Stryker’s voice was just above a whisper yet to Marie’s ears it sounded as though he were screaming. His eyes never left her throat as he reached a shaky hand out towards the dog tags. Marie watched, as if in slow motion, his long fingers inching closer and closer.

On instinct, Marie flinched away from him. This seemed to bring Stryker out of his trance as his eyes shifted from the adamantium tags to Marie’s face. The shock had not worn off yet though his eyes started to refocus a little.

“Where did you get those?” he asked.

Marie did not say a word. She would never tell this maniac, the person who haunted Logan in his dreams, where he was. She would die first and that looked to be a big possibility.

“I asked you where you got those tags.” Stryker was going from disbelief to angry really fast. Still, Marie did not budge in her silence.

A slow smile started creeping on his face. Marie could not help the shiver that assaulted her body as she watched this man smile evilly at her. “You know mutant, there are worse things than death. I promise you that you will not know what those things are if you will just cooperate. If you will tell me what I want to know then you will be spared the unnecessary suffering. If you remain silent then I’m afraid that you will suffer a great deal.”

She watched him look at the other man in the room, Dr. Langford. They were communicating without so much as a word and Marie desperately wished she knew what they were thinking. Maybe she could lie about why she had the dog tags. Maybe Stryker would buy it. A part of her knew that was a long shot but she had to try.

“I found them…up in Canada a few years ago. I..I didn’t know who they belonged to and no one was there to claim them so I just kept them. I’ve been wearing them every since.”

If her hands would have been free, Marie would have hit herself in the forehead. Lies and intimidation were dripping off of every word she had just spoken and it didn’t take a genius to see right through them.

Before she could comprehend what was happening, Stryker lifted his hand and came down hard against her left cheek. The strength of his hit caused Marie to see stars. After the stars came colors…reds, blues, yellows and blacks. For a moment Marie wondered if Stryker had hit her hard enough to cause her to go blind. Red hot heat spread throughout her cheek as she shook her head to refocus her sight. Never in all her life had she been hit that hard, not even in combat.

“Do you take me for a fool Mutant?” Marie flinched as the sound of Stryker’s voice was right beside her ear. She could feel his hot breath on her skin. The smell of stale coffee and cigarettes assaulted her senses as she fought against passing out.

“I know the mutant who owns these tags. I know his history and his story and someone who’s been through the things he has would not disregard the one thing left over from his past. So I ask you again, where…did…you…get…these…tags?”

The pain from her cheek was growing by the second and Marie did everything possible to hold on to consciousness, though she thought she would be better off in oblivion at this point. She found herself in the worse kind of hell with no way of escape. She was caught like a mouse in a mousetrap.

“Looks like the mutant needs a little help remembering where she got the tags, don’t you think Dr. Langford?”

Marie did not like the sound of that and feared what it meant. She turned her attention to the doctor and watched as a wicked grin grew on his face. He and Stryker again communicated with each other without so much as a word and that scared her more than anything.

“Shall I get the hot iron or the whip Colonel Stryker?”

Marie was sickened by the fact that this doctor was getting some sick satisfaction out of all of this. So was Stryker but she expected that. In fact everyone in the room seemed to ooze with excitement with what was about to happen. These people were crazy…all of them.

“Let’s start out small doctor. I don’t want to cause too much damage until I get the information that I seek. Get the whip ready.”

With Stryker’s word, the doctor and the guards went to retrieve whatever device they used as a whip as Marie lay there helpless. She could not help the fact that her heart started to speed up to the point of heart attack pace. She would never give Stryker what he needed yet she was scared to death of the pain they were about to inflict on her. Could she be strong enough to withstand it? She wasn’t so sure.

“Last chance little one. I can save you from all of this if you will just tell me where I can find the owner of those dog tags. It’s pretty simple you know. You give me the location to Wolverine and I will spare you the pain that is to come.”

His words were spoken as softly as if he were talking to a small child. Marie actually thought she heard caring in his voice but she knew better.

“No,” Marie whispered.

She watched as Stryker’s face went from soft and smooth to red and angered in a matter of moments. “You bring this upon yourself then.”

As if on cue, the door to the med lab opened and the doctor made his way over to Stryker. In his hands was something long and black. Marie realized it was the whip and she took a breath to steady herself. The whip was your average whip, but that only made to scare Marie. She had never been hit by one before but she could only imagine the pain.

“Release her from the table and bring her to me.” Two guards walked to Marie and released her from her binds. They both wore gloves and were careful of her skin. She looked for every possible chance to make an escape. This was her chance if she was to do it, yet there was no way out of the room. Even if she got away from the guards there were two more standing beside the door guarding it. She was trapped.

She tried to struggle but it was all in vain. Both men together was more than strong enough to subdue her. Coming closer to Stryker, she noticed the two loops in the wall behind him. They were going to hook the straps around her wrists to those loops to hold her still. Seeing that made her fight all the more harder but again it was in vain.

“Try to fight all you like mutant. You are not going anywhere,” Stryker said hatefully.

This was not happening. Marie was sure that in just a few seconds she would wake up to Jubes or Logan beating on her door to wake her up for breakfast. This was too much. Had her life really taken a turn for the worse?

She watched in slow motion as they raised her arms and hooked them to the loops. As soon as that was done, the guards stepped back and she was now standing there all alone. Marie only had a second to swallow the lump in her throat before her back exploded in the worse pain that she had ever felt or could imagine. The scream that came from her mouth was one that, to her ears, she did not recognize as her own.

With every hit from the whip, Marie felt the skin on her back open. The flesh was cut away like it was butter. Slice after painful slice, Marie’s screams grew louder until she became hoarse and all that was left were small whispers. Blood ran swiftly down her back and onto the cold cement floor.

She was slowly losing consciousness and she welcomed it with open arms. She reached for it, grabbing onto the darkness with all the strength she had left in her.

Before she could find solace in the darkness, she heard a sinister voice whisper in her ear, “You think I’m going to let you off that easy Mutant? Give me the location to the Wolverine and all of this will go away. The pain will stop for good I promise and you will have peace.”

It sounded so good. If only for a moment the pain would stop, she could breath again. Even though the whipping had stopped, her skin was on fire and the pain radiated from her torn back. She did not even want to think about how much blood she was losing. There was only one problem. She would never give up Logan and therefore the pain would not stop anytime soon.

“Never,” she managed to whisper through the hoarse sobs.

Marie did not have to see Stryker’s face to tell that it was fire red and he was about to explode. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that what came next would hurt more than this whipping.

“Bring me the fucking vinegar! I swear to you bitch, you will tell me what I want to know otherwise you will be begging for death by the time I get through with you. Is that what you want Mutant? You want to be begging for your death?”

Death would be good right about now. Anything would be good other than this shit hole that she found herself in. Marie managed to turn her head slightly to the side and a part of her wished that she didn’t. She was able to watch, as if in slow motion, the doctor hand Stryker a bowl with a liquid substance in it. There was only one thing it could be and Marie stilled herself for the onslaught of pain.

The next few moments happened fast and furious. Marie felt the contents of the bowl being thrown onto her back and for a moment nothing happened as if something had been severed from the nerves in her back to her brain.

For a second, Marie actually thought that she was okay, that nothing would happened. That all changed in an instant and this time the pain really was too much.

Before she passed out, Marie let one word slip out. She really couldn’t hold it in. It was the only sane word that she could think of in that moment and she said it with all the strength that she had. It gave her some peace in the darkness of the pain.

The Blackbird landed with a loud thud in the basement of Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters. The passengers of the expensive aircraft slowly made their way out of the doors. Xavier stood and watched helplessly as the beaten and battered mutants made their way passed him. The victims of the labs were escorted to the med lab so they could get swift care of their injuries.

As soon as they were all out, the X-men slowly emerged. Some of them were crying while others looked lost and disheveled. Xavier wished he could take their pain away but for the first time in a long time the powerful telepath was completely and utterly helpless. All he could do was sit and watch as each one of them tried to cope with the loss of their own .

Jean and Scott emerged with an unconscious Logan on a gurney. “Professor, we are going to need your help,” Jean said as she guided the bed with her telepathic abilities towards the med lab. Professor Xavier only shook his head in understanding.

They made their way towards the med lab and Xavier had to still his mind as he looked around to all the wounded mutants. Some of them looked so bad that he wondered how they were still alive. It was going to be a long road for all of them, both mentally and physically. As he passed he watched Doctor McCoy, Kitty and Jubilation Lee trying to stabilize the most critical patients. They would need Jean in there soon enough.

They came to an empty room and Jean went to work on hooking Logan up to monitors. “What happened to him?” the professor asked quietly.

“He’s fine. I have him under sedation right now. It was the only way that we could assure that we could get home safely. Logan lost control when Rogue was taken. He tried to attack Scott. I think the Wolverine is in control right now.”

“I understand. Jean, why don’t you go and see if you can help Hank. I will deal with Logan.”

With that, Jean turned and walked towards the other room. Scott stood, staring down at Logan, his face void of any emotion. Xavier noticed, in that moment, that Scott looked a lot older than his years. This was the first time since he became leader of the X-men that he had lost a comrade. He could tell that it was taking it’s toll on the man already.

“Scott, it wasn’t your fault son,” Xavier said softly.

“Wasn’t it? She was on my team Professor. I was suppose to make sure everyone got out okay…I promised him.” The last statement was said in a whisper. “He has every right to hate me.”

Where there was no sign of emotion on Scott’s face, now it was replaced with sadness. Xavier sighed heavily as he took in the two men in the room with him. “We will find a way to get her back Scott.”

He did not reply to this. Xavier wondered if it was because he didn’t really believe that. “Scott, why don’t you go get cleaned up and then see if there’s anything the new guests need. We have a lot to do son. There are a good many children who need much care and we must do everything to see they are taken care of.”

Scott turned to leave and hesitated, turning back to look at Logan. “What about him,” he asked.

“Don’t worry about Logan. I will see to it that he comes back to us.”

The young man stood there for a few more seconds, looking at Logan. He saw many emotions running through the man’s face, but the one that became the most overwhelming was guilt. Scott was drowning in it.

Finally he turned and made his way out of the room, leaving Xavier and Logan alone. Taking a deep breath, Xavier wheeled his way to the head of Logan’s bed. The monitors showed that all was well with Logan physically but Xavier knew that mentally it was a different story. For all he knew, the man was lost in his own mind and would not be able to return. He had seen many times what it did to a person to lose someone that was basically everything to them. Some people never really recovered from that. He knew that that was a good possibility, even for someone as strong as Logan.

Closing his eyes, Xavier concentrated on the mind that was Logan’s. He found himself standing in darkness. There was no noise, no sign of life. When Xavier enters the mind of someone, it’s the only time that he can use his legs. Looking down, he watched as his legs took their first steps. That was always the hardest, the first step.

He looked around for anything, any light or movement but there was none to be found. Xavier realized he would have to go deeper into Logan’s mind and that made this all the more dangerous. The deeper you go, the darker it got.

There wasn’t much of a choice if he wanted to save Logan. Slowly, he proceeded to search for the man and the beast.

As he walked, the air became thicker, almost as if he were surrounded by smoke. The darkness took on more color. Looking around, Xavier realized he was being surrounded by a red mist. He had made it. This was the place that both Logan and the Wolverine hid in solace. This was the place most dangerous.

“Logan,” he called out gently. There was no answer. “Logan,” he tried again.

Still there was not an answer and Xavier began to worry. Was he already too late? Had Logan snapped? Then it dawned on him that maybe Logan wasn’t in this place. He tried a new tactic.

“Wolverine.”

There was an audible hiss. Xavier stilled his movements as the hiss became louder. “I’m not here to hurt you Wolverine. I just want to talk.” There was no answer. The hissing slowly became a growl. Xavier knew that he had to tread lightly. “Where is Logan? Will you allow him to speak to me?”

“No,” the sound was more of a growl than it was an audible word but Xavier heard him loud and clear.

“Why Wolverine? Is Logan still with us?”

“Weakling. He…is…weak,” came the hiss.

“He is hurting Wolverine. And I imagine that you are as well,” Xavier said cautiously.

“I do not hurt. I want revenge. I want to kill those fuckers that took her. I want BLOOD!” he screamed.

“You can not have it like this Wolverine. You must let go for a time and let Logan take control. We will find her and bring her back to you but you must trust me now. I need Logan here with me for this.”

“He can not cope. He is weak…weak,” Wolverine hissed.

“He is stronger than you think Wolverine. For Rogue he will be the strongest person that you and I know if you will give him a chance. Release him…please.”

There was silence for a while. Xavier wondered if the Wolverine had disappeared further into his mind. He was about to speak again when slowly, the red mist began to turn into white clouds. “For her.” Xavier heard the far off hiss of Wolverine. It sounded as if he were going through a tunnel, his voice becoming distant.

The white clouds became bright as Xavier felt another presence surround him. “Logan,” he said softly.

“Hey Chuck,” came the soft voice of Logan.

Looking through the clouds, Xavier saw the silhouette of a man walking towards him. He took a moment to take a deep breath as Logan made his way towards him.

When Logan’s face came into view, Xavier took a moment to study the man. Like Scott, he looked worn and old. It was very rare to see that look on Logan, he was after all a man that did not age. “Logan, I need you to come back with me. There is much work to be done.”

Logan stopped and stared at the man in front of him. “I have to find her,” he pleaded. Xavier could only compare the plea to that of a drowning man reaching for a life boat. “We will do everything in our power to see to it that Rogue is home safely with us. I will use all of the resources that I have and will not stop until she is found.”

Logan slowly fell to his knees and broke down. Xavier watched as the man’s shoulders heaved up and down in wrecked sobs. He had never seen Logan so broken.

Walking to him, he placed his hand upon his head in a gesture of comfort. “Promise me that we will find her Professor. If you tell me that I will believe you.”

Xavier did not know if he could promise such a thing. For all he knew, at this moment, Rogue could be dead. He had been following her movements through Cerebro when all of a sudden she had disappeared from his sight. One minute she was there and the next she was gone. There were only two things that would cause this. One being that she was dead and the other being that wherever she was they had a way of blocking Cerebro. Xavier knew of no one that could block Cerebro, except for one person and, for once, he actually had nothing to do with this.

“I will not stop until she is home with us Logan.” That was about as much as Xavier could promise the man. Even that was questionable. “We have much work to do Logan, please…come back with me.”

Looking up from where he was kneeling, Logan shook his head in agreement.

Opening his eyes, Xavier looked around to find himself back in the med lab. Wheeling himself away from Logan’s head, he came around the side to look at him. Logan had not yet opened his eyes but Xavier knew he wouldn’t be much longer. He could feel him coming to the surface of his mind at that moment.

A few moments later, Logan sat on the side of the bed, staring off into the distance. He was trying to get a hold of his emotions. Anger filled his every pore and he was afraid that at any moment it would snap him in half. He wanted blood. He could taste it and feel himself bathing in it. They had taken her from him. They had taken his Marie away to God knows where doing God knows what to her. It was eating him alive as he sat there and played every scenario that could be taking place with her in his mind, he felt his Adamantium claws slowly protrude from their hiding place.

“Cerebro,” Logan said hoarsely.

“I’ve tried Logan, there is no sign of her anywhere.”

Logan snapped his head up and looked at Xavier. “No sign of her…what does that mean? How the fuck can you not find her with Cerebro? I thought that thing could find any mutant on the planet.” Xavier did not answer.

“What the fuck are you not telling me Chuck?” Logan asked angrily.

Before he could answer the door to the room opened and Scott stepped in. He froze in the doorway as he noticed that Logan was awake. The two men stared at one another as if they were afraid the other would make a wrong, deadly move.

Taking a deep sigh, Xavier spoke, “Now is not the time for this gentlemen. If we are to find Rogue, it’s going to take all of us to do so.”

Logan jumped off of the bed and made is way towards the door that Scott was standing beside. As he passed, Scott said, “Logan, I just wanted…” He was cut off by the growl that came from Logan’s mouth.

“Let’s get one thing straight bub, you don’t talk to me…you don’t look at me and if you want to live, you stay the fuck outta my way!”

Scott’s jaw tightened and his body went rigid. For a moment, Xavier thought that Scott would retaliate but then Scott relaxed and only shook his head. Logan walked passed the man as Xavier called out to stop him. “Logan, where are you going?”

“Where do you think Chuck, I’m going to find her.”

“How will you do that Logan, you don’t even know where to start? Please Logan, give me some time to get information and we will go find her as a team.”

“Can’t do that. She’s out there somewhere and having God knows what being done to her. She doesn’t have time for us to sit around and wait till you find information.”

“Then tell me Logan, how do you suppose you will find her?”

Turning around to face Xavier, Logan stared for a moment as if he were trying to figure out that same thing. He had no leads and no place to start but if he didn’t do something now it would destroy him. The longer they stood around and debated on what to do, the more horrible things could be happening to her. “Professor, I can’t sit around and wait on something to happen. I’ve been in those labs and I know what goes on. The thought…the thought of her experiencing just a little bit of what I did is too much to bare. I’m sorry but I have to do something now.”

“What will you do Logan?” Xavier asked in defeat.

“I’ll do it the old fashion way Chuck…look!” With that, Logan turned and left Xavier’s School for the Gifted Youngsters and he swore he would not return until Marie was with him.