Summary:Piotr finds out what happened with Limbo. Log Info:Storyteller: None |
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Piotr knows that something happened the other day. Not only did he get a message from Keiko, K'nert had been waiting at the house. Not that the Imp had said much and it had disappeared not long after Piotr arrived home.
Sunday morning finds Keiko up early. Even with everything going on, she's still got her school work to do. The books are strewn across the table, the peruvian glaring at the one open in front of her, a plate with the crumbs of toast to the side of her.
There's also a bottle of vodka and three tumblers set out. As yet, unopened and untouched.
It's getting on mid morning, about the time Piotr might be rising and wanting to talk. And Keiko might be expecting another visitor as well.
Piotr was already up early this morning. The easiest way to tell this is that he's already dealing with Elena this morning. "But it's Sunday, papa, and I want to sleep in."
"It is not time to sleep in. I want you to work on your studies, and this afternoon, we will go to the zoo." K'nert ariving in the home already had the Russian on high alert, and having Elena out of bed and dressed makes it easier to get her out if he needs to. "Now, we will go downstairs, greet your mother, and help clean up, da?"
"Okay, papa." Elena agrees. The young girl is the first down the stairs, bounding to Keiko with energy to hug her mother and steal as much affection as she can before she's off to start her studies. Piotr's large plod is heard shortly after as he comes down the stairs. "Keiko." he greets the Peruvian as he walks by her, a touch on her shoulder in concern and affection as he frowns. "Your face will stick if you remain as such." he points out to her.
The front door unlocks and Koa steps in. He looks… subtly off. The only physical change in him - at least at the moment - is that his eyes have settled into a metallic silver color that catches light when it's at the right angle. He pockets the key and looks over at Piotr and Keiko.
"Morning you two." He says. He's got the set of a man who is about to have a conversation that he doesn't especially want to have.
"Hey squirt." He greets the youngest Rasputin before looking up at Piotr. "There's been an… incident with Limbo."
Keiko pushes the chair back when Elena bounds over, taking the girl up on her lap and hugging her closely. "Good morning. estrella." She murmurs into the girls hair before letting her go about her business. "Good morning, Piotr. And my face will not stick like this."
Anything else she might say is cut off as Koa enters. "Koa. You are well." Not a question. Keiko does this when she's been to Limbo or confronting demons - no questions, just statements. No sign of weakness allowed.
"There's vodka. You'll want it." That's to both of the men. "Ananym, Witchfire, launched an attack the other day. The Darkchilde used Koa to channel power and …" she shrugs, lacking the words to explain what had happened.
"Perhaps." Piotr mms softly. "I will have to find a way to bring you a smile." he starts to point out to Keiko before the door opens. And when Koa comes in, the large Russian straightens, taking in the changes to the agent. The eyes are a lot like what happens to Piotr's when he changes, and he's noting that already as he frowns when there is mention of an incident in Limbo. "You are both here. And appear well. I assume you were able to turn it away?" he asks the pair.
Then he realizes that someone is absent from this conversation. And has been for a little while. His arms rise to fold across his chest, the large Russian looking more like a bear than anything. "And where is snezhinka?" he asks the pair.
"We don't know." Koa says as he sits down. "We're in the process of trying to find her."
He takes a deep breath, pours himself a vodka and lets it out slowly. Then he takes a drink.
"Let me back up a little bit. Someone introduced a… infection into Limbo. Illyana had been staying there to deal with it and it had gotten bad. Neither of us knew how bad until we went ourselves. She… hadn't wanted to involve us." She didn't think they could help but Koa doesn't say that.
"She did something desperate in the end. Something she didn't expect either her or me to survive. Keiko she sent back at the last moment to take care of Elena. Whatever she did, it's sent Limbo into some kind of… reset. It's there but it's not there. It's like the whole dimension is recreating itself."
Exactly how that's possible Koa doesn't know. "Neither of us saw what happened to her. The last thing I remember is a bright light and searing heat. Then I woke up in the WAND medical offices. The good news is that K'nert is nearly certain that when he dragged me out she wasn't there anymore. And if I survived…" There's a pretty decent chance that she did too.
Keiko doesn't smile and, except for Elena, seems to be distant with those around her.
"She wanted us to focus on earth. Focus on being able to get into the network so we can bring this all to an end. Things in Limbo just moved faster than we … expected."
Taking the bottle from Koa, the peruvian pours a liberal measure in the remaining glasses.
"The stepping disk she opened behaved differently when I was returned. I was stunned a little and when I recovered, K'nert was already here with Koa."
Piotr stands at the end of the table, and he listens to the two speak. "Plainly. I do not have the knowledge." he says finally, a frown crossing his features. But then as Keiko explains and fills in what Koa didn't, the large Russian's hands settle on the back of the oak chair. "She has…?" he struggles to find the words.
"She has gone on her own. She attempted to stop this… infection… you say.. without support. Without you. Without me." his tone growls, darkening in degrees as it all sets in.
"And now. She is gone? Missing. And you have no tell of where she is?" There's a creaking - a cracking, and the wood beneath Piotr's hands shatters the back of the chair, snapping it as easily as a dry twig.
He's taking this.. well?
Koa watches Piotr, wincing slightly. Illyana could be dead but that's not something that he wants to entertain any more than Piotr would so he just doesn't mention it. Keiko, from what he has seen, has acted with utter certainty that the Darkchilde is still alive. Koa himself isn't sure whether that's because she knows somehow or if she's just being stubborn and refusing to acknowledge the possibility.
"All our efforts to locate her have hit some kind of interference. Keiko and I SHOULD be able to use the links in our collars to find her, but they're not giving us anything solid. The next thing to try is blood relations." So, Piotr's blood would be the next thing. Of course neither Koa nor Keiko can do this directly. Neither of them have the necessary power. They need WAND's diviners to do it.
"In the mean time, Piotr." Koa says, trying to focus the big man. "Elena is in danger. Keiko probably mentioned to you that Witchfire was rumored to be targetting her but I've gotten new information that Elder God cultists possibly related to Belasco have been speaking of 'the Child born of Limbo.'" And that can't be Illyana. That HAS to be Elena.
"The Darkchilde did what she thought she had to do." Keiko says quietly, raising an eyebrow as the back of the chair splinters. Just something else she'll have to fix at some point in the future. "There is only so much that any of us could do to help there and we all have things to do here."
It irks Keiko that she can't help Illyana more but the spirit caller is a very good soldier. And good soldiers do what what they're told, when they're told. "Drink the vodka."
She's so … caring.
There's a hiss at the mention of the cultists, yellowing eyes turning and fixing on Koa. "This is new to me… Elder Gods. What are these rumours, Koa?"
"Elder Gods? Pah." Piotr is clearly not in a mood to hear about it, though he's not storming off. Nor is he taking the vodka. Apparently this is not going as well as hoped. "Illyana did the selfish thing, instead of relying on those that can support her best." There's a snort at that. Because, clearly, he doesn't have a self-sacrifical bone in his body. Right?
"They will not get to Elena. Or Keiko." She may not want his protection, but she's stuck with it. But now they are talking on others. He's listening, but he adds. "If they need my blood, they can have it to find her."
"Good." Koa says with a sigh and another drink. "I'll collect some before I go and get the diviners to work on it." He looks up at the big guy. "We'll find her."
Whether or not they find her in one piece is not a question he wishes to answer right now.
"I thought you might feel that way. It's interesting because with Limbo in 'limbo' so to speak Belasco shouldn't be able to issue them instructions but there's indications that he has done just that and recently as well. WAND doesn't have the resources to run them down right now. We've got all hands on deck trying to prevent someone from absorbing earth into private hellish playground. But if someone ELSE wanted to do that…" Well, WAND wouldn't say anything about it except possibly 'thank you'.
"I can give you a few places to check. And put you in touch with a fellow Russian who might know about one of them."
Though she probably doesn't realize what she knows.
"Our collars would tell us if she were gone." Keiko adds. "We will find her."
"How could Belasco? I will speak to teleportation again, get them to see if they can get me there …" The small spirit caller will be making daily visits to see if she can get back there.
"You wanted something to do, to help. Take this, Piotr. Work on it."
There's a nod of Piotr's head as he gives a sharp look at Keiko. "While you work on your part." His tone is tight, not exactly pleased. But that's not addressed at the moment as he returns his attention to Koa. "If this is fool's errand, I will go to Baba Yaga herself to bring back Illyana." he says flatly, his blue eyes turned between the pair before he finally takes the vodka and slugs it back.
"She's really unpleasant. I wouldn't do that except at last resort." Koa mutters. He might have met someone he's pretty sure is her. Not one hundred percent but… he wasn't going to go back and check.
"The woman you're going to want to talk to is Laynia Petrovna. She's a SHIELD agent, works with WAND often though she isn't magical herself. She's also a bit… out of her own time. She was brought up during the cold war era and… well lets just say it wasn't all that long ago for her. Tell her I sent you to back her up on the next lead of her case. You'll need her to get in, and if I'm not very much mistaken, she'll need you to get out."
"Baba Yaga? You've met her?" Keiko doesn't let that distract her, but it's interesting. "And yes, while I work on my part. You will be able to help when I've done the preparation work but that work, I must do. There is no one who can do it, but me."
He's not pleased. She can't help that. Each of them have their own skills and abilities.
"Laynia is nice. She's met Mikhail and is aware of the Rasputins. She didn't know him in Russsia, she'd met him at SHIELD."
There's a dissatisifed grunt, but Piotr is accepting of it. For now. "I will replace the chair." comes the large Russian's response as he sets the broken back on the table. "I will find this woman. And speak to her." He finally decides, and then looks to Keiko. "And we will talk." There's a frown at her, apparently he's taking on more of her demeanor.
"She would not have known him anyway. He is not the Mikhail of this world." But he's been accepted, as if it were their own brother. Setting down the glass, he looks between the two one more time, and then he's turning to Elena. "Get your coat, Elena, we will go to the zoo."
Koa watches them go and pours another vodka. He drinks half of it before he puts it down again. "Well. That went better than I was expecting. I'll tell Laynia to expect him. Do you want to go with him on that or would you rather stay on the case we're working?"
It's related, sort of, but Koa is more directly working on the, er, dimensional invasion problem. "Also, since the big guy left, let's go up and get a few hairs from the comb. That'll work as well as blood and we can get the diviners working that angle, looking for her." Her. Illyana. The Darkchilde.
You know. Keiko's goddess. Sort of.
"I suppose it did. He's annoyed that he is unable to assist in what I have to do." Keiko sighs. She keeps such a tight reign on her emotions, that's a little unusual. "My focus is on what we are doing - there are things that I can do there. I will help Piotr as needed though."
For now, it will make him feel useful, tracking this.
"Let's get the hair and then see if the containers are ready. We need to remove my spirits so we can destroy the network - soon."