Scott was about to break into a diatribe when Rin spoke up.

"He's trying to make sure you can keep up, Logan. You’ve seen the news. Do you really think the boss man can’t contain you?”

"What did you say?" Logan growled. I raised my hands and gathered my thoughts. It was sooner than I planned to do it, but the development in Antarctica was putting a tailspin on my plans.

Scott looked even more confused, but I decided not to give him the satisfaction.

“Jean is in her room in one of the taller hills. You should go see her,” I said to him. “But in the meantime, you need to excuse us. What I'm about to say next is need-to-know, and since you're not part of this mission…"

"Are you kidding me?" Scott protested. "I'm a member of the council you put together. After everything you put us through, I—"

"…are entitled to nothing," I cut him off. "You said you wanted to see Jean. I’ve agreed to take you to her. My secrets are mine alone. Get to stepping or go home."

Scott's face twisted in a rictus of rage.

"You'll trust a member of the Brotherhood before me?" he demanded.

I shrugged, and Scott scoffed, looking over at Logan for backup, but the mutant disappointed him.

"The kid is right. It's his secret, and his mission."

Scott shook his head and waved his hand. "No one should come crying to me when everything goes to hell!" He stomped off, and we all watched in silence.

Yao opened a portal with a flex of her wrist and whispered something to a guard some distance from Scott.

"He'll tell Scott where to go," she said.

Pietro was the first to break the silence. "And I thought we bickered," he chuckled. "To chase him off like that…"

"Well, he's swung at me every fucking chance he's ever had," I said. "Besides, I'd have done the same to anyone here if I thought they shouldn't be a part of the conversation."

"I know you have your issues with the kid," Logan rumbled, "but you're trusting speedy over here. Didn't you say he ran you off the road?"

"Well, he's apologized and proven himself since," I said. "Scott hasn't. When you hear what I'm about to tell you, you'll understand the need for secrecy."

"Well," Logan grunted, "Don't leave us in suspense."

I took a deep breath to center myself before I spoke.

"I have the ability to combine things on a conceptual level."

"Wait what! That's not…possible," Hansen spoke first, and her words came out jumbled and stilted.

"So you can combine things and what…make them better?" Pietro asked.

"It's a little more complicated than that, and it takes a lot of energy, but yeah, essentially."

"The Catalyst you talked about," Hansen muttered in realization. "You're it."

"Would this magic thing of yours work if you try to combine say a donut with a hotdog?" Pietro said wistfully.

We all gave him odd looks.

"Speedster munchies, I get it," I said offhandedly, "but yeah, it's technically possible, even though it'd be a supreme waste of power."

Logan shook his head. "So that's why you were so hush hush about it. Somehow, I'm not even surprised you can pull this off. You could tell me you were a god at this point, and I just might believe ya."

"Thank for the vote of confidence, Logan," I smiled, "but I'm not." Not yet. "Now you know everything, more or less. Professor Hanson has been helpful enough to synthesize two extremely powerful superhuman serums. Combined together, they'll be potent to enough to level the playing field between you and most things, even me."

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"What is it going to cost us?" Logan asked. "No such thing as a free lunch. Power like this gotta cost something. Is it going to screw with our minds or slowly destroy our bodies from the inside out."

Logan raised justifiable objections that made the threat of Unify even more real. I could've lied to them, telling them they had nothing to worry about—which, in my opinion, was most likely the case—but lying to a group of people who I'd be leading to the biggest face-off of my career didn't seem very wise.

"Unify has not made a bad match yet," I said, "but it is within the realm of possibility, but I still think you should take the risk regardless."

"Why." logan asked.

"Because we're up against a literal giant squid monster, and an entire ice desert filled with monsters," I said. "Going nuclear is not really an option considering it was a reactor that birthed those monstrosities in the first place, and they have fliers faster than actual jets. Our only option are literal soldiers, and you're the best that we have…but you're not enough as is."

"So, we either agree to be mutated or the world burns," Logan finished.

"Very well put Mr. Howlett," The sorcerer supreme said. "It if brings you any comfort, I will personally oversee your rebirth myself just as I did Dante's last two."

"Who are ya again?" Logan asked, and I looked at him incredulously.

I was about to speak when Yao raised a hand, stopping me. "We'll have time for introductions and ego-measuring after we're tucked away in your Simulacrum," she said. "Remaking you will take many days and will take more out of me than I've given in a long time. I will not be able to join you in the North Pole. But Mordo will take my place and assist you in whatever ways he can."

The news was a disappointment, but I understood it well. Yao was a glass cannon. She might be incredulously powerful, but she was limited by the deals she'd made and her mortal body. It made me even more determined to find a way to free her from the Dark Dimension's hold and help her. That was if she'd take my help in the first place.

After some last-minute idle conversation, we were all set up for my Simulacrum. Logan was still understandably skeptical about the whole thing. His tune changed after we entered the Simulacrum, though.

The world shuddered, and suddenly, we were floating in an endless space with a grey cloud overhead, a wild sea thrashing beneath us, and a ruin of a fallen city floating in between them.

"Good god," Dr Hansen's breath hitched. "This should be…impossible."

"A bit more desolate than I was expecting," Yao commented as she looked around, "but then again, your father always did have the flair for the dramatic."

"Your Dad made this place?" Rin spoke up. "You've been holding out on me boss."

Pietro scanned the Simulacrum with some trepidation. "Running around this place is a death trap."

"Not if you know how to time your jumps properly," I said. "We'll practice after all the madness, but for now let's set up camp and strategize."

And so we did. We found the remains of a nice townhouse and set up there. Yao packed beds, freshly cooked food, enchanted stones, and enough heat to keep everyone warm.

We sat around on the table as I broke down my plans.

"Logan should go first," I said. "He's the most resilient, and the formulas are guaranteed to make him even tougher. Next should be Mordo. He's great under pressure, an impressive fighter, and should have plenty of time to practice with Logan while I work on the final Rebirth, Pietro. Anybody got a problem with that?"

"You won't hear me complaining," Pietro raised his hands. "Third place is just perfect."

"What about me?" Rin asked with a bit of anger in his voice, and I looked at him, a bit baffled.

"What about you? You're already plenty strong. You'll get even stronger with all of the gamma you'll be absorbing at the North Pole. You'll have no problem keeping up."

"But you said we need to be stronger, not just keep up," Rin pointed out. "With Jean sidelined, you need somebody powerful enough to keep up with you. Pietro might do fine, but I'm stronger, and can heal just as fast as Logan here."

"Actually, you can't," I said, "but I take your meaning for it. It's not that I don't want you get stronger, or want you to surpass me, or any other reason you've cooked up. I just don't think you're ready for another paradigm shift when you barely have a handle on your powers as they are. Powering you up at this stage would do more harm than good. Besides, I'm not even sure I could give you the upgrade you deserve. Your DNA is far more complicated than most."

Rin frowned, not exactly satisfied with my answers. "Your DNA is far more complicated than mine."

"Exactly, but it Is mine, as in the power was made for me. As in I don't need an inherent understanding of biology to use it."

Rin made more protests, but he finally simmered down after I promised him something that was just as good as an upgrade—a new armor and weapon.

We sat down together and drew up plans for his first Devil Arm. It was a shifting weapon like mine, but it had 2 forms instead of 6. It’s first form would be a longsword, and the second form, a great hammer.

It would synergize wonderfully with his Vibranium body armor that I planned to enchant to help him better absorb and tank hits.

I didn't start smithing immediately, though, saving myself the trouble until I was done with the Rebirths.

Pretty soon, I was standing in a familiar Spell circle with Mordo and Yao looking in as they wove a temporal dilation sphere. Transforming Logan would cost me 300,000AE and 300,000DE, and that is factoring in the hidden upgrade of improving his regular Adamantium skeleton and adding a thin membrane on top of his skin to improve his durability.

Logan and Rin were going to be the Tank of this fight, and I needed him to be durable enough to shoulder that responsibility.

Filling up Rebellion actually took less time than before. Between my inflated energy regeneration, Devil Trigger, and a lot of energy channeling practice, Yao finished the session with enough juice to go one more round if needed.

I walked up to Logan with Rebellion, letting off an aurora of colors and energy.

"Ready?" I asked.

"Nobody is ever ready to have their atoms rearranged," he said, clutching the serum gun in his hand. He drew in a long breath and then injected himself. Before he could start screaming, my blade went into his stomach, and I triggered the process.