Participants:
| Scene Title | Kill Switches and Trust |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Claire comes with some intel. |
| Date | Jan 11, 2009 |
USS George Washington
Somethings have been bothering the young regenerator lately and at this point there are only a few people she'd trust to talk to about these problems. However, after scouring the ship, her travel brings her to Cardinal's bunk. Here she hesitates, does she want to really bother them? Is what she need to discuss important enough?
The answer? Yes.
So she leans forward to rap knuckles agaisnt the door. "Richard? Is Liz in there with you? I need to talk to you about some… things." She glances to the side as one of the crew members pass by giving him a sheepish smile. Once he rounds the corner she adds. "And for the love of god… don't open the door unless your both dressed.. Please?" Somethings don't always change it seems.
"Oh, for the love of god…" A low, rough chuckle from Cardinal at the call through the door, audible to the young woman there on the other side, "…Liz, get the door, will you? And we're dressed, yes, Jesus."
Richard Cardinal is, in fact, fully clothed; sprawled out on his cot, arms folded behind his head as he talks with Elisabeth. His head's turned to one side when the door's finally opened, a smirk on his lips.
They've been behaving themselves very well, thankyouverymuch. Uncurling from her seated position at the foot of the cot where he sprawls, Elisabeth shoves his feet off her lap with a grin. "Christ, some things never change even with no memories." When she opens the door, she doesn't even look tousled — her blonde hair's pulled up into a braid to keep it out of her face and she's wearing a pair of US Navy sweatpants and zippered hoodie. It's getting chilly on this boat!! "C'mon in, you," she tells the younger woman with a smirk. "It's bad enough I have to deal with Clarke's sad little puppy dog eyes every time I cross paths, now you gotta broadcast it all over the ship?"
Grinning as the door opens, Claire glances at both. "Sorry.. but never know and I might like you both, but there are somethings I'd rather not see." She quips brightly, before the smile slips away, obviously it's not exactly social. "But, I do need to talk to you both, it's fairly important.. well.. to me anyhow."
Slipping through the door quickly so that the door can be closed again, Claire takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly. "Firstly, I wanted to talk to you guys about this Wagner situation. I know that Company agent doesn't want me going cause of my ability. Maybe she's right, but I can't ignore the vision I was shown."
"I've already seen everything of yours," Cardinal replies roguishly, lips twitching into a grin as he looks to Claire as she steps inside, though it fades as the conversation turns more serious. "Actually, Claire, from what Kazimir told us the other day… the situation doesn't sound quite as bad as it originally did."
Closing the door behind Claire, Elisabeth hauls the desk chair out for Claire perch on in whatever manner she'd like and then retakes her own seat curled into the corner of the foot of Cardinal's bunk. Swatting him lightly for giving Claire crap about being naked — the girl was sick and dying! But she looks curious as she settles and comments quietly, "You never said much in the way of detail." Not to Liz at least. "Wanna fill me in?"
"That's assuming things work they say they will… and you can't tell me it'll go without some srt of hitch." Claire gives Cardinal a look, since he should know better. She gives Liz a soft thanks, before moving to sit in the offered chair. "I just want us to be prepared for anything. I mean… I know Kazimir mentioned a kill switch. But I still think…. you all need to know the best way to kill someone with my ability."
Eyes move from one or the other, as Claire leans back in her chair and stretches her feet out in front of her. "And I'll be honest.. I don't know how I survived the shotgun blast to the head. I honestly should not have."
"I don't have any more syringes of virus, so I'm rather low on solutions myself," admits Cardinal; pushing himself to sit up, legs swinging over the edge, hands dropping down to rest on his knees as he looks to Claire with a furrowed brow, "Is there a way? I was kind've under the impression that you were more or less immortal, fucked up experiments of your grandfathers' aside."
There's a tilt of Elisabeth's head. "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt in your philosophy," she says softly. "Some things in this life you have to take on faith. I'm not a regenerator. There is no reason in this world that I should be sitting here breathing, much less coherent and functional. They blew my brains out at point-blank range." Her words are blunt. "At best I should have been a vegetable. No one can figure out how or why I survived. I'm not much of one for religion, kiddo, but I do believe there's something bigger than me out there…. and I think there's something here that I'm still meant to do. Don't look a gift horse in the mouth," she counsels gently. "Just… do the best you can with the chance."
There's a glance at Cardinal, and Elisabeth then volunteers, "My assumption was that the only way to actually kill you would be to negate your power altogether until it was certain that you were dead."
"I don't even know if that would work.. And personally… not gonna test it." Claire grins at Liz before giving Cardinal her full attention, "There is a spot in my brain.. if you pierce it.. I'll die." She lifts a hand and moves it to the back of her head as she turns it, though her eyes stay on the other two. "Can't be a bullet, so carry a big knife." She gives the back of her hand a light tap. "Straight in till you can't get it in any further."
Head coming around to face them again, she chews on her lower lip. "I don't know the time limit till I'm dead. When Peter had my ability he was dead hours and still came back to life when I pulled a large sliver of glass from the back of his head. So it's best to completely destroy the body once it's dead.. Cause if that knife is pulled out.. the person will revive."
"You can see why I don't exactly tell people.. it's the one thing I really try to keep secret. With this situation, some one needs to know."
The explaination brings a closer look from Cardinal, his brow furrowing just a little as she tapson the back of her head. "Hm." A breath's drawn in, then exhales, "Got it. So, shove something into his brain and then wait until later to incinerate him." A wry smile, "Won't tell a soul. I don't think it'll come to that, though."
Elisabeth actually pales when Claire says that. "… Jesus, Claire. So… even if there's a spike in your head and you're dead like ten years, someone pulls the spike out, you come back??" she asks, astounded at the scope of the girl's ability. "Okay… so to really kill Claire or any bastard who takes her ability, cremation is the only true option. Check." She's trying very hard to assimilate that information through the shock of realizing just how immortal the girl is. It's never really hit home before. She reaches up and rubs her forehead, the movement absent.
"I don't think so either, Richard, but… better safe then sorry." Claire gives him a wry smirk. Before her eyes shift to Elisabeth. "I honestly don't know, I haven't stay dead more then a day.. or two tops." She wrinkles her nose. "And again.. I don't want to test it. Of course, I thought practically obliterating my brain with a shotgun would do the trick too."
"Anyhow… I figured you two at least I can trust." Claire goes silent for a moment, crossing her arms. "On the subject of trust…" She starts slowly as if hesitant to ask, "How trustworthy is Magnes? He knows who my real father is… I…. am not sure how I feel about that after some of the stuff I've seen." Grimacing, she gives them both a guilty look. "There are times he really reminds me of my little brother Lyle.. or how he was as a kid. It… worries me."
Oh, god, they're back on this subject. Cardinal falls back onto his cot again, both hands lifting up to slide over his face. "He's not," he says, voice muffled against his palms, "He's got this problem where he vomits up every secret under the sun to everyone who walks by. They threw him out of the Company because he was a huge spraying fountain of information."
Elisabeth doesn't want to test it either! As evidenced by her expression. Moving on to other subjects, though, the blonde blows out a breath. She remains curled against the wall, resting her head back against it as she weighs her own input. Richard's words make her stifle a chuckle. "It's not quite that bad," she tells Claire. "And that's not exactly why they let him go, Richard," she admonishes. Rolling her blue eyes, Liz seems to consider her words. "Magnes is trustworthy in the respect that he would absolutely die before deliberately hurting you in any way, Claire — or really, deliberately hurting anyone. He's got a good heart, and I respect the fact that just like you or me or Richard, he wants to help. He wants to put this power he's been given to use for the greater good. The problem…. is pretty much what you've already nailed on the head. He's… still very young. I've always worried about what he might inadvertantly let slip to people. He was banned from knowing where we were all holing up while you were dating him because we were that concerned that he'd give it away. And…. well, to be honest… even as a cop, he just didn't seem to have the common sense to know when to do things without his powers versus when a judicious use of power might help things. He's always very… gung-ho. Jump in with feet first, damn the consequences. He actually managed to get you killed once that I know of. And he has, in the past, actually confronted a Triad leader to basically spit in his eye." She grimaces. "He's…. he wants to do the right things, but … he's just kinda… clueless," she finishes lamely.
Watching Cardinal's reaction gets a lopsided smirk and a shake of her head. Reaching over she swats at the closest part of him. "If I had others I felt I could ask, I would." Claire studies both, taking in what they same, lips pressed together. "That…." She falls silent and sighs.
Eyes drop to her feet out in front of her, an arm drapes across her stomach as the fingers of her other hand tap at her lips thoughtfully. "That gives me a lot to think about… I mean… I must have trusted him… but…" She sighs her eyes closing.
"If it got out about who my father is.. it could possibly go bad.. personally… I'd rather not be the one that causes problems." Eyes open and she looks at Cardinal again, "He doesn't exactly admit to me being alive, so I'd rather keep it that way. " Her gaze shifts to Elisabeth, "Except for the memories my life works.. and I'd rather not have to start playing presidents daughter." Her tone is rather bland as she says that.
"God I hope the old me was right about him." Claire murmurs softly, rubbing fingers across her eyes.
"Oh, you didn't completely trust him," Cardinal informs her; hands sliding from behind his head, he drops his arms to either side of himself and pushes up to his elbows, both brows raising a little, "He didn't know where we were based, given that I wouldn't let him get anywhere near the damn place. You didn't tell him anything about our operations."
He pauses, then smirks slightly, "Well, you told me that you didn't, anyway."
"Nathan…" He sighs, head falling back, "…we found him in Argentina, actually. The Vanguard'd captured him, had him locked up. Bastard took off and didn't come back the first chance he got, though." Then he raises his head, squinting at her, "Wait, you do remember there's two Nathans running around, right? The one in the White House that came from the future, and the one that's from this timeline?"
Liz shakes her head and lightly shoves Richard's leg again. "And to be fair…. I don't know that you told him who your father was or if it was in that stupid comic book series or something." Having never laid eyes on the thing, Elisabeth is completely in the dark about what is contained in that text. "I will say that the kid's done his best to protect you, Claire. Whether his best is good enough?" She shrugs a little bit. "Honestly, that's something only you can decide. While keeping everyone else as far out of it as possible." She grins a little. "He means well, but that doesn't always translate to being able to be trusted either."
"Nooo..?" Claire draws out that word, looking confused. "What do you mean there are two of them?" Brows furrow slightly with concern, eyes moving between them both. "I've been wondering if he even know I was on this mission. If he hoped maybe… I wouldn't come back and there wouldn't be an issue anymore." It is sort of a Petrelli move really. Even her grandfather didn't even blink with what he did to her.
Nodding at Elisabeth, Claire sighs and then stops, "Comic books?" Once she had known about then, cause Magnes had shown them too her. "There… are comic books out there about me?" She looks a touch confused and a bit unbelieving of that. "But yeah.. I know. It's gonna take some time."
"It's a long story. I'll tell you later," allows Cardinal, his tone rueful, "And yeah. Isaac Mendez— prophetic painter, made comic books. You, Peter, Hiro… a bunch've other people were all in them."
Blowing out a breath, Elisabeth realizes that Claire's missing more than previously thought. "Uhm… crap, Claire." She hesitates. "You do remember Midtown, right? Magnes is also aware of Midtown — the real source of the explosion and such."
"Yeah.. I know about Midtown." Claire grimaces at the mention of it. "It's one of those events I don't forget… probably never will." Her lips quick a bit, there there is no humor in that small smile "Unless I get my head blasted open again."
"Okay.. well… shit. Seems I have a lot to be reminded of when this is all done…" Claire presses her hands on her knees and pushes to her feet. "But… I will spare you all for the moment from that and Magnes talk." She flashes Cardinal a teasing grin. "Thanks for hearing me out and not sugar coating your thoughts.. either of you.." They also left her with a lot to think about.
"I don't believe in sugar," Cardinal replies wryly, ""You're welcome, though."
Watching the younger woman, Elisabeth starts to say something else and then bites her tongue. "Good luck figuring it out, Claire," is what she finally says.