Light shown through the cell which the Howlett brothers and Verena were being kept. Dirt was smeared along their faces and clothes. Verena was resting her head against the dirty wall, her cropped hair now an unkempt and curly mess. She was muttering in Italian under her breath, "Ave, o Maria, piena di grazia..."

Logan and Victor were both looking down at their feet, Victor was sharpening his claws against the ground, while Logan fiddled with his dog tags. "il Signore è con te. Tu sei benedetta fra le donne e benedetto è il frutto del tuo seno, Gesù."

As Verena kept muttering, Logan's keen ears picked up every word, and to him, it sounded like a prayer, but on her tongue, it was almost like a melody. "Santa Maria, Madre di Dio, prega per noi peccatori, adesso e nell'ora della nostra morte. Amen." He raised his head when she finished and looked over at her with a raised brow as she made the cross over her heart. He had recognized some of the words that she said, no matter if she had said them in Italian.

"What, we saying Hail Marys now?" Logan asked, his tone somewhere between curiosity and teasing. Verena rolled her eyes at him and Victor chuckles.

"I thought I'd try something."

Victor chuckled, not looking up from his claws. "Ain't that a waste of breath, Vee?"

Logan's half-smile faded into something more serious, "Yeah, I thought you learned praying doesn't work by now kid?"

"I told you to stop calling me kid, we're both over 100 years old, I don't think a decade of a gap matters anymore."

In the midst of their short argument, the cell door starts to squeak open, cutting through the tension. All three looked up, their attention snapping to the intruder. A man, stands there in a polished and ironed military uniform, with a small smirk on his face. His gaze floats around the three of them and eventually lands on Verena, lingering for longer than she was comfortable with. "My name is Major William Stryker. You were charged with killing a senior officer, is that correct?"

Victor looks down, a hint of a smirk on his face "It seems we have some issues with authority."

Verena elbowed Victor in the side, while Logan sighed. "Keep a lid on it, will you?"

"The warden tells me your sentence was carried out by firing squad at 1000 hours. How'd that go?"

"It tickled," Victor responded. Verena lets out a little laugh and Logan shakes his head at his brothers antics.

"You boys, and girl, tired of running? Tired of denying your true nature?" Verena was exceedingly good at hiding the fact that she was a woman in each war that she fought. She trimmed her hair before each deployment, only for her curls to grow back stubbornly. But in Vietnam, there hadn't been time for grooming, and now her hair fell to her shoulders.

Logan looked at Stryker, his same eyebrow raised as before, "And why do you care?"

"Oh, I care. I care because I know how special you are. How valuable. Look, you can stay here locked up like freaks of nature, or you can join me. I'm putting together a special team with special privileges. Now, tell me, how would you like to really serve your country?"

The trio look to each other, Logan and Verena more skeptical of it than Victor. He shrugs at them and turns his head back at Stryker and nods.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

On the plane headed to Lagos, the brothers and Verena were on a mission with Stryker's so called "Team-X". She was sat in the dim light of the plane, her black tactical pants and boots blending into the shadows. Her black tank top revealed the lean, muscular build of her arms and shoulders, where butterfly tattoos adorned her skin—something Logan and Victor hadn't seen before. Her short hair was pulled back into a loose ponytail, out of her face but still slightly tousled. A gun holster rested on her hip, and a knife was sheathed at her side, ready for whatever awaited them in Lagos.

She was squished in between the large frames of the Howlett brothers, their knees touching hers on either side. Across from her sat Wade Wilson, a mercenary who didn't shut the hell up. Verena was starting to grow tired of his constant jabbering; each mission Verena was one word away from shoving her claws into his neck. This time he was sharpening his katanas.

"I love this weapon more than anything in the whole wide world. You wanna know why?" He stared directly at Verena, who crossed her arms over her chest, muttering a curt "No."

"It's memorable, it's a little bulky but you whip out a couple of swords at your ex-girlfriend's wedding? They will never ever forget it."

Victor looked at Wade unfazed, "That's funny Wade, I think you confuse me for someone who gives a shit."

"Well it's not as intimidating as having a gun, or bone claws... or the fingernails of a bag lady"

Verena groaned in annoyance, "Wade shut the hell up."

Wade quirks an eyebrow at her and smirks, "I think the men were talking, Butterfly. That doesn't involve you." He nods toward the tattoos on her shoulders, the smirk never leaving his face. "Though I gotta say, those are pretty. I always knew you had a soft side under all those claws."

Verena goes to lunge forward at him, claws drawn and ready to sink them right into Wade Wilson's neck, but Logan pulls her back into her seat. "Figlio di Puttana" She huffed in frustration, her eyes narrowing at Wade. He always knew just how to push her buttons—but then again, that was his specialty

Wade holds his hands up in surrender, "Good kitty cat." Verena stares him down into silence and for just a moment it looks as though he may shut up. Till he turns to look at Fred as his next target, "Fred got a new tattoo, I'm concerned."

Logan, Verena, and Victor all turn their heads to look over at Fred's tattoo. Verena immediately recognized it as the girl he met last night. Verena throws her hand up to cover her mouth and stops herself from giggling. Logan gives her a pointed look and turns back to Fred, "aw Jesus Fred, you just met her last night"

"But I love her," Fred has a puppy dog look in his eyes, almost sad that the team didn't like his choice.

"You love her after one night?"

"She's a gymnast." The boys smirk at this while Verena rolls her eyes, "And Vee has a tattoo, you guys didn't say anything to her." 

Verena smiles at the nickname, she only allowed the Howletts or Fred to call her that especially since they were the only ones who didn't try to hit on her, "Fred, Tesoro, there's a difference between a tattoo of butterflies and a tattoo of a one night stand." Fred sighs in defeat, he knows there's no point in arguing now.

Logan turns to Verena, still questioning of her tattoo. His voice is hushed so only she can hear it, "When did you get your tattoo?"

"Just before Vietnam. Um... then we were a little to busy fighting so I never showed you," she smiles at him and pats his knee. He looks at the butterfly tattoos on her shoulder with great depth, examining every detail before they hear Stryker calling for the plane to come down. Suddenly Logan lets out a groan and hunches over, and Verena rubs his back, knowing how much he truly hates flying.

Fred looks over at Logan, "You gonna puke?"

"If we were meant to fly we'd grow wings."

Zero adds his own input, "Dont worry Nancy, more people die driving then they do flying"

Logan looks up at Zero angrily, "How about from impaling"

"Gentlemen... and Lady, wheels down in Lagos in five."

As the plane touched down, Verena rubbed Logans back once more before moving on. She picked at her cuticles and thought about how much a manicure would do her some good. She had chipped, olive green nails from the last mission they went on. She had done them in the plane and they had barely dried before they landed. Safe to say none of the polish was messed up afterwards.

They get off the plane and are met with a large building. The Howletts and Verena stood together, the rest of the team surrounding them. They took in the large building in front of them both Logan and Verena looked at each other with eyes of concern. Logan looked to Stryker, "Why are we here?"

"All in good time. Zero you're up," Logan and Verena make eye contact once again, both with pits of overwhelming dread forming. Verena shrugs at Logan and gives him a look that almost says, 'We can talk later.' The pair looks over at Victor, he holds no sign of wariness or concern for this mission.

Zero takes his place, the guard's spotlight lands on him and the guards rush around yelling intruder. As the guards aimed at Zero, he slowly raised his hands behind his head, before he whipped out his guns and took out the guards blocking the gate. He shot them with a speed and precision that Verena could only dream to have with a gun. When he was finished he landed and the bodies fell behind him. Victor leaned over between Logan and Verena and whispered, "Having fun yet." Verena pushed his face away and scoffed as he let out a chuckle. Neither Verena or Logan were amused.

Victor runs off and Stryker sends Fred in to take care of the tank, where a guard had just locked himself inside. Victor climbs up the side of the building while Fred causes the tank to implode. The team makes their way to the elevator and crams themselves inside. One of them is pressed up against Verena, and she immediately knows it isn't Logan because he's squished right next to her. "I know we're all squished in here but whoever's behind me better back up or I'll make you back up." Immediately she heard some shuffling and grunts as whoever was behind her was trying to move away. 

Suddenly the elevator stopped and Verena let out an, "Oh shit" And of course, Wades coping mechanism was making jokes. 

"Great, stuck in an elevator with 5 guys on a high-protein diet and a girl with claws. Dreams really do come true. I really got a thing for claws, huh butterfly?"

This time, Stryker is the first to shut him up rather than Verena threatening to sink her claws into him, which knowing him he probably would've liked. "Wade shut up, you're next."

"Thank you, sir. You look really nice today, it's the green, really brings out the seriousness in your eyes."

Now its Logans turn, "Oh my god, do you ever shut up, pal?"

"No, not when I'm awake."

Verena looks up at Logan with a smirk, "Can I knock him out after this?"

He lets his lips twitch into a subtle smile, "Whatever you can do to make him shut up, Reena."

The rest of the ride is quiet as Bradley takes them to the top floor, telepathically moving the elevator with his mind. Wade grabs his Katanas, almost slicing Verena in the process, "Time to go to work." As the elevator gets close the rest of the team makes their ways to the sides of the elevator. As the elevator dings and the doors open, Wade twirls his katanas at a rapid pace, cutting down bullets and ricocheting them towards the guards and clearing the way for the team to interrogate the man at the desk.

Instead of grabbing the diamonds like they were told, Stryker goes for the ore that sits on the desk. Verena cocks her head in confusion, Stryker told them this was a mission for diamonds, and she assumed the ore was some sort of precious metal. Stryker gains the origin location of the ore and the team begins their trek to a small village inland of Lagos.

"Tell them this rock is more valuable to me than his life." Stryker holds the stone up to the elders face, while Wade translates in what sounds like Yoruba to Verena. The team stands around the villagers they've taken captive keeping an eye on them, each of the villagers with their hands raised against their heads. As Wade translates, Verena looks around the villagers, none of them have done anything, yet here they were rounded up as if they had committed some sort of crime. She felt uneasy about it, a pit of worry forming in her stomach, something about this wasn't right, and she knew Logan felt it too. 

"He says it fell out of the sky." As Wade translates, Stryker grows more impatient with every waking moment. 

Logan finally speaks out, "He's telling the truth."

Stryker looks at Logan, tension filling the air. "How would you know? You dont know the language, Logan"

"It's a meteor fragment."

"I know what it is, I'm asking him where he found it." Stryker turns back to the man but speaks to Wade, "Tell him everyone here will die, unless he tells me where he found the rock." Instinctively, Verena reaches out for Logan's hand and grasps it in hers. He looks down at it, no sign of expression on his face but he doesn't pull away. 

After Stryker doesn't get the answers he wants from the man he lets Victor kill the man, and in turn the villagers scream in terror. As the villagers try to run, Zero goes to shoot them. Logan releases Verenas hand and tackles him before he kills the woman. Verena turns to get to Victor, who's ready to kill a teenager, "Victor!" she shouts and her and Logan rush over to stop him. She grabs his hand, and looks up at him, a new form of anger in her eyes, "Don't even think about it."

Logan looks a mix of angry and disappointed all at once, "This isn't what we signed up for. Put him down." Victor releases the boy, who slowly backs away. The team surrounds the Howletts and Verena, threatening them to make a move. 

Victor whispers between the three of them, his voice tense, "What are you guys doing. We finally got a good thing going here. I know it's not always great for you Vee, but it's a good thing. Don't screw this up."

Logan's expression hardened, a deep sadness shadowing his features. He shook his head slowly at Victor, disappointment and pain flickering in his eyes. Verena stared down at the dirt beneath her boots, biting her lower lip as if she could hold back the storm of emotions brewing inside. Her breath hitched, and for a moment, it looked like she might cry, but she held it together.

"It's enough," Logan said quietly, his voice raw. "It's enough, Victor. We've done enough."

"Who do you guys think you are? This is what we do. Maybe you'd rather be rotting in a hole somewhere till they figure out a way to do it to us, is that it huh?." 

Verena lifted her gaze, her brown eyes shimmering with something unspoken, the weight of their shared history pressing down on her chest. She looked up at Victor, her hands balled into fists at her sides, but her voice was steady. "Are you coming, Fratello?" The word hung in the air, heavy with meaning—a plea, a final chance.

Victor stood his ground, his chest rising and falling with controlled breaths, but he didn't move. He couldn't.

Logan's hand slid into Verena's, their fingers intertwining with the same desperate need for comfort they had found in each other countless times before. As they turned to leave, Verena stole one last glance at Victor. Her heart ached, hoping—praying—that he would follow, but the moment stretched too long, and the weight of it threatened to suffocate her.

"Jimmy! Vee!" Victor's voice, usually so confident and commanding, cracked.

They stopped for just a moment, both of them frozen by the sound of his voice, but neither turned back. There was nothing left to say. They couldn't go back.

"Jimmy! Verena!" 

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Word count: 2668

Translations:

Verena says a Hail Mary

Figglio Di Puttana - Son of a bitch

Tesoro - Sweetheart

Fratello - Brother

A/N: and that's chapter two, I finally made it through like the first 20 minutes of the movie. I'll try to keep unnecessary dialogue short and sweet but other than that I think this is pretty good. This is unedited so sorry for any grammar mistakes you came across. As always thanks for reading,

Lots of love,

Allegra 💙