(Untitled)

[lights_midnight]

Apollo was slightly confused when he woke up.

He opened his eyes and distinctly noticed a lack of body in bed with him. Okay, not too strange. He was in bed. His bed. The sunlight spilling over his side of the bed confirmed that. He felt warm.

He closed his eyes again.

Chains, hanging by his arms, hands against his skin, burning cold and blood-

Comments

[anothercoldwar]

He continued the rest of the walk to the kitchen with Apollo in silence, lost in his own thoughts, looking around as they walked through the hallways. It seemed strange for a place so vast to be so empty. Skywatch had been staffed by hundreds of people and no matter what the hour, someone had always been around. The Carrier seemed eerie in its silence, almost unnerving. He shoved the feeling away as best he could.

No one was in the kitchen when they arrived, but given the size of the ship, it was possible John was still on his way. He made himself comfortable, leaning a shoulder against one of the walls in lieu of taking as seat.

"Are we just going to wait around to see if someone tries to pick a fight?" He didn't like waiting, but it wasn't his call. He wasn't even all that informed on what they might be facing.

[lights_midnight]

Apollo sets about putting the coffee machine on and dragging out cups and mik and sugar.

"I don't know where they are. Or how to get there. And I can't get Carrier to open Doors right now without a lot of trouble. If they leave us alone... I think it was Teuton acting on his own, without orders. That was the impression he gave me."

He ran a hand over Carrier's wall. "Their Carrier was dead. Lobotomised. Like everything Bendix has."

[anothercoldwar]

"Personal agenda. Fortunate, in some ways... they may not be that interested in retaliation. And it will take them longer to get to us, if they are."

He closes his eyes briefly and sighs. "Whatever he can't control or manipulate, he kills. I sometimes find it hard to believe we ever trusted him."

[lights_midnight]

"I don't. The average psychopath is a very charming, cunning and manipulative individual and Bendix was hardly the average psychopath."

He watches the coffee brew. "I'm pretty certain it was personal. He found the idea of me offensive. The prototype."

[anothercoldwar]

"You're probably right. Still, I feel I should have noticed something was wrong. I certainly should have questioned him more about Rose Tattoo. Everything is more obvious in hindsight."

He nods a little. "Perhaps he had an inferiority complex. You would certainly be a hard man to measure up to. I might feel the same way, were I a vain man. Thankfully, I'm not much given to comparisons."

[lights_midnight]

"Nah. He was more insulted that somewhere I had survived. He was made out of bits of me! Do you have any concept how creepy that is?" He shudders and pulls a face.

"I dunno why you'd feel that. I was made in your image, you realise? I'm meant to be a controllable reflection of you."

He's thought it before. he's just never said it. If he were feeling more himself, he probably wouldn't have. "I'm the you Bendix was meant to have a handle on. At least... that's what I've always suspected."

[anothercoldwar]

"No, though I suspect I would find it quite disturbing." He shrugs a little, because he honestly can't imagine what that would be like. "I suspect it's no easier knowing you've been made out of someone else. Not that it in any way justifies his actions."

He smiles faintly. "I would be lying if I said the thought had never crossed my mind. Hard not to notice similarities. I suppose I simply didn't want to think about it too much. The same way I try not to think about why he made me field leader over Jackson, even though I know he did it because I was far more willing to break the rules, far more willing to kill."

[lights_midnight]

"Rules don't mean shit unless they work to make a finer place. Otherwise, they're just power struts for the corrupt."

He pulls the pot out and pours two cups. "Sugar? Milk? Cream? Or are those decadent luxuries of the West?" He looks back over his shoulder with a grin.

"Call it flattery? Isn't imitation the highest form of flattery. He thought enough of you to want to- actually, no it's just creepy... yeah. Never mind."

[anothercoldwar]

"Exactly. I hate burocracy. Helping people is more important than politics. What good is respecting a countery's rights when its people are being killed?" He shakes his head in disgust. "We had to play by the rules to keep our funding. Unacceptable."

He laughs. "Black is fine. The army teaches you to go without such things, after all."

"No, not flattery. He simply wanted to immitate my abilites for his own uses. Maybe it was a challenge for him, I don't know. I certainly puzzled Stormwatch's medical staff."

[lights_midnight]

"If he just wanted your abilities, why do I have different powers, but look like you?"

He holds Winter's eye when he says it, the same pale blue colour as his own. He wordlessly offers the coffee to Winter, for a moment a little too aware of some of the incredibly creepy insinuations that sentence makes.

He turns away and adds milk to his coffee. "Funding sucks. I'm glad we don't need funding."

[anothercoldwar]

"I don't know. Maybe he had a difficult time duplicating them. I know the scientists who seemed to get a great deal of joy out of prodding at me were never able to come to a conclusion on how or why my my powers worked. As for the rest... who can say?" It's the best explanation he has. He's certainly not sure why he'd be worth imitating.

He takes a sip of his coffee as he watches Apollo turn away.

"And without that need, you accomplish something. Back home, they're still struggling with that restriction. One of the reasons I never felt the urge to return to active duty."

[lights_midnight]

"One of the reasons you could do a lot more with the Authority." Apollo grins brightly and winks. "I'm just kidding."

"DAAAAD!"

Apollo gets as far as putting down his cup before the five year old barrels into him, clinging onto his legs. She scooped up onto his hip a moment later, Apollo clinging to her tightly.

Jenny looks away first, scrutinising Winter. "Who are you?"

[anothercoldwar]

He smiles a little--as much as he ever smiles, anyway. "It's tempting. You're doing exactly what I thought Stormwatch should."

Any further comment on the subject is quelled by Jenny's sudden arrival. It's not often he find himself under the sudden scrutiny of five year olds. And Jenny, of course, is like no other five-year-old on the planet.

He manages a better smile, for her benefit. "I'm a friend of your father's."

[lights_midnight]

"Jenny, manners. This is Nikolas. Sorry, she's picked up her father's ettiquette."

Jenny nods enthusiastically. "Uh-huh. You look like Dad, that's creepy. Are you a post- yeah, you're a post-human. Your face is rough, like Uncle Doctor-"

Apollo clamps his hand over Jenny's mouth. "Sorry. New people get her hyperactive." He puts her down on the floor again, she promptly latches back onto his leg.

[anothercoldwar]

"It's perfectly all right. I don't mind."

He looks down at Jenny. "It's nice to meet you. Your dad talks about you a lot."

[lights_midnight]

"Everyone talks about me a lot because I'm the spirit of the twenty first century. I'm Jenny Quantum. I can fly, but not very well, can you fly?"

She sticks out one hand to shake Winter's and gives him a big grin.