Libri Veritatum: Some truths are revealed

[x-traction.livejournal.com]

Marie and Logan talk on the plane to Meridian. He points out that she really didn’t think this trip through.


Marie stared out the window of the Boeing 747, watching the endless spread of puffy white clouds. She still couldn’t believe she was going home, if she could call Meridian that anymore. She hadn’t been back in years, hadn’t seen or even spoken to her family until last night and now here she was, on a plane headed for Mississippi. How odd now that she had the same travel companion, though they had both changed considerably since the last time they had made this journey.

"Penny for your thoughts, kid." Logan said kindly as he watched her stare off into the distance. He'd always liked air-travel, and knowing that the possibility that he wouldn't hve to jump out of this one was just icing on the cake. "Been a while since you've been back." he said, not making it a question at all. "Could've driven, spared us the hassle at the airport." he said.

"Aren't they worth more than a penny?" she quipped weakly, continuing to stare at the window. "Ah'm just nervous. And drivin' woulda took too long. Guess I coulda asked the Pixie for a lift, but Ah just wasn't thinkin' all too clearly." She studiously ignored his mention of the length of time since her last visit. Because then she would have to start thinking about why she hadn't been home since then and there was no way that was going to be a pleasant line of thought. "Thanks for comin' with," she said softly.

"Any time, darlin', you know that." he replied, just as softly. "Dyin' for a smoke - the air in here is seriously nasty." he said idly, as if just making an observation. "You sure you're ready to do this?" he asked her. She was practically reeking of apprehension and worry.

"Ah'm not, but don't see as Ah've got much choice. Ah shoulda done this a long time ago." Turning to face Logan, she couldn't keep the fear out of her eyes. "Ah didn't even tell 'em Ah was coming." She had been too scared that they would tell her not to bother. Marie knew it would be too much to expect her parents to welcome her back into their lives with open arms, but she couldn't help harbor some ideas along that line. If she was being honest with herself, the strange letter she had received was just an excuse to do something she'd known she needed to do.

Logan frowned a bit at that, then tilted his head back as far as it would go and used his omnipresent cowboy hat to cover his face. At least now all he'd really smell is him. "Not smart, kid." he commented after a moment. "You got an hour or so before we land. Might want to spend that time coming up with a plan."

Marie sighed and returned to staring out the window. "About the only plan Ah got is to show up and hope they don't slam the door in my face." She picked up the complimentary bag of peanuts and begin twisting it in her hands. "Ah remember when a surprise visit home wouldn't have been something to be concerned about," she said wistfully. "Momma just loved the excuse to make somethin' special for dinner and all the cousins would come over. But that was before..." she trailws off, leaving the rest of the sentence unspoken. It could be ended several ways, after all. Before she manifested. Before she killed a man. Before the government had hounded her family to try and find her. Before...well, before a lot of things.

Logan snorted at that. "Think, kid. Where we going to stay? Get a car when we touch down? Give yourself options." he said, then reached out a hand - without looking - and capped hers (gloved, of course) to stop her mangling the peanut bag. "Give them a chance. Maybe they'll surprise you, maybe they won't. Won't know until we get there, so chewing yourself up about it now isn't smart."

"Ah wasn't think about any of that!" she said, her voice rising slightly. At the startled look from another passenger, Marie flinched and lowered her voice. "Ah want to give them a chance. Ah just hope they give me one too." She dropped the peanut bag and pulled her hand away from Logan, patting the pocket where she was keeping the strange letter. "There's no one else that woulda known where to send me somethin' from Meridian, so maybe they wanted me to come home," she said hopefully, though she couldn't deny that wasn't really a plausible explanation.

"Find out soon enough." he said agreeably, and settled back to try to catch some Zs before they landed. "People'll surprise you if you give'm a chance." he said a moment later. "Ya never know."


Marie’s surprise visit turns out to be no surprise at all and she is the one to leave the house in shock.



A rental car had been easy enough to obtain and the drive to Meridian was one Marie would always know. She had tried to build her confidence on the drive and quell the anxiety had twisted in her stomach since her decision to return home, but had been unsuccessful. Clutching her hands in her lap, Marie sat and stared at the home she had grown up in, trying to make herself get out of the car and approach the door.

Logan had no such problems - he slid out of the car with his usual grace, then out of force of habit scanned the area for targets, entrances, exits, and other such useful information. It only took him a few seconds - by the time he got around to Marie's side of the car, he knew everything he needed to. "Showtime, pumpkin." he told her as he opened her door for her.

Getting out of the car, she echoed Logan. "Showtime." You can do this, this is home, they still love you, they gotta. As she slowly walked up to the house, she looked over her shoulder to make sure Logan was with her. Raising her hand to knock on the door, she squeaked in surprise as it opened before her fist hit the wood.

A slightly overweight woman stood in the doorway, her blue eyes wide as she looked Marie up and down. "Marie," she choked out in a pained voice as she threw her arms open, tears flowing down her cheeks.

Without a second thought, Marie flung herself into her mother’s arms, all thoughts of the letter and her reasons for being home flying out of her mind. "Ah missed you so much Momma." All her concerns about her parents slamming the door in her face flew out of her mind and she focused on the feeling of her mother's arms around her. Marie carefully laid her cheek on Sharon's clothed shoulder and began to cry softly herself.

Marie's father leaned up against a wall and silently watched his wife and daughter, before his gaze moved back to the open door and he spotted Logan. He offered no reaction beyond a curt nod and he returned to watching the two women cry in each others arms.

Logan returned the nod and waited for the women to cry themselves out. So far, so good. The real tests were still to come, but at least this hurdle got passed. Marie needed this and she wanted him to be here for it, so here he was. It was a nice change of pace to be a walking security blanket as opposed to ... whatever else he'd been in his life.

Finally separating, the two women found themselves talking over each other. Both were apologizing for not being in touch sooner and for allowing the contact to end in the first place. "Sweetie, go on inta the kitchen, let me fix y'all somethin' to eat, y' must be starvin' from the trip," Sharon said, gently pushing Marie through the door. "You too," she said to Logan.

As Marie walked into the kitchen, her father pulled Sharon aside for a moment. "Honey, you know what we gotta do. She said not to wait too long," he whispered. "Ah know, but not yet. Please...can't we have a chance ta visit first? Ah'll tell her after lunch, Ah promise," she replied in a hushed tone, her eyes tearing up again. She hustled to follow Marie and Nick slowly trudged after her, his eyes looking at anything but Marie.

Logan just tipped his hat to Marie's mother and took a step into her parents' house. A nice place, as such things went. By force of long-forgotten habit he scanned the room visually, looking for entrances, exits, and possible ambush spots. It was something he did so automatically that he didn't even think about it most of the time. "Nice place." he hazarded by way of conversation.

Sharon nodded to Logan before heading into the kitchen. She bustled around the already steaming pots and began talking about people Marie had known when she was a girl, doing her best to keep the conversation light. Nick followed hesitantly and then leaned up against a wall on the far side of the kitchen, a drawn and worried expression on his face. Every few moments he would cast a covert look at Marie, but he didn't seem to want anyone else to realize he was doing it.

Marie smiled, her anxiety finally lessening as she remembered what it had been like to sit at the table those years ago and hear her mother tell the same story. She glanced down at the table then back up, something tickling at her brain but it took a few moments to register. The table that was already set for four. "Momma, who else is coming by?

Sharon forced a smile on her face, though the corners of her lips were twitching with the effort it took to hold it there. "No one honey, just your daddy and Ah. What makes you say..." she trailed off as she looked down at the table, then spun back around placing her hands on the counter.

Nick quickly crossed the room, setting a hand on her shoulder and gently turning her back to face Marie. "We knew you were coming," he said softly. Marie's mouth opened in surprise as she stared at her parents, glanced over at Logan and then back at her parents.

Logan had to fight an urge to bug out, grab Marie and get clear. Chances are her family hadn't done something _truly_ stupid, but he disliked surprises like this. But when it come down to it Marie could take care of herself, and so could he. So he stayed, but he instantly ratchet up his internal wariness to something just short of Take Action Now. Marie would see it - she was a clever girl that way – and hopefully understand why.

He sniffed the air, but the smell of overwrought norms, Marie, and whatever was cooking in the kitchen was pretty much swamping everything else out. He inhaled deeply through his nose, working through each scent individually. "You repaint the hallway?" he asked, drawing attention away from the dining room table and away from Marie.

Sharon gave Logan an incredulous look before slowly moving to sit at the table across from Marie. She reached out for her daughter's hand and began crying when Marie snatched it away. She began twisting her hands together in her lap and it was easy to see from whom Marie had picked up that particular habit.

"Ah don't understand...Ah didn't tell you we were coming. You had no way of knowing. You can't have known." It was good that Logan had his mind on their security, because Marie was in too much shock to think about it. Some small part of her brain registered what he was doing though and she became aware of the lack of easily accessible exits from her current position. Rising, she moved to stand by Logan, ready for anything...except for what she was about to hear.

"Marie," Sharon choked out her name. "Please sit, Ah'll explain everythin', Ah promise." Something clicked in Marie's head. She knew that the visit had gone to well at first. It was only to be expected that something bad had to happen. "Ah'd rather stand," she said coldly.

Sharon wiped her eyes and took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down, but failing miserably. Her words came out haltingly and were punctuated by sobs. "Ah love you so much honey, both me and your daddy do. You are ours and that'll never change, what Ah'm about to tell you doesn't change anythin', d'ya undahstand that?"

Logan looked at Marie's parents with new levels of loathing. She was their _daughter_ and they were off playing _games_. Lovely. "Your choice, kid." he whispered, low enough that it was likely her family couldn't hear. "Stay or bug out. I suggest stay, hear them out. Something's not right here. They are who they say they are, but..." he said, letting his whispered words trail off.

Unconsciously, Marie shifted to stand closer to Logan and turned to whisper, "Stay, then bug out." Turning to face her parents again, she held her head high and said, "Just tell me." Her mind began trying to predict what they would tell her, but the only things she came up with wouldn't explain how they knew she was coming. Unless…her hand moved to pat her pocket where the letter lay, almost forgotten.

"Your daddy and Ah married young, that's somethin' y'all already know." She exchanged a look with Nick and then straightened her shoulders to speak as her words came out in a rush. "We found out we couldn't have kids pretty soon afteh that. Just wasn't in the plans for us, no matter how much we wanted to have a child." She paused to catch her breath before rushing on. "Then one day, this woman came by, knocked on the door, holdin' the most beautiful child in the whole wide world." Her lips quivered and she found herself looking away from Marie and whispering the rest of the story. "She told us that your name was Marie and that she knew we could give you a good home and that we needed you just as much as you needed us. She said she knew we would love you always. She...she told us a lot of things." She looked back up at Marie. "Then she came back this mornin' and told us that you would be by today and that we had to tell you.”

Marie felt progressively lighter headed as Sharon spoke. It was all too much, it couldn't be true...it just couldn't...how could they have kept a secret from her for so long? She began breathing rapidly, unable to respond with anything other than a shocked look. She was so wrapped up in the news that her parents weren't her birth parents that she didn't even realize the importance of the rest of Sharon's words.

Someday, Logan would look back on this situation and _laugh_. Today, however, was not that day. Thinking quickly, he caught Marie as she started to fall, then as quickly and discreetly as he could dragged a bare fingertip along the exposed skin under her glove. Should perk her right the fuck back up. He pulled away just as he felt her power begin to kick in - they couldn't afford the both of them going down. Not like this.

"Nice job," he told Marie's folks, motioning towards the still-mostly-out-of-it girl in his arms. "Just back off, bub." He growled at Marie's father, who was approaching to try to help his little girl come back to her senses.

Marie's eyes fluttered open and she immediately pulled away from the arms holding her, not realizing they were Logan's. All she knew was that she wanted to get the hell away from here and from everyone and everything she had just heard. She took several steps backwards, her eyes darting around the room and her hands up in a protective gesture. When her back hit a wall, she slid down, tears streaming silently down her cheeks.

Nick stared helplessly at the sobbing girl, wanting to hold her as he had when she was a child, but knowing that he couldn't do that right now. Sharon hadn't moved from the table and her face held a glazed expression. "Irene...the woman who brought you to us...she said that it was important ya find this out now. That if you didn't, it could be dangerous...that...that it was for your own safety." Her tone made it obvious that she had begun to doubt the truth of the other woman's words.

From her vantage point, Marie noticed something small and white under the kitchen table. Remaining curled up on the floor, she floated forward until she could reach it. When she picked it up, she turned it over in her hands until the initials I.A. could be seen clearly. No one in her family had those initials...and the I had to stand for Irene. It just had to. Marie had to find this woman and get some answers. Standing, she ignored the looks from Sharon and Nick, refusing to face them. She shoved the handkerchief at Logan, her eyes filled with a question that she couldn't force her lips to form.

Logan took the handkerchief and held it up to his nose. "Female." He said absently, inhaling deeply to sort out the various scent-markers. "Elderly." he added after a few moments. "Can't tell you anything more than that." he said, shooting a raised eyebrow at Marie. Too much other crap plus all the free-floating scents in the air made subtle traces very difficult to pick out. "Your call, kid. How do you want to play it?"

Marie furrowed her brow and turned back to her mother. "When did she leave? How long before we got here?" Sharon was just shaking her head silently mouthing the word no, so it was Nick who finally answered. "She left maybe fifteen minutes before y'all arrived. She was on foot, headed off into the woods." He moved to stand by his wife, gently resting a hand on her shoulder. His answer came easily, as if he had been expecting the question.

Marie's voice was firm as she locked her gaze with Logan. "Ah say we see if we can find her. She can't have gotten too far, not unless she had a car stashed somewhere near by." She kept her back to her parents and headed out the door, not looking back even once. Sharon tried to stand, but Nick kept his hand on her shoulder, effectually trapping her in the chair.

Logan looked at the D'Ancatos before he followed Rogue out the door. "She might forgive you," he said, and then headed out the door. Before he left completely, he turned back to the very obviously frightened couple. "Someday."

Then he turned his back on them and darted out the door.

Logan and Marie find Irene…or does she find them?


Marie strode through the forest, still reeling from the encounter with her parents, if she could even call them that anymore. She wasn’t even sure what was upsetting her – finding out she was adopted or the way she had been told. She hadn’t been home in three years and this was what happened on the first visit? She choked down a sob, refusing to let herself become overwhelmed and halted as she realized she was walking without guidance. That wouldn’t help her find this Irene woman and she had a lot of questions for her. Most importantly, who was she and how had she known that Marie would come when she hadn’t even known herself until the day before?

Logan tagged along behind Marie - not getting up in her business, letting her work through things her way, but staying close enough to ward off would-be ambushers. Little old ladies or not, she'd been thrown for a serious loop and thus bore looking-in-on. The woods were not to his liking - thin and devoid of any real wildlife save for the very small. He liked his forests wilder, and this was just not cutting it.

Marie moved closer to Logan and kept her voice low, in case they were within earshot of the woman they were seeking. "Any chance you can get a scent on her, help us narrow the search down?" She glanced around the familiar wood. There were a few paths around them, ones she knew very well. Over to the left was the lake with the rope swing she and her cousins had always dared each other to use in the winter. Twenty feet to the right there was a clearing where she and her family used to picnic. Straight ahead were more trees, one of which had MD + CR carved in it.

Logan nodded and pulled a fade into a stand of trees to their right, almost seeming to disappear into the thicket. He wasn't getting much, scent-wise, but the wind was all wrong for a good track. Still, for her sake he persevered. Mostly he was getting teenager, tobacco, wild animal, and occasionally a trace of something stronger.

Marie continued to wander through the forest, looking for any signs that an old woman had come through. She sighed in frustration, knowing that her tracking skills were fairly non-existent compared to Logan's. If he couldn't find the trail, there was no way she would. Marie briefly thought about flying up to get a look from above, but the trees would obscure the view too much. She heard a branch snap in the distance and tried to locate where the sound had come from.

There was the sound of careful, precise footsteps. After a minute or two, a woman came into sight. "You would be looking for me, then, I believe," she said. Gray-haired she might be, but one look at her face, obscured by dark glasses, made it difficult to tell just how old she indeed was. She had a cane, mapping out the ground in front of her, but she seemed oddly sure-footed for a blind woman. "You've found me. Marie." Her head turned slightly in Logan's direction. "You may come out, too."

"Irene?" Marie hadn't meant it to come out of a question, but the woman standing in front of her was not what she had expected. "But you...Ah mean, you're..." she trailed off, her hands fluttering in the air. A thousand questions raced through her mind, so many that she began to worry that either none would come out or that she'd not be able to stop asking long enough to get any answers. She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply, calming herself down enough to choke out a few words. "Who am Ah? Who are you?"

Logan resheathed his claws but stayed in the shadows. There was no _way_ she could have known she was there, yet all the indicators he could sense said that she did. Logan didn't like surprises, not like that. Still, this wasn't his game, it was hers. He was just here as backup.

But Marie's questions cut him down to his unbreakable bones. ~Who am I?~ she'd asked. He'd been asking that question for coming up on two decades now, without any real success. Just a dog-tag around his neck and those who did know either dead or in Federal custody.

Irene raised an eyebrow when Logan didn't move. "Your friend is wise, I believe, Marie." Her way of speaking was formal, almost slightly stilted. "Choices made too swiftly have a way of bringing about unintended consequences. Action is like any other temptation."

Marie had a confused look on her face. How did she know where Logan was? And what did she know about Marie? Walking closer, she scrutinized the old woman in front of her, waving a hand in front of her glasses. "You didn't answer my questions. What choices? Ah didn't make any! Other people did. Like you," she said accusingly.

Irene's smile was odd - pitying, but somehow pitiless at the same time. "The eternal naivete of the young. You've made many choices, Marie. You'll make many more. But every choice sacrifices a freedom, and that is something you have yet to learn."

Irene's words did nothing to ease Marie's confusion and her frustration began to build. "That doesn't make sense. Isn't is my freedom to choose if indeed Ah am choosing anything at all? So how do Ah lose freedom by choosing?" She was annoyed to find that her words were also starting to make less sense just in trying to talk to this woman. Choices, choices...that's the key. If only Ah knew what it was the key to.

"Do you know the story of Schrodinger's cat, Marie? Physicists," Irene said with a fine, bland sort of contempt, "and their thought experiments. But there is some truth in it, for those like me. For anyone, if they are willing to step outside the limitations of their own thinking."

Now she wanted to lecture Marie on science geeks? "Say your peace, woman." he said, more in a growl than a normal tone of voice. He didn't like this. Didn't like it one bit. He sniffed the air again, but either the winds were wrong or the old bat was, indeed, alone out here. They were too exposed out here - too many angles to guard, too many vectors of attack. And Marie was useless right now - too wrapped up in her own drama.

"Do not lecture me," Irene said, a chill to her voice. "You with all your attention focused on your own past. You'll be no good to her or to any of the others if you don't have a care for the future, Wolverine." Her face turned back towards Marie. "Don't follow his example, Marie. Whatever you thought you knew, whatever you knew now... none of it matters when you place it beside what's to come."

Logan grinned a cocky grin that would have looked more at home on Creed's face. "I dunno about you, lady, but I think I'm gonna live forever." he taunted. "No past means no future."

Her voice was suspicious as she asked, "What's to come?" She took a step back and looked around, suddenly realizing she had let her guard drop severely due to the situation. "Look lady, Ah don't know who you are or what your game is, but Ah don't respond well to threats."

"Death, and hope," Irene said implacably, ignoring Marie's second comment. "You and your friends, Marie, you stand at the watershed, and the whole world waits to see in which direction the flood will turn. Whether you will be destroyers or preservers."

Marie shot a glance in Logan's direction. Either Irene was crazy or...she started putting the pieces of the puzzle together. The letter...cryptic speak about the future...it should have been obvious right away, but she'd been to distracted by what she'd learned about her family. "You. You brought me here all those years ago. You sent me the letter. You wanted me to come here. Why? Just to give some vague warning about something that may or may not happen?" She shook her head, doubting that Irene would answer her question.

Irene reached into the pocket of the long coat she wore, removing a small, worn-looking leather notebook. "My role is to watch," she said, "and to record. Occasionally, I've stepped beyond that. With you, I crossed that boundary. That time and every other time, I've paid for it."

Marie wondered what price had been paid and if she would ever know. She found herself walking forward until she was but an arms length away from Irene. She began to reach for the notebook, but hesitated with her arm outstretched. "Why me?" Her voice sounded small to her ears, like a child's.

"Because sometimes the cost of action is worth it. You, and those like you, can go one way or the other. I... put you into a position where one of those paths was more likely than the other." Irene extended the notebook, a faint, ironic smile flickering across her features. "And here I am, intervening once more... you'd think at my age that I would have learned better."

Marie's hand closed automatically around the leather notebook and she continued to stare at Irene. "Ah don't understand. How will we know if we make the right choice if we don't know what that choice is?" Her gaze moved to the worn book in her hand and back up to Irene's unreadable face.

Logan just watched all of this go down with an impassive face. But he was also locking the old bat's scent, her look, and everything he could tell about her into his memory. He needed to check her out, find out who she was, where she came from, and where she holed up. "One thing." he finally said, to the old woman. "If this is your idea of a sick joke - if you're running some kind of scam ... there is no place anywhere in Creation for you to hide." he warned her in a flat voice. "Because I will find you."

Irene's smile was mirthless. "Threats," she said. "Shall I respond in kind, Logan called Wolverine? Tell you about some of the choices facing you? What I've seen? Whose blood I see on your claws? You mock the idea of having a future, but I tell you now that unless you have a care for it, you will be useless to them. Entirely useless, in the battles to come."

Logan took an involuntary step forward, his hands clenched into fists and the urge to kill almost blotting out his control, his very being. "Shut up." he told her sharply. "Room enough for the blood of one more..."

"Oh, so very many paths, for one who refuses to see them." There was a slightly savage edge of amusement to Irene's voice, as she let go of the notebook, leaving it in Marie's possession. "Some of them so much more painful than others. Down one road I see you standing over children's bodies, lost to the animal inside you. And knights in black," she said, her voice eerily remote, "on all sides. How many of the pieces will you sweep off the board and leave bleeding? The king and queen, at the very least. But the rooks will find you, Logan called Wolverine. There are some fortresses that claws cannot breach."

Logan threw back his head and laughed. "Anyone can paint a pretty picture with words, lady." he said dismissively. "Forget this old bat, kid. She's a crank. Gets off on mind games." he told Marie, then turned his back on Irene to walk back to the D'Ancato house. Maybe he should drop her just as a safety measure - but the kid wouldn't like it, most likely. Best to get her clear, double-back and do the job right.

"A different queen, now, than before... silver hair, not red," Irene mused. "I see the other on a mountaintop, a queen in shadow, out of the game. But a shift in players will not save them."

Silver hair. Logan only knew two women important enough to him who could possibly fit that description. Silver hair, not red. Bitch!

How _dare_ she?

"I'm done bein' nice to you, darlin'." he said, his claws snikting out of his hands. "Say what you want about me, but you leave them _out_ of it." he growled, and turned to take a step or two towards Irene.

Even if one was married and the other denying her essential self to be something she thought was important.

"You want to see the future? See yours." he taunted her just before he crossed the gap between himself and Irene.

Marie blinked as she processed Irene's words. She wasn't a fake...and Marie found herself wondering if that made her feel better or worse. She froze as she watched Logan began advancing on the old woman and found herself fearing for Irene's safety. She couldn't let any harm come to her. She didn't know why, she just couldn't. Dropping the notebook, she ran and wrapped her arms around Logan, pulling him back to spin him around, away from Irene. "Ah'm sorry..you can't...Ah can't let you...Ah'm sorry..." she said, her words punctuated with sobs.

"Me too, kid." he said sadly, then rammed his adamantium skull into her pretty little nose. All he wanted was a little bit of slack to break her grip, then he'd do the old woman. She'd see he was right eventually.

Maybe she'd even forgive him someday.

Her arms released Logan as she reeled backwards, seeing stars explode around her. Landing hard, she bounced back up despite the pain, ready to try and stop Logan from hurting...Where'd she go? Turning around in a slow circle, Marie didn't see any sign of Irene or rustling of leaves to indicate which direction she'd gone. Ah only closed my eyes for a second...there's no way she could've just disappeared that quickly. She watched Logan warily, one hand going up to feel her nose, before she bent down to pick the notebook up from where it had fallen.

"Son of a bitch!" he shouted, whirling around. "How the _fuck_ does an old blind bat make that good a time that quickly?" he snarled. He ached to hunt her down, to run her until she couldn't run anymore. He closed his eyes and concentrated on steadying his breathing. In and out, nice and slow and even. Pack the rage away, bank it for another time, another day. He tasted blood as a tooth cracked. Now was not the time. He could find her any time he wanted to.