Participants:
| Scene Title | Iocane Powder |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Warren tells Liz about what he thinks the Institute has him working on, but his plans are kind of convoluted. |
| Date | Dec 16, 2010 |
Shalegate Factory
Warren calls Elisabeth over pretty early, at around 10AM. Security is a little higher than the last time she came. Actual guards, more cameras, and she has an escort up the elevator to get to the second floor. Said escort leaves her to go off on her own, not getting off the elevator as the doors close.
When she makes it to his office, it's a bit different. The door automatically opens to reveal his desk pushed off to the side, book shelves gone completely, the entire office full of Lego K-Nex and blueprints all over the walls. There are two small stepping ladders, one of which he's currently standing on to place a new gear in the elaborate clockwork mechanism that seems to be getting as large as the room itself, especially considering that they're basically inside of it, and she has to do a bit of ducking to actually enter.
He's not wearing the jacket to his suit, only in a white shirt and a black tie, eyes flushed with silver when he looks down at her. "Elisabeth? We have something important to talk about." She'll notice that a lot of those blueprints say something about a mind/machine interface.
It's not as if she doesn't have fifty things that require her attention at any given moment. But she can't meet with Warren at her FRONTLINE office, so it leaves her in a position to have to come to him when he needs to talk. She's peeling her gloves off her hands as she comes into the office, a faint frown pulling her brows together over tired blue eyes. "Then let's get to it. In a half an hour, I have to be in a conference call. What's going on?"
"Kaylee says Edward Ray might not be my father, and that the Institute could be lying to me. She's handling the DNA test, but there's a bigger problem." Warren turns around and sits on the top of the ladder while gears from the numerous Legos spin and interact with an eerie level of complexity. "These blueprints, this model, it all makes sense. If I'm not Edward Ray's son, it makes perfect sense to trick me into thinking I am. Now they want me to make a mind/machine interface, one that can allow them to speak to coma patients, in exchange for meeting Edward when it's finished. Kaylee wants me to tell Cardinal about my plans, but I remembered what you told me, so I thought I should tell you my plans first."
Elisabeth….. stops dead. "What?" she asks, appalled. There are several things about this that need to be addressed, but the most important is … "They've got you building a machine to interface with coma patients? Jesus Christ. Can you imagine the amount of power that would give them?" she asks, shoving a hand through her loose hair. "What are you going to do? Obviously you can't finish it." Not if, as he's claimed, he's out to stop the Institute.
"This is going to sound crazy, but I have a plan." Warren looks up at the ceiling of this model he's built, reflective silvery eyes quite intense at the moment. "Edward Ray predicts probability, he predicted that Kaylee would get that message from that person's head, and he predicted that she would meet her siblings, but it goes beyond that. He had to predict that I would be tricked by the Institute, if indeed they are tricking me, so he had to know about this machine."
He finally looks down at her, fully expecting a crazy look or two. "So I've been thinking, logically speaking, he's predicted that I'd predict that he'd predict this plan, which is working with my technopath to build this machine with the capability to send us one message from Edward Ray, and then completely short circuit itself. This message we get will be a part of his plan all along, and we'll know the next move."
He has a plan. Really. Well, it's not exactly unexpected. Elisabeth hears him out. And then she eyes him. "Did you ever watch "The Princess Bride?" You know, the scene with the crazy genius? That's what you sound like to me. Blahblahblah, massive migraine later…. time travel logic." She rubs her forehead, struggling to puzzle out what exactly he just said to her. "So…. you think that in spite of all the changes we've made to the timeline since Ray was last conscious to predict anything, he would be in a position to predict that you would be working with us and that you'd be able to foresee this line of thought and create a self-sabotaging prophesy?" she asks, confused.
"It's not exactly self-sabotaging, this would be a part of his plan, the fact that I predicted it would be his plan means this was all supposed to happen. We're supposed to get this message, even though it hasn't happened yet. Think about it, his predictions are still happening. The way he sees probability, it could be unlike anything you could imagine, I'm considering this from the point of view of my ability." Warren motions around to the gears spinning all around them, with barely a hitch in their movement. "I knew how this model would work before I even picked up the first gear, you could remove ten or even twenty of these gears and ninety percent of this machine would still work. Imagine, if his predictions are happening despite a deviation in the timeline, that time itself is simply a large machine, and all you've done is remove a few gears."
She really hates the 'supposed to happen' arguments. Cuz if things happened the way they were supposed to, Arthur Petrelli'd be alive and the Columbia 14 would be getting ready to die unknown to themselves and things would not be going the way they're going right now. But Warren's thought process on how Edward's brain works….. actually makes sense.
The frown deepens and Elisabeth asks hesitantly, "So…. okay, you're so far over my head you might as well be on the moon. But if I'm understanding you right, you're saying that…. you need to finish this machine and that it's going to be just enough to get one message from Edward Ray and it will explode, never to be usable again. Except… that you have the plans in your head and they'll want you to rebuild it. Right?"
"I'm counting on his message having a solution to that, but failing that, I'm going to lawyer up and say that I think this machine is too dangerous to build right now. You let me handle that." Warren hunches slightly, resting elbows over his knees as his tie dangles inbetween his thighs. "There's also the option of taking Edward Ray back, something I can make happen with this machine, if you think it's a good idea. Dealing with this situation, I'm looking to you for the final judgement."
Elisabeth blinks. "Take him back?" she asks. "Like… break him out? Christ, Warren…. if that were an option, there are several people I want the hell out of that pit." She sighs. "All right. Let me think on this. Do I have a little time?"
"You have more than enough time. The problem with my ability sometimes is dumbing down the idea to even make it feasible to build with current technology, then I have to write out the blueprints. I'll be a while, take your time." Warren steps down from the ladder, walking to the door. "I should take a shower and actually get some sleep. I haven't slept with everything going on lately."
Yeah… she can totally sympathize. "All right. Give me a couple days to try to think through what you're explaining to me, and I'll try to get hold of Richard too." Elisabeth doesn't want to send it over text, so conveying importance is a bit of an issue at the moment. "I'll get back with you by the end of the weekend. Okay?"
"That's fine, thanks, Elisabeth." Warren leans against the wall just outside of his office, looking down at his shoes. "It's not that I want Edward Ray to be my father, I don't even know him, I just… I don't want to not know who I am even more than I already do."
Elisabeth does look sympathetic at that. "I wish I had an answer for you on that, Warren. I really do." He might be an insane type of guy, but she's got some sympathy for him. She'd have to have a heart of stone not to. "I'll help if I can, but considering who's pulling the strings, even if he's not your father…. I'm pretty sure someone's doctored all the records to make it look that way if they want you to believe it."
"I guess I'll just wait and see what happens, and maybe I'll know who I am for sure soon." Warren starts heading in the opposite direction of the elevator she has to get, going to the secret elevators. "Have a nice day, Elisabeth."