Chapter One: Fallen Solider
          
Three Weeks Ago:
"Move it, guys, come on!" shouted Julian Keller, as the Sentinel stomped loudly behind them. The teen ran as fast as he could, his team-mates: Josh Foley, Cessily Kincaid, Santo Vaccaro, Nori Ashida, Victor Borkowski and Megan Gwynn followed in suit. "We have to stop this thing!" shouted Cessily, as she ran. "And we will, Cess" Julian replied, "But we've gotta get to higher ground. Then we'll strike" he told her. "I hope you know what you're doing, Keller" said Nori, irritably, as she caught up to him. "Hey, I'm on it, okay?" he snapped, "Just, trust me". Nori gave him a pissed off look, she didn't trust him, and she didn't want to be a part of this. The kids continued to move as fast as they could though the semi-darkened city, the thirty foot robot just meters behind them.

From the glass overhanging control booth, Scott Summers and Emma Frost watched the scene below. "We should stop this. They're not ready" Scott told his partner. "If we stop them now, they'll never be ready, darling" Emma argued, "They can do this". Scott sighed. He knew Emma had a point, but the student's safety was the number one priority. And, they didn't look ready. Emma turned to face him, "Give them a chance, Scott". Scott tore his gaze away from below and faced her, "Reading my mind again, Emma?" he asked. "No. I don't have to" she told him, slipping her arm round his back, "I just know you" she smiled. Emma Frost. The love of his life. There was a time, not so long ago, after Jean died, when he never thought he could love again. Then she'd came along. The pain began to fade, and slowly he was able to move past his grief. "Yeah, you do" he said, returning the smile, whitest running his left hand through her shoulder length blonde hair.

The kids continued to move as fast as they could though the dark streets. "Julian! It's gaining on us!" shouted Victor. "Yeah, dude. We gotta do something, like, now" agreed Santo. "They're right, Julian" added Josh. "Okay! Okay!" snapped Julian, half frustrated with his team-mates, and half frustrated with the situation as a whole. With one disaster after the next over the last few weeks, this was their first time in the Danger Room in over a month. And they were out of practise.

Couldn't Summers have given us something a little easier, Julian thought to himself. He came to a halt, as did his team-mates. "Okay, we have to bring this thing down" he told them. He paused for a moment, thinking of a strategy. Then he gave his team their orders. "Hey! So, what about me?" asked Josh. Julian stopped and turned to face Josh. He'd not given him anything to do. "Oh, er... Foley, sit this one out, okay?". "What?! Why?" argued Josh. "No offensive powers, dude" Julian told him, "What are you gonna do? Heal it to death?". Josh knew Julian had a point, but he wasn't happy about it. He glared at him. "Keller, it's coming!" shouted Nori warningly. Julian turned back to face her and the others, ready to strike at the Sentinel. Sure enough, seconds later it rounded the corner and towered over them. "Mutants. Identified. Must. Destroy." it stated, in it's robotic voice.

"Okay... Now!" shouted Julian. On his order, his team-mates began to attack their giant enemy. The group were getting the upper hand for a while - until the Sentinel began to fire it's powerful red energy blasts. Nori and Santo just about made it out of the way as a blast hit the ground where they had stood just moments before. As the blasts continued, the group tried to dodge them as best they could. Josh, watching from a nearby sheltered building, could see tables had severely turned on them. They were practising, facing just one Sentinel - and were losing badly. He wondered how the hell the X-Men had been able to face two and three at a time, for real, and win.

"Foley! Look out!" shouted Julian, but it was too late, the side of the building where Josh stood began to crumble. It had been hit with one of the Sentinel's blasts. Josh hadn't been out of it's line of sight after all. He saw the bricks come towards him, and just in time, he dived out of the way, hitting the ground with thud, a few bits of debris hit him as he fell. "Are you okay?" shouted Julian, from twenty feet above him. Josh looked up at his team leader. "Yeah, fine" he shouted back. Satisfied, Julian moved out to help his friends. However, Josh wasn't alright. His stomach and chest hurt like hell where he'd hit the ground. Suddenly he heard Julian scream Cessily's name.

Scott and Emma continued to watch the scene before them, "They're loosing" Scott muttered. "Yes, they could be handling the situation with a tad more dignity" stated Emma, spoken in her upper class British accent. Scott ignored her choice of words. He knew she expected much more from her students. Perhaps, given what they'd been though of late, a little too much. "That's it, I'm stopping this" he announced. To his surprise Emma said nothing. Scott fiddled with some buttons, and below him the city began to rapidly fade away, and the entire room returned to its normal metallic silver.

The group picked themselves up. "About damn time!" muttered Nori, as she got to her feet. Angrily, she turned to Julian, "Some situation you had 'under-control', Keller!" she spat. "Hey! I did have it under-control!" he argued. "Oh yeah?" retorted Nori, "It could have killed Cess, Vic and Megan!". "Well, it didn't! Everyone's here aren't they?!" Julian snapped. The rest of the group looked on as the pair continued to argue. "That's because Summers and Frost pulled the plug!" Nori shot back. Julian knew that was true, but he wasn't about to give into her, "Look! I--" he began, but he was interrupted by Cessily. "Guys, come on. We're all okay. Lets just leave it?". Nori and Julian glared at each other. "A wise idea" came a voice from the other side of the room. The group looked up to see Scott and Emma walking though the Danger Room's threshold, and heading towards them. Emma continued to speak as she walked, "Once again, one of your team-mates plays peacemaker between the two of you" said the headmistress, crossly. "Grow up!" she finished, harshly.

Silence filled the room for a few moments. Scott observed the group. All of the kids looked worn out, but unhurt. "Perhaps we'll get in some more practise before we let you take on something like that again, huh?" he said, with a kind smile. "And perhaps you'll pick a better leader next time" offered Nori. "Hey!" shot back Julian. He was about to argue once again when Emma interrupted him. "Enough!" she shouted, crossly, "If the two of you can not find it in yourselves to endure each other, at least while training, perhaps neither of you should be on this team!". "Fine by me!" shot back Nori, "It's not like I wanted to be here in the first place!" she told her teacher. And with that she crossed the room and headed for the door. "Miss Ashida!" snapped the headmistress. Nori ignored her and exited the room.  "Emma, let her go" advised Scott, "She's been though at lot" he gave pulled a sympathetic expression, "David..." he said quietly. Emma seemed too be to pissed off to care much for Nori's personal loss right now. "Haven't we all endured great tragedy of late, Scott?" his partner shot back. And with that, she also crossed the floor and left the room.

Scott turned to the rest of the group, "Okay, class dismissed" he told them. Relieved, and without a word, they headed out of the Danger Room. Scott followed behind, closing and locking the doors, via digital lock, behind him. Just then, Josh's movements caught his eye. He caught up to the teen. "Josh, are you okay?". Josh stopped, and to turned to face him. "Yeah, fine. Just tried" he told the headmaster. He was lying. He stomach and chest still hurt like hell. He figured he had maybe cracked a few ribs. He knew he should have healed long before now. Normally, if he was injured, he healed almost instantly. Maybe because he was so worn out, his healing ability was keeping him standing, rather than concentrating on his ribs, he hoped. "I just need to sleep" he told Scott. He wondered if he sounded convincing enough. After a few moments Scott nodded, indicating that he believed him. "Okay. I'll let you get some rest then" said the headmaster. As Josh watched Scott walk away, he breathed a sigh of relief, then slowly made his way up to his room.

Josh woke in the very place he'd flopped down on his bed after training the previous day. He craned his neck to look at his bedside clock: 7:30am. He'd been asleep since 5pm the evening before. Shocked, he bolted up right, but as he did, he cried out in pain. He clutched his chest and stomach, the pain, if possible, since yesterday had gotten even worse. Gritting his teeth, he slowly stood up and somehow stumbled over to his mirror. Wincing, he managed to lift up his shirt, and saw that large purple-black bruises had now formed around his ribs. "Oh god..." he whispered to himself.

As he stared into the mirror, he noted that, yes, his chest hurt like hell, but the bruises looked particularly bad again his yellow-golden skin. His mind began to race: what the hell was he going to do. He understood instantly what was happening, his body wasn't healing itself. Had he lost his powers, like so many of his classmates and other Mutants on M-Day? No, he couldn't have, he reasoned, his skin was still it's normal yellow-golden colour. His Mutant gene was still active - or at least a part of it. Trying not to panic, he reminded himself that this had happened once before.

Last year, he'd healed Rahne Sinclair. Her wolf powers retuned instantly, but she'd lost control and attacked him, unintentionally putting him into a coma. For a few hours it was touch and go. Comatose, he was unable to heal the massive trauma that his body had sustained. He was dying. It had been deduced that in order for his healing powers to work on himself and others, he needed to be conscious. It was only when Nori had used her electrical powers to wake him, that his body began to heal. Josh clenched his fists, right now he was conscious, so why wasn't he healing?

Josh moved slowly back to his bed, and sat on the edge of it. Not being able to heal, he suddenly felt extremely vulnerable. He wondered if he should tell someone. Mr Summers, Miss Frost? They'd want to know, he knew that. But something stopped him from wanting to tell them. Something stopped him wanting to tell anyone. The one person he knew he would have told in a heartbeat, was Laurie. His Laurie. But she was gone. She had been taken from him. So that wasn't an option.

Over the next seven days, Josh continued to keep his injuries and the loss of his healing powers to himself. Somehow, he'd been able to get out of Training sessions and anything that required him to do anything physical. How he managed it, he didn't really know. He'd swiped aspirin from the medical lab for the pain, and kept mostly to himself in his room. Fortunately, Dr McCoy had approached him regarding his wanting to further his knowledge of the human anatomy, physiology and biology. Something he had asked about a few weeks earlier, in order to develop his powers. That was unless now, but he'd gladly taken the ton of books his teacher had given him, and told his classmates that he was studying. And to his relief, nobody seemed ask any questions.

As the week dissolved into the next, Josh began to feel an improvement to his pain. His ribs were beginning to mend naturally. Which was good, as that morning, Emma had told him that she wanted to see him in the Danger Room tomorrow afternoon, no excuses. In that moment, Josh had considered telling the her about his powers. But again, something stopped him. Perhaps it was hope. Hope that he'd wake up the next morning, with his powers in tact. He wondered how she had not telepathically noticed that he was in pain. He'd hid it well, he thought. Either that, or for once, the good headmistress had not taken the time to study her student. He knew he would have to tell her and Scott soon, because there was no way he would be able to keep up the charade for much longer. As it turned out, he didn't have to. Fate would intervene in the worst of ways.

As Josh pulled on his shirt, dreading the coming afternoon session in the Danger Room, there was a loud desperate pounding on his door. He crossed the room and opened it. Victor stood on the other side, trying to catch his breath. The fourteen year old had just bolted cross campus, and up three flights of stairs to the dorms. "They need you in the Medical lab!" he told Josh, in a hurried tone. "What? Why?" asked Josh, suddenly a little worried. Had he been found out? Had Doctor McCoy sent for him, wanting to know what was up with his powers? "It's Sam and Hisako. They've been injured. They're Petty bad..." Victor told him. Josh froze. This was worse. Much worse. He knew why Victor had been sent for him. He was going to be asked to heal them. "Wh--How did they get hurt?" asked Josh, quietly. "I don't know. They were on a mission for Mr Summers, I think" replied Victor. "Come on, what are you waiting for?" he carried on. Josh didn't know what to do. There was no way he'd be able to help Sam and Hisako. He couldn't heal himself, let alone others.

Josh had no choice but to let Victor drag him down to the Medical lab. What he'd do or say when he arrived, he had no clue. Victor had just pulled him though the double doors when Dr Hank McCoy spotted them. "Ah. Mr Foley, excellent". Josh surveyed the scene before him. Sam and Hisako lay across the room, in hospital beds not far from each other. They were both unconscious. Scott was doing his best to bandage Sam, while Paige was trying to stop Hisako's bleeding. "Mr Foley, we need you over here" said Hank. Josh opened his mouth to protest, but no words seemed to come out, in the next moment, he found himself following his teacher over to Hisako's bed.

Hank glanced from Hisako to Josh, "If you please, Mr Foley". Josh knew what he was being asked to do. He looked down at Hisako. She was deathly pale, and bleeding heavily from her chest. He then looked over at Sam, he wasn't faring much better. "I... I can't" he choked out. Suddenly all eyes in the room were on him. "What do you mean you can't?" said a voice from behind him. Josh turned to see Emma hurriedly entering the lab. They locked eyes, "Well?" she asked, in a demanding tone.

Thirty minutes later, Josh was sitting alone in Scott's office. In the Medical lab he'd blurted out what had happened over the past week regarding his injuries and the loss of his powers. He didn't know if Scott, Emma and Hank had been more shocked or angry. Once it had been discovered that Josh was useless to them in helping Sam and Hisako, he'd been told to wait outside. A few moments later Emma had opened the labs double doors and told him to go and wait in Scott's office. Feeling extremely guilty and angry with himself, he'd not protested, he'd just done as he'd been told.

Images of Sam and Hisako flooded into his mind. Right now he would give anything to help them. If they died becausee he'd been foolish enough to keep secrets, he'd never forgive himself. He silently prayed that Dr McCoy would be able to help them the old fashioned way. He'd been sitting in the Office for almost an hour when Scott walked in, followed by Emma. Josh stood up, "How are they?" he asked. "Sit down, Mr Foley" said Emma, in a sharp, pissed off tone. Josh ignored her, he turned to Scott, "How are they?" he repeated, desperate to know. "Stable" Scott answered. "Fortunately, we were able to contact Warren, and he arrived quickly". Josh felt a little relieved upon hearing that news. Warren Worthington wasn't a healer like Josh himself, but his blood did have heeling-like powers. It was better than nothing. Scott moved around the room, and sat down at his desk. Emma came to stand next to him. "Sit down, please, Josh" he told the teen, "It seems, we need to talk".

Two Weeks Later:
Bolting up right, with a gasp, panic-stricken and breathing hard, Laura Kinney - also known as X-23, scanned her surroundings. She was relieved to find herself in her room in Logan's small apartment. Breathing normally again, Laura lifted her hands to her face, she tucked a few stray wisps of her black hair behind her ears and rubbed her eyes. It was at that moment she realised how moist her skin was. Wiping the sweat from her face, her mind travelled back to what had woken her. She was back at the Facility. His face came into her mind. How she hated him. After everything he’d done to her. Thirteen years of torture at his hand. The only comfort she found when thinking about her past, was that, he, Dr Zander Rice, Surgical Head of the Facility, was dead. She’d beaten him to a bloody pulp and left him to die on the night of her escape, four years ago. The Facility building had exploded, at her hand, as she walked out of its doors. No human could have survived that.

But it was in the moments that came after, that Rice had gotten his revenge. His final act of torture that would stay with her forever. He'd placed 'trigger scent' - a substance he'd designed to control her, upon the person who'd helped her escape, the person who was waiting to take her away from missions and murders, the person who was going to give her a new life, Genetics Head and her surrogate mother, Dr Sarah Kinney. Picking up the trigger’s scent, Laura had popped her clews, lunged for the unsuspecting Woman, and attacked. Then within seconds, was coved in her blood.

Laura shook her head, trying to shake the memory out of her mind, attempting once again to bury it deep, back into her sub-conscious. But she couldn’t discard the picture of the dying woman’s face, and her last words, “Your Name is Laura… Not X-23… My Laura. I love You…”. Swallowing hard, she turned to face the window. It was still dark outside. She glanced at her nightstand, the small black alarm clock that sat on it read: 1:37am. Laura knew she wouldn't be able to get back to sleep now, thoughts of her mother still played on her mind. She decided that she needed some air, so silently she got out of bed, threw on her pants, shoes and jacket and headed out of the room. As she closed her bedroom door, she caught the scent of fresh air. She turned to face the Living room's double glass doors, which lead out on to the apartment's small balcony. The left glass door was agar. Laura knew this meant Logan was awake too. Sniffing the air, sure enough, she caught the man's scent. With a slight smile, she headed across the living room, and towards the doors.

Where to? - Stories Index // Chapter Two: Answers We Seek