Interlude

Germany. North Korea. Alaska. Now, Death Valley. If he counted Alkali Lake, Hudson Bay and the Alberta facility, his two favorite creations had destroyed nearly thirty labs and bases that were operating under the name of Weapon X. There were still plenty of active bases that they hadn't hit, but it was really only a matter of time. It was now obvious that Wolverine and Hellcat had somehow gotten the Weapon X file from that damned Bureau of Constitutional Integrity and the Director no longer had an insider there.

He sat back in his chair, rubbing his forehead. He was very tired all of a sudden, wondering for the first time if this was all worth it. Mutants had destroyed his life, yet here he was, knee-deep in them every day of his life. He sighed heavily and closed his eyes. Maybe it was time to just deploy the Sentinels and let the world burn. His second Master Mold that was hidden beneath the waters of Alkali Lake had already produced several hundred of the robots before that bastard Bennington had threatened him that day in the Oval Office. One simple voice command and it would start working again, and his most glorious project would begin eradicating the mutants once and for all.

Of course, there were other things to consider. X-23, although only two years old at the moment, was still mentally and physically stable, a far cry from her predecessors. There was another cloning project going on as well, one the scientists in charge had dubbed "Project Phoenix", the project they'd used to perfect the cloning technology that created X-23. The Director recognized the woman they'd cloned for that project, a mutant named Dr. Jean Grey, who had apparently died at Alkali Lake. They'd found what was left of her only a few days after the loss of the base and had seen the wisdom of using her as the beta test for the cloning process, simply because there was much more of her to get DNA from. The samples they had from Wolverine were all they had and were thus not considered expendable. The clone, designated 458-25-502, code name "Phoenix", was now twelve years old and already exhibiting some incredible powers. Although not suitable for bonding, it was believed she still had the makings of an impressive operative.

Opening his eyes, he made up his mind. Now was not the time to plow Weapon X under and salt the earth. There was still too much at stake to consider that, not the least of which was the child of Wolverine and Hellcat that the Director longed to get his hands on. If it had even a fraction of its parents' talent, it could very well be the best thing to ever happen to the project. No, Weapon X still had work to do and it was time they got to it.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Chapter 13

(Angela)

"How did they find out we were on our way to the archives?" I asked Logan later that night. "We only found out about them a fucking month ago and we didn't leave anyone alive to warn anyone!"

"I don't know, angel." He replied, sounding just as frustrated as me. "Maybe they figured it was just a matter o' time 'fore we got there an' knew that you'd stop at nothin' to get Emma back."

"Hm, maybe." I chewed on one of my claws thoughtfully. "Or maybe Alaska was a setup."

"Darlin', those things they had on ice up there were real enough. They had a skeleton crew, most o' the place was shut down 'cept the parts they were livin' in. I'm a lot more paranoid than you an' even I think it was for real."

"Yeah, I guess you're right. But we didn't know that they even had an archive until then, much less where it was. And now we stumble on the one person who's supposed to be implementing the very program they designed just to capture us? What are the chances, really?"

"We coulda easily gone to another base. If they wanted us back so badly, they coulda gotten us in Death Valley. I can't believe she'd let herself get captured knowin' she probably wouldn't survive."

"Why not? I'd do it."

"Yeah, but you come back the next day. She's still in a coma downstairs."

"Any ideas how long she'll be out?"

He shook his head. "Hank didn't know for sure. Rogue took an awful lot outta her, said she could be out for a few weeks at least."

"What are we gonna do about her anyway?"

"Dunno. We coulda killed her after Rogue was done with her or just left her to the desert, but somethin' tells me we still need her."

"Ooh, do I get to accuse you of being psychic now?" I asked with a grin.

"You're not funny."

"Yes I am." He glared at me and I giggled. "But really, why didn't you just let me have at her?"

"Because now we have somethin' o' theirs that they'll want back. I ain't sayin' that we'll make a deal with 'em, unless they promise to jump off a cliff while we watch, but they don't know we already know everythin' she knows. So maybe they'll try to make a deal with us an' we can use that to spring a trap of our own."

"You mean like send them a message that we have her and if they want her back, we want to meet with the Director?"

"Exactly. An' when he shows up…"

"We can kill him. Cut the head off this snake once and for all."

He nodded. "Then maybe it'll just die on its own an' we can concentrate on our lives again."

I could hear the weariness in his voice and I sighed. We both knew we'd never be able to get on with our lives until this was all over and the only way to guarantee that was to get rid of the Director. From what Marie had gotten from Danvers, the man didn't entrust anything really sensitive to anyone and kept all of his important files to himself. The heads of individual projects were given the information they needed and nothing else, which meant there was very little cooperation within Weapon X's individual departments. In fact, projects were kept completely separate from one another, all the way down the pike. Only the Director knew everything.

"Logan, let's get away for a few days. Go to the cabin, recharge our batteries and just forget about all this."

He turned on his side to face me. "You sure? Evie's supposed to start her serious gift trainin' this week."

"I know. But Hank even said that it might be best if we weren't here for the beginnings of that. He said that 'being a parent is not helpful when one is learning the nuances of their gifts'." Logan gave me the sexy eyebrow trick and snorted. "Seriously, he said that! And I guess I can understand, since we'd be inclined to let her slide on some things, but Charles and Ororo? Not a chance."

He wrapped his arms around me and pulled me close, and I heard him inhale deeply when he did so. He told me he liked to breathe in my scent, that it made him feel calm, so I didn't think anything of it. He pulled back a moment later with a mischievous gleam in his eye. "Ok, let's do it. I have a feelin' these will be four very productive days."

I looked at him in confusion, then did a little math in my head and rolled my eyes. "I'm fertile and you can smell it, can't you?"

"What can I say? The Wolverine wants a pack."

"Yeah, but the Wolverine isn't the one that has to produce it." He chuckled and kissed me softly. "Well then, what do you say about getting started right now?"

"Sounds like a plan to me."

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

We did take off for a few days, five to be exact, and when we returned, the mansion was buzzing. First and foremost was news about Rogue. Unlike when she'd all but drained Logan on Liberty Island (ok, that was his doing, but still), the powers she'd absorbed from Carol Danvers still hadn't faded in the least. In fact, she was learning how to control them as though they were her own. The Professor and Hank had no idea why the powers weren't fading, but Hank had a theory that it had to do with Rogue's own power progressing. He didn't know if she'd ever gain perfect control over it, but it now seemed that if she tried hard enough, she could absorb someone's power completely if she wanted to. We wouldn't know for certain if and until Danvers woke up, but it certainly seemed that Rogue was now more powerful than ever and it looked to stay that way.

The next bit of news had been overshadowed by Marie's revelations; our daughter, at the tender age of eight, had successfully made her first steps in controlling her own power of precognition. Of course, since Charles could just go into her head and show her what she needed to do directly, it made it that much easier. We'd still considered having him block them temporarily, but in the end Evie didn't want that. She'd told us, with a gravity far beyond her years, that knowing what was going to happen before it happened was too important to take it away. Now that she had a better understanding of how it worked, she could actually access it at will, although she couldn't see very far that way. For now, she could only see about ten minutes into the future, but as we all know a few seconds can make a huge difference, so ten minutes was fantastic. The Professor assured us that as she got older, her "range" would increase as well, which could give us more than enough time to plan and try to avoid the things she saw if needed or to assist if that was the correct choice. Of course, none of this affected her prophetic dreams, which Charles said could occur at any time and have any possible range.

Last, but not least, was something that came as no surprise to most of us. Sam popped the question to Storm, who had readily accepted and the school stood under the most amazing sunny skies for the time of year. To say everyone was thrilled is an understatement. The last big thing the girls got to go crazy over had been me while I was pregnant, but now there was a wedding to plan and they threw themselves into it wholeheartedly. Jubilee was back from college with an actual teaching degree, so she became the self-appointed wedding planner and tried to recruit every female over the age of twelve to assist her. Fortunately, she knew better than to ask me about it. I had never felt a need to marry Logan and even though I understood the joy that permeated the mansion after the happy news, I also didn't want to be in on the planning stages. The decision was taken out of my hands when Ororo asked me to be her maid of honor.

"Excuse me?" I said, caught completely off guard by the question.

"I want you to be my maid of honor." She replied simply.

"Uh, no offense Storm but, why me? Wouldn't Rogue or Jubilee be a better choice?"

She laughed. "It's true, I've known them longer. But you have become such an important part of all our lives and I can't think of anyone else I'd want to stand up for me."

I doubted that. I knew she'd rather have Jean up there with her, but that just wasn't possible. I sighed and gave her a smile. "Well, since you put it that way, how can I say no?"

She hugged me impulsively, then flitted off to teach her history class. I just shook my head and made my way to the Danger Room to oversee Delta team on a session. Ninety minutes later, after a quick shower, change of clothes and a quick bite of lunch, it was off to the strategy class with Beta team. Life had more or less returned to normal, for the time being.

A week later, we discovered that our mini-vacation hadn't produced another cub for Logan's pack and I was secretly kind of glad about that. I didn't want to risk missing out on finishing off the Weapon X bases, letting Logan and Kyro have all the fun without me. Logan was obviously disappointed, but cheered up when I pointed out that this meant we got to keep trying, over and over if we had to. I shivered at the grin he gave me, feral and sexy. Gods above, I love that man.

So it was that we settled back into our routine of classes, Danger Room, time with Evie and planning our assault on Weapon X. Leave it to humans to ruin a good thing.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Beta team, fall back!" Scott shouted into the com. "Circle around behind them and re-engage!"

"Copy Alpha leader!" Cannonball replied.

Our recent agreement with the various law enforcement agencies was finally being put to the test. A chapter of the Friends of Humanity near Atlanta had discovered a rarity amongst mutantkind – an entire family. Mom, Dad and two kids aged seventeen and fourteen, all mutants. Mom and Dad (Grace and Michael Sheridan) were both mildly telepathic, but Grace could also stick to walls whereas Michael had a chameleon-like ability to blend with his surroundings. The kids, Danny and Heather, had inherited the mild telepathy, but Danny had some limited flight powers (short bursts only) and Heather could paint without the help of brushes – or paint for that matter. So, as far as mutations go, they weren't really that powerful. The kids had been home schooled since the age of thirteen, specifically to keep them out of the public eye, their house was in a fairly rural area and the parents had a home-based internet business selling homemade candles and essential oils, so how the FOH found them in the first place was only the first problem.

The second problem was the local law enforcement. They'd received the memo through the union detailing our new agreement, but they'd waited until the Sheridans were under full attack before calling us in. By then, their house was surrounded by about fifty FOH members and nearly the same number of sympathizers who hadn't actually thrown their hats in. By the time we got there, the police had set up a perimeter and were attempting to get the FOH to surrender, but Scott, Logan, Storm, Rogue and I all suspected that more than a few of the cops were either FOH or sympathizers anyway. The house was under heavy fire and none of the officers had even tried to fire a single shot to warn them off. As soon as we got there, the Sheriff and two of his lieutenants moseyed over to talk to us. Thirty seconds later, one of the FOH guys took a pot shot at Logan and all bets were off.

Which leads me to where we are now. We hadn't brought all of Alpha with us, just the core groups of Cyclops, Storm, Logan, Rogue and myself for Alpha One, with Nightcrawler, Angel, Gambit, Iceman and Echo for Alpha Two. Beta team consisted of Cannonball, Polaris, Wind Dancer, Wolfsbane, Magma and Rictor. Polaris was using her magnetic powers to shield her team from the bullets, but that was only effective so long as they stayed within about twenty feet of her. Our original plan had been to have Kurt teleport in to retrieve the family one at time and have them wait for us in safety in Blackbird Two. In the meantime, the rest of us would secure the perimeter to prevent any of the people involved in the attack from escaping. We were in the process of explaining that to the Sheriff when Logan got shot high in his right shoulder. I let out a gasp of shock just as he growled and popped his claws. Before Scott could stop him, he shot across the field towards the knot of men and women who stood there with their guns pointed in our general direction. Only quick thinking on Polaris' part had prevented another one of us winding up with a bullet wound.

"Fuck! Cyclops, plan B!" I shouted as I slid my own claws out and took off after Logan. I could hear more shots ringing through the air and I winced as though they were hitting me.

"Hellcat, we don't have a plan B!" He retorted over the com. "Where the hell are you going?"

"Unless you want a body count, someone's gotta get in there and disable these assholes before Wolverine gets too many of 'em!"

I heard him curse under his breath, then I didn't have time to think. Logan had already reached the group, but they'd shot him up pretty bad by the time I got there. His suit was riddled with holes, the special material they were made out of, tough as it is, is still not able to withstand certain kinds of bullets, mostly high caliber and Teflon-jacketed rounds. These idiots seemed to have both. Still, as riddled with holes as he was, he was on his feet and swinging with his claws, cutting through their weapons like they were made of paper. At least one man was down with a missing hand and another lay near him, unmoving. Another shot struck him square in the chest as I came up next to him, fired from the rifle held in the hands of a woman with stringy blond hair, hatred blazing in her eyes. He grunted as he flew through the air to land on his back with a thud that was audible over the sounds of combat all around us.

I narrowed my eyes and hissed. "Bitch, that was the last mistake you'll ever make!" I shouted as my inner animal took control. I did my best to hold it back enough to not kill her, but I wouldn't know until much later how successful I was at the attempt. All I knew at that moment was that she'd hurt my mate and she was going to pay for that. She fumbled with the bolt on her gun, trying to chamber another round as I fell upon her, swiping at her face with my left as I made contact with her torso with the right. Her jacket and the shirt underneath shredded and five long gashes appeared, spraying blood everywhere. I managed to pull back enough that they weren't fatal wounds, but she would carry those scars for life. I lashed out again, with my fists this time and she fell like a stone beneath my adamantium strikes.

Logan was back on his feet, surrounded by five of the FOH bastards who didn't know what they were up against. I used the back of the one nearest me as a springboard, raking my toe claws down his back as I leapt over his head. He screamed in agony and I spun around to face him, stripping the weapon from his hands before he could bring it to bear on me. I whipped him across the face with the butt of his rifle and he was out like a light. I took a few precious seconds ejecting the remaining ammo from the weapon before casting it aside to face the rest of the assailants.

"Look, the animal's got a little girl to help him," one of them jeered. "Ain't even got enough sense to keep her weapon."

"Moron, we are the weapons." I snarled as I lashed at his face with my right. He didn't pull back fast enough and one of my claws caught his left eye and removed it neatly from the socket. I flicked it away casually and kicked him the gut, causing him to double over. Grabbing the back of his head, I brought my knee up into his face and felt his nose break with a most satisfying crunch. I cast him aside, unconscious and turned to find another person to fight.

Logan had the other three well in hand, his claws finally sheathed. As I turned, a guy roughly the size of a mountain and built just as solidly managed to land a punch to Logan's solar plexus, knocking all the air out of him and bringing him to one knee. But Logan wasn't down for long. Big Guy kicked forward with enough force to have broken Logan's nose had he actually connected, but his satisfaction turned to shock when Logan grabbed his foot and brought his elbow straight down on Big Guy's knee. Big Guy screamed in agony and Logan's fist flashed forward, right into Big Guy's balls. He went down without another whimper and I smiled. If nothing else, there was one less bigot able to reproduce in the world.

That left two, one for each of us, and we turned slowly to face them. One of them actually showed a little bit of sense as he dropped his weapon to the ground and put his hands up. "Hey man, I don't want no trouble!" He cried, his voice shaking.

"Sure coulda fooled me, bub." Logan snarled. "You came here to kill a family, asshole, people who never did nothin' to you."

I heard the sound of a gun cocking and looked up into the barrel of one of the biggest revolvers I've ever seen. "You muties are ruinin' the country." He said. "One of you tried to kill the President!"

At the mention of that bastard, it took everything in my being not to go completely feral. "There's plenty of bad normal people too, or did you forget people like Charles Manson? Ted Bundy? Son of Sam? How about Lee Harvey Oswald? That chick who drowned all five of her kids?" I stared down the barrel of that gun and looked the man in the eye, his resolve seeming to waver. "Yeah, you think you guys are so much better, but you're not. Sure, we have powers you don't. You've shot Wolverine how many times now and he's still standing. I've got claws and I can hear your heart beating in your chest, but I'm still just woman with a little girl waiting for me at home. And in case you've forgotten, Magneto tried to kill the President. That man next to me? He went in and helped save him."

"Shut up!" The man shouted, his hand shaking. "Stupid bitch, stop tryin' to confuse me!"

"Confuse you?" Logan said and I spared a glance at him. The man who'd dropped his weapon was already on the ground, wrists firmly bound with his own shirt. "Bub, the lady's makin' more sense than you an' your buddies here."

"We're not saying we're better than humans, just different," I said. "If any of you would use your fucking heads, you'd see that we've been doing our best to protect you from those of our own kind who want to hurt you." The barrel of the gun dipped a little. "But you FOH assholes would rather take a page from Hitler's Handbook and that puts us in a very difficult position. We don't want to hurt you, but we'll protect ourselves and our own if we have to. So what's it gonna be? You wanna give up and have a chance at getting out of this or do you want to end up like your friends over there?"

He lowered his gun and appeared to be thinking about it, but I heard a sudden commotion in the woods behind us. I turned around and about seventy more people with guns and knives broke through the trees. The man in front of me smiled and raised the gun again. "I'll take my chances," he said and pulled the trigger. The bullet hit me between the eyes, which would have killed a normal person, but I'm not normal. I flew off my feet and back about thirty feet before landing hard on the ground. The last things I heard before I passed out were the agonized screams of the man who shot me and Cannonball saying "Copy Alpha leader" over the com.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

I woke up a few hours later in the infirmary, the bright lights stabbing into my already agonized brain. Sure, my adamantium skull stopped the bullet, but it didn't change the fact that getting shot in the head causes one wicked migraine. I quickly closed my eyes, groaning and I heard rapid shuffling, followed by the warm feeling of Hank's furry hand on my forehead. "How are you feeling, my dear?" He whispered, but it sounded like he was shouting to me.

"Ugh. I'd be a lot better if you weren't so loud." I replied.

"Ah, almost back to normal I see. Good. Logan's been worried sick about you."

"I'll bet." I chanced opening my eyes again and the pain seemed a little less. "How is he?"

"He's fine, although from what I understand, the other guy won't be nearly as well."

"He didn't kill anyone, did he?"

Hank frowned. "No one that didn't try to kill him first. Or you, for that matter. The local authorities tried to detain him for his, um, enthusiasm in handling the situation, but were unable to do so since they had shot the both of you."

I sighed in relief. "How are the Sheridans? Did they get out ok?"

"Yes, they're all just fine and they'll be staying here for a little while until Charles can find them another place to stay."

"Why don't they just stay here? They'd be more than welcome, you know that."

"Yes, they would be. However, I think they prefer their solitary life. Although their children are already liking the atmosphere here. I don't think they've had much contact with others their own age."

"Think their parents will at least let them stay? Neither of them are particularly X-Man material, so it's not like we'll try and convince them to join the team."

"I honestly don't know, though I do agree that it would be good for them to be amongst their peers." He busied himself checking my vitals, then patted me on the hand. "I'm going to ask that you stay here at least long enough for your headache to go away. In the meantime, I believe you have a couple people waiting for you outside who are eager to see you."

I smiled and he patted my hand again before walking away. A moment later, I heard the door open and Evie came running over to me. "Mommy! Are you ok?"

I winced a little at the shrill sound of her voice, but smiled all the same. "Yes, Mommy's just fine. Just have a little headache is all."

Logan came up behind her and sat down in a chair next to me, gathering Evie into his lap. "Daddy said that you were bein' heroes an' some bad guys tried to hurt you an' you got knocked out."

He smiled at me over the top of her head with a wink. "Well, it's true right?" He asked.

"Yep, absolutely true. But the bad guys got arrested and we won't have to worry about them anymore."

"Good. I hate the bad guys. I keep seein' them doin' all these bad things in my head an' it makes me mad that I'm too little to do anythin' about it."

Logan and I exchanged a significant look. "What do you mean, sweetie?"

"You know, the bad men. If I think about them, I can see what they're doin' sometimes. Like I keep seein' these bad men that are kinda like army men, except they're not. An' they look all over the place for mutants to take away and they sometimes do things to them, like what Daddy has."

"Like my claws you mean?" He asked and she nodded. "Anythin' else?"

"Yeah, but you already know the part where they come here an' try to take me away, I told you that part a long long time ago." She sighed and settled back against Logan's chest. "I wish I was big like you guys so I could go help fight them with you."

I reached over and took her hand. "Sweetheart, there's no way to be sure that you'll be able to do that. Maybe seeing the future is the only thing you can do and if that's so, then it's best to keep you safe here and out of danger. Your gift is too rare to risk."

"I know Mommy, we've talked about all that. But I still wanna help."

"You'll help us a lot as long as you stay safe." I sat up carefully, my head still hurting but I really didn't want to be in the infirmary anymore. "Come on, let's go back to our own rooms. I'll get better a lot faster up there." I leaned on Logan while Evie took my other hand and we want back to our own rooms. We tucked our daughter into bed then I settled down in the bed next to Logan. He wrapped his arms around me and I sighed. "Logan, she still sees the same men invading the school and coming after her. It hasn't stopped, with everything we've done that's still going to happen."

"I know darlin'," he replied. "We've been doin' all we can to stop it."

"Then we have to do more!" I cried. "We'll have to hit more bases more often, stop waiting so long in between. We'll hit them hard…"

"Angela, listen to me." He said, looking at me intently. "I don't disagree with anythin' you're sayin'. But we don't wanna do more, we wanna do better."

"How can we do anything better than we already do? We're already the best."

"I don't know, tiger. But we'll find a way."

AN: Ah, the plot thickens...hehehehe...just so you all know, i'm also posting a one-shot that takes place during Logan and Angela's mini-vacation...it was inspired by a conversation that i had over IM with Dee (MidLifeCrisis) and although it was a little different in its original state, it reworked it so that it fit better with this story...so make sure you check that out, too...:) Special thanks to Zac and Turiel Tincdaniel, my most excellent beta readers...Extra Special thanks to DBK(tm) for his undying support...Super Special thanks to my readers, just for reading...and Super Swanky Special thanks to my reviewers, who were Ineluctability, theNightEnchantress and levanna...Inelcutability: You're pretty rockin' yourself, girl! theNightEnchantress: thanks for the review! levanna: Well, Logan and Angela wanted to keep everyone else out of it as much as they could, because they truly believe the fight is theirs (and Kyro's) alone...but you haven't seen the last of her, mark my words!

Now is the chance for all of you who haven't reviewed to do it! Just click the little button and say hello! And in return, i'll post a new chapter as soon as i get the review...what are you waiting for??