Logan forced himself to keep walking. His feet had long since gone numb beyond feeling even with his vaunted healing factor. Ice crystals carpeted his hair and the cold antarctic winter seemed an eternity of icy silence. The only sound was the breaking of snow beneath his feet. He could no longer tell if Xavier was dead, alive or somewhere in-between. He had no idea how long he had been walking or how many miles he had come. All he knew was that only an unholy determination for revenge kept him walking despite the agony that wracked his small form. He would triumph over all to achieve his goal in the distance. It was an isolated habit of eternal summer in this harsh and unforgiving land called the Savage Land.

His mind wandered free. Perhaps it was his proximity to death or perhaps it was a side effect of the psionic boosts Xavier had given him earlier before Xavier's strength and will had succumbed to smoke inhalation, fatigue and injury. But for the first time in his adult life he could finally distinguish the truth from lies in his own mind. He remembered the encounter with Silver Fox. The scientists at the Weapon X project had tried to make it into a dream. It had become a story that they knew he would reject as false and thus never know the truth. But it was his own past and the origin of his obsessive hatred of the psychopath Sabertooth.

He remembered the technician that had bonded the adamantium to his system. His name had been Jamie Munoz. He remembered two other figures standing there as well. One of them he recognises as Lord Deathwind, the father of Lady Deathstrike. So the woman was right after all, Wolverine realized, I am the result of his research.

No, that is wrong. I am my own man and my own person. Damn them all that they would seek to impose anything on him. No matter what the cost he would be free of all of this. To find his own path and reject the illusions and falsehoods he had been forced to live with for so long.

The last figure confirmed the last boast he had heard. Who would have believed that Apocalypse had told him the truth -- that he had been there. Oh there were others, but there, at the beginning, these three took a shattered man and handed him to a sadistic experimenter and created a monster. No, not a monster but a man who would overcome all that they had done to him to find his own way, his own path, his own type of honour.

Logan collapsed. It was over. He could see the dome encasing the Savage land no more than 100 meters in front of him. But he just couldn't walk any further. He had spent the last of his reserves and he had no margins left. As his vision faded he didn't see the dark figures approach him out of the snow.

Logan awoke with a start. He was wracked with pain from head to foot as the last residues of severe frostbite lingered in his system despite the best efforts of his healing factor. He was in a hut of all things. The air was warm and he could hear the laughter of children and the sounds of a village at work and play. But his hearing picked up grim undertones, these people were scared of something, deeply scared.

He could hear somebody approaching the hut. He struggled to his feet but realised he was pushing himself too quickly. Damn it anyway, he had to push or there would be nothing left. Chuck was gone and he would have to find whomever had taken him and then he would make them pay.

His jaw dropped with utter shock as the entrance of the hut opened and Rogue stepped inside.

"Long way from home, Sugah. What brings you to these parts? I thought you was off on some dang fool quest to find yourself. If I had known that it involved freezing you and the Professor to death I would ahve done something to talk you out of it." Rogue said with a quirky grin on her face. Both of them burst out laughing.

Cyber was hunting an enemy he loathed and hated -- Wolverine! It was a battle that had to happen and would. The little runt was weak without his adamantium and Cyber would destroy him one way or the other.

Suddenly Cyber found himself being surrounded by a glow. He cursed and struggled but he could not free himself. He was no longer in Spain but in a dark chamber being held by metallic restraints (author's note: this neat effect was last seen in Classic X-men 25).

"Cyber, you are one of the strong. I will pit you against your greatest foe." said an ancient and cold voice.

"That shrimp Logan! Let me at him." Cyber cried. His hatred of being restrained was matched by his desire to murder Logan.

"I will send you to him but you must do something for me."

"And if I refuse, scumbag?" He might as well test the fortitude of this stranger.

"Then I will kill you. Your adamantium will not save you from my wrath." The stranger spoke with a voice like boulders being ground into gravel. Cyber recognized the dead certainty in his voice and respected it.

"So there is no choice..." Might as well figure out what his options where, Cyber figured.

"On the contrary, I offer you the ultimate choice. Serve me or die the death of the weak who can not seize the moment and act upon it."

"So who do you want greased?"

Cyber saw a picture of a teenage girl with tattoos or paint on each cheek, 3 lines of red contrasting with her blonde hair, and an old, bald man. "The girl's name is Scanner. The man's name is Charles Xavier. Xavier cannot be permitted to read her mind. There is a storm coming that will blast the weak into well deserved oblivion and test the strong to their limits. If Xavier reads her mind he will learn of it too soon and might avert it. This is not acceptable. Kill them both."

"And the Runt?" Cyber didn't care about little girls and old men. They would be easy to finish off. It was Wolverine who concerned him.

"Wolverine is in the Savage Land with them in the chief village of the United Tribes. Beware, Rogue of the X-Men is there as well"

"So all I gotta do is sneak past a bunch of spear chuckers! Consider them greased." Cyber grinned a maniacal grin and hallucinogenic poison dripped from his claws. "But one question first Mr. High-and-Mighty. If you are who I think you are then why aren't you feeding the fishes already. I heard that you died your belly some time ago."

"Evil never dies and the apocalypse always lies over the head of mankind. Go forth Cyber, ignite the torch that will become a blaze to burn away the unfit. Do not fail me for I am not as forgiving as some."

"And what of Genesis?"

"He will no longer be a concern to you are anyone. He has claimed a glory that is not his and he will reap the whirlwind in return."

Cyber felt a lurch as he vanished only to reappear in the depths of a jungle at the bottom of the earth. He smiled a killing smile. It's killing time, he thought, and he smiled with anticipation!

The war council was packed and there was standing room only. All the chiefs of the United Tribes were present as well as many other tribesmen with things to say. Logan felt a trifle bored as Kazar waxed poetic about unity and strength in numbers. He could smell the fear in the room and he knew that nobody was fooled. Magneto had returned, far more vicious than he had ever been and he had rallied the Acolytes about him. Along with the Mutates he had created so long ago, he and his followers had embarked on a campaign of extermination. These people were all walking corpses against that kind of power and they knew it.

At the corner of the room a slim blonde teenager was trying to be inconspicuous. Scanner of the Acolytes had appeared one day with a bizarre story about a blackness that had devoured the mind of her master. The girl was simply loopy. Magneto was simply the villain reverted to type preying on those too weak to defend themselves.

"... and so we shortly expect to have Charles Xavier regain consciousness." Kazar intoned. "Many of you may be unaware that he possesses formidable psionic powers which he has used to subdue Magneto before. With his assistance he can kill the snake by cutting the head off..."

The crowd simply wasn't buying it. Too many were already dead and they had lost too badly already. Everybody remembered Exodus tossing Rogue about like a rag doll. They simply weren't convinced that there was any hope. But they also knew that the other side never took prisoners or accepted defectors. They struck to cause pain and terror as if that were their only goal.

"Listen up" Logan broke out "I am only going to say this once and so listen careful. Most of you know something of me, the mutant hero with claws of metal." SNIKT, Bone claws burst from Wolverine's hands in a shower of blood. "Well, I don't have metal in my claws anymore and I am in rough shape. I am running as close to the edge as I ever have. But there is something I have learned -- never, ever give up. You do that and you do half the other guy's work for him. Now the scouting party that found me an' Chuck determined there was no practical way to escape. So we are going to have to fight. Get it into your heads that there is no choice and for better or worse it has to be done now! Magneto isn't invincible, we X-men have defeated him before and we will again. The woman I love more than anything else in the world is in his hands right now and I don't know whether she is alive or dead, and even if she is alive from what you've told me she's better off dead. I know the pain you feel over loved ones lost. Harness it and use it against the butcher who has caused so much agony. And let's feed Maggie his own guts. Enough of this talking, those who want to fight let's do it. We already know the score, an army of your kinfolk encased in Worm's slime is camped across the river. Tomorrow they will try to cross. Let's see if we can't make a few of their masters pay for the privilege of crossing. I am a Samurai and I hold to a code of honour that says that it doesn't matter whether you win or lose but only how nobly you fight. If there be gods then let them remark on our valour tomorrow. And if there aren't then at least we will give them a fight they'll never forget."

The tent erupted into cheers. "Nereel," Wolverine ordered the beautiful chieftain. "You said your people have a number of skirmish parties across the river, lets go join them." He could smell the difference. The fear still there but it was mixed with a fierce pride.

Cyber crouched in the bushes. This was the camp that the old fogey had shown him. This was where the old man, the runt and the little girl were. He smiled, he was going to enjoy this.

Scanner crouched in her tent. Fear enveloped her and she felt helpless in the darkness. None of them believed her that she had felt something wrong with Magneto. That her fellow acolytes had changed, one by one, into cruel caricatures of themselves. That she had barely escaped with her life when the darkness that consumed her god had come for her. She sobbed helplessly. Whenever she went into her astral form she could feel the darkness out there, throbbing, hungry, wanting her soul. She wondered what had happened to make her life so awful. What crime had she committed. She had been born different, hated and feared by whomever she had shown her ability. The government would have caged her like a rat. But Fabian Cortez had shown her a better way. But then Cortez had betrayed it all in the end as well. And here she was among people who hated her and all she stood for. She was seeking a respite however temporary from the hungry darkness. But she knew the truth. It would find her no matter how far she ran unless she gained the courage to face it. But she wasn't strong enough and so all she could do was run from it until it grew to swallow and entire world.

Her pathetic sobs ceased as the door of the hut opened and the gross form of Cyber stepped in with his claws dripping blood. "Time to die, girlie." he said with a smirk. Scanners scream echoed in the darkness.

The Princess Bar was littered with bodies. All the people in Madripoor with connections to the man Patch had been taken and none of them had divulged a word despite the most agonising torture Genesis could devise. The one named Jessica Drew had been particularly tough and would have defeated the Dark Riders without his intervention. Still, there were fewer friends for Wolverine in this cold, dark world.

One of the inhabitants still left; a niece of General Coy who had shown some telepathic ability. He had worked longer on her for fear she could be using her talents to defeat his mutant power. But she knew nothing. "Dispose of the wretch," he ordered Foxbat, "we will find evidence of Wolverine elsewhere." Before the mutant could obey a form appeared in the room.

"The mutant named Karma is one of the strong and she shall not be killed in this way." Genesis went white as he seemed to recognise the voice for a moment. Then the room went dark and neither the girl nor the form were there. Genesis felt the slightest trickle of fear. He noticed the dark riders had gone silent with fear as well. It couldn't be him . . . could it? Could it be that true evil never died but only returned stronger than ever?

Karma awoke and looked around. She felt a faint residue of soreness as she glanced around and a vague memory of having been elsewhere. "Where am I?" She asked several passerbys in several languages until a slightly drunk young man said "Why yer in the capital of Merry ol' England, my girl. The night is young, wanna party?"

She dashed down the street. London? That was impossible. She was supposed to be half a world away. And, while she couldn't shake the strange feeling that something significant had happened, it was just an ordinary day working for her uncle and soiling her soul. England!

There was nobody in England she could go to for help. She had no money, no passport and no way of obtaining any and she was not going to use her power in this base way if she could avoid it. Wait, wasn't there a BritishX-men team, Excelsior or something. Would they help? No, not likely.

Karma walked of into the cold unforgiving night not realizing that she had been made into a living weapon against one of Apocalypse's greatest foes. A man who would inspire hope against the coming darkness unless he was forever silenced.