Shrike laughed,blood oozing from the corner of his mouth,and his eyes were completely vacant.If there had ever been a human being behind them,they were long since gone,and Logan felt a sort of sick pity for the poor bastard;they had washed his brain so thoroughly he was little more than robot."Not long enough.But those who won't embrace their destiny deserve to die."

"I don't have a destiny you fucked up freak,"he snarled,and finally asked him what he needed to know."Did you take my memories,Shrike?Did you erase them?"

Shrike giggled again,a picture of madness so vivid Logan felt suddenly shamed to be manhandling such a helpless,pathetic creature."I didn't need to-they already had."

Logan felt cold inside,as if his blood had become ice,and maybe it had.Bugfuck nuts or not,he believed him.They had screwed with his mind long before Shrike had come along,and he wondered what they had done with Shrike to make him this way.

"Aren't you going to kill me?"Shrike asked,strangely gleeful.

Logan glared at him."Is that a request?"

"It's what you do,Wolverine.You're a killing machine."

Logan was so angry he wanted to smash his head through the command console,crack his skull open and see if there were any brains left inside his head...

He stopped,horrified at his own train of thought.He was not a machine;he could not be programmed.They may have fucked with his head,but he was not their puppet.He was Logan-and he served no one.He threw Shrike down violently and stormed out of the control room,Shrike shrieking with laughter as he shouted after him,"You can't fight it,Wolverine-you're a killer!You were made to kill-it's your destiny!They made us what we are!"

Logan heard gunshots,and broke into a run,Shrike's howl of madness fading away into the cacophony like it was born to it.

The lights went off,chaos ensued,and then the lights came on again and the chaos seemed to die down.Now the lights had just gone off again,and it was eeriely quiet,but she was waiting for...something."Come on,Logan,"she hissed under her breath,arms wrapped around herself as she sat on the edge of her cot in the dark."I'm right here.You said you could find me.Prove it already."

She thought she heard a noise outside her cell,voices,and she stood up,facing the darkened door."Logan?"She asked tentatively,as tiny filaments of electric blue suddenly snaked around and through the metal door,tiny arcs of lightning,and she heard a loud metallic clank as the lock suddenly released.The door swung open on its hinges,and she saw the slim,weaselly figure of Bertram with a brunette woman beside him,making her heart sink...until she noticed the tall man standing behind them.

"Cordy,are you all right?"Angel asked,sounding concerned.

She was so relieved she felt like hugging him,but Bertram was in the way,so she didn't.

"What do you think?"She snapped irritably."I love being caged up like a rat.Can we get out of here already?"

"Sounds like a plan,"Angel agreed,as she gave Bertram a dirty look.She wanted to ask Angel or the gun toting Wesley who the woman and the large,muscular guy with them were-she figured they were good guys since Wesley wasn't aiming his gun at them-but suddenly the hall was crowded with other people emerging from their unlocked cells.There were maybe ten others,and in the darkness they appeared normal-but who didn't?

Suddenly,a weird alarm sounded,a loud whooping sound different than the one she heard before,and Bertram exclaimed,"Shit!" before grabbing her around the neck and holding a knife to her throat.She was afraid to swallow as she felt the cold,sharp steel pressed against her skin.

Wesley raised his rifle,and the strange woman raised her hand,but Bertram snapped,"Don't even think about it,Electra.If you don't do what I say,the bitch loses her head.Clear?"

A scowling Angel took a step forward,but he swung her in his direction,tightening his grip,but apparently it had been a distraction,as the dark,muscular guy reached out and grabbed Bertram by the neck.He did nothing else,but Bertram's grip went slack and she quickly slipped away as Bertram continued making weird little choking noises,frozen like a statue,his eyes bulging outward and looking almost neon white in the dimly lit corridor."Actually,I need some clarification,"Muscle Guy deadpanned,then let go.The weasley little man fell to the floor like a rag doll,beyond all muscle control,although he made several of those strange,gasping fish out of water noises before growing as silent as he was still.What the hell had he done,give him some sort of demon version of the Vulcan nerve pinch?

"Are you okay?"The woman asked her,and before Cordy could even ask her who the hell she was,Muscle Guy shouted,"Company!"

Wesley shot at some soldiers rounding the corridor off to their left as they plastered themselves to the wall.He missed,but he made them duck back around the corner,while the woman raised her hands and a bolt of blue lightning seemed to shoot from her palms,nailing a group of commandos as they came around from the other side,sending them collapsing to the floor with blue sparks crawling along the barrels of their rifles.Unless she was some kind of weird energy shooting demon,Cordelia figured she was a friend of Logan's.Did he have friends,exactly?But it was still a good bet she wasn't a regular human.

Before Wesley or the woman could take another shot at the soldiers,other mutant captives who were closer suddenly beseiged them,and after an extremely brief flurry of gunfight,shouting,and some rather painful sounds of fists pounding flesh,there was nothing but silence.

She tapped Angel on the shoulder-he'd hit the wall in front of her,in what she assumed to be some sort of protective stance(to act as a human shield for any bullets that may have come her way-she really appreciated the sentiment,if not the pessimism inherent in the thought)-and told him flat out,"I want to get out of Stalag Thirteen now."

"We're working on it,"he claimed,exasperated,as another soldier went flying,yelling until he hit the wall and then bounced down hard to the floor,pinning his rifle beneath him.A figure came around the corner,making Wesley raise his rifle,but Muscle Guy grabbed the barrel,and shouted down the corridor,"Fucking took your time!Got Shrike?"

It was the sillhouette of the hair that gave the shadow away as Logan.She couldn't help but smile to herself.She told them he'd kick their asses.

"There's no time for that,"Logan said gruffly(like he could say something any other way)."We have to get the hell out of Dodge now;this place is gonna blow!"

All the freed mutants around them were gone so fast it was like they were never there at all."Come on!"Logan added needlessly,leading the sprint down the hall.

They moved after him in a pack,like some large and ungainly animal,with Wesley deliberately taking up a stance at the rear,mostly backing down the corridor with his rifle out,as if a soldier covering a squadron's retreat.What,did he think he was the hero of an action movie now?Maybe all the machismo Angel,Logan,and Muscle Guy were oozing had rubbed off on him,or he felt like such a weenie he had to join in and pretend he could do it too.

"You've set it to blow?"Muscle Guy shouted to Logan,who occasionally paused to deck a soldier and turn his rifle into Shredded Wheat.

"It ain't my fault!"Logan claimed,annoyed,as he smashed a commando head first into the wall. "Shrike is a nutjob,and he set it off before I could stop him."

"Where is Shrike?"Angel asked,although something in the tone of his voice suggested he already had an idea.

It was then she noticed,out of the corner of her eye,Wesley turn around to face front.There was a strangely blank look on his face,all the tension she spied earlier gone,and he quickly took aim with his rifle and fired,shooting Logan in the back.

The force of the blast threw Logan forward,dropping him to his knees on the floor,and Angel grabbed the rifle and yanked it out of Wesley's hands before he could fire again.Cordelia slapped Wes as hard as she could across the face."What the hell's wrong with you?!"She snapped as he staggered,and Angel thrust the gun into Muscle Guy's hands and went to help Logan.He was making a strange gasping noise as he collapsed on his side,they heard someone laughing even over the scream of the sirens.

Wesley blinked rapidly,as if he'd just woken up,and grabbed his face."Ow!Why'd you hit me?"Only then did he look at his hands curiously,as if wondering where his rifle had gone.Noticing Muscle Guy had it,and Logan was on the floor,struggling to breathe with a big gaping hole in his chest,he turned to her and asked,"What's going on?"

The wall ahead of them suddenly started growing outward,threatening to seal the corridor,as the laughing man-a muscular guy with a blood smeared face and a bleeding arm-appeared on the opposite side.He leered at them,his laugh sounding totally creepy and wrong."See what happens when you ignore your destiny,Wolverine?You should have killed me when you had the chance, sucker."

That's when the mutant woman screamed in rage and a huge bolt of energy shot from her hands,slamming into both the growing wall and the man with the force of a bullet train.He let out a brief,aborted scream as he was thrown backwards as violently as a car in a hurricane,the wall bending and warping on its recessed track,ceasing its forward progression.The woman leaned against the wall,as if exhausted by the energy expenditure,and Cordelia knew it wasn't her imagination-the corridor was about twenty degress warmer than it had been before she fired her Godzilla bolt of doom.

"What happened?"Wesley asked again,thoroughly baffled,but the dawning horror on his face seemed to indicate he guessed he was responsible for Logan's sucking chest wound.

Angel wrapped one of Logan's arms around his shoulders and helped him stand,as Logan continued  straining to breathe.The bullet must have hit one of his lungs,and it left a huge exit wound,a big bloody hole as large as her two fists put together,and...oh Christ,did she just see a glimpse a silver,part of his adamantine skeleton?God,she was going to pass out while barfing again.

"Come on,"Angel prompted,leading the way,all but carrying Logan,who was conscious,although unable to do a hell of a lot.Frankly,she didn't know how he was still conscious,fighting so hard to breathe.He was probably too stubborn to pass out.

She was sure they were dead,but the mutants and commandos that had cleared out before them had cut a large path of broken down doors.When Cordelia felt the warm desert breeze on her face,saw the black sky sprinkled with stars overhead,she wasn't sure if she wanted to laugh or cry:they had escaped.But they weren't out of the woods yet.

"Drive,"Angel said,tossing the keys to Wesley before he shoved Logan into the backseat of his GTX,quickly falling in after him,Muscle Guy close behind.

Wesley jumped into the driver's seat as Cordelia got in the other side,moving over so Electric Lady could pile in beside her.As soon as he started the engine Wesley put the pedal to the metal,gunning out of their before the doors were even closed.

For a moment it was like the car didn't want to go,the back end of the car struggling to find purchase in sand as inexplicably slippery as ice,but finally it got a grip,and they shot forward like a bullet from a gun.The sudden speed threw them back against the seats as the headlghts sliced tunnels in the darkness,flashing off something silver far ahead of them.Cordelia guessed it to be a fence.

"Logan,did I shoot you?"Wesley asked,sounding horrified.He kept his eyes resolutely ahead, gripping the steering wheel like he was afraid he'd let go."I don't remember...I'm sorry,I don't know-"

"It wasn't you,"the Electric Woman said to him,even though she was looking into the backseat. "Shrike is a powerful telepath;he took control of you,if only for a moment."

Cordelia glanced back as Logan snarled breathlessly,"Shut up and drive."He had his arms crossed over his chest tightly,as if he was trying to keep something inside him from falling out,which was one of the grossest thoughts she had ever had.His head was hanging down,as if he was deliberately not looking at them so they couldn't see the pain on his face,and out of respect for his machismo wishes she turned back around,only to see the ghost of the fence had become larger,and for some reason right now looked almost skeletal.

She had braced herself for the inevitable impact when the world around them exploded.

She expected to hear it first,but the bright flash of light reflected off the rearview mirror temporarily blinded her first,and,after the briefest of lag times came the noise:a roar that was almost more physical than aural,a force that seemed to pass through their bodies like angry ghosts,a pressure so great it temporarily deafened them,a keening white noise the only sound as the glass of the windows shattered all at once.The car slewed as if pushed by invisible hands,the ground feeling temporarily like gelatin beneath their wheels.Cordelia figured she screamed,but she couldn't hear it,so she didn't know for sure.She only knew they were dead.

But Wesley somehow fought the car back onto solid ground,and when her senses started coming back to her they were still hurtling forward into the bleak desert landscape,the velocity of the wind turning the grains of sand in the air to pellets that stung their skin through the gaping holes where the windows used to be.Even though she saw bleeding cuts on her arm from the flying shards of glass,Cordelia started laughing."We made it,"she said,and then repeated,in a louder,more triumphant voice,"We made it!"

Muscle Guy started laughing too,and even Wesley reluctantly started chuckling,while the woman beside her gave her a faint but knowing smile.

"Wonders never cease,"Angel deadpanned,but he sounded like he was smiling too.

Cordelia sunk back in her seat,and couldn't wait to see home again.

Two Days Later

He shrugged on his leather jacket and took a final look around his room in the Hyperion Hotel,a place he had hoped never to see again.But his life seemed to be one big joke sometime-it was like it said "You don't want to do that again?Let's see if we can't make you."

But he had a couple of answers,right?Some clue to why he was what he was,and what may have happened? If he could trust the rantings of a madman.But,truth be told,he always had a nagging suspicion he was made to kill,to destroy as much as possible in the least amount of time.It was an impulse he had to struggle with more than anyone could know,even Shrike,and sometimes it almost felt foreign,as if the desire and the need was coming from something other than him.But maybe that was just a comfortable excuse he told himself,so he didn't have to accept his own homicidal impulses.He didn't know anymore(if he in fact ever knew).

Sometimes he was so very tired of fighting,but he didn't know how to stop.Or what would become of him if he did.

Logan had just picked up his leather jacket from the dusty blue armchair in the corner when he heard a rap on the door,and turned just as Naomi pushed it open and peered warily inside.

She took one glance at him and the coat in his hands,and said,"You're doing a Marcus,huh?"

Scorpion had taken off on his own not longer after they escaped the Dry Lake base.They had to stop at a hotel before the sun rose, as with no windows it would have been impossible to shelter Angel from the sun.Unless they shoved him in the trunk,but he didn't seem to like that idea.

Besides,Cordy really wanted to go somewhere where she could see how bad she looked before
returning home,and no one was in the mood or shape to argue with her. And it was there that Scorpion wished them well,but he had to go-he was convinced there were other bases(and he was
probably right),and the others responsible for his mutilation were out there.And he wasn't going to rest until he hunted them all down.Logan completely sympathized,and might have joined him, but his collapsed lung hadn't completely healed and reinflated yet.

By the time sundown hit and they were back on the road,his lung was working again,and the wound was almost totally closed,if a bit sore.Okay,not a bit-it felt like he had been worked on by a jackhamme. But not anymore.

He shrugged on his jacket,dipping his head in response to her comment."I still need answers,and I ain't getting them sitting here."

She came into his room and leaned against the back of the door,looking tired and somewhat dejected."I need some too.Some of my real memories are returning...I was thinking I might go
back up North.I think I have family up there."

He nodded,wondering if he had family,and what had become of them.Did they ever wonder what became of Logan,or did they think he was dead?Or were they dead?"Be careful.They seem to have set their sights on you."

"I don't know why."

"I do."

She glanced down at her hands,and snorted a small,disgusted laugh."Oh yes,I guess I do too.My power. No pun intended."

"It's an ability many people would love to control."With great reluctance,he added,"You know those people I was telling you about,in Westchester?They might be able to help you."

She nodded,glancing down at the faded grey carpet."I know,and maybe I'll get around to there sometime."She glanced up at him through the veil of her chestnut brown hair."Is that where
you're going?"

Reluctantly,he admitted,"Eventually.I promised someone I'd come back."

She nodded in understanding,not asking him any more questions about it,which he appreciated.But in the ensuing silence he felt awkward.Loathing the feeling,he finally said,"Listen,the thing that happened back at the hotel...Shrike just didn't want us talking about him.I'm sorry it happened,so let's just forget it and move on,okay?"

"Are you sorry?"She asked curiously,her blue eyes sparkling with mirth."Because,in all honesty,he didn't exactly have to push me very hard to make me kiss you.Maybe you weren't the hero I
thought you were back then,but you're even cuter.In a hairy sort of way."

"Hairy?"He replied,seemingly offended,but in truth it was an act.She was as attractive as she was deadly.

She gave him a sly,playful smile,and asked,"You don't have to leave just yet,do you?I mean,we probably won't see each other again for a long time,and after all that has happened ... would another couple of hours around this place really kill us?"

He looked her over,smiling,and took off his coat,throwing it back on the chair."Nothing seems to kill me,"he replied coolly,although this time the remark didn't seem to cause the angsty twinge in his gut that it usually did.

She shut the door,and sauntered up to him,her eyes as bright as sapphires."Lucky for you,"she replied.This time,when she kissed him,she really meant it.

So did he.

THE END