Saying that Nicholas looked guilty would be an extreme understatement, but he did. He looked guilty. He looked guiltier than guilty. The grip that he had on the pen tightened so much that the tips of his fingers turned white. Blood rushed to his face, leaving behind a humiliating blush of red. The expression, the blushing, the entire look was present for only a moment before it vanished, and his face darkened into...some emotion that even Jacob was unfamiliar with.

"I didn't do it," Nicholas said incredulously, thinking how unbelievable it was that Mattie assumed he was even [i]able[/i] to walk away with a hole in his back. The hole that, when he remembered he had it, seemed to not even be there anymore. There was no pain, no aching, no stinging, nothing. "I was taken. But..." he looked down at the clipboard. The words still were mysteriously undecipherable in his mind. As if he'd lost his ability to read. Alice had assured him that he, too, would be granted paradise. "But I-"

"Also, Nicholas," Alice interrupted, as if Mattie and Jacob weren't even there. "It's been a while since your last dose of M.X. Like I said, three weeks. You're going to need to take it. Hurry up and sign that paper. If you don't get a shot in you soon, it could hurt you."

Nicholas looked at Mattie and Jacob. Jacob shook his head slowly. "Don't sign it, Nick. She's tricking you. Trust me. I put up with the bitch for over a year. I may not have known then, but I know now who she is. What she is. She's a fraud. She told you they're offering paradise, didn't she? It's not true. They're killing all of us. Even the ones that are helping them. They've brainwashed her. They'll brainwash you, too."

Obvious strain and distraught was surfacing, and Nicholas didn't know who to believe. On the one hand, he had his brother, who had previously tried to kill him, but for a year or so had been helping him train and help other mutants. On the other hand, there was Alice -- his brother's ex-girlfriend, who had cared for both him and Jacob, healed their wounds, and helped them both train, as well as the other mutants. For what he knew, Alice and Jacob and he were all supposed to be on the same side. Now, everything was twisted, and Mattie was there, and it was all a mess. All a mess. He looked at Mattie, almost pleadingly.