A/N:So i got this story idea last night and i just had to put it up. The pairing is Helix and its AU but mostly follows 616 with some notable changes. Much thanks to Onelildustbunni for inspiring me to write a Helix story of my own with all of her awesome ones. Hope it turns out well!

Chapter 1

Accomplice to Clone-napping

A green glow cast from the eyes of a young man on a fisher's wharf. Rain poured in waves off his designer umbrella and he cursed under his breath about his last good pair of shoes getting soaked in the downpour. He was tall and handsome, with dark hair and a smug smile was usually plastered to his chiseled features.

This evening however, in this thunderstorm turned his smile into a ugly scowl. His traveling partner, if he could be called that, wasn't happy about the inclement weather either, but for entirely different reasons. James 'Logan' Howlett didn't much care that his old, leather coat was getting soaked. He didn't mind that his unruly hair was matted to his face in large, dripping clumps. No, he was mad because he'd lost her scent. Again.

Stupid rain.

"I was sure she was here. Dammit. We're going to have to start over, kid. We'll head back into town."

Julian Keller wasn't in a mood to complain about such a development. "So...we can go home now?"

Wolverine just smirked at him. "Ain't your real home somewhere in Hollywood? You've got about four thousand dollars worth of clothes on, and not even Charles dresses that fancy."

The boy was miffed, but definitely not as perturbed as Logan had tried to make him.

"I can't help looking good," Julian shot back. "And I'm sure if you put your clothes up for sale you'd get much more than four thousand from some antique collector."

Wolverine almost laughed at the jibe. His coat was nearly twenty years old, wasn't it?

Maybe its time to get a new one, he thought, tugging at the sleeve.

"I'll do that," he said, turning to walk back to dry land and the waiting X-van. "Right after you sell your parasol."

That got him. Julian looked up at the umbrella, annoyed as hell that he'd used such an…effeminate word to describe it. He grumbled under his breath the entire way back to the van, not caring if Wolverine's enhanced hearing could pick up every syllable. He didn't put it away though. Better to be called effeminate than to get all his clothes wet. He had been cut off from his well-to-do family's fortune a summer ago and he had no idea if or when he'd be allowed to access a bank account with more than forty-six dollars again.

Logan slammed his door shut as Julian climbed in and they started driving in silence. Neither was particularly inclined to start up idle chat with the other, and that was fine with both of them. Logan had never been someone impressed by Julian's constant antics and bluster and Julian was actually downright afraid to say something offensive to Logan. He'd seen the headmaster Scott Summers visibly shaken after he'd offended Wolverine and he put claws on either side of his neck so fast that he hadn't had time to reach his hand up to his visor.

Of course it hadn't lasted long. Unflappable. That was Cyclops, and Julian idolized him for it, just as he admired Emma Frost for her cold efficiency. Logan wasn't so much idolized as he was terrifying.

"If I'm right, she's nowhere near here," Logan said, finally breaking the silence. They had been driving for hours.

"Um, where exactly is here anyway, and why again, is it so important to rescue 'her'? You still haven't explained exactly who 'she' is." Indeed, Julian had been roped into this mission (though Scott refused to call it such, lest he pad Hellion's ego) without any knowledge whatsoever, just a gruff acknowledgement that Wolverine might need his "green brain juice."

"Need to know, kid, need to know," Wolverine finally replied. It had become his standard answer in the last few days and even he was getting tired of saying it, so he knew Julian had to be tired of hearing it.

Not that he gave a rat's ass.

He heard Julian mutter 'Ancient bastard,' under his breath, really quietly.

"If you don't want me to hear what you're saying, don't talk at all," Logan said through gritted teeth, his knuckles turning white from gripping the steering wheel. It would be so easy to kill the arrogant little prick. And say it was Magneto. Or Sabretooth.

He glanced at him and saw only the infuriatingly arrogant smirk on his face. Three days of this now. Didn't he have any other expressions?

"I did want you to hear," Julian retorted, chuckling to himself.

"Alright, that's it, I'm sick of your fuckin' attitude!" He reached over to redecorate the boy's face when a sudden thump from the front of the car stopped him. He slammed the brakes and his eyes went wide.

"Oh, shit, now look what you made me do. If that was a fuckin' deer-"

But Julian ignored him as he leapt out of the car into the pouring rain once more. It was significantly less dry than even at the wharf. He left the umbrella under the seat.

They had stopped beside the highway, on a heavily forested road. Coniferous trees rose ominously to either side, casting deep shadows across the road. No moonlight pierced the thick clouds and in the downpour, only the X-van's running lights allowed him to see anything.

He looked under the passenger side of the X-van to see a small bag of some sort. A travel pack if he wasn't mistaken. Its contents were spilling across the highway, but it was too dark to discern anything other than clothing.

"Hey Logan?"

"Yeah?"

"I don't think it was a deer."

"Look UP, Keller." Logan sounded quite annoyed.

Julian looked up to the top of the van to find a young girl staring back at him, cool green eyes fixed on his and an unflinching gaze. She was balanced atop the van as if it were easy, one leg braced against the roof's utility rack and the other bent so that her knee was almost level with her head.

She's really flexible, Julian found himself thinking. He was glad he had a filter between his brain and his mouth, unlike some people. Mercury and Rockslide for instance. And that golden asshat Foley.

"Hey, Wolvie?" Julian called out, slightly chilled by this girl's utterly silent appraisal of her.

"What, Keller?" Logan sounded more than a bit upset at his choice of nicknames.

"Is this that esoteric her you've been referring to for the last three days?"

"Yeah. That's Laura."

"Oh. She's kinda hot." So much for the brain filter. "But won't she get a cold without a coat in the rain like this?"

The girl, Laura, Julian reminded himself, cocked her head slightly sideways as if she were pondering something as she stared single mindedly at Julian. Her nose twitched upward slightly and she made a face at the cloudy midnight sky. Julian was acutely aware of some bit of information going completely over his head at that moment, but didn't concern himself too much with it.

"Keller?"

"Yeah?"

"Shutup."

"I said I would not go back," Laura finally said, addressing Wolverine although she'd only looked away from Julian once. Julian found that odd, since if it were up to him, he'd keep his eyes on Wolverine at all times.

"Laura, it ain't a debate. Frost says there's about seven hundred mutants left in the world."

"I will not die." The girl had not stopped staring at Julian.

Okay, he thought. Now its just creepy.

"Leave now."

Apparently, she was addressing Julian this time. He started, realizing this. "Who me?" Then again, it didn't seem to him a bad idea, considering that Logan could kinda take care of himself. He could just fly home. "Okay."

He turned to go and Logan yelled, "Keller, NO!"

The X-man leapt over the front of the van, claws extending almost silently in the rain and jammed his adamantium blades in between the ones that had suddenly appeared from Laura's own fist, intercepting them right behind Julian's neck.

He turned around way too late, seeing the two of them finally looking at each other, malice in Laura's eyes and anger in Logan's.

"Holy shit!" Julian exclaimed, seeing the claws on her hands. And they even had that invincible metal. "You tried to kill me!" Then the thing that went over his head earlier circled back and smacked him soundly.

"Holy shit!" he repeated, looking frantically between the two of them. "You're like Wolverine's daughter!"

"I am not his-"

"Shutup, Laura. Keller, it took the claws for you to figure it out? Geez, Frost told me you were the smart one."

Both mutants retracted their claws and resumed normal postures, but Julian wasn't fooled. They could leap toward him so quickly from that unassuming stance his head would spin. Literally. Like spin across the ground after he was decapitated.

He backed off until he stood what he thought was a safe distance away. "So what the hell did you bring me along for?" he shouted at Logan.

"Come back over here, Keller! Dammit, I knew I shouldn't have brought you along. Fuckin' kids. 'He's the last telekinetic,' she says."

Julian did not feel at all inclined to walk back 'over there.' He felt perfectly safe at twenty yards and after nearly being stabbed in the back of the neck already, he was prepared to stay there.

"What happened to getting your clothes wet?" Logan reasoned. "You left your parasol in the car."

As if in response, a bright green glow appeared over Julian's head. A telekinetic shield that functioned quite as well as an umbrella.

"Dammit," Wolverine muttered, casting about is brain for a way to resolve the situation. "Look, Laura promises not to kill you."

"I do no such-"

"Shutup, half-pint. Everybody play nice. Julian, get your ass over here, before I come get it, with or without the rest of you attached."

The threat seemed to work, though Julian was quite upset that he was within ten feet of the girl. He refused to get any closer.

"Laura, this is Julian Keller. Keller, this is Laura Kinney. I guess you could call her my daughter, but I guess she's more like my little sister."

"Aren't you like a hundred and fifty?" Julian pointed out. He'd heard that from someone around the mansion before. Kurt Wagner maybe. "She's like fifteen."

"I-" Wolverine started to protest before he realized the futility of it. "Shutup, Keller. Laura's going to be coming to the mansion with us, so I can keep a closer eye on her."

Julian bit back a response about Wolverine's healing factor, not wanting to draw any more of his ire.

"I will not go," Laura said again. "I do not feel comfortable there."

"Yeah, last time it was an option," Logan replied. "This time, I can't risk Magneto getting his hands on you, or worse. You're lucky you still have your powers at all."

Laura shook her head again, this time looking down at the ground. She shuddered slightly and Julian wondered if she was crying.

"I will not go," she repeated, her voice shaking uncontrollably, her hands were balled into fists and the tips of her claws moved slowly against the skin on her knuckles.

"I will not go."

Great, Julian thought dryly. Now there' s an invincible, homicidal maniac with metal claws and animal reflexes trying to convince his invincible teenage sister with metal claws and animal reflexes to live with me and she's hormonal. I should have brought Brian along. He might be able to permanently tag her or something.

Then he remembered the events of the previous morning. Brian had been one of the people to lose his powers in the mysterious event known only as 'M-day.' He grimaced. Well there goes that plan.

"Laura," Wolverine was saying in his most soothing voice, putting a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

Yeah right, Soothing, Julian thought. That must be like being comforted by the devil himself.

"I know you don't like it, but give it a chance. There are new kids there, and they're your age too. You'll make friends, like Julian here." He seemed to think about that. "Okay, maybe not Julian, but don't judge everybody else by him, he's kind of a clown."

"Hey! I'm right here, ya know!"

Laura didn't look the least bit reassured. "I will not go," she said yet again. This time her voice held a definite edge. A threat. "Yeah, I thought it might come to this. Julian, grab her!"

"What?" the boy protested as she turned and bolted. "I'm not touching her!"

"With your mind, idiot!"

"Oh," he said simply, reaching out and plucking her from the ground as easily as he might a pillow. He pulled her back toward him, noting how light she was compared to Wolverine. He had lifted the older mutant once in the danger room, and it had not been easy.

Laura struggled in vain against the glowing telekinetic embrace, glaring pure loathing at Julian. He gulped heavily. He knew he'd have to put her down sometime.

"So this is what you needed my 'green brain juice' for?" Julian asked Wolverine as he opened the back door of the van.

"Yeah. How long do you think you can hold her?"

"An hour or so if she's floating. If I can put her down, longer. Why?"

"Like back to the mansion longer?"

"Sure, if I want my head to explode!" Julian shot back. "Can you use your powers for forever?"

Snikt!

"Wanna find out, bub?"

"Oh yeah," Julian said, now unafraid of Wolverine's threat. He was the only thing keeping the man's daughter from running off again and he would play that card until the game ended. "I forgot, your powers are all passive."

"So we have to tie her up," Logan mumbled, ignoring Hellion's jibes. "Dammit, Laura, why couldn't you make this easy? You should have just come back when I called you."

Laura said nothing, unable to move her neck to look away.

"Keller, put her arms behind her back."

Julian obeyed, hoping he wasn't really becoming an accomplice to kidnapping. His family council would have hell trying to sort that out.

Wolverine grabbed a length of chain from the back of the van and cut it short with his claws before tying her arms together behind her.

Julian sat her in the backseat as comfortably as he could as Logan bound her feet and climbed back into the truck, the three of them all sopping wet.

"If I get a cold…" Julian muttered, running his hand through his hair and shaking out some of the excess water.

"This is for your own good Laura," Logan was saying to the girl as he pulled away and made a U-turn on the empty highway. The dull thud of the windshield wipers as they swung back and forth was his only response.

"Hey," Julian said, trying his luck with the girl. "The mansion really isn't that bad. And I didn't want to do all this, you know. Logan made me, so no hard feelings, right? Cool."

She looked at him coolly and the anger in her eyes died, giving way to a more familiar and comfortable look. Julian turned back around, smiling. He really had a way with the ladies, didn't he?

"I will kill you when you release me."

"LAURA!"

A/N: That's chapter one! more coming soon! i DO enjoy writing Helix! its so...fun!