Tanya had returned to the rehab centre for another visit with Christian. She had met with Wayne last night, and was delighted with what he told her. Having a desire to pass on Anita's message too, Tanya made an appointment for as soon as possible.
Thus, upon her arrival, Tanya made her way to Christian.
Christian
Christian was on his way from his literacy class to the cafeteria when he spotted Tanya walking around. Hesitating a moment, he made his way over.
"Hey..." he greeted cautiously, "what... what brings you here?"
Tanya
"My feet," Tanya joked.
She grinned at him.
"But seriously, I spoke to Wayne yesterday, and he mentioned the conversation that you had."
Christian
Christian looked around cautiously for a moment, before nodding in the direction of his room.
"Come back to my room so we can talk?" he offered, fingers fiddling with the strap on his shoulder bag.
Tanya
"Sure."
And Tanya followed Christian to his room, ignoring the glances of those passing by.
Christian
Christian kept his head down until theyg ot to his room and he held the door open for her. Once inside he closed it behind them and threw his bag onto the bed.
"So what happened?" he asked, shaking some hair out of his eyes.
Tanya
Tanya sat down on a nearby chair.
"Well," she said, "Wayne had already put together and briefed a team to investigate the area when I spoke to him. They should be arriving and starting work there today. And I passed on your message to Anita too, the other day."
Christian
Christian smiled as he sat beside his bag on the bed.
"Thanks," he nodded sincerely.
"Did they put surveillance over the area or anything? Do they know exactly where they're going?"
Tanya
"Well, I wasn't in on the briefing myself, but they were definitely be setting up surveillance over the whole area, and probably much of the surround area as well. And Wayne wouldn't have given them anything less than a full briefing, so I imagine that they do know exactly what you told Wayne where everything was," Tanya replied.
Christian
"Great," Christian nodded.
"So... if it's going ahead this afternoon, when do you think I'll find out how it went?"
Tanya
"Now that I have no idea," Tanya replied. "They'll want to be thorough, and that includes tracking movements of any security details they find. It could take days, or even weeks for them to just complete the work."
Christian
"Yeah, I didn't think of that," Christian admitted.
He suddenly hoped that none of his own accomplices had somehow ended up in that warehouse during this time.
"But I'm a patient person. Still, I can't wait. Lucious probably won't be there himself, but I'd love to know that I've screwed with his plans indefinately."
Tanya
Tanya smiled.
"Ahh, the anticipation... and then the day will finally come, and a couple of weeks will pass and you won't be able to believe it happened so long ago," she mused. "This will be a huge blow - oh! That reminds me, we did manage to come up with a vague - and it's only vague at the moment - outline for a possible story to cover so many hits. You may have heard of a group called the Fudge Gang?"
Christian
"Fudge Gang?" Christian frowned, trying to think.
"Fudge Gang, Fudge Gang... doesn't ring a bell."
He shook his head, giving up.
"What are they, a street gang or something?"
Tanya
"Something like," Tanya said. "They expand at least the entire USA, but up until recently haven't really been very organised outside of their individual cell groups. Somebody has managed to take control of the groups and really unite them - y'know, beyond the name. And the tattoo... everyone gets a tattoo of brown cubes on their shoulder after being initiated. I suppose its meant to look like fudge. Mostly they do small time stuff. Con jobs, petty theft, nothing really worth the radar picking up. They've been around for years, but because of the lack of organisation we haven't really considered them much of a threat, so we just let them on their way. However, as I said, someone has started to organise them. And they have the resources to prove to be very dangerous. In fact, they have the potential to become the next big underground organisation - especially if we take down a few of these big guys, like Racer."
Christian
Christian winced, before scratching at some stubble on his chin.
"If I'd known about this before I might have been able to look into it," he shrugged, eyes growing distant for a moment.
"There's still the potential that I might know who's in charge though. I mean obviously I don't know everyone, but there's still a great chance..."
Tanya
"The new mystery leader only just surfaced a few weeks ago. Well, no," Tanay corrected herself. "I believe it was late last year actually... We've been having trouble getting close. In any case, our tentative plan at this time - and it is only tentative as we only formed it last night - is to make it look like the Fudge Gang is behind it all. That way people will be making trouble for them, and not pinpointing it on us. The only problem is that the Fudge Gang will know that they're not behind it, and will start looking into who's framing them. And as I said, they have the resources to be dangerous."
Christian
"Only no one knows I'm here, right?" Christian's eyebrows rose.
"And if they worked out it was coming from the station... They're not likely to just assume I've been brought in. I've been underground for months just for training."
Tanya
"I was thinking of YIRAAS, not you specifically," Tanya assured him. "What the Fudge Gang know about you is anyone's guess, however. I'm not sure what their intelligence network is like. Wayne is going to be discussing the matter with the team he has investigating them. One thing I can tell you is that the Fudge Gang is not limited to aliens. They also have mutants and a healthy human component. What the ratio is like, I have no idea. Do they tell the humans and/or mutants about aliens? Also no idea. It probably varies depending on the cell group. I'm not really up on them - as I said before, they weren't considered trouble until recently."
Christian
"What anyone knows about me is anyone's guess," Christian couldn't help but roll his eyes.
"So... any idea when Wayne will be wanting more information? I hinted that I had more to give. I can't exactly tell him where Guffery is - only Taylor and Isaac would know that - but I could tell him about pretty much anyone else. Edgar, Ray, Munza... I'm not about rat on Manning or anyone that's helped me, obviously, but everyone else can go to hell."
Tanya
"He's definitely going to want to see how this goes first," Tanya replied. "He wants to make sure we're not walking into a trap and all - considering the source of the information. He doesn't know if he can trust your intel yet, and he needs to determine that part first."
Christian
Christian hesitated awkwardly, before beginning to pick at his nails.
"Understood," he said.
"Even though the very thought that I'd be in league with that runt of a convinct is a massive insult."
Tanya
Tanya laughed.
"I doubt that Wayne personally thinks you would," she said. "But as Head of Security, he has to take the possibility - however remote - into account."
Christian
"And yet he's the one responsible for me being here instead of lying dead in a gutter somewhere," Christian pointed out.
"I mean not that I... you know what I mean. There's definitely something there he's not telling me."
Tanya
Tanya frowned.
"What do you mean?" she asked.
Christian
Christian pulled a face, not really wanting to say it.
"I still don't know why I'm an exception to the death warrant rule," he replied honestly.
"It's almost like some huge conspiracy thing Guffery has going."
Tanya
The concerned expression lifted from Tanya face.
"Oh, well, I can answer that one for you," she said. "I, uhh, I told Wayne about you being... Little Raider."
She said those last two words softly, although she knew that weren't being spied on in here.
"There were a few times," she went on just as quietly, "that Wayne was going to put you on that list. Everytime it got a little bit harder to talk him out of it, and well, telling him that was pretty much a last resort. But it's what's kept you on the rehab warrant for quite some time now. I... I hope you don't mind my telling, but my primary concern was keeping you alive. As far as I know he hasn't told anyone."
Christian
Christian hesitated at that, then sighed.
"Then it is related to Guffery," he shrugged, igoring the back of his neck as it itched.
He was quiet for a moment, before looking up again.
"You know what my main... worry, about being in here is?" he began quietly.
"Is that if he finds out... and he comes for me... I've got nowhere to go."
Tanya
Tanya hesitated for a moment.
"This is strictly between you and me," she said firmly. "I know for a fact that there is a secret exit from here. Where, exactly, I'm not sure. There are only three people to my knowledge who know exactly where it is: Leroy, Wayne and Dr Morton. And Leroy only knows because he designed the place. It was put there for the exact type of emergancy you're afraid of. Now, the only reason I know about it is because I helped construct the security system attached to it - and I erased all memory of it from the construction team. I also put in special telepathic commands in the heads of the three people I mentioned so that they would only remember when the time came. The idea being, of course, to reduce the risk of the information leaking."
She gave Christian an ironic smile.
"Which, of course, I have just done," she mused. "But like I said, I don't know where it is. You see, I have a telepathic command in my head put there by Carl, the other master, while I was still in training. It prevents me from remembering things I pick out of other peoples heads under circumstances like this. It's very complicated, and there's a certain protocal involved, but you have the idea. Basically, it allows me to act as a fail safe - if anything happens to one of the three, I can provide the information to the next person who needs to know. Of course, the real problem is if something happens to me. At this point I haven't really got a successor to my job. Avery Hanson is the only one with the power, but her training is nowhere near complete."
Christian
"We don't know if we could get there in time, considering who we're dealing with," Christian shook his head, scratching at his arm and leaving red marks running down it.
He hung his head.
"When he took me in... he told me what happened to the others. About half of them are dead. Some of them... barely even know they're alive now. I could only save one, and Anita knows where she is."
He looked up.
"That's why I asked you to tell her I was ok. She she could tell them. In case... in case they thought the worst."
Tanya
"I see," Tanya nodded thoughtfully. "Well, as long as the news doesn't get spread any further than neccesary. And your friends don't decide to break you out - that would be an instant death warrant I couldn't stop."
Christian
"She doesn't know anyone," Christian shook his head sadly.
"I was all she had. Her... partner, I guess, killed himself to get away when Guffery came for them. Steel set her up where she is, and my guess is he would already know anyway."
He shrugged uneasily.
Tanya
"Ahh," Tanya nodded. "Fair enough."
She considered a moment.
"We may have to think about starting a few rumours of sightings or something."
Christian
Christian considered for a moment.
"Not too many," he shook his head absently.
"He picked me up when I was with Blakesley if that helps. He'd probably guess I was behind him being brought in. So perhaps start in Nevada?" he suggested.
Tanya
Tanya nodded.
"Nevada, okay," she said. "And don't worry, when I said 'a few' I didn't mean all at once."
Christian
"Have people actually done that before?" he asked curiously.
"I wouldn't have known. But you know... we wouldn't need them to just start suddenly."
Tanya
"Heck yes," Tanya replied. "We've spread rumours for all sorts of things and people before. Marvellous way to distract people. Of course, we try to be careful on how we do it - discresion is the rule. We have to cater carefully to each situation everything from the number of rumours, what they've about, where they start just in case someone starts investigating, frequency of any follow up rumours and what they're about. So on and so forth. We've even done it for high profile cases in rehab before."
Christian
"I wouldn't think you'd have had that many," Christian looked surprised.
"But... have people actually had sightings of me before or something?"
He looked slightly worried.
Tanya
"The moment you step out in public, people can see you," Tanya pointed out. "Now, most of the general public wouldn't know you if they saw you, but you don't know who is going to make up the people in a public place. And you only need one person who knows who you are to be looking in the right place at the right time to recognise you. Now, what they do with that information is a whole other story."
Christian
"I guess running into Blakesley, Christina and Leroy on the streets settles that score for me," Christian rolled his eyes.
"Do you know what's happening with Blakesley?"
Tanya
Tanya smiled.
"His sentance was to be hooked up to one of our sentance machines," she said. "Ingenious device. Basically Blakesley's own mind dictates his own punishment. It makes him think that he's in some kind of prison cell, and throughout his sentance, his fears, things that has has done to his own victims, and anything else his own mind conjures up will happen to him. It's self powered, and all we have to do is keep his body secure and functioning."
Christian
Christian couldn't help but grin.
"I like that," he nodded.
"I was umm... He didn't seem to take it so well when we turned the tables, so to speak."
Tanya
"No," Tanya agreed. "No he didn't. And that's the way we like it."
She smiled, remembering.
Christian
"Yes indeed," Christian couldn't help but chuckle.
He stopped and ground his teeth for a moment, thoughtfully.
"What do you think will happen after this? After all this is over or me?" he asked.
Tanya
Tanya was quiet for a time.
"We'll try to give you a fresh start. If we manage to take down most, if not all of those who are primarily fter you now, we may be able to successfully spread the rumour that you're dead and give you a new identity. That would be best case scenario, and I hope it's not asking for too much. Otherwise, you could start a new life up here if you want. Or join one of the special ops teams - they tend to specialise in taking down the big guns, although different varieties. However it is that you want to do, we will do our best to make it happen."
Christian
"And if you can't?" Christian looked up, one hand on his watch.
"And what if they never trust me again? The looks I get from people clearly say what they think of me and I don't see that changing."
Tanya
Tanya nodded.
"We'll do our very best to provide you with the fresh start you want, in order of preference. But changing the attitudes of people? That's harder. You're even harder than most because you are high profile - the low profile ones we can usually slip in with a different community. However, we can help with changing your name, and alter your appearence."
Christian
"Changing my appearance never worked before," Christian shook his head sullenly.
"When I first dyed my hair and got pierced I was still mistaken for Taylor."
He couldn't help but chuckle.
"I swear it's a conspiracy."
Tanya
Tanya smiled.
"We can change more than just your hair colour," she said. "How about your entire facial structure? It's a very intense procedure, because we also want to elmiminate evidence of scarring, and preferably get rid of any current identifying marks, like current scars, tattoos, etc. It takes a team of people and all of them are generally exhausted afterwards - we don't really have a power amongst us specific to that purpose, so we have to improvise. Having said that, I think there's a mutant in Genovia who's power allows her to do that kind of thing all by herself. We'll have to look into that."
Christian
Christian hesitated, then scratched at his head.
"What about the mark?" he asked carefully, "that was done with a power."
Tanya
Tanya frowned.
"That's tricker," she said. "We would have to figure out what power was used to put it there - unless you aready know. Best case scenario, we can find someone else with that power, and they should be able to take it off. Worse case scnario we don't know what power, or we can't find another person with it. Then we have to experiement."
Christian
"I was less than five years old," Christian shook his head incredulously.
"I hardly remember anything. And it still can't be touched. I don't know if powers count as touching or not."
Tanya
"Hmmm..." Tanya murmered. "Intriguing. We'll have to look into it. Actually, there's nothing that says we can start looking now - I doubt that you actually want to keep that mark on you."
Christian
"Well..." Christian considered.
"Being that it's my last link to Guffery, touching it at any moment can tell him where I am, and it makes me easily identifiable to anyone who knows about it... I don't think there'll be a problem with missing it somehow."
Tanya
Tanya's eyebrows raised.
"A homing signal?" she inquired. "Do you know of anything else it does?"
This may be harder than she thought.
Christian
Christian shook his head.
"It's just supposed to help him get me back. I mean I've gone about fifteen years so far so it can't be too advanced."
Tanya
"Advanced has nothing to do with it," Tanya replied. "Because right now it's sounding like there were a combination of powers involved. Combining powers with a friend is all fun and games until no one can undo what's been done because they can't replicate the powers involved."
Christian
"Somehow I don't think he ever intended it to be infiltrated," Christian almost laughed.
"It's on every single child he's ever sold as a slave. It basically means we're his property. Quite frankly I'd be glad to be rid of it, but if there's no way of doing it... then I've lived with it this long, what's a while more?"
Tanya
"Well, as you pointed out before, it is an identifying mark," Tanya replied. "Under certain circumstances it can put you at risk. We don't know what kind of range it has, or if there is some sort of link back to Guffery that can tell him if you're alive even if you're not touching it. Now, obviously, you've lived with it for years and learnt to deal with the risk. The point is that you shouldn't have to."
Christian
Christian chuckled and shook his head.
"If what you see I shouldn't have put up with never actually happened, my life would be normal," his eyebrows rose.
"And I never would have met you."
Tanya
"True. But I'm currently more concerned with the present and the future than changing the past," Tanya pointed out.
Then a grin crossed her face.
"For one thing, the only person I know of who had the Time power is dead, and that's an ultra rare power, so we probably won't get another one of those for a few generations," she teased.
Christian
Christian rolled his eyes and smiled.
"What do you see me doing?" he asked suddenly, staring right at her.
Tanya
Tanya blinked, taken aback at the question.
"Well," she said slowly, "I have to admit I'm not really sure. I can picture what I would want to see you do, but that's more hopeful than realistic. Settling down to the quiet life. It's rather nice to think about, but somehow I can't see you settling down. I think your spirit is too adventurous for that."
Christian
Christian almost laughed.
"I guess it is," he agreed.
"And 'settling down' is a bit hard when you have no one to do it with. Or when you're wanted as much as I am."
He shook his head.
Tanya
"Yeah," Tanya agreed. "Although, I didn't neccesarily mean with someone, although that would be nice too."
She gave him a wry smile.
Christian
Christian smiled and chuckled again, a little unnerved.
"Well I've never had a girlfriend, and I don't see myself getting one anytime soon," he pointed out.
He sighed.
"I guess I'll see where the road takes me again," he shrugged, "at the moment I'm just caught in a bar somewhere along the way."
Tanya
Tanya chuckled.
"I've no doubt you'll find your way," she said confidently.
Christian
"Thanks," Christian nodded, his voice quiet again.
He stared at his hands for a moment.
"I just wish I knew how long this was going to take. I don't know exactly what they want from me here."
Tanya
"In a nutshell?" Tanya said. "They want to know you're not going to go around killing, hindering, disrupting, and whatever else people, places and projects under YIRAAS protection. That's basically it."
Christian
"But how are they going to know?" Christian shrugged incredulously.
"It's not like I have a way to kill anyone here. And as much as I could tell them I wouldn't, they wouldn't believe me."
Tanya
"They aren't going to know, not for certain," Tanya replied. "All they can do is keep you here to show you other, more constructive, things to do with your time and hope that something takes. And hopefully provide you with a few incentives to, hmm, calm down."
Christian
"I don't remember the last time I killed an innocent person," Christian shook his head, obviously frustrated.
He scratched his head for a moment, trying to think.
"I know I'm going to lose it eventually in here," he looked up again, "it happened when Spook had me, it'll surely happen here. The only reason it didn't work with Blakesley was because the whole point was to show him up, and it worked."
Tanya
Tanya's expression turned sympathetic.
"I'm sorry, Christian. I really can't get you out of here any earlier," she said. "Is there anything you can think of that might help avoid or evade that possibility?"
Christian
"I don't know," Christian replied, hugging himself.
"I've been trying to think of something myself. There's only so much that drawing can let out."
Tanya
"Oh, a venting is what you need?" Tanya inquired. "Well, drawing isn't the only from of expression. I believe there's a gym here - I'm sure no one would might you pounding the stuffing out of the punching bag. Or you could experiment with other art mediums, like paint."
Christian
"I've done just about everything the art room has to offer," Christian shook his head, "and I'm sure violence shouldn't be the answer I'm looking for in a place like this."
He clenched his fists.
"It'd sure feel good though," he raised an eyebrow, consideringly.
Tanya
"Actually, I think they'd feel better is you did display some level of - contained - violence," Tanya replied. "Emphasis on contained. Obviously against people or furniture would be bad, but in a controlled setting like a gym... In that respect you're not really all that different from a lot of the kids here - they have violence issues."
Christian
"Really?" Christian asked hopefully.
He ground his teeth for a moment.
"I haven't been in the gym yet," he admitted, "I... might have to check it out."
Tanya
Tanya nodded.
"They're all in here for some reason or another," she said, glancing at her watch. "Anyway, I've probably been here way too long. I should get going."
Christian
"I don't have to socialise," Christian frowned, before his face turned sullen.
"I guess... I guess I'll see you next time I woo them or something."
Tanya
Tanya stood, frowning a little in confusion.
"I'm not telling you to socialise," she said. "I was just pointing out... oh, nevermind. Anyway, it's been nice toalking to you again, especially so soon."
Christian
"Yeah," Christian agreed.
He checked his own watch.
"I guess I'd better get something to eat before the canteen closes," he raised his eyebrows, standing up as well.
Tanya
Tanya nodded.
"See you later," she said.
And on that, Tanya departed.
Christian
Christian watched ater her as she left, before taking a quick look around the room and heading for the canteen area to get his dinner.