Five years from now…
A man lies, cloaked in shadows and covered in blood, nearly dead on the ground, with other dead soldiers surrounding him. Before this moment, the man recalls that his executioner and him having been down this road before, years ago. It was a total brutal experience, if there ever was one. A man was turned into an animal, and started randomly lashing out at whatever was nearest to him – that included the murdered man.
But yet, this time, it was worse. This time, it was more deliberate. More calculating and personal. Before this moment, the man saw the soldiers, holding guns with little “X”-marks on them, getting murdered. And the truth of the matter is, the man knows, that this time, he might not survive the experience.
24 hours earlier, the Weapon X headquarters…
The Director walks through the large, empty hallways of the compound, until he eventually arrives at “Room X.” After confirming his voice verification to the security code, the door opens. The Director walks into the room, where he walks towards a table. On the table lies his dinner, and the Director greets an unseen person. Colcord takes a closer look at his dinner: eggs benedict, grapefruit, freshly squeezed OJ. Simply put: the dinner is as good as any five star hotel, yet it is untouched.
This really won’t do. The Director tells the person sitting in front of him that, if he doesn’t eat, the person would die, and the Director doesn’t want to have that on his conscience. The person remains silent. The Director tells the person that he knows the last five years haven’t been a picnic for him, but he really doesn’t think that it’s fair to take that out on him. After all, Colcord recalls while he starts eating, the person was there when he returned to this compound.
Colcord mentions that none of the agents of the “good old days” know why the person is there. Only the late Brent Jackson knew, and the Director is afraid that Jackson isn’t available anymore. Although, now he thinks about it, they never found a body. So who knows? The Director jokes that maybe one day, Brent will show up alive again, and inform everyone why he kept the person as a prisoner here. The Boxbot informs the Director over intercom that there’s a new situation, which requires his attention. The Director is on his way.
But, he has one last thing to say to the person. He tells him that Brent Jackson may have been many things, like underhanded, untrustworthy, disloyal and even motherless, the Director suspects, but the one thing Brent was not, was… purposeless. That is something the Director learned the hard way years ago. Quite simply, he refuses to underestimate Jackson a second time. And that’s why the Director warns the person to get as comfortable as possible, because he isn’t going anywhere. Before he leaves, the Director takes a final look at a few pictures on the wall, which show some of the X-Men, one of the Children and the Phoenix Force.
The Director again walks through the hallways. He enters a lab, where he is startled to find out what the Boxbot is doing, and demands an explanation. The Boxbot reveals that he’s helping the exhausted Madison Jeffries with the expansion of their Sentinel army. Jeffries himself is exhausted, and is sleeping. Colcord is furious since he never ordered that, and wants to know who did. The Boxbot decided to help out on his own while his creator was resting, and determined that this was the right course of action and had thought it would please the Director.
The Boxbot asks if he should stop. The Director smiles, and denies that, and gives the Boxbot the permission to continue. The Boxbot obeys, and mentions that the Sentinel troops have captured an intruder, which is why the Boxbot had contacted the Director earlier. The bot adds that the guards are interrogating the intruder in the next room. The Director understands and, since he notices that the Boxbot has everything under control there, he goes to check out the situation in the next room.
Upon arriving in the room, the Director sees his troops torturing their captive. Colcord asks his men to step aside, and he is surprised that the captive is none other than… Wolverine?! Logan, covered in blood, sarcastically welcomes the Director, and jokes that his troops did a heck of a job putting the kibosh on his Shawshank reenactment for that guest of Colcord back in Room X. Of course, Logan mentions, the Director has so many troops on hand now to protect the brand new Neverland camps, as Logan has noticed that there is more than just one camp these days. The Director is confused. He knows that Logan is fully aware of the Neverland camps, since after all, it was Logan who told the Director to reopen them!
Wolverine doesn’t believe his ears. The Director believes that Logan is disoriented by the beating he took from the guards. He orders his men to release the mutant. The troops are confused, but the Director refuses to repeat himself. The troops do as ordered, and withdraw their guns. Colcord asks Logan how he feels. Logan smiles that he’s doing much better now. He snikts his claws open, and starts fighting! He quickly kills all of the guards, and sticks his claws right through Colcord’s stomach. And to finish the job, Logan slashes his claws several times through Colcord’s body, to make certain that he’s really dead this time. The Director’s vision turns to black.
Six years from now…
The Director, his agents and his Sentinel armies have arrived at the Xavier Institute, and managed to capture all of the X-Men! Colcord consoles that their defeat isn’t the X-Men’s fault, as they couldn’t have expected this attack. They couldn’t know that Colcord would first distract them with his Sentinel army, while Sauron and Mesmero slipped in undetected. And it’s most definitely not the X-Men’s fault that both of their combined hypnotic powers were enough to overpower Xavier.
Therefore, Colcord knew that the X-Men were forced to throw in the towel. The Director, sitting behind Xavier’s desk and guarded by Wild Child, tells the X-Men that their defeat wasn’t their fault, but what will be their fault, is what is going to happen next. They take a look at the mind-controlled Xavier, who holds a gun pointed into his mouth! The Director asks for the last time where the person is he wants. A voice from behind calls out to the Director: it’s Wolverine.
The Director jokes that Logan is late, and that it isn’t nice to keep people waiting. Storm tries to warn Logan, and Kitty asks him not to do it. Cyclops informs Logan that they’ve got Charles. Logan snikts his claws open, adding that he isn’t blind. The Director knows that, but jokes that Logan is shortblinded. He corrects Logan that he really should have made certain that he killed him a year ago. But, Logan shouldn’t understand the Director wrong. It certainly wasn’t a picnic. He lost a lung, a kidney, some ribs and some feeling in one of his legs. Nontheless, the whole experience helped the Director kick out those crazy hallucinations out of his head, that he was actually helping Logan. He now thinks he must have been crazy.
Mesmero warns Wolverine not to come a step closer, or else he’ll use his powers to make Xavier shoot himself. The Director thanks Mesmero for the noble thought, but he knows that this isn’t the right way to push Logan’s buttons. He takes the gun away from Xavier, and calls Shadowcat to him instead, and points the gun at her head! Logan puts his claws back in and the Director smiles. Now, if only he would keep his word. Kitty starts crying, and calls out to Logan. And at that moment, the Director shoots her!
Wolverine snikts his claws back out, and in a furious rage tries to attack the Director. But the Sentinels break the roof open, and fire upon Logan. The blast hits him, and makes Logan fly across the yard, and his body starts burning up. The Director smiles, and thinks it’s time to start cleaning up this “mutant scum.” He wishes the X-Men goodbye. He and the agents walk outside, and the Sentinels blow up the entire mansion, with all of the X-Men still inside!
The Director congratulates his agents, especially Mesmero. Mesmero thanks his boss, but then, a Sentinel shoots him. Sauron and Wild Child panic, and try to escape. The Director tries to stop the Sentinels, but they don’t listen, and manage to shoot Wild Child as well. The Sentinels shout that the “mutant scum” must be eliminated. Sauron has survived the blast, and falls on his knees, crying that he isn’t a mutant. The Sentinels do a scan on Sauron, and realize that Sauron is correct and that he isn’t a mutant, and they walk away from him. The Director walks to the Sentinels, shouting that they weren’t supposed to kill Mesmero and Wild Child. The Sentinels correct that their orders were to eliminate all mutants, and that’s what they did.
The Director gives up. He walks towards Sauron, and tells him to snap out of it. Sauron obeys, and apologizes. The Director puts Sauron in charge of the cleanup, but mostly because he’s the only one left. Sauron notices the Director walking away again, and wants to know where. The Director simply responds that he’ll be back in a minute. There’s something that needs to be done, first.
He walks behind the ruins of the school, and goats over someone. He knows that the person isn’t dead. The Director knows that the person is dead enough for not to be registered on the Sentinels’ scanners, but the person can’t fool him. After all, he has seen all of his victim’s tricks. He knows that it may take the person some hours, maybe even days, but sooner or later, the Director knows that the inner healing factor of his victim will eventually kick in and bring him back. And that’s exactly what the Director wants. The Director wants his victim to live… to live with this. The victim’s beloved X-Men are dead, and all because of him. The Director walks away, and wants the person to live with that.
With the Director gone, Wolverine’s corpse lies dead on the ground. His claws are still open, and half of his adamantium skeleton is shown.
