Innocence Lost

~Chapter 1~

Forging a Weapon

Vernon was torn between sweating bullets as he stared at the man in front of him, and building rage inside of him. The man was blond, clean-shaven and smiling. He was younger than Vernon, an age Vernon guessed to be mid to late twenties, though it was difficult to determine. He was dressed in a suit that even Vernon could identify as being more expensive than his new car. He was clearly rich and moved formally.

There was also an edge to him that implied that he was dangerous by his very nature.

Though that might also have been attributed to the fact that he was accompanied by two men in military uniforms. Both of those men were over six feet tall, if Vernon had to guess they were 6'4 or 6'5, they looked like they had been built or constructed rather than picked since they were the same size and same dimensions.

They were dressed in a camouflage military uniform that Vernon could not identify. They both hadn't spoken a word since they entered his house, and they had just stood rigidly in parade rest at the entrance to the room.

Of course, none of that was what had Vernon Dursley sweating. This was the same man who in another life would yell at a half-giant nearly twice his size, who'd just finished bending the metal of a gun like it was nothing.

So it was hardly surprising that the physicality of the men weren't intimidating him.

It was the first thing the man had said when Vernon had answered the knock on Number 4 Privet Drive, "Mr. Vernon Dursley? My name is Dr. Zander Rice. I would like to speak to you about a young man, apparently in your care. One...'Harry Potter'?"

Vernon scowled as he looked at the man sitting rigidly on his wife's couch. Petunia was out at the time, with their son at the park, and then a stop at the store. He doubted Petunia would make it out of the store without getting Dudley a toy or two which always took a while. Dudley was five years old and a precocious youngster, a right old chip off the block.

He was nervous that the man was military, and wondered what possibly could have happened to get him in trouble with the military. And he was definitely angry and would be sure to take it out on the boy once the man had gone.

"What did the little freak do now?" Vernon demanded finally.

Dr. Rice's jaw twitched slightly, too small for Vernon to notice, but the man showed no other reaction. "Well, from several reports we've read, we have noticed several… unusual things happening around him."

Vernon's face set into a deeper scowl, "I'm not sure what you're talking about." He blustered defensively.

Instead of getting upset, the man, definitely not a British native, smiled faintly and reached a hand upward. One of the military man slid a folder into the man's hand and moved back into a form of parade rest behind the man.

Zander Rice seemed to think nothing of it as he opened the folder and began to read. "There was an instance of the boy turning his teacher's hair blue."

Vernon opened his mouth to reply but Zander kept reading, seemingly heedless of the fact that the overweight man intended to speak. "Then the instance that somehow, despite his diminutive size and no known physical access point, he ended up on the roof of the school. Claimed the wind might have lifted him?"

Vernon started to turn purple and his upper lip started to twitch with how furiously he was scowling, whether at the reports that he remembered vividly or at the open amusement in the man's voice.

"Finally there is this, which brought it to our attention." The man turned the folder around and slid it across the coffee table to Vernon.

Vernon looked down, and squinted his beady eyes at two pictures which were face up on the folder.

In one picture was a gruesome picture of a small pale arm. It was clearly broken, as part of the bone was visibly deforming the skin in a pointed lump. In the second picture, the arm was bruised, but clearly no longer broken.

Vernon looked back and forth between the two pictures. He wasn't an expert but even he was able to tell what he was looking at. He finally looked away from the pictures and up at the doctor with an expectant expression.

Zander sighed, clearly knowing that this obese man in front of him was not comprehending. "The pictures were taken by the nurse at the school the boy attends. Apparently after an altercation between this boy and your son as well as several of his friends. It left him injured…"

Vernon sat forward, where a normal man would have been on his feet in outrage, he didn't quite get the momentum in that bulk, but he was still immediately protesting, "It was not my son's fault. That freak and his freaky ways always causing problems, getting into trouble. I will not have my son blamed for him tripping or running into so-"

Zander Rice raised his hands in a placating manner, "Sir… sir. I am in no way blaming your son."

That seemed to calm Vernon somewhat, at least enough to let the man continue.

Dr. Zander Rice spoke calmly. "I know this wasn't your son's fault. In fact… I am certain you're right. It is the fault of the… boy you're forced to deal with. I'm going to guess that those aren't the only signs of… freakishness you've seen."

Vernon relaxed at the tone the man he was dealing with. Clearly this man at least understood some of the challenges of dealing with the unwanted burden. He also seemed to at least share similar beliefs.

"As a matter of fact, that's why I am here." The doctor smiled genuinely, now that he understood the man he felt confident in getting what he wanted out of him.

"What do you mean?" Vernon asked cautiously.

"Well, first, would you mind a possibly… personal question?" The man asked, his expression one of encouragement and a slightly conspiratorial tone.

Vernon hesitated and then nodded slowly. Normally he would have said no, but the man was polite, and seemed to be someone that Vernon could share his opinions with. Something that he had no one else to do so. His wife refused to talk about anything remotely regarding freakishness, so it left Vernon somewhat out of the loop.

"Where did the boy come from?" Zander asked politely. "I noted he did not share your same surname, and a bit of research showed that there was no adoption or fostering of the boy. In fact, we were unable to find anything regarding his guardianship at all."

Indeed an in-depth study revealed nothing at all about the boy, Petunia Dursley hadn't had another pregnancy, and there were no birth records on file matching Harry Potter with the right age and gender range who weren't one hundred percent accounted for.

Vernon regarded the man suspiciously for several long seconds, looking for any hint of accusation before seeming to nod a little bit. "That's because there wasn't anything like that"

"What do you mean?" the doctor asked carefully.

"I mean…" Vernon said taking a deep breath, and the volume of his voice dropped but the tone got more intense. "That his freak kind just dropped him off with us when he was a baby."

"Oh really?" Zander asked, leaning forward, listening intently.

Emboldened by his audience Vernon nodded, his voice rising slightly with a tinge of relief. "Apparently his parents got themselves blown up! And then their kind just... dumped him on our doorstep without so much as a 'by your leave'!"

"When was this?" Zander asked, with his eyes narrowed in thought.

"It was… November a few years ago…" Vernon replied, thinking back.

"And when did the… weird or freakish events start happening?" Martin followed up asking intently.

"Ever since he got here things have been happening! Freakish things! Things move without warning, things shorting out, odd noises!" Vernon clenched his fists angrily as he recalled anything odd happening. "All while we have to pay to care for the problems his wastrel parents dumped on us!"

He was breathing heavily as he said that before taking a breath and sitting back.

"Well, I think it's safe to say you do not want him here." Zander observed, careful to keep his own tone one of commiseration.

"What other choice do we have?" Vernon griped.

The doctor smiled beneficently and spread his hands slightly. "What if I told you that I am here to offer to take him off your hands?"

Vernon, who had been relaxing sat forward once more, looking intent. "What do you mean?"

"I mean exactly what I said." Zander said with that same smile. "I mean that we are happy to take the boy away from here never to bother you or your family again."

Vernon briefly looked pleased before his suspicious side reared its head. "What's the catch? What's in it for you?"

"No catch." The doctor answered before his expression turned almost commiserating. "I just happen to think that good, upstanding normal families, should not be expected to care for someone displaying such… freakishness."

Vernon let out a great sigh of relief, clearly here was a man who understood!

"Of course, we'd also compensate you…" Zander said pausing before continuing to sweeten the pot, "To make up for the years of dealing with the boy."

For a moment the greed flashed in Vernon's eyes the idea of getting rid of the boy as well as getting money for it. Before reality reared its ugly head.

"Even if I wanted to, it wouldn't work." Vernon said dejectedly.

"Why not?" Zander asked, once more looking intently. "You think your wife would object?"

"Not on her own! Not... Petunia is quite reasonable. I'm sure she'd be just as happy to be rid of him as I am. It's others of his freak kind would know he's gone. They would find you and him, take him back and make us take him in again." Vernon growled, once more clenching his hands.

The doctor considered that for a moment before a slow smile spread on his face. "We know just how to deal with… freaks. Trust me when I say they won't ever find him."

Vernon looked up at the honesty and surety in that tone, and slowly began to smile. "Just how much compensation are we talking about here?"

OoooooooooOooooooooooO

Doctor Zander Rice stepped out of Number Four Privet Drive, and walked to the non- descript SUV. The two members of private security he had brought with him walked out in front of him. Between them was a small boy, no more than five years old walked between the two much larger men.

He wasn't much surprised at how unresisting the boy was. Though he was surprised at how blatantly the people were able to get away with the abuse hinted at and seen with his own eyes. More than one report of abuse had seemingly disappeared into bureaucratic miasma.

He slid into the back seat of the SUV, practically ignoring the small boy not far from him that was looking around curiously. He opened a satellite phone. When the other end picked up, he didn't bother with a greeting. "This is Rice."

The male voice that Zander knew to be Martin Sutter, his surrogate father, on the other end of the phone spoke rather loudly over the connection, "Were you successful?"

There was a pause, before he continued. "Yes, I picked up the target."

"Good, that was a good find Zander. Was there any trouble?"

"Not trouble… per se." Zander replied. "The family was incredibly helpful, just wanted him out of the house. Only took twenty thousand pounds to take possession without complaint."

"What happened to cause trouble then?" The man's voice asked.

"As I reported yesterday the subject is far younger than we initially presumed. That was not an exaggeration. He is five years old. And his powers have apparently been present for years." Zander answered.

"Five years old and we have confirmation that his mutation has manifested already? Most… unusual. Did you get any specifics on the mutation?" Martin Sutter responded.

"Enhanced Regeneration is confirmed." Zander replied, excitement clearly in his voice.

"That's fantastic. Anything else of note?" The voice replied.

"Nothing concrete yet. Possible enhanced physical characteristics granting impressive leaping ability or something of that nature. There's also something else that I have yet to classify." Zander admitted.

"What's that?" Martin's voice was curious over the connection.

"He supposedly turned his teacher's hair blue." Zander responded dryly.

Harry turned to look at him sharply and inched away from him, clearly knowing that he was being talked about.

Zander shook his head slightly at the boy, scowling slightly. Harry got the message and looked away.

"You're sure it wasn't a prank or something?" Martin asked his surrogate son.

"No. I have no idea if it was or not." Zander replied.

"Well, we'll figure it out one way or another." Martin replied "Anything else to report?"

"Yeah… it turns out Petunia Dursley, maiden name Evans, was biological aunt to the boy. At least according to the relatives. And he was literally just dumped on their doorstep. They mentioned several times that her sister and her sister's husband were 'freaks' as well and got themselves blown up."

"A second generation mutation? Not just that… but on both sides? That's… wow. I don't know that we've had that before." Martin replied, this time sounding excited over the phone

"Me neither." Zander replied, before his brow furrowed. "I need you to see if we can find anything about his parents. We should probably know what happened there."

"Did you get any information for that?" Martin asked.

"Not much." Zander admitted, "Their names were James and Lily. They supposedly shared the same surname as the boy, and according to the aunt and uncle got themselves blown up. Though most of that information was sketchy at best."

"Interesting…" Martin mused. "I will put someone on tracking anything and everything we might be able to find on them down. If he is a second generation mutation I think it would be best to have a better idea of what happened, beyond some middle manager's say so."

"Understood." Zander said, responding to the authority in the Doctor's voice.

There was a pause, before Martin asked, "Anything else?"

Zander paused before responding "One thing of note. The guardians were also worried they were being watched by other 'freaks'. Though they couldn't say how or give examples. I'm uncertain if it was paranoia or legitimate."

"A mutant organization watching an extremely young mutant? We'll have to see if we can track any rumors of that down." Martin replied, his tone intense.

"That just makes our work more important. Have the lab ready when we get there. We'll want to begin immediately." Zander stated. "With any luck he'll be the perfect candidate and we will be able to proceed forward with him, and won't have any more use for Kinney's little pet."

Zander couldn't keep all the disgust and dismissiveness out of his voice when referring to that experiment. He hated the idea of using it, every part of using that little monster. He hated that it was a genetic offspring or sibling of the animal that murdered his father. He hated that it was female, and that it had been Sarah Kinney's suggestion to go that route. He hated that though only an infant it was working at least a little bit.

"Maybe." Martin said, his voice noncommittal before the call disconnected.

Zander nodded and hung up the phone, gesturing for the driver, "To the airport. I want out of here as soon as humanly possible."

"Yes Sir." the voice said as the car drove off from Privet Drive.

Harry Potter watched as he drove away from Privet Drive for the last time, glad to leave the only home he could remember. He had come in from working at weeding the back to his uncle talking to several large men. He had simply been told that he was going away with the men.

Harry knew better than to question, and though he felt trepidation he knew that running away would just make it worse when he got back.

He didn't even get to grab his blanket or toy soldiers from under the stairs before he was lead out the door. He had no fond memories of the house so it wasn't something that he was going to be missing any time soon. Even years later, after many other things had occurred in his life, he would never look back on his time at Privet Drive as anything more than miserable.

OoooooooooOooooooooooO

Martin Sutter slipped into a white lab coat as he stepped into the lab. He was most curious to see their new acquisition, the one his adopted son picked up from England. He glanced around, noting that there were several technicians gathered around, but there were two people clearly directing them.

He looked into the center and strapped to the table was the dark haired child Zander had picked up. The boy being strapped down was mostly a formality. The scientists weren't doing anything extreme or intrusive at the moment.

They had just put him through the basic scans. They were beginning blood work and deeper analysis.

"Well, what can you tell me?" he demanded of the two people who were clearly taking charge of the process.

"Initial scans were… interesting." spoke Zander. The blonde male was the son of one of Martin's old partners, and had been the one who had unearthed this boy in one of his in depth searches of anything odd or unexplainable, no matter how obscure.

The dark-haired woman, Dr. Sarah Kinney spoke up. "Other than slight signs of malnourishment, the boy is in good health, with two notable exceptions."

Her voice was speculative as she glanced between the report on the monitor she was particularly focused on, and the boy in the center of the room.

"Oh?" Martin looked at her.

"His eyes, his eyesight is relatively poor, though that might have been exacerbated by the poorly matched glasses he was wearing upon arrival." Sarah explained.

"And the other?" Martin asked, the thought that the boy needed glasses was not a good indication for the things they needed.

"There is an odd scar on his forehead. It is the only physical blemish we noted on his entire body."

Zander grunted as he looked at the same monitor, he had noted that on the way over, and wondered if the regeneration the boy displayed hadn't gotten to the scar because it was there before power activation or for some other reason.

"On the other hand his bio-scans were very interesting, his body possesses some sort of... energy for lack of a better word, energy we haven't seen before, though I do not know how to characterize and it didn't seem to be doing anything." Zander spoke up. "I should also note that there is an intense concentration of that energy at the site of the scar."

"What are we hoping to get out of studying the boy?" Martin asked.

"I don't want to put all of our eggs into one basket." Zander said, studying the boy through the glass intently.

Martin nodded with a glance at Sarah. "We may be able to use him for some more experimental processes, smooth out some of the problems before we use them on X-23."

A brief look of anger crossed Zander's face, before it flitted away, Sarah didn't react to that, looking thoughtful.

"I want to know everything we can about this boy and his mutation, before we start doing anything." Martin said before glancing at his watch. "I have a meeting. I'll leave it in your hands."

He departed the lab after getting nods from both of his top doctors.

Zander Rice and Sarah Kinney were left to stare into the room with the boy. Silence descended as Sarah busied herself with beginning to examine the scans and look at the preliminary readout of the blood work.

"Well, it looks like we have another specimen to play with." Zander spoke up. His voice mild but watching Sarah's response out of the corner of his eye to see her reaction.

When she didn't give one, he scowled slightly. Finally turning away from the boy, he passed her, patting her on the shoulder lightly. "Look at it this way Doctor Kinney. Look at it this way, at least you didn't have to go through nine months of torture for this guinea pig." His voice lightened to just enough to be understood as a taunt.

He left the room too after failing to provoke a reaction from her with that comment.

When he left, Sarah closed her eyes for several seconds before staring into the lab at the unaware boy. "You poor child." She murmured quietly.

OoooooooooOooooooooooO

"So… wait. He's not a mutant?" Martin looked up from the report in the information device in front of him.

Sarah Kinney and Zander Rice both were sitting across from him with similar expressions on their faces.

It was Sarah that spoke up. "I have had the blood redrawn and retested half a dozen times. His blood work while… not normal, shows none of the genetic markers of the actual mutant gene."

"When you say… not normal?" Martin asked the geneticist leadingly.

Sarah grimaced slightly. "That same energy that shows up in our biological scans of the boy, show up again and again on every examination we use, all the way down on the genetic level."

"Showing up in what manner?" Martin asked.

"Based on how the samples we take have reacted to various chemicals, the energy seems to make the genes remarkably adaptable. But beyond that I've not encountered or read anything like it before. So I can't even begin to speculate." Sarah replied. "But I can say for certain that whatever it is, the boy is not a mutant."

The conversation broke off as Rachel, who worked as Martin's secretary, and was also the man's wife, despite the twenty or more year discrepancy between their ages. She brought in a mug of coffee and some papers for Martin, setting them down in front of him. "Thank you Rachel," Martin said with a smile as he picked his mug up and sipped it closing his eyes.

As Rachel left the room, Zander's eyes followed her, blatantly staring at her ass as she did. Something that Martin missed between his coffee and staring at the papers she had brought him. Sarah on the other hand just shot Zander a brief glare.

When Rachel shut the door behind her as she left, Martin sighed and slumped back in his chair, picking the topic back up, "So he's useless as a subject."

"Not… necessarily." Zander spoke up with a glance over at Sarah before looking back at Martin across the desk.

"Oh?" Martin asked, looking across at Zander with interest. Zander clearly had an idea and had something invested in this. Martin wasn't a fool, he did know that Zander would work hard to find alternatives to using the clone or spawn of the man who had killed his father.

Zander glanced once more at Sarah before meeting the eyes of his surrogate father. "We are not certain exactly what his genes indicate. Maybe he's not a mutant-"

Sarah opened her mouth to protest but Zander plowed forward cutting her off before she could interrupt fully. "Maybe he is a mutant and we just haven't come across his like before."

"He is not a mutant. His genes do not carry the common marker or any sort of active X-gene." Sarah protested.

"That may be true, but we have twice forced broken bones in the past week, under the guise of basic self-defense training that we've begun in the meantime, and both times the bones healed up in a matter of hours." Zander countered

"Yes, I read those reports. A regeneration ability that takes hours. Far far slower than the amount of regeneration we're looking for." Martin challenged.

"However, like Dr. Kinney said, we have discovered that it seems like his genetics are incredibly adaptable." Zander argued, excitement filling his voice. "So what I propose is we splice the gene samples we have, the same ones we used to create Dr. Kinney's pet, into his genome and see if his genetics adapt."

"To what end? Even a normal human's immune reaction, the body would have the strength to reject the gene samples." Sarah disagreed with a shake of her head, "To say nothing of a stronger immune reaction."

"So we subject him to radiation, suppressing the initial immune reaction," Zander replied. "A strong enough dose and his body likely won't manage to adapt to it."

"You could kill him." Sarah replied with some heat in her voice.

"Or his genetics could adapt." Zander riposted.

Martin rubbed a hand over his mouth in thought. "Have we seen any evidence of any of the other powers?" He asked after consideration.

"His physical strength is standard or substandard for your average five year old." Sarah answered.

"But his eye hand coordination and dexterity, are above the top percentile for humans. I would be willing to say those are superhuman, which is encouraging." Zander responded.

Silence fell as Martin appeared to be turning that over in his head.

Zander spoke up into the silence, offering further, "We may be able to try this approach with this specimen before it becomes necessary to try something similar on X-23 in the hopes of causing her mutation to emerge."

Martin looked up sharply at that and his expression turned much more speculative. "What you're proposing is more than that."

"Yes," Zander agreed, "I'm proposing we take advantage of this resource and see if it's possible. There is no guarantee that Sarah's idea works out, and this is another possibility. That energy inside of him makes him incredibly adaptable. I am all for taking advantage of it."

Zander could sense that he was getting somewhere with his argument by the thoughtful expression on Martin's face. "We use the original sample. The same one we used to create X-23. The Y chromosome on that sample was already damaged. But… this subject already provides that. The mutant gene in the blood samples we have is already active. If we can splice the two, we may have another subject at minimal cost and no wait."

Sarah's expression was blank but she shook her head to show her disagreement, "You could kill him." She reiterated.

Martin wasn't certain that the process was going to work and he wasn't certain it was a good idea. But he had thought the same thing about Sarah's proposal when she mentioned creating a female fetus. However that had worked out, and he certainly wasn't going to give his son the same opportunity.

"Proceed" Martin said after taking it into consideration.

OoooooooooOooooooooooO

"And you will if you deserve it.-"

"'Really?' Pinocchio exclaimed. 'Tell me, what can I do to deserve it?'" Dr. Sarah Kinney read quietly. She was sitting in the relative darkness of the lab and it was very late. Or very early she amended as she looked at her watch. She was the only one present, but someone needed to keep an eye on the process they were putting the boy through.

God only knew that bastard Zander wasn't going to sit up and watch the products of his efforts, he would almost certainly believe it was beneath him.

At the moment the boy was unconscious, but he drifted in and out of consciousness and she felt that having someone here for him would make him feel better. And reading in this place had become a habit. It was something she did for her daughter, so it was easy to do it for this boy as well. And a part of her had hoped that her presence helped him find some comfort in this place.

"Urggh." A soft groan interrupted her story.

She set her book aside and moved up to the table where the boy remained strapped down. The boy with bleary green eyes, startlingly similar to her own looked up at her.

Sarah quickly moved over and checked the readouts on the computer next to the bed. "How are you feeling?" She asked quietly.

There was a very long pause as if the boy was deciding whether it would be a good idea to answer the question, "Sore. Tired. " The boy croaked as he tilted his head to stare at her, his eyes still bleary.

Sarah glanced again at those emerald eyes before returning her attention to the monitor briefly. She shifted back to him as she moved to stand over him, as she spoke kindly. "Go back to sleep… you'll feel better."

The boy clearly lost the battle to stay conscious as his eyes closed and his breathing turned regular once again. She reached up and brushed a bit of hair off his forehead as she looked down at him. "It'll be okay. Just hang in there."

She moved and sat back down on the chair, moving the chair a little closer to the table. She opened the book, hidden inside a larger book, hiding what she was actually reading to the child as had become her habit.

OoooooooooOooooooooooO

"Update." Martin demanded with steepled fingers at the conference table.

"The procedure worked far better than we imagined or dared dream possible." Zander said, his voice betraying his excitement.

"Explain." Martin ordered immediately.

"The adaptability we saw from the specimen's blood, combined with the radiation and addition of the genes spliced from Weapon X has performed beyond all expectations in the specimen." Zander shook his head, amazement in his voice, "The body essentially adopted the genes and replicated them far faster than any previous example we have ever observed."

Zander turned in his seat and pointed to a monitor on the wall, "It's been three weeks, and the subject has shown every one of the documented physical changes of the spliced genes."

"All of them?" Martin asked, sitting forward, his eyes intent on Zander's.

"Yes. And not just copied them statically. While his senses seem to be enhanced to the same level, there's not a great way for us to measure that. Though we've already determined it completely negated any vision correction needed," Zander said, his tone hurried, clearly wanting to get to what he deemed the important information. "The regenerative capabilities he possessed are now seemingly even faster than the original. Though it's possible the adamantium laced with the original's skeleton inhibits the regeneration somewhat. We are uncertain on that fact."

A smile crossed his face. "But… the best part. Is this."

With a turn of his chair he flicked the large television they were looking at to display a skeletal scan that filled a large section of the wall. He stood up and pointed to one of the arms.

Martin stood up moving closer, his brow furrowing as he examined the scan. Sarah stood up as well but she didn't say anything.

"Are those what I think they are?" Martin said slowly as he examined the blow up on the monitor. There was disbelief in his voice.

"Yes, whatever that energy in his body is… caused it to adapt completely and fully throughout his entire cellular and physical structure. It also triggered the mutation to develop the claws." Zander said, unable to keep the gloating out of his voice. He was ecstatic and nearly dancing in place as he showed off his success.

"Fantastic Zander… that's… just fantastic." Martin's fingers traced over the monitor where extra bones in the forearms were highlighted. He couldn't keep the admiration and approval out of his voice. "What are the next steps?"

"Next?" Zander sounded surprised that it was even being asked, "He's everything we wanted. We can truly begin molding him into our weapon. We've started the basics with self-defense. But now we can really get into it. Combat training, strategy. Everything."

Martin nodded, "Proceed."

Sarah opened her mouth to protest but Martin had turned and departed before she could say anything.

Zander just smirked that same gloating smile at her before he too departed.

OoooooooooOooooooooooO

"Are you insane?" demanded Sarah as she stared at Zander.

"Not at all." Zander replied dismissively.

"He's only eleven," She argued. "Like X-23 his quarters are being kept at higher temperatures to stimulate development. But he's only barely entered puberty. He has years more growing before he's fully developed."

"We may not be able to lace his bones with adamantium now. But the claws are another matter. Their growth can be retarded and still be effective." Zander replied, his tone cool.

"There's no need to do it this soon. Given that his x-gene is active, his claws will naturally mature faster than the rest of his skeleton." Sarah shook her head as her exasperated expression matched her tone. "You coat them in a metal now they won't grow or develop any more. There's no reason for this."

"'No reason.' Are you sure you just don't want to see either of your little pets go under the knife?" Zander demanded derisively.

"Don't be stupid. The limited time I spend with both X-23 and Spare is necessary for development of basic social interaction. Your own psychologists have told you that. Repeatedly." She replied, rolling her eyes in disgust at the man.

Martin had decided on the name for the subject they picked up from Britain. It came from one of his offhand comments. At first the boy was just a spare, in case X-23 did not develop the way they hoped. But given the way the boy had developed, more and more of Zander's not to mention a large number of other's focused on Spare as he was the one likely to be functional as an asset first, simply because he was three years older than X-23.

"We're not talking about losing the claws. Just coating them with the adamantium earlier. A few inches aren't going to make that much difference in overall effectiveness." Zander argued.

"I wonder if that's what you tell yourself with any woman you've ever slept with." Sarah snapped back. She knew it was childish and petty but their relationship had gotten more and more antagonistic as the years past.

A moment of pure rage crossed Zander's face. Then briefly guilt then rage again.

A hand slammed on the table before he could retort. "That is enough!" Martin growled staring down both staff members.

"I will make the final decision." He said slowly.

"You've made your case Dr. Kinney. Please give us some time to think it over." Martin said, clearly dismissing her.

Sarah's shoulders fell slightly, before she nodded and left the room. She was certain he had already made his decision.

"Bye now." Zander said in a smug and insufferable tone.

"Start laying the ground work for more intensive training. Get whatever experts you need in here for both of them. We move forward on coating the claws in Spare." Martin shook his head slightly, "We can wait on the bonding for X-23. But start working on ways to fully emerge the X-gene without risking inhibiting any of its potency in her. Right now she wouldn't survive the surgery for the claws, much less the full bonding process."

Zander nodded and then glanced at the closed door and the departed Dr. Kinney. "Why do we even keep Kinney involved? Both subjects are old enough now and I don't see why -"

"Control." Martin interrupted.

"You control the mother, you control the child. At this point both children see her as a mother figure of sorts. When we cut that connection by sending her away they will fall back on familiarity, becoming almost fanatically loyal to us. And...if all else fails… Dr. Kinney can be dealt with easily enough." Martin explained, his voice without inflection.

Zander smiled slightly as he considered that.

"Speaking of control, how's the progress coming on the trigger scent?" Martin asked.

"Better than expected." Zander said smugly.

OoooooooooOoooooooooO

"It went perfectly." Zander stated proudly. "The extraction of the claws, the coating of them in adamantium, and the re-insertion of them. There were zero complications."

He didn't wait for the follow-up question from Martin, he simply gestured to a television showing a youth in a training room filled with dummies.

Half of the dummies were shredded to pieces and the youth was in the process of shredding more. From his hands emerged three sharp metal claws approximately 7 inches long.

"He's already familiar moving with the claws and has adjusted to their capabilities remarkably quickly."

"All right. Proceed with advanced training." Martin said. "Well done, I think this is a fantastic sign. Our backers will appreciate this."

Zander nodded in agreement, watching the demonstration with a strange blend of avarice and pride.

Sarah Kinney said nothing during the meeting, simply stared at the screen in thinly veiled disgust.

OoooooooooOoooooooooO

"I think it's time to test Spare out in field conditions." Martin said quietly, in a meeting between just himself and Zander Rice.

"Really?" Zander asked, a trace of disbelief in his voice. "Are you sure he's ready?"

"You've read the reports yourself. Hell you've prepared half of them. He is consistently excelling in all of his training. He has adapted well to the metal on his claws." Martin responded.

"Yes, the results have been extremely positive." admitted Zander, with more than a trace of smugness in his voice. "I just worried it was a bit too soon."

"I agree, but those providing the funds need more than being able to survive the process and demonstrations against unmoving targets or people in tightly controlled conditions. We need to prove that we're producing effective weapons. X-23 may not be ready yet, but Spare is."

"What did you have in mind?" Zander asked, eager to prove that Spare could absolutely handle being the weapon they wanted and needed.

"A simple hunt and eliminate mission. Nothing too fancy. But it will get him blooded, and if performed well will please the backers." Martin replied, but his voice turned hard. "But only if you're certain he will succeed. If this is a failure it could cause many problems for us."

Zander straightened. "He will be successful. I have far more faith in Spare than X-23."

Martin didn't bother to respond, well aware of Zander's antipathy for the younger experiment when compared to her older male counterpart.

OoooooooooOoooooooooO

"I understand it was a busy weekend." Martin smiled, straightening a picture of his wife and child on his desk before leaning back in his office chair.

"It was very exciting." Zander said, his voice gloating, with a glance over at Sarah whose expression he could tell was struggling to remain detached and not express her extreme discontent.

"I am all ears." Martin said.

"We put X-23 through the radiation treatment this weekend. It did exactly what I expected. Her mutant gene has fully emerged, regeneration, enhanced senses, and fully formed claws for her age. Though there was one unexpected development." Zander explained, gloating slightly as he glanced at Sarah who did her best not to react.

"What development was that?" Martin asked as he looked over various scans and reports that Zander had provided him.

Zander shifted one particular X-ray forward for Martin's examination. "One thing that was interesting, to us, that we have not seen in the original subject or Spare's mutation, is that X-23 has a single claw amongst the bones in her feet as well."

Martin ran his finger along the close up x-ray of a foot. "What caused that?"

Zander glanced at Sarah with a raised eyebrow.

"We're uncertain," She answered, careful to keep her tone calm and detached. "As you know, mutations by their very nature produce unexpected effects. It's possible we're just seeing a natural reaction. It's also possible it's the presence of two X chromosomes that cause the mutation.

Sarah saw Zander's gloating expression as she was forced to concede that it was her idea that might have caused this unexpected development. So she raised her brow in challenge, her voice gaining slight sharpness, "It's also possible that her youth and the trauma of how the mutant gene was provoked at such an early stage."

Zander scowled at her dig, but it didn't completely rid him of his gloating air. He had been right and no matter how valid her comments were, he had still won again. He didn't deny he also enjoyed subjecting X-23 to the strain of the test that caused her mutant factor to emerge.

Martin ignored their back and forth with the practice of someone who had years of experience doing so. Instead he was holding up two X-ray's, one of hands and arms, and the other of feet. He looked thoughtful at the scans, "How long before we can begin the process of bonding adamantium to the claws?"

"We could begin any time." Zander said, with a grin looking directly at Sarah as he did.

She shook her head but kept her peace, knowing that she would present the same arguments she did last time when they had decided to do it to Spare and those arguments would just fall upon deaf ears.

"I think we should begin within the next 6 months." Martin said decisively, looking up. "We gave Spare time to adjust to the mutation in his system and it seemed to work out well. Let's not rush things and get sloppy. Give her time to adjust to her new strength, speed and senses, as well as her regeneration and claws. Then we'll coat them in the metal."

Zander nodded, and glanced to his side, looking somewhat surprised by Sarah's lack of protest.

"However there was also another thing of note this weekend, we discovered." Zander said, changing topics with a sort of dreadful eagerness.

Martin looked up at Zander curiously waiting for him to continue, and Sarah did the same, though her look was more suspicious than Martin's.

"As you know, Spare successfully completed another mission this weekend. This one lasted 48 hours before extraction." Zander stated. "This was his first mission that had him out of visual proximity of our spotters for more than a six hour period."

"There were problems?" Martin asked quickly, tensing up.

"On the contrary. He got in, completed his objective and returned to the extraction point without trouble, and as far as we know without any identification." Zander stated. He directed another smirk at Sarah. "If this keeps up we may have to change designations… and start referring to X-23 as the spare."

"What's the issue?" Martin asked, cutting off any argument that could come out of the two.

Zander reached over and flicked the screen on the wall on to display another x-ray. "Upon return, we did a routine scan of Spare and discovered something… impossible."

He didn't wait for questions, flicking to another scan, a close up of the hands with the claws extended. "We discovered, and confirmed after multiple scans, that his claws, which were on average 7.3 inches in length when coated with adamantium... now are 7.8 inches in length."

Martin sat forward with a scowl on his face. "Bones are growing at the base or tip of the claws?"

"No, they are now 7.8 inches of adamantium, without any loss of density in the metal. Given that the metal is by all measurements… indestructible… that should be, as I said, impossible." Zander said, with more than a trace of wonder in his voice.

"Did something happen on the mission to cause this?" Martin demanded.

"No. Not at all. It was a standard assassination of some businessman who was trying to whistle blow on his company or something of that nature. There was nothing he would have been exposed to that could cause this." Zander shook his head with certainty. "One of the technicians noted it and called me. We went back and looked at previous scans, both post mission and standard bi-weekly ones, and determined the claws have been growing over some time. It wasn't something we looked for as we certainly did not expect it, so it was missed in the scans looking at his health."

"Do you have any theories?" He asked.

Zander glanced at Sarah who took that as her invitation to finally speak up on the topic.

"This is just a guess. But it looks like the energy that infuses his body down to the cellular level, the one that allowed him to so readily adapt to the introduced x-gene… adapted to the metal." She said hesitantly.

"It appears as though his body as it has grown over the past year has begun to grow the claws too and his body has somehow caused the metal to grow apace." She sounded unhappy with her diagnoses. "I can't prove it one way or the other, but it's just a guess."

Martin steepled his fingers and nodded slowly. "I want to keep an eye on that. I want daily scans to see if it continues."

Zander and Sarah both nodded at that. Despite their disagreements, they both were forced to confess that this wasn't something either of them could have predicted as everything they knew said it should be physically impossible.

OoooooooooOoooooooooO

"Are you afraid?" Zander questioned, staring down at the girl strapped down onto the table in front of him. "Do you feel Weapon X?"

He was alone in the room, he had dismissed the other doctors from the surgery upon their protests when he announced that they would not be using anesthesia in the process. He couldn't keep the hatred out of his tone as he stared down in disgust at the clone of the… thing that had killed his father all those years ago.

He had no interest in making this less painful for the helpless animal, so he explained slowly, relishing the chance to do so. "I'm going to sharpen your claws and then extract them from your body. One by one. Bond the adamantium to them and then reinsert them… I imagine it will be quite painful."

"I wouldn't want you to be bored while I do this. So while we're using radiation to depress that healing factor you've got. I've decided to inject some of the Spare's genes into your own. See if splicing his genetics with yours has any effects. Who knows, maybe it will kill you!" His tone was malicious and gleeful. The bed beneath her pulsed light radiation into her. Radiation he was protected from, both by her body and in the lead lined scrubs and gloves he wore.

Zander held up a syringe without preamble injecting it into her neck with irradiated fluid. "If nothing else maybe it will keep you… entertained while I work."

He wasn't really certain what, if anything would happen. But remembered the physical changes the Spare had experienced and how uncomfortable those were likely to be, as he simply wanted to add to her torment.

Setting the emptied syringe aside he held up a small medical saw that began to buzz ominously. He delighted in what he assumed was a frightened look that crossed her face as her eyes followed the saw.

"This is for my father." Zander whispered.

OoooooooooOoooooooooO

"It seems like X-23 is reacting well to the metal on her claws." Martin opined as he closed the folder with the latest report in it.

"Very much like Spare, she has reacted positively to extraction and claw bonding once she adjusted to the slight weight differential." Zander said, pleased he could speak freely without the presence of Sarah around.

Martin nodded slowly, "Though I understand there was… an incident last night."

"There was." Zander nodded, his smirk dissolving into a wide grin.

"The death of an employee is hardly something to be smiling about." Martin scowled.

"Oh but it is!" Zander grinned. "He was X-23's most recent hand to hand combat trainer. Before that he had worked with Spare to train him."

"I'm aware of what his role was, Zander." Martin replied shortly.

"Yes, and it was a role X-23 was respecting and forming a bond of sorts with. We wanted to destroy that bond." Zander kept his tone mild, aware that his surrogate father only tolerated so much antagonism toward their experiment. "We wanted to continue to keep her from forming a sense of self. All psychology reports encourage us to do so. If she forms an emotional bond with someone else, beyond Kinney, that bond would likely be the one that ensures fanatical loyalty and devotion."

"I'm aware of those reports. That's also part of why we're keeping Kinney around. Until we sell X-23 and Spare off to permanent buyers that bond remains in place. When we prepared to sell them, that connections will be… severed." Martin said, his voice hard and cold.

Zander nodded, "Exactly. We didn't want that sort of emotional bond forming so it had to be taken care of. And you wanted solid proof of the effectiveness of the trigger I developed. This was merely two birds with one stone. One that could be done under controlled circumstances, and written off as a lab accident." Zander explained.

"So does the trigger work?" Martin asked leaning back with a grin.

Zander smirked glancing down at the blood spattered pictures in front of him and then looked up. "The trigger worked to perfection. Testing it on someone she was starting to... care for and respect, left her completely at the mercy of her instincts. She killed him in a rage without hesitation or remorse."

Martin nodded, looking pleased as Zander continued, "And it wasn't like something stressful happened to spark it. X-23 wasn't even fighting when she was set off. Just encountering him after I had applied the scent to a sword he had only picked up was enough for her to attack. She encounters the scent and explodes in a rage until she's killed everything in her presence."

"It will work on anyone." Zander summed up with a malicious smile.

""Exceptional work son." Martin complimented with a wide grin.

"Thank you Martin." Zander replied with a matching grin.

"Does it work on the Spare as well?" Martin asked after a short pause as he continued to review the report.

Zander's grin faded and he sighed, "It… doesn't work on Spare. No matter what we do to the scent or what properties we put into it, a scent doesn't provoke him. It's not that he can't be provoked into a rage, as it's happened before. We just have not been able to replicate something that will automatically provoke the response. Every time we think we've come up with a trigger that will work, he doesn't respond the second time."

Martin scowled and he steepled his fingers, Zander's tone turned a little bit defensive, "Though he has proven himself equally effective without it. I'm uncertain as to why."

"Hn." Martin grunted. "Keep trying, I want the control for both of them. Keep me posted."

"Of course." Zander replied before closing the folder and looking thoughtful. "I would also like to propose something."

"What did you have in mind?" Martin asked, looking at Zander thoughtfully. He was truly proud of the work he had done and how many successes the man had seemingly engineered in the past decade since they had found and acquired Spare for the program.

"I want to start running extensive exercises with Spare and X-23." Zander proposed bluntly.

"We already have them spar against one another, what more are you asking for?" Zander inquired, brow furrowing.

"I want a full range of drills. Not only does keeping one instructor or sparring partner for an extended period of time run the same risks of forming bonds… but we're finding it harder to hire mercenaries to test different things against them especially with the unfortunate tendency for the mercenaries to die in simple exercises." Zander explained, "And if we're worried about keeping them alive, then Spare and X can't really be tested to their full extent. If we set them against one another and pull out all the restrictions, the two can go all out and then we can see just how far they can go."

Martin stared at Zander knowingly, "And perhaps display your belief that Spare is superior to X-23."

Zander shrugged and attempted to look innocent. "I hadn't really considered that aspect. But either way I would expect that there would be massive improvement between the two."

Martin rolled his eyes not buying the statement for a moment, before narrowing them in consideration, "Aren't you concerned that the two might form the same bonds we're worried about?"

"Hardly." Zander scoffed with a roll of his eyes. "Spare is becoming the perfect weapon doing what he's told and X-23 is little better than an animal. Besides, they'll be fighting against each other. Hard to form a bond with someone if they're stabbing you on a regular basis. No… I am quite… confident, that they won't be forming any sort of emotional bonds with one another."

Martin looked down at the report in front of him before looking up at Zander, "Alright. You've convinced me. Let's start them on full drills, everything from hunt and capture, search and destroy, information retrieval, interrogation, and elimination drills. If we're going to do this, I want the full range done."

Zander's face was almost gleeful.

OoooooooooOoooooooooO

A picture of an X-ray dropped down on the desk in front of Martin.

"Eight point two inches." Zander said with more than a trace of excitement. They had done daily scans for the past 3 months. He had waited ninety days ensuring that he could show measureable differences before bringing it up.

Martin examined the scan before looking up at Zander. "What are you proposing?"

"I want to go forward with the full bonding process now." Zander answered, practically vibrating in excitement.

Martin sat forward with an intense look. "What if you're wrong? If Dr. Kinney is wrong? What if his body can't adjust the metal as he grows?"

"I'm confident it can adjust to the influx of metal even though he's not done growing. After all the tests we've run, one thing stays constant with him, his body adapts. That's the power we're trying to classify. Adaptability. I'm sure of it." Zander replied confidently.

"What if you're wrong?" Martin repeated inexorably.

"Then if he survives he's shorter than average for the rest of his life." Zander replied. "He's fifteen, already large enough to function for all our needs if the adamantium won't allow his bones to grow. Weapon X is known to be shorter than average and we both know the devastation he can cause."

"You realize if you're risking the viability of the weapon, and your personal favorite, and all the successes you have with him by doing this?" Martin asked carefully.

"I am fully aware of the risk. Spare is already damn near the perfect weapon. Let me complete the process." Zander answered confidently.

Martin hummed thoughtfully before he nodded slowly, "Alright Zander. Get it set up. We'll do the full bonding process."

Zander nodded, "The only downside is that we don't know how long it will take him to adjust… physically to the added weight and impact the metal will add to his skeleton."

"And…?" Martin asked leadingly.

"And, I think it's time to see if X-23 is any use at all for missions." Zander said with scorn in his voice. "That will keep money coming in even should Spare be down longer than expected."

"Agreed." Martin said shortly ignoring the scorn. It wasn't that X-23 was inferior in any way to Spare, despite the latter's ability to adapt. The trials the two had against one another actually had them fairly even in durability, stamina, regeneration, ferocity, and inventiveness. They were nearly equal on every level once the age disparity was factored in. It was just that Zander clearly disliked the subject. Martin just hoped it didn't cause his son to do something stupid.

OoooooooooOoooooooooO

Dr. Sarah Kinney once more sat in a medical room. Ostensibly she was reading a book, but her eyes kept flicking to the teen… boy really, lying unconscious on the bed. The monitor hooked to his heart, beeped slowly and regularly. It was reassuring because at the moment it was the only sign of life. Even his chest seemed to barely move.

They hadn't even bothered informing her when Zander decided to move forward with the intensely physiologically stressful and invasive process of basically injecting molten metal and controlling it while it coated the bones of a living person. Sarah had nearly lost it when she had found out they were doing the full bonding process on a fifteen year old.

Her objections were loud and valid, he hadn't finished growing, and a male human was certainly not fully developed at age fifteen. Despite all the steps they'd taken to accelerate his maturation process. It could kill him, it could deform his growth moving forward. She had even argued that it wasn't like he wasn't effective on his missions, as much as she hated the thought of those missions. The truth was that he had a flawless record on those missions.

It wasn't even certain that the process would be successful. In the research they'd acquired, there had been only one successful bonding process and that was the original Weapon X. Though Martin claimed he had become aware of at least two others who survived similar processes, done by other organizations, though Sarah had not seen the files on them.

Martin hadn't listened to her, and had just told her that decision had been made. She hated it, but the plain fact of the matter was that the program didn't really need her any more. She was a geneticist and doctor, but they had no use for a geneticist at this point, and there were plenty of other medical doctors. Her opinion was asked less and less.

Sarah knew she was essentially only there for psychological reasons. Providing a consistent and steady female presence to make sure the two were not psychopaths, giving them a tenuous connection for the moment, until they were shipped off like so much product. And half the time she felt that it wasn't that she was giving them a connection so much as standard social grounding allowing them to pick up traits that would allow them to blend in in different places all over the world.

She was expected to read them things like the Art of War, things useful to their growth. She had been disobeying that for years. Reading them different story books with her visits. Quietly, in their rooms where no one would overhear. But she sensed the program pulling them farther and farther away from her.

She pinched her nose and rubbed her eyes. It wasn't supposed to be like this. She had taken this job as a genetic challenge. Reconstructing the DNA of the original Weapon X, which they'd only had a damaged supply of. She wasn't sure why, from every report she read, it wasn't like the guy didn't bleed enough that they couldn't find more.

Despite her best efforts, and some groundbreaking strides in the field, she hadn't been able to repair the Y chromosome, but duplicating the far less damaged X had been simpler, though still a medical miracle. That had led to the bastard Zander forcing her to be a surrogate to the female child.

That got her way more personally involved than she ever imagined. Then not long after the birth of her daughter, Zander had picked up this boy from England and were doing the same to him. As much as he seemed to hate X-23, he seemed to absolutely invest in the success of Spare simply as a way to either show her up or step away from weapon X.

She had tackled it like a challenge, the greatest of her young career. She had only thought about the results in the abstract. She hadn't really comprehended the full horror of children being raised like weapons, until she'd seen it first-hand.

She had thought about leaving so many times. But she just couldn't. She had to stay for both of the children's sake. She needed to be a little bit of a balance, to try and humanize not just her daughter, but the boy as well. She considered them both her children at this point, and she had to do her best to give them both a moral compass.

Sarah had to treat them as something other than weapons. Thankfully she wasn't the only one. Some of their instructors had been kind while performing their instruction to both children. But what worried her is that one of the instructors who had acted humanely had been killed by X-23.

She hadn't been able to find out anything more about that situation. And more and more Zander was acting inhumanely. The past few months had been filled with combat between the two kids she saw as her own. They were given different scenarios and squared off against one another.

Inevitably they would end up cutting one another to pieces. The two of them were the only two that could completely cut loose with one another. Inflicting wounds that might be fatal for anyone else, certainly would be debilitating, only for them to shrug it off, healing the damage in the matter of moments before re-engaging.

Then there were the missions that Spare had been sent on. She had no idea how many people the boy in front of her had already killed. And they had sent out X-23 for a mission herself less than a week ago, starting her on the same road.

Her eyes were drawn back to the boy with another shake of her head. They had bonded unbreakable metal in full to the skeleton of the boy in front of her, he wasn't even close to fully mature, especially as a male.

There was no way of knowing how it might stunt his growth, and that was if he managed to survive the process. The metal had been bonded to his skeleton, but the process had not gone exactly as planned.

They had him hooked up, submerged in freezing water in order to keep the body temperature as low as possible during the process. However they had gotten the machines going, and started the process. Spare had convulsed the instant the metal started pouring into his body from a myriad of tubes that were hooked up.

A few moments later, there was some sort of pulse of energy that hit the base. It seemed to happen as the process reached its peak, and succeeded shutting down every electronic at the base for a short while and the electronics in the room permanently. No one could identify where it came from, though the prevailing theories were that either it was a massive electrical overload or something caused by Spare.

Thankfully it hadn't happened earlier and the metal had finished entering his body and molded to his skeleton before everything stopped.

She stared at the boy's form as he continued to breathe slowly as she thought about what they were doing to children.

Both X-23 and the 'Spare' were quiet by nature. Though mostly because there was no sort of social interaction encouraged with each other or anyone else. She had no idea how they were feeling about their circumstances, about what was happening, about her. They didn't talk about it.

Anything that might create an actual personality in them was prohibited.

She wanted so desperately to get them out. But had no idea how to go about it. There was no way the company was going to let them go but Sarah couldn't stand it. She had to start making plans.

OoooooooooOoooooooooO

Zander angrily swiped his arm across his desk, sending his keyboard and the various nick knacks on his desk along with a pile of papers to go flying throughout his office. He let out a cry of anger as he kicked his trashcan, denting it and sending it hurtling into a wall, leaving a dent in the wall as well. He didn't care.

They had lost Spare in a giant explosion. The explosion had killed him before destroying the monitoring devices they imbedded in his armor and the three subdermal devices they had planted as well that kept them aware of his status and general location during missions.

The mission had been simple, it hadn't even involved any necessary deaths. Spare had been ordered to get into the facility, and get samples of various chemicals they were developing there. The fear had been that they were developing a type of wide dispersal neurotoxin.

They were able to keep an eye on his progress through radio and camera feed. The mission had been going without a hitch when he approached the main target of the mission. However as Spare approached his attention was caught by something. They realized in playback that it was a large bomb. But there hadn't been time to order a retreat.

The bomb had already been counting down, when Spare had seen it, it was already down to its last four seconds. He had clearly turned to flee when the entire camera had jolted, then gone dead, at the same time everything went dead.

Surveillance outside of the factory was hardly necessary as the entire building went up in a giant explosion that could be seen by the entire neighborhood, hell the entire city could see it. The temperatures recorded at the sight suggested that the explosive might have been thermite. Whatever it was powerful and burned hot.

Radioactive material from various chemicals were all over the site. The company was hopeful that it might be able to, after media attention died down and investigations did the same they might be able to slip in and recover the skeleton if they could find it in the wreckage. Assuming investigators didn't find it first.

They had no indication that the target was anything other than the facility. There was no hint that their operation was being targeted, by all indications it looked like the explosives were planted to destroy the factor and they had the misfortune of infiltrating at exactly the wrong moment.

Zander put his head in his hands as he flopped back in his desk chair. He took several steadying breaths. It wasn't the end of the world.

Spare had been a resounding success up to this point. Nothing but a perfect soldier without a single hesitation or failure to follow orders. Zander had successfully lobbied with Martin that Spare's successes along with his body's ability to adapt in ways X-23's couldn't. That meant that Spare should be the focus going forward.

Even now they had 24 embryos, cloned from Spare's DNA after they had incorporated the DNA from Weapon X that were gestating. They had proven the project had worked. And even this setback hadn't driven away most of their donors who were willing to think long term.

Next time they would have an army of Spares.

The only thing that continued to niggle at Zander was the fact that X-23 was still alive. After almost 2 years of active missions it had a mission success record the same as Spare's. Not a single failure, though nowhere near the same amount of missions completed as Spare had been doing it for several more years than X-23.

Zander worried if it continued to succeed X-23 might become the centerpiece of their project going forward since it was now the one that would be center stage while the two dozen spares were grown to maturity. And they might make more clones of the beast too.

He had to show that she was inferior. That Sarah Kinney's pet monster created from a monster was nothing more than a beast and an inferior one to the one that he had partially discovered and been entirely responsible for creating.

A slow smirk crossed his face.

Well there were ways to ensure that happened as well. He would just have to eliminate the problem himself.

He had no idea that while he was first raging over the loss of his weapon, and then plotting, on a way to get rid of X-23 that Dr. Sarah Kinney had her own reaction

The same time that Zander spent raging, she had spent weeping. Weeping for the loss of a child, one she viewed as hers.

The same time he began to plot to get rid of X-23 she began to plot to end everything.

OoooooooooOoooooooooO

Dr. Sarah Kinney glanced down at her watch, before looking up nervously at the building in front of her. The watch she was looking at wasn't telling time. It had just counted down past fourteen minutes and continued to spiral lower.

She stood in the frigid cold of the evening air. The area was covered in snow, and wind chill dropped the temperature down to almost unbearable levels despite the cold beauty of the landscape.

She ignored it all. She stood there, in a grey jacket, jeans. There was a duffel bag in her right hand, with everything important enough to take with her, a file of papers under her arm, and a still smoking gun in her left hand.

Everything had come to a culmination so quickly. It had been less than six months since Spare's death, everything had fallen apart even quicker than she had imagined possible.

X-23 had been sent out on a mission, a mission in which Zander bizarrely had insisted on accompanying her. A mission in which the higher ups had thought their weapon had been ambushed and died.

For a brief time Sarah had thought her heart had been ripped out. When she lost Spare in that explosion, a boy she had come to care for as deeply as her own offspring she had been devastated. The loss of X-23 had ripped the emotional skeleton out of her.

Only Sarah hadn't lost her. X-23 had returned to the base. Somehow she had made her way back. Sarah had caught Zander's expression when he saw X-23 and immediately had known what happened. He had set her up to be killed, and may have even helped.

That, more than anything solidified her decision.

However crazy things hadn't stopped there. Her sister, whom she'd not seen in a decade, had called because her daughter, Sarah's niece, though she'd never met, only exchanged letters with on occasion, had been abducted.

Sarah had hesitated only briefly before she made a decision. She smuggled X-23 out of the complex and used her and all her skills to save her niece.

Even though the decision had been successful, her niece being recovered Sarah felt another piece of her soul die. She used X-23 in the same way that Zander and the entire company had.

Sarah had debated not returning with X-23, but knew if she tried to just run off they would be hunted for the rest of their lives. And the company wouldn't stop until they had recovered X-23 and Sarah was likely dead.

She needed to do everything she could to make sure they couldn't come after them. Still, she regretted taking X-23 back. Because Zander had done something she never imagined possible.

He saw her use X-23 for something personal, so he had made the decision to do the same.

Zander had taken her and set her after Martin Sutter and his entire family. Their house had supposedly and 'mysteriously' caught fire, with Martin and his wife Rachel dying in the fire, though their son Henry had survived. He had been found in the forest and was in shock, not able to tell any of the authorities or doctors anything.

However when that had been revealed to her, she was in X-23's room, talking to her.

X-23 had opened her mouth and pushed out a picture. A picture of Martin and his family. The same type of picture given to both Spare and X-23 when they were assigned to eliminate someone.

It only took a moment for the pieces to fall into place. But when it did, she finally realized then what sort of monster Zander Rice really truly was.

She had spared only a moment to wonder if Zander had wanted Martin killed for control of the project or because her vague suspicions about Zander sleeping with Rachel, Martin's wife, were accurate. She had always had her suspicions but dismissed them because while Rachel was far younger than Martin. Martin still was Zander's surrogate father. Sarah could not imagine him doing that to the older man who loved him like a son.

Apparently she had given him too much credit.

Sarah promised the girl then, that they were going to get out of here.

It broke her heart when the girl who she should have raised as a daughter hadn't shown an emotional reaction. She had only asked, "A mission?"

And even more when Sarah had to admit that yes… it would be one last mission.

She had subtly prepared everything she needed already, she had been doing so since Spare had died. This just pushed it over the edge. So it only took a few hours to gather what she needed.

She had ended up speaking with Zander because she didn't want anyone to be suspicious and the man looked anything but broken up by the death of the man who treated him like a son.

The bastard was practically smug. He had led her to a room she hadn't seen before and shown off two dozen embryo's already in growth.

She couldn't believe it.

He had been amused, "This is business Sarah. Not science. You never understood that."

He had taunted her that they had used Spare's DNA though spliced with Weapon X's because he was clearly superior with his adaptability. Nothing of her would exist in the new children they were going to produce.

Her skin had crawled when Zander had run his fingers through her hair claiming he wasn't a bad guy, before summarily firing her. She had batted his hand out of her hair and told him to screw himself.

His last words to her rang in her mind "You're out. Tonight. Go see your pet one last time. X-24 through 50 aren't going to need you… and if you're not gone by morning, I'll have you shot."

She ignored the threat. And completed the final part of her preparations. All of her stuff packed in a duffel. She had shuddered, realizing what a monster she had to be, but she had no choice. One last time.

She had printed off pictures of every employee at the base and slipped them in a folder.

She had summarily killed the two guards around X-23's door. Shooting them in the head without warning. She hadn't liked them, but hadn't hated them either. But she had killed them. Considering what she was about to ask the girl to do. Sarah felt she couldn't do any less.

Then she slipped the folder underneath X-23's door with a watch, the standard way of giving the girl mission time. Just like all the other missions both Spare and her daughter had received. Then she had opened her daughter's door and walked away.

Sarah wasn't sure she could face what she was unleashing on the people around her. She thought she could hear faint sounds inside but she wasn't certain. The entire base was sound proofed.

She glanced at her watch again, reading six minutes and thirty seconds left. She knew her daughter had a similar time piece on keeping her apprised of how long until the mission had to be completed. The timepiece was something that neither her, nor Spare when he was still alive had missed.

She hated having her daughter kill like this. But would only ask it one last time.

Sarah desperately wanted to explain to her daughter that the blood spilled tonight was not on her daughter's hands but on her own.

Because unlike the missions before.

Tonight what her daughter did was right.

Tonight what her daughter served was justice.

Tonight, her daughter began to take back the life that was stolen from her. Stolen from her brother.

Sarah had done everything she could to sabotage security systems and early warnings that might go out alerting the base. But the base was filled with armed personnel weapons and security systems and anything else a military operation might need.

Christ, she had been so stupid. It had been that way the entire time she had been there but she had been so focused on the challenge at first. It was only now, in retrospect that she understood exactly what she had signed up for.

She glanced at her watch once more. Three minutes.

Just three minutes and then… and then they could leave. The two of them and hopefully be a family.

"Come on… where are you?" She spoke to the air, as the watch counted below a minute and a half.

As Sarah stared at the watch, counting down from ten seconds, her head suddenly jerked up, as a loud explosion ripped through the air. Sarah looked up and saw a plume of flame ripping out of the center of the large sprawling building.

And then down as the front door opened and a diminutive girl brazenly strode out of the front doors as more explosions ripped through the building behind her. She was dressed in black leather like material from neck to toe though it was sleeveless. It was her standard mission outfit minus most of the tracers and monitoring devices they usually used.

Sarah felt tears well up in her eyes, as her daughter walked toward her and for the first time in as long as she could remember she exhaled a prayer, "Thank you God."

The sensation she felt was so utterly freeing she couldn't figure out how to describe it. They were free. The two of them could go now and actually live life.

The girl got within five yards of her before she froze, and a growl built inside her,

Sarah frowned and spoke quietly, "X-23… What… what's wrong? Are you…"

A snarl of rage escaped the girl, and her green eyes turned red.

"Oh no…" Sarah breathed out. She recognized the reaction almost immediately. Her brilliant mind didn't even need a moment to realize what happened.

When Zander had touched her hair.

He had told her to go see her pet. Sarah knew he must have applied the trigger. He had wanted X-23 to kill her. And X-23 was helpless to do anything to react to it.

"No!" She scrambled backwards her arms lifted futilely trying to protect herself as X-23 metal claws emerged and the now red eyed girl leaped at her. She knew there was no way to escape, she may have been older and taller with a longer reach, but X-23 was the pinnacle of combat effectiveness and there was no way Sarah was going to manage to fight her off.

In that moment, when Sarah's life was supposed to flash before her eyes, instead all she saw were regrets, the things she would never be able to do with her daughter. Sarah would never have a chance to make up for everything she had done. She would never get to teach her daughter all the things she had missed out on.

The things she'd never get to show her or tell her.

Sarah would never get to demonstrate life outside of the complex without it being a mission.

She wouldn't get to do any of it.

And all Sarah felt was sorrow for the girl she had given birth to, and all she had put her through.

Sarah gasped and felt an impact in her stomach, sending her falling back into the snow as blood splashed in the air hitting her in the face. She couldn't get a breath and realized in a moment that she must be dying.

However after several moments she was able to draw in a breath of air, albeit painfully, as her brain attempted to process the sight in front of her.

Her daughter's claws had struck a fatal blow… or what would have been a fatal blow.

Only they hadn't been in her.

Standing there with X-23's claws imbedded into his chest was Spare, he had appeared between them and taken the blow.

X-23 had buried them up to her knuckles in both sides of his chest. His hands were held up and wrapped around her wrists holding her in place as she snarled.

Sarah could see the grey hoodie he wore darkened from blood where X-23 had struck.

"X-23, no!" Spare's voice growled as she struggled to move past him, to pull away to attack Sarah. There was no logic or grace to her movements as she was lost in her frenzy caused by the trigger.

X-23 was pushing and struggling to get past him, snarling in rage. Spare was growling as he held her fists imbedded in his own chest refusing to let her pull away in the most effective way possible.

Sarah pushed herself up on her hands slowly in the snow as she stared in disbelief.

She watched as the boy she thought dead shifted and kept himself interposed between X-23 and herself.

The two of them were both twisting and shifting their weight as they fought for leverage and at cross purpose. While X-23 was a little more flexible and able to twist and turn, Spare was a little more sturdy and unyielding. Mostly because while his bones were coated with metal allowing for that, hers were not allowing for slightly more flexibility.

But over the course of minutes their movements slowed down. She also watched as the red in X-23's eyes slowly flickered and then went out, going back to their normal emerald color.

Sarah could tell when the girl came back to herself because of the soft 'schlickt" sound of her claws retracting out of Spare's body and back into her forearms.

Spare grunted slightly as the claws retracted, blood darkening the front and back of his sweater completely enough that it looked mostly black from the wet blood. However only a moment later he took a breath and seemed to shake it off.

X-23 looked up at Spare, blinking several times before she looked past him at Sarah who slowly and tentatively pushed herself up from the ground.

X-23 raised her hand toward Sarah, her expression filled with sorrow and fear, "I… I'm sorry…"

The look on the girl's face broke Sarah's heart. She quickly shook her head, waving it off. She had far more to be sorry about than the girl did. Rather than try to explain, she stepped forward carefully, not sure if the scent would be provoked again.

When X-23 didn't react, just watched her, Sarah, for the first time in her life enfolded her daughter in a hug. X-23 was stiff and unresponsive at first before slowly melting into the hug.

Spare had watched X-23 carefully making sure she was not going to react again.

He moved to step away from the embracing pair to give them space, but before he could take that step a hand reached out, grabbed him by the back of the hoodie he was wearing. Sarah gripped the hood and with a tug pulled him into the hug as well, unashamed of the tears running down her face.

There was a longer pause before he returned the embrace.

There was a small pause before he pulled back, though he left his arm at her back. Her daughter shifted as well so that all three could look at the still burning inferno that formerly was a large complex building.

"You made quite the mess, X-23," The teenager spoke, his tone relatively flat, though there was a note of amusement in it.

Sarah glanced at him, and shook her head, before looking down at her daughter, "Laura. Your name is Laura. Not X-23."

The newly named Laura seemed to turn that over in her head before nodding slowly.

"You are my daughter, and I love you," Sarah finally spoke the words that she had wanted to since her daughter's birth but hadn't dared. Outwardly Laura didn't seem to react. But Sarah felt the younger girl press herself closer into her side.

"It's nice to meet you Laura,"Spare said from the other side of her.

She turned to the boy on the other side of her, "And your name is-"

"Harry Potter. I know," the teen said, matter of factly.

Sarah looked surprised. She hesitated glancing down at her daughter before back at the teen she had thought dead. "We… were never sure whether you remembered your birth name or not."

Harry shook his head, "I didn't, and my relatives certainly never used it before the program found me."

"Then… how?" She couldn't help but asking.

A brief scowl crossed his face, "Spare died."

"How did you survive?" she couldn't help but ask.

"I didn't." He responded after a pause. "I just got better... and…in the process I found out who I was."

She didn't quite understand what he was saying. Though she understood he wasn't telling the entire story.

Nonetheless she reached up with her hand and tilted his head to force him to look at her fully, realizing for the first time she actually had to look up to meet his eyes. "Who you are… You are my son as well, and I love you."

Harry opened his mouth and she shook her head cutting him off able to tell from his expression that he was about to argue with her.

"Maybe not biologically... strictly speaking. But it's true none the less," Sarah said, her voice clear. She needed him to understand. Despite the monster she felt herself become, she needed him to understand.

Harry met her eyes and slowly nodded before a faint smile crossed his face, "I suppose you're right."

She smiled, "Besides you have Laura's genetics inside of you, and she has a part of me. So. You're her brother too."

Laura was looking back and forth between the two without comment. Though a small smile crossed her face.

Harry suddenly stiffened and his head whipped around. He pulled away from the loose embrace and moved toward the burning building. Laura was only a moment behind on his heels.

Sarah followed the two of them a bit slower, as they moved around the side of the building.

She stopped as she saw an open door with smoke pouring out of it from the still burning building. A figure was crawling slowly out of the building.

It only took Sarah a moment to recognize the figure.

Zander Rice looked like he had been beaten to hell but was still alive.

Harry and Laura came to a stop a few feet away from him.

Zander realized someone was there and looked up from his crawling through the snow. His eyes widened in disbelief and he croaked out in relief, "Spare…."

Then his eyes widened as he took in X-23 and Sarah behind them. His eyes focused on Sarah briefly. "You're… alive."

"Yes." Sarah replied, her tone coming out cold, as she felt no sympathy for the injured figure in front of them. "Despite your best efforts… my daughter didn't kill me."

"Spare… kill them both… that's a- cough- order." Zander rasped out looking up at the group in front of him.

"The name is Harry." he growled as he crouched down. "And I won't kill my sister or my mother and certainly not for you, you son of a bitch."

Sarah's eyes widened and began to water at that statement.

Even the crack as Harry quickly and efficiently broken Zander's neck wasn't enough to ruin the statement for her.

Harry didn't catch the reaction, instead his eyes picked out something in the hand of the now dead scientist.

It was a vial labeled "Trigger."

It only took him a second of examining before he tossed it up and into the fire burning on the side of the building. Hearing the tinkle as the glass broke.

He turned to look at Sarah expectantly. Noting that Laura did the same, although that was after kicking a foot full of snow over the dead man.

"Now, let's get out of here before there's any response," Sarah spoke up.

"Where?" Laura asked as the three walked away from the building.

"To go be a family. Along with some people who may be able to understand… to help," Sarah answered as she lead them to where she had parked her car not far away.

"I can't," Harry said abruptly.

Sarah and Laura both stopped to look at him.

Harry shook his head, "I'm sorry but I can't. There's… something I have to do."

"What do you have to do?" Sarah asked, meeting green eyes that were so eerily similar to her own.

There was a pause as Harry clearly hesitated before responding slowly. "There's someone I have to kill."

"You just killed someone," Laura observed earnestly without any tone of humor, although Harry's mouth did twitch slightly in response.

"No… the... man who killed my biological parents... and tried to kill me." Harry responded quietly, "He's alive again. And I need to go end him. Permanently."

"You're not going off to who knows where alone." Sarah responded immediately. Though her brow crinkled at the words 'alive again.'

"I have to," Harry responded, straightening.

Sarah stared into his eyes, reading the seriousness there. "Alright." She nodded in agreement, able to tell she'd not be able to talk him out of it.

"But… we're a family. We're going to go together," Sarah followed up.

"It's going to be dangerous." Harry replied slowly. "I don't want you to get hurt…"

"I don't care." Sarah responded heatedly. "We're a family. We've just gotten together and we're not splitting up now."

Harry stared at the woman who had provided the only care he had ever known. "Okay… Mum."

OoooooooooOoooooooooO

Two dozen boots crunched in the newly fallen snow as they moved through the area. The large building still burned, sending plumes of smoke into the air, though the fire was quickly dying out.

This far out in the middle of nowhere, it was easier just to let it burn itself out. There was no one all that close by to care.

"The facility?" questioned a voice over the shared radio to the dozen men moving and inspecting the area.

There was a pause, before a reply came back over the radio. "It's nothing but a scorched crater, sir."

"The scientists?" The voice inquired again after a pause.

"All dead," came the leader's voice again. "Most were housed on the grounds."

"The Embryo's?" the voice inquired after another pause.

"Destroyed." replied the leader simply.

There was a long pause as the men continued to inspect the area before regrouping back where they had arrived. "Any survivors?"

"Based on what happened? I'm guessing X-23 survived. Nothing else is likely." The man replied. "Though there's too much damage to too many bodies to positively identify everyone, so it's possible."

"So… it's a total loss?" The voice asked finally.

"Yes Sir…. I believe so."

"All right. We'll flag the identities of everyone involved at the facility and see if any of them show up anywhere. Gather your men, the helicopter is inbound and return to base."

"Yes Sir."

OoooooooooOoooooooooO