2010-10-23 - Il Diluvio Universale

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 23, NCA 120 PACIFIC COAST HIGHWAY (California State Highway 1)


 * law and order sound*

Driving at high speed down PCH is a rite of passage for unfairly rich people - a class into which Teletha Testarossa does not /technically/ fall, but given her fairly ludicrous annual income and lack of things to actually spend it on, she could fake it for a fair while, at least. More to the point, Tessa had some business with a Geotron Electronics parts manufacturer stationed out of Orange County, and afterward surrogate parent and serial bad influence Elenia Weyland suggested they take a drive up the coast for a few hours and just while the time away. Of course, this is retardedly dangerous with the Aerogater attacks going on, so Tessa declined.

She then instead proposed that they give her soldiers some impromptu training on pursuing a motorized target traveling at highway speed through an area in which ECS doesn't work very well, such as the coast.

A couple of M9s are trying desperately to subtly keep up with a bright red convertible shooting down the largely empty PCH - with the attacks on, nonessential traffic has fallen quite a bit. Tessa is sitting in the passenger-side seat in a business blouse and skirt with a pair of sunglasses on, leaning against the seat and craning her neck a little to watch the coast fly by. "It's beautiful," she hums, for what is probably the fourth time.

Elenia has an unusually thin plug stuck into the back of her head - the car is after all far less complex than (say) a M1A Astray would be, and she also doesn't have to provide redundant signalling. The steering wheel column has been locked, and she is stretching back with her hair in a checked scarf, sunglasses on the bridge of her nose, and a cigarette in one hand. The car swerves to the next lane, neatly avoiding visual contact with an M9 for a moment. "Ha ha! You haven't been out here before? Well, it gets a bit more drab a few dozen kilometers inland, believe me!" The car hums along, powered as it is by hydrogen-extracted fuel powering a robust electric engine.

Elenia consults a timepiece application in her head for a moment. "We've got about another hour - do you think we should tell them to peel off before we get to San Diego?"

Tessa just seems to be content watching the view, one hand hanging out the door, lit cigarette dangling from the fingers with a proficiency that speaks of a little more practice than Tessa insists she actually engages in. "Sometimes," Tessa says. "But I travel by plane or helicopter most of the time, if I'm on land. I've certainly been on enough beaches before, but..." Hum. "There's something nice about driving along like this?" she decides, smiling. "In good company, with the wind in your hair?" She laughs at the all-too-cliche line.

"Oh, uh...we probably shouldn't have them disengage," she muses. "They're security." Then again /three/ M9s have trouble with /one/ Aerogater ace, but still... "And besides, it actually is good training if there's ever a pursuit. They have training for handling urban environs, as well. Once we're in the city, the sea spray won't be able to interfere with the ECS enough to be a problem, so they'll be able to pretty much hide anywhere!"

Hum. "Unless you have something nobody should be watching planned?" she says with a laugh, drawing cigarette up to her lips.

There is something nice about driving along like this.

Very little traffic. Clear skies. The rush of wind. It's refreshing, relaxing. And the distinct sense of irony that this peace is derived from the extremities of war is only fleeting at best with the sound of the M9's every thunderous foot steps.

Yes. Things are peaceful. Things are--

'Unless you have something nobody should be watching planned?'

A car merges into the lane next to Elenia's. Though traffic is scant, one or two cars is never particularly surprising. It's likely not even worthy of note, especially with the make of the car -- a sleek, black convertible, its hood currently up and windows tinted, obviously expensive -- and obviously only someone who belongs in a place like this would drive. It keeps up the pace besides Elenia's car, innocuous all the same. It might not even be worth a passing notice--

--especially when Tessa's Gynoid suddenly rings. If she looks, she'll find the caller is unknown.

Will she answer?

Elenia smiles rather thinly. It's her face more than any sense or sensibility. She laughs for a moment, before rolling her head back and saying, "Yes - close to the ground it just /feels/ faster, doesn't it?"

Elenia sees the car in both the rearview window and in her peripheral vision which now encompasses, on a low stimulatory index, cameras hidden at various points on the car's body. This is naturally what has let her give the M9's 'the slip' at times.

She flicks ash over the side of the car door. "No - just thinking about urban difficulties; we'll have our passionate embraces in the future, I'm sure!" she says, raising her voice over the wind. She actually does not hear Tessa's phone ring, although there is a brief registered blip from the phone itself activating which Elenia promptly ignores.

"Yes, that's it exactly," Tessa says, smoke curling out of her lips as she speaks. "It's just...nice!" She nods, to nothing in particular. The arrival of the car is vaguely noteworthy insofar as there aren't many other cars around, but it's not /abandoned/, either; Tessa sees the vehicle and pretty quickly writes it off. If the Aerogaters were to come they would not be that subtle. Basically nobody would except...well, people Tessa is pretty sure don't have /that/ good of intel on her movements.

She giggles at Elenia's line, tapping ash over the side. "Don't underestimate my men," she advises. "I don't /just/ hire them for their good looks." And then...phone.

Blink. Hmmm. Not the first time she's got an unknown caller; privacy is a very strong concern of the people in her life. Though if it were someone she /knew/, she'd have the thing programmed for them already...

She reaches down and taps the Answer Call button, and holds it up to her ear. "Testarossa," she says, by way of greeting.

'Testarossa.'

"You've become pretty formal now, haven't you?" the voice on the other line asks. Smooth, calm, pleasant. Gentle. "Times really have changed, haven't they? I remember when you had to fluster your way just through introducing yourself with your first name." A voice that should be so instantly familiar--

"Hello, Tessa."

The black car moves up to the side of Elenia's, but by now it is likely a distant concern. The voice continues on, his tone almost apologetic as he speaks.

"Sorry about the unorthodox way of getting ahold of you, but I needed to talk, and you've been a little busy lately. It was hard to pin you down. I thought this might be the best way to get your attention." Unspoken, goes, 'the best way to get you to listen.' There is a distinct pause on the other end of the line. And then:

"Though... even if you're a little older now, you should know that smoking is a dangerous habit to pick up.

"There are better ways to relieve stress, you know."

And beside them, the black convertible's top peels back. The driver's long, silver hair is caught in the wind, distinctly silver locks rippling wildly. Silver eyes meet silver eyes as a face almost identical to Tessa's smiles at her while holding a cell phone against his ear, apparently having little to know care about how little attention he might be paying attention to the road. He lifts the hand, wriggles his pinky finger around, and then:

"Oh, and tell Ms. ... Weyland, isn't it? that she looks stunning today. Disappointing choice in a ride, though."

Elenia lets out a throaty chuckle. She turns her head slightly to let Tessa have her privacy. Her ears don't pick up the voice on the phone, not directly; they remain standard grade natural issue, and the wind is by far the loudest noise. She looks over towards the convertible as the top peels backwards...

Fortunately she is facing away from the littlest Colonel of all when she catches sight of that man, and her eyes are hidden by the driving shades. Her mouth /does/ hang open, the cigarette falling out, catching in the slipstream, and flying off to where it will hopefully not set someone on fire.

The car keeps driving straight, of course. That's the advantage of the smartlink systems of the modern day - they can tell when your brain's fizzling, and they ignore you in favor of a superior computer mind!

Tessa frowns at the voice. She hasn't heard it in ten years, not really, and in that time they have both changed unfathomably much. She doesn't recognize it, and only Elenia turning her face away stops her from seeing the look of confusion on her face at the familiar greeting. "I'm...sorry?" she asks, audibly defensive immediately.

The car is coming up beside them. Tessa finds her brain briefly calculating firing trajectories to her from the window, but already knows that it isn't going to shoot her, so she can safely ignore it. Get me to listen, she infer expertly. "Who..."

Pause, frown. /And/ he's dictating her habits to her!! Not that he's wrong or anything but it's the principle of the thing!! But before she can decide whether to dismiss him bluntly or play along and ask what he's thinking...the top comes down.

Tessa's eyes widen, a fraction, a knife-like fear stabbing into her heart, spinning through all the things she knows already in an instant; it's easy, because it mostly comes down to NO DATA, ABORT ABORT.

But she guesses correctly, because she says, "Leonard," with a mistrustful tension. Not...venom, per se, but definitely a voice that says he'll have to earn every inch he gets out of her.

Then again, that's hardly a new phenomenon. And it's not like it's ever been hard for him. She sees Elenia's reaction. Most people are surprised to find out how similar the twins actually look; she chalks it up to that. Her hand comes up and it's only then she realizes her fingers slipped, her cigarette bouncing off down PCH. She takes a slow, steadying breath, and says, "Elenia...meet my brother," with enough voice to be heard. There's an old pain in those words, something she hasn't wanted to talk about. She switches the phone to her other ear so she can look at Leonard past Elenia more easily. "...it's been a long time, Leonard. What do you want?"

Tessa is shocked. Elenia is shocked. Leonard imagines he knows why for each. But, helpfully, Leonard pulls away his cellphone a moment to shout, as loud as his lungs can allow so his voice can carry through the wind (somehow, it still sounds calmly pleasing):

"AUTOMATED CARS ARE A NICE CONVENIENCE, BUT I'M AFRAID THERE'S NOTHING THAT BEATS THE THRILL OF GETTING YOUR HANDS BEHIND THE WHEEL."

Since Tessa has her own problems to deal with than to deliver his message, he imagines.

One gloved hand maintaining his steering wheel, Leonard returns his focus to the road, following a curving path at high speeds to keep up with that automated car with nothing more than his own attention and delicate care. He hears the tension in Tessa's voice; if it registers, he doesn't show it, maintaining that ineffably affable mask even as he gently turns the steering wheel.

"You've done a lot with your life, lately. I'm glad," Leonard says; though it sounds sincere, with his voice kept at that constant, level calm, it might be hard to tell if it's truly genuine. "You've really grown into a proper woman. Strong and dignified, honest and direct. ... But you've picked up some bad habits. I thought Uncle Borda would have taught you better than that." For all intents and purposes, Leonard seems to be talking about the smoking, but--

'What do you want?'

Leonard goes silent, there, as turns the car around another winding path of highway, the coast glistening beautifully against the sunlight. It seems like he might not respond. But the silence is soon cut with:

"Did Cagalli talk to you?"

The question is raised quite pointedly, as if there was something that Cagalli might know that Tessa did not -- or simply the implication that Leonard had been talking with her. Which is true enough. But if she has or hasn't will only minorly affect what he says next.

"Hmm. Could you put me on speaker phone, Tessa?" he asks, with all the familiarity in the world.

"If Miss Weyland is someone you care about, I imagine she'll want to hear this too."

"I - I see," Elenia says. She is thinking things that Tessa probably doesn't expect, but Tessa's interpretation is at least broadly correct in terms of what and how and why she is reacting the way she is.

She exhales rather loudly at the shouting. To herself she says, quietly enough that Tessa might hear it but Leonard certainly wouldn't, "As if I'm not doing all the work myself as it is..."

She looks back to Tessa then, silently. Her face looks grave, although the mirrored shades still hide her eyes.

Tessa gets a sympathetic grin at Elenia's muttering, allowing herself to believe she knows what the older woman is saying. But the look on Elenia's face - she's been /serious/ before, but never looked...like that, like she felt this great weight. Tessa narrows her eyes, wondering just how much the woman actually knows - or if she's just guessing by the way Tessa's own defenses started firing.

And then Leonard is talking more. He's so friendly, it's almost enough to even set Tessa to ease, but...she just doesn't know enough. He knows so much, and she knows so little, and she has been made a fool too many times to be comfortable with that. "Uncle Jerry," Tessa says, deciding to react as if he were still addressing her smoking habit, "taught me a lot. But you'd be surprised what a bunch of old men can teach a girl when they aren't trying." She settles back in her seat, apparently trying to make herself relax enough to not slip up. She's tense. This is not the kind of thing she usually does.

The point. Tessa emits a small sigh. "She did. Thank you for your concern." That seems to be all she's going to give him on the subject. Stubborn. As always.

Pause...and a frown. "...very well," she says, and quickly finds the relevant button, which given Elenia might be more of a 'plug Elenia's cyber-bluetooth into the conversation' button than an actual speakerphone.

"I'm sure he's concerned about you too. He's probably tried to convince you into taking a less dangerous position than the one you have right now too, right?" The words might be telling of what Leonard knows, but then -- he also simply knows a man who used to be almost like family. It's hard to say which this might be.

But he waits. And once Elenia has been properly connected in whatever bizarre way she might have available to her, he talks once again, accompanying it with a sudden, sharp, dangeorus turn; it's a dangerous highway, after all, to be driving so fast.

And yet his voice is still perfectly calm: "I'd like to say I'm here to catch up on old times with you at our leisure," the 'older' twin begins, "but I'm afraid that'd be a bit of a disingenuous, so I'll get straight to the point:

"I'd like you to leave Mithril now and come with me."

The words are almost unnervingly blunt, a fact that is only tempered by the follow-up: "I have a place arranged for you to stay at off the coast of Mexico. It isn't much, but it's away from prying eyes. All your needs will be provided for." The way he speaks, it doesn't sound like a suggestion. Though his voice is as pleasant and friendly as always, there is a certain edge ot it that says one simple thing:

You are going to do this.

This is going to happen.

"What do you say?"

It actually is a speaker, but there is a second patch into Elenia's awareness so she can hear it clearly. It's actually a kind of hallucinatory sensation - it's as if she had just heard what was said a moment ago, rather than the authentic sound itself.

She startles at Leonard's sharp turn. The car shifts itself slightly to move into the lane he just vacated, perhaps not wanting to be immediately behind him - you know - just in case. She turns her head to follow after where his vehicle is now, and then she turns it to look directly at Tessa.

She breathes in deeply; she does not speak aloud, though she does fold her arms in a distinctly anxious manner.

"...he has," Tessa says, though in her mind it has always been rendered as closer to 'get off the front lines and back in a lab where you belong, smartyslave.' She doesn't want to get off the front; the front is where she can /be/ active, /be/ useful, /improve/ the world, not...not hide. Even as much strain as she suffers, even as much as she occasionally laments, as Elenia knows, there is that remaining truth: Teletha Testarossa cannot bear the thought that she might be standing still while someone is in need.She starts, squeaking in surprise at the sudden vicious cornering, but soon settles back in.

"I might..." Settle her nerves, settle... "...like that," Tessa murmurs, quietly, of catching up; but Leonard blusters past to the real point that they all know she won't accept.

... "And what of Cagalli?" she asks, quietly. "And Rachel? Soma? Marie?" A look up at Elenia, quiet and worried. "Elenia? My men? The people I care about? The people I'm responsible for?" She takes a slow breath. She wants to hear his answer before delivering the response. "You'd have me leave them? No answers, no warning?"

Though that request is presented in such a subtly demanding manner, Leonard is infinitely patient while waiting. His car soon decelerates just a little, so that Elenia's can match up to it once more. When Tessa speaks, he looks away from the road -- a patently dangerous thing to do when driving manual, but there is absolutely no sense of worry in his eyes as he stares, briefly, pointedly, not at Tessa -- but at Elenia.

It barely even lasts a second until Tessa's words ring clear in his ear. Cagalli? Rachel? Soma? Marie? ... Elenia?

"As long as they stay away from Mithril, none of them are in any danger," Leonard answers succinctly. Cagalli -- despite his own history with her, still no telling emotions tinge his voice. "You all tried to confront something that was far beyond the scope of your capabilities. The organization known as 'Mithril' is over, now. And anyone that called it a home along with it.

"You remember what happened to Icarus, don't you?"

Blazing down the street, Leonard looks briefly behind him, as if staring at something -- before he continues on, smoothly.

"I can and have made preparations for you. I can even make preparations for your friends. ... Even Ms. Weyland. But the time's passed for you to feel responsible for a doomed cause and the equally doomed men who support it. This isn't the life someone like you should lead, is it? Do you really wish to have yourself martyred for some vague, abstract notion?" Justice. Fairness. Freedom.

"I wish I could put this in a more polite way, but there's only two choices for you now: come with me now...

"... or walk yourself personally up the executioner's platform."

Elenia meets Leonard's gaze, though it may be hard to tell.

Inwardly she is reeling somewhat. This is not precisely in the terms of what she is used to when she attends meetings or otherwise communicates. She has fulfilled contracts for machines she is rather certain were used in turn to create other, more dire machines. The profits were excellent, and in the end that is what mattered.

She breathes in deeply with her nose. "Are you extending this to the movement /generally,/ Mr. Testarossa, or is your argument only with the Mithril group?" She looks back at Tessa, though some of the puzzlement on her face is lost - shades again.

Tessa is not oblivious to Leonard's commanding tone. But he has to know her - she hasn't changed /that/ much. And if he's been keeping an eye on her, then he knows...exactly what he's doing.

Doomed enterprise. Hollow words. Vague, abstract notions. Freedom. Justice. Fairness. The things Tessa has built her life on.

Live your life for yourself.

Peronality quirks: Proud of herself. Hates to lose.

"If you know me," Tessa replies, quietly, "You know what the words you're saying are going to make me do."

... A slow, deep breath. "I'm so tired, Leonard," she says, quietly, with real exhaustion in her voice, even as the wind shoots past them, screaming. "I've missed you so much." Her head hangs, and Elenia can see her eyes are wet.

"The only group marked is Mithril. Katharon isn't in any immediate danger," Leonard's voice comes clearly over the phone in answer to Elenia, still polite, still calm. His hair whips behind him wildly, his silver brows knitting themselves together. He knows Tessa. But right now, well--

"To be honest, we were content to just overlook them for a while," he says finally. 'We.' "Aside from poking around some of our business avenues, you never became enough of a threat to register as a problem in need of an immediate solution. We tried more indirect approaches." Gauron. The TDD hijacking--

"But until now, we were content to just let you be and wait for the ideal opportunity to take care of the 'Mithril Problem' with minimal resources expended and optimum efficiency delivered. But some of us have gotten tired of waiting." It's more than that. But-- it's certainly nothing Tessa Testarossa, Colonel of Mithril, needs to hear about.

"And it was decided that the time to nip the bud you call 'Mithril' has come."

He knows Tessa. Of course Leonard knows Tessa. "... I've missed you as well. You're my sister, after all," he says, simply.

Yet his voice, despite carrying that compassion to it, still is so ineffably calm. As if, perhaps, her own concerns were not a worry for him.

"I apologize if my words sound harsh. But it's for your own safety that I'm saying these things." She is stubborn. She might buck -- she'd probably buck -- because of the words he's saying. But...

"Let me protect you like I used to."

He is honest. It's so nice to get the answers directly, even if they are in the form of being told to her in a gambit to destroy her will to fight. So superior. So self-righteous. They're both this way, aren't they? Would she handle this any different? That warm, compassionate tone...but it's hollow. They don't need resonance for her to see that, sense that. Tessa would and has tried very hard to be sincerely empathic with those she must treat with. Some of them are now her best friends. Leonard...it's more like how she was some time ago - politeness as a wall between the real him and the world.

And then he says those final words, and Tessa reacts like he punched in the gut, tears down her cheeks as she sucks in air, her body shuddering and trembling under the force of it. She wants her ten years back. She wants her life back. This stupid.../voice/, hissing and howling in her head even now, why did she have to...she never wanted to...she just wanted...

She doesn't respond for a solid minute, before she takes a slow, shuddering breath, finding a handkerchief and dabbing at her running makeup. "Leonard," she says quietly. "I want to. God, you don't...even know. But..." But.

There's not supposed to be a but.

"Someone I consider special to me," she says, leaning back with a small smile as she steels her resolve, "told me that I have to live by my own standards if I'm going to be happy. I can't hide behind you forever. And you know as well as I do that if the sun tries to kill me...I'll just tear it out of the sky." oh so not arrogant at all, then.

"I'm sorry, Leonard. Thank you."

There's only one possible answer to this request.

But...

'I can't hide behind you forever.'

Tessa chooses the exact opposite.

"..." Listening to the voice on the other end of the phone, Leonard closes his eyes and smiles. It's more of an exhasperated smile than anything else -- the kind of smile that one might give when they've been defeated.

"You've grown up a lot," he remarks again, but his tone is different this time. A wistful edge touches upon the fringes of his voice. "But you're still as stubborn as I remember. Let's hope you haven't grown in the wrong way." He stops talking here, glancing back at the other car. A tearful but resolved Tessa. Elenia. He wonders, distantly, how much she knows. But he likely already knows the answer to that question, too.

"... I guess won't be able to keep you safe then, Tessa. I just hope you realize the poor decision you're making before it's too late."

The black convertible suddenly punches on the acceleration, aiming to race past Elenia's vehicle at top speeds, swerving dangerously along an upcoming curve in the road. Leonard seems not to notice nor care that he probably almost flipped his car; he just enjoys the feel of the wind in his hair.

"Oh, and one more thing..." he begins.

"... you should tell your men to focus more on their environment if they're going to try stealth tactics without ECS available to them. Two M9s, right?"

A pause.

"It was a pleasure to meet a woman as lovely as you, Ms. Weyland. You should really try driving manual for the rest of the trip." ... And...

"... Goodbye, Tessa."

Somehow, there is some distinct air of finality in Leonard's voice as he hangs up that phone.

As if it is the last farewell they'll ever get to share.

Someone she considers special to her.

Elenia's mouth doesn't drop open again. She does inhale again, deeply. Her face colors slightly, but between her complexion and the wind it's hard to really see. When Leonard speaks up, she has to think just how to reply to it. What will it mean? Perhaps, she thinks, she can shelter Tessa.

But can she shelter those little Americans? That Muslim boy? The Japanese girl? Unlikely.

She then jerks in her seat as the car's proximity sensors hit her in the parasympathetic nervous system. Her hands grab the wheel with metal-denting force, the prosthetics gripping down hard as she controls the vehicle out of its skid, a closed circuit of feedback forming quite naturally. She's stopped breathing, but it's temporary.

After Leonard's pulled out of easy viewing distance, and the phone system has closed down, she takes a great gulping breath before asking, "Those machines --"

Tessa almost screams as Leonard makes that final move to jerk ahead of them. He's so .../sudden/! She watches him fly away, listens to his final advice. Yeah, she was expecting that one. "I should," she agrees.

He issues two final sentences. Tessa closes her eyes at his final words, and breathes in, and replies: "I love you, brother," with a pained intensity, not sure if Leonard is still on the line. She wants her years back. She wants her /brother/ back. But she can't have either of those because of this damned voice, this damned.../WORLD/. "...we'll see each other again." There's a finality in that, too - a certainty. I won't be dying, she says with that; just watch me.

Finally, though, she sighs again, head tilting lower, a slow, deep breath. Elenia is stunned. Tessa glances at her, dabbing tears from her eyes as she does. "Yes?" she asks, trying not to show how much that ravaged her emotionally. "What about them?" She spots the dent in the steering wheel and smiles, just a bit, a touch of upward quirk to her lip. That's sort of amusing - to see Elenia lose her usual cool like that. It makes her seem more...human, Tessa decides.

Elenia clears her throat. She feels embarrassed - it seems like such a petty thing compared to the pathos she's just witnessed.

"Well, er," she says, face still colored, "they're fine, yes?"

Tessa seems briefly surprised that Elenia was actually worried about that, and then nods. "They'll be alright," she confirms. "I think he was just taunting us. Besides..." Hum, turning eyes to watch the coast roll by, trying to get some kind of equilibrium back. "They're SRT. They can handle themselves." She's thinking now - visibly, mind turning over what has just happened rapidly.

It's nearly twenty minutes later when Tessa finally sighs, leans back, and stops staring at the coastline to stare instead at the road ahead. She digs into her purse, producing a pack of cigarettes.

"I'm not sure if he realizes it..." she says, not entirely to Elenia, and then lights one up and takes a long, slow drag. Smoke and air mingle as she watches the world fly by, some of her nerves easing, "...but he just gave me everything I need to beat him."