Things had changed again in the room of Logan's imagination. The fourth wall still opened out into forest, but the office itself had altered. It was a bit more sleek, more masculine, perhaps. A full wall video screen caught her eye, and Ariel grinned in spite of herself as she looked around. There was a broad couch in front of the screen, and she couldn't help remembering movie night. "I see you've hired a decorator." When she turned to look at Logan, his expression was grim. "Okay. No jokes. What is it that you want to show me."
He turned toward a console near the screen, and pushed a few buttons. "Reading a file won't work for this one. I'm using video now." He picked up a small remote and handed it to her. "This'll stop it if you don't want to see anymore."
She stared at the remote in her hand for a few moments thoughtfully. Then she sat down on the couch, placing the remote on the table next to her. "Alright. I'm ready when you are."
He stood, staring at the ground for a while, before he shrugged and looked at her. "This is old. One of the first things I remember clearly-" he stopped with a sarcastic shake of his head, looked over towards the big windows. "One of the first things I remember clearly from after…"
"After the change?"
"Yeah." He glanced at her briefly, gratitude flashing in his eyes for her calm. "I know I'd been hiding out in the wild for some time… don't know how long… but I started coming into town, and doing the fighting thing, even back then. I guess that's when the fighting habit started."
"That's understandable." Ariel did her best to radiate calm, but his own fears were making her uneasy. "Do you know how many years ago?"
He shrugged. "Nine?" He shook his head again. "I'm not really sure. Sometimes it's a blur."
She nodded. "Go ahead."
"Anyway. I remember there were …women. Not much more than girls, really… a lot of runaways end up out there. There's always men with money, and need." He almost sat down next to her on the couch, then seemed to reconsider, sitting in a chair nearby instead. "I was a pretty out of control back then. Looking for anything to make me feel… human."
She watched him carefully, then reached over to put her hand on his. He pulled away, and she sighed. "Logan, why don't you just show me."
He nodded, almost compulsively, and stretched his neck. "Alright." He looked at her once more, and she couldn't tell what was going on in the hidden recesses of his mind. She didn't dare to pry. "Alright."
The screen faded into an image of a young girl, with dark hair and eyes. She was strangely familiar, yet different. "Wait." Logan jumped at Ariel's interruption.
"What?"
"Did she really look that much like Rogue?"
He stared at the screen, and slowly frowned. "No. She had lighter brown hair…a little taller… and she was a little older. But not much." The image on the screen slowly changed at his words, and became less Rogue-like. She was still a young woman, clearly weathered by life, and aged well beyond her years.
"Okay. Do you mind if I pause like that if I have questions, or is it too jarring?"
He stared at the screen, shook his head. "I don't know."
She nodded. "I'll try to avoid it. Let's just go, then." She pressed a button on the remote and the girl began to move, walking through the door of a dingy tavern. It was smoky, crowded, and she looked over at the bar, seeming to check out the clientele. The girl clearly spotted something and, puttting on a rather fake smile, walked toward the bar.
Her voice was muted by the noise of the crowd, but obviously someone was listening as she spoke to the barkeep. Someone with better than normal hearing. "So. Who won tonight?" The bartender barely glanced up from the glass he was polishing, and nodded his head down the bar. "Thanks." She walked up to a familiar figure who was hunched over the counter, a beer and a shot in front of him, a cigar in his hand. He looked tired.
"I hear you're the big winner, handsome."
His eyes didn't leave the surface of the bar. "Oh, yeah, that's me. The big winner."
She shifted her shoulder bag, impatient. "So, you want some company after all that work, or not?" He turned to look at her lazily, his eyes traveling up and down her body. After a considered pause, he shrugged.
"Why not." He put some money on the bar and they walked out together.
"I'll skip ahead." Logan pushed something and the scene faded, reappearing on a view of him rolling over in bed, closing his eyes, the young woman already asleep on her side of the bed. She looked older somehow instead of younger as she slept, and terribly worn. Ariel winced at the feeling she got just looking at her.
"Do you want to stop watching?"
She turned and looked Logan in the eye. "What?" Realizing that he had seen her, and thought it was a response to what he had done with the girl rather than her reaction to the girl herself, Ariel raised a hand. "No, Logan, it's not that. I don't fault you for taking solace where you could. I hope you were careful." She looked concerned for a moment. "But I've worked with so many runaways. So many young women who just throw themselves away, throw themselves out, before they even know who they are…" She sighed. "Did you know her name?"
He looked at the floor. "No."
There was something about him that made Ariel realize that this wasn't the point of the memory. "There's more?"
"Yeah." He pushed a button. "There is."
The scene drifted into darkness, and Ariel realized she was seeing Logan dreaming. There were metallic, scraping sounds, cries… pounding, bubbling, pouring noises that felt like they were going through her soul… and then screaming. Not a dream, a nightmare.
On the screen, she saw Wolverine fighting against a haunting series of confused images, trying to escape, breaking the bonds that held him, stabbing the men that tried to hold him back, mowing them down like grass at midsummer. He kicked, ran, slashing, howling, flying through the corridors of the lab until he reached daylight…
Ariel took a deep breath and blinked back the tears. It was one thing to have the Professor describe these things to her, quite another to be sitting here, watching it with Logan's eyes, feeling from him what he felt then. She trembled, and it took all her self control to hold her own emotions down, and try to imagine what this must be like for him to relive.
She turned to look at him. "Logan?" He was looking even more tense than before, almost like he wanted to scream. "Are you alright?"
"Wait."
Confused, she looked back at the screen. The image had faded once more to Logan's face, eyes closed, sleeping fitfully as he lay on his side. With a jerk his eyes opened, and he looked startled, confused about where he was. Slowly he blinked, remembering, and rolled over onto his back. A sudden memory made him look exasperated, and he raised his hand to rub his eyes. Tipping his head lazily he looked over to where the girl was sleeping. Ariel gasped in tandem with the Wolverine.
Where the girl was lying, bloody and unmoving. Wolverine leapt up out of bed and stared at the body. The sheets that covered her were torn in strips, and he could see three stab wounds across her chest and neck, three more slashed across her abdomen. Blood stained the bed beneath her like a giant poppy, splattered across the pillow, across her face.
Ariel found she was holding her breath. The girl's eyes were still closed, as if she had never even awakened. The attack must have been that fast. "Oh…"
The Wolverine on the screen stared around, panicked, and grabbed his clothes, running for the door. He ran and ran, until the deep forests swallowed him, and the screen faded to black.
Logan stood, his back to Ariel, and spoke quietly. "And that's why… why anytime I'm with a woman now, I make sure I leave before…"
Ariel sat for a few minutes in the quiet, trying to take in what she had just seen. "Logan?" He didn't move. "Can we go back to my office, now?"