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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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."

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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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