Passion of Death
Chapter 5
by
Lornadane
Disclaimer: All X-men and X-villians are Marvel's characters. Please don't sue me. This was just fun to write. Aerin is my character.
Notes: If you're offended by this material I apologize. I don't condone non-consensual sex, this just fit into the story. It's pure fantasy and would not wish it to happen to anyone in reality.
The man called Wolverine, Logan to his closest friends, stood a little apart from his teammates. Apocalypse was dead, his fortress in ruin, and his priests and skrull allies scattered. The X-men and their allies the only ones left to survey the rubble. Logan felt an eerie coldness as he looked on the place that had been his "home" for several months, under the control of Apocalypse. His memories of that time were still jumbled. Some of them gone. He looked over at Cyclops talking quietly to Jean Grey and Nate Grey. They were discussing the future of Nate's membership on the team, trying to convince him to join their cause. Logan felt it was fruitless. The kid had his own life to lead. He was independent. He couldn't work with a team.
A little way over Charles Xavier, having lost his wheelchair in the events, was being held by Piotr Rasputin as he spoke with Magneto, an old enemy and even older friend. Logan knew he was trying to persuade the white headed mutant to see reason. To use his newly acquired island of Genosha for the good of mutantkind. To work with the X-men and bring humans and mutants together in peace. Magneto was scowling. Again a fruitless effort thought Logan.
He turned to see Kitty, Rogue and Gambit over by the Blackbird. Rogue was holding Gambit under the arm. He had sustained some broken ribs in the melee. Rogue looked impatient to be going. Gambit needed medical attention. Kitty sat on the steps, nursing her foot. She hadn't quite recovered from the injury Wolverine had given her in the Morlock Tunnels. She shouldn't have come, he thought.
Suddenly a draft of wind blew past him ruffling his hair. A scent on the wind snapped an image into his head. He stood up straighter looking over the piles of rock and debris and sniffed. A vision assaulted him and he was soon picking his way cautiously over the rocky unstable terrain. Within moments the scent grew stronger. He came upon an opening in the rubble and looked down. A hallway ran toward the left and right. The left was blocked, but the right continued into the darkness. The scent came from that way. An urgency came upon him and he dropped lightly into the shaft.
Jean Grey looked around as Jubilee touched her arm. Her face was full of concern. "You seen Wolvie?" she asked. Jean shook her head and then looked over to where Logan had been standing moments before. That was odd. She reached out gently with her mind exploring the ruins. Then she had him. He was furiously clawing and pulling at a pile of rubble.
"Logan" she asked in his mind.
"Jeannie." he responded out loud. "I need Piotr, now. We've got to get her out of there." Jean nodded, sensing the girl's presence. It was weak, tenuous, her life seemed to be slipping away as they spoke. She called to Piotr with her mind explaining the situation with a quick mental picture. Piotr responded placing Xavier down gently onto a pile of rocks. "Yes, go." Jean heard the professor say.
Guided by Jean, Piotr, Cyclops, and Jubilee made their way to Logan. "We must be quick." said Jean. "This hallway is more stable than the rest but it could go at any moment. I'll shield us with a telekinetic bubble if the roof falls in." Logan grunted as Piotr, converting to his metal form, began forcing large slabs of concrete out of the way. Within minutes a metal door was uncovered.
"Move out of the way and I'll blast it down." Said Cyclops getting into position and reaching for his visor.
"No!" shouted Wolverine. "You'll drop it down on her. The room's to small." With that he popped his claws and ran them into the door, hacking and slashing until he had a made a small opening. Then he crawled in to look for the girl. There was little light, but his heightened senses picked her out of the darkness. Part of the roof had fallen in, crushing the bed. She, however had managed to get to the floor as large pieces of the ceiling had crashed down around her. Miraculously she hadn't been hit. He pushed a boulder in front of him with all his might forcing it a little to the side and saw her. His heart turned over in his chest as he realized she was still alive. She was curled up in ball, unconscious. Her breath was shallow and labored, but she was breathing. He reached a hand in feeling her pulse. It was weak and thready. Memory assailed him as he remembered his last night with her. That had been two days ago. He could tell from her scent that she was dying from a lack of water. Quickly he grabbed her shoulders roughly and dragged her out. Pulling her into his arms he undid the collar around her neck and threw it violently further down into the darkness. The others watched him intently until Jean Grey asked, "Logan, who is she? Why was she..." Jean stopped in mid sentence when Logan looked up at her, images flooding into her mind, which she couldn't prevent. Images of fighting and brutality, and rape. She put her hand to her mouth, her eyes wide with disbelief. Logan's image was at the center of the torture she was witnessing. She turned to Scott and buried her head on his shoulder. Puzzled he hugged her to him. "What is it?" he asked quietly. "Don't ask me, Scott. Not now." Jean breathed. Logan couldn't prevent his thoughts and memories from Jean's telepathy. They had been too strong, too hateful and overpowering. A wave of remorse and sadness went through him. How could he explain what he had done to this girl? How could he possibly justify his actions? He'd been willing enough. Intoxicated by her beauty and spirit. He forced his thoughts back into the present.
"Jeannie, I've done a terrible thing." he said, lifting the girl into his arms. "But she needs our help now. My healing factor can keep her alive for awhile. I don't know how long. She needs water. Soon. She's been down here two days without it." He turned toward the opening in the ceiling, leaving the others to watch his back wondering what terrible thing their friend had done and why he thought his healing factor could save her. Then each of them quickly followed him down the ruined hallway. Jean recovering from the mental assault lifted them each telekinetically up to the surface. Logan, refusing to let go of the girl, forced Jean to lift them both with some effort.
Back at the Blackbird the others watched curiously as Logan took the girl onboard. She still had not awoken. He said nothing, only taking her to the back of the plane. He sat down with her in the last three seats, lifting the arms to allow her room to lie down, her head resting in his lap. Jubilee went to sit across from him, staring at him in pain, anger and a twinge of jealousy. She wondered whom this girl was for Logan to be so concerned and haunted. He would not meet her gaze and finally she sat back in a huff. "Fine." she thought, "he wants to be all sad and pathetic, wha'do I care?" Sullen, she became uncharacteristically quiet.
The other X-men took their seats, occasionally darting glances back at their friend. Then they would meet each other's glance in curiosity and concern. Logan never took his eyes off the girl, only sat stroking her hair, whispering to her, "Hold on, girl, hold on." Only Jean and Xavier understood the significance of Logan's action, reading in every stroke his guilt. Jean sat tight-lipped up front with Cyclops as he guided the plane back to the mansion. He tried to give her her space. She seemed not to want to talk. But their psychic bond made it hard to tune out her anger. Finally he spoke. "What happened here, Jean? I can't help but feel your anger."
There was a long pause and he wondered if he had pushed too far. Married to a telepath, he knew that pushing one too far could cause a lot of trouble. "I...Scott...I can't..." Jean answered at last, gritting her teeth.
"It's alright, babe. If you can't talk about it now..." Scott began attempting to calm her fury.
"He beat her, Scott. He beat her and then he raped her!" she hissed vehemently. Scott's jaw dropped and he glanced around to the back of the plane. Eyes looked toward him at his swift action. He turned back around, glancing at Jean to see her starring with violent concentration out the window. "Apocalypse..." he started to whisper.
"Of course Apocalypse ordered him!" she spat back reading his thoughts. "It doesn't make it right! It doesn't justify what he did! I read his thoughts. When he looked at me his Death conditioning came to the surface. He enjoyed what he did!" She pounded a fist on the console. Several of her teammates looked up at her in concern.
"Jean." he spoke soothingly. "Jean, he wasn't the Wolverine we knew. Cable told us what he said to him, how he felt Apocalypse had shown him his true nature. That of a killer. But it's not him. He has his demons, but he wouldn't have done this unless he had been conditioned to." He stopped, amazed that he of all people were defending Logan. He'd always said the man was psycho. He'd argued with Xavier time and time again about Logan's place on the team. But over the years he'd come to respect the man. Logan had saved his life on several occasions. He couldn't deny the goodness in the man, inspite of what Jean had revealed. He looked again at Wolverine. The man's eyes remained down toward the girl, but Scott could sense they were haunted. He turned back to his wife. The woman he loved had been one of Logan's staunch defenders. There had been a strong connection between the two mutants that had been a source of jealousy in Scott for sometime. But now she was viciously speaking, "I don't know if I can be around him. Be on the same team as him. He's lost his soul, Scott. I don't think he'll ever get it back. After what he's done I can't bare to look at him."
Tears well in her eyes. She felt betrayed and bitter by the man she had called a friend. She knew Scott couldn't really comprehend. Yes, she felt Logan's remorse. But she had seen his thoughts and the darkness that was still there swimming just below the surface. A man who had wanted to control, to break that girl to his will. It was too much. "When we get back to the mansion, I just want to wrap things up with Xavier and then get back to Alaska." Scott nodded. It would take time for her to forgive. He wouldn't push her. They had wanted to take time off from the team anyway. This was as good an excuse as any. Xavier would understand.
The man Scott was thinking about, Professor Charles Xavier, was seated just behind him next to Storm frowning out the window. Also a telepath, he couldn't help but feel the bitterness in Jean's thoughts. He himself felt the betrayal of one of his students sharply. He knew what demons swam in Logan's psyche, and he wondered whether he had made a grave error long ago, letting Wolverine join the X-men. He was violent to be sure. Had a temper to match and had fought long and hard trying to hold on to his humanity. In his long, dark mysterious history, Xavier had no doubt the man had killed. Just recently, as Death, he had killed the skrull posing as him who had infiltrated the team. And he had tried to take the life of several of his teammates. People he had called friends. What would his friends say now, if they knew the truth? he wondered. What did he have to say, knowing the truth? Xavier wasn't sure. He knew the goodness in the man, his nobility. Logan would have given his life for his friends. But that was before. Then he would have attacked only men with a just cause. He had been protective of the women in his life, of women in general. He was prone to violence perhaps but not rape. Kitty and Jubilee looked up to him as a father figure. Xavier scowled back out the window and wondered just what he would do. A hand touched his and he turned to Storm.
"Is it that bad, Charles?" she inquired hesitantly, bringing to form the unspoken words of her teammates.
"It maybe, Ororo. It may just be." He turned back to the window not wishing to speak anymore. Storm left him to his silence. Like the others, she was curious about the girl and her relationship to Logan. She wondered at what terrible thing he could have done. She had heard the viciousness in Jean's voice, if not the actual content. She rested her head back on her seat. All things would come to light, and as with Gambit, they would each in their own turn judge Logan. And they would forgive him. Of this she was certain. Families always had way of forgiving each other, no matter how frightening their actions had been. She knew the man. She had trusted him with her life. She would not allow one terrible misstep on his part erase all the love she had for him as a friend and ally.
There was little talking on the craft the rest of the way home. A few whispers of concern were exchanged between Rogue and Gambit. He was resting as comfortably as possible given his injuries. Aerin's breathing had become a little more labored as the ride went on, but she seemed to be surviving.
As they touched down, everyone allowed Logan to get to the entrance of the plane first. No one missed the fact that he was careful not to let the girl touch any of them, and they wondered at his actions until Beast, catching up with him said, "Let me look at her, Logan. I'd like to get an idea of any further injuries before we get to the medlab."
Logan pulled her away from Hank quickly before his hand reached her shoulder. "No. Moira needs to look after her. She absorbs mutant powers permanently. It's why she has my healing factor." Hank nodded in understanding, leaving Logan to increase his pace to the medlab. Rogue followed in shortly behind carrying Gambit. Nightcrawler teleported Kitty in soon after. Moira motioned Logan to the first bed in the lab. He laid the girl down gently and Moira went to work. She searched for a vein in the girl's arm, meticulously looking up and down the length. Trying for an antecubital vein, she was unsuccessful accessing it on either arm. "Ach," she said in frustration, "she's to dehydrated to find a peripheral. I'll have to go with the external jugular". She lowered the head of the bed and found the engorged vein, hitting it the first time. Logan watched quietly, scowling. More torture for the poor girl. After two liters of fluid, though, the healing factor coursing through her DNA began its miraculous work. Her color returned, her heart rate slowed, and her blood pressure began to rise to a normal level. She was recovering. But still she did not wake.
"I'm na' sure." Moira said, answering Logan's question. "She should have regained consciousness by now. You would ha'. Perhaps the trauma to her system was too much. Her vitals are stable. We'll ha' to give her more time."
Logan sat by her bed for a full twenty-four hours before exhaustion began to wear him thin and Hank suggested he get some rest. He hadn't slept in days. She was stable, he assured him. She would rise soon enough. There had been no neurological damage that he or Moira could ascertain. She'd be up and about in no time. "You need to rest yourself. She may need you later when she's awake." he said in sympathy. "We'll watch over her now." "Fine." Wolverine agreed, not really wanting to leave, but knowing Hank would throw him out bodily if he didn't. He'd been getting on Hank and Moira's nerves sitting there stone silent beside the girl. And he knew their curiosity was getting the better of them. They'd soon be asking questions he wasn't prepared to answer. "I'll be back in a few hours." He stalked out of the room, trying to avoid the others as he made his way to his room. Unfortunately, on his way to the stairs he passed Jean coming in the front door. She stopped abruptly when she saw him unable to keep the disgust out of her eyes.
"Jean..." he began.
"Save It." she interrupted him and moved passed him towards the kitchen. He watched her go, wanting to run after her, wanting to justify what he'd done. But he knew he couldn't say anything that would make it all right in her eyes. She had seen his thoughts. And right now she hated him for what he had done. She couldn't trust him anymore and it broke his heart. Of all people. "Jean." he whispered. "I'm sorry." Sadly he climbed the stairs to his room. He'd catch a few hours shut eye and then head back down to the medlab. But it would be sometime before he woke.
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