Title: Something better, sequel to "Cinderella search"
Rating: PG-13
Archiving: WRFA, Mutual Admiration, Dolphin Haven. Anyone else, ask first please.
Disclaimer: Oh yes, they're mine. *knock knock* Go away, you pesky lawyer!
Feedback: That's what I'm living for...
Setting: During the movie
Summary: What's going on in Logans mind during the events in the movie? Logan POV
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Remember what I said about nothing ever going my way? Well,
surprise surprise. That's not going to change anytime soon
as it seems. Me and my passenger, the sweet girl from the bar,
hadn't gotten far from Lauglin City when life once again decided
that a lucky break every now and again should be denied me
at all costs. Like everyone else I'm fooling myself that
things will change someday. Or I used to, before I realised
how harsh life can be and often is. It's stupid to believe,
even naive, to think that things can turn around. Some people
say that it's only up to you to change the things you hate.
Pure bullshit I tell you. Especially to someone like me
that doubts there is something better.

Which life now once again decided to prove to me.

Where in hell did that fuckin' tree come from? Doesn't
matter. It did come too fast for me to avoid it and the
crash was unavoidable and the impact's making me flying through
the windshield like a bat out of hell. Shit, shit and shit again!
I got enough wounds, again, to kill a normal guy but as I
said I'm not really normal. I just got knocked out for a short while
when the healing was doing its thing. I slowly, too slowly, got
upon my feet again and notice something. My sense of smell notices
there's someone else here. Someone dangerous. No time to worry
about that. I extend my claws, preparing me for the worst. They're
barely out before some savage looking beast jumps out from the
wood on the side of the road and he's damn fast too. Before I've
had time to react, he's thrown me into a tree knocking the breath
out of me and while I'm struggling to get up, he hits me again
with the remains of the treetrunk sending me flying again. The
last thing I remember is landing hard on the hood of the car.

Next thing I know I'm lying on a examination table. Fuck! Not back
in the lab! I react instinctively when someone's trying to give me
a shot of something and fly of the table and grab the doctors
throat. Something's wrong. No, this isn't the old lab I was in.
If it had been I wouldn't have been able to get of the table in the
first place and this woman doesn't smell like she's as twitched as
those fuckers. Just gotta get out of here! I release her throat and just
runs away.

This place is sure weird. I'm in some sort of underground complex
and I keep hearing voices in my head, freaking me out. I must have
hit my head harder than I thought.

Eventually I find my way up to the upper levels but the voices
keep distracting me. Almost like they're guiding me somewhere.
I'm no damn puppet on a string! The voices are behind that door!
Hm, not what I expected. Just an older bald man and some kids
in there. I dunno what I expected but that's not it. It almost
looks like, oh I don't know. Turns out I interrupted a class.
When the kids leaves the old man introduces him as Professor
Charles Xavier and claims I'm in Westchester, New York.

"Where's the girl?"
"Rogue? She's here. She's fine."
"Really?" Oh, she better be baldy or you're so dead.

Then a couple of other people walks in. A white-haired black woman
and a confident looking man with some weird glasses. And the doctor.
She's rather beutiful but there's something wrong with her. Distant.
Like life's not been so kind to her either.

After Xavier gave me the grand tour of the place, I'm even more
certain that this place is weird. A whole mansion filled with
mutants! A bunch of idealists out to save the world, or the mutants
of the world at least. I hate to break it to them but they're in for
a nasty surprise or two. But a place to crash for a night or two
is an opportunity I'm not going to turn down, especially since
the Professor promised he'd help me to find my past. I don't really think
he will be able to but he seems like the kind of guy that genuinely
wants to help people even if it can be misguided at times.

The doctor shows me the way to a small room but it's a lot nicer
than what I'm used to. Hm, what was her name? Jean, that's it.
I ask her where her room is. Not because I want to get into it
with her but because I need to know where the people around
here are. One thing you learn when you spend your entire life
on the roads is to watch your back and that includes knowing
where everyone you don't know well are and what they might
be up to. She's having a room just down the corridor with
that Summers guy. Good. Two people at the same place. Makes things
easier. I also managed to figure out what her 'gift' is. Or
gifts in her case. Telekinetic and telepathic. Quite a package.
I even managed to convince her to read my mind. You don't know,
she might be able to see something there I can't see myself. I don't
know what she saw but whatever it was it shocked her. So much that
she didn't notice Cyclops standing in the doorway.

I really think I gave his confidence too much credit because he read the
situation so wrong. He seems to think I was hitting on his girl.
Forget it pal. Whatever faults I might have, stealing someone elses
girl is not one of them. No need to be jealous here, bub. Well,
he is confident enough to just leave with a smart-ass remark though.

I try to get myself some sleep but as always sleep is not for me. Not
for a long time and when it finally comes the nightmares comes as well.
I thrash around in bed as always, seeing the doctors from hell using
me as a human pin cushion and guinea pig. I hear someone calling
me in the distance and I react instinctively, claws extends out of
reflex into whoever it is that's takes delight into torturing me.

When I look up I realise that I hadn't been able to see the difference
between my nightmare and reality. Oh God! What have I done! I stabbed
Marie! She's going to die! "Someone help me!" I don't know why she's
reaching out to touch me. Instinct? Needing a final touch before
she dies? Can't blame her considering that she's been devoid of touch
for so long. But now I know what she meant with "They just get hurt".
I've never felt like this before and I just lose consciousness.

When I wake up again, I see the Professor sitting next to my bed.
"What happened? Is she all right?" Please God!
"She'll be alright." Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!
My life pretty much sucks all the way and to know that I would have
been guilty of killing that poor kid would have just been too much.
The other thing Xavier said didn't register at first. The thing
that she could have killed me if she had held on any longer.
When it did register my first thought was "Why didn't she?"
Then I mentally kicked myself for being a selfish bastard. As much
as death seems to be preferable to living it's not worth it if it
means that poor girl would have to live with killing me for the
rest of her life. I'd rather continue with this pathetic excuse
than letting her deal with that.

She drained me so much of energy that I slept well into the afternoon
once the Professor had left me so I could get some rest. When I
finally woke up I went off in search for her. Dunno for what really,
just that it felt like I had to see her. All in vain since she seemed
to have just disappeared.

Couldn't think of anything else to do but to ask the Professor if he
knew where she was. I found him together with Summers and they both
were unaware of where she was. Thanks to the Professors telepathy
he was quickly able to detect that she was no longer on the premises.

This place gets weirder and weirder. Now he shows me some thing he's
calling Cerebro, whatever that means. Some machinery designed to track
down mutants anyway. As soon as he had located her at the train station
I'm ready to go there in an instant which he does not like at all since
Magneto might be able to get me then. Can understand his reasonings
if I could understand what Magneto would want with me but I don't like it.
I can't help this feeling that she took of because of me so that makes
it my responsibility to get her back here. I can be sneaky when I want
to so I get down to the garage borrowing a motorcycle to get to the
station as fast as possible. Did that even faster than I thought it was
possible thanks to some enhancement someone built into the bike.

I find her in one of the trains ready to leave the station. Cerebro isn't
the only thing able to track people down. My nose is rather good at that
too. She seems so lost and sad and I do my best to comfort her. Nothing
I'm really good at but she shines up a little, especially when I promise
I'm gonna take care of her. Haven't got a clue where that came from, only
that I'm surprising myself with it. I think I managed to convince her
to come back to the school when the train abruptly stops and some freak
dressed in red and with a goofy looking helmet on steps in. I react with
instinct again and extends the claws.

The guy doesn't seem scared one bit but only says "You must be Wolverine"
and well, lifts me off the ground without even being close to him. This
must be that Magneto guy. He bends my skeleton and claws, just testing
the limits of it it seems.
"What on Earth do you want with me?"
"You? My dear boy, what makes you think I want you?". That's when I realise
it's Marie he wants. Can't understand why and I don't get the opportunity
to find out since he knocks me out by throwing me backwards into the wall.

When I wakes up again, both Magneto and Marie are gone. Like I said,
life seems to get its kicks from kicking me in the face. This time I'm
having a wee bit of luck though since I found the bike where I had parked
it and heads back to the Mansion.

The Professor is an honest man and he admits readily that he had made
a terrible mistake in thinking Magneto had wanted me and not Marie.
Magneto is impossible to find with Cerebro and now that he's got Marie
with him, she's impossibe to find also. Which means I have to find
her in the traditional way of looking. When I open the frontdoor an
exhausted man falls into me, looking for Jean. Senator Robert Kelly.
Even I recognize him but something's changed about him.

The Professor examines him and tries to find out what has happened to him.
Magneto's more evil than I had originally thought, or more careless.
The senator is dying because of the infernal machine Magneto had exposed him
to. Everyone but Storm is discussing what needs to be done and what Magnetos
plans are and we've come to the conclusion that he is going to use Marie to
power that machine like some living battery! That's when Storm bursts
through the door saying Kelly just died.

The Professor was making a last attempt to find Magneto with Cerebro when
the next disaster struck. I don't know why he tried since it's been useless so
far but at least it showed how little old friendships meant to Magneto. He
had actually had the machine sabotaged so the Professor got knocked out.
Don't know Magnetos reasons there either since he knew so much about the
machine he could shield himself from it. I'm just guessing here but I think
he did it to show that he could and that the old friendship they shared
meant nothing to him anymore.

To make a long story even longer, Jean eventually managed to repair the
machine and used it to locate Magneto. Again, I'm only guessing but I think the
reason she succeeded where the Professor failed is that Magneto didn't take her
into consideration as much as he should have. Don't matter really. What matters
is that we now know where he is and what he plans to do.

Which of course we intend to stop. I'm only into this to save Marie but if
saving her also means that we at the same time stops a maniac from mutating the
world leaders so much the better.

I won't go into the details over how we fought the Brotherhood. I will only
say that if these so-called X-men are serious in defending the powerless they
will need to develop their killer instincts. And some more training in team-work.
But the last thing goes for me too. All the buts notwithstanding, we
defeated the bad guys in the nick of time. At a high cost. Summers was forced to
blast the damn machine with Marie still in it. I don't think I could have put my
own feelings at the side the way he did but I'm glad he was able to. If he
hadn't Marie would most certainly had died there because of what the machine
was doing to her.

It was too close a call for comfort anyway and the only reason she's still
among the living is because I touched her so she could borrow my healing ability.
And at first it didn't seem to be working. Like she was already dead! I was
literally ready to tear my heart out and would do anything to have my little
Cinderella to wake up again. I just leaned over her in grief with my head
touching hers when her mutation suddenly woke up. It hurt as much as the last time
but my heart just sang out with joy! She might still make it! And once again I
passed out.

I woke up in the medical bay back at the mansion with Jean. She looked
really happy to see me awake again.
"That was a brave thing you did."
No, not brave. A necessity and then bravery doesn't enter into the picture.
"Did it work?"
"Yes. She'll be fine. You know, I think she's a little taken with you."
Fuck! That's the last thing I want. No, it's not. It's just that I know what
I'm like. She's worth so much more than me.
"Well, you can tell her my heart belongs to someone else."
"You know, you and I..."
"How's the Professor?" I know she means to say things would never work out
between us and that she wouldn't want us to be involved either way. Which is fine by me
but I don't want an uncomfortable situation here.
"He's good." I think she understands why I interrupted her. Or maybe I just
want her to understand.
"Good."

Some days later I'm getting ready to leave, after I had had some information
from the Professor. I try to sneak out but Marie caught me trying to do that.

"Hey? You runnin' again?"
Oh, you bet I am. But that won't do as an answer.
"No, not really. I have some things to take care of up north."
Those white streaks she got from the machine looks really fitting for some
reason but I can't help but wonder why she hasn't dyed them away or something. I touch
her hair there looking at her questioningly.
"I kinda like them". Yeah, so do I.
"I don't want you to go." Me neither but I have to. I don't know what to say
so I just give her my dogtags. They mean a lot to me even though I have no clue why.
"I'll be back for these" I lie, hoping she won't see through me. I have no
intention of coming back to ruin what's left of her innocence. I promised I would take
care of her and that I will do. Even from me. Let her just have my dogtags as a memory.

I leave the mansion before I realise I have no means of transportation. Oh
well. Summers bike's as good as any. I know I shouldn't but that temptation is one I can't
resist.

I speed through the gates of Xaviers mansion doing my best not to look back.

Like I said, I don't think life has something better in store for me than
the cards I've already been dealt. Marie should have her chance though which means a
life without me. But it hurts. It hurts so bad to admit that.

Still, that's the way it is and I just have to learn how to deal with it.