He caught the sword blade in one hand, deflected an oncoming sai with the other and twisted to avoid the attack of Silver Fox. He's amazing to watch in action like this, and I can see he's holding back as well.

My name is Donald Pierce and I am the instrument of vengeance upon the mutant known as Wolverine. Over the years he and I have clashed many, many times. Sometimes I have almost killed him, others he has almost killed me. No matter what we have thrown at each other we have always come back to haunt each other.

In our last battle, he wiped out my Reavers, condemning them to non-existence. Their souls were destroyed and there will be no coming back for my creations this time. He finished the job he started on them so many years ago when he first came to my direct attention. I am the last of the original Hellfire Club, unless you count the sow Frost, and I will deal with her in due course.

My first priority is destroying the X-Man Logan, and this time I have created the perfect weapons against him, weapons against which he cannot truly defend - the women he loves, the women who died because of him. Lady Mariko Yashida, his truest love, who died at the hand of Silver Fox when she convinced an assassin to poison her. The poison was slow and Mariko begged Logan to end it quickly and he reluctantly plunged his claws in to her heart.

Then there is Silver Fox herself, his best love, a love from a time when he was more at ease with himself until her betrayal of the man she loved and the people she worked with. A member of the original Team X, I discovered much about her when I was at Weapon X. She was given the raw strength and power of the grizzly bear, the eyes and grace of the hawk, and the ears and sense of smell of the grey wolf. Her own mutant power was deleted from the file and I have yet to discover what it was. Nothing I did in the limited time I had told my instruments anything.

Then there is the last of my Furies... yes, I like that. I shall call them my Furies... is Elektra Natchios. The latest of Logan's conquests and the one I believe to me the one most worthy of his affections. She died saving him from the evil of the Destroyer, she died in the service of Mephisto, as we all were at the time and it was his manipulations of us all that inspired me to this course of action. Elektra is strong, passionate and powerful, one of the world's most deadly assassins trained by the Hand and the Chaste and she was the last of those legacies at the time of her death and those institutions died with her. The world can do with less ninja.

Ooh, that was a nasty look, Logan. Focus your attention on the task at hand, instead of plotting my demise.

He pays for that error as Silver Fox strikes him and he's thrown in to the side of the cabin they once called home. She throws him with such force and speed that the wood cracks and splinters on impact, ruining the house of memories. There's a poetic irony to it, that I can't help but smile. Hello, what's this? Logan's bio-rhythms just changed. One of the fun parts of being a cyborg, such as I am, is that I can access the systems of my creations and I can see through the various scanners of the Furies and Wolverine has always been a fascinating specimen to observe.

I remember the time we crucified him outside his own headquarters, that was such fun to watch as the life just drained away from him…

However this is interesting. His physiology seems to have shifted, as if he's entered a different mindset. It's not his berserker rage, where he loses it. It's a lot subtler than that, as if he's in complete control of himself. He's calm, collected, the signs aren't there. The body should be being flooded with negative chemicals. This is generated from the fight or flight mechanism in the brain. When the primitive brain perceives an enemy, anyone who has the capacity to hurt you,, it gets the body ready to attack. The brain doesn't know the difference between facing a person in physical reality or just thinking about that person. Anger triggers chemical reactions that produce toxicity in the body, shutting down digestion, raising blood pressure and other processes in order to get you ready to fight.

In Wolverine it's the opposite. He's not angry, he's controlled. His body is ready to fight, I can see that from here, but his biological signs say that he's at peace. Incredible - he actually defies current medical science, and I'd wager that it's by sheer will power. He's changed the rules in a way I never conceived of, and I don't like the way this is going now. He's still emotionally crippled by fighting the women he loves, but it's not the edge it was earlier.

He moves quickly, flying through the air almost as a blur. He twists and kicks out at Silver Fox knocking her back to the floor. She is currently the weakest link as her systems are the newer of the trio and he instinctively knew that. Her systems will take a little longer to reset than the others and he's going for the next link in the chain - Mariko.

The problem with the plan was the fact she was badly decomposed, as was Silver Fox. The process I used to regenerate tissues and replace missing organs with cybernetics is highly experimental, but I figured what the hell. It's Sebastian Shaw's money and he's dead… Heh, just imagine the irony if I restored him with the same technology, recreating the Inner Circle of the Hellfire Club under my complete direction. I've just uploaded that mental note to the remote computer in Ottawa. He avoids an attack by Elektra, dodging and striking at Mariko at the same time, aiming for… my God, he cut off her lower arm with his claws. I can see the pain and hurt in his eyes at doing it, but he keeps going anyway.

I'm impressed. This is amazing to watch, and I'm going to have to do some rerouting of her systems to get her back in the fight because she's not going to be able to help much without her forearm. Silver Fox's systems are still resetting her body, because she was almost as gone as Mariko, so that just leaves Logan and Elektra to fight each other. It's a god job I can multitask, because this is a fight I really want to see. In one eye I can see the circuits and connections of Mariko's technological systems and in the other is the fight.

I saw the fight between Logan and the Destroyer when it inhabited Elektra and it was a battle I shall never forget, for they were so evenly matched. Logan held back then but this time he isn't doing so. As I reroute some systems, I pause a moment to view this.

Her strikes are her own, the memories of their fights and watching his moves are in her memory and they battle. He strikes, she blocks, she strikes, he blocks. Arms strike arms, legs swing through the air not connecting but only just missing their targets and I can see that there's something not right here. The moves are just the moves, there is no imagination to the moves of any kind. No creation, no flair, no style. She's still good, but it's things Wolverine has dealt with before and it's because he's holding back that he doesn't damage her properly. Yet he damaged Mariko with barely a second thought.

Something is definitely wrong here, however Silver Fox is back in action and that should even the odds. I've augmented her natural abilities with cybernetics and her central nervous system has been replaced by an onboard computer so small that it makes anything else being developed look like something from the sixties. I wish I'd had more time with Bastion's sentinel technology before Mephisto shut down Project X, however I know enough to ensure that I can give life to lifelessness.

I hear the crack as she slams her power in to Wolverine and he goes limp and slumps to the floor. I see him, and I can tell from his inability to move that she's broken his spine and the Furies start to kick him and kick him, the steel exoskeleton's doing more and more damage to the X-Man. He's bleeding, bruised and bones are breaking under their assault. I return my attention to Mariko, because I've had an idea and in moments I've restored her to fighting capacity, but I don't need her to fight, just to perform one last task.

The women turn him over and Mariko joins the rest of the Furies. Logan's unconscious. His body's damaged on levels it's not been damage on since the adamantium was ripped from his body. Bones are broken, his spine is shattered and scans from the women show that there is damage to his brain and internal bleeding. He's as good as dead. It's not good enough for me though and Elektra puts her hand on him, sending a massive jolt of electricity through him and he awakens with a feral roar, the cry of a wounded animal, a beast on the verge of death.

I can see him reverting to a feral state, his body changing as it occurs but I can see him fighting it. There's a look in his eyes and he can see the women he loved standing over him, and in the image he can see me. He knows what I have done, he knows what he has done and there is nothing he can do. Mariko smiles.

~SNICKT~

Three claws shoot from the backs of the wrist on her remaining arm. He can see the significance, though they aren't adamantium. I don't have those resources just yet, but soon and she straddles him. His spine is broken so he can't move and she places her lips upon his. Cold, dead, with a taste of metal and electricity. It is an acquired taste, but one I have always enjoyed.

Then Logan's eyes go wide as she plunges the claws through his chest and in to his heart. Then they roll to the back of his head and he finally goes limp. His brain doesn't realise that he's dead yet so there is still some biological function, but finally after all these years, the hated Wolverine is dead. Perhaps I should use my process upon him.

"Now that would be interesting to watch…"

I turn and I see someone I've expected to arrive at some point. The skies have grown a dark red, it's grown warm yet the snow remains on the ground without showing a sign of melting and there's a stench of brimstone in the air. I smile, because I have a surprise or two for him.

"Mephisto, I wondered how long it would be before you showed your face."

"Have a care, Pierce." His eyes narrow, and there's a rumble of thunder. Theatrics don't impress me much. I witnessed the power of the Phoenix first hand. "I don't take kindly to treachery, and you could have ruined so much with your interference."

"Really? And what exactly will you do about it? I've found certain things about you, my master."

"Such as?"

"The ability to block your control. You broadcast on a specific frequency, Prince of Darkness, and I have pre-programmed a counter frequency to activate as soon as it works. I still haven't figured out what you did to me, but I can counter it. And you."

The Furies have surrounded him and created an energy barrier around the demon. I did not waste my time under his control, and I have captured the creature known as Mephisto.

"You have tried my patience, Pierce." I smile as I watch him expend his hellfire bursts upon the barrier to no avail. I walk around the Furies, placing portable barriers. I will keep here until I find a way to destroy him, if that is even possible, but the score between us isn't even by a long shot.

"Do your worst, Mephisto. I have faced many with powers such as you and survived. First Wolverine, now you. This day will go down in history…"

"I wouldn't count on that, Donald." Something is wrong and then I see it. Wolverine is standing, Wolverine is moving, Wolverine has changed. I'd never have believed his healing factor capable of such a wonder that it has just displayed. He was destroyed, flatlined by medical standards and now he's moving. Silver Fox is the first to react to his presence, but Logan's not human now, not mutant. He is feral, wild, regressed and barely in control. He strike and guts Sliver Fox, tearing out vital circuits but he couldn't know that and she falls, systems sparking and returning her to lifelessness once more.

Then Mariko goes in and she tries but Wolverine doesn't know her from anyone else and it's one strike and one strike only and her head falls from her body rolling across the floor. Elektra is next and her presence disturbs him for the first time. He stops, and she looks at him, unsure of how to fight him. Has she ever fought him like that? Has she reached him in someway that I haven't considered…

"You're finished, Pierce…" Mephisto walks through my barrier with ease and I realise I've miscalculated on scales unimaginable.

"Do your worst, Mephisto." If he takes his revenge, he'll save me from Wolverine, because he'll end me forever as soon as he deals with Elektra.

"And save you from Logan. Oh, no. I owe him for the Destroyer and I always pay my debts. I saved you for a reason, Donald. This is it."

"I will survive. I have before. None have finished me permanently."

"Oh, yes, your cybernetic implants… let's alter that…" My body is wracked with pain and I scream in agony and then it's over and I feel wrong. I can't sense Elektra… I feel the cold… I'm human.

"No…"

"Yup." Logan's back to normal, somehow. Elektra did something to him, sparked something in him. "Elektra knew the way to stop me was to reach out to me, bub. It's worked three times now."

"She's still dead - there is no soul in her. She might have a working body but she has no spark. You'll look at her and see me."

"Not quite," Mephisto says. "I've not paid my debt." He points at Logan and an energy comes from his fingers and I start to run. I don't know how far I'll get, but I have the chance to reach my transport vessel and I'll take it.

The energy hits me, and I feel a weight lift from me. Then Mephisto points at Elektra and the energy hits her and I realise what Mephisto's done. He gave her back her soul, the soul that was transferred to me when I fought the Destroyer, the soul she gave to save me from the evil of it's touch.

"Don't let it get out that I've done that," says the Devil. I nod, thinking he just gave me back the woman I love. It'll be a long time before she's back to being the woman I knew, but there's something else that I need to do and I start to run. Pierce is running and his fear's giving a scent I can follow in the dark. He doesn't get far and I resist the urge to unleash my claws, because he's going to die slowly and painfully for what he did to my women.

I leap at him, grabbing him around the neck and throwing him to the floor and he shouts a cry. I stand clear as he struggles back up but he's been hurt by the fall and he stumbles to the floor. I pounce and land again, landing on him so I can look him in the eyes. He spits at me, but it just adds relish to what happens, the inevitable. The claws shoot from the backs of my hands and his eyes go wide at the sight of them and he screams as I slice a gash in the top of his chest.

I hack and slash at him again, and again and again and again and again, his cries music to my ears until he stops screaming because there's nothing left but blood and severed parts. The animals will ensure his remains are never found.

I get back to the cabin. Elektra's laid on the ground and Mephisto's gone. I check her, and she's breathing, but she's not responding to me at all.

"'Lektra," I say and there's a flicker of movement beneath her eyelids. I don't know what parts are human, what are cybernetic, what can be removed, what can't. I need help. Pierce has to have something around here somewhere, some ship of some kind. Closest help I can think of around here is Alpha Flight. Don't like using Department H, seeing as how they've screwed over everyone they've come in contact with before, but I ain't got a choice.

"Logan."

"Heather."

"How is she doing?"

"Dunno. Mac's looked at her, but it's out his league and he admits it. Thanks for coming fer us. I know Alpha's busy…"

"The Sasquatch situation's taken a lot out of us. It's not easy. We've spoken with the Japanese Embassy and they're going to ship Mariko back to the Yashida Compound."

"Thanks."

"I know you don't want to talk about what happened out there, Logan, but if you need anyone to listen…"

"I know, Heather. I need to figure it out for myself first. Pierce did a number on me, body and soul. Takes some getting' over."

"Logan!"

"Mac?"

"The X-Men have sent out a call. Something is happening. I didn't get much sense from it, but Apocalypse was mentioned. Seems he's been striking at X-Men and others across the world…"

"Déjà vu, Jimmy. Been here before…"

"I know. You need a ride back to Xavier's? I can get Alpha and Beta involved in this, if you need us."

"Thanks, bub. If Apocalypse is involved, then we're gonna need all the help we're going to get."

"MAC! LOGAN!"

"Good God! What the hell is that? A wave of crystal?"

"Aw, hell. Mac, we're in trouble…"

"It happened before… I remember, now…"

"Say yer goodbyes, I gotta see Elektra one last time…"

"Oh, Mac…"

"Heather, I lo…"

…