A/N: Well, here's another chapter.  It's a little longer than the past few were.  Hope you like it.

Disclaimer:

Don't stumble.  Stay Humble.

~bazooka joe

            First he had tried to read her mind the same as any other, but he couldn't.  Entry was forbidden him.  So he did the next best thing.  If he couldn't get anything out of her mind, well, he'd just put something in.

            It was an easy spell, all things considered.  A few words, few gestures, and at his command the Beast relived her worst memories.  He couldn't see them, but her screams sometimes held words.  Soon he was able put together what she experienced.

            Not that it mattered.  He needed her weak, needed her to tell him what she planned for the world, what she knew of it.  But somehow she still resisted.

            They burned her, then, carefully applying the flame to one spot of her body at a time.  Her long hair became scorched as the acrid smell filled the room.  Her screams turned to whimpers, but she said nothing.

            They healed her, not so to relieve the pain, but so she would live longer.  Eventually, he was confident, he would break her.

            But the beatings had done nothing to make her talk, even when they'd used the whips with diamond shards.  Again, they'd healed her.  Again, he'd brought the nightmares.

            After the beatings had been the carving with knives.  Into her flesh they'd drawn symbols and words in ancient tongues, declaring her the Evil One, cursing her for eternity.  They'd nearly lost her that time when one of the Priests slipped and cut a major artery.

            The Healers had done their job too well.  When she awoke, she managed to attack with her long-latent powers, evoking terror in her captors.  One man had died of a heart attack before she'd been stopped, while two others killed each other for some unknown reason.

            The nightmares stayed a whole day that time.

            She hadn't tried to escape again, whether from fear of the nightmares or from guilt, he didn't know.

            But she still wouldn't—perhaps, he allowed, couldn't—tell him what he wanted to know.  And even a God can only wait so long.

            Sighing, his ancient body creaking, he leaned back in his chair, thinking.  The Beast had a connection with the Unclean Priest, but she's unconsciously shut it down once the pain started.  He'd thought it to be to his benefit to…encourage her to keep it shut, to hide her from the mutants.

            Perhaps, though, it was time to try something else…

            Tuesday 1:19 PM

            Wolverine sighed, running his hand through his hair as he looked at his friend, trying to think of what to say.

            Kurt sat on the dock outside the boathouse, tail flicking the water, a bottle of his German beer in his hand.  Several empty bottles of the same type littered the dock behind him and bobbed in the water.

            "Weren't you the one who told me never to drink alone?"

            Kurt didn't even turn around.  "Logan.  Vhat do you vant?"  (A/N:  I vant to vash and vipe your vindows!  Okay, bad joke, sorry.)

            In response Logan grabbed the beer from him and chucked it away.  "Yer not helpin' her, Kurt, by gettin' drunk."

            "It's been over a veek, Logan, and ve still don't know vhere she is.  She's blocking all of my attempts to read her, but she's leaking terror and pain through the link.  No vone knows anything productive for me to do, so if I vant to get drunk, I'm going to get drunk, and no verdammt lecture of yours will stop me!"

            Logan wondered, briefly, how mad Chuck would be if he just threw Nightcrawler into the pond.  Normally, he wouldn't care, but Xavier had been showing a sadistic streak lately.  Last time he'd pissed Chuck off he's ended up on nursery duty.  And Logan could only deal with mutant toddlers once.

            Grumbling mentally, he sat down next to Kurt on the dock.  "Look, Elf, I know yer worried.  We all are.  Heck, Bobby's about as close to her as you are, except for the link, and he's been snappin' at everyone.  But ya gotta stop this."

            Kurt continued to stare across the water.  "You don't understand."

            Logan roughly grabbed Kurt by the shoulders, spinning him around.  "Then explain it to me."

            Kurt just stared at him, eyes empty and hollow.

            Swearing, Logan rose to head back to the mansion.  He hadn't gone five paces when Kurt spoke.

            "I'm in love vith her, mein freund."

            Startled, Logan stopped in his tracks.  Later he wondered how he, with his enhanced senses, hadn't noticed it before.  The answer, he realized, was that he simply hadn't been looking for it.

            He numbly turned to face Kurt, taking in his haunted expression and tortured eyes.  Wolverine could think of only one thing to say.

            "Fuck."