The numbers were starting to blur together, which meant it was time for Noa to take a break. She did know where her limits were and when she needed to take a break, something that no one seemed to understand. She took care of herself. Everyone seemed to think she was overworking herself, but she wasn't. She knew what she was doing, knew her body and how her powers worked better than anyone else, and when it was time to take a break. Right now was the time to push herself up and take a walk.

She picked a path at random, letting her brain wander as she walked. Nova had more or less given up trying to figure anything out by just wandering around the building at night, all of the interesting areas were locked and she had no excuse to give security officers for why she was there if they caught her on the cameras. Sometimes she would go visit Max, but tonight the lights were off indicating he had gone to sleep.

Somehow Nova found herself down by the training area, which was pretty much abandoned at this time of night. Three people were inside the main training area, other than that it was completely empty. Nova watched the three people for a long moment, before turning, planning to slowly make her way back to the cubical she'd been assigned for data entry.

She had only passed through two hallways when she turned a corner and saw none other than Magpie coming towards her. Instinctively Nova scowled and moved to cover her braclet with her hand. Magpie's eyes flicked down to Nova's wrist, before scowling as well, but she didn't say anything.

Nova was about to just continue without a word, but for some reason just as they were about to pass she found herself glancing over and asking "What are you doing up this late at night?"

"None of your business," Magpie replied evenly, though when she stopped to look at at her Nova noticed the surprise and confusion, causing Nova to stop too "Why are you?"

"I don't sleep," Nova raised an eyebrow at Magpie, making the younger girl's face form a scowl again.

"Right," She muttered, and for a moment it seemed like she was about to just turn and walk away, but to Nova's surprise she added "I'm not going to take your stupid bracelet."

Nova looked at her for a moment, than let her hand fall away from her wrist "You'll excuse me if I'm a little wary about the idea."

"Like I even want the stupid thing. Besides, I'm not stupid, as soon as it was gone you would know it was me who took it. I'm not about to bring extra trouble on myself."

Nova had to admit she had a point. Magpie would be the first person she suspected if the bracelet ever went missing. "Why did you even bother trying to take it in the first place? I mean, it's just a metal band, and it's not like you need money if you're living here. And you don't exactly strike me as a jewelry person-"

"Habit," Magpie shrugged a bit at that "I haven't always lived here, but I have always needed to eat. Sometimes I try to grab things without even really thinking about it or trying to."

Something stuck with Nova as she watched the girl in front of her. She didn't want to admit it, but she did feel bad for Magpie, hell if it hadn't been for Ace she would have been in more or less the exact position the other girl had been. Even with the Anarchists food had never been a guarantee, and it wasn't like they always used the nicest means to acquire it.

There was more to it though. There was something eerily familiar about the girl. The way she was holding herself, trying to shrug off her past like it wasn't a big deal. Holding herself defensively despite there being no real reason to...

Trying to shake that away, Nova just nodded a bit and did her best to change the subject "Why are you down here anyway? Shouldn't you be sleeping or something?"

"I couldn't sleep," Magpie replied, shrugging again "Figured I'd go train for a while."

"Right," Nova muttered, trying to shake away the feeling of familiarity again "I'll leave you to it than-"

Nova turned and had taken a few steps away when she heard the girl speak again "Will you watch me? Or help me or whatever?"

Blinking a bit in surprise, she turned back to the girl, her response coming out before she could think, probably a bit harsher than she meant "What?"

"Nothing, forget it. It's stupid," Magpie was already turning to head towards the training area by herself.

"No, wait," Nova shook her head to clear it, not sure why she'd stopped Magpie. Maybe because of the feeling of familiarity that she couldn't shake, or maybe because she was looking for an excuse to not go back to entering data yet. Either way she found herself saying "I mean, yeah, I'll do it. But why?"

"Because you're here, and none of the trainers are. Plus, you don't like me, so you'll actually tell me the truth not some flowery shit like the trainers do to make sure we have self confidence or whatever," Magpie shrugged, and seemed to hesitate for a moment before adding "And you're good. Plus, you don't really have any powers so it seems like you'd be a good person to help me."

"You have powers," Nova didn't actually bother to say anything about the fact that she did too. The only power Magpie knew about was not sleeping, and it wasn't exactly something that helped with fighting.

"Yeah, but it's not an aggressive power," Magpie spoke with a tone that made it seem like all of this should be obvious "If I don't get better at fighting they'll never let me do anything except being a human metal detector and helping with clean up."

Despite herself Nova couldn't help but smile a bit at the last comment. "Alright kid. I don't have a ton of time, I should go back to working eventually, but let's see what you've got."