Laura followed Bucky as he led her through the tower to Stark's lab. It had changed only slightly since she fought Natasha in there; things were cleaned and reorganized, with any inventions or materials hidden away.

Waiting in the lab was Tony, Bruce, and Jane.

"Do you have a place?" Laura kept her gaze fixed on Stark, avoiding Jane as best she could.

"I do, but I have a few requirements before I let you melt yourself. Firstly, I want to do some before and after comparisons of your DNA."

Laura nodded, "That is acceptable, as long as you do not keep any samples afterwards. I heard many things from my own world about what you have done with DNA you kept samples of."

He shrugged. "I can work with that. We'll also be observing and supervising you the entire time."

Her eyes narrowed "What do you mean by observation?"

Stark raised his arms in surrender "I'll just be there to make sure nothing goes wrong."He shot Bucky a pointed look. "I promise that I will not be ogling your presumably naked body. I find melting flesh to be a fairly distinct turn-off."

Laura smiled slightly, knowing that Stark would find it reassuring.

"We also all want to hear about the versions of ourselves in the other universe. Clint is especially interested."

Laura paused. "I will see what I can tell. I can not share everything, as many universes have multiple important decisions in common."

"That's all we can ask."

He smiled and led her to a room where she could change to a flimsy medical gown, then to what appeared to be a reinforced medical examination room. There was a metal bed in the center of the room that looked similar to one found in a morgue with an elaborate robotic arrangement mounted in the ceiling above it. Beyond that and the window looking in, the room was bare. Laura entered the room and slowly lifted herself onto the examination bed. Stark entered after her and used a needle to draw some blood.

As he exited the room, Laura laid back and stared at the machinery above her. Slowly, the machinery began to unfold, revealing what seemed to be a hose with a spray nozzle.

It was then that the spray started. The acid began at her feet, eating away at the flesh and muscle. She could see the gleam of bone and metal as the clear liquid gushed down from above.

As the machine slowly worked its way up her body, Laura closed her eyes. She wasn't strapped down, but it still felt uncomfortable, like the many times she had been captured and experimented on. She thought of the last time that had happened - betrayed by her brother Daken, captured by Malcom Colcord, then rescued by Daken. She thought of the explosion they had been caught in and how it had similarly stripped her of her skin. She thought of her family: Logan, her mother, Daken, and Megan. She thought of her friends: Warren, Scott, Jubilee, Sooraya, Cessily, Noriko, and Julian. She thought about her past, and she thought about her future. Then it turned to the present. Bucky. James. Her soulmate.

She had never met his alternate universe self so she had no idea what to expect. He was kind and gentle, but was just as broken as she was. She wanted, no, needed, to to fix her own mind, so she could help him to do the same.

The spray of melting liquid was now at her ribcage. If Laura lifted her head, she could see the the muscle reforming on her waist and legs. The melting didn't hurt as much as she had expected. The liquid itself felt like a high-pressure shower and the exposed flesh stung from the air, but it was still better than standing through an explosion with debris.

Laura closed her eyes as the spray finally reached her head. She could feel the constant burn of the spray moving across her face.

And in a moment, it was all over. The acid spray had stopped, and she was being lightly rinsed with water. When that ended, Laura got up from the table and grabbed the fluffy towel that was hanging on the far wall (how and when did that get there?).

After drying herself off, she wrapped the towel around her body and exited the room. Stark was nowhere to be seen, but Bucky was standing in the hall. His face was full of indiscernible emotion, more than she had ever seen him express.

"How do I look?"

"Like you should. Like yourself." Laura could feel her cheeks burning faintly.

"I should get to my room and put on clothing. It may be difficult, though, as I believe I went down a size or two."

A faint smile graced his lips as he put his arm around her to escort her to the elevator. When she reached her room Bucky left her there and closed the door behind him.

Laura dropped her towel and walked naked to the large mirror on the wall. She examined her body, noticing the little changes. She was thinner - significantly so. Darcy had been a curvy woman, while Laura had been created to be small and lithe. Her hips seemed smaller without the extra fat, and her waist was the same. She was also much paler, any hint of a tan gone. Her hair, nearly back to full length, was stick-straight and a dark black. Her muscles were prominently defined beneath her skin.

But finally, she saw herself again. She could be Laura again, not just Laura hidden away. She saw who she was, not who she was pretending to be. And if she looked really closely in the mirror, she could see Logan, too.

Laura went to her closet and hunted for anything she could find that would fit, settling on a crop top that hung loosely on her frame and a wrap skirt that tied at the hip. She assessed herself one last time in the mirror; she looked like she was going to just lounge around the house after taking a shower.

Laura smiled and headed up to the common area.