LOVE & MARRIAGE

Part II: This is the Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of

By David Wheatley

He looked at Elektra as she fell asleep, and then made his way to his own room, thinking about the events of the evening.

The X-Men had been at each other’s throats after a relatively calm day. He knew that it was a by-product of the recent events. Everyone was stressed and tired and there were a lot of grievances that needed to be resolved if the teams could ever work together again.

Then there was the big day ahead of him. He was getting married, to one of the most beautiful women he’d known. He loved Elektra as much as he had ever loved anyone, and he knew this was the right thing to do. She was having his child, she loved him, and they both knew he was dying.

His healing factor was breaking down the cells in his body and he knew there was very little he could do about it. The faster he healed, the more damage was done. It wasn’t like before when his healing factor burnt out after the damage done to him by Magneto, when the adamantium was ripped out of his body. Then, he knew he’d heal eventually and he’d be fine.

This time if he got badly hurt his healing factor would fix him up and the cancer would grow, advancing to the stage where his cells didn’t have enough cohesity to hold him together. Logan imagined it would be like what happened to Mastodon when they met a few years back, where he just started to break down and all that would remain of him would be a pile of goo, dust and bone fragments.

The thought of it sent a shiver down his spine as he walked through the halls of Braddock Manor. He’d always said he wasn’t afraid of dying, but how he died. Nobody should have to die like that, by fading away to nothing, becoming nothing but a pile of scraps.

He sniffed the air and knew he was outside the room where Jubilee was. She was sharing with Kitty and he silently opened the door and looked in on the two sleeping girls. The two of them were like daughters to him. Kitty was one of his best friends. He’d trained her, saved her life and he knew she could take care of herself. The past few years hadn’t been easy for her, he knew, but she’d survived.

Then there was Jubilation. She’d saved him from the Reavers a long time ago and there was something between them deeper than anything else anyone shared with him. He hadn’t known her as long as Kitty but he felt like he’d known her forever, and he hoped that if the child Elektra carried turned out half as good as either of these two, they’d have done well.

He was proud of them both; he respected them and loved them dearly.

“Sweet dreams, kids,” he whispered and as if they’d heard him in their sleeping state they both smiled and he nodded. Then he made his way out and quietly closed the door. In the distance, a clock chimed midnight and he had an urging to go outside and see the moon.

It was an urging from the beast within him and he knew it wouldn’t do any harm, so he opened the door to the veranda and looked out. It was a cold night and the hairs on his arms stood on end as he looked up in to the dark blue sky. The stars twinkled down on him and he looked up at the moon. It was large in the night sky, and fairly high. It was a full moon and he wondered if it would be out of character to howl at it.

It would make the people in the local villages wonder anyway, he thought with a grin. Then he felt something behind him, a presence. He turned swiftly, resisting the urge to free his claws from their resting place in his forearms. The presence was cold and dark, yet there was nothing there. He could find anything with his senses but there was something out there on the fringe of his perceptions that made his hairs stand on end.

He felt an icy grip on his heart for the briefest of moments and then it was over, the presence gone and he wondered what the hell just happened. In this line of business there was no room for coincidence. Normally he would have roused everyone and gone on the hunt, but he felt tired, drained, and he wondered if had just been a side effect of his condition.

If it were an attack, the whole X-family could easily take care of it and he made his way back to his room, feeling his age. Things had changed in the past month for him and he couldn’t fight his way out of this one. He needed to rest ans regroup, and he’d have a word with Chuck and Hank in the morning, to see if the degrading of his cells had worsened.

Perhaps it was time for him to retire from this life after all, he wondered as his head hit the pillow and he fell asleep almost at once.

“Excellent,” said the creature standing in the darkness next to the bed, and it placed a finger on Logan’s forehead. “Now the game can truly begin.”

“Happy birthday, my love. Did you think I’d forget what day this is, Logan?”

“No, darlin'” I answer with a grin. “I didn’t reckon you would.” I see the love in her eyes and we embrace. Silver Fox, the woman I love, smiles as we pull close and I know that these are the best days of my life. There’s nothing in my life that has ever equaled the happiness I have now, and I doubt ever will.

The scent of her hair, the tender smoothness of her skin as my hands lightly hold her arms, the look in her eyes tellin’ me that she loves me as much as I love her and the taste of her breath as I feel the air she exhales entwine with my own.

Then she suddenly releases me and starts to push me towards the door of the cabin. “Now, you get lost for an hour so I can get your surprise together.”

“But…” I start, wanting to spend as much time with her as I can. I don’t need a surprise; I just want to be with her.

“Just give me one hour, Logan,” she says with a smile and a sparkle in her eye that she knows there’s nothing on Earth can make me refuse her. “I promise you, you’ll have a birthday you won’t forget.”

“Sure,” I say and I walk across the snow, down towards the little bar, where all the travelers come. There used to be some minin’ done in the area and the only thing that remains of it are the small settlements. It’s plenty cold, but that’s never bothered me.

Y’see, I’m special. I heal real quick and it counteracts the effects of the weather. I’m never too cold, never too hot. My body keeps going no matter what I do to it. I don’t get winded and my senses are keener than regular people as well. Don’t know exactly what that makes me, an’ I don’t rightly care either. I am who I am, an’ I wouldn’t be anyone else for anythin’.

Way I figure it, I can get down to the ‘Last Frontier’ as they call it ’round these parts, get a brew and be back at the cabin in an hour or so. As I’m walkin’ an’ thinkin’ how good life is when the wind shifts an’ I pick up a scent.

I know the scent from a long time ago. We used to work together for Canuck Intel durin’ the war. We had a disagreement about things and we never spoke again, well not after the last time we fought. He was whippin’ me good until I managed to stick a knife through his head, and he fell to the floor like a bag of rocks.

I thought I’d killed him. Guess I was wrong. The scent is going back towards the cabin. Guess he wants payback. Only I’m not there and a horror grips me as I realize who is there.

“SILVER FOX!”

Back in Braddock Manor, Psylocke awoke with a start as she felt the terror in Logan’s mind. She didn’t have active telepathic powers, as they were being used to contain the Shadow King on the Astral Plane, but that didn’t mean they were gone. She just couldn’t use them.

That said, her telepathic rapport with Wolverine was as active as it ever was. They were linked on scales that the others never could be, a linking that she knew only Jean and Xavier shared, as telepaths, as student and tutor, as friends. She knew she had to get to him before something worse happened.

Betsy knew that Logan was in trouble, she could sense that much, but she knew that on another level he was happy and that was what worried her, for it was a different happiness to that which he had with Elektra and she knew how it was tied in to his terror.

She looked at the clock and noticed it was about four in the morning. It hadn’t been long ago she’d been at Cyclops’s throat and the argument left a bad taste in her mouth. Yes, she’d meant what she said, but she didn’t want to say it, as if some force had goaded her in to saying it. Some force that was attacking the mind of Logan even now, and she grabbed her dressing gown.

“SILVER FOX!”

I turn and run back to the cabin, my hands itchin’ in a way that feels familiar to me, yet at the same time kind o’ strange. The blood’s pounding in my head as I run faster and faster towards the little log cabin, built with my bare hands, away from the life I’d once led.

His scent is getting stronger as I get closer to the cabin and the dark side of me, the part that’s more animal than man, begins to stir within. Maybe it’s because me and him are so similar or maybe it’s because I can hear her screams. The door’s been kicked in and I can smell the fear and violence in the air.

I leap through the window and find Creed holdin’ her, his hand formed as some kind of claw. Silver Fox’s lip’s bleedin’, her eye is swollen and her cheek’s bruised.

“CREED!”

“Yer squaw’s kinda uppity,” he says, his voice more a guttural snarl than anything else. “She said ‘no’ t’me, boy. I thought we shared everythin’.”

“Put her down, or yer a dead man.”

“You couldn’t kill me twenty years ago, what makes ya think ya can now?” His laughter’s mocking me, and Silver Fox is whimpering, the lights in her eyes from earlier extinguished.

“Yer right though.” He released her and she falls to the floor and scrambles away. “I’ll gut you but good first, and then take yer woman as you watch and bleed to death in front o’ us. Last thing y’ll ever see.” He starts to come towards me and I know that I can’t take him. Not like this.

I ain’t good enough to take him. He’s faster, stronger, meaner and he has those damn claws. The fear I can smell now isn’t that of Silver Fox, but of myself. I know I’m gonna die here, but it’s not gonna be for lack of tryin’.

With a feral roar I leap towards him and he swats me away with a sneer.

“Gotta do better than that, boy.”

“I ain’t yer ‘boy’, bub.” He smiles, his teeth showing the powerful fangs that drip from the spit in his mouth.

“Ever noticed how similar we are? We heal quick, we’re strong fast, our senses. We’re family.”

“Not by a long shot,” I say, more in defiance than denial. “We’re different.”

“Yeah, yer weaker.” He dives towards me and I try and twist away as the claws slash through my shirt, cutting into my skin. Ain’t taken a hit like that in a long time and it stings worse than I remember.

“Guess yer woman’ll enjoy a real man fer a change,” he says as he grabs me by the throat. I kick at him but he’s too big an’ I ain’t doin’ anythin’ to him. “Heh, this was barely enough to break a sweat.” I feel his claws enter underneath my ribs, tearing at my lungs, ripping tissue, and then he throws me to the floor and starts walkin’ toward Silver Fox. She’s backed into a corner, and he’s undoin’ his pants.

“I’ll teach ya to say ‘no’, bitch,” he laughs.

I can feel the life slowly oozing from my body, the blood coming out of me and staining the wood of the cabin floor. I’m tryin’ to get up but my instincts are tellin’ me how futile it is. It’s a question of whether him and me are the same, more animal than man. The animal wants to lie down and die, but the stubbornness of the man wants to keep going until it’s over.

I feel the itchin’ in my hand turn to tinglin’ as I see him get closer and I can hear Silver Fox trembling, whispering ‘no’ over and over as he gets closer to her. Her cries become louder as he pushes her to the floor, wrestlin’ her down and makin’ sure she can’t move.

The tinglin’, itchin’ and the wounds remind me of somethin’. The Great War, the first one. Somethin’ bad happened, somethin’ I need to get past, somethin’…

*SCHLUKT*

The pain shoots through my hands as three claws pop out of both of my wrists, each of them a foot in length. Six claws I repressed a long time ago, six claws I could have used, six claws that are goin’ ta show Creed how much better than him I am. A sense of confidence fills me as I look at the claws as they appear, so long forgotten, so long dormant. A part of me I never realized I needed. Creed didn’t heard them tear through my wrists, being so intent on Silver Fox.

“CREED!” I shout as I manage to stand. I’m a little woozy from the loss of blood, but my healing factor seems to be kickin’ in, as if I’m willin’ it to work for me. Guess he underestimated how good it was. I did too. Now he turns and his eyes go wide as I leap towards him and he sees the claws bearin’ down.

It’s a moment of hesitation that I use to drive the claws in to his chest, and take us both through the cabin wall, the impact freeing us of each other.

“Yer dead,” I say, staggerin’ to my feet.

“Bring it on,” he answers, licking his blood from the hand that touched the holes I’d made, and we attack once more, except my claws are longer than his, giving me a better reach at him. We fight and hack and slash and cut and gorge each other as much as we can and then we stand apart from each other, both torn and tired from the damage we’ve done to one another. Problem is, he’s healin’ faster than I am.

“Did good, boy,” he says as he slowly starts to walk towards me. “Almost had me.” My wounds aren’t healin’ as quick, possibly because of the hurtin’ he gave me earlier, but that’s not important. The fact is he’s gonna kill me now and Silver Fox will be his.

“I…” A shot rings out and Creed’s head explodes in a mess of blood and tissue as the bullet enters his head. The look of surprise on his face just before it becomes nothing more than a distortion is a sight I’ll carry with me.

“That’s the second mad dog I’ve killed,” says Silver Fox as she drops the gun in to the snow, still trembling from her fear and shock. I manage to crawl over to her and we fall into each other’s arms.

We saved each other and that’s all that matters. Before I pass out in her arms, I manage to say one last thing to her and hear her response.

“Marry me.”

“Yes.”

As Betsy hurried down the corridors, she thought how easily she could have teleported in to Logan’s room via the shadows, an ability that she had gained by her exposure to the Crimson Dawn. She didn’t really like using that ability too often and besides, if Logan was under attack, she needed to see whom she was up against before she did anything.

As she ran down the corridor, her ninja skills allowing her to move in complete silence, she wondered if the force had goaded them all, preying on their tiredness from traveling, the stresses of families being pushed together and the general distrust of it all. It would make sense, but who would do so and why?

Either way it didn’t matter – they were under attack, or at least Logan was. Perhaps with everyone at each other’s throats, the attacker had hoped they wouldn’t notice until it was too late. Whoever it was had miscalculated in thinking that because she didn’t use her powers they no longer existed.

She quickly found the room where Logan was sleeping. His door was open and she could see him there. She had to wake him, she knew that, and tried to enter the room, only to find it blocked by some kind of barrier. She tested her powers on it, tried to get into the room via the shadow teleport, but to no avail.

“Logan!” she called, but he didn’t stir. Logan generally slept lightly, so that if there was trouble he could react fast, and even if he was in a deeper sleep he couldn’t fail to hear her with his superior senses. She called again, but if heard her, he didn’t wake up.

“Bugger,” she cursed and went to get the others, thinking that they weren’t going to be too happy about being woken at this time in the morning. Still, this was important, so she had to get this right and they all had to get it together.

Logan needed their help, current arguments be damned.

I managed to recover from my wounds, and so did Silver Fox. She got over her emotional problems by hackin’ Creed to bits with the axe we used for choppin’ wood. I’d like to see a therapist prescribe that to a patient as much as I’d like to see Creed heal from that.

Days passed into weeks, weeks into months as we prepared and planned for our wedding. She managed to contact the medicine man of her old tribe who was goin’ to come to the hut and bless our union. It’s as much of a weddin’ as I could hope for, but I can’t shake the feelin’ that this isn’t right, that there’s somethin’ wrong with all of this.

Finally the day arrives. The cabin’s been rebuilt and the darkness of five months ago is little more than a memory that we’ll never speak of again. There’s no need to.

Silver Fox is dressed in a pretty white dress, not a wedding dress but somethin’ designed by a woman in the village. She looks more beautiful now than I’ve ever seen her before and I can’t hide it. There’s a large turnout for the event at the cabin, as we begin to make our vows.

She starts speakin’ first.

“Logan, owner of my heart, keeper of my soul and guardian of our lives. We speak with our hearts even though there are times when we have no words for each other. Our answers for each other are quick and keen, our looks honest, our laughter and love pure. What we have for each other blossoms in the air, creating a fragrance that I have not matched in my lifetime, and now that we have each other, I cannot and will never experience with another. All that I am, all that I was and all that I will be are yours to have, hold, and treasure for the rest of our lives and beyond, knowing that though one day we will be parted as all things must, we will both wait and be reunited eternally. I take you, Logan, for my husband, as you take me for my wife, and not even death can separate us.”

There are tears in the eyes of the women in the audience, watchin’ us and wishin’ us the best. I know that I can’t match the words she spoke, I don’t have that kind of skill, but I can match the emotion behind them and that’ll be enough. All the things I’ve been plannin’ on sayin’ to her now leave my head. You don’t plan these things, you have to do them on the spur of the moment for them to be real, to be alive.

“Silver Fox,” I begin, and everyone’s eyes are on me. My mouth goes dry and I have to focus on things and I start again.

“Silver Fox, I ain’t got the beauty in words like you do. I ain’t got the skill to make poetry like you do, but I know enough to appreciate poetry, the poet, the words and what they mean. You an’ I are two of a kind, we’re soulmates, the better parts of each other. I’m proud to know you, to call you my best friend and to take you as my wife. You own my heart, you keep my soul and without you I don’t have anything of value. I didn’t have anything ’til I met you. You’ll never lose me, and I’ll do whatever I can to make sure I don’t lose you. I love you and I’m honoured you take me for your husband.”

She nods as she hears the words and when I finish she smiles, and I know that what I gave her in return was more than enough. For a moment I wasn’t sure, I ain’t used to openin’ my heart in public.

Then the medicine man takes our hands and binds them with a piece of cloth from the tribe and he tells us of its significance, that it’s bindin’ us, unitin’ us and makin’ us partners for now until the end of time and beyond, and that the spirits look down on us and make sure we are happy and content for the time that we are together.

Then the ceremony ends and I take her in my arms and we kiss, passionately. There’s no difference between the way we kissed before we were married and the way we kiss now that we are. The things is we officially belong to each other now and there’s the point. It’s the first time in my life I’ve ever wanted to be tied down to something and now that I am, I can’t ever see what the deal was. I’m happy now and this is the way I want to stay.

“Of course you do, X-Man,” said the stranger standing in the darkness beside his bed. He had been at the ceremony, watching the marriage take place and he knew that things were only just beginning. He’d watched in amusement as Psylocke had tried to come in, and it had only taken a slight altering of things to ensure that she could not enter the room.

For a being of his power, it was child’s play. Now she would fetch the rest of the X-Men and then the fun would begin. The angst they all felt fed him, powered him and made him stronger. This merry band of mutant outlaws had provided fun for his fellows in the past but now was his time and he would prove that he was the greatest of them all.

The X-Men were at a crux point in their lives and he would ensure that the hope and possibility that they engendered was destroyed now and for all time. They had prevented it more than once but now a reckoning was at hand and the X-Men would be the instruments of the world’s descent in to darkness. After a moment, he plunged back in to the mind of the man known as Logan.

I look down at Silver Fox. She’s lyin’ on the bed and we both know she’s dyin’. It’s no disease, no attack from some savage enemy, but time that’s got to her. We’ve been married for the best part of fifty years now. We’ve had our kids and they’ve grown up and got lives of their own.

They’re tryin’ to get back to see us, to see their mother one last time, but since the death of that American Senator some while back, mutants have become enemies of the people, except in Canada where Premier James MacDonald Hudson has some smarts. The problem is that traveling between the U.S. and Canada is difficult, especially if your parents happen to be mutants.

I know I am, that’s what my healing factor, enhanced sense and the rest are. I preferred it when I thought of myself as special. The word ‘mutant’ is spoken in a way I’ve not heard in a long time, since Nazi Germany when they spoke the word ‘Jew’. Silver Fox is too. Her ability is to mimic another person’s actual physical abilities by touch. It’s something we only found out when she was pregnant the first time.

Some bald American called Xavier explained it to us, and offered to help us. We declined, and told him we just wanted to be left alone. I remember reading in the paper that he’d been killed in Scotland with his students while they defeated some kind of mad god some years back. Apparently they were a team of mutants, righting wrongs and stuff. Guess we were right to choose the way we did.

As I look at Silver Fox, sleepin’ there in the bed we’ve shared these many years, I see how old she’s become and I see my own pale reflection in the window. I haven’t changed at all, other than getting a greyish tint around the ears.

I’ve looked this way a long time, and I got a feelin’ that I’ll be this way for a good while yet, even if the hair does get a little greyer, and for the first time I curse my blasted mutant abilities. They’re keeping me alive while the woman I love is dyin’ before my eyes and there’s not a blamed thing I can do. My senses are as acute as ever and I’m not only able to see her fadin’ but I can sense it. Her heartbeat is erratic, her breathin’ is shallow, her skin colour is lessening before me, even though it’s very slight I can still tell. She’s turning whiter by the second. Even her scent is just a trace of what it was.

Yet, for all that, she’s still as beautiful as she ever was. I run my hand over her forehead, brushin’ away the now-silver hair that matches her name away from her eyes. There’s a lump in my throat as I know that I’m losin her, that she’ll be gone any minute and that the kids won’t be here in time.

“Yer one of the strongest people I’ve ever met, Silver Fox,” I whisper silently to her. “Hold on, please. Just to let Nicky and Rosa get here in time, and then you can go.”

“It’s too late for me,” she says, startlin’ me from my reverie. Her eyes are bright and still sparkling, though not as intense as they had been when we were younger. “Logan, it’s almost time.”

“No,” I say, biting back the tears, feeling the pain in my heart and the tearing at my soul. “It ain’t time yet.”

“Hush, my love,” she says, lifting her hand and caressing my cheek. I press my cheek into her hand, pinnin’ it between my shoulder and my face, as if in a futile way of tryin’ to keep her with me by force of will and physical strength. Her hands are cold, but her touch is tender and my senses are tellin’ me what my heart refuses to accept.

“I can’t lose you.”

“You’ll never lose me, we’ll always be with each other in our hearts wherever we happen to be. Remember our vows all those years ago?”

“Course I do,” I reply, releasing her hand and taking it in my own. “All that we are, all that we were and all that we will be belong to each other ,to have, hold, and treasure for the rest of our lives and beyond, knowing that though one day we will be parted as all things must, we will both wait and be reunited eternally.”

“I took you, Logan, for my husband, as you took me for my wife and not even death can separate us.” There are tears in her eyes now and I can feel them running down my cheeks as well, but I ignore them, as I take away her tears with a brief caress of my finger. She looks at me and as always we know what the other is thinking, we both see the sadness in the other, mixed and tinged with the pleasure of having as many years together as we’ve had.

Every second, of every minute, of every day, of every month, of every year. There’s not been a time when either of us have regretted a moment and our lives have been richer because of it, which is what makes her passing now so hard on us both.

“I love you.”

“I know,” she says and we embrace for what we both know is the last time. “I love you too.” Then she gives a little shiver and closes her eyes and I know that she’s gone. Her heart has stopped, and her breathing follows a moment later. There’s a faint ripple of her body, as her body goes limp, and I feel something sweet and beautiful pass through me.

At least I think I do, and if it was then it was her soul passing on to a place where she’ll wait for me until we meet again. I place my head on her bosom and close my eyes, as the tears trickle down my face and I know that I’ll sleep until the kids get here.

Silver Fox, the love of my life, is dead, and a piece of me has died with her. I silently cry myself to sleep.

Betsy staggered as she felt the unmitigated sorrow in Logan’s heart and soul, and Jean quickly held onto her. She’d only awoken the people she thought could help, like the Professor, Scott and Jean, Kurt, Gambit, and Brian and Meggan. Each had a specific talent that she had hoped would free Logan but so far with no success.

“I’m okay,” she said with a nod and Jean released her. Betsy’s link with Logan was stronger than her own, and Jean felt a slight hint of jealousy about it. “But a piece of Logan’s soul just died.”

“What?” asked Colossus. He had been up early, wanting to paint a picture of the dawn as it rose over the country landscape surrounding Braddock Manor as the wedding present for Logan and Elektra. He and Logan had had their differences in recent years, but they were still friends, former teammates and nothing could tear that asunder. He’d managed to get away for a few days from the Winter Guard in Russia to be here, and he like the others had hoped that it would be a quiet weekend, but that was obviously not to be.

Sometimes the poet in his soul wondered if the ‘X’ they all wore was really a big target for all and sunder to shoot at.

“Someone or something is taking Logan’s mind apart piece by piece,” said Xavier. “I can sense what he’s feeling but not what he’s thinking, so this barrier must exist on multiple dimensions. Within the sadness are joy and terror as well as other emotions. His mind is living moments as though they were years and though I can sense it hasn’t started to take a toll on his body, it soon may.”

“What can we do?” asked Kurt, who had tried teleporting in but to no avail. His abilities were met with the same barrier as Psylocke’s had been.

“I’m not sure,” said Scott. “I’ve tried blasting the barrier, Brian’s tried breaking through it and Meggan’s tried to coax it to open with her powers.”

“I don’ like dis,” said Gambit, as he stood there. “Is dis what’s been getting’ us at each other’s throats?”

“Possibly,” said Xavier. “There’s a mental static in the air that’s enhancing the negativity in a way I’ve not seen since the Shadow King’s possession of Muir Island.”

“Well,” said Scott, forcing himself past the lashing out he wanted to give, determined to show that he was capable of working past any outside influences, that he was leader of the X-Men and that he had the ability to get past any enemy. “We can’t get to him physically. What about on a psionic level?”

“I don’t think we have much of a choice,” said Xavier. “Jean, we need to use Elizabeth as the link to Logan and to try and pierce the barrier that surrounds his mind.”

“But what about the Shadow King?”

“Between the three of us, we should be able to contain Amahl Farouk if he breaks free,” smiled Xavier. “Come, let us prepare.”

“Logan!”

My eyes open to the sound of a familiar accent, the memory of the death of Silver Fox fresh in my mind.

“Wha…?” I ask as my eyes focus around me. This isn’t the cabin, where I was a moment ago. This is the Yashida Compound in Japan. That’s Gambit and I’m Wolverine.

“No time for dis!” says Gambit.

“What is going on?” demands the Silver Samurai.

“Not sure,” I answer as my memory starts to come back. I remember fighting a cyborg… Cylla! We were on the roof and I slipped as she came in for the kill. Jubilee blasted her with the fireworks as Yukio made to grab me and stop me from falling. Guess all she managed to do was make it so I fell through the window.

But the whole thing with Silver Fox… it felt so blasted real, I can feel the pain in my heart even now.

“Gambit…” I call, to let him know that the girls could do with help.

“Te bile pas, mec,” he says and is on his way as I slowly regain my wits. Then I see her.

“M’iko?” I ask as I see the knife in her hand.

“Logan, my love. Matsuo has demanded a finger, in return for which he will divest the Clan of the underworld holdings and we’ll be free to marry.”

It’s a customary atonement in the manner of the Yakuza, the Japanese mob except with more class and honour than their American counterparts, but I can’t shake my suspicions.

“You trust him?”

“Logan?” says a voice, a voice I recognize.

“Reiko?”

“You know this woman?” demands the Samurai.

“Logan, why are you here?” asks Reiko and the room descends in to chaos with voices raised.

“ENOUGH!” shouts Mariko, and the fightin’ stops. “My beloved, this is not your concern. If Matsu’o Tsurayaba wants one of my fingers in atonement, then he must have one. There is no arguing on this point.” She readies her hand and is about to use the knife when Reiko grabs her hand and stops her. “What?”

“My lady, the blade is poisoned. The toxin which coats it is one which I am immune to.”

“Treachery!” shouts the Samurai and holds his Black Blade to Reiko’s neck.

“Hold!” demands Mariko. “This treachery has been dealt with, however the atonement must occur to free the Clan from its ties.” She looks at me. “Please, my love.”

“M’iko…”

“Please.”

*SNICKT*

I know what she’s asking, what she wants me to do. It seems the only way that is guaranteed to be free of treachery. I don’t want to do this, but it’s not up to me. It’s a matter of honour. She holds her hand out, and places it on the table. I only need one claw for this and my throat goes dry, and there’s an ominous silence, even from outside.

“Forgive me,” I say as I swiftly bring the claw down, and cleanly slice the finger from her hand. She doesn’t wince or cry out in pain, but a tear rolls down her cheek and she nods to me, as blood trickles on to the table from the severed finger and the wound I’ve inflicted on her.

“Give this to Matsu’o,” she says, regainin’ her composure and passing Reiko the finger. “Tell him that honour is satisfied and that his treachery is negated.”

Reiko nods, acceptin’ the finger and silently leavin’ as I tear a strip from my costume to bind Mariko’s hand.

“We gotta get her to a hospital,” I say and the Samurai nods and hurries to find Sunfire. Outside I hear the explosion of kinetically charged objects impacting on a metallic hide and a crash as metal collides with concrete. I know Gambit can handle Cylla and I hold Mariko in my arms.

“Close call, M’iko,” I say as I pull her close. If I hadn’t fallen into the room, Reiko would never have known who Mariko was and she would have allowed her to die. The poison would have killed her slowly and painfully, and there would have been nothin’ anyone could have done about it. It sends a shiver down my spine just thinkin’ of it.

“Logan, my promise is fulfilled. The Clan is free, I am free, we can be together at last.”

The dream of Silver Fox comes back to me, our life together, what we had, what we shared, what we lost. I remember how it made me feel and I know that if I had to do it all over again then I would.

“I know, darlin’,” I answer. “We’ll get you well again, then we’ll talk later. My love.”

She smiles and nods, and I know that the wedding ruined so long ago is on once more. Once that’s done, me and Matsu’o Tsurayaba are gonna have a chat about poisoned knives, the cutting off of fingers and how I feel about the subject…

Inside the manor he could smell them. There was a host of Xavier’s brood in there, some he owed big time for what had gone down when he had been bound to Apocalypse. He aimed to give payback for that and more.

He could taste them all, and he could tell that they were all on edge. Black Air may have been a bunch of secret service jackals but they had told him of what was going down, and had offered to pay him to kill the members of Excalibur at the same time he was putting a stop to his little partner’s nuptial plans. He was going to do that anyway, but now he was being paid for it.

“Idiots,” he growled as he looked at the manor and smiled, planning it all. First he’d start with Xavier, his blood would taste richest, then he’d work on Grey and Summers. By that time the other X-Men would be up and running, but this time he’d have the advantage.

He could just imagine the look on Jubilee’s face as she came across her beloved Professor, with his intestines hanging out and wrapped around his neck like a fancy scarf. He’d pick them all off one by one, now that he was free of Apocalypse’s mental binding – it had only served to inhibit the beast within. He’d save Pryde and Jubilee until last, then he’d have some fun with them before they died.

He’d take their innocence, their childhood and their lives from them, as Logan would helplessly watch, cradling his dead fiancé and what would remain of their child after he’d finished with them. However there was a dark power in there, and he knew there was nothing he could do. Yet.

“I’m coming for you, Logan,” said Victor Creed. “You and yer little family are finished before they start!”

I retired from the X-Men just after I married Mariko. They had a bit of trouble with Stryfe, and Xavier nearly died and I gave them a hand with that, but there’s been no real need for my help since then. Magnus, Apocalypse and the rest – the X-Men were more than a match for them all.

There was a little trouble with a man name o’ Bastion, who was tryin’ another crusade to rid the world of mutants but the Yashida Clan has more than a little political influence and with the help of a few friends in S.H.I.E.L.D. and other agencies, we managed to discredit him and now he’s doing a five to ten stretch in Ryker’s.

The time away from the X-Men has given me time to live and grow, finding an inner peace. I think about the dream of my life with Silver Fox from time to time and realize that it was more a prophecy than a dream, a prophecy of my life to come with Mariko. I’m glad Silver Fox sent me the dream, to let me know it was all right with her.

When I took out the Yakuza with the help of the Samurai, Yukio and Sunfire, there were rumours that she was still alive, but I know better. Sabretooth killed her long ago, and she’s gone, I know that now. Strange, but Matsu’o seemed almost insistent on it in our final battle, tryin’ to taunt me into makin’ a mistake. It only made me angrier, and now the Hand are gone and the Clan Yashida are truly free.

Mariko and I have been livin’ here in Japan with Amiko for a long time now. It’s nearly twenty years since we married an’ the world’s changed. It’s more tolerant than it was, not as much as it could be but that’s human nature. There’s a sense of peace as the 21st Century rolls on. It’s almost like the human race is growin’ up.

We should be so lucky.

There are still problems out there, such as the Legacy Virus. There still ain’t a cure been found, even though everyone’s been workin’ on it for a very long time. Xavier died of the disease about fifteen years ago, and Moira not long after that. It disheartened everyone else, especially Hank McCoy, who seems to have taken to attacking the virus personally now. It’s rare that people see him, though he publishes his lastest findin’s from time to time and it seems for every step forward he takes half a pace back, and none of us are gettin’ any younger. Still, there are worse fates than getting’ older…

As I look out over the Tokyo cityscape, I think to the future. Amiko’s getting’ married herself soon, to John Summers, Scott and Jean’s kid. They named him after Jean’s father, and then there’s his twin sister Rachel. There’s an irony that isn’t lost on us all, and it’s like the circle we thought we were gonna walk broke. Guess the future is never a set thing, like people used to think.

“Look at me,” commands Mariko playfully an’ I turn to see her smilin’ face. It breaks my heart that we can’t have children of our own, an’ I know that M’iko blames herself, no matter how often I reassure her it’s one of those things and that we have Amiko, but there’s a stabbing pain every now and then that you can’t turn away from.

“How can I not?” I answer in perfect Japanese. Sometimes I forget I ever spoke English, I’ve been speaking it so often.

“Has Hank been in touch with the results yet?” she asks, knowing the answer before I tell her.

“Nope,” I answer. “Still, no news is good news.”

“Yes,” she replies, the sorrow in her eyes.

“I’ve lived a long time, we’ve had a good life together. M’iko, I’m happy, yeah, I’m dyin’ of the Legacy Virus. We don’t know how long I got left, Hank can’t even guess with my healin’ factor tryin’ to fight it off. But it can’t cope with the… cell… deterioration…” Somethin’s wrong. Every instinct screams it at me.

“Logan?”

“A flash of déjà vu. Like I’ve had this conversation before.”

“We have, often.”

“No, this was somethin’ else, M’iko.”

“Do you want me to contact Doctor Campbell over at Shaw Inudstries?”

“No, I don’t think this is a Legacy Virus thing.”

“Is it related to your dream all those years ago?”

“Possibly,” I admit. “There was fifty years of life in a few moments, so it might be somethin’ to do with that.”

“Come, let us rest. It will soon be time for the wedding and we must be at our best.” I nod, and let her guide me to our bed. We may not be able to have children, but we do keep tryin’ anyway.

“NO!” cried the Professor as he broke the link to Logan’s mind. What he had seen happening filled him with a dread he hadn’t felt since discovering his own condition.

“What is it?” asked Kurt, rushing to Xavier’s side in a swift teleport.

“Logan’s mind,” answered Jean as she too began to recover. “The attack is greater than we feared.”

“What’s happening?” asked Scott.

“Logan is living out a fantasy where Mariko Yashida did not die from poison and they married.”

“Mon dieu,” said Gambit. He remembered the last time that Logan had relived such an experience. He had only just broken free of it then, because his instincts told him that it was wrong. “What’s different dis time from de rest?”

“His instincts are being dulled by a force we cannot locate,” said Xavier. “However, there is a more immediate problem to this mental attack. We can only ‘see’ what is going on, we do not have the power to interfere or affect things and Logan currently believes he is dying of the Legacy Virus.”

“Professor,” started Colossus, knowing that Xavier himself had the virus and how hard it must have been for him.

“I’m fine, Peter,” said Xavier as he thought about Logan’s balanced state of mind in respect of the virus, knowing there was no cure and facing the future with a quiet dignity. Logan knew he had lived a long, productive life and he wasn’t afraid of what was coming. “Logan’s state of mind is such that he believes himself at peace and ready to die. Given the state of his healing factor, it’s probable that whoever is attacking him means for him to die when he believes the Legacy Virus kills him.”

“I’m not sure,” said Betsy. “I think there’s something else, something that we’re missing.”

“How would you know,” snapped Scott. “You’re not a telepath anymore.” All heads turned to look at him, everyone feeling their tensions rise within them, the old scores that needed settling. Jean with Betsy, Scott with Betsy, Xavier with Scott, Brian with Peter and Meggan, Kurt with Brian and Gambit with all of them. Each had a grievance of their own with their respective target, a grievance that needed settling.

All it needed was the trigger Scott had just involuntarily given them and in Logan’s room, the dark laughter went unheard.

NEXT: The conclusion comes in Love & Marriage #1. Who is attacking Logan and why? Will the X-Men recover in time to help him and get him to the church on time? Who else will be coming to the wedding and who will deal with Sabretooth?