Surprise bitch bet you thought you'd seen the last of me. I'm back with a new chapter of 'Childhood Innocence' That's right 'Chapter' this is not a cancellation notice. I don't give up that easily, I might go awol for years at a time but I don't give up. I don't know if any of this stories original fans are still kicking around in the Xme fandom but if you're there please enjoy this latest chapter and to any new fans, why are you doing this to yourself?

Anyway enough from me! On with the Tale!

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Fighting was what Logan knew. A life time ago before he had taken Rogue and Kitty in it had been all he knew. He had nothing but a pair of dog tags the name 'Logan' and his healing factor and that had been enough to get him by. In fact it had been more than enough. Fighting was what Logan knew but he had never been in a fight like this before. He wasn't sure what he had been expecting when he left the mill claws extended ready to do whatever it took to ensure the safety of his girls. But it certainly hadn't been what had found him.

He had sniffed the air as he exited the mill hoping still to catch the barest whiff of something that would provide any clues as to what was coming but still there was nothing. He went with what he did know. It wasn't Sabretooth that much was certain for one thing he could definitely hear two sets of feet and neither of them belonged to his long time enemy. One set was heavy and oddly paced the second set was light and fell gracefully in an even pattern. Oddly enough it was the lighter of the pair that he heard clearer Logan would have bet money that she (Gender being another thing he would have placed money on) was wearing high heels.

Logan extended his claws with a clean 'Snickt' finding some small comfort in the familiarity of the burning pain that spiked through his arms as the adamantium blades tore through his skin then dulled into nonexistence. Now the hunt was took to the undergrowth and moved through it fluidly, sniffing as he went but still receiving nothing. He knew it was too much to hope that his own scent would be masked upwind as he was. There was really only one advantage Logan had and he took it without a second thought. He was in the treetops in a matter of moments.

Logan traversed the canopy as easily as the forest floor going from branch to branch, tree to tree silently; the footsteps still sounding rhythmically in his ears. They were on the road now, the overgrown abandoned path he had lead Rogue along that afternoon. It had seemed a holy thing then, a life line promising safety. Roads after all had to lead somewhere and Logan had been rewarded for walking it with a small safe haven. A safe haven that now all of a sudden wasn't so safe and the road that had led him well was now leading others the same way.

He could hear voices now, male and female.

"The signals hard to lock now it's no longer active but satellite images clearly show a structure ahead, if our targets anywhere it's most likely there" The male said

"Have we managed to get a lock on the other two?" The female asked then there was a silence as both companions slowed to a stop their footsteps no longer heard. Then the silence was broken by a single word spoken by the female.

"Understood."

"They began moving forward again. Logan bared his teeth in a snarl. He had held out hope, not much but some, that his families hunters would be from the town. Law enforcement or angry suspicious locals looking for the freaks that had trashed their cafe. That would have been easy to deal with, he might not even have had to kill anyone. But true to his recent streak of luck things were not that simple. Rather than being chased by simple bigots the family was facing a deadlier breed of intolerance. Whoever these people were they knew what they were looking for and they knew how to find it and what they were looking for was Mutants.

Any hope Logan had of getting out of this without blood on his claws evaporated and with it his humanity similarly faded. Replaced instead by an animalistic rage that boiled and sang in his blood. Thoughts flew away and instincts rose in their place turning Logan into something he hadn't been in a long time. Something Rogue and Kitty had been able to subdue but now that their safety was compromised the beast had once again risen.

The Wolverine snarled tasting the air. The first scents that came to him were faded, blood and fear, leftovers from the families run to safety earlier that day. It only served to fuel his rage. Not caring now whether he was heard or not Logan barreled through the tree tops towards his enemies. He dropped down on them with a howl and the fight truly began.

Had Logan retained his senses he would have noticed several things about his opponents. He would have registered that the male of the pair was blue and furry that his hands and feet were too large and dexterous to be Human. As were his abnormally thick forearms and fangs. Logan would have also perhaps realised that the reason the wind was so resolutely against him was that it was in the command of the female, would have seen the way her eyes glowed as she bid the elements against him. Would have realised that Mutants would not hunt Mutants. But Logan no longer possessed the ability for such complicated reasoning; his blood sang in in his veins and violence crackled in the air.

He lashed out at the male savagely claws whistling though the air. They didn't strike home though as by an agility that contradicted his size the stranger twisted away. Logan struck again, this blow found its target which growled bestially fangs bared. Then Logan found himself thrown backwards by what felt like a tree trunk slamming into his torso. Neither the pain nor the jarring shock that came as he hit the ground a few meters back was enough to shake him from his rage. In fact if anything it grew especially now that it had a target to focus on. The world narrowed until it was nothing more than the immediate area and his prey.

Logan was on his feet in one fluid motion any injuries the blow had caused him vanishing as he went. Claws still extended and teeth bared he lunged at the bestial man. The force of this movement combined with the weight of his adamantium skeleton was enough to knock him from his feet and the pair crashed from the abandoned road into the undergrowth. Logan fought as his animal nature demanded, form and technique were completely forgotten as he slashed, punched and kicked.

His opponent however was a worthy one. He struggled away from Logan scaling a tree in a matter of seconds large hands and dexterous feet making it all the easier. Snarling low in his throat Logan followed suit. As easy as Logan found the tree tops to navigate this creature seemed to find it easier. Their fight continued across the canopy transforming into a deadly game of cat and mouse, for try as he might Logan could not match his opponents agility. He would attack, the bestial man would evade and gain more distance. He moved with purpose and clear intelligence, calculating his every gesture.

Occasionally as more distance was gained he would speak. However the words "lead him away" and "go after the juveniles" were lost on Logan.

So was the changing terrain that slipped by beneath him unseen. He didn't realise how far he was being led from the mill until all of a sudden there were no more trees to traverse and his foe was ambling ape like across an expanse of flat grassland. In the distance the lights of the town his family had fled that afternoon could be seen shining brightly but before that there was an aircraft

If it hadn't been for his advanced senses Logan might have missed it. As it was it wasn't easy to make out against the stark black of the surrounding night. It was absent from the landscape more than anything else, a pool of inky black against the night and background. His foe ambled toward the jet with a speed it was hard to comprehend given his size and style of movement. Logan eagerly gave chase.

But then something odd happened.

With each step Logan took a little bit of the Wolverine drained away. At first this left both the beast and the man confused. But not confused enough to make either forget their quarry so they continued forward. Little by little though Logan could feel his hostility falling away as a strange sense of all encompassing calm surrounded him, filling him up like a vessel.

It felt wrong, unnatural; almost he realised with a spark of clarity that fought to the forefront of his mind, drug like. From somewhere deep within the Wolverine tried to rally to force him to fight whatever this was but it failed. He stumbled and fell to his knees briefly registering something that might have been pain. It wasn't near enough to break through the sterile calm that kept him where he fell. Nothing got through until a voice echoed in his head.

"I apologize" It said

Logan blearily lifted his head and tried to gather enough strength to look for whoever had spoken. He couldn't quite bring himself to focus though and his head fell back down to rest on his chest. He perceived more than saw the owner of the voice and the reason for his sudden sabotagment. An image filled his mind of a bald man, well dressed and spoken. His face appeared open but Logan knew it would be wrong to think he was. The man chuckled warmly.

"An astute assumption" He admitted with a genuine touch of humor.
"I once again apologize for incapacitating you like this but surely you can understand how much of a danger you were. We mean neither you nor the young ones any harm. Quite the contrary."

"Who are you?" Logan tried to feel angry, tried to snarl his words but couldn't. His thoughts remained sterile and calm.

"My name is Charles Xavier, I am as I'm sure you are by now aware, like yourself a Mutant. I am here to help"

The words felt sincere but Logan couldn't be sure if that was because they were or because this man, Charles Xavier was making him think so

"Such paranoia is not misplaced Telepathy is easily misused but I am doing nothing more than calming and speaking with you. I wish we could speak face to face but I find the terrain hard to navigate"

In his mind Logan saw legs clad in woolen slacks yet he knew that beneath they had wasted and were useless, Xavier sat in a motorised wheelchair.

"I sent my associates in my steed, we had hoped to speak with you. We are as I said here to help"

Logan saw the man he had attacked properly for the first time. He stood before him on all fours, resting on the knuckles of his large hands like a gorilla.

"Hank McCoy" He said pleasantly as if he and Logan had not barely ten minutes ago been locked in mortal combat. Logan could only glare at him and even then it didn't come across the way he had intended it. The bestial man identified as 'Hank' didn't frown back instead his expression remained convivial. Logan wanted to growl at him but couldn't

"Sorry about attacking you back there but you understand" Hank said with a shrug of his massive shoulders smile never faltering.

"How did you find us?" Logan demanded his voice however remained neutral making it sound like a bland request.

"I found you using Cerebro, a Mutant detection device" Xavier's voice sounded in his head

"Those existed?

Even through the sterile calm that blanketed his mind Logan felt a rush of fear. He had spent what little of his life he remembered hiding his, Rogue and Kitty's abilities; trying to keep them safe from the intolerance Mutants inspired. Trying to protect them from the sentiments that had put them in his care in the first place. He had never even imagined technology that could identify and track Mutants, not in all the long nights he had kept watch over his family unable to sleep because his thoughts refused to stray from what would happen if they were discovered. How many people had this technology? How many knew where he was right now? How many had always known?

"No one" Xavier's voice cut through Logan's flurried thoughts and calm once again washed over his mind.

"Cerebro is my own invention and only I am able to use it. And I only use it to help Mutantkind. I have come to you with an offer of sanctuary"

Logan knew he should be cautious but he didn't want to be. Even as he knew he shouldn't trust his own thoughts he still wanted to trust Xavier so he asked

"What kind of sanctuary?"

"A School"

As the words were spoken in his mind Logan found himself transported. Physically he knelt in the dark but in his mind he stood in a polished hallway and he wasn't alone. Beside him sat Xavier looking very much a part of their stately surroundings.

"Welcome to Xavier Institute for gifted youngsters"

"The name come with the place or you add that yourself?"

"Yes and no. The mansion has been in my family for generations. It's only recently I've re-purposed it as a safe haven for our kind" Xavier's chair began to move and Logan found himself keeping pace as they traversed elegant hallways, a grand foyer, spacious rooms. Such grandeur was almost familiar but Logan couldn't recall so much as setting foot in a mansion before. Then suddenly the elegant architecture was gone, replaced with gleaming metal corridors. Underground, Logan knew without having to be told.

"While it would be amiss to describe the school as a front, it does hide our true mission" Xavier said"In the school we shelter Mutants under the guise of specialty school. Here we train them."

In reality Logan's bones itched under their metal coating and the words

"For what?" Were out of his mouth before he could stop them

"To protect themselves, to protect others, to use their powers safely and wisely. I have a dream Logan, I believe that Mutants and Humans will one day live together in harmony. I am an idealist. I am not however stupid. The future I envision may very well have to be fought for. I intend to ensure my students are capable of doing so. I also intend to ensure they are capable of defending themselves. You already know how the world often treat our kind"

"So that's your catch; sanctuary in exchange for service" Logan said

"My offer of sanctuary has no conditions. My dream is just that, my associates have made it theirs of their own free will and my students are likewise free to chose how they will use their training. I can only do my best to see they choose wisely" Xavier's face and tone remained calm but Logan got the distinct impression he'd touched a nerve

"So say I sign up, what happens?" He asked and seamlessly they were back above ground

"You and the young ones would have a home with us" They were in a bedroom clean and bright with neatly made beds, a grand dining room set for a mouthwatering meal, the expansive foyer with school bags set next to the doors. He saw Rogue and Kitty in those beds safe and warm, seated at that long table eating as much as they wanted, wearing a backpack each on their way to an actual school. Then without Xavier prompting him he pictured them in the lower levels learning to fight, to use their powers, not to be weapons as he had been trained to be but to protect themselves and each other.

"Ok Bub you got a deal"

Logan returned to his own conscience in the physical world with a thump akin to the sensation of being almost asleep and jolting awake all of a sudden. The sterile calm that had engulfed his mind was gone but Logan found he no longer needed it. The fight had completely drained out of him and he took the large hand Hank offered to pull himself up.

"I sent Storm ahead after the young ones. I figured she'd be a more welcome face" The larger man said gesturing to his own unusual features.

Anything Logan might have responded with was cut off by an earth shattering clap of thunder before the world lit up bright as day in a flash of lightning. The air which had previously been still now howled with razor sharp winds. Winds that had wrapped themselves around a small figure lifting her clear above the treetops. In the center of her own personal tornado Rogue screamed.

Logan was on the move before he realised it, not that it did any good. Rogue was dangling like a rag-doll several hundred meters above the ground and the winds that held her aloft buffered him back.

"That's...those are Storms' abilities, how?" Hank spoke from behind him. Even if he had known how to explain it Logan wouldn't have had the time as a missed step allowed the gale to pluck him clean off his feet and send him all the way across the grassy expanse and into the inky side of the jet. He crumpled to the ground in a broken heap too dazed to feel his spine knitting itself back together. He roused himself in time to spit a mouthful of blood courtesy of his no longer punctured lungs, at Xavier's loaferd feet and thanked what he was sure had been his last shred of luck that he hadn't choked on or drowned in it. Coming back from that was never fun.

"Logan what's going on?" Xavier was real this time and no doubt debating the wisdom of leaving the jet. From his place on the ground Logan could see his brakes were on but that would hardly stop him being lifted and thrown as he had been. Logan looked out across the flat expanse. The winds were ripping trees from the ground and sending them flying, Hank was hanging on the ground by virtue of digging his hands and feet into it and the whole scene appeared to be under a strobe light as lightning scorched across the sky.

"It's Rogue! She's outta control, when she touches people she..."

"Absorbs their abilities, I saw" Xavier cut over him as he got back to his feet.

"I may be able to stop her by knocking her unconscious but she'll fall. You need to get close enough to catch her" Logan never would have pegged him as the type but Xavier gave orders like they were second nature

"No need to tell me twice"

Logan sprinted across the open field as fast as he could against the winds resorting to digging himself in with his claws where he needed and dodging flying debris. He had to get under Rogue. He could come back from the dead but if Rogue died her powers went with her and his healing abilities were useless if she couldn't absorb them. Stray stones and twigs whipped past him creating cuts that barely stung before they healed. Logan doubted he would register his arms being torn from their sockets. The wind spun in a tight vortex around the young girl snatching her screams from her throat and creating an effective barrier. Logan reached the point Hank had held and found he could go no further.

"I can't get closer!" Hank yelled over the wind and Logan realised any attempt he made would send him right back into the jet.

"Now or never Chuck!" He yelled hoping the thought traveled further than his voice. It did. The light blunk out of Rogue's eyes and for a moment she dangled like a marionette in mid air but then the moment was over and she plummeted. Logan sprang up and barreled towards her plucking her from the air as she fell and landing in a roll.

"How is she? Any injuries?" Hank was at his side, Logan hadn't even heard him move but the world seemed eerily silent now that the weather had died down. Logan clasped Rogue's ungloved hand but released it once her saw the telltale light rip through her.

"Not anymore"

"Remarkable" Hank was speaking in large words Logan wasn't interested in trying to understand. Something about Rogue's mutation but he was too busy looking at Rogue herself. She looked like a doll in his arms pale and limp. It was hard to see her so vulnerable, she always tried to be so tough especially compared to

"Kitty!"

Not even pausing to relinquish Rogue Logan was running towards the mill. The overgrown road wasn't so much overgrown now as it was strewn with debris. Logan found himself climbing over trees and dodging rocks jostling Rogue in his arms. She didn't so much as stir.

His little joke about building things to last had held true as despite everything the old mill was still standing minus the door. The first thing Logan noticed as he barreled across the threshold was the smell. The whole space stank of sickness. The second was the strangely dressed woman draped across Kitty.

"Storm!" Hank brushed past him. Logan hadn't even heard him approach, how could someone that size move so silently?

"Hank?" The woman clearly called Storm looked up blearily. Even if he hadn't been able to put two and two together Logan would know she had been touched by Rogue, she seemed drained.

"Are you alright?" Ambling on all fours Hank picked his way across the room.

"I-I don't know. Hank I don't know what happened to me. That storm, I couldn't see it I couldn't control it. I tried to protect this one but I don't know what's come over me I'm so tired" She trailed off as though just speaking were a chore. Logan had never really considered how long it would take someone without a healing factor to recover from Rogue's touch before. Hank reached a hand down and somehow with a gentleness that belied his size maneuvered her on to shaky feet.

"Up we go" He said kindly steadying her entire back with a single hand as she swayed.

"You've got that young lady to thank for this little spell" He explained gesturing at Rogue. Storm blinked slowly.

"Yes I remember, at the door she touched me"

"Quite the unusual ability...the door? How did you get all the way over here?"

"I crawled I think" Storm looked at the broken door as if only noticing now how far she was from it. Her eyes fell on Logan as though realising he was there for the first time despite her associates earlier words.

"Is she hurt? I did not mean to harm her, she just grabbed me"

Maybe it was because he couldn't remember the last time he had been offered anything resembling genuine concern, maybe it was because Rogue shifted slightly in his arms with a tiny 'ughhh' maybe it was because the smell of sickness was coming from Kitty but Logan ignored both of the other mutants and made his way directly to the younger girl. Debris was scattered around her and he didn't quite know how to face the realisation that without even knowing them Storm had crawled across the unstable floor to protect Kitty from the worst of it with her body. Her face was flushed and covered with a layer of sweat and she was shaking under his leather jacket giving little whimpers with each movement.

"She doesn't look so good, I can carry her to the X-jet. I'd suggest fetching the rescue basket but I don't think we have the time for a round trip" Hank said solemnly making Logan want to pluck the words from the air and shove them back down his throat. Smelling it was one thing, having what he'd smelt put into words that couldn't be unsaid was another and it made him want to kill something. But he could only watch as Hank knelt and with his strangely gentle ways plucked Kitty from the floor leather jacket and all. She fit entirely in the crook of one massive blue arm.

Although the journey from the mill was less harrowing then the one to it it was just as nightmarish. Logan had never cursed his senses more in what he could remember of his life. It seemed all he could smell was the sickness that clung to Kitty, all he could hear were her whimpers and all he could see was Rogue pale in his arms. He was glad he had taken the time to retrieve and replace her discarded gloves when she began to stir. He tightened his hold before she could try to fight her way out of his grip in her disorientated state.

"Hold still willya" He ordered and was shocked at how tired he sounded.

"Logan?" Rogue's eyes opened right up onto his and he held her even tighter, just cause this time.

"Yeah kid it's me"

"I feel ghareeb" She frowned and blinked "I mean ninahisi ajubu..." She broke off into a panicked babbling in what sounded like two completely different languages tears springing into her eyes until a slender gloved hand rested on her shoulder. She looked up her expression spooked.

"Wewe!" She cried and Logan was forced to tighten his grip yet again as she tried to struggle away.

"Utulivu chini" Storm told her gently. Rogue stilled but looked wide eyed back and forth between her and Logan.

"Logan" She said again sounding absolutely miserable.

"Yer alright kid just focus on English" He told her. The first time he'd touched Rogue, an accident on both their parts she'd spent the rest of the day mixing English words up with Japanese and Siksika ones growing more and more frustrated with each fumble.

"Logan where's Kitty?" Rogue asked slowly taking the time to ensure each word came out the way she wanted,

"Who are these people?"

"We are the X-men we are here to help" Storm explained and Rogue looked up at her again.

"Saeaid?" She asked before realising her mistake and scowling.

"Yes help. My name is Ororo Munroe"

"I know yah name. Where's Kitty?"

Being angry seemed to help her focus on the language she wanted. It had the first time, after a day of mixing up words she'd stamped her five year old feet and held a tantrum about how no one would ever understand her again and Logan completely unprepared to deal with such things had been forced to block his ears and wait for her to figure out she's held the whole thing in English. God she'd been so small then and she was barely less helpless

"You wouldn't believe me if I toldja stripes"

"Rogue turned her scowl from Storm, first name Ororo to him

"Where's Kitty! And put me down I can walk by myself!"

"Course you can" Logan made no move to lower her. She picked up on the heaviness in his voice because her scowl faded and the tears that had dried in her eyes came back.

"She's dead ain't she? Kitty's dead!" She cried through heaving sobs. Then as she drew a gulping breath she looked up at him and began to struggle anew fervently.

"Put me down! Put me down! I gotta go back to her, you can't leave her alone in the dark! Kitty hates being alone in the dark! Logan put me down I gotta.."

"Stop it willya Rogue!" Logan roared his grip approaching smothering levels as he tightened it yet again. She was stunned into silence by his outburst

"She ain't dead" he told her. "She's gonna be fine. Hank's got her"

He continued not at all liking the look of fear on her face. He could growl at his girls and talk rough to them but rarely was Logan ever truly angry with them and he knew his anger was not a pleasant sight. Finally at the end of her rope and overwhelmed by the events of the past 24 hours Rogue lay her head against his chest and began to cry. Logan could only tell due to her tiny sniffles and the way her shoulders shook. That and his shirt was steadily getting damper.

The five mutants emerged from the forest just as the sky began to morph from inky black to ultramarine blue. The jet still wasn't easy to see, Logan wondered what they'd made it out of

"I've got everything prepared for departure and I think it would be wise to be gone before the sun rises" Xavier's voice echoed through his head and he realised from the way Rogue lifted her head slightly everyone elses. She put it straight back down and didn't lift it again, ignoring everything around her from the devastation left by her earlier rampage to the interior of what Hank had called the X-jet. Rogue may have been unresponsive but one look at the interior workings of the aircraft had every piece of Logan's mind screaming 'black ops' though he didn't know how he knew that.

"Ah you must be Rogue" Xavier said kindly wheeling over.

"Say hello" Logan ordered when she didn't so much as look at him so he wouldn't have to think about Hank carrying Kitty aboard and taking her directly to a back section. Engines roared to life below his feet as Ororo took the pilots seat and Rogue had the manners to at least look down although she remained silent. Xavier didn't seem to mind much though.

"Are you cold Rogue? We have emergency blankets, it's a long flight to New York perhaps you'd like to sleep?" He suggested

"If we don't agree to join you are we gon get thrown off this jet?" Rogue asked suddenly. If Xavier was unprepared for such a direct question he didn't show it.

"Of course not" He told her gently.

"I, I'm cold" Rogue admitted. Logan placed her on her feet and she took the foil blanket Xavier offered wrapping it around herself like a cape.

"The chairs don't recline back much I'm afraid but I'm told they're not entirely uncomfortable" Xavier led her to one of the jet's seats and Rogue eagerly curled up on it.

"I've slept'n worse" She mumbled under a yawn and then she was out.

Logan fought the urge to tuck her in for all the good it would do. The urge to sigh wasn't so easily repressed

"Perhaps you should rest as well" Xavier suggested but before Logan could respond Hank entered the main cabin looking grim

"We've got a problem Charles"

"What kind o' problem" Logan snarled.

"Gastrointestinal perforation, I can't tell what organ has been ruptured but sepsis has already begun to set in. There's almost nothing I can do from here. We need to get her back to the Institute for surgery"

Hank and Xavier were talking but Logan wasn't listening. He couldn't hear them past the blood rushing in his ears. He walked past both of them to the back section where Kitty was lying strapped on to a fold down stretcher. The wounds on her abdomen were grizzly and Logan swore the next time he saw Creed he was removing his head and keeping it. What was already the longest day he could remember was a long way from over.

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And that's all for now folks, not worth 6 years wait I'm sure. Hopefully the next chapter won't take that long (I'm working on it I swear!)

Story notes

Language: We know from 'Rogue recruit' that Rogue does absorb the ability to speak the languages of anyone she touches. Here she is speaking in both Egyptian Arabic and Swahili which Ororo must speak since she spent her childhood in Cairo and teenaged years in Kenya. She would also be able to speak Japanese as Logan can and Siksika the language spoken by the Blackfoot people who he lived among for a while.

Ghareeb (Egyptian Arabic): Strange

Ninahisi ajubu (Swahili): I feel strange

I was originally going to have her say 'funny' but I wasn't sure if the word translated into either of those languages could also mean strange or only meant humorous/p

Wewe (Swahili): You

Utulivu chini (Swahili): Calm down

Saeaid (Egyptian Arabic): Help