Inside Dr. Rot’s compound, Rot asks aloud where his manners are. He’s going to introduce him to his family. Pointing to his captive, he tells everybody this is Logan. He’s sure they feel like they know him already; he’s talked so much about him. He then begins to introduce Logan to the rest of his family. He already knows Nurse Fester and Charlie (Chainsaws) and he met Baylee Ann just a little bit ago. Tater, too, but he can’t say he made a good first impression. But it pleases to introduce him his dear, dear mother and this fine gentleman is his great-great-grandfather Atremus Nicodemus Rottwell. His work was such a huge influence on his life and career. They’re all so happy that he’s there.
Just then, Baylee Ann angrily asks Rot why he’s wasting time playing nice with him. They’ve got to make him pay. He’s got to pay for what he did to poor Tater (ripping his guts apart). Pulling out her knife, Baylee exclaims with a wild look on her face that if Rot don’t make him bleed for what he done, she will. Stopping Baylee, Rot says to Logan “ugh, sisters, amirite?” She’s not his real sister, of course. That little daddy’s girl wasn’t worth the fat and gristle she was born with. But Baylee there, she’s the sister he always wanted. He put her personality together himself. Her willfulness, of course, is just proof that he did his job too well. She’s right though. He can’t go around killing family members, not even extended family members like Tater. But first, he wants to show him around a bit.
After loading Logan’s chair onto a hand truck, Rot tells him that once upon a time, his family was regarded, in certain murderous circles, with a great deal of respect. But the world is cruel, and it tried to strip his family name, his family legacy, away from him. They tried to sterilize and homogenize him. But Logan knows how that feels, doesn’t he? They are so much alike, yin and yang, caught in each other’s orbits. It’s like their souls are conjoined. So he’s sure he’ll be happy to hear that the worm is turning, so to speak. He’ll be with them as the Rottwells rise again. And this is the vehicle of their ascension, he says, showing off a gigantic contraption filled with brains, – the new and improved god brain machine. Patent pending.
What he did at Dunwich; that was just child’s play. It was but the preamble to this, his masterpiece. When he thinks about what he was able to accomplish with a mere prototype and compare it with what he’ll be able to do now, well he just gets gooseflesh, doesn’t he? Enraged, Logan clenches his fists but only blood trickles out. Upon seeing this, Rot asks him that he’s trying to pop those wonderful claws of his, isn’t he? Well, it’s no use, really. He has no idea what those fiends at Weapon X put inside his skull, does he? It’s admirable work, actually. It’s as if they staged that brain of his for the day he’d dig down into his inner workings. They put a code in his skull that would make sure he played well with others. Reading a large scroll of paper that shows Logan’s brain-wave activity, Rot states that it’s all there in black and white. And he cracked the code. Now… on to the business of what he did to Tater. The ranks, after all, must be replenished. Shall they begin?
After their plane lands on a tiny air-strip in California, Melita Garner asks Special Agent Dennis Wells, so this is what people mean by “back of beyond.” And idea where they go from here? Wells tells her the Rottwells have been off-the-grid for years. But nobody’s that far off the grid. They know where to start at least. They’ll find a nice, quiet place for her to wait it out, and…
Cutting him off, Melita tells him oh no. This is a ride-along. She’s coming with him. After Wells tells her that’s not a good idea, Melita replies that she didn’t say it was a good idea, but that doesn’t change anything. She’s been to hell and back, literally. She can handle whatever they find out there in the backwoods. Wells says all right, all right. But don’t make him regret this. His guess is GPS isn’t going to do them much good out there. Let’s see about asking the locals for directions. Finding a man working on an engine in a shed, Wells walks up to him and tells him they’re looking for the Rottwell estate. He wondered if he might…
Looking up from his work, the man answers that if they’re looking for them Rottwells, all they gotta do is follow their nose. When Melita starts to ask follow their…, the man remarks that the place stinks like an open grave. Entering their vehicle, Wells asks Melita if she still thinks she can handle this. Melita replies that is she were him, she’d worry less about her, and more about the potential for dueling banjoes in this neck of the woods.
Inside one of the rooms at the Rottwell complex, Dr. Rot has Logan strapped to a table and hooked up to a number of wires and machines. As Logan screams out in pain, Rot tells him that’s it, let it all out. Rebirth is supposed to hurt. Turning towards his mother, Rot asks her to give him another jolt. When she does, Logan flashes back to when he was being infused with the adamantium back at the Weapon X facility. Excitedly, Rot asks this mother to hit him again. When she does, Logan flashes back to when he was out in the snowy woods. Gritting his teeth, Logan says “ggkkkg k-kill y-y-you.” Holding his hand out to Nurse Fester, Rot asks aloud if he wonders when Michelangelo finished the Sistine Chapel if he wanted to tear it down and start over again. It had to keep him up at night. If he could do it all over again, would he change anything? Would he improve on the original? Taking a bent metal hanger from Nurse Fester, Rot leans down and tells Logan that’s one of the reasons he likes him so much. He’s his Sistine Chapel.
As he jams the hanger up Logan’s nose, Rot states that no matter how much work he does on him, he’s always a blank canvas when he returns. It’s such a creativity boost. Take his flesh puppets, for example. He took samples when they last worked together. He yanked little bits of gray matter right out through his nose. His science, Logan’s regenerative qualities, together they gave birth to something that’s not existed since the days of primordial ooze. He’s gained so much from collecting these little samples, but what is it what he’s lost? Perhaps he should think about that while that brain of his stitches itself back together. Leaving Logan a bloody mess on the table, Rot says that’s enough for today, he suspects. Let him get some rest.
Sometime later, Logan awakens on a stone floor, surrounded by a number of dead bodies with the tops of their heads lopped off and their brains removed. Logan realizes that, whatever they did to him, it’s starting to wear off. His head is clearing. His muscles are working. But he still feels like he belongs down here among the dead. So does Dr. Rot. He has choices to make. Get clear, get to safety, find help or stay, stay and kill them all. Seems pretty cut-and-dry to him.
Ascending the stairs, Logan slices through the metal door with ease and steps out into the hallway. He begins to wonder who’s first when he suddenly notices Charlie Chainsaws. A mountain of a man, strong as an ox, “hands” that can mince you to potted meat. Exclaiming “you’ll do,” Logan proceeds to stab Charlie in the chest, and in short order, lop off his head. Continuing down the hall, Logan happens upon a room where he hears Dr. Rot talking to his great-great-granddad, telling him he’s going to make him proud. He promises. He can’t wait for him to see what he’s been planning. Dozens of operatives… dozens of kills… in dozens of cities across the U.S. His fishers of men working day and night fueling the new god brain machine. And what it’s capable of, oh what it’s capable of! He’ll be strong again.
Just then, Logan bursts into the room and sees Dr. Rot, Mrs. Rottwell, and Atremus inside wearing masks. Bursting into the room, Logan exclaims cut off the head of the snake, kill him, kill them all. After he has slaughtered everybody in the room, Logan remarks that’s it, it’s ov…
Just then, Logan hears a scream behind him. Heading towards another door, Logan says it can’t be. He knows that voice. Doesn’t he? Rot’s been messing with his head, playing havoc with his senses. Inside the room, Logan sees Melita Garner being held at knife-point by Nurse Fester. Surrounded by a number of flesh puppets, Fester tells Logan to stay back or she’ll cut her pretty face off.
At that moment, Logan winces in pain when it feels like an iced blade stabbing through his skull. The flesh puppets are reading his thoughts, changing, into Scott, Jeanie, Kitty, Hank and Chuck. Trying to confuse him. Slashing through them, Logan exclaims that they aren’t real. He has to fight through it. See them for what they are. As he slaughters the inhabitants of the room, Logan notices that the walls are covered in blood, in words, trying to tell him something. Sweet words, sweet as a lullaby from mama. He can’t make it out. When Melita proceeds to ask Wolverine if he’s… Taking her in his arms, Logan tells her he is now and proceeds to kiss her. As he does, he states that this feels right but something’s wrong.
From a nearby control room, Dr. Rot asks Charlie Chainsaws, Mrs. Rottwell, Atremus Rottwell, and Nurse Fester isn’t that just the sweetest? Everything’s coming along nicely. The Weapon X programming, combined with his own special techniques have breached his mental defenses. Rot then proceeds to ask Tater how he feels. Better he hopes, more like himself. Stopping his embrace with Baylee Ann, Logan looks up at the camera and says yesssss. Better. Rot replies good, that’s very good because he needs him to get to work. They’ve got interlopers (Wells, Melita Garner, and a number F.B.I. agents) coming to crash their little family reunion right this very second. He wants him out there among them, doing what he does best. Murder them. Murder every last one of them.
