How smug would the bastard be when his mind was ripped apart?Well,what little there was of it.

Kruger stood back and waited for Morpheus to find what he needed,so they could subject this bastard to Lethe and get it over with.

Jean tried to read his mind and jumped back as if he'd given her an electric shock;Icara screamed and lapsed into a psychic coma because she couldn't take so many of his memories at once.Maybe the key was there-they wanted memories,huh?Maybe he should give it to them.

All of it.They could choke on them.

He instantly focused on all the memories and nightmares he had done his best to forget.

If Doctor Rat wanted Alkali Lake,he'd get it.Logan focused on his last nightmare,of laying in that tepid green goo,paralyzed,unable to move or even scream as the men in Hazmat suits (maybe some women-he didn't know;those suits were sexless) loomed over him in his vivisection tank.In this particular nightmare they were giving him a Y incision,the kind most often used when opening up the chest of a corpse for an autopsy.As much as he internally winced at the memory,he concentrated on the feeling of the cold metal scalpel as it sliced through his skin and muscle,the brackish hued water turning black with his blood as they peeled his chest walls wide open,exposing the bones of the sternum...

Logan opened his eyes as soon as he heard Morpheus scream.

Fester crumpled up as if hit and slammed back against the wall,beside what had to be a two way mirror.Goth Boy sank into a protective crouch,covering his head as he continued his horrified yelping,but he never quite hit the floor.

"What is it?What?"Doctor Rat exclaimed impatiently.

Fester used the wall to help himself stand as he continued to make a strange noise,a gulping sob that almost sounded like a gag."Jesus fucking christ,Jesus fucking christ!You never said anything about-"he swallowed hard,almost stammering,his face as white as milk,all trace smugness gone.His black eyes were as wide as gold coins and as dark as wells in his flaccid, horror stricken face."-surgery,operating on him without anesthesia.Holy fucking christ,holy fucking christ..."

"What in the hell is your problem?"Doctor Rat spat at Fester,unmoved by his protestations.

But Morpheus just gestured vaguely at Logan,unable to meet his eyes.His eyes seemed unwilling to alight on anything now,as if the memory would play back if he just stopped to rest."Jesus fucking...forget it,I can't...I can't...I'm out-get someone else."He staggered towards the door,nearly crashing into it before it opened and let him out,and before it closed Logan thought he heard retching.

"Pussy,"Doctor Rat muttered under his breath.He then turned his rodential,avaricious gaze on Logan."What the fuck did you do?"

Logan glared up at his deathly gaunt face,unable to keep from sneering even as that unearthed memory seared through his own mind like fire (it was all he could do not to start shaking like a fucking rabbit in fear),and said,"Nothing.Some people just can't handle the truth."

He knew he would pay for this.And he knew that Doctor Rat and his cronies would probably ultimately get whatever it was they wanted from him.

But it was all worth it for the look on his face.

It was somewhere beyond rage:he could hear his heart thudding in his ears and heat making his face flush as his hands clenched into fists at his side.

Logan had done something.He didn't know what,exactly,but that smug smirk on his face confirmed it.He wanted to punch the leer off his stupid,arrogant face,but in Logan's case the cliche 'this will hurt you more than me' was very true.

Swallowing back the black rage like bile,he pulled his radio out of his coat pocket,and thumbed it on."Intercept Morpheus.Terminate him on sight."He'd be damned if that cowardly little chickenshit ever set a foot outside again.

"Copy,"an anonymous voice spat back over the radio.

"And I need a soldier with a sidearm in here now,"he added,before putting his radio back.He didn't need to wait for confirmation there.

"That scared of me,Ratboy?"Logan sneered.

Kruger glared at him hatefully,seething so much he could barely speak."I'm going to watch you bleed,Logan."

He heard the door open,but it was too soon to be the soldier.Who else could it be but the bane of his existence?"What the fuck is going on?"Sanders exclaimed,barging in."I sneak out to go to the can,and I come back to find everything's all diddly fuck.Some asshole just capped Morpheus in the hallway,and he said you ordered him to do it."

"I did.In spite of what faith HQ may have in him,he wasn't up to the task at hand.I need a professional,not someone's mutant lapdog."

The door opened again,but this time it was a soldier who came in,a thick necked,thick bodied recruit who looked terminally bored."Is there a problem,sir?"He asked Kruger,his small grey eyes sizing up the rumpled suited Sanders as if he was the threat.

"No.I just need your weapon,"Kruger replied crisply,holding out his hand.

The soldier almost showed an emotion,but he stifled it quickly and unholstered his gun,handing it over butt first.

"What are you doing?"Sanders asked him,sounding like he was on the verge of a major snit.

Kruger ignored him and turned towards Logan,who seemed to know what he planned to do,making him smarter than Sanders.

The fear in his eyes was furtive,quickly replaced by that arrogant,hateful glare,but Logan's muscles remained tense,as if he was simultaneously bracing for and cowering from certain, painful blows."You're a cowardly piece of shit,"Logan sneered,attempting to hide behind his anger."I'm gonna love watching you die."

Kruger raised the gun,which felt heavy and cold in his hands,and pulled the trigger.

The recoil was incredible for such a small weapon,so he had to hold it with both hands as the armor piercing bullets slammed into Logan,his skin bursting open explosively where they sliced through his flesh and bounced off his adamantium laced bones,ricocheting into the walls,which splattered with his tainted mutant blood.

Sanders,the coward,hit the floor to avoid the rebounding bullets,but the soldier,after briefly wincing,kept his place as Kruger emptied his semi-automatic handgun into Logan.

Even as the flying blood hit him in the right eye,temporarily blinding him,Kruger fired until the chamber clicked empty,and the room was so full of smoke it enshrouded them like a heavy fog.

Logan's body was as holey as Swiss cheese,sporting bloody perforations from head to feet,but as Kruger watched,the red rimmed holes on his naked torso started to seal shut,like they were design errors being erased by a computer program.  It was almost as if his wounds were mocking him.  Logan was unconscious,his bloody head lolling to the side,the impact of several bullets in his skull probably knocking him out for the meantime.  He hoped it hadn't happened too quickly.

Sanders finally stood as Kruger handed the now hot gun back to the soldier."Thank you,"he said,barely able to hear his own voice for the ringing in his ears,the stink of gunpowder foul to his nostrils.

"What the fuck!"Sanders exclaimed angrily,his eyes bulging to the point that Kruger wondered if they might fall out."You can't kill him like that!  And you ain't supposed to kill him anyway, fuckface!"

"You never watched the tapes in the archive?" Kruger said,sneering at him disdainfully. If there'd been one more bullet in the gun,he'd have used it on him. "They used to empty their weapons into Wolverine when they got bored. He has been fully stress tested: shot,stabbed, suffocated, poisoned,bludgeoned. He came back from everything eventually. It hurts him-it has to hurt to have a magazine of high velocity lead fired into-but never for long enough." Dozens of holes on his face,throat,chest,stomach,and legs healed over as he watched,the edges of his skin knitting back together,leaving only splashes of blood behind to prove he had ever been injured at all. Kruger scowled in bitter disappointment,feeling excess acid burn at his stomach."That's why we want him back so badly,Sanders. His personality,frankly,sucks - he is savage and belligerent, disagreeable and impossible, ill bred and ill mannered. But he can kill,Sanders,better than anyone. And this motherfucker just won't stay dead."

As much as I wished it, he thought angrily. It looked like all his wounds had healed,too,which just made him that much more furious.

He hoped it was just the noise of the gunshots that kept him from hearing Logan scream,but he feared the animal was so accustomed to pain he hardly even felt it.

But before he handed Logan over to Lethe, he was going to hear this bastard mutie scream.

It was a little town,remarkable for nothing save for its proximity to the Canadian Rockies,and that's how it made its money:it existed only for truckers,skiers,and tourism.As soon as they entered town,they'd stick out like a sore thumb.

If they could enter town-it seemed there was a roadblock here too,headed by blatantly military men.It was for 'safety reasons',somehow related to the explosion up in the mountain pass,and Angel turned them around before they reached the block,hoping to find another way into town.
It then suddenly dawned on him that anywhere they went they'd stick out,because Naomi was wearing nothing but surgical scrubs and her salvaged boots.She realized that too,and suggested they stop at a very sad little strip mall outside of town to get her something less conspicuous to wear.But she wanted him to gear up too.

"If you don't want them to recognize us within ten feet,pick one:logger or skier,"she said crisply, and he swear he saw a miniature spark briefly arc between her dark eyelashes.

He went with logger-at least they wore earth tones.

And he was growing increasingly worried that this was a suicide mission.Naomi was so upset she was radiating electricity;standing within five feet of her made the hair on his arms stand on end,and usually he had to be in very close proximity for that happen.

She obviously continued to blame herself for Logan's capture,unwarranted,since she could do precious little against men prepared to take on a woman who shot electricity from her hands and a man who had unbreakable adamantium claws in his hands.But Angel knew it went deeper than that,and it made things all the worse.She loved Logan,didn't she?

He wasn't sure she knew,but he was getting the vibe that she did (does),and that explained perhaps why she reacted without thinking,shooting out high intensity electricity around a leaking gas pump.Love was dangerous sometimes;it made you act from your gut,not your head. And it also sparked something deeper than rage when the person you loved was hurt;it was black and murderous,beyond reason.He knew both of those from experience.

But in someone like Naomi,gifted like she was,it wasn't an accident waiting to happen more than it was a global catastrophe waiting to happen.He almost felt sorry for whoever took him, because were they in for a world of hurt.Angel bet Shrike's flash frying was a handshake compared to what she had in mind for them.

He couldn't blame her,either.Men so sadistic to do what they did to Logan in the first place were capable of anything,and Angel was trying hard not to count the hours Logan had been in their custody,but it was difficult not to.He was also trying hard not to think about what would happen if they were too late,and Logan was bad again.He didn't think he'd be lucky enough to walk away from a rematch with Wolverine.

It was difficult to shop,as Naomi's increasingly restless power made the store's anti-theft devices spark and smoke,scaring the shopkeepers (luckily,there were no other customers at the time),and also she made their clocks and cash register stop working.He was happy to get her out of there before she accidentally sparked another major fire.

He felt ludicrous in his new clothes-flannel lined jeans and a brown plaid flannel shirt,with a thermal t-shirt underneath (not that he needed it,but it seemed to be part of the Alberta dress code this time of year),and a fleece lined jacket that wasn't too bad,although he missed his duster (at least she let him keep his boots).She looked better in hers,although she said she was going for 'hitchhiker/town pump' (nice):tight flannel lined jeans,an even tighter red sweater,and a fleece lined bomber jacket about two sizes two big for her.But he wasn't sure the black leather jacket was a good choice for her,as she was still so upset the silver zippers occasionally shed blue sparks like melting snow.

The final touch (according to her) were polarized sunglasses that supposedly kept out 'snow glare',but also hid their eyes.And because her unnaturally red hair was unmistakable,she tucked it all up in a black knit hat,making her look very tomboyish in spite of the tight clothes.

He found an alternate route that took them into Grand Cache by mid-afternoon,but Angel was unable to shake a growing suspicion that this had all been far too easy.

In fact,as he talked it over with Naomi,it became clear it was meant to be.

"They may have Logan now,but they're still expecting you to come too,"he said,nervously glancing in the rearview as he drove through the almost quaint little town that seemed to have a rot beneath its surface he could almost-but not quite-smell."And probably me as well. They'll be ready for us."

"No,they'll be ready for me,"she countered,glancing out the blackened back window.The rain had turned to a sort of sleet here,the sky as grey as asphalt,and that made driving even more treacherous,but fewer people were out in it."They still think you're a mutant,right?They won't know how to handle a vampire."

He rolled his shoulders in a hesitant shrug."No.But I'm just as useless as you against that armor. I've had the misfortune to punch Logan before,and if the armor's like him...well,I'm screwed."

She considered that a moment,then said,"It can't be hopeless,Angel."Naomi then offered up a plan to get them inside the complex,whenever they found it,and Angel listened to it patiently, letting her finish before he spoke.

"You're insane,"he said calmly.

"Can you think of something better?"She shot back.

He had to admit he couldn't,but he was trying when she suddenly said,"Pull over."

"Why?"

"Because I just saw the same kind of ATV Logan and I stole parked outside that store over there," she said,pointing back towards a small convenience mart they had just driven past on the left. "That means we have a couple of the buggers in town.And I want them."

"Naomi,revenge won't-"

"I'll make them tell us where Logan is,"she growled,and the car engine seemed to sputter.

It had sounded like a request,but it was an order:she could stop this car dead whenever she wanted.And,like Logan,she could hurt him and make it stick for quite a while.He didn't think she would intentionally,of course,but she was so upset right now it could be a tragic accident.

There were so few cars in the street he did a U-turn and easily swung back into the nearly empty parking lot.

He hadn't even stopped the car before she got out of the back seat and started walking towards the store."Hey,shouldn't we have a plan?"He wondered,killing the engine and quickly getting out of the car.

"I have one,"she said,entering the store.

Angel wondered when he had lost control of the situation,and then he wondered if he had ever had it.

The store was cool,although warmer than outside,and brightly lit with harsh florescent lighting that made everything washed out and ashen,including the bored looking clerk,who barely glanced up from his newspaper to look at him.Angel assumed that meant he was blending in okay.

Naomi had stopped at the head of the aisle near the back,between the warm beer and pop on the shelves  and the refrigerated cases in the walk in freezers lining the right side wall.Angel joined her,and saw she was looking at two men at the end of the aisle.Dressed mostly in black, they had short,bristly hair cuts indicative of the military,and arms as thick as pythons,with broad chests to match.The ironic thing was,no matter how fit they were,it was no good against either Naomi,himself,or Logan.

Angel grabbed her arm and pulled her out of view,getting a massive shock as soon as he touched her,and he had to bite down on his tongue to keep from crying out in pain.Shit,she was furious, and that was good for no one's health.

"Let me try and get them outside first,"he whispered to her,vaguely aware the men were debating over which kind of beer to get."We can limit the amount of witnesses.We don't want a bunch of people seeing us in action."

She frowned at him,her blue eyes almost incandescent with suppressed rage."They're bound to be armed,Angel.A paralyzer will take you down too.And fuck the witnesses.I can make them sleep for days."

She was starting to lose her internal compass;she was so angry she was spinning off her moral axis,and sure to do things she would regret later.And again,he knew that from very recent personal experience.But he also knew it might be impossible to talk her down out of it;she was in that dark,deadly space,where she wanted blood for blood,and reason had no place."No.Let me try this,okay?"

The overhead lights flickered like strobes,their humming turning into a very threatening whine, like a rocket whistling down from the sky.He wondered if these stupid people-whoever the fuck they were-knew what an ugly can of worms they had opened by messing with a mutant as powerful as Naomi."Fine,"she granted,with a natural hesitancy."But one false move,and they're mine."

Angel had little doubt about that.She might not wait for a false move,in fact.

The men glanced up curiously at the flickering lights,then looked at him as he walked down the aisle towards them.But they must not have recognized him,as they turned back to the cold case, one of them pulling out a six pack of beer."Fucking power grid,"the blond one commented to his black haired companion.

Angel grabbed them both hard by the back of the neck."If you don't want to get hurt,you'll come with me,now."He whispered harshly.

But the black haired one he had grabbed at the wrong angle,and he was able to both turn around and move quickly:he slammed the six pack of beer cans straight into his face.

Angel's nose snapped in a bright burst of pain as at least one of the cans exploded on impact, and Angel staggered backwards,hitting the door of the freezer case on the right as the blond one,a sneer affixed to his craggy face,pivoted towards him,a black boxy thing that could only be a paralyzer in his right hand.

But before Angel could make a counter move,the paralyzer exploded,splattering blood all over the freezer case as most of his hand disintegrated with it.

He dropped to his knees,howling in pain as he grabbed his bloody-but instantly cauterized stump-and his black haired friend,who had dropped the ruined six pack on the floor,reached for his own weapon,but froze,staring up the aisle in wide eyed horror.

Angel saw why.

The overhead lights exploded violently as blue tentacles of electricity shot downward like lightning,heading straight for Naomi.But the electricity,hot and blue-white,flowed over her like water,writhing around her harmlessly in snake like tendrils as she stalked down the aisle towards them.Her eyes were completely and utterly blue with electricity,which seemed to crackle and spark around her otherworldly eyes,making her the brightest source of light in the darkened store.Electricity was snaking across the floor too,from every power outlet,feeding her unearthly fire,and Angel felt the glass behind him quivering like it might explode any second.

"Where is Logan?"She demanded,her voice cold and undeniably homicidal,the living veins of electricity giving her a bright,animate aura.

The black haired commando dropped his paralyzer,apparently aware it would do no good whatsoever,and Angel smelled the strong reek of urine as the soldier pissed himself in terror.If he wanted to speak,he couldn't just now.

"I don't have to kill you all at once,"she hissed at him,sparks dripping from her hands like blood from a severed artery."I can fry you one piece at a time.If you want to die like a man instead of a pot roast,you'll tell me what I want to know.Now."

"Naomi,"Angel began,wiping blood away from his nose with the back of his hand,but she wasn't listening so he didn't bother to follow it up.

Angel had no doubt,as soon as he could speak,the commando would tell them what she wanted to know,up to and including a three dimensionally rendered map of the Big Empty.

But he didn't know what she'd do afterwards.And worst of all,he knew there was nothing he could do about it either way.

He was in a dark, cold place,and it took him a moment for his eyes to adjust to the almost complete blackness. He was in a closet sized room, face down on the steel floor between the cot and the toilet that made up the only furniture in the cell.

He tried to push himself up with his hands,only to find they were pinioned behind his back, held tightly by steel bonds (handcuffs?) around his wrist. He managed to use his shoulders and his knees to rise into a sitting position,and sat with his back against the cot, his head swimming,feeling hazy. He was sure he had been drugged.

What did he remember?

They grabbed him outside of the bar, in the parking lot.  God, he'd been such an idiot. He'd become complacent in his anonymity,and they got him. He remembered being jabbed with something that put a quick end to the fight, a boxy item that left a metallic taste in his mouth and had an electrical sounding crack when used. A paralyzer? He knew they were in development,but he had no idea they had progressed so far.

He came to on the way in, though; woke up in the trunk. He waited until they opened it to remove him,then tried to fight back, escape. He was sure he broke one man's leg with a side kick before someone else pulled a gun and...shot him. Yes,that's why he felt like a herd of buffalo had stampeded over him:the guy emptied his piece into him, knowing full well he'd eventually heal.  That was his mutation, after all, instantaneous healing. That's why they'd been hunting him.

Bastards. Fucking bastards. They would pay for this. They would pay for everything.

He heard footsteps in the hall,pausing outside his door,and he let himself collapse face first on the floor, hoping he was in the same position he had been in before,and that there weren't infrared cameras in the room to tell them he was conscious.

The door slid open,and even through the thin skin of his eyelids he could see the harsh white light that flooded the room as the men-two by the sound,with at least two more loitering farther back-each grabbed him by an arm and hauled him roughly out of the room, and Logan forced himself to stay limp, letting his feet drag behind him, playing dead.

"They want him in lab seven,"one of the loitering men instructed the two apes who had him.

"Right," the one on his left said,and that's when Logan allowed himself to suddenly come to.

He judged the one on his left to be the biggest,and as he stood on his own two feet, Logan instantly stomped down on the side of the left ape's knee, instantly snapping the leg.

As he howled and went down, the man on the right threw an elbow, but Logan had expected it and took it on the chin, his jaw breaking and resetting itself almost instantly in a short but solid burst of pain. As he pretended to stagger back he did a leg sweep, taking the second ape's feet right out from beneath him.

He hit the floor hard on his ass, and that's when Logan kicked him as hard as he could in the face, so hard blood flew from the man's mouth as teeth clattered on the floor a second before he collapsed back on it.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw one of the loitering men charging him with one of those paralyzers, but he just spun into a high kick, hitting him solidly in the face before he could touch him with that damn thing. The man's jaw snapped audibly, the paralyzer falling from his hands as he collapsed to the metal floor.

A loud, undulating alarm began screaming through the complex, bouncing off metal walls, as the fourth man-a scrawny,older doctor in a white lab coat-cowered against the wall, cringing from the beating he was sure to take.

But Logan had no interest in the little man. He wanted to get out of here - now - and this was probably his only chance.

He ran down the corridor, ready to fight anyone who got in his way, when he saw something out of the corner of his right eye. A dark blur, he instantly spun toward it, ready to snap kick them in the face...but it was a woman,and he instantly hesitated...

"This is the wrong memory," Kruger snapped at Omen,the name for the only other telepath at the base.

The woman stopped reciting what she saw,and opened her odd eyes -one was deep brown, the other sky blue- and gave him a rather contemptuous look as she rubbed her temple,wincing in pain. "I planted the thought 'Alkali Lake',and this came up.  It isn't easy,you know.  It's hard reading the mind of the unconscious, especially one who's had his mind fucked over as often as his."  She gestured to Logan dismissively, sweeping back her long black hair with her hand.  "I swear I've picked up the flavor of at least four other telepaths in his head, not counting Morpheus."

"He's had a lot of work done," Kruger admitted, glaring at the unconscious Logan still strapped down to the blood splattered table.

"There were also some other...things in his head, weren't there?  I mean, not telepaths -or at least not any kind I'm familiar with. I mean, this shit is strange-"

"You're not paid to think." He interrupted impatiently. She didn't need to know everything Logan had been subjected to over the years; she only needed to recover the information he wanted. "Find what I need-his last day at Alkali Lake, not his first."

Omen gave him a remarkably dirty look. "I'm sorry, but it's almost impossible to read his mind while he's unconscious. It's like sifting through puree with my fingers."

"And he can't be read conscious," Sanders said,coming back into the room.  He looked even more rumpled than before but a little less pale. Perhaps he had gone and changed his shorts. "'Cause the smart ass has learned how to throw telepaths off by focusing his mind on unpleasantries."

"I can handle unpleasantries,"Omen sniffed, giving him a frown.

"Vivisection?" Sanders shot back.

She scowled in thought as soon as she realized he was serious. "Well, maybe not."

"What about drugged?" Kruger said,thinking aloud. "We have a couple of new formulas that might work on him."