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 Seventeen: Adamantium – pros and cons

The following morning - well, technically it was already morning when they fell asleep, but. . . - Kitty and Victor wake up earlier than the others. They opened the windows in Kitty's room, just to get rid of the "gust", changed the sheets and everything so Logan wouldn't find out about them.

about 20 minutes later

Logan opens his eyes. He's always the first one to wake up among the X-men. He puts on a pair of jeans, and a white T-shirt. He's planning to go to the infirmary to talk to Creed. He owes him some answers.

He opens the door and staggers. Creed's smell is everywhere in the hallway. He follows it to Kitty's room. No way had Creed dare to near her while he was just a couple rooms away. He opens Kitty's door expecting the worst. But the room's empty.

He sniffs into the air but there're too many different smells because the window's open. He notices that Creed's smell leads further down the hallway. He obviously went downstairs. And there's another scent in the air. . . Kitty's!

"No way, that bastard took her!" - Logan growls as he runs down the stairs. The smell leads towards a door. He extends his claws. His blood is boiling. If Creed laid a finger on Kitty. . . He swings the door open, ready to attack, then he freezes in surprise.

Kitty and Victor're sitting at the table opposite each other peacefully, with their breakfast in front of them. Victor's holding a cup of coffee in one hand, and a newspaper in the other, Kitty's eating cereal. She's wearing a light pink dressing gown, he's only in his sweat pants.

They both look at Logan - who froze into his combat pose - puzzled. Victor raises his eyebrow.
"Jumpy much?" - he mocks his 'secret' little brother. Logan's face's all red. Kitty's never seen Logan blush before. He pulls his claws back and sits down on a chair next to Kitty looking suspiciously at Victor.

"Pardon me! I didn't expect Sabertooth at my dining table!" - he growls sarcastically. Victor just smirks and continues reading the newspaper. His calmness irritates Logan like hell!

"Well. . ." - Logan draws back his attention. "It's 'tomorrow' now! So talk!"

Victor and Kitty look at each other briefly. Logan frowns.
"Tell me she doesn't know more than I!"

"Look, Runt. . . " - Victor starts. "The story's like this. . ." - he stops for a moment. To Logan it looks like an impact pause but Victor's just considering how to tell him what he wants to know without spilling the beans.
"You and I've fought in wars. Lots of wars, and we survived them all. That's what we did. Kill and survive. Even when we were executed by our own. This, however, was noticed by him. Striker, the man I told you about last night, and he invited us to his 'special' squad, called Weapon X." - Logan winced at the name.

"We agreed, because he promised that we could use our powers freely. It all went well, until Nigeria. Striker was looking for a meteor, which contained a special type of metal."

"Adamantium!" - Logan grits his teeth. Victor nods.

"When the locals wouldn't tell us where the meteor was, because it was located at a holy place or something, he ordered us to. . . 'eliminate' them." - Logan and Kitty's eyes widen. She hears the story for the first time too.
"Did I. . . ?" - Logan asks weakly.

"No. You didn't. And you wouldn't let us either. That was the time you left Weapon X." - Victor says in a low voice, and Logan's not sure but there's a hint of hurt in his voice.

"But wait! If I left the team before they got the adamantium than how did I get the claws?" - he asks confused. Victor chuckles.

"Well, technically, you always had the claws! They were bone claws though, the adamantium's just a coating."

Logan looks at him with wide eyes. He extends his claws on his right hand and stars at them. He always thought these claws were surgically planted in his arms. That they were completely alien. But no. They were a part of him, just like the rest of his bones. Covered in metal. Still, that knowledge does make him feel better about himself.

"You got that later, when Striker tricked you back to his base and made you agree to the operation."

"I agreed to it?" - he yells in disbelief. Now that's something he could've lived without to know.

"You did. I mean, it wasn't forced, but like I said, he tricked you."

"How?"

"With me, mostly." – Well, technically it was mostly the girl, Silverfox, but that would just hurt him unnecessarily. She's dead. There's no reason to bring her up.

Logan growls anyway.
"Why me? If you were on his side why didn't he use YOU as a lab-bunny?"

"Oh, I wish he would have! He kept me on his side by promises, that one day I'll get stuff like that too." - he says pointing at the claws. "But apparently our powers aren't that similar after all." - he smirked bitterly. "He was afraid you would hunt him down for vengeance, since I wasn't there to protect him from you after I learnt that he used me, so he shot you in the head with an adamantium bullet."

Logan had a question about that but Kitty appeared to be faster.
"So? Even if he shots through his adamantium skull, it'll heal in no time, right?" - she asks.

"Right. The bone heals, the brain heals, but the memories. . . " - Logan and Kitty both wince at the realization. So this is how Logan lost his memory. Logan looks angry, and sad, and lost at the same time. Kitty puts her hand on his shoulder and gently squeezes it. Logan looks at her, she's smiling at him encouragingly. He smiles back at her gratefully, then he turns back to Victor.

"And that's the guy who kidnapped Kitty?" - he asks.

"Yep."

Logan feels terrible. It was him who Striker wanted, and Kitty had to suffer. And the best part: It was Sabertooth who saved her. Logan growls, gets up and leaves the room.

"Logan!" - Kitty calls after him and is about to get up to go after him, but Victor grabs her hand.

"Give him some time, Kitten." - he says. She looks after Logan but sits back on her place. They sit there in silence for a while.

"Why did you want that operation? The adamantium, I mean." - she asks.

"What do you mean? It'd make me invincible!" - he says surprised at the question. He thought it was obvious.

"Are you kidding me? Have you any idea how hard it is for Logan to swim! To even stay on the surface when in water?"

"Well. . ." - he never thought about that. "Maybe but have you any idea how much it can hurt when you break your bones after you'd been. . . I don't know! Hit by a car?"

"Yeah, but if you break your bones they heal, but if something happens to Logan's bones, like. . . they buckle or something, that's permanent!"

"That metal's indestructible, Kitten! What on earth could buckle them?"

"Oh, I don't know! For example. . . MAGNETO!" - she says sarcastically. "You, know! Your old friend? He could crumple him like a piece of paper! And since that stuff is 'indestructible' he'd be stuck like that as long as Magneto wants him to."

Victor's dumbfounded. He never thought about that. The girl's only 22, and she's already more sharp-minded than him.

"I didn't know about Magneto back then!" - he says finally.

"An irreversible operation, by an obscure, mutant-hater general and his mad scientists, doesn't sound good to me anyways."

"I thought I was invincible back then, and I was ready to do anything to keep it that way." - he confesses bitterly. She puts her hand on his and squeezes it.

"Well, I'm glad things turned out the way they did." - she says smilingly. He takes her hand into his and kisses it gently.

"So am I, Kitten."

He really is. He has done many mistakes, things he would change if he could, but. . . Sitting here, peacefully, with his Kitten's hand in his. . . Those mistakes lead to this moment. So things really did work out well.

A/N:

Hi!

So, the part Victor tells Logan about the past was a little sketchy. Well, you've seen the movie! The 107 minutes long movie. . . Well that I'm most certainly not gonna write down! J

Anyways, no one commented on my last chapter. Is it getting boring? Should I just stop this story? Or rewrite it or something? Give me a hint!

Bye