Calm Before the Storm

Summary:
September 02 2014: Storms are brewing at home and abroad, but there's still some time for Jericho and Illyana to catch up with one another.

Unit 24F

A nice apartment in Hell's Kitchen with a view of the Hudson


Characters

NPCs

  • K'nert

Mood Music:
[* None]


It was fairly late, all things considered, by the time Jericho had gotten home. Between the Bus flight, K'nert's ridiculous staring match with the Cap, meeting up with Logan and an apparent old friend of Illyana's, it'd been a busy day. And, it seems, there 'ain't no rest for the wicked' because there's more work to be done.

Not tonight though. The first thing Jericho does, after changing and putting away the groceries he'd picked up on the way back, is pour himself a glass of vodka. It has been far too long since he was able to do this in peace (okay, only a week or so, but still!). Then, for good measure, he pours himself a second glass and heads out to the living room, considering perhaps gathering up his tools and heading into Limbo to garden for a little while. He's been able to keep it up while he was away, but not really make any new progress in the last week. That needs to change…

*

It's funny how time seems to speed up at times, and slow down at others. As though it weren't something static, and instead subjective. But Jericho knows that's not true. Well. Not true most of the time. In Limbo, it seems to be quite true. The only one to spend so much time there outside of Illyana herself, he's probably learned quite well why she's rarely on time, and never seems to be in a rush.

As though the Vodka Ritual summoned her, Illyana walks out of the door to her room that she only tends to close when she's sleeping. "I thought I heard one of my favorite sounds." She remarks in her dryly amused sort of manner, stepping over to collect his second glass as her own.

She's wearing a lot of leather and chains and spikes, dark makeup around her eyes and a few streaks of blue in her long blonde hair. Signs she's been in Limbo a lot of late.

*

Jericho turns to see Illyana and smiles. "Hey there." He surrenders the vodka without comment, looking her over instead to get a sense of how she is. K'nert also hops up on the table to see her. Because Illyana trumps the idiot he has to watch any day. Dumb human.

"How have you been?" The hacker asks after a long moment.

*

Illyana reaches over to hook an arm around K'nert, which makes him squirm and make protesting sounds but he doesn't dare bite or claw at her, siting down and settling the demon in her lap like some kind of pissy housecat. She rubs a thumb over his wedge-shaped head and, still grumbling, he settles down. "Been worse." She answers with a smirk. "But overall not bad. You see that Bobby's marketing team went Live?" She doesn't open with the usual 'how was your day' or 'are you OK'. He's here, not noticeably bleeding. He must be mostly OK.

*

"I hadn't really had a chance to catch up with the news since I got back. So you're all public and everything now mmm?" Jericho moves over to the couch and takes a seat of his own. "How does it feel?" He's gonna guess a little strange just because of how hidden everything has been in the past. Heck, even when the X-ers want to work with others, the instinct seems to be to hide if his recent encounters are any indication.

*

Illyana shifts a bit, so she's leaning against Jericho's side (which gives K'nert an excuse to hiss at the human. At least before Illyana flicks his snout and he settles back down.) "Well. I'm going to be a bit more paranoid if people seem to be looking at me." Illyana says dryly, and then shrugs. "But hopefully they won't recognize me out of uniform."

Illyana tilts her head back a bit, so she can look at him. "Things go well?"

*

Jericho loops an arm around Illyana's shoulders and chuckles a bit when K'nert gets flicked. "Mmm, you'll be okay. If I can handle it, I'm sure you can, and hey, if things go well the worst they'll want is your autograph or a picture with you." As opposed to haveing a magazine full of 7.62mm for her.

"Things went as well as could be expected. Lots of hunting around before we found something that'll probably lead us to where we need to get. Ran into some of your folks out there. Had a dustup with one of them but it worked out in the end." And the burns are healed from Cyclops little display of mutant might, so there's no need to mention those. Damn those eye-beams hit hard though.

*

"Had a what?" Illyans' brow furrows. Military lingo wasn't something that was on the Xavier syllabus, no matter what some folks might think of the place.

"And no, at worst they'll try to kill me." Illyana admits dryly. "We are kinda making ourselves a target for the mutant hate groups but… At least most of us have had training to defend ourselves." Something the 'new kids' will have to get drilled into them if they're going to do the Hero side of things. "I should probably read my bio. Make sure 'not a people person' is in there somewhere…"

*

"Mmmm, well there is that. I kind of pity the ones that do." Primarily because killing Illyana is a bit of frightening prospect. Still, Jericho does make a mental note to add a threat detection process for Illyana whenever she's in areas he's monitoring. Happens often enough that it seems like it's something he should do.

"That's probably wise." Jericho notes of the bio. The prospect of her having one is kind of amusing in its own right, but it might as well have things like that in it. He imagines it'll leave out the 'Queen of Limbo' part. Seems like something the marketeers would insist on.

"Mmm, that reminds me, speaking of people looking for you, I ran into someone who said she knew you. Does the name Kitty Pryde mean anything to you?"

*

That gets one of those rare blinks of surprise from Illyana, the blonde twisting a bit to look at him a bit better. "She was my roommate at Xavier's." She says, giving him the answer without even making him tell her all the details first. He knows her well enough, and she knows that, that she expects him to give up the goods soon enough. "She uh, went to Japan after graduation. I had the whole thing with Limbo taking up all my time, and then I didn't have access to my magic.." Which meant no scrying.

*

Jericho nods, satisfied at that. "She told me to tell you that she's back in town. A friend of hers had brought her to meet me so she could help with the hacking. K'nert was hanging around when she did. He got into it with her pet, looked like some kind of dragon, and she heard me use her name while I as telling him not to pick a fight he couldn't win." Which was how she entered the conversation. "I didn't tell them where you were because I wanted to make sure it was someone you wanted to see first. Otherwise I'd have told them to hang out here and wait for you."

*

Illyana chuckles then, one of those small smiles settling on her lips. "Lockheed." The name is said with affection, which gets K'nert all grumpy again. "Shhh." She croons to K'nert. "Yes, I like you better." Though… her tone is rather sarcastic. "My name isn't terribly common. Even in Russia." She admits.

That he took those kinds of precautions earns him the press of the blonde's cheek against his shoulder. "Yeah, I'd love to see Kitty again." There's something to her tone. Something more than the sound of someone reuniting with an old High School classmate. Something almost sad. "But it has been years. People can change. Sounds like she's still on the right side."

*

"I think she is. Her friend Logan seemed to think so. He's… a bit of grump but definitely anti-Hydra. And he seemed to be pretty well acquainted with May…" Oh yeah, that's right. Jericho sighs. "Which reminds me. Melinda May would also like to meet you. She's my SHIELD contact. Only one I trust. I told her I'd ask." That press of cheek to his shoulder prompts a bit of a squeeze about hers, but the tone has him glancing down to watch her. She doesn't use that tone often.

"Anyway, if I see Kitty again before you do I'll tell her to come on down." This is her place too after all and so far as Jericho is concerned her friends are welcome here so long as she says they are.

*

That gets a laugh out of Illyana. "Why does your SHIELD contact want to meet me? I mean, I've already gone and given Hill my information, let her meet up with 'Berto. I would think they'd prefer to talk to him over me."

She doesn't elaborate on Kitty. Maybe… maybe another day. After lots of vodka. Or maybe not. Even Kitty doesn't really know about Illyana past with Cat.

*

"Honestly, I suspect it's personal. She did say that this as 'offline'. Not in a offical capacity." Jericho shrugs with a small smile. "Honestly Illyana I think she's just a bit concerned about me. Wants to know where K'nert came from, how I keep winding up halfway across the world in improbable times." Maybe May's concerned about the demonic aspects and their application to him personally too. Jericho himself doesn't seem too worried about that. But then, he knows Illyana better. He knows the risks he takes in being with her and he's long since accepted those.

"If you don't want to, that's fine. May'll understand." Maybe not like it, but understand. "She's decent people though. Prickely. But decent." Prickley could, now that he thinks about it, describe Nancy and Partisan too.

Jericho doesn't press for details. He knows Illyana well enough to know that she'll tell him when and if she feels like it. What's important now is knowing that Kitty is someone she feels safe seeing, so that means Kitty's welcome here so far as he's concerned.

*

Illyana gives a shrug. "I can meet her." Illyana says, though there's a bit of a frown there. That whole 'worried about him' makes it pretty clear she's worried about Illyana's influence on him. Which doesn't usually make for a cordial first meeting. "You know that she isn't likely to feel better after she gets some answers." She points out to the soldier.

*

Jericho shrugs. "Possibly not, though not getting any won't make her feel better either. That's why I left it up to you. I'd… certainly understand if you'd rather not deal with that kind of thing." He says, his voice getting a bit softer. She puts up with it rather enough from her own friends, he's seen. No reason to put her through it from his if she'd rather not.

"That said, May's a practical sort of woman. She'll accept that I've made my choice and know what I'm doing." More or less. Know that what he's doing has its risks, anyway.

*

"Roberto gave our dossiers to SHIELD you know. But I'm guessing she's more interested in her 'gut feeling' towards me. It's like some cop thing I think." And given that Illyana sets off the warning bells in people's heads… not always the best but ah well.

"But go ahead and set up some kind of meeting. Just make sure there's alcohol." She notes dryly, lifting her glass in example before taking a sip. "She the only grief you're getting cos of me?"

*

"Believe it or not, most of the grief I get is because of me." Jericho smirks. "But yes, largely so. You took most of the heat off by meeting with Manning and Hill." He blows out a soft sigh. "Thank you for that, by the way." He'd have dealt with it himself, but he'll not deny it's nice to not have to deal with it.

Illyana gets another squeeze about the shoulders, this one meant to be reassuring. "It's not like you're some albatross around my neck, after all." And even if she were, he's already decided she's worth the trouble, just as she's worth the risk.

*

Illyana leans forward, setting her glass down on the coffee table so she can turn and settle herself across his lap. It displaces K'nert, who grumbles of course but not so much that he gets Illyana's annoyance directed at him again. She drapes her arms over his shoulders, fingers idly teasing the hair at the nape of his neck and chuckles. "Eh. I live to piss off authority figures." Which is funny. Given she is one.

*

Jericho's traces are glowing dull red from the contact by this point and he brings his other arm down to wrap around Illyana's waist as she settles in. "Oh, well then this'll be fun." He says with a wink and a smile. Yet another thing they have in common, particularly when they come to the conclusion that said authority figure is wrong about something. It's not Jericho's most endearing quality he knows, but there you have it.

"How are things on the other side?" She's been spending a fair amount of time there, it seems.

*

Illyana hitches a shoulder, which causes the hem of her shirt to rise up a bit and flash a long pale strip of skin. Hers of course, doesn't glow like his. It does look a bit reddish, but that's because of the light that he throws off. "I'm still trying to find that damned Nightcrawler homonculous." Which is a fancy magical word for 'clone'.

*

Ah that. That'd shaken her pretty badly. "I'm about to have some time on my hands." He murmurs, canting his head slightly and running a finger along that strip of skin idly. "Would you like some help?"

In Limbo his usual information centric style of fighting is fairly moot, but he can still track, fight and survive with the best humanity has to offer. Well, more or less.

*

Illyana's smile is small, but her eyes glitter a bit. "Could be fun." She admits, thinking it over. It's not a side of herself that most people see, the demon queen looking for information in often brutal ways. She scares them enough as it is.

She stretches a bit, eyes half-closing like some kind of contented cat at the small touch. "You never did explain about your uh… 'dust-up'?" She points out, blue gaze settling on her behind those lowered lids.

*

"Could be fun, yes." There’s a savage kind of satisfaction to be gleaned from exacting pain from those who have harmed you or your friends. Jericho is quite familiar with it, lest demons be thought to have a monopoly on brutality. It was, after all, Jericho's idea to use K'nert as a torture device.

"Oh that." Cyclops, right. "Guy named Cyclops moved in on a Hydra facility at the same time we did. He decided i looked like a hostile. Got some pretty good shots in before the team cornered him. Well, Logan cornered him. Luckily it didn’t go further than that. Recognized the insignia and we were able to back it down before it got out of hand."

*

"Ah. Cyke." Illyana says, sounding more amused than worried. And yes, it certainly sounds like she's familiar with him. "He's one of the… originals, I suppose. I think he's been an X-Man since I started going to the school. Glad wearing the flash was good for something." She jokes. "When the other 'kids' and I were deciding to do this whole Red thing, him giving it his nod of approval meant something." Which means, for all that Cyclops can be a stick-in-the-mud, he's earned some level of respect from Illyana.

*

"He was nice enough that I didn’t particularly have a problem helping out he and Munroe when I ran into them again." Jericho smiles. "I don’t think he made many friends from the SHIELD team but, then, ironically I doubt many of the SHIELDIES really understand that level of paranoia the way I do." Jericho's smile is rather wry.

*

"If you haven't been hated and feared for nothing more than being…" Illyana shakes her head. "You don't tend to Get It." SHIELD attracts a certain mentality. And that mentality tends to think that if everyone would just trust Big Brother to keep them safe… "You'll undoubtedly end up in the Red database as a Friendly, so that should make it to the rest of the X-Men that operate more covertly." Which… might be good or bad, depending on how Jericho wants to take that.

*

"So maybe I won't get eye lasered the next time? I've half a mind to tell him that he's ripping off Superman's bag." Jericho grins. It didn't get so far that he got properly upset at Cyclops. The fact that the burns have healed helps, yes. He might have been mildly resentful for a couple days.

"I don't think Miss Munroe will ever quite approve of me. Bad form, I guess, looking her up after I ran into her and her chatty Cajun friend the first time I ran into Syria."

The hacker sighs, nodding with her assessment of SHIELD. "There is, after all, a reason there's only one person I trust in there. And because of her job I can't trust her with everything the way I can you." Partly that's to protect people who aren't in SHIELD, partly that's to protect May from having to keep secrets from her own. "Either way, it's always nice to have people who won't shoot first and ask questions never." So maybe being in the Red database will be positive, on balance.

*

Illyana snickers a bit at the mention of Remy. She doesn't know him as well as a lot of the others but… She knows him well enough to be amused. "Storm." She corrects him, teasingly. Not 'Ororo'. Not 'Ms. Munroe'. "I get how it is. You can find it out so you want to." She has the same deal with scrying folks. As he's learned. To his dismay? Perhaps not so much!

*

"Storm." Jericho repeats. Ironically he hadn't gotten that name because Remy had been too busy using their real ones. "Gotcha." Certainly, at the moment, with Illyana sitting across his lap and his arms draped about her, he doesn't appear to regret being scryed. Possible that answer's changed a bit from that time she dropped in on him in the shower.

"Yeah, well and for me it's a survival skill. I don't even want to try remembering all the times that someone potentially helpful turned out to be a plant." Living in a paranoid world sucks so much sometimes. Particularly doing it alone.

*

"Well. I think for the most part we cheat." Illyana admist with one of her smirks. "Telepaths." She reminds him. Or perhaps informs him. She hasn't introduced any of her friends as telepaths yet. "Which isn't foolproof of course. Telepaths can't read my mind, for instance." Which was another reason that some of the Xavier folks were very leery of the sister of a Brotherhood member joining the fold.

*

Jericho cants his head slightly. "Always heard rumors of telepaths. In the Army it was always some spook. Never met one myself, well, never met one that I knew was a telepath. May I ask why it doesn't work on you?" He doesn't seem to bothered by the notion that they cheat in that manner. He cheats too, just in other manners. Cheating is how you stay alive, for goodness sake.

*

"Something to do with my demonic nature." Illyana admits. To him, it's an easily-given answer. "When I was 'clean' for that one year… Then the telepaths could read me." It was very disconcerting for her, to suddenly know how everyone else felt. "It took me a while to be able to 'talk' through them. Sometimes, it's important to be on the same 'frequency' everyone else is on."

*

"Sort of, being in the same headspace?" Jericho is kind of lazily sweeping his thumb back and forth, one of those things he may not quite realize he's doing. "I guess, among security applications, telepaths would be good for talking to people when you can't have your communications monitored." But what must it be like, he wonders, to be able to hear the thoughts of others? And what price that that exact of the telepath?

"Mmmm, well at least that means you can't be targeted by a hostile telepath."

*

"Mmm, more like having your own private communication channel. Red will have to make do with the more normal sort. Though sounds like 'Berto's got some good tech guys, so maybe not so 'normal'." Illyana muses. The latter observation gets a chuckle. "Or Empaths, or a lot of other sorts of psychic-influencers. I can usually get hit by a straight psi-blast to some effect, but shy of brute force… I'm mostly immune."

The slow sweep of Jericho's thumb has her pulling her arms back and her fingers start to lazily unsnap, latch, buckle, and otherwise unhook the jewelry around her wrists and hips, dropping the chains and spikes and leather onto K'nert's head.

*

"You can get away with a lot using the right tech. I'd offer to help you with encrypting the signals but if you've got Doug around he can probably do it better and faster." Guy seems like a proper wizard with languages after all. The list of psychic meddlers gets a wry smile. "Well that's good anyway. One less thing for you to worry about." Psychics. Add that to the list of things that are now a part of his world along with magic, demons, aliens and international conspiracies. His life, seriously.

He smiles a little as Illyana starts to lose the chains and spikes, and a little bit more as they get deposited onto K'nert. It's odd how he seems to mind a lot and not really mind that much at the same time. Maybe he's feeling torn about something. In any case once she's done Jericho gives her an encouraging tug back into his lap.

*

The heavy boots came off too, because those really don’t belong on furniture. She wasn't raised by hyenas! Just by a Cat. At least part of her life. She's still got all the leather on but well, that's just Illyana. No matter how much it makes her big brother frown. Illyana slides back into his lap, but this time to sit across it so she can lean her side into him instead of astride him.

"And like you're not busy enough, hunting down pieces of HYDRA, hmm?" This past week was the first time he had a mission thing to do while Illyana is playing the part of girlfriend. So far, she hasn't freaked out on him. Of course, he hasn't gotten too hurt. That she saw.

*

This time when Illyana comes back in to lean against him, Jericho's embrace is rather closer. He had gotten rather fortunate by his standards this time out, with only burns from Scott and one assassin-hacker attack to recall. Well, not counting that bit about ending up in haunted Arkham. "You'd be surprised how much of that is waiting for programs to yield the next bit of information." He murmurs.

"Besides," Jericho adds with another squeeze. "Never too busy to help you and yours out." Those things are important to him and though she hasn't tested this yet, he will make time to do it. Access to a global network and two forms of teleportation certainly help in that though.

*

Though admittedly the hacking is likely impeded when he's in Limbo. That lack of a network and all. He's likely got something to do the heavy lifting of data crunching that doesn't need either him or the network though.

Illyana curls in against him, tucking her toes in behind his calves and laying her head on his shoulder. Not a position that most people would ever believe to find Illyana in, let alone see her. "So what'd you think of Kitty, anyhow?"

*

"I liked her. She was cordial, helpful, got some sass to her. I guess you'd have to in order to keep up with Logan. Guy's a grump. A good natured grump, but still a grump. Pretty intelligent too. Was able to take a download of encrypted data and get right to work on it. Watching Lockheed and K'nert dance around was kind of amusing. She seemed to think so too." Jericho smiles a little, seeming quite comfortable with the present seating arrangement. He's aware, part of him, that he's never seen her like this with or for anyone else. He doesn't know all her friends of course… but it does make him feel a bit special. It's a nice feeling.

"She seemed like someone you would like. That's why it was easy to believe maybe you'd want to hear her message." Even if his paranoia compelled him to check first before giving away where Illyana was."

*

Illyana grins, something he can more feel than see given the way she's leaning on him. "Yeah. She's got… I dunno. Spine? Grit? She doesn't give up easy." A low chuckle. "Stubborn." That's that underlying wistfulness that most wouldn't even catch. "And this Logan she's with, he checks out OK with you?" Because she's sure that he's done a rundown on the man. Because Jericho's paranoid like that. But also, his impression of the man, which likely says a lot more than just what the internet can tell him.

*

Jericho smiles. He'd known that question was probably coming. "Logan… he's an odd fish. I did a workup on him… you probably guessed that though. He's got ties to the Yakuza, spent some time in Toyko. I'm guessing he met Kitty there somewhere. More ties to criminal activity and Madripoor, some of it pretty violent. He's not got the rep of a hardened killer though. His name comes up in some government circles, but he's no spook. And he seems to know May and Steve Rodgers. Possible that he's older than he looks. So the net tells me he's a freelancer with his own code and his own agenda."

The hacker pauses in thought, still sweeping this thumb in slow, gentle circles. "The man though? He cared enough to get involved, and May thought enough of his skills and ability to handle himself to bring him along. He was downright avuncular with Kitty, even if he was a grump, and I get the feeling that he's the kind of guy whose loyalty is, if not easily earned, also not easily cast aside. So… I think he's probably decent, all thinks taken together."

*

"So maybe not a 'good guy' by most people's reckoning… but maybe a good man, hmm?" Illyana gives a slight nod. "I can live with that." Given she herself isn't exactly a 'good guy'. Jericho probably doesn't qualify by a lot of people's estimations either.

"And yes, I figured you did your background-magic on him." Illyana smirks, using the term with tech-boy. "Because you have this insatiable need to know." She tilts her head back enough to look up at him, flashing a wicked grin. "So tell me. How long did I drive you nuts?" Given how little of a digital footprint she has.

*

"Oh lord…" Jericho laughs, remembering the combination of curiosity and frustration. "Endlessly, especially after that second meeting." The one that involved him, her and a towel she was holding hostage.

"I've dealt with network ghosts before, but usually it's because someone erased or moved their information. And there's always little signs, ways you can tell you're dealing with someone who's just very protected or very clever. But you?" He laughs. "Beyond your university records there was hardly anything at all. It was almost like the digital world was convinced you didn’t exist. Had me wondering a little bit after that first time, actually, whether I'd just imagined you for some odd reason." After the second time though there wasn't really any doubt.

*

Illyana grins in a manner that says she's way too pleased with herself. Even though she didn't get to revel in his frustration, and she wasn't really trying to troll him, that she did above and beyond her intentions is just too damned amusing.

"Well, sadly I won't be able to do that anymore." Not with her DCI dossier posted for the world to see. Sans some… less marketable bits and bobs.

*

"Well…" Jericho chuckles a bit wickedly. He is, as Illyana has observed before, something of a boy scout. "I took the liberty of watching for your information." He's seen how it's propagated across the net. "If you ever you have to disappear again let me know. I've done the disappearing act myself before and, Hydra aside, I'm pretty darn good at it. If you need that footprint gone, if any of your folks do, I'll get rid of it for you."

*

That actually has her looking thoughtful, and she gives a nod. This is, after all, an experiment. And it might well blow up in their faces and they'll need to disappear. "Speaking of some disappearing… Hill hasn't gotten back to me on my 'price' for helping out Manning."

*

"Which was?" There isn't much Jericho can do to make Hill do really anything, but depending on what the price was he may be able to help out anyhow, particularly if it falls in his wheelhouse. And his wheelhouse is bigger than others. Sure, it largely involves hacking, shooting things and not getting shot, but he's nothing if not creative and adaptable.

*

"I asked her to clear my brother's record." Illyana could probably name her price to one of the most powerful organizations in the world… And that's what she asks for. The blonde shrugs. "I said if that wasn't something she could do with a clear conscience then I'd just turn the matter over to my fee negotiator. She wouldn't have known about Red then, but I figured 'Berto would cut a good deal. I prefer to work in favors owed but for some reason, no one wants to owe a demon a favor." She says dryly.

*

Jericho chuckles. "Piotr right…" He's already pulling up the file he has built on the man. It's not an extensive one, but that's only because he hasn't done any extensive digging. "Would you like me to give it a go, then?" Piotr is, of course, wanted as a terrorist, but not so wanted that there's an active international manhunt for him. Which means this is probably manageable. "Take me a few days to do it quiet and do it right, but that kind of thing's manageable." Jericho is, as he just said, quite the expert in making people disappear, and well connected with others who do that kind of thing too.

*

Illyana pushes herself up a bit so she can kiss Jericho's cheek in mute thanks. "I'll wait for Hill to give me an answer. And to see if Piotr actually wants it done." While it seems like a no brainer, Illyana has some strong feelings about things just being done 'for your own good' as pertains to her and those she cares about. Something that big, you don't just try to fix for someone. "If it can all go away on the up-and-up, so much the better."

*

Jericho smiles a bit at the kiss, and squeezes Illyana gently in return.. "I'll do a full workup on Piotr. It'll take me a little bit to find where all his information has gone. I won't actually do anything to it though unless you tell me to." It's not really a hard thing to do unless he's got people like SHIELD actively looking for him. That might make it difficult, though not impossible. This is the man who continually evades Hydra after all.

"I agree though. If it can go away above board, better for you both."

*

K'nert has made himself a nest of chains and spikes and bits and bobs of leather. He doesn't touch Illyana's boots though. He's not a dumb demon.

"There anything I can help you with?" Illyana says, checking in with him since he's not the sort to ask. Like he might be bothering her or something.

*

Jericho's instinct is just to shake his head and smile, but since it's Illyana asking he does take a moment to think. "Mmmmm. Not right this very moment no. I may need some help soon though. We're getting close to finding where that damn virus is coming from and when we do I'm going to want to have a word with your friends. That thing with Cyclops in Gaza was… it ended well, but we won't be able to afford something like that when we go to take that place out." That's been weighing on his mind… but there's something else…

"Oh, there is one other thing. Can I ask you… has everything been okay on your end? With the demons? And… S'ym?"

*

Illyana nods at the bit about potentially running into Cyclops again. "If I'm not around, just let anyone on Red know you're going in or whatever. Or if you're worried that there might be a leak somewhere then when you're already there. If you've got Parti and others with you, might want to give them some way to identify you guys though… Killing isn't something that's usually on the table for X-Men." Illyana says seriously. "I know I'm not a poster child or anything… But it's easy to make someone dead. Not so easy to make them un-dead. And I'm one of the folks that can do that." She points out.

The question about the demons get a casual shrug. Nothing terribly out of the ordinary. The question about her majordomo though? That has her looking up at him curiously. "As OK as demons get I suppose. Why?"

*

Jericho frowns lightly. "It might be nothing. But it didn't quite feel like it. S'ym had something of a chat with me. It was… nearly two weeks ago, on this side. Don't know how long that's been on your side." The hacker pauses thoughtfully, considering what might be prudent to say. "It wasn't anything overtly… well, he's a demon. There's always a bit of threat implicit. But the way he talked about it… wasn't happy about the green. He wants you to be more like the other side. Sharp. Unbreakable. I'm not entirely sure what he'll do if he thinks you're going in the wrong direction…" Either to push her back, or take over himself. He hopes she's sussed him out well enough to know that Jericho won't push her either way. He has his opinions of course, but some things are her decisions to make, and he'll back them.

"May be nothing… but it seemed like something you should know." There was also that bit about waiting to make a move on Jericho… but he's not sure how to parse that. It probably shows.

*

Illyana grimaces a bit at that bit of information. "I hate it when he decides to get chatty with my friends." She says, and there's something deeper to those words. But again, it's hard to figure out just what it might be. So many secrets. "In some ways, he's 'looking out for me'. Wanting me to be what I need to be to rule demons. But he's probably got an ulterior motive in there somewhere. Maybe he knows I can't. Not like I am. I'm still too human."

She peers at him, because yeah. She knows him as much as he's grown to know her. Those Illyana doesn't have an emotional connection with are a bit beyond her understanding, but those she does? Get a whole hell of a lot of her attention. "Something more is bothering you, hmm?"

*

"The last thing he said he said was that you hadn't marked me to protect me from him, that he'd wait until it mattered more." Jericho's jaw works silently as he thinks. "Which makes me think, perhaps, that there's something in the works. He wants to wait until it'll have maximum effect, whatever that is for him." And if he knows demon, he wants it to accomplish as many things as possible. He simply doesn't know S'ym well enough to be able to make a guess at what those things are.

&

That gets a frown from Illyana. Because while S'ym tends to come off as big and stupid a demon doesn't keep the place that S'ym has without being crafty. She mulls over the words and then something seems to click for her. "Can you play it back? So I can hear how he said it?" She's someone who is used to being able to scry through time if she needs to find something out. Often it's muddled, the timestreams making it difficult unless it was a Significant Moment or fairly recent, but she's learned that Jericho tends to be this weird walking video camera.

*

Jericho doesn't archive everything. Everything does go into his buffer though and he keeps it if he thinks it'll be relevant. This most definitely qualifies. He raises his arm, projecting S'ym into the room as it was from his point of view so that Illyana can see his mannerisms as well.

Eventually, S'ym spits off to the side again. As though that spittle were acid, the grass it lands on starts to wither and die. "You play th' game good, boy. Hit as hard as y' need, support th' boss. Don't think I buy that y'r hers though." It's a statement, or maybe a warning. No musing question.

That draws one of those wry half smirks from Jericho. Point, match. A salute to a worthy opponent. Well, okay, not that last one. He gets the feeling that S'ym isn't going to end up being someone he particularly respects as being anything other than smart and dangerous, but the hacker knows enough to know that such things are best acknowledged. "Matters more what she thinks." He repeats, picking the shovel back up.

"An' that's why I know." S'ym says, puffing. He gives a nod to the greenery around them. "'Long as this is here, I know no matter what she says, it ain't true. It's all f'r show." S'ym gives a raspy laugh, like metal scraping on metal at Jericho's wary look. A gesture towards the citdel with his chin. "Go'wan. She didn't mark ya to keep me from hurtin' ya." There's a sudden malicious glint to his glowing gaze. "I'll wait until it matters more."

Jericho shakes his head and picks up his things. "Be seeing you, S'ym." He's sure he will. He'll have to put some definite thought into that.

*

Illyana curls in closer against Jericho as she turns to look. She's just as relaxed as she was, but now she's focused as well. S'ym probably never thought that Jericho could play back bits like that.

As the video fades, she's still quiet. Thoughtful. "I didn't mark you to keep S'ym from hurting you." She says, nodding finally. "I knew just saying 'don't touch' would be enough. He has too much too lose by messing with you just to be a prick." The last bit there… Yeah. That doesn't bode well.

*

Jericho shrugs a little and holds Illyana a little closer. He had the feeling that they might need a larger demonstration of why messing with him isn't a good idea as well. That's not what worries him. The concerning part, at least to him, is that whatever S'ym has in mind isn't really about him. It's calculated to affect Illyana in some way and that more than anything else makes it all kinds of not okay.

"What do you think?" He asks quietly.

*

"People die all the time. When they're people you don't know, it doesn't matter much. But when it's someone you care about…" Illyana lets it trail off for a bit before she finishes with a sigh. "The more you care about them… well."

*

Jericho nods. "Yeah, I know…" That picture over on the mantle. There's a reason he doesn't smile like he used to. Several reasons in fact. "That's why I was asking how they'd been. This is really about you, not me." Sure, he's the one gardening but she's the Darkchilde. She's the one they want in their camp. Or off the throne. He's not sure either way.

*

Illyana shakes her head. "Nothing so far." She says, tone gone quiet. It's a stark reminder that her reign is always a precarious thing. Her eyes close as her head rests against his shoulder and she lets her breath out in a long sigh. "Sometimes… It's so tempting to just try to walk away…"

*

Jericho would ask her why she can't, but he knows the answer at least in part. Illyana isn't simply the the Queen of Limbo, she's it's jailer. Without her there'd be… a lot more problems. There are other reasons too, he's fairly sure. Still… one thing he's learned with magic is that few things are truly impossible.

"Whatever play you want to make, I'll back it." Likely she knows that already but he wants to make sure she hears it. Even if that play is just 'wait and see.'

*

"I can't walk away. I tried to be normal once. Ordinary highschool kid. I din't put enough time in to Limbo and, well… Yeah. Even if I try a shock-and-awe compaign on the masses, S'ym isn't gonna buy it. 'As long as this is here, it's all for show'. She paraphrases. "It's testament to the humanity I have left. The choices, and sacrifices, I won't make."

*

"Sounds like you need a change in management over there, then. So long as S'ym there you'll always be looking over your shoulder." Jericho pauses and amends. "More than usual." Demons. He gets it. He does. But right now it's not helpful. Jericho is trained quite simply. When something becomes an obstacle, you go over, around, under or if it comes to it, straight through it.

*

Illyana gives a light chuckle at that, and glancing down he can see that she's closed her eyes. The almost-serene look on her face, the way she's curled up against him makes her appear terribly vulnerable and trusting. "I'd have replaced him long ago if I had someone to take his place. He at least, is the devil I know."

*

Despite the situation Jericho smiles that small but genuine smile that's all he has left and gathers Illyana up to hold her where she is. It's not often he thinks fondly of being what he is. Being a cyborg has brought him largely pain, struggle, exhaustion and heartache. On most days it's just a useful tool. But today? Most people wish at some point in their life they could capture a moment in time. Jericho can.

"We'll figure something out." He murmurs. We. This is her war to fight, but so long as she lets him, he won't have her fight it alone.


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