Welcome to Gaia! ::

It's about three in the morning. Not a time for young girls to be out, normally. Particularly not a time for young girls to be out on the streets of New York City. This girl, however, is not exactly normal. And she can take care of herself.

Once things started dying down at the HQ, Cheshire slipped out, determined to find the woman she'd so recently seen escape from the Lab. Unfortunately, this task has proven to be quite a needle-in-a-haystack ordeal. She's already been through dozens, maybe hundreds, of abandoned buildings. Found homeless of all sorts, but not the woman she was looking for.

As she's passing an alleyway, the night seeming more and more fruitless with every step, a familiar, female voice is heard from the darkness.

"Hey kid... how've you been?"

Stepping out from the darkness is Wraith, her mother. She's somewhat tall, Chinese, with long dark hair tied in a pony-tail behind her. She looks like she's either just been in a fight or a chase... slightly winded, wiping sweat from her brow. She doesn't look at all unhappy with herself, so if it was a fight, she won, and if it was a chase, she got away.

Wraith smiles back at you.

"What, me? Yeah, I'm fine. Just..... well, you know. The usual."

She bends down a little.

"What about you? You've been making the headlines and such... taking up your father's line of work?"

Wraith tilts her head a little.

"And why's that? You always seemed to believe in all that 'do what's right' stuff.... it was never my style, but it made you happy."

Wraith nods.

"That's a good lot of the reason being a hero never worked for me. There are always double-standards, choices... The 'right thing' is never very easy to pick out. I was afraid to burst that bubble when you were younger but... well, it's never as simple as good or evil, right or wrong. There's always gray area. Maybe it's the easy way out, but I just do what's right for me. There's never much confusion there."

The woman laughs, turning a bit red but trying not to look embaressed.

"Um... no, no you really don't."

Wraith thinks for a moment, then shrugs.

"I havn't seen anyone using powers of any sort tonight. That aside, I saw a few people who could match that description... but there are probably thousands in this city. Anything else special about her?"

She pauses, then speaks again.

"And if you don't mind my asking, why are you looking for her?"

"Darling..."

Sachi puts her hand on your shoulder, comforting as only a mother can.

"I only let your father have any say in your life because, well... I didn't think I'd make a very good mother. My lifestyle certainly doesn't lend itself to that."

She pauses.

"But if he had wanted to lock you away or something terrible like that... I would've taken you away with me. Nebula and all them had to follow their rules... I don't. Even if it meant risking lives, including my own... I would've made sure you were safe."

Another pause.

"This girl... well, now that you're going into more detail, I'm starting to remember the story there. I don't think she ever knew her parents... grew up in an orphanage. She didn't have anyone who could raise her... give her the kind of attention she needed. Life sucks sometimes. I can't say for sure... no one can... but maybe she's better off the way things happened."

Sachi takes a few steps back, frowning.

"If she kept going the way she was, if she'd killed more people... she'd be dead. I don't know about her, but me, I'd rather have half my life be a lie than all of it be gone."