Nikkola Creed had seen some amazing things in her lifetime. Since she had been born in 1913, she had witnessed the birth of almost every modern technological wonder, and her stint in the army had made her privy to the highest technology the world had to offer at the time. But nothing prepared her for the sleek computer that was the Blackbird. She tried to rank it on her running list of marvels, but soon gave up and just put it at the top. Besides, she needed most of her concentration to fly the darn thing.
Jean grinned at the look on Nicole's face when she first stepped into the cockpit. Scott had given Nicole a quick tour of the outside of the plane, and now it was Jean's turn for the inside. A thought occurred to her, and she instantly acted on it.
"Nicole, you don't happen to know how to fly, do you?" The blonde looked at her in surprise, but nodded.
"Actually, yes I do. I was taught how to fly both jets and helicopters when I was in the army. I enjoyed it immensely." Jean nodded decisively, and looked at Scott who nodded as well.
"How would you like to fly the Blackbird?" Nicole's eyes widened and she grinned broadly.
"Did you even have to ask?"
Seconds later she was strapped into the pilot's seat, running her hands over the controls and acquainting herself with them. In the copilot's seat, Scott was giving her a quick refresher course, as well as outlining the differences between the high performance jet and the planes she had been used to flying. The pre-flight checklist went off without a hitch, and Nikkola took to the air with the same expertise that she had demonstrated with Cerebro, her mind tapped into Jean's, who was also an accomplished pilot.
The closer she got to the forest, however, the more anxious she grew. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't establish a mindlink with Victor, and she kept telling herself it was only because they hadn't come into contact with each other since the attack twenty years ago. She still feared the worst, however, and tried to prepare herself for what she might see when they found him.
After landing the jet softly in the clearing where the van had parked earlier, Nikkola silently unhooked her harness and lowered the ramp, walking out onto the grass. The three other adults followed just as silently, and stood waiting for her to speak. It took several minutes, but finally she turned towards Jean.
"If you would not mind accompanying me, Jean, I would like to bring Victor here, into the clearing. Your telekinesis will come in handy." Jean nodded immediately, and the two women disappeared into the woods. Scott and Logan shot each other a look, then settled down to wait.
Jean struggled to keep up with Nikkola as the smaller woman moved with purpose throught the trees. Just as she was about to ask her to slow down, however, Nikkola came to a sudden halt and Jean almost crashed into her. When she looked up and saw where they were, her breath caught in her throat.
The two women were standing in what could only be described as a battle zone. There were huge trees uprooted, laying on the ground, and others had large chunks taken out of them or scratches etched deep in the wood. The ground was also torn up, with what looked like skid marks and gouges in some areas, and body-sized depressions in other areas. But it was the absolute silence that caught Jean's attention, as if the birds and animals were still frightened to come close to the scene.
Jean could feel her jaw drop as she realized, belatedly, that the trees and the ground were splashed with an unnatural amount of blood. Her eyes wide, she almost missed the fact that Nikkola was once again moving, and Jean ran to catch up with her, shivering slightly. At the edge of the fabricated clearing, Nikkola again stopped abruptly and tilted her head, listening intently. Jean strained her ears as well, but only heard what sounded like the wind sighing through the trees. Nicole instantly broke into a run.
"Vilya!"
Jean sprinted after the other woman, trying her best to keep up, even though Nikkola moved through the trees like she was running over open ground. Losing sight of her once or twice, Jean forced herself to move faster, not wanting to lose Nikkola in the forest. After several minutes, Nicole slowed to a jog, then a walk. Finally she held up her hand and Jean stayed in the shadows while Nicole moved cautiously into another small clearing by a stream.
What Nikkola saw there broke her heart. Her older brother was lying brokenly at the foot of a large tree, wedged in between two roots with his back to the trunk. His eyes were closed, but flickered open weakly when she called his name softly, and he whispered hers back through cracked lips.
"Koulya..." Nikkola was instantly at his side, her small hands framing his large face and running over his broad shoulders.
"Vilya, I am here." Victor tried to move, but Nicole pressed him back against the tree trunk.
"Victor, do not move." With quick hands she moved his clothing aside and saw a multitude of cuts and bruises across his chest and stomach. One side of his torso was mottled black and blue, and she vaguely remembered one blow that fell there hard enough to break ribs. Her eyes clenched shut when she saw some of the cuts laid open to the bone, and she fisted her hands so tightly the blood drained from her fingers. Her voice broke when she tried to speak, so she swallowed and tried again.
"Vilya, I am so sorry. Please...will you please forgive me?" His huge hand waved in front of her face weakly.
"Koulya, there is nothing to forgive. I am the one who is sorry. I am the one who attacked you for no reason." Nicole shook her head defiantly, then waved for Jean to approach.
"Victor, this is a friend of mine. Her name is Jean Grey, and she is a doctor. She is also a mutant, and she will help me get you into the open. We are going to save you, Vilya." Victor looked at Jean with blurry eyes and tried to smile, even as he nodded in recognition.
"I apologize...for not standing, Dr. Grey. My name is Victor Ivan Pietrovich Creed. It is a pleasure to meet you officially. We were not introduced the last time we saw each other...and for that, and for what happened...I am extremely sorry." Jean looked at Nicole with an unsure expression on her face, and Nicole realized that the two of them had been speaking in Russian. She quickly translated for Jean, who smiled graciously.
"The pleasure is all mine, Victor. And as for the last time we met, don't worry about it. I know there was nothing you could do." Victor nodded slowly and closed his eyes. Nicole felt his mind slipping slightly and nodded urgently to Jean who concentrated the full force of her considerable teke on the big man, who rose easily into the air. Nicole led the way back through the forest, making sure they skirted around the bloody battle scene. She had noticed how it affected Jean, and didn't want anything to break her concentration. While they walked, she aligned her mind with Jean's, giving the taller woman more strength and endurance.
Even with the two of their minds working together, the sight of the Blackbird was a very welcome one. As soon as Victor was lowered gently to the ground at the treeline, Scott's arms went around Jean, who gratefully leaned into them. Nikkola ran to the jet and grabbed a first aid kit that she had seen, even though she knew that it was too late, that they would not use it. She quickly said as much to Jean's mind, and nodded to herself when the other woman agreed.
As she jogged back towards her brother, her heart dropped when she saw the cruel expression on his face. Victor was looking straight at Logan who was looking back at him with an equally hostile appearance, although she could see that he was trying to remain calm. Nikkola, however, could feel her anger rising and did nothing to check it. She brushed past a concerned Scott and Jean without a look, and glared at the monster who was her brother.
"Sabertooth!" The man's head slowly turned in her direction, and he smiled viciously.
"Wildcat. It seems that I have won, after all. I am taking the last little whispers of your pitifully weak brother with me, and you will not be able to have those precious last minutes with him that I know you want." Nikkola gazed at him, her expression full of all the hate that she had ever felt for him.
"That is one thing that you will not take from me. I will spend my brother's last minutes with him, and not with the twisted monster who lords over half his mind." Sabertooth laughed at her with a sneer.
"There is nothing you can do to bring him back, Wildcat. You will never see your beloved brother again." Nikkola could feel her blood boiling at the expression on his face, and was about to do something when she felt Logan's hand on her arm. She turned to see the dark man with a warning expression on his face, and latched onto the calm that he was projecting.
"You are not going to gain anything by fighting with him, Nicole. He is already dying." Nicole took a deep breath and nodded, then turned back to the broken man lying in front of her. Only Scott and Jean drew back in surprise when they realized that they didn't understand any of the conversation between Logan and Nikkola. Both of them were speaking in Russian.
Nicole took a second deep breath, followed by a third. She thought through several calming exercises, and focused her mind sharply on what she knew she had to do. When she was ready, she opened her eyes and saw Sabertooth, lying with a pained expression on his face, supporting himself on one elbow. Even with distorted features, he still managed to exude a brutality that twisted Nikkola's own mouth, but she smoothed it into a smile. She could feel Logan beside her and tapped into his own strength to fuel her telepathic abilities. She smiled again.
"Burn in hell, Sabertooth. " Her hands flew up in front of her in a pushing motion, and Jean felt an enormous rush of psionic energy flow out of Nikkola's small body towards her brother. The blonde man convulsed and fell, his eyes rolling back in his head. Nikkola concentrated for just a moment more, then relaxed with a sigh. Logan caught her as her knees buckled, but she pushed him away and knelt beside her brother, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and cradling his head with gentle hands.
After a moment, Victor's eyes struggled open and he looked up at his sister, his dry lips stretching into a small smile.
"Koulya..." Nikkola smiled in relief and pressed her forehead to his.
"Vilya. It worked. He is gone." Victor's eyes slid shut with relief, then opened again slowly.
"I had hoped that I would spend my last moments with you. I know I do not deserve it, but I was afraid I would not see you before I died." Nikkola's chin trembled and she didn't reply except to strengthen her arms around her brother. She could feel him tiring, and took a shaky breath. Victor's eyes struggled to stay open, and he looked up at her quizzically.
"I did not know that you were that strong, Nikkola. You banished him with... barely an effort." Nicole smiled softly.
"I did not know either, until I did it. It took an effort, but nothing that I would not do again, Victor, and nothing that I wish I hadn't done sooner. Now you are free." Victor sighed in relief, and his body seemed to relax through the pain.
"Free. I am free." Nicole could not keep herself from crying anymore, and a single tear dripped off the end of her nose and landed on Victor's cheek. Her big brother gave her a ghost of a smile and she felt his hand put the tiniest bit of pressure on her arm. His eyes moved beneath his closed eyelids, and through a supreme effort he cracked them open. His breathing was now laboured, and his voice was so hushed Nicole had to strain to hear it. Scott, Jean and Logan leaned forward as well, even though only Logan could understand what was being said.
"Nicole...your backpack. I still have your backpack. And it still has...papers. All the papers are...still there. And the...necklace I took from you...when we fought. It is there as well." Nicole's eyes widened in shock.
"All the papers? They are all still there?" Victor nodded weakly.
"Everything...you took that night. Everything you packed...twenty years ago. It is all there." Nicole could see that he was fading fast, and it fueled the urgency she felt. Through his mind she could see her face growing dimmer and out of focus, and she gave him a shake.
"Victor, where is it? Where is the backpack?" Her brother swallowed thickly, his lips working slowly although no sound was coming. Nikkola shook him again, less gently this time, her voice growing louder and slightly shrill.
"Victor, where is the backpack? This is important!" Jean crouched down beside Nicole and felt for Victor's pulse, shaking her head as she did so.
"Nicole, he's almost gone." Nicole looked up with fire in her eyes, her jaw set determinedly.
"Not yet." Laying Victor down, she straddled his barrel chest above his broken ribs and reached for his hands. With a whispered apology she sliced his palms open with her lengthened black nails, then sliced her own. Pressing their palms together, she watched as their blood mingled for a split second before her cuts closed up. Without a word, she repeated the process a second and a third time without a response from Victor. The fourth time she noticed the slightest flinch around his eyes and grinned ruthlessly.
By the seventh time his breathing had strengthened, and on the tenth time, Nicole felt a little bit of strength leave her body. From where Logan was crouched beside her, he saw the smallest bit of red staining the shoulder of her shirt, and craned his neck to see tiny scratches appearing on her back. Scott and Jean watched with wide eyes as the rest of her wounds reopened slightly, Victor's blood harming her just as hers was helping him.
Finally, her face drawn with pain, Nicole opened her eyes to see Victor looking wearily up at her.
"The backpack...is hanging in the tree where you found me." Nikkola nodded and slid off him, her head dropping to rest on his chest. With an effort Victor separated their palms, and rested one injured hand on her back. It only took a minute for Nicole's wounds to start closing up and for Victor to start failing again, but in that moment the big blonde man looked up at Logan.
"Besides seeing Nicole as I died, the only other thing I wished for was to be reconciled with you. I do not know if I ever thanked you for protecting my sister when I could not...when I was what she needed protection from. I wished...things could have turned out differently. But you are here now, so that is a step...in the right direction. Will you forgive me for...the last seventy years?"
Logan grabbed the hand that was reaching towards him and gripped it tightly.
"There is nothing to forgive, Victor." The Russian tried to smile, but was too weak.
"So we...are reconciled, my brother?" Logan nodded and pressed the back of Victor's hand to his heart.
"We are reconciled." Victor's eyes closed and opened slowly, then focused on Nikkola who was looking at him with tears in her eyes. He put the tiniest bit of pressure on her back and she smiled softly. Swallowing thickly one last time, Victor pulled Nicole towards him.
"You...have freed me, Koulya. Now let me be free. Let me...go." Nikkola's face crumpled, but she nodded as she wrapped her arms around him again.
"Be free, Victor." Her brother gave the tiniest nod, then let his eyes close. Nicole watched him intently, feeling his chest rise and fall slowly. She could feel his heart beating slower and slower, until it finally stopped. With trembling lips, she called his name in a low voice.
"Victor?" And then brokenly: "Vilya?" Finally, Victor's darling, his baby sister, laid her head back down on his chest and wept.
There was silence in the clearing long after Nikkola's sobbing had ceased. Finally, Scott knelt beside her with a comforting hand on her shoulder.
"Do you want to take him back to the mansion? We can arrange for a proper burial there." After a moment of thought, Nikkola shook her head, her voice hoarse from crying.
"He does not belong at the mansion, Scott, or in a graveyard. I will bury him here in the wild, where he was at home. Where we were at home." Scott nodded and stood beside Jean, and Logan immediately took Scott's place by Nikkola.
"Do you want help?" Another long moment of thought, and another shake of her head.
"I appreciate it the offer. But this is something I need to do on my own." Logan tilted his head and reached for Nicole's chin, forcing her to meet his eyes.
"Are you sure?" Nicole nodded again.
"I am sure, Logan. I will meet you back at the mansion tonight." Without another word, Logan rose and motioned for Scott and Jean to follow him.
As they boarded the Blackbird and prepped it for takeoff, Logan stood on the ramp and looked back at Nicole who was sitting forlornly by the body of her brother. He frowned slightly, wondering why his heart broke to see her like that, wondering what their relationship had been that he would feel such a pull to be with her. Finally, at a call from Jean, he walked the rest of the way onto the Blackbird and raised the ramp. He would find out when Nikkola returned to the mansion.