Logan shifted the girl in his arms as he ran through the maze of halls. She was the last of the mutants in Stryker's base and the most heavily guarded. While the twenty-something other mutants had been held in cages at one end of the base. This girl had been at the opposite end strapped to a hospital bed.

Something about this girl was special to Stryker. Looking at her now didn't tell him much. She was covered head to toe and had an odd streak of white in her auburn hair.

Running out the door and into the chilly Montana morning she stirred in his arms slightly. He could see the blackbird in sight and broke out into a sprint. Glancing behind him when he heard labored breathing he saw Cyclopes and Gambit, the demolition crew.

The girl in his arms stirred once more and this time when he looked down he saw drowsy bright green eyes looking up at him. She blinked a couple of times before her eyes were able to focus.

"If you grope me, Ah'll kill ya." Her voice was heavy with sleep and it was no wonder with the amount of sedatives they had been pumping into her. Despite the seriousness of the situation he found himself chuckle at her threat.

Finally boarding the blackbird he looked around for somewhere to lay the unconscious kid down. But they were packed to the max because they hadn't expected so many mutants to be here.

Scott and Gambit brushed by him to take over the controls while Jean and Ororo attended to the rescued mutants.

It was then he noticed one man had caught sight of the girl in his arms and had a look of terror on his face. Logan glanced back down at the unconscious girl, he saw nothing in her that warranted that kind of fear. Fear so strong that Gambit had even picked it up with his empathy.

"What?" He demanded of the mutant gruffly.

The mutant didn't even look up at him, just kept his eyes focused on her. "Don't touch her skin, man. It'll suck the life right out of you."

This statement caused several other to look up. Most looked confused while others looked frightened. "I saw her grab a hold of Creed once, she almost killed him." A girl with pale purple hair said.

Another spoke up, a middle-aged man with a thick black beard. "That was her? I remember the soldiers complaining because he was out of it for two weeks."

That was news to Logan and he looked back down at the unassuming kid. Creed was his half-brother and had a healing factor almost as fast as his own. For this little girl to nearly kill him was something else.

He'd have to be sure to tell Jean about it when they landed.

XxX

Rogue hugged her arms to her chest tighter as she quietly sat on the exam table. The sterile atmosphere felt too much like the labs and it made her skin crawl. She was just itching to run out of this place and put as much distance between her and the rest of the world as she possibly could.

It was as she was psyching herself to jump off the table and make a break for it that the door opened. She recognized the woman who walked in as the red-headed woman who had been on the jet. At least she was out of that black leather jumpsuit though the white lab coat was putting her on edge.

"Sorry for making you wait." The red-head apologized. "My name is Dr. Jean Grey and I'll be examining you today."

Rogue shifted uncomfortably on the exam table. She really did not want to be here. Dr. Grey seemed to sense her uneasiness and gave her a calm smile. "There's no need to worry, We won't hurt you here. I'm just making sure you are okay."

"Ah feel fine." Rogue said immediately in hopes of skipping this whole ordeal.

"I still need to start a medical file for you if you plan on staying here with us." Jean told her unconvinced.

Maybe she shouldn't have agreed to stay. Maybe she should have left with the other mutants. But they all had families to go back to and she didn't, that's why she was staying.

"Let's start with your name."

"Ah only go by Rogue." She said. Plenty of mutants did once their powers manifested.

"Age?"

Rogue bit her lip. When Creed had captured her she had been nineteen and she had no idea how long she had been there. Jean must have realized her plight and quickly supplied her with a date. She had only been there for four months. "Twenty."

"Birthdate?"

"April twenty-second, nineteen ninety-three."

"Alright, let's get your height ad weight know." Dr. Grey lead her over to the scale.

Rogue didn't even bother looking because she didn't care. She hadn't known her height and weight since she was thirteen. After that she lead Rogue back to the exam table and asked about her mutation.

Rogue explained it the way Stryker had explained it to her. She told her that she absorbed the life force of another when she made skin contact. With it she took a piece of their mind and copied it into her own. For a short time she was even able to copy their physical abilities and mutations if they had them. Stryker had even believed that if she held on long enough, she could absorb a mutant entirely and have percent access to their powers.

Rogue tried not to notice the troubled expression on Dr. Grey's face. People were always uncomfortable when they learned of her power. She didn't blame them, she was far worse than a telepathy as there was always the risk of dying with her. Though she hadn't ever killed anyone it was her worst fear.

"One last question." Dr. Grey said when she noticed Rogue getting antsy. "Did Stryker make any modifications to you? Any experiments?"

"Well after Ah absorbed Creed when he first brought me there, they kept me sedated so Ah don't remember much. But he did have me absorb mutants a couple of times and took some brain scans." She said. "And - "

Dr. Grey looked up at her. "And?" She gently prodded.

"Like Ah said, he kept me drugged most of the time so it might have been a dream, or someone's memory that Ah absorbed." She quickly said and looked down at her hands. "But Ah could have sworn Ah was on some sort of inclined table. Stryker was there by my head sayin' somethin' ta the doctor but Ah don't remember what."

When she looked back up Dr. Grey had gone very still was had an intense look on her face as she studied Rogue. "Rogue, I'm a telepath. With your permeation I'd like to take a look at this memory."

Rogue didn't even hesitate. If this memory was real then she needed to know what happened. With a firm nod she concentrated hard on the memory and tried her hardest to drown out the others who now shared her mind.

Dr. Grey laid the file she had been writing in and her pen down before walking over to stand in front of her. Lifting her hands so that they hovered about two inches from her temples, she closed her eyes.

Having someone enter your mind was an odd sensation. Kind of like sticking a finger in jello if you were the jello.

Rogue opened her heavy eyes and immediately closed them from the bright light. It was another minute before she could force herself to look around at her surroundings. Her mind felt fuzzy as if she had been drugged and she couldn't seem to get it to process much of anything.

It was then that she noticed a figure walk past her in scrubs and a mask carrying something.

She closed her eyes to blink and when she opened them again the figure was no where in sight. Lifting her head she saw the person down by her feet. She thought it an odd position she was currently in. She was on some type of inclined table with her feet strapped into some sort of arm that was connected to the table.

The figure pushed her knees apart and panic began to rise in her chest and clear the fog in her head. She gave a weak jerk and found herself to actually be strapped to the weird table.

A sudden pain in the crook of her arm made her snap her head to the left, her mind swimming trying to catch up. There stood Stryker, barking some type of order at the man by her feet. The words didn't make sense to her but then this whole situation was puzzling.

Dr. Grey pulled back from Rogue's mind slightly breathless. She took a couple of steps back and regained her ground. "I think Stryker may have taken some of your eggs. The other mutants reported that he had done the same to them also."

Rogue nodded feeling sick. It was hardly fair that she couldn't have a normal life with a husband and children of her own. It would be a curl joke if Stryker took her eggs to create a life.

"Just to be sure though, why don't you go ahead and fill this up?" Dr. Grey said and passed over a small plastic cup with a lid. "And please, call me Jean." A friendly smile lit up her face.

Her lips curved into a smile for the first time in what felt like ages.

XxX

Remy sat down heavily at the counter in the kitchen. A cool beer from Logan's hidden stash in his hand. It had been a long day and this was just what he needed. He took a long swig of the beer before setting it back down.

"That better not be my beer." The gruff voice of Logan said as he walked into the kitchen.

Gambit looked down to the beer, contorting his face into one of pure innocence. "Wha'? This? O' course not."

Logan snorted and grabbed his own beer and took a drink. "So how's it feel being back?"

Remy rolled his eyes. "Ya make it sound like Ah was gone for a year." Another drink because he needed it after reliving that nightmare. "It was only a month."

A content silence followed for a couple of minutes as they both continued to drink Logan's beer.

"So what happened ta Stryker?" He asked.

Logan glanced at him out of the corner of his eyes. "Last I saw he was trapped under some rubble after you blew up his DNA Bank."

"Shame the whole facility collapsed. Don't suppose he made it out." He commented not sounding sorry at all.

Stryker had actually managed to capture him when he was a kid and his powers had newly manifested. The mad man had held onto him for two years before he escaped. Six months later he had been hustling poker during Mardi Gras when Logan showing up, claiming he was going to kill Stryker and everyone else on the God forsaken island.

unfortunately the marines had shown up just a few minutes too soon and Stryker had disappeared in the chaos. Luckily though, the adamantium bullet Stryker had shot Logan in the head with hadn't wiped his memory like they were supposed to. A few millimeters to the right and it would have done the trick but it seemed luck was on Logan's side that night in that regard.

So now five years later, both men had joined the X-Men and when rumors of Stryker kidnapping mutants again sprung up they both jumped at the chance to bring him down. Now after all these years he was finally dead. There was no doubt in his mind that Creed was running around somewhere, probably join up with the first person who offers him the chance at a killing spree.

Remy stood up and threw his empty bottle in the trash wishing he had something stronger to wash the day down with.

"Hey." Logan called as Remy started making his way out of the kitchen. He stopped and turned to face the feral. "You ever come across Rogue while you were there?"

Rogue? "Who?"

"The girl I carried out, the one that was being kept at the opposite end of the base." He clarified.

Remy's mind searched for any memory of the girl but came up blank. "Desole, bu' Ah never got a good look at her."

And with that he turned around and left. There was a bed on the second floor calling his name.

A/N

I am still working on other things but I just couldn't get this out of my head. Anyway let me know what y'all think.