Falling on ones sword

Posted on Mon Feb 13th, 2023 @ 12:53 by Claire Cavendish & Phoebe Hunter

Chapter: Prologue: Dawn of Avalon
Location: Avalon Institute, Exterior
Timeline: Monday evening, September 28th, 1992
2043 words - 4.1 OF Standard Post Measure

Phoebe walked in silence along the loch, picking up a stone every now and then, throwing it across the water, watching it as it bounced, and then finally disappeared. She asked Claire to meet there, but now she was wondering if the woman had gotten the message. The woman was in two minds, whether she should just leave it or go and find her when she heard footsteps behind her and turned to see the purple woman heading towards her.

The pre-cog had been thinking about it all day about what she was going to say about how much of a mess the situation was. They had not even had time to catch up over the robot with different shifts watching the kid and generally just trying to get everything back in order. Phoebe had been working with the railway staff to get the station fixed with friends and colleagues that they knew that had quickly turned into a negative service with the rejection of the help at the final second that she had not had time to find a copy of the statement that the Sherwood Rangers had sent out thanks to the television repair shop in town where it had been like an ice block had been put down her back. It had been a tough couple of days and Phoebe was just about to make it a lot harder.

"Hey. Nice night for a walk." The sky was clear and the moon shimmered in the loch, where ripples spreading around told that someone had been skipping stone along the water's surface. Claire had always appreciated the darker times of day, but at Avalon it seemed as if they had something extra magical. It was usually a time where she could reflect on a day in peace, go over everything that went well, sort out in her head all the things that still needed doing, and just ruminate over life. Tonight was not a night for quiet reflection though, voices in her head kept telling her to run. Nevertheless, she was glad Phoebe had asked to join her out here, at this time.

"Yeah, it is... no rain," Phoebe commented turning to greet the woman properly. "I finally caught the press conference and what led to you doing it." It was hard to catch things if you were not there and it had been a surprise so no one had recorded it at the time.

"It's been a bit of a weekend." Claire agreed with Phoebe. At least the skies were clear now, in more ways than one. She pointed towards a path that would lead them around a smaller outcrop of the Loch, "that way?" It would give them a beautiful view of the castle on the lake, and it felt like both her and Phoebe could use that kind of a view to remind them what it was all for.

“Sure.” Phoebe shoved her hands in to her baggy jeans pockets and started along the path. It was a nice walk that filled the woman more and more with dread as she walk and could feel the piece of paper in an envelope that she was keeping there.

"It's a lot to process, isn't it?" There was a silence between them, and even though Claire could very much enjoy a good silence between close friends this felt different. Of course they hadn't known each other for long but there was something in the air. An unspoken discomfort. Tension. They came to the apoapsis of their venture around the loch and she came to a stop, looking at the beautifully lit Avalon. It seemed like a golden citadel on the dark blue water.

As they stopped the red head span around and grabbed out the envelop in her pocket. “This is for you.” Phoebe held it out to the woman. “It is my resignation letter because you lied at your press conference and it is my fault. I did not hear what these Sherwood Rangers said or sounded like until I went into town earlier to clear my head. I know who the man is.”

Claire took the envelope and before she could open it and look what was inside heard what Phoebe told her. She closed it again. A thousand thoughts rushing through her head. "You may hear this a lot more often, but you're several steps ahead of me and I want to ask you to take a few steps back and guide me through it so I can catch up." She tried to keep a calm and friendly voice. She didn't acknowledge the part where she resigned, that wasn't something she was willing to accept yet.

Phoebe let out several slow breaths. She had been hoping she could say it quickly and get out of there before she chickened out or something else happened. “Your response to the press conference… you were wrong. I have a connection the Sherwood Rangers. I did not know. I was in town and I saw it on the television shop. I was looking at getting a television for my room and …” She indicated that everything thing had quickly got out of control in her head

"What is the connection?" Claire asked patiently and without any malice in her voice. She was calm and understanding and simply gave a warm smile in response to the non-verbal indication that Phoebe's head was spinning over the whole thing.

“The man who was speaking is called Robert. He has the ability to mimic abilities and me and him were involved for two years or so about three years ago until he used my abilities to free a prisoner from mutant jail.” She explained quickly not looking at the woman instead looking across the Loch taking in the beautiful scenery.

"Alright. I'm sure you've informed the authorities of this man's actual identity." Claire had to take this information one step at a time. The most pressing matter was the current threat that he posed to the security of the country and quite possibly the institute. "The mutant jail you speak of, was this a publicly known one?" She didn't remember anything about mutant aided prison breaks in the late eighties that made the news. "Who did he spring? Someone that could've aided in creating or placing the explosions?"

“A sociopath called Heather… Redding. She can alter perception I believe from memory. It would not have been on the news because the jail is MI-13 run and controlled for the worst for the of our kind and others. I have passed the name on but… I am not sure what it will do as he has been off the the grid for years. He was always passionate about mutant rights and I liked that about him but our path deviated when I discovered what he did. I left him and the home we had before he returned.” Phoebe looked vulnerable as she tried to explained it logically without putting to much emotion into it but it was hard where Robert was concerned.

Claire stepped closer to Phoebe and put an arm around her. For a moment she allowed the silence again, to give room to the emotions that were there. "You do realise that I cannot accept your resignations, right?" She said quietly. "You're an expert on a group that I'm pretty sure I just declared war on. I need you around to keep us safe."

Phoebe jumped at the contact suddenly on her left but did not pull away or chance her stance from staring at the water. “How can I do that as I made you lie on national television. If I had watched it sooner or .. . I would have told you. I never thought he would go this extreme.” It was a bitter and hard pill to swallow for the pre cog. She had not seen this coming at all but she had not been looking for Robert. She had purposely avoided all thought of him where possible.

"That's understandable of course." Claire shrugged a bit at the mention lying on national television, "I'm pretty sure I can pull the plausible deniability card. For one this person hasn't been identified by the general public. Secondly his whole history is probably black boxed somewhere in the MI-13 archives. And finally most of these news outlets had already made up their minds before the conference. I wasn't going to persuade them of anything." She then turned to Phoebe and turned her to come face to face. "Even if you had told me after Sunday night, I wouldn't have changed anything about my speech or answers. As far as I'm concerned this Robin Hood has no connection to you. He lost the right to claim that the moment he took your powers without your consent and used them to liberate whatever psycho he decided to spring."

The younger woman nodded and looked her in the eyes finally. “I am just sorry.” Phoebe looked defeated for a second before she took a deep breath. “Not Robert… Robin Hood.” She agreed slowly trying to distinguish both of them as different people in her head slowly.

"It speaks to his delusion that he fashions himself a protector of the disenfranchised." Claire turned back and stood next to Phoebe looking back over at the Avalon Institute itself. "When it comes down to it he just seems like another bully. Using what has been gifted to him to inflate his ego, and nothing else. The one thing that will bring people like that down is a team, a community standing up for what is right." She righted her back and took in a deep breath. "I guess it falls to us to make him and the rest of the world understand that."

“I am not sure what will happen when we face him. I can try and look but I do not know how that will go. You are the first person I’ve ever admitted who he was to me. Not MI-13, not my family or friends. I could see the future in him and then one day it became something I could no longer see or wanted to look for because I was scared and then I was called to investigate some with abilities similar to mine. Of course they are similar… they were mine.” She sighed she picked up another rock and skimmed it across the Loch.

"People change." There had been quite a few people in Claire's past that had changed, especially around the manifestation of her mutation. People she'd called friends became ice cold and distanced. People she'd never thought she'd have anything in common with became her close friends. "It gives us an advantage, though. We know about him. He doesn't know anything about us. Have you seen what wacky things they're making up about us in the news cycle?" She had to laugh a bit about exactly what the Knights were thought to be capable of after disposing of the Sentinel. "So, you're not resigning." That was clearly a statement, not a question. "And we're going to go back and prepare ourselves in whatever way we can to face them, because sooner or later he's going to hear what I had to say about him and he doesn't sound like a man that handles rejection well."

“Not really. Why I was getting a television…” Phoebe explained feebly as she skimmed another rock along the water. She was not going to argue on the resignation despite her still believing it was for the best. It was only a matter of time before the man realised she was here and she had no idea what the reaction was going to be when that happened. “You go back. I need a few moments here if you do not mind?”

Claire wanted to ask if she was sure, but from all the people in the Institute she figured Phoebe would be the most sure about these things. "I'll see you inside." She put an arm around her and gave a gentle squeeze of the shoulder again, as a reminder that she wasn't alone in this, before tracking back around the Loch and returning to the safety of Avalon's walls.