Raphael walked out of the infirmary and headed for the boy's half of the upstairs dormitory hallways. He was not entirely sure how he was going to clean the blood up, or where he was going to put the bodies, but it was something to keep his mind off of his own failings. He did not even notice that he was being followed until he neared the hallway of his battle. There he stopped and turned about, seeing nothing but the bit of blood hanging mid-air, he closed his eyes for a moment and let his life-aura sight kick in. On opening them he distinctly made out the shape of Fade. And knowing that Victoria was not bleeding when he left her in the infirmary, assumed this was another mutant who could render herself invisible.

"Who're you?" He asked, staring straight at her with softly green glowing eyes.

"Please don't be startled, I just don't think I've ever seen you before and I didn't want to start any trouble or anything and I was just thinking and...just...I'm sorry." She said before turning visible. "It am just a little up tight. The fight was not very fun." She said, not meaning her cut, but she meant Jaguar.

Of course, she had to be stupid and think that this mutant couldn't tell she was there, just about everyone else has been able to see, smell, hear, or sense her, how should he be any different. Frustration came over her and she felt retarded and dumb for following him while staying invisible, she probably looked like a stalker.

Raphael closed his eyes and shook his head, clearing the green glow from them as he 'turned off' his life-aura sight. "It's fine.." he muttered softly. "Think everyone's on edge, and the only ones who actually enjoyed any of it are the love-birds in the infirmary... fresh excuses.." He shook his head, part of his words were in disgust at them, and partly in envy for wanting to do the same sort of thing with Victoria... If she were conscious.

He stared at the floor for a moment, then looked back at Fade. "Still haven't answered my question though... Who're you?"

"Yeah, lots of things just went on and I needed time to think and I didn't want to be alone." She said as she leaned up against a wall. "Oh, I'm so sorry, I should have said this to begin with. My name is Jenny McCullen, but I go by Fade, I'm sure you can piece together the reason for my nickname." She said as a slight smile tugged at the corner of her lips. "Might I ask who you are?"

"Raphael... Raphael Sevresch." He responded, and forced a smile to match the one creeping at her lips. "Nice to meet you Jenny."

He did not really want to get around to cleaning up his mess, even though he knew he needed to sooner or later... He was satisfied right now to have something different to distract his mind from Victoria's condition. "I don't really think any of us need to be alone right now..." He said, even if it did go against what he was doing before he found her following him... wandering off alone to dispose of bodies and gore. "What is on your mind? or... if you'd like, as it seemed to be troubling you, we can talk of something else." He leaned up against the wall, winced, and shifted so he would lean against the wall with his right arm rather than left.

"Well, it's just that I watched my friend be pulled away and I couldn't do anything about it, I tried at first, but then I felt like a coward when i had to get away from the fighting and stay invisible as I continued my search for him and I still couldn't find him, I couldn't help him and it tears me up inside." She said before the smile faded and she looked down as her eyes began to sting like they did before she cried. She hated crying, to her, it was a sign of weakness and she never cried unless it was used to get herself out of a conversation with the cops or with one of her pick-pocketing victims.

Raphael moved, on instinct really, and before he realized what he was doing. He stepped forward and attempted to give Fade a hug, she seemed to need one. "Running isn't cowardice... An' you didn't really run, you merely made yourself more stealthy, from the sounds of it. Least that's better than what I did... the results of some of it are around the corner... the other is a young woman unconscious in the infirmary, because of my lack of ability to protect her... To keep her out of danger, like I said I would... Like I promised I would... runnin' isn't cowardice..." He murmured the last bit.

Fade recieved his hug with a slight smile as she hugged him tightly. She did need a hug and she had never gotten one before that she could remember. She got one from a friend before she ran away but she didn't remember it. This hug was good, she felt comforted, cared for, and watched over. She felt safe, more safe than she had even felt in her life.

"Thank you." She said as she choked for air before feeling the first tear roll down her cheek. "I just wish i could have done more, could have seen it happen earlier"

He held her tight, he needed the contact as much as anything at the moment. And at hearing her choke, he loosened slightly, noting the tear. "It's also not bad to cry... especially at times like these." He nodded some, then noted his own absence of tears. But, then again, he was never one to cry. "What more could you have done Jenny? To be honest, and I don't mean to be harsh, incase I sound as such, but you don't seem much like a fighter to me... Had you not done what you had done, you likely would have been snagged as well... or worse, injured more so than your arm, or even killed." He said quietly, while somewhere in the back of his mind a little voice screamed at him to take his own advice.

"Ya, but I have ran all of my life and just never faced anything. I just wanted to help out, stop runing and face the problem in front of my with a clenched fist." She said as more tears streamed down her face. He was right, she wasn't much of a fighter, but she wanted to be, she ran too much, it was her time to come out and tell the world that she wasn't going to run anymore.

He gave a soft sigh, then closed his arms around her a little tighter, ignoring the pain in his left arm for the moment, he sometimes wished he healed even faster than he currently did. "Fighting isn't all that grand... Take it from me... I am..." He started, then sighed, he did not want to go down this dark path again. He had done so with Victoria in the garden, and that had hurt some, but... "I was a cage fighter... past couple years... fightin'... least when it comes to times like these... fighting isn't all its cracked up to be... fighting to spare someone... or to save someone, or rescue someone... even then... it can get ugly... very very ugly... Around the corner..." He sighed softly, and hoped the children in the danger-room had not headed back up yet. "Around the corner is a prime example... and a portion of my handi-work... its not nice... its not pretty... You shouldn't want to fight you way through your problems... and running away is always an option, and most the time a very viable option..." He sighed, his facial features beginning to look a bit distraught as he spoke to her.

This guy was nice and he was really comforting her. She enjoyed his company, even though she didn't really know him, she felt like she had known him for most of her life. "I used to not have a place to live. I was when I was very little and when I was found, my family was dead, I was sent to a terrible foster family that locked me up when I grew my claws and got my power. I ran away, ever since then, I have ran. Never stayed in one spot, I've always double checked behind me and it's not the life I wanted. I lived off the streets as a thief, a wanted criminal for all of the shoplifting I had done, I probably owe SO much money to so many stores. But that's how I lived and I lived by running and I just don't want to run anymore."

Raphael was silent for a moment. Her story sounded much like his own on several points. He had run away when he discovered his 'claws'. He had lived on the streets. He likely was wanted for murder, even if his tracks were covered so well that he would never be subjected to being a suspect for it. He had frequently checked over his shoulder... and still did on occassion, even after coming here... Though Victoria was slowly changing that for him. "Well... you're here now..." He murmured quietly. "Right? No reason to continue running... lest it be from a man with a sharp blade and a deadlier rifle... Running for life, and running for your life are two different things... And here..." he continued on in his quiet tone. "here in the mansion, while this attack proves its not the absolute safest of places... it is a spot for us to stop running."

Her eyes widened. He spoke the truth. His tone was comforting along with his words and she took them to heart. This was a place to stop running, no where was safe, not even an uninhabited island, everywhere has it's dangers but the mansion proved that it was not like other places in the sense that it housed mutants, but it was a place where mutants felt secure and felt as though they had a home, or at least she did. She didn't want to run from the mansion, it was her territory and she was not going to run from it, maybe from things inside of it, but she would always stick up for her new home, no matter what.

He took her silence as acceptance of what he said, and so he quietly pressed on with another simple probing question. "What else is on your chest Jenny?" His own thoughts roaming once more... to the fight he had just participated in, and witnessed... the fight Benny would certainly set up for him the moment he got in touch with him... his inability to protect Victoria... his inability to protect his younger brother from himself... his own personal dark side, the side he unleashed to kill indiscriminately when needed... All the factors that made him... him.