"Asleep?"
Outside the lab, dozens of eyes stared at Logan without blinking, watching for any reaction.
Second by second, time passed. A faint blue-violet glow began to flow beneath Logan's skin.
As though he were seeing something both familiar and strange, the expression on his face gradually turned confused and tense.
"Where is this?"
When the familiar surroundings of Xavier's School faded away, a vast, winding mountain range rose before Logan's eyes.
The golden light of sunset spilled across the peaks. Not far away, a lone wooden cabin glowed with a dim yellow light.
Logan walked toward the cabin one step at a time. It was as if someone inside had heard the familiar sound of his footsteps outside. The wooden door creaked open, and a delicate-looking blonde woman leaned out from behind it.
"Logan?"
The moment she saw him, the woman covered her mouth in shock.
Her eyes shone brightly, as if lit from within. "I thought I'd never get to see you here in my life."
"...Who are you?"
The instant the words left his mouth, Logan saw the light in her eyes go out.
...
"Does Wolverine cry too?"
Inside the operating room, Jean silently watched Logan.
He looked completely different from the man who usually acted like nothing in the world mattered to him. A single tear slowly slid down from his left eye.
It was like a lone wolf who had spent centuries licking his wounds in silence had suddenly found a warm embrace. A thick, suffocating grief began to fill the room.
Jean blinked and realized that, at some point, her own eyes had grown damp as well.
"What did he see?"
Outside the lab, the excitement and anticipation on everyone's faces had long since vanished. One by one, they fell silent.
Tony nudged Fenris's shoulder, his expression complicated.
"Someone very, very important to him," Fenris answered softly.
"Someone important..."
Tony's head lowered at once.
At some point, his right hand had quietly clenched into a fist, as though he were both hoping for something and dreading it at the same time.
"Logan, I'm really, truly so happy to see you again..."
Beneath the towering Rockies, the fading sun in the sky looked especially bleak against the snow-covered mountains.
As daylight dimmed, the woman leaned gently against the man's chest. Her voice was full of contentment, but her once-clear face gradually faded into darkness.
"No... no!"
"Don't go!"
As if he had realized something, Logan desperately tried to hold the woman in his arms tighter, but that warmth slipped away little by little before he even noticed.
"Go, Logan. Don't think of me anymore."
"Never, ever come back here again..."
"I love you. I love you most of all."
"..."
The woman's soft murmur gradually drifted away.
On the operating table, Logan's eyes flew open.
"No!"
"Kayla!"
The warm embrace had turned into cold metal restraints.
The dim sky before him was replaced by the harsh brightness of the surgical lights.
Logan gasped for breath. For some reason, an awful hollowness rose from deep inside him, but it felt as though it had lodged in his throat, leaving him choking with emotion and unable to make a sound.
"Logan, are you okay?"
A gentle voice sounded beside his ear as Jean reached out and lightly touched his face.
"No, no..."
A flood of indescribable bitterness surged through his mind. Logan stared blankly at Jean.
"No!"
A furious, unwilling roar exploded from him. An immense force burst from Logan's body, and a pair of steel claws shot out with a snap. Gorgeous, savage blue-violet patterns shimmered across the icy blades.
But Logan seemed not to notice any of it. The specially made restraints were sliced apart with ease.
Jean only felt a violent gust of wind rush past her. In the next instant, Logan had already vanished from the lab.
"..."
Outside the lab, everyone looked at each other.
The power of the Heart-Shaped Herb was undeniably incredible, but obtaining it clearly did not come easily.
If even a hard man like Wolverine had ended up like this, then what about the rest of them...
"Who wants to go next?"
Jean steadied her emotions. With a surge of telekinesis, the scattered metal fragments on the floor reassembled themselves, restoring everything to its original state under a wash of dark red light.
"Tony?"
Fenris tugged at Tony's shoulder, trying to shove him forward.
But after seeing Logan's reaction, Tony seemed rooted to the floor, unwilling to move even half a step.
"Fenris... I need a minute."
Tony's voice was almost pleading. Fenris heard him and could only shrug, choosing to respect his wishes.
"Fenris, why don't you go?"
Seeing that everyone else was hesitant, Jean turned to him instead.
"Me?"
Fenris pointed at himself with a blank look.
Jean actually wanted him to take the Heart-Shaped Herb?
For everyone else, the boost to peak human physical ability might be a transformation from head to toe. For him, though, it would barely amount to anything at all.
"Try it. Everyone gets a share."
Jean summoned a Heart-Shaped Herb into her hand and urged him on. "And you're the strongest one here. Everyone trusts you the most."
"Mhm, mhm!"
The moment Jean said that, voices of agreement rose all around them.
"Good luck, Teacher Fenris."
Fenris glanced back. Pyro looked like he practically wanted to glue his eyes to him.
"All right."
Fenris shook his head with an amused smile, then walked into the lab and lay down without hesitation.
"Fenris, don't resist it. Keep your emotions under control."
With Logan's example right in front of them, Jean repeated the warning several times. "Once you lose control, this whole place could be destroyed. So don't let yourself drown in the past and lose your way, understood?"
"Don't worry."
Fenris gave her a reassuring look.
"Good."
Jean nodded, and a Heart-Shaped Herb slowly floated into Fenris's mouth.
He swallowed it in one bite, smacked his lips, and savored it for a moment. "A little sweet."
"That's not right... Why isn't he asleep yet?"
Several minutes passed. Jean stared at Fenris, whose eyes were still bright and alert, and her brow furrowed deeply. "Fenris, do you feel anything at all?"
"I do feel a little something."
Fenris carefully sensed the changes happening inside his body.
A faint warm current was rising from deep within him, as if it were slowly spreading through every part of his body.
Then, the atomic furnace that had been sitting quietly inside him suddenly seemed to take offense at something. Without warning, it began to roar into motion.
Fenris's body temperature spiked along with it.
"Seventy degrees?!"
Fenris's body's instinctive counterattack came so suddenly that Jean, who had been nervously watching the instruments, went pale on the spot.
The instant he heard her cry out, Hank dropped everything in his hands and rushed over without the slightest hesitation.
"It's only seventy degrees. It's fine."
Watching the two of them panic, Fenris waved a hand.
His body temperature had long since become more of a decorative number than anything meaningful.
Forget seventy degrees. Even if it shot up to seven hundred someday, there would be nothing surprising about it.
Before long, that warm current brought on by the Heart-Shaped Herb was completely consumed, and Fenris's body returned to normal as well.
"Fenris, do you feel uncomfortable anywhere?"
Seeing that, Jean finally let out a breath of relief and hurriedly asked.
"A little sleepy..."
A wave of drowsiness suddenly washed over him.
Deep within his consciousness, the Titan Encyclopedia trembled, ready to disperse the sudden sleepiness.
"Don't stop it!"
Fenris's thoughts stirred, and he gently closed his eyes.
He wanted to see exactly what he would be shown.
(End of Chapter)
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