Disclaimer: I do not own any of the X-Men movie characters.
Title: Unforgivable Sinners
By: Cmdr. Gabe E.
Note: This fanfiction occurs entirely in the X-Men movie-verse . Characters' unspoken thoughts are enclosed in .
= = = = = = = = = = =
QUICK UPDATE ! Thank you so much to all my reviewers o! Heheh...To those who have been waiting for wolverine since day one, HERE's your chapter o!!! (finally. Lol)
SKETTY24 = hmmm...I wonder how I can make the links work. Let's try this...
Gabe-e . com /fanart/us/usart.jpg
And
Gabe-e . com/fanart/us/usart2.jpg
(dunno if that'll still work x.x!)
gotta go, guys ! Thanks again for the reviews !
= = = = = = = = = = =
CHAPTER 20: Familiarity
= = = = = = = = = = =
She suddenly noticed a flicker of light on the catwalk above the doorway. Her eyes darted to it and she saw the silhouette of a man standing there. The man was tall, with broad shoulders and a well-formed physique. His hair protruded on the sides of his face and down his hands glimmered the claws that reflected the light from the stained-glass windows.
Her eyes opened wide as she realized who it was.
/"Wolverine."/ She thought to herself. She could almost see his eyes glistening through the shadows.
"YOU!!!" Logan cried out as he lunged towards Stryker. His claws were ready to taste his flesh.
Yuriko quickly pushed Stryker out of the way and blocked Logan's claws with her own. She stared into his eyes and saw so much anger in there. It was like nothing she'd ever seen from him before. When they first fought in the underground base, Logan fought for his survival. There was no anger in his face, just determination. But now, the look on his face was different. He was filled with rage and fury. He looked unstoppable.
/"Lady Deathstrike."/ He thought to himself.
Logan couldn't believe his eyes. How could they still be alive? He saw both of them die. He saw Lady Deathstrike die right in front of him. He was the one who killed her. And Stryker, he left Stryker chained in Alkali Lake. He should have drowned. He should have died. How could they live while Jean was now dead?
"I see you're still working for that monster!" Logan said through gritted teeth. Their claws sparked as they pressed against each other.
"You don't understand." Yuriko said, hoping to reach out to him.
When she escaped death in Alkali Lake, he was the first one she wanted to see. He was the only one she knew who was just like her. Not just because they had the same abilities, but they were also created by the same man. Yuriko thought that their next meeting would be a meeting of allies, of friends, of equals. Now she knew she thought wrong.
"There is NOTHING to UNDERSTAND!!!" He shouted as he pushed her away. His voice was filled with so much hate.
Yuriko almost fell on her back due to the force of Logan's push. She could feel the anger emanating from his every word. She didn't want to fight him again. She was already tired of fighting. For a decade she had done nothing but fight. Now she just wanted to be herself. If only she could tell Logan that. If only he would listen.
Logan looked to his side and saw Stryker on the floor. He noticed the fear in his eyes. The William Stryker he knew would never act in such a way. The Stryker he knew would fight back. But Logan didn't care. Stryker was the reason why Jean was now gone. He didn't care if he had to kill a defenseless man, as long as he got to kill him.
"Why are you still alive?!!" He shouted as he slowly walked towards him. He was ready to drive his claws into Stryker's body. "You're the reason why she's dead!!! Jean's dead, you bastard!!!" He shouted again.
/"So they have lost one of their own."/ Yuriko thought as she watched him. No wonder he is in so much pain.
Stryker looked back at Logan. He recognized him. He was the man he saw in one of his visions. He slowly crawled backwards as Logan approached him.
"I don't know what you're talking about!!!" Shouted Stryker. His eyes were focused on the man in front of him. The man looked like a hungry predator who was ready to tear on the flesh of its prey.
"You know very well what I'm talking about!" Shouted Wolverine. "You once told me that I'm nothing but an animal. And you know what? You were right!"
He charged at Stryker with his claws aimed at his chest. But before he could touch him, Yuriko suddenly came between them again. The tips of Logan's claws were just an inch away from Stryker when she blocked his attack. If she had acted later, she might have lost her only chance to regain her past memories.
"GO!!!" She shouted at Stryker.
Stryker got on his feet and ran down the hall on the far side of the room.
"I can see it in your eyes." Logan said as he came face to face with her. "You're not under his control anymore."
Yuriko jumped away from him and landed in front of the fireplace. "You're right, Wolverine. I'm free. I'm free now just like you."
Logan still held his fighting stance. Even if she wasn't under his control anymore, it still didn't mean that she was to be trusted.
"Then why are you protecting him?! Why did you bring him here?!" He asked angrily. He wanted answers from her and he wanted them now.
"I brought him here to meet Professor Xavier." She said. Her claws were still extended, but her hands were by her side. She wanted to avoid fighting him as much as she could, but she still couldn't risk letting her guard down. There was still hatred in his eyes.
"Meet the professor? Why?" Logan asked curiously. Why would Stryker want to meet with Charles after what he did to him? Stryker didn't even have the right to be there in the mansion. He definitely had the guts to show his face there again.
"Because Stryker's the only link I have to the past." She said. She looked at Logan's face and remembered the image she had in her mind. Did she really know him once? Was she looking at the same man who was in her vision? She remembered when he ran his fingers down her cheek. Did that really happen? And the way he smiled at her....
"I'm just like you, Wolverine." She added. "He brought me into the world to be a weapon. I don't even know who I truly am."
Logan couldn't understand it, but at that moment, he felt a connection with her. It just wasn't because her abilities were similar to his. The more he looked at her, the more familiar she seemed. Even her voice sounded so familiar, as if he'd heard it somewhere before --- in a dream. Who was she? Who is Lady Deathstrike?
His eyebrows furrowed as his eyes stared at her face. Back when they fought in the underground base, he only looked at her as one of Stryker's tools. But now, he felt something else for her. There was a sense of familiarity.
"The past." Wolverine scoffed. "That's why it's called the past, Deathstrike. Because it was meant to stay there."
Yuriko retracted her claws. She found no need for them now.
"You may think of it that way, Wolverine. But unlike you, I want to know my past. I want to know who I was, who I really am. I've lost a big part if my life, and I want to get it all back." She stared deeply into his eyes. She knew he understood her decision.
"But what difference will it make?" Logan's claws slowly disappeared into his fists. Once he also thought of bringing the past back. But when he left Stryker to die in Alkali Lake, he made a decision to leave it there. He wanted his past to drown together with the man who had taken it from him in the first place. But now Stryker was alive. Did he want his past back again?
"You can't change the past!" He shouted. "It won't make any difference! We live for the future. Forget about the past and move on!" Why did he suddenly care for her? Why did he want to set her free?
"Because my past may affect my future, Wolverine. We may not be able to change the past, but we can change our future. Knowing the past will prevent us from committing the same mistakes. Knowing the past might ----" She looked at his face and once again remembered how he appeared in her vision. "--- reunite us with the people we spent it with."
Logan couldn't understand why she was looking at him like that. He noticed her staring at his face, like she was studying every facet of him, every detail. She seemed to know something about him that he didn't. What did she know?
"Do you have a name?" He asked curiously. "Aside from Lady Deathstrike, I mean."
"Yuriko Oyama." She said softly.
"Yuriko? Yuriko Oyama....." The name rolled off Logan's tongue as if he'd said it countless times before. His eyes wandered the room as if he was trying to remember something. He closed his eyes and furrowed his eyebrows. Why did that name sound so familiar? Everything about her felt so familiar.
He opened his eyes and saw her still standing there. She was real. She wasn't a dream. She wasn't one of his dreams even if he felt she was.
"And you're Logan." She said. She noticed the gentleness in his eyes. She was finally able to reach out to the man Stryker had created to be a monster, just like her.
Then she remembered Stryker.....
Her eyes suddenly opened wide. "Stryker!" She shouted.
"That bastard!" Logan hissed. "You set him free in the school!" The anger in his eyes returned when he mentioned Stryker's name.
"No! You don't understand! He's harmless!" She said abruptly. She didn't want him to enter that state of anger again. She was afraid to lose the man she was talking to right now. She wanted him to stay. She wanted Logan to stay, not Wolverine.
Logan marched towards the hall Stryker ran into. "That man can never be harmless. He'll kill any mutant if he has the chance. And he won't even care if that mutant is a child." He stopped in his tracks and looked at Yuriko. He was now standing beside her. "That man is a killer, Yuriko. You brought a killer into the school." He was about to march into the corridor, when Yuriko placed a firm hand on his shoulder.
"No, Logan! Listen to me. He's harmless. He's can't remember anything about his past, just like you and me. He doesn't even know who he is! That's why I brought him here! Because I know the professor can extract my past from his mind." She hoped he would understand.
"Did I also tell you that he's a manipulative bastard? What if he tricked you? What if he's just pretending that he can't remember anything just so you can lead him back here?" Logan stared into her eyes. He didn't seem convinced by Yuriko's story.
Yuriko looked back at him. She knew Logan was going to kill Stryker if she couldn't convince him that Stryker was really harmless now.
"Trust me, Logan. Trust me." She whispered.
Logan looked into her eyes and sighed. "Let's say Stryker really did lose all of his memories. And let's say that I do trust you. Then what's going to happen after you retrieve your past from his mind?"
Yuriko clenched her jaw as she looked back at him. "I'm going to make him pay."
= = = = = = = = = = = = = =