Participants:
| Scene Title | As You Wish |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | The Emperor's Hand has returned. |
| Date | May 6, 2019 |
Pinehearst Tower, Manhattan
"You keep a nice, good watch on him, or so help me you'll join Lieutenant Vickers on the sidewalk." Standing outside a row of research rooms in a narrow hall, Arthur Petrelli stares down an armed member of FRONTLINE, a tall and broad-shouldered young man in a black uniform. "Until you hear otherwise from me, no one is to enter this room." One finger wags in front of the security guard, as Arthur's breathing begins to steady. Slowly, he turns his focus away from the security guard down to the platinum-blonde standing a few feet away down the hall from room "2112."
Watching Odessa for a long, silent period of time, Arthur finds his eyes wandering to the sword sheathed on her back, dark brows furrowed together in an expression of uncertainty on seeing that familiar blade again after so long. "So…" his tone changes from chastising to conversational as he finally straightens his messed collar, "I take it that token means everything with Nakamura went smoothly?"
Once he's reached where Odessa's leaning up against the wall, Arthur tucks his hands into his pockets and levels a crooked stare at her. "You didn't happen to kill two birds with one stone and find Kaito as well, did you?" the corner of Arthur's mouth tug up into a hint of a smile, "I guess that might be too much good fortune to ask for."
The posture adopted by the blonde woman is casual, shifting slowly into the look of the cat that just ate the canary when Arthur Petrelli's eyes wander to her newly acquired toy. Odessa's lips twist into a wicked smile as the man speculates as to how she came by the sword of Kensei. Parting her lips to speak more of her own praises, her cockiness is dashed by the second task left uncompleted. Eyes narrow faintly as the smile fades, "The elder Nakamura evades me still," she admits. Though slowly, some of that smugness creeps back into her features. "I have to give the boy credit, though. He wouldn't give his father up. No matter what I did to him. Such loyalty. All fathers should be so lucky." It's a subtly pointed jab at Peter's recent actions, but it's played off with a roll of her shoulders and a coy glance. Did I say something?
A smile creeps up on Arthur's face as he listens to Odessa. "Well," there's a nod of his head, "you have a point there." Turning away from the door to room 2112, Arthur slides his hands into the pockets of his slacks, relaxing his posture as he starts to walk in that suggestive manner indicative of wanting Odessa to follow him. "So, while you've been gone, quite a bit has come up. I know Peter didn't tell you everything when he spoke to you on the phone, but there's a situation that is currently in need of defusing."
Glancing side-long to the blonde, Arthur's brows furrow, "Eight people from ten years in the past have arrived here due to some temporal accident. And eight people from Moab — including one Eric Doyle — " there's a pointed nod to Odessa, "have escaped to the past as some sort of exchange. I'm putting together a team of specialists to return to the past in order to deal with the problem and help serve Pinehearst's interests there. However," Arthur's brows furrow, "it would seem Peter has decided to let his emotions rule him again, and I can't trust him to be involved with this."
Looking away from Odessa, Arthur exhales a sigh. "One of the time-travelers is Elle Bishop. She and I spoke recently, and I explained to her the experiments done to her by the Company, conveniently leaving out the fact that I signed all of those experiments into action." He smirks, pleased with himself. "I'm looking to send her back, along with a handful of others. I had planned on leaving Lieutenant Vickers in charge of the operation, but— " his eyes follow Odessa's movements, "— now that you're back, and he's… on permanent leave, I see no other qualified candidate."
Odessa inclines her head once in acknowledgement of the point granted for her verbal joust. Her hands stay at her sides, lacking the unnatural sway with her steps as she follows Arthur down the hall. Black platformed leather boots that still don't bring her to Arthur's height, stained with drops of Peter's blood, sound quietly on the floors. She patiently listens to the explanation of the incident, brows hiking up briefly in recognition of something that she doesn't explain just yet.
Instead, she chooses to divert to a relevant topic. "Eric's gone?" Something flashes in the woman's eyes. Fear perhaps, but almost blotted out entirely by a healthy dose of anger. "He escaped?" She straightens up, betraying her sudden surge of emotion in the way she stands too rigid and gathers and clutches a handful of shiny buckles and black straps from her skirt in her fist. She doesn't expect any elaboration on the subject, however. Rather than attempt to take deep, seething breaths in direct opposition to the unyielding and adamant boning in the black corset worn under her Victorian inspired jacket, she closes her eyes for the space of five seconds and forces herself to relax. And to continue to listen, though the rhythm of her steps appears to have suddenly altered as though she quickly double-stepped without gaining any ground.
"You're trusting Elle Bishop? Once a Company bitch, always a Company bitch." Takes one to know one. "Do you think that's wi…se?" Odessa's head tilts to one side and she smiles in a decidedly wolfish manner. "Come now, Arthur." She crosses in front of the man, halting his advance so she can reach up with one hand to brush her fingers over his aging face. "Surely you knew from the beginning that I would be the only qualified candidate," she purrs. "I can keep Miss Bishop in line for you." That is the only reason he could possibly think to trust the electrokinetic at all, without doubt. "I will not let you down."
"You're one of the few people that I can hope to not let me down, Odessa." Arthur manages a modicum of a smile as he pauses by the elevator, pressing the call button as he turns to look back at the blonde. "The remaining members of the team will include Stephen Canfield, Terrence Barrington, Oliver Wilson, and Jean Moreau." All members of FRONTLINE, all loyal to Pinehearst, people Odessa has had tangential connections with in the past. "Canfield will be key to the assignment, but he won't be back from Canada until Monday morning. I'm hoping to get this trip underway on the 14th."
When the elevator chimes, Arthur's eyes flick up to the doors and he quietly steps inside, turning once within the regard Odessa again as he presses the basement code B-4. "I hope you'll be able to keep Elle on a short leash, just in case she gets any wise ideas, but I'm pumped that girl full of enough resentment that it should keep her in line. Though," as he watches Odessa, there's a tension in his brows. "The others who came from the past may pose a problem. I've taken— temporary— preventative measures, but Helena Dean has a remarkable track record for being a nuisance."
"Canfield," Odessa repeats flatly. Less than thrilled, it would seem, but she doesn't question the decision. She steps into the elevator after only a moment's hesitation. "You leave Miss Dean to me. You don't need any of those fools alive do you?" Absently, the woman reaches out to adjust the collar of Arthur's shirt, rumpled slightly from the scuffle with his son still.
One dark brow arches when Odessa moves to adjust his collar, followed by a lazy smile. "No, I don't. But I'm not eager to attempt to move on them right at the moment, myself. Norton Trask came back with them, and I feel that it would be a miscalculation on my part to attempt to deal with him and the others just yet. I want to get you and your team back in time before then, and then I can worry about our little castaways."
The elevator doors slide shut with a soft sound, and the machine begins to descend slowly into the depths of Pinehearst Tower. "With Nakamura out of the way and Peter detained, there's hardly anything they can do." There's some uncertainty in Arthur's tone, if only for the blackness on the horizon in his foresight, a point in time he is unable to see past, one that makes his present all the more worrisome.
"You should meet with Elle at some point; she's staying with Abigail Beauchamp. See what you can feel out about her position, and if there's anything that raises a red flag," Arthur dips his head into a nod, "you let me know."
Both Odessa's tone and expression turn venomous. "Trask!" She all but spits the name. It's no secret that she has very little fondness for anyone who can negate her ability. Some things will never change. "No matter. Everyone bleeds the same," she assures herself more than Arthur.
"Kaito may still present a problem… Had we not needed the whelp dead so quickly, I'd have used the son to lure the father." Such a ploy wouldn't have worked with the man standing before her, but the Nakamura clan is certainly a more closely knit bunch than the Petrelli family. "He'll want revenge. I made no attempt to hide my deed. Hopefully, it will draw him into the open where one of your lesser lieutenants can dispatch him." Lesser is spoken as though meant to be a subtle reminder of whom his best really is.
The self-assuredness fades from the woman's expression and she reaches out to depress the stop button on the descending elevator car. "Something is wrong, Arthur," she says as they come to a halt. "I thought it was Nakamura's influence, but nothing's changed since he died. Do you feel it, too?" Worried eyes travel the lines of the Petrelli patriarch's face.
There's a slow, silent nod that comes from Arthur. "Kaito is a worry in the back of my mind. He always has been, and I worry that the longer he's allowed to live… the worse it will be for us." Narrowing his eyes, Arthur turns his head to look towards Odessa. "I do feel it, I see it too — something's wrong, but I'm hoping that by sending you back, we can fix it before it becomes any more dangerous."
Swallowing tensely, Arthur looks back to the display of the tower's floor slowly counting down, "There's a file on the computer in my office I want you to look at, it's a roster of the criminals who escaped into the past. You'll want to be fully aware of their capabilities before Thursday."
Odessa nods slowly, looking no less fretful than moments before. If Arthur has the same doubts as she does, then what does the future hold for them? "I will be prepared. When I locate them, what would you have me do? Do I bring them back here? Or do I handle it my way?" Her way generally being the equivalent of bashing someone in the head with a large rock.
Arthur's expression sags into a frown as he looks down to Odessa. "Kill them," he emphasizes as the elevator doors slide open, having reached the 4th basement level. There's no mistaking Arthur's tone of voice, his lack of compassion for those who escaped Moab, the ones who were allowed to keep their powers to serve some future purpose, one that ended up being an unraveling of everything he'd planned for. As he takes a step out of the elevator, making it clearly certain that the business he has to handle on this floor is his alone, Arthur can only echo those orders with some stinging level of finality to Odessa.
"I want you to kill them all."
Odessa bows formally, keeping her head lowered and her eyes downcast until after she rises again, in time for one last glimpse of the man before the elevator doors slide shut. Her lips twist into a smile and only after she has the car to herself does she murmur a response.
| Previously in this storyline… The Road to Hell Next in this storyline… |