It had been a pretty easy Sunday so far, which Lee was grateful for after the last couple of days. Friday had all of the drama from Robert and that documentary, then Saturday there had been the talk with Kevin about the Mutant Registration Act and camps both here and in Romania.

That had been a difficult conversation for everyone, and except for eating, Kevin had spent the rest of the day in his room. It was a lot to find out, so Lee gave him space to sort through things on his own.

So Sunday was much nicer, a relaxing morning with a late breakfast (and it was so nice to not have to go out in the morning just to get energy anymore), and then watching the baseball game with Tarin. A month ago, Lee would have laughed at anyone who said she would think that was a good day, but it turned out that that did make for a good day. Even Kevin had come out and sat with them to watch some of the game.

There had been a few questions from him as well. Which Lee had answered for him. In a way, she was glad that he was asking questions, it meant that he was actually thinking about the things that she had told him. And that he wouldn’t just blindly believe what ended up being said at school about it, if anything.

But Kevin had now disappeared again and the game was over leaving her and Tarin alone in the living room, alone on the couch. Though, the previous questions her son posed had left her thinking.

”I think you might have been right about telling Rachel more,” she said softly, glancing over at Tarin. ”Telling her about some of the things I’ve actually done.”

Slow Sunday mornings were the absolute best, Tarin decided as the game wrapped up. Another win, coincidentally. Tarin adjusted his ball cap and leaned back into the couch. The season was turning around a bit for the Mets and they were quickly approaching .500.

He hadn’t ran that morning, and didn’t really have any plans to later either. Rest days were good for everyone, right? Especially with the way the weekend had started.

Friday had been an utter and complete whirlwind of a day and by the time he’d gone to sleep that night Tarin had been worn out. Saturday had been a lot too, he’d gone for a run and a work out, but Lee had needed to talk to Kevin about the registration camps and it had been a difficult talk. There hadn’t been a lot that Tarin could do to help with that, and Kevin had spent a lot of time in his room that day…but as Tarin had expected he seemed to be processing the information well enough.

It was still hard for Tarin to wrap his head around all of that. His whole adult life it had seemed like things were so bad on his side of the rift. This side, the only way he had known it, seemed liberating. Accepting wasn’t the best word because there were still a lot of people who had strong feelings about the existence of people with a functioning X-gene, but day to day life was really good…really easy. SUPER wasn’t running around, scooping people off the street and you could just go about your business for the most part.

It was easy for Tarin to forget that things hadn’t always been that way, especially since he hadn’t been here when things had been different. When people like Lee had been required to register their “status” when people like Lee had been shipped off to internment camps right here in New York City where they’d been collared and forced to live in horrendous conditions for simply existing. Sure the government had spun it as if the camps had only been for “dangerous” mutants…but knowing that Lee had ended up there was enough for Tarin to know that all of that was complete bullshit.

Kevin had come out today for breakfast and had even come out to watch a little bit of the game. While he’d been out watching the game, Kevin had asked Lee more questions that she had answered. Maybe it was strange, but Tarin was really proud of the way she was handling the whole thing, especially with how hard it was for Lee to talk about that time.

Kevin was gone now, and the post game was on and him and Lee were just hanging out. Lee spoke and Tarin turned his head to find her looking over at him.

He was right? About Lee telling Rachel more of what she’d done? That conversation had been a while ago, but it made Tarin happy that Lee had remembered the suggestion. Robert had been included too, but he was still a real touchy subject…for good reason.

”Yeah?” he said, ”For what it’s worth, I think she’d handle the information well. As nosy as she is, she seems to really care. It might even make her a bit more…thoughtful?”

He paused for a second, considering his next words, ”For what it’s worth…I think you’ve done really well with Kevin. I’m sure you’d do great with Rachel too.”

Lee nodded slightly when she heard Tarin say he thought that Rachel would handle the information about her experiences well. Maybe she would.

But as Tarin continued, all Lee could do was give a tight lipped smile. ”It’s definitely difficult figuring out how to explain how bad it all was, but not tell him certain things I really don’t want him thinking about in relation to his parents, if that makes sense.”

Lee had had a thought on Friday and had been working on it the last couple of nights after Tarin had gone to bed. Though she hadn’t mentioned it to Tarin yet. Maybe this was a good time to bring it up and get his opinion.

”There’s just so much more information if I tell Rachel everything,” she said before looking up at Tarin. ”And apparently much more of what I’ve been involved in has been publicly reported on than I realized, just thankfully I haven’t been connected to any of it.

“Would you mind taking a look at what I found?”

It was Tarin’s turn to nod as Lee explained how difficult it had been to figure out how to explain to Kevin what it had been like in the camps. How bad things had been without sharing too much. In all honesty, Tarin didn’t know what Lee meant. How could he? He could understand the difficulty though, wanting to protect a kid from things that they should never need to hear…especially about the most important people in their life.

Lee went on to say that telling Rachel was overwhelming in a different way because if she was going to come clean, there was a lot to tell. Considering the fact that Lee hadn’t told Rachel half of what she’d told him, and Tarin figured there was more he didn’t know…that was probably true.

Lee had been looking though, probably when she was awake at night, and she had found out that more about the things she’d done had been publicized, if not connected to her.

”Of course I can look…” Tarin said, ”Anything specific you want to know?”

Lee nodded, hesitating just a moment before she pushed herself off the couch and walked over to her desk. Grabbing a folder, Lee quickly sorted through and pulled three sheets out, placing them upside down on the desk. Then she walked back over and handed the file to Tarin.

”No, nothing specific,” Lee said slowly, wondering what exactly she was hoping to hear from Tarin. Maybe just that this was a good way to do it?

”Obviously, I’m not mentioned in any of the articles,” she continued. ”Maybe just, if this makes sense? I thought I’d give her these articles to read, and then once she’s had time to process it, she can ask questions?”

Lee went to the desk and rummaged around for a moment, then returned to the couch with a folder. ”Well, it’s very official looking…” he said, taking it when it was offered and finding himself a little surprised that there was so much paper inside. What had Lee removed before she’d come back over?

Flipping the folder open Tarin let his eyes run over the first paper on top and went very still, only his eyes moving as he read the news article and the handwritten note beside it.

This was that other power that Lee had told him about, a “full merge” was what she had called it in the little annotations. Apparently during one of these full merges the Tarin from this side had torched a rally for murder victims. According to Lee’s note she hadn’t been able to get close.

The next sheet of paper held more information and Tarin suppressed a little shudder as he read that the rally had been for victims of the “Central Park Killings…” The victim’s children had been there…

Memories of his own struggled to the surface of Tarin’s mind, the cold night, the smell of blood…

Nope. This was not about him. Taking a deep breath, and then another, Tarin shuffled those papers aside, pushing all of those feelings, all of that panic aside for now. He could deal with it later.

Clearing his throat a little bit, Tarin looked over at Lee, ”I thought you said when this happened.” he said, gesturing at the papers, ”To your Tarin, the only thing that could stop him was you…is there another way?”

Official looking? Lee had simply wanted to keep everything together and (hopefully) out of view of a teenager who didn’t need to know about most of this.

Sitting down again as Tarin started reading over the articles she had printed out, Lee watched him, a small crease between her brows.

It was only after he had read through the first two that Tarin looked up at her and spoke. The crease between her brows deepened slightly. ”That…type of merge has ended on its own before,” she slowly explained. ”The first time, his first merge, it only ended after it was hit by a truck. The truck was totaled. When him and Debra Lynn woke up, neither of them had a scratch.”

Lee paused, swallowing, her eyes dropping down to look at the papers Tarin was holding. ”When we merged during the breakout, I don’t know if it was because I was still siphoning the whole time, because I was trying so hard mentally to end it, or if it just ended on its own.

“That time,” Lee nodded at the papers she was still looking at. ”Sam was covered with ice and tackled it. Even constantly creating more ice, he still got burnt. Garrett was there too, and he can do something with the nervous system that causes pain. But again, I’m not sure if that stopped the merge, or if it just…burnt out and ended on its own. But whatever ended the merge, it would have been a lot worse if Sam, Garrett, and the others weren’t there.”

Well. He had asked.

Lee explained…and explained…and explained…

The more Lee explained, the more that familiar panic started to build up inside of Tarin. He’d apparently mixed up some things with the different types of merges.

Once, the other Tarin had needed to be hit by a truck to end the merge, another time Lee had been involved and had still been using her power, and the time in the articles had required an X-Man, another mutant, and Lee working together to end it.

”That…is utterly terrifying.” Tarin admitted, and it was a testament to how shook he was that he admitted it.

Somehow it was worse for Tarin knowing that this power was potentially lurking inside of him. He didn’t know anything about it, or how to control it, or what to do if it ever happened. Outside of what Lee had told him, Tarin didn’t even know how to tell if this kind of merge was going to happen.

Again Tarin reminded himself that this wasn’t about him. Lee had asked him to look at this for her, to help her figure out if it was the right way to tell Rachel about all the things that Lee had done.

It was a massive effort, but Tarin nodded and slid the top two papers to the back of the pile.

The next two articles were similar to the first two in that they went together. The first described the, “Slate” that Lee had spoken about when she’d told the story about Columbia. The guy had been incredibly young, only 18 when he’d decided that his role as CEO of a medical company was well used to further humanitarian efforts. The side note on this article described the other power that the other Tarin had discovered though an involuntary out of body experience that had lasted much longer than it should have. Yet another thing Tarin had chosen not to think about for weeks.

The second of the two articles about Columbia made Tarin smile a little bit when he read the name that the locals had given to Lee. ”I’m not gonna forget that name…” he said, the light tone feeling a bit odd.

”It’s really cool that they wrote about you though…I like that one.”

”That…is utterly terrifying.”

Lee’s lips pressed together as she nodded her head once. As much as she had tried to not let him know how much the idea of merging scared her, Lee agreed with Tarin; it was utterly terrifying.

Then Tarin went on reading, based on the order she had put the articles in, he had to have been reading about Columbia. And he already knew about most of that, but Lee was sure that the news articles would make it sit differently.

And the smile. Even before he commented, Lee knew that he had to have come to the name that the article had called her. ”I didn’t even know about that one until last night,” Lee admitted. ”I mean, it’s not like most of the locals would talk to me after that. And some of the old women especially were calling all of us ‘foreign devils’ the first few days we were there, so I didn’t really think much of it the few times I heard them muttering as I walked past.”

Lee smiled and laughed slightly. ”Though, I have to say that it is kind of nice to have that written about me, even if no one I don’t tell will ever know.”

If he could simply not think about it for a bit, it would go away. Lee was actually engaging with him about the article that had been written in the Colombian papers and somehow that helped. It was something he could focus on instead of the fact that there was this potentially devastating power that even scared Lee lurking somewhere inside him.

She hadn’t known about the nickname that the villagers had given her until the night before, ”It’s like it's your superhero name.” he said.

It was also nice to see Lee accepting some praise for her accomplishments though, even if it was years later and an article that had been translated from another language. They’d talked about this one on Friday though, so it wasn’t all that shocking. This was helping, talking about other things, seeing Lee smile as she talked about the article that had been written. ”You probably deserve more

That article went to the back and Tarin’s eyes focused on the next one in the folder and he tilted his head a bit as he read through, ”You scared the Columbian drug cartels into a cease fire?” he said, ”How could you have possibly done that when you just went there to rebuild a school….What was “Slate’s plan” that you wrote about here?” he said holding up the page. If he thought to ask, Rachel certainly would.

”It’s like it's your superhero name.”

A blush joined the smile on Lee’s face as she shook her head slightly. ”It is not,” she whispered, her head still moving back and forth. ”I told you, I’m not a superhero…”

That apparently wasn’t all of it, and Tarin thought that she actually deserved more than what had been said about her in the article. Lee’s blush intensified. But at least Tarin’s eyes went back to the papers, looking at the next article.

Yeah…that one… She’d had nothing to do with that, though it was the ultimate reason why they had been there.

”I certainly didn’t scare the cartels,” she said as she tried to think how to explain it. Maybe she should just leave that article out when she gave Rachel the folder. ”I don’t think anyone did any scaring of the cartels. Slate’s plan, though we didn’t know it when we flew down there, we didn’t find it out until after that ‘una diabla’ thing,” as this sentence was coming out, her voice was gradually getting lower. ”Not until after Slate had healed him. And I was refusing to let Slate heal me…”

A deep breath and Lee looked up, speaking back at a more normal volume. ”Slate did really want to rebuild the school and build a medical center in that village. But his main plan, his goal, was to convince the cartels and the government to agree to the ceasefire so they could finally have peace in the country.”

Lee didn’t think she had been the one to scare the cartels and that tracked with every other story that Lee had told him. She always downplayed her part in every scenario.

She did explain Slate’s plan though…after she explained how she hadn’t wanted him to heal her…”You don’t have a scar….” Tarin said, remembering how Lee had described the knife wound she had taken to her side, ”Why wouldn’t you let a healer…the one who’d arranged the whole trip to heal you?” he asked, ”Was he running out of healing or something? You said he’d already healed your Tarin…” it didn’t make sense.

Lee revealed the rest of the plan and Tarin was still wildly confused, what did that have to do with anything. ”A noble plan for sure…but how could an 18 year old American convince well established cartels to do anything?”

Finally after all of the stories that she had told Tarin, he was realizing that she didn’t have a scar. ”I don’t,” she agreed as she looked up at Tarin. ”I don’t have one from when I was shot, either. I have no scars…

“Slate’s healing, and I guess when I was brought back as well, doesn’t just heal. It makes it as though the injury wasn’t there to start with.”

Why hadn’t she let Slate heal her? ”Short answer? Because I was pissed off at him. The longer answer is…definitely longer.

“The man who had been torturing them. Remember I said that I had broken that man’s neck? Well, Slate decided to go heal that guy while he was laying bleeding to death on my lap. Slate came back and healed him right after, but yeah, I was pissed and at that moment wanted nothing to do with Slate.”

And this is where the explanation got tricky, really tricky. If she didn’t tell Tarin enough, it would make absolutely zero sense why Slate had healed the Columbian man. No, not just that, but why he had healed the man and why that man didn’t immediately try to kill us. But how much could she tell Tarin?

This wasn’t knowledge that was supposed to have been known outside Slate’s group of advisors, Lee thought as she looked at Tarin. Looked into his eyes as she tried to decide. But at the same time, this had all happened 15 years ago and he had given up on bringing peace to the world. At least he had if he was still concerned about not doing evil because Lee assumed he would reach out to her if he decided to start again in another country.

”Slate could be very persuasive when he wanted to be,” Lee finally said, her voice slow and thoughtful. ”I’m guessing he became the CEO of Mondragon Labs at 18 in a similar way. And, the ends justified the means.”

It had always kind of made sense to Tarin that Lee didn’t have any scars from the multiple injuries she had described, with every story she had told, she had pointed out that there had been a healer along to help.

What hadn’t made sense was that she had refused healing when she had needed it.

Lee was explaining though and it took Tarin a moment to sort everything out in his head. He had mixed up all of the “hes” in Lee’s story.

Slate. The mastermind behind the entire operation had gone to heal the bad guy before he had healed the other Tarin…who had been bleeding in Lee’s arms…

But…why…?

Before Tarin could ask the question though, Lee was explaining. Sort of. Tarin frowned, more questions immediately coming to mind that he didn’t ask. Out loud. The ends had justified the means? That was intense talk.

”You might want to think about how to answer that for Rachel if she asks…she’s awful pushy when she gets an idea in her head.” Not that Lee didn’t already know that, but still…Tarin moved that paper to the back of the stack.

The next article was dated just a couple of months after Columbia and outlined a hostage situation that had unfolded at a restaurant in Rockefeller Center. Apparently two guests at the restaurant had tried to…

”You’ve got to be kidding me…”

Suddenly Lee’s strange intensity after the documentary the other night made a bit more sense. ”You couldn’t even go to dinner…2009 was a wild year.”

Lee nodded when Tarin commented about how she should answer that last question when she explained to Rachel. ”Yeah, I’m thinking it might be a good idea to leave that one out,” she told Tarin. ”I was only indirectly involved. And the other two articles really do say more about what I actually did…” yeah, there was definitely no need to even hint at national takeovers when talking to Rachel.

”You’ve got to be kidding me…”

Lee actually looked a little sheepish as she shrugged. ”I’m pretty sure we gave up on trying to go anywhere fancy after that. Even if we could afford to at that point. And yeah…That was a pretty busy, intense first six months of married life for sure.”