The girl crouched over him, so close the fall of her hair brushed his face as she balanced the edge of the knife a hair’s breadth from his throat.
“Don’t fuck with me. That’s not my favorite book and I sure as hell don’t have a sister. Now tell me what you’ve done to him or I start slicing.”
He looked into her snapping brown eyes. She was quite the spitfire, wasn’t she? He tentatively tested the force holding him to the floor. Interesting, he could breathe and talk, but he couldn’t move his limbs an inch. Was this her mutation then — telekinesis? Regardless, she seemed to have thoroughly found him out. For all the good that it would do her. He relaxed, smiling.
“I’ll admit, lass, I dinna see that one comin’. But what would’ye be plannin’ on doin’ wi’ that knife? The mon heals, aye? So what harm d’ye ken ye can do me?”
“Where is he?” the girl ground out.
“He’s right here wi’ me, lass, although I’m in control, an’ will be stayin’ in control. An’ I’m sorry to say but you willna be talkin’ to him ever again.”
She stared at him, her brown eyes flashing green for a moment. Odd, that, but he was distracted by the edge of the blade as it pressed against his skin. He hissed in a pained breath as a stinging cut opened up.
“I’ll give ye this, lass, he fought hard — harder than any of the others, and there have been many others. He even managed to keep some of his memories locked away from me — all his memories of you, lass. I dinna ken how he managed it, but I have to admire it. It has made foolin’ ye hard enow for this long. All the same, lass, this body — this bluidy marvelous healin’ body — is mine now, an’ I willna be lettin’ it go for any reason.”
Her hand was trembling, and he breathed slowly and shallowly as the knife cut deeper. He could feel the trickle of blood down his neck.
“I hear you,” she said in a shaky voice. “But why bother tryin’ to fool me? Why didn’t you jus’ kill me? You had more than enough chances. “ Her voice thickened with tears. “Why pretend to be him?”
“He was able to keep his memories of you locked away, but no’ his own. The mon doesna know Xavier, does he now? But you do. You must, to be here in his cabin. It isna easy to sneak up on a telepath, but from everything I’ve heard of the mon Xavier willna scan a trusted friend of one of his little darlings, now will he? Too many scruples. You were to take me to him. But ye can be sure that I am no’ silly enow to think that ye will do it now.”
He tried to lunge at her, to get close enough to touch her, but the force pinning him was unshakeable — he had barely twitched. It was enough to spook her, though, and she flinched back. He saw her struggling to maintain her composure, her grip shifting uneasily on the knife.
“What do you want with Professor Xavier?”
“Why, I want to kill him, of course.” Her eyes widened, and he grinned. He was rather enjoying this, telling her what he was going to do, knowing she was helpless to stop it. “He lives in that mansion, wi’ all those bairns, an’ I will wager ye that he hasna mentioned havin’ a bairn of his own, has he now?”
He read the truth in her eyes. He could feel his facade of nonchalance slipping as the ever-present rage burned hotter in his chest. “David Xavier was my name, but he didna claim me, did he? Let my mother lock me up in her island prison, an’ dinna say a word about me to anyone. For that I owe him a debt, and I mean to repay it. Planned to see him squealing at the end of my dirk, but these claws your mon gave me will do the job just as well.”
He watched her as she took it in. “You’re...you’re Xavier’s son?”
He felt a rush of euphoria pass through him. She couldn’t be more wrong. David Xavier was a lonely Scots boy. Mutant X was an angry, frustrated test subject, interred in a Muir Island cell, surrounded by energy fields. Now he had shed those names, those identities, as effortlessly as he had shed the burned-out bodies of those he had possessed in the seven months since gaining his freedom from that island prison.
“No, lass. Not anymore. I am Proteus now. I am reborn. An’ this miraculous body is my chrysalis.”
He could see her — still searching his eyes, searching his face, for some sign of the other man. She would not find it, and he saw the realization, the finality of it, shadow her expression.
“What do you want me to do?” she finally asked.
He smiled reassuringly. “Easy, lass. Let me go. I willna harm you. Ye will have to do it soon enow. This body dinna need sleep, but ye will. Ye canna hold me here forever.”
She shook her head. She seemed to find some hidden depths of resilience, her voice growing steely with determination. “I won’t let you have him.”
“What do ye think ye might do then, lass? Hurt me? I promise ye, he’s here wi’ me, and he’ll feel every minute of it. Ask yourself, lass, are ye willin’ to torture your mon as well as me? An’ for what reason? This body canna be hurt for long. It will heal. I’ve never found one like this — a body that willna burn up, one that I can keep. An’ I am verra sure that I willna be leavin’ it no matter how much pain you cause us both.”
He saw her grappling with the decision. He was content to watch her, already knowing what the outcome would be.
The man had struggled mightily to remain in control, and had accomplished something no one else he had possessed had ever managed. To protect her by hiding his memories of her away, even inside his own mind? He must love her beyond belief, and if she felt even a fraction of that in return, she would not be able to inflict pain on him.
For all her telekinesis, she was a woman, and therefore weak at heart. And he was strong. Had been stronger than anyone else he had encountered since gaining his freedom, and now, in this healing body, he was more than that. He was unstoppable. Invulnerable. Immortal.
“I love you, Logan,” she said. “An’ I trust you. Like you gotta trust me. I’m sorry, sugar.”
He saw her eyes mist with tears as she moved away from him. He smiled in triumph, just before pain exploded through his skull and he fell into blackness.
____________________
He awoke to a pounding headache, the room spinning dizzily around him. He pushed himself up onto his elbows, groaning.
Goddammit. The girl was making a run for it. He hadn’t thought she had it in her.
He laboriously pulled himself to his feet, bile rising bitter in his throat. He stumbled into the bathroom. He grimaced as he saw himself. His head was soaked with blood, ragged pieces of scalp knitting slowly together. He watched as a piece of his skull appeared to pop back into place under the skin. Disgusting.
He soaked a hand towel and rubbed the worst of the blood off his face. It would have to do. From the slant of the light through the windows it would be dusk soon. She must have gotten a couple of hours of head start.
“Not good enow, lass,” he said to himself. He pulled on a coat and made for the spot in the woods where he had stashed the fuel for the snowmobile.
________________
He caught up with her in a small clearing. She had apparently stopped in place when she heard the snowmobile coming. She was facing him now, her hair flying behind her like a dark banner.
He stopped the snowmobile a few feet away and jumped off.
“Ye ken that I canna let you go, lass,” he told her.
She nodded. She looked numb, defeated, her eyes deep brown pools in her pale face. She backed a few steps away and he followed her.
Suddenly there was a loud crack and the ground tilted beneath his feet. He crashed to his hands and knees in the snow.
“What the...” Under his feet, ice was cracking from the strain of his weight. The girl no longer looked defeated. Her eyes were intent now, fiery. She held out her hand and a flash of light flew from it, exploding in a paff under his feet, making the chunk of ice he was balancing on shift precariously.
“Let him go,” she hissed. “Or I drop you both into the water.”
He looked up at her, every muscle tensed trying to keep his balance. “This body is invulnerable. Think I fear gettin’ a wee bit wet, lass?”
“Show him, Logan.”
He furrowed his brow, puzzled. He could sense the other man, the one he had suppressed, the anger and reluctance radiating from him palpable. “What do you...”
“Show him!” she barked, and his fingers dug into the snow-covered ice as the memory overwhelmed him.
The snow was past his knees, hampering his movements and making every few yards seem like a mile. He shivered again as the chill seemed to seep out from inside his very bones, the metal in his body making warmth seem like a distant memory. He followed the animal tracks, looking for their burrow. If only he could scamper across the crust of snow like the snowshoe hares he was tracking, instead of suffering the crushing weight of this damned metal skeleton.
The next step had him suddenly sinking past his waist. Damn it, the ruffled wind-swept snow had hidden a depression in the ground. He rarely ranged out this far, and didn’t know the terrain as well as he should. He should be careful...
Just as he thought it, he heard an ominous cracking underneath his feet. He made a desperate lunge, but to no avail. He was plunging down, down, into the freezing water. He pushed against the bottom, trying frantically to boost his heavy body up to the surface. His head clunked hard against the sheet of ice. He had drifted from where he fell through. He snapped the claws, trying to dig them into the ice to stop himself from sinking again, but they slid free and he felt himself sinking downward again.
He could no longer hold his breath. He felt the cold water rush into his lungs, choking him, and he struggled frantically, uselessly, his body jerking back and forth in the water. And then a few moments later he was no longer cold. He suddenly felt comfortable and warm. He stopped struggling, and let himself settle back to the bottom. If this is dying it ain’t so bad, he thought, and then the blackness took him.
He raised his head as the memory faded, cold certainty settling into his gut. She would do this, sink him here and leave him in a frozen grave. Muster who knows what help to contain him by the time he thawed. He imagined waking up to his cell at Muir Island again, surrounded by energy fields.
He would not stand for it. Never again. He leaped for her, landing on the ice in front of her. He skidded into her, knocking them both to the ground. He would burn her up and be back inside the healing man in under a minute.
“I am Proteus, lass. I have killed more than a hundred people in the last few months alone. Did ye really think ye could stop me all on your own?” He pressed his hand to her face, watching her eyes glaze over as he poured himself into her.
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