Mattie shoved Jacob aside, but in truth, he was too shocked to protest or retort. Especially once the insults and curses started flying out of her mouth. As Jacob watched her face turn increasingly red with each spat, he could swear that he saw images like hieroglyphs being projected from her lips like saliva. Mattie's face continued to redden, until Jacob was sure that the blood was going to explode from underneath her skin. But it couldn't, it didn't, and her curses eventually came to a halt. He looked up at Morrighan, who was now clutching her chest as if she were in pain.

"Girl," Morrighan hissed, voice suddenly turned to cracking wisps. "Stop."

There was a light coming from the spot where Morrighan's hand clutched, as if something inside of her body was glowing. When Mattie quieted, the glow faltered, and Morrighan seemed to sit a little straighter. Her cold, black eyes pierced into Mattie, as if the mutant had physically hurt her. "You have strange powers," she wheezed. Still, she dared to say, "I'm surprised you care so much about him [i]now[/i] as opposed to...[i]before.[/i]"

[hr]

"I don't understand," Nicholas said, except his words were extremely slurred, as if he'd taken in a significant amount of alcohol in a short amount of time. "I thought...you were dead. Jacob said you wouldn't be--"

"Coming with you, I know," Alice interrupted. "I'm fine, obviously. We...had a dispute, but that doesn't matter."

The redhead inspected a vial of an unknown substance, holding it below the light. With gentle caution, she tapped the glass, as if it were more fragile than usual. Alice and the vial went out of Nicholas' line of vision, even as he desperate tried to see where they'd gone -- his head, it seemed, was also bound. Then, it was as if a light bulb had went off in his head, and he began to panic and struggle against his restraints.

"Why do you have me?!" he demanded, "Why am I here? Why am I strapped to a table?! [i]Where even is here?![/i]"

"Calm down," Alice said, coming back into view. This time, she had a syringe, very obviously intended for Nicholas. "Do you know how long it's been since you've had M.X? I'll tell you. It's been three weeks."

"I don't want it!" Nicholas shouted, panic increasing.

"You need it. You [i]needed[/i] it. But you wouldn't take it. Do you know how bothersome you are? Do you know how [i]irritating[/i] it is to keep track of you? God, you're like a child." She let out a mirthless laugh. "I don't even know why they think you three are so important. So you were the first ones to escape, whatever. You got lucky. Just because Jacob killed himself and they had to terminate the whole simulation. You ruined it for all of us, you know that? We could've been so powerful. We could've ruled the world."

Her anger and frustration was visibly growing, but Nicholas was disoriented and immensely confused. The entire time he'd known Alice, she had been sweet and kind, like a mother or other type of caretaker for them. She was the brain behind the small army that they'd been collecting. Yet here she stood, ready to shoot Nicholas up with whatever was in that needle, obviously pissed about [i]whatever[/i] it was she was talking about. Them escaping the lab? Terminating the simulation? These phrases made since to Nicholas, but he couldn't put them together as to why Alice or the other mutants would possibly be angry. They escaped certain death. They escaped torture. Why wasn't she ecstatic about that?

"Anyway," Alice said, looking at the needle. "Maybe this will set your mind straight."