Tested Disclaimer: Premise and characters are the property of Marvel, I'm just borrowing them for a bit of non-profit fun.

Part 14

Logan approached the mutant research facility with caution. They'd built the place in some of the most god-awful, isolated, unreachable terrain South America had to offer. Any sane person, or one with a less urgent need than his would have come by helicopter… and been shot down if they weren't welcome. He'd had to leave the jeep forty miles back, it was a tough vehicle, made for off roads; he was actually impressed by how far it had brought him. Despite the fortress' natural defenses he still expected guards, it worried him when he didn't pick up any traces of them.

Watching the kill zones around the facility through his binoculars he did see movement, sighs of life, but it wasn't the sort of movement he was expecting. People wandering around without purpose, the sounds of random burst of gunfire, he was certain he'd seen one man walk up and stab another for no earthly purpose. Whatever was going on in side that building, it was bad. Common sense told him he wanted no part of this place, but the rumors he'd been following said these people had bought files from the Weapon X program, they might have information on him, his past, copies of the files Sabretooth had burned, he needed to know who he'd been, what kind of person he'd been before Weapon X got a hold of him. He wanted to be better than he was, he wanted to make things right, that meant going down there, finding out what was wrong with him and looking for a way to fix it.

Logan started making his way down into the high mountain valley that housed the facility. As he got closer the sounds of screams and laughter echoed up to him, the sounds of madhouse with all the inmates turned loose.

He made his way past the pathetic creatures roaming the grounds and into the building. The entire place reeked of blood, foot prints, hand marks, all painted in crimson, led away from the depths of the complex, Logan wondered if it were an indication of survivors or merely the marks of passage left behind from those madmen aimlessly roaming the grounds. As he made his way deeper into the complex he began finding other people, ones who made those he'd encountered before look like the lucky ones. These were ones who sat on the floor, rocking back and forth while they sobbed or worse yet, ones who stared blank-eyed at the walls.

A soft murmur reached his ears, "Eat, sil vous plait. Yo' need to eat, chere." Logan felt his heart clench at the familiarly accented voice. Dreading what he'd find, Logan followed the gently pleading sounds.

Remy was crouching in front of one of the victims, holding a spoon to the woman's mouth, trying to persuade her to eat. The teen looked like he was on the edge, his longish hair was stringy, eyes sunken and darkly circled, his skin pale with shock.

"Rem?" Logan asked almost fearfully.

The bowl of soup that had been balanced on Remy's knee clattered to the ground as the teen spun to confront Logan, his bo staff appearing in his hand almost like magic. As Remy recognized the other man his hand dipped into a pocket, emerging with a fan of cards.

"It's just me, Remy," Logan said.

"An' what's dat supposed to mean to me?" Remy demanded. "Why are yo' here? What do yo' want wit' me?"

"I'm here to help, kid. I just wanna help," Logan replied.

"Dat what yo' tol' Scott?" Remy asked bitterly.

Logan flinched, "Look Rem you're in a mess here, let me help. What happened? Are you okay?"

Remy turned away, shoulders slumping. "Don' need your help," he said. "Rien to do here anyway. Dey're all dead, even de ones who be 'live. Dere's nothin' lef' inside dem. Rien dat's whole, dey're all broken and dere's not a t'ing I can do to fix dem."

"Then let's get out of here. You don't look so good kid, and it's a long walk."

"I tol' yo', I don' need yo'!" Remy snarled. "Go 'way."

"I was wrong, Scott's still alive," Logan said.

Remy gave him an angry disbelieving glare, then turned and walked away.

****** ****** ******

Marius knocked on Belle's door, "No more puttin' dis off Belle," he said.

"A'right Daddy, I jus' been tired lately," Belle apologized opening the door. "De las' few months jus' caught up wit' me all at once it seems like."

Marius closed the door behind him. "Yo' were seen dumpin' de gun," he said. "I started lookin' for what went wrong soon as I found yo' weren' on dat boat. Mebbe dey were lookin' for yo' a'ready 'cause of Julien, mais yo' still were sloppy to let yourself be seen. Yo' deal wit' whatevah was distractin' yo' 'fore your nex' 'ssignment or else yo' take a support position. Far as 'M concerned yo're on probation till yo' prove yo' can do de job right."

Stunned Belle watched him leave in silence.

****** ****** ******

Two days later, Logan had thoroughly searched the compound. He'd considered calling out for help, but he didn't know who he'd call. The X-Men would have come for Remy's sake, but he doubted they'd believe anything he said or trust him not to lead them into a trap.

He could see this place eating away at Remy's spirit. Remy had been right, there was nothing they could do for these people, but Remy made no move to leave. He kept trying to help them even though he knew it was hopeless. Remy refused to speak with him, it made persuading him of anything next to impossible, he'd leave any room Logan entered without a word, but Logan could see he needed to get Remy away from the facility.

Not knowing what else to do, Logan stalked Remy through the complex, he slipped up behind the teen and struck him in the back of the head, then scooped up Remy's unconscious body and started the long hike back to his jeep, hoping Remy would be more reasonable once they were away from that place and whatever had happened there.

They were half way to the top of the pass leading out of the valley by the time Remy began to stir.

Logan let the teen slip off his shoulder and leaned him against a boulder along side the path he'd been following. He kept Remy's wrists pinned, wanting to prevent any sort of altercation until he could explain himself.

Remy's eyelids fluttered, a moment later he started struggling against Logan's hold, teeth clenched in a silent snarl.

"Remy, listen to me kid!" Logan demanded. The telltale glow of Remy's power flowed up the teen's arms, Logan could feel the charge sinking it to his skin, seeking out the metal bonded to his bones.

Remy grinned, his eyes burning with a deadly back fire as his pupils dilated until only a thin rim of red remained. "Yo' feel dat, don' yo'? Yo' could probably gut me for it went off, but it wouldn' save yo'. Lemme go, now."

"Ya promise to listen to me and I'll let go," Logan said, gritting his teeth at the energy he could feeling building inside him. He could see it building in Remy too. Logan felt an apprehensive chill run up his spine as he realized that fire burned under Remy's skin, as if it ate at his muscles rather than burning the dust in the air around him like it had always done before.

"D'accord," Remy said with a sharp nod of his head, a look of strain crossed his face and Logan felt Remy's charge dissipating, but the teen continued glowing.

"I didn't know you could reverse it," Logan commented.

"I been practicin'," Remy replied coldly. "Dere's lots of t'ings I can do dat I couldn' 'fore. 'M listen, s' talk."

"I couldn't leave ya there, Rem. Being in that place wasn't good for you," Logan said deciding not to upset Remy by mentioning that he was starting to look like one of the light bulb people from 'Cocoon'. "We'll walk back to my jeep, then I'll drive you to the nearest town. You can go on your own way from there, if ya want."

"I didn' ask for your help, Wolverine. I don' want it," Remy said.

"Kid you're in the middle of nowhere. No one else is going to come out this way," Logan argued. "You may not want my help, but you need it. I know you're mad at me, but you're too smart, too good at surviving to let that push you into doing something stupid."

"I hate you," Remy said.

Logan's expression tightened at Remy's words. "It doesn't matter. I'm getting you back to civilization if I have to tie you up and haul you over my shoulder the whole damn way."

Remy got up and started toward the path, stumbling over a rock in the road. Logan caught him before he could fall and received a cold, black-eyed glare in response. "I'll walk," he said, shaking Logan's hand off.

It took twenty minutes for the glow of Remy's power to fade from his body, but Logan still found that the teen needed to be guided along a path he couldn't see. Not that Remy was willing to allow Logan to lead him. After several hours of stubbornly ignoring any offers of assistance, stumbling blindly over dips and rocks in the trail Remy grudgingly gave in to necessity and allowed Logan to lead him, but that didn't mean he was willing to acknowledge the older man presence.

At first Logan tried making small talk, tried avoiding any touchy subjects. Remy steadfastly ignored him. It didn't take Logan long to give up the effort as pointless. A heavy, uncomfortable silence lay between them for the entire day's hike. When they stopped to set up camp for the night Logan told Remy to let him take care of things. Remy pretended not to hear and began groping around the edges of the clearing looking for firewood.

Finally Logan had had enough of the silent treatment. "I was wrong Remy, I know that. I didn't kill him, Cyclops survived. I got lucky in that. I'm sorry about what I did, I want to make up for it. I never meant to hurt you."

Remy paused in his efforts to start a campfire without his powers. "I've kilt people," he said. "Kilt people to defend m'self, to protect m' friends, Belle. I don' feel no guilt 'bout dat." Remy's pitch-black eyes tracked back toward the lab they'd left behind. "Mos'ly, I don' feel guilty," he amended. "Lots of people died 'cause I was stupid, 'cause I made mistakes. Dat hurts, I'd give anyt'ing to undo dat. Mais, I didn' mean for dem to die, dere was no malice in what I did. Why'd yo' kill Scott? I miss him."

"I was screwed up Remy." Logan said. "I shouldn't have done it, but Jeannie meant everything to me, and it wasn't fair of Xavier to take her away like that…"

"Jean don' love yo'," Remy stated flatly.

"No, you're just a kid. Ya don't know what you're talking about," Logan argued. "I shouldn't of attacked Cyclops, but she did love me, before that she loved me."

"I'm an empat'. Yo' made her hot, made her excited. She wanted yo', but Scott… He was de one she missed when he wasn' wit' her. He was de one who made her eyes light up when he walked t'rough de door," Remy said.

"You're wrong, you're just lashing out at me," Logan said. "I'm not going to get mad, I'm in control. You've got a right to be upset."

"I tol' yo', I hate yo'," Remy insisted. "I trusted yo', t'ought yo' were m' friend. Scott was m' friend. How could yo' do dat?"

"I'm sorry, I don't know what else to say except I'm sorry."

****** ****** ******

Several days later Logan watch as Remy bartered for ride back into civilization with a couple of farmers then drove off with them, leaving him behind.

Back Next Please send feeback