"We are done talking about them for now, but mark my words, Logan," Huang Wen said, his expression hardening, his eyes holding the cold resolve of a man whose patience had been severely tested. "If they choose to bring their politics or their animosity to my doorstep, I will not simply teach them a lesson again. I will end them."
"If they come here, they'll have to go through me," Logan promised, the words deep and resonant. The past few hours—the betrayal by Charles, the revelation of Stryker's crimes, and the Sorcerer Supreme's ominous warning—had stripped away any lingering, sentimental ties he felt to Xavier's cause.
The X-Men had repaid a life-saving act with hostility. He saw the world, and himself, with a newfound clarity. "I'm done with that school."
He then fixed Huang Wen with a serious, unwavering gaze. "The old man died before I got the full truth. You said you could tell me everything. Now that the distractions are gone, I need to know. What was my life?"
"I can do more than tell you, Logan. I can activate the buried pathways and make the memories flood back into your mind," Huang Wen replied, his tone grave.
"But I must maintain my original counsel: sometimes, that blank slate is a mercy. Your history is not a glorious saga; it is a long, brutal nightmare filled with loss, betrayal, and unspeakable trauma. You are not just facing the life you forgot, but the beast you were."
"I need to know the beast to make sure I never become him again," Logan insisted, his adamantium skeleton seeming to radiate sheer willpower. "I can handle it. I have to."
"Very well. It is your choice, and your destiny." Huang Wen paused, studying the conviction in Logan's eyes, seeing not the blind fury of the past, but the determined focus of a true martial soul. He finally nodded, lifting his hand.
Without hesitation, he reached out and placed his palm gently against the side of Logan's temple. Huang Wen did not use the aggressive telepathy that Charles had attempted; instead, he channeled a pure, incredibly precise stream of his amplified Shen—his spiritual power—gently bypassing the damaged psychic filters in Logan's brain and triggering the catastrophic cascade of repressed, century-spanning memories.
The Vajra Divine Art's unified defense, though no longer visibly activated, had subtly shielded this internal maneuver from Charles's frantic, external probing earlier, proving its comprehensive mastery.
Logan didn't shout. He didn't even flinch. He simply went rigid, a silent conduit for the torrent.
The span of a human life is barely a second compared to the century and a half of relentless suffering, fighting, and survival that slammed into Logan's mind.
He saw the Canadian wilderness, the primal bond with Victor Creed (Sabretooth), the constant blood, the desperate attempts to live a normal life that always ended in tragedy, the countless faces of loved ones who grew old and died while he remained frozen by his immortality.
He saw the endless recruitment drives, the wars, the lies, and finally, the horrific stainless-steel tables of the Weapon X facility. He felt the agony of the molten Adamantium being force-bonded to his skeleton, the screaming, blinding pain that stole his name and his identity, leaving only the animal rage.
For Logan, the passing of time was irrelevant. He was reliving an entire, brutal century condensed into a single, overwhelming psychic moment.
"Hooo…"
After what felt like an eternity, Huang Wen slowly withdrew his hand. Logan exhaled a massive, shuddering breath, his body momentarily drained of all tension.
His eyes, though still clear, held the shadowed weight of every life he had taken and every kindness he had lost. His healing factor, working overtime, began subtly normalizing the chemical storm that the shock had triggered in his brain.
"So… this is what I was," Logan finally muttered, the trace of confusion replaced by a profound, dark knowledge. He understood now why William Stryker had called him a beast, why the man had used such twisted methods to control him. And he understood, perhaps better than anyone, why Huang Wen had advised against this recall. The tragedy was suffocating.
"That was the you of the past, Logan, a man defined by trauma and coercion," Huang Wen reassured him, gently patting the mutant's shoulder. "You are nearly two hundred years old. You've lived multiple full lifetimes. What you do now is what truly matters. From this second forward, consider it your ultimate, true rebirth."
Logan lifted his head, locking eyes with Huang Wen. He didn't speak, but the subtle nod indicated he had accepted the challenge. He was still processing the full gravity of his past, an undertaking no simple pep talk could resolve.
"Oh, and before we move on, there's someone here who requires a proper introduction," Huang Wen said, subtly changing the subject, his gaze drifting toward the silent figure standing off to the side.
He focused on Yuriko Koyama, the woman formerly known as Deathstrike. "Logan, meet Yuriko Koyama. She was William Stryker's personal assassin, but now she is simply Yuriko. A tragedy of the Weapon X program, much like yourself."
Huang Wen paused, momentarily at a loss on how to word the bizarre biological truth. "Her history is… complicated. Her father was one of Stryker's scientists, but that's merely her theoretical parent. Her actual parentage is… well, it's a bit of an accidental cocktail."
Logan, still reeling from his own history, narrowed his eyes, tracking the movement of Yuriko's metallic fingers, her quiet intensity. A deep, unsettling intuition, a sense of shared genetic echo, crept up his spine.
"Don't tell me…" Logan's voice was low, tinged with disbelief and a growing horror. He looked from her hands to Huang Wen. "Don't tell me she's… his daughter? That maniac, Victor?"
"To be perfectly accurate, she is the result of fusing genetic material from both you and Victor Creed—Sabretooth," Huang Wen stated plainly, choosing the clearest path. "She is a clone, a designer weapon. Initially, William Stryker intended her to be a direct clone of you, Logan. However, he noted that before the Adamantium bonding, Victor's raw strength, speed, and aggression levels surpassed yours."
"Therefore, Stryker's scientists chose to fuse Victor's genes with yours, Logan, to combine your healing factor and Victor's feral aggression, attempting to cultivate the most powerful Weapon X possible. Yuriko inherited a terrifyingly enhanced healing factor, Victor's more primal ferocity, and the enhanced, retractable metallic claws. She represents the worst ambition of that program."
"Stop, just… stop talking!" Logan quickly cut him off, shaking his head vehemently. He looked at Yuriko, his expression morphing from horror to profound, weary apology. "Um, I didn't mean to look at you that way. I didn't mean to look down on you. It's just… a lot to process."
"It is quite alright," Yuriko replied, her face remaining impassive, the hypnosis having only removed the hostile programming, not the lifetime of emotional suppression. She spoke in a low, measured tone.
"From the moment I gained consciousness, I was always treated as a weapon, a thing to be commanded and discarded. You, however, are the very first person who has ever even acknowledged the existence of my 'feelings.' Thank you." A fleeting, deep sadness, an emotion utterly new to her, flickered briefly in her eyes before being forced down.
Huang Wen had deliberately left her emotional state intact. He did not want a cold, dead-eyed drone; he wanted a functional guardian who possessed free will but was anchored by an overriding loyalty to a specific purpose, preventing the total disorientation that absolute freedom might cause a former weapon.
"Your tragedy… it's all tied to me. It all stems from my existence," Logan sighed heavily, reliving his history not just as a victim, but as the unwilling source of this new, terrible life.
"No, Logan. It is because of your existence that I possess life at all," Yuriko countered, shaking her head slowly. "Being granted my own consciousness, having this hard-won, relative freedom, even under the Boss's command—it has given me a chance to learn gratitude for simply being in this world, something my creators never intended."
Logan seemed deeply touched by her quiet acceptance. He turned abruptly to Huang Wen, his focus now fully shifted from his own suffering to hers.
"What is her situation now? What are your long-term intentions for her?" he asked, his voice suddenly sharp and protective.
"I restored her core memories, and yes, it was through her mind that I pieced together her origin," Huang Wen replied, glancing at Yuriko to show he wasn't hiding anything. "I plan to renovate and upgrade the martial arts school here in Chinatown soon. I intend to leave her as the silent guardian of Uncle Zhong and the community while I travel and settle some other affairs."
Logan hesitated, a moment of deep suspicion flickering in his eyes. "Did you… control her in the same way Stryker did?"
"Besides giving her a defined purpose and an identity where I am her 'Boss,' I placed no other restraints on her free will or emotion," Huang Wen confirmed, his face serious.
"I am not a slave owner, Logan. I needed a loyal guard who wouldn't abandon her post, nothing more. Of course, if you, her… genetic father… feel any discomfort with this arrangement, I can revoke that directive instantly. She will be free to walk away without consequence."
"No!" Yuriko cried out, the speed and urgency of her response shocking even Logan. "Do not revoke it! My entire life has been spent under rigid command. Too much freedom is terrifying; it only leads to confusion and loss. This is good. My Boss gives me a function, a purpose, something to do. I do not have to wander aimlessly or fight my own mind."
Yuriko's raw honesty struck Logan deep in his core. He finally understood the nature of the weapon—designed to follow orders, incapable of thriving in a vacuum of choice. He saw his own confused, aimless years reflected in her eyes.
"Boss," Logan announced suddenly, his mind made up, a fierce, protective instinct overriding everything else. "I want to take her with me for a while. I need to take her out into the world. She needs to see something other than Stryker's labs and these dark corridors. And I need to teach her how to be more than just a weapon."