Mutants & Masterminds: The Magisterium - [2-Interlude] Hard Truths

[Dawn OOC]

Everyone was called together and gathered by David outside the Temple under the shelter of the trees. Matt and Mary had snaked a cable out into the trees, and set up a laptop on the table. There was also a plastic baggie of thumb drives on the table. Matt and David stood at the table, while Jack was too the side, his chair pushed up so he could see the laptop. Once everyone had settled and had focused on him, he smiled at the room and started. “Good afternoon. I wanted everyone to get settled before I thrust this on you in addition to getting used to life here.

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“As many of you know, we have mentioned that May infiltrated DEHA, and many of you met her there first.” David gave his former lover a nod and if he felt anything about her being ‘former’ he didn’t show it now. “While she was there, she stole all of the DEHA files on mutants. At this time, I’d like to offer your files to those of you who are interested.”

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“We have thumb drives that we can load these files onto,” Jack said from behind the table, “and then you can open them in private later. Alternatively, you can view them on this laptop right now.”

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“And please remember – these are accurate as of the first rounds of liberations so they’re about three weeks old.” David shifted on his feet comfortably and looked around the group, waiting to see who had any objections or questions—or requests on how to get their files.

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This thread is an interlude for you to explore history about your PC and open up some individual personal stories. This is when you learn if your characters were used in secret experiments, if they’re a parent to a program baby and anything you might want to have happened to them in captivity. Let me know if you have any questions about what might be in your file.

[Idris "Rip" Vaughan]

Idris' ears drooped back a bit. She thought about what exactly could be there. What if Akihito was mentioned in that document... how she didn't do the job she was told and eliminate him and it ended up having some damn hitman hired by MI-7 to do the job... Akihito deserved better. Even if he was slightly a pervert...

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There was more shame on her face than anything, but then her face contorted into a facade of bravado. "Whatevs, I got nothing to hide, boyo. Let me know when the others are set so that I can get a gander." She massaged her chin... there was things in there that she didn't know, and she wanted to have as much she could know about what the damn MI-7 had on her.

[z024]

Lamia watched the small machine with curiosity. She'd seen the before, on rare occasions, but she'd never been shown their use or really let close enough to study it. David leaned over and said something softly to John, who's eyes flicked up briefly to Lamia, the red flush that always followed dulled only a little by his split attention. He nodded, slipped a small piece of metal and plastic into a slot on the machine - a thumb drive, then - and after a moment he pulled it back out again and handed it to the grey-eyed nominal leader of their small band.

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David ducked back into the temple while the others either waited for their turn at John's laptop or to get a thumb drive; a few minutes later he emerged again holding a bag full of 'liberated' electronics. He set up two of the three laptops in the bag on the table, hooking those two and John's up to a power strip and plugging that into the extension cord they'd run out from the temple. He smiled at the group, "I guess this would have been a better set up to start. Just get thumb drives from John, if you want to see your files now, and we can go three at a time."

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He slipped over to Lamia's side and nodded in the direction of her stone home, far enough away to be hidden by a corner of the temple and a handful of trees; she nodded in acknowledgement and followed quietly after him. He set up the last laptop he'd brought up on the table Matt had made for the large meals Lamia would cook for the group. Instead of a cord running from the temple, though, he hooked the small computer into a box-like device with a silver shine on the top of it. He smiled at Lamia's curious look. "It's a solar cell. It collects energy from sunlight and can power the computer and charge its battery. We've only got a few of them and running a cord from the generators is usually easier. That and we can't do anything too draining on the computer with just this little cell connected to it, but it'll work for just looking at your file."

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She sat down next to him, peering at the screen. "I don't know how to use this," she admitted without shame. It was simply true and being embarrassed didn't do anything except leave you feeling and being foolish.

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"I kinda figured," David cleared his throat and ran her through the basic functions - keyboard, mouse, how to navigate the screen. After he was sure she could puzzle her way through scrolling and clicking through links on the file, he plugged in the thumb drive. The DEHA interface popped up and immediately worked its way through to her file, filling in all the encryption and security clearance passwords automatically. May and John and had done their jobs well. "Do you want me to go?" he asked gently, half-rising from the bench.

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She shrugged. "If you have not looked these files over already, you are very foolish," she tilted her head and regarded him with her own silver-grey eyes, "and I have not seen you to be that kind of foolish yet."

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What kind of foolish have you seen me be, then? The question flashed through his mind, but he stopped his tongue before he asked it. Given who she was the answer was likely to be uncomfortable, at best, and right now wasn't about him. "That may be, but I was offering you privacy, in case you..." He sighed, "So you don't feel like you have to control your emotions or your reactions to what you read in there. You were-"

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"I know what I was used for, David," she didn't quite snap, but the words were sharp with old anger. "This file will not change that or make it worse. It will simply fill in holes in my knowledge. Stay or go as you wish. If I become angry or upset at what I read, your presence will not change that."

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He sat back down, trying to decide if that had been insulting or not and was left with an odd bemusement. For all that the DEHA had to say on Lamia - and they had a lot to say - they didn't know this woman. They knew only the commodity to be used and abused, the mutant they kept shackled and imprisoned because of their own petty fears of what she meant to and about the human race. He smiled slowly. They didn't know the woman she was, and with him - with all of them here - that would be DEHA's downfall.

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She had been reading through the oldest reports, scanned images of the Italian and German records that had been recovered during World War II, making indelicate snorts of derision at one line or another. Several times she spat out a line of Italian or German at the screen, in a burst of derision or anger. She paged steadily through the large file, her expression slowly settling into a blank neutrality David was pretty sure was mask for actual pain and anger. Her progress through the timeline of the file slowed considerably as she began following the links to other files, reading through them before returning to her own.

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It's a good thing we started early in the day, he mused, glancing up at the sun tracing its way across the sky. He quietly stood up and slipped away, back to check on the others. Lamia was going to be reading for a while.

[Dawn OOC]

Jack typed a few things into the computer, then rolled his chair back from the table. Ty-ty rolled an office chair forward for Idris to take; the twelve-year old’s face was unusually somber. As Idris took her seat, the girl covertly put a box of Kleenex next to her.

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That didn’t bode well.

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As Idris leaned toward the screen, Fenris moved, stalking to the table and claiming another computer. Jack started it up for him and moved back; when Ty-ty rolled the chair forward, Fenris took it with a small, terse smile for the child and sat down. The Russian mutant looked at his file as the others decided what to do—whether it was better to know or not.

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Idris swallowed as she skimmed over the opening information: her vital statistics, including height, weight, BMI, sugar levels and so on. She almost clicked on historical data, but realized she was procrastinating. Nervously, she scrolled down.

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They stated it so cleanly, so coldly, but her stomach still fell when she understood what they’d done to her. She knew she’d been knocked out and she’d always wondered what they’d done. She’d found surgical stitches more than once and the ‘what if’ questions that had arisen had driven her half-mad. But it was almost worse knowing: knowing that they’d removed both of her ovaries so that they could conduct breeding experiments without removing her from the field. Knowing that her eggs had been fertilized and the fetuses used as controls to attempt to prevent rabies from jumping across species. Knowing that they’d fertilized her eggs with other animalistic mutants, thought the babies had died young, almost as if giving up on life early. Knowing that she had a son, alive and well, in Russia named Sibirskiy, Siberian—his father was a dead anthropomorphic tiger and Sibirskiy looked like him. A fierce white tiger-man with cold-powers.

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This was what DEHA had taken from her.

[Idris "Rip" Vaughan]

Idris' ears drooped. That was the thing about her... her hybrid face and form suggested every emotion going through her head. And this time that emotion was at first sorrow, then her ears moved back her eye slits narrowing.

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"They... Did this?"

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First Akihito... now finding this out? She wasn't just some caged attack animal... she was a guinea pig.

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She could see herself in the face of the illegitimate son of her's. She didn't know that unconsciously she had grabbed the desk the computer was sitting on and her claws imbedded into it.

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She stands up, crossing her arms she walked off a couple of paces before laying down in a position sort of like a fetal position, even her tail seemed to curl between her legs, looking to protect what she know knows was her robbed sanctuary.

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She felt cold, even in this tropical sanctuary.

[Grav]

For Anna, the chance to learn of her past was mostly moot. She already knew everything she'd done, and as it was her calm and collected personality in control, The Neutral aspect of herself that at least in the debates served as mediator, She figured there was still some chance to learn more about who she could have been.

She took the small thumb drive, and nodded. "It may be best to not view mine publiclly."

Anna sighed, "i don't want to keep secrets, but there's things I'd rather see first, and come to terms with, if possible, before I lay it out before anyone else."

She looked to Idris, and offered her a faint smile.

She took the thumbdrive, and removed her dogtags, placing it on the same chain, before putting it back around her neck, before grabbing one of the two remaining computers, and heading off, away from the others, to a secluded spot near the temple.
Once she'd settled down, she powered on the computer and plugged in the drive.

She easily found her medical history, the various surgeries she'd had, either as part of the project, or as a result of injuries. Her Entire geneaology was there, and to her surprise, She found that she had a dozen surviving children. Her parents were deceased, as was her grandparents, save one grandmother. Following that link revealed a familiar face, as Lamia stared back at her.

The white-haired gravity controller couldn't hide her smile, she wasn't as alone as she felt in that regard she did have family after all.

[Edward Mansfield]

Access was limited, so Edward waited his turn. He hadn't had a chance to get to know anyone yet, other than Dog, and Tengri, whose inhuman appearance in the real world had come as quite the surprise, as had the reality he'd found himself in outside of the simulation. The jungles of Guatemala were a far cry from the luxurious life he'd lived - or thought he'd lived, anyway. No one except his rescuers and David had really met Edward yet, though they'd seen him a few times when he'd emerged for food, or the facilities - he'd spent the last few days mostly in his room, stretched out on a raised stone platform bed covered in a simple mat and blankets, trying to sort through his memories. He had no idea what was real, and what wasn't. Now that he was out of the simulator, he remembered more conflicting things from his life/lives, things that had been different from one simulation to the next, although the memories of the last one seemed to be the strongest and most cohesive. He wasn't even sure when the real world had stopped, and the virtual world had begun.

He had been shown to storage areas by David, where he'd chosen some clothes. Even in the jungle heat, he wore a pair of slacks and button-down shirt, though he'd passed on a tie, and had chosen lighter colors and more natural materials. Right now he was wearing a pair of grey linen dress slacks and a white dress shirt, with the top couple buttons undone, and the sleeves were rolled up to his elbows. He remembered - Hah! - visiting tropical climates on business before, and was used to the heat. Besides, clothing himself as a businessman - admittedly one thrust into the middle of a tropical environment - was the last vestige of his former life, and he wasn't willing to give it up for comfort. Everything about his new life was uncomfortable, wearing clothes that kept him feeling like himself was his only real consolation so far.

Edward watching as the odd, feline/human hybrid-looking mutant stood up and walked away from the computer, looking upset. He could feel dread settling into a ball in his gut, and tightening his throat, but Edward wasn't one to shy away from the truth. Several times over the past week the thought that he would have been better off if he'd refused the two mutants who'd come to rescue him, and just kept living in his virtual bubble. But he'd repeatedly shoved that idea out of his mind - it might have been easier, but it definitely wouldn't have been better. He walked over to the laptop Idris had left running, and leaned over it. Without reading any of the text on the screen, he closed out the other mutant's files, and ejected the thumb drive from the computer. He walked over, knelt down in front of her, and after regarding her for a moment, pressed the thumb drive into her hand as he spoke. His voice was smooth and masculine, with a British accent. "Whatever they've done to us.. they will pay for it, I guarantee."

Idris looked at the drive. She needed it now. That was her only connection to her only son. "I know. And they.... they will." She curled up tighter, unsure how genuine she sounded.

Edward nodded slightly, and squeezed the mutant woman's shoulder gently. Then the devastatingly handsome man stood up and walked over to the man who was handing out the thumb drives. He handed Edward one, and he took it and sat down at the laptop Idris had abandoned. He plugged the drive into the USB port, opening up his own file after a moment's hesitation, and began to read. He read silently, other than the occasional deep, indrawn breath. His fingers drummed firmly on the claw-marked table, the only interruption of the drumming an occasional clenched fist. He did his best to conceal the pain that reading through the files was inflicting on him, but the very emotionally astute would still be able to pick it out of his expression and body language.

She never ever existed. All those years thinking I had finally found a woman who I loved enough to risk it, and she was just a figment of a computer program. And these kids.. they look like my kids. That one has Selena's eyes, and this one looks like almost exactly like Trevor, except his skin is a little darker, and his hair is different.. and this one doesn't look anything like me, but she looks just like Mother, and these two twins look so much like me, it's like they're my brothers instead of my children, except they've got Father's eyes...

Edward forced himself to read through the entire file. The children he'd sired without knowing it, the ones that had died, the ones that had lived, the ones that had been bred and had children of their own. Some of them had been the age of his children - his nonexistent children that his heart still ached for every minute of every day - when they'd been forced to have their own children. When he got to the part detailing his public presence, and the fact that he had been replaced with a duplicate to carry on his charities and businesses as a source of secret government funding for DEHA, he snapped, and slammed his fist down angrily on the desk, clenching his jaw firmly. Finally, he closed the file, and ejected the flash drive. He slipped it into his pocket, and closed the laptop. But he didn't stand up right away, instead he bent his head down and buried his hands in his hair, his elbows on the table, his fingers pressing painfully into his scalp in an unconscious effort to mimic the emotional pain he was feeling, or perhaps to distract himself from it.

[Gold]

Gold observed from the back of the line. He watched the others delve into their pasts, saw their reactions flickering across their faces, the twitches of muscle and subtle alterations of posture and weight that told one thing or another. This should hurt, he thought, impassive. Pretty much everyone here has a shitty past, and I'm watching them run smack into it like a man into a wood chipper. He was sure he remembered that feeling. A tension in the chest, a sense of awkwardness and a violation of privacy, that feeling that he should not bear witness to it. He was sure he remembered that feeling, when he was a boy named Andrew.

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He watched in silence, offering no comment, making no suggestion.

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After the new guy - if he was new, for all Gold knew he could have been around for years - finished checking his file and stepped away from the laptop, Gold gave him a nod and slid smoothly into the vacated chair. He did not take a deep breath, did not pause or hesitate. He just looked to the man with the thumb drives. "Toss mine over, will you?"

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He caught it without any difficulty, and without looking, then pushed it into the laptop and booted his file.

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Little in it surprised him. He had lived through these events, after all. But he did lean forward and rest his elbows on the table after a few moments, as he began to rack his brain for information.

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I don't remember killing this guy, he thought. Or her. They were just names at first. Not one or two, either, but almost half a dozen names that got added to the actions he remembered. It did come back, in drips and drabs. Step by step, word by word, he read up on his own operations like a man sitting outside himself, remarking at his own efficiency and capacity for violence. I really am fucked in the head, he thought. A second thought occurred, and he glanced up and across the room towards David. The man met his eyes. He'd been watching. You read all this and still freed me, didn't you?

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He ran his tongue along the outside of his teeth, considering. All revolutions need their butchers, he supposed.

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Gold spent most of his time hanging around in Lamia's house, in the few square feet around his couch. Elsewise he trained in the forest, and plied his hand at some old practical skills. It was easy to pick those up around Lamia, since she liked to hunt, skin, and cook just about anything that tasted like chicken. Which, he was assured, was just about everything. Except for chicken. He always thought chicken tasted funny, somehow. But then he always had it with sauces.

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Nonetheless, he watched the others. He listened. Occasionally he even talked to them, though that rarely went anywhere good. He was either too violent or too standoffish for most of these fellow mutants. And therein lay the thing. Many of them were innocents, people who wanted nothing to do with any of this but had to pick this or a collar. They were good people at heart, not ready for what the future would demand.

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He nodded to himself and turned back to the files. He felt confirmed in his prior theories now. Knowing that David was aware of his whole history and still freed him.

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The old news rolled by his eyes. Gold read the files over and over, his golden irises shining in the light of the laptop. He waited for his memory to jog, so he at least remembered them. They deserved that much. He had been a good killer. Humans and mutants alike, he did what the DEHA asked of him.

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It had been some years since he felt much of anything about anything. Vague happiness, not joy, vague disquiet, not sadness, vague concern, not fear. But he felt something as he closed the files down and popped the flash drive into his hand. Something solid.

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Guilt.

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He smashed the drive against the corner of the table with a quick flick of his hand, and tossed the pieces onto the floor. The memories were back in his head, and he would make sure to remember them, and remember the dead. He owed them that much.

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Gold rose and gestured at the laptop. "Anyone else need this?"

[Dawn OOC]

Fenris rose silently, ghost-like. His already pale face was even paler as he pulled his drive and left the area, the only outward sign of his distress being a slight, uncharacteristic stumble at the treeline. Then he was gone, disappearing into the woods for a long sojourn.

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It was Foresight who stepped up next. The strange-looking mutant took a seat and read through her file. Her strange eyes blinked rapidly but she didn’t look away from the screen as the terrible truth scrolled past her eyes. She read through her past, noting the different things they’d done with the blood and biopsies they’d taken. She read about her mother, and what had been done to her.

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When she was done, she looked at Jack and murmured, “Martha wants me to look at her file for her.” The roles had definitely reversed since their release; Foresight was the caretaker for Martha, looking out for her “sister” as much as possible.

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Jack glanced at Martha, who nodded, looking like she might faint without seeing her file. Silently, he handed the drive to Foresight, who took it solemnly and opened the file. She scrolled down through the main page, her expression hardening as she went backwards in time through Martha’s life. When she came to the photos, she paused before clicking. Stiffening in shock, she quickly closed the image. “Why did you leave that in there?” she hissed.

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Though Jack was closest to her, he didn’t have a chance to reply. “It’s there if she needs to see it. She doesn’t have to,” David answered softly.

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Foresight stared at him, her expression hard. In her mind, she saw the possible paths of the future stretch out in front of them. She could see the fissures that would develop; the plans and pain that each step on each path would bring. Suddenly unsteady, she rose to her feel, grabbed both of the drives and made room for another person. She saw David’s far-flung plan, and all the possible outcomes.

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As she sat down next to Martha again, she asked, “Did you see what I was reading?”

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Martha shook her head. “I was afraid.”

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“Good.” Foresight took her sister’s hand and blocked all thoughts of what she’d just seen out of her mind.

[SalmonMax]

Mary took the little chunk of plastic that David had offered and turned it around in her fingers. Materially, it was such a simple thing. Veins of copper weaving between tiny sheets of silicon and germanium in ceramic sheathes...crafted to mechanical precision on scales that were amazing even to someone who could feel the songs of atoms dancing. But as Mary had been learning, the importance of things was so often not encoded in their material structures. This was important because of the information in it. She could feel the tiny, infinitesimal differences from one drive to another...the variations in them that represented the information stored. There was no chance of 'understanding' those changes, of reading the data without a machine.

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It was like a kind of magic, that those adjustments of molecules could mean something so significant.

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Once the laptop was free, Mary put the thumb drive in and opened it's icon up. She had no idea what to expect. Her history with DEHA had been many things...limiting and boring and stale and more...but it hadn't been the horror show for her that it had been for others. She understood why; it had been the most expedient way to control her. Beyond that basic betrayal of her trust though, she didn't think there'd be much there. What else could there be? What more could they have taken from her, when she'd never had anything to start with?

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The icon opened up into an array of folders, with terse alphanumeric titles that were probably some kind of military abbreviation. With no way to judge which was more important than another, Mary just opened the first one, intending to walk through her history as it truly was, not simply as they had presented it to her.

[Jaunt]

"Jaunt?" David asked, as he approached the young man who was resting with his feet up on some rubble sipping a Capri-Sun. He was relaxed and calm, not in any really hurry and certainly not waiting in any lines. "Offer stands for you as well."

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"I gathered." He slurped the juice bag noisily. "Dude, why flip through that stuff? I lived it. DEHA has my sister, my mom is a psycho fanatic of them, and she knows that to get to my sister I have to go through her. I can't go through her because I have to go through all of DEHA and that's something I can't do because of the dimensional static they have around all their outposts. Can't breach the defenses, and there's no way to cut the generators off unless you're inside the complex. Nothing in that file will help me rescue my sister, because by the time I'm ready to get in there and rescue her, that data will be outdated. Done deal, Broski. They win for now."

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He jaunted from the rubble to close to the line, from a sitting position to now being on his feet and walking about. "There's nothing in those files but the past. I'm not there anymore, dude, I'm in the now." He faced the group who were reviewing their past lives in the form of data and transcripts. "Don't get me wrong people, if it's your thing, have at it and have a ball, but I was already there for every shot, every experiment, every test and every other messed up thing they did to me while my cunt mother sat about and watched as I dumped gallons of tears on their pretty, sterile floors. Unless my file tells me how to bring that entire organization to it's knees and make it burn... then it doesn't interest me."

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He jaunted to the cooler and popped out another Capri-Sun, poking the straw into the top of it. "I do appreciate the offer though. Mighty cool of ya to share your intel an all that." He reappeared back where he started, relaxing with his feet up, sipping his Capri-Sun.

[Rebekka Van der Vyse]

The rest of the fledgeling Mutant Resistance members sat down or lined up to read their files, the reactions crossing their faces easy for a social and physical chameleon to read. If she wished to learn what was in their files, she'd be a confidant to any who wished or needed to talk, or would learn of it by taking any of them to her bed. Instead, Rebekka sashayed pass the tree line into the semi-domesticated jungle surrounding their temple lair. She had no need nor desire to read her file.

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It was her gift and her curse to remember everything she had experienced with crystal clear, unceasing clarity. The same with every man and woman she had lain with. She was well aware of what was in her file. Indeed, some she had lain with some who should have known better and therefore, could remember reading her file before, could recall writing portions of it.

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She walked into the humid jungle, sunlight tinted green but the overhead foliage, then settled on the rotting trunk of a fallen tree. She dangled bare feet into the languid water of a wide stream. Small fish nibbled on her toes, tickling - part of her longed for something more vicious to take a bite. Open a door in her mind, she looked back on the actions she had taken under the purview of the DRM. More than most, she was aware of the ramifications of her actions.

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Some would offend the sensibilities of the common man, were criminal. Many oppressed the freedoms of mutants or certain segments of South African society. And others had turned South Africa into the jewel of the African continent. Studying her immune system and stealing the research of preeminent immunologists and pathologists led to the development for a cure for AIDS as well as a tremendously effective contraceptive.

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Rebekka wasn't sure if she could truthfully regret her actions, the good or the bad. Of all the many, many lovers she had, there was only one man she ever fully regretted laying with. Marko Vortennen, the man she suspected was behind her father's death.

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There was a faint rustle behind her. Rebekka glanced over her slender shoulder, barely catching a glimpse of the tall, feral and powerful form of Fenris, uncharacteristically making any sound at all on the barely worn path through the wilds. She sighed wistfully. Perhaps she would seek him out, see if she could console him - in any fashion he desired - but she knew, it was her ever abiding hungers that compelled her.

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David coughed discreetly, drawing the seductress' attention, then stiffened when she turned haunting violet eyes on him, huge and wide, bright with both innocence and experience. Rebekka wore the countenance of a girl, barely a woman, fifteen perhaps, five feet tall maybe, with long, strawberry-blond bound back with a simple cord and a flawless, golden-coppery complexion. Her svelte figure with conical breasts sitting high and firm was draped in a thin, low-cut, off-the-shoulder tunic-dress of palest green, and that was all.

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She was a veritable nymph, old, but eternally young and desired by all.

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"David," Rebekka murmured in a voice sweet and melodious, with an accent David couldn't identify beyond partially European. Perfect lips curved in a faint grin. "I don't believe Fenris is looking for company at the moment."

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"I wasn't looking for him, I was looking for you."

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Her smile deepened slightly, a brow arched. "Of course you were."

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David sighed. He wouldn't claim he didn't desire her, nearly ever man who saw her - in any form - did, but he couldn't bring himself to like her, yet. Or fully trust her dedication to the movement. He could clearly see the value she had held to the DRM and DEHA. And the concerns they had about her. Having read her file and the appended section, he shared them, to a degree. But she had the right to know.

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"Don't you want to read your file?"

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"I have memories of writing most of it, David. And I can't not remember the things I have done or those that have been done to me. Their sharpness doesn't dull with the passage of time, for me."

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David shook his head, proffering the flash-drive between a thumb and finger. "May recovered something about you that wasn't in the file you're aware of. It was in section that was clandestine even in DEHA. They went through a lot of effort to keep the information classified and compartmentalized, especially from you."

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Rebekka's other brow rose, the only expression of her surprise, though she wasn't truly. She had considered how her keepers would isolate secrets from her - she had memories of developing such protocols, though none of what David was alluding to. Curiosity piqued her interest. Being a repository for thousands of lives, she couldn't help be interested in a part of her own she wasn't aware of.

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"Oh?" Rebekka flowed to her feet and with spritely steps, glided up to David and plucked the flashdrive from his fingers. "Care to tell me what it is? Or you could show me..."

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"I think it best you read it for yourself, Rebekka, without anyone else's views colouring what you learn," David said, tense. "It's... personal."

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"I hardly feel shame," Rebekka teased. "Mysterious. Very well, let us see what secret they managed to keep from me."

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Rebekka sauntered back to the small clearing surrounding the Temple and took a seat in front of one of the vacated laptops. She tilted the screen to clear the glare and so that nobody else had a clear view, then plugged in the flashdrive. She crossed her legs and schooled her expression to one of amused indolence and began to read.

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It was nothing she hadn't seen before, though it was pleasant to see the earliest reports on her scanned in, written in her father's hand. All the pictures of herself - she hardly recognized the fourteen year old girl she had been so long ago. The various men she had been sold to for a night or a weekend. There were all the missions had been sent on, with her performance reviews and logs of her debriefings. The long list of her conquests they were aware of, which skills and information they had, and the medical and technological advancements they had led to for the South African government. She smirked, reading the names of government officials she had lain with and what information and clearances they had, then noting names that had been omitted.

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Decades of psychological profiles and medical testes, whole treatises on her sexual proclivities and genetic nymphomania. Notations and conjectures (some made by herself) on her physiological abnormalities, and the scientific breakthroughs studying them led to. The multiple times her ovaries had been harvested and the testing of the limits of her regenerative abilities. Her lack of menstruation or seeming capability of getting pregnant despite every test proclaiming everything being in working order. Attempts to artificially inseminate her eggs - all failures, her mutant immune system and antibodies attacking any foreign genetic material.

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It was all there. So was an additional folder that wasn't linked anywhere else in her personal file.

,,

Only the very observant would have noticed the flicker of an eyelid betraying Rebekka's shock and surprise as she opened the folder and read about the Dollhouse program. The program dedicated to the development, care, study, and exploitation of the children she never knew she had nor knew she could have.

[Jeremy]

Jeremy paused, having held back for so long, divided. Did he want to know what they did to him, unuttered... No. Jaunt's casual opinion crystalized it all for him. Nothing they'd did already or that which he allowed to secure his own freedom would change anyway. Time to leave the past and the oppression behind. Let DEHA drown with the pool of all their brutality lapping up to consume them.

,,

Let them reap their whirlwind, they could have seen it coming. "Jaunt, mind passing me a drink too?" Jaunt tossed him once, and Jeremy cracked it open to take a long draught for his own benefit.

,,

Enjoy the moment. Pleasure for now. Let the revolution continue tomorrow.

[z024]

The screen dimmed and a light in the lower left of the bottom bar blinked at her and warned that the computer was running low on power. She frowned, not anywhere near through her file and all the attached ones, but the blinking icon was insistent. When she clicked on it, it informed her that it would take several hours of direct sunlight on small solar panel before it would be usable for any length of time. After several moments of thought, she remembered the instructions David had given her about the 'help' file and waded her way through until she found the instructions on how to shut the computer down so the battery could charge again. She left the laptop and the battery on the table to soak in the sun shining down on it, and made her way back to the others with quiet, thoughtful strides.

,,

A quick scan of the people missing, pacing, and taking their turns on the computer confirmed the depth of DEHA's abuse of her descendants. The curled up form of one their most recent additions caught her attention and she glided over to Idris' side, kneeling down next to her and gently running her hands over the cat-woman's fur like one would when running fingers through hair. She was very much the comforting mother at the moment; she didn't need to know exactly what the humans had done to Idris, but she'd read enough in her own file to know that it would be abominable and worthy of true wrath. The younger mutant shuddered under the touch, shivers running through her body at the unaccustomed comforting touch; Lamia shifted her position, sitting on the ground and pulling into her lap. She rocked the felinoid in her arms, murmuring soothing words in dozens of languages, knowing that the tone and touches were more important than understanding the actual words.

,,

Lamia's eyes flicked over the area, picking out the others in pain or masking their pain with anger. "Don't worry," she murmured to Idris in English, her tone still comforting but undercut with her own personal mix of anguish and rage. "We will make them suffer. We will have our vengeance." Lamia hugged her tightly for a moment, then went back to stroking the fur on her head. "And then we will set the world back to the natural order, my child. They will never chain us again."

[Idris "Rip" Vaughan]

Idris wasn't accustomed to this, her parents when she was st normal didn't love her like this. They would always yell at each other, or make her life miserable when she was hungry. No one touched her for what she could remember. Then this...

,,

This was different. Now...

,,

"I'm not interested in revenge... I want it."

,,

She cuddled Lamia in return. "My son is in some cage soewhere in Russia. They took my eggs and my womb and use them to make clones just to infect them with Rabies to find counters for the disease. They made me barren..."

,,

"They took what was rightfully mine and tossed it away."

,,

She buried her head into Lamia's chest. Her ears drooped, before flicking back. "There will be a reckoning, and I will help everyone here. I promise."

,,

"But the first thing on my mind... the first thing outside of everything..."

,,

"Who needs me first?"

,,

She looked to Lamia, suddenly a conditioned response began to come up. "Oh... did you want me... if you're shy we can find a private place. I am pretty well versed."

,,

Her eyes looked innocent. She thought this was how everything worked with people. Even looking like a cat she had the appearance of a girl innocent to what her reaction was is nothing more than something programmed into her for control. It was a reward for her, and something that wasn't normal and she didn't know it.

,,

Lamia stiffened at the abrupt shift in the conversation, her own scars rubbed raw by Idris' recounting of the crimes committed against her body and then against her mind. "No, child, I...I do not...," she sighed and laid her hand against the other woman's cheek. "You do not have to give yourself in such a way unless you want to, not anymore. We are not them, we should not treat each other as they do."

,,

Idris downcast her eyes. Did she do something wrong? She moves around to the point where she sat next to Lamia, leaning on her. "I'm... sorry..."

,,

Lamia laid an arm around her. "It is not your fault, child. You've done nothing wrong and it will take time to learn how to be free, how to be your own person." She gave her an encouraging smile and motioned to the rest of the group. "We will help you. It is what family does."

,,

The concept of family threw Idris off... no one seemed to fight with eachother. People here in fact worked with each other, and even with the things as they were in this place... managed to do very well. "Is this what family is supposed to be? No fighting or using each other?" She felt unsure. "This is... strange to me."

,,

"Family is many things. At its best, it is all of us working together, in our places." Her expression was serious, reflective. "We should strive for that as much as possible. We will need each other now, to stay free and to free the rest of our family."

,,

Idris laid her head on Lamia's shoulder, draping her arm over Lamia in a embrace. "I'll do what I can, then."

[Grav]

She knew the rest of the file wouldn't be fun to read, and would ruin her happy mood right now, so she shut down the computer, and removed the drive, before replacing it around her neck. She climbed down from her lofty perch and made her way back towards where many of the others still were gathered. Idris, the Felinoid female was there looking like she was ready to take off somewhere, with her arm around Lamia, the person she wanted to see.

,,

"Lamia, could I have a moment of your time please?"

[z024]

Lamia detangled herself gently from Idris, making sure she didn't jostle the feline woman. "Perhaps it is time to get to know your cousins, mmhm?" she murmured the suggestion and made sure Idris was well set either by herself or headed towards another of Lamia's descendants.

,,

Nodding to Grav, she stepped away from the area where the computers had been set up, not towards the jungle but towards the temple. She picked a grassy patch where she could sit and lean against the weather-roughened stones and motioned for the white-haired woman to sit next to her. "Is there something I can help you with, Grav?" she asked, genuine curiosity coloring her words. She knew little of her and hadn't made it far enough into the reaches of her own file to have made the close familial connection yet.

,,

She could feel the swirls of emotion as each of them grappled with the reality and ramifications of what DEHA had done to them - not in the way Rebbekka could, but simply as a person with experience and talent for reading expressions and body languages. Grav, like May, was always more difficult, but for the moment she seemed rather the opposite of the rest of them. Happy, almost upbeat. It was a balm to the raw pain painting the temple space by most of the others right now.

[Grav]

"Most of my history is pretty awful Lamia. My parents were forced to breed to make me, by means I prefer not to think of. I was raised with others like me, and some who were engineered. Out of a sibling company of fifty, I am the only one who is still alive, and only two of us reached maturity."

,,

She shook her head. "I'll spare you the details of what happened, what we did, What I did, but through it all, I was alone, Always. Only the disorder they gave me has offered any semblance of real interaction with others, even if they're all just facets of myself." This level of awareness was rare from one of a MPD sufferer's personality, and she had only four of 12 who were aware while in control.

,,

"The main reason I can smile, is that I am not without family." Her yellow eyes narrowed. "My records show that you are my Maternal grandmother, though you hardly look older than I do."

[z024]

Lamia took in what Grav told her, having read as much for dozens - and through them, hundreds, even thousands - of her descendants in her own file. "I do not age," she answered the implied question easily and followed up with, "and you have a great deal of family. Some here, most still in the prisons of the DEHA. You have dozens aunts and uncles and cousins at the very least, from the time DEHA spent breeding children from me. Other children of mine, few of them carry the immortality that I have, but there are some. I do not know how many still walk the earth, but a few must."

,,

The elder mutant crossed her arms and looked over the small assemblage again. "I think perhaps I should make such records as I can of my descendants. My DEHA file was meticulously updated, so there is a place to start from time trapped there, and I remember many others, though it will be difficult to trace them all together. Still, a worthy endeavor for times when we are not actively destroying that loathsome human organization. If we are to take our place in the world again, it would help to have a sense of our history, a respect for those that came before and the lessons of their experiences to learn from. I was careless, complacent with Rome and the power of a dead god. I did not understand how such a god could be idolized and instill such fervor." She sighed and shrugged, "But then dead gods cannot disappoint or make mistakes. They can be held in the perfection of memory and politicians are free to twist their sayings and story however they want towards their own ends. That is not a mistake I shall repeat."

,,

She banished the thoughts of the past for a moment and smiled at Grav. "Do your other selves understand? Will they be able to accept the truth of who and what you are, or are they still held in shackles of the mind by DEHA?"

[Grav]

"The core personality, Agent Annalise Gravinsky would kill you all if she could." She looked at Lamia and held her gaze. "She'd simply warp home, and bring the DSA here in force. They broke her, Lamia, she is a loyal soldier, unquestioning in loyalty, nothing is beyond her means or willingness to do for the State."

,,

"It takes a great deal of unprecedented cooperation from the three others of us who are aware to suppress her. I explained to David all of this, the huge risk being taken, and yet he keeps me here."

,,

She shook her head. "I was raised to not believe in any gods. That said, my trainers did use the term, and I aped them here and there. I imagine the same is true of my own children."

[z024]

"You will learn to believe in yourself and your kin, given time," Lamia stated with certainty. "Do you think that Annalise can be made to see the truth, or must you simply keep her forever submerged? Is she aware of what you are doing and experiencing now, or is she completely locked away?"

,,

She might not know the sophisticated terminology of Freud or Jung or any of a dozen other masters of psychology since she'd been taken captive, but she did have experience with her descendants that were of multiple souls in one body. The two-faced Janus, Etali-An of the Many Masks, and dozens more stretching back in time. It would be a sadness if they had to kill the body housing all the minds of this granddaughter because of the blind obedience of one, but it was also a distinct possibility. Lamia was not made in the soft modern world; she would do what was necessary without flinching, but much better if the errant soul could be either redeemed or fully exorcised in time.

[Grav]

"She is fully aware. She's one of two who are."

,,

The version of Grav speaking to her sighed. "She's been more sedate, if only because it's known what she'd do. Seeing our history may help, but considering the events are how each of us came to be, there's trepidation over whether it will fragment her, and even us, further, or reconsolidate."

,,

"Still even she smiled when she found that we weren't totally alone."

[z024]

Lamia linked arms with Grav and smiled. "So long as there I or any of my descendants are alive, you are not alone." The smile turned to a proud smirk, "And the followers of the dead god of the fish tried for an age to kill me, so you shan't be rid of me easily. Also DEHA, as they've slid into the same complacent arrogance we did so long ago, have bred so many of us that I think unless they look to destroy all of humanity as well, you will always be able to find a cousin or a hundred cousins in each generation."

,,

"And I will sit with you, if you would like," she squeezed Grav's arm in support, "when you decide to look more into your past. Pain can break or shatter, but it can also forge and hone. We are soldiers here, fighting for our place in the world. To fight for a cause gives you reason and strength to raise arms. To fight for yourself and your family, your kin, that gives you the deepest resolve that even a millennium in cages cannot break. She, Annalise, she must learn this, to heal her mind and allow her to rejoin your other souls. It will take time, but we can show her."

,,

As always, Lamia had that strange mix of maternal gentleness and a view of the world that was simply alien to those raised in the 'modern' world, even the abusive modern world of the DEHA camps. Grav could feel her support, though, and the complete sincerity of her words. Here among her children, as she often described everyone at the temple as, there was rarely a dissembling word from the cocoa-skinned woman, whether one believed her claims or not.

[Grav]

She nodded. "I appreciate that Lamia."

,,

She didn't mention how hard it would be to teach her main self that the cage wasn't home, that her masters didn't care, that she was an expendable asset, that no matter what, her life had ended. "The future is something we will make, and when the time comes, if you wish to see what they did, what we did, I will not hide it."

[Dawn OOC]

Mary’s file was relatively sedate. It was a little sickening to the young woman to read through the files of tests – mostly behavioral and psychological – that they had performed on her. She could remember these tests, too, and looking back on them through the doctors’ eyes was chilling and sickening. There was nothing unexpected, not until she read down to her parents. Mary tensed as she read a familiar name in the ‘mother’ box: Lamia.

,,

She was Lamia’s daughter.

,,

* ~ * ~ *

,,

Edward felt hands on his shoulders. When he looked up, he found Matt standing close to him, his gray eyes sad. “Rough, ain’t it? My file was no better.” The hands on Edward’s shoulders squeezed lightly and then released. “If you need to talk, I’m here for ya.”

,,

I’m giving you guys one more week to rove around and react to the information you’ve learned, or to talk to other PCs or the NPCs about stuff in their files. When I come back, David will have something to say.

[Idris "Rip" Vaughan]

Idris shook her head. This was a lot of information for one day. But it seems, at least the people here that have taken her in didn't have problems with her. But it troubled her... how many here knew of her past as a mutant hunter... a trained killer of mutants?

Her ears drooped as she took a seat again.

,,

"To be honest... this just makes the killin' easier, right?" She said, loudly. Setting her back against a nearby tree. "Fuck... seems all my life has been about the ultraviolence and now I got a goddamn excuse. And no leash to hold me back. This kitten's gonna get her mouse." She grinned, popping out the claws on her right hand, looking at them intently, the diamond-like coating on them granting a sheen. "I'm gonna be smashing and killing for all the right reasons. But we can't be stupid... I'm with Jaunt on this. Better to draw out what we want and kill 'em in our hurt-box. Make them play our game. And it's a bloodsport we play, boyo."

,,

"And I'm the best fuckin' bitch at doin' just that. Just give me two pistols and some orders. Then shit gets done."

,,

She looked at the odd juice drinks that Jeremy and Jaunt were drinking. "Hey... what's that you're drinkin' from? Never seen them in my life."

[Jaunt]

"Woah, woah, woah..." Jaunt jaunted up from his resting spot and was now standing, his hands out in Idris's direction like he was pumping her away from him. "You ain't with me on shit, psycho bitch. I never said anything about killing anyone. No way, fuck that noise. If you guys plan to kick down doors and start a blood bath, count me out of that shit. I'll kick ass with the best of them, but those people out there, fucked up as they be, they got lives and families. I'm not about to start murdering people just because I feel genetically superior to them and have some vendetta to burn off."

,,

He put his finger in Idris's face, pointing firmly to accent his point. "So take you two pistols and stay far away from me with that murderous rampage bullshit." He tossed her a Capri Sun. "And quit calling me 'boyo' or I'll teleport you ten miles out so sea and let you swim back."

[Idris "Rip" Vaughan]

"It's not about killin' because I got a few more genes turned on than the rest... It's because I'm out to get a little revenge and I'm gonna have a nice little body count of DEHA agents when I'm through. I don't know why you're so scared with your little sippy-pouch, but around me... well, there is a reason why I'm called Rip, and it wasn't just because of my hobby."

She smiled. "No need to get testy with me, Jaunt. You've just not got it, do ya? These goddamn monsters want us to be their guinea pigs and slaves to their every whim. They violated me... If ya don't think I deserve some measure of revenge... heh... you're off base."

[Jaunt]

"They violated all of us." He snapped back, waving a hand to encompass everyone who might in ear shot of what was developing. "Boo-fucking-hoo. They're ignorant, they need guidance, not to be slaughtered because some psycho decides they have vendetta. We should be helping this world wake up, not bagging every fool we come across because you feel entitled to do so."

,,

"'Well, there's a reason I'm called Rip'," He mocked her in a sniveling juvenile voice. "What are you, fucking twelve? Your posturing bullshit doesn't work on me. I saved your ass," He pointed at Rip, thrusting hi finger as he was flat out yelling at this point. "I almost died, saving your ass. Not because you're mutant and you're 'one of us', but because it was the right god damn thing to do. I'd do the same thing for anyone, DEHA or not, because it's the right thing to do. How many war mongers in here could say they'd do the same? To respect their enemy as much as they respect themselves."

,,

He approached her now, his face close to her to help make his point. "Don't mistake me for some hopeless idealist. If I had known what kind of a monster you are, Idris, I would have left you to die. You start killing people, and I'm gonna be there to stop you. Keep that in mind."

[Idris "Rip" Vaughan]

Idris grinned wider.

,,

"Oh you are such a hypocrite. First you're scared to go after these guys earlier saying they had all of us pegged, now you justify it on some moral high ground? There is no moral high ground to take. This is war. Look at this place! This is the only place we can be and we gotta be damn careful while we are here. We're in no position for fancy speeches, Captain Picard. So unless you got some political ace in the hole... keep dreamin' just don't get us killed doing it."

,,

She got up, brushing herself off. She was taking it out on him, but he deserved it in her eyes. "There is only one answer when we go to war when someone ask us what we're going to do about this." She sees a dead tree and in a act of letting out some aggression, claws through it. "To me they're either target practice or my scratching post."

,,

[SalmonMax]

"Wait!"

,,

Mary had come over and was trying to come between Idris and Jaunt, a plaintive expression on her face.

,,

"Please stop it," she begged. "We don't have to agree, but we shouldn't fight. Please. A lot of us are family. And even if we're not, we have things in common. We don't have to fight. Okay?"

,,

She was doing the glossy-eyed puppy dog thing, and looked on the verge of tears.

[Jaunt]

"We ain't family." Jaunt said softly, calming down a little now that sweet Mary was involved. "You guys asked for my help, and I've accepted. We'll keep it at that. We ain't buddies, we ain't partners and we ain't friends. An if you guys let this psychopath loose to rack up a body count then there ain't no point in me sticking around, because that makes you exactly the sort of people I don't deal with."

,,

"I kept you in this world, Isris." He glared at the cat-thing with dagger in his eyes. "Every life you take is on my shoulders because a monster that should have died, I saved. Don't make me have to correct that mistake. Because I will."

[Idris "Rip" Vaughan]

Idris had enough of his threats. "Then bring it. I've had enough of this crazy world. Then again, I doubt you would stick around for a fight for more than a few seconds. You'll run." Her ears were pinned back. She was just waiting for an excuse. Just one. "You're the biggest hypocrite I know."

Then she cracks up laughing. "Mother fucker... you are just to goddamn cute. You flip-flop just to make yourself look better than anyone else! You don't know what you want in this world. Not one bit. All I want is to make damn sure I'm not someone's bitch anymore and you can take that to the bank."

"Come back when you either A: Become a total pacifist and hang up a picture of Gandhi around here, or B: Admit the fact this shit were reading here has got you all hot and bothered and get some goddamn motivation to crack some skulls that need crackin'! Until then I'm finding a place to perch myself."

She hops up on a tree and starts climbing over the scene, her tail keeping balance and her claws on her hands allowing her to climb up rather high, but not so high as to not be able to see the goings on. It was a lower branch, but it was high enough. She sits where the branch meets the tree. She had a look of complete frustration on her face.

[SalmonMax]

"Idris," Mary urged, "It isn't that black and white. I know you're upset...everyone is...but this isn't a situation where the right response is to either give up entirely, or go crazy and start murdering everyone."

,,

Her tone softens a little.

,,

"This all started when mutants treated people badly. Then they got the upper hand, and did it back to us even worse. We have to protect ourselves, but we can't go back to being like how we were, or it will never end."

[Idris "Rip" Vaughan]

Idris layed on her branch like a scorned cat, angry at being neutered. "Feh... whatever..." Deep down, she knew Mary was right. Didn't make her feel any better or grow back her womb.

,,

"Just get it straight how you guys are gonna do things... That's all I'm askin'. Either we're fightin, bein' sneaky, or just staying in our little hobbit holes negotiatin' with people that don't negotiate. We've been in their little medicine ball up to now. We know the score."

[Jaunt]

Jaunt had a perplexed look on his face and gave Mary a glance, hoping she knew what was going on. "What? I... I..." He sighed. "She doesn't even make any sense... Look, whatever. I wasn't threatening you. And you weren't asking anything, you were proclaiming with great zeal that you were ready to wrack up a body count. It's point of fact: I see you start murdering people... I'll put a stop to it."

,,

He patted Mary on the back and stepped away from the conversation. "You two play nice and get back to your medicine balls and whatever the hell else you lunatics might have in common... I'mna go find some adult things to do. Have fun you crazy, psychotic, edgy, sociopathic, mutantlings you..." He didn't jaunt away, which they both expected he might. Instead he just dug his hands into his gaudy purple trench coat and just walked off into the scenery whistling some unknown tune.

[Idris "Rip" Vaughan]

Idris meowed, quirking an eyebrow. There was a cheshire cat sort of grin on her face.

,,

"Yeah like I'm that rabid. Feh. And I wanna know where the bloody hell he found that juice... thing. I could never get one as a kid, I was always broke."

,,

She had this googly-eyed look on her face. "Do want!" She said in a goofy tone. She slipped from her branch in her giddy hyperactivity and ended up hanging by her claws. "Aww feck! Dammit... see... this is what happens when I'm.. just..."

She manages to hop from her precarious position to the trunk of the tree and carefully climbs back down. "...not in the best of moods."

,,

She smiled at Mary. "Hi."

[Rebekka Van der Vyse]

The deceptively observant Rebekka completely ignored the sibling-like squabbling and conversation about familial connections going on behind her, fully engrossed in reading about a DEHA program centered on her progeny, through proxy as it was. They were not kidding about keeping any knowledge of it from her, by any and all means - the first thing she read in the file was a secret DEHA directive that stated any breach of Dollhouse confidentiality would be considered treason and prosecuted as such.

,,

With finality.

,,

The slender and young-seeming Rebekka leaned forward, no longer capable of feigning only idle interest as she paged through the extensive file with precise clicks on the laptop. Her family tree was repeated, going back to the original Boer settlers - no surprises or known mutants there - then traced the branches from there to the present day, looking for mutant genetic markers.

,,

Additional studies and tests on her harvested ovum from the 1940's onward, some of which she hadn't been aware of. Early experiments in in-vitro fertilization, all failures. Extensive treatises and hypotheses on the physiology and biology of her recuperative abilities, immune system, and shapeshifting capabilities, specifically in how they might affect fetal and child development. Rebekka had no trouble with the scientific terminology.

,,

The secret to her unique reproductive process was revealed purely by accident in 1968. The confidentiality directive was implemented the same year.

,,

An earthquake rocked Basel, Switzerland, causing significant, but not unrepairable, damage to a DEHA lab. During clean, there was found to be unusual activity in a cell culture struck by broken loose electricity lines. One of her ovum was undergoing cellular division, mitosis. Without meiosis. Further tests - and Rebekka could read the excitement in the scientific reports - and studies on certain amphibians and reptiles revealed it could replicated, using a more efficient chemical catalyst, rather than electricity.

,,

The Archive reproduced through apomictic parthenogenesis, resulting in offspring which were full clones of their biological mother. It was conjectured Rebekka could become pregnant at will, provided she had access to enough sustenance, whether typical, human far, or her own unique kind.

,,

However, the way they were developed and... created, with no involvement from Rebekka beyond the donation of her eggs, left all her daughters with severe mental and sociological issues. It took years to arrive at a definite reason for the cause, and years more to arrive at a satisfactory workaround.

,,

It was two years before DEHA was ready to attempt a surrogate birth. Tests with activated ova revealed that as long as they were provided with sufficient nutrients, they developed at an accelerated rate, suspected due to Rebekka's enhanced regenerative and shapeshifting abilities. They decided to start with a trial run of twelve surrogate births.

,,

It was an unmitigated failure.

[Rebekka Van der Vyse]

Three surrogates died of intracerebral hemorrhages before carrying the fetuses to term. Seven other fetuses were carried to term, in just six months, and were perfectly formed, though they had varying appearances. All the surrogates suffered varying degrees of chronic headaches and migraines, and even more wild mood swings than are typical during pregnancy. However, once the seven fetuses took their first independent breaths, they suffered brain death within two minutes, despite any actions taken to prevent it.

,,

Two infants survived an extended time, though both had series issues. One infant suffered constant and uncontrollable shapeshifting, accompanied by constant pain. It was vivisected after one week. The other seemed promising... at first. It retained a consistent appearance, had healthy responses and reactions, and already possessed the mental and social development of a four-year - she claimed her name was Cosima Norwell.

,,

And in just a year, Cosima had the physical development of a typical four-year old as well. And there all development went into stasis, despite various attempts at mental conditioning and therapy. Cosima possessed the health and regenerative qualities of her genetic mother, but showed no evidence of shapeshifting, nor any form of mind reading or mental duplication. She eat normally, having none of Rebekka's sexual demands. It was later found out, the surrogate, Michelle Norwell, lost her own daughter, Cosima Norwell, aged four, in a car accident. The new Cosima was her twin, in nearly every way.

,,

Autopsies were performed on the dead infants, and many more studies on Cosima, including using telepaths. Perhaps due to Rebekka's unalterable memory, presumably passed on to her progeny, Cosima's mental and social development couldn't be fixed, and she remained a four-year old in thought and mind. But through extreme effort, using telepaths and mind-controllers, over an extended time, they managed to induce the use of her shapeshifting abilities, which she it turned out she did have. But it was psychosomatically limited, and all they could do was physically age Cosima into an apparent eighteen year old woman, after another three years.

,,

It appeared Rebekka's mind-reading/memory duplication ability was an integral part of her reproduction process. It was conjectured there was a flow of thought back-and-forth between mother and clone-child, that the mind-reading ability intuitively regulated. The interface between the surrogates and the fetuses wasn't properly regulated, severely affecting both, up to and including death. It was re-examined that her ability didn't necessarily require physical intercourse, but did require intimacy and arousal, which is why it could work while Rebekka was being tortured by a sophisticated sadist. Motherhood could be deemed intimate in a way beyond most others.

,,

It was further theorized just as Rebekka's progeny were genetic clones of her, due to their mutual total memory duplication ability, all of Rebekka's experiences and knowledge would be passed down to her progeny. In effect, it was genetic memory. All the more impressive considering how Rebekka could acquire experiences and skills. Tests on the infants showed differing brain chemistry, so it was believed Rebekka's children would actually develop unique personalities, instead of being her mental clones as well as physical clones.

,,

The ramifications and possibilities were staggering. And were far too dangerous to test using Rebekka.

,,

Which didn't stop further tests and trials. They developed two ideas for the next line of Rebekka's progeny. Another trial of a dozen surrogates, this time, keeping them in induced deep comas, in the belief limited brain activity would have less chance to adversely affect the fetuses. Concurrently, they decided to do another trial with six surrogates, using psychic lapdogs, hoping they could regulate the mental interface it seemed The Archive's progeny required as part of their development.

,,

They couldn't.

[Edward Mansfield]

Edward looked up at the other man, and nodded. He had relinquished the computer to another, and found a place to sit and think for awhile, in contemplative silence. The strange new man's hands on his shoulders had pulled him out of that brooding reverie, and he drew in a deep breath and did his best to put on his conversational face. It wasn't quite as good as he usually managed, which was on a normal day poker-champion worthy - but the anger and heartbreak he had displayed moments ago had been firmly reigned in, and showed now only in trace whispers in his gaze, and the slight frown lines around his eyes and mouth.

,,

"Thank you. It would seem I'm not the only one around here who's had it rough." He motioned briefly towards the others, in various states of distress or emotional contemplation. "I'm sorry, I haven't met many people around here. That's my fault, I've been a bit of a recluse since arriving. You are..."

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"Matt. Matt McShae. It's good to finally meet you, Edward." Matt let go of the other man's shoulders, and held out a hand. Edward shook it politely, his grip firm and business-like.

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"You as well, Matt. Though you seem to know more about me than I do about you." His tone was polite, but Matt could sense the inquiry in the statement, the desire to know just how much the other mutant knew about him.

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"I hope you don't mind too much that I've read your file. David is pretty quiet about personal information with the others, but I help with planning the rescues."

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"Well then, I owe you my gratitude, Mr. McShae. The world they had me trapped in may have been a pleasant prison, but it was one, nonetheless." He stood up, and took another look around at some of the others. "Everyone here was rescued, like I was?"

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"Please, just Matt. And yes, most of them." He motioned to Jaunt and Idris as they were engaged in their debate. "That is Jaunt, and Idris. We found them in Rio. The others were being held captive, but in a more conventional manner."

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Edward nodded again as he studied each one for a moment, absorbing what he could about them before moving on. For a moment, he looked as if he were going to speak again, but then his eyes came to rest on the area where Lamia and Grav stood together.. and stopped. He blinked slightly, as if something he saw had surprised him, and his brow furrowed slightly in concentration. Then he drew in a deep breath, and straightened. "If you will excuse me, Matt?"

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Matt nodded, but noted with a hint of amusement that Edward hadn't glanced at him for a response, or even waited for it, before walking away. He crossed the distance between the tables where he had been sitting, and the wall of the temple. Both women noticed the approach of the dignified and handsome new mutant, but as he drew nearer it became obvious that his focus was primarily for Lamia.

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"I hope you ladies will pardon me for the interruption." Edward smiled at them both politely, but it the darker-skinned woman who held his attention. "I felt I should introduce myself. My name is Edward Mansfield." He held out a hand to Lamia, palm-up. She placed her hand in his, and he lifted it, brushing his lips briefly across her knuckles in an almost reverent manner before releasing it.

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She nodded at the gesture politely. She had been watching the bickering with a mother's patient weariness, but now brought her attention to the man standing in front of her instead. "I am called Lamia."

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"Yes, so it says in my file." He smiled warmly at her, and though his voice was both confident and assured, it also radiated a respect - almost a reverence - that no one else had spoken to her with in a very, very long time. "It is a great honor to meet you."

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There was a beat of silence, as her grey eyes studied him intently. "I am in your file. Are you some close progeny, or are you the father of some of my children?"

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"We share both children and grandchildren, Lady Lamia." There was a brief, awkward pause between them, and she blinked slightly as he cleared his throat. She didn't understand the honorific, which was obvious, and the shock of encountering someone like Lamia had rattled him into using it. "Sorry.. old habits."

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"I am well acquainted with them." She smiled slightly, then motioned toward the recent argument. "And what of you, Edward? Will you allow your kin to anguish in slavery because their rescue might endanger your own freedom?"

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His eyes narrowed slightly, and she could see a flash of cold anger in them before his expression smoothed into something calmer, and his lips curved in a small, genial smile.

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"I will not, m'lady. I will do everything within my power to rescue my children, and their children, and their children, if they exist. And then those who imprisoned and harmed us will be made to pay.. no matter how long it takes."