Disclaimer: Nothing's changed in the past 47 seconds, sadly enough...

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Chapter 9.

(Angela)

I came awake all at once, barely containing a scream. Just like the last time, I was almost completely unaware of my surroundings, still firmly in the grip of the dream. I could hear Logan saying my name, but he might as well have been a mile away for all that I could respond. I sensed the Jeep slowing down, which I assumed meant that he was pulling over. My heart was pounding so hard I was afraid it might burst, but I felt Logan's hand gripping my own and I clung to it like a lifeline. Finally, the Jeep came to a halt and I felt Logan turn to me.

"Angela, darlin', come back to me." He said and I could hear the panic in his voice. My eyes were open, but I was having trouble focusing on him. He grabbed my shoulders and shook me gently. "Come on, snap out of it! It was a dream!" After what felt like an eternity, my vision swam into focus and all I could see was his face. "You with me? Come on, talk to me!"

"I'm getting sick of this shit." I murmured, running my hands through my hair. "I think I'll give up sleeping, hang out with Jones all night from now on."

"Jesus Christ, you scared me." He growled, gathering me into his arms. "What was it this time?"

I glanced over his shoulder to the back seat before answering. "Roses and betrayal." I said. He pulled away from me, looking at me with confusion. I glanced to the back seat again and he scowled. I shook my head slightly. "I'll tell you more later."

He nodded. "Ok darlin'. You all right?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine. Just…let's go home, ok?" He nodded again, then kissed me. I settled back into my seat, slid out the claw on my right thumb and chewed on it, deep in thought. This was twice now that I had betrayed Logan in my dreams. Was Totem lying to us? Was he a telepath on top of everything else? Or was it something worse, something I couldn't control because it was an animal thing?

That thought scared me most of all.

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I didn't ask to drive again for the rest of the trip. I was still too shaken up from my dream to feel comfortable behind the wheel and I knew Logan was all too happy to drive anyway. Still, when we pulled through the gates of the mansion, it felt as though a great weight was lifted from my shoulders. No matter what was going on, I knew that Charles would help me get to the bottom of it.

Totem had fallen asleep somewhere along the way, but he came awake with a yawn, blinking sleepily at first but his eyes widening as he took in the mansion. I just smiled. "Impressive, isn't it?" I asked.

"I had no idea it would be so big!" He exclaimed, clearly excited. "And you say this is a school?"

"Yep, sure is. And it's my home." I opened the door and hopped out, holding the seat forward so he could climb out after me. I leveled my gaze upon him with all seriousness. "It could be yours, too. If you want it to be."

"I have no other home anymore. So, perhaps I will stay here." He didn't say it, but I could hear the "with you" dangling at the end of the sentence anyway.

I gave him a short nod. "Come on, we have to meet with the Professor in a little bit. We'll find you a room." Without waiting for his agreement, I turned and entered the mansion.

It was just the way we left it, which means there were kids slacking in the lounge, playing pool or video games and even one or two doing homework. I stretched my hearing a little and caught the sounds of kids outside, shooting hoops or just hanging out on the lawn. Totem came in right after me and the kids in the lounge stopped what they were doing to look at him. He lowered his eyes and after a moment, normal activity resumed but with added conversation about our new guest.

"Follow me." I said and went up the stairs without waiting to see if he did. I passed the room I shared with Logan without a glance and headed to the other end of the hall. I wanted as much space between us as I could get and still have him sleeping in the house. It would be rude to put him in the stable, after all. I opened the door next to Kurt's room and flicked the switch next to the door. "This will be your room, as long as you want to stay here. There's some spare clothes and stuff in the closet, the bathroom is through that door over there if you want a shower."

"Thank you, Hellcat." He said and I raised a hand to stop him. "What?"

"Around here, we only use code names on missions. The rest of the time, we use our real names. So call me Angela, Wolverine is Logan and you'll meet everyone else later, ok?"

"Ok Hell…Angela." He replied and seemed uncomfortable saying it. "I think I will rest for a while, if that's all right."

"It's fine. I have to meet with the Professor and he'll want to meet with you eventually. But after everything you've been through he'll be ok waiting a bit."

He smiled at me and I left the room, closing the door softly behind me. I leaned against it and sighed, glad that was over. I practically ran to my room, shoving the door open and barely catching it before it slammed shut. Logan was already there and he crossed to me and caught me in a rough embrace, crushing his lips to mine hard enough to bruise my lips. I returned the kiss just as hard, tearing at his shirt. He broke away long enough to spin me around and back me towards the bed and we fell upon it together. It had been days since either one of us had bathed in anything but an ice-cold stream, but we didn't care. We'd also had company for many of those days and we were feeling the frustration in a big way. For the first time in a very long time, we both gave way to our animal natures and let them take control of the situation. I will say it again; it's a damn good thing we both heal fast.

An hour later, we emerged from the shower, ready for our meeting with the Professor. I clutched Logan's hand tightly, suddenly nervous. He didn't know it, but I was planning on asking Charles to read my mind. I don't like it when people go rummaging around in my head, but there had to be an explanation for my dreams in there somewhere. Naturally, we didn't have to knock on his door when we arrived, he just called out to us to enter.

"Hey Professor." I said, not meeting his eyes.

"Angela, Logan. I'm glad you're both well." He replied, bringing his wheelchair around to the front of the desk as Logan and I lowered ourselves to the loveseat. "I trust everything went well."

Logan looked at me and I took a deep breath. "Not exactly, Charles." I told him about the dreams I'd had and the way that my feelings for Totem had gone from suspicion to almost friendly in such a short period of time. "Professor, there's something he's hiding and I don't like it." I took another deep breath. "Can you…would you read my mind? Please?"

He looked at me gravely. "Angela, I know how you feel about that and I've respected your wishes. Are you certain you want me to do this?"

"Positive. I need to know if Totem's the one doing it or if…if it's all me."

"Very well." He wheeled closer to me and held his hands to either side of my head. "I need you to try and relax. This won't hurt." He closed his eyes.

He was right, it didn't hurt, although it did feel a little weird, kind of like my head was a sock drawer and someone was digging around looking for a matching pair. I kept a firm grip on Logan's hand the whole time, resisting the urge to fight back. It's something that I'd learned back at Alkali Lake, to let the most horrible things I'd ever done or experienced flood my thoughts. Most telepaths can't take it and leave me alone, but I had to let Charles in as deep as he could go. After about ten minutes, he took a deep breath and opened his eyes. "Well, what did you see?" I asked, suddenly tense.

"I can say that it's not Totem who's doing this to you." He began and my heart sank. I glanced at Logan, who looked like he was ready to kill something. I just hoped it wasn't me. I looked at the Professor and he continued. "However, I'm not entirely certain that it's you, either. Can you meet me in the infirmary in about an hour? I'd like to do a deep scan and those are best done if you are not conscious."

"Um, sure, I suppose." I replied, my voice shaky. "Is it something bad?"

"Not as such, no. More like…unexpected. I just want to be sure I'm right." He backed his chair back a bit. "Now, tell me about our new friend."

"I think 'friend' is a mighty strong word, Chuck." Logan said and filled the Professor in on everything Totem had said about being my mate and the things he'd said about Stryker. "I didn't think it was possible for someone to have a more fucked up head than me, but I was obviously very wrong."

"Yes, it would seem that way." Charles replied. "But it seems that he doesn't have the same reservations the two of you have when it comes to telepaths, so I may be able to reverse some of his conditioning."

"Hell, at this point I think he'd be happy just to know his name. So would I, for that matter." Logan replied with a bitter laugh.

"Well, until I can meet with him, I'd suggest you ask your friend Buzz for information. He's managed to decode most of the files on those disks from Alkali Lake. Perhaps there will be more information in those."

We lingered for a few more minutes, exchanging small talk and school gossip before taking our leave. We wandered out to the patio, both of us lighting a smoke. I exhaled shakily and Logan squeezed my hand. "Why didn't you tell me you were gonna ask him to read your mind darlin'?"

I shrugged. "I don't know. I guess I was afraid of what he might find."

"You mean you're afraid that you like Totem because you…you're really attracted to him?" He asked, his body tense and his voice carefully controlled.

"See, that's just it. I'm not attracted to him, not even a little. But there's something…I don't know what it is, where it's coming from, what to call it…but there's something in me that's like pushing me towards him. And I can't help it."

"I see." He replied, clenching his jaw. He took a long drag off his cigar, letting the smoke out slowly. "So what do we do about it?"

"I don't know, I really don't. But I swear to you on everything I hold sacred that I will never betray you."

"I know, darlin', I really do." He turned to me and his eyes were hard. "But you've already been dreamin' about it, haven't you?"

"But they don't mean anything! And they've both ended with you killing me. So I hardly think we can use those as a baseline for this…thing with Totem."

"Maybe. And that's the only part of your dreams that won't happen." He looked away from me again to gaze over the school grounds. "But if I ever find the two of you…together, I'll rip his fuckin' heart out."

"I know."

We finished our smokes in tense silence, neither one of us willing to give further voice to our fears. The mere thought of betraying Logan was enough to make my gorge rise. But I still couldn't deny there was something trying to force me in Totem's direction. And I knew that Logan would kill him if I was ever unable to completely resist that force. The thought that I couldn't resist scared me more than anything.

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Interlude: Professor X

Angela met me in the infirmary at the appointed hour, looking about herself nervously yet still managing a weak smile for my benefit. I smiled back and made my way to where she was perched on the edge of an examination table, Dr. Endicott hovering nearby in attendance. I stopped my chair next to her and took her hand.

"Do you have any questions before we begin?" I asked in what I hoped was a reassuring manner.

"Yeah. Why do I have to be knocked out for this?" She asked nervously.

"Actually, there are several reasons. The one that's most important for you is the fact that deep scans can take a long time under even the most ideal of circumstances. Since I have serious doubts that you'll let me stay in your room all night to do the scan, this is a better option." She smiled weakly, appreciating my attempt at humor. "The second reason is for me. Contrary to popular belief, reading minds is not like reading a book. A person's thoughts are not filed away in neat rows, ready to be accessed by anyone powerful enough to do so. Every individual stores his or her memories in a different manner. For example, Logan's memories tend to flash by very quickly. It's like trying to watch a slide show at a speed too fast for the human eye to comprehend the images.

"Your mind is more ordered, so the memories are easier to grasp. However, if what I suspect is true, what I am looking for will be buried beneath layers of memories that were telepathically suppressed. In order for me to find them, I will need to sort through a great deal of information. It will save us both a good amount of time and discomfort if I don't have to sort through your conscious thoughts at the same time."

She nodded in understanding and Dr. Endicott indicated that she should lie down on the table. As I took position near her head, the doctor busied herself preparing her for the scan.

"This IV is just a precaution." She said, inserting a canula into the back of Angela's hand. "We don't know how long you'll need to be out and I'm not sure how fast your healing factor will compensate for the sedative. This will allow me to regulate the dose until the Professor is finished."

"I get it, ok?" Angela replied, her unease growing into an almost palpable entity. "Let's just do this before I change my mind."

Dr. Endicott nodded and inserted a hypodermic into the canula, injecting an initial dose of the sedative. A few moments later, Angela's eyes fluttered closed and her breathing slowed. The doctor attached the intravenous drip, then attached a series of monitors to Angela's head. We both felt it would be best to watch her neural activity during the scan. If what I suspected was true, she may try to fight back, whether she realized it or not. The doctor checked a few more readings, then nodded to me to begin.

I took a deep breath to steady myself. My initial reading earlier had indicated that Angela possessed a series of telepathic controls, cleverly buried beneath the suppressed memories of the very sessions that put those controls in place. I had to break through those memories, bring them back into her conscious memory, in order to give her the ability to fight the controls. I wasn't sure if they related to Totem or if they dealt with other aspects of her training, but it was a risk I was willing to take, both for her and for Logan. However, it was a very real possibility that some of those controls were designed to fight off another telepath who attempted to break them. Fortunately, I'm not just any telepath.

I closed my eyes and inserted my consciousness into Angela's mind. I allowed most of what I saw to slide past me, mere glimpses of the memories she carried of her long and eventful life. I had no desire learn anything from this exercise except those things she'd asked me to do. In the space of a few seconds, I found myself standing next to her at Alkali Lake.

She looked so different back then. He hair was much shorter and didn't have those absurdly colored streaks that she loves so much. There was a sense of barely controlled anger in these memories, a rage so pure that only Logan would ever truly understand it. I followed the thread of these memories, which encompassed months of training, all the way up to her initial contact with Logan. I felt nothing that indicated the kind of controls I was looking for. Redoubling my efforts, I initiated a slightly deeper contact and continued my search.

I encountered the first block attached to a memory of a mission they had done in Beijing. There was a gap of about four days in her memory, although she had no idea that gap was there. The telepath who had done this was very clever indeed to keep her memory seamless to her. I took another deep breath and set to work attacking the block.

Just as I had suspected, it contained its own defense mechanism. Even unconscious, Angela's mind was fighting back, throwing me images of her alteration, of people she'd killed, feral thoughts and primal rage attempting to drive me out. I seized those thoughts and shunted them aside, reinserting them into her normal memory stream, leaving only a mental image of Angela standing before me in a defensive posture. "Who the fuck are you?" It said.

"You know who I am, Angela." I replied.

"Don't call me that! I'm Hellcat now!"

"You used to be. Now you are Angela Rex and you are at my school in New York. Nothing you see around you right now is real."

"You look real enough to me." The claws slid out of its hands and she took a step forward. I concentrated a bit harder, pulling memories of her time here at the mansion out of the unhidden portions of her mind and projecting them to her. She stopped moving and cocked her head to one side in recognition. "Professor? What's going on?"

"I've found part of what I'm looking for. I will explain it to you in greater detail when I'm done here. For now, let's just say that you have been programmed to fight telepaths in a very real sense. I need you to stand aside and let me pass."

"I…yeah, ok. Sure." As soon as she agreed, the image faded.

I found myself standing in a room not unlike the infirmary where we were both currently sitting. Angela was strapped to a table, hundreds of electrodes attached to her head and body. A technician sat to one side, occasionally pushing a button on the console in front of her. Angela's body would contort with pain with each push, relaxing a few seconds later and leaving her gasping for air. Positioned near her head, where I was sitting now in the lab, was a person who could only be a telepath. He was deep in concentration and would give an almost imperceptible nod every few seconds to the technician. I understood then what was happening. He was implanting something into her mind and when she started to fight, she was being shocked. Aversion therapy at its worst.

I concentrated on this scene, knowing that it was one of the keys I needed to find the implanted control. I moved closer to the telepath and placed a hand on his shoulder. Yes, this man was the key to the suppressed memory. I focused my will to hear what he was telling her.

You will do what we say…you will respond as we wish…Totem is your mate…you will do what we say…you will respond as we wish…Totem is your mate…you will do what we say…you will respon…

I had no need to hear anything else. The commands were being repeated with increasing success and were coupled with an image of Totem's face. However, Angela wanted no part of it. She already had a primal connection to Wolverine and her animal instincts were fighting back. I had the impression that Stryker must have suspected this and was unhappy with it. Everything I know about the man led me to believe that he would want to be in control of every aspect of her life, even taking away from her the right to choose her own mate.

This was a very clever bit of telepathic conditioning. Fortunately, I was confident that I would be able to break it. However, it would also require active participation on Angela's part. I carefully withdrew from her mind and opened my eyes. Dr. Endicott was sitting near the monitors, taking down the readings. I cleared my throat and she looked up.

"Hey Charles." She said, moving over to the exam table. "How'd it go?"

"I found what I was looking for." I replied, rubbing my temples. "I did what I could, but the rest will have to be done over time with her cooperation."

She nodded. "Understood." She busied herself removing the IV and detaching the monitors. "Her healing factor, though nowhere near as effective as Logan's, still did a fair job of throwing off the sedative. I had to increase the dosage twice while you were in there."

I raised my eyebrows. "How long was I in there?" I asked, looking over my shoulder at the clock. I was surprised to see that it had been nearly two hours. "My God! Logan must be frantic!"

"You could say that." She said dryly. "I think he's pacing in the hallway right now. He came down about an hour ago and I had to kick him out. He was insisting I bring her out, but there was no indication that she was in any distress except for a brief period about forty-five minutes ago. That's when I gave him the boot." She shook her head, chuckling. "You'd think he was waiting for her to give birth or something."

"He cares a great deal for this woman. I believe she is the best thing that ever happened to him and I will do everything in my power to keep it that way." I rubbed my eyes and moved around to the side of the table. "You might as well bring him in here. She'll be coming around pretty soon."

She nodded and walked over to unlock the doors. She barely had time to get out of the way when Logan came striding purposefully over to the table. He fixed a scowl on me before taking her hand. "Took you long enough, Chuck." He growled. "Find anythin' useful?"

"Yes, I believe I did. But I think it's only fair to wait for her to come around and we'll discuss it in my office this evening."

"What is it? Is somethin' wrong with her?"

"Not as such, no. But she has a right to hear everything first and I intend to wait until later to discuss this. In the meantime, I have to meet with our new friend." He nodded to me and I left the infirmary. On the way back to my office, I began to formulate a strategy for breaking this news to her. One didn't need to be a telepath to know she was not going to like it one bit.

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AN: Uh oh...things are looking complicated for our friends here...whatever will I do with them? You'll just have to wait three more days to find out...:) I want to thank my beta readers, Zac and Turiel Tincdaniel for their vigilance and support...I'm not going to thank DBK(tm) anymore, since he's so wrapped up in the online Star Wars crack that he doesn't even beg for more chapters...so pbbtthht on him! Extra special thanks to those who have left reviews...your words of encouragement keep me going! Super special thanks to Rhia (RhiannonUK) and Dee (MidLifeCrisis) for giving me inspiration in new ways...love ya girls! And last, but not least, Super Swanky thanks to all of the readers for stepping into my version of the movie/comicverse and having a good time...of course, you could always leave me a review and then you get the knowledge that you were responsible for me happy dancing for ten minutes each time...:)

So what are you waiting for? Review already! Good reviews get the aforementioned happy dance...flames will be met with skewered meat and veggies...