Vanessa's eyes also followed the hot knife, curious and intrigued but holding her tongue. She was coming to find that she had a lot of powers now that she didn't understand the extent of, what with all of the new students - and professor - who had joined since she ran off to Weapon X. She had a feeling she'd be falling back into her old habit of people-watching very shortly. Curiosity was always plaguing the copycat, even if it hadn't killed her yet.
"I can certainly believe that," she replied, taking a moment to take one drag on the cigarette. It had been a while, but between old habits and watching Pete first, she looked like one quite accustomed to the habit. They'd known her, and Laura had stabbed one of them, and Pete Wisdom had simply handled intel. He was definitely the safest of the trio, but Weapon X left a bitter taste on any tongue. She cupped her free hand around her forehead and propped her elbow against the table, blowing out a little smoke. "It'll always be the biggest thing I wish I could go back and change, betraying them like that. I just didn't realize what was most important until it was gone."
She hoped Weapon X wouldn't try a stunt like that again, but the fact that she didn't understand how the mental shields in her mind worked left her paranoid to travel anywhere alone, so she'd stuck very close to the mansion since her return. She listened intently when he gave his origins - which came across far more straight-forward than she'd expected. She had almost forgotten that Weapon X had ties to the government, something that made them even more terrifying to her. "Sounds like a cleaner break than we made," she said when he finished his short story, eyes still on him.
She had learned the opposite, really, in the past couple of months. She still felt the need to talk to people about what had happened in a vain attempt to vindicate herself. What she'd done was deplorable and the guilt ate at her, and going over what happened from her own point of view was all that kept her sane when she had such a bad habit of clinging to the opinions of others. She wasn't sure if he'd want to hear about it, though, so she went in a circle around the topic, starting at the end and with a question. Her passiveness was pitiful sometimes. "Aren't you ever afraid, though, that they'll come back for you? I haven't stopped looking over my shoulder since I tried to help my friends during the attack..." She gave a little shiver and took a much longer drag on her cigarette. "I feel like they could... come to collect at any second. Like I still owe them." She stopped resting her head to rub at her shoulder nervously. "I don't know how Laura feels, but I think you're both a lot braver than me." Laura never seemed to show any fear about the consequences of leaving Weapon X.