The Creature was inclined to sleep after all that activity. She didn't put up more than a token resistance when the human mind started to rear up. The current mission parameters were pretty well met. All immediate physical threats were dealt with. At this point the human half was better equipped to deal with the situation.

She yawned and settled in for a rest, sated and spent.

Quetzal 'came to' fairly quickly. It was disorienting being in a body that was more saurian than human so she quickly returned to human form. Almost entirely. She left a thin coating of scarlet and jet feathers to protect her modesty, the change to saurian form had destroyed all the clothing she had on.

She was covered in blood. The room was covered in blood. From what she could see the hall was covered in blood. Bodies lay strewn about like broken dolls. Many of them were in pieces.

And the worst part was her stomach was full. She took the time to stick her finger down her throat and retch up what she could before moving on. Time was still very short.

In a way she was glad that it was Grace's mom hooked up to all these wires. It made sense; Grace had to get her powers from somewhere. Tia Maria just never developed them to the strength seen here.

This was good because if it had been Grace's dad here Quetzal might have just killed him when she was done with this part. The man was a horrible person who benefitted the world best by being dead. That was what Quetzal's dad said at least. Grace and Ezzy expressed similar sentiments but more colorfully expressed. Still, she was pretty certain her new friends wouldn't quite understand.

Quetzal started removing the tubes and wires that plugged into Maria. The young woman (barely more than a girl) seemed to watch Quetzal with distant eyes. Quetzal spoke soothingly in Spanish as she undid the restraining straps. "Hey there. You're Maria right? I'm here to help you. My name is Quetzal. You don't have to be scared of me. I'm going to get you out of here."

Maria stared with dark eyes.

"You understand me?" Quetzal asked. She winced at the permanent IV shunts in the woman's arms. Her muscles were wasted away and the straps had left scars around her wrists and ankles.

Mairia nodded.

"Speak English?"

"Not so well."

Hopefully my Spanish is better huh?" Quetzal knew her Spanish was good. But a little joking around was a quick way to build a rapport. "Can you help me? If you can help me I can get you out of here."

Maria was sitting up. Quetzal draped a lab jacket over her. There wasn't too much blood on it. Quetzal smiled, being sweet as honey and pie, trying not to betray the screaming inside. "What do you say?"

"You're covered in blood."

Quetzal looked down. Her feathers were matted with the stuff and when she wiped her face more blood came off on her fingers. Another advantage of red feathers, they his blood fairly well. "Yeah, I guess I am. It's not mine though. So will you help me? I can't do this without you." Quetzal put a lab jacket over herself, hiding some of the bloody feathers.

Maria nodded solemnly.

"Were you the one canceling the Jean?" Quetzal sat down next to her. "In New York and while she was here?"

Maria nodded again.

"Do it again. Mute her completely. Don't let her get anything out."

Maria closed her eyes tightly. After a few moments she grunted "This is very hard."

"She is the most powerful psychic in the world and she's being augmented by the device they put her in. But you can do it I'm sure. Just for five minutes, that's all." Quetzal was gratified when she heard Wolverine start swearing under his breath. Maria was blocking whatever was keeping the other mutants asleep.

It took just a few seconds for the muttered curse words to become shouted. Wolverine sat up, looking at his shredded left arm. The Creature's teeth had torn most of it down to the bone. "What the hell happened?" he shouted at Quetzal.

"Not now," she growled through her teeth at him. "Get Storm to clear the air then go find Jean. You have as long as Maria can keep Jean contained. I don't think that's going to be a very long time. If you don't get Jean free before then everyone goes lights out again and I will personally put my size ten boot up your ass for wasting this chance!"

His mood could not be possibly made worse by Quetzal's attitude. "You coming?"

Quetzal felt her eyes go flat. She was so far beyond exhausted. "No. The first priority for retaking the compound will be to resecure Maria. We can't leave her here on her own."

"We'll be back in a minute."

"Hurry!"

Wolverine left Quetzal. His arm was starting to heal, but it was taking a strangely long time. He tried to piece together what happened as he sniffed the air, looking for traces of Jean. The last thing he remembered was Quetzal knocking him to the ground. There had been guards then. Now there was just a lot of corpses.

When he woke up Quetzal was half-naked and looked like she'd bathed in the blood. The room and hallway floors were slick with the stuff and red gouts had been thrown against the walls. Broken bodies and parts were strewn around and many had large bites taken out of them. And Quetzal's teeth were red.

Wolverine had seen destruction on this scale a handful of times before. Usually it involved Frank Castle or Sabretooth. What had the girl done? This certainly wasn't anything learned in the Danger Room.

"Nice job," Scott said as he joined Logan. "Happen to leave anyone down here alive?"

"This wasn't me," Wolverine growled back. "It was Quetzal. Jean should be right next door."

Storm was getting up, trying not to lean against the wall. She was covered in blood too. "What happened here? Logan?"

"This wasn't me!" he snapped. "It was the damn kid!"

Scott slid in a puddle and put his hand against the wall to balance. When he pulled his hand away it was covered in blood. He made a face and wiped it off on his prison greys. "Let's get Jean. Then let's see if we can find some security footage of what happened here." He stopped at a door. "This is it. Be careful."

Scott leveled his gaze at the door and lifted his glasses to blast through it. He tempered the blast as well as he could. He didn't want to risk hurting Jean.

There wasn't any panic fire this time. The guards inside immediately and dropped their weapons, surrendering quickly. They recognized the battle was over and only wanted to walk away with their lives at this point.

"Get Jean out of that thing!" Scott growled. "Now!"

The lab workers scrambled to obey. At least that way they had a chance of surviving the night. They quickly unhooked the pads from her temples and the restraints from her wrists and ankles. She practically flew from the table and into Scott's arms.

"Scott!" she grabbed him close. "I couldn't feel you!" she sobbed. "I - I still can't feel you! What did they do to me?"

Scott held her close and looked to Storm. "Tell Quetzal to let Maria stop." He held Jean. "It's okay. You'll be fine."

Storm left. She skidded through a puddle of blood and caught herself against a blood slick wall.

Quetzal and Maria were still in the next lab. They both looked exhausted. Quetzal looked up when Storm came in. "Did we win?" she asked.

"We did. Can you stop whatever is blocking Jean? She's stressed enough as it is now."

Quetzal smiled, revealing blood stained teeth. "Good." She turned to Maria. "You can stop now." She stretched and stood carefully. "We get to go home now right?"

"There's a little bit of cleanup left to do. But yes, we will go home shortly."

Quetzal took a deep breath. "Let's finish this then."

"You can wait here."

"I'll damn well finish what I started," Quetzal growled. "Just tell me what I need to do."

"Stay with Maria," Storm said with authority. Quetzal looked too weak to create another a bloodbath, but there was no sense in taking a chance. "Keep her safe."

"I can-"

"No Quetzal. We'll come back when it is safe. Stay here."

"I can do whatever I need to do," Quetzal was determined to keep going for as long as she had to.

"You've done more than enough Quetzal," Storm meant for that to sound reassuring, but her tone betrayed her true feelings. The words came out harsh.

Quetzal flinched a little. Her eyes were cold. "You'd better go then."

There was no time to mollify the statement. "We'll be back shortly."

"Maria will be coming with us when we leave," Quetzal said.

"Of course," Storm said before turning to leave.

Quetzal was angry. It was a dull anger but strong. She pushed it to the back of her mind. She would deal with it later. Deal with it all later. The blood, the Creature, the looks from her teammates; she'd deal with all of that tomorrow.

"What's she upset about?" Maria asked. "You killed everyone."

"That is what she's upset about." Quetzal sat back down. "But it doesn't matter. You'll be coming with us. We'll find you someplace safe."

"Why do you care?"

Quetzal smiled. "That's what the X-men do. They care." It was easier and more believable than the whole truth.

"So now you'll want me to join you," Maria snarled sullenly.

Quetzal brushed her fingertips over Maria's forehead. It was something Tia Maria did when Quetzal skinned a knee or got a bruised feeling. She would brush Quetzal's bangs away, mutter something comforting, and frequently give her a treat. Quetzal wished she had a popsicle to offer, her upbringing didn't provide much experience with comforting words. "No. We will take you back to the Mansion and make sure you're healthy. Then you can go where you want. I promise."

"People say that. But they all want something."

Quetzal sighed. "All I want is a hot shower and a really tall glass of sweet tea. Unless you've got an ability to magic up one of those two I'm not really interested in what you can do."

"You were." Maria accused. "The first thing. You asked me to do was blank out another telepath."

Quetzal looked at Maria and smiled slightly. "You're right. Thank you for your help. We would've been in a world of hurt without it." Her smile faded. "You can just go if you want. I won't stop you. I keep my promises. Yes ma'am, when Quetzal dos Santos promises something she keeps it." Quetzal got up and started searching the corpses, pulling out wallets. She was getting good at raiding bodies. "Here," Quetzal handed Maria the cash out of the wallets. "Not sure what the exchange rate is against the dollar, but it's a start. Here, let's get you dressed." Quetzal looked down at herself. "Get me dressed too." Quetzal was trying to keep busy. She wasn't ready to lose momentum yet. "There's no reason you can't come with us. They're nice really. Gave me room and board and new clothes and everything."

"And they just want you to kill people in return."

Quetzal froze. She looked down at her hands and then the bodies on the floor. "No. That . . . they didn't ask me to do anything." There was a lot of blood on her hands. She still tasted raw meat and blood in her mouth. "It was just . . . something I had to do. You do what you have to do to survive." Quetzal went back to the bodies. "Here, these look like they'll fit you. Sorry about the blood." She handed Maria the pants and shirt she just pulled off one of the smaller corpses.

Quetzal was in no mood to talk after that. She found a pair of slacks for herself and stood quietly, allowing herself to think and reflect on the past twenty four hours.

There was nothing. Her nerves were steady. There were no more butterflies in her stomach and her knees were no longer threatening to buckle. The job was done and she felt . . . . fine. Absolutely fine. But somewhat disconnected from herself.

Could all of those nerves have been just uncertainty about success?

And what did that say about her?

She still wanted a glass of sweet tea.

The lab had a sink in the corner. Quetzal washed her hands and started cleaning her face off. She used her finger to scrub the blood off her teeth and pick out whatever was between her teeth that she didn't want to think too much about.

Think about it, she told herself sternly. Think about what's between your teeth. She picked behind her molars. That's someone you killed . . . . and likely ate. Someone the Creature killed and likely ate. She corrected herself.

That's what it was. Once the Creature woke up from wherever it was sleeping then she'd probably feel all the implications.

She was still rubbing at her teeth when Jean and Scott came in to tell her it was time to leave.

Quetzal sat quietly on the ride back. Maria was asleep next to her. The others could be forgiven for thinking that Quetzal was asleep as well. Her eyes were closed and her face was placid, her breathing deep, slow, and untroubled. She wasn't thinking about much, but she was listening and "watching" the heat patterns around her.

"These are the surveillance recordings of the hallway," Beast said. "It's only the feed from one camera so it's not very long. But it is something."

"Let's see what the girl got up to when we weren't looking," Wolverine growled quietly.

"I saw the results," Storm said. "That was quite enough for me."

Quetzal opened her eyes. "Yes, you made that very clear back in the lab."

"I didn't mean for that to sound as harsh as it did," Storm replied.

Quetzal stood up, treating her left leg a little gingerly. Now that the adrenaline wore off it felt like there was a torn muscle. Nothing that rest and a little ibuprofen wouldn't take care of. "So let's see the vid." She ignored the half-apology from Storm

"Maybe later," Scott said.

"Maybe now," Quetzal snapped. "I ain't so fragile I have to be shielded from what I did. Least I can do now is see what I unleashed." She wasn't going to admit that she was curious to see what the Creature looked like. She'd never seen a recording of it, just a few hastily snapped pics her dad took the handful of times she'd turned into the Creature during her childhood.

Reluctantly Scott slid the disc in and the monitor sprang to life. He wanted a chance to see it and get an idea what to expect before letting Quetzal watch it. And she seemed to be in a weird state of mind. Probably it was fatigue; she had been very busy and not gotten much sleep. It could also be a touch of trauma. Even if the Creature was uncontrollable animal, Quetzal was still a girl fresh off the farm with minimal real combat experience.

The monitor flickered to life. The video was silent and in black and white, so there was that at least. Storm had turned back to the cockpit of the Blackbird even though it was an autopilot.

After a few seconds, Scott wished he could join her. But Quetzal was under his charge and he was responsible for bringing her into the situation. The Creature was brutal. It was like watching a wolf in a hen house. It was stomach churning and he came close to losing his last meal when the Creature choked down and swallowed what was in her mouth.

He glanced at Quetzal. Her eyes were enormous and her hands were clapped over her mouth. She wasn't blinking.

Scott paused the video. The image froze with the Creature lifting her head and looking back towards the camera. Thankfully it was one of the few frames that didn't have any active violence in it.

Quetzal didn't budge. Scott reached out and squeezed her shoulder, letting her know that she had friends in the room while he looked for the right thing to say.

"Look at me," Quetzal said softly. Her hands dropped away from her face and she stroked the monitor as if she were petting the Creature. A small, amazed smile turned up the corners of her mouth. "I'm so beautiful."