All cats are gray in the dark

by ladymaja

Summary: Kitty (22 yo) is spending her summer vacation in Canada at Logan's cottage when suddenly she gets attacked and captured. In order to escape she's gonna need to take a helping hand from a killer.

Chapter Fifteen: Need for a whiskey

* * * At the Xavier Institute * * *

Kitty's sitting next to Victor's bed in the infirmary. He's still unconscious even though technically he has completely recovered.
"Why won't you wake up?" - she asks silently. No response. She sights.

She hears the door open behind her. She hears a grunt. There's no need to turn around to figure out it's Logan.
"You should rest." - he says "You've been up since we got back. Take a break!"
She sighs, she knows he's right. She really does feel tired.

"You promise you won't kill him while I'm away?" - she asks.

"I promise I won't kill him while he's unconscious!" - he says jokingly. She rolls her eyes and starts to walk towards the door, but she turns back to look at Logan.

"That was a joke right?"

"I won't do anything unless he provokes me." - he says keeping his eyes on Victor.

"He doesn't want to hurt you." - she replies silently.

"What?" - Logan turns to her but she's already gone. "What's that supposed to mean?" - he wonders.

On her way to her room Kitty goes by Hank's office.
"Kitty!" - she hears her name and stops by the door. The Professor and Hank are staring back at her.
"Do you have a minute?" - the Professor asks.

"Sure. What is it? Are my tests ready?" - she asks.

"Yes and the results are. . . interesting." - says Hank. Kitty starrs at him with a sign of confusion on her face.

"Interesting in good way or interesting in a bad way?"

"Well, that's complicated." - Hank says.

"Okay, now I'm scared! What is it?" - she says nervously.

"It seems so that Sabertooth's blood, the part of his DNA that is responsible for the regeneration, to be more exact, has kind of. . . adapted to your genetics. . . " - the Professor says ". . . for good."

"What? What does that mean?" - Kitty asks with wide eyes.

"It means the blood caused no damage but certain . . . changes."

"Huh?" - Kitty's dumbfounded.

"Your body adapted the regeneration factor." - Hank says.

"How is that even possible? I never knew powers can be transferred by injecting blood!" - says Kitty amazed.

"They can't." - so the Professor "Not usually. You see, a lot of people are working on ways to transfer mutant powers. The one that kidnapped you is one of them. These experiments are illegal and the process is very complicated and dangerous. They have to find and identify the part of the mutant DNA chain that is responsible for the power, the part of the homo sapiens DNA chain where the mutant part would be replanted. Of course this part of the human DNA chain is already taken by an original, usually functionless gene. They have to destroy this part and replace the mutant gene. These operations are usually lethal." - the Professor says in a low voice. Kitty slowly nods.

"You see, Kitty. . ." - he goes on. "This part of your DNA chain was occupied by an extremely reaction prone gene. As soon as it met Sabertooth's gene, it adapted and perpetuated it." - Kitty's mouth drops open.

"Wha- wha-what?"

"This is a unique instance. Your body was acceptant towards his regeneration factor." - Hank says.

"So it was. . . luck? I accidentally caught regeneration power?" - Kitty's stunned.

"We could say so." - Hank says "Your wounds will heal faster, you won't get sick, and you can expect bellow par aging pace."

"Oh." - Kitty sighs "I see. This is a little too much for a day. I'm going to bed now. Good night."

"Good night, Kitty." - Hank and Charles look at each other concerned.

Victor opens his eyes.
New place. New smells. Everything's unfamiliar. He's lying on a bed, connected to a heart monitor, wearing a white shirt and grey sweatpants he doesn't remember putting on.

He sniffs into the air. He can't smell Striker, that's for sure. Another sniff. Kitty! Kitty was here recently. And Jimmy too, and. . . the bald man, the redhead and the hairy gorilla guy. . . Wait a minute! - he thinks - Is this the fucking Institute?

He takes a closer look at the T-shirt he's wearing. There's an "X" on the left side of it.

Victor's feeling sick. He tumbles back down on the bed, and puts his hand to his forehead.
"There's no fucking way I am wearing an X-men shirt."

"Well, we couldn't let you lie there naked. There are kids in this place."

Victor hops up in panic and sees Jimmy lying against the doorframe. There's only one word that comes to his mind.
"Kitty?" - his voice so full of concern and tenderness, not to mention high. He couldn't stop it, it just popped out. Logan raises his eyebrow.

"She's fine." - Victor's extremely grateful for that he didn't go into his outburst. But he was happy too soon.

"Why? You worried?" - Logan asks with his eyes narrowed. Victor doesn't know how to answer that. What should he say? What should he lie? He looks at Jimmy and his heart sinks. Suddenly he feels incredibly tired of this little game he's been playing with him since he left Weapon-X.

"Yeah, I was worried." - he says honestly. Logan's eyes widen. He's searching his face for any sign of lying, but there's nothing. He's just starring into his eyes confidently.

"She told me you saved him from a pack of wolves."

"Yes." - his expression emotionless.

"Why?"

"I figured she could be useful if I run into Striker's men again." - that is the truth. Well, a part of it leastways.

"Striker?" - Logan scowls.

"Oh, right. You don't remember. He's the guy who's responsible for those." - he says as he points at Logan's arms.

Logan's eyes widen again.
"What?"

"He was our superior when we joint this team, Weapon-X." - Logan's winces at that name. While his quest for his lost memories and past, he met the name Weapon-X. But all data was either classified or deleted. All he knew it was a secret division of the army, and that's where he got his dog-tag. Without noticing he started to fiddle with it. Victor grinned.

"Yeah, that's where we got those. I got rid of mine right after I "quit". "

"You're saying we were in the same team?"

"We've been a team way before that." - Victor grins, fleshing his fangs. But there's no threat in that smile.

Logan's confused. Creed is acting weird. He stared acting weird when he didn't attack him as soon as he saw him in the doorway. He always knew that there's some connection in their past, but he never knew it went so deep. He seems to know a lot about him.
"I want to know more." - Logan states.

"And I want to see Kitty." - Victor replies. Logan let's out his claws.

"If you think I let you near her. . . " - he lours. But Creed's face remains calm. Logan straggles for a couple of seconds. When he sees that he has no intention to attack, he pulls his claws back.
"She's sleeping. I sent her to bed about an hour ago. She wanted to stay here until you wake up but she was exhausted."

"She was here with me while I was healing?" - his voice's filled with softness. "She's fantastic."

"She is." - Logan says trying to read Creed's smiling face. "Tell me more about my past!" - he snaps.

"Tomorrow." - says Victor and he crawls back to his bed.

"Now!" - yells Logan.

"Or what? Are you planning to beat it out of me? You know I'm gonna tell Kitty!" - he says grinning.

Logan freezes. Is he joking with me? Is Sabertooth really joking with me? - he thinks.

"Now get out! I need some sleep!" - and with that, he pulls the cover up to his neck as he turns his back to Logan and a minute later he's snoring.

Logan just stars at him stunned. Then he walks out the infirmary with his eyes still wide open and runs his fingers through his hair.
"I need a whiskey."

A/N:

Hi, Guys!

I just wanted to tell you about the Professor's speech about genetics. . . I completely made it up! So if anyone has some idea about genetics (- I don't -), please don't be mad at me for writing unrealistic nonsense!

Thanks!

And don't forget to review!