Edit 3/16/15
GREER! "GREER!" Jean kept shouting the name of her best friend with her voice and mind as she and the rest of the X-Men searched the compound that had taken Jean and the Professor weeks to find. Greer had been missing for five weeks...Jean just hoped that it hadn't taken too long...
"GREER!" Jean was with Kitty, running throughout the exterior of the compound as the world exploded around them.
When the team had landed on the frozen tundra a few hundred yards from the compound, Kurt had broken off to begin a sweep of the many rooms within the compound along with Dr. McCoy. Scott and Rogue headed to the north section of the compound. She and Kitty had headed straight for the outer ring of warehouses. Amara and Bobby had taken the search through the south of the compound. The Professor himself was running point from the X-Jet, keeping everyone linked and informed of the search.
It had been Scott that had shouted the first warning, having been the first team to actually enter the base. But a shout was all anyone got before rigged explosives began erupting all around the base.
Jean and the Professor had assumed that the lack of their ability to sense anyone at the base had been a sophisticated psychic block. What they did not expect was for the base to be basically empty aside from some guards at the perimeters. All just a ruse to get them to enter the compound. Now, as Jean and Kitty made their way around the compound's exterior, seeing large portions of the compound erupt, she was desperately trying to get a sense, any sense, of where Greer or Logan was.
"GREER!" Jean shouted again.
"Jean! We gotta get out of here! The Professor told us to head back to the jet. It's not safe out here!" Kitty was doing her best to convince Jean to return to the X-Jet but knew that Jean was not hearing her. There was no way Jean was going to be going anywhere until she found Greer and Logan.
"Jean please! We're not going to be any good to Greer or Logan if we die here!" Kitty whipped Jean around and grabbed her shoulders, both women's hair blowing in the combination of wind and explosions, trying to force Jean to take in her words. But Jeans eyes were shifting in a panic. Where are they? LOGAN! GREER!
"JEAN!" Kitty shook Jean as a warehouse behind them exploded.
"I - I'm sorry Kitty. I just - I cant believe that we were too late. That I was too - " jean...Jean stopped mid-sentence, a far look in her eye and turned her head to the woods.
"Greer?" And Jean broke from Kitty and started racing towards the woods hoping she could finally be there in time.
...
It hadn't taken long for Greer to pick up the trail to Apex and Logan. Of course, it wouldn't take anyone that long to find them considering the amount of damage they were doing to the surrounding forest.
The closer Greer got, the more devastation she saw.
Trees slashed entirely in half. Chunks of earth torn up. Greer just hoped Apex and Logan had done more damage to their surroundings than to each other.
Crashing through the underbrush of the forest, Greer felt like she was witnessing something from her nightmares as she finally found them amongst the tall, snow covered pines. Apex and Logan looked like they were two animals fighting to the death. Roars, gnashing teeth, claws slashing into skin and adamantium shards clashing with adamantium bone.
'And here I am to get in the middle of it.'
Again and again Greer attempted to separate the two but all she achieved was getting slashed and what she assumed were two cracked ribs.
'I'm not strong enough. At this rate they're going to kill each other. THINK Greer. What can you do? What...can I...'
Greer closed her eyes, knowing what she needed to do. Greer took a deep breath to center herself, taking in the two before her, their feral instincts driving one to kill the other. 'I am not what they made me to be. WE are not what they made us to be.'
Looking for that part of herself, Greer strained to retain her focus as her vision began to tinge red. 'I am in control. I am causing this. I am in control.' Greer's eyes turned red, her body tense, her breathing erratic. 'Threats! Enemies! Kill them! Ki-' Greer struggled to reassert herself. 'I am in control. I - I am in control...' Greer opened her eyes, remaining red, but her breathing slowed, her body once again under her own control.
Greer jumped into the fray and dodging under their attacks, Greer was able to shuffle kick Apex into a tree, causing it to splinter, giving her the moment she needed to focus on Logan.
"LOGAN! Logan it's Greer! I need you to remember! Logan!" But try as Tigra might she couldn't see any of her mentor in the rabid Wolverine.
Greer's eye shot wide as a hand closed around her throat. Ripping her around, Greer's red eyes locked with glowing white ones, just before being slammed into the same tree Greer had thrown Apex. Except this time, the tree did not survive the impact.
"Owww...", Greer opened her eyes and saw that the two of them were back at it, blood beginning to cover the white ground.
Scrambling back to her feet, Greer again inserted herself between them, screaming for them to stop as she also did her best to not get impaled. greer...
"Jean?" JEEEAAAAN! Greer mentally shouted as loud as she could. Almost breaking into tears as she heard Jean's reply in her head. She ducked down and Apex and Logan resumed their clash. Jean hurry! It's Logan! Weapon X - **GAAAAH**
Greer had been thrown with such force that when she landed she swore the ground around her shook. Looking up, she saw that damn smile.
"Sorry Kitten. But I need you to stay put. Only one person is allowed to kill Wolverine and that's me. But if you stick around...I'll come back and give you what I promised. So if you dont mind..." Pulling out a trigger, Greer saw Apex collapse to the ground mid-swing as a huge electrical surge hit him.
"NOOO!" Greer lunged, her eyes again turning red, and her speed seemed to shock Sabertooth as she tackled him to the ground, the trigger falling from his hand. Out of the corner of her eye, Greer saw Wolverine attempting to decapitate a still downed Apex who struggled to stop him.
"You stupid, furry, little bitch! Fine, you die first." Tossing Greer over his head, Sabertooth proceeded to do his best to disembowel Greer. She was faster, but even feral, Greer couldn't match Sabertooth's ferocity. Greer's every lunge swipe of her claws was matched by Creed and soon Greer was losing.
Hearing the struggle going on behind her between Apex and Logan, Greer had to think fast. Rolling so that the two were behind her, she waited for Sabertooth's next wild attack. As he got close, Greer dropped and used a trip, Sabertooth's own momentum now his enemy, and saw him crash in Logan.
Sabertooth was slow to get up, Apex was on the ground bleeding from Wolverine's attempts at removing his head, and Logan had been knocked out of the clearing from the force of impact with Sabertooth.
'Sorry Logan. Just try to remember I am trying to save everyone's life here.'
As Sabertooth groggily returned to his feet, Greer made a move to slash his throat, but too late Greer saw that Creed had been ready for her and he was able to duck under her lunge and land an uppercut to the gut that had Greer on her knees just trying to breath.
Jean and Kitty were rushing through the forest, Kitty getting enough out of Jean to understand what Jean had heard. Beast and Kurt soon joined them, with Scott and Bobby not far behind. Rogue and Amara had already made it back to the X-Jet.
'Just hang on Greer. Just hang on...' But the party came up short as what sounded like a cannonball was hurtling at them. Jumping on top of Jean, the two went incorporeal just in time as Logan came hurtling above them and crashed into a rock outcropping with a thud.
"Logan!" Kitty was up first and rushed to Logan's side. But as Jean reached out to his mind, she sensed something was off.
"Kitty wait!" But before Kitty could react, Logan thrust his claws into Kitty's gut. Kitty let out a scream of pain, as adamantium was one of the few things she had difficulty phasing through, and fell to her side. Now rushing at Jean, Logan was tossed into the air and slammed as Jean did her best to keep the thrashing and howling Logan contained.
"Jean! We got this, the Professor is on his way! Find Greer!" Beast had dropped from the canopy onto Logan's back, using his superior strength and agility to keep the howling Logan pinned. Dropping her hands, Jean flew off back into the forest, the sounds of another struggle just out of sight.
'Greer!'
...
"Not...not bad Kitten. Couple more months with us and...and you might have actually been worth something." Creed was out of breath, but obviously pleased to see Greer recovering from his crushing blow to her diaphragm. Takes some time to regrow lung tissue.
"Go...to...hell." Greer spit up some blood for her effort.
"You first." Sabertooth was about to slash down on Greer when a large, black, furred hand caught his wrist. Greer followed the hand to the glowing eyes of Apex that were now fixed squarely on Sabertooth. Leaning in closer, Creed and Apex were now almost muzzle to mouth, growling at each other, just waiting for the other to make a move. Greer rolled to her left as Apex and Sabertooth proceeded to slice into each other and crash through the forest.
"Apex!" Greer was about to chase after them when she sensed something searching for her. GREER!
"Jean!" Crashing through the forest, Jean ran to embrace Greer but came up short when she caught sight of her eyes. Her hands covered in blood, numerous cuts still healing, eyes glowing red, Jean was not sure she recognized her friend. Greer could smell the fear coming off of her.
"Greer?" Jean had raised her hands up and was slowly backing away back towards the rest of the X-Men. Greer took a step towards Jean but this only caused Jean to backpedal faster. "Greer, your...your eyes!" Jean said, fearing that she was too late and that Weapon X had done something to her friend.
Taking a deep breath, Greer trembled as she focused to put her feral side back in its place, and finally met Jean's eyes with her green ones. Jean dropped her hands and immediately ran over and ignoring the blood embraced Greer.
"Greer! Oh thank god! C'mon we gotta get out of here." Jean said, pulling on Greer's hand. But Greer resisted. Jean turned back around assuming she knew what Greer's hesitation was, "Don't worry. We were able to get Logan to the Professor. He said that it'll take some time but that Logan should be fine. Now come on..."
"No, we need to go help Apex." Greer tried to explain. But at that moment, Apex came into view, bleeding and eyes still glowing and everything seemed to move in slow motion for Greer.
Jean turned and saw Apex, fear and anger on her face as she recognized the one responsible for causing all of this damage. Greer could tell that Jean was attempting to psychically engage with Apex as he grabbed his head and actually took a few steps back, before dropping to all fours.
"Jean stop! You don't -!" Greer's voice failed her as Apex let loose a roar that had both girls gripping their own heads in return, stopping Jean's assault as she lost focus.
"JEAN! X-Men, bring it down!" Greer was barely able to hear Scott as he, Bobby and Kitty ran at Apex.
"No!" But it was too late. Apex dodged the first barrage of attacks and soon X-Men were fighting for their lives as Apex did what he did best.
He's going to kill someone! I need to stop this. Greer raced over to Kitty who had been able to phase through a tree she had been tossed at.
"Kitty! We need to get his collar off." Greer had Kitty by the shoulders, trying to get her to focus as the battle raged on behind them.
"Are you kidding me? We need Scott to blast this guy! Or better yet, you go get him!" Kitty was obviously not a fan of the close quarters lethal combat taking place.
"Listen to me! Tell Bobby to freeze the collar. I'll distract him and you phase the collar. Just toss it away once its off." Greer's intensity got through to Kitty.
"Gaaah, fine alright. Jeeze I hate being an X-Man sometimes." Kitty ran off to tell Scott and Bobby the plan.
"Apex!" Greer roared, eyes turning red, and Apex dropped a struggling Scott. 'That's right. I'm the biggest threat here. Come and get me, forget them.'
Greer was just fast enough now to dodge Apex's lethal attacks. Seeing Bobby in position, Greer rolled under a spinning elbow shard. She could feel the air above her chill as Bobby's ice blast his Apex right in the throat, dropping him to a knee, his breath gone. Scott blasted him in the back, causing Apex to turn in his direction, then Jean tossed a downed log, causing him to turn again, giving Kitty her chance to appear from the ground and in one motion phase through Apex, collar in hand. Quickly tossing it, the freeze giving enough of a delay, it exploded in the air above, causing everyone to dive for cover.
Greer clambered to her feet first, relieved to see everyone else moaning from a mix of the bruises and slashes Apex had given them and the recent blast. Everyone that is but the still Apex.
Rushing over, Greer attempted to roll him over to see if he was hurt but instead saw a flash of white as he gripped Greer by the throat, rising to his feet and raising Greer to keep from suffocating by balancing on her toes.
"GREER!" Scott yelled, hands going to his visor, ready to blast Apex. But Greer reached up her hand to stop him, then placing both of her hands on the one at her throat.
"Apex...I- It's Tigra. It's Greer." Greer saw no recognition as his grip tightened.
'Ap - Apex...Who are you?" Greer could see his brow furrowed over his white eyes, drawing her closer.
"Co - Colton. I know who you are." Greer was slowly lowered to the ground as Apex's eyes returned to their amber color. Letting go of Greer, he reached up and felt for the collar that was no longer there and looked up to see the group of mutants surrounding him and Greer. He quickly placed a hand on Greer's hip and pushed her behind him, his other hand raised, ready to protect her.
"No, Apex. It's alright. They wont hurt you." Greer said quietly to Apex, but loud enough to ensure that the rest of the team heard.
"We wont?" She heard Bobby whisper to Scott. Apex growled in response. Greer quickly moved herself in front of Apex.
"Apex it's over. You're safe. We can go home." Greer placed her hand on his shoulder. The rest of the X-Men shared a look of disbelief, but Jean was running through Greer's mind as she silently explained everything that had gone on over the past few weeks.
Bring them both back to the jet. It's time we left this horrid place. Professor X intoned into their minds. Grabbing Apex by the arm, she did her best to ignore the wide berth and wary looks everyone else gave them as they headed back to the X-Jet. Greer was just ready to go home.
Looking at Greer almost in disbelief, as she led him to the X-Jet, he kept muttering, "Colton. You called me...Colton." Greer looked up at Apex, his eyes downcast as if he could not quite process what was happening. "We are not who they made us to be." And with that, they walked onto the Jet and never looked back.
Miles away, Admiral Stryker sat in the bay of a helicopter, watching the Compound's glow as it's explosions lit up the night sky.
"Sir, what do we do now?" A solider asked into his mic.
Looking at a large canister filled with a green liquid strapped into the hold, Stryker almost lovingly caressed the glass. The faint outline of a girl could just be seen.
"Tell HQ to prepare for incoming. Tell them to prep the chamber. Weapon 23 is on its way."
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