The walk to the car was soundless, though many times almost broken by Charles's urge to speak. Silencing glares from Erik and the permanently shocked expression seemingly glued to Karme's face stopped him from breaking the quiet.

Karme. She still shook with fear, refusing to look anywhere else but her tattered shoes as she blindly followed wherever they were going. Her hand was still encased in Erik's, though she hadn't realized it in her trance-like state of mind. In fact, Karme hadn't even realized they had stopped until finally, a soft voice spoke out to her.

"Karme, it's alright, we are not going to hurt you. You can get in the car." Her head snapped in the direction of the voice, eyes wide with sudden fear. Charles gazed back at her with a sorrowful expression of his own. She looked around to see a sleek grey car in front of her, back door already open so she could get in. She glanced back at the two men, Charles nodding as if telling her it was alright.

"And you can stop holding my hand while you're at it." Erik's gruff voice interrupted her fear but still surprised her. She gazed down at their hands, his now bloody from her wounds.

"O-oh. Right. I'm so sorry," she whispered, retracting her hand from his and holding it against her chest.

"I just meant, you know, so we could wrap it or whatever." He reasoned, to which he got no reply. Karme simply nodded and got into the car. The door was closed for her, and as she stared straight ahead she heard the front doors open and close. The car engine started and then she was moving.

This was wrong. This was crazy. She had to get out of here, now. She didn't even know these men and here she was in a car with them. They had messed up, told her they were looking for powerful mutants. But she wasn't powerful; she was just a human flashlight. Most of the time she couldn't even turn on her powers when she wanted to. They were going to kill her, they really were. They were here to finish the job, they were-

"Karme? Did you hear me?" She flinched, looking up from the car's floor only to meet Charles's concerned gaze through the rearview mirror. Thought unable to tell in the ever changing club lights, Karme could now clarify that his eyes were an aquamarine blue; somehow more comforting to know. His alluring eyes narrowed slightly, as if processing information, before returning back to the road.

"No, I'm sorry. What did you say?" Karme managed to choke out, focusing on the back of his headrest while she tried to calm herself. She concentrated on breathing in and out consecutively, counting each intake of air.

"I said that you haven't any need to worry. Whatever horrors you've been through; you're safe now." His words oddly soothed her mind, flowing over her like a cool wave of ocean air. She took a deep breath, closing her eyes as she counted to ten before releasing the air, letting it flow from her body like she wished the depraved events of earlier that night would.

"Where did you say we were going?" With her newfound courage and clarity of mind also came the sudden awareness of the burning sensation coursing through her hands. She gasped slightly, clutching them to her chest tighter. As she looked down at them, she could visibly see the shards of glass embedded in her flesh, droplets of blood oozing from the scratches.

"I'm sorry, I didn't actually say," Charles apologized, taking a slow corner with the car. "We're going to a secret CIA base just a couple more hours from here. You'll be safe there, Karme." They shared another gaze through the mirror, before Charles added something almost as an afterthought. "There are other mutants there, as well," he said excitedly, gripping the wheel with a bit more force. "There's Raven and Sean, Hank and Alex, Armando, Angel. You'll love them." Karme smiled, working up a response when Erik cut in.

"There's also Moira." She shifted her gaze to the quiet man, watching as the corner of his mouth turned upward into a soft smirk.

"Oh, is she a mutant too?" Karme questioned lightly, watching as Erik glanced at her through the rearview mirror, smirk almost making it up to his eyes. She also noticed Charles's knuckles turning white on the steering wheel, a hard frown set upon his face.

"No. No she is not."

Karme nodded and decided to let that be that. Carefully resting her burning hands in her lap, she turned and pressed her forehead to the cool glass of the car window, finding the nighttime sky to be increasingly more welcome than the bright lights and atrocious music of the club.

The car ride went on in silence, Karme unsure if it was because she was present, or maybe that was just how things were. She found the pain in her hands lessened the more distracted she became, so she tried desperately to find quiet things to do but even she grew tired of watching the stars shift in the sky. She bit her tongue through the hours of travel; at one point so hard that she tasted the metallic flavor of blood. Finally, much to her gratitude, it was Erik who broke the silence.

"How much further, Charles?" He asked, rubbing a hand over his ruggedly handsome face. Karme quietly smiled at this, not taking Erik to be the kind to ask such a childish question. Karme especially liked the sound of Erik's accent as he pronounced Charle's name and snuck a glance at him, finding him sigh and lean back in his chair.

"Just a bit Erik. Cool off, mate." Charles's annoyed response reminded Karme of her adoptive father whenever her younger step-sisters would ask similar questions. His voice was annoyed, yet lightly amused and filled with nothing but honesty and wisdom. Her mouth fell into a frown at the thought of this, her heart aching worse than her hands. She forced her eyes to remain open as to not deal with the images that would inevitably appear if she were to close them. They too began to sting after a while, sparking tears to form in the corners of her eyes.

"You alright back there? You haven't said anything for a while." Karme was suddenly aware that she was still staring at Erik as his dark eyes unexpectedly met hers, intense and intriguing all at once. She forced herself to nod, fearful of his gaze yet still more afraid to look away.

"You sure don't say much," he commented gruffly, turning away from her and facing forward once more.

"Leave the poor girl be, Erik," Charles chided, turning to give a quick glare to his friend. Karme returned her gaze to the floor of the car, finding it spotted with droplets of her blood.

"What? I was only observing. Aren't you the one always telling me to use my brain?" Erik retorted harshly, raising a dark brow.

"Yes, and would you had; you'd have known not to say that." Charles continued to lecture Erik much to his annoyance and he pouted, much like a teacher scolding a young student.

"It's fine, really," Karme insisted, giving an intent nod of her head. "I'm not normally like…this…I'm sorry."

"Ah, she is capable of speech." Erik's words were much less intended as an insult towards her, rather they were a way of getting further under Charles's skin.

"Erik, for the love of God!" Charles exclaimed, causing another smirk to lay claim to Erik's lips.

"Oh look, we've arrived," he grinned, opening his door as Charles halted the car. "What a pleasant road trip."

"Erik," Charles warned, raising a brow, but was cut off as Erik slammed his door shut.

Karme couldn't help but to smile at their interaction, starting to grasp what their relationship consisted of. However, it was soon wiped off her face as her car door was suddenly opened, and Erik's hand was once more offered to her.

She flinched slightly, drawing away from him almost instinctively. "But my hand's covered in blood," she protested, finding Erik's lips twitch upward in a half smirk.

"That didn't stop me the first time." He pushed his hand slightly more towards her and she glanced at her own before shaking her head.

"No, thank you. I don't want to add any more of my blood to your hand." Erik stared at her intently for a moment, before nodding and retracting his hand. Standing out of her way so she could exit the car, he gently closed the door for her when she went to do it herself.

"Thank you," she smiled, it again falling when he only turned away from her and began walking.

"Don't mind Erik, he's a bit of an ass, but he can be alright sometimes." She turned to find Charles leaning against the car across from her, giving her a gentle smile. He nodded his head in the direction in front of them, also beginning to walk away.

"Come on, this way." She hurried after him, trying to keep pace while also taking in the entirety of the CIA base. While classified as one main building, several parts jutted out from the square center, each building off each other until it appeared to be one giant man-made beehive.

She gazed up as Charles held the door open for her, watching with a fascinated smile. Karme was amazed at how high the towering building went, and while it was not a skyscraper by any means, she wondered how the CIA had managed to keep this monstrosity hidden from the public for so long.

She was taken from her thoughts as Charles cleared his throat, causing her to duck her head in embarrassment and enter the building. She saw Erik waiting for them up ahead, his dark gaze following her with every step.

"You know, I don't believe we ever got your last name," Charles called from behind her, causing her eyes to fall to the floor in front of her.

"Green," she called back, voice falling to a whisper. "Karme Green."

"Ah, lovely," Charles smiled at her as they stopped, a genuine, happy smile that took over all the soft features of his charming face.

Karme narrowed her eyebrows, gazing between the two men. "You're not going to ask me what happened?"

"You will tell us, when you're ready," Erik responded, nodding to her. A grateful smile placed itself on her mouth as she nodded slowly.

"Thank you."

"Ah, Erik? Would you mind showing Karme here around? I need to have a word with some…CIA…agents," Charles requested, his sentence falling a bit short at the end as he looked down the hallway to Karme's right. She turned to look as well, though turned back upon finding no one there.

"He means Moira," Erik explained with a sly grin, nodding his head and signaling Karme to follow as he turned and went down the opposite hallway. As Karme followed, she could distinctively hear Charles trying to disagree, but that ended with a sigh on his part and soon Karme could hear his footsteps fade away.

"Hey, Erik?" She asked a few seconds later, receiving a raise of the brow and a hum in response. "What you said about my mutation, did you really mean that? I'm not strong, and it's just that Charles said you two were looking for powerful mutants." She looked at him and shook her head, unable to finish her sentence with the right words.

Erik suddenly turned into a room, catching Karme slightly off-guard. She trailed after him, finding them to be in a grand kitchen. She had barely any time to admire it before Erik's words cut her off, drawing her attention back to him.

"Every mutant is different. 'Special', it you will," he offered, opening a wooden draw and taking out a rag. "While some mutants might have similar abilities, I believe that no two of anything can be exactly the same."

Karme frowned slightly, shaking her head as he dampened the cloth under spewing water from the sink. "That's not what I meant." She didn't want or need a speech about how they were all snowflakes, each one taking a different form. Her adoptive parents had always told her that was a lie anyway, and that snowflakes had certain structural categories and sub-categories, but that not everyone could be different. That was impossible, and it was very important to know what was impossible when you lived in a world full of possibilities.

"Humans, for example," he continued, walking over to where she leaned against the granite counter, "are all stupid. However, their levels of stupidity vary in ways only special to them." A shark-like grin accompanied his dark eyes as he gingerly took her bloodied hand in his own. Her eyes snapped down to their hands, hers shaking from forgotten pain, his as strong and sturdy as his gaze.

"You don't have to be powerful," he whispered in a soft voice, tugging her closer to the sink so he could wash her hands in the water, "in order to do great things."

Karme had already concluded that his accent was one of her favorite things about Erik, no matter how selfish and egotistical that might be. The authority and power he held within his words led her to believe in everything he said, no matter how much she wanted to disagree. His words stuck to her mind, making them impossible to shake off. She lived her life being weak, wishing one day that she would acquire just an ounce of strength so that she might aspire to do something. Anything. She shook her head, drawing her lips into a tight line.

"Is that so?" She asked, finding courage within herself to connect her gaze to his, searching his eyes for any signs of lies. She found none.

"You'll meet everyone tomorrow. You'll see," he told her, breaking their gaze. She followed his eyes as they wandered down to her newly unbloodied hands, softly resting in his own. "The cuts aren't deep. Let me wrap them tonight and they'll be fine." He offered, gently turning her hands over so her palms faced up. She admired the way they seemed to fit perfectly into his, even allowing herself a hidden smile.

"No, thank you, I can manage," she replied coolly, taking her hands from his delicate grip. She scolded her brain for letting her act so foolishly after the events of the night. She didn't know Erik, or Charles, or anybody here. Had her family still been alive they would have been disappointed, they would have expected more. She closed her hands into fists, the slight stinging sensation drawing her back to the real world. They were never disappointed in her, how dare she tarnish their names with false thoughts.

He nodded to her, wringing the cloth in the sink before raising it to her face. She flinched slightly, drawing away from him. She wasn't used to the actions of other people, having lived such a secluded and hidden life.

"You've got blood on your cheek," Erik informed her, rolling his heavy brown eyes. He moved again, this time Karme held still, and she felt the warm cloth press gently against her cheek, Erik bringing it away just as soon and running it under water.

"There, that wasn't so bad, was it?" He asked her, his features back to their hard, mocking ways. She shook her head, turning away from him and tapping her fingers on the countertop.

"What can you do then? If Charles can," she tried to think of words, turning back towards him and throwing her hands up. "I don't know- read minds! If Charles can do that, what mutation do you have?"

"Charle's doesn't just read minds; he can control them. Feed you thoughts and make you do terrible things."

"He doesn't seem like the type of person to do something like that," Karme spoke quizzically, finding it hard to imagine a Charles who made people jump of buildings or pull the trigger.

"He's not," Erik retorted, almost as if that were a bad thing. "Charles is much too soft to do anything but read thoughts. What's information for one should be information for all, I guess. Or at least information for Charles." He leaned against the counter next to her, crossing his strong arms against his chest. His leather jacket creased as he did so, Karme watching as he glared at the clock across the wall.

"Everyone will be up in a few hours if you want to take the time now to rest. I can show you to your room." Though his words implied she had a choice, he exited the kitchen without hesitation and didn't wait up as Karme struggled after him.

"But what about your mutation? What is it?" She asked, wanting more than anything to find out.

"A trick for another time perhaps," he said, flexing his hands. Karme tilted her head, narrowing her eyes.

"That's what you said at the club," she remembered, stomping after him impatiently.

"Yes, and you didn't listen then so here's to hoping you'll listen now." She huffed and was about to make a witty retort when he sent her a silencing glare, continuing their walk in quiet.

"You haven't actually shown me anything here," she commented after a while, a bit irritated with his attitude. "How am I supposed to navigate through this place? It's huge!"

"Well you know where the kitchen is, no? What else could you need?" An infuriating smirk played on his lips as Karme glared at him, it only growing as he realized how aggravated she was.

"Erik," she began to scold, now seeing how tiring this must get for Charles. Besides that, Karme had just been following Erik blindly when they arrived upon the kitchen. She let out a sigh.

"Oh, don't chide me. I get enough of that from Charles." Erik snapped, opening a door and fake bowing to her. "Your room."

"Well maybe Charles wouldn't chide you if you would just-" Her words were cut short as Erik turned and walked away, leaving her standing with an open mouth, looking similar to the fool she felt like.

"I'm just down the hall; don't bother me unless you're dying. But if that is the case, try to keep it down, some people like to sleep." Karme sneered at his retreating form, though stared after him until he entered another room, the door slamming shut behind him.

"What an ass," she commented to herself, nodding and entering her room. "If I'm dying, you're the last person I would go to," she determined, gently closing the door.

Her room was almost gigantic, much to her distaste, a large, grey square of concrete with carpeted floor and a bed bigger than life. Tall oak dressers lined the wall opposite her, four large but empty bookshelves to her left and right, and directly across from the bed sat a bench and a large mirror, oddly inviting and haunting at the same time.

She walked towards it with fear, scared of what she might find. Looking into it her worst nightmares were brought to life; her caramel skin drained of all color and sickly to the sight. Her normally silky hair lay messily upon her head, haunting brown eyes and a permanent frown glued to her face. Upon seeing the blood on her shirt Karme spun the mirror around so it faced the wall, heavy breaths coming from her lips.

She threw the shirt off, searching the dressers until she found spare attire stamped with the CIA logo. Oddly familiar with the clothes, she stripped and changed, landing into the soft covers of the bed with a tired groan.

It was safe to say that she stayed there for the rest of the night and into early morning, waking up every few minutes from terrible nightmares and horrific memories.

It was also safe to say that occasionally Charles would find himself awake, mind troubled by the images floating around in her head.

As for Erik, he would wake up only when she called out in her sleep, pleading and begging almost incoherently. On the last one he found himself unable to return to sleep, remaining awake until morning and wondering who Lily and Robert were.