"General Makepiece," said Sergeant Fury, as he stood to attention as the three men entered the room. The man in the chair didn't stand, just stood and looked at the men as they walked in, his eyes narrowing. He didn't go in for the pomp and circumstance stuff of the army. He was a spook, plain and simple.

"Fury," replied the General, his Texan accent coming through and then he turned to greet the other man. "Logan."

"Bub," he replied, a cigar clamped between his teeth, and that was about as much greeting as he gave. His orders had been to rendezvous with Fury outside of Lyons and get to London as quickly as possible, where he would receive further instructions. One submarine journey later and they were both in England. He worked with Fury and his so-called Howling Commando's before so they were used to each other.

In fact, Logan had come to the conclusion that he liked the Sarge. Yeah, he was an army man, but he was edging out of that and getting more involved with the spy game. It was an interesting career development, but then again there were a few people wondering about what they would do when the war eventually ended.

"This is Major West from Department K," introduced Makepiece, mostly for the benefit of Fury as Department K was the current codename of the Canadian Intelligence Service, taking the letter from the name of the incumbent Head of the CIS. However, the third man was not recognized by either the soldier or the spy.

"And this is Lord Falsworth." Logan's nose bristled in recognition - he knew the man under another guise, the guise of a hero, the guise of an Invader. Falsworth was better known as the Union Jack and they had fought together before. To the credit of both men, neither gave away a hint of recognition on their faces.

After all, they were professionals.

John F Kennedy Airport, New York - Present

The flight to Madripoor departed in just under an hour, and Elektra was waiting for Logan to join her. Her long hair was tied at the back, leaving her forehead bare. She wore a pair of glasses with simple glass in them, and with the tan she still had from her break at her home in Greece she was almost unrecognizable. This was a good thing as there were still warrants out for her arrest - the Kingpin's contract on her still stood and then there was the Hand.

It was the Hand that concerned Logan at the moment, and she was waiting for him to return from a meeting with the armored Avenger, Iron Man. It seemed that the Hand had taken an interest in Stark's well being, or at least lack of it, and information was needed.* Daredevil wasn't exactly easy to contact, which left Logan as the closest expert on them. It seemed that they were branching out in their operations, which meant that Kuroyama's revival of the order was becoming more significant than they had dared imagine.

(* See Iron Man #14 - David)

It was worrying, but Logan had more pressing things on his mind and through it, so did she. In order to keep relations between Avengers and X-Men cordial he had agreed to meet him and help him out. You never knew when the favor would be returned. In her concern about Logan and the Hand she never heard two men come up behind her.

"Excuse me," said one tapping her on the shoulder and she whipped around, her reflexes kicking in. She thought one of the men familiar but not the second.

"Yes?" she snapped, annoyed at being crept up on, especially as it seemed they hadn't crept up on her and walked right up to her.

"You are Elektra, aren't you?" said the dark haired man, his tone belying the confidence in his eyes, as if he had seen a great many disguises in his time. His breath had the air of stale smoke, and his hands were now in his trench coat pockets.

"Have we met?" she asked, not really knowing them.

"It isn't her," said the blonde man, with a weary tone in his voice. "I said it wasn't."

"Shaddup a second," asked the dark haired man. "Sorry but I gotta ask - are you married to Logan?"

Elektra flushed slightly at the question. "No," she said. "It's too soon to even think about that."

"Damn," said the dark haired man. "Sorry to have troubled you, love."

As the two men walked away, quite downheartedly, she was sure she heard the blond one say: "At least you didn't ask if she was pregnant" at which she shook her head. She must have been hearing things and that was one of the weirdest conversations she had ever had. As she watched them walk away she heard someone coming and this time she was determined not to be taken by surprise.

"'Lektra," said Logan as she turned to greet him. "Was that Adam?"

"Adam?" she asked, not knowing which of them he was on about.

"Forget it," he said. "Must be gettin' old, seein' shadows." He looked up at the display board. "Guess it's time to catch the commercial to Madripoor," he said, hoping there'd be no incidents on the plane, like the last time he'd left the country.*

(* In Wolverine #3 - David)

"Yes," she said, and slipped her hand into his, as a flash of light went off in the background, as if a camera had taken a snapshot of a tourist, or perhaps someone leaving to travel the world. Idly, she wondered if the two strangers had anything to do with it, but those thoughts were lost as they made their way to the boarding gate.

Royal Palace, Madripoor

Viper sat in her throne room, the computer screen rising from the floor in front of her. She had made some modifications to the palace since she had taken over and it was now one of the prime headquarters of Hydra. The computer screen was soon fully emerged from its resting-place in the floor and she got up from her throne. She walked down the short stairs to the tall square before her and placed her palm on a small grey panel, almost camouflaged against the black box of the screen.

Normally she would use the facilities built into the throne but for this she needed fingerprint ID, and retinal scan with DNA and voice signature confirmation. Logging in to the Hydra Information Network was something that she did only rarely but now she needed the information within the vast repository of the files. A green light highlighted her hand and she placed it on the panel as a thin red light shone into her eye. She used her self-control to stop herself from blinking and canceling access with what would be fatal results. Then there was a tiny stab of pain as a small pin pressed into her flat palm, pricking the skin and getting a blood sample for the DNA, and she spoke her name.

"Identity confirmed," flashed up on the screen and a small cover opened to reveal the remote keyboard unit and she entered her user ID and password. The keyboard was then released from its moorings and she was able to take it back to her chair, where she began to look up certain details, using the criteria 'Logan', 'Madripoor', 'traitor', and 'Nazi'. If there were any details from the second World War, she would find them and finally she would have a means to bend Logan to her will.

In the shadows, someone laughed unheard.

Berlin - 1942

Logan could scarcely believe it was three days since the meeting in London, and now he was in the heart of the Third Reich. His mission parameters were simple enough - get in, find the statistics for the Nazi forces in Egypt and get them back to London for the counter offensive. It was a simple enough task on paper, but in actual fact, well that was another matter entirely.

Logan pulled the jacket around his shoulders as the wind whipped up. It wasn't the cold that bothered him, just the chill in his spine he got when the various scents hit him. It was not a pleasant place to be. He wondered how easy it would be to sneak in and kill Hitler before anyone noticed, but that wasn't what he was there for. Something of that magnitude wasn't worth the risk involved according to the official reports.

Official reports were generally something to be ignored, as it was the unofficial stuff that contained what he needed to know, and this was no different. In this case he was after highly unofficial documents. US Intelligence had discovered that there was a weakness in the Egyptian front, that the German forces seemed to be different over there, not as prepared, not as determined as their other counterparts. This was where the statistics report came in, because it would tell them exactly what was going on.

Once they had that, they could formulate a plan to exploit it. It was here where they had reached difficulties. The American spies were good, but as good as Captain America and the other heroes from the United States were, they did not have the reach that was needed to get the plans themselves. They knew where they would be, but were unable to get them. Logan had mentioned in the meeting it was like kids looking at the cookie jar on the top shelf but the analogy hadn't gone down very well.

What they needed was an agent to get in, and unlike the British, the Canadians had a top agent who had gotten in and out of Germany before without problems. Or at least none of the problems he had come across had lived to tell the tale. Nobody questioned Logan's success rate, because they couldn't afford to. There were whisperings that he had to have some kind of secret to do the things he did, but nobody had ever proven anything substantial.

Logan walked down the street and was only once confronted by officials who asked for his papers. He had smiled, and shown them papers, which showed him to be Herr Hans Loggan, which was close enough to his real name to avoid any misunderstandings. His German was flawless and using his superior senses he was able to avoid any further problems until he reached the place he was after. That was where he needed to get into, that was where the files were.

In English it translated into 'Hellfire Club', and it looked to be quite heavily guarded. This wasn't going to be easy; he thought as he looked at the building. Then he quickly turned as something at the edge of his perceptions caught his attention. There was nobody there. He could have sworn he had sensed someone, but now there was nothing. He sighed, thinking to himself that he had to cool it because he was jumping at shadows.

Somewhere over the Pacific Ocean - Present Day

I awake with a start and it takes me a while to gain my bearin's. I'm on a plane headin' for Madripoor and there's somethin' to be found. That wasn't just a dream I just had, but a lost memory flashin' in my mind an' I know that feeling all too well. Looks like whatever blocks were in my head are breakin' down slowly but surely.

There's somethin' different about these memories though. These memories have a distinct feel to them, a taste of telepathy. Given what we know about the Shadow King's involvement with this caper, it looks like this could just be the tip of the iceberg, an' I don't wanna involve the X-Men in this. The less they know about what's goin' down, the better. If I could, I'd leave Elektra as well, but there's the start of somethin' between us an' it's been a while since I had those kind o' feelings.

I just look at her sleepin' like she is and there's a tenderness in me that I've missed. Elektra's a pistol an' a firecracker an' I ain't sure what she sees in me, but then again I've wondered that about them all. Not somethin' I wanna go into - love's one of the few things in life that shouldn't have to be explained, you just go with it.

Huh. Love. Now where did that come from? First time I've realized that's what it is. An' now I'm goin' to see my wife. No, my life isn't too complicated. Not at all.

We'll be in Madripoor in about an hour. Time yet to get a bit more sleep, 'cause I've a feelin' it may be the last chance fer a while.

Royal Palace, Madripoor.

"Excellent," said Viper as she looked at the documentation in front of her on the screen. Details of Logan's treachery during World War 2 echoed in her mind like the Brandenburg symphonies, and she smiled at the find. Logan, the dependable, upstanding member of the X-Men was one of the greatest enemies that Canada had ever known.

Except that begged a question - why was he still active? The files provided by Silver Fox on the Weapon X project had been helpful in looking at her estranged husband's former improvements and the reasons behind them had been interesting, but there was one thing that still eluded her. What had been done to him, what kind of deal had he cut to get out of what to anyone else would have been an execution? If he were indeed the traitor, then what had happened? Viper was intrigued as to what was going on and she needed to know more.

There was one file that she could see with a priority flag on it, which meant that Strucker himself had authored it. It was flagged with the highest warnings and Viper opened the file, using her private authorizations, and was stunned to read what was there. Towards the end of the war - around 1941 - several of the ranking officials of the Nazi Party, including Zemo, Strucker, and the Red Skull had decided that Hitler was not in control. His obsession with the occult was undermining their efforts but they could not stop him, and so they formed the Shadow Council.

Once they had done so, a stratagem was devised, one that would undermine the Fuhrer and allow his successors to take over, but they needed a demon of their own and there was talk of such a man in Egypt. Reportedly he was a pale-faced demon, almost blue in hue according to some, but if those reports were true, then the person they found was wrong. They found a demon of another sort, a demon who knew their plans before they did, a demon who stalked them in silent, following them across the world, a demon they began to call the Shadow King, much to his amusement.

The Shadow King pulled a plan from their heads to use the Allies as their pawns and use them to liberate Egypt, which would be his payment for the arrangement. The Shadow Council arranged for the American spies to learn of unrest in Egypt and so the game began. The spy who had stolen the plans would not be suspected of working for the enemy, as in theory they all would be, and so it would succeed. Except something went wrong and the Shadow King betrayed them all, ending with a plot to assassinate Hitler and the rest of the Shadow Council.

The file ended and Viper sat back, thinking of what she had just learned. Hydra was born not of the ashes of the Third Reich, but the ashes of the Shadow Council. Traitors to the cause of Hitler, but true to the beliefs of the Reich. It was interesting to read, and she wondered how many others knew about this.

"Not many," said a voice and Viper turned, but there was nobody there.

"Who?" she demanded, fearing the answer.

"Oh, can't you guess?" came the voice, seemingly echoing around her.

"The Shadow King," she gasped.

"Yes," he said and Viper felt her mind cloud over and soon she felt no more.

"Welcome to Madripoor," said Elektra as they stepped out of the airport and onto the street. The rain was pouring down on them both as she and Logan hailed a taxi to take them to the Princess Bar in Lowtown. Logan had put on an eye patch and the taxi driver didn't say a word from the moment they got into the cab to the moment they left, not even asking for a fare.

"What was that about," she asked and Logan smiled.

"Tell ya later," he said as he walked into the Princess. The lights were off and it had been quite a while since anyone had been in here. The place was a mess, but there was still power and the lights came on quite easily and Elektra could see the grim realization on Logan's face, as this place of memories was in a truly dilapidated state.

That it was still standing was also a miracle. It was obviously off-limits to the rest of the country, otherwise it would have been destroyed months ago and Logan wasn't sure if he was glad about it or not. The place wasn't what it was. "Drink?" he asked, putting a table upright and getting some chairs. "Should have some in here somewhere."

"We are expecting company?" she asked, watching him move about the room, as she undid the straps holding back her hair and gave a shake to free it properly. She knew he wouldn't say what he was feeling so she had to look at him, look into his eyes and see through the persona he gave off. To her, it was like she was reading a book.

"Countin' on it, darlin'," he said. "Just ain't sure whose gonna turn up first. Word'll have gotten out I'm back in town. Of the friends I had left in town, Jessica don't trust me and Tyger is under the influence of Viper."

"The wedding cost you more than you said," said Elektra softly, noting the sadness in his eyes as he thought of two friends he would probably never get back, one through choice and the other through treachery.

"What comes of duty," he said as he found a bottle of an unopened single malt whiskey. "Huh," he said as he poured a glass and Elektra shook her head. A flash of lightning shone across the room and the lights died.

"We got company?" she asked as Logan downed the small shot glass.

"Yup," he said and revealed his claws. "Showtime."

Next Issue: Hydra's got a new man in charge and he is the Shadow King, but what does he want with Logan, and why now?