Logan said, 'now one last thing for our little walk is to see the sunset here,' Logan said, gesturing forward, leading up a nearby hill to stand on at the edge of of a cliff, and watched as the golden Sun began to set, painting the sky in a riot of golds, reds and purples.

'It's beautiful James,' Rose said softly, 'thank you, it's the first one I've seen in so long.'

'I thought you might like it,' Logan said, and for a while they just watched the sunset in silence. Then Logan turned and pulled Rose into his arms, Rose giving a surprised gasp, as she looked up at him.

Looking down for a moment into her deep emerald green eyes, looking up at him through her long eyelashes, her warm soft body melding to his, the atmosphere between them changed, growing thick and becoming electric, as for a moment they silently looked into each others eyes, holding each other in place, Rose's eyes becoming smoky with passion and desire.

'This isn't exactly gentlemanly behaviour for a man taking his lady out for their first walk either,' Rose joked softly, raising her arms and wrapped them tight around his neck and pulled herself tighter, flush with her, her face drawing close to his.

For a moment Logan said nothing, his attention caught by the beautiful woman in his arms, her scent overwhelming his senses, her silky hair caressing him, as he drowned in her deep emerald eyes. Then Logan whispered softly, 'good thing I'm no gentleman then,' and lowered his face to hers.

He paused for a moment, his mouth less than an inch from hers, her lips parted and her moist breath against his face, and Logan searched Rose's eyes for any hesitation or reluctance. She resolved his worry, closing the distance between them and capturing his lips in her own, in what started as a soft, gentle kiss, but soon deepened, becoming more intense, passionate and fiery, as the desire and love of decades was let loose between them, Logan's arms tightening around Rose as her own hand reach up into his hair to pull him harder against her.

And as their kiss intensified, Logan became aware of Rose, her mind and presence reaching his, a powerful fire surrounding them, warming them and uniting them both, their minds embracing just as their bodies had, in blaze of love and passion. Intense feelings, emotions and sensations swirled between them, until Logan was no longer sure what came from him, and what came from her. He was floored by the strength of her love, devotion and desire for him, by the grace, beauty and passion of her, as beautiful within and without, just as her name. And his mind and heart was laid bare before her, felt her delight at the intense and overwhelming love that surged from his heart, blazing in answer to her own.

It seemed as though for an eternity they remained in this embrace, until they both were brought back out of this union by the sound of a polite cough. They broke away from each other dazedly, though remained in each others arms, Rose looking at him shyly in wonder and love, and Logan knew a large and probably stupid looking grin was plastered across his mug. It took him a moment to form coherent thoughts, and then remembering the cough turned to look towards it's source.

'We came to see how you were doing Logan, but looks like we needn't have worried,' Kitty said, grinning knowingly, looking at them alongside Kurt and Ororo.