This was it... there was no turning back now. The Greek gulped, shifting uneasily on her feet, and toyed with her dangling, wiggling hair. The sanctuary stood before her, looming, blood soaked steps washed clean.

so inviting.

Like an apple, dangling from a serpents tail. Sloth shifted around her neck, feeling her uneasiness. Andrea had no real choice, it was either here, or the mansion... She could not return home. Her snakes had struck out at three passersby on her way to the sanctuary. There was no way she was going home, only to injure... or kill, one of her friends. Taking in a shallow, shaking breath, she raised one foot and planted her sandal clothed toes down on the first step. Memories from her first visit flooded back. Nausea gripped her stomach, she could feel warm blood on her cheek again.

Was she really suited for such a place?

Another shaking breath brought one more foot up, another step conquered. She sucked up what courage she had, recalling bad to her time spent with hunter. Eating glass.. if she could do that, she could do anything.. right? The rest of the steps flew by, and before she knew it she was left standing in front of those massive golden doors. Doors she had once misidentified as a church...

A place of god... How wrong she had been. Raising a sweating gloves hand, she rapped on the door three times as hard as she could muster. Still only managing soft, delicate knocks. She stepped back, fully expecting Aura to open the door, innocent smile in place... Quietly she told herself, "... Three knocks. If no one notices... I shall leave..." A desperate bid, hoping fate would save her from the decision she had already made.

Kaitlyn was on her way out when she heard it.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

She stopped, confused by the sound. Was somebody actually knocking on the golden doors?

...why?

Slowly, cautiously, she opened one of the doors by a crack and peeked through. On the other side was a lady with green skin and a writhing mass of snakes growing out of her head. There was something oddly familiar about this person, but the youngest Order member couldn't quite put her finger on it.

Once she discerned that there wasn't anything unusual about the stranger with the snake hair, Kaitlyn opened the door. "You don't hafta knock," she explained.

"Are you new?"

The doors creaked open sooner than she had expected. Her plans to run off after a set amount of time crashed and burned, and she came face to face with.... A child? She blinked at the girl, who looked familiar... and it dawned on her. "... You... were at my friends Birthday party." She blinked again, and furrowed her brows.

What had her name been? Come on Andrea... think.... think!

"...K....ait...lyn?"

Her backpack slipped a little on her shoulder, and she shifted on her feet. The act of hiking her bag back up caused her hood to slip down. Her snakes wriggled momentarily, then peeked out. They spotted Kaitlyn, glanced among one another, and avarice led the charge.

Six snakes leapt out at the child, hissing and wriggling, and Andrea threw her arms up in order to tug them back.

She hadn't been to the Sanctuary in a while. Usually, Lenna made herself scarce. The mutants there didn't always care for her kind, not that she could blame them. Shutting someone down wasn't always as fun as it sounded. The change in the way her aura worked was useful, yes, but it had its downsides. Walking along through the halls, she'd noted wary looks, shifty glances, jutted upper lips. The whole deal.

Lenna had suggested to Lori that they try and play it as if she were merely a mutant with the power to weaken mutations, and that that power had strengthened over time. They'd gone another route. Lying to the entire Sanctuary about something like that was a bad idea. Lenna had gotten the feeling that Lori considered a lot of these people family. Instead, they'd gone with 'Lori has a pet Adapted on her staff'. An item of scorn, or fear. A status symbol? Like the dragon's princess? Maybe. She'd thought it would make Lori look good. And, for the most part, Lori looked good. It was Lenna that still got looked down on. She was fine with this. To hell with the people that looked down upon her.

She stopped her walk at the front desk, and smiled politely at Lisa. "Any messages for me?"

The secretary shook her head. Unlike Lenna, nobody looked down upon the woman behind the desk. It must have been nice.

A knocking at the door caused Lenna's head to turn. Who would actually knock? Kaitlyn answered, and then... Lenna found herself moving forwards, towards the door, to thrust an arm out protectively in front of the younger girl. Whatever was in the doorway had attacked. Whatever was in the doorway wouldn't get away with it. Whatever was in the doorway was...

Lenna's eyes widened, and she spoke slowly, in a tone of disbelief. "...An... dre...a?" She looked different. She had snake-hair. "You look like trash." She added, as if it needed pointing out.

Birthday party?

...Oh! That's how they knew each other. Kaitlyn went to a public birthday party thing last summer, and this lady was the host. She must have had a good mind for names, too; she knew Kaitlyn's name, but the reverse certainly wasn't true. They had met once over six months ago. "Hi... ah..." Was it Audrey? No... Staring blankly at the medusa-lady, Kaitlyn tried to remember.

Then, whatsername's head-snakes lunged straight for her. She flinched, and a panicked squeal escaped her. If Lenna didn't show up just then...

It wasn't a pretty thought. Andrea would have been done for. Oh, that's her name.

The child saw a kindred spirit in the gorgon before her. Each one had a dangerous power that they obviously couldn't control. They might even become good friends, assuming one doesn't accidentally kill the other.

"Thanks, Lenna." Some people didn's like adapteds, just because they were adapteds. Some people could watch scary movies in the rec room without involuntarily blowing everything up.

"So. How long have those snakes been there?"

As suddenly as the attack had started, it was.. over. The wiggling stopped, and seven large snakes- and many tiny ones- all went limp around her shoulders.

Andrea cracked an eye open, surprised to say the least to see another familiar face standing before her. Her hands lowered, eyes already marveling at the transformation that had happened near instantly. Pale peachy flesh peeked out from in between her gloves and her raincoat, and her hair had ceased it's wiggling when it had turned light brown. She blinked again, and a Small smile touched her lips.

"Hello Ma-.." Wait... hadn't Kaitlyn just..? "..L..Lenna?"

Confusion leaked into her facial features, and she shifted awkwardly. The young girls question floated up to her, temporarily distracting her from the other woman's sudden name change. "...not very long, kaitlyn... In fact, they are why I am here."

Andrea poked at one of the snaked lazing about her shoulders. It didn't respond... like it was either dead, or in a very deep sleep.

"So, those are new. You need to be careful." The protective arm lowered, slightly. Now that Andrea was in her aura, she was less lethal. Those slimy serpentine tendrils slithering in her hair wouldn't snap. There'd be no biting, or danger to young girls.

Lenna was partially curious how the situation had suddenly come to that. "How did it happen. What kind of help do you need?" She cut to the chase. "You're free to stay here, but like I said, careful. I can't always be around..."

Kaitlyn looked at Lenna, at Andrea, and back again, suddenly realizing that they already knew each other. And Andrea was going to call Lenna something else. Something that started with 'Ma' ...

Is Lenna Andrea's mom!?

No, that's stupid. Kaitlyn expelled the thought from her mind and started paying attention to the lady with the dead snakes on her head.

>>"You're free to stay here, but like I said, careful. I can't always be around..."

As Lenna said this, Kaitlyn came up with an excellent idea, and she just had to share it. "Maybe you could tie your snakes back like in a ponytail, so they couldn't move as much. Or maybe... I could get you a lot of hair spray!"

The no-longer-green woman smiled bitterly, the points of now normal sized canines peeking out from between newly pink lips. "I need as much help as possible." She admitted, shifting her eyes from the young girl, back to the newly named Lenna. "I have only had them for a few days... I guess they are..." She struggled with herself for a moment, not wanting to label them as a mutation like others did, but as something more sinister. With Kaitlyn present though... and Lenna, she quickly squished the urge. "... an added mutation."

More importantly though, "...but, I cannot control them..." Her voice pitched into something serious, and for the first time she was debating whether coming to the sanctuary had been a bad idea for a different reason. She had assumed that no-one good could possibly reside within the building, but now... A child stood before her, as well as a woman who had been nothing but friendly to her.

Maybe... she couldn't stay here as well. "... Hair spray?" Andrea couldn't hold back a giggle, mostly due to the idea of putting the snakes, and possibly herself, into a fume related coma. "I don't know about hair spray... but I think that idea of yours about pony tails is pure genius." In fact, come to think of it... she had a length of ribbon in her bag somewhere. She took a moment to dig in her backpack until she found the length of green ribbon. With an urgency, she looped it around her hair and the limp snakes and tied it in a secure bow at shoulder level. Through the snakes would still be able to curl up and peek over her shoulders, they wouldn't be able to launch themselves out at people.

Grinning, she turned a little so Kaitlyn could see. "..Well, do you think it will work?" But... soon after, the funniness of the situation wore off, and she glanced back to Lenna. Her expression fell into a soft frown. "...Perhaps... It was not a good idea for me to come here though. I do not wish to put anyone in danger..." Gloved fingers wrapped around the limp white snake draped across her shoulders like a scarf, and she dropped her eyes to the ground behind her glasses.

Kaitlyn was... priceless. Really. Another person might have taken it as a joke, but no. She was just trying to help. It was a funny image. Andrea thought so, too. Ponytails? Perhaps the problem Andrea was making out as serious could be solved with pony tails... or braiding... or a strong sword.

Lenna kept getting the impression that Andrea would have liked the idea of being rid of them. She might even have used stronger words to describe the snakes.

Lenna patted Kaitlyn's back at the suggestion, donning a humoring grin as Andrea dug in her bag. "Good idea." She said quietly.

Her eyes rose back to the snake-haired girl, and wham, bam, thank you, ma'am. There they were. Snakes in a bow. Funny, yet again.

Andrea had to remind them all that she still thought this was serious, however... and suddenly, she didn't think here was for her, either. Like she'd exhausted all options.

"Don't talk crazy," Lenna tried to raise her mood, smiling a helpful, if forced, smile. "The sanctuary can handle plenty. Why, just the other day, Kaitlyn here blew up a pool table. Right?" She looked to Kaitlyn for confirmation, hoping she'd get the 'i need help' look hiding behind her eyes.

Blew up... a- ... no. She wasn't even going to begin to try and figure that out. All she needed was the friendly smile Lenna gave her, and the youthful innocence Kaitlyn brought. "...I will... take your word on it." The young woman smiled lightly back, shouldering her back pack back up into its proper place.

"..So I guess... I'm staying then." That meant that she would need to be shown around... and given a room- possibly a roommate. Aura popped to mind again, (how could she not?) and Andrea briefly wondered if she had gotten the wrong impression of the girl.

She would have to look into that later... right now however, she was being led through the golden doors, into the hopeful safety and shelter of the sanctuary. "...I am very happy it was you who answered the door Kaitlyn... and you as well...Lenna." She would have to get used to that name. "...Anyone else and I might have been to scared to come inside." Again... but, they didn't need to know about her first visit...did they? She listened to Lenna talk, and Kaitlyn, and let the girl snatch up her hand to lead her into the building.

As she walked through the doorway, she spared one look back out to the street, before the doors were shut behind her....

(to be continued in...?)