| Synopsis
| - Hagana San Mountain…
A heavily injured and almost dying Wolverine stumbles through a heavy blizzard. He’s almost frozen, but doesn’t give up. Wolverine talks in his other voice again. The voice tells Logan that he should have gone home. Logan refuses to do that until he has found out who did this to him. The voice asks Logan what he’s going to do if the Weapon X Program doesn’t exist anymore. What if they never existed?
Logan tells the voice to shut up. He slips and falls off a cliff. He lands badly, and Logan’s wounds go even more open. Blood comes out of his body. The voice tells Logan that he doesn’t have to be afraid. It tells Logan that it wasn’t his fault that this happened to him. That there is no shame in dying. Logan promises that he won’t die until he has found them. The voice corrects that Logan won’t find them; they’ll find him!
Mysterious men approach Logan. Logan sees them and panics, but faints.
Wolverine dreams and remembers how he was first created in the Weapon X Program. The voice explains to Logan what’s happening. It claims that the dream assailant Logan has been chasing all these years, referring to the mythical Weapon X, is nothing more than a ghost.
The voice says that Logan let those people haunt him and hound him to his death. And for what reason, the voice wonders? Nothing good ever came of the obsession. The voice tells Logan that just because they tore his body apart doesn’t mean that he should let them do the same to his soul. They were never that powerful. The voice knows that Logan still has a few fragments of who he once was and warns Wolverine that he shouldn’t sacrifice the man he would have been. Logan sees flashes of his birth house and parents.
Logan, while still lying into the snow, sees a female redheaded ghost. He thinks that he remembers her, but isn’t certain. The ghost laughs. The voice tells Logan that she forgives him and asks Logan if he hears her laughing. The voice promises that he can take Logan to her, if he would just close his eyes. Logan asks the voice who he is.
The ghost calls out to James and says that she knows that he has been searching for her. She reaches out her hand and promises Logan that he doesn’t have to be afraid. Masked men pick up the unconscious Wolverine. They lay him down on their snowmobile and head to their base. They enter the infirmary, where they desperately try to heal him.
Wolverine recalls his creation in Weapon X. After undergoing the Adamantium feed, he overhears the Professor comparing notes with his scientists. The scientists complained about Logan’s body temperature and realize that he must have been trying to reject the implant and fighting his body defenses at the same time. They ask the Professor if he wants them to increase the voltage. The Professor wants to do that himself. One of the scientists feels sorry for Logan, but the Professor remembers him how much they have invested into this animal. But not to worry, the Professor comforts: When the project is finished, Logan won’t remember a thing.
The Professor tells Dr. Hines to continue. She does, but… something weird happens. Claws come out of Logan’s arms! Cornelius panics, but the Professor tells them to calm down and asks for a status report. The scientists call it just a reflex and find out that Logan is holding steady. Everything is within tolerable limits.
Screaming, Wolverine wakes up… in a room?! He looks around and quickly sees that he’s not alone. In front of him stands a smiling, old monk. The monk walks away without saying a word. Wolverine realizes that he was dreaming and follows the monk, who still says nothing, though Logan calls out to him. Wolverine follows the monk through a computer room.
Logan has had enough. He tells the quiet monk that he’s got some questions and wants answers now. Questions like, who the monk is and what the place is. The monk asks Logan to be patient. He opens a door and tells Logan that his presence has been required by the man inside. The monk promises Logan that he is only a guest there. Wolverine doesn’t believe that, and asks the monk if he’s always so polite to his prisoners. The monk denies that, and claims that he’s only polite to the special ones. He invites Logan in, since his master waits for him.
Logan enters a big room. He looks around and finds a man standing in front of fire. Logan takes a look at the weird man, who at first doesn’t say anything. Eventually he greets Logan, but refers to him as James. The old man tells James that he has no idea how long he has been waiting to meet him. Angrily, Logan tells the man that he hasn’t been James from the moment he had his Adamantium body. He tells the man to call him Logan, but not to get used to it.
Wolverine stares angrily at the man, who doesn’t do anything for a while. He smiles and tosses Logan a sword. The old man agrees to a battle. Logan realizes that his enemy is Kitsunebi, the White Ghost. He compliments that it’s a neat trick to scare the locals. He asks Kitsunebi how many he had to kill to keep them away. Kitsunebi claims just enough to suit his purposes: simply as many as were necessary.
Wolverine doesn’t believe that. He remembers a saying: “the bigger the lie, the more people will believe it.” And the man who said that was Adolf Hitler. Logan met the guy once and thought of him as a weasel. Kitsunebi tells James that there are a lot of things that he doesn’t understand. At least, not until he gives him a chance to explain. Kitsunebi says tells James that he is old and has become set in his ways. But Kitsunebi had his reasons to do the things he has done. “Your kind always does,” Logan says as he snikts out his claws.
Kitsunebi and Wolverine walk around each other in circles. Kitsunebi tells James that he’s got him all wrong. Kitsunebi says that this is going to turn out much differently from the way he thinks it will. Sure, Wolverine says when he asks Kitsunebi if he’s Weapon X’ new improved version.
Wolverine attacks Kitsunebi with his claws, but the foe quickly ducks the move. Instead, Kitsunebi kicks Logan into his face and corrects that he is his predecessor. Logan gets up and jokes that he would say that they did a pretty good job, but tells Kitsunebi that he only got him by surprise on the mountain. He won’t be so lucky a second time. Wolverine quickly jumps forward and punches Kitsunebi into his stomach!
As Kitsunebi falls down, Wolverine angrily stands on him with his claws open. Wolverine asks the old man to explain everything, or does it have to go the hard way? Kitsunebi isn’t impressed and tosses Logan off of him. Logan asks the old man if he is a mutant. Kitsunebi says that depends on one’s definition. He prefers the term “homo superior.” He reveals to James that they are a different class, he and him. Kitsunebi expects that maybe he is a little more superior than Logan but he has had a few more years of practice.
Wolverine has heard enough and slices Kitsunebi through his stomach!
Kitsunebi screams out from the pain as he starts to bleed. Kitsunebi gets angry and tells James that wasn’t a wise thing to do! Logan panics when he witnesses Kitsunebi changing into the White Ghost! The White Ghost is so fast that Wolverine can hardly see him when the Ghost strikes him several times. Wolverine still stands and proudly tells the Ghost to come get him.
“As you wish,” the White Ghost says. The White Ghost stands still for a while and… three bone claws sheathe out of both of his arms! Wolverine is astonished. The White Ghost slashes through Logan’s neck. The Ghost asks James if he wants to know everything. If he wants to know why he didn’t kill him on the mountain, for one thing. The White Ghost grabs Logan by his throat and throws him against a wall.
But what about the rest of it, the White Ghost wonders. Is that why Logan came looking for in the first place? Doesn’t James want to know why his father died so unexpectedly? Doesn’t he want to know why his mother died on the same day by the same gun? The Ghost slams Logan against another wall and suspects that James would probably like to know what became of his grandfather. Or Smitty. Or Rose.
The White Ghost grabs Logan up. He tells James that he really has waited a long time for this moment. A hundred and eighty-five years to be exact. He knows everything there is to know about James. It’s all right up into his brain. Kitsunebi throws Wolverine against a statue. Logan remains on the ground.
Logan tries to get up, but hardly can. With the little breath he’s got left, Logan asks Kitsunebi why he doesn’t tell him about his past. The White Ghost transforms back into his human form and answers that he simply has to do it this way. He unsheathes his claws and tells James that he wants him to understand the pecking order because it’s vitally important that he sees the things the way they really are. Kitsunebi promises James that he’s got great things in store for him. And Kitsunebi needs James to understand what’s going on.
This whole affair, he reveals, this isn’t about some long-defunct secret military operation. Kitsunebi won’t stick James full of holes. Kitsunebi wanted him here because of who you are. Wolverine doesn’t get it… who is he?
“My little brother,” Kitsunebi answers a bleeding Logan while hugging him…
:Issue Summary written by: [mailto:goodhomerjay@yahoo.com Homer Jay]
:And originally posted at uncannyxmen.net
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