"So," said Hunter, ignoring Crystal, "having done it once before do you think you can do it again, only this time without a trip down memory lane?" Hopefully now that it had been used once Paragon would have a feel for it and be able to activate it without provocation.

If she could they needed to work on duration. Hunter would be able to get a one on one meeting with the council, but Paragon would not be invited. To get in she'd need to use the ability and follow, preferable in Hunter's shadow. Then, once they had arrived she could find a hiding place and decativate the gem. Hunter would stall the council for four minutes, then Paragon could activate the clear gem and they could get down to buisness.

"So, having done it once before do you think you can do it again, only this time without a trip down memory lane?"

Iris gulped. Her hands flickered grey again, like the color receptors of a TV screen going bad, and all feeling vanished for another moment. It returned quickly, along with an itchy sensation. She scrubbed her hands on her jeans rapidly.

"I don't know.... Maybe. It feels.... I-I don't know..." She suddenly felt cold as well, and rubbed at her arms, which also tingled strangely. "I-I need a break."

She didn't wait for him to try and persuade her otherwise, and deactivated the gem. Her eyes lighted back to a normal green, and the bulge under her bandaged palm vanished, painfully. When the gem vanished, warmth flooded back into her body. She shuddered.

"Wish I could heal too," she mumbled. She rubbed her palm a bit, which now itched like crazy around the wound, then finally accepted the hand up. "That's going to take some getting used to," she remarked ruefully.

She set the dismantled phone on the coffee table, and sat down on the couch, a thoughtful expression gracing her face. It would be at least twenty minutes before the gem would become active again.

Helping Paragon up Hunter took a seat next to her on the couch. "That's fine, we can take a break," he said with a smile, "Sorry I couldn't pass on my healing ability, but that comes at quite a high price." Blood. "Still, we're getting somewhere. Soon enough this will all be over, and we can go back to normal."

After pausing for a moment Hunter said, "Para... Iris, would you mind telling me a little of your childhood? The happy memories, not the embarassing ones Crystal would bring up." He wanted to know more about his daughter. Crystal had given him a glimpse, but he wanted to know more, and from Paragon's point of view.

"Sorry I couldn't pass on my healing ability, but that comes at quite a high price. Still, we're getting somewhere. Soon enough this will all be over, and we can go back to normal."

Iris shot Hunter a sideways look. Considering what 'normal' equated to, that statement did nothing to reassure her.

"Para... Iris." She tensed, ready to snap at him again, but he corrected himself, so she relaxed again. "Would you mind telling me a little of your childhood? The happy memories, not the embarrassing ones Crystal would bring up."

She glanced up at him. Quite a bit of the hostility she had originally felt toward him had ebbed over the past two months, though far from all of it. But she had thought long and hard on what she and her guardians had discussed. They were right; it was her life now, and she would be the one to determine how to use it. Not Hunter. And that included how she treated him. Feelings of betrayal still lingered, and she was far from forgiving him for keeping her in the dark for so long. She wasn't sure she ever could forgive him for that.

Still.... he had made efforts to try and reconcile things, which was more than she had done.

Her gaze turned to her hand, and she began massaging her sore and itching palm. She stayed silent for a long while, before finally shrugging.

"There's not much to tell, really." Her voice was quiet, thoughtful. "Carol and Max figured out I was a mutant pretty much the night they found me, and tried to teach me how to use the gems, as best they could. Or at least when and when not to use them. Mutants aren't very welcome in my hometown, so we tried to keep it quiet. Most of the accidents could be explained away, so I don't think anyone ever really caught on. Besides, I didn't fit in anyway, so I.... tried to blend into the background instead. That's why I took up gardening. It was easy to disappear into the scenery.

"The herb garden was the first, on the south side of the porch. Carol would always panic when I'd bring caterpillars and ladybugs into the house, and hop onto a chair until I took them back out." A small smile tugged at her lips, and her eyes glazed over in memory.

"Then I found the milkweed patch, down in the canyon, full of butterflies. Hundreds of them! All black and orange and yellow. I used to spend hours there, just watching, and listening to all of those rustling wings. It was a great place to hide out and read. And think about...."

The smile vanished. And think about my nightmares. That's what she'd almost said. Nightmares that always ended with a pair of silver eyes staring into hers.

She cleared her throat, and straightened up a bit. "Well, like I said. Nothing special. Anyway, I started helping out with the animals when I was nine. Or eight, I guess." She'd found out she was actually a year younger than she thought, making her not quite twenty-one yet. "Then I started bringing home strays, and picking up injured animals from the woods. Couldn't keep them, obviously, so I had to find homes. Except for Eb. She kept coming back to our doorstep as a kitten, so I kept her. Max didn't like that, and Eb knew it. He still doesn't.... Hehe.... Um, let's see.... Spent two years in high school working part-time at the local zoo, and started helping foster different animals. Guess I kinda had a way with them. Sort of. Especially the cats and birds. We had a lot of extra land, so it just made sense to use some of it for fostering the bigger animals, and releasing some the big raptors. Then the Ranch just sort of developed from there."

She chuckled a bit. "We had an influx of these little Saw-whet Owls one year. A land developer had torn down an old barn and thicket they used to roost in, and built an office building complex. Ugly place, all windows and steel. When the owls migrated back, a bunch of them tried to get inside to roost again, and either ran into the windows or got caught in the vents. Lots of broken wings and legs, and nasty tempers, both human and animal. They still have trouble every year, though not as much. I guess.... animals don't like change, any more than humans do.... I doubt Sarah will handle this change well, either...."

Her voice trailed off with that last statement, and a sad look settled onto her features. No Sarah would not handle it well when she found out her boss was a mutant. She was listed in the Church of Humanity's website, an acolyte in the Midwestern Chapter. Iris's heart had sunk when she discovered that.

She cleared her throat again, feeling awkward about her ramblings. She looked back at Hunter, attempting a sincere smile. "What about you? Growing up four centuries ago must have been pretty different than now."

Hunter listened to Paragon recount her childhood. It sounded to have been a happy time, where she had enjoyed it, for the most part. He had worried that she would have had a terrible childhood. Upon finishing her recollection of her childhood Hunter decided that he would need to go and see her foster parents at some point to thank them.

"My childhood was very different from modern childhoods," Hunter said, casting his mind back further than he had in a very long time, "I was the son of a peasant. We lived in a small village in Transylvania. It was a simple life, working the land to make enough food to eat, selling any excess for the few luxuries that we could get. I never went to school, just worked in the fields. I had one good friend, Bogden. He was a year older than me, and I followed him around, whenever I had the free time to do so. He worked up at the nearby farm, so whenever I was sent to fetch milk or eggs I'd get to see him. We had several run ins with the old orchard owner as we'd steal apples."

"Then my powers emerged, and everything changed." Hunter paused, recollecting what had happened the day his powers emerged. "Bogden was my first human victim. I didn't know it was him when I attacked, all I knew was that I needed to feed. By the time I could think clearly he was dead. After that I became the monster I am today. Two years later I was the Duke of Transylvania. From there I began to educate myself and begin exploring the world. I spread death as I roamed, earning a vast fortune as the world's foremost assassin at the time."

"Fast forward a few centuries and here I am." He'd left out one of the most important parts of his life, Katherine. Unless pressed he would not talk about her.

Oddly enough, Iris could almost picture a miniature version of Hunter running away, arms full of apples, red-faced man hot on his trail waving a walking stick. Her lips twitched, as the smile tugged at her face again. It fell silent when he spoke of his friend, however, and what had happened.

She glanced up again; his eyes had a faraway look. Regret, maybe?

"Don't you ever get tired of it?" she asked quietly when he finished. "I mean, I understand you need to..... to breathe...." Putting it that way made it more palatable for her to say. Everyone needs to breathe somehow, of course. "But don't you get tired of the killing? Isn't it hard to get close to someone, if you always have to kill to survive? I just seems so..... animalistic.... Not that I'm calling you an animal," she added hastily. "Not right now. I mean, I probably would have a few minutes ago. You know, with the whole taunting and annoying thing, and... and.... Nevermind." She shook her head at her own awkwardness. "What I mean is, it just seems like there should be a better solution now, with modern technology and all. That's all."

She decided to stop while only her foot was in her mouth. She wasn't hungry, so swallowing the whole leg wasn't necessary. She went back to kneeding her palm. Lately that had taken the place of scratching at the gem near her shoulder when she felt uneasy.

Hunter gave a small smile at Paragon's words. "In the beginning I considered myself more than human, and in a way I am. I stopped looking at people as people but as a food sorce, like most people look at cows. Once I had that mentality killing became very easy. Combined with that the rush of draining multiple people at once and Killing became something I enjoyed."

He paused again. Since Katherine killing had stopped becoming something pleasurable, merely nessecery. Hunter had no qualms about killing, but he would not do so simply for the thrill of it. In that way, he had changed. He was now a cold monster, rather than a passionate one.

"In the beginning I considered myself more than human, and in a way I am. I stopped looking at people as people but as a food source, like most people look at cows."

Iris wrinkled her nose a bit. "Put that way, I'm suddenly considering going vegan...."

"Once I had that mentality killing became very easy. Combined with that the rush of draining multiple people at once and Killing became something I enjoyed."

Long pause, short gulp, and....

"And now?"

"Now I no longer kill for pleasure," Hunter answered, "I will however kill when necessary, and do so in a heartbeat. The Church of Humanity council for example." Hunter would only need that small window of oppertunity, five minutes alone with the council, and he would slaughter them all.

In that way he had changed over the years. He was now less of an animal, no longer killing on a whim, but when decided, killing in an instant. Some would ask whether that made him more or less of a monster.

"Now I no longer kill for pleasure. I will however kill when necessary, and do so in a heartbeat. The Church of Humanity council for example."

The Council.

Iris turned away yet again. In a moment she stood up and began pacing again. Yes, she was getting cold feet; actually they'd simply grown colder and colder since Day One.

"Is it really necessary, though? Can't you just use that mesmerizing trick? Make them fight the Registration Law? Or better yet, forget it altogether? It's fairly effective." She leveled a pointed stare at him, before moving on.

"Have you told Katrina about all of this? Even about the Council?" That was an off the wall question, and she wasn't sure why she'd asked.

"It is necessary," Hunter replied, "Were I to just mesmerise the council members it would get us, at most, a brief reprieve while they are replaced. Killing them will spread fear amoung the Church, demoralize it and make any attempt at reorganisation more difficult. If their leaders are killed, those lower down will begin to question whether the Church is such a good idea."

"No," Hunter said after a short pause, "I haven't told her yet, but I will. I won't keep secrets from her, just like I won't keep secrets from you." He was not looking forward to revealing all to Katrina. She was still young, and he wasn't sure if that would make it easier or harder.

Hunter didn't answer right away. But eventually, "No, I haven't told her yet, but I will. I won't keep secrets from her, just like I won't keep secrets from you."

"Hrmphf..." Iris muttered, and resumed her trip back and forth across the room. So far, it appeared that he'd kept his promise to her; everything she asked he had answered readily, even rather awkward questions. But at the same time, he also lied just as readily to the members of the Church.

She pushed the argument from her mind; there was no winning it, either way. For her own sanity, at least for the moment, it was better to simply take each question and answer as it came, deciding on in individual basis whether she wanted to believe him or not.

Maybe she should talk to Katrina alone? It wouldn't hurt, as long as she managed to keep personal feelings out of it. Which might be difficult.... Hmm....

All right, back to the earlier, and more pressing, argument instead.

"Hunter, there has to be another way. A less violent way. I mean, think about it...." She continued her back-and-forth trip a few more times. Killing the Council isn't going to spread fear, it'll spread more hate. They'll automatically blame mutants, and their 'voice' against them will grow louder. There's enough heirophants to make another council almost immediately, several times over. If that happens, we're back to Square One, and all of this," she paused and swept her hands out, indicating the infiltration effort, "will be for nothing."

She plopped back onto the couch, bouncing a bit as she landed. "What if the Council just disappears for a little while. Like.... hypnotizing them into going into hiding, or something. Or maybe you could, say, trick each of them into thinking the others are mutants. Let them in fight for awhile, and do themselves in. You know, like the saying, 'A kingdom divided cannot stand'? I bet the leaders fighting each other will do more damage to the rest of the Church than just killing them all off."

A hopeful gleam had found its way to her eyes. Anything to avoid unnecessary violence.

"While what you are suggesting would work if it were doable, it isn't," Hunter answered bluntly, "For me to plant a lie in someone's mind that complicated I need several uninterupted minutes alone with them. And yes it is that complicated. I can't simple place the suspicion in their mind, I have to make reasons for the suspicion or they'll simply dismiss it."

"While the death of the council will likely cause anger, I can ensure that it also spreads fear. I have been spreading fear amoung humans for centuries, I know what buttons to push and how. I'm sorry but there is no other way. If you can come up with another solution that I belive will work I am willing to try it, but failing that, the council must die."

His abruptness surprised Iris a bit, and she instinctively leaned back, frowning.

"For me to plant a lie in someone's mind that complicated I need several uninterupted minutes alone with them. And yes it is that complicated. I can't simple place the suspicion in their mind, I have to make reasons for the suspicion or they'll simply dismiss it."

Her frown deepened a little further.

"While the death of the council will likely cause anger, I can ensure that it also spreads fear. I have been spreading fear amoung humans for centuries, I know what buttons to push and how. I'm sorry but there is no other way. If you can come up with another solution that I belive will work I am willing to try it, but failing that, the council must die."

"So you can make me forget five years of my life, with no effort and no reason, and spread fear in a mass group, but planting a little bit of misguided suspicion in a few individual minds you can't do without a reason?" she snapped, glaring. "Yeah, right."

She shot to her feet once more and stormed back toward the kitchen. She began banging through the cabinets for a water pitcher, then dropped it, noisily, into the sink to fill. She had already watered the plants that she'd hung around the room, and her window-sill herb garden. But she needed to do something to do to expend her frustration, or risk another tirade. She was working, very hard, at trying to control herself in Hunter's presence.

Her progress was.... slow....

As the pitcher filled her feet tapped the ground impatiently, and she covered her eyes with one hand.

Hunter could see the argument forming here, and so didn't reply to the comment of hiding her memories from her. Instead he tried to explain why her plan wouldn't work. "If we were to try your plan it would fail. The most we could hope for is to get a council member alone long enough for me to plant the lie that the other council members are mutant. After that we could try and get another before the first acts. So then we might get, at most, two individuals against a group of ten. The council will remove the two I've influenced and carry on as normal, except with higer security."

"And there is no way for me to do the mesmer while they are all there. Planting a convuloted lie is much mroe difficult than simply hiding memories. Besides, even with your strategy there will be bloodshed. Mine ensures that every drop spilled furthers our goal." He hoped that she see reason. Paragon didn't need to like the plan, but she did need to agree with it.