WOLFSBANE : Page 8 of 8

BIOGRAPHY - PAGE 8

At first, Rahne was in complete shock and believed that her viciously feral child was a punishment for her other recent transgressions. Rahne started feeling depressed and grappled with her feelings. She soon regretted her actions on the day her child was born. She felt miserable about abandoning him and saw his birth as a test from God that she failed miserably. After all she had done, she believed now that her child was a chance

for her to prove herself to God and she had failed by rejecting him when he needed her. Her resulting anger led her to confront Layla about the whole situation, as she had figured out that she knew what would happened and didn’t say anything. Coldly, Layla explained that whenever she interferes with what’s supposed to happen, she gets punished, and then sooner or later so does everyone else. [X-Factor (1st series) #225]

Layla’s words proved true when, on their next mission Madrox was killed by the demon Bloodbath. His death wasn’t supposed to happen according to her knowledge of the future, but did as a result of Layla bringing Guido back to life a few weeks earlier. Though he died, Madrox’s consciousness was inexplicably transported to another reality, the same that Tryp had shown Rahne months earlier in which he and Layla were murdered on their wedding night. After talking with some of his fellow mutants, he discovered it wasn’t Rahne who killed them, but her daughter, Vanora, who could assume any wolfen form she wanted including that of her mother. In this reality, Rahne had given birth to a daughter, not a son, and had raised her in Asgard rather than rejecting the child. Eventually, Madrox somehow made it back into his own reanimated body, unaware that the process had also brought along a very confused Vanora. [X-Factor (1st series) #229]

As the days dragged on, Rahne’s depression only grew worse. She could not forgive herself for abandoning her son, and the parallels between her and her father only made her more disgusted with herself. Seeing their teammate hurting so badly, Lorna and Teresa took Rahne to Father John Maddox, Jamie’s ordained dupe whom he allowed to continue with his life. Once there, the two of them spoke of sin and forgiveness, and Rahne finally admitted to someone that she ate her father the night she killed him. The confession proved cathartic for Rahne and, after their talk was over, she decided to focus on the positive and realized what she had to do next was find her son. [X-Factor (1st series) #237]

Thankfully, Rahne’s friends, Rictor and Shatterstar, tagged along. With no idea on where to get started the trio took on Hela’s undead warriors, found Hrimhari, and received a mystic amulet that would guide them to her son. The amulet led them to the Sproul State Forest but they weren’t the only ones on the hunt. Rictor was the first to encounter Rahne’s son, now named Tier, but met him under disturbing circumstances. Their former X-Factor teammate, Darwin was about to murder the wolf cub in cold blood. The death powers he had recently received from Hela told him that Tier would be responsible for a war between the gods that could completely destroy the Earth’s surface and he was willing to kill the child to prevent this. Rictor succeeded in knocking Darwin off a cliff and Tier escaped in the arms of Vanora. Rahne's alternate reality daughter had been guided there to her "brother, by the enigmatic Tryp for unknown reasons.

Rahne soon stumbled across the cross-dimensional siblings, but was attacked by them both. It didn’t take long for Tier to recognize his mother’s scent and cease his attack on her, but for Vanora it didn’t matter. She tried to kill Wolfsbane but was skewered in the back by the Shatterstar, who arrived in the nick of time. Reunited with her son, Rahne promised that she would never leave him again.

Shatterstar used his transportational powers to transport himself, Rictor, Rahne, Tier and his guardian Jack Russell to Wolverine’s safehouse in Nova Scotia. It was there that Rahne told her teammates she was going to remain and raise her pup, quitting X-Factor for the time being to focus her attention on him. [X-Factor (1st series) #242]

Unfortunately for Rahne and Tier, Darwin continued to hunt them where-ever they ran to, destroying any idea Rahne had of a peaceful life. Having parted ways with Jack Russel, she realized she needed help and turned to her former X-Factor teammates, who welcomed her back with open arms. Their reunion was well timed as the war of the gods, the very thing Darwin had been warning the group about, was beginning to start. X-Factor came under attacked from Darwin, who was now desperate in his attempts to kill Tier, and Strong Guy, Rahne's former teammate who had lost his soul a few months before. With enemies on all sides the group were quickly captured and paraded in front of the seven Hell-Lords. It was then that Wolfsbane finally learned that her son was nothing but a trophy in a deadly war between the various beings. After eons of fighting between themselves the Hell-Lords decided that whomever killed the seven-billionth soul on Earth would be the undisputed ruler...and Tier was that soul. With the explanation out of the way the God-like beings attacked the group and it was only thanks to Mephisto's daughter Jezabelle that they managed to escape. After a brief moment's rest they were found once more by Pluto, who easily overwhelmed the team and had cornered Tier. To everyone's surprise Tier went into a feral rage and killed Pluto, showing the remaining Hell-Lords that he wasn't going down without a fight. 

Seeing Tier kill a Hell-Lord gave X-Factor some hope that they at least stood a chance in the war, but Wolfsbane was apprehensive at letting her son be used as a weapon. She stood by his side when he said he wanted to find a way that didn't involve him killing anyone, but the rest of X-Factor didn't want to listen. They reluctantly saw things from Tier's side and continued fighting against the onslaught of the Hell-Lord's armies whilst they thought of another plan. Wolfsbane and Tier finally caught a break when they learned that Mephisto had killed the remaining Hell-Lord's, meaning that he was the last one standing. Sadly, in the fighting, Madrox had been turned into a demon, and Monet was killed. Seeing Wolfsbane upset over this made Tier realize he needed to end the war and defeat Mephisto himself before there were any more casualties. Storming Mephisto's castle X-Factor took him head-on, losing Rictor and Shatterstar in the process, enraging Tier even more. Wolfsbane was helpless to stop her son from fighting Mephisto one-on-one but she was just as shocked as everyone else when he seemingly beat the demon. The moment of truimph was short lived though as Tier was stabbed from behind by one of Wolfsbane's closest friends, Strong Guy. As Tier died and Strong Guy became the king of Hell, Wolfsbane could only scream out in anger and grief. With untold power at his fingertips Strong Guy ended the war and banished Wolfsbane and the rest of the team from his realm. [X-Factor (1st series) #250-256]

The team were scattered and Rahne found herself in the snowy tundra of the arctic. Alone, grief-striken and freezing she began to lose all hope and even hallucinated that she was with Tier's father, Hrimhari. After nearly being mauled to death by a polar bear she was saved by Strong Guy, but she wasn't in the mood to thank him though. Not having a soul had seriously affected Strong Guy, and becoming the Lord of Hell did not help. He remained unapologetic for his actions but explained the he did owe her something since he wasn't able to bring Tier back. With that he teleported her back to America, where she materialised just in time to save Reverend John Maddox from an armed gunman. Afterwards she told John everything that had happened and he simply listen patiently. When she got up to leave he offered her a position in his church and, with nowhere else to go, she gladly accepted. [X-Factor (1st series) #258]

Many months passed and Wolfsbane remained with John, slowly healing herself from all the traumas she had been through with X-Factor. She was brought back into the X-Men's life once more when Jamie Madrox was sadly killed by the deadly disease M-Pox. She atteneded his funeral on Muir Island alongside many of his other friends, including Strong Guy. Guido had been dethroned as King of Hell and he had been on his own journey to reclaim his lost soul. It would seem the ever-forgiving Wolfsbane had found it in her heart to make peace with him as the two were seen side by side during the funeral and the events that followed. Jamie's M-Pox was caused by the Terrigen Mists, the chemicals that gave the Inhumans their powers. The mists were in Earth's atmosphere and Wolfsbane took up arms alongside other X-Men in opposing the Inhumans and the mists. [Death of X #1-4]

The next few months were turbulent times for mutants and things did not get any better when Steve Rogers was revealed to have been working for Hydra. Taking over America Hydra ruled supreme, but Emma Frost bargained with Rogers to allow mutants to live in a place called New Tian. Wolfsbane, along with many other mutants, joined her there in the hopes of living in peace away from Hydra's rule. Naturally things did not go according to plan and some of the younger mutants opposed the regime in New Tian. Wolfsbane was one of the many mutants that were used to defend the base and she displayed a very surprising new power when she seemingly seperated herself into a pack of wolves. Given that a number of other mutants were also displaying power-upgrades it would seem that this isn't a simple random mutation. [X-Men: Blue #7-9]