Mia turned to look but when she did Horatio was gone from the spot. While her back was turned, Horatio appeared next to Ciara, taking her hand and freezing time right there.
Looking at the frozen, black and white version of Mia, Horatio walked around her to look her in the eyes, "You look a lot like her" he commented, gently brushing a strand of hair from Mia's face, "it threw me off, the first time I saw her after knowing you. I went right up to meet her, not thinking to look twice at first. It was her scent that told me it wasn't you. Same voice but different perfume."

Ciara looked to her side and closed her eyes when he took her hand and sighed softly, trying her best to not resist his power. She stood silently for a moment before stepping up beside him, happy tears rolling down her cheeks," Thank you, Time bug... I didn't even know her name till today... She's even more beautiful than I imgained." Ciara ran her hand down the outline of her cheek before kissing her cheek and whispering, " I love you Mommy, Ill take good care of Daddy for you." In Mia's ear before wrapping her arms around Horatio tightly, " Hurry before I change my mind, Time Bug."

Horatio nodded, holding onto Ciara and taking them away, back to Genosha at the right time.

Ciara wiped the tears off of her cheek and hugged Horatio tightly before placing a quick kiss on his lips. "Thank you again, Time Bug. You do so much for me.." She cupped his cheek.

"Well," Horatio blushed, "I hate knowing you're upset."

She smiled sweetly, "D'awwww... If there's anything I can do for you, Horatio. Let me know. I like repay my debts in full." She hugged him. "Are you going to be staying for a bit or are you off?"

Horatio scratched the back of his head, "I'm supposed to be going to save some baby T-rexes from getting eaten before they mature, so they'll in turn grow up and finish off another race of creatures that would've evolved into super boars who would destroy the human race..."

"Oh. Alright then." She gave him a hug and a kiss on the cheek, "Go save the world, Time Bug. <3"

He smiled and gave her a hug, kissing her cheek-or where he thought her cheek would be but it was awfully close to her lips. "Take it easy-oh, and I'm supposed to tell you to watch out for Nathan." he added as an after thought, "not sure if that means he needs your help, or if you should stay away from him though..." he looked confused, "I didn't specify."

She blushed lightly. " Oh. Alright. I should go check up on him... Till we meet again." And with that she tapped him on the nose 3 times and ran off. This random act was foreign to Ciara, why it felt so natural she didn't know but quickly shrugged it off. But to Horatio, the 3 taps would not seem random at all. For there was one version of Ciara who had done this simple act over and over again. That version of her happened to be hard of hearing and didn't speak very often due to some unfortunate events. Horatio could get her to speak but not often. So they'd come up with a system; One tap for yes, two taps for No and three taps for Love you.

Horatio stared straight ahead, if he could have watched her run off until she disappeared around the corner he would have. As it was, he touched his nose gingerly with a trembling hand. He didn't understand what was happening with her and it terrified him that this would probably be his last chance to make things right. Already there things in this time line that he wasn't too certain of, Nathan for one.
At any rate, he wasn't sure yet how to deal with what was happening to Ciara this time, so he decidedly left and went to search for an answer about Nathan through the timeline.

((Dr. Kavita Rao & Doctor Nemesis))

Dr. Kavita Rao was sitting at the desk, overlooking Nathan's room, tapping her finger annoyed beyond belief. Here they wanted to CURE Nathan of something the M gene gave him when that would mean taking away who he was... It only reminded her of the mistakes she had made. And she was highly against trying to cure him.

It had been a week and Nathan seemed to be getting worst not better. She was writing some notes, perhaps with people he knew...

Ciara walked into the building and with much yelling and arguing with the guard on Nathan's level, he took her to the room looking in on Nathan's.

"Girl wants to see Nathan...I told her-"The guard began

"Ciara!" A voice from the hallway began, it was Doctor Nemesis. "Would you mind going and having a chat with Nathan for us? He doesn't seem to be doing too well."

She nodded and after the guard unlocked the door, she headed in.

"Nathan? It's Ciara. I went to your place and they told me you were back here... Are you alright?"

Nathan was in an average sized white room with not much in it aside from a bed, a small desk and a chair. Normally he had taken to pacing and mumbling to himself but at the moment he seemed to have created a small fort for himself. The bed had been flipped up on it's side in the corner, creating a small triangular space that he then used the bed to drape over the bed frame and wrapped around his shoulders as he faced into the corner with his back to Ciara.
He stiffened upon hearing her voice but he did not turn to look at her, instead he went on speaking quietly, "you shouldn't be here. It's not safe, not with me. I'm him, I'm always going to be him, it's fascinating how you can't hide from yourself, never really. Always got to be who you are, always going to be who you are. Did you know a hummingbird beats it's wings at about 30 beats per second? Well actually, I counted it myself once, it was 28 and a half with that particular hummingbird. I couldn't help it, I saw the beautiful bird and I needed to know. It died before I was able to finish learning about it. I went through twenty three of them before I was done..."

Ciara slowly approached him and put a hand on his shoulder, "I don't know what happened but you're not him. You're you. And you're a kind hearted person who has a craving for knowledge like I have never seen before. But that does not make you a bad person. Tell me what happened to you? I've never seen you like this.. Tell me what's wrong." She was rather concerned but not afraid of him.

As she got close, Nathan turned to look at her slowly, revealing something rather horrifying. His right hand had been scratching at his left forearm for hours and by now he was actually digging around in his own arm, toying with the tendons and making his fingers twitch involuntarily while the floor of his fort was soaked in his own blood.
"look" he showed her his arm, his eyes were somewhat glazed over, probably due to blood loss, "I found the Flexor Pollicis Longus, or at least that's what medical books call it these days. When I discovered it I named it the First Flex, and this one, the second Flex." he touched another tendon that made his pinky twitch.

Ciara eyes widened in horror. "Doctor! We need blood NOW!" She yelled, rushing out and down the hall, grabbing the supplies she needed and rushing back. She ripped the bed away from Nathan and set the supplies down. She'd already slipped on some gloves. "Nathan. That's very interesting stuff but now I need you to take your fingers out and watch me sew you up ok? Won't that be fun?"

"I can't" Nathan argued wearily, "if I do that, I'll heal and I won't be able... to play... any... moooore" his eyes rolled back in his head as he fell over into the puddle of blood.

"No!" She yelled, quickly checking his pulse. He was still alive... just barely. Ciara couldn't wait for blood. She'd grabbed the supplies, ramming the inter venus into her arm and into his; letting her blood flow into him....

A group of nurses and doctors soon rushed in to aid her... Dr. Rao had had enough. She would listen to her co-workers no more. He had become a danger to him. They were going to try things her way.

Ciara sat by the bed, watching over Nathan. He'd be tied down. Ciara looked down at her cellphone, waiting for a reply from her father Phil. She wanted to see him but she wasn't sure where he was and she didn't want to leave Nathan.

Nathan, surprisingly, was out for an hour or two before his healing factor made him well enough to wake up again. Although that also probably had something to do with the fact that he hadn't had a proper sleep since the incident with Colossus.
He was still sleeping when Phil came rushing to the room after getting Ciara's text, "Ciara! Is everything alright?!" he rushed over to his daughter with concern.

"For now... What on earth happened? He had his arm open and was playing with his tendens!"

"Oh dear" Phil frowned, "he really has taken a turn for the worse." he sighed and took a seat, taking the time to explain to Ciara everything that had happened, starting with finding Nathan trying to operate on Colossus and through to what they had been doing to try and help him. "We didn't really know where to start" he admitted, "I suppose we were hoping that we could find a way to break him of the addiction all together, but that hardly seems the case now."

"Why didn't anyone tell me this?!" She burst out very upset. "I could have been here for him! You can take away what's apart of him. If this is part of his mutation then you might as well take away his powers all together." She was angry. And not impressed by being left in the dark.

Phil frowned, "You, little missy, have had enough to deal with. We have been managing the best we can, and while I respect that he is your friend, you are also one of his obsessions and I think it would do him some good to not be solely dependent on you coming to save him. He needs to learn to trust the rest of us." he stated firmly, "Now, that said, and you would do well to keep it in mind, I am more than happy to accept your help. We did in fact try to use the collar to suppress this part of his mutation, just so that we could help him learn to control it mind you. However it's not a mutation even I have dealt with before" he sighed and looked at Nathan, "we don't know how to target it. That is what we've been trying thus far and I think it's clear to say that it has been a miserable failure. I'm sorry that you came into this as the worst possible time. So now it's time to try something new."

Ciara frowned and nodded, "M'k... I understand." She wrapped her arms around him. "...I met Mommy."

Phil hugged her back and then froze, "... w-what?"