A/N: Okay, well then, I'm wrapping up. Not only is this chapter longer,
but there are also a bunch of memories, which I hope might tie up some
loose ends for people. I guess this is what comes from procrastination! I
can pretty much guarantee that there aren't going to be many more chapters
after this, and others will be at least a short while in coming. I don't
own any of it (except Mirage) but I hope you enjoy!
It was exactly two days later when Logan convince Jean that he wouldn't wait any longer. They walked quickly through the sterile hallways beneath the school. The Professor and Scott also met them outside the room. Logan looked through the portal window before he was able to move into the room. He saw Lily, his Lily, bound to a metal hospital bed, injuries showing on her wrists and ankles from when she had fought her bonds, sweat obvious and sticking her hair to her forehead and shoulders.
"Why are there no monitors?"
"She broke them. Her power shot out at them and they exploded, we decided it was too dangerous, so we just didn't put them back. She only has a few minor injuries to her body... it's her mind that could cause..." Jean didn't say death, she didn't want to say it and Logan didn't want to hear it, so her silence was forgiven.
"Can we go in?"
"Yes, but we need to stay near the walls, so as to prevent entering her power's range. She can't reach out in the same way she could before, she simply doesn't have the basic control right now to do that. When we find out what we need to do for her, we'll risk it, but not yet." It was the Professor who spoke now, with a careful warning, he could see how much Logan wanted to be beside her, the risks had to be clear.
"Let's go then." Logan opened the door and they all stepped into the room.
The memories that assaulted him nearly sent him flying back out of the room. He could vaguely hear that this was alright, that she was returning memories to clear her mind whenever someone was close enough to her, but that she couldn't take his powers from here. He could also vaguely hear a warning not to fight it, that he'd only have to bear the onslaught so long as she had novel memories to share. It would only happen this once. But, all of that Logan only barely hear, the images and sounds were too bright. It started at the beginning. ************************************************************************
There was an argument. He lost his temper and out came his claws. That same stupid bartender pulled that same stupid gun on him. But that time there had been a girl. A girl who wasn't frightened to the claws or the gun. Who pushed the barrel down, saying soothingly, that he didn't want to do that. She had then put her hands over his claws and he had felt the points retract. She turned back to the bartender.
"Thanks so much! I promise I'll be on time for work tomorrow! I can't wait to start!"
Leaving a befuddled bartender shouting that she was on probation and should be careful to be to work ontime, this slip of a girl had dragged Logan with her out the door. Until, of course, he finally came to his senses enough to pull away from her, upon realizing that he was in fact bigger and stronger.
"What was that!? What did you do to him? And where are you dragging me?"
"That, was me saving your ass. What I did was simply a distraction. And I'm dragging you away from that place so you don't get us both killed, when it's so much more productive for us just to take the jobs we now have!"
Logan opened his mouth again to shout back, though feeling that he did rather like this girl who could look at his claws one minute and shout at him the next, but he realized that he had missed something. "Jobs?"
She smiled, "Yes, jobs. He just agreed to give me a waitressing job that he insisted before he didn't have. And if you go in tomorrow he's bound to call for fighters. You can't use those things," she gestured at his hands, clearly meaning his claws "but I'm assuming anyway that you can fight. Good money either way."
Logan remembered that they had worked together for nearly a week before anything had happened with them. A patron had been overtly trying to grope the resisting girl, when he had intervened. At his intervention, he'd been challenged and, when he won, she had effectively been claimed as under his protection. Afterwards, he had asked her name, upon realizing that no one called her by anything recognizable here.
"Can you keep a secret." With most people he might have been more surprised at this response to a name request, but she was an enigma.
"Sure, though I don't see what's so secret."
"I don't have a name... well, I probably do, I'm looking for it and I really hope to find it, cause it'll put me back where I belong, but I dont' know it."
"What should I call you then? I just fought for you, in effect... hey you doesn't sound all that intimate."
She laughed and he found himself liking when she did that. She turned so that she was standing before him, her arms at her sides in presentation. "Well, then, what would you like to call me? What name suits, do you think?"
"How about Lily?"
"Works just fine by me, Woverine." She smirked at his acquired nickname and was honestly pleased by his choice for her.
"Call me Logan." ************************************************************************
Logan felt immediately disoriented as his memory shifted again. He was only being fully informed on the scenes that fully answered his questions. He remembered another challenge on behalf of Lily, many more, in fact. Finally, he remembered someone declaring that the winner got a kiss. He remembered nervousness that he and his friend would give themselves away. The kiss had proved their relationship to everyone, including them!
He remembered her moving in with him. Meeting her brother. Her scruffy dog Max, who was there sometimes, but others not. All of their relationship, it had lasted three years, came back to him. Her search for home and her name, what she had told him, all her dreams about what all of it could mean. All of her dreams for what she hoped for in every way. He remembered the feel of her at night. The way the inflection of her voice had really been slightly different than that of Mirage. Now he remembered the parts that had broken them... he remembered the day she died, the day she had left him. ************************************************************************
She had gone home early, told him that she had some things to take care of, she wanted that night to be special, she had something to tell him. He had found her cornered by a person he now knew to be Sabertooth. He had been about to chase the other man off, when she had said something causing him to back off on her own. Logan remembered watching the other man walk away as Lily picked up the grocheries and started to go back inside. He had seen her flinch and had seen the fear and pain that crossed her face when she turned to him.
They had had a nice, quiet dinner, she hadn't told him anything new, but they had still enjoyed the quiet time together. More than once they talked about plans they had for a trip on their break from work and he thought he had seen tears in her eyes, before she gathered a plate or remembered something she forgot in the kitchen. On one of these trips, the door had come flying towards them and she had screamed.
"No! Now's not the time!"
"I choose the time. I helped you escape from an unknown past and I promised you you would get your revenge on those that took it from you, my little nameless one, now it's time for that and your agreement to join us."
"Over my dead body." Logan wasn't giving her up without a fight, they both had too much invested in each other.
"No!" She had started to step forward when Magneto had performed his special trick of lifting the adamantium in his body and slamming him against the wall, where he was promptly knocked unconcious.
"Logan!!" Her scream from inside the building had awakened him from unconciousness. He looked up to see that he must have come completely out of the apartment through the wall. She was still trapped inside, from the sound of her calls, and the building was on fire. He ran back towards the building and got only a glimpse of her tearstained face through the flames, where she was held back by Magneto, before the building exploded. He had felt his own cry ripped from him as he had fallen back to the ground, unconcious again. ************************************************************************
Logan had at least somewhat remembered the other information. He hadn't remembered Magneto there that night, but he had remembered Sabertooth. He even remembered a good portion of their relationship, though he had pushed most of it out of his mind on his own. This last scene, he couldn't remember at all.
"Logan." Her soft voice had awakened him in the hospital bed. He had thought it was a dream when his eyes slowly opened to meet hers. She had stood over him, ragged and only a bit worse for the wear. "Logan." This time her voice had been a sigh of relief. She had stroked his hair and he had then noticed that she was crying. "I'm sorry Logan, I wish my past never would have come back to us, but it seems it has. You won't remember any of this, I'll make sure of that, it's my job, but I have to say it anyway. I love you. I won't stop loving you, even when I don't really remember anymore. I promise you. I have to go now, but maybe someday I'll find you again. Maybe someday I'll have my name and be free of all this unknown past. They're right, I'm going to get revenge, revenge on everyone who used me and abused what I love. I'll come back to you. That has to be true, because that's what love is. I love you so much." She had leaned against him then, her lips meeting his, and he had felt the energy drain from him, the memories of this meeting and the altering of other meetings. When he had woken, he had mourned her with all his strength, then he had tried to forget it all, so that he could escape the pain. ************************************************************************
Logan kept his eyes closed for a moment after the memories ended. He opened them and looked at the woman from his memories, now she was the one in the hospital bed. He could still feel the pain though, and he knew he couldn't lose her again. He searched his newfound memories for how to help her. He was so deep in thought that he couldn't think, when she cried out against some other memory, he stepped forward.
His claws went shooting out of his hands to the point of pain. He didn't hear Scott call his name when he saw Logan moving. He did hear her cries of pain as claws shot out of her knuckles as well, hers not covered by metal but the pain the same. Logan felt other arms pull him back out of her range, where he had frozen, and watched as she fought against her bonds again and tears followed established tracks from her closed eyes to her already damp hairline.
Sitting on the floor, Scott beside him, and his eyes glued to her form, he knew the answer.
"I know what to do."
It was exactly two days later when Logan convince Jean that he wouldn't wait any longer. They walked quickly through the sterile hallways beneath the school. The Professor and Scott also met them outside the room. Logan looked through the portal window before he was able to move into the room. He saw Lily, his Lily, bound to a metal hospital bed, injuries showing on her wrists and ankles from when she had fought her bonds, sweat obvious and sticking her hair to her forehead and shoulders.
"Why are there no monitors?"
"She broke them. Her power shot out at them and they exploded, we decided it was too dangerous, so we just didn't put them back. She only has a few minor injuries to her body... it's her mind that could cause..." Jean didn't say death, she didn't want to say it and Logan didn't want to hear it, so her silence was forgiven.
"Can we go in?"
"Yes, but we need to stay near the walls, so as to prevent entering her power's range. She can't reach out in the same way she could before, she simply doesn't have the basic control right now to do that. When we find out what we need to do for her, we'll risk it, but not yet." It was the Professor who spoke now, with a careful warning, he could see how much Logan wanted to be beside her, the risks had to be clear.
"Let's go then." Logan opened the door and they all stepped into the room.
The memories that assaulted him nearly sent him flying back out of the room. He could vaguely hear that this was alright, that she was returning memories to clear her mind whenever someone was close enough to her, but that she couldn't take his powers from here. He could also vaguely hear a warning not to fight it, that he'd only have to bear the onslaught so long as she had novel memories to share. It would only happen this once. But, all of that Logan only barely hear, the images and sounds were too bright. It started at the beginning. ************************************************************************
There was an argument. He lost his temper and out came his claws. That same stupid bartender pulled that same stupid gun on him. But that time there had been a girl. A girl who wasn't frightened to the claws or the gun. Who pushed the barrel down, saying soothingly, that he didn't want to do that. She had then put her hands over his claws and he had felt the points retract. She turned back to the bartender.
"Thanks so much! I promise I'll be on time for work tomorrow! I can't wait to start!"
Leaving a befuddled bartender shouting that she was on probation and should be careful to be to work ontime, this slip of a girl had dragged Logan with her out the door. Until, of course, he finally came to his senses enough to pull away from her, upon realizing that he was in fact bigger and stronger.
"What was that!? What did you do to him? And where are you dragging me?"
"That, was me saving your ass. What I did was simply a distraction. And I'm dragging you away from that place so you don't get us both killed, when it's so much more productive for us just to take the jobs we now have!"
Logan opened his mouth again to shout back, though feeling that he did rather like this girl who could look at his claws one minute and shout at him the next, but he realized that he had missed something. "Jobs?"
She smiled, "Yes, jobs. He just agreed to give me a waitressing job that he insisted before he didn't have. And if you go in tomorrow he's bound to call for fighters. You can't use those things," she gestured at his hands, clearly meaning his claws "but I'm assuming anyway that you can fight. Good money either way."
Logan remembered that they had worked together for nearly a week before anything had happened with them. A patron had been overtly trying to grope the resisting girl, when he had intervened. At his intervention, he'd been challenged and, when he won, she had effectively been claimed as under his protection. Afterwards, he had asked her name, upon realizing that no one called her by anything recognizable here.
"Can you keep a secret." With most people he might have been more surprised at this response to a name request, but she was an enigma.
"Sure, though I don't see what's so secret."
"I don't have a name... well, I probably do, I'm looking for it and I really hope to find it, cause it'll put me back where I belong, but I dont' know it."
"What should I call you then? I just fought for you, in effect... hey you doesn't sound all that intimate."
She laughed and he found himself liking when she did that. She turned so that she was standing before him, her arms at her sides in presentation. "Well, then, what would you like to call me? What name suits, do you think?"
"How about Lily?"
"Works just fine by me, Woverine." She smirked at his acquired nickname and was honestly pleased by his choice for her.
"Call me Logan." ************************************************************************
Logan felt immediately disoriented as his memory shifted again. He was only being fully informed on the scenes that fully answered his questions. He remembered another challenge on behalf of Lily, many more, in fact. Finally, he remembered someone declaring that the winner got a kiss. He remembered nervousness that he and his friend would give themselves away. The kiss had proved their relationship to everyone, including them!
He remembered her moving in with him. Meeting her brother. Her scruffy dog Max, who was there sometimes, but others not. All of their relationship, it had lasted three years, came back to him. Her search for home and her name, what she had told him, all her dreams about what all of it could mean. All of her dreams for what she hoped for in every way. He remembered the feel of her at night. The way the inflection of her voice had really been slightly different than that of Mirage. Now he remembered the parts that had broken them... he remembered the day she died, the day she had left him. ************************************************************************
She had gone home early, told him that she had some things to take care of, she wanted that night to be special, she had something to tell him. He had found her cornered by a person he now knew to be Sabertooth. He had been about to chase the other man off, when she had said something causing him to back off on her own. Logan remembered watching the other man walk away as Lily picked up the grocheries and started to go back inside. He had seen her flinch and had seen the fear and pain that crossed her face when she turned to him.
They had had a nice, quiet dinner, she hadn't told him anything new, but they had still enjoyed the quiet time together. More than once they talked about plans they had for a trip on their break from work and he thought he had seen tears in her eyes, before she gathered a plate or remembered something she forgot in the kitchen. On one of these trips, the door had come flying towards them and she had screamed.
"No! Now's not the time!"
"I choose the time. I helped you escape from an unknown past and I promised you you would get your revenge on those that took it from you, my little nameless one, now it's time for that and your agreement to join us."
"Over my dead body." Logan wasn't giving her up without a fight, they both had too much invested in each other.
"No!" She had started to step forward when Magneto had performed his special trick of lifting the adamantium in his body and slamming him against the wall, where he was promptly knocked unconcious.
"Logan!!" Her scream from inside the building had awakened him from unconciousness. He looked up to see that he must have come completely out of the apartment through the wall. She was still trapped inside, from the sound of her calls, and the building was on fire. He ran back towards the building and got only a glimpse of her tearstained face through the flames, where she was held back by Magneto, before the building exploded. He had felt his own cry ripped from him as he had fallen back to the ground, unconcious again. ************************************************************************
Logan had at least somewhat remembered the other information. He hadn't remembered Magneto there that night, but he had remembered Sabertooth. He even remembered a good portion of their relationship, though he had pushed most of it out of his mind on his own. This last scene, he couldn't remember at all.
"Logan." Her soft voice had awakened him in the hospital bed. He had thought it was a dream when his eyes slowly opened to meet hers. She had stood over him, ragged and only a bit worse for the wear. "Logan." This time her voice had been a sigh of relief. She had stroked his hair and he had then noticed that she was crying. "I'm sorry Logan, I wish my past never would have come back to us, but it seems it has. You won't remember any of this, I'll make sure of that, it's my job, but I have to say it anyway. I love you. I won't stop loving you, even when I don't really remember anymore. I promise you. I have to go now, but maybe someday I'll find you again. Maybe someday I'll have my name and be free of all this unknown past. They're right, I'm going to get revenge, revenge on everyone who used me and abused what I love. I'll come back to you. That has to be true, because that's what love is. I love you so much." She had leaned against him then, her lips meeting his, and he had felt the energy drain from him, the memories of this meeting and the altering of other meetings. When he had woken, he had mourned her with all his strength, then he had tried to forget it all, so that he could escape the pain. ************************************************************************
Logan kept his eyes closed for a moment after the memories ended. He opened them and looked at the woman from his memories, now she was the one in the hospital bed. He could still feel the pain though, and he knew he couldn't lose her again. He searched his newfound memories for how to help her. He was so deep in thought that he couldn't think, when she cried out against some other memory, he stepped forward.
His claws went shooting out of his hands to the point of pain. He didn't hear Scott call his name when he saw Logan moving. He did hear her cries of pain as claws shot out of her knuckles as well, hers not covered by metal but the pain the same. Logan felt other arms pull him back out of her range, where he had frozen, and watched as she fought against her bonds again and tears followed established tracks from her closed eyes to her already damp hairline.
Sitting on the floor, Scott beside him, and his eyes glued to her form, he knew the answer.
"I know what to do."