Author's Note- The End, yay! I finally did it! I started this story waaaay back in 2009! After files being deleted and moving up and down the eastern sea board and the many tribulations of life (and many more comics and plots read and loved) I've finally put an ending to Lost Brothers! So, yes, this story took nearly a decade to finish but lets all just agree that's better than slapping a hiatus on it! Thanks for those who stuck with it on the various lengths and those who are still interested in two of the coolest brothers in comics (even though technically in the comics they're not, we all know Dog Logan is really Sabes despite what they want us thinking!)

So thank you all for reading and hopefully enjoying my combination of all the movies together! Plus leave me a final review so I can know what was good, bad, awesome or could need a little help in the re-write I have planned for the beginning chapters (since let's admit it, ten years is a long time in terms of writing quality too). Thanks again and enjoy! You can continue to read Victor in my other recent stories and we'll see my next inspiration for Logan is! Thanks again everyone!

Chapter 25

Epilogue

Brothers Found

"Welp," John called, as he settled the last of the equipment into the back of his Jeep. "We can be sure no one's ever gonna be able to salvage any of this."

Logan looked down into the valley they'd just trekked from, the smoldering remains of the complex John had just blown to hell where it should be. They'd have alerted the Canadian government that way, but it didn't matter. Like John said, nothing inside the building would be able to come back on them ever again.

Nord was patching up John's arm in some semblance of a sling, now, while Kayla checked the gas situation of the extra vehicle they'd taken from the facility before.

He glanced at Victor who was settled away from everyone else with his arm propped up at an odd angle against a boulder. Logan tilted his head to the side to get a better look at what the crazy bastard was doing. But when his hearing picked up the crack he realized he must be resetting some bone or another.

What did he do here? James frowned, watching the other feral from a distance. Victor was too focused on healing to notice, apparently. They'd fought hard back in the warehouse, when James was under another of Ferro's mind tricks. Victor pounded him out of it… but there was something that moment when he woke up that changed things.

Maybe it was all the worry of the collar and Victor being trapped that led to it… but when he'd come out of it, to a battered Victor, his mind had reeled. Back to Three Mile Island, back to Vietnam and yet… it was different from before. His perspective was changed now, the fear that Ferro fed into that illusion was shattered with it, apparently.

James could see back now… back to the moment that started James' uncanny patience with Victor, despite all the hassle and problems his brother caused him.

The ground was jagged and cold beneath his feet, and James was trembling from the spike of fear and adrenaline. But as he ran, whimpering at the panic and the rough ground underneath his bear feet, it dawned on him how fast he was running. How he felt as strong as he felt afraid. His fever was forgotten, the pulls in the muscles in his leg (from overextending himself trying to impress Victor by working hard in the barn with him) weren't bothering him and he wasn't wheezy from his flight.

The thoughts flew by, though, with the terror of thinking about why his hands felt sticky instead of clammy and his mother's terrified, disgusted words pounding in his head.

"What are you?"

He ran harder, breathing becoming labored as he burst through the woods at a pace that James Howlett couldn't imagine running. All he could do was run from all of the horrors unleashed in the last few moments.

But it caught up with him… faster than he could run from it. He felt somebody throw against him and James' heart pounded from within his chest as he hit the dirt face first. Whoever was behind him, surely was here to destroy him, to… to… he spun, finding it was Victor he was shoving away and leaping up from the ground against.

He raised his fists shakily, shouting, "I didn' mean it!" Pleading… "I didn' mean it."

"Yes ya did," He snapped back, and despite James' sudden energy, he felt pale and small against Victor's set face. James breathed heavily, tightening his fists as he prepared to try and fight off the taller boy. What else could he do if he'd already caught up?

"He deserved it and ya gaves it ta him," Victor went on… and James blinked at the other boy, not understanding. He'd… he'd just, he'd hurt Mr. Logan, he'd just…

Victor leaned down, and James glanced down at the hand Victor set on his shoulder weary of the contact. This felt like some elaborate trap, how could he mean what he was saying? That was his father that James had just… had just…

"We're brothers Jimmy, ya ever realize that?" The grip on James' shoulder got tighter and he blinked the tear away from his eyes. "An' brother's protects each other."

Brothers? Be-because Mr. Logan was his father? That's what he'd said… not father… him? Victor's… his brother?

"Ya hafta be hard now, hard so nothin' can ever touch us."

"I want ta go home," He quivered, pressing his dry lips together. He wanted this nightmare to be over, he wanted to run back and see father… father not looking up that way and he wanted mother to look at him blankly again instead of in sheer terror. The fear that squirmed in his belly still as Victor talked about being hard. James didn't understand any of this.

"We can'. We stick together no matter what and takes care o' anyone who gets in our way."

But he just wanted it to go back… he wanted none of this to be real, just some fever induced night terror like any other time. But the cold creeping in and the stickiness between his fingers- the blood- was too real to be a dream. The dread, this pit in him was too real. Victor's fingers clutching his shoulder weren't a dream either.

"Can ya do that little brother?" He stared back at the older boy and nodded. Victor was his brother and while he didn't know how to handle anything else going on… Victor was confident right now, Victor knew what was happening and James trusted him. He hadn't come after him to fight him or drag him back… instead he here with James, after all he'd just done.

Because of what he said, they were brothers. The moment was broken by dogs that suddenly sounded so close, as if they were overtop of his head instead off of in the distance with the bobbing lanterns. James could hear the voices clearly, hear them talking about the river and encouraging the dogs. Victor told him to run and James followed him blindly, sure of only the hand on his shoulder and the painful ground underfoot.

Logan blinked away the strong memory that settled over him slowly. It wasn't a sudden blast, like it'd had been. No… this one, this one just fit there, in the disjointed mass of information he'd come to accept as his life over the last few weeks.

Logan was unsteady, or sure it wasn't something the Wolverine felt himself in the way of feeling. But he walked the feeling off, going over towards his brother. The words suddenly had a meaning they just… hadn't before. It'd been an instinct he felt since the realization, with no anchor to why… until now.

/ / / /

/

"Did I get the bone?"

Jimmy asked from behind him. What was that supposed to be? Victor huffed, angry someone was interrupting him while he tended to his wounds. His instincts wanted him to lash out but… it was just Jimmy. For now they had some semblance of a truce. He snarled a bit as he broke his bone back apart where it had healed wrong and guided his forearm back into the correct place.

"Yeah, right," He dismissed. "Like ya could seriously get through me."

"Well I wasn' in my senses," James spoke up gruffly. 'What's this anyways?' Victor thought. "Guess that's on me."

"Shut up," Victor groused at the pity party. "He got in everyone's head, halfwit."

It wasn't just Jimmy, so he wasn't going to hear moping over a success.

"He didn' get in yers, how else would you have fought me off?"

"Hardly called that a fight!" He scoffed as he turned his back to James and waited for his bones to reattached in the proper directions so he could get up.

Truth was… Ferro had been in Victor's head. He could still feel the damp moss on the tree trunk a younger him was tied down to. Unable to move, helpless as he stared up at the looming figure of his father, bearing down on him with that rusted shotgun. He could see into the barrel it was so close, his mother shrieking for Pa to trust in the lord's plan… he could remember how he struggled utterly useless…

Victor twitched out of the memory of an illusion summoned by the dead man. Who was so powerful now, huh? Ferro was put down by the lot of them, his past subjects ending him the way it ought to have gone. God had it felt good, too. Victor focused on that particular high, and turned towards where the others were rooting around with off terrain vehicles they found stored there.

It was over now, his hunt complete.

So why did he feel edgy instead of sated? Victor glanced behind him at James, now walking towards the nearest vehicle and growled in annoyance at himself. Threat was over and that was the end of that.

/ / /

Logan walked more surely up towards Kayla, baffled as what to do with Victor. He'd gone silent and so Logan would follow suit and ignore him. Might be the best answer. It was strange and Logan still couldn't… really figure out how to flaming act with it all.

Who could blame him?

But Kayla, well, he wanted to make sure she was okay after Ferro's last attack. That he knew how to handle. She hadn't said more than two words since then and Logan figured from the glance she gave him she was afraid to start.

He sighed, leaning against the truck.

"Yes?" She snipped a bit his way.

"Gas is fine," He commented. It took a moment but then she nodded some, disengaging from the defensive stance.

"It's all over, finally," Kayla breathed out. For the first time since longer than he could barely remember, Kayla relaxed next to him. She picked herself up to hover on the bumper and cast her gaze over to meet his.

"You okay?" He asked softly, a small smile directed her way.

"Sure," She said too quickly. Logan arched an eyebrow, giving her a knowing look. "Like I said," Kayla suddenly whispered. "It's finally over." "Is it?" He offered almost gently. "Ferro messed with yer head too Kayla. Don' ya want answers?"

"You know what Logan, I really don't. I don't want to know."

"Why not?" He asked quizzically. He wasn't pushing her so much as… confused. Answers had driven him for decades now… he couldn't understand someone who didn't want them.

He watched silently as Kayla let out a breath and turned slightly away from him. Logan watched despite it, as she brought one hand to partly cover her mouth as she closed her eyes tightly.

Out of instinct his hand slid up on her shoulder and Kayla hung her head, letting a tear leak out. Whatever Ferro had done, it shook her, or… maybe just what they'd done shook her. What had happened to them, well, it would… but he hated seeing it either way.

"Whatever he put in, and whatever is real…?" She paused and took in evening breathes. "I can't tell which I'd prefer, Logan. Did I betray the man I loved?" She peeked at him before turning her head again. "Or did he leave me when I needed him most?"

Logan huffed, from what he had remembered it was only one way. But immensely more complicated than a little sentence like that could account for. It had all been to complicated and too out of either of theirs control.

Kayla coughed and then kept going.

"At the end of the day, I remember you're lying in bed next to me, Logan. It's wonderful… but then the peace is gone and I can't help but feel as if I deserve to have it taken away." He quiet breathes were loud against his sensitive hearing and her scent was more telling.

They sat there for a few moments and Logan let her recompose herself. She reached up to wipe at her eye before she turned and looked at him, and those pretty eyes were set, determined again. The way he knew her.

"Whichever the truth is, Logan, they'll only hurt more than if neither are somehow an option."

The way she looked at him, she wanted permission, to bury it, he was pretty sure. He reached out and ran his hand across her cheek some.

"Whatever the answer is, darlin'," He soothed. "It was worth it, in the end," He assured her and her determined face cracked a little. Some sort of hope, or relief mingled with her scent and she reached up to squeeze the hand he'd set on her face.

"Thank you Logan," She muttered.

"I'll see ya around Silverfox," Logan assured her before pushing up away from the Jeep. She laughed slightly and slid up herself, grabbing the keys off the bumper next to her and headed for the car John was carefully settling into.

"Logan," John called and he walked up to his side of the car. John outstretched this hand and Logan smirked taking it. "It was good to see ya'll, but lemme tell ya… I hope I don't for awhile, no offenses."

Logan laughed despite himself and patted John's good shoulder.

"You an' me both John, you an' me both."

"Take care of ya'self now Logan."

"Don' I always?" He raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah right," John snorted, and Maverick nodded quietly to Logan before stepping through the back seat and setting his helmet down next to him. Logan gave him a last nod and watched the Jeep start up, carrying them away.

—

He watched the sickening antics near the vehicles as his bones finally resent and he felt he'd be fine to move. Who gave a shit about all that crap? Victor was so please with the outcomes of the day he couldn't even get annoyed over it all.

Victor was free of all of it and his brother was safe from it. Free from that fucking collar, free from the memories, and they were all dead. Or this bunch of scientists were at least. They were like cockroaches, some of them always seemed to keep alive someone despite how well he executed an extermination.

He curled his claws in front of him as he stared at them nostalgically. It had felt damn good. He hadn't gotten such a warm feeling from gutting someone in so long. Just the look of Ferro's rotten soul dying from his eyes as he hacked painfully and stared at his intestines hanging from Victor's claws. The gaping hole in his stomach he kept trying to hold together. The cold laugh nearly bubbled from Victor's throat again.

That little fuck wouldn't be messing with his or Jimmy's heads no more. Victor was sure of that.

He lowered his hand and continued to move further along his path. They were wrapped up so he'd beat his way out of here. It turned out they'd needed that bunch of losers after all, at least for the fight. Even that little squaw had been a bit useful, knowing how to deal with Victor's collar. But he wasn't going to hang around for the hand holding. Silverfox seemed like she was beating it anyways and Victor wasn't looking for some reunion time.

Victor felt... torn about it. His feelings and his thoughts from before didn't match. Most of the time, no part of Victor warred with itself. But he'd wanted his brother to remember. It angered him to no ends that he knew nothing of them. It wasn't like he'd thought out past if he did remember. He'd just known the bastard deserved a little tormenting.

Now the runt clearly wasn't in denial no more and he'd even stuck his neck out to rescue Victor from Ferro's lot.

James musta assumed he'd want to stick around. But Victor didn't. He didn't want to deal with it. He didn't want to deal with James or any of his nonsense. He was in a different place now and even with James' memories restored... well Victor wasn't changing shit about his life. He'd gotten himself set up real nice and he wasn't worried about nothing or nobody else.

James'd be there later anyways.

"Where you runnin' to?"

He growled under his breathe. What had he gotten another hours distance? Not even that and James caught up.

"Whadda ya want?" He growled and turned slowly to face his brother.

"To know where ya're goin' in such a rush Victor."

Victor studied him carefully, his eyes guarded as his brother stood relaxed in front of him. It was... strange, after all these years. For James to be relaxed near him. Victor wasn't sure he could be, his muscles were taunt and his claws barely sheathed.

"Ain't goin' nowhere to do with ya. Ya got yer world, I got mine," Victor explained with a shrug. There wasn't much more to it. James would run off back to his little X-Men and Victor was going to go about his own business.

James seemed to stare at him for a long while. He didn't say anything, but his frown deepened more and Victor felt antsy standing still so long. It was annoying and Victor took a step before he started to turn to leave again.

"Victor, ya know, we are in different places now," James started off in that condescending voice of his and he almost ignored him. But his brother's voice softened, still, it was the smirk that made Victor give him a last glance. "But we're brothers. I know that now. An' brothers stick together."

Victor's eyebrow popped up and he watched James for a minute before a chuckled vibrated in his chest. So the little runt was trying to turn his own words against him? Few centuries late to the race. But, that sure took Victor back a turn or two.

Despite himself, Victor smiled and James' own showed itself too. His brother extended his hand and Victor could remember when he'd done it once before, despite his hate. He couldn't help but clasp his brothers forearm in return.

"Sure," He replied gruffly. "But yer still a no good, weaklin'," He snapped good-naturedly. His head was still in the wrong place, James still didn't understand how the world worked, no better than back in Lagos… but this was a different forest, a different parting.

"I can' do any worse than you, Victor," James snarked back.

Victor smirked once before they let go and he looked his brother over again before turning around towards his path again.

"See ya around, Runt," He called over his shoulder, and a tiny grin pulled up over his face.

/ / /

The engine of his new bike drowned out everything but the wind whipping around him as he pulled out of the woods and into the small back roads of the small upstate town in New York. It felt odd, almost, coming back to the mansion. He was close, but his thoughts lingered on all that had happened.

"We're brother's Jimmy, you ever realize that? An' brothers protect each other."

He thought back to that memory, and maybe for the first time, it wasn't in a bad sort of way. As he turned out of the forest, out of the wild that encompassed part of him and the shadowy parts of his past… something good came with him this time. That wasn't something Wolverine usually found in his past. He certainly hadn't been expecting it here, from an enemy he'd hated so blindly, so strongly.

Logan came up around the bend and he could just make out the top of the school, further down graymalkin lane. He smirked as he got closer to home, to Ororo and the students, to the life Logan had made for himself away from all the chaos of his unexpected past.

Still, he wasn't running from it now. It was something he could embrace and he knew that whatever strange way he had to face Victor in the future… it wouldn't be as it had been… no, it'd be the way it should be. A lot of things would be, now, for James. He wasn't lost anymore.