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 .
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Here's one long juicy chapter for you guys o!!! Once again, thank you so much to everyone who had taken the time to review this fanfic ! Your reviews keep meh goin' ! Sketty24, great to know you like the art ! Heheh...I hope I did a good job of capturing their likeness .! CIAO!!! (gotta go to bed now -.-)
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CHAPTER 21: Haunted
Stryker walked aimlessly through the mansion's halls. He had lost track of where he had gone. When Yuriko asked him to make a run for it, he just ran from one hall to another, never stopping to think of where he was, or where he was going. He just ran, and ran, and now he was lost. The mansion was larger and more complex than he expected.
His eyes wandered at the intricate wooden designs that decorated the walls. Everything looked so familiar to him. He remembered seeing it all in his mind. Even when he first saw the mansion from the helicopter, he knew he'd been there before. He just couldn't remember when or where or how.
Stryker closed his eyes and suddenly saw the mansion in his mind again. He saw everything happening so fast --- the explosions, the gunfire, the dead bodies, the unconscious children. Everything melded together to paint a portrait in his mind. He opened his eyes and saw himself in the empty hall. The image just passed like a dream.
He placed a hand on his forehead and leaned against the corridor's wall. He closed his eyes and sighed. He felt so tired. He was so tired of seeing images in his mind. When will it all stop? Most of the images he saw were nightmares. They were nightmares that never waited for sleep. They were nightmares that felt so real.
He pressed his hand against the wall, then suddenly felt nothing against his back. He felt as if the wall behind him had just disappeared. He opened his eyes and saw himself within his vision. But unlike his previous vision, everything happened so slowly now. Everyone was moving in slow motion, including himself. The vision was also void of any sound. There was only silence.
He turned around to look at the wall behind him and saw a huge hole on it. The hole was the size of a fully-grown man. Through the hole he saw a room that had two empty beds. The beds looked ruffled and unruly, as if its owners had immediately left in a hurry.
He saw some men run past by him in the hall. They appeared to be in military gears and their faces were painted green. He turned around and ran after them. The sight around him was unbearable. The mansion was in ruins and dead bodies were scattered everywhere. It was also very dark. The only lights that illuminated the halls were the ones coming from the soldiers' flashlights.
He saw the men shoot at some children and they fell unconscious on the floor. He ran to one of them and knelt down by the child's side. The child had his eyes open and three darts on his neck. He reached out to touch him, but his hand just went through the unconscious body. He didn't even feel it against his skin.
/"What's going on?"/ He asked himself. This vision felt so real. Did any of that really happen? Was he there when it did? He wanted to run away, run away from that vision. He wanted to wake up. But every time he opened his eyes, he was still there, in that war zone.
He suddenly saw one of the soldiers motioning for him to follow.
/"Why does he want me to follow? Do I know him? What am I doing here?! What's my role in all this?!!!"/
He got on his feet and looked at the unconscious children again. Was he responsible for that too? He looked at the soldier and saw him run around the corner at the end of the hallway. Stryker didn't move. He didn't want to follow. He knew there was something waiting for him on the other side, but he didn't want to see it. There was something about it that scared him.
But he had no choice. He had to follow. Stryker clenched his fists and walked towards the end of the hall. The dream was now the one in control. It now had its own story, and he was one of the characters. He was now just a pawn to its plot. If he wanted the story to end, he had to play his role.
He turned around the corner and saw a huge wall of ice in the middle of the hallway. He suddenly felt his heart thumping in his chest. He knew he'd seen it before. He'd seen it before in that same hallway. He even remembered touching it once. He looked at his hand and remembered the feel of it against his fingers. Why was it all coming back to him now? Why now?
He slowly started to walk towards it. It drew him in like a flame to a moth. He noticed the soldiers around him slowly fading away with every step he took. Was the dream going to end soon? Was the end of the dream beyond that wall of ice?
He stopped right in front of it. The light that illuminated from the icy wall dimly lit the hallway. He could feel the cold air emanating from its smooth surface. He was all alone now. Everyone else had disappeared. The soldiers have all vanished, and so have all the unconscious children. The dead bodies that lied lifeless in the mansion have gone too. None of them left a trace. It was as if they weren't even there.
He placed his hands on its icy surface and pushed against it. He knew it would do no good, but he had to try. He had to get to the other side. Whatever lied beyond that wall would set him free from his current nightmare. He didn't want to be there anymore. He wanted out. The mansion felt so cold, so empty, so dark. No man deserved to be in such a place. Not even him.
He suddenly stopped pushing as he saw something through the ice. It was a shadow. His eyebrows furrowed as the shadow walked closer to him. It was a silhouette of a man. Someone was on the other side.
"Help!!!" He shouted. Stryker pounded on the wall, hoping that the man would be able to hear him. He didn't know who it was, but at least he was not alone.
The silhouette slowly placed its hand on the wall. Stryker could see the hand's shadow against the ice. He felt as if he'd seen it before. It looked so familiar. He couldn't understand it, but he soon found himself placing his own hand over the shadow.
Then a name rolled off his tongue. "Wolverine?" He asked curiously. He remembered Yuriko saying that name before. It was the name of the man who tried to kill him earlier. It was a name that sounded both new and old to him, as if he himself had said it countless times.
The air was suddenly filled with the sound of an ice breaking. It sounded as if something just broke through the wall. Stryker's eyes suddenly opened wide. It was the first sound he'd ever heard in that vision.
And then there was silence.
Stryker just stood there, unmoving and staring at the wall. His eyes looked empty and his mouth was slightly open. Crimson blood slowly started to stream down his lips. He could taste it in his tongue as more of it filled his mouth. The blood rolled down his chin and trickled on his suit.
He looked down and saw a fist against his stomach. The fist seemed to have broken through the ice. It had three claws and they were all implanted in him. A big patch of blood formed around the area where he had been stabbed. He could feel the claws through his flesh. The pain was unbearable. He could feel them against every muscle, every organ, every bone that they've punctured.
He reached down and touched the crimson liquid that stained his suit. It was his really blood --- his own blood. Was that still a part of his vision? He looked at his blood-soaked hands and saw them shaking. Was he going to die? He didn't want to die. Not now, not yet, not in that vision.
Another fist broke through the icy wall and drove its claws into his chest. He gasped as he felt it tore through him. He could feel more blood streaming down his lips. He breathed, trying to fill his lungs with air, but felt his own blood filling it instead. He looked like a slaughtered animal.
Then the icy wall suddenly shattered into tiny shards. It's pieces fell on the floor and revealed the man who stood on the other side. Wolverine.
Stryker saw the anger in his eyes. He remembered seeing that look when Wolverine first attacked him in the mansion. He remembered the fury in his face and the madness in his voice. And now, he felt Wolverine's anger from the claws that drove through his body.
He was expecting to wake up from the dream now. He expected the dream to end soon. He expected to wake up and find himself back in the halls of the mansion where Yuriko had asked him to run into. But the dream still lingered. He was still covered with blood and he could still feel the pain. Why did that vision feel so real?
Wolverine twisted his claws in Stryker's body then pulled them out of him. Some of Stryker's blood splattered on him as his claws tore out of the man's flesh. He looked at slaughtered figure in satisfaction. His claws were by his side and they were covered red with blood.
Stryker remained standing for a couple of seconds, then he landed on his knees. His body felt so heavy. He could barely keep his eyes open and his mind working. He saw Wolverine turn around and walk away. And then Wolverine slowly disappeared, just like everyone did earlier.
His body fell forward on the floor. He was now lying on his stomach, with his cheek pressed against the ground. He could see his own blood flowing from his body as it stained the wooden floor around him. Then he closed his eyes.
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Yuriko quickly ran down the halls of the mansion. She and Wolverine have agreed to split up to find Stryker faster. She had to find him before the other mutants did. She really wasn't sure how the residents of the mansion would react if they saw him there again. After all, the last time he 'visited', he really wasn't the best guest ever.
She ran down a few more halls and still couldn't find him anywhere. She wasn't even sure where she was anymore. She might have even run through the same hallways twice without knowing it. Yuriko sighed and looked at one hallway and another.
/"Where could he be?"/ She thought to herself.
What if he ran out of the mansion? What if he ran into one of the rooms? The mansion was too big, and Stryker could be anywhere. He could even be in another floor. How many floors did the mansion even have? She never thought she'd hope for it, but she hoped he was safe.
She really didn't expect him to run that far in the first place. But she also didn't expect the school to have that many halls and passageways. Who knows where he was now? Logan went to search on the other floors. So if he were there, Logan would find him. Yuriko felt worried at the thought of Logan finding Stryker.
Even if Logan believed her story about Stryker's memory loss, she knew he still hated him with every fiber in his body. And she couldn't blame him. She hated Stryker too. Logan had lost someone very dear to him. And the pain of that loss showed in his anger towards Stryker. So if Logan did find him first, then Stryker might have a few broken bones the next time she sees him.
Yuriko ran down another hallway. She was in the brink of frustration. Maybe Stryker really went to another floor. She ran into another hallway and was about to give up, when she saw the form of a man laying face down in the middle of the floor. She recognized him instantly.
"William!" She shouted.
She ran to him and knelt by his side. His eyes were closed. She pushed him over so that he would be lying on his back. She looked at his body and found no injuries and signs that he had been hurt. What happened to him?
Stryker's eyes suddenly opened. They were looking up at the ceiling.
Yuriko almost jumped back in surprise. Was he going through another one of his visions again?
He sat up and looked at her. He had an empty look on his face, but his eyes stared deeply into hers. Yuriko didn't know what to do. He was just gazing at her. He didn't even say a word. There was something about his silence that made her feel uncomfortable.
Much to her surprise, Stryker slowly leaned closer and wrapped his arms around her. Her eyes opened wide with shock. What was he doing? She could feel his face against her shoulder and his arms wrapped tightly around her torso. His hands gripped her as if he didn't want to let go. She didn't like it at all. She hated the feel of him.
"I saw myself die." He whispered. "I felt myself die."
She felt his hot breath against her neck as he talked. She wanted to push him away.
"I saw my own blood flooding the floor that I lied upon. My own blood flowed from my eyes like tears. It flowed so much that it was the only thing I could see." His voice was void of all emotions. "I was dying and I saw it all. I saw my own death."
She placed her hands on his shoulders. She was intent on pushing him off of her. She couldn't even understand what he was mumbling about.
"He killed me. Wolverine killed me. I felt the pain. I wanted to wake up, but I couldn't. The pain just kept on going. It kept on going until I died. I thought it wouldn't stop." The monotonous tone in his voice lingered.
Yuriko suddenly felt his arms wrap tighter around her. She now realized what he was talking about. He was talking about his most recent vision. She knew how powerful those visions were. She had her own too. She knew how real they looked and how real they felt. But she couldn't tolerate his actions. She had to put a stop to this.
"Why are you telling me this?" She asked coldly. "You know very well that I'm going to kill you too."
"I know." His head was still on her shoulder. "That's why I'm telling you. I'm tired, Yuriko. I'm tired of seeing these visions. They won't leave my mind. Sometimes I'm afraid to close my eyes because I know I might see them again."
"You deserve those visions, William." She said uncaringly. Her eyes stared at the far end of the hall.
He didn't say anything. He just stayed there with his arms wrapped around her torso and his head on her shoulder. He needed someone and she was the only one he had.
"What a touching reunion." Said a familiar voice.
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Title: Unforgivable Sinners
By: Cmdr. Gabe E.
Note: This fanfiction occurs entirely in the X-Men movie-verse . Characters' unspoken thoughts are enclosed in .
= = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Here's one long juicy chapter for you guys o!!! Once again, thank you so much to everyone who had taken the time to review this fanfic ! Your reviews keep meh goin' ! Sketty24, great to know you like the art ! Heheh...I hope I did a good job of capturing their likeness .! CIAO!!! (gotta go to bed now -.-)
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CHAPTER 21: Haunted
Stryker walked aimlessly through the mansion's halls. He had lost track of where he had gone. When Yuriko asked him to make a run for it, he just ran from one hall to another, never stopping to think of where he was, or where he was going. He just ran, and ran, and now he was lost. The mansion was larger and more complex than he expected.
His eyes wandered at the intricate wooden designs that decorated the walls. Everything looked so familiar to him. He remembered seeing it all in his mind. Even when he first saw the mansion from the helicopter, he knew he'd been there before. He just couldn't remember when or where or how.
Stryker closed his eyes and suddenly saw the mansion in his mind again. He saw everything happening so fast --- the explosions, the gunfire, the dead bodies, the unconscious children. Everything melded together to paint a portrait in his mind. He opened his eyes and saw himself in the empty hall. The image just passed like a dream.
He placed a hand on his forehead and leaned against the corridor's wall. He closed his eyes and sighed. He felt so tired. He was so tired of seeing images in his mind. When will it all stop? Most of the images he saw were nightmares. They were nightmares that never waited for sleep. They were nightmares that felt so real.
He pressed his hand against the wall, then suddenly felt nothing against his back. He felt as if the wall behind him had just disappeared. He opened his eyes and saw himself within his vision. But unlike his previous vision, everything happened so slowly now. Everyone was moving in slow motion, including himself. The vision was also void of any sound. There was only silence.
He turned around to look at the wall behind him and saw a huge hole on it. The hole was the size of a fully-grown man. Through the hole he saw a room that had two empty beds. The beds looked ruffled and unruly, as if its owners had immediately left in a hurry.
He saw some men run past by him in the hall. They appeared to be in military gears and their faces were painted green. He turned around and ran after them. The sight around him was unbearable. The mansion was in ruins and dead bodies were scattered everywhere. It was also very dark. The only lights that illuminated the halls were the ones coming from the soldiers' flashlights.
He saw the men shoot at some children and they fell unconscious on the floor. He ran to one of them and knelt down by the child's side. The child had his eyes open and three darts on his neck. He reached out to touch him, but his hand just went through the unconscious body. He didn't even feel it against his skin.
/"What's going on?"/ He asked himself. This vision felt so real. Did any of that really happen? Was he there when it did? He wanted to run away, run away from that vision. He wanted to wake up. But every time he opened his eyes, he was still there, in that war zone.
He suddenly saw one of the soldiers motioning for him to follow.
/"Why does he want me to follow? Do I know him? What am I doing here?! What's my role in all this?!!!"/
He got on his feet and looked at the unconscious children again. Was he responsible for that too? He looked at the soldier and saw him run around the corner at the end of the hallway. Stryker didn't move. He didn't want to follow. He knew there was something waiting for him on the other side, but he didn't want to see it. There was something about it that scared him.
But he had no choice. He had to follow. Stryker clenched his fists and walked towards the end of the hall. The dream was now the one in control. It now had its own story, and he was one of the characters. He was now just a pawn to its plot. If he wanted the story to end, he had to play his role.
He turned around the corner and saw a huge wall of ice in the middle of the hallway. He suddenly felt his heart thumping in his chest. He knew he'd seen it before. He'd seen it before in that same hallway. He even remembered touching it once. He looked at his hand and remembered the feel of it against his fingers. Why was it all coming back to him now? Why now?
He slowly started to walk towards it. It drew him in like a flame to a moth. He noticed the soldiers around him slowly fading away with every step he took. Was the dream going to end soon? Was the end of the dream beyond that wall of ice?
He stopped right in front of it. The light that illuminated from the icy wall dimly lit the hallway. He could feel the cold air emanating from its smooth surface. He was all alone now. Everyone else had disappeared. The soldiers have all vanished, and so have all the unconscious children. The dead bodies that lied lifeless in the mansion have gone too. None of them left a trace. It was as if they weren't even there.
He placed his hands on its icy surface and pushed against it. He knew it would do no good, but he had to try. He had to get to the other side. Whatever lied beyond that wall would set him free from his current nightmare. He didn't want to be there anymore. He wanted out. The mansion felt so cold, so empty, so dark. No man deserved to be in such a place. Not even him.
He suddenly stopped pushing as he saw something through the ice. It was a shadow. His eyebrows furrowed as the shadow walked closer to him. It was a silhouette of a man. Someone was on the other side.
"Help!!!" He shouted. Stryker pounded on the wall, hoping that the man would be able to hear him. He didn't know who it was, but at least he was not alone.
The silhouette slowly placed its hand on the wall. Stryker could see the hand's shadow against the ice. He felt as if he'd seen it before. It looked so familiar. He couldn't understand it, but he soon found himself placing his own hand over the shadow.
Then a name rolled off his tongue. "Wolverine?" He asked curiously. He remembered Yuriko saying that name before. It was the name of the man who tried to kill him earlier. It was a name that sounded both new and old to him, as if he himself had said it countless times.
The air was suddenly filled with the sound of an ice breaking. It sounded as if something just broke through the wall. Stryker's eyes suddenly opened wide. It was the first sound he'd ever heard in that vision.
And then there was silence.
Stryker just stood there, unmoving and staring at the wall. His eyes looked empty and his mouth was slightly open. Crimson blood slowly started to stream down his lips. He could taste it in his tongue as more of it filled his mouth. The blood rolled down his chin and trickled on his suit.
He looked down and saw a fist against his stomach. The fist seemed to have broken through the ice. It had three claws and they were all implanted in him. A big patch of blood formed around the area where he had been stabbed. He could feel the claws through his flesh. The pain was unbearable. He could feel them against every muscle, every organ, every bone that they've punctured.
He reached down and touched the crimson liquid that stained his suit. It was his really blood --- his own blood. Was that still a part of his vision? He looked at his blood-soaked hands and saw them shaking. Was he going to die? He didn't want to die. Not now, not yet, not in that vision.
Another fist broke through the icy wall and drove its claws into his chest. He gasped as he felt it tore through him. He could feel more blood streaming down his lips. He breathed, trying to fill his lungs with air, but felt his own blood filling it instead. He looked like a slaughtered animal.
Then the icy wall suddenly shattered into tiny shards. It's pieces fell on the floor and revealed the man who stood on the other side. Wolverine.
Stryker saw the anger in his eyes. He remembered seeing that look when Wolverine first attacked him in the mansion. He remembered the fury in his face and the madness in his voice. And now, he felt Wolverine's anger from the claws that drove through his body.
He was expecting to wake up from the dream now. He expected the dream to end soon. He expected to wake up and find himself back in the halls of the mansion where Yuriko had asked him to run into. But the dream still lingered. He was still covered with blood and he could still feel the pain. Why did that vision feel so real?
Wolverine twisted his claws in Stryker's body then pulled them out of him. Some of Stryker's blood splattered on him as his claws tore out of the man's flesh. He looked at slaughtered figure in satisfaction. His claws were by his side and they were covered red with blood.
Stryker remained standing for a couple of seconds, then he landed on his knees. His body felt so heavy. He could barely keep his eyes open and his mind working. He saw Wolverine turn around and walk away. And then Wolverine slowly disappeared, just like everyone did earlier.
His body fell forward on the floor. He was now lying on his stomach, with his cheek pressed against the ground. He could see his own blood flowing from his body as it stained the wooden floor around him. Then he closed his eyes.
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Yuriko quickly ran down the halls of the mansion. She and Wolverine have agreed to split up to find Stryker faster. She had to find him before the other mutants did. She really wasn't sure how the residents of the mansion would react if they saw him there again. After all, the last time he 'visited', he really wasn't the best guest ever.
She ran down a few more halls and still couldn't find him anywhere. She wasn't even sure where she was anymore. She might have even run through the same hallways twice without knowing it. Yuriko sighed and looked at one hallway and another.
/"Where could he be?"/ She thought to herself.
What if he ran out of the mansion? What if he ran into one of the rooms? The mansion was too big, and Stryker could be anywhere. He could even be in another floor. How many floors did the mansion even have? She never thought she'd hope for it, but she hoped he was safe.
She really didn't expect him to run that far in the first place. But she also didn't expect the school to have that many halls and passageways. Who knows where he was now? Logan went to search on the other floors. So if he were there, Logan would find him. Yuriko felt worried at the thought of Logan finding Stryker.
Even if Logan believed her story about Stryker's memory loss, she knew he still hated him with every fiber in his body. And she couldn't blame him. She hated Stryker too. Logan had lost someone very dear to him. And the pain of that loss showed in his anger towards Stryker. So if Logan did find him first, then Stryker might have a few broken bones the next time she sees him.
Yuriko ran down another hallway. She was in the brink of frustration. Maybe Stryker really went to another floor. She ran into another hallway and was about to give up, when she saw the form of a man laying face down in the middle of the floor. She recognized him instantly.
"William!" She shouted.
She ran to him and knelt by his side. His eyes were closed. She pushed him over so that he would be lying on his back. She looked at his body and found no injuries and signs that he had been hurt. What happened to him?
Stryker's eyes suddenly opened. They were looking up at the ceiling.
Yuriko almost jumped back in surprise. Was he going through another one of his visions again?
He sat up and looked at her. He had an empty look on his face, but his eyes stared deeply into hers. Yuriko didn't know what to do. He was just gazing at her. He didn't even say a word. There was something about his silence that made her feel uncomfortable.
Much to her surprise, Stryker slowly leaned closer and wrapped his arms around her. Her eyes opened wide with shock. What was he doing? She could feel his face against her shoulder and his arms wrapped tightly around her torso. His hands gripped her as if he didn't want to let go. She didn't like it at all. She hated the feel of him.
"I saw myself die." He whispered. "I felt myself die."
She felt his hot breath against her neck as he talked. She wanted to push him away.
"I saw my own blood flooding the floor that I lied upon. My own blood flowed from my eyes like tears. It flowed so much that it was the only thing I could see." His voice was void of all emotions. "I was dying and I saw it all. I saw my own death."
She placed her hands on his shoulders. She was intent on pushing him off of her. She couldn't even understand what he was mumbling about.
"He killed me. Wolverine killed me. I felt the pain. I wanted to wake up, but I couldn't. The pain just kept on going. It kept on going until I died. I thought it wouldn't stop." The monotonous tone in his voice lingered.
Yuriko suddenly felt his arms wrap tighter around her. She now realized what he was talking about. He was talking about his most recent vision. She knew how powerful those visions were. She had her own too. She knew how real they looked and how real they felt. But she couldn't tolerate his actions. She had to put a stop to this.
"Why are you telling me this?" She asked coldly. "You know very well that I'm going to kill you too."
"I know." His head was still on her shoulder. "That's why I'm telling you. I'm tired, Yuriko. I'm tired of seeing these visions. They won't leave my mind. Sometimes I'm afraid to close my eyes because I know I might see them again."
"You deserve those visions, William." She said uncaringly. Her eyes stared at the far end of the hall.
He didn't say anything. He just stayed there with his arms wrapped around her torso and his head on her shoulder. He needed someone and she was the only one he had.
"What a touching reunion." Said a familiar voice.
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