[The Hand compound, Osaka, Japan. Wolverine stands over Jean Grey, fallen by his hand and advances upon her with his claws unsheathed. Cyclops, Rogue, Beast, and Jubilee stare in amazement as Matsuo Tsurayaba enjoys a laugh. The room also has Hand shock troops and Tsurayaba's assistant Tetsuo.]

Beast: Oh my stars and garters.

{Utter shock. That's the feeling that pervades the control room of the Hand's Osaka, Japan compound. The X-Men came to liberate a friend and found one. They also found something else entirely.}

Jubilee: Back off, Logan!

{Jubilee sends her pafs toward the man who is like a father to her. She reacts before the other, more experienced X-Men for one reason. She witnessed the adamantium bonding process reapplied to Wolverine.}

(PAF, PAF, PAF, PAF)

{Even though he instinctively shields his eyes, Logan is still momentarily blinded by Jubilee's attack. Cyclops siezes that advantage.}

[Cyclops knocks the Hand shock troops unconscious with scattered bursts from his ruby-quartz visor.]

Cyclops: Hank! Take out Tsurayaba! Rogue! Take Logan down-hard!

[The Beast bounds after the retreating Tsurayaba. Rogue flies toward Wolverine.]

Rogue: Logan, sugah, I hate to do this, but-

[Wolverine drops to his back and kicks the overhead Rogue in the stomach, letting her momentum cary her into a wall.]

Logan: Me too, girl. Seein' as how you're the only one at that prep school who belonged there less than me.

[Cycops hits Logan squarely with an optic blast.]

Cyclops: Snap out of it, man!

{Cyclops rushes toward Logan, whom he is suprised to see, is already on the counterattack. In other words, Logan heals fast.}

[Wolverine delivers a gut punch without claws to Cyclops.]

Logan: You, Summers! I shoulda known! Take you down like I always wanted!

[Wolverine follows up the punch with a slash that would have gutted Cyclops had he not rolled awy.]

{Cyclops narrowly evades the feared adamantium claws. Even so, his shredded costume serves as a reminder of what he is fighting. A friend gone terribly astray, Logan serves well as his namesale, wolverine. A tough, fearless creature who will not stop until he's dead...or you are.}

Cyclops: You've got a dilemma here, Summers. It's clear Tsurayaba altered Logan's memories somehow, so that he sees the X-Men as enemies. Now you have to stop him ... but can you do it if killing the monster also kills the man inside?

[Wolverine dives at Cyclops who rolls away again.]

Logan: I knew it Summers! You were always a coward without them friends of yours around!

[Wolverine strikes Cyclops across the face and drawa back his clawed fist for a killing blow.]

Logan: Where are they now, Summers?!?

Rogue: Raght here.

[Rogue hits Logan across the back of his head, sending him sailing away from Cyclops. She gathers her fallen leader up in her arms.]

Rogue: Sorry ah took so long gettin back here, Scott.

Cyclops: Rogue, your timing is impeccable.

Rogue: Go check on Jean. Ah'll have another go at wildboy.

[Logan shakily gains his feet beneath him. Rogue hits him again to take them away.]

Rogue: Now why y'all gotta go kickin up such a stir, Wolvy?

{Deeper in the Hand compound ...}

[Tsurayaba runs through the halls.]

Tsurayaba: Have to find the telepath. If Grey recovers and gets to him first, Logan may be able to recover.

[Beast bounds over Tsurayaba's head and lands in front of him, arms folde.]

Tsurayaba: Ahh!

Beast: Naughty, naughty, Tsurayaba-san. Didn't Ann Landers-san tell you it's tres gauche to leave one's own party?

[Tsurayaba pulls a blade and slashes at Beast.]

Tsurayaba: Fool! I am a ninja assasin!

[Beast flips over above Tsurayaba and comes down on top of him.]

Beast: Who isn't these days? Psylocke is, Kitty Pryde is, and what do you knw? So am I! Kiiii-yaaaa!

[Tsurayaba lays unconscious underneath the Beast.]

Beast: Why is it they always nod odd before my really good lines?

[Beast throws Tsurayaba over his shoulder and leaps back toward the control room.]

Beast: Am I boring? What do you think Matsuo-oops! Lost my audience again.

[Rogue slugs Wolverine into some machinery.]

[Cyclops and Jubilee attempt to revive Jean.]

Cyclops: Jean! Jean!

Jubilee: Boy if we ever needed her it's now!

Cyclops: Jubilee, who did this to Logan?

Jubilee: Some bald monk-looking guy! Then they put him in that tank! He screamed ...

Jean: Ohhhh ...

[Beast, carrying Tsurayaba leaps into the control room.]

Beast: It's always the bald monk-looking guys, isn't it? How's Jean?

Jean: Hank? Wh-what hit me?

Cyclops: Easy, honey.

[Rogue has been batterring Wolverine the entire time. Then, he catches her punch.]

Logan: No more.

[Logan grabs Rogue, aloft, and drives his claws into her abdomen.]

{It has been said that Rogue is nigh invulnerable. Today, "nigh" wasn't nearly good enough.}

[Wolverine withdraws his claws with a wet pop. Rogue doubles over and falters to her knees. She looks up at Logan.]

Rogue: W-why?

{The X-Men experience their second shock of the day when Rogue tumbles to the floor like a tattered doll. Logan lets out a chilling bestial shriek.}

Logan: Aaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cyclops: No!!!!!!

[Cyclops blasts Wolverine fully with his optic beam into a wall. Beast leaps toward the stunned Logan and begins batterring him with his fists.]

Beast: You homicidal maniac!!! You're going to pay this time!!!

Jean Grey: Stop!!!

{Hank McCoy is frozen in place, about to reign another blow on Logan. Logan is frozen as well.}

Jean Grey: Listen, all of you! There are blocks in his mind Tsurayaba placed. Blocks that must be removed!

{Jean Grey enters Logan's mind, sees the damage Tsurayaba wrought, and attacks the task. She sees false imagery planted to make Logan believe that Tsurayaba, not the X-Men were his friends. With surgical skill, Jean uses a psychic scapel to remove that cancerous implant. Too late, she sees ...}

Jean Grey: There's more! I've removed the implant that Tsurayaba was his friend and we his enemies, but he'll have to have his memories with us unlocked. He doesn't remember any of us. I'm going back in.

{Jean Grey encounters a mental wall, huge insurmountable.}

Jean Grey: Whoever did this butcher-job is good, I'll give him that. I'm better.

[Jean draws her arm back and punches the wall with pure psionic force. A slight hole is made, creating a tiny rift for Jean to see through.]

Jean Grey: Oh no ...

Monk: I have seen you on the psychic plane, Jean Grey.

Jean Grey: Who?

Monk: Who I am is unimportant, save that am a loyal subject of the Hand. I give you credit for undoing my machinations in Logan-san's mind. However, to breach the wall before you, you must first deal with me.

Jean Grey: Gladly.

{Suddenly, they are both armored combatants on the astral plain. Jean, wearing a high tech armor, while the monk sports a suit from Samurai times.}

[The monk catches Jean in the abdomen with his sword. She falls and he strikes again at her head.]

Monk: How truly exhilirating this feels to finally break the bonds of my chaste existence in true psychic combat!

[The Monk strikes again and Jean dodges. He swings and she parries his thrust with her psychic sword.]

Jean Grey: I'm so glad you've finally been liberated. But you should know one thing ...

[Jean thrusts her psychic sword into his belly.]

Jean Grey: While you're certainly strong, I was trained by the toughest mind on this planet. He's been incapacitated. So this is my house.

[Jean swings with her sword, decapitating the monk.]

Jean Grey: My rules.

[The monk screams all the way back to this plain of existence, falling in a vegetative state to the floor of one of the compound's chambers.]

Jubilee: What the heck was that?

Jean Grey: Tsurayaba's erstwhile telepath. He won't bother us again. Rogue?

Cyclops: She's in shock, Jean. I think we can move her if your telepathy is up to stabilizing her.

Jean Grey: Consider it done, although I'm pretty spent.

Beast: Which isn't hardly the problem. With her unique metabolic makeup operating on her becomes a critical issue we're not equipped to handle here.

[Beast had been holding Logan down. Logan grabs Beast by the scruff of the kneck and throws him aside.]

Cyclops: Damn! Logan! Jubilee, be ready!

Jubilee: O-okay...

{Logan's approach is slow and silent, not menacing. He stands over Rogue and slowly finds some spark of recognition. He removes his glove, kneels down and touches her face.}

Logan: A-a-ahhhhh!!!!!

[Logan pulls his hand away quickly, unsteady on his feet, then rights himself, turning to walk away.]

{The man called Logan, though he would never know that now, pauses and looks at the unconscious Tsurayaba. He offers a farewell and turns to leave.}

[Logan spits on Tsurayaba.]

Jean Grey: Logan, wait!

{He turns to look at these strangers and cannot find any reason these faces mean anything to him. He only knows he does not like this place.}

[Logan leaps through the hole the X-Men earlier made in the compound wall, disappearing in the underbrush.]

Cyclops: We'll get him later. Right now, we have Rogue to worry about.

Jean Grey: No, Scott! Go after him! I didn't remove all the psychic implants! I saw what Tsurayaba intended him to be! An assasin! And even though he's free of the Hand's influence, he still has his targets!

Jubilee: Adamantium-laced freakin' kill machine.

{And even as the X-Men ponder the ramifications of Jubilee's statement, Rogue's wound begins to close.}