xp_logs | Aftershocks: Last Words

Waiting for the interrogation to end, Amanda and Meggan have a talk -- and Meggan realizes she needs to make an unusual request.

The kitchen area was surprisingly intact, given the general state of the church. Amanda led the way, checking for structural integrity, before waving Meggan in. The witch leaned back against one of the counters, arms crossed over her chest and her gaze on her younger sister. She looked, not unexpectedly, worried.

Meggan blew the dust off a chair that didn’t seem as though age might claim it in the next few minutes, before taking a seat. Glancing back over, she caught the look from Amanda. “I don’t really need to ask ‘why the fretful face,’ do I? I know,” she said with a small sigh. It was the whole situation, and she knew that.

"I don't like you being mixed up in any of this," came Amanda's reply. "I understand we had to use you to find this crazy bitch, but I really don't like you being here. 'S too dangerous."

“You mean because she might still try to do something insane,” Meggan guessed. Outside of the woman overpowering everyone and fleeing into the city to start killing all over again, she wasn’t positive as to what that something might be. She just really hoped nothing went wrong with getting her into police custody.

"No, it's not that. I'm worried about her getting inside your head. You're an empath, Meg. Maybe not like Manny, but you latch onto people's emotions. I don't want that nutjob in there getting her hooks into you." Amanda pushed off the counter, voice and expression intense. "I saw how it was with Manny, how fucked up he got by some of the things he felt. I don't want that happening to you, Meg. You're too special for that."

“Hey, I don’t want whatever happened to him happening to me, either. I really don't. If it felt like there was a slim chance? If she was doing anything to my head—even if she was just happily imagining getting an evil manicure and pedicure once she was away from us and being creepy about it—I’d announce it to the world,” Meggan insisted. Maybe there was a badly timed joke in there, but it still held true. She didn’t want anyone to screw up her brain. At Amanda’s last comment, she blinked. “Thank you. But sometimes,” she cautiously continued, “you can’t help netting the scary stuff for a minute, if it’s a surprise.” There wouldn’t always be a choice, and she hoped Amanda understood.

The witch sighed and ran her hand through her hair. "I know, I know, you need to experience stuff for yourself and I should trust you to take care of yourself. It's just... well, you've already been kidnapped twice, once right out from under my bloody nose, and it was only a fluke we got you back. I promised when I found you in that cage I'd keep you safe. I know I can't keep that promise, but I have to try, don't you see? I made a promise and then I went and dumped you on Margali, as soon as it got too hard."

That’s what this was about? “Yes, but you didn’t have any control over that—it wasn’t your fault that I got snatched, not the first time, not the second time.” Meggan had learned not to take candy from strangers the hard way from that first situation, but it wasn’t Amanda’s fault. She didn’t know she would get kidnapped. “Dumping me would be never seeing me again,” Meggan argued. That was the way she had always thought. “I never felt like you dumped me. You…had a lot going on.” Even if she hadn’t known the details, there was no way she couldn’t sense stress.

"It's that simple? You forgive me for being stupid and selfish and breaking the promises I made never to leave you?" Amanda took a deep breath. "You're a better person than me, Meg. I spent most of my life resenting everyone who left me, but you... See what I mean by special? There's something about you that is better than most of us. I don't want that ruined."

“Well, yeah, it’s pretty simple,” Meggan said with a small shrug. “Because I never ever thought there was anything that needed forgiving. I knew you wanted me safe. I was still with family,” she pointed out. There may have been some confusion at the start, but she just couldn’t see a reason to resent Amanda. It wasn’t as though she’d been put somewhere with people that didn’t like her, she’d been loved.

Amanda blinked at the young woman her little sister had become, not sure what to say. Anyone else she'd call bullshit, but this was Meg. Meg didn't lie. Instead, she crossed over to where Meggan was and wrapped her arms tightly around her, hugging her close. "Did I mention the special part?" she said, slightly muffled by Meggan's hair. "I mean, seriously, you are this amazing person, Meg. Don't let that get changed."

While the hug was unexpected, Meggan wasn’t about to turn it away. She instinctively wrapped her arms just as tightly around Amanda. “You may have said something once or twice,” she joked with a laugh. She wasn’t sure how to respond to that last declaration for a long moment. “I’ll try not to,” she said before the hug could come to its natural end.

"I know I've said it before, but I'll try to back off on the mama bear routine a bit," Amanda said as the hug ended. She held onto Meggan's shoulders, looking the girl in the face. "Are you sure you need to be in there, though? Like I said, I don't think it's safe for you with the empathy and all to go anywhere near her."

“I’m sure,” she said seriously. Meggan had a few questions, but she didn’t have any intention of being completely alone with that woman when they were asked. “If anything feels bad with it, I’ll let you know, and you can have bear claws at the ready. Or I’ll just get out of there.”

The sound of footsteps approached from the sanctuary. A moment later Jim's face appeared in the doorway. He looked tired.

"We're done," said the telepath, though there was no measurable satisfaction in his tone. Still, he managed a crooked smile for the girls. "There won't be any more killings. We're sure. She was the only one."

"Thank heavens for small favours," Amanda muttered. That one person had done plenty of damage. "Meg? You still need to go in there if they've sorted it all?"

Meggan had been half afraid it could be more than just one person, so she was relieved. She could tell he was a little sad, but given what was likely going on while they were in the kitchen, and where he had just come from, if would be weird if he didn’t have that vibe. “Yes,” she confirmed. Her questions might not get any answers, but she had to try.

“It won’t be more than a couple of minutes, and it’s not that many questions," Meggan promised. "Unless... she starts in on the crazy or talking about fava beans and chianti, and then I’ll just leave.” She looked back and forth between them. Hoping it might sway one of them, she added, “I won’t be alone. If there’s a moment where things feel off, I promise I’ll say.”

Jim gave her a faint frown, but didn't immediately dismiss the request. "She's . . . not crazy," he said, studying the girl carefully. "Not in the traditional sense, anyway. Can I ask why you want to talk to her?"

Meggan bit her lip in thought for a moment before answering. “Mostly... I guess I need to know what made her want to hurt people. If she wasn’t always like this.” She didn’t want any gruesome details about what she did to those poor people, more what turned her into someone that could do it. If she said something simple like ‘why,’ then she might simply be given a non-answer like ‘because.’ It would waste everyone’s time. “It might be partly so I’m not just left wondering,” she finally admitted. She wanted to know something, so she wouldn’t be dwelling on it so much anymore.

The counselor hesitated. The request was . . . not something he imagined the professor would have approved of, at least not under normal circumstances. Not something he necessarily would have, either. But at the same time . . . when it came to something so senseless and horrible, "why?" was the question on everyone's mind. It was surely on the minds of the victims' families, just as surely as it had to be for the people who had been investigating the crimes.

Meggan had been in the unique position of experiencing the killer's emotions, and that arguably made her closer to the killer than almost anyone -- but what she had experienced were feelings, not knowledge. She had no context against which to set those emotions. Jim thought about what it would be like to live with that sort of question in the back of your mind, knowing there was a time you'd stood a mere two rooms away from the answer. Back in the sanctuary he could hear wings beat as a pigeon stirred in its roost.

"All right," Jim said at last. "But not alone. I need to be with you."

"Oh, we've already established that there's no going in alone," Amanda said, firmly. "The only reason I'm even considering this is because Meg's agreed to having the magical bodyguard. The woman so much as twitches in Meg's direction, I'm slapping a bubble on her before anyone can blink." There was no room for argument in her tone - Amanda would be there.

“Thank you,” Meggan breathed. “Yeah,” she agreed. “There’s no way I’d want to be the only one with her. I’m not going to be doing any arguing against Amanda’s bubbles and claws being at the ready. Or about you being there, if you need to be.” If everyone wanted to be in there, she’d be an extra bit safer. Well, as safe as was possible across from that particular person, anyway. There was too much of a chance that things could go drastically wrong that would make the whole idea explode in her face if she were the only other person in that room.

"So. We're decided." Amanda didn't like the idea of Meggan going in there, but she understood the need for closure. She raised an eyebrow at Haller. "After you, I suppose?"

He nodded. "Okay. And for the record -- she's tied up pretty thoroughly, but if something truly catastrophic happens, rest assured she'll be finding herself nailed to the floor. I'm not taking any chances, either."

The telepath led the girls out of the kitchenette and through the sanctuary exit, then took a left to the chapel. Vanessa was still in there with the killer; Bishop, he guessed, was making more calls. They might not have much time.

Jim motioned for the girls to wait at the chapel door, then stuck his head inside. He caught the metamorph's eye and waved her over.

Head tilting curiously at the reappearance of the telepath, Vanessa wondered what more they might need here. She took a moment to survey the chapel. Bishop had gone out the side to call in the cops to come pick up their suspect while Laura was standing guard at the rear entrance. The metamorph gestured for her young associate to watch the girl, knowing if Caroline so much as twitched Laura could be on her before she managed to stand. Despite the feral's attention being focused on her, Vanessa kept her own eyes on their killer as well. Each step backward managed to avoid collision with a candle, pew or fallen rubble until her back was against the wall beside the door Haller's head was poking out of. Vanessa's hand was very blatantly on her gun, holster unclipped so the firearm could be pulled in a moment.

Her head tilted again, the only indication she was paying Haller any attention at all. "What's up?"

Jim could already tell this was going to be fun. "Meggan needs to talk to the killer," he explained, gesturing towards the hall behind him. "Not about the crimes, about her. I . . . agree. With her reasoning, I mean."

An eyebrow slowly rose. "And what, exactly, do you think she's going to get from the mute killer? Or are you going to be playing live streaming thought conduit for her as well?" Vanessa managed to leave the question about why he thought this was at all a good idea unsaid.

"If I have to. And an explanation, hopefully. Or as much of one as anyone can expect, under the circumstances." Jim crossed his arms and sighed. "Look, I'm not exactly happy about the idea, but Meggan's not a piece of equipment. I asked her to take a significant risk to help look for the killer, and even though it wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been she's still got . . . questions. So if Meggan needs to put a face to this experience to get some kind of closure -- it's not asking much, and Amanda and I can keep things safe." He gave Vanessa a lopsided smile. "I was informed Amanda's presence was non-negotiable."

While a small smile tugged at her mouth over that last comment, Vanessa's face largely remained serious. "Actually, no one's presence is non-negotiable unless I say so," she informed him, tone much gentler than it may have normally been. Haller had done a lot to help them, more than even Meggan or Amanda had. She recognized that the killer could not have been caught nearly so quickly without the three of them. That did not change, however, that this wasn't a situation in which any of the three were in charge.

"Lucas is on the phone with NYPD right now. Alito's officially in X-Factor custody. We've bent, broken or completely ignored a number of rules today. Anything happens that blows back on us, not you guys. If it blows back on us then it can blow back on the Xavier Institute and it turns into a headline about the New York serial killer and a student at a school associated with the PI agency that let whatever happen with their merry band of civilians." She held up a hand to stop any preemptive argument before it could begin. "That young woman is officially our problem until the NYPD takes her over as their problem. As such, no one goes into the same room with her without our permission and since Lucas is detained that means my permission. While I respect Amanda's position I want it clear that no one gets in here unless I say so, that is the only non-negotiable point here."

Jim returned her gaze steadily. "I understand. But Meggan's involvement was my responsibility, and that extends to what she takes away after this is over." Despite the lack of ire in his voice, it was laced with a definite sense of immobility. "I'm not interested in challenging your responsibility for Alito. But I have obligations, too."

Amanda had joined them at some point during the exchange and had been listening to the back and forth. "Look, I know you don't have to let Meg do this," she broke in. "And I'm not thrilled about the idea either. But it's something she says she needs to do, and I'm accepting that. She risked a lot getting involved with this and if seeing this woman will help her get closure, then I think she ought to be able to do it." She kept her tone quiet, reasonable. "But I've got responsibilities too. Meg's family and if she insists on this, then I can't let her go in there without me. For a start, my magic's a lot more effective at containing a potential problem without being fatal."

Vanessa's eyes flicked between the two of them, the motion undetectable thanks to the solid red of her eyes. "If - and at this point it is a very big if - I let her do this I'll let you two play body guard. But let's get something straight here, no one touches her. I don't care if she somehow gets out of her ropes, neither of you use any sort of force against her. Magical, mental, I don't care. X-Factor is responsible for her and we will deal with her but neither of you do anything to her. Lethal, nonlethal, detectable or not. The cops have been called, I am not skirting lines at this point. Not with what the NYPD will consider civilians."

The tall man regarded her for a moment, the nodded. "Shields work as well as force. I'm not interested in hurting her." Maybe if he'd caught her in the act of killing, but . . . after that interrogation, defenseles as she was now, the thought held no appeal.

Amanda held up her hands in a gesture of surrender. "Fine, you're the boss. No force, no magic against her." A shielding spell would work just as well around Meggan in terms of protecting her, even if a bubble around the killer would be far more effective in preventing her escape should she manage to get loose. At least, more effective in terms if her not being riddled with bullet holes or slashed to pieces by Laura's claws. "So I'm guessing you'll be in there too? To make sure we don't do anything untoward?"

"If I let you in? Yeah, I'll be there. Personally, I could care less if you do something untoward, but I think the NYPD would give me hell if I let you put her out of the world's misery. Mostly because they could walk in at any moment, which is something to be kept in mind here. Lucas has been dealing with them, I have no idea how far out they are from where we are." Vanessa would buy them both a drink at some point in the near future to make up for her being such a hard ass over this point. This was work, though. Amanda, at least, knew that Vanessa on the job wasn't much like Vanessa off the job, particularly in regard to how lax she was about things like rules, procedure and keeping her ass covered.

"I'd like talk to Meggan." The shift of her head made her glance from Amanda to Haller and back again obvious. "If that's cool with you."

"No problem from me," Amanda replied. "I sort of figured you'd want to."

The telepath simply nodded. It was a relief; while he was happy to speak on Meggan's behalf, there came a point where he felt it was wrong to talk over someone who was capable of speaking for herself -- and, he suspected, better than he could.

Little more than a few nods were needed to let Laura know she was going to step out of the room. She waited for a nod from the feral before moving to step through the door and past Haller and Amanda. "One of you keep an extra eye out for me?" she asked in a low whisper as she made her way over to Meggan.

The girl looked older since Vanessa had been her teacher, which may have been the last time the metamorph had actually seen her. It was strange the way teenagers seemed to grow up within the span of a few years. "Hey, little bit, I hear you want to talk to Caroline?" With Meggan Vanessa would use the killer's name. She'd created an empathic link to the young woman from what Vanessa understood and treating her, killer or not, like she was an actual person seemed like a better way of going about things. Even as blank as Caroline came across, she was a person in there somewhere. Vanessa could acknowledge that despite her own feelings. "Could you tell me why?"

Meggan had done her best not to intrude while Amanda and Haller argued on her behalf, but now she looked up at her former teacher and quickly nodded. “Yes, ma’am,” she began. “It’s because there are certain things I’d like to know. If I don’t ask the questions now, I’ll probably never be able to get those answers.” She realized what she said almost made it sound like this was all just a form of morbid curiosity. That wasn’t the case at all, and she didn’t want any accidental misunderstandings that would get her an instant denial.

Meggan was silent for a moment, before she looked Vanessa in the eyes. “I’ve had questions, ever since I picked up on what she was feeling. I’m... I’m not a robot that can simply switch it all off. I don’t want to go off, and just... never have any of that put to rest. At least one of the things would be nagging me for the rest of my life. While we’re all in the same church, and she’s just down the hall... I’d just like to try. Please. Even if it’s just one single question, even if she won’t answer me.” She fell silent, then, as she waited for Vanessa’s decision on the matter.

She was a kid, that went far with getting Vanessa to weigh her request. Much father than Haller or Amanda could have gotten her. Maybe it was bad that Vanessa was more inclined to help out a kid than an adult. Maybe it was left over bias from having been her teacher or the protectiveness that had come from that. "You know, most times in life you don't get to put things to rest. You don't get closure. You get nothing but a loose end you have to figure out how to deal with. You want to ask your questions whether or not you get any answers, but have you really thought about what you do if you don't get any? Are you really going to be more okay having asked and gotten nothing while having to look her in the face than if you simply hadn't gone in there at all? I want you to really think about that before you answer me, too." That detached, apathetic look on Alito's face...Vanessa couldn't imagine getting silence from that face would be very helpful.

If the woman were so cold-blooded through and through without a single hint that she would react, remaining silent despite any question put to her, Meggan understood that it would be difficult. “I thought about that, and I think so. I do understand that. Even if she won’t answer me...at least I’ll have tried. It wouldn’t be a ‘what if I asked this or that, when I had the chance’ sort of scenario if I did—even if she didn’t answer me. No, I still wouldn’t have any answers and it would be one of life's many loose ends, like you said, but it’s slightly better. It’s okay.” She thought again for a moment, before carefully adding, “I guess it’s me believing that even the slimmest chance in the world of getting answers is better than not bothering.” If she didn’t end up being stonewalled back out of the room if she were allowed to ask questions, she’d be genuinely surprised.

"'Is it better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all,'" Vanessa quoted, as if that explained everything. In a way it did. Meggan was on the loved and lost side in life, apparently. Vanessa couldn't blame her, really. A small frown creased her expression, but it was thoughtful more than anything. "I want you to be hard to get at, okay? She's tied up pretty well and she hasn't so much as struggled to try to get free but I don't want to take the chance so I want you to put a couple of the pews between you. It'll make it harder for her to get to you but you'll just have to run down the aisle. You're exactly her victim profile and if she assumes you're a mutant," Vanessa trailed off, allowing the teenager to fill in the blanks for herself. "Apparently you'll have a cavalry with you to keep you safe, me included, but I don't like taking chances and this is a big risk I'm opening up by letting you do this, okay?"

While Meggan was grateful, she still listened with complete attention to everything Vanessa instructed. She knew just how dangerous it would be for everyone if she managed to get free of her bonds. “Okay. Four pews—do you think that would be better than just a couple? There’s more space between us, that way.” Meggan might be just far enough away to keep herself safe if anything should happen—even if there was a cavalry ready—but not so far she’d have to shout all of her questions across the chapel. More of a running start.

Vanessa spared a smile for her former student and smiled. "Yeah, little bit, I think four pews should be enough." She turned to Amanda and Haller, expression growing more serious as she did. "I'd like you two to keep your distance from her as well. I don't like people who fit her vic profile being too close to her. Otherwise, though, we're good. Should we go try to get this over with before the NYPD arrives? I don't really fancy explaining to them who any of you are or how you are involved."

"Agreed," said Jim, thankful Vanessa had been won over. Then he had a thought that made him frown. "Although -- no offense, but I'm not sure she's going to be in a very receptive frame of mind with one of her interrogators is staring at her. Do you think you could keep out of sight?"

"Do I need to pull Laura out of the back of the room as well?" As she asked that her hand went into her pocket to pull out a tiny plastic bag with a lock of hair inside it. Vanessa didn't explain what she was doing, though she was sure Amanda had it figured out within moments. Quite casually the metamorph reached into the bag and curled the hair around her finger, then looked expectantly at Haller for his answer.

"It would probably be better, yes," he remarked, glancing at the movement but not registering the significance.

Vanessa was pretty sure this only seemed to take less time now than it had the first time. She put it down to her own impatience and occasional skewed sense of time. "That's not a problem. Laura's a bit twitchy about her. I trust her, obviously, but no need to wave steaks in front of lions, aye?"

Less than two minutes had passed before Vanessa simply stopped holding the shift back. Within moments her skin paled to a peachy pink color, her hair darkened to a deep brown and her eyes bled from solid red to typical brown eyes. The alt was only slightly shorter than Vanessa and though she curved more than Vanessa's own body did she still fit the clothes Vanessa was already wearing comfortably. The hair went back into the little bag and back into her pocket.

"Out of sight enough for you?" she asked as she stripped off her blazer and began unbuttoning her collared shirt to reveal the white tee beneath.

The telepath blinked. "Oh," he said, suddenly realizing he'd never actually witnessed Vanessa shift before. "Um. Yeah, that works." More than one of his thoughts added, Wow. I'm an idiot.

Amanda shrugged. "Looks like we're all set. Let's get this over and done with, shall we?"

The killer is interviewed one final time.

Some of the candles were starting to burn low when more strangers entered the chapel, their presence betrayed by the creak of wood beneath old red carpet. Still bound to a pew, the young woman named Caroline Alito leaned back and inhaled. Four.

One of them must have made a signal, because the dark-haired girl who'd been on guard looked past her, gave a shrug, and silently made her exit. Caroline sat back and waited.

Jim, following Vanessa in her temporary form, almost stopped when he finally got a clear look at the killer. He was shocked by how young she was. Intellectually he'd had some idea, but this was the first time he'd seen her face. Her dark eyes looked even larger in the dim light.

But it made no difference now. The telepath pushed aside his gut-reaction and forced his focus back to Meggan.

Stripping off her collared shirt and jacket had gone some way to reinforce the illusion that Vanessa was a new person. She'd pulled her gun out of its holster, which was also left behind, and tucked it into her pants at the small of her back. With Laura gone it was the metamorph who wound up standing just behind one end of the pew Caroline was tied to. She made a point of keeping herself a fair distance away from the killer and Meggan, allowing them some illusion of privacy.

Since Meggan already knew where she should position herself Vanessa made the others her focus. Amanda likely wouldn't be parted from Meggan much so little more than a significant glance and bare nod indicated she should feel free to stick with her little sister. Whether or not the blonde would notice the faint gesture wasn't even a question for Vanessa. Haller, however, was. Crowding the killer likely wouldn't get Meggan anywhere and Vanessa felt there was no point to this if they didn't give her the best chance at getting some sort of response from the bound young woman. Once she caught the telepath's eye a hand out of Caroline's line of sight pointed to the other end of the pew Vanessa was standing guard at. That put her and Haller closest to Caroline with clear line of sight of Meggan. It gave Amanda the best eyes on Caroline, but Vanessa was willing to sacrifice more of them having better sight of her if it helped Meggan get the information she needed.

Jim hesitated, then, realizing the rationale was likely the same one that had made him request Vanessa keep her distance, actually settled in the pew across the aisle. He met Vanessa's eyes and tapped his head. Proximity doesn't matter to TK.

The killer was watching them. There was no sense in drawing this out. Taking a deep breath, the telepath reached out to touch Meggan's mind, and with her Amanda's. #Whenever you're ready,# he sent, the words carried on a brush of reassurance.

~We'll be right here,~ came Amanda's own supporting thought, even as the witch gave Vanessa a fraction of a nod in return and took up her place a few feet away from her sister, using the dim lighting to make herself unobtrusive. Her leather jacket and jeans blended with the shadows and she was careful to keep her face to the shadows. No point letting the woman see too much of her, after all. She kept her eyes locked on Caroline, however, watching for the slightest hint of anything untoward.

Their support was met with a grateful glance from Meggan, as she settled into the pew. She believed that if she didn’t phrase her questions just so, she would get mockery from the woman. Or she would be met with stony silence, which was something she was prepared to accept. No introductions would be given, so the woman would likely believe this was just another formality in the next round of interrogations. “So, let’s get started. I’m not going to ask why you killed them...I’m going to ask what made you,” she carefully began. Meggan was doing her level best to keep any nervousness out of her voice as she spoke, no matter how difficult it was. “What triggered that... desire? That need? What happened to make you feel like you had to do it?” What she was really asking was what happened to create that awful coldness, but she knew she couldn’t so much as hint towards empathy.

Caroline studied the blonde. As before, she paid no special attention to anyone but the speaker. Her expression didn't change, but from her emotional state came a flicker of puzzlement, like a candleflame in a momentary draft.

"Why does it matter?" she asked.

The unwavering expression was a bit unnerving, but she tried not to let it get to her. “Because it might help to understand some things,” Meggan answered. Simply saying that she wanted to know probably wasn’t the best tactic for Meggan to take, because then she would have to explain her reason for being there. “It could really help to know the cause that led to all the deaths. I think...it could also help you somehow to tell what happened, if something did. If it was one big incident that hurt you and led to this, and not a lot of things.”

"Bad things happen. Knowing why doesn't change anything." The killer's eyes swept the girl up and down, trying to work out her angle. This line of questioning made no sense to her, and unlike the others she'd met tonight this girl seemed genuinely nervous. Nervous, but still here, asking questions. Good cop, bad cop, and now . . . what?

For a few long moments Caroline simply stared at Meggan in silence. Then she blinked once, slowly, as if in surrender.

"It was a mutant terrorist attack." The tone was still flat, without inflection. "It didn't matter that we were miles away. The one who did it didn't even know we existed. He didn't care. We were just another statistic." Her eyes rose to fix on Meggan's, and as she did all trace of surface emotion disappeared, swallowed by the pool of emptiness that lay at Caroline Alito's core.

"I had a long time to think about what it really meant to live in a world where one person could destroy an entire city," the killer continued, her face empty in the dimming candlelight, "and in the end I realized that no matter what we do, we're only ever one step away from becoming someone else's collatoral damage."

“That’s why you did it,” Meggan whispered in surprise. That was more of an answer than Meggan had been anticipating when she started this. It answered all the questions, in a terrible way. She was at a complete loss for what to say to respond to Caroline now, though. It had to be devastating, but...there was nothing in there, no reaction so far as she could see or sense, nothing aside from that one faint flicker of confusion her presence had garnered earlier.

After a moment to gather her thoughts, she looked back at Caroline. To Meggan’s way of thinking, Caroline’s realization wasn’t even in the same universe as right, she couldn’t believe it even for an instant. She shook her head. “I...I’m sorry for who you lost, I really and truly am. But you’re wrong. About everything.” Anything else she could say would just be falling on deaf ears, she understood that. Arguing with this woman wouldn’t get her anywhere, and she shouldn’t try.

"I didn't say it was right. It's just the choice I made." The girl met Meggan's eyes again. "It's never going to end. Day Zero proved that. I have the power to find mutants. Even if there was only a chance it prevented something, I had to try." A ghost of that terrible determination thrummed like bass. "I decided the next time people died because of a mutant, it couldn't be because I didn't try."

”So...you tried, and killed them instead,” Meggan replied slowly. She bit back any further response to the words, but it was a close thing. Meggan didn’t want to provoke her. Her main belief was that it wasn’t the sane choice by any measure, if it meant killing a child...or any of those people. It was warped. That faint thrum of past focused intent shook her from her thoughts and gave her pause.

Meggan wondered if now was the right time to withdraw, but remained unsure a few seconds longer. Given who she was talking to, though, it was likely best not to see if that thrum grew more pronounced, or if it was just an echo. She had her answers, and if they kept this up it would just be continuing a great big cycle of disturbing.

"It was all I could do." Caroline looked up at Meggan with her dark eyes, her slight form almost lost in the elaborate tangle of ropes securing her to the pew. "We're mutants. No matter how we try to live, we'll never even be safe from each other."

That would be her cue to back away...or scoot carefully away, since she was still seated. Meggan glanced to where Haller was standing, and waved a small signal to him. “I think we’re done over here,” she called softly as she began to leave her seat. She didn’t want to stay four pews in front of her for one moment longer than necessary.

Jim nodded, automatically stepping towards Meggan as she began to extricate herself. He glanced at the neutral-faced killer, then at Vanessa at the far side of the pew and gave a small, sad shake of the head. He was glad for Meggan, that she'd gotten at least some answers without being sucked into the killer's world. He only wished the answers she'd come away with had been . . . better.

But then, no kind of answer would bring back those 23 people, would it?

Amanda had had to literally bite her tongue as she'd watched the exchange, reminding herself this was Meggan's choice, Meggan's need to ask, no matter what the answers were. As the younger girl reached her, the witch took hold of her elbow to guide her out and winced. "You're freezing," she said, remembering to keep her voice soft even as she looked down at Meggan's arm. The skin was blue in places, almost frosty in others, and icy to the touch. Shrugging off her jacket, Amanda draped it around Meggan's shoulders. "C'mon," she said quietly. "Let's go home."

Meggan gratefully accepted the jacket after only a moment of surprise, and then began to rub her arms to get a little warmth back into them. She had felt the relentless cold from the killer, but hadn’t noticed until now just how much her body was reacting to the sensation. No wonder it felt like her arms had been dunked in an ice bath. “Thanks. That sounds like the best idea,” she said with some relief. Maybe the June air would defrost her further. Just being away from the woman would do the trick nicely, too.

Jim nodded to Amanda. As Meggan walked past he put a hand on the girl's shoulder and squeezed gently. Beneath the fabric it was as cold as an icepack wrapped in cloth.

Without turning back Jim said, "Let us know how it turns out, okay?"

Vanessa watched them go without a word. They were almost to the door when she finally stepped forward and walked down along the pew. She stopped less than five feet from the bound killer. Borrowed brown eyes looked over the young woman curiously. Long moments passed like that before either of them spoke again. Even the footsteps of the exiting trio had faded out. "Feeling quite chatty suddenly. Why?"

The girl tilted her head slightly, as if wondering why the question even needed asking.

"You're going to kill me now anyway, aren't you?"

A brief flicker of something ran across the face Vanessa wore. Someone who knew this face well enough may have recognized it for the wry amusement it was. "No, Caroline, we're not going to kill you." With a finger curled around the lock of hair inside the little back in her pocket, Vanessa let her mimic drop. The lightly tanned brunette was quickly swallowed by the form of the white-haired, blue-skinned metamorph. "We don't all work that way. We're handing you over to the police."

She hated dealing with the cops in her natural form, bigoted assholes such as they were, and so by the time she heard unfamiliar footsteps outside the otherwise eerily silent chapel Vanessa's people-colored alt was back in place.

The girl made no reply, not even in response to Vanessa's shifting, but as Bishop arrived with the police officers her face finally betrayed a flash of emotion. For the first and only time that night, Caroline Alito looked truly lost.