Serena really didn't know what she was thinking. She was mad, she was sad and both of them were so confused. Especially Amelia. But her body just moved. It was weird, thinking about punching your girlfriendex in the face while you were busy kissing them. But hey, Serena had never been a particularly normal person, neither was Amelia for that matter.

Some, small distracted part of her brain was mentally dissecting the comment about her power not staining. That wasn't the sort of thing that you tossed out without thinking about. The thought of Amelia having to get blood out of her clothes filled her with a fresh little surge of despair.

A little shocked at her own movement, and more shocked that Ami had reciprocated so willingly, Serena explored the kiss with raw affection and need she'd not realised was lying beneath the surface. She still loved Amelia, somewhere deep down. Her hands tangled in Ami's hair and she practically melted into the activity. Serena wasn't one to initiate this sort of thing normally, at least she thought she wasn't. It had just all happened so fast.

The blonde was pretty breathless when the kiss finally parted. Amelia seemed similarly taken aback. Took the wind right out of your sails. Serena thought to herself, a little amused.

It definitely hadn't been her finest kiss of all time, face being absolutely covered in tears and all that. Serena was glad she wasn't wearing much makeup.

"I'm furious." She whispered, her voice cracked with emotion and tears. "I suppose my love just overpowers my anger."

“Love you too, Chip.” She cupped Serena’s cheek.

Now, where had that come from? They usually didn’t do nicknames.

Well. She supposed it was because— well, she had a reason and it was lame and cheesy and goofy and if Serena asked, she’d tell her. But for now-

She kissed the girls forehead.

They’d still have talking to do, and issues to unpack and sort into neatly labeled piles. But for now, she could handle sweet. Not bitter. She’d already met her quota today, Kay thanks.

A mansion lurker popped off one of their own personal fireworks and Amelia jumped.

“Oh COME the HELL ON! This isn’t Days of Our Lives!!” She shouted.

Serena felt an involuntary blush spread across her pale skin. "Was that just a reflex, or did you mean it?" Her eyes were still all teary, dammit. "A new nickname, now. Really?" She choked out a little laughter, and leaned her head gently into Amelia's hand, closing her eyes for a moment. "There is definitely more of you in there than you think. Nobody like the woman you described can have as bad timing or your sense of humour." She murmured.

Serena took a breath and gently reached out, taking Amelia's hands in her own very gently. "We have stuff to talk about. Come on, I still know where they keep the tea." She really wanted to kiss Ami again, but everything was all muddled and confused. They needed to work things out.

"W-Why did you come here anyway?" She raised an eyebrow.

“Meant. It.” She said.

As for the new nickname. Really? “Really.” Smooch.

And for her sense of humour.

“Guilty as charged. My Leaky Teacup.” Take that. That was about as quirky as one could get.

Serena took her hands, and was ready to follow her lead. For tea. Heh. Then Serena asked why she’d come to the mansion and it all came sliding down like a guillotine blade.

Her eyes got a glassy look in them as the smile slipped to solid solemnity. Almost horror.

“I was following a lead on a dangerous—“ She began.

A woman stepped out from behind a hedge.

“Yes.” She said, brazenly. “I was behind the hedge the WHOLE time!”

Something glinted in her hand. Because things could never just end on a simple and cute note. Amelia saw her eyes shift to Serena as the woman’s feet started moving.

The SUPER agent rushed to intercept. An arm came up and blocked the needle’s thrust, batting the woman’s hand away on the follow through. A broken needle spun through the air, as the Lady reeled. But she wasn’t done. Her hand dropped to her belt, where something round hung.

Amelia turned and shoved Serena back and out of the way. “Run! And don’t go anywhere near the—“

She dove on the grenade. With her mind, she turned her focus all on forcing Serena’s body back further out of range. Inch by inch, fighting her if she had to, pushing on her clothes.

Gray smoky gas began to billow out of the grenade underneath her. She hoped when all was said and done, they’d still have the presence of mind to catch the person. Or else she’d dance out while chaos broke loose just like every other time.

Laughter like bells rang across the icy grounds.

Okay. That was a lot to unpack, she was still in love with Serena. Serena still loved her, at the very least on some level. They really had something to talk about. Serena took a long, shaky breath, choking out laughter again through her tears. She reached up and wiped her face again. Shaking her head in amusement. "That has to be the lamest one yet." She kissed back gently, feeling the cold feeling that had been gripping her slowly dissipating.

Her lips had turned into an unashamed smile. Sue her, Amelia could make her smile.

The funny thing was Serena had imagined meeting Ami again so many times. She was a writer, she had a vivid imagination. She'd imagined all the excuses, all of the screaming, the rage, the making out. But the one thing was, she'd never actually expected it to happen. She had this pit, this feeling deep in her stomach that if her and Amelia had bumped into one another it would be exceedingly short lived or awkward, or she'd have some super model on her arm or something.

But here she was. They had a lot to talk about. But at the very least Serena knew that the feelings were still there, and even if it didn't work out... She'd have closure. Was that selfish?

Ice in her veins. Who the hell was that woman? She was like a cartoon villain! Before Serena had any real time to process the situation she was being dragged across the icey grounds by what she assumed was Amelia's power. She flung her arms out, trying desperately to do something, anything to help, to stop Ami doing something stupid.

Something rattled across the floor. Time froze, it was a cylinder of some kind. There was a missing pin, was that a grenade??? The remaining kids in the area immediately scarpered, Serena didn't even have time to process what was happening, training and reflexes began to kick in and in the instant that the woman was cackling she'd crossed the grounds with surprising speed and did her utmost to punch through the woman. There was a meaty thunk and Serena felt a flash of pain as she'd cleanly decked the assailant to the ground, landing with a gasp and a the little crunch of frost.

The blonde spun on her heels and ran over to Amelia now lying on the floor and immediately moved to turn her. "You idiot! What did you do?!" She covered her mouth and held her breath with the other hand, frantically trying to check if Amelia was okay.

While Serena fought, the gas rapidly dissipated. Maybe a mutant from the mansion had sent a helpful breeze that way. Regardless, by the time she arrived at Amelia’s side, the gas was gone.

Amelia was unconscious. Her hoodie was even baggier than these things usually are. Her face seemed... slimmer. And something was off about her. Had she been moisturizing because her face... all the lines you don’t notice gaining, all the imperfections... she looked good. Like a baby. Her hair was also... shorter than it had been. Weird.

>>”You idiot! What did you do?!”

The Lady rubbed her jaw, as she rose to a crouch on the way towards getting to her feet. She thought the question had been to her.

“All your bickering and shouting. I knew that one had problems. Things she wanted to forget. But the two of you, together?” She let out a low whistle. “Sure you don’t want a second chance at youth? Could resolve some things... like those angry wrinkles you’re working on.”

The blonde was scrambling, scraping her knees on the icy concrete as she did. Amelia looked to be okay. She was breathing at least, but something was going on. She was changing before Serena's very eyes. The breathless blonde tried to shake Amelia awake but she seemed firmly routed in unconsciousness. She was breathing. Breathing meant alive.

Blue eyes once again flashed with anger as she quickly stood and twirled to face the slowly rising woman. Serena reached into her pocket and pulled out a small silver hip flask, quickly unscrewing the top and activating her mutation as she stepped towards the woman. An Eerie blue glow surrounding her and the crimson liquid now spilling out of the flask, also surrounding by the same glow.

Taking a few more quick steps just as the woman got to her feet Serena flung out a palm aimed at the woman's shoulder, trying to knock her off balance. The woman saw the move coming and ducked out of the way, thrusting a fist at Serena's stomach. The Brit's second arm came down like an axe, deflecting the other woman's blow deftly. A hard sphere of blood slammed into the woman's hip with the same motion causing a winded gasp to escape her, she tumbled to the side.

Serena quickly fell back into a fighting stance, glancing around and assessing their surroundings, only to find that a small crowd of students were gathering. The woman from her disheveled position on the ground had noticed it too. "D-Dammit get back!" The blonde cursed as the woman pulled out a second gas grenade and lobbed it, scrambling to her feet as she did.

Turning all of her attention to the students in danger she flung her blood forwards, completely enveloping the grenade and hardening into a tight sphere, which she subsequently moved carefully away from the students. "Is everyone okay? All still conscious?" She asked, injecting as much authority into her voice as she could manage.

"Y-Yes, but..." One of the students stammered, pointing past Serena.

"But what?" She turned and saw no signs of the woman that had gassed Amelia. "DAMMIT!" She cursed, stopping 2 seconds to take a quick breath before turning back to the situation. "Students, INSIDE! All of you!" Her voice cracked like a whip and they swiftly began dashing inside, she quickly turned her attention back to Amelia, scooped up her unconscious body in both arms and began carrying her inside, towards the Doc.

In her dream, she was running. What she was running from, or who, wasn’t clear. It was just this dark foreboding, frosted by memories of fog and ice.

She went down streets, and rounded corners. Stared at twisted street signs. The concrete of the street was uneven. Blades of frozen grass the size of swords cut up through it at points, and she had to weave in and around them.

As she ran, Amelia felt another presence running along with her. Sometimes, it was behind. At one point, it ran ahead. She caught sight of it then. And it was her.

She looked back at herself, and did not see the resemblance.

In the dark, something let out a guttural howl. She passed under a telephone wire. A pair of pants hung on it, blazing. The fire grew in her vision, larger and hotter. And then— she woke up.

“Lies!” She shouted, lurching to sit up in bed. Hair was in her eyes. She brushed it aside as she glanced left and right, checking her zones.

“The f!”

The first person she noticed was an old man. Had she met him before?

Serena took in a couple of shaky breaths while she carried Amelia through the mansion halls towards the medical bay office type area that the Doc worked in, her thoughts racing imperceptibly fast. Amelia had always been a little on the lighter side as far as Serena was concerned but she felt even more so now. Maybe that was just her imagination?

Serena barely remembered the actual process of making her way to the office, there had been people. Other staff that had stopped and asked her questions, she couldn't even recall the answers she gave for them.

Before she knew it she was in the office, yelling for Doc Prof and gently laying Amelia down on the bed. He came over and looked at her, tried to do his thing. And very gently and calmly explained to Serena that she was unhurt, and there was nothing that he could currently do to fix Amelia. While that might have seemed like a whole reasonable answer Serena recalled shouting back, accidentally activating her mutation again and the overwhelming urge to smash things.

Eventually, slowly she came back to her senses. She'd feel awful about the way she'd spoken to the old man later, but now wasn't the time for that. She stood back against the counter and closed her eyes, trying to take slow and steady breaths to calm herself.

It didn't help much.

When a definitely younger Amelia sat bolt upright Serena quickly opened her eyes and studied her. The Doc stepped forwards and held out a hand. "Easy now, you're safe. Relax." he soothed.

Serena took a breath and stepped more directly into view. "You're at the mansion, the one for mutants. What's the last thing you remember?" She worked very very hard to keep her voice from breaking.

The last thing she remembered... it had been just after midnight. Just after midnight on Halloween night. And—

Amelia blushed.

“Well. I went to bed. Because I’d just found out I was a mutant. After slaying zombies with Mirror on Halloween.” She said. It all came out slow, as if she were avoiding the actual thing she last remembered. Which she was.

Because Mirror, Mirror. Sneaking into a teenaged girl’s room. What ever would people say if she shared that tidbit of information?

“So. I’m a mutant.” She said, matter-of-factly. “Which I suppose explains what I’m doing here but not why. I’d love to hear the why, Miss. If you know.”

She was staring at the blonde when she said this. Calling her Miss. Because her and Doc were the adults in this scene, and this in charge. Was the blonde woman one of the X-men?

All kinds of different thoughts were racing through her mind. She'd been making out with the older version of this woman not 25 minutes ago, and now she was a teenager, thinking about teenage things. The blush practically told Serena all she needed to know, she was aware of who Amelia had dated years ago, and she looked to be around that age.

She felt like another person had taken her whole body, mind and feelings and taken them, dropped them in a bath filled with ice water. She began to try speaking several times, but her mouth didn't even open. Words not even coming out. Doc Prof seemed a little lost in this situation too, it definitely wasn't standard.

She called her miss. That made sense. Serena was almost a decade older than Amelia at this point. Knife, twist.

Looking paler than normal, and catching concerned glanced from the Doc Serena finally opened her mouth. "You might want to stay sitting Amelia, this is going to be a difficult piece of information too hear, and process." She tried to inject as much softness and compassion into her voice as she possibly could, but she felt like it just came out mechanical.

"That memory, of what you were doing with Mirror? That was years ago. You have been exposed to something, and it's brought you back several years in age, and memories apparently." She did her utmost to keep bitterness out of her voice and was doing a surprisingly good job.

Serena began compartmentalizing her feelings as she spoke, it wasn't the first time she'd had to deal with something this heavy.

"Look, I know this is a lot to process. But it's the truth." She pulled a calender's off of the Doc's wall and showed it to Amelia. "I assume you have a phone on you somewhere... Would you like me to contact your brother for you?" she asked, much more gently.

Difficult bit of information? What could possibly— oh. Well. That was a jagged little pill. Her face hardened.

It was at times like these that she would have liked Miri back. They could have gone to the shooting range and blown off some steam.

She was remembering things from years ago? And she’d also been... what? Reduced in age?

This was ridonkulous. Ridiculous. But there was that calendar, and could it ever actually be that year?

The blonde asked if she wanted her to contact her brother.

Amelia grimaced. “So I’m in the future. Which is the present.” She said slowly. “And my entire life got washed away and now I’m seventeen again or whatever.”

She was quiet for a second, then she said “Forget my brother. If I’ve got a life I’ve got a job. I’ll need to call in sick.”

“Where do I work? And what do I do? And what am I gonna tell my boss? Who did this, anyways?” Inquiring minds wanted to know. And after they figured out all of that, maybe they could cure cancer and solve world hunger and achieve world peace.

“Swear to god if this is connected to some sort of black black organization with people with names like vodka and gin I’m going to die laughing and then kill someone.”

It all sounded like the premise to a bad anime... even though she liked detective Conan. “Next thing you know,” she said dryly. “I’ll be solving mysteries with my much older girlfriend and leading a double life.”

Watching her ex-girlfriend's face closely Serena tried not to say anything else, or move around too much. The younger Amelia bounced back from the whole situation surprisingly fast, just a little shocked admission of the situation before moving on.

Forget her brother? Amelia's mind immediately turned to work, it was so strange. The Amelia that Serena had been talking to not minutes ago was gone, the conflicted confused one with darkness underlying the surface. This was Ami. Her Ami. But young, it was so weird. Serena was genuinely impressed that she wasn't hyperventilating, she held everything together.

Going to respond, the blonde froze. What kind of life had Amelia been leading? She knew about the whole secret agent thing, but she didn't really know what it entailed.

It was a lot. "I-I'm not sure." She replied honestly. "The person that did this to you is long gone, I don't know who she is or where she came from." Wow some X-men she was.

Her quirky sense of humor was in full swing and she made jokes about having an older girlfriend. The knife twisted. "I-" She took a moment to take a steadying breath. "You have time and space to sort yourself out, work out what your life was like. You're safe here." This. Was. A lot.

Long gone. Lead, gone. Who was to say if this was permanent or short-term. And did long gone mean dead, or fled? It seemed for every answer she got, two new questions sprouted like the heads of a hydra.

Maybe this was like the plot of an anime, and she wouldn’t get any answers until 100 episodes in.

Her comment about the mystery solving older girlfriend had been dry, dry as a desert, but taken as joke. And the blonde woman had— needed a second to take a steadying breath, and compose herself. Amelia wasn’t so self-absorbed she’d missed that, but God only knew what it meant.

Her head suddenly throbbed. She wondered if the top secret experimental poison she’d been dosed with responses the same way as the one from the cartoon. Perhaps later she’d have to run a scientific test and get drunk.

She could probably use a drink, despite it being wildly out of character, and her being underaged. Though technically, she was probably of-age. And maybe it would return her to her real age, like the stupid cartoon show? And maybe ducks would fly out of her ass?

“Are you okay? You seem like you’re struggling to deal with this,” Amelia said to the blonde, brow furrowing. Maybe more than her, and maybe that was unfair.

X-men were usually more composed. Unless they were Sam, and drunk.

“How do I know you... what’s your name?” Because she knew she had a brother. “You know me.” She said.

Off the top of her head, amelia could only think of a few reasons she would be visiting the mansion that day. The whole new mutations thing was not one of them.

Was this woman one of her friends? Idly, Amelia scratched at her arm through the fabric of her hoodie... and stopped. Her hand came back up, holding something. It was thin and silvery. The tip of a needle? “What’s—“

Common sense told her to be very careful.

Okay so Amelia seemed to be taking the whole situation better than Serena and the prof was. That made sense, it was both probably surreal for her and she didn't have the emotional baggage Serena was currently being weighed down with like a ton of bricks.

"It's.." She paused. How did you word this? Gently, the girl was a teenager. "It's mostly just a bit of a shock. I've seen plenty of mutations applications, but I've never seen somebody suddenly drop years into the past." That was at least, partially true.

Doc prof nodded in agreement. "It's definitely an unusual situation." Understatement.

"Sorry, forgetting my manors." She shoved everything down as far away as she could. There would be time to deal, time to scream later. "My name is Serena, we met probably a year or so after where are now." And then proceeded to crush on her forever, go out on a few almost dates, and then meet again a few years later before going out on some actual dates.

It was Doc Prof that noticed the needle before Serena, stepping forwards he held out a hand. "Easy, careful young lady."