Right now there's other unwanted guests up here in the citadel, except I know their scents. I know what they are, better than who they are. Ninja warriors, assassins of the highest order. Last time I faced off against these jokers, I lost a hand and I was lucky that the X-Men could save me. Gave me a fine and dandy cover to protect the hand while it regrows using my healin' factor. However the Hand probably think me beaten, wounded, unable to fight, and that the demons that plagued me last time will make me easy prey.

Think again. For the first time in decades, I'm whole again, and there's a fair few scores to be settled after I'm done here, with the X-Men, with SHIELD, with Landau, Luckman and Lake and others who're on my list. Being whole's made me more dangerous than ever. Everything I ever knew, everything I've learnt and forgotten is back. Ogun chose me to be his successor, his heir apparent, and back then I was a rookie. These days, I'm more cunning, smarter and better aware tactically, thanks to people like Charles Xavier and James Hudson.

Good luck for me, bad luck for the Hand.

Guess they're here to kill two bird with one stone - to kill me and to ensure the legacy of the Chaste ends right here now, with the death of the last two walkers of the Path. I can take the Chaste philosophies or I can leave 'em, ain't a problem for me, though they have done me a favour by finally showin' me who I am, who I was. I now know who I'm gonna be, and if I have to repay the debt, it'll be by stayin' alive so that the Chaste live on through me.

Soon as I kill as many ninja as I can find.

Wolverine is comin' for you, fellas, and the mountains gonna be red with blood by the time I'm finished here.

"The players are beginning to get in to place," said Zoe Culloden, Overboss of Landau, Luckman, Lake and Lequare (Retired), as the latest data feeds came in from Earth Prime. "Let's try not to make as big a mess of this as we did with the Messiah affair."

"Deadpool's not involved in this one," said John Wraith, formerly of Team X and now with the Company as he called them. He'd been made their latest Expediter, not long after Zoe's promotion to Overboss, based on his work with Team X and more recently with the CIA as their liaison to Canada's Department H. "Logan is." He looked over the file she passed to him, listening to her words as he digested the information as he had done for many assignments before.

"Yes, however we've seen how much he's been compromised in recent months. It went pearshaped when we focused our efforts on Wade Wilson."

"When you focused your efforts of Wilson," reminded Wraith, looking up from the file. He considered part of his job to keep her honest, and so did she. She did not want to go the way of Overboss Dixon.

"Yes, well, I made a mistake," she admitted. "The Mithras was important, and I thought they'd replace me on the Logan case. I dropped the ball after the Genesis Incident, I know that and since then it's all gone wrong for him."

"What about now?" asked Wraith, with no small concern in his tone. He didn't like what he was reading here. "We already knew the Shadow King's did a right number on him, but the whole thing with this Chaste voodoo..."

Zoe shook her head, in disagreement. "The Shadow King stuff, we found out about too late. We saved him from the death penalty at his trial, and that was no small feat after what the American's wanted. It's a shame we couldn't keep it buried - the X-Men were supposed to have taken the Shadow King about so many times, but they messed it up each time." Zoe had never had a high opinion of the X-Men. In truth they didn't do what they should do in such cases and make sure that threats like that were eliminated. There was only twice to her knowledge they had done that - the first time with Proteus - and even then not totally - and the second when Xavier had tested her. She'd gained a measure of respect for him, but they all knew now it was not him but the Onslaught creature. If he'd been more forthright in his actions, he'd still be alive - it was something she swore by.

"But the Chaste ritual Elektra performed on him..."

"The Chaste ritual has restored him to what he was, if I remember what the specifics of what she's done. We've paid more than a little attention to the Chaste over the years because of the whole Destroyer prophecies. The magics of the Chaste and the Hand both deal in the undead and the afterlife, with the Hand's using dark sorcery as opposed to the natural white powers of the Chaste."

"You saw what he did to Elektra though," said Wraith, looking at the holo image playing in front of him. "She said she loved him and he gutted her without hesitation. You can't tell me that he's in his right mind." Zoe shook her head.

"Agreed, however I have hope for him. I know you have known him longer than I have," said Zoe, "but I promise you I know him better. I was there with him when they bonded the adamantium to him for the second time. I saw the kernel of his soul, yearning to be free, that nothing would hold him again and in that moment, I knew that whomever he was and whatever they did to him, in the end he would be the same person he always had been. I've read the file, you've read the file. He is as he as always been."

"Yeah, I guess so," said Wraith. "Hope he breaks through soon enough though, because this Logan... scares the hell outta me." The look on Logan's face as he walked away - he simply didn't care and he was out for blood. It reminded him too much of Creed.

"You're the Expediter, Wraith. Your job is to assist Logan in what he's doing and get him ready for the coming of the Destroyer. He's the only man in any dimension to have faced the creature, killed it and survived - and that was when he was himself. No implants, no mind-wipes, no alterations. Good luck."

"Just me and Logan against the legions of the Hand," said Wraith. "Simply great."

"Think of this as the warm up act," said Zoe, wishing she could be going with him, but she was in charge. Her days of going on missions were over, except for special circumstances. As Wraith simply vanished out of sight, she sighed. She was playing as long a shot here as she had done with Wade Wilson. Yes, Logan was back together again, but who knows what years of manipulation and out and out betrayal had done to such an honourable man.

Everyone had their limits - had Logan finally found his?

There's a legion of Hand ninjas crawling about the place, but they've not seen me yet. They ain't the only ones who can hide in plain sight, and I've been doin' it far longer than they have. I've tricks they haven't even seen yet. Kuroyama may have been another of Ogun's students, but I'm still the first choice, and as good as he's trained these clowns to be, I'm better.

I can see a couple of them below me and I get in closer to hear what they're saying an' as close as I am, they ain't got a clue.

"We have the target, my lord," says one of the ninja. "What do we do about Wolverine?"

"Kill him," replies the voice of Kuroyama. "Bring me his head."

"Not tonight, bub." I jump the pair of them, slamming my claws through the neck of the first and crushing the throat of the second with my metal hand. Dead before they even had a chance to give an alarm, an' as they fade to dust, they ain't gonna be found either.

"Kuroyama," I say in to the radio. "I'm comin' for ya, an' you ain't ever gonna see me comin'."

"So you yet live. You are remarkably fortunate," Kuroyama's mockin' me with his tone, but he's wrong. I'm not fortunate, I had friends with means. "However, you will not survive this. Your mind is fractured, a shade of your former self and with one less hand you have no advantages left."

"Only need one hand to kill you, bub," I answer. I ain't gonna tell him what's happened, because he doesn't need to know.

"Unlikely. However, come and find me for it will be a pleasure to kill you with your own sword."

The Honour Sword of the Clan Yashida. I thought it had been lost in my last fight along with my hand. Looks like Kuroyama's reclaimed it, but I bite back the feral cry burning in the back of my throat. .

"Yer dead, Kuroyama, an' even if you surround yourself with the whole of the Hand, it ain't gonna be enough to stop me." I crush the radio in my hand, because I've had the last word. I look at the thin, black uniforms that the dead ninja's had worn. Few months ago, I'd have torn in to the lot of them without hesitation, but I'm not that man anymore. I'm gonna be a lot more sneaky about what happens here, and they'll be no less dead.

I ain't worn a costume - X-Man or otherwise - in a very long time. Ain't had reason to wear it, but I ain't fussy. This'll do me well enough for now and this shouldn't take too long. Besides, I wanna find their target, and the only way to do that without the target being killed is to get in close.

The halls of the Chaste are filled with ghosts and memories an' I can feel them all watching me, holding me in judgement as to what's going on here. I don't rightly care - they have their ways of doin' things an' I have mine. This is my gig, because at the end of the day, they're dead and I'm alive and if their ways were that good, they'd be alive as well.

Using my skills I walk to the ninjas I come across and they see me as one of their own, but before they can answer, they're dead and it's over for them. As much as I like a fight, there's an ease to this that's refreshing. In the last five minutes, I've killed twelve of them before they could even raise a weapon against me, and that's not bad. I taste the air, lookin' for the target, the person they've got - the person they came here for.

Kind of insulted it ain't me.

Except there's a scent in the air, I ain't expectin' - an old familiar one mixed with another familiar scent from more recent times. Guess I'm just mister popular today, except the people he's here representin' are on my list of scores to be settled. I can see him now, skulking in the shadows, tryin' to keep out of sight. Looks like he has plenty of weapons on him too, just I'd expect from Landau, Luckman and Lake. I'll scare the hell outta him, and then see what he wants and if I don't like it... well, we'll take it from there.

He's expectin' trouble, but I grab him anyway with an ease that defies description.

"Time to die, gaijin," I whisper, my voice masked by the headgear wrapped around my face.

"You have no idea who you're messin' with," he says an I can feel him start to shift using his teleport power. I've worked with several over the years an' I know I can kill him before he moves out of the way.

"Teleport an' you're dead before you get there, bub," I say.

"How the..." he starts to sya before he realises who it is who has him. "Logan?!"

"Wraith."

"You crazy son of a..."

"Kinda stupid to insult someone who has three razor sharp shards of bone at the back of your neck. What d'you want, Wraith?"

"Zoe Culloden sent me..."

"I know that, her scent's all over you. What do the three L's want with me now, and why should I help after they did what they did to me - to my memories?"

"Cool it, Logan," he says. "Wanna go somewhere a little less obvious?"

"Fine, straight ahead, turn left. You 'port, you die."

"Sure," he says. Gotta admire his cool, but then again LL&L don't hire people any other way. I know, I was one of them. We're out of sight soon enough, in a small storage bay where they keep their ceremonial wines. Which also happen to be quite nice outside of ceremony too.

"So talk," I tell him shoving him to the other side of the room and we sit down on a couple of units.

"Logan, Landau, Luckman, lake and Lequare (Retired) have always kept an eye on you and your interests. Admittedly the ball's been dropped of late..."

"Really, I wouldn't have guessed."

"Hey, man, you wanna let me finish? What happened in the past was all done for your benefit. If it hadn't then you'd have died long ago - a penniless drunk with no family or friends. You think it was easy for Chang to do that to you - to look you in the eye afterwards. Yeah, he made a mistake in what happened, and by God, everyone was sorry about it - but it happened. Let it go."

"They figured it was smart to make me forget Creed's my son? That Sabretooth, the man who's tried to kill me on more than one occasion and hates me like hell is actually my kid? If I'd known... I wouldn't have held back so many times. He's officially my problem now, and if that's what my children are all like, then I ain't gonna have any more. Besides, how the hell do you know what they felt?"

"Because Weapon X knew as well," says Wraith looking down. " Because I knew."

"What?" I can't believe I'm hearin' this.

"Your blood work is similar and the DNA provided a match. He is your son by blood. We never told you because you didn't need to know. When you thought he was your father that was bad enough, because it drove you both wild, so we kept it secret. The adamantium altered your blood chemistry so that you weren't similar in test later on, but the truth was always there."

"Sons of bitches..."

"The scenarios put in to us by Aldus Ferro... he used what we knew, what was in our heads and twisted it, perverted it. If it wasn't for the Shadow King's meddling, he wouldn't have been able to do what he did with your mind, with all of us."

"What about Weapon X?" I ask, because I have vague recollections through the memories of the pain. "What connection do they have to Landau, Luckman and Lake?"

"Weapon X... was created using their technological principles and the guiding work of three scientists who originally conceived of it in conjunction with the NSA. Dr Kurt Marko, Dr Brian Xavier and Dr Alexander Ryking. The whole project was run out of Almagordo Nuclear Research Facility base, because it was a perfect cover for the work on mutant research, which was the basis of the whole project."

"Why are you telling me this?"

"Because you asked and because... the three of them answered to a former member of Landau, Luckman, Lake and Lequare at the time. He went too far, and the plug was pulled, by which time it was too late for us all, and mostly for you. You used the opportunity to escape, where you ran in to James Hudson and the rest is history. The company looks aftr you, man, even when they've screwed up. And when you do."

"Where the hell have they been of late?"

"Working on the next big thing. Which is why I'm here. We need your help, Logan. There's something coming."

"I know," I answer, uncertain about everything that's going on here. "I can feel it."

"It's the Destroyer."

"I killed it."

"You killed that one. Our world's Destroyer is coming and you're the only one we know who's faced one and lived to tell the tale."

"Only damned just, bub."

"Yeah, well, Zoe think's you're man enough to help. I ain't so sure, bub. Where exactly are your loyalties these days, man?" Before I can answer he's in front of me with a gun at my head and his finger on the trigger. "I saw what you did to Elektra."

"Ya saw nothin', bub," I reply. If he was cool before, I'm ice now.

"She's dead at your hand. I'll bet her blood still stains your claws."

"Uh huh," I answer. "You missed part of the story then. It wasn't her."

"The hell it wasn't. Our people checked her thoroughly - it was her alright."

"You ain't as through as me," I answer. "It wasn't her. It looked like her. Had her body. Had her moves, her scent, even her presence, but it wasn't her."

"How d'you know?"

"Instinct. Told me it wasn't her, so I killed her. Figure she was some kind of Hand assassin, using that part of her soul they kept when they brought her back to life."

"How sure are you?" I can see the doubt in his eyes. Doubt over what he saw, doubt over what I'm saying.

"I killed her, didn't I? Didn't look for her that long to just give it up. My guess is the Hand needs her for something - and that's why she's been taken. I'm the last of the Chaste, because it's a debt I owe them, but we're gonna do things my way - not theirs. Still wondering about my loyalties?"

"Should never have doubted you for a moment," he says, raising his weapon. "Fancy killing some ninja?"

"Always," I answer with a smile, and for a moment it's like old times, except we both know things have changed since then. The time for playin' it subtle is over - now we go to war.

Elektra struggled against her bonds but to no avail, and she cursed herself bitterly for it. To be taken like that in the heart of the place where she was supposed to be recreating the ancient order of the Chaste was not the best way to make things happen, especially if she had doubts about herself and what she was doing. However she had known the risks going in, even though she had hoped it would not be as swift in coming as it had been

She thought back to the way it had happened, wondering if there was something she should have done differently, if there was someway she could have stopped this from happening. She knew it had occurred not long after she had put Logan in to the trance to reveal his true self once and for all, to bring his mind to freedom - no matter the cost. It was the only way he could keep the Shadow King at bay, by being whole and not having the missing pieces of his life working against him.

"Clear your mind," she had said to him, as she focused on the man she loved. She watched as he used the techniques she had taught him to relax, feeling the calm come upon him as he became one with the way of the Chaste, walking the Path in the spiritual sense. Then she began to recite the incantations. No book was needed for this, however she had consulted the teachings that had survived the process, and she hoped she would be able to bear the cost to her that this would bring. In uniting the separate parts of Logan's soul, she would do the same to herself and she would tell the Hand where she was and that she was alive. She also knew that if they knew where she was, then they would know where Logan was as well and she was risking a great deal by doing this, however she believed it was worth it.

She could feel the main part of him drift away until he was only vaguely present in her mind and she knew she had placed him at the start of the Path and that he would relive his life and that would show him what he was missing. Once it was complete she hoped he would have everything he'd seen in total, but she wasn't truly sure because she had never dealt with such mystic forces before. She had always been the subject, nit the user and the role reversal made her slightly uncomfortable. She could not see what Logan saw, but she could keep him company and be aware of the world around her, just in case their enemies came and caught them unawares.

As she meditated, she could feel the presence of Stick in her mind, telling her she'd done well, and that she needed to believe in herself. His presence comforted her, made her feel secure but there was one thing that was said that awoke her from the trance, something she had never heard him say to her in all the years that she had known him.

He was sorry for what he had done to her.

That thought hit her like a bolt of electricity and broke the trance she was in. Logan was still deep within his and Elektra instinctively knew there was a problem. Reaching for her sai daggers, she was on her feet quickly, only to be met by someone else, with moves similar to her own.

No, not similar, the same.

"Who are you?" she said to the masked stranger.

"I am you," her opponent hissed and they fought, matching each other blow for blow, shot for shot, strike for strike. Except that one move which caught her unaware and gave her doppelganger the upper hand. Her hand was pierced by the other woman's sai as she struck for her heart, a shot she had not thought her opponent would be capable of seeing as that was the way she had died. However it was not her death they wanted, she knew that now, just her capture.

Her hand would heal, the wound to her pride would not heal as quickly, however she had some small sense of satisfaction when they tried to kill Logan, who was helpless before them only to be pushed back some mystical force, a side effect of the incantation. The Path protected those who walked upon it, and she understood that at last.

It wasn't the way you walked the Path that was important - it was the fact you walked on it that mattered. It was still embarrassing though, but she thought about it - was it embarrassing because the Chaste themselves had been caught like that and that she hadn't learnt from it, or was it the fact they defeated her? She'd been beaten before, so she suspected it was the former and she pushed such shame aside, because it was unworthy. Everyone made mistakes in judgement - even those with powers such as the Chaste.

That had been this morning and since then they had a plan, that when Logan recovered the false Elektra would seduce and kill him - for they were identical in every way. It seemed that the missing part of her soul had been bonded on to one of the acolytes and she had been prepared for this, hoping the fact that they were sisters in a spiritual sense would prevent Elektra from killing her. They had been right, for she had not used the same opening her sister had done and her strike would have killed. She had prayed for Logan's soul to be recombined and aid him in seeing through the deception, and from the commotion outside it seemed to be the case. Soon she and Logan would be reunited, and she hoped he was still the man she knew.

So far, he was certainly acting like it.

"My Lord Kuroyama," said the mystic. "It is time."

"Finally," said the Black Mountain as he stood up from his chair. Nina McCabe was at last giving birth. Her pregnancy had lasted longer than a normal one, however their child was not of normal parents and though he had wanted to bring the child forth at term, the mystics had told him to wait.

Kuroyama respected few, but the mystics of the Hand were the ones who had restored him after his death at the hand of Ogun. To have him on their side of the war had always been a boon - he was their chief assassin, their deadliest warrior and now he was their leader, and Nina... she was the Chosen One, the one the texts had named the Genesis. It was interesting to think of that now, for they had always thought of Elektra as being the Chosen One, but they had been mistaken. Prophecies were notoriously hard to pin down in their exact meaning, however it was assured that a child born of the undead would give the Hand their Ens Entium, the one who would lead them to a glory as yet unseen.

The child would have power, for it was a thing of evil, born of the darkest sorcery and of rituals only the mystics had a true understanding even though he had laboured to know what they had known, for he knew with it he could defeat Ogun, however he had never mastered the powers. Perhaps because he was yet alive because of them that he could not attain the knowledge, but it did not matter, for he had people who knew.

As he walked down the great hallway of the lair he had established, he reviewed the trophies that he had kept from his many battles. The head of Oroku Saki, the heart of Nina McCabe, the Black Blade of the Silver Samurai, the Honour Sword of the Clan Yashida and his personal favourite - the hand of Logan, retrieved from the rubble of the warehouse that had been the headquarters of the Foot. He had been after some clue as to where they had gone in the aftermath of the battle, but he had gained a prize much more valuable to him. The hand was a reminder of his victory over Wolverine, the sword that of Logan's dishonour.

Then the place shook with the sounds of explosions.

"What is going on?" Kuroyama demanded, as the noises continued.

"We are under attack," cried of the ninja who had come to get him. "Robots, and other warriors - led by Matsu'o Tsurayaba."

"Impossible," growled Kuroyama. "Tsurayaba is dead, killed at the hand of the Genesis."

"Yet he is still here, my lord."

"He knows," breathed the Black Mountain, his eyes narrowing above his mask. "I know not by what means he is alive, but he is here to enact his revenge and destroy the child. Elektra ill be here soon, but until then, the Ens Entium must be protected at all costs." He turned and headed away from the inner sanctums to the walls of the fortress. He did not know how they had found him, but he would make Tsurayaba and his followers pay dearly for this.

"Where is she, man?"

I can hear Wraith calling me, asking where Elektra is, but right now I'm enjoyin' myself. I'm cuttin' lose with all of my skill and power without surrenderin' to the rage, keepin' myself in check. The Hand have improved over the last year or so. They used to eb great, but then they got slioppy and Kuroyama's instilled discipline in them.

It's almost like I'm trainin' again, except this time I can kill, an' I can use my claws. Thing is, I'm being quite sparing with them, getting' in closer, using my hands as the weapons of choice. It feels good to be able to move this quickly, be this deadly and with a minimum of exertion, compared to what I was before.

I was good then, but right now I am the best.

An 'like that it's all over - the Hand are nothin' more than rags floating in the breeze and there ain't anyone left to fight.

"Huh, I was just startin' to enjoy that."

"Didn't exactly leave me with much to do, Logan," says Wraith, who seems more than a tad disappointed. Guess being with the agency as he puts it has given him a taste for the action. H used to be the one who bailed us out when things got tight, now he does the same for them, only with more emphasis.

"If we're hitting Hand central, then there'll be plenty to go around."

"You will never find them, gaijin dog," hisses a voice and the both of us turn to see a massive form before us. Nowhere he could have hidden without us noticin', so the question is.

"Where the hell did he come from?" I ask Wraith, who'd better show me that being the Expediter's still the gig that all the operatives want.

"Workin' on it," he says, as I unleash my claws and go to work. Best I can do is hack at his left ankle, he's that blasted big, and I ain't doin' a great deal. I do even less as he picks me up and throws me like a rag doll across the courtyard.

"WRAITH!"

"This is bad mojo, Logan!" he calls as he vanishes out of the giant's grasp and appears at the top of one of the parapets. "If I'm right, then this guy's the reconstituted form of all the ninjas you just killed."

"Terrific," I answer, but he's gone again. Don't know where he ended up but I'm on my own for this and I'm gonna have to think of somethin' quick because this bruiser's gonna kill me otherwise. Looks like the Hand mystics have been workin' overtime, what with this and the Elektra clone. Thing is something that big is gonna be slower than I am. All I have to do is avoid it and try and get in higher than it's knee. Seeing as it's a hell of a lot bigger than I am, I could really do with Colossus or something but that ain't exactly likely.

Guess I'm on my own for this and I watch as it comes towards me, reaching down, tryin' to grab me, an' I get an idea.

"Now it's my turn."

I leap as he extends his hand, landing on the clenched fist, my claws piercing his hand, drawing blood as I retract them and start to scramble up his arm. The cry he gives is intense, and almost overwhelms me, but I keep goin'. I've fought bigger than him before, an' survived, so this bastard ain't takin' me down. I sense the movements in the air as he tried to swat me with his other hand, but thanks to my enhanced senses I know what he's doing the moment he starts and I avoid him.

Glad I did, cause the shock waves going up his arm throw me off balance, and it it wasn't for my claws stickin' it to his arm, I'd have fallen and it'd have been game over. I could really do with some help here.

"You need a hand?" a voice says. It's a woman an if I'm right a woman who ain't supposed to be here. She reaches down and pulls me up and I look at her.

"Betsy?" Then I shake my head. It ain't Betsy. "Kwannon."

"You remember me," she said.

"Ain't likely to forget, darlin'." We start to move and quickly as we talk. "Thought you were dead."

"I am," she said. "I work for another power now."

"After your life, I'm guessin' it ain't the side o' the angels."

"No," she admits. "I work for Mephisto." In a moment, I've got her pinned down, my claws against her throat.

"Then why should't I kill you now, if I even can?"

"Because," she says and with a strength I didn't realise she had, moves me out of the way as the hand comes down again. "We have something else to do - remember, for a time I was an X-Man."

"Fine," I give her that point, and pull back the claws, "but when this is over, you an' I are gonna talk."

"Of course," she says and we start to make our way to the head of the giant, who's staretd to trash the fortress, stompin' it to rubble. Makes me angry, and I swear I'm gonna kill him for it.

"Get to his eyes," I tell Kwannon. "I'm gonna give the guy a sore throat an ' I need a distraction from ya."

"On it," she says and starts to climb up his neck. I ain't happy with company I'm keepin' here, but I need the help.

"Yo, Logan!" This giant's giving me problems with his body odour an' they're sneakin' up on me with ease.

"Wraith," I growl and turn and' see Elektra with him. "Thanks." We run toward each other and I hold her. "Darlin'," I say as the body shakes again as the giant swats at Kwannon.

"Whose your friend?" she asks me.

"Later," I say. "We got work ta do. Wraith, find us a safe way down."

"On it," he says as the I head for the neck, Elektra in tow, her sai daggers ready. Then the giant cries out. Whatever Kwannon's doin' up there, it's gotta hurt to cause a shout like that.

"There," I say and we start to hack at one spot, I take my turn, she takes hers but it ain't fast enough. We're not causin' enough damage. "Stand back, darlin'," I say and she does as I ask. Don't like doin' this, because it's still healin, but in a second the false hand is off and my other claws come out. They were retracted when I had my hand because I was using the Honour Sword.

The I open myself up to the rage, knwoin' I can pull myself back, now. I can control it, it doesn't control me an' I start to hack, to slash, to rend and flay one spot in repeated succession and my strength leaves me, but the damage has been done and there's one hell of a gash at the front of this throat.

"My turn," Elektra says and she starts to hack away with her sai, reachin' in to the wound and doin' more damage and she hits the jugular with a slash, tearing at it with ease. Blood's flowing free now, soakin' us in it and we can see inside him.

"Move!" As soon as I say it, the hand is down around the throat, trying to stop the blood, but it's too late. Bastard's finished now, and Kwannon's comin' down his neck.

"Nice," she says, an' I can see the bloodlust in her eyes.

"You can feel him staggerin'," I say. "Gotta get down from here."

"Found you a ride," says Wraith, surprisin' me again. "Silent little munchkin..."

"Gateway," I answer, an' he's already spinning the bullroarer an' makin' with a portal. "Everyone go now!" They don't need tellin' twice and we're outside the castle to see the giant fall. The weight of it crushes the walls it lands on, and it don't fade to dust. Blood's still seepin' from it, colourin' the snow and rock.

"It's destroyed," says, Elektra, grippin' my arm.

"Just bricks and mortar. We can rebuild it," I say, lookin at Wraith. Landau, Luckman, Lake and Lequare (Retired) owe me, so they can do it. "The Chaste lives in us, not in that place."

"I know," she says. "Just... memories."

"I know, darlin', I know."

"Logan," says Kwannon. "The reason I came... it's linked to this."

"The Destroyer," I answer.

"Don't you just hate destiny," mutters Wraith.

"Mephisto's trying to stop the birth, but he's been called away on other business."

"What is this Destroyer?" Elektra asks.

"The child of Kuroyama and Nina McCabe," replies Wraith, and Elektra grasps my arm.

"An' it's exactly what it says," I answer, remembering what it felt like when it possessed me. "I know what it is. An' I know we gotta stop it - no matter who we work with to do it."

"Will the X-Men and everyone else forgive you for this?" asks Wraith. "Generally speaking, Mephisto's not one of the good guys an' workin with him, for whatever reason..."

"Deal with it when it happens," I reply. "But this ain't a matter for the X-Men, an whatever happens, I don't want them involved in this. It's for me to deal with."

"Not without me," says Elektra. I smile, because that makes this easier to do.

"Thanks, darlin'. As far as the X-Men go - I just quit."