6 years later, on the Canadian Rockies
Ember, having been living in peace for the 1st time in her seemingly eternal life, had finally found a place to call home in her home country in Canada. Despite it being where her life changed for the worst , she was determined to be at peace with her own inside demons by facing them, which meant living in the country of her birth, eventually getting a job as a lumberjack and making enough money to get a home for herself on a mountain where she could have privacy.
Despite the fact that she chose to be alone, a woman named Kayla Silverfox took interest in her and tried to befriend her, which wasn't easy for her due to Ember's dark and antisocial personality, as well as what she was. But, over time, she reluctantly and slowly opened up to Kayla and told her bit by bit about herself, what she was and her past, which wasn't easy for her but got easier the more she opened up, learning about Kayla being a kind and compassionate woman who worked as a school teacher and she'd even driven her to work every day. And in that time, Kayla became a good friend to her and the 1st person she could trust.
Currently, Ember had gotten up early, going inside to enjoy the morning sun as she got out a morning cigarette and lit up, taking a drag and blowing out the smoke with a smile, having enjoyed the peace she'd found, but not getting lost in it to keep her combat skills in shape.
That was when she heard Kayla call out to her. "Hey, Ember!"
Ember looked at her friend. "Hey, Kayla."
"Why'd you wake up so early?" Kayla asked with a smile.
"Just smoking my morning cigarette and enjoying the sun." Ember answered after taking a drag from her cigarette and blowing out the smoke.
A bit later
After Kayla had driven Ember to her work, the mutant had gotten her chainsaw and ax before going to her coworkers' truck. "See you later, Kayla."
"See you later." Kayla said before leaving.
Later at night, at Springfield, Ohio
At a carnival, many people were having fun, playing games and riding on the rides. 1 of the employees there was Bradley, who'd quit Stryker's team years ago and got a job at a carnival to keep under the radar and live the simple life.
A couple came up to him and the girlfriend asked. "Hi. What do you do?"
Bradley explained as he looked at the light bulb in front of him. "Oh, you turn off the light, you win a prize. 3 tries for a buck."
The girlfriend was eager for a prize and told her boyfriend. "Oh, I wanna do it."
The boyfriend gave Bradley a dollar and the girlfriend tried pushing the button but the bulb stayed on.
"That's obvious." She said before trying to pull the plug, but the light still stayed on.
"That's 2." Bradley said with a smirk, using his power to keep the light on and cheating the couple out of the dollar.
The boyfriend then took the bulb out of its place but Bradley kept the light on and made the bulb explode, making him gently take his girlfriend and walk away. "Come on. Freak."
Later, after everyone had left and the caravel shut down for the night in order to move on the next morning, Bradley went to his trailer, with many light bulbs and electric devices he operated with his power, drinking whiskey as he rested for a bit before hearing a knock on his door. "Show's over!" He called out before there was another, louder knock on the door. He went to the door and opened it as he said. "I said, show's over."
That was when Victor, who was wearing black clothes, including a black trench coat, revealed himself, shocking Bradley before the animalistic mutant said to his old teammate. "The show's never over for us, Bradley."
"Victor." Bradley said with surprise as he stopped his noise making devices.
"Aren't you gonna invite me in?" Victor asked.
Bradley, afraid, but thinking Victor was just here for a little talk, despite thinking otherwise, invited him in. "Yeah, come on in." He said before walking inside, with Victor coming in and closing the door, poking 2 bulbs with his index claw. "You know, I've never said anything to anyone about what happened with you and Ember. I'm livin' a totally different life now, Victor. No need to bring up the past." But he then saw Victor take a bulb out of its place, retracting his claws and making Bradley make the bulb blink out due to his fear, confirming what he already knew Creed was here for. "You know, I always thought it would be Wade to come knocking at my door."
Creed put the bulb down and said. "Well, Wade's gone."
As Bradley fell in his chair, he said his final words. "I'm not afraid of you, Victor. I'm not afraid of dying." Before taking a drink of his alcohol.
But Victor only asked. "How do you know? You've never tried it before." Making Bradley afraid before he screamed as Victor killed him with his claws, making all the lights in the carnival shut down due to his death.
Meanwhile, with Ember
"RRRRAAAAHHHHH!" The bone clawed mutant roared out as she opened her eyes, seeing nothing but her home bedroom before looking and seeing her bone claws out before she retracted them back in her knuckles. She then got her pack and lighter off her nightstand and pulled out a cigarette, lighting up before taking a drag and blowing out the smoke. "Fuck. That fucking Creed. Sometimes I think I should've killed at every opportunity." She sighed before putting her cigarette between her lips. "No matter where I go, he and those damn wars always haunt me, in the real world…and my nightmares." She took another drag from her cigarette and blew out the smoke. "At least I have Kayla now." She said with a small smile.
3 days later, at Ember's lumberjack job
As Ember was sawing wood, she suddenly smelled someone she never wanted to smell again as a car pulled up and Stryker said Zero got out while 1 of Ember's coworkers asked. "Who the hell is this?"
"Smells like the fuckin' government." Ember answered with a cigarette between her lips before she walked up to them, picking up her ax
"My God. You haven't aged a day." Stryker greeted her old team captain.
"Clean living." Ember said, taking a drag from her cigarette and blowing out the smoke.
"You remember Agent Zero?"
"Still shooting 1st and asking questions later?" Ember asked while putting her cigarette between her lips.
Zero took out his gun with superhuman reflexes and shot Ember's cigarette before asking back. "You still sucking up ash?"
Ember spat out her useless cigarette as Stryker tried to calm them down before things escalated. "Children, please." Before saying to Ember. "I have a job for you, Ember."
"I've already got a job." Ember said, refusing to rejoin Stryker.
"Lumberjack?" Zero laughed. "What do you make, 18 grand a year?"
"18.5. Plus, despite keeping in shape, I haven't had to kill anyone unless they annoy me." Ember answered.
"Starting to miss killing people just for sport?"
"Oh, I'm damn sure thinking about killing you for the hell of it."
"Oh, yeah?"
But Stryker told his still faithful agent. "Zero, back to the car."
"Attaboy." Ember said with a smirk as Zero reluctantly went back to the car.
When he was gone, Stryker said with regret. "You know, I'm not proud of the way you just up and ran."
"Conversation's over." Ember said before beginning to walk away.
"Playing house and being friends with a school teacher. That just isn't you, Ember." Stryker said like he knew Ember.
That made Ember stop and turn around. "And you would know, huh?"
"I would."
"What the fuck do you want, Stryker?" Ember demanded.
Stryker showed her a newspaper, with Bradley on the front page. "Bradley was killed 3 days ago. Wade before that. I believe that someone's hunting down our old team."
Ember looked at him. "Anyone else?"
Stryker knew who she was referring to. "As far as I know, Victor is safe."
But that wasn't what Ember meant. "That's not what I meant. I meant is he finally fuckin' dead and put outta my misery forever. But I guess that answer you gave me just confirmed he's still breathing."
"Yes. But whoever it is has names, addresses." Stryker asked with dread.
But Ember wasn't concerned about any of them, especially not Creed. "I can take care of myself, but when you find Creed's dead body, be sure to bring me his head so I can hang it on my wall as a souvenir."
And as Ember got in her car, Stryker tried 1 more time to make her reconsider his offer. "This is not about you, McLain. Your country needs you."
"I'm Canadian." Ember said as her final answer before driving away.
"I know you, McLain! I know who you are!" Stryker yelled out as a warning.
Later
As Ember was driving Kayla home, with Ember seeing her friend walking the school children to their parents and even seeing a young boy happily go to his father, making Ember a bit jealous that the children had parents to go to, thus having something she'd lost once her father was killed, Kayla asked her friend. "What's wrong?"
"Stryker came to see me today." Ember answered. "But I said no."
"Why is he bothering you after all these years?" Kayla asked her friend.
"Cause I'm the best there is at what I do, but what I do isn't very nice." Ember answered.
"You're not an animal, Ember. What you have is a gift." Kayla said in comfort for her best friend.
But Ember didn't believe that. "A gift? You can return a gift. And I am an animal. That's all I've ever been for nearly 2 centuries."
But as they drove up to the bridge, they saw a truck and car in the middle, making Ember blow the horn. "Come on, move and let us pass, boys." But that only made the man on the right show his hand at her, making her frustrated. "All right."
As Ember opened the door to get out, Kayla put her hand on her shoulder and said. "Stay in the car."
"I'm just gonna ask nicely." Ember assured her before getting out, making Kayla sigh as she put her hand on her temple. "Mind letting us pass, boys?"
The man on the right asked with an attitude. "Are you in some kind of hurry there, lady? Are you?"
"Hey! Let us pass, Mr. Attitude." Ember told him through gritted teeth, being so tempted to bring out her bone claws.
"We're trying to have a conversation here, all right?!" He said while shoving Ember, making Kayla quickly get out of the car. "You start something, you better be ready to finish it." Before he tried to punch her, which Ember easily caught in her own hand, slowly bringing out her bone claws.
But before Ember could put him in his place, Kayla came up to them. "Hey, guys, take it easy! Calm down." She said while putting her hands on her friend and the man.
This seemed to work as the man said. "Your friend's got a big mouth."
"I know. Big temper too. So please let us pass." She said before he looked at Ember and walked back to his car. "Thank you."
"How'd you do that?" Ember asked with a raised eyebrow, having noticed that Kayla could easily persuade people to do what she asked for a while now, but wasn't sure why or how.
"Female powers of persuasion. It's a natural gift for some women." Kayla answered.
"Really. You have those powers over me as well." Ember asked with a smirk.
"Well, you didn't stay in the car, did you, Ember?" She asked with humor before they got in the car and drove to Ember's home.
Later at night
Kayla wanted to tell Ember a story she'd heard about. "Why is the moon so lonely?"
"I don't know, why?" Ember asked with a smirk.
"Cause she used to have a lover." She answered while sitting beside her friend.
"Really? You tell this to the kids?"
"No." Kayla answered. "His name was Kuekuatsheu and they lived in the Spirit World together."
"Oh, so it's a true story, huh?" Ember asked with a smirk.
"Oh yeah." Kayla answered before continuing. "And every night, they would wander the skies together, but 1 of the other spirits was jealous. Trickster wanted the moon for himself, so he told Kuekuatsheu that the moon had asked for flowers. He told her to come to our world and pick her some wild roses, but Kuekuatsheu didn't know that once you leave the Spirit World, you can never go back. And every night he looks up at the moon and sees the moon and howls her name. But…he can never touch her again."
"Wow. Koo-Koo-ka-choo got fucked." Ember said with a grin.
Kayla laughed a little before correcting her. "Hihihi. Kuekuatsheu." And after they shared a laugh, she told Ember what it meant. "It means the Wolverine."
The next day
Ember had just cut down a tree with her chainsaw at her work while Kayla was driving her car when she suddenly stopped, seeing Victor Creed in the road that walked up to her with a very evil intent as he ran familiar claws on the hood of the car, leaving 4 claw marks on it as she looked scared at what he intended to do. And as Ember was cutting off branches of the tree, she smelled something rotten nearby before walking into bushes, seeing a disembodied animal and 4 bloody claw marks on the tree next to it.
"What is it, Ember?" 1 of Ember's coworkers asked with concern.
Ember knew that there was only 1 being capable of doing this, as she'd seen it many times in the last 2 centuries, which meant only 1 thing: Creed was here. And if she was right, it meant her 1st and only friend was in mortal danger. "Kayla." She said before quickly running to get to her before Creed could do anything. And as she ran through the woods as fast as she could for several minutes, she saw the car and ran to it, seeing 4 long claw marks on the hood. "Oh, no. Kayla!" She called out while looking for her before seeing her laying on the ground. She ran to her and saw her covered in blood before kneeling down and checking her pulse, but felt no heartbeat, making her shed tears before she slowly took her friend's body in her arms and roared out her anger and grief. "RRRRAAAAHHHHH!"
Later that night, in a bar
Creed was sitting down at the bar, making a smiling face with his index claw as the bartender asked him. "You're not from around here, are you?"
Creed just laughed. "Hahahahahahaha. What gave me away?"
The bartender shrugged before Creed heard a familiar voice. "CREED!"
"You got insurance in this place?" Creed asked him.
"Insurance?" The bartender chuckled before answering. "No."
"Too bad."
"CREEEEED!" The voice of Ember called out before she burst into the bar, with only 1 thing on her mind: revenge.
Creed looked at his eternal rival and said with delight. "Well, well, well. Look what the cat dragged in."
"Guys, whatever this is, take it outside." The bartender told them, not wanting his bar damaged if they were about to fight.
But Ember just drew her bone claws, making everyone, including the bartender, quickly leave before they could get caught in the middle before she asked. "Why go after her?"
"Why?" Creed asked before getting up and answering. "You don't call. You don't write. How else am I supposed to get your attention? And serves her right for getting between us and this eternal game of ours." He said before retracting his own claws in eagerness.
Ember growled as the 2 rivals stared at each other for a minute before they rushed to each other and clashed again for the 1st time in years, with Creed running on all fours before leaping on Ember out of the bar, breaking through the door before he grabbed her, stabbing her with his claws before reverse throwing her into big logs, causing her some pain before she flipped back to her feet. And as she rushed to him, Creed slashed her with his claws and avoided her slashes as she landed precise blows on her ribs, chests and race before flipping her into a log lifter, causing her more pain.
"I hate to say it, Ember, but frankly I'm so disappointed." Creed said. "We finally had a good thing going: working together, being part of a team and doing what we were both born to do, and not fighting each other for a change. But then, you just had to go and run off and ruin it all."
Ember spat out blood while getting back up with an animalistic grin. "Happy… to disappoint you, Creed. Actually working with you after everything you've done to me over the last 2 centuries? That was the worst time of my life. Makes me vomit just thinking about it. No, scratch that. Your very existence makes me wanna puke, Creed."
That got him angry. "You take that back!"
"Make me…take it back." Ember countered before she quickly rushed at him before spinning around very fast and slashing his body up with her claws before he grabbed her left wists and turned her around, but she stabbed him through the shoulder with her right claws with a growl before he tried pushing her back despite her attempt to fight him before she got her other hand free and stabbed him with through the midsection with her left claws, throwing I'm on the logs before he landed and grinned before kicking the holder down, making the logs fall on her when she tried to run towards him.
When they stopped, he jumped off the logs, got the 1 off Ember anddragged her to her feet, looking her in the eyes. "Tell me something, Ember. Was it worth it? Was that school teacher worth it?" He asked before throwing her right in front of a speeding mack truck, causing her to get hit by it as she flew up on the logs it was carrying and rolled hard to the ground, stunned and struggling to get back up as he walked up to her. "When are you gonna figure it out? I'm all you got left. Always have been, always will be."
"I…will never stop hunting you…until you're dead, Creed. After what you did to Kayla, I'll pay you back 100 fold! I'll never stop, Creed. Never!" Ember vowed.
But Creed thought otherwise. "I believe you. But keep this in mind: you kill me, you'll have nothing. You'll be nothing." He said with an evil grin before stepping hard on her bone claws, breaking them off and making her yell in pain before he walked away.
Later, at the emergency room
"What do we got?" A doctor asked.
"Bar fight. Multiple knife wounds." Another doctor answered while opening Ember's shirt as she was walking up.
"What are you talking about? She's just fine." The other doctor said, not seeing any wounds on her.
But when Ember woke up, she grabbed her and demanded to know. "Where is he? Where the fuck is he?!"
"I don't know who he is." The doctor said while holding his hands up.
But that was when a familiar voice called out to Ember. "I can help you."
Ember looked and saw Stryker at the doorway before she threw the doctor away, walked up to him and grabbed him by the throat and held him against the wall. "6 years. 6 fucking years I've been here. No 1 knew me and then you showed up. And the next day, my friend is dead!"
"I tried to warn you."
"Why didn't you tell me it was Creed?!" Ember demanded.
"I didn't know!" Stryker answered as an excuse.
But Ember didn't believe him. "Bullshit!" She cursed before shoving him into another wall. "Why?!"
"I swear on my son's life, I didn't." Stryker revealed, while trying to assure her he didn't know, making Ember let him go. "After you ran, Victor became mad with rage. His appetites were becoming too public. I had to lock him up. He felt I betrayed him the way he felt when you ran away. He went AWOL. He said he was coming after all of us."
"So you didn't come to warn me, you came to save your own ass." Ember concluded before beginning to walk away.
"So, what's your plan, Captain?" Stryker asked while getting up.
"I'm gonna do what I should have done 2 centuries ago. I'm gonna find him and kill him." Ember answered.
"You can't beat him, McLain. You know you can't! You've tried for nearly 2 centuries and just fought him to a draw." Stryker reminded her. "But I can give you the tools to finally kill him for good." This made Ember stop before he promised. "I can promise you 2 things: you'll suffer more pain than any man or woman can endure, but you'll have your revenge and finally be rid of Victor forever."
That seemed to work, as at this point, Ember would do anything to finally kill her most hated enemy and greatest rival for good. But she told him her condition for getting whatever tool he could provide. "I go with you, I'm coming for Creed's blood. No law. No code of conduct. You point me in the right direction he's in and then you get outta my fucking way."
Later, in a hidden facility, at a place called Alkali Lake
Ember was getting lines drawn on her arms by a female scientist before she advised her. "When it starts, whatever the reason you're doing this, focus on that. Maybe it'll help."
"Trust me I've been through worse." Ember assured her.
"No, you haven't." She said before walking away. "We're ready." She told Stryker.
Stryker walked up to her and told her. "We're going to make your claws more deadly than they've ever been, but it'll be quite agonizing and painful." He said before asking her. "You remember what we were looking for in Africa?"
"I remember."
"Well, I found it. It helped us create a metal compound so strong that your claws will be able to withstand and cut through virtually anything. It's called Adamantium." Stryker revealed. "I can't put Victor down myself, McLain. To kill him, you're gonna have to embrace the other side like you never have before. Truly become the animal inside."
Ember seemed to accept that. "Let's do this."
But Stryker got something out of his pocket. "Almost forgot." Revealing her old tags.
But Ember told him. "Don't call me McLain anymore. That name died with my friend. And I want new ones with my new name on them."
"What do you want them to say?" Stryker asked with acceptance.
"Ember…Wolverine." She answered while revealing her new last name.
A bit later
After making Ember's new tags and giving them to her, she put them on and got into the containment tube filled with water, with a mouth guard in her mouth and a breathing mask that she could see out of.
Stryker then greeted the military generals that had just arrived, including a general named Munson, who was a high-ranking U.S. Army general and the major sponsor of Stryker's program. "Generals, welcome. General Munson." He greeted with a bit of contempt. "Today, we're gonna witness medical history. Today, we're gonna create Weapon X."
"X?" Munson asked.
"Roman numeral 10." Stryker explained. "We're about to begin bonding Adamantium to Weapon X's mutant claws." He said to everyone before telling his employees. "Let's begin."
The doctors activated the machines and 2 sets of sharp claw-like blades entered the tube, slowly coming down to Ember's shoulders as she watched as the claws began to get hot as they glowed like fire picks would when left in fire too long as the water began to boil with the increasing heat. Stryker nodded and the female scientist pressed the start button, before the boiling hot claw blades began to slowly stab Ember's shoulders and go into her, making her opened her eyes before she began thrashing around as her eye veins showed and bled while metal spikes came out of her due to her healing factor trying its best to reject the metal while her vitals were going erratic.
"Body temperature, 108 and rising." Cornelius said to Stryker.
"Why his she thrashing like that? Why isn't she sedated?" General Munson asked Stryker.
"She feels pain just like the rest of us, but anesthesia won't work on her. That's why she had to volunteer." Stryker answered.
"Heart rate, 190. 195." The female scientist said.
"Will she survive this?" Munson asked.
"I don't know." Stryker answered.
"200. Heart rate well beyond maximum."
"Blood pressure?" Stryker asked.
"260 over 180 and rising." Cornelius answered.
"She can make it. She can make it." Stryker said with faith in his old Captain's healing factor.
For over the next hour, Ember's healing factor was trying its best to reject the adamantium metal claws as they forcefully pushed inside her arms, cutting and burning her insides and even forcing her normal bone claws out of her as spikes came out of her arms very painfully, making her thrash around in agonizing pain as her vitals continued going off the charts. And all the while, Ember focused on nothing but her 1 objective: killing Creed to avenge Kayla's death and remembering everything that had happened in her horrible and tragic life up until this point…until the spikes slowly went back into her arms and formed into metal claws that cooled off after a few more minutes as all her vitals signs dropped until they stopped, with Ember seemingly dead from the agonizing procedure.
"Well, I guess she can die." Zero said with a satisfied smirk.
But after 2 more minutes, the heart rate machine picked up a heartbeat, which Stryker heard before saying. "Come on, old friend. Come back."
"Heart rate rising." The female scientist informed them.
"Adamantium reservoir has depleted."
"No rejection. Procedure completed." Cornelius said with surprise.
"We did it." Stryker said.
"We did it."
Stryker put his hands on the table in satisfaction. "Yes!"
Zero walked up to him and asked. "Are we taking her to the island?"
But unknown to Stryker as he answered, Ember's super mutant hearing heard what they were saying. "The island? No. The bonding works. We'll use her DNA for the Xl." Then he said something that he would regret. "Erase her memory. She's going to rejoin the team and Victor will have what he's been wanting for the last 6 years. Only she won't know it. Now, erase her memory."
It was at that moment, Ember regained consciousness and began to get angry as her animal side kicked in and she spat the mouth guard out while breaking out of her restraints, drawing out her new Adamantium claws.
"I think she heard you." Zero said, making Stryker look at him before back at Ember, who used her claws to break out of the tube.
"RRRRAAAAHHHHH!" Ember roared out in anger before Zero tried shooting her in the head but she used her claws to deflect the bullets and growled.
"LOCKDOWN!" Stryker ordered before Ember began to slaughter all the guards that tried to stop her from escaping before she got out of the room as Zero still shot at her.
Ember used her new Adamantium claws to cut through a wall, making an X before kicking it down and getting outside. She looked at her new claws for a moment before running and jumping over the falls.
Stryker, outraged, ordered Zero, who was reloading his guns. "Hunt her down. Take her head off."
There you go, my dear friends, part 2 of X-Men Origins Wolverine is complete. Ember has been upgraded with her new Adamantium claws and will be on a road of revenge that won't end well for her in the end, and will be the cause of her embracing her darker, animal side more than ever, which will lead to very negative things involving everyone she meets down the line. Hope you enjoyed the chapter. Rate and review and I'll see you all next time, my dear friends.