Before Liesel could even say anything else, she paused and looked upwards. There was the distinct sounds of not only sirens, but a helicopter. Sliding her eyes down she frowned, "Please tell me you've not led them to our front door." She said while moving upright in her seat.

"We need to leave," Gretchen looked to Liesel and was standing up before Liesel could even say anything else.

Liesel pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed. "Even if they aren't going to come here, it would be best. We have nosey neighbours," she explained with a smile sent in the direction of the males. "Up, up, let's go!" She jumped from her seat and shuffled about the room. "You don't have to come." She looked at Gretchen as she took to slipping on a jacket.

"As if."

"It'll be dangerous." Liesel raised an eyebrow at her.

Gretchen scoffed. "And?"

"I have a feeling...once on this path, you won't be able to go back." Liesel looked at her sadly. "I don't want you to ruin your future...for the sake of helping them."

"But I'm also helping you. So my future wouldn't be ruined."

Liesel opened her mouth to reply but instead just smiled and nodded. "Back exit, I believe." She moved forwards and led the way, while being all the more aware to sounds of sirens. "Couldn't you have led them on a merry chase? I'm surprised you even remember where we live. What if we had moved? What then? You'd be right screwed, wouldn't you?" She pushed the door open and led the way quietly around the back of the small building. Rummaging in her jacket pocket, she pulled out her car keys. Making her way towards a garage she simply ushered them in before walking about and opening the front metallic door. Looking up at the sky she narrowed her eyes, there was definitely watchers in the sky. Looking around she scrunched her nose up, if there were eyes in the sky, there'd be eyes on the road too. Clicking her tongue she pulled open the door and slunk into the driver's seat. Putting the key in the ignition, she sighed and looked over the chair. "Word of advice: buckle up."

"You're meant to be keeping a low profile." Gretchen said from her position in the passenger seat.

Liesel rolled her eyes to her sister. "I'm going to speed if I get suddenly chased by police cars. I can interfere with traffic lights, I could most probably at a push interfere with their electrical stuff in their cars...but then again," she turned and eyed Erik up. "You could come in handy."

He slowly smiled and leaned back in his seat. "I think you'll handle the situation well enough without my help."

Liesel's eyes narrowed, "Yes, I thought you would say something like that." She turned back to the wheel, "Some things never change," she put the car in gear and simply drove out of the garage. She was driving rather casually, until she realised that the roads were seemingly void of busy traffic like it usually would be.

"Road block," Gretchen muttered. "Why else would it be like this?"

Liesel slowed, "Got to get to Newt." Her eyes slid over the surroundings, there were very few cars about, which clearly showed that there had been a traffic warning flagged up. "If we get to him, we can get to...somewhere else..." Liesel said while leaning her chin on the top of the wheel. With a groan she shut her eyes. "Maybe haul up..."

"There'll surely be more alerts tomorrow?"

Liesel inhaled deeply, opening her eyes she looked at the passengers in the back, her people carrier had enough room for them all, but they still all looked slightly squashed together. "Any time you want to chip in, is totally fine." She commented, noticing that so far as far as trying to think up an escape route went, it was stuck on Gretchen and herself.

"I don't think there's enough time for that," Charles said while fixing his eyes at the road, Liesel turned and looked to the passing police car, shortly followed by a black van which looked rather deadly and protected.

"No," Gretchen caught a look at her expression. "Low profile."

"Low profile. Fine." Liesel pulled out of the small turn off street they were currently hiding in and drove simply down the road. She narrowed her eyes, distinctly aware to the fact that she was one of few drivers on the road. Tilting her head she turned slowly and made her way down the all too familiar dingy alley. There was confused murmurs from behind her, parking deep enough in the alley that the car couldn't be seen, she jumped out. Walking over to the garage she knocked, seeing a hatch open at eye level she smiled. "We need help." The hatch shut and the door opened, she moved forwards and looked to the car. "Are you coming or what? Geez. You want help, and you need a way out, follow me." She rolled her eyes. "I'm not going to lead you into trouble." She moved into the space which Newt occupied and watched as he uncertainly moved around the room.

Him and new people wasn't usually a good mix. He stood near his desk and fiddled about with things before looking up when Liesel appeared. "What do you want?"

"You're coming with us."

"What? No-"

"There's a manhunt on for Mr Popular over there, which means that the people will search high and low for him. I'm not leaving without you. Because if you get hurt, or caught, I will never forgive myself. Pack all your shit, and get in the car." Liesel said while leaning her hands on the desk and looking at Newt seriously. "I'll give introductions as we go."

"That's him?"

"Newt!" Liesel shouted while slapping a hand to her forehead. "Fine! Gretchen, my sister, you know of her. Charles, telepathic helper, Hank, technology genius; you may have a friend there, Newt, Logan, who...I didn't know until half an hour ago, Erik...Erik," Liesel said with a roll of her hand, she couldn't think of a caption to put with him. Newt nodded and shuffled about, once he was done, he pulled up the hood of his jumper and followed her to the car. The car, which was now fully packed, seemed to also grow in awkward atmosphere. Liesel picked up driving and managed to continue onwards without any problems, she let out a relieved sigh.

"Where are we going?" Hank asked while managing to catch a look at Liesel as she glanced over her shoulder quickly.

"Somewhere."

"That doesn't fill me with much confidence." Logan commented while looking about thinking someone was likely to suddenly appear and ram them off the road. Before he got sent back, he never got told to hunt out this woman. This was something which Charles had mentioned, and Hank had agreed. She didn't know him, and he didn't know her.

Liesel smiled. "Not the most trusting, are you?"

"I've got good reasons."

"Didn't say you hadn't." Liesel smiled and continued driving in silence. She actually didn't mind the silence, even if it was one filled with awkward tension. She did her best to ignore it and just focused on getting them all to where she wanted to go in one piece. It took the better part of an hour, or so, by that time the afternoon had dragged around to the night and the first stars were finally peeking out on the sky.

Eventually though, the built up areas were being replaced by spacious roads, and with these came small turnings which led to industrial sections. It was down one of these paths which Liesel eventually turned down, yet again much to the confusion of her passengers. Pulling into a warehouse, after she opened the loading bay door, she watched as Newt ran to shut it, with a smile she nodded at everyone to get out.

Holding up a hand, she cupped the other around her mouth. "Honey, I'm home!" She shouted into the otherwise empty and dark warehouse. There was silence before there was a load of shouting. Liesel walked up the stairs which led to the main open space and grinned. There was roughly forty people inhabiting this conversion. And they had all been freed from spaces which Gretchen had found out about, and had relayed to Liesel. "We don't have enough time for introductions all round. But follow me, this is where I keep most of my...hoard..."

"Archive," Newt corrected while pushing the hood down and shuffling off to go speak with a small group of nearby mutants.

"Archive, then." Liesel rolled her eyes and rubbed her hands together.

"What is this place?" Erik asked, falling into step beside her, she looked at him with a frown. It was relatively clear she really didn't want to talk to him, or see him, or be anywhere near him. She even took a step to the side when he appeared at her side. He didn't seem to pay any attention, some things really didn't ever change. The lack of registering that he was annoying her was one, as long as he got his answers her discomfort didn't matter.

"Does it not look familiar to you?" Liesel asked while leading them into a large room which was littered with shelves, on these shelves were stacked files. Each had a little number, and letter combination, which clearly made very little sense to anyone but her. Erik stopped in the room and looked about, the space didn't look particularly familiar. He didn't recognise the room. He found the stacked shelves interesting, and when he moved over to have a closer look; he got pulled away by Liesel holding onto his sleeve. "No touching." She said with a smirk and turned away. "You gave me a little side project," she turned and jumped to sit on the table in the room. Erik looked confused, he even suffered getting odd looks sent his way because of her words too. "Find Shaw's other hideaways. Low and behold, here is one." Liesel waved a hand around. "The other ten are occupied."

"Where are they?"

"Like I'm telling you." Liesel frowned at him. "My secret. Not for sharing. It's on a need to know basis, and Erik, you really don't need to know." She patted her knees and slid off of the table. "So! Trask Industries, Sentinels, and...whatever else I might have, huh?" Liesel turned and walked towards a particular set of shelves.

"You can make sense of all of this chaos?"

"It isn't chaos, Logan. It's organised mess. There's a difference." She said while looking at him from the corner of her eyes. "Don't touch! Seriously..." Liesel frowned, "Everything is in order. You mess up the order, and my brain might explode. This is years and years of work here. Removing one thing...just one thing can just cause everything else to fall out of order." Liesel said while trying to kindly shoo Hank's hands away, he was curious, she knew that but even still. "You can all go exploring, meet the locals, have a coffee...I'll call you or come find you when I've found something." Liesel said while turning away. Honestly, she'd be able to information hunt better on her own.

----

"You have been busy, haven't you?" There was a small part of him which got satisfaction out of watching Liesel jump. Erik pushed away from the door frame and walked into the room. Much like everyone else, he had left her to it. But this place was no different than the other one he previously inhabited. So really, unlike everyone else, this place wasn't new to him. Though he did find it surprising with the amount of people who lived here.

Liesel moved away from her hand and watched as he stalked over. He pulled the opposite chair out and sat down with agonising slowness. "Well, you know...don't mean to brag, but we can't all spend our time in prison." Erik's eyes hardened and narrowed at her. With a smirk she leaned forwards and winked. "Look after their prisoners, I see. I honestly thought they would try and kill you, you know? Or at least beat you up some...you look like you've just breezed out to go buy a pint of milk, or something. Definitely doesn't look like you've recreated the Great Escape."

Erik smirked, "It went against their better judgment." He commented, fully accepting the slightly backhanded comment which Liesel sent his way. Liesel sniffed in thought and gave a nod before looking back down to the papers in front of her. Flicking through them she put them to one side and continued on, completely opting to ignore Erik even being there. "You always were good at information gathering." Erik said, Liesel's eyes flicked up to look at him, he noticed for the first time that her natural vivid green eyes were back. Whatever she was using to conceal them, had been ditched back at her home. He couldn't help but frown at that, she had seemingly slotted into suburbia and normality so well.

"What do you want?"

"Why do you think I want something?"

Liesel pointed her pen at him, "This pains me, more than you know, but I know you, remember? I know you better than anyone else present. God, that hurts to admit, my point: I know when you want something, you tend to compliment me before asking. You used that trick in the past quite a bit. So what do you want? I do have work to do."

"I can't just come here and idly catch up?"

"No, go away." Liesel rolled her eyes and jotted something down before looking up, he hadn't moved. He leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms firmly over his chest. "Where'd your prison uniform go?"

Erik looked down at the change of clothes Charles had provided. He figured it was some stuff he had left at the house, before the Shaw mission. "It got disposed of." He said while pulling at the shirt he was wearing, he honestly didn't remember this.

"Would've made a good souvenir."

He let out a quiet laugh, "I suppose it would've." He agreed and shifted forwards, turning a piece of paper over, he looked it over. "Where did you get all of this from?" Erik frowned and looked up when she plucked the paper from his hand.

"As you said, I'm good at information gathering." Liesel said, opting to leave out those she knew who took part in finding said information and sending it back to her.

"Yes, you are." He said flatly, Liesel shrugged, she could see him trying to figure this all out, she didn't care all too much. Bowing her head she returned to work. Erik turned silent then, he just sat and watched as she busied herself around. She'd get up to go collect a file, then return, never casting him a look, or even saying a word to him.

He honestly didn't know what else he was expecting. Considering how they parted ways, Erik thought it was some small miracle that she was even talking to him, though her words and tone were clipped and short. He got it, she really didn't want him near. He could tell that the moment they'd looked at each other. But he had never been one for really listening, or rather paying heed, so he purposely walked near her, he also purposely hunted her out. He could see it annoyed her, and in return he didn't particularly care, he felt a small triumph over it really, but he also felt a tugging sadness. Erik wasn't one for sadness, he always found that it left a rather horrid taste and annoying lingering unwanted thoughts. But, strip away all predetermined dispositions, really, deep, deep down, he missed her.

She was right, she did know him well, but he in return knew her well too. So he could see when she was hurting, even if she was trying to act all hard and stoic. Her eyes, it was always in her eyes that Erik could tell how she was feeling. Bright signalled happiness, dim lead to anger, or something similar, and dark led to sadness. Her eyes were a deep emerald colour, not the usual lightning electric green. Him being here was hurting her; and that's another reason as to why he wasn't going anywhere.

"There you are," Erik held in the annoyed sigh as Charles strode into the room. As much as the shorter male made it more than clear that Erik was an irritant to him, as if being punched and glared at didn't cement this, he still made it a point to keep an eye on him. Like Erik was going to do something here of all places. He'd just been given his freedom, he was going to enjoy it for a little while. Liesel looked up, her eyes brightening just a bit which caused Erik to frown and press his lips into a thin line. So she was seemingly happy to see Charles? He shot Charles a look as he sat down by his side, likewise he sent a look right back at him. "How's it going?" Charles looked at the paper and the files before looking up at Liesel.

"Not too bad actually, between sneaked information and found information, I think I've got a loose gist on the Sentinel problem. As for anything on your sister, no, sorry I didn't want to keep track of someone who joined in beating me up. Ce la vie!" She sung lightly with a smile. "By the way, I heard about that awful business with your old team." Liesel said while leaning against her hand and looking to Erik. "I got out at the right time then? I feel like I should give you an I told you so. But I'm not one for gloating." She scribbled something down with a quick shrug. "By the way...I came across some of them."

"I notice how you didn't save them." Erik said coldly.

"They were already dead. I'm not breaking a corpse out when there's actual living people that needed out." Liesel said while lowering her pen and looking to him. "And even if they were alive. Why would I set them free? Call it warped poetic justice."

"Warped is putting it lightly. You would leave them behind, just to fulfil some petty revenge?!" Erik shouted at her while slamming his hands on the table, Charles shifted to intervene only to have Liesel's hand held up in the universal peace sign.

"They were idiots to even listen to you! I'm sorry, Erik, honestly I am, but they got caught, and wound up there, because of you and you're apparent lack of leadership skills! I didn't blindly lead them into trouble, that was you! I tried to tell you, I tried to tell you all that picking a fight with the humans wouldn't end well. And what did you all do? You laughed, and you fought, and I was hurt...I was so hurt. I almost bled out thanks to Azazel, did you know that? I doubt you care! They got caught, and killed because they decided to follow you, that's on you, not me...I told you... and between you and me, no. No, I wouldn't honestly leave them there, everyone deserves a second chance, and I'd give it to them, but I would never think to bring them here, or to another warehouse. They deserved civility, but that's it. But they were all dead. I said I'd leave them because I knew it'd annoy you. Just...leave me alone, Erik. I don't think it's honestly a good idea for us to be together for a lengthy period of time. You've been in here long enough to distract and annoy me, so please leave." Liesel said heavily, this was exhausting her, mentally and physically.

Erik sat and watched as her lively green eyes returned to a dull green, he nodded slowly. Pushing himself out of the chair he turned and left her and Charles alone. Though he did try and ignore the slight stab of annoyance over this. From what he could gather, Charles had helped her and then ignored her for years; yet she could tolerate a man who did that? But then...when he unwillingly thought about it, he turned his back on her, and that, that would surely be a bigger betrayal and hurt then ignoring could ever bring.

"Hey," Erik said getting the attention of the reptilian male who Liesel had made a point of bringing along. He didn't know what this guy was to her, but he somehow felt like he should at least approach him and talk to him, if only to see him look slightly intimidated. Newt, Erik remembered his name now that he was in front of him. Newt and Hank stood talking about some rubbish that Erik really didn't care about. "Where's everyone else?"

"What does it matter? Liesel said she'd come find us when she needed us." Hank said while pushing his glasses up his nose.

Erik sighed slowly and looked from Hank to Newt, who shifted awkwardly, Erik's mouth turned up in a half smile, moving away he frowned when Gretchen stood looking at him with crossed arms. "I don't want to hear a sickening sisterly speech, Gretchen." Erik said while going to move past her, only to stop when she gripped onto his arm. "Yeah, I get it, back off."

"Oh no, it's not going to be that easy. I know what you're doing. I'm not an idiot, and Liesel through all her faults is loyal beyond anything. Break her down enough, she'll take you back, that's what you're aiming for, right? Wrong. You broke her, not just her heart, but mentally too. Dedicate your life for the sake of one person, only to have them turn away is soul destroying. You destroyed her, and it took me years to get my sister back. I'm not going to sit here and watch you try and worm your way into her good books; so yeah, back off." Gretchen said while letting the grip on his arm lessen. He stood away from her and narrowed his eyes down at the smaller female. "I remember when I first saw you, you know? I doubt you'll remember me, but I remember you, and I remember back then thinking: this boy means trouble. I could see it in your eyes, in your body language, you were on a path to self-destruction and you would've gladly dragged her down with you without a second thought. Not again, not ever, she's done quite a bit of growing up since you, so even if you try, you're likely to get shot down; perhaps literally, and if so, I'd pay money to watch that." Gretchen smirked up at him before stepping away and going over to Newt and Hank. Erik looked over his shoulder at her, the sisters were too alike when angered. Though he took everything she said on board, he didn't dwell on it much before going over and finding somewhere quiet to sit and think about this all.

----

Edited: 13/June/2019

Reedited: 24/August/2021