Chapter 1:
“Madripoor. Place still smells the same, just cleaner. Less bloody. But that’s probably ‘cause I haven’t been here in so long.”
Leaving his police car, a policeman approaches Logan, dressed in civilian attire and standing at the edge of a cliff overlooking the city of Madripoor. The officer claims that he, “Patch,” looks well. He points out that he’s even somehow gotten his eye back. Logan pops his claws and informs him that’s not the only thing he got back and addresses the policeman as “Tai.”
As Tai puts his hand on Logan’s shoulder, Logan notices nothin’. Not a flinch, not a tell o’ any kind that he can sense – an’ he can sense things most can’t. Tai, his “old friend,” Madripoor’s chief of police, has nothing to hide. Makin’ him the only person who can help him find what he needs.
Speaking to Tai, Logan tells him that he needs to find someone. Tai replies that, as he may have noticed, Madripoor is much different now than when he last visited… but if he were to “find” this person in Lowtown, it shouldn’t be much of a problem. Logan tells him it ain’t like that. Person he’s lookin’ for is already dead. Her name was Seraph.
Chapter 2:
In Madripoor in 1932, Seraph was a scantily clad, knock-out blonde, the center of attention at the club, both by regular patrons and visiting sailors. She was really somethin’ else. She an’ he, Logan, hooked up when he first came to Madripoor before the first World War, back in his freelancin’ days… Least, that’s what he used to think. Before he found out that he’d never really been “free.” Meetin’ her was exactly what he was s’posed to do… exactly what they wanted him to do.
(the past)
As Seraph approaches Logan, who is wearing a patch over his eye and reclining against the bar, some of the drunk sailors called out “how’s ‘bout one fer them too?” As the sailors move to behind her, Seraph asks Logan what he is waiting for. He should give him one… sweetie. One of the sailors proceeds to ask Logan if he has a problem, but Logan tells him nope and jams his fist down the sailor’s throat. He then proceeds to punch and kick out the rest of the sailors with ease. Once the carnage is finished, Seraph walks away and tells one of the workers in the bar to take care of them. She adds that they’re sailors – give them a proper burial at sea.
Logan immediately follows Seraph to her bedroom and tells her to wait, she told him to… Seraph cuts him off and finishes, “to hack them like a butcher?” Logan replies no, but… Seraph again cuts him off and tells him that he did what he wanted to do and now he’s using her as an excuse. Logan protests, but Seraph continues. She tells him his denial of the fact makes it even more pathetic. He regards his animal nature as some kind of “secret weapon,” yet he doesn’t keep it a secret. She asks him if he realizes how easily that could be exploited by… She stops mid-sentence and asks him what does he know about the Hand.
Unaware of what she means, Logan answers simply that he knows that it’s quicker than the eye. Changing the subject, he offers Seraph a flower and tells her that he killed it just for her. In no time at all, Seraph is all over him. She tells him apology accepted. Later, after a love-making session, Logan tells Seraph that he’s gonna try to be… better, for her. Seraph tells him that she would hope that he’d want it for him, but it is nice to hear.
Since that night, Logan hung out with Seraph. He knew how to kill since birth. What Seraph taught him was how to get away with it. One night he killed a man in the bathroom at a party. Nobody was the wiser. Over the next while, she picked the targets and he did the dirty work - every time, without question. If Seraph said they needed to go, he made sure they went. He never asked why, he trusted her. It didn’t matter if they were man or woman. After all, why would the woman that he loved so much lie to him?
One night, she walks away from him and leaves on her own, telling him it’s for his own protection. Logan grabs her arm and asks what he needed protection from, but Seraph responds by smacking him with her purse and telling him that he needs protection from his overconfidence, from his ignorance. She asks him has he learned nothing from her. She gets in his face and tells him to just go home and rest. They have much work to do in the coming days, and the American special forces commandos will be there soon. They must be prepared.
As she walks away, she tells him that she will return before morning. Logan didn’t listen to her and tried to find her. Traveling across the rooftops, he thinks to himself that during his time with Seraph he learned a lot of things. Like every square foot of Madripoor. From the penthouse suites o’ Hightown to the cardboard shacks o’ Lowtown, he knew every dark corner, every hidin’ place, an’ he knew ‘em better’n anybody. This was his killing field. That night, he couldn’t find her, it was like she disappeared.
Perched on top of the Princess Bar, he sniffs the air. He catches a scent and jumps onto the ground. He knew that she knew he’d trail ‘er, find out what was goin’ on, make sure she was safe, but she didn’t leave a trail. Because she’d never left the bar. She’d just gone underneath it. He hears the words “this is what I want you to do….” “…A message to your master in your blood.” Logan knew that she was in danger. Putting his ear to the ground, he hears Seraph asking the ninja accosting her if this is the new tactic. Years ago, his masters begged for an alliance, now they think they can force them out? The ninja tells her that it’s a new day, and new alliances have been formed…
Before he can continue, Logan grabs the ninja by the throat and strangles him. He realizes that he should’a killed him quicker when he looks down and finds the ninja’s sword buried in his gut. He fell to the ground and was in an’ out for a while. He doesn’t remember much. Doesn’t know how long he was down but he remembers thinkin’ it must’a been quite a while. Knowin’ what he knows now, he’s sure it wasn’t.
The next morning, Logan wakes up and Seraph tells him that he looks much better. Logan replies that he feels alright. Logan looks around and asks Seraph what is this place and how come he’s never been down there before? Seraph, holding a small wooden box, tells him that it’s because it is her place, her secret place. Logan goes behind her and tells her that there ain’t no need for secrets between them. He reminds her that she can tell him anything. Standing in front of a statue of an angel, Seraph tells him that she can’t. She adds that everyone has secrets, even him. Logan tells her no… Seraph cuts him off and tells him that yes he does, trust her. Holding the box, she says that some secrets you take to the grave. Logan replies fine, he ain’t gonna force her t’do somethin’ she don’t wannna do.
Later that day, Logan is standing by himself in a clearing in the forest next to a tree. Seraph walks up and asks him what he is doing up there. Logan tells her that she wants to show him somethin’. Seraph, eyes wide open, looks and asks if he did this? Logan tells her yes he did, for her. A large section of the tree has been cut out and formed into the shape of the angel he saw in her secret place. Seraph stands and gives Logan a kiss. As they embrace, she tells him that he doesn’t deserve this. Logan asks what, what’d I… Seraph tells him no, no… he doesn’t… she didn’t mean… she just wishes she could stay up there forever.
(present)
Tai asks Logan how she died. Logan informs him not well, at the hands of Sabretooth. Logan tells him that he went back, lookin’ for the box, but it was gone. Tai asks if it was stolen. Logan tells him no, only one would’a stole it, he would’a known. No, she hid it. When Tai asks if it was hid from him, Logan replies that it was hidden for him, he thinks. Tai asks that he wants him to look for it. Logan admits that he does, ‘cause he can’t. ‘Cause there’s too many people lookin’ for him, especially there. Tai tells him that he will see what he can dig up. He then hands Logan an encrypted cell phone, so they will be able to keep track of one another, discreetly. Logan thanks Tai and leaves.
Chapter 3:
Two days later, Logan rushes through the forest. Tai is dead, and it’s all his fault. It’s been two days since he last heard from ‘im. Before that, he was callin’ at least twice a day. Normally, two days wouldn’t be enough to make him worry but this feelin’ in his gut’s tellin’ him that somethin’ ain’t right. So to hell with keepin’ a low profile, he’s goin’… He is stopped in his tracks when his phone rings. Logan answers the phone and Tai tells him to walk away. The net is closing in and to get out while he still can. After the conversation, Logan drops his head in despair.
Chapter 4:
Logan takes up shop in a warehouse down by the dock and wastes the time away by drinking. Runnin’ away is for pansies but he ran into an old friend o’ his an’ he said it was okay. Logan tells himself that he has too much on the line to risk it. Not now, not in Madripoor. He then stands and throws the phone against some boxes, breaking it into a million pieces. As he finishes his bottle, it hits him. “We can keep track of one another.” “Some secrets you take to the grave.” “I wish I could stay up here forever.” “I’ll see what I can dig up.”
Chapter 5:
Logan heads to the area in the forest where the tree is that he carved for Seraph all those years ago. He sees Tai digging in the ground and notices that he’s scared and sweating. Logan asks him how they got to him and how’d he sucker him. Tai exits the hole he dug carrying the shovel but doesn’t answer. When Logan yells at him to answer, Tai informs him that they “got” to him a long time ago. And to answer his other question, they all had specialized training - both of them, everyone.
Logan asks Tai that he was a part of all this? Tai tells him that he’s still a part of this for the moment at least. With that, he pulls his gun out of his side holster and sticks it in his mouth. Logan cries out NOOOOO!!!! He then tackles Tai into the wood coffin on the ground. The gun goes off hurting nobody. However, when Logan gets off of Tai, he notices that he is foaming from the mouth. He took a pill to kill himself. Logan realizes that Tai was scared, but not o’ him. He was scared ‘cause he knew he was about to die by his own hand one way or another. With his last breaths, Tai tells Logan that he came there to destroy the evidence but there is no box of secrets. Seraph’s secrets died with her…
Watching Tai die, Logan wonders how many times. How many times has he stood over the dead bodies of the women that he’s loved? Women that died, like Silver Fox. Ones that were killed, like Mariko. Either to keep him under control, like Janice Hollenbeck, or to keep him outta control, like Janet. He looks down at the coffin and says to Seraph’s skeleton that she was different. She died because she wanted to help him. She wanted him to be something better. As he holds her skeleton, he tells her that he’ll probably never know what it is she wanted to tell him but there’s somethin’ he’s wanted to tell her for a long time: thanks fer tryin’.
Logan stares at the coffin and says that Tai was wrong. There is a box of secrets; it’s just bigger than he thought it’d be. As he opens up the coffin, he asks what is the secret Seraph? Where is it? What did she want him to know? He tears apart the floor of the coffin with his claws and says that ever since he got his memories back, he’s been after “them.” For what “they” did to him. But it’s not “them,” is it Seraph? It’s him. On the floor of the coffin is one name – Romulus.
