Part 15: Wolves In Sheep's Clothing

In the weeks that followed, Wolverine disclosed every fighting method he knew to Rahne. She would master none of them in the short time they had, but he trained her nonetheless. They had to be as prepared as possible. To practice their skills, they left the camp to hunt demons every day.

Rahne became a dangerous fighter, and developed quite a knack for killing Limbo demons. It became easy to her, even easier than disabling battle droids in the danger room, and helped her not to think about losing Doug again. Her desire to get out of the awful place was still constant, but at least she was occupied, and hope was coming back to her. After every kill she would have Wolverine cut off the demons’ heads and post them on sticks. Before long the perimeter of the camp was practically fenced in with their speared heads. They noticed the attacks became less and less frequent until eventually they stopped altogether.

Sometimes they made weapons from their bones. Wolverine also kept a portion of skin from one of them, to make a pair of boots when they got home. Much of his outfit was made of demon skins and trophies. Rahne watched him get more and more savage looking, and it disturbed her.

She thought of the Nightfeeder, and it made her shudder. Is something in me, she asked, that could possibly become that creature? Is that the real reason why you keep me here, Lord? Better for me just to kill myself than to become so horrible! Do you even hear me anymore, Lord? Have I fallen away from you? Will you give me some sign, something to show me that I am not outside of your grace?

Only silence answered her.

One night, while she was inside washing up, Wolverine spotted her pocket Bible lying around. He couldn’t stop thinking about it. Once he was sure she was not going to see him, he flipped it open and read the first thing he saw:

“It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.”

That was almost enough to make him put it back down. Death and judgment were heavy on his mind. He flipped to a another page and skimmed it:

“…No murderer has eternal life in him.”

Wolverine put the Bible back down, but the words were still with him. They made him nauseous. I ain’t no murderer, he thought to himself. I’m a fighter, a soldier. Killin’ is part of my business.

Later that night, on Rahne’s watch, Wolverine yelled out in his sleep, “I ain’t no murderer!” Rahne ran in to check on him. He was snoring. Rahne knew what was troubling him now.

The next morning, she decided she would try to get him to talk about it. “Did you have any bad dreams last night?” she asked.

“No.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yup.”

“Well, I do sometimes.”

Wolverine avoided the issue like the plague, but she kept on. “I have terrible dreams about D’Spayre, and sometimes about the Nightfeeder.”

This got Wolverine’s attention. “You know about her? How much do you know?”

“I know who she is, and that she wants to kill me. That’s all. Why? What else is there to know?”

“Nothing, I guess.” He lied.

“No, there’s something you’re not telling me! What is it?”

“Nothing I said. Get your spear, we got hunting to do.”

“Logan, I want to know.” It was the first time she ever called him by his name, though he had permitted her to since the day she gutted him in the Danger Room. He sighed and told her all he knew.

“The Nightfeeder had babies, Rahne. Three of them were attacking you the day I found you. They’re demons—evil little sons of bit—oops, sorry. She goes around Limbo sleeping with everything that’s brave enough and sick enough to have her. She’s had babies by S’ym, N’Astirh, and Nightcrawler. She’s hell-bent on repopulating the place with demonic mutant children. She hates God, and will kill anything that ain’t totally evil.”

Great, she thought. She just gets better and better. “That’s revolting, but…why does that bother you so badly?”

“There’s one other monster, Rahne. Maybe one of the worst.”

“Who? What does it matter?”

“It’s…it’s me, Rahne. An alternate of me. A sick, twisted freak. The most evil bastard I ever laid freakin’ eyes on. We scrapped. He was winning. I almost died. He wants to kill us both, actually. He…eats some of the babies that Night feeder has. Anytime she has one that ain’t a mutant, or is not demonic enough for her tastes, she gives them to him. He does nothing but rape and kill everything in this screwed up place.”

This mental image turned Rahne’s stomach. “Does he have a name?”

“Exile.” Wolverine said the name with difficulty. “I was creepin’ around, lookin’ for you matter of fact, and I saw him. At first, he looked just like me. I’ll never forget the way he looked at me. Pure evil.

“He popped his claws and came at me. Naturally, I tried to defend myself but it was no use. He sliced me up bad—real bad. I was trying to limp away when he just laughed, and something tripped me. I looked down and saw that it was his hand-—even though he was twelve feet away. That’s when I understood…he’s techno-organic. That’s why none of my cuts were doing him any damage—he concentrated the adamantium part of his body to the exterior, so that I couldn’t cut him. He has all my powers, all my abilities, all my training, plus that. I ain’t got a clue how to stop him.

“I keep thinkin’ he could take the form of a plain old demon—or one of us—and catch us off guard. We wouldn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell.”

“How did you get away?” Rahne asked nervously. The mental image of a techno-organic Wolverine made her pale with fear.

“That’s the kicker. He was rantin’ and ravin’ about some crap and just about to gut me when, all of a sudden, D’Spayre appeared. I don’t know what he did to Exile, but he left in a hurry. He swore he’d find me though.”

“Did D’Spayre…” She wasn’t sure how to ask.

“Mess with my head again? No. He spared me that. He said it would be more enjoyable to wait until our time is up—to make me off myself. That’s why he rescued me from Exile.”

He’s disturbed, she concluded. I can tell. It’s not a fear of dying, either. Could it be that he really thinks he could become Exile? May it never be so! He is a killer, though, and a scary man…I wonder if it’s in him to become like that? Is it in me? Lord keep us both from becoming like that!

“And you’re upset because you wonder if you could ever become so wicked.”

“I didn’t say that! I just wanna let you know what’s after us. Quit yappin’ and get your spear. You won’t be able to talk things out with him or Nightfeeder—or D’Spayre.”

She knew better. Wolverine was very unsettled by Exile, and was having much more trouble dealing with him than she had dealing with Nightfeeder. She took her spear and followed him, intending to pay close attention to his behavior from then on.