Subject Alpha

Disclaimer: I don't own Marvel or Naruto. Nor do I own Thor, wherein I've paraphrased the awesome intro. Them's the breaks.

Speech

Thought or Void Speech

Demonic Speech

Demonic Thought or Void Speech

AN/ Just the beginnings, so let it develop before judging.

Chapter 1: Back In The World Again

I have dreamed such dreams. Rolling hills, flat lands. Marshes as far as the eye could see. Deserts for days and days. Visions of extraordinary places, and people, unknown but remembered.

I was a man dreaming I was a demon. Covered in flames that didn't burn, battling against death.

I was a demon dreaming I was a man. To be separate from all others. To look the same but know how great the divide was between.

I have known passion. A stolen kiss, and those soft eyes.

I have known loss. Before him, a stone carved with names, and for each name a face. A surface that would not have space enough for all that would be etched upon it.

I have known the stars. So many wonders he had seen, for all the trials.

I have known failure. That feeling of worthlessness, at a broken vow, and all the lives he had been unable to save.

I have known pain. Screaming pain, the very life flayed from flesh.

I have known war. And the end of all things. A still battlefield, only two remaining who drew breath. One on either side, each with ideals that doomed the other. His opponent, someone who filled him with such fear…and rage. Fear for what he could still do, and rage for all he had already done. Until finally…victory. But no victory anyone would ever feel pride over.

And then I…

And then I…

And then we…went to sleep.

And went away.

And were no more.

But there was no peace, even in sleep.

And then…

All is connected. Vibrations of what was to come could be felt even in the past. The ripples travel both ways. And always in the space that exists outside of time itself, yet within all time.

…and then…

Did someone just call his name?

…and…

Who was…

…then…

"Who are you?" the weary voice echoed through the vast vacuum. "I'm trying to sleep."

"Can it be so long that you've forgotten me? Forgotten my voice?"

"…Not likely. Though it does surprise me that you'd still be with me…here."

Laughter. "Yes. Amusing, indeed." A moment's silence and the voice continued, its origin bouncing around. "The seal tied us in life. But what tie is there when that seal is gone?"

Now it was that he was aware of himself. His body. Had he always had form? There was just so little to understand of this place.

"I have known this darkness before. This nonexistence. This…void." Bright light to the left blinded his periphery. And at first that was all he saw, but once his vision adjusted, he could make out a silhouette contrasting against the light, moving. And, he could hear it now. Not just sound in itself, but the padding of furred, clawed feet. "Before I was born, this was where I came from. Where we all came from."

And the light was eclipsed. He'd long known what he was looking at, even if he couldn't see for the light, but now here they stood across from one another.

Blinking, his head cocked to the side bemusedly. "Weren't you bigger?"

"THWK!"

Crouching, he clutched at the goose-egg forming on his metaphysical skull. "Ow, ow, owww!" he hissed through tears at the pain.

The horse-sized, lupine creature sneered in satisfaction at the hit, its tails swaying contently. "Once, we could not have been more different, you and I. But we now have this in common. We have lived, and we have fought…and we know what it is to no longer exist. To know only the void. But there is a difference." The multitude of tails slowed their waving movements, halting altogether, and the cocky smirk left its canine features. "There is a profound truth to this. The reason you are here. The reason I am here." Feral eyes locked with stormy blue ones reflecting utmost seriousness in their depths. "It was not by death that we came to this place, nor by the hand of a power that be. It was never for them to decide if we exist. That…is our choice."

In a surprising turn, it was the blonde who broke eye contact at that time. Listening, but mind drifting.

"And because you are important…because you are needed…your time is not yet done."

"And if I don't want to return?" Something few that knew him would've ever expected from him. And yet the kitsune didn't seem at all disturbed by the answer. In fact, regarding him silently, it understood his reticence well enough. For some, the void was a welcome place where a weary soul might simply…disappear, fade away. It was no different than falling asleep, and letting the world pass you by.

That was how they'd gotten here in the first place.

The fox understood him as few others could.

"Then stay in the void…and make your life, and the legacy of your spirit, a lie." A bit of a sore spot, but it had the desired effect: drawing out his selfless compassion for others.

"And my presence?" he asked lowly. "I can't know for certain, but surely the world has been better off without me. What more troubles would I be bringing it by returning?" In a way, he had brought peace to the world. He'd ended the war, and taken the biju out of it in his leaving. No longer would they be used as weapons, and he, the greatest surviving weapon, left so as to not disturb the balance. A necessary sacrifice that he'd made of himself willingly. "All my lingering existence did was endanger…everyone."

"You have been absent from the world…for a very long time," the fox countered. "Much has changed. With or without you, great conflict exists and will only worsen in days to come." Kyubi sat back on its haunches and surveyed the void alongside the blonde. "You will soon be needed in the coming storms. As I said: because you are important…because you are needed…your time is not yet done."

Tired eyes, now sober, narrowed, piercing into the smoky darkness. "I hear whispers. Voices in the shadows."

Limber neck craning to the side, Kyubi cocked a brow at him. "There are forces that do not want you to return, that prefer you to sleep."

He frowned, piecing together more from his surroundings. "They've heard us."

"Yes." Rocking forward, back onto its paws, the furred creature circled around until it was eye to eye, and almost nose to nose, with him. "If it matters enough to you, to serve humanity, to breathe the air, to live again… If you are, at long last, tired of the sleeping death…" Eyes blinked into existence in the shadows, their numbers increasing dramatically with every passing second. "….And willing to fight your way back to life…to find that which gave your life meaning…then you will succeed."

Focus never leaving the encroaching mob surrounding them, he looked to his one-time partner and comrade. "I know this may sound stupid, but how do you know all this?"

"Because while you may be new here, I have walked in the void of nonexistence for a long time, and I have seen far more than I can ever tell you. Because I know your heart…and because, you see, in this place, in this time, in this moment…" The fox's form, shimmering at first, finally collapsed in on itself and faded into the nothing that was the void. "…We are both children of the sage."

Monsters, grotesquely indescribable, surrounded him on all sides, each one uglier than the last. Despite the non-physical nature of the realm, muscles tensed and his heart went strangely calm at the prospect of the coming battle.

But Kyubi was not finished, its voice echoing through the nothingness. "And birth, like death, comes only through great pain."

As if a starting gun, the plethora of monsters dove at him, claws, fangs, tentacles, and other unnamable limbs tore into him, ripping into his flesh.

"Does it matter enough to you-"

He was unarmed, but not without weapons. His fists. His feet. Knees and elbows. His teeth. He hit and kicked, clawed and bit, unwilling to fall to these creatures.

"-to serve humanity?" He roared in pain as one of the smaller creatures took a solid bite out of his shoulder. This pain taking precedence over the rest, his right fist came across and slammed into its face, jarring it loose and off. But the swells were never ending.

"To breathe the air? To live again?"

Something was beginning to stir at last. Deep within. And with every punch and pain-filled cry, it grew stronger.

"Are you at last tired of death?" The numbers swarmed over him now, clambering over him until he was crushed to the ground under their clawing, squirming mass. "And willing to find-"

Shaking. It was like a great pressure was bearing down on him, in no way related to that of the monsters pinning him. A weight that not only bore down, but built within him.

"…My name…"

"-that which gave your life meaning?"

And when that fire burst to life within his soul, when he could hold it in no longer, the dam broke, and he let it out.

"FWMP!" Reality itself, such as it was, shook under the concussive wave as it rippled out from its epicenter. Monsters didn't just go flying, their bodies were actually pulverized under the force of the raw power. "Rrrrrrrrraaaaahhh!" That great and terrible roar the signal to its source. "My name…is NARUTO!" he bellowed into the void. The remaining monsters, those still able to move, shrank away from the oppressive energy flowing off of him. "I AM NARUTO UZUMAKI! SON OF MINATO NAMIKAZE AND KUSHINA UZUMAKI, TWO OF THE AWESOMEST SHINOBI…EVER! LAST OF THE JINCHURIKI! LAST OF THE SAGES! SO I SAY 'FUCK YOU' DARKNESS. AND I…wish-" his enraged eyes calmed, looking upward to an absent sky. "-to live."

To live…and breathe…and fight…again.

(Roughly 5 years later. Four and a half years since the birth of X23.)

Peering in through the one-sided glass, Zander's gaze bore into the disturbingly quiet child within the chamber. It wasn't a room, but a cell. Walls reinforced, soundproofed, designed for containment and observation with as little stimulus available as possible. Nothing to act as a potential detritus for his plans.

He had hated Kinney for her deviation from the start, and that hadn't relented over time. He could see the merit in completing the objective, even if bending the rules in the process, but that wasn't the point. He hadn't wanted a facsimile, but a replica. Not that it'd stopped his disgust for the original Weapon X from transferring to its…semi-copy.

Not that he was being petulant about it.

But this… He saw something in this find. Potential.

It'd been through a routine scanning. The Facility did…passes through orphanages, discreetly testing children for any desirable traits, either for future training or for experimentation. Why let fruit rot before it even ripens, that was how he likened it. And there it was that he'd discovered this…astounding creature.

No x-gene…

And yet it seemed to possess superhuman traits.

Perception, agility, reflexes…and it was still just a child.

It had been surprisingly easy. It always was. To their benefit, the boy's memory, even for that age, was a shamble. Apparently, he was the sole survivor of a bus crash years before, found as a baby and trickling through the system until he made it to that particular orphanage. But that all just made the memory wipe all the easier.

When the time came, he would take distinct gratification in rubbing its success, his success, in Kinney's insolent face, and Kinney's "pet" would pale in comparison to his achievement. Then he would see those abominations, the clone and the original, destroyed. And just to make victory all the sweeter, he'd undersold it. Told Martin just enough to let him have this side-project while keeping enough close to vest to make his victory ever more extravagant.

Eyes stared, unblinking. Watching…themselves. Eerily blue, somehow he knew that was the case, met him in the reflective glass. A face that felt so right, yet could be no stranger to him than it was right now.

He didn't know where he was.

He didn't know who he was.

Unfamiliarity faced him dead on no matter where he looked, even in a reflection.

(Age 10)

Picking the file up off his desk, Zander scanned the file of his favored weapon.

Time had revealed many things about the casting weapon.

Many things.

His body was superb, from the microscopic to the macroscopic. Everything about it seemed…enhanced. His healing was even on par with reports of Weapon X, and all without an X-gene. It was almost like looking at a child version of the perfect super soldier.

One key feature though…his dna. It was highly…adaptable. Many, and there truly were many, tests and he had deduced the shocking and highly amusing fact that he could graft traits from others onto his. He'd taken a dark thrill from presenting his findings to Martin and Kinney. And then again when Kinney, doubting his research, ran through the testing battery herself only to come up with the same as he.

So it was that, one year after the successful activation of X23's X-gene that he took some of the remaining material from the Weapon X samples and, stripping off all but the gene for mutation, implanted it into the subject.

At first, it looked like its body was rejecting the gene therapy. Violently in fact. The subject had had to be strapped down to a table to stop its thrashing about. But, after the first twelve hours, the symptoms abated.

Further testing immediately show full incorporation of the implanted mutant gene…but the results were not as expected. There were no overt signs of its being activated, nothing.

In a last ditch effort to see if it was still latent, he ran the subject through the same process X23 had experienced. Radiation poisoning. A massive dose just to counteract its already active healing ability.

To no avail.

A loss that stung, but didn't deter him.

But he hadn't given up on it.

Since then, he had forced Subject Alpha through a grueling regimen of training. Even without some freakish mutant ability, Subject Alpha would become his ace-in-the-hole. And time had done wonders, with some concessions.

Despite all its prowess, all its potential, Subject Alpha had one glaring flaw. It liked to question. Given an order, the weapon would query as to the reason, often questioning the answer as well until the response was adequate enough to convince him…it. Beyond that, if it was put in a position where its life was in immediate jeopardy, then it would strike without qualm.

While imprinting the Trigger Scent in X23 had worked like a charm, the same couldn't be said for Subject Alpha. Not that it seemed to openly resist the process or its effects, just that it didn't seem to have an influence on a high enough level.

The result was that for many missions, more direct methods of drawing it into fights were necessary.

Mission B083, for instance. In order to fully test the subject's seemingly boundless endurance, it was assigned as backup to a Hydra weapon's deal. A trap. A test. An exhibition. The deal had been a decoy to bring out enough prey. The handlers were killed, but, then, they were expendable. Thus, Subject Alpha was left amidst well-armed enemies fully prepared to end his life.

The Facility had recorded every millisecond of the slaughter. At first for prestige and study. Later, for product advertising. Hydra had raised a fit at being used in such a way, but even they saw the potential of the weapon.

Using only his fists, his speed, and his agility, Subject Alpha had subdued the Hydra team in under four minutes, all twenty-three of them, all the while avoiding most attempts to bring him down, and not even slowing from the occasional wounding. And from there, they'd made even more impressive shows with increased numbers and danger to the subject, every time Alpha emerging victorious, and so very lethal.

Smirking proudly, he looked over the list of buyers who wanted to "rent" Subject Alpha.

Flashback

(Age 8)

According to the woman doctor, Kinney, he was making an incredible recovery. His body still ached though. Doubtless from the radiation.

As a silent observation, it interested him how different her eyes were from nearly every other member of the staff in the Facility.

Not that her account had stopped his punishment. He had survived, but he knew he had failed, somehow. Kimura's presence had been ample proof in that regard.

He remembered afterward, some days later.

His eyes had itched, felt warm.

Pushing off from the wall, he moved to the nearest of the reflective glass panes covering the walls of his cell. Bare feet padded on the hard padding of the floor. The closer he got though, he noticed more and more something off. He had spent lengthy enough times staring at himself in the mirror, attempts to recover something, anything, from his nonexistent memories. So he found the difference immediately. It was almost imperceptible unless you knew what you were looking at, but around the iris of either eye were sets of concentric rings expanding outward on the sclera, fading in strength with every repetition.

What were…

"…Hide them…" The reflection of the new eyes blinked. Scanning the room, he was certain no one else was there. Peering once more into the reflection though, he couldn't help but feel an agreeing desire to keep the change to his ocular organs secret. Perhaps it was dome form of mental fatigue. That could explain a moment's unexpected mental aberration.

Flashback End

It had been something of a curiosity, but one he kept to himself. His only secret in this place.

(Age 13)

The floor was cold, he knew that. He'd always known that. But he'd simply grown accustomed to it. Back to the wall, the most defensible position he had in the under-furnished cell, this being a moment of quiet inactivity, he did what he always did: stared at the dulled expression of the face reflected back at him in the mirrored windows that lined one of the walls.

It had been several weeks since he had last had any contact with X23, not that it mattered. Contact or lack thereof was of little importance to either of them. Survival, completing the mission, those were their ingrained goals. If he saw her, it simply meant that she had survived up to now, just as he knew to expect the same understanding from her.

(With Sarah Kinney)

If ever she had doubted the monster that Zander was, not likely, all it had taken was five minutes to see the toxic fruits he was producing.

She could've vomited at the hypocrisy of it all. This was all a result of her work, her efforts, and her apathy, yet now she had the morals to be repulsed.

"You didn't really think we'd stop at one, did you?" he egged, taking a low key glee in her surprise. He had known this would disturb her, and had shown it to her anyway just so he could see the realization come to her. And revel in that shock.

Rooms with walls covered in embryo tanks, each already with a growing life.

"It's a shame about Subject Alpha though," he sighed dramatically. "All that potential, and so resistant to using it." Sarah's eyes narrowed subtly. She was repulsed by him on a normal day. And horror struck by him moments prior. Now, at this moment, his tone sent new chills of revulsion through her. "Perhaps I'll find more cooperation in the next series." The metal shield on the wall rose up into the ceiling to reveal an adjacent lab, one not too dissimilar from the one they were standing in. But, given what he was saying , she knew what those chambers held as well.

One for X23, and one for Subject Alpha. Each with seeds that would grow into a new generation...of killers.

"You can't do this!" she gasped, sickened by this perversion.

Actually taking a moment to send her a chiding glare, like an adult to a child, "This is business, Sarah, not science. But you never understood that." He knew from the start that she didn't have the stomach for it. She just didn't have the drive, the vision. Not like him.

Stepping closer to her, he leaned close into her personal space. "You know, Sarah, there were times when I thought I could just kill you…" Hand coming up, he stroked her cheek affectionately, knowing full well the effect. "But contrary to what you might think…" He traced his fingers from her cheek to her hair, playing it through his fingers. "I'm not a bad guy. In fact I think we're a lot alike."

The one thing he didn't know being what she knew about Martin and Rachel, but the roiling mass in her gut told her exactly what she needed to say to him. "Screw you," she snapped, slapping his hand away, before stalking away.

Zander laughed. "Now you see what I'm getting at. But I'm afraid it's too late for that." She paused. Wondering how to take that from him. "Pack your bags, Kinney." Head turning enough so she could glare confusedly back at him, she met his smug sneer. "You're out. Tonight. Go see your pet one last time… X24 through 50 won't need you." Biting her tongue, she spun on her heel and left with as much speed as she could muster without running. "Oh, and if you're not gone by morning," he called after her. "I'll have you shot."

What he didn't see, nor could his arrogance have let him comprehend, was the stern way her face set.

There was no more time for hesitation.

She'd be lying to herself if she said that the guilt had never been there. It had been from the start, she'd just been able to repress it. But now, being forced to realize the effects of her toiling… There was no forgiveness for her. Nor for any of them.

And yet…a surprise.

Martin and Rachel both…but Henry…

She'd left him alive.

Trained to kill almost from birth. Beaten and punished for even the smallest failure. Sarah didn't know the specifics of the order that her gut screamed at her Zander gave, but she knew he didn't care in the slightest for human life, not even for children. Yet, she had spared him. Knowing full well what that act could mean for her.

That small piece of news had washed over her like a bucket of ice water, bringing epiphany upon her. She had chosen to spare him. In this base, there were two innocents among them all. Ironically, it was the pair of trained killers, while it was their creators that were the monsters.

A label she knew fit herself well.

But a monster who had realized her crimes and wanted to make amends as best she could.

She had always known Alpha was different. The programming had never quite took, or maybe he was just naturally difficult. Regardless, there were two children that she had a part in wronging.

She was a scientist, but…it was time to make peace with god.

As you know by now, the Facility Director Martin Sutter and his wife have been killed in a fire…

Papers were piled together in a flurry.

It was Martin's last wish that I should take over the program…

Zander was no doubt loving this moment, but she had more immediate concerns than his speech. Adding a set of blueprints to the cache of papers, she sat down for a moment and stared at the legal paper, trying for the life of her to find the words. But there was only one thing to say: the truth.

"SLF"

Blue eyes drifted to the door, already having recognized that sound. The sound of a mission. The sound of death. What he would soon find to be the sound…of freedom.

Picking up the weighty envelope, she peeled back the lip and pulled out the contents. What lay within came as both a surprise and not so.

She noticed the timer first. Trained to first know how much time one had before assessing the mission and then how much time was available, and how much was needed.

(00:21:52)

Just over twenty minutes.

She knew what the envelope meant, but found herself unable to fathom a voice to the…oddity of its targets. But she was trained to never question her orders when it came to the envelope.

One in particular though.

Despite her reserved nature, her green eyes openly widened, possibly even gleaming.

(00:18:03)

Retracting her claws, each having been buried to the knuckle through either cerebral hemisphere, the man slid to the ground. Briefly, she looked on in wonder at the small developing embryos. These…were her. And those…were Alpha.

They would be made to become like them.

Kneeling, she unzipped the canvas bag at her hip. Reaching in, she retrieved a block of explosive, one of many, and went swiftly to work. There would be no others. No more weapons.

(00:17:24)

Whether or not she'd heard them or smelled them first was irrelevant. She'd ignored their convergence on her position in favor of completing the stage of her mission. If not an end, it would also serve as an escape. After all, she was not as…fragile as they were.

"DON'T MOVE, X23!" the de facto head guard barked, standing with so many other innocuous gun-wielding soldiers. Barriers to completing her mission. "Don't even breathe, or I swear to God, I'll-Hrk!"

But they weren't the only ones she'd smelled.

"Klck!" The sudden jarring sound of a bone breaking.

"Aaaahh!"

And then it all went to Hell…for the guards.

(00:12:25)

Staccatos of gunfire echoed loudly in from the hall outside the lab before for several minutes before silence was restored. Craning her neck around, she matched unspeaking gazes with Subject Alpha, each sharing an imperceptible nod.

Unfortunately, one poor soul decided to stick his ass out in the wind, running around the corner.

Staring apathetic death back at him, Alpha shared a look with X23 before stalking down the hall at this newest target as she continued with her work.

Unfortunate indeed. For him that is.

Stopping at a juncture, Alpha paused, sniffing the air. Of the two, it'd been proven that his senses were a degree more sensitive than hers. Taking in his reaction, X23 did the same…and went rigid.

Blue met green. Holding up his watch, he reminded them both of the time.

(00:11:57)

Looking nervous, for her, she glanced down a hall before looking back.

He understood. Zander Rice was still alive. He could smell him. But, more importantly, Kimura was here.

It was only a brief interlude. Raising his arm, he pointed to the staff living quarters. They shared a moment of silent communication before separating.

She would eliminate Zander.

He would deal with Kimura.

In so far as he was able.

(00:11:51)

(00:11:36)

Anger.

He'd always felt such anger against the woman, but had never had the opportunity to act on it. Not successfully anyway. Many times he had fought back, and he knew Laura did too, having witnessed her punishment once. She had always had the power, and he, Laura too, had simply had to accept their lot. Like Zander Rice, there wasn't a one of them who felt she didn't deserve to die. For all she'd done.

She took such joy in their punishment sessions.

Rounding a corner, he all but stumbled right into her, flanked by half a dozen men.

"Hey, Alpha," she cooed gleefully, caressing a compact automatic rifle in her arms. "I hear you've been a bad boy. You know what that means, right? I get to play," licking her lips to that effect.

He didn't know if he could beat her. That wasn't the mission. Officially, the mission was to delay her long enough for X23 to complete her own task.

But he would certainly try his level best for the former outcome.

Now though, there was no sensation of helplessness. It was inexplicable, but he felt a drive unlike any other. A hunger. A thirst to see her bleed. He knew it readily enough as anger, but he knew something else. The status quo had changed.

No matter how often they lost, that never stopped them from fighting back against Kimura.

They knew that victory came from being ready…but also from the briefest glimmer of opportunity. And right now, not only did he see that glimmer, he felt the drive to see it through.

(00:11:46)

It was easy enough to find Rice's room, even if she hadn't already committed the base's schematics to memory, she knew that stink almost as well as the Trigger. From the door it only took a moment longer to finagle the electronic key lock with an adamantium laced claw.

(00:11:28)

He thought to catch her off guard.

A quartet of bullets bit into her torso, the close range and high caliber knocking the slight girl off her feet. Crashing against the wall, she fell to the floor, fire burning in her eyes.

"Stupid beast," he jeered superiorly, gun leveled at her head. "Didn't we teach you better than that?"

"Yes." Never in her relatively short life had she spoken out to him, against him.

"SNIK!" A blade sprouted from her left foot. The gun was a potential threat. She relieved him of it. Along with a finger.

And their roles were reversed. Him on the floor, her standing over him.

"Rrrrr!" he groaned, clutching at his now minus-one-digit hand. She could handle the pain, he could not. "I'll kill…" but his words faded in and out amidst the pain. Instinctively, she brought out the claw on either hand, but brought them back in barely a second later.

"I'll kill-UK!"

"CRKT!" Small though she may be, she laid into him with a fury she'd held in check her entire life.

(00:07:12)

Kimura's support was dead, but that was no mean feat.

She was only slightly mussed. He had taken many hits but had healed quickly enough.

One thing he knew about himself. Something everyone knew. Yet no one seemed to see the danger in, an advantage maybe, but never as dangerous… His stamina, his endurance. Given enough time, he was certain he could wait her out. She had indestructible skin, but that was it. That was all she had over any of them. They had training equal if not superior to her own. It came down to pushing the advantage.

But time was something he had very little of.

And he had been having the worst headache…

"What's the matter, freak? Need a breather?" she ragged. Though she was openly breathing a little harder herself.

Vision blurring suddenly, he staggered into the wall.

"Gonna fall down? Need a nap?"

Why wouldn't she shut up?

She seemed to take his abrupt dizzy spell as a source of encouragement though. She just kept talking. "Talk about a disappointment."

Adrenaline spiked, and he could feel as well as hear his heart hammering inside him.

Why wouldn't she just… "Shut UP!" Pain lanced through his skull, like a pair of metal prongs trying to wrench it open. He clutched at the burning mass, the white hot pain, and then…

"AWAKEN!" He tottered and fell against the wall.

"Oh, got a booboo on the brain?" Concluding that he was now incapacitated enough, she crept forward, bringing out a pair of adamantium manacles from her belt. "How 'bout I kick it and make it all better?" she giggled, leaning over his convulsing form. "How 'bout it, Al-GRK!" Her eyes went impossibly wide at the sudden, unexpected hand lifting her off the floor by her throat.

It was shock that silenced her.

Not that looking down at its owner was any less surprising. One hand still clutched at the air around his face, but Alpha had become immediately still. The hand came down slowly, but when it did…

His eyes…

They were glowing…visibly glowing in the shadows of the emergency lit hallways.

"How…'bout not!" he growled imperiously. Crap, but his head was killing him. Conversely… Interesting, he felt like he'd just left the void, but he remembered everything of the last thirteen years. Everything. Especially his time here.

Having enough, Kimura whipped out with a knife, digging the blade into his arm just before her neck. But he didn't drop her. He didn't even flinch.

He smiled. "Kimura. Good morning."

(00:06:19)

Sarah's fear mounted for the two inside. She knew they would succeed, but feared for them nonetheless. She hated that she was using them for this. Even in freeing them, she was using them to shed blood. At the same time though, this was their fight for freedom.

(00:02:51:00)

In all her time at the Facility, especially after receiving her modification, she had never felt so shaken as when she met that gaze, and listened to that voice that seemed so alien to the teen that she'd so often beaten into submission. What really scared her though…was the dark smirk on his features.

She'd never seen Subject Alpha so much as smile, let alone smirk.

And his hold, she couldn't break it. Every attempt and he'd simply shrugged it off, or disarmed her.

"You act so superior, Kimura," he chided. "That unbreakable skin of yours; nothing can hurt you." His smile turned into a dark almost devil-like smirk. "I could simply choke you to death." Her eyes bugged widely. Restrained as she was, he could do that, and the thought of it filled her veins with dread. "I could drown you. I could smother you. I could blind you. I could poison you." He laughed darkly. "And that's just off the top of my head. There are so many…creative ways…"

It was here though that her staying power proved insufficient. Maybe it was the fear, the oppressive feeling she felt crushed by, whatever the reason, her brain simply shut down, and she went limp in his grasp.

Smile gone, his lips curled in a sneer, and he dropped her like some humanoid shaped refuse.

He should kill her. Every fiber in his being warned him of the danger she presented. Unfortunately, while the Facility had taught him the advantage of taking your foe out in any situation, he had never been one to kill a foe in such a manner.

He knew he'd regret it, but…he walked away.

At the very least, she'd be out long enough to be caught in the explosion, summarily entombing her. She'd have to dig her way out.

Bitch.

(00:00:59)

For nearly ten minutes, she'd beat him mercilessly. All the rage she'd kept in check, for all the times he'd hurt her, directly and indirectly, she let it all out. They'd trained her well. She pummeled him over and over, yet he remained conscious, remained alive. Not through his efforts, but hers. She wanted him to hurt.

"Huk…heh…heh," the lump that was once Zander's face coughed up goblets of blood and soft tissue, yet he laughed. "…can't…kill…auh…me." Regarding him like the filth he was, she reached into her vest top and, after some light clattering, pulled out a pair of silvery, beaten dog tags. If his eyes weren't swollen shut, he might even have recognized them, and the significance of her words as she dropped them on his beaten, broken body. "Animal," she scoffed, leaving.

Alpha had only beaten her to the door by a few seconds, but he'd waited those few seconds for her approach. There was no exchange. Each understood that the other's presence could only mean success, in one form or another.

The ground floor was deceptively mundane, hence the maintained cover of a "secret" facility, even if it was fairly isolated geographically.

Ironically, it was as they exited the doors, that they were host to both hot and cold extremes. The biting cold of the always snowy realm outside the Facility, and the scorching sting of fire from the explosives, their timers reaching zero, blasting into their backs, almost simultaneously hitting them.

And there was Dr. Kinney, relief written as plain as day across her features. The small smile, a tear, and the sagging in her shoulders. "Thank you, God," she whispered to herself.

With the release from the controlled habitat of the Facility came something else though. The wind that buffeted them as they exited was not just that, it carried something in its lofty grasp. Close proximity being a factor, he knew the moment he'd picked up the scent. Times like that, time just seemed to waver, distorting between what is perceived and what is happening.

Bursting forward, he launched himself into the wake of X23 who'd thrown herself forward in a furious yowl, claws extended. His movements were swift and decisive. He could afford no screw-ups against her. Snagging her, he disabled her as best he could before they both came crashing into the snow at Sarah Kinney's feet.

"Alpha?!" She could only stare in in shocked terror, trying to piece together some semblance of a bigger picture to explain…well, this. X23, no, Laura had…she'd just tried to kill her. For now, she ignored the feeling of deserving for that justice, poetic as it was, in favor of the standing unspoken question. Mid-lunge, the slight girl had been tackled by Subject Alpha who'd slammed her into the turf, burying her face into the crisp snow, immediately locking her arms and legs to keep her revealed claws immobile as she fought against him, feral snarls ripping from her lips, scrabbling for release.

Grunting against her struggling in his improvised hold, he sent a hurried glance to their rescuer. "Dr. Kinney. The snow. Scrub yourself!" he snapped. It wasn't as bad for him, but it still had a riling effect…that smell.

It took all of a second's shock before all of the blood left her cold-flushed cheeks. The memory of a hand brushing the side of her face, and the revulsion that'd followed. Realization was like the powerful grip of Death itself. And it was after that solitary moment of epiphany that she dove to her knees, clawing at the snow. Bringing up handful after handful of the chilling whiteness, she raked the stinging powder over her face for nearly a minute, not caring at all about the rawness of covering half her face, before she was stopped.

Tentatively sniffing the air, "That's enough, Dr. Kinney," he informed.

But the true test was still face-down in the snow.

The pre-teen clone had stopped thrashing, but, in a case like this, better safe than sorry. Wherein "sorry" equated to dead. It was rather odd to put to words, but in the case of Trigger Scent the enraged girl would usually go limp if he ever had hold of her. It'd been a discovery made when Zander had pitted the pair against one another, no doubt in hopes of one of them killing the other. Letting her go though… She was still feral, she would just…submit, as best anyone could describe it.

All the same, Trigger Scent was not to be taken lightly. He was simply lucky that the most it ever elicited in him was minor irritation.

"Are you yourself?" he clipped. If she could think clearly enough to answer, then she'd left the grip of that instinctual rage. "X23?"

"Laura?" It was both a correction and a question. Clutching at her chest, paying little heed to the dampness of her clothes from the snow, she clutched at her jacket, waiting.

Her heart rate had slowed considerably, that much he could feel from where she was held to him, the same for her breathing, but it was only with her few answering words that he released. "I am myself," she assured through the snow. Content with that, he relaxed and let her arms and legs slip free. Climbing off, he helped the raven-haired girl to her feet, claws sheathing as she was brought upright.

"Laura?" Both assassins, now expectedly soon to be retired, blinked owlishly at the repeated, unfamiliar name. "That…That's your name," Sarah clarified. The name she'd wanted to give her for so long, only to be delivered now at the cusp of freedom. In a way…fitting timing. She looked at them in fearful expectance. Not worrying for her life, but for them.

"I am…alright, Dr. Kinney," she affirmed again, never before having been required to be so verbose. Outside of select moments in training where it was required, she was very rarely asked…ordered to speak. Almost never. So this was…surreal.

"Time to go." Laura joined him, nose to the wind, ears already picking up the muted, dull "whmp" of Facility helicopters inbound. No doubt summoned at some point during their escape. Really, no doubt whatsoever.

"Come on, we'll-"

"No, Dr. Kinney," the blonde interrupted sternly.

"Alpha?"

By his guess, they were about a minute out. That left forty seconds, optimistically, for him to do what he needed. "We've wasted too much time," he countered. "You and…Laura will head through the forest until you reach the highway." Said road was a good four miles away. They'd have to run. "I'll take the car and draw attention away from you."

Sarah's brow knit in fear for the blonde that she was supposed to be rescuing. Not the other way around. "But-"

"No time. The passports." He already had a fair idea of her plan, courtesy of the Facility's training. "Now, Doctor," he barked. Reluctantly, she quickly withdrew the bound booklets from the manila envelope in her arms and handed them over.

Twenty seconds…

"Be careful," he advised, attention focusing on the younger of the pair. Laura was the one who needed to know all this, as, of the two, she was the most capable in this regard. Palming the passports, at either side of him the air shimmered before a…duplicate appeared on either side of him.

They took it rather well. Well, Laura was not one to startle easy, but Dr. Kinney… Sarah sucked wind in shock. And just as astonishingly, each…copy took on the appearance of one of them. "We will run interference."

Ten seconds…

"Alpha-" But he just wouldn't let her get a word in.

There was just enough time. An easy smile, supportive but looking almost sad, crossed his lips, and Sarah blinked at the rather unexpected facial twitch. "No, Dr. Kinney. My name…it's Naruto." Turning to Laura, "Go. Go fast." Turning as one, the blonde and his faux companions bolted for the car.

Sarah might've lingered but for the insistent, if not downright merciless pull on her arm by Laura who was effectively dragging her into a full-out run into the trees.

Did this mean he'd actually regained his memory? "Take care of yourself…"

He could've beaten them. All of them. Easy as breathing. But that would act at cross-purposes. To sell the ruse, he had to run. For Laura and the Doctor, he had to take the heat.

AN/ It's a start. So don't bitch. As for the obvious Rinnegan. I'm alluding that since the Senju, Uchiha, and Uzumaki all stem from the Sage, that deep down he carries the genetic potential for the Rinnegan, and the X-gene brought it out.