1

"I'm Adam" He said, as if from out of the wall.

"My names Ms. Windsor." She replied, a little apprehensively. "Where are we?" She went on to ask.

"We're inside The Company accommodation" She looked around at the empty room in front of her, although she already knew there was find nothing of interest. The grey cement wall was cold on the back of her arms as she sat, legs crossed on the bed watching the door. "You're from England aren't you?" Adam asked.

"Yes, and so are you. Although I'm really not concerned with that right now." she said sharply, though instantly regretting it. What reason is there to isolate herself from the only company there? She thought "Why are they keeping us here?"

"Haven't you realised? Come on Ms. Windsor what can you do? Why are you so special?" He paused for a response of realisation. "So what is it you can do?"

"I have power mimicry, but it isn't the common kind, I have to exchange genetics, if my cells detect an unknown cell with abilities, they all mutate, or evolve in order to pass the gift on" It was obvious he understood instantly. "What about you?"

"Rapid cell regeneration. So you can mimic any power?" Rapid cell regeneration enables Adam's body to heal from any wound that does not sever the link between his brain and his central nervous system. Basically you can't kill him unless you decapitate him. "Ms. Windsor, I think together we could get out of here quite easily."

"I wouldn't be here anymore at all. But nothing works in here." It's true ever since she's been in here she's been unable to do any of the things she could outside.

"Yes but I know how you can get it all back Ms. Windsor, although to be honest. You really should have worked this out yourself. It's all in those pills they give you. Didn't you realise that when you realised you weren't really ill?"

"Of course, so all I need to do is stop taking the medication, but for how long? I'd give absolutely anything to be free from this place. Back to where I was before." or not.

"I'm not sure, you see because my power isn't physically noticeable. I'm not really sure when the pills stopped effecting me."

"Couldn't you have just cut your hand somehow?" she asked simply because she was so eager to get out now.

"Well yes, but why would I want to do that? I still have nerves." He said seemingly rather perturbed by the idea. "Where have you come from anyway?" He asked.

"I came here from London three months ago. Well three months before I got in here, time doesn't really seem to pass anymore."

"You know you are an absolute anomaly to me. I've been alive for centuries. I know everything there is to know about the work this company is doing, and before I met you I was absolutely certain I knew of every power mimic on the planet. That's mainly because there's only one other, and yet your name… it's never crept up. So please Ms. Windsor tell me where you're really from?" I stared at the floor for second.

"Tell me you're joking. I don't even know you Adam, I've never spoken to you before in my life and I've been here for long enough to know that if you had always been the only one in that room, you would have bloody well said something by now. Although you haven't always been the only one in that room, because I've heard you in their with some American girl. So Adam I ask you, who's side are you on? And why is it that only now does my company seem appealing to you?" For a moment he didn't say a word, he sat on the other side of the wall disconcerted at her response.

"I'm on my side, and I think you are too. The girl you heard me speaking to was Elle, she works within the company under her father Mr. Bishop. He is the primary administrator of goings on within the sector of the company. I helped found this company in 1977 with something called the Shanti Virus." He paused for a moment, because this was always the hardest part to fill in "But, they locked me in here thirty years ago because, I was more useful as a guinea pig, because of my ability. Elle, she isn't really bad, well she is, she really is. Though not in the evil way, well sort of in an evil way, well she wouldn't be the way she is today if it wasn't for her father. Though she's just as mistreated as us, if not more so. She's been in the facility ever since she was a little girl, she's never really known the outside." For a few moments there was silence while Josephine took in what he said. She thought about for a few minutes, thought of all the questions she'd ask, but this place was desolate enough. Both of them were eager to change the subject.

"You know Adam, I'm absolutely dieing for a cigarette." He chuckled briefly.

"You shouldn't smoke" He said.

"Why not it won't kill me. I'm like you as well you know. You said you'd been alive for centuries"

"Yeah, I'm about four hundred, what about you?" He asked, though it was obvious his mind was still lost else where, four hundred years ago. It was something he couldn't shake up, the wrong that changed him forever.

"I'm only about ninety." All of a sudden the lights went out, though neither of them were startled. This wasn't unusual. The lights always went out.

"That's a little comforting, it must be eleven thirty." Adam said reassured.

"Is that when the lights go out when it goes eleven thirty. Though why is that comforting?" Josephine asked.

"I meant for you. I don't care how many days or nights go by anymore. I stopped all that long ago, but you still derive satisfaction from knowing how long you've been in one place. Although on the upside, soon it will be morni-" Adam went silent all of a sudden, because of the footsteps, steadily moving down the corridor. Both remained absolutely silent and still. "That's Elle" He whispered softly, perhaps only hoping Josephine could hear him. As the footsteps halted outside his door, and then continued. Stopping only a few paces afterward, she watched as the shadow moved steadily past my window. Josephine watched in horror as the steel door knob twisted, and the thin beam of light opened itself out to fill the room and reveal at the doorway. A girl, about Josephine's height, though not quite as slight in her build.

"Josephine isn't it?" She said in a nauseating American tone, that Josephine could recognise from the mumbled conversations with Adam. In one quick blue flash the lights were on, it took Josephine a moment to work out how she had done it. Then she noticed the static flickering between her fingers. She was blonde with fair skin and blue eyes. Quite pretty, her and Josephine were similar and yet so different. Josephine had long, thick wavy hair that reached her stomach, and a fringe swept over to circle her face. It was all different colour, browns, blondes, blacks, but in so many different shades. Her skin was tanned slightly, and she had freckles in a bridge across her nose. Her eyes were a Carolina blue, with Prussian blue centre and rim. "We haven't spoken before. I'm sorry about that, it's just. My daddy only just told me we had another girl around here. So how are you?" Josephine looked at her up and down with utter contempt, for no reason at all accept that she just seemed malicious. Everything from her tone to the way she was standing made it obvious that she only saw Josephine as one thing; a threat.

"I'm fine thanks. Sorry but you are?" Josephine replied with all her British eloquence and genteel. On the other side of the wall, Adam sniggered under his breath

"I'm Elle." She said "Well I guess it must be a bit late for you now, but don't worry. You and I will have plenty of time to chat."

"Oh good you had me worried there for a second. Well I guess I'll be seeing you." After that she left quite abruptly. Adam and Josephine waited until neither could hear a thing, and then finally the steel clanked shut.

"Josephine then is it? That's a French name, isn't it?"

"Yes, but I'm English. You've been alive four hundred years, your name hasn't always been Adam. Besides, Pauline is such a frumpy name, don't you think." Adam couldn't help but laugh.

"Yeah, that's frumpy alright. You know, I'm not sure how long we've been talking. But I do help those pills ware off fast, I think you and I will recover faster than most." Josephine lay her head on the pillow, facing the wall, and shut her eyes. Neither of them said another word before they were both asleep.

Josephine stirred slightly when the light in her cell turned on, but it took the full blast of the morning alarm to wake her. That drone sounds for ten minutes each morning. Then she heard the cascade of the shower, as the water hit the tiles. she roused myself from my slumber, and slowly ambled towards the tiled corner. The water hit her skin like a million little needles that burst at collision. She soaked up every second of this time, because she knew that shower would only be on for what she thought must have been twenty minutes or so. As she stepped out the shower with a towel covering her body, and one for her hair, the door flung open. It was Elle, with her breakfast, and sure enough it was accompanied by a small pot of medication.

"I thought I'd bring you your breakfast." She said cheerfully "But don't forget, you should have those before you eat." She gestured to the little white paper cup. Josephine lifted it looking her straight in the eye, curling her lip into a smirk. She flung it back. "Open wide" Elle peered into her mouth. "Okay, well sorry I can't hang around and chat, but there's a whole load of mouths in here that need feeding. Catch you later." Josephine nodded and waited until she was sure the door was firmly shut before spitting out the contents of her mouth and flushing it.

The door creeked open in Adam's room, and it was now that Josephine realised something, and it was this that recaptured her hope for escape. Yesterday she wouldn't have been able to hear that so clearly, now she can hear exactly what they were saying, she could hear every move they made. Yesterday she was just another person. She walked up to the wall, and placed her hand against it, she tried to absorb the cold surface. Become part of it and feel it surround her as she glides through it, but she couldn't. It was more frustrating than anything, being unable to do something, and not understanding really what was stopping her. Not wanting to draw attention to herself, she accepted the fact that it would take a little longer for her to return to her former strength without getting herself worked up about it. In the meantime it was an improvement. She leant her ear against the wall. "Hi Adam, I've got your breakfast."

"Morning Elle, thanks." He replied. "Oh what's this, three rashers of bacon. You shouldn't have."

"Only for you." She said sickeningly "So… what do you think of your new neighbour?" What a vindictive whore.

"She's British, and very interesting. Why do you ask?" Adam replied.

"Well I'm pretty damn sure the two of you will have plenty of time for talking." She said, Josephine heard her shiny black heels clicking across the floor, like crickets snapping about in the dark. Then they stopped. "I just hope that, you don't forget all about me." Adam watched Elle's beautifully glossed lips curl into a smile, then he looked into her eyes, eyes that were looking straight back into his.

"Elle, if I could forget about you…" He sighed "Then I already would have done." Suddenly the click, clack of Elle's heels started again. Adam watched her fling her hair around, it shimmered and flowed, strand by strand. She leant on the door frame.

"Oh Adam, you know exactly how to make a girl feel special." She smiled dazzlingly, filling the room with a luminous brightness, that at the same time as being mesmerising was distinctly false. Adam raised an eyebrow, pursed his lip and let his gaze fall to the floor as she turned and the door shut behind her. He was once again all alone in his cell.

"Josephine?" Adam said, the day had passed without either say a word to the other. Both Josephine and Adam had been sitting in silence all that time, that seemed to pass like light years. Adam got no reply, and sighed. Josephine leant her back against, and her craned her neck back, the brick was deathly cold on her head. "Are you awake?" Adam persisted.

"Yes" She replied abruptly.

"How are you feeling today then?" He asked inquisitively. Josephine waited a moment before answering, thinking carefully over what she was about to say.

"Things are starting to return to me. I can certainly sense a change, I can hear a lot better than I could yesterday." Adam took a short sharp breath.

"That's good" He quickly said "You should stretch what's returned to you, try new things. What could you do before?" He asked, something that had been on the end of his tongue since he'd found out her capability.

"So many things. Though I think I'll start with the little perks I used to be able to transmutate objects, changing the chemical structure to make it something completely different. Like the cutlery." Josephine stopped talking completely for a moment, she concentrated heavily on the knife first. Evaluating the chemical structure, and then manipulating it. She changed each object in turn, and then lifted her tools in either hand. She lifted one to her mouth, and sturck the other in her left hand. The smoke glided smoothly down her throat, and she sighed with relief. She heard Adam sniggered to himself on the other side of the wall.

"You could have made a lock pick out of those, but instead you decided to make a ciggerette."

"A spliff actually, need to relax in a place like this. In any case, breaking out is ever so crude." Adam laughed.

"I must concede it is rather rash of me. Though it's truly not fair your having all that fun in there." He cocked an eyebrow, and curled his lip.

"So what did Elle have to say? She replied, blowing at the cherry. The lights shut down. "Not much really, I try not to get attached to her." He stopped there.

"Did she err… happen to say anything about me?" Josephine asked

"No not really, she just asked if we'd met that's all. " He muttered quickly. Josephine waited for a second before asking her next question.

"How close are you and Elle?" She asked, sounding as innocent as she could.

"Not very close. Look, this isn't Question Time you know" He said. He came across composed, but Josephine could tell it was strained.

"Well how close were you Adam come on? It's not like I didn't hear every word she said to you, and everything you said back. I could ever hear where you were in the room by your movements." She suddenly blurted out.

"What jealous are we?" Adam asked, defensively but still trying to retain and air of poise.

"No Adam, don't be getting ahead of yourself. I'm just trying to work out which side you're really on. if you had just answered my question honestly in the beginning then, the rest of it wouldn't really have mattered to me." She said in a stern and some what sombre tone.

"We were close, but we aren't anymore. She's wonderful in her own way, so eclectic, so innovative… But she's too fickle, and merciless. I let myself get attached, again, but you know what they say, curiosity killed the cat." He said regretfully.

"What do you mean again? I suppose you've been alive for centuries but, you make it sound as if this is a regular occurrence." She asked considerately.

"No, it's only happened twice. But in the worst of circumstances." He answered, slowly.

"Why, what happened before?"

"I don't really want to say. I've spent too many days in here dwelling on that, I just don't think I can do it anymore than I force myself to." He said as an enormous weight dragged his gaze, and entire posture to the ground. He felt tired, and lonely.

"Neither you nor I have anyone else really to talk to, and little else to do but talk to one another. In the meantime anyway, so won't you just tell me?" She asked as innocently and as charmingly as she could muster, though she did have the powers of persuasion working to her advantage.

"It was feudal Japan, I'd just stopped a great army from doing terrible things, and saved so many people. I stopped something truly terrible. I was returning to my companions. I was sure that he had taken her to a place where she wouldn't be hurt." Adam could see it as if it were yesterday. The blossom falling from the trees, the emerald green grass, shimmering under the sun light, which illuminated the clearing. He leant his hand on the tree, and even now sitting in this cell, thinking back he can feel his face taking the same stern expression it had done then. "I didn't think, not even for a minute did I suspect that… I can't be hurt, and the battle left not one scratch on me. But what I saw in that forest cut me deeper than any blade possibly could, and I'll stand by those words for the rest of my life."

"What happened Adam?" Josephine asked.

"He betrayed me, and tried to deny it. He kissed her!" Adam exclaimed "And I loved her" He found himself whimpering, reduced to this by merely the memory. Josephine wasn't expecting this, she'd always considered herself a good judge of character. She'd thought Adam was quite a detached character, rather casually unconcerned. In reality though, he was just long scorned, not averse to intimacy. He was just hesitant. However, by telling her this Adam had unwittingly opened suspicions in Josephine's mind that he wasn't aware of. This new advancement intrigued more than anything before, because if she was right. If this thought circling round her head, spontaneously sprouting from it different scenarios, turned out to in fact be correct then maybe, being trapped in here was the best thing to ever happen to her.

"That must have been-" she started

"The worst day of my life, yes it was." He sighed, leaning his head onto his forearm. "I'll have to live with that, until well the end of days. Before you, I'd spend so many lonely hours just dwelling on it."

"Don't, you can't do that, you can't linger in the past not while there's still time. Besides, you, you have more time than anyone."

"You're right, I know you are, and I know I'll have forever to get over this, I'm just waiting, waiting for something to spring up as if.. out of … no where." Without realising it, they both lay down on their bunks, facing one another.

"What do you want to do with yourself?" Josephine asked, interestedly.

"I want to change and make history." He replied, with a strange tone of determination.

"But you are history. You've already become the most famous." And then she stopped in mid-sentence, she didn't want tell him that she knew, she knew who he was he was Kensai. The greatest Japanese Sword-Saint.

"Famous what Josephine?" He said.

"Nothing."

"See now who's lieing." He said, biting his lip. "Maybe it should be I not trusting you." He said jokingly.

"You're Takezo Kensai, the legendary warrior. I knew when you told me that story." He paused for a minute. He didn't seem upset by this revelation, just a little shocked. Though he didn't know that, the fact she knew he was Kensai wasn't the end of it.

"You're right I am, how did you know? Generally, well most people who aren't Japanese don't know about Kensai, well me." He said.

"I've been to Cambridge, and Oxford. More than once actually, I've done research, I was really interested in the Takezo Scrolls." She said, he laughed.

"Most of it is true, though the part where I cut out my own heart, to give it to a dragon. That's bullshit, well maybe it is true in a way, though I will never understand that metaphor." He paused, and then in a sombre monotone "I think I'm going to go to sleep now Josephine." He said yawning. She didn't reply, because she was already asleep. She'd fallen sound asleep to the sound of his calming tone.