Chapter 10: Torment

Jubilee hardly had time to scream. Sabretooth landed on top of her, his fist smashing into her face. Her head whipped to the side, and then to the other as he backhanded her. Jubilee heard Moose screaming, partly from his own pain and partly from his anger at what was being done to her, but he was powerless to do anything with both arms and one leg broken. She cried out, in pain and shock, as Sabretooth continued to beat her until she was nearly senseless.

She barely realized when he got off her; she was nearly incapable of noticing anything. Her face was bruised and swollen where his fists had struck her. When he pulled back and started to kick her battered body, she could only lie there and cry helplessly, dazed from the concussion she had gotten from Sabretooth's fists.

Moose screamed in frustration and pain and fear. The agony in his arms and his leg was almost unbearable; but seeing Jubilee being beaten almost to death was intolerable. Whoever this Sabretooth was, he had to really hate her to do this to her. And it was because of him! If Jubilee hadn't been trying to help him she would never have crippled herself by putting that narrow metal band around her neck. He wept with anguish and frustration; if only he could do something!

Sabretooth stopped beating on the still body in front of him. She was just conscious enough to recognize what he was doing as he pushed up her skirt and ripped her panties off her legs. She moaned weakly but couldn't fight as he rolled her flat onto her back. His eyes roved her nudity from the waist down, and fastened on the fresh tattoo on her hip. "Logan," he snapped. "Ya gonna marry da runt?" He seized her hand as she tried to yank it out of his grasp, and he found the sapphire ring Logan had bought her. "Guess so," he leered. "Well, lessee 'f I can change ya mind. I'm more da man he's ever gonna be." And Jubilee screamed in agony as he cruelly slammed into her defenseless body.

Moose closed his eyes. He couldn't bear to see Jubilee raped in front of him while he was unable to do anything. Her cries and begging seemed to excite the feral mutant even further, and the violence increased. When the big mutant finally got off her, she was unconscious, and her clothes were bloodstained. The big mutant grabbed her limp hand, pulled off the ring, and threw it on the floor. Then he hefted the still body in his arms and stepped back through the hole in the wall. Just before he disappeared with his precious load, he turned to the man on the floor. "If ya see da runt, ya tell him I got da frail," he said.

Moose's head sank onto the cool concrete of the floor as tears fell from his eyes. The pain in his body was eclipsed by the pain in his heart and mind. The last thing he saw before he blacked out was the tiny sapphire ring, its stones winking at him like the eyes of its owner had so many times.

* * *

Logan woke with a start. He wasn't sure what had woken him, but something had. For a moment he lay awake, wondering what it was. A full moon cast light in bright parallelograms across the empty expanse of the bed beside him, and he came awake with a start and glanced at the bedside clock. Three in the morning! And Jubes wasn't home yet!

He sprang out of bed, panic rising even as his intellect tried to quell it. Maybe she'd gone barhopping with Moose and drank too much, and was sleeping it off at his place. But as he yanked his clothes on with frantic haste, the sense of impending doom that had hung over him for the last few hours refused to rest. Something was wrong. He knew it was.

To his great surprise, as he raced into the kitchen to grab the keys to the pickup that hung on a rack of keys by the back door, he almost ran into Remy, coming in the door. "Hey, homme, where you goin' in such a hurry?"

Logan didn't waste words. "Get in the truck, Gumbo," he said grimly. "Jubes ain't home yet, an' I got a bad feelin' somethin' happened. I'm goin' ta find her." Remy turned wordlessly and followed him out to the truck.

It took only a half an hour to reach Moose's garage. When they pulled up, it all looked peaceful, and Logan almost chided himself for his misgivings. Jubilee's silver Celica was parked neatly outside, and there was little external sign anything was wrong.

All of that changed when he stepped into the garage. The smell of blood hit his senses like a tidal wave, and the bright lights within outlined sharply every blood spatter, every stain, every drop spilled. Remy ran to the big man lying against the wall of the garage, unconscious, and checked him as Logan took a deep sniff. Sabretooth's stink was overwhelming in the space, no matter how much snow had drifted in through the gaping hole in the back wall. There was the smell of Jubilee's perfume, a subtle scent of jasmine and roses, so faint now because of the smell of her fear, her pain, and her blood. Logan smelled the musky scent of Jubilee's body intertwined with the salty-sour smell of Sabretooth's bodily fluids, and growled. He dropped to his knees beside Moose. "Moose!" he shook the man. "Moose!" But there was no response, and after he took a closer look at the big man, he realized he wasn't likely to get an answer from him for a long time.

Remy was calling the police and paramedics over the shop's phone. Logan put pressure on the main arteries and veins leading outward to the broken arms, and Remy grimly made a tourniquet with his belt to cut off the bleeding around the smashed kneecap.

They could only watch helplessly as the paramedics loaded the unconscious man into the ambulance and rushed him to the hospital.

Jean, Scott, and Ororo met Remy and Logan at the hospital after Remy called the mansion to let everyone know where they were and what had happened. Jean's face was streaked with tears as she ran down the hallway toward the two men. "How is he? Where's Jubilee?" she gasped breathlessly as she reached them.

"He's unconscious and in critical condition," said Remy. "And we couldn' fin' Jubilee anywhere."

"Sabretooth got her," Logan growled furiously, pacing in circles. "I smelled his stink all over the garage. He raped her, an' he beat her, and he's got her now, and I don't know if Moose is gonna be able ta tell us where they gone." He stopped in front of Jean. "Jean, can ya tap inta my mind an' try ta trace Jubes by followin' the link she placed in there? I tried, but I can't get nothin' but blankness where I should be able ta feel her." He spoke calmly, but it was a calmness borne of desperation and terrible fear for the woman he loved.

Jean sat him down on a nearby chair, reached out, and touched his mind. She found the silver linkage thread deep inside his mind, took it, and began to follow it until it ended suddenly in blankness. She shook her head and terminated the link. "She's either out of my reach, or she's unconscious," she said grimly, refusing to voice what they were all thinking: Maybe she's dead. "Maybe if we could get home, Charles would be able to do better with Cerebro."

"I will stay here with Remy and wait for news of Jubilee's friend," Ororo volunteered, and Scott nodded.

"Okay. Logan, Jean, and I will head back to the mansion and get Charles to look into Logan's mind. Ororo, as soon you hear from the doctors please call us. If we can't track her, when the doctors say he can have visitors perhaps Jean could probe the man's mind and find out what happened."

* * *

Jubilee moaned in anguish, tears of pain filling her eyes. She could barely move; she was sore all over, and most of her pain seemed concentrated in the raw ache between her legs. Sabretooth, apparently sensing that she wouldn't be able to fight him, had done little to bind her. He'd simply manacled her wrists behind her and run a chain to a concrete support pillar behind her. Memories of Bastion ran through her mind, but she pushed them aside and tried to concentrate on the here-and-now.

'Here' was apparently a large, abandoned warehouse. The only light in the building came from a single bright bulb dangling from the ceiling above her. She squinted up at the light, trying to see beyond it. Surely there had to be a window somewhere around her so she could see if it was day outside yet.

How long had she been unconscious? She didn't know, and that frightened her. Moose had been hurt badly; Jubilee fervently hoped someone heard his screams and checked on him. If he lost too much blood he would die. She cursed herself for being too slow to obey Sabretooth's order; if she'd been just a bit faster maybe he wouldn't have been hurt as badly.

"Hey, frail," came Sabretooth's hateful voice, and a rough hand grabbed her hair and yanked her head back. "Whatcha think, huh?"

"The accomodations suck, and you stink," she snapped at him. "Let me go, before Logan comes to find me and takes a chunk out of your ass for hurting me."

Sabretooth let go of her hair and reached behind him. His wandering hands found a chair and snagged it, and he pulled it in front of her and sat down. He hadn't bothered to clean himself off after violating her earlier, and she smelled her own blood and body fluids on him as he pushed his groin toward her. "Open yer mouth, girl," he said.

Jubilee grimaced and turned her head away. There was no way she was going to do that! She enjoyed it with Logan…but there was no way she was going to do that for Creed.

"I said open yer mouth, girl!" Sabretooth slapped her hard enough to drive her head back onto the concrete pillar she was chained to, and she saw stars. She kept her mouth stubbornly closed.

He growled and slapped her head again, ramming her head against the pole again and again and again until she was crying from the pain in her head. She fell over, dizzy, when he finally released her, and lay there dazed. Sabretooth got down on his knees and hauled her head up. She retained just enough awareness to clench her teeth as he brought her face closer to his body.

He grabbed her hair and yanked it back, so far back that her mouth opened involuntarily. She gagged and retched as he rammed into her open mouth.

Sabretooth groaned as he felt the involuntary contractions of her throat around him. It didn't take him long this time; it was the thought that he had one of the runt's women suffering at his feet that inflamed his senses. He knew she hated him; he knew the runt was probably going crazy right now wondering where she was. He had brought Jubilee here to the warehouse he'd been hiding out in; then gone back to the motorcycle shop and waited on the roof of a building some distance upwind. He'd nearly frozen himself, but it had been worth it, to see the runt sniffing frantically at the air and the freshly-fallen snow looking for him and the frail. But Sabretooth had covered his tracks well, and his scent was masked by the hundreds of other scents in the city. It wasn't going to be as easy to track him in the city as it was out in the wilderness.

He finally released her and sat back on the chair, watching as she gagged and retched and coughed. A thin trickle of saliva and body fluids dripped from the corner of her mouth as she gasped and vomited. Her eyes were burning with hatred when he finally stood, towering over her. "Learnt ya lesson?" he smirked.

Jubilee didn't think about the consequences. She spat a mouthful of bile at him.

He unlocked the chain from around the post and dragged her to her feet, then threw the chain over a low overhead beam. He kept tugging on the chain until her upper body was bent to the floor and she whimpered from the strain on her shoulders. He surveyed her bent position and grinned as he slashed away her clothes. Jubilee cringed visibly when her clothes finally fell away and Sabretooth leered at her nudity. She started screaming as he assaulted her again.

* * *

Moose opened his eyes slowly. He felt like he was floating in a dense, thick fog; he couldn't feel anything. Probably a good thing, or I'd be screaming by now, he thought. Wait. Where's the little Lady?I got to..gotta…"..Help…" It came out as a croak.

A gentle hand fell on his forehead. "I believe he's waking up," said a woman's voice. He could drown in that voice; it was the voice of an angel. He opened his eyes, and groaned.

A tall African goddess sat beside his bed, silver hair framing a delicate, high-cheekboned face. She was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen; something about her reminded him of his beloved Carly. "Who…who are…"

"My name is Ororo," said the goddess. "I am a friend of Jubilee's. Logan and Remy found you in your garage with both arms broken and your kneecap smashed. How do you feel?"

"Jubilee…Jubilee…where is she…ya gotta find her…that crazy mutant…" He tried to sit up, ignoring the agonizing pains in her arms and leg. Ororo placed a hand in the middle of his chest and pressed him back onto the bed until he lay back, gasping from pain and exertion. "Where's Logan?"

"He is on his way here," Ororo took a cup of water from someone he couldn't see and ran an arm behind his back. With her help, he managed to get a few sips down to cool his burning, raw throat. Exhausted from the effort, he lay back, and she gently slipped a pillow under his head.

"Jubilee…" he couldn't get the image out of his mind; his little Lady lying on the floor, bruised and screaming as she was brutally assaulted. "Jubilee…" he stared at the ceiling, not knowing, or caring, that tears were streaming from his eyes.

Ororo pushed a strand of tangled hair out of his eyes and wiped a tear away before it could hit the pillow. She was worried about Jubilee too…but this man lying in the bed in front of her was so plainly torn up about her loss as well…Ororo patted his arm. "Rest," she said gently. "Save your strength. No," she held up a warning finger as he started to say something, "Wait until Logan gets here. Then you will only need to tell everything once." She was helping him take another drink when the door flew open and Logan pounded into the room.

"Logan!…" And Moose started to struggle up to a sitting position. Ororo stopped trying to keep him down and slid another pillow behind him, helping him sit up. Jean came running in a half second after Logan and skidded to a stop.

"Moose!" Logan grabbed his shoulders. "What happened?"

"The little Lady…she come by ta show me her tattoo, an' this big mutant busted in the back wall a' my garage. Took me completely by surprise, Logan, I swear… He had me before I could get away; I tried to break his grip, I swear I did, but he was just too goddamn freakin' strong. I couldn't get him offa me. Jubes kept screaming at him to let me go, that she'd do anything if he'd let me go. He broke my arms, I think ta show 'er he was serious. Then he threw this little metal collar at her and told her to put it on and lock it. She hesitated; she didn't want to, I guess. That was when he broke my knee. Jubilee put the damn thing on. I begged her not to; but she did anyway to save me…" tears filled his eyes again, and his voice got hoarse. "That mutant…she called him Sabretooth…he threw me aside like a doll and grabbed her. Logan…he ripped her clothes off and beat her up and he …he raped her…right there in front of me, and she was screaming and crying, she couldn't stop him and I couldn't stop him and he just kept hurting her until she passed out…oh god…" And he dissolved into tears, crying as hard as anyone Ororo had ever seen.

Logan fell to his knees beside Moose's bed, numb with shock and anguish. It was worse than he could have imagined…Jubilee…he collected himself with an effort and asked him, "Moose…Moose, he didn' happen ta say where he was headed, did he?"

"No…no he didn't," Moose said. "He just told me ta tell ya he had her."

* * *

Sabretooth stood on the roof of the warehouse, watching as the motorcycle roared by the warehouse for the fourth time that day. Dark was closing in; Logan would probably pass by maybe one more time before heading back to the mansion.

He had been doing this for five days now, and Sabretooth had been deriving almost the same amount of enjoyment from Logan's frantic attempts to find the girl as he had assaulting and hurting her. She was lying now in a wooden crate downstairs, wrapped in a flannel blanket to muffle the sound of her cries and hide the smell of her blood from the man who hunted the streets for her. Logan never came near the dock district at night; so during the day Sabretooth laid low and kept Jubilee hidden. Night was his playtime.

So, time to go play. He descended the stairs from the roof to the floor of the warehouse, and walked to the crate lying on the floor. He imagined what she would be feeling right now; trapped in a close, tight cramped prison, in pain and wondering when he would yank the lid off her crate and begin another night of torment. The thought caused a feral grin to cross his face as he pulled the lid off the crate and reached down to grab the arm of the woman inside. "Rise an' shine, it's another painful day!" She had no idea whether it was actually day or night; he'd blocked the windows and covered them with black plastic trash bags while he'd planned his attack on her.

Jubilee rolled out of the crate stiffly, moaning in anguish at the cramps causing spasms in her legs and arms. She squinted up at Sabretooth; there seemed to be too many of him. She was probably seeing double because of her worsening hunger and her overwhelming thirst.

She hadn't eaten, and he gave her only enough water to keep her throat in working order so he could hear her scream in agony when he hurt her. Her entire body was a mass of bruises and welts, scrapes and sores. The pain in her loins was so intense she could sob from the merest touch. She was a wreck, and he was enjoying every minute of it.

"Please," she whimpered, as she saw him pulling the chain down from the overhead beam again, "Please, Creed, please don't, not again, oh god, I hurt so much, please!" She cried in terror as he caught her hands in front of her in a set of handcuffs and hooked the chain to them. Her feet left the floor with the first pull, and he kept pulling until her tear-streaked face was even with his.

"Logan's gone by here a few minutes ago," he taunted her. "Don't ya think it'd just tear him up, ta know ya were so close ta him?" Jubilee hung from the chain, her shoulders a knotted mass of anguish from having her entire body weight hanging from them. Although, she thought dazedly, by now there probably was less weight than when she had first woken up here.

Sabretooth picked up a long, coiled length of heavy hemp rope, swished it around her. Jubilee's eyes filled with tears. He'd whipped her with that rope a few nights back. It had skinned her in places, leaving open, raw sores. Worse was when he'd shoved a knot of the stuff between her legs and tied her thighs around it, then beat her with a length of chain. By the time he'd finished, the rope was soaked with her blood, and the skin between her thighs was raw. She hadn't been able to close her legs since.

Creed concentrated on her front this time. The last time, he'd worked over her back. Now that she knew how much it hurt, he was going to work over the front of her body. He licked his lips at the thought of that white chest with the skin stripped off it.

He started slowly, letting her pain build up as he built up speed. By the time it became necessary to gag her, her screams were almost continuous, a helpless anthem of pain, a testament to his cruelty. He shoved a knot of rope between her teeth and continued to torture her.