Lucy moaned slightly as she stirred. What was that? She wondered. Forge, have you ever…

Her eyes flew open but all she saw was darkness. Forge? Forge!

She began to panic and try to wriggle free, but everywhere she moved she encountered the cold solid feel of stone.

Leather straps held her arms at her sides and one secured her head to the wall behind her. Her legs were numb from the position she'd been leaning on them.

She took slow, shallow breaths for fear that she had been buried alive. Her eyes crept over every inch of the darkness and yet, she had no idea what could have happened.

Forge? She called again hopefully. You're all right, aren't you?

But there was no reply.

Lucy forced her head to turn to the left. Inch by inch she worked her head along the strap until she was facing to her left.

There was a soft glow coming from underneath her neck. Some small bit of light radiated from behind her.

Un-hunh. She thought. And then she focused her mind and attention on the back of her neck. And sure enough she felt the telltale sign of uncomfortability that told her she'd been impaled, yet again.

She sighed. There's a thing in my neck. Some technology. She tried and tried to pull her wrists free to no avail. I've been tagged, damn it!

She began forcing her head to turn to the right now, occasionally growing frustrated and trying yet again to rip her arms free and failing only to go back to turning her head.

Soon enough she was looking to the right and she could once again see the muted glow of the device behind her.

Okay. She told herself. Just get free and rip it out.

She popped out her claws in each hand and impaled her legs quite badly. Her arms had obviously been arranged so as to hurt her if she tried to use her claws. She retracted them and gasped.

She tried to throw her head back to look up but there was really no room as she was situated and so she simply strained in the direction.

Go on. She told herself. Forge would want you to try.

"HELP!" She screamed. "SOMEONE! PLEASE!"

She heard a distant shuffling noise, muted by the rock that surrounded her.

There is someone here. She told herself.

"Can you hear me?" She called out.

"I can hear you just fine." Said a disembodied voice, seemingly from all around her.

She found her eyes combing the darkness fearfully. "Who… are you?"

"I am called Magelin." The voice announced. "Magelin DeLane of The Aristocracy, at your service."

"The who?" She said almost without thinking.

The voice chuckled. "We are your followers. Your worshipers. The Aristocracy of the world as it reaches for God."

"My followers?" She looked confused as she stared blindly in to the darkness. "Who do you think I am?"

"You are Lucy Logan, Clone of James Howlett who is also known as Logan or Wolverine. You are a former member of Excalibur, future Heir to the throne of Apocalypse and Holy Vessel of the blessed Armageddon."

"Well, you really know a lot of big words." She told him. "Now, come get your God out of here. You're pissing her off."

The voice chuckled. "We have every intention of letting you out as soon as the process is complete."

"What process?" She asked suspiciously.

"The one by which we give you back all that has been stolen from you my lord."

"I don't want it." She spit the words.

"But surely… There can be no harm in bringing heavens light home, now can there?"

"Why don't you crazy cult types ever promote from within?" She said, pulling over and over to try to get free.

"We have. We've promoted you." Magelin explained. "You are about to go as far beyond mutants as mutants are beyond humans. You are the next great step forward and so, of course, we worship you. You will walk this earth as a God. Even among the most powerful beings in existence you will stand apart as their unquestioned lord and master."

"I do that now." She snapped. "So let me out of here!"

"I'm truly sorry my lord. I can only pray that when you emerge you have forgiven me for my disobedience."

"Don't count on it." She smiled wildly in to the darkness. "No mercy for swine." She growled lowly.

And it actually sounded as if the disembodied voice had to clear its throat.

Faintly Lucy could hear a soft beeping noise through the stone. It was high pitched and steady.

She was trying to identify the sound when it happened.

The device in the back of her neck sent a steady current through her entire nervous system.

She screamed in pain and strained at her bonds but it was no use.

Then the images appeared in her mind. Whirling scenes of static that stopped on clear images began to overwhelm her. And each image carried another jolt of electricity through her system.

I read about this. She realized. The Weapon X people did this to Logan. They erased his memories and gave him new ones. It took him forever to sort them out…

Oh no…

And the pain, although still present, drifted to the back of her mind.

She tuned out the sounds of her screams and found her mind wrapped around just one thought.

He's mine. You can't take him away from me. He's mine. You cant…

And she screamed again, this time as several images appeared so closely grouped as to have been overlapping, followed by a series of jolts that ranged from incredibly painful to almost pleasurable.

They're giving me memories… and reactions. I have to fight it.

Just think of Forge. Just think of forge. Just think of…

And another wave of images assaulted her, along with their electric choir of pain.

The last memory sank deep in to her mind despite her best efforts to ignore it.

And she began to cry. It was the memory of an old man who she knew to be her father, dying in her arms.

He… he's gone… Gone… They're all gone…Everyone I've ever loved… is dead.

And the memories they had been implanting as tiny seeds began to bloom in her mind until they obscured all that had been there before.

Forge shivered visibly in the passenger seat of Alistaire's mini-cooper.

Alistaire looked over at him nervously. "Are you… all right? At the moment I mean. I know… You're not all right, obviously."

"I just got a chill." Forge said. "Like when you discover something awful and it makes you jump."

"Try not to give in to worry just yet." Alistaire told him. "You know as well as anyone that Kurt has a great track record when it comes to last minute rescues."

Forge swallowed. "I'm making myself believe that." He admitted. "But… I can't expect Kurt to do any more or less than what he's able. It's entirely possible that…" He shook his head. "A lot of things could have happened."

"Yes, but only one thing really did. And it might not be as bad as most of those other things. So let's just hold out until the last word is spoken, okay?" Alistaire almost added a 'please' because he just couldn't stand to see Forge this way. "If… if it's any consolation… If anything's happened to her… You won't be alone in your loss."

Forge turned towards him slightly and Alistaire took this as a sign to continue.

"She's a genuine bright spot for me during some days. Did you know she stalks me every Friday for her paycheck? I swear she comes up out of the ground or something. I look one way and no ones around but when I look back she's in my shirt pocket."

Forge laughed. "Yeah. She sneaks up on me too."

"The first night she was here I was scared to death of her. I offered to carry her bag and she just shot down the idea for faulty logic. When I found out who she really was – where she was from and how she was raised… I was mortified."

"Me too." Forge shrugged. "Along with how she'd been treated by her 'brothers'."

"Oh, don't get me started." Alistaire nodded. "But… you know… now… "

"What is it?" forge asked, hearing the honest sorrow in Alistaire's voice.

"If anything has happened…" His voice broke and Forge sat in the darkness, feeling lanced by the emotion of his friend's words. "I never even gave her a hug." Alistaire said finally. "How is it that I can be proud of her as though she were my own daughter, amazed at her determination and growth, filled with wonderful memories that came from just knowing her… And I never even… took the time to…"

"To let her know." Forge nodded. "Yeah. Words fail me too. Even I never got to tell her everything."

"But you spoke up." Alistaire pointed out. "When it mattered."

And both men fell silent as they both wished for just one more chance…