AUTHOR'S NOTE: Thanks for the reviews! I have responded to questions via PM. Here is the next installment, enjoy XD

CHAPTER 21

Connect the Dots

Laura pushed herself up from the cement and wiped her eyes, sniffing the air reluctantly. She did not want to smell the blood, but otherwise the uncomfortable buzzing in her nose would go on. She had learned from experience that it might build into another, unplanned attack.

Snakt as her claws retreated. She began to crawl away, not trusting her limbs to support her just yet. She would need to soon, though. She did not want to give Kimura any excuses for a prolonged beating tonight. Because tonight was her monthly inspection, in which Harkins reviewed her performance logs and monitored her health for signs of adamantium poisoning or skeletal damage. He had been conducting these alone lately.

It was her one chance to speak with him.

Kimura had not made her move yet, but she would soon. She was moody. Often silent. Carrying more weapons of late. Whatever she was planning would happen soon. The facility soldiers were already loyal to her. It would not be difficult for her to seize power. Laura suspected no one would seek to take it back from her, as long as the money kept pouring in. The money she made for the facility.

Harkins was not a good man. He did not deserve to live any more than Kimura did, than Rice had. But under his lead, there was always the chance that, someday in the future, she could escape with the other clones. Under Kimura's lead, that chance, that hope, did not exist.

Under Kimura's lead, Laura knew they would all die.

She was not certain whether her own life should continue after the facility was destroyed. There were times that she felt it should, as her clones would need guidance after they escaped. And there were times that she felt it should not. Usually, these times occurred in the minutes between waking and sleeping, when she was gazing into the darkness, her claws slicing through her flesh, her mind replaying that night in the snow. When she had killed Julian.

She was still not quite able to believe it had happened. This confused her. She had seen him die, she had heard his heartbeat fade, watched his skin turn blue, yet she could not quite believe she would never see him again. But there were moments that she did believe it. And it was those moments that she was certain that she should be destroyed with the facility. She had proved, for once and for all, without a shadow of doubt, that there was no one she would not kill. She should not exist.

For now, however, she had purpose. She needed to make sure the clones were given a chance. Only those that had failed the anti-empathy training and testing, of course. She knew of three so far. She had overheard Harkins murmuring about a "bad batch" among the sixty series: three clones that had been "contaminated." Apparently, a janitor on their cell block had failed to observe protocol, and had treated them as he would children. While the interactions could not have been nearly as influential as Sarah's visits had been to her, these clones had still been exposed to the idea that they could be more than weapons.

She intended to give all of the clones the opportunity to follow her out, if they promised to obey her. Realistically, however, she knew these three would be most likely to be receptive. And to have a future. More of a future than herself, even. As far as she knew, they had no trigger scent programming. Rice had not deemed it necessary, since human contamination had not been an anticipated issue.

She was uncertain about the clones who had not failed the anti-empathy training. The ones who did not obey her. There was no place for them in the world outside. They would just end up being someone else's weapons. They would just end up being her, and one of her was already too much. Should she kill them? The thought caused her distress, but so did the idea of setting them free in the world.

Footsteps were heading her way. Booted feet. She forced herself to stand, shaking her head to clear it.

"X-23." Kimura's tone was sour. She was looking for something to fault her on.

Laura waited.

Her handler folded her arms. "You took two minutes longer than expected."

She still had five minutes left on her watch, but she said nothing, just bowed her head. The blow was sharp and made her ears ring for a moment, but she did not cry out. She knew Kimura would grow bored and most likely stop, since the inspection was soon. Harkins would be annoyed if he had to wait for her to heal.

"Stupid clone." Kimura shook her head, then applied the control cuffs, yanking her arms roughly behind her back and tightening them more than necessary. But she was surprisingly silent after that, as she dragged Laura to the helicopter and loaded her up.

Laura felt a wave of uneasiness. Kimura was up to something. What?

"Has it been a month already?" Harkins asked as he entered the examination room. He picked up the folder from the wall pocket and walked toward her, adjusting his glasses as he began to flip through it, looking briefly at her mission summary reports.

"Yes." Laura paused, waiting for the door to swing shut behind him. It was taking a long time.

Harkins flipped another page.

Click!

Laura leaned forward, as much as she could with her arms secured behind her back. "Kimura is planning to kill you."

Harkins raised an eyebrow, but did not look at her. "Is that so?" Flip.

"Yes." Laura hesitated. "Please. You must believe me."

"There is nothing I 'must' do, X-23." Harkins's voice was sharp. Flip!

Laura had anticipated this. Harkins was clever. He could see how this could be a tactical strategy on her part. To divide her captors and turn them against each other. "I do not say this out of concern for your wellbeing." She paused. "I am concerned for mine."

Harkins did not look at her, but he did pause his flipping.

"Under Kimura…" she closed her eyes. "I will be destroyed, as will my clones. She is insane."

"The management of the facility is none of your concern, X-23." Harkins glared at her. "Be quiet, or I'll have you muzzled."

Laura's eyebrows drew together. "Please—"

Her nose prickled.

Wet. Gurgling. Blood.

She tilted her head. Lighter patches. The trigger impulse was clearing. Soon she would be able to see again. Think again. There was something familiar about the blood. She could not yet place it, but she knew it was familiar.

And that familiar meant bad.

She blinked. There was lot of metal. And dark fluid. Everything was still blurry. Everything was still too far away. But she was getting closer. Like she was travelling through a tunnel, and had nearly reached the end. She blinked again.

She was crouching, on all fours, on the steel floor, her claws still extended. Snakt! On the floor in front of her, blood. Deep, dark blood. The kind that meant death. Snff. Yes, she smelled death.

And she smelled something else. Someone else. "No." Her eyes widened, and she looked all around her. Then she spotted Harkins, lying face down on the floor, in a crimson puddle. The folder was splayed open beside him, the files scattered. His glasses were shattered.

Her eyes widened. "No!" she gasped, as she scrambled toward him. But it was too late. His heartbeat was fading, and with it, her only chance of helping her clones to escape. Of preventing Kimura from wreaking havoc.

She noticed her hand shields, laying on the floor, twisted and cut off. They were not made of adamantium. Fakes. Fake cuffs, fake hand shields.

Clap, clap, clap.

Laura looked up.

Kimura was leaning on the doorframe, applauding slowly. Grinning. Then she stopped, and her expression grew serious. "You honestly think I didn't know what you were planning?"

Laura felt tired. Defeated. She looked down, her eyes burning.

Kimura leaned down. "Welcome to the new order, clone." She kicked her in the stomach. "Things are going to be a lot different here, from now on."

Laura's eyes slid shut.

"…Laura…" His voice was muffled.

Why was it muffled? Oh, his face was pressed into his pillow. He raised his head and blinked sleepily. He was lying in his bed, his room dark, but light streaming gently through the blinds, suggesting it was daytime.

He rolled out of bed, set his feet on the floor, and tried to get up. His legs buckled and he fell to the ground in a pile of blankets. "Fuck." He sat on the floor for a moment, then began to push himself up. His metal fingers hit something under the bed. Oh, yeah. Laura's backpack. With the book he'd never read. He'd have to do that. After he figured out what the hell was going on.

After a few moments he managed to haul himself to his feet again, and this time, his legs held. There was one way to get an instant answer about how long he'd been out. He stumbled to the bathroom, flipped on the lights, and was confronted with about a week's worth of beard. "Shit." He leaned on the bathroom counter and rubbed his glowing fingers over his skin, then watching as the shavings fell into the sink.

Skin. That was the last thing he'd been aware of. His skin turning black, under his shield. Josh must have healed him. Which meant Josh had been alive to do so. And so he must have succeeded in destroying the virus with what he'd done. Burning it. He closed his eyes and exhaled through his nose. Thank fucking god.

After using the bathroom, he returned to the bed and hauled out the backpack from under it, his features fixed. He'd done what Logan had asked. They had recovered the stolen vial, and he highly doubted Vanisher was going to steal any more samples. The world was safe from the Legacy virus. Which meant…he was done, for a while at least. Just like James, he was going to focus on his own problems. Of which he really only had one.

He unzipped the pack. A few moments later and he was holding the book, running his metal fingers over the edges of the pages. There was a dog-eared one. But it was plastered to the next page by all the dried blood.

He closed his eyes and tried to think small. About pulling the particles apart. The book opened, so suddenly that he almost dropped it. He spread it open carefully, smoothing out the pages. It was washed with red too, but he could just make out the ornate lettering of the title, and part of an illustration of a puppet with a long nose. Pinocchio.

He raised his eyebrows, surprised. He wasn't sure what he had been expecting, but it certainly hadn't been that. Then he noticed a small, thin bundle of note paper, folded and stuck between the pages. Unlike the rest of the book, this paper was mostly clean. Inserted after the blood had dried. He picked it up and straightened it out carefully, then began to read.

Please forgive me.

His eyebrows drew together, and he gripped the letter a little harder, making the paper crackle.

Even as I write the words, they ring so hollow. My mistakes, my choices, they cannot be undone, much less forgiven. But you deserve this confession.

The writer spoke about becoming part of the experiment. He paused, realizing the author must be Laura's creator.

I asked you for forgiveness before. Now I'm telling you. Don't forgive me. Don't forgive any of us for what we did. Ever.

You deserve to know why we did these things. Why we made you, and tried so hard to break you. Your training was designed to strip you of your humanity. You were a weapon. A weapon I willingly conceived for them. Our orders were to keep you from gaining any sense of self. Something they said would compromise our ability to control you. Use you. We were never to treat you as a child, only as a weapon. Something we could turn off when we didn't need it.

From day one, you were on a schedule. Your healing factor was activated with radiation poisoning, at levels so high they would have instantly killed a grown man, let alone a five-year-old child. Your claws were ripped out of your body without anesthetics, for the adamantium process. We were in a hurry to assemble you. So that we could kill. So that we could make the world a better place. A place that would be safe for our real children.

Except it wasn't about that. It was about greed. That's what this is all about. Of course it is. The buying and selling of lives for profit. Not saving the world. Not one evil for the greater good. No, this is about money. A lot of it. Sutter sold you for a million dollars a pound. As you know by now, there was no shortage of buyers.

I watched while you were forced to kill. And kill. And kill. And kill. You killed royalty. Godfathers. Drug lords. Dictators. Assassins. Anyone. Everyone. For a price. For three long years, you murdered without fail. They need only tell you to do it, and you did it. But that wasn't enough for them. They had to make sure that you would never have a choice. Kimura was the one who waterboarded you with a smile on her face. Who held your head down as you drowned in the fluid that would become your trigger scent. They say drowning is one of the most terrible ways to die. You drowned every night for two years.

I didn't know Sutter was having me design the treatment process for her skin. I thought it was for yours. So I made her unbreakable. Flawlessly unbreakable. Even then, so early on, he was planning this. All of this. I thought Rice was the sick one, but at least he was motivated by anger. Sutter by greed. I by curiosity. Kimura by nothing but the sound of your screams. The smell of your blood. The look of your fear. Her motivation is nameless. Cruelty for the sake of cruelty. I didn't believe in the devil before I met her. By the time I had, it was too late.

They say in life that we are judged by the choices we make. They are what define us. I chose to bring you into this world. I chose to stay in the program. To witness true evil. To participate. I'm responsible for everything that has happened. For all the pain, for all the death, for everything you've suffered. Because I had a choice, and you had none. And I chose to do nothing. I always assumed it was Rice that cut you. I never wanted to believe that it was you. That you had learned to hurt yourself, too. The damage I've done…I can never forgive myself.

You showed me that we can choose to be something other than what we have forced to be. That we can be something better than what we believe we are. Something better. And, in that moment, you saved my life. All that matters now is that I save yours. I wish we could just run away. No more blood. But if we don't stop them, they will never stop. They will hunt us down. And they will do it all over again. They've already started. This is my choice, to do something this time. To be better than what I believe I am.

But I promise, after this, no more. The killing stops tonight. We'll start a new life. Have a future. Be a family. We'll learn to be human together. I'll let you show me how.

I'm sorry I waited so long to tell you these things. There is so much more that I want to tell you. And I will. But one thing you must always remember. No matter what has happened, and no matter what may come, you are a child, not a weapon. You are my child. You are my daughter…and I love you. I will always love you, Laura.

Your mother,

Sarah

Julian ran his metal fingers over the bloodstained page again. He knew whose blood that was. His eyes took in the dog-eared corner again. The title. Pinocchio. Something Sarah must have read to Laura. The story about a puppet becoming real.

He folded the letter and replaced it between the pages, then closed the book softly.

Because I had a choice, and you had none.

Why did that seem so familiar? He closed his eyes. You told me that bad people have her, and it was your fault. James had told him this.

NO! Laura, don't! There's another way. You can't do this! Not for me! His own voice. He'd said this, to her. Or wanted to. At some point. When?

What the hell was he missing? Reading this letter had helped him understand the facility. It had told him where Laura came from, and what she'd been through. But it hadn't made him remember her. He gritted his teeth. He was so close. It was as if he had all the pieces, but couldn't put them together. Something in his head was resisting. Refusing to make those connections.

He shoved the book back in the bag and zipped it back up. After pausing briefly to throw on his sweats, he headed down to the kitchen to take care of the burning pit of hunger that was his stomach, his head swimming with all the puzzle pieces.

"JULIAN!"

THWAP! As Cessily hurled her arms around him from a distance, like some kind of long range attack. "Holy fu—" he yelped, but she was squeezing the air out of him again and babbling a bunch of stuff he couldn't comprehend because she was saying it too quickly. "Dude, I think he needs to breathe!" Santo's voice.

"Oh, right." Cessily loosened her grasp.

Julian shoved her away with a glare. "You really need to stop doing that, Cess! Otherwise I'm not going to be happy to see you anymore."

"Sorry." She beamed. "I was just—we were so worried about you! Josh told us what you did, and—"

"What?" Julian stared at her. "Josh shouldn't be talking about that shit!"

"Come on, dude, it's us!" Santo grinned. "You're mad that we wanna celebrate you bein' a real, honest-to-god hero?" He paused. "I mean, this is the kind of stuff you used to talk about all the time."

Julian gritted his teeth, his hands clenching into fists at his sides. "Don't remind me!" he snapped. The air around him was getting hot.

His friends traded confused looks.

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. They don't get it. They don't understand. He forced himself to relax, opening his hands and flexing them. "Look. I…things are different now. The kind of things we do…I can't talk about it. And Josh shouldn't." He paused. "But I'm not a hero. That shit just doesn't exist in real life."

Cessily's eyebrows drew together. "Oh, Julian—" her thoughts were full of concern. She thought he was having some kind of breakdown.

"Don't." His forehead wrinkled. "I've got my head on straight. Now."

"Whaddaya mean?" Santo asked, confused.

Julian thought for a moment. How could he possibly describe watching himself be an asshole in the past, without spilling the beans on Dr. McCoy's time travel devices? "I've done some…retrospection." He paused. "I made a lot of mistakes. I'm trying to be a better person now. Which means…I'm not going to stop and pat myself on the back for not letting my friends die, you know?" Pause. "Not when I should be figuring out how to stop the next thing."

"What's the next thing?" Santo asked.

Julian hesitated.

"You're going after Laura!" Cessily blurted, her eyes widening.

"Dude." Santo stared at him. "Where're we going?"

"No—" Julian began.

"Yes!" Cessily leaned forward. "We were there too, Julian! I want to help. You can't do it alone."

"Yeah!" Santo folded his arms. "We're handy! An' we all want X back."

"It's not that straight forward." Julian paused. "I, uh, still don't remember her."

"…" Cessily raised a red eyebrow. "You seriously need to explain what the hell is going on with you. The whole story, not just a little piece of it."

Julian folded his arms too. "I told you—"

A small, quiet voice interrupted him. "Excuse me, please."

They all turned to see Blindfold, gazing up at them, with her eyeless stare.

Santo grinned. "Hey, look! It's crazy cat lady!"

"Oh my god Santo!" Cessily glared at him. "You—"

Julian held up a metal hand. "Ruth. That wasn't hours. It's been a week."

Cessily and Santo stared at him now.

Ruth sniffed. "Has it?"

Julian could sense her meaning. He'd been asleep for most of the week. "Er, no, guess not." He paused. "So…you're going to help me?"

She pursed her lips. "Hmmm. Thank you, yes. You are a broken spiderweb. Excuse me, unsolved map. Yes. Connect the dots, please, to find X. Picture perfect."

"The hell does that mean?" Santo sounded offended. "Jules ain't a—"

"Shut up." Julian frowned. "But…uh…yeah, what do you mean?"

Ruth tapped her chin with her finger, then turned around abruptly and marched up the staircase, as if to fetch something. Mystified, Julian followed her, Santo and Cessily close behind. All wore identical looks of confusion. She led them to Pixie's door.

Pixie answered on the third knock. "Oh, hi Ruth!" she said, her tone full of surprise. She fluttered her big pink wings as she leaned out of her room to eye the approaching group. "And…uh…Julian? Santo…Cessily…what's up?"

Ruth's eyebrows drew together. "Your phone."

Pixie stared at her. "Uh…what?"

"We're kind of wondering that too." Cessily's tone was apologetic.

Julian closed his eyes. "Look, I know this is weird, but…I'm having some problems…remembering stuff, and Ruth is trying to help me. Apparently your phone is a part of that…so you mind humoring us for a minute and letting us look at it?" He found it odd that the one time Ruth was actually asking for something, she hadn't even slipped in a single "please." That was like her favorite word, wasn't it?

"Oh! Totes!" Pixie fished her phone out of her back pocket. "I'm basically the selfie queen, so now that you put it that way, it makes sense. I have like my entire experience at Xavier's on Instagram, like I documented everything, y'know? Kinda have to 'coz no one around this place takes pictures, it's so weird 'coz a lot of us look really cute, well not like Quentin Quire or Santo or well Victor's kind of cute I guess—"

"Hey!" Santo folded his arms. "What the hell are you sayin'? I'm like the cutest guy here!" Pause. "Sorry, Jules, but it's true."

Julian rubbed his face with his metal hands. "Pixie. For fuck's sakes, please just hand the phone over."

Pixie's eyes bulged. "No need to be rude about it! You can all just bugger off if you're going to be asses—"

"He's sorry!" Cessily interrupted, stretching her arm back to slap her hand across Julian's mouth, silencing him as he was about to say he wasn't. "Just…we're in a hurry, Megan. We're hoping to find someone in those pictures. You don't delete any, do you?"

"Nah, as long as they're not blacked out or blurry or anything, I keep them!" Pixie beamed as she handed the phone over to Cessily. "I have over ten thousand by now, maybe a wee bit more. I keep getting iCloud warnings but I figure I'll just get another phone when I max out. I'm on the highest plan already."

"What picture you lookin' for?" Santo asked.

"Remember that date we forced Julian and Laura on?" she asked as she started to thumb through the photo albums.

Julian's eyebrows drew together. "…you forced us on a date?!"

Cessily raised her hand. "Not now, Julian! The important part is me and Laura were all gussied up and Megan came and took a picture with us. I think Ruth wants us to find that picture."

Ruth nodded. "Excuse me, please, yes." She paused. "Thank you."

Julian folded his arms. "Not like ten thousand photos is going to take a while to search through or anything."

"I'm searching by month and year, stupid." Cessily paused. "That leaves only…yup, here it is." She handed the phone over to Julian.

His eyebrows drew together and he took it, then stared at the picture. There were three girls. Pixie was holding up above their heads. On one side was Cessily, who was wincing and trying to block the photo out. On the other was a girl, with dark hair, and green eyes that gazed mistrustfully upward at the camera. Laura. He stared at her. Santo hadn't been exaggerating. She was a fifteen. His fifteen, at least. She was wearing a white button-down shirt, and what looked like a plaid skirt. He could just see her fingers. The nails were painted black. His eyes were burning. And his throat. Mmmm mmmm!

The expression on her face. He had watched people die before…but he'd never watched someone just choose to stop living. Her fingers slid down the glass. I am ready.

We'll tell you when you're ready.

He almost dropped the phone. "What the fuck?!"

Everyone was staring at him now.

"Uh, sorry." He shook his head, which was starting to hurt. "It's…I'm remembering something…but…"

"Ah. Yes." Ruth nodded again. "Excuse me, this is going to hurt. Please wait."

She reached out and touched his forehead, like she had in the hallway, in the past.

"Ugghhn!" Julian gritted his teeth. CRUNCH!

"My phone!" Pixie squealed.

"Uh—" Julian shoved the crushed device back into her hands. "Um, I'll buy you a new one, but I—uh—I need to go—" he backed away, his heart beating in his ears. He turned and started running down the hallway, not sure where he was going, but sensing that he'd figure it out when he got there. Oh, right. Cerebra. He was running toward Cerebra, because he was going to scan every brain in the fucking universe until he found Laura's. He could do that now. Because he'd know her anywhere. He had a lot of lost time to make up for.

"Hey—Julian!"

He paused for a moment. James was standing at the door, duffle bag slung over his shoulder. Beside him stood a strange looking woman, with grey skin, and a long, furry tail.

"Hi." Julian paused. "You're back."

"Yep." James gestured to his companion. "This is Hepzibah."

"Nice to meet you." Julian grimaced. "I gotta run…but we'll catch up, okay?" He spun around, then remembered he could fly and was shooting toward the elevator a moment later, his eyebrows drawn together. When was the last time he'd seen her? Red eyes. Claws. He flinched. The attack. Laura must think he was dead.

He was finally at the doors to Cerebra.

They parted, and Frost was standing there, with folded arms. "Hello, Mr. Keller."

Julian paused, gazing at his old advisor. He hadn't seen her for a long, long time. For good reason. He couldn't remember why before, but now he did. He thought that she hadn't actually looked for Laura after she had been taken by the facility. Whatever reasons she had, he'd hated her for it.

What about now?

Frost raised an eyebrow. "You are using your telepathy, these days." She paused. "The Cuckoos?" Her voice was stiff.

"They helped." Julian realized he needed to be careful. Summers had wanted them to stay away from Frost, as much as possible. She didn't know what he was having Logan and the others do. She wouldn't approve. "I'm going to find Laura now."

"I see." Frost paused. "Well. Don't let me stand in your way." She gestured towards Cerebra. "Go see for yourself."

Julian brushed past her, approaching the chair, his heart thumping. A few moments, and he would know where Laura was. Finally. After over two years of searching. He sat down and lowered the helmet onto his head, digging into all the memories the Cuckoos had loaded into his head for instructions on how to use the machine.

At first, there wasn't much change. Just a greater awareness of who was around him. Before he'd only been able to sense Frost in the room near him. Now, he could still sense her, but also a group of people heading down the first-floor staircase. His friends, who were trying to figure out where he'd gone. And James and Hepzibah, who was an alien, in the elevator. The Cuckoos in the library (Mindee waved at him mentally), Quentin Quire in the kitchen (he flashed him the finger), Victor reading in his room, Nori returning to the school from a shopping trip—Julian bit his lip and started searching outside of the school. Come on…Laura…where are you? He flitted through strange mutant minds, faster and faster, knowing the moment that he glanced into them that they weren't what he was looking for. Soon, he didn't even have to look.

After a while, he took the helmet off, and stared at the blank screens on the walls of the chamber, his eyebrows drawn together. "You weren't lying."

"Of course not." Frost's heels clicked on the metal floor of the walkway as she headed toward him. "I am offended you would think that little of me."

Julian gazed down at his metal hands. "Yeah, well…" he closed his eyes. "Why can't I find her?"

"There is a metal called Vibranium. It is quite rare." Frost paused. "It absorbs energy signatures…including psionic energy, both telepathy and telekinesis. I believe you have encountered it before."

Julian put the helmet back on the control panel. "They have her shielded with that stuff somehow, don't they?"

"Probably." Frost sighed. "The only way to find locate her will be the old-fashioned way, I'm afraid. I have tried…all these years. But our resources have become tight of late."

"Yeah." Julian paused. "Wait a minute. How have you been trying?"

She frowned. "Investigators, pet. I hired the best. Six of them."

"Don't call me that." He wrinkled his nose. "We need to put out a hit on a target."

"…" Frost paused. "Excuse me?"

"We've all been doing this the wrong way." Julian stood up. "We've been looking and looking for Laura…but we need to make her come to us."

Frost raised an eyebrow. "And how do you propose to do that?"

Julian realized that she didn't know as much about Laura as he did. She hadn't seen the letter. "The facility's money-for-murder. They force Laura to kill for them." He paused. "So we make a job...advertise it in the right places…then wait for them to contact."

Frost's forehead wrinkled. "Perhaps." She paused. "You have been spending time with Logan, correct?"

Julian paused too. He could sense she was about to start asking questions. Maybe poking around in his head. Testing his shields. "A bit. So, can you loan me some money?"

She raised her eyebrows. "I will make arrangements. But I would prefer you would not be involved. Allow Logan and—"

"I'm going to be there." Julian's voice was firm. "Just set it up and let me know when and where." He headed toward the door, then paused. "Sorry I doubted you."

"I am sorry there was room for doubt." Frost paused. "I hope you will learn to trust me again."

"Anything can happen." Julian stepped into the hall. He reached the elevator just as the doors opened to reveal Santo and Cessily.

"We looked everywhere! What are you doing down here?!" The latter demanded.

"Cerebra." Julian paused. "I couldn't find her, but Frost says—"

"Whoa, whoa." Santo gave him a strange look. "Dude, you couldn't find her?"

Julian frowned. He'd forgotten that he hadn't told them about that little detail. He reached up and rubbed his neck. "I, uh, I'm kind of…a telepath now."

His friends stared at him.

"Wh-what?!" Cessily gaped at him. Holy shit, what have I let slip while we've been—

Crap! He probably knows I—

—and that we—

—DAMMIT I—

—oh my GOD and that time—

—MAYBE IF I JUST THINK ABOUT FOOD A LOT—

"Arrrgh!" Julian grabbed his head. "See, this is why I didn't tell you guys! Stop!"

"You just casually told us you've been reading our minds!" Cessily squealed.

"Dude, you're like Frost now!" Santo sounded outraged.

"Holy fuck!" Julian glared at them. "I have not been reading your minds! I only hear things when you overreact and scream them at me! And I'm not—" he paused, his forehead wrinkling. Wasn't this the same kind of thing he'd just realized he had accused Frost of doing? Assuming that just because she could alter minds and be deceptive, she would? He closed his eyes. "Look, I was wrong about Frost too. She…she actually did look for Laura. But she doesn't show up because of this stupid shielding thing the facility is doing."

Cessily paused, raised her eyebrows. "Really?"

"Yeah." Julian frowned. "I have an idea…and Frost is going to help with it." He paused. "We should get everyone together, so I don't have to explain this a million times."

"Yeah, but you are going to fill us in on all this stuff we're behind on with you, right?" Santo eyed him, then his hands. "Coz I feel like I'm a season behind on whatever your show is called."

Julian rolled his eyes, then sighed. "What I can."