"What are you saying?"She asked,even though her mind had jumped ahead to the worst possibility.

"And I don't 'share' memories,like a telepath,"Maddy went on,seemingly taking a perverse glee in all of this."I take them:I burn through memories like you burn through circuit breakers."

"Did you take Logan's memories?"She desperately hoped fate had not been that cruel to either of them,but she feared,knowing her track record,it had.

She could see a smile curve up Maddy's thin,blood red lips."Certainly.Although I was sort of overwhelmed.I knew he was old,but I had no idea how old until I drained him.Christ on a cracker,it was like trying to speed read the Oxford English Dictionary in a minute and a half."

Naomi closed her eyes and clenched her fists.If she had her powers,she'd have fried the little witch on the spot."How could you do that to him,you-"

"I seriously hope you're not going to portray him as an innocent here,"Maddy interrupted."Do you think he learned to fight like that while brainwashed?No way.He was a trained operative before they decided to make him the centerpiece of the 'Weapon X' project;then he compounded his idiocy by thinking he could leave.He brought this on himself."

She glared at her in disbelief."No one deserves to be flayed alive."

Maddy grimaced,almost showing a human emotion."Well,that did seem a bit harsh.But,to be fair,he's a hard man to anesthetize."

"I can't believe you're defending them.I can't believe you'd willingly work for a group that wants to wipe out mutants."

Maddy leaned towards her,making the chair squeak like the rusty hinge on a cemetery gate."Just between you and me,sis,that's exactly what we want them to think."She then winked,as if she had imparted some big secret.

Maybe she had.

About seven feet off to his right,sitting on the beaten dirt path,was a ratty looking cat.Black and orange calico with bits of white on the leg and vivid greenish-gold eyes,it had a couple of burrs on its tail and knots in its fur,as well as a scar bisecting its pink nose-a housecat turned feral,probably dumped in the woods to die a long time ago.But it proved itself to be tougher than its former owners thought.It was sitting on the path in such a way that it could keep an eye on him and an eye on the woods,ready to bolt at the first sign of trouble.

"Do I know you,cat?"He asked,then realized,vaguely,that he did.This was Cat,which started hanging around his place shortly after he moved in.It never got too close,but seemed to loiter at the periphery,a pair of lambent,glowing eyes that haunted the fringes of his home.Sometimes he threw it scraps to keep it out of his garbage can,and it seemed to think that was some sign.If not of friendship,then at least of grudging acceptance.

"Home,"he repeated,the word tasting funny as he looked over his shoulder at the rustic wooden cabin.It did look kind of familiar...was this home?Had he ever had a home?

"Hey Cat,where is this?"He asked,tossing his cigar butt down on the gravel drive and sliding to the edge of the stair so he could stub it out with his foot.

Of course the cat didn't answer.

How much of this was hallucination or wish fulfillment?Did he ever have a home?

"You could answer,you know.You're a figment of my imagination,"he told it,but it couldn't care less,just like a real cat."Once upon a time,Logan the Freak almost had a life..."

He reached up and scratched his face,and he realized something was wrong.He had a bit of stubble,but nothing else;no beard.

He rubbed his face,marveling at the feeling of his skin,and the Cat gave him a strange look,as if he'd gone nuts.He scowled at it."Hey-you're my hallucination.Don't look at me like that."

It put its ears down and flicked its tail,annoyed.

His stomach spasmed like a pulled muscle.Had he ever been close to normal?He felt an ache of nostalgia for something he was not sure he had ever had.

He blinked,and suddenly he was in the back of the truck with Naomi,the wind howling and occasionally rocking the vehicle as the snow piled up outside."I thought I heard you,"he said, nuzzling her neck.He thought he had her calling his name,shouting for him;but it was distant,faint."Are you dead or alive?"

"I don't know,"she murmured sleepily."What do you think?"

"I think I want you to be alive,but it's not an answer."He could feel his arm growing numb, falling asleep,but he didn't care.It wouldn't hurt him for long.

Then he felt a tenuous connection,something almost like a memory."My house isn't that far from here.Or it wasn't.Lower elevation...maybe twenty miles from here....or maybe not.It was near a mountain..."

"Who are you,Logan?"She asked.

For some reason,that hit him like a slap to the face."Someone who never knew when to leave,"he finally said.It was meant as a joke,but it didn't feel like one.

And he was glad when the hallucination faded away,leaving him in silent darkness.

Maddy raised her dark eyebrows and gave her a look that suggested she was far too stupid to be taken seriously."Do you really think any mutant with half a brain would be suckered in by the Organization's bullshit?No way,hon;the fact that they believe it proves they're lessers,chimps."

"So what's really going on?"

She paused,as if unsure whether she should reveal it or not,but then decided it was worth the risk-or the bragging rights,whichever."The Organization is testing on and altering mutants, seemingly to achieve various ends,and build towards the destruction of the entire mutant species.But what they're really doing is the opposite:they are making mutants stronger and stronger,thereby insuring the extinction of the human race.See how fucking dumb they are?"

Naomi wasn't sure if her mind was reeling from the drugs or the revelations."So you're saying,unbeknownst to them,mutants inside the Organization are subverting their goals? Changing their genocide project into some sort of freaky eugenics thing?"

The smile Maddy gave her was sordid somehow-a butcher openly enjoying a really bloody kill. "See?Cleverness runs in the family after all.I'm sure Enigma was in on it,but she kept her own council.No code name was more apt than Enigma,believe me.Even I didn't get her.I didn't even know she was a mutant.She was that good."

"But you're sacrificing other mutants for the cause.You sacrificed Logan for your stupid cause."

She snorted derisively."Oh come on!Logan was good at not getting killed,and he was a decent fighter,but let's face facts-he didn't have a lot to offer the mutant cause,did he?'Indestructable Boy':whoopty fucking do,sis.We knew if their experiment worked,he'd be a terrific secret weapon. And he is.Look at him now:in mutant circles-especially in the Organization-his name is spoken with awe.Well,his code name.He is a great mutant now,just the type of soldier we need."

Naomi was so enraged she could feel her heart pounding in her temples."Did anyone ever ask him?"She could barely spit out the words.

"Why ever would we do that?He was never the brightest man on the planet.He was ashamed of what he was,like being a mutant was a bad thing,and wanted to be 'left alone'.Boo hoo.He should thank us,you know.We made him what he is."

Yes,Naomi thought in stark agreement.Haunted,without memories,and stricken with night terrors.Oh,but he was a much better mutant now....

"Come on,Naomi,"Maddy said jovially,as if they'd had a little spat over an inconsequential thing."Lighten up.Join me here,and you could be the crown jewel we need to fuck them over once and for all.And if he means that much to you,you'll get Logan back when he's served his purpose."

"What purpose is that?"

The shit eating grin Maddy gave her was infuriating."Now now,can't give the whole game away. But I think Wolverine's gonna have himself a hell of a time doin' it.He lives for this kind of stuff."

Wolverine,not Logan.The choice of names was deliberate."Then why don't you ask him to participate in this...whatever?"

"You don't know him very well,do you?Logan doesn't give a shit about anyone but himself.He'd never help anyone else.It's not in his nature."

It was Naomi turn to scoff."What a crock of shit."

Maddy's posture stiffened,and her voice grew a tad colder."Is it really?I know him inside and out,and-"

"You still don't know shit,"she interrupted angrily."I'll tell you why you're not asking Logan to participate in this.You're right that he'll tell you to go fuck yourself,but not because he's a selfish prick.He'll tell you that because he cares about people individually,not ideologies,and he couldn't give a fuck about your little 'mutant first' agenda.And if he found out you were letting certain mutants get tortured and die in the name of 'strengthening the race',he'd slice you open like a fucking trout."

Maddy scowled at her,etching lines into her otherwise youthful face."You think you know him,do you?"

"I do know him.And he's a lot of things-he's not perfect by any means-but he is,at heart,a noble man.You'd have to brainwash him into a psychopath to get him to go along with any piece of this shit.And what makes you think I'm such an amoral fuck that I'd go along with this too?"

"Because you don't have much of a choice."All of the false chumminess was out of her voice now, and she was all business."You see,I'm supposed to drain you.As a blank slate,you'll be easy to program.Because you'd be so important to the cause,I wanted to give you the opportunity to simply play along.Because you will be helping us either way-I can't let you help the other side."

After that cold blooded pronouncement,she turned to her computer,and said,"Here,I want to show you something.You think you know Logan,do you?Do you know this man?"

She shoved her chair back from the computer,so Naomi could get a clear view of the screen.She didn't know what she'd see,but she had to slide to the edge of the cot she was on to see it properly.

It looked like a scanned photo,so old it was sepia hued.It looked like a group of men in old clothes,but not suits;rough clothes,working man's clothes.Maddy moved the mouse and hit a couple of keys,and part of the right hand corner of the photograph jumped out,filling the screen.
It showed a young man in the back caught in profile as he turned away from the camera.

It was the nose that she recognized first,oddly enough.After that it was the line of the clean shaven jaw,which she remembered from when he let her shave his face in the shower...Logan.It was Logan;younger,of course,maybe sixteen or seventeen...no,wait,how could she say that?He looked sixteen or seventeen;his actual age was unknown.

"This photo was taken at a mining camp in British Columbia,"Maddy said."In 1851."

He bit into his apple as Doctor Bishop had the attendants load the body bag onto the table. They unzipped it like an oversized garment bag and pulled it off the body with an ease born of practice.This Angel was a big boy,wasn't he?In several respects,actually;he almost felt inadequate.

He was terribly pale,his skin almost glowed under the harsh lights of the operating room,but he didn't look like he had discolored at all;in fact,the small burn on his throat left by the paralyzer didn't appear to be visible.It had to be the angle he was sitting at.

Bishop was running his latex gloved hands carefully over Angel's broad chest,bending over it for a closer look,but at what Sanders couldn't tell from this distance.

He hit the intercom button on the arm of his chair."Is there a prob,Mike?"

Bishop jumped,as if unaware he'd been watched,and the balding,bespeckled man glanced up towards the observation room.The lights reflected off his safety goggles in such a way Sanders couldn't see his eyes,but his demeanor was nervous,as if he was a boy caught with his hands in the cookie jar."No.It's just that,uh,his skin is flawless.No bruises,no scars,no blemishes...wasn't he fighting before he was killed?"

"Yeah,but he was wearing armor,so it probably absorbed the blows.Although there weren't that many blows to absorb."Sanders had seen the security tape:pathetic.Angel and Electra tore through 'em like nothing,although Angel did the bulk of the hands on fighting;a strong mother. Also,decent form:either he was a martial artist or he'd seen too many Bruce Lee movies.

"And I don't know if you've seen him,but Wolverine has pretty flawless skin too.It's a mutant thing."And he shuddered remembering how his skin closed up after Krug went psycho and shot him;watching those gaping wounds just heal over like that was disgusting in a way he could not name.It was like he was watching a crime against nature in progress.

Bishop nodded,the light reflecting off his bald pate as he looked back down at the prone,ghostly bright body of Angel,and then reached for a scalpel on the silver tray beside him.

Seeing him aglow on the table like that,Sanders could almost understand why he was called Angel.

"True,but why would we bother?This photo was actually found by accident,in the archives of some historical society in British Columbia.There were some journals too,of a preacher who'd hit the mining camps since they were a hotbed of 'sin',and he mentioned this 'strange,quiet boy'  named Logan.He seemed to stay apart from the other miners,getting close to no one,and he never shared much personal info:he was from Alberta,and an orphan,but that's all he'd say.Everyone assumed Logan was his last name.If he had a first,he never supplied it.

"He seemed frail looking to some,which was why everyone was stunned at the amount of work he could actually do.The miners nicknamed him 'Mule' because he was so deceptively strong,and didn't seem to wear down like the other guys.He never complained,but never joined the others in their drinking and whoring binges after payday.The other miners were torn between believing he was some kind of snob to just being a scared rabbit-after all,a lot of the men in mining camps like those were wanted fugitives,often from the States,hiding out under assumed names,making enough cash to get to Alaska or god knows where.No one could imagine Mule as a criminal mastermind,but hey,do you ever know?"

Maddy tapped the screen."Less than a month after this photo was taken,there was a cave in: fifteen miners were trapped a quarter of a mile underground,under nearly a half ton of rock. They knew it was probably hopeless,but they started digging,and just as they were about to give up,somebody heard someone shout,and the voice was believed to belong to Mule.They dug through the night,occasionally shouting to him to make sure he was still alive,and when they finally reached him and pulled him out,stunned was not the word for it-he was fine.A little sooty and bloody,but once he was cleaned up no one could find where the blood had come from,and there was speculation it wasn't his.No broken bones,no injuries of any kind.It was considered a miracle,especially since all the other miners died almost instantaneously.The preacher was sure Mule had been saved by God since he was not a 'sinner' like the others in the camp,but Mule abhorred that kind of talk,and all the attention it garnered him.He was seen as a 'good luck chrm' by the other miners...until winter hit.

"A flu epidemic hit the camp.Not the deadly Spanish flu,just a bad one that had several people carried out to a local hospital,and everyone caught it,even the preacher:no one was immune. Except Mule.This was when everyone-save for the preacher,who was still convinced Mule was blessed-started getting suspicious.He never got hurt-even during a devastating cave in that should have suffocated him if not crushed him-he never got sick,he never even suffered a pulled muscle when doing twice the work of a normal man.He seemed inhuman somehow,and since one person's god is another person's devil,some at the camp began to believe he was demonic,or had made a pact with Satan or something.Superstitious people are a mutant's worst enemy,are they not?After helping themselves to some alcohol fueled courage,some of the miners decided to storm the shack Mule called home and see if a pick axe couldn't hurt him.But they found the place cleared out.Mule had detected the shift in attitudes and beat it,leaving not a single scrap of evidence behind that he had ever been there.Many took this as proof of his evilness,but the preacher-who,honestly,if you read between the line,wanted to bugger Mule quite badly-felt that he had been sent to prove his-the preacher's-faith was just,or some such shit.But,let's face it:even if he had not used the name Logan,even if we hadn't found this photo,we'd have known it was Logan.It all tracks,right down to his avoidance of people.

"It's one of the few documents we have of Logan's history.He was very good at avoiding cameras and not leaving much in the way of a paper trail.He traveled a lot and created new identities for himself left and right,trying to keep people from noticing he didn't age like them,he never got sick,and if he got hurt,it was never for long.He was a scared little bunny,but not because he committed a crime.He was scared of himself,and of other people."Maddy scoffed derisively,and turned back to the keyboard to take the picture off the screen.

"I think he had good reason to be.People fear what they don't understand,"Naomi said,although she felt numb.This had to be bullshit,although it sounded plausible."And back then,no one knew of the mutant phenomenon."

"He was better than those chimps,and yet he feared them.If he had any brains at all,he could have made a fortune-money equals both safety and power.And he lived long enough to amass money no matter what menial work he deigned to do.But did he?No."

"He didn't want that,from the sound of it.It sounds like he wanted to be left alone.What's wrong with that?"Perversely,that did sound like Logan.

Maddy swiveled back towards her,her icy blue eyes filled with contempt."He was a pussy,sis.A craven coward who wanted to drop out of the world.Even after he dropped out of the Organization,you know where he lived?A four room shack in the woods,and I mean in the woods:the nearest human was maybe twenty miles away,and the road was just a rutted path in the forest.It was a Unabomber type ramshackle hut with very little furniture,and electricity and running water handled by a gas fueled generator out back,so he didn't have to pay utility bills.It was one of the most depressing places I had ever seen;if desolation and failure had an architecture,that was it.Of course,it was the middle of nowhere,and should have been an ideal hiding place,but he had to come into town for supplies and to hit the bars,and that's where they caught him eventually-in a fucking bar's parking lot.How pathetic is that?The funny thing is,if he had slipped the net,he'd have been long gone:under the floorboards of his bed in that sad little shack was a locked suitcase containing ten thousand dollars in American and Canadian cash,and two separate i.d. packets-visas,passports,birth certificates,driver's licenses,all very authentic looking-under two different names.That's the two things Logan does really well:fight and run.Or,at least it used to be."

She didn't know if it was the drugs,all the bullshit,or a combination of the two,but she felt dizzy with rage.If she didn't break open this smug little bitch's skull in the next minute she'd explode.

But she was going to have play this carefully.First of all,she wasn't sure she could stand up, nonetheless move fast;and she had threatened to drain her of her memories,and she had no doubt she'd do it,sister or not.But then it suddenly occurred to her there was a flaw in her story.
"If you burned through Logan's memories,why is starting to remember things?"

That got her.She winced,as if the comment was a personal attack,and admitted,"I was young and undisciplined then,and I drained him before his operations.I wasn't responsible for the after part.But it does seem that his mutation extends to his brain."

"Meaning?"

She sighed wearily,as if it pained her to discuss it.Good."His memory engrams seem to be regenerating.A medical impossibility,but everything about him is an impossibility."

"So,even if you do drain him of his memory again,they'll grow back."

"Eventually.It's taken him,what,fifteen years to get this far?In another fifteen years,we should have what we want."

The drugs made it hard to think,but not impossible."If I go along with your plan,I don't want Logan hurt anymore.Do you understand me?"

She shook her head,that patronizing smile back in full force."Sorry,sis,it doesn't work like that. He's gotta be broken down to his core programming;there's no way to fake that."

"But I want him back intact when this is over,"she insisted,meaning it.She wanted him intact now,but she had to play it cool,or she could accidentally do worse than killing them all."Can we use a telepath instead?Drugs?Something that will alter him enough that it will take him to core programming while only semi-permanently damaging his memories?I want him to remember me."

Her cold eyes narrowed,studying her like an ant under a microscope."Holy shit.You can't like that hairy freak."

"He means a lot to me,and he's been hurt enough in his life."She fought to keep the hate from her eyes,and the sneer from her voice.She wanted to kill her so badly it was like a sour metallic taste in the back of his throat.

Maddy's scrutiny was intense,like being subjected to an x-ray scan that burned like the sun."If you think you can swing some ploy where you pretend to play along and then free Logan,let me assure you now,none of you are leaving here without my help.Try anything like that,and I can guarantee a full erasure of you both."

"Logan and I came here to get you out.If I go along,will this get you out?"

She seemed to study her for a long moment,trying to judge her veracity."Eventually,yes."

"Then promise me I'll get Logan at the end of it."

"If you want him that bad,he's yours.But only when I say so.No trying to spring him before.Got it?"

Before Naomi could force herself to agree,a strip light on the wall flashed blue,making Maddy's head snap around violently."What is it?"Naomi asked,slightly hopeful.

"An internal alert.Something's wrong,but they don't want whoever to know they're on to them."

Naomi had to bite the inside of her cheek to keep from smiling,and wondered if it was Logan or Angel.Or both.

He could feel the metal table beneath him,the adamantium shackles around his wrists and ankles,pinning him down.The room reeked of gunpowder,he could even taste it in his mouth like grit,and he remembered being shot,which was why he felt a bit like he'd been trampled by horses.Frankenstein was paying for that,goddamn it.

He could still hear the blip of the machines,and told himself mentally to keep his heart rate at the level it was now,to keep his thoughts to a bare minimum and hope the sluggish activity barely showed on the monitors.Because he knew they would probably move him soon,and if they thought he was still out,their guard would be down.

Until this moment,he didn't realize he knew anything about meditation or biofeedback,but he knew how to keep his heart rate and breathing slow and steady,concentrating solely on that until he was almost asleep.He felt queerly semi-conscious,but still aware enough to smell the blood and gunpowder,to hear the machines keeping regimental time.

The door hissed open;he kept his heart rate steady,breathing lethargic.Three sets of footsteps on a metal floor,then a pause as someone leaned over,looking at the machine read outs,looking at him."Give him another dose,"a voice he recognized as Frankenstein's said."He could regain consciousness at any time."

Sooner than you think,Logan thought,with a twinge of satisfaction.

He felt the needle jabbed into his arm,but he gave no reaction at all.If it was the same stuff as before-which he rather hoped-it would hardly work,if at all.

He was feeling very warm,almost feverish,when he heard someone unlock the first shackle.

After all,Angel seemed immune to the gas that took out everyone-including Logan-at Dry Lake, and yet the drugs they had used on Logan seemed to kill him here.Was the difference that it was injected instead of aspired?Why would that matter?Were his lungs different somehow?

Bishop had just broken the skin,drawing up a small,crimson bead of blood,when something happened that Sanders refused to believe at first.

Angel's hand shot up,lightning fast,and grabbed Bishop's wrist,making the older man gasp and jump in shock.Angel's eyes opened,squinting at the bright lights of the operating theater."Stop it,that tickles,"he said,then slammed a flat palm into the center of Bishop's forehead,sending him crashing down to the tiled floor.

Then Angel looked up at the last place Bishop must have looked-up at the observation deck.

Sanders felt the apple core fall from his hand as he realized something had happened to Angel's face.The eyes that seemed to bore through the thick glass were as yellow as the sun,and his forehead had...what the hell had happened to it?And his teeth didn't always look like that,did they?

Angel's jumping off the table shocked Sanders into finally moving.He knew he was dead;it was not a coma,it was not one of those Zen meditation things:he did not breathe at all,or have a pulse,for over a half an hour.And he was cold as ice.He was 'stick-a-a-fork-in-him-he's-done' stone cold fucking dead.And what the hell had happened to his face?

He jolted out of his seat and ran for the door,but the window seemed to explode behind him, and he instinctively ducked as shards of glass pelted him like frozen rain.Just as he reached up for the door controls,he was roughly grabbed by the lapels of his jacket and thrown against the wall hard enough to lose all his breath.

"Now,if you want to live,you're going to tell me where Logan and Naomi are,"Angel-or whatever he was now-snarled into his face,jagged teeth flashing like a panther's."And tell me how to quietly disable the internal security system."

Up close,his jaundiced eyes were even more animalistic,inhuman,and when he got his breath back,Sanders still refused to believe what had just happened."You're dead,"he exclaimed,not sure how any of this happened.What kind of mutant freak was he?He was more deeply mutated than anyone he had ever seen.Was it possible he didn't even need to breathe,to have a beating heart?That was insane.

Angel glared at him as if he was the stupidest man alive."Tell me something I don't know."He then glanced down at himself,noticing as if for the first time he was naked,and said,"Like where my clothes are.Now,I'm no fan of the logger grunge look,but it was better than nothing."

This day could not get more surreal if it tried.Sanders hoped he'd wake up from this nightmare any second.

But he never did.

The last ankle shackle undone,he was grabbed roughly and yanked off the table,and remained as limp as a freshly dead body as the two soldiers (yes-he could smell the oil on their guns,the ozone scent of paralyzers) propped him up between them.

Only then did he make his move.

He snapped his head up to the right,smashing his skull straight into the face of the larger soldier,his bones shattering under the adamantium,and warm blood spurted onto Logan seconds before the man crumpled to the floor,unconscious and surely better for it.

His right arm free,Logan lashed out with his fist and hit the second soldier so hard he went right over the metal table,the paralyzer he was reaching for clattering uselessly to the floor.

Leaving him with Doctor Frankenstein.

Running would have been the smart thing to try,but he was too stupid for that:he went for the paralyzer.

Logan couldn't help but smile.Oh,good,he wanted a fight.The man was a moron-how'd he get to be a doctor?

He let him grab it as he popped his claws and lashed out,shredding the paralyzer in his hands and nearly slicing his fingers off.A small electric shock tingled down his skeleton,but it was not at paralyzing strength;hell,Naomi had given him worse shocks accidentally.

But it was Frankenstein that jumped back as if shocked,putting his back to the wall,his small, sunken eyes rapidly scudding from his face to the floor as he looked for more weapons.

"There's no getting out of here alive,Logan,"he claimed,trying to sound steely,and almost succeeding.But there was a small tremor that gave away his fear,along with the smell."You'll have no chance at all if you kill me."

"I don't want to kill you,"he growled,keeping his claws out and ready.He made sure Frankenstein was conscious of them,and was he ever:once his ferrety eyes focused on them,they couldn't seem to  move away."I want to torture you.I want to slice off a small bit of you at a time,for as long as humanly possible.Ever wonder what it feels like,huh?"

"You can't scare me."He lied,so blatantly Logan couldn't help but chuckle mirthlessly.This fucking bastard was a muscular contraction away from wetting himself.

"How many people have you tortured?Do you know?Did you keep count?"