capeandcowllogs | Homecoming Blues

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Homecoming Blues

WHO: Goliath and Elisa
WHERE: Elisa's apartment
WHEN: After this.
WARNINGS: none
SUMMARY: Goliath helps Elisa figure out what memories are missing after her resurrection.
FORMAT: What have you.

When last Goliath was in Elisa's apartment, they had had an argument - one uncharacteristic of the two of them, both floundering in new, uncertain territory - that ended with some hard feelings lingering. Another thing uncharacteristic of their relationship.

All of that is forgotten now after the horrors Elisa has endured. Goliath steps through the balcony doors as if he had never left, closing them gently behind him as he wonders if he's beaten her home.

Quietly - and with a flutter of nervousness - his eyes search the room. "Elisa?"

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She smiles tiredly over at him from the couch, a stack of case files beside her. "Hey, Big Guy." The invitation for him to come on in is implicit.

It's good to see him again. Whatever else they may be, Elisa will always count Goliath as her best friend, and it's hard not to need him now. "How're you?"

Her smile elicits one of his own, as it is always pleasing to see her, and it does him good to see her after all that has happened.

He walks in quietly and heads over to her couch. "I am well, all things considered. It is your well-being I am more concerned about."

His eyes glance over the case files, on the off-chance he'll recognize any of the names to be able to offer help.

"You know me, Goliath," she says with a smile. "I'm good at surviving whatever they throw at me." It's a blithe answer, and one that doesn't completely cover her weariness. "At any rate, I've got things to keep me busy. Sentinel's files."

"Hmm. Yes," he nods, somberly, noting that exhaustion in her demeanor.

"I hope his duties are not overwhelming you."

Edited 2010-03-23 05:31 (UTC)

"Nah. Actually, they're keeping me focused," she admits. "Makes me feel more like my old self when I've got stuff to do."

A gentle, comforting hand rests upon her shoulder for a quiet moment.

"Perhaps discovering what has changed can help with that as well."

With her usual, slightly acidic wit, she retorts, "It might be easier to list what hasn't." She sighs and pats his talons. "It's days like these where I hate this place."

He nods in agreement, but decides against railing against how much he hates this place as well. Negativity is not helpful, he has realized.

So he starts in on the task at hand, to perhaps minimize the amount of time she spends dwelling on her unhappiness.

"Do you remember the clan?"

She smiles up at him, setting aside her paperwork and giving him her full attention. "Of course I do. You, Broadway, Brooklyn, Hudson, Lex, Bronx, whenever she gets there, Angela, and in a lot of ways Matt." Her smile turns a bit more sardonic. "So, did I forget anyone there?"

It is good to see the smile, and he is thankful that this distraction seems to be working.

He shakes his head with a small grin of his own. "Only Coldstone, perhaps. And our enemies at home?"

She laughs at that. "You want the long list, or the short list? Xanatos is an evil bastard, Demona's your psychotic ex, MacBeth is after her and occasionally us, the Pack are, in the words of Obi-Wan Kenobi, more machine now than man. As far as I know, Dracon is still on the loose, the punk. Those are the main ones, right?"

His head tilts slightly, wondering how Kenobi would know of the Pack, but he has long since learned the rhythms of her figures of speech, and as always, he makes a note to look that up later.

"Yes, although I would add Reynard to that list." A beat. "As well as Oberon, but that has yet to happen for you, and..."

A nervous look crosses his face for a moment. "... I have already told you more of your future than you should know."

Perhaps fortune will smile on them and that is all she will have forgotten.

"Reynard might be an evil old man, but he's at least an honorable evil old man, so he's on the second-string of bad guys in my mind. Although the fact that men like Preston Vogel exist is kind of a crime against humanity, so maybe we can add that to Reynard's list."

She perks up at the mention of Oberon, and ignores his mention of her future. She's not comfortable with the idea of it being a set path. "You mean, as in Oberon and Titania? Puck's boss? We have to go up against that in the future? Lovely. So... what else? I don't think I've forgotten any of our foes. Oh! Wait, I did! That creep Sevarius."

That response is hard to read, but it may be for the best to assume it was forgotten. No need to mention it again. The recollection of Sevarius is a good sign as well.

"Oberon will be quite a challenge - and he will be the catalyst that ostensibly ends our feud with Xanatos."

That statement is bound to get a reaction from her, he knows. One that needs to be studied.

She merely rolls her eyes and replied without her usual rancor. "It'll be a cold day in Hell before I trust Xanatos. He woke you guys up with the express purpose of making you work for him! He kicked you out of your home! Granted, the clocktower's probably safer for you to live at, but that's not really the point, is it?"

Goliath is about to explain Xanatos' apparent change of heart, but something stops him. After a moment of consideration, he realizes something about her objections.

"It does remain to be seen whether or not he has truly turned over a new leaf. He has much to atone for... especially for what he did to Derek."

"Did to who now?" Elisa asks, momentarily confused.

Goliath's jaw drops open at that.

"Derek. Your brother."

Oh, no.

Elisa gives him a funny little smile. "Goliath, what're you talking about? I don't have a brother."

His eyes close tightly at that, as if feeling the pain of loss that she can't.

"Derek Maza is your brother," he explains somberly. "He worked as a pilot for Xanatos agaisnt your objections, and he was turned into a mutate against his will by Xanatos and Sevarius. He calls himself Talon now, and leads his own clan of mutates."

"Xanatos is pretty evil, Goliath, but I doubt even he would stoop to unwilling human experimentation. Besides, I'm pretty sure that I'd do everything I could to stop any relation of mine for working for Xanatos. I'm pretty sure I'd remember something like that."

Oh, but that memory, the one she has of sobbing uncontrollably on her bed, flashes through her mind once again and she frowns uncertainly.

"You're sure I have a brother?"

"Yes, I am," he assures her, and his hand touches her shoulder again in an effort to comfort her.

"You did all you could to stop him, but Derek was stubborn and trusted his own judgment over yours... which proved to be his undoing. He was lost to your family for some time."

He takes a deep breath.

"That... was the most pain I have ever seen you in. We could only watch helplessly as you suffered that loss."

She merely stares blankly at her walls, trying to process it all. She doesn't even know what to say to something like this. A brother...

She tries to imagine what growing up with a brother would have been like. "Is he younger than me or older?"

"Younger. He was a police officer, like yourself, until Xanatos offered him a job as his personal pilot. Then, he proved to be as headstrong as you are as well."

Hope. He must offer some hope.

"Despite his transformation into a mutated gargolye-like form with a feline visage, he was not lost to you. Eventually, your parents and your sister were able to accept him in his new form as well."

She continues to mull on this. "Wow." What else is she supposed to say? She's glad that the brother who might as well be fictional reconciled with her family?

"... Wait, parents? Plural? Goliath, you know it was always just me, my mother, and my sister."

That assertion elicits another concerned look. Deeply concerned.

"...

And what do you believe happened to you father?"

She shrugs nonchalantly. "I don't know, he must have taken off when I was a baby or something. I don't... " Her look turns surprised and then introspective. "I don't remember him."

A long, sad sigh.

"Another memory taken from you. Your father is Peter Maza, who moved from Arizona to New York City in 1960. He was a police officer as well, and you have often said he was your inspiration for joining the force at all. You are very close to him."

A father. She had a father. HAS a father. And, if what Goliath says is true, he was likely everything she thought a father ought to be. She tries to picture herself as a child, spending time with the man, watching the crime shows her mother always yelled at her for watching. She tries to picture what he'd look like. What her brother would look like.

She can't do it.

"What... what's he like? Did you know him? What did he look like?"

His arm stretches around her shoulders, to offer more support to her in this moment of sadness.

"He is a tall, slender older man, with gray shoulder-length hair. I have met him as well as your sister Beth, when Avalon brought us to Flagstaff, Arizona and we fought with 'Coyote 4.0.' Do you not remember this?"

Edited 2010-03-25 23:43 (UTC)

She instinctively leans into him. They always were very casual about touch. And right now, she needs the reassurance.

"I... I remember Coyote. And Beth. And the trip to Arizona. But no grey-haired man."

"The trickster Coyote, the real one that Xanatos was after, was disguised as a younger version of your father. It was Peter Maza who dressed as a coyote dancer of lore in order to turn the tide against Xanatos and his machine, which finally led him to accept the ancestry he had tried to deny for so many years. It cost him his relationship with your grandfather."

He tries to curb the desperation in his voice as he hopes for remembrance, before an idea strikes.

"Do you carry a photograph of your family in your wallet?"

She's silent as he recounts the tale, unable to match up his version of events to what she could recall. It was so strange, and it made sense, in a way... the young man the Coyote god had disguised himself as... but so much of that trip was missing.

She frowns. "Oh, yeah, I do." She fishes it out and pulls out a small color photograph. "Here, see?"

Goliath nods, thankful for small favors such as that.

"That is your father, Peter," he says, tapping a talon tip on the elder's face, before moving to the younger man.

"And that is Derek."

Elisa stares at the photo as if she's never seen it before. "... I..."

She doesn't remember. They're obviously a family, and they're obviously close, but she doesn't remember. It's hard to swallow the knot forming in the back of her throat.

He says nothing further, knowing and sensing the turmoil within her. He simply wraps his arm around her and holds her close. Providing what small comfort he can.

It's a testament to how rattled she is; rather than pushing Goliath away, she merely leans into his embrace and tries not to cry.

"What else do you know about them?" Her voice is surprisingly steady. She's rather proud of that.

With a softness that a being of his strength shouldn't be capable of, he strokes her hair soothingly. Just... talking.

"As I said, Derek now calls himself Talon. He has refused to let his mutation affect his honor. He has led the clan of Mutates - Claw, Fang and young Maggie - that Xanatos created away from him, positioning his clan as the defenders of Manhattan's homeless souls. They live in the underground Cyberbiotics compound called the Labyrinth, and not only have they helped us keep Demona imprisoned, but they took in the clones of our clan that Thailog created and then abandoned."

A moment's breath.

"They are good men, Elisa, and despite your disagreements, they have always treated you with love and respect. You will remember them when we finally return home."

Maggie, she remembers. Claw and Fang as well. But not Derek. Talon. Whoever. It's so much to take in.

"Disagreements? You mean beyond Derek, according to you, not listening to me and working for Xanatos?"

He nods, grimly.

"Your family is made up of strong-willed people, Elisa. You and Derek did not always see eye-to-eye on things. For some time after he was mutated, he still refused to believe that Xanatos was behind it. He believed that I was in league with Sevarius, and he had to be faced with undeniable evidence of the treachery before he would believe us. But once he did, he had the integrity to admit the error of his ways."

"Your father refused to believe there was any truth to the mystic ways of his ancestors, despite you and your sister's insistence on it. He, too, had to be faced with evidence... and he, too, had the same integrity that forms the bedrock of your family. That same integrity that has made you one of the most noble and selfless people I have met in my millennium of life in this world."

She sits and listens silently, trying to paint a picture of these men in her life. Clearly, they had been important to her, and clearly she was important to them. But it was like getting a pencil sketch of an oil painting. It just wasn't the same.

Although her lips twist up in a wry smile. "Well, it's not like you've got a giant pool for a basis of comparison."

He'll take that smile and return it, in hopes of supporting it.

"If there's one thing I can say for all the tasks that Avalon set forth for us, it is that it very much expanded my knowledge of the world and the number of beings I call friend. It is not as limited as you think."

She sighs. "So far, this has been my least favorite Avalon task to date. And I wasn't crazy about that space alien one, for the record."

His eyebrow lifts slightly.

"Elisa... this is not one of Avalon's missions. I was brought here from a time after Avalon had returned us home where we belonged."

His lips purse before adding "We cannot expect our purpose here to ever become clear."

"I know it's not," Elisa replies softly. "But it's almost easier to think of it that way, because it means at some point we'll go home."

And she smiles at him. "Our purpose? Do what we always do, I guess. Stop the bad guys, save the City."

Goliath just nods, before tilting his head as a thought occurs to him.

"It seems the Porter intelligence is fickle and temperamental, in search of entertainment for its own twisted amusement. Perhaps if we were to do nothing - no contribution to the network, no participation in this world at all - it would deem us 'boring' and return us where we belong."

Then, his head just shakes with a glance to the ceiling.

"But standing idly by and watching these horrors unfold upon other innocents is not something we could ever do."

Another gentle stroke through her hair.

"We will go home, Elisa. Eventually, we will. There were times on Avalon's journey when it seemed doubtful, but we did return home. It will happen again, and things will be as they should. With no memory of these sickening events."

She's silent for some time, studying the photograph and thinking. "Do you really want to forget this place, though, Goliath? And all the people in it?"

Not a question he expected from her, and he does take a moment to consider it.

"There are good people here, but nothing I have experienced here is anything I would wish to keep in exchange for what you have suffered, and what I may yet endure. This loss of self, and the pain of being unable to remember your own family."

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Homecoming Blues

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Correct me if I'm wrong about any of this.

I don't think you are..?

Heh, wrote that qualifier before I sat and watched "Cloud Fathers."

Pfft, I have not seen that episode in a while.

Nor had I, but glad I watched. I was about to be all wrong.

Eeehhh we would have handwaved it later, I'm sure.

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