Xaviers!

Keeping a shapeshifter contained is always a bit of a tricky puzzle.

The solution, this time, was presented by the way Will was captured. Since Tereza already had her on ice, the decision was made to lock her in a cell in the Point with deep-freeze capabilities -- essentially a -80 fridge. They had allowed the ice to thaw around her head so she could communicate, but that was about all they were willing to do at the moment, with the hopes that the cold would prevent her from using her expansive shifting powers to test the limits of the secure facility.

In most other situations, the end result would be quite comical -- a Will-flavored icepop stuck in the freezer, waiting to be let out. When the one behind the controls was a psychopathic serial killer, on the other hand, the situation was a bit more grim.

((open))

"Alright, who are you and what have you done to Will?" Nailah demands as she walks in. She's left her crutch at the entrance to the cell block, trying to appear less weak.

"Really, those are the questions you want to be opening with? So boring, so predictable." Will sneered.

"They're important. I'm not here to entertain you."

"That's where you're wrong, pretty bird. You're all here to entertain me.

You think you're all very clever, with your technology keeping me in here. I'll tell you what, though -- I've been out before, and I'll be out again. Better people than you have tried to end me, and I'm still here. I will always be here."

Nailah frowns a little. Why did that sound so familiar? She shakes her head slightly to clear it.

"Yeah, well, 'out' is what we want you to be. Out of Will."

"Again, better have tried. I'm just taking my rightful spot in the pecking order here.

You didn't think someone as weak as Will could hold me back forever, did you?"

"I don't even know who you are. Or why you decided to look like Miriam's older twin."

"Oh please. The comparisons with your precious Miriam only go skin deep. That unambitious, broken woman has nothing in common with me.

I am Melpomene, pretty bird. Forged out of tragedy."

"Yeah... well... you still can't stay in there. That body's not yours."

"I'm afraid you'll find that's where you're wrong. I am the one in charge here; it belongs to me. Survival of the fittest, my dear."

"You don't get to decide that!"

"You speak in the future tense, little precog.

It has been decided. The decision has already been made. I twisted and I fought and I spun my web, and I manipulated events to get to this point. I win. I always win."

"Then we'll unmake it. Will, if you can hear me in there, don't worry, we'll save you!"

"You should know better than that. Once a path is chosen, it's chosen. You see the strands of the web; the ones not taken fall to the ground; forever lost."

"Doesn't mean I can't change the future. And if there's one where we save Will I will find it!"

"Rest assured, pretty bird -- I'm not going anywhere."

"You're literally stuck in a freezer right now."

"For now. And only for now."

"Well it's where you'll stay if you don't help us get you out of Will's body."

"It's my body now, pretty bird. No one else's. I have ridden backseat long enough."

"That's not your decision to make!"

"You have no authority here.

Run along, pretty bird, or else I'll have to make sure I pay you a visit first when I get out of here."