**20.30 GMT-6, 13 February 1996, Alkali Lake, CANADA**
WADE
He found all of their locations easily. X-20 and X-23 then his parents. His first stop was the cell marked X-20 as it was the closest thing to his own cell too.
(It's too convenient. Why are we all kept so close but never seeing each other? This feels like a trap.)
/X-20 looks a lot like Daken, I hope he didn't have that early Daken personality in the comic…/
'I'm taking the chance. After this, we find our parents. Or we get the kids out and I come back alone to find them.'
He hesitated at the door, his hand poised over the keypad. If the files were right, his siblings wouldn't be in much better shape than him, and he only had his humanity thanks to the weird pseudo-reincarnation glitch in his head. He pictured the comic book Daken–a perfect, psychopathic killer from the comics. He pushed the thought away. Not him. Not here. He's just a kid. He'd call him Ken. Kenny. A clean name. A chance. Or maybe John, he was named John when Wolverine did raise him.
(John Kenny is a slaps name tho, I like it.)
/Lets just treat him as an OC, he is bound to grow up different with us as his big brother./
He hacked the lock with ease. The door hissed open.
The room was a sterile, soul-crushing white. And there, curled on the corner, was the boy. He had auburn hair like their mother, but his eyes were wild and cold. The sight hurt Wade to the core.
"Kenny!" Wade said, his voice coming out too fast, too shaky. He needed to be calm, but the adrenaline and the sheer, terrifying madness to their captors was making him vibrate. "We have to go. Right now."
Ken uncurled slightly. Those dark, too-old eyes were wide with a fear Wade knew all too well. "They will be angry," he whispered, a programmed response that made Wade's stomach twist.
"They are sleeping," Wade said, stepping inside and kneeling. He tried to soften his voice, to be a caring adult, even if he technically was not an adult, transmigration and reincarnation trope are weird like that. "We're leaving this place, Ken. We're going to find Mom and Dad."
The boy blinked. "What is Mom and Dad?"
The simple question was like a knife to his heart. "Mom and Dad are the two people in the whole world who are supposed to love you no matter what, a family…" Wade insisted, the conviction raw in his throat. "And they stole them from us. They stole us from them. They're hurting them, just like they hurt us. We're gonna get them back, and then we're gonna burn this place to the ground. No more pain and hurting, Ken. Just us. You understand? Free."
/So cheesy…/
(SO BEAUTIFUL!!!)
He reached out, his hand—an offering. He saw the conflict in Ken's eyes, the war between a lifetime of conditioning and the faint, familiar scent of his that made him trust Wade.
Slowly, Ken nodded. He took the hand. His grip was small, but strong.
"Okay," Ken said.
And just like that, a piece of Wade's shattered world clicked back into place. He hadn't found a psychopath. He'd found his brother. "Okay," he echoed, a real smile breaking through.
X-20
X-20 heard the noises outside and curled tighter on the corner. The bad noises. The loud alarms and the shouting. He put his hands over his ears. Sometimes the bad noises came closer, and then the men in white coats would take you away, and it would always hurt. always.
His door made a sound. Not a bang, no kick came to his little body but a soft hiss. He peeked warily from behind his knees.
The door was open. And standing there was Weapon XI. The near perfect soldier that they always talk about… The one who sometimes hugged him close after they tried to transfer his power to him.
So they could also make X-20 be like him.
The older boy was here, but… he was different. He was covered in wet, red thingy that smelled yucky and always made his mind mad. And his clothes were all big and messy. His eyes were very wide.
He was scared… and angry.
But why?
"Kenny!" Weapon XI said, his voice tries to be cheerful but could hide the shakiness. "We have to go. Right now."
X-20 uncurled a little. Weapon XI was the only one who smelled like him that he knew of. The only one who was sometimes tried very hard to be in the room with him during the quiet times when it hurts. Even if it means for him to be hurt more.
"They will be angry," X-20 whispered. The white coats were always angry when things were loud or that they were too close to each other without supervision.
"They are sleeping," Weapon XI said. He came into the room and knelt down. He didn't smell angry. He smelled scared, but also… big. Like he was going to be loud on purpose. "We're leaving this place, Ken. We're going to find Mom and Dad."
X-20 blinked. He didn't know what Weapon XI was talking about.
"What is Mom and Dad," X-20 asked, curiously. He is always the curious one. That's why the white coats hate him. He was supposed to be a weapon, preferably the one that couldn't talk. The only thing that made Weapon XI the only near perfect weapon.
"Mom and Dad are the two people in the whole world who are supposed to love you no matter what, a family…" Weapon XI's voice was raw, urgent. His hand clamped onto X-20's arm, not to hurt, but to anchor them both. "They stole them from us. They stole us from them. They're hurting them, just like they hurt us. We're gonna get them back, and then we're gonna burn this place to the ground. No more pain and hurting, Ken. Just us. You understand? Free."
"Okay,"
X-20 looked at the hand on his arm. The touch wasn't to hold him down for a needle. It was just… there. Warm. Weapon XI, was the oldest thing he knew. His scent was the only thing that felt like home in the whole white, hurting place.
"Call me Wade from now on, not that Weapon XI bullshit anymore! Let's start anew! Do you like your name? We could try another if you didn't like it."
"No, I like it… You gave it to me… Wade."
"Alright then, let's go meet our sister first before we meet our parents. I think her room was around here…"
Wade's eyes looked wet looking at him. "They made us do bad things, Ken. But we don't have to anymore. I won't let them. I'm gonna get us out. You and me and Laura and Mom and Dad."
Wade stood up, his hand slipping down to grab X-20's smaller one. His grip was tight. "Do you trust me?"
X-20, the five-year-old boy who knew nothing but white walls and pain, looked at the older boy who was his whole world. The bad noises were everywhere, but Wade was here, holding his hand. He was scared but strangely, the older boy present made him feel something new.
He nodded.
Wade's face did a funny thing, like he was going to cry and smile at the same time. "Okay. Hold on tight."
X-20 no, Ken held on tight. He let his big brother pull him out of the room, away from the cot, and into the loud, scary hallway. He didn't know where they were going. But Wade was leading, and for the first time, the path wasn't toward a room that hurt. It was just away. And that was enough.
KEN
The hallway was a scary place of red light and screaming noises. Ken held onto Wade's hand so tight his own small fingers hurt. The older boy was pulling him along, his head on a swivel.
"Stay close, buddy," Wade said, his voice low but cutting through the alarm's blare.
They passed an open door. Ken couldn't help but look inside. A man in a white coat was on the floor, not moving. There was a lot of the red, yucky smell. Ken quickly looked away, pressing closer to Wade's side.
Wade glanced down. "It's okay, Kenny. Just watch my back. You're my partner now, okay? I watch the front, you watch the back."
Partner. Ken liked that word. It was better than 'subject' or 'freak'. He nodded, serious, and turned his head to look behind them as they moved.
They were almost at the corner that led to the smaller cells when two big men in black armor rounded it, their guns raised.
"WEAPON XI! Subject X-20! Stand down!" one yelled.
Wade shoved Ken to the side, against the wall. "Stay down!"
Wade himself didn't stand down. He grinned. It was a scary, wide grin but strangely, Ken didn't feel scared at all. He felt his own heart pumped. Excited.
SPOOF
Then he blinked. One second he was in front of Ken, the next he was a flicker of darkness, reforming directly behind the first guard.
SHHNIKT!
The sound of three adamantium claws sliding out was unmistakable.
"LETS FUCKING GO!!!" he announced as the gleaming metal erupted from the man's chest.
"Oops, my bad!" Wade chirped cheerfully. "LETS FREAKING GO!"
The second guard spun, firing wildly. But Wade was already gone, phasing through the bullets like a ghost. He reappeared crouched on the ceiling above the man. "Hey! My eyes up here, ASSHOLE!"
As the guard looked up, Ken moved. He didn't have Wade's tricks, but he was still fast and low to the ground. While the guard was distracted, Ken lunged, his own adamantium claws—SHHNIKT!—slicing deep into the back of the man's knees. The metal screeched against the armor before finding flesh.
The guard roared in pain and surprise, his legs buckling. He collapsed forward, and Wade dropped from the ceiling, landing on his back.
"Teamwork!" Wade crowed, before driving his own claws down with a final, brutal thrust.
It was over in a chaotic, brutal few seconds. Wade stood up, the three deadly points of his claws glistening red under the emergency lights. He looked at Ken, his wild eyes scanning him. "You okay? Did you get hit?"
Ken shook his head, his own metal claws retracting with a softer shhnkt. He looked at the fallen guard, then at Wade.
Wade's expression shifted from manic to proud. He clapped a hand on Ken's shoulder. "Nice leg-work, little brother!" He winked. "We're a real dynamic duo. Batman and Robin, but with more…claws and no no-kill-rules! Y'know!"
Ken didn't know who Batman and Robin were, but the warm, proud feeling was back. He had helped. He was a good partner, no brother.
Wade wiped his hands on his oversized pants. "Nobody gets to hurt my family. Now, come on. Let's go get our sister."
The room inside was very small. And there, curled in a tight, trembling ball in the corner of a tiny cot, was the little girl. X-23 no, Laura. She had her face buried in her knees, her whole body shaking with silent sobs.
Wade's whole body seemed to soften. He let go of Ken's hand and moved slowly, kneeling a few feet away from the cot. He made himself small.
"Hey there," he said, his voice dropping to a whisper, gentle as anything Ken had ever heard. "It's okay. The noise will stop soon. We're not going to hurt you."
The little girl didn't look up. She flinched at the sound of his voice, curling tighter.
"We're your brothers," Wade said. "My name is Wade. That's Ken. We're going to find our Mom and Dad. Your Mom and Dad too."
Wade didn't reach for her. He just stayed there. He looked back at Ken, his eyes asking for help.
Ken understood. Words weren't working. The little one probably didn't know words like "Mom" and "Dad" or "Laura." just like he is before.
Ken walked forward slowly. He didn't look at the little girl directly, as a stare could be a threat. He sat down on the floor near Wade, not too close. He made sure she could see his hands, which were empty. He remembered what he had felt just minutes ago: that the only thing that felt like home was Wade's scent.
He looked at Wade and nodded toward the little girl.
"You are scaring her…"
Wade understood. He then shuffled forward, just an inch, and then he did something Ken had never seen before. He started to hum. It was a tuneless, shaky sound, but it was soft. A new sound, different from the alarms and the screams. Somehow, it felt so familiar to Ken, like he had heard the tunes before.
The little girl's shaking lessened, just a little. A single, blue eye peeked out from over her knee.
Wade stopped humming. He slowly, so slowly, reached out a hand, not to touch her, but to rest it on the air near the corner, palm up. An offering.
The little girl stared at his hand. She looked from his hand to his face, then to Ken. Ken gave a small, slow nod, also offering a hand.
Hesitantly, a tiny, grimy hand uncurled and reached out.
A tear traced a clean path through the blood on Wade's cheek. He didn't move. He waited.
Then, the little girl uncurled completely and launched herself into his arms, burying her face in his neck. She wasn't hissing anymore. She was crying.
Wade held her tight, standing up. She was so small in his arms. He looked at Ken, his expression a mixture of fierce triumph and overwhelming sadness.
"Okay," he whispered, his voice thick. "I've got you. I've got you now, little sunshine."