Part X
Once Hank and Adimu were gone, Victor turned his gaze back to Pietro. His eyes were cold as a shark's and nearly as dark.
"I understand you'll be needin' recovery time. Fine. But not in my territory. Only reason I was alright with McCoy repairin' you in th' first place ain't got a thing t' do with any concern fer you. That was my kitten who you had stuffed into a cage. You can go rot fer all I care. An' you come anywhere near me or mine again, you will rot."
Ororo came to stand firmly by Victor's side.
"Whatever Logan and Erik choose to do is up to them, but my husband spoke for us both. If you had limited your attacks to us? But no. For some things, there is no forgiveness."
Pietro sneered at her tone.
"But the slaughter you did five years ago should be forgotten as if it never happened?"
Victor came very close to saying 'the hell with it' and ripping Pietro open on the spot, but Ororo's hand touching him was enough to keep his temper in check. For now. Still, his voice was underlined with a growl as he replied.
"They came here lookin' for trouble. They found it."
A distant rumble of thunder joined in as Ororo added her own observations.
"And hardly what I would define as a slaughter. They ambushed us. But they either underestimated us or overestimated themselves."
Erik still hadn't spoken, but an new possibility had occured to him about that attack. Victor implying he wouldn't care to hear details and Pietro's anger? Most living beings only had Pietro's contempt and the majority of the remainder weren't ones he would normally go out of his way for. That could well mean... When he finally spoke, it was to Victor and not his son.
"One of them - it was Wanda, wasn't it?"
Pietro gave his father an incredulous look.
"You've been living among these savages and didn't even bother to find out who had died?"
Erik didn't respond to Pietro. Instead, he turned to Logan.
"Am I correct in assuming that you would also prefer Pietro stay off of your lands?"
"Very correct. Y'know how we savages are. Territorial an' all that."
"I'll tend to him here then. And to his men as well."
Ororo started to speak, but Victor touched her hand and once he had her attention, shook his head slightly. Without another word, Victor called Robert over with a gesture and the four of them turned and departed back into the woods.