Love That Burns

eighteen

Rogue, Bobby, and Pyro weren't happy to be left on the jet while the others followed the plan and entered the Alkali base. Mystique went in first, disguised as Logan. As soon as she was able to gain control from the inside, she opened the spillway doors and allowed the others to enter the base. Logan stepped inside and immediately sniffed. He caught wind of your scent. It was barely there, but it was there. The group met Mystique in the control room.

"Have you found it?" Magneto asked, going up to the controls.

"A large portion of the energy from the dam has been diverted to this chamber," Mystique explained, showing the map of the base on the screen.

"Cerebro," Ororo whispered.

"There is it," Magneto said.

"Can you shut it down from here?"

"No."

"Come," Magneto said to Mystique. "There's little time."

"Not without us," Jean told him.

"Oh my God," Ororo said, noticing one of the screens. "The children. Kurt, will you come with me?"

"Yes."

As the others continued talking, Logan looked over the monitors, trying to see if he could find you anywhere. He caught sight of Stryker, most likely head towards Cerebro. If he couldn't locate you immediately, then the next best thing was Stryker. The others were too busy forming a plan to see Logan slip his comms device out of his ear and head out of the room.

~~~

Stryker marched down the halls, headed for Cerebro.

"Make sure Weapon XII is ready," he ordered. "I need more time."

"Yes, sir," one of the soldiers replied.

The soldier signaled a few others to follow him and headed to where you were being kept. You were still upright, chained to the table. The soldiers entered and one of them was quick to insert you with another dose of liquid. Then they unchained you, helping you to the ground.

"Weapon XII," the soldier called. "You are ordered to protect Colonel Stryker. He needs more time."

With a simple nod, you headed out with one objective: protect Stryker.

~~~

Logan was growing more frantic as he searched the base for you or Stryker. He kept coming up empty, going from room to room, hallway to hallway. The whole base was a maze. Suddenly he stopped, hearing something from down another hallway that sounded familiar. Logan headed over and down a flight of stairs into a dimly lit room. In the center of it, there was a tank of water, with his x-ray's behind it.

Logan inhaled sharply, closing his eyes as memories of his skeleton being grafted with adamantium filled his head. Snapping his eyes opened, Logan continued to explore the room, with each piece he remembered more and more of that day. The revenge. The anger. The fight to get out of there before they erased his memories.

"The tricky thing about adamantium is," Stryker spoke up from behind Logan, "that if you ever manage to process its raw, liquid form, you gotta keep it that way." He walked around, moving into Logan's line of sight. "Keep it hot. Because once the metal cools, it's indestructible. But you already know that. I used to think you were one of a kind, Wolverine. I was wrong."

Logan clenched his jaw, but before he could take a move towards Stryker, your scent filled his nostrils. You stepped out of the dark, moving to stand between Logan and Stryker.

"Y/N," Logan breathed out. There was no recognition in your eyes as you stared Logan down.

"Y/N has always been one of my favorite soldiers," Stryker taunted. "She just needed a little reminder."