Thanks to those who reviewed and/or read, though I wished to get a few more reviews. *Hint hint*. Please R&R! Thanks!
Disclaimer: I don't own X-Men. If I did, Spirit would have been there the first time around. I only own Spirit and any other OCs that may appear.
I sat wearily against the jet seat in my human form (it didn't really work well for a wolfs' form), too tired to even make a full sentence. Shifting and fighting had taken a lot out of me. Rogue sat across from me, looking just as tired as I felt. We didn't speak, just basked in the reality that everyone was safe. I looked over at Logan's still form. Well, almost everyone. What worried me most about the burly mutant was that his wounds hadn't started healing yet. They should have been completely healed by now.
I gave a sigh and relaxed my head back against the headrest, rubbing the bridge of my nose, something I had seen Scott do often. I didn't really see how it helped, but it did help with the pounding in my head. Somewhat. Guess my healing power didn't work against life's headaches.
Apparently I fell asleep because the next thing I know, Scott is kneeling next to me and shaking my shoulder to wake me up. My eyes jerked open and I slashed out towards him, thinking that he was someone else at that moment where the mind is still half asleep and mistakes things for something else. He was lucky to backup as quickly as he did or he probably wouldn't have a nose. Female humans have surprisingly sharp nails. Probably to fight against males or something. Wouldn't surprise me if that was the case. Humans are just...weird.
Anyway, once I was fully awake and saw that it was Scott, I gave him a sheepish look.
"Sorry," I said softly, standing up. "Didn't know it you."
"It's alright, Spirit. Come on, we've landed," Scott told me and started off the jet, heading down the ramp and into the hangar. Logan, Rogue, and Jean had already left, heading towards the medical bay.
'If Scott even tries to get me to go into that torture chamber, I will bite his nose off,' I thought to myself. Besides, I felt fine. Sure, I was exhausted and aching all over, but I was still in one piece.
"I go to room," I told Scott, my English becoming mangled in my weariness. I was surprised that I hadn't yet started speaking in something besides English, something that I knew better. Like wolf. Or Latin.
I didn't even wait for Scott's reply, just slipping out of my human form and into my wolf form. I headed straight towards my room, not even bothered by the fact that I had yet to see the Professor nor had yet to hear about Logan's condition. I reared up onto my hind legs and opened the door with my jaws before heading inside, kicking the wooden door shut with my back leg. I went straight to the bed, ignoring that fact that I was still covered in dirt, grime, sweat, and blood, and leaped straight up onto the bed. I plopped right down onto my stomach and closed my eyes, falling instantly asleep.
()()()()()()
Someone was coming. I lifted my head from my tiny paws, ears flicked back. I wanted to be left alone. I wanted Mom and Dad and my littermates. I wanted to go home! But these people wouldn't know that. They just thought I was some stupid creature. I bared my tiny white fangs at the man that reached into my cage. Even though I was only a little older than a year old, I could still be dangerous. I lunged forward and nipped sharply on his fingers. He yelped, much like my littermates did, and drew his hand back.
"You little bitch!" he cried, wiping the small drops of blood from his hand before reaching in again. This time, he just grabbed whatever part of me he could, which happened to be my right hind leg, and dragged me out before switching his grip to my scruff. I fell limp in his grip, just as Mom had taught me to do when she picked me up. The man took me outside and my blue eyes widened. Water. Water everywhere. I whimpered and squirmed in his grasp, trying to get away. The man grabbed my muzzle and gave a low sound in his throat that sounded like a growl. I whined again and pinned my ears back.
"Don't worry, little one. We'll take good care of you," the man said, but I could smell the lie with ease. As the man turned to take me back inside, I saw the statue of a woman holding a torch in one hand and a book tucked under the other. The woman was a bronze color...
()()()()()()
I jerked awake, memories fresh in my mind. That's where I had seen the Statue of Liberty before! She hadn't been green the last time I'd seen her as a pup; she'd been bronze! I leapt out of the bed and quickly opened the door and slipped through, racing through the hallway. As I ran past a window, I saw just how early it was. The sun had barely risen, just beginning to streak the sky with a soft, gentle light. I ran flat out down the hall, following the scent that belonged to the Professor. Something seemed to get heavier in my gut when I realized that I was heading to the medical bay, and Jean's and Logan's scents both presented themselves as I progressed. I turned sharply and my paws lost their grip on the wooden floor. I gave a startled yelp and slammed into a door with a hollow thud. I shook myself off and scrambled back to my paws before taking off towards the elevator, coming to a sliding stop inside and hitting the button with my nose. As the doors shut, I saw a teenage boy poke his head sleepily out from his bedroom door, probably wondering who was mad enough to be banging on the door this early in the morning.
I shifted anxiously from foot to foot, sorry, paw to paw, as the elevator took me downstairs. When the elevator stopped and the doors began to slide open, I slipped through when I had enough room and bolted down the metal hallway. I burst into the medical bay, coming once again to a sliding stop.
'Professor! Profes-!'
My thoughts were cut off by Jean, who entered my mind sharply enough to make me yelp and cower against the floor, flashing the whites of my eyes in submission.
'I'm sorry, Spirit, I didn't mean to hurt you,' came the redhead's thoughts in my head. I gave a small nod of my head, showing that I forgave her.
'Is something wrong?' I asked before my eyes landed on Professor Xavier's still form, laying on one of the beds, his head covered with wires. A soft whine broke the silence and I slunk forward. 'What happened?'
"Mystique happened," Jean said softly, keeping her voice low. "She tainted Cerebro to poison his mind, putting him into a coma."
A low growl erupted from my throat at the blue mutant's name. Jean quieted me with a finger to her lips. She probably wanted the silence so both her patients could recover quickly.
'I guess I can talk with you then,' I thought to Jean and turned to walk from the medical bay. I could hear her soft footsteps behind me as I left, sitting down just outside of the door. Once we were away from the Professor and Logan, Jean raised her voice to normal speaking level.
"What's wrong Spirit? Are you hurt?" Jean asked, crouching so that she could see me eye to eye.
'I'm not hurt, just confused,' I told her, flicking my ears back slightly. 'What is the year?'
"2000, why? Spirit, what's going on?" Jean asked, noting my frustrated expression.
'Why is the Statue of Liberty green?' I asked her. 'Why isn't it bronze?'
"Because of oxidation to the metals," Jean explained, though I didn't really know what that meant. "How did you know the statue used to be bronze?"
'Because that was when I last saw it,' I told her. 'When it was bronze.'
Startling realization crossed Jean's face. "Spirit, how old are you?"
I looked down at my paws, sitting down on my haunches. 'I don't know,' I replied honestly.
"May I?" Jean asked, tapping her temple. I nodded, giving her my permission to enter my thoughts. Like what happened with the Professor, I felt a pressure in my head as Jean entered it.
I entered my own mind with her and closed my eyes, feeling myself relax. I showed Jean my dream first before allowing her to roam. A few memories resurfaced. Good memories from when I was younger; playing in the field with my parents and littermates, watching my first hunt, catching mice with my dad. Things like that.
Jean searched deeper and we were both brought into one of my memories...
()()()()()()
My younger self gave a high pitched whine, crying for help, as my muzzle was forced shut and something was shoved over it. I shook my head violently, trying to dislodge the object. It didn't budge. Men in old fashioned clothing and white lab coats were milling around, poking and prodding at me. Snippets of words and phrases reached my ears, but not much of it made sense.
"...experimental...save millions..."
"...weapon..."
"...mutated DNA...unbeatable...reach maturity..."
"...suspended animation...still experimental...do what must be done...greatest weapon ever..."
"...may take years...generations...worth the money?"
"Yes. Start the process."
Two of the stronger men picked me up and held me down on a table as the muzzle around my nose was removed and something else replaced it, almost encasing my entire face. There was a hissing sound and something foul smelling puffed into my face. My legs suddenly turned to jelly and no longer held my weight, causing me to collapse onto my stomach. My eyes started to close, everything becoming blurry.
"Sleep now, little one," crooned a voice, but I was already out.
()()()()()()
Jean jerked herself out of my mind, her breathing heavy. I fought the panic that was building in my chest at the old memory. I had forgotten about that one. And for a good reason, too.
I remembered how I had woken up and seen a different group of men in front of me. And when I say different, I mean different. The clothing the men wore was completely changed from what it had been at first. Though the lab coats had been the same. The scars that I had found on myself weren't. Neither was the fact that I was twice the size I had been before they put me under.
"Spirit, why didn't you tell anyone about this?" Jean asked, having regained her breath.
'Because it didn't seem important until now,' I replied flatly.
"Spirit...do you understand what this means?" Jean asked carefully.
'Not really know. I was only a pup and I barely understood what it meant then, much less what it means now,' I told her. 'I remember waking up covered in scars and I was put in...something like a car, but bigger and bulkier. I was driven around for a long time and then, beofre I knew it, I found myself in a different cage and they kept running all these tests. Day after day, month after month. They kept testing my blood and bone marrow and kept saying that I needed to change. Years of work shouldn't go down the toilet like this. Too much money had been spent on me. I finally escaped and you know what happens next.'
Jean listened to me in silence. The silence was still there even after I had finished. Minutes passed before she finally spoke. "Spirit, the Statue of Liberty was brought here in 1885. And judging from what I saw from your memory, those men wore clothes from the 1880's. Do you know what suspended animation is?"
Already I was shaking my head before she even finished the sentence, startled by what she had to be saying.
"Suspended animation is when the body is...preserved, for lack of a better term. Kind of like hibernation. To me, it sounds like you were put in this suspended animation state. For over a hundred years," Jean said cautiously, not sure on how I would react.
That definitely caught my attention. And I definitely reacted.