Wow, so this is my last chapter. sniffles So I wanted to take a brief moment here to thank some very important people. First and foremost, I would like to thank Episodic for continual support and suggestions and just plain entertainment at times. I'm glad I got the guts to email you and I feel I have met someone really cool because of it. Also, Curliest Guru for being one of my best friends and reading this fic even when you have no fing clue what is going on. I promise I'll get you over to my house so you can see X2 eventually. Lolita Red if you're still reading or even out there, I enjoyed very much when you reviewed and I enjoyed your fic too. I know there are many people that left reviews and I would love to be able to list you all but at the rate I'm going this will end up being longer than my chapter. So thank you to everyone who took the time to read my fanfiction and thank you even more to those that were good enough to tell me what you think. Hopefully I'll have some time to come up with another fic soon, but I may branch on to fictionpress...so look me up there sometime. It should be the same screen name.

Ok, now that the sappy music has stopped playing and everyone has stopped crying (or not) on with the story!

also, sorry about the messed up format, it would only let me upload this chapter in plaintext for some obscure reason that i can't fathom.

Disclaimer: I do not own any characters that belong to Marvel and X-Men in any way shape or form. I do however, own all those minor little characters that you never have heard of such as Elijah, Jared, that gang of kids that likes egging X23 on, and yeah all of them.

Chapter 15: Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep

The droning buzz of medical personnel punctured X23's unconsciousness and brought her gasping to the surface of reality. She fought the urge to violently sit up causing the muscles in her body to begin to cramp from the tension coursing through them. She couldn't let them know that she was awake. She quieted her breathing and slowed her heartbeat. She strained to hear what someone was saying in the background.
"Are you out of your mind? I said no discs! The damage you may have caused could be irreversible! Do you have any idea what you've done? Never mind, just get up here now and none of your excuses." The young man that had been speaking was a doctor with small square-framed glasses and a crew cut that displayed the planes and angles of his face to their best advantage. He wore freshly creased khakis and a blue button down shirt underneath his lab coat. Great, a pretty boy. X23 smiled to herself. Pretty boys are soft. She extended the claws on her left hand as quietly as possible on the side hidden by her body and facing away from the doctor. The doctor came closer to her and was making notations on the chart in his hand. She must have done something that gave away that she was awake though because he took a sudden interest in her. Her eyes flew open and she flew at him slashing her claws into the soft, vulnerable flesh of his throat. He gave one last gurgling cry that sounded like a clogged fountain and fell, bleeding to the floor. X23 didn't even watch him fall, she was already out the door, pack slung over her shoulder.


Wolverine moaned and slowly opened his eyes. He was definitely starting to get pissed off. Luckily for him, when Omega Red had thrown him over the ledge he'd landed on another ledge that jutted out a little lower. He painfully made his way to his feet and began to climb. Eventual he was able to haul his still weak body over the top ledge of the cliff. Logan sprawled on his back and stared up at the clear blue sky. He really was getting too old for this. He groaned and stood up, ripping off the various parts of his clothing that had become torn or shredded. A good deal of his shirt disappeared and the bottom half of his jeans as well. Logan sat on the ledge wearily. He ran his hands through his hair tiredly and contemplated what he was going to do next. Part of him knew that X23 was going to be pissed at him no matter what he decided to do, so he brushed himself off, stood up, and sighed for a final time. He was going to lose his balls when X23 found out he'd helped her.


X23 was having a hard time getting through the HYDRA base without being noticed. She'd already killed four underlings. She needed to get to the center of the base before she could enact her plan. The base however, was a fucking maze. Even with her keen senses, X23 was having a hard time finding where she wanted to be. The fact that her sloppy kill of the good doctor was only hindering her progress since guards kept swarming around corners and pouring out of doors all of the time. From what she could hear they'd even sent some guards up into the air ducts. Too bad the guards were only searching through the ones in the ceiling.

There was a second set of air ducts that were located near the floor. It was no wonder no one wanted to go into them either; they were absolutely frigid. These air ducts sent concentrated waves of incredibly cold air, almost to the point of ice, down into the lab areas in what seemed to be the very depths of hell known as the HYDRA labs. The cold air kept the frozen specimens down in the lab from thawing out and causing problems. At one point HYDRA had considered putting X23 on ice and would have succeeded had she not taken out half the guards when they tried to put her into an icy grave. HYDRA found her much more cooperative when she wasn't fighting for her life. X23 had to move quickly if she was going to get out of this air vent without developing hypothermia. The air was cold enough to slow even her down. She finally made it to the center of the base after two more rights and a left. In one fluid move she pulled herself out of the duct and gave herself a couple of seconds to warm back up. Then she was moving again. This was going to be the tricky part. She was going to have to move to the base of the five other towers branching off from the circle and then the one directly in front of her would be where she would be. It was going to be a lot of back tracking and X23 didn't like that. Inhaling on a huge sigh, she quickly began what she'd come here to do.


Logan had made his way to the base and found the entire area in chaos. Looks like X23's already been let lose on these poor bastards. Logan thought grimly to himself. He grabbed a guard and yanked a uniform. Then he proceeded to try and find X23. The base was almost confusing because of its simplistic nature. It was a basic spiral and he began to systematically check each part of the base. He didn't have to check far because shortly after he began his search, X23 was practically thrown into him. Whatever she had been doing Omega Red had stopped.

X23 had been going down the third branch when the door to the lab in front of her had exploded outward and Omega Red had come barreling towards her. He'd slammed into her like a semi-truck and sent her crashing into none other than Wolverine. She got to her feet and looked at him, shaking her head and muttering. Logan looked at her, for the first time calmly waiting for the explosion of anger. It never came. Omega Red charged and X23 took off leaving Wolverine to deal with the pissed off Soviet. Omega Red smashed him up against the wall, and he felt his already cracked ribs break. "I will kill you!" Omega Red screamed smashing Logan into the wall again for emphasis. Logan broke Omega Red's hold and fell to the floor gasping for breath. Omega Red's coils slammed into the floor where Logan's head had just been ten seconds earlier. Omega Red growled in frustration. The Soviet was out of control. Logan decided it would probably be better to run and regroup than sit here and get pounded.
He didn't run fast enough however, and one of Omega Red's coils swiped into his ankles causing Logan to once again fall to the floor. Omega Red planted a huge treaded boot on Logan's head and began to grind his face into the hard metal floor. Logan's nose was definitely broken. When Omega Red was done making Logan's face look like it had been put through a meat grinder, he roared in what he viewed as a victory. Logan sat there quietly waiting for his abused body to catch up and heal. Omega Red extended his coils while he simultaneously flipped Logan over with the toe of his boot. Logan waited for the opportune moment. The coils descended and Logan sprang into action, catching the coils in his hands, he flipped over Omega Red and plunged each coil as deep into his adversary's body as he could manage. The man screamed in agony and collapsed, his own power sucking him lifeless. X23 came running back. She ran up to him and shoved two flat, black discs into his hands.
"Hours, minutes, seconds." She said indicating the corresponding buttons on the discs. "The first one gets placed at the bottom of the fourth tower and gets set at thirty minutes, fifty-five seconds. The second disc gets placed at the base of the fifth tower and gets set at twenty-seven minutes, thirty-two seconds. Once you've set the fifth disc, run down that corridor there. It will take you to the hangar where there is bound to be some vehicle that you can drive." With that X23 began to head up the sixth branch of the base.
"X, wait!" Logan yelled at her, but it was too late, she'd already sealed the door behind her. Logan sighed, and resignedly headed up the fourth branch of the base.


X23 planted the sixth and final bomb that went on the tower and turned, only to slam into someone she'd hoped had gone off to traumatize someone else.
"Well, well, well, if it isn't my little sister up to no good again I see." Jared had gripped X23's arms and his nails were digging into her flesh painfully. X23 stared in horror at the only person she'd ever felt even slight affection for. The acid that permeated the metal that covered his bones was finally corroding the rest of his system. His body seemed somewhat formless where some of his softer tissues had already begun to liquefy. The acidic blood that flowed through his system was oozing out of his eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and the part where your nails meet your skin. X23 recoiled. It was one of the most horrifying things she'd ever seen, and she'd seen some pretty horrifying things. "Oh my God, Jared!" she couldn't help but exclaim.
"But you don't believe in God, little X." Jared replied wickedly and shoved her out of his grasp. X23 knew that Jared was gone. The feverish gleam to his eyes told her that there was very little left of the Jared she used to know. Jared charged and X23 barely had time to move out of the way. Jared's state of decay certainly hadn't slowed him down, nor had it weakened him any. He was still so much stronger than she was. He came up behind her and clutched her in a vise like hug that was squeezing the air out of her lungs. She jabbed her elbows back and thrust her arms up to break his hold and extended her claws. She was ready to meet him head on. She didn't have to wait long. He kicked her in the knee and kneed her in the head, sending her once again crashing down to the ground in a daze. His claws were out and heading towards her stomach. X23 scooted away and stood only to catch a claw to her face. One of the gouges went deep, cutting a slash just above and through part of her left eye, causing her to hiss in pain and anger. She was tired of this. X23 ran up the wall and launched herself at him. She landed a blow across his chest, but all the blood that splattered out from the wound burned her. She was lucky that she hadn't gotten any in her eyes. Obviously cutting him up was out of the question.
"Has the golden child run out of ideas already?" Jared taunted. X23 glared and delivered a roundhouse kick to his head. She proceeded to pummel Jared with as many devastating blows as she could but to little avail. Jared was hard to wound due to the fact that he had gotten so squishy. It was like trying to beat up a wet pillow. On her next pass at him Jared kicked her squarely in the chest and sent her into the wall, which gave way behind her and landed her in a weapon storage room.
X23 quickly scanned the shelves. Bullets would do her no good. She needed something that would incapacitate him. She found a weapon that just might work. As Jared approached the hold she'd made in the wall taunting, "Come out, come out wherever you are." X23 sprang up framed by the hole in the wall and shot him with a pulse of energy that sent him flying into the wall opposite and into the next room. She didn't know it yet but she was crying. Some of the debris from the wall and the blast and dealt further damage to Jared pinning him in place to the floor. She approached his inert body, careful to avoid the blood pooling around his body. He tried to prop himself up, but for once he couldn't. It was the first time X23 had ever seen him show physical pain. "Why are you crying"
"Am I?" X23 asked wiping at her face having them come away wet with something other than blood for once. "I guess I am, but I don't know why"
"You're lying." Jared gurgled up at her, and she tentatively put her hand on his forehead. "Please don't lie to me, not after everything else." X23 couldn't be sure but she thought he might be crying as well.
"I guess because it's all such a goddamn waste Jared. Look at us, two worthless lives in a meaningless fight partaking in an endless battle to give some meaning to a pointless existence. It makes it all seem so fucking pathetic and yet"
"Yet you still have hope, ridiculous hope that something better might come along. That there might actually be a reason for you being here"
"Yeah, I guess"
"Don't cry for me X, cry for you and all the others, but don't cry for me. I was a warped soul in a twisted body, and I made it my life goal to hurt others. I was a monster, both inside and out. I don't deserve anyone's tears, especially not yours"
"Maybe you deserve my tears most of all Jared"
"Kick HYDRA's ass X"
"Don't worry, I will." X23 stood and turned to go. Jared lay gasping on the floor. All he could do now was stare at the ceiling and wait. He knew it wouldn't be long...


X23 moved slowly through this tower, not because she wasn't trying to be seen, but because she just didn't care anymore. Jared may have seen hope in her, but she sure didn't fell like she had any. If a guard approached her, she merely backhanded them into a wall with enough force to knock them out, and she kept walking. She was almost there. She clenched her hands and extended her claws in anticipation. It would all end here.


Logan had set his final bomb and had been watching it slowly count down the minutes until detonation. He knew he should probably be moving toward the hangar that X23 had told him about, but still...


"Hello X23. I've been so looking forward to meeting you." The sultry voice hissed out from the darkened corner and X23 merely met the hard green stare with a glazed over one of her own. X23 didn't feel real anymore. She felt like she really had nothing to lose.
"Why...How could you? People like Jared, they've dedicated their lives to making your visions come true, skewed as they may be, and you just throw them away like old, broken toys. That's what you did, you broke Jared, and all the other children from the Weapon X project; you even broke me"
"You think so? I don't believe I see a broken woman before me. I think I see the child that will not learn to obey, a child that still throws temper tantrums when things don't go her way; I see a child that has such potential given the right guidance." Madame Hydra said as she extended her own poison-laced claws. "Don't waste your time with petty what ifs and whys X23, you're smarter and better than that. I know you are." Madame Hydra stepped into the light as the floor beneath them shifted. They were going up. Viper, or Madame Hydra, was a stunning specimen and she seemed to personify her namesake in looks. Her eyes seemed to hypnotize just like a snake, and when she smiled, you could see her fangs. "You're not broken X23, but you do need some fine tuning. I can help you, we just want you back, safe and here at HYDRA where we can help you become the best that you can be"
"I'll save that for the army." X23 growled. Viper moved faster than X23 imagined was possible for her and was stunned to find Viper's claws buried in her sighed.
"It's a slow-acting poison. I doubt it will kill you, but it sure will making your life a living hell for awhile." X23 snapped and lunged at the woman who had hurt so many people she cared about, the woman who had denied her so much. Viper hadn't expected X23 to fight. The poison should have slowed her down, hindered her ability to fight but she was still going strong. X23 launched a furious string of attacks that moved Viper further into the room. Suddenly Gauntlet appeared.
"Go. I will take care of her and bring her to you." Viper nodded and took off for her escape pod.

10...

Logan had moved off toward the hangar and now stood on a hill waiting a couple miles away from the base. It was all he could really do.

9...

X23 didn't even bother with Gauntlet. She pushed him out of the way and shoved a bookcase on top of him, pinning him to the floor.

8...

Viper climbed aboard her ship and screamed at the the piolets to take off without even closing the door first.

7...

X23 ripped off her jacket and kept running as fast as she could.

6...

The ship was up ahead. She was not religious but she found herself pleading with some higher power to give her the strength to make it.

5...

She synchronized the charges.

4...

She made it to the roof and took a tremendous leap. Below on the hill Logan watched in horror as he finally, finally understood.

3...

Viper cried out in panic as X23 landed in the cabin, bombs strapped to her chest.

2...

Jared stared at the ceiling and on his dying breath he whispered so quietly that no one even heard, "Freedom."

1...

"Game Over, bitch."

The resounding explosions that took place simultaneously throughout the HYDRA facility nearly blinded Logan. His chest was tight and he didn't think he was breathing.
"X!" He yelled as loud as he could, over and over until he could only cloak feebly. He'd never felt so overwhelmed and panicked. He watched with a passive face as rescue teams responded to what was already being labeled a terrorist attack. Apparently HYDRA had a good enough front for what was supposed to be housed in that building. The sun was nearly setting as the X-Jet landed nearby and the professor wheeled himself to sit besided Logan.
"She's wrong you know"
"About what, Logan"
"If I had known, I would have helped her. I would've helped all of them"
"We all would have, and I think she knew that, but, perhaps this was not your fight to win"
"Yeah. Charles"
"Yes Logan"
"Let's go home."

THE END