Running to Stand Still

The dance lessons she started taking in the city made the burden of senior-year finals a little lighter. She easily fell back into a routine of strict practice with her ballet class, but let loose in her freestyle class. She had made a few friends within that class.

Logan had insisted on going into NYC with her, arguing that it was a dangerous city for mutants and he just wanted her to be safe. Kat knew that another big reason he came with her was to see her in the revealing outfits she wore for dancing.

As a present for graduation, Logan convinced Professor Xavier that Kat should have her own room, and as his own personal surprise he put up a wall-mirror and mounted a practice bar along it for her dance practice. When she saw it, her face lit up and she turned to Logan to see the self-satisfied smirk on his face.

His surprise came when she ran across the rond jnd jumped at him, wrapping her arms and legs around him and kissing him thoroughly. He got a pretty good idea of just how strong her legs were.

A few days later Logan wasn't able to join Kat at her lesson, seeing as Xavier had heard some stirrings among the labs up in Canada, something about a covert operation called Weapon-X, and Logan's name kept popping up.

Kat had assured him that she'd be alright going to her lesson, even agreeing to take Jubilee along with her to appease him. Well, it wasn't that the yellow-loving Asian girl appeased him; it was more the idea that Kat wouldn't be alone in NYC.

He felt something was wrong even as Jubilee walked in the front door alone, panic written all over her face beneath the bruises and cuts. She took one look at Logan and ran straight for Xavier's office.

Aided by a hot cup of tea, she haltingly told the story of how she and Kat had gotten jumped just outside the subway by several shady characters, two big men and a woman with some sort of tazer. Kat had gotten most of the damage, having fought the hardest. Jubilee had gotten hurt more by fists than the r, cr, confirmed by her bruised face.

They'd taken Kat, left Jubilee for what they thought was dead.

"I don't know who they were. They kept saying that she'd be a great subject to study on, and the woman said she wondered how she'd hold up to the tests." Jubilee shuddered and took a long drink of the tea. "I think they'd been watching her; they somehow knew about her healing factor, which is why I think they took her."

Logan shared a horrified glance with Xavier. "Chuck, if they took her, I'll --"

Xavier held up a hand to stop him. "I'll be with Cerebro. Logan, gather the team and brief them on what's happened. As soon as I find her, you can go."

The wild-man nodded shakily, reaching for Xavier's personal intercom. He swit it it on. "X-Men report to the War Room immediately." He nodded to Jubilee. "We'll bring her back, kid, I promise."

She nodded back tearfully. "I'm sorry I couldn't save her, Logan."

He squeezed her shoulder as he walked past her to the door. "Don't worry. It wasn't your fault."

But damned if he didn't blame himself. He should have gone with her; maybe if he had, this wouldn't have happened. Or maybe they w hav have gotten both of them, and they'd never have been found.

His mind was in turmoil by the time he made it downstairs to the War Room. Rogue and Scott were already inside, standing near the corner in heated discussion. Jean and Ororo sat at the table, hands folded calmly. Remy sat on the table next to Kitty.

He turned to find Hank coming in after him.

Ororo was the first to speak. "Why have we been called here?" she asked.

Logan growled softly. "Kat's been abducted by some organization. If I didn't know any better, I would say it was the same people who experimented on me fifteen years ago. Needless to say, these people are ruthless and I can't begin to tell you how dangerous this mission is gonna be."

Scott crossed the room to lay a friendly hand on Logan's arm; to his surprise, he wasn't shrugged off or growled at. "We'll find her, Logan."

"Damn right we will."

The room was nearly silent when Xavier came in a short time later. "I've found her. They've taken her north as I expected, to the Canadian Rockies, where a military base and laboratories have been built. It's high-security, very-high risk, but nothing stops us from rescuing one of our own."

"Let's move out," Scott said, leading the way to the locker rooms.

Xavier stopped Logan, waiting until everyone else had gone before speaking. "Are you sure you'll have a clear head ght,ght, Logan?"

The Wolverine shrugged. "Maybe, maybe not, but I can't stay here and worry about her." He flexed his hands. "May as well burn some anger."

"Very well." To his retreating figure, Xavier softly added, "Godspeed."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

While the jet was state-of-the-art technology and faster than anything even the military had, to Logan the journey north and west seemed to last an eternity. They reached the base in the middle of the night, the mountains providing perfect coverage for it.

Cyclops soundlessly landed the Blackbird in a clearing ringed by trees; hopefully, they would hide the jet until they got back. Just as a precaution, Storm called up dense fog until no one standing in the clearing could see it.

They split up into two teams. Blue Team, consisting of Storm, Scott, Rogue and Jean, were to infiltrate and hopefully shut down security protocols. Red Team, with Gambit, Kitty, Hank and Logan, had the hard part: find Kat and get her out safely. Gambit and Hank had the job of protecting Logan and Kitty.

But as soon as they split up and Red Team got into the building, Logan went his own way. He was still blaming himself for Kat's abduction and felt that the only way to redeem himself was to save her on his own. No one could ever say that the Wolverine didn't take care of his own.

Hank informed Scott that Logan had gone off on his own; the leader of the X-Men swore under his breath but ultimately knew that they couldn't stop the older man when he was in his element.

Red Team came to what looked like the main corridor. "Gambit be takin' point," the Cajun said, his deck of cards already in hand. "Kitty, take de left and Hank de right. We goin' in."

Scott was aware of Red Team's position on the monitor at his belt. It showed three red dots moving together on the main level and a fourth one already on the second and heading into what they had assumes ths the lab. Logan was making good time even if he was disobeying rs. rs.

"Blue Team, keep an eye out for guards." Even as the words left his mouth, there was a blast just above his head that took out a chunk of the wall behind him. "Switch to secure communications channel!" he barked even as he aimed and fired back at the guards who were now flooding the corridor.

Jean used her telekinesis to hold them off while the team moved; Storm created a tiny whirlwind that knocked the guards back, giving the X-Men a way out down another corridor. The battle had begun.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

She lay naked on a metal gurney, body numb and limbs feeling like lead weights. Even her eyelids felt heavy when she tried to blink. A shiver ran through her body, precursor to the s shs she knew were coming to the surface.

She'd never been more scared in her life, not even when her stepfather was still alive. Tubes ran crisscrossed over her body, needles imbedded at various points. They were keeping her heavily drugged, but her healing factor metabolized it faster than they could keep up with, leaving her lucid at all the wrong moments.

A machine beeped nearby, monitoring her heart rate and other body functions. It was a constant reminder that she was still alive. God, why were they keeping her alive?!

Tears pooled at the inside corners of her eyes to trickle down her cheeks. She cried silently, unable to find her voice to cry out. She tried to concentrate on what had happened, suddenly remembering and hoping that Jubilee was still alive. Maybe she had survived and gotten back to the mansion, and maybe the team was on its way to save her.

She made a slight choked noise, figuring that it was just wishful thinking that would do nothing but make her miserable. She was helpless, hopeless.

The door to the small exam room opened and the man who'd been testing her walked in, clipboard in hand. "Well, my dear, it seems we'll have to up your dosage again. That healing factor makes it near impossible to keep you under."

He moved just outside of her peripheral vision, and she couldn't move her head to watch him.

"There we go," he said, coming back into her line of sight. She could feel him checking the needles, adding tape to keep them in. "How are you feeling this morning?"

She whimpered, closing her eyes so that she wouldn't have to look at him. It hurt too much to look at him.

"Not very talkative, I see." He began humming something under her breath that sounded like a Disney tune; she felt her stomach writhe.


Logan moved easily through the compound's third floor, slashing security cameras when necessary and generally wreaking as much havoc as he could without getting caught.

There had been a moment back on the second floor that had almost killed him. He could hear the various captives being experimented on; he couldn't help the images that threatened to overwhelm him, but then he caught a scent. Kat's scent. Roses and something earthier that snapped him back to reality and reminded him of missmission.

He'd made it to the third floor, tracking the scent to a small room. The door was shut half-way and it was easy enough for him to silently open it and catch the doctor around the throat, one hand wrapped around while the other was fisted just under the man's jaw. If he moved, the claws came out and he got a lobotomy.

The humming stopped abruptly. The doctor made a choked noise and dropped out of sight to be replaced by what she thought was a hallucination until she saw the naked fear in his eyes.

"Kat?" he asked. "Are you alright?"

She tried to answer him but couldn't, the drugs preventing her from talking. She heard a high keening noise and realized she was the one making it.

"S'ok, darlin'. Don't worry, we're gettin' you outta here." He did a quick sweep of the room and found a pile of blankets sitting by the door. He grabbed a couple and set them by her feet, glancing down at all the tubes coming from her body.

"Shit," he cursed softly and with feeling. He tried to take them out as gently as possible but couldnprevprevent her small noises of pain. "Shh, baby, I'm almost done." His fingers slipped on one of the needles, blood trickling from the contact site to pool on the table. "Sorry, Kat. I'm so sorry …"

She listened to his soothing words, wanting so badly to tell him that none of this was his fault. She'd heard the doctors talking about him, about Weapon X and Logan and how he would come after her when he found out who had taken her. There was no way to tell him that he'd walked into a trap.

There was a noise at the door and Logan stiffened until he caught another familiar scent. "Cajun, where you been?" he asked as he wrapped Kat in the blankets and hoisted her into his arms. She seemed to weigh almost nothing and that worried him.

"Gambit be chasin' your ass, mon ami," Gambit replied. "You took off like a bat out o' hell an' we been tryin' ta find you." He looked at Kat and his face went white. "Petit' be okay?"

Logan growled. "She won't be if we don't haul ass outta here. Tell Scooter I've got her and we're comin' down." He listened as the message was relayed and acknowledged.

Kitty appeared in the doorway. "Take off your glove and hold my hand," she said, holding her bare hand out to him. "We'll phase through the empty rooms and get out of here faster."

Logan complied and shifted Kat in his arms. "Let's go."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Scott couldn't figure out why the mission had been so successful. They'd been attacked by several groups of guards, but nothing major. It made him suspicious, but he was glad to be out of that horrible place and on the way home. They all met out by the Blackbird and piled in, Jean ushering Logan to the back so she could stabilize Kat on the trip home.

He set her gently on the cot, kneeling at her side while Jean took her vitals and did a quick, basic blood test.

"She's got a lot of sedatives in her blood," she reported quietly. "That's all I can detect at the moment, but we can find out the extent of the damage when we get back to the mansion and the medbay."

Logan nodded, reaching out to touch her when she opened her eyes for a moment. "God, you're cold," he said, feeling the icy temperature of her skin. He wrapped her up more tightly, then climbed on the cot with her and held her in his arms, stroking her hair while he whispered to her.

"It'll be alright, darlin'. We're headed home, you'll get warm, and you'll get better. And I'll never let anyone hurt you again."