Marvel owns the X-men, no profit is to be made from this work.
"Get him restrained!" Moira yelled.
The first straps to be tightened were the most important and the most dangerous, at his wrists and across the palm of his hands fearing at any moment his claws might burst free of his flesh. Up his arms and along his legs now, straps across his head to keep him still as Moira slipped the guard in his mouth. His eyes were open but sightless, his body convulsing in spasms that had them know they had run out of time.
"Kitty, Katherine! Look at me!" Moira barked, taking the young woman's face in hand to stare her deep in the eyes.
Hardly a week had come and gone, day in and out those chosen to exorcise the cybernetic demon from Logan working until they had to be lead off to bed. He had stopped waking after a time, it was to be the last day anyone would see Marie coaxed from the room to try and ghost her way through the day. Only minutes ago she'd been woken to a new noise that had sent ice to her heart, a whining dragging on without the gentle rhythmic beep of the heart monitor. Later she'd know her anguish had been felt by every telepath in the mansion and had been the reason why she hadn't even been to the door when Kurt had appeared in a crackling bamf with Moira and Jubilee.
"Kitty ye can do this, just take a deep breath with me, that's it. Now let it out slowly, once more and clear yuir mind." Moira said as she helped ease the frozen panic that had gripped the younger woman.
Marie had watched her friend lay trembling hands on his still chest, seen the tears that had fallen against them as she fought against her fears. Resting her own hands atop them she had waited for them to grow still, taking hers away as a glow formed around them. Logan had lurched from the bed but the mournful wail that mirrored her own dragged on. Moira checked him and then called for Jubilee to try again, a glow forming again to vanish as Logan lurched out of his bed. Her legs had fallen out from under her at the first beep that had beat with his heart.
The panic that followed would come back in her nightmares, Logan and Moira vanishing along with Kurt. She'd remember the trampling of feet and thinking she should get the door fixed as Pete came crashing in. She'd remember how gentle he was as he picked her up to carry her off to the depths of the earth that hid the secrets of the mansion. A ghost rushing through the halls and walls only to vanish turned out to be Kitty in nothing more than her nightgown. Sitting in the observation booth of the Danger Room come operating room Marie watched with the rest who joined to find the fate of a man who meant so much to them all, yet none so much as herself.
"I'm sorry, I'm...I'm sorry. I'm back." Kitty said, taking one last calming breath taken as the doors opened.
Hank and Jubilee joined dressed in hastily thrown on medical scrubs, washing up with Moira and Kitty at the sink that had been added. Jubilee helped them all into the long surgical gloves if the worst case happened, her own hands unburdened if she had to fight to bring Logan back to life again. So carefully Kitty eased her fingers into Logan's head looking for the thorn that was his torment and could be his death. As painful as it was to watch Marie found she couldn't take her eyes off the screen, medical diagnostics and data streaming about.
"Where are you..." Kitty's whisper carried over the speakers to those watching.
Marie watched as the words spoken one night came back to her, a night she'd woken to find Natalie Rushman sitting in her chair to be whispering in Russian to Logan in a broken voice. Stubborn tears had fallen as she held his hand, talking to him as many had over the days. Settling in and deciding to watch, Marie let the enigmatic woman have her peace with him and find her icy composure. After Natalie told her what to expect, what the implant was truly capable of. That night she couldn't find her way back to sleep, instead taking her place back at the chair and holding his hand for hours hoping to share whatever dreams or nightmares found him.
"I've found it, I will...I will now attempt to phase it out for extraction." Kitty said as much for them as for herself.
It was designed against capture, to force its host to escape no matter the peril Natalie had told her. At the highest end of it's countermeasures it will lock the subjects memory as to protect against the numerous types of interrogation. If these failed and the tampering failsafes were broken it will wipe itself and terminate the subject. As much as Marie had wanted to scream at the woman then for calling Logan a subject, she knew for some reason or another the woman had been worried herself and so she found the strength to just nod and let the horrible news sink in.
"Shit!" Kitty swore.
The medical read outs upon the screen flared red in warning as his heart rate ramped up, but the noise they had all been dreading broke above it all, snickt. Torn free of their flesh, Logan's claws erupted with his snarling roar that ripped above the panicked yelling from below. Blood dripped from his fists with the wounds unable to heal, the fight filling him as he struggled against the restraints. Moira and Hank hurried with sedatives that failed, nothing they dared to administer to the sickly man having an effect as his healing factor filtered it out in a renewed surge of vitality.
"You don't know who you're messing with you oversized calculator!" Kitty snarled in a fine imitation of the man whose life she was trying to save.
Unable to watch, Marie threw herself at Pete and let her world vanish against his chest as his arms wrapped tenderly about her. Listening still, she could hear the rambling words of Moira and Hank as they spoke their language of medical knowledge to another. The roar of rage from Logan was quelled to a ragged breath as he struggled, only the clatter of steel on the table that held him as still as could be echoing. Then as her hope waned she finally the words that she couldn't believe.
"I have it!" Kitty yelled in triumph.
Tearing free of Pete to watch he joined her still holding her close, Marie stared at a sight she would never nor could ever forget. Drawn out in Kitty's clenched fist metal filaments twisted and thrashed in her grip like a beast caught. Nearby on a table the special briefcase meant to catch the thing laid, dropped on as it rejoined the tangible world to be trapped.
"Forcing shut down." Natalie cooly remarked, typing away on the console in front of her.
The fight left both Logan and the implant, the noise that had woken her playing in a drawn out wail again. Rushing to his side Jubilee pressed her hands to his chest and worked to call him back from the brink. The first jolt shook his still form yet the wail persisted.
"Again!" Moira yelled as she looked over his vitals.
With tears streamed down her cheeks Marie watched with her own heart taken in the painful grip of fear and grief, her stomach knotted tight with forced bile climbing up her throat. Jubilee's hands grew brighter and Logan jerked against his restraints, the tattoo of blood dripping against the floors a strange thing to notice as she willed him to live. Moira shouted again and Jubilee screamed obscenities at the man who refused her, the glow around her hands vanishing as he thrashed against the table once more. The words were likely at Moira's lips when the wail whine of the heart monitor was broken with the beating of his once still heart.
The world came crashing down as darkness took her, distant voices calling her name as she felt the chill steel pressing against her cheek. On waking she'd be told she fainted, but it wouldn't matter as laying next to her looking peaceful was the man she had thought she had lost, the soothing sound of the heart monitor singing the song of his life for her to exult in.
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The crack of light at the med bay doors split wide open with a silhouette of a woman standing there looking timid. Bobby looked up from his tablet rubbing his eyes, the only light in the room aside from the medical equipment. On two beds friends lay peacefully sleeping, his turn to keep an eye on them after the effort it took for them to haul Moira off. The doors shut and darkness took the room again, light feet walking across the floor until she was cast in the glow of his diminutive computer with it's book sitting on the screen.
"Hi." Bobby said, offering her a hand to take her into his lap.
"Hi, I asked some of the students where you were but they kept sending me around until Betsy found me." Layla said taking care to be quiet.
"Secret hide outs aren't so secret if we tell everyone." Bobby joked, reaching to brush a lock of her hair behind her ear if only to have an excuse to touch her.
"So this is the other side of the school?" Layla asked, returning the gesture though one that was wholly Bobby she thought as she brushed off some frosting from the corner of his lips.
Bobby could only nod, the words too much to say then thinking of everything he'd been through over the years. He hoped to let her live a life without the X-men and everything they stood against, to just be a mother raising her daughter and welcoming in so many of the other students that came home with Abby. She smiled at him though her eyes spoke of understanding, leaning in to place a kiss to his lips.
"How are they?" Layla asked with a glance to the sleeping couple.
"Touch of exhaustion for Marie, Moira thinks the worst is over for Logan now but she wants to keep that tight to the chest until she's had a few days observation." Bobby related, wrapping his arms about her.
"Has she...?" Layla asked looking to the silent form of Marie.
"For a bit, long enough to see what she needed to see. How's everything topside?" Bobby asked with a finger pointed to the school proper.
"Everything's settled down, Abby's having a sleep over with Illyana, I think she wanted to be closer to the school. She was shaken when...it happened. But, well, somewhere through the morning she just started cheering and I couldn't even get her to sit down." Layla said though her worry and pain for her daughter from that time touched her eyes.
"I'm sorry..." Bobby whispered, kissing her cheek and hugging her warmly.
"Part of being a mother, you never stop worrying. But don't you worry, when I went to tuck her in for bed they were playing truth and dare with some friends, I just told her no funny business." Layla said with a lilting laugh.
"Might as well have just told her to get into some mischief." Bobby teased.
"It's always better to tell them no, but look the other way. At least that way if they honestly get into some foolishness or outright stupid stunts you can still come down on them." Layla whispered, walking her fingers up his chest.
"I'll be glad when all this is over." Bobby said with a weary sigh.
"Any idea when...?" Layla asked pointing to Logan.
"If he was in top form, he'd probably already be down at the Roadhouse for a beer. He's...tough." Bobby said, holding back some of the things he'd seen the man shrug off over the years.
"So..." Layla said, nestling further into his arms.
"So?" Bobby teased dragging out the word.
"Do you have a date?" Layla asked.
"For?" Bobby asked playing dumb.
"The reason he has two weeks to get out of that bed and into a suit..." Layla replied, nodding off to Logan.
"Not following you." Bobby said with a laugh, failing at keeping a straight face.
"Mister Drake, I like to think of myself as a modern woman. Would you like to accompany me to the wedding?" Layla said forcing as much sophistication into her voice as she could muster.
"I'd love to." Bobby said before favouring her with another kiss.
"Good, if I had to twist your arm I was going to tell you that Miss Braddock and I share the same taste in clothing and...other things." Layla teased, running a finger along his jaw.
"Other things...?" Bobby asked with a swallow.
"I don't believe I need to be able to pick your mind like my daughter to see where your thoughts just headed." Layla teased.
"That's what we in the business call thinking with the auxiliary brain." Bobby chuckled.
"...would...you two," Logan croaked, coughing before taking a ragged breath, "Get a room...already."
The amorous mood that had slipped over them couldn't have been doused any better than if they had been frisky teens to hear the heavy steps of ones father drawing near. Toppling out of their shared chair they helped another up and rushed to the bedside of the man they had just heard speak full of his usual gruffness.
"Logan?" Bobby asked trying to keep his voice low though failing to keep his shock and surprise from it.
"Where...is..." Logan croaked.
"She's right beside you, she hasn't left your side you knucklehead." Layla assured.
"Logan?" Bobby asked.
No answer came though on his slumbering features a look of relief was etched with a sublime smile. Looking to another, Bobby and Layla kissed once on the lips, just a quick little butterfly kiss with the late hour weighing on them.
"How long are you staying?" Layla asked.
"Ororo said she'll be down in...at this point another hour and change." Bobby said with a look to the clock.
"I think I can stay awake that much longer, you know...I have the carriage house to myself tonight." Layla whispered, looking thoughtful at first until her lips spread in a feline smile.
"Did you need some company?" Bobby asked with feigned innocence.
"I wouldn't be opposed to it." Layla replied, walking off to the door then.
"See you then." Bobby said, admiring her as she stood against the light as a seductive shadow.
"See you then." Layla said in passing, the doors clapping shut behind her.
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With a duffle in one hand and her laptop case slung over her shoulder, Kitty walked into the War Room with grim determination in her eyes. A quick hack of the mansions security showed here just where everyone likely was. She'd seen Natalie head to her guestroom with no sign of her having left, while Director Fury was last seen sitting in the garage smoking a cigar relaxing at Logan's desk. She'd never get another chance like this she figured, having already overheard that Fury was heading out in the morning.
The steps she took were old hat to her by now, disconnecting the external feeds to the meeting table that doubled as a holographic projector and a powerful computer in it's own right. They were lessons she'd learnt from Hank himself for maintenance and prevention of hacking. Taking the lever in hand the banks of fibre optic lines and network cables were freed of their junctions efficiently cutting her off from the outside world. The case itself was locked up in the vault, but that was dealt with nothing more than a wince as she ghosted through the composite and alloys it was a blend of.
Throwing her prize down on the table she inspected the locking mechanism, nothing the likes of which she had ever seen before. Twisting her lips in thought, she let out a hefty sigh and took hold of the two halves of the briefcase and focussed on just ghosting it out leaving the rest laying free for her to tamper with. As far as she'd seen when she'd been introduced to the curious case she hadn't seen just a thing, no tamper switch to tell if it had been opened. An oversight maybe, or perhaps thinking no one could get past their lock and whatever the case itself was made of.
"Okay, easy part over with." Kitty whispered, looking down at the implant.
Looking a twisted vision of a spider, the filaments that made up it's legs were tied into so many interfaces with the case she wondered if it had been originally made to contain it or some ingenious backwards engineering of the defunct sample they had come with. Only hard line access was allowed to it, she'd found that out when she'd helped with running the cabling down from the control booth of the Danger Room down in for the operation.
"Okay..." Kitty said, pulling out her laptop and letting it booth up.
Paranoid or not, she'd long ago sabotaged the built in wireless NIC, one too many friends at college getting cyberstalked had her wanting to know she could cut herself off from the net. While politics was her interest, hacking was her pleasure. Plugging in the ad hoc cable she'd made she tried to ping whatever the implant was running, wishing she'd been there to see just what Natalie had done in the control room. Miss Rushman had shown she was no slouch herself by the time Kitty got a moment to go sneaking about looking for any kind of records, be it in the system or on the security logs. Big, fat nothing.
"Alright, I got a command prompt." Kitty said to herself, the flashing cursor tempting her.
There was nothing to tell her what she was up against, just a black screen brought up in a window on her desktop and a green colon fading in and out. Logan remembered his life from the early to mid-nineties, dating it to at least that far back but black ops government could push it back further depending on just when it was made. Whatever it was it was far above anything she'd ever seen, trying to think of what programming someone might have used to write it.
"Okay...lets try this..." Kitty mumbled, typing a command and cheering herself on as she was rewarded with a wall of text that made perfect sense to her.
"Alright, so...if I then try this...I get an login prompt. Paranoid government says...if I try to brute force this, this message will self destruct. Hmm..." Kitty mused, kicking back in her chair to stare at the screen.
Blowing out a breath, she pushed off from the table and skidded around the room on the wheeled chair, catching a wall to roll off to the coffee maker. Wrinkling her nose at the viscus sludge in the bottom she wondered who'd forgotten to clean it. Finding the spare and a few bottles of water that saved her from having to leave, she had a fresh pot brewing as she stood there thinking of the puzzle before her. Considering her options, she fixed a fresh cup of brew and settled back at the table.
"Alright, the language is different but kinda familiar. Wonder if it was some In House black ops C or something, hmm. Lets try some of the usual suspects..." Kitty mused, trying some of the tried and tested back doors from when she still got eager for Saturday morning cartoons.
Three cups of coffee and nearly an hour later she was in, staring in shock and surprise to find a interface far more modern with black boxes littering the screen with dates beneath them all from the early nineties. Moving the mouse to one, she nearly jumped out of her skin as the War Room door did what it shouldn't have, opened without any warning. Having locked it down for privacy mode, she spun to see Fury standing there looking at her cluttered mess around the implant.
"I..." Kitty stammered.
"Do you know what you have there?" Fury said without any preamble, walking off to the coffee pot and fixing himself a cup.
"I...wanted to know what was on it, what caused all this pain." Kitty replied, her voice finding strength with every word.
"Sounds like another young woman from one time or another. We all know what happened to Pandora and her box." Fury said showing not the least bit of anger or ire as he took his first sip while bearing her down over the rim of the mug.
"It's that awful?" Kitty asked showing a trace of fear in the waver of her voice.
"Even I'm not looking forward to reading the reports and watching the highlights of what we pull off it, but I don't have that choice. Now you on the other hand." Fury said as he pointed to her with his mug.
Biting her lip and hating that nervous habit of hers as it always made her feel so juvenile, Kitty pulled up a smaller prompt and typed a few commands in that brought killed her link and brought back her desktop.
"Wise decision. Now..." Fury said walking to the case to unlock it.
Kitty started to tear down her rig and disconnect the implant, picking up the contents and placing them back where they belonged. Fury shut the case with a distinct click, something sounding so simple for the impressive lock. Gathering up the case he stood there looking down at her with his sole eye and an unreadable expression.
"If you find yourself ever looking for some work if wherever you end up after College doesn't prove fruitful, I'm sure I could find some way to keep you out of trouble like this." Fury said, patting the case.
"Is, is that a job offer?" Kitty inquired, a blush touching her cheeks.
"Good talent is hard to find. It took my people a week to crack the nut that you just did in, oh, roughly an hour?" Fury said clearly sounding impressed.
"You knew the whole time didn't you?" Kitty asked, not so much a question but a statement.
"It's my business to know, so...why don't we put this back where it belongs for now. Then maybe you can tell me a bit more about the Logan you know so I can get to know him a bit better." Fury remarked, walking off to the vault.
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The loft was their own private place, a space for Pete's studio and their lives together. Works hung on the walls, moments of their lives together and their dreams captured in every brushstroke. Their own unique touches were all around, from Pete's little library to all the parts of the dream cars Jubilee longed to restore from neglected wrecks. A blown piston from a Shelby, an engine block from a classic Impala, the grill of a GTO. Sitting with them were posters of the great works that inspired him, Van Gogh and Leonardo and Pollock.
Nestled in a corner looking something out of a desert fantasy film, the bed was hardly more than a singular pillow littered with children. Rugs and tapestries hung on the walls to disguise the boards, a few silks thrown up to accent it with Christmas lights dangling from the ceiling. He wondered how long it would be he'd have to work on his one painting this night, marvelling at her slumbering nestled in the sheer blankets they favoured. They slipped over her leaving little to the imagination but then he knew her every curve and secret place of from years of admiration.
The lighting was just right, reminding him so much of her first time he'd seen her set the heavens ablaze and come to life in her own gift. Blending the paints and pigments together he finally found just the right shade of wine red as their silk blankets and touched up in places that hadn't ever seemed right. The candle on the night stand wasn't there this night but the flame felt wrong as he gave it just a touch of blue before he was satisfied. Time had run out again it seemed, her arm flopping over looking for him to find that space empty and the bed cold. Putting his brushes away and cleaning his pallette, he looked on her from the canvas as he knew she so loved.
"Is it done yet?" Jubilee asked with a yawn.
"No." Pete replied smiling, looking down to his painted hands.
"You always say that." Jubilee whispered, tucking a pillow over her arm to nestle under the sheets in wait of him.
"I could never lie to you my Jubilation." Pete said, washing his hands and trying to work the worst of the paint out.
Watching her he saw something that always pained him to see befall her features, a grey finding her eyes and a tightness in her features. Drying his hands he stood at the end of the bed and waited, the mood that seemed to have fallen over her asking for space that he reluctantly gave.
"This has all been kinda crazy fast, and I wouldn't have it any other way. I mean, your folks are just so great..." Jubilee started, her mouth twisting into a grimace as she fought against tears.
"I thought you would like another." Pete said quietly, keeping his composure as he watched her struggle with something.
"But just watching Marie go through that, sitting with Logan those times he was up with her fast asleep. It broke my heart, just fucking right in half. I, I just kept thinking what if it was you..." Jubilee sputtered with a sob.
Whether she wanted her space or not he didn't care, easing onto the bed and pulling her into his arms still wrapped up in silken sheets. He didn't say anything, he never had much use for meaningless words. He'd say what he needed to and let his deeds speak for him otherwise, let his art and his life tell his tale. Holding her close he waited for whatever it was she was burdening herself with to be cast off.
"I just kept thinking if that happened to one of us, if something like that happened and it didn't go good...that I wouldn't want to be alone. That I wouldn't want you to be alone if it was me." Jubilee whispered, twisting so she could bury her face in his chest.
"Did you want to know why I call you my Jubilation?" Pete asked, kissing her atop her head and not caring that he interrupted her.
"Because I'm yours?" Jubilee asked, resting her chin against his arms.
"And I am yours forever, but no. Ever since that moment you kissed me, you became my muse and became the most beautiful thing to me yet the most elusive subject. You've only become harder to paint all this time, and I think now I'll never be able to capture just the way I see you on something as mundane as tatters of canvas and muddy mixtures of paint." Pete whispered near her ear, feeling the shiver down her spine he always called at such closeness.
"Why?" Jubilee asked innocently, craning her neck back to look up to him.
"Because I wouldn't want either of us to be alone were the damnable fates to steal the other away, and because my answer to you is yes just as your answer was to me." Pete replied in soft and gentle words, his gaze lost in hers.
"I just want to let it happen, I don't care if it's on our wedding night or a few years away, I never want one of us to be alone. I want to have someone I can see your eyes in, or your smile or even your stupid big feet Mamma warned me about. And if anything ever happens to me I want you to have someone you can give all your love to, to smile at with that thoughtful way you have that always has me wondering what's just on your mind." Jubilee sputtered, crying but sounding happy just the same.
"I wouldn't have it any other way." Pete said, rolling to pull her atop him for a kiss that said everything they had just shared.
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