Chapter 2-


Knock knock.

Eighteen-year-old Noriko Ashida looks up from her book at her door with a puzzled frown. Who could it be? Most people don't knock on each other's doors, as they tend to gather at the common room when they're ready to hang out.

"It's open," she calls.

And her jaw drops as the door opens—and reveals someone she'd never expected to see again—Laura Kinney, Wolverine's clone. Her old friend.

Old friends were treasured nowadays, seeing as they were so expendable. Nori has kept count; over sixty of her friends have expired since M-day.

"LAURA!" she cries, almost knocking her chair over as she zips towards the girl and throws her arms around her. "Omigodwherethehellhaveyoubeen?"

"Breathe!" Laura gasps, both as advice and a request. Nori loosens her grip, steps back and grins. "You curled your hair!"

"More like it got ripped out by the roots and grew back in curly, but yeah I see what you're saying," Laura says nonchalantly. "I hear things have been a little hectic here."

Nori opens her mouth. "I really don't know how to describe it."

"If you're happy to see me, things must've been god-awful," Laura says, half jokingly.

"Things got so bad, I'm happy to see anyoneI knew before. Even Keller."

Laura blanches. "Go. Wash your mouth out with soap, right now."

Nori grins. "I missed you!"

"I hear you can catch STD's by saying his name," Laura adds. "It baffles me that he survived. I figured he was next on God's grand hit list."

"Actually, Keller's changed," Nori says, a little more quietly. "We all have."

"Well, I haven't. Say, where can I put my stuff?"

"You're staying?"

"Hell yeah. Tired of scrounging up the rent on a job that pays like two pennies an hour." Laura grins, seeing Nori's delighted expression. "I'm your new roomie, by the way. I like to leave laundry and dishes everywhere I go, I'll never fail to leave the lights on and the faucet running, and I plan on using your computer to browse gay porn sites."

"Awesome!" Nori says, then more seriously: "I'm so glad you're back."

"Glad to be back," Laura says.

"This is it?" Laura asks, staring at the entertainment system in the common room. "What happened to the other two TV's?"

"They got blown up," Nori says. "And we don't really have space for that anymore."

"I saw a bunch of empty fields. I'd call that wasted space, unless you're trying to grow more TV's."

"Food," Nori says. "We're on an island now. We need to be self supporting, in case we can't get to the mainland." She pauses. "A little while ago, we were really glad we had stores. Utopia got surrounded in this big red bubble, and we were under siege for, like, four days. It was absolutely horrible."

"Sounds lame. Did you try teleporting some pizza in?"

"We tried everything."

Strained silence, for a moment. Laura feeling bad for not being there—at the same time as she was grateful she hadn't been—and Nori wondering why Laura had left, and what it must have been like to not experience the hell they'd been through.

The door to the commons' room opens, and two girls enter. One has a metallic appearance, and the other has bright pink hair. And wings that flutter spastically as she spots Laura.

"OMIGOD!" she squeals. "It's X!"

Laura suddenly finds herself the target of a million questions. The girls' enthusiasm puzzles her, as they had always spoken badly of her before, and had avoided her at the school. She knows she has an abrasive personality, and many people can't handle her rude sense of humor.

So why this?

"Did you go back to New York?" Pixie asks.

"Have you seen Norman Osborne?" This from Cessily.

"Omigod—did you meet Kimura again?"

"Have you had any Sentinel attacks?"

"We got attacked, and—"

"We lost a lot of people, Laura—"

"HEY! Have I showed you my soul dagger yet?"

"One at a time," Laura says. "But yes, no, no, yes, and no."

The girls blink, confused. Nori grins.

"Are you here to stay?" Cessily asks.

"For a while, yeah," Laura answers.

"Laura!"

The girl turns, and pales.

"B-betsy?" she asks.

Psylocke smiles. "It's been a long time."

"But—how?"

"It's complicated. But it has to do with the clone of Jean Grey."

"Fucking clones," Laura says. They embrace briefly.

"You've grown!" Betsy says warmly.

"Hopefully you mean upwards, not sideways," Laura says.

"You silly goose." Psylocke ruffles her hair. "I'm glad you've decided to give us another go, Laura. I think you'll learn more about yourself."

"That's the plan. Right on the top of my to-do list." Laura has always felt comfortable talking to Betsy, perhaps because she too is an assassin, and does not judge the girl for her past and current deeds.

"Are you going to stay this time?" Betsy asks.

"I don't know yet," Laura says. "Depends on how interesting it is here."

"Oh, it's pretty interesting. Right now, Hank's working on a cure for the M-day depowerment, Cyclops is making battle plans for easing the damage Bastion's minions have wrought in the political arena…and me and the gang are going out to investigate some rumors of an underground lowlife mutant-profiteering ring."

"Cool. Can I come?" Laura asks.

"I wish it were up to me, sweety. I doubt Cyclops would agree to that, just now. He's jumpy about who comes with us on these missions." She pauses. "We have to be really careful about who we kill, in this tense climate."

"Oh." Laura seems disappointed.

"We can hang out and talk after, though!" Betsy says. "By the way, I love your hair. Curls suit you. How did you do it?"

"Let someone get a good hold of my ponytail," Laura answers. "Hurt like a motherfucker."

"Oh," Betsy says, then she grins. "Only you, Laura."

Later that evening, Nori is already snoring, while Laura lays awake in bed, looking at the unfamiliar metal ceiling above her. Is she doing the right thing by being here? Should she just face her demons—Kimura—on her own? She feels guilty for not being here when she could have helped, in what seems to have been the X-men's darkest hour.

She bites her lip and tries to shut her brain off, so she can get some sleep.