Roberto bopped his head to his music as he filled Sam's tray with bacon and eggs.
Sam took a tiny bit of the egg and tasted it. "Mmmm. Almost as good as Ma used to make em."
"It's quite good," Rahne agreed. She and Dani were already eating and sitting together.
Roberto froze, looking at the door in trepidation. The others turned to see Illyana standing in the cafeteria doorway.
"You hungry?" Roberto asked. Instead of answering, Illyana just turned and walked away.
Roberto made an 'eek' face. "Guess I'm still in the dog house."
Sam put his tray down and leaned against the counter. "My Pa used to tell me that when people get really angry or really scared, that's when they show you who they really are. He was trying to tell me to control my temper and not to be scared."
"You're saying she showed who she really is?"
"I guess what I'm saying is we don't know. I shouldn't judge, since I showed who I am when I panicked."
"Yeah. I guess I did too."
Sam stabbed his fork into the bacon. "You ever think maybe we're the crazy ones?"
"No one in this room is crazy," Dani declared. "But if we stay here too long, I think we'll all go cuckoo eventually."
"And out best ticket for getting out of here has already flown over the cuckoo's nest," Rahne observed.
Illyana waited with an impatient expression as Emma attached her to the lie detector again.
"How are you today?" Emma asked when everything was hooked up.
"Like a ray of sunshine," Illyana answered sarcastically. Emma glanced down at the results, which showed that Illyana was lying.
"Very good." She sat down with a grin.
"Well, little miss sunshine, do you know what secondary mutations are?"
"I can't say that I do."
Emma glanced at the results again. There was no lie.
"A secondary mutation is when a mutant develops multiple abilities that are seemingly unrelated to each other. For instance, the X-Men's teleporter also has the ability to cling to walls like an insect."
Illyana paused in thought as she considered this new concept.
"What's your point?" she finally asked.
"I'm asking if it is possible that you have a secondary mutation, something beyond just your teleportation disks."
"Not as far as I know," Illyana responded.
Emma frowned as the polygraph still detected that she was telling the truth.
"You don't think there is a chance this might apply to you, that your mutant abilities might be greater than you previously knew?"
"I guess there's always a chance, but I've got no reason to think that is the case."
"Suppose, for a moment, you did have a secondary mutation, what would it be?"
Illyana raised her hands and shook her head. "How the hell should I know?"
"Could it be time travel, for instance?"
Illyana stopped, and Emma smiled.
"Am I finally looking in the right places?"
"I didn't come from the future, if that's what you're asking." Illyana summoned a disk of light at her feet and stared into it.
"You still here?" Emma asked.
Illyana clasped her hands together and the disk disappeared. "Got lost in thought for a moment there. I suppose your superior would be a lot more interested in me if I could time travel as well."
Emma's eyes narrowed. "You ask a lot of questions about him."
"And you talk about him a lot, but somehow always without ever actually saying anything. You want everyone to think it's Xavier, but we both know that's far from the truth."
"I thought as much," Emma said. "You're not here for the same reason as the others. Is someone waiting for you outside these walls?"
Illyana shook her head. "I'm here for myself. I don't have anyone who could have sent me here."
Emma glanced at the polygraph results, which continued to show no lie.
"You think that because I can't hold you here against your will that you have the advantage over me, don't you?"
Illyana held up the hand which was attached to the polygraph. "That's hardly my only advantage."
Emma frowned. "So, you know why I don't need that to tell when the others are lying to me. It's true that that has made things more difficult, but I still believe you can be brought into line, especially now that I've found a chink in your armor."
Illyana titled her head slightly in confusion, and Emma gave her a menacing grin.
"That puppet you're always carrying around. I wonder what kind of stitching it's made out of?"
Illyana's eyes widened in fright and she clutched her toy dragon closely.
Emma gave a small laugh. "All this time I was sure your strange attachment to that doll was part of an elaborate act you were putting on. But the truth is you're no actress. You really are just as bizarre as you appear."
Illyana took a deep breath and glared at Emma, whose smile grew even wider.
"Yes. You are a riddle wrapped within an enigma, Illyana, and I'm going to enjoy unraveling you piece by piece."
Illyana leaned forward and spoke in a threatening tone.
"I hope you're ready for what you find."
Emma's eyes scanned the gloomy faces at that day's session.
"Today I want to focus on motivation. The more effort you put into this program, the sooner you can move on. So, what are your hopes for the future? What would you want to do once you can rejoin society?"
She glanced around the room. No one was volunteering to be first. "Sam?"
Sam sighed. "I guess I just want to go home and go back to school, see my friends and family again."
"You can do that," Emma assured him, "if you learn to control your power."
Sam nodded, and Emma looked to the next person. "Roberto?"
"I'd like to go home too, start learning the family business," the Brazilian teenager answered.
"And what about the rest of you?" Emma asked, turning to the girls. "Unlike Sam and Roberto, you three don't have homes to return to. What will you do?"
Rahne's brow creased in thought. "I hadn't really thought about that."
"Neither did I," Dani admitted. "It's been hard to look that far ahead."
"Perhaps it is time you did so. Setting concrete and realistic goals is one of the most effective ways of moving forward."
Rahne and Dani looked at each other.
Emma turned to Illyana. "And what about you?"
Illyana leaned back in her chair and tilted her head. "I'm always focused on my goal."
That night, the teens were once again in the rec room. Rahne and Dani sat on the couch watching an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, while Sam read a book about baseball and Illyana lay on the floor drawing on a large sheet of paper with crayons.
Roberto came into the room. "You gotta see what I found in the attic."
He led them upstairs and brought them to the back of the attic to see the antique he had found.
"Is that a jukebox?" Dani asked.
Sam chuckled. "Anyone got a dime?"
Roberto gave the machine a slap and it lit up. "Still works."
He put on an old rock song.
"I don't think I know this song," Rahne said.
"It's a classic," Sam replied, starting to shake his head and snap his fingers. Dani and Roberto were also starting to get into the groove.
Rahne and Dani began to dance together in front of the juke-box while Sam and Roberto pushed each other on a spinning chair they found.
Illyana went to sit down and watch as the others had fun.
As the song changed Dani glanced at Illyana and saw that she was tapping one foot to the beat of the music.
She walked over to Illyana. "Do you want to dance?"
"I don't know how," Illyana responded.
Dani shook her head. "Is there anything you do know how to do?"
"Yes, but most of it involves killing people."
Dani froze for a moment. "Yeesh. Sorry I asked."
The sound of thunder distracted all of them. Rahne looked out the window and smiled. She went over to Dani and took her by the hand.
"Come on. I want to show you something."
"Where are we going?" Dani asked.
"It's a surprise."
Dani followed Rahne out of the attic as Roberto turned the juke box off and sat down next to Sam. He handed the other boy a glass of iced tea.
"What do you think those two are up to?"
Rahne and Dani crawled through the vents.
"You sure this is the right way?" Dani asked, growing uncomfortable with all the crawling.
"I can see in the dark," Rahne responded. "Trust me. You're gonna love this."
"You know what this place needs?" Roberto asked. "An Xbox. I wouldn't get bored if I had the latest Fifa game to keep me busy when we're not in therapy."
"This could be a five star hotel and I'd still just want to get out of here," Sam responded.
"Long as that bubble's up, we don't have a choice." Roberto glanced at Illyana, who was sitting far away from them. "Well, most of us don't have a choice."
He smiled at Sam. "If we 'accidentally' smashed the machine that makes these force fields we'd be home free."
"We'd have to find it first," Sam responded. "Is that what you were doing, looking for where the generator is hidden?"
Roberto shrugged, and Sam grew contemplative. "I never had a choice."
"What do you mean?"
Sam sighed. "I had to go work in the mines with my dad. I was still new at the job. One day, I just got claustrophobic, like I couldn't breathe."
"And you blasted off," Roberto said. "It made the mines cave in, and your dad and the other miners were trapped underneath."
Sam nodded and choked back a sob. "I killed my dad and most of the crew. I just … I couldn't forgive myself."
Roberto put his hand on Sam's shoulder. "Hey, I'm sorry man."
"I would do anything, anything, to change that."
"It can't be changed."
The boys turned to Illyana, who looked upset with Sam.
"You said before that you want to go back, back home, back to school. But those places are never gonna be what they were before."
"I know that!" Sam protested.
"Do you?" Illyana scoffed. "You want to go back in time to before you had this power. But wishing it away doesn't change the fact that you have it or that your father is dead. You have to live in the real world."
"You're going to talk to me about living in the real world?" Sam asked in a raised voice. "You're always off in your own little fantasy land."
Illyana stood up. "The past is dead. If you want to get better, start looking forward instead of back."
"All right. What's your dead past, then?" Roberto asked. "Did you kill someone too?"
"Everyone here has killed someone," Illyana answered.
"What happened?" Sam asked. "You drop someone from one of your portals, or chop off their head by mistake?
Illyana shook her head. "When I killed, it was with my bare hands."
She left, and Sam and Roberto looked at each other in trepidation.
Rahne had to help Dani out of the vent once they were outside.
Dani looked around the grounds. "Wait, so you could get out of the building the whole time?"
"It's not like I can get past the force field," Rahne said. "But there's nowhere in the facility itself I can't go."
She led Dani out onto the grass, where they laid down.
"Wow," Dani said as she watched the raindrops falling on the forcefield above them, creating an ever-changing field of glowing orange stars which lit up the night sky.
"It's beautiful," Rahne whispered.
"It sure is. It's a beautiful cage. That's what my father called it."
Rahne turned to her. "You had a force field on your reservation?"
Dani laughed. "No. That's not what I meant. My father was talking about our bodies."
She looked back up at the brilliant display in the sky. "How we're trapped in them, and how when we die, our souls become free."
Dani smiled. "Free to be with the ones we love. It sounds pretty nice."
"That assumes you get to go to heaven with your loved ones," Rahne said.
"Yeah."
"I guess you just gotta do as much good as you can while you're here, and hope it's enough when the time comes."
"I guess that's all anyone can really can do." Dani rolled onto her side and looked at Rahne.
"What is it?"
"It's just … you've been so nice to me. Too nice. I think I'd have gone insane if you weren't here. Now I'm wondering if you're real, or if you're someone I dreamt up."
"And the others? Did you dream them up too?"
Dani laughed again. "I'd have to have taken some serious drugs to dream up someone like Illyana, so I'm gonna go out on a limb and say they're real."
Rahne laughed as well. "I'm really here."
She rolled over and looked into Dani's eyes. "You know when Dr. Frost was asking us what we want to do when we finally get out of here? I think I've figured out one thing I want to do."
"Me too."
They reached for each other and began to kiss.
There was a large boom as something struck the side of the force field closest to them. The girls shot up in shock as the barrier shone as bright as day for several seconds.
"What was that?" Dani asked between breaths.
"Must've been a lightning strike," Rahne answered.
Dani looked back up at the sky. The rain continued to leave a star field above them.
"Beautiful, but scary."
"You wanna go back inside now?" Rahne asked.
Dani nodded. "The longer we're out, the more likely it is Dr. Frist will realize we're gone."
They began to head back towards the vent they had used to leave the building.
"Hey, Rahne?"
"Yes?"
"Thanks for bringing me out here."