A/N: This is my favorite chapter in Year Zero. It is inspired by 'The marionette' by Irbis (here on ), as well two Tori Amos songs--
Winter, and Girl disappearing. I was trying to think what was going through Laura's head in this scene...then I knew. 8c) Hope you like!


Volume: 0 Arc: "Year Zero" Issue: 1/1)

Chapter 9: girl disappearing


"Is everyone okay?" Nori asked, lighting up the crevice with a fist.

"My nose itches…and…and this building is really heavy," Santo said. He was straining to hold an enormous slab of rock up from crushing them.

"The machine is cutting a path to our position," Laura said. She crouched beside Julian and lifted his chin with her hand.

"Julian saved us…is he okay?" Cessily.

"He needs medical attention," Sooraya said.

"No, he does not. His heart rate is increasing. He will wake up soon," Laura said.

"Please…just go…run…" Forge said. "And he has a concussion," she added.

"Nimrod will kill you, like it killed Ororo. It'll go to the institute…infect the ONE sentinels…like it did mine…it will kill everyone. The students, the 198,
the X-men…every last mutant eradicated."

"Then we have to destroy it," Nori said, alarmed.

"We can't. I mean, the X-men couldn't…there's no way we can…there's just no way." David.

"Then we warn the X-men and buy them as much time as we can. Hopefully they can evacuate the institute before…before it's too late."

"We're not going to make it, are we?" Cessily asked grimly.

"The Sentinel is close," Laura said, looking up.

"Wake him up, Laura!" Nori said.

"Everyone just relax…I'm okay…I…L-Laura…" he reached up and put his hand on her shoulder. "Hey—what's that noise?"

The ceiling erupted. Laura pushed Julian into the floor, making a small sound as a heavy rock struck her in the back. Pop pop crackle pop, her spine
realigned itself and she gasped for air, her eyes wide.

"Kinda close to your O face," Julian mumbled. She raised her eyebrow at him.

Targets reacquired. Termination in progress. Nimrod was back, and it looked angry, ready to kill.

"GET OUT OF HERE, DAVID! GO! NOW!" Nori shouted, filling the chamber with electricity. Julian grimaced and deflected the electricity before it could hit them.

Target: Surge. Electrical attack. Adapting. Counter-measures in place.

"Can't…can't fight it…run…" Forge staggered. "Come on, come on…" David said.

Proximity alert: multiple targets approaching. Solution in progress.

Something happened to the ground around them. An enormous crater formed. Laura was thrown to the side; she rolled to her knees. "NO!" she said,
seeing the big hand stretched out towards him. Just what she'd known was coming. She knew she wouldn't jump in time—Santo was there.

"NOT AGAIN!" He shoved Julian out of the way and took the hit.

Pebbles rained down.

"FUCKING MACHINE!" Julian shouted. "Keep it together, Hellion! We have to hold out!" Nori. "THEN BACK ME UP!" he shouted.

The robot coolly deflected his attack. He ripped the ground from beneath it.

Telekinetic event in progress. Compensating.

"Nori! We've got to go!" David said desperately.

"Have to find a way…my responsibility…my burden…or everyone's going to die…" Nori said.

"NO. Screw slowing this thing down. We're going to send this robot to hell." She glared at it. "There's no way to stop it," Forge pointed out.

"There has to be a way, Forge. There's always a way."

"This is suicide—let the X-men—"

"No. There's no time. We have to stop it," Nori said.

Forge staggered to his feet.

"You shouldn't walk with a concussion," Laura said. "It is very bad for you."

"Forge…you said that you transferred Nimrod's programming into something you created…could it now have some weakness the original
Nimrod didn't?" David asked, leaning forward.

"No. Nimrod updated the anti-sentinel with its own hardware. It essentially recreated itself. It's indestructible…self-repairing…unstoppable.
We have to—wait a minute. Not everything inside the robot is Nimrod."

He paused. "The time device."

"The what?" Nori asked.

"If we overload the time device inside Nimrod, it would detonate, taking him down from the inside out," Forge said. Nori's eyes glowed. "I can do that."

"UHN!" Julian was knocked backwards from the air, and he landed on the ground a bit away. Laura turned her back on him. She had to concentrate.

"No! It's too dangerous." David said.

"I—" Nori.

"Don't you understand?! You'd have to get through Nimrod's armor, expose the device, and keep it exposed while you attack."

"David, listen—"

"No! He'll kill you, Nori."

"JULIAN!" Sooraya yelled. He'd just been hit again. Laura twitched. "David's plan is sound. I will open up the sentinel."

"No…that's not what I meant…" David said.

"I can keep it open, as long as you need. This thing killed Santo. I'll do whatever it takes." Cessily was furious. Laura smelled hot mercury.

"Guys…don't do this…" David said.

"All the killing…all the death…we have to stop it, David," Nori said, pulling off her gloves. "It had to end here, tonight. No matter what it takes."

Julian was being targeted again. He could barely hold his shield up. "Laura! NOW!" Nori yelled. She hardly needed to be told; her claws were out,
and she was in the air. The robot was saying something about losing contact—she didn't pay attention. Over its head, down its front, dragging
her claws down its metal flesh. She turned—and received perhaps the strongest of all the attacks that evening. She curled up in a ball and
closed her lipless teeth over her tongue, waiting to heal.

The others were fighting. Good. Cessily had it torn open, she was screaming something. Laura wasn't really paying attention to words anymore;
she was floating between here and somewhere else. Why wasn't she healing? Her eyes wouldn't close…she tried to frown. That hurt.

Nori was trying to overload the robot—and succeeding, but she was stuck. She yelled something, now it wasn't that Laura wasn't paying attention,
it was that she heard static. Oh, no. Would they be angry? Would Kimura come? A beating followed a failure to absorb information the first time.
Usually a broken neck, a torn out body part. It varied. She'd be punished, for sure, for not healing.

She stopped watching the scenes before her. She was back in her cell, and her mother was there, reading Pinocchio to her, and holding her small hand.

"And you will, if you deserve it," Sarah said, her voice comforting and soft. It was funny, how she made up voices for the characters. Laura liked
this woman, she loved her. "Really?!" Pinocchio exclaimed. "Tell me, what can I do to deserve it?"

It was about a puppet, a marionette who wanted to be real. Laura wanted to be real, too. She was excited—the woman said she could be real if she was good.

Was this a kind of training, too?

"Laura?" Scuffling. Her mother smiled at her.

"Is Kimura coming?" Laura asked. "No…no, sweetheart, no Kimura,"Sarah said soothingly. "No more Kimura."

Yelling. "…her to the institute! We have to get her to Josh!"

"Julian…she's not…she's going…"

"WE HAVE TO HELP—"

Laura's favorite part was coming, so she ignored the noises. "The fish," she said, very seriously. Her mother smiled.

"…her there." Motion. Laura saw, in the reflection of the tiles, a greenish glow.

Il Terribile pescecane. The terrible dogfish.

"…do you hear me? You're not leaving me too! STAY WITH ME, LAURA!" It didn't belong in her safe cell, it was too loud and scared and talking
to her. And it was male, but she wasn't afraid of it, which was odd because she feared and hated all the males in her cell.

She tried to say something but a bad noise came out. She wanted to ask if he was about to make her real.

"MISS FROST?! Please, help me! Laura's dying! I can't fly fast enough…"

"Mother?" she asked the woman in the cell, but she kept reading.

"DON'T TELL ME THAT! Please, I'm BEGGING YOU!"

"' My dear father, we are saved!' cried the marionette. 'All we have to do now is get to the shore.'" The terrible dogfish. She had always been
thrilled about this part. Her mother would pause to show her the illustration, smiling slightly at Laura's wonder. How could a fish be so big?
There were whales, but—

"Miss Frost, PLEASE! I don't want to bury anymore of my friends!"

—the part where Pinocchio was turned into an ass terrified her. She was always afraid of that part; an odd contrast. She'd come back to her
cell, after twenty-two minutes of bloodbath and human brains sprayed in her face, and be afraid of a fictional donkey. It was too terrible for
her to see. Her mother always squeezed her hand for this part, reassuringly. "You have to have the bad parts to have the good parts," she
told her. "They make them all the better."

Ah. Her answer.

"When are you going to make up your mind? When are you going to love you as much as I do, Laura?"

Someone screamed in her ear, in real pain. "Help them," her mother said gently, closing the book. "Laura…you need to wake up. You need to
believe in yourself. You're not ready to read this yet." The book was very white, in her very white cell.

Her nose was pressed against a neck. It hurt, it was all raw, but it was real. "Stay with me…stay with me…" it was like a mantra. They were
going so fast…she struggled to focus, she couldn't move…dried tendons...

BLAM. It sounded very fuzzy in her ear. She was being set on her feet…she felt the walls tiling over again. She was so close to her mother…

"GET UP!" More shouting. "She's dying, Foley! You have to save her! COME ON! HEAL HER, DAMMIT!" Movement. "I know you killed Stryker…murderer…
healer…just because…save Laurie…save her…"

"…can't…"

"SAVE HER!" Julian flung Elixir at Laura's husk. He'd never been so close to losing control—not even when he saw Santo atomized. Scratch that,
he had lost control, completely. He…if she…he'd pull the school down around his ears…on Foley…he wasn't thinking in complete sentences anymore.
He sucked in a breath as his friend's fingers touched Laura's face. There was a spark of golden light, like a chemical reaction; the black seemed to
evaporate from Foley—and Laura's skin zipped up, clean and fresh.

He swayed, watching to make sure she woke up. He was about to pass out, he felt it coming, but damn—if he had to jumpstart her brain or
something and he was out cold—

Laura opened her eyes.

"Are…are you okay?" he asked, his voice way too high. He was smiling—he felt like he'd just won the entire Olympics with his finger. Or like he'd
just gotten ice cream after being at the dentist. Or something like that.

She sat up and smiled at him, a big, genuine smile. "Hi." She said, looking just at him. Oh, wow. He felt so special. "Hi." Foley said, smiling back at
her. "I-I knew you could save her…I knew…" he started passing out. Dammit. "Y-you were worth my…m-my…P...S…3…"

Night night Julian.

"DON'T YOU FREAKING MOVE!" People were running into the room with guns.

"Okay," Laura said.