'Nature...
We think we understand it,
That heat that runs through us.
We don't understand anything,
Not until we kill.'

***********************************************

The roses were the start of it she was sure, the perfect beauty of their forms against her window, the climbing rose was outside her room. It filled her entire room with the scent of heady blooms every afternoon. The sun swung round to warm the petals and realease the fragrance into the space she lived in.

The deep deep red would transfix her eye as the scent filled every crevice inside her room, she'd even taken to keeping her wardrobe doors open so the scent would infiltrate her vast collection of clothes. Even though she'd taken the stupid cure didn't mean she got rid of her wardrobe. It was a style thing, so when she'd finally got enough courage up to get out there into the world of men it had all gone wrong. First the roses, then the dress, then her skin.
She giggled to herself as she hung from the frame in the medbay, if only she'd had the voices still when it had happened. She might have saved him from all the pain but then what can you expect from an animal?

*********************************************************

"Hey Rogue, are you coming to 'practice'?" She moved in her one piece body suit toward the voice that called through her door. Swinging it wide she caught Jubilee stretching out on her doorframe, 'practice' was a danger room session but they used the codewords that had been in place before they'd even been at the school.
"Sure just let me get my bottle," her accent had faded somewhat over the three years she'd been here but it had added a tone of sophistication she liked. To her ears she'd sounded like a hick for the first year here. She still had a soft lilt to her words, like velvet but the grating hardness of her momma's voice had gone from her own.
They moved downstairs to the danger room where Storm was about to put them through their paces again, they were already a team but they needed to be challenged every day, hence 'practice'. But when they got there something was different or should that have been 'someone'.

Two hours later both of them were resting in the sunshine, comparing bruise patterns when a shadow dropped over them. Their new visitor had come to see them and Jubilee was trying her hardest to get him to notice her. Thing was he was interested in fare closer from his own home, "You did well in practice today chere, Remy hopes you'll be better tomorrow when he takes the class." He gave a little wave to them both and saunted away, locking eyes to Marie's own and she felt the heat of her blush start up and cover her skin before the tall muscular man turned away from her view. Jubilee broke the silence that had hung around them since his chocolate voice had covered the air between them.
"Good God Damn! He makes everything sound like he's undressing you! I bet he could say 'Pass the salt' and you'd be on the floor legs open!"
"JUBES!"
"Well he could! I mean you saw the way he moved in there, graceful isn't the word, 'cat-like' maybe." Her eyes narrowed as she wondered out loud, "Think he's as lithe everywhere?" Marie slapped her arm and they both erupted into giggles of laughter in the sunshine. Everything seemed to be going great, that was until the ball.

Three months of practice and they were finally 'match-fit' as Storm put it, Remy had been asked to help out because of his flexibility and speed. Now most of the teams knew some moves that would help get them out of trouble as fast as it got them into it. To reward everyone for their work Storm had organised a Summer Ball, exams were nearly over, things were settled and the world seemed as if it was finally getting the message about mutation.

Then she blew everything apart and it all started with a dress.

"Where's my dress gone Kitty?" They were all getting ready in the large suite reserved for 'Uber-Guests' as Jube's put it. It had a bathroom and lounge to the large room, but the bonus was it had three full length mirrors side by side. So you could see all of you while you stood inside the little mirrored bay.

Marie'd just come out of the shower when she noticed her dress was missing, she'd laid it on the end of the bed, the gossamer threaded thing looked like it was made of smoke and was coloured the same. It was the most risky thing she'd ever bought but it wasn't as if she'd be naked underneath it. She had a wonderful bodice to go with it, fitted and seamless to go underneath and as she looked for her dress her eye caught the end of her bodice under the edge of the bed.
Huffing she went over and snatched the bodice up from the wooden floor where it had been laying, pooled in her thin dress. As she pulled the fabric made a sound that filled the air, tearing, ripping. The scream was out before she even noticed and Jubes and Kitty were close enough to see the damage and pain on her face as it tore.

Looking under the bed where it had caught was a nail head, a tiny nail head but the fabric was so sheer, so lightweight that it had instantly caught on it. Now all she had was a ripped dust rag and a bodice that wouldn't be worth wearing without the rest of the dress.

Fury...it filled every single fibre of her, she didn't scream again, she didn't shout all she did do was look at the two of them and wrap her hand in the remains of her dress.

The dress she was supposed to have worn, to show the world that she was beautiful, now her skin had been neutered didn't mean she'd been as well. Wrapping the fabric tight on her hand she fisted it and smashed the middle mirror where Kitty was getting ready. Gritting her teeth as the shards fell onto the floor around Kitty's bare feet. One or two landing in her skin and making her squeak in fright, when the last piece had tinkled to the floor Marie just turned and walked out.

As she walked to her room she was shaking, her mind had filled with such images of violence, such images of death. She'd wanted to push Kitty through the mirror, smash her against it and cut her throat on the silvered shards. All over a dress.
When she reached home she threw her lock home, if anyone came calling she really didn't feel like talking, she didn't feel upto facing anyone right now.

It was nearly twelve when someone came knocking, she'd expected Jubes or Storm but it wasn't it was Remy.
"Chere? You in there?"
She moved slowly to her door, expecting a frowning face and a reprimand coming but instead what she got was something she'd been wondering about for a month.

When she opened her door, Remy just plucked her up and planted a kiss on her, not a chaste kiss, not something she'd experienced before with Bobby. But a real woman to man kiss and as angry as she had been it faded out as Remy pushed his way into her room.

She'd dreamed this, wanted this, needed this and in her frustrated dreams before she'd taken the cure the faces had changed but the end result had been the same. Her naked to the world with a weight of another human between her thighs. So when the opportunity presented itself she took it, she'd been alone too long and the guys here still thought she was poisonous even though she'd been able to touch for nearly six months now.

She heard the lock click as Remy pulled her up his lithe muscular frame, whispering her name and words she didn't understand into her ears. His lips chasing a dance over her skin, she was dressed in her bed robe, a simple thing, small and barely covered her. His hands were already under the silky surface and it lit something deep inside her belly. She wanted this, she didn't want to be the twenty year old virgin she knew she was. So when Remy put her against the wall pressing himself against her sex, the hardness of his arousal easy for her to identify. She didn't question why or if it was her that had caused this in him, had caused this desire that was flowing over her body. All she cared about was that it *was* happening.

She let go, surrendered to every movement, to every demand of his hands and body, the sensations were price enough but they all faded to nothing when he finally entered her. The only thing that spoiled it for her was the name that flew into her head as Remy stretched and filled her aching body.
'Logan.'

The childish dream she'd harboured for so long, hidden deep within her as she'd found her virgin bed empty night after night. Her hands had given her the pleasure she'd sought but the image had been the same for nearly three years until she'd taken the cure.
Logan.
His hands on her, his body arcing over hers, the darkness in his gaze all for her, the hunger he'd felt for Jean turned to her. And inside her mind as Remy nailed her to the wall it was Logan's face, and Logan's body that was doing this to her. The voice she heard was harsher, deeper, the weight against she wished was heavier, stockier, hairier.

When she'd chosen to take the cure she'd put Logan behind her, he was a dream, a thing that she'd no longer cling to. She was 'touchable' and if Logan didn't want that from her she'd find someone who would. Thing was it had taken a stranger to want to and now she had it she was going to keep it.

Concentrating on the man in her arms Marie pushed the dream away concentrating on the feeling of Remy as he pushed her nearer and nearer to her goal. The play of his muscle as he ground himself into her, all power and sensation, licking her skin and whispering how much he loved her. How he'd been waiting for tonight to have her, to tell her about his love. Finaly as he exploded inside her, she finally remembered he hadn't used a condom, she hadn't even thought of it, so lost in the sensation and feeling of someones hands on her skin. He kept grinding at her though, kept moving until she too came around him. His fingers helping her to reach her peak but when she reached it she bit her lips tight together just in case habit re-asserted itself and she called out the wrong name.

They stayed linked for a while, his touch on her skin, his dark eyed gaze roving over her, the sweetness in his face as he kissed her over and over. Finally when it began to hurt he moved out of her and carried her to her bed. Laying her flat she listened as he told her he had to go back to his own room, others would not be so happy with him if they found out right now. He kissed her again, this time the back of her hand and tucked himself away before creeping out of her room. Marie laid there for a while, listening to the tick of her clock. The thought of her risky behaviour finally making her move.

Downstairs in the medbay was a douche solution, she'd use that and take a precautionary pill, Storm made sure every girl knew where they were and to log it in the book if they used it. Pulling on her dressing gown she decided it was the best thing to do, even with a huge grin on her face as she thought about the entrance of her own name in the book would do to the staff down there.

**********************************************************

"Where were you Remy?"
The voice was harsh, tempered and upset, Marie walked over to the kitchen door where the light spilled out into the corridor. It was Storm's voice and she didn't sound happy.
"You said you'd be a moment Remy, half an hour *isn't* a moment." The clatter of pottery told Marie that she was making tea, and if Storm was making tea she needed to calm down.
Creeping closer to the edge of the door Marie listened to the deep velvet chocolate voice of Remy as it wound around the room.
"Chere, Remy he just need to go get something out of his system yes? He walk round the garden for a while, go clear his head, what you ask him make him think long and hard. Remy he not used to bein' asked such things, it a shock to him." The rustle of fabric and the stirring of a spoon filled the air.
"Remy....you know how I feel about you....what we shared in New Orleans. When I asked you here it was partly because I wanted us to carry on the relationship we built there."

Cold.
Thats how she remembered it, a cold numbness that floated through her body, quickly becoming a sickness that made her shake and her skin sweat. Holding herself she ran to the stairs that led to the medbay, the sound of her footsteps loud in the hallway and making someone come out to look at who it was. The shout she heard was Storm asking Remy who it had been, Remy's answer had been like a knife in her already shattered psyche.
"It's no-one Chere, nothing that matters."

Marie flushed herself out nearly six times in the shower, her tears burning as she pushed the douche tube inside her still aching body. Flushing herself out, turning her ache into a pain that became hard and brittle like obsidian glass. She'd never do this again, never allow someone to love her like that, she'd been an idiot, how could she think anyone would ever love her? She was poison, always had been, always would be, skin or no skin.
She wrote in the book, tidied up for herself, cleaned her skin and scrubbed it till it tingled. Only when she was nearly red raw did she find her reflection safe enough to look at. Inside her though the hatred had taken root, the anger found food to flourish and grow and deep inside her cells the will to kill had been woken up.

**********************************************************

The next few weeks were easy, she kept her false smile up as Remy passed them all by but she didn't respond to his flirting or to his attempts to corner her alone. She always ran to her friends who didn't understand her reluctance to be alone with him. It was Jubes who finally closed in on her to find out why.
"What's up Chica? You've been a bit 'off' with Southern Comfort there." It was her nickname for Remy, soft smooth and has a hell of a kick if your not prepared for it.
"Nothing Jubes, just leave it."

That was the red rag to the bull, that was the trigger for Jubes and it was the trigger for Marie as well.

"No, you've been an absolute bitch of late, what's goin' on with you? Is it because of the dress?" Marie raised her tired face, seeing her friends concern in her dark eyes.
"No, it's not. Just leave it Jubes *please*."
"Rogue you have to tell someone, has Logan got back in touch with you? Is that it? Has the Wolvester upset you again?"
Logan would send postcards when he remembered, sometimes they upset her reminding her that he left without her.

"NO JUBES!" Marie made to get away when Jubes grabbed her arm, keeping her still.
"Uh-huh, not *this* time honey! You're gonna spill what's on your mind and turning you into bitch almighty!" Jubes kept herself over Marie, keeping her pinned down, making it impossible for her to move and frustrated,angry and annoyed Marie finally let the pain out of her mouth, spilling the vile truth over them both.

"You want to know why I don't want that snake anywhere near me? He fucked me Jubes, came to my room, told me he loved me to fuck the virgin and like an idiot I believed him! I got fucked by Storm's intended on the night he was supposed to be with her after she asked him to marry her!"

Jubes was in shock, her face had drained of colour and it was only when her screaming thoughts flooded her own mind that Marie realised what had happened. Her skin had turned on and she was draining her, she struggled, she fought to get her weight off her but it wasn't any use. Marie screamed out her rage and frustration but by the time someone came to help it was too late, Jubes was dead.

'Do we remember the promises we make?
Do we feel their links as we move across the world?
I do.
It's why I'm coming home,
Home to you.'
*******************************************

The small communicator buzzed in his pocket, he hadn't opened it for a month or so and even then it had been to check that it was still working. So when it vibrated he was shocked for a moment before he got up out of his seat at the poker table and took the call.
"Logan," there was no need to say anything else whoever had called him knew him. The voice on the other end was familiar, but the tone wasn't.
"Logan, we need you to come home." The stress was onthe word 'home' and he narrowed his eyes as he watched the rest of the players up the ante on the centre of the table. He nodded his assent as someone laid his own chips into the pile.
"Why? What's happened, someone else come callin?" The voice on the other end sighed and he knew whatever it was it was worse than a visit from the military.
"No, it's Rogue."
The look on his face must have spoken for him, he quickly clipped a reply into the tiny phone.
"I'll call ya back in a minute." He hung up, went to the table and threw all his chips in, looking around the table as the rest acted as they thought they should. Thing was Logan had an advantage, he could smell a bluff from a mile away and the guy across from him on the table *was* bluffing. The dealer turned the river card and Logan won the pot, his words clipped and short, his movements hurried for the first time in the three days he'd been playing here.
"Cash me in."
The dealer did as she was asked and soon Logan was outside in the autumn air of Reno, the sounds of city drowning out his concern as he called home.

"What's happened Ro?" The womans' voice on the other end of the phone sounded tired and worn as Logan lifted his leg over his bike.
"Her skin, it's reverted, she was with Jubilee when it happened. They were fighting when her skin just 'switched on' she said, she didn't have the strength to push her off her. " The silence that followed was enough to tell him what had happened.
"Fuck. How is she?" Again there was silence on the other end and Logan wondered how bad it could be.
"That's just it Logan, she won't talk to anyone, she's had to be restrained in the Medbay, doped up. Every time someone gets close she tries to hurt them, tries to touch them. She even tried to kill Remy."
"Who's Remy?" There was an undertone to her voice when she spoke that name.
"Oh, he's my fiancee, he joined us about five months ago from New Orleans. He went to help Rogue and she just attacked him, if Bobby hadn't been there she could have killed him."

Logan listened to the description of her anger, of her rage and he wondered how it had all started. What had made the sweet girl he'd left behind turn into the creature Ro' was describing. And as he fired the bike up after the conversation he couldn't help but wonder if part of him was to blame. Putting the bike into gear he'd be heading for the airport, he was chartering home, he had enough money to buy one outright and he wanted to see her for himself. Hopefully before another day went past, he'd been absent from her life too long as it was.

*********************************************************

The routine was the same, although the drugs they gave her kept the voice of Jubes quiet. She knew that it had been an accident, she didn't hate her, didn't blame her, not when she told her what had happened to her. Jubes just saw it as living somewhere else, she could live with her, be a friend forever, never age, never die (again). Buddhism had taught Jubes that life continued on even when the shell had gone and she was now proof of this. Pity it had to be such a way to do it, but Jubes wasn't that bad a head case to have. But there were other things beginning to stir down here in her mind, darker things, nastier things. As if a wall had been breached inside and everything was beginning to pour out of her.

She swore and spat at the orderly who came to refill her line, she took food when it was offered but always tried to bite the hand that held the spoon. Suspended nearly naked with her lower regions bare so she could be cleaned when she soiled herself. They couldn't even trust her to shit properly without trying to hurt someone. She knew she wasn't mad but exactly why she was like this she didn't understand. Whole hours were blank to her but when she did come out of them her throat was raw as if she'd been screaming or shouting.

Hanging there she watched the door open to her prison cell, and what walked in nearly made her cry out in shame. The way his eyes took her in, the way she was suspended in a frame and jacket, her body revealed to the eye of whoever came in. She watched the emotion cover his face as he took her in, the slide of his hand as he let go of the door. He'd been rushed, she could see that in the way he shifted from foot to foot, the dust of his journey still on him. She had no clue what time it was, but the watch on his wrist read 11.50, whether that was morning or evening she had no clue.

Tears flooded her eyes as she watched him move closer, she didn't want him to see her like this, didn't want him to remember her as a broken thing. She could see his eyes as he roved over her form, taking in the straps and buckles. He came close enough for her to smell him, the scent that was all him, all Logan. He reached out toward her head and she tried to move away but she couldn't, what she did do instead was try to bite him. Her teeth meeting on air as he pulled his hand away, a new wariness coming into his face as he dropped his gaze to her eyes. Seeing the confusion and hatred burning out of her into his own and understanding the source of it all.

"I'm here Marie, I'll be here until you don't need me anymore. I promise you."
The laugh that answered his words chilled him, it was brittle, harsh and hollow, her face conflicted as part of her laughed at his heartfelt words while her eyes begged for help. She was broken and it was upto him to try and put her back together again, because as Ro had told him on the phone. She blamed him in the first place, it was his anger, his rage she was manifesting, she'd been turned into Wolverine by his touch and there was no one else who knew how to deal with him.

As he left the room he didn't say sorry to her, there was no point, she'd never hear him, not with the struggle going on in her head. He was only sorry he hadn't known how much of him she'd taken in and the burden it had put on her mind. Logan left Marie behind as he went to get his list of things he'd need to do this. And one of them was that he wasn't to be disturbed or questioned, if they wanted her back they'd have to do things *his* way. He only hoped there was enough of Marie to bring back.

'Mirrors are never true,
They only show what we want to see,
If you want the truth,
Ask the one you love.'
*****************************************

The first thing he did was to have her unstrapped, the room she was in was alright but she had to be able to move for herself. He took advice and covered his skin in a mono-molecular barrier that was experimental but with his mutation he could cope with it. At least he could touch her when he wore it, when she'd been unstrapped he'd held her physically up.

Her muscle was a little wasted from being up there for nearly a week, but apart from that she was still strong. Her head had pushed back into his own hoping to smash his nose for him, he'd just let her smack the back of her head into his open palm. The fingers of his hand gripping her skull so tight and squeezing it, so that the pressure of her movements made it hard for her to move. So she growled at him instead, swore, spat, called him every name under the sun.

As the frame wheeled out Marie caught a blow to one of the orderlies with her foot, the man winced but kept the pain hidden. Logan stamped on her toes that were on the ground, her cry echoing out across the room. He knew he'd broken at least one of the toes but she had to learn the hard way if she was what he thought she was. Wolverine never gave ground, never showed weakness, just fought until there was nothing left to fight *with*. And that was just what was going to happen as soon as the frame was out of here and the camera's were switched off.

He prepared everyone for whay might come out of the cell, that she might be near death, she could be almost snapped in two. But the rage she was hiding was killing her as sure as he'd put the gun to her head himself.
So when the door finally shut leaving her with him he just dropped her to the floor. Going over to a corner and crouching there, undoing his boots while he watched her. Every single movement, scent and twitch of her registered with him, he could take anything she doled out and she'd be taking in return.

******************************************************

Her mind was a whirlwind of confusion, Logan was here, he hadn't helped her, hadn't held her to him like he had last time he was here. He helped them get her down, but he'd held her still....that meant he didn't care for her, didn't want to be here....so why was he? What did it mean? How had he got here so quickly?

Underneath her own mind the voice of Jubilee was trying to talk to her, still muffled by the drugs that kept her at bay. Shaking her head as she tried to clear her mind, as if rattling the cage would re-order the thoughts that were out of place in there. Her foot hurt and Marie looked down at the reddening toes, the imprint of Logan's boot on her skin. He hadn't come to help her, he'd come to hurt her, just like every other person here. This wasn't a home, it was a cage, a prison and if she wanted to get out she'd have to go through Logan. Inside she felt something slide through her, something dark and deadly. It slid through her body and rested in her eyes, sitting just behind her eyes, she dropped herself into a relaxed crouch like Logan. Unknowingly mirroring him, her very movements telling him who was in charge of her mind now and it wasn't Marie.

**********************************************************

He scented her pain, hatred, confusion, upset, sorrow so tangible he could taste it on his tongue, bitter and sharp. He hadn't stopped watching her but when she crouched like him he focussed closely on her fingers, they were twitching, eager and he braced himself readying for her attack.
When it came she telegraphed her move before she even hit him, her anger had made her sloppy, the clawed fingers that were meant for his eyes were snatched out of the air swiftly. Shocking her with their speed, she tried to stop her attack in that split second knowing that she'd gotten too close, too fast. That what came next she only had herself to blame for.

Logan spun her using her wrist into the wall, forcing himself up behind her near naked form, crushing her as she tried to breathe. With each exhale he pushed deeper against her, making her ribs creak, his hand in her hair pushing her against the cold smooth tile of the wall. The first cracks in it as she began to black out, the sight of the grey grout looming in her vision as she succumed to the lack of oxygen reaching her mind. It didn't take long, when he saw her face relax he moved away and let her fall to the floor. Just in front of him, he wasn't going to do a damn thing to help her. She had to learn she could trust him and if it meant beating her black and blue then he'd do it.

It had taken him three days to even approach a human being in the beginning, four months before he even let one touch him without wanting to kill the one that had. Logan watched as she came round, her breath becoming easy again, her moan as she shifted on the floor, her wrist almost giving out under her as she pushed her way up to look at where she was.
"Logan?" Her voice was her own, the one he remembered out on the road, the curious mix of north and south. Suddenly aware that she was nearly naked she became upset and scrambled away from him, trying to keep him away from her, away from her skin. She was mumbling to herslef, trying to make sense of why he was there, what had happened to her. Time to get her to concetrate on him.

"Marie." Her head looked over at him, while her knees were drawn up to protect her nakedness.
"MARIE!" His shout made her jump, making her fear of him fill the room, something he hadn't wanted but it showed she was actually listening to him.
"What happened Marie, what did this to you?"

The question floated into her head, the drugs were wearing off now, she could hear Jubilee in her head trying to talk to her. Telling her to talk to him, to answer him, to tell what had happened with Remy, but she couldn't; she couldn't tell Logan that she'd been made a fool of. That she'd sold herself so cheaply, especially to someone like Remy. So she retreated, hid from him, from the dark gaze that she'd loved so much, wanted so much to be hers and now he was here trying to help her she couldn't accept it. She left Jubes in charge of her mind, Marie just couldn't cope anymore.

"Hey there Wolvester," the tone was one he recognised, the way her hand moved to the long hair of her left hand side and twirled the strands. "Jesus she *has* to get these split ends sorted out!"
"Marie?" Her head snapped to look at his enquiring gaze anda smile wrapped around Marie's face.
"Close bud but no cigar, not this time. Jubilee. She kind of 'sucked me in' you could say, not her fault though. I mean not in a way that she controlled it or anything, I mean it was a total shock to her as well as me. Didn't hurt much that I can tell you, just like an electric shock."

Logan looked at the way the woman in front of him acted, her legs went out in front of her and she seemed completely at ease in the near nothing she was wearing. Currently she was looking at her hands in surprise, as if she was checking out her nails.
"So you're Jubilee?" A smile and a wink were his answer, "What happened to her? To Marie?"
"Dude if I tell you, you have to relax okay? She really thought it was something special, something she'd been hoping for from you until you left again. If her memories are anything to go from."
Logan just growled and moved closer to her, making sure he could read her every emotion and scent. Just in case.

"That Remy guy? Storm's lover? Well he took advantage of Rogue, he went to see her after the Summer Ball. He seduced her, in her room, up against the wall, while downsatiars Storm was waiting to talk to him about his answer. You see she'd just asked him to marry her and his response had been to find Rogue and fuck her into the plaster."

He felt his blood cool, his heartbeat slowed down as he put the pieces together. Calm patience filled his mind as he put the thing together in his head, Marie had been taken advantage of. A sexual predator had ruined her belief and self worth inside, not that she'd taken the cure and been a leper for a while. Not that Bobby had spurned her for Kitty, even when she was touchable it looked like no one was willing to even risk being near her. And add to that mix his absence and a man who saw her as an easy target.

"Does Storm know?" Jubilee shook Maries head and the tears began to fall and the words she'd told him before he'd found out rang through his ears. That she'd been *hoping* it would have been him, that he'd be the *one* who took that part of her. Instead she'd been conned out of it, thrown it away when she didn't know any better, all because he was somewhere else. He was as much to blame as she was, he'd known how much she'd wanted him, needed him and he'd avoided the issue by being absent. And this was the outcome, well some things were going to change right now.

Logan got up, opened the door and Jubilee/Marie watched him leave. When he came back there might be one member short on the Alpha team.

**********************************************************

Storm had jsut settled down to sleep with Remy when the door to their room was smashed open, half awake she saw a shape reach out over her and pull Remy by the hair out of bed. The light coming from the hallway revealed it was Logan and by the looks of his face he wasn't in the mood to talk.
Pullng Remy up to stand straight Logan punched him across the room sending him into the wardrobes, his back splintering the frame and Remy moaning in pain. Storm was about to step in between when Remy came roaring out of the wreckage, throwing charged objects left and right. Logan didn't even duck as the charges went off in the room, they illuminated his features and Storm saw the bright glint of metal before she screamed out, "LOGAN NO!!"

The blades entered Remy's thigh and punctured the bone, pulling them free he scraped the other set across the fine features of the face that was now in agony. Snarling, he turned to Storm who was now gathering sheets to staunch the blood that was pooling around Remy's battered body. He didn't look at the man on the floor but he did Storm, "Thought ya had better *taste* Ro' than to marry a rapist!" With that he just left her alone to deal with the injured man she loved and the things he'd done.

**********************************************************

Logan felt better, he was still angry with himself but he didn't care about the mess he'd left behind in there. Ro was an adult she'd deal, but Marie? She'd been abused by a man who only wanted her as a conquest, a notch, a trophy he could claim. Anger bubbled up and he let his claws fire and he dragged them down the entire length of the corridor. When he reached the bottom of the stairs he put them away, didn't want Jones getting worried about them.
Besides he had to get back to Marie, she needed him andhe wasn't going to let her down again.

'Humanity?
You ask *ME* about humanity?
All we are are naked apes,
Still fighting over who gets to fuck the best male.
You want to see what Humanity is,
Just look at the chimps in the zoo,
They're more honest.'
************************************************

He was still steaming when he got down there, the blood on his knuckles still scented of Remy and he needed to drive those claws of his deep into the man's body, needed to feel his last breath cover his skin.

Throwing the door shut he fired the lock home and paced the small space, his footfalls going past Marie who was still quiet with her head resting on her knees. She'd obviously returned to her original position, telling him Marie was back. The smell of salt was deep in the air and Logan felt his own beast rise to the scent.

"Why him Marie?"

The words were bitten out, coloured bile green and he knew he should be comforting her but he couldn't. Underneath his own calm facade Wolverine was gaining ground, her very presence made him angry, that she'd given herself over for so little. He didn't want to admit that he'd been hoping for her, that he'd be 'the one' to take her, to rip through that thin skin barrier of hers. To mark her with his scent where no other man had, just the thought of it made his blood boil and the grip he had on his own darkness slip a little more.

The trembling voice that whispered her words out to the room from under her hair didn't help him any.
"He told me he loved me."

Anger was being replaced by fury, cold hard brutal fury, the thing that made him such a weapon on the battlefield. The seperation of self and thought from deed, she was lost, used, broken, destroyed and he was going to build her back up from the bottom and before that he had to destroy what was left of her. He had to take whatever she was and kill it entirely and in the worst way possible.

"You believed him? Why? Because he fluttered his eyelashes at you? Because he just flicked a gaze or two at you? What was it huh? Tell me, what did he do that made him *so* attractive to you Marie?! What was he to you? A 'hero'?"
Her head snapped up at the way the word was bitten out, as if it was a dirty word. Marie watched as Logan began to strip off the rest of his clothing, the fire in his eye wasn't filled with passion, it was filled with hatred, with pain, with betrayal.

Stammering she tried to answer him but the words just wouldn't come out, seeing him stripped naked in front of her made her fear rocket. Watching as he produced a small tube out of his jean pocket and rubbed a solution over his hands and then rubbed them over his skin. Seeing her watch him he spoke to her, clipped, dark sentences, no feeling but anger and hate in them.

"See this stuff?" He waved the little tube at her, "This stuff lets me *touch* you without you killin' me 'again'." The last word thrown at her like a knife making her twitch and shuffle against the wall. Marie watched as Logan covered the entire surface of his skin, closing her view as he rubbed his gentials with it. Making sure there was no area left uncovered by the stuff, using his shirt to get it across his broad back, feeling as the thin skin spread out over him. It'd be enough to keep her mutation at bay, allow him to do what he needed to do to her.

"You see Marie, while you were 'out'; Jubes let me in on your little secret. An seein' how all it takes to get somethin from you is a few words and an interest in ya well bein. I think ya owe me a good hard fuck or two don't ya think? After all, that life ya got right now I gave mine for, time for me to collect if the accounts open."

He sprang across the room but Marie was already moving away, she was trying to run in a room that had no exit for her. Fear made her anger spike and she tried to hit him as she was chased round the walls of the room, Logan hounded her, slapping her skin with his bare hand. Not too hard but enough to make her run away, he grabbed her own shift and tore it from her. Letting her rest a moment while he brought the garment upto his nose, letting her see him do it. The darkness in his gaze being recognised by the piece of him in her head. The words that filled the air were calm and almost peaceful in tone, their content however was anything but.

"I'm goin to catch ya Marie and when I do I'm gonna fuck ya. Not like that dark eyed bastard upstairs, oh no. Ya gonna learn the hard way that you gave away somethin' that wasn't yours *to* give."
Logan dropped the shredded garment to the floor and began to shift toward her, slow, easy, as if she were a deer he was hunting. Marie for her part was terrified, this wasn't the man in her dreams, this wasn't how it was supposed to be, he was supposed to love her, cherish her, cradle her to him. Not treat her like an animal to be devoured, consumed, crying she backed herself away from him, not knowing she was playing right into his hands.

"Ya see *girl*, I had 'rights', first fuck if ya like. An now I have to teach ya the hard way." Marie hit the corner of the room and instead of running she huddled backward trying to force the image of Logan doing this to her out of her struggling mind.
"No...please Logan...don't...please...."

Inside he saw her cowering from him, afraid, bereft of everything that made her Marie, that her final protector had turned on her but it wasn't enough. What he'd told her was true, she *owed* him and he finally admitted that that was the real reason why he'd kept away from here. He'd wanted her wrapped round him from the moment he'd been on the damn train with her. He'd wanted those perfect rose bud lips wrapped around his dick, that creamy white flesh she hid up against his own. An now Wolverine had her he wasn't going to leave her alone, no matter how much he'd hate himself later. He deserved this, he'd died for her, suffered for her and it was time for her to pay back what she owed him.

Logan slammed himself up against her, cramming her into the corner even further, the heat of his body transferring to her skin. He was so alive, so vital that she tried to will her skin into hurting him, killing him so he'd back off but nothing happened. The grin that met her ear and eye made her retreat even further from the image of who he'd been in her mind.

"Shit, looks like this stuff works," he sounded surprised as his strong hands began to move and shift her naked body. She didn't resist at first when she should have, the first moves he made were to get her feet from the floor. Now she didn't have anything to push away with, his body was bigger, stronger, heavier than hers. The width of him made part of her excited while the rest of her was trying not to provoke the beast that was in control of her.

Logan's hand wound in her hair and pulled her head back so she couldn't drop her face or get away from his eyes and words.
"He kiss you?" Marie didn't answer him verbally her head shifted slightly in his grip and the darkness in Logan's eye deepened. Forcing her face toward his he took her mouth, his tongue pushing past her lips and through her teeth. When she tried to resist he just tightened his grip on her hair, pulling it savagely back so her mouth opened in pain anyway. He took adavantage and punished her by keeping her drowned in his kiss, only when he heard her heart slowing did he release her.

His own excitement building at her weakness, her being under his control made Wolverine howl with pleasure. Grinding himself against her sex, feeling the slide of her skin against him. Her legs over his hips already cradling him to her whether she wanted him or not. Seeing her eyes becoming vacant he shook her head until she looked at him. The spite in her eyes beginning to colour her dark gaze.

"He fucked you like this?" He made his point by crushing his already hard penis into her, all he had to do was dip down and he'd be in her. He brought her face close to his, whispering into her tight features as he shifted along her body. "You liked it didn't ya? You wanted him to fuck you didn't ya? But ya weren't thinkin of him were ya when he was nailin ya to the wall were ya?" The heat of shame filled her skin and he felt her weak struggle against him again.

That snapped whatever control he had left, the very thought of her like this with that dark eyed bastard made his blood boil. He shifted back and dove into her, his hips pistoning into her as hard as he could, burying himself to the hilt in her. His voice growling out the words to her ears as he took what was his by *rights*.
"YOU WERE MINE! You hear me? MINE!"

Marie felt her body shudder as she tried to give to the sudden invasion of her body, but Logan was bigger, thicker than Remy and she felt the pain of her sex tearing slightly as she tried to accomodate him. His grip on her hair was tight; as was the grip he had on her hip, supporting her as he pounded her into the corner. Logan forced her to look at him as he fucked her, when she met his gaze through tear filled eyes the iris's were huge, covering most of the hazel she loved. Turning his eyes into souless pits, ones that soared out from her shattered mind. This was *Wolverine*, this wasn't Logan, this was the beast that had hidden in her head, this was the source of the anger she'd been filled with. And in repsonse to it's own reflection the darkness within her own soul roared forward, swamping everything she was. Letting her thoughts scramble and throw themselves through her mouth as her own bitter darkness erupted from her words.

"You wanna know why, why I let him take me, why I *wanted* someone so badly? Because *you* weren't there, every night I went to bed *alone*. Alone, afraid and needing someone, something, *anything*. YOU ran away, YOU didn't want *me*, so I gave it to someone who *wanted* it, wanted 'me'."
It was the truth and they both knew it, it didn't stop him from fucking her, oh no. As her tears began to fall, spreading out over her skin he carried on. Licking up their salt, her body reacting to him even when she didn't want it to. Her words being pushed out of her with every jolt of his hips against hers. Her body being forced to take everything he was, just like her mind had, to see him as he really was. An animal, concerned with taking what was *his*.

"Remy wanted me, he thought I was worth the risk, at least there was that, at least he thought I was worth that much!"
He was so close, the creeping sensation of his balls building until it threatened to explode, knowing that when he came he'd be seeing stars. Her last words echoed over his skin as he reached peak, his growl filling the space between them.
The hot rush of his seed filling her sex made her relax, maybe now he'd release her, let her go, leave her alone where she could retreat into her own shattered mind and try to piece together something worth saving.

His hand shifted across her hip dropping between them both, their slick skin parting to allow his fingers room. Marie tensed again as she realised what Logan was doing, his voice deep dark and threatening as he pulled her closer to his lips, whispering before he kisses her, telling her the truth about Remy.
"Want to know why he fucked you? He fucked you because you were an easy target, a virgin to notch on his bed post before he married Ro'. The 'Untouchable Girl' fucked by the 'Dark eyed Demon', you weren't *anythin* to him, never were. Not like you were to *me*!" He gave her clit a twisting graze and pushed his still hard erection deeper into her. Boring into her eyes as he worked at her clit, sending aching shudders through her as he slowly ground into her sex again.

Silence reigned as he worked on her clit, forcing her head backward into the wall as he dropped his own mouth to her chest. Lifting her by his weight pressed against her so he could reach her breasts. Taking one into his mouth he suckled on her, making her hands move to touch his back. He was giving her pleasure, giving her what he would have given her if she'd waited, if she'd trusted herself enough to beleive she was worth more than she'd sold herself for.

Her dreams exploded in her head, her voice finally clear of hate, of pain, of anything but the truth that hurt to speak, to admit to. She let her voice carry the words across his skin, knowing that they didn't mean anything to him now. All this was about was him but she had to tell him, had to share what she'd been carrying inside her. The piece of him that had caused her all this pain, as she was climbing the ladder to heaven.
"I loved you...wanted you...needed you but you left me. Didn't want me...god I felt so *alone*. When I felt you inside, in my head I clung onto you, anything of you, even when everything you'd been had gone there was someone left, something left....." Marie struggled to form the words as her nerves began to pulse and race with the feelings that were going through her, her inner walls clenching and unclenching around the thick length that was still shifting inside her.
"I...I...Oh God, Logan...I couldn't lose you....I love you...I wanted it to be......OH....." words failed her as it hit. Her entire body tensed as it purged through her, her legs locked against his hips, her hands clawed and raking his skin as she shuddered in the aftershocks of her orgasm. It left her weak, shaky and yet Logan didn't stop fucking her, his easy sliding movements covering her from the world as she settled into his embrace. Letting him do what he would with her, dropping her head to his shoulder. Telling him she'd given up fighting him, given up trying to hate, trying to cause pain, just to 'be'.

He brought her head up with an open hand this time, no force just a touch. The look that was in his eyes was all for her, it meant more than he could say, more than he'd admit to. He'd loved her and she'd given herself away, thrown herself after a few words and that he couldn't forgive. He pulled her ear to his lips, the words he was going to say he didn't want to float in the air to be remembered. They hurt too much to repeat or be brought out again.
"I loved you kid, you were the one thing I had hope for, that I could've been worth waitin' for. Now...well it's just a fuck ain't it?" Pullng away from her Logan looked at her face, the tears that were freshly falling down her skin told him otherwise but he needed to hear her say it. To tell him she was worth more than that to him and everyone else.
"No.....it's not that....not to me. Never to me."

As soon as the words left her mouth he grabbed hold of her and pulled her away from the corner. Pushing her head down into his shoulder as he told her how much he'd loved her, why he'd stayed away, what he'd wished for her. That she had *value* to him, that she gave him a reason to *live*, to try to be better. He knew who she had in her head and why, he didn't understand how it had happened but she had to trust him. She had to know it would be hard to sort him out inside her head, but he was here until she didn't need him anymore.
And as he moved her around the room, gripping her tight to his skin as she shifted on his body she didn't think that'd be any time soon.

He held her.

His entire skin was plastered to hers, the micron thin layer enough to keep her mutation at bay. It didn't stop him from feeling her, the play of her muscle as she shifted herself in his grip, her thighs as they rasped along his hips and waist. His hands on her small back pulling her tight into him as her words began to fall from her lips. Everything she'd been hiding, everything she knew about him, felt from him, the darkness, the hatred she'd been keeping stifled below her own mind bubbled out of her. It was all he could do to hold her, to hear her form the words, the extent of his corruption of her. That the life he'd given her had been at such a high cost to her soul.

Their bodies were still joined, he still rested inside her, and her shifting hips made sure he stayed there. Even as the pain wove out of her mouth cleaning her mind her body was working on the rest of him. Her breasts moved and shifted against his chest as she spoke, arms wrapped around his neck, her words whispered into his ear as if the weight of them wouldn't be supported by the world they were in.

Was it wrong?
To let her love him while she filled his mind with information and words that were lost to his own memory? Things he'd forgotten because he'd *had* to, his mutation had seen to it, made sure he could fight another day by blocking out what he'd done. But for Marie there'd been no reprieve, no cleansing of her mind, no shutters that closed down and presented a clean slate to start from. She had lifetimes of him inside her mind and the only way for her to come home was to let it all out of her. To let her pour it over his skin but at least the process wouldn't be painful for her and if he shut out her litany, closed his ears to her and just responded to her body it wouldn't matter.

So he let her talk, let he rwhisper into his skin, branding him with words as he moved her over him again and again, slowly this time. Making her remember him, the him he was *now*, this Logan not the Wolverine who'd invaded her mind, who'd raped her mentally and left her for dead. He wanted to taste her, lick her skin but it was denied him, he could touch her but not taste.

Taking her face in as he shifted her as his hips tightened their grip on her, laying her on the floor of her prison. Eyes shut, face scrunched up her lips moving quickly as she let the names, images, deeds, fall out of her. She wasn't aware of him here in her mind, her body and mind were seperate right now and she needed it to be this way.

Resting over her, covering her form with his own, listening to her breath as she whispered her litany, rushing the names and places, so many, so many people, so much death, so much pain. Tears formed and ran down her skin, the tracks glittering silver, her voice shuddering as she let the crying take hold of her. Her grip on him increasing as she shook under him, regret colouring her scent, filling him with the taste of ashes. She was at her bottom, played out, empty, her litany had ceased, now all there was was regret and pain, of which none was hers.

Now....now it was time to bring her back up.

"Marie..." her eyes opened a little and she tried to close them again but his fingers stroked her cheek, making her open them again. She was there, the Marie he knew, the one he'd left here, the one he'd loved, the one he'd hoped for.

It was as if she'd just realised where she was and in what position, her skin flushed and her scent rocketed, her mouth about to form words when he silenced her. His lips were covered and so he took the risk, her first kiss from him, the first time his lips met hers.
He hid nothing from her, shifting himself as he kissed her, feeling her hands move to cradle his back as he rocked into her hips. Building the tension, chasing her, forcing her to react to him, when her fingers clawed he growled into her mouth. She reacted by locking her legs around his waist and tightening her grip on him.

Her body heated beneath him, her movements began to be more fluid as Marie began to chase the feelings building in her groin. Releasing her mouth finally Logan watched her face change, the need in it pushing upward, her voice now needy, whining almost as he pushed himself into her. She needed him, wanted him to show her, to let himself free with her, teach her how to cope with what she had inside her body.

Confusion, too many thoughts, too many memories, her voice had emptied her mind of everything that had been shown to her. But there was something else, something deeper, something *beneath* and with each movement above her, with each downstroke into her body it came closer. Whining in her throat as her legs locked behind him, making sure he couldn't leave her, pushing him closer to her clit.
Grinding against her with every pass, the thing inside her gaining ground with each pass until it erupted through her, making her teeth grind as the shuddering wave of her orgasm ripped through her. Muscle spasming, her stomach fluttering in response to the depth of it, her voice harsh gutteral as she screamed it out of her.

Nothing human in it, nothing normal in it and Logan just kept moving, sliding deeper with each pull of her body. Eating him from the inside out, hearing his claws fire and seeing one set above her head in the floor. Leverage, so he didn't crush her as his other hand slid to her shoulder pulling her down hard. Her back sliding against the cool tile, seeing his throat bare to her she licked it, listening to the deep rumble that tickled her skin. Knowing he was close when he looked at her, his pupils almost filling his iris, her own dilated and wide as each deep push into her made an aftershock race through her womb.

*This* was it, *this* was Wolverine, this was what being an animal was all about, to take, to eat, to fuck, to mate without cost or morals, to hunt and kill with no regret, to just *BE*,to live in the ever *now*. Marie saw the grimace on Logan's face as he erupted inside her bruised womb, his eyes narrow, the slits of his gaze holding no love, just trust, understanding and rage in equal measure. When his teeth opened she knew what was coming, the quickness of it surprising her, the canines of his mouth looking all the sharper. The bite painful and deep, his hips pistoning, once twice and finally stilling. Their bodies covered in sweat, locked together, her legs dead from being wrapped around him for so long.

Logan pulled his hand out of the floor and rolled over with her, so she was ontop of him, her head resting on his chest where she could listen to his heartbeat recover. Hands touched her head and stroked her shoulders and hair, his voice quiet in the room, whispering his words to her confused soul. He'd help her, he'd bring her back, one step at a time, one day at a time, make life worth living again. Help her understand the beast she had living inside her, the need she'd had had been so simple, so easy to understand when you quiet everything else. Thing was she hadn't known how to, Logan would show her how, teach her, love her to love herself. The one set of words she heard before sleep took her, resting over her skin as he held her close.
"I'm here Marie an I'll never let ya fall, neither of us will."

The road would be hard but it'd be worthwhile, taming a beast isn't easy, it takes patience, perseverance, love, kindness and understanding. They'd walk that road together, no matter what anyone else thought, he had his purpose now, he'd made her and she'd needed him. Maybe together they'd understand just what they were meant to do.

Being human isn't easy, but then again being an honest beast in a world of human liars isn't either. Maybe now they wouldn't feel so alone anymore, they had each other, a mirror to the world in each of them. And along the way, who knew maybe they'd save a few other beasts from the lies.....