Fanart for an AU of where when Laura takes off to find herself at 16 years old, she is left alone. There is no kind friend to help her find herself. There is no father there to guide her. No adventure to pull her mind away from the darkness that is consuming her.
Instead what she finds is several clones. Her clones. Made from her body and made to be weapons, just like her.
There were 10 originally, so she is told. There are only four for her to rescue.
One dies early, her name Paris. Her face was strict and eyes sharp. The scientists called her X23_3PAR. She liked bagels.
She was dead quick. One minute she was talking. Saying that she felt unwell. That her head was pounding. That she needed rest. Then she was on the floor. Heart stopped. No breathing. No cry of pain or sound from her lips.
She was just dead.
She died because of the technology that floated in the veins of Laura’s little clones.
Her little sisters.
The technology kept them from feeling pain. It was also killing them. They had no mutation, no healing factor like her own to protect them.
Her other little sisters say this was to be their fate. That Paris was not the only one who died like this. That they will soon die too.
They just wanted to die free.
Laura’s sets out at 16 to find herself. To find who she is and what she wants in this life she has been forced to live.
She decides that what she wants is for her sisters to live. She has failed one. She will not fail the others.
(Made with water colour pencils I forgot I had and accidentally used instead of my normal good pencils)
An AU where Synch dies early in the Vault and there is no relationship:
Laura is left alone. For years and years after the death of her comrades and friends. She is bitter, angry and alone. She stays sane by remembering her family, her little sisters, her big brother (whom she is now older than) her father (who she too now has grown older than in ways that she did not want to think about) and those she called friends.
She hates she did not get to explore those feelings that were starting to grow in her for Synch, as absences does not make the heart fonder when she is fighting for her life alone. She hates that the world outside this place turns on and on without her.
She almost gives up hope that she would ever leave when she is finally saved. Saved and returned home. To her little sister. To their little house. To safety and peace.
Only, she finds her home empty. No little sister to greet her. No pet wolverine eating her furniture. Her brother is away. Her father awkward and avoiding her.
And a woman with her face and memories left to her explain what had happened while she was trapped alone.
The woman, her clone. Her replacement. He perfect copy.
She had been born from the Five. When she, the real (is she real? Now that there is a copy of her) Laura and her team failed to meet their check in the worst was assumed and they were brought back, the way all dead are here on this paradise island. This Laura before her has all of Laura’s memories before the Vault. All of her horrors and best qualities. Everything that has ever made her, her.
Laura cannot blame the young Laura for living her life, while she was trapped in that hell. The whole protocol was in place for a reason. She (this young Laura) was supposed to be here.
Laura herself was now an oddity in the world. Not the oddest thing to ever happen, but it does not matter in the end. She is happy to have two of herself, in the end. She has grown so, so much in her time in the vault. Having so much time on her hands have her the chance to grow past her traumas. To heal from them. Absence does not make the heart fonder but it does make it easier to forget what had been done with her.
All she really wants is her family together again.
The copy, the young Laura whose green eyes were pinched in pain, explains why the house was empty.
Gabby was dead. Murdered while is the supposed safety of their little island. She may heal, but even those who can heal like their family can die.
And that is what happened to Gabby. And unlike everyone else, Gabby was a clone. And Clones were not allowed to come back. The Five refused to create a precedent where clones are be brought back, least the likes of Jean Greys clone comes back.
Jonathan the wolverine was no longer in their home, he spent all his time at the location where Gabby died. Guarding the area as there was no body to be buried. The Five had cremated her. So that Sinister could not use her body material to do whatever evil science he does.
Her heart is hardened. It was a broken little thing that she had been slowly healing before she had gone into the vault. Gabby had been the reason she had been healing. She was a light in the darkness that was the life of Laura Kinney.
The young Laura breaks down in her arms, telling her even more bad news. Bellona was missing, presumed dead. There was a mass breakout in the shield holding cells where Bellona was being kept. The area of Bellona’s cell was had been destroyed, her blood was on the floor but no body had been recovered.
Laura had been trying ever since Bellona had been arrested to have her released. To have her sister returned to her. Tried and failed time and time again. There was always a reason as to why they could not release her. Or exonerated her. And the X-Men and Council would not allow her to risk their nation for a Clone, even her own.
She-Hulk had taken the case for her but had been road blocked time and time again. She was supposed to go and see her, after finishing this mission in the vault. So they could come up with a new plan.
And now it seems that everything she has done has failed. Her little sisters are dead or presumed dead. Her brother is in the wind, on a mission she is told, lied to. Her father will not meet her eyes.
And her little copy, her little Laura, is offering to kill herself so that she does not have to deal with having a useless clone around.
With a heavy heart and anger mixed darkly with love, Laura takes her little clones hands and vowed to protect her. Names her the real Laura. Says that the name gifted to her, to them by their mother is no longer she holds close to her heart.
She names herself Talon. And she begins to plan.
There were other ways to bring people back from the dead, than what the Five can do.
Zelda. Gabby. That girl in Paris, who Gabby would never tell her the name of.
She would bring them back.
She will find a way.
And Bellona? Well, missing and presumed dead does not mean dead.
Talon will find her sister. And if she was dead, truely dead, then she will be brought back too.
Akihiro… she will track down what had happen to him and get him on board with her plans too. He will help. Or he will keep out of her way.
Her little Laura looked like she could use a mission to keep her mind focused. She was happy that her little copy had found a friend in Jublee, like she had once upon a time. But she knew herself, a mission, one that meant something would make her feel better.
(She would ignore her father for now. There was much she needed to speak to him about but those she has sent years thinking of it she does not know if she is ready to say it)
Talon was a hunter. She will hunt down a way to bring back her sisters.
She did not paradise. She just wanted her family.
And Talon had vowed to herself, while in the loneliness of the vault, that she will never deny herself what she wants.
Mild NSFW Laura Kinney x Stephanie Brown under the drop for
The missing scene from my short Drabble/ art: Hold me gently as the night passes
Batgirl and X-23 gentle shower sex
Traditional art made with made with copic and highlighter pens. I played with my phone picture editing for the last picture just for fun. I’m slowly getting back into the hang of making art but I think I need to go art supplies shopping soon as my markers are all but dried out.
This one will be uploaded later today to my rare pair hell series on ao3 which you can find here if you are interested in more of Stephanie x Laura
