Chapter 10

On a mountain ridge, surrounded by scrub pines and snow, a lone figure slowly made its way around the jagged rocks and slippery paths, stopping every now and then to catch a breath. It watched a herd of wild goats bounding through the valley below, their shaggy white coats rippling with each move, their breath coming in great white clouds that haloed their heads for a split second, before the next goat burst through.

A mother mink ran past the figure, her baby close behind, and ducked into a hole between two rocks. When they were safely inside, the mother peeked back out, her black eyes seeming to dart everywhere at once. She gave one warning bark, then disappeared once more.

Before the person on the mountain could wonder what had startled the mink, a voice echoed off the snowy hills.

"Pyro!"

The figure turned, and pushed back the thick hood that covered its face. Sharp blue eyes gazed back toward the place the voice had come from, and a hand ran through spiky, blond hair, sending a small shower of snowflakes adrift on the slight breeze.

"Why can't you people just leave me alone?!" Pyro shouted back at Logan, his face contorted by an angry sneer. Then, he noticed the woman standing beside Logan; his expression quickly went from rage to confusion. "What the hell is going on here?"

Logan and Raven made their way over to the outcropping, where Pyro still stood. The goats had since disappeared, no doubt sensing Logan's intimidating presence. When they reached him, Logan narrowed his eyes at Pyro, as if he were sizing up an opponent. Confident that Pyro wasn't a threat, he turned to Raven, silently telling her to do the talking, for now.

"We need to know why the Brotherhood is after a certain young girl. What their latest project is. Where they're hiding out."

"In other words," Logan growled, "everything you know."

Pyro snickered, but when he saw Logan's face, his expression sobered. "All I 'know', is that they abandoned me after Bobby froze my ass. I haven't been in contact with them since."

Neither Pyro nor Raven expected what happened next.

Logan grabbed Pyro's jacket, and threw him against the sheer rock wall to their right. Securing the younger man with only his left hand, he held up his right hand and extended his claws.

Holding them under Pyro's chin, he shouted, "You lying sonofabitch! Tell us now, or I send you back to the Brotherhood, minus one head!"

"I swear, I don't know anything!" He insisted. Turning to Raven, he cried out, "You wanna help me out a little, here? Call off the attack dog, and I'll give you the name of someone who knows the answers you're looking for."

Logan grinned and then pressed his claws closer against Pyro's neck. He gazed over at Raven. "Did he just call me a 'dog'?" When she nodded, he turned his dark eyes back on the younger man. "I should kill you for that, you know."

Raven stepped over and put her hand on Logan's extended arm. "Logan, please. He is telling the truth. Put him down."

After weighing his options for a moment, Logan released Pyro, and retracted his claws. "Fine. What's this person's name?"

Pyro's eyes darted back and forth between the two, letting just enough silence pass to make them uncomfortable, to build the suspense, before he replied, "You're lookin' at her."

Stunned, Logan shook his head. "No. And strike one. Two more tries before you get Fed-Exed to your precious 'real' mutants."

The blond man shrugged. "Of course, they probably buried the info into her subconscious, in case she got caught. Which," he sneered, "she obviously has."

Raven shook her head emphatically. "No. I didn't get caught. I…" she gazed at Logan expressively, and Pyro caught her meaning.

"Oh, I see. A little mutant-human bonding goin' on, huh? You guys know that never works, right?"

Logan started forward again, but Raven blocked him with her arm and a single word.

"Don't."

She crossed her arms and glared at Pyro. "So, what do we do now?"

Pyro cocked his head to the side, thinking. "Well, I guess you could find someone who reads minds. Though the only two people I know of are dead, so…" he chuckled at his own private joke, and kicked at the snow around his feet. "They'd have to do it while you were asleep or unconscious, though, since it's probably buried pretty deep. Look, I'd love to help you out with that, but I gotta go."

"Thank you, Pyro," Raven said, dismissing him.

With a jaunty salute, he turned and pulled the hood back up over his head, then made his way down the mountain. Logan turned to her, his eyes in turmoil.

"Why are you letting him go? He's…"

"He's what, Logan? Your enemy?" She began to pace, her mouth set in a firm line. "Well, then. How exactly do you define me? I worked with the Brotherhood, long enough that they put things into my head that I don't even know about! That would make me your enemy, wouldn't it?"

"No. It…"

She interrupted him again. "Why? What makes it any different?"

He stepped over to her and took her arms in his hands, making her stop and look at him. "Because I love you."

As soon as the words were out of his mouth, Logan felt a nervous pit in his stomach. Did he really feel that way, or was he just trying to calm her down, so there wouldn't be a repeat of the night before? The concept of love had become almost foreign to him, starting after he lost the dark-haired woman. What was her name? Logan asked himself, but he still couldn't remember.

Then, after Jean had died, he found it easier to push his emotions into the blackest corner of his mind than to deal with them.

It dulled the pain.

Raven stared blankly into his eyes, stunned into silence. She wondered if she had imagined what he had just said; after all, she'd been saying all along that Logan was almost a true Wolverine – a creature that mostly lived alone because of its intense and often explosive temperament. How could such a man ever feel as tender an emotion as love. Then again, she mused, even animals felt protective of those in their care.

Finally, Raven asked, "But do you trust me?"

Logan simply nodded. He knew that she had been allied with the Brotherhood for quite some time, but if she said that her purpose was to destroy them from the inside, then he believed her. And anyway, he rationalized, she's a human; what could she really do to him?

Slowly, unsure of how he would react, Raven took a step closer to him. She leaned up on her tiptoes so that her face was even with his – he was at least five inches taller than she – and gently kissed his lips. She could feel him struggling to keep his calm; when she looked into his eyes again, she could see the same intensity that she had last night, but she wasn't afraid now.

Logan's hands slid up her arms to the back of her neck, where they twined with the mass of her dark brown hair, and ran his tongue over her bottom lip. When his mouth pressed against hers again, she made a noise like a moan, and he felt a rush of satisfaction run through him. It was followed by a strange prickling sensation, making every hair on his body stand straight. Ohno, he thought, suddenly understanding what was happening, and managed to disengage himself from Raven's grasp.

"Logan?" she asked, her green eyes showing her confusion.

"Go on ahead of me," he gasped, forcing himself to avoid looking at her. He squinted at the massive expanse of snow they had come from, the sun's reflection glaring off its cold whiteness.

"But…" she began, but his sharp reply silenced her.

"Raven, dammit. Go!"

With only a moment's hesitation, Raven turned on her heel and started to pick her way down the slippery mountain trail, her tears turning cold on her wind-burned cheeks.