A/N: Last chapter! I'm glad you all have enjoyed this story so much, I really did not expect to get such a big turnout! Thank you for all the wonderful reviews, they really helped keep the inspiration going! Not much makes me smile more than a good, encouraging review, and ya'll had me smiling quite a lot. =D I'm really sorry to say this is the last chapter, but it's been a good romp.
N.B. this takes place during the movie after the scene in Africa when Jimmy/Logan leaves Team X, but I'm sure you would have guessed that. ;P
Epilogue/Parting
Time seemed to stop as Victor watched his brother disappear into the dark forest, the echoes of his own shout still ringing in his ears. Blood began to pound in a restless rhythm, pulsating at his temples so harshly that an intense headache began to form. Even so the man did not move from the spot where he remained frozen, anger twisting his features into a hostile snarl.
After all they had been through, after all they had done, this was how it was going to end? No, it could not be. He could not allow Jimmy to get away with this. How could he abandon his only brother after all this time? And for what? For the lives of a few villagers? Jimmy had killed more than these. He went by Logan now, did he not? Logan, because he felt he was just as evil as the man who had killed his beloved stepfather.
Evil or not they had survived. Together they had lived through centuries, through wars and famine and poverty. And Jimmy was going to throw all that away over a few simple villagers. No, Victor could not allow him to get away with this.
Willing his feet to move, Victor plunged into the dense wood, determined to catch his brother and drag him back, no matter what it took.
But for the first time in his life, Victor's senses failed him. So infuriated was he, so fueled by rage, that he miscalculated and ended up in a part of the forest where no one had passed through. Jimmy's scent was no where among these trees and bushes. A roar of fury pushed through Victor's stiff lips, and he raised his fists to the sky, shouting curses at his brother.
"I will find you, Jimmy!" he screamed. "DO YOU HEAR ME?! I—WILL—FIND—YOU!"
A crack of thunder sounded high above. Rain was coming. It would wash away any hint of his brother. Victor knew he would not be able to track Jimmy in this weather. Defeated for now, he dropped to the ground and loped through the forest, growling like a wild animal.
It seemed like many years had passed by the time Victor reached civilization, when only it had been a couple days. Leaves and burrs stuck in his hair and beard. Dirt covered him almost head to toe. The wild look in his eyes never faded and hunger gnawed at his stomach, but he would not stop. It was the hatred he felt for his brother that kept him going.
When he came upon a road, he leaped upon the first car he saw. In his frenzied state he wasted no time thinking, only killed the driver and quickly took the car up the highway. It was only when a few moments passed, and his senses began to clear, that he realized someone was in the backseat. Slamming his foot on the brake, he twisted around and stared into the wide, terrified, hazel eyes of a young boy, cowering back against the leather.
Everything within Victor told him to get rid of the boy and continue on. But those eyes, those haunting hazel eyes, reminded him of another boy. A boy who had spoken three simple words to him in the dark of a train car.
"Get out," Victor growled. The boy simply trembled.
Impatience drove Victor to step out of the car, wrenching the door to the back open and grabbing the boy by the shirt. "You'd better run, boy," he snarled in the child's face before tossing him aside. He did not wait to see if the kid would obey him or not. Getting back into the car, Victor drove off, leaving behind the last good memory of his brother. All he saw now was the betrayal and the abandonment and the anger. All he felt was hatred. The words of the little boy he once knew burned in his chest like acid, for they now rang false in his ears.
"I just want you to know that I love you and I'm glad you're my brother."
Jimmy found the boy. He had been hitchhiking, trying to find a way back to Canada. That was the only place he knew of where he could start over. Wipe the slate clean, if he could. It was the only place he still thought of fondly, once and a while. Back before everything went downhill for him and his brother. Back when there was no killing, no bloodshed, no animal instincts.
Canada was home. And he needed to go home.
The boy was standing in the middle of the road, a lost, haunted look in his eyes. Jimmy knew that look. He had seen it often when he was a kid, in that pale face in the mirror. He did not have to ask what had happened. The claw marks on the boy's chest spoke for themselves. He wondered why the boy did not cry, for he had seen the mangled body of the child's father a couple miles back. But looking closer he saw the boy was still in shock. It would not register to him that his father was dead until later. Jimmy hoped he would be with loved ones at that time and take it better than he himself had.
Without saying a word, he picked up the boy and carried him to the closest town, putting him into the care of the nearest hospital. They tried to get his name, but he said nothing, simply walked out and kept walking.
Everything had changed. It was one thing to kill in battle. It was another to murder the innocent. He had thought Victor would know that. But his brother was too far gone in his animalistic nature to think much of humanity. Just remembering the faces of those terrified villagers made Jimmy feel sick to his stomach. They had come a long way from the two small boys playing with tin soldiers in the Howlett Manor. Closing his eyes, Jimmy could still see that manic fire in his brother's eyes, the one that seemed to be there even when they were not in battle.
His brother had changed since the years before the wars. Every battle they fought seemed to encourage and fuel Victor's bloodlust: his taste for revenge against the simple humans who had made his life so difficult as a child. Jimmy never had that same drive. All he ever wanted to do was have his brother's back.
In the end he had to leave him behind. Boarding a ship to take him to Canada, he left Team X, blood, and war behind him. It had gotten out of hand. The look of that poor young boy stranded in the middle of the road, his father's corpse only a few miles away, troubled his dreams for days.
When Jimmy stood on the ship's gangplank, ready to step out onto Canadian soil, he hesitated. He had chosen a ship because he knew it would take longer than a plane ride, and he needed time to think. Now, as he stood looking into the horizon over that familiar country, he reminded himself that from here on out he was a different person. Jimmy and Victor were no more. Now it was only Logan, and Logan had no brother.
It was better that way, he had decided. And as soon as he started making himself forget, the pain lessened. If he could continue to keep the distance between him and Victor, he knew he would be able to live a full life. Maybe even settle down. Heh. Jimmy looked down at the cigar in his hand and then lifted it up, jamming it between his teeth. The men coming down the plank avoided him, giving him a wide berth, not wanting to bother the man who had said little the entire trip and had the look of a wild animal. Maybe not. He could think of no woman who would want to settle down with someone like him.
No, Logan would be alone. It was only right. Because no matter whom he came across, he doubted she would be able to deal with the scars the many cruel years had left him with.
And so, alone, Logan came back to Canada: a hardened soldier very much different than the pale, frightened boy who had left back in the beginning.
Many miles away, a wild animal howled in rage as his prey eluded him once more. Around him were the bodies of those who had failed to give him what he desired. He would not give up however, not until he had what he thirsted for since the very beginning: revenge.
I found this very interesting (in fact this played a large part in the inspiration for this story):
Hugh Jackman (Wolverine and the producer) and Gavin Hood (the director) compared Wolverine and Sabretooth's relationship thus: Victor hates Logan because Logan loved and needed his brother, but Victor is too proud to admit he needs Logan back.
It fits with their personalities so well and I tried to convey that in my story. Until next time, "See you in another life, eh brotha?"