Next chappie. Enjoy and leave a review!
She finally found him. Six days, four hours and fifty-nine minutes and thirty-two seconds after starting her search (she had to be specific, it was hell lookin for him), she finally found him. He was alone on a relatively grassy hill with huge and massive trees around him, smoking a cigar. He was probably supposed to be working with the group of men below.
They had all grinned at her and laughed when she asked for James (didn't know who that was, so she described him, huge guy, funny hairstyle probably always seen with a cigar in his mouth). Neill, one of the men on her team, had stood next to her, decked out in full military gear. "You ain't gonna convince him ta join ya kid." The man had said with amusement.
She had smiled sweetly and replied. "I don't want him to join." She had then quickly walked in the direction
He had his back turned to them and she took quiet and slow steps. She didn't want to startle him. But he knew. He had always known when she was around. "You smell like Wilson." His first words to her.
She wasn't sure if she should feel offended or if she just didn't care. She was happy to see him. Elated even. She couldn't think of anything better in that one moment. She found an old friend and Wade's cure. She hoped to have found Wade's cure. But that was what optimism was for. And she was going to use it for all she was worth.
Neill shifted next to her. He apparently didn't like the idea of them being the only ones to be in the presence of this man. Of course Neill didn't exactly know why she was looking for James so badly. He just knew that they were going against everything Stryker stood for.
"Can we talk?" She asked in reply.
He turned around and faced her. He looked around him, then at Neill and shrugged. "If Stryker sent you here to get me to go after Victor, then you got it wrong. I'm not doing it." He said simply.
She stared at him. To say she was confused was beyond hilarious, she wasn't just confused, she was completely knocked for a six. She didn't have a clue why he'd have to go after Victor. Wasn't victor part of the plan in the great scheme of things? "I'm not here for that. Not that I'd know anything about that. I need your help." She said.
James filled his lungs with the smoke from the cigar. "You need my help?" He asked.
She nodded. She needed him to agree. She really needed him to agree. "Yeah. I need your help." She said again.
He nodded and started down the hill. "Well, come on." He said. She followed him as Neill followed her. When they got down the hill James yelled out to a couple of people, telling them that he was taking an early break and would be back soon.
Neill got into their own black truck, handed her the two syringes and drove off. She then went to get in with James. The drive into town was done in silence. In that time he lit another cigar. He came to a stop at a old looking diner and led her inside and took a seat in the far back of the place.
The waitress took their orders, brought their drinks and left again. And still they sat in silence. He lit another cigar before he spoke. "So how are you taking it?" He asked.
She stared at him. Confusion glittering behind her eyes. What the hell was he talking about? It made nearly no sense at all. "Excuse me?" She asked.
He sighed and looked sad. It was like he felt sorry for her. "I can smell him on you. I was just wondering how you were taking it."
She stared at him. There was something wrong with his hearing then. Or with the information he got. Because she had no idea how smelling Wade on her had anything to do with how she was taking whatever he was talking about. "The fact that he has cancer? Bad. I don't know what to do. That's why I'm here." She said softly.
He looked like he had just been hit over the head with a baseball bat. "Cancer? Kelly, Stryker said Wade is dead. Victor killed him." He explained.
She got stuck on the 'Wade is dead' part. The words had a sick and twisted ring to them. And now more than ever she couldn't allow them to be real. She couldn't allow them to be true. His words slowly reached her muddled brain and she shook her head wildly. "No. No, Victor didn't kill Wade. I don't know why Stryker told you that, but I'm quite certain I'd know if he was dead. Look, it has something to do with the Adamantium. I don't know what. I know less than a goat about anything of this. Stryker wants some sort of weapon." She explained. "He wants to make Wade that weapon."
"Adamantium?" James asked.
She shrugged. "It's not important. It's the stuff from Africa. Ok. I don't like to talk about Africa. Can we please get to the part where I need your help?" She asked snappily.
He sighed and ran his hand down his face. "What sort of help?" He asked.
She set the two empty syringes on the table. "According to Stryker's files, all I need is two Syringes of your blood to have it successfully mix with Wade's. That way, the Mutant X-gene will spread more easily and mutate with the DNA strings. That's what the file says. I just figure it means, I have your blood, the DNA mixes, and Wade gets better." She said.
He sighed and glanced at the needles. "That's it? That's what you want? Kelly, why do you want this so badly?"
She felt her eyes burn at the simple question. It was so damn easy to ask. "Because," she whispered, "he won't leave like everyone else. I love him, James. I really, really love him."
James stared at her for a moment. It was like she had just declared she was insane and would like to jump of a bridge into an empty river for her birthday. Of course declaring that she loved Wade was probably what James would consider insane. "Logan." He said suddenly.
She frowned at him. Logan? Who the hell was Logan? That made even less sense than her declaration of love. "Who's Logan?" She asked huffily.
"Me. Around here I'm known as Logan." He said.
She smiled and nodded slowly. "Yeah. Ok. Logan. I like that. Will help me?" She asked.
He nodded slowly. "I will. And tell him. He hurts ya, I'll cut of his balls."
She grinned at him, trying hard not to laugh. "Hey, as for the Adamantium. I don't know what it's supposed to do. But it's some sort of metal. Stryker wants to inject you with it. I don't know how that will turn out. But…if it helps. Just in case Victor did go awol. Take it."
He nodded slowly, dropped money onto the table and made her follow him. He led her into the bathroom; the waitress who served them gave them a funny look, but said nothing. She just hoped James wasn't dating anyone. She didn't want stories running around and she sure as hell didn't want trouble right now.
He leaned against the wall and stuck out his right arm. Other than sticking the needle in and pulling the blood into it, she didn't know much. So she did what she knew. She pulled them full to the brink. And smiled softly when he complained about slight dizziness. "Thanks for this." She said softly.
He nodded slowly and leaned further into the wall. "Just give him my message, kid." He answered.
She walked to the door and stopped. She stared at the handle for a long time. "James," he hummed in acknowledgement, "what do I do if this doesn't work?"
He was silent for a while then cleared his throat. "You let it go and say goodbye." He said.
She left without answering him on that. She didn't have an answer for that. She called Neill from a payphone and waited barely ten minutes for him to come and get her. He brought along the small cooling bag they had picked up and filled with ice. It was supposed to be for a hipflask, which could be carried on the hip. She carefully placed the two syringes in it.
She watched the buildings flash by and realized a few minutes later that Neill wasn't driving back to the motel they had hired rooms at. Neill eventually stopped in front of what looked like a place, which sells guns. She was half surprised. She was not exactly sure why they needed guns. Inside the place looked like one massive military operated arsenal.
She was surprised, truly and honestly, surprised that the thing got a licence. Each of the men on the team had something like three or four duffle bags with them. And they were loading guns and handheld things and bulletproofs and helmets as if they were about to go to war.
Neill stood with her, centre of the room, and told the men what to get. She had no problem with this. She had nearly no clue as to what sort of guns it was; she just knew what David's guns look like. She knew grenades because Jerry likes to play with them. And that was it for her weaponry knowledge.
She felt a sinking uselessness crawling over her. How did she ever think she'd be able to find James without help? How did she ever think she'd get back into base without help? Emily and Jerry didn't count. They were only two people.
But with this squad of five men, all fully trained in combat, big and probably pretty powerful with those guns, she'd actually gotten a chance.
"How are you intending on paying for this?" She asked casually. There was no way these guys would find out that she might not find this casual at all.
Neill grinned. "Per bag. All under the table. The old man said he'd charge us a thousand per bag."
She nodded slowly, trying hard to keep the confusion from her face. "And why are we doing this?" She asked.
"If we're gonna defect, Captain, we're gonna do it good." He explained.
She frowned. "Defect? Who said anything about defecting?" She asked.
He glanced at her. "Captain, what we're doing is generally referred to as defecting. It means we would go against our code for something we believe in or criminal activities or some such nonsense." He explained with the patience of a mother trying to teach her child to count.
Kelly couldn't feel more like a noob. She should've known that was it. "Right." She said nodding expertly. Because really, she was an expert at nodding, especially when she had absolutely no clue as to what was being discussed or when she knew she just made herself look stupid.
It took them a little over four hours to figure out exactly what they wanted. Then they were going back to the motel. The old keeper of the place stared at the group of men, and her, who had come with no baggage but a backpack, and was suddenly going to leave, eventually, with more than just a backpack. She pretended not to notice this. The man was already suspicious of them.
She had over heard him ask one of the men whether they were a runaway bunch. That sounded half weird, mainly because considering them, as a runaway bunch is unfair. Really. They were older than sixteen. They could leave when they felt like it.
"When are we leaving?" Pete asked a few nights later.
Kelly was eagerly awaiting an answer from Neill, as he was apparently more of a Captain than she was. "Later tonight." After three full days of just sitting around in the motel, they were finally moving? That seemed a little odd. But cool. She didn't mind.
Later tonight came quickly. Maybe it was because Kelly was wishing away the time. Maybe it was because she got the picture of curing Wade firmly stuck in her head. Whatever the reason. The, what the pilot called it, ten hour flight had better get over quick. She wasn't a doctor and she wasn't sure how long blood could actually just sit in a cooler and be good. Or whatever.
She was going to murder whoever had the idea to build countries far apart from each other. No that wasn't fair. It wasn't their fault that some cosmic happening screwed it all up. She'll blame someone else. Stryker. Stryker seemed like a good choice to put the blame on.
The base was concealed by the night when they finally got to it. The old man landed the plane at the edges on the beach near the water. From there it was a hour walk to base, and then the process of getting in would start up. She stopped them about a kilometre from the base. They'd walk that in ten minutes. "Ok, listen up." She started in a whisper. "You boys will pretend to have chased after me, when I left. And brought me back here to face the cavalry for betraying Stryker. Ok?" She asked.
She smiled when they nodded. They ran the rest of the way, making the kilometre in less than ten minutes. Outside Neill grabbed one shoulder and Pete grabbed the other and marched her up to the door. The guards nodded, asked no questions and let them in. Inside the guards weren't so nice. They frisked her down and took the smaller cooler bag. The soldiers led her to an off side room.
She sat there for maybe thirty minutes when shouts and commands from voices she didn't know reached her. The door clicked open and she gazed at it steadily for a moment.
Her boys had come through.
She quickly jogged through the base and down to the room where all confiscated goods were held. She wasn't surprised to find that no one was even in the room. She scanned the objects and frowned. She just got the cooler confiscated and it was already missing under all this shit? How is that possible?
She cursed the stupid morons for their incompetence in carefully confiscating things and started searching. She could hear shouts and gunshots all over the base. She couldn't decide if it was possible that the shots were near the caged rooms, and she hoped to God that Emily and Jerry were alright. She threw something over her shoulder and a loud clatter and a clang of metal on ground had her turning around.
She slowly walked over. She knew she should be looking for the cooler, but she found herself fascinated with the fact that the morons actually confiscated Wade's swords. She kneeled down and reached out for them. She could see him twirling around and grinning charmingly (if not a little maniacal). She smiled. Reached out for them and picked them up. He was going to need them when he got better. She put them on the counter next to the door, right where she'd be able to see them when she left.
After twenty minutes she was cursing every damn curse she knew. Especially when she realised she wasted nearly an hour looking for a cooler bag, which was right on the counter. And that she had put the two katana right next to it.
She grabbed the three items and started running down the hall to the cages. She could still hear shooting. When Neill had told her the whole defecting thing, she didn't not expect it to mean that they were massacring the whole base. Or anyone who dared go against them. She had no idea how many of these soldiers were actually on the same terms as Stryker. From the amount of shooting, she figured there were quite a lot of them.
She crashed into the door from not getting her footing right. Just as she was about to punch the code in the door slid open. Jerry and Emily nodded to her from the other side, glanced at the swords and let her through. "I found him, Emily!" She shouted as she ran to Wade's cage. "Found him and the blood." She continued while punching the code into the keypad.
It beeped. Flashed green then red. A bright red ACCESS DENIED flashed at her. She stared at it for a moment. Entered the code again and narrowed her eyes at the stupid thing for not working. Wade sat with a small wry smile on his face. She huffed clipped the cooler onto her jean belt and set the one of the katana on the floor. She slipped the other from the holster, dropped it to the floor and positioned the katana so it was right between the 4,5,6 and 7,8,9 buttons. And shoved hard. Sparks flew for a moment. A fading ACCESS GRANTED flashed at her and the door clicked open.
"Didn't think I'd do it, did you?" She said grinning.
"Hey? Is this someone who will help us?" The voice was new. Not the usual mutants. She glanced up. A boy with his eyes shut by something. She couldn't quiet figure it out. The red glasses flashed through her mind. In the confiscation room those were on the top shelves.
"Scott Summers." Wade murmured.
"Yeah, kid, I'm here to help! Just stay put for a moment." She called out to him. She pulled the cooler from her hip and held Wade's arms out. "I love you." She told him. He smiled and leaned forward slight and kissed her. She smiled and pulled the two syringes from cooler. She placed the one carefully onto the ground and pressed the needle of the one in her hand into his arm. He hissed softly, clenched his hand and closed his eyes. She pressed the butt end in and watched as James's blood went into Wade's arm.
His breathing picked up. She glanced at him. Worried that something was wrong. "You ok?" She asked.
He nodded. "Yeah, keep going." She pushed the rest of the syringe's blood into his arm. His whole face was matted with sweat. "Don't worry." He muttered.
She nodded and took the other one, she tried hard not to miss the spot she had just pushed the other one into. Emily was shouting about something. She started to push the blood through the needle into his arm. She stopped again when he hissed and dropped his head back. Something wasn't right. But again he told her to just keep going. So she did.
His breathing was unnaturally uneven when she was done. Sweat ran down his face and arms and stuck the white muscle shirt to his chest. His chest was rising and falling as if he'd just run a marathon at full speed the whole way. She was starting to panic. "Wade?" He didn't answer her. He should've but he didn't.
He looked like he was in pain. Serious pain. He shouldn't have looked like he was in pain. Somehow he slumped down with his back and head to the floor. She stared at him. "Wade?" The sound of something metallic building up and shots ringing off it made her look up.
Jerry stood in the centre of the hall created by the cages. His hands lifted before him. Palms flat up like he was pressing against something invisible. And about two or three meter before him, a solid metal wall built up. She stared shocked for a moment. Even the mutants around her were shocked. Emily gazed at him and then grinned at her. "The little bastard!" She cheered.
Kelly nodded and turned back to Wade. His chest wasn't rising and falling like it had done a moment ago. In fact it looked still. As in not moving, still. She jumped when sparks flew around her. Emily had done what she had done with Wade's cage to the other cages. She holstered the katana and brought it in, picking the other one up as she went. Kelly ignored her and pressed her head over Wade's chest. His eyes were closed and his heart wasn't beating.
She frowned. "Wade?" She whispered and gazed at his face. She ran her hands over the sides of his face. "WADE!" She screamed when she realized exactly why he wasn't moving. She slammed both hands down onto his chest as hard she could. She felt the tears streak down her cheeks. She felt the bubbling pain of abandonment and realized she couldn't blame him.
It had been her idea.
Jerry's arms wrapped around her, a lot like Wade's had back in Africa. But he wasn't Wade. He pulled her clear of the ground and carried her out. Emily laid the swords next to Wade. Whispered something and then jogged out.
She went limp in Jerry's arms. She ignored the mutants around them. She barely paid attention to Emma leading Scott through the alleys and halls of the base. She ignored Scott telling them to go a certain way.
She had killed Wade.