Spider-Trinity: Reborn Into Marvel Universe

"Grrr."

Sitting atop a pile of rubble was everyone’s favorite Wolverine, his hands resting on his head as he processed everything he had seen.

His time with Kayla.

The peaceful life he had managed to build.

How he had left the squad.

How everything had fallen apart the moment Stryker reappeared.

How Victor had ruined everything.

How he had become the man he was today.....and why.

He finally understood why he had never thrown away the black jacket or dared to wear it again. It was as though his body itself forbade it. He also understood why he had become so attached to his motorcycle.

The anger he felt toward Stryker continued to grow, just as his hatred for Victor did.

Ever since losing his memories, it had felt as though a part of himself had always been missing. Now he finally understood everything.

Even so, he could still feel that the mental block inside his mind had not been completely destroyed.

What confused him most, however, was something else entirely.

If Kayla had told Stryker to keep walking until he died...

...then how the hell was Stryker still alive?

Logan sighed and prepared to leave the memory, but the world around him suddenly changed again.

Now he found himself inside an underground fighting arena, where he watched his younger self standing in the center, knocking a bald man unconscious.

The scene shifted again.

Now his younger self had his claws pressed against the man’s throat while a bartender pointed a shotgun at him.

Logan snorted.

"I have seen stupid people, and then there are you."

He folded his arms and watched the confrontation end exactly as he remembered, with the shotgun neatly sliced in half.

He watched his younger self leave the bar before noticing a girl who looked strangely familiar. Seeing her follow him outside, Logan sighed and followed as well.

He watched the girl hide inside the back of the trailer before quietly rubbing her face. She slipped through the rear door and sat silently in the middle of the trailer.

It did not take long for his younger self to notice that something was moving in the back.

He stopped the truck, climbed out, and walked toward the trailer.

Logan followed.

"Mmm."

His younger self tapped part of the trailer floor twice before frowning and pulling back the blanket.

The bundle moved.

It was a girl.

"What are you doing?"

He took a drag from his cigar.

"Oh, what a shame. I needed transportation. I thought you could help me."

"Get out of there."

He grabbed her suitcase and tossed it onto the ground, forcing the girl to climb out.

"Where could I go?"

"How should I know?"

"Do you not know, or are you just not interested?"

"I am not interested."

"He is not interested," Logan muttered from his place as an observer.

"Save my life," she pleaded, trying to appeal to his better nature.

Instead, his younger self simply opened the driver’s door and climbed back inside.

"I don’t want to."

Logan sighed before beginning a countdown.

"Five... four... three... two... one... zero."

The truck stopped.

The girl grabbed her suitcase and ran after it.

"Do not say I am a bad person."

Using the ability he had learned inside the dreamscape, Logan imagined himself sitting inside the truck. A moment later, he appeared within the memory itself and quietly waited until the girl climbed back inside.

For several minutes, silence filled the cab before she finally spoke.

"Do you have anything to eat?"

His younger self reached behind the seat, found a package, and handed it to her.

Both Logan and his younger self watched as she removed her gloves.

For a brief moment, Logan thought of another girl he knew, but immediately dismissed the comparison when he realized they looked nothing alike.

"I am Rogue," the girl introduced herself.

Logan’s eyes widened as he looked at her more carefully.

"What the hell..."

"Were you in the military?"

She had noticed the dog tags hanging around his neck.

"What does that mean? Were you really in the military?"

The question clearly made his younger self uncomfortable.

He tucked the tags beneath his shirt.

Rogue wisely decided to stop asking and looked back out the window.

"Wow..."

She slowly turned to look around the trailer.

Logan looked as well.

"Damn."

"I did not remember it looking like this."

"I think spending so much time with Ro really did me some good."

His current setup looked nothing like this anymore.

"What?" his younger self asked.

"Suddenly my life does not seem so bad."

"From what I clearly remember, your life was never that bad," Logan commented.

"If you prefer the road..."

"No, no."

"It looks very nice."

Rogue deliberately avoided looking at him.

Logan created a cigar in his own hand and took a drag.

"It looks cozy."

"This is one of the biggest lies I have ever heard."

His younger self switched on the small heater before instinctively reaching toward Rogue’s frozen hands.

"I would not do that if I were you."

"Grrr."

"Put your hands near the heater."

Before he could touch her, Rogue quickly pulled her hands away.

His younger self raised an eyebrow.

"I am not going to hurt you."

"It is nothing personal."

"It is just that whenever people touch my skin... something happens to them."

She quietly put her gloves back on.

"What?"

"I do not know."

"I hurt them."

"Everyone except Peter," Logan added.

"That seems fair enough," his younger self replied.

"When do they come out?"

"Does it hurt?"

Rogue looked toward the hand resting on the steering wheel.

"Always."

Both Logans answered at exactly the same time.

"What kind of name is Rogue?"

"I do not know."

"What kind of name is Wolverine?"

She answered his question with another.

"My name is Logan."

"Not anymore."

"But the name still remains," present-day Logan muttered.

"Anna Marie."

For several moments, silence returned until Rogue suddenly noticed something.

"You should put on your seatbelt."

"Look, kid, I do not need your—"

He never finished the sentence.

The truck crashed.

He was launched clean through the windshield.

"That is exactly why I wear one now."

"It saves me from replacing the windshield every time."

Observer Logan adjusted the imaginary seatbelt across his chest.

Rogue stared in complete shock as his younger self flew through the windshield.

Her shock only grew when she watched every injury heal before her eyes.

The amazement quickly turned into panic as she realized her own leg had become trapped beneath the dashboard.

She desperately tried pulling it free.

"Is everything alright?"

His younger self approached, completely unharmed.

"Kid?"

"Are you alright?"

"I am stuck."

He wiped the blood from his forehead using his jacket sleeve before moving to help.

Then he stopped.

A tree snapped in half.

He immediately sniffed the air.

Observer Logan felt the same familiar sensation.

Only one person could produce it.

His younger self spotted movement among the trees and unsheathed his claws.

Rogue froze.

A beast burst from the forest with a feral roar, grabbed his younger self, and hurled him into a tree hard enough to shatter it.

Behind the burning trailer, Rogue finally saw what had attacked them.

Logan clenched his fists helplessly.

There was nothing he could do.

He was only an observer.

The creature ripped a broken tree from the ground and swung it like a baseball bat just as his younger self regained his footing.

The impact sent him crashing back toward the truck.

The creature slowly approached.

"Victor?"

Logan stared in disbelief.

This looked nothing like the brother he remembered.

The Victor he had last seen wore longer hair, a beard, and a dark brown-and-yellow suit that had always disturbed Logan slightly, although he never criticized it considering some of his own fashion choices.

Standing behind this savage version of Victor was the woman who would eventually become one of the most important people in his life.

"Just as beautiful as the first time we met," Logan whispered.

Beside her stood another man.

There was no mistaking him.

Logan would never forget the insufferable individual who irritated him with every word that came out of his mouth and every order he gave as though he alone were in charge.

More than once Logan had wanted to permanently remove him from the equation, only to be stopped by Ro and the Professor.

He still could not understand why Jean had ever gone out with him.

Hank himself had needed to be talked out of carrying out his own solution on more than one occasion.

Sometimes Logan wondered why Magneto had never arranged for a convenient accident.

Then he remembered Xavier would have seen it coming.

Suddenly, however, an idea involving a certain arachnid began forming inside his mind.

If he played his cards correctly...

...and somehow arranged for Scott, Jean, and Peter to have one particularly memorable encounter...

...things could become very interesting.

A slow grin spread across his face.

Since Parker had installed the mental barrier, no one except Logan would ever know about the idea.

"Mr. Howlett..."

"You are a schemer."

For a brief moment, Logan thought he heard Wade’s voice.

But he simply shrugged.

That was impossible.

Just as he prepared to watch the scene where Ro confronted the savage Victor...

...the memory changed once again.