Laura Kinney

I have been trapped here too long, in this prison. I have grown used to my dulled senses, my bones that do not heal as they did before, the pills that Wolverine insisted I take before he disappeared. The cage that should not be normal has become so, and I wonder if it has finally contained me, though I can still feel the walls that are not there.

I have been trapped here so long that I do not know how long Gambit has also been here.

I see a familiar shape on the beach, but I do not believe it to be him at first. This place seldom traps people I am familiar with, familiar faces from home. There was a time when I wondered how he had escaped this place, whether or not Daken would ever show up from Madripoor, and I expected that he might arrive here, but that was years ago now.

It is not until I have been watching him for several days that I am certain it is him. I do not know how long he has been here. Does he know I am here? I can not think of anyone who would have told him.

I wait for him outside of his hut at Green Arrow Estates, my view of his front door unobstructed from the lower branch of a nearby tree. This time, I think I will do more than just watch when he arrives.

Many notice it immediately, that we are similar. They say we have the same eyes, that we move the same way. It is not surprising, nor should it be. I am his clone. We are blood. I was made to be a copy of him, down to every detail but one.

Daken looks into my eyes, and I am sure he sees what everyone else does, but he does not believe me.

I did not want to believe it at first either.

We have crashed through a window; I can smell the blood he has spilled. I can smell the machinery he has used to enhance himself. But I can not smell fear. That is another thing that we have in common, at least today.

"Get off me, you test tube freak!"

He throws me into a wall and my ribs break. Healed in seconds. I can taste blood in the back of my mouth, but it is from wounds that no longer exist.

"You think you can come here with his blood in your veins--"

"--your blood too," I say as I stand, and I am sure I have made him angry. Some would say that our blood makes us family, that it has bounded the three of us together. But I do not know what family means. I do not understand.

"Don’t say that. We are nothing alike!"

His claws are out in an instant and I do not react fast enough to dodge the swipe to my face. But I am able to return the blow. We match now. Blood for blood.

There is a flush of humid air as we move outside, and the wind is knocked out of my lungs as he impacts with me again. I could anticipate Wolverine’s responses, the first time, but this is different. It is different and similar, all at once.

But Daken moves like him. Even if I did not know he is Wolverine’s son, I would know.

"Are you ready to give up?" he asks.

I am not tired or in pain. I have healed from his last hit and if does not want to believe me, I will make him believe me. I will show him that I am not lying. And then I will be sure that no one can ever make another like me. No one else will be used the way that I was, and there will not be another Facility.

"Never."

My foot slips on the stone of the building as we fight, and his leg is tangled with mine.

We fall.

I only lose sight of him for a second, for less than a second. But when I turn, he is not there anymore. When I land, it is not where I expect to land. The air is cold and the smell of smoke and people is gone. There is only blood, on my face, on my clothes, and it is almost overpowering. I can not smell Daken anymore.

And this is not Madripoor.