Spider-Man: Duty and Loss Chapter 55: Death Part 1

(Xavier Mansion)

Laura awoke slowly, bleary eyed and head muddled it took her a few seconds before she remember what had been happening to her. 'She was so close to escape, but she had broken down, showed weakness; I should have run when I had the chance.'

The thoughts ran through her head as she stood up. And that was when she realized that something wasn't right. First she wasn't cuffed anymore, the adamantium cuffs that had bound her were gone, but that wasn't all, she had no clue where she was.

She wasn't in a room, she wasn't outside, she had no clue how to describe her surroundings as it was just darkness, nothing but endless darkness that seemed to go on forever. *Sniff* Taking a small sniff of the air to see if that gave her anything she realized that she couldn't find anything, not even her own scent, which wasn't possible.

Her eyes snapped around taking in every nook and cranny of the blackness around her trying to find anything, something that told her she was in a room, as she tried to figure out what was going on. Popping her claws out of reflex at the unknown situation and her pulse steadily rising that was when she realized the biggest change. Her own body was different, the claws were still the same but she was shorter.

Her body felt weaker, she hadn't felt like that in a long time. Looking down at her own arms she saw the un-developed muscles, the frailty she had left behind years ago. 'What the hell is happening?'

As she was caught up in her own thoughts it was no surprise that she jumped when someone suddenly talked from behind her. "Laura." Her instincts kicked in right away as she turned around with precise viciousness and rammed her claws into the person behind her.

A small grin of satisfaction came to her face as she felt the soft fat and skin that was punctured before looking up and freezing in horror. Starring back at her was a woman with black hair, wearing blue jeans and a grey shirt.

Laura starred into the eyes that were almost identical to hers as a small trickle of blood came out from their mouth, the woman then toppling to the ground. Lying on her side with a distant look in her eyes Laura finally snapped out of her reprieve and fell to the ground with her.

Tears appeared in her eyes as she started to repeat over and over again. "No. Please don't leave me….Please don't leave me…" She kept repeating the words as the memory was dug from the depths of her mind.

(2 Years ago)

"RAGH!!!!!" "NOOO!" *Slick* *Cough*

Blood splattered on X-23 as she impaled the woman. Coughing up blood with wide eyes, she looked into the eyes of the girl before her and seemed to come to a form of acceptance as her body flopped onto the snow beneath her.

Laura eyes blurred and blood shot looked down at the woman before her as she coughed up blood, in a weak voice she spoke out trying to grab her attention, but she was too far gone. But as time progressed her eye cleared up and she heard a certain word.

"Laura?" The woman on the ground nodded her head, tears in her eyes, blood on her lips, thinking one thing. 'You are a child not a weapon.' 'You are My Child.' 'You are my Daughter.' Finally she squeezed out words in her weakened state. "Your name is Laura…*Cough*… Not X-23."

Laura fell to her knees as the spark of life slowly left the woman. "My Laura…" a broken voice finally replied. "No." 'I love you' The last thought in Sarah Kinney's mind as she drifted off was of her daughter in front of her. Laura grabbed her hand and pulled it closer in distress. "No. Please…No." "I Love Y--" She didn't have the strength to finish the sentence but Laura understood.

More tears stained Laura's eyes as the light left her mother's eyes. Feeling colder than she ever had in her life she laid the hand back down and fell down herself, curling up next to the rapidly cooling body, resting her head on her lap. Her hand stayed out, gripped to the prone hand not moving, trying not to notice the lack of heart beat or movement.

She just stayed like that looking up at the face of the only person to ever treat her nicely, begging for something, anything, but ultimately she only wanted one thing. "Please don't Leave….Please don't Leave."

Laura sat down repeating the words over and over again as her eyes glazed over, it was like she could think of nothing else but that scene over and over again. She hadn't even noticed or registered the fact that she was no longer holding the dead boy of her mother, instead she was just starring down at her empty hands in to the black ground.

A shadow loomed behind her as the same woman that had just been lying prone on the ground was standing tall as if never injured in the first place. A small smile played on her lips as she crouched down behind the grieving Laura and wrapped her hands around her neck, bringing her into a hug.

Laura still didn't register this and starred off into space. Sarah Kinney leaned in closer to her ear and started to talk softly. "A life filled with death…A Being permeated by death… A Person touched by death all her life…Let us go back to the start and watch the creation of a weapon of Death….The start of a Harbinger of Death…"

Chapter end