Chapter 11

XxXxX

It was amazing what lengths people would go to, to save their own asses.

Standing out on the balcony of their current residence, Lance Alvers stood staring out at the night sky, contemplating his place in this world, among other things.

Things had turned out so weirdly for them. By 'them', of course, he means the former Brotherhood. Not too long after that epic battle with Apocalypse, they had been approached by Nick Fury, who offered them a chance to try and turn themselves around. Covert operations for S.H.I.E.L.D. he had said, their own mutant strike force or something.

It had been a generous offer, especially seeing as they had no direction after the battle. Xavier offered them a space at the Institute, with the X-Men, but that would never have worked. They may have been allies against Apocalypse and his Horsemen, but there was still too much bad blood between them for them to live in close quarters.

So, here they were, still a team, still ragging on each other, still holding their own.

"Don't tell me you're moping again." A voice spoke up behind him.

"No worries Wanda, I'm fine." He moved to give her some standing room. She was always doing that, making sure he wasn't getting down on himself for any of the decisions he had to make both as leader of this little team, and the ones he made as his civilian self. Wanda was his semi-official second in command of team that S.H.I.E.L.D had renamed Freedom Force. They dealt with more underground issues than the X-Men did, but it helped them keep their edge. God forbid they go completely straight. "So what did Fury want?"

"Just letting us know that their bringing in some new operative from England. Supposedly they're part of the Psi Division of S.T.R.I.K.E."

"S.T.R.I.K.E.?"

"If you had been paying attention during the last few debriefings, you'd know that it's S.H.I.E.L.D.'s British counterpart." Wanda retorted.

"Oh, right." Lance said sheepishly. "So did he give us any orders or what?"

"No, nothing for right now, he says to relax for now while he gets the Brit all filled in." She finished, then wrinkled her nose. "I swear I will never get used to that smell." She said under her breath.

"Hey Toad." Lance called over his shoulder.

"What's up guys?" The odiferous amphibious young man had gotten over his constant hounding of The Scarlet Witch; they had reached an accord, deciding that he'll cut out the stupid pet names, and she'll stop hex-bolting him. "The flaming Aussie is lookin' for ya." He said to Lance.

"Oh God, what now?" Lance rolled his eyes.

"Somethin' about the kitchen table and kindling..."

"Aw, Hell!" Lance muttered and went off to deal with their teammate.

Toad let out an exaggerated yawn and made a show of stretching his arms over his slimey head.

"Finally, just you and me babycakes." He said as he wrapped his arm around her waist.

"Toad..." Wanda said with a hint of warning in her voice, causing him to remove his hand.

"Hey, old habits die hard." He defended and waited for the blue spark of her powers to manifest. She never got the chance to zap him, for at that moment shouts and crazy laughter echoed from inside.

"Wanda?! Little help here?!" She heard Lance call.

Rolling their eyes, they made their way indoors to help calm down Pyro.

XxXxX

In the gardens that surrounded the Xavier Institute have been a place of solace for many of its residents. At any given time there could usually be at least one person wandering around out there, and today was no exception.

She used to be nothing more than a number to those who knew of her existence. It wasn't until she hunted down and tried to kill the closest thing she had to a parent, that it all changed.

She had been a being of no emotions; feelings were bad, they clouded judgment, and that could get you killed.

But she had learned otherwise after showing up on their doorstep, very much alive, not long after she had supposedly died attempting to bring Hydra down.

The last few years had been a great help in discovering her human side, and a struggle to tame the animal within. She even had a name for the first time ever.

There had been a strange look on Logan's face when they sat down in the garden to discuss the name issue. He was still trying to get used to the whole I-have-a-genetic-copy-of-myself-living-here thing, but he still knew that she couldn't walk around calling herself X-23, it wasn't right. And she didn't want any more reminders of her life spent with...them.

She had told him that she knew nothing of names and what they signified, she had never called anyone by a name until she came across him.

Logan, though seemingly uncomfortable with the notion, ran it by her anyway: What if he gave her a name? Seeing as he was, in a sense, her father and all.

When she asked what sort of name he had in mind, he got a far away look in his eye, like he was recalling some long forgotten memory.

After a few moments, he whispered a name that clearly meant something to him, even if he would tell her what that was.

And so, from that moment on, she had Mariko.

So now, Mariko stood among those very plants where her new self had been born, contemplating what she has come to call, The Before Time.

Her life is one that should have never been brought to fruition. She was nothing more than a weapon cloned from another weapon, a true killing machine. She could recall how it felt to tear the spleen out of those who got in her way, to see them plead for mercy with their eyes...

Since she's been here, she's only stabbed the robots and projections in the danger room, well, except that time Kurt teleported in front of her and startled her. Well, she hadn't stabbed him per se, but it still required a few stitches to close the gash. The fact that she hadn't killed him for it was a testament to how far she had come.

She sat down, as she does every night on her rounds, waiting for her mentor to return from whatever it is he felt he needed to go this time. It had been nearly six months since he had taken off, he was usually back by now.

Deciding she had been there long enough, she got up and made her way back to the house. He would be back...sooner or later.

XxXxX

Hmmm....not sure how I feel about this chapter. It seems a little random, I know. But for some reason I had this overwhelming urge to write a blurb about X-23, and there it is. I dunno what they're going to call her now that she's appeared in Uncanny X-Men, but for this story, she's Mariko.

Let's get down to business, shall we? On to the Reviews:

EmeraldKatsEye: Wow, you leave loooong reviews, I likes it! You're gonna have to deal with the Lorna/Bobby stuff for a bit, I'm not a huge fan of Evo Havok, so he's gonna be revamped a tad before he shows up. "Surf's up dude, like whoa!" Gag! So, yeah.Aren't hungover people just great, especially when you're not, and they're the ones who are suffering? Ha Ha! I am so sadistic.

Ishandahalf: I'm glad you were amused.

Tsugath: New Reviewer! Yay! Hope you liked this chapter.

Aslyin: New Reviewer #2! Yay! You leave long reviews too! Groovy. I'm glad you're loving the story, but you don't know some of the characters?! Oh dear. We might have to rectify that. And put away the puppy dog eyes, I am immune to them! Mwahahahaha!

Nimbio: New Reviewer #3! Yay! When you say Bishop like you do, do you mean that you don't know who the character is, or that you wanna know what he's doing in the story? If it's the former, you can go to , they have a full bio up for Bishop in their Cerebro Files under the heading Spotlight On..., it tells his whole story from his first appearance in the comics to fairly recent.No social life? Ha! I'm a full time university student, I don't have much of a social life anyway.

Alright, that's all for now. I'm gonna do the shameless plug thingy and say go check out my new story Evolution Redux. Chapter one is just the prologue, but chapter two ought to be up an a couple days.

Leishy