'Mirrors are never true,
They only show what we want to see,
If you want the truth,
Ask the one you love.'
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Author's Chapter Notes:
Logan takes Marie in hand...or should that be 'Wolverine'?