Hopefully you'll enjoy!

She sits in a corner of a closet-sized room, trapped in a straitjacket.

As she had tried to bit her wrists open before, they were now tightly tied against her chest.
She chews on a leathery gag, that keeps her from biting into her sour tongue again.
Nothing else to do, sitting against upholstered wall, she stares at the room's closed door. It's locked and there is no handle. She could start kicking the door but nothing would happen, no-one would answer.
The door only opens from four to five times per day.
Check ups at morning and evening, two meals per day.
And then maybe experiments on her.
It's now maybe five days from the last testing, if she estimates right. They will probably soon try something new on her.

...She is bored.
She starts hitting the back of her head against wall's padding, feeling dull pain with every hit.
She's so so bored... And a bit numb from sitting with crossed legs for too long.

Leaning forward she falls down face first.
There's a deep, vibrating chuckle.
"Shut up", Anna mumbles through the gag.
"Didn't say anything", the feral man says while crouching next to her. "Just admired your gracefulness. That's what deers are known of, right?"
"And kicking."

Squirming in the suit she rolls onto her back and immediately regrets it: the ceiling light is blinding. So she turns onto her side instead.
Ears perk as surveillance camera in the room moves and focuses to her changed position.
Ignoring it, Anna looks up at Victor. He's crouching with arms resting on his knees and looking down at her.

He has... Become a bit blurry nowadays.
Some features of his face are a bit off. The clothes don't seem right on him.
Doesn't actually matter. She could imagine him in a tutu if she wanted to. That could be fun to imagine.
Victor snarls, slumping down to sit.
"Don't you dare."
"Oh? And what will you do about it?" Anna thinks this time. It doesn't seem so odd anymore to have conversations inside her head. After all, she's not talking with herself but with another person.
"I'll leave."
Now that's impossible, she knows that. He's in her mind, he can't leave. If he tries, she'll just imagine him right back. Still, the threat holds her from remarking the fact.

Instead she closes her eyes and soon there's a palm, ever so lightly, petting her head. She almost can't feel it.
But if she tries harder, she can feel the long claws with every stroke.

...How long has it been?
Weeks, maybe a month or more?
There's no clear signs of days passing. She can only judge from when the door opens and when she's taken into check ups or tests.
And even that is not a reliable way. Sometimes during the tests she loses her consciousness, and after waking can't know how much times has passed. And surely her biological clock is wrong by now, but in desperation Anna will take anything to bring stability and rhythm into this strange, unchanging environment of hers. Otherwise she'll get crazy.
Though maybe she already is...

Anna isn't sure but Logan may also be here. She remembers him hazily before she woke up in a room, tied down, with strangers dressed in lab coats. She maybe heard Logan yell in a distance at some point.
Or maybe she just imagines that Logan is in this place. Part of her hopes he is there.
The possibility of him also being here was at the same time worrying and comforting.

Victor is scowling with arms over his chest.
"Jealous?"
"...Maybe."

Now that's an answer Anna didn't expect and it makes her worry. After all, this Victor is just the creation of her own imagination. He says what she wants to hear, what she would think the real Victor would say. She's getting crazier. She has to get out of here.

"But how? You pretty much have been loosing your cards, every time. They're cautious of you."
Need a window, figuratively, even just a small one.
"How about that pervert? He seems to like you."
Maybe not anymore after busting his balls. A stain of blood had formed on his trousers as the man was stunned on the floor.
"Yeah, males don't take kindly after that. Can hold it against you to the grave."
"Then maybe I should had kicked your nuts at the beginning..."

"You blaming me for this?"
"Yes."
"...How is this my doing?"
"You came into my territory, and everything got messed up."
"...Not true."
"I had everything right before you came."
"Bullshit. You were happy to finally have some real company. Real talk and genuine interactions. You went against Joseph's word. I didn't make you pull the trigger!"
"If you hadn't brought me to the hospital, I wouldn't be here!"

Through the gag Anna screams and writhes around.
This is the puss' fault, everything! If he hadn't come, if he hadn't stayed, or left, Anna would had never- If he hadn't brought her into that hospital, these people wouldn't have known about her!
He promised to her at that veterinarian clinic!

And now she was in this horrible room with no possibility to escape, with nothing! This place is oppressive. She wants out. She wants her freedom back, in any way by anyone!
In any way. By anyone.

Anna screams more.
Then the door opens and she goes silent.
Two guards enter the room and she is so happy by seeing real people.
She however doesn't want to be cooperative, not moving at all. So the guards just grab from the leather handles of Anna's suit and drag her out.
Anna almost giggles from giddiness.

The hallways are almost as bare as the room, but the walls and floor are cold, hard concrete. Sometimes there's colored lines on the walls, and text. The lights flicker over her. Now and then there's someone walking past them. A person on a lab coat or having the same kind of gear as the guards taking her.
Anna has not seen anyone like her in this place. Was it just her? And maybe Logan?
Feeling all these stimulations buzzes Anna's nerves.
But she tries to focus: remember the road, see and think what's behind the closed doors and on the hallways they don't take. Peek at what codes guards feed into keypads.
And then they are there, at their destination.
Room 119.

It's either check up time now, or testing. Anna wishes it will be the first one. She knows what happens at them but at the tests? She never knows what the tests will held.

Soon she's tied up by belts. Her arms are against metallic armrests and legs against chair's. She looks at the man, Fred.
The pervert.
He usually lets his touches linger more than is necessary when he fastens the belts. He makes faces when his supervisor or the guards don't pay attention.
But now he doesn't do anything creepy. He's fast and does only the mandatory, glaring whenever their eyes meet briefly.
Guess he's still mad about that kick.

A woman sitting back towards them is typing a keyboard.
Dr. Mishark reads on the badge, which always hangs from her white coat. She has red, short hair and she always looks tired, speaking with this lengthening, even voice. She doesn't talk to Anna though. Anna has already made clear that she doesn't want to describe the symptoms she suffers when they use something on her.
However, this time Dr. Mishark talks to her, and there's spirit behind the woman's actions.

"Your test results from the last test were promising, 1977", the woman says while standing up and walking to the tied up mutant. The doctor keeps talking. Anna understand some of what is said. She has studied human anatomy and organs, but then doctor goes into DNA, cells and molecules and Anna is lost.
And though knowing probably won't help her situation at the moment, Anna still wants to understand what is being done to her.
Not knowing something like that was unnerving, scary and haunting, making her trapped legs fidgety. A fire inside sparking, ready to bite and scorch the possible threat.
But this time she can't just get up and push back.
She is trapped in this place with all these strangers, she being their doll for needles and liquids.

Again she has ended into this familiar role of helplessness, first with father, then the mutant, then Victor and now this. With father it continued for years, with the mutant couple of minutes, with Victor months and now... How long with these ones?
These people didn't want to fix her, intentionally hurt her nor offered her something in return. They didn't tell her what they were doing to her, what they wanted and when this would stop. She had no means to effect the actions towards her.

To them, in here, she isn't more than a test animal.

The feral woman on the chair jumped, started to pull her bindings and the doctor quieted down. Nobody stopped raging and screaming Anna, nor spoke anything or even moved. They just waited for the subject to calm down at her chair, like waiting for a child to stop their temper tantrum.
And fast Anna did broke down, huffing and choking with tears as her body started slacking into submission.
The fact, that she couldn't do anything, sunk deeper.

She shouldn't give in. Right? She can't. It is not an option, never is.
She needs to stay... Alive? Yes. No matter what.

"Just to spite others, right?"
Victor is back, standing right behind Dr. Mishark, towering over the doctor.
"Bcause, there's really no reason to struggle so much like you do. Really. Always climbing the uphill, through fire and water, biting and kicking."
"Quiet..."
The beastman continues, going behind Anna. He whispers into her ear with grinning lips.
"Because what else is there? Sarah is dead, and so is Joseph, and little Gary too. You definitely can't return to the village. Unless you wanna be like your daddy, a bit of crazy hermit playing the local monster role in the woods. And look how it ended up to him."
"Shut. Up", Anna commands him.
But he doesn't. The illusion doesn't stop nor vanish. Even if Anna tries. And she tries, but closing eyes won't shut out the mocking voice.
"So what else is there to be done? If you escape, what will you do? What do you want, Anna?"
The question is whispered harshly, with raising voice.

"After all the years, what is left? What do you have? You have nothing, dumb bitch. After everything, you still have nothing, just like when you killed father. You just start all over again, somewhere? New people and territory, new home? How? What do you know about having a home? Or making human connections? How fucking sad is that. You are a circle, not a straight line with start and end, just a shitty circle."

Victor goes back behind Dr. Mishark, speaking with more sober tone.
"And it's sometimes just exhausting to look at. Isn't it? So sad. Endeavoring it all, repeatedly. Alone. Like here in this place. Feeling all the time this little girl's fear and insecurity without a moment of feeling safe, not matter how you try to look tough. You haven't grown at all from those days. Still just a sad weak cub."

"Shut it, just shut up! I'm surviving! That is what I do. That's what I... Want."
"Hmm..."

Anna's gaze follows as the feral man walks around the room.
Victor goes to the small mobile table. There are bottles and syringes and needles and tubes.

"What do you think? Is it gonna be hot or cold this time?" Victor questions as he looks at the bottles. "Stinging or buzzing? Your right arm's inner elbow looked pretty used last time. Like junkie's. What if a needle breaks inside you? Gets stuck in, a freakishly long thin needle?"
"Stop."
"Oh, need me to hold your hand? Little bambi? Cub? Sweetheart? Can't handle a needle?"

"Stop, just please, stop", this time Anna whispers out loud her thoughts.
The feral man finally goes quiet. He walks next to her. The hand with claws places on top of Anna's but she can't feel it. Not the weight nor the warmth.

A real person in front of her, Dr. Mishark, gets enough and tells Freddy to start injecting.

Anna blinks and tries to relax, control the shaking of her body.
She glances at the hand still laying on top of hers. It flickers, vanishes for a split second.
She doesn't want it, him, to disappear.
She doesn't want to be alone here, these strangers around her.
She needs... Someone there, right now, with her. Someone to...
What would Victor do, if he was in this situation? It was kinda hard to imagine someone like him as a captive. He was like a deathless, jumping, clawing and biting tank that just rolls over you with pure strength.
A memory of Victor's silly face, when he realized he had been roofied, made nervous Anna to giggle. Silly cat. With his stories and jokes. He's an asshole, but not without his quirks.

Anna sees Fred approaching with loaded syringe.

...The continuing isolation from everyone and everything is horrible. Anna always believed herself to be a loner, but now... She had plenty of time to think in the hospital and in here. And she really misses everything and everyone. Her own apartment, her forest, her home village, her family. Awkward Gary as he looks at Sarah, and how Sarah would tend over them like a hen mother. Anna missed even Joseph, the quilt of killing him as heavy as the other deaths too. He didn't have to take her in after father died...

Anna's left inner elbow is wiped with antiseptic.

It was late but Anna hoped, that things would be different. That she hadn't tried to kill the driver so hastily or that Sarah wouldn't had been crossing the street that time. Or that Victor had come back sooner, or hadn't left at all. Or that father-

Closing her eyes, Anna feels how the liquid is injected into her. She also feels how fat tears run down her face, making her hands turn into fists.

No.
She was not gonna break. She isn't like mother in the basement. And she was not going to think, what it was like to mother, be alone in the dark, with father tormenting and forcing her... Or why he did it...
Remembering things helps, remembering good things.
Those make Anna feel nice things.
But thinking Gary, Sarah or Joseph is still way too painful. So maybe she could think Logan?
But, it was... More effective, to remember Victor. It made her feel many strong things, from giddiness to annoyance. It makes her feel... Better.
"Knew it."
Smug. He's really smug, though he maybe has somewhat reason to be.
He has that stupid, smug smirk that shows the tips of his canine teeth. It makes his eyes smile too, with this excited and mischievous glint. He's so much like a cat from that children's story about a girl in a zany dreamworld.
"And he has a purring voice", whisper reminds her.
And Victor has claws, that can cut skin like hot knife through butter, strong and deadly. Predator's gaze. Warm and inextinguishable fire in his eyes.
He is warm and big. She rarely met people who were as tall as she or even taller. It had first been odd looking at Victor without need to look down. And annoying. But also exciting.

And Victor came for her, when she was wounded and alone... Would she be how weak, stupid, if she hopes that Victor would do that again? Save her now? How pitiful would she be? Would he mock and look down at her, if she could not break from this by herself?
Would Victor also say that she was a mistake?

The injected liquid starts working.
It feels warm and stings, spreads. Heart starts painfully ramming against her rib cage, making some monitor in the room peeping.
Victor's hand starts to flicker again, vanishing and she panics. Trying to find something to keep herself focused. Find that little fire that always has given her that needed edge to stay on the surface.

Anger.

"I really hated you", she thought.
Reaching for that sparking anger inside her, so familiar.
"So much. You were this super predator, who wouldn't die and just kept mocking me, stalking and invading my territory, which I had so hard protected since I was a kid. It was like everyone else had been such a small fly compared to you and I really wasn't that strong as I thought. I really wanted to end you for that."

It had been scary.
She had thought, that years of fighting and killing other mutants had made her considerably strong. More than when she was a child. She had felt like... Like how she had seen her father: capable and in control, knowing his place in the world.
She wanted to be like that, believed she was, even though deep down she knew she still was just a weak mutant with instincts to run from greater threat.
Then comes someone who's a real predator in every way, and she couldn't kill him. It had been unnerving. And exciting. Someone really challenging, in every way. Someone who shared her enjoyment of hunting.
"And then... You started acting differently."
Was it that they had sex? Or when they had that drinking game, an actual conversation? What changed, that suddenly he acted more intimately and less viciously?
Claws that didn't try to rip into her anymore, but instead scratched. Teeth holding instead of tearing, eyes looking at her like she was...
"What, cub?"

Anna opens her gaze, staring, ignoring everyone else in the room. The monitor starts making more noises but she doesn't focus on those irritating sounds.

Father is looking at her.

He's scowling with heavy brows, dark eyes looking her over and father is the only thing Anna can see at that moment.
He's large, a bear, more of an animal than a human. A beast. His face is barely a human. Once, father's face had not been scary at all.
But now Anna feels like crumbling under the judging gaze, piece by piece and father doesn't even do anything else than just stares. It is enough for her.
Because it can quickly turn from scary to terrifying when he got upset. A warning growl turning swiftly into painful punishment. With him, just a small mistake, too late reacting, was horrifying if she weren't careful enough.

Anna starts crying more, hyperventilating.
She's that little girl again. Who can't do anything but take it. Listen and believe her father.
Because father knows everything, he's right, he's older and he's so much stronger than her.

"The hospital was never a safe place", father rumbles. "Too many strangers, too many open places, too many unknown areas. Anyone could come in and out, even into your room. And you were weak. Hurt. An easy prey in a trap, no weapons. And yet, he left you there with strangers. Easily to be taken. He really didn't care if someone took you."

The world is turning into uncertainty, waving. She feels nausea. Her insides are flipping around like in a washing machine.

"You should had taken the control. Secured the room, or get out and stopped lazing around. And fucking him. You just let him use you like I used your mother. A prey just for breeding and eating. A dumb slut."

Mother. The meat in the fridge. Mother wasn't in that cellar anymore. He forced Anna to eat that meat, chew the half raw steak. Father couldn't be that cruel. He couldn't.

Warm, thick paste is raising inside Anna's throat, it burns. Makes her gag.
"Did you just forget everything I taught of how not to be a prey, as he pinned you in your own bed? As you offered yourself to him?"
Anna pukes. The stuff is bitter, warm, white and part of it gets stuck inside her mouth because of the gag. It slides back into her throat, suffocating her.
People react around.

She feels dizzy for a minute, and then feels like electrocuted. It fills her with uncontrollable energy that waves over her. Everything's suddenly bright and vivid. Father, nor Victor, is no more in the room. But she can still hear father's voice.

"In the end, the prey submits to the predator. Like always. But it's never the other way around. A predator is free from fear and submission. It always fights and dominates."

"Get her on the bed and take that gag out, now!"
She's released, the gag removed, and two pairs of hands starts carrying her by limbs. She coughs out the suffocating fluid inside her mouth. Her throat burns, making it unpleasant to breath.
"Help me with this!" someone yells.

"So which one are you, cub? A little running prey? Or a chasing predator?"

Shaking, staring at Fred, Anna acts.
She pulls her held arms, shoots upwards and bites onto Fred's throat. Sinks her teeth until they slam together. At the same time her legs starts kicking wildly. She's uncontrollable, determined like a fallen deer fighting back.

Fred lets go and stumbles backwards down to the floor, juddering as blood pours out from the open hole in his throat.
Spitting out piece of flesh Anna takes on the next, closest living person in the room.
The only guard in the room.

She lunges, gets hit away by fist. She turns back and again rushes towards. The guard gets pistol out and shoots.
She doesn't feel the bullets. They hardly slow her down. She makes her way to the guard and dodges to aside as they try to hit her again.
She grabs the straightened arm and using it flips the guard onto the floor. Grabbing their hair she bashes their head against the hard floor many quick times.

Dr. Mishark is screaming.
Grabbing the guard's pistol Anna shoots the doctor. Then the guard, and just to be safe, also Fred.
Still shaking Anna spits the mixed taste of vomit and blood. She wobbles. Shaking her head, slapping herself, she focuses.
She's alone in the room.
Free to move.
She has to act quickly.

The window is open now, and she needs to jump through.

Logan goes between unconsciousness and being aware of things.
He slumps against the chair which he is securely strapped onto. There's this machine next to him. It beeps now and then, sucking his blood through tubes. He feels powerless, out of any strength in mind and body.
He can't even lift his head.
It has been like this almost from the start, ever since he and Anna got captured.
The people here have been keeping him out of it, strapped down and when he's somewhat awake, he's on this cursed chair and bumped out of blood by that goddamn machine that makes those annoying noises.
How long of this? Days?
Can't remember.
It's like a repeating nightmare. He doesn't get any break to focus onto the situation and what to do.

He just wants to sleep.

"Logan?"
The sounds of the machine are gone. Time to lie back down?
"Logan!"
A sharp slap across his face.

Blinking and slowly focusing he sees someone standing in front of him. A guard, cursing while holding their raised hand.
"Metal bonehead... Oi, Logan!"
They know his name? He didn't give that, he didn't have anything on him that would-
Another hit and the person grabs him by his shoulders, bringing their face to his eye-level. He looks at familiar gaze.
"Logan wake up now or I'll leave your ass here."
"...Anna?"
"Yeah", she starts removing tubes and wires from him, not gently, but he's just happy to get free. Happy to see Anna alive and free.
She has the guard gear on and blood all over her though.
"Wha- What hap...end?"
"Questions later. Now, how well can you move?"
Logan takes support from the chair and he shakily gets up. The room seems too bright as he's a bit more awake now.
"Sit down for a minute, I'll give you something. This may first make you bit dizzy and nausea."
"Wait, wha-?"
Logan grunts from a stink and without support, he drops back into the chair. He start shaking. Feeling this odd wave of warmth and burning washing through him, suddenly bringing everything inside him to a peak. He's suddenly so aware of everything that it's overwhelming.

It makes his mind turn.
"Now get up and lets get out of here."

Looking up at the female the feral male grunts, gets up and marches to the door. Slamming it open he looks at either direction, sniffs the air and listens. So many people running and shouting in the distances. Smoke is stinging in the air, not yet visible.
Anna pushes past him. He glares down as the female leaves the cover of him being in front of her.
"Let's follow the green line", she points.
Stepping again in lead, he pulls out his adamantium claws and starts running ahead, female following behind.

Need to keep the female safe, need to get out.

Following the green line they encounter couple of guards.
Without a moment of hesitation Wolverine charges and slices easily through them. He glances at the female feral who stops from raising a gun. She looks impressed. He smirks and she stares at him for a moment.
"...Let's go."

Running again they follow the line. They try to avoid most people who are also going the same way.
Suddenly Logan is grabbed by the back of his t-shirt and he whirls around, snarling. The female lets go, scowling at him.
"If we keep running that direction, we will get spotted by a lot of people. You need a cover."
Wolverine tilts his head.
Someone's coming behind them, he gets in front of her.
A white jacket person, who-
Anna shoots.
Startled, Logan grabs Anna's gun holding hand.
"What? You need a disguise."

They are in a hall where there's a large crowd of people.
The air smells of nervousness. The people are trying to get to be first at the exit, where there's a lot of guards with guns. The guards are checking IDs before letting people out through glass doors.
A white coat wearing Logan tries to keep himself in check, but it's hard. His instincts are restless.
He needs to get them both out, and he just feels like ramming through these people and dragging the female out. She however sternly said to keep his head down and though part of him doesn't want to listen, he knows deep down that the female is right.
They should not panic and hesitate now.

Still, Logan keeps glancing from their surroundings and back to the woman in front of him. He smells blood, her blood, on her.
She's wounded, she limps slightly.
She smells of tension that gets stronger the closer they get to the doors.
Standing right behind the female, Wolverine tries to calm her. He raises his hand and takes a hold of hers.
She tenses more, glances down and then stares forward.
After a moment, she briefly squeeze his fingers and Logan lets out a soft sound.
She lets go.

At the doors a guard asks for their IDs.
Logan watches as Anna gives hers first. The guard glances between the damaged badge and her face.
"Haven't seen you before."
"New here. First day."
"Heh, seems like you got into a scuffle? Go to the red van to check at your wounds, then report to your supervisor. Also you need to ask for a new badge after this."
She nods.
The guard however keeps staring, holding Anna's badge...
Logan starts to get ready.
Then the guard gives the badge back and Anna walks through the glass doors. She's outside.
"Next!"

It's Logan's turn and he gives his bloodied badge. It's suppose to be just as damaged as Anna's.
The guard looks at the badge and Logan, stares at him. Logan glares back, swallowing down the deep warning sound that wants to be heard as his lips tug into a snarl.

Logan sees it when the guard knows.
The badge drops and Logan pulls out his claws and thrusts one set through the guys jaw and head.

Everything goes into chaos after that.

The guards start shooting and attacking, the people start running away. Anna yells from outside, shooting.
Logan smashes through the glass door and the two of them start running, she in front and he behind.

The large prison of theirs is in middle of nowhere, a forest. There's melting snow, sun shining on bare sky and some wildlife running away just like the two of them. Shots are fired and people running after them as they disappear into the wilderness.
In there, Logan notices he's falling behind as the female is running faster than him.
Jumping after her over a fallen tree he tries to speed up.

But the female is running just too fast. She's getting too far away from him and he can't protect her like this.
He roars.
She halts and turns to look at him. Their eyes meet.

Her eyes suddenly widen as she stares at him running towards her, with his claws out. She almost looks like a prey to him, staring and frozen like that.
Wolverine suddenly feels this suspense of hunting. He wants to have her, the prey.
She starts running again, away from him.

Springing, the feral just in time gets a hold of the female. He pulls his claws in, and the two of them stumble onto the ground.
She's panicking, kicking and hitting him, the gun dropped to the ground.
Wolverine gets a hold of himself, before he attacks her.

Not a prey. A person, a friend.
Anna.
Not a prey.

"Shit", he gets up but keeps a tight hold on the struggling woman who tries to get away from him. He needs to stay in control, they're still chased.
"Anna, calm down."
She's reeking of fear, trying to get off from his grip in a desperate manner. The kicks hurt and he can only hold against them because of his adamantium skeleton.
He keeps gripping onto her arm.
"Anna!"
She's panicking. And she won't calm down easily, Logan has seen her like this before.
But they do not have the time now.

So he hits her hard and she stumbles down, unconscious.
Then Wolverine picks her up and starts running.