Weapon X: Man or Animal

Chapter 10 

Victor didn’t know what to expect or to see when he walked into a lightly lit room with two spotless cages next to each other. A wall separated the two; neither occupant would have been able to see each other. A simple desk was against the wall opposite to the cages with a simple chair that looked well-worn. The air was stale; the only way to get closer to fresh air was either through the door or the vents connecting this room’s air supply to every other room. Victor wouldn’t be surprised if the air in this room is recycled air somehow.

Only one cage was occupied. Only one.

Victor looked into the empty one first, not quite ready to look at his sibling yet. Not yet, but he will soon. He noted that the scent of the girl was fading, but still present. It was clean and had the appearance of hospitality in a cage. There was a bed, a toilet and a sink. All small, all clean and all very usable. More than what Victor ever got when he was stuck in a cage. Usually there was chains involved and other things that were too numerous to mention. Needlessly said, it wasn’t pleasant.

Victor finally turned his attention to his sibling, the amnesiac fool who somehow got so broken down, he lost himself. How could he do that?! How could Jimmy let those backward sons of bitches twist his mind around and take everything that is Jimmy and make him into Wolverine and then this thing in front of him! How could Victor? Victor felt a snarl curl up in his throat; he swallowed it before it could even be vocalized. No need to set off Weapon X prematurely.

He was told that he had to address him as Weapon X within the first week of bringing him here. Apparently Weapon X didn’t respond to anything else. Victor remembered the conversation he had with Professor Xavier on it, just after he got the glow.

'Victor felt his mind finally be at peace, something he gets after he gets his glow. It won’t last though, it will never last. But right now, he was content with just basking in it. But not for long, he had matters that needed to be discussed with old baldy.

“About your brother no doubt. Hank has long since been finished with removing the technology that was connected to him. The spine graph they had on him that went right up into his brain as well as other wires did was the hardest. It was wrapped delicately around his very spine.” The old baldy said, catching Victor’s attention fully and chasing away the afterglow of his glow. Victor would have snorted at that if not for the dire situation at hand.

“But all that shit’s off of him.” Victor said, wanting confirmation.

“Yes… However, there is more damage then we expected…” Professor Xavier started. However, Victor was never one to let you finish a sentence when he wanted to know something or say something in general.

“What the fuck do you mean?!” Victor demanded, and gave a pointed look that told the damn baldy that he best be answering quickly. 

“Not in a physical sense Victor, in an emotional sense. He’s psychologically damaged, his mind is fragile and he’s very detached and aggressive. Hank also figures he has PTSD in a level he’s not yet seen…” Professor Xavier explained. Victor listened almost detachedly, he understood exactly what was being said, but he couldn’t stop himself from asking,

“What does that mean.”

“It means, we have a lot of work to rehabilitate him. And unfortunately he’s not making that easy.” Professor Xavier calmly explained. Victor’s lip curled slightly, but he didn’t react to it. Simply acknowledged with an emotionless,

“That sounds like him…” 

“That it does… He’s refusing to acknowledge his names however. And we’ve tried every one we know of. We had no choice but to settle on calling him Weapon X unfortunately…” Professor Xavier acknowledged, but continued before the conversation was veered away from.

“That ain’t his fuckin’ name Baldy… Why the hell is he not letting us call him by a fuckin’ name.” Victor snarled out, why wasn’t Jimmy letting himself be called his proper names?

“Calm down Victor, you’re all over the place right now. And no doubt you will stress yourself, you’re unfortunately unaccustomed to dealing with situations like this.” Professor Xavier said. Victor literally snarled out loud at that. But who was he to deny that? He wasn’t usually found in situations like this one. And he surely didn’t act this way either! 

“No, yer right. I’m the one who causes these situations.” Victor sneered as he leaned towards the damn baldy, mildly pleased by the unconscious flinch and obvious frown of disapproval.'

It was not a good day when that conversation happened, and there was a lot of property damage to show for it. A growl caught his attention and Victor watched the one growling at him with slight disinterest. He really didn’t know what he would expect when meeting ‘Weapon X’ face-to-face under different circumstances. But this wasn’t what he expected. There was no blood, aside from the little bit spilt in the cage from self inflicted injuries or careless actions. Either or, it wasn’t done by anyone other than Weapon X himself. But it wasn’t enough for Victor to scoff.

What he saw in the cage wasn’t some wild savage with wires and other Frankenstein tools hanging off of him. It was a perfect image of what his sibling looked like, sure the hair was longer and more untamed looking and his eyes didn’t hold anything close to human in them. No affection. No recognition. No regrets or troubled expressions. Nothing familiar. Nothing normal. Victor saw that they managed to keep him dressed, mostly. Apparently Weapon X didn’t take kindly to confining clothing.

He was feral…

Victor couldn’t remember a time when things got that bad for them. The growling increased in volume and ‘Weapon X’ hunched his shoulders in an obvious challenging manner. Victor felt the nearly overpowering need to do the same, meet posturing with posturing and claw for claw. But he swallowed that too, he wasn’t here for round two with ‘Weapon X’. He was here for something. He didn’t know, but it was an overpowering need that dragged him into this room and standing in the middle of it staring at the only occupant in one of the cages.

Victor almost thought in a childish manner that he should say something. Hi or something. Victor shoved that away, it was stupid. Why would he talk to someone who obviously won’t answer back? He’d get no decent conversation here.

~ Man ~ Weapon ~ Animal ~

Weapon X stood still within his cage, growling the second the newcomer started to stare at him with expressions Weapon X couldn’t place, but he didn’t like being stared at. He stood in the center of his cage and watched the newcomer as the newcomer watched him back, a scent he faintly recognizes from someplace. This was also the man who captured him; he could do what Weapon X did! And worse, he wasn’t chained up or caged like Weapon X was. So then, what did that even mean? What did it mean!

Tilting his head up slightly he took a deep whiff of the air, taking in the scent of this newcomer. The newcomer smelt like him! Like him! Why did this newcomer, this handler, smell like him?! Why? How? Who?! He picked up other scents on the man, scents of this place. No smells of chemicals though, not the kinds they like to use on Weapon X.

Weapon X’s lip curled angrily. His claws itched to come out, but he kept them in somehow. He just did.

“Heard ya ain’t talkin’.” The newcomer said his voice was odd almost like he was uncomfortable or something along that line. Weapon X wasn’t entirely sure; these sorts of things weren’t his area. He was just here for one reason. To kill and to hunt and to slaughter, he was a weapon and he was an animal so everything else other than doing what he was intended for was pointless. Useless.

Weapon X said nothing, just kept watching the man who seemed to get more and more restless. Why? Weapon X was starting to think that he was shipped off to some faculty with a bunch of spineless nobodies, was this a place where they scent failures? Did he fail at something? Was it because he started to do what he was built to do, kill everything? For freedom or for the sake of killing them? Was there a difference?

A growl from the newcomer, agitated growl. Weapon X snarled back. That only seemed to agitate the newcomer who started to pace back and forth. Here, Weapon X thought he was the caged animal. The way the man was moving made it seem like he was the caged animal in this room. Odd. The man was growling and snarling it took Weapon X less than a minute to figure out that it wasn’t directed at him, but at the man himself. He was growling and snarling at himself. Odd.

Weapon X scented the air again, seeing if there was anything that would explain the abnormality. If there was something wrong, then why wasn’t he feeling the affects as well? Or was this a test? Another test! Weapon X snarled angrily.

“Why the fuck did you let them do this shit to you! Why?” The man snarled, and this time Weapon X knew it was at him. Weapon X couldn’t really fathom the question, he knew the words, but strung together and in that manner, the meaning wasn’t as clear or meaningful at this point.

The man seemed to be breathing heavy as he paced angrily back and forth, hands touching the top of the newcomers head. Weapon X watched him warily, but ready to spring into action, somehow.

“You ain’t suppose to be this, this thing. You ain’t suppose to be so fragile minded or shit like that! You… Fuck!” The newcomer continued, snarling entered his words and hands were dropped to the side, fists. Blood. Weapon X watched detachedly as blood dripped from between the man’s fingers and to the ground. Those claws caused him to bleed like that. Why does he hurt himself? Was it like how X-23 hurt herself constantly?

Weapon X felt something, unsettled maybe. Disturbed? Hurt?! Weapon X growled angrily, his claws sprung to life. Why was this man yelling at him? Sure it was normal when people are upset, they take it out on Weapon X, but he never understood why. And he feels even more confused at why this man was yelling at him and they didn’t even meet before the recapture and why was he blaming something on Weapon X?!

“Don’t fuckin’ growl at me! You’re the one who didn’t fuckin’ fight them good enough, long enough, hard enough! Why the fuck didn’t you fight them off longer you piece of rat shit!?” The newcomer snarled at him, Weapon X growled back. The man spewed out other words, curses Weapon X figured. But nothing else was said or yelled. And the man seemed to slump down in the chair across from him and stared at the wall to Weapon X’s left.

From here he could hear metal being scratched, and when Weapon X took a look at what was happening he could see deep grooves in the table. Blood smeared on the table and on the man’s hands.

~ Man ~ Weapon ~ Animal ~

Victor felt himself vibrating in so many damn emotions as he sat defeated in a chair. Why did he have to lose control like that, say those things to a brother who doesn’t know him and doesn’t know the difference between weapon and man?! It was pathetic! It didn’t even make sense what he said, and it wasn’t like Weapon X would understand him. Victor hated how human this made him feel, how vulnerable.

Slowly the growling and the snarling in the cage died down, Weapon X took up pacing and watching him. Victor ignored him, why should he pay attention to some retarded moron who doesn’t even know how to say sorry or its okay or whatever. Victor didn’t want to care, didn’t want to be here anymore, but couldn’t bring himself to move from this chair.



It wasn’t fair! It wasn’t!

'Why couldn’t you be like me Jimmy?! Why did you have to go down the route of being the good guy?! And being the so- called best, it got you noticed and it got you targeted. At least if you were like me, I could o’ protected you better. You wouldn’ o’ been targeted half as much…' Victor thought to himself bitterly as he sat there listening to the ticking of the clock and the sounds the lightbulbs make and the air vents. It was all he could do.

Victor could smell his own blood, it was something that always caused him to get agitated, but right now he couldn’t be bothered. Why couldn’t that old psychic fix things, why the hell did he have to take things so god damn slow?! Victor was only half aware that Weapon X crouched in a corner of the cage and watched him cautiously. Victor didn’t move. Not even when he felt the need to go to the bathroom, eat or sleep.

He sat there for a good twelve hours until the blue elf teleported in to deliver breakfast and caused Weapon X to get agitated again.

“Mein Gott…” The blue elf said in shock and surprise. Obviously no one expected to see Victor Creed sitting guard in a room with two cages and one occupant. Nor did they expect to see the state Victor Creed was in, or more correctly his pants and the chair and floor. All from refusing to move. Victor cursed at his own lack of ambition to move or to tend to his own physical needs. How embarrassing, how disgraceful!

If that elf says a damn word, Victor would gut him like a fish. The last thing he needed was to give the so-called fearless leader ammo to use against him. He didn’t care about the mess he left behind as he stormed out of the room. Feeling like he failed and the shame for letting himself slip into such a disgusting state.