"That you hated us that much was something I'd never questioned. Plenty of people don't like us, we're mutants, and we're seen as an extension of the police these days. Hate's nothing new." Cafas shrugged. It was just a matter of fact. The X-men took flak from pretty much all sides. He'd given up on being upset by it personally, though it still annoyed him when people were deliberately uncooperative when they were working.

"Our give peace a chance thing has been working, at least somewhat. Plus, if no-one was here to balance you, we'd have an all out war on our hands again." An all out war they couldn't win. Not enough mutants were in office, not enough had risen through military ranks. If they could integrate fully into positions of power, they might just stand a chance in a war, but who knew? It wouldn't be the first civil war to start with the execution of they key figures of the other side. Take Star Wars and order 66 for instance.

Oh, great reference, a fictional universe. Never join a debate team.

"So what's your deal anyway? You have a cause, or you just in it for the killing? You say we stand in your way, which admittedly is true, but I'm not sure what destination we're blocking your path to." He assumed it was domination, for their organisation. It certainly looked that way, given how they'd controlled Brooklyn. Isabel herself though, that was another story all together.

Maybe knowing her motives will help Maya bring her around.

Cafas really wasn't sure where he was walking to. He knew the forest would give out eventually, would they just swing around and walk back in? Part ways? Maybe Isabel wanted to make a habit of getting drunk and taking selfies with X-men? Having her drunk and him sober would make an interesting reversal of their previous interaction.

"Oh yeah, the peace this is going great. New robots being released ever few years and running around targeting mutants is really a step in the right direction." Peaceful coexistence was a nice daydream to entertain every now and again, but it wasn't something that could be sustained in reality. The X's were just a little slow on the uptake.

"I'm a fan of the killing." Isabel was a simple woman with simple tastes. A little murder and mayhem every now and again and she was largely content, and yet there were still too many people who thought that was too much to ask. She preferred to murder those people when given the chance. " A Faction that supports my hobbies and ideals is just a bonus, really. It's not hard to figure out that the Order is working toward a more mutant-friendly world, which happens to be one with far fewer humans. We work well together."

The causal banter was making things a little less tense and she wasn't feeling quite so on edge, but Isabel didn't have any intention of entertaining the X all night. She'd said what she'd set out to say and had managed to do so without interruption, so she was satisfied enough for the time being. Now they just had to get back out of the woods and she could be on her way. Gradually she changed course and started to circle back around the direction they had come from.

"Surprised you can't figure that much out from those files of yours. This stuff isn't exactly a secret." Miserable, drunk, and a clueless X. This kid was the whole package. "But I guess someone that thinks they can play nice with humans in the long run can't be all that bright to begin with."

"Oh yeah, the peace this is going great. New robots being released ever few years and running around targeting mutants is really a step in the right direction."

Sarcasm was a one social cue Cafas could pick up on. He might have though Isabel had been possessed otherwise. Her abrasive tone did nothing for him liking her, but he agreed with her. Where before they'd been making strides, some even successful, in the fight for mutant equality, they were seemingly thought tame enough not to resist the META bots. The worst part was that so far, they totally were.

"I'm a fan of the killing. A Faction that supports my hobbies and ideals is just a bonus, really..."

The insults were back. Lovely. Cafas let it slide, honestly it was unsurprising Isabel held a narrow enough world view to assume everyone that disagreed with her was stupid. "The Order, I knew full well about. You personally, well our files only talk about the crimes you committed, a bit on your M.O., that sort of thing. It's really just the police file, truth be told. I don't know what happened to the actual X-men one. I suspect our old data was at the very least hidden away before we joined with the cops." Certainly their old information would contain some things the X-men would not want the police knowing. Things they didn't need to know.

"Gotta ask, did enjoying killing come naturally? Was it something you always liked, or did you work up to it or something?" Cafas was no psychologist, but he was fairly confident that Isabel fell on the Phychopath spectrum. Still, if it could be learned, maybe some of it could be adapted to help him cope with his own past.

Probably too much to ask.

That Isabel was circling around was almost lost on Cafas. He was preoccupied with watching for people, or animals and trees that seemed too interested in their conversation. While it seemed they had gotten off the topic of Ragnarok, it still wasn't a good idea for them to be seen talking to one another. Possibly worse for Cafas than Isabel.

"My crimes are all anyone really needs to know about me. The cops can give up plenty of first-hand accounts. It's about all they're good for." Getting chummy with others wasn't one of Isabel's biggest concerns and she saw no need for anyone outside her very small circle to humanize her. She enjoyed being the face of horror and tragedy and little else.

Unfortunately the X seemed like he was trying to start doing a little digging into what made her tick. It was a bit of a nuisance, but so long as it stayed on the subject of her hobbies it was fairly tolerable. She didn't have to be nice to him in order to brag and if he began touching on any nerves she could easily shut him down.

"Well I can't really say I was killing people from the start, but habits form early," she replied with a shrug. Contrary to what she assumed most people thought she wasn't born a killer, but it didn't take long before she had started to exhibit violent tendencies. "I dunno that it was a natural inclination, but I took to it pretty easily once I got started. Being a mutant in this kind of world, it's kill or be killed. You've gotta be aggressive to survive, so why not enjoy it while you're at it?"

"And you? Have you always been a self-righteous human lover or did you get stuck in that school and brainwashed like the rest of them?"

Cafas had been rather hoping for more. Not that he didn't believe her, she had no reason to lie that he knew of, but it didn't help him with his own issues. Not much help for Maya either, though he might mention it anyway. That was, if he told her. He didn't like the idea of keeping the Ragnarok thing a secret, but he was just creating more liabilities and targets by telling people.

Cafas' ears pricked to something they'd been dismissing for some time. Nearly their whole walk, in fact. At first, he'd thought it a cracking twig, but it was starting to sound far too consistent, and not quite natural.

"And you? Have you always been a self-righteous human lover or did you get stuck in that school and brainwashed like the rest of them?"

Isabel broke his concentration on identifying the sound, and it was briefly forgotten.

"Human-loving? I think you got me mixed up. I didn't join up to protect them from us. I joined to protect us from them. I don't hate them like you do, I'm happy to see the individual past the genetics, and yeah I'll admit I'd rather we all just got along, but make no mistake about what side I'm on if it comes to it." If the government started taking sides again, Cafas would stop supporting them before the ink was dry on whatever anti-mutant law they decided to sign in.

"As for self-righteous, well, I hadn't really noticed. You might have picked up that I'm not really that fussed by what you do. I have no right to be, really. Not like I haven't done the same. I didn't enjoy it, and it weighs heavily on me, but I'm good at it, that's for sure." Let her have that information. What was she going to do with it? Prove something? He was sure it either couldn't be done, or more likely, had already been done and was sitting somewhere in case of emergency. The X-men's seeming legal immunity, it had been put to him, was just a matter of not having outlived their usefulness. He wasn't sure if he believed that, but it did make sense.

There was that sound again. The familiar click and whir sound finally fought its way to to recognition. It was a camera. Cafas frowned, looked at Isabel with suspicion, then tried to trace the sound. It came from... Up?

No matter how the X phrased or justified his status as one of the human hugging Nerds at the end of the day he was still deluded. Couldn't even kill anyone without feeling guilty about it. What a pushover. He'd never make it in the world like that, no matter how many other X's he had behind him to cushion his fall. The world was violent and only understood violence in return. Kill or be killed. It was just the way things were. And when it came down to choosing sides and putting up a fight that guilt of his would be the downfall.

Their conversation was only going to keep going around in circles. Isabel knew she was right and the X was under the flawed assumption that his views were the right ones. There really wasn't any use arguing with an X. They were just too attached to their flawed beliefs to see reason.

However, there was a more pressing issue than arguing their points that presented itself. Cafas' abrupt halt gave Isabel pause and she slowed to see what it was that had caught his attention. Once they had stopped speaking she could hear the shutter on the camera, though she couldn't identify it until her gaze had also found the individual perched overhead.

Her stomach twisted at the sight of the camera and she was immediately back on high alert. She knew this had been a stupid idea and she fully intended on blaming Cafas for it once she'd done away with the nosy neighbor.

"I dunno about you an your guilt complex, but I think now's a good opportunity to get over it." Isabel started to form her sets of spidery legs that could help her climb and chase down the idiot who thought photographing her was a good idea. Murder was the best solution to these kinds of problems.

The black haired youth locked his frightened eyes onto Cafas regretful expression. He froze, too afraid to breathe. The tears had already started forming. He really hadn't thought his stalking project through. Maybe he could talk his way out?

~~~

Cafas, for his part, was torn from reality. He could hear the struggle around him, The Judge yelling instructions. He felt the hand tug his hair and the scratch of rough linen against his skin as his executioners hood was wrenched from his head. The frightened look in the eyes of the young man, having just watched his father cut down for crimes he hadn't known the man to commit, was echoed by the photographer's.

"Please... I promise not to tell..."

"I dunno about you an your guilt complex, but I think now's a good opportunity to get over it."

~~~

He ran. Of course he ran, what else was he going to do? He'd heard the conversation and recognised Isabel. The camera was held firmly in hand as he fell through the air to the ground and took off. Sticks and decaying leaves were crushed under his sneakers, desperately carrying him to the edge of the forest, hoping to find help there.

~~~

He ran just like the other man had, carrying with him a secret that could never see the light of day. It would destroy everything. Cafas didn't see trees, he saw the corridors of a house, stretching away in a disorienting nonsensical dreamscape of a floor plan. His mind didn't even protest.

Shit shit shit, he can't get away or we're dead. Him or us... God damn it, you weren't meant to die!

"Why did you do this! This didn't have to fucking happen!" His voice was kept low enough. They were taking out their target in a residential neighborhood, wouldn't do to alert more people. Cafas caught up fast. He was fitter, taller, faster. It was no real contest. He lunged for the camera and the teen, aiming to drive him face down into the ground so he couldn't scream. His guts were already wringing themselves from what was going to have to follow.

Isabel had expected the X to protest, to get in her way and try to dissuade her somehow from doing what was necessary. She wasn't going to waste any time and allow him to have that opportunity. The photographer was already on the run in full-blown panic. Isabel for her part was trying to drown out her own panic with anger. Anger was messy and reckless, but panic was even more so. She couldn't afford to let the kid slip away because she had been just a little too unfocused.

Cafas got a head start on her as her bone appendages finished forming and then she was right on his heels. Thankfully the stranger had dropped to the ground and she wouldn't have to climb anything. Navigating through the trees alone was turning out to be a bit trickier than she had imagined, her being used to utilizing the legs in more open spaces in the city. They helped with taking sharp corners and preventing her from losing any of her skin on the rough bark, but they also did their fair share of catching and colliding as she moved.

She had nearly overtaken the teen when the Nerd managed to force him to the ground, using his larger frame to pin the kid and cram his face into the chilly ground. Isabel skid to a stop, her breathing a little labored as her heart raced, the rush of adrenaline to blame more than any physical exertion. The legs around her folded until her feet touched the ground and she moved to stand over the pair. A blade was already forming in her hand.

"Stupid kid." The boy looked young enough to be so thoughtless, but his age mattered little to her. Teen or not, he was a threat and she intended to deal with him accordingly. Her boot found the hand that was clutching the camera like a life line and she brought it down hard and fast. If he wouldn't let go of the thing she'd simply break his had around it. Not that it mattered either way in the end.

Her gaze found the X struggling to keep the intruder still. As expected he didn't look to be fairing too well, but thus far he hadn't made any protests. This, Isabel decided, would be a defining moment. This would be the thing that would determine whether or not the risk she'd taken had been worth it.

"Either lift him, or turn him. I want to get his throat without having to fight for it. Unless you'd rather do the honors?"

The kid tried to pull his hand in to protect it after Isabel's first blow, but the hand and camera were both already ruined. It wasn't like he was going to need it anyway. He sobbed into the ground, face pushed into the dirt too hard to let him beg.

Cafas' teeth were at risk of shattering from how tightly his jaw was clenched. He registered that Saph had said something, though he had sounded weird. His brain couldn't feed him a reason why, by it wasn't exactly trying. It just knew they couldn't risk the guy ever talking.

Anger filled him. Anger to numb the pain, anger that this idiot had forced Cafas into the position he was in. He'd dropped his ax somewhere, it wasn't to hand anyway. He must have dropped it in a different room. He knelt above the terrified youth and flipped him face up. Before the youth could utter a sound Cafas' left hand closed around his neck, leaning his weight through it. A closed fist came down on the side of the young man's head.

Seconds had passed, though they had felt like lifetimes. Cafas' knuckles were a mess of blood, both his and the youth's. There had been no struggle since the first blow. Somewhere in the rain of punches there had been an audible snap. By the time it had all stopped, the guy was almost unrecognisable.

Cafas stood, his whole body shaking and the world around him blurring between the horrific memory and the horrific reality. The anger was subsiding, but his episode felt anything but done. He walked over to a tree and held onto it with one hand for support. He felt sick. It was a familiar sickness. He knew it didn't end in vomiting. He tried to get a grasp on his brain, but it was like catching smoke with his bare hands.

He was peripherally aware of Isabel. His brain finally began recognising her as such again. She'd stopped looking like the Judge. "Just give me a second. Maybe figure out what to do with the body and camera." Logic was starting to work again. He wanted to cry, but he wouldn't. He may have been in a weird midpoint between the past and present, but crying in front of Isabel was still not an option.

Isabel hadn't hadn't even managed to take a full step in the space of time from when the kid was flipped to when the X took over and mashed his face into practically nothing. The blade disappeared back into her hand while she stood quietly and watched the messy scene. Something wasn't quite right, she could see it in Cafas' face, but she wasn't about to step in. Out of his mind or not, he was doing what needed to be done.

She retrieved what was left of the camera while the X tried to collect himself. All she really needed was the memory card, but she'd take the whole thing and tear it apart back at the Sanctuary anyway. "I don't worry about bodies," she replied, prying open the small door on the bottom of the camera so she could pull out the card and stick it in her pocket.. "The strays'll take care of it. Or the police. But people in this city die violently all the time. Just another one on the pile, no bother looking to deeply into it." She hadn't had anything to do with the killing so it couldn't be linked back to her and therefore it really wasn't her problem. Even if it could get back to her it still wouldn't be her problem. She'd murdered so many people that one more would hardly matter. She doubted the X had the same mindset, though.

Isabel hung the battered camera around her neck and eyed the do-gooder as he came down from the adrenaline rush. He looked like he was going to be sick. She really hoped he wasn't going to be sick. She couldn't tolerate an X on a good day, nevermind one that couldn't hold his lunch over something as simple as bashing a kid's head in.

On another upside, now she knew that the guy could get his hands dirty when necessary. As far as she was aware Ragnarok hadn't quite reached the point were they were going out and killing people. Less harmful vandalism seemed to be the focus for the time being, but it wouldn't stay that way for too long. If the X wanted to play the part he'd have to do it convincingly. Thus far it seemed like he might be able to handle it.

"Buckle up, kid. This is just the beginning of it. You better make peace with that guilt complex of yours real soon or you're not gonna be able to cut it with this whole spy thing." The bone appendages retracted and her hands found her hips while she eyed the X. He just had to ride it out and he'd be fine. Snapping this early in the game wouldn't bode well for either of them.

"I don't worry about bodies..."

Cafas pulled himself fully upright and swallowed the nauseous feeling. Isabel, it seemed, would not be helpful in the circumstances. He had an argument against her point, but he doubted it would change her mind. "Killings this close to the Mansion tend to get looked into." He'd have to do something about it. Some steel and a trip to the water would do the trick.

"Buckle up, kid..."

Cafas turned his attention to his knuckles for a moment. They were bleeding pretty freely. He removed his shirt and wrapped his hand in it. Not that it would make any difference, really, but it was better than leaving a dripping trail wherever he went, and fielding the old 'Who have you been fighting' question. The now topless mutant looked back to Isabel.

Damn it's getting cold...

"Pretty sure feeling guilt about killing people won't affect my ability to gather information that much. I am well aware of the distinction between what I want to do, and what needs to be done anyway. Case in point, that idiot. Working on the whole PTSD thing though." He wasn't sure if he could handle that without ridding himself of the guilt. Maybe.

Maybe I can look into it.

Cafas sighed as the last of his mental faculties, shaken as they were, returned. "I'll deal with the body. Gonna need some metal. So, now what? For us I mean."

How close to what building people were killed also wasn't Isabel's problem. Police and their investigations didn't worry her, though she supposed she could see why they would make some goodie uncomfortable. Wouldn't want to tarnish their shiny good guy reputation unless it was on the behalf of the police. Things could get awkward at the office otherwise.

"Good. Cuz if it turns out you lose your spine and I have to suffer for it then we're really gonna have a problem." Even more of a problem then they had already. She could handle forced semi-civility in passing with an X if she had to, dangerous as it was, but she'd be more than willing to put the guy in the ground if it became necessary in order to save her own neck. If Jaager didn't beat her to it.

The body was his to deal with and she'd leave him to it. Even if she had any desire to assist him, metal wasn't really her thing. He was on his own with that mess. And he could be alone to sort through the bigger mess that she was dragging him into.

"Us? I figure this'll be about the extent of me dealing with you outside of Ragnarok. I can play nice enough if we run into each other after this, but I'm not exactly getting my hands dirty so I can make friends. I don't make friends with anyone, nevermind an X."