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Chapter Four
Logan made sure that Buffy ate a good breakfast before they left the next morning. As usual, she protested the entire time, but eventually gave in and ate what he put in front of her. They arrived at Alkali Lake to find the buildings only half standing. Most of the walls and roofs had fallen in leaving piles of rubble. The two carefully walked around what was left of the buildings that had once stood there. Too much to ask for, Logan thought. He started to head back to the bike when Buffy spoke. “This probably isn’t it.” “What do ya mean?” He asked. “There was probably an underground facility. Secret military groups tend to favor those.” “How would you know?” “I have my ways,” she said with a shrug. She didn’t think now would be a good time to let him know that she was, however briefly, a member of one such group. After searching for nearly two hours, Buffy found a hole in the floor of one of the more stable structures. She stuck her head down into it and stretched out with her slayer senses. She could feel a tunnel below that seemed to stretch on. “I found an entrance!” She called out to Logan. “We’re gonna need flashlights!” Logan made a quick trip back to the bike to grab the flashlights he had packed just in case. When he reached Buffy, he was thankful she had come along. Otherwise he probably wouldn’t have seen the hole half-hidden by a fallen wall, even with his enhanced senses. They easily dropped down the narrow hole and Buffy started down the tunnel. It bore no markings or signs, just bare cement walls. “How do you know to go this way?” Logan asked as he cautiously sniffed the air. From what he could smell, no one had been there in years. He also picked up that Buffy’s scent had a bit of sadness to it. He thought briefly about asking her about it, but figured she’d tell him when she was ready. “It leads down, which means it will more than likely lead us to the real compound,” she answered as he caught up. The passage was just big enough for the two to walk side by side. Both tried to ignore the way their shoulders kept brushing up against each other and the sensations the touches were causing. Buffy still had a lot of questions about mutants. They had gone back to sleep shortly after she had assured him that she didn’t mind going with him today. She wondered if they all tingled on her senses like Logan did. She thought briefly about asking him about that, but he would have questions of his own for her. Mutants were easy for her to understand and believe, but demons might be a bit much for him to take. She knew he was curious already, but hopefully he just suspected that she was a mutant. “So what other powers do mutants have?” Buffy asked, breaking the silence. “Well, the guy who led me here is a telepath. He runs this school for mutants. I’ve also met a telekinetic...” “A what?” “Telekinetic, she can move things with her mind. Some can move through objects, control the weather, change shape, and so on. It varies.” “Huh,” Buffy was suddenly thinking that maybe she wasn’t as different as she thought. The only difference was that hers was destiny, while theirs was simple genetics. The deeper they got into the compound, the more Buffy was reminded of the Initiative. She got this creepy sense of deja vu, as she remembered the night she and Spike had gone in search of answers about his chip. Thinking of him made tears spring to her eyes and she forced them back. She was here for Logan’s past, not to be reminded of her own. They soon reached a metal door. Logan went to open it, but couldn’t get it to budge. “I think it’s locked.” “Let me try,” Buffy said as she brushed past him. Logan smelled a change in her scent as she twisted the handle and shoved. The door groaned in protest, but it slowly opened. Then Buffy’s scent went back to normal. He was going to have to ask her about that when his mind wasn’t otherwise occupied. The two stepped into a fairly large room that was lined with computers and screens. Paper and bits of rubble were strewn all over the floor. “Willow would know what to do,” Buffy said softly. “Who would know what?” “My friend Willow. She was good with computers, could hack into anything,” she answered sadly. “What happened?” “Huh?” “You said she was good, implying she’s not anymore. What happened?” The smell of sadness grew stronger from her. “Nothing,” she answered shortly and then began rifling through the papers. Logan studied the blonde carefully as the scent of sadness slowly vanished. She was hiding something huge and was trying to stifle her emotions. She did it pretty well since she even seemed to be able to pull the scent back inside. He could sort of relate. He only hoped she would open up willingly before she exploded. After thoroughly searching the room, all they found were a couple of mangled discs that they hoped they could wrestle some information from. They decided to go through the other door that led from the room. The next room they entered was huge. A large tank was in the center of the room that had several tubes running from it to a large machine. Shelves and counters lined the walls and they held surgical equipment and data sheets. Buffy felt Logan tense up beside her. She turned to see him staring at the tank in horror. “This is it,” he whispered as he walked up to the tank. This was the room that haunted his sleep. He felt twitches in his head, like memories that were fighting to surface. He reached out with a shaky hand to touch the tank. As soon as his skin touched the cold, smooth surface he jerked as his body remembered being lowered into the tank. He felt the strange liquid coat his body and numb his skin. The brunette wrenched his hand away and the images stopped. He walked around the tank and over to the machine it was connected to. Somehow he knew that this was the machine that lined his skeleton with the adamantium. The more he moved about the room and touched different objects, the more he remembered. The images he saw didn’t really explain a lot, but they at least let him know that this was the place that it happened. The papers on the counters seemed to be written in gibberish to him rather than English, but maybe Jean could make some sense out of them. He picked up what he saw and added them to the discs. Maybe he would be able to talk the Professor into sending the X-Men up here to see if they could find anything, or make more sense of it. Logan was disturbed from his exploration by a sob from the other side of the room. He turned to see Buffy sink to her knees with tears streaming down her face. All that Buffy was truly aware of was the emotions and memories that were flooding her senses. They seemed to fall on her all at once and she hadn’t been prepared to stop them. The entire place felt like death, just like the school had after the battle. Her mind kept replaying the events of that fatal day over and over. She saw Giles’ face as his neck was broken; Dawn’s cry as she was bitten by a Turok-Han; Willow falling beneath the bringers; and Spike. The last words he had spoken to her, and the words she had never been able to say to him. This place pulled up other memories of her lost friends. Her slayer sense also seemed to pick up on past emotions and the room was filled with pain. Whoever had run this facility had mercilessly performed experiments on humans. Just like Spike had been captured and experimented on by the Initiative. Willow would have been able to find information in the computers. Xander could have raised the military training he remembered to find other information. And she had killed them all. There was a reason why slayers were suppose to work alone. That way they wouldn’t endanger anyone else. Even though Spike had once told her that they were her anchor, the reason she was still alive, she didn’t care. If she hadn’t had them, she wouldn’t have to carry the burden of knowing that she was responsible for their deaths. Buffy barely registered the strong, warm arms that embraced her shaking body. She was too lost in her grief. This had been the first time since the day they had died that she cried for them. She had locked everything away that day. Even when she had explained to Angel what had happened, she had done so in a flat unemotional tone. She had let the slayer inside do the talking. Logan wished there was more he could do for her, but he wasn’t really good at comforting women. So all he did was hold and rock her. He was sure that this place triggered some memory of her own. Whatever was eating at her must have been very serious for her to break down like this. “My fault. It’s all my fault,” she whispered brokenly. Knowing that she wasn’t with him mentally or emotionally, he just kept holding her. Despite the fact he was wondering what she blamed herself for. He whispered soothing nonsense in her ear and rubbed small circles on her back. After her memories and grief had run their course, Buffy realized that she was leaning against a warm, solid body. And that there were arms holding her against said body. A thought flickered across her mind that staying there would feel wonderful, but she shoved it aside and gently pulled away from Logan. “You alright?” He asked as he unwrapped his arms. He continued to stay close though, in case she needed him. “Yeah. Sorry about that. I don’t normally breakdown like that,” she admitted, slightly embarrassed. “Wanna talk about it?” “Nah. I’m just going to go outside and get some air,” she said quickly as she stood and wiped the tears from her face. He sat there and watched her walk away. When she reached the door he called out, “What was your fault?” “My friends.” “What about your friends?” She answered so softly that without his sensitive hearing, he wouldn’t have caught it. “Their deaths.” Previous Part Looking For Tomorrow Menu Next Part |
