Years ago, at the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning:
During a training session, Logan is on his knees looking at his adamantium claws while destroyed machinery is all around him. Professor Charles Xavier puts his arm on his shoulder and tells him to retract his claws. These self-destructive rages exhaust him and serve no good purpose. Logan says no purpose, he doesn’t understand. He doesn’t know where he came from. Taking him by the hands, Xavier tells him that he is an X-Man now. He has to learn to control the bestial side of his nature. He’ll help him if he’ll let him. Logan asks what about his mind; he doesn’t know who he is. Xavier informs him that they’ll find the answer to that and in time, God willing, he’s sure he’ll recover what he’s lost.
Present time, South Pacific:
Aboard a life-raft, Wolverine looks through his binoculars at the large palatial estate overlooking the water. He points out to Xavier there’s the house; hard to miss because it’s the only structure on the island. On the map, it’s a weather monitoring station. He then asks Xavier if he wants to take a look through the binoculars. Xavier tells him no thank you, he’s already there.
When Logan asks him how is that, Xavier informs him that he found a bird in the jungle canopy and flew it in low over the compound. It’s sitting in a baobab tree now, just behind the villa’s swimming pool. The fence surrounding the complex doesn’t seem to carry current, but it is twenty feet high and topped with razor wire. And the earth is disturbed for thirty feet around it. They’ll have to look out for mines. There’s also at least six guards armed with rifles and dogs. Their minds are unshielded, but Shaw’s telepath is inside the villa. If he tries to read their thoughts directly, it could alert him that they’re coming.
Xavier tells Logan that the telepath… now that they’re this close, he can sense his mind and it concerns him. Logan asks if he thinks he might be stronger than him. Xavier replies that it’s not that, it feels as though he should know him. The resonance signature of his mind is almost eerily familiar. An old enemy perhaps or else, a former friend. Logan asks about Daken, to which Xavier tells him that the men Shaw sent to kill them saw Daken there. They have to hope he’s there still. As he said, he can’t scan for him without tipping their hand. Logan tells Xavier to have the bird circle a few more times. He wants to know if the guards are patrolling a fixed pattern and exactly how close to the fence the tree line comes. As soon as the sun goes down, they make their move.
Next to the pool at the villa, Daken, wearing his swimsuit, tells a bikini-clad Claudine Renko – in reality a disguised Ms. Sinister – that she keeps saying that but he’s sick of waiting. Claudine asks him what, he doesn’t like the facilities? She thinks they’re pretty cool. Daken informs her that he didn’t come there to like on a sun-bed. She told him that she could help him get his memories back. Claudine replies and she will but he’s got to let her do it her way. It takes time. They’ve got to prepare the ground, make sure they’ve got everything they’re gonna need. Daken says to her then she lied to him. When Claudine tells him no, Daken says that she said it would be easy. That she just had to remove one mental block.
Putting her arms around his neck, Claudine tells Daken yeah but then she found out his mind was wired. Daken looks at her and asks wired? Claudine tells him that there’s something real nasty in there. He wouldn’t want Claudine to hurt herself, would he? Not when there’s a way to hurt someone a little more expendable. With that, she places his finger to Daken’s temple and causes him to fall unconsciously to the ground. Once Daken is out of commission, Claudine orders the guards to put him in the lab and tell Mister Shaw they’re all ready to rock.
Later that night, Wolverine and Xavier begin their assault on the compound. Once they reach the fence line, Logan asks Xavier what he thinks. Xavier replies that he thinks a frontal assault is best but he’d still like to do it as quietly as possible. He then tells Logan to give him a moment. On the other side of the fence, one of the guards asks his buddy who he would play in the back. His fellow guardsmen replies in defense, he doesn’t know. Rio Ferdinand. Neville. Ledley King, if he was on form. The other guard says Ledley King, seriously?
The guard begins to tell him he said if he was before he sees a large women walking towards him. The lady begins to tell him there you are Roberto, she’s been looking all over for him. She then tells him that he’s in big trouble you little ragamuffin. In shock, Roberto asks his mom what she is doing there. She tells him that she’s taking him home is what she’s doing, he broke her kitchen window. Roberto stammers but that was thirty years ago and she’s dead! The other guard is then confronted by a bunch of kids carrying towels. They ask him, Skelton, if he remembers them. When Skelton doesn’t respond, the kids tell him that they remember him and begin to beat him unmercifully. As Logan and Xavier walk past them, Logan asks what they are seeing, gremlins? Xavier responds something like that and continues walking.
Reaching the front door, Logan tells Xavier that, once they’re in, he should go find Daken and he’ll deal with Shaw and anything else they find. As Xavier replies in the affirmative, Logan tells him that he means it. Don’t look back, there’s too much riding on this. When Logan reaches the door, he stops in his tracks. Xavier notices this and asks him what is the matter. Logan informs him that the door’s not locked and there’s no security up there. Doesn’t make sense, why guard the perimeter and then…
Just then, Logan is blown back when the door explodes. Standing in it’s wake, Sebastian Shaw – who tells him that he, Wolverine, gets there in the end. He’ll wager he even thinks he’s clever. Popping his claws, Wolverine tells him that it’s too late for side bets; the fight’s already started. With that, Wolverine leaps at Shaw. When he does, Shaw proceeds to punch him in the face and slam him into the ground. During such, he tells Wolverine that he just absorbed most of the kinetic energy from that explosion and proceeds to call him a witless animal. He then asks him to tell him how his healing factor will cope when he rips him into bite-sized pieces.
Before he can inflict any further damage, Xavier steps up and tells Shaw that’s far enough. Shaw replies that no, it isn’t. He’s been inoculated against his power and he’s really not much when that’s gone, is he? As he grabs Xavier by the throat, Shaw tells him that he’s just a relic from a simpler age, trying to pretend he’s still relevant even though his own disciple has given him the Judas kiss and cast him out. Just then, Wolverine pops up and slashes Shaw in the back. When he does, he says to Shaw – Summers and Charlie kissing? He owes him, it’s gonna take a while to get that one out of his head. Wolverine then tells Xavier to go now and continues his assault on Shaw.
Inside the villa, Xavier quickly takes out a single guard and sees Daken lying on a hospital bed down the hall. As he rushes towards him, a voice tells him, “No, no, no Proffy. It’s not gonna be that easy.” Xavier sees the image of Claudine and recognizes her as Shaw’s new telepath and asks if he knows her. Claudine tells him yes and no. She guesses he could say he knew her daddy real well back when she was him. As Xavier beings to fall down the hallway in his mind, he grabs hold of a ledge and says to Claudine that she’s Sinister. Claudine tells him kind of, minus the Y chromosome of course. But who needs that old thing? It might have been different if he’d seen her coming, right? He’s probably better at this that she. At least until she gets more practice. But she got the drop on him. Truth is, she’s pure poison.
As Claudine begins to take a pin and push it through Xavier as if he was a butterfly, she tells him that he’s taken a lethal dose of her poison. Xavier defiantly replies only of her rhetoric. He could teach her the rules and tactics of mind-war but he doesn’t have the time. Just then, Xavier is standing in the hall behind Claudine and away from her mind-trap. He tells her that perhaps this will give her a valuable lesson and proceeds to punch her in the back of the head, knocking her out. Tossing a tiny psi-shield towards her, he tells her that it belonged to one of her confederates. He almost destroyed it then he thought of an old but still resonant phrase – return to sender.
Outside, Shaw has Wolverine in a reverse chokehold. As he squeezes the life out of him, he tells him that killing him is a feat of endurance, a Sisyphean labor. He then says that perhaps it’s time for a little lateral thinking. He states that he’s probably strong enough right now to bend his adamantium bones and fold them in on themselves. Perhaps Charles will enjoy pushing him around in a wheelchair for a change. He then tells Wolverine that they’ve got some time to kill. After all, before he does what he came there to do, what he needs him to do. He’ll (Xavier) have to face Claudine first. He didn’t want this to seem too easy for either of them.
With that, Wolverine is able to use leverage and fling Shaw over his shoulder and onto his head on the pavement. As Wolverine crawls away in a pool of his own blood, Shaw picks himself up and asks him if he thought he solved this by himself. That he sent those meant to kill them, forgetting they had this location in their heads? Reaching a utility pole, Wolverine replies that he pretty much knew the score and proceeds to slice to knock out the power. Now in the dark, Wolverine says to Shaw that every time he hits him, he just gets stronger. That’s the deal, ain’t it? He doesn’t hunt by smell though, does he?
Entering the room housing Daken, Xavier walks up to him and tells him that in case he can hear him, his name is Charles Xavier and he is there to help him. Touching his hands to his head he adds that means, he’s afraid, that he has to invade his privacy. Once in Daken’s head he sees images of Daken attacking Dum Dum Dugan, gutting Wolverine while he was being held captive, him battling Cyber, Romulus, the image of Wolverine killing Itsu, and those of him battling Wolverine himself. Xavier is shocked and mentions that even in his father’s mind, he never saw so much psychic scar tissue, so much evidence of trauma and abuse. He’s been shaped into a weapon. His memories distorted, his conscience cauterized. And whoever did all this to him tried to ensure it couldn’t be reversed, sealed off his mind behind a wall of subliminal conditioning, confident that it couldn’t be broken. For his sake and his father’s, he intends to prove him wrong.
Heading deeper into Daken’s mind, he remarks that it was easier than he thought. It just needed the right touch. He adds that he senses his consciousness, hiding behind these… Just then, Daken awakens, frees himself from his shackles, and violently knocks Xavier backwards into some medical equipment.
Just then, Claudine enters the room and tells a groggy Daken that she told him to trust her. They saw that trap inside his head but they let the big brain there spring it for them. So now it’s safe for her to go in and give him his memories back. Putting her arms around Daken, Claudine tells him that the two of them grew up together as kids in, she doesn’t know, let’s say France. She was the girl next door and he always loved her, had a pet name for her, and all that garbage. And Mister Shaw, well, he’s like his favorite uncle. Kind old Uncle Sebastian who he loves and trusts so much.
Daken proceeds to tell her thank you, that’s a beautiful story. At that moment he, tells her that it didn’t take and stabs her in the gut with his claws. As she staggers away, bloodied, Daken tells her that she should’ve left well enough alone. She should have showed a little respect. Grabbing his head he states that he doesn’t know what just happened but it hurt like hell. And whatever it was, it gave him his real memories back. He angrily says that she, Claudine, and baldy over there all think they’ve got the right to mess with his head and recruit him, save him, use him. He thinks maybe it’s time they both learned a lesson.
As he leans down over Xavier and places his fist on the side of his head, Wolverine finally appears with his claws drawn and tells Daken that they both know that ain’t gonna happen.
