A white owl flies through a dead, rocky landscape. All the trees are dead too, having not one leaf on them. The owl is an unwelcome visitor in an unforgiving realm. The realm… of the subconscious mind. It is an act of intrusion she rarely commits, but which she now must. She has to save him, because no one else will. The owl lands nearby a red river, and transforms into… Emma Frost!
Emma has a look around, and touches the red water. She sees the water as a sign of confusion, instability and turmoil. Emma thinks she’s getting close. Taking a closer look on the water dripping off her fingers, Emma realizes this isn’t water at all: it’s blood. But luckily it isn’t hers. She notices red footprints on the ground. She calls out to Logan, fearing what he has done.
She turns around and sees a shadowy figure, who looks like Logan. The figure, who stands on a mountain top, holds a sword in his hand. Transforming back into the white owl, Emma flies toward the shadowed man, thinking he is Logan and calls out to him. Emma transforms back into herself, and reaches her hand out to Logan. She reminds him to see her as his friend who can help him. Emma’s eyes suddenly open wide in shock, realizing she isn’t talking to Logan. The man stabs his sword through Emma’s stomach, wounding her deeply. As Emma fall, the mysterious man warns the “witch” to stay out of his head.
Xavier’s…
Emma wakes up screaming in her bed. Scott, lying next to her, wakes up from it and asks his girlfriend what’s wrong. Emma turns off the television, which had an interview with Professor Xavier playing. She telepathically calls out to Logan, as she needs to speak with him.
Vietnam…
Wolverine, while using his claws to fight Captain America, telepathically tells Emma that he can’t talk right now, as he’s busy. Cap, blocking Logan’s claw attacks with his shield, punches the shield into Logan’s face and roars. Logan jumps backwards and mocks the Captain that he needs to learn some new tricks, as he saw that coming a mile away. He kicks Cap into his face, drawing blood in the process. Logan thinks that probably hurt Cap, knowing he’s so much better than he is.
As Cap spits out the blood in his mouth, Logan reminds himself that he has to keep talking to get Cap angry and unfocused. Cap admits that he doesn’t know why Logan is there, but reminds him that he’s only making the situation worse. The president of the United States personally requested his help in cleaning up this mess. Nuke will come with him. Logan doesn’t like that plan. He tries to slice Cap again, but Cap quickly moves away from the claws. He punches Wolverine into his face, telling Logan he’ll come with him, too. He explains that Logan has a lot to answer for, starting with why he attacked the White House and what he did to the secretary of state.
Logan defends that the robot and the missile weren’t his idea. He went there looking for answers. And he certainly didn’t kill the secretary. Cap throws his shield toward Logan, but he blocks it using all of his claws, causing the shield to bounce off. Logan jokes it was a nice try from Cap. But Cap only used his shield to confuse Logan, giving him the chance to jump and attack him again. Logan realizes his mistake now. Logan falls on the grass, and Cap uses his arms to hold Logan’s claws toward his face and neck, shouting and asking if he saw that coming.
Unnoticed by neither of the two combatants, a heavily injured Nuke, hiding behind the bushes, sees everything and also sees Wolverine’s sword still sticking into the grass.
Wolverine thinks Cap must believe he’s stupid or something. He easily sheathes his claws back in, having his fists free.
Meanwhile, Nuke crawls out of the bushes, and heads straight for Logan’s sword.
Cap crushes Logan’s wrist with his bare hands, causing him to scream. Cap smirks that must have hurt. Logan has to hand it to Steve: he did learn some new tricks. But he’s got one that never gets old. He kicks Cap against his leg and manages to kick him away. Logan growls. With his hand covered in blood, Logan, almost breathless, realizes Cap crushed the tendons in his forearms, and now his claws won’t work anymore. That’s actually pretty smart of Steve.
But Cap lies in pain on the ground. Logan smirks that the broken lump in Cap’s thigh is what doctors call a “massive hematoma” from a… a “femoral artery pseudo-aneurysm.” Logan smirks that he’s pretty smart, too. At least, he’s smart when it comes to hurting people. He gets up and rest against a tree. He explains it’s like an air bag in those big cars, but full of blood. It swells up like that to protect one’s arteries from any more damage. The bad part is, the blood gets all clotted up and nasty and, if you aren’t careful, that clotted blood will break loose and go up into the heart or brain. And it can kill a person deader than Dillinger. Holding his hand against his head and starting to sweat, Logan mentions they’re both pretty screwed. Thing is, he’s going to heal up in a little while, but not Cap.
Suddenly, someone takes a swing at Logan. He ducks just in time, but the swing slices the tree Logan rested against in half! Cap tells Logan not to worry about him, as he’ll be just fine. Holding Logan’s sword in his hands, Captain America is ready for more.
Wolverine asks Cap to put the sword down, as he doesn’t know… Not letting Logan finish his sentence, Cap claims that he knows enough. And the angry look in Logan’s eyes is telling him the rest. He orders Logan to get back on his feet, but to do it slowly. He explains they’re going to march east for a half-a-click to the extraction point, where a helicopter will be waiting. Logan wonders about Nuke. Cap promises that once he handed Logan off, he’ll come back for Nuke. Logan can’t believe Cap calls that a strategy. Cap adds that Nuke is in pieces and he won’t let Logan out of his sight. He orders Wolverine to move.
Logan can guarantee Steve that his lift won’t come. He thinks that the only way anybody’s getting out of there alive is by crawling their way out under their own steam. Picking his shield back up, Cap hears that Logan sounds pretty confident in that statement. Logan says he knows the drill. “They” are not going to let a chopper anywhere near this place, as they wouldn’t risk breaking contamination. Cap asks Logan what he means by that. Logan believes they were meant to take each other out and save “them” the trouble.
Cap tells Logan that’s not going to work… he won’t play Logan’s game. Logan explains to Cap that he already has been played. They both have been. Only difference is, Logan knew it before he even hit the ground. Cap defends that he’s here because he slipped up. Nuke is his responsibility, and he didn’t even know he was alive before this morning. Wolverine wants to know who the people are that told Cap Nuke is his responsibility, because he would really like to know that. Cap, pointing Logan’s sword to his face, declares that he’s saying it himself. He orders Logan to keep moving.
Logan refuses to do that. He tells Cap that he doesn’t know what Cap thinks he knows, but explains to him that Frank Simpson – aka Nuke – isn’t a part of anything Cap swore to protect. He’s… Interrupting Logan, Cap adds that he knows Nuke is a failed attempt to re-create the Super-Soldier Project. That Nuke is a twisted mockery of everything he ever stood for. And Cap believes that if it weren’t for him…
Wolverine angrily shouts that Cap must be kidding him. Turning away from Cap, Logan thinks to himself that, in all these years, all the times he’s been through this same scenario, and didn’t see it until now. Turning his face back to Steve, he begs him to listen. They weren’t trying to recreate Captain America… they were trying to re-create him! And, Logan ashamed adds, he helped them.
Cap wants to know who Logan is talking about. Weapon X? He knows they messed with Logan’s mind, but that’s over. Logan has to let it go. “No,” Wolverine replies with a serious look on his face. “It goes way beyond Weapon X. Way before.”
Steve asks Logan if that’s all he’s got. Logan admits that – at least, for now. Cap tells him that it isn’t enough. He orders Logan to keep moving. Logan tells Cap he has to open his eyes. This is a set-up… a perfect set-up. They used Nuke to lure the both of them out there. Cap thinks that’s impossible. He wonders how “they,” whoever they are, pull this off. Logan mentions they’ve had a lot of practice. It’s how they work. They wind a person up, put targets in their way so you’ll knock them down. Cap thinks Logan is lying. Logan promises Cap that they are using him like they used he himself. Cap again shouts that Logan is lying. He was sent here by the president of the United States!
Logan asks Cap who he thinks was whispering in the president’s ear. He asks Steve to think about it. How does he think Nuke got here in the first place. Who does Steve think brought Nuke back to life. “They” have agents everywhere.
Cap suddenly hears something snapping behind him. Nuke, crawling out of some bushes, tried to grab Cap’s leg but he quickly jumps into safety. Nuke calls Cap a traitor. Wolverine tries to attack Nuke, but Cap won’t let him and uses the Muramasa sword to slice through Logan’s chest! Logan falls down on the ground, where he notices that his wound is already healing. He damns his enemies for making him kill his friend. Logan’s eyes turn furiously red with berserker rage.
As he punches Nuke in the face, Cap declares that he won’t let any of this go further out of control. He promises they’ll get straight to the bottom of this once they… Wolverine suddenly attacks from behind, punching Cap in his back. He pulls Steve’s shield out of his hand and throws it away. Punching Cap a few times against his head, Steve screams and tries to hit Logan with the sword. But since Logan is sitting on his back, Cap can’t see anything.
Logan takes his sword back and growls. Cap orders Logan to stand down, or else… he’ll put him down himself! The pain of the wound in his leg gets worse, causing Cap to fall down on the ground again. A hard growling Wolverine strikes at Cap, who only has his fists left to protect him.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, Wolverine’s attack gets interceded by a green telekinesis field! A voice tells Logan he won’t kill Cap today. Another voice, this one a female, tells the defender that’s enough, as he doesn’t want to antagonize Logan.
Turning around, Wolverine recognizes some familiar faces: Cyclops, Emma and… Hellion!
