Batman turned, looking back at Ciara in alarm, "Damnit Ivy!" he exclaimed, shoving Joker and Scarecrow out of the way, "Move!" he yelled, taking off before anyone else could stop him.

Joker pouted, "aww, way to spoil the fun red."

Scarecrow grinned though, "He'll be back. Next time he thinks he's found another criminal. We'll be ready for him then."

Ciara couldn't help but smile a little bit, 'Yes and hopefully he'd be back to himself by then.' There she'd sent Batman right into the heart of the Blue Boy territory, one of Oracle's guys were sure to spot him. 'Hurry Bats...'

"I see you've dried off. Didn't enjoy the tide pool?" She asked, sticking her tongue out at him.

Joker's face turned deadly serious. "Dr. Crane. She's all yours."

"Take her to the medical facility" Crane told the thugs as they dragged her away.

"No. No Come on guys, can't we talk this over. I was joking, Joker. Come on." After a few mins she stopped protesting, finding her words landing on false ears. It wasn't long they walked her right up to the medical facility. It didn't look as scary in the day time, still freaky but not as bad.

She didn't want to go back under Crane's drug. The terror it made her see and feel... She prayed the guys would find Batman soon.

They brought her into the same room as before. The straps on the chair had been fixed so they cuffed her into it, removed her belt and set it aside, looking her over for any other technology, coping a feel and then leaving her alone.

Crane took his sweet time, it was awhile before anything happened at all and then suddenly the lights shut off, leaving ciara alone in pitch darkness.

"Get your hands off me!" She yelled, embarrassed and unable to stop them. She was expecting him to charge in moments later but when he didn't, she got nervous. She didn't know how long she spent trying to free herself from the chair but it was no use.

"Ah." She jumped, having been completely focused on freeing herself. She tensed up but in an attempt to keep herself calm she called out "...Marco?"

For several long minutes she was in darkness, then the lights flickered. The walls were covered in posters, pictures and happy faces. Another flicker, the pictures were of Ciara, her life, her friends and family; everything from when she was little and years of growing up after. The lights came fully on and Scarecrow was right in her face.

She felt her heart strings being pulled as she looked at all the photos. Home... They were pictures of home. Away from this nightmare of an island. Home. Her friends and family, her lover. Home. She turned back to look in front of her and jumped when Scarecrow appeared there.
"Geezus, man!"

The lights flicked off again, when they flared back on there were needles dangling on strings from the ceiling. Crane sat on a chair in front of her, calmly with his legs crossed as he watched her.

She could hear something clinking together and looked up and within seconds, sunk down into the chair, "I...I see you're done some redecorating." She said nervously and bit her lip.

"Yes, do you like it?" Crane asked, watching her reaction very carefully.

Ciara was picking at the chair arm with her index finger, "...Not really my style... but I do like parts of it." She commented, noticing a picture of her family to the left behind his head. She just stared. She felt homesick.

"What's your favorite picture?" Crane asked with a gentle smile.

She looked back at Crane and paused, not sure if she should go along with his game. After a few moments, she poked her finger, "That one." It was a picture of when they were all back at the mansion. It was taken a couple months before Eric left.

It was a photo of her first birthday with them, same day as Eric's. Eric sat in an armchair with Ciara in his lap, the others stood around it. Poor gal, she'd fallen asleep as they were taken the picture, she'd had so much fun that day. It was really one of the first times she'd had so much fun since coming to the mansion. That day washed any sadness or loneliness in her heart away. It was the day she truly felt home. (Since you know, the trauma of thinking your father died, being alone etc).

Crane turned to look, admiring it for a moment, "How sweet. Tell me about it."

Ciara came to the conclusion that she should go along with this, anything to kill time. "Well... It was about a month or so since I arrived at the mansion. I still wasn't completely use to my surrounding yet. I usually hid myself in Hank's library- before he was my dad. Scott would always end up babysitting me but he didn't have very good social skills at the time. Instead of trying to interact with me, he's just flick on the TV and expect me to sit and watch. I was warming up to Eric rather well by this point, Hank too... That day was Eric's birthday. I watched as they set up decorations and presents on the table. I even helped bake the cake but it wasn't until we all surprised him, that I realized... I didn't know when my birthday was.

It was like a great pit formed in my stomach. I wandered outside while everyone was in good cheers. But Eric seemed to notice my adsense only after a few mins. I was crying in Hank's big comfy chair in his library. He asked me what was wrong and I told him... That I didn't know when my birthday was or if I even had one. After a moment, a big smile crossed his face. Why today is your birthday of course. He said and he picked me up and carried me back in. I never felt so happy before... Or at least I couldn't recall when I was that happy. We had cake and Eric shared a couple of his presents with me... One of which was a sweater.. I think I used it for pjs cause it was far too big." She was smiling by that point, "But it was that day I knew, that that place was home. That I belonged."

"It's fascinating how a fear of being alone can often drive someone to being alone," Dr. Crane observed, "Surrounded by people and you still feel like you would never truly belong, so you find a place to hide by yourself, wishing someone would find you. That was very kind of Eric to chase your fears away, if only for one day but I bet that fear still hides inside you. In the back your mind you still wonder if you'll ever truly belong anywhere. Sure they all smile and they say they accept you but when it comes down to it, how can you ever know for certain?"
"Eric shared his birthday with you, yet you know it's not really yours. It never can be, not really. He just did that to make you feel better, because people like him-despite their power and status, people like Eric Lenshur are afraid of people like you. They don't want to upset you, they don't know how to deal with a crying girl so they do whatever it takes to give you what you want, to keep you happy. He'll give up everything for you, just so he doesn't have to deal with you being upset. That, is the power of fear my dear."
He leaned back in his chair, "tell me about another one."

((Wrote a post but it told me my Token was expired. So now I have to rewrite it ><))

Although the scenery kept changing, she knew home was where her friends and family were. His words put a little doubt in her heart but only a small spark waiting for some wood to burn. They accepted her, they cared for her. She knew that. Scott had pulled himself out of depression when he discovered she had gone missing. Eric had risked his life to save hers when she first came to this time. He even got Hank out of prison so he could save her from all the potions and magic that was poisoning her body. Charles gave up his freedom, his rights, his whole being just so that she and the others could be free... And Eric knew how to deal with crying girls... He'd even called her out on it once for crying for the sake of crying. Mind you, she did bang her knee..

But he changed the subject too quickly for her to protest. She wondered how long she could keep him interested. How long she could keep him busy... There would probably be no needles today, hopefully because that would ruin Joker's big birthday party for her. She still couldn't believe it was her birthday that day. She always spent it with everyone... Logan always managed to show up on her birthday. Even if it was mins away from being the next day.

She looked at one of the photos, it was Logan carrying her off to bed. It was a snap shot Hank had taken. Logan was half turned with a small little redhead curled into his shoulder. She had refused to go to bed that night till Logan got there. She'd even saved a piece of birthday cake, a party hat and gift bag for him. He had shown up in a half ripped shirt a few mins to midnight.

She continued looking at the photos and pointed at another one, this one by the barred windows. It was a photo of her and Hank before he was fuzzy. It was the day he adopted her.

"That was the day Hank officially became my father..." She chuckled remembering how that day played out. "A couple of the boys had been making fun of me and my lack of mutation for a couple weeks prior and it was that day, that I'd had enough. We were fighting and yelling on the side lawn. After a few mins, you could see Storm and Hank running across the lawn to stop us. Then one of the boys yelled, 'At least I have a father, freak!' and without even thinking about it I yelled, 'Hank's my Daddy birdbrain!.'

Hank stopped a couple feet away after I yelled that. It was then I realized he was behind me, I froze and we stared at each other till Storm took the boys in the house. Then he walked up to me...

~
"Ciara-" he started gently.
"I'm sorry." She bolted out, head toward the ground and her eyes slammed shut.
A warm large hand picked some grass out of her head and then tucked it behind her ear, "Would you like me to be your Daddy?" He asked on one knee.
There was a pause and suddenly she launched herself into his arms, wrapping her arms around his neck, hugging tightly, "My Daddy <3"
"My little girl.." He said softly, hugging her back.
~

"...Apparently he had been thinking about officially adopting for a month or so. Cause frankly he was already acting like a father figure by that point.. He'd just hadn't found a way or had time to ask me.. What with a cult of crazed Dinosaur people to stop.. So it worked perfectly."

"Ah, the life of a child. So filled with fears and also so full of people who just want to make them go away." Crane nodded in apparent understanding. "You know why adults do it, don't you? I've spent some time analyzing this very concept. You see, they know all too well what it's like to be afraid and when they see fear in children, they are reminded of the fears in themselves. Even if they aren't conscious of it, it's true. We see children as the future and if they're afraid, then what hope do the rest of us have? It's all in our primal instincts, protect the young and we protect the future of our species. If something threatens our young ones well, then our natural reaction is to fix it. But it's the fear that makes us do so. Not love."

He leaned back again and looked around the room, "Tell me. When you look around at these, what do you feel? What do you see?"

Although Ciara didn't agree with all that Crane was saying, she couldn't help but feel like he was right. Perhaps it was the fact she didn't have much of a choice in listening to him or not.

She looked around the room, "I feel happy, warm... but mostly homesick." She commented, looking downward. "It's home... all of these photos are of home and it makes me homesick."

"You miss them, but why? Are you afraid you'll never see them again?" Crane asked, "Do you think that they, or perhaps you will die here before you ever get to speak to them again? It wouldn't be too far of a stretch to say that you're afraid of losing your home and everything that you associate with safety, especially considering it's already happened once before and I imagine that it will happen again. That's just human nature. Fear for the survival of each of our species will always bring us to war."

He gazed around the room, "You see joy, I see fear. There is fear in each and every pair of eyes in this room. Fear of being alone, fear of being rejected. There is joy in believing-in hoping that the moment is real, that there is someone who truly cares about you in the world but there is and always will be that doubt. there is always that fear Ms. McCoy, it's what drives us to seek acceptance, to conform to social standards so that we can be understood. The problem however, is that every mind is different, everyone has different fears and it isn't until you really connect to that part of them, that you know who they are. So tell me, please, do you really know any of them? Do you even know what they're afraid of?"

Ciara felt like she was in a hole in the ground and each time Dr. Crane spoke, the hole got deeper and deeper. His words wiggling their way into her head. Filling it with doubt and questioning herself.
"Of course I know them! They're..." She trailed off, trying to think of what they were 'afraid' of but she came up blank. "They're..." Her eyes shifted back and forth as she searched her mind for the answer but it wasn't there... "They're...afraid..." She bit her lip and for a while said nothing, "They're afraid of losing me! If it weren't for me, my friends and family would have given up hope years ago when Charles betrayed us. It was me who kept them together. Kept us a family. Love is what kept us together. You see Fear but I see hope, love, trust, caring eyes. People who have fears but join together to get over those fears. Together." She was leaning forward in her chair, almost yelling at him, "..To...together..." She sniffed. No ,she would not cry. "To-together..." They weren't together because she was here and they were there.

Crane just smiled, calm as ever, "Well you're right in part Ms. McCoy. You have helped keep them together, and good for you for doing that. After that harsh blow to the mutant community with Xavier being a turn-coat, well I thought we had just about heard the last of your kind, but then you-oh wait" he paused, thinking a moment, "no... it was Magneto who offered the X-men sanctuary. It was also Magneto who had actually made a real haven for mutant-kind before then. But of course, you're the one who has become the voice for mutants everywhere-at Magneto's request but we'll just ignore that for now, shall we?"

Ciara looked at him, stopping her sniffles "...No, I suggested the idea to him. He didn't 'request' it. I noticed the war against mutants had gotten worst in America and other nations. So I brought the subject up. I wasn't asked to be the voice of my people; I volunteered... And let me make it clear, I wasn't referring to my 'kind' when I said keep us together. I kept my friends and family together when they lost hope in themselves. When they let fear and doubt cloud their hearts. I pushed them forward into the light that was Magento's aid."

"But your friends and family are also your kind. Mutants, are they not?" Crane inquired, leaning forward in curiosity, "How many people do you even really know that aren't?"