~10 years later~

I woke up to dry heat, my mouth was dry. I sat up in bed and stretched. My kitchen table, the newspaper neatly folded next to my coffee as I was eating my bagle. The harsh sunlight shimmered on the floor through lace curtains, the shadows portraying a delicate design on the floors. Wondered back upstairs, got dressed. A pair of short black shorts, a black and red corset and black mesh gloves. Let my hair down, it fell in a messy wave and I just let it stay like that as I wondered outside to my front porch. I sat down on my porch swing as my neighbors walked by my front gate with their two year old son. They stopped, shot me some smiles and a wave. I returned the gesture and they continued on their way.

It was a nice, normal, texas afternoon. I slipped on my shoes and walked out to my mail box at the end of my walk way. The elder couple across the street were also sitting out on their porch. I smiled and waved, they did the same as they sat on their chairs, holding each other's hands. I smiled. Love like that was uncommon these days. It was nice to see that now. Of coarse to them I still looked like a ninteen year old girl, living on her own, and doing rather well for herself. I didn't realise that my healing factor wouldn't allow me to age normally. I looked down, and pushed it from my mind. To everyone here I was a normal girl, and I wanted it to stay like that. I grabbed the papers in my mail box and just looked around. Children were playing in sprinklers in their yards, playing with their pets, riding bikes on the road. I looked down, flipping the first behind the stack, just a junk letter and then...the rest of the papers fell from my hands...it was a picture.

"are you alright hunny?" Asked the old woman from her porch. I must have looked like I had seen a ghost.

I did. Seven of them, counting myself...my old self. I ran back into my house and stood in my living room. It was all of us. Fred and Johnny, Chris, James, Victor, Zero, Me...and "Wade" I whispered running my fingers over the picture. I dropped to my knees, putting my hand over my mouth. "Who could have sent this to me?!" I was beginning to panic. I could feel my hands beginning to shake severly. I wanted to forget this...I had forgotten it. All of them, what we'd done...my doorbell rang. My eyes shot to the door. I silently approached the door, my right hand behind my back and flaming. I twisted the knob and jerked the door open, ready to strike and I saw...

"Mrs. Smalls!" I said surprised. The flames subsided seeing my neighbor from across the road.

"Deary," She handed me a pile of letters. "You dropped your mail." She said concerned. "You looked so distressed, I wanted to make sure you were alright. What happened?" She asked.

I sighed heavily, and relaxed giving her a smile. "I just, someone sent me a picture of some people I kenw from before I moved here." I explained.

"Oh hunny," she laughed. "You had me worried for a moment..."

"Blyss?!" Came a voice from behind her, at the end of my walk way. A voice from my past, a long ago past, almost like it had been a dream. I looked past Mrs. Smalls, tears already welling in my eyes. "Blyss, its you!" He said running up the walk way, up my porch steps, and wrapping me in a strong embrace, it felt like I was dreaming again.

I wiped my eyes. I could barely speak, but his name came to me. "James." I whispered squeezing him as hard as I could. He felt so familiar, so good to me. I pulled away and he wiped my eyes for me. I looked back to Mrs. Smalls and cleared my throat. "Mrs. Smalls, could you excuse us?" I asked. "This," I paused. "This is a very old friend of mine from back home." I said smiling as big as I could. She gave me a knowing smile and nodded.

"We're right across the street if you need anything darling." She said sweetly. "Nice to meet a friend of Blyss'" She said smiling to James. He nodded in answer and she left us. I shut and locked my door, inviting him into the den to sit with me.

I sat down on the couch and he sat right next to me, holding my hands in his. He looked me over and smiled wide. "You look wonderful Blyss." He said shaking his head. "You didn't change a bit." He hugged me again.

I laughed and pulled away again, lighting a cigarette. "You too!" I said excited. "You look...like the last time I saw you." I said letting my voice trail away. He looked away from me. "What are you doing in texas?" I asked changing the subject.

He looked back to my eyes, but he wasn't happy, he was more upset than anything else. "I have something to tell you..." He began. I could hear the hurt in his voice. I've never seen James on the brink of tears, but he was now. I didn't say anything, I just let him talk to me. he told me about His fiance, about the horrible dreams he'd been having and finally. "Blyss...Chris...hes...hes dead." He said. I felt my heart sink. I had forgotten all about him. "I never told him...how good of a friend he was...or how much he meant to me...my god...i haven't even thought about him since...since..."

"What about the others?" I asked.

"Well, Fred and Johnny are alive as far as I know..." He paused and took a deep breath, "Victor as well." I shook my head, I didn't understand.

"What about..." I swallowed the lump in my throat and wiped my eyes. "What about Wade?" I was dreading the answer he may give me.

"I don't know for sure..." I looked away from him. "Blyss..." I brought my attention back to him. "They took everything from me, Victor he...he killed the only woman I ever loved...Stryker, he..."

"Stryker?!" I yelled standing up.

He took my hands standing up beside me. "he did some horrible things to me when I went after him, he told me that if I went through with this new procedure of his that I woudl be able to hunt and kill Victor for what he did to me...but he had an alterior motem...now...now I need your help..." He began.

I shook my head walking away from him. I stood next to the window and put my head in my hands. "I can't." I said softly. "James, I don't have it in me anymore...I just can't." I pleaded. He came back over to me.

"Don't make me beg, please Blyss..."

I started crying again. "James...please...don't make me do this..." I begged back.

"Help me?" He asked letting tears fall.

I sighed, wiped my eyes and nodded. He hugged me and let me cry in his arms for a while. "What are we gonna do?" I asked.

"We're gonna find Fred and Johnny, and we're going to kill Stryker, and Victor." He said with such intence anger. "And make them pay for the sins they comitted, the things that we witnessed." He growled. "we're going to rip down everythings hes created, from the ground up." I nodded.

"I'll follow you." I said determined. "I'm with you James."

He looked down into my eyes. "Lets go." He pulled me towards the door. "We don't have much time, we have to get to them before victor does." He said. I nodded and followed him out to his motorcycle too. I hopped on the back and he sped off.

I watched this town disappear as we drove straight through. The life I made for myself here in texas, it was slipping away, the faster we went. The friends I made her, the people that knew me now, my home, my things. Everything I worked for, for the last ten years, was now all flying by me as we left and headed out. James explained everything to me as we were driving, I was appalled at everything he found out, and I felt sorry that Stryker had taken everything from him, even after he had made a clean break, all those years ago. "Blyss, this is your chance..." I thought to myself on the back of the motorcycle. I may die doing this, but if I died then it was doing what I had secretly wanted to do all thsi time. I wanted to make Stryker pay, for what he did to me, my friends...to Wade. I would wake his blood boil in his viens, his skin melt, and become nothing but a pile of ash on the ground as his world fell around him, even if I couldn't do it...I knew James would. I believed that even if I died trying, james wouldn't die until Stryker was dead, and his sins were paid in full.