(Logan’s memories)
A white tiger, one of three, shatters its chains as it is pitted against two gladiators in the ancient Roman Coliseum. The crowd shouts and cheers as the spectacle unfolds before them. Logan has no idea why he’s having dreams about ancient Rome. As one of the tigers attacks a gladiator, the other, wearing a full-face helmet, grabs the tiger around the mouth with his chain and pulls tight, He then snaps the chain, killing the tiger. This man is the last remaining standing in the ring and he stands before Romulus, awaiting his judgement. Romulus extends his arm and gives the thumb down. Logan recognizes Romulus as being the big guy from his other dreams. The fallen gladiator begs for mercy, but there is none given. The other gladiator kills the man. His head is decapitated, and when the helmet falls off, the face beneath it is Sabretooth’s.
(reality)
Wolverine is in Wakanda, holding a skull in his hand. He is a guest of T’Challa and his new bride, Storm. He’s getting answers to questions he didn’t even know he was asking. Standing before a wall of computers, T’Challa explains that if they begin with the idea that out of the primordial muck and goo, evolution began, then traditional Darwinian thinking starts in the sea. It takes them out to land and culminates in Homo sapien - man. However, this presupposes that only one genetic strand emerged, and that apes were the dominant DNA thread. Logan isn’t liking the answers much as he sees on screen possible variations in the evolutionary growth of mankind.
Logan asks T’Challa if he’s saying that man wasn’t evolved from an ape. T’Challa reminds him that this is purely theoretical, based upon the recent findings that Wakandan archaeologists discovered in the elephant graveyard he showed him. He tries to continue, but science isn’t really Logan’s strong suit. Storm tells him that Magneto coined the phrase Homo superior as the evolutionary class designated to mutants. She feels that the theory of a split evolutionary strand; Homo sapiens and Lupus, is compelling.
T’Challa presses a switch on the computer console.” When you take into account the number of mutations that have a lupine content… Wolfsbane, Thornn and her sister, Feral...” Logan pops his claws and asks why he’s bothering with all this. T’Challa explains that there is substantial evidence that humankind began in Africa. His people hold a bond, both spiritual and physical, between man and animal. He is, after all, the Black Panther.
Logan asks what about the folks that don’t take much stock in evolution - that man was created by God, not by some ape. Much less a dog. Storm replies by pointing out that there are also people who see the word ‘mutant’ as an abomination. Why is he being so closed-minded? Logan replies that they’re done.
Logan decides to go and see the captive Sabretooth, who is shackled tight in a cell. He threatens the guards who reluctantly allow him entrance. He enters and Creed asks him what the matter is. Logan sees that he’s chained up like a white tiger, despite his warning that it isn’t enough. Now they’ve fitted him with a shock collar. Kill a Wakandan or three and somebody will finally listen to you.
He steps up to Creed and puts his face near his old enemy’s. “Quod sum eris,” says Logan. “Yeah, what about it?” replies Creed. He taunts Logan by telling him that he’s old enough to know that the stretch of road ahead of him ends up looking like him. Logan smashes him in the jaw, telling him he is nothing like him. Creed is furious, but when he tries to struggle, the shock collar zaps him and takes the wind out of his sails. Logan turns to leave, but Creed tells him he can’t run from nature. When beasts like him get older they get crazier. Logan stops and asks, “Who is Romulus?” Creed’s eyes light up with a strange mixture of surprise and fear, and he replies that he’s getting nothing from him about that.
Logan retires to bed, but sleeps on the carpet. Sometimes he’s not real comfortable in a bed - particularly when he can’t sleep. He decides to get up, thinking about the look on Creed’s face. He’s never seen that before. He knows that Creed is afraid of something worse. He needs a beer.
He makes his way through the palace, and as he walks he smells something. He rushes to Creed’s cell and finds the two guards outside bleeding, maybe dead. Creed is gone. Logan sniffs the blood and determines that it’s Creeds, and he didn’t go quietly. However, Creed has left a trail that’s too easy to follow. He tries to get a scent, but it’s masked by Creed’s stench. He does know that there’s something else. Something like Creed, and him. Who has the stones to break into T’Challa’s palace, undetected, and take Creed so that all of Wakanda’s security misses it? He’s not sure even he could pull a stunt like this.
As he follows the trail, he is surprised and slashed across the face by someone with claws, faster than he is. Who the @#$% is this guy? A hand grabs him by the throat and lifts him up off the ground. He is tossed to the floor and begins to black out. Did he just get his ass handed to him by Wild Child? He manages to get up again and wonders what just happened. It was Wild Child, a loser from Alpha Flight and Omega Flight. Logan reckons that when he finds him, he’s gonna rip his head off. Logan can’t believe he just got dropped by Wild Child, but he soon realizes that the little bastard tipped his claws with poison.
(the past, Tokyo)
It was the first time Logan had met Sabretooth. He had been sent on an errand. Some gaijin had been killing prostitutes in the streets. He went hunting and found Creed, cut off his hand and watched him place it back on his arm, healing the cut. Creed tells him he doesn’t know who he’s dealing with. Logan replies that all he needs to know is that two men went into the alley, but only one is coming out. Creed makes a play for him, but Logan slices his throat with his sword. Creed uses his claws to gouge at Logan’s eye, so Logan thrusts the sword right through Creed’s chest. Blood spurts from his back as the metal exits the other side. As Creed lies bleeding on the floor, a large hand grabs Logan’s head. “Stay out of this,” warns the stranger.
(present)
Lying in bed, Logan now remembers the other person being there to stop them. He looks up to see a young maiden looking after him. Also there are T’Challa and Ororo. T’Challa informs Logan that his men are dead and Sabretooth is gone. He followed his trail to the end of the tunnel and found him there. He’s been unconscious for two days. “Two days,” screams Logan. He tells them it was Wild Child. He doesn’t know if he was working alone, but they’ve gotta find him.
“You’re right,” comes a voice from behind them. Ororo and T’Challa turn around. “We have to find Wild Child,” adds Sasquatch, “And that means going back to the heart of Weapon X.” Standing beside him, in uniform, are Wolfsbane, Thornn and Feral.
