Issue 1 Downtime

Lora sat alone in the cafeteria, eating a wrap between sips of soda. She looked... preoccupied. Goodness knows why.

Gideon saw Lora and there was a hint of a genuine smile on his face at seeing her. He walked over and took a seat across from her.

"I didn't expect to see you out of your room, dear," Gideon said.

She looked up, at first surprised that anyone would want to sit with her.

"Oh! Gideon. Hi. Well, I had to leave and get a bite to eat sometime. How have you been doing?"

"Not many people understand what we've been through, so I've been spending too many nights drinking myself into a stupor in my room," Gideon said, "So perhaps you could say poorly, eh? How about you, Lora?"

"I've had my mind screened, measured and examined, flayed open and inspected, and every last personal secret and barrier broken down, with the contents laid open for someone to view at their leisure," she replied, quietly and evenly.

In other words, also poorly.

Her mind would seem changed, if Gideon chose to look into her thoughts.

I know...

Gideon couldn't help but reach out for Lora's mind. It had always been a source of comfort for him and he'd thought Lora thought the same about his mind. He recoiled before looking for anything that was still familiar.

"At least we have our second chance, eh? Though at times it feels like that doesn't offer much solace," Gideon said.

"I am not sure that a second chance is really worth it, once you have become a pariah."

At least you understand...

She looked down and took another bite of the wrap.

There are at least some people who don't seem to care who and what we were

"I'm sorry I didn't seek you out sooner, but at least now we have one another, right?" Gideon asked.

"Right." She reached across the table, grasping one of his hands in one of her own.

At least I can know that there is someone else who knows what it was like...

Gideon could get a sense that she was referring to En Sabah Nur this time instead of Mike. The words that she thought had brushed by a very dark place in her mind as she thought them, but Gideon would probably be all too familiar with that kind of pain and dread.

Gideon gave Lora's hand what he hoped was a reassuring squeeze.

Something nobody else can ever understand. How we were manipulated both physically and mentally by him. The memories of the things that we've done...

Gideon's expression grew pained as he too thought of En Sabah Nur and his manipulations of their bodies and their minds. His time on a cold slab as En Sabah Nur worked his modifications into his flesh.

"I'm glad," Gideon said, "It's been a strange journey for the two of us, eh? And it keeps getting stranger the longer I've been back."

She simply nodded. Briefly, she thought of what had happened to Brett for a moment, and her eyes became misty. Hastily, she wiped at them with her other hand. She hadn't bothered with make-up since the incident, so she at least wasn't worried about raccoon eyes.

"So. You say things have been getting stranger. What have you been up to since...since...well, you know."

"For the most part trying to be invisible, walking, studying, exercising, drinking. Anything to stay occupied and keep people away," Gideon said, "Some of the students have been trying to keep me from staying invisible. Haley, one the other Institute kid,s has it in her head that I should teach her how to use her powers and then there's Teri, who is simply trying to be my friend. I'm not sure what to make of either of them. I expected...Hoped I could simply fade away into obscurity."

"That is what part of me would like. Take you, run away, and never look back. But I suppose that that is the way of the coward, is it not?" Even after saying that, she still didn't sound like she had quite convinced herself that it would be the wrong idea.

"The idea does have a certain appeal," Gideon smiled. "Even if it is the cowards way out I don't think they'd just let us leave. They'd hunt for us the rest of our lives, eh."

"Yes. Because the first thing that we will do is go seek out En Sabah Nur again, of course." Lora smiled a bit, but it was forced. She barely kept herself from shuddering, truth be told.

"He can't hurt us anymore, Дорогая моя," Gideon said, "I think we're better served saying here even if it feels a bit like a cage at times. One day though we'll get to be someplace far away from...all of this."

"One day." She squeezed his hand again, then continued eating. "So, what were your plans for today?"

"Plan?" Gideon asked. "There's no real plan, no real routine outside of classes. I simply...do whatever I feel like doing within the limitations the Headmistress has placed on me. More often than not that means wandering around the gardens, drinking, exercising or meditating. Today I was thinking about wandering the campus border."

"Did you have plans?"

Lora shook her head slowly. "No. Eating lunch here was all that I was going to do in public today. But with you around, I might be willing to change my mind about that."

"Then when we're done eating we can go for a walk, eh?" Gideon asked. "It''ll almost be like old times, but instead of a dance floor it'll be the grounds."

"That sounds good. I have not had any fresh air since...well, it has been quite a while." She gave a wan smile.

"We'll learn how to appreciate it again together then, eh?" Gideon smiled. "It'll be nice to have some company for a change."