Charles came to get Karme sooner than she would have liked. He found her sitting in the corner of the room, idly playing with the hem of her shirt and staring off to her right. Her eyes met his feet as they got closer and followed his legs up until she was looking right at him. Charles had never seen somebody look so tired.

"Would you like to meet the others?" It was almost as if he didn't know what to say; his uncomfortableness at the situation made him fidget. Karme nodded slowly.

"Did you…could you…" Her hands twitched as she tried to ask the question. "Did you read my dreams last night?"

Charles looked guilty. "It's alright," she said quickly, pulling herself off the floor. "I thought you did anyway. My head hurt again last night, more than usual. It was kind of like we were back at the bar. I got a feeling that was you."

"You feel when I read your thoughts?" He looked almost bewildered, and Karme nervously wondered why. How horrible it would be to not feel when someone was invading your privacy, searching through your deepest, darkest secrets. She couldn't seem to stop him, but at least she knew he was doing it. Did other people – victims – not have that privilege?

"Well yea. Doesn't everybody?" Karme asked, running a bandaged hand through her hair and over her grey face. Turning to look, she saw that he was utterly confused and a bit awestruck.

"No, I can't say that they do. I'd love to run some tests. I wonder…" He trailed off, his hand coming up to rub at his chin. Karme managed an attempt at smiling.

"Sure."

At her response Charles' head snapped up and his face fell a bit. "I truly am sorry Karme. The pain you have been through…it's unbearable. Even to me. Everything you've been through; it's all not fair. I understand that life isn't exactly fair, but yours really truly has been a burden and it doesn't have to be that way anymore. You can have a family again, like you did back in Greece –" Karme flinched so hard that Charles immediately stopped talking. "I'm sorry did I-?"

"No, no, it's fine," she mumbled, staring at the floor. "I just didn't know you saw it all."

"If there's any way that I can help you—"

"Let you know?" she guessed, opening her door and turning to face him. "You told me you were recruiting powerful mutants to stop a bad man. It sounds like you want an army, not a family."

"Sebastian Shaw is a very bad man who has done very bad things. Yes, we want to stop him, but everybody else here is lacking something too. Something we can all have after Shaw is stopped: a family."

Karme's eyebrows furrowed. "I've had two families, Charles. One betrayed me and the other got killed because of me. If I'm here it's to fight. I'm done playing nice."

He shook his head, opening his mouth and closing it again. "Come now, let's go meet the others."

Karme went to walk out the door, but Charles called after her.

"We'll talk more when the time is right, yes?"

"It depends on what you mean by talking." She threw a pointed look his way, earning a sympathetic one in response. Karme really wasn't interested in him invading any more of her privacy, though she wondered and then doubted if she even had a choice. After all, Charles was in her mind last night for the nightmares. He surely knew more than he was letting on, yet he failed to bring it up or even hint at acknowledgment. She wondered how sympathetic he really was.

Not that she wanted or needed his sympathy. Or his pity. Karme figured he was doing her a favor by not bringing it up. She dealt with it enough every night, and now he knew that, so perhaps he had enough common sense not to torture her even further. Or maybe he was just waiting for the right time to strike. Karme didn't know him well enough yet to take a fair guess.

"I'm sorry, Karme. I know it was wrong of me to look at your thoughts. I promise to never read your mind or interfere with your dreams without your permission…and based on your facial expression I can tell that you don't believe me." He seemed to be truthful, yet Karme didn't feel any better about the situation.

"Come on, let's go meet the others," she decided. They would have time to 'talk' later if Charles wanted, but Karme felt they were getting too close to choppy water as it was. She would have to watch the way she carried herself around him, if he struck true to his words and didn't read her mind, perhaps he could still decipher the way she carried herself or tried to find the right smile to hide behind. She didn't know what was worse.

Exasperated, Charles gave her a light smile and she followed him through the hallways. "Trust me, Karme, it will be different here."

"If I haven't heard that all my life," a gruff voice spoke up from beside Karme, making her jump. He smirked and settled at a pace besides them. "What other lies are you feeding the poor girl, Charles?"

"Erik, they are not lies. I swear; you two are going to be the death of me."

"She's that bad, huh?" Erik asked, smirking. "Well, at least you got her hands bandaged up."

Karme, otherwise quiet and steadily moving along with them, narrowed her eyes in confusion and looked up at the taller man. "No, that was you."

Erik stopped, so Karme and Charles did the same. He narrowed his eyes back at her, shaking his head. "What are you talking about?"

"Last night!" Karme exclaimed, throwing her hands in between them. "You took me to the kitchen and cleaned my hands and talked all about how 'being weak doesn't mean you can't do great things' and then pretty much ditched me with no clue of how to get around this place!"

Erik's face was growing stonier as her explanation went on, and Karme could have sworn that it also carried annoyance, though not at her. As she finished, Erik simply glared at Charles. Upon receiving a questioning look in return, Erik sighed.

"She's your friend," he rumbled, and Charles' eyes widened.

"You don't think?"

"Oh, I think a great many things, Charles, but I'm quite sure about this. Who else?"

"Who else who?" Karme asked, utterly confused at what was happening. Did last night not happen? Was it an image implanted in her mind by Charles? Could he even do that? But then why were they talking about some friend? Karme's head swam with so many questions that she had to hold a hand to her head to study herself. "What's going on?"

Erik started to walk again, his fists clenched slightly and posture as flawless as ever. Shocked, Karme looked to Charles only to see that he had moved on as well, and she hurried after both of them.

"Let's just say you've already met Raven," Erik mentioned, making Karme shake her head.

"What are you talking about? It was-"

"Raven. It was Raven."

"Raven is a mutant just like all of us," Charles explained, capturing her attention. "Except she can shape-shift, for a lack of better wording. She can shift the atoms in her body to duplicate or represent any humanoid of either sex, wearing any kind of clothing."

"So she can look like anyone?"

"Not just look like them," Charles answered, shaking his head. "Since her powers go down to the molecular level, she can duplicate a number of various things: retinal scans, finger, palm and skin patterns, vocal cords, you get the idea."

"So that's why she sounded like Erik." Karme said, causing Charles to smile. Erik rolled his eyes and kept walking.

"Precisely! Very good." Charles' complimenting words made a small smile appear on her lips though it quickly vanished. She wanted to slap herself for feeling so stupid; why did Charles' praise automatically mean so much to her? It must have been another one of his mind tricks. But he didn't seem to be doing anything. Maybe he was just one of those people who made you feel accomplished; he tells you that you can do something and suddenly you believe you can too.

Robert had been like that.

"Yes, Charles, it is amazing. Not annoying or childish by any means," Erik said out of boredom. Karme couldn't place it, but there was something about Erik that made her both relaxed and completely on edge at the same time. He seemed to be an honest person – brash and rude, but honest. However, there was just something about how he managed to portray so much raw emotion by saying or doing so little that made her extremely uncomfortable. Or maybe she was intrigued. Erik caught her staring and she quickly looked away.

"Karme, welcome to Division X." Charles' British voice drew her gaze up to another room made of concrete, a large glass window looking inside. Behind it, five people stared back at her.

"Come, come, make yourself at home," Charles said, holding the door open for her. She looked at Erik who simply waved her in and she entered the room.

"Karme, I believe you've already met Raven," Erik said once the door was shut behind him. Immediately all the smiling faces dropped and a tall female with blonde hair took a seat and crossed her arms, her eyes rolling at Erik's harsh glare.

"What?" She asked, smiling at Karme. "I wanted to check out the new girl." Karme didn't return her warm smile, still offended and disturbed by the previous night's situation.

"I'm Darwin," a dark skinned man called out to her. She reached out to shake his hand, retracting it as it drew attention.

"It's nice to meet you." She pursed her lips, folding her arms and hiding her hands as best she could.

One by one they introduced themselves, and Karme found it easy to match their names to their faces. Once all of the introductions were made, Karme turned towards Charles and Erik. While Charles looked amused and delighted that everything was going well, Erik looked just as stone-faced as usual. But he didn't fail to voice his opinion.

"Charles, we have work to do. Let the children play." Karme couldn't believe her ears. With raised eyebrows she looked at Darwin who simply shrugged. Nobody said a work as Charles and Erik left, and Karme spun on them as soon as the door had closed.

"Let the children play?" She questioned, astounded further as none of them seemed to care.

"He's like that," Darwin reasoned. "A complete asshole, yes, but he and Charles have a thing."

"A thing?" Karme asked, sitting between him and Angel on the couch.

"Not like that!" Raven laughed, and Sean rolled his eyes.

"You're just saying that because you liiiike him." The rest of the group laughed except for Hank, who looked quite uncomfortable. Karme noticed that he was the only one not sitting down.

"Come sis down," she called to him, motioning to the only empty spot next to Raven. He looked even more uncomfortable to have more attention drawn to him. He quickly fumbled to his seat, Alex laughing as he did so.

"Jesus dude, clumsy much?" Karme shot him a questioning glance and shook her head. He rolled his eyes at her and leaned back in his seat. "You people are no fun."

They talked for a while more and Karme slowly drifted to the back of their conversation, finding herself slightly overwhelmed. She was about to excuse herself and try and find her way back to her room, however long that would take her, when Darwin's words caught her attention.

"So, Karme, what happened to your hands?"

"Yea, does it have something to do with your mutation?" Sean asked, leaning forward in his seat out of excitement.

"Hey, what even is your power?" Alex pestered, finalizing everybody's attention onto Karme. She twisted uncomfortable in her seat, struggling to find anything to say.

"Karme?" Raven asked worriedly, her soft features contorted into a caring face. Karme shook her head.

"It's a long story," she whispered.

There was a long pause. They're waiting for an explanation! Karme realized, dreading having to tell them the story. Thankfully, Raven came to her rescue and changed the subject.

"We should think of codenames!" She flared her body dramatically and added, "We're government agents now; we should have secret codenames."

Everyone turned to look at her and Karme let out an audible breath of relief. Hank must have noticed because his eyes flickered to hers, but they quickly focused back onto Raven as an adorable, child-like smile formed on her beautiful face. Karme smiled to herself. Cute.

"I want to be called Mystique."

"Daaaaaamn, I wanted to be called Mystique," Sean bumbled, causing everybody to laugh.

The night went on, each of them showing off their powers and coming up with a cool codename. Karme flinched as Sean demonstrated his sonic echo, her eyes again meeting with Hank's as he was the only spectator to her fear. She quickly looked away before anything could be done or said about it.

There was a little bit when Alex picked on Hank but Raven was quick to defend him. Karme watched with interest, trying to catch his gaze again but he seemed to purposefully avoid her. Either way, she didn't get a demonstration of his powers.

Alex's, however, truly frightened her. Karme was never a big fan of anything dangerous or eye-capturing. Quite unfortunate, seeing as her power draws in an awful lot of attention and now Erik and Charles where telling her that it was quite powerful, too. Unlike the others, Karme did not need to be told a second time as Alex warned them to get behind the wall and stay there. Seeing the aftermath of the destroyed statue was enough of a clue for her to piece things together.

Finally, it was her turn.

"So, how about you, Karme? What's your mutation?" Darwin asked. There was no way Karme couldn't answer them now. They all looked so happy, so excited. Like a bunch of children at a birthday party. Karme knew what that was like, her own little sisters being quite the handful themselves. Or, at least, they were.

"I, uh, sort of glow." She said pathetically.

"What, like a flashlight?" Alex snorted, and she shrugged her shoulders.

"Kind of, yea."

"Well, let's see it!" Raven shouted and everybody nodded their heads. Even Hank, who Karme wished would have understood. Who was she fooling herself, they don't know what happened. Why would they do anything but ask her to show off her mutation just like everybody else had?

"Well, I, um, I can't really control it. Sometimes …. Sometimes I don't know how to turn it on." She whispered, looking at the ground.

"Just try it," Raven encouraged yet again, but gently and reassuringly. Karme swallowed.

Squeezing her eyes closed and focusing, Karme drew in a deep breath and held it for as long as she could. Trying to use the urge of breathing as a fuel to spark her mutation, she didn't open her eyes or indulge herself in the sweet air until she heard murmurs of the others. Opening her eyes, Karme felt herself encased in the same golden light as the night before, and as the night she was taken from her country. She quickly lost focus and her skin seemed to flicker on and off, the dull caramel of her skin finally settling back.

"Hey, cool!" Sean grinned stupidly, raising a bottle to her in cheers.

"What should we call you?" Raven inquired eagerly as the others nodded in approval.

"Just….Karme," she answered, rubbing her arms.

They didn't push or persist further, and Karme smiled to herself. However, the excitement of finding fellow mutants didn't run slow through the group, and things quickly got out of hand. Karme placed herself on the couch and watched the others mingle and cause chaos.

"Hey, Karme," a voice spoke besides her, making her flinch. "Oh, sorry," Hank looked utterly guilty and quite red in the face as he took a seat beside her. She smiled at him kindle. "It's Greek, right? Karme?"

"Karme is a harvest Goddess. The rough translation is 'to shear'." She turned to him slightly, finding it easy to maintain gentle eye contact. He smiled to her but it quickly turned to confusion. Karme had figured he didn't simply sit by her to ask her about her name.

"Why aren't you as excited as everybody else? The realization that there are dozens of mutants around the world….it's incredible."

"Even if some of those mutants are horrible people?" Karme asked.

"Well, yea." Hank's eyes were bright. Karme almost envied them.

"I've grown up knowing there were others out there like me. This place, this CIA base, it's hauntingly familiar. During my childhood I came to know a lot of things that I probably shouldn't have." Gaze traveling and voice dropping, Karme didn't see the wonder in Hank's eyes.

"That sounds rough," he said. "Where your parents the ones to tell you everything? I'm guessing they were CIA agents?"

"My parents are dead."

Left in utter shock, Hank's mouth hung open and his face seemed to spam.

"Come on, let's party," Karme mumbled, lifting herself form the couch and wiping the fresh tears from her eyes. They wouldn't want you to cry, Karm, hold it together, she scolded herself, mentally flipping the switch to her emotions and loosing herself in all the smiling faces.

She didn't even realize that she was having fun until it ended.

Sean was throwing chairs at Darwin who was quite effectively living up to his name, and Hank hung from his feet on the lights and ceiling beams. Raven and Karme were dancing to the music on top of the coffee table, loud giggles and snorts escaping them as Angle flew around and Alex destroyed stuff. Karme and Raven jumped around on the couches and kicked all the cushions off, high-fiving Hank as he swung past and laughed as Darwin withstood another chair attack.

"Harder!" Darwin yelled repeatedly and Karme and Raven looked over quizzically only to find Alex with a metal rod, repeatedly hitting him over the back with it. Darwin wasn't affected at all, though the pole was beginning to bend.

Suddenly, a voice rang out, "What are you doing?" Everybody stopped and turned, Karme immediately making eye contact with Erik and looking away. Stepping down from the couch, she couldn't help but feel completely embarrassed and was helpless as a sense of disappointment washed over her.

The others looked completely surprised, Hank immediately righting himself on the actual ground and Darwin reverting to his natural form.

Moira pointed behind her, her voice angry like a mother's. "Who destroyed the statue?"

Karme stopped listening and the words around her became a slow soup. She could feel somebody's gaze on her but she didn't care enough to look. Disappointment flooded her entire body and stray tears made their way down her face. She quickly wiped them away as discreetly as she could, smoothing down her hair and staring at her feet.

"Exceptional." Erik's flat tone rose to Karme's attention and she looked up, confused for a moment, before realizing that Raven must have told them about the codenames. She had to admit, outside of the moment, it all seemed kind of stupid.

Yet she couldn't look away from Erik's face. There was no clear emotion on it – there never was. Karme could pick apart little pieces, a bit of boredom, a dash of disappointment, a speck of annoyance…and anger; always present in the corner of his eyes where his smile should be.

He was the first to turn his back on them and walk away.

Moira was next, and, of course, Charles was last.

"I expect more from you," he said, staring straight at Raven. Karme noticed the tone of his words, the bitterness and accusation. His glare was hard, harder than Karme would have thought possible from a gentle soul like Charles. She also noticed the way that all three of them only looked at Raven. The broken look on her face was enough to erase all the venom Karme had toward the girl.

What a twisted life to lead, always being the one that the finger's pointed at.