Chapter 3

Home Sweet Home

Despite the miles of Amazon jungle in between the Blackbird and Weapon X facility, Laura and Gabby had little trouble navigating even in total darkness. No stars or moonlight shined through the canopy of trees above, but their night vision, sense of smell, and innate sense of direction kept them from veering off course even the slightest degree.

Gabby remained uncharacteristically quiet during their stealthful journey through the jungle, for which Laura was thankful. Her sister was first and foremost a soldier, and among one of the most disciplined she had ever met, usually. So long as the enemy was unknown and the threat they represented unknown, her sister wouldn't risk compromising the mission until it was perfectly safe to do so.

Unfortunately those waiting back on the Blackbird were not so disciplined...

"Gambit to X and Honey Badger," the Cajun said over the radio. "Chère and Petite, are the coms working?"

"They're working fine, Remy," Laura said, barely a whisper. "And the next time you call me 'X', I won't be the only one suffering from adamantium poisoning."

"Duly noted. What's the weather like out there? Run across any trouble yet?"

"You mean besides the humidity and mosquitoes? Nothing so far."

"Mosquitoes? I thought I was the only one you let suck your blood," Jubilee said, feigning hurt. "I thought we had something special, Laura."

"And I thought we agreed to never talk about that again, especially in front of company."

"Oops, sorry. Must have slipped my mind. I swear I'm not the jealous type or anything. I just-"

Laura muted her mic and could feel Gabby staring at her in the darkness. "Jubilee got injured on a mission," she explained. "She lost a lot of blood, and by drinking the blood of mutants, she can sometimes temporarily gain their powers."

"In your case, your healing factor," Gabby said.

"And if you ever repeat that story to anyone, ever, I'll be one step closer to being an only child again."

Gabby smartly fell silent again, and although Laura slowed her pace so that her glorified pack mule could keep up, it wasn't long before they both sensed the facility drawing near.

"Run on all fours," Laura said, getting down on her hands and knees like an animal. "Use the trees and brush for cover." If there were any motion detectors, which Laura thought likely, they'd read them as four legged animals instead of humans, moving too fast through the jungle to be caught on camera.

She was also careful not to run directly toward the facility as it'd be suspicious activity for an animal, and instead took a circuitous route like frightened capybaras might rather than two rabid wolverines. By the time the trees began to thin and Laura saw light in the distance, she was breathing heavily and dripping in sweat, and knew Gabby would be in even worse shape underneath her body armor.

"Drink water," she said, chugging from her canteen while Gabby followed suit. While not having the ability to feel pain certainly came with its advantages, her sister sometimes struggled to tell when she was thirsty or hungry, or needed a moment to catch her breath. Thankfully their regenerative powers meant muscles recovering within minutes and being able to power through most physical ailments, but right before a mission was not the time to unknowingly dehydrate oneself.

"We crawl to the tree line," Laura said, wiping her face for all the good it did. "Lay speakers down along the way. The route we're taking inside is on the opposite side of the compound."

Gabby nodded and retrieved several black speaker boxes from her backpack and handed them to Laura, who attached them to her utility belt while keeping two in her hands, and together low crawled to the very edge of the tree line.

On the other side of a freshly mowed field with spotlights shining brightly on them were two high fences wrapped in razor wire, containing what could only be described as a small military base. A watchtower stood on every corner with at least two snipers per tower, and several guards patrolling the inside perimeter. The base also sat slightly atop a hill so that the soldiers could fire down range at any intruders running uphill.

It was secure enough against human insurgents and was exactly what Laura would've expected even if she hadn't already memorized the base's schematics.

"We'll meet each other on the other side," Laura said. "Stay low, move slow, and place the speakers about every thirty yards or more."

Gabby nodded and the two crawled in opposite directions. Laura as expected was able to move faster through the brush, and thus took more time to study the movements of the guards, and even climbed a tree or two just to get a better visual. She very much doubted any of the soldiers knew what they were guarding, and figured they were probably a mix of private contractors and actual military, though for what country she couldn't be sure. They didn't appear to be Canadian or American, but top secret, semi-illegal operations generally didn't come with nametags or insignias.

Laura didn't want to have to kill any of them, and would do everything in her power to avoid doing so, but when it came down to it, these soldiers, if indeed innocent, had the unfortunate luck of fighting on the wrong side, just as countless other well-intended soldiers over the millennia had. Laura wouldn't hold it against them, but she also wouldn't allow the mission to fail for their sakes. If they were good men and even better soldiers, they'd understand it wasn't personal, that more was at stake than just the lives of those on the battlefield, or at least she hoped they would.

She linked up with Gabby at their rendezvous point, her sister not moving nearly stealthy enough for her liking, and Laura radioed the Blackbird that they were in position and about to begin their assault. Their radios wouldn't work within the facility, and they'd be given an hour and a half to get in and get out with all of the information they could, or raze it to the ground if necessary. Any longer and Nightcrawler would be sent in, and he'd either help them escape, or alert the heavy hitters of Rogue, Gambit, and Jubilee that more firepower was necessary.

"We're not going to be able to sneak in," she said. "Too many guards. Too much open space."

"Fast and loud then?"

Laura shook her head. "Fast and dirty. Smoke for cover. We get to the bunker they're guarding and get it open. They won't expect us to run through fences and solid concrete. Inside we go fast and loud. Emphasis on fast."

Gabby nodded, already preparing her multipurpose grenade launcher. She fired on Laura's signal, launching over a dozen grenades high into the night sky. Clouds of white smoke billowed the moment they landed, and Gabby pressed a button on her utility belt, activating the speakers all around the forest line, replicating gunfire and even muzzle flashes, which were immediately answered.

"Go! Go! Go!" Laura took off running, using the smoke for cover, and Gabby followed behind as close as she could while her sister practically ran straight through the chain-link fences and razor wire with her adamantium claws.

The gunfire and yells of soldiers were distorted in the thick smoke, making it impossible to judge their distance, but they both blindly navigated the base without so much as slowing down.

After several twists and turns they finally arrived at their destination, practically running face first into it, and followed the bunker to a secluded corner that wouldn't immediately be noticed by guards. Laura dug her claws into the thick concrete and rebar, smashing a hole just large enough for them to crawl through, grimacing due to the adamantium being grafted onto bone rather than an adamantium skeleton like Logan's.

They crawled through, stacking the concrete behind them as best they could to make the entrance look a little less obvious and perhaps buy them another minute or two, and entered a dimly lit, air conditioned office with no one inside.

Laura shivered due to being covered in sweat, but quickly ran around the corner where six elevators and a staircase led to the underground floors of the facility. Laura wasn't sure whether the X-Men had a mole in Weapon X or if Jean Grey had gotten the information telepathically, but the schematics showed that the bunker below was at least three floors, and that everything above ground was mostly if not entirely legal and just for show.

She slashed the call buttons outside all of the elevators and forced the furthest door open. She guessed correctly that it hadn't been taken that day, and cut a large hole in the bottom, making it inoperable for anyone else. With one final look to Gabby who nodded excitedly, the pair held tightly onto the elevator's cable all the way down to the first set of doors they came across, which Laura again forced open.

Upon entering and seeing the sterilized white walls and tile floor, Laura immediately got a sense of nausea and deja vu, and shivered again. She'd almost forgotten how cold her childhood had been wearing nothing more than a hospital gown in a place where everybody else smartly wore lab coats. They'd been the supreme status symbol in her mind growing up. They meant you got to do the experimenting instead of being subject to it.

"Looks like a hospital," Gabby said, snapping her to attention. "Maybe they study diseases down here or something."

"If you're right, you're gonna wish you weren't." Laura wiped the sweat from her face and started toward the nearest room at the end of the hall. It appeared to be some sort of computer lab in the schematics, which was high on their list of priorities.

"Nobody move!" she cried upon breaking and entering. Three men and a woman sat at computer desks with wide eyes, and although they attempted to shut their computers down, recognition and horror spread across their faces the moment they saw Laura and her claws, and all four raised their hands above their heads as if their lives depended on it.

"They don't have very good poker faces," Gabby said. "I'll watch the door."

"X-23," one of the men whispered. Laura shoved him and the other three scientists away from their desks and pointed in the direction of the man that addressed her.

"I wouldn't call me that again if I were you, not here, and if you don't want to wind up like the guards upstairs, you'll tell me exactly what you're doing here."

All four remained silent while Laura plugged in a flash drive to the computer of the man who appeared to be in charge, and immediately files began flying around the screen.

"You have until all the files are downloaded to tell me what this Weapon X facility is doing here, and what you're working on." Again none of them spoke up and Laura snarled at each of them. "Finally growing a conscience are we? You'll torture children but won't sell out the company you work for?"

She leaped at the man in charge and rested a single adamantium claw on his neck so that the slightest twitch from either of them would slit his throat ear to ear. "TELL ME!"

"Medicine!" he screamed. "I swear! We're working on how to apply your healing factor to diseases like cancer and aids! Even old age! I don't always agree with their methods, but I swear we're doing this for the greater good!"

Laura growled in his face and drew the faintest red line on his neck. "You know all those diseases you're studying? I was one of the guinea pigs! I had them all injected into my body long before my healing factor became what it is today, and I wasn't the first or the only one!"

"T-the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few," he stuttered, sounding as though he might've recited it to himself every night before bed in order to sleep.

Her eyes narrowed. "You're right, and what's one more life when I've already killed countless others..."

Just as the look of horror filled his eyes, she drove the point of her elbow into his face, breaking his nose and several teeth, and watched with no small amount of satisfaction as he crumbled to the floor. "Gabby, tranq gun."

Before the other three scientists could react, Gabby raised one of the many pistols in her arsenal and shot them each with a red dart. Seconds later they each collapsed with Laura standing over them, her claws still fully extended.

"Do you believe him?" Gabby asked.

Laura sighed and nodded. "Creating miracle drugs is just one of their ways Weapon X finances itself. There's a lot of people willing to check their ethics at the door for the sake of scientific progress, or 'the greater good' as he called it. Doesn't give anybody the right to play God."

"You ever think maybe they're doing the right thing? Not the weapon part of Weapon X, but the medical research stuff? I know what they did to you is wrong, but what if their experiments lead to nobody ever getting sick again, or everybody living longer? Wouldn't that be a good thing?"

"Gabby, if there's a cure to cancer, it won't be Weapon X that finds it. It'll be men like Reed Richards and Bruce Banner. I gave them both permission to keep samples of my DNA because they believe that all life is sacred, and that the end doesn't justify the means. Even if some good has come from what Weapon X did to me and our sisters, I dare anyone to tell me to my face that what we went through was a small price to pay."

The last of the files finished downloading and Laura removed the flash drive. "Come on. The soldiers have probably figured out by now that they're not really under attack. We've got less than five minutes before they come down here guns blazing."

She moved out into the hall and Gabby followed, shooting any wandering workers with her dart gun while Laura broke into every office that caught her eye, snagging papers, plugging in her device, and interrogating anyone who looked even remotely important or pissed her off more than usual.

"We're about to have company," Gabby said, pointing both her dart gun and a semi-automatic toward the stairs.

"Alright, let's-" Laura was just about to suggest they move to the second floor when the faint smell of dried blood and bleach brought on another nauseous wave of deja vu.

All the doors of the facility either required key cards or retinal scans, or both, but adamantium claws worked just as well. Laura broke into an innocuous-looking room that from the outside and on the schematics looked like either a janitor's closet or bathroom, but in reality might've been mistaken for an operating room if not for the straps on the bed and tools that looked more tortuous than surgical.

"Bastards," Laura said, snarling at the faded bloodstains on the floor and even ceiling.

"I think we just found the proof we're looking for," Gabby whispered. "My visor's still recording everything. What do we do now?"

Laura stalked toward the polished instruments on the table, and after sniffing them closely, hurried out of the room, following their scent like a ravenous bloodhound. Gabby could barely keep up, and kept glancing over her shoulder toward the sound of heavy boots above them.

"Uh, Laura? We're running away from the east wing elevators. We're not gonna be able to avoid a firefight if we keep going this way."

Laura ignored her and broke into another office where six scientists cowered underneath computer tables, whimpering softly to themselves.

"Dr. Ramirez," Laura said, stalking over to the desk in the back. "Fancy meeting you here."

A middle-aged Hispanic man raised his head, shocked to see the young woman standing before him, almost smiling at the familiar face before realizing why she was there.

"I found your new work station. Still getting off torturing little girls?"

"It wasn't torture, it was-"

He screamed as she pinned his hand to the desk with an adamantium claw. "Give me one good reason why I should let you live," she said breathlessly. "Just one."

"I-I have a family." He gestured at the desk where a photo sat prominently of a younger Dr. Ramirez hugging a beautiful wife and a little girl no older than five.

Laura twisted the blade and let the man and one of his female colleagues finish screaming before she spoke again. "I was younger than your daughter when you first got your hands on me. How can you possibly look her in the eye after everything you did to me?"

The scientist smartly remained silent but Laura already knew the answer. Dr. Ramirez was too smart for his own good, probably the most intelligent man in his field when he was recruited by Weapon X and discovered there was an elite group of men and women as smart if not even smarter, and just as amoral. In his eyes, Laura was nothing more than an experiment, not even a person, and just like everyone else from her childhood, including her own mother, they'd all been able to disassociate from the otherwise vile acts they committed in the name of scientific progress.

Gabby's own claws extended as she stalked over to him. "What did you do to my sister?" she demanded, having only seen her this genuinely angry a handful of times.

"He was one of my geneticists," Laura said. "His specialty's behavioral training, and it was his job to desensitize me."

"Desensitize?"

Laura winced slightly at her sister's lack of understanding, which only made her angrier at Dr. Ramirez and the people like him. Despite her upbringing, Gabby had as pure a heart as anyone Laura had ever known. She couldn't feel pain, barely felt fear, and had been trained from a young age to be a super soldier. Her only saving grace in Laura's estimation had been her nine older sisters shielding her from the worst of her conditioning, and the fact that she'd been too young to suffer through the same kinds of behavioral training they had, and barely had any actual field experience before escaping.

"It means that it was his job to try and take away my soul. Dehumanize me and act the way he wanted me to act. I was forced to kill, and then I was forced to watch the footage again and again until it's all I could see when I tried to sleep. It was to try and desensitize me to killing people, whether they be death row inmates or innocent children. And that's just getting started..."

The scientist screamed as another adamantium claw was driven straight through his shoulder. "You call yourself a 'scientist'," Laura said between her teeth. "You tortured a little girl for a decade in order to turn her into a coldblooded killer. Congratulations, Dr. Ramirez. You succeeded, and it's because of you and people like you that it took so long for my friends and family to convince me that I even have a soul. Some days I'm still not convinced, but looking at you now, I think I'm finally ready to admit the truth."

She twisted both blades and he screamed again louder than ever before. "I-I'M SORRY! P-PLEASE! DON'T KILL ME! JESSICA! MY DAUGHTER'S NAME IS JESSICA!"

"How many times did I beg you and your team to stop hurting me, Dr. Ramirez? I'm sure you've got it written in a file somewhere, or did you write me off as soon as I was too old for you?."

She retracted her claws and the man crumbled to the ground, trying in vain to stop the bleeding, and Laura crouched down in front of him. "Unlike you, I've actually got a soul, or at least what's left of one. You're gonna testify against Weapon X, and then you're gonna go to prison for the rest of your miserable life, and unless you decide to get a soul yourself someday, you're gonna burn in-"

*sniff*

Laura cocked her head to the side as if listening to a voice from somewhere far away. Her mind emptied, her pupils dilated, and her vision went red. It was as though the entire world slowed to a crawl and became sharper in focus. Without a single thought she released her adamantium claws again and buried them deep into the man's chest before taking off his head.

A woman screamed and X-23 was on top of her, ripping and tearing until she no longer resembled a human being. She heard someone screaming the name 'Laura', a preteen girl wearing body armor and wielding bone claws similar to the ones she used to have, but X-23 ignored her. The girl didn't appear to be a threat, and the scientists needed to die. They needed to pay for what they did to her with blood, flesh, and whatever internal organs just happened to spill out.

Finally she turned her attention to the girl that was strangely covered in her own scent. It was a peculiarity that gave her pause, but only for a moment. X-23 had been mutilating her own body since she was seven years old, and somewhere deep down she had always wanted to try cutting herself into enough pieces that she wouldn't be able to regenerate. That way the men and women in lab coats wouldn't be able to hurt her anymore.

Her clone had already run out the room and slammed the door behind her, but X-23 was on top of her in seconds. She was shorter and weighed down by a heavy backpack, but didn't even flinch when adamantium tore through her side and shoulder, which might've fallen off if not for the body armor keeping it attached.

A bullet to the head caused X-23 to stumble, her brain temporarily shorting out before her animal-like instincts fully took over. She weaved back and forth, fanning her blades in front of her face to protect her only semi-vital organ, but instead caught several bullets to the kneecaps and shins. It slowed her down, but more than anything, it only drove her further into madness.

She howled like a crazed animal as her clone rounded a corner and lost herself in a sea of confused soldiers. X-23 meanwhile was greeted by a hail of gunfire, the screams of agony, and crimson as far as the eye could see.

'We'll see each other again, Laura,' the demon whispered in her ear. 'And next time, there will be no escaping your sins...'

The nightmare of hell slowly faded, and reason and sanity slowly returned, as did Laura Kinney. She stared blankly at the formerly white walls now painted red and decorated by claw marks, trying to get her bearings but couldn't quite make sense of the world around her. "Where am I?" she asked nobody in particular. "W-what happened?"

"Second floor, west wing," Gabby said breathlessly. "I didn't really wanna find out if I can regenerate my head, or get my brand new body armor ruined, so I sorta led you around the facility a couple times. Whatever Weapon X is paying these guys, it isn't enough, let me tell you."

Laura backed away, realizing that she had cornered her sister, who cautiously holstered a pair of smoking .50 caliber pistols chambered in her most lethal rounds. Pain registered briefly, but Laura's internal organs were already knitting themselves back together, and what was left of her brain was slowly catching up.

She looked down at her hands and claws and saw them covered in blood. She could feel it drying in her hair as well as her face, and everywhere she looked, she saw puddles of blood and footprints, and even a few bloodstains on her sister.

"Gabby," she said, trying not to vomit, "hand me a towel and canteen. P-please?"

Her sister obliged and helped Laura clean herself of gore. "I have some spare clothes in my bag," she said quietly, "in case you wanna get changed. You'll probably want to before we radio the others..."

Laura shook her head. She'd specifically worn clothes resistant to bloodstains, and despite the numerous bullet holes, found herself loath to remove her clothes in a place that reminded her so much of her childhood.

"So-" Gabby drawled awkwardly- "that was trigger scent, huh?"

She nodded, the memories slowly trickling back. "It must've been sprayed on Dr. Ramirez earlier today, or maybe yesterday. It was faint, and covered up by his deodorant and sweat, but it was enough to activate my programming." She grimaced as her brain finally returned to normal and the memories came flooding back. A well-placed high caliber bullet could normally knock her unconscious, but when she was under the influence of trigger scent, she was much like an enraged grizzly bear. Capable of running on pure adrenaline and instincts even with her brain liquified or missing entirely.

"I killed all those people," she said, her body shaking.

"They were all going to hell anyway, Sis. You said so yourself. You just sent them there a little early is all, and also made our job a lot easier. Looks like they were planning an ambush on the second floor. Jokes on them!"

Laura threw the bloodstained towel aside. "I'm not a butcher!" she snapped. "Gabby, when I kill people, it's as quick and painless as possible! That rapist from the night before was dead before he even hit the ground!"

Gabby shrugged and took the moment to assess her weapons and armor. "Okay, so they might've suffered a little. They deserved it after what they did to you."

"They were still people!"

"Evil people, maybe. Pretty sure they gave up their humanity a long time ago, including those soldiers. They had to have known what was going on down here."

Laura took a deep breath and put a hand on Gabby's shoulder to steady herself. "I didn't say they didn't deserve to die. What I did to them pales in comparison to what Weapon X has done over the years, and it's probably better than what they deserve."

"Then what's the problem?"

Laura stooped down so that they were face to face. It was eerie sometimes looking closely at Gabby, who besides the facial scars and having longer hair, looked exactly like her at thirteen, because for all intents and purposes, Gabby was her. X-23-G to be specific.

"Gabby, the world is a safer place without these people in it. I won't deny that. I used to be a trained killer, and I probably deserve to die as much as anybody, but I'm a soldier now, and I focus on the lives I'm saving, not the ones I'm taking. Those men and women were evil, no doubt about it, but they were still sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, and moms and dads. They were loved by somebody, and somebody is going to miss them just like you miss your sisters, and like I miss Sarah and Logan. Just because somebody's evil doesn't mean they're not still a person and that they won't be missed. Promise me that you'll think about it."

Her sister nodded, eyes watering a little. "I think I know what you mean, and I will, but I don't think now's really the time or place."

"I agree." She stood back up and tried to get her bearings again. "We'll talk about it later. Right now, we still have a job to do."

Laura retrieved a black and metallic mask from her utility belt that covered her nose and mouth. It was a rebreather normally used for breathing underwater, but it'd do just as well filtering the air.

"We're gonna have to rely on your sense of smell from now on," she said, her voice muffled. "Somebody sprayed trigger scent on Dr. Ramirez knowing that I wouldn't be able to resist confronting him, which means that somebody knew we were coming, and I think I know who..."

(A/N: Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed. Laura going into a trigger scent induced berserker rage was one of my earliest concepts for this story, and it's also one of my favorite aspects of her character. The idea that Laura can be minding her own business, either at home or in public, and get even the slightest whiff of trigger scent and go on a mindless killing spree is just a really interesting concept in my opinion. It makes her a danger to everyone around her, and plays into the duality of Laura and X-23, and what it means to have a soul.

On that note, I also really like that although Gabby is happy-go-lucky and wholesomeness incarnate, she may very well be even more desensitized to violence than Laura. Gabby has a very "black and white" morality, and due to her upbringing and inability to feel pain or fear, the psychological effects of extreme violence don't really affect her. Gabby goes to bed every night with a clear conscience, which is something Laura has never really had. Gabby doesn't really have regrets, but Laura constantly has to live with them. Laura will kill if she deems it necessary, but she's also mindful of how precious human life is, and that by killing even an evil person, their friends and family will suffer because of her. I love the contrast between them, especially since they're clones, with Gabby leaning more toward pragmaticism while Laura is much more empathetic.

I did consider having Gabby fight Laura to try and get her to come back to her senses, but I quickly decided that Gabby had ZERO chance of even holding her own against Laura when she's under the influence of trigger scent, and I don't think Gabby would feel too upset about a bunch of evil scientists and soldiers getting killed even if Laura wouldn't normally do such a thing. If it'd been civilians or the X-Men, Gabby would've done everything in her power to stop her sister, but she's not stupid, and she had an unstoppable killing machine chasing after her which she used to her advantage. She's a soldier, and she made a tactical decision that she won't lose sleep over, again highlighting the difference between her and Laura.

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