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Helena offered Clarissa an endearing smile before hushing her. It seemed being slightly mutated had its small perks, and it lifted her mood somewhat. She had moved to Elizabeth's side when the Thief returned, and remained silent. Grissom still had a task to complete, and she was going to see it through. When the Mystery Man gave up on his attempts to heal, the artist resumed her work. With soft hands, she dabbed at Elizabeth's wound while looking her in the face. "Do you need the painkillers?" she asked. If the others were feeling similar effects, she imagined Elizabeth might very well be fine without them, but better safe than sorry. In the meantime, she continued her work: the mangled arm was splinted, and ice gently applied to any uncovered skin. Then the gauze bandaging was wrapped around it all, firmly but not tightly. Have I forgotten anything?

Looking to Clarissa, she was about to ask when she noticed the girl was asleep... or dead. No, no, she was definitely alive: Helena noticed her chest gently rising and falling rhythmically. Good, then she had done her part. With a deep breath, she sat down, wincing only slightly. She realized, however, it was near perfect. She had only winced with anticipation, but no pain surged through her muscles. Another great breath, this one out of relief. She sat with her back against the wall, her right leg, arm, and temple leaning against the fridge. She was pretty worn from all the excitement, and questions weren't too important to the Helena then. What was important was that this man had saved them from what would have otherwise been a gruesome fate. She smiled at that and closed her eyes, wondering if perhaps she'd fall asleep. It'd be okay with her Cloaked Knight present.

"********!" Jesse screamed as he looked at the spot on his chest. This was going to be a big, BIG pain in the a**. He jumped to his feet, continuing to rub at the spot. It continued to grow and get worse.

"What the hell did he do to me!"

The Thief had been about to respond to the question of his identity when he caught sight of Jesse's injury.

"Oh, dear. Of course." He bent over, and the roll of bandages leapt from its place into his hand. "Gangrene. We'll... we'll have to cut it out now. Mmkay, relax a moment here..." The Thief held the glove over Jesse's face, waiting for whatever he was doing to take effect.

It did a moment later as Jesse fell into sleep. "Perfect. Anesthesia administered... and then we can just cut off the dying material before it actively grows..." The Thief drew his knife. It burst into flame for a second before quenching with a vein of steam rising off it it. Sterilization, apparently. He immediately set to work, cutting clean whatever was sick or damaged. For some reason, Jesse never even began to bleed; it seemed The Thief could still influence things like that.

It only took three or four minutes; The Thief's strokes were broad and quick but surgically accurate. Upon completing his task, he wrapped the bandages around Jesse's chest, then ran a hand across them. "Cauterized now, and... wake up up." As he spoke, whatever anesthesia he had used wore off. Jesse awoke, pain still present but minimal.

"We've taken care of the immediate. You need this antibiotic," where the ******** had that bottle come from? "and painkiller, most likely," the bottle was already in his hand, along with a glass of water beside the man. "Instructions are on the bottles. You should be fine. The rest of you... nothing critical that I can do anything for. Unless you're bleeding and I haven't noticed. Anything external I can do something like that for? If no, I'll carry on with my explanation."

"You didn't answer my questions yet," Elizabeth objected now that Jesse was stabilized. "And since no one's complaining, let's go on with that." It seemed she'd gathered her wits a bit more in spite of the pain that was her entire right arm.

Hearing Clarissa moaning and groaning in her sleep, Grissom reached out and gently stroked her hair. She paused after having done so, surprised with herself. Why had she done that? Her mind was too sluggish to determine the psychology behind it. As a matter of fact, why did it matter? If Claire doesn't mind, there's no reason to stop. So she continued doing so, and blushing faintly at her own motherly behavior.

"Very well. My name, as I have told you, is The Thief. I have that name for a reason. I came back to you from what you might refer to as 'the future'. This is a misconception; rather, we are in the past. The important thing is how I got here, and why.

"I got here through the pods you may have seen I was stealing. They were part of an experimental government project, one by the name of Eden. Those others you saw interfering were the assigned guardians of the project, with the name Adam-team. Poor fools, accepting their assignment.

"I digress. The devices were powered by singular power sources. I have some with me, and they are called Sigils." Here The Thief drew two of the glowing canisters from within the cloak. The room lit up like it was midday, but nothing was any harder to look at. The Sigils bore what appeared to be the shape of a bone and the shape of a blood drop. "That isn't important to you, though; your... mutations appear to have made you resistant to their energy. They radiate some sort of energy, something that changes humans, much as your malady does. I am a product of this, through a long story I do not wish to describe.

"Why I have come here is different. I wish to end the domination - the oppression - of Earth and all humanity. To do this, I must overthrow every known government. Anarchy will be our watch-word, and in anarchy, natural selection will take place. Those who are strong will live, those who are weak will die, and the human race will be furthered.

"And why I saved you... I'll be honest. I need allies, and you appeal to me. I don't know much about you, and I don't know that I have any other friends here, but you were in the right place at the right time, and so it has come to pass that we've met.

"Any further questions or shall we discuss what to do, as this fine young man has suggested?"

"Anarchy? Survival of the fittest?" Elizabeth asked. The "rational" part of her was pointing out that as one of a group of cannibalistic superhumans, that suited her (and her companions) better than most. Every other part of her was screaming that that was insanity. "Okay, first, singular power sources, singular like controlled singularities? Second, what do you mean end the oppression of all humanity? Third, how do you know overthrowing every government in the world will help that?"

She continued sleeping, since her injuries were quite severe. Once she awakened, she'd have to thank God for not dying out of sheer stupidity.

"C'mon, Claire! Wouldn't you want to meet R if you could?" She was sitting directly across from the boy, a book in hand. "W-well, it'd be awe-inspiring for sure." The boy smiled. "I'll become as strong as him, if not stronger. You watch me." Clarissa gave a small smile back, "I'm sure you will." She noticed that the boy was about as young as she was. Brown hair and green eyes. For some reason, she couldn't remember his name. Just what was his name?

She was scared. Things were becoming scary to her. "Mother, Father? I would like to retract myself from this volunteer assignment." She didn't even want to BE in it in the first place. Her mother scoffed, "Why not?" Clarissa nervously answered, "They're- well, they're doing--" "Hush, girl! We're not supposed to know about it. Whatever they're doing, I'm sure it's for the good of everyone." Clarissa sighed. "Yes Mother." Her father had said nothing.

Now she was hugging the boy around the waist. "I'm afraid..." "What? No, don't be. I promised to protect you. You're going to be fine. Alright? I promise, I'll keep you safe. Just stay with me," he ended. She nodded in his chest. "Okay. I trust you." From the corner of her eye, she saw Helena and Elizabeth walk by. They seemed to be talking animatedly about something. They seemed fine.

Everything was fine, wasn't it? No, no it wasn't. It wasn't getting any better--

She turned her head towards Helena. She was searching for some kind of comfort, and Helena was providing exactly that.