Chapter 12

SHIELD Facility...

The technicians had finally got the mainframe up and running again and Logan and Domino waited, impatiently, they had been sitting around for hours now, as they are shown the last data accessed.

Their eyes widen in horror at seeing what it is.

"It's us," Domino says in a whisper. "It's the X-Men."

Logan's jaw sets hard. "Fury, get us a helijet, now!" he snaps, because they have to get back to Bayville asap.

They swiftly move to the roof where the helijet is waiting for them by the time they get there. Fury and Risman accompany them.

"Jinx and I will be going in alone," Logan yells to Fury over the helicopter engine noise.

"Ah, Forget it!" Fury rejects that idea.

"No you forget it," Domino gets into Fury's face.

"She's a weapon built by HYDRA and a danger to national security! I have to bring her in!" Fury lays it down.

"No!" Risman yells. "They're right. Your agents are no match for her. It has to be them," she gives her view and she knows better than Fury just what X-23 is capable of. Only those 2 have any chance of reaching her.

Fury swears under his breath. "You get an hour...and then we're coming in hard, fast and with everything I've got. You get it?"

"We've got it," Domino says in harsh tones. "Come on Hairy," she says to Logan as she leaps in the jet.

Logan follows her as the helijet takes off and heads towards Bayville.

"Can you stop her?" Domino asks the pertinent question. She's not daft. She can see how dangerous this girl is and only Logan with his healing factor and training might be able to stop her if it comes down to full on combat.

"If I have to," Logan says in grave, gruff tones. He knows how he can stop her. If anyone knows how to defeat someone with a healing factor it's him. "But that's not what I want to do. I messed up with one daughter. I won't mess up with this one," he says, bringing up his regret and failure over Rogue.

"You didn't mess up, Logan," Domino stands up for him since he won't for himself and truly Rogue is not anyone's fault really...except Rogue herself perhaps. "Stuff just happened," Dom gives the rather vague yet at the same time accurate description. There was no one single thing that happened. It was a series of things that sent Rogue to where she is now.

"Yeah, whatever. Point is this time I'm going to take a leaf out of Space Boy's play book."

"Huh?"

"I'm going to save her, Dom. Whatever it takes. We have to save her from this life...from herself," Logan says, showing more intense emotion and feeling than he usually does, showing this has touched him in a way few things manage to do.

Domino nods in agreement. "We will, Logan. We will," she swears. "But why us? Why is she after us?" she wonders.

"Not us. Me. She's after me," Logan corrects Dom.

"I don't get it."

"Last week when Porcupine left I was telling Stormy how he was lashing out in all directions because he had no focus for his anger. This girl does. Me. The one she was created from. She can blame me. I've been where she is. I think you have too. You're just so angry at everything. If there was a single person you could blame wouldn't you?"

"I do. Stryker."

"There you go, then. You do get it. For her it's me. I'm the closest thing to the cause of her troubles. In her shoes it's what I would do."

Well lets just go with Logan's supposition is right and it could well be. If anyone can put themselves in the girl's shoes it's him but Dom would still have criticisms. "It's rather misplaced. You didn't know. You're not responsible."

"She doesn't know that...or perhaps is so angry she just doesn't care. Then there's the hurt, the pain...she probably thinks killing me will take it away."

"It won't," Dom knows.

"No...but I've thought like she has once."

"Cut from the same cloth, eh?"

"Yep."

"In that case we're so screwed," Domino laments. "I just...wonder what it is that set her off. What changed?" she asks about why this girl is doing this now.

Logan shakes his head. He doesn't have a clue on what the trigger was.

HYDRA base, a few weeks ago...

It was an empty, bare white room. It was where they kept the X-23 project, isolated from any human contact and away from distraction.

Outside the room Dr Sarah Kinney checks her watch to make sure she's not too early. She brushes her long brown hair back. Deborah Risman, her colleague, her best friend, should be disabling the cameras right about...now.

Sarah enters the room...and gasps at the sight. On the floor, battered, bleeding, broken, lies X...no lies her daughter. See that was the price HYDRA laid down for their approval of Sarah's suggestion on solving the cloning problems. Not only was it Sarah's DNA that was used to fill in the gaps in her daughter's genome but it was Sarah that had to carry the baby to term herself. For 9 months she felt that life growing inside her...and for every day since she has hated herself for what she allowed HYDRA to do to the girl. She and Deborah realised what a tragic error they made and have tried to do what they could to make up for it by giving the girl companionship, love but only for very short time periods.

It was never enough but it was all they had. Especially for Sarah it was never enough. When her daughter was born they didn't even let her hold the baby girl once. They just took her away.

Right now Sarah rushes to her daughter's side and assesses the injuries. She brushes some of the identical to her own brown hair back to look at her daughter's face. "Oh God what did they do now?" she asks, her voice choked with as much worry and concern as any mother who loved their daughter.

X-23 coughs, painfully, as her ribs try and snap back in place. "K-Kimura..."

Sarah closes her eyes and bites her lower lip. She can just imagine what Kimura has done. That woman has taken nothing but sadistic pleasure in beating X-23 within an inch of the place where even her healing factor wouldn't be able to save her for year after long year. God Sarah hates that woman. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry," she whispers sorrowfully to her daughter.

"W-why? You didn't do it," X-23 says in a raspy voice, her logical, practical nature coming through. She is literally unable to understand why Dr Kinney is apologising for actions not her own.

"I did," Sarah whispers tearfully. "I'm the reason you're here. I'm..." She leans in and whispers it into X-23's ear. "I'm your mother," she admits for the very first time. She had been afraid to before now in case HYDRA found out but something inside her snaps this time and she can no longer hold the truth in.

X-23's eyelids open, revealing green eyes, identical to Sarah's own. "My mother?" she queries, the pain slowly fading as her body heals.

"I...carried you to term."

X-23 looks...confused by that idea. All her life she was told she wasn't a person. She was a weapon. Only people have mothers. She tries to push herself to her feet.

Sarah is there, helping her and takes her over to the...shelf that double for X-23's bed and sits her down. She kisses her daughter on the forehead. "Forgive me. I never wanted this. Never imagined this is what they would do to you."

"Why?"

Sarah swallows. "Why what?"

"Why did you create me? Why did you let them make me? Let them do all of this to me?"

Sarah sits down beside her daughter and tries to explain. "I was young and stupid. HYDRA promised me unlimited money and resources to do genetic research and I was so caught up I forgot that that double-helix of molecules makes a person...and by the time I remembered you had been born...and you know HYDRA. After that the choice was not mine. I did what I could. That's why I came to see you as often as I could, read to you, keep you company."

X-23 absorbs that. "If you are my mother do I have a father?"

Sarah gives X-23 the story for the first time. "You have a...genetic template...a genetic donor. Weapon X. For years our task was to recreate it."

"Me. I'm the recreation," X-23 quickly deduces. She was trained to quickly assess facts and adapt so as to alter her attack strategies.

"Not exactly. The DNA was damaged. I had to use some of my own to fill in the gaps. That's why you have my hair and eyes and gender but the rest, 95% of your DNA, comes from Weapon X."

"Then I am here because of him," X-23 assesses. "Everything I am, everything HYDRA wanted comes from him. He's responsible."

Sarah worries at the tone. "That's not..." she sighs. "I wish I could take it back. I wish I had had the sense to run away when I was pregnant with you."

X-23 shakes her head as if to say that would have never worked. "HYDRA would have hunted you down, killed you and cut me out of you," she states coldly what is very disturbing imagery to most people.

Sarah has to say that's probably true. See what she has gotten herself trapped in. She puts her arm around the girl, something she has done often and smiles inside when X-23 leans into her. It was a small thing but it showed that there was still a little girl inside that bundle of rage and claws that sought comfort and affection.

"Why did they chose you to carry me to term? Why not a surrogate or an artificial womb?" X-23 wonders.

Sarah swallows. "HYDRA politics. It was Zander's...Dr Rice's idea. What he was hoping to gain I haven't a clue."

X-23 silently absorbs that as she leans into the nice comforting warmth of her...mother.

"I don't know what else to say. I can never apologise enough for my failure as your mother," Sarah breaks the silence, finding it uncomfortable.

X-23...doesn't know what to feel...or do...or...she was never meant to...these emotions...they're too powerful...too overwhelming. She wishes she could cut them out of herself. In the end she finds herself asking a question. "Do...do I have a name?" she wonders. Everyone else does but never her. It's always been X-23 or just X or other more derogatory terms like animal or thing or weapon or worse. Kimura always comes up with the worst ones.

Sarah closes her eyes, tears leaking from her eyes. "Laura," she whispers for the 1st time the name she has so longed to wish to use. "Your name is Laura."

At the Institute, the present...

X-23...Laura...is that what she is suppose to call herself? It's what her mother said her name was.

Her mother.

That's still so hard for her to comprehend having had it driven into her, for as long as she can remember, that she had no such thing. That she was a weapon. Not a human being.

Her mother...was kind. Is that what mothers are suppose to be?

Laura had no answer.

Her mother...cried. When she revealed her name to her, her mother cried, cried for all the pain and suffering she couldn't stop, that she couldn't save Laura from.

Laura felt that. Seeing her mother cry made Laura feel...bad too.

Laura...didn't blame her mother for any of it. She blamed Wolverine. It all stems from him. Her pain. Her suffering. Her mother's upset and pain. Her very existence. It's all him.

Well his time has come. She's waited long enough. Waited until it was dark so she could use the shadows to her advantage. Time to put her plan into action...and as luck would have it it'll be easier than she thought as some of the targets left a short time ago. She's in place, the first priority target is coming, she can smell him approaching. Time to begin.

Charles was rolling along the hallway as the darkness of evening descended completely. A short time ago he had sent Generation X on a mission to deal with a mutant incident Cerebro had detected. He had wanted the X-Men here just in case because Logan and Domino still hadn't returned and it worried him slightly.

Besides Generation X will be fine. They're well trained now and Banshee was with them as the adult. Sean would never let anything happen to them. Charles had also sent Betsy with them in case a telepath was needed. She was really quite good now. Her power had never been in question. It was her control which he had been working hard on with her.

He is passing his study when he hears...crying?

Charles stops. It is crying. Sounds like a girl crying.

He reverses a little and rolls inside the door and there, sitting by the chess set he and Henry play their games on, is a young brown-haired girl. Now where did she come from?

Charles rolls in. He doesn't jump to reading her mind. He always feels that is an intrusion. He can sense a turmoil of emotions, clashing, conflicting though.

"Hello?" he asks gently as he rolls up to her. She looks up for a moment to reveal tear-filled and rather stunning green eyes. "What's your name?" he asks, trying to strike up a conversation with her.

Suddenly the girl jumps at him, knocking over the chess set and she places a circular device on his forehead before he even begin to react. Great pain surges through Charles before he topples out his wheelchair and onto the floor unconscious.

Laura grins, coolly satisfied. Her HYDRA training was useful. Fake upset, produce sympathy and they lower their guard. The telepath was a great threat. He had to be taken down first. Otherwise he might have been able to disable her with his mind or at least warn the others.

Now that is done Laura can get to work on the rest of them. She looks down at the helpless figure. She could kill him easily. Be sure the threat is removed...but she doesn't want to.

It doesn't make sense. She's killed before. So many. She wishes she could say so many she lost count...but that would be a lie. She remembers them all. So why isn't it even occurring to her now. Why does the thought seem...distasteful? Is that the right feeling?

Laura doesn't understand. It's just like her last assignment...

Mexico, couple of weeks ago...

X-23 knew her assignment. She studied the files on her target. Knew his name and appearance. Why he was to be killed wasn't her business. Madame Hydra ordered this man dead and sent her to do it.

X-23 has done this many times.

And those many times Kimura is always with her. Just like now. Kimura was waiting at the agreed rendezvous point once X-23 had completed her assignment.

X-23...hates the woman. The woman does nothing nothing but insult, degrade, humiliate and take great pleasure in beating X-23 down...and she can't do anything about it.

X-23 can't hurt the woman. Kimura's invulnerable to her claws and so far X-23 hasn't been able to concoct or devise an effective way to circumvent that.

But she shouldn't be thinking like that now. She has a mission...but her thoughts are much more distracted and conflicted lately. Ever since Dr Kinney revealed herself to be X-23's mother she hasn't known what to think or feel.

She's hidden it from her HYDRA superiors but it doesn't change the fact that everything she thought she understood about her life, the basis that HYDRA tried to, literally, beat into her, was nothing but falsehoods and lies.

Before she understood what she was. She was a weapon...a tool. She obeyed orders and carried out missions and that was it.

Now she's a...

A...

She has no idea.

A noise snaps her back to the here and now.

Security guard on the perimeter of her target's estate. X-23 was hidden well though. He wouldn't see her. Not until it is far too late. A few moments later it is as she slices his throat, through his jugular and vocal chords in a single strike. Silencing him and killing him almost instantly.

She makes sure to hide the body and proceeds towards the house where the target is, avoiding any detection devices.

She nears the house...only to find herself in an ambush, surrounded on all sides by heavily armed men. She missed one of the detection devices.

Under her mask she snarls, growls and pops the claws on both hands. The men order her to stand down. She does not comply and they open fire.

The bullets tear into her flesh and deep into her organs until she is put down, lying on the ground, bleeding heavily.

The men close in to make sure she is dead.

All as she intended. She deliberately missed that detection device.

With quickness and surprise and agility she springs to her feet and tears her way through the men in moments, before any of the can react.

She stands there, breathing heavily amongst the dozen or so corpses. A quick sniff confirms they're all dead. Her head snaps round to the house. With a run and leap she uses her claws to dig into the wall and climb her way up the outside.

She peers in through an upstairs window. There's her target, trying to barricade himself in the room. It's a poor defensive line.

She clambers to above the window and with her claws dug in pushes off to give herself a swing and then crashes through the glass.

As her target spins round, gun in hand, X-23 is already moving toward him. She slices the gun in half before he gets a shot off and has his legs sweeped from under him in the next moment. She raises her claws to finish off the helpless man on the ground...

"Papá! Papá!" a small voice cries.

Normally this wouldn't stop X-23. She can kill the man and kill this other person easily. It's the man's response that stops her.

"Laura! ¡No!"

Laura? That's her name. X-23 does what she has never done before and takes her eyes off the target to find a girl roughly her age standing there, tears in her eyes at the sight of this monster about to off her father.

"Mátame si quieres. Piezas de mi hija."

X-23's eyes flicker down to the man. He's saying to kill him if she wants but spare his daughter. X-23 knows who and what this man is. He's a drug dealer and murderer yet he cares enough of his own daughter to try and spare her pain.

X-23's 'father' has never done that. He's never done anything. What he is is responsible for everything. Everything she is, everything she has done, everything she has suffered.

A woman bursts into the room and throws her arms round the girl, hugging her. Probably the mother.

X-23's brow furrows under her mask. Just before her mother left her that last time she hugged X-23 and whispered tearful apologises for everything.

It was...nice. The nicest feeling X-23 has ever felt in her miserable life...but her mother she was so upset.

That's his fault too isn't it? Her genetic donor. If he never existed, neither would she and her mother wouldn't also be suffering.

It's in that moment X-23 sees it. Her whole life as if replaying itself and it all boils down to one cause. Him. Weapon X. It's like he's at the centre. He is responsible for all this pain and suffering. To stop it she needs to get rid of him.

In that moment she, for the first time in her life, sets herself her own mission. Seek, locate and kill Weapon X.

This mission, the man helpless beneath her...they're no longer important. More than that she finds she no longer has any wish to kill her target. She literally can't do it this time.

In moments she is out of the room and running across the estate before any reinforcements have a hope of catching her.

She has a new mission. Her mind is already working out where she needs to go to get the information she seeks.

She has a new mission and she repeats it like a mantra over and over in her head.

Seek. Locate. Kill.

Seek. Locate. Kill.

Seek. Locate. Kill.

Seek. Locate. Kill...Weapon X.

At the Institute, the present...

With most of her targets currently on the lower level on this structure Laura finds herself wandering the upper levels, checking the rooms, seeing glimpses of what a normal life looks like. In one room she finds a stuffed bear and for some reason hugs it to herself momentarily...like her mother hugged her.

She picks up a liquid filled glass bottle and sniffs it...wrinkling her nose at the awful smell. Must be some sort of scent weapon or something.

She moves on to another room and finds a framed picture of a boy with red glasses and a red-haired girl standing next to each other, the boy with his arm across the girl's shoulders. She picks it up and stares at it with a sort of sadness she can't quite fathom. She looks up and pinned on the wall are lots of photos of various people, smiling and happy.

"Hey Jean!" Marie calls out. "Can I borrow..." she stops dead when who she finds isn't Jean. "What..." is all the French girl manages before X-23 charges her and slaps on one of those same circular devices that immobilises her as it did the Professor.

X-23's face grows serious. Enough time wasted. Time to take the targets out. All of them.

Author's Note: When I was re-watching the episode it reminded me that on the show they gave X-23 brown hair instead of Logan's black hair and since I was going to add in the comic element of Sarah Kinney as Laura's mother I thought the easiest thing to do was to give Sarah brown hair too(in the comics it was also black...as I recall) and make that the source of where it comes from as well as allowing me to give Laura her very distinctive green eyes. Thanks to everyone who wrote reviews. Next up; x-23 part 5.