In the parking lot of a seedy bar just two blocks over from the hotel,they found a nearly brand new all terrain vehicle,tan and brown with mud and snow splashed tires and bumpers,but oddly enough the license plate-and there was only one,in the back-had an unidentified government designation.Even Naomi felt a certain compelling need to take it,on the off chance it belonged to someone connected to the bastards who attacked them last night.

And simply by touching the hood,she got the mother started.

"Most of the time I just cause electrical fires,"she explained,as if embarrassed be her ability to do that."And you're driving,because you know what will happen if I do."

Electrical failure,he supposed.But that was fine-he knew these mountains,she didn't.He planned to drive.Of course,he had no idea what he was exactly looking for,but he believed he'd know it when he found it.After all,he wasn't sure how he knew these mountains either.He just had the gut feeling he did.

Due to her tendency to interfere with electrical wiring,she sat in the back seat,and also did some exploring in the back,finding out what the truck was loaded up with.As it turned out,supplies.
She found a small emergency kit stashed in what looked like a big metal briefcase painted camouflage drab:water,dried food,emergency flares,blanket,basic first aid kit,fire extinguisher...gun.

Just a semi-automatic nine millimeter pistol,nothing too major,but Naomi was startled to find it."Aren't these illegal in Canada?"

"I don't think so,just hard to get,"he said,glancing at it in the rearview mirror.

It might be handy,actually.He wondered if bullets would penetrate any of that armor,weak spots his claws might have missed.Of course,he had never fired a gun,but -

("Yes you have.")

That made him grip the steering wheel hard,and he had to ease off before it shattered in his hands.Had he?When?And,more importantly,why?

On second thought,did he really want to know that?

His basic plan was to take a long,roundabout way to Grand Cache;it would add a day or two to their journey,but it would make the bastards nervous,possibly even lead them to believe they weren't coming at all.Not that they'd count on that.

The journey might be more roundabout than he thought.The storm had hit the mountains hard, causing mudslides that had shut down several roads,and if it was this bad down here,he knew there probably would have been at least one avalanche in the higher elevations.But the ATV was pretty sturdy,had a full tank of gas,and as he drove on,any signs of civilization giving way to towering stands of trees dusted with snow,their interlaced branches giving what sunlight there was a mottled appearance,he started to relax.Yes,he knew this place.This was the place of his dreams and his nightmares;it was the closest thing he had to home.

The storm clouds had come back by the time the sky started to fade to violet,and when they stopped to get more gas and pick up any more supplies (well,food a bit more palatable than military MRE's),it occurred to him to check the ATV for a tracker.

He'd already checked the interior and it was seemingly clean (and Naomi helpfully added if there was one,their electronics were so delicate she'd probably fucked it up anyways),so now he looked under the hood,knocked on the paneling to listen for any hollow sounds,and he even crawled under the car to see if he could find anything that looked like it didn't belong,but he found nothing remotely suspicious.It should have made him feel better,but it didn't.

As they drove off,farther up into the mountain and farther away from civilization,white on white becoming the only thing they could see as the sky darkened and became overcast with snow clouds,Naomi-breaking the silence of a good twenty minutes-asked,"Do you think there's any chance she's alive?"

She meant Maddy,of course,and it was not the first time she asked,but he knew the fear just didn't die.And now that they knew they were coming...

"If she's even half as powerful as you,you'd better believe it,"he replied confidentially,not adding that she would be kept alive by any means necessary,because they'd want to use her like they used him.

But looking in the rearview mirror,he saw her face darken as she looked out the window at the unrelenting snowscape,and knew that she had guessed that.

Maybe death would have been better,he thought,glancing down at his knuckles as he gripped the steering wheel.

The snow didn't fall more than it plummeted,a cyclone of white that buried everything, including the road,in record time.

Logan was used to driving in snow and ice and other adverse conditions,but even he had to admit this was bad.

The headlights barely pierced the gloom,two narrow tunnels of light in the darkness,the snowflakes like swarms of insects falling through the beams.The ATV had snow tires as well as four wheel drive,but sometimes it would hit slush and slew a bit,the truck threatening to escape Logan's control,but he managed to get it back each time.Still,he knew he was probably lucky.

Several roads had been closed due to the effects of the previous storms,but  others quickly became impassable due to this one.Where possible he just went off road,straight into the woods.There were roads that were not so much secret as little known and little used out here,and he knew these people-whoever they were-used them frequently.

Tree limbs heavy with wet snow battered the truck as he drove under and through them,and a couple of time the earth seemed to go liquid beneath the tires,convincing him to get out on the paved roads again,as he knew he could survive a crash but he was fairly certain Naomi would not.

"You drive scary,you know that?"She said groggily from the back,once the tree limbs began battering the ATV like zombies thirsting to get in.She had been sleeping,apparently,but he supposed it was late (his watch no longer worked-but that happened last time he was with Naomi too).

After a number of hours of fighting snow,iffy roads,and howling wind,he was starting to feel tired,but it wasn't painful for him to ignore it yet.He had spent years learning how to go without sleep for as long as possible,to avoid nightmares he couldn't remember that woke him up sweating and screaming,and-worse-nightmares he could remember.Sleep,for as long as he could remember,was always an enemy;a time for the demons of his unconscious and his buried memories to come out and play.So he tried not to,sometimes staying awake to the point where his body simply gave out,or he'd start hallucinating,like that one time he thought he saw soldiers and men in HazMats suits in his headlights.Attempts to mow them down proved they were figments of his tired mind,and made him hit a telephone pole.

"Maybe you should pull off,get some sleep,"Naomi suggested.He guessed it to be about four or five in the morning;he was starting to see light from an unseen,slowly rising sun reflecting off the bottom of clouds on the horizon.

"I'm okay,"he insisted,aware that was not the complete truth.But he figured he'd have a couple more hours before he couldn't stay awake anymore.

She reached up and touched the back of his neck;the electricity made his skin tingle.It made him gasp with a strange sort of pleasure as it also made him realize how tired he was."No you're not,"she said quietly.

He hit of a patch of black ice and almost lost control of the truck,but got it back in time to see a large shape emerge in the black and white chiaroscuro of darkness:a 'road closed due to mudslides' sign.From what little his headlights could show him,it appeared to be an avalanche, not a slide.

Cursing under his breath,he threw it into reverse and backed up until he could turn onto an access road that was almost knee deep in snow.Driving in it was like slogging through waist deep mud.

"Oh,fuck it,"he snapped,throwing it into park and cutting the engine.At this rate,they'd cover about a foot in an hour,and he really was exhausted.He could barely see through the curtain of snow anymore.

As soon as he killed the motor,he crawled over the front seat-not wanting to venture outside even for a moment-and into the back seat,which was actually more like the back half of the truck,as Naomi had put the seat down so it now blended with the back of the ATV.It didn't look especially comfortable,but at least it was roomy.

Naomi lifted the near side of the silver emergency blanket,allowing him to slide in beside her.It was nicely warm,thanks to her body heat and tendency towards electrical surges.

He couldn't help it;before he knew what he was doing,he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her to him,burying his face in her neck.She was so warm.

But she wrapped herself around him,snuggling against him."See,isn't this better than crashing into a tree?"She murmured sleepily.

"Having done that,I'd say yes,"he agreed.Even though he was so tired he though he could pass out,just being this close to her made his body respond to her in a way that had absolutely nothing to do with sleeping.

"You've hit a tree?"

"Well,it's more like it hit me.Long story."

"I bet."

The wind howled loudly outside the window,making the truck rock ever so slightly on its wheels.
"If we get buried in snow,can you dig us out?"She wondered.

"I was thinking you could zap it until it melted."

"I am not a flamethrower,"she protested.

"The maid back at the hotel might say otherwise."An accidental electrical discharge from Naomi had left a big black spot on the wall by the door;it looked like a Molotov cocktail had hit it.

"That's it.Next time I need a can opened,we're using your claws."

"Oh,very funny.I've never heard that before."

After a minute of silence where they listened to the storm raging outside,a strangely peaceful sound like the roaring of the ocean,she said,"I can't believe how dumb I was."

"What do you mean?"

"Trying to do the platonic thing.I mean,why?So I could congratulate myself on my maturity and restraint before they erased my memory?"She scoffed,running a hand through his hair,trailing it down to the back of his neck where it came to rest,so warm on his skin it gave him goosebumps."I missed you,Logan,and...you're important to me.I just want you to know that in case something happens to me."

"Nothing's going to happen to you,"he insisted,making it an oath,a promise he'd do his damnedest to keep."They'll have to get through me first."

"Logan-"

"I mean it."

"I know you do,"she said,kissing the top of his head."But here I was,going to protect you instead."

"I guess we'll have to watch each other's back,"he murmured,his eyelids too heavy to keep open.

And in spite of the uncomfortable car seat and the snowstorm howling outside,for the first time in a long time,Logan fell into a peaceful,dreamless sleep.

Luckily,he knew of a porous sort of place on the Washington-British Columbia border (used by both demons and drug traffickers alike) where he was able to sneak through.And as he drove towards Alberta,he wondered if Logan had found what he was looking for-or if it was just the people looking for him that had found him.

Bad weather made driving difficult,and ultimately it didn't help that he wasn't all that familiar with Canadian roads anymore:things had changed a lot in thirty years.

He got so lost he somehow looped back around and ended up back in British Columbia again. Some rescuer he was-he couldn't even figure out where the hell he was going.

After some directions,he got back on the road going the right way,although the gas station clerk had never heard of Grand Cache.Angel figured he'd worry about it when he was in the right province.

Even though the sky had opened up and rain continued to pelt down like a plague of frogs,he knew the sun had come up:he could smell it,feel it crawling on his skin,making him itch,but the cloud cover was so dense,the rain so utterly relentless,not a single ray of light broke through.At least the weather,as messy as it was,was cooperating with him.

He stopped in the first moderately populated town over the Alberta border-the type that looked like it existed solely to service truck drivers and seasonal workers constantly passing through- and decided to ask for directions to Grand Cache.

Angel chose a real greasy spoon of a diner,figuring the most knowledgeable people (at least about the roads) would be where the truckers hung out.

In spite of the day being so overcast it was like dusk,he still felt uncomfortable venturing out without cover,and he felt desperately ill at ease,like he was going to burst into flames in spite of being soaked to the bone.He didn't,but he still felt the sun threatening him somewhere behind the slate grey clouds,a predator waiting to pounce.

He'd hit the diner at a lull;there was only a handful of people in the torn red vinyl booths or at the white formica counter,although the place was far from quiet with a radio playing tinny country songs somewhere behind the front counter.

The diner reeked of coffee,fried meat and eggs,and a small but potent whiff of cigarette smoke underneath.Smells that were probably pleasant to ordinary people but were almost nauseatingly overpowering to him.

The waitress behind the counter,a sturdy woman in her mid-thirties with an unbreakable looking helmet of brunette hair,raised a painted on brown eyebrow as he came in."Can I help you,honey?"She asked,her voice as weary-and wary-as her wan blue eyes.It was probably a no brainer guessing he was not a trucker.

Luckily,she knew where Grand Cache was,and as she drew him a hasty map on the back of a napkin,he felt eyes boring through his back.A casual glance up at the reflective surface of the huge silver coffee urn behind the counter-which did not show his reflection,although he doubted anyone even knew to look for that-showed a young man with black hair cut in a bristly,military style staring at him with wide,startled hazel eyes.He had recognized him-but Angel was sure he had never seen him before in his life.

Casually he tossed a glance over his shoulder,making an idle comment about the weather to cover it,but the young man had already gotten up and left the diner,whipping a slim cell phone out of his coat pocket as soon as he was out the door,punching up a programmed number.He turned his back towards the panes of the front windows so Angel couldn't even attempt to read his lips,but he strained to hear as much as he could,and thought he caught two faint words:"...Dry Lake..."

Shit.These guys were everywhere;Alberta must have been crawling with them.

And he had just been made.

He remained friendly and polite to the waitress,aware he couldn't rush her direction giving if he wanted to get where he was going,and also cognizant of the fact that these people-he couldn't help but think of them as the human army of darkness (AOD)-wouldn't attempt to 'collect' him in a public place.They would wait until he was in a more easily secured location,with fewer witnesses.

And he had one thing over them.They were laboring under the mistaken belief that he was a mutant.That gave him an edge over them every time.

He thanked the woman-whose plastic name tag over her left breast read Alice-and took the napkin with the scrawled directions to Grand Cache outside,only to find the young man gone.
But probably not for long.

Angel got into the sad blue,rust and primer spotted Pontiac,and on the second try got it started (it was running,but just barely;he figured,along with a paint job and extensive body work,it needed at least a new flywheel,a spark plug change,a general tune up,and possibly a new radiator).He drove out of the near empty,water covered diner parking lot and back out onto the main road,keeping an eye out for the suspicious vehicles sure to show up any second.

He was not disappointed.

As he pulled up to a rural looking intersection,he was met by two small,black military trucks,and a covered jeep,while a black car with opaqued windows seemingly came out of nowhere to pull up behind him.He was surrounded.

Angel watched armed men come out of one of the trucks,and in his mind,he could imagine Logan commenting,"Ready to have some fun?"

He sincerely hoped Logan was not having this much fun.

Of course,Logan figured it helped that he woke up in the afternoon.The morning could have been hell.

There was a certain comfortable familiarity in driving these little used roads,the bleak white on white landscape studded with clumps of towering pines occasionally breaking up the monochromatic monotony of the scene.As much as he loathed the cold,he realized this was in his blood;bleak vistas of icy desolation,where snow muffled sounds and heat and made a natural barrier between him and the hostile outside world.The vicious bastards hid here,cowering from the light of scrutiny like cockroaches,like rats...but so did he.

He didn't know if that was irony or simply a hideous coincidence.

"You know I meant to ask you but I forgot,"Naomi said from the back seat,handing over a thermos filled with instant tea and bottled water:there wasn't a coffeemaker in here.It tasted pretty bad-like someone swept up sawdust off a bar floor and mixed it with really weak lemonade-but a splash of whiskey had made it more palatable.In fact,the more whiskey they added,the better it was."You got sort of a funny look on your face when I told you what my grandmother wrote."

Maybe it was creeping amnesia,or maybe Naomi had too much of the liquid lunch."Huh?"

"Back in Vancouver,at the restaurant?When I told you what my grandmother wrote about Maddy,that people were never the same after touching her?"

"Oh.It just made me think of someone I know."He said,taking a swig of what Naomi insisted on calling 'commando tea' from the wide mouthed thermos.

"Scorpion?"She wondered,taking back the thermos when he held it out to her.She took another swig,and he knew he should probably cut her off,but hell,how could he deny her a little portable courage?After all,they really didn't have time for any more sex...and he couldn't believe he ever thought that.

He shook his head,and got back to the point."No.This girl I know back in New York.If she touches people she sort of...well,absorbs them.In the case of mutants,absorbs their abilities.If she does it long enough,she can kill you."

"Wow.So who is this girl?"She asked,leaning over the seat and gently blowing on his ear.Oh man,how much commando tea had she had?

"I mean girl,Naomi:fifteen or so.I generally like 'em legal,thank you."

"Ah damn.I wanted to hear about ex-girlfriends."

"I don't have girlfriends."Well...no,he didn't...not that he could remember...

"One night stander,are we?I can't say I'm shocked,really.I bet women are all over you..."she teased,letting her fingers crawl up his neck like a spider.

He shrugged,trying to remove her hand,and said,"I thought we were discussin' Maddy here."

"Fine,Mister uptight,"she replied,letting out a very whiskey tainted sigh."You think she's like this girl?I think my grandmom would have mentioned if she'd accidentally killed someone."

"I'm not saying she's like Rogue,I'm just saying that's who I thought of.I don't know why, really.Except,after she touches you,you're not the same.Well,not for a little bit,anyways.It's like getting a one hundred thousand volt enema."

"Rogue?"She said,giving him a curious look in the rearview that quickly turned into a concerned frown."She touched you?Could you have been killed?"

Yes,he could have been,and almost was.But there were times when death sounded like a bit of a novelty;something he was far overdue for.Sometimes it sounded like a dreamless sleep,and there were times when he would gladly embrace that.But he met her eyes in the mirror,and said,"Not really.I'm indestructible,remember?"

"You are not-you're hard to kill.There's a difference."She rested her head against the back of his head,and he felt small tendrils of static snake through his hair and down his back."Please don't forget that,Logan."

"I won't,"he replied,but he wasn't sure how honest he was being with her.

A turn in the icy road brought into view a small cluster of building that looked hewn from raw ash and pine on the horizon,nestled between hills of snow and flats of asphalt,going for a semi-rustic Swiss chalet theme.

He knew what it was too.It was the last rest stop before the main road split in two:one going up towards a ski lodge and run on the mountain-currently closed due to avalanche danger-one going to the main pass,which led out of the mountains,and towards Grand Cache.A glance at the fuel gauge indicated they didn't have the gas to make it.

"Shit.Want to stop and stretch your legs?We need gas."

"No.What I want to do is have a monster piss,and maybe get something hot to eat,in that order, although not in the same exact place."

"You are a classy dame,"he replied,chuckling slightly.

"Just your type,"she teased,flicking his ear before she sat back.

"Absolutely,"he agreed.

He wondered if the place was even open since the parking lot looked bare,but as he pulled up to the sheltered gas pumps,he saw a canary yellow Honda parked around back.With the lodge closed,and the storm continuing in the lower elevations impeding the truckers,they just must not have had a hell of a lot of business recently.

"Want anything?"she asked,as she got out on the side farthest from the gas pumps.She didn't want to accidentally spark an explosion.

"Something with caffeine,"he replied."And if they've got something decent in the food department,sign me up for that."He was starving,and she was right-hot food did sound good.He got tired of living on cold,prepackaged foods a long time ago.But when it was either that or bar food,usually the packaged stuff was far more sanitary,and never ran the risk of smelling like a trucker's armpit.

She disappeared inside the biggest 'chalet',the store portion of the rest stop,and he could see some goods piled up in the windows:mainly lanterns,cold weather gear,random things travelers or skiers forgot at home or didn't know they needed.

As he got out and filled the tank,the smell of gasoline acrid to his nose,he marveled at the peace.

It was so quiet he could hear the hum of the generator in one of the smaller chalet outbuildings,its nearly subaudible drone echoing off the snowy cliffs that enclosed this place,making it something of a canyon.Save for the snowy hills behind the store,leading up to dramatically sloped cliffs full of scrub pines,melted snow sluicing down jagged rocks like miniature waterfalls.There was a peace in cold that couldn't be found anywhere else;snow really was like a blanket,smothering the land,strangling any noise before it had a chance to escape.

As he watched the meter click over,counting the liters of gas being pumped into the tank,his breath exploding in white clouds before him,he noticed the hum from the outbuilding was getting louder.

No,it wasn't.

It was a different sort of noise-now that it was growing louder (closer),he realized it had a rhythm,a sort of familiar whirring sound...

As soon as he identified the noise as a helicopter,he saw movement in the woods,and adamantium body armored soldiers poured out of the second outbuilding like ants from a disturbed hive.

His first thought was to go to Naomi-he could not allow them to get separated again-but he knew he'd never make it.

As snipers started firing from the woods above,he ripped open the back door of the ATV,going for the gun.

If he couldn't kill these fuckers,maybe he could slow them down long enough for Naomi to get away.

The rear windshield exploded inward as the bullets hit it,glass shards biting into the back of Angel's neck as he threw it into drive and hit the gas,plowing forward into a group of black clad soldiers,some of whom got out of the way,some who didn't.

Those with guns opened fire,bringing the front windshield crashing down into his lap as he headed straight for the jeep across the intersection from him,bargaining that it would be easier to take out than either truck.

At least one bullet punched through Angel's arm as one of his rear tires exploded,making the rear end of the car fishtail on the rain flooded road as he crashed into the front of the jeep,the impact throwing him hard against the steering wheel.But he kept his foot on the gas pedal,kept going forward,and with a screeching of metal the jeep flew aside,sliding straight into a drainage ditch on the side of the road as the Pontiac lurched forward,tires squealing and throwing up rooster tails of water,leaving the trucks and soldiers far behind him.

They'd be after him in a second,and with his rear tire shot out they'd overtake him easily,so Angel,now being pelted with rain as hard as stone through the gap where the shattered front window used to be,turned off instantly into a weedy field,headed straight for a thick tangle of blackberry bushes that looked a foot taller than the car and at least twice as long.

He pulled in behind the barrier shaped shrub and killed the engine,listening hard to the sounds of engines on the road as the rain tapped out hollow tattoos on the car,hoping the rain had made the field so muddy tracks wouldn't be immediately noticed.

He listened patiently,and heard the trucks drive by,followed by one vehicle that sounded like it was dragging something metallic,but he didn't really know if it was the jeep or the car.