'NYAAAARGH!' Logan a.k.a. Wolverine roars as he keels over, is blue and yellow costume torn, blood splattered across his body and pools of blood forming on the ground. His claws glow as they protrude from his hands – he drops his hands into the blood, which sizzles with the heat of his claws. Logan raises his blood-soaked hands, and looks out into a laboratory, where armed operatives lie motionless, sprawled across the floor – covered in blood, some with multiple wounds, one with no head. In a glass cage within the lab, a large sabretooth-tiger scratches at the glass. Logan looks at his hands as he sheathes his claws. He sees another cage, this one containing a mastodon. He notices a wound on his right side, and touches it, before hearing someone call out for water.
Logan moves behind some equipment, where he sees a blood-soaked scientist, backing up against some other equipment. The scientist appears frightened: 'No... no... they killed you. You're dead!' the scientist gasps. Wolverine holds a bottle of water out to the scientist. 'Doesn't seem like it' Logan points out, before telling the scientist to calm down, that he won't hurt him 'You're... you're not... are you him?' the wide-eyed scientist asks, taking the water. As the scientist drinks the water, Wolverine tells him that he doesn't really know how to answer that, and explains that everything is a little foggy right now. 'What is all this? Who are you?' Logan enquires. The scientist introduces himself as Bernard Delacroix, and tells Logan that this is his lab, that Soteira brought all of this here, he works in de-extinction, cloning, which is why they wanted him.
'But when I finally understood why... what Persephone wants to do... I just said no. do you understand? That's all I did. All of this... just because I told them no' Bernard remarks, hanging his head and looking down at his blood-soaked stomach. Bernard tells Wolverine that if he is really who he appears to be, then he has to stop them. 'You have to go after Soteira and tear them down to the ground'.
Bernard informs Wolverine that Soteira's team just left, that he can still catch them – end them – then he can go find Persephone and end her, too. 'All right, friend, sure. Whatever' Wolverine replies, suggesting that he finds Bernad a doctor first. Wide-eyed, Bernard tells Wolverine no, and that he must try to remember that Logan was a great man, until Soteira stole that from him. He explains that Persephone wants to do that to everyone on Earth – she wants to take their greatness. 'Bring her down... if not for the world, for what she did to you' Bernard pleads.
Wolverine admits that he may be fuzzy on the details, but he can still count. 'I'm just one man. I'm supposed to save the whole damn planet?' he asks. 'You've done it before' Bernard tells him. '... what?' Logan asks. Bernard tells him that he doesn't have time to explain, that he needs him to go now, to catch up to the Soteira team, make them bring him ot Persephone. 'Save us, and save yourself'. Bernard takes Wolverine by his wrist, and adds 'But before that...please. It's the only way' he tells Logan as he places Logan's fist to his forehead. 'What? What are you saying?' Logan asks the scientist. Tears form in the scientist's eye, as he tells Logan that he has to – if he doesn't, it will never end for him. ''ll never rest. She'll just...' Bernard utters, and Wolverine turns away as a grenade is suddenly thrown into the ruined laboratory.
The grenade bounces towards Wolverine and Bernard, who looks shocked – but neither can react in time as the grenade explodes, sending a fire blazing through the lab, which knocks Wolverine aside. He starts to get to his feet, but looks over and sees that Bernard is dead – a shard of glass sticking from his head. '#$%&' Wolverine utters, before he is taken by surprise again, but the sabretooth tiger, which has flames darting across its body, as it lunges towards Logan, knocking him backwards. 'Get off me... kitty' Wolverine gasps as he holds the creature's giant teeth away from his body, but when he said “kitty” he remembers something – someone – 'I love you' he remembers Kitty Pryde telling him. Wide-eyed, Wolverine continue to hold the creature back – but suddenly gets some unexpected assistance from the mastodon which attacks the sabretooth tiger by shoving one of its large, powerful tusks through the tiger's head, before it lumbers down a tunnel.
Wolverine looks over at the sabretooth tiger, then down at his hand, in a pool of blood. He sees his reflection in the pool of blood and tells himself to get moving, as these Soteira mugs just tried to kill him again – and now they're going to murder everyone else on the planet – including people he cares about. 'You might not remember, but you got plenty' Logan tells himself, before hearing a loud noise RATATTATT. Logan looks around, and tells himself to go stop these bastards, as he is a hero. He wonders what that even means. 'Bub... it ain't that complicated' Logan thinks. He starts to make his way down the tunnel, 'Look at you. Walking up outta this hole, and all you know is there's killers waiting out there for you' he thinks to himself, deciding that it might be that he needs a little more motivation than all that hero $#%& he just got fed.
Logan walks past another pool of blood and sees a reflection of himself – as Weapon X this time and thinks that there is another angle that he might want to think about – just one word – revenge. 'You can't let 'em walk away with this. No one does something like this to you' he tells himself. Logan looks down and sees a reflection of himself as Patch in a pool of water. 'Or maybe you just take back everything they stole from you. Lifetimes, buddy. They took lifetimes' he remarks. He arrives at the entrance to the tunnel, 'It's your choice, really. Whatever keeps you moving' he thnks to himself as he stares out into the forest covered mountainside, then sees the Mastodon, fallen – shot to death. Logan glances over and sees a jeep with several armed men driving away. He pulls his mask back off his face, 'Whatever keep me moving' Logan decides, as he takes a motorcycle near the entrance of the tunnel. 'Guess we'll see' he adds as he grabs a rifle and drives off down the mountainside.
Eventually, Wolverine's journey takes him to some sort of detainment center, built near a port on a body of water. He drives the motorcycle down closer to the detainment center, while the soldiers he saw in the jeep earlier drive into the camp. An announcement can be heard over a loudspeaker, instructing all residents to assemble immediately. The men, women and children in the center approach the soldiers, and one of them asks 'Why are you here? We've done everything you've asked. What do you want?' The soldier doesn't respond instead he points at a woman who has her arms wrapped around her teenage son. 'No...no, please. It's not right' she tells him, before begging him not to do this. Fire suddenly spreads throughout the detainment center. Wolverine's motorcycle speeds closer to the center, while a man escapes through a now open gate. 'Oh God, oh my God...' he calls out. A sniper stands in a tower and aims his gun, 'Don't you do it. Don't you -' Wolverine utters, but the sniper opens fire, and blasts a hole straight through the fleeing man's chest.
A determined look on his face, Wolverine speeds towards the center, however the sniper sees him and alerts other soldiers to his approach. One soldier signals something to the sniper, who opens fire at Wolverine. Logan swerves the motorcycle, narrowly avoiding being stuck by the gunfire. 'My turn, you son of a bitch' Wolverine snarls as he grabs his rifle and opens fire at the sniper, several bullets striking the man and blasting his helmet back – revealing his grayish skin and an omega symbol on his face – Omega Red. A coil suddenly moves from his sleeve, grabs his rifle and opens fire at Wolverine again. A blast strikes Wolverine's motorcycle, which causes the motorcycle to flip, and sends Wolverine careening into the air – he falls to the ground and lands with a thud against a large stone. Logan lies on the ground, stares upwards – then closes his eyes.
in Wolverine's mind / psychic projection:
'Bub. Bub. Bub' a version of Wolverine repeats over and over, sitting in a stark cell. 'I wouldn't get too close, gorgeous. That guy's crazy' a woman in a white coat remarks as she approaches Wolverine – Wolverine who is not sitting in the cell. 'He's locked in a cell. What's he gonna -' Wolverine begins, when suddenly, the other Wolverine shoves his claws through the cell bars, attempting to cut Wolverine. The woman tells him that he is okay, and that he can't get at him unless he lets him out. 'Nothing in here gets out... unless you let it out' the woman explains, motioning upwards to rows and rows of cells. Wolverine looks around the cells. He sees Storm in one. Weapon X in another. Sabretooth. Cyclops. Another version of Wolverine and even Lady Deathstrike.
The woman hands the key to Logan and tells him to take a look aroudn, as there are lots of interesting things to see. 'Open any door you want' she suggests. 'Any door?' Logan asks. 'How about that?' he enquires, looking at a brick wall with three red dots that is positioned between two cells. The woman points out that that is not a door, but a wall, and that it is there for a reason. 'You don't want to look in there, Logan. You'd be...very upset. Trust me' the woman tells him. Logan looks at her and asks 'Who are you?' The woman introduces herself as Persephone and tells him that they are very good friends. 'Persephone, huh? A dead man told me you're going to do something terrible. Said I should do everything I can to stop you' Logan tells her. Persephone tells Wolverine that he was misinformed, then places her lips on his and kisses him. 'Baby, I brought you back to life' Persephone reveals.
Reality:
'Please! You have to wake up! Wolverine! WAKE UP!' a voice screams. Logan opens his eyes. 'I'm up' he utters. The woman from in the detainment center earlier helps Wolverine up, she introduces herself as Ana and tells him that he has to help her. 'They took my son. We need to go after them now, before it's too late' she declares. Wolverine sits up and tells Ana that he will help her if he can, before asking 'Who the hell is Wolverine?' Logan looks around, as Ana utters 'I...you. You are Wolverine' she tells him, putting her hand to his muscular chest. 'You say that like it's supposed to mean something. I woke up, and then everything exploded, and then I was fighting a damn Sabretooth' Logan tells Ana. In his mind, he sees a different kind of Sabretooth – Victor Creed – snarling 'I hate you'. Wolverine tells Ana that he can fight, and that he knows stealing kids is wrong, but that is about it. He adds that when he gets hurt, he heals up, fast – too fast. 'Except for this. Don't know why' he remarks, referring to the wound on his right side.
Ana and Wolverine walk into the detention center, as Ana tells Wolverine that he can find the tiniest scents on the wind – that he can hunt – and he can kill. 'You can kill anything' Ana informs him. 'Anything, huh?' Wolverine replies as they walk past a garage door with a white and red emblem on the front of it. Some smoldering bodies are on the ground nearby. 'Yes. And now I need you to kill the people who killed my friends and took my son. Those monsters from Soteira' Ana tells Wolverine, who informs her that he has been hearing that name a lot, as he follows Ana into a building. Ana explains that this was their place, a research facility, that they were bringing scientists here, collecting them, all different kinds, helping them with their wok. As Ana prepares some sort of stapler, Wolverine removes his shirt and informs her that he think he met one up at the other facility, one who made the tiger.
Ana acknowledges the other scientist as Delacroix, and explains that they didn't want to keep his animals here in case of accidents. 'Yeah. Wouldn't want them getting out. Someone might get hurt' Logan mutters, while Ana tells him to sit and that she will close his wound. As Ana begins stapling Wolverine's skin over his wound, Logan asks her how she knows all this, and why Soteira took her son. 'Is he a scientist too?' Logan enquires. Ana tells him gthat he isn't, and admits that she worked in the canteen – but people talk when they eat – they don't realize who is listening. 'You can learn a lot' she points out, adding that her son, Perren, is fifteen, and when the Soteira team came to destroy the facility, they injected him with something from the labs. 'Wanted to make him a living incubator, maybe' Wolverine suggests. 'Stick him with something, let it grow inside him, then harvest it when they get where they're going'.
'What? Harvest him? How do you know that?' Ana asks, concerned. Wolverine tells her that he doesn't know for sure, it just feels like something – maybe he has heard something like that before. He adds that it doesn't matter, and that he will get her son back. 'And then you will kill the ones who took him. Because you're Wolverine' Ana declares. Wolverine asks Ana how she knows that, and whether they know each other. As she retrieves something from a locker in the lab, Ana explains that they don't know each other personally – just that Wolverine is famous. 'For killing' Wolverine responds. 'Not just that. Other things too' Ana assures him. Ana hand Wolverine a black costume from the locker and informs him that most of what she knows is rumors – people like her, ordinary people, they don't interact with people like Wolverine very often. Ana adds that she knows three stories – things she knows are true, and can tell them to him. 'So tell me' Wolverine replies as Ana turns away from him and he changes into the costume she gives him. 'All right' Ana responds.
in Ana's story:
Ana knows this story happened – because she saw it happen – she was there. 'It is the story of why you wear yellow and blue' she explains, recalling how a man lost to anger came to the city one day. He had built a machine and put weapons on it and himself inside it – and then he used the weapons, blasting them around the city. Ana didn't know why, or what he wanted, maybe just to hurt people, and while most could run, and did, he came to a place where the people could not run – a hospital. He aimed one of his weapons at a man who held his arms up. It seemed like this was what the man wanted all along. He was about to fire his weapons and kill all those defenseless people – but then Wolverine appeared, in yellow and blue. Ana tells Wolverine that there is a bird in her country, the weaver bird, it is also yellow, and when it appears, you can't take your eyes from it. Ana tells Wolverine that is why he wears his colors, she thinks, so that when he appears, the evil men look only at him, remembering how the angry man turned to Wolverine and opened fire.
As Wolverine was struck by the angry man's weapons, he fell backwards, and Ana believed that he was dead – who could survive such a thing? But, Wolverine was alive, and he stood up, and then he did the other thing that they say Wolverine can do – he made the knives come from his hands. He popped his claws with the familiar SNIKT sound, as he leapt forward and started slicing away at the angry man's machine of destruction. 'You are a hero' Ana remarks.
Present:
'Because I kill people... you say I'm a hero?' Wolverine asks as he stands up wearing a black costume with a red trim around the collar and down the sides. He adjusts his gloves, while Ana tells him 'No. Because you save people'.
in Wolverine's mind:
Logan takes the key and opens a cell door. 'Decided to let me out first, huh?' Wolverine wearing a yellow and blue costume smiles. 'Guess so. Word is I'm a super hero' Logan remarks. 'Hell yeah we are' Wolverine in the yellow and blue smiles.
Present:
“Wolverine” Logan quotes, before reminding Ana that she said the people who took her son are with Soteira, and asks her if she has ever heard the name Persephone. Ana informs Wolverine that Persephone runs Soteira and that her son is being taken to her – to her city. 'She is the architect of all this. Persephone... is the Devil' Ana declares. Wolverine frowns. 'Yeah?' he asks, before turning to Ana and popping his claws he suggests they go meet the Devil!
