DT10 - Thoughts are a dangerous thing

[Ryan Gabriel]

Ryan lay in the cell, his eyes closed, his thoughts... surprisingly calm.

First had been the battery of tests from the doctors, making sure that he wasn't carrying anything contagious that could spread to the students and other staff as some sort of twisted plan by Apocalypse.

After that, he'd headed down to the cells, having been thankfully given a standard uniform to replace the tattered... thing he'd worn under Apocalypse. Now he lay there, waiting for the psi-screening, to make sure that he... well, was himself.

[Samantha McManus]

"You know," Ms. McManus said as she stepped in, "this cloak and dagger shite has given Agent Brand a most audible Cheshire grin."

[Ryan Gabriel]

"Well, she's gotten enough samples of Celestial-based biotech to keep her busy for about a decade," Ryan said. "How does Beast put up with her? I'm just glad I'm not going to have to be taking orders from her on a regular basis..."

[Samantha McManus]

"It was still a dangerous thing, keeping us in the dark on this."

[Ryan Gabriel]

"There wasn't much choice," Ryan said. "I mean... even if Fury had given me a choice in the matter? If Apocalypse had figured out that I was a double agent, I would've been able to do even less than I could do."

[Samantha McManus]

"With what happened back in London, I have to guess not everything went as planned..."

[Ryan Gabriel]

"Pretty much as expected, really," Ryan sighed. "They... didn't trust me to be able to fake going over to his side. So they had Nina make a... I guess a backup-brain? Dumped my personality in there, cut me loose to take his offer. The plan was she'd get the brain to you or Cassiel or someone else who could transfer everything, but I guess she decided that with Bear there, delivering it physically would be just as good." He winced. "If it had gone really against plan, there was a kill-switch in my head in case I went too far before I could get broken free or if breaking me free just didn't work."

[Samantha McManus]

She frowned.

"I've seen some of SHIELD's 'failsafes' before."

[Ryan Gabriel]

"Yeah, well, my options were a little... thin. Nina was the one with her finger on the trigger, though, since it was one of her... things in there. So that made me feel a little better about it."

[Samantha McManus]

She shook her head.

"With Brand involved, I doubt Nina was the only safeguard."

[Ryan Gabriel]

He sighed. "Probably not. I don't know. All I do know was that it was the only way I could get them to play ball, and they fed me the line about how if nothing was done, more people I cared about would get hurt, and..." he shrugged. "They know how to get what they want. You know that."

[Samantha McManus]

"You know what I'm going to have to do here, aye?"

[Ryan Gabriel]

"Are we talking about the part where you go in my head and make sure that there's not some brainwashed trigger just waiting to come out and make me kill people? Yes. Please."

[Samantha McManus]

She nodded and began her preliminary scans. She was gentle, but thorough.

[Ryan Gabriel]

Ryan's mind, like it had been months before when she'd last seen him, was kind of a mess. There was the underlying sense of loss and failure and guilt, of course. A sense of relief that this was all over, and of anger at what had happened. There was more than a little bit of uncertainty over everything he'd done overlaying his entire mindset.

Then, in the back of his mind, there was a nagging, dark feeling that was quietly brooding.

Everything was easy for Sam to explore and interact with, Ryan didn't seem to be making any effort to hide anything at the moment.

[Samantha McManus]

Though she didn't want to pry into his personal life, she did try to carefully survey the feeling that lurked in the back of his mind.

[Ryan Gabriel]

In the astral, she'd find it as a dark-cloaked figure, sitting rather sulkily in the midst of a ring of Ryans in various moods and manners, loosely guarding it. The figure looked up, glaring at her as she examined it. "What do you want."

[Samantha McManus]

"...you don't quite seem to be wanted, here." She gestured to the ring of personae around it.

[Ryan Gabriel]

"I never have been. I'm the practical one. The one who knows that there's the possibility that the 'heroes' aren't always right."

[Samantha McManus]

"So who was right, this time?"

[Ryan Gabriel]

"It was a matter of perspective."

The figure turned back to sit, staring at the ground where it marked various figures in the ground that only he could see. "En Sabah Nur is an eternal force of nature. He brings darkness to the world... but he also brings strength. He was a means to an end, nothing more."

At this, the figures surrounding him looked... somewhat uncertain, glancing nervously at each other.

[Samantha McManus]

"I need to make sure you're not a recent addition."

"More immediately, I need to make certain you're not going to be... overly practical, with my students."

[Ryan Gabriel]

"Oh," he said. "You're looking for him."

The cloaked figure, along with all of his guards, pointed to... well, even in the astral sense, they hadn't been kind to the Death persona.

[Samantha McManus]

"...very well, then."

Her avatar nodded, and she gently withdrew from his mind.

"We'll want to keep you under observation for 24 hours. They'll likely send Nina to do her own assessment of you."

[Ryan Gabriel]

"Tell Brand I'm unconscious if she calls. I'll do my best to make it true," he said.

He hesitated. "I... don't know how much better or worse or what I made everything," he admitted. "But... I'm sorry."

[Samantha McManus]

"Only time will tell, aye?"

[Ryan Gabriel]

He sighed. "Yeah, I know..."