The little wooden hut that she now called home was by the lakeside, the flora and fauna becoming less and less sparse the closer she got to the water source. She didn't know who had built it but it had been abandoned for a long time. She'd come across it by chance, while simply walking and looking for answers, but it had felt right and as there was nobody about she had moved in. There was very little in the way of home comforts this fare from civilisation, but she had no need such things.

She had gotten herself a job, working in the local public house in the village, so she had enough money to live on, to get food from the store and that was all she wanted. It had been a long time since she had left Japan, though she had lost track of the days. The sun rose and set and that was all she needed to know of what day it was. No matter how she tried she could not get the images out her mind, out of her head.

Logan, Viper, together, holding each other, loving each other. Not at the end of it, the morning when she was restored to her own mind but when it happened. She had been there, forced to watch, held by a powerful psionic presence, witnessing the man she loved consummate the marriage with a woman he hated.*

* (The act itself happened between Wolverine #10 and #11 - David)

However that was not what hurt her the most. It could not as she knew that under his own influence, he would never have done such a thing, but she had seen something in the betrayal that went deeper than sheer resistance. It was the fact that, angry though he was at having been used, she could see in his eyes that he had enjoyed it, that the animal within him did not care who she was, all it knew that she was a beautiful woman, making love to him and he had responded to the moves of her body with the moves of his own.

She knew that he would never admit that, especially to her, but she knew all the same and that was where the true hurt laid. And as she tried to get past that she thought back to the other parts, especially the morning when she had brought them food and her mind was restored along with her awareness of the previous evenings events. It hurt her still, if only a little in comparison to what she knew, and when she asked herself why it did so and had not evaporated, the answer came.

The looks on both their faces, the lighting of the room, the rumpled bed clothes, the cruel mocking laughter of the Shadow King in her ears forcing her to look, to remember and she had know that on some level, Logan would always want Viper. The tears would come to her after that, and though she could keep them back when in public, with other things on her mind to keep her busy, at home she could not, no matter how hard she meditated, trying to focus on the Path, the way of the Chaste.

But the Chaste was gone and her own imagination betrayed her, for in the midst of her mediations, she would see pictures of the time when Logan and she were finally reunited.

There were three ways that recurred most often, or at least variations of the same theme.

The first was that they simply met somehow, by coincidence, and were forced in to making contact with each other. It would usually start with Logan begging her for forgiveness and she would look in to his eyes and see that he meant it, and that he loved her and she would remember how much she loved him, but too much had happened for them to get together again. As much as she loved him, she knew that they couldn't be close again, not even as friends. The vision ended with him walking away from her, and her heart breaking as she watched him leave her life again, knowing it was her choice and to forever wonder if she was right in her choice, no matter how right it seemed at that moment.

The second started in a similar way to the first, with the two of them meeting by coincidence, but this time there was nor room for forgiveness, for love or romance. This would erupt in to an angry scene between the two of them, with harsh words being used to cut the other as effectively as if they were using claws or sais in battle. The vision always ended the same way, with her screaming out how much she hated him, and how she always would, and then the vision would end.

The third was darker than that, how the pain and the hatred within her at what she felt would overwhelm her and she would go after the man she had once loved, a love now replaced with a need for revenge. She would find him in Canada somewhere, hunting him down no matter how long it would take and waiting for the moment she would strike, and they would fight and she would kill him, sometimes dying in the attempt herself, though that held no fear for her as she had been dead before, but in each case he would die before she did and she would look in to his eyes as the life simply drained out of them.

The visions scared her, and she did not know if they were prophecies of the future or warnings of paths that she should avoid. However the future was uncertain, she was well hidden, even from his resourcefulness and it had been a long time since they had parted. If he even knew where to start he might have a chance, but she was truly in the middle of nowhere. Though she was born in Greece, for now and perhaps the rest of her life, Australia was her home.

Elektra opened the door of the cabin, walked over to the bed and flopped down and fell asleep, hoping that it would be a dreamless one.

The phantom form of Stick was silent, trapped in silence with the fall of the Chaste. He was trapped between states, with only his own power stopping him from fading in to oblivion, and that power was backed up by the belief of the last member of the Chaste - Elektra. If they were ever to be restored she needed to stay on the Path and believe, but life had hit her harder than anyone could have foreseen and though she had not succumbed to the darkness within her, she had cut herself off from the rest of the world and there was a very good chance she would fall under the strain she was under.

It was evident in her visions, for he could see them due to their link. He could not go to her, because he had no form, no voice and what he had left was also fading away without her faith. It was a problem especially with the demon seed that had been planted. If the child was born it would mean that the Hand would be unstoppable, and the fate that they had tried to keep from Elektra had been gifted to another.

Nina McCabe had betrayed the Chaste and now she would betray the world.

He was left with little choice in the matter so he had come here, to where the only person on the planet could help. He had been in this place since it had opened, appearing to guide his protégé, Monet St Croix and had stayed here ever since. Well, mostly ever since as it was hard to keep track of a teleporter. The man had wisdom, but had made several major mistakes in his life, and his powers had been bound to the major psionic forces.

Onslaught.

Phoenix.

Monet.

Almost always silent, Stick sat down and looked the man in the eyes, the white orbs contrasting against the darkness of his skin. The aborigine known as Gateway simply looked back. Both men were silent but this was to be a conversation on a plane far away from the ears of men and mutants.

It's coming.

I know.

You know?

I know of another as well.

What other?

Another, one not of your concern but tied to it.

I never liked your riddles.

You know I cannot answer as you desire.

Yeah, doesn't mean I have to like it.

I need your help.

The matter is not of my concern.

You owe me.

That debt has been paid.

Not by me.

By your student.

Take that up with her.

She invoked your name.

Your debt to me still stands.

Your order.

Don't talk semantics.

I cannot alter the rules.

You can.

I did not teach you well enough.

The old ways do not apply any more.

The old order has not been replaced.

The old order is dead.

You remain.

I am dead.

Not truly.

In all ways that count.

She will owe me.

Fine.

She must accept.

I accept for her.

Agreed.

Now.

Now.

Gateway twirled the bullroarer and vanished from the Massachusetts Academy. Stick smiled grimly and faded away from the room.

Sorry, Elektra, he thought, but I didn't have a choice. There's a world, a way of life, that needs to be saved.

The portal opened above Elektra's bed. The light show was what awoke her first, and she had to shield her eyes at the glare. Then it was over and she peered in to the darkness, knowing she had seen something similar to it before, long ago.

"Gateway?" she called out, but then she remembered that the man did not speak and she let her eyes adjust to the darkness and she could see him sitting at the doorway. "Why are you here?"

Gateway pointed to her heart.

"Are you here for Logan, or are you here for me?" she asked, not expecting a reply, but mainly to try and work it out for herself. The last time she had met Gateway was during the Onslaught crisis, where he had shown her death and resurrection to herself and to Logan, the worst psychic event of her life. This prepared her for what he showed them next - the origin of Onslaught.

It had been a time on another plane of perception, at the moment where Professor Xavier had wiped the mind of Magneto after the master of magnetism had ripped the adamantium from Logan's body. In that moment they had been aware of the evil in Magnus inserting itself in to Xavier. The light of truth had shown them it, and that had been made possible by Gateway's teleportational powers.*

* (This occured in Wolverine #104 - David)

For the first time she wondered what the time was.

"I'll get ready," she said, as she went to change from her clothes that she had slept in. She felt the need to be wearing something more in keeping, and in her wardrobe she grabbed her ninja uniform. She hadn't worn it for a while now, there had been no need, but now seemed appropriate. She went in to the bathroom, showered and changed and made her way back to Gateway and by now the sun was starting to rise, thin slivers of light coming under the doorway.

"I am ready," she said, sitting down before him, her legs crossed as if she were meditating in the Lotus position. Gateway nodded and lifted the bullroarer and began to spin it above their heads, forming a portal, which seemed to combine the energies that had awoken her and Gateway's very head. The room began to bend as reality altered around Elektra, and she seemed to be sucked up in to his eye breaking in to her composite molecules as she did so, a sensation she had experience the last time.

Yet this was no illusion, this was the bending of time and space, reducing her to an astral form from which she could see events occurring. Her vision cleared as she regained form and substance so she could view the world if not actually alter events.

Elektra could see herself being brought in the room by Tyger Tiger. She could see that she was sedated but she was also hurt. Her hand went toward the scar where the bullet had hit her in an earlier battle.

"You have a choice, Logan," came a voice she knew to be that of the Shadow King though he was using the body of Viper, and she realised she had not been aware of this being sedated as she was. "Do as I say, or, at a psionic push, Miss Hoan here will inject an air bubble in to your new love's left arm. I will keep her awake and conscious as she dies of an embolism. Painfully, horribly, slowly. Well, maybe not slowly, but long enough."

"Leave her alone. I'm yours." Logan's answer was determined, and Elektra knew he had made a choice. He was sacrificing himself to save her, and there was a flush of pride in her heart at what she heard and saw.

"A wise decision," the Shadow King replies and Elektra knew it was about here that he released the Viper and inserted himself in to sedated body. "Lie back on the bed. Now."

"Huh?" Logan hadn't been expecting that, nor would he be expecting what would happen next.

"You heard me. I won't repeat myself." Logan laid back and Viper walked towards him, removing her blouse by pulling it over her head to reveal her bare breasts. Elektra could see the shock in Logan's eyes. "Miss Hoan seems to think you are the best at what you do." At that she took off her pants and was naked before Logan and she crawled over the bed. Elektra was filled with revulsion at what she was seeing, at the memories this was triggering, but she couldn't escape from what Gateway was showing her.

"Don't do this," Logan whispers, pleading with them but to no avail and Elektra seemed to draw closer to the two of them, despite her attempts to withdraw.

"Hush," he/she says and they kiss him and Elektra could see him relaxing, though he was still fighting and he realised he'd been drugged somehow and that maybe, just maybe, what she had seen had not been his fault, that maybe her hurt was misplaced. "Think of it as something to get you in the mood, my love." Viper's words confimed her suspicions about the drug.

"What about those two?" Logan is still fighting even as she positions herself above him, ready to lower herself on top of him and begin their love making.

"They will be aware of what we're doing," he/she says, and Elektra knew that this was the moment she could see them having sex. Viper impaled herslef on Logan with a sharp gasp. "Time to consummate our marriage, my love." Her hands went to the back of Logan's head, and pushed it in to her breasts as the durs she had given him took effect and he succumbed to the act.

Elektra had to turn away from it but she saw herself sitting up, watching the events unfold before her and then the place began to become lighter and lighter until it was al white with the light of truth and she saw Logan's mind and how he perceived the events. Her worst events were confirmed as she saw himself letting go, giving in to the motions, biting, panting, scratching at her, inhaling the scent of her body and allowing his own body to respond to it in kind.

He was not simply surrendering to the moment, but he was enjoying himself. Her heart broke at the sight and then she looked at Viper, except it wasn't Viper that Logan was seeing. His mind had blanked her out and replaced her with what he truly wanted. He may have been having sex with Viper, but he was making love to Elektra.

She was aware of the violence of Viper's sexual moves, but in Logan's mind she was being kind and gentle, as he was looking after her in the same way. She felt herself replace the vision that Logan saw, and she felt him within her and she responded to his touch.

"I don't know if you can hear me," she said, as sweat formed on her body from the physical exertion, "but it was me. It is me, my love." And they continued to make love within the confines of his mind." I..." She paused as her body responded to the love making and she gave a staggered cry out loud in the pleasure of the moment and she realised she was back at home.

The sun had disappeared again and she no longer knew what time it was, or even what day. How long had she been in there? Gateway was sat outside, she could see him in the moonlight. Her mind was clear, her doubts about the woman she loved dispelled by what she had felt and what she now knew he had seen. She had to find the man she loved, she had to go to him, to be with him.

But where could she start? The X-Men, Canada, Japan... it was a long list.

"Gateway," she said, going out to the. "Take me to Logan. Please, I need to talk to him." Gateway nodded and began to spin the bullroarer again and a portal formed and she stepped through. However what she saw scared the hell out of her.

"LOGAN!" she cried as soon as she saw him but inside her head, a voice told her it was too late.

Next issue: The aftermath of the TMNT Annual 2001 is revealed, guest starring the X-Men Omega!