Fandom Into the fire (1x1 MzHyde/Gallifrog)

[MzHyde]

Fia listened to what Cliff had to say about Deke and she could understand why Rinaa got on with him so well. She also saw the admiration in Cliff as she spoke and it made her smile. When she said about the hearing aids thing, she laughed."everyone has their kryptonite" she pointed out matter of factly. She didn't know a single person who was pod at everything they touched, and everyone had something that they couldn't quite master.

Kay found herself getting a bit overwhelmed by all the text as she tried to work out what was utter crap and what was true. It was all so much to take in, and she wondered why she even started reading it all, wishing she hadn't. She had read about all the different ways mythical creatures give birth and some.of them were just downright disgusting. She found a few things about phoenix births but they were harder to find information on. Some said it was to be believed it was like a normal human birth if the mother was in a human body, others said no matter the vessel, the birth was in fire and ash. Which didn't help matters what so ever, and through all the reading, she ended up falling asleep in John's arm on the couch. It wasn't particularly late, but it seemed from the day's events, and lack of eating just made her tired.

 

[_gallifrog_]

"Yep they do. He says he'll get it some day, but we'll see." Cliff agreed. It didn't really bother her too much that the hearing aids weren't waterproof, even though one time she had been shocked badly when they short circuited in the water. But no lasting damage had been done and the event was now a funny story to tell at parties or whatever. She made a copy of the model one was a base template while the other was a working model to use. Getting used to the controls and the possibilities of what to do took a bit of a time and led to some hilarious mistakes on her part.

John didn't want to move Kay and risk disturbing her sleep, so he just stayed where he was. Washing up done, Cal sat herself down near Jay. "Why do I get the feeling you're not exactly comfortable around us?" She asked in Attili. The blue haired woman looked up. "It's because I'm not, I guess I don't feel justified as part of the group. It's been years since I was properly accepted in a group, and even then, they were criminals and rogue pilots." Jay admitted looking up from the book. As she shifted in position on the couch her shoulder blades became visible through the racer back of the training shirt she'd worn in the gym. The ends of long red lash scars could be seen across her shoulder blades.

 

[MzHyde]

Fia nodded, thinking he sounded like a stereotypical stubborn person who refused failure and wouldn't stop until it was figured out. She had to admire that, as she was similar in that instance. It took her a long time go master some of the runes and magic that went through them. She spent many days cursing and losing her rag over not figuring things out until one day everything just slotted I to place and she mastered her task. She continued to watch Cliff work the controls and make a second model, and as Cliff made funny mistakes, she laughed with her.

The sleep was a light sleep, but deep enough to not be aware of Kay's surroundings or the talk between Cal and Jay. During her sleep, her hand just dropped beside her, her phone dropping onto the floor. As she slept, she began to dream about nothing in particular at first and she remained calm, she was just dead to the world. Her dreams soon became more vivid and in her sleep she smiled slightly.

 

[_gallifrog_]

Cliff wasn't sure if what she was doing was actually working or not, it all seemed to depend on the delicate balence between materials and weight. Too heavy any kind of mechanism or supporting structure and the violin wouldn't work as a violin, but too weak and they ran the risk of breaking the instrument. After a while of messing around and not really achieving much, she passed control over to Fia to see if she might have any better success at the whole thing.

John noticed the phone drop and picked it up, placing it on the coffee table. A glance at the clock revealed that it was slowly creeping nearer to seven the hour when Rinaa had estimated she'd be home at. To distract himself from that though, he found himself glancing over at Fia and Cliff, while keeping an ear open on the conversation between Jay and Cal. He saw the tips of the scars and knew that only a whip could have made such lasting marks, but made no comment. "The rats?" "Yeah, I guess they would be what your squad is to you and what A.J's crew is to Elliott. Even if we came together under bad circumstances with illegal intent, we were like a family. You saw the bird yesterday?" Cal nodded "an insane stunt, guessing it was them." "Exactly, it was a message, they still got my back in this shite, even if I haven't seen them in years."

 

[MzHyde]

Fia gladly took over and from watching Cliff and a bit of practical trial and error, she familiarised herself with what did what on the programme, and soon enough she got the hang of it and began to try out some things before trying them out on the practical model they printed up. As she focused and concentrated more, she had the little habit of sticking the tip of her tongue out the side of her mouth. She wasn't even aware of John glancing at them.

Kay ended up dreaming her memories of when she was a kid and learning the piano with her mother teaching her, before times went dark for her. If she was awake she would have put it down to becoming a mother herself and having Fia around, that stirred up all the memories in her dreams. Napping for around another ten minutes or so, she stirred awake again, glancing around realising she had indeed fallen asleep for a bit.

 

[_gallifrog_]

John could tell when Kay had woken up, without looking. He was still eavesdropping on the conversation between Jay and Cal. If they didn't want him to hear, the should have chosen a different language. The conversation had turned to comparing their various squads, finding the common characteristics and the things that were specific to each. But before that Cal had made an attempt to try and persuade Jay that she was part of the group, for better or for worse. The blue haired woman remained unconvinced. She'd also discovered they had common ground sports wise and had invited Jay to train with them later for the hell of it. Which Jay had agreed to with no need for persuasion. Turning to face Kay "Begote you ask, you were only out for a few minutes, and didn't miss anything."

Cal watched Fia go through a similar trial and error process as she did. Once grasped, the tools and controls were logical and intuitive. She got the gang of it faster than Cliff did, but that was to be expected. They seemed to be getting somewhere with a design. Cliff spike up with suggestions on what could potentially be done, and they seemed to be making good progress.

And just after seven, Rinaa arrived back. Her hair had managed to stay almost intact under her hood, and she had acquired a backpack full of textbooks at some point. Around her neck were two lanyards, one for Deke's lab, the other an Attili student ID. What she opened the door to was a scene of togetherness. John and Kay. Cal and Jay sussing each other out and forming the basis for a life long friendship. Chas and Dan were absent, but she could infer why without anybody mentioning why. The surprising pair was Cliff and Fia, who even knew what they were bonding over? Seeing this scene Rinaa was half tempted to turn and leave, but decided no, she wouldn't. She had just as much right to be here as anybody else.

So instead she shook out her hair, dumping the wet gear where the rest of it was drying and made her way to the table. She hadn't intended to get involved in Cliff and Fia's work, but the model caught her eye and something changed in her expression. It became calculating, the cogs in her mind cold be seen rapidly as she took in the problem they were facing, knowing what the aim was before either could open their mouths to explain. "That won't work" was all she said.

 

[MzHyde]

Kay looked up when John spoke to her before she could even get a single word out, him seeming to know just what she was going to ask. "Okay" she replied, glancing around, she could see Jay and Cal in an in-depth conversation about whatever, and Fia was still with Cliff trying to work on the model of her violin. Glancing up at the clock, she noticed Rinaa would be getting in any second now, and as she thought it, Rinaa did in fact arrive. She found herself glancing over and watching to see what would ensue as Rinaa walked over to Fia and Cliff.

Fia was too focused on the project with Cliff to notice Rinaa's entrance back into the room. She only noticed Rinaa's presence when she spoke up saying how the idea wouldn't work. "Damn it...you got any ideas?" Fia asked, curious to know what Rinaa had in mind if she knew this idea would work. Her tone was polite and genuine. "Because I'm all ears and eyes if you got anything" she added. She felt like she should have known Rinaa would have better ideas of knowledge of this than herself.

 

[_gallifrog_]

The room had fallen silent when Rinaa had arrived, nobody sure how to react, least of all her. The worry was most visible on Jay's face, she really didn't want to have to break up a fight between the two. Fia may have the powers and the runes, but Rinaa was a fighter, born and bred, her Isogrii dide had dominated over the mage side, a fact that had annoyed her when she was younger. Mainly out of jealousy. But she'd accepted her skill set and embraced it.

When she'd spoken up Rinaa had only intended the remark to be just that. Not to actually get involved in the project. But her analytical, constructive side wouldn't let her do that. Both Leahs were extremely mechanically minded, and had trained that way, first learning to take apart and repair ships off Earth before moving onto bikes on Earth. She'd inherited the brains, but never made a big deal out of it, she rarely mentioned just how smart she was. Neither timelines' Fia knew but Rinaa had started a dual honours university course a year early. "Actually, I do" the other teenager said aloud. But inside she was thinking more along the lines of "Yeah right, you'll actually listen? Pull the other one it shoots lasers."

She dumped the bag on the ground, swinging it off her shoulders in the way that all students do when they've been carrying it around for ages and now their shoulders hurt. Cliff moved over to let her work. It was clear as soon as she brought up a fresh template that she knew exactly what she was doing. "Your design is flawed, major style, you recognised that there would be torque where the neck meets the body, but you completly forgot about the forces the body will experience. If it wasn't a cut out violin the body would be enough to absorb most of the forces, but since you have these massive gaping holes, it's gonna crumple like this." She manipulated the programme to show how the violin would warp, rendering it useless.

"So what do you suggest?" Cliff asked, seeing just how much Rinaa was in her element. This was the most the teenager had spoken in one go in her presence. "Something more like this, you have to build extra framework its unavoidable, but since this violin is all about the aesthetic you have to make it a feature. And light if she's going to be going full on with the thing nearly falling off the roof in the process." That had happened in her timeline Fia hadn't known anybody was watching, but Rinaa had been sneaking out at the time. "Carbon fibre is probably best, or some kind of 3D printed frame alloy thing, Deke has those and the equipment" as she spoke, she workefD, manipulating the model to her will. Jay had come over now and was watching her kid work. "Something like this will work, size varies slightly by materials though."

 

[MzHyde]

Fia was genuinely interested in seeing where they were going wrong and if Rinaa had ideas and knew how to make her dream of a fully functioning crossbow violin come to reality, then she'd take on board anything Rinaa would tell her. Fia gladly moved out of the way when she saw Rinaa take her bag off and like Cliff, let Rinaa take over. She watched intently as it became obvious she should have just asked the Rinaa in her timeline from the get go. But she just wanted at the time, a project for herself to see if she could do something that Rinaa could, adding that with her self pride, she refused to go to Rinaa.

She listened to what Rinaa as explaining and it made sense, it was the design of the violin that was making her begin to think she'd never get her dream. Cliff beat her to it by asking what would Rinaa suggest, and she listened to Rinaa's reply, noting how she spoke as if Fia wasn't even there. "I'm not that clumsy, I've never accidentally fallen off a roof" Fia replied, she had purposely scared the shit out of Kay and John once by purposely jumping off the roof to test her phoenix wings rune portal, only to fly on back up onto the roof, but she had never once in her timeline, accidentally fallen off. Especially from playing her violin. She's tripped over her own feet sure when practicing new choreography, but that was about it. From her reply, it was a sure hint that she wasn't the same Fia Rinaa knew. She wanted to tell her but instead of outright saying 'your timeline me maybe, but not me' but decided her actual reply was a softer approach.
Fia listened to the two ideas and watched Rinaa manipulate the model. "I like the idea of 3D printed alloy. Now I wish I had my real violin here" Fia grinned as she noted Jay walking over.

Kay was eavesdropping on the conversation the entire time, still concerned that some argument would break out. When Jay got up and walked over to them all, she felt a bit better that nothing would happen if Jay was there.

 

[_gallifrog_]

Rinaa rolled her eyes at Fia denying ever falling off a roof. They'd all done it at some point or another, she'd done it mnay times, luckily managing to recover and grab something in time or the distance had been small enough that she'd only received minors scrapes. Hearing Fia speak up an expression of 'why in the eternal Hells am I doing this?' came over her face, she'd kind of managed to suceed in blocking out her presence from her mind, but now that illusion had been shattered. Rinaa knew the answer to her internal question, she couldn't just stand by when somebody tried to execute an awful design concept with visibly obvious flaws. Her engineering pride wouldn't let her. "Alloy would be stronger all right, and more durable. Let me check something..." She trailed off slightly, logging into an account and began scrolling through the various timetanles available.

"How do you know all this?" Cliff asked, her tone one of genuine curiosity, but crucially no sign of surprise or disbelief. Which made a crucial difference in that Rinaa was actually willing to answer her question. "Dual honours degree mechanics and engineering, a year and a half teaches you a lot. But I've always been science and maths inclined." The unspoken part being, since being a mage was out of the question. "Spent a few summers working at Kane" she turned to Jay to add the context. "Kane finally gets out from under his father's shadow and sets up a science and research company that becomes one of the top in it's field. And recently enough I got a really good internship at the best ranked labs in the world." Her tone quietened saying that. There were very few in either timeline who knew exactly where she'd ended up working. Or in Fia's timeline, what she'd become a part of.

Seeing the varying expressions at her revelations she added "Yeah, I know, I don't look like the kind of person who's into that kind of stuff." As she spoke her two hands worked independently, one pulling up the machine specs for both Deke's lab and the public labs while the other pulled up the timetables to see what (if any) slots were available across all suitable machines.

 

[MzHyde]

Fia saw Rinaa roll her eyes at her comment about not falling off the roof. Of course she'd find something in that to show her distaste for Fia. She was trying to be nice, but Rinaa was making it very difficult for her. She shook it from her mind when Rinaa said about checking something and agreed alloy would be better for what she wanted the violin for...to play and use as a weapon if it ever came to it, so she continued to watch what Rinaa was doing. She did glance across to see Kay watching and gave her the look of 'im trying to be nice' and Kay just gave her the simple single nod to show she got what Fia was mentally saying.

Overhearing the explanation of how Rinaa knew all this stuff after Cliff asked, Kay had to be impressed that she was a lot more clever than she had let on so far, thinking that Rinaa as should show it more. Fia just listened, knowing how smart she was, so not really being all too surprised by her explanation as it wasn't very different to the Rinaa of her timeline. She just kept her eyes back on the screen instead of saying anything. She knew she wouldn't take any kind of compliment from her, so she was starting to think it was pointless in saying anything that wasn't this project related.

 

[_gallifrog_]

There were various reactions in the room to this. John, like Kay had no idea at all about just how smart she actually was. This kid was full of lurking surprises, and to hear the list of what she had achieved in her timeline, despite all the stuff going on was more than impressive. Cliff and Cal both realised that these abilities were why Deke had taken such a shine to her and what she'd been doing on campus earlier. She'd been continuing the degree she'd put to one side at her terminal diagnosis. Jay was the first to actually make a comment on what Rinaa had revealed about herself. She'd known there was far more to her than met the eye, but this? This she hadn't been expecting. "Wow, seriously kiddo, that is absaloutly insane."

Rinaa reddened slightly at that comment, but a genuine half smile appeared on her face. It meant a lot to her, she had Jay's approval one hundred and ten percent in the future, she had been the one to push her to make use of her talents, but to have it now still meant so much to her. This version of Rinaa rarely smiled, where as the one in Fia's timeline smiled and smirked more often, espescially when pissing around with a bunch of friends or on gaming nights. Jay noticed this. "I really mean it, that's incredible, don't let yourself think otherwise....so where exactly did you get into?" She asked, her interest piqued by the last remark. Rinaa hadn't named the place and that was deliberate. She told Jay, but in Jay's native language, ensuring that none of the others understood.

Jay's eyebrows rose dramatically as her face turned to one of shock. "You made that same face when the email saying I was accepted came through, it was your idea that I apply in the first place." Rinaa told her with genuine fondness at the memory her voice quietened for the next part. "I can show you some stuff later if you're interested?" "Oh yes, I really am." On screen the time slots were up, and the suitable equipment in Deke's lab was free for a three hour slot that coincided perfectly with Rinaa's plans, she had no morning lectures. "There's a three hour space tomorrow morning where the suitable equipment is free, staking my claim on that slot now."

 

[MzHyde]

Hearing the surprise and praise in Jay's tone, made Kay see just how easily motherhood took to Jay and how good it was on her. As the conversation went on, she didn't see the pink shade that appeared on Rinaa's face from her angle but considering how she took praise previously, Kay could imagine she had blushed or reacted to the praise in a very similar manner. Fia just didn't respond much at all, she could tell the differences between the two Rinaa's now and had noticed she rarely smiled, even in the very short amount of time she had been in her presence.

As the time slots came up and Rinaa said about taking the three hour slot, she nodded. "Cool" Fia simply replied. The way this Rinaa was helping her, even if it was out of selfish reasons and not to actually help her, she still appreciated it and made Fia decide to make more.of an effort to the Rinaa in her time when she went back. She knew she wouldn't be able to stay for months on end, and would have to go back before Kay gave birth to her. "No matter the reason, thanks for helping with this. It does mean a lot to me" she told Rinaa, genuine sincerity in her tone.

 

[_gallifrog_]

Rinaa had picked another alias for herself, she didn't use her birth name of Leah anymore, and Rinaa had been more of an ironic joke than anything. So she had picked another false identity to use on Attil- Artemis Taylor. The ID around her neck bore the same name and Cliff though back to the various files with Artemis in the name. Was Artemis a name Rinaa used in general to hide what she was doing from the others, or did it have a different significance entirely? The hours were taken, along with a few slots at some other machines that seemed like they might be useful.

Rinaa heard the sincerity in Fia's voice, and knew she meant the words, though she wasn't sure how to take them. Was it an olive branch of some kind for her misuse if words in the morning or was there another deeper meaning behind it? Either way the thanks was appreciated. "Yeah, you're welcome I guess." She replied, making a copy of the design file and pulling out a USB and sticking it in. It was password protected as was pretty much every file she had on her. This drive was purely plans and models and was labelled as such. The drive contained all kinds of projects, including a large file on bikes. Rinaa was really hoping she wouldn't regret agreeing to do this.

 

[MzHyde]

Fia noted the name Artemis but decided to not think too much about it. It wasn't her place to pry into it and she knew Rinaa did things for a reason, or at least the Rinaa she knew, did which meant she took it that this Rinaa did as well. Hearing her reply to Fia, she smiled, glad that her thanks was taken and not just brushed off. Maybe she was a bit more like the Rinaa she knew in her timeline after all. "and..I'm sorry for earlier, it was a slip of the tongue. I fucked up. Won't happen again I swear, I can explain why I made the mistake of you wanna know" she added, wanting Rinaa to know she didn't mean any ill-will toward her.

Kay heard Fia apologise and she smiled to herself actually feeling proud of her kid for taking the initiative to be the bigger person and admit when she was wrong. She didn't know how Rinaa would take it, but at least Fia tried and that was something Kay could get behind and be proud of. She was glad that they clearly brought up their daughter to own up to her mistakes, which showed her they did something right by her.

 

[_gallifrog_]

Rinaa hadn't been expecting any form of apology for earlier, so the fact that one had materialised caught her off guard. She had to mentally replay the words to ensure she'd heard right. Jay didn't know how Rinaa was going to take the apology. Herself and Elliott had been the only ones to see just how much the nickname had hurt her. The anger she'd shown to Fia had quickly faded to a deeper, stronger, sadness. From her spot Jay wondered whether she'd have to pull the two apart from each other, which she would willingly do. John was watching with bated breath too, it was a big move on Fia's part, but he could also see Rinaa's side of the story. Maybe her reaction had been a little over the top, but maybe now was a the time for thinking rationally.

Rinaa pulled herself upright from the kneeling position she'd adopted at the computer due to the chairs being taken. Her hair made her taller than Fia, even though she was the younger of the two. She crossed her arms. "Actually I would like to know." Rinaa didn't say if she'd accepted the apology or add the rest of her sentence aloud. Even in the short Interactions with Fia most of her sentences had only Ben half her thoughts, the censored bits being the jabs and the sarcastic remarks. In this case the full remark should have been "Actually, I would like to know how you could manage to forget that I'm dying, considering you were there when I got the diagnosis and when I had the first set of nightmares afterwards."

 

[MzHyde]

Fia hoped Rinaa would take her apology and if the version of her in Rinaa's timeline would have done the same thing as she was doing now. If not, then she hoped Rinaa would see how different she was. She saw how much the apology caught her off guard and it was in that moment she realised she made a move different to the other Fia. She looked Rinaa dead in the eye and wondered if in front of everyone was a good idea but she had a feeling a private chat wouldn't be accepted.

"Okay..I don't know how to say it so I'm just gonna come out with it, and if you wanna know more we can talk in private about it. Just to give you the heads up. But..truth is, I didn't realise it until it was too late that you're not the Rinaa I thought you were. I'm not from your timeline...but a different one" she explained softly but still to the point. She knew it'd be a blow for her to hear it, but it had to be said for her to understand why it was such an easy mistake to have made. By this point, Kay sat up properly and was ready to pull them apart if it came to it, just like Jay was.

 

[_gallifrog_]

At first Rinaa simply looked bored being of the mindset of, just get on with it and spit it out I can handle it. She merely thought Fia was stalling for time to come up with something. And then came the crux of the matter, this Fia was from a different timeline, one with a different version of her in it. At first the dominant emotion was shock, but that faded away quickly. Rinaa was a time and space traveller after all, so being from a different timeline wasn't beyond the realms of possibility. Quickly her face changed to one of efficient calculation, just like it had when she saw the model earlier. Contrary to her earlier outburst, Rinaa was usually a very logical thinker, but that morning she'd been in a pretty bad state, the Omega side effects hitting her hard and she was in no mood for anybody's shit. And Fia just happened to come along slap bang at the worst part of that time.

"Bloody Hells, it might have worked" was her response, a half gasp of realisation, half other emotions as she ran a hand over the crest of her hair. "What might have worked?" Cliff asked the question on everybody's mind. "In my timeline we tried everything to find a cure, but there was only one solution we could come up with, to travel back in time and either stop me getting bitten or stop Elliott from dying. The first was impossible, the event was timelocked, couldn't change it if we tried. And the second, it would have erased me from existance, or killed Elliott prematurely, making things even worse. But if you're telling the truth, then there is a myriad of possible options for the future, mine being just one of them."

 

[MzHyde]

Fia could see the boredom on Rinaa's face but she wanted to get out all the information she could and give her all the options straight up. When she finally told her and looked at her reactions, she was glad she didn't get her head metaphorically chewed off for it, like Fia was partly expecting. When she said it might have worked, she had her suspicions of what she was meaning, but wasn't 100% certain, so when Cliff asked the question they were all thinking, she was thankful for it.

"Well it must have because you don't get annoyed with me for the nickname as it came about due to your natural agility and Elliott is still alive in my timeline. You're both perfectly fine in my timeline. And yeah, we're as competitive as ever with each other but we don't hate each other, which seems to be the case in yours." Fia explains. She hoped she didn't say too much but she felt it was just enough to give Rinaa hope, that just maybe one timeline would win out over the other and no one would have lose anyone and Rinaa wouldn't have to go through so much crap that John told her about. Kay breathed a discreet sigh of relief when a fight didn't break out or another argument, but she was still on a slight edge incase it still broke out.

 

[_gallifrog_]

To hear that Rinaa's two choices had been either to erase herself from existance and start again or to attempt to get to know her father before she died was heartbreaking. There was no real right or wrong answer. John, Jay, Cliff and Cal could all see that. This Rinaa had made a choice and stuck to it, for better or for worse. And none of the others could say with one hundred percent certainty that things would have been different had she gone the other way with her choice.

Rinaa couldn't help being bitter at the next piece of information. So not only did Fia have all the things she didn't when growing up- this particular version had Elliott too. Well of course she would, the universe (In Rinaa's mind) seemed to favour Fia more than it had ever favoured her or Jay. "In mine it started as an act of retaliation for a nickname created through running joke among my friends. The nickname you gave me stuck, but was used more of as a put down and a jab at being a loner, which you just assumed since I was always meeting friends at weird hours and dodgy places. Another way of getting one up over me I suppose. Everything had to be a competition, faster, higher, further, and basically anything you could use magic to beat me at. So you appearing here this morning seemed like time-travel is just another thing you're doing to prove you can do it better than me."

The information had given her hope alright, more than she was showing or ever would. But it was also stirring up some old memories.

 

[MzHyde]

Fia listened to what Rinaa said about the nickname and what it created between them. So she was the blame to everything that made Rinaa's life hell, and having her mother not like her clearly was just an added catalyst. It made Fia feel awkward and awful for the other version of her's actions. She didn't know how to reply initially at Rinaa's information, and certainly didn't want to say anything that would make her explode in anger again. She was a cheerful and playful kid and she knew it got her into trouble a lot of the time, but she didn't think for a moment it could make someone else, particularly family feel the way Rinaa was made to feel.

"Aww shit... Ri I'm so sorry...sounds like I'm a right bitch to you in your timeline. I'm not as perfect as other timeline me seems to try and make out or come across as" she replied awkwardly, her hands running through her hair. She felt like staying maybe not a brilliant idea but she didn't wanna go either. She wondered if she should leave her alone for a bit or not.

 

[_gallifrog_]

Rinaa's life had been decided by a set of factors beyond her control. It was the combination of Kay's coldness, Fia's (sometimes) sly bitchiness, the unspoken, but ever present reminders of Elliott that lurked in her. Jay making the call to raise her off world had been probably the single best decision ever made in Rinaa's life. Away from the Earth relatives, she came into her own, hanging around with pilot kids, learning to fix things, learning to race and learning how to use her Isogrii bloodlines for both defence and offense. She was a more vibrant person there among like minded people. And when she did have to go back to Earth for the mandatory family things (that Jay didn't really want to go to either) she spent as much of that time in Kane's lab or playing music at shady underground dives. And then when she got her internship, she usually just crashed there, which was totally acceptable with everybody else.

This conversation was getting awkward, espescially with everybody else in the room listening intently. Rinaa rolled up her sleeve to reveal her time travel device. She'd given it to Jay and Cliff for more than one reason. Booting it up, she checked the time stream data. It confirmed what Fia had been saying, she was indeed from another timeline altogether. "And I'm far more screwed up than the Leah you know, so I guess that makes us even. My life is a mess, and time travel is not exactly helping matters. Before I say anything that could potentially wreck the lives of everybody in this room, let's go somewhere else."

 

[MzHyde]

Fia watched Rinaa as she pulled up her sleeve to check if what she was saying was the truth. She had no concerns about what she'd find as Fia knew everything she said was the truth and from the heart. She really did want to make up for upsetting Rinaa earlier on in the day, as she didn't want things to be toxic in the apartment if she was going to stay for a little while. No one needed to be involved in it, which if those two were to be at each others' throats, whether it be both of them or one of them hating the other, would naturally drag everyone else in. Jay would want to defend Rinaa and no doubt Kay at least, if not both Kay and John would want to defend Fia.

Fia then nodded at Rinaa's next words. She made a valid point and she was surprised they had as much of the conversation in front of everyone else as they did. "Sure, lead the way to where you wanna go. You know this place better than I do" she replied to Rinaa. Kay wasn't sure if it was a good idea, and she looked over at Fia, only to get the 'i'll be fine, no need to be over protective now' look. So Kay just sat back against John again, but not without the 'if anything go sideways just hollah' look.

 

[_gallifrog_]

Jay and Rinaa also exchanged looks, but they had slightly different meanings to the ones Kay and Fia had exchanged. Theirs went something more along the lines of "I'm not gonna rip her throat out with my fangs or anything, don't worry." "I know you won't, and besides you totally got the advantage when it comes to a fight. And if it does come to that, make it look like it wasn't you." that was received with a half smirk from the teenager. Jay would definitly help her hide a body. With this tomes Jay it wasn't really a mother daughter relationship, it was something else, Jay had her back either way. Cliff pulled out the spare key from her pocket. "You might as well keep it, if you're going to be coming an doing at weird times. Also, if you are interested Deke says you can join in training later at nine, you know the place?" "Yup, I'll be there."

With that Rinaa pulled out her USB, putting it back around her neck, where Elliott's armour necklace and two other USB drives were also hanging. She left the apartment, turning left down the corridor. At the end of the corridor was a door marked with keep out warnings. Needless to say Rinaa ignored them, picking the lock in less than a minute. The door lead to the old outside staircase. It had been badly storm damaged, the bottom few stories missing the rest beginning to rust. But it was mostly shelted from the rain, and provided a view of the city lights in the distance. At night the rings were even more spectacular than during the day. "Earth's a couple of billion miles that way, you can't see it though." Rinaa pointed at a spot of sky that seemed to contain nothing but blackness.

 

[MzHyde]

Fia waited for Rinaa to finish whatever she was doing, and let her reply to Cliff about training with Deke. She let her out her usb round her neck then followed her down the stairs a few stories. She really hoped she wouldn't regret doing this and she wouldn't get beaten to a pulp by Rinaa. She didn't like the way she had earlier shared a look with Jay. Especially after Jay helped Fia out, she just didn't like the sudden change in vibe coming off of the two of them. As they reached to where Rinaa wanted to go, she looked out as she spoke. "Cool" she just simply said. "So what did you wanna talk about away from everyone else?" She asked.

Kay also had noticed the looks exchanged between Rinaa and Jay, and it could be just because she's pregnant with Fia, and having her around grown up, but she didn't like the vibe that was coming from the two of them. She hoped her daughter would be okay and safe with Rinaa alone. She trusted Fia, but she wasn't sure if she could trust Rinaa's emotions.