Chapter 8: Dreams

"Well can you fix him?" She looked at Hank who was peering curiously at the body sprawled on the table.
"Absolutely ingenious." Hank murmured more to himself than to anyone else. "The integration of man and machine is just absolutely amazing." He hadn't thought that way at first. X23 had the sneaking suspicion that Hank had thought she had killed someone when he first glanced at her when she burst through his door twenty minutes ago. In all respect Elijah, who was the one laying on the table, was technically dead. Though technically speaking, Elijah wasn't exactly human either.
"I'll have to do some scans and some preliminary observations to figure out how everything works together, but I feel pretty confident we could get him...um..."
"Good. But none of this "we" stuff, it's just gonna be you."
"But I thought—"
"Forget it, you have the schematics, you'll be fine." X23 said gruffly and walked out. Hank sighed and began to get to work.


Logan was tired, and not just sleepy tired. He was bone achingly weary. It seemed every part of him hurt. It was hard work breaking into secure buildings, dealing with his only known living relative, and then dealing with all the kids at the Institute. Now on top of everything else, X23 had dumped that kid with them and then taken off. What bothered him the most about it was that it sounded like something he would do. He guessed responsibility wasn't their strong suit. He flopped back on his bed and almost immediately dropped off into sleep.

--Dream Sequence--

"Don't go in the door."
"Why?"
"Bad things happen in there."
Have I been here before? Logan was back in the hall with the door as usual looming up at the end. He slowly started to proceed towards the door. Every motion seemed to spread across eternity. Every sound seemed to reverberate and overlap in a deafening roar. Logan looked back. The girl was standing there again. She raised her head. This time her hair was slightly parted.
The floor creaked and groaned under his weight. Cracks were spreading out in all directions around him. He knew he was going to fall. Right before he did, he thought he saw a flash of bright green eyes. Then he was falling into darkness turning and tumbling through space, lost and alone.

--End Sequence--

Logan sat up like three thousand volts of electricity had been run through his entire body. He was covered in sweat and gasping for breath. He was terrified and he didn't understand why.


X23 was back at Pandora's Box. So far no one had come barging in, demanding what the hell she was doing. She took that as a good sign and yet, she was also experiencing an unidentifiable emotion underlying her sense of relief. Disappointment perhaps? A voice in her head said.
"Shut up." She growled out loud to herself. She was tired. She hadn't understood why she didn't want to help Hank with Elijah. She knew he would demand reasons so she'd left. More like you ran away. You just couldn't bear to be responsible could you? It's already too late for that. That annoying voice again...if it were possible to kick your own ass X23 had a feeling she'd be doing it a lot.
X23 groaned and rubbed her head. She was sitting on a bed in one of the back rooms, not one used for business. It was where she'd been hanging out for awhile. No one cared about where she went or what she did. The pale green walls were bare and the bed definitely wasn't comfortable.
"Probably why it isn't used for business." X23 spoke to no one. She'd really have to stop doing that. Besides she wasn't here for comfort, she was here because no one seemed to look for her at strip clubs. The noise from downstairs pounded throughout the whole building and made everything vibrate.
"I hate this place." She stoically said as she propped her back up against the wall. After a couple of minutes her head began to droop. She couldn't remember...ever...being this...sleepy. X23 was finally asleep after weeks without any. It was a state of being that she never could get the hang of, it left her feeling vulnerable, something she just didn't want to feel ever again.

--Dream Sequence--

"Where we goin?" A much younger X23 asked a much larger person in a lab coat as they walked down the hall. She must've been about eight because her hair was much shorter. For a brief period, she had no hair at all. She remembered how small she'd felt, especially since she couldn't see the man's face.
"You are going to make new friends." The man's voice came out disjointed, not quite in sync with his mouth's movements. Only looking back on it could she pick up the subtle sarcasm that was in his voice as well. She had been so timid. She didn't want to go and meet new people. They wouldn't like her, she just knew they wouldn't. Suddenly, the gigantic back of the man in front of her moved aside and a doorway was revealed. Light shone from the inside making it impossible for her to see what was beyond the threshold. Don't go in there. Bad things happen in there! X23's dream world wavered. That had never happened. Her mini-self gasped and grabbed the door handle. Heat radiated up her arm making it tingle. She was terrified. Her dream world righted itself. "Go on. You'll have fun, more fun than you've been having lately." Was that regret in his voice? She walked through the door only to have it slammed shut behind her. At least twenty other children around her age were already in the room. They all looked similar. It wasn't until later, when she first saw herself in a mirror that she realized they all looked like her, or maybe she looked like them?
"That's the last one." The man said.
"Good. Begin termination, then meet me in the computer lab. It seems everything is going to go wrong today." The man nodded and pushed a button.
X23 was frantic. Something was horribly wrong. Something didn't...smell right? Is that what she wanted to say? Next to her a small boy fell. It must have taken only seconds, but to her it took an eternity. They were all going to die in here. All around her boys and girls of varying ages were choking. She fell to her knees and cried even though she didn't understand why. She just knew she didn't want to die.
--End Sequence--


She opened her eyes. She was back in the room at Pandora's Box. The sound of children choking was overwhelmed by the pulsing rhythm of people trying to sell sex. She was nauseatingly claustrophobic at the moment. She opened the window and jumped to the alleyway below. If she'd been paying better attention she would have noticed that her arm was still vaguely tingling.


Rogue had fallen asleep. She hadn't wanted to, but something told her she hadn't had much of a choice in the decision. As soon as she closed her eyes, she knew the dream wasn't going to be about her.

--Dream Sequence--

She opened her eyes and immediately experienced a child-like fear. Above her a bright light blinded her and her head throbbed in time with her pulse. She wanted to go home. She wanted someone to turn of the light. She tried to move but found herself restrained.
"Shh. Struggling will do you no good." A monster leaned over her. Something came towards her face and she closed her eyes.
When she opened them again, she was in a tank, or at least that's what she thought it was. She looked up and nearly choked trying to scream. A giant piece of machinery with lots of tubes and wires seemed to be attached to her head. She looked at her arms; her whole body was attached to this machine. She tried to speak, but found she no longer understood how. Someone said something but she no longer understood what it meant to hear. She tried to move. She strained with all her strength. She even managed to get one arm free, but the wires snaked back into her arm almost as if they had a life, an intelligence of their own. Whoever had spoken walked out and slammed the door. She hated that door...

--End Sequence--

Rogue opened her eyes. She was still in the room where the mines had been. She groaned. Her head hurt and she wasn't even sure if this was real anymore. For all she knew, this room only existed in her head. Now she, Rogue, wanted to go home. Where was the rescue team?


Down in the bowels of the Institute, in the middle of the lab, in the deep of the night, something inside Elijah began to click and whir.
Accessing memory circuits.

A deep voice spoke from the shadows behind the hospital curtains. "I'm sorry son, we have no choice. We don't have the money. These people, they say they can help you, they say they can take care of you in ways that we can't. Your mother and I, well, we think it's for the best." The man was really trying to convince himself. He didn't really think Elijah could hear him.

Circuit malfunction.

The screen flickered. Static ensued. Then a grainy image took the hospital scene's place. Elijah woke up for the first time in years, he felt incredible. Everything seemed shiny and new. The wasting disease seemed to have been banished for good. His prayers had come true! Then he looked down and was instantly plunged into a nightmare. Below him his chest was laid open for all to see. A mechanical wonderland greeted his eyes. The epicenter or what should have been, his heart was missing. He tried to scream. "Your vocal circuits are not in place yet. Please try to lie still." The image became distorted, and once again a new image took the old one's place. A voice once again from the shadows spoke.

"Really Elijah, you're being unreasonable." Elijah sat in the middle of the room, a white tunic covered his monstrosity of a body, and a spotlight glared accusingly from above. They still hadn't given him arms and legs yet.

"I don't want to be reasonable. I want to go home."

"And ruin all the hard work we've gone through to help you? Think about it Elijah, you get to experience what no one else ever will. You'll get to live forever." The man spoke on a shaky whisper, part envy and part awe.

"I don't want to live forever." Elijah whispered.

End memory load. Accessing visual circuits.

Deep in the bowels of the Institute, Elijah opened his eyes for the first time in years. If he had still had tear ducts, he would have cried.