[For Karen] Waving Guns

[ms_legendary]

My name is Nikita. Seven years ago, I was taken off Death Row by an elite covert unit of the U.S. Government called Division. They trained me to be an assassin, called it a new life and a chance to serve the country I'd wronged, but they lost their way and I escaped. For almost four years, I've been fighting to dismantle Division, to protect the innocent people of the world from the horrible things it did, horrible things I did for them. I haven't been alone...until now.

Bucky's not dead, but he's a mess and Jason's worse. Not physically worse. His head's healing fine. He's young, he's strong. He'll live. But his heart's in such a black place right now, it hurts to look at him. It's like walking across obsidian shards. Nikita knows what it's like. She's been there.

She's been meeting him in the Compound, because it's good for him to be around other people. It's good for both of them. And she's glad for the company, glad to have someone she can trust, but the problem is, she can't really trust him like this. Not when he's wired tight as a time bomb, ready to explode. It's going to take time for him to recover from what happened to Bucky and she's been stationary too long already.

No one's attacking her, there've been no attempts to get into the hut she's staked out, no one's trying to penetrate the Nina LaFleur I.D. not that they could. As far as she can tell, this island's not networked to any of the alphabet soup databases. She's as far off the grid as she's ever been. If she's still alive. If this isn't a dream. If she's not going insane.

Stick with what you know, Nikita. Michael's voice is strong and steadying in her mind. It should be a comfort but it makes her want to get high more than she's wanted it in years. She won't, even though there are ways, but her teeth are floating with the urge. She shakes it off and goes to the kitchen for something to eat and some tea instead. Dealing with physical needs, that's always a good way to stay grounded. And cooking will give her something to think about that isn't whether Michael and her other allies are dead.

Comments

[callofkaren]

"Oh!" Forgetting manners was never one of Karen's problems. She blamed it on the dogs, who happened to be very decent scapegoats when she needed them. "Sorry, I'm Karen Filippelli. Uh, council member."

[ms_legendary]

There isn't even a flicker of acknowledgment from Nikita when she hears 'council member', but her heart pings with a hint of triumph and of trepidation. Karen Filippelli isn't a spy; Nikita would risk her life on that assessment, but she's very close to the official channels of power on this island. Finally, someone who might be able to tell her something.

"Nina LaFleur. Ex-investigative journalist." She smiles and settles into a lean against the counter. Something flickers just beyond her field of vision, in the hall leading to the kitchen, just as she does, and instantly her body shifts into flight mode, although she keeps it out of her voice and off her face. "So, Miss Filippelli," she says, sounding like the journalist she's supposed to be. "How does someone become a council member on an island of multi-verse exiles?"

[callofkaren]

Karen's eyebrows rose at the journalist part, but after seeing William de Worde in action for the last few years -- and being at his mercy as a council member more recently, she knew to at least expect lots of questions. And journalist or not, it was something that came from almost all new islanders.

"Uh, we have two different types of seats," Karen explained. "There are members the islanders vote in, and there are members elected to represent various professions. Like the lab, or the clinic, or, in my case, arts, media and commerce."

[ms_legendary]

"Are there residency requirements? Term limits? Who can vote?" Nikita rattles off as though she's interested in the answers. She is, in the sense that more data is always better than less. What Karen has to tell her about the council, even if they're even bigger patsies than Oversight is for Percy, maybe she can use it.

Right now, her primary focus is on the shadows in the hall. The distinctive shadows and quiet movements of agents acquiring a target at leisure. She moves 'at leisure', avoiding the laser siting with regular kitchen movements, like dropping the spatula that she bends down to grab - and pull her knife at the same time.

"Oh shoot. I'm going to have to wash this. Karen, would you mind ducking into the pantry to see if there's any cumin or anything in there?" Unrelated items, but Karen doesn't know her to judge whether that's strange or not. And if Karen goes in the pantry, Nikita can take out whoever's out there before they can hurt her.