Chapter Three

It was two days before Karigan was able to sit down with Logan and the Professor and talk about what she has been through. When she and Logan walked through the door that led to the Professors office there were a few more faces present that Karigan didn't recognize. At this point Karigan was relatively sure that she could trust Professor Xavier and Jean, but there were three other people in the room that were complete strangers. Karigan took a step back and felt her hand begin to shake. She looked down at them and then back up to Logan who only stood about three or four inches taller than her. He looked down at her shaking hands knowingly.

He put his arm around her shoulder and led her to the empty couch that sat pushed against one of the walls.

"Karigan," the Professor began, "I would like you to meet Scott Summers," he pointed to a man sitting next to Jean wearing sunglasses, "this is Ororo Monroe, " a woman with white hair nodded her head, "and this is Hank McCoy," a man who looked kind of like a giant blue gorilla looked up from his paper work and smiled. "Karigan," the Professor said drawing her eyes back towards him "these are a few members of my team; we are a group of mutants who do the best we can to provide a safe place for others and help mutant children learn how to incorporate themselves in the world. I've asked them here so that you would only have to tell your story once. We're going to do the best we can to help you."

Karigan sat on the couch next to Logan, her eyes were so glazed over that Logan wasn't sure if she'd heard anything the Professor had said to her. "I don't know where to start," she whispered to quietly Logan was sure that he was the only one who heard her. "Just start at the beginning kid," Logan egged her on.

Karigan took a deep breath and prepared to relive her real life nightmare. "Um… well… it was later in the evening and I was outside in the garden watering the plants, my mom always says it's best to water plants in the evening after the sun starts going down because that way the sun wont dry them out. I had just turned off the water when I heard my mom in the house, it sounded like she was struggling with someone so I ran in the house." Karigan stopped talking; the images of that day were beginning to run through her head and her eyes started to water.

"There were men everywhere. They all had on uniforms and these masks that covered their faces, they all had guns, they looked like they were going to battle or something. One of them had a knife pressed to my mom's throat. I remember that one of the men was saying something to me but I don't remember what it was. I just couldn't stop looking at my mom."

Karigan began to shake; Logan put his arm around her.

"My mom made sure that I grew up knowing how to take care of myself. We both took martial arts classes and worked out every day," Karigan looked up at Logan "I just got my brown belt." He gave her a small smile hoping to calm her down a bit. "I knew that she was going to try to fight them, I could see it in her eyes. I should have stopped her," the tears finally spilled over, "I …I… I should have ran… they… they would have chased me… but I couldn't… I couldn't leave… her." Karigan broke down into tears, she was crying into Logan's shirt finally letting lose the pain she had tried so hard to suppress.

"You don't have to go into the details kid," Logan said gruffly not exactly sure how to comfort his daughter "How did you make it out?"

Karigan looked up him with red watery eyes "I didn't," she whispered.

There hadn't been much movement in the room once Karigan began her story, but at that statement it almost seemed like everyone had stopped breathing.

"Karigan," the Professor spoke for the first time, "what do you mean you didn't make it out."

"My mom and I fought back, we managed to take a few of them down but because for some reason they weren't using their guns on us. I think I remember one of them saying that they wanted to take me alive. We fought hard but my mom was starting to get tired, she had some cuts and was bleeding from her head, I tried to get to her but the next thing I knew… they'd… they'd… shot her."

Karigan took a deep breath. The sooner she was done telling this story the sooner she could go back to her bed and sleep. It was just so hard.

"I guess I went kind of crazy then, I managed to take down a few more men before the guys who shot my mom turned and shot at me a few times. I guess they knew about my mutation because he just shot me in the legs at first, but when I kept coming he shot me in the stomach. That's when I blacked out."

"I woke up later in a lad in some kind of water filled tube with…with these…"

"With the claws," Logan asked?

"It was a few more weeks before I escaped. I managed to convince them that I would play for their team, so I started training sessions and started to learn how to fight with these stupid claws. They said that it would be easier if I didn't fight them and joined their team. For a while it seemed like the only choice. I had no idea where I was. They blindfolded me whenever they took me through the base, so I didn't even know where the exits if I wanted to try to escape; but I couldn't get the image of my mom out of my head. These were the people who'd killed her. I did what they asked, let them train me and run tests on me, but while they were patting themselves on the back for a job well done, I was planning my escape.

"They take us to different locations so we can train on different terrain, mostly the woods or swamps. I knew it was risky I'm not even sure how I pulled it off. We were in the swamps this time, so I knew that the amount of water alone would make it hard for them to track me. We were running a drill, and I was told that I had to disable my attackers as they came at me. I had made sure that when they were testing my strength in the labs that I never let on to how strong I really was, so whenever I ran into someone in the swamp they were surprised by how fast I was. I'm not even sure if most of them knew what was happening."

Karigan looked up at Logan with fresh tears in her eyes. "I didn't want to kill them, but every time one of them popped out of a tree all I could see was my mom, she never did anything to anyone. Why did they have to kill her?"

"It's alright kid," Logan responded, "they'll get what's comin' to 'em. I'll make sure of that."

Karigan nodded her head, "I'm not sure how many of them I took down, but I grabbed one of their radios along the way, so I could hopefully figure out where they all were or if I was really lucky a way out. After a while when people I'd killed stopped checking in via radio they figured out that I was making a run for it, I'm not really sure what happened after that. I could hear them coming after me… I ran as fast as I could, but I was in the swamp… I reached a cliff, and I didn't know what to do… I jumped."

Logan patted her on the back, his only way of saying a job well done.

"Karigan how exactly did you find us," Professor Xavier asked?

"I knew where Logan was because of the return address on his letters. Some hikers found me and I pretended that I had amnesia. I found out from them that I was already in New York and not too far from the institute. A few days after they found me I took off with a map and found you. Getting through your security was a bit touch and go, but I guess all that training paid off."

The room was silent for a while, everyone in their own thoughts.

"Well…" Scott started, "finding these people is going to take some time, they're nothing are nothing if not secretive."

"Professor I think that Karigan is going to need some more time to recuperate before we start going through her brain looking for these people," Ororo said, "We should hold off for a few days, I'm sure Karigan would like to meet the others."

"Other what?"

"Other students, this is a home for mutants who need help controlling their powers, or have nowhere else to go," the Professor explained.

"Do I have to," Karigan looked up to Logan?

"Why not, you're a good kid. I'm sure you'll get along fine."

Karigan missed the look that passed between Logan and the Professor as she was led by Logan and Ororo out of the room. They walked down the hall followed closely by Scott and Jean to a living room by the front door. With her enhanced hearing Karigan could tell that there were multiple conversations going on, none of which made much sense.

When they turned the corner and finally faced the group of young mutants the conversation slowly dwindled.

"Everyone," Ororo began, "I would like you to meet Karigan, she's Logan's… uh," Ororo looked to Logan clearly asking permission if he could tell them that she was his daughter.

"She's my daughter."

Jaws literally fell to the ground, and I was pretty sure the blue guys eyes would pop out of his head.

"Nice job dad, this should be very interesting," Karigan rolled her eyes.