It didn't take too long for Gawain to find out which room belonged to Juka. Everyone seemed to know. From the music, and the colors, and, well, from the fact that Juka Miami lived there.
Duh.

He needed to talk to someone about Aura. He remembered all too well that Juka and Koga talked about her (and the fact that the former almost killed him at the Chtulhu incident). He was healed, the pain and the bruises were gone, courtesy of DocProf, but he was far from fine. And he needed to talk to someone who had been through the same, before he started attacking his teammates too.
Although that might not had much to do with Aura herself.

Gawain generally disliked doors. One couldn't see through them, and had to knock, and wait, and all that. Mirrors were so much easier. And almost everyone possessed them.
Especially guys who wore dresses on a daily basis.

"Hey, Juka" the young knight called out from the mirror. He couldn't just walk in after all. People need their privacy "Mind if I come in? Got somethin' to talk to you about."

Currently Juka was sitting in his room doing all of absolutely nothing. Well ok, perhaps that wasn't entirely true. He was currently doing all of listening to music and reading a rather lovely book, but that pretty much amounted to absolutely nothing. But hadn't he earned it considering all of the discoveries he had made about his powers recently and considering his nightly forays into the city to go out and do good things? Plus, he had found his costume and so that completed everything. Thus, a break from all the chaos had been well earned and he intended to enjoy his day off to the fullest extent possible. The only thing he was missing now was a delicious cupcake. Yes, a cupcake. Perhaps he would go into the city and get one but the problem with that plan was that it necessitated him moving and he simply did not feel like moving right at the moment. Life, even cupcakeless, was good.

"Hey, Juka. Mind if I come in? Got somethin' to talk to you about."

"Gawain!" Juka jumped up out of his seat and gave a deep bow. When was the last time he had talked to the mirror mancer before anyway? Was it way back after the epic battle with Cthulu? Why, he believed it had been. Well, that was far too long indeed to go without talking to the charming gender shifting mirror walker. Far too long indeed.

Juka ran over to Gawain and gave him a big exuberant hug. "Darling, you know you can always come and talk to me. We are comrades in arms after our epic encounter with the clay monster Cthulu, right? "Dearest, come in, take a seat and talk to your heart's content." Juka gestured Mirror inside offering him either the bed or the chair, whichever he felt more comfortable with. Juka intended to take whichever implement of sitting happened to be left over.

Gawain stepped out of the mirror, straight into a hug. A not very manly hug either, on either part. But at least Juka was willing to chat. The young knight shook his head and chuckled as he walked over to the chair to sit.

>>"Darling, you know you can always come and talk to me. We are comrades in arms after our epic encounter with the clay monster Cthulu, right? Dearest, come in, take a seat and talk to your heart's content."

"Well..."
How to start? He wasn't even sure what he came to tell Juka. or what he wanted to ask. It was one of those situations when people who had been through the same traumatic experience seek comfort in each other's company. Not too much comfort, hopefully.

"... I met Aura." he sighed "Now I know what all the fuss is about."

Juka waited patiently for Gawain to gather his thoughts. It didn't seem like this was just a social call, which was kind of a shame really. Juka like Gawain and his gender bending ways and would enjoy spending time with him just for the hell of it. Still, if he had something important to discuss than Juka would certainly be there to listen and provide whatever help he might be able to. If he was able to provide any help at all, that was and sometimes he wasn't so sure. He wasn't exactly an expert on much of anything, unless one counted fashion and music and the look on Gawain's face led him to believe that this wouldn't be a fashion crisis.

"You met Aura?" Juka couldn't help but keep the little waver out of his voice. His encounter with Aura had been the single most horrible thing to happen in his life thus far and that was no exageration. Plus, there was the fact that the encounter had almost led to him going crazy and killing Gawain himself and that wasn't exactly a pleasant memory either.

"I don't know what to say to that. You know Aura tried to kill me and almost succeeded. Is there something I can do to help? Did she hurt you? Are you going to be ok? Do you need to see the Doc? You don't look injured." He peered at him closely, then realized he was rambling and his cheeks turned red. Oops, he didn't mean to start nervous rambling all of a sudden.

>>"I don't know what to say to that. You know Aura tried to kill me and almost succeeded. Is there something I can do to help? Did she hurt you? Are you going to be ok? Do you need to see the Doc? You don't look injured."

Gawain actually chuckled at the rambling and the blushing

"Yeah yeah, I'm fine. Save it, Twyla has been frettin' over me for two days now. Doc healed my injuries, I'll live."

That, he realized, didn't exactly come out as intended.

"She didn't hurt me." he sighed "I think she was... um, tryin' to make friends."

That didn't come out right either.

"I ran into her as she was praticin' her moves in an alley, an' I didn' realize who she was until she introduced herself."

There. Better. Kinda.

Somehow Juka managed to resist the urge to run up and hug Gawain a second time upon hearing that he was fully healed and Twyla had all ready made sure of it. Instead he settled for an appproving nod of the head. It was a little less intrusive than the hug but still got across his point.

Then it was Gawain's turn to ramble or, if not ramble exactly, then at least struggle to get out exactly what she was trying to get out. "So you met Aura who tried to make friend with you by hurting you in an allley by way of introduction?" Juka blinked, clearly confused. How did that work anyway?

"She wasn't, um, trying to kill anyone at the time was she?" That had been what had spurred his encounter with her. Then again, he had previous encounters with her as well in which she was not trying to kill someone, so maybe it depended on the time of day or what day of the weak it was.

>>"So you met Aura who tried to make friend with you by hurting you in an allley by way of introduction? She wasn't, um, trying to kill anyone at the time was she?"

Gawain sighed and shook his head again.

"She didn't hurt me. She was... dancing." he glanced at Juka "At least that's how she calls her fighting moves I guess. It really looked a lot like dancing, really. She was kinda high on somethin' too."

Looking back at the whole situation: why on Earth did he stop to talk to her?...

"So I stopped, and introduced myself, and then it turns out she's the psycho that hurt you. But I couldn't really tell her that, could I." he smirked "So I figured I'd talk to her, get to know the enemy, y'know. So. Um. We danced."

Is it just me or does it sound worse every time I say it like that?...

Dancing? Now that Juka thought about it he was pretty sure that she had mentioned something about dancing during their last encounter. It hadn't really made a lot of sense at the time, but given this new information it was starting to. Not that he was ever likely to talk about dancing with her again, considering. But still, good information to know even if it would never prove useful. If nothing else he could warn people about it.

"So, um, did you learn anything about her?" Juka aked with a combination of trepidation and curiosity. "Like, I don't know, how to get justice for some of the horrible things she's done?" And he wasn't just referring to her almost killing him; it was far more serious that she seemed to have no problem at all killing humans.

"Did you know she has a pet skunk?" It was random and out of nowhere, Juka knew, but it was just one of those odd facts. Who would think a spycho killer would also own a skunk, of all things?

>>"So, um, did you learn anything about her? Like, I don't know, how to get justice for some of the horrible things she's done? Did you know she has a pet skunk?"

Blink. Whoa, changing the topic much?

"Nah. I didn't see the sunk." Gawain shook his head with a faint smile "An' I didn't learn anythin' useful besides what we kinda already know. I mean, I did that fight-dance thing with her, but if it was real, I'd been dead in ten seconds. Also, she's nuts. Like, 'permanently damaged, watched her friend get killed' nuts. Totally FUBAR." he shook his head again "But she didn't hurt me. Some guys with a death wish showed up and tried to kick our asses for bein' mutant's I guess. One of them kicked mine, then ran away. She killed the other." Gawain sighed, looking at Juka "So, long story short, now I know what you were talkin' about."

The information Gawain provided was certainly new, at least in part. He'd known Aura was nuts in the murderous psychopath kind of way but hadn't realized that she was nuts in other ways as well. Definitely a little weird, but not nuts. Nor had he known anything at all about her past.

"Aura was trying to kill someone when she attacked me as well. I tried to stop her and she didn't like that. I don't think she likes humans much. And then she called the ambulance to come pick me up." Juka shook his head, utterly baffled by the girl and her actions. "Who almost kills someone and then calls an ambulance for them?" It didn't make any sense.

>>"Who almost kills someone and then calls an ambulance for them?"

"The kinda girl who doesn't like hurting her own kind." Gawain answered, shaking his head "She asked about you too, wanted to know if ya're all right. She almost looked worried."

As strange as that sounds.

"I think she's generally friendly with mutants. She hates humans with all she's got, and kills them on sight, but I guess she treasures mutantkind too much to really hurt us. Unless we try to stop her, as you say."
Gawain shook his head again. A person like that still didn't seem real.

"I was shocked she was so friendly. We even danced. Or, fought, or somethin'." he chuckled "That almost got me into trouble with Twyla..."

Something was seriously wrong with that girl, Juka decided. Not that it wasn't all ready evident that something was wrong with her, but Gawain's words only enforced the sentament. Something was seriously and irreversably wrong with her.

"Why would anyone even consider 'our kind' worse than 'their kind'?" Juka asked. He genuinely didn't understand the concept. Sure mutants could do some pretty nifty things, but they were still pretty much human. "We're not all that different from everyone else, are we?"

At least certain things about Aura and her actions were starting to make sense. The fact that she had been so nice to him the first time they had met and she helped him find his kitties, only to turn on him the next time and almost kill him. Almost despite himself be began...to actually feel sorry for her. How could that have happened? He was pretty sure that he hated ber. Confusion made its way into his expression.

"How did it get you in trouble with Twyla?" Now Twyla was a nice girl. She had never tried to kill him.

>>"Why would anyone even consider 'our kind' worse than 'their kind'? We're not all that different from everyone else, are we?"

"Nah, not at all" Gawain agreed with a smirk "We are all very human."

In all senses of the word.

>>"How did it get you in trouble with Twyla?"

The young knight chuckled.

"Well, I told her I met a girl downtown and we danced, and it kinda didn't come out right." he explained with a grin "So I had to add the part that she's a total psycho, and she's into girls anyway." he blinked "That was a Gawain day, y'see."

"Nah, not at all. We are all very human."

Well, at least Juka wasn't the only one who felt that way. That meant that Aura was, as expected, the crazy one and he was not. So what if he floated around in a giant soap bubble and Gawain walked through mirrors, they both still bled and aged and got sick occasionally and they both had emotions and thoughts and feelings all of which were just like any other human around.

"You should listen to Twyla," Juka stated. "She's a good girl, has a good head on her shoulders." And common sense which Juka knew that he himself was largely lacking. He realized that he'd never really asked Gawain what sort of gender he went for and it was a mild disappointment that it wasn't the male gender. He was pretty enough to pass for a girl anyway, wasn't he?

>>"You should listen to Twyla. She's a good girl, has a good head on her shoulders."

"Yeah, I know." Gawain nodded with a soft smile "Where would I be without her."

Probably wandering in a mirror somewhere between New York and San Diego.

The young knight was silent for a while before he looked up at Juka again.

"So, what do we do about Aura? How much do you think the grown-ups know about her?... I mean, I am not even sure if she can be fixed at all, or somethin'. But she's not totally evil either. I mean, apart from all the killing... 'tis just... all very confusing." he sighed.