Sorry this took so long... I was just stumped... enjoy.

Warning

She was very, very worried, something just seemed off. What, she wasn’t sure. It could be the suspicious lack of guards, or that it was getting really quiet. Then again it could be that she hadn’t seen Wade in a week; which wouldn’t be worrying if he was on assignment somewhere. But she was fairly sure that he wasn’t.

They had formed a fairly strict routine in the year she had been in this hell-hole; he ALWAYS came to see her before and after assignments and visits with Stryker and his doctors. A week ago he had a session with Stryker and he hadn’t come to see her yet. That didn’t bode well.

“What do you think is going on?” She turned to Pietro, who glanced down at her and shrugged continuing, “I mean you feel it too, right?”

She nodded, “Yeah I feel it. I don’t know what’s wrong.”

She started as the doors to the bunker were flung open and watched in awe as a very, very angry James Howlett marched into the compound. God, he looked bigger than she remembered, but that might just be the vicious snarl on his face.

“James! James!” James looked around and spotted her, moving over to her cell.

“They got you too, Half Pint?” James put a hand to the bars and pulled back as the electric fence reached up to meet him, “They keep you under electric charge?”

“I don’t know if you remember but I have been known to cause spontaneous rust,” Samantha shrugged, “They tried five or six different no-rust coatings then gave up and put up an electric fence. Guess they figured that if they couldn’t keep the doors from rusting, they had to keep me from touching the doors.”

“I see you haven’t changed much.” James grimaced, “I’ll try to come back and spring you free later, but I have work to do now.”

Samantha nodded, “Could you try to check on Wade, Stryker has him and I’m worried.”

“They got Wade too?”

“Sort of. Can you just check on him please?”

“I can try.”

“Thank you.” James nodded and moved toward the staircase that led to the command room, “Good luck.”

Samantha watched James climb the stairs and moved her eyes to the dark windows of the command room. From her position on the main floor of the hanger she could just barely make out dark shadows behind the windows. So they still have someone watching us. Still the lack of guards on the ground is odd. Where would Stryker divert all of that manpower? What does he have them watching and why? In any case whatever they're doing is more important than us down here. That could be a bad sign.

“What's wrong? And who was that?”

Samantha turned back to Pietro, “I'm trying to formulate an escape plan, but as of now I got nothing. And that was James Howlett; he's the man who's going to break us free.”

“You're sure of that, are you?”

“Not at all.” She smirked, “But I definitely prefer hope, don't you?”

**

It had been near an hour since James had disappeared into the command post and nothing had happened yet, nothing. The almost eerie quiet was making everyone nervous. Really it was rather odd that James hadn't caused complete mayhem already. Given James' state of mind when he had entered the compound, there was no way that he was simply chitchatting calmly with Stryker. Adding to the already tense situation, Victor had stalked up the stairs pulling a Native American woman along behind him some fifteen minutes ago.

Really James should have already decimated the place by now.

And yet all was calm in the main room of the hanger; every one of the imprisoned mutants remained safe and sound, albeit fidgety, in their cages, the electric charge on her own cage was still buzzing away and she could still make out the outlines of the soldiers behind the window.

All was calm and quiet and it was freaking her out. James Howlett simply did not come in 'calm and quiet.'

“You hear that?”

She glanced back at Pietro, “Hear what?”

“I don't know it sounds like growling or snarling or something.”

Samantha 'hmm'ed and focused on the surrounding silence, hearing faint growls and the pounding of heavy feet, “They're getting louder.”

There was a loud crash and the sound of shattering glass and Samantha flinched away from the sound. When she looked back she could see James straddling his brother, the snarls increasing in pitch and volume as he hammered another fist into Victor's face. The Native American women from before pulled up next them, her mouth forming words Samantha couldn't hear over the sound of fists hitting flesh.

Whatever it was that she said, James stopped after landing one more solid punch to Victor's face. Victor's arms went lax and James pushed himself off of his brother before turning toward the stairs again. The woman stopped him and gestured toward the cages.

James seemed to briefly weigh his options before moving toward the cages and unsheathing his claws. Samantha gave a brief chuckle, “Well those are new.”

James moved down the line of cells, his shiny new metal claws ripping almost effortlessly through the heavy steel of each cell's locking mechanism. Upon reaching her cell, he paused before reaching up to the top of the steel caging and ripping through the device that charged the metal below.

“There ya go, Half Pint.” Samantha gave a weak smile. James nodded and continued down the line of cells, while Samantha rushed out of her cell and into Pietro's.

Pietro looked down at her confused, “What are you doing?”

Samantha quirked an eyebrow at him and smiled, “How exactly were you planning to get out of your sling on your own?”

“Oh.”

“Oh indeed.” Samantha smirked and wrapped a hand around one of the ties, focusing on disrupting the chemical structure of the fabric. Within a few short moments she was done and they were following the line of freed mutants. The crowd abruptly stopped and Samantha craned her neck to see what was going on.

She started pushing towards the front when she heard the hanger doors slide open and James let out a rumbled, “Wade? Is that you?”

Pulling up alongside James, she let out a strangled sob and started towards the man standing in the door. James grunted and grabbed her hand, pulling her back, and whispered, “That may not be such a good idea Half Pint, he doesn't look particularly sane at this moment.” To Wade he shouted, “Looks like Stryker finally found a way to shut you up.”

Samantha sobbed, shook him off and started forward again, her eyes following the familiar plains of Wade's body only to drawn back to the scarred mess that had been made of his face. She met his eyes as well as she could from a distance and sobbed, there was no recognition, no emotion of any kind in those flat black eyes. Just a peculiar sort of patient blankness that reminded her of a computer. God what had they done to him?

She continued toward him and watched for any sign of emotion as he tracked her movements. Nothing; absolutely nothing. She heard the pounding of James' boots behind her and picked up the pace only to cut off by James. She let out a broken snarl and tried to push past him. James resisted and wrapped an arm around her waist, hauling her off of her feet and dragging her a couple feet back.

Setting her back on her feet, James grabbed her chin, “Those kids need you, Half Pint. Go take care of them. I'll take care of Wilson.”

Samantha shook her head and started forward. She felt arms around her again and glanced back at Pietro.

James turned back toward Wade, and watched as swords slipped from between his knuckles. He responded with a swear and unsheathed his own claws. She swore and struggled against Pietro's hold on her middle, “You can't kill him! James! You can't kill him!”

James turned back toward her, “He's already gone, Samantha. That isn't Wade Wilson. That's Stryker's new pet. Wade is gone.”

Samantha shook her head and struggled against Pietro again, pleading brokenly, “No. That's Wade, we just have to help him. He'll remember, he has to remember me. He loves me, he can't forget me. You'll see James, he'll remember.”

James turned back towards what was left of Wade and shook his head, “No he won't Half Pint. Wade Wilson is gone and if I don't kill him, he'll kill us.”

Samantha struggled harder as James started toward Wade. She screamed and tried to shake Pietro off again. Trying to get James' attention again, she surged forward and screamed for him to stop. Pietro kept a good hold on her and threw her over his shoulder, gesturing to the other mutants, he turned toward the other end of the hanger.

Samantha looked up desperately and realized that this tear-blurred image of Wade was likely to be her last glimpse of him. She sobbed and collapsed against Quicksilver's back.