Victor and I took our time getting to this island he had spoken of. We took advantage of the time alone to talk through some things. We were casually strolling side-by-side through a wood in Maine when he asked, "Elena, why did you leave?"
I snorted. "You're kidding, right?"
He just kind of cocked his head and glanced at me. "No."
I rolled my eyes. "I left because I didn't feel like heartlessly murdering innocent people anymore."
It was his turn to snort. "Your sister taught me something that is a good loophole to that statement."
"Did she really? I didn't know you were open-minded enough to learn."
He scowled, but continued. "She said that one thing you find out doing what we do is that no one is innocent."
"I guess there's logic to that," I relented quietly.
We walked along to nothing but the sound of dead leaves crunching under our feet for a few minutes. Then he reached into his pocket. "I almost forgot. Here." He handed me my tags that I had thrown off all those years ago.
I looked them over, shining them up a bit. "Have you kept these the whole time?"
"Yeah. As soon as I could move again, I went and picked them up. They haven't left my person since."
I slipped the chain over my head and held the tags close to my heart. "Thanks." He nodded. I could tell by the tension in the air that more needed to be said. I stopped and grabbed his arm, turning him to face me. "Victor, you need to tell me whatever it is you want to say. We're only going to tear each other's throats out if things go unsaid." His eyes bored into me, and for half a second, I felt vulnerable.
He began, "I don't know if you knew I was capable of this or not, but it hurt when you left. You just turned around and walked away without a second thought."
"Without a second thought?! I made Logan pull me for fear of running back to you! It hurt me just as much as you. It hurt that we were having to argue over a man's life. It hurt that you just stared at me like I was an idiot when I told you that I had morals and that what we were doing felt wrong to me. It hurt that you didn't come after me! You just let me go!!" I was unknowingly beating on his chest, and for once, he didn't hit back. "You just watched me walk away and all you could do was call my name! I spent the last 6 years wondering if the last 40 or so had meant anything at all!" Annoyingly, I started crying. Finally, he caught a hold of my wrists. I sagged against his grip, tears falling from my eyes no matter how hard I fought them. He pulled me to his chest and wrapped his arms around me. I cried into his coat, so angry, yet so happy to be with him again.
"I couldn't go after you," he murmured. "I knew that eventually, Stryker would hunt everyone down. If I was still in his inner circle, I could protect you."
"Oh, whatever! Your thirst for blood overpowers everything else in your body! Even what little feelings you pretend to have for me!"
He growled and shoved me back a bit. "That's not fair! It didn't help that you made me look like a fool! I had to…"
"Had to what?! Prove you were better?! Stronger than your weakling brother and girl-toy? What?! Well, I have news for you! Logan and I were the strong ones because we had the guts to leave! You are NOTHING compared to us!" With a cry, he lashed out with his right hand, his claws ripping into my face. The blow knocked me to my knees. I gasped and reached up, the feel and smell of my blood setting a fire of fury inside. A growl rumbled up from deep in my gut, and my head snapped up to glare at him, eyes flashing.
My muscles tensed, preparing to pounce on him, but then, ever so softly, he said, "I'm sorry." My shock overpowered my anger and everything relaxed. The gashes healed as I stood back up. He was looking at the ground, but I could tell that his eyes were sad. "I didn't mean to…I just…"
I walked up and put my hands on both sides of his face, and I forced him, gently, to look at me. "Forgive me," I whispered. "I was angry, and I said things I shouldn't have." I raised up on my toes and brushed his lips with mine.
He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "I shouldn't have hit you either," he said. He leaned down and pressed his lips a little more forcefully against mine. Then he put his mouth to my ear, nipping with his teeth, and said, "Forgive me."
I leaned back to look at him again. "You know I will."
"Yeah, and that worries me. You shouldn't…"
"Shut up, Victor. We'll just end up fighting again."
"You're probably right."
"Oh, I know I'm right," I said with a brilliant grin. I laced my fingers through his and started off again.
"Do you have any idea where you're going?"
"Nope. I'm just going wherever my feet take me."
"Then allow me to give your feet a suggestion." He put his free hand on my shoulder and steered me in the right direction.
I took a deep breath of the chilly air, and suddenly felt invigorated. "Victor, I feel like running. Do you?"
He chuckled deeply. "Let loose, babe. I'll catch up." I released his hand and burst into my super-fast run. About 70 miles/20 minutes later, I stopped under a huge pine tree. After another 10 minutes of waiting, Victor came bounding up. "Damn, you're fast," he said breathlessly.
I chuckled, "Starting to feel your age, old man?"
He playfully punched my shoulder. "Respect your elders, young'un. I've been around a lot longer than you."
"Yes, master," I mocked while bowing. "I shall listen to your wisdom."
"Finally! Submission!"
I looked up from my hunched over position and smiled. "Enjoy it while it lasts, big guy. You forget that we're both alphas. It's not in our nature to submit…especially not to the alpha of another 'pack'." I straightened up when I finished.
He shook his head. "How did we manage to fall for each other? I was prepared to hate you forever when we first met. There was just something about you that…irked me."
"I'm telling you, it's the fact that we're alphas. That's why you smelled so familiar. That element of haughty leadership resonates off both of us."
He laughed. "Haughty leadership. Very nice description. I kinda prefer domination, but…"
"Haughty leadership will do," I interjected.
"Alright. So, are we ever going to arrive at our destination?"
"Oh yeah! We do have a point to our wandering, don't we?"
"Stryker is going to start worrying about me," Victor sighed sarcastically.
"Well, we can't have that. Let's go."
We arrived at this island 2 days later. I stared at the nuclear reactor, skeptical. "THIS is the island?"
"Hiding in plain sight. No one snoops around a nuclear reactor. They're afraid it'll turn them into freaks."
"Like us!"
"Right," he chuckled.
We walked to the main building and Victor typed in a code to get us in the door. "Do I get to know the code?" I asked.
"When Stryker says you can." A short growl escaped me. "Hey, not my rules."
"Remind me again, Victor, why are you following that eel's rules?"
"He said he's bind adamantium to my skeleton. I'd be indestructible."
"Hold up. Slow down. What's adamantium?"
"That stuff we were after in Africa? They used it to make a metal compound that's essentially indestructible."
"And the binding to your skeleton part?"
"There's a procedure where they can coat my bones with the stuff. They're testing it on Jimmy."
"Logan will never…"
"Why do you think they sent me after Kayla instead of him?"
"He'll do it to get revenge on you. My god."
"Stryker tried to get him to do it simply by telling him that the old team was getting hunted down. It didn't work. So, he reverted to the revenge game."
"So, that night at Bradley's, you didn't really know if you were actually going to be needed yet."
"No. Stryker called me maybe 10 minutes before saying that Jimmy had refused. I knew what was expected of me. Wipe out Bradley, then get my ass up there. The one small setback was when you opened the door. For some reason, I hadn't smelled you before. I was shocked. My mind was saying a million things a minute. Why the hell hadn't I smelled you? Were you with Bradley now? What should I do with you? I didn't want to hurt you, but I knew you wouldn't let me go without a fight after I did what I came to do."
I shook my head. "And all you could say was: Are you going to invite me in?"
He smiled charmingly and pushed the door open. "At least I asked. I hadn't planned on having any kind of conversation with the little coward."
"Hey!"
"Don't give me that. You know I'm right. You even got between us because you knew he couldn't stand up to me."
"Ok, alright, yeah. That's true, but don't insult the dead. Especially when it's one of my friends." He nodded and ushered me in. We were in a large, warehouse-sized room that had several halls that branched off. Directly across from the door were 2 grid metal gates that were closed at the moment, but I could still see through. Behind them were cages, most of them occupied by someone. "Victor, who are they?"
He shut the door behind us and answered, "Mutants."
I spun around. "Mutants? What is Stryker running here?"
"A test facility. He's combining powers into one body. Wade's."
I stared at him, horrified. "So that's why you're hunting down the team. For their powers." He nodded. "And now that I'm here, I'm forced to go along with it, aren't I?"
"If you want to keep Nesha alive, I suggest you do."
"Where is she, Victor?" He nodded towards the gates. I took off. I found the switch that opened the gates and waited on the balls of my feet as they opened. Once they had, I dashed in. The room was lined with cages, most of them having a young mutant, restrained somehow or other from using their powers. They all looked up at me curiously, yet slightly threatened-like.
My head shot up when I heard Nesha's voice. "Elena!!"
"Nesha!" I looked down the rows until I found her, then I ran to her cage.
She met me at the bars. "Elena, how did you get in here?"
"Nevermind! Are you alright? Have they hurt you?"
"No, I'm fine, but…Victor…he killed…"
"Wade. I know. He killed Bradley too."
"Oh no!!"
"I was there."
"So, you've been with Bradley?"
"No. I was only with him for the day. I've been living in Canada near Logan. We went up there together after Africa. What happened with you and Wade after we left?"
"Nothing new. I left almost a year after you did. I couldn't stand it anymore. Hunting them down."
"By them, I assume our friends here," I said with a slight gesture to the other mutants.
She nodded. "Elena, Victor got scary after you left."
"He wasn't before?"
"I mean, he got crazy scary. He acted like he had to prove that he was better than Logan. He hunted and killed everything…everybody he was pointed at." I glanced at the floor, then back up at her. "You have to get out before he finds out you're here. I don't even want to know what he'll do to you. I think I reminded him too much of you. He acted like he couldn't stand to be within 100 miles of me."
Both of our head snapped around when Victor called from the gates, "You smelled too much like her. It was torturous." Many of the other mutants let out small growls and other sound of dislike.
"Run, Elena! You can outrun him!"
I sighed. "I know I can outrun him, Nesha. I don't need to. He brought me here…" She opened her mouth to protest, so I added, "…of my own accord."
Her face was gradually darkening. "You're in league with him?" she growled.
"Nesha, listen to me. We fought out our problems…twice. He's not going to hurt me."
"That's beside the point! He killed Wade and Bradley!"
"And Jimmy's girlfriend," Victor added.
I slowly turned my head to look at him. "Not helping, Victor."
He shrugged. "Just keeping it honest."
Nesha and I both muttered, "That's a first."
"And a lie," someone else said. Stryker walked in behind Victor.
My fingers tightened on the cage bars. "What do you mean a lie?" I demanded.
"Kayla Silverfox isn't dead. She was given a shot of hydrochlorithiazide. It lowers the heart rate so low that it appears you've flatlined. I just needed Logan to think she was dead."
"You little…twerp!" I cried. Stryker was amused, and he had good reason. I was so angry, that's all that would come to mind. Even Victor was looking at me like 'is that all you can do?'
Stryker chuckled. "It's nice to see you again, Elena."
"I'm afraid I can't say the same. Why, sir, is my sister locked up like an animal?"
"She's quite dangerous."
"So is Victor, yet there he stands, free."
"You never saw her other ability, did you? I don't believe she discovered it until after you left the team. Would you like to give us a little example, Nesha?"
I looked back at my sister. She was quivering with fury at everything. Victor stared at her, a cruel smirk on his face. "Bitch," he muttered. She snarled, and before my very eyes, turned into a wolf.
I stumbled back into the cage behind me. "No! No way!" I cried. The wolf that was my sister laid eyes on me and dove at me, even though she knew there was a cage wall there. She was making a point. She was extremely angry with me. I didn't blame her. Victor had killed the man she loved, and I was acting like I didn't care.
"So," Stryker said, "you see what I mean. Just one word can make her lose it."
"One more word from you and I might lose it," I told him threateningly.
He raised an eyebrow and kept talking. "It's under consideration to terminate her. She's just taking up space and we already know her DNA works with Weapon XI."
"Wade," I sighed.
"Deadpool, now, but yes. Wade's body. I actually brought a tranquilizer with me. The only way you can kill a healer like you is to cut off the head. I don't think we're going to get close enough to her like that."
I ran back to her cage, crying, "Don't you touch her! I'll do whatever it is you want! But if you want to terminate her, you'll have to go through me."
Stryker smiled. "I knew we could come to and understanding. You stay out of trouble and be good, this tranquilizer stays in my lab."
"Fine. Whatever. Get out of my sight before I change my mind."
Stryker turned to Victor and said, "Make sure you get her acquainted with everything."
He nodded. I stared at Nesha, torn. "Elena," Victor called softly. Nesha growled at him.
I knelt to look her in the eyes. "Nesha, you loved Wade. I know this, and I'm sorry you lost him. I'm even more sorry that it was Victor. But he was under orders. Long story. I know you don't want me with him, but I love him as you loved Wade. You'll just have to accept that, or hate me. I'm prepared for either one. Just…think about it. Please?" I stood and walked out, brushing by Victor without a word.