Caution

[Pyro]

Having completely giving the girls in Baltimore their instructions, John shuffled through several papers on the desk for a few minutes. He had another conversation to have and he wanted to be less excited and full of himself before he went and had it.

His success in the training yard still ran through him like a vintage champagne, bubbling in his veins and making him break into a periodic almost foolish grin.

Eventually, he calmed himself down and left his office, heading down the cold grey hallways towards the room that Jane had taken for herself.

It was his base now, he could have just done what Magneto had always done and just walked in.

But he was not Magneto.

He knocked.

"Jane, it's me. Pyro. Can I come and talk to you for a minute?"

[Jane]

Jane's room was not as it once was.

She couldn't concentrate with all that steel facing her from every angle. Everything just felt so cold; Jane had always liked warmth. Warmth was life. It was harder to fry a plant than it was to freeze it, and she'd always liked things to be about eighty degrees when she could get them there.

But there was no thermostat in the little metal room, so Jane had done the only thing she could think of to at least make it LOOK warmer. The vines from outside had been invited in and had crawled over every surface inside, securing themselves in tiny imperfections in the walls and, when necessary, through less common means - suction cups or quickly-hardening gels they would not have produced in nature. Flowers of every shape, size and color popped out of vines, large and simple-petaled, vaguely tropical-looking magnolias and hibiscus. Nothing too lacy. Frills were inefficient.

A few calla lilies had found their way into the vase John had given her, the vines that coated the walls stopping a few inches up the legs of the desk on which the vase sat. The desk itself was the only flat surface other than the bed onto which the flora had not quested; even the dresser was now anchored in place with ivies and vines.

A knock jarred her out of her contemplation of the new face of the room, and Jane was halfway across to the door when Pyro spoke.

"Jane, it's me. Pyro. Can I come and talk to you for a minute?"

She twisted the doorknob after remembering to keep the vines away from potential exits (whoops) and opened the door fully, gesturing to John to come in, even though it was his base, after all, and he could go where he chose. It seemed polite.

"Sure," she said. "What's on your mind?"

[Pyro]

"Sure. What's on your mind?"

He took a step into the room.

Then he stepped out again.

Then he stepped back in.

Then his face broke out in a huge, highly infectious grin and he laughed warmly. "Now this," he said, "is incredible." He sounded genuinely impressed at the changes wrought upon the clincial steel of the room. "Maybe you could come and redecorate my room for me sometime. Uh, that is..." He realised how that might be construed and hurriedly changed the subject.

"Listen," he said, taking his tone into the more serious realms. "I wanted to ask you something, but it's not an easy question. I can't help but notice how - well, delicate you are, how much you cover yourself up, flinch from everything - are you absolutely sure this is the path you want to follow?"

The question surprised him as much as it would potentially surprise her. With Magneto, there were no second chances.

But, he reminded himself yet again, he was not Magneto.

[Jane]

Jane laughed, not unkindly, at the look on John's face.

"Now this is incredible."

"Thanks," she said, grasping a wrist on one hand behind her back. She never knew what to do with her hands.

"Maybe you could come and redecorate my room for me sometime. Uh, that is..."

Jane gave him a Look, but he trailed off by himself.

"Listen, I wanted to ask you something, but it's not an easy question. I can't help but notice how - well, delicate you are, how much you cover yourself up, flinch from everything - are you absolutely sure this is the path you want to follow?"

Jane let a breath out slowly and dropped onto her bed, biting her lip - gently, though. She was delicate, after all. "I don't know," she said honestly. "Gill finds something to do, doesn't he?"

But that wasn't a real answer. It was a hard question - more to answer, she suspected, than it had been to ask.

"I just always wanted to make a difference," she said. "After I found out I wasn't the only one, you know? I guess the real question is, duh, I want to follow this path, but is it practical?"

She twisted her wrist between her fingers again, distorting the line of her glove.

"It'll always be something I have to worry about," she said finally. "Getting hurt and all. But - you haven't seen what I can do. What I can really do, when I try. This, and the thing with your arm, and even what I did for Giacomo and that doctor, that's not really offensive maneuvering. I got attacked once, on my way through Tennessee. I made... big things."

Friends of Humanity her big green butt. "Scary things. I just can't be in the front lines myself, but I can make anything autonomous if I want to, just so I can see it and know what it's all doing... part of the problem with making plants that can think for themselves is that there's no higher reasoning, so I have to make sure they only eat people I want them to eat. But I think it'll be all right. I can stand behind Cain."

[Pyro]

"But I think it'll be all right. I can stand behind Cain."

A wry smile twisted John's face upwards. "Yeah," he said, "you can do that, right up until the moment he ploughs his way through the crowd. Ultimately, the choice is yours. I'm just making it clear that I'm giving you the option to back out now if you want to. We can drop you anywhere in the US you want to go - or you can stay with the Brotherhood and take your chances."

He scratched at his chin.

"It sounds like I'm being dismissive of you, Jane, and I'm not. Not at all. I appreciate what you did for me, what you did for Giacomo more than I can express. It's just..."

It's just what? The fact that you already have the deaths of all those at Alcatraz on your shoulder? Even if they didn't die because of something you did? That you don't want another soul stacked up against you on the Day of Reckoning? Face it, Johnny-boy, you're already going to Hell, what's one more?

He blinked.

"If you're sure," he said. "Then I suggest you hide behind Cain until you have no further option."

[Jane]

"Yeah, you can do that, right up until the moment he ploughs his way through the crowd. Ultimately, the choice is yours. I'm just making it clear that I'm giving you the option to back out now if you want to. We can drop you anywhere in the US you want to go - or you can stay with the Brotherhood and take your chances."

Jane shook her head. "Thanks but no thanks," she said. Being alone was so much worse than constantly worrying about surviving. Plus, she'd usually done the latter anyway.

"It sounds like I'm being dismissive of you, Jane, and I'm not. Not at all. I appreciate what you did for me, what you did for Giacomo more than I can express. It's just..."

He trailed off and got a funny look on his face, silent for a few moments. Jane contemplated prodding him, but he blinked before she did and spoke again.

"If you're sure. Then I suggest you hide behind Cain until you have no further option."

"I'm sure," she said. "I'll live. I have before."

She'd never attacked a base secured by the military before, though, either. Whatever.

"If I die, you're not allowed to take it on your conscience," she said, the idea only occurring to her then. "You're giving me a choice, so it's mine. Everything from here is on my shoulders, okay?"

He didn't need anything else to go crazy over, after all.

[Pyro]

"If I die, you're not allowed to take it on your conscience. You're giving me a choice, so it's mine. Everything from here is on my shoulders, okay?"

He blinked at her, wondering, for a moment, if his thoughts had been audible. Then he nodded. "It's a deal," he said. "But I tell you this for nothing. If you die? I'll kill you."

Then he gave that infectious grin again. "Help yourself to anything in the kitchen," he said, gesturing down the hallway. "It's every man - and woman - for themselves in this place, we don't do sit-down dinners or anything like that."

He headed for the door, then paused and turned to look at her. "Thanks," he said, simply, then slid out of the indoor jungle easily without telling her what he was thanking her for.