Maria had been doing her best to build herself an identity outside x-men service. She lived with her friend and much of her money was gained from underground fighting she had found out about. She had yet to hold a real job. She was still getting over a lot and trying to mentally process it all. Freedom had been like getting hit with a very hard, very bog rock. She had gone from being told, when to eat, sleep, train, having every piece of her life planned for her for 18 years to being free for less then four. Idea's like being able to listen to music and deciding when to wake up. The idea she could sleep whenever she wanted was still something that amazed her. Having an actual name had grown on her as well.

Something that did not arouse the sense of wonder of the newly liberated woman, however were the bullets. Maria as many called her now swore, barely pulling up the blue blanket of energy that kept her alive even as she turned in place to see who would attack her. Three men armed with what looked like rifles to her, fired again, this time she adjusted her Aura even as she moved forward, the bullets struck and well one exploded against her Aura the other two were redirected up and high well over the heads of people who might pass by.

She reached the first man, and his shaking prevented him from firing a third shot, Maria formed a blade of blue energy and brought it down on the cowering man, but the blade never struck him. Instead four inches from the man; fist her aura struck the gun. The blade at first seemed to pass through the gun but once it sounded it, became solid and Aura used the momentum to rip the gun from his hands. She turned to for the other two men and quickly was forced to push the recently disarmed man to the ground. She winced as the bullets struck her aura where the man's head had been instead of the idiot. Maria began to suspect the men might be impaired as one of the remaining men fumbled with his gun.

"You are clearly outmatched, please withdraw" she said her aura beginning to manifest subtle ripples which looked much like waves, passing over an almost clear lake. Another shot and Maria's face clearly showed her anger, she cleared the distance between them in second's but her blade has already began to change and when her upper cut hit his stomach it was a hammer. A blade would have gutted him she knew, much harder and she might have broken a rib, she suspected she might have on accident cracked one though. Well the man wheezed the third gang member dropped his gun and ran. His friends joined him. She could have easily killed the three at any point she knew, but she was an X-men now a person, not some war machine. "I can be more right?"[/color she said no one looking down at her hands.

Every once in a while, after a very stressful day, Mirror would have nightmares. And every once in a while, but definitely more often than s/he would have liked, those nightmares featured Aura. Mirror had seen Aura fight and kill before, and it horrified her; not because of the blood and the gore, although that was pretty bad too, but because of the sheer difference between the attitude of most people Mirror knew, and Aura's naive, unapologetic attitude towards murder. In short, Aura confused and terrified the mirrorwalker.
So, when she ran across her fighting again, this time in the Other New York, Maya could not help but watch.

The aura was different. It was blue, not pink. The situation was the same, though, a girl outmatched by people attacking her for whatever reason, and not being bothered by that fact at all.
Something, however, was definitely off.

>>"You are clearly outmatched, please withdraw"

Maya, watching from a nearby window (she had been on her way to visit the Other X-men), blinked in shock. Did Aura just say please?... She watched, even more stunned, as the woman took the three men down, without killing, or even cutting, a single one of them. They gave up, in the end. She still didn't kill them.

"I would run while you can" Maya noted, stepping out of the window to aim an arrow at the men. They did not need to be told twice. But at least they lived?...

She kept quite until they were gone. When they were gone however, she smiles and gave a short laugh. "Been awhile since i got to have fun, but i should be able to do that faster" she said the excitement clear in her voice. Looking to the new person who had appeared she tilted her head and processed her words. Her eyes rested on the arrow with interest. It was clearly a weapon but one she had never looked at before. Part of her wanted to try the woman's weapon but she knew it would never work for her as she had no range at all.

"Nice to meet you, My Name is Maria and yours?" she said having grown use to the recently adopted name. Her aura faded to a thin light blue sheen around her skin. This woman appeared to be on her side after all but one could never be to sure. The last thing she needed besides was to be attacked by SUPER agents which the woman could have been though she doubted it. SUPER would have brought an adapted first to switch her power off before trying to take her. At least it was how she would have done the job in their situation.

"So are you my knight in shining Armour?' she said with a bright smile. The woman was quite pretty after all. She had not really rescued her but a small detail like that could be swept away and who knowes if they would have gotten more friends had she not shown up. Getting rescued by pretty woman was becoming a habit that she felt she could get use to. She ran the fingers on her left hand through her own hair. "May i ask your name?" she said her eyes sweeping across Mirror's body without a hint of shame.

The bad guys (?) ran, and they were left alone in the alley, Aura and Maya. Maya lowered her bow, but did not put it away just yet. Aura made her skin crawl every time, out of the sheer cruelty she usually had for people who did not have her respect. Being alone with her was one of Maya's worst nightmares.

>>"Been awhile since i got to have fun, but i should be able to do that faster"

Fun. Now, that was familiar. Aura took enjoyment in fighting, and killing. Maya was still thrown off by the fact that all the guys lived this time. Also, there was something different in her voice. The way she spoke.

>>"Nice to meet you, My Name is Maria and yours?"

Maria.

Wait, Maria?... Did Aura even have her own name?...

>>"So are you my knight in shining Armour? May i ask your name?"

"Wha..." Maya gaped at the girl. Different name. Different color. Same face. Same fight. And also, apparently... hitting on her? Aura showed no sign of recognition. Which really left only one explanation.

This girl was not Aura at all. She was... the Other Aura.

Holy SH*T THERE'S TWO OF THEM

"Um, uhh..." Maya eyed the woman cautiously "I'm Maya."

A thought crossed her mind well late and Aura let out a sign. "Right i should be telling strangers im Aura...i think" she said a look of confusion overcoming her face. Oh well at least she had screwed up here and not back home, how likely was it this lady could report her error anyhow? Small ripples appeared across her aura as she tried to figure it out mentally but after a moment or two gave up on it.

"Lovely name for a pretty lady. " she said with a smile and tone that left little subtility to her hitting on Maya. Maria had no experience with such things and so she voiced her opinion openly. "So I'm new to this area and well gunshots and all.....we should not be here?" she said looking at her new found friend, having just considered the gun shots might be reported by someone.

Maria was use to defaulting to others for choices and part of her learn to be a person training had consisted of learning to do things on her own but when panicked or unsure she still defaulted to the nearest person she trusted. She let her aura fade out entirely or so it seemed. if one looked close enough they would see that her aura was active but thin and under her clothing. She had not heard sirens yet but she knew someone might have reported the shots and did not wnat Rebecca and the x-men to have to save her a second time.

It was strange to meet Aura in a context when she was not killing someone. If this girl really was the Other Aura, that was not much of a surprise, but somehow Maya still imagined that she could turn out to be more vicious than the pink version. With her luck, anyway.

>>"Right i should be telling strangers im Aura...i think"

So, she really was Aura. The other one. Less violent? Less... pink. Totally confusing.

>>"Lovely name for a pretty lady. So I'm new to this area and well gunshots and all.....we should not be here?"

Was... Other Aura just hitting on her?!...

Maya blinked. The girl was probably right, they needed to get away before the cops showed. Cops were not very nice to mutants on this side of the rift.

"So, uhhh... you got a, what, a hideout?"

Please tell me you're not SUPER.

She shook her head. "No, i'm not really from around here. Other side of the rift She said not really sure how popular that knowledge was over here. She was curious what had come to her counterpart here but had been to facinated by this place to actually look."Top be honest i was just blindly wandering around and checking things out." she said with a smile.

Her charm not working she looked around to consider where they might flee to. Truth be told she could only pick a random direction not having talked to Rebecca about if their were hide outs here or their connections. Really she had just been board when she came through and had not planned much of this trip at all. Her pwn lack of world experience as well left her at a loss. Still she looked around and looked to a shoddy door.

"We could try that? Or your walk through walls trick?" she said not really sure how Maya had done her entrence but knowing it was a Mutnat power of some sort.

I Look of terror suddenly struck her. "Please tell me theirs no SUPER here" just the mention of the name from her own lips was enough to send a twitch through her body and random bits of her aura flickerd on for a few brief moments before quickly fading away. The thought of Super catching them was not a happy one at all for her.

>>"No, i'm not really from around here. Other side of the rift."

Well, that settled it. Other Aura. And she knew about the rift, which made sense, and at least Maya did not have to start explaining herself from the beginning. Still it did not make the conversation any easier ('hey, I'm totally terrified of the Other You'?). Not that they had time for one. They had to get away from the scene first.

>>"We could try that? Or your walk through walls trick?"

"Not walls. Mirrors." Maya offered a hand to the girl, but she suddenly seemed worried about something else.

>>"Please tell me theirs no SUPER here"

Maya's eyes narrowed.

"SUPER?..." Aura looked... almost scared, with her lights flickering. Maya had never seen the pink edition scared before. It was a new look. "SUPER's after you?"

"Yea, the x-men broke me out in a raid, before that i spent most of my life in their hands. Since right after my powers emerged" she said recalling the less then fond memories she held. She did not like to talk about the specifics but she felt she could trust this lady who had helped her.

"When they broke me out i had no idea how to function in normal society. Concepts like making my own choices were a mystery to me. All i had ever been taught was how to hurt people, how to fight. I was a weapon and until the x-men taught me other wise that's all i thought i could ever be." she said with a shy smile.

"I Imagine their after me but it's hard to know. Maybe with luck they either don't care or wrote me off as dead. I will not be captured again, not now that i understand freedom" she said trying to explain why super was after her. "Would have been easy to simply let the rage conquer me and rule me. A part me wnated to track down and slay every last member of Super for what they had done to me. But...killing should be avoided" she said leaving out she was unsure how she might react to an actual super agent attacking her.

The Aura of Mirror's world would not have been worried about a bunch of government agents being after her. If anything, she would have probably thought it was great fun, and killed all of them laughing. But this girl, as much as she resembled Aura, was also different somehow. Mirror knew from personal experience how different and similar doppelgangers could be. She was not going to assume anything until she knew better.

>>"Yea, the x-men broke me out in a raid, before that i spent most of my life in their hands. Since right after my powers emerged. When they broke me out i had no idea how to function in normal society. Concepts like making my own choices were a mystery to me. All i had ever been taught was how to hurt people, how to fight. I was a weapon and until the x-men taught me other wise that's all i thought i could ever be."

Maya blinked. So... this Aura was part of the X-men. She had been raised in captivity by an evil organization, but then... her story turned for the better. Maya knew the Other X-men, and she knew the kind of people they were. Someone escaping from SUPER was lucky to end up among them.

>>"I Imagine their after me but it's hard to know. Maybe with luck they either don't care or wrote me off as dead. I will not be captured again, not now that i understand freedom. Would have been easy to simply let the rage conquer me and rule me. A part me wnated to track down and slay every last member of Super for what they had done to me. But...killing should be avoided"

"Wow." Maya blinked. It was the wrong reaction, but it was simply put stunning how this Aura could talk the complete opposite way than her doppelganger. They had the same dark backstory, but one went the darker way, and the other somehow managed to go to the Light Side or whatever. This was Good Aura. X-men Aura. Aura Redeemed. Aura 2.0. "Just... sorry, you're right. Rage is bad. And we need to get out of here. C'mon." she held out a hand, offering to pull Aura into a nearby window, and away from the scene. They could continue the conversation as they went along.