"Just a sec," I called out at the insistent knocking on the front door. It sounded almost like Moon's rhythmic tap, but much louder. Much angrier.

I was not prepared for what stood on the other side of the door. I utterly froze. It looked like Moon, but much bloodier. Much angrier.

I was stunned as she swayed and then began to collapse towards me. On reflex, I jumped forward and caught her, only to find her with a tiny impish smile as she looked up at me. She caressed my cheek with a hand black with dry blood.

"My apologies to deceive you," she said, and then her body got heavy as she went slack.

"Jesus Christ, you're covered in blood," I said as her shadow stepped into my sight. "You need treatment. AEGIS? AEGIS, help!"

"She's fine," AEGIS sighed before she even walked in from the bedroom. "I saw her coming in on cams. She was walking normally."

"She's got blood on her...everything," I said. I was still just stunned from the sight of it. A blood-covered little Japanese girl with straight black hair and an utterly out-of-place sexy little white dress, it was like something out of a horror movie. Only more horrible, because I knew the girl.

"Please take me to the back and treat me as you can. Or a hospital, if you are unwilling or incapable. I did just walk four miles here barefoot with a splintered piece of wood sticking out of my abdomen."

AEGIS took the girl out of my arms and shook her head. "I'll do it in the tub where it won't fuck our carpets."

"Your empathy and generosity are without peer. I thank you."

"Yeah, yeah, shut it," AEGIS huffed, carrying the body off.

After she'd left the room, I commented to the ghost on my shoulder. "She was probably just upset that you were in a short dress. You know how AEGIS is about other girls."

"We did not part on the best terms when last we spoke. Also, I apologize. It was not my intention to seduce you. I did not know that blood was one of your fetishes. Does that make you a hemophiliac?"

"It's really not. But you apologized for deceiving me? What'd you mean by that?"

"As she said, I am not that bad off, I am not. I estimate I have several more painful hours to live without medical aid before I run the risk of death by blood loss. I stumbled at the door to fall into your arms, by design."

"Oh. Well, if AEGIS knew that, no wonder she was annoyed. Um...why, though?"

"So I could do this," she said.

And suddenly Moon was very much in my head.

Her rules about 'no peeking' and strict adherence to respecting the privacy of others were apparently utterly gone as she wandered through my mind, prying at will through my thoughts and memories.

"Moon what the fuck--"

"I apologize. It will be over soon."

"Get out of my head!"

"No," she said firmly. Her probing intensified. It was nothing like Saga, who seemed an expert at picking out any thought she wanted by comparison. Moon seemed more to be browsing the lines of shelves of my mind, running her fingers along all the memories lined up there like the spines of so many books.

"Why?" I asked, feeling my memories flashing by involuntarily as she rifled through them. If I were smarter, I should have put her right back in her body, but it was hard to think coherently when someone was constantly shifting my mental focus. That, and most of my faculties were concerned with the question I'd just asked her. Why the fuck was Moon coming into my house at this late hour, tricking me, and rifling through my brain?

"You would not tell me what happened, on that night months ago when you changed. I have asked, and asked, and asked again, yet you do not tell me. Now, I will simply take what information I desire."

"This is so against everything you've ever stood for," I fumed. "Are you just...angry or hurt or…"

"Please endure this indignity with silence. This is harder than it looks."

"No. You know what? No." I said, her last words enough to push me from concerned confusion to anger. Any sympathy I had for her situation went up in flames as she explained her calculated decision-making. Barging in here to pry something out of my mind, without so much as an explanation why she was making my girlfriend undertake surgery? Scaring me shitless for her own ends? And this on top if it all? No. Fuck that.

"W-w-what are you doing? Stop it," she said.

"You stop it." I growled at her.

"Get out of my head!" she yelled at me, my own voice sounding panicky and prepubescent in a way I hoped I never did.

"No. You force your way into my mind, I'm gonna to the same to you. If you're not telling me what happened to you, I'm gonna find out."

"Nothing did! Nothing of your concern!"

The intensity of her prodding my mind spiked as I went through hers. Her thoughts were easy to find, at the front of her mind, but as I now knew what she was looking for, so were mine. Maybe if I were more disciplined, I could deliberately not think about what she wanted, but given that the only Code-X I knew before now was Saga, who knew everything anyway, I'd never seen much reason to have that kind of focus.

Unfortunately, that thought also passed through my mind, and Moon both picked up on it and was focused like that. As soon as she read that thought, her own thoughts began to change from under me like words in a book shifting as I read them. Instead of memories of her in a museum somewhere, I was reliving moments with her in the P-Force. Things I already knew. Safe thoughts.

"That's fucking cheating," I told her.

"When it comes to my mind, all is fair," she sneered at me. She was getting close to the memory of that night I shared with Whitney and everything that had happened. Moments flitted through my mind backwards in time.

Well fuck her. If all was fair, she was in for it. I deployed the greatest weapon a teenage boy had at his arsenal.

"Oh you are vile," she commented.

"If you don't like it get out," I grit my teeth, trying to focus on what I was doing, keep up my fantasies about her round figure, and stare her ghostly visage down all at once.

"That is not even anatomically accurate."

"Should I step into the bathroom and check for myself?"

The purple shadow flushed even more purple and I felt her getting tripped up on my fantasy, losing her grip on the memories she was digging out. I mentally gave her bottom a firm smack and her ghost jumped slightly as I did.

"This is very much the height of degeneracy. Look at yourself and be ashamed."

"No thanks. Too focused on other things."

"Too focused on me, which I find disturbing in the extreme. You disgust me more than I thought possible."

"You come in my house, you trick me, you abuse my trust, you violate my mind. Yeah, I'm gonna play dirty."

"Dirty is not the least of it. You are a deviant of the highest caliber."

"Oh please. I'm a teenage guy surrounded by girls who are as hot as they are batshit insane. Looks like you've got some super-repressed shit in here as well. Should I make a detour for what I'm digging for to look into it?"

"You...wouldn't...dare," she hissed, but she was flushed more than I knew possible.

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"Is this why you got sidetracked so easily? You wouldn't mind being spanked by me? And I'm the deviant?"

"I insist on a time-out," she panted. "I am willing to negotiate a ceasefire."

I hesitated and considered it. I had every advantage at this point, and could easily just take what I wanted and give her nothing. On one hand, that's exactly what she deserved for pulling this shit on me. But on the other…

She was still a friend. Friends don't mindfuck friends. Especially the bit about dragging out her repressed sexuality, which I reminded myself, as asexual as she might try to come across, Moon was about my age and about my circumstances...and unlike me, not getting any action on the regular. She might hate that part of herself, but it was still part of her, and pretty crappy for me to know about.

I mean, I didn't feel that bad, she forced my hand. But still. Kinda shifted the relationship dynamic enough to give me pause. And looking at her, panting and sweating and flushed from...exertion, I hoped...it felt bad. I didn't want to kick her when she was down.

"How about, you tell me what happened to you, and I won't have to get it from your brain?" I suggested.

"How about I do that, and you also tell me what happened to you?" she countered.

"No."

"I will get it myself if I have to," she threatened, my mind twinging slightly.

"I think we established you can't."

She shook her head. "We established that I can't without baring every profoundly ugly secret in my mind to you. But I would endure that indignity if necessary, because I want to know, I do. So make your choice, to have us battle for it, or trade for it."

She crossed her arms and flushed even harder under my scrutiny, but I saw...felt...that she was serious. Moon was a girl of absolutes, and if she wanted something, she might risk everything for it. I'd seen her do this again and again, but she'd always bet something like her life or her career. Never something as large and traumatic as her past.

I sighed and pulled out a chair to sit in. Even if I wanted to fight her on it, it'd destroy our relationship if I knew that much about her. That wouldn't help me in any way except to be stubborn.

Which, granted, still had its appeal. But it was the wrong choice.

"Fine. We'll talk," I said. "My condition is that whatever I tell you, it never leaves this room. I'm trusting you here, and it's more than just my life on the line, you understand?"

"I do. I will value this secret more than my own life, should it comes to that."

"Jesus, you are extreme. Can't you just be normal sometimes?"

She ignored me and changed the topic. "Before we commence our exchange, could we visit the bathroom?"

"Uh. Do you even pee in that form?"

"No. I wished to see how my body was faring. To be completely honest, I had lost a significant amount of blood and was in a fair amount of pain. It would be reassuring to hear from a trained medic that I am not on death's door."

"Oh. Right. Sure."

I stood up and carried the two of us to where AEGIS was working on the body. At the sight of her dress cut away and rolled back, Moon put a transparent-purple hand over my eyes. Despite my earlier aggressive fantasizing, there wasn't anything here remotely appealing to me. Blood and open wounds were not my fetish.

"Probably a good thing you're not in there," AEGIS said to Moon, barely acknowledging us. "I had to do a lot of digging with tweezers to get all the splinters out. Even detached from her body, I could feel Moon wincing as she saw the extent of the damage. "Whoever did this to you had really bad aim if they were trying to kill you. It went through your uh...less vital parts."

"My uterus. And the aim was impeccable."

"There'll be scarring all over," AEGIS fretted as she applied medical gel. "If...if you can talk Cosette into a regenerator, I'd do it. You might um...not be able to…"

"I am more than fine with being sterile."

"Oh. Okay." AEGIS paused awkwardly for a moment and then rummaged for some suture. "Sorry about your dress. Not really like you to doll up, is it? It was nice."

"Not really."

"Well...not anymore. Not unless you wanted to go to a costume party as Aunt Flo."

"Your problems are not like my problems, AEGIS," Moon said. She hesitated and I felt more than sensed that she realized, whatever animosity was between them, Moon was being overly critical of someone who was helping her. "But, I appreciate your efforts."

AEGIS gave a half shrug. "Why learn all this medical stuff if I don't use it when I have the chance?" She looked over her shoulder at me. "But don't get any ideas."

"Yeah, like I'm actively seeking out injury," I scoffed.

"I've seen you do stupider things."

After several minutes of stitches as even and precise as a sewing machine, AEGIS seemed satisfied with the lower damage and turned to dressing the wounds all over Moon's face. "This looks kinda bad, but could be worse. Concussion, contusion, no skull fracturing. You should feel lucky you have such a hard head." She said it with the tone and whimsy of a joke but just under that I could hear the iron in her words as she worked diligently.

"I apologize for the mess I delivered to you," Moon said, equally serious.

"Well you're alive and that's what counts. You're also probably the best patient I've had because you hold still, and I'm not too freaking out about what happens to you."

This joke at least made Moon smile internally. "What is the course of action for my treatment?"

"Amusingly, for a concussion you should rest and try not to move or think too much for a while. Pretty ideal to not be in your own body. We'll put you back in tomorrow and ease you back into it...if the two of you don't mind be stuck together. I'd have a lot more issue with this if she was in this form, but I doubt you can get into trouble with just two of yourself," she told me.

Moon considered replying but decided not to make trouble for me. Instead she thanked AEGIS again and we departed to the living room couch and sat down.

"The aim was impeccable," Moon said out loud, in a whisper as though to herself. "I will be sterile. That will fix one of my problems. I wonder why I did not consider this course of action sooner."

"Uh, because why would you be considering self-genital mutilation?"

She looked up from the floor at me. "I have no interest in rearing children."

"Well yeah, me neither, but I'm not about to go hack off my bits. Besides, we're young, that's the kind of thing you want to do when you're older. Doesn't make any sense to shut that door now if you don't know what you'll think in the future, right?"

She shook her head and I realized who I was talking to. I doubt Moon ever changed her mind on anything that big. Silly me.

"To answer your question and begin our mutual divulgence, the one who mutilated me was myself."

"What?"

"I apologize, should I speak louder?"

"No, I'm just...what? Why the heck...why...dude. What?"

She made a show of rolling her eyes, which she was very bad at. "I did it to prevent a rape. It was not for recreation."

"Oh. What? Jesus Christ, Moon!"

"Kaori."

"Whatever! Holy fuck, what happened? Are you okay? Wait, I mean...are you okay?"

"I'm currently unconscious in your bathtub undergoing surgery. I apologize, but in this country is this a thing that people tend to do when okay?"

"Damn it Mo--Kaori, you know what I mean. Mentally. You." She was about to speak again with the tinge of bemusement that indicated ass-pain-being so I corrected myself. "Are you mentally well, given that you just endured an attempted rape?"

She stopped and thought for a long time. Her face was utterly impassive though I felt waves of emotion flickering behind it. At long last she spoke. "I have no reason not to be. He is dead for his attempt. No lasting damage was inflicted upon me...that I care about."

"But you're here, mentally assaulting me," I realized. "It messed you up."

"Perhaps." She gave the most fleeting frown. "I do not feel as though I have changed, I do not, but I suppose that is a tricky issue when it comes to Code-Xavier."

"Kaori, I think...you should start at the beginning and tell me everything. The beginning of the rape incident," I added with a sigh as she opened her mouth.

"And I have your assurance that this will remain in confidence? And that you will divulge your story after?"

I nodded. "AEGIS will hear us over her cam-drones. But I'll make sure she doesn't tell either."

She waited another moment and then begun, telling me in detail everything that happened from the moment she woke up in her prison, unaware of how she got there or when, to the deliberate torture and reshaping of her mind at Diallo's hands, to his lashing out at her and the 'brilliant idea' he formed which culminated with him braindead and choking to death on his own memorabilia.

"When my host dies, my consciousness returns to my body," she said. "Then it was a simple manner of finding the keys to the cuffs, fleeing the premises, orienting myself, and coming to you as the nearest individual I knew. My plan to ambush you was formulated as I walked the few miles."

"Why didn't you go to the hospital or something? Jesus Christ."

"I do not know where there is a hospital near here. He lived near your campus, and I was familiar with that in locating you."

"Okay well, like, police or something would help you get there?"

"Honestly, I fear my father's influence at the moment and would rather not wind up anywhere his power might reach me. Which reminds me, you said you found my mobile?"

I nodded and got up to pick it up to bring back to her, forgetting that she'd come with me of course. She seemed somewhat irritated that it was scuffed up but she didn't pause as she flipped it open and began messaging.

"I would call him but my voice is not currently my own," she narrated. "Dearest father, no. I will not be your plaything. Find another child, as that is what you are good at. Sincerely, Kaori." She looked at me significantly with a sincere smile. "But in Japanese, of course."

"Woah. You're gonna send that?"

"No," she sighed. And then her smile returned double as she snapped the mobile shut. "I already sent it."

"Jesus. You're uh. You're on quite a roll today. Are you sure you don't want to sit down and...I don't know...let your feelings settle before you attack anyone else? I mean, I might forgive you, and your dad...I guess there's not a lot there between you two. But you're just out to torch every bridge tonight. You were concussed."

"My body was. I am not. No, there is nothing quite like a week in torture and confinement to permit one to re-evaluate their life, there isn't. These are things I should have done previously and lacked the determination to do. Now, I do not want for that determination."

"If you say so," I said, my head spinning a little.

"What I say is, it is now your turn to speak," she said. "Please, inform me what changed you so drastically that month and a half ago. Why did you choose to return to the P-Force, under stipulation? Why did your powers change? Tell me all."

I swallowed hard. "Okay. But you're not going to like it, and some of it doesn't make sense, even to me."