Nicki scooted into the living room, looking around. She had a lot on her mind and she was trying to run from it. She had a book, she had a couch and she had some privacy. Perfect.

She settled into the corner fo the couch and opened her book. She read a sentence before looking around, thinking. She then looked down to her book, then back to the ceiling. She couldn't stop thinking about Haywire, and Kaz, and the Order, and everything she wasn't supposed to talk about.

Nicki sighed and closed her book, putting it down on the floor and staring off slightly. She didn't know what to do, who to tell...if to tell.

Mettaliar had been walking around for a while trying to clear his mind. Once he reached the living room he quickly b-lined for the kitchen. He needed a nerve-calming Mountain Dew was on his mind. Suddenly he caught glimpse of Nicki sitting on a couch. He stopped in his tracks and thought for a second. He put his hands in his pockets and sat in another couch. It would be weird to just sit there so he decided to speak.

"Hey." he started. He realized at that point there was nothing else to say. He thought about getting up and leaving, but he decided that that would be weird. He sat there and looked around the room, broken and beaten down.

Nicki sighed as Mett spoke. She wasn't sure how it sounded but it was a sigh of guilt. Nicki owed Mett an explanation for what happened a few days ago, but she wasn't sure how to give him one. She wasn't sure what constituted a betrayal to Kaz and what was okay to tell him. She wasn't sure that he could handle what she said, if Mett could keep it a secret. She wasn't sure if he would believe that Nicki was truly on his side. She sighed again.

"I owe you an explanation Mett...and a lot of information..." Nicki sighed once more, looking over to Mett. "You deserve to know what I do..."

Mettaliar kind of shook when Nicki sighed. He wasn't sure how to handle it, whether it was guilt, frustration or anything else. He sat quietly and prepared to leave when he heard Nicki speak up, turning away from her book. He turned his head to her and sighed.

"Well, I'm all ears. You can tell me anything. I guess just talking can keep me from going crazy, so let's continue." He sat back in his chair and pulled his coat inwards. He leaned back in his seat a bit and looked towards Nicki. This could be interesting. he thought to himself.

"First of all, I need your assurance that this will stay between us. No one else can know what I'm telling you because it's very close to a betrayal. I'm telling you because you deserve to know. The only other people I might tell are Iris and Sentinal, but I don't know that for sure. So you must keep this to yourself."

"The man who captured you, I know him. Very well as a matter of fact. When you...kinda...told me what happened, I rushed over to him. I didn't believe that he could be part of something so evil. I knew that he belonged to a group that did some pretty bad things but I never believed he could be a part of something like that. So I found him, and I spoke to him, and, there's no other way to say this: on his behalf, it was a miscommunication. He was under one impression and he found himself in another situation entirely. Although, I'm sure, it didn't seem like it could have gotten worse, he did what he could to make it better. And he left the group over what they did. I'm not saying that that makes it all better, but...he's not evil. I know he was telling me the truth because of how my powers work around him." Nicki stopped, sighing again.

"I'm not saying all this to try and make it sound like it's all okay. I'm saying this because it's all the information I have. I just...I wanted you to know everything I know. Because it's not right what happened to you...and at least someone involved in it realized that." Nicki stopped.

"This probably doesn't matter to you. I just wanted to let you know why I ran our and why I reacted the way I did. I really want to thank you for showing me what you did. I know it was hard and I know that you'd probably just rather forgt it ever happened, but...it really meant a lot to me. Thank you..." Nicki stopped again, looking up to Mett. The whole speech had taken a toll on Nicki, evident by the tears welling in her eyes that she was desperately trying to fight. "I'm really sorry about what happened to you Mett..."

Mettaliar sat and listened through the whole thing. He never took his eyes off of Nicki to show that he was listening. He raised an eyebrow at some points, more in surprise than confusion. He probably raised both of them at some point, though of course only one was visible. Through the whole thing, he noticed her being very calm, trying to show that she was telling the truth. He didn't doubt her. He couldn't imagine her lying to him, and the story fit well enough with what happened to not cause suspicion. He lowered his eyes when she finished, trying to find the words to respond to her with. Once he had thought it out he sat up and leaned in, resting his elbows on his knees, and looked up at her.

"Look... about what happened a few days ago. I can't say anything else but that I'm glad that that's the reason why you left. I was afraid you left out of.. i don't know... fear, confusion... anger maybe, I'm not sure. I guess I just had a voice in the back of my mind reminding me about it, and I thank you for clearing it up. I think we can put that aside for now, unless you would like to ask questions or anything.

Now, about this person you know. I'm not assuming you or him to be bad people. I've seen many people downgraded due to hanging with the wrong crowd which seems to be the case for this guy and yourself. I guess I won't ask for details because I trust in your words that he is pretty close. Also, I must say, this guy, which I know of two, was not who captured me. To my best guess possible, it was a girl. I can't recollect the name... Syn, or something. She tazored me and brought me in, so I have no grudges towards any guy." He paused to catch his breathe and cracked his head out of habit and nervousness.

"And, while I'm not sure how well you'll trust it, it is important to me. I was personally thinking that some people were after me personally, or people in the mansion. I guess all of this information clears up any worries I have. I'm glad to hear this friend of yours in not associated with this group. Whoever they are, they obviously want to send some message as we saw through Iris. Either way, I'm fine. As long as I have a feeling I won't have to check over my shoulder for a while, I don't seem to worry about it. I trust that you wouldn't betray me or the people here."

He leaned back a bit, than remembered something. "Oh, and trust me. I'll promise that I'd rather commit seppuku than let a word out of any of this." He grinned a bit, trying to be friendly.

Nicki smiled as Mett accepted what she was saying. She was so worried that nothing she said would have been of any relevance to him. She wasn't trying to excuse what Kaz had done and she didn't want to come off that way. She was glad that she had monaged to convey that the attacks were not truly on the Mansion, at least the kidnappings anyway.

"I don't run when I'm confused or else I'd be running all the time..." Nicki chuckled. "I needed to know if I had misjudged my friend. I'm glad that there was something I could help you with...you dserve to have as much peace of mind as you possibly can. And I'm glad that there is something I could do to help give that to you" Nicki smiled brightly.

"And I'm not sure you need to rush upon the sword, but I appreciate you keeping this between us" Nicki chuckled.

Mettaliar nodded his head and blew some hair away from his mouth. He chuckled along with Nicki and smiled. He was happy that she was being nice. A lot of the people here seem to be much much nicer than the people he used to grow up with. Though more of the people here have stories to tell than the people he grew up with. Each having their own past that lead them to the mansion, he understood how good it was to be here. He smiled a bit and looked back at Nicki.

"As do you deserving equal peace. It's bad that your connected to this in this way, and I hope that this thing can blow over once we repair the house. I think we shouldn't have any more issues like this anymore, and if so at least we'll know how to handle it. Everyone here deserves that peace as well, and hopefully the year will carry on a lot more smoothly." He sat up again and tilted his head. He was glad that this dilema was coming to a close, though he knew the whole situation had many more holes to fix and pieces to mend before coming to a complete close.

Nicki laughed a little. "I don't know Mett, I don't think this place is going to get any less hectic. With all the mutant stuff being basically the only thing in the news and people going left and right about if we're good or if we're bad or if we're freaks...I think by us being here we're asking for a certain amount of action...we're just making sure that we have people around us who can help up handle it" Nicki replied, taking a pillow and hugging it to her chest.

"I think it makes us deal with things we wouldn't typically deal with...but it also helps us deal with them you know?"

Mettaliar rubbed his chin with his hand and nodded his head. He knew that advertising a school for mutants wouldn't be a full safehaven, though it was better than some crummy apartment, or worse back home.

"Well, if any human, mutant or not, tries anything, I trust that we'll handle it somehow. I mean even the kids here are more powerful, physically and mentally, than the wisest non-mutant I know. It's because of this struggle, too. If we all hadn't gone through something, we'd all be screwed. I think it's just how we're willing to listen to others makes us stronger. So I say bring it. Now like I'll go down without a fight myself anyway, I'd like to see anyone try to take down this school." He blushed a bit and rested against the couch.

That might have been a little much.

"Yeah, it's a little dramatic, but I know what you mean..." Nicki smiled. She immediately kicked herself a little. She loved her powers but she didn't want to be creeping around in Mett's head. She knew he was weird about the fact that she could poke arond his mind. "I know we can take it...but there's just a lot to take you know?"

Mettaliar blushed slightly. He wasn't usually this wild up, but he guessed he should blame the stress of what happened onto why he was acting this way. He felt a sort of anger from what happened to Iris that he couldn't keep down. Though he now had control, he felt weird bursting out like that.

"Yeah. Not many people face this kind of stuff. I guess trust has to be our strongest virtue, we can't doubt each other or ourselves if we have to face more and more of this kind of stuff." He leaned back into his couch for a bit, then a thought came to his mind which made him a bit on edge.

"Hey, I'm just wondering... your powers... do they detect emotions... like happyness or like..." he gulped, "... embarrassment?"

Nicki bit her lip a little at how uncomfortable Mett was around her and her abilities. This happened sometimes, particularly with people who were shy. It defeated the whole purpose of being shy to have someone have the ability to just poke around inside your head for a little bit. Nicki sighed and nodded her head a little.

"Yeah. Emotions, thoughts, even thoughts that you might be trying to hide..." Nicki nodded a little, her eyes going down slightly and then looking back up to Mett. "But why are you so worried about embarassment...?" Nicki trailed off.