Title: Black Magick
Author: Spirit Melody (kat@lsak.fsnet.co.uk) & Firesong (firesong@ukonline.co.uk)
Website: none
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Black Magick 11
By Spirit Melody & Firesong
Logan was feral. The man in him knew and recognised that, but it had been submerged so far down by this nameless ultimate rage that he couldn't do anything to stop it.
A trapped and wounded animal is a most dangerous thing, not only to others, but also to itself when it cannot accept help because a mind so filled with adrenaline, blood red rage and frenzied fear finds it impossible to distinguish friend from foe. So when Wolverine smelt the new scent as it slowly approached he did not connect it to the friend he should have, rather he chose to attack with all the glorious power and lethality he alone possessed.
Or would have; had he not been bound and severely injured. As it was, he merely lunged forward a few feet before falling to the floor, blood occasionally dripping to the ground as it ran down his jaw from the side of his mouth. Yet surrendering to this new foe never entered into conscious thought. Still the hurt being, less man and more vicious wolf, clawed and growled for all his worth. This did its job well enough and sent the figure that was cautiously coming nearer in proximity to retreat and hastily stumble back until his back hit the wall with a gentle thud.
Sean cursed under his breath, hardly expecting a violently feral Wolverine.
'Come on, ye're headmaster of a school o' mutant hormone raging teenagers; dealin' with a feral Logan should not be a problem.' he reassured himself.
The previous X-Man quickly racked his brain for ingenious solutions and ideas; coming up with none apart from the obvious, he gratefully tried the obvious.
"Wolverine? Logan? Do ye understand me?"
The words were completely non-sensical to Wolverine. They were merely blurred little spurts of peculiar sounds coming from this curious creature in front of him.
"Listen Logan, ye've got t' snap out o' this. You're hurt , an' ye need medical attention. I jus' want t' help y'."
Getting bored with attempting to comprehend the meaning of these strange noises Logan went back to trying his bonds once again.
Sean Cassidy looked around the room, reasonably alarmed. He'd come to the mansion unscheduled to talk some things over with Professor Xavier and Cyclops, instead he found the mansion seemingly deserted and Cerebro telling him the only person around was Logan, in the boathouse.
And the boathouse had been turned upside down! There were obvious signs of a struggle, broken furniture - even a chest of draws at the bottom of one of the staircases. Most worrying though were the frequent and fairly well dispersed bloodstains.
'Someone must have hurt Logan more than little t' get that much blood out o' him. An' there's a collar around his neck too, if only he'd calm down so I could get it off o' him.'
He still remembered the last time Logan had gone feral, and it had taken a long time for Logan to come out of it, even with healing factor. He also recalled Logan mentioning that Hank had come up with a drug that helped get Logan back to himself within a matter of hours. As far as Sean was aware Logan never went anywhere with it on him.
After all, if Logan was to turn that nuts, it could mean the death of a teammate. Sean left Logan a moment to hunt round the decimated front room. It amazed him how much it actually affected him seeing his friend hurt. Logan was more than capable of being able to take care of himself. If whatever or whoever attacked him, was still out there, he hoped the other X-Men were back real soon.
He found Logan's jacket under a wrecked piece of furniture. It was ripped pretty badly. The only thing it was fit for now, was the bin. He emptied the pockets, and checked the inside lining. Before long he held a small vial containing yellow liquid. It was a handheld syringe which meant he'd have to get up close and personal. Sean had only one small problem with that. Logan's teeth were fully capable of ripping his throat out.
He re-entered the bedroom. He kept his back against the wall, and edged as close as Logan would tolerate. Hoping that it would work, as he had no other ideas, Sean very slowly and cautiously slid down the wall he had backed up into. When he was on the ground he tucked his legs underneath him and kept his arms close to his body, and, as a last gesture of submission, he lowered his head, stray golden locks tumbling over his forehead. He edged closer, until he could feel Logan's breath on the back of his neck. Then he reached out and jabbed Logan with the needle, before rolling away, and back into a corner. He watched Logan growl and writhe in pain. 'I'm sorry Logan, but I had ta do that.'
He stayed like that for what was probably over fifteen minutes, keeping perfectly still until muscles in his legs started to cramp and then become slightly numb as the blood flow was cut off to a point. But still he stayed, encouraged by the increasing calm and lucidity apparently returning to Logan.
Finally all growls stopped and there was silence in the room. Sean held his breath, unwilling to be the first to break it. And he wasn't. After a few minutes of nothing but faint melodious birdsong and harsh breathing from Logan, Sean heard one single muttered word.
"Damn."
Immediately, yet not suddenly, Sean saw the lucidity had returned to the hurting cerulean blue eyes. He got up, stubbornly ignoring the pains in his legs and crossed just the few feet over to Wolverine.
The man lay on the floor, hands viciously bound behind his back and covered with drying blood. Sean had the ties off in a second, and Logan grunted, gingerly moving them about to get the circulation back, but Sean knew his main priority must be to get the collar off. That way, Logan's healing factor would do all of the rest of the work for him.
With Logan's help, Sean braced some of the X-Man's weight with his body and got Logan sitting and resting on the wall to the left of them. Logan was conscious and trying to assist, but severely dazed from blood loss and some nasty blows to the head. Sean tipped his head to the right, to get a better look at the Genoshan collar, when a word Logan suddenly whispered caught his attention.
"Remy." Logan said in a voice harsh from near constant growling.
'Remy'. Sean knew the name from a while back. Wasn't that the mutant who had gone missing in Antarctica? 'Remy.... Remy.'
Remy LeBeau, that was it. The X-Man known as Gambit. Sean didn't know him that well personally, but he'd heard from various friends and colleagues certain rumours of a trial, and what Gambit had done in the past. Sean didn't know what to make of the whole fiasco, but he was curious and it was one of the things he had wanted to talk to Scott about.
But why would Wolverine be saying Gambit's name now? He couldn't possibly mean that... that Gambit, an X-Man in the past at least, had done all of this?
Sean frowned, realising whatever it was that had happened here was very serious, and went back to finding a release mechanism on the collar.
A few seconds later, Logan held himself up higher and placed a slightly trembling, but firm grip on Sean's shoulder. Raising his gaze to Logan's, Sean was about to tell him not to talk, when Logan cut him off. What he said answered some questions, but lay wake to many more.
"Cassidy, we gotta help Remy."
"Logan?" Sean tentatively asked, slightly confused.
Logan shook his head and appeared to become a bit more focused on his current situation. He sighed and irritably shoved Sean's hands away from his neck.
Sean raised an eyebrow. Logan shrugged.
"I know these kind a' collars. There's a release at the back. Just couldn't get ta it." His voice was much harsher than usual, from growling, Sean guessed. Soon enough the collar fell from his neck, split into two. The beeping whirred and then stopped silent. 'I hate those things'. The change that took place as his newly freed healing factor began its work was clearly visible. In just a few minutes the blue eyes brightened and became much more human looking, regaining the slight glitter that was always there if you looked hard enough. All the bleeding had stopped a short time after and Logan was looking as if he'd had three weeks recovery time. Sean had rarely seen Logan's healing power do its magic in this detail without being in a battlefield at the time. The whole process was quite amazing, but there were more urgent things to focus on than Wolverine's mutant abilities.
Logan took in a deep breath, reining in his anger and regaining complete control over his mind. The pain that had been agony just moments ago had now receded to a nagging interference, nothing more. And if there was a slight shaking to his hands, a very unusual occurrence for him, Sean probably attributed it to his injuries.
Logan knew different though. Wherever he looked around the room all he saw was Remy on that bed, with Creed towering over him... fucking him. Raping him. 'Rapin' him dammit!'
Sean's eyes grew wide in shock as Logan's fist suddenly flew through the air to hit the wall, no claws out that would have broken the impact. Droplets of dark blood splattered the wall, but to be honest, compared to what the rest of the room looked like, it wasn't all that out of place.
"Logan; what *is* going on?"
Dark eyes that carried a grim expression turned their stare on to him. The reply was barely a snarl.
"Creed"
If one word could summon up all the answers to Sean's questions, then that was it. Sabretooth, a mutant with a penchant for violence and destruction if ever there was one.
"But you said 'Remy'...?" Sean was starting to get the distinct impression he was talking to a brick wall. A very pre-occupied, furious, lethal brick wall.
"Yeah." Growled back Logan, "Creed took 'im."
"Sabretooth's abducted Gambit?? So this..." Sean gestured around the room, "Not all o' this..."
"Not all the blood's mine, no."
Banshee swallowed, his eyebrows coming together as he tried to take in all of what had happened. 'I only came t' talk t' Scott, how'd I get dragged inta all o' this?'
"Where is everyone Logan?"
"FoH convention of sorts."
"So we should go conta-"
"No." Logan suddenly interrupted him, in a tone that would brook no argument. "This is personal Cassidy. I go alone."
Again Sean studied the man in front of him, the only wounds left to heal were the few incredibly serious ones, all that remained of the others was dried blood. He was restless and so furious Sean knew he could, and maybe even would, kill almost anyone who got in the way of him and Creed. 'Oh Lord have mercy! There be no question about what I have t' do. I'm an X-Man.'
"Logan. I can't be letting ye go alone. Especially if another teammate is in danger. If our positions were reversed, ye know y' would do exactly the same thing."
"Sean, I ain't gettin' ya hurt by letting ya be caught up in a fight between me an' Creed. Forget it." Logan closed his eyes for a second, but merely saw blood and clawed nails, so he swiftly opened them again.
"Aye, fine. But what if Gambit gets caught up between thar two o' ye. Who's going t' protect him?"
As more doubt started to cast its shadow over Logan, Sean knew he'd said the right thing. He also worried though, about what could have happened to make Logan think Gambit couldn't take care of himself.
"Fine" spat Wolverine, "Start helpin' by going to the mansion and gettin' me a new change of clothes while I have a shower ta get this blood off so I'm not pulled over by the police if we go by road. Then ten minutes from now, I'm goin' and you can see if ya can keep up."
Logan looked out of the window, it was almost dark. Sunset had come and gone. He'd been unconscious for about five hours. What could have taken place in five hours? He shuddered inside and clenched his teeth.