I freeze. She's sprawled out on the bed, dressed in white and black, coated in blood, hair pulled into a neat and functional plait. I run forward and run my hands over her, trying to find the source of the blood. And then I realise none of it is hers.

"TANA! TANA!"

Her eyes open and she groans.

"Goway."

"Tana, where…where did this blood come from?"

She sits bolt upright and starts cursing in Hebrew.

"Etana?"

She rushes out of the room, already tugging the bloodied clothes off. They look scarily like the X-Men's uniform. Plain, functional, the same cut as her usual X-Man apparel only monochrome instead. Into the bathroom where she starts scrubbing her face with hot water, gasping softly.

"Tana?"

She doesn't answer, merely continues scrubbing until not only is all the blood gone but she has started to bleed herself. I grab her hands.

"ETANA!"

She stares at me, her eyes broken.

"I… I did… I…"

"Etana…"

She turns away.

"You should throw me out. I should have never done this."

"Etana?"

"I… I need to tell you something Steve."

"So tell me."

"Not now… I… I need to sort myself out first."

I step outside and go and sit down, knowing she will want to compose herself. A few minutes later she comes in and sits down opposite me.

"This is going to be difficult Steve and I don't want to drag it out. So I want you to stay silent and save your questions."

I nod. Etana deserves that much.

She gets and brings over a heavy book.

"This is a work of Immanuel Kant, The Metaphysics of Morals. A very interesting study on retributivism. Problem is, darling, you're the textbook deontologist. You never think that the ends justify the means. Tony is a utilitarian. He believes that the ends do justify the means. That was the problem with the whole SHRA. For example, if there was a trolley coming along a track and it would kill five people unless you hit the switch to flip it onto another track, where it would kill one person, Tony would hit the button without a second thought."

"Are you giving me a philosophy lesson?"

"Yes. There is a reason to this. I believe in retributivism. There are three main points. First, the guilty must be punished for their voluntary wrongdoing. Second, the punishment must be equivalent to the wrongdoing and third, that wrongdoers must be made to suffer as they caused others to suffer. However, punishment should only be administered because the person has committed the crime. Punishing them to make an example to others is unacceptable, as it is destroys the dignity all humans deserve. Punishment should fit the crime, but it should be done in private, and it should not be biased. As Kant said, 'justice ceases to be justice if it can be bought for any price whatsoever.' I believe that if you kill many people, you deserve to die as well. But I will never enjoy killing, nor will I torture or make an example of one of my… I refuse to call them victims. For example, Dr Mengele. He tortured heaven knows how many innocent children. I found him, ensured that it was him and beheaded him. I felt no guilt for what I did. I showed him a form of mercy, yet I still delivered justice. I did not care what his background was. I would have done exactly the same if he were a prince or a pauper, a Jew or a Gentile. His actions were what resulted in his execution. I will not kill for what someone may or may not do in the future. I will only kill to bring retribution for past crimes or if I happened across an event where someone is about to kill an innocent, and the only way I can save the person's life is to kill the attacker. I would not hesitate in the last instance. I would kill the aggressor to save the life of the innocent. However, if I could find a way of diffusing the situation without killing the aggressor, as they have not yet killed, then yes, I would use that for preference."

"You still haven't explained-"

"Wait. There are people who have killed many mutants. They threaten the survival of my species and they have killed a number of us and plan to kill more. I would kill those people, for their past crimes, not for the crimes they are to commit. I will also kill in self-defence, but only if they try to kill me first. I have… Logan and a few others have formed a team to protect the mutant race from threats that must be dealt with using lethal force. I am on that team. Today… Today I had to choose if a child who was the resurrection of a mass-murderer and mutant supremacist; who had committed vile atrocities in his former life and was being brainwashed into the same person; should die. It is things like that which sicken my soul."

"Etana… What. Did. You. Do."

"I…I did nothing… We were… We were arguing… One of us said that we couldn't hold him accountable for crimes he didn't even remember committing. Another of us, who had suffered greatly at the hands of the man the child used to be, was going to kill him. But he couldn't. We were arguing. I…I was in favour of taking the child somewhere safe, isolated; where he could be raised yet never hurt anyone ever again. After all, he had already died for his past crimes and the child didn't ask to be reborn. And… And one of us, who had never been directly harmed by either the child or the man the child had been, shot him, right in the head…"

She presses her hands to the sides of her face.

"The child was not the man. I see that now. He had the opportunity to be so much more, and he was killed without mercy. He was so…so afraid… He was… He was trying not to cry when…when we were talking so…so callously…about whether he deserved to live or die…"

And now I realise what the philosophy lecture was about. She wanted me to see this from her view. I lean over and wrap my hands around her, knowing that I can't say anything, because she's right. I don't believe you can ever justify killing. Even when Tony stopped and restarted the Crimson Dynamo's heart, I was angry. Tony always accuses me of seeing the world in black and white, with no shades of grey. Etana has given that a name. Deontologist. She has a book on that somewhere. She has a book on almost everything. I never expected… I never thought she could be so eloquent on her beliefs and as I myself told Spider-Man, "Stand up for what you believe in, no matter how much the rest of the world tells you you're wrong." Etana has her beliefs based on her life experience. I have mine. They are in opposition but they will exist together. Because we're both too damn stubborn to change.