You want an excuse or you want to get to what's next? Kara has a long story ahead of her so let's get back to it. Quick thanks to everyone who over the last couple of years fav/followed this story and sent messages asking for updates. Those matter and it's appreciated. Special shoutout to Cheshire for years of brainstorming.

Now back to our favorite pantheress.

...

Director Fury saw the lights flashing but didn't move beyond a brief glance at the screens to his left. A tired sigh was the only signal of recognition as he shot off an order to not engage and let the danger go where it wanted.

Besides all his boys would do is delay the inevitable and honestly Fury had more pressing issues he needed to get to. So this was just a faster end to the same result.

Not that Logan took much notice.

It wasn't long before the snarling feral stalked into Fury's office. The fact he was in nothing more than military issue underware and a few nodes still stuck to his chest making it obvious he had made his way from the medical wing. Only reason his claws were still in their place was that Fury hadn't been stupid enough to try and keep him caged. Never worked out well for either one of them whenever that happened.

But that still didn't answer which exact hole Fury had tossed him into and more importantly ... how the hell he had gotten here.

Logan didn't remember and as someone who had suffered from having his memory wiped and manipulated he was pissed. Assuming somehow Fury was to blame. Which given this was Fury was a fair assessment to make.

"Welcome back." Fury calmly closed his computer and with a motion the screens went blank as the door silently locked. Logan didn't seem to notice but did shoot Fury a look as if challenging him to say something about it. But Fury being Fury he didn't. They were both professionals so there wasn't much need to point something out as obvious as 'I only let you get this far and I can keep you in here if I want just as easily.'

"Where is she?" Logan stood across from Fury the glare still on his face. Logan didn't bother to specify who he was talking about.

"Gone. We were trying to track Zaheer but as usual that teleporter they use keeps them off our radar. Hell even our magi-radar can't pinpoint 'em after they decide to move. Still ... it was impressive how quick you were able to pin them down. Lucky for you it's much easier to track a pissed off Wolverine snarling his way through Madripoor than an anarchist-mutant-terrorist cell network."

"So that what happened? I do all the hard work and you mess with my head so I can't remember that you got her?" Logan pressed but Fury just raised an eyebrow.

"It's impressive that you really think you took them all on alone and won." Fury shook his head in faux-surprise before looking back up at Logan and seemingly realized something, "You really don't remember?" Fury seemed genuinely surprised and for the first time Logan took a breath and tried to really think.

"What did you mean ... 'welcome back?'" Logan looked back at Fury whose good eye remained trained on him. A few seconds passed as Fury clearly made a calculation about what to say next.

"About 48 hours ago you really were the best at what you do. You tracked them down just like I said. We were only a couple hours behind you. And it's lucky that we were. Otherwise you wouldn't be standing here right now getting to look at me like that."

"Damn it Fury just get to the point. Where's Kara? Why can't I remember findin' her!" Logan snarled as moved closer to the edge.

"You never found Kara. Or maybe you did ... we honeslty can't really be sure. But I do know that you finally found the answer to the question you've been raging about all these months." Fury's tone shifting to something quieter. Logan would almost swear he sounded ... reverential.

"What are you -" Logan started but Fury cut him off.

"You wanted to know what made the feline so special? Well you met it two nights ago in a desert outside Istanbul. A weapon that has every organization - including SHIELD - willing to fight over a damn mutant kid across three continents."

"What the hell are you talkin' bout Fury? How do you know what happened if you weren't even there?"

"Cause you were dead Logan." Fury's tone was neutral. A solid beat of silence passed between the two.

"I've died a lot Nick. Doesn't really stick." Logan held his arms out a bit as his own demonstration of a healing factor.

"Well this one stuck. You were dead on that sand when we found you and you're damn lucky we did," having expected this reaction a number of shots of Logan laid out on the sand suddenly popped up on the screens against the wall. Wolverine shot them a brief glance but saw enough to know he'd been torn open, "We've got enough alien tech here that we were able to bring you back. Barely."

Logan crossed his arms and again tried to remember. But beyond being on a ship headed towards what must have been Istanbul ... nothing. Just darkness.

"How?" Logan looked up at Fury as he slowly began to finally understand the truth.

"We don't know much about it. Not even how long it's been operational before the Red Lotus had control of it. But we do know three things: it can kill anything and it wants Kara." Fury shook his head in resignation.

"The third?" Logan rumbled deep in thought at the implications of what Fury was saying as the director of SHIELD. A mutant that could kill anyone. Would kill anyone.

"It has a codename ... Apex."

"You can add one more thing to that list," Logan rumbled back as he thought back to the claw marks on the wall, Nat's story, the shots of himself dead, and a scared pantheress with amber eyes that had pled with him to protect her, "it's a feral."

...

4 Months Later

"What you doing here Wolverine?" Agent Hill was dealing with enough as it is without Wolverine coming into her business to make things even more complicated, "this is already an interdimensional political mess. So unless there's something you can add ... leave."

Hill had a swarm of SHIELD agents busying themselves around the lead agent as she tried to manage the crisis that was laying at her feet.

A dead Asgardian.

Volstagg to be precise.

Dead. Not injured. Not frozen into stone ... or ice ... or hibernating or whatever other magical excuse they used to escape the end. No this was a dead Asgardian and things were quickly spiraling.

It had been a low-level superhero group that had found him dead outside a pub in Boulder, Colorado. SHIELD was well aware that a number of interdimensional being enjoyed coming to Earth to blowoff steam or partner with any number of groups from the Avengers to the X-Men. Hell some of them even had kids that SHIELD was keeping tabs on.

But Asgardians weren't supposed to die on Earth. Least not like this.

Throat ripped open. Chest cavity caved.

Fury was back at base liasing with the US government and Thor and an Asgardian emissary trying to prevent a full fledged invasion force. She was stuck trying to figure out how the hell this had happened ... and who was responsible.

And then Wolverine had shown up to sniff around her crime scene.

"You just gonna keep doing that dog routine or are you here to help?" Hill tried again but Logan just kept his cowl on and ignored her.

"Did Fury send you?" Hill had been too distracted to wonder how Logan had even known to show up here.

"Relax kid," Mariah hated that he called her that, "got what I came for." Logan breathed in one more time as he closed his eyes as if committing something to memory before not even bothering to give Mariah a glance as he turned and walked away.

"Damn ferals." Hill muttered to herself before barking at her agents to pick things up. If Wolverine could figure this out just by breathing ... so could she.

...

1 Years Later

"What are you doing here?" Sebastian Shaw seethed as Wolverine turned to barely recognize the black king of the Hellfire Club. It was almost dawn as the two mutants stood in the secure penthouse suite in London.

"Nothing. Just had to see it for myself." Logan growled as he took in the still body of Selene. The one time assumed 'immortal' vampiric queen of the Hellfire Club.

"Was this you animal?" Shaw shot out. Logan turned enough to get a better look and quickly realized ... he wasn't just angry. Shaw was scared. After all what could kill an immortal like Selene? It was clear Shaw had no idea and it had shaken him.

Logan just shook his head as he took in Selene's broken body. An omega level mutant that had lived centuries killed in her own safe room but dragged out here to be found by the rest of the Hellfire Club in their meeting room. A message. A warning.

"Wrong animal." Logan rumbled and turned to leave but Shaw grabbed his arm.

"You - you know what did this?" Shaw's tone was low and harsh, "Tell them ... tell them we won't interfere. It's over."

Logan looked Shaw in the eye before glancing at the wall behind him. A single set of claw marks slashed into the marble wall. Logan snarled briefly and without looking back stalked out of the room. This was the Hellfire Club's mess to clean up.

4 Years Later

"You know Logan, it's starting to feel like you're trying to tell us something." Logan didn't pause at Hill's greeting. This time they were just outside Athens in what may have once been a lavish estate but now was more ruin then marvel.

"Not sure what you're talkin' bout kid. Shadow King was always X-Men business" Logan replied coolly as he stepped around the senior agent to get a better look at Amahl Farouk.

"You know you're gettin' a new nickname. As if you needed any more," Mariah muttered to herself, "I.D.N."

Logan raised an eyebrow.

"Stands for 'Immortal Death Notice.' Means even the people who don't know enough to know anything know that over these last couple years that if there's someone dead that ain't supposed to be that way ... it's only a matter of time before you show up."

Logan just walked around the body. The same way he always did. Slowly ... taking everything in. The scene. The scent. The method. The few sets of claw marks covering the walls.

It seemed Shadow King had put up quiet the fight. Rare for these types of scenes. But his fate was still the same.

"How do you kill an immortal being - one that technically doesn't even have a corporeal body on this plane - and just walk away?" Hill asked the pacing Logan. It had taken a couple of years and almost a dozen of these visits for her to finally figure it out.

Logan wasn't here because he was trying to find out who was killing supposedly immortal beings.

He already knew. Probably from the very beginning. He was just always a few steps behind of whatever he was chasing.

"None of us ever get to just walk away." Logan growled before shooting Hill a brief look and stalking off.

5 Years Later

Logan pulled into the driveway on his Harley and killed the engine. The early fall afternoon sun drifting into the garage as he set the bike down. Just resting for a minute before heading back inside the mansion.

Late. He was always just too late. Chasing ghosts.

But he'd promised her he'd protect her. So that's what Logan was gonna do.

It was a few drinks and nights later that Logan was out with the X-Men on a fairly routine mission. Another drug was plaguing the nearby mutant ghettos that seemed to be targeted at getting them hooked then killed in a matter of weeks. Seeing as how the police had no interest in stopping it the X-Men were doing what they could to stop it at the source.

Which was how Logan and the team ended up in the backwoods of middle America looking to stop a major supplier getting his hands on another shipment. The place was a converted rusted factory of some kind that was part bar/part fightclub/part shithole.

Honestly the kind of place Logan would likely have ended up in if it were a couple hours closer to home.

The team came in without uniforms - and headed for the hidden passage down the hall from the bar and down to the basement where the deal was taking place.

But Logan stopped at something.

Jean looked back and projected a harsh whisper of 'Where the hell are you going?' but Logan mentally shrugged her off as he walked towards the caged ring that took up most of the back corner of the space. It was surrounded by screaming men (and a few rough looking women) their attention fixed on the fight.

Logan saw a few blasts of purple energy flash towards the ceiling, earning another wave of roars and curses from the crowd.

M-Fights. Underground mutant fight clubs. Something spreading rapidly across the country and online. Xavier was not a fan and had spoken about trying to get these things shut down.

But Logan didn't really care about that. He'd fought in places like this. Worse than places like this. You did what ya had to to get by.

All of this passed through Wolverine's head as he reached the crowd and pushed a few drunken humans out of his way. He had to get closer even if he didn't know why. He couldn't see a damn thing.

But it was the roar reaching his ears just as he broke to the front ... that was when he knew.

At that same moment a huge roar filled the warehouse as under a flurry of knees and elbow to the head a huge purple scaled mutant crashed in a heap across the cage.

There was a stunned moment silence as the assembled group seemed to be processing what they'd just seen before a new wave of shouting took over as money and fists started being thrown around. The only other mutant now standing in the cage didn't seem to notice - the yelling or the bottles and trash thrown in her direction.

She acted like there was no one else in the world as she gave one final snarl at her downed opponent before finally glanced over her shoulder and locked eyes.

"Hey Logan."

It was Kara.

...

Logan kept his distance as Kara sat quietly and Hank did his usual examination, tutting every now and then at how the young pantheress had somehow reappeared in their midst without coming to say hello to him first.

Logan couldn't help but notice that if Kara had been standing she'd likely be a good few inches taller than the almost six foot Beast. But where McCoy was almost as wide as he was tall Kara had remained lean - though noticeably broader in the shoulders compared to her slim waist and longer legs. He also took note that the orange stripes around her face had faded, leaving just a few stripes around her bare shoulders and thighs - poking from the bottom of the black jean shorts she had with a mostly ripped, thin stringer like tank top she had on with some symbol emblazoned on the front. A few gold rings shown on the bottom curve of her right ear.

While her posture was perfectly straight her amber eyes stared straight ahead - her mind already someplace else.

She was older. That was something he kept coming back to. Logan was surrounded by teenagers - some that acted too young or pretended to be more 'mature.' But Kara carried something that projected as older than a 17 year old should look.

Where had she been? What had the Red Lotus done to her ... made her do?

Logan shook his head.

She was still the same girl he remembered ... the same one he'd promised to protect.

"Done?" Kara's rumble had only deepened over the last few years but had kept its soft tone. Hank shot the pantheress a look as he'd been about to lift her shirt to get a better examination.

"Almost dear. I just want to get a better look at you back here." Dr. McCoy made to keep removing the thin tanktop but Kara jerked her shoulder away from the doctor's touch and stood from the table.

"Done." Kara didn't phrase it as a question this time and without looking at Hank went to pickup the worn leather backpack Logan assumed the kid had come in with. Dr. McCoy looked ready to argue but glancing back down at his chart and understanding ferals better than most let his hand drop.

"If you won't let me take a few x-rays then yes. We can be done for now. But I do want to examine you properly after you've had a chance to settle back in Kara."

Kara simply rumbled briefly in response and not meeting Logan's eye left the lab. Logan stepped in with her.

"You OK Salem?" Logan tone was low but knew Kara would hear him. As the two made their way up the stairs a number of students stopped mid-conversation to openly stare. If it was at the fact a pantheress was walking past them or that it was Kara suddenly back it was hard to say. None of the students seemed interested in actually speaking.

"Fine." Kara rumbled back, her eyes straight ahead though Logan noticed her ears working overdrive as the flicked around her head taking everything in.

"We gonna be having any visitors now that you're back?" Logan asked what Xavier - and the rest of the X-Men - were most concerned about.

Kara stopped at the landing of the main stairs that led to the top floors and finally looked at Logan. Those amber eyes hadn't changed but the face around them had.

It was harder. Somehow even more difficult to read then before. Even Kara's tail lay still draped around her on the floor.

"No one coming for me. Not now." Kara responded cooly.

"How you know that Salem?" Logan crossed her arms as he looked up at the kid he'd lost for five years.

"You didn't." Logan's arms dropped at Kara's rumble and he just watched as the pantheress stalked up the stairs and out of sight.