Tad lookad at Isaac and Taylor, sitting in the lounge room, watching TV. Again. What a perfect time to confront them.
He sauntered over - his manner smug, stood between them and the TV and just smiled with false sweetness at them.
"Uhh, Tad? Hello? TV? We're trying to watch," Isaac said.
"I know."
"So... you wanna move?"
"No. Not until you tell me all about your little friend Christian, and why you felt the need to rescue him from Guffery."
Taylor
Taylor just glared up at him again.
"You really, really hate seeing us taking it easy, don't you?"
Isaac
"What I hate, is being dragged into a dangerous situation without a full briefing," Tad replied. "You've forced me into doing some investigation of my own."
"What exactly do you know?" Isaac asked cautiously.
"Right, like I'm going to tell you so you can decide what not to tell me? Ha."
Taylor
"Then how do we know you're not just bullshitting us to try and get us to tell you everything, when you could know nothing to begin with?" Taylor pointed out.
Tad
Tad gave Taylor a stony glare.
"Fine, I'll tell you part of what I know. I know that Christian had a... shall we say, questionable upbringing. And I think we all know that Guffery is a wanted man. But then, so is Christian. So the question remains: why were you helping a known criminal? And why do you think you should take the law into your own hands instead of letting YIRAAS take care of Blakesley and the like?"
Taylor
Taylor's glare only darkened.
"Don't think you know or even have a right to know what we have to do with Blakesley. You couldn't have any idea of what he's done," he almost sneered, his voice low.
"And we helped Christian because he helps me. That's all there is to it."
Isaac
"And why? What do you have this partnership?" Tad demanded. "What are you? Twin brothers separated at birth, or something?"
"Or something," Isaac couldn't help but grin in response.
"And what is 'or something'?"
"None of your business, that's what it is. Can't you leave well enough alone?"
Taylor
"If I were you I'd drop this," Taylor insisted, raising his eyebrows.
"If you know what's good for you. Considering his 'bad upbringing' as you put it."
Isaac
"Why are you being so stubborn?" Tad practically shouted. "Are my questions so hard? Seriously."
"Some things are personal," Isaac said quietly.
"And some things involve national security!"
Taylor
"Tad, you have nothing to worry about," Taylor shook his head.
"It's not like we're putting anyone at risk or anything. We're doing something the YIRAAS just can't. And we're sick of sitting on our hands."
Isaac
"If you expect me to protect you, you can't keep me in the dark," Tad growled.
"We didn't ask for your protection," Isaac pointed out.
"But you still need it. Taylor could turn into his alterego at any moment. And you! You don't even have control of your powers. You need me."
Taylor
"Then just do your job, that's all anyone's asking you to do," Taylor shook his head.
"We don't want nor need your involvement in our personal lives. You're there for the soul purposes of protecting our physical beings. So just stay out of our God damn business and we might have a better chance of getting along."
Isaac
"And how do you expect me to do my job, if you don't keep me informed?" Tad yelled. "I'm not a telepath. I cannot be everywhere at once. And when your personal life involves dangerous situations like that, it does concern me. I need to be able to prepare."
"What could you possibly need to perpare for?" asked Isaac. "You hang around. If Taylor's alterego shows up, you're supposed to disrupt that. If my powers start going haywire, you disrupt that too. Sounds like in the moment decisions to me."
"That's very short sighted of you," Tad said. "If there are more dangerous situations, naturally I will go with you. There will undoubtably be other aliens who may use their powers against us. I'd like to have the opportunity to familiarise myself with the possibilities so I can figure out the best way to disrupt their powers. Naturally, it is impossible to tell exactly who will and won't be there and will the be friend or foe, but every little bit helps."
Isaac seemed to mull this over and looked at Taylor. Question was, was Tad being genuine, or was it all a bunch of good sounding nonsense?
Taylor
"Well you know what?" Taylor began sarcastically.
"Most of the time when we go into a situation like that, we don't know what the hell we're going to run into either. So get used to it, it seems to happen a lot."
Isaac
"Okay, okay," Isaac cut in before Tad could respond in kind. "Look, Tad, for all you're talk you haven't given us any reason to trust you. And the information you want us to give requires us to trust you with it. Maybe if you stopped being so antagonistic all the time -"
"You can't just trust anyone who's friendly to you, idiot."
"True. But maybe if you bothered to offer sound advice without insulting us, that would be a start."
Isaac and Tad's eyes met.
Taylor
"He doesn't deserve to know anything anyway," Taylor shook his head and started biting his nails, refusing to look at either of them.
"He'd probably rat on Chris and that would get us nowhere."
Isaac
"He is rather by the book... isn't he? Well, except in the beginning when he was lazy," Isaac mused.
Tad scrowled at them.
"Well, you were."
"And you called Tanya and complained I wasn't doing my job, and now you won't let me do my job. Make up your minds."
Isaac stood.
"Your job, Tad, is to prevent me from losing my temper and inadvertantly killing someone with my telekinesis, or something, before I get control back. And to snap Taylor out of it should he ever turn into the alterego of his again. That is your job. It is not to question what we do in our spare time."
"Your little friend Christian needs to be turned in," Tad pointed out. "Makes one wonder just where your loyalties lie."
"So you are planning on ratting?"
"Never said that. Just saying that it puts you two in an interesting light."
Isaac nodded slowly.
"Y'know, our Dad was on the YIRAAS Council for years. We're good friends with Tanya, Leroy and a few others in high places."
"Just because you have connections doesn't mean you're not corrupt. Human history is full of that. And don't give me that rot about not being human."
"But we aren't," Isaac replied, with a sly grin. "And you're right, knowing the right people doesn't prove anything one way or the other about us. But you know what it does prove?"
"What?"
"We aren't without power, just because our abilities might be impaired at the moment. And most of all... I don't know if this has occured to you... but if we're as corrupt as you've gotten it into your head to think we are, don't you think we could get rid of you, no questions asked, if you got in our way?"
Tad was silent.
"We aren't corrupt. We aren't doing anything illegal," Isaac went on, this time gently. "There's nothing wrong with rescuing a friend of ours, is there? And we can't exactly turn him in, because we don't know where he is. And there is nothing wrong with going after Blakesley. There's a death warrant on him, if you'll remember. YIRAAS - despite their best efforts - have been having problems getting to him -"
"And what makes you think you'll do any better?" Tad sneered.
"Because we have something that the YIRAAS don't have."
"And what's that?"
"First hand experience. So I suggest you drop it, Tad. There are some things - even if we were willing to tell you - that you will never understand."
Taylor
"All said and done?" Taylor looked up, then stood up himself.
"Can we leave now?" he glared at Tad, mockingly.
"You know, we are in a band, and we do have to practise if we plan to keep our jobs."
Isaac
The doorbell rang at that point.
"Speaking of which," Isaac said. "That's probably Zac now. What timing!"
Tad scrowled at them, and stalked off.