After a few hours on the road, the car had fallen into silence. Raven looked like she was about to fall asleep in the seat next to Charles. Erik kept his eyes on the window, watching the Florida landscape fly. In the driver's seat, Gabriele watched the road, passing any car that threatened to force her to move her foot to the brake. The woman was quite interesting, Charles had to admit.

She was a mutant, with an ability she appeared reluctant to disclose to the newcomers, working for the US government. Her entire personality screamed reluctant, as if she would rather be somewhere or if she found everything boring and was only doing because it was a part of her job. And then there was her ability to block Charles out of her mind. She herself wasn't a telepath so it was all very strange.

"Can I ask you a question, Ms. Richter?" Charles asked from the backseat, starting at the side of her head. She started a little as his words, perhaps forgetting there was other people in the car.

"Sure," She answered, stifling what he thought was a sigh. "What?"

He noticed that Erik turned his slightly to listen while Raven shifted in her seat. "Has Gabriele Richter always been your name?" Charles, remembering the one detail he received from her mind before the wall had appeared.

Her grip on the steering wheel tightened, but only for a brief second. "No, I changed it after the war." Her voice was quiet.

"What was it before? If you don't mind me asking." His sister was fully awake now rubbing the sleep out at her eyes.

Gabriele caught Charles' eyes in the rear view mirror and for a moment he thought she wasn't going to give him an answer. "Sevel," She said. "Sevel Hirsch." Charles nodded his head.

"Why'd you change it?" Raven asked, leaning forward in her seat.

Gabriele shrugged her shoulders. "Because I wasn't the same person anymore. Sevel died in that camp with her family," She said matter-of-factly, while passing another car. "And besides, Sevel Hirsch was a stupid name to begin with." She added.

Raven made a face. "Can I call you 'Gabby'?"

"Yeah, if you want." The woman sounded tired, though as a result of the conversation or the events of the previously day, Charles wasn't sure.

But Raven was just getting started. "Are you from Germany?"

Gabriele was hoping she would be able to drive all the way to Virginia in silence, but the chatty siblings in the backseat refused to let that happen. "I was born in Munich but I grew up in Nuremberg." Taking her eyes off the road, Gabriele turned around to look the girl in the eyes. "Any more questions." She tried to make her voice as rude as possible but it came up short. She turned back around in time to notice the sign on the side of the road that indicated that they had finally crossed over into Georgia.

"Yeah," Raven said quite loudly. "What exactly is your other mutation?"

"Raven, its not polite to-" Charles began, but Gabriele cut him off.

Her words were quick but everyone understood them. "When my skin comes into contact with another's, it results in a high intensity shock. I can't feel it but the other person can."

"Can you control it?" Erik asked, filling the vehicle with his deep voice for the first time that night.

Gabriele shook her head. "No, hence the gloves." She waved a hand at no one in particular.

"So you can't touch anyone without hurting them?" The words were from his sister's mouth before Charles could speak up.

"That's quite enough questions for one night, Raven. Go back to sleep. We still have a long drive ahead of us."


They reached Virginia and Division X headquarters early the next afternoon. Gabriele had driven the whole way, despite offers from both Charles and Erik to takeover. And even though, she had exceed the speed limit the whole way north, they had failed to beat her boss to the finish line. Bridge and MacTaggert were just climbing out of their own car when Gabriele pulled into the adjacent parking spot.

Division X was located just north of Richmond, Virginia. The large secret base was surrounded by dense forest and was only accessible by a long winding single lane road which was in great need of repair. The complex was full of countless offices and laboratories. It even had its own air base. Gabriele rarely visited the base even though she had an entire office reserved just for her. It sat unused with the desk and empty filing cabinets gathering dusk. When she wasn't on assignment for the CIA, she lived and spent the majority of her time in a small apartment in north Seattle, away from the bureaucracy of the agency.

Gabriele stayed quiet as Bridge welcomed everyone to the building. She was still a bit upset at him for involving her in his little organization. Feeling annoyed and exhausted, Gabriele excused herself to use the restroom as Bridge prepared to give the group a tour of the complex. In reality, Gabriele just took a twenty minute nap on a sofa in the lobby once the others disappeared. She needed the alone time more than she needed to a vastly over-detailed tour of the building, which Bridge was sure to give in order to impress the new mutants. When she finally decided to get up and rejoin the others, she found them just as they were walking into one of the many research laboratories.

"So nice of you to show up, Richter." Bridge said with sarcasm as she took a place next to him, ignoring the others behind her.

Gabriele wasn't in the mood. "You're lucky I'm even here. I could think of a thousand more ways I would prefer to spend the rest of my day." She said with her own hint of sarcasm. "Chile plays Argentina in an about hour." She informed her boss, taking note of her watch.

"Speaking of Argentina, did he hear about Eichmann?" Gabriele's breath got caught in her throat. It took every inch of her self-control to keep from striking Bridge across the face for his insensitive change of subject. Instead, she simply nodded her head in the affirmative. "I thought you would be more concerned?"

Even without looking, she knew the others were listening. While they had limited knowledge of what Bridge and she were talking about, Gabriele disliked discussing the subject in front of other people. When she spoke, her tone was noticeably incensed and rude. She was intent on ending this certain conversation topic. "Why should I be? Just because Adolf Eichmann practically saved my life doesn't mean he shouldn't pay for the millions of lives he did destroy. After all, it was me who caught him." She tried to keep her voice low, but it still seemed to echo across the room with its high ceiling.

"I thought the Mossad caught Eichmann?" Erik asked from his spot behind Charles and Raven. He of all people would be interested in the fate of Adolf Eichmann.

"It was actually a joint-operation between Israel and the U.S. But America let Israel take all the credit. Especially after Argentina threw a fit." Gabriele said, matter-of-fact. Her mission with the Mossad last year was the first time she had ever worked with other people. She hoped it would be her last.

"But I thought you believe his defense?" Bridge asked a minute after her explanation. This whole conversation had gone on much too long.

"I believed his defense because I lived it. The entire time I was at Mauthausen, all Eichmann did was complain about death-camp quotas not being fulfilled, about the problems of getting all French Jews to the camps, and about the intermittent failure of the Italians to cooperate. The man was following orders on everything he did, except for, probably, his actions in regard to me. But following orders does not relieve one of guilt. Nor responsibility for one's actions." She said, wishing desperately for a change of subject. At this point, she might as well had gone ahead and reveal all her secrets, which weren't really quite secrets, just sensitive areas in her past.

But her wish for a change of topic was delayed when Erik asked another question. "How exactly did Eichmann save your life?" He voice held what seemed to be his typical amount of disdain and cynicism.

The answer to his question was one that needed a preamble, another thing she did not wish to divulge. But she was too far in to not answer his question. "When the Nazis at Dachau learned of my inability to die in the gas chambers, they sent me to Mauthausen in Austria. The doctors, at the orders of the officers, ran numerous experiments on me. Everything from harmless blood work to extensive torture to test the range of my healing abilities. When the officers felt they had learned all they could from me, they insisted that I be disposed of by any means necessary. I was kneeling in front of a headsman when Eichmann suggested that I be kept alive until the Nazi's were able to grow and replicate my cells. They never did figure that out before the Americans arrived." When she was finished, Gabriele noticed that everyone was staring at her. All but Erik had horrified looks on their faces. Now she wished she would have taken a longer nap.

In order to cut off any more questions, she added, "But I didn't drive fourteen hours with no sleep just to answer question about myself." Her tone, which was probably still a rude one, caused the conversation to digress back to Division X.