Anytime

epilogue 

A red light flashed on Logan’s answering machine. He pressed the play button and listened. “Logan it’s Frank. I know it’s been a long time. Almost half a decade now. Look I’ll get to the point. I need you to find Lillian. I haven’t heard from her in so long. I don’t know if she’s alive or what? I hate asking you to do this considering your history with her, but I know that your the only one who knows where she is.  I need you old friend.” he paused for a minute to let this all soak in. The last time he saw her she tried to kill him for just showing up at her doorstep. He pressed delete on the Answering machine and scribbled a note to Kate and the kids. He grabbed his hat and jumped into his jeep. 

His tires rolled to a stop in southern Canada. Lillian had bought a small shack deep in the woods where she could finally be alone. This was where they last met all those years ago. He climbed out of his jeep and walked to the door slowly. It was quiet, and a part of him felt he was wasting his time. She was probably dead anyway. He tapped on the door like he always had and waited. No answer and the door was locked. He stepped back and gave the door a hard kick forcing it open. Empty, and it looked like had been for some time.

He heard a low growl from behind the house and walked through the kitchen to find it.  A creature that resembled a woman with long matted hair and tattered clothes was hunched over the corpse of what looked like a deer. “Lill…Lillian?” Logan said unsure at first if this was what was left of the wife of Frank Castle. The woman looked up at him and snarled like an animal protecting it’s kill. It was her. It had to be. He backed away slowly, but it was futile to try and escape. In a heartbeat she pounced on him knocking him to the ground. She clawed at his face and throat. Rage and hatred burned in her eyes. Whatever memories she still had of him it was clear that they were not fond moments of peace. She wanted blood. Logan tried to shove her off and failed. Finally she jumped off of him giving him a moment. She circled him like a lioness on all fours, stalking the Wolverine. “You shouldn’t have come back!” she barked at him. “now you die.” she yelled as she lunged forward. Wolverine hoped out the way and delivered a fierce kick to her ribs as he landed on her hands and knees in the place where he stood. “Do you not see what you’ve become? A beast? A Rabid Dog?” he said hoping to reason with her knowing it was pointless. She cared little for his words and ran toward him her clawed hand aiming for his eyes. He extended his forearm and parried her swing. He delivered a punch to her face breaking her nose.  Lillian doubled over holding her bloodied face in her hands. Driven by adrenaline and rage she ran toward Wolverine. Logan knew what he had to do. There was no saving her, no bringing her back. Her mind was gone. He ran toward her meeting her charge head on. He caught her with his shoulder just below the ribs and slammed into the house wall smashing through it. Logan landed on top and brought his fist up to punch her again. Lillian extended the claws on her hands and raked them across his eyes. Blinded Wolverine grabbed his face as he started to heal. Lillian slid out from under him. She grabbed a steak knife and plunged into his stomach. Logan dropped to a knee and pulled the blade out. She hung back for a second and laughed while her former mentor pushed his intestines back into his body. She grabbed a second knife, a cleaver this time and ran forward to stick the blade through his head. 

SNIKT!!! For a moment Logan lost it. His claws came out and Lillian lost the arm attacked to the cleaver. It dropped to the floor and she screamed in pain. Back on his feet he plunger his claws deep into her chest puncturing her heart and lungs and exiting out the back! He pulled his claws out her and watched as she fell to the floor quickly bleeding out. It was at that moment that his berserker left him and he realized what he had done. 

“Jimmy! James! Help me!” Lillian cried as she coughed up blood. Logan’s claws retracted inside his hands and he knelt down to support her head. “I’m sorry Lilly. I had no choice.” he said applying some pressure to her wound. “Jimmy I’m sorry. For everything.” she uttered. “I know you are kid. I’ve forgiven you.  Frank says hello and he misses you.” Logan told her as he felt the life draining from her. A tear fell from her eye as her body went still, and logan knew she was gone. He kissed her forehead and closed her eyelids. Several minutes passed as he sat there holding her body close. It was finally over.
 He wrapped her in a sheet and loaded her into a truck and drove back to New York.