Aberrant: Children of Quantum Fire - Shadow Games

[Quantum Fire]

Time Period: A about two weeks after Mountain Rescue

With some time for things to settle down a bit, allowing Primus and it's crew time to travel and get to know the submarine, and learn a measure of the seas, vast and unexplored, the oceans turned out to be a lot less full of humanity then the rest of the world, and there was a lot of unusual things to be found, but when they surface to make contact with things though the opnet, Darrik finds a message sent to him from certain friends of his, one that seemed to be trying to say a lot more then it was, without making it too obvious..

A certain lovely lady has performed a vanishing act, leaving me a message that she looking for her shadow, in a certain reflective way, I've been throwing up a few reflections of my own, in a romantic way, but the circles out there suggests a certain underhanded influence is involved, I am hoping that she can hide in the darkness from whatever is chasing her, and maybe whisper whatever secret she is carrying to the night.

With Love... your lady of many colors.

That was the totality of the message, it would mean little to anyone but Darrik, but for him it should give him a lot of information to begin what was being asked of him.

[Toby Lupin]

Darrik studied the message worriedly, as with his intelligence and the context, he could interpret the message easily and follow up from there. It was not heartening though. Gwen in some kind of danger from Proteus and the Directive, Agatha choosing to masquerade as her friend in Paris. He trusted the British Intelligence agent to handle herself, so he needed to determine where Gwen had run off too.

He sent a network message stating he'd be busy for a while and they might need to talk later. Then he sat down and worked on processing his options. It had to be a major city, her current location, as to not draw as much attention, at least as much a woman of her beauty could. Somewhere she could fit in more... a gambling thought occurred to him. New Orleans... Gwen had once mentioned having a Cajun branch of the family, and she could be more likely to make any illusions stand in the Quarter.

For a moment, he focused and tamped down his appearance to levels of amazing unobtrusiveness. Nothing to bother here. Then he walked into the shadows and focused very very intently. And he vanished. I'm coming, love.

[Quantum Fire]

New Orleans was almost certainly the right city, but the actual location of Gwen was not obvious, of course, the fact that he could figure out this much in instants was somewhat disturbing, there was bound to be a intelligence analyst who was likely a nova as well among those who were after Gwen, though the why of it was a bit of a question. Certain parts of New Orleans were rather insular and difficult to insinuate one's self into, unless you had relatives there, as Gwen did, or superhuman manipulation and charm, as Darrik did.

More importantly, someone was trying to hide the information he was seeking, and what was more, a nova assassin he'd managed to read about called the Knife was moving in the city, and from the questions he was asking, Darrik's exceptional intelligence and manipulation had him picking out the likelihood he was after Gwen at about 98%, which in this case, was almost a certainty. And if there was one, there was likely others, which wasn't good, what on earth could Gwen have done to stir up this much interest, Agatha had seemed to be more likely to end up in this kind of situation. Meanwhile, his own questions, discreet and careful as they were, using his own quantum enhanced capabilities, took a few hours, and indicated Gwen had almost certainly moved into the Bayou from here, perhaps about at the same point Darrik had arrived in the city. At this point, it was a race, would he be able to find Gwen before the assassin, or assassin's did?

[Toby Lupin]

At this moment, Darrik did not like the odds... but he wanted to interfere with pursuit as well, hence he made a stop at a pay phone and using the full extent of his quantum enhanced persuasiveness, phoned the police with a description of the Knife and claimed to be a witness to a rape, where the Knife was the culprit. Hopefully, the Knife would remain in the city long enough to get in trouble with the police, and delay him severely.

And for the others...

In a secluded spot, Darrik worked his powers heavily and brought up four figures of shadow, which he had implanted images of Gwen's visage in. "Change." He said, and all four became sudden replicas of Gwen. "Go about the city." He commanded, sending them all off in different directions. Once satisfied that he had laid down some false trails...

Darrik turned intangible and vanished off to enter the Bayou, and get Gwen out of trouble.

OOC

Quantum Construct

[Jeremy] 10:10 pm: megas first

Jeremy *rolls* 21d10: 1+10+9+1+1+3+10+9+6+8+2+2+5+5+5+6+7+2+6+10+3

13 sux.

2 sux- Human size.

2 sux- Quadrupling numbers to 4.

9 sux- 45 NP for all.

Breakdown of powers: Quantum 4, M-Stamina 2, Shapeshift 4, 9 dots of Attributes.

[Quantum Fire]

His forethought, manipulation and planning were enough to get him ahead of the majority of individuals trying to find her, which was a good thing, it meant that he was almost certainly going to find her first, and be able to help or protect her as was needed. Still, the constructs lacked mental or social stats, which meant that with a bit of investigation they would be uncovered as false trails, but it was still enough to cloud the issue a bit.

It was also enough for Darrik to realize that Gwen had gone as deep into the Bayou as she could manage, the swamps giving her a easier ability to move and hide, if he had the incredible perception abilities of some of his foster siblings, he'd have found her by now, as it was, he managed to follow her trail, and the woman had done what she could to cloud it. Still, being intangible, he avoided most of the dangers of the swamp and managed to catch up with a woman wearing a tattered cloak, veiling her face and body, looking around worriedly.. her quantum signature suggested that this was one of Gwen's clones, most likely there as a lookout, and the old run down shack with a swamp boat beside it was likely where Gwen was. What was more, he was certain that she was no more then a hour ahead of pursuit at best.. his ability to judge human nature and emotions, was enough for him to tell that the clone was frightened, worried, excited, and a little desperate, and that it was an echo of Gwen's emotions.

[Toby Lupin]

Darrik thought worriedly that this had to be something significant, yet the tinge of excitement there threw him for a loop. Why she had any positive emotions about this other than seeing him... he wasn't sure. But he'd beaten the threats to his lover, and with him arriving promptly and then changing everything by going elsewhere, they couldn't catch her now. He walked out to the shack and faded in, and resumed solidity with a call of "Gwen?" mixed with concern and hope.

[Quantum Fire]

Even as he walked into the shack there, it began to rain over the swamp, heavy rain, but when Gwen looked up, she was frightened then relieved when she saw Darrik, and lept at him, throwing her arms around his neck, and began to cry. "Darrik.. dear god I was so scared." She trembled in his arms, and kissed him, and her emotions were all over the place, it was a good thing Zia wasn't here, the young girl would have been utterly overwhelmed by the emotions coming off Gwen, relief, fear, excitement, desire.. it was all over the place.

Then she tensed slightly, a crocodile was exiting the water, and both of you could feel the pulse of it's node.. someone had managed to catch up, just behind Darrik, whoever it was, it didn't feel like the quantum signature was someone he knew.. which meant he'd just barely been in time, he could withdraw now with Gwen, or deal with whoever this was..

[Toby Lupin]

Darrik stiffened somewhat, but then ushered Gwen back and nodded gravely. "I'll handle this fast, love." He turned around, slipping away from her, and then turned a menacing glare of focused quantum upon the croc-nova. As his power worked, the foe found that something odd was happening. Where there is light, there is dark and shades of it. Everywhere, in a confusing and utterly disorienting swirl, the place of a shadow seemed off, then others moved...

Pretty soon, the ability to visually perceive was practically ruined, and the resulting distraction would render an enemy quite impotent.

Disorient Roll

[Jeremy] 4:15 pm: megas first

Jeremy *rolls* 21d10: 9+8+6+3+9+6+3+9+7+8+10+7+8+1+10+1+3+8+3+4+6: 129

[Jeremy] 4:16 pm: 14 sux

[Krul] 4:16 pm: forget the wp roll, there is no way for him to make that many successes

[Jeremy] 4:17 pm: the WP roll matters

[Jeremy] 4:17 pm: it's not a simple resist with Disorient

Krul *rolls* 5d10: 5+10+3+9+5: 32

[Krul] 4:17 pm: 2 succeses

[Jeremy] 4:18 pm: ok... the enemy nova reduces all pools by 12 dice... any power or ability reduced to half or less

cannot be used at all unless WP is spent

[Quantum Fire]

The shapechanging nova was so overwhelmed but the power of the shadows and darkness twisting around him, so disoriented, that he was for all intents blinded and weakened, as though he was overdosed on drugs, shapechanging back into human form, he struggled against the shore of this island, but couldn't even manage to get back to his feet, or see whoever did this too him, in fact, he couldn't even speak coherently, he did try to same something, but it came out as a garble.. "qoeus aada aodaj" And Darrik was the one in complete control here.

Gwen gasped a moment as she was pushed behind him, then put his arms around him from behind, she seemed exceptionally touchy feeling at the moment, but there were not any other nova's close behind him, so it was Darrik's choice of what to do next. "Where's Agatha, she's alright, isn't she?" Gwen asked, even as she held him, and there were moments of trembling as she did.

[Toby Lupin]

Darrik put a finger to his lips, signaling for quiet, and then slipped a comforting arm with stroking fingers around his girlfriend. Right now, he was more concerned with getting her out than finishing off the pursuer. It didn't really matter now, anyway. He led her back to the cabin, then as they stepped through the doorway, they went through a haze of darkness. The snow-topped forests of northeastern Canada surrounded them, and a chill wind blew through the air.

Darrik then gave into his desire and relief, gazing in and kissing Gwen fully and passionately. His tongue danced with hers before he withdrew and explained. "Agatha passed word onto me. She's in Paris, pretending to be you. I'll check in on her later. Now, cheri, before we get you officially into hiding... what's happened?"

[Quantum Fire]

She took a deep breath and gave him a hug, then leaned forward to whisper in his ear. "Mon amour, je vous remercie, la raison pour laquelle je fais tourner, est que je suis enceinte avec vos enfants, avec des jumeaux." She spoke the words, having lapsed completely into her native french language, it was fortunate that Darrik had reason to learn french today, moving though the french quarter of New Orleans, and among the cajun's, otherwise he wouldn't have picked out exactly what she was saying. "Cheri, est sens l'homme seul, j'ai été avec vous, le seul je voulais être avec le sentiment que nous avons rencontrés, ce qui signifie qu'ils sont certainement les vôtres. J'ai fui lorsque j'ai réalisé que quelqu'un avait figured it out, je ne peux pas être aussi intelligent que vous ou Agatha, mais je suis assez intelligent pour savoir que quelqu'un est tué au large de la Nova enceintes mères et leurs enfants." She was so releaved she was thinking and speaking in french at the moment, but now she drew back slightly, a little worried about his reaction to this news.

Translation - First part: My love, thank you, the reason I'm running, is that I'm pregnant with your children, with twins

Second Part: Darling, sense the only man I've been with is you, the only one I wanted to be with sense we met, that means they are certainly yours. I fled when I realized someone had figured it out, I may not be as smart as you or Agatha, but I am smart enough to know that someone is killing off pregnant nova mothers and their children.

[Toby Lupin]

"Je vois." Darrik responded in pure French now, but for a moment he puzzled over this flooring news, though it did not show on his expression. In the pursuit of coitus, he had never considered the potentials of partners being pregnant, and the consequences thereof. Now, one of the women he loved was fertile, and he could tell, was truthfully speaking of carrying his children. Way to face responsibility like nothing before.

A wicked voice whispered to him that he could, with the right effort, tell Gwen that having kids was too soon, to find an appropriate way to abort, that he didn't have to worry about the complications of being a teenage father, no matter how powerful. But how... hypocritical and cruel. And he couldn't have things always his way... ever.

"Je n'ai pas voulu pour ceci... mais quand la vie libère vos projets... improvise, indépendamment de. J'accepte et les traiterai comme mes enfants." Darrik stepped in and rested a hand on her stomach, and tilted his head, cheek against her's. "Comment éloigné le long d'ils sont?"

Translation

Line 1 - "I see."

Line(s) 2 - "I didn't intend for this... but when life throws off your plans... improvise, no matter what. I accept and will treat them as my children."

Line 3 - "How far along are they?"

[Quantum Fire]

The relief and joy that came from her as she relaxed against him, told him that he'd made the right choice, the one that she was the happiest with at least, and she took a deep breath as she answered his question. "Merci." there was a deep thankfulness in her voice as well as her words as she continued, she may not fully understand the effect of his charm and poise, but she knew that he could have convinced her of anything if he tried, she was deeply grateful that he hadn't, she wanted his children. "A quelques semaines au cours du premier trimestre, 3 semaines à un mois, je pense, je ne sais pas entièrement, ma chère."

Translation: Thank you. A few weeks into the first trimester, 3 weeks to a month, I think, I'm not entirely sure, my dear (or love)

[Toby Lupin]

A faint smile was all that answered Gwen for the moment, as Darrik realized it would be time that he contacted his clan telepathically. Across the network he called for his siblings and Shen's attention, and outlined a concise explanation of his history with Gwen and Agatha- revealing that he had met them the night of his Apotheosis, that he had fallen in love with them and later formalized their bond, and now that Gwen was pregnant with his children and he had gotten her out of harm's way to a safe spot while he brought the family up to speed.

[Butch_Cole]

Butch was deep in some after-action reports from the first Kashmir conflict when he received Darrik's mental communication. When Darrik announced he was going to be a father, Butch spat the coffee he was drinking all over the place.

"Jesus," he muttered, wiping his face.

Then, over the link he said, Um, I'm stuck between congratulating you and wanting to throttle you. That's huge news, Darrik. I don't know what else to think right now. Gonna have to get used to the idea of being Uncle Butch first, and then...

His thoughts trailed off, but Butch managed to keep from spilling them into the minds of everyone on the link.

[SalmonMax]

Alex, as usual, was less restrained.

Darrik...have you even heard of birth control? Just because we're on a mission to rescue second generation novas doesn't mean we should be adding more. There was a pause, then she was damage-control mode. Alright, bring her to Primus. A pregnant nova will be too hard to hide anywhere else, and too big a target not to hide. Plus, Primus has a medical suite, which we'll need to make sure the baby's development is normal and not threatening Gwen's life.

And seriously, man...if you can't be good, be careful. All right?

[Karren Gaunt]

Coraline was in the middle of a blurring training spar with Uncle Shen on a mountaintop, flowing at and very rarely through his defences while deflecting his own attacks and getting hit far more often, deep in the meditative now when she got the blurt and the sheer what the hell factor caused her to jerk. She flew backwards from the spar, hands held up in a cease gesture as she hit the ground, blue-on-black eyes wide considering the naked impact of what she just heard. "Forgive me, Uncle Shen. It appears Darrik has gotten into a relationship with two Novas from the Rainbow Room, one of them an agent of British Intelligence and the other one he's impreganated with twins and had to save from Mother Hunters. May we cut this session short?"

'And here I thought I'd be first by helping some sterile nova as a donor parent,' she blurted out into the link, 'Congratulations, Darrik, and get *both of them* back to the Primus soon as possible like Alex said. We... need to talk. And I think I might be able to help Gwen go through this faster if she wants to.'

[Toby Lupin]

Alex, as usual, was less restrained.

Darrik...have you even heard of birth control? Just because we're on a mission to rescue second generation novas doesn't mean we should be adding more. There was a pause, then she was damage-control mode. Alright, bring her to Primus. A pregnant nova will be too hard to hide anywhere else, and too big a target not to hide. Plus, Primus has a medical suite, which we'll need to make sure the baby's development is normal and not threatening Gwen's life.

And seriously, man...if you can't be good, be careful. All right?

*Damn it, Alex! You think I KNEW she was fertile? And she didn't know either, at least last time we were together.* Darrik threw out angrily, before calming down. *I won't bring Agatha in so soon, though.* To Gwen, he smiled and sighed. "Want to meet my family?"

[Maia]

Maia for her part was in the state of near Euphoria that elevating Justin to novahood brought on, and she kept what she was doing carefully hidden. Still, Her happy, almost dreamy voice came over the link. "Congratulations Darrik, and I look forward to meeting the mother to be. Her own happiness bled through the link, and he could see her smiling.

On a more private link, Calm down and don't worry, I'm sure we'll all come together and figure out a way to make sure that what happened to us doesn't happen to your children Darrik. They're family, after all."

[LydaLynn]

Epiphany stopped as she heard the news. Tears sprang to her eyes, tears she didn't fully understand. Somehow the news touched something she'd locked away and didn't fully understand. That it was Darrik, the brother who made her most uncomfortable didn't help matters. And after the incident with Demon, Pip had a hard time even thinking about Darrik obliquely. Unable to come up with anything worth saying, she stayed silent, listening to the congratulations and trying to understand her own reactions.

[Quantum Fire]

"I know.." Shen responded to her statement, he had gone to sparing to being perfectly relaxed in nothing flat. "Most of the futures I saw had Darrik bringing home one or both of his girls in this next week, though not all of them had her pregnant, that became more and more certain as the futures came closer..." He left implied that it was never quite a certainty, and that he hadn't said anything about it, though Shen rarely spoke of the future except when he thought it was necessary.

"Now, I suppose a shower and clean up to meet Darrik's lady is in order."

******* ***** ***** ***** *****

Gwen put her arms around Darrik and kissed him soundly. "J'adorerais répondre à votre famille, ma chère" She waited for him to take he wherever she might be going, trusting his leadership entirely.

[Toby Lupin]

Darrik gladly nodded and let the shadows ripple over them, and long beeps from the consoles of Primus replaced the wind. They were on the submarine. "Welcome to our home, Primus. So vast, you can forget this is an underwater submarine. Everyone already knows you're coming, so let them trickle in."

[Courier]

Warren sent with a combination of surprise and a sort of amused concern, Congratulations.

Two girlfriends? And this time he's serious? Really? Darrik? How many broken hearts has he left in his wake? Maybe post 'A' he's changed... or maybe not. Well... time to congratulate them both I guess.

[Karren Gaunt]

The first of the siblings Darrik and Gwen encountered was Coraline, the young metamorph quietly padding her way to her quarters dressed in a sweat-stained Gi with a bracelet of eufiber on one wrist. Her expression shifted from introspection to amusement and welcome, blue-on-black eyes taking in who she could only assume was her sister-in-law to be, gauging her measure quantum, personality, and a little more deeply with a kiss of quantum to her eyes, the children.

"Gwen, right?" she offered with a smile, "A pleasure to meet you, even if I confess that I hoped it wouldn't take you being targeted by Motherhunters to have Darrik tell us about you. But that means he's in trouble, not you."

She crossed her arms over her chest and chuckled, a chorus of voices bouncing off the walls of the sub, "Congratulations by the way. Not many slip through Proteus' nets the way you did."

[Quantum Fire]

"Oh... Elle est belle, c'est votre sœur, mon amour?" Even as she spoke to darrik, she put her arms around Coraline and gave her a hug. "Merci." She shifted to english with a moment's struggle, the hint of a french accent in her voice still leaving a hint of her native tongue. "Thank you for your welcome, I guess, if your Darrik's sister, that will make us sisters?"

Translate: Oh, she's beautiful, this is your sister, my love?"

With regards to Qu. Att., see her in the NPC thread.. yes, she's pregnant, no the children are not fully developed to known anything for sure.

[Karren Gaunt]

Fortunately, Coraline could speak French, something her parents had taught her to prepare them for a potential stay in Africa or the South Pacific. It made her feel a little nostalgic, especially considering the matter at hand.

"Thank you for the complement, Gwen. Please call me Coraline," she answered after extracting herself gently from the hug, gaze turning playfully wicked as older sisters are sometimes entitled by ancient traditon, "And yes, you will... As long as Darrik does the responsible thing and arranges some kind of wedding. Even my parents managed that and they lived off the grid in a log cabin, so my dear brother has no excuse to skimp."

[Butch_Cole]

Butch had wiped up the coffee he had spat everywhere and made his way out of his room to meet...the mother of Darrik's children. God, that was weird to think about. Honestly, he had been thinking a great deal recently about nova pregnancy related issues following his interaction with Mindwave. As far as he could tell, Butch could most likely eliminate the sterility virus in every nova on the planet. The implications surrounding that had plagued him for the last week though. Soon, he'd have to have a discussion with everyone about this. Butch wasn't about the just make a world-changing decision like this on his own.

Cora had been the first to greet Darrik and Gwen. In a sweat-stained Gi. She had been gone a lot recently, training with Uncle Shen, but still managed her daily conversations with Butch to help keep her grounded. When Butch arrived, she and Gwen had just been hugging.

"So, this must be Gwen?" Butch said, a short distance away from her. "I'm Butch. Pleased to meet you. Congratulations are in order I guess. We should have a toast or something."

[Toby Lupin]

Darrik let off a mock moan of aggravation at Cora's words, but a wicked grin came onto his face as he measured her words. "Not until I see shotguns, quantum or otherwise pointed at my head. Though if you call that the responsible thing to do... we don't expect long before your own nuptials with you know who then?" His grin grew even more wicked.

[Courier]

Warren opened his mouth then closed it. He felt that Darrik should, but given his own parents he couldn't make smart remarks about marriage. At the same time he couldn't pass the opportunity totally up so he changed his eufiber into a "wedding tux".

[SalmonMax]

Alex chose that moment to walk in and give Gwen a long once-over as she flicked goggles down over her eyes and switched lenses every few seconds...subjecting the girl to scans up and down the EM spectrum, ultrasonic imaging and quantum resonance and a handful of other sweeps, just to round things out.

"Yep," she remarked. "Pregnant." The goggles vanished in a blaze of light, and Alex held out a hand. "Welcome home, mom. We'll get a cabin set up for you...something near the infirmary..." She glanced at Warren, then back at Gwen. "Unless you're rooming with him? It's all good to me. He's not that close to the infirmary, but with Warren around it doesn't really matter."

[Karren Gaunt]

Coraline decided to give Gwen and Darrik a break as the siblings gathered by departing herself to take that shower, offering a parting chuckle at Darrik's return barb. She'd make her offer later once Gwen was settled in and checked out, much as it'd probably give her youngest sibling a heart attack.

Fatherhood in nine months? Probably conceivable. Fatherhood in less than nine minutes like her ability seemed to 'suggest' it could do? Better for mother and child until they could make Mother Hunting a thing of the past, but certainly... tense for the father.

[Quantum Fire]

She was about to respond in french, but with everyone speaking english she shifted to speaking that language instead. "Wherever Darrik is staying is fine, and a marriage is not nessary, it would need to be with the three of us, anyway, and that sort of marriage isn't entirely legal in most parts of the world." She smiled softly at the others, and reached out to take Darrik's hand, her support of him firm and complete. "I'll do whatever Darrik want's to though."

[SalmonMax]

Alex gave Darrick a long-suffering look and said, "Of course you will. And incidentally, none of us are really worried about what's legal. We're living in international waters, so there's no book except what we bring with us...which pretty much boils down to do as thou wilt shall be the whole of the law. Just ask my brother."

"Anyway! Welcome aboard. When you have a second come on down to the infirmary and give me a buzz. I'm not a doctor, but I can operate the machines and get your charts and stuff set up."

She frowned. "I really oughtta do the MD thing sometime. Time time time...sometimes I wish I had Warren's power."

With a nod to Darrick and his new frau, Alex turns and wanders off into the ship again.

[Toby Lupin]

Darrik knew he was going to hear about it from his siblings for a while. Marriage though... was a symbol in this case. A hefty symbol, but for practical purposes the bond and commitment was already there. "Agatha, Gwen and I will get married when we're all good and ready." Which meant, when he was ready, whatever his sisters and brothers might say.

[Quantum Fire]

"Merde.. Agatha.." She swore softly then turned to Darrik, so worried she couldn't continue to speak in english she slipped back into french, speaking directly to Darrik and not paying most of the others much attention. "Mon amour, vous devez à et sauvetage Agatha, elle serait en danger dire maintenant, s'ils pensent vraiment c'est moi." She looked at the others, and spoke to them. "s'il vous plaît" The lovely nova woman extended her plea to the others present.

Translate: (first part, swearing) My love, you must to and rescue Agatha, she would be in dire danger now, if they truly think she is me.

2nd: If you please

[Toby Lupin]

Darrik's expression hardened and looked quietly dangerous, though it was clear that his wrath would be directed to those who might hurt Agatha in Gwen's place. He agreed with his pregnant lover's assertions about the third member of their threesome. Stepping forward, he spoke one word only. "Oui." Then he walked out into a dark corner and faded into the shadows... time to visit gay Paris... though it would be less so when all was done.

[Quantum Fire]

Paris, the city of love, or so it was called, it was also a place where all kinds of things happened under the radar, and the french were interesting people, if some of them were a touch stuck up, others were quite likable, as Gwen was. It was nighttime when Darrik arrived, which for the master of darkness was just as well, now he would have to find and get Agatha out of here, hopefully before anything really bad happened. Of course, Agatha could take care of herself even better then Gwen, a shapeshifter after all, had many options to deal with matters, but even so, he still needed to find her before she got in over her head.

[Toby Lupin]

The first question, Darrik supposed, was how much had Agatha taken over the place of Gwen? Obviously as a shapeshifter and close friends- very close even before the sharing of Darrik- Agatha could certainly mimic her friend to an nearly unbeatable degree. And likely, she would have access to Gwen's home to keep up the illusions. That was where Darrik chose to begin his search, and faded into the dark, invisible before he decided to make a shadow enhanced jump into Gwen's normal hidey-hole...

A poor choice of words, given Darrik's retained desire for his two lovers, even pregnant Gwen. Though he was aware that he had unintentionally sired children on Gwen, it did not tamp down his admittedly strong wish to take them again, partly out of his urges, but to also comfort them that he was there for them.

[Quantum Fire]

Darrik arrived to find Agatha, looking like Gwen with the house barricaded up from the inside and her checking what appeared to be a hole just large enough for a mouse behind a cabnet she'd pulled back. The house itself looked like it had been ransacked, and she looked up and then relief appeared on her face. "Darrik.. you found her then?" At the nod, she relaxed slightly. "Good, cause slipping the net without giving away that I'm not her has gotten harder and harder, I don't think I can keep doing it for much longer."

[Toby Lupin]

Darrik sighed and drew Agatha into an embrace, thankful that she was at least unharmed. "Let's be honest," he whispered. "Gwen is safe, but for you, the jig is up, I think. They were already tracking her, and I got in just ahead of pursuit. Want me to take you home. or somewhere else?"