The first thing Logan noticed was his pulse beating against the tight band across his throat. The second thing he noticed was the pounding in his head. He stifled a groan and opened his eyes.
Sinister was standing at a laboratory bench across the huge stainless steel room. He didn�t turn, but spoke with his back to the corner of the room, where Logan was being held upright by two thick chains that ran from his shackles to the ceiling.
�Good evening. The collar around your neck is not full strength. It keeps you weak enough not to bother us too much, but it shouldn�t allow you to die of adamantium poisoning. Even so, you might not want to struggle too much. Movement will increase the amount of the metal leeching into your bloodstream.�
�You�re telling me this from the goodness of your heart?� Logan growled.
�That would be improbable. As a matter of fact I went to quite a bit of trouble to obtain you and would hate to see the investment damaged through its own impertinence.�
�What do you want from me?� asked Logan, hating himself for asking.
�Very little actually.� Sinister said, and seemed disinclined to add anything further.
Minutes passed. Logan considered asking more questions, but decided against it. Like as not he�d find out the answers sooner than he wanted anyway.
After about an hour Sabertooth lumbered into the room clutching a double barreled shot gun, which he jammed between Logan�s teeth. �Sorry runt,� he said sarcastically, �it ain�t personal.� He turned to Sinister. �I smell company.�
�Excellent.� Sinister said, then he raised his voice. "Please come out now LeBeau. I think we have some business to discuss."
"And don't think of trying anything funny." snarled Sabertooth. "Try and figure the odds that I would be able to put two big ones in this adamantium skull here before whatever you threw at me was halfway here."
There was a pause and suddenly Remy was standing before Sinister. Logan's heart leapt into his throat.
"A nice trick LeBeau. Do you perform at parties?"
"Let's get this over with, Sinister." Remy was standing very straight and looking straight through Sinister. <He can't see.> Logan suddenly realized. <The lights in here are too bright. Oh god what is he doing?>
"Fine." Sinister pulled out a collar and tossed it at Remy's feet. The young man bent forward to pick it up. "Do it on your knees." said Sinister.
"No!" Logan screamed and tore at his chains as Remy slowly sank to his knees at Sinister's feet.
"Good." said Sinister.
Remy picked up the thin band of metal. He looked up and met Logan's eyes, a single unreadable glance. Logan wasn't even sure if Remy saw him. Then he bent his head and fastened the collar around his slender neck. He looked back up at Sinister.
"Now let him go."
Wolverine went berserk. Somewhere in the back of his head he knew he was still screaming, but the scene in front of him played out as if in silence. He saw Creed bind Remy's hands behind his back, he saw Sinister give Remy several injections of clear fluid and shuddered as he watched Remy go boneless in the larger mutant's hands.
"To answer your earlier question X-man, I have very little interest in you. This was Creed's idea to deliver LeBeau to me in as pristine a condition as was possible. When I heard of his plan I was fairly certain of its success."
He paused and ran a considering hand up and down Remy's long frame. "X-men are so predictable. I was thinking about devising a set of mathematical equations to predict their actions in various situations. A sort of X-particle physics."
"Oh LeBeau, LeBeau." He murmured, continuing to run his hands down Remy's face and smoothing his hair. "It has been a long time." He leaned his face closer to Remy's. "How foolish you were to think you could escape me. Don't you know LeBeau, that you will always be mine?"
Logan growled deep in his throat. "Silence." said Sinister. "I have no time for you righteous pretensions. You aren't shocked that I touch him here," his hands on Remy's face, "or here." His hand moved lower. "You're just jealous that I am touching him at all, while you can not. You are angry that I own Remy and you do not. You and I are very much alike. Given the chance you would enslave this boy as surly as I will. Sad for you, you won't have the chance."
Sinister dropped Remy to the floor. "Victor I believe you can stand down now. Our young friend is out." Sabertooth reluctantly pulled the shotgun from Logan's mouth. "Prepare the operating table."
From the ground Remy opened his eyes half way. Whatever it was that Sinister had given him was playing hell with his nervous system, but hadn't knocked him out as cold as
Sinister had expected. He felt disoriented and tired. He tested the bonds. They were tight, but not impossible. He was a professional after all.
Logan tested the manacles again. He tried not to think. If he thought he would go insane. His eyes kept straying to Remy's still figure on the other side of the room. <He's not dead. He's no use to Sinister dead.> The thought was cold comfort. Sinister was busy at a metal operating table, pulling out and testing knives and tubes and machines, things that were going to be used on his kid. He took a steadying breathe. Going feral while chained wouldn't help Remy.
Then on the floor Remy stirred and sat up. He swayed, looking crazed and half conscious. Then he raised both arms as far as they would go behind his back. Logan could see where he had managed to loosen the bonds enough to give him room to work his arms over his head and in front of him.
Then he turned to Sinister who was still busy at the table.
"Let him go."
Sinister turned and smiled. "Good, you're awake. Your metabolism continues to be a pleasant surprise."
Remy nodded at Logan. "We had a deal. I came. Let him go."
"Ah, yes, well, I can't really be held responsible for promises Victor makes without my knowledge. As it happens I know some parties in Siberia that will be very happy to fund my research generously in exchange for a few moments conversation with our friend. So sorry, LeBeau. Hope you aren't too disappointed. You always were too naive for your own good."
Through the haze of drugs Remy's eyes got very hard. "You will let him go Sinister."
Sinister laughed mirthlessly. "You are hardly in a position to make demands LeBeau."
Using the full range of his loosened bonds Remy reached beneath his arm-guard and pulled out a thin stiletto, only 8 inches long and a fraction of an inch thick.
"You idiot!" Sinister screamed at Sabertooth. "You didn't search him?"
Sabertooth shrugged, "Why would I? He was bound, collared and drugged. Besides that thing looks like it would break off in my hair." He advanced towards Remy. "What are you going to do fox? Scratch me with your hat pin? That thing won't leave a mark on me."
"No," said Remy, "it doesn't have to."
He laid the tip of the blade against his own eye.
"Choose Sinister, you have ten seconds. One way or another you only get one lab rat today."
"You don't have the nerve LeBeau." But Sinister turned.
"Try me. I've lived through your tests Sinister. Today I'll either save Logan from them or save myself. For me it's win win." His eyes were wild. His hands shook on the knife, drawing a thread of blood beneath his eye. Whatever he had been injected with was visible in the lines of madness etched into his face.
Logan forced his voice to be calm. "Remy, put down the knife. Remy, please, look at me." His heart was hammering. <Oh god. Kid. Remy. Oh god.>
Remy looked at Logan with his huge crazed eyes. Logan felt himself beginning to go feral. <Oh god, not like this, not like this.>
"You get free cher, you get free!" Remy was screaming now. "Five seconds Sinister. This could be a very unproductive day for you."
The pulse in Sinister's neck had begun to beat visibly. "Fine LeBeau, you win. Cut him down Victor."
"But what about my fun?"
"Your petty vengeance is of no concern to me. Cut him down."
With a roar of pure rage Creed advanced on the smaller mutant. But before unlocking the manacles he reached up with both clawed hands and raked them down Logan's back, cutting him to the bone and sending him spiraling over the edge into mindless rage. Then he reached up and tore the chains out of the bracket on the ceiling so their length trailed after the feral Wolverine. Creed hit a button in the wall and a large door swung open to reveal a snowy wilderness beyond.
"Get going runt." Creed smacked the wounds on Logan�s back and he took off running into the night, his animal mind wanting only to get away from the stench and the noise and terrible chaos that lay within.
Watching his lover vanish into the night Remy dropped his knife and bent his head against the cool cement of the floor, laughing and crying at once.
How long he wandered in the wilderness Logan did not know. He ran without direction, sometimes finding his own trail where he had doubled back into a complete circle. He ate whatever was unlucky enough to cross his path.
There was a pain in his back, a wound that would not close but rubbed against itself with every footfall. There were other deeper pains, but those faded in and out of his awareness. He couldn�t remember what caused them or what they were, he only knew that he wanted to run from them and so he kept pushing himself on and on.
Eventually he came to areas that were flatter with less trees, areas inhabited by creatures like him and yet so unlike him they bore no comparison. Twice he was shot at and disappeared back into the shelter of the woods. But the farther he ran the more settled the land around him became. Like it or not he would not be able to flee much further.
From the air above him he heard a noise. He looked up to see a shadow descending almost on top of him. The side of the shadow slid back to reveal light and two figures within. He turned to flee. Whatever this thing was he wanted no part in it. Then there was a loud noise and he felt a pain in his side. Darkness rose up to meet him once again.
When he awoke Jean was stroking his hair. She smiled down at him. �Welcome back.� she said.
�Thanks.� He smiled back trying to get his bearings. Then all at once his memories flooded back. He shot off the bed.
�Sinister. Sinister has Remy.� He choked on the words. All that time he had been feral Remy had been trapped. God damn it. He should have kept cool. He should have- �We have to go find him. We have to tell the others. Jean-� He grabbed her wrist to pull her along with him but she put a hand on his chest and tried to ease him back onto the bed.
�Remy�s here.� She said. �He�s fine.�
�He�s here?�
�He escaped from Sinister�s lab, we think maybe, six days ago.�
Six days. Jesus. �How long have I been gone?
�A week, we think. We still have a lot of unanswered questions. Remy has been asleep for most of that time and you�ve been... in the woods.�
�How�d he escape?�
�Search me. Some farmer upstate called the cops to report a vagrant sleeping in his barn. The cops came and picked him up. Remy was still pretty groggy from whatever it was that Sinister injected into him, so the cops thought he was a drug addict. They put him in a spare cell and dug out his fake ID, which had one of our blackout numbers on it, hoping to get someone to post bail. That�s how we even found out you were even missing. Before that Scott thought that Remy went out on a bender and ignoring the order to reinstall computer files or something.
�When the cops called and said that Remy was in jail for public intoxication he was unbelievably angry at him. He actually told Storm and Bobby to wait a day before picking Remy up. �Stew in his juices� was the phrase he used I think. He feels pretty guilty about that now. Anyway then you didn�t show up for practice and we finally put two and two together. We picked up Remy and started combing the surrounding woods for you. And here you are.�
Logan nodded, feeling woozy. Jean looked at him concerned. �I was worried about you. That collar was on for a long time. Why didn�t it keep you from going feral?�
�It wasn�t full strength, just enough to keep me from healing I guess. Where�s the kid?�
�He�s in the next room. He�s been sleeping pretty hard since he got back, those drugs are taking a long time to wear off. He�s been really worried about you. Hank had to threaten to restrain him to keep him from getting on the Blackbird with the others to bring you back.�
�I want to see him.�
�Go ahead.�
Logan stood up. His legs felt wobbly. He was wearing a hospital gown. There were a pair of jeans by the door and he pulled them on. Something told him he�d need more dignity for this encounter than a thin paper shirt was going to provide.
He was so angry he was shaking. He didn�t remember every being this furious before, usually anything close sent him feral immediately. But whatever the sedative was that Hank had given him was keeping him sane. Logan couldn�t decide whether or not this was a good thing. He was a man possessed. He was going to see the kid. He was going to smell him, and then he wasn�t absolutely sure he wasn�t going to kill him.
Jean obviously had her own doubts. She followed Logan into the room so closely she ran into him when he stopped abruptly in the doorway stunned by the sight of Remy�s pale, unconscious face and the large white bandage that covered his left shoulder.
�I thought you said he was okay.� He said, his heart in his throat.
�He is,� said Jean �He�s just sleeping.�
�And the bandage?�
�Oh, right. The farmer that called the cops shot him. Protecting the chickens and all that. It�s a simple gunshot wound,� she added hurriedly as Logan growled. �It�s already closed and Hank says it will be totally healed in two or three more weeks.�
Logan barely heard her. He crossed the room in two steps and pulled the limp Cajun into his arms in a bone crushing embrace. He held him close enough that he could feel Remy�s heart against his own chest and feel the air enter the Cajun�s lungs. <He�s fine. Thank god he�s fine.>
In his minds eye he saw Remy, kneeling before Sinister with the collar, holding the knife against his eye. His rage rose up again. Logan felt his vision going dark. He released Remy and pulled back his hand to strike him across the face.
A hand reached out and caught his arm. Logan found Remy�s big, dark eyes on him. �Uh, uh, cher, that ain�t what you want.� He released Logan�s arm and ran both hands tenderly down the older man�s face.
Logan�s rage evaporated. He was still shaking. The deep bone-chilling fear he had been carrying ever since he had seen Creed in the woods, ever since he had smelled him near Remy, ever since he had seen the look of despair the Cajun had shot him before kneeling before Sinister, slowly began to unwind from his gut.
Remy pulled Logan closer. He let Logan nip him and pet him and sniff him until he was convinced that everything was in fact alright. �It�s okay cher,� he whispered, into Logan�s hair as the older man was sliding into sleep. �I was scared too.�
Logan woke a few hour later still in the warm circle of Remy�s arms. Damn, he was hungry. How long had he eaten? He grimace, how long had it been since he had eaten that didn�t run away from him?
Gently he slid off the bed. Remy made a slight noise of protest but then rolled over and flopped out over the space Logan had just vacated. �Bed hog.� Logan grinned.
In the kitchen he devoured most of a small ham and what looked like the leftover chili from dinner the night before. Damn, food tasted unbelievable. It was always like this when he came back from the edge. Being feral heightened his sense of taste and being sane heightened his appreciation of food. The first meal was almost worth going wild for.
He grunted. No, it wasn�t even close, but it was good to appreciate the details of life.
Passing the Danger Room on the way back to the lab he stepped in to see if he had any messages. Moving over to his terminal he bumped Remy�s mouse and the screen flashed to life.
LeBeau,
You�ve been a bad boy,
Logan read it three times. The food he�d eaten suddenly felt rock hard. He felt his anger rising again. He and the Cajun had some things they needed to discuss.
He slammed the door to the lab hard. �What the hell did you think you were doing in Sinister�s lab?�
Remy sat up blearily and looked at Logan a towering force of about five feet on the other side of the wall. Hadn�t he just been sleeping with Remy? �Hi cher. What you doing over there? Come to bed.�
�Fuck you Cajun! How could you do that? How could you put yourself in the power of that man? Without any back up? Without any forethought? What kind of plan was that?�
�It was de plan to get you back as quick as possible homme.�
�What, by any means necessary? You would destroy the village in order to save it?�
�You really want to have this talk cher? Do you really want to do this now? Cause Remy�s angry too. Don�t even pretend that your behavior in all this was peachy.�
<What the hell was he talking about?> Logan remembered the morning after Creed had broken into the mansion. <Oh.>
�Yeah,� Remy said, watching Logan remember. �You hurt Remy. You hurt him by pulling up all that stuff you know because of how I felt for you. You used my feelings against me.�
�To protect you-�
�To protect me from what? What is there to protect if you rip out Remy�s soul yourself?�
Logan didn�t reply. �You didn�t trust Remy to handle himself. You didn�t trust me and it almost got both of us killed. So tell me why I should listen to anything you say about your pain now?�
Logan hesitated. Then he said softly, �Remy, what I did was wrong, and I�m sorry it hurt you. But I don�t think that anything could be worse than seeing you fasten that collar around your own neck. If I live forever it will always be the most horrible thing I ever see.� He shuddered, seeing again the tall, proud man kneel before the man who had hurt him most, kneel and surrender himself completely into Sinister�s power.
He crossed the room and ran a hand over Remy�s cheek. �I�m scared kid. I�m not scared of anything, but I�m scared of you. You�re what I love and also the thing that hates what I love so much as to fling it into danger. How can you love me if you won�t shelter what I love? How can I protect you if you won�t protect yourself? You have to take care Remy, if not for your sake then for mine. You cannot make me live without you.�
Remy wrapped his hand around Logan�s face and kissed his forehead. �I�m sorry Logan. I�m sorry. I didn�t mean to hurt you like that.� he began to shake. �But Sinister, he breaks people, quickly, in just a little time, so little. He can do things.....do things you can�t even imagine. He broke Remy like that, quickly, you can�t even imagine how quickly Remy fell. But you Logan you are clean, and strong and joyful. Remy is broken. What can Sinister do to Remy that he has not done already? Only one thing, only one thing Remy is afraid of. If Sinister takes Logan Remy has to get him back. There is no choice. If that means that this,� he gestured between he and Logan, �is over, then it is over, cause Remy don�t leave no one in Sinister�s power. I can�t. I can�t.� his voice began to fade.
�He�s raving because of the drugs.� said Hank from the doorway.
�How come they�re taking so long to wear off?�
�Sinister was using micro beads. He put the drugs under so much pressure that they formed crystals. The crystals stay in Remy�s body and break down slowly over time, so instead of needing a new dose every six hours he�d only need one about every week or so. It�s a fairly common technology actually, used in chemotherapy a lot. Although apparently,� he glanced at Remy�s drooping eyes, �it can be used just as well for sedatives and hallucinogens.�
Logan sat on the bed and pulled Remy up onto his lap holding him close and burying his face in the Cajun�s hair. �I�m scared Blue. This is the second time in less than four months Sinister went after Remy. He isn�t going to stop now. I don�t know what I�m going to do.�
�Well, you can learn from your mistakes.� said Hank a little acidly. �This is the second time Remy has escaped in said two months. Trust the boy. Coddling him and getting overprotective won�t help anything.�
�Yeah.� Logan sighed.
�Sometimes I think Remy is right. He does have the luck of the devil.�
�I just hope it holds out.� said Logan moodily.
************************************************************************
Later he and Remy were lying in the same twin bed in the med lab. Hank insisted on keeping Remy under constant surveillance until it was absolutely certain he would have no reaction to the medications that were still in his system.
�Hey kid,� asked Logan after a pause, �how�d you get out of Sinister�s lab anyway?�
Remy glanced up from Logan�s chest. He smiled. �I�ll show you.� He said. He held out his left hand with the palm facing away from them. �Here.� He took Logan�s finger tips in his right hand and placed then against the long bone that ran down the middle of his left hand. He rubbed Logan�s fingers up and down the bone. �What do you feel?�
�Your han-� Logan stopped. �Wait, what the hell is that?
Remy grinned. He pressed his right finger tips against the bottom of the bone nearest the wrist and began to massage. Slowly a thin shaft of metal, no thicker than a needle appeared sticking up parallel to his knuckles. He grabbed the tip and slowly drew it out from under his skin where it had been hiding. He handed it to Logan.
�Tiny adamantium lock pick.� Logan said in awe.
�Yep.� Remy nodded. �When a thief is inducted into the guild a special surgeon creates that pocket in their left hand so that a thief will never be without a lock pick.� He looked at Logan. �It is a very great secret. You are the only non- guild member to ever know.�
Logan smiled, �I won�t tell a soul.� Remy leaned down and kissed him, distracting him for a moment. When he finally got his breath back he said, �You were bound with rope.�
Remy smiled, �But the restraint on Sinister�s table are always metal.�
�Ah, the fruit of experience.� Logan sighed.
�Indeed.� said Remy. �There�s nothing like it.�