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- WOLVERINE
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- PHOENIX
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- CYCLOPS
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- STORM
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- JUBILEE
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- BANSHEE
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- ELEKTRA
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- CASSANDRA NOVA
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- ARCHANGEL
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- KWANNON
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- DOMINO
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- SKIN
REST IN PEACE
By Ryan Krupienski
Sinister’s Lair; Two Days Ago
“No… oh no, Logan…”
Cyclops kneels down next to Kwannon, both of their sets of eyes now affixed on their teammate, Wolverine. Cyclops feels his heart skip a beat as he looks over the older man, and his eyes blink several times behind his visor. He was afraid this would happen… but at the same time, he never thought it could be possible.
He’s not ready to accept it.
“Logan!” Cyclops yells at the lifeless corpse, checking Wolverine’s wrists and neck for any sign of a pulse. Cyclops takes off his black leather jacket and starts to wrap it around the man’s wounds, which are severe, but in Cyclops’ mind not enough to kill him, even without his healing factor.
“Wake up, damn you!” Cyclops demands of his fallen teammate, but he gets no response. Kwannon looks at Cyclops with sad eyes, and places her hands on his arms, attempting to peel him away from the body.
“Scott, stop this,” she tells him, as flashbacks to her son’s death fill her mind; she had refused to accept it at first, too. “You can’t bring him back…”
“I don’t have to bring him back, he’s not dead!” Cyclops yells at her, shrugging the woman off of him. “Just back off, Anna, let me…”
Before Cyclops can say another word, a pair of fingers find their place on a spot between his neck and shoulder blade, and he starts to feel weak and disoriented. He quickly falls unconscious, and his body delicately drops to the ground near Wolverine’s. Kwannon lets out a sigh as she kneels beside Cyclops and places a hand on his cheek.
“I’m sorry,” Kwannon tells him, “but I know you wouldn’t listen to me.”
Kwannon taps the back of her gloved hand, activating her uniform’s built-in communication unit. “Mansion, this is Kwannon, can you read me?”
After a moment of silence, a female voice answers, “This is Storm. Go ahead.”
“Storm, I… please send a rescue team,” Kwannon tells her. “The others are down, and we’re deep inside Sinister’s lab.”
“What happened?”
“Sabretooth,” Kwannon says. She looks at Wolverine’s body again, a dejected look crossing her face. “He’s hurt us badly…”
The Xavier Institute; Present Day
Jean Grey-Summers stands in the War Room, watching the Cerebro monitor before her. Three people, namely Warren Worthington III and the woman known only as Domino, stand behind her as she focuses her attention on the machine.
“Jean,” Warren says, the latest attempt to grab his teammate’s attention, “please, come on. Let’s go upstairs.”
“Warren, I’m sorry, but there’s no way I’m going to leave this monitor for a minute, not when there’s the chance that Sabretooth’s bio-signature will pop up for even a fraction of a second. If that happens… we need to act on it right away.”
Warren sighs. Jean’s barely been doing anything else besides trying to track down Sabretooth; the only time she’s agreed to leave the War Room is when someone else has stepped in to take her place. She’s been down here for two days, almost non-stop, and while Warren knows it’s all Jean can do to take her mind off Logan’s death, he also knows it’s completely unhealthy.
“I don’t understand,” Domino says, “why are you still looking for Sabretooth? You’ve been carrying on about how Creed wasn’t the one who actually killed Logan… yet here you are, scouring the planet to find him.”
“Because, Domino,” Jean responds without turning to face the woman, “I think he knows who did kill Logan. I don’t think this was a one-man job. And right now, he’s the only lead we have. We can’t lose that.”
Warren and Domino exchange a glance, both with solemn yet frustrated looks on their face. Contrary to Henry McCoy’s analysis of Wolverine’s body, Jean maintains that Sabretooth did NOT kill the man – she believes that the injuries he sustained wouldn’t be enough to kill him, even without his healing factor. No one is completely denying that possibility, but Jean seems to have become obsessed with this idea… she’s not even taking the time to mourn her longtime friend.
“Jean, will you stop this?” Warren asks her, his tone more stern this time. “Please. There’s a funeral going on upstairs… and being one of Logan’s best friends, I think you need to be up there. You need to say goodbye.”
“Don’t be ridiculous, Warren… of course I’m going to attend the service. I haven’t lost my mind, you know,” Jean retorts. “I’m just waiting for my stand-in for monitoring duties to arrive…”
“Oh, will you cut the crap!” Domino finally shouts, cutting Jean off. “For crying out loud, we all know you loved the man! Cry! Scream! Say you miss him! Do something besides staying down here and burying yourself in work… you’re not doing anyone any good.”
Jean turns around this time, her eyes locking with Domino’s. “Yes, I loved Logan. He was one of my best friends. And as such, it’s my responsibility to find the person who killed him and bring him or her to justice. He’d do no less for me.” She pauses, looking at Warren and back at Domino, then says, “Now, maybe it’d be best if you both just leave.”
“Fine. I’ll be upstairs,” is all Domino says as she walks off towards the exit and then out of the room.
“What was that all about?” Jean says with a shake of her head, turning back to the Cerebro monitor. Warren offers no reply, instead just silently staring at the redhead for a few moments.
“I think that maybe,” Warren begins, “considering the line of work she’s been in for so long, maybe Domino’s lost more than a few people she’s cared about in her life… and maybe she used to do the same thing you’re doing right now. Not even giving yourself the chance to grieve.”
“And where the hell will that get me?” Jean yells out, again turning to face Warren. “What am I going to gain by sitting around feeling sorry for myself? Logan is the one who’s dead! Someone murdered him! And I’ll be damned if I’m going to sit around and do nothing while his killer is on the loose!”
“No one’s saying we shouldn’t find who killed him, whether it was Victor Creed or someone else,” Warren tells her, maintaining his cool in an attempt to calm Jean down, “but part of this whole process of losing a loved one is mourning the loss. You have to, Jean… you have to give that to yourself. You have to accept the fact that Logan’s gone. Everyone in this house, even Domino, can see you’re denying yourself of that. And that’s supposed to be the first step.”
Jean swallows back a lump in her throat, as her eyes begin to water. She knows Warren is right; she’s been through all of this enough times, she knows how it goes. She just doesn’t understand why it keeps happening.
Warren moves closer to Jean as she begins to speak. “I… I just…” She shakes her head as a few tears begin to stream down her cheeks. “I don’t know how many times I can do this, Warren. Losing someone I care about so much… I even lost my son. I don’t want to sound selfish, I know I’m not the only one who lost a friend here… Jubilee, Kitty, my goodness, Amiko… and Elektra… and everyone on this team. Everyone might not have liked Logan, but they all respected him.”
She pauses, taking a moment to wipe her tears away. “I guess maybe I was thinking… with all that love and admiration… maybe I didn’t need to mourn for him, it’d be enough that so many other people were. That I could focus on finding his killer.”
“I understand,” Warren says, placing a consoling hand on Jean’s shoulder. “I get it, Jean, and no one’s saying you’re doing anything wrong here. Not at all. But today is Logan’s funeral, and that’s where you need to be. Not down here with these machines. You need to be with people.” A puzzled look crosses his face, then he continues, “Where is Scott, anyway?”
“Oh, Scott,” Jean says, having now regained her composure. “He’s probably getting ready for the ceremony that’s in a few hours. He’s giving the eulogy.”
Warren looks surprised; Scott Summers is the last person who he’d think would speak at Logan’s funeral. “Wow,” he says. “Well, okay… just checking. I was wondering why he wasn’t down here trying to tear you away from all of this.”
“Oh, trust me, he’s tried,” Jean quips, a small smile crossing her face. “But I basically told him to get lost, just like everyone else.”
“Well, you didn’t get rid of me.”
“Hmm… I didn’t, did I? I guess you win the grand prize.”
Warren cocks an eyebrow, curious. “Oh?”
“You have the honor of being the one who escorts me upstairs,” Jean tells him.
Warren smiles contently, glad to have gotten through to his longtime friend. He holds out his hand to her, and says, “Shall we?”
Logan’s Bedroom
Inside the room that once was occupied by Logan, a young Asian woman sits on the queen size bed, looking sadly at the few belongings scattered around. He was a simple man, he didn’t need much in life to make him happy, least of all material things. That was one of many effects Logan had on Jubilee – teaching her to appreciate the small, seemingly insignificant things in life.
Jubilee lets out a sigh as she moves her attention to the worn cowboy hat she holds in her arms. It was a gift from Logan, years ago when he left the Xavier Institute after Magneto tore the adamantium from his body and almost killed him. Logan left the hat in Jubilee’s care, and she’s kept it ever since, even during her time at the Massachusetts Academy. And even though he’s gone now, she’s going to continue to hold onto it… it’s one of the few tangible items in life she truly treasures.
“Jubilee.”
The young woman turns her head and sees an older Chinese woman standing in the doorway. Her name is Anna Hong, otherwise known as Kwannon, and she is Jubilee’s cousin. They’ve just reunited in recent months, and while it’s been a happy reunion for them both, their time so far seems to have been racked with tragedy.
“Hi, Anna,” Jubilee says softly, as the older woman walks over and takes a seat next to her on the bed. “How’s the party downstairs?”
“Lots of people,” Anna tells her. “Some of the Avengers just arrived a short while ago.”
“Great,” Jubilee sighs, “more people to come and offer their condolences. Like I’m some little girl who lost her dad…”
Anna feels her heart sink upon hearing the last comment; she knows that Logan was very much like a father for Jubilee. Her real parents were killed when she was only nine, and Logan was the closest thing to a parent she’d had in a long time. Even more than that, the two shared a bond that couldn’t and still can’t be broken, even in death.
“You’ve lost so much,” Anna says, taking one of Jubilee’s hands into her own. “And you don’t have to be strong, put on a brave face. I’m here for you, Jubilee… I’m your shoulder to cry on. I’m your family. And I’m not going anywhere, I promise.”
“Yeah, I guess you and me got the curse of making it out alive of everything,” Jubilee says, cracking a small smile. “Did I ever tell you how glad I am that you’re here?”
“I think so,” Anna says with a nod. “And I’m happy to be here. Being here, and especially with you around, I don’t feel so alone.”
Jubilee smiles and Anna kisses her cousin on the forehead. “Oy, sentimental moment… seriously, between Logan and this, I’m gonna…”
“Cry?”
Jubilee perks up at the sound of the man’s voice, which she automatically registers as belonging to Angelo Espinosa. She looks past Anna and gives Angelo a puzzled look. “What?” she asks.
“Sorry to interrupt, but… thought you might want to see him,” Angelo says as he steps into the room.
“Him?” Jubilee asks her teammate.
Angelo moves away from the door, making way for another man to step into the room. Jubilee’s eyes go wide as he comes into view… short red hair, a goatee, clearly in his forties. Jubilee jumps from her position on the bed and immediately runs over to the man, as her time at the Massachusetts Academy and the unresolved fate of her friends come rushing back to her. That kneads with the pain of losing Logan, and Jubilee can’t help but break into tears as she meets the man in an embrace.
“Sean,” Jubilee says between soft sobs. “I can’t believe it…”
“Believe it, lass,” Sean Cassidy says, embracing the young woman he hasn’t seen in ages. “I’m here. And I’m so sorry…”
After a few moments, Jubilee releases her hold on the man, and gives him a wide smile. “I’m so glad you’re here… I thought Emma maybe got to you too.”
“She did,” Sean tells her, “but not in the same way she got to the rest of you. My God, if I had known…”
“Don’t, please don’t blame yourself,” Jubilee says, looking at Angelo, who nods in agreement. “There’s nothing you could have done.”
“Yeah, man,” Angelo chimes in, “it’s not your fault.”
Sean smiles at both of his former students, then looks over at Anna. “And who’s this?” he inquires.
“Oh,” Jubilee says, walking over to Anna and escorting her closer to Sean, “this is Anna, my cousin.”
Sean’s eyebrows perk up in surprise. “Cousin?” he says. He then holds out his hand to Anna. “Sean Cassidy. I was Jubilee’s teacher.”
“Yes, I’ve heard about you,” Anna says, smiling and shaking the man’s hand. “It’s nice to meet you.”
“Likewise,” Sean replies. He offers a smile to Anna in return, then turns back to Jubilee and says, “I came when I heard about Logan. I’m sorry it wasn’t sooner, I just didn’t know about anything that Emma did. She’s been holding me in an illusion for the past year…”
“Same thing she did to Jubes,” Angelo tells him. “Man, what happened to her? Why’d she flip out like that?”
“I don’t know, lad,” Sean says with a sigh. “But we’ll find out when the time’s right. Today, we ought to focus on Logan.”
Jubilee smiles at the comment. “Yeah… and, if I start crying again,” she says, looking around at the others in the room, “smack me. Seriously. Because Logan just wouldn’t want me doing that.”
“Gladly,” Angelo promises her, giving her a sarcastic wink.
“What say we all go downstairs, then?” Sean asks. “People to see… and I think Logan would want us all to try and have a good time.”
“I think so too,” Jubilee says as she exits the room alongside Sean. Angelo and Anna lead the way in front of them.
After the four get a good ways down the hall, Jubilee excuses herself for a moment and runs back to the bedroom, having forgotten to turn the light off. She stops when she gets just inside the door, her gaze falling on the cowboy hat lying on the bed. She smiles, thinking of how ridiculous Logan looked when he wore it. Not as ridiculous as she looks when she wears it, though.
“I’ll be back,” Jubilee whispers. She flips the switch downward, turning the light off, and closes the door behind her.
Outside
Elektra Natchios doesn’t want to be here. It’s not that she hates this place, or dislikes any of the people in attendance, rather it’s that she hates to be the center of attention. She’s not the only one who’s loved and lost Logan, but of all of the people here, she’s the only one who’s ever been married to the man. Even though they divorced quite a while before his death, she knows she’s being viewed as the grieving widow, and she can’t stand that.
She is grieving – it hurts to know that Logan’s gone, and more than that, she can’t believe he really is gone. Like most people, Elektra never really conceived of Logan being dead… it never seemed like something that would or could happen. With all the times he cheated death, it never seemed like it was possible. Even with his healing factor turning against him, and then later shutting down… he kept on going.
Ever since receiving word of Logan’s death, Elektra’s felt incredibly guilty. Guilty about their divorce, about the two of them not staying together and trying to work through their differences, through the pain of Elektra miscarrying their unborn children. Even though, at the time, it seemed like the only option, Elektra has missed him. She’s missed him very much, and now that he’s gone for good, she misses him even more. She wishes she had acted on her true feelings sooner… maybe her and Logan could have rekindled what they once shared, and maybe, just maybe, he’d still be alive.
Standing alone on the back terrace of the lavish mansion, Elektra senses a figure closing in on her from behind. She turns around quickly and is startled when she sees the petite form of Cassandra Nova Xavier walking towards her. Cassandra just smiles, as Elektra takes a deep breath and regains her composure.
“Hello, Elektra,” Cassandra says. “How are you doing?”
“You look so different, Charles,” Elektra says, her tone layered thick with sarcasm. “If you don’t mind, I came out here to be alone.”
“Please, don’t let my recent announcement get in the way of me offering my condolences. I know you loved Logan very much.”
“And I know Logan didn’t trust you.”
“I see you’ve been talking to Scott Summers,” Cassandra says.
“No. It’s just an instinct,” Elektra retorts.
“Well,” Cassandra sighs, “I didn’t come out here to have a confrontation. I just wanted to tell you how sorry I am. I think you and Logan were wonderful together.”
“Yes, we were,” Elektra agrees. She moves forward and rests her hands on the banister that lines the large terrace. “I wish he was still here.”
Cassandra steps forward, stopping next to Elektra. “You still loved him?”
“How could I not? We had our differences, we went through some difficult times… but I believe we could have worked through it all, found our way back to each other.” Elektra hangs her head, looking down at the ground. “Now we’ll never have that chance.”
“You’ll always have the memories, though,” Cassandra tells her. “You should hold onto those.”
Elektra is surprised at herself; here she is, talking about her personal life with a woman she doesn’t know or trust. Normally she’d have told the woman off by now, but she doesn’t want to fight with anyone, especially not now. And Cassandra’s right anyway.
“I do intend to hold onto my memories of Logan,” Elektra finally responds. “I will always keep him close to me.”
“Are you going to be staying at all?” Cassandra asks her. “I know some of our other guests are going to be sticking around for a short time… you’re more than welcome here.”
“I don’t know,” Elektra answers, “I’ll think about it, though.”
Cassandra nods. “Good,” she says. “Well, I guess I should inform you that the ceremony is going to begin shortly… I’ll leave you until then, though.”
Elektra does not watch as Cassandra walks back into the mansion, instead she focuses all of her attention on the grounds of the Xavier Institute, staring deep into the forests that lie far in the distance. She knows it was Logan’s favorite part of this estate, a place where he could go to be alone and indulge himself in nature. His appreciation of the wild was always one his most endearing qualities to Elektra.
Checking her watch and seeing there’s still a good forty-five minutes before the ceremony, Elektra decides to go for a walk. Moving down the steps leading off the terrace, she heads towards the forest. Closer to the wild… closer to Logan.
Later…
Dozens of chairs sit in front of a small, slightly elevated stage that’s been set up outside in the courtyard. Friends and colleagues of Logan occupy the myriad of seats, as one man stands facing them at a white podium. His name is Scott Summers, and he’s to deliver the eulogy for his fallen teammate. Many of the people currently focusing their attention on him might think him an odd choice; in a way, Scott thinks it strange too, considering him and Logan weren’t exactly good friends. However, it was his wife who made him see that he was the only logical choice – in many ways, he knew Logan better than anyone.
The small talk amongst the crowd dies down, and Scott adjusts the microphone attached to the podium, positioning it right by his mouth. “If I could have your attention,” he says to the gathering of people.
Everyone goes silent, and Scott begins. “As most of you know, Logan wasn’t a religious man, so we’re not performing a traditional service for him. I think he would have hated that – he always liked going against the norm.” Some from the crowd nod, smile, and even laugh a little, knowing all too well what Scott means.
“It’s strange to be up here. Not to be giving the eulogy for a fallen teammate – in our line of work, it’s a risk we take. It’s something that happens, no matter how much we wish it wouldn’t. What’s strange is that the man I’m eulogizing… is Logan. If there was ever one person I thought could try and live forever and get away with it, it’s him. Logan took a lot of risks, he pulled a lot of stupid stunts, and him not having a healing factor wouldn’t have… it didn’t change that.”
“He was a wild card, he was out of control, but at the same time, he was more disciplined than any of us could ever hope to be. He was arrogant and stubborn on the battlefield, but in life he was humble, modest. He was so complex, such a contradiction in so many ways… yet he was such a simple man. He appreciated life for what it was, he never took it for granted. He never wasted a single day. I think that was one of the things I admired most about him.”
“I can’t stand up here and act as if Logan was my best friend. I know for a fact that he’d want me to be honest, he’d want me to tell it how it is. The fact is that when I first met Logan, I couldn’t stand him, but over time, I grew to understand him, and even like him. We weren’t great friends, but I respected him immensely… and I never admitted it outright, but I learned a lot from him. I learned that the right way isn’t always the ‘right way’, and sometimes you have to act on your instinct instead of some strategy you’ve mapped out in your mind.”
“Most important, I learned that life is precious, too precious to waste, and that you need to spend everyday doing something important to you. Spend each day as if it were your last. Even though Logan could have conceivably lived forever, he never let that get to his head.” Scott pauses and cracks a small smile. “Most of the time.” A moment of laughter follows, and it subsides as quickly as it happened.
“It really is hard to believe that Logan is gone. I can say for certain, though, that he wouldn’t want us to mourn his death, instead he’d want us to celebrate his life. It’s painful to know that he died not having discovered his past, the one thing that probably would have brought him true peace. However, he died the only way that would suit him – he died fighting. I think that, coupled with the new life he built for himself as a part of the Xavier Institute, was enough for him in the end.”
“I’ll miss Logan. We all will. It’s going to be a lot different knowing that he’s gone. Gone, but not forgotten… never forgotten. He left his mark on all of us, even in the smallest of ways. And no matter what… we’ll always remember him.”
NEXT ISSUE: The healing process continues as the women in Wolverine’s life honor his memory in a special way. Plus, focus returns to the mutant rights campaign as it gains two new constituents, more revelations on where Banshee’s been, and Cyclops drafts Captain America and Black Widow for a special assignment. All this, and a prelude to the wedding in November’s issue of Uncanny X-Men!
So, this was it. The farewell to Wolverine. Hopefully I did him justice. Of course this isn’t the end, his death is going to felt for quite a while. It isn’t something that will be just swept under the rug – he may not have been my favorite character but I understand, and Dino understands, his importance to the X-Men mythos. I’ll tease you all with the fact that he hasn’t made his last appearance here yet at Marvel Omega 😉
Well, there you have it. Hopefully this issue was enjoyable, in two weeks it’ll be back to our regularly scheduled program (well, sort of).
~Ryan
10/14/03
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