Description: After the events of Infirmary, Vanessa is the first to regain conciousness, finding Eclipse standing guard.
Eclipse, Cammy, and C.Jack slammed their way into the infirmary and fought three people: Vanessa, Dr. Tran, and Zach Glen. It was a rumble, and in the end, Team Interloper was victorious. Eclipse promptly tied them up with pretty amazing ropework because knots are totally a survival skill, and Cammy and C.Jack moved on, leaving Eclipse to guard the downed fighters.
Nobody has regained conciousness yet, and Eclipse has been watching for any attempt at escape, sitting on a cot wheeled over near the wall, shaded in darkness. His double-edged knife is in his hand, and with a small piece of metal strapped to his thumb, he hones it with a gentle scraping sound.
The mission is to watch.
Vanessa fought her best, but it was...not her best performance. No, rather the opposite, it was by far her worst performance ever; she contributed almost nothing but a target to get beat on. It wasn't pretty. Fortunately they were courteous enough to beat her senseless before she could feel bad about it.
She groans, dimly, muttering, "Christ almighty, what hit me," as she rolls her head bleerily, trying to get an idea of where she is. She moves to yawn, and...finds herself bound, which causes her eyes to widen, and her to look down. Well, apparently she at least has enough training to know she's in trouble.
There's nothing in the mission about watching /silently./
"We did," Eclipse responds, without any kind of the usual 'I AM AN ASSHOLE' tones or inflections. It's a matter-of-fact statement. "You were in the way. Nothing personal."
His boots click onto the ground as he drops from the cot, crouching down and flipping the knife to a reverse grip. It looks casual, but in reality, he's ready to spring. "I'd stay put."
Vanessa's eyes swing round to Eclipse. She's too beat up to fight. She knows that. In fighting form, she's confident she could probably take this kid, if she could...get out. But at the moment, tied up and beaten, she knows the score.
She doesn't have to /like/ the score, however.
"It's never personal with you bastards," she mutters. "I think I'd prefer if it was."
Eclipse has a very stoic mein, rarely showing emotions on his face. Others think it's because he's a hardass son of a bitch, but it's actually because he's still new to the whole 'having emotions at all' thing. His eyebrows, therefore, rise very slightly, and he eases back, relaxing. Somewhat. "I didn't realize you had history with my family."
They really didn't tell Eclipse much at all. "I hadn't heard of you until we were booked in that Saturday Night Fight."
"Your family? Maybe," she mutters. Who's he with? She wasn't really sure, the fight's still a blur in her head. "Depends who they are. But I've got plenty of 'history' with folks who think an invasion like this is a good idea. 'Not personal...'"
Her lip curls up, and she pointedly does not look up at Eclipse - keeping her eyes locked on the wall beyond him. "That just makes it easier for you to hurt people - kill people."
If Vanessa up and looks, that signature dark bodysuit of steel and leather will probably be a clue, but right now she's being PETULANT. "Hmm," Eclipse isn't particularly irritated by Vanessa's outlook, instead turning it over in his mind.
He idly checks the medical tape holding the big pad on his head - that glass shard from Tran cut all the way to the bone. "Is that really how it seems? I had to kill to survive, before... now I don't like to unless I have to. You're alive. So are the others. I only need to kill one man here. It's not an escape, it's just having a purpose."
Vanessa is too busy sulking. For now.
She waits a few seconds, thinking quietly to herself about what brought her here. She finally answers, "One man, huh," she mutters. "Maybe you're right. Maybe it is better to know exactly what you're doing - be willing to rip the hearts out of a whole community because that's your 'purpose'. Make people cry, and lose their loved ones...that's OK, as long as it's not personal. Right?"
She looks up at him. That bodysuit....her eyes narrow, fractionally. She knows that design. How to recognize NESTS' operatives is one of the most basic of basics for her group.
Eclipse remains detached, examining the edge of his knife, rubbing out a slight burr. This is a tense moment for his handlers back home - the first time anyone has asked him real questions. For once, bets are not flying around the lab. "There's nothing OK about it. It's a terrible thing to lose someone close to you." He rests his arms on his knees, now, knife held loosely in front of him. He locks his eyes onto Vanessa.
"But it's not mine to empathize. The most important thing to me is my family, who rescued me from Hell and gave me the tools I need. For them, I'll do anything I am asked."
"Huh," Vanessa says, and sounds genuinely surprised. "So they let you have a soul. Nice touch." Not that she's bitter or anything.
She would probably emote more, but, being tied up, all she really has the room to do is hurl a sigh at Eclipse. "So, all that matters to you is your family. Judging from your outfit, I'm gonna go ahead and guess papa is named Igniz. And maybe big sis is that Kula girl?" Her eyes are narrowed. She's tipping her hand, just enough.
Eclipse, mildly, "I haven't met Kula yet." Along with the frontal assault came the abandoning of hiding his identity - at least, it wasn't specifically outlined to him to do so.
"I'm sorry for whatever they've done to you. I won't make excuses for them."
"Good," Vanessa replies. Her voice is calmer now, but it's a dangerous sort of calm. The sort you only get from someone who wants to rip your head off but knows that they cannot or must not.
He figures her out. Fine. She turns her eyes away. "You have your reasons. It sounds like they gave you a good deal, so...Good for you."
Her whole body tenses. She wants to. God, she wants to. The only thing keeping her from jumping Eclipse right now is the ropes. She refuses to look up at him. He'd see the weakness in her face. "But that won't stop me."
In time with Vanessa's tensing, Eclipse flips the knife around in his hand, gripping it. It's the only movement he makes. He watches her for a brief time - there's nothing in his eyes, and nothing in his heart, but it feels like there should be. Eclipse closes his eyes for an instant, just long enough to put it in the back of his mind, and focus. Zach Glen shifts as he connects to conciousness and then immediately disconnects back to sleep.
Then, he gives his handlers ulcers: "What did we... do?"
"NESTS," she says, and she spits the word like poison, "killed my husband. They took my life away from me. They stole the only thing I wanted...a nice, humble life."
She quivers again. These are old wounds. She can speak about them easily. But talking about them to an operative makes her blood boil. She wants to fight. She wants to pound the words into his face, scream them with every blow. She can't fight. She's in no condition to. But by heaven she wants to try.
Eclipse shows no reaction on his face save a tightening of his mouth, relaxing his grip on his knife again. He resonates a little with Vanessa's loss, having lost family himself... but a nice life was never in the cards for him, or so he believes. There may be some envy that she even had the chance.
At the same time, he immediately rationalizes it to himself. NESTS must have had a reason. His father is nearly infalliable, right? "I'm sorry," he repeats.
Vanessa grunts. "You're different from them," she mutters. "You're not like Igniz. He laughed."
Another little quiver. "But that won't stop me," she says, again.
"I don't expect it to." Eclipse silently notes that Vanessa will have to be more closely watched for escape attempts. This will in no way lead to him taking his eyes off Tran at a crucial moment, causing one hell of a huge mess. Not at all. "For you, it's personal."
Eclipse returns his apparent attention to his knife, oiling the grip with a small square of cloth.
She's old and clever and /frighteningly/ strong for someone who started their training all of like /maybe/ a couple years ago. Oh yes - when she feels a little better, she'll be making escape attempts. But maybe...she'll let things stand, for now. Eclipse has put her at ease about one thing, at least: She won't be killed in her sleep.
Angry though she is, she falls quiet, engaging in breathing exercises taught her by the organization, calming herself, slowly.
After some minutes, she murmurs, "...what about you?"
Eclipse doesn't look up, and doesn't answer immediately. Once unable to find any kind of upkeep on his knife, he just toys with it, passing it from hand to hand, testing the edge. He doesn't like to sit still, likes to keep himself always moving, always on guard.
But he talks, eventually. "Old story. Born on the streets, fighting to survive. Dad walked out, Mom vanished, just me and my little sister. Must've pissed the wrong person off, because before you know it, men in suits are burning my little hovel down. NESTS picked me out of there. Helped me control what I can do." His handlers send frantic messages - you're saying too much, don't let everything slip, but Eclipse is more willful than the average vatbaby - he doesn't even pause. "I'm sure she got out of there, so I'm looking for her. It's... been years." He goes silent, staring at the lacquered black blade of his knife, which reflects none of the faint light.
"Another lost sister," Vanessa says, distantly. Is she even talking to him? "Is it a pattern? I wonder..."
She tilts her head up to Eclipse, finally. The exhaustion is mostly out of her face, now. "I hope you find her." And then, suddenly more pointedly, "Are you sure they don't know where she is?"
A smile flickers on Eclipse's face, which is a first. He was told people might try to... undermine his faith. "I know where you're going with this. I've looked into the attack. I've looked at every angle I can, it's not some setup. The attack... it was probably Syndicate."
The core difference in Eclipse's case being that there is no sister, no attack, just falsified records and programmed memories. They've had the intended effect. "Maybe they're not as bad as you want them to be. Everyone has secrets."
Vanessa grunts. Well, that one didn't work. "Or maybe," she retorts, "they're worse than you want them to be. Good for you to do the research, though." That one seems like an oddly genuine statement. She continues: "The others I've met...they seemed so weak-willed. They couldn't even fathom that Igniz might be hiding something from them. It's good to see you had the thought to actually look. You used NESTS' database?" She's drilling for information now, but she's at least trying to make it seem less like an accusation.
Eclipse starts to spin the knife around the fingers of his left hand. "And libraries." NESTS was careful, and synched the memories up with an actual unsolved arson case. However, he's starting to get tired of this conversation, tired of hearing his family attacked.
Vanessa nods. She senses his unease, so she doesn't press the point. Instead, she just says, "Wow. You were thorough! Sometimes even I forget to do that." This is not really a lie, but more because Vanessa tends to be able to talk, booze and/or pummel a sources list out of relevant people, and therefore libraries are beneath her.
She pauses, and then looks away. She sounds sincere when she repeats: "I hope you find her."
"So do I," responds Eclipse. Of course, he doesn't with Vanessa luck on destroying NESTS. That would be a bit of a strange move. He falls silent after that, going so far as to climb back up onto the cot and sit back in the shadows. He rubs at one of the circuits running up his right arm, all introspective now.
That's fine.
Vanessa's pretty sure her damage is done. If he thinks back to this moment, someday, and in so doing defies Igniz...she'll be happy with that. She settles back as best she can, elbowing unconscious people out of the way if necessary to rest her head against a wall, sighing and closing her eyes.
She has much to do.
Log created on 01:57:11 03/08/2009 by Eclipse, and last modified on 19:36:34 03/09/2009.