Chapter 5

Lamb to the Slaughter

The sisters exited the smoking bunker coughing and gagging despite their rebreathers, and collapsed onto the ground outside the entrance, not caring if they were surrounded by an entire platoon of soldiers even more heavily armed than Gabby. Considering they weren't immediately filled with bullet holes or blown to pieces however, Laura presumed they must have retreated either before or after the self-destruct sequence had been activated.

"Gabby," Laura gasped, spitting out the rebreather. "Status report."

"Vision's blurry. Leg's broken. Second and third degree burns. And my right bone claw still hasn't regrown yet." She spat out her own rebreather. "Also, I'm pretty sure I'm either concussed or got something stuck in my brain, and I think I may have also dislocated my pelvis. That's a new one, and I didn't even know girls could do that. Other than that though I'm feeling pretty good. How about you?"

Laura groaned, wishing she couldn't feel pain like her sister, but grateful at least that her healing factor was several times faster. "Remy," she said, touching her ear, "we're clear. We-" She sighed, remembering that the ear she went into the bunker with wasn't the same one she had now, and turned to her sister who was removing a piece of rebar from the back of her head.

"Gabby, radio the Blackbird. Tell them to get us the hell out of here."

"Okie-dokie. Honey Badger to Blackbird. Come in, Blackbird."

"We read you loud and clear, Petite," Gambit said. "Right on time. We were just about to send our devilishly handsome snow elf in after you. What can we do for you?"

"We got what we came for and more, and the facility blew up with us inside it. Not entirely my fault, but now Laura's abusive ex-girlfriend is after us and she's really mad for some reason. Again, not entirely my fault."

"Her WHAT now?" Jubilee asked.

Laura growled, able to hear the other side of the conversation perfectly well with her sharp hearing. "Tell them it's Kimura and that we might have prisoners with us!"

"We-"

"We heard her, Sugar," Rogue said, sounding as though she was already preparing for liftoff. "We're on our way. Just sit tight and sit a spell. Blackbird out."

Gabby nodded to nobody in particular and looked to her sister for an explanation. "Prisoners?"

Laura sat up, regretting the decision almost immediately, her skin having mostly melded itself but still bright pink under the soot. "I didn't see anywhere for human experiments to be kept downstairs, and it's probably more efficient to use them as slave labor out here. Problem is the soldiers might've already executed them, or they will once the sterilization team gets here. Come on. Job isn't over yet."

They followed their acute senses of smell to the back of the compound. Fortunately or unfortunately they'd been able to smell the prisoners about fifty yards away, and circled a small building that resembled a shipping container. Thankfully it seemed that the prisoners had been a low priority after the infiltration teams were eliminated by Laura, either that or their guards hadn't had the heart to execute children themselves.

Inside a cramped cell were sixteen half-starved, filthy children, the eldest no older than Gabby, and the youngest barely out of diapers. Laura gritted her teeth looking at their pitiful living conditions, suddenly wishing the guards hadn't abandoned their posts. In her mind, it was one thing for her to have been born a prisoner, never knowing anything different, but it was quite another to steal children and put them in cages, and do God knows what to them. She only hoped they still had homes to go back to, and good homes at that.

Huddled atop dirty cots, the children scooted far away from the cage and the two strangers covered almost from head to toe in dried blood, and looking as though they'd been in a fire.

"Don't worry," Laura said in fluent Spanish. "We're friends, and getting you out of here."

"Tell them that we're with the X-Men!" Gabby said excitedly.

Laura opened the cage with her adamantium claws, earning her several startled gasps and one or two mutterings about Wolverine.

"Can all of you walk?" The children nodded, including a small girl with a bandaged leg, clinging to who might've been her older sister.

Herding them out of the cell, Laura noted a few of the older boys staring at her, and glancing down, decided it was probably time to change clothes. She fished out a matching set from Gabby's backpack, who was still fairly well covered up thanks to her body armor. While her sister led the prisoners to the back of the makeshift building, giving them water and checking them for injuries, Laura quickly bathed herself with a canteen and got changed.

She almost smiled afterward, not ready to congratulate herself just yet, but willing to allow herself a moment to catch her breath and reflect on the night's events. Despite the nightmares that were sure to follow, she had saved the lives of sixteen innocent children, and prevented countless others from suffering the same fate. It wasn't enough to wash away her sins, not by a longshot, but it was a start.

Laura joined her sister a moment later, leading the way while using the buildings for cover toward the sound of The Blackbird's approaching engines and the designated landing zone they had agreed upon prior to the mission.

*bamf*

"Guten abend!" Nightcrawler said, teleporting in front of them. "I take it these are the prisoners you spoke of? They are smaller than I was expecting."

"El diablo!" one of the children shouted.

"WHERE!?" Nightcrawler quickly hid behind Gabby, and several of the children giggled and informed their superstitious cellmate that he was a mutant and member of the X-Men.

He grinned at Laura and Gabby. "You two might not be demons, but you certainly look as though you've been through hell tonight."

Laura nodded and silently led the way, cutting through the fences while Gabby and Nightcrawler covered their flanks and watched for trouble.

"Rogue!" one of the children cried, while others screamed for Gambit. Apparently Jubilee was a lesser known member of the team, but seeing her fangs, pale skin, and otherwise otherworldly beauty, she quickly became a favorite among the prepubescent boys.

"You know, I was just saying that I was dying for a drink," she said, winking at them. "Thanks for the delivery, Laura. How much do I owe ya?"

"You look fresh as a daisy, Chère," Gambit said, bō staff lazily draped across his shoulders. "You didn't make your sister do all the dirty work, now did you? Also, you weren't kidding about the humidity, or the mosquitos for that matter."

Laura smiled despite herself, a rarity that brought smiles to all their faces. "I just didn't wanna have to claw anybody's eyes out is all." The adrenaline finally wore off and her legs nearly buckled, but a helping hand from her sister kept her steady.

"I'm alright," she said, seeing their worried faces. "Gabby can tell you the details later. Let's get the kids settled and get them medical attention. I hear a helicopter in the distance, and the sooner we're done here, the sooner I can shower and get some sleep."

The others agreed, and since she was the only one fluent in Spanish, Laura explained to the children what was happening, where they were going, and asked a few questions about their names and where they came from which she relayed to the others.

It wasn't difficult to herd them onto the state of the art stealth jet, especially with Jubilee leading the way, but just as she was stepping aboard, Laura's head spun and her claws extended.

"What is it?" Gambit asked, fanning half a deck of cards.

Laura sighed and retracted her claws. "Kimura. She's not done with me..."

"Jubilee," Rogue called, "we need you out here! Now! Kurt, start the engine!"

As if having teleported there, a woman covered in soot and wearing a skintight metallic bodysuit walked through the center of the field toward The Blackbird.

"What's she doing here?" Gambit asked softly. "Kimura might be insane, but she's not stupid."

Laura nodded, her heart skipping several beats. Even Kimura couldn't fight all of them at once, especially injured and exhausted as she was. Rogue and Jubilee alone would've each been a match for her, but combined and alongside their fellow X-Men, even The Juggernaut himself would've found a force to be reckoned with.

"She's not here to fight," Laura said, stepping forward. "She has something we want. Something I want, and she knows we won't risk endangering whoever it is."

The two stopped roughly thirty yards from each other, with the X-Men quickly surrounding Laura, including Nightcrawler who teleported outside, and Gabby once she finished loading her grenade launcher.

"I knew you couldn't leave without saying goodbye," Kimura said, blood still dripping from her mouth. Her right eye had mostly regenerated, but was bloodshot and twitched unnaturally just like her lip.

Gabby covered her nose and gagged. "You smell like burnt hair and vomit."

Kimura turned her full attention to Gabby, and Laura stepped in front of her sister, lowering her weapon. "Don't piss her off any more than she already is," she whispered. "What do you want, Kimura? Make it quick."

"X-23 isn't going anywhere," she announced. "She's coming with me, and she's coming voluntarily."

The four X-Men stepped in front of the sisters with Rogue and Jubilee taking the lead. "What makes you think you're going anywhere?" Rogue asked, casually removing her gloves. "Pardon my French, but if you take one step closer to my girl, you're gonna be tasting shoe leather courtesy of my boot up your ass."

Jubilee's fangs doubled in size and her pupils were lost in crimson. "You got a little something on your lip there, Kimura. Type A+ if I'm not mistaken. Want me to get that for you?"

Kimura grinned and held up a cellphone, and Laura's eyes widened as she heard familiar voices and screams. "Megan. Aunt Debbie..."

"It's taken me over five years of nonstop searching," Kimura said, face practically radiant, "but I've finally found Dr. Kinney's estranged sister and her bastard daughter."

"Release them right now or else-"

"Or else what?" Kimura snarled at Gambit. "X-23 comes with me, or else my men will skin them alive and mail them to your precious school piece by piece. If that doesn't convince her, they start scouring elementary schools. Children's hospitals. Orphanages. Rats living on the streets like her!"

"You-"

"She's not bluffing," Laura said, stepping through them. "I'm going. That's final."

"Laura, you can't be serious," Nightcrawler said. "Whatever happened to the X-Men not negotiating with terrorists and megalomaniacs?"

The others made similar comments which Laura ignored. "You release Debbie and Megan alive and unharmed, along with any other hostages you've taken," she said. "If you swear to never go after any of them again, or pull this sort of stunt ever again, I'll go with you. Willingly."

Kimura nodded, her grin faltering somewhat. "I have never told you a single lie during one of our games, X. Come with me, and I will release the hostages unharmed. Here, tell the little tramp yourself that she'll be alright."

She tossed the cellphone in the air which Laura deftly caught. "Megan? Meg, can you hear me?"

"Laura! W-what's happening? I was walking home from the library when-"

"Meg, are you hurt?"

"N-no, b-but they told us-"

"Don't worry about what they told you. Nothing's gonna happen to you or your mom. Just sit tight and you'll be released in a little while. I promise. After that, you need to contact the X-Men and tell them where you're at. They'll come get you and keep you safe."

*sniffle*

"I-I'm scared."

Laura took a deep breath to help steady herself and nodded. Her cousin had been kidnapped as a child by the worst sort of predator, and in one of Sarah Kinney's few redeeming moments, she sent Laura on a secret mission to rescue her. The event had left Megan deeply traumatized and scarred for life, as had witnessing what Laura did to the man that hurt her.

"I know, Meg. I'm scared too, but it'll be alright." She swallowed and squeezed her eyes shut. "Meg, no matter what happens to me, thank you for teaching me what it means to be human, and please thank your mom for treating me like her own. I'm sorry for getting you wrapped up in this, but it'll be over soon, and it won't ever happen again. I-I love you, Meg. Please tell Debbie that I love her too..."

"L-Laura, why are you-"

She tossed the phone back to Kimura who spoke to one of her men before hanging up. "It's done. Come with me, and they'll be released within the hour. Alive and unharmed, so long as your associates don't try tracking us. After tonight, they're dead to me."

Laura nodded and removed her utility belt which she handed to Nightcrawler. "Use the data collected on Gabby's laptop and my flash drive to take down Weapon X once and for all."

He nodded, the peculiar shadows that perpetually covered his face even darker than usual. "We shall, and God be with you, Laura."

"One more thing, Kurt." Her hand tightened around her cross necklace. "Thank you for going to all the trouble of convincing me that I have a soul, and for not taking offense to all the blasphemy I said back then. In some ways that's made my life harder, in other ways it's been a weight off my shoulders." A thin smile spread across her lips. Pain and relief going hand-in-hand seemed to be a constant in her life.

"The first time we talked about religion," she continued, "I got angry and said that if God were real, then He's responsible for all the horrible things that happened to me growing up. Well, if He's responsible for all the bad, then logically He's also responsible for all the good too, and I'd go through it all over again just for another year with Gabby. If Heaven's a place where people like me are allowed, then I look forward to you telling me that you were right."

He smiled at her, patting her shoulder. "We shall see each other again, Laura. Whether it be this life or the next, and I shall be there to unashamedly say that you were wrong, and that I was right all along."

Laura smiled back and turned her attention to Jubilee. "You and I once made a promise to each other," she said. "You have my forgiveness, and my gratitude, Jubilee, and I would've done the same for you. Please, don't let me kill anyone. Especially anybody we care about."

Jubilee nodded, tears stinging her eyes. "I'll do my best, Laura." She gave her a hug that Laura returned half-heartedly as if unsure where her hands were supposed to go. "I always hoped it'd be the other way around..."

She finally released her, and Laura stood silently in front of Rogue and Gambit. "Petite," he whispered, using his previous nickname for her prior to Gabby. "We'll find you, and we'll get you back."

"I'm sure you'll find me, Remy. That's what I'm scared of. The next time you see me, I won't be Laura Kinney anymore, so please don't hesitate to kill X-23." She stole a quick glance at her sister and cleared her throat. "Please, take care of Gabby for me. She's stronger than I was at her age, but she still has her fair share of demons. Please make sure they don't turn into mine, and that she doesn't turn into me."

"You'll make sure of that yourself. Just you wait and see."

Laura gave a weak smile and didn't bother correcting him, but gave him a kiss on the cheek before turning to Rogue.

"You have a good husband, Rogue, and he'll be a good father someday. Trust me, I know from experience. Thank you for giving me tough love when everybody else treated me with kid gloves. Please do the same for Gabby. She can be a bit of a brat sometimes."

"Of course, Sugar." She wrapped her arms around Laura, careful not to come into contact with her skin. "Don't you dare ever stop fighting," she whispered. "You are the strongest person I know, Laura, and I've known my fair share of strong women. You fight your programming to the very bitter end? You hear me? The bitter end."

Laura nodded, not trusting herself to speak, and shut her eyes tightly when Gambit joined the embrace. For the briefest of moments she allowed herself to pretend she had a loving mother and father, and that she was somebody's daughter again. A daughter somebody had actually wanted and asked for. Somebody other than Laura Kinney in her final moments.

She didn't allow it to last long however, and wiped her eyes before squatting down in front of her sister, and for several moments just studied her face and stared into her eyes. "Gabby, you are the single greatest thing to ever happen in my life, and I wouldn't trade the past ten months for anything. You are my little sister, not my clone. Never forget that. The best thing you can do for me now is live a long, happy life, and spite our creators while doing it."

"Stop talking like you're going!" she shouted, punching her shoulder. "You're not going! You're staying here with me!"

"I know you never met Sarah or Logan," she said, ignoring the pitiful assault, "and that you don't really consider them your parents, but the life of Laura Kinney is yours now, Gabby. Megan is your cousin, and her mom is your Aunt Debbie. You'll like them. They're good people, and they'll think the world of you. I want you to be a part of their lives, and to protect them like I couldn't. I don't expect you to stop being a superhero, or looking for more sisters, but I don't want you to become Wolverine, and I definitely don't want you to become me. You're the Honey Badger. You're sweet, but you're also fearless, stubborn, and you have sharp claws."

"Laura..."

"A while back after our big fight, you called me the 'evil clone'. You weren't wrong, Gabby. I don't know how genetically similar or dissimilar we actually are, but there's a little Gabby buried deep down inside of me, and there's a Laura inside of you too. I'm sorry for that, for everything, but your friends and family will make sure you don't turn out like me."

She smiled and embraced her sister. "One more thing," she whispered. "There's probably footage of my time at the facility on that computer. I don't want you watching any of it, except from the week of January 12th to the 18th of 2012. It was the happiest week of my life before I met you."

"Laura... Please don't go..."

"I love you, Gabby. I never fully understood what those words meant before I met you. Thank you."

"I love you too..."

Laura squirmed out of the embrace and regarded the others with tearful eyes that for the first time she didn't bother hiding. "Please, take care of Gabby, and please don't let me hurt anyone, but especially any of you. That's all I ask."

They nodded and said their final goodbyes, and she walked toward Kimura until she stood face to face with her cruel smile, the helicopter beginning its descent behind her. "I told you that you never had a choice, X" Kimura said. "You never have a choice."

"I want your word that no harm will come to Megan or Debbie, and that the X-Men won't be your next target. That goes double for Gabby."

"Unlike you, X, I keep my word. Besides, I won't have to go after any of them. They'll come to us, and whatever happens will be their own undoing."

Laura's twisted smile suddenly matched her own. "I always hoped that I'd be the one to kill you, but I'll settle on it being one of them. Personally, I hope it's Gabby."

"I just wonder how many of them you'll butcher before then, or how many I'll kill for that matter."

"Can we just get this over with? Gabby was right, you do stink, and you do have something stuck between your teeth. If you're not gonna swallow my sister's bone, the least you can do is spit it out."

Kimura chuckled. "Look who's finally developed a sense of humor after all these years. Don't worry, as soon we get you home, I'll fix that. Sweet dreams, X. They're the last you'll ever have." She retrieved a syringe from her utility belt filled with green liquid and plunged it into Laura's neck. She grimaced and almost immediately dropped to her knees, her head hanging limp.

"Laura!" Gabby screamed, held back by Rogue and Gambit. "LAURA!"

Dragging her unconscious body by the hair, Kimura stepped aboard the helicopter and laid Laura's head in her lap. "You don't know how much I've missed you," she said, brushing Laura's hair back, her eyes flickering in vague comprehension. "So much time to make up for. I hardly know where to start!"

She frowned suddenly and ripped the cross necklace off from around Laura's neck, and with a snarl, tossed it at the X-Men's feet. "Where you're going, X, God's not coming with you."

On the ground, Gabby dropped to her knees watching the helicopter disappear into the darkness of night until even she couldn't hear it anymore.

"She's gone," she whimpered. "They're all gone. I've lost ten sisters now. All ten, and I don't know if I have any left."

Gambit placed the necklace in her hands and wrapped his arms tightly around her. "We'll get her back, Petite. Don't you worry none. We'll get her back, and Kimura's gonna wish she'd never been born."

Gabby shook her head. "I don't care about Kimura. I just want my Laura back..."

(A/N: Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed. Kimura made reference in the previous chapter to Laura not having a choice and never having a choice, and I like to think she's the type of villain who always has a contingency plan, but prefers getting her hands dirty whenever possible. With that said, I do view her as being "lawful evil", meaning she does have a code of sorts, and lying to get what she wants goes against that code. She's a manipulator, but she'd rather force somebody's hand rather than outright trick them. On that note, I like that the moment Laura sensed her presence, she already knew that Kimura had won.

"Killers By Trade" was partially inspired by All-New Wolverine's "Enemy of the State II" storyline, but while certain plot points are similar, the story itself is very different, and will continue to diverge in the coming chapters.

All credit goes to my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who has blessed me with this story and all of you. God bless)