After the groups little show and tell, everyone dispersed to find a way to entertain themselves. Alex and Darwin were animatedly playing the pinball machine on one side of the room, apparently getting quite competitive as their voices occasionally could be heard tossing insults and trash talk at one another. Sean sat next to Angel, clearly trying to flirt with the poor girl who seemed less than interested. Hank and Raven were perched on two stools by the counter in the kitchenette talking to one another in hushed tones. Kira sat by herself on the couch opposite Angel and Sean, simply observing her fellow mutants.

She liked them all fine, she thought, but she couldn't help but wish her sister was here. She would have loved to meet all these new people, to have joined in on their cheers and laughs. Of course Kira knew that Lara was fine, Charles had assured her of that. She just hoped her twin could join them all soon.

"Hey, didn't Charles say there would be eight of us total? There are only seven of us," Raven ironically observed. Kira sighed.

"The last one is my twin sister, Lara," she explained, causing everyone's eyes to fall on her.

"There's another one of you? Nice," Sean smirked, wiggling his eyebrows. Angel whacked the back of his head.

"Where is she?" Angel asked, turning her eyes back to Kira and tilting her head curiously.

"Not exactly sure, to be frank. Charles took her elsewhere until she can control her powers a little better." At everyone's waiting stares she continued. "It's not my place to explain everything to you, but to put it simply Lara gets very overwhelmed around people."

When the others realized that she was not going to say any more on the matter, they resumed their respective activities. With a huff, Kira stood up and walked over to the refrigerator and poured herself another Coke, filling the glass only two-thirds of the way full. She reached into the inside pocket of her leather jacket and pulled out a decent size flask, filling the rest of the glass up with the rum it held.

Raven raised an eyebrow at her, having seen her spike her drink. Kira held the flask towards the blonde as if to ask if she wanted some. Raven's mouth quirked into a smile as she grabbed it from her hand and poured some into her own glass. Hank looked weary, unsure of whether or not he approved of the alcohol that had been brought into the mix.

Soon enough, though, everyone's drinks had been spiked and they all sat back down on the couches. She was suddenly glad she had brought two, as there was plenty to go around.

"I say we play a little game," Raven suggested once a pleasant buzz had started to hit everyone in the circle.

"What kind of game?" Hank asked her, clearly weary of what she had in mind.

"I say we go around and each person gets to ask someone else a question, and that person has to answer honestly or else they have to drink." The thought of sharing secrets clearly made a few of the group uncomfortable, some more than others, but Raven held steadfast in her idea. "Look, we are going to be a team now. We should know a little about our teammates." Kira couldn't deny the girl had a point, although personally knew that she would probably be drinking more often than she would be answering any questions.

"I'll go first," Raven decided, scanning the group of faces to decide who she would ask a question. "Angel," she picked, pointing her finger at the other girl. "When did you get your powers?"

"I was fourteen," she said. "I woke up one morning in a cocoon-crazy, right?- and when I broke out of it I had these tattoos. I was looking at them in the mirror when all of a sudden, BAM, they turned into wings."

"A cocoon? Fascinating," Hank mused, his scientific mind whirring at the information.

"Alright, Alex," Angel decided after a moment of deliberation. "Why were you in solitary confinement?" Everyone looked at her, surprised. "What? I overheard people talking about it."

"I chose to be in solitary," he mumbled, avoiding eye contact with anyone. "Better than hurting someone." Silence fell upon the room, pitying glances being cast his way.

"Kira," Alex finally said, breaking the silence and looking her dead in the eyes. "What's with the scars on your face?" Kira flinched at the question, a hand reaching up and running a finger over the two lines that marred her skin from the middle of her forehead to her left eyebrow. Instead of answering she downed the rest of her drink in a single go.

"Oh no you don't," Alex said, eyes hard. "You owe me for that stunt you pulled earlier." Kira's eyes bore into his, her gaze a fierce glare that she hoped would make him back off. It didn't work. She looked him straight in the eyes, her stare unflinching and her jade eyes turning stoney.

"My foster father came home especially belligerent one night and decided to chuck a broken whiskey bottle at my sister. I stepped in front of her and it caught me in the face. Even though the cuts were so deep and wouldn't stop bleeding, he refused to take me to the hospital. They never got stitched up, hence the scar."

Throughout her whole admission she refused to look away from his eyes, taking pleasure in the way his anger turned to guilt. Once again a deafening silence hung in the room. When Alex went to say something, she excused herself harshly while grabbing the rest of her liquor and taking it with her.

She planned to finish the rest of it alone in her room, hoping it would ward away the nightmares she knew would come.

Lara had been laying on the bed practicing constructing and deconstructing the mental barriers Charles had taught her when the door opened. She continued staring at the ceiling, keeping her concentration focused on her practicing, even when someone entered the room and closed the door behind them.

"Your sister got everyone drunk last night and then locked herself in her room," Charles's voice filled the room, effectively breaking her concentration. "Thus far she refuses to come out." Lara couldn't tell if his voice sounded amused or annoyed, eventually deciding it was probably a bit of both.

"That sounds like Kira," she said, heaving her body into a sitting position on the bed to look at Charles. His hair was once again neatly styled and he wore a clean, simple button down shirt tucked into a nice pair of slacks. She got the impression he rarely dressed down.

"I guess they decided to play some game where they asked each other questions. She didn't want to answer one, was forced to, and made a dramatic exit." Lara sighed. Kira was never one to open up and she could imagine her twin did not take kindly to being forced into doing so.

"Dare I ask what the question was?"

"How she got her scars."

Lara groaned and flopped back down on the bed in exasperation. Out of all the things to ask, it had to be that. Guilt creeped up through her veins as it normally did when she thought of her twin's scars. They were her fault and it killed her.

"You're projecting," Charles said gently, feeling the full extent of her guilt. He had see Kira's answer in Alex's mind so he knew why the poor girl felt this way. It broke his heart to realize, though, just how tortured Lara was over it.

By now he was sitting on the edge of the bed, looking at her with concern. She cringed and muttered an apology, focusing on putting back up her mental barrier.

"Good, Lara, I can no longer feel your emotions," he praised, a sad smile on his face.

"Nor I yours," she mumbled, distracted by her own self-loathing.

"Lara," he gently said, laying a hand on hers. "You must not blame yourself…"

"I don't wish to talk about this, Charles." The clipped response and her pulling her hand away sharply shocked him; despite only knowing Lara a very brief period of time he had learned that she was a soft spoken, open girl. Apparently some things made even the most resilient people shut down.

"I apologize," he whispered, at a loss as to what else to say. The young woman suddenly popped up off the bed and looked at him with a determined look in her eyes.

"Take me to my sister, please." It wasn't a request, it was a demand. His eyes searched hers and found that her resolve would not waver. He sighed, nodding and motioning for her to follow him. He lead her down the hallway to where the rest of the mutants were living, all the while keeping an eye on her to make sure she was okay.

Lara could feel her face pull in concentration as she actively worked to keep her barriers up. People passed them on their walk to her sister and, though it was extremely difficult, for the first time since she was young she didn't feel a single other person's emotions. If she wasn't so concerned for her twin she probably would have jumped up and down in glee.

Minutes later they stood in front of Kira's door and Lara tentatively knocked. When there was no answer she knocked again, this time announcing her presence. The floor flung open, revealing a very haggard Kira. When she saw Charles behind her twin, Kira tried to slam the door shut, but Lara stopped it with a hand before she did so. She turned to Charles and gave him a pointed look, silently telling him to leave so she could talk to her distressed sister. He reluctantly nodded and left the two alone.

When Lara entered the room her heart lurched in her chest. She softly closed the door behind her as she took in the disaster before her. Clothes were strewn across the room, holes had been punched in the walls, the mattress was on the other side of the room than the bed frame. She turned to look at her sister and had to fight back tears.

Kira's dark eyeliner was smeared around her eyes and streaked down her cheeks. Her normally vibrant green eyes were dull and bloodshot. Her deep auburn hair was half pulled out of its normal curly bun and was sticking out in all directions. Her knuckles were torn and bloody.

Lara let the barrier come down and felt her sister's emotions crash over her in waves. There were so many: anger, bitterness, despair, helplessness, self-loathing, the list went on. Before it overwhelmed her completely she slammed her mental walls back up and embraced her now sobbing twin. She sat them both down on the mattress, Kira clinging to her shirt for dear life as she let out strangled wails. Lara could smell the alcohol still on her breath.

The two twins sat there for hours, one of their heart's in disarray and the other desperately wishing she could fix it.