"You and me need to have a little chat." Darwin had been sitting at the table with all the paper spread upon it. He was looking down at circled articles, landmarks on maps, and other important pieces of information. None of it really made any sense to him. He turned though upon hearing the voice behind him. He looked to Liesel as she seemed to be strapping her gauntlets to herself. She had discovered that they didn't need the suit Hank created for them to remotely work; no, the end bit which clipped into the suit merely needed to stick to her skin and that was it. She had admittedly taken them apart upstairs slightly and had a poke around to figure out how they worked. But she now stood in a long sleeved black top with a hood that she had found from somewhere else in this base, black fitted jeans and her boots. She looked Darwin over, he was just assessing her with a gentle frown.

"I've been waiting for this."

"I've been busy."

"So I can see," Darwin waved a hand to the table. Liesel scrutinised the paper mounds with a scrunched up nose. He merely looked at her with a sidewards look before turning and facing her fully.

"Why are you here?"

"Why are you?"

Liesel tilted her head to the side, "I am here for him."

"Bullshit."

Liesel's eyes narrowed slowly, "As if."

"I meant it in the sense of: you and him are on different wavelengths." Darwin leaned back against the table with his arms crossed. "Listen, it isn't my business as to why you're here, really. But just know, that I am here for you."

"Sorry?" Liesel looked at him confused. She didn't get where he was coming from.

Darwin sighed and hung his head. "Liesel, you saved my life. If things go south, I intend to repay the favour."

"Nothing's going to go wrong." She said though Darwin didn't seem to believe her. Liesel shifted from one foot to the other. Truthfully, thoughts of things going wrong flitted in and out of her mind, but she chose to ignore them.

"Yeah, right. Because things Erik decide to do always end well?" Darwin questioned rhetorically while raising an eyebrow at her. Before she could even reply the others slowly started to flit into the room. Darwin merely glanced at them before stepping forwards and stopping in front of her. She looked up at him with wide thoughtful eyes. "He will lead all of us into trouble, you know? Whether you wish to register this now is none of my concern, but I think a part of you knows it already. He's dangerous, Liesel, and I meant what I said: when things go south, I will look out for you. A life for a life, and all of that." He side stepped and stood by her side as Azazel and Janos walked past them with sceptical expressions.

"You don't need to do this. I never asked you to." She whispered while clenching her fists.

Darwin laughed dryly. "No, you didn't. But it's a matter of principle."

She looked up at him slowly, awkwardly smiling she nodded her head. "I know, you know...a small part of me knew we were likely to go downhill fast as soon as I saw him kill Shaw and flaunt his corpse about like some sort of trophy." Liesel paused to look to the floor thinking of her next few words. "But I meant what I said too: I am here for him. There's a line that should not be crossed, and if he tries to then I will be there to stop him."

"What if he can't be stopped?" Darwin looked to her with a frown. It was a valid question. "There's also a line when it comes to those we love. He loves you, Liesel, but even you may not be enough to stop him from reaching his goals and going through with whatever plans come to mind. In fact," he paused and lowered his voice as he noticed how nearly everyone was loitering about the room. None of them could hear the quiet conversation they were having, but it still made him sceptical about eavesdroppers. "You may be the reason he goes too far."

"Sorry?" Liesel narrowed her eyes in thought as she looked to him as he smiled and placed his hands in his pockets.

"We do anything to keep our loved ones safe."

Liesel blinked slowly and looked away from him. "I can look after myself." She defended with very little conviction in her voice. What if Darwin was right? He had bought up a point that had never ever even crossed her mind.

"Oi!" Raven called out happily and waved to them as she rested her elbows against the table. "You two look deep in thought over there, what's up?" She smiled and tilted her head to the side while eyeing them both up.

"He's sceptical about getting Emma."

"Ah! So, this is what this little meeting is about, hm? I did wonder." Raven said while looking over her shoulder with an almost bored expression. Liesel wasn't certain if that expression was because of a secret hesitance to be around the blonde telepath, or if there was another reason.

"Something like that." Liesel said while nodding and moving forwards. Raven had taken to picking at the paper on the table, she turned pieces round and read them with a sigh. "It's all boring, right?"

"You had to read all of this just to find where she is?" Raven's yellow eyes flicked up to look at her. Honestly, it seemed very boring. Like she didn't know how Liesel managed to do it. The thought of reading through all of this caused her head to hurt.

Liesel laughed and waved a hand. "I had help!" She nodded to Janos when Raven looked at her quizzically, with a smirk she looked back up at Liesel as she slowly stood straight.

"Best friends, are we now?" Raven teased.

Liesel shot her a pointed look. No, far from it. She didn't exactly class the former lot who followed Shaw as friends. Acquaintances was more like it. But even then she wasn't sure they even classed as that. Looking over to the side when footsteps dully echoed, Liesel and Raven stopped joking about and watched as Erik moved over. He looked over the mess of papers before looking at Liesel, she smiled and shrugged. She never said she was tidy when information gathering. Far from it, she was actually rather messy. Calling everyone over, he rather effortlessly explained the plan which Janos and Liesel had seemingly come up with. He added a few details, and tweaked it slightly here and there. But for the most part he explained it all a lot easier than what Liesel did. Be fair, she was just happy to have come up with something, for once it wasn't him.

"Let's go," Liesel looked to Azazel, he just looked at her plainly seemingly not wholly caring about the plan.

"Ah," she gave a nod and stepped around everyone before stopping by his side. For the most part they were going into one base, seeing if they could find what they needed before returning back and then all going to the one they needed. Looking at the red skinned hand which was suddenly held out to her, Liesel slipped her hand into his, before she could even look up the room had changed. With a frown she looked about just in time to duck out of the way of a punch and press her hand against the chest before her. The figure went sparking backwards before impacting against a wall and sliding down it. She turned and watched with a frown and wide eyes as Azazel disappeared, reappeared and all the time was slashing and cutting with his deadly looking sharp knife. "No!" She shook her hands and rushed over before pushing him aside and slapping the person Azazel was about to attack, the man went down with a twitch. "No! You don't need to kill these people! We are not here to kill! We are here for information, yes?"

"They attacked first." Was all she got before Azazel turned his back on her with a short sigh. He disagreed with her words hugely, it seemed. Not that she was going to call him out. She just didn't agree to senseless violence. Yes, sure, the people attacked first, but that didn't mean they needed to kill them. They were meant to be doing this on the sly. In and out without anyone really knowing they were here. Yet no, that had gone out of the window thanks to Azazel leaving at least four bleeding corpses on the ground.

At least the people Liesel attacked were unconscious. She was not a flat out killer. She was not here to kill. She was here to hack. Which she did with a glare. Firewalls, security, whatever stood in her way as she entered the mainframe was pushed and overloaded thanks to her. Being able to interfere with electrical things was really quite handy. It was at moments like this that she smugly approved of her mutation. She never paid much mind to it truthfully. To begin with she always thought it was a hindrance. But no. It was actually rather useful.

"Ah!" Liesel exclaimed and shorted out the system with a wry grin.

Azazel turned with a frown. "Durak," he muttered angrily when he managed to avoid sparking parts of hardware to stand over by her side.

"You know I speak Russian, right? I don't agree with that...not totally, not at this point in time." Azazel rolled his eyes at her. Though he did look at her oddly when she admitted to sharing his native language. Liesel was compatible with a few languages, Russian just being one. "And plus, there's already bodies everywhere, the way I see it: what's a little broken computer system amongst friends?"

"They're not our friends."

"Sarcasm, Azazel, I was being sarcastic. Let's go." She held a hand out to him, he looked sceptical. "I know where she is. She's not here. We need to go before anyone else gets killed." And with that he grasped her hand and the grey toned room they were in turned back to the white clinical space of the warehouse.

Erik naturally was the first to turn to them. He eyed the rather blank expressions both wore. "What happened?"

"We came across a few problems." Azazel explained while letting Liesel's hand go.

"People." Liesel corrected with a grimace. "There were people around."

"And?" Erik prompted not missing the fact that she had turned rather unhappy. He thought the worst, naturally; someone had hurt her, and if that be the case...

"Well it's 4:2." Liesel said while Erik frowned and looked confused. "He killed four people."

"And you didn't?" Erik asked, Liesel frowned slowly. The tone he used was incredulous. Like how could she not when they were right there?

"I'm sorry, I didn't know I was being asked to kill in cold blood." Liesel said with a glare.

"They tried to hurt you, yes?"

"And I hurt them in return." Liesel snapped back at Erik and gritted her teeth. She wasn't a killer! Killing made her feel physically sick. Life was precious. And no matter what, she would not kill for no good reason. For the sake of protecting a computer? No. She wasn't going to kill those men for that, unlike Azazel.

"Did you find her?" Janos's rather bland tone caused Liesel's growing anger to disappear as she looked slowly to him. His dark eyes looked her up and down, he seemed to appear to believe that she had failed at this, along with apparently killing random people.

What was happening here? She didn't even know. She glanced at Darwin, and he gave her a sympathetic look. The only one to do so. Everyone else was looking at her with hard expectant eyes. Liesel wondered if this was what injured animals felt like when facing down a pack of wolves. Because right now, she did feel akin to a defenceless animal. "Yes." She answered plainly. Walking forwards she pushed past those around the table. Hitting a finger against the table and the map on it, she looked up from the corner of her eyes. "She is there."

"Did you find anything else out?" Erik asked while crossing his arms and looking at her with a blank expression.

"No thank you?" Liesel asked, Erik's eyes narrowed slowly. "She's guarded day and night. The cell she is in is underground. To get in you'll need security codes. But considering we have ways of getting passed security, as well as thick metallic doors; I don't think we're going to struggle." Liesel avoided mentioning the people, she was pretty sure she knew already what was to become of anyone they crossed paths with.

----

Inventory:

Durak: fool/idiot (I don't know Russian. I don't know any language, English and sarcasm are the only languages I speak. So yeah. If Google translate is wrong...for shame...)

Edited: 13/June/2019

Reedited: 24/August/2021