Fandom Into the fire (1x1 MzHyde/Gallifrog)

[MzHyde]

Kay hated the idea that someone manipulated Fia to come back to this time, like John, it got her mind racing with thoughts of someone giving her up to ensure Fia came back and that didn't sit well with her at all. It got her incredibly anxious just thinking about the idea because it meant in the long run, her family was still very much in danger and people were determined to do all they could to either get rid of her or hand her over to Hell. The knowledge that someone kidnapped her in the future was one thing, but now hearing it was all a much bigger plan sent more worry through her than she thought possible because she didn't like the idea of anyone manipulating her family.

Both Kay and Fia nodded and said their agreement after Cal spoke. Their tones just as full of worry and somber sounding as the others. They both then looked at Elliott and listened to what he was saying, neither liking the idea that at the heart of it is Elliott's choice to come back here to make a stand. Neither liked that someone out there was using Elliott's choice to come here as a catalyst and trigger to put so much more into motion. "I hate to say I agree with you Ell, but I think you're right. Whatever is about to go down, I reckon that will be their play and game field so to speak" Kay said sadly. "agreed, I have this sinking this feeling that you're not far wrong about this choice of yours is being manipulated to become the trigger and catalyst for this mystery person who then continues to manipulate me and take mum" Fia added, her tone showing just how much she hated saying those words out loud.

 

[_gallifrog_]

"Before we get totally carried away, we have no way of knowing if Kay's abduction in the future was actually planned by our mystery people, or if it was already fated to happen, an unavoidable point in the time continuum as Jay would say" he rolled his eyes ever so slightly upon saying the words, which told John there had been quite a few debates between Elliott and Jay on the nature of time and timelines"and they merely used it as a convenient way to get the book to Fia. There's nothing in the book to suggest anything demonic, or even any links to anything demonic, and we know for a fact that it was demons that took the future Kay." Elliott may not have actually been there for the rescue mission but Jay had. Not only had Jay filled Elliott in on the details of their jaunt through time (and the fact that it made Jay feel really nauseous without looking it), which had mainly consisted of her confirming what they knew that Cliff was a stone cold badass of an archer, Jay had been inside future Kay's head and seen and felt what the other woman was going through.

While they'd been talking Elliott had been flipping through the book and skim reading it, trying to familiarise himself with the contents to see if anything rung a bell for him. "Flicking through it, it seems to be the opposite, when you discount the songs and rants and what looks like the outline of a speech, it seems to be mostly tech based, apart from this section here which is Rinaa researching the magical wards of Attil and the potential ways one could use specific runes, blood bonds, familial ties and something called" he paused for a second to check his translation was right"'the unpredictability principle of time travel' to slip through the barriers unnoticed." "And according to Deke, our Spanish 'friend' " the airquotes were implied in cal's tone of voice"has wrote the least in the book, and it all seems to be add-ons to what was already there." "Like they were being asked for a second opinion or to proof read or something. Not saying it couldn't be them behind this, but based on what little we do know, to me at least, it doesn't seem totally likely that they're the real mastermind behind whatever this" Cliff waved her hands all around her to indicate her point"is."

 

[MzHyde]

Fia listened to what Elliott was saying and playing the rational card after her little spiel. She was just so used to always being wanted or her mum always having to watch her back that she couldn't help but think way far into something. It was her coping mechanism she supposed so that if something major did occur, she wasn't at all surprised and ready to fight for her survival if and when it came to it. She knew she could trust Elliott's opinion and knowledge on such matters, she just really didn't want to lose any of her family. She kept listening to not just Elliott, but to Cal and Cliff as well nodding and finding their words were more helpful to her than she was outwardly showing.

"you're right, I'm just so used to having to think of the worst case scenario, I guess it's a coping mechanism. I don't wanna lose any of you." Fia replied finally, subconsciously having leaned into Elliott as she spoke, an action she always did when she was anxious about something and he was around. She had even spent many a time just turning up at his and Jay's place just for that comfort that only an older sibling could bring. In that case she was very much like her father. "but it still feels off for some reason and I can't put my finger on it. My gut instincts are VERY rarely wrong" she added, "and I don't wanna be that person that drops all the bombshells, but Cliff was certain at one point we were possibly followed back. None of us saw anyone but its gonna mean we all need to be more vigilant when leaving this place" she then explained. She was never one to hide important details from her family, and she sure as hell wasn't going to start now.

 

[_gallifrog_]

Thinking of the worst case scenario was always a good strategy, one John employed all the time in his life, the phrase 'expect the best, prepare for the worst' didn't quite cover it as usually with John it was the worse options that happened. But he also knew that there was merit in looking at all kinds of angles as he could never truly predict what somebody or something was going to so. Sentient creatures had an almost endless capacity for doing something so completely and utterly surprising that nobody could see it coming. "I'm with Elliott, how do we even know that the person who planted the book even wrote in it? It could be that they were given the book by somebody else to hide, with no idea why it was being done, just thinking they were doing a mate a favour or whatever."

Unlike John, Elliott was well used to having people lean against him for comfort and didn't mind in the slightest that Fia was doing it now. When he was younger it had been him and Cal leaning against each other for mutual support and body heat while on a cold rooftop, on Earth it had been mainly him and Trish after a long night of gaming, eating and, as John like to put it, gossiping like nosy old women. But it had also been him and Gemma (on the rare occasions she'd visited them or he and John had visited them). There'd also been a time when Toby fell asleep on him and another time he'd ended up crashing out with Noah on Nat's tatty, rat-bitten couch. More recently he'd had jay and Rinaa, neither of which would say anything, letting their actions speak for themselves. Out of the two, it was Jay who was the more willing to talk about whatever it was that was on her mind. Rinaa's reluctance he put down to a combination of never actually having a father figure as such to talk to and an unwillingness to show just how deep her mental health issues went. It made a welcome change that Fia was more open about things. He knew that he and Fia were close in the future, and in a way, her feeling she could just revert back to old routines proved it.

Cal nodded in agreement when Fia spoke of Cliff's feeling of being followed. "I trust Cliff's instinct on this, even if I personally saw nothing, she's almost hyper aware when deaf, not that bullshit of other senses becoming enhanced when you lose one though." She placed particular emphasis on that part of the sentence knowing how much it annoyed Cliff when people thought that. "It's not hyper awareness as such, it's just I have to rely way more on the visual to know what's actually going on in the world." "With the trial approaching, it was kind of inevitable I suppose, that somebody would start paying more attention to us. Let's face it, we were hardly discreet walking out of the prison." "Made a great statement though." Cal smirked. "Agreed. But the real question is, was the follower friend or foe?"

 

[MzHyde]

Fia glanced at Chas when he spoke up agreeing with Elliott, she also noticed that Kay was nodding in agreement at what the others were saying. By this point, one hand had snaked round Elliott's arm, her head on his shoulder and feeling truly like his baby sister yet again. "I agree, we literally know nothing about who planted the book in The House, for all we know it could have been your time line's Leah wanting to help in her own discreet way. The fact that none of us would think of her helping is probably a reason for her to help. Like you said yourself Fia, you two get along in your timeline and if that's the case then maybe she wanted to help you save future me and in turn John, to spare the grief of losing a parent. Just.. Without the fuss of being so public with it" Kay chimed in her theory that felt completely plausible. What she didn't say was 'and stop worrying a out losing any of us, you know we're all going to be doing our damndest to not let anything happen'.

The idea of someone following Cal, Cliff and Fia however was interesting to Kay, slightly unnerving and unsurprising all at the same time. She nodded at everything that was being said before Elliott brought up yet another question to add to their ever expanding list of questions they were forming. "I guess it's another to add to that growing list" she commented. Fia nodded lightly so not to create any discomfort for Elliott as she was still leaning on him, as she knew how sharp her jawline could be and was told many a time her jaw was digging into people's shoulders. "guess so" she replied. "all we can do at the moment is take each day att a time, going through what we know but by bit rather than trying to fit all the pieces together at the same time. We'll get nowhere doing that" Kay then spoke up once more. "sometimes mum you can sound way more wise than you let on" Fia smirked, "jee.. Thanks, not" Kay retorted back.

 

[_gallifrog_]

The others nodded at Kay's theory, it was actually plausible enough. It would require her Leah getting the notebook at some point or another, but given that Rinaa had spent near three years time travelling, it wasn't impossible that she'd hop to Fia's timeline to get the book to the other Leah, one who actually genuinely liked and cared about Fia and Kay, and could actually enter The House without her consciousness being blasted from her body. John and Elliott couldn't help but smirk at the banter between the two women, deciding not to interrupt. The relationship between Kay and Fia had improved vastly since she first arrived, and neither wanted to ruin the moment.

"At this stage, we're gonna need our own notebook to keep track of the myriad of questions." Chas remarked with a sort of smile, meaning it as a joke. Cliff knew it was a joke, but also saw that it could be a viable idea for them. "Y'know....." Cliff said in a contemplative tone. "That's actually not a bad idea. The questions and theories just seem to be growing and at this stage, if we don't keep track of them somehow, we're gonna start forgetting them." "Once again mate, your accidental genius has come up with a solution."

By now Jay had just arrived at the apartment block, laden down with art supplies, bulky laptop case and another case that contained the solar panel rig. Carefully and quietly she made her way up the fire escape. That particular escape was technically out of bounds as it had sustained some serious storm damage, but the lock barely took ten seconds for Jay to pick. Once on the correct platform, she climbed onto the railing, paused for a moment and then leapt with cat-like agility onto the windowsill. A mistimed jump would band she'd plummet to the ground. Jay landed soundlessly, deposit the supplied then climbed back out the window. In order to get all the supplies into Fia's room, she had split the load into four bundles and made a separate trip for each.

 

[MzHyde]

Kay was always one of those people who would always say a theory she had, but would always have the opinion of 'but of course I could be barking completely up the wrong tree'. It just seemed like a completely plausible theory to her that made any kind of sense. She noticed also just how much her relationship with Fia had grown since she first barrelled into their lives. Fia was much more willing to make jokes and talk with her which she could only presume was a big deal for Fia in comparison to how she was with her future self. She wanted her to at least go home with a different outlook and possibly a better relationship with her actual mother, and if that happened because of how Fia saw her current self then she'd be overjoyed that something went for the better for Fia. She also noticed the smirking from Elliott and John.

Hearing Chas make the joke about needing their own notebook for all these theories and questions, both girls had to chuckle at it, also thinking the same as Cliff that it actually was a good idea. Neither girl, like the rest of them, heard Jay creeping in through Fia's room window to dump all the belongings she had acquired from Rinaa's dropbox, instead just continuing their focus on what they were talking about and everyone in the room. "making notes of all of this is never a bad thing. I should know, I make notes more than I'd care to admit" Fia smirked, even though she wasn't lying in the slightest. Everything she studied she had a notebook for, whether it was mage or phoenix related or normal human school studies related.

 

[_gallifrog_]

"There's no such thing as too many notes." Cal declared, only for Cliff to contradict her. "Actually there kinda is, when you make so many notes that it's actually EASIER to go through ALL your textbooks instead of your notes to find the answer." Cal rolled her eyes fondly. "That's just you trying to learn org-chem love." She retorted, Cliff making a rude gesture in response. Organic chemistry was something Cliff had struggled a lot with she understood the basics, but after that it seemed almost like she'd get more right by guessing with her eyes closed. Smirking in response to the gesture Cal added "there's definitely a blank notebook knocking around here if you want to get started writing now?" "Sounds like a good idea to me."

With everything now brought into the flat jay slipped soundlessly out of the room and across the corridor to John and Kay's room. It had been agreed that the art stuff would be stored there. Even before he'd brought up the subject with Kay, Elliott had a hunch that she'd also want to use the supplies. The bedroom Fia was in was the official storage room (mainly for armour and work clothes), so there was no real space under the bed to put the art supplies. John and Kay's room on the other hand was the official guest bedroom (usually Dan slept there if he stayed over at the flat) so there was plenty of space. Jay secured the canvas to the bottom of the bed frame with magnets, then carefully slip the art supplies (still in the plain paper bags under the bed. With everything carefully stowed she slipped out of Fia's window, back onto the fire escape and made her way round to the actual door of the apartment.

When jay entered she did not look like a woman who'd spent the last ten minutes or so sneaking in and out of the top floor apartment, she looked perfectly relaxed and had even gone as far as to put earphones in and some music on. She'd put the solar panel rig in the backpack and slung the heavy duty laptop bag across her shoulders, had the apartment keys in one hand and a large take-away food box in the other. After shunting the door open with her hip and pulling the earphones out she raised an eyebrow at everybody and how they all seemed to be crowded around the main couch. "Let me guess? I missed something exciting?"

 

[MzHyde]

Fia looked at Cal when she said there's no such thing as too many notes, to which she was about to disagree when Cliff beat her to it. She chuckled and smiled at the banter going on between the married couple, feeling she could easily say 'you bicker like an old married couple' knowing only one word of that little jab would be incorrect but decided against it as they did after all treat her to lunch not that long ago. The fact that even Chas decided to actually go through the note making after only initially joking with his comment, it said so much to Fia. It said to her that despite only initially joking, Chas did see the rational sense in the idea and the sense in it.

When Jay eventually came in through the front door loaded up with a take out box and her other equipment, Fia looked over hers and Elliott's shoulder to say hi when she wasn't given a chance to as Jay spoke up about the way they were all crowded round the one couch. "could say that. I dug out the leather bound notebook that I used to get here and we found some interesting things in it which just continued to bring more questions and theories. Oh and the fact we're damn sure myself, Cal and Cliff were followed home but didn't see anyone" she explained, refusing to move from her brother. She was comfortable and didn't want to have to find a new comfortable position.

 

[_gallifrog_]

Fia wasn't the only one thinking that the two women bickered like an old married couple, everybody else in the room was thinking along similar lines. they'd been bickering like that even before they were married and to Elliott it looked like the most natural thing in the world to see his sister and his wife exchanging this friendly, loving banter. It was surprising in a way just how easily Cliff had fitted into their group, and just how right it felt to Elliott to be able to say that Cliff was his sister's wife. Elliott had barely known Cliff when he lived on Attil, and had missed every major event in her and Cal's relationship, yer he could say with one hundred percent certainty that they were right for each other.

Jay nodded at the explanation, a very slight twinge of worry entering her expression when Fia said she was being followed (though that flash vanished almost as quickly as it had appeared). "Cliff was the only one who got the feeling, but we all trust her instincts." Cal added. "As do I" Jay agreed. She'd come to trust the doctor greatly since they'd fought together and was damn impressed by just how competent Cliff could be when she was deaf. "I don't think I was followed back here or while in town, I didn't get that sense. But with everything going on it wouldn't surprise me if we did have somebody or somebodies watching us." "That's the same conclusion we came to."

Jay stepped forwards to take a look at the notebook which was open on the table. "There's a lot more pages missing from this one I see." Jay reached out a hand to flick through the pages. As soon as her finger tips touched the pages what looked like a bolt of pale, pinkish energy leapt from the book to her hands. Jay drew her hand away on reflex, making a very slight hiss of both annoyance and pain. "You alright?" Elliott asked, the concern in his voice clear. Jay shook out her hand and looked at it. "No damage done, but that book is SOAKED in dimensional energy, far, far more than was in the other two. As a timeline sensitive, that kind of dimensional energy, in those kinds of amounts really fucks with me."

 

[MzHyde]

Fia didn't fully notice the twinge of worry come over on Jay when she mentioned about being followed, but even if she had done she wouldn't have said anything about it publicly anyway. She would have kept quiet about the show of worry but thought how much of a step forward this Jay had come to show such a thing toward any of the group that wasn't Elliott. She nodded when Cal clarified that it was just Cliff who got that feeling, but they both trusted Cliff's judgement wholeheartedly to not dismiss it. "we've decided to be a lot more alert every time we go out now" she added, as she let Jay lean forward to see the notebook.

She then nodded at the torn pages comment, "yeah" she said as she saw the spark briefly appear when Jay went to touch the book. She listened as Jay explained why it happened finding the answer highly interesting. "interesting. We had a theory that it's probably gone through different time lines to get to me in The House so it makes sense in a way that it'd be heavily soaked in that kind of energy" she replied. Still wishing there was a way she could just know who planted it in The House for her as she wanted to ask the person so many questions, but she figured it would be a long time before she got said answers or the chance to even thank the person for allowing her to time travel safely and save her mother and in turn, her father's sanity.

 

[_gallifrog_]

The crackle of energy surprised everybody, causing Chas and Elliott to flinch, John's arm moving to protect his face (as if from shrapnel, his first instinct was that the book was going to blow up, probably because Rinaa's exploding laptop was still at the back of his mind). Jay suspected that if she'd touched the book for any longer, she would have been properly electrocuted, or at the very least singed her fingers. "Woah" was all John could say, running a hand through his hair, and looked at the book suspiciously. Elliott reached out and touched it hesitantly, but nothing happened. "Well that was something." Jay nodded at Fia's response. "That's exactly what happens, dimensional energy increases almost exponentially with each trip. Things that have been through one, two or maybe three... four at an absolute push, trips I can touch safely, though not for long as I'd get burned. This book has been through the bloody mill, it's practically alive with the stuff. The second book at the Deke's teeming with the stuff, but this one, it's done far more travel and been through far more shit."

Ever the doctor Cliff couldn't help but ask. "For future reference, how bad is dimensional energy to you?" "Well for objects my body can't tolerate things that have been through the space-time void, it physically burns me, it feels like a combination of being electrocuted and having your blood replaced with burning acid. But the real danger is when it comes to me actually time travelling, timeline sensitives like me, Quin, my brother.... any Isogrii all have a a link to the time-flow. Being displaced from the natural flow of time has a whole range of bad side effects. It starts with persistent headaches, nausea, dizziness. The longer somebody like me stays out of time the worse it gets- blackouts, chronic pain, flashes into other parallel timelines, glitching into the body of your alternate self in alternate timelines for brief moment. There are even stories of people being ripped apart by dimensional energy if they get too close to a major divergence point in the timeline....... And even if I stay in my timeline for my whole life, I'll still be able to feel when an alternate version of myself dies. If the timelines are massively different then I won't feel much, but if the timeline is fairly close to my own, it feel's like I'M the one that's dying."

The room fell silent at that, Chas had actually died (numerous times), and John had succeeded in killing himself as well as deliberating exiting his body so he could gain access to Heaven or Hell (usually the latter). Dying was no walk in the park, but feeling it happen to somebody else who was actually you? That was something they could barely to comprehend. "Eeesh that's......" Elliott trailed off, having no idea what to say to that. "Yeah it sucks, but luckily the vast majority of the other versions of me seem to be pretty damn good at staying alive."

 

[MzHyde]

Fia seemed to be the only one who could touch it without feeling hesitation in the very action. She had held it so many times and flicked through it enough time she knew it wouldn't affect her in the slightest, but she could understand why Elliott would suddenly be hesitant after seeing what it did to Jay. Not even she was expecting that reaction and hearing Jay explain the side affects after Cliff asked, she felt bad having asked Jay to come and help save her mother. She was incredibly thankful for her coming along as she knew only her could truly get any real connection to future Kay, but hearing what could have happened by being there, she did feel a slight tinge of guilt. "if I knew that I wouldn't have risked you coming to my timeline to help me" she told her eventually to break the silence.

Kay having listened to it all, was just as mind blown as the rest of them. Like Chas and Joh, she had died and come back enough times to know it was no walk in the park. It was bloody painful and she felt every second of the death depending on how she died. If it was a relatively slow death to the point she could see her own body bursting into flame it was excruciating. Yet the idea of feeling another version of yourself dying like it was you was just something that almost difficult to comprehend in so many ways. "I would say that's an understatement." she said to Jay. "dying and coming back is bad enough, something that I'm sure Chas can agree with there, but even I can't comprehend the idea of feeling my other self dying" she added.

 

[_gallifrog_]

Cliff was the only one not surprised by the extent of the damage that dimensional energy and/or time travel could do to a timeline sensitive like Jay. For everybody else they were well and truly shocked, particularly by the long term effects of time travel. Elliott's thoughts went straight to Rinaa as she was timeline sensitive too, though not to the same extent that Jay was. Rinaa had been time travelling for years, voluntarily adding to the horrendous side effects of her Astras transformation and mental health problems. For Rinaa to put herself through that to meet him, it was both distressing and a strange honour. Rinaa had mentioned briefly that she'd time travelled to other planets and places in order to set up a solid fake identity that would allow her to meet with Jay in prison, to meet her uncle Jack and later allow her to gain passage to the ship that would take her to Attil and to Elliott, as well as directing the rest of the group towards Cal, Cliff and Dan.

Jay waved a hand at Fia's words, dismissing them. "It was the only practical choice. And besides travelling to the future is much easier for somebody like me than travelling to the past. Interfering with your future time stream is not ideal, but because it doesn't affect your past self, it's much easier to deal with, and the worst I got that trip was a headache. Everybody in this room has worked through a killer headache before. It's interfering with your own past where things get fucked up and dangerous- paradoxes, time loops, the instability of dimensional energy, unpredictability theory. These risks exist for all time travellers, but being timeline sensitive makes it a hell of a lot worse."

"Yeah, it's a bitch all right, especially a gruesome death, I feel every second of it. The memories fade with time, but the more traumatic and gory ones hang around." "Agreed, dying is not fun, 'specially when you end up where I did." By that John was referring to his suicide and the fact that he'd ended up in Hell when he died, and in Hell time worked differently so a few minutes dead in the real world was over a year down there. He knew Fia only knew parts of the story, she'd seen the tattoos that hid the scars, which stretched almost all the way from his wrists to his elbows, and it wouldn't take a genius to figure out that they were self inflicted. But he didn't want to tell her (or anyone else the whole story), it wasn't something he felt comfortable doing.

Jay just nodded at their words. "It's probably balanced out by my lack of a soul. I feel the pain, both emotional and physical of the death, but after that..... well, there's nothing. The link is completely severed and it feels for a couple of hours after like....." Jay paused, struggling for the words to explain what it felt like to go from one minute being totally aware of another person's existence, and the next to be left alone, hollow, and almost passing out from exhaustion and flight or flight hormone overload. "Loosing half your body or..... or like a massive gaping hole has been ripped through you, leaving only a shell of a person behind. There's only one thing I've ever felt in my entire life worse than that feeling of myself dying. Didn't help that two of the three died in traumatic circumstances."

 

[MzHyde]

Fia wasn't surprised that Jay would dismiss her words with a wave of the hand as she had done that several times in Fia's time, whether its an apology or a thanks, Jay had that habit of dismissing her words like they were nothing, but there were times when she knew they did mean something to her. Particularly if Fia ever thanked her for something big or significant. She listened to Jay explain why it was being dismissed and just nodded in understanding, yet she still felt slightly guilty anyway. Then again, she felt guilty that she had to resort to coming back to this moment in time to get any of their help. She was usually too stubborn to ever ask for help but she truly felt helpless and felt she had no choice but to go back in time and make their past selves help when her time's versions of them weren't proving helpful in the slightest.

Kay nodded at Chas agreeing that is indeed a bitch to die and come back from said death, before listening to John also throwing in his two cents. Fia also nodded knowing that he ended up in Hell that time but not much else, and if both girls had to be brutally honest, they weren't sure they ever wanted to know the full story because it would just break their hearts to know what had dragged him down so much he felt the need to commit suicide by self harm. They both knew those scars under his tattoos were self inflicted, hell, Kay had been there and done that herself but her phoenix abilities just covered every injury she was never left with a scar on her body to prove she ever had a hard life. Unlike Fia who had that one faint scar on the back of her waist to the left.

Both Kay and Fia listened to what Jay said, explaining as best she could to convey what it was actually like if a time sensitive person lost their other self. They knew losing family could only be worse than losing yourself as you're left with that grief and couldn't ever forget that person's existence even if someone tried. Kay knew it more than Fia did, having lost her birth mother to an attack to try and wipe out her kind. She still grieved even after all these years for her mother, a grievance that always haunted her in anything that was coming her way and coming after her because of what she was. "I agree. I'm still learning to live without my mum, my birth mum that is after twenty something years. It's a death that I'm damn sure will haunt me for as long as I'm sought after for the same reason she was" Kay replied.

 

[_gallifrog_]

Elliott could see the struggle in Jay's words as she tried to explain what it felt like without using the world 'soul'. At first he'd been sceptical when Jay said she didn't have a soul, but one night he, Kane, Jay and Scott had been out tracking down a demon that was on a killing and torturing spree. What they didn't know was that this was a demon that could immobilise people by pulling their souls from their bodies. Jay had been the only one of the group not affected, the others all crumpling sideways as their translucent soul forms were pulled from their bodies. Despite everybody collapsing around her Jay just raised an eyebrow, looking almost bored with proceedings, then drew her sword, taking advantage of the demon's surprise to cut it in half with one easy sweep of the blade. After that Elliott had accepted that Jay was like Lucifer's assassin Maze and didn't possess a soul, something that made it easier for them both to be as good and as deadly assassins as they were.

At Kay's words Jay just nodded, fixing the other woman with a look that said 'I understand'. And she did. Jay didn't grieve her birth parent(s) like Kay did (she had as a young kid, but now she barely remembered them), it was her twin that she grieved. The death she couldn't accept and blamed herself for. The death that had left her more empty and more hollow than anything else. The death had made her unable to sleep on a spaceship and had her waking up in the middle of the night, the name of her dead brother on her lips. The death that had sent her on a collision course with Earth. All those thoughts were visible in the swirling silver of her eyes.

Jay then made her way around the couch to one of the chairs that was conveniently free now that everybody had crowded around the couch. She removed the laptop from around her shoulders, placing it on the table, then carefully removed the equipment case containing the charging rig from her backpack. It was a heavy duty, unlabelled box, firmly shut with a heavy duty seven digit combination lock. "Anything else in interesting in the book, besides our mystery Spaniard that I should know about since I can't touch it?" She asked, pulling the equipment case towards herself. Elliott nodded, flipping through the pages and spinning the book around so Jay could see the note in the corner of the page. "Dakkon is mentioned." That brought a slight smile to Jay's face. "Good to know Dak's still around in the future." "Who is he?" Elliott asked, knowing the question was one that was on most of their minds. "He's the guy people like me go to if they want classified information, particularly related to governments, royalty, corrupt corporations, dictators and other high value targets. He's a spook." Jay explained. Cal, Cliff and Elliott's widened in shock and disbelief at the last sentence. "You're kidding!" Cal replied in deisbelief. "They're real? I though spooks were just a kids myth." Elliott added, looking between Cal, Cliff and Jay. "There are rumours, but nobody I know has ever confirmed either way."

 

[MzHyde]

Kay caught Jay's look and knew exactly what that look said. It was the look that only people who had lost family to death before their time had. A look that said that particular death will always haunt them no matter how over it they come across to others as. She knew that Jay would know what it was like for her, because of her twin brother. It didn't need to be a parent to understand that kind of grief. The closest that even John got to seeing what that grief did to Kay was that one night in his apartment when she was getting that night terror and she almost burned his apartment down if it wasn't for him waking her. Even then, Kay found that just to be a taster of what her grief could manifest as. A flame in her palm was nothing compared to the time she did actually set fire to an abandoned building through a nightmare, her burning to death in the process in her sleep before resurrecting and walking away like she was never in the building at all. So when all those thoughts were showing in Jay's silver eyes she recognised every single one of them as she had seen them all in the mirror staring back at her in her own grey blue eyes.

Fia would have let Jay take her rightful place next to Elliott but she refused to move from her brother as she knew when Rinaa came back and not around Moya, she would no doubt want her place to be beside Elliott again, to make the most of what she never had whilst she still had. So Fia was making the most of having her brother metaphorically to herself for a change. She let Elliott show Jay the name that started this whole tangent of conversation and the reason why she even brought the book out in the first place. Elliott was also correct in thinking that question was on the others minds as it most certainly was on Fia's and had been for a very long time. Ever since she found the book to be precise. With the bombshell that Dakkon was a spook, she too went wide eyed like everyone else did. "I thought they were just some made up thing for a TV show" she commented, actually impressed they really existed and thought how useful someone like that would be to have.

 

[_gallifrog_]

John and Chas had both heard the term 'spook' used to describe spies, particularly those who infiltrated places undercover, but suspected based on the reactions of the trio of off-world born that their word 'spook' carried a different meaning for them. "In fairness the Earth show is damn good entertainment." Jay replied, before giving a slight smirk. "Though spoiler alert, the inside of Thames House doesn't have those revolving door things leading to a secret espionage hub. Thames House is a decoy, the REAL hub is elsewhere." Elliott couldn't hep but shake his head slightly at that, it seemed Jay's loving for snooping in the secret facilities of powerful groups wasn't just limited to the Justice League Watchtower. The question written clear as day on John's face was 'so where is the headquarters actually located'.

"And yes, spooks are very much real." That was directed at Cliff, Cal and Elliott. "Though the stories are quite exaggerated, giving them that almost mythical reputation They are badasses though when it comes to doing their jobs and getting the information." "But there is a massive network of spies, undercover and sleeper agents spread across all kinds of high power places in various galaxies and systems?" Elliott asked, trying (and failing to keep the childlike curiosity out of his voice). the idea of spooks was something he'd been brought up with, something all the kids at school would wildly theorise about. "Yes, along with just as large of a group of comms technicians, scientists, data analysts and anybody else you'd need as support for a live mission." Jay replied, not missing the notes of disbelief in his voice at a childhood story being confirmed. "Is the timeline thing true, that agents are taken out of their real places in the time stream, and moved to the future to work as agents there?" Cal asked eagerly. "That's true for a very small amount of them, yes. But mostly agents are either taken and placed to work super far away from their birth system or are orphan with nobody who'd mourn them anyway. Most cast off their old birth identity like a snake shedding their skin and assume a new one that remains their cover name for life."

 

[MzHyde]

Fia smirked at Jay's reply about her comment, both amazed that Jay in her way confirmed they existed and the Thames House hub is a real thing, even if its not the real hub for the spooks. Like John, she now wanted to know where it was actually located but knew Jay would never disclose that information so casually to their group. She also could tell that Jay knew way more than she was no doubt letting on which just made the whole conversation all that more interesting. She let Jay continue explaining to the other three who thought they didn't exist even more so than even she did, listening with interest, also noting the childlike curiosity in Elliott's voice as he asked more questions.

She even smiled when Cal asked her own question, a question that not even Fia would have thought of and wondered how such a theory even came to fruition but she had to know the answer to it. She continued listening to Jay as she explained that for a small amount of spooks that was indeed true, which just made them sound so much cooler (albeit bittersweet) than what was on the show back on earth. "that's utterly crazy" she remarked. Kay looked at Elliott, Fia, Cal and Cliff and could see the wonder and fascination in their faces, particularly the first three and thinking how alike they all looked with their wonder. "I think you just blew their minds Jay" she chuckled. She too found the last bit of information interesting to hear, but she had heard the term spook be used on Earth before and knew the show got its inspiration from the real organisation and group so for the most part, hearing such a term wasn't as much of a shock.

 

[_gallifrog_]

Cliff couldn't help but smirk fondly at the way the words tumbled out of her wife's mouth, Cal very nearly tripping over them in her eagerness to ask the question. Which was also one on Cliff's own mind, as it was one of the most known myths about the spooks, what better spy was there than somebody who'd never even existed in the timeline in the first place and who had nothing to lose there? Hearing Jay confirm it, even though it was only true for a small portion of the spooks, was utterly insane, and she, Elliott and Cal all had similar faces of rapt attention, 'woooooah, that's awesome' written all over their faces. It was so clear in that moment just how alike Elliott and Cal were in their facial expressions, even after being separated for so many years, this seemed to be ingrained in them. John and Chas' reaction were of similar levels of being utterly blown away. The idea of a time displaced spy was both mind blowing and intriguing.

Jay smirked, quietly proud of herself for provoking such a reaction from everybody in the room. "I'm not surprised, spooks are an urban legend found all across the galaxies. Hearing that they're actually real...... well it blew my mind the first time I found out" Jay placed particular emphasis on the word 'I' as she spoke"and I grew up among nomadic assassin warriors, so quite a lot of things just don't phase me." "I'm guessing you won't tell us, or these three fangirls over there how exactly you know all this stuff?" John asked, gesturing with his thumb in the direction of Elliott, Cal and Cliff. Elliott didn't even get annoyed by the use of the term 'fangirl' because that was exactly how he was behaving and he knew it. Jay shook her head with a slight smirk. "You'd be right there, I'm not saying a words, it's most definitely classified."

As she said the words classified Jay spun the dials of combination lock already knowing the pass code as Rinaa had texted the clue on to her earlier (it was the number of the cell Jay had been in when she was in prison). She lifted the lid to reveal the solar panel charger, which was neatly folded up, almost like origami and nestling in shock absorbent foam. The device was shiny and clean and Jay couldn't help but let out a low whistle of approval. "Oh that's very nice." She commented to herself, before spotting the folded piece of paper carefully taped to the inside of the box. Plucking it out she read he first line and started chuckling quietly to herself.

 

[MzHyde]

Kay couldn't blame Jay for feeling proud and smug that she got such an reaction out of everyone in the room, as she knew if she had that sort of information stored in her brain that she could just drop like that, she would feel just as smug about the reaction received. The fact that Jay admitted it even blew her mind when she found out for the first time, she knew it was a major thing if it surprised Jay as she didn't think anything could shock the assassin. Hearing that how she knew about their very existence was well and truly classified didn't come as a surprise to Jay or Fia, in fact it was about the only thing out of the whole topic that wasn't surprising.

Both girls noticed how Jay focused her eyes onto the equipment she had on her lap as she opened it with some pass code and checked out what was inside. Seeing her impressed with the level of tech whilst chuckling at something she had found inside. From where Kay was, she could tell it was a note of some kind but not what was on said note. She also didn't see it as her place to question it. "what's amused you?" Fia asked casually, being the typical nosey teenager as she noticed Jay chuckling.

 

[_gallifrog_]

Cal and Cliff were very much inclined to agree with Jay, the rig was in pristine condition, all sleek lines and gleaming panels and significantly smaller than any solar powered charging rig either of them had used before. The future, or at least Rinaa's future had some lovely tech. The unguarded amusement on Jay's face was a rare sight for Elliott, they'd only become friendly relatively recently and Jay was still very much in the habit of masking her emotions from people she didn't fully trust. Elliott knew he was probably highly biased, but he couldn't help but think that not only did the amused look change Jay's appearance completely (her eyes being the most noticeable change, lightening dramatically to a pale silvery white), but it also suited her. "What's so funny?" he asked, leaning forwards in interest but not so much so that Fia's head would fall off his shoulder.

"This is one of the MOST smart arse set of instructions I've ever seen. Whoever has typed this has a sense of humour and is sick of their tech being broken and/or abused." Jay replied, flipping the page around and setting it on the table so they could all read it. It had two prominent fold lines, and was worn around the edges, suggesting that this wasn't something Rinaa had typed especially for jay, but something somebody had typed for her. It was written in English and the paper had no official header or logo, it was a normal piece of printer paper. The first line proclaimed that it was "An idiot's guide for how to care for and love your laptop without the need to blow it up/chuck it off a building/hit an intruder over the head with it/dismantle it to make a hoverboard/use it as a shield against brain probes/destroy it any way that would drive me even crazier than I already am.' Following it was a step by step set of instructions for how exactly to set the laptop and solar charger up and where to charge it without triggering any of the defence mechanism (with various snarky comments added in brackets, emphasising exactly what not to do).

 

[MzHyde]

The fact that both Elliott and Fia asked Jay what was so funny to her didn't go amiss on Kay, sensing that Fia was used to getting away with being the cheeky and nosey teen in her time. Something she could easily see being the case, considering how many times she had witnessed Fia be either cheeky, push the boundaries or just downright nosey and people have humoured her every single time. She definitely had something about how she asked such things that made people allow her to be the way she was and it honestly amused Kay. Then to have Elliott ask the same thing but wording it differently made her wonder if the two of them did this a lot in Fia's timeline.

Fia listened to what Jay said, looking over at the note that she showed everyone, reading the header and smirking at how it truly was coming across with full of attitude. "heh, you really can hear the smart ass attitude in those words" she agreed, enjoying the time she was relaxing with everyone in the living room. "that's definitely someone whose had too much of their stuff broken constantly" Kay chimed in, having known a couple of people in her time to have written in such a manner before, herself being one of them.

 

[_gallifrog_]

It took Cal and Cliff a little longer than everybody else to read through and understand the page, their knowledge of spoken English was far better than their knowledge of written English. As John read the header he got the impression that the first thee had actually happened, but the last few were just the author venting their frustration and making a joke about the ridiculous things others had done. As he read through the instructions it was clear that the typist's anger had dissipated and they were now just having fun making smart arsed comments. "Agreed. they're clearly venting about something, but by the end of it, they're just taking the piss and having a laugh." Elliott replied with an amused smirk. "Oh yeah, they're definitely annoyed that everybody's breaking their stuff, I've seen it in Deke and some of the other mechanics. When you use their tech in ways it's not meant to be used, they'll mourn the tech first, then be like 'oh and by the way, glad you're still alive' as almost an afterthought." Cliff added, like Kay being able to speak from some form of personal experience.

"I suppose if you have put your heart, soul and load of time, blood, sweat and tears into something, you could justify getting annoyed about it, but this guy is taking it to new levels." Chas added, clearly very amused by the whole thing. "Reminds me of the time Flash got his suit blown up, because that's hat happens with these fancy suits apparently" John gave a shrug of 'I wouldn't know, I'm not a meta who runs around at super speeds in red leather' have noticed that it was always the fancy suits that failed while his normal outfit almost always remained in one piece "and had to call his tech guy/suit designer asking for another one. Only the Flash had accidentally left his phone on speaker" John's tone had a very noticeable edge of 'what kind of moron does?' that, a tone which was often applied in his League related anecdotes "and we all got to listen to him first of all explain how one accidentally gets a super suit blown up and then listen to him try and calm down this irate tech guy who just got more and more annoyed at the whole situation and ended up ranting at Flash for about ten minutes straight about him breaking another suit and generally being careless with tech before finding out he was on speaker. Batsy was totally laughing his ass off under his mask, the techie was hilarious"

Spoiler: John's anecdote is loosely based on This scene in the Flash

Honestly I love Cisco's character and needed an excuse to fit him in somehow

 

[MzHyde]

Kay and Fia completely agreed with Elliott's and Cliff's comments, Kay even more so with Cliff. She could just tell that the other woman was speaking from experience of having her own things broken or trashed in some manner or another. Both Fia and Kay looked at Chas as he began to speak and nodded in that 'that's exactly what it is' way, Kay remembering the one time she loaned Sam her music player and it came back broken because Sam forgot it was in her jeans pocket, shoved them in the wash and tumbled dried them, all with the music player inside. When she got given the player back it was cracked heavily and refused to ever turn on again, making Sam insist with the help of their parents that she bought Kay a new one. Then there were the lighter memories of fellow students borrowing art supplies and damaging them before handing them back to her.

When John started explaining one memory of when Flash blew up his suit, Fia looked on wide eyed with fascination that the guy could do something so stupid, wanting to hear the story and so she listened intently as John told it. She laughed at the story, imagining how angry the tech designer must have been about his hard work just getting destroyed so easily. But she also could imagine just how Flash would have been hearing this lecture being thrown his way. "think I'd be pissed too if someone just blew up my hard work" she commented. "that certainly beats Sam shoving my music player through the washing machine and tumble drier accidentally" Kay chuckled.

(I remember that episode, and I agree cisco is a great character)