London,England-1987

Maybe it was the drugs,or the lingering effects of the concussion,but she felt a bit fuzzy in the brain.Still,she played along when the nurse called her Sheena.Her name,it seems,was believed to be Sheena Adams,and when they quizzed her about the "American man" who brought her in,she figured out why.Logan was trying to hide her identity;she assumed it was for a good reason.

She constructed a story about being attacked while walking through Hyde Park with a Yank she met in a pub;she said his name was Morgan,and last thing she remembered was him fighting the thugs that attacked them.She was a very facile liar, being a career thief,and easily constructed a tall tale with enough details to keep the cops chasing their tails,and leave them scrambling to find Logan.She didn't think they would.Who could?

What was that old poem?Something like:"One day coming down the stairs/I met a man who wasn't there."For some reason, that reminded her of him;he was a man who didn't technically exist,and wasn't technically anywhere,and the only evidence of his passage was possibly a corpse or two.He was a living ghost.

She was okay;at least she could stand without passing out.Rather than argue with them about letting her go early,she simply went invisible and walked out the door.

It was the afternoon of the next day,so she hadn't missed too much.But man was she pissed off at Logan;he had disappeared on her,and never answered her questions.

It was after she had entered her flat and saw Logan's bloody leather jacket on her kitchen floor that she realized she might not have missed her chance after all.

She followed the trail of bloody and torn clothes (his shirt was actually just a large rag now) to the bedroom,where she found him laying on the bed on top of the covers,face down and wearing nothing but boxer shorts.It looked like he had passed out, but fortuitously landed on the mattress.

There was a brief moment of fear,when she thought he had come back here only to really and truly die,but as soon as she was close she could see he was breathing,and touching his broad back,she felt the normal warmth of his skin.

He muttered something deep and unintelligible into the pillow.

"What?"She asked.She took off her jacket and threw it on the chair,and then went around and laid down on the other side of the bed.She felt a lot better then last night,but her head still felt like it had a couple of layers of cotton wool jammed in there.

"Are you supposed to be walkin' around,or did I really oversleep?"He asked,lifting his head off the pillow.

"I'm okay.They fixed me,or whatever they do for a concussion.How are you doin'?"

"Okay.I think I've recharged."

"Good.Now,are you going to tell me what the fuck the whole Chimera deal was,and why I was Sheena Adams?"

After a pause,he rolled over onto his back,the dog tags around his neck jingling as they shifted position and fell inside his left armpit."Because Srina Adar is dead."

She wished that surprised her,and yet somehow it didn't."I see.How?"

"Chimera killed you before I could stop him,"he told her,his voice still sounding thick with sleep.But his color was back to normal,and his skin was as envyingly flawless as always;there were no bruises,no scars,nothing to show that last night he'd been nearly eviscerated,crushed to death and drowned,and definitely impaled and bled out like a stuck pig."I dumped your body in the Thames,along with him.They found some of your blood at the scene;they have no reason to disbelieve me.Bodies get washed out into the North Sea all the time."

It was chilling that he knew that with such certainty.She almost asked if a lot of bodies got dumped in the Thames,then decided she didn't want to know."I hate the name Sheena."

He did something she had never seen before.He smiled,clearly trying not to laugh.He had a lovely smile.It was a shame he didn't do it more often."Give me a break-it was either that or Sheila.Somethin' that sounded enough like your name that you wouldn't instantly deny it."

"Eew."No,that was no improvement at all.

"You don't have to keep it.Just lay low for a couple of weeks,then go back to normal.They'll forget you.You were never a priority."

"I was just a piece of ass to get rid of,"she said,repeating what that smarmy suited guy told Logan at their last meeting,in a cafe where Logan looked painfully out of place.She bumped a waiter-always in invisible mode-and sent a cup of hot tea falling right into smarmy guy's lap for that.Second degree burns of the scrotum was the least he deserved for that comment.Logan later said he knew she did it,but rather than scold her,he simply commented:"Nice timing."Well,yes,that was the tricky thing. The waiter had to be in the right spot,and bobble the cup just so.

He gave her a sidelong glance that was almost playful."But what a nice ass."

She gave him the faintest of smile."Sorry.No points for a save."

"I tried."

She nodded."You did.But since you're the one with the nice ass around here,it's hardly convincing.And don't think I didn't notice you haven't answered my first question."

He sighed heavily,staring up at the ceiling,resting his right forearm across his brow.He looked awake now,almost...well,no, 'spritely' was not a term that could be used for Logan.Energetic would just have to do."You shouldn't know.The records have been erased,and they're probably fishing whatever bits of him they can out of the river.It'd be better if you didn't know."

"Logan,I'm dead.Who am I going to tell?"She pointed out.He grunted in reluctant agreement."Now who was he,and what did he want with my blood?"

She thought he still wasn't going to say,but after another sigh,he said,"He used to be a minor league Protean mutant named Warren.Did he look like a Warren to you?"

"No.Protean?"

"Shapeshifter.But not a good one.He could only hold a shape for a couple of minutes,and he couldn't really alter the dimensions of his height or weight.And that was a shame,'cause you saw what he looked like without a shape to shift into."

"Fuck yeah.Ugly bugger.But was that it?I mean,he had claws,and your healing abilities,and he was stronger than you."

"The 'Embassy' decided to try and genetically 'enhance' him,make him a better 'shifter,but while isolating the 'shifting gene, they thought they could isolate the specific genes in other mutant abilities.No,I should say two specific people-Wyeth and Turnbull-isolated the genes.They found a strength one from a guy who was a mountain of muscle;they found the fingernail claw one from a woman who could grow bony spikes all over her body like a porcupine...and they found the healing factor in me."

"Did you-"

But he anticipated her question,and didn't let her finish."No,I didn't volunteer.None of us volunteered.I found out about it after he went psycho and they called me in to hunt him down.They have a whole case file on me.Skin samples,blood samples...fuck ,even sperm samples.I don't wanna know how they got all of those."

"What are they going to do with all that?"

Logan shook his head.He was still staring up at the ceiling,but the look on his face had become pensive,with just a hint of anger visible in the tension along his jaw."I don't know.I'm not even supposed to know they have a biological catalog of me. But at least the guys who isolated my healing factor are dead,and their lab completely trashed."

She was about to ask who did that,but then she realized it had probably been Warren:he had 'gone off the rails'.She snuggled up against him,resting her head on his lovely chest (he had muscles on his muscles),and he let her,his left arm snaking underneath her.She could hear his heart thudding away,as strong as ever.It was probably her imagination,but even his heart sounded stronger than most people's,a fist of muscle that strengthened his chest walls just by slamming up against it on a regular basis."Why enhance him so much?What was the point?"

"Perfect killing machine.They apparently overlooked the fact that they could not only make him nuts,but nuts and completely embittered.He decided to hunt down and kill everyone who had anything to do with the Chimera project,and he was so much the ultimate killing machine they wanted,they couldn't stop him."

"Until they brought you in."

He nodded,idly stroking her back."The original killing machine."He said it flatly,like it had been drilled into his head by rote, but if it meant anything to him at all,it was something sour and tainted.

She didn't know what to say.She had a feeling if she tried to comfort him,he'd resent it;and if she told him that wasn't true,he'd resent it even more so.Because it was a lie to deny it-a big fat obvious lie.Logan was very good at killing.Taking out Chimera had all but proved he was the best,hadn't it?The definition of a bittersweet victory.So she decide to simply stick to the topic at hand."He said something about giving him an 'improvement'.That's why he wanted my DNA:he wanted my invisibility gene."

Logan nodded faintly,but he also scoffed."Stupid fuck.He'd never have gotten it,even if he did get someone to isolate it for him."

"Why?Because he killed all the genetic engineers involved in the project?"She smoothed her hand over his chest,letting it rest on the flat of his stomach.Did he have any body fat at all?She could feel the rock hard muscles there,underneath a thin layer of abnormally soft skin.His body just didn't decay at all,did it?He couldn't get old and fat like most people;he was frozen in place.Place...time?

Chimera kept referring to him as "old man",didn't he?

If asked to guess,she would have pegged him at maybe twenty eight,thirty at the oldest.Was he older?Much older?

She looked twenty five.She knew she wasn't.And it wasn't that she didn't age,it was just the use of her invisibility gene seemed to slow it down,as if time couldn't see her either.

But Logan healed so fast-had time ever seen him at all?

"No,'cause of my healing factor.They gave it to him last,'cause after that his body rejected all other genes given to him.It was exactly why they could never enhance me:my body won't allow it."

She suddenly felt very cold inside."They tried to enhance you?"

He simply grunted a wordless acknowledgment."Didn't work,at least not gene wise.For scientists,they were pretty dumb."

Srina didn't dare ask if he volunteered for it,because she knew the answer to that.She was also afraid to ask what he meant by "gene wise".Did they do other things to him that took?

(Since when was adamantium a naturally occurring metal?)

"Don't go back,"she blurted,not quite believing she said it even as it fell out of her mouth."I can help you disappear.Literally,in fact."

His fingertips idly stroked the nape of her neck,a caress that always sent goose pimples down her spine (and a bit of a shiver, if she thought about the claws that popped out of those same fingers)."I can't,Sri."

Not Spud.He was dead serious."I don't know what they've done to you,Logan,but-"

He didn't let her finish."They took my memories.I want them back."

She raised her head to look at him.He was still serious."How did they take your memories?"

"I don't know.But I want answers,and I'm gonna get 'em."

"How?"

There was a pretty good sized pause before he admitted,"I don't know.But I have to try and find a way to get them.I want my life back."

"If they wanted you to have it,they wouldn't have taken it,"she replied,resting her head back down on his chest."You're asking to get killed.Or worse,if that's possible."

"It is,"he said,with great assurance.That was even more chilling."But I have to try.I know...I'm missing so much.I used to want an explanation,now I don't give a fuck.I just want to know who I am."

Oh god,that was so fucking sad.She was not an emotional type (well,she didn't think so),but that made her both sorry for him as well as angry.What could he have done to deserve being treated like this?And how did someone get their memories taken away?What was the point of that?

Compliance,perhaps.Leave him so bewildered and disoriented he honestly believed these people were all he had.Leave him with absolutely no place else to go.

Now,she was paranoid;she would freely admit that.As a professional thief,it was part of the job,helped keep you in business. But she had finally come to an important conclusion."You're not C.I.A.,are you?Or NSA."Maybe she'd read too many pulp thrillers,but she thought those were the shadowiest of organization,with the latter being the biggest bad of them all.

"You've never heard of my group.Be glad."

She was.Very much so.

He knew he had said too much.He cleared his throat nervously,and said,"I gotta get goin' soon.They'll be flyin' me out tonight."

"To where?"

"I don't know.And you shouldn't."

"Or you'd have to kill me?Again?"

"Something like that."

She looked up at him to see he was giving her a sad smile.She'd never see him again,she already knew that,but now she was wondering if he was even going to live until tomorrow.He was playing a dangerous game with dangerous people,and he didn't seem to care,because he seemed to think he would win in the end.Didn't he always?And now that they had taken his memories away,what did he have to lose?"Don't get killed,"she said,and she meant it,although it seemed like an odd good bye.

"I'll do my best,"he promised.

She moved up his chest and kissed him.His mouth still tasted like blood,but she didn't honestly care,which seemed startling in retrospect.Maybe she was hoping some of his overwhelming immunity would transfer to her.Maybe she could get caught up in the same bubble of anti-time as he was.

His stubble scraped the skin on her face,which felt abused enough as it was,but she didn't mind,because it would be the last time.She moved on top of him,hands sliding over soft,unblemished skin and the hard body beneath it all,and wondered if anyone would ever remember him.

Maybe she would be the only one to remember the man who didn't exist at all.

**

London,England-Now

Srina tried very hard not to,but he could see the tears welling in her violet eyes,and they began slowly but surely spilling down her cheeks.

"Ah fuck,"she cursed,angrily wiping the tears away with her hand."I'm not a crier,I'm not,but that night was such a fucking nightmare.You know,I haven't thought about it since it happened.I think I put a mental block around it.I probably need therapy or something."

He hated women crying,because he never knew what to do and felt so goddamn awkward,but he slid his chair around the table and tentatively put an arm around her shoulders."It's okay,"he said,which sounded painfully lame even to him.But at least she had confirmed he had not killed those people in the nightclub.

To his surprise,she turned into him,burying her face in his neck."I'm sorry,Logan."

"No,I'm sorry,"he said,stroking her hair,and he meant it.Anybody who got pulled into his orbit got hurt;there was just no way around it.At least she had lived to tell this tale,though.That was more than most people who knew him could say.

And here he had not quite trusted her.But the only reason she had been hedging and not being completely truthful was simply because she found it too painful to talk about.

She finished the rest of the story with her head on his shoulder,her voice a low whisper that seemed to help her tell the tale without bursting into further tears,although he did feel an occasional tear slide down his neck,under his shirt.

"I killed him.But you think he's in the containment chamber,don't you?"

"I don't know.Seems like a hell of a coincidence,doesn't it?"

"Yeah,it does."

"Why would they keep that monstrosity intact?I can't believe he's still alive.You diced him like you were a sushi chef,and he was fugu."

He had to consider that for a moment,unusual metaphor aside."Some mutants are capable of extremely inhuman things.But maybe they're just keeping his tissue viable."

"What do you mean?"

He didn't know how much to say,but she was in for a penny,so why not in for a pound?"My blood...my blood doesn't go bad. Or at least someone told me that."Bob,and he didn't see why he'd lie about that."So maybe the tissue was still viable when they pulled it out of the river.They put it in the containment chamber to make sure it stayed that way."

"For what purpose?"

He had to think about that for a moment,and he realized the key was in something she said."A biological catalog."

"What?"

"Maybe they plan to...resurrect him someday,clone him."

She sat up,pulling away from him."What?He was a fucking psycho,Logan.He even started killing them."

"I know.But maybe they think they can fix that problem the next time around,or at least control him."Certainly they thought that about him,didn't they?

"We can't let them bring him back,"she insisted.Here eyes were rimmed red,but now bright with a resurgent anger.

He nodded."I know.We ain't gonna let them."

She eyed him curiously."Do you have a plan?"

"Not yet,"he admitted."But I'm pretty good at making them up as I go along."

Or at least he hoped he was.He supposed they were both about to find out.

Camp Lejune Base-Now

It was like the world ended.The sound was too great to hear,but they felt it,a massive body blow that seemed to turn their internal organs to jelly.

Scott tackled Jean and threw her to the snow,trying to protect her with his body as the secondary shockwave expanded through the forest,knocking down trees like bowling pins.They were far back enough that,while branches pelted down around them like arrows shot down from the heaven,nothing bigger even came close to them.

For a long moment she heard nothing but a roaring white noise,and she wondered if she (they) were deaf,but then she heard the soft noises of debris as they hit the snow and forest canopy surrounding them and decided it had only been a temporary shock to the eardrums.

Scott got up as soon as it looked like the worst was over,and gave her a hand up as he looked at the fallen trees around them, and the big,gaping crater where the base used to be.

"Bob,"she said in horror,looking at Scott.He looked unusually ashen,and not only due to the cold.

Had they just let Bob go off to his death?

They picked their way carefully through the fallen,stripped trees and smoldering debris to where the base had been.The explosion was so great that the base hadn't exploded more than it had vaporized;even the surrounding crags of rock had been pulverized.

She was looking for blood and body parts when she noticed something in the cloud of dust sifting down where the base had once stood.

It was Bob,walking towards them,hand in his pockets,not a hair out of place.In fact,it didn't look like the dust had settled on him at all,even as he walked through it.

Scott's jaw dropped open in amazement,and all he managed to stammer was,"How-"

Bob just shrugged,as if he simply sidestepped a slow moving car."I just zipped into another dimension and came back after the fireworks were over.You guys okay?"

"We're fine,"she said,just as disbelieving as Scott."You can just zip between dimensions,just like that?"

He nodded,now finally coughing as some of the dust irritated his sinuses."Easier than fallin' out of bed."

"Why did you go in there anyways?"Scott asked,finally finding his voice.

"Just to make sure there was no one unconscious in there.And to see what kind of trap they'd left."

"You knew it was a trap and you went in there?"The disbelief in Scott's voice was so palpable she was afraid he was going to offend Bob.

But Bob seemed to be completely beyond offense."Oh yeah.The suspense of not knowin' woulda killed me."

Jean wasn't sure if he was serious or not.It was so hard to tell."What was the trap?"

"An attempt to buy me off."Bob gave them a Cheshire Cat grin,all teeth and confidence."Ain't that the funniest thing you've heard in the last five minutes?"

She just stared at him.He was more than just inhuman;something about Bob just wasn't right.

(As her mother used to say:"The boy's a bit touched."But Bob wasn't so much 'touched' as full on walloped.)

"Buy you off with what?"Scott asked.She could hear the doubt in his voice."Money?And what were you supposed to do in return?Hand us over to them?"

Bob's smile somehow became wider,which seemed impossible."Nothin' that prosaic,Scott.They want me to go away and leave them alone,even if it meant selling their souls-and the world-to do it.Gotta give 'em props for balls and sheer stupidity there."

Scott looked even more confused than she felt."I don't understand."

Bob shook his head."It's nothing to worry about.I'd say tryin' to kill me pretty much says a lot about their sincerity.Come on, let's go home."

Poor Scott.He looked dumbstruck and disbelieving,ready to either shoot someone or simply sit down and cry.So much had happened in such a short time,and little of it made coherent,logical sense.She slipped her hand in his and gave it a little reassuring squeeze,letting him know she was just as puzzled and overwhelmed as he was.Being with Bob was like being in Wonderland,only with no White Rabbit to lead them through it.Logan could probably stand it better than most because his life was already a twisted maze where very little made sense;Bob was just another impossibility before breakfast.

"Home,"Scott said finally,and she could see a certain trepidation in his expression."New York.God,what have I done?"

"Nothing,"Bob said."You're as much of a victim here as anyone else.Don't forget that."

Jean wasn't sure,but had Bob pushed him?She wasn't sure if that was a bad thing if he had.

No,it was.It wasn't up to him to speed along Scott's healing process,no matter how good his intentions.She would have told him that too,except the world seemed to tilt on its axis,and in the blink of an eye they were in a wood paneled hallway that looked very familiar:the Mansion.After the cold of the Rockies,it seemed almost unbearably hot in here.

"Hoo doggies,we are home!"Bob announced exuberantly,briefly assuming a fake Texas accent."Break open the steak sauce and lock up the sheep!"He started brushing snow and ash off the legs of his jeans as he walked down the corridor,not even bothering to look back and see if they were following him.

They weren't.Scott just looked at her,and after a final glance towards Bob,asked her,"Are we sure he's sane?"

She could only shrug and shake her head.Although frankly,if he was perfectly sane,he'd probably be more of a problem than he already was.

**

London,England-Now

What the fuck were they supposed to be protecting anyways?He was new around here,and no one told him much of anything. All he knew was someone had broken into that factory,and the boss seemed to think it wasn't vandals,or at least not run of the mill vandals.They cut through adamantium,right?

The only problem was it was a cold night,really damp,misting rain;it wasn't even a proper rain,just the sort of piddling drips that soaked you to the bone faster and far worse than a full on downpour could.And these 'night vision' binoculars were starting to give him a headache.It might not have been so bad if he could have a cigarette,but his fucking lighter wouldn't work, and his cigarettes got sodden in under a minute,the thin paper cracking and tobacco oozing out in a disgusting brown clump.
Shit.He hated London;he really and truly did.

Maybe it was due to his high vantage point-he was on the roof of a building nearest the factory,some sort of fish processing plant,judging by the reek-but as far as he could tell,nothing ever happened here,in what he thought of as the arse end of London.And now his leg was falling asleep,he was as wet as a drowned cat,and he was barely an hour into his watch.This was so going to suck.

He was wondering if he could use the radio to ask someone to smuggle him up a beer when he suddenly realized the radio had been abnormally quiet.For what,two minutes now?

Not that it was noisy.They were technically on 'silent running',so to speak;covert stakeout.But every now and then there was a minute click in his earpiece,a small hum of a frequency shift,just enough to let everyone know you were still here,and your position was clear.

So where was everyone?Had they grown bored of the Morse code version of checking in?

He tapped his earpiece radio to make sure the rain hadn't shorted it out.It was supposed to be waterproof to a depth of twenty feet,but could anyone prove that?

It seemed to be working,so he looked through the binoculars,scanning the area once more.

Nothing.As always.Maybe other people were losing their radios due to the weather."Eagle One,check in,"he said quietly into his throat mike.

Nothing there either."Any Eagle who can hear me,respond."Eagle team was everyone on the ground around the factory, cannery,whatever the fuck it was.

He got a bad feeling in his gut when absolutely no one answered."Falcon,do you copy?"

He was ready to start retreating when finally Falcon replied."Yeah,Osprey,what is it?"

How come,of all the cool bird code names,he got Osprey?That was so lame."Eagle isn't responding."

"All of them?"He sounded like he didn't believe him.

"Yes,all of them.Unless they're playing a practical joke on me."

There was a long pause.If it was a joke,they hadn't let Falcon in on it."See anything?"

"No.All's clear."

Another pause,shorter this time."I'll check it out."

He was on the outer perimeter,on the ground but farther out from the site than Eagle team.As Falcon moved in,he looked through his binoculars once more,searching for that invisible nothing again.He had begun to lower the binocs when he noticed something really odd out of the corner of his eye.The door to the cannery was opening...but there was no one there.

He heard the frequency on his earpiece switch to master channel before Falcon said,"Code ten,code seventeen,Eagle's point."

It took him a moment,but he remembered a code ten was a call for immediate medical assistance;a code seventeen was a call for immediate back up.He switched back to direct channel before saying,"No one got past me.I didn't hear anything."

"I didn't see anything,"Henson agreed,somewhat defensively."How could someone take out an entire squad without us hearing or seeing a fucking thing?"

"I don't know,"Falcon said,and then there was a brief pause."I just saw the door open again.There's no one there."

"What,do we have ghosts?"

"Maybe a telekinetic,"Falcon offered lamely.

"Why would a t.k. open a door?"He asked irately."And where the fuck is their heat signature?They don't even appear on infrared."

Falcon was silent for a moment."I swear I hear footsteps.Are you sure you don't see anything?"

He was checking once more when the factory exploded in a fireball so bright he screamed as all the infrared sensors in his binoculars fuzzed out to a neon red brighter and hotter than lava.

He dropped his binoculars and clamped his hands to his eyes,too late to do anything,as he heard Falcon exclaim,"Holy fuck!" The sound of the burning building in the background was as loud as the roar of a tidal wave,the pops and cracks of the wood as loud as gunshots.

After a minute,Henson dared to pull his hands away from his face,and try to see if he was blind.With great relief,he found he wasn't,but he couldn't see all that well.His vision was swamped with black and green afterimages,and he could barely make out anything except for the inferno that was the factory now.It was completely engulfed,the red orange flames reaching high into the sky,lighting up the area like a false dawn."How the fuck did it go up so fast?"He shouted,trying to blink the afterimages away.But they hung in there like they were never going to leave.

"Incendiary bomb,"Falcon said,sounding slightly breathless with panic.

"Can the package be saved?"He had no idea what 'the package' was;it was simply the code name of whatever was inside there.

"Fuck you,the package is a crispy critter!"Falcon snapped.He then added,needlessly,"Colonel Patterson is going to kill us. This is all fubar."

Henson didn't say anything.He was too busy trying to figure out how to make sure Falcon took the fall for this all by himself. And he knew damn well Falcon was thinking the same thing about him.

**

Oh sure.Transients were famous for putting together incendiary bombs full of napalm and jet fuel.

"Oh,look at this,"Srina said,holding out the paper she was looking at."This woman skipped the traditional breast implants and just went ahead and stuffed cantaloupes in there."

He couldn't help but smirk even as he glanced at the picture of the 'Page Three' girl she was holding out.An artificially cheerful woman who apparently forgot to put her top on,even though her blonde (dyed to the consistency of straw) hair was piled artfully atop her head in a sort of new wave top knot."Okay,that's just disturbing,"he admitted,his smirk transforming into a scowl.

"What?That her tits are each bigger than her head?"Srina asked,taking the paper back.

"That,and the surgeons put her nipples back on wrong.They're high centered and slightly askew."

Srina looked for herself."Eew,you're right."She then gave him a sly grin."Trust a man to study breasts in such great detail."

"Hey,you showed it to me,"he pointed out,stealing the last spring roll.

They were having breakfast in her bedroom,but not in bed,as that was so fucking corny.Also,they were busy.

Srina had a computer on a side table in her bedroom,and she was surfing the web,trying to find out if anyone had anything else on the cannery fire.The oaken table was large enough to fit breakfast on it near the end,although breakfast was really just reheated Chinese food,beer,and (in Srina's case) a triple mocha latte made on her own machine,which sounded like it was going to explode at any second.She said that was its normal noise:like an old Jaguar with no muffler and sticky brakes.