This will probably be my last chapter for a while. I have exams in about seven weeks and I just can't spend the time I need to write another chapter.
Logan and Victor stood shoulder to shoulder, looking up at the huge red rock in front of them. They had made it to Monument Valley, located the labs and had walked straight up to it without any alarms, attacks or notice. Only when they got to the foot of the giant rock did they realise there was no front door. Victor had growled in frustration and kicked the hunk of stone, asking; "How the hell do we get inside?"
It was Logan who had looked up and saw the entrance. He pointed upwards and Victor's gaze followed his finger. That was what led them to that exact moment, looking up at the monument in front of them.
"Great," Victor muttered, "I s'pose we gotta climb that thing now."
"You got a better idea?" Logan asked gruffly, not looking forward to the work either.
Victor sighed, "Nah, I'm comin' up blank fer better ideas at the moment."
"Better get climbin' then, right?" Logan said as he unsheathed his claws and dug them into the hard surface of the rock. He started pulling his body up and lodged his other arm into the rock higher up. Victor watched him ascending for a few feet more before he sighed and followed his brother, wishing he had longer nails.
They climbed for ages, as they got higher the air got thinner and it became harder to breath. Logan stopped momentarily and looked up, blinking the sweat out of his eyes. He could see the entrance not too far up. That was good because he was exhausted and it was a small miracle that they hadn't been detected yet. Then again, maybe they had. It was possible that they were waiting for them up at the entrance. Still, it seemed unlikely that they had since he and Victor hadn't been used for target practise by some trigger happy guard.
"Hey Jimmy?" Victor's breathless voice said from a little further below.
"Yeah?"
"You think Storm was serious about those medals?"
If he wasn't concentrating so hard on keeping his body attached to the rock, Logan would have shrugged. "Dunno, doubt it. Why d'you care?"
"I don't." Victor denied, "Just wonderin'. It'd be kinda wierd after all this time gettin' a medal, is all."
"Yeah well, we might have got a few more medals if you didn't keep decapitating our superior officers." Logan replied.
Victor snickered at the memory, "And if you didn't keep goin' off after every battle to find somewhere to drink."
"I wasn't the only one, you were there too, Victor." Logan defended.
"Good times." Victor mumbled as he forced himself higher. In a way he really did miss those days. It was nice just fighting without being afraid. They didn't have anyone counting on them but each other, they didn't care about the people involved or the ones that were causing the fights, and they could waltz in and out as they pleased. Now they were struggling for survival. On the road to Nevada they were stopped too many times to count. Even on the most remote country roads they had to be careful and the journey had taken twice as long as it should have because of people's suspicion. Seriously, it was worse than the Soviet Union under Stalin. At least in Russia a 'comrade' could pass through unharmed if they didn't draw attention to themselves. Now though, every car was checked, every person was tested—not that they had any way to do it, they just made a guess at it, gave a suspicious look and let them get on with their journey. There was one case where a small boy was pulled viciously out of a car in front of them with a gun pointed to his head. Logan and Victor intervened then and saved the boy, revealing themselves to be mutants. But they had escaped the angry mob easily and continued on with their journey without any other hiccups. It was still such a pain though, having to drive slow and carefully and swear their allegiance to the Homo sapiens. Not that it bothered Victor to lie; he'd been doing it for the majority of his life, but it was pain when he thought about how pointless the whole damn thing was.
"I wouldn't exactly call them good," Logan said, "but...they were better than this."
"Yeah tell me about it..."Victor muttered, "Talk about a downer. There ain't any fun this time."
Logan grunted, but whether it was in affirmation or effort was unclear.
They climbed in silence until Logan finally reached the metallic ledge of the opening. With a quick, cursory glance, Logan checked that the coast was clear and hoisted himself up and over the ledge. He reached down and held out his hand. Victor grabbed the offered appendage and allowed himself to be pulled up to the safety of a horizontal surface.
"Well this place sucks." Victor commented as he got to his feet and looked around.
Logan agreed wholeheartedly, but was too distracted by the scenery to answer.
It was a simple enough room, mostly a landing dock with a big 'H' on the ground that signified a helipad. The walls were made out of old and dirty steel. There were deep red barrels scattered in random patches around the area. It was quiet.
"You think they haven't noticed we're here?"
"Hard to say," Logan said quietly, "They don't seem to have noticed, but maybe that's what they want us to think."
Victor snorted in amusement. "Yer so paranoid."
It was a comment that couldn't be any more ill-timed as a door on the far side of the structure opened and suddenly a monstrous machine appeared before them, locking onto them immediately.
"Ah hell..." Victor muttered.
"Ya just had to open yer big mouth, didn't you?" Logan grunted as he moved into his signature defensive stance.
"What the hell is that thing?" Victor asked, mirroring his brother's movements.
Snarling, Logan answered "It's the 'Soon-To-Be-Dead-Mark IV'."
They shared a quick glance and grinned to each other before evading the sudden fire from the giant machine. They were now separated, but by no means weakened. They worked in perfect synchronisation as they sprinted forward, approaching the mechanic goliath with a snake-like speed, all the time easily dodging the huge rounds of ammunition it threw it at them. They reached their attacker in seconds, pushing themselves off of the ground the lunged at the machine and struck downwards in a perfectly timed pincer attack. The machine stumbled and fell under their constant attack and eventually gave up its futile struggle at shut itself down.
"That was easy." Victor commented as he looked down as his handiwork. "Think they would'a made a better welcome party, wouldn't you?"
Logan didn't have time to answer when three more of the same machine appeared before them and started attacking the second they located the two mutants.
Logan snarled. "Would you shut up?"He ground out at Victor as they tried attacking again.
They worked with the same tactics, although this time, it wasn't quite so graceful or well executed. They could no longer dodge all the rounds of heavy artillery so they were sporting giant, gaping wounds and burns as they surveyed the scrap pile of mangled metal in front of them.
"Well that wasn't—"
"—Not a word." Logan warned, seeing that Victor was about to tempt fate again.
Victor held up his hands and shook his head. "Nope, wasn't goin' to say anythin'."
"Yeah, keep it that way. C'mon, now that they know we're here, it ain't goin' to get any easier, and I don't particularly want to hang around any longer than we have to."
Victor nodded. "Alright, let's get this show on the road."
They ventured further into the depths of the Wideawake HQ.
--
They place was riddled with traps, guards and machines, all with the one objective of stopping and killing Logan and Victor. The inside of the HQ was white, all-white. Logan hated white; it reminded him of Project X, Stryker and all that torment his body and mind was put through. The walls weren't so much white now as red, black and a curious 'crushed machine' colour. Logan was glad for the change of scenery at least, though he wasn't quite so pleased at all the killing he was doing—even if they were the enemy. Still, he knew that it needed to be done; he couldn't handle the slow extinction of his friends and family, of the whole mutant race. The humans couldn't think past their own fear; they weren't able to see the growing numbers of mutants didn't mean that there was some sort of plot; they were blind to the evolution before them. They could kill every single mutant alive, but it wouldn't change anything in the end; the human race was coming to an end, not through war or shadow threats, but through evolution. When Magneto had tried to turn every human into a mutant, it hadn't been an uninspired notion; he knew the truth that it was just a matter of time. It was unfortunate that forcibly speeding up nature's progress left a lot of people dead.
Victor's voice broke Logan out of his thoughts. "Is it just me, or does it feel like they were mighty prepared for us?"
Logan scowled in consideration. "Yeah thought that was just me bein' paranoid though." His voice was almost teasing, but the situation was too intense for him to quite pull it off.
"Best we watch our step."
"Ya think?" Logan asked sarcastically, "I was just goin' to prance through the place with a blind fold and ear muffs." He sniggered to himself.
"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up, runt." Victor muttered.
They turned a corner and Victor walked over to the first door he saw. He opened it and took a quick look inside, but finding nothing he slammed the door closed. "Where the hell are we supposed to go?" He growled out in frustration.
Logan didn't know. He couldn't even answer. He had no idea where they were supposed to go. He shrugged and continued walking.
"Somethin' tells me we're the wrong two for this job." Victor muttered in a brief moment of self-doubt.
"We'll do it," Logan assured him, "We always do."
They heard a noise and both dived towards the wall and pressed their backs to it. "Take a look." Victor ordered in a harsh whisper, pointing to the corner of the corridor that attached to an adjacent one. Giving a quick nod, Logan edged down the wall and inched his head around the corner—he ducked back behind the corner when he caught sight of a group of three men appearing out of a room. His enhanced senses meant that he could hear them as if he was standing right beside them.
"Damn mutant..." One of them muttered.
"Yeah, tell me about it. Idiot must be on a suicide mission here, thinking he can take us all on." Another one said.
The third one spoke then. "Yeah but he's not alone I don't think, word is, he's got friends."
"Damn, this day just keeps getting better." The second voice muttered.
The conversation was interrupted by the crackling of a radio.
"Team Delta, come in! Team Delta? Where the hell are you?"
The voice on the radio was panicked and 'Team Delta' quickly answered. "We're here what's going on?"
"It's that mutant, he's here! Down on the eighteenth floor. He's already killed off Team Alpha and Gamma, we need back-up, get your asses down here—quick!"
"Shit! We're on our way." The first voice of Team Delta answered. "Let's go."
The sound of footsteps retreating brought a bad feeling in the pit of Logan's stomach. "Another mutant?" He muttered, troubled by the news.
"What's the big problem?" Victor asked as he moved closer. "Now we've got a friend."
"No." Logan said slowly, "Now we've got another mutant in the building. We don't know if this guy is going to be a help to us or not. He could be trying to blow this place up."
Victor frowned. "So are we."
"No," Logan said sternly, "We're not. We're trying to get evidence that David Hewitt was killed as a set up."
"Yeah but..." Victor muttered, "We are going to blow this place up, right?"
"Maybe." Logan conceded, "We'll play it by ear."
Victor sighed. "So what, are you goin' to go off helpin' that mutant now then?" He asked.
"What d'you think?"
Victor groaned. "Alright then, let's go play heroes."
Logan nodded and they were on the move again, trying to find the mysterious mutant.
--
They had made it to the eighteenth floor and stood in slightly horrified speechlessness. They stared at the mess. Bodies were littered around the mangled walls that had been bent out of shape to make it look as if they were a simple aluminium sheet. They studied the guns; they had been twisted and morphed beyond clear recognition.
"It can't be..." Logan muttered in bemusement. "It can't be Magneto; his powers are gone."
Shrugging, Victor could only shake his head. "Maybe it...wore off?"
"It ain't some kind of vitamin boost; it's supposed to be permanent."
"So you think that there is another mutant goin' around bendin' metal and makin' a fuss?" Victor asked.
"Maybe, I dunno..."
"You still want to go and play hero, or are we ok to continue on with our mission?"
Logan looked at his brother. "I don't want to get involved with Magneto—"
"—great it's settled—"
"—but," Logan said sternly, "If Magneto is around, then he's up to no good. I don't want him to destroy this place before we have time to finish what we came here for. This is our one chance; Magneto could ruin everythin'."
"Right, let's go kick some spoon-bending-butt then." Victor agreed as he moved through the corridor, following the bloody footprints of what they presumed to be Magneto.
It didn't take long for them to track the mutant, there was no skill in it; they just followed the trails of destruction.
They were about to climb a set of stairs when Logan stopped and stiffened.
"What?" Victor asked gruffly, confused at the sudden stop.
"Magneto, he's here." Logan said, feeling the pull of the other mutant from the adamantium in his bones.
"How the hell do you know?" Victor asked and then shook his head, "Never mind, I get it, where the hell is he?"
Before Logan answered, Magneto did. "I'm here Sabertooth."
Victor spun and Logan managed to perform the task a little slower, fighting the hold Magneto had on him. He knew Magneto wasn't entirely focusing his power on him, if he had, then Logan wouldn't be able to twitch his fingers, let alone turn his whole body. They regarded Magneto carefully; he looked tired and about ten years older than he had when Logan first met him.
"You got yer powers back." Logan said.
"How observant." Magneto answered in a deadpan voice.
"How?" Victor asked.
"What are you doing with the X-men, Sabertooth?" Magneto questioned, ignoring the brothers.
"I ain't Sabertooth anymore Magneto; I'm a whole new animal."
"So it seems." Magneto commented with nonchalance, "But that doesn't answer my question."
"And you never answered ours." Logan said.
Magneto considered Victor's question. He didn't seem any harm in answering the two mutants. "My powers came back. It was slow at first, but lately I've been feeling as strong as ever."
To prove his point, Magneto lifted his hand and Logan's arm flew upwards of its own accord. "Stop that." Logan growled. Victor snickered, "Shut up, Victor."
"What are you doin' here Magneto?" Victor asked, sobering.
"What are the X-men doing here?" The old man challenged.
Victor and Logan shared a look. Victor shrugged and Logan spoke. "We're lookin' fer somethin'."
Magneto crossed his arms. "You'll have to do better than that if you want any answers from me." There was almost an air of amusement around the old man.
Logan sighed and rolled his eyes. "You know David Hewitt?" He asked.
Magneto nodded. "That human that brought in the collaring. Insulting that the X-men played his little dogs. Honestly it was more of a surprise that it took so long for some mutant to kill him. I would have done it myself, only I didn't have my powers back when it happened. Unfortunate, really."
"Yeah well, it wasn't a mutant. It was a set up. This whole war is based on it. If we can find evidence against it—"
"Then you can stop the war." Magneto finished.
"Now, what are you doin' here." Victor demanded.
Magneto's eyes hardened. "I'm here for revenge. One of Project Wideawake's machines killed a young mutant."
"A friend of yours?"
"Quite."
"So you wanna blow this place to smitherines?" Victor asked.
Magneto nodded.
"You wanna wait until we've got our evidence?"Logan asked.
Magneto barked out harsh laughter. "What do you think?" He asked as if the question was utterly ridiculous.
Victor growled and took half a step forward. Logan put his hand on his brother's shoulder and gave him a tiny shake of his head. Logan sighed and let his hand drop to his side. He seemed almost sad, his eyes shining with pain. But the determination was also there. Even if it killed him, Logan knew he would not fail Storm.
"We're tryin' to stop the War." He said, imploringly, "We'd be savin' countless lives."
"What do I care about that?" Magneto retorted.
Logan wanted to use force, but some instinctive part of his brain told him that now, it was not the way. "All that pain..." He muttered.
Magneto twitched his head to the side, unsure of what Logan was talking about. The old man's body was tense with mistrust.
"You want to see all that pain again?" Logan finally asked.
Victor gave his brother a sideways look and began to understand. "Yeah," He joined in, "You think that you won't lose anyone after this?"
Magneto snarled. "Shut up!" He demanded loudly.
"What yer doin' here is a waste of time." Logan continued.
"It sure as hell won't achieve anythin'." Victor added.
Magneto looked from Logan to Victor and then back again. They were so co-ordinated, so united, it seemed hardly possible. Victor hated Logan, hadn't he? Wasn't that why he had taken the man's dog tags all those years ago when Magneto had ordered the feral mutant to kidnap Rogue? Wasn't it supposed to be a trophy of some sort? So why had they changed? Why had Victor joined the X-men? Why were they so close, so companionable, so...similar? There were too many things that Magneto didn't know, and now wasn't the time for him to think about it. He wasn't thinking logically now. The cold, calculating demeanour he had always prided himself on was gone. All he could feel was pain, hurt, anger, sadness. It was consuming.
He hadn't even known the mutant very well. But he was a kid. A kid that for some reason had connected with him. It was the first time that he had felt the need to look after someone like that. It had been all ruined though, when 'They' had raided his hiding place. His powers had not come back to their fullest strength back then. He was powerless to stop them. So he had vowed revenge and he had found this place. He was going to blow it up.
But then he had met them; the two feral mutants that were hell bent on ruining his plans. The two men who were causing vast turmoil within himself.
"What do you want?" Magneto spit out eventually, sounding more upset than he would have liked.
"To see the big picture." They said simultaneously, in unison, as if their mind was one. What was worse, they didn't seem to find it strange. They stood in front of him, an almighty force, united by a single purpose.
It was Victor who broke away from the 'hive mind' and spoke on his own. "If you blow this place up, it ain't gonna change anythin'. In fact, it'll make it worse."
Logan picked up his brother's train of thought, "The forces against mutants will become more aggressive, more deadly."
"You'll lose everythin'." Victor said quietly.
"We'll become extinct." Logan told him.
Again, they spoke as one. "We need to end this now."
Their unity was unnerving, and despite knowing he was far superior to them, Magneto felt hopelessly outnumbered. It struck a deep chord of doubt within him. For the first time in years, Erik Lehnsherr felt hopelessly lost. He didn't want to play nice with the X-men; he didn't want to be tied down by them. But they were right; he wasn't doing anyone any good. There were still others that he cared about. Could he really protect them if things got worse? He had always thought that he could. But now... he wasn't so certain.
Very slowly, and with a great reluctance, Magneto nodded. "I'll wait." He said softly.
Victor's face split into a grin and Logan gave a relieved sigh, tension visibly leaving his shoulders.
"Good," Logan said, "That's good."
"C'mon," Victor said, "we don't have time to be wastin' hangin' around here."
--
It had taken almost an hour, but they had gotten there. There had been hoards of guards, all of them eager and willing to kill them. But with Logan's claws, Victor's nails and Magneto's metal manipulation, it had become infinitely easier. Once or twice, Logan suspected that Magneto had made him freeze up in the face of a machine or man so that he got caught with a few extra bullets or hits. Logan suspected this, but said nothing. If Magneto was indeed doing as he thought—and Logan was almost definite that he was—then it wasn't an attempt to kill him, rather a childish act of spite. Well, once it didn't put him in any real danger, then Logan wasn't going to be the one that destroyed their uneasy truce. They had managed to find a key card that opened all the electronic doors that had previously been a pain to get though. Not that they really needed it, with Magneto being able to send the metal barrier's flying, but it was better to leave their trail to an absolute minimum. That way, they would have more time to look through the place without being interrupted.
And they were sure grateful for that time now.
They took the time to shuffle rapidly through the various papers. Logan quickly gave up on that and went to the computer mainframe. He typed furiously, pulling documents and scanning through them.
"There's too much," He muttered. With a sigh he reached into his pocket and pulled out a USB stick. He put it into the compute and transferred as many files as he could into it. Not everything could fit, though, and Victor had the idea to bring the whole computer's storage unit back.
"You wanna carry it?" Logan asked.
Victor scoffed and discarded the paper he had been looking through. There was nothing of any interest.
The whole time, Magneto had leaned against the wall, watching the two men work. "You never did tell me why you joined the X-men, Sabertooth."
"It ain't a matter of X-men..." Victor muttered, removing the computer's storage unit and hoisting it onto his shoulder. "They just came with it."
Magneto was going to question what Victor meant by that when Logan turned. "Let's go." He said.
Magneto straightened. "No. Not until I blow this place up. We had a deal." He strode past Logan and stood at the computer. "There must be some way to activate a self-destruct." He mumbled.
Victor scoffed blatantly. "Yeah, sure, they're just gonna have a big red button..."
He trailed away as he saw it. It wasn't big or red, but under a slip of metal with the word "caution" printed on it. Supposedly, the only way to lift the metal would be with the key that fit into the keyhole beside it. However, Magneto was the mutant that was perfect for the job. He didn't even need to lift a finger before the slip went flying across the room. He pressed the button and with a flare of his cape, he turned and left the room.
"Twenty minutes to self destruct, all personnel evacuate immediately."
"It's time to get out of here." Victor said as he too left the room with the storage unit under his arm. With a sigh, Logan followed after him.
--
They had met up with Magneto and had fought their way out. There was no way to stop the self destruct, apparently, and most of the guards cared more about leaving than stopping them from leaving. It was only one or two of them that had actually bothered and those that had mostly just sent machines after them.
But they had escaped—barely. It was a mad dash to get out of the blast zone, one that left all of them panting and shaking from both exertion and adrenalin. They had barely turned around to see if they were far enough away when the whole stone monument erupted in a mushroom explosion. Even from their position far away, the force of the blast lifted them off their feet and sent them flying.
Magneto groaned as he pushed himself onto his feet.
"Well that's that." Victor muttered, watching the dust settle over the ruins of the Wideawake HQ. He picked up the storage unit and studied it for a moment. It didn't seem to be damaged. That was good.
"D'you wanna come along with us?" Logan asked Magneto.
Scoffing, Magneto turned down the offer. "I wouldn't waste my time." He told them, brushing himself off.
Logan was quiet for a moment. "Do you need a lift somewhere?" He asked.
Magneto barked out harsh laughter. "I don't need to be looked after, Logan."
Logan shrugged. "Suit yerself." He said. "C'mon Victor, it's time to go."
Victor nodded and they began to walk away.
"You never did tell me why you joined the X-men." Magneto called after Victor.
Victor turned. "Yeah," He said, "But I don't feel especially inclined to tell."
Logan and Victor walked away.
--
Hope you enjoyed this chapter.
