Participants:
| Scene Title | It's Not Impressive |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Killing a man that is, as Abby points out to Cat when being pumped for information about the end of the world that was aborted. |
| Date | January 29, 2009 |
Ferrymen Safehouse
Wednesday afternoon, some hours after the battle in New Jersey, Cat made it home. She'd been able to use the motorboat she went to the warehouse location with Al and the Brians in, which still held the guitar case her weapons had been hidden in until needed. The blizzard made excellent cover in escaping the minions of Homeland Satan. The first thing she wanted to do after getting to that place of comfort was to see Kinson and let loose of the stress, take some time to fall apart a little after nearly getting her brain ventilated by that tank gun firing from wherever it was and having to run or be captured. The whole thing kept replaying in her head, and sleep that night wasn't easily achieved.
Early the next morning, Cat is up and moving. She's pulled herself back together, there are things to do. Information to gather. Attempts are made at contacting people. Helena can't be reached. Teo can't be reached. Alexander… he can't be reached, she saw that happening in person. The Brians… She'll want to find one of them in time. Elisabeth, Ygraine, other people. Among them is Abigail Beauchamp.
Cat uses a disposable phone and dials the number she has for the healer.
The healer is someone who can be reached it seems, after the fourth ring. Though Abigail answers, it's ragged, tired, and roused from healing induced slumber. "Hnngh." Comes the southern drawl five times deep with everything that's happened. She's not home and not likely to head home anytime soon if what she heard through grapevines is true. "Hello?"
"Abby," she begins. "Cat here." She's happy to get an answer, it means some things can take place. "Are you safe and uninjured?" No street noises come through the phone, it's quiet where she is.
"Catherine." No street noises where Abigail is, silence in the background save for rustling sheets.
"Safe house. Minute." The phones pulled away from her and there's a muffled cough before she speaks again. "At a safe house. Friend came and got me. Been healing people. I fell in the river but I'm okay. You? Need me to come to you? I've had some sleep."
"Minor cuts and bruises," Cat replies. "We should meet. I'll come to you, trying to piece together a picture of what happened and find some people. Where are you?"
Abigail rattles off the name of the safe house, sure that Cat knows how to get there. "If I'm sleeping wake me up." Another cough can be heard before. "We killed him. He's gone. We did it Catherine. One less thing to worry about"
"I will," Cat replies. She saves words about other things for when they talk face to face. "See you soon." She ends the call and sets out to make the contact.
Abigail's phone is shut and the blonde goes back to sleeping, easily being pulled under again. Exhaustion makes for no dreams, thank the lord, but those are sure to come. For now, she's sleeping when she can.
Time passes, as much as she needs to cross the city in the blizzard's aftermath and reach where Abby said she'd be. Cat follows the security protocols there and makes her way inside, looking for the healer, perhaps hoping to find her awake, but if she isn't, she'll rouse her.
The blonde is up, sitting at a table in the kitchen of the place, cereal, bowl, milk, coffee in front of her as well as a couple cans of red bull. Dressed warmly, jogging pant, sweater, hair pulled back in a quick and dirty ponytail. She's shoveling in the granola as fast as she can scoop it up, alternating between coffee and red bull when Catherine makes it in. "Morning. Who else has surfaced?"
"Unknown," Cat replies," but I believe Officer Harrison has. I hope to talk with her later." She starts to get out of her coat after putting twelve cans down on the table for Abby, then setting aside her copies of the Times. Her movements are stiff, as if she were sore from injuries not readily visible. A chair is settled into as she continues speaking, her voice focused, with concern in it. "I've been unable to reach Teo and Helena. Alexander and one of the Brians was taken in by Homeland Satan. Another Brian got shot by something that sounded like a tank gun, but the virus at our location was destroyed."
Abigail nods, letting her spoon rest for the moment. "Teo's missing, they think he's dead. Al.. I knew he got taken. Helena.. Homeland's got her, I saw that before I lost my grip." Tell Cat everything, she can do a better job of sorting it. "Ethan, is alive, but he doesn't look like Ethan anymore, his face has changed. There was a woman who can control insects, she's… I think she fell in the water, with Ethan. Brian and Anne… Water, Helena… I already said what happened to Helena." One hand comes up to rub at her face. "Sylar, Eileen, water, Gillian.. I tried to hold onto her but we got separated when we fell. Truck full of infected people were electrocuted and burned and Kazimir…" Now the cereal gets more of her attention instead of Cat. "He's gone to where he belongs."
She listens, and the story told brings a variety of things to her expression. Hearing of Teo being thought dead brings solemnity, then the mention of Ethan causes hate to appear in Cat's eyes. Her hand grips the table's edge, the other hand forms into a fist so tight her knuckles lose color. Recent events have done nothing to lessen her desire for doing things Abby wouldn't want to hear described. Her jaw sets.
"Hopefully his voice is the same, so if I run across him I can recognize that man," she murmurs. "He and I have a reckoning due someday." Woe to he who wrongs a woman who never forgets as Ethan did.
It goes on from there as she records all of it by simple exposure. Shock and sadness when she hears Stormy was taken in by Homeland Satan. Concern remains throughout the telling, at some points stronger than others, but ever present, until she learns Kazimir Volken was removed from the planet. Her eyes study Abby and the way she avoids her face then, she quietly asks "How do you feel about that?"
"There was no other way. Take one, save five billion others." The dregs of her cereal are pushed away. "I'll pay for it, when it's my time, the same as he pays for his. Give me your hand, I'll get you back to top shape. They'll need you." Abigail's palm is held out, upturned toward Cat. She's not okay with what she did. "His voice is changed. But it's him. If.. any of the others show up, they can help you better. I did a lot of hiding and then… most of it's fairly fuzzy till I hit the water."
"I'm not hurt badly," Cat replies as her hand extends to be taken. She stares at a wall, her eyes distant as if she were replaying things in her head. "Just sore. We got blown across a street when the warehouse our mortar and virus canister were in blew up. It was… a disaster. Someone from the police in Jersey City saw a suspicious person going in there, thought it was a terrorist, and went in to check it out. He hit a tripwire, and it escalated from there. When we arrived, there was a nasty firefight between cops and Vanguard goons. Al used his ability to pull the virus case out, and then we got blown across the road when the building went up.
"The box got knocked out of Al's hand, it lay in the street. I was closest, and had the thermite, so I crawled… I had to crawl there, my legs wouldn't work right. I wasn't hurt, and there wasn't any kind of tranquilizer dart, I never felt a needle, I just… went numb. But as I moved to the case, it got better."
She's not hurt badly, but she's still hurt. "Lord, make us truly thankful for these and all other blessings. I ask this in Jesus Christ's name, Amen." Soon enough, in a minute likely, Catherine's not even gonna be stiff. The palm to palm transferring Abigail's gift, and whisking away all the pain and injury. "I can't go home. They have Al means they'll know the old place and the new place we were moving into. Jessica got my stuff that I needed from there. Was your virus destroyed? Or does Homesec have it now?"
She is silent as Abby says her prayer, and the soreness vanishes. "Thank you, Abby. It was destroyed," Cat answers. "I set the thermite off myself, there in the street, just as Homeland Satan was arriving." She's back to replaying it all in her head now. "I saw the thermite go off and burn white hot through the case and everything in it. But hostiles were on top of us then, and there wasn't anything I could do. Going back to try saving Brian and Al would have only gotten me caught. There was something in play which caused the numbness in my legs, it would've gotten me again if I went back, so I did the only thing I could."
"Was a man, We felt it too. I think it's what made me let go. Al, Al and Brian can handle themselves. Better them than you. Al's registered, and Brian's… a copy. I think. Maybe. But you, your mind." Eveything's in there and homesec has telepaths, she's sure of it. "Teo made Anne promise to take me out, if I failed to take out Volken. I have the antidote, the anti virus in my blood. Don't.. feel bad, survivor' guilt. We all took the chance of getting caught, kidnapped or worse when we did this. A way will be found. Maybe.. Parkman will do good by them. In exchange for everything"
"I don't feel guilty," Cat assures. "This is the business we're in, sacrifices get made, the missions have to come first. Even with people we love," she adds. She doesn't say it, but then she probably doesn't have to. Al and Brian rate less than Dani, and Dani was abandoned to be murdered by Ethan. "The thing is to not make pointless sacrifices." And Cat puts it aside, her eyes focusing on Abby and her voice getting a calming tone to it. "I want to ask you some questions, Abby. Direct questions, about where you were and what you saw, to make a picture of things. Is that okay?"
"I can try." Cat doesn't need the healing anymore and she politely disengages her palm from her to grab the coffee, finish off the rest of it, bobbing her head. "I can do that."
"Where were you?" Cat asks to start it off.
"Halfway. Anne brought us in halfway. Off to the side, so that we wouldn't have far to go if it was on either end. But they were near the middle, Staten Island side." Abigail hopes that's enough for the other woman.
She listens, and in listening forms other questions. Halfway. Staten Island side. Water. The bridge that was wrecked. "You were on the Verrazano Narrows Bridge," Cat concludes. "Anne teleported you there. Who was present?" Her voice is quiet, the question calmly asked, she doesn't want it to feel like a hostile interrogation as she seeks to build a sequence of events and roster of persons involved.
"Eileen. Ethan. Kazimir. Then with us there was Brian, Helena, Anne, Gillian, Myself, Sergei" This isn't hostile, though the healer's uncomfortable regardless. Abby pushes back from the chair, get some more coffee. She could down the red bulls but she wants hot. She's still freezing.
A nod. Cat waits while Abby gets more coffee, thinking it all over in silence, as the pieces start to fit together from what she was told earlier. There are details that don't match what Abby said first, people present in the first account but not the second, and an eyebrow furrows. Sylar. The insect lady.
Soon enough Abigail's back at her seat, this time willing to look at Cat, waiting for the next question. "I'm good to keep going, Catherine."
"Cat will do," she replies somberly. And she resumes. "Kazimir, Ethan, Eileen Ruskin, Sylar, an Insect Lady, you, Stormy, Gillian, and Sergei. Kazimir was sent where he belongs. What were Sylar and the Insect Lady up to?" she gently inquires.
"Sylar was Kazimir. Till he got near Sergei. Then they were separate. Sylar.. Sylar was busy throwing up I think. Then trying to save Gillian. Then Eileen. Eileen was.. screaming and she was.. over the side. Insect lady… she was going for Ethan? Ethan and Kazimir slash Sylar. There were wasps and bees and spiders. It was chaotic." Abby rubs her forehead, closing eyes. "Eve… Eve saved Helena from Sylar's lasers, when Kazimir was still in him. He tried to kill Helena."
Her head tilts to one side as she listens. So someone who can desiccate people can also possess other bodies and use whatever abilities they have, if Kazimir was using Sylar's lasers. But negaters wipe it all out. Good to know, in case such a person is ever encountered again. Which brings up the next question. "What did Kazimir look like when he was forced out of Sylar?" Cat watches Abby's face, paying attention to her apparent mood so she can know if it might be time to let things lie for a while.
"Death. Like… smoke and darkness and black flame and… death. He looked like death. There were people, I could see these people in the smoke, faces that would press out and then they'd be gone." The healers brows are drawn down, staring into the coffee. "He couldn't hurt me Cat. I just stuck my hand right in the middle of him, in the middle of the smoke outside trasks range and he just.. burned. He burned and he turned to ash and he was everywhere mixed with the snow and he screamed, everyone in him screamed till it was just him and he just… burned up like a piece of paper and… " Her hand splays on the table. "He couldn't hurt me. I glowed, my hand just glowed. Burned him."
"Impressive," Cat replies quietly. "And for all he was, you take no joy in ending him. It was just a necessary thing." Her words indicate understanding of that, perhaps from experience, which suggests Cat may have blood on her hands. It's even possible Abby heard her speaking of it on Christmas Eve at the Cathedral, when she thought no one was listening. But she doesn't linger on that subject. "Faces… like elements of people he stole life from over time? I… I hope to never come across someone like him again, but it's possible. I know two people who manipulate sound, there could easily be others like Kazimir the Nazi. Now we know how to handle them."
"Not impressive," Abby quietly counters. "For all he was, he was still a person. He was a person and I took him from here. I killed with… His gift. I'm not supposed to kill with it." Her hand is pulled into a fist, tapping the side of it against the table. "He's gone, to hell, or wherever he believes in. Next question please." She's not on the verge of tears, just very angry with herself and it's seen in her face and her body. "Next question."
She doesn't belabor the point, Cat knows her own handling of things she's done, the man she shot at Greenwich Village. "How did Helena get taken?"
"I dunno. I was falling. I saw her slump, just barely, I felt… what you felt… and… there were people coming onto the bridge as I lost my grip. They were yelling at us to put down our weapons or they'd shoot and there was smoke, and … that numb feeling. It stopped when I fell." She still raps her knuckles on the table top.
As she listens, Cat is nodding, and adding things up. "You felt the numbness you say was caused by a man, and at the same time Helena went down, just went down with no apparent cause, just as Homeland Satan showed up? And by falling, you got out of range, just like I did when I set off the thermite." In her mind, this is a very important detail, something to watch out for. "But there were a group of men, and you can't be sure which one it came from?"
"I can't be sure. I'm sorry. The healing and, the bridge was collapsing and everything. I'm sorry. There were a bunch of men. Then there was air and then water. Homeland Security." Belatedly she realizes that the tapping may be annoying and she puts her palm flat on the table again.
"Don't be sorry, Abby," Cat replies. "What is, is. I'm just building as complete a picture as I can. For all we know, they might have some kind of device which causes this effect, carried by a man, or they could have more than one man with the ability, since it was used in two places. The main thing is knowing it's out there, so if anyone sees them coming, run." A pause is taken, as she moves along.
"Then the bridge went down. What destroyed it? I'd thought we were thorough in finding all of Vanguard's bombs and making sure they couldn't carry off that part of their plan."
"Lasers. They cut through, Helena lightning. Explosions of cars. Everything adding up to one. The same lasers that hurt the President Elect, they… they sliced the bridge, after there had been the explosion, and then Helena's lightening to scour the infected people in the back of Kazimir's van. God so much death." She looks like she might get sick. "Next question, please. While I have the stomach and it's fresh in my mind."
She nods, having a flash of the van they found that night when they intercepted one the Vanguard had been moving. Her jaw sets, the expression solid evidence her thoughts are something like Kazimir Volken, you Nazi pig, enjoy being barbecued in Hell. It takes her a moment to shake it off, the knowledge it'd been necessary to sterilize things with electricity from the sky, but Cat moves on in time. "The bridge went down, and you fell over, Helena was taken. Did anyone else go into the water, that you could see?"
"Gillian. Sylar… There were others near me but… I don't… I'm sorry Catherine. Heavens I'm sorry I wish I'd paid more attention. So I could help you." Abigail shakes her head. "So much was falling Sergei got thrown over, the wires whipped him right over."
"It's okay," Cat replies, reaching out to place one hand over Abby's and squeeze gently if she'll allow it. "You don't remember what you don't remember, and it was a chaotic place. Nothing at all to be sorry for. Seriously." The mental notes go on. Locate Gillian, and Sylar, also Sergei. Abby went into the water, and she survived mostly unscathed, others could too. Sergei, though, is worrying. Being injured and knocked over the side could cause drowning. Unconscious people can't swim. Injured people are less able to swim, and if blood loss was happening… Speculation stops there. "Do you need anything, Abby?"
"I need.. to know if it's safe to go home or not. I have Scarlett.. Whether Teo's alive or…" Or dead. "I need to call work, let them know I'm okay. jacket, I need to get a new jacket that can wait. There's going to be people trickling in, I need to heal them." Because healing them makes what she did to Kazimir just a little less offensive and wrong in her mind.
"I'll be trying to make contact with everyone I can, Abby, and get you some answers on those fronts," Cat states.
Abigail nods, twisting her hand to squeeze Cat's back. "It get easier Cat? or worse? This the bottom? Am I better off assuming everyone is dead or… or do I need to keep having faith?"
"Not knowing is the worst," Cat replies quietly. "Once the truth is known, no matter how bad it is, we can start to heal. Until then, it's like an open wound, even if it seals up it leaves a bigger scar. That bastard Ethan, he set her body on fire," she shares with her hands tensing and the jaw clenching again. "In a field. I only recovered her bones a few weeks ago. Just bones. But even at that, I can now lay her to rest, you know?"
"Now she can rest, soul at rest and yours at rest." Abby answers. There's nothing worse than bones not being at proper rest. It's like a soul cast adrift and unable to go where it should until then. She holds tighter to Cat's hand before she releases it. "I'll ask my boss, for a place to stay. She said she could help me. You can reach me on my phone, or the ferryman, or at Old Lucy's."
"I know of places to stay also," Cat replies. "If you need help, call me, and I'll do what I can." Her hand drops to her side once released, and she stands from the table. "Thanks again for your time, Abby. Take care." The last is spoken in a voice meant to give calm and comfort, just before she turns toward the door.
"You too. Call… if you find out. Please. Al, or Teo, or Hel. Anyone." Her fingers snake back around the coffee cup and pull it close.
"I will," Cat replies, just before stepping outside. The twelve Red Bulls she brought are left for Abby, and the door closes behind her.
 January 28th: I Ran |
 January 29th: At What Cost? |
