The snow crunched beneath Logan as he breathed in the frigid air. He advanced further before coming to a complete halt. The faint whiff of a scent caught his nose. His heart thumped wildly in his chest as he made his way closer. It was intense, dizzying. The scent wasn't coming from his head anymore; it was here. She was here.

In the distance, hidden next to snow-covered trees, he saw her. The all-too-familiar lab coat had been replaced with a long, white winter coat. Venturing further, past the snow-covered foliage, he finally reached his destination.

Breath visible in the snow, she stared at the building in front of her.

"It's like I discussed over the phone: all entry points have been locked. It's critical that the lab is taken out as well to avoid DNA samples being recovered for cloning," she handed him a large briefcase, "Just activate it there, and the rest will be natural chemical reactions. It should be enough to take care of everything. Except for Laura, everyone left in that facility is expendable."

"James," the woman looked at him with determination, "Please bring back our daughter and burn that place to the ground."

SNIKT

Making use of his claws, Logan stepped foot into the facility. Nothing had seemed out of the ordinary when he was right outside the door, but once inside, Logan could hear sirens wailing. He'd been expecting a fight with guards right out of the gate, but no one had arrived to greet him. As he made his way through the endless maze of hallways, he noticed several metal doors. They seemed to have been locked, but he could smell people hiding in there; no doubt it was soundproof as the main door had been. He spotted a set of double doors and pushed them open.

Suddenly, all the lights in the facility went dark.

Red emergency lights flickered on, revealing a scene of blood and carnage. Moving past the heaps of bodies, Logan looked at the claw marks on the walls as well as the ones on the corpses of guards and scientists. The copious amounts of blood seeping from the various bodies made it hard for him to narrow down her scent, but it was there. He caught a whiff of a scent, and that was all he needed to track her down. He'd just have to follow the sea of corpses. Walking faster, Logan made his way further down into the next hallway.

Memories began flooding back. She always wore a simple pink dress whenever he saw her. And she was quiet, Logan remembered. It was always quiet when he was alone in the cell, but the child brought him a sense of peace. He remembered how she'd lean on him. She looked at him often, but he couldn't recall her face.

Lights flickered as he turned the corner.

Standing there barefoot in a pink medical gown, he saw the back of a girl with long, straight black hair. She turned around. Blood smeared her cheek and stained the front of the gown. He finally recognized the face of the child he'd left behind. Her face filled with fury as her eyes caught sight of yet another target.

"You aren't going to snap out of this, are you?" Logan sighed as metal claws slid from between her knuckles, "I know 'cause I've been exactly where you are."

Logan knew how dangerous he'd been, how dangerous she was. Even so, he couldn't do it. He didn't know it at the time, but she was his kid. She never smiled, but she'd always look at him with such curiosity. He couldn't hurt her, not when everyone else already had.

He barely had time to react when she lunged, aiming her claws to slash at his stomach.

"Do your worst because you know what?" His hand held her wrist firmly in front of him, preventing her from moving it. "I'm not letting you go."

He caught a glint of metal, and another arm extended towards his abdomen once again. This time her claws successfully went deep inside his abdomen, ripping and tearing muscle. Logan grunted as blood seeped through his costume. He wrapped his arms around her, tightly holding her in an embrace.

"I said I'm not letting you go!"

X-23 frantically sniffed at the air as a familiar scent reached her nose. It was a nostalgic scent that took her back to when she felt safe, a time when she would try to catch up to the man in the blue medical gown. Her eyes widened as she realized where it was originating from. X-23 looked at her fist in shock, unable to look up at the figure in front of her. Tears prickled at the corners of her eyes as she retracted her claws and buried her face in his chest.

"Why did you leave?"

He pressed his lips against the side of her head, "I'm sorry, darlin'. I won't leave you behind. Not again."

"I hurt you," tears began streaming down her face, "I am sorry. I am—"

"Don't you worry about it. It'll take a whole lot more than that to take me out."

It hadn't taken her long to lead him to the laboratory. Judging by the claw marks scattered on everyone and, well, everything, the samples were already taken care of. He set the briefcase down, arming the device.

He turned to her, "We got time but—"

"We should go now."

He nodded. There was time, but he'd rather they not take their chances. Together, they raced out of the building, past all the blood and corpses, and into the snow. They made their way to Sarah, who remained at the same spot she'd been next to the trees.

"James, Laura," Sarah smiled warmly at them, "I'm glad to see you both are alright. We can finally go home together."

Logan moved his cowl back, "They won't give her up without a fight, not after she mowed down a bunch of their guys."

"It'll blow up in their faces, like the facility," she gestured to the area they had left, "Imagine the public outcry: A child created to become a mutant and did the government's dirty work? A former soldier killing the people who tortured him? I have enough evidence for them to leave you alone."

She stroked their cheeks with her fingers and Logan found himself leaning into her palm, inhaling her scent.

"And what about you? They can still come after you for this," he grumbled.

"Dr. Rice had a history of attempting to kill X-23, even going as far as to threaten our personnel into helping him. Who's to say he didn't sacrifice them all? If it meant she had to survive, X-23 had to kill whoever was in her way."

An explosion rang out in the distance. The building was engulfed in a raging inferno, only growing hotter by the minute. Laura refocused on the conversation as she felt a blanket wrapped around her.

"She could've ended up like me, losing her memories."

"James, that wasn't the procedure itself," Sarah scowled, "Those idiots tortured you into becoming an animal. I needed your help calming Laura down in case she was in a state similar to yours."

"My head was messed up. I don't even know if—" he started, "I don't even think I could've put myself back together if Charles hadn't been there."

"It was a relief to discover you'd been taken in by someone with similar qualifications," her smile returned, "You even teach others."

He was sure if he were to remove his glove and feel her hand in his, it would be warm. He wanted to breathe in her scent, her warmth, but reluctantly, he reached for her fingers and slowly pried her warm hand away from his cheek.

He huffed, hand tightening around her own. "You could've broken her out."

"I didn't like it," Sarah sighed as she rubbed her temples, "But Laura had to endure it: she needed the Adamantium on her bones to become perfect. A few years of pain is worth a lifetime of security."

"James, in the past century you've been alive, mankind industrialized too quickly for your claws as they were," she looked at him sympathetically, "You were rapidly losing the advantage you had on the rest of humanity; you needed to evolve, and so did Laura. With Adamantium, you, and now Laura, keep your place as the apex predator."

Logan growled, "That damn metal wasn't worth it! They would've cloned her!"

"But they didn't. You two made sure of that," Sarah unwaveringly looked into his eyes, "I lured Zander and Martin here with that premise, but I would never let them clone her. She's ours."

"They forced her to kill! She was a kid, not a weapon!" he looked over at Laura, who remained silent, "…She's still a kid."

"She's both."

"There's a place for mutants like us."

"If there's a lot of mutants in one area, then there's a greater chance of you two being revealed as mutants," Sarah squeezed his hand, "There's no reason for you and Laura to leave when I can take care of you both. I've handled your situations. You can trust me."

"Trust? I'll tell you what I do know: you let her stay in a cage just because she has my blood running through her veins."

"And what mother wouldn't want to offer every possible advantage to her child? Laura is my greatest accomplishment, the culmination of all my years of research on mutants and the x-gene. And you were my inspiration," she placed her lips against his knuckles, "my muse."

He pulled his hand away, "Haven't you thought about what this might do to her head?"

"She's perfect," Sarah turned to Laura, "Aren't you, Laura?"

"I'm alright."

"See? She's fine."

"She's not fine! We're not fine, Kinney!" Logan clenched a fist before relaxing it, "I think it's better if she goes with me. She can be a kid at the institute."

"I've taken care of everything so Laura can officially live at home with us. There's another room for you to live with us and you wouldn't need to work. Besides, there'll be a blizzard by the time you two get halfway there. At least stay at our home—"

"I want to go with him," a small smile appeared on Laura's face, "I missed him."

Sarah sighed as she handed Laura a backpack, "If that's what you want, then I won't stop you. But know, both of you are always welcome to come back home."