The raised brow didn't drop. Jacob let the silence hang in the air for a moment before he slightly pushed down his glasses and looked at Mattie over their tops. "Nope," he said. "I'm not going to try. Ever again." He then rolled the window up without waiting for her response and began creeping his vehicle along to the motel. The food bags were gathered up his arms, and with a little struggle, he unlocked the motel door, flung it open, set the bags on the counter--

There was no Nicholas.

With a mixture of confusion and concern on his face, Jacob took his sunglasses off to be sure it wasn't just the dark playing tricks on his vision. It wasn't. Nicholas was no longer on the bed. The bathroom door was open. Nicholas was just not there. But the rock was.

He immediately ran back outside, not even bothering to close the door. Using his science-given mutant speed, he caught up with Mattie quickly. "Mattie," he called out to let her know he was coming up on her, voice a slight growl, "Nicholas isn't in the motel. Where did he go? What happened?"

He startled her again and easily managed to evoke more growls from Mattie. She'd jumped and she'd jump hard, and now she was both trying to look unfazed and struggling to understand what Jacob had just told her. Why the hell wouldn't Nicholas be there?! He practically had a hole in his back!

She turned around and crossed her arms, backing away as she responded because she felt it unwise to be still––to start to loosen up––around Jacob.

"Oh, yes, I obviously know what happened," she said venomously. "Because clearly I know the most of the three of us, right? No, I didn't know he was gone 'till now. He couldn't have gone far though with that gash, though."

She wanted to look for Nick, she truly did––not out of love (which required trust), necessarily, but out of loyalty–– but she didn't want to speak to Jacob more than she absolutely had to. Think, think, think. It hit her that if a mutant could see far enough into the future to lay a poisoned rock in the exact right spot beforehand, they could probably also sense when Nick would be alone.

"Fucking––fucking cat piss champagne," she muttered under her breath, her face going pale. Why hadn't she thought of that before she'd stormed outside? Stupid stupid stupid Mattie! She slowed and stopped her walking backwards, then ran past Jacob back toward the motel. You goddamn idiot.

Darkness.

That was all Nicholas could see. Absolute darkness. It was unfortunate that he didn't possess the cat-like night vision that his brother did. However, he didn't even know if his eyes were open. He felt numb. All of his senses seemed to have shut down. The only thing he could hear was his own blood running through his veins. That's it, he thought. Hearing. I can still hear. Progress. He felt as though he were teaching himself how to use his senses again. Slowly, his eyes cracked open to a blinding light. When he tried to move his arms, he found them bound by leather to whatever he was lying on. His vision forced itself into focus, and he was staring up at a bright, low-hanging light. Almost like one you would find in a dentist's office.

Breathe.

The voice that whispered this was not his own. It was foreign, and it was feminine. Nicholas felt the faintest breath of familiarity in that voice, but not a comfortable familiarity. Not a comfortable one at all. He tried to shift, to move, to lie on his side or something, but both his hands and his feet were bound to the table that he laid upon. The movement only succeeded in bringing the pain of his wound back into existence.

Breathe.

It was the second time he'd heard the word, and only then did he realize he was not breathing. An enormous, gasping breath filled his lungs, as if he'd just emerged from underwater. Everything else about the room came into focus, other than the light that he'd been so vehemently studying. However, the room wasn't much. The walls in front of him were painted white and the floors were white tiles. It reminded him horrendously of the laboratory that he'd escaped from with Mattie and Jacob only three and a half years ago. He became conscious of not only the low, repetitious beeping by his ear, but the needles and tubes protruding from his forearms.

"Breathe, Nicholas."

Appearing above him was a surgical mask hiding a beautiful face with blood-red hair wrapped into a bun.

"Alice?"

---

"What did you just-"

Mattie had already sped past Jacob before he could get his question out. The scene had played out so quickly that he didn't even get to respond to her previous snarky comment. It was getting right tiring, saving Nicholas' life over and over again. If there was one thing Jacob missed about not having a sense of morality, it was being responsible for his own life only. Now, he felt responsible for not only Nicholas' life, but even Mattie's, and any other innocent that came along. It was tiring. He took off behind Mattie anyway. She was heading back toward the motel. Why, Jacob couldn't fathom, because he had just been there and there was not anything that could help them find his brother.

Except he was wrong.

Before Mattie rounded the corner that would lead her to the room, Jacob stopped her, only saying, "Wait." He tried to say it politely enough that she wouldn't take offense, but expected her to do so anyway. Nonetheless, he'd made his point, and he quickly stepped in front of her. It appeared his instinct was right, for when he looked into the room, there sat upon the bed where Nicholas once lay a tall, thin, and pale woman with long black hair that was as straight as a board. On her face, she wore a grim smile. One that sent chills up Jacob's spine. He inhaled slowly through his nose and tried to compose himself.

"Morrighan," he said, "What did you do?"

"Oh, I didn't do anything," said the woman, voice as harmonious as a symphony. In her hand was the obsidian shard, and she tossed it up and down like a baseball. "But I can show you where he is."

The son of a bitch stopped Mattie in mid-jog by stepping swiftly in front of her, almost causing her to barrel straight into him. Luckily she didn't, or else it would have broken her personal code of no contact whatsoever with him. Except of course, that code was broken every time she looked at him. She didn't want photons that had bounced off of Jacob in her immaculate eyes. "Wait," he'd commanded her, sending a boiling plume of 100% pure concentrated utter rage through her chest.

"Morrighan," she heard, "what did you do?"

Three mutants in two days. It had been exhausting before. Now she felt as if she could pass out from the fatigue of it. As usual, however, her tiredness simmered back into fury. What the fuck was going on? Why could no one seem physically capable of telling her anything? And what had this crazy-ass, felony-committing bitch done do Nicholas?

"Oh, I didn't do anything. But I can show you where he is," said that zero-chill asshole with an annoyingly perfect voice (which Mattie supposed almost made up for just how pasty this Morrighan character was).

Enough. Mattie barged into the room behind Jacob, shoving him aside as she thundered into the room. "Listen up here you fucking dead-looking Twilight-ass motherfucking smug wannabe-vampire only-eats-lettuce probably-anemic twatcustard! I will shove that rock straight up your bleached, parched, barren cunt unless you start talking about where the missing son of a bitch Nicholas is within ten God-damned seconds!" Her explosion had sent all the blood to her face, flushing it with a rich red undertone. If she could shoot fire from her hands, she would have done it by now.

Mattie shoved Jacob aside, but in truth, he was too shocked to protest or retort. Especially once the insults and curses started flying out of her mouth. As Jacob watched her face turn increasingly red with each spat, he could swear that he saw images like hieroglyphs being projected from her lips like saliva. Mattie's face continued to redden, until Jacob was sure that the blood was going to explode from underneath her skin. But it couldn't, it didn't, and her curses eventually came to a halt. He looked up at Morrighan, who was now clutching her chest as if she were in pain.

"Girl," Morrighan hissed, voice suddenly turned to cracking wisps. "Stop."

There was a light coming from the spot where Morrighan's hand clutched, as if something inside of her body was glowing. When Mattie quieted, the glow faltered, and Morrighan seemed to sit a little straighter. Her cold, black eyes pierced into Mattie, as if the mutant had physically hurt her. "You have strange powers," she wheezed. Still, she dared to say, "I'm surprised you care so much about him now as opposed to...before."

---

"I don't understand," Nicholas said, except his words were extremely slurred, as if he'd taken in a significant amount of alcohol in a short amount of time. "I thought...you were dead. Jacob said you wouldn't be--"

"Coming with you, I know," Alice interrupted. "I'm fine, obviously. We...had a dispute, but that doesn't matter."

The redhead inspected a vial of an unknown substance, holding it below the light. With gentle caution, she tapped the glass, as if it were more fragile than usual. Alice and the vial went out of Nicholas' line of vision, even as he desperate tried to see where they'd gone -- his head, it seemed, was also bound. Then, it was as if a light bulb had went off in his head, and he began to panic and struggle against his restraints.

"Why do you have me?!" he demanded, "Why am I here? Why am I strapped to a table?! Where even is here?!"

"Calm down," Alice said, coming back into view. This time, she had a syringe, very obviously intended for Nicholas. "Do you know how long it's been since you've had M.X? I'll tell you. It's been three weeks."

"I don't want it!" Nicholas shouted, panic increasing.

"You need it. You needed it. But you wouldn't take it. Do you know how bothersome you are? Do you know how irritating it is to keep track of you? God, you're like a child." She let out a mirthless laugh. "I don't even know why they think you three are so important. So you were the first ones to escape, whatever. You got lucky. Just because Jacob killed himself and they had to terminate the whole simulation. You ruined it for all of us, you know that? We could've been so powerful. We could've ruled the world."

Her anger and frustration was visibly growing, but Nicholas was disoriented and immensely confused. The entire time he'd known Alice, she had been sweet and kind, like a mother or other type of caretaker for them. She was the brain behind the small army that they'd been collecting. Yet here she stood, ready to shoot Nicholas up with whatever was in that needle, obviously pissed about whatever it was she was talking about. Them escaping the lab? Terminating the simulation? These phrases made since to Nicholas, but he couldn't put them together as to why Alice or the other mutants would possibly be angry. They escaped certain death. They escaped torture. Why wasn't she ecstatic about that?

"Anyway," Alice said, looking at the needle. "Maybe this will set your mind straight."

Mattie blinked with mild surprise at Morrighan's reaction. Had she expected the MegaBitch 9000 to be shocked or even disgusted at her profane language? Well, of course; she expected just about everyone to be. But Morrighan was clutching her chest and wheezing like Mattie had given her heart palpitations or some ridiculous shit. She fell into a sullen silence, surprisingly, after being told to stop, but still she stared, for the time being unafraid, back at the piercing black eyes glaring at her.

"You have strange powers."

Mattie didn't know what that meant. She didn't have any powers, and she wondered if Morrighan was trying to imply that Mattie's incredible roasting was more than a talent to be proud of. Either she'd hurt her little feewings more than she'd thought she would, or Gothtwat had a very subtle sense of humor.

"I'm surprised you care so much about him now as opposed to...before," added Morrighan. It set Mattie off again.

"Okay now you fuckin' Trader Joes shopping looking skank, I would love to ask if you've been stalking my personal life like some kind of goddamn pervert who carries an old film camera and considers himself a romantic. But I don't have fucking time for that. So if you don't want me to open a can of whoop-ass on your bony underfed excuse for a backside, then you had better tell me what you know."

There went Mattie again, cursing up a storm with those strange hieroglyphs being spat out of her mouth. Jacob shook his head, certain now that he wasn't just seeing things. He held out a hand in front of Mattie and said, "That's enough. She's going to show us where Nicholas is. It's fine. I don't really think she had any part in harming Nicholas. Even if she did, she wouldn't tell us."

The woman scoffed, earning a sideways glare from Jacob. He didn't really care that he was talking about her in front of her face. She was evil. At least, she used to be evil. It had been a couple of years since he'd interacted with her, and the last time he did, he was the one who was trying to kill his brother and his brother's girlfriend. The thought gave him an internal shudder.

"Yes," Morrighan said, ceasing her malicious staring at Mattie. "I assure you this time, however, I have no part in his upcoming demise."

"Do you have to be so morbid?" Jacob rolled his eyes.

"Well," she replied, "No. It's a habit." That reply was unexpected. Thanks to that, there was a brief awkward silence that was broken when Morrighan said, "Anyway, like I said, I know where he is. Come here, grab my hand." She held each hand out to them.

Jacob was apprehensive, but eventually he hesitantly stepped forward and grabbed the mutant demon's hand. He looked back at Mattie, waiting to see if she was either going to come with them or stay.

---

Maybe this will set your mind straight.

The words faded as if Nicholas was slowly sinking back under the water he'd escaped from. There was a slight pinch in his bicep, one of the last feelings he could recall before darkness consumed him again. However, he was conscious. He was conscious of the darkness that he'd sunken into. He could feel his eyeballs moving behind their lids. It didn't matter which way he looked, there was darkness. Then a light, but not like the one he'd woken up to. It was a light like a star, steadily growing until it felt like it was right in front of his face. Finding that he could move his limbs again, he reached out to grab the light, but his hand only went through it. Then the light disappeared, only to reveal him to be in a room whiter and emptier than the one he'd been strapped in. One could not decipher the floor from the wall from the ceiling. It was white, empty space.

"Like in a movie," he found himself saying aloud. His own voice startled him -- it was loud and left an echo.

"Yes," another voice responded. It was Alice.

"What did you do to me?" Nicholas asked, but he wasn't angry. In fact, he felt very peaceful. Very content. "Where am I?"

"You're in your own mind."

He looked around and scoffed. "Really? It's pretty empty in here."

"Oh, cut the jokes," Alice sighed. Nicholas was sure that if she could see her, she'd be holding her head in frustration. "You can't just be like your brother, can you? Always gotta be joking around."

"Sorry," Nicholas said, unsure why he was apologizing.

"Nick, you've grown soft. That's that. You're going back to how you were in the simulation, and they can't have that."

"Who's they?"

"I think you know."

Nicholas felt his heart sink, because he did know who they were. The head honchos back at the lab. The lab that he refused to go back to. The lab that they were fighting. "Why are you working for them?"

There was a pause, one that probably seemed longer than it actually was, before Alice finally responded. "They've promised us paradise, but we need you. We need you, Mattie, and Jacob. You three..." she sighed, "You three are the strongest. As much as I hate to admit it. You three are the most valuable. We need you to help us. We need you to help us get all of the mutants back to the lab. The ones who resist...will be destroyed. I don't want you three to be destroyed. I want you to make it to paradise with the rest of us."

Nicholas should have been angry. He should have been appalled at the thought of helping those sons of bitches get what they wanted. But again, he was just so...calm. Content. Relaxed. The word that came out of his mouth seemed both forced and enthusiastic at the same time. It was an odd feeling. His voice wasn't his.

"Okay."

Mattie seriously considered spitting in Jacob's face when he told her to stop, simply because she thought she had every right to continue. But she hushed down again after swatting his hand away, although she was still sizzling with rage. She observed the interaction between Morrighan and Jacob with relative quiet, except for a dog-like growl at the words "upcoming demise." She'd make the bitch regret that––

No, Mattie, no. Mentally reeling, she managed to once again restrain herself.

But in spite of her sparkling clean record this time, the situation still managed to get weirder. She knew she might as well just accept it, but––but after three years of relative normality, it was just so hard! Mattie looked at Morrighan's extended hand through narrowed eyes. What was she going to do, walk them across the street? No. It'd probably be some sort of terrifying bizarre magic. (Hah, magic.)

But it was clear, there was no other alternative. If she ever wanted to see Nick again, she'd have to just shut up and listen. She huffed softly and took the demon's hand.

When Jacob took Morrighan's hand, he almost expected it to be rough, or slimy, or disgusting in some way. It was quite the contrary, however. Her hand was very smooth and soft, but cold. It was almost as if he was holding onto a bundle of firm, cool silk. As he pondered this, Morrighan worked her magic, quite literally. Mattie took her hand and then Morrighan began muttering under her breath. Jacob waited patiently, knowing what was coming. They were going to teleport. The use of magic in an otherwise mundane world was not uncommon to Jacob now, but it was true that he hadn't revealed the reality of it to Nicholas. Not yet. He had figured his brother had been through enough confusion and disorientation.

Then, as he thought these thoughts, they poofed. "Poofing" left behind a faint mist in coordination to the color of the teleporter's aura. In their case, Morrighan was the teleporter, and she left behind a curious blue mist that neither Jacob nor Mattie got to see because second-hand teleportation was like going blind for a brief period. Second-hand teleportation was a very odd experience. Jacob didn't know if it felt the same to teleport by oneself because he did not possess that ability. But, as they poofed, it felt as if his skin was being melted off by cold instead of heat. He couldn't see a thing, alternating between seeing pitch blackness and blinding whiteness.

After a few long seconds, it was over. Morrighan, Jacob, and Mattie were all standing in front of an alley. Had it been night, it would have been a very dark, very eerie alley. Morrighan continued to hold tight to both Jacob's and Mattie's hands, and brought them forward into the buildings' crevice. She brought them all the way up to the dead-ending wall and placed each of their hands against it, with her hands over theirs. Jacob had also morphed before. Second-hand morphing. It was easy, it was quick, and it didn't give any foreign or odd sensations. One minute, they were standing at the end of the alley. The next minute, they were standing at the entrance of a gray, brick building.

"He's in there," Morrighan chirped, voice all too cheery and amused. Then, she vanished.

Jacob was alone with Mattie. It was odd. It was awkward. The two stood in front of the door, and Jacob had no idea what would come next. He had never been here before. It was a strange place, and he was with a stranger, a former enemy, or perhaps even a current enemy. However, he wouldn't let the negative vibes from the situation falter his confidence or courage.

"Well," he said. "We have to find out if he really is in there."

He turned the doorknob.

---

It took at least ten minutes for Nicholas to wake up again. He was conscious of another pinching sensation in his outer body, as if being stuck with a needle again. Alice had since abandoned the inner conversation they were having, saying nothing after he'd agreed to help. When he finally awoke, he was not any less disoriented than the first time. There were no longer straps restraining him to the table. He moved his hands in front of himself freely, examining them to make sure that they were really there. Was he awake? Was this real? Was it another simulation? He didn't know what to believe. He was so confused. So dazed.

"Welcome back," came Alice's voice. He looked over to see the redhead removing a pair of latex gloves from her hands and disposing them into a trash bin. "I'm glad we came to an agreement. I hope you know...that this is just for the best. Okay? Your brother doesn't want to help us. That's why...that's why I wasn't going with you all. It wasn't my duty."

Nicholas sat up and looked around. The room looked exactly like a doctor's office, complete with a medical counter and all.

"Where are we?"

"The Underworld," Alice replied simply and calmly.

"Ah."

The Underworld was the name given by mutants which referred to the underground community that most of them had taken shelter in. Where the drugs were distributed. Where there was more destruction to be freely made than on the above world. Even though many mutants had lost their sense of morality, it seemed that they were civil enough to not interfere with the lives of normal humans. Either that, or they were afraid of what might happen should they be discovered.

"So, if you're really going to help," Alice continued, pulling a clipboard out from a counter's drawer. "I need you to sign this."

The clipboard and a pen was pushed toward Nicholas. He grabbed both and tried to read over the document, but curiously found it difficult to read the words. "What's this?"

"To be honest? Soul binding. You're basically selling your soul to the administration of Mexo Laboratories."

Nicholas shook his head, "Is...Is it required? What if I change my mind?"

Alice stepped in front of him and crouched to his eye level, looking at him very solemnly. "You can't change your mind now, Nick. They will kill you."

He found it difficult to swallow now. The pen was gripped in his fingers so tightly that he was almost afraid he'd crush it. With a deep breath, he put the pen to the paper, and paused. "Okay..." he said, staring down at the paper. "Okay..."

About a nanosecond after Mattie gripped onto the hand offered to her, she thought, I'm going to regret this. And as the next few moments unfolded, they revealed that she was correct! The scenery blended from a bland-ass motel room to nothing-black to nothing-white to nothing-black again. The air temperature went from room-temp to holy fucking shitting ass! This was like a cold shower times fifteen trillion! It was a nightmare! "It's colder than a bucket of penguin shit!" she screamed, trying to writhe in her pain but unable to, being so numb.

And then, boom. Just like that, the three of them were in some sketchy alley. Mattie was shaking all over; her teeth were even chattering. She clamped her jaw shut to get them to stop. She tried half-heartedly to pull her hand out of Morrighan's grip but before she knew it her palm was pressed up against the wall. There was more? For shit's sake––

But then it was over. She let out a sigh of relief that this whole passing-through-walls was so much less of a hassle than the teleporting thing. Morrighan vanished into thin air like white people sometimes did, unfortunately leaving her alone with Jacob. She scooted away, not that it would prevent Jacob from murdering her, but it did make her slightly less uncomfortable. "Well, we have to find out if he is really in there," he said, as if to break the silence between them. Mattie preferred it when he was silent.

She watched as he turned the knob. The suspense was getting too much for her, so she kicked the door open with as much force as she could. She was ready to kick some ass.

Despite the size of the outside of the building, which gave the impression that it could be a multi-room office, when Mattie kicked the door down, there was only one small, bright room similar to that of a quaint doctor's office with no other exit doors in sight. The fact that Mattie had gone in front of him and kicked the door down not only surprised Jacob, but the two occupants of the room as well, which were both Nicholas and Alice. Jacob stared, confused, between the two and the clipboard in Nicholas' hands.

"Nick," he said slowly. "What'cha got there?"

It didn't matter, he figured. He knew Mattie would explode soon enough.

Mattie's eyes flitted suspiciously from Alice to Nick to the clipboard... to Alice again. Then back to Nick. They stayed on Nick. Her hands went up to her hips, and she inhaled slowly, slowly, then huffed her breath out like an irritated rhinoceros. "Nicholas," she said with a strained voice. It sounded like she was actually making an attempt to not have an outburst.

"Would you mind telling me why the fuck you randomly disappeared without a goddamn trace except for some Michael Jackson looking hoe?"

Saying that Nicholas looked guilty would be an extreme understatement, but he did. He looked guilty. He looked guiltier than guilty. The grip that he had on the pen tightened so much that the tips of his fingers turned white. Blood rushed to his face, leaving behind a humiliating blush of red. The expression, the blushing, the entire look was present for only a moment before it vanished, and his face darkened into...some emotion that even Jacob was unfamiliar with.

"I didn't do it," Nicholas said incredulously, thinking how unbelievable it was that Mattie assumed he was even able to walk away with a hole in his back. The hole that, when he remembered he had it, seemed to not even be there anymore. There was no pain, no aching, no stinging, nothing. "I was taken. But..." he looked down at the clipboard. The words still were mysteriously undecipherable in his mind. As if he'd lost his ability to read. Alice had assured him that he, too, would be granted paradise. "But I-"

"Also, Nicholas," Alice interrupted, as if Mattie and Jacob weren't even there. "It's been a while since your last dose of M.X. Like I said, three weeks. You're going to need to take it. Hurry up and sign that paper. If you don't get a shot in you soon, it could hurt you."

Nicholas looked at Mattie and Jacob. Jacob shook his head slowly. "Don't sign it, Nick. She's tricking you. Trust me. I put up with the bitch for over a year. I may not have known then, but I know now who she is. What she is. She's a fraud. She told you they're offering paradise, didn't she? It's not true. They're killing all of us. Even the ones that are helping them. They've brainwashed her. They'll brainwash you, too."

Obvious strain and distraught was surfacing, and Nicholas didn't know who to believe. On the one hand, he had his brother, who had previously tried to kill him, but for a year or so had been helping him train and help other mutants. On the other hand, there was Alice -- his brother's ex-girlfriend, who had cared for both him and Jacob, healed their wounds, and helped them both train, as well as the other mutants. For what he knew, Alice and Jacob and he were all supposed to be on the same side. Now, everything was twisted, and Mattie was there, and it was all a mess. All a mess. He looked at Mattie, almost pleadingly.

Mattie didn't know what the fuck anyone was talking about. As usual. So, as this tension continued to stretch out, she was left to simmer and wonder and glare at Nick. She couldn't be all that mad at him, though: his state concerned her. She would have hated to admit that out loud right now, but he seemed off. Confused, distressed. It was either something this redhead had done to him, or perhaps the M.X Alice was talking about. Since Mattie was not at all inclined to trust Alice, she leaned toward the former.

It became clear to her that the clipboard he was holding was some sort of contract. Signing something in this fog of his? It was certain: someone was trying to screw him over. She returned Nick's pleading gaze with an expression that was surprisingly soft and reassuring. Whatever was going on right now, clearly he needed a hand to get out of it.

Mattie strode to one side of the bed he sat in. With her sizable backside she pushed Alice a couple steps back, and although it wasn't quite clear if it was intentional one could assume it was.

"Listen to me, okay?" she said. Her voice was calmer than it had ever been in the last couple days. "Nicholas, you shouldn't sign anything unless there's a lawyer present. None of us here are lawyers, at least I don't think so, but let's just see what that says..."

Mattie snatched the clipboard out of his hands and peered at the text.

Mattie was brave, Jacob thought. There wasn't anything he felt like he could do in this situation. It seemed like Mattie had more of an influence over Nicholas than he did right now. To say the least, he was stumped. And he stood there, probably looking as dumb and dazed as Nicholas did, except most likely without the effects Nicholas was suffering. Jacob didn't know what Alice had done to his brother. Honestly, he didn't know much of anything that was going on right now. He just knew that Nicholas was holding a clipboard, one that Alice had tried to get Jacob to sign, except Jacob wasn't drugged like his brother appeared to be. And what about Nicholas' wound? How was he sitting, moving, and talking through that pain? Drugs. Drugs were obviously involved.

It brought Nicholas a wave of relief when Mattie strode over to him and bumped Alice out of the way. The words she spoke seemed cloudy, again as if he was underwater. He peered at her, confusion on his face. Then she snatched the clipboard out of his hands, which started shaking. He felt weak. He felt pathetic. Completely pathetic. He couldn't even take up for himself; he had to get Mattie to save him just as she'd done many times in the simulation.

"A lawyer?" Alice scoffed. "This isn't simple human business. This is dem- I mean, super mutant business, Mattie. Lawyers don't matter. Now, Nicholas was making his decision to sign that piece of paper, so I don't think you should interfere." Alice put her hands on Mattie's shoulders, ready to jerk her backward and snatch the clipboard back.

"He was making the decision?" Now it was Mattie's turn to scoff. "Bitch get your hands off me!" She stepped back after shrugging off Alice's hands and spitting in her face. Then, she ripped the paper off the clipboard, tore it in half and then into quarters, and broke the clipboard over her knee, staring at Alice the entire time.

"So, anyway," she said pointedly. "It seems pretty damn shady to make someone sign something while they seem to have blazed it too hard, or eaten a whole batch of pot brownies or even had a bad trip. Hell, you're so shady you could be a lawyer; I hear they fuck people over like that. Or maybe you could learn a thing or two from conducting simple human business."

She circled around to the other side of the table and took Nick's hand again.

"You bitch!" Alice screeched, scrubbing Mattie's spit off of her face. "How dare you!"

"Alice," Jacob snapped, voice raised. "Don't you dare hurt her. I don't think you realize what they've done to you. They've turned you into a monster, like I was. Remember? You're the one who helped me get out of that, and yet you yourself have sunk that low. I can't believe you. I can't believe you can call yourself strong but be working for them. You know what's going to happen. We all know what's going to happen. Unless we stop this, we're all. Going. To die."

"What?" Nicholas said. He shook his head, squeezing Mattie's hand gently but looking toward Jacob, "I knew it. I knew it was a scam. She...she put something in me. She gave me some kind of shot."

"Figures," Jacob growled, crossing his arms. He stared at Alice, who stared back at him, until the tension between the two was broken when she burst into tears. He stood there, dumbfounded and taken aback by the sudden display of weakness. It wasn't like Alice, not even before she turned to working for the labs.

Regardless, he wasn't going to let it sway him. For all he knew, it could be a trap. "Come on, guys," he said to Mattie and Nicholas. "We need to get out of here."

"I'm sorry! Please help me," Alice plead, receiving no reaction from Jacob nor Mattie nor Nicholas.

Nicholas rose from the table, keeping his hand in Mattie's. He felt dizzy. He felt sluggish. His balance was off, and he swayed as he walked with Jacob and Mattie toward the exit, leaving Alice doubled over and crying. He almost felt bad, but he shrugged the feeling off. He just wanted to get out of there.

Mattie felt a smug smile spreading across her face when Alice called her a bitch. She couldn't help it. It was just so satisfying to see that she'd gotten under someone's skin and they couldn't do anything about it. When Jacob stepped in she listened with the smile slowly fading. This was really serious, but Mattie felt almost clueless as to what was going on. All she knew, basically, was that Jacob and Alice used to be an item. That made her feel sorry for both of them.

She scooted closer to Nick, protectively, as he confirmed what she'd implied: Alice had drugged him. It truly made her wonder what horrible thing she could have been coercing him to sign that he couldn't even be in his right mind to do it. Alice suddenly started to cry. Good. In fact as Jacob suggested that they leave, Mattie did give the sobbing woman one bit of attention: the finger.

Then, turning her back on Alice, Mattie put one arm around Nick as he rose from the bed. She stayed by his side as he walked dizzily toward the exit, in case he needed to lean on her.

She needed a drink.

It was the evening.

It was the evening and everyone was exhausted. What was meant to be a smooth, simple plan of finding Mattie and recruiting more mutants to their army turned out to be an emotionally and physically tiring rescue mission. Morrighan had been waiting for the three of them when they exited. In a brief explanation: she teleported them out, back to the motel. Jacob was glad. He was ready to crash. In truth, he didn't even have the energy to be worried about his brother. He was irritated. He was lonely. He was exhausted beyond belief in more ways than one.

They had just made it to the motel room when Nicholas fell. Even Mattie's hold on him couldn't stop him from dropping to his knees. His senses weren't numb anymore and the pain from the wound was excruciating. Surprisingly, he didn't make a noise. He did, however, being breathing heavily and erratically. Jacob turned to him and crouched down, holding out his hands. "Come on," he said, "We're almost in."

Nicholas took his brother's hands and lifted himself up. With a few heavy, stumbling steps, he made it to lean against the wall next to the door. Jacob pulled out his key card and swiped it, letting Nicholas and Mattie into the room first.

"Mattie," Nicholas said once they were in. His voice was pained, but grateful. "Thank you for helping him find me, and thank you for stopping me from signing that paper." Mouth open, he looked like he wanted to say more, but he didn't.

"Lay back down, Nick," Jacob commanded. "You've been sweating and you're probably dirty and that wound can't get infected. I hate to say it, but we might need to take you to a hospital."

It was getting late, and Mattie gave no protest at seeing Morrighan nor being morphed and teleported by her. She wasn't glad to be back in the motel, not by any stretch of the imagination, but it was a relief after all the stress and the discovering of new knowledge. Still, she felt as if it were only the tip of the iceberg, like only a tiny amount had made it to her on accident and there was a vast world of supermutant...stuff... waiting to be known.

She could almost feel the pain that Nicholas must have been in. The sound of his voice was grating, not in itself, but because she didn't want him to speak in his condition. She didn't want his thanks; she wanted his recovery. She pushed him gently into the bed he'd laid in before.

Jacob mentioned the idea of taking him to the hospital and it sent Mattie reeling.

"We can't fucking do that! We'd have to bribe the medical staff and even then they could still lose their shit over the fact that he's got wings!" Clearly the idea made her panicked because, well, Nick did need medical attention and there were no professionals here. She made an effort to calm down a little.

"Listen. I can...I can clean him off," she said, hesitantly and with a tinge of red starting to color her cheeks. "And I'll just, borrow that alcohol of yours. Yeah. And any gauze or bandages too."