"Jean?"
Logan walked through the vast, white space. "Jeanie, where are you?"
She was supposed to be here…why wasn't she here?
"Logan…" A faint whisper.
He glanced up, and around, turning, searching for her. "Jeanie?"
"Logan…"
"Jean, I'm here." He had come back to her, they could be together, nothing would part them again… "Jeanie?"
Something wasn't right.
Logan stretched his senses, feeling each muscle, each fibre in his being strain.
A scream pierced through the air, making him flinch and slap his hands over his ears. "Jean! Jeanie what's wrong?!"
"Logan!" It was desperate now, a desperate scream, full of pain and anguish before it died to a faint whisper once more. "Logan, come back…come back to me…"
And then it gone.
"I'm coming, Jeanie."
Outside in a still, peaceful forest, the birds got interrupted during their chirping and quickly took flight as down below, a clawed hand burst through a pile of stones marked with an X.
…
"We have the subject ready." The voice on the intercom buzzed through where Donald Pierce was sitting with his guest. They both exchanged glances.
"I hope you understand how important it is that this succeeds…"
"I understand completely. As long as you provide me with what was promised."
Donald gave him a rather greasy looking smile. "Trust me, I'm not like those other double-crossers you dealt with. The healing factor will be administered to you once we are confident we have succeeded." They both got up and left the room.
Logan was surprisingly calm as he lay on the table, strapped in with restraints that were all too familiar, squinting against the horrendously bright lights shining down onto his face. He turned his head as Donald approached with men in white coats and someone else.
"Good to see you so calm, Logan. It really will make this procedure much easier. I trust you have already been briefed with that?"
Logan nodded rather stiffly, still eyeing up the guy next to Pierce.
"Ah, this is Aldo Ferro. He will be the one doing most of the procedure."
Logan ran his eyes over the cyborg, his expression unreadable.
"It's a pleasure to be working with you, Wolverine." Ferro spoke with a gravelly voice.
Logan grunted and shifted to be a bit more comfortable on the table. "Save your pretty words for after you've been inside my head."
Donald forced a laugh before tapping Ferro and moving away while the men in coats got to work filling syringes and doing the final prepping.
"I trust you know what you're doing." Donald whispered, his face emotionless as they watched Logan lie calmly while several needles were injected into his skin.
"It's a simple procedure on my part…you just have to hope that your drugs do their job after I'm finished."
Donald looked like he was going to say something, but got interrupted as someone ran up and tapped him on the shoulder.
"We've lost contact with X-24."
Donald turned to the men in white coats. "Start the procedure, I'll be just a moment."