Chapter Three: Stories and theories...
Panther sits in the room she's sharing with three other girls, two of whom are Jubilee and Kitty. Kitty and another girl who introduced herself as Syrian are now sitting across from her and staring at her.
Oh great fates give me strength. I do not wish to lose my mind now, Panther thinks as the two girls look at her she asks as civilly as she can in the current circumstance, "Is there any reason you staring at me?"
"Well it's just kinda hard to see Logan as a father," Syrian says with a small shrug of her shoulders.
"No it is not. Because he is not a father!" Panther all but yells then closes her eyes when she sees the two girls jump a little at her outburst.
"I am sorry. I just don't have any love for Logan," Panther apologies after she opens her eyes.
"If you don't mind me asking why do you hate your da... Logan so much? And how did you know he's your dad?" Kitty asks quietly hoping she doesn't get another explosive reply from the young woman. She may hate Logan but she's so much like him it's scary. Kitty thinks to herself as she readies herself to be yell at again.
"No. I do not," Panther says calmly and smiles as Kitty visibly relaxes a little. Why am I going to tell them these things? I do not know them. I have no reason to trust them. I also have no reason not to trust them. Well I will never see them again and I have no reason not to tell them either I guess.. Panther thinks then takes a deep breath and begins, "I did not always hate him. When I was very young I loved him, well the stories my mother told about him. I guess none of them were true. But when my brother and I were, I can not tell them that we were three. Think stupid!!, seven. We were attacked by people who didn't like the fact that my brother and I were mutants," Panther pauses as tears come to her eyes as she remembers that night. Remembering that they were not attacked because she and her brother are mutants but for being half human. Panther closes her eyes and takes a deep shaky breath to calm herself then continues, "Anyway they were pounding on our door and demanding that my mother hand us over to them. There was no way mother was going to hand us over to those cowards.
"My mother knew she could not sneak my brother and I out the back door or out a window so she had us hid in a compartment under her bed," Panther pauses again to take another deep breath and to violently wipe the tears off her cheek that had escaped her eyes and again continues speaking, "My mother told us not to leave our hiding place until she came for us. After she was sure that they couldn't find us our mother fought them as best she could, she even killed a few but there were to many of them and they killed her. They searched the whole house for us and didn't find us. The local police arrived, as always, to late.
"When we heard the cowards leave we came out of our hiding place and the police found us beside our mother's body. A friend of our mother's came for us and left us with some friends of hers that she was sure the would take good care of us and she was right. They did but shortly after they adopted us our new mother also died in a car crash. So our father raised us on his own. He did do a very good job and loved my brother and I very much. He gave us a good life," Panther finish as a few more tears escaped her eyes, I've never lied so much in my life. I feel horrible about it, but I can not tell these girls the true they would think me insane. Panther thinks as she wipes the tears from her face.
"I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have asked," Kitty says as she watches Panther fight back the tears in her eyes.
"It is alright. I have been told that it is good to talk about things like this. To help you deal with them," Panther says with a kind simile on her face all of a sudden she finds the floor incredibly interesting. Panther looks up at the two girls again who are looking at her with a look mixed between sorrow and pity. Panther has to fight back the anger she feels build up inside of her at the looks. Swallow your pride for ten seconds child or you will get yourself in it deeper then you are already in, Panther thinks then asks, "Can you tell me or show me where the library is at?"
"Yeah we can," Syrian says cheerfully as she jumps up off the bed she was sitting on hoping that it will take Panther's mind off what she has just told them about her past.
"Good. Well lead the way," Panther says kindly and smiles at them.
"Okay lets go," Kitty says just as cheerfully as she walks toward the door with Syrian and Panther right behind her.
Professor Xavier's office.
Professor Xavier sits behind his desk looking at the older members of the X-Men who are either sitting, standing, or are parched somewhere in the room.
"So what have we learn about Logan's little princess?" The professor asks looking at Jean and Scott, out of the corner of his eye he sees Logan cringe at the reference to the young woman. He smiles to himself at this as a little way of getting back at Logan for his smoking habits.
"We didn't find anything. No birth certificate, no school records, no medical records, nothing it's like she doesn't have a past. Almost like she just appeared out of thin air," Jean says from her seat in front of the professor's desk.
"That's imposable. There has to be something no one just appears out of nowhere," The Professor says as he drums his fingers on his wheelchair.
"Vell I have no birth certificate either," Kurt says trying to help the professor out a little.
"You don't know if you have a birth certificate Kurt. It could be in a different name," says Professor Xavier as he looks at Kurt crouched form in the corner of the room.
"True. She might have given us a false name," Kurt says as he shifts his position to get more comfortable.
"That is a very good possibility too. But I don't think it is. Why would she give us a false name. Also she seems so proud of it minus her middle name, she seems to hate it as much as she hates you Logan," Professor Xavier says with a slight frown.
"Yeah she is a real daddy's little girl," Scott says with a small smile.
"Can it one eye."
"Don't start you two. What really bothers me is not what we can't find about her but the scars on her body," Jean says with a worried look on her face.
"Scars? What scars? You said she has my healing ability she shouldn't have any scars," Logan says as he pushes himself off the wall by the huge picture window.
"I said she has a lesser form of your healing ability. She doesn't heal as fast as you do and her wounds leave scars. Anyway it's the scars on her back that really scare me. It looks like she's been whipped with a bull whip or something along those lines. Along with electrical burn scars, what look like stab wound scars, you name it it's there," Jean says sadly then adds, "It looks like she was tortured at one time or another."
"Who could do somesing like that?" Kurt asks appalled at the news.
"Lots of people," Logan says though gritted teeth. His hands are so tightly fisted that his knuckles are not only white but also cracking. He was starting to understand now why his daughter hated him so much. Because he was not there to take them after their mother died they were most likely handed off to some sadistic pedophile relative that made her and her brother's life a living hell. If that's the case then that would also explain why his son married so young. To get away from whoever that person was.
Whoever that son-of-a-bitch is they better hope I never get my hands on 'im because if I do. I'll show him what it's like to be tortured. Logan thinks as he pushes himself off the wall. He walks over to the door at a fast pace and opens it with such force that he nearly rips the door off it's hinges. After he passes though he slams it and is satisfied when he hears the wood of the door or door frame crack.
As Logan storms down the hall not really caring where he goes he begins thinking.
What if I did abandon them. What if I left for the project because I found out their mother was pregnant. What if I am to blame for their pain and suffering. What is this 'what if' bullshit. I am to blame. If I hadn't of left they wouldn't have gone though what they did!
"Logan! Stop!" Marie yells as she catches up to Logan in the wooded area just outside of the school.
Logan stops and looks behind him to find Marie running to catch up with him.
"Why are you storming off into the woods Logan?" Marie asks as she stops about a foot from him. She knows she shouldn't have followed him but she was worried.
"It's nothing you have to worry about," Logan says then turns and starts back toward the school.
"No! Don't shut me out Logan! You haven't done it before so don't start now!" Marie yells after him. Logan stops and looks at Marie a little shocked. They had there share of fights but she never demanded anything of him before.
"Please Logan tell me what's wrong," Marie says as she walks up to him and grabs his hand.
"I'm not shutting you out. I can't tell you something that I haven't even figured out myself yet. I'll tell you when I've got my head straight. Okay?"
"Okay. I can except that. I'll leave you to your thoughts then," Marie says as she lets go of Logan's hand and walks away from him.
"I'll see you a little later," Logan says then walks over to a bench and sits down to think.
How can I talk to her? How can I ask her about her life about what she went though? How can I tell her that I'm sorry for not being there, for the hell she and her brother have been though. How could I leave them?