Author's Note: I'm back! Sorry it took so long but I can't seam to get the action scenes right. That's why this story was put on hold earlier. But I did that get through it and here's the result. Sorry if the action is not that great, but it's really not my specialty. The rest of the story will go easier.

LadyDeathStrike1: Rogue is… well you'll see in the next few chapters. Basically she sees X-23 as a rival in a sense. Problem is, Laurie doesn't pick up on that. She realizes Rogue doesn't like her, but doesn't understand why.

Spike's Girl Luna Ash: Good to see a new face. Yes I will finish this story. I have two more X-23 fics on board after this, but Concrete Angel comes first.

Laurie: Another new reviewer! Yay! I like your name giggle Actually you can thank the writers of the X-Men: The End comic for that. That was the first place where X-23 was called Laurie. So I can't take all the credit. Well any credit actually… I'm glad you liked my writing style, though. That's the biggest compliment of all.

slickboy444: Yep, here comes the new stuff. Thanks for sticking with me this far. It's always great to hear from you. My action scenes may fall short compared to the amazing stuff you wrote in Extermination, but it's really not my specialty. Sorry for that.

X00001: Thanks for the reviews. Yeah, Laurie will have a lot to deal with. She thought that she broke free of Hydra, but something like that doesn't just go away. Wolviesfan: You read Rogue's reaction right. Now Laurie got hurt because she wasn't watching her back like she was supposed to. Think that'll change anything? We'll see. And sorry for the typos I'll try to be better about them, but I have no spell checker on my compy at the moment, and English doesn't always come easily to me.

Jinxeh: Thanks for the review. Yeah Cyc's an easy target. I mean, I like him well enough but I have other favorites. I won't say more lest I get attacked by Scott fans. . As for Jamie... that's just to show that someone looks at her as another kid, not a weapon. That crush isn't going anywhere. I think Laurie has enough on her plate to worry about romance at the moment. Well that's all for now. Enjoy the new chapter.

Chapter 5

"What's goin' on?" Logan demanded from the observation room as lines of worry creased his brow. The display that was connected to the camera inside the box showed Laurie huddled in a corner as tears streamed down her face. She looked like she was muttering something under her breath but the audio receptors couldn't distinguish the words. She was clearly terrified.

"Charles, what is wrong with her?" Ororo asked also concerned.

"I can't be sure," the telepath admitted. "Her mind is very difficult to penetrate, like Logan's, but at the moment I'm sensing high levels of stress and fear." He turned to the Canadian, "Is she claustrophobic?"

"I don't know! Is she?" with a mixture of panic and confusion, Logan realized just how little he really knew about his daughter.

Ororo watched the scene unfolded with a great deal of worry. She herself was severally claustrophobic, and weather she knew it or not, Laurie was exhibiting similar symptoms of the phobia. If they didn't get her out of there soon, her mind would overload.

"Discus her condition later," she demanded, already on her way out of the observation room. "We must help her out of that cage."

The voices were starting to crowd her. She could sense them around the white box room. Were they inside already? Would they hurt her like before? There was pain in her arm, but from what? Why wasn't anyone coming to help her? Someone should have helped her by now, but who? Who did she count on?

A terrible realization dawned on the girl: her memories were fading. Squeezing her eyes shut, she curled up into a ball on the floor muttering to herself. "I am Laurie Logan. My father is Logan. I'm with the X-men. I am Laurie Logan…" She repeated this over and over, but each time the words and names healed less and less meaning. There was something within her fighting to get loose. An animal that would avoid capture at all costs. Even if she was already in a cage, she wouldn't let them take her again. X-23 would go down fighting.

Charles had called an emergency and shut down all the practice Sentinel robots by remote control from the observation room while Logan and Ororo rushed down to the Danger Room. Down there the students had already sensed that the training secion was called off for some reason and they stood down, relaxed but worried about the reason for stopping. Everyone turned away from the inactive robots in time to see Storm and a very angry-looking Wolverine come inside. Logan stalked over to the metal cube, claws unsheathed and with a growl, struck at the side of the box. He pulled back and everyone saw the three slash marks that went clear through the steel plate.
As the walls of her cage were rocked with a powerful tremor, X-23 looked up from her corner. The wall in front of her was no longer smooth. Instead it contained three parallel cracks which emitted a small amount of light. Her mind didn't even grasp the thought that the extra light shattered the illusion of the white room. Instead, she came to a different, more frightening conclusion.

The scientists had no more use for her, so she would be disposed of. They would bury her alive within this cold prison and her last thoughts before death would be that this was all an illusion. There was no such team called the X-Men, no teachers, no friends, and no father.

With a desperate cry, two adamantium claws from her right hand slid out. She tried to extend the left pair but blinding pain shot though her left arm. She would have to rely on one set of claws. She would kill them all for destroying her illusive happiness. She had been happy.

Back in the Danger Room, the X-Men watched wide-eyed as two slashes appeared perpendicular to Logan's three. More and more followed as well as the screams of a tortured child. Laurie cried and her voice bounced off the walls as if thousands of other souls screamed their pain with her. The torn wall of the box fell to the floor with a loud thud reviling not the girl Laurie Logan, but rather her predecessor Weapon X-23.

The girl's long chestnut locks were disheveled, her breathing heavy. Both hands were clenched in tight fists, right set of claws extended. She looked feral, down right animalistic, hunched over and breathing heavily. Her emerald gaze scanned her surroundings and she emitted a wolf-like growl. In her mind she didn't see her teammates. All she saw were the scientist or nothing at all, and the scientists were about to pay.

From his place in the observation deck, Xavier reached out with his mind to gently touch Laurie's thoughts. He barely recognized the child. Though he couldn't penetrate her mind as well as others, the professor could pick up surface images. Ghastly scenes of torturous training, cold, metallic probes, beatings, and every other brutal method imaginable bombarded his mind, until Xavier could no longer keep a mental connection.

Everyone, stay alert, he projected his telepathic thoughts to his students and Ororo and Logan. I don't believe she understands where she is and even perhaps who she is. You cannot harm her, but I'm afraid she's more than capable of harming you.

"Thanks, Chuck. We kinda figured that part out all by ourselves," Logan snapped back, then turned his full attention on the feral child in front of him. He'd never seen her like that. Even at her worst, when she'd broken into the mansion to seek him out the first time, X-23 was precise and calculating. Now she was totally animalistic. Logan held up his hands in a calming, noneaggressiveness gesture. "Lor, come on, focus for a second here. It's me. Your old man, remember?"

X-23 merely snarled at this. Her eyes flashed to a frightening shade of red for a split second, as she growled and glanced over the alert team of assembled X-Men. In her mind, all she saw were Hydra's soldiers sent to put her through another torturous training. They were messing with her mind, making her believe that the things she'd so desperately wanted were real. X-23 would make sure she never fell for that again. With another snarl, she advanced at Logan, but in the corner of her mind, X-23 heard one of the others speak to her.

"Laurie, it's okay," the Jean tentatively approached her. "You're with us, the X-Men."

It didn't seem to register with her at all, only causing the girl to take her attention off Logan and focus her fury on the red head. Jean reeled back, and would have ended up on the wrong end of X-23's outburst, if Logan hadn't caught the girl's claws in between his own just a few inches from Jean's face. With little effort, he restrained both of her arms and held her small frame tightly to his own.

"Hey, what have I told you about playin' nicely with other kids, huh?" he barked at her in a rough tone, but with a measure of parental scolding. Laurie struggled for another moment, but Logan held her tightly, with a security that only a parent could offer a child. Finally she stopped protesting and limply sagged in his arms. The students all watched with worry on their faces, all except for Rogue who turned her back to the scene and walked out of the Danger Room passing Xavier. The professor rolled his wheel chair over to where Logan crouched of the floor still holding his daughter.

"We should get her to the medical lab and let Hank make sure she's okay," the man suggested.

"Charles, I don't think that is a very good idea," Ororo intersected. "If she awakens in the lab, her mind may think that she is back within Hydra, and that could be disastrous. Her body doesn't need medical attention, even the arm is already mended. The only thing that needs healing is her mind."

Logan growled at both of them. Who were they to know what was best for his daughter? They didn't know what she went through. Hell, he didn't even know the details but based on his own experience he could imagine, though usually preferred not to. What parent would want to learn how his child was tortured? Despite what he would have her believe, there was a drastic difference between them. Logan had been put through the Weapon X process as an adult, when his mind had already had the chance to fully develop. Laurie was born into that hell. Hank and Charles still thought it was a miracle that she acted at all normal. Logan stood up, cradling the girl against his chest and left the Danger Room.

Nearly a half hour later, Logan tore his eyes away from the sleeping Laurie when the bedroom door creaked open and Ororo entered the room. The weather goddess gave him a sad smile and crossed over to the other side of the bed to look in on the girl. Laurie continued to sleep, surprisingly peacefully considering everything that's happened. Ororo smiled again and stroked the girl's soft cheek with the back of her hand.

"I suppose it is true what they say about children," she spoke to Logan without turning to him. "They are only at peace when they are asleep," she paused, glancing at Laurie again. "She seems so small, so fragile. It's hard to believe she's fourteen."

Storm didn't need to mention anything about Hyrda or her previous life, but her statement was true nonetheless, and Logan had noticed it as well. Though technically Laurie was fourteen years of age from the time she was taken out of the incubation tank as an infant, she resembled a twelve-year-old more than anything else. He was no scientist, but Logan was pretty sure that her healing factor was responsible for this, slowing her aging process significantly since the time she hit puberty and consequently her mutant abilities surfaced. After all, hadn't he watched Storm age from her late teens into a beautiful woman all the while remaining physically the same age himself?

Ororo finally stood up and faced him. "Why don't you go and get some rest as well, Logan? You look exhausted."

Wolverine shook his head vigorously at this. "I can't. I need to stay, 'Ro," his voice was quiet. "She needs to see me when she wakes up, needs to know I'm there for her."

Ororo gave him a look of pity. "She already knows, Logan," the former goddess assured him, but he didn't seem convinced. Ororo sighed and came closer to wrap an arm around his shoulders. She could feel the pain and anguish rolling off him in waves. So much tragedy marked their lives, that Ororo often wondered if either father or daughter would ever be able to heal the internal scars, the ones their mutant power could not help them with. If she could, she would take on some of their pain, anything to help them ease the burden.

"I can make a deal with you," she smiled at her friend. "Stay here until she wakes up, talk to her, but then go back to your own bed and take some rest. You look fit to drop," The Canadian opened his mouth to protest, but Ororo cut him off. "I mean it, Logan. You can't help if you yourself can not function."

Her words made sense, and he reluctantly agreed. Satisfied Ororo turned on her heel to walk out. "I'll bring you something to eat."

"You don't have to, 'Ro."

She paused in the doorway without facing him. "Yes I do," her voice came in a whisper before she departed, carefully closing the door behind her.

Logan released a deep sigh and leaned back in the chair.