Chapter 12

(Logan)

Alaska was a real eye-opener, the kind that brings up all the old nightmares all over again. All that shit I thought I put behind me was right there in the front again, men in hazmat suits looming over me, forcing white-hot metal under my skin, cooking me from the inside out. Had I not seen what was in those cryo units for myself, I'd have never believed it. Those things were supposed to be me, clones of me, and the thought made me sick. From what Horner told us, they also kept the bodies of the mutants who hadn't survived the bonding process, keeping them so they could study them to figure out why. They'd used the old method on most of them, the same one Angela went through before Stryker came up with the chemical soup he put me and most of the others in. The same process that killed her more than half a dozen times, her mutation the only reason she'd technically survived it at all.

But the worst part was knowing that they'd saved the bodies of every single mutant who'd ever died during any process they'd been put through, even testing. To us, that meant one thing: Emma. Horner said they probably still had Angela's daughter on ice somewhere, doing God only knows what with her body. But that was only where the horror started. Horner had let on that my escape was a lot more damaging than we'd first suspected. None of the other active operatives had my natural weaponry, not even Deathstrike. Stryker truly had given her claws, but no one else had received that enhancement, probably due to her having a healing factor easily on par with my own. On the other hand, even Stryker hadn't been crazy enough to give a psycho like Sabretooth any more reasons to be violent. It was almost a hobby to that asshole, I swear. At any rate, the worst part was where they had honestly thought that I was the most successful subject from the entire Weapon X program, so when they were unable to recapture me, they'd decided to just make another one. The archives were also chock full of the twenty-two failed attempts to clone yours truly.

"Chuck, I don't care what it takes," I said as soon as we'd gotten cleaned up from our jaunt, "we're gettin' in there if it's the last thing I do."

"Logan, Area 51 is the most secure military facility in the country if not the world." He replied, trying to reason with me. "Perhaps Mr. Bennington…"

"Fuck that. If he knew that the archives were there, why weren't they included in the files he gave us, huh? Answer that one for me."

"I don't know." He sighed, rubbing his forehead. "But it is reasonable to assume that Weapon X is not the only project that's active out there. He wouldn't want you to kill innocent people."

"No such animal, Xavier." I snorted.

"Very well. He wouldn't want you to kill people who are innocent of any involvement in Weapon X."

"Splittin' that hair awful fine, dontcha think?"

"Logan, I am not going to argue the ethics of this situation any more than we've already done. You already know I don't agree with your personal vendetta, as much as I may understand your need to do it. The fact still remains that getting into that facility will be next to impossible."

"Charles, they have Emma." Angela spoke for the first time since our midnight meeting started. "They have my little girl there, on ice, for gods only know what purpose. If it kills me a thousand times, I'm getting her back and sending her off the right way." Tears flowed unchecked down her cheeks and I crossed the room to sit next to her. I gathered her into my arms, but for the first time in twenty years, she pushed me away. "There has to be a way to get in there, someone who can help us."

"Angela, please think about this…"

"THERE IS NOTHING TO THINK ABOUT!" Angela shouted, cutting him off as she sprang to her feet. "They have my little girl in there. She'd be a grown woman by now, maybe even living here with us if Stryker hadn't taken her from me. Now I know where she is and nothing, nothing is going to stop me from getting her back. If you won't help me, then I have nothing more to say to you."

She whirled around and ran from the office, and I started after her. Before I reached the door, Xavier stopped me. "Logan, please, just listen to me."

I turned slowly. "What the fuck could you possibly have to say to me that'll change my mind?"

"I'm not going to try to change it. I just want you to know that no matter what happens, you will both always have a place here."

"Dahell you talkin' 'bout?" I asked, confused.

"Logan, I am not a young man and someday I will be gone. When that happens, you already know that Scott is the person I've chosen to take over the school."

"Is there somethin' you're not tellin' me?"

"Not as such, no. But you need to realize that if you or Angela is captured making an attempt on Area 51, it may be a very long time before you set foot in this school again. No matter how far into the future that may be, I want you to know that this will always be a home for you."

"Look Xavier, the reason me an' Angela were the best is cuz we never got caught, no matter how impossible it looked to be. This ain't nothin' we ain't ready for." I turned back to the door and opened it, but paused before I left, looking at the Professor over my shoulder. "But you need to remember that me an' her went through hell cuz o' those people, an' in some ways hers was worse. If the only real comfort she gets outta this whole thing is finally bein' able to bury her first daughter, I'm gonna do what I gotta do to give that to her."

"Logan…"

"I mean it, Chuck." I turned back to him. "Don't get in the way o' this. More'n anythin' we've done so far, this is somethin' we gotta do."

I walked out, ignoring his mental pleas for me to stay and went upstairs. Angela was in Evie's room, stroking her hair and watching her sleep, her cheeks still wet with tears. She was looking at our daughter, but I knew she was seeing her Emma lying there too. "Angela, let's get some sleep."

"I miss her, Logan. I miss her so damn much." She whispered.

"I know darlin'. We'll get her back." She stood up and slipped into my arms. "Word of honor, we'll get her back."

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The next week was insanely busy for both of us, with mid-term exams and the advancement of teams. When I finally had the time to spare, I cornered Sage and Buzz in the security office. "Hey you two, remember back to the whole Master Mold thing?" I asked.

"Kinda hard to forget something like giant killer robots, Logan." Buzz replied dryly.

"Didn't you guys say you found Area 51 back then?"

"Yeah, we did." Sage said, calling up a file on the computer in front of her. "I mean, it's not like they're actually hiding it or anything, but they do try to keep what actually goes on there a secret." She hit another couple of keys and the printer started working. "Buzz took it awfully personal when he couldn't hack their mainframe."

"Shut up, Sage." Buzz grumbled. "I didn't try very hard once Jazz found the Master Mold in Oz anyway."

"Look, I just need whatever you found about it, no matter how thin it is."

"Something up?"

"You could say that, but I ain't tellin' you what." Sage gathered the papers from the printer and slipped them into a folder before handing them to me. "Less you know, the better it'll be. Thanks guys."

I left the office and took the file outside to go through it while I had a smoke. I hated to think that there wouldn't be enough here to get us inside and that we'd have to go crawling back to Bennington again, but it was something I had to keep in mind. But if there's one thing that Angela, Kyro and I had been trained to do, it was find the weaknesses in any facility and exploit them to get inside and get the job done. According to these files, the base itself was between the Groom and Papoose mountain ranges in southern Nevada, right near something called Groom Dry Lake. I chuckled at the irony that it was, itself, a dried up alkali lake. It was listed as being a facility used to test aircraft for the military, but lots of people who weren't crazy UFO watchers believed it was used for a lot more than that. Thanks to Horner, I knew how true that was.

As I paged through the file, I noticed that Sage had also included a pretty detailed accounting of the mines in the surrounding mountains. She'd added some notes to the top of a couple of the maps indicating that some of the mine tunnels appeared to run fairly close to some of the underground areas in the base. She also speculated that some of the tunnels may even be used by base personnel to bring supplies into the more secret areas without any of the locals knowing about it. Very clever of her.

A shadow fell across the papers and I looked up to see Marie standing there. "Hey kid. Need somethin'?"

"Nah, not really." She replied as she sat next to me. "I heard you're goin' to Nevada."

"Yep." I put the papers back in the folder and closed it. "Not sure when, but we'll be goin'."

"I wish you'd let me help you guys out." She complained. "I got so much of you in my head, it's like they did all that shit to me too, ya know."

"Ain't quite the same thing, Marie."

"Close enough for me."

"Not for me." I turned to her and took her gloved hand in mine. "Rogue, do you have any idea at all what would happen if they got their hands on you an' figured out what you can do? One touch an' you can know all the secrets hidden in someone's head. They'd have you in chains in a heartbeat an' I ain't about to let that happen."

"Logan, I get that. But I don't have to go with you to Nevada to help."

I gave her a confused look. "Whattaya mean then?"

"Take me with you next time the three of you go out." I opened my mouth to protest but she stopped me. "Hear me out, damn it!" I cocked my head and she smiled. "I'm not sayin' I wanna go into the base with y'all, I'll stay in the jet. But if you can bring me someone from the base who might know more about this archive, well…you said it yourself, one touch an' I can know someone's every secret."

I narrowed my eyes at her, but she stared right back at me with a cocky smirk. "It'll still be dangerous, you know."

"I know. But I also know that you'll never get into that place if you can't find a quiet way in. And you know how much I hate to use my power unless it's absolutely necessary. Face it Logan, you need what I can get for you whether ya want to admit it or not."

"What is it lately with all my women bein' so damn mouthy all of a sudden?"

"Oh really? I think Angela would be very interested to hear that, dontcha think? And since when am I one of your 'women'?"

"Since that day you said I was your family." I sighed and stubbed out my cigar. "Fine, I'll talk to the others for you, but I ain't makin' any promises, understood?"

She nodded. "I get that. But I don't think the others'll be so stubborn about it."

"Yeah right." She smiled at me again and I watched as she crossed the lawn to join Remy under a tree. She greeted him with an enthusiastic kiss and I smiled for her. They'd been inseparable since that day in the Danger Room all those years ago, when they'd discovered he could touch her without risk. I'd always been glad for her because of that, although it had taken Angela a bit longer to warm up to the red-eyed Cajun. He still liked to call her "petit chat", which still annoyed her to no end, but at least she wasn't plotting to kill him anymore. That I knew of, that is. I was pretty sure there was no way we'd be able to take Marie anywhere that he wouldn't follow, unless something else came up to take him away. That was a very real possibility, what with the FOH on one side and Magneto's flunkies wreaking havoc on the other. But it might not be a bad thing if he came along; he'd protect Rogue to his dying breath.

A few hours later, I brought this up to Angela as we were getting ready for bed. It goes without saying that she wasn't thrilled with the idea. "Absolutely not. No way, she's not going."

"Darlin', I know how it sounds, but she promised not to go into the base with us."

"Logan, she's got YOU in her head. Do you really think she'll be able to stay out of it?"

"Maybe if it was just her, no. But ya know the Cajun'll wanna come along too, to protect her."

She chewed on her thumbclaw. "Hmm, maybe. If anyone could keep her in line, it'd be him." She frowned for a bit, still chewing on her claw as she went over possible contingencies in her head. "Yeah, she might be on to something here."

"You do know that you're supposed to be the sensible one here, right? I was countin' on you sayin' it was a bad idea no matter what and tellin' her she can't come along."

"I know. But I also know that she has a pretty good point. Maybe we could get more from someone with her along."

"I don't suppose I'll be able to count on Kyro to disagree with this."

"Not a chance. He's way more logical than either one of us, really. He'll want to know why we didn't try this sooner."

I sighed. "All right, fine. I'll tell Marie she can come along next time. But you get to tell Cyke."

"Scott doesn't scare me." She said, snuggling into me. I kissed the top of her head even as she started to kiss on my neck. "Now enough about work. Let's play."

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

It would be almost another month before we finally got around to our next objective. We went through the remaining files carefully, wanting to make sure we chose the base most likely to have the people who knew the most about the archives on staff. In the end, we chose Death Valley, partly because of its proximity to Area 51, but also because the files indicated that there was something there they just called "the testing center". If there was a place on the planet where we could expect to find the information we wanted, it would be there.

Of course, One-Eye was totally against including Marie on the jaunt. He had eventually accepted that Angela, Kyro and me were going to keep taking out Weapon X bases until there weren't any left, so he wisely kept his mouth shut when we left on one of our missions, but he was convinced that I had somehow talked Rogue into going on this one. It just didn't occur to him that she'd volunteered and he made one of the biggest mistakes of his life about a week before we were set to go. He told her she couldn't go. I had the great pleasure of witnessing this error of judgment firsthand, since he cornered her as we were coming out of the Danger Room after a training session with Gamma.

"Rogue, can I talk to you for a minute?" He asked casually.

"Sure Scott, what do ya need?" She replied as she took her hair down.

Scott glanced at me and cleared his throat. "Uh, in private?"

Marie raised an eyebrow (which looked very familiar) and crossed her arms over her chest. "Whatever you have to say, you can say it with Logan here."

I smiled to myself as Scott shoved his hands in his pockets and looked around, clearly not happy with this. I just stood there, keeping my face carefully neutral. Once he realized I wasn't leaving, he sighed. "Marie, you can't go with them when they go to Death Valley." He stated.

The silence in the hallway was deafening. The moment stretched out to the point where even I was uncomfortable before she finally responded. "Excuse me?"

"As the leader of the X-Men, I'm telling you that you are not allowed to go with them when they go to Death Valley. It's bad enough that they risk themselves every time they go out, but I can't allow you to risk yourself as well."

"Who died an' made you my father?" She snapped. "In case you've forgotten, I'm an adult now. I haven't been a student here for nine years, you can't tell me what I can an' can not do."

"Marie, would you stop and think for one minute? They're going out there to kill God only knows how many people. How could you possibly want to be a part of that?"

"In case you've forgotten, Cyclops, I have a big chunk o' Logan in my head, not to mention Angela too. I've seen what happened to them, I felt it like it happened to me. I still have nightmares that would make your hair curl. If they can stop those people from ever doin' this shit to anyone else, I think it's my duty to help them."

"They've already failed to stop them!" Scott said, raising his voice a touch. "When they got back from Alaska they said the doctor in charge up there told them about at least four new subjects that were being bonded. So what good have they done, really?"

"Why don't you ask Hea and Jung about that?" Rogue countered and Scott at least had the humanity to look ashamed. "Yeah, that's what I thought. Didn't think about them, did you? What kinda life would they have had if the three of them hadn't found them? Where do you think they'd be right now?"

"Look, I'm not saying they haven't helped a little. But there's no way I can allow you to put yourself at risk for their little vendetta."

"Tell me somethin', Scott. If you knew for a fact that they had Jean's body in that archive, what would you do?" He swallowed hard and looked at the floor. "I know exactly what you'd do. You'd move heaven an' earth to get her back here to put her to rest an' you know it. Angela wants her little girl back. Logan wants to find this clone o' his an' try to save her. Why the hell would you want to stop me from helpin' them?"

"It's not your fight, Marie. They set out to do this on their own and they've told us over and over they don't want or need our help. Why should this time be any different?"

"Because now it's beyond personal. Logan, Angela an' Evie are my only real family an' I'll do whatever I have to do to help them an' no one's gonna stop me."

They stared each other down for another long moment before he spoke again. "You're not going. That's all I have to say about this."

"Oh yeah?" Before either Scott or I could react, she laid a perfect punch on the point of his chin and he went down like a bag of rocks. "Yes I am an' that's all I have to say about it." She turned on her heel and stalked down to the locker room, leaving Scott and me alone.

"Well, I guess she told you Cyke." I said as I helped him off the floor.

"She must have learned that from you." He replied, rubbing his jaw.

"Like she said, she's got a huge chunk o' me in that pretty head o' hers. Can't blame her for doin' what comes natural."

"Just when I thought we were past all that rivalry nonsense," he grumbled.

"Oh, we are. But the me she's got in her head is from before we called a truce." I chuckled. "Lighten up, Scooter. At least she didn't kick ya in the balls." I turned and made my way to the locker room to get changed back into my regular clothes, a smile plastered on my face, and made a mental note to thank Marie later.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Five days later, we set out for Death Valley. I had been right when I assumed that Remy would insist on coming with us, to help protect Marie. Not that any of us had planned on letting her sit there completely defenseless in the first place. Marie had finally come to understand how her power worked and although she couldn't stop the imprinting from happening when someone touched her skin, she did know exactly how long to touch someone to get just what she needed. She had also learned how to reverse it to some extent, so if she absorbed someone's power, she could push it back as long as contact was never broken in between. She'd still never be able to touch anyone other than Remy safely, but at least now she had as much of a handle on her powers as she was likely to get. So, before we left the jet, Angela and I both gave Rogue as much of our powers as we could afford. I recovered much faster than Angela, but we were on our way with Kyro about twenty minutes later.

The mission went much like the others. We sneaked in, killed a bunch of people, stole a bunch of files, painted "vengeance" on a wall in some guy's blood and left again. The only difference was this time, we had a hostage. Her name was Carol Danvers and from what she told us during our initial "interrogation", she'd originally been a member of the CIA, but had been recruited into Weapon X about ten years ago as a trainer due to her expertise in infiltration. Once she'd realized what the program was all about, she'd begun to fear she'd been recruited as a subject. You see, Carol Danvers was a mutant, a fact she'd managed to keep hidden for most of her life. The part where she'd kept it hidden from the Director was a fucking miracle.

As time went on, she'd grown to believe in Weapon X's agenda, eventually becoming almost fanatical about it. Of course, she was also told that all the people being augmented were either volunteers or criminals that had been given the choice of life in prison or life in Weapon X. Maybe that was true in some cases, but I can think of at least five where it wasn't. After all, ten-year-old children aren't old enough to volunteer for something like this and if Hea and Jung had committed any crimes before we found them, I hardly think they'd have been bad enough to justify the tortures they'd been through. But from what she told us, she believed the same bullshit line they'd used back in the Bad Old Days, that Weapon X was a mutant counter-terrorist squad. Not even close.

Once we started asking about the archives, Ms. Danvers had clammed up, refusing to say even one word on the topic. Her mutation made her almost impervious to harm, though not to pain. She also had superhuman strength, probably not like Sam but certainly on par with Colossus. We went through I don't know how many restraints before Kyro found a set of adamantium cuffs that she couldn't break. Once we had those on her, we discovered yet another power; she could fly. Fortunately we were still in the main lab area and I got my hands on a tranquilizer gun and shot her back down. At least she didn't have a healing factor, or else that would have been like chucking spitballs at her. Once she was out, I hefted her over my shoulder and we took her back to the jet.

I dumped her in a heap at Rogue's feet. "Any trouble?" I asked.

"No, mon ami," Remy replied, "I tink Rogue was disappointed."

I chuckled. "Well, she did absorb me an' Angela. I'm sure she was spoilin' for a fight."

"Still am." She replied as she looked at the woman on the floor. "Any chance she'll wake up?"

"Nah, she's out pretty good. Just do your thing, darlin'. An' don't be surprised if ya get some more little gifts from her. She's a mutant."

"Nothin' I can't handle, sugah." She knelt down next to her and pulled off a glove, then took a deep breath before touching the woman's face. I expected her to pull away after a few seconds, but the look on her face went from calm to disgust to fury in that short time. Time seemed to slow down, each second lasting forever, until she finally let go. "Well I hope that keeps her down for a good long time." Rogue spat.

"What?" Angela asked in surprise. "Honey, what did you get from her?"

"Does 'Project Prodigal' mean anythin' to you guys?"

I looked at Kyro, then Angela, who had grown pale when Rogue said that. "Yeah, it does." I said.

"This bitch here was one o' the people in charge of implementing it." She looked up at me with a mixture of anger and fear in her eyes. "Logan, you can't go to the archives, not yet. It's a trap."

AN: Ha ha! Cliffie! Will they go to Area 51? Or will they wait until they can get in there with no trouble? Find out...later! Hehehehehehe...:) Special thanks to Zac and Turiel Tincdaniel, best beta readers ever...Extra Special thanks to DBK(tm) for his unwavering support and guidance...Super Special thanks to my readers, for still reading...and Super Swanky Special thanks to my reviewers, who were levanna and theNightEnchantress...levanna: have another virtual hug...i know how hard it is right now...and as for the viciousness (or lack thereof) of our intrepid heroes, well...like i said in my notes at the beginning of Ch. 1, my characters evolved, even the ones i'm borrowing...:)

Now for all you non-reviewing readers...please stop in and say hello! I do have anonymous reviews enabled, so don't worry about that...and if you don't want to leave a public review, feel free to send me a PM! Either way, i'd love to hear from you, even if it's just to say hello!