He watched her sleep, her mouth partially open, a soft murmur escaping with every breath she released. She was the most beautiful creature he had ever known, and she was his. But that didn’t quench his thirst for a good beer. Carefully so as not to wake her, he crawled off the bed, grabbing a pair of sweatpants that laid on the back of his desk chair and throwing them on. He closed the bedroom door softly behind him, a smile playing along his lips as he made his way to the kitchen. This was all he had ever wanted.
~*~*~*~*~*~
His smile disappeared as he entered the kitchen and found Victor sitting at the counter, a cold beer (his cold beer, damn it) sitting in front of him, half gone.
“How the hell did you get a taste for this crap, Jimmy?” Victor asked stoically, pushing the bottle away. The bottle of Molson slid across the counter, stopping just at the edge and directly in front of Logan.
“What do you want?” Logan asked, trying hard to control the growl in his voice. He didn’t like this man any better than he had before. He could only now tolerate him because of all he had done for Rogue. “Why are you here?”
“Just sit down and listen, would ya?” Victor growled back. “I’m already in a bad mood. You could have at least been hospitable and gotten some good alcohol.”
“You could have asked first,” Logan replied with a shrug. He was still having a hard time dealing with the other feral’s presence in the mansion, but the thought of the woman laying naked in his bed, fast asleep, helped to keep his nerves calm.
“I’m not here to bicker over bad beer with you, Jimmy,” Victor stated distastefully. In truth, he was tired of this game. It was beginning to bore him. “Would you sit your ass down and listen?”
Logan didn’t reply, only taking the seat directly across from this man he would never be able to accept as friend. He waited a moment while the other feral collected his thoughts. He could almost see the internal argument Victor was having.
Victor looked up again, reaching over and grabbing the half empty bottle. He took a long swig, his face twisting into a grimace at the awful taste.
“You and I knew each other once, a long time ago,” he began slowly, his eyes down cast as he spoke. “We met when we were brought together to join a team of mutant mercenaries headed by Colonel William Striker.”
“I know the name,” Logan whispered, thinking about the old man who claimed to hold the secret of his past. “He’s dead now.”
Victor nodded, his face void of any surprise by this news. He would have expected as much. One of them were destined to kill the man, it was only fitting.
“We were usually sent in teams of two or three on missions. You and I were paired together mostly. Some times another merc named Wade Wilson was sent with us, too.” Victor paused again, a disconcerting smile touching his lips. “That ass was a fucking psychopath. And he wouldn’t shut up. We used to fight over who would get him. And he wasn’t worth a shit at surveillance. I think the only reason Striker kept him around was because of his use with a sword and a gun.”
“What happened to him?” Logan asked, his curiosity growing. The name held the whisper of familiarity, but it, just like all his other memories, were just outside of his reach.
“Last I heard, he’s traveling around Europe somewhere, trying to prove that he’s not as crazy as everyone thinks he is, and only making it worse.”
“So, he’s another healer?”
“No. He was given an artificial healing factor, modeled after yours. It doesn’t work as well, but it keeps him going. He’s still young. But it was a hard procedure and it really fucked up his face, not to mention his head. He doesn’t have too good a memory, either,” Victor’s voice grew quiet as he spoke. “Wade was brought in because he had cancer. He volunteered for the procedure, and Striker accepted him on the condition that Wade would join the team. I’m not even sure if he was born a mutant, or made into one.”
“Who gave him his healing factor?” Logan asked quickly, before Victor could change the subject.
“The same people who gave you you’re claws,” Victor replied with a shrug. Victor looked up, catching Logan’s stare with his own. “The rest of us, as far as I know, were basically left alone. Just you and Wade. And you were both pretty fucked because of it.”
“There were more?” Logan asked quickly, trying to get as much information as possible. He was starved for anything that could point him to the man he once was. But what ever he found out now would be the end of. It was time for him to move forward with his life, if he was ever to expect any kind of future with the woman in his bed.
Victor smiled slowly, his memory bringing forward images of those he once considered his brothers. “There was you and me, and Wade, of course. Like I said, he was insane and it only got worse after they fucked with his mind. There were times when he would get this blank stare and start talking to someone or something. I asked him once who he was talking to, and he just said the readers, of course.”
Logan lifted an eyebrow cynically. Victor shrugged. “I didn’t get it either, but he just cracked up, and just told me not to worry about it. It was his secret. Then there was Fred Dukes. He was an immovable force. Once he planted his feet, nothing could get past him. John Wraith, a teleporter, Chris Bradley, an electropathic, and, of course, Agent Zero. Zero was a great marksman, but, if you ask me, him mutation was in his ability to be a complete douche bag.”
“What happened to split us up?”
Victor paused, searching for the right words. “You had met a pretty little thing during a recon mission in Canada. You kept in contact, giving her some stupid excuse that you worked on a fishing boat off of Alaska, which was why you traveled a lot. She sent you letters, you wrote back. You showed off pictures that she sent you. She was a beautiful woman by the name of Kayla Silverfox. It didn’t take long before we all realized you were in love. There was a lot of ribbing over that one, but you took it with stride.
“You put in for a leave. You were supposed to be gone a month. During this time, Wade and I were paired up. While you were gone, we were given a mission. We were to track and kill a woman who, according to the file Striker gave us, was working for the Soviet Union, sent to infiltrate our team for information on our weaknesses.” Victor paused again, taking a deep breath. This was going to be the hard part of all of this, and Victor realized that he was holding that breath. “We… When we got the file on the woman, the code name marked was Silverfox. And the picture… It was a picture of Kayla. We were to kill her and bring you back.”
“Was she…” Logan asked quickly. Like with Wade Wilson, the name was familiar, almost too easy to roll off of his tongue, but, again, any memories were just out of his reach.
Victor shook his head, lowering his gaze again. “No. She was just a school teacher. I think she taught third grade, but I really don’t remember. She... Striker saw her as a threat to the team. You were his prize pet. His number one recruit and Striker didn’t want to chance loosing you to her. So he sent me to kill her.”
“And I didn’t stop you?” Logan swallowed hard. He allowed these men into his home and he was unable to stop them. “Why didn’t I stop you?”
“You tried to.” Victor ran a clawed hand through his short hair, doing everything but catching Logan’s gaze. He didn’t have regrets. He didn’t believe in them. But if there was anything he could have changed, it would have been this….
~*~
“You can’t be fucking serious,” Jimmy roared as his bone claws unleashed from his hands. They couldn’t be right. It just wasn’t possible.
“Look at the fucking file, Jimmy,” Victor growled back, throwing it at him. They could hear Kayla in the other room, sobbing uncontrollably. Wade was with her, uncharacteristically quietly for once. It was Wade’s lack of jokes that really got to Jimmy. It meant that this was all beyond serious.
Jimmy snatched the file off the ground where it landed with a soft thump. It wasn’t that thick, but thick enough to eat away at his denial. Opening it up, he read a quick report on the woman he had fallen in love with.
She was working for the Soviets. She was sent to infiltrate and learn everything about subject Wolverine. She was supposed to report back to HQ once every month, her last one being two days before his leave started, the next being the day of his departure. She was a mutant with the ability of persuasion through touch. His stomach twisted as he red the description. She could have very easily warped his mind already so that he wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between her lies and truths.
Jimmy didn’t say another word. He turned and left the room, not looking back. This just proved that there was no one left to trust but his team.
Victor nodded gently at him as he left, an unsaid understanding between them. It would be quick, or at least as quickly as Victor could allow it.
As he walked away from the cabin he had shared with the woman whom he fell in love with through a pack of lies, Jimmy could hear her screams pierce the air. The screams had ended by the time he had made it to the end of the drive way.
~*~
Logan felt his gut twist. He wasn’t expecting this. No wonder he couldn’t get past his dislike of the man. “When did you find out it was all a lie?”
Victor caught his gaze again, this time holding on to it. He wanted to make sure that his old friend knew the truth. All of it. “Right after they took your memories and gave you your skeleton. Striker wanted to make you into the ultimate weapon. Weapon X. But, just before you went under, you were beginning to doubt whom he claimed Kayla was. So, to keep you the man he wanted you to be, he had the doctors erase your memory. That was when you went berserker. You tore the place apart. We were barely able to get Striker out alive. The doctors died. That was the last time I saw you until a few years ago, when Magneto sent me after Rogue.”
Logan didn’t know what to say to the man before him. He had taken one love away, but had given him another. Was that supposed to make up for everything else? How much different would his life be now if Striker had just allowed Kayla to live? But then, would he have been in that crappy bar at the right moment to meet and later save Rogue? Would she be in his life now? Who would she be? Would she even be alive? Did she already know what Victor had done?
“Marry that girl, Logan,” Victor spoke slowly, dragging the man away from his what ifs. “She deserves a lot more than you can give her, but you make her happy. She deserves to be happy. I’ve seen some sick shit, but, with what I saw in her head, she’s been through too much not to deserve some happiness. She loves you. She would do anything for you. That’s not a gift to give up easily.”
Logan nodded to the other feral. He stood from his stool, turning away as he walked out the door. Logan found he had his own questions to ask someone else, now.
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Author's Chapter Notes:
We finally get to see where Logan and Victor know each other from!
~*~= Past.
I never did figure out how to put italics on here... hehehe
~*~= Past.
I never did figure out how to put italics on here... hehehe
Chapter End Notes:
Just remember that this is Origin Victor, not X1 Victor, but they are NOT brothers. NOT BROTHERS!!! :P Please review. I miss my reviews. Please please please review. Next chapter will be up shortly!