Hal just crossed his arms over his chest.

"So is that all we're getting from you?" he asked.

"Insults, attitude, and some vague warning that a pacifist and overall humanitarian is going to cause something nebulously bad at some point in some degree in the future of an unknown time from now." he said.

"Wonderful." he told her.

"Oh yes, I'll be sure to bring your cousin to you, now that you've demeaned us all." he went on.

"Is there anything else we lowly mental midget peons can do to serve you, our hero?" he asked her, his snark matching hers.

Hal narrowed his eyes when she said all that.

He then turned and made his way to the door, opening it.

"Your attitude is rotten." he said.

"But what you say will be thoroughly considered." he finished, shutting the door behind him and leaving her alone once more.

However, she wasn't left alone for long, before she knew someone was looking at her through the window of the door. It was Ilias, and she saw him talking to the guard stationed there, asking to be let in so he could talk to her.

Ilias debated with the guard for a few minutes, before they relented, and the door was opened.

He stepped inside as the door was closed again, and looked at K.

"Um..." he stammered.

"Kiah?" he addressed her.

"Or... well... however you want to be addressed as?" he said further.

"I just... I mean..." he then stammered, but seemed unable to really pull together a coherent sentence.

"N... not really." Ilias said.

"I just wanted to talk to you." he told her.

"See who you were... are... whatever." he went on with a sigh.

"My heart's telling me that you're Kiah, but... a different one. One that, well, as you've said, goes by 'K'..." he went on.

"What happened?" he asked.

"Do you know how you're here?" he asked her.

Ilias looked horrified when he heard that.

"Oh, no..." he mumbled.

"How do we get this to change back?" he asked her.

"You and your friend did this, so you must know what it was that caused this." he reasoned.

"Right?" he asked.

"You can reverse it, right?"

Ilias looked crestfallen now.

"I... I..." he stammered.

"I see." he said.

"Well, thank you for telling me." he told her.

"I just hope she's all right." he then said further.

"And I hope you'll be okay, too."

"...that's true." Ilias responded.

---

L had removed limbs and replaced them with other things, such as tendrils or paws or claws. And that was just the start. He'd done things that many would consider to be the work of a sociopath and a mad scientist, but the scariest part was that he was succeeding.

These people were still alive, and though they were horrors, they would have died without L working on them. Whenever he finished with one, he sent them back out into the world with maniacal laughter.

He then looked over towards Kiah, and grinned, as the last one was sent away... with barely functional wings crammed into their shoulders.

"See?" he asked her.

"Isn't it marvelous!?" he exclaimed.

"I gained KNOWLEDGE!" L declared excitedly.

"I learned about POTENTIAL!" he went on.

It was then that they heard something... and Kiah looked over and saw a feline in the corner of the room. However, while it looked like a regular cat, she could see that its eyes were glowing a faint green, and that its back legs almost resembled that of a small kangaroo, coiled back and ready to spring.

She then saw a mouse on the other side of the room, which the cat located within seconds, and then leaped from where it was, crashing down on the vermin with precision and weird grace.

"Ah!" L said.

"One of our rousing successes." he commented.

"The cat is a better hunter than it ever was before. It can see better than it ever could, and can pounce from great distances, without any detriment."

"Initial shock is just that. Initial." L replied.

"It has adapted. It is thriving now." he told her, as the creature walked over towards Kiah and rubbed up against her leg.

"See? It's perfectly happy." he said further.

"This is how we advance." he told her.

"This is how we learn. We experiment. We learn. We apply that knowledge. We move things forward." he continued.

"We become visionaries, and make it REALITY!" he insisted, the feline creature emitting a purr-like sound from its throat.

L was silent again for a moment, before nodding.

"Come on." he said, as he approached her.

"Let's go to your lab." he told her, the feline stepping away and gnawing at the catch it had made.

"I want to show you something." he went on.

"Something that you should really see." he told her, his tone serious.