(Logan’s memories)
Logan dreams of a time long ago, or is it a dream? He sees Pup, a member of a tribe called the Lupine, brandishing a Sabretooth’s fang, which he uses as a slashing weapon. Pup tears through a tribe of early men, and stands before a fire, looking as if he hasn’t witnessed such a thing before. Logan doesn’t know exactly when all this takes place, or even why he knows about it. He figures he’s remembering this because, for maybe the first time in his life, he can remember all of it.
The strange thing is, Logan can actually feel the fire as Pup touches it. Pup screams as the flames rip at his fur and skin. He reels backwards and falls to the ground in agony. As he writhes around, a large hand grabs him and pulls him away from the fire. He is dragged to a small stream, where he is dunked under the water to extinguish the flame. His rescuer is bigger than Pup; more dangerous. Logan wonders who it can be. Why does he know this happened? In the jigsaw of his life, he’s not sure why these are pieces. He’s not even sure what the puzzle looks like. The larger figure leaves Pup at the side of the stream to recover.
(present)
Logan wakes up after a brutal fight with Sabretooth. The last thing he knew, he’d been stabbed in the chest, and was about to pop his claw into Sabretooth’s throat… again. Now, he finds himself shackled in chains to the roof of the fuselage one of the X-Men’s Blackbirds, which is currently in-flight. Given his current situation, he figures that Sabretooth woke up from their battle first.
He rips apart the chains and slashes his way through the body of the ship onto its roof. Despite the fact that the plane is moving at high speeds, he makes his way to the cockpit and smashes his adamantium claws through the glass. “Creed!” he bellows as he climbs inside, “We ain’t done yet.” Sabretooth gets up quickly from his seat and replies that they ain’t even started. Their fight continues as the Blackbird heads towards a rocky stretch of desert. The computer warns them that, given its current trajectory, impact will be in twenty seconds.
Logan uses one of his chains to throttle Sabretooth and pulls on it, causing Creed a great deal of pain. He asks Sabretooth how he knew how to pilot the Blackbird. There’s no way he should know how to do that. There’s no way he got him, the plane, all of this without help. He demands to know where he’s been taken, and for whom. He threatens to rip Creed’s head off if he doesn’t reply. The computer gives them ten seconds to impact, and Logan knows this is gonna hurt real bad. “If we live through this, you’re dead,” threatens Creed.
A massive explosion lights up the sky as the Blackbird explodes. Fire burns white hot as soon, two figures emerge from the devastation. Logan has his claws out ready, as he and Sabretooth head towards each other, both on fire. It’s agony for both, but they are determined men. They slash at each other, with Wolverine thinking about how, for years, he struggled with what some folks called his ‘berserker rage.’ His thoughts go to animal at moments like this, but mostly he now has it under control. However, it’s always there, right at the edge of darkness, where his eyesight turns blood-red.
As their bodies begin knitting themselves together again, they try their damnedest to cause each other more damage. Logan’s thoughts turn, inexplicably, to when Sabretooth was a ‘guest’ at the institute. It’s strange as Logan wasn’t even there when this happened. Meltdown cared for Creed then, and got suckered well and truly. Sabretooth had everyone believing that he was all sweet and nice after Logan popped a claw into his brain. Creed played them, particularly Tabitha, and Psylocke almost paid for this with her life. Thinking about how Creed is once more back in the mansion, he recalls the old adage that when you don’t learn from history, you repeat the mistakes. Why is this in his head right now?
“Logan warned us about you,” remarks Psylocke, as she goes head to head with Sabretooth. Logan knows that this is what happened, but it’s not what Psylocke said. The memories become tangled up as he recalls the moment when Betsy’s glow failed to do what it should have done. As Sabretooth delivers the crucial blow, Logan reaches out for him in his dream, only for his arm to go straight through Sabretooth’s intangible body. Logan doesn’t want to be responsible for what Creed does this time around.
As he comes out of his dream, Sabretooth hits him hard, but the two are separated by an electrical bolt that comes from above. No, thinks Logan. Not now. Not her. Storm floats towards the two pugilists and warns them, “You are both going to have to learn… you cannot kill one another without killing yourselves!”
