8 = Some Familiar, and Unfamiliar, Faces

"Mami?"

She would recognize that voice anywhere. "Laura?"

"Mami!" There was a flash and suddenly arms were around her, clinging to her tightly.

When the kid pulled away, Nina finally got a good look at her. The Laura before her was slightly younger than the one she knew.

"I know you're not really my Mami," she admitted, appearing a little embarrassed. "You can't be because she's gone, but it's so good to see you." The teen smiled through teary eyes. "But clearly you have a me."

"Yes, back home. How old are you?"

"Seventeen."

"Ah."

"What are you doing here?"

Nina sighed. "That's a great question. It just sort of happened, with my friend Wade and - well, a version of your dad."

Now Laura's eyes grew wide as she absorbed this. "Okay, where are they?"

Nina gestured behind them. "Back that way. They were fighting and I needed a moment. We're looking for the others in the Borderlands."

Now a smirk twitched Laura's lips. "Well you're in luck, cause I'm one of them."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

A surge of relief flooded her. "Oh thank the gods! I thought we'd never find them! Especially at this rate with Wade and Logan tearing each other to pieces every five seconds."

"Let's go, I'll take you to the others - the other others."

Nina led the way back to the car - or rather what was left of it. She winced on behalf of Nicepool. Poor old Betsy: dents marred the surface, all the windows were smashed, and blood was splattered, well, everywhere.

"Oh God..."

"I'll drive," Laura offered.

Nina passed the keys over. "Be my guest."

"Thor!" Wade spluttered awake. "Where are we?"

"I have no idea," Logan said, but lifted his hand in which there was a bottle of whiskey - of course he had managed to sniff that out. "But I like it here."

"Oh good, you're awake," Nina said. "I was starting to think you two really had killed each other."

"Shh, stay back!" Wade leapt up and crept around the corner, reaching for a katana.

"No, Wade!" she cried. "They're allies-"

But Elektra was ready and met his blade with hers, disarming him. Blade and Remy followed close behind.

Wade got to his feet. She could almost see his mouth hanging open behind his mask. "Okay, look at you all. You must be the others. Wait, but how did we get here?"

Laura climbed into the driver's seat and Nina the passenger's and both peered into the back to the now passed-out harbingers of chaos. Logan was out cold while Wade had been practically mummified in seatbelts. Oh God was right...

"Holy shit," breathed Laura, but not about the damage. "He looks exactly the same..." Her eyes were on Logan.

"I know, right. It's, it's -" She trailed off, but Laura understood.

"Yeah." She started up the car and pulled away. Well, at least it was still in working order, at least so far.

"So what happened with you and your me?" Nina ventured. There was a story there, one which Laura had alluded to right at the beginning.

Laura sighed. "The older I got, the more our opinions clashed. We got into a huge fight and I stormed out and left. A while later she was killed while trying to help get mutants to safety and we never reconciled. I've regretted it ever since."

"I'm so sorry."

"Thanks, but it's my fault." Nina wanted to assure her that it was not her fault, but Laura continued before she could, altering the subject. "How about your me?"

"She's a bit older than you are, and she's off doing her own thing, good things." She considered before asking, "And how about your him?"

"You both helped rescue me and the other kids from the 'scientists' and we were on our way to Eden when they caught up with us, and dad died."

So this Laura was an orphan. Nina's heart ached. "That sounds exactly the same as my timeline. God, I miss him so much."

"Me too. So what about this guy?"

"Wade found him. Our Logan was the anchor being of our universe, and since his death our universe has been slowly but surely dying. Wade thought that if he could find another Logan he could prevent that from happening, save our world." Which was just so endearingly Wade. Despite what he said or did, his heart really was in the right place.

She continued telling Laura about the TVA, the time crunch, ending up in the Void, her crapped-out powers, and Cassandra Nova.

"You met Cassandra Nova?" Laura cried. "And escaped?!"

"Yeah. She's a real piece of work, isn't she?"

"That's one way of putting it. She must have let you, escape that is, cause no one makes it out of her clutches, alive at least."

Nina thought of poor Johnny and shuddered with a nod of agreement. "Perhaps, she is tricky."

"She is that."

They drove into the night. Wade and Logan did not stir once over the entire course of the journey. Eventually, Laura came to a stop. Nina squinted in the dark to see a plain cement structure. "Here we are. Come on, I'll introduce you to the others and then we'll come back for these guys."

Laura led the way inside, unlocking the door. "Hey, it's me," she called into the darkened space. "And I brought some friends."

Three figures stepped out of the shadows at her announcement: a tall woman with long hair and a dark red suit, blades in hands. A man with dark armour and sunglasses. And a man in a long coat shuffling through a deck of cards.

The woman gasped. "Laura, isn't this-"

"Yes," Laura confirmed. "Everyone this is my Mami, Nina Nova."

"Hi," Nina waved. "Nice to finally meet you all."

"Mami, this is Elektra, Blade, and Gambit."

Gambit smiled and took Nina's hand, pressing a kiss to the back of it. "You may call me Remy, cher."

"Wait, you said 'friends'," Elektra said.

"Yeah, the other two are passed out in the car. We'll need some help bringing them inside."

Remy used his powers to help levitate the still unconscious Wade and Logan inside where they would be safe until they awoke - which was hopefully soon. Nina was honestly starting to worry a little bit.

"And isn't this," Elektra began, looking at Logan.

"Yup. Both parents in one place - it's my lucky day." Laura smiled at Nina. "Make yourself at home. We'll do a patrol, scout the area, make sure we weren't followed."

At that she took a long, hot bath. They even gave her a change of clothes which was glorious.

When she came out from behind the curtain that separated the bathroom space from the rest, she found Logan standing at the counter, over several bottles of whiskey, tearing away what remained of the sleeves from his suit, which had been practically ripped apart in his fight with Wade.

"Oh, good. I was staring to think you may have actually succeeded in killing each other."

Logan snorted. "If only."

"Don't say that."

"Sorry, that was insensitive of me."

"Thank you. Must have been one hell of a fight though." He just grunted in response and so she turned away to finish drying her hair with the towel she had been provided. "The others found us, by the way-"

But then, big, gentle hands took hold of the towel from behind her and began gingerly squeezing the remaining water from her hair so she didn't have to reach around behind herself.

"This okay?"

"Yeah..." The words were sucked from her mouth. It was such a familiar, yet foreign at the same time, gesture, the hands performing it the same and yet different all at the same time.

Then Wade woke up, ruining the moment and nearly attacking their saviours. Now he stood taking in the others. "Right, so just to refresh..."

Yay, the others are here! So ready for a Howlett-Nova-Kinney family reunion!

Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed! :)