CHAPTER SEVEN

Logan tears down the highway burning rubber. Sometimes driving can be numbing but when he is this apprehensive about something ghosts from his past surface.

Memories.

This time it is Japan and he can almost see Yukio in front of him.

"You're a soldier and you seek what all soldiers do."

"And what's that?"

"An honorable death." There is certainty in Yukio's tone.

Logan is doubtful. "Who says I'm in pain?"

"A man who has nightmares every night of his life is in pain."

He finds himself already back at the plant, flinging open the front gate when he blinks away that particular memory, out of the limo and unlatching the fence. Tension is building somewhere behind his eyes, maybe in his skull. Panic. He is trying hard not to.

He thinks again that he should never have said yes to the woman and her plea for help. Trouble.

Just like Mariko.

When I was a little girl, I had nightmares. I'd wake up and run to my parents. My father would get angry. "Go back to bed. Face your fears." My grandfather was different. He told me stories about Kuzuri, his friend. Who he met at the bottom of a well. He said the Kuzuri was magical and saved his life. He said Kuzuri would save me, too, as I slept in my bed.

She'd said it with such wonder too. Kuzuri.

Always trouble. Every time.

He isn't a magical creature. There was no magic happening when his mother had an affair with his father. There was no magic when he killed him either. In fact, he'd killed more than he'd saved people's lives.

"Logan, what happened?"

Caliban is rounding the corner covered head to toe in his standard linen colored poncho and wraparound black sunglasses. Logan can hear the suspicion in his question. Caliban has always been an anxious worrywart.

"Did something go wrong?"

"Job was wrong," he mutters, pulling open the door and storming inside. He puts a lid on his dark brooding, on the memories. He needs to pack up Charles and run. He is halfway down the hall mess when -

"Logan!"

He ignores him, mentally ticking off items he and Charles will need.

"LOGAN!"

It is the panic in Caliban's tone that has him striding back and shoving the door open, growling irritably.

"What -"

He sees it immediately.

The trunk of his limo, wide open. The red ball that Caliban holds to his nose, sniffing. The green backpack dangling from his white gloved fingers.

What the fuck, he thinks, and strides forward to grab those very items out of Caliban's hands and stares at them perplexedly. There a brief confusion between the two mutants at what they are looking at. The items are so out of place that neither of them know what to think and then -

"Whose that?" Caliban's voice is muffled against the thick bandanna covering a good portion of his face.

Logan turns his gaze to the entry gate, sees a truck approaching. He already knows who it is from where he stands.

"I thought you were supposed to see shit coming," he says to Caliban with accusation.

"I can track mutants," Caliban replies, then sarcastically adds. "I'm a glorified truffle pig not a clairvoyant."

There is no time for argumentative banter. His muscles are tense, body tight with tension. The objects in his hands become some sort of dead weight to him.

"Go inside and keep Charles quiet," Logan orders Caliban. There is a fraction of hesitation from the other mutant. The truck is almost in front of them. "Go inside, now!"

Caliban is already scurrying out of sight when the truck door opens and Donald Pierce steps out.

"You need to turn around, asshole, this is private property." Logan tells the blond man approaching.

Pierce saunters forward, hands behind his back and casually observes the property. "Yes, it is. In fact, I believe it belongs to a multinational company based in Shanghai."

Ignoring Logan's murderous expression he passes him, clocking in on the collapsed tank. "Where you keepin' the old man, hm? Is he over there?" He lowers his shades a fraction, eyeing it. "Or is he there? That'd be smart. I'd like to meet him."

There are brief flashes of memories in Logan's mind again and he hates it. Hates that this time they are the ones where he's inevitably found and captured. He's lived this situation many times.

"I'm told the HSA classifies his brain as a weapon of mass destruction now. Damn shame what happened back East." Pierce says almost regretfully.

"He's been dead for a year." Logan is working on controlling the climbing rage, the panic building underneath his chest. Panic for Charles. His friend is his only anchor in this world.

But then Pierce levels him with a look, an indulgently insistent one.

"I need the girl."

"What girl?"

"The one that goes along with that ball you're holdin'." Pierce gestures to the items Logan clutches in his hands.

"There's no girl here." In this, Logan is being honest. He's not seen the girl since the previous night.

"I know you went the motel."

"I was called there." He is a driver, he can be called by anyone. "There was no girl. There was no one there."

"No one, hm?" There is a tension emanating off of Pierce that sets Logan on edge. "Not even a woman?"

It is clear that Pierce doesn't believe him and that has Logan grinding down hard on his jaw. The man is on the hunt and will not stop until he finds his prey. Logan can understand. He, too, is a hunter.

A scent hits him and his nostrils flare when the blond man inches closer.

A scent he is all too familiar with.

Blood lust.

"So, Elena got a hold of you then, didn't she, Logan? But you didn't call me. That hurts." Pierce stands before him now. They are nearly eye to eye and the stench emanating off of the blond man is starting to grate on his nerves. Pierce's golden tooth glints against the sun. "You don't happen to know where she is, do you?"

"No," Logan replies steadily, eyes narrowing. "Do you?"

"I asked you first." Pierce grins as if in good humor, wagging a black gloved finger before suddenly sobering. "I wish you'd called me, Logan. Like I'd asked."

He lays his hand, the cybernetic one, on Logan's shoulder to which Logan roughly shoves away, gripping the mechanical wrist. The fingers wave at him while Pierce simply smiles.

"See." The fingers continue to wave. "You're not the only one whose been enhanced."

Logan decides now is a good time to gut him and leave him for the vultures when suddenly -

There is a savage cry from somewhere to his left.

A steel pipe connects with Pierce's temple and the man collapses before him, knocked out cold.

Logan hardly has a second before another pipe is thrown his way. He catches it, but barely. The red ball is out of his hand and rolling away somewhere.

"Laura!"

It is with some shock that Logan sees the the woman running after the girl who has just knocked out Pierce with a steel pipe.

Elena.

She is running from behind a stack of old equipment, black hair streaming behind her like a flag. There is a desperate expression on her face as she reaches the girl who is standing with defiance in her dark eyes that are staring at Logan fiercely.

A snarl is building in his throat and he moves forward, realizing what has taken place unbeknownst to him. The red ball. The green back pack. The insistence in Pierce's tone. He is so mad he could wring the girl's neck and thinks maybe he should, but then Charles is wheeling out into the open and Logan's first thought is to order him back inside and it is the expression of joy on the old man's face that stops him.

"Logan, Logan!" Charles is exuberant. "This is Laura and Elena! Caliban, come!"

Elena crouches next to the girl, turns her and shakes her shoulders. A string of Spanish is fairly exploding from the woman clearly berating the child who is still staring daggers at Logan. His claws are itching to punch through. He is still in disbelief that they managed to stowaway in his car without him noticing.

Caliban appears at the doorway adjusting his bandanna over his face as Charles points in the woman and girls' direction. "This is who I've been telling you about. This is Laura. We've been waiting for you and your mother."

He told me last night he's communicating with someone.

Caliban's recent words come back to him and Logan feels like he's fallen into a rabbit hole. He shouldn't be surprised, but he is. He really is.

Elena finally releases the girl and wipes her eyes, frustration and anxiety on her face, shaking her head. The girl moves forward in Logan's direction, still eyeing him. Charles is still jubilant and starts to sputter out heavily accented broken Spanish, motioning the two to join him.

Logan has yet to break eye contact with the girl who comes forward hesitantly, then spotting the backpack clutched in his hand, strides towards him and all but yanks it from him. Still with the glare in her eyes. The hairs on the back of his neck stand and he is starting to feel strange looking at that small face. The dark eyes narrowed up at him.

He is aware of Elena moving forward, can spot the shaking in her fingers from where he is. Her eyes are glued to Pierce's prone body. He is just about to go to her, fire in his eyes, but Laura runs back to her mother, takes her hand and drags the shaking woman to Charles only stopping to pick up the red ball in the sand.

"Come, come!" Charles beams at them. "It's okay! It's okay. You can stay here. It's safe!"

Safe my ass, Logan thinks, as he watches the three of them disappear inside. The sound of Charles's excited Spanish babbling fades once the door shuts.

He will deal with them later. The woman and the girl. And Charles. He has no intention of letting those two females screw all of them over. Time is running out.

As Caliban approaches Logan turns to kick Pierce over. The man is still unconscious.

Next to him, Caliban lowers his sunglasses. "Looks like ex military. Bounty hunter, maybe?"

"Worse." Logan has already reached into his pocket and is holding out Pierce's card to Caliban.

"Is he by himself?"

"Yeah, but not for long." Logan's eyes are scoping out the area around them, paranoia skyrocketing. He bends down and takes Pierce's gun which he holds out to Caliban. "Get him back to his ride, take him out to the wash and dump him."

They need to be quick. He knows there are men behind Pierce, perhaps even close by. He's lived this before, after all. There are always more men somewhere along the horizon. An invisible net is closing in around him and he almost feels suffocated.

The other mutant's eyes are wide underneath the large hat he wears. "What happens if he wakes up?

Logan gives Pierce's side a firm kick, hears a rib crack and hands Caliban the gun. "Text me where you are and we'll pick you up."

He leaves Caliban to it and makes his way back inside.

Author's Note: A few things to explain - the events in Japan happened in this reality. I'm aware that X-Men: Days of Future Past conveniently erased Jean's death (plus Scott's) and the Sentinal age and etc., but I'm basing this fanfic on the theory that while Logan is physically 196/197 years old at the start of the Logan movie, he is actually 252 years old mentally. So he remembers both of his lives for the most part. You can find the theory on YouTube by searching "logan movie timeline" and click on the one by "CineFix". Also, if any of you noticed in the Logan movie, there is a shot of a samurai sword in his bedroom at the smelt plant.